Browsing by Author "Kaur, A"

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Comparative Analysis of Salt and Pepper Removal Techniques for Binary Images
(Springer, 2020) Rani, U; Kaur, A; Josan, G.
Binarization is the most important step in the OCR system that converts the gray level or colored images into bi-level form. In the case of degraded images, results after binarization mostly contain noises. Salt and pepper noise of different sizes is the most prevalent noise in binary images. For the better results of OCR process, it is necessary to denoise image before proceeding to the next stage. This paper conducts experiments with different existing salt and pepper noise removal methods such as median filter-based techniques and kFill algorithm-based techniques for binary document images. The statistical measures, namely, PSNR, SSIM, and EPI are used to evaluate the performance. � 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
Effect of chickpea and spinach on extrusion behavior of corn grit
(Springer, 2019) Shevkani, Khetan; Singh, N; Rattan, B; Singh, J.P; Kaur, A; Singh, B.
The present work was carried out to see the effect of blending of corn grit (CG) with varying levels of chickpea grit (CP 0–100%) and spinach leaf powder (SP 0–6%) on the characteristics [color, expansion, density, hardness, water absorption index, total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activity (AOA; as DPPH and ABTS free radical scavenging activities)] and sensory properties of extrudates. CP and SP were rich in proteins and minerals (Cu, Fe, Zn, Mg, Ca, K and Na). Their blending significantly influenced the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of CG extrudates. TPC and AOA of extrudates increased with the increased incorporation of CP and SP, though specific mechanical energy and extrudate expansion, generally, decreased while density and hardness increased. Sensory analysis revealed that CP and SP at incorporation levels of 25% and 4%, respectively could be blended with CG for making highly acceptable antioxidant-rich expanded snack. © 2019, Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India).
Modified Sauvola binarization for degraded document images
(Elsevier, 2020) Kaur, A; Rani, U; Josan, G.S.
The binarization of historical documents is a difficult job due to the presence of many degradations. Many existing local binarization techniques use certain manually adjusted parameters. The output of these techniques is much dependent on the value of these parameters. One of such parameters is window size which is kept fixed for the whole text image. The fixed window size will not be able to perform well for images having variable stroke widths and text sizes. The proposed binarization technique (Modified Sauvola) is the modification of state of art Sauvola's binarization technique. It automatically computes window size dynamically across the image pixel to pixel using the stroke width transform (SWT). This led to reduction in number of manually adjusted parameters. The results are compared with the nine existing techniques using the quantitative measures: FM, PSNR, NRM, MPM, and DRD. The results show that the proposed method outperforms existing methods for images having variable stroke widths and text sizes. - 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Phenotypic variations alter the ecological impact of invasive alien species: Lessons from Parthenium hysterophorus
(Academic Press, 2019) Kaur, A; Kaur, S; Singh, H.P; Batish, D.R; Kohli, R.K.
Invasive plant species constantly adjust their behavior with ecological shifts by virtue of phenotypic plasticity and/or local adaptations. Changes in the phenotype of an invasive species may also trigger variations in its community level impacts, which is an acceptable, yet unexplored aspect of invasion biology. Our study attempts to fill important knowledge gaps on the basic behavior and ecological interactions of invasive species. Parthenium hysterophorus, a widely distributed invasive alien species of tropical and sub-tropical regions, was evaluated for variations in its morpho-functional traits and ecological performance at a common spatial and temporal scale. Field surveys were conducted in Chandigarh, India, in five sites identified as invaded with P. hysterophorus. Individuals of P. hysterophorus randomly sampled from these sites, showed from trait analyses that the population is differentiated into two morphotypes, P A and P B . Morphotype P B exhibits traits comparable to the shrub life-form in terms of woody stem (with higher stem circumference [+32.26%], stem specific density [+128.57%], twig dry matter content [+25.15%]); profuse branching (+46.38%); larger canopy (+91.16%); and better reproductive output (+190.29%) compared to P A. P A , on the other hand, reflected herbaceous characteristics with greater leaf area (+67.58%) and higher content of chlorophyll (+21.92%) compared to P B . Based on these morphotypes, the plots were divided into three invasion categories: areas invaded by P A [IP A ], areas invaded by P B [IP B ] and uninvaded areas [UI]. Ecological indices and soil chemical properties were compared across IP A , IP B and UI. Shannon's index (p < 0.001), evenness index (p = 0.008), and richness index (p < 0.001) were significantly lower in IP B compared to IP A . UI areas were found to have higher soil pH, phenolics, organic matter, and concentrations of N, P and K, compared to IP A and IP B , but lower Ca and Mg. Results suggest that phenotypic variations within population of P. hysterophorus regulate its ecological impact on associated vegetation. Conservation managers would benefit from studying its invasion patterns and identifying the morphotype with higher ecological impact to prioritize management efforts. Monitoring these behavioral and ecological patterns in P. hysterophorus over the long-term may also help in anticipating challenges to preventive measures. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Social responsibility, tourism and sustainable development
(New Century Publications, 2018) Kaur, A; Padmanabhan, Jubilee
India is a developing country and advancements are taking place rapidly in every area such as education, health, science & technology, agriculture, development etc. Tourism is one of the fields that is flourishing swiftly and contributing for the social and economic growth of the nation. As it is directly linked with the society and environment, social responsibility and sustainable development becomes more imperative issues to be concerned. There is a strong need to be aware of the effects of development in tourism on the population and environment. In recent years, there has been much focus on development of tourism, while taking into consideration such activities and standards that guarantee the conservation of ecological balance and avoid the overuse of resources. Codes of good practice in tourism must be respected and implemented by the persons who are involved in this field. Along with this, each and every person is indirectly related with or can play a significant role in promoting tourism in a more socially responsible and sustainable manner. This paper aims to highlight the perspectives of social responsibility and its principles in tourism, how to have tourism that supports sustainable development and various practices linking tourism with sustainable development.