Electroplated nickel based micro-machined disk resonators for high frequency applications

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) based resonators can be used for filtering and frequency synthesis applications in many subcomponents of radio frequency wireless integrated circuits due to their small size, high level of frequency selectivity, low cost batch fabrication, ease of integration with CMOS circuits. Electroplated nickel is an attractive low cost material for CMOS compatible MEMS due to their low deposition temperatures. Among the different modes of vibration, radial-contour mode resonators are preferred for high frequency applications because they offer higher effective stiffness. Two different types of electroplated nickel based radial-contour bulk-mode circular disk resonator geometries which depend on capacitive actuation and readout technique is presented in this work. Material, mechanical and electrical characterizations were performed on these structures to show their functionality.     

Comparison of the Mechanical and Thermo-Mechanical Properties of Unfilled and SiC Filled Short Glass Polyester Composites

This paper presents a comparison between particulate filled (SiC particles) and unfilled glass polyester composites on the basis of their mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties. The results show that particulate filled composites have a decreasing trend in mechanical properties when compared to the unfilled glass polyester composites. In particulate filled composites, the tensile and flexural strength of the composites decrease with the addition of 10 wt.-% SiC particles but increase with 20 wt.-% SiC particles. In the case of the unfilled glass polyester composite, the tensile and flexural strength of the composites increase with an increase in the fiber loading. However, higher values of tensile strength and flexural strength of particulate filled glass polyester were found than that of the unfilled glass polyester composite. In the case of thermo-mechanical and thermal properties, the particulate filled composites show better dynamical and thermal properties when compared to the unfilled glass polyester composites. The mechanical and thermal properties (i.e. thermal conductivity) are also calculated using FE modeling (ANSYS software) and the results from this simulation shows good agreement with the experimental results.     

Computer-aided diagnosis of auto-immune disease using capsule neural network

Manual analysis of the indirect-immunofluorescence (IIF) human epithelial cell Type-2 (HEp-2) cell image for the diagnosis of an auto-immune disease is a subjective and time-consuming process, and it is also prone to human-errors. The present work proposes an automatic capsule neural network (CapsNet) based framework for HEp-2 cell image classification to compensate for the deficiencies present in the prominent convolution neural network (CNN) based frameworks. In CNNs, the spatial relationship between the features present in the anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) patterns, found in the IIF HEp-2 cell image (ANA-IIF image) is lost which increases the chance of detection of false-positives. In the proposed CapsNet based model, the max-pooling layer has been replaced with advanced dynamic routing algorithm and scalar outputs are replaced with the vector output, thus the richer representation of the same feature without the loss of spatial relationship with respect to the other features are made possible. The proposed framework recognizes ANA-IIF images with an average accuracy of 95.00% for 10-fold cross-validations. The experimental result also shows that the proposed model performs better than the other CNN based classification models for human epithelial cell image classification task.

     

A parameter-uniform higher order finite difference scheme for singularly perturbed time-dependent parabolic problem with two small parameters

In the present paper, a parameter-uniform numerical method is constructed and analysed for solving one-dimensional singularly perturbed parabolic problems with two small parameters. The solution of this class of problems may exhibit exponential (or parabolic) boundary layers at both the left and right part of the lateral surface of the domain. A decomposition of the solution in its regular and singular parts has been used for the asymptotic analysis of the spatial derivatives. To approximate the solution, we consider the implicit Euler method for time stepping on a uniform mesh and a special hybrid monotone difference operator for spatial discretization on a specially designed piecewise uniform Shishkin mesh. The resulting scheme is shown to be first-order convergent in temporal direction and almost second-order convergent in spatial direction. We then improve the order of convergence in time by means of the Richardson extrapolation technique used in temporal variable only. The resulting scheme is proved to be uniformly convergent of order two in both the spatial and temporal variables. Numerical experiments support the theoretically proved higher order of convergence and show that the present scheme gives better accuracy and convergence compared of other existing methods in the literature.     

Functional food ingredients for the management of obesity and associated co-morbidities – A review

Worldwide obesity has reached a pandemic proportion. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2020, two thirds of the global disease burden will be attributable to obesity and obesity associated complications. Existing anti-obesity drugs, affecting one of the fundamental processes of the weight regulation in human body, have displayed serious side effects which outweigh their beneficial effects. Clinical and non-clinical researchers in this area are now facing a challenge to search for non-pharmacological alternatives for the prevention of obesity. Dietary interventions and life style changes with enhanced physical activity are two such options. Considering the importance of dietary interventions, the present review highlights the role, significance and potential of functional food ingredients for the management of obesity and associated co-morbidities.     

Role of Process Variables on the Solid Particle Erosion of Polymer Composites: A Critical Review

This paper presents a review of the reported research investigations that are related to the solid particle erosion behavior of polymers and polymeric composites. Attention is paid to the effects of test parameters such as erodent type, size of the erodent, impingement angle, impact velocity and stand of distance. On the erosion wear rate of polymer composites. Various predictions and models proposed by different authors to describe and quantify the erosion rate are discussed and their suitability is checked. Recent findings on the erosion response of multi-component hybrid composites are also presented. Lastly the implementation of the design of experiments and statistical techniques in making a parametric appraisal of the erosion processes of composites is discussed.     

A novel hybrid security mechanism for data communication networks

Multimedia Tools and Applications - With the growing internet technology over the last decade, the number of intruders trying to steal the confidential information has also risen. As a result, for...