Time-Domain Data Fusion Using Weighted Evidence and Dempster–Shafer Combination Rule: Application in Object Classification

To apply data fusion in time-domain based on Dempster–Shafer (DS) combination rule, an 8-step algorithm with novel entropy function is proposed. The 8-step algorithm is applied to time-domain to achieve the sequential combination of time-domain data. Simulation results showed that this method is successful in capturing the changes (dynamic behavior) in time-domain object classification. This method also showed better anti-disturbing ability and transition property compared to other methods available in the literature. As an example, a convolution neural network (CNN) is trained to classify three different types of weeds. Precision and recall from confusion matrix of the CNN are used to update basic probability assignment (BPA) which captures the classification uncertainty. Real data of classified weeds from a single sensor is used test time-domain data fusion. The proposed method is successful in filtering noise (reduce sudden changes—smoother curves) and fusing conflicting information from the video feed. Performance of the algorithm can be adjusted between robustness and fast-response using a tuning parameter which is number of time-steps(ts)

Paradox Elimination in Dempster–Shafer Combination Rule with Novel Entropy Function: Application in Decision-Level Multi-Sensor Fusion

Multi-sensor data fusion technology in an important tool in building decision-making applications. Modified Dempster–Shafer (DS) evidence theory can handle conflicting sensor inputs and can be applied without any prior information. As a result, DS-based information fusion is very popular in decision-making applications, but original DS theory produces counterintuitive results when combining highly conflicting evidences from multiple sensors. An effective algorithm offering fusion of highly conflicting information in spatial domain is not widely reported in the literature. In this paper, a successful fusion algorithm is proposed which addresses these limitations of the original Dempster–Shafer (DS) framework. A novel entropy function is proposed based on Shannon entropy, which is better at capturing uncertainties compared to Shannon and Deng entropy. An 8-step algorithm has been developed which can eliminate the inherent paradoxes of classical DS theory. Multiple examples are presented to show that the proposed method is effective in handling conflicting information in spatial domain. Simulation results showed that the proposed algorithm has competitive convergence rate and accuracy compared to other methods presented in the literature

Benefit-Cost Assessment of Different Homestead Vegetable Gardening on Improving Household Food and Nutrition Security in Rural Bangladesh

Homestead vegetable gardening can play a significant role in improving food security for the resource poor rural households in developing country like Bangladesh. The present study quantifies costs/benefits of traditional and developed homestead vegetable production systems, and analyzes the underlying factors contributing to food security. The result suggests that developed gardening has better performances in terms of calorie intake and economic performances over traditional but the optimal calorie intake with least-cost technology could be a feasible livelihood strategy for resource poor people. The result also suggests that education, sex, and garden area have significant effect on food security. The occupation and family size are also positively associated with food security.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty,

Learners' Problem in Phonetics with the Intelligibility at Segmental and Supra-segmental Level

Bengali, though not much discussed, is one of the most resourceful Indo-Aryan languages. Its forty-nine letters allow its speakers utmost flexibility to diphthongize and to form wide ranges of consonant cluster in accordance with the demand of spelling and meaning. Remarkably enough, Bengali has more sounds than needed to facilitate any English sounds without making any distortions to them. But, in fact, there are very many pronunciation varieties people are used to pronouncing Bengali words: most sounds they may bring into their English often can be variably  attributed to their own regional dialects rather than the standard CholitaBhasha . However, apart from the local dialects, Cholita Bhasha speakers are likely to make distortions in the production of certain English sounds, but incontestably not in too many. This paper looks into the similarities and dissimilarities between English and Bengali at segmental and supra-segmental level and attempts to pinpoint the influences behind these distortions to rectify learners' errors init

Forecasting Volatility of Quality Assessment for High Energy Biscuits (HEB) with ARCH Model

The High Energy Biscuits (HEB) products-310 data were collected from Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka over the year 2007 to 2012 in the method of single stage cluster sampling. Volatility as a measure of risk plays an important role in many qualitative decisions in such a situations. The main purpose of this study is to examine the volatility of the quality of High Energy Biscuits (HEB) products and its related stylized facts using Auto-regressive Conditional Heteoskedastic (ARCH) models. The physiochemical analysis data was used to study the volatility in the quality of High Energy Biscuits (HEB) products over a 5 years period. The adequacy of selected model tested using Auto-regressive Conditional Heteoskedastic-Lagrange Multiplier (ARCH-LM) test. The study concludes that ARCH model explains volatility of the quality of High Energy Biscuits (HEB) products. Keywords: Volatility; ARCH models; ARCH-LM test; Quality of High Energy Biscuits (HEB) products; Single stage cluster sampling; Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST). DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/121-05 Publication date: January 31st 202

Effects of inundation period and tillage option on field performance of self-propelled rice transplanter

Manual transplanting of rice seedlings in puddling condition is a common method of crop establishment in the irrigated rice systems of Asia though it is time consuming. Rice transplanters are outmost need to overcome the labor crisis in the peak transplanting periods. But, self-propelled transplanter requires an ideal field conditions to obtain better performance. Hence, a self-propelled rice transplanter (Model: DP480 and S3-680) was evaluated in clay loam (CLS), loam (LS) and sandy loam soil (SLS) during the irrigated dry season (Boro) of 2012-13 and 2013-14 under three inundation periods of 12, 18 and 24 hrs and three tillage options as strip tillage (ST), zero tillage (ZT) and conventional tillage (CT) to identify a suitable inundation period and tillage option. Soil penetration resistance decreased with the increased of inundation period in both the seasons and in three soil types. In CLS and SLS, CT showed lower penetration. In LS, ST gave higher resistance in strip compared to ZT and CT. 2-way interaction of tillage and inundation period as well as single effect of inundation period showed significant outcome in SLS during Boro/2013-14 where 18 hr inundation period for ST and CT and 24 hr for ZT gave significantly higher rate of area coverage. Average of two seasons, ST gave more rate of area coverage for 18 hrs inundation period irrespective of soil types whereas ZT gave more for 24, 18 and 24 hrs inundation period in CLS, LS and SLS respectively. ST and ZT saved 22 to 13% and 8 to 13% fuel requirement for transplanting in CLS and SLS compared to CT, respectively whereas CT saved fuel requirement by 2 to 7% over ST and ZT in LS. Contrary, ST reduced the percentage of missing hills (9.7%) compared to ZT (13.0%) and CT (10.7%) while percentage of missing hills reduced (13.7 to 9.2%) with the increased of inundation periods irrespective of seasons and soil types. Highest percentage of picker missing hills was observed for ZT in LS (4.8%) and SLS (4.6%) while 12 hrs inundation periods in SLS gave the highest and 18 and 24 hrs inundation periods in CLS and 24 hrs inundation periods in SLS gave the lowest picker missing hills. Damage hills increased in ZT from 2.6 to 3.0% compared to CT (1.0 to 1.6%) and ST (1.6 to 2.1%). Damage hills also increased in 12 hrs inundation period (2.4%) followed by 24 hrs (1.8%) and 18 hrs (1.7%) inundation periods. Highest floating hills were also observed for ZT followed by ST. Floating hills decreased with inundation periods in all types of soil. CT increased the buried hills significantly during the both seasons. However, highest percentages of buried hills were observed for 12 hrs inundation periods (2.6%) while lowest for 24 hrs inundation periods (1.6%). ST gave higher grain yield of rice compared to ZT and CT in both seasons under clay loam, loam and sandy loam soils except CLS during Boro 2012-13 seasons where ZT gave higher yield. Averaged over two seasons and three soil types, 24 hrs inundation periods gave higher yield followed by 18 hrs inundation periods. However, ST, ZT and CT gave higher yield for 18 (6.1 t/ha), 24 (6.0 t/ha) and 24 hrs (5.9 t/ha) inundation periods followed by 24 (5.9 t/ha), 18 (5.6 t/ha) and 18 hrs (5.7 t/ha), respectively. Finally, it can be stated that unpuddled minimum tillage is a resource saving technique of rice production while 18 hrs inundation prior to transplanting for strip and 24 hrs inundation for zero and conventional tillage showed more benefited for rice production

Investigation of MnxNi1-xO Thin Films Using Pulsed Laser Deposition

The exchange bias (EB) effect, especially in nanomaterials, is highly promising for use in antiferromagnet-based spintronics applications. NiO is a well known antiferromagnetic material with a high Néel temperature (525K) and can exhibit ferromagnetism/ ferrimagnetism by adding other magnetic transition elements. Our previous work has shown that the antiferromagnetic characteristics of conventional NiO insulating nanostructured material can be altered to have substantial ferrimagnetic characteristics by doping NiO with Mn or Co. Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) was used to grow heterostructures comprised of a nanostructured thin NiO film deposited on the surface of a MgO (100) and Al2O3 (111) substrates, followed by the deposition of a MnxNi1-xO thin film layer on top of the NiO layer. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and SQUID magnetometry were used to study the structural, morphological, and magnetic properties, respectively, of the thin film heterostructures. XRD and SEM characterizations show that the NiO/MnxNi1-xO bilayers were grown quasi-epitaxially on the MgO and Al2O3 substrates. The primary motivation of this study is to determine how the magnetic properties and the exchange bias effect may depend upon the interface morphology, structural characteristics and Mn concentration of the MnxNi1-xO layer in the heterostructures

Engineering Lewis acidic materials for biomass conversion and battery applications.

My long-term goal is to develop catalytic systems to produce renewable energy for a sustainable society. The overall research objective of my dissertation is to advance understanding of Lewis acidic materials for (1) conversion of renewable lignin into phenolics and (2) enhanced cycling stability of lithium metal batteries to safely store renewable electricity from wind and solar, thereby laying the groundwork for our transition to a sustainable society. Petroleum is a conventional feedstock for current transportation fuels (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels). However, petroleum is a finite resource and produces greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) upon processing, which contributes to climate change. Therefore, we need to develop ways to tap into alternative feedstocks. Many researchers have investigated the use of catalytic conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to produce biofuels (bioethanol). During bioethanol production, carbohydrates (cellulose and hemicellulose) are digested to produce bioethanol. The residual lignin is left behind. The ability to catalytically convert lignin into high-value chemicals will incentivize biorefineries and promote a sustainable bio-economy. Electricity is another renewable energy that can be produced from wind and solar. The major challenge in using electricity-driven transportations (electric vehicles) lies in their storage in lithium metal batteries. However, chemical and electrochemical reactions in conventional lithium-metal batteries are not stable. The movement of undesired anions promotes capacity decay and hazardous lithium dendrite growth. As a result, these batteries have short lives and short-circuiting, which leads to fire and explosion. The ability to control the reactivity of the ions in the electrolytes will enable safety and promote future electric vehicles for a cleaner environment. My dissertation focuses on the development of Lewis acidic materials to address the challenges in (1) lignin upcycling and (2) the safety and cyclability of lithium metal batteries. First, lignin is an oxygen-rich phenolic polymer. To efficiently release the phenolic monomers from lignin, I developed the Lewis acid catalysts in the form of oxygen vacancies to activate the oxygen functionality of lignin. Second, I grafted the Lewis acidic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) onto the polypropylene separator to immobilize the TFSI- anions in conventional electrolytes (1M LiTFSI in organic solvents). The developed materials restrict the mobility of anions and polyselenides, thereby improving the lithium-selenium batteries\u27 capacity retention and cycling stability. I divided this dissertation into six chapters to cover background about Lewis acidic materials and their uses for catalytic lignin upgrading and lithium-selenium batteries. The first four chapters of this dissertation describe the engineering/development of the Lewis acidic material for the catalysis of bioderived organics, lignin. Then, chapter five describes the incorporation of the Lewis acidic MOFs into a polypropylene separator to improve battery capacity and safety. Incorporating the Lewis acidic MOFs controlled ion transport properties, thereby restricting the mobility of undesired anions and polyselenides and improving capacity retention in lithium-selenium batteries. Finally, Chapter six suggests future research directions to create next-generation alkali metal-based batteries that are safe and powerful to face future challenges for developing a sustainable carbon zero society

Residual mechanical properties of steel fibre reinforced geopolymer concrete (SFRGC) after exposure to elevated temperatures

This study presents the effects of two types of alkali activators (Na and K-based) on the residual mechanical properties of steel fibre reinforced geopolymer concretes (SFRGC) after exposed to various elevated temperatures and compared with those of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC). Results show that the SFRGC containing Na- based activators exhibited much higher residual compressive and indirect tensile strength at all elevated temperatures including at ambient condition than its K-based counterpart and SFRC