A rule-based approach for robust clump splitting

This paper presents a robust rule-based approach for the splitting of binary clumps that are formed by objects of diverse shapes and sizes. First, the deepest boundary pixels, i.e., the concavity pixels in a clump, are detected using a fast and accurate scheme. Next, concavity-based rules are applied to generate the candidate split lines that join pairs of concavity pixels. A figure of merit is used to determine the best split line from the set of candidate lines. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is robust and accurate.     

Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Fine Particle Oxides Employing Wet Redox Mixtures

Interaction of electromagnetic radiation with a physical mixture of metal nitrates and amides/hydrazides is observed to initiate high-temperature reactions, useful for realizing several high-temperature ceramic materials. A judicious choice of such redox mixtures undergoes exothermic reactions when they couple with microwave radiation. The coupling of electromagnetic radiation with metal salts and amides/hydrazides depends on the dielectric properties of the individual components in the reaction mixture. The approach has been used to prepare γ-Fe₂O₃, Fe₃O₄, MgCr₂O₄, α-CaCr₂O₄, and La_0.7Ba_0.3MnO₃.     

SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CONTROLLED SIZES: POLYSTYRENE LATEXES

Several parameters and their limitations to prepare monodisperse polystyrene particles were discussed. Polystyrene latexes B, C and D of diameter 129.8, 142.8 and 264.5 nm, respectively, were synthesized by emulsion polymerization method. The latex D is almost monodisperse with very low polydispersity of 0.005 while B and C are having polydispersity of 0.1837 and 0.1601. The particle size and particle size distribution of the latexes were determined by a TEM and Brookhaven particle size analyzer. It was observed that the particle size of the latexes decreased with increasing initiator (ammonium persulfate) or surfactant (SDS) concentrations. The surface area of the latexes were calculated by using BET equation on the basis of the amount of nitrogen gas adsorbed at the surface of the particles to form a monolayer. It was observed that the surface area of latex D is less than B and C because of the bigger size of the particles. The average molecular weights, zeta potentials and densities of the latexes were also presented.     

Free convection and mass transfer flow of non-newtonian fluid with thermal diffusion effect

An analytical study is performed to examine the thermal diffusion characteristics of free convection and mass transfer flow in a non-Newtonian fluid (Walters, 1962: liquid B') past a uniformly accelerated infinite vertical plate in the presence of thermal diffusion. The expression for the velocity field is obtained by the Laplace transform technique. The influence of the Soret number (a thermal diffusion parameter) on the velocity field is extensively discussed with the help of graphs.     

Testing of box-type solar cooker: Second figure of merit F2 and its variation with load and number of pots

The performance of a box-type solar cooker can be represented in terms of two figures of merit, F₁ and F₂. The second figure F₂ is a controlling factor in the sensible heating of a load. The present work validates F₂ by computing this figure from experimental data by two different procedures and comparing the results. An attempt has also been made to provide some guidelines for selecting a suitable temperature interval for determination of F₂. The results of some experiments to study the effect of number of pots and the load on F₂ have also been presented. It is recommended that for standardization tests should be conducted at full load.     

Overexpression of HER2 modulates bcl-2, bcl-XL, and tamoxifen-induced apoptosis in human MCF-7 breast cancer cells

Overexpression of HER2 in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive human breast tumors has been associated with resistance to endocrine therapy. Here we investigated the effects of HER2 on expression of apoptotic pathways and modulation of tamoxifen-induced apoptosis in ER-positive MCF-7 breast cancer cells. We report that HER2 overexpression in MCF-7 cells is accompanied by up-regulation of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL proteins and suppression of tamoxifen-induced apoptosis. In addition, human tumor cell lines that are both ER positive and overexpress HER2 also express enhanced levels of Bcl-2 compared to cells that are either ER positive or overexpress HER2 alone. Our findings suggest that possible deregulation of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL may be associated with the enhanced survival of HER2-overexpressing and ER-positive breast cancer cells treated with antiestrogens.     

A two-stage MMSE multiuser decision feedback detector using successive/parallel interference cancellation

In this paper, we present a novel two-stage minimum-mean-squared-error (MMSE) multiuser decision feedback detector (DFD) for code division multiple access systems working in the frequency-selective multipath fading environment. The first stage of the proposed cascaded structure is the noise-predictive successive DFD (NP-S-DFD), in which the active users are detected successively using the conventional bell labs layered space-time (BLAST) ordering criterion. The second stage includes an adaptive successive/parallel DFD (SP-DFD), which uses the tentative decisions obtained at the first stage for multiuser interference cancellation and data detection. Therefore, the proposed two-stage DFD may be called noise-predictive successive SP-DFD (NP-S-SP-DFD). Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the substantial improvement in the bit error rate performance of NP-S-SP-DFD over the conventional single-stage and cascaded DFDs. It may be inferred that the proposed DFD provides additional performance gain, when the order in which the users are detected is optimized according to the BLAST ordering based on MMSE criterion.     

Simple autocorrelation technique based on degree-of-polarization measurement

We demonstrate a simple optical-fiber-based autocorrelator for picosecond short pulses based on degree-of-polarization measurement while tuning the relative delay of the two orthogonal polarization states of the pulse. The pulsewidths of 20-, 40-, and 80-GHz pulse trains and 2-ps pulses generated by a mode-locked laser are measured. The <-10-dBm optical powers are used in the experiment. The measurement results agree well with the measurements using conventional techniques. Compared with conventional autocorrelators, this technique has the advantages of 1) wavelength independent, 2) significant less alignment, and 3) no high power required.     

Binary rewriting and call interception for efficient runtime protection against buffer overflows

Buffer overflow vulnerabilities are one of the most commonly and widely exploited security vulnerabilities in programs. Most existing solutions for avoiding buffer overflows are either inadequate, inefficient or incompatible with existing code. In this paper, we present a novel approach for transparent and efficient runtime protection against buffer overflows. The approach is implemented by two tools: Type Information Extractor and Depositor (TIED) and LibsafePlus. TIED is first used on a binary executable or shared library file to extract type information from the debugging information inserted in the file by the compiler and reinsert it in the file as a data structure available at runtime. LibsafePlus is a shared library that is preloaded when the program is run. LibsafePlus intercepts unsafe C library calls such as strcpy and uses the type information made available by TIED at runtime to determine whether it would be ‘safe’ to carry out the operation. With our simple design we are able to protect most applications with a performance overhead of less than 10%. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.