A semi-supervised recurrent neural network for video salient object detection

Neural Computing and Applications - A semi-supervised, one-dimensional recurrent neural network (RNN) approach called RVS has been proposed in this paper for video salient object detection. The...     

Development of Co-doped MnFe2O4 nanoparticles for electrochemical supercapacitors

Transition metal ferrites are the essential components utilized in the latest modern-day technology and these include greater elements whose oxidation states and ionic radii are important for exploring their magnetic, optical, structural, and electrochemical properties. The present investigation was targeted on the preparation, physical and electrochemical characterizations of Co-doped MnFe₂O₄ nanomaterials such as 2 wt% Co-doped MnFe₂O₄, 4 Wt.% Co-doped MnFe₂O₄, and 8 Wt.% Co-doped MnFe₂O₄. More specifically, the study will focus on the techniques which have been employed to raise the specific capacitance of the metal oxides. Electrochemical properties such as cyclic voltammetry (CV), potentiostatic and impedance were used to analyse the super capacitive performance of Co-doped MnFe₂O₄ electrodes. Based on the outcomes, it is determined that 2 wt% of Co-doped MnFe₂O₄ has higher super capacitive behaviour than different samples. Precise capacitance for this nanocomposite from GCD was determined to be 551.39 F/g at a current density of 1 mA/cm². Accordingly, Co-doped MnFe₂O₄ may be utilized as a promising electrode for energy storage applications. It could be believed that this form of composites indicates excellent capability as electrochemical supercapacitors.     

In vitro assessment of antimicrobial efficacy of the D-tagatose and lactobacilli-based synbiotic preparations against the pathogenic Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium

The study aimed to investigate the utilisation of prebiotic D-tagatose by probiotic lactobacilli (L. rhamnosus GG, L. casei, L. acidophilus and L. fermentum) and enteric pathogens (E. coli and S. typhimurium) to determine synbiotic potential of D-tagatose and lactobacilli combination. The antimicrobial efficacy of the synbiotic preparations (D-tagatose with lactobacillus) was assessed against selected pathogens in co-culture assays. Evidently, D-tagatose supported growth of selected lactobacilli, especially the L. rhamnosus GG and L. casei, but not the enteric pathogens. The tested synbiotic preparations completely inhibited growth of both the pathogens, even in the presence of D-glucose in co-cultures. The well-diffusion assay demonstrated the presence of antimicrobial activity as recorded by drop of culture pH. The study substantiated that D-tagatose could be an effective prebiotic component for formulation of potential synbiotic combinations with L. rhamnosus GG or L. casei that can be used as an alternative to antibiotics against enteric pathogens.     

Characterization of fluid distributions in porous media by NMR techniques

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spin-lattice relaxation measurements are used to investigate pore structures and fluid phase distributions in porous media. A new method for estimating relaxation time distribution functions from measured relaxation data is presented using a B-spline basis to represent the distribution function and Tikhonov regularization to stabilize the estimation problem. Surface relaxivity, which is required to convert relaxation time distributions to pore-size distributions of fluid phase distributions at partial saturations, is determined using pore volume-to-surface-area ratios estimated by NMR diffusion measurements. This approach was validated by analyzing certain model porous media with known pore volume-to-surface-area ratios. The method is demonstrated by determining pore-size and fluid phase distributions of sandstone and carbonate samples, as well as by comparing the pore-size distributions of chalk samples obtained by this methodology with those estimated by mercury porosimetry.     

Data gathering algorithms in sensor networks using energy metrics

Gathering sensed information in an energy efficient manner is critical to operating the sensor network for a long period of time. The LEACH protocol presented by Heinzelman et al. (2000) is an elegant solution where clusters are formed to fuse data before transmitting to the base station. In this paper, we present an improved scheme, called PEGASIS (power-efficient gathering in sensor information systems), which is a near-optimal chain-based protocol that minimizes energy. In PEGASIS, each node communicates only with a close neighbor and takes turns transmitting to the base station, thus reducing the amount of energy spent per round. Simulation results show that PEGASIS performs better than LEACH. For many applications, in addition to minimizing energy, it is also important to consider the delay incurred in gathering sensed data. We capture this with the energy /spl times/ delay metric and present schemes that attempt to balance the energy and delay cost for data gathering from sensor networks. We present two new schemes to minimize energy /spl times/ delay using CDMA and non-CDMA sensor nodes. We compared the performance of direct, LEACH, and our schemes with respect to energy /spl times/ delay using extensive simulations for different network sizes. Results show that our schemes perform 80 or more times better than the direct scheme and also outperform the LEACH protocol.     

Failure Analysis of High-Pressure Compressor Blade in an Aero Gas Turbine Engine

Failure of high-pressure compressor rotor blade in an aero gas turbine engine is analyzed to determine its root cause. Forensic and metallurgical investigations are carried out on the blade and failed parts. The failure of the platform ladder is found to the first in the chain of events that led to the compressor blade failure. The mode of failure in the blade is found to be fatigue and has originated from the damaged region on the leading edge caused by dislodgement of platform ladder. The failure has caused extensive damages in high-pressure compressor module and also in downstream turbine blades as a secondary effect.     

Multispectral and joint colour-texture feature extraction for ore-gangue separation

Ore sorting is a useful tool to remove gangue material from the ore and increase the quality of the ore. The vast developments in the area of artificial intelligence allow fast processing of full color digital images for the preferred investigations. Three different approaches to color texture analysis were used for the classification of associated gangue from limestone and iron ore. All the methods were based on extensions of the co-occurrence matrix method. The first approach was a correlation method, in which co-occurrence matrices are computed both between and within the color bands. In the second approach, joint color-texture features, where color features were extracted from chrominance information and texture features were extracted from luminance information of the color bands. The last approach used grey scale texture features computed on a quantized color image. Results showed that the joint color-texture method was 98% accurate for limestone and 98.4% for iron ore gangue classification. It was further observed that the features showed better accuracy with 64 grey levels quantization.     

Ginger in the Prevention of Nausea and Vomiting: A Review

Nausea and vomiting are physiological processes experienced by every human being at some stage of their life. They are complex protective mechanisms and the symptoms are influenced by the emetogenic response and stimuli. However, when these symptoms recur frequently, they can significantly reduce the quality of life and can also be detrimental to health. The existing antiemetic agents are ineffective against certain stimuli, are expensive, and possess side effects. Herbal medicines have been shown to be effective antiemetics, and among the various plants studied, the rhizome of Zingiber officinale, commonly known as ginger, has been used as a broad-spectrum antiemetic in the various traditional systems of medicine for over 2000 years. Various preclinical and clinical studies have shown ginger to possess antiemetic effects against different emetogenic stimuli. However, conflicting reports especially in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and motion sickness prevent us from drawing any firm conclusion. The current review for the first time summarizes the results. An attempt is also made to address the lacunae in these published studies and emphasize aspects that need further investigations for it to be of use in clinics in the future.     

Split keyword fuzzy and synonym search over encrypted cloud data

Multimedia Tools and Applications - A substitute solution for various organizations of data owners to store their data in the cloud using storage as a service(SaaS). The outsourced sensitive data...     

Microarray Analysis of Oligosaccharide‐Mediated Multivalent Carbohydrate–Protein Interactions and Their Heterogeneity

Carbohydrate–protein interactions (CPIs) are involved in a wide range of biological phenomena. Hence, the characterization and presentation of carbohydrate epitopes that closely mimic the natural environment is one of the long‐term goals of glycosciences. Inspired by the multivalency, heterogeneity and nature of carbohydrate ligand‐mediated interactions, we constructed a combinatorial library of mannose and galactose homo‐ and hetero‐glycodendrons to study CPIs. Microarray analysis of these glycodendrons with a wide range of biologically important plant and animal lectins revealed that oligosaccharide structures and heterogeneity interact with each other to alter binding preferences.