Improving communication skills of children with autism through support of applied behavioral analysis treatments using multimedia computing: a survey

Universal Access in the Information Society - Naturalistic applied behavior analysis (ABA) techniques have been shown to help children with autism improve their communication skills. Recognizing...     

A subject-independent method for automatically grading electromyographic features during a fatiguing contraction

Many studies have attempted to monitor fatigue from electromyogram (EMG) signals. However, fatigue affects EMG in a subject-specific manner. We present here a subject-independent framework for monitoring the changes in EMG features that accompany muscle fatigue based on principal component analysis and factor analysis. The proposed framework is based on several time- and frequency-domain features, unlike most of the existing work, which is based on two to three features. Results show that latent factors obtained from factor analysis on these features provide a robust and unified framework. This framework learns a model from EMG signals of multiple subjects, that form a reference group, and monitors the changes in EMG features during a sustained submaximal contraction on a test subject on a scale from zero to one. The framework was tested on EMG signals collected from 12 muscles of eight healthy subjects. The distribution of factor scores of the test subject, when mapped onto the framework was similar for both the subject-specific and subject-independent cases.     

Texture characterization for joint compression and classification based on human perception in the wavelet domain.

Today's multimedia applications demand sophisticated compression and classification techniques in order to store, transmit, and retrieve audio-visual information efficiently. Over the last decade, perceptually based image compression methods have been gaining importance. These methods take into account the abilities (and the limitations) of human visual perception (HVP) when performing compression. The upcoming MPEG 7 standard also addresses the need for succinct classification and indexing of visual content for efficient retrieval. However, there has been no research that has attempted to exploit the characteristics of the human visual system to perform both compression and classification jointly. One area of HVP that has unexplored potential for joint compression and classification is spatial frequency perception. Spatial frequency content that is perceived by humans can be characterized in terms of three parameters, which are: 1) magnitude; 2) phase; and 3) orientation. While the magnitude of spatial frequency content has been exploited in several existing image compression techniques, the novel contribution of this paper is its focus on the use of phase coherence for joint compression and classification in the wavelet domain. Specifically, this paper describes a human visual system-based method for measuring the degree to which an image contains coherent (perceptible) phase information, and then exploits that information to provide joint compression and classification. Simulation results that demonstrate the efficiency of this method are presented.     

In-situ generation of large microporous skeleton in mesoporous silica framework using different dicarboxylic acids

Mesoporous Santa Barbara Amorphous-15 is known to possess a small fraction of micropores, in the walls of mesopores. The ratio of micropore to mesopore area can have a profound influence on the application of this highly ordered material in various fields. The present work aims to investigate the influence of dicarboxylic acids as organic structure interrupting agents on the micropore to mesopore ratio. The physiochemical characterization of the synthesized samples including electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms, MAS ²⁹Si-NMR, FT-IR demonstrate a distinct change in the morphology and micropore area due to the different dicarboxylic acids used during synthesis. Our results show that the decrease in chain length of the dicarboxylic acid has a direct relation to the increase in micropore area which has a significant role in the adsorption properties of mesoporous silica. Thus the dicarboxylic acid mediated tuning of the micropores area of mesoporous silica can be used for various applications.     

1,2,3-Triazolophanes—Cyclophanes with an Array of Molecular Structures and Supramolecular Architectures

1,2,3-Triazolophanes are a class of cyclophanes that has attracted enormous attention in recent times. With the advent of the intramolecular copper-mediated alkyne azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction 1,2,3-triazolophanes of various molecular structure and supramolecular architecture have been synthesized. 1,2,3-Triazolophanes find a variety of applications as molecular hosts, ion sensors, peptidomimics, and supramolecular building blocks, among others.     

Optical and Electrical Properties of Colloidal Quantum Dots in Electrolytic Environments: Using Biomolecular Links in Chemically-Directed Assembly of Quantum Dot Networks

The threshold of the absorption spectra of colloidal cadmium sulfide (CdS) quantum dots in electrolytic solutions is shown to shift as the concentration of the electrolyte is varied. The shift in the absorption threshold as a function of the electrolytic concentration is given by electrolytic screening of the field caused by the intrinsic spontaneous polarization of these würtzite quantum dots. These electrolyte-dependent absorption properties are compared with Fermi-level tuning in carbon nanotubes in electrolytic environments.Moreover, concepts for integrating such colloidal quantum dots in high density networks with biomolecular links are discussed. Such biomolecular links are used to facilitate the chemically-directed assembly of quantum dots networks with densities approximating 10¹⁷ cm⁻³.