An integrated framework for product line design for modular products: product attribute and functionality-driven perspective

The purpose of this research is to facilitate original equipment manufacturers operating in a single market segment to frame their product line design strategy that pertains to offering right product attributes with right attribute level in the right product profile within a market segment. Through this research, we attempt to establish a link between functional level design of product attributes with commercial objectives of the enterprise. Initially, by deriving the functional importance of product attribute levels of individual product attributes within a product profile, demand and functional importance data are generated. Utilising the function-based cost estimating framework and multi-linear regression methodology, we determine the cost and product development time coefficients for respective product attributes. Finally, a mixed integer quadratic programming-based mathematical formulation is developed that includes maximisation of product premium and minimisation of various costs as major objectives under the assumption that manufacturer seeks to offer optimal number of product profiles within the market segment. Employing the commercial solver LINGO, the integrated framework is solved. The entire framework is illustrated using the operator cabin of heavy construction machinery.     

Entropy difference-based early skip detection technique for high-efficiency video coding

Recently, high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) has been developed as a new video coding standard focusing on the coding of ultrahigh definition videos as high-resolution and high-quality videos are getting more popular. However, one of the most important challenges in this new standard is its encoding time complexity. Due to this it is quite difficult to implement the HEVC encoder as a real-time system. In this paper, we have addressed this problem in a new way. Generally, for a natural video sequence good amount of coding blocks are “skip” in nature, which need not be transmitted and can be generated in the decoder side using the reference pictures. In this paper, we propose an early skip detection technique for the HEVC. Our proposed method is based on identifying the motionless and homogeneous regions in a video sequence. Moreover, a novel entropy difference-based calculation is proposed in this paper which can predict the skip coding blocks more accurately in a natural video sequence. The experimental result shows our proposed technique can achieve more than 30 % encoding time reduction than the conventional HEVC encoder with negligible degradation in video quality.     

EchoFakeD: improving fake news detection in social media with an efficient deep neural network

Neural Computing and Applications - The increasing popularity of social media platforms has simplified the sharing of news articles that have led to the explosion in fake news. With the emergence...     

The dielectric behavior of the natural resin manila copal

The dielectric relaxation data of the natural resin Manila copal, obtained by Bhattacharya,¹ has been analyzed by the Cole–Cole method at temperatures from 30° to 150°C. Two distinct relaxation processes were found for temperatures of 70°, 80°, and 90°C as opposed to only one as observed by Bhattacharya.¹ The relaxation at 100°C and at higher temperatures could be represented by the typical Cole–Cole patterns. The variation by temperature of the static dielectric constant (ε₀) exhibited three distinct slopes, which indicated the different phases of the resin during thermal transformation. Two “transformation points”, around 70° and 100°C, were found instead of only one at 105°C as observed by Bhattacharya.¹ The static dielectric constant, the dielectric increment, the Cole–Cole distribution parameter, and the relaxation time decreased markedly owing to the increase of temperature from 100° to 150°C. These indicated some changes in conformation of the resin molecules during transition from the solid to the liquid state.     

Novolac resin–poly(ethyl methacrylate) interpenetrating polymer networks: Morphology and mechanical and thermal properties

Full interpenetrating networks (IPNs) and semi‐IPNs of Novolac (phenolic) resin and poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA) were prepared by the sequential mode of synthesis. These were characterized with respect to their mechanical properties, that is, ultimate tensile strength (UTS), percentage elongation at break, modulus, and toughness. Thermal properties were studied by DSC and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The morphological features were studied through polarizing light microscopy (PLM). The effects of variation of the blend ratios on the above‐mentioned properties were examined. There was a gradual decrease of modulus and UTS with consequent increases in elongation at break and toughness for both types of IPNs with increasing proportions of PEMA. An inward shift and lowering (with respect to pure phenolic resin) of the glass‐transition temperatures of the IPNs with increasing proportions of PEMA were observed, thus indicating a plasticizing influence of PEMA on the rigid and brittle matrix of crosslinked phenolic resin. The TGA thermograms exhibit two‐step degradation patterns. Although there was an apparent increase in thermal stability at the initial stages, particularly at lower temperatures, a substantial decrease in thermal stability was observed in the regions of higher temperatures. The surface morphology as revealed by PLM clearly indicates two‐phase structures in all the full and semi‐IPNs, irrespective of PEMA content. The matrix–PEMA domain interfaces are quite sharp at higher concentrations of PEMA. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 412–420, 2003     

A nondestructive spray reagent for the detection of prostaglandins and other lipids on thin layer chromatograms

The spray reagent 8-hydroxy-1,3,6-pyrenetrisulfonic acid trisodium salt (10 mg/100 ml methanol) is extremely sensitive for locating prostaglandins on thin layer chromatograms. This reagent does not alter the PG, nor interfere with liquid scintillation counting.     

An Interactive Computational Design Tool for Large Reciprocal Frame Structures

This paper presents the detail of our interactive tool for designing reciprocal frame (RF) structures. In general, our tool addresses the RF design problem with three major steps: (1) it supports the design of RF-tessellation by connecting RF patterns and plane tiling; (2) it delivers interactive preview and exploration of RF designs in 3D space through conformal mapping; and (3) it performs a novel optimization method to arrange the rods in the RF-structures, so that we can ensure rod collinear contacts in the structures. This paper supplements our previous work with implementation details, user interface design and operations, as well as a preliminary study and various new results we devised from the tool.     

Artificial intelligence solution to transmission loss allocation problem

The problem of transmission loss allocation of deregulated power system has been solved through the application of artificial neural network (ANN). Two network structures namely Levenberg–Marquardt back propagation (LMBP) and Bayesian regularization back propagation (BRBP) have been trained and their performance compared. It has been found that LMBP network gives faster solution for same accuracy level. As the working range of power flow transaction is quite vast, a huge volume of data need to be stored and processed for the training of neural network. The time needed for training of neural network against such huge data is prohibitive for real time application of the ANN based solution tool where raw data are used for training. A simple filtering technique has been found to be very effective to improve the solution time and training data volume requirement and make the proposed technique suitable for real time applications. With the use of filtered data for training both the training network have shown comparable performance.     

Effect of CdCl2 treatment on physical properties of CdTe films with different compositions fabricated by chemical molecular beam deposition

CdTe films with different compositions (Cd-rich, Te-rich and stoichiometric) were fabricated by revolutionary novel and low cost chemical molecular beam deposition (CMBD) method in the atmospheric pressure hydrogen flow. Cd and Te granules were used as precursors. The films were deposited on ceramic (SiO₂: Al₂O₃) substrates at 600°C. The growth rate was varied in the range of 20–30 Å/s. The composition of the samples was changed by controlling the molecular beam intensity (MBI) ratio Cd/Te. Effect of CdCl₂ treatment on morphology, photoluminescence and electrical properties of CdTe films was investigated by AFM, Raman, photoluminescence (PL) and Hall methods.     

Optically important ZnS semiconductor nanoparticles synthesized using organic waste banana peel extract and their characterization

Zinc sulphide nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized first time using green chemical route of organic waste banana peels extract (BPE). The precursors Zinc Chloride (ZnCl₂) and Thiourea ((NH₂)₂CS) of 0.01 M with various concentrations of BPE (10, 20 and 30 ml) have taken to synthesized the ZnS NPs. The prepared samples have been analyzed by optical, structural and morphological characterizations. Mixed phase of wurtzite and cubic structure are observed in the XRD pattern. Reduction in particle size from 12.50 to 9.09 nm is observed due to increase in capping strength with increasing BPE. All samples exhibit the tensile strain, while different modelling such as uniform deformation model (UDM), uniform stress deformation model (USDM) and uniform deformation energy density model (UDEDM) on XRD data have performed. The presence of tensile strain in NPs and disappearance of functional peaks in FTIR spectra is observed due to formation of new bonds with ZnS NPs. Samples exhibit strong absorption in UV region at 260–300 nm and luminescence behaviour in visible region make them suitable for various optoelectronic applications.