Skin lesion segmentation using k-mean and optimized fire fly algorithm

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Digital image processing is turning out to be increasingly more significant in the health care field used to diagnose skin cancer. The death rate is increasing...     

Cross-Modality Breast Image Translation with Improved Resolution Using Generative Adversarial Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Unpaired cross domain medical image translation is a challenging problem as the target image modality cannot be mapped directly from the input data distribution....     

Pressure effects on bond lengths and shape of zigzag single-walled carbon nanotubes

We investigate structural parameters, i.e., bond lengths and bond angles of isolated uncapped zigzag single-wall nanotubes in detail. The bond lengths and bond angles are determined for several radii tubes by using a theoretical procedure based on the helical and rotational symmetry for atom coordinates generation, coupled with Tersoff potential for interaction energy calculations. Results show that the structure of zigzag tubes is governed by two bond lengths. One bond length is found to have a value equal to that of graphite, while the other one is larger. Furthermore, the tube length is found to have significant effect only on larger bond length in zigzag tubes. With the application of the pressure, only the larger bond length compresses, the other one remaining practically constant. At some critical pressure, this bond length becomes equal to constant bond length. This behavior of bond lengths is different from those of armchair tubes. An analysis regarding the cross sectional shape has also been done. At some higher pressure, transition from circular to oval cross section takes place. This transition pressure is found to be equal 2.06 GPa for (20,0) tube. Some comparison with chiral tubes has also been made and important differences on bond length behavior have been observed.     

Probability of Failure of Sylgard-Mounted Optical Lenses in Head-Up Display During Thermal Cycle Testing

Lenses made from optical glass do not have a single characteristic strength. The strength of any optical glass is highly dependent on the area under stress and its surface finish. The nominal design strength of manufactured glass is typically in the 6.9–70 MPa range. This study presents an analysis of measured strain data and an approach to quantify the failure probability of optical lenses that are used in head-up display systems for aircraft applications when these lenses are subjected to accelerated thermal cycling. The thermal cycling produces thermal stress within the elastomerically mounted optical lens of the head-up display. We used a combination of experimental methods and finite element modeling to determine the thermal strain in the optical lens. The thermal strain values that were obtained using these methods were validated and were found to be in a cumulative distribution. This cumulative strain provides a quantitative estimate of the effects of thermal stress in the optical lens. We then determined the failure probability using Weibull parameters.     

Effect of iron & boron content on the Spark Plasma Sintering of Ti-B-Fe alloys

The effect of a change in iron and boron contents on the Spark Plasma Sintering behaviour in the Ti-B-Fe alloys has been investigated through dilatometric sintering study using various samples having Ti-rich compositions. These samples are adequately chosen to study the sintering behaviour on the addition of boron and iron on the Ti-rich corner. The rate of sintering of Ti-B-Fe alloys was found to increase with an increase in iron content. The sintering enhancement can be attributed to the high diffusivity of iron in α-Ti and β-Ti phases and due to the formation of the intermetallic phase which results in greater overall shrinkage. The shrinkage was found to decrease with increase in boron content due to a greater amount of TiB₂ which doesn’t participate in sintering in the observed range.     

Physico‐chemical and antioxidant properties of extrudates developed from honey and barley

Barley flour and honey, being concentrated source of nutrients, were used to develop extruded product using twin‐screw extruder. Response surface methodology was applied to study the effects of honey (5–25%), moisture content (17–21%) temperature (120–160 °C) and screw speed (180–220 rpm) on product responses. The variation in moisture content and die temperature affected the physicochemical properties of extrudate but screw speed had significant effect only on hardness. It was established that with increase in honey levels from 5% to 20%, there was increase in antioxidant activity (up to 106.9%), total phenolic content (up to 90.2%) and total flavonoid content (up to 89.2%) in interaction with other extrusion cooking variables. The optimal condition corresponds to honey content of 18.86%, feed moisture of 18%, die temperature of 148.62 °C and screw speed of 209.99 rpm. The results suggest that honey can be extruded with barley flour into a healthful snack food.     

Stabilization of Ferromagnetism in Co Codoped ZnO:N

First principle calculations were performed to study room temperature ferromagnetism in N doped ZnO (ZnO:N) using spin density functional theory. Substitution of O by N in ZnO results in spin polarized state exhibiting half metallic ferromagnetic characteristics. Each N dopant introduces magnetic moment of 1.0 μ_B/supercell, which is from 2p electrons of N but the magnetization energy (ΔE = 14.42 meV) is too small to stabilize ferromagnetism at room temperature. Cobalt (Co) co-doping in ZnO:N is found to enhance ferromagnetism (magnetic moment = 4.24 μ_B/supercell) with enhanced stability (ΔE = 635 meV) and is driven by hybridization between N 2p and Co 3d states.     

Microstructural Characteristics of Accumulative Roll-Bonded Ni-Al-Based Metal-Intermetallic Laminate Composite

The present investigation is an attempt to develop metal-intermetallic laminate composites based on Ni-Al system. In this study, Ni sheets and Al foils have been used for the development of Ni-Al laminate using accumulative roll-bonding technique at 773?K. The laminate composites were then subjected to the controlled annealing to affect reactive diffusion at the Ni/Al interface leading to intermetallic compound formation. The accumulative roll-bonded laminates showed good bonding of layers. Annealing treatment at 773?K led to formation of reaction product and maintained the interface integrity. A qualitative compositional analysis at the interfaces reflected the formation of Al-Ni compounds, and a gradual compositional gradient also across the interface. This process seems to be of promise so far as the continuous production of large scale metal-intermetallic laminate composites is concerned.