Body movement activity recognition for ambulatory cardiac monitoring

Wearable electrocardiogram (W-ECG) recorders are increasingly in use by people suffering from cardiac abnormalities who also choose to lead an active lifestyle. The challenge presently is that the ECG signal is influenced by motion artifacts induced by body movement activity (BMA) of the wearer. The usual practice is to develop effective filtering algorithms which will eliminate artifacts. Instead, our goal is to detect the motion artifacts and classify the type of BMA from the ECG signal itself. We have recorded the ECG signals during specified BMAs, e.g., sitting still, walking, movements of arms and climbing stairs, etc. with a single-lead system. The collected ECG signal during BMA is presumed to be an additive mix of signals due to cardiac activities, motion artifacts and sensor noise. A particular class of BMA is characterized by applying eigen decomposition on the corresponding ECG data. The classification accuracies range from 70% to 98% for various class combinations of BMAs depending on their uniqueness based on this technique. The above classification is also useful for analysis of P and T waves in the presence of BMA.     

From nanowires to cubes of CdO: Ethanol gas response

The cadmium oxide (CdO) thin films have been synthesized by chemical bath deposition (CBD) method from an aqueous cadmium acetate solution for different time periods. The effect of film thickness on structural, morphological and wettability properties have been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and contact angle measurements. The chemically deposited CdO thin films were polycrystalline with face centered cubic crystal structure. The average crystallite size was found to be in the range of 28-31 nm. An interesting morphological transition from nanowires to microcubes was observed with change in deposition time from 25 to 100 h at room temperature. The deposited CdO films exhibit excellent sensing properties against ethanol at 673 K. The 0.8239 μm thick films comprising nanowires deposited for 75 h showed the better ethanol gas performance as compared to other films.     

Supercapacitor behavior of CuO-PAA hybrid films: Effect of PAA concentration

The Cu-poly(acrylic) acid (PAA) thin films were deposited at room temperature by a simple and cost effective polymer assisted deposition (PAD) method. The solution containing Cu salt and PAA was spin coated to yield the thin films with desired properties. The Cu-PAA films were annealed at 400 °C in ambient air for 4 h to obtain CuO-PAA phase. The effect of PAA concentration on the film properties is studied and characterized by employing various techniques. The structural and surface morphological studies are carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and FT-Raman spectroscopy are employed to investigate the hybrid film formation. Wetting behavior is studied by measuring the contact angle of water on the film surface. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) studies were carried out to investigate the specific capacitance of CuO-PAA films in aqueous 1 M H₂SO₄ electrolyte. Hybrid films deposited with 2 mM PAA exhibits highest specific capacitance of 65 F g⁻¹.     

Synthesis of hydrophilic nickel zinc ferrite thin films by chemical route for supercapacitor application

Nanostructured nickel zinc ferrite (NZF) thin films were synthesized via chemical deposition method (CDM). This deposition process was based on the thermal decomposition of ammonia complex ions at 328?K. The pH of the bath solution was varied from 9.8, 9.9 and 10.0 to study its effect on the structural, morphological and electrochemical properties. The structural studies of oxide films were carried out using X-ray diffraction and FT-IR technique. All studies indicate nickel zinc ferrite phase formation with spinel crystal structure having improved intensity at increasing pH. Scanning electron microscopy reveals that morphology gets changed from grain like to hexagonal flakes which also increased the surface-to-volume ratio. The contact angle was improved from hydrophilic to super hydrophilic due to porous nature. Along with this, to propose NZF thin films for possible application in energy storage devices, its electrochemical supercapacitor properties have been studied in aqueous KOH electrolyte. The NZF thin film synthesized at pH 9.9 have shown high specific capacitance of 67 Fg^?1.     

Resistance to Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) and other Cajanus species

Seeds of 24 accessions of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) and four other species of Cajanus (formerly Atylosia) were evaluated for their resistance to infestation by Callosobruchus maculatus (F.). None of the pigeonpea accessions was resistant but resistance was evident in three species of Cajanus. In C. platycarpus most of the larvae failed to enter the hard seed coats but the few which did enter the seeds, developed normally. Adults did not emerge from the seeds of C. scarabaeoides, even though most of the larvae entered the seeds. In A. sericeus, the number of larvae entering the seeds as well as adult emergence was significantly reduced.     

Superconducting Properties of Spray Deposited TBCCO Films

The present study shows general characteristic features of processes such as spray pyrolysis and heat-treatment, involved in the preparation of Tl-2223/CeO₂/Al₂O₃ superconducting coatings by using aerosol pyrolysis method. The importance of the present study, however, lies in a new process to make a thick Tl-2223 superconducting layer by using spray pyrolysis. In the new method, a relatively thick BaCaCuO precursor film is firstly spray deposited on the buffered alumina substrate and then heat-treated in the presence of thallium source for phase transformation to superconducting phases to assign conductivity to the film. The thickness of the Tl-2223 layer was 2–3 μm. The crystal symmetry was found to be tetragonal with lattice parameters a=3.85, and c=35.7 Å. The T _c was found to be 98 K for the samples heat treated at 870?°C for 60 min. Magnetic characterizations were conducted by using a DC-SQUID magnetometer. From the magnetization measurements, the intragrain critical-current density, J _c, was calculated to be 2×10⁴ A/cm² at 70 K.     

Effect of Bi3+ doping on the properties of chemically deposited GdS films

CdS films were prepared by a chemical bath deposition technique with different Bi concentrations (0.01 to 5 wt %) on glass substrates. Optical and electrical properties were studied with these films. It was observed that the absorption coefficient of the CdS film increases with Bi-doping up to 2 wt % and then decreases. These results are explained in terms of the crystallanity of the film. The optical band gaps (E_g) were determined and found to decrease with Bi-doping. The conductivity and thermoelectric power are higher for doped films than undoped CdS films. These results are explained by considering the existance of Cd²⁺ ions as donor centres in Bi-doped CdS films.     

Synthesis and Characterization of ZnO/CuO Nanocomposites as an Effective Photocatalyst and Gas Sensor for Environmental Remediation

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - Current study delineates the synthesis and environmental applications of ZnO/CuO nanocomposite in photocatalysis and gas sensing....     

A High Capacity Preamble Sequence for Random Access in 5G IoT Networks: Design and Analysis

International Journal of Wireless Information Networks - 5G NR aims to enable the high density of Internet of Things (IoT), around one million $$(10^{6})$$ connections per square kilometer, through...