An improved artificial bee colony algorithm for directing orbits of chaotic systems

Artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) is a relatively new optimization technique which has been shown to be competitive to other population-based algorithms. However, there is still an insufficiency in ABC regarding its solution search equation, which is good at exploration but poor at exploitation. To address this concerning issue, we propose an improved ABC (IABC) by using a modified search strategy to generate a new food source in order that the exploration and exploitation can be well balanced and satisfactory optimization performances can be achieved. In addition, to enhance the global convergence, when producing the initial population, both opposition-based learning method and chaotic maps are employed. In this paper, the proposed algorithm is applied to control and synchronization of discrete chaotic systems which can be formulated as both multimodal numerical optimization problems with high dimension. Numerical simulation and comparisons with some typical existing algorithms demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach.     

Analytic evidence of the equivalence of the alternating Heisenberg spin chain to the mixed spin (1, 1/2) Heisenberg chain

We investigated the properties of the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain using the spin-wave theory. The spin-wave excitation spectra, the sublattice magnetizations and the local bond energies of the model are calculated to be compared with the corresponding properties of the mixed spin (1, 1/2) chain for a range of α. The results demonstrate that all the properties show similar behaviours in the small α limit, so the properties of the mixed spin (1, 1/2) chain can be described using the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain.     

A facile method for grafting of bisphenol A imprinted polymer shells onto poly(divinylbenzene) microspheres through precipitation polymerization

Core-shell structured polymers are usually prepared by “grafting to” or “grafting from” techniques, wherein polymer supports were first modified by vinyl bonds or initiators. Success can be immediate, but more often a learning curve needs to be traversed. In this paper, direct grafting bisphenol A imprinted polymer onto poly(divinylbenzene) microspheres through precipitation polymerization is introduced. The obtained microspheres were characterized by SEM, TEM, FTIR and BET. Firstly, mono-disperse poly(divinylbenzene) microspheres of 3 μm in size were prepared by precipitation polymerization. The solvent for grafting was then optimized and it was found that the mixtures of toluene and acetonitrile (30/70, v/v) were ideal choice from the image and structure analysis of the shells. Shells of different thickness (270-840 nm), depending on the concentrations of monomers in the precursor, were then directly grafted to the microspheres by a reactive, entropic capture mechanism. The recognition ability of the microspheres was evaluated by solid-phase extraction and clear selectivity showed toward bisphenol A. The leak of bisphenol A was not found after extraction and thus these core-shell structured imprinted polymers are believed to have potential applications in trace analysis area.     

Theoretical and experimental study on the transverse vibration properties of an axially moving nested cantilever beam

An axially moving nested cantilever beam is a type of time-varying nonlinear system that can be regarded as a cantilever stepped beam. The transverse vibration equation for the axially moving nested cantilever beam with a tip mass is derived by D’Alembert?s principle, and the modified Galerkin?s method is used to solve the partial differential equation. The theoretical model is modified by adjusting the theoretical beam length with the measured results of its first-order vibration frequencies under various beam lengths. It is determined that the length correction value of the second segment of the nested beam increases as the structural length increases, but the corresponding increase in the amplitude becomes smaller. The first-order decay coefficients are identified by the logarithmic decrement method, and the decay coefficient of the beam decreases with an increase in the cantilever length. The calculated responses of the modified model agree well with the experimental results, which verifies the correctness of the proposed calculation model and indicates the effectiveness of the methods of length correction and damping determination. Further studies on non-damping free vibration properties of the axially moving nested cantilever beam during extension and retraction are investigated in the present paper. Furthermore, the extension movement of the beam leads the vibration displacement to increase gradually, and the instantaneous vibration frequency and the vibration speed decrease constantly. Moreover, as the total mechanical energy becomes smaller, the extension movement of the nested beam remains stable. The characteristics for the retraction movement of the beam are the reverse.