Incremental change in object-oriented programming

Incremental change adds new functionality and new properties to software. We concentrate on IC in the context of object-oriented Java programs and study selected IC activities. Because change requests are formulated in terms of program concepts - chunks of knowledge about the program and application domain - the resulting IC activities also focus on program concepts. Moreover, most change requests originate from the end user, so the end user's view of the program is the source of most concepts that govern IC. Additional concepts might originate from other programmers and deal with the program architecture or algorithms. Program dependencies also play a crucial role in IC; if a program component changes, other dependent components might also have to change. This is true even for well-designed object-oriented programs, as our example demonstrates.     

Interlingua-based English–Hindi Machine Translation and Language Divergence

Interlingua and transfer-based approaches tomachine translation have long been in use in competing and complementary ways. The former proves economical in situations where translation among multiple languages is involved, and can be used as a knowledge-representation scheme. But given a particular interlingua, its adoption depends on its ability (a) to capture the knowledge in texts precisely and accurately and (b) to handle cross-language divergences. This paper studies the language divergence between English and Hindi and its implication to machine translation between these languages using the Universal Networking Language (UNL). UNL has been introduced by the United Nations University, Tokyo, to facilitate the transfer and exchange of information over the internet. The representation works at the level of single sentences and defines a semantic net-like structure in which nodes are word concepts and arcs are semantic relations between these concepts. The language divergences between Hindi, an Indo-European language, and English can be considered as representing the divergences between the SOV and SVO classes of languages. The work presented here is the only one to our knowledge that describes language divergence phenomena in the framework of computational linguistics through a South Asian language.     

Field emission from oriented tin oxide rods

Tin oxide (SnO₂) films were grown on silicon substrates by a wet chemical route. It was found from scanning electron microscopy investigations that oriented SnO₂ rods normal to the substrates were obtained. Field emission studies were carried out in diode configuration in an all metal ultra high vacuum chamber at a base pressure ∼ 1.33 × 10^− 8 mbar. The ‘onset’ field required to draw 0.1 μA/cm² current density from the emitter cathode was found to be ∼ 3.4 V/μm for SnO₂ rods. The field emission current and applied field follows the Folwer-Nordheim relationship in low field regime. The observed results indicate that the field emission characteristics of chemically grown SnO₂ structures are comparable to the vapor grown nanostructures.     

Synthesis of orthorhombic-molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO<Subscript>3</Subscript>) thin films by hot wire-CVD and investigations of its humidity sensing properties

In present work, we report synthesis of orthorhombic-molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO₃) thin films using home-build hot wire-CVD (HW-CVD) method simply by heating the Mo filament in a controlled O₂ atmosphere. The formation of α-MoO₃ was confirmed by low angle-XRD and Raman spectroscopy. Low angle-XRD analysis revealed that α-MoO₃ crystallites have orientations along (110), (101) and (111) directions while Raman spectroscopy analysis shows two prominent vibrational modes ~819 and ~994 cm^?1 associated with Mo₂–O and Mo=O respectively. SEM and TEM analysis show the formation of nano-sheets like morphology of α-MoO₃ thin films. The SAED pattern shows highly crystalline nature of α-MoO₃. The humidity-sensing properties were investigated at room temperature by fabricating the two probe device. The humidity sensing results showed n-type behavior of α-MoO₃. The maximum humidity sensitivity of ~6957% along with response time of ~66 s and recovery time of ~5 s were observed for α-MoO₃ thin film humidity sensor device. Our results have opened up a new avenue to grow α-MoO₃ for humidity sensor applications.     

Optical humidity sensor based on in situ and ex situ synthesized nAg/0.1%PVP composite coated on self supported PVP substrate

An optical based humidity sensor having linear response (R²?=?0.99) over a wide range (06–94%RH) and high sensitivity is reported using nAg/0.1%PVP nanocomposite. Nanocomposite is prepared using in-situ and ex-situ approaches by chemical reduction method with silver salt (AgNO₃) as precursor, tri sodium citrate as reducing agent and PVP as capping agent. The nanocomposite is dip coated on hydrophilic PVP substrate of 80 µm thickness. The material is characterized by using UV–Vis, TEM and FTIR techniques. UV–Vis and TEM analysis are complementary to each other for exhibiting dependence of particle size on preparation approach ??10 nm (in-situ) to 40 nm (ex-situ). Humidity sensing mechanism is explained on the basis of FTIR spectra. Co-ordination between tertiary nitrogen ( Open image in new window ) and C=O group with nAg particles during nanocomposite formation is evidenced from low humidity FTIR. Breaking of these bonds is evidenced from high humidity FTIR. In/PVP/6-PVP sensors offer higher sensitivity (~?0.68?±?0.04 (1/% RH)) as compared to Ex/PVP/4:5-PVP sensors [~?0.31?±?0.04 (1/% RH)].     

Combination of polymeric substrates and metal–polymer nanocomposites for optical humidity sensors

This paper reports a combination of self-supported, 80-μm-thick polymeric substrates of poly(dimethyl siloxane), poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), and poly(N-vinylpyridine) (PVP) and nanocomposites, silver nanoparticle (nAg)/0.1% PVP (S1) and nAg/0.1% PVA (S2), for use in optical-transmission-type humidity sensors. Composites are synthesized by a chemical reduction method at optimum conditions, giving particle sizes of 5–10 nm and 10–20 nm, respectively, for nAg/0.1% PVP and nAg/0.1% PVA. Composite formation is confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The role of polymers in obtaining a smaller Ag particle size is studied using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The nanocomposite is coated onto substrates either on a single side or on both sides by dip coating. The humidity response of nAg/0.1% PVP-0.1% PVP- nAg/0.1% PVP (S1-PVP-S1) sensors, measured using the direct optical transmission method, exhibits an enhancement in sensitivity [0.88 ± 0.04 (/% RH)] for the humidity range 6–94% RH and response (6 s) and recovery (8 s) times compared to nAg/0.1% PVP-PVP S1-PVP sensors and a linear response (R² ≥ 0.99). An attempt is made to explain the sensing process with the help of FTIR spectra in dry and humid environments. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47035.     

‘<Emphasis Type=Italic>Lead Free</Emphasis>’ thick film thermistors: a study of variation in glass frit concentration and organics composition

There is a need to develop environment friendly electronic materials due to worldwide constraint for the use of hazardous chemicals such as lead, cadmium which are the main constituents of the electronic components. Considering such need, the work on lead free thick film thermistors has been initiated. Thick film materials have been proved to possess economical processing and functional advantage over other technologies and quick turnaround production of hybrid microcircuits. Thick film thermistors are different from the conventional thermistors (bulk) not only by the preparation process but also in composition, transport properties etc. In this paper, we have specifically focused on the influence of glass frit content and organic composition on the properties of lead free spinel based NTC thermistors. We noted that the glass frit concentration is responsible for the change in physical as well as electrical properties of the thick film thermistor. However, the type of organic vehicle (i.e., composition) did not show any adverse effect on microstructure and electrical properties of the thermistor.     

Global supply chain management: A reinforcement learning approach

In recent years, researchers and practitioners alike have devoted a great deal of attention to supply chain management (SCM). The main focus of SCM is the need to integrate operations along the supply chain as part of an overall logistic support function. At the same time, the need for globalization requires that the solution of SCM problems be performed in an international context as part of what we refer to as Global Supply Chain Management (GSCM). This paper proposes an approach to study GSCM problems using an artificial intelligence framework called reinforcement learning (RL). The RL framework allows the management of global supply chains under an integration perspective. The RL approach has remarkable similarities to that of an autonomous agent network (AAN); a similarity that we shall discuss. The RL approach is applied to a case example, namely a networked production system that spans several geographic areas and logistics stages. We discuss the results and provide guidelines and implications for practical applications.