Hybrids of meta-heuristics have been shown to be more effective and adaptable than their parents in solving various combinatorial optimization problems. However, hybridized schemes are more tedious to implement due to their complexity. We address this problem by proposing the Meta-heuristics Development Framework (MDF). In addition to being a framework that promotes reuse to reduce developmenta...

The objective of this research was to investigate the utilization of olive mill sludge (OMS) as an alternative to wood in the manufacture of the medium density fiberboard (MDF). The MDF panels were manufactured using standardized procedures that simulated industrial production at the laboratory. Six panel types were made from various mixtures of hardwood fiber/dried OMS flour, 100/0, 90/10, 80/...

BACKGROUND There is not enough evidence to support the efficacy of massage for muscle fatigue despite wide utilization of the modality in various clinical settings. This study investigated the influence of massage application on localized back muscle fatigue. METHODS Twenty-nine healthy subjects participated in two experimental sessions (massage and rest conditions). On each test day, subject...

Japanese pine sawyer beetle, pine shoot beetle, and Formosan subterranean termite were selected to investigate the inhibitory abilities of solid wood and wood-based composites (MDF and WPCs) made with Eucalyptus urograndis and Melaleuca leucadendra. The chemical components in the extractives of the two types of wood were also analyzed by GC-MS. The results indicated that the inhibitory ability ...

The target of this study was to investigate the possibility of MDF productionfrom Eucalyptus camaldulensis wood. MDF fibers were produced applying threelevels of steaming time. Laboratory MDF boards were produced using thegenerated fibers and different pressing temperature and time. Physical andmechanical properties of MDF panels were measured using relevant EU testmethods and were statisticall...

In this paper, we present a self-organizing framework called the SHOSLIF-M for learning and recognizing spa-tiotemporal events (or patterns) from intensity image sequences. The proposed framework consists of a mul-ticlass, multivariate discriminant analysis to automatically select the most discriminating features (MDF), a space partition tree to achieve a logarithmic retrieval time complexity f...

The relationship between structure and inhibition activity on carbonic anhydrase I of a set of forty substituted 1,3,4-thiadiazoleand 1,3,4-thiadiazoline-disulfonamides has been investigated by using the Molecular Descriptors Family method. The molecular descriptors family has been generated starting with the information obtained from the compounds structure and the descriptors were calculated....

We investigate the nature of the newly discovered Ultra Faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies (UF dSphs) in a general cosmological context simultaneously accounting for various “classical“ dSphs and Milky Way properties including their Metallicity Distribution Function (MDF). To this aim we extend the merger tree approach previously developed to include the presence of star-forming minihaloes, and a ...

The authors have previously shown that epithelioid cells isolated from mice secrete a factor, called macrophage deactivating factor (MDF), that promptly deactivates superoxide release by activated macrophages and neutrophils. In this paper some biological properties of a polyclonal rat antiserum directed to MDF and other substances secreted by these cells are described. The immunoglobulin fract...