Indian Institute Of Technology Delhi Research Articles

Deep finger texture learning for verifying people

Finger Texture (FT) is currently attracting significant attentions in the area of human recognition. Finger texture covers the area between the lower knuckle of the finger and the upper phalanx before the fingerprint. It involves rich features which can be efficiently used as a biometric characteristic. In this paper, we contribute to this growing area by proposing a new verification approach, i.e., Deep Finger Texture Learning (DFTL). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that deep learning is employed for recognizing people by using the FT characteristic. Four databases have been used to evaluate the proposed method: the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Contact-free 3D/2D (PolyU2D), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), CASIA Blue spectral (CASIA-BLU) corresponding to spectral 460nm and CASIA White spectral (CASIA-WHT) from the CASIA Multi-Spectral images database. The obtained results have shown superior performance compared with recent literature. The Verification Accuracies (VAs) have attained 100%, 98.65%, 100% and 98% for the four databases of PolyU2D, IITD, CASIA-BLU and CASIA-WHT, respectively.

Non-carcinogenic and Carcinogenic Risk Assessment of Trace Elements of PM2.5 During Winter and Pre-monsoon Seasons in Delhi: A Case Study

This study focuses on exposures of metal constituents of particulate matter (PM) in the ambient air sample collected at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), India, which might lead to occurrence of non-cancerous events and cancer events. A step-wise construction of risk assessment framework for estimating risks due to exposures of PM2.5 presented. Samples from winter and pre-monsoon seasons of Delhi region (28.5450°N, 77.1926°E) (duration 1: December 2013–February 2014; duration 2: March 2014–May 14) were collected. More than 12 samples were collected using PM2.5 sampler on an 8-h basis and analysed gravimetrically for determining mass content and chemically for determining metal content of PM2.5. Twenty-eight metals in samples were detected using Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF). Using these values, health risks of hypotheticals exposures of PM2.5 in ambient air samples were estimated either in terms of hazard quotient (i.e. ratio of daily inhaled dose to daily acceptable dose) for exposures of non-carcinogenic metals or lifetime excess risk of cancer for exposures of carcinogenic metals. Dose–response information of different metals was taken from the U.S. EPA IRIS database. Among metals, S content was highest followed by Cl, Si, K, Ca and Fe, Zn and Pb. High S can be attributed to vehicular emission or particles generated from abrasion of tyres of vehicles. High contents of Si, Ca, Fe in PM samples may be contributed from resuspension road dust, while source of K may be local biomass burning for space heating in winter. Zn comes from vehicle and coal burning probably used by local residents for space heating. Chlorine used in lubricants and diesel fuel could be a source of high Cl content in samples collected in the present work. Small traces of Pb in samples might be coming from brake and tyre wear or resuspension of road dust contaminated with lead used earlier in diesel and/or petrol to improve combustion. Estimates of potential risk due to hypothetical exposure of adults and children to four carcinogenic metals of PM2.5 were found to be more than 1/10,000,000, indicating chance of cancer risks. Among metals, exposures to PM-associated Cd resulted in consistent cancerous risk in both seasons, whereas exposures to PM-associated Cr resulted in HQ value > 1 indicating chance of non-carcinogenic risks.

Relative role of sea surface temperature and snow on Indian summer monsoon seasonal simulation using a GCM

Indian summer monsoon is a global scale phenomenon controlled by different land, ocean, and atmospheric parameters. Sea surface temperature (SST) and snow are two of the major parameters, which may alter the spatial and temporal patterns of circulation and rainfall during Indian summer monsoon. In the current paper, we study the monsoon variability using long integrations (20 years) of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) Spectral model at T80L18 resolution with observed and climatological SST and snow. Study shows response of IITD GCM in simulating the Indian summer monsoon rainfall and circulation relative to the snow and SST as boundary conditions. The model’s response to SST and snow is examined by conducting four types of experiments by varying observed and climatological values of snow and SST. This paper discusses the seasonal total rainfall for country as a whole and 850 and 200 hPa wind for the period of 20 years starting from 1985 to 2004. The model has been integrated in the ensemble mode with five different initial conditions from the last week of April and first week of May. The model is able to capture the climatological patterns of seasonal total rainfall and averaged wind at lower and upper levels. Observed snow in the presence of climatological SST as a boundary condition shows much impact on rainfall and circulation than observed SST in the presence of climatological snow. Model performance is good in simulating the normal and excess monsoon conditions; it shows poor skill in capturing deficit monsoon years.

Minichaperone‐mediated folding of MalZ proceeds by binding and release of native and functional intermediates Neha Jain and and Tapan K. Chaudhuri Kusuma School of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India.

It is well understood that molecular chaperones play an essential role in the prevention of aggregation and also in the correct folding of newly synthesized polypeptides in vivo as well as in vitro. Among the variety of molecular chaperones identified in E.coli, GroEL/GroES is the mostly investigated chaperone system reported in the literature. The essential chaperonin GroEL, acting with its cochaperonin GroES, has the ability to bind and assist the folding of a wide variety of client proteins. This process requires a complex allosteric reaction cycle, driven by ATP binding and hydrolysis, which involves concerted movements of the domains of this large molecular machine. It has long been known that isolated apical domains of GroEL (known as “minichaperone”) also show some chaperone ability, but relatively little attention has been paid to the mechanism by which these much simpler chaperones act. Therefore, in order to probe the mechanism of minichaperone action in detail, efficiency in the folding of relatively larger aggregation prone multidomain proteins and the fate of a polypeptide during a minichaperone-mediated folding reaction remain to be identified. Here, using surface plasmon resonance measurements provide an estimate for the equilibrium dissociation constant KD for the MalZ-minichaperone complex of 0.21 ± 0.04 μM, significantly higher than for most GroEL clients, showing that minichaperone interacts loosely with MalZ during the refolding process. Noticeably, we also found that, upon addition of GroES as an interference trap, MalZ is released from minichaperone in a predominantly non-native conformation that can be trapped by mutant forms of GroEL that are capable of binding but not releasing substrate. Released polypeptide undergoes kinetic partitioning: a fraction completes folding while the remainder is rebound by other minichaperone molecules. Folding appears to occur in an all-or-none manner, since, our evidence by using intrinsic and extrinsic fluorescence spectroscopy, trypsin sensitivity, enzymatic activity and gel filtration chromatography suggest that the refolded MalZ has the same structure as the native MalZ, but that its structure when bound to minichaperone is different. In conclusion, our results indicate that the minichaperone works through a process of iterative annealing, with repeated cycles of binding and release of the client protein. By this mechanism, minichaperone may lower the effective concentration of free, unfolded intermediates and reduce off-pathway processes such as aggregation or misfolding. Since folding intermediates of MalZ could not fold by itself in solution and hence requires assistance to fold, the transient release and binding of folding intermediates with minichaperone proceeds until it reaches the correct folded form. These finding will be value for researcher as minichaperone is less complex, and does not require high energy co-factors like ATP, for its function as compared to conventional GroEL-GroES system, it can act as a very good in vitro as well as in vivo chaperone model for monitoring assisted protein folding phenomenon. Support or Funding Information Neha jain acknowledges joint Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-University of Grant Commission, Govt. of India for doctoral fellowship award no. 20-6/2008/ 2009. The authors acknowledge Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and the University of Birmingham for infrastructural support. Neha jain gratefully acknowledges financial support from Boeheringer Ingelheim Fonds to facilitate my experiments (SPR and thermofluor) at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Simulation of Storm Surge in Myanmar Coast

Storm surge is one of the most severe disastrous hazards in the Southeast Asian region including Myanmar. In order to accurately and on time numerical prediction of a surge, it is a crucial task for disaster mitigation. The objective of the study is to examine the predicted storm surge heights sensitivity with varying water depth. Storm parameters considered in the study include pressure drops, radius of maximum wind and duration of the storm and landfall angles in the Myanmar coast. Traditional model for numerical prediction of the storm surge has some drawbacks such as a delayed intimation of expected storm surges. To overcome these shortcomings, this study used the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D)-based surge model to explore the various factors of a surge in Myanmar. The sensitivity results from the study demonstrate that the shallowness of the water depth and obtuse landfall angle in the Rakhine coast of Myanmar produce the highest surge height. It also shows that a fast-moving cyclone made a larger surge than slower one. The effects of wind stress forcing reveal that high-pressure drops and radius of maximum wind generate a larger surge. The peak surges are computed by the prediction model which compared to the observed values and found to be the most accuracy of the results. Thus, this surge model can provide an early (nearly 48 h) warming in the coastal regions of Myanmar. It can help to mitigate disaster from the consequences of storm surge in Myanmar by evacuating the local residents.

Synthesis and Structural Studies of Three‐Dimensional Supramolecular Motifs Derived from Neutral and Cationic Zinc Alkanesulfonates

AbstractInvited for the cover of this issue is the group of Ravi Shankar from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India, in collaboration with the group of Kieran C. Molloy from the University of Bath, UK. The cover image shows the potential of zincate anions bearing weakly coordinating alkanesulfonate groups as synthons for three‐dimensional supramolecular assemblies.

The 5th International Conference on Science & Engineering in Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics 2017 (ScieTech 2017), The Ramada Bintang Hotel, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia 21 - 22 January 2017

The 5th International Conference on Science & Engineering in Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics 2017 (ScieTech 2017), The Ramada Bintang Hotel, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia 21 - 22 January 2017

Guest Editorial

Guest Editorial

Simulation of Storm Surges in the Bay of Bengal Using One-Way Coupling Between NMM-WRF and IITD Storm Surge Model

ABSTRACTThe storm surge associated with severe tropical cyclones (TCs) in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) is a serious concern along the coastal regions of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. It is one of the most hazardous elements associated with landfalling TCs other than strong winds and heavy precipitation and about 75% of the casualities in this region are attributed to storm surges. Therefore, it is highly essential to predict the storm surges with greater accuracy at least 2 days in advance for effective evacuation. In the present study, an attempt is made to simulate the storm surges associated with severe TCs in the BoB using one-way coupling of the Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model core of Weather Research and Forecasting (NMM-WRF) system with the two-dimensional finite-difference storm surge model developed at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD). The NMM-WRF model simulated track, pressure drop, and radius of maximum wind are used to calculate the wind-stress through Jelesnianski wind formulation. The results are compared with the observed/estimated values as provided by the operational/meteorological agencies of India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. This study suggests that using simulated surface meteorological fields of a high-resolution mesoscale model, the storm surge can be predicted at least 2 days in advance of the actual landfall of TCs with reasonable accuracy. This approach will be helpful in providing disastrous storm warning well in advance in a coastal region, which will help with rapid evacuation from the vulnerable coastal region, relocation as well as protection of valuables, disaster mitigation, and coastal zone management.

Detection and Cortical Localization of Ictal Signatures using Electroencephalogram Signals

Event Abstract Back to Event Detection and Cortical Localization of Ictal Signatures using Electroencephalogram Signals PIYUSH SWAMI1, 2*, Bijaya K. Panigrahi3, Sneh Anand1, 2, Manvir Bhatia4, Manjari Tripathi5 and Tapan K. Gandhi3 1 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Centre for Biomedical Engineering, India 2 All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering Unit, India 3 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Department of Electrical Engineering, India 4 Saket City Hospital, Department of Neurology, India 5 All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Department of Neurology, India Epilepsy is a common brain disorder which affects nearly 65 million people in the world. Electroencephalography is the most important technique for the diagnosis of epilepsy till date. The ictal signatures present in electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are usually detected by visual examination by the neuro-clinician or neuro-physiologist. This is an extremely tedious and error prone work since, the EEG signals are contaminated with various artifacts. Further, locating the epicenter of seizures is even more challenging due to the non-stationary nature of EEG. Hence, application of expert models for detection and source localization of ictal signatures is extremely important. In this work, we have proposed a novel methodology for detecting ictal signatures in EEG using complex wavelet transform and fuzzy-Sugeno classifier. The minimum reduction and maximum relevance technique was applied for feature selection. The results showed ceiling level of accuracy and coherent statistical performances. The classified ictal periods were used for the performing independent component analysis and subsequently cortical source localization over the Montreal Neurological Institute head model. The outcomes stamp successful seizure detection and visualization of the ictal events over the human cortex. This development assists in fast and accurate diagnosis of epilepsy and can be of utmost use in developing and under-developed countries where the patients to neurologists’ ratio is phenomenally higher. Additionally, the cortical location of the epileptic seizures helps in predicting the progression of pharmacological treatment and possible surgical outcomes. Figure 1

English

Omveer Singh , Raj P. Dahiya, Hitendra K. Malik, Parmod Kumar and V. Singh Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India – 110016 Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal, Haryana, India –131039 Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India – 110016 Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India – 247667 (Received 09 October, 2015; accepted 17 November. 2015; published 01 January, 2016)

Closure to “Shaft Resistance and Setup Factors for Piles Jacked in Clay” by Prasenjit Basu, Monica Prezzi, Rodrigo Salgado, and Tanusree Chakraborty

Prasenjit Basu, A.M.ASCE; Monica Prezzi, A.M.ASCE; Rodrigo Salgado, F.ASCE; and Tanusree Chakraborty, A.M.ASCE Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA 16802 (corresponding author). E-mail: pbasu@engr.psu.edu Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN 47907. E-mail: mprezzi@ecn.purdue.edu Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN 47907. E-mail: rodrigo@ecn.purdue.edu Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India. E-mail: tanusree@civil .iitd.ac.in

Efficient palmprint identification using novel symmetry filter and alignment refinement

This paper presents a robust algorithm for line orientation code-based palmprint identification in which we propose a novel symmetry filter and an efficient alignment refinement technique. The main idea of the symmetry filter is to compute the approximate magnitude of the Gabor filter based on the modified finite Radon transform MFRAT, the so-called GMFRAT filter. The advantages of GMFRAT filters are that: 1 they are capable of quickly computing orientation codes; 2 they remarkably reduce remarkably the sizes of these features. The alignment refinement technique, which uses local orientation patterns, is also proposed to solve the problem of rotations and translations caused by an imperfect preprocessing phase. Based on our alignment refinement, the matching algorithm is designed. The experimental results obtained using the public databases of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Biogas: A Sustainable and Potential Fuel for Transport Application

Energy is an essential ingredient for economic growth, social development, human welfare and improving the standards of living. This growing consumption of energy has resulted in increased dependence on fossil fuels, which is causing environmental problems. Depletion of fossil fuels, energy security and large emission of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is a matter of great concern today. Diesel and petrol are the major transport fuels in India and each year billions of money are being expended for their import. Biogas can play a key role in transformation and dependency with a large potential in India (approximately 48, 383 million m3 biogas annually), having possibilities to replace and therefore reduce our dependence on fossil fuels for transportation sector. Based on the Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Statistics 2011–2012 data, the contribution of upgraded biogas in the transportation sector as a percentage of total petroleum fuels consumption for the year 2011–2012 is approximately 86.8% if used to replace transport fuel which is quite encouraging. A 10 Nm3/h capacity fully automated biogas purification and bottling plant with improved design parameters has been designed, fabricated and implemented at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) campus. The enriched and bottled biogas has been regularly fuelled to a Wagon R car (from last three years), and to analyse the performance of it, mass emissions testing has been performed at ICAT (International Centre for Automotive Testing). Results of mass emissions, i.e., nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC) and particulate matter(PM) were complying with Bharat Stage-IV (BS-IV) norms. In principal, biomethane can be used for exactly the same applications as natural gas, if the final composition is in line with the different natural gas qualities on the market.upgradation, Biogas for vehicular application

National Conference on Advances in Material Science for Energy Applications

1Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur 208016, India 2Institute Instrumentation Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, India 3Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi 110016, India 4Department of Physics, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun 248007, India 5Department of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun 248007, India

Experimental and Computational Determination of LBV of Hydrogen Enriched Methane Mixtures

One of the major causes of environmental pollution and ozone layer depletion is the emissions coming out of the combustion devices including industrial burners, automobile vehicles and household appliances. Most of the conventional fuels used now days have high GWP and ODP. So the greatest challenges among the combustion researchers and scientists are to develop some sustainable and non conventional sources of energy that possesses capability to replace the conventional ones. One of the important gaseous fuels in non conventional category is hydrogen, which is a cleaner fuel and reduces pollution enormously. In the present work, experimental and computational analysis of laminar burning velocity (LBV) of premixed gaseous fuels (primary focus on Hydrogen enrichment) was carried out. For experimental investigation the experimental set up available in Fuel and pollution lab of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is used. Experiments were carried out on mixtures of methane- Air and Methane-Hydrogen-Air for wide range of equivalence ratios and compared with the computational results of PREMIX with full GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism. Most of the experiments available in literature were carried out at 298 K. In the present work it has been tried to relate the effect of low temperatures on laminar burning velocity of mixtures. The experiments have been conducted at 1 bar pressure and around 292 Kelvin with equivalence ratio ranging from 0.8 to 1.2. Methane gas is enriched with hydrogen in varying proportions and the effect of hydrogen enrichment on its laminar burning velocity studied. The objective of the addition of hydrogen to methane was to increase its laminar burning velocity as well as to extend its lean flammability limits at lower ambient temperatures.

Library Software Awareness: A Survey of OPAC Vs Card Catalogue in IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, and Kashmir University

The objective of this study is to highlight the library software awareness with special focus on OPAC Vs card catalogue among the users of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, IIT Kanpur, and Kashmir University. The study also highlights the features of LibSys and Virtua software used by the select libraries. The investigator has used questionnaire as a key tool for collecting the necessary data for the present study. Although the study covers a number of software packages, but Virtua and LibSys softwares have been discussed in detail. A wonderful finding of this study is that the Kashmir University has successfully installed RFID technology through Virtua; but, the same is yet to take place fully in the select IITs. However, the majority of users in select IITs are using OPAC, while as the usage of OPAC in Kashmir University is comparatively lesser. Another finding of this study is that all the select libraries are still maintaining card catalogues, though used very less. The present study will be useful to enhance the usage of OPAC in the select libraries. It will also serve as a tool for other libraries to analyse the features and facilities of leading indigenous and international software package for selecting the suitable software. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.14429/djlit.34.6164

Use of RFID Technology by Students in Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Indian Law Institute, Delhi: A Survey

The paper attempts to investigate the usage behaviour and the related progress of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology as inferred from the opinion of the students from two libraries of academic institutions in New Delhi, viz., Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) and Indian Law Institute (ILI). It also evaluates users’ ability, knowledge, reasons for effective use, as well as problems faced while using the technology vis-a-vis its impact on the academic environment.

Experimental Studies for Convective Drying of Potato

An experimental facility was built at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in order to examine the characteristics of convective drying of a moist object. The test facility consists of an inlet section, a divergent and convergent section, a settling chamber, a test section, and an outlet section. Initial moisture content and time-dependent moisture content of a rectangular shaped moist object (4 cm × 2 cm × 2 cm) are measured by this test facility. The potato slice was selected as a sample moist object. Moisture content was measured at different air temperatures of 40, 50, 60, and 70°C with an air velocity of 2 m/sec. The density of potato slice was determined for various drying temperatures. The volume shrinkage during drying decreased almost linearly with moisture content. The percentage air pores and porosity increased gradually with decreasing moisture content and increasing drying air temperature. Volumes of water, air, and solid content of potato were determined at different drying air temperatures. The results are validated with theoretical data.

The Status of OPAC: A Survey of IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and Kashmir University

The objective of this study is to assess the current status of OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) of Central Library, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi; P. K. Kelkar Library, IIT Kanpur; and Allama Iqbal Library, Kashmir University. The study highlights the general as well as specific features of OPAC of the select libraries. The investigator was of the impression that OPACs of select IITs may be advanced as compared to Allama Iqbal Library. However, it is revealed that Allama Iqbal Library is ahead of both the select IIT libraries in terms of availability and utilization of features of its OPAC. Nevertheless, it is disappointing to point out that none of these libraries are using all the features of OPAC provided by their softwares. Furthermore, the access to OPACs of select IITs is restricted to the campus only, while as the OPAC of Allama Iqbal Library can be accessed anytime anywhere on the web. The results of this study clearly indicate that there is pressing need to improve the OPACs of these libraries and utilization of all the existing features. Besides having the practical implications for select libraries, the study will also be helpful to other libraries that wish to enhance the features and standard of their OPACs on modern lines.