Ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation of fibre-reinforced composite materials — a review

A framework is presented for examining the effectiveness of limiting and modelling arguments used in the analysis of fluid flows. It consists of examining the consequences of the arguments on the flow problem as a whole and breaking down the limiting/modelling process into a sequence of steps and associated sequence of flow problems, termed here as ‘lidels’. The notion of validity of lidels is given. Several examples are given to explain the present approach. Invited general lecture at 3rd ACFM, Tokyo, September 1986     

A parametric study of strength reduction factors for elasto-plastic oscillators

Strength reduction factors (SRFs) continue to play a key role in obtaining design forces from elastic design spectra (via response modification factors) in ductility-based earthquake-resistant design. Despite several years of sustained research efforts, it has not been conclusively shown how SRF for a given singledegree-of-freedom structural system depends on various source and site parameters. A parametric study is carried out here for the explicit dependence of SRF spectrum (describing variation of SRF with system period for a given ductility demand) on strong motion duration, earthquake magnitude, geological site conditions, and epicentral distance in case of (non-degrading) elasto-plastic oscillators. For this, scaled response spectra are considered for different combinations of earthquake magnitude, site conditions and epicentral distance, and SRF spectra are generated from 1274 accelerograms recorded in western USA after making those compatible with each of these spectra. It is shown that there is no clear and significant dependence of SRF spectrum on strong motion duration. Further, the parametric dependence on earthquake magnitude, site conditions, and epicentral distance broadly conforms to the trends reported by earlier investigations. In particular, this study confirms that the dependence of SRF spectra on earthquake magnitude should not be ignored. This paper has been contributed in honour of Professor R N Iyengar, Indian Institute of Science, on the occasion of his formal retirement.     

Background-subtraction using contour-based fusion of thermal and visible imagery

We present a new background-subtraction technique fusing contours from thermal and visible imagery for persistent object detection in urban settings. Statistical background-subtraction in the thermal domain is used to identify the initial regions-of-interest. Color and intensity information are used within these areas to obtain the corresponding regions-of-interest in the visible domain. Within each region, input and background gradient information are combined to form a Contour Saliency Map. The binary contour fragments, obtained from corresponding Contour Saliency Maps, are then fused into a single image. An A^* path-constrained search along watershed boundaries of the regions-of-interest is used to complete and close any broken segments in the fused contour image. Lastly, the contour image is flood-filled to produce silhouettes. Results of our approach are evaluated quantitatively and compared with other low- and high-level fusion techniques using manually segmented data.     

Refining Genotypes and Phenotypes in KCNA2-Related Neurological Disorders

Pathogenic variants in KCNA2, encoding for the voltage-gated potassium channel K_v1.2, have been identified as the cause for an evolving spectrum of neurological disorders. Affected individuals show early-onset developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, intellectual disability, and movement disorders resulting from cerebellar dysfunction. In addition, individuals with a milder course of epilepsy, complicated hereditary spastic paraplegia, and episodic ataxia have been reported. By analyzing phenotypic, functional, and genetic data from published reports and novel cases, we refine and further delineate phenotypic as well as functional subgroups of KCNA2-associated disorders. Carriers of variants, leading to complex and mixed channel dysfunction that are associated with a gain- and loss-of-potassium conductance, more often show early developmental abnormalities and an earlier onset of epilepsy compared to individuals with variants resulting in loss- or gain-of-function. We describe seven additional individuals harboring three known and the novel KCNA2 variants p.(Pro407Ala) and p.(Tyr417Cys). The location of variants reported here highlights the importance of the proline(405)–valine(406)–proline(407) (PVP) motif in transmembrane domain S6 as a mutational hotspot. A novel case of self-limited infantile seizures suggests a continuous clinical spectrum of KCNA2-related disorders. Our study provides further insights into the clinical spectrum, genotype–phenotype correlation, variability, and predicted functional impact of KCNA2 variants.     

NanoProbeArrays for the analysis of ultra-low-volume protein samples using piezoelectric liquid dispensing technology

Antibody microarrays are gaining popularity as a high-throughput technology to investigate the proteome. However, protein extracts from most body fluid or biopsy samples are available in very small volumes and are often unsuitable for large-scale antibody microarray studies. To demonstrate the potential for protein analysis with as little as a few nanoliters of sample, we have developed a new technology called NanoProbeArrays based on piezoelectric liquid dispensing for non-contact printing and probing of antibody arrays. Instead of flooding the protein sample on the antibody microarray surface, as in conventional microarray screening, a piezoelectric inkjet printer is used to dispense nanoliters of fluorescently labeled proteins over the antibody spots on the array. The ability of NanoProbeArrays to precisely identify and reliably distinguish between test proteins from different sources, without any loss of sensitivity and specificity as compared with conventional antibody microarrays, is illustrated here. The utility of NanoProbeArrays for biomarker identification in a complex biological sample was tested by detecting the cytokine interleukin-4 in serum. The significant reduction in volume of sample during NanoProbeArray analysis, as compared with conventional antibody microarrays, offers new opportunities for basic and applied proteomic research.     

A blind medical image watermarking: DWT-SVD based robust and secure approach for telemedicine applications

Multimedia Tools and Applications - In this paper, a blind image watermarking scheme based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and singular value decomposition (SVD) is proposed. In this scheme,...     

Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Resonance Imaging of Hexagonal SiC and Alumina Tiles

Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) is an NDE technique that evaluates a sample based on its predicted resonant behavior, but RUS is limited by lack of spatial resolution and small specimen size. Air-coupled ultrasonic resonance imaging (ACURI) is a new NDE technique that is based on RUS but introduces a spatial resolution by generating an image of the flexural vibration modes. This paper presents experimental results of ACURI applied to hexagonal silicon carbide tiles. Frequency sweep scans demonstrate the ability of air-coupled transducers to detect resonance modes. Several mode shapes are imaged and compared to Finite Element simulations with good agreement. Visual comparison allows for easy detection of material differences such as density variations.     

Antioxidant effect of turmeric powder,nitrite and ascorbic acid on stored chicken mince

This investigation was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant effect of turmeric (turmeric 1000 ppm, turmeric 5000 ppm), nitrite (nitrite 200 ppm) and ascorbic acid (ascorbic acid 500 ppm) on raw minced chicken stored at 4 ± 1 °C. Physicochemical properties [pH, water activity, cooking loss, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value, peroxide value (PV), free fatty acid (FFA)] were evaluated on 0, 2, 4 and 6th day of storage. Highly significant differences (P < 0.01) in pH, TBA value, PV and FFA value were noticed between treatments and between storage periods. TBA values were observed to be lowest for nitrite 200 ppm and then turmeric 5000 ppm, and there was no significant difference between nitrite 200 ppm and turmeric 5000 ppm, and both were superior to ascorbic acid 500 ppm and turmeric 1000 ppm. Among different treatments, PV was found to be lowest in turmeric 5000 ppm and highest in nitrite 200 ppm. FFA value was found to be lowest in turmeric 5000 ppm and highest in ascorbic acid 500 ppm among all treated samples. It can be concluded that turmeric has potential to replace synthetic antioxidants presently used in meat processing with many added advantages.