Synthesis and properties of chitosan-modified poly(vinyl butyrate)

Modification of chitosan by grafting of vinyl butyrate was carried out in homogeneous phase using potassium persulfate as redox initator and 1.5% acetic acid as solvent. The percent grafting and grafting efficiency were analysed and the high grafting efficiency up to 94% was observed. The effects of reaction variables such as monomer concentration, initiator concentration, temperature and reaction time were investigated. It was observed that the solubility of chitosan was markedly reduced after grafting with vinyl butyrate. The grafted product is insoluble in common organic solvents as well in dilute organic and inorganic acids. Characterization of the graft copolymers were carried out by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technics. Characteristic signal of carbonyl group was observed at 1,731 cm⁻¹ which belongs to the poly vinyl butyrate segments in the graft copolymer. The melting transition of the chitosan main chain in the copolymer shifted to 124°C from its original value 101°C. In addition to these, we have also studied topology of the graft copolymer and the SEM micrograph showed continuous homogenous matrix which means there is no phase separation.     

Fusion of smartphone sensor data for classification of daily user activities

Multimedia Tools and Applications - New mobile applications need to estimate user activities by using sensor data provided by smart wearable devices and deliver context-aware solutions to users...     

一种基于DaVinci DM 6446的非标准VGA接口设计与实现*

针对DaVinci数字媒体处理器应用系统中525/625P视频图像在VGA显示器上的显示方法,利用DaVinci SOC处理器视频处理子系统（VPSS）中视频处理后端（VPBE）硬件,完成了一种非标准VGA接口硬件和驱动程序软件的设计与实现,获得更好的视频显示质量,并扩展了DaVinci数字媒体应用系统的显示终端类型。     

Graphene oxide-containing isocyanate-based polyimide foams: Enhanced thermal stability and flame retardancy

Isocyanate-based graphene oxide-containing polyimide foams were synthesized by a semi-prepolymer method. In this method, while the first solution containing pre-polymer was derived from pyromellitic dianhydride and excess polymethylene polyphenylene isocyanate (PM200), the second solution contains dianhydride derivatives, water, catalysts, surfactants, and graphene oxide. PIFs were prepared with 0%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, and 1% graphene oxide by weight, respectively. PIFs exhibited a minimum side reaction and urea generation was not seen for all PIFs instead of imide bonding. The addition of graphene oxide (GO) leads to a more close-packed structure. Therefore, crosslinking density and thermal stability of graphene oxide-containing polyimide foams increased. Upon the addition of 1% GO, almost seven times higher compression strength was obtained compared to neat PIFs. Also, LOI values supported the theory that thermally stable and flame retardant PIFs can be synthesized via the isocyanate-based process with GO.     

Crystal structural refinement of the new compound TmAlB14

Single crystals of the new phase TmAlB₁₄ were grown using the high-temperature solution method. The crystal structure of TmAlB₁₄ was refined from X-ray powder diffraction data using the Rietveld method. The structure is of MgAlB₁₄-type with the space group Imma and unit cell parameters a = 5.8212(3) Å, B = 10.3837(2) Å and C = 8.1762(3) Å. The final, conventional R-valve and profile R-value are 0.031 and 0.064, respectively. The structure is characterized by a partial occupancy of both metal positions and a splitting of the thulium atomic position.     

Two CEGAR-based approaches for the safety verification of PLC-controlled plants

In this paper we address the safety analysis of chemical plants controlled by programmable logic controllers (PLCs). We consider a specification of the control program of the PLCs, extended with the specification of the dynamic plant behavior. The resulting hybrid models can be transformed to hybrid automata, for which advanced techniques for reachability analysis exist. However, the hybrid automata models are often too large to be analyzed. We propose two counterexample-guided abstraction refinement (CEGAR) approaches to keep the size of the hybrid models moderate.     

Contract-based verification of discrete-time multi-rate Simulink models

This paper presents an approach to modular contract-based verification of discrete-time multi-rate Simulink models. The verification approach uses a translation of Simulink models to sequential programs that can then be verified using traditional software verification techniques. Automatic generation of the proof obligations needed for verification of correctness with respect to contracts, and automatic proofs are also discussed. Furthermore, the paper provides detailed discussions about the correctness of each step in the verification process. The verification approach is demonstrated on a case study involving control software for prevention of pressure peaks in hydraulics systems.     

Perceptually enhanced blind single-channel music source separation by Non-negative Matrix Factorization

We propose a new approach that improves perceptual quality of the separated sources in blind single-channel musical source separation. It uses the advantages of subspace learning based on Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) in which the bases represent the notes. The cost function is formulated in the form of weighted β-divergence by adopting the PEAQ auditory model defined in ITU-R BS.1387 into the source separation. The proposed perceptually weighted factorization scheme is integrated into the Non-negative Matrix Factor 2-D Deconvolution (NMF2D) and Clustered Non-negative Matrix Factorization (CNMF) to overcome the source clustering problem encountered in under-determined source separation. It is shown that the introduced perceptually weighted NMF schemes, named as PW-NMF2D and PW-CNMF, efficiently learn the bases that enable us to apply a simple resynthesis of the musical sources based on the temporal model stored in the encoding matrix. Source separation performance has been reported on musical mixtures where 1–2 dB improvement is achieved in terms of SDR, SIR and SAR compared to the state-of-the-art methods. Performance has also been evaluated by perceptual measures resulting an improvement of 2–5 in OPS, TPS, IPS and APS values.