Kinetics of resinification of furfuryl alcohol in aqueous solution

Kinetic information on the resinification of furfuryl alcohol has been derived from the rate of increase of color intensity measured with a photoelectric colorimeter, the resinification being carried out isothermally in Clark-Lubs aqueous buffer solutions in the pH range of 1.0–2.2. The activation energy for polymerization is found to increase exponentially with pH. The time required for emulsification (which is quickly followed by separation of resin layer) to occur in an aqueous solution of furfuryl alcohol also increases exponentially with pH, but it decreases exponentially with temperature. This is described quantitatively by a single expression.     

An attack invariant scheme for content-based video copy detection

Due to the advancement in the field of multimedia technology and communication, it has become easier to access, store, and edit video data. Easy manipulation of video data and its rapid distribution have made content-based video copy detection (CBVCD) an active area of research. In a CBVCD system, reference video sequence and query sequence are compared to detect whether the query video sequence is a copy of reference video sequence. Thus, the generation of fingerprint of a video sequence and sequence matching technique are the core tasks of such system. In order to evade such detection process, a copied version may undergo different kinds of transformations like photometric and post-production attack. So the detection system must be robust enough against such attacks. In this work, fingerprint is generated from the sub-bands of wavelet decomposed intensity image and localized intensity gradient histograms of low sub-band. The fingerprint thus obtained reflects considerable discriminating capability and robustness against the attacks. Furthermore, to cope up with the attacks, we have adopted simple pre-processing technique, which enhances the robustness of the system further. A robust sequence matching technique based on multivariate Wald–Wolfowitz test is proposed here. An experiment has been carried out with a database consisting of distinct 642 shots and 1,485 query sequences representing different attacks. Proposed methodology achieves high copy detection rate (99.39 %) and very low false alarm rate (0.14 %) and performs better than other spatio-temporal measure based systems.     

Use of maleic anhydride–grafted polyethylene as compatibilizer for HDPE–tapioca starch blends: Effects on mechanical properties

Tapioca starch in both glycerol‐plasticized and in unplasticized states was blended with high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) using HDPE‐g‐maleic anhydride as the compatibilizer. The impact and tensile properties of the blends were measured according to ASTM methods. The results reveal that blends containing plasticized starch have better mechanical properties than those containing unplasticized starch. High values of elongation at break at par with those of virgin HDPE could be obtained for blends, even with high loading of plasticized starch. Morphological studies by SEM microscopy of impact‐fractured specimens of such blends revealed a ductile fracture, unlike blends with unplasticized starch at such high loadings, which showed brittle fracture, even with the addition of compatibilizer. In general, blends of HDPE and plasticized starch with added compatibilizer show better mechanical properties than similar blends containing unplasticized starch. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 80: 863–872, 2001     

A kinetic investigation of thermal degradation of poly(vinyl formals)

Several samples of poly(vinyl formal) having the same vinyl alcohol content (8–9%) but varying contents of vinyl acetate (6–22%) and vinyl formol (70–85%) were prepared and subjected to thermogravimetric analysis, in air and nitrogen atmospheres, employing both isothermal and dynamic methods. Kinetic parameters determined from both the isothermal and dynamic TGA data are compared. The activation energy is seen to be largely dependent on the degree of conversion, implying a complex degradation reaction. The activation energy is also much less for degradation in air than in nitrogen, which can be explained by a reaction with oxygen-producing structures favoring degradation. The activation energy is less sensitive to variation in polymer composition for degradation in air than in nitrogen. Thus, in the dynamic process, the activation energy value decreases (from 36 to 23 kcal/mole) with increasing acetate content (from 6 to 22%) in nitrogen atmosphere, while in air the activation energy value increases only moderately (from 21 to 27 kcal/mole) with increasing acetate content (from 6 to 22%). The order of reaction is nearly unity, irrespective of the composition of the polymer, both in air and nitrogen.     

Some algorithms for image enhancement incorporating human visual response

Any image processing technique which is used to improve the appearance of an image for human perception or machine analysis should incorporate the characteristics of the human visual system. One of the major characteristics of the human visual system is the logarithmic response to light intensity, which we have attempted to include in this paper. Some new algorithms for image enhancement, edge detection and smoothing have been described and their results are presented. Only the edge detection technique is space-variant. All the techniques are simple and economical, and can be supplied to each pixel in parallel.     

Maturational differences in chlorpyrifos-oxonase activity may contribute to age-related sensitivity to chlorpyrifos

Chlorpyrifos (CPF), a commonly used cholinesterase-inhibiting insecticide, is lethal at much lower doses to young animals than adults. To explain this higher sensitivity in younger animals, we hypothesized that young rats have less chlorpyrifos-oxonase (CPFOase) activity than adults. To test this hypothesis, CPFOase activity was measured in the brain, plasma, and liver of male, postnatal day 4 (PND4) and adult (PND90) Long-Evans rats. CPFOase is biochemically defined as a Ca(2+)-dependent A-esterase that hydrolyzes chlorpyrifos-oxon (CPFO), the active metabolite of CPE. No brain CPFOase activity was detected at either age. Plasma and liver CPFOase activities were markedly lower at PND4 compared to adult: PND4 plasma and liver CPFOase activities were 1/11 and 1/2 the adult plasma and liver activities, respectively. Because the Km of CPFOase activity was high (i.e., 210-380 microM), it was important to determine if this CPFOase activity could hydrolyze physiologically relevant concentrations (i.e., nM to low microM) of CPFO. This was accomplished by comparing the shifts in the tissue acetylcholinesterase (AChE) IC50 for CPFO in the presence or absence of CPFOase activity. One would expect an increase in the "apparent" IC50 if CPFOase hydrolyzes substantial amounts of CPFO during the 30 minutes the tissue is preincubated with the CPFO. In the adult, both plasma and liver AChE apparent IC50 values were higher in the presence of CPFOase activity, suggesting that the CPFOase in those tissues was capable of hydrolyzing physiologically relevant concentrations of CPFO within 30 minutes. In young animals, however, there was less of a shift in the IC50 curves compared to the adult, confirming that the young animal has less capacity than the adult to detoxify physiologically relevant concentrations of CPFO via CPFOase.     

A shot detection technique using linear regression of shot transition pattern

Video segmentation acts as the fundamental step for various applications like, archiving, content based retrieval, copy detection and summarization of video data. Shot detection is first level of segmentation. In this work, a shot detection methodology is presented that evolves around a simple shot transition model based on the similarity of the frames with respect to a reference frame. Frames in an individual shot are very similar in terms of their visual content. Whenever a shot transition occurs a change in similarity values appears. For an abrupt transition, the rate of change is very high, while for gradual it is not so apparent. To overcome the effect of noise in similarity values, line is fit over a small window using a linear regression. Thus slope of this line exhibits the underlying pattern of transition. A novel algorithm for shot detection, hence, is developed based on the variation pattern of the similarity values of the frames with respect to a reference frame. First an algorithm is proposed, which is direct descendant of the underlying transition model and applies a threshold on the similarity values to detect the transitions. Then this algorithm is improved by utilizing the slope of linear approximation of variation in similarity values rather than the absolute values, following least square regression. Threshold on the slope is determined with a bias towards minimizing false rejection rate at the cost of false acceptance rate. Finally, a simple post-processing technique is adopted to reduce the false detection. Experiment is done with the video sequences taken from TRECVID 2001 database, action type movie video, recorded sports and news video. Comparison with few other systems indicates that the performance of the proposed scheme is quite satisfactory.     

Junctionless double gate non-parabolic variable barrier height Si-MOSFET for energy efficient application

Microsystem Technologies - Analytical model for the computation of drain current of the junction-less double gate junction-less MOSFET with a variable barrier height has been presented in this...