Mammography is an effective method for breast cancer detection and breast tumour analysis. In mammography, low dose x-ray is used for imaging, due to which the images are poor in contrast and are contaminated by noise. Hence it is difficult for the radiologist to screen the mammograms for diagnostic signs such as micro calcifications and masses. This ensures the need for image enhancement to aid radiologist. In this paper, we present an algorithm for enhancement of digital mammographic images. The proposed methodology uses mathematical morphology for contrast enhancement and wavelet for denoising. The main contribution of this report is in differentiating the edge pixels from noise. We adopt wavelet-based level dependent thresholding algorithm and modified mathematical morphology algorithm to increase the contrast in mammograms to ease extraction of suspicious regions known as regions of interest (ROIs).The proposed algorithm has been tested on a large number of clinical images, comparing the results with those obtained by several other algorithms. A quantitative measure of Contrast Improvement Index (CII) is used to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm gives significantly superior image quality and better Contrast Improvement Index (Cll). Here, to prove the efficiency of this method, we have compared this with various well-known algorithms like VisuShrink and NormalShrink.Through preliminary tests; the method seems to meaningfully improve the diagnosis in the early breast cancer detection with respect to other approaches.

 

Keywords: - Dyadic Wavelet transform, denoising, micro calcification, mass detection, thresholding.

[1] Roberto Lojacono Manuela Frigerio Arianna Mencattini, Marcello Salmeri and Federica Caselli. Mammographic images enhancement and denoising for breast cancer detection using dyadic wavelet processing. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 57(07):1422–1430, 2010.
[2] Torres M. Cesar Mattos V. Lorenzo Barba J. Leiner, Vargas Q. Lorena. Microcalcifications detection system through discrete wavelet analysis and contrast enhancement techniques. Electronics, Robotics and Automotive Mechanics Conference, 2008.
[3] Mohammad H. Zubi Basim Alhadidi and Hussam N. suleiman. Mammogram breast cancer detection using image processing functions. Information Technology Journal 6, 2007.
[4] Ali Reza Karimian Mehri Sirous Mohammad Esmaeil Akbari Hajar Moradmand, Saeed Setayeshi. Comparing the performance of image enhancement methods to detect microcalcification. Digital mammography, 2012.
[5] Amutha .S D.R Ramesh Babu Ravi Shankar .M Harish Kumar. Mammographic image enhancement using modified mathematical morphology and bi-orthogonal wavelet. IT in Medicine and Education (ITIME),2011 International Synopsium, 2011.

A novel robust adaptive PID control scheme is proposed with known upper bound of the external disturbances, to solve the dynamic coupling and strong nonlinearity problems in flexible joint robot manipulator control. Invoking the proposed controller, the bounded external disturbances can be compensated and the global asymptotical stability with respect to the manipulator positions and velocities is able to be guaranteed. The designed control law can enlarge the tolerable external disturbances, enhance the accuracy of trajectory tracking error, and improve the dynamic performance of the manipulator systems. The stability and convergence properties of the closed-loop system are analytically proved using Lyapunov stability theory and Barbalat's lemma. Simulation for the proposed control system is performed for a two-degree of freedom flexible joint robot, each joint modeled by two-equations of second order to illustrate its viability, and advantages.

 

Keywords: - Adaptive PID controller, Dynamic coupling, Flexible joint robot, Bounded external disturbances, Lyapunov stability theory, Trajectory tracking error.

[1] Ozgoli S. and Taghirad H. D., "A survey on the control of flexible joint robots", Asian Journal of Control, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp.1-15, December 2006.
[2] Koivo A. J., and GUO T.H., "Adaptive linear controller for robotic manipulator", IEEE Trans., 1984, AC-28, pp. 162-171.
[3] SINGH S.N., "Control and stabilization of a nonlinear uncertain elastic robotic arm", IEEE Trans., 1988, AES-24, pp. 114-123.
[4] KIM G.K., and SHIN K.G., "An adaptive model following control of industrial manipulator", IEEE Trans., 1983, AES-19, pp. 805-814.
[5] SINGH S.N., and SCHY A.A., "Robust trajectory following control of robotic system", j. Dynamic systems, Measurement and Control, 1985, 107, pp. 308-315.

An experiment was conducted to study the yield response of salad cucumber under different drip irrigation levels to determine the most suitable irrigation requirement for salad cucumber grown under naturally ventilated polyhouse. Drip irrigation applied at the rate of 2 litre plant-1 day-1 to the control plants was reduced by 5, 20, 35 and 50% by applying corresponding irrigation rates of 1.9, 1.6, 1.3 and 1 litre plant-1 day-1 under different treatments. Lowering irrigation level to 65% sustained the production and increased water use efficiency without decreasing the yield of cucumber. However, irrigation level of less than 65% reduced the yield without increasing water use efficiency. The maximum fruit number (49), fruit weight (7.194 kg plant-1) and fruit yield (88.8 t ha-1) were obtained from drip irrigation level of 65% (1.3 litre plant-1 day-1) and the lowest fruit number (35), fruit weight (5.043 kg plant-1) and fruit yield (62.26 t ha-1) from drip irrigation level of 50% (1 litre plant-1 day-1), with the lowest water application rate . Irrigation treatments had significant effects (P < 0.05) on yield. However, interaction within groups was found to be non significant. There were significant positive correlations (P < 0.01) between fruit number, fruit weight and fruit yield. The total quantity of water applied through 65% drip irrigation level was 144.4 mm and which showed 35 per cent water saving over control with highest water use efficiency (6148.31 kg ha-1cm-1) and benefit cost ratio (3.41).

 

Keywords: - Cucumis sativus, Drip irrigation, Economics, Naturally ventilated polyhouse, Water use efficiency

[1] V.S. Dunage, P. Balakrishnan and M.G. Patil, Water use efficiency and economics of tomato using drip irrigation under nethouse conditions. Karnataka J. Agric. Sci. 22(1), 2009, 133-136.
[2] F.S. Nakayama and D.A. Bucks, Trickle irrigation for crop production, design, operation and management. Elsevier Scientific Publishers, Netherlands. 1986.
[3] Maqsood Ahmed, Abdul Hamid And Zarqa Akbar, Growth and yield performance of six cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cultivars under agro-climatic conditions of Rawalakot, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. International Journal of Agriculture & Biology, 6 (2), 2004, 396-399.
[4] Wang Xinyuan, Li Dengshun, Zhang Xiying. Relationship between irrigation amount and yield of cucumber in solar greenhouse. J. China Vegetables. 1999-01.
[5] Pei Xiaobo, Zhang Fuman, Gao Lihong. Study on water requirement of cucumber of different cropping in solar greenhouse. J. Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin. 2002-04.

The effect that the choice of suspension dampers has on a car‟s performance is an often misunderstood area. The increasing competitiveness of car category and the reduced opportunities for testing mean that the team that can optimise their damper setup the quickest is likely to have a large advantage across the entire usage. In the past the selection of dampers was done empirically. The increasing availability of computational power means that numerical simulation is now a viable method of optimising a vehicle before it arrives at the track. This paper outlines the development of the equations of motion for some simple vehicle models. It then demonstrates how these equations can be solved to estimate the road holding performance of a race car. Although results for one particular vehicle have been studied, the focus throughout is to demonstrate numerical and computational techniques that can be used to optimise car‟s dampers. A degree of generality has been maintained while analysing these techniques so that they can be applied to a variety of different categories of car models.

[1] Zhang, Z., Yu, J., "Design Process of a Double Wish-Bone Suspension"Proceedings of the 2008 SAE Interntional Powertrains, Fuels and Lubricants
[2] 2008, Supercars, "Supercar Operations Manual", The Official Website of Supercars Australia. [Online] [Cited: 10th October 2008] http://www.v8supercars.com.au/content/tech/v8_ supercar_operations_manual/.

[3] Dixon, J.C., The Shock Absorber Handbook, John Wiley and Sons, West Sussex 2007.

[4] Karnopp, D., "Active and Semi-Active Vibration Isolation", Journal of Mechanical Design, 117, 177-185 (1995)

[5] Nowlan, D., "Finding the Sweet Spot", International Journal of Motorsport Engineering, 18(2), 52-58 (2008).

The study under investigation discovers the sorption conduct of resin used as an adsorbent toward metal ions and specified the percent sorption for the metal that reduced with rise in pH, above pH 6.The degree of uptake for resin initially was fast (88-90 %), creating equilibrium within sixty minutes for Copper. The resin exhibit the extreme percent sorption (86 - 88 %) for Nickel ranging contact time between sixty minutes; further than the described range the surge in % sorption was not recognized. The flow rate, isotherms and thermodynamic parameters were also examined for both the metal ions. PMBMNen effectively eradicated heavy amounts of metals from the real water samples.

 

Keywords: - Adsorbent, column method, isotherms, Metal ion uptake, resin

[1] V.A. Davankov and M.P.Tsyurupa, Structure and properties of porous hypercrosslinked polystyrene sorbents styrasorb, Journal of pure and applied chemistry, 61, (11), 2009,1881-1888.
[2] V.A. Davankov and M.P.Tsyurupa, Structure and properties of hyper cross linked polystyrene the first representative of a new class of polymer networks, Journal of Reactive Polymers, 13 1, 1990, 27-42.
[3] J.C. Crittenden, S. Sanmongrag, J. L. Bulloch, D. W. Hand , T .N. Rogers, T . F. Speth and M.Ulmer, Correlation of aqueous phase adsorption isotherms, Journal of Environmental science and technology, 33, 1998, 2926-2933
[4] T. Kazuhiko, C. Hisao, W. Hu and H. Kiyoshi, Separation of carboxylic acids on a weakly acidic cation-exchange resin by ion-exclusion chromatography, Journal of Chromatography, A 850, 1999, 187-196.
[5] H. M. Anasthas and V .J. Gaikar, Adsorption of acetic acid on ion exchange resins in nonaqueous conditions, Journal of Reactive and functional Polymers, 47, 1, 2001, 23-35.

Aerodynamic forces are time varying forces experienced by objects undergoing air flow. The effect of these forces depends upon the shape and size of the objects. The aerodynamic force acting on a bluff body like bridge deck is different from that acting on a stream line body like an aircraft.This paper focus on the study and comparison of aerodynamic forces acting on an air craft and a bridge deck.

 

Keywords: - Aerodynamic coefficients, Aerodynamic forces, Bluff body, Self-excited forces, Streamlined body.

Journal Papers:
[1] Xinzhong Chen, Ahsan Kareem, Advances in Modeling of Aerodynamic Forces on Bridge Decks, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, November 2002, 1193.
Books:
[2] John D Anderson Jr., Fundamentals of Aerodynamics (Tata Mc Graw Hill, 1991).
[3] John D Anderson Jr., Aircraft Performance and Design (Tata Mc Graw Hill, 1999 ).
Theses:
[4] Dr. Richard Ohene Kwofie, A mathematical Model of a Suspension Bridge, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, MS in Industrial Mathematics, Kumasi, May 2011..

The conventional method allows testing of only one chip at a time (single-site testing). However, due to advancements in testing procedures, current test technologies are able to conduct dual-sites testing, quad-sites testing, octal-sites testing, 16-sites testing, 32-sites testing, and so on. In line with this, the multi-site testing approach is a method that increases the number of chips that can be tested in a single touch-up. This method allows more chips to be tested per hour, thus improving the testing throughput. In this research the author take the initiative to develop a multi-sites throughput model to investigate the effectiveness of multi-site testing approach on improving the testing throughput. In the case study, five multi-site configurations were applied. These configurations were single-site, quad-sites, octal-sites, ×16-sites, and ×32-sites. A hypothesis was analyzed by using one-way ANOVA and Post Hoc Test.

 

Keywords: - multi-site, test handler, semiconductor testing, multi-sites testing model

[1] Goodall, I R.,Fandel, D., Allan, A., Landler, P., and Huff, H.R. (2002) "Long-term Productivity Mechanisms of the Semiconductor Industry," Semiconductor Silicon 2002 Proceeding of American Electrochemical society, pp. 125 – 144.
[2] Bao, G. (2003) "Challenges in Low Cost Test Approach for ARM9 Core Based Mixed-Signal SoC Dragon ball," Proceedings International Test Conference, pp. 512-519.
[3] The Malaysian Government Valuation and Property Service Department Report 2011, Pusat Maklumat Harta Tanah Negara (NAPIC), Putrajaya, 2011.
[4] Rivoir, J. (2003) "Lowering Cost of Test: Parallel Test or Low-cost ATE?" Proceedings of the 12th Asian Test Symposium.
[5] Evans, A.C. (1999) "Applications of Semiconductor Test Economics, and Multisite Testing to Lower Cost of Test," Proceedings of the International Test Conference, pp. 113-123