Electrical properties of polymer-inorganic nanocomposites depend strongly on their structure, i.e., distribution of filler phase in a polymer matrix. This factor is especially important in the case of composites consisting of two phases with significantly different properties. To improve electric properties of such composites in this study ferroelectric core/magnetic shell approach is suggested. BaTiO₃ core was coated with a SiO₂–CoFe₂O₄ magnetic shell followed by incorporation of thus obtained core/shell particles into a polymer in the presence of external magnetic field to obtain composites featuring with a significantly increased dielectric permittivity. The developed composites may find various applications including embedded capacitors and other electronics devices, as well as sensors, electromagnetic radiation shields etc.

This paper describes the preparation and characterization of optically-transparent thin films of fluoride-doped tin oxide (FTO) nanoparticles, nanotubes and nanorods grown using purpose-built, novel and advanced version of spray pyrolysis technique, known as Rotational, Pulsed and Atomized Spray Pyrolysis. Uniform and crack-free FTO1-D nanostructured thin films over 50 × 50 mm² soda lime glass substrate have been routinely achieved. This technique allows a perfect control of morphology of nanostructures of FTO layer simply by adjusting the spray conditions. Formed 1D FTO nanostructures on the glass substrate show an excellent optical transparency in the visible light range. XRD (X-ray diffraction) and SEM (scanning electron microscope) data show excellent correlations.

Vertically well aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods have been developed for the application to photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). For the growth of the ZnO nanorods, a seed layer is necessary. Spin coating and chemical bath deposition methods are chosen to form the seed layer and the ZnO nanorods, respectively. The effects of speed and cycle number of spin coating are investigated. The most optimized nanorods was found at seed layer with growing conditions of 3000 RPM rotational speed repeated for 3 times. The SEM image shows the longest length at 1.5–2 µm length while the XRD chart shows considerable peak at (002) crystallinity.

NaBaPO₄:Eu²⁺ and ZnAl₂O₄:Eu³⁺ phosphors with different dopant content were prepared by solution-combustion (SC) and sol–gel (SG) method. SC route gives samples with high crystallinity, that does not always leads to increase in luminescent properties due to formation of admixture phases. In NaBaPO₄ phosphor series, crystallite size reversly depends on admixture Ba₃(PO₄)₂ phase content. Increase in europium concentration up to 10% lead to decrease of crystallite size in samples prepared by SC method, but increase of crystallite size in samples prepared by SG method. For ZnAl₂O₄:Eu³⁺, prepared by sol–gel technique, increase in Eu³⁺ concentration leads to amorphization of structure.

Europium-doped dibenzoylmethide triethylammonium (EuD₄TEA) has been known as an organic mechanoluminescent (ML) material. In the present study the ML properties are investigated for the EuD₄TEA with an addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). For the first time novel organic ML material has been successfully synthesized by controlled slow cooling method at very low temperature of 70 °C. The ML properties are characterized by using Hamamatsu Photonic Multichannel Analyzer (PMA). The ML spectrum corresponds to the europium D₀ to f_n transition. The results suggest that the addition of PVP enhances ML intensity of EuD₄TEA. Effect of the addition will be discussed in detail.

Laser-induced incandescence (LII) of rough carbon surfaces was studied under the Q-switched YAG:Nd laser excitation. For the surfaces irradiated by a sequence of laser pulses, the non-monotonic behavior of LII intensity with the increase of number of irradiating laser pulses was observed. Computer simulation of pulsed laser heating of rough carbon surfaces revealed essential non-uniformity of the temperature field on the irradiated surface hence the surface relief is affected by the laser irradiation due to the processes of evaporation of the peaks on the irradiated surface. The intensity of LII was calculated as a function of height of the surface roughness. The results of calculations explain the observed features of LII of carbon surfaces.

In_xGa_1−xSb bulk crystal was grown using a GaSb (seed)/InSb/GaSb (feed) sandwich-structured system onboard the International Space Station (ISS). In order to investigate the transport phenomena especially in terms of interface shapes and dissolution heights, the dissolution process was simulated under a micro-gravity level of the ISS. Simulation results showed that the seed/melt interface was concave towards the seed due to the temperature distribution of the system. This prediction is in good agreement with the results of our previous experimental study.

A series of Eu-doped silicate phosphors was prepared in a microwave furnace using different charge mixture preparation methods. Synthesis parameters (time and power) were optimized to increase the yield and brightness of phosphors featuring with a “warm” white luminescence. The charge mixture prepared using sol–gel process provided phosphor with enhanced brightness compared with a solid phase preparation technique supposedly due to more uniform distribution and better introduction of the activator into the phosphor. White LED prototype was fabricated using synthesized phosphor.

In this work, unmodified bacterial cellulose pellicles, biosynthesized by the bacterium Komagataeibacter rhaeticus, bleached birch Kraft pulp (Södra Cell AB, Sweden) and birch bark supplied by the plywood industry (JSC Latvijas Finieris, Latvia), were used to obtain the nanoparticles. The results showed that cellulose nanoparticles fabricated by the ammonium persulfate oxidation method, an alternative method developed at the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, are promising constituents for producing nanopaper. Cellulose and birch bark nanofillers show the potential to improve the physical-mechanical and biological properties of chitosan-matrix films.

A variety of microencapsulation technology has been developed to encapsulate drugs, cells and food. However, previous microencapsulation systems were associated with complex design, requirements of high voltage supply, post cleaning process and consuming large volume of reagents. This work proposed a simple yet efficient flicking system for the production of calcium alginate microbeads. In the system, a flicking device was designed to disperse microdroplets of sodium alginate ejecting from a syringe pump and the microbeads were polymerised in the calcium chloride solution. The size of the microbeads produced using this system can be controlled by changing the flow rate (5, 10, and 15 µl/min) of the syringe pump and fixing the motor rotation speed of the flicking device at 90 rpm. The microbeads of calcium alginate produced using the flicking device were shown to be size controllable in a range of 270 to 430 µm and they have potential for the microencapsulation of cells.

Platinum (Pt) coated glass has been successfully fabricated using direct current (DC) sputtering system with different deposition times. Pt films were deposited at 1, 5, 10, 30, and 60 s. Surface topography and morphology obtained from atomic force microscope (AFM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) show reducing in surface roughness and particle sizes. Finally, deposition time of 1 s give the highest power conversion efficiency of 2.148%.

In the present article, we study the long bifilar helix in which electric currents are quasi-stationary, i.e., the wavelength of the electromagnetic field is much longer than the turn of the helix. All components of the force acting on a physically small element of one helix from the other helix having a big length are calculated. The case when the currents in the two helices have the same direction relative to the x-axis is considered. The dependence of the radial component of the force of interaction between two helices on the pitch angle is determined. At various pitch angles the helices can attract and repel each other while the direction of the current does not change. It is found the value of pitch angle when two helices do not interact and bifilar helix, formed by them, is in equilibrium state.

To investigate the recombination processes, we study the spectral and time dependences of lateral photoconductivity of Si/Ge heterostructures with SiGe nanoclusters, obtained by molecular beam epitaxy. Photoconductivity at low temperatures, in the spectral region where Si is transparent, is conditioned by transitions involving localized states of SiGe nanoclusters. When the temperature decreases the most significant decrease in the photoconductivity is due to fundamental absorption in nanoclusters. This shows the high efficiency of electron–hole recombination centers in SiGe nanoclusters.

The drain current-gate voltage characteristics of the double quantum dot devices are classified theoretically based on periodic multiple peaks separated by deep valleys, and are observed experimentally in silicon nanowire devices. Inspired by the unique patterns in the characteristics, delta-literals for multiple-valued logic are proposed as a new application of the double quantum dots.

Dielectric Barrier Discharge microplasma actuator energized at low discharge voltage at about 1.4 kV was applied for flow modification. Due to the microplasma generation, the flow velocity showed different characteristics at various duty ratios of the applied voltage. The observation with the high speed camera showed at various time intervals the modification of the flow due to the microplasma. The numerical simulation of the flow was carried out using Suzen model which is assuming that the electric potential of plasma actuator potential can be split in the potential due to the external electric field and potential due to the charge density of plasma.

Novel broad spectrum low-molecular-weight antitumor agents of phospha sugar derivatives were investigated and developed. Branched deoxybromophospha sugars, such as DBMPP and TBMPP, which target IER5/Cdc25B and innovate in chemo-therapeutic treatments against various type of cancer cells. These successful preclinical in vitro and in vivo evaluations observed might be expected to afford clinically useful drugs and innovative medical treatments for various kinds of cancers.

It was found, that in rat senile age group, a decrease in the ATPase activity of actomyosin leads to deterioration of motility of stomach and colon with aging. White outbred rats aged 3 and 22–24 months were used. An amount of cleavage inorganic phosphate from ATP by myosin active centers was quantified to define the ATPase activity of actomyosin. It was established that Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, K⁺-ATP-hydrolase activity of actomyosin in smooth muscle of rat stomach decreases as well as in colon. The observed deterioration of contractile activity of actomyosin complex can be explained by revealed oxidative modification of contractile proteins.

The design and operation of composting and/or garbage treatment plant has been carried out mainly based on empirically obtained data in many cases, which caused various troubles such as generation of bad smells and low performance in decomposing organic waste. This study intends to establish a method of design and operation of this kind of plant on the basis of chemical engineering aspects such as material and heat (enthalpy) balance, kinetic analysis of reaction and/or mass transfer rate, and various equilibrium relations. The major operating factors considered here are as follows: the rate of aeration, the control of temperature and moisture content in the reactor, pH, mixing conditions, organic loading to the reactor, and others.

With the global changes of the automobile market, the design and development of an automobile in consideration of various corrosive environments are required. It is necessary to immediately grasp the corrosive environment of the automobile market quantitatively. Therefore, even a system that could measure the corrosive environment of transit-time has been developed. Various areas of a corrosive environment were measured continuously and quantitatively by using this system, and every the side of the automobile could be evaluated. In this study, the result of the measurement of an ACM sensor (Atmospheric Corrosion Monitor Sensor) that estimated the corrosive environment in particular to automobiles is reported.

This study intends to develop a new application of MFC (Microbial Fuel Cells) to microbial garbage treatment; i.e., to perform decomposition of organic compounds in garbage and generation of electricity simultaneously. At first, the condition of electricity generation using a model substrate was established, and then the optimum condition for the two purposes stated above was clarified. For instance, active carbon is indispensable as a catalyst for the positive electrode. Since the amount of electricity generated by this system is very small, another suitable use of this system was pursued. One possible application was suggested: use as a diagnostic sensor for garbage treatment systems. Electricity generation occurs only when the system becomes anaerobic, which is bad for decomposition. No electricity was detected when decomposition of garbage was achieved in good, aerobic conditions.

This study intends to develop a new method to detect the microorganisms which exist and function actively in the garbage treatment systems, because truly effective microorganisms have not yet been identified although it is undoubtedly certain that microbial activity is the main cause of the decomposition of organic materials in garbage treatment systems. Direct observation of all living bacteria using fluorescence methods was attempted as a first step in order to investigate whether or not non-culturable bacteria really exist and play a role in the process. It was apparent that direct observation of living bacteria on real samples, such as the residue of a garbage treatment system, presented some difficulties in using fluorescence observation methods, probably due to the existence of water soluble and/or suspended solid constituents, although good results could be obtained using clear samples without impurities. Methanol-sonication treatment was not an effective way to avoid the difficulties.

There is a phenomenon observed in various microbial waste treatment processes, in which the microbial degradation rate of organic substrates drastically decreases when the input of substrates to the process is too heavy. It is called “overloading”. The overloading phenomenon in garbage treatment systems often causes serious problems. But the mechanism of overloading has not yet been clarified. This study intends to investigate this phenomenon by analyzing the microbial community as well as various physical parameters in the garbage treatment process.

Eutrophication is a major water environmental problem in many countries. This study intends to introduce a basic methodology to assess water quality in natural water sources. Lake Sanaru in Japan and Lake Dianchi in China were used as case studies. We studied the pollution mechanisms in these two lakes by analyzing data from aqueous environmental samples and other related factors. Then, a simple and practical simulation model was proposed to express material balances around the two lakes of several constituents present in water. Material balance equations were used to calculate the internal productions of several constituents. Finally, purification methods and pollution loading for water quality targets were discussed.

This research deals with consideration of the SPR sensor response in the framework of the scattering matrix approach with the modeling of biomolecular layer using Green’s function formalism and effective medium theories. It was found out that modeling of the SPR sensor response using abovementioned approaches in the densely packed monolayer approximation gave not enough agreement with the experiment. The reason was that real molecular layers are rarely densely packed. They usually can be characterized by molecular surface concentration or monolayer filling factor. Approximation of these parameters allows obtaining their values, which correspond to real biomolecular layers, and gives better agreement with the experiment.

We have developed a kinetic inductance travelling-wave amplifier toward the THz-band operation. In this paper, we discuss the nonlinear kinetic inductance of single-crystal niobium titanium nitride (NbTiN) thin film in response to the application of current to the film. In our calculation, it is found that single-crystal NbTiN films have a large current variation in the kinetic inductance compared with that of polycrystalline NbTiN films. To evaluate the nonlinearity, we fabricated a superconducting coplanar waveguide with a 0.2-m line length and measured the transmittance. We observed a variation of the electrical length of the line caused by the modulation of the kinetic inductance as a function of the value of the current applied to the strip.

The optical properties of the surface layers of amorphous Fe–Cr–B and polycrystalline Al–Si alloys modified by laser irradiation have been studied by spectroellipsometry. The laser irradiation changed optical conductivity of the surface layers of Fe–Cr–B and Al–Si samples significantly due to modification of their structure. Work deals with also effects of Ti⁺ and C⁺ ion-plasma mixed beam treatment onto optical properties of Mo and Ti surfaces in the infrared. The ion implantation of Ti sample changed the spectral dependence of its optical conductivity from the Drude-like to the Kaveh-Mott like one. It points to a stronger disordering of Ti compared to Mo sample.

Computer assisted functionalities and services have saturated our world becoming such an integral part of our daily activities that we hardly notice them. In this study we are focusing on enhancements in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) that can be achieved by natural user recognition embedded in the employed interaction models. Natural identification among humans is mostly based on biometric characteristics representing what-we-are (face, body outlook, voice, etc.) and how-we-behave (gait, gestures, posture, etc.) Following this observation, we investigate different approaches and methods for adapting existing biometric identification methods and technologies to the needs of evolving natural human computer interfaces.

We present an improved method for encoding digital information in plastic objects using embedded bulk marking by tightly focused pulses of an infrared nanosecond laser. The marking consists of a machine-readable pattern of laser damage spots in the sub-surface region of the object. Compared to surface marking by printing or laser ablation, this method presents the advantage of improved durability of the code. This easy to implement method is suitable for marking the types of objects or their parts as well as of local positions on their surface. In particular location-aware information encoding using this method would provide novel opportunities to enhance the document security, since it prevents unwanted alteration of the initial data.

The maturing mobile communications infrastructure leads to a wider adoption of mobile services (m-services) both by the community and the industry. Consequently, effective and timely support of m-services computing security and privacy models become very important to the commercial, financial and logistics sectors worldwide. Within the general scope of business computing our work puts the research focus on advanced networking and m-services with enhanced information security and integrated support for big data analytics and knowledge creation. The pervasive nature of m-services has given rise to an emergent, data-focused economy with unprecedented research opportunities for big data analytics that we address in our work.

Annotation of Web content is becoming a widespread activity by which users appropriate and enrich information available on the Net. MADCOW (Multimedia Annotation of Digital Content Over the Web) is a system for annotating HTML pages that provides a uniform interactive paradigm to make annotations on text, images and video. MADCOW has also recently included novel features for groups and group annotations with reference to ontological domains, but interaction with the MADCOW client is currently limited to the use of common input devices (e.g., keyboard, mouse), requiring a precise selection of the portions to be annotated. In this paper we present a sketch-based interface, which can be used to annotate not only content but also aspects relative to the presentation of the information. While interacting with a standard Web browser, users can draw free-hand geometrical shapes (e.g., circles, rectangles, closed paths) for selecting specific parts of the Web pages to be annotated. The interaction mode depends on the adopted input device. For example, users interacting with touch-screen devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) can draw shapes with their fingers, but in principle any device able to detect sketching gestures can be supported (e.g., graphic tablets, optical pens). The paper discusses interaction aspects together with an overview of the system architecture. Finally, preliminary experimental tests and some considerations on the usability are also reported.

Biometrics technology has lately been applied to user authentication systems to achieve high precision. The problem is that such systems require special hardware devices, which results in low installation rates. In our research, the interkeystroke timing of keyboards is adopted as one of the biometric measures. The objective of this paper is to verify the validity of the identification by measuring interkeystroke timings of individual computer users. For better reliability, we decided to use interkeystroke timings of similarly combined alphabets for authentication and further incorporate bi-directional authentication. The evaluation and feasibility of this method are discussed using the results of the experiments. The results suggest that this system is capable of authenticating not only during login but also in the course of general typing (for instance, during e-Learning).

We propose a semantic model of interpreting and expressing the contents of images based on a simplified mathematical model of human reasoning, derived from data captured by brain-computer interfacing. Our goal is to allow a mobile agent to capture images and transmit in abstract sentences of a formal language its basic observations to a human or to another intelligent agent. The model permits learning from and communication with other agents, as it is a high-level formalism, independent of agent representation of image. This enables sensor fusion and inter-agent interpretation of input. The visible universe and image content can be understood via the agent’s personal observations and/or sentences sent by other agents. The model is applicable for smart home surveillance and street surveillance.

Digital image processing can often improve the quality of visual sensing of images and real world’s scenes however the optimization of the used algorithms is not always an easy task. The suitable parameter settings of the methods often depend on the features of the scenes and may also depend on the aim of the (further) processing. In this paper, a fuzzy information measure is introduced which evaluates the level of information of pictures. The idea behind the technique is that the amount of information in an image is strongly related to the number and complexity of the objects in the image. The primary information about the objects is usually related to their boundaries, i.e., the characteristic, corner and edge, pixels carry the most relevant information about the image content. The measure presented in this paper sums up the fuzzy level of details and this amount is used to scale the qualification and transformation of images. The presented technique can advantageously be built into different image processing algorithms favorably used in Image Quality Improvement and High Dynamic Range Imaging. The qualification measure may also be applied for increasing the color differentiation capability of the human eye and thus, for improving visual sensing.

We propose a formalism for representing concepts at a cortical level in order to abstractly reproduce human reasoning as captured via a brain-computer interface. The same model provides intelligent agents with reasoning, learning and decision capacity when interacting in heterogeneous ad-hoc sensor networks. The agents are endowed with self-awareness, and awareness of peer intentions and group gain. They rely on epistemic and belief logic in order to make individual or group decisions in the context of imperfect information and faced with the possibility of malicious agents impersonating group members or injecting corrupt information. Human agents can communicate with the group by natural language or a brain-computer interface.

Mathematical expressions are indispensable for describing mathematical concepts or models. Although these expressions are formal representations, they contain ambiguity, i.e., a single expression could be interpreted as having multiple meanings. This feature prevents the flexible use of mathematical expressions in computation. In this paper, we focus on symbol-level ambiguity and consider the problem of labeling semantic information to each symbol as a classification problem. Then we propose a framework for solving the problem with supervised learning.

In this paper, a novel fuzzy classification method is presented for very fast evaluation. The idea is the usage of a multidimensional matrix for data classification purposes, in which the attribute values of the input data are used as matrix coordinates. The matrices contain the fuzzy membership function values (i.e., the degree of the matrix elements belonging to each class) mapped to integer coordinates in the whole problem domain. This method is ideal for problems where the input values are integer and the quantity of the possible values they can take is finite. A training algorithm is proposed for tuning the classifier. The performance of the system is shown through an experiment.

Nowadays, energy consumption of electronic systems is a very important question. Much money and time can be saved with a well-designed system, where the depletion is minimal. In this paper, the power usage of the arm of a NAO Next Gen robot is optimized by controlling dynamically the stiffness of its motor. The control strategy is based on Robust Fixed Point Transformations (RFPT). The results show that the proposed control method can reduce the power usage significantly, and as a surprise, it can reduce the inaccuracy of the tracking caused by the unpunctual sensors of the robot.

Recently intelligent control systems using neural networks (NN) have been widely applied. NNs are used to approximate complicated mathematical functions of nonlinear systems. This paper considers the design of an intelligent NN controller for nonlinear systems where the neural network is trained with the simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) algorithm instead of the classical training methods. The main contribution of the SPSA method that it requires only two objective function measurements per iteration regardless of the dimension of the optimization problem. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by the adaptive control of the translational oscillator/rotational actuator (TORA) system. Results of numerical simulation substantiate that the suggested approach leads to a fast way of controller designs by providing acceptable performance.

In this paper we propose a novel approach for identification and monitoring of moving objects within a geometric network modeled by straight line segments. The approach can also be used for supplying the objects with directions or other useful information about the surrounding environment. The moving objects are equipped with direct-access pattern interface devices that provide dynamic environment-oriented information and/or static feature-related information. Within the framework of the proposed model, a number of real-life interrelated tasks are considered and possible applications are discussed.

Dysarthria is a speech disorder that mostly occurs as a symptom of neurodegenerative and other neuromuscular diseases. The speech of patients with dysarthria becomes distorted, the articulation of phonemes (especially that of consonants) is poor, the intelligibility and naturalness are impaired. Because dysarthria is progressive (similarly to the other symptoms of the main disease), patients may have difficulties using speech-controlled Ambient Assisted Living systems that could be a great help for them in daily life. In this paper, an adaptive speech recognition framework is introduced that is able to handle gradually occurring changes in the speech quality of the user. The presented technique can adapt to these changes while the speech interpretation accuracy of the system will not decrease, even in cases of noisy or incorrect training data.

The increased dependence on ICT services makes home users more vulnerable to online attacks, security breaches, identity thefts, and unauthorized access to valuable information if specific measures and precautions are not properly instated. Nowadays, wired communications are giving way to wireless, and most of the computing devices and appliances that we use are always online, hence potentially vulnerable to attacks and unauthorized access. We address such security issues by an embedded solution targeting home users and small home networks that could be employed on a wide range of communication hardware (e.g., home routers) as a replacement of the standard manufactures firmware. The design, development and all practical aspects of the integration of such embedded system solutions into existing communication appliances are considered as essential components of the Embedded Systems academic course with hands-on experience and practice on networking that we build.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the way to represent the skills in dementia care based on the multimodal communication analysis by a computational approach. With the rapid growth of an aging population, it is becoming extremely important to elucidate communication skills for improving the quality of life of the elderly. Focusing on the dementia care method by HUMANITUDE, we have analyzed dementia care skills to evaluate their effectiveness. We designed three layers for representing skills and named them “Intra-modality”, “Inter-modality”, and “Multimodal-interaction”. These results are a part of the findings of empirical analysis of building human relationships.

Data Analytics is an area of high demand and the shortage of data scientists is becoming a serious constraint in some sectors. At the same time, universities often face budgetary restrictions, which do not allow them to hire faculty to establish the necessary new programs. In this paper we consider an innovative way of starting a new program with minimal resources considering a case-study of multi-campus, multi-department program on Data Analytics offered by SUNY Buffalo State and SUNY Fredonia. Each of the universities will offer some of the courses in synchronous or asynchronous distance education settings. In addition, some of the lecturers will come from various industrial sectors and students will be exposed to real-world problems. This makes the program very flexible and ensures invaluable practical experience which improves the marketability of the graduates. Combining the efforts of the two universities saves valuable resources and keeps the cost of instruction low. Shizuoka University, Japan, which does not have a program on data analytics, is studying the possibilities for sending students and engaging faculty members in the program.