Siamese convolutional neural network and fusion of the best overlapping blocks for kinship verification

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Analysis of facial images decoding familial features has been attracting the attention of researchers to develop a computerized system interested in determining...     

Ultimate bearing capacity of strip footing resting on clay soil mixed with tire-derived aggregates

This study investigated the use of recycled tire-derived aggregate (TDA) mixed with kaolin as a method of increasing the ultimate bearing capacity ( UBC) of a strip footing. Thirteen 1g physical modeling tests were prepared in a rigid box of 0.6 m × 0.9 m in plan and 0.6 m in height. During sample preparation, 0%, 20%, 40%, or 60% (by weight) of powdery, shredded, small-sized granular (G 1–4 mm) or large-sized granular (G 5–8 mm) TDA was mixed with the kaolin. A strip footing was then placed on the stabilized kaolin and was caused to fail under stress-controlled conditions to determine the UBC. A rigorous 3D finite element analysis was developed in Optum G-3 to determine the UBC values based on the experimental test results. The experimental results showed that, except for the 20% powdery TDA, the TDA showed an increase in the UBC of the strip footing. When kaolin mixed with 20% G (5–8 mm), the UBC showed a threefold increase over that for the unreinforced case. The test with 20% G (1–4 mm) recorded the highest subgrade modulus. It was observed that the UBC calculated using finite element modeling overestimated the experimental UBC by an average of 9%.     

Synthesis,characterization and adsorption studies of h-BN crystal for efficient removal of Cd2+ from aqueous solution

In the present study, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) was synthesized from boric acid and melamine by thermal annealing method in a nitrogen atmosphere. The pure h-BN was used as an efficient sorbent for the uptake of Cd²⁺ ions from the solution phase. The kinetics and sorption studies of metal ions onto the h-BN were carried out in batch adsorption experiments at different temperature, time, pH, sorbent dosage, and concentration of metal ions. The optimum pH for the removal of the Cd²⁺ ions was found to be pH 7. The effect of temperature showed that the process of Cd²⁺ sorption remained endothermic in the range of 298 K–328 K. The Lagergren's first and Ho's second kinetic models were tested to interpret the adsorption kinetic data, however the present data was explained well by Ho's model for kinetics. The thermodynamic perameters ΔG, ΔS and ΔH were determined using the available adsorption data at different temperatures. The physicochemical properties of the synthesized product were also characterized before and after adsorption by different analytical techniques like FT-IR, TGA, XRD and Point of Zero Charge (PZC). The morphology of the surface was analyzed with the help of Scanning Electron Microscopy. The h-BN proved to be an efficient adsorbent for the uptake of the Cd²⁺ ions from aqueous media.     

Computer aided diagnosis of brain abnormalities using texture analysis of MRI images

The drive of this study is to develop a robust system. A method to classify brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image into brain-related disease groups and tumor types has been proposed. The proposed method employed Gabor texture, statistical features, and support vector machine. Brain MRI images have been classified into normal, cerebrovascular, degenerative, inflammatory, and neoplastic. The proposed system has been trained on a complete dataset of Brain Atlas-Harvard Medical School. Further, to achieve robustness, a dataset developed locally has been used. Extraordinary results on different orientations, sequences of both of these datasets as per accuracy (up to 99.6%), sensitivity (up to 100%), specificity (up to 100%), precision (up to 100%), and AUC value (up to 1.0) have been achieved. The tumorous slices are further classified into primary or secondary tumor as well as their further types as glioma, sarcoma, meningioma, bronchogenic carcinoma, and adenocarcinoma, which could not be possible to determine without biopsy, otherwise.     

Al2O3/Yttria‐Stabilized Zirconia Hollow‐Fiber Membrane Incorporated with Iron Oxide for Pb(II) Removal

Removal by absorptive ceramic membranes can simultaneously absorb and separate metal ions from water. Alumina/yttria‐stabilized zirconia (Al₂O₃/YSZ) hollow‐fiber membranes, fabricated using phase inversion and sintering process, were deposited with iron oxide by an in‐situ hydrothermal process. The results showed that α‐Fe₂O₃ was produced and incorporated across the membranes. A reduction in flux was recorded with the deposition of α‐Fe₂O_3. However, it improved the adsorption capacity for heavy metal adsorption. The adsorption‐separation test demonstrated that the optimized membrane is able to completely remove Pb(II) ions after two hours.     

Troubleshooting of Handover Problems in 900 MHz for Speech Quality

Although Long-term Evolution (LTE) technology has currently being used in data and voice transmission, reserved frequency bands for GSM is still in use due to its strengthen against multipath fading and it provides wider coverage area. Poor coverage problems caused by low signal level directly reduce network performance and cause undesirable cases for voice transmission. The aim of this study is first to solve handover (HO) problems due to the low signal quality and bad speech quality by hardware configuration and changing optimization parameters in detail as a novelty. The second is to examine the KPI values of the test region where HO problems have been solved and to determine whether the network contributed to the network quality. Offered method has made the network having following improvements; the value of RxQual drops from 0.61 to 0.57, number of failure in random access channel (RACH) drops down from 12 to 2, the number of failure in SDCCH drops down from 6 to 2, the total number of blocked calls from 18 to 4, and the number of dropped calls drops down to 2 from 5. Another criterion of the network quality the average for both uplink and downlink mean opinion score (MOS) value of region increased from 3.51 to 3.86. Also CSSR has been increased from 94.43 to 97.82% and HO success rate has been reached from 93.56 to 99.13%.

     

Factors that determine residents’ acceptance of smart city technologies

ABSTRACT

While some cities attempt to determine their residents’ demand for smart-city technologies, others simply move forward with smart-related strategies and projects. This study is among the first to empirically determine which factors most affect residents’ and public servants’ intention to use smart-city services. A Smart Cities Stakeholders Adoption Model (SSA), based on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2), is developed and tested on a mid-size U.S. city as a case study. A questionnaire was administered in order to determine the influence of seven factors – effort expectancy, self-efficacy, perceived privacy, perceived security, trust in technology, price value and trust in government – on behaviour intention, specifically the decision to adopt smart-city technologies. Results show that each of these factors significantly influenced citizen intention to use smart-city services. They also reveal perceived security and perceived privacy to be strong determinants of trust in technology, and price value a determinant of trust in government. In turn, both types of trust are shown to increase user intention to both adopt and use smart-city services. These findings offer city officials an approach to gauging residential intention to use smart-city services, as well as identify those factors critical to developing a successful smart-city strategy.     

Assessing and building municipal open data capability

Information Systems and e-Business Management - In the past decade, cities around the world have published their open data as a new service. Some have used this service innovatively, as a vehicle...