This research aimed to explore the use of foamed concrete (FC), a lightweight concrete, by replacing sand with crushed plastic from washing machines to improve environmental and thermal properties. The primary components included traditional materials like cement, water, and a foaming agent, along with the innovative use of waste plastic (WP). Utilizing Minitab software, the study applied the Response Surface Method to optimize mix designs, reducing the experimental mixtures to 31, which were then tested for dry density, porosity, water absorption, shrinkage, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and thermal conductivity. Results indicated a significant 24% reduction in dry density when using plastic as fine and coarse aggregate

A simple straightforward mathematical method has been developed to cluster grid nodes on a boundary segment of an arbitrary geometry that can be fitted by a relevant polynomial. The method of solution is accomplished in two steps. At the first step, the length of the boundary segment is evaluated by using the mean value theorem, then grids are clustered as desired, using relevant linear clustering functions. At the second step, as the coordinates cell nodes have been computed and the incremental distance between each two nodes has been evaluated, the original coordinate of each node is then computed utilizing the same fitted polynomial with the mean value theorem but reversibly.

The method is utilized to predict

PPSU hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes are prepared by applying two concentrations and various extrusion pressures according to the phase inversion method. Cross-sectional area and outer structures were characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In additional to the pore size distribution, either the mean roughness or the mean pore size of the PPSU hollow fiber surfaces was evaluated by AFM. It was found that the morphology of the PPSU fibers had both sponge-like and finger-like structures through different extrusion pressures and PPSU concentrations. The mean pore size and mean roughness for inner and outer surfaces were seen to be decreased with the increase of extrusion pressure at

Photonic Crystal Fiber Interferometers (PCFIs) are greatly used
for sensing applications. This work presents the fabrication and
characterization of a relative humidity sensor based on Mach-
Zehnder Interferometer (MZI), which operates in reflection mode.
The humidity sensor operation based on the adsorption and
desorption of water vapour at the silica-air interface within the PCF.
The fabrication of this sensor is simple, it only includes splicing and
cleaving the PCF with SMF.PCF (LMA-10) with a certain length
spliced to SMF (Corning-28).
The spectrum of PCFI exhibits good sensitivity to humidity
variations. The PCFI response is observed for a range of humidity
values from (27% RH to 85% RH), the positi

Abstract: The international community now places significant emphasis on achieving zero carbon emissions, requiring both new researchers and experienced policymakers to prioritise this goal. This article examines the effects of carbon taxes, carbon cap and trade, renewable energy (RE) production and consumption, and economic growth (EG) on carbon emission reduction in the United States, Japan, Canada, and Australia. The study collected secondary data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) secondary source spanning the years 1991 to 2022. The study examines the relationship between variables using the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) approach. The findings indicate that carbon taxes, carbon cap and tr

Metasurface polarizers are essential optical components in modern integrated optics and play a vital role in many optical applications including Quantum Key Distribution systems in quantum cryptography. However, inverse design of metasurface polarizers with high efficiency depends on the proper prediction of structural dimensions based on required optical response. Deep learning neural networks can efficiently help in the inverse design process, minimizing both time and simulation resources requirements, while better results can be achieved compared to traditional optimization methods. Hereby, utilizing the COMSOL Multiphysics Surrogate model and deep neural networks to design a metasurface grating structure with high extinction rat

Monaural source separation is a challenging issue due to the fact that there is only a single channel available; however, there is an unlimited range of possible solutions. In this paper, a monaural source separation model based hybrid deep learning model, which consists of convolution neural network (CNN), dense neural network (DNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN), will be presented. A trial and error method will be used to optimize the number of layers in the proposed model. Moreover, the effects of the learning rate, optimization algorithms, and the number of epochs on the separation performance will be explored. Our model was evaluated using the MIR-1K dataset for singing voice separation. Moreover, the proposed approach achi

The rapid rise in the use of artificially generated faces has significantly increased the risk of identity theft in biometric authentication systems. Modern facial recognition technologies are now vulnerable to sophisticated attacks using printed images, replayed videos, and highly realistic 3D masks. This creates an urgent need for advanced, reliable, and mobile-compatible fake face detection systems. Research indicates that while deep learning models have demonstrated strong performance in detecting artificially generated faces, deploying these models on consumer mobile devices remains challenging due to limitations in computing power, memory, privacy, and processing speed. This paper highlights several key challenges: (1) optimiz