Indian sign language recognition using Krawtchouk moment-based local features

In this paper, Krawtchouk moment-based shape features at lower orders are proposed for Indian sign language (ISL) recognition system which gives local information about the shape from a specific region of interest. The shape recognition capability of Krawtchouk moment-based local features is verified on two databases: the standard Jochen Triesch’s database and 26 ISL alphabets which are collected from 72 different subjects, with variations in position, scale and rotation. Feature selection is performed to minimise redundancy. The effect of order and feature dimensionality for different classifiers is studied. Results show that Krawtchouk moment-based local features are found to exhibit user, scale, rotation and translation invariance. Moreover, they have shape identification capability.     

Utilization of low-grade waste heat-to-energy technologies and policy in Indian industrial sector: a review

This article emphasizes on waste heat recovery for the implementation of organic Rankine cycle technology in the Indian industrial sector. A large proportion of energy is consumed by various industries, which leads to environmental pollution in multiple ways. Since the past few years, research is going on for re-using this low-grade waste energy utilizing organic Rankine cycle technology. In this report, a thorough review has been carried out to find the significant scope for recovering low-grade waste energy, primarily in cement, iron and steel and glass industries. Case studies based on the data collected from the associated plants have also been reported. A summary of different waste heat recovery cycles mechanism and working fluid selection procedure is also included. In the succeeding stage, various technological and legal aspects of using the recovered energy through power grid lines have been discussed. The review sketches a potential scope of using the low-grade waste energy in fulfilling the high energy demand of Indian commercial sector as well as domestic energy industry.     

Nearest neighbour classification of Indian sign language gestures using kinect camera

People with speech disabilities communicate in sign language and therefore have trouble in mingling with the able-bodied. There is a need for an interpretation system which could act as a bridge between them and those who do not know their sign language. A functional unobtrusive Indian sign language recognition system was implemented and tested on real world data. A vocabulary of 140 symbols was collected using 18 subjects, totalling 5041 images. The vocabulary consisted mostly of two-handed signs which were drawn from a wide repertoire of words of technical and daily-use origins. The system was implemented using Microsoft Kinect which enables surrounding light conditions and object colour to have negligible effect on the efficiency of the system. The system proposes a method for a novel, low-cost and easy-to-use application, for Indian Sign Language recognition, using the Microsoft Kinect camera. In the fingerspelling category of our dataset, we achieved above 90% recognition rates for 13 signs and 100% recognition for 3 signs with overall 16 distinct alphabets (A, B, D, E, F, G, H, K, P, R, T, U, W, X, Y, Z) recognised with an average accuracy rate of 90.68%.     

Superparamagnetism and other magnetic features in granular materials: a review on ideal and real systems

An overview on magnetic of nanostructured magnetic materials is presented, with particular emphasis on the basic features displayed by granular nanomagnetic solids. Besides a review of the basic concepts and experimental techniques, the role of structural disorder (mainly the distribution of grain sizes), interparticle magnetic interactions and surface effects are also discussed with some detail. Recent results, models and trends on the area are also discussed.     

Flaw identification from time and frequency features of ultrasonicwaveforms

Time and frequency features have been used with classification algorithms to distinguish between ultrasonic echoes from flaws in pipes and ultrasonic echoes from various geometric configurations of weld root and counterbore. Waveforms containing reflections from known geometries and from flaws were obtained and sets of features were defined using a k-nearest neighbor approach to separate waveforms into classes. Two independent databases containing various flaws and pipe geometries were used to determine these feature sets. From these databases, optimal feature sets were found to separate counterbore waveforms from crack waveforms. Optimal feature sets were also found to distinguish between waveforms from counterbore, waveforms containing both counterbore and root echoes, and waveforms from flaws. The best feature sets used with the classifier algorithms could separate waveforms from the same database with accuracy in the 92-97% range and with high confidence., Another database was obtained from pipe structures in a nuclear power plant to provide a field test of the method. When applied to this database, the same classifier algorithms and feature sets used with the other databases either resulted in a comparable percentage of correct decisions, but with low confidence, or could not classify anywhere from 79 to 88% of the waveforms. Spatial parameters based on averaging feature vectors in axial and circumferential directions were also defined and used for classification. These classifications had higher accuracy but lower confidence levels than the classifications based on individual waveforms     

Multidimensional Raman spectroscopic signatures as a tool for forensic identification of body fluid traces: a review

The analysis of body fluid traces during forensic investigations is a critical step in determining the key details of a crime. Several confirmatory and presumptive biochemical tests are currently utilized. However, these tests are all destructive, and no single method can be used to analyze all body fluids. This review outlines recent progress in the development of a novel universal approach for the nondestructive, confirmatory identification of body fluid traces using Raman spectroscopy. The method is based on the use of multidimensional spectroscopic signatures of body fluids and accounts for the intrinsic heterogeneity of dry traces and donor variation. The results presented here demonstrate that Raman spectroscopy has potential for identifying traces of semen, blood, saliva, sweat, and vaginal fluid with high confidence.     

Free patent databases on the Internet: a critical view

Free patent databases on the Internet are useful, particularly as they allow users in numerous locations to quickly access information. This advantage of ease of access is however a disadvantage if the novice user does not realise that expert advice is needed at the site itself, and ideally from staff at patent libraries, so that a good search can be constructed and so that the results can be properly interpreted. Other problems include the potential disappearance of such databases, or charging for them; problems in adequate access, particularly when the latest software is used; poorly designed search masks in many sites; poor or non-existent help; and the inability to browse data. Suggestions to improve the situation include ensuring that compatible products on CD-ROM or DVD co-exist; much better help keys; hypertext links to classifications and to patent libraries; and easy scanning through drawings.     

Rana computatrix to human language: towards a computational neuroethology of language evolution

Walter's Machina speculatrix inspired the name Rana computatrix for a family of models of visuomotor coordination in the frog, which contributed to the development of computational neuroethology. We offer here an 'evolutionary' perspective on models in the same tradition for rat, monkey and human. For rat, we show how the frog-like taxon affordance model provides a basis for the spatial navigation mechanisms that involve the hippocampus and other brain regions. For monkey, we recall two models of neural mechanisms for visuomotor coordination. The first, for saccades, shows how interactions between the parietal and frontal cortex augment superior colliculus seen as the homologue of frog tectum. The second, for grasping, continues the theme of parieto-frontal interactions, linking parietal affordances to motor schemas in premotor cortex. It further emphasizes the mirror system for grasping, in which neurons are active both when the monkey executes a specific grasp and when it observes a similar grasp executed by others. The model of human-brain mechanisms is based on the mirror-system hypothesis of the evolution of the language-ready brain, which sees the human Broca's area as an evolved extension of the mirror system for grasping.     

Informetric studies using databases: Opportunities and challenges

Since their arrival in the 1960s, electronic databases have been an invaluable tool for informetricians. Databases and their delivery mechanism have provided both the source of raw data, as well as the analytical tools for many informetric studies. In particular, the citation databases produced by the Institute for Scientific Information have been the key source of data for a whole range of citation-based research. However, there are also many problems and challenges associated with the use of online databases. Most of the problems arise because databases are designed primarily for information retrieval purposes, and informetric studies represent only a secondary use of the systems. The sorts of problems encountered by informetricians include: errors or inconsistency in the data itself; problems with the coverage, overlap and changeability of the databases; as well as problems and limitations in the tools provided by the database hosts such as DIALOG. For some informetric studies, the only viable solution to these problems is to download the data and perform offline correction and data analysis. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

利用径向和环向分布特征的星图识别方法

提出一种基于径向和环向特征的全天自主星图识别方法。该方法利用具有旋转不变性的径向特征作初始匹配,而以环向特征作后续匹配,并用FOV约束进一步剔除冗余匹配。为了加快匹配搜索的速度,采用查找表的方式构建径向模式库。为使观测星图中尽可能多的星找到其对应匹配星,引入了验证识别环节。仿真实验表明,该方法在较高位置噪声水平下(噪声方差为1pixel)仍能达到97.57%的识别率,比同实验条件下的栅格算法提高3%。与传统的方法相比,该方法具有较快的识别速度(18ms)和较小的存储空间(0.344Mb)。     

Emotion classification by removal of the overlap from incremental association language features

With the increased incidence of depressive disorders, many psychiatric websites have developed community-based services such as message boards, web forums and blogs for public access. Using machine learning approaches, we can identify user's emotions from such forum and blog posts to recognize the variance in depressive disorders automatically. The incremental association language feature is applied in this research to discover words with high information content in sentences. In past research, the overlap-category in building a feature has not been considered. Hence, this work makes a pioneering attempt to develop a model for emotion classification with overlap-category consideration. This research applies association rule mining to discover words appearing with high frequency in a sentence and to avoid a feature-overlap in categories simultaneously. The approach is named Association Language Features by Category (ALFC). The experimental results show that ALFC features have ability to distinguish between the various categories. The result has been compared with the approach of baseline and mutual information which use single words and correlation measures respectively.     

A hypergeometric probability model for protein identification and validation using tandem mass spectral data and protein sequence databases

We present a new probability-based method for protein identification using tandem mass spectra and protein databases. The method employs a hypergeometric distribution to model frequencies of matches between fragment ions predicted for peptide sequences with a specific (M + H)+ value (at some mass tolerance) in a protein sequence database and an experimental tandem mass spectrum. The hypergeometric distribution constitutes null hypothesis-all peptide matches to a tandem mass spectrum are random. It is used to generate a score characterizing the randomness of a database sequence match to an experimental tandem mass spectrum and to determine the level of significance of the null hypothesis. For each tandem mass spectrum and database search, a peptide is identified that has the least probability of being a random match to the spectrum and the corresponding level of significance of the null hypothesis is determined. To check the validity of the hypergeometric model in describing fragment ion matches, we used chi2 test. The distribution of frequencies and corresponding hypergeometric probabilities are generated for each tandem mass spectrum. No proteolytic cleavage specificity is used to create the peptide sequences from the database. We do not use any empirical probabilities in this method. The scores generated by the hypergeometric model do not have a significant molecular weight bias and are reasonably independent of database size. The approach has been implemented in a database search algorithm, PEP_PROBE. By using a large set of tandem mass spectra derived from a set of peptides created by digestion of a collection of known proteins using four different proteases, a false positive rate of 5% is demonstrated.     

English language papers and authors' first language: Preliminary explorations

The paper argues for greater linguistic sensitivity in scientometric research, discussesBaldauf andJernudd,^11–13 and raises issues of North/South, English/non-English imbalance in research communication. It then proposes a procedure for identifying native/non-native speaker status of authors in English periodical literature on textual evidence. Preliminary application to 623 articles is reported and evaluated. The Health Science NNS percentage was 23%; in Economics half that. In both there were few papers of Third World provenance, thus supportingBaldauf andJernudd. It is suggested that Scientometrics could contribute to the teaching of Research English, against a background of adjusting suspected imbalance.     

Citation analysis using online databases: Feasibilities and shortcomings

Extensive citation analysis with the Science Citation Index (SCI) has become possible through expanded search capabilities introduced by STN International a few years ago. STN enhanced its retrieval language with some important features, originally developed for statistical analysis of patents. Most important are an expanded select command and several functions to list the search results. The publications to be evaluated may be selected either in the SCI, or in a number of other bibliographic databases offered by the host. With the help of these features, the basic methods to appropriately measure the impact of scientific activities are demonstrated. Furthermore, possible shortcomings as well as the risks when interpreting the results of such studies are discussed. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

UEML: Towards a unified enterprise modelling language

The paper presents the rationale and principles of a unified language devoted to the area of Enterprise Modelling. The language, named UEML, for Unified Enterprise Modelling Language, is not intended to replace existing languages but is intended to provide a uniform interface to enterprise modelling tools and a neutral format for exchange of enterprise models. It therefore builds on previous languages and provides constructs to cover function/process, information, resource and organization/decision aspects of business entities. It is also aligned with results of ODP, CEN TC 310, ISO TC 184 and IFAC-IFIP GERAM efforts in the area of enterprise modelling and engineering.     

Indian Science Reports: a web-based scientometric portal for mapping Indian research competencies at overall and institutional levels

Scientometrics - The article presents an introduction to a newly created scientometric portal called Indian Science Reports, available at www.indianscience.net . The portal is designed to fulfil...