A soft computing model for mapping incomplete/approximate postal addresses to mail delivery points

Mapping of postal address to a mail delivery point is a very important task that affects the efficiency of postal service. This task is very complex in the countries such as India, where postal addresses are not structured. Further most of the times the destination addresses in such countries are incomplete, approximate and erroneous which adds to the complexity of mapping postal address to delivery point. Automation of this aspect of the postal service is a challenge. This paper presents a soft computing model to map the postal address to mail delivery point. Firstly machine readable postal address is processed to identify the address components using a novel fuzzy symbolic similarity analysis, and further these labeled components are organized as a symbolic postal address object. This postal address object is further processed using the newly devised fuzzy symbolic methodology for mapping the address to mail delivery point. Symbolic knowledge bases for postal address component labeling and mail delivery point mapping are devised. Fuzzy symbolic similarity measures are formulated once for address component labeling and the second time for mapping the entire address to a mail delivery point. In sequel to similarity computations, which are viewed as fuzzy membership values, an expert system comprising of α-cut de-fuzzification is proposed to evaluate the confidence factors, while inferencing the validity of address component labels and mail delivery points. The system is tested exhaustively and an efficiency of 94% is obtained in address component identification and about 86% in mail delivery point mapping, while working on an Indian postal data base of about 500 addresses.     

Content driven dimensionality reduction at block level in the design of an efficient classifier for spatial multi spectral images

In case of spatial multi spectral images, such as remotely sensed earth cover, there could be many classes in one entire frame covering a large spatial stretch, because of which meaningful dimensionality reduction cannot perhaps be realizable without trading off with the quality of classification. However most often one would encounter in such images, presence of only a few classes in a small neighborhood, which would enable to devise a very effective dimensionality reduction around that small neighborhood identified as a block. Based on this theme a new method for dimensionality reduction is proposed in this paper.

The method proposed divides the image into uniform non-overlapping windows/blocks. The few features that are essential in discriminating classes in a window are identified. Clustering is performed independently on each of the blocks with the reduced set of features. These clusters in the blocks are later merged to obtain an overall classification of the entire image. The efficacy of the method is corroborated experimentally.     

Biological properties of recombinant alpha-interferons: 40th anniversary of the discovery of interferons

IFNs were first described as potent antiviral agents 40 years ago, and recombinant IFN-alpha2a and IFN-alpha2b were approved for the treatment of hairy cell leukemia just 11 years ago. Today, alpha-IFNs are approved worldwide for the treatment of a variety of malignancies and virologic diseases. Although the exact mechanism of action of IFN-alpha in the treatment of such diseases is not fully understood, many advances have been made in the characterization of the physicochemical and diverse biological properties of this highly pleiotropic cytokine. Here we review recent developments in our understanding of the antiviral and immunoregulatory properties of IFN-alpha, the nature of the multisubunit IFN-alpha receptor, and the molecular mechanisms of signal transduction. Where available, we have included comparative data on recombinant alpha-IFNs derived from both naturally occurring and nonnaturally occurring synthetic genes. We also review clinical data and data on the side effects and antigenicity of different sources of recombinant alpha-IFNs in humans. These latter topics are of clinical interest, because they may potentially affect the efficacy of these various products. Hopefully, what is already known about IFN will prompt further exploration into the mechanism(s) of action of IFN-alpha and thus deliver new applications for this prototypic cytokine, whose full therapeutic potential is yet to be realized.     

Effect of Ce3+ Substitution on Sr2+; Structural and Magnetic Properties of Nanocrystalline SrFe12O19 Hexaferrites Prepared by Self-Propagation Method Using Mixed Fuels

Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism - The nanocrystalline Sr(1?x)CexFe12O19 (x?=?0.00?<?x?<?0.09) strontium M-type hexaferrites...     

Vis-Near-Infrared Photodetectors Based on Methyl Ammonium Lead Iodide Thin Films by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite materials are considered as promising candidates for emerging thin-film photodetectors. In this work, we discuss the application of the CH₃NH₃PbI₃ thin films by pulsed laser deposition for photodetection applications. With this method, we obtained good perovskite film coverage on fluorine-doped tin oxide-coated substrates and observed wel- developed grains. The films showed no sign of degradation over several months of testing. We investigated the surface morphology and surface roughness of the films by field emission scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The optical response of the films was studied using ultraviolet–visible and photoluminescence spectroscopy. We carried out a study on the solar and infrared photodetection of CH₃NH₃PbI₃ thin films. The values of the responsivity, sensitivity, external quantum efficiency and specific detectivity under 1 sun illumination and 0.7 V bias were 105.4 A/W, 1.9, 2.38 × 10⁴% and 1.5 × 10¹² Jones, respectively.     

Crystal structure of interleukin 10 reveals an interferon gamma-like fold

The crystal structure of recombinant human interleukin 10 (rhIL-10) has been determined by X-ray crystallography at 2.0 A resolution. Interleukin 10 is a dimer composed of identical polypeptide chains related by a 2-fold axis. The molecule is predominantly alpha-helical. The main-chain fold resembles that of interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) in which the structural integrity of each domain is dependent on the intertwining of helices from each peptide chain. Comparison of rhIL-10 and IFN-gamma reveals differences in helix lengths and orientations of the 2-fold related domains. Interleukin 10 and IFN-gamma contain several conserved residues in their internal cores which suggest a possible "fingerprint" for detection of other members of this fold.