Miniaturization and bandwidth enhancement of a cavity backed circular microstrip patch antenna

The resonant frequency of a circular patch antenna with and without circular cavity is measured. The patch miniaturization in the presence of the cavity is proved. Different methods of reducing resonant frequencies and broadening bandwidth without significantly reducing antenna gain are presented. Capacitively loaded patch and slits on the patch stimulate the patch at lower frequencies and multiple resonances, thus help miniaturization. Finally ferrite loading on the feed probe further increases the bandwidth without significantly reducing the antenna gain. The method is much more improved than that for a resistive loaded patch and a deformed patch. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2007.     

Plastic deformation of forearm

The unusual occurrence of plastic deformation in an adult is described.     

Absolute stability of an implicit method based on third-order off-step discretization for the initial-value problem on a graded mesh

Engineering with Computers - We studied a new implicit method of order three based on two off-step points for the numerical solution of second-order nonlinear initial-value problems...     

Selection of optimized features for fusion of palm print and finger knuckle‐based person authentication

The impact of digital technology in biometrics is much more efficient at interpreting data than humans, which results in completely replacement of manual identification procedures in forensic science. Because the single modality‐based biometric frameworks limit performance in terms of accuracy and anti‐spoofing capabilities due to the presence of low quality data, therefore, information fusion of more than one biometric characteristic in pursuit of high recognition results can be beneficial. In this article, we present a multimodal biometric system based on information fusion of palm print and finger knuckle traits, which are least associated to any criminal investigation as evidence yet. The proposed multimodal biometric system might be useful to identify the suspects in case of physical beating or kidnapping and establish supportive scientific evidences, when no fingerprint or face information is present in photographs. The first step in our work is data preprocessing, in which region of interest of palm and finger knuckle images have been extracted. To minimize nonuniform illumination effects, we first normalize the detected circular palm or finger knuckle and then apply line ordinal pattern (LOP)‐based encoding scheme for texture enrichment. The nondecimated quaternion wavelet provides denser feature representation at multiple scales and orientations when extracted over proposed LOP encoding and increases the discrimination power of line and ridge features. To best of our knowledge, this first attempt is a combination of backtracking search algorithm and 2D²LDA has been employed to select the dominant palm and knuckle features for classification. The classifiers output for two modalities are combined at unsupervised rank level fusion rule through Borda count method, which shows an increase in performance in terms of recognition and verification, that is, 100% (correct recognition rate), 0.26% (equal error rate), 3.52 (discriminative index), and 1,262 m (speed).     

Favorable influence of ssDNA-functionalized SWCNT on the navigation pattern of C. elegans

Microsystem Technologies - Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) are widely used as potential carriers in drug delivery systems. The objective of this work was to observe the effects of pristine,...     

Retraction of “Developing an integrated display of health data for aging in place”

The following article from Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries, “Developing an Integrated Display of Health Data for Aging in Place,” by Yang Gong and Arpita Chandra, published online on October 20, 2011 in Wiley Online Library ( www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com ), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editors‐in‐Chief, Waldemar Karwowski and Gavriel Salvendy, and Publisher Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The retraction has been agreed as these articles were mistakenly published after being rejected.     

I-convergence in probabilistic n-normed space

In this article we introduce the notion of I-Cauchy sequence and I-convergent sequence in probabilistic n-normed space. The concept of I*-Cauchy sequence and I*-convergence in probabilistic n-normed space are also introduced and some of their properties related to these notions have been established.     

Phase transformations in Mn-Al permanent magnet alloys

Phase transformation studies have been made of the Mn-Al alloys with compositions near the equiatomic range with or without small amounts of carbon, copper and nickel, using differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction and optical and electron microscopy. The high temperature hexagonal phase obtained by quenching, transforms to the ferromagnetic phase between 500 and 550° C and on further heating transforms back to the hexagonal phase between 750 and 950° C. Also, on controlled cooling of the phase from about 900° C, the ferromagnetic phase is formed between 800 and 670° C. TEM studies have shown the presence of the B19 ordered phase, ferromagnetic phase and Mn₅Al₈ precipitates even in quenched alloys.     

Welding of thin steel plates: a new model for thermal analysis

A mathematical model for the transient heat flow analysis in arc-welding processes is proposed, based on a unique set of boundary conditions. The model attempts to make use of the relative advantages of analytical as well as numerical techniques in order to reduce the problem size for providing a quicker solution without sacrificing the accuracy of prediction. The variation of thermo-physical properties with temperature has been incorporated into the model to improve the thermal analysis in the weld and heat-affected zones. The model has been evaluated using a five-point explicit finite difference method for analysing the welding heat flow in thin plates of two different geometric configurations. The temperature distribution closer to the heat source, primarily in the weld zone and the heat-affected zones, are predicted by the numerical technique. The thermal characteristics beyond the heat-affected zone are amenable to standard analytical techniques. The behaviour of the boundary condition in the model has been investigated in detail.Nomenclature q Rate of heat per unit thickness (Wm^–1) - d Plate thickness (m) - v Velocity of source (m s^–1) - t Time (s) - T Temperature value at the desired point (K) - T ₀ Initial temperature (K) - K Thermal conductivity (W m^–1 K^–1) - Density (kg m^–3) - c _p Specific heat (J kg^–1 K^–1) - Thermal diffusivity (m² s^–1) - n - Distance of point considered from the source (=x–vt) (m) - K ₀ Modified Bessel function of second kind and zero order - r Radial distance from the source (r=(x ²+y ²)^1/2) (m) - Model width (m) - a Plate width (m) - Distance from the source =(²+4 ×10^–4)^1/2 (m) - _n      

Radiation-induced modification of polyurethane with hydroxyethyl methacrylate: blood compatibility

An attempt is made to develop the hydrophilic grafting of polyether urethane urea with hydroxyethyl methacrylate (hema) using⁶⁰Coγ-irradiation for achieving optimum hydrophilic/hydrophobic property needed towards blood compatibility. Contact angle method and platelet adhesion from calf’s blood are used to determine the suitability of these modified surfaces.