Privacy-preserving iris authentication using fully homomorphic encryption

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Rapid advancement in technology has led to the use of biometric authentication in every field. In particular, from the past few years, iris recognition systems...     

Situating natural language understanding within experience-based design

Building useful systems with an ability to understand "real" natural language input has long been an elusive goal for Artificial Intelligence. Well-known problems such as ambiguity, indirectness, and incompleteness of natural language inputs have thwarted efforts to build natural language interfaces to intelligent systems. In this article, we report on our work on a model of understanding natural language design specifications of physical devices such as simple electrical circuits. Our system, called KA, solves the classical problems of ambiguity, incompleteness and indirectness by exploiting the knowledge and problem-solving processes in the situation of designing simple physical devices. In addition, KA acquires its knowledge structures (apart from a basic ontology of devices) from the results of its problem-solving processes. Thus, KA can be bootstrapped to understand design specifications and user feedback about new devices using the knowledge structures it acquired from similar devices designed previously.In this paper, we report on three investigations in the KA project. Our first investigation demonstrates that KA can resolve ambiguities in design specifications as well as infer unarticulated requirements using the ontology, the knowledge structures, and the problem-solving processes provided by its design situation. The second investigation shows that KA's problem-solving capabilities help ascertain the relevance of indirect design specifications, and identify unspecified relations between detailed requirements. The third investigation demonstrates the extensibility of KA's theory of natural language understanding by showing that KA can interpret user feedback as well as design requirements. Our results demonstrate that situating language understanding in problem solving, such as device design in KA, provides effective solutions to unresolved problems in natural language processing.     

In Situ Performance Testing of Deteriorating Water Tanks for Durability Assessment

Reports of failure of existing concrete structures due to a lack of durability, rather than a deficiency in structural strength, has made concrete technologists, engineers, and researchers focus research on the parameters influencing durability performance with respect to time. Systematic performance monitoring, with respect to chosen durability parameters of existing concrete structures, will decide the direction of future research in this area. Inferences based on laboratory simulations and testing need to be confirmed by in situ field measurements and studies. In situ condition rating and performance monitoring surveys have been conducted by many researchers, scientists, and professional associations, and reported in literature. Inferences of few such studies are summarized and discussed. Deterioration of concrete structures constructed in recent times is observed at relatively faster rates, and has been mainly attributed to cracking. Cracking is associated with the use of faster-hydrating portland cements with increased fineness and the tricalcium silicate (C3S) content to support the high speed of modern construction. In the present research, a case study of deteriorated water tank structures situated in the semitropical region of India is presented. Some selected parameters—such as concrete cover, carbonation depth, chloride concentration, compressive strength, etc. which influence long term durability of structures—have been measured.     

EFFECT OF CHILLING AND FREEZING ON SURVIVAL OF VIBRIO PARAHAEMOLYTICUS ON FISH FILLETS1

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a foodborne pathogen isolated from coastal waters of the United States, and from seafoods including fish. No information is available on the viability of V. parahaemolyticus on raw, chilled and frozen fish. A three‐strain mixture of V. parahaemolyticus was inoculated on fish fillets (pH 6.4) to obtain a bacterial load of 10⁴ (high) or 10³ (low) CFU/fillet, and stored at 4C or 8C for 9 days or at – 18C for seven weeks. At 4C and 8C, and at both levels of inoculation, V. parahaemolyticus survived on the fillets for the entire duration of the study. However, there was a significant reduction (P < 0.01) in V. parahaemolyticus population on the fillets by 9 days of storage. In the frozen fillets, there was a sharp decline (P < 0.01) in the population of V. parahaemolyticus by day 5 of storage. Although chilling and freezing significantly (P < 0.01) inactivated high numbers of V. parahaemolyticus on fish, they cannot be relied upon as a method to reduce V. parahaemolyticus on fish, since the time and magnitude of reduction depends on the initial load of the pathogen and the storage temperature.     

Dynamic proteome in enigmatic preeclampsia: an account of molecular mechanisms and biomarker discovery

The coevolution of genomics and proteomics has led to advancements in the field of diagnosis and molecular mechanisms of disease. Proteomics is now stepping into the field of obstetrics, where early diagnosis of pregnancy complication such as preeclampsia (PE) is imperative. PE is a multifactorial disease characterized by hypertension with proteinuria, which is a leading cause of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality occurring in 5-7% of pregnancies worldwide. This review discusses the probable molecular mechanisms that lead to PE and summarizes the proteomics research carried out in understanding the pathogenicity of PE, and for identifying the candidate biomarker for diagnosis of the disease.     

Postbuckling analysis of piezoelectric multiscale sandwich composite doubly curved porous shallow shells via Homotopy Perturbation Method

In this study postbuckling behaviors of multiscale composite sandwich doubly curved piezoelectric shell with a flexible core and MR layers by employing Homotopy Perturbation Method in hygrothermal environment has been investigated. By using Reddy third shear deformable theory the face sheets and third-order polynomial theory of the flexible core the strains and stresses are obtained. A mathematical model for the multiscale composite layered shell with a flexible core and magnetorheological layer (MR) that incorporates the nonlinearity of the in-plane and the vertical displacements of the core is assumed. Three-phase composite shells with polymer/Carbon nanotube/fiber and polymer/Graphene platelet/fiber either uniformly or non-uniformly based on different patterns according to Halpin–Tsai model have been considered. The governing equations of multiscale shell have been derived by implementing Hamilton’s principle. Meanwhile, simply supported boundary conditions are employed to the shell. For investigating correctness and accuracy, this paper is validated by other previous researches. Finally, different parameters such as temperature rise, various distribution patterns, magnetic fields and curvature ratio are considered in this article. It is found these parameters have significant effect on the frequency–amplitude curves.

     

Effect of Oxide Defect Structure on the Electrical Properties of ZrO2

The defect structure of monoclinic ZrO₂ was studied by measuring the transfer numbers and electrical conductivity as functions of O₂ pressure and temperature. The data suggest a defect structure of doubly ionized oxygen vacancies at low pressures, i.e. <10⁻¹⁹ atm, and singly ionized oxygen interstitials at pressures >10⁻⁹ atm. Zirconia is primarily an ionic conductor below #700°C and an electronic conductor at 700° to 1000°C for 10⁻²²≤P_o2≤1 atm.     

Compositional analysis of biodegradable polyphosphoester copolymers using nmr spectroscopic methods

The chemical composition and quantitative molar ratios among all components of biodegradable polyphosphoester copolymers of DL ‐lactide and ethylphosphate were determined by a comprehensive set of NMR spectroscopic methods. The polyphosphoester copolymers studied were synthesized using condensation polymerization of oligomeric DL ‐lactide prepolymers and ethyl dichlorophosphate. Conclusive identification of the chemical shift patterns of all functional groups in the copolymers required additional NMR methods such as ³¹P‐NMR and two‐dimensional ¹H–¹H COSY NMR, in addition to the synthesis and comparative NMR analysis of model compounds possessing identical phosphoester linkages in the polyphosphoester copolymers. For the polymers synthesized using the bulk polycondensation process, ¹H–¹H COSY NMR analysis revealed the presence of a small amount of side products that were undetected by ¹H‐NMR alone. These side reactions most likely occurred between the pendant ethoxy group of the phosphoesters and the hydrogen chloride gas generated in the bulk polycondensation process. ³¹P‐NMR spectra of the copolymers revealed a consistent triple‐peak pattern characteristic of phosphoesters linked to a racemic mixture of D,L ‐lactides. These results offered new insight into the side reactions occurring in bulk polymerization of polyphosphoesters and provided a powerful tool of characterizing complex biodegradable polymers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 4021–4031, 2003     

Numerical and experimental investigation of three-dimensional flow in extrusion dies

The univariant element, Q₁ P₀, and the multivariant elements, QP₀ and R P₀, are compared for the numerical simulation of the flow in extrusion dies. The pressure distribution obtained by using the Q₁ P₀ element was found to be afflicted with the checkerboard pressure mode. On the other hand, the multivariant elements, Q P₀ and R P₀, gave accurate and physically reasonable velocity and pressure distributions. The computed values of the pressure drop across extrusion dies matched well with the pressure drop determined experimentally.