A talking profile to distinguish identical twins

Identical twins pose a great challenge to face recognition due to high similarities in their appearances. Motivated by the psychological findings that facial motion contains identity signatures and the observation that twins may look alike but behave differently, we develop a talking profile to use the identity signatures in the facial motion to distinguish between identical twins. The talking profile for a subject is defined as a collection of multiple types of usual face motions from the video. Given two talking profiles, we compute the similarities of the same type of face motion in both profiles and then perform the classification based on those similarities. To compute the similarity of each type of face motion, we give higher weights to more abnormal motions which are assumed to carry more identity signature information.     

Quantitative31P nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of the phospholipids of erythrocyte membranes using detergent

³¹P Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of human erythrocyte lysates dissolved in sodium cholate were acquired. The narrow resonances of phospholipids were mostly well resolved, allowing identification and accurate quantitative analysis of phospholipid classes of the erythrocyte membranes. The ether-linked phosphatidylethanolamine components of the erythrocyte membranes were identified, based on the removal of plasmalogens by acidolysis and of diacyl phospholipid species by degradation using phospholipase A₁. It was also shown that the introduction of double bonds on the acyl chains of phosphatidylcholine shifted the³¹P NMR resonances to lower frequencies. Quantitative analyses of phospholipids from the spectra were based on their apparent molar concentrations. The recoveries of phospholipids from erythrocytes were significantly higher than those using conventional extraction procedures.     

Highly efficient synthesis of coumarin derivatives in the presence of H14[NaP5W30O110] as a green and reusable catalyst

A variety of heteropolyanions including: Keggin, Dawson, Preyssler, mixed addenda and sandwich types, catalyzed the formation of 4-methylnaphtho-(1,2-b)-pyran-2-one (coumarin) from the condensation of α-naphthol and ethylacetoacetate in a solvent free system and under heating conditions. Our data vividly indicate that sodium30–tungsto pentaphosphate, [NaP₅W₃₀O₁₁₀]¹⁴⁻, which so-called Preyssler’s anion, with high hydrolytic (pH 0–12) and thermal stability is the catalyst of choice. This catalyst catalyzed the synthesis of other coumarin derivatives in high yields and good selectivity.     

Conceptual design of a novel hybrid fuel cell/desalination system

A novel concept for integrating fuel cells with desalination systems is proposed and investigated in this work. Two unique case studies are discussed — the first involving a hybrid system with a reverse osmosis (RO) unit and the second — integrating with a thermal desalination process such as multi-stage flash (MSF). The underlying motivation for this system integration is that the exhaust gas from a hybrid power plant (fuel cell/turbine system) contains considerable amount of thermal energy, which may be utilized for desalination units. This exhaust heat can be suitably used for preheating the feed in desalination processes such as reverse osmosis which not only increases the potable water production, but also decreases the relative energy consumption by approximately 8% when there is an increase of just 8°C rise in temperature. Additionally, an attractive hybrid system application which combines power generation at 70%+ system efficiency with efficient waste heat utilization is thermal desalination. In this work, it is shown that the system efficiency can be raised appreciably when a high-temperature fuel cell co-generates DC power in-situ with waste heat suitable for MSF. Results indicate that such hybrid system could show a 5.6% increase in global efficiency. Such combined hybrid systems have overall system efficiencies (second-law base) exceeding those of either fuel-cell power plants or traditional desalination plants.     

An empirical study of control logic specifications for programmable logic controllers

This paper presents an empirical study of control logic specifications used to document industrial control logic code in manufacturing applications. More than one hundred input/output related property specifications from ten different reusable function blocks were investigated. The main purpose of the study was to provide understanding of how the specifications are expressed by industrial practitioners, in order to develop new tools and methods for specifying control logic software, as well as for evaluating existing ones. In this paper, the studied specifications are used to evaluate linear temporal logic in general and the specification language ST-LTL, tailored for functions blocks, in particular. The study shows that most specifications are expressed as implications, that should always be fulfilled, between input and output conditions. Many of these implications are complex since the input and output conditions may be mixed and involve sequences, timer issues and non-boolean variables. Using ST-LTL it was possible to represent all implications of this study. The few non-implication specifications could be specified in ST-LTL as well after being altered to suit the specification language. The paper demonstrates some advantages of ST-LTL compared to standard linear temporal logic and discusses possible improvements such as support for automatic rewrite of complex specifications.     

Color image DNA encryption using mRNA properties and non-adjacent coupled map lattices

This paper proposes a novel algorithm for encrypting color images. The innovation in this study is the use of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) encoding to import into Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) encoding. For permutation of the plain image bits, we use Arnold’s Cat Map at the bit-level. Then, using Non-Adjacent Coupled Map Lattices (NCML), we apply diffusion operations to the permuted color channels. We also provide the upgrade of the diffusion phase with DNA encoding. In the proposed algorithm, the choices are random depending on the secret key, which is implemented using a simple logistic map. Hashing the string entered by the user, the secret key, parameters, and initial values are generated by the Double MD5 method. The results of tests and security analysis showed that the results of encryption with this scheme are effective, and the key space is large enough to withstand common attacks.

     

Investigation of effective dimensionless numbers on initiation of instability in combustion of moisty organic dust简

In this work, the effect of various effective dimensionless numbers and moisture contents on initiation of instability in combustion of moisty organic dust is calculated. To have reliable model, effect of thermal radiation is taken into account. One- dimensional flame structure is divided into three zones： preheat zone, reaction zone and post-flame zone. To investigate pulsating characteristics of flame, governing equations are rewritten in dimensionless space-time （（, r/, ~） coordinates. By solving these newly achieved governing equations and combining them, which is completely discussed in body of article, a new expression is obtained. By solving this equation, it is possible to predict initiation of instability in organic dust flame. According to the obtained results by increasing Lewis number, threshold of instability happens sooner. On the other hand, pulsating is postponed by increasing Damk6hler number, pyrolysis temperature or moisture content. Also, by considering thermal radiation effect, burning velocity predicted by our model is closer to experimental results.     

A bio-inspired gelatin-based pH- and thermal-sensitive magnetic hydrogel for in vitro chemo/hyperthermia treatment of breast cancer cells

Gelatin (Gel)-based pH- and thermal-responsive magnetic hydrogels (MH-1 and MH-2) were designed and developed as novel drug delivery systems (DDSs) for cancer chemo/hyperthermia therapy. For this goal, Gel was functionalized with methacrylic anhydride (GelMA), and then copolymerized with (2-dimethylaminoethyl) methacrylate (DMAEMA) monomer in the presence of methacrylate-end capped magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as well as triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA; as crosslinker). Afterward, a thiol-end capped poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm-SH) was synthesized through an atom transfer radical polymerization technique, and then attached onto the hydrogel through “thiol-ene” click grafting. The preliminary performances of developed MHs for chemo/hyperthermia therapy of human breast cancer was investigated through the loading of doxorubicin hydrochloride (Dox) as an anticancer agent followed by cytotoxicity measurement of drug-loaded DDSs using MTT assay by both chemo- and chemo/hyperthermia-therapies. Owing to porous morphologies of the fabricated magnetic hydrogels according to scanning electron microscopy images and strong physicochemical interactions (e.g., hydrogen bonding) the drug loading capacities of the MH-1 and MH-2 were obtained as 72 ± 1.4 and 77 ± 1.8, respectively. The DDSs exhibited acceptable pH- and thermal-triggered drug release behaviors. The MTT assay results revealed that the combination of hyperthermia therapy and chemotherapy has synergic effect on the anticancer activities of the developed DDSs.     

A study on melt recycling of bio-based polypropylene/thermoplastic starch compound

The compulsion to use bioplastics has increased significantly today. One of the important aspects of plastics is their recyclability. Therefore, the important question of this research is that although bio-based compounds containing starch are sensitive to thermal-mechanical recycling processes, are such products thermally recyclable? To answer the question, polypropylene (PP)/thermoplastic starch (TPS) compound granules were extruded up to five times, and in the other part, single-extruded granules were blended at different ratios with virgin granules by extrusion. In order to characterize these samples, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, rotational disc rheometry, tensile properties, and appearance evaluation were used. The results showed that it is possible to recycle PP/TPS granules up to four times repetition of the extrusion operation and the fifth repetition also showed slight changes. There was also a blend of single-extruded granules with virgin material up to a 50:50% composition without significant variation.