Despite widespread agreement on the beneficial nature of hydrated lime (HL) addition to asphalt concrete mixes, understanding of the effect of HL particle size is still limited. Previous investigations have focused mainly on two different size comparisons, and so certain guidance for a practical application cannot yet be produced. This study investigates three distinct sizes of HL, in the range of regular, nano, and sub-nano scales, for their effects on the properties of modified asphalt concretes. Five different percentages of HL as a partial replacement of ordinary limestone filler in asphalt concrete mixes were studied for wearing course application purposes. Experimental tests were conducted to evaluate the mechanical properties

    Identification of complex communities in biological networks is a critical and ongoing challenge since lots of network-related problems correspond to the subgraph isomorphism problem known in the literature as NP-hard. Several optimization algorithms have been dedicated and applied to solve this problem. The main challenge regarding the application of optimization algorithms, specifically to handle large-scale complex networks, is their relatively long execution time. Thus, this paper proposes a parallel extension of the PSO algorithm to detect communities in complex biological networks. The main contribution of this study is summarized in three- fold; Firstly, a modified PSO algorithm with a local search operator is proposed

Calculating the Inverse Kinematic (IK) equations is a complex problem due to the nonlinearity of these equations. Choosing the end effector orientation affects the reach of the target location. The Forward Kinematics (FK) of Humanoid Robotic Legs (HRL) is determined by using DenavitHartenberg (DH) method. The HRL has two legs with five Degrees of Freedom (DoF) each. The paper proposes using a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to optimize the best orientation angle of the end effector of HRL. The selected orientation angle is used to solve the IK equations to reach the target location with minimum error. The performance of the proposed method is measured by six scenarios with different simulated positions of the legs. The proposed

A simple , sensitive and accurate spectrophotometric method for the trace determination of bismuth (III) has been developed .This method is based on the reaction of bismuth (III) with arsenazo(III) in acid solution (pH=1.9) to form a blue water soluble complex which exhibits maximum absorption at 612nm .Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range of 2-85 ?g bismuth (III) in a final volume of 20 mL( i.e. 0.1 – 4.25?g.mL-1) with a correlation coefficient of (0.9981) and molar absorptivity 1.9×104 L.mol-1.cm-1 . The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) are 0.0633 and 0.0847 ?g.mL-1 , respectively . Under optimum conditions,the stoichiometry of the reaction between bismuth (III) and arsenazo(III) r

The synthesis and characterisation of new macrocyclic binuclear metal(II) complexes derived from dithiocarbamate (DTC) ligand are reported. The reaction of a bis-secondary amine, CS2 and KOH resulted in the formation of the free ligand. Two approaches were implemented to synthesis the macrocyclic bis(dithiocarbamate) complexes; (i) from the reaction of the free ligand with a metal ion, and (ii) via a one-pot reaction. In the free ligand approach, complexes were obtained by the reaction of dithiocarbamate salt with the metal ions; CoII, ZnII and CdII. However, the one-pot reaction is based on the mixing of the bissecondary amine, CS2, KOH and metal(II) chloride. Physico-chemical analyses were implemented to characterise the ligand and its

This paper deals with the preparation and investigation studies of a number of new complexes of Cu(II) , Zn(II) , Hg(II) , Ag(I) , Pt(IV) and Pb(II).The complexes were formed by the reaction of the mentioned metal ions with the ligand which is derived from oxadiazole (OXB), 2- (2-butyl) thio-5- phenyl – 1,3,4 – oxadiazole in the mole ratio (1:1) , (1:2) and (1:3) (metal to ligand ).The result complexes having general formulae :M(OXB)Cl2] [M(OXB)X2]H2O [ M= Cu(II) , Zn(II) M= Hg(II) , Pb(II) [M(OXB)2 X2] X= Cl– M = Cu (II), Zn (II), Hg (II), Pb (II) X= Cl–, NO3-, CH3COO- [Pt(OXB)3]Cl4 [Ag(OXB)]NO32-(2-??????? ) ???? -5- ???