A convolutional neural network to classify American Sign Language fingerspelling from depth and colour images

Sign language is used by approximately 70 million ( http://wfdeaf.org/human‐rights/crpd/sign‐language ) people throughout the world, and an automatic tool for interpreting it could make a major impact on communication between those who use it and those who may not understand it. However, computer interpretation of sign language is very difficult given the variability in size, shape, and position of the fingers or hands in an image. Hence, this paper explores the applicability of deep learning for interpreting sign language and develops a convolutional neural network aimed at classifying fingerspelling images using both image intensity and depth data. The developed convolutional network is evaluated by applying it to the problem of fingerspelling recognition for American Sign Language. The evaluation shows that the developed convolutional network performs better than previous studies and has precision of 82% and recall of 80%. Analysis of the confusion matrix from the evaluation reveals the underlying difficulties of classifying some particular signs, which are discussed in the paper.     

Triple band omnidirectional miniaturized metamaterial inspired antenna using flipped rectangular stub for LTE,WiMAX, and WLAN applications

In this article, a miniaturized metamaterial (MTM) inspired antenna with triple band characteristics is presented for LTE/WLAN/WiMAX applications. The antenna mainly consists of a square shaped split ring resonator (SRR) with rectangular stub connected in the outward direction. Due to inward flipping of the same rectangular stub leads to 20% antenna miniaturization without degrading the resonance behavior. The SRR produces first and second band, while the third band is enhanced due to flipping of inward stub and addition of rectangular type slot in the partial ground plane. The antenna exhibits tri‐band characteristics with each bands centered at 2.23, 3.65, and 5.13 GHz, having ?10 dB impedance bandwidth of 9.42%, 12.88% and 15.34% for the first, second, and third band, respectively. The antenna has a footprint size as low as 0.16 λ₀ × 0.18 λ₀ × 0.012 λ₀ corresponding to 2.23 GHz with a measured gain of 2.22, 2.31, and 1.98 dBi., and measured radiation efficiency of 70%, 72.75% and 82.57% in the three bands, respectively. The prototype of the antenna is fabricated and simulated results are verified through measurements.     

Compact ultrathin conformal metamaterial dual‐band absorber for curved surfaces

A compact, ultrathin conformal metamaterial dual‐band absorber for curved surfaces has been presented in this article. The absorber unit cell composed of circular and split ring resonators which are connected with plus‐shaped structure. The proposed absorber unit cell is compact in size (0.22λ_o × 0.22λ_o) and as well as ultrathin thickness (0.006λ_o), where λ_o is the wavelength at 5.8 GHz. The designed absorber gives two absorption tips at 5.8 and 7.7 GHz with more than 90% absorptivity. The full width at half maximum bandwidths are 220 MHz (5.67‐5.89 GHz) and 250 MHz (7.58‐7.83 GHz). The proposed conformal absorber is sensitive to the polarization angle and has a stable absorptivity over a wide range of incident electromagnetic wave. The parametric analysis and equivalent transmission line model have been investigated. The surface current and electric field distribution also discussed for understanding the absorption mechanism. To analyze the performance of proposed absorber on the curved surfaces, it is wrapped on the different radius of cylindrical surface and measured the absorptivity. Simulated and measured results have good agreement between them.     

Linearly polarized emission from PTCDI-C8 one-dimensional microstructures

Linearly polarized emission has been observed from a crystalline one-dimensional (1D) microstructure fabricated from N,N′-dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide (PTCDI-C₈) molecules via solution phase self-assembly. Rotating microscopy imaging of a 1D microstructure under crossed polarization was performed for the investigation of polarized emission. The anisotropy birefringence was maximum only when the 1D microstructure was aligned 45° to the direction of the polarizer and it was minimum when aligned parallel to the polarizer implying that the transmission axis of the 1D microstructure is perpendicular to its π–π stacking direction. A model has been proposed to explain linearly polarized emission from the microstructure.     

Bench Scale Studies for Pretreatment of Sanitary Landfill Leachate with Moringa Oleifera Seeds Extract

A laboratory study using a bench scale model of two unit operations involved processes of coagulation (using Moringa oleifera seeds as a natural coagulant) and flocculation-sedimentation have been adopted to treat the leachate from Air Hitam Sanitary Landfill at Puchong in Malaysia. The results of this study has shown, that M. oleifera has a potential for the removal of heavy metals from the leachate, and may be used as a pre-treatment stage for biological treatment to eliminate a portion of the toxic heavy metals, which limit the activity of micro-organisms in the leachate.     

Particle/cell separation on microfluidic platforms based on centrifugation effect: a review

Particle/cell separation in heterogeneous mixtures including biological samples is a standard sample preparation step for various biomedical assays. A wide range of microfluidic-based methods have been proposed for particle/cell sorting and isolation. Two promising microfluidic platforms for this task are microfluidic chips and centrifugal microfluidic disks. In this review, we focus on particle/cell isolation methods that are based on liquid centrifugation phenomena. Under this category, we reviewed particle/cell sorting methods which have been performed on centrifugal microfluidic platforms, and inertial microfluidic platforms that contain spiral channels and multi-orifice channels. All of these platforms implement a form of centrifuge-based particle/cell separation: either physical platform centrifugation in the case of centrifugal microfluidic platforms or liquid centrifugation due to Dean drag force in the case of inertial microfluidics. Centrifugal microfluidic platforms are suitable for cases where the preparation step of a raw sample is required to be integrated on the same platform. However, the limited available space on the platform is the main disadvantage, especially when high sample volume is required. On the other hand, inertial microfluidics (spiral and multi-orifice) showed various advantages such as simple design and fabrication, the ability to process large sample volume, high throughput, high recovery rate, and the ability for multiplexing for improved performance. However, the utilization of syringe pump can reduce the portability options of the platform. In conclusion, the requirement of each application should be carefully considered prior to platform selection.     

Experimental study of warm-air defrosting of heat-pump evaporators

The defrosting of a heat-pump evaporator with warm air has been investigated experimentally under controlled conditions in an air-conditioned wind tunnel. The work was initiated to explore the possibility of defrosting an evaporator under conditions where a heat pump continues to perform heating duty. A four-row straight-fin heat exchanger was used, supported from below by a load transducer to measure its weight variation during both frost accumulation and removal. The rate of melting was determined as a function of air temperature, relative humidity and velocity. The removal from the evaporator surfaces of water produced by defrosting was found to be dependent on air velocity. Proposals are advanced for further experimental studies.     

Influence of seed layer treatment on low temperature grown ZnO nanotubes: Performances in dye sensitized solar cells

Non-aligned and highly densely aligned ZnO nanotube (NTs), synthesized by low temperature solution method were applied as photoanode materials for the fabrication of efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The crystalline and the morphological analysis revealed that the grown aligned ZnO NTs possessed a typical hexagonal crystal structure of outer and inner diameter ∼250 nm and ∼100 nm, respectively. ZnO seeding on FTO substrates is an essential step to achieve the aligned ZnO NTs. A DSSC fabricated with aligned ZnO NTs photoanode achieved high solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency of ∼2.2% with short circuit current (J_SC) of 5.5 mA/cm², open circuit voltage (V_OC) of 0.65 V and fill factor (FF) of 0.61. Significantly, the aligned ZnO NTs photoanode showed three times improved solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency than DSSC fabricated with non-aligned ZnO NTs. The enhanced performances were credited to the aligned morphology of ZnO NTs which executed the high charge collection and the transfer of electrons at the interfaces of ZnO NTs and electrolyte layer.     

Synthesis and characterization of high-purity silica nanosphere from rice husk

The work reports the synthesis, characterization, and the properties of high-purity silica nanospheres from low-cost rice husk. Primarily, the rice husk was washed with distilled water (DW) and subjected to acid leaching to remove the impurities. The treated rice husk was annealed at different temperatures (620 and 900 degrees C) for varied time periods to achive the desirable silica nanospheres. The annealing temperature and time considerably affected the properties of the synthesized silica nanospheres. The morphology studies confirmed that the size of nanospheres were of approximately 50-60 nm. The photoluminesence studies revealed that the synthesized silica nanospheres showed less structural defects and good optical properties. On the basis of the formation and the characterization of silica nanospheres a possible mechanism was suggested. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis confirmed that the synthesized silica nanospheres contained approximately 99.93% purity.