Analyzing collective behavior from blogs using swarm intelligence

With the rapid growth of the availability and popularity of interpersonal and behavior-rich resources such as blogs and other social media avenues, emerging opportunities and challenges arise as people now can, and do, actively use computational intelligence to seek out and understand the opinions of others. The study of collective behavior of individuals has implications to business intelligence, predictive analytics, customer relationship management, and examining online collective action as manifested by various flash mobs, the Arab Spring (2011) and other such events. In this article, we introduce a nature-inspired theory to model collective behavior from the observed data on blogs using swarm intelligence, where the goal is to accurately model and predict the future behavior of a large population after observing their interactions during a training phase. Specifically, an ant colony optimization model is trained with behavioral trend from the blog data and is tested over real-world blogs. Promising results were obtained in trend prediction using ant colony based pheromone classier and CHI statistical measure. We provide empirical guidelines for selecting suitable parameters for the model, conclude with interesting observations, and envision future research directions.     

Nano and micro structural studies of thin films of ZnO

Zinc oxide thin films grown by sol–gel and RF sputtering methods have been characterized. The characterization techniques used involve ellipsometry, optical absorption, scanning tunneling microscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The films grown by sol–gel spin method which followed zinc acetate route exhibited a smoother texture than the films, which were deposited by using zinc nitrate route. The later type of films showed a dendritic character. Nano-structured fine grains of size ranging from 20 to 60 nm were observed with zinc nitrate precursor film. Individual grains show a sharp contrast with different facets and boundaries. Crystal planes and lattice parameters calculated by electron diffraction and X-ray diffraction are quite close and in agreement with the reported values in literature. Scanning tunneling microscopy has been used for measuring the average roughness of the surface and estimating the lattice constants. The STM studies of RF sputtered films, although showing a ZnO structure, exhibited a disturbed lattice. This was presumably due to the fact that after deposition the films were not annealed. Nanographs of 2D and 3D view of atomic positions of ZnO have been presented by using scanning tunneling microscopy.     

Improved Routh-Pade/spl acute/ approximants: a computer-aided approach

A geometric programming based computer-aided method to derive a reduced order (rth-order) approximant for a given (stable) SISO linear continuous-time system is presented. In this method, stability and the first r time moments/Markov parameters are preserved as well as the errors between a set of subsequent time moments/Markov parameters of the system and those of the model are minimized.     

Phase Stability in the Mo-Ti-Zr-C System via Thermodynamic Modeling and Diffusion Multiple Validation

Alloys in the Mo-rich corner of the Mo-Ti-Zr-C system have found broad applications in non-oxidizing environments requiring structural integrity well beyond 1273 K (1000 °C). Alloys such as TZM (Mo-0.5Ti-0.08Zr-0.03C by weight %) and TZC (Mo-1.2Ti-0.3Zr-0.1C by weight) owe much of their high temperature strength and microstructural stability to MC and M₂C carbide phases. In turn, the stability of the respective carbides and the subsequent mechanical behavior of the alloys are strongly dependent on the alloying additions and thermal history. A CALPHAD-based thermodynamic modeling approach is employed to develop a quaternary thermodynamic database for the Mo-Ti-Zr-C system. The thermodynamic database thus developed is validated with diffusion multiple experiments and the validated database is exercised to elucidate the effects of alloying and thermal history on the phase equilibrium in Mo-rich alloys.     

On the Role of C Addition on α Precipitation in a β Titanium Alloy

The onset of α nucleation in a carbon containing β-titanium alloy has been investigated by coupling atom probe tomography (APT) with transmission electron microscopy. The analysis of the APT results indicates that in addition to ω precipitates that can act as potential α nucleation sites, carbon atoms tend to form clusters within the β-matrix, which in turn give rise to additional nucleation sites for α, resulting in finer scale α precipitates due to increased nucleation density.     

A numerical approach for a comparative study of laser drilling process under single and repetitive pulse

An axisymmetric model is developed to study laser drilling process under a single pulse as well as repetitive laser pulse. The laser pulse irradiated on the surface of the workpiece is volumetric and Gaussian in nature. The laser irradiated surface is subjected to convective‐radiative boundary condition while rest of the surfaces are insulated. Finite volume method is used to discretize the domain under consideration. The resulting algebraic equations are solved with the help of the tridiagonal matrix algorithm to find temperature distribution throughout the domain. The enthalpy‐porosity method is used to track the solid‐liquid interface generated during the laser melting process. Convective heat transfer occurs inside the generated melt pool. The current model is first used to validate the results of the existing literature and as the results agreed well, further studies are made to find out the advantages of using repetitive laser pulse over single pulse laser source for laser drilling process for the same laser energy and total heating duration. Vaporization has been avoided during the process and metal removal occurs through melting only. The present numerical model can provide some insight for practical laser drilling process.     

Face expression recognition system based on ripplet transform type II and least square SVM

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This paper discusses the development of an efficient and automated system for the recognition of facial expressions, which is essentially an application...