This paper proposes a novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm called the fine-tuning meta-heuristic algorithm (FTMA) for solving global optimization problems. In this algorithm, the solutions are fine-tuned using the fundamental steps in meta-heuristic optimization, namely, exploration, exploitation, and randomization, in such a way that if one step improves the solution, then it is unnecessary to execute the remaining steps. The performance of the proposed FTMA has been compared with that of five other optimization algorithms over ten benchmark test functions. Nine of them are well-known and already exist in the literature, while the tenth one is proposed by the authors and introduced in this article. One test trial was shown t

A metal mandrel was designed for manufacturing the cathodes of high power electron tube ( Tetrode ) used in broadcasting transmitting tubes type TH558 and CQS200.The cathodes were manufactured in the present work from thoriated tungsten wires ( 2? ThO2- W) with different diameters .These cathodes were carbonized in sequences of processes to determine the carbonization parameters (temperature, pressure, time, current and voltage).Then the carbonized cathodes dimension were accurately measured to determine the deviation due to the high temperature distortion effect at about 1800°C .the distorted cathodes due to the carbonization process was treated when it was subjected inside the vacuum chamber and heat treated again .The carbonized cat

There is a great deal of systems dealing with image processing that are being used and developed on a daily basis. Those systems need the deployment of some basic operations such as detecting the Regions of Interest and matching those regions, in addition to the description of their properties. Those operations play a significant role in decision making which is necessary for the next operations depending on the assigned task. In order to accomplish those tasks, various algorithms have been introduced throughout years. One of the most popular algorithms is the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). The efficiency of this algorithm is its performance in the process of detection and property description, and that is due to the fact that

Background:Nocturnal Enuresis is a common problem affecting 20% of five years old children and up to 2% of adolescent and young adult. Although it is a self limiting benign condition, it has social and psychological impact on the child and his family. Many pathophysiological theories had been suggested, but none is confirmed. Hypercalciuria has been suggested to be associated with higher incidence of nocturnal enuresis. Objectives:The aim of our study to test the value of Ca/Cr ratio, on random urine sample, in diagnosing hypercalciuria in enuretic children. Type of study: Cross sectional study.Methods:Forty four enuretic children were enrolled in this study and forty five children without nocturnal enuresis were taken as control group.

In data transmission a change in single bit in the received data may lead to miss understanding or a disaster. Each bit in the sent information has high priority especially with information such as the address of the receiver. The importance of error detection with each single change is a key issue in data transmission field.
The ordinary single parity detection method can detect odd number of errors efficiently, but fails with even number of errors. Other detection methods such as two-dimensional and checksum showed better results and failed to cope with the increasing number of errors.
Two novel methods were suggested to detect the binary bit change errors when transmitting data in a noisy media.Those methods were: 2D-Checksum me

The increasing demand for energy has encouraged the development of renewable resources and environmentally benign fuel such as biodiesel. In this study, ethyl fatty esters (EFEs), a major component of biodiesel fuel, were synthesized from soybean oil using sodium ethoxide as a catalyst. By-products were glycerol and difatty acyl urea (DFAU), which has biological characteristics, as antibiotics and antifungal medications. Both EFEs and DFAU have been characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique. The optimum conditions were studied as a function of reaction time, reactant molar ratios, catalyst percentage and the effect of organic solvents. The conversion ratio of soybea

A Modified version of the Generlized standard addition method ( GSAM) was developed. This modified version was used for the quantitative determination of arginine   (Arg) and glycine ( Gly) in arginine  acetyl salicylate – glycine complex . According to this method two linear equations were solved to obtain the amounts of (Arg) and (Gly). The first equation was obtained by spectrophotometic measurement of the total absorbance of (Arg) and (Gly) colored complex with ninhydrin . The second equation was obtained by measuring the total acid consumed by total amino groups of (Arg) and ( Gly). The titration was carried out in non- aqueous media using perchloric acid in glacial acetic acid as a titrant. The developed metho

Objectives: Recently, there have been important advances in the clinical application of targeted hybrid near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent-radioactive tracers. ICG-99mTc-nanocolloid, for example, is already being used by some centres for sentinel lymph node biopsy in head and neck cancer. The radioactive component allows imaging at depths which would not be possible with NIR alone and, once exposed, the NIR fluorescence reporter can be imaged at very high resolution. Gamma detection is currently carried out with a separate hand-held gamma camera or with a non-imaging probe. Visualisation of NIR fluorescence during surgery requires a dedicated NIR camera, several of which are available commercially. We describe a novel hand-held hybrid NIR-gamm