ANT-colony based disjoint set assortment in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Networks - Wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of small sized devices containing different sensors to monitor physical, environmental and medical conditions during surveillance of...     

Process monitoring using auto-associative,feed-forward artificial neural networks

The potential of using artificially simulated neural networks as intelligent, adaptive process-monitoring devices is discussed. The investigation is considered as a method for automatic, intelligent exception reporting for quality control applications. The technique is also compared with the conventional statistical approaches of principal component analysis and Kohonen's feature map. The applications of the technique in aerospace and manufacturing environments are presented and a possible extension of the method to incorporate a diagnostic function is discussed.Seconded from Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education as a Royal Society/SERC Research Fellow at Smith's Industries Aerospace and Defence Systems, Bishop's Cleeve, Cheltenham, UK.     

Video compression using spatiotemporal regularity flow.

We propose a new framework in wavelet video coding to improve the compression rate by exploiting the spatiotemporal regularity of the data. A sequence of images creates a spatiotemporal volume. This volume is said to be regular along the directions in which the pixels vary the least, hence the entropy is the lowest. The wavelet decomposition of regularized data results in a fewer number of significant coefficients, thus yielding a higher compression rate. The directions of regularity of an image sequence depend on both its motion content and spatial structure. We propose the representation of these directions by a 3-D vector field, which we refer to as the spatiotemporal regularity flow (SPREF). SPREF uses splines to approximate the directions of regularity. The compactness of the spline representation results in a low storage overhead for SPREF, which is a desired property in compression applications. Once SPREF directions are known, they can be converted into actual paths along which the data is regular. Directional decomposition of the data along these paths can be further improved by using a special class of wavelet basis called the 3-D orthonormal bandelet basis. SPREF -based video compression not only removes the temporal redundancy, but it also compensates for the spatial redundancy. Our experiments on several standard video sequences demonstrate that the proposed method results in higher compression rates as compared to the standard wavelet based compression.     

A study of neutron and gamma radiation effects on transmission of various types of glasses, optical coatings, cemented optics and fiber

A study of radiation effects on various types of glasses, dielectric optical coatings, cemented optics and fiber was undertaken with a view to select them for extreme radiation environments. Samples were exposed to different radiation doses in the Pakistan Research Reactor-I (PARR-I) for neutron and Cobalt 60 source for gamma irradiation. Transmissions were measured before and after irradiation. The dielectric coatings were subjected to additional tests (adhesion, abrasion and humidity, etc.) as per MIL-M-13508C and MIL-C-675C. All 15 glasses studied showed varying amounts of transmission loss as expected, with negligible degradation for three types. Recovery of transmissions with time/ageing was also studied, with more or less complete recovery with temperature annealing. A faster bleaching of darkened/brown glasses was achieved by using UV lamps or UV laser. The dielectric coatings (HR, AR) and one of the two commercial optical cements showed excellent resistance to neutrons and gamma radiations, and could be good candidates for the fabrication and utilization of optical components in extreme radiation environments. The data allowed several Chinese glasses to be studied for the first time.     

Investigations on the Three Commercial Species of Rosaceae

Physico-chemical properties of the seed oils of three species of Rosaceae family, namely Prunus armeniaca (apricot), Prunus cerasifera (prune), and Prunus persica (peach) have been determined. Fatty acid composition of the oils and amino acids composition of seed cake proteins have also been determined and their utility in every day life has been discussed.     

Enhanced halftone-based secure and improved visual cryptography scheme for colour/binary Images

Visual Cryptography (VC) is gaining attraction during the past few years to secure the visual information in the transmission network. It enables the visual data i.e. handwritten notes, photos, printed text, etc. to encrypt in such a way that their decryption can be done through the human visual framework. Hence, no computational assistance is required for the decryption of the secret images they can be seen through naked eye. In this paper, a novel enhanced halftoning-based VC scheme is proposed that works for both binary and color images. Fake share is generated by the combination of random black and white pixels. The proposed algorithm consists of 3 stages i.e., detection, encryption, and decryption. Halftoning, Encryption, (2, 2) visual cryptography and the novel idea of fake share, make it even more secure and improved. As a result, it facilitates the original restored image to the authentic user, however, the one who enters the wrong password gets the combination of fake share with any real share. Both colored and black images can be processed with minimal capacity using the proposed scheme.

     

Robust face recognition against expressions and partial occlusions

Facial features under variant-expressions and partial occlusions could have degrading effect on overall face recognition performance. As a solution, we suggest that the contribution of these features on final classification should be determined. In order to represent facial features contribution according to their variations, we propose a feature selection process that describes facial features as local independent component analysis(ICA) features. These local features are acquired using locally lateral subspace(LLS) strategy.Then, through linear discriminant analysis(LDA) we investigate the intraclass and interclass representation of each local ICA feature and express each feature s contribution via a weighting process. Using these weights, we define the contribution of each feature at local classifier level. In order to recognize faces under single sample constraint, we implement LLS strategy on locally linear embedding(LLE) along with the proposed feature selection. Additionally, we highlight the efficiency of the implementation of LLS strategy. The overall accuracy achieved by our approach on datasets with different facial expressions and partial occlusions such as AR, JAFFE,FERET and CK+ is 90.70%. We present together in this paper survey results on face recognition performance and physiological feature selection performed by human subjects.     

Ferritin Protein Regulates the Degradation of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Proteins implicated in iron homeostasis are assumed to be also involved in the cellular processing of iron oxide nanoparticles. In this work, the role of an endogenous iron storage protein—namely the ferritin—is examined in the remediation and biodegradation of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. Previous in vivo studies suggest the intracellular transfer of the iron ions released during the degradation of nanoparticles to endogenous protein cages within lysosomal compartments. Here, the capacity of ferritin cages to accommodate and store the degradation products of nanoparticles is investigated in vitro in the physiological acidic environment of the lysosomes. Moreover, it is questioned whether ferritin proteins can play an active role in the degradation of the nanoparticles. The magnetic, colloidal, and structural follow‐up of iron oxide nanoparticles and proteins in lysosome‐like medium confirms the efficient remediation of potentially harmful iron ions generated by nanoparticles within ferritins. The presence of ferritins, however, delays the degradation of particles due to a complex colloidal behavior of the mixture in acidic medium. This study exemplifies the important implications of intracellular proteins in processes of degradation and metabolization of iron oxide nanoparticles.     

Abiotic stress of ZnO‐PEG,ZnO‐PVP,CuO‐PEG and CuO‐PVP nanoparticles enhance growth,sweetener compounds and antioxidant activities in shoots of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni

Nanoparticles are known to play remarkable role as abiotic stress elicitors in plants. This study reports the comparative analysis of effects produced by capped [zinc oxide (ZnO)‐polyethylene glycol (PEG), ZnO‐polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), copper oxide (CuO)‐PEG, CuO‐PVP] and uncapped (ZnO and CuO) nanoparticles on the medicinal plant, Stevia rebaudiana raised in vitro for the production of commercially important sweetener compounds. In context of shoot organogenesis, ZnO‐PEG, ZnO‐PVP, CuO‐PEG, CuO‐PVP were employed to the growth medium that resulted in increased growth parameters, and larger content of steviol glycosides as compared to the shoots raised in medium containing ZnO and CuO, revealed by high‐performance liquid chromatography. In the meanwhile, non‐enzymatic antioxidant activities including total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, total antioxidant capacity, total reducing power and 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picryl hydrazyl‐free radical scavenging activity were calculated and showed comparatively greater amounts in shoots grown in medium containing capped ZnO or CuO nanoparticles. Furthermore, the ZnO and its derivatives revealed to be more reactive at 1 mg/l of concentration. Whereas, the CuO and its derivatives produced greater response on Stevia at 10 mg/l concentration of nanoparticles. This study paves the way for more such studies encompassing capped and uncapped nanoparticles and their ultimate effect on in‐vitro grown plant tissues for the production of active metabolites on industrial scale.Inspec keywords: nanoparticles, chromatography, resins, polymers, zinc compounds, copper compounds, food technology, agricultureOther keywords: nanoparticles, sweetener compounds, antioxidant activities, Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, abiotic stress elicitors, zinc oxide‐polyethylene glycol, zinc oxide‐polyvinyl pyrrolidone, copper oxide‐polyethylene glycol, medicinal plant, shoot organogenesis, steviol glycosides, high‐performance liquid chromatography, nonenzymatic antioxidant activities, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, total antioxidant capacity, total reducing power, 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picryl hydrazylfree radical scavenging activity, derivatives, active metabolite production, copper oxide‐polyvinyl pyrrolidone