The Rising Costs of Floods: Examining the Impact of Planning and Development Decisions on Property Damage in Florida

The rising economic cost of floods in the United States cannot be explained solely by monetary inflation or growth in coastal populations. Damaging flood events are also influenced by the way society plans for and physically develops its communities, influencing where structures and impervious surfaces are concentrated and how hydrological systems are altered. We analyze 383 nonhurricane flood events in Florida counties between 1997 and 2001 to isolate how planning decisions and their effects on the built environment affect property damage caused by floods. Our results suggest that alteration of naturally occurring wetlands significantly increases the property damage caused by floods, all else equal. Also, nonstructural methods such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Community Rating System, while providing inexpensive means of reducing property damage directly, may also indirectly encourage more development in hazardous areas.     

Assessment of Nutritional and Antioxidant Potential of Selected Vitality Strengthening Himalayan Medicinal Plants

Three Himalayan medicinal plants (Habenaria intermedia, H. edgeworthii, and Roscoea procera), widely used in vitality strengthening Ayurvedic formulations in India, were assessed for nutritional phytochemical constituents, and antioxidant activity. These target species emerged as a good source of minerals and possessed important micro elements. Individually, H. intermedia contained a high content of total phenols, thiamins, tannins, and calcium; R. procera was rich in potassium and iron content; and H. edgeworthii emerged as a good source of sodium. While various antioxidant assays provided evidences on the antioxidant potential of target species, greater antioxidant potential of H. intermedia as compared to the other two species was revealing. This study, therefore, highlighted the possibilities of harnessing nutritional and antioxidant potential of these species.     

APGAN and RPMC: Complementary Heuristics for Translating DSP Block Diagrams into Efficient Software Implementations

Dataflow has proven to be an attractive computational model for graphical DSP design environments that support the automatic conversion of hierarchical signal flow diagrams into implementations on programmable processors. The synchronous dataflow (SDF) model is particularly well-suited to dataflow-based graphical programming because its restricted semantics offer strong formal properties and significant compile-time predictability, while capturing the behavior of a large class of important signal processing applications. When synthesizing software for embedded signal processing applications, critical constraints arise due to the limited amounts of memory. In this paper, we propose a solution to the problem of jointly optimizing the code and data size when converting SDF programs into software implementations.We consider two approaches. The first is a customization to acyclic graphs of a bottom-up technique, called pairwise grouping of adjacent nodes (PGAN), that was proposed earlier for general SDF graphs. We show that our customization to acyclic graphs significantly reduces the complexity of the general PGAN algorithm, and we present a formal study of our modified PGAN technique that rigorously establishes its optimality for a certain class of applications. The second approach that we consider is a top-down technique, based on a generalized minimum-cut operation, that was introduced recently in [14]. We present the results of an extensive experimental investigation on the performance of our modified PGAN technique and the top-down approach and on the trade-offs between them. Based on these results, we conclude that these two techniques complement each other, and thus, they should both be incorporated into SDF-based software implementation environments in which the minimization of memory requirements is important. We have implemented these algorithms in the Ptolemy software environment [5] at UC Berkeley.     

Use of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to study ageing characteristics of asphalt binders

The present study aims at studying ageing characteristics of conventional bitumen, polymer modified bitumen (PMB) and warm mix asphalt (WMA) by using FTIR. Results of obtained FTIR spectrum were quantified by calculating different indices and finally based on these indices ageing index of the binders for short- and long-term ageing were calculated. Results showed ageing increased amount of complex and high molecular weight components of the binders. PMB was found to have greater ageing resistance than conventional asphalt binders. In case of WMA, results found to be inconclusive, requiring further investigation.     

Multiuser Detection in SDMA–OFDM Wireless Communication System Using Complex Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network

The space division multiple access–orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (SDMA–OFDM) wireless system has become very popular owing high spectral efficiency and high load capability. The optimal maximum likelihood multiuser detection (MUD) technique suffers from high computational complexity. On the other hand the linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) MUD techniques yields poor performance and also fails to detect users in overload scenario, where the number of users are more than that of number of receiving antennas. By contrast, the differential evolution algorithm (DEA) aided minimum symbol error rate (MSER) MUD can sustain in overload scenario as it can directly minimizes probability of error rather than mean square error. However, all these classical techniques are still complex as these do channel estimation and multiuser detection sequentially. In this paper, complex multi layer perceptron (CMLP) neural network model is suggested for MUD in SDMA–OFDM system as it do both channel approximation and MUD simultaneously. Simulation results prove that the CMLP aided MUD performs better than the MMSE and MSER techniques in terms of enhanced bit error rate performance with low computational complexity.     

Nitrogen ion induced nitridation of Si(111) surface: Energy and fluence dependence

We present the surface modification of Si(111) into silicon nitride by exposure to energetic N₂⁺ ions. In-situ UHV experiments have been performed to optimize the energy and fluence of the N₂⁺ ions to form silicon nitride at room temperature (RT) and characterized in-situ by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We have used N₂⁺ ion beams in the energy range of 0.2–5.0 keV of different fluence to induce surface reactions, which lead to the formation of Si_xN_y on the Si(111) surface. The XPS core level spectra of Si(2p) and N(1s) have been deconvoluted into different oxidation states to extract qualitative information, while survey scans have been used for quantifying of the silicon nitride formation, valence band spectra show that as the N₂⁺ ion fluence increases, there is an increase in the band gap. The secondary electron emission spectra region of photoemission is used to evaluate the change in the work function during the nitridation process. The results show that surface nitridation initially increases rapidly with ion fluence and then saturates.     

Minimum symbol error rate multiuser detection using an effective invasive weed optimization for MIMO/SDMA–OFDM system

Space division multiple access–orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system has become a potential wireless communication system by offering high spectral efficiency, performance and capacity. This article deals with minimum symbol error rate (MSER)‐based multiuser detection (MUD) technique for the space division multiple access–orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system using an efficient invasive weed optimization (IWO) algorithm. The IWO algorithm is used for finding optimal weights such that the probability of error is directly minimized rather than minimizing the mean square error. Because of this, the MSER MUD is able to detect users even in overload scenario, where the number of users is more than the number of receiving antennas, unlike several classical detection techniques. The IWO is inspired from the nature of invasive colonization of weeds and relatively simple compared with other optimization techniques. The bit error rate performance of the proposed IWO‐aided MSER MUD is found to be better than minimum means square error and differential evolution algorithm‐aided MSER MUDs. Simulation results show that the proposed IWO MSER achieves faster convergence and lower complexity compared with the differential evolution MSER MUD. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Metal ion sensing and light activated antimicrobial activity of aloe-vera derived carbon dots

Carbon dots (CDs) have emerged out as a potential material amongst the carbon family for a wide range of applications including chemical/biological sensing, photocatalysis, bioimaging, etc. The green synthesis of these CDs from natural sources is gaining the significant interest of peer community for their wide utility. Herein, we present a facile one-step pyrolysis method for CDs synthesis from Aloe-Vera extract, which show bright blue luminescence under UV light with a quantum yield of 12.3%. Further, ex-situ morphological, structural and optical characterizations reveal their high quality and excitation independent emission behavior with the presence of carboxyl, hydroxyl functional groups. Furthermore, these CDs were studied for Fe(III) sensing in water without any surface modifications and assessed for their light activated antibacterial activity against E.Coli and Staphylococcus aureus.     

Need of Alcohol Reference Materials and Reliable Measurement of Alcohol Content by Breath Alcohol Analyzer in India: An Overview

Breath alcohol analyser is used to detect alcohol content in end-expiratory breaths in order to enforce driving regulations under the influence of alcohol legislation. The accuracy and reliability of the routine measurements of alcohol content performed with breath alcohol analyser can be achieved by the calibration of the breath alcohol analyser using standards traceable to SI reference material. Proper calibration is essential for transparency in legal verification for which reference material is needed. At international level, a number of NMIs are active to address this important measurement issue of providing accurate measurements. Several international key comparison programs have been organized so far for the determination of ethanol content in aqueous and in nitrogen/air matrix. NIST, USA; BAM, Germany; IRMM, Belgium, Portugal, INMETRO, Brazil, LGC, UK etc. have developed certain reference materials of ethanol in water solution/air with different concentration ranges. However, no such reference material is introduced in India as an indigenous standard, rather, being procured from abroad or using high purity alcohol for calibration purposes. CSIR-NPL, India, being the NMI is now focusing on establishing the calibration facility and development of SI traceable aqueous alcohol standard to provide test reliability for the testing in breath alcohol analyser. This program has a societal impact which contributes to human health and regulatory needs for the nation.