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The present study examines the performance of three powerful methods including the original differential evolution (DE), the improved differential evolution (IDE), and the winner of the CEC-2014 competition, LSHADE, in addition to the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMAES) for size optimization of truss structures under natural frequency constraints. Despite the abundant researches on novel meta-heuristic algorithms in the literature, the application of CMAES, one of the most powerful and reliable optimization algorithms, on the optimal solution of the truss structures has received scant attention. For consistent comparison between these algorithms, four stopping criteria... 

The affiliation for the third author is incorrect. N. Moosavian is not affiliated with #3, but with: Department of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. The original article has been corrected. © Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2022  

Recently, many meta-heuristic algorithms are proposed for optimization of various problems. Some of them originally are presented for continuous optimization problems and some others are just applicable for discrete ones. In the literature, sizing optimization of truss structures is one of the discrete optimization problems which is solved by many meta-heuristic algorithms. In this paper, in order to discover an efficient and reliable algorithm for optimization of truss structures, a discrete optimizer, entitled Soccer League Competition (SLC) algorithm and ten popular and powerful solvers are examined and statistical analysis is carried out for them. The fundamental idea of SLC algorithm is... 

To account for certain essential features of material such as dispersive behaviour and optical branches in dispersion curves, a fundamental departure from classical elasticity to polar theories is required. Among the polar theories, micromorphic elasticity of appropriate grades and anisotropy is capable of capturing these physical phenomena completely. In the mathematical framework of micromorphic elasticity, in addition to the traditional elastic constants, some additional constants are introduced in the pertinent governing equations of motion. A precise evaluation of the numerical values of the aforementioned elastic constants in the realm of the experimentations poses serious... 

The relatively large number of structural elements and the variety of design code requirements complicate the design process of tall buildings. This process is exacerbated when the target is to obtain the seismic code-compliant optimal design with minimum weight. The present paper aims at providing a practical methodology for the optimal design of steel tall building structures considering the constraints imposed by typical building codes. The applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated through the determination of the optimal seismic design for 20-, 40-, and 60-story buildings with a framed tube as well as a tube-in-tube system. Such a design gives rise to a basis for the fair... 

Journal-bearings play a significant role in industrial applications and the necessity of condition monitoring with nondestructive tests is increasing. This paper deals a proper fault detection technique based on power spectral density (PSD) of vibration signals in combination with K-Nearest Neighbor and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The frequency domain vibration signals of an internal combustion engine with three journal-bearing conditions were gained, corresponding to, (i) normal, (ii) corrosion and (iii) excessive wear. The features of the PSD values of vibration signals were extracted using statistical and vibration parameters. The extracted features were used as inputs to the KNN and... 

A set of conventional feedforward multilayer neural networks have been proposed to predict basic properties (e.g., critical temperature (T c), critical pressure (Pc), critical volume (V c), acentric factor (ω) and molecular weight (MW)) of pure compounds and petroleum fractions based on their normal boiling point (T b) and liquid density at 293 K. The accuracy of the method is evaluated by its application for basic property estimation of various components not used in the development of the method. Furthermore, the performance of the method is compared against the performance of the other alternatives reported as the most accurate and general methods for basic property prediction. Results of... 

A straightforward three-stage method was applied to fabricate a super-hydrophobic mixed-matrix nanofiber membrane using the electrospinning method for desalination purpose. First, a hydrothermal technique was applied to synthesize a super-hydrophobic nano-sheet, called octadecylamine-reduced graphene oxide (ODA-rGO) with a water contact angle of 162°, which was then added to PVDF-HFP dope solution. After, 0.005 wt% LiCl was added to the dope solution to decrease the mean pore size by increasing solution conductivity. Moreover, some membranes were hot-pressed to improve liquid entry pressure (LEP). Eventually, a top-quality nanofiber membrane was synthesized using 0.1 wt% ODA-rGO and 0.005... 

Rehabilitation is the best approach for patients who suffer physical disability of their upper-limbs. Maintaining the intensity of exercise during treatment is the main factor that makes the robots suitable for rehabilitation since robots do not get tired and do the exercises with constant intensity under supervision of the doctor. Two main categories of rehabilitation robots are End-Effector based robots and wearable robots. According to the fact that most problems occur in need of rehabilitation for hand wrist area, in this paper a wearable rehabilitation robot has been developed for the wrist. Nowadays, wearable robots attract more attention than the other group. Wearable robots are... 

In this research, synthesis of lanthanum oxide nanoparticles using supercritical water as a reaction medium in batch type reactor was studied. The crystallographic identity and morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD patterns indicate that the well-crystallized lanthanum oxide nanocrystals can be easily obtained under the current synthetic conditions. The effect of four parameters includes temperature, reaction time; primary concentration of aqueous solution of lanthanum (III) nitrate and pH of starting solution on reaction efficiency, particle size and the BET surface area were investigated... 

In this article, experimental and numerical investigations are performed to study a thermogravitational column (TGC) for the separation of toluene/n-heptane mixture. This research has tried to determine the main significant parameters and their effects on the performance of the process. In experimental examinations, the influence of the main parameters such as feed flow rate, cut and temperature gradient on the performance of the TGC efficiency is studied. In addition, computational fluid dynamics is used to simulate the separation process in this review. The response surface methodology (RSM) was also applied to minimize the number of runs and investigate the optimum operating conditions.... 

In this article, numerical simulations are performed to investigate the performance of the thermal diffusion column for the separation of n-heptane/benzene mixture. The present work tried to optimize column by analyzing significant parameters such as feed flow rate, temperature and cut. In order to obtain the hydrodynamic and temperature and mass distribution inside thermal diffusion column, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method is applied to solve the Navier–Stocks equations. Numerical simulations are conducted to study the main parameters in both stationary and time-dependent conditions. By using the separation work unit as a function of cut, the optimal cut for maximum SWU occurs... 

For the 4th IUPAP International Conference of Women in Physics, we report on activities in science and engineering in Iran, and conditions for women in physics, in the three years since the 3rd IUPAP International Conference of Women in Physics was held in 2008. Iran has made prominent advancements and astonishing progress in laser technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, genetics, computer software and hardware, and robotics. Iranian scientists have been very productive in several experimental fields, such as pharmaceutical, organic, and polymer chemistry. Conditions for women in physics have improved greatly in recent years. A project to improve the environment for learning physics, and... 

Core/shell structure of ZnO nanowires coated with a monolayer of TiO 2 is investigated using Density Functional Theory (DFT). The electronic states of the semiconductor is calculated and compared before and after coating of the TiO2 monolayer on a ZnO [101 0] surface. The effect of TiO2 coating induce surface states changes and shifts the conduction and valence band edges to higher energies. Our results, in qualitative agreement with the experimental work of Matt Law et al. (J. Phys. Chem. B, 110, 22652), show an increase in open circuit voltage and a decrease in short circuit current in ZnO/TiO2 core shell dye sensitized solar cells. Regarding the semiconductor density of states (DOS), TiO2... 

Due to the important role of commitment and trust in the relationship marketing, the factors which can directly result in a committed relationship along with the factors which can influence the commitment through influencing trust, according to the model of commitment and trust by (Morgan & Hunt, 1994) have been introduced and their level of importance has been investigated here. The article uses fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) in the proposed model to find the most important paths leading to relationship commitment. The FCM analyzes the responses of a group of 30 people including general practitioners in dentistry, managers of dental departments in some of the public clinics and hospitals who... 

Conventionally, a film of TiO2 particles of 300 nm size is employed in Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) as the back reflector film to enhance the light harvesting. Perfect reflectance of silver in visible and near infrared motivates to investigate its potential as the material for the light back reflector film in DSCs. In this study, light back reflector films consisting of 300 nm-sized silver particles, as well as vacuum evaporated silver flat film, were fabricated and compared to 300 nm-sized rutile-type TiO2 particulate reflector film to study their optical aspects. Conventional TiO2 rutile-type particulate film demonstrates slightly lower performance...