Robust and High Accuracy Algorithm for Detection of Pupil Images

Recently, many researchers have tried to develop a robust, fast, and accurate algorithm. This algorithm is for eye-tracking and detecting pupil position in many applications such as head-mounted eye tracking, gaze-based human-computer interaction, medical applications (such as deaf and diabetes patients), and attention analysis. Many real-world conditions challenge the eye appearance, such as illumination, reflections, and occasions. On the other hand, individual differences in eye physiology and other sources of noise, such as contact lenses or make-up. The present work introduces a robust pupil detection algorithm with and higher accuracy than the previous attempts for real-time analytics applications. The proposed circular hough transform with morphing canny edge detection for Pupillometery (CHMCEP) algorithm can detect even the blurred or noisy images by using different filtering methods in the pre-processing or start phase to remove the blur and noise and finally the second filtering process before the circular Hough transform for the center fitting to make sure better accuracy. The performance of the proposed CHMCEP algorithm was tested against recent pupil detection methods. Simulations and results show that the proposed CHMCEP algorithm achieved detection rates of 87.11, 78.54, 58, and 78 according to Świrski, ExCuSe, Else, and labeled pupils in the wild (LPW) data sets, respectively. These results show that the proposed approach performs better than the other pupil detection methods by a large margin by providing exact and robust pupil positions on challenging ordinary eye pictures.     

Parameterized synthesis of self-stabilizing protocols in symmetric networks

Self-stabilization in distributed systems is a technique to guarantee convergence to a set of legitimate states without external intervention when a transient fault or bad initialization occurs. Recently, there has been a surge of efforts in designing techniques for automated synthesis of self-stabilizing algorithms that are correct by construction. Most of these techniques, however, are not parameterized, meaning that they can only synthesize a solution for a fixed and predetermined number of processes. In this paper, we report a breakthrough in parameterized synthesis of self-stabilizing algorithms in symmetric networks, including ring, line, mesh, and torus. First, we develop cutoffs that guarantee (1) closure in legitimate states, and (2) deadlock-freedom outside the legitimate states. We also develop a sufficient condition for convergence in self-stabilizing systems. Since some of our cutoffs grow with the size of the local state space of processes, scalability of the synthesis procedure is still a problem. We address this problem by introducing a novel SMT-based technique for counterexample-guided synthesis of self-stabilizing algorithms in symmetric networks. We have fully implemented our technique and successfully synthesized solutions to maximal matching, three coloring, and maximal independent set problems for ring and line topologies.     

Laser-induced anisotropy in Ag<Superscript>+</Superscript>-doped glasses

An induced optical anisotropy is observed as a result of interaction of a high-power CW Ar⁺ laser beam, with silver-ion-exchanged glasses. We have shown that the absorption of the beam by the thin layer of Ag⁺ produces a temperature gradient resulting in a radial stress on the surface of the sample. The induced anisotropy makes the sample behave as a thin uniaxial optical medium with axis along the direction of the beam propagation. For the polarized light, the induced anisotropy restricts the application of micro-lenses, which are made by this method. The average refraction index of the interaction area is measured.     

Mechanical reliability analysis of tubes intended for hydrocarbons

Reliability analysis constitutes an essential phase in any study concerning reliability. Many industrialists evaluate and improve the reliability of their products during the development cycle—from design to startup (design, manufacture, and exploitation)—to develop their knowledge on cost/reliability ratio and to control sources of failure. In this study, we obtain results for hardness, tensile, and hydrostatic tests carried out on steel tubes for transporting hydrocarbons followed by statistical analysis. Results obtained allow us to conduct a reliability study based on resistance request. Thus, index of reliability is calculated and the importance of the variables related to the tube is presented. Reliability-based assessment of residual stress effects is applied to underground pipelines under a roadway, with and without active corrosion. Residual stress has been found to greatly increase probability of failure, especially in the early stages of pipe lifetime.     

Transient Focal Cerebral Ischemia Leads to miRNA Alterations in Different Brain Regions,Blood Serum,Liver, and Spleen

Ischemic stroke is characterized by an occlusion of a cerebral blood vessel resulting in neuronal cell death due to nutritional and oxygen deficiency. Additionally, post-ischemic cell death is augmented after reperfusion. These events are paralleled by dysregulated miRNA expression profiles in the peri-infarct area. Understanding the underlying molecular mechanism in the peri-infarct region is crucial for developing promising therapeutics. Utilizing a tMCAo (transient Middle Cerebral Artery occlusion) model in rats, we studied the expression levels of the miRNAs (miR) 223-3p, 155-5p, 3473, and 448-5p in the cortex, amygdala, thalamus, and hippocampus of both the ipsi- and contralateral hemispheres. Additionally, the levels in the blood serum, spleen, and liver and the expression of their target genes, namely, Nlrp3, Socs1, Socs3, and Vegfa, were assessed. We observed an increase in all miRNAs on the ipsilateral side of the cerebral cortex in a time-dependent manner and increased miRNAs levels (miR-223-3p, miR-3473, and miR-448-5p) in the contralateral hemisphere after 72 h. Besides the cerebral cortex, the amygdala presented increased expression levels, whereas the thalamus and hippocampus showed no alterations. Different levels of the investigated miRNAs were detected in blood serum, liver, and spleen. The gene targets were altered not only in the peri-infarct area of the cortex but selectively increased in the investigated non-affected brain regions along with the spleen and liver during the reperfusion time up to 72 h. Our results suggest a supra-regional influence of miRNAs following ischemic stroke, which should be studied to further identify whether miRNAs are transported or locally upregulated.     

New insights into the stress corrosion cracking of carbon steel in ethanolic media

Potentiostatic slow strain rate testing was conducted on stress corrosion cracking (SCC) test specimens exposed to ethanolic environments prepared from pure dehydrated ethanol. The mechanism of SCC in such environments is not well-understood. Cracks of various types—intergranular and transgranular open cracks, and sharp closed transgranular cracks—were found by altering several testing parameters. The presence of chloride was found to be essential for crack initiation. A scanning electron microscope examination indicated that an “anodic” cracking mechanism, not necessarily slip dissolution, was most likely operating at high elongations. Sharp, closed transgranular cracks, with a maximum depth of 4 µm, were detected at elongations below 3% in ethanol solutions containing 2.5-mM LiCl. A focused ion beam was used to extract such a transgranular crack tip for analytical transmission electron microscopy using electron energy loss spectroscopy, which confirmed that the crack was in a ferrite grain. The sharp closed transgranular cracks seem to ally with the cracks observed in CO–CO₂–H₂O and anhydrous ammonia environments, which are proposed to grow by unique cleavage mechanisms. The possibility of embrittlement by carbon interstitials produced by ethanol electro-oxidation within the crack is discussed.     

Correlation between quality and quantity in scientific production: A case study of Iranian organizations from 1997 to 2006

In order to prevent the formation of a gap between the quality and quantity in Iranian scientific publications, this study makes an effort to analyze Iranian scientific publications indexed on the ISI Web of Science database using quantitative and qualitative scientometrics criteria over a ten year period. As a first step, all Iranian institutes were divided into three categories; universities, research institutes and other organizations. Then they were compared according to quantitative and qualitative criteria. Second, the correlation between the quality and quantity of the publications was measured. The research findings indicated that, according to qualitative criteria (citation, citation impact and percentage of cited documents) there are no meaningful differences among the three groups, while regarding quantitative criterion(number of papers), universities rank higher than the other two groups. The results also indicated that there is a positive and meaningful correlation among qualitative and quantitative criteria in the scholarly scientific publications conducted by Iranian organizations. In other words, in Iranian organizations the quality of publications increases as their quantity increases. The comparison of magnitude of correlation between these two criteria in the three categories reveals the fact that the correlation between number of papers and citations criterion in research institutes is stronger than the other two groups.     

Design,validation, and reliability determination a citing conformity instrument at three levels: normative,informational, and identification

Authors have various motivations in citing references during scientific production. The study of these motivations has led to the introduction of different theories like normative theory and social constructive theory of citing behavior. Using the social constructive approach to citing behavior, this research introduces citing conformity whereby some authors’ social, personal or non professional citing behaviors are determined by societal pressure. This is explained at three levels namely; normative, informational and identification. This paper aims to design, validate and determine the reliability of a questionnaire to measure citing conformity at these three levels. In order to devise the instrument, a questionnaire with 45 items was preliminarily designed. After face validity of the questionnaire had been determined by ten scholars, data was gathered. 150 Iranian authors with at least two articles indexed in Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) or Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) during the period 2001–2010 were selected using systematic random allocation and were asked to fill out the questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis was used to analyze the data. Factor analysis was administered using principal components analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation, eigenvalue more than one, and factor loading 0.45 to extract three factors. Out of 45 items, 11 were deleted by the software due to low factor loading. The remaining 34 items were retained and constitute tree factors: normative (13 items), informational (13 items), and identification (8 items). KMO coefficient test was 0.726 and Bartlett sphericity index was 2431.91 (P < 0.0001) which proved the sufficiency of sample size and the reliability of the test. Cronbach’s alpha was employed to determine the reliability of this instrument. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for normative, informational and identification conformities was 0.86, 0.81 and 0.85 respectively. Therefore, the reliability of all the factors was acceptable with approximately high coefficients. As the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients convey, the reliability of all factors was acceptable. The development of a citing conformity instrument at normative, informational and identification levels, provides a scale to measure authors’ citing behavior in social, personal or non professional aspects according to the above mentioned psychological variables (normative, informational and identification conformities). Therefore, this instrument will be able to explain the authors’ citing behavior and motivations in a large extent of a subject area.     

Luminescence properties of Mn and Ni doped ZnS nanoparticles synthesized by capping agent

ZnS and transition metal (Mn and Ni) doped ZnS were synthesized by a simple chemical method using alkyl hydroxyl ethyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (HY) as capping agent. The structural and optical properties were studied using various techniques. FTIR and X-ray diffraction (XRD) can be used to identify the chemical bonding and crystal structure. The XRD analysis show that the particles are in cubic structure. The mean size of the nanoparticles calculated through Scherrer equation is in the range of 5–2.5 nm. Elemental dispersive analysis of doped samples reveals the presence of doping ions. The transmission electron microscopic studies show that the synthesized particles are in spherical shape. Optical characterization of both undoped and doped samples was carried out by ultraviolet–visible and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The absorption spectra of all the samples are blue shifted from the bulk ZnS.