Carbohydrate content of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tubers treated with Isopropyl-N (3-chlorophenyl) carbamate under different storage conditions

Post harvest application of Isopropyl-N (3-chlorophenyl) carbamate considerably reduced the degradation of starch when potato tubers were stored in an evaporative cooling chamber. The starch degraded at a faster rate when tubers were kept under refrigerated and room storage conditions.     

Epileptic seizure classification in EEG signals using second-order difference plot of intrinsic mode functions

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder which is characterized by transient and unexpected electrical disturbance of the brain. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a commonly used signal for detection of epileptic seizures. This paper presents a new method for classification of ictal and seizure-free EEG signals. The proposed method is based on the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and the second-order difference plot (SODP). The EMD method decomposes an EEG signal into a set of symmetric and band-limited signals termed as intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). The SODP of IMFs provides elliptical structure. The 95% confidence ellipse area measured from the SODP of IMFs has been used as a feature in order to discriminate seizure-free EEG signals from the epileptic seizure EEG signals. The feature space obtained from the ellipse area parameters of two IMFs has been used for classification of ictal and seizure-free EEG signals using the artificial neural network (ANN) classifier. It has been shown that the feature space formed using ellipse area parameters of first and second IMFs has given good classification performance. Experimental results on EEG database available by the University of Bonn, Germany, are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Thermal degradation of cellulose and its phosphorylated products in air and nitrogen

The thermal degradation of cellulose and its phosphorylated products (phosphates, diethylphosphate, and diphenylphosphate) were studied in air and nitrogen by differential thermal analysis and dynamic thermogravimetry from ambient temperature to 750°C. From the resulting data various thermodynamic parameters were obtained following the methods of Broido and Freeman and Carroll. The values of E_a for decomposition for phosphorylated cellulose were found to be in the range 55–138 kJ mol^?1 in air and 85–152 kJ mol^?1 in nitrogen and depended upon the percent of phosphorus contents in the samples. The mass spectrum of cellobiose phosphate indicated the absence of the molecular ion, indicating that the compound was thermally unstable. The IR spectra of the pyrolysis residues of cellulose phosphate gave indication of formation of a compound having C?O and P?O groups. A fire retardancy mechanism for the thermal degradation of cellulose phosphate has been proposed.     

Learning Noise-Assisted Robust Image Features for Fine-Grained Image Retrieval

Fine-grained image search is one of the most challenging tasks in computer vision that aims to retrieve similar images at the fine-grained level for a given query image. The key objective is to learn discriminative fine-grained features by training deep models such that similar images are clustered, and dissimilar images are separated in the low embedding space. Previous works primarily focused on defining local structure loss functions like triplet loss, pairwise loss, etc. However, training via these approaches takes a long training time, and they have poor accuracy. Additionally, representations learned through it tend to tighten up in the embedded space and lose generalizability to unseen classes. This paper proposes a noise-assisted representation learning method for fine-grained image retrieval to mitigate these issues. In the proposed work, class manifold learning is performed in which positive pairs are created with noise insertion operation instead of tightening class clusters. And other instances are treated as negatives within the same cluster. Then a loss function is defined to penalize when the distance between instances of the same class becomes too small relative to the noise pair in that class in embedded space. The proposed approach is validated on CARS-196 and CUB-200 datasets and achieved better retrieval results (85.38% recall@1 for CARS-196% and 70.13% recall@1 for CUB-200) compared to other existing methods.     

Optical properties of CdS sintered film

Chemical method has been used to prepare cadmium sulphide by using cadmium, hydrochloric acid and H₂S. The reflection spectra of covered and uncovered sintered films of CdS have been recorded by ‘Hitachi spectrophotometer’ over the wavelength range 300–700 nm. The energy band gaps of these films have been calculated from reflection spectra. It is found that the energy band gap of both films is same as 2.41 eV. It is indicated that energy band gap of these films does not change. This value of band gap is in good agreement with the value reported by other workers. The measurement of photocurrent has also been carried out using Keithley High Resistance meter/ Electrometer. This film shows the high photosensitivity and high photocurrent decay. Thus so obtained films are suitable for fabrication of photo detectors and solar cells.     

3D word spotting using leap motion sensor

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Leap motion sensor provides a new way of interaction with computers or mobile devices. With this sensor, users can write in air by moving palm or finger, thus,...     

Strategies for the construction sector in the information technology era

The construction industries in many countries are starting to consider seriously the strategic use of information technology (IT). The use of information technology in construction is extending beyond the stage of piecemeal application for improving the efficiency of discrete operations by individual organizations to the advanced stage where IT is applied strategically in commercial enterprises, government agencies and professional institutions. Progress in construction in this regard appears to lag behind that in most other sectors of the economy. This paper considers the nature and the background of this progression in construction by examining proposals by Earl (1989) of nine basic prerequisites to the IT era which make a strategic approach timely. Each prerequisite is outlined and how it has been met in other sectors of the economy considered. The extent to which these prerequisites apply in construction and the scope for their application in the near future are examined. It is argued that all organizations involved in construction will ultimately have to think strategically about their use of IT, and how some are already doing so is described.

In discussing the factors which hinder the strategic application of IT in construction, the nature of the design and construction processes and initiatives that may be necessary to overcome the perceived problems are examined in detail. The strategies that are evolving at a national level in Singapore are outlined.     

Functional display of amylase on yeast surface from Rhizopus oryzae as a novel enzyme delivery method

Fungal amylase has great importance in fermentation industry such as brewing, food fermentation, starch hydrolysis and for improving microbial populations in chicken intestine through feed applications. In the present investigation, alpha amylase cDNA from Rhizopus oryzae was cloned, sequenced, and successfully surface anchored in functional form using Saccharomyces cerevisiae EBY100 as host, yielding enzyme activity of 4.35 (±0.5) U/ml. The surface displayed yeast expressed amylase activity using plate assay, produced glucose and maltose as hydrolysis products using starch as substrate. The targeted and armed yeast with displayed enzyme was evaluated for its characterization at various pH and temperatures. The engineered yeast showed optimal activity at neutral pH and at 50°C incubation temperature. Reducing sugars produced by displayed enzyme were visualized by paper chromatography. The data suggested successful heterologous expression and display of amylase enzyme on yeast cell surface. The displayed system could further be utilized in fermentation industry for improving cost-effectiveness of the process.