Document Image Coding for Processing and Retrieval

Document images belong to a unique class of images where the information is embedded in the language represented by a series of symbols on the page rather than in the visual objects themselves. Since these symbols tend to appear repeatedly, a domain-specific image coding strategy can be designed to facilitate enhanced compression and retrieval. In this paper we describe a coding methodology that not only exploits component-level redundancy to reduce code length but also supports efficient data access. The approach identifies and organizes symbol patterns which appear repeatedly. Similar components are represented by a single prototype stored in a library and the location of each component instance is coded along with the residual between it and its prototype. A representation is built which provides a natural information index allowing access to individual components. Compression results are competitive and compressed-domain access is superior to competing methods. Applications to network-related problems have been considered, and show promising results.     

Investigation of basic molecular gas structural effects on hydrodynamics and thermal behaviors of rarefied shear driven micro/nano flow using DSMC

In the present work, rarefied gas flow between two parallel moving plates maintained at the same uniform temperature is simulated using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Heat transfer and shear stress behavior in the micro/nano-Couette flow is studied and the effects of the important molecular structural parameters such as molecular diameter, mass, degrees of freedom and viscosity–temperature index on the macroscopic behavior of gases are investigated. Velocity, temperature, heat flux and shear stress in the domain are studied in details. Finally, a discussion on the role of the molecular structural parameters in the decrease or increase of amounts of hydrodynamics and thermal properties of the gas is presented.     

Sub-critical water treatment of rice bran to produce valuable materials

The target of this study is application of sub-critical water as a green solvent for hydrolysis of rice bran and extraction of its oil in order to obtain value-added materials. Experiments were carried out at temperatures ranging from 100 to 360 °C with 5 min residence time in a batch reactor. Four phases were isolated after reaction: hexane-soluble, acetone-soluble, water-soluble, and solid residue phases. Rice bran oil was successfully and efficiently obtained by sub-critical water extraction. Significant increases of total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) in the water phase were also observed, because polysaccharides and proteins (generally bio-macro polymers) in rice bran were hydrolysed by sub-critical water. The highest yields of TOC and TN were 140 and 13 mg/g dry matter, respectively. As a result, varieties of compounds, such as amino acids, organic acids, and water-soluble saccharides, were identified in the water phase. In particular, significant amounts of water-soluble sugars (maximum yield of total sugars was nearly 190 mg/g dry matter) proved that sub-critical water was a promising medium for dissolution of biomass in water. Acetone-soluble contents were attributed to tar, carbonized biomass, and in general, water- and hexane-insoluble compounds. Solid residue consisted of mainly un-reacted rice bran and insoluble inorganic compounds.     

Effect of copper nanoparticles on permeability, physical, and mechanical properties of particleboard

Effects of a 200 ppm nanocopper suspension, with size range from 10 to 80 nm, on the physical and mechanical properties of particleboard made on an industrial scale at the Iran-Choob Factory were studied. Nanocopper suspension was added to the mat at two levels of 100 and 150 ml/kg dry weight wood particles and compared with control boards. Results showed that hot-pressing time was reduced by 5.7 and 3.4 % when 100 and 150 ml of nanocopper were used, respectively. Also, both levels of nanocopper consumption had improving effects on physical and mechanical properties, although in some cases not significant. Permeability was significantly decreased to its lowest value in 150 ml/kg treatment. It can be concluded that 150 ml of nanocopper/kg may be used to improve the physical and mechanical properties, to reduce press time, and to decrease permeability in particleboards. For industrially accepted outcome, 150 ml/kg of nanocopper is recommended.     

Principles and Applications of Light Backscattering Imaging in Quality Evaluation of Agro-food Products: a Review

In recent years, due to the increasing consciousness of quality in the food and health sector, much progress has been made in developing non-invasive techniques for the evaluation or inspection of internal qualitative parameters of fruits, vegetables, and processed foodstuffs considering, e.g., moisture content, soluble solid content, acidity, and mechanical properties. This paper reviews the theoretical and technical principles as well as the recent achievements and applications of light backscattering imaging for nondestructive evaluation of food and agricultural produce. The results suggest the potential use of this emerging technique in the food industry. Further attempts are pointed out to improve its performance through utilizing advanced image processing coupled with artificial intelligence techniques.     

Green synthesis and characterization of RGO/Cu nanocomposites as photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in waste-water

Recently, nanocomposite photocatalysts based on semiconductors have attracted much attention due to their suitable bandgap. Combination of tow of several semiconductors can slow down the electron-hole recombination. In this regard, we have depicted an eco-friendly and green fabrication technique to synthesize RGO/Cu nanocomposite by the reduction of graphene oxide and Cu²⁺ ion utilizing spearmint extract as a reductant and capping agent. The sample was identified by FTIR, XRD, FESEM, EDS, HRTEM, and CV. The results of photocatalytic performance revealed that RGO/Cu is an efficient catalyst for degrading organic pollutants. This compound can eliminate Rhodamine B (RhB) and Methylene blue (MB) 91.0% and 72.0%, respectively.     

Energy input–output analysis and application of artificial neural networks for predicting greenhouse basil production

In this study, various Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were developed to estimate the production yield of greenhouse basil in Iran. For this purpose, the data collected by random method from 26 greenhouses in the region during four periods of plant cultivation in 2009–2010. The total input energy and energy ratio for basil production were 14,308,998 MJ ha^?1 and 0.02, respectively. The developed ANN was a multilayer perceptron (MLP) with seven neurons in the input layer, one, two and three hidden layer(s) of various numbers of neurons and one neuron (basil yield) in the output layer. The input energies were human labor, diesel fuel, chemical fertilizers, farm yard manure, chemicals, electricity and transportation. Results showed, the ANN model having 7-20-20-1 topology can predict the yield value with higher accuracy. So, this two hidden layer topology was selected as the best model for estimating basil production of regional greenhouses with similar conditions. For the optimal model, the values of the models outputs correlated well with actual outputs, with coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.976. For this configuration, RMSE and MAE values were 0.046 and 0.035, respectively. Sensitivity analysis revealed that chemical fertilizers are the most significant parameter in the basil production.     

Barium cobaltite nanoparticles: Sol-gel synthesis and characterization and their electrochemical hydrogen storage properties

The study of the effect of different chelating agents in the Pechini method on the morphology has been a promising strategy that can be used for practical tuning of the nanoparticle's morphology and hence the electrochemical hydrogen storage capacity. In the current study, the conventional Pechini sol-gel approach was used to prepare the Ba₂Co₉O₁₄ nanoparticles as a novel hydrogen storage material. The X-ray diffraction investigation approved the formation of Ba₂Co₉O₁₄ with a Hexagonal crystal structure for all of the synthesized samples. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed when citric acid was used as a chelating agent, nanoparticles with finer and more uniform morphology were obtained rather than other chelating sources. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed in the presence of citric acid; the size of the synthesized nanoparticles was between 14 and 24 nm. According to the Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) analysis, the calculated bandgap of synthesized nanoparticles was approximately 3.2 eV, which indicates that synthesized nanoparticles were semiconductors in essence. The electrochemical hydrogen adsorption/desorption results showed that the sample synthesized by the citric acid has an enhancement in electrochemical hydrogen storage of approximately 800 mAh/g after 15 cycles.     

A cubic dual band near-field focused array antenna using composite right/left handed transmission lines

This paper proposes a new method for design of a dual-frequency near field-focused (NFF) antenna. A 4 × 4 array of dual-band patches and a dual-band feed network are designed to provide a phase distribution at 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. Rectangular patches with U-shaped slot be used as the double-band patches. The composite right/left handed transmission lines (CRLH TL) are used in design of a dual-band phase distribution network for the patches. Finally, a three-dimensional cubic structure is proposed to isolate the feed network and thereby improve the antenna performance. A prototype of a cubic dual band 4 × 4 near field focused array antenna is fabricated and tested. The measurement results have good agreement with simulation results.     

采用振动台进行3维单层板系统的动力分析

在几组地面运动作用下,采用振动台对预制的3维夹芯板单层建筑进行足尺动态试验。研究的目的是获取所描述系统在动态荷载下的抗震性能,例如,线性和非线性结构特征、可塑性、刚度退化、破坏机制。通过分析,得出固有频率、振动模式及试验与数值分析结果的对比。此外,对横向变形采用试验方法进行测量并与数值计算结果比较;安装加速计测量两个正交方向的加速度。结果显示,对于强地震,3维夹芯板系统具有相当大的抵抗作用。其抵抗强地震的主要原因为：1）高出按抗震设防烈度设计的结构强度。2）非弹性变形引起较小的能量耗散。3）在基准地面运动下,峰值位移都在允许范围内。对循环推覆荷载的分析显示,模型结构的位移延展比为4．50,强度系数约为6．0。