Manifold Preserving Features and Regression for Semantic Labelling in High Dimensional Images

Wireless Personal Communications - This paper proposes an combined method for manifold preservation and Subspace Eigenvectors(SE) based regression in high dimensional (HD) images. We studied...     

Rapid Suzuki‐Miyaura cross‐coupling reaction catalyzed by zirconium carboxyphosphonate supported mixed valent Pd(0)/Pd(II) catalyst

Mixed valent Pd(0)/Pd(II) nano‐sized aggregates supported onto a chemically robust layered zirconium carboxyphosphonate framework is prepared and its catalytic activity in Suzuki‐Miyaura cross coupling reaction is explored. The exceptionally high catalytic efficacy of the heterogeneous catalyst in Suzuki‐Miyaura cross coupling reaction is signified by remarkably short reaction time 2 minutes and high turnover frequency of 1.3 x 10⁴ hr^?1. The catalyst can be recycled several times without significant loss of catalytic efficacy, while spectroscopic, structural and microscopic investigations suggest the integrity of the catalyst even after fifth catalytic cycle. The unique ability of the zirconium carboxyphosphonate framework to interact strongly with palladium in dual Pd(0)/Pd(II) oxidation states has been attributed to this remarkable augmentation of catalytic efficacy.     

Effect of polymer and ion concentration on mechanical and drug release behavior of gellan hydrogels using factorial design

Developing optimized hydrogel products requires an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms that drive hydrogel tunability. Here, we performed a full 4 × 4 factorial design study investigating the impact of gellan, a naturally derived polysaccharide (1%, 2%, 3%, or 4% w/v) and CaCl₂ concentration (1, 3, 7, or 10 mM) on the viscoelastic, swelling, and drug release behavior of gellan hydrogels containing a model drug, vancomycin. These concentrations were chosen to specifically provide insight into gellan hydrogel behavior for formulations utilizing polymer and salt concentrations expanding beyond those commonly reported by previous studies exploring gellan. With increasing gellan and CaCl₂ concentration, the hydrogel storage moduli (0.1–100 kPa) followed a power-law relationship and on average these hydrogels had higher liquid absorption capability and greater total drug release over 6 days. We suggest that the effects of gellan and CaCl₂ concentration and their interactions on hydrogel properties can be explained by various phenomena that lead to increased swelling and increased resistance to network expansion.     

A multilevel hybrid anomaly detection scheme for industrial wireless sensor networks

Real-time sensing plays an important role in ensuring the reliability of industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs). Sensor nodes in IWSNs have inherent limitations that give rise to different anomalies in the network. These anomalies can lead to disastrous and harmful situations or even serious system failures. This article presents a formulation to the design of an anomaly detection scheme for detecting the anomalous node along with the type of anomaly. The proposed scheme is divided into two major parts. First, spatiotemporal correlation within a cluster is obtained for the normal and anomalous behavior of sensor nodes. Second, the multilevel hybrid classifier is used by combining the sequential minimal optimization support vector machine (SMO-SVM) as a binary classifier with optimally pruned extreme learning machine (OP-ELM) as a multiclass classifier for detection of an anomalous node and type of anomalies, respectively. Mahalanobis distance-based lightweight K-Medoid clustering is used to build a new set of training datasets that represents the original training dataset, by significantly reducing the training time of a multilevel hybrid classifier. Results are analyzed using standard WSN datasets. The proposed model shows high accuracy, i.e., 94.79% and detection rate, i.e., 94.6% with a reduced false positive rate as compared to existing hybrid methods.     

A simulation as a service cloud middleware

Many seemingly simple questions that individual users face in their daily lives may actually require substantial number of computing resources to identify the right answers. For example, a user may want to determine the right thermostat settings for different rooms of a house based on a tolerance range such that the energy consumption and costs can be maximally reduced while still offering comfortable temperatures in the house. Such answers can be determined through simulations. However, some simulation models as in this example are stochastic, which require the execution of a large number of simulation tasks and aggregation of results to ascertain if the outcomes lie within specified confidence intervals. Some other simulation models, such as the study of traffic conditions using simulations may need multiple instances to be executed for a number of different parameters. Cloud computing has opened up new avenues for individuals and organizations with limited resources to obtain answers to problems that hitherto required expensive and computationally-intensive resources. This paper presents SIMaaS, which is a cloud-based Simulation-as-a-Service to address these challenges. We demonstrate how lightweight solutions using Linux containers (e.g., Docker) are better suited to support such services instead of heavyweight hypervisor-based solutions, which are shown to incur substantial overhead in provisioning virtual machines on-demand. Empirical results validating our claims are presented in the context of two case studies.     

Enhanced dielectric and electro-optical properties of a newly synthesised ferroelectric liquid crystal material by doping gold nanoparticle-decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes

In this article, a newly synthesised ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) material, namely LAHS 22, has been characterised. The characterisation of the FLC material has been performed using dielectric relaxation spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and polarisation optical microscopy. We observed an enhancement in the dielectric and electro-optical properties of the FLC material by incorporating gold nanoparticles (GNPs)-decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The GNPs-decorated MWCNTs cause an increment in dielectric dispersion (up to kHz), absorption, spontaneous polarisation and rotational viscosity of the FLC material. The pure and GNPs-decorated MWCNTs doped FLC cells were analysed by means of various dielectric spectroscopic and optical measurements. The observed enhancement in the dielectric and electro-optical properties of the FLC material has also been studied with concentration of GNPs-decorated MWCNTs in FLC material. The GNPs-decorated MWCNTs/FLC composites are not only of fundamental importance, but also useful materials for device applications such as liquid crystal displays and memory devices.     

Sol–gel synthesis and optical behavior of Mg–Ce–O nano-crystallites

The Mg–Ce–O powder are shown to contain periclase-type MgO and/or fluoride-type cerium oxide (CeO₂) depending upon the composition (x) defined by Ce/(Ce + Mg) atomic ratio. Lattice contraction of pariclase phase of MgO (average crystallite size ~8.8 nm) at Ce content of ‘x’ = 0.20 in comparison to pure MgO (crystallite size ~9.5 nm) has been realized due to oxygen vacancy formation. The optical band gap values of CeO₂ varies (3.0–3.2 eV) due to oxygen vacancy formation in CeO₂ phase, crystallite size and/or Ce³⁺/Ce⁴⁺ ratio. Further, the addition of Ce has shown to reduce the physisorption and chemisorption of water significantly as reflected by (1) suppression of related absorption peaks and (2) absence of magnesium hydroxide, Mg(OH)₂, bands in Fourier transform infrared spectra.     

Kinetics of thermal decomposition of a synthetic K–H3O jarosite analog

The thermal decomposition kinetics of a synthetic K–H₃O jarosite analog was determined from thermogravimetric analysis at various heating rates in air. A thermal decomposition mechanism was proposed based on X-ray analysis of partially decomposed material and distinct features observed during thermal decomposition analysis. The decomposition path is complex. The material was treated as a composite of K-jarosite, H₃O-jarosite, and a “vacancy component”. The evolution of (OH)^? and SO₃ from these individual components was modeled. The decomposition is broken into subreactions according to distinct features in the thermoanalytical measurements. The subreactions are arranged sequentially and in parallel according to the evolution of the participating phases. A set of associated apparent activation energies was determined using isoconversion analysis. Kinetic triplets were assigned to each subreaction. A reasonable match with the observed decomposition was achieved by varying pre-exponential factors.     

Evaluation of K–H3O jarosite as thermal witness material

The scope of this work was the assessment of thermo-oxidative deterioration, hydrothermal stability, and crystalline zone deterioration of some bookbinding leathers from some religious books published in XVIII century stored in Romanian libraries. In this purpose, the following thermal analysis methods were employed: thermogravimetry/derivative thermogravimetry (TG/DTG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The thermo-oxidative damage of investigated leathers was characterized by the rate of the first thermo-oxidation process put in evidence in TG/DTG curves recorded in static air atmosphere. The hydrothermal stability was characterized by shrinkage temperature determined by DSC analysis of leathers in water excess. The damage of the crystalline zone of leathers was determined by DSC in nitrogen flow and DMA analyses. The qualitative damage for each leather and each kind of degradation was evaluated using the criteria resulted by thermal analysis of a large number of collagen-based materials (pure collagens, new and old parchments and leathers). The obtained results could be used for finding the best possible methods for preservation and/or restoration of the investigated bookbinding leathers.     

Vibration and deflection analysis of thin cracked and submerged orthotropic plate under thermal environment using strain gradient theory

Nonlinear Dynamics - Based on a non-classical plate theory, a nonlinear analytical model is proposed to analyze transverse vibration of thin partially cracked and submerged orthotropic plate in the...