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The rheological behavior of aqueous suspensions based on nanoscale silicon dioxide particles strongly depends on the dynamic viscosity, which affects directly the use of nanofluids. The purpose of this work is to develop and validate models for predicting dynamic viscosity from independent input parameters: silicon dioxide concentration SiO₂, pH acidity, and shear rate $\gamma$. The influence of the suspension composition on its dynamic viscosity is analyzed. Groups of suspensions with statistically homogeneous composition have been identified, within which the interchangeability of compositions is possible. It is shown that at low shear rates, the rheological properties of suspensions differ significantly from those obtained at higher speeds. Significant positive correlations of the dynamic viscosity of the suspension with SiO₂ concentration and pH acidity were established, and negative correlations with the shear rate $\gamma$. Regression models with regularization of the dependence of the dynamic viscosity $\eta$ on the concentrations of SiO₂, NaOH, H₃PO₄, surfactant (surfactant), EDA (ethylenediamine), shear rate γ were constructed. For more accurate prediction of dynamic viscosity, the models using algorithms of neural network technologies and machine learning (MLP multilayer perceptron, RBF radial basis function network, SVM support vector method, RF random forest method) were trained. The effectiveness of the constructed models was evaluated using various statistical metrics, including the average absolute approximation error (MAE), the average quadratic error (MSE), the coefficient of determination $R^2$, and the average percentage of absolute relative deviation (AARD%). The RF model proved to be the best model in the training and test samples. The contribution of each component to the constructed model is determined. It is shown that the concentration of SiO₂ has the greatest influence on the dynamic viscosity, followed by pH acidity and shear rate γ. The accuracy of the proposed models is compared to the accuracy of models previously published. The results confirm that the developed models can be considered as a practical tool for studying the behavior of nanofluids, which use aqueous suspensions based on nanoscale particles of silicon dioxide.

The paper presents a computational model of the thermal state of the breast with an interstitial tumor. The model is based on the modified Pennes biothermal equation and describes a five-layered biological area including skin, subcutaneous fat, glandular and muscular tissues, as well as a neoplasm zone. Convective heat exchange with the environment is taken into account at the outer boundary, and body temperature is maintained at the internal boundary. In addition, the fabric surface is exposed to exponentially attenuating effects of spatial heating, such a heating scheme is actually based on the Bouguer – Lambert – Baer law. Tissue thermal conductivity and blood perfusion are modeled by linear functions of temperature, reflecting physiological thermoregulation. The boundary-value problem for the partial differential equation has been solved numerically using an explicit-implicit finite difference scheme; the system of algebraic equations getting after an approximation of the mentioned boundary-value problem is solved by the Thomas procedure. Numerical experiments have shown that even a small tumor increases the local temperature of tissues by half a degree due to increased metabolism and delayed blood perfusion. This anomaly is clearly manifested in tumors larger than ten millimeters. It was found that the depth of occurrence critically affects the thermal response: when the tumor is located closer to the surface, the maximum temperature shifts to the skin, whereas at a deeper position, a thermal peak forms inside the glandular tissue. The effectiveness of hyperthermic exposure was assessed by the integral criterion of thermal necrosis based on the Arrhenius law. At a radiation intensity that creates a surface thermal load of about five kilowatts per square meter and an attenuation factor of one hundred, tumor destruction begins after two to three minutes of exposure, while the surrounding healthy tissues remain within safe temperatures. Reducing the attenuation coefficient leads to the opposite effect: heat spreads deeper, and the glandular tissue is damaged first, which limits the therapeutic window. Additionally, maps of the distribution of temperature, time to necrosis, and the depth of thermal damage were constructed depending on the irradiation power, diameter, and position of the tumor.

Study of work of heating equipment is an actual issue because it allows determining optimal regimes to reach highest efficiency. At that it is very helpful to use computer simulation to predict how different heating modes influence the effectiveness of the heating process and wear of heating equipment. Computer simulation provides results whose accuracy is proven by many studies and requires costs and time less than real experiments. In terms of present research, computer simulation of heating of air tuyere of blast furnace was realized with the help of FEM software. Background studies revealed possibility to simulate it as a flat, axisymmetric problem and DEFORM-2D software was used for simulation. Geometry, necessary for simulation, was designed with the help of SolidWorks, saved in .dxf format. Then it was exported to DEFORM-2D pre-processor and positioned. Preliminary and boundary conditions were set up. Several modes of operating regimes were under analysis. In order to demonstrate influence of eah of the modes and for better visualization point tracking option of the DEFORM-2D post-processor was applied. Influence of thermal insulation box plugged into blow channel, with and without air gap, and thermal coating on air tuyere’s temperature field was investigated. Simulation data demonstrated significant effect of thermal insulation box on air tuyere’s temperature field. Designed model allowed to simulate tuyere’s burnout as a result of interaction with liquid iron. Conducted researches have demonstrated DEFORM-2D effectiveness while using it for simulation of heat transfer and heating processes. DEFORM-2D is about to be used in further studies dedicated to more complex process connected with temperature field of blast furnace’s air tuyere.

Execution or violation of the principle of competitive exclusion in communities is the subject of many studies. The principle of competitive exclusion means that coexistence of species in community is impossible if the number of species exceeds the number of controlling mutually independent factors. At that time there are many examples displaying the violations of this principle in the natural systems. The explanations for this paradox vary from inexact identification of the set of factors to various types of spatial and temporal heterogeneities. One of the factors breaking the principle of competitive exclusion is intraspecific competition. This study holds the model of community with two species and one influencing factor with density-dependent mortality and spatial heterogeneity. For such models possibility of the existence of stable equilibrium is proved in case of spatial homogeneity and negative effect of the species on the factor. Our purpose is analysis of possible variants of dynamics of the system with spatial heterogeneity under the various directions of the species effect on the influencing factor. Numerical analysis showed that there is stable coexistence of the species agreed with homogenous spatial distributions of the species if the species effects on the influencing factor are negative. Density-dependent mortality and spatial heterogeneity lead to violation of the principle of competitive exclusion when equilibriums are Turing unstable. In this case stable spatial heterogeneous patterns can arise. It is shown that Turing instability is possible if at least one of the species effects is positive. Model nonlinearity and spatial heterogeneity cause violation of the principle of competitive exclusion in terms of both stable spatial homogenous states and quasistable spatial heterogeneous patterns.

Social media is a crucial indicator of the position of assets in the financial market. The paper describes the rigid solution for the classification problem to determine the influence of social media activity on financial market movements. Reputable crypto traders influencers are selected. Twitter posts packages are used as data. The methods of text, which are characterized by the numerous use of slang words and abbreviations, and preprocessing consist in lemmatization of Stanza and the use of regular expressions. A word is considered as an element of a vector of a data unit in the course of solving the problem of binary classification. The best markup parameters for processing Binance candles are searched for. Methods of feature selection, which is necessary for a precise description of text data and the subsequent process of establishing dependence, are represented by machine learning and statistical analysis. First, the feature selection is used based on the information criterion. This approach is implemented in a random forest model and is relevant for the task of feature selection for splitting nodes in a decision tree. The second one is based on the rigid compilation of a binary vector during a rough check of the presence or absence of a word in the package and counting the sum of the elements of this vector. Then a decision is made depending on the superiority of this sum over the threshold value that is predetermined previously by analyzing the frequency distribution of mentions of the word. The algorithm used to solve the problem was named benchmark and analyzed as a tool. Similar algorithms are often used in automated trading strategies. In the course of the study, observations of the influence of frequently occurring words, which are used as a basis of dimension 2 and 3 in vectorization, are described as well.

Industrial robots have made it possible for robotics to become a worldwide discipline both in economy and in science. However, their capabilities are limited, especially regarding contact tasks where it is required to regulate or at least limit contact forces. At one point, it was noticed that elasticity in the joint transmission, which was treated as a drawback previously, is actually helpful in this regard. This observation led to the introduction of elastic joint robots that are well-suited to contact tasks and cooperative behavior in particular, so they become more and more widespread nowadays. Many researchers try to implement such devices not with trivial series elastic actuators (SEA) but with more sophisticated variable stiffness actuators (VSA) that can regulate their own mechanical stiffness. All elastic actuators demonstrate shock robustness and safe interaction with external objects to some extent, but when stiffness may be varied, it provides additional benefits, e. g., in terms of energy efficiency and task adaptability. Here, we present a novel variable stiffness actuator with a magnetic coupler as an elastic element. Magnetic transmission is contactless and thus advantageous in terms of robustness to misalignment. In addition, the friction model of the transmission becomes less complex. It also has milder stiffness characteristic than typical mechanical nonlinear springs, moreover, the stiffness curve has a maximum after which it descends. Therefore, when this maximum torque is achieved, the coupler slips, and a new pair of poles defines the equilibrium position. As a result, the risk of damage is smaller for this design solution. The design of the joint is thoroughly described, along with its mathematical model. Finally, the control system is also proposed, and simulation tests confirm the design ideas.

We have studied properties of non-linear waves in a mathematical model of a predator – prey system with taxis. We demonstrate that, for systems with negative and positive taxis there typically exists a large region in the parameter space, where the waves demonstrate quasi-soliton interaction; colliding waves can penetrate through each other, and waves can also reflect from impermeable boundaries. In this paper, we use numerical simulations to demonstrate also a new wave phenomenon — a half-soliton interaction of waves, when of two colliding waves, one annihilates and the other continues to propagate. We show that this effect depends on the «ages» or, equivalently, «widths» of the colliding waves.

In the present article we explore the process of changing the level of approval of a political leader under the influence of the processes taking place in online platforms (social networks, forums, etc.). The driver of these changes is the interaction of users, through which they can exchange opinions with each other and formulate their position in relation to the political leader. In addition to interpersonal interaction, we will consider such factors as the information impact, expressed in the creation of an information flow with a given power and polarity (positive or negative, in the context of influencing the image of a political leader), as well as the presence of a group of agents (opinion leaders), supporting the leader, or, conversely, negatively affecting its representation in the media space.

The mathematical basis of the presented research is the Kirman model, which has its roots in biology and initially found its application in economics. Within the framework of this model it is considered that each user is in one of the two possible states, and a Markov jump process describing transitions between these states is given. For the problem under consideration, these states are 0 or 1, depending on whether a particular agent is a supporter of a political leader or not. For further research, we find its diffusional approximation, known as the Jacoby process. With the help of spectral decomposition for the infinitesimal operator of this process we have an opportunity to find an analytical representation for the transition probability density.

Analyzing the probabilities obtained in this way, we can assess the influence of individual factors of the model: the power and direction of the information flow, available to online users and relevant to the tasks of rating formation, as well as the number of supporters or opponents of the politician. Next, using the found eigenfunctions and eigenvalues, we derive expressions for the evaluation of conditional mathematical expectations of a politician’s rating, which can serve as a basis for building forecasts that are important for the formation of a strategy of representing a political leader in the online environment.

This article discusses the influence of the shadow, informal and household sectors on the dynamics of a stochastic model with heterogeneous (heterogeneous) agents. The study uses the integration of the general equilibrium approach to explain the behavior of demand, supply and prices in an economy with several interacting markets, and a multi-agent approach. The analyzed model describes an economy with aggregated uncertainty and with an infinite number of heterogeneous agents (households). The source of heterogeneity is the idiosyncratic income shocks of agents in the legal and shadow sectors of the economy. In the analysis, an algorithm is used to approximate the dynamics of the distribution function of the capital stocks of individual agents — the dynamics of its first and second moments. The synthesis of the agent approach and the general equilibrium approach is carried out using computer implementation of the recursive feedback between microagents and macroenvironment. The behavior of the impulse response functions of the main variables of the model confirms the positive influence of the shadow economy (below a certain limit) on minimizing the rate of decline in economic indicators during recessions, especially for developing economies. The scientific novelty of the study is the combination of a multi-agent approach and a general equilibrium approach for modeling macroeconomic processes at the regional and national levels. Further research prospects may be associated with the use of more detailed general equilibrium models, which allow, in particular, to describe the behavior of heterogeneous groups of agents in the entrepreneurial sector of the economy.

Gesture recognition is an urgent challenge in developing systems of human-machine interfaces. We analyzed machine learning methods for gesture classification based on electromyographic muscle signals to identify the most effective one. Methods such as the naive Bayesian classifier (NBC), logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, gradient boosting, support vector machine (SVM), $k$-nearest neighbor algorithm, and ensembles (NBC and decision tree, NBC and gradient boosting, gradient boosting and decision tree) were considered. Electromyography (EMG) was chosen as a method of obtaining information about gestures. This solution does not require the location of the hand in the field of view of the camera and can be used to recognize finger movements. To test the effectiveness of the selected methods of gesture recognition, a device was developed for recording the EMG signal, which includes three electrodes and an EMG sensor connected to the microcontroller and the power supply. The following gestures were chosen: clenched fist, “thumb up”, “Victory”, squeezing an index finger and waving a hand from right to left. Accuracy, precision, recall and execution time were used to evaluate the effectiveness of classifiers. These parameters were calculated for three options for the location of EMG electrodes on the forearm. According to the test results, the most effective methods are $k$-nearest neighbors’ algorithm, random forest and the ensemble of NBC and gradient boosting, the average accuracy of ensemble for three electrode positions was 81.55%. The position of the electrodes was also determined at which machine learning methods achieve the maximum accuracy. In this position, one of the differential electrodes is located at the intersection of the flexor digitorum profundus and flexor pollicis longus, the second — above the flexor digitorum superficialis.