Catalytic reduction is considered an effective approach for the reduction of toxic organic pollutants from the environment, but finding an active catalyst is still a big challenge. Herein, Ag decorated CeO2 catalyst was synthesized through polyol reduction method and applied for catalytic reduction (conversion) of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP). The Ag decorated CeO2 catalyst displayed an outstanding reduction activity with 99% conversion of 4-NP in 5 min with a 0.61 min−1 reaction rate (k). A number of structural characterization techniques were executed to investigate the influence of Ag on CeO2 and its effect on the catalytic conversion of 4-NP. The outstanding catalytic performances of the Ag-CeO2 catalyst can be assigne

The Internet is providing vital communications between millions of individuals. It is also more and more utilized as one of the commerce tools; thus, security is of high importance for securing communications and protecting vital information. Cryptography algorithms are essential in the field of security. Brute force attacks are the major Data Encryption Standard attacks. This is the main reason that warranted the need to use the improved structure of the Data Encryption Standard algorithm. This paper proposes a new, improved structure for Data Encryption Standard to make it secure and immune to attacks. The improved structure of Data Encryption Standard was accomplished using standard Data Encryption Standard with a new way of two key gene

This research reports an error analysis of close-range measurements from a Stonex X300 laser scanner in order to address range uncertainty behavior based on indoor experiments under fixed environmental conditions. The analysis includes procedures for estimating the precision and accuracy of the observational errors estimated from the Stonex X300 observations and conducted at intervals of 5 m within a range of 5 to 30 m. The laser 3D point cloud data of the individual scans is analyzed following a roughness analysis prior to the implementation of a Levenberg–Marquardt iterative closest points (LM-ICP) registration. This leads to identifying the level of roughness that was encountered due to the range-finder’s limitations in close

The m-consecutive-k-out-of-n: F linear and circular system consists of n sequentially connected components; the components are ordered on a line or a circle; it fails if there are at least m non-overlapping runs of consecutive-k failed components. This paper proposes the reliability and failure probability functions for both linearly and circularly m-consecutive-k-out-of-n: F systems. More precisely, the failure states of the system components are separated into two collections (the working and the failure collections); where each one is defined as a collection of finite mutual disjoint classes of the system states. Illustrative example is provided.

The aim of this paper is to derive a posteriori error estimates for semilinear parabolic interface problems. More specifically, optimal order a posteriori error analysis in the - norm for semidiscrete semilinear parabolic interface problems is derived by using elliptic reconstruction technique introduced by Makridakis and Nochetto in (2003). A key idea for this technique is the use of error estimators derived for elliptic interface problems to obtain parabolic estimators that are of optimal order in space and time.

This paper presents a study of the application of gas lift (GL) to improve oil production in a Middle East field. The field has been experiencing a rapid decline in production due to a drop in reservoir pressure. GL is a widely used artificial lift technique that can be used to increase oil production by reducing the hydrostatic pressure in the wellbore. The study used a full field model to simulate the effects of GL on production. The model was run under different production scenarios, including different water cut and reservoir pressure values. The results showed that GL can significantly increase oil production under all scenarios. The study also found that most wells in the field will soon be closed due to high water cuts. Howev

Finding communities of connected individuals in complex networks is challenging, yet crucial for understanding different real-world societies and their interactions. Recently attention has turned to discover the dynamics of such communities. However, detecting accurate community structures that evolve over time adds additional challenges. Almost all the state-of-the-art algorithms are designed based on seemingly the same principle while treating the problem as a coupled optimization model to simultaneously identify community structures and their evolution over time. Unlike all these studies, the current work aims to individually consider this three measures, i.e. intra-community score, inter-community score, and evolution of community over

 This paper comprises the design and operation of mono-static backscatter lidar station based on a pulsed Nd: YAG laser that operates at multiple wavelengths. The three-color lidar laser transmitter is based on the collinear fundamental 1064 nm, second harmonic 532 nm and a third harmonic 355nm output of a Nd:YAG laser. The most important parameter of lidar especially daytime operations is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) which gives some instructions in designing of lidar and it is often limit the effective range. The reason is that noises or interferences always badly affect the measured results. The inversion algorithms have been developed for the study of atmospheric aerosols. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of three-color channel re