Ground-based hyperspectral imaging as a tool to identify different carbonate phases in natural cliffs

Recent research has shown hyperspectral imaging to be a powerful tool to distinguish carbonate phases with slight compositional differences on quarry cliff faces. The traditional remote sensing set-up uses an optimal short distance between the hyperspectral camera mounted on a tripod and a quarry wall characterized by a planar, mostly unweathered surface. Here we present results of a modified workflow geared to the application of ground-based hyperspectral imaging of rough and weathered cliff faces in order to map large scale dolomite bodies from a distance of up to several kilometres. The goal of the study was to determine unique spectral properties of fracture-controlled dolomite bodies in order to be able to distinguish them from a dolomitic host rock. In addition, the impact of weathering on carbonate phases and thus, the modification of the spectral signature between altered and unaltered carbonates is assessed. The spectral analysis is complemented by ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy) measurements of the spectrally measured powders. Furthermore, we examined the detection limits and characterisation potential of dolomite bodies from hyperspectral images captured at varying distances from cliff faces in the study area. Hyperspectral images of 10 natural cliffs distributed across the Central Oman Mountains were obtained with a Push broom scanner system. The high resolution of 5.45 nm (288 bands in total) enabled the visualization of small-scale changes in the near infrared continuous spectrum of all present lithofacies types. The determination of dolomite bodies of varying sizes (metre to hundreds of metres) on natural cliffs was achieved with the hyperspectral mapping approach and mapping results have been tested with the position of visually defined dolomite bodies on field panoramas. Spectra of natural cliffs contain a strong absorption peak indicative for iron which is absent in spectra of unweathered sample powders. However, ICP-AES analysis of powders revealed relatively low contents of iron of 12,392 ppm. The strong peaks in field images are interpreted as linked to intensive weathering associated with the precepitation of goethite, hematite, specularite and manganese as well as intensive dedolomitization. Dedolomitization is indicated by calcitic spectra derived from the dolomite bodies. The spectral difference of laboratory and field spectra interferes significantly the application of laboratory spectra of powdered samples for the identification of dolomite bodies in the field. Furthermore, the process of late dedolomitization puts an additional challenge on the determination of dolomite bodies. Due to these strong spectral variations between laboratory and field spectra, we recommend that the mapping approaches should not solely rely on spectral algorithms but also consider normal light field panoramas and representative outcrop analysis. We also note that the quality of resolution is too low for the determination of small-scale variations of diagenetic phases at distances larger than 4 km. However, when the limitations mentioned are taken into account, hyperspectral imaging proves to be a powerful tool that helps in the determination of the distribution of diagenetic phases, even in challenging conditions.     

Ductile damage prediction of AA 5754 sheet during cold forming condition

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - Aluminium sheet parts manufactured by cold-forming processes are subjected to ductile damage due to the plastic deformation. Tool design based on the...     

Using the expert system to analyze loom performance

In this paper, the development of a warp tension simulation is presented. A system analysis of modern weaving machines led to a suitable simulation model to calculate the warp tension. The validation of the simulation demonstrates that the results correspond well with reality. In a second step, an improved model of this simulation was used in combination with a genetic algorithm and a gradient-based method to calculate optimized setting parameters for the weaving process. In order to do so, a cost function was defined taking into account a desired course of the warp tension. Actually, it is known, that a low and constant warp tension course is suitable for weaving. Using the genetic algorithm or the gradient-based method leads to optimized weaving machine parameters. Both algorithms do get nearly the same results for the optimized weaving machine setting. Applying the optimized setting parameters on a loom did not demonstrate that the productivity of a weaving machine can be raised. Analysis of the produced fabrics did not show an influence of optimization on the fabric quality. The reduction of warp tension was not sufficient in order to have an impact on the mechanical properties of the fabric. Thus, fabric defects could be eliminated using the optimized weaving machine settings.     

A proposed integrated model of lean assessment and analytical hierarchy process for a dynamic road map of lean implementation

Lean is a well-approved strategy to enhance quality, improve productivity, and reduce cost via eliminating all non-value-added activities. The absence of a standard model for implementing lean and the strong need for a “road map” or “systematic approach” that set the priorities of enterprise’s perspectives for improvement are essential for enterprise success. A lean radar score (LRS) alone is not enough to define the perspective priorities for improvement to achieve the leanness condition. Other elements have to be considered in order to have the optimum route of implementing lean, including cost, benefits, time of completion, technological capabilities, administrative constraints, and the degree of involved risk. Based on that, an integrated model of lean assessment and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is proposed to define the route of lean implementation based on the perspective priorities for improvement. The proposed path is dynamic and can vary according to the situation of the enterprise. Consistency test is used to ensure that the experts’ judgment in assigning weights within the AHP model does not contain contradiction, and sensitivity analysis is used to verify the robustness of decision regarding the optimum route for lean implementation.     

Sparsity-based no-reference image quality assessment for automatic denoising

In image and video denoising, a quantitative measure of genuine image content, noise, and blur is required to facilitate quality assessment, when the ground truth is not available. In this paper, we present a no-reference image quality assessment for denoising applications, which examines local image structure using orientation dominancy and patch sparsity. We propose a fast method to find the dominant orientation of image patches, which is used to decompose them into singular values. Combining singular values with the sparsity of the patch in the transform domain, we measure the possible image content and noise of the patches and of the whole image. We show that the proposed method is useful to select parameters of denoising algorithms automatically in different noise scenarios such as white Gaussian and processed noise. Our objective and subjective results confirm the correspondence between the measured quality and the ground truth. We show that the proposed method rivals related state-of-the-art no-reference quality assessment approaches.     

Path Capsule Networks

Neural Processing Letters - Capsule network (CapsNet) was introduced as an enhancement over convolutional neural networks, supplementing the latter’s invariance properties with equivariance...     

Energy-efficient and Secure Wireless Communication for Telemedicine in IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a radical shifting paradigm for technological innovations as it can play critical roles in cyberspace applications in various sectors, such as security, monitoring, medical, and environmental sectors, and also in control and industrial applications. The IoT in E-medicine unleashed the design space for new technologies to give instant treatment to patients while also monitoring and tracking health conditions. This research presents a system-level architecture approach for IoT energy efficiency and security. The proposed architecture includes functional components that provide privacy management and system security. Components in the security function group provide secure communications through Multi-Authority Ciphertext-Policy Attributes-Based Encryption (MA-CPABE). Because MA-CPABE is assigned to unlimited devices, presuming that the devices are reliable, the user encodes data with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and protects the ABE approach using the solutions of symmetric key. The Johnson’s algorithm with a new computation measure is used to increase network lifetime since an individual sensor node with limited energy represents the inevitable constraints for the broad usage of wireless sensor networks. The optimal route from a source to destination turns out as the cornerstone for longevity of network and its sustainability. To reduce the energy consumption of networks, the evaluation measures consider the node’s residual energy, the number of neighbors, their distance, and the link dependability. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed model increases network life by about 12.25% (27.73%) compared to Floyd–Warshall’s, Bellman–Ford’s, and Dijkstra’s algorithms, lowering consumption of energy by eliminating the necessity for re-routing the message as a result of connection failure.     

Some effects of copper-oxide additions to Co0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4

A series of samples of the system Co_0.6Zn_0.4Cu _x Fe_{2 –x} O₄ (x=0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8) were prepared by the usual ceramic technique, X-ray analysis showed that the samples were cubic spinels (single phase). The lattice parameter, the theoretical density,D _x, the bulk density,D, and the porosity, p, were measured for the samples. The lattice parameter increased with the increase in Cu. Increases in the population of Fe²⁺ ions in octahedral sites with the introduction of Cu²⁺ resulted in increases in the lattice parameter. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) traces showed that there were exothermic peaks for the samples in the temperature range 120–190 C.     

RAID 4SMR: RAID Array with Shingled Magnetic Recording Disk for Mass Storage Systems

One way to increase storage density is using a shingled magnetic recording (SMR) disk. We propose a novel use of SMR disks with RAID (redundant array of independent disks) arrays, specifically building upon and compared with a basic RAID 4 arrangement. The proposed scheme (called RAID 4SMR) has the potential to improve the performance of a traditional RAID 4 array with SMR disks. Our evaluation shows that compared with the standard RAID 4, when using update in-place in RAID arrays, RAID 4SMR with garbage collection not just can allow the adoption of SMR disks with a reduced performance penalty, but offers a performance improvement of up to 56%.

     

Radiation pattern control of core shell nanoantenna by manipulation of nonlinear properties

Microsystem Technologies - In this article, a new structure of core–shell spherical nanoparticle as nanoantenna has been evaluated in which the main lobe direction of its radiation pattern is...