Capability of DICE Circuit to Withstand Ionizing Radiations

Memory devices continue to be an irreplaceable part of most semiconductor circuits. This is expected to continue to rise in the coming years. Thus, there is a need to incorporate radiation hardness in all memory elements. There are numerous techniques to make a circuit immune to radiations at processing level, circuit level or design level. One of the most accepted methods of achieving resilience to radiations at design level is DICE (Dual Interlocked Storage Cell). The efficiency and range of operation of DICE structure can be improved through various factors. Sizing of transistors as well as pulse width and amplitude of striking pulse of radiation are key parameters in determining successful circuit operation. Effect of varying these parameters on the circuit operation is studied with the help of simulation results. The self restoring logic in the design has a certain threshold after which the circuit is unable to regain its original value.

     

Energy input and yield relations for wheat in different agro-climatic zones of the Punjab

Modern farming has become very energy intensive. Nowadays cropping pattern, farm activities and level of technology define the energy requirements. Energy needs are not only increasing in the agricultural sector, but in all sectors involving human activities. There is a great need to balance the use and availability of energy especially in the agricultural sector, in such a manner, so as not to affect the production adversely. Realising the implications of energy use, a study was carried out on the energy consumption patterns, in different agro-climatic zones, for the wheat crop in the state of Punjab in India. Mathematical relations were fitted to the yield and total energy input. An attempt was also made to optimise the energy inputs using a frontier production function for different agro-climatic zones. Under the present conditions, where irrigation is not assured, there is not much scope for increasing the yield of wheat in zone 1. However a 5.4% increase in yield is expected in zone 2 by providing 26.9% additional energy input through irrigation and the use of a fertiliser. The yield can be increased by 3.2% to 4049 kg/ha from 3922 kg/ha by putting 18.6% more energy input in zone 3. Yield can be increased to 4934 kg/ha (an increase of 13.7%) by an additional energy input of 28.5% in zone 4. On the other hand, the additional energy input of 29.6% gives only 1.3% increase in yield in zone 5. In most cases, the proper placements of seed, irrigation and fertiliser played significant roles in increasing the productivity in addition to some unknown parameters such as soil type and weather conditions.     

Surface Treatment of Inorganic CsPbI3 Nanocrystals with Guanidinium Iodide for Efficient Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes with High Brightness

The remarkable evolution of metal halide perovskites in the past dec-ade makes them promise for next-generation optoelectronic material.In particular,nanocrysta...     

Appreciating similarities and valuing differences: The Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale.

Universal-diverse orientation was defined as an attitude of awareness and acceptance of both the similarities and differences that exist among people. A 45-item scale developed to measure the construct was administered to 4 separate samples (ns?=? 93, 111, 153, and 135). Internal consistency and retest reliability for the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale (M-GUDS) ranged from .89 to .95. The M-GUDS significantly correlated in theoretically predicted ways with measures of racial identity, empathy, healthy narcissism, feminism, androgyny, homophobia, and dogmatism (the last 2 correlations were negative). The M-GUDS displayed discriminant validity by failing to correlated with Scholastic Achievement Test Verbal Scores, although mixed results were obtained with social desirability. In summary, the data suggest considerable reliability and initial construct validity for the M-GUDS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Efficient disparity estimation from stereo images using hybrid-guided image filter

Stereo vision process involves capturing the pictures from a camera of the same scene from at least two different locations and calculating the three-dimensional information. Conventionally, these two versions of snapshots are called left and right views which yield the depth information of an object upon relative comparison of its location in two views. Although the stereo image and its applications are becoming increasingly prevalent, there has been very limited research on disparity estimation from stereo images. Most of the existing techniques suffer from the gradient reversal artefacts issue. Therefore, to handle this issue, we have proposed a hybrid-guided image filter for improving the disparity estimation from stereo images. The hybrid filter utilizes the features of guided image filter and Bayesian non-local means with edge aware constraint. Maximum likelihood and local area homogeneity analysis are used to generate the guidance image for the proposed filter. To enhance the quality of disparity estimation from stereo images, segmentation is also done using the modified mean shift technique. Experimental results show that the proposed technique can efficiently estimate the depth maps over the available techniques. One-way ANOVA analysis on experimental results validates that the hybrid filter-based stereo matching outperforms consistently over the state-of-art approaches.     

RETROFITTING AN AUTOMATIC MANUFACTURING WORKCELL FOR STUDY OF OPEN ARCHITECTURE INTEGRATION OF MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS

Research work on plug-and-play open architecture and object-oriented mechatronic system integration is described. The original controllers of two popular industrial robot manipulators Puma 560 and IBM 7575 are completely retrofitted and integrated with a conveyor system to form a robot workcell. This robot workcell can be programmed to run under the Ch language environment. The outline of the Ch language, and the retrofitting strategy of the robot workcell will be described. A sample application program for simulated assembly operations of this robot workcell will be presented to demonstrate the underlying principles of open architecture integration of mechatronic systems under the programming paradigm of the Ch language environment.     

Multimedia blog volume prediction using adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system and evolutionary algorithms

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Due to wide streaming multimedia blogs over the social networks, volume prediction has become indispensable for the analysis of blog popularity. As a rule base...     

Relative performance of neem (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Azadirachta indica</Emphasis>) coated urea vis-à-vis ordinary urea applied to rice on the basis of soil test or following need based nitrogen management using leaf colour chart

Neem coated urea (NCU) applied to rice can result in high N use efficiency as it contains nitrification inhibition properties. Field experiments were conducted for three years (2005–2007) at Ludhiana (sandy loam soil) and Gurdaspur (clay loam soil) for evaluating the relative performance of NCU vis-à-vis ordinary urea as a source of N for transplanted wetland rice. Along with a no-N control, the two N sources were tried at three N levels––40, 80 and 100% of the recommended level of 120 kg N ha⁻¹. Different doses of N were applied in three equal split doses at transplanting, 21 and 42 days after transplanting (DAT). For need based site specific N management for improved N use efficiency, the two sources of N were applied using leaf colour chart (LCC). In this treatment a basal dose of N at the rate of 20 kg N ha⁻¹ was applied after 7 DAT and LCC readings were recorded at weekly intervals starting 14 DAT. Whenever the intensity of green colour of the first fully opened leaf from the top was less than shade 4 of the LCC, N was applied at the rate of 30 kg N ha⁻¹.     

A low‐profile quad‐port UWB MIMO antenna using defected ground structure with dual notch‐band behavior

A compact (45 × 45 × 1.6 mm³) ultrawide‐band (UWB), multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) design using microstrip line feeding is presented. The proposed design comprises four elliptical monopoles placed orthogonally on a cost‐effective FR‐4 substrate. In order to improve the impedance bandwidth and lessen the return loss of the MIMO antenna, defects in ground plane are created by etching symmetrical square slots and half‐rings. Moreover, a different method (of unsymmetrical H‐shaped slot with C‐shaped slot) was proposed into the patch to introduce dual‐band rejection performance from UWB at center frequency 5.5 GHz (covering lower WLAN as well as upper WLAN) and 7.5 GHz (X band). In addition, a stub is introduced at the edge of each defected ground structure to obtain isolation >–22 dB covering entire performing band from 2 to 16.8 GHz (where, S₁₁ < –10 dB). The proposed design has miniaturized size, very low envelop correlation coefficient less than 0.1, stable gain (2‐4 dBi except for notch bands). Furthermore, various MIMO performance parameters are within their specifications, such as diversity gain (= 10 dB), total active reflection coefficient (<–5 dB, and channel capacity loss (<0.35 bits/s/Hz). The presented design is optimized using the HFSS software, and fabricated design is tested using vector network analyzer. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results.     

Active Treatment of Frying Oil for Enhanced Fry-life

Frying experiments were conducted simulating food service operation for 10 d, with and without active treatment of frying medium. Oil samples were analyzed for free fatty acids (FFA), color, food oil sensor (FOS) readings, chemiluminescence, and total polar compounds (TPC). Daily treatment of frying oil with adsorbent was found to extend the frying life of oil by reducing the accumulation of FFA, TPC, and AOCS ‘R’ color value by 72%, 30%, and 52%, respectively.