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Continuous emotion estimation for human machine interaction
Humans are able to interact and bond very efficiently with other species because every living organism has some form of emotion in them. Due to the advances in science and technology human life has become more dependent on machines for better living. The recent advances in technology enabled machines to become smarter but not efficient in terms of interaction with humans. Hence to address this issue and to bridge the gap between human machine interactions we propose a system to estimate human emotions from facial expressions. We believe that facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication and primary means of conveying information. The system uses linear regression model to calculate emotional state of a facial expression which is mapped onto continuous 2-D coordinates with arousal and valence as axis from a captured digital image. Thus the proposed method estimates emotion continuously and predictively like humans rather than classifying the emotions because emotions are continuous and they have many dimensions. By estimating emotions continuously machines can better interact with humans. Experimental results showed that our system provides superior predictive performance. 2015 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved. -
Investigation of nanocrystalline structure in selected carbonaceous materials
The structural parameters of nine Indian coals were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. The study revealed that the coals contain crystalline carbon of turbostratic structure with amorphous carbon. The stacking height (Lc) and interlayer spacing (d002) of the crystallite structure of the coals ranged from 1.986 to 2.373 nm and from 0.334 to 0.340 nm, respectively. The degree of graphitization was calculated to range from 42% to 99%, thereby confirming the ordering of the carbon layers with the increase in coal rank. An exponential correlation was observed among the aromaticity (fa), the lateral size (Lc), and the rank (I20/I26), suggesting that the coal crystallites are nanocrystalline in nature. A very strong correlation was observed between the structural parameters (fa, d002, Lc, the H/C ratio, and I20/I26), the volatile matter content, and the elemental carbon content, indicating the structures of coals are controlled by the degree of contact metamorphism. The Raman spectra exhibited two prominent bands: the graphitic band (G) and the first-order characteristic defect band (D). The deconvolution resulted in five peaks: G, D1, D2, D3, and D4. The intense D1 band, which appeared at ~1350 cm-1, corresponds to a lattice vibration mode with A1g symmetry. The D2 mode, which appeared at ~1610 cm-1, arises from the structural disorder as a shoulder on the G band. University of Science and Technology Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014. -
Synthesis, growth mechanism and physical properties of vapour-deposited GaTe platelets
The physical vapour deposition (PVD) method has been employed to yield gallium telluride (GaTe) platelets. The morphology and growth mechanism of these platelets were investigated with the aid of scanning electron micrographs. The stoichiometry and homogeneity of the grown samples were confirmed by chemical analysis. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique has been used to explore the structure and phase of the compound. On the basis of the Archimedes principle, the density of crystals was estimated to be 5.442 kg mm-3. The resistivity and conductivity type were determined by the van der Pauw method. UV-vis-NIR studies revealed a direct transition with an energy gap of 1.69 eV. Mechanical properties such as microhardness, toughness, Young's modulus and elastic stiffness constant of GaTe crystals in response to the stress field due to an external load were studied to realize their suitability for radiation detector applications. The present observations provide an insight into the physical properties of the vapour-grown GaTe platelets, which are found to be superior over their melt counterparts. 2014 International Union of Crystallography. -
N?-[(E)-1-(2-fluorophenyl)ethylidene]pyridine-4-carbohydrazide
The title compound, C14H12FN3O, adopts an E conformation with respect to the azomethine bond. The pyridyl and fluorobenzene rings make dihedral angles of 38.58(6) and 41.61(5) respectively with the central C(=O)N2CC unit, resulting in a non-planar molecule. The intermolecular interactions comprise two classical N - H?O and N - H?N hydrogen bonds and four non-classical C - H?O and C - H?F hydrogen bonds. These interactions are augmented by a weak ?-? interaction between the benzene and pyridyl rings of neighbouring molecules, with a centroid-centroid distance of 3.9226(10) This leads to a three-dimensional supramolecular assembly in the crystal system. The F atom is disordered over two sites in a 0.559(3): 0.441(3) ratio, through a 180 rotation of the fluorobenzene ring. 2014 CrossMark. -
God has signed: Nature, divinity and mysticism in the poetry of Kuvempu
Kuvempu wrote a large number of poems on the mysteries of nature. Kuvempu hails from the heart of Western Ghats and he spent his childhood and youth exploring the forests around his house. Untrammelled nature was both mysterious and beautiful; hence nature turned out to be a primary inspiration to write poetry. Kuvempu looks outward, seeking to comprehend the oneness of all in nature through his senses. But he is also struck by the inability to comprehend and explain nature through senses. Often he expresses his awe at natural sights such as dawn (which appears to him as a God's signature) or the greenery of Western Ghats (which seems to have painted everything in nature in green, including poet's soul and the blood in the stomach). This leads Kuvempu to resort to mysticism in order to relate, comprehend and sing about nature. He sees in nature the divine presence. The paper will analyze poems such as Devaru Rujumadidanu, Ba Phalguna Ravidarshanake, and Prakriti Upasane, and explore the poetic perception of nature as divine through mysticism. 2014 Journal of Dharma: Dharmaram Journal of Religions and Philosophies (Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bangalore). -
Effect of calcination temperature on surface morphology and photocatalytic activity in TiO2 thin films prepared by Spin Coating technique
TiO2 thin films were deposited on glass substrate using Sol-Gel derived precursor by Spin Coating technique at different calcination temperatures. Structural identity of the prepared films was con-firmed by powder X-ray diffraction measurements. Morphology of the films was monitored using Atomic force microscopy and it was observed that calcination temperature of 400 C favored TiO2 nano-fibers. Photocatalytic activity of the films was checked by observing the degradation of herbicide Atrazine in UV region and the percentage of degradation was analyzed by HPLC method. 2014 BCREC UNDIP. All rights reserved. -
Hotel career perceptions of final year hospitality degree students
The Indian Hospitality Management Institutions has seen a tremendous growth in the recent years, due to the growth of the tourism and hospitality sector a large number of hotel chains has increased their expansion plans to accommodate this growth. Although the development of the tourism and hospitality industry can create greater employment opportunities, it is the role of the education institutions to produce more hospitality graduates. If todays students are to become effective practitioners of tomorrow, it is important to understand the final year hospitality degree students perception towards their future careers in the hotel industry. The purpose of this study was to investigate the career perception of final year hospitality students towards the hotel industry. This paper focuses on a sample of 60 final year students pursuing a hospitality degree at a private university in Bangalore City, India to analyze their perceptions towards hotel careers the researchers used the survey questionnaire. The findings indicated that the students willingness to work in the hotel industry after graduation was high; 41 percent of the students preferred to start their future career in the food and beverage department; awareness of the working environment; perception on internship and also negative views about the hotel careers were highlighted in the study. 2015 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved. -
K shell X-ray intensity ratios and vacancy transfer probabilities of Fe, Ag, and Te following electron capture decay
The K shell X-ray photons of Fe, Ag, and Te following the electron capture decay of Co57, Cd109, and I125, respectively, were detected using Si(Li) detector coupled to PC-based 8k multichannel analyzer employing a simple method suggested earlier by our group. The calculated K shell X-ray intensity ratios and vacancy transfer probabilities for these elements are compared with the theoretical values predicted by Scofield and with others' experimental values obtained via photoionization. It is found that the A? to A? X-ray intensity ratio of Fe is lower by 4.0%, while that of Ag and Te are greater by 7.9% and 19.1%, respectively, from the theoretical values. These deviations may be attributed to the exchange interactions occurring between the 3p-3d shell electrons as well as the recoil effect of the nucleus due to neutrino emission. 2014 Published by NRC Research Press. -
Dharma as a binary identity
The idea of Dharma has different connotation in History from that of religion as is popularly understood. While it is accepted as righteousness, it transcends the notion that Dharma represents piety, spirituality, belief and nobility. On the contrary, History is replete with instances of how religion, an institutionalized aspect of Dharma, was constantly articulated as representing Authority, Power, Status and Hierarchy. Due to these interpretations Dharma often was projected as a tool for realization of the above by various institutions, be they, political, social, cultural or economic, and Dharma provided legitimacy and justified their identities. The present paper juxtaposes this articulation in the context of Ancient and Medieval India, spanning a period approximately from 3rd century BCE to 10th century CE. It argues that the different trajectories that flowed between Dharma and various other secular institutions constantly witnessed divergence as well as assimilation at various points of time. 2015 Journal of Dharma: Dharmaram Journal of Religions and Philosophies (DVK, Bengaluru), ISSN: 0253-7222. -
N?-[(E)-2-Fluorobenzylidene]benzohydrazide
The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C14H 11FN2O, contains two independent molecules, both of which adopt the E conformation with respect to the azomethine C=N bond. The molecules are non-planar, with dihedral angles of 26.92 (12) and 11.36 (11) between the benzene and phenyl rings. In the crystal, molecules are linked through N-H?O=C and N-H?N hydrogen bonds into chains along [101]. C-H?O contacts link these chains into layers parallel to (001). The three-dimensional crystal packing is stabilized by ?-? interactions, the shortest separation between the centroids of benzene rings being 3.884 (1) -
The illusion of social class identity and academic performance: Exploring the role of father education as an indicator of socioeconomic status
The academic achievement of low social class students has been attributed to lack of ability and their socioeconomic Status (SES). However, a recent meta-analysis reported decreasing relationship between SES and academic achievement in the U.S. population (Sirin, 2005). The present study attempted to explore the relationship between social class identity processes and academic performance in an Indian context. The study took students' self report on all indicators of SES and separated high and low social class students on the basis of their fathers' education. The result showed that social class based identity process has less important role in explaining the existing academic achievement gap. Thus the need arises to explore other identities that may collaborate with the social class identity in an educational domain. -
Regression testing on services in mobile applications
The power of mobile devices has increased dramatically in the last few years. The Mobile apps market increases every day and Mobile device has become one of the most important equipment in peoples daily life, which brings us not only convenience of communication, but more and more work and entertainment applications. Mobile testing becomes very crucial as the mobile applications and mobile users are growing rapidly. Test consultants, test specialist, test managers and software engineering researchers are finding ways to do effective verification methods and to ensure reliability of mobile applications. In this paper, we propose regression testing framework on services in Remote Link Lite (RLL) mobile application. In order to perform regression test on mobile application, we have considered RLL application for POC purpose. Research India Publications. -
Control of NOx from a DI diesel engine with hot EGR and ethanol fumigation: An experimental investigation
Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are one of the major hazardous pollutants from diesel engine emission. Various control technologies exist for its control but each technique has advantages and disadvantages. At present, there is no single optimal technique that can control NOx without other side effects. Technologies available for NOx reductions either cause fuel penalty or increase other polluting emissions. Exhaust Gas Recirculation is an effective technique in controlling oxides of nitrogen in diesel engines but do not become attractive at higher loads and higher percentage of recirculated gas as combustion tends to deteriorate at higher loads leading to reduced engine thermal efficiency and increased hydrocarbon and smoke emission. Ethanol is an established alternate fuel used in diesel engine either as a blend or fumigated using a separate injector. Experiments were conducted on a single cylinder diesel engine to examine the effect of EGR temperature on NOx and other emission constituents. Hot EGR gave better results up to 30% EGR rate but EGR cooling was found better in terms of NOx reductions and efficiency. It was found that NOx reductions up to 88% was possible but at the cost of about 18% loss in thermal efficiency. This inconvenience of fuel penalty caused by Exhaust Gas Recirculation can be overcome by applying ethanol fumigation. The findings of experimental results for this combined technique are presented in this paper. With this combined technique, apart from reducing the oxides of nitrogen, engine power and efficiency approaches to that of only diesel combustion condition with improvements in smoke, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions. 2013 The Korean Society of Automotive Engineers and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. -
Exploring graph-based global similarity estimates for quality recommendations
Data sparsity or the insufficiency of past user preferences in predicting future user needs continues to be a major challenge for RS engines. We propose a solution to the sparsity problem by exploring similarity measures that capture the global patterns of commonality between users or items by leveraging on indirect ways of connecting users (items) through a user (item) graph. Entities (users or items) sharing common features are connected to each other by edges weighted by their proximity or distance. Graph-based techniques, for estimating transitive similarity between entities not directly connected, are exploited to bring the entities closer thus facilitating collaboration. Furthermore, we also propose a combined user-item graph approach for exploiting the similarity between users preferring similar items (and vice versa). In this work, we have suggested alternatives to the already existing global similarity assessment and we aim to investigate the appropriateness of the proposed techniques under differing data features. 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. -
Cryogenian magmatism and crustal reworking in the Southern Granulite Terrane, India
Understanding Neoproterozoic crustal evolution is fundamental to reconstructing the Gondwana supercontinent, which was assembled at this time. Here we report evidence of Cryogenian crustal reworking in the Madurai Block of the Southern Granulite Terrane of India. The study focuses on a garnet-bearing granite-charnockite suite, where the granite shows in situ dehydration into patches and veins of incipient charnockite along the contact with charnockite. The granite also carries dismembered layers of Mg-Al-rich granulite. Micro-textural evidence for dehydration of granite in the presence of CO2-rich fluids includes the formation of orthopyroxene by the breakdown of biotite, neoblastic zircon growth in the dehydration zone, at around 870C and 8 kbar. The zircon U-Pb ages suggest formation of the granite, charnockite, and incipient charnockite at 836 73, 831 31, and 772 49 Ma, respectively. Negative zircon ?Hf (t) (-5 to -20) values suggest that these rocks were derived from a reworked Palaeoproterozoic crustal source. Zircon grains in the Mg-Al-rich granulite record a spectrum of ages from ca. 2300 to ca. 500 Ma, suggesting multiple provenances ranging from Palaeoproterozoic to mid-Neoproterozoic, with neoblastic zircon growth during high-temperature metamorphism in the Cambrian. We propose that the garnet-bearing granite and charnockite reflect the crustal reworking of aluminous crustal material indicated by the presence of biotite + quartz + aluminosilicate inclusions in the garnet within the granite. This crustal source can be the Mg-Al-rich layers carried by the granite itself, which later experienced high-temperature regional metamorphism at ca. 550 Ma. Our model also envisages that the CO2 which dehydrated the garnet-bearing granite generating incipient charnockite was sourced from the proximal massive charnockite through advection. These Cryogenian crustal reworking events are related to prolonged tectonic activities prior to the final assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent. 2015 Taylor & Francis. -
N?-[(E)-Furan-2-ylmethylidene]-4-hydroxybenzohydrazide
The title compound, C12H10N2O3, exists in the E conformation. The five-membered ring and the phenyl rings form dihedral angles of 36.73 (10) and 12.22 (10), respectively, with the central C(=O)N2C unit. The crystal packing is dominated by strong N - H?O and O - H?N hydrogen bonds. Together with weaker C - H?O interactions, these establish a three-dimensional supramolecular network. -
Joycean novels: A broad secularizing project
This paper discusses how the Irish novelist James Joyce used the Novel form as an interface of religion and secularism in fiction. The secularism of his novels is a nuanced, complex project, as he was deeply haunted by the fabric of religious upbringing which he had only partially disowned. Joyce's works as well as life reflect an ambiguous relationship to religious texts, themes, and institutions. A non-teleological concept of modernity is what is present in the works of Joyce especially in his novels, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses. Here, the secular and the religious exist in an intimately antinomian, mutually defining opposition in many aspects of cultural life, including literature. 2015 Journal of Dharma: Dharmaram Journal of Religions and Philosophies (DVK, Bangalore), ISSN: 0253-7222. -
Customer preferences to select a restaurant through smart phone applications: An exploratory study
The increasing number of Smart Phone Applications (SPA) user and fast growing restaurant industry proves the great potential of using SPA as business marketing opportunity in Malaysia. The constant growth in mobile technology has created a prospect for the restaurant industry to use SPA as a restaurant promotion tool. The growing attention of use of SPA among the Malaysian customer, marketing research remains understudied in the field of SPA based restaurant promotion activities. The aim of this study is to explore the increase in customer acceptance to use SPA based restaurant promotion and to identify the customer preference to use SPA to select the restaurant. Thus, this paper mainly focuses on restaurant information on product and promotion as antecedents of customer acceptance of smart phone apps by underpinning the Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model. A conceptual model and hypotheses are tested with a sample of 116 students from a private university at Selangor district, Malaysia. The findings indicate that there is a positive relationship to increase customer acceptance level through SPA based restaurant product information and also strong relationship with the restaurant promotion information. It also indicates that customer acceptance of SPA through experience and satisfaction has a positive significant effect on customer preference to select a restaurant. Based on the results, this paper rounds off with conclusion, recommendations for future marketing research and provides a new marketing strategy to formulate among the restaurant business sector. 2015 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved. -
Folksonomy-based fuzzy user profiling for improved recommendations
Genre is a major factor influencing user decisions to peruse an item in domains such as movies, books etc. Recommender systems, generally have, at their disposal, information regarding genres/categories that a movie/book belongs to. However, the degree of membership of the objects in these categories is typically unavailable. Such information, if available, would provide a better description of items and consequently lead to quality recommendations. In this paper, we propose an approach to infer the degree of genre presence in a movie by examining the various tags conferred on them by various users. Tags are user-defined metadata for items and embed abundant information about various facets of user likes, their opinion on the quality and the type of object tagged. Leveraging on tags to guide the genre degree determination exploits crowd sourcing to enrich item content description. Fuzzy logic naturally models human logic allowing for the nuanced representation of features of objects and thus is utilized to derive such gradual representation as well as for modeling user profiles. To the best of our knowledge ours is one of the first approaches to utilize such folksonomy information to infer genre degrees subsequently used for recommendations. The proposed method has the twin advantages of utilizing enriched content information for recommendation as well as squeezing the information from the user-item-tag and user-item ratings spaces and condensing them into fuzzy user profiles. The fuzzy user and object representations are leveraged both for the design of content-based as well as collaborative recommender systems. Experimental evaluations establish the effectiveness of the proposed approaches as compared to other baselines. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. -
Zone based relative density feature extraction algorithm for unconstrained handwritten numeral recognition
The recognition of handwritten characters and numerals has been a challenging problem among the researchers for few decades. This paper proposes a relative density feature extraction algorithm for recognizing unconstrained single connected handwritten numerals independent of the languages. The proposed method consists of four phases, namely, image enhancement (dilation), representation (zone based), feature extraction (relative density) and recognition (minimum distance classifier). The handwritten numerals must be enhanced with dilation, in order to connect the broken digits. After enhancement, the dilated binary images can be represented as a mid-point aspect ratio class interval values. There can be M * N zones and subsequently there would be 2M*N relational density exist using mid-point aspect ratio class interval values. In order to minimize the number of features, a subset of W relative densities has been extracted from the binary image since the relative density is too large to be handled efficiently. The minimum distance classifier technique has been used to recognize the given numerals. The proposed algorithm would be an alternative to recognize the handwritten numerals for recognizing unconstrained single connected handwritten numerals. The method sounds promising with a recognition rate of 92.8567%. 2005 - 2014 JATIT & LLS. All rights reserved.