Shape memory alloy film damping for smart miniature systems

This paper presents a dynamic analysis of the free and forced vibration of a free-standing bridge of superelastic shape memory alloy TiNiCuCo film with ultra-low fatigue properties and evaluates its versatility for novel miniature scale damping applications. A thermodynamics-based finite element model is used to simulate the evolution of martensite phase fraction during load-induced martensitic phase transformation. The effects of pre-strain, strain rate and excitation load on the hysteresis of stress-strain characteristics are investigated in order to assess damping energies. The analysis is performed under non-isothermal conditions taking into account heat transfer and rate-dependence of release and absorption of latent heat. We show that damping energy can be maximized by applying an optimum pre-strain. A maximum damping capacity of 0.17 is determined for the case of complete stress-strain hysteresis loop during phase transformation.     

Conformation Analysis of GalNAc‐Appended Sugar Amino Acid Foldamers as Glycopeptide Mimics

Sugar amino acid (SAA)‐based foldamers with well‐defined secondary structures were appended with N‐acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) sugars to access sequence‐defined, multidentate glycoconjugates with full control over number, spacing and position. Conformation analysis of these glycopeptides by extensive NMR spectroscopic studies revealed that the appended GalNAc units had a profound influence on the native conformational behaviour of the SAA foldamers. Whereas the 2,5‐cis glycoconjugate showed a helical structure in water, comprising of two consecutive 16‐membered hydrogen bonds, its 2,5‐trans congener displayed an unprecedented 16/10‐mixed turn structure not seen before in any glycopeptide foldamer.     

Conventional and Non-conventional Edible Oils: An Indian Perspective

The Indian dietary pattern has undergone major changes over the past 40 years. Many of these changes involve modification in dietary intake of fats and oils. In developing countries like India, vegetable oils are replacing animal fats because of the cost and health concerns. A wide range of vegetable oils are available in the market but the choice of healthy cooking oil has been a controversial subject since ideas keep on changing as new evidence accumulates. One of the factors holding back the increased use of value-added healthy oils in India is that most potential consumers are genuinely not aware of their health benefits. Edible oil consumption is primarily a community-driven phenomenon in India. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the current scenario of edible oils in India, their composition, health benefits, food applications, stability issues and future aspects as buying the right oil for health has become of great importance.     

Development of halogen‐free flame‐retardant thermoplastic elastomer polymer blend

Ethylene‐propylene diene rubber (EPDM) and isotactic polypropylene (iPP) blends have widest industrial applications that require a degree of flame retardancy. Halogen‐free intumescent technology based on phosphorous salt is a significantly advanced approach to make the polymer flame‐retardant. Both ammonium polyphosphate and ethylenediamine phosphate are important intumescent compounds. Their combination with carbonific and spumific agents were studied in binary blends of EPDM/PP. The polymer system was vulcanized online during melt mixing. Intumescent flame‐retardant polymer systems exhibit good flame‐retardancy with optimum comparable physiomechanical, electrical, and fluid resistance properties, including lower smoke emission, which is essential to protect people because the visibility remains unaffected in the event of fire. Pronounced charring and intumescent effect appear to enhance the flame‐retardancy of the polymers. Possible expected intumescent mechanism is proposed based on the nonpyrolysis mechanism for the flame‐retarded polymer and the intumescent components. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 407–415, 2004     

On the relationship between dependence tree classification error and Bayes error rate

Wong and Poon [1] showed that Chow and Liu's tree dependence approximation can be derived by minimizing an upper bound of the Bayes error rate. Wong and Poon's result was obtained by expanding the conditional entropy H(w|X). We derive the correct expansion of H(w|X) and present its implication.     

Deep autoencoders for feature learning with embeddings for recommendations: a novel recommender system solution

Neural Computing and Applications - We propose “Deep Autoencoders for Feature Learning in Recommender Systems,” a novel discriminative model based on the incorporation of features from...     

Tree model based eco-climatic vegetation classification and fuzzy mapping in diverse tropical deciduous ecosystems using multi-season NDVI

Many vegetation classification strategies in tropical ecosystems involving conventional image processing of original satellite imagery bands require considerable prior site knowledge, statistical assumptions, and are difficult, expensive and inconsistent. In this paper we show that the intra-annual variation and rates of change in NDVI for different parts of a large forest area in combination with rules derived from a tree model can be used for detailed vegetation mapping. We used three-date NDVI data for the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka, southern India comprising mean NDVI, coefficient of variation (CV) and two NDVI change vectors corresponding to intraseasonal NDVI differences. A rule-based classification using a tree model was developed at two levels. The overall kappa statistic is 0.61 at level 1 classification, indicating a strong correspondence with the raster version of the available vector reference map based on ground data, even though the two maps are not strictly comparable. Several limitations of the available reference map have been highlighted by the new technique, especially the absence of ecotones. At level two the tree model map has provided detailed classification of dry deciduous forests and new classes not available in the reference map. The method in combination with reference data also provides a framework for fuzzy classification. This technique offers a relatively simple cost-effective alternative to existing classification strategies, especially for areas with diverse evergreen and deciduous vegetation elements.     

A climatological study of the spatio-temporal variability of land surface temperature and vegetation cover of Vadodara district of Gujarat using satellite data

In the present study, a comprehensive assessment of the spatio-temporal variation of day-time and night-time land surface temperature (LST) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of Vadodara district of Gujarat in India from 2001 to 2012 has been carried out using satellite data. A significant cooling trend was observed in the day-time LST, whereas the night-time LST showed a distinct warming trend. The entire geographical extent of Vadodara was classified into different night-time LST classes to quantify the extent of the hot pockets, and it showed a clear-cut warming pattern for all the months of the year with an increase in the geographical areas under higher temperature range. Further analysis of Diurnal Temperature Range (DTR) also revealed a strong impact of the urbanization process, with annual DTR showing a decreasing trend at the rate of 0.29°C year^?1. An analysis of the vegetation cover of the district showed that on an average, the NDVI of the district increased during the study period. However, a micro-level examination of NDVI values depicted that the type of vegetation cover had drastically changed. The maximum NDVI values for months from May to December for 2012 were much lower than those of 2001 and 2006, indicating a change in vegetation pattern of the district. An assessment of the area under different NDVI values exhibited that for all the months of the year (except September), the total area with NDVI values of higher range (i.e. +0.5 and above) had substantially decreased from 2001 to 2012. The analysis revealed that for some of the months like February, while in 2001, 45% of district exhibited NDVI values above +0.5, but by 2012, it had decreased to only 18%, showing a drastic change in vegetation type and deterioration of the extent of thick dense vegetation.     

A software architecture framework for on-line option pricing

The problem of growing computational complexity in the finance industry demands manageable, high-speed and real-time solutions in solving complex mathematical problems such as option pricing. In current option trading scenarios, determining a fair price for options “any time” and “anywhere” has become vital yet difficult computational problem. In this study, we have designed, implemented, and deployed an architecture for pricing options on-line using a hand-held device that is J2ME-based Mobile computing-enabled and is assisted by web mining tools. In our architecture, the client is a MIDP user interface, and the back end servlet runs on a standalone server bound to a known port address. In addition, the server uses table-mining techniques to mine real-time data from reliable web sources upon the mobile trader’s directive. The server performs all computations required for pricing options since mobile devices have limited battery power, low bandwidth, and low memory. We have parallelized and implemented various computational techniques such as binomial lattice and finite differencing. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies that facilitate the mobile-enabled-trader to compute the price of an option in ubiquitous fashion. This architecture aims at providing the trader with various computational techniques to avail (to provide results from approximate to accurate results) while on-the-go and to make important and effective trading decisions using the results that will ensure higher returns on investments in options.