In this study the influence of dicarboxy acetone (DCA), as an oxidation product of sodium citrate, was evaluated by ‘reversed Turkevich’ method. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were syntheSIZEd systematically at various sodium citrate to HAuCl4 molar ratio and temperature. The GNPs were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, DLS and TEM techniques. According to the results, GNPs were obtained in range of 12-51 nm by inverting the reagents addition order. All of GNPs samples were monodisperse and had the same pattern of narrow SIZE distribution in contrast to traditional Turkevich method in which GNPs larger than 40 nm became unstable. Moreover, molar ratio of Sodium citrate to HAuCl4 and temperature had a significant role in SIZE controlling and monodispersity of GNPs. By increasing sodium citrate to HAuCl4 molar ratio, the SIZE of GNPs reduced drastically. Since, temperature had a central role on the production rate of DCA, its influence on monodispersity of GNPs was more considerable than their SIZE.

We investigate the deposition temperature, pH and deposition time that govern evolution of the nanoparticle shape, SIZE and density of ZnSe nanoparticle arrays. The nanoparticle arrays were grown on glass substrate using a facile chemical bath deposition method. The samples were also characterized by absorbance spectra for energy band gap determination and scanning electron microscopy. In comparison to other similar works, our method is simple, low cost and can be easily controlled. We find that temperature helps to tailoring the nanoparticle shape and has a critical role in comparison with other parameters such as pH and deposition time.

This paper presents a practical implementation of explicit self-TUNING control to a hydraulic robot for trajectory tracking. The proposed control strategy is simple, however, adapts itself to system variations such as load changes, noise and disturbances and it may be suitable for non-minimum phase control systems. Computational complexity of self-TUNING control is not a limitation anymore because of increased computing power of computers even for high speed applications. This situation makes the self-TUNING control an important alternative to PID control, which is the most widely used controller in industrial processes. Extensive experiments conducted on hydraulic robots to demonstrate and verify the control performance of the proposed self-TUNING control in comparison with the traditionally designed, PID control.

Fine-TUNING Argument (PTA) starts with the claim that the physical constants, the laws of nature and, accordingly, the interconnections between the parts of the physical world have been fine-tuned such that we may infer the existence of some supernatural fine-tuner whose attributes, inferred through some other possible inferences, may allow calling him "God". FTA, at both local and global/universal levels, takes the empirical data of natural sciences as the evidence of the intelligent purposeful agent having a hand in the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe, so that the apparent cosmic coincidence among the physical constants as well as .the events, from physical to biological and psychological ones, indicate some purposeful fine-TUNING leading to a life-permitting and even intelligence-permitting world. Now, PTA may be considered as the most popular variety of Teleological Argument and Design Argument that has attracted the attention of some specialists among the scientists, theologians and philosophers interested in searching some sound argument for the existence of God based not on religious sacred texts but on human cognitive faculties. But PTA, like Teleological Argument and Design Argument, suffering some problematic features, needs philosophical elucidation and evaluation. In this paper, the author, sympathetic towards those who try to scientifically and philosophically rationalize their belief in the fine-tuner/designer/maker/creator of the world, and have a trust on PTA, tries to examine the "argument" on the basis of some Islamic and Western philosophical achievements. The, author, willing to disagree with any ultimate agnosticism and negativism, tries to show the weak and strong features of PTA to help the believers, in particular those who have a theological trend and position, to know the weaknesses of the "Argument", on the one hand, and its capacities in the face of both its deniers and rivals, on the other hand.

To manipulate an object with several cooperating manipulators, the Multiple Impedance Control (MIC) is a model-based algorithm that enforces designated impedance on all cooperating manipulators and the manipulated object. For TUNING the inner object forces, it is needed to model the inner forces/torques and include them in the MIC law. In this paper, a virtual linkage model is introduced to determine the inner forces in the MIC law. Also, open loop and a closed loop controllers are designed for inner forces TUNING. The MIC law will be compared to the relevant algorithms, i.e., Object Impedance Control (OIC) and Augmented Object Control (AOC). Next, the MIC is used to manipulate an object on a planned path with desired inner forces. The grasp condition is considered either solidly (with all cooperating end-effectors), or, as flexible. Finally, the effects of gain TUNING on the variations of inner forces will be discussed. The obtained results reveal the merits of the proposed scheme, in terms of system flexibility and good tracking errors, as well as inner forces TUNING, even in the presence of impacts caused by contact with the environment.

The main advantage of heuristic or metaheuristic algorithms compared to exact optimization methods is their ability in handling large-scale instances within a reasonable time, albeit at the expense of losing a guarantee for achieving the optimal solution. Therefore, metaheuristic techniques are appropriate choices for solving NP-hard problems to near optimality. Since the parameters of heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms have a great influence on their effectiveness and efficiency, parameter TUNING and calibration has gained importance. In this paper a new approach for robust parameter TUNING of heuristics and metaheuristics is proposed, which is based on a combination of Design of Experiments (DOE), Signal to Noise (S/N) ratio, Shannon entropy, and VIKOR methods, which not only considers the solution quality or the number of fitness function evaluations, but also aims to minimize the running time. In order to evaluate the performance of the suggested approach, a computational analysis has been performed on the Simulated Annealing (SA) and Genetic Algorithms (GA) methods, which have been successfully applied in solving respectively the n-queens and the Uncapacitated Single Allocation Hub Location combinatorial problems. Extensive experimental results showed that by using the presented approach the average number of iterations and the average running time of the SA were respectively improved 12 and 10.2 times compared to the un-tuned SA. Also, the quality of certain solutions was improved in the tuned GA, while the average running time was 2.5 times faster compared to the un-tuned GA.

In this work, the different fuels (citric acid, glycine and urea) were used for solution combustion synthesis of CoFe2O4 powders. X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry techniques were employed for characterization of phase evolution, cation distribution, microstructure and magnetic properties of the as-combusted CoFe2O4 powders. Single phase CoFe2O4 powders with partially inverse structure in which the Co2+ cations are distributed in both tetrahedral and octahedral sites were syntheSIZEd by the citric acid, glycine and urea fuels. The as-combusted CoFe2O4 powders by the citric acid fuel exhibited the highest inversion coefficient. The crystallite SIZE of the as-combusted CoFe2O4 powders syntheSIZEd by urea fuel was 15 nm, increased to 41 and 52 nm for the glycine and citric acid fuels, respectively. Furthermore, the solution combusted CoFe2O4 powders showed ferromagnetic behavior with saturation magnetization of 61. 9, 63. 6 and 41. 6 emu/g for the citric acid, glycine and urea fuels, respectively. The high crystallinity and particle SIZE of the as-combusted CoFe2O4 powders using glycine fuel led to the highest magnetization and the moderate coercivity.

Model predictive controller is widely used in industrial plants. Uncertainty is one of the critical issues in real systems. In this paper, the direct adaptive Simplified Model Predictive Control (SMPC) is proposed for unknown or time varying plants with uncertainties. By estimating the plant step response in each sample, the controller is designed and the controller coefficients are directly calculated. The proposed method is validated via simulations for both slow and fast time varying systems. Simulation results indicate the controller ability for tracking references in the presence of plant’s time varying parameters. In addition, an analytical TUNING method for adjusting prediction horizon is proposed based on optimization of the objective function. It leads to a simple formula including the model parameters, and an indirect adaptive controller can be designed based on the analytical formula. Simulation results indicate a better performance for the tuned controller. Finally, experimental tests are performed to show the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies.

Nowadays, using advanced vehicle control and safety systems in vehicles is growing rapidly. In this regard, in recent years new control systems, called VDC, have been introduced. These systems stabilize vehicle yaw motion, by yaw moment resulted from tire controlling forces. In this paper, an adaptive optimal controller applied to a vehicle to obtain a satisfactory lateral and yaw stability. To derive the control law, we use LQR method. Considering that various parameters are included in the controller structure, which their measurement is either expensive or practically impossible, a least squared estimator with variable forgetting factor is proposed to estimate them. To optimize the system and in order to exert the control yaw moment, an ABS brake system is implemented in a new architecture to distribute brake forces on wheels. The controller rules are derived based on the bicycle model and the estimator is designed based on the 7 DOE model of the vehicle. To simulate and evaluate the performance of the proposed controller the full vehicle model of the reference car in ADAMS/Car, with 214 DOE, is also implemented. Finally, the results of the vehicle response, equipped with the controller system, in a standard maneuver are presented.