Resistive switching memory characteristics of Ge/GeOx nanowires and evidence of oxygen ion migration

The resistive switching memory of Ge nanowires (NWs) in an IrO_x/Al₂O₃/Ge NWs/SiO₂/p-Si structure is investigated. Ge NWs with an average diameter of approximately 100 nm are grown by the vapor–liquid-solid technique. The core-shell structure of the Ge/GeO_x NWs is confirmed by both scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Defects in the Ge/GeO_x NWs are observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Broad photoluminescence spectra from 10 to 300 K are observed because of defects in the Ge/GeO_x NWs, which are also useful for nanoscale resistive switching memory. The resistive switching mechanism in an IrO_x/GeO_x/W structure involves migration of oxygen ions under external bias, which is also confirmed by real-time observation of the surface of the device. The porous IrO_x top electrode readily allows the evolved O₂ gas to escape from the device. The annealed device has a low operating voltage (<4 V), low RESET current (approximately 22 μA), large resistance ratio (>10³), long pulse read endurance of >10⁵ cycles, and good data retention of >10⁴ s. Its performance is better than that of the as-deposited device because the GeO_x film in the annealed device contains more oxygen vacancies. Under SET operation, Ge/GeO_x nanofilaments (or NWs) form in the GeO_x film. The diameter of the conducting nanofilament is approximately 40 nm, which is calculated using a new method.     

Bimetallic Zn/Ag doped polyurethane spider net composite nanofibers: A novel multipurpose electrospun mat

The objective of this study was to develop a new class of bimetallic ZnO/Ag embedded polyurethane multi-functional nanocomposite by a straightforward approach. Bimetallic nanomaterials, composed of two unlike metal elements, are of greater interest than the monometallic materials because of their improved characteristics. In the present study the bimetallic composite was prepared using sol–gel via the facile electrospinning technique. The utilized sol–gel was composed of zinc oxide, silver and poly(urethane). The physicochemical properties of as-spun composite mats were determined by X-ray diffraction pattern, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The antibacterial activity was tested using Escherichia coli as model organism. The antibacterial test showed that ZnO:Ag/polyurethane composite possesses superior antimicrobial activity than pristine PU and ZnO/PU hybrids. Furthermore, our results illustrate that the synergistic effect of ZnO and Ag resulted in the advanced antimicrobial action of bimetallic ZnO/Ag composite mat. The viability and proliferation properties of NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells on the ZnO:Ag/polyurethane composite nanofibers were analyzed by in vitro cell compatibility test. Our results indicated the non-cytotoxic behavior of bimetallic ZnO:Ag/polyurethane nanofibers towards the fibroblast cell culture. In summary, novel ZnO:Ag/polyurethane composite nanofibers which possess large surface to volume ratio with excellent antimicrobial activity were fabricated. The unique combination of ZnO and Ag nanoparticles displayed potent bactericidal effect due to a synergism. Hence the electrospun bimetallic composite indicates the huge potential in water filtration, clinical and biomedical applications.     

Simplified soft value extraction for M-PPM-modulated signals in FSO systems

In the following paper we propose a new approach for extracting soft values from Mth order pulse position modulation (M-PPM). A new low-complexity algorithm is developed, where soft information for each data bit is calculated based on the power received within the PPM time slots. In order to decrease the computational complexity we simplify the calculation of the conditional probability of data vector a given that PPM symbol Y is received. The Monte Carlo simulations applied to analyze the properties of the algorithm for turbo-coded M-PPM transmission in free space optic communication systems show acceptable degradation of system performance with regard to system simplification.     

Thermal comfort study of Kerala traditional residential buildings based on questionnaire survey among occupants of traditional and modern buildings

Thermal comfort studies on traditional residential buildings of Kerala that is known for its use of natural and passive methods for a comfortable indoor environment, are under progress. Scientific analyses of the environmental parameters determining thermal comfort have already been reported. Similar studies on modern residential buildings are underway. In order to compare the results of the scientific analysis with the user responses from the residents of traditional as well as modern residential buildings, a questionnaire survey was conducted during various seasons such as winter, summer and monsoon. A questionnaire was prepared in detail to understand the effect of factors which affect thermal comfort such as temperature, humidity and air flow in the evaluation of thermal comfort. This paper is based on the compilation of responses from the conducted survey. A comparison of the study results with that of scientific analysis already reported is also incorporated at the end of this paper. This study further confirms that Kerala traditional residential buildings are very effective in providing comfortable indoor environment irrespective of various seasons.     

Structured literature image finder: Parsing text and figures in biomedical literature

The SLIF project combines text-mining and image processing to extract structured information from biomedical literature.SLIF extracts images and their captions from published papers. The captions are automatically parsed for relevant biological entities (protein and cell type names), while the images are classified according to their type (e.g., micrograph or gel). Fluorescence microscopy images are further processed and classified according to the depicted subcellular localization.The results of this process can be queried online using either a user-friendly web-interface or an XML-based web-service. As an alternative to the targeted query paradigm, SLIF also supports browsing the collection based on latent topic models which are derived from both the annotated text and the image data.The SLIF web application, as well as labeled datasets used for training system components, is publicly available at http://slif.cbi.cmu.edu.     

Matching Trajectories of Anatomical Landmarks Under Viewpoint,Anthropometric and Temporal Transforms

An approach is presented to match imaged trajectories of anatomical landmarks (e.g. hands, shoulders and feet) using semantic correspondences between human bodies. These correspondences are used to provide geometric constraints for matching actions observed from different viewpoints and performed at different rates by actors of differing anthropometric proportions. The fact that the human body has approximate anthropometric proportion allows innovative use of the machinery of epipolar geometry to provide constraints for analyzing actions performed by people of different sizes, while ensuring that changes in viewpoint do not affect matching. In addition, for linear time warps, a novel measure, constructed only from image measurements of the locations of anatomical landmarks across time, is proposed to ensure that similar actions performed at different rates are accurately matched as well. An additional feature of this new measure is that two actions from cameras moving at constant (and possibly different) velocities can also be matched. Finally, we describe how dynamic time warping can be used in conjunction with the proposed measure to match actions in the presence of nonlinear time warps. We demonstrate the versatility of our algorithm in a number of challenging sequences and applications, and report quantitative evaluation of the matching approach presented.     

Quality-aware images.

We propose the concept of quality-aware image, in which certain extracted features of the original (high-quality) image are embedded into the image data as invisible hidden messages. When a distorted version of such an image is received, users can decode the hidden messages and use them to provide an objective measure of the quality of the distorted image. To demonstrate the idea, we build a practical quality-aware image encoding, decoding and quality analysis system, which employs: 1) a novel reduced-reference image quality assessment algorithm based on a statistical model of natural images and 2) a previously developed quantization watermarking-based data hiding technique in the wavelet transform domain.     

Exact Analysis of Non-Linear Fractionalized Jeffrey Fluid. A Novel Approach of Atangana-Baleanu Fractional Model

It is a very difficult task for the researchers to find the exact solutions to mathematical problems that contain non-linear terms in the equation. Therefore, this article aims to investigate the viscous dissipation (VD) effect on the fractional model of Jeffrey fluid over a heated vertical flat plate that suddenly moves in its own plane. Based on the Atangana-Baleanu operator, the fractional model is developed from the fractional constitutive equations. VD is responsible for the non-linear behavior in the problem. Upon taking the Laplace and Fourier sine transforms, exact expressions have been obtained for momentum and energy equations. The influence of relative parameters on fluid flow and temperature distribution is shown graphically. As special cases, and for the sake of correctness, the corresponding results for second-grade fluid and Newtonian viscous fluid are also obtained. It is interesting to note that fractional parameter α provides more than one line as compared to the classical model. This effect represents the memory effect in the fluid which is not possible to elaborate by the classical model. It is also worth noting that the temperature profile of the generalized Jeffrey fluid rises for higher values of Eckert number which is due to the enthalpy difference of the boundary layer.     

Ubi-App: a ubiquitous application for universal access from handheld devices

Universal access from a handheld device (such as a PDA, cell phone) at any time or anywhere is now a reality. Ubicomp Assistant (UA) (Sharmin et al. in Proceedings of the 21st annual ACM symposium on applied computing (ACM SAC 2006), Dijon, France, pp 1013–1017, 2006) is an integral service of MARKS (Sharmin et al. in Proceedings of the third international conference on information technology: new generations (ITNG 2006), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, pp 306–313, 2006). It is a middleware developed for handheld devices, and has been designed to accommodate different types of users (e.g., education, healthcare, marketing, or business). This customizable service employs the ubiquitous nature of current short range, low-power wireless connectivity and readily available, low-cost lightweight mobile devices. These devices can reach other neighbouring devices using a free short-range ad hoc network. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the UA service is the only service designed for these devices. This paper presents the details of Ubi-App, a ubiquitous application for universal access from any handheld device, which uses UA as a service. The results of a usability test and performance evaluation of the prototype show that Ubi-App is useful, easy to use, easy to install, and does not degrade the performance of the device.