An integrated intelligent computing model for the interpretation of EMG based neuromuscular diseases

Intelligent computing system (ICS) and knowledge-based system (KBS) have been widely used in the detection and interpretation of EMG (electromyography) based diseases. Heuristic-based detection methods of EMG parameters for a particular disease have also been reported in the literature but little effort has been made by researchers to combine rule-based reasoning (RBR) and case-based reasoning of KBS, and ANN (artificial neural nets) of ICS. Integrating the methods in KBS and ICS improves the computational and reasoning efficiency of the problem-solving strategy. We have developed an integrated model of CBR and RBR for generating cases, and ANN for matching cases for the interpretation and diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases. We have hierarchically structured the neuromuscular diseases in terms of their physio-pyscho (muscular, cognitive and psychological) parameters and EMG based parameters (amplitude, duration, phase etc.). Cumulative confidence factor is computed at different node from lowest to highest level of hierarchal structure in the process of diagnosis of the neuromuscular diseases. The diseases considered are Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Polymyostits, Endocrine myopathy, Metabolic myopathy, Neuropathy, Poliomyletis and Myasthenia gravis. The basic objective of this work is to develop an integrated model of RBR, CBR and ANN in which RBR is used to hierarchically correlate the sign and symptom of the disease and also to compute cumulative confidence factor (CCF) of the diseases. CBR is used for diagnosing the neuromuscular diseases and to find the relative importance of sign and symptoms of a diseases to other diseases and ANN is used for matching process in CBR.     

A password based authentication scheme for wireless multimedia systems

In this digital era, where Internet of Things (IoT) is increasing day by day, use of resource constrained devices is also increasing. Indeed, the features such as low cost, less maintenance, more adaptive to hostile environment, etc. make the wireless multimedia devices to be the best choice as the resource constrained devices. For the security, the end user device requires to establish the session key with the server before transferring the data. Mobile is one of the device having more and more usage as wireless multimedia device in recent years. In 2013, Li et al. proposed an efficient scheme for the wireless mobile communications and claimed it to be secure against various attacks. Recently, Shen et al. claimed that the scheme of Li et al. is still vulnerable to the privileged insider attack, the stolen verifier attack and finally proposed a scheme to withstand the mentioned and other attacks. However, in this paper we claim that the scheme of Shen et al. is still susceptible to the user anonymity, the session specific temporary information attack and the replay attack. In addition, Shen et al.’s scheme requires more time due to many operations. Further, we propose an efficient scheme that is secure against various known attacks and due to reduced time complexity our scheme is a preferred choice for the wireless mobile networks and hence for wireless multimedia systems.     

Semantic web reasoners and languages

Semantic web reasoners and languages enable the semantic web to function. Some of the latest reasoning models developed in the last few years are: DLP, FaCT, RACER, Pellet, MSPASS, CEL, Cerebra Engine, QuOnto, KAON2, HermiT and others. Some software tools such as Protégé, Jena and others also have been developed, which provide inferencing as well as ontology development and management environments. These reasoners usually differ in their inference procedures, supporting logic, completeness of reasoning, expressiveness and implementation languages. Various semantic web languages with increasing expressive power continue to be developed for describing web services. We survey the some of the more recent languages like OWL-S (Ontology Web Language-Schema), WSML (Web Service Modeling Language), SWRL (Semantic Web Rule Language) and others that have been tested in early use. We also survey semantic web reasoners and their relationship to these languages.     

Creep fracture in Al-SiC metal-matrix composites

Creep fracture behaviour of pure aluminium-matrix composites with 10–30 vol% SiC particulates at 623 K is reported. A comparison of tensile and compression creep data shows the existence of a transition stress. Above this transition stress no steady state creep is observed in tension. This transition stress is related to a transition from intergranular to transgranular fracture. The origin of transition stress is perhaps associated with the diffusional relaxation of stress concentration at the matrix/particle interface by lattice diffusion. The intergranular creep fracture of composites appears to be similar to that of unreinforced aluminium and it is power-law creep controlled. The transgranular creep fracture occurs by void nucleation and growth. The nucleation strain for voids is quite small and hence the tertiary stage starts before the end of the primary stage. The ductile fracture models overestimate the strain to fracture and do not predict the observed stress dependence of strain to fracture.     

Application of polymeric flocculant for enhancing settling of the pond ash particles and water drainage from hydraulically stowed pond ash

Delayed settling of the ash particles and poor drainage of water from the pond ash are the major problems faced during the hydraulic stowing of pond ash. In this study the effect of polymeric flocculant on settling of the ash particles and drainage of water during pond ash stowing are investigated. In addition, the parameters, viz. drainage and absorption of water during pond ash stowing are quantified by stowing a mine goaf model with pond ash slurries of five different concentrations added with and without flocculant. The study revealed that addition of only 5 × 10^?6 of Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose (Na-CMC) flocculant with the pond ash slurries during stowing offers best result in terms of quicker settling of the ash particles and enhanced water drainage from the hydraulically stowed pond ash. Besides, it resulted in drainage of more than 85% of the total water used in the initial 45 min of stowing. The improvement in drainage is caused due to coagulation and flocculation of the pond ash particles because of charge neutralization and particle–particle bridging. This study may provide a basis for estimating the drainage and absorption of water during the real pond ash stowing operation in underground mines.     

Effect of ohmic contacts on buffer leakage of GaN transistors

The effect of ohmic contacts on the buffer leakage of GaN transistors is presented. The buffer leakage for AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors and GaN MESFETs grown on the same underlying buffer was observed to be different. Controlled experiments show that the increased buffer leakage is due to the nature of the alloyed ohmic contacts and can be minimized if they are screened by the Si doping or by the two-dimensional electron gas.     

Two-stage quasi-class-E power amplifier in GaN HEMT technology

This letter presents a two-stage quasi-class-E monolithic microwave integrated circuit power amplifier at 2.0GHz, which is based on field-plated GaN high electron mobility transistor technology. It consists of a driver stage and a power stage. The circuit schematic is described. The amplifier achieves an output power of 37.5dBm into a 50-/spl Omega/ load, a power added efficiency (PAE) of 50%, and a gain of 18.2dB. A power density of 5.6W/mm is achieved.     

Studies on the Extraction of Manganese from Sea Nodule Residue as Ferrosilicomanganese

Most of the extraction processes developed for the polymetallic sea nodules concentrated mainly on the recovery of strategically important metals viz. Cu, Ni and Co. The residue generated in such processes is quite high enough to upset the environmental balance for industrial scale operation. The economics of the process too cannot be favourable if manganese in the residue is not recovered. In this study an attempt has been made to utilize this residue, containing appreciable amount of manganese (about 20%) for producing ferrosilicomanganese, an important ferroalloy primarily used for deoxidation in the steel industry, through smelting process. In order to have an alloy of standard grade, the residue is enriched in its manganese content, by blending it with ferromanganese slag. Bench scale studies indicate that it is possible to produce ferrosilicomanganese, of the grade required by the steel industry, by reduction smelting of the sea nodule residue with ferromanganese slag. Metal recovery, however, was less because of metal entrapment.     

Interagent communication and synchronization support in the DaAgent mobile agent-based computing system

This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of interagent communication and synchronization models in the DaAgent mobile-agent based computing system. Based on the requirements of some sample Internet computing applications, eight system-level models of interagent communication and synchronization are proposed. A new synchronization mechanism called location synchronization that is relevant for interacting mobile agents is also proposed. This paper evaluates the eight models based on their utility, performance, level of communication and synchronization support, and applicability in the Internet computing environment. A prototype implementation and detailed performance evaluation of these models based on two interacting, multiagent applications are also presented.     

Effect of EGR on the exhaust gas temperature and exhaust opacity in compression ignition engines

In diesel engines, NOx formation is a highly temperature-dependent phenomenon and takes place when the temperature in the combustion chamber exceeds 2000 K. Therefore, in order to reduce NOx emissions in the exhaust, it is necessary to keep peak combustion temperatures under control. One simple way of reducing the NOx emission of a diesel engine is by late injection of fuel into the combustion chamber. This technique is effective but increases fuel consumption by 10–15%, which necessitates the use of more effective NOx reduction techniques like exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Re-circulating part of the exhaust gas helps in reducing NOx, but appreciable paniculate emissions are observed at high loads, hence there is a trade-off between NOx and smoke emission. To get maximum benefit from this trade-off, a paniculate trap may be used to reduce the amount of unburnt particulates in EGR, which in turn reduce the paniculate emission also. An experimental investigation was conducted to observe the effect of exhaust gas re-circulation on the exhaust gas temperatures and exhaust opacity. The experimental setup for the proposed experiments was developed on a two-cylinder, direct injection, air-cooled, compression ignition engine. A matrix of experiments was conducted for observing the effect of different quantities of EGR on exhaust gas temperatures and opacity