Predictive models to measure the impact of fiber-optic broadband speeds on local towns and communities

Internet availability and speed can impact a local community’s education, healthcare, safety, and economic development. Currently, there are few, if any, formal analyses to help communities make informed decisions on investments in internet and bandwidth expansion. This is in spite of the longstanding view posited by economic policy researchers that certain public infrastructure investments must be analyzed on a local government basis. Here, we adopt the local community focus and combine data from local, state and federal sources to develop models that predict the impacts of fiber-optic bandwidth expansion on economic factors for individual towns and communities. Our predictive analysis also demonstrates differing impacts related to town size and yields interesting outcomes related to local geographies. The rankings and comparisons derived from our predictive methodology can be used by town and state planners to holistically plan internet infrastructure development across localities. Our modeling approach can be applied to develop models specific to other towns and communities facing similar decisions regarding investments in internet speed.     

Nature inspired metaheuristics for improved JPEG steganalysis

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The performance accuracy of JPEG steganalysis depends on the best features extracted from the images. This demands extraction of all possible features that...     

Anti‐obesity effect of feeding probiotic dahi containing Lactobacillus casei NCDC 19 in high fat diet‐induced obese mice

Nowadays, studies about the anti‐obesity potential of probiotics are of growing interest. Lactobacilli are one of the well‐studied probiotics owing to their preventing effect on metabolic disorders. This study was undertaken to access the anti‐obesity effect of probiotic dahi containing Lactobacillus casei NCDC 19 on C57BL/6 mice. Feeding of probiotic dahi showed reduce body weight gain and epididymal fat weights. Moreover, blood glucose, plasma lipids and expression level of leptin were reduced and caecal bifidobacteria counts and adiponectin expression levels were significantly increased. It can be concluded that feeding of probiotic dahi containing L. casei NCDC 19 showed potential anti‐obesity effects.     

Congestion Window Scaling Method to Optimize Delay in TCP/IP

Wireless Personal Communications - TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a protocol of layer four (Transport Layer), and IP (Internet Protocol) is in the Network Layer (Layer 3) of the OSI Model....     

Freeform Gelcasting of Porous Tubular Alumina Substrate

The present work demonstrates a new method for fabrication of thin-walled tubular alumina substrate by combining the principles of gelcasting and freeform fabrication. A tube made up of filter paper or organic preform was filled with 4 N nitric acid and dipped in a 55 vol% alumina (average particle size 0.34 μm) slurry containing methylolurea and urea. A thin layer of alumina slurry was gelled on the filter paper tube by in situ polymerization of methylolurea and urea monomers present in the slurry by delivering the acid through the walls of the filter paper tube. The thickness of the alumina tube obtained depended on the dipping time. Alumina tubes with thicknesses in the range 0.7–2 mm were obtained for dipping times in the range 1–8 min. The tubes obtained had good surface finishes and profiles. These tubes were sintered at 1150°C and microstructural observation indicated uniform grain size and pore morphology. A porosity of 40% and an average pore size of 300 nm were obtained.     

Transport limits in high-speed quantum-well lasers: experiment andtheory

It is shown experimentally that the modulation bandwidth of quantum well lasers can be reduced by a factor of six due to carrier transport across undoped layers of the laser as in the separate confinement heterostructure (SCH). Analytical expressions are given for the modulation response function, resonance frequency, damping rate and K factor to include carrier transport, and it is shown that carrier transport is responsible for a low-frequency rolloff which limits the modulation response of quantum-well lasers. It also shown that carrier transport leads to a reduction in the effective differential gain, while the gain compression factor remains largely unaffected by it     

Hybrid dry-wet chemical etching process for via holes for galliumarsenide MMIC manufacturing

Through the wafer via-hole connections for monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) manufacturing have been developed by combining reactive ion etching (RIE) and wet chemical spray etching processes for 100-μm-thick gallium arsenide wafers. The dry process is based on the use of SiCl₄-BCl₃-Cl₂ and BCl₃-Cl₂ gas mixtures at room temperature is a reactive ion etcher. The etching parameters are optimized for anisotropic etching, initially, followed by slightly isotropic etching. To remove the residual `lip' and surface roughness, following reactive ion etching, a dynamic wet chemical spray etching based on H₃PO₄-H₂O₂-H₂O at 45°C is used. The combined dry-wet etching approach is used to fabricate <120-μm diameter via-holes in 100-μm-thick GaAs substrates with a wider process latitude. With this process, the authors have achieved >95 percent yield across 3-in wafers. Metallized via-hole contacts to power FET chips show a contact resistance <20 mΩ per via for 5-μ-thick selective gold plating     

A de novo interstitial deletion of chromosome 15 band q25 as revealed by FISH-technique

We report a new chromosomal finding in a 20 month-old girl. The minor clinical features included: moderate mental retardation, microcephaly, mild hypotonia and hypertelorism. Initially, what appeared to be a terminal deletion of the long arm of one chromosome 15 [15q26-->qter] was determined to be an interstitial deletion involving band 15q25 as revealed by FISH-technique, showing the presence of intact telomeric hybridization signals. The cytogenetic diagnosis was thus modified to 46,XX, del (15) (pter-->q24::q26--> qter). Nevertheless, the function of the enzyme telomerase should not be ignored, as healing could occur following such terminal deletions. Consequently, it will remain a difficult task to distinguish terminal deletions from those that are interstitial.