A novel offline handwritten text recognition technique to convert ruled-line text into digital text through deep neural networks

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Offline Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) has been an active area of research due to its wide range of applications and challenges. Recently, many offline HTR...     

Asymmetric Fission Transmission of Linear-to-Circular Polarization Converter Using Bi-layer Split Ring Structure

A circular polarizer based on bi-layer split ring structure is proposed that could achieve asymmetric fission transmission of linearly polarized wave at the dual band. Firstly, a new approach of “Fission Transmission of Electromagnetic (FTEM) waves” is introduced to understand the polarization transformation behavior for linear-to-circular polarization. The designed structure achieves broadband circularly polarized wave with an asymmetric transmission over resonance frequencies by the principle of FTEM wave. The electronics circuit of proposed structure demonstrates the transformation behavior of EM waves when the electric and magnetic coupling between the upper and lower patterned SRR is reached at the certain strength. The physics of the giant circular dichroism effect and optical activity is illustrated by the surface currents distribution on the structure. The proposed structure achieves a right-handed circularly polarized wave and left hand circularly polarized wave with high transmission at 13.94–15.70 GHz and at 16.0–17.03 GHz, respectively. The axial ratio bandwidth of 11.76 and 6.86% is obtained at the dual band. The simulated and measured results exhibit good correspondence.     

A comparative study of full‐duplex relaying schemes for low latency applications

Various sectors are likely to carry a set of emerging applications while targeting a reliable communication with low latency transmission. To address this issue, upon a spectrally‐efficient transmission, this paper investigates the performance of a 1 full‐dulpex relay system and considers for that purpose, 2 basic relaying schemes, namely, the symbol‐by‐symbol transmission, i.e., amplify‐and‐forward and the block‐by‐block transmission, i.e., selective decode‐and‐forward. The conducted analysis presents an exhaustive comparison, covering both schemes, over 2 different transmission modes, i.e., the noncombining mode where the best link, direct, or relay link is decoded and the signals combining mode, where direct and relay links are combined at the receiver side. While targeting latency purpose as a necessity, simulations show a refined results of performed comparisons and reveal that amplify‐and‐forward relaying scheme is more adapted to combining mode, whereas the selective decode‐and‐forward relaying scheme is more suitable for noncombining mode.     

A comprehensive survey of network coding in vehicular ad-hoc networks

Network coding is a data processing technique in which the flow of digital data is optimized in a network by transmitting a composite of two or more messages to make the network more robust. Network coding has been used in traditional and emerging wireless networks to overcome the communications issues of these networks. It also plays an important role in the area of vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) to meet the challenges like high mobility, rapidly changing topology, and intermittent connectivity. VANETs consist of network of vehicles in which they communicate with each other to ensure road safety, free flow of traffic, and ease of journey for the passengers. It is now considered to be the most valuable concept for improving efficiency and safety of future transportation. However, this field has a lot of challenges to deal with. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of network coding schemes in VANETs. We have classified different applications like content distribution, multimedia streaming, cooperative downloading, data dissemination, and summarized other key areas of VANETs in which network coding schemes are implemented. This research work will provide a clear understanding to the readers about how network coding is implemented in these schemes in VANETs to improve performance, reduce delay, and make the network more efficient.     

Measurement of natural radioactivity and dose rate assessment of terrestrial gamma radiation in the soil of southern Punjab, Pakistan

Activity concentrations of (226)Ra, (232)Th, (40)K and (137)Cs in soil samples collected from the most populous area of southern Punjab of Pakistan have been measured by gamma-ray spectrometry. The measured activity concentrations for these radionuclides are compared with the reported data from different other countries and it is found that measured activity concentrations are comparable with the worldwide measured average values reported by the UNSCEAR. Subsequently assessed radiological effects show that the mean radium equivalent activity (Ra(eq)) is 96.7 +/- 15.2 Bq kg(-1) and air absorbed dose rate (D) is 46.1 +/- 7.3 nGy h(-1). The values of internal and external radiation hazard indices are found to be less than unity. The annual effective radiation dose is calculated to be 0.28 +/- 0.05 mSv, which is well below the limit of 1.0 mSv y(-1) recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, for the general public.     

Physical and chemical modification of distillery sludge for Pb(II) biosorption

The waste distillery sludge from sugar-cane industry was pretreated physically (boiled, heated and autoclaved) as well as chemically (HCl, H(2)SO(4), H(3)PO(4), NaOH, Ca(OH)(2), Al(OH)(3), C(6)H(6), HCHO, CH(3)OH and C1(2)H(25)OSO(3)Na (sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)) for assessing the comparative sorption capacity of untreated and modified distillery sludge for Pb(II) biosorption from aqueous solutions. Experiments were conducted in shake flasks on a batch basis to access the effect of different experimental parameters such as pH, biosorbent dosage, biosorbent size, initial Pb(II) concentration and contact time. The uptake capacity 'q' (mg/g) of untreated and pretreated distillery sludge was in following order: NaOH (51.29+/-1.21)>HCl (49.82+/-1.22)>HCHO (49.56+/-1.14)>H(2)SO(4) (47.71+/-1.20)>HgCl(2) (45.32+/-1.06)>Ca(OH)(2) (44.01+/-1.18)>MeOH (43.73+/-1.23)>C(6)H(6) (42.72+/-1.19)>H(3)PO(4) (42.01+/-1.17)>SDS (40.87+/-1.27)>autoclaved (40.23+/-1.24)>Boiled (39.95+/-1.19)>heated (38.87+/-1.32)>Al (OH)(3) (38.30+/-1.14)>untreated (37.76+/-1.21). In further parameter studies, the optimized biosorbent size was 0.250 mm at pH 5 and best dose was 0.05 g of biosorbent. The applicability of the Langmuir and Freundlich models for sorption process was tested and best fitted model was Langmuir with the coefficient of determination (R(2)) value, 0.97, the process followed second order kinetic mechanism.     

Synthesis, conformation and biological evaluation of the enantiomers of 3-fluoro-gamma-aminobutyric acid ((R)- and (S)-3F-GABA): an analogue of the neurotransmitter GABA

Gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA (1) is one of the major inhibitory amino acid neurotransmitters of the central nervous system. This article describes the first synthesis of both the (R)- and (S)- enantiomers of 3-fluoro-GABA (2, 3F-GABA). DFT calculations were carried out in a continuum solvent model (PCM-B3LYP) to estimate the preferred conformations of 3F-GABA in aqueous solution. NMR coupling constants were calculated for each conformer and were then used to simulate the NMR spectra to evaluate the solution conformation of 3F-GABA. A preliminary evaluation of the 3F-GABA enantiomers shows that they act similarly as agonists of cloned GABA(A) receptors; however, they behave quite differently in a whole animal (Xenopus laevis tadpole model).     

Influence and comparison of emerging techniques of yarn manufacturing on physical–mechanical properties of polyester-/cotton-blended yarns and their woven fabrics

Abstract

In this study, the physical–mechanical properties of ring spun, ring compact, rotor and air-vortex yarns were investigated. The study was carried with yarn having linear densities of 24.4 tex and 36.7 tex, which were then converted to woven fabrics. The ring spun yarns have higher values of strength but also with higher strength irregularities. Extra-ordinarily low hairiness was observed in air-vortex yarns due to its unique yarn formation technique. The deviation rate (DR) of yarns have correlation with the mass spectrogram of respective yarns obtained from USTER Tester 5. Rotor and air-vortex yarns exhibited higher coefficient of friction. The woven fabrics made from ring spun yarns exhibited higher tensile and tear strength with higher elongation at break. The fabrics made from air-vortex yarns have very good pilling grade due to less protruding fibres on their surface and good structural integrity.     

Pd nanoparticles immobilized on magnetic carbon dots@Fe3O4 nanocubes as a synergistic catalyst for hydrogen generation

In this work, a cube-like Pd/carbon dots@Fe₃O₄ (Pd/C-dots@Fe₃O₄) hybrid material has been successfully prepared through a facile ultrasonic assisted chemical reduction method, and used as a highly efficient catalyst for the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of NaBH₄ in alkaline media. It is found that the small Pd nanoparticles (NPs) are uniform and well dispersed on the surface of C-dots@Fe₃O₄ nanocubes (NCs). Benefiting from the advantages of the unique cube-like structure, the super conductivity of carbon dots (C-dots) and the synergistic effect between Pd NPs and C-dots@Fe₃O₄ support, Pd/C-dots@Fe₃O₄ NCs exhibits the highest catalytic performance among all the as-prepared samples. The possible reaction mechanism is discussed. Furthermore, the effects of reaction temperature, NaBH₄ concentration and NaOH concentration on the catalytic activity of Pd/C-dots@Fe₃O₄ NCs are studied. Besides, the magnetic properties of Pd/C-dots@Fe₃O₄ NCs can achieve effective momentum transfer with the assistance of the external magnetic field, and a higher catalytic activity is observed for Pd/C-dots@Fe₃O₄ NCs in self-stirring mode than in magnetic-stirring mode. This novel catalyst also exhibits good stability and can be easily separated by a magnet, showing great potential for renewable energy applications.