AMC Native WebRTC Client

Traditional call center and telecommunication hardware is being replaced by thin, browser-based, cloud enabled web services. Industry standards for web based communication protocols, such as WebRTC, are being established. AMC needed to address this new technology, while maintaining a hybrid approach of server-based capabilities, taking advantage of the web-based communication channel, while broadcasting events to the Contact Canvas Server. Contact Canvas Agent Palette is the editing platform of the AMC adapter for Salesforce.com, allowing agents to communicate with customers through the AMC adapter/ Softphone. Using Agent Palette, the task was to integrate Video Chat using WebRTC into the AMC toolbar. Two agents use a peer-to-peer connection to establish communication with one another. The connected two can communicate through video chat which supports screen pop. The components that were provided and used were the AMC adapter for salesforce.com, the Agent Palette, and the salesforce.com Customer Relation Management (CRM) database. The AMC adapter is an HTML Softphone that can be used to voice enable salesforce.com, while Socket.io and Node.js were used to communicate with the server side. Eventually this video chat will advance to the point where communication will be established between agents and their customers.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1162/thumbnail.jp

Segmentation/Recognition of Hand-Written Numeral Characters

This thesis describes a number of techniques for segmenting non-cursive handwritten digits into individual characters. It strongly emphasizes on a recognition-segmentation algorithm, which uses the linear regression method to recognize those strokes which consist of one or more straight-lined parts. A new method of sampling the pen data according to the pen speed, hence giving a more uniform points concentratino distribution, is also introduced. It is shown how several of our segmenting techniques, such as relative stroke lengths, relative stroke positions, order of stroke entry, stroke direction, stroke intersection, etc. can be combined to yield success results of about 95%

Differentiating Web Service Offerings

The advent of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm and increasing use of Web Services (WS) implies that the future will see a large number of services transferred between providers and consumers, using many applications or agents working on behalf of humans. Discovering and using the services is the easy part. Negotiating and selecting the best services from amongst the plethora of similar ones, depending on their cost and quality, is the challenging issue. However, existing WS-I standards neither cater to provision of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), nor their exchange between parties. These standards are confined merely to WS description (WSDL). Once WS are discovered and selected, SLAs are merely used to monitor service compliance. We propose a novel method that allows service-providers to dynamically generate the SLAs, and then transfer them to clients for selection amongst competitive service providers. The clients use Application to Application (A2A) communication to choose the best service provider at run time, and then bind to it to available services. Our method complies with all WS-I standards, and hence does not require any modifications to the UDDI or WSDL. Instead of using the SLA as just a contractual document for compliance monitoring of the service, we also use it as a means of service selection. We demonstrate and validate our method using a prototype developed in laboratory settings, which uses multiple ‘Weather Service Providers’ to obtain various indicators for weather forecasting

Application of Taguchi method to study morphological evolution of TiO2 nanotubes obtained via anodization process

The growth of titanium dioxide nanotubes (TiO2) via anodization process depends on the controlling parameters such as applied potential, anodization time, and electrolyte composition. In the present work, the Taguchi method was applied to evaluate statistically the influence of the anodization parameters on the morphology of anodized TiO2 films. Mixture of ethylene-glycol and glycerol was used as an electrolyte and the settings of the experimental design were parameterized on the basis of four important anodization factors consisting of chemical pretreatment, amount of fluoride, water content and applied potential. Samples were characterized by XRD and FEG-SEM. Based on 4 variables at 3 different settings, full factorial plan requires 34 = 81 tests. In this work the experiment was designed on the basis of an L9 (34) orthogonal array (4 variables, 3 levels, 9 tests). The optimum conditions were found on the basis of smaller-is-better and larger-is-better analyses. The signal-to-noise ratio was employed to find optimal process parameters levels and to analyze the influence of these parameters on the tubular length, internal and external diameters and formation of nanograss on the film surface. Hence, it is clearly shown that the performance of TiO2 nanotubes can be evaluated by the Taguchi method

Photocatalytic performance of Ta2O5/BiVO4 heterojunction for hydrogen production and methylene blue photodegradation

Forming semiconductor heterojunction is promising for improved photocatalytic performance due to synergistic combination of the best properties of each material. The present study reports a simple hydrothermal strategy to form n-n heterojunction of Ta2O5 nanotubes and BiVO4 microstructures. The Ta2O5/BiVO4 heterojunctions were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and their photocatalytic activity was evaluated by hydrogen production and photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) dye in aqueous medium under AM 1.5 G (100 mW cm-2 ) condition. The heterojunctions have optical absorption in the visible region (200-500 nm) with crystal structures defined as monoclinic for BiVO4 and orthogonal for Ta2O5. For MB photodegradation, the Ta2O5/BiVO4 obtained via hydrothermal route showed a photodegradation of 72.3%, compared to 28.3% presented by the sample produced through the mechanical mixture, with the maintenance of 86.4% of its photocatalytic performance after 3 cycles of photodegradation. For H2 production, hydrothermally prepared Ta2O5/BiVO4 generated 10.2 μmol g-1 of H2 in 3 h; while Ta2O5 nanotubes and mechanical Ta2O5/BiVO4 mixture shows 6.82 and 2.80 μmol g-1, respectively. The results suggest that Ta2O5/BiVO4 is a promising material for applications in photocatalysis, promoting sustainable energy production through hydrogen and for the treatment of effluents containing cationic dyes

The correlation between atrophic gastritis and Helicobacter pylori infection in patients referred to Shohadaye Ashayer Hospital in Khorramabad

Background: Helicobacter pylori and atrophic gastritis are both known as risk factors for gastric cancer. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in patients with atrophic gastritis. In addition to being aware of the prevalence of this infection, it is crucial to eliminated of this bacterium due to its carcinogenicity.Methods: In this descriptive-cross-sectional study, all patients referred to the endoscopy unit of Shohadaye Ashayer Hospital in Khorramabad city for endoscopy during 2015–2016 were included. Referees with atrophic gastritis were classified as patients, while those without the condition were classified as the control group. Then, the frequency of H. pylori infection in patients with atrophic gastritis and people without atrophic gastritis was investigated. After sample collection, the primary data was entered into the SPSS software version 22 for analysis.Result: The collected results showed that 2121 patients (41%) did not have H. pylori and 3053 patients (59%) had H. pylori. The population over 50 years old had the highest age frequency in the study subjects, while the female group had the highest gender frequency. As a result, the frequency of H. pylori in the antrum area was higher than in other locations in both endoscopy and pathology, but it was not statistically significant (P value >0.05). 54.1% of those who had endoscopy-discovered atrophy also had severe atrophy. H. pylori was found in the antrum in 50% of cases, and in 61.1% of cases when the pathology showed atrophy. This finding was statistically significant (P value <0.05).The incidence of reporting atrophy was 2.8 times higher in the age group of over 50 compared to those under 20. H. pylori was detected in 56.4% of people over 50 who had atrophy; that was statistically significant.Conclusion: According to the results, there is a significant risk of developing atrophic gastritis in patients with H. pylori, and among females, those over 50 years old have the highest frequency of occurrence

Peering into the formation of template-free hierarchical flowerlike nanostructures of SrTiO3

The development of efficient advanced functional materials is highly dependent on properties such as morphology, crystallinity, and surface functionality. In this work, hierarchical flowerlike nanostructures of SrTiO3 have been synthesized by a simple template-free solvothermal method involving poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP). Molecular dynamics simulations supported by structural characterization have shown that PVP preferentially adsorbs on {110} facets, thereby promoting the {100} facet growth. This interaction results in the formation of hierarchical flowerlike nanostructures with assembled nanosheets. The petal morphology is strongly dependent on the presence of PVP, and the piling up of nanosheets, leading to nanocubes, is observed when PVP is removed at high temperatures. This work contributes to a better understanding of how to control the morphological properties of SrTiO3, which is fundamental to the synthesis of perovskite-type materials with tailored properties

Reverse Semi-Combustion Driven by Titanium Dioxide-Ionic Liquid Hybrid Photocatalyst

EP/L015633/1 EP/K005138/1 CAPES (158804/2017/01-and 001 FAPERGS -16/2552-0000 18/2551-0000561-4 88887.195052/2018-00 CNPq :406260/2018-4 169462/2017-0 406750/2016-5 465454/2014-3 grant agreement No 810310Unprecedented metal-free photocatalytic CO2 conversion to CO (up to 228±48 μmol g−1 h−1) was displayed by TiO2@IL hybrid photocatalysts prepared by simple impregnation of commercially available P25-titanium dioxide with imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs). The high activity of TiO2@IL hybrid photocatalysts was mainly associated to (i) TiO2@IL red shift compared to the pure TiO2 absorption, and thus a modification of the TiO2 surface electronic structure; (ii) TiO2 with IL bearing imidazolate anions lowered the CO2 activation energy barrier. The reaction mechanism was postulated to occur via CO2 photoreduction to formate species by the imidazole/imidazole radical redox pair, yielding CO and water.publishersversionpublishe

Polypyrrole/ionic liquid/Au nanoparticle counter-electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells : improving charge-transfer resistance at the CE/electrolyte interface

To provide a viable alternative for counter electrodes used in dye sensitized solar cells, polypyrrole (PPy) based films have been synthesized via electrochemical deposition in the presence of the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imidate (NTf2) and incorporated with gold nanoparticles (Aunanop). The films were analyzed by SEM, UV-Vis-NIR, Raman, Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, Cyclic voltammetry and Conductivity measurements. The presence of the ionic liquid is found to result in a more conductive film, to improve catalytic reduction of I3 − and the electrochemical reversibility of the electrode. In addition to increase conductivity, impedance spectroscopy has shown that incorporating Aunanop in the PPy/NTf2 film helps improving the interfacial charge transportation, the electrocatalytic properties and solar energy conversion efficiency. DSSCs assembled with PPy based CE presented nearly the same J-V characteristic parameters as observed from conventional Pt based devic