Evaluation of metal detection audio alert signals of AN/PSS-14 by means of real time visualization

The sweep arm of the AN/PSS-14 Landmine Detector attached to an independent visualization device will transform the AN/PSS-14 into a hand-held data acquisition system for conversion of real time MD and GPR audio alert signals into captured visual trace displays on an on-board PDA computer screen so that momentary sounds of millisecond durations can be captured and displayed for visual scrutiny and interpretation by analytical on-board data processing procedures. This is a part of a two-man team that is developing a visual data adapter for the AN/PSS-14 Landmine Detector where the current thesis is concentrating only on MD audio alerts. The visualization device displays the amplitude-time plot and the instantaneous frequency-time plots of the MD audio alert signal for better understanding and for distinction of metallic firing pins from metallic clutter. This is achieved by the identification of the metal type, which would be common in any given landmine field and by observing the symmetric deviations of the amplitude envelope along multiple sweep directions over a buried target. The analysis of this research is constrained to only vertical firing pins. Further, analyzing the frequencies of different types of firing pin (different metal types), it can be concluded that the frequency response of the AN/PSS-14 to metallic targets are specific to metals. This process is only applicable for single, isolated MD audio signals --Abstract, page iii

Scientific support for an orbiter middeck experiment on solid surface combustion

The objective is to determine the mechanism of gas-phase flame spread over solid fuel surfaces in the absence of any buoyancy or externally imposed gas-phase flow. Such understanding can be used to improve the fire safety aspects of space travel by providing information that will allow judicious selections of spacecraft materials and environments to be made. The planned experiment consists of measuring the flame spread rate over thermally thin and thermally thick fuels in a closed container in the low-gravity environment of the Space Shuttle. Measurements consist of flame spread rate and shape obtained from two views of the process as recorded on movie film and surface and gas-phase temperatures obtained from fine-wire thermocouples. The temperature measurements along with appropriate modeling provide information about the gas-to-solid heat flux. Environmental parameters to be varied are the oxygen concentration and pressure

Studies on the occurrence of enteric bacteria in the estuarine waters along the Mangalore coast

Occurrence of enteric bacteria in water, sediment and shellfishes of Mulki, Pavanje, Gurpur and Netravathi estuaries of the Mangalore coast is reported. 70 water samples, 71 sediment samples and 37 shellfish samples were analysed in 18 months. Total bacterial load in sediment and shellfishes was found to be more than that in water samples. The total bacterial load was not very high. However, enterococci, particularly coliforms in sediments, water and shellfishes were found to be quite high, indicative of faecal pollution. The incidence of Salmonella spp. was recorded in all the estuaries except the Mulki estuary

Determination of marginalized youth to overcome and achieve in mathematics: A case study from India.

According to the United Nations Human Development Report (2016), poor, marginalized, and vulnerable groups still face substantial barriers to access post-secondary education and employment. These marginalized and vulnerable groups include women, girls, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees, the LGBTI community, and those discriminated because of their socio-economic status (UN Human Development Report (2016). Increasingly, proficiency in mathematics is required for careers and for solving daily problems in life (Starkey & Kline, 2008; Ramaa, 2015). Basic numerical, mathematical, and scientific skills are an important mechanism to further education and to enable individuals to improve their job market potential. The risk of underachievement in mathematics around the world is greatest for students from low-income backgrounds, as well as linguistic and ethnic minorities (Ramaa, 2015; National Research Council, 1989). In India, these factors are compounded by lack of early exposure to math, poor teacher quality, and large class sizes (ASER, 2014). Although some research has explored difficulties in arithmetic for economically disadvantaged elementary students in India (see Ramaa, 2015), the challenges that marginalized adolescents encounter in completing secondary mathematics courses has been largely unexamined. In this qualitative exploratory study, conducted from October 2015 to February 2016, we sought to understand the characteristics of adolescents from socio-economically marginalized communities in Mumbai and Bangalore, India, and their determination and perseverance to overcome challenges in mathematics and complete their secondary education. In particular, the study followed students who had dropped out of mainstream school and enrolled in India’s National Institute of Open Schooling Program to complete their high school education and attempt the 10th standard board exams. Results from data collected in the academic year showed that there were multiple factors, including lack of learning foundational skills at the primary school level and the type of intervention provided to complete high school, which influenced the students’ achievement in mathematics. Findings from the study inform policy and programmatic decisions for students enrolled in India’s National Institute of Open Schooling Program

DRSP : Dimension Reduction For Similarity Matching And Pruning Of Time Series Data Streams

Similarity matching and join of time series data streams has gained a lot of relevance in today's world that has large streaming data. This process finds wide scale application in the areas of location tracking, sensor networks, object positioning and monitoring to name a few. However, as the size of the data stream increases, the cost involved to retain all the data in order to aid the process of similarity matching also increases. We develop a novel framework to addresses the following objectives. Firstly, Dimension reduction is performed in the preprocessing stage, where large stream data is segmented and reduced into a compact representation such that it retains all the crucial information by a technique called Multi-level Segment Means (MSM). This reduces the space complexity associated with the storage of large time-series data streams. Secondly, it incorporates effective Similarity Matching technique to analyze if the new data objects are symmetric to the existing data stream. And finally, the Pruning Technique that filters out the pseudo data object pairs and join only the relevant pairs. The computational cost for MSM is O(l*ni) and the cost for pruning is O(DRF*wsize*d), where DRF is the Dimension Reduction Factor. We have performed exhaustive experimental trials to show that the proposed framework is both efficient and competent in comparison with earlier works.Comment: 20 pages,8 figures, 6 Table

Indigenous Knowledge Initiatives at the World Bank, the National Institutes of Health, and Pennsylvania State University

The impacts of colonization and modernization have undermined and neglected local or indigenous knowledge - not only in current day developing countries but also for select communities in industrialized or developed countries. Over the last decade, however, there has been an increased international interest to revitalize and restore indigenous knowledge. Multilateral development organizations, local and global NGOs, policymakers, education institutions and the private sector, such as pharmaceutical industries, are among the institutions that have shown interest in indigenous knowledge. For instance, indigenous knowledge has shown to be of great importance in health and development practices. In Southern Africa, the Commercial Products from the Wild (CPWild) project estimates the value of informal herbal remedies in the market to be between $75 million to$150 million per year. Over 1000 indigenous crops and medicinal plants are traded in this informal market system and more than 100,000 people are income earners in this industry. The international interest shown by these institutions, however, has led to numerous challenges for indigenous knowledge at the global level and sparked many debates around the nature of indigenous knowledge, who the indigenous knowledge holders are, and whether indigenous knowledge is scientifically valid or applicable in conventional knowledge paradigms. Therefore, this research study investigates the representation of indigenous knowledge in globally operating institutions in the United States. Using a qualitative research lens, the challenges and issues listed above are examined in three cases studies - the World Bank, the National Institutes of Health, and Pennsylvania State University - all of which house initiatives on indigenous knowledge. In each case study, the definition of "indigenous," nomenclature used to label indigenous knowledge, indigenous knowledge identification, and institutional processes were studied to understand how indigenous knowledge was represented alongside conventional knowledge. The findings reinforce the challenges presented in the literature and previous research done in indigenous knowledge. Suggestions for each case study include changing the nomenclature used to label indigenous knowledge and changing the institutional processes involved in identifying and embedding indigenous knowledge into their respective institutional frameworks

Engineering metal parallel plate waveguides as a 2-D plane for high resolution THz time domain spectroscopy

Scope and Method of Study: The research summarized in this dissertation is on the investigation of the application of metal parallel plate waveguides (PPWG) for performing high resolution spectroscopic measurements of molecular solids at THz frequencies. The dissertation also presents results on the incorporation of high Q periodic structures within a metal PPWG and their application in sensitive detection of materials by monitoring change in refractive index. The experimental results were obtained by measuring the transmission of metal PPWG with samples in a standard THz time domain spectroscopy system based on photoconductive switches in 4f geometry.Findings and Conclusions: The main finding of this endeavor is that waveguide THz time domain spectroscopy using metal PPWGs can be efficiently applied to extract high resolution vibrational resonances associated with molecular solids. This technique discovered as a part of this research is a new and novel method which for the first time facilitates high resolution spectroscopic measurements of solid microcrystalline films which are easy to make in comparison to single crystal samples, but allows us to extract high resolution vibrational modes of the molecules. This technique can be complimentarily applied with the standard THz-TDS and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy to resolve the complete vibrational response of any molecular solid. We have also shown that metal PPWG also allows the incorporation of periodic structures like a weak Bragg stack and be applied as a very high - Q frequency filter having application in chemical sensing. The Q factors obtained by us are among the highest obtained for resonant and periodic structures within waveguide structures. We can conclude that the PPWG acts as an efficient 2-D plane which allows for performing high resolution spectroscopy and for incorporating frequency filtering devices with in the sub wavelength gap