A Consortium Blockchain Based Overseas Fund Transfer System

Domestic fund transfers are all the time immediate, handier and obtainable however in overseas fund transfer, funds are transferred from payers account to payees account through the correspondent banks, central bank and messaging network which involves intermediaries and allied charges. Blockchain Technology has grabbed the interest of financial systems due to its inventive benefits such as decentralised structure, faster speed, cost-effectiveness and more security over conventional approaches. Adopting Blockchain Technology for overseas fund transfer can overcome the transaction delays, intermediaries’ failures and recurring costs involved in the current system. In this paper, a Consortium Blockchain based overseas fund transfer process is proposed to achieve faster operations, security and transparency. Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain framework has been used for overseas fund transfer process and web-user interface is developed for the same. Simulation results demonstrate the significance of Blockchain as a promising technology for overseas fund transfer process to facilitate speed, security, transparency and efficiency for overseas fund transfer.

     

Provitamin‐A and xanthophyll carotenoids in vegetables and food grains of nutritional and medicinal importance

This study reports carotenoid composition of vegetables (n = 56), cereals (n = 12), pulses and legumes (n = 12), analysed by HPLC. It was hypothesised that food grains, like vegetables may be good sources of carotenoids. Amongst vegetables, higher level (mg/100 g dry weight) of lutein (210–419) was detected in green/red/capsicum and yellow zucchini, whilst zeaxanthin was dominant in kenaf (4.59). β‐Carotene (mg/100 g dry weight) was higher in green capsicum and kenaf (48,159) whilst carrot, ivy gourd and green capsicum contain α‐carotene (22–110). Amongst food grains, chickpea, split red gram and flaxseed contain higher levels (μg/100 g dry weight) of lutein (185–200) whilst zeaxanthin level was highest in puffed chickpea (1.8). Red unpolished parboiled rice was richest (μg/100 g dry weight) in β‐carotene (67.6) whilst whole black gram contained higher levels of α‐carotene (52.7). Thus, results indicate that chickpea and red unpolished parboiled rice are good sources of carotenoids. These carotenoid‐rich vegetables and grains may be exploited to meet the lutein and β‐carotene requirement.     

A novel whispered speaker identification system based on extreme learning machine

Whispered speech speaker identification system is one of the most demanding efforts in automatic speaker recognition applications. Due to the profound variations between neutral and whispered speech in acoustic characteristics, the performance of conventional speaker identification systems applied on neutral speech degrades drastically when compared to whisper speech. This work presents a novel speaker identification system using whispered speech based on an innovative learning algorithm which is named as extreme learning machine (ELM). The features used in this proposed system are Instantaneous frequency with probability density models. Parametric and nonparametric probability density estimation with ELM was compared with the hybrid parametric and nonparametric probability density estimation with Extreme Learning Machine (HPNP-ELM) for instantaneous frequency modeling. The experimental result shows the significant performance improvement of the proposed whisper speech speaker identification system.     

Performance Analysis of Downlink W-CDMA Systems in Weibull and Lognormal Fading Channels Using Chaotic Codes

In this paper, a subspace based blind channel estimation scheme for downlink W-CDMA systems using chaotic codes under Weibull and Lognormal fading channel conditions is proposed and compared with W-CDMA system using PN codes. The algorithm provides estimates of multiuser channels by exploiting the structural information of the data output. The subspace of the (data + noise) matrix contains sufficient information for unique determination of channels and, hence, the signature waveforms and signal constellations. The proposed channel estimation algorithm is also implemented for multiuser—orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. Performance measures like bit error rate (BER) and root mean square error (RMSE) are plotted for Weibull and Lognormal fading channels. Signal constellations under Weibull and Lognormal channels are also plotted. Analytical and Simulation results for BER and RMSE are compared for W-CDMA system using PN codes and chaotic codes. Simulation results show that, chaos-based W-CDMA outperforms the PN-based W-CDMA in terms BER and RMSE. Simulation results of multiuser-OFDM system shows that performance is further improved when compared to the W-CDMA system.     

ZnO energy transfer and enhanced photoluminescence in MEH-PPV/ZnO hybrid nanocomposite

Hybrid organic–inorganic nanocomposites are great candidates for display and illumination systems due to improved optoelectronic properties and photostability. This work endeavours towards the scientific study of the influence of defect-induced zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO) on the optical characteristics of poly[2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV). ZnO nanoparticles consist of many vacancies which facilitate light emission across the visible region. The green defective emission occurring due to the presence of oxygen vacancies in ZnO was used to re-excite MEH-PPV and hence, improve the luminescence quantum efficiency. The photostability of the nanocomposite was enhanced through charge transfer (prevents the formation of superoxides) and energy transfer (reduces the non-radiative decay) mechanisms.

Graphical abstract