Interest point detection using imbalance oriented selection

Interest point detection has a wide range of applications, such as image retrieval and object recognition. Given an image, many previous interest point detectors first assign interest strength to each image point using a certain filtering technique, and then apply non-maximum suppression scheme to select a set of interest point candidates. However, we observe that non-maximum suppression tends to over-suppress good candidates for a weakly textured image such as a face image. We propose a new candidate selection scheme that chooses image points whose zero-/first-order intensities can be clustered into two imbalanced classes (in size), as candidates. Our tests of repeatability across image rotations and lighting conditions show the advantage of imbalance oriented selection. We further present a new face recognition application—facial identity representability evaluation—to show the value of imbalance oriented selection.     

Chemical-bath deposition of band-gap-tailored CdxPb1−xS films

An attempt was made to modify the band gap of CdS ( 2.4 eV) by preparing a mixed lattice with a low-band-gap material, PbS (0.3 eV), giving a new set of materials, Cd _x Pb_1–x S. Band gaps as low as 1.9 eV were achieved with increasing x. The preparation of Cd _x Pb_1–x S was carried out by chemical-bath deposition. Structural characterization studies using X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersion analysis by X-rays (EDAX), and optical microscopy were performed. The optical-absorption studies used to find the band gap are also described.     

Fast Ion Transport in Li-Rich Alloy Anode for High-Energy-Density All Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries

All-solid-state Li batteries (ASSLBs) with solid-polymer electrolytes are considered promising battery systems to achieve improved safety and high energy density. However, Li dendrite formation at the Li anode under high charging current density/capacity has limited their development. To tackle the issue, Li-metal alloying has been proposed as an alternative strategy to suppress Li dendrite growth in ASSLBs. One drawback of alloying is the relatively lower operating cell voltages, which will inevitably lower energy density compared to cells with pure Li anode. Herein, a Li-rich Li₁₃In₃ alloy electrode (LiRLIA) is proposed, where the Li₁₃In₃ alloy scaffold guides Li nucleation and hinders Li dendrite formation. Meanwhile, the free Li can recover Li's potential and facilitate fast charge transfer kinetics to realize high-energy-density ASSLBs. Benefitting from the stronger adsorption energy and lower diffusion energy barrier of Li on a Li₁₃In₃ substrate, Li prefers to deposit in the 3D Li₁₃In₃ scaffold selectively. Therefore, the Li–Li symmetric cell constructed with LiRLIA can operate at a high current density/capacity of 5 mA cm⁻²/5 mAh cm⁻² for almost 1000 h.     

Throughput analysis in censoring-based cooperative cognitive radio network with energy harvesting

An energy harvesting (EH) and cooperative cognitive radio (CR) network (CRN) is studied in this paper where CR users transmit data through a primary user (PU) channel if the channel remains idle, else an optimal number CRs helps in transmission of PU. To achieve the optimum number of CRs (ONCR) involved in cooperation, a novel scheme based on a combination of channel censoring and total error is proposed. The performance of the proposed scheme is investigated under RF harvesting scenario. The EH is dependent on sensing decision and a CR source harvests energy from PU's RF signal. The harvested energy (HE) is split into two parts: One part is used by the CR network (CRN) for its own transmission, and the other part is used for supporting PU. The effect of the energy allocation factor on total throughput is also investigated. New expressions for optimal number of CRs and throughput are developed. The effect of network parameters such as sensing time, censoring threshold, and energy allocation parameter (EAP) on throughput is investigated. Impact of distance between nodes is also studied.     

Performance Analysis of Machine Learning Algorithms for Classifying Hand Motion-Based EEG Brain Signals

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) records brain activity using electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets in the form of EEG signals; these signals can be recorded, processed and classified into different hand movements, which can be used to control other IoT devices. Classification of hand movements will be one step closer to applying these algorithms in real-life situations using EEG headsets. This paper uses different feature extraction techniques and sophisticated machine learning algorithms to classify hand movements from EEG brain signals to control prosthetic hands for amputated persons. To achieve good classification accuracy, denoising and feature extraction of EEG signals is a significant step. We saw a considerable increase in all the machine learning models when the moving average filter was applied to the raw EEG data. Feature extraction techniques like a fast fourier transform (FFT) and continuous wave transform (CWT) were used in this study; three types of features were extracted, i.e., FFT Features, CWT Coefficients and CWT scalogram images. We trained and compared different machine learning (ML) models like logistic regression, random forest, k-nearest neighbors (KNN), light gradient boosting machine (GBM) and XG boost on FFT and CWT features and deep learning (DL) models like VGG-16, DenseNet201 and ResNet50 trained on CWT scalogram images. XG Boost with FFT features gave the maximum accuracy of 88%.     

Charge transport and structural morphology of HCl-doped polyaniline

The d.c. and a.c. (100 Hz–1 MHz) conductivities of HCl-doped polyaniline have been measured in the temperature range 77–300 K. At 77 K, the a.c. conductivity data, (), can be described by the relation ()=As, where the parameter s lies close to unity and decreases with increase in the doping level. The ratio of measured a.c. to d.c. conductivity shows dispersion at 77 K, which decreases with increase in the doping level. This decrease is found to be sharp around pH3.0. In the temperature range 77–150 K, the observed d.c. conductivity data can be described by Mott's three dimensional variable range hopping (VRH) model. Scanning electron microscopy studies reveal a sharp change in structural morphology of HCl-doped polyaniline at a pH3.0. A strikingly remarkable structural morphology has been observed in the formc of a channel at this pH value. This change is accompanied by a rapid increase in d.c. conductivity, dielectric constant, along with sharp changes in structural morphology, which indicates the existence of a doping-induced structural conductivity correlation in this system. © 1998 Chapman & Hall     

EPR study of Cu2+ in Na2O-NaF-B2O3-Bi2O3 glasses

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies have been performed on the glass system (30–x) NaF-xNa₂O-50B₂O₃-20Bi₂O₃ doped with CuO as a paramagnetic probe. The calculated g values indicate that Cu²⁺ is in a tetragonally elongated octahedral co-ordination, and the Jahn-Teller character gives rise to anisotropic hyperfine structure. The spin-Hamiltonian parameters and -bonding parameter, ², are calculated. Varying the fluoride ion concentration and its effect on these parameters is also discussed.     

High order parameter-robust numerical method for time dependent singularly perturbed reaction–diffusion problems

We introduce a high order parameter-robust numerical method to solve a Dirichlet problem for one-dimensional time dependent singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion equation. A small parameter ε is multiplied with the second order spatial derivative in the equation. The parabolic boundary layers appear in the solution of the problem as the perturbation parameter ε tends to zero. To obtain the approximate solution of the problem we construct a numerical method by combining the Crank–Nicolson method on an uniform mesh in time direction, together with a hybrid scheme which is a suitable combination of a fourth order compact difference scheme and the standard central difference scheme on a generalized Shishkin mesh in spatial direction. We prove that the resulting method is parameter-robust or ε-uniform in the sense that its numerical solution converges to the exact solution uniformly well with respect to the singular perturbation parameter ε. More specifically, we prove that the numerical method is uniformly convergent of second order in time and almost fourth order in spatial variable, if the discretization parameters satisfy a non-restrictive relation. Numerical experiments are presented to validate the theoretical results and also indicate that the relation between the discretization parameters is not necessary in practice.