Salt-and-pepper noise removal by adaptive median-based lifting filter using second-generation wavelets

In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive median-based lifting filter for image de-noising which has been corrupted by homogeneous salt and pepper noise. The median-based lifting filter removes the noise of the input image by calculating the median of the neighboring significant pixels. The algorithm for image noise removal uses the lifting scheme of the second-generation wavelets in conjunction with the proposed adaptive median-based lifting filter. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. The proposed algorithm is compared with all the basic filters, and it is found that our method outperforms many other algorithms and it can remove salt and pepper noise with a noise level as high as 90%. The algorithm works exceedingly well for all levels of noise, as illustrated in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index (SSIM) measures.     

Subjective Evaluation: A Comparison of Several Statistical Techniques

Evaluation of subjective examinations using computerized tools has been a topic of research for more than four decades. Several statistical and mathematical techniques have been proposed by various researchers. In this research work, the several methods proposed earlier like Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), Generalized Latent Semantic Analysis (GLSA), Bilingual Evaluation Understudy (BLEU), and Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) are compared on common input data. The techniques are implemented using Java programming language, MatLab, and other open source tools. Experiments have been conducted and developed prototypes are tested using a database of 4500 answers with approximately 50 questions of computer science. Comparison of these techniques on a common database is not available in the literature as far as the authors' review is concerned. The database used for testing is collected by conducting tests of students of graduate level in the field of computer science. The pros and cons of each technique on the basis of experiments are discussed in the paper.     

A fast novel algorithm for salt and pepper image noise cancellation using cardinal B-splines

This paper discusses a novel algorithm for salt and pepper image noise cancelation using cardinal B-splines. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis and application of cardinal B-splines for image noise cancellation. To apply the cardinal B-splines, one should analyze the different properties of the cardinal B-spline. Here we make use of the interpolation property and compact support of the cardinal B-splines. There are various assumptions and conditions that are considered while applying the cardinal B-splines for noise removal. The result of denoising the images affected up to 95 % of the salt and pepper noise has been shown. The results of proposed method are being compared with the other existing methods, and the comparison shows the better performance of our method.     

Polyoxyethylene esters of fatty acids: an alternative synthetic route for high selectivity of monoesters

Esterification reaction of fatty acids with polyoxyethylenes has been studied in the presence of solid acid catalysts and the results are compared with those obtained with a classical homogeneous catalyst, p-toluene sulphonic acid. Solid acid catalysts showed very high selectivities for monoesters even under less favorable reaction conditions of 1:1 molar ratios of oleic acid to PEG. Excess amount of PEG is normally required to ensure high selectivity for monoesters in the presence of homogeneous catalysts. The yields for monoesters given by heterogeneous catalysts such as zeolites, HPA and nafion were comparable to that with p-toluene sulphonic acid after 24 h of reaction. Results suggest that solid acid catalysts are potential catalysts for selective synthesis of monoesters from oleic acids and PEG even under severe reaction conditions. A screening study of different solid acid catalysts showed ZSM-5, zeolite-β, and nafion to be better catalysts than zeolite USY and mordenite, the former giving higher selectivity and yield to monoesters. The results suggest that the most important parameters in optimization catalyst performance for monoesters production is the acid strength and less so on other properties such as shape selectivity and concentration of active sites.     

SERS microscopic imaging as novel tool for assessing viability and enumerating yeast cells at various stages of cell cycle in lag,log, exponential and stationary phases of growth in culture

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) microscopic imaging was employed to enumerate the yeast cells in culture. We found this imaging method as an efficient tool for easily differentiating and quantitatively enumerating yeast cell at different stages of cell-division cycle (G1, S, G2 and M phase) at various stages of growth phases namely lag, log, exponential and stationary phases in culture. Apart from enumerating the cells at different stages of cell cycle under lag, log, exponential and stationary phases, it was possible using SERS microscopy to differentiate the live cells from dead ones. The dead cells were SERS inactive and gave enhanced autofluorescence compared with the live cells, which were SERS active. The results from the present investigation suggest that SERS microscopic imaging, using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as a sensitive tool to enumerate the yeast cells in culture.     

Sol-gel derived low temperature HfO2-GPTMS hybrid gate dielectric for a-IGZO thin-film transistors (TFTs)

In this study, we prepared inorganic-organic HfO₂-GPTMS hybrid films by a simple sol-gel method at low temperature for high-k dielectric gate applications. The hybrid films were deposited by spin coating process, followed by annealing at 150?°C. The hybrid dielectric material was characterized by Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), AFM, FESEM, FTIR, TGA, and XPS techniques. The resulting hybrid films exhibit homogeneous and smooth surface with high optical transparency. Their dielectric properties were analysed by measuring leakage current and capacitance versus voltage of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor structures. From this analysis, the leakage current density at ??5?V, capacitance and dielectric constant at 1?MHz measured on the hybrid films were 10^?7 A/cm², 51.3?nF/cm² and of 11.4 respectively. Finally, to investigate the electrical performance of the hybrid thin films as a dielectric gate in thin film transistors (TFTs), bottom-gate TFTs were fabricated by depositing the HfO₂-GPTMS dielectric gate layer on ITO-coated glass substrate and subsequently a sputtered a-IGZO thin film as the channel layer. The electrical response of the resulting TFTs demonstrated good saturation mobility of 4.74?cm² V^?1 s^?1, very low threshold voltage of 0.3?V and I_on/I_off current ratio of 10⁴, with low operating voltage under 8?V.     

Kinetics of Eu(III) extraction in macroporous bifunctional phosphinic acid resin

The rate of ion exchange of Eu(III) from semi-infinite bath containing dilute nitric acid solution was studied on a macroporous bifunctional phosphinic acid resin. The influence of particle size, concentration of nitric acid and temperature on the uptake of Eu(III) was examined. The kinetic data were fitted into the Reichenberg approximate solution, based on the Nernst–Planck resin diffusion model, that relates the fractional attainment of equilibrium (U_t) and internal diffusion coefficient (D_A). The measured D_A was of the order of 10^?13 m²/s, and it was found to increase with the increase of temperature, and decrease with the increase of particle size of the resin and concentration of nitric acid.     

Cavitation erosion characteristics of poly(methyl methacrylate) in a rotating disk device

Experimental results pertaining to the initiation, dynamics and mechanism of cavitation erosion on poly(methyl methacrylate) specimens tested in a rotating disk device are described in detail. Erosion normally starts at the location nearest to the center of rotation (CR). As the exposure time to cavitation increases, additional erosion areas or sites appear away from the CR and secondary erosion (induced by eroded pits) spreads upstream and merges with the main pit. The microcracks increase in density towards the end of the incubation period and transform into macrocracks in most cases. A study of light optical photographs and scanning electron micrographs of the eroded area shows that material particles are removed from the network of cracks because of crack joining and pits indicate particle debris. Optical degradation (loss of transmittance) is observed to be greater on the back of the specimen than on the front.