Showing papers by "Christ University published in 2015"

Gold Price, Stock Price and Exchange Rate Nexus: The Case of India

Abstract: The paper investigates the causal nexus between gold price, stock price and exchange rate in India using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and Granger causality test on monthly time series data for the period from June 1990 to April 2014. The results reveal that gold price and stock price tend to have long-run relationship with exchange rate in India. Besides, there is no evidence of stable long-run cointegration relationship between stock price and gold price in India. The findings also indicate that there exists no causality from gold price to stock price or vice versa in the short run. It can thus be concluded that domestic gold price does not contain any significant information to forecast stock prices in India.

Effect of Wavelet Packet Log Energy Entropy on Electroencephalogram (EEG) Signals

Abstract: The scaling behavior of human electroencephalogram (EEG) signals is well exploited by appropriate extraction of time – frequency domain and entropy based features. Such measurable inherently helps understanding the neurophysiological phenomenon of brain as well as its associated cortical activities. Being a non-linear time series, EEG’s are assumed to be fragment of fluctuations. Several attempts have been made to study the EEG signals for clinical applications such as epileptic seizure detection, evoked response potential recognition, tumor detection, identification of alcoholics and so on. In all such applications appropriate selection of feature parameter plays an important role in discriminating normal EEG from abnormal. In the recent past one can find the importance of wavelet and wavelet packet towards EEG analysis. This proposed research work investigates the effect of wavelet packet log energy entropy on EEG signals. Entropy being the measure of relative information, the proposed study attempts to discriminate the normal EEGs from abnormal EEG’s by employing the log energy entropy features. For better brevity, this study restricts to the analysis of epileptic seizure from normal EEGs. Different decomposition levels from 2 to 5 were considered for wavelet packets with application of Haar, rbio3.1, sym7, dmey wavelets. A one second windowing was introduced for the data segmentation and Shannon’s log energy entropy was estimated. Then the statistical non-parametric Wilcoxon model was employed. The result shows that the application of wavelet packet log energy entropy found to be a potential indicator for discriminating epileptic seizure from normal. Effect of Wavelet Packet Log Energy Entropy on Electroencephalogram (EEG) Signals

Successful Turnarounds: The Role of Appropriate Entrepreneurial Strategies

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a research study aimed at comparing the causes of organisational decline and turnaround strategies involved in cases of successful and unsuccessful turnarounds, with a view to identifying the differences, if any, between the two groups, which in turn is expected to provide useful information to academics, practitioners and policy makers. Design/methodology/approach – Since turnaround is a business phenomenon of general interest, their stories are often published in business periodicals, which are a rich source of data on them. In order to tap this data source, the present paper employed a method of content analysis for the proposed investigation on the cause of organisational decline and turnaround strategies used. In order to quantify the data, a three-point scale was developed, where the presence of a cause/strategy is rated as “3”, its ambivalence as “2” and its absence as “1”, whose validity was assessed through the inter-rater agreement indices. The...

Are your students ready for anatomy and physiology? Developing tools to identify students at risk for failure.

Abstract: High failure rates in introductory college science courses, including anatomy and physiology, are common at institutions across the country, and determining the specific factors that contribute to this problem is challenging. To identify students at risk for failure in introductory physiology courses at our open-enrollment institution, an online pilot survey was administered to 200 biology students. The survey results revealed several predictive factors related to academic preparation and prompted a comprehensive analysis of college records of >2,000 biology students over a 5-yr period. Using these historical data, a model that was 91% successful in predicting student success in these courses was developed. The results of the present study support the use of surveys and similar models to identify at-risk students and to provide guidance in the development of evidence-based advising programs and pedagogies. This comprehensive approach may be a tangible step in improving student success for students from a wide variety of backgrounds in anatomy and physiology courses.

On the Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure by Indian Companies

Abstract: In the current scenario of financial reporting regime, investors are increasingly looking at the disclosure practices of companies. The companies also face capital market pressures and need to disc...

Synthesis and characterization of porous, mixed phase, wrinkled, few layer graphene like nanocarbon from charcoal

Abstract: A technique to synthesis wrinkled graphene like nano carbon (GNC) from charcoal is reported in the current study. The charcoal produced by thermal decomposition and is intercalated by Hummers method. It is separated by centrifugation and sonication to get few layer graphene sheets. The structural and chemical changes of the nanostructure is elucidated by Raman spectroscopy, TEM, SEM-EDS and XPS. Raman spectra revealed the existence of highly graphitized amorphous carbon, which is confirmed by the appearance of five peaks in the deconvoluted first order Raman spectra. The SEM analysis reveals the formation of large area graphene sheets with nano-porous structure in it. The TEM/SAED analysis exhibits the presence of short range few layer graphene.

Causality among Energy Consumption, CO2 Emission, Economic Growth and Trade: A Case of India

Abstract: The present study attempts to examine the causal nexus between energy consumption, CO2 emissions, economic growth and trade in India using the Perron (1989) unit root test, Gregory and Hansen (1996...

Structural characterization of graphene layers in various Indian coals by X-Ray Diffraction technique

Abstract: The results of the structural investigation of three Indian coals showed that, the structural parameters like fa & Lc increased where as interlayer spacing d002 decreased with increase in carbon content, aromaticity and coal rank. These structural parameters change just opposite with increase in volatile matter content. Considering the 'turbostratic' structure for coals, the minimum separation between aromatic lamellae was found to vary between 3.34 to 3.61 A° for these coals. As the aromaticity increased, the interlayer spacing decreased an indication of more graphitization of the sample. Volatile matter and carbon content had a strong influence on the aromaticity, interlayer spacing and stacking height on the sample. The average number of carbon atoms per aromatic lamellae and number of layers in the lamellae was found to be 16-21 and 7-8 for all the samples.

Performance analysis of training algorithms of multilayer perceptrons in diabetes prediction

Abstract: Artificial Intelligence plays a vital role in developing machines or software that can create intelligence. Artificial Neural Networks is a field of neuroscience which contributes tremendous developments in Artificial Intelligence. This paper focuses on the study of performance of various training algorithms of Multilayer Perceptrons in Diabetes Prediction. In this study, we have used Pima Indian Diabetes data set from UCI Machine Learning Repository as input dataset. The system is implemented in MatlabR2013. The Pima Indian Diabetes dataset consists of about 768 instances. The input data is the patient history and the target output is the prediction result as tested positive or tested negative. From the performance analysis, it was observed that out of all the training algorithms, Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm has given optimal training results.

A comprehensive survey on features and methods for speech emotion detection

Abstract: Human computer interaction will be natural and effective when the interfaces are sensitive to human emotion or stress. Previous studies were mainly focused on facial emotion recognition but speech emotion detection is gaining importance due its wide range of applications. Speech emotion recognition still remains a challenging task in the field of affective computing as no defined standards exist for emotion classification. Speech signal carries large information related to the emotions conveyed by a person. Speech recognition system fails miserably if robust techniques are not implemented to address the variations in speech due to emotion. Emotion detection from speech has two main steps. They are feature extraction and classification. The goal of this paper is to give an overview on the types of corpus, features and classification techniques that are associated with speech emotion recognition.

Antecedents of Employee Readiness for Change: Mediating Effect of Commitment to Change

Abstract: The study attempted to look at the influence of individual factors (creative behavior and practical intelligence), process factors (participation in decision making and quality of communication) and context factors (trust in management and history of change) on employee readiness for change to transformational changes. Commitment to change and its three dimensions- affective, continuance and normative were hypothesized to act as a mediator in the present study. The data was collected through a survey using self-reported questionnaire and by judgment sampling. The data was collected from large sized organizations in manufacturing and IT sector, which were undergoing transformational changes and the total sample size for the study was 305. To understand the mediation effect of commitment to change dimensions, mediated regression analysis was carried out. Among the three dimensions of commitment to change, affective commitment to change alone was found to have a partial mediation effect. Thus, focusing on the employees’ emotional attachment to the change could be one way for increasing employees’ readiness for change. The study also provides insight into the construct commitment to change in the Indian context.

Relationship between Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions, Economic Growth and Trade in India

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to examine the causal nexus between various sources of energy consumption, viz. Coal, Crude Oil, Electricity and Natural Gas, CO2 emissions, economic growth and trade in India using the Perron unit root test, Gregory and Hansen cointegration test and Vector Error Correction Model. The study exhibits a long-run relationship between various sources of energy consumption, economic growth, CO2 emissions and trade in India. By and large, the empirical results confirm that economic growth fuels rate of various sources of energy consumption i.e. coal, crude petroleum, electricity and natural gas. The findings reveal that increase in CO2 emissions leads to achieve high level of economic activity in India. In addition, the study finds that foreign trade influences the various sources of non-renewable energy consumption in the long-term. However, the energy consumption do not significantly contributes towards promoting foreign trade, except crude petroleum, in the short-run.

Demand response for residential loads using artificial bee colony algorithm to minimize energy cost

Abstract: Power performance expectations are increasing, impacting designs and requiring advanced technology to improve system reliability. Demand Response (DR) is a highly flexible customer driven program in which customer voluntarily changes his energy usage patterns during the peak demand to maintain the system stability and reliability and thereby improves the performance of the gird. This paper proposes a novel algorithm for optimization of the DR schedule of the residential loads for various hours of the day using Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm. Here, the objective function is subjected to the constraints like cost constraints, time constraints and load demand. The results show that the proposed approach enhances potential in solving problems with good reliability compared with existing approaches.

Cold spray deposition of hydroxyapatite powder onto magnesium substrates for biomaterial applications

Abstract: A simple, modified, cold spray process was developed in which hydroxyapatite powder was coated onto pure magnesium substrates preheated to 350 or 550°C and ground to either 240 or 2000 grit surface roughness, with stand-off distances of 20 or 40 mm. The procedure was repeated five and 10 times. The hydroxyapatite coatings did not show any phase changes. Atomic force microscopy revealed a uniform coating topography, and scanning electron microscopy revealed good bonding between the coated layers and the substrates. As the p values were < 0·05, all factors except the number of sprays were considered to be significant. The response optimiser indicated that a 22·7 mm stand-off distance, a 649·2 grit surface roughness and a 496°C substrate heating temperature produced good hydroxyapatite coatings of 46·3 μm thickness, 436·5 MPa nanohardness and 43·9 GPa elastic modulus. The modified cold spray technique with substrate heating showed promising results in terms of product coating thickness and mechanical properties.

Overview of computational vaccinology: vaccine development through information technology.

Abstract: Pathogenic organisms, causes of various infectious diseases, possess a rich repository of antigenic proteins that engender an immune response in a host. These types of diseases are usually treated with the use of pharmaceuticals; unfortunately, many of these also have a potential to induce fatal side effects, especially allergic responses in the diseased host. In addition, many pathogens evolve (by selective survival) single or multi-drug resistance (MDR). Therefore, a means to prevent the host from becoming susceptible to the pathogen from the onset, rather than trying to devise pharmacologic protocols to treat an ongoing infection, are increasingly seen as desirable to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases altogether. To this end, cost-effective development and use of “safe” vaccines is key. This paper provides an overview on the new and expanding area of computational vaccinology and a brief background on pathogen antigenicity, identification of pathogen-specific antigens, and screening of candidate antigens using various tools and databases developed in the recent past.

Optimization of multiple responses using overlaid contour plot and steepest methods analysis on hydroxyapatite coated magnesium via cold spray deposition

Abstract: In this work, sequential optimization strategy based statistical design was employed to enhance the mechanical properties of hydroxyapatite coatings onto a pure magnesium substrate using a cold spray technique A fractional factorial design (2 4 − 1 ) was applied to elucidate the process parameters that significantly affected the mechanical properties of the coating samples Standoff distance, surface roughness, and substrate heating temperature were identified as important process parameters affecting thickness, nanohardness, and the elastic modulus of the coating sample The overlaid method analysis was employed to determine tradeoff optimal values from multiple regressive equations Then, finally, steepest method analysis was used to reconfirm and relocate the optimal domain from which the factor levels for maximum mechanical properties of the coating were determined at 4977 mm standoff distance, 9264 grit surface roughness, and 456 °C substrate heating temperature, which can accommodate the optimum requirements for the cold spray process with a coating of 4977 μm thickness, 46261 MPa nanohardness, and 4569 GPa elastic modulus Scanning electron microscopy revealed that a short standoff distance, high surface roughness, and high substrate temperatures improved the bond between the coated layers and substrates

Gender modulates the development of Theta Event Related Oscillations in Adolescents and Young Adults.

Abstract: The developmental trajectories of theta band (4-7 Hz) event-related oscillations (EROs), a key neurophysiological constituent of the P3 response, were assessed in 2170 adolescents and young adults ages 12 to 25. The theta EROs occurring in the P3 response, important indicators of neurocognitive function, were elicited during the evaluation of task-relevant target stimuli in visual and auditory oddball tasks. These tasks call upon attentional and working memory resources. Large differences in developmental rates between males and females were found; scalp location and task modality (visual or auditory) differences within males and females were small compared to gender differences. Trajectories of interregional and intermodal correlations between ERO power values exhibited increases with age in both genders, but showed a divergence in development between auditory and visual systems during ages 16 to 21. These results are consistent with previous electrophysiological and imaging studies and provide additional temporal detail about the development of neurophysiological indices of cognitive activity. Since measures of the P3 response has been found to be a useful endophenotypes for the study of a number of clinical and behavioral disorders, studies of its development in adolescents and young adults may illuminate neurophysiological factors contributing to the onset of these conditions.

A Secure Image-Based Authentication Scheme Employing DNA Crypto and Steganography

Abstract: Authentication is considered as one of the critical aspects of Information security to ensure identity. Authentication is generally carried out using conventional authentication methods such as text based passwords, but considering the increased usage of electronic services a user has to remember many id-password pairs which often leads to memorability issues. This inspire users to reuse passwords across e-services, but this practice is vulnerable to security attacks. To improve security strength, various authentication techniques have been proposed including two factor schemes based on smart card, tokens etc. and advanced biometric techniques. Graphical Image based authentication systems has received relevant diligence as it provides better usability by way of memorable image passwords. But the tradeoff between usability and security is a major concern while strengthening authentication. This paper proposes a novel two-way secure authentication scheme using DNA cryptography and steganography considering both security and usability. The protocol uses text and image password of which text password is converted into cipher text using DNA cryptography and embedded into image password by applying steganography. Hash value of the generated stego image is calculated using SHA-256 and the same will be used for verification to authenticate legitimate user.

Rectangular microstrip antenna for WLAN application

Abstract: This paper deals with the design of rectangular microstrip patch antenna for Wireless applications. In this paper a modified slotted microstrip antenna design for 2.5GHz operation is proposed. This provides improved performance in terms of lower return loss and higher gain. This is possible by inclusion of slots appropriately on the patch shape. The substrate material used in this design is Duroid5880 with permittivity 2.2 and size 47.43mm × 39.65mm × 1.6mm. ANSOFT HFSS EM simulator has been used for design and simulation of the microstrip antenna. The various antenna parameters such as frequency, VSWR, gain and directivity are analyzed to characterize the proposed antenna.

Analysis and measurement of supply chain flexibility

Abstract: Supply chain flexibility is a strategic and tactical necessity for sustenance and progress of business enterprises. Measurement of flexibility is therefore necessary for its monitoring, control and communication. The study proposes a framework and a methodology for flexibility performance measurement of supply chains. The framework identifies flexibility objectives and its contributing attributes at four levels of the supply chain and suggests taxonomy of flexibility performance measures. A methodology to prioritise the contribution of each performance attribute to achieve the desired flexibility objective using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has also been proposed and demonstrated in this study. The research is based on detailed literature-based study and analysis of existing frameworks of flexibility performance measurement in supply chain and expert opinion. The proposed framework is suitable for measurement, monitoring and controlling flexibility in a supply chain in addition to prioritising contributing attributes of flexibility. The research does not test the model but suggests a platform for further development.

Relationship between Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions, Economic Growth and Trade in India

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to examine the causal nexus between various sources of energy consumption, viz. Coal, Crude Oil, Electricity and Natural Gas, CO 2 emissions, economic growth and trade in India using the Perron unit root test, Gregory and Hansen cointegration test and Vector Error Correction Model. The study exhibits a long-run relationship between various sources of energy consumption, economic growth, CO 2 emissions and trade in India. By and large, the empirical results confirm that economic growth fuels rate of various sources of energy consumption i.e. coal, crude petroleum, electricity and natural gas. The findings reveal that increase in CO 2 emissions leads to achieve high level of economic activity in India. In addition, the study finds that foreign trade influences the various sources of non-renewable energy consumption in the long-term. However, the energy consumption do not significantly contributes towards promoting foreign trade, except crude petroleum, in the short-run.

Cryogenian magmatism and crustal reworking in the Southern Granulite Terrane, India

Abstract: Understanding Neoproterozoic crustal evolution is fundamental to reconstructing the Gondwana supercontinent, which was assembled at this time. Here we report evidence of Cryogenian crustal reworking in the Madurai Block of the Southern Granulite Terrane of India. The study focuses on a garnet-bearing granite-charnockite suite, where the granite shows in situ dehydration into patches and veins of incipient charnockite along the contact with charnockite. The granite also carries dismembered layers of Mg-Al-rich granulite. Micro-textural evidence for dehydration of granite in the presence of CO2-rich fluids includes the formation of orthopyroxene by the breakdown of biotite, neoblastic zircon growth in the dehydration zone, at around 870 degrees C and 8kbar. The zircon U-Pb ages suggest formation of the granite, charnockite, and incipient charnockite at 836 +/- 73, 831 +/- 31, and 772 +/- 49Ma, respectively. Negative zircon epsilon Hf (t) (-5 to -20) values suggest that these rocks were derived from a reworked Palaeoproterozoic crustal source. Zircon grains in the Mg-Al-rich granulite record a spectrum of ages from ca. 2300 to ca. 500Ma, suggesting multiple provenances ranging from Palaeoproterozoic to mid-Neoproterozoic, with neoblastic zircon growth during high-temperature metamorphism in the Cambrian. We propose that the garnet-bearing granite and charnockite reflect the crustal reworking of aluminous crustal material indicated by the presence of biotite+quartz+aluminosilicate inclusions in the garnet within the granite. This crustal source can be the Mg-Al-rich layers carried by the granite itself, which later experienced high-temperature regional metamorphism at ca. 550Ma. Our model also envisages that the CO2 which dehydrated the garnet-bearing granite generating incipient charnockite was sourced from the proximal massive charnockite through advection. These Cryogenian crustal reworking events are related to prolonged tectonic activities prior to the final assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent.

Characterization and comparison studies of Bentonite and Flyash for electrical grounding

Abstract: Earthing or Grounding is an Electrical system consists of electrodes which serves as an electrical connection from an electric circuit in the system to the earth or ground. Traditional Earthing- where we mix charcoal and salt offers low resistance to the fault current flow developed from a Low operating Voltages. Since operating voltages are high now a days, Short circuit current also increased. Traditional method of Earthing is replaced by chemical Earthing .Bentonite which is mainly used in chemical Earthing serves the requirement of Low resistance Earthing pits and also have the property to retain the moisture. In this paper an attempt had been made to assure the Flyash usage in the grounding pit and this paper discusses the Characterization, Comparison and Field Studies on Earthing Pit constructed with Bentonite and Fly ash layers.

Cloud Computing with Machine Learning Could Help Us in the Early Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to develop tools which could help the clinicians in the primary care hospitals with the early diagnosis of breast cancer diagnosis. Breast cancer is one of the leading forms of cancer in developing countries and often gets detected at the lateral stages. The detection of cancer at later stages results not only in pain and in agony to the patients but also puts lot of financial burden on the caregivers. In this work, we are presenting the preliminary results of the project code named BCDM (Breast Cancer Diagnosis using Machine Learning) developed using Mat lab. The algorithm developed in this research cancer work based on adaptive resonance theory. In this research work, we concluded how Art 1 network will help in classification of breast. The aim of the project is to eventually run the algorithm on a cloud computer and a clinician at a primary healthcare can use the system for the early diagnosis of the patients using web based interface from anywhere in the world.

K β to K α X-ray intensity ratios and K to L shell vacancy transfer probabilities of Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn

Abstract: The K to L shell total vacancy transfer probabilities of low Z elements Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn are estimated by measuring the Kβ to Kα intensity ratio adopting the 2π-geometry. The target elements were excited by 32.86 keV barium K-shell X-rays from a weak 137Cs γ-ray source. The emitted K-shell X-rays were detected using a low energy HPGe X-ray detector coupled to a 16 k MCA. The measured intensity ratios and the total vacancy transfer probabilities are compared with theoretical results and others’ work, establishing a good agreement.

Effects of Processing Parameters on Microstructure Evolution of Al-7Si-Mg Alloy by Cooling Slope Casting

Abstract: This work investigates the effects of pouring temperature, slope length, and slope temperature in cooling slope casting on the formation of globular microstructure of Al-7Si-Mg alloy. The remnant alloy on the slope during casting was quenched and characterized at different stages of flow to evaluate the microstructure features developed in cooling slope casting. The primary α-Al dendritic phase found in conventional cast alloy was transformed into globular shape in slope-processed cast alloy. Finer and more homogenous primary α-Al phase was formed at lower pouring temperature (625 °C). The effect of slope length on microstructure of Al-7Si-Mg alloy was significant at high pouring temperatures (640 and 660 °C) but was not visible at low pouring temperature (625 °C). The microstructure of alloy became coarser with increasing slope temperature.