An off-line large vocabulary hand-written Chinese character recognizer

An off-line hand-written Chinese character recognizer based on contextual vector quantization (CVQ) supporting a vocabulary of 4616 Chinese characters, alphanumerics and punctuation symbols has been reported. Trained with a sample for each character from each of 100 writers and tested on texts of 160000 characters written by another 200 writers, the average recognition rate is 77.2%. Two statistical language models have been investigated in this study. Their performance in terms of their capabilities in upgrading the recognition rate by 8.8% and 12.0% respectively when used as post-processors of the recognizer are reported.published_or_final_versio

Thermal-diffusivity measurements of an oriented superconducting-film–substrate composite using the mirage technique

When one measures the thermal diffusivity χ of a thin film on a substrate by the mirage method, the photothermal deflection of the probe beam is caused by the heat field contributed by both the film and the substrate which are heated by the pump beam. To include the effects due to the presence of the substrate, we present a method to measure the diffusivities of both the film and substrate in one set of mirage detection. Using the off-axis magnetron sputtering process, we fabricated YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin films of suitable thickness (∼60 nm) on SrTiO3 as our sample for χ measurements along the c and b axes. Our results are consistent with published ones.published_or_final_versio

Properties of a hand-printed Chinese character recognizer based on contexted vector quantization

A hand-printed Chinese character recognizer based on Contextual Vector Quantization (CVQ) has been built previously. In this paper, several properties of the recognizer will be discussed and the recognizer of 4516 Chinese characters has a successful rate of 91.0%. Then the output of the recognizer is passed to a language model which when applied to recognize a passage of about 1200 characters raises the rate from 91.5% to 97.5%.published_or_final_versio

Purpurin Triggers Caspase-Independent Apoptosis in Candida dubliniensis Biofilms

Candida dubliniensis is an important human fungal pathogen that causes oral infections in patients with AIDS and diabetes mellitus. However, C. Dubliniensis has been frequently reported in bloodstream infections in clinical settings. Like its phylogenetically related virulent species C. albicans, C. Dubliniensis is able to grow and switch between yeast form and filamentous form (hyphae) and develops biofilms on both abiotic and biotic surfaces. Biofilms are recalcitrant to antifungal therapies and C. Dubliniensis readily turns drug resistant upon repeated exposure. More than 80% of infections are associated with biofilms. Suppression of fungal biofilms may therefore represent a viable antifungal strategy with clinical relevance. Here, we report that C. dubliniensis biofilms were inhibited by purpurin, a natural anthraquinone pigment isolated from madder root. Purpurin inhibited C. dubliniensis biofilm formation in a concentration-dependent manner; while mature biofilms were less susceptible to purpurin. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed scanty structure consisting of yeast cells in purpurin-treated C. dubliniensis biofilms. We sought to delineate the mechanisms of the anti-biofilm activity of purpurin on C. Dubliniensis. Intracellular ROS levels were significantly elevated in fungal biofilms and depolarization of MMP was evident upon purpurin treatment in a concentration-dependent manner. DNA degradation was evident. However, no activated metacaspase could be detected. Together, purpurin triggered metacaspase-independent apoptosis in C. dubliniensis biofilms.published_or_final_versio

Development of metal-containing polymers for optoelectronic applications

Most of the work in organic electroluminescent polymers has been focused on organic conjugated polymers. However, polymers attached with transition metal complex have received relatively less attention. We have synthesized and studied the light emitting properties of some metal containing polymers based on the polypyridine complexes of rhenium and ruthenium. These complexes exhibit long-lived excited states caused by the metal to ligand charge transfer transitions. By varying the structure of the ligand and/or the transition metal, we are able to fine-tune the electronic properties of the resulting metal complexes.We have synthesized a series of poly(phenylenevinylene) (PPV) derivatives which are functionalized with ruthenium polypyridine complexes at the polymer mainchain or side chain. These complexes are able to act as photosensitizers which enhance the photoconductivity of these polymers at longer wavelength. Both the conjugatedbackbone and the metal complex can emit light upon excitation. As a result, it is possible to tune the color by loading different amount of ruthenium complex to the polymer. Luminescence studies showed that the ruthenium complex could quench the emission of the conjugated backbone in some polymers, which suggests an energy transfer processbetween the backbone and the metal complexes. It was also found that the presence of metal complexes could enhance the charge carrier mobilities of the polymers, as the metal and/or ligands can act as extra charge carriers in the charge transport process.published_or_final_versio

The mechanical and biological properties of a novel biodegradable polycaprolactone-magnesium porous scaffold for bone tissue engineering

Session: Biomaterial-based Tissue Regeneration: abstract no. 150INTRODUCTION: Bone tissue engineering offers an alternative solution to the traditional methods of bone replacement including allografts and autografts. Tissue grafting has been used since 1660s1. However, there are concerns of tissue shortage and transmission of disease. Therefore, the use of scaffold is the most common technique and good approach to regenerate diseased or damaged bone tissue. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is one of the suitable candidates to be used as the scaffold material since it has a low degradation rate when compared with other polymers. However, the low mechanical strength and intrinsic …postprintThe 2010 North America Conference of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS-NA 2010), Orlando, FL., 5-8 December 2010

Enhanced cell adhesion and proliferation on dual plasma modified titanium surfaces

Session: Biomaterials Fabrication and Synthesis: abstract no. 47INTRODUCTION: Ti-6Al-4V is widely used in present orthopedic applications, owing to a combination of good mechanical properties and excellent corrosion resistance. However, long-term success of Ti-6Al-4V implants and the completeness of their osteointegration still need to be addressed [1]. Since the biofunctionality of the implant is strongly affected by its surface characteristics, to promote osteointegration, considerable efforts have focused on modifying the surface of the implants. Alternatively, surface modification using plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) has been developed in order to incorporate new biofunctional groups onto titanium alloy surfaces [2]. The present study aims at investigating the impact of carbon-nitrogen (Car-Nit) dual plasma surface treatment on …postprintThe 2010 North America Conference of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS-NA 2010), Orlando, FL., 5-8 December 2010

Modelling and prediction of particulate matter, NOx, and performance of a diesel vehicle engine under rare data using relevance vector machine

2011-2012 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe