Emotion recognition from spontaneous speech using emotional vowel-like regions

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Spontaneous speech varies in terms of characteristics such as emotion, volume, and pitch. Emotion, itself, is not uniformly distributed across an utterance. The...     

Thermal stability of nanocrystalline Al−10Fe−5Cr bulk alloy

Thermal stability of nanocrystalline Al?10wt.%Fe?5wt.%Cr bulk alloy was investigated. The initial micro-grained mixture of powders was processed for 100 h using mechanical alloying (MA) to produce nano-grained alloy. The processed powders were sintered using high frequency induction heat sintering (HFIHS). The microstructures of the processed alloy in the form of powders and bulk samples were investigated using XRD, FESEM and HRTEM. Microhardness and compression tests were conducted on the bulk samples for evaluating their mechanical properties. To evaluate the thermal stability of the bulk samples, they were experimented at 573, 623, 673 and 723 K under compression load at strain rates of 1×10^?1 and 1×10^?2 s^?1. The annealed samples exhibited a significant increase in their microhardness value of 2.65 GPa when being annealed at 723 K, as compared to 2.25 GPa of the as-sintered alloy. The bulk alloy revealed compressive strengths of 520 MPa and 450 MPa at 300 K and 723 K, respectively, when applying a strain rate of 1×10^?1 s^?1. The microstructural stability of the bulk alloy was ascribed to the formation of iron and chromium containing phases with Al such as Al₆Fe, Al₁₃Fe₄ and Al₁₃Cr₂, in addition to the supersaturated solid solution (SSSS) of Cr and Fe in Al matrix.     

N-doped reduced graphene oxide anchored with δTa2O5 for energy and environmental remediation: Efficient light-driven hydrogen evolution and simultaneous degradation of textile dyes

Precipitation assisted facile hydrothermal method has been developed for anchoring nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (NRGO) with tantalum pentoxide (TO) denoted as TO@NRGO. Synthesized materials were characterized using spectroscopic, optical and microscopic techniques and confirm transforming TO from orthorhombic to hexagonal phase (δ) upon anchoring with NRGO. TO@NRGO, TO and NRGO have been evaluated for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, degradation of Methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB). The enhanced photocatalytic activity was observed in TO@NRGO nanocomposite compared to TO and NRGO due to decreased bandgap (2.5 eV) and increased surface area (312 m² g^?1). TO@NRGO evolved 19,500 µmol g^?1 of hydrogen for 3 h. TO@NRGO showed better degradation efficiency of 94 and 88% at a time of 100 min for MB and RhB, respectively. The parameters involved in photocatalytic dye degradation, like the effect of pH, catalyst dosage, and initial concentration of dyes, have been carefully optimized to achieve maximum performance of the catalyst. The stability and reusability of TO@NRGO are good and managed to degrade dyes effectively even after the 5th run. Thus, TO@NRGO could serve as a choice of material in resolving the issues related to energy and the environment.     

Development of Graphene Oxide Nanosheets as Potential Biomaterials in Cancer Therapeutics: An In-Vitro Study Against Breast Cancer Cell Line

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - Recent advances in nanotechnology and nano biomaterials have attracted considerable attention in the field of cancer therapy. The...     

Prediction of Time Series Empowered with a Novel SREKRLS Algorithm

For the unforced dynamical non-linear statespace model, a new Q1 and efficient square root extended kernel recursive least square estimation algorithm is developed in this article. The proposed algorithm lends itself towards the parallel implementation as in the FPGA systems. With the help of an ortho-normal triangularization method, which relies on numerically stable givens rotation, matrix inversion causes a computational burden, is reduced. Matrix computation possesses many excellent numerical properties such as singularity, symmetry, skew symmetry, and triangularity is achieved by using this algorithm. The proposed method is validated for the prediction of stationary and non-stationary MackeyGlass Time Series, along with that a component in the x-direction of the Lorenz Times Series is also predicted to illustrate its usefulness. By the learning curves regarding mean square error (MSE) are witnessed for demonstration with prediction performance of the proposed algorithm from where it’s concluded that the proposed algorithm performs better than EKRLS. This new SREKRLS based design positively offers an innovative era towards non-linear systolic arrays, which is efficient in developing very-large-scale integration (VLSI) applications with non-linear input data. Multiple experiments are carried out to validate the reliability, effectiveness, and applicability of the proposed algorithm and with different noise levels compared to the Extended kernel recursive least-squares (EKRLS) algorithm.     

Three-dimensionally cross-linked styrene-methyl methacrylate-divinyl benzene terpolymer networks for organic solvents and crude oil absorption

The present study reports, high-performance polymer absorbents for crude oil and organic solvents based on 3D cross-linked polystyrene-polymethyl methacrylate/divinyl benzene (PS-PMMA/DVB). The preparation of the 3D cross-linked polymer absorbents has been carried out by bulk polymerization method using styrene (S) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomers in the presence of DVB with azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator. The prepared cross-linked polymer absorbents were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry, and dynamic mechanical analyses. The absorption kinetics, thermodynamics of the absorption process as well as the recyclability of the cross-linked polymer absorbents were investigated in detail. The developed 3D cross-linked PS-PMMA/DVB absorbents have demonstrated excellent absorption capacities for both organic solvents and crude oil. For instance, the developed polymer absorbent (PS-PMMA/DVB [1 wt%]) shows a maximum absorption capacity of 12 g/g for chloroform_, 6 g/g for tetrahydrofuran, and 3 g/g for crude oil. The absorption capacities by the polymer absorbents show a direct relationship with the polarity of the solvents. Moreover, the change of absorption capacity after several repeated cycles of absorption/desorption was only marginal. The demonstrated absorption capacities and the excellent recyclability make polymer absorbents as potential candidates for the oilfield applications and produced water treatments.     

Synthesis,thermal, dielectric,and microwave reflection loss properties of nickel oxide filler with natural fiber-reinforced polymer composite

Fabrication of hybrid composite of nickel oxide (NiO) combined with oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) reinforced with polycaprolactone (PCL) has been done by using thermal Haake blending machine, which ensured mixture homogeneity. All hybrid composites' characterizations were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, differential thermogravimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the XRD profile patterns of the composites clearly changed as the filler loading amount was increased. Fourier transform infrared spectra illustrated a slight change in the frequencies and positions of the peaks after adding NiO, indicating that some interactions occurred between C=O and O–H or among the fiber, NiO, and PCL. The microwave electromagnetic properties, such as reflection loss (dB), relative complex permittivity (ε_r =–j), and permeability (−j) were calculated at various microwave frequencies in the X-band (8–12 GHz) range. It was observed that the thermal stability, magnetic, and dielectric properties of NiO:OPEFB:PCL composites were modified significantly with NiO addition. This enables the new hybrid composites to be used as engineering materials in the microwave applications. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 46998.