Sign Language Recognition System Simulated for Video Captured with Smart Phone Front Camera

This works objective is to bring sign language closer to real time implementation on mobile platforms. A video database of Indian sign language is created with a mobile front camera in selfie mode. This video is processed on a personal computer by constraining the computing power to that of a smart phone with 2GB ram. Pre-filtering, segmentation and feature extraction on video frames creates a sign language feature space. Minimum distance classification of the sign feature space converts signs to text or speech. ASUS smart phone with 5M pixel front camera captures continuous sign videos containing around 240 frames at a frame rate of 30fps. Sobel edge operator’s power is enhanced with morphology and adaptive thresholding giving a near perfect segmentation of hand and head portions. Word matching score (WMS) estimates performance of the proposed method with an average WMS of around 90.58%

Infrared studies of X-ray sources

A detailed study of the infrared radiation from galactic X-ray sources indicates that the galactic bulge sources and X-ray binary sources have different infrared emission characteristics. The galactic bulge sources seem to show a power law dependence between the X-ray flux and the infrared flux emitted by the X-ray source. The results presented suggests that the infrared radiation in the galactic bulge sources is dominated by free-free radiation and, in the case of eclipsing binary sources, the black-body emission from the early-type companion star contributes significantly to the infrared radiation

Users’ Satisfaction of Public Utility Services – Multivariate System Analysis

This research develops a multivariate system framework for assessing user satisfaction of public water utility organization in a developing country and predicts quality, quantity and overall user satisfaction for policy initiatives. The model framework is applied to the data collected by Public Affairs Centre (PAC) based on the Citizen Report Card approach pioneered by it. Wald test confirms that there exits cross equation correlation across quality, quantity and overall users’ satisfaction dimensions. Based on the system model, the study identifies statistically significant factors that explain users’ loyalty to express satisfaction and voice to express dissatisfaction of users. Policy initiatives are proposed on key factors to reduce voice factors set so that the service provider could improve its service delivery. The system model correctly predicts 85% of satisfied customers across quality, quantity and overall satisfaction dimensions.  Keywords: Multivariate, Logit, Discrete choice Model, Public Sector Utility service provide

Study of cosmic ray diurnal variation on a day-to-day basis

From a careful examination of the diurnal variation of cosmic ray intensity at high energies and the interplanetary field characteristics, the average characteristics of diurnal variation were recently explained by us in terms of a balance between outward convection and field aligned diffusion, the latter arising out of a positive radial density gradient. In this paper, we extend this new concept to explain the large variability observed in the diurnal variation on a day-to-day basis and further demonstrate that the measurement of diurnal anisotropy characteristic of cosmic ray particles on a day-to-day basis can be used directly to infer the nature and scale sizes of interplanetary field parameters. Comparing with the magnetic field vector, we show that this simple concept holds good on more than 80% of days. On the rest 20% of days which have a predominant morning maxima, the diurnal anisotropy characteristics seem to indicate the presence of a significant component of transverse diffusion current in addition to the normal convection and diffusion flow. Such days are found to be present in the form of trains of consecutive days and are found to be associated with abrupt changes in the interplanetary field direction having scale sizes >4 hr. The value of K⊥/K|| which is normally about ≤0.05 is found to be ≈1.0 on non-field aligned days

Non Inflammatory Boronate Based Glucose-Responsive Insulin Delivery Systems

Boronic acids, known to bind diols, were screened to identify non-inflammatory cross-linkers for the preparation of glucose sensitive and insulin releasing agglomerates of liposomes (Agglomerated Vesicle Technology-AVT). This was done in order to select a suitable replacement for the previously used cross-linker, ConcanavalinA (ConA), a lectin known to have both toxic and inflammatory effects in vivo. Lead-compounds were selected from screens that involved testing for inflammatory potential, cytotoxicity and glucose-binding. These were then conjugated to insulin-encapsulating nanoparticles and agglomerated via sugar-boronate ester linkages to form AVTs. In vitro, the particles demonstrated triggered release of insulin upon exposure to physiologically relevant concentrations of glucose (10 mmoles/L–40 mmoles/L). The agglomerates were also shown to be responsive to multiple spikes in glucose levels over several hours, releasing insulin at a rate defined by the concentration of the glucose trigger

Absence of disparities in anthropometric measures among Chilean indigenous and non-indigenous newborns

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies throughout North America and Europe have documented adverse perinatal outcomes for racial/ethnic minorities. Nonetheless, the contrast in newborn characteristics between indigenous and non-indigenous populations in Latin America has been poorly characterized. This is due to many challenges, including a lack of vital registration information on ethnicity. The objective of this study was to analyze trends in anthropometric measures at birth in Chilean indigenous (Mapuche) and non-indigenous children over a 5-year period.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined weight and length at birth using information available through a national data base of all birth records for the years 2000 through 2004 (n = 1,166.513). Newborns were classified ethnically according to the origins of the parents' last names.</p> <p>Result</p> <p>The average birthweight was stable over the 5 year period with variations of less than 20 g in each group, and with mean values trivially higher in indigenous newborns. The proportion weighing less than 2500 g at birth increased modestly from 5.2% to 5.6% in non-indigenous newborns whereas the indigenous births remained constant at 5.2%. In multiple regression analyses, adjusting flexibly for gestational age and maternal characteristics, the occurrence of an indigenous surname added only 14 g to an average infant's birthweight while holding other factors constant. Results for length at birth were similar, and adjusted time trend variation in both outcomes was trivially small after adjustment. Anthropometric indexes at birth in Chile are quite favorable by international standards.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is only a trivial degree of ethnic disparity in these values, in contrast to conditions for ethnic minorities in other countries. Moreover, these values remained roughly constant over the 5 years of observation in this study.</p

Selfie video based continuous Indian sign language recognition system

This paper introduces a novel method to bring sign language closer to real time application on mobile platforms. Selfie captured sign language video is processed by constraining its computing power to that of a smart phone. Pre-filtering, segmentation and feature extraction on video frames creates a sign language feature space. Minimum Distance and Artificial Neural Network classifiers on the sign feature space is trained and tested iteratively. Sobel edge operator's power is enhanced with morphology and adaptive thresholding giving a near perfect segmentation of hand and head portions compensating for the small vibrations of the selfie stick. Word matching score (WMS) gives the performance of the proposed method with an average WMS of around 85.58% for MDC and 90% for ANN with a small variation of 0.3 s in classification times. Neural network classifiers with fast training algorithms will certainly make this novel selfie sign language recognizer application into app stores. Keywords: Indian sign language, Sobel adaptive threshold, Morphological differencing, Mahalanobis distance, Multi layered artificial neural network

High energy cosmic ray intensity variations associated with the unusual Forbush decrease of August 1972

Spectacular temporal cosmic-ray variations at relativistic energies were recorded by all ground-based cosmic ray monitors during August 1972 when Forbush decreases (FD) and other associated intensity changes occurred. These included at least two major relativistic solar particle enhancements and three FD events, one of which was the largest observed to date. Large anisotropies in the intensities were also indicated throughout the entire period during these events. From a comparison with the interplanetary plasma and field parameters observed by various spacecraft during this period, a comprehensive model is developed for the FD in terms of a shock front, containing tangled magnetic fields with large-scale tangential discontinuities, sweeping past the earth

Characteristics of quiet as well as enhanced diurnal anisotropy of cosmic radiation

It is shown that the model which has been successful in explaining the anisotropy of low energy cosmic radiation of solar origin in terms of simple convection and field aligned diffusion can also be extended to explain both the quiet and enhanced diurnal variation of cosmic radiation at higher energies. The enhanced diurnal variation which shows a maximum around ~2000 hr is shown to be caused by the superposition of normal convection and enhanced field aligned diffusion due to an enhanced positive density gradient of approximately ~10 per cent/AU. The enhanced gradient in the early part of the event is caused by a depletion of cosmic ray intensity along the garden-hose direction and later in the event (T &#8805; 4 days) is caused by an excess flux from the anti-garden-hose direction. The quiet day average diurnal anisotropy of cosmic radiation can be understood as due to an equilibrium between the convective and diffusive flow, resulting in a corotation vector along the 1800 hr direction. The observed amplitude of the annual mean diffusive vector is consistent with a positive radial density gradient of ~4.5 per cent/AU, which agrees with other radial gradient measurements. The diffusive vector during both quiet and enhanced anisotropy periods is shown to be along the interplanetary field direction. The ratio of perpendicular to parallel diffusion coefficient under normal conditions is derived to be &#8804; 0.05 indicating that the transverse gradients, in general, are negligible

Characteristics of cosmic ray diurnal variation from deep river neutron and meson data and temperature effects

From an extensive analysis of Deep River meson data for over 5 years, new temperature coefficients have been derived for correcting the meson data. It is shown that meson data corrected using new coefficients yield values of diurnal and semidiurnal anisotropy consistent with those obtained from neutron monitors. Using the temperature-corrected meson and neutron data, the upper cutoff rigidity beyond which the diurnal variation ceases is shown to vary with solar cycle showing a minimum of about 35 GV during the Quiet Solar Year of 1965, and a maximum of ≈ 125 GV during 1968-1969