Prediction of the Bending Strength of a Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) Using an Artificial Neural Network

Mechanics of Composite Materials - The application of an artificial neural networks (ANN) to predicting the bending strength of a laminated veneer lumber (LVL) manufactured under different...     

Channel Coordination with Cooperative Advertising Considering Effect of Advertising on Willingness to Pay

In this paper, cooperative advertising in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain is studied. Advertising can enhance willingness to pay (WTP) of customers. This trade-off between the benefits of increasing WTP of customers and the advertising expenditure is a key to understanding the retailers optimal advertising decision. On the other hand, it is interesting to understand in which condition supporting the retailer for his advertising expenditure is beneficial for the manufacturer. In this study, in order to capture pricing and advertising strategies of the channel member, three non-cooperative games including Nash, Stackelberg retailer and Stackelberg manufacturer game-theoretic models are established. In spite of the related studies which restrict price in order to prevent negative demand, the proposed model allows channel members to increase their prices by enhancing WTP of customers. In this study, contrary to similar additive form demand functions applied in the co-op ad literature which limits their studies for cases that profit function is concave with respect to variables, optimal prices and advertising strategies are obtained for all the solution space. Surprisingly for the very high values of the advertising effect coefficient, a finite optimal advertising expenditure is achieved.     

Solving structured nonsmooth convex optimization with complexity $$\mathcal {O}(\varepsilon ^{-1/2})$$

This paper describes an algorithm for solving structured nonsmooth convex optimization problems using the optimal subgradient algorithm (OSGA), which is a first-order method with the complexity \(\mathcal {O}(\varepsilon ^{-2})\) for Lipschitz continuous nonsmooth problems and \(\mathcal {O}(\varepsilon ^{-1/2})\) for smooth problems with Lipschitz continuous gradient. If the nonsmoothness of the problem is manifested in a structured way, we reformulate the problem so that it can be solved efficiently by a new setup of OSGA (called OSGA-V) with the complexity \(\mathcal {O}(\varepsilon ^{-1/2})\). Further, to solve the reformulated problem, we equip OSGA-O with an appropriate prox-function for which the OSGA-O subproblem can be solved either in a closed form or by a simple iterative scheme, which decreases the computational cost of applying the algorithm for large-scale problems. We show that applying the new scheme is feasible for many problems arising in applications. Some numerical results are reported confirming the theoretical foundations.     

A computation study on an integrated alternating direction method of multipliers for large scale optimization

The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) has recently received a lot of attention especially due to its capability to harness the power of the new parallel and distributed computing environments. However, ADMM could be notoriously slow especially if the penalty parameter, assigned to the augmented term in the objective function, is not properly chosen. This paper aims to accelerate ADMM by integrating that with the Barzilai–Borwein gradient method and an acceleration technique known as line search. Line search accelerates an iterative method by performing a one-dimensional search along the line segment connecting two successive iterations. We pay a special attention to the large-scale nonnegative least squares problems, and our experiments using real datasets indicate that the integration not only accelerate ADMM but also robustifies that against the penalty parameter.     

On the limitations of classical benchmark functions for evaluating robustness of evolutionary algorithms

Although evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have some operators which let them explore the whole search domain, still they get trapped in local minima when multimodality of the objective function is increased. To improve the performance of EAs, many optimization techniques or operators have been introduced in recent years. However, it seems that these modified versions exploit some special properties of the classical multimodal benchmark functions, some of which have been noted in previous research and solutions to eliminate them have been proposed.In this article, we show that quite symmetric behavior of the available multimodal test functions is another example of these special properties which can be exploited by some EAs such as covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES). This method, based on its invariance properties and good optimization results for available unimodal and multimodal benchmark functions, is considered as a robust and efficient method. However, as far as black box optimization problems are considered, no special trend in the behavior of the objective function can be assumed; consequently this symmetry limits the generalization of optimization results from available multimodal benchmark functions to real world problems. To improve the performance of CMA-ES, the Elite search sub-algorithm is introduced and implemented in the basic algorithm. Importance and effect of this modification is illustrated experimentally by dissolving some test problems in the end.     

Residual stress delaying phase transformation in Y-TZP bio-restorations

Engineering favorable residual stress for the complex geometry of bi-layer porcelain-zirconia crowns potentially prevents crack initiation and improves the mechanical performance and lifetime of the dental restoration. In addition to external load, the stress field depends on initial residual stress before loading. Residual stress is the result of factors such as the thermal expansion mismatch of layers and compliance anisotropy of zirconia grains in the process of sintering and cooling. Stress induced phase transformation in zirconia extensively relaxes the residual stress and changes the stress state. The objective of this study is to investigate the coupling between tetragonal to monoclinic phase transformations and residual stress. Residual stress, on the surface of the sectioned single load to failure crown, at 23 points starting from the pure tetragonal and ending at a fully monoclinic region were measured using the micro X-ray diffraction sin² ψ method. An important observation is the significant range in measured residual stress from a compressive stress of ?400?MPa up to tensile stress of 400?MPa and up to 100% tetragonal to monoclinic phase transformation.     

Spectral Studies On Some 2-Quinolones

Spectral properties of some 2-Quinolones were investigate-ed. IR and ¹H NMR were applied to characterize the ligands. The hydrogen bond property is of important parameter for controlling the behaviour of the compounds. The N[sbnd]H, O[sbnd]H, C[dbnd]O, C[sbnd]H, and C[sbnd]N fundamental functional groups are characterized. The electronic transitions are assigned. The data are explained on the basis of molecular structure and substituents effects. The acid-base equilibria and the phenomena of tautomerism for these compounds are explained and discussed. The acid exponents (pK_OH, and pK_NH) are evaluated.     

Weyl’s Law and Connes’ Trace Theorem for Noncommutative Two Tori

We prove the analogue of Weyl’s law for a noncommutative Riemannian manifold, namely the noncommutative two torus ${\mathbb{T}_{\theta}^{2}}$ equipped with a general translation invariant conformal structure and a Weyl conformal factor. This is achieved by studying the asymptotic distribution of the eigenvalues of the perturbed Laplacian on ${\mathbb{T}_{\theta}^{2}}$ . We also prove the analogue of Connes’ trace theorem by showing that the Dixmier trace and a noncommutative residue coincide on pseudodifferential operators of order ?2 on ${\mathbb{T}_{\theta}^{2}}$ .     

An accurate mathematical study on the free vibration of stepped thickness circular/annular Mindlin functionally graded plates

An analytical solution based on a new exact closed form procedure is presented for free vibration analysis of stepped circular and annular FG plates via first order shear deformation plate theory of Mindlin. The material properties change continuously through the thickness of the plate, which can vary according to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents, whereas Poisson’s ratio is set to be constant. Based on the domain decomposition technique, five highly coupled governing partial differential equations of motion for freely vibrating FG plates were exactly solved by introducing the new potential functions as well as using the method of separation of variables. Several comparison studies were presented by those reported in the literature and the FEM analysis, for various thickness values and combinations of stepped thickness variations of circular/annular FG plates to demonstrate highly stability and accuracy of present exact procedure. The effect of the geometrical and material plate parameters such as step thickness ratios, step locations and the power law index on the natural frequencies of FG plates is investigated.     

Nonlinear forced vibration of strain gradient microbeams

In this paper, the strain gradient theory, a non-classical continuum theory able to capture the size effect happening in micro-scale structures, is employed in order to investigate the size-dependent nonlinear forced vibration of Euler–Bernoulli microbeams. The nonlinearities are caused by mid-plane stretching and nonlinear external forces such as van-der-Waals force. The nonlinear governing equations of the microbeams are solved analytically utilizing the perturbation techniques. The primary, super-harmonic and sub-harmonic resonances of a microbeam are studied and the size-dependency of the frequency responses is assessed. The results indicate that the nonlinear forced vibration behavior of microbeams is size-dependent and the ratio of the microbeam thickness to the material length scale parameter, an additional material property appearing in the strain gradient theory, plays an important role.