Spoof detection using time-delay shallow neural network and feature switching

Detecting spoofed utterances is a fundamental problem in voice-based biometrics. Spoofing can be performed either by logical accesses like speech synthesis, voice conversion or by physical accesses such as replaying the pre-recorded utterance. Inspired by the state-of-the-art \emph{x}-vector based speaker verification approach, this paper proposes a time-delay shallow neural network (TD-SNN) for spoof detection for both logical and physical access. The novelty of the proposed TD-SNN system vis-a-vis conventional DNN systems is that it can handle variable length utterances during testing. Performance of the proposed TD-SNN systems and the baseline Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) is analyzed on the ASV-spoof-2019 dataset. The performance of the systems is measured in terms of the minimum normalized tandem detection cost function (min-t-DCF). When studied with individual features, the TD-SNN system consistently outperforms the GMM system for physical access. For logical access, GMM surpasses TD-SNN systems for certain individual features. When combined with the decision-level feature switching (DLFS) paradigm, the best TD-SNN system outperforms the best baseline GMM system on evaluation data with a relative improvement of 48.03\% and 49.47\% for both logical and physical access, respectively

Comparison of conventional pap smear and liquid based cytology as a screening method for cervical cancer and its correlation with biopsy

Cervical carcinoma is the fourth most common malignancy worldwide and fourth most common cause of deaths due to cancer worldwide which makes it an important public health problem. The cellular changes in cervix and intraepithelial lesions can be detected many years before the patients present with frank invasive carcinoma. So, cervical screening programs were introduced worldwide. For many years , Conventional PAP smears were used for screening. Though it led to drastic reduction in number of cervical carcinoma cases, it had high false negativity. So, newer methods like Liquid based cytology were introduced. This study was undertaken to compare Liquid based cytology with Conventional PAP smear and to correlate the results with biopsy obtained from the same patient. This study was done on randomly selected 100 patients attending the Pilot screening project at Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology , Thanjavur Medical College, Thanjavur and their personal details like age, puberty age, number of children and their presenting complaints were obtained. The sample for Conventional PAP smear was taken using Ayre’s spatula and slide prepared. Sample for Liquid based Cytology was taken using the Cytobrush and the sample was rinsed in the fixative provided by the manufacturer. The sample was then centrifuged and slide prepared. Both the slides were then stained using the Rapid PAP stain. Colposcopy was done and biopsy was taken from the suspicious area which was then processed and stained by Haematoxylin and Eosin. The slides were analysed and the following results were obtained. Most of the patients who attended the screening program were in the fourth decade of life. Dysplasia was diagnosed in 26% of cases and most were in the age group of 21 – 40 years. Most of the cases were in the Socio economic Class II of the Modified Prasad’s classification. Dysplasia was found more in the Socio economic class III (12% of cases). 90% of cases started sexual activity before 25 years of age and out of these 90 patients, 92.3% had dysplasia. Dysplasia was more in patients with parity 3(14% of cases). 46% of cases presented with white discharge per vaginum. Cytological abnormality was found in 28 cases (28%) by LBC, whereas conventional Pap smear detected abnormality in only 22 cases (22%). 96 cases (96 %) were satisfactory for evaluation on LBC and 92 cases (92%) on conventional Pap smear. ASC was found in 12% of cases in Conventional PAP whereas it was detected in only 6% of cases in LBC. LSIL and HSIL was found in 8% and 2% of cases in conventional PAP smear whereas it was found in 12% and 8% of cases in LBC. No carcinoma was found in Conventional PAP smear whereas 2% of cases had carcinoma features in LBC. Sensitivity and specificity of PAP smear in detecting LSIL was 40% and 93% whereas for HSIL it is 50% and 100%. Sensitivity and specificity of LBC in detecting LSIL is 66% and 94% whereas for HSIL it was 100% and 96%. Overall sensitivity and specificity for Conventional PAP smear is 55.5% and 83.7% whereas for LBC it is 83% and 86.5% respectively. Statistically, LBC and histopathology was highly correlated (r = 0.617) whereas only medium level of correlation was found for Conventional PAP smear (r = 0.4651). So, Liquid based cytology is strongly advocated in the best interest of public health especially in countries like India where more number of people are in the lower socioeconomic status category, it improves the sample quality and reduces the likelihood of false negative results and hence improving the efficacy of the screening programs and thereby reducing the incidence of cervical cancer

Green Synthesis of High Temperature Stable Anatase Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Using Gum Kondagogu: Characterization and Solar Driven Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dye

The present study reports a green and sustainable method for the synthesis of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) from titanium oxysulfate solution using Kondagogu gum (Cochlospermum gossypium), a carbohydrate polymer, as the NPs formation agent. The synthesized TiO2 NPs were categorized by techniques such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope- Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), UV-visible spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and particle size analysis. Additionally, the photocatalytic actions of TiO2 NPs were assessed with regard to their ability to degrade an organic dye (methylene blue) from aqueous solution in the presence of solar light. Various parameters affecting the photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 NPs were examined, including catalyst loading, reaction time, pH value and calcination temperature of the aforementioned particles. This green synthesis method involving TiO2 NPs explores the advantages of inexpensive and non-toxic precursors, the TiO2 NPs themselves exhibiting excellent photocatalytic activity against dye molecules

Fabric Texture Analysis and Weave Pattern Recognition by Intelligent Processing

Coimbatore is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu located on the banks of the Noyyal River surrounded by the Western Ghats. It is one of the biggest centers of textile manufacturing in India. A fast-growing metropolitan area city, it is home to over 25,000 textile and manufacturing companies and has spawned many new centers of textiles around it. Textile fabric automation and manufacturing has been of great concern over the past decade. This is a remarkable task because of the accidental changes of fabric material properties. Due to the increasing demand of consumers for high-quality textile products, an automatic and objective evaluation of the fabric texture appearance is necessary with respect to geometric structure characteristics, surface, and mechanical properties. The precise measurement of the fabric texture parameters, such as weave structure and yarn counts find wide applications in the textile industry, virtual environments, e-commerce, and robotic telemanipulation. The weave pattern and the yarn count are analyzed and determined for computer simulated sample images and also for the scanned real fabric images. 2-D integral projections are used to identify the accurate structure of the woven fabric and to determine the yarn count. They are used for segmenting the crossed areas of yarns and also to detect the defects like crossed area due to the random distribution of yarns. Fuzzy C-Means Clustering (FCM) is applied to multiscale texture features based on the Grey Level Co-Occurrence Matrix (GLCM) to classify the different crossed-area states. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is used to improve the classifier performance

Comparative Evaluation of Shear Bond Strength of Heat Polymerised Acrylic Resin to Surface Treated Cobalt-Chromium and Titanium Alloys: An In Vitro Study

The present study was conducted in vitro, to comparatively evaluate the shear bond strength of heat polymerized acrylic resin to Co-Cr and Ti-6Al-4V alloys with two different surface treatments after being subjected to aging and thermocycling and correlated with quantitative 3-D surface texture analyses of treated alloy samples along with pre and post testing SEM analyses. To comparatively evaluate the effect of two different surface treatments on the shear bond strength of Co-Cr and Ti-6Al-4V alloys, a total of 44 samples with dimensions of 1cm x 1cm x 1.6 mm were obtained, of which 22 samples were obtained with Co-Cr alloy and 22 samples with Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The samples were divided into four groups comprising of 11 samples each. The groups were designated as Group Ia, Ib, IIa and IIb. For Groups Ia and Ib, Co-Cr alloy samples were subjected to air abrasion alone and air abrasion followed by Alloy Primer application respectively, prior to acrylisation with heat cure denture base resin. For Groups IIa and IIb, Ti-6Al-4V alloy samples were subjected to air abrasion alone and air abrasion followed by Alloy Primer application respectively, prior to acrylisation with heat cure denture base resin. One representative surface treated alloy sample from each group was subjected to quantitative surface texture analysis using 3-D non-contact surface profilometry and qualitative surface topography analysis using scanning electron microscopy. The remaining 10 samples from each group were acrylised and subjected to aging and thermocycling before being subjected to shear bond strength testing. After shear bond strength testing, one randomly tested sample was selected, for each test group and qualitatively analyzed by scanning electron microscopy to assess the mode of failure. The results obtained from the study were statistically analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and ‘T’ test. The shear bond strength values of the four test groups were compared and found to be statistically significant with respect to each other. The Co-Cr alloy samples subjected to air abrasion followed by Alloy Primer application (Group Ib) showed the highest mean shear bond strength followed by the Ti-6Al-4V alloy samples subjected to air abrasion followed by Alloy Primer application (Group IIb) followed by the Co-Cr alloy samples subjected to air abrasion (Group Ia) followed by the Ti-6Al-4V alloy samples subjected to air abrasion (Group IIa) (Group Ib> Group IIb > Group Ia > Group IIa). Quantitative and Qualitative evaluation of surface treated test samples of all four test groups revealed a more uniform surface texture and topography for Groups Ib and IIb as compared as Groups Ia and IIa. Qualitative analyses of tested samples revealed a predominantly adhesive failure pattern at alloy-acrylic resin interface for Group Ia and IIa samples. Group Ib and IIb exhibited a mixed adhesive and cohesive failure pattern, with a predominantly cohesive failure within the acrylic resin. In the present study, among the two different surface treatments, surface treatment with air abrasion followed by Alloy Primer application showed higher and statistically significant shear bond strength values as compared to surface treatment with air abrasion alone for both types of alloy tested. Among the two different alloys, Co-Cr alloy showed statistically significant higher shear bond strength values as compared to Ti-6Al-4V alloy within each respective surface treatment. The results suggest that surface treatment with air abrasion followed by Alloy Primer application plays a key role in the improvement of shear bond strength of both Co-Cr and Ti- 6Al-4V alloys to heat cure denture base resin. This is in correlation with the 3-D surface profilometric and scanning electron microscopic images. Test samples of Co-Cr alloy subjected to air abrasion followed by Alloy Primer application showed the highest shear bond strength values in this study. Future research focusing on enhancing the bond strength between heat polymerized acrylic resin and titanium alloy are recommended

Electrocaloric effect of PMN-PT thin films near morphotropic phase boundary

The electrocaloric effect is calculated for PMN-PT relaxor ferroelectric thin film near morphotropic phase boundary composition. Thin film of thickness, ~240 nm, has been deposited using pulsed laser deposition technique on a highly (111) oriented platinized silicon substrate at 700°C and at 100 mtorr oxygen partial pressure. Prior to the deposition of PMN-PT, a template layer of LSCO of thickness, ~60 nm, is deposited on the platinized silicon substrate to hinder the pyrochlore phase formation. The temperature dependent P-E loops were measured at 200 Hz triangular wave operating at the virtual ground mode. Maximum reversible adiabatic temperature change, ΔT = 31 K, was calculated at 140°C for an external applied voltage of 18 V

ADVENT OF AUGMENTED REALITY EXPERIENCE IN RETAIL AND ONLINE SHOPPING AND ITS INFLUENCING SIGNIFICANCE IN FUTURE

Augmented Reality (AR) is a trending technology that augments or superimposes an image generated by a computer system virtually into the real world environment for the user’s viewpoint using a smart phone or other hand held devices. AR shows recent advancements in the shopping domain with various implementation trails and refinement. The simplicity and flexibility in online shopping where people stay in their own place and do shopping brought a great challenge to retail shopping environment today. Retail stores are now struggling a lot to bring in the customers and the foot traffic has been greatly reduced due to which online sales are boosting and retail sales are stalling. This necessitates to bring new technological innovations to offline shopping to attract people. With the use of AR, it is possible to merge digital component to physical products in the store to stimulate the engagement of the shopping experience with more fun and joy. On the other hand, in the online shopping, though user reviews and product showcase aids the customers to analyze the quality, look and feel of diverse products, the buyer still cannot see how exactly the product fits in a real environment or how it works. Here plays AR a vital role in online shopping where it uses animations and visualization techniques to offer more value to their shoppers virtually aiding to see exactly the look of the product in user environment. This paper explains the advancement of AR in both retail and online shopping of various product domains with an implementation model of ShopAR for Online shopping and AR significance in near future

Stress Distribution on Bridge Abutment due to Live Loads

Stress distribution on the bridge abutment plays a key role in the design of bridge abutments. Lateral stress on the abutment will be due to backfill and live loads (wheel loads). Lateral stress due to backfill can be determined by classical earth pressure theories that are well documented in the literature. However, the effect of lateral stress distribution due to live loads/wheel loads are typically assumed as an equivalent uniformly distributed load of additional height of surcharge of backfill over the surface of the backfill. IRC recommendation of 1.2m height of surcharge is based on engineering judgment and experience. This study aims to predict the lateral stress on bridge abutment more closely to the actual values. A model was developed using finite element package PLAXIS and the lateral stress distribution on abutment for various lanes are obtained. In the present study, abutment-soil system was modeled considering two cases- (a) two-layered system with a granular base layer/approach slab resting on the embankment fill material, and (b) three-layered system with an approach slab over the granular base layer resting on the embankment fill material. The equivalent height of surcharge is proposed for various moduli ratio of the pavement layers and for different lane widths (corresponding to one, two, three, four and five lanes). It is determined that the equivalent height of surcharge for case(a) two-layered system is in the range of 0.7m-1.3m and for case(b) three-layered system with an approach slab is in the range of 0.5m-0.9m

Sequence and structural features of binding site residues in protein-protein complexes: comparison with protein-nucleic acid complexes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Protein-protein interactions are important for several cellular processes. Understanding the mechanism of protein-protein recognition and predicting the binding sites in protein-protein complexes are long standing goals in molecular and computational biology.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We have developed an energy based approach for identifying the binding site residues in protein–protein complexes. The binding site residues have been analyzed with sequence and structure based parameters such as binding propensity, neighboring residues in the vicinity of binding sites, conservation score and conformational switching.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We observed that the binding propensities of amino acid residues are specific for protein-protein complexes. Further, typical dipeptides and tripeptides showed high preference for binding, which is unique to protein-protein complexes. Most of the binding site residues are highly conserved among homologous sequences. Our analysis showed that 7% of residues changed their conformations upon protein-protein complex formation and it is 9.2% and 6.6% in the binding and non-binding sites, respectively. Specifically, the residues Glu, Lys, Leu and Ser changed their conformation from coil to helix/strand and from helix to coil/strand. Leu, Ser, Thr and Val prefer to change their conformation from strand to coil/helix.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results obtained in this study will be helpful for understanding and predicting the binding sites in protein-protein complexes.</p