A Survey of Smart Classroom Literature

Recently, there has been a substantial amount of research on smart classrooms, encompassing a number of areas, including Information and Communication Technology, Machine Learning, Sensor Networks, Cloud Computing, and Hardware. Smart classroom research has been quickly implemented to enhance education systems, resulting in higher engagement and empowerment of students, educators, and administrators. Despite decades of using emerging technology to improve teaching practices, critics often point out that methods miss adequate theoretical and technical foundations. As a result, there have been a number of conflicting reviews on different perspectives of smart classrooms. For a realistic smart classroom approach, a piecemeal implementation is insufficient. This survey contributes to the current literature by presenting a comprehensive analysis of various disciplines using a standard terminology and taxonomy. This multi-field study reveals new research possibilities and problems that must be tackled in order to integrate interdisciplinary works in a synergic manner. Our analysis shows that smart classroom is a rapidly developing research area that complements a number of emerging technologies. Moreover, this paper also describes the co-occurrence network of technological keywords using VOSviewer for an in-depth analysis

On Some Optimal Multiple Root-Finding Methods and their Dynamics

Finding multiple zeros of nonlinear functions pose many difficulties for many of the iterative methods. In this paper, we present an improved optimal class of higher-order methods for multiple roots having quartic convergence. The present approach of deriving an optimal class is based on weight function approach. In terms of computational cost, all the proposed methods require three functional evaluations per full iteration, so that their efficiency indices are 1.587 and, are optimal in the sense of Kung-Traub conjecture. It is found by way of illustrations that they are useful in high precision computing enviroments. Moreover, basins of attraction of some of the higher-order methods in the complex plane are also given

Thiol Modification of Psyllium Husk Mucilage and Evaluation of Its Mucoadhesive Applications

Thiol functionalization of psyllium was carried out to enhance its mucoadhesive potential. Thiolation of psyllium was achieved by esterification with thioglycolic acid. Thiolation was observed to change the surface morphology of psyllium from fibrous to granular and result in a slight increase in the crystallinity and swelling. Thiolated psyllium was found to contain 3.282 m moles of thiol groups/g of the polymer. Mucoadhesive applications of thiolated psylium were explored by formulating gels using metronidazole as the model drug. On comparative evaluation thiolated psyllium gels showed 3-fold higher mucoadhesive strength than the psyllium gels as determined by modified physical balance using chicken buccal pouch. The results of in vitro release study revealed that thiolated psyllium gels provided a prolonged release of metronidazole. Further, the psyllium and thiolated psyllium gels were found to release the drug following first-order kinetics by combination of polymer relaxation and diffusion through the matrix

Thermal, optical and gas sensing properties of ZnO films prepared by different techniques

Nowadays, for environmental protection, the use of portable gas sensor is essential to detect toxic gases. To control this problem of hazardous gases, metal oxide based sensors plays a vital role. In this recent study, Indium (2 at.wt.%) doped ZnO films has been prepared by sol gel spin coating and thermal evaporation techniques on glass substrates. To enhance the sensing properties, indium (In) was used as dopant and their annealing effect of temperature was observed. Thermal properties have shown the fruitful result that prepared films are useful for the fabrication of solar cell. Electrical properties revealed that capacitance and dielectric constant decreases with increase in frequency. X-ray Diffraction showed hexagonal wurtzite structure highly oriented along (1 0 1) plane. Field emission scanning electron microscope of these synthesis films prepared by different have shown the morphology as nanospheres having size of the order of 40–60 nm. 2.0 at.% of indium as modifier resulted in highest response and selectivity towards 5 ppm of NO2 gas at different operating temperature (50–200 °C). Highest sensitivity was obtained at operating temperature of 150 °C. Prepared films have quick response and recovery time in the range of 14–27 s and 67–63 s. The highest response and recovery time of gas sensor was explained by valence ion mechanism

An Optimal Eighth-Order Derivative-Free Family of Potra-Pták’s Method

In this paper, we present a new three-step derivative-free family based on Potra-Pták’s method for solving nonlinear equations numerically. In terms of computational cost, each member of the proposed family requires only four functional evaluations per full iteration to achieve optimal eighth-order convergence. Further, computational results demonstrate that the proposed methods are highly efficient as compared with many well-known methods

Register allocation for fine grain threads on

A multicore processor has multiple processing cores on the same chip. Unicore and multicore processors are architecturally different. Since individual instructions are needed to be scheduled onto one of the available cores, it effectively decreases the number of instructions executed on the individual core of a multicore processor. As each core of a multicore processor has a private register file, it results in reduced register pressure. To effectively utilize the potential benefits of the multicore processor, the sequential program must be split into small parallel regions to be run on different cores, and the register allocation must be done for each of these cores. This article discusses register allocating heuristics for fine grained threads which can be scheduled on multiple cores. Spills are computed and its effect on speed-up, power consumption and performance per power is compared for a RAW benchmark suite

A swinging heart

We present a case of young female presenting with clinical features of cardiac tamponade. On initial investigation, the etiology of cardiac tamponade could not be made. The presence of bradycardia with cardiac tamponade prompted us to perform thyroid function test which lead to the diagnosis of hypothyroidism