Abstract: A method for producing a modified sawdust sorbent. The method involves sulfonating sawdust with sulfuric acid and oxidizing the sulfonated sawdust with hydrogen peroxide. The method yields a modified sawdust sorbent containing sulfonated and oxidized cellulose. The modified sawdust sorbent has a higher surface area, higher organic dye adsorption capacity, and more rapid organic dye adsorption rate than unmodified sawdust. A method for organic dye removal from water includes using the modified sawdust sorbent to absorb dyes from water.

Abstract: A cutting insert of a substantially horizontal cylindrical segment shape is described. The cutting insert comprises top and bottom surfaces having a circular segment shape. The cutting insert further comprises a convex side. The cutting insert further comprises a flat side. The cutting insert further comprises a top cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the top surface meet, and a bottom cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the bottom surface meet. The cutting insert further comprises a hole extending from the convex side towards the flat side. The hole is positioned at a center of a surface of the flat side.

Abstract: A method to suppresses speckle noise in medical ultrasound images includes ultrasound envelope image matrix A formed from the medical ultrasound images and segmented into overlapping segments, to form a sub-matrix B for each overlapping segment. A Hermitian covariance matrix C is formulated from column vectors Z. A global covariance matrix G is formed by averaging the C. A Lanczos decomposition is applied to the G to generate an orthonormal vector matrix composed of orthonormal vectors. A tridiagonal matrix H is generated. The orthonormal vectors are sorted based on magnitude of each column. An orthogonal projection matrix Porth is formed based on the orthonormal vectors. An estimated vector signal {circumflex over (Z)} is obtained by projecting Z by Porth. An estimated despeckled segment is formed from the {circumflex over (Z)}. An estimated despeckled ultrasound image is reconstructed by averaging each pixel by the number of segment updates.

Abstract: A cutting insert of a substantially horizontal cylindrical segment shape is described. The cutting insert comprises top and bottom surfaces having a circular segment shape. The cutting insert further comprises a convex side. The cutting insert further comprises a flat side. The cutting insert further comprises a top cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the top surface meet, and a bottom cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the bottom surface meet. The cutting insert further comprises a hole extending from the convex side towards the flat side. The hole is positioned at a center of a surface of the flat side.

Abstract: A cutting insert of a substantially horizontal cylindrical segment shape is described. The cutting insert comprises top and bottom surfaces having a circular segment shape. The cutting insert further comprises a convex side. The cutting insert further comprises a flat side. The cutting insert further comprises a top cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the top surface meet, and a bottom cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the bottom surface meet. The cutting insert further comprises a hole extending from the convex side towards the flat side. The hole is positioned at a center of a surface of the flat side.

Abstract: A device, method, and non-transitory computer readable medium are described. The method includes receiving a dataset including hand written Arabic words and hand written Arabic alphabets from one or more users. The method further includes removing whitespace around alphabets in the hand written Arabic words and the hand written Arabic alphabets in the dataset. The method further includes splitting the dataset into a training set, a validation set, and a test set. The method further includes classifying one or more user datasets from the training set, the validation set, and the test set. The method further includes identifying the target user from the one or more user datasets. The identification of the target user includes a verification accuracy of the hand written Arabic words being larger than a verification accuracy threshold value.

Abstract: A cutting insert of a substantially horizontal cylindrical segment shape is described. The cutting insert comprises top and bottom surfaces having a circular segment shape. The cutting insert further comprises a convex side. The cutting insert further comprises a flat side. The cutting insert further comprises a top cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the top surface meet, and a bottom cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the bottom surface meet. The cutting insert further comprises a hole extending from the convex side towards the flat side. The hole is positioned at a center of a surface of the flat side.

Abstract: A cutting insert of a substantially horizontal cylindrical segment shape is described. The cutting insert comprises top and bottom surfaces having a circular segment shape. The cutting insert further comprises a convex side. The cutting insert further comprises a flat side. The cutting insert further comprises a top cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the top surface meet, and a bottom cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the bottom surface meet. The cutting insert further comprises a hole extending from the convex side towards the flat side. The hole is positioned at a center of a surface of the flat side.

Abstract: A method for producing a modified sawdust sorbent. The method involves sulfonating sawdust with sulfuric acid and oxidizing the sulfonated sawdust with hydrogen peroxide. The method yields a modified sawdust sorbent containing sulfonated and oxidized cellulose. The modified sawdust sorbent has a higher surface area, higher organic dye adsorption capacity, and more rapid organic dye adsorption rate than unmodified sawdust. A method of using the modified sawdust sorbent for organic dye removal from water is included.

Abstract: A cutting insert of a substantially horizontal cylindrical segment shape is described. The cutting insert comprises top and bottom surfaces having a circular segment shape. The cutting insert further comprises a convex side. The cutting insert further comprises a flat side. The cutting insert further comprises a top cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the top surface meet, and a bottom cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the bottom surface meet. The cutting insert further comprises a hole extending from the convex side towards the flat side. The hole is positioned at a center of a surface of the flat side.

Abstract: A relief valve device having a spring, a valve bonnet, a valve stem, a disc holder, a valve disc, a huddling chamber, a blowdown ring, and a nozzle. In the valve device, the valve disc is positioned above the nozzle; the spring is disposed in the valve bonnet; the spring surrounds the valve stem such that a longitudinal axis of the spring and a longitudinal axis of the valve stem are coaxial; the disc holder surrounds an outer periphery of the valve disc and is adjacent and in direct contact with a surface of the valve disc around an entire perimeter of the valve disc; the blowdown ring is disposed at a top section of the nozzle; a bottom section of the nozzle is connected to a bottom surface of a valve body and the top section of the nozzle is connected to the valve disc; and the disc holder is filled with oil.

Abstract: A system, method, and non-transitory computer readable medium for using a smart collar to monitor a pet are described. The system includes a smart collar, a mobile computing device including a display screen, and a pet monitoring mobile application stored on the mobile computing device. The smart collar includes a global positioning receiver, a communications device, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, a rechargeable battery, and a microcontroller. The microcontroller calculates a distance of a current location of the smart collar from a desired location, determines when the distance is greater than a first distance threshold, and generates a communications packet including the current location, the perimeter, and the distance of the smart collar from the desired location, and transmits the communications packet. The mobile computing device receives the communications packet, and the pet monitoring mobile application displays the current location on a display screen of the mobile computing device.

Abstract: Proximity triggered water fountains may have proximity sensors configured to detect target(s), a processing unit communicably coupled to proximity sensors configured to transfer data related to the target(s) to the processing unit, nozzles and nozzle controllers, and collectors configured to receive water projected from the nozzles. The nozzle controllers may be controlled based on data received from the sensors. The nozzle controllers may be coupled to the nozzles of a water circulation system configured to adjust a water projection angle from the nozzles with respect to the ground. The water circulation system may use tank(s), pump(s), and supply and return line(s), with the nozzles, tank(s), pump(s), and supply and return line(s), being in fluid communication. The nozzles and collectors may be displaced a horizontal distance from each other such that outlets of the nozzles are not vertically above the collectors.

Abstract: A method for producing a modified sawdust sorbent. The method involves sulfonating sawdust with sulfuric acid and oxidizing the sulfonated sawdust with hydrogen peroxide. The method yields a modified sawdust sorbent containing sulfonated and oxidized cellulose. The modified sawdust sorbent has a higher surface area, higher organic dye adsorption capacity, and more rapid organic dye adsorption rate than unmodified sawdust. Also disclosed is a method of using the modified sawdust sorbent for organic dye removal from water.

Abstract: A cutting insert of a substantially horizontal cylindrical segment shape and having top and bottom surfaces with a circular segment shape. The cutting insert has a convex side and a flat side, a top cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the top surface meet, and a bottom cutting edge which is formed where the convex side and the bottom surface meet. The cutting insert includes a hole extending from the convex side towards the flat side. The hole is positioned at a center of a surface of the flat side.

Abstract: A method for producing a modified sawdust sorbent. The method involves sulfonating sawdust with sulfuric acid and oxidizing the sulfonated sawdust with hydrogen peroxide. The method yields a modified sawdust sorbent containing sulfonated and oxidized cellulose. The modified sawdust sorbent has a higher surface area, higher organic dye adsorption capacity, and more rapid organic dye adsorption rate than unmodified sawdust. Also disclosed is a method of using the modified sawdust sorbent for organic dye removal from water.

Abstract: A method for producing a modified sawdust sorbent. The method involves sulfonating sawdust with sulfuric acid and oxidizing the sulfonated sawdust with hydrogen peroxide. The method yields a modified sawdust sorbent containing sulfonated and oxidized cellulose. The modified sawdust sorbent has a higher surface area, higher organic dye adsorption capacity, and more rapid organic dye adsorption rate than unmodified sawdust. Also disclosed is a method of using the modified sawdust sorbent for organic dye removal from water.

Abstract: A communications device includes a uniform linear array of M antennas and a field programmable gate array (FPGA) having pipelined stages in which execution of overlapping instructions estimate a direction of arrival of RF signals from multiple sources. A preprocessing stage of the FPGA includes at least one configurable logic block configured to apply forward/backward averaging spatial smoothing to a signal space matrix extracted from a covariance matrix in the preprocessing stage. The FPGA further includes at least one configurable logic block configured to compute the direction of arrival angle for the RF signals using a least squares method.

Abstract: A flexure bearing having a first sleeve and a second sleeve is provided. Each sleeve includes a first pillar having a first end attached to the sleeve and a second end projecting outwardly from the sleeve and a second pillar having a first end attached to the sleeve and a second end projecting outwardly from the sleeve parallel to and diametrically opposed to the first pillar. The flexure bearing has a plurality of blind holes and a plurality of compression springs, each compression spring having a first spring end fit into one of the blind holes of a pillar of the first sleeve and a second spring end fit into a corresponding blind hole of an adjacent pillar of the second sleeve when the second sleeve is interconnected to the first sleeve.

Abstract: A flexible pavement structure comprises a surface layer, a base layer, a sub-base layer, and a subgrade layer. Herein, the surface layer is adjacent to and above the base layer, and the sub-base layer is adjacent to and above the subgrade layer. The flexible pavement structure further comprises a layered system composed of first, second, and third materials different from each other, and is disposed as an interface layer between the base layer and the sub-base layer. The first material is a geotextile fabric selected from a group consisting of polypropylene and polyethylene, providing ground stabilization or reinforcement properties. The second material is a waterproof heat insulation material selected from a group consisting of cross-linked polyethylene foam and laminated aluminum foil, providing waterproofing or impermeability properties. The third material is a glass foamed insulation material.