Abstract: The main objective of the present paper is to derive an easy numerical technique for the analysis of the free vibration through the stepped regions of plates. Based on the utilities of the step by step integration initial values IV and Finite differences FD methods, the present improved Initial Value Finite Differences (IVFD) technique is achieved. The first initial conditions are formulated in convenient forms for the step by step integrations while the upper and lower edge conditions are expressed in finite difference modes. Also compatibility conditions are created due to the sudden variation of plate thickness. The present method (IVFD) is applied to solve the fourth order partial differential equation of motion for stepped plate across two different panels under the sudden step compatibility in addition to different types of end conditions. The obtained results are examined and the validity of the present method is proved showing excellent efficiency and rapid convergence.
Abstract: Design Patterns have gained more and more
acceptances since their emerging in software development world last
decade and become another de facto standard of essential knowledge
for Object-Oriented Programming developers nowadays.
Their target usage, from the beginning, was for regular computers,
so, minimizing power consumption had never been a concern.
However, in this decade, demands of more complicated software for
running on mobile devices has grown rapidly as the much higher
performance portable gadgets have been supplied to the market
continuously. To get along with time to market that is business
reason, the section of software development for power conscious,
battery, devices has shifted itself from using specific low-level
languages to higher level ones. Currently, complicated software
running on mobile devices are often developed by high level
languages those support OOP concepts. These cause the trend of
embracing Design Patterns to mobile world.
However, using Design Patterns directly in software development
for power conscious systems is not recommended because they were
not originally designed for such environment. This paper
demonstrates the adapted Design Pattern for power limitation system.
Because there are numerous original design patterns, it is not possible
to mention the whole at once. So, this paper focuses only in creating
Energy Conscious version of existing regular "Builder Pattern" to be
appropriated for developing low power consumption software.
Abstract: The objective of the paper was to understand the use
of an important element of design, namely color in a Semiotic
system. Semiotics is the study of signs and sign processes, it is often
divided into three branches namely (i) Semantics that deals with the
relation between signs and the things to which they refer to mean, (ii)
Syntactics which addresses the relations among signs in formal
structures and (iii) Pragmatics that relates between signs and its
effects on they have on the people who use them to create a plan for
an object or a system referred to as design. Cubism with its versatility
was the key design tool prevalent across the 20th century. In order to
analyze the user's understanding of interaction and appreciation of
color through the movement of Cubism, an exercise was undertaken
in Dept. of Design, IIT Guwahati. This included tasks to design a
composition using color and sign process to the theme 'Between the
Lines' on a given tessellation where the users relate their work to the
world they live in, which in this case was the college campus of IIT
Guwahati. The findings demonstrate impact of the key design
element color on the principles of visual perception based on image
analysis of specific compositions.
Abstract: Competing risks survival data that comprises of more
than one type of event has been used in many applications, and one
of these is in clinical study (e.g. in breast cancer study). The
decision tree method can be extended to competing risks survival
data by modifying the split function so as to accommodate two or
more risks which might be dependent on each other. Recently,
researchers have constructed some decision trees for recurrent
survival time data using frailty and marginal modelling. We further
extended the method for the case of competing risks. In this paper,
we developed the decision tree method for competing risks survival
time data based on proportional hazards for subdistribution of
competing risks. In particular, we grow a tree by using deviance
statistic. The application of breast cancer data is presented. Finally,
to investigate the performance of the proposed method, simulation
studies on identification of true group of observations were executed.
Abstract: In this study, a fuzzy similarity approach for Arabic web pages classification is presented. The approach uses a fuzzy term-category relation by manipulating membership degree for the training data and the degree value for a test web page. Six measures are used and compared in this study. These measures include: Einstein, Algebraic, Hamacher, MinMax, Special case fuzzy and Bounded Difference approaches. These measures are applied and compared using 50 different Arabic web-pages. Einstein measure was gave best performance among the other measures. An analysis of these measures and concluding remarks are drawn in this study.
Abstract: This work attempts to improve the permselectivity of poly-ortho-phenylenediamine (PPD) coating for glutamate biosensor applications on Pt microelectrode, using constant potential amperometry and cyclic voltammetry. Percentage permeability of the modified PPD microelectrode was carried out towards hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and ascorbic acid (AA) whereas permselectivity represents the percentage interference by AA in H2O2 detection. The 50-μm diameter Pt disk microelectrode showed a good permeability value toward H2O2 (95%) and selectivity against AA (0.01%) compared to other sizes of electrode studied here. The electrode was further modified with glutamate oxidase (GluOx) that was immobilized and cross linked with glutaraldehyde (GA, 0.125%), resulting in Pt/PPD/GluOx-GA electrode design. The maximum current density Jmax and apparent Michaelis constant, KM, obtained on Pt/PPD/GluOx-GA electrodes were 48 μA cm-2 and 50 μM, respectively. The linear region slope (LRS) was 0.96 μA cm-2 mM-1. The detection limit (LOD) for glutamate was 3.0 ± 0.6 μM. This study shows a promising glutamate microbiosensor for brain glutamate detection.
Abstract: Recently, Denial of Service(DoS) attacks and Distributed DoS(DDoS) attacks which are stronger form of DoS attacks from plural hosts have become security threats on the Internet. It is important to identify the attack source and to block attack traffic as one of the measures against these attacks. In general, it is difficult to identify them because information about the attack source is falsified. Therefore a method of identifying the attack source by tracing the route of the attack traffic is necessary. A traceback method which uses traffic patterns, using changes in the number of packets over time as criteria for the attack traceback has been proposed. The traceback method using the traffic patterns can trace the attack by matching the shapes of input traffic patterns and the shape of output traffic pattern observed at a network branch point such as a router. The traffic pattern is a shapes of traffic and unfalsifiable information. The proposed trace methods proposed till date cannot obtain enough tracing accuracy, because they directly use traffic patterns which are influenced by non-attack traffics. In this paper, a new traffic pattern matching method using Independent Component Analysis(ICA) is proposed.
Abstract: This research assesses the value of the brand personality and its influence on consumer-s decision making, through relational variables, after receiving a text message ad. An empirical study, in which 380 participants have received an SMS ad, confirms that brand personality does actually influence the brand trust as well as the attachment and commitment. The levels of sensitivity and involvement have an impact on the brand personality and the related variables to it.
Abstract: In this paper the multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem with discounted cash flows is considered. Minimizing the makespan and maximization the net present value (NPV) are the two common objectives that have been investigated in the literature. We apply one evolutionary algorithm named multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) to find Pareto front solutions. We used standard sets of instances from the project scheduling problem library (PSPLIB). The results are computationally compared respect to different metrics taken from the literature on evolutionary multi-objective optimization.
Abstract: This paper presents unified theory for local (Savitzky-
Golay) and global polynomial smoothing. The algebraic framework
can represent any polynomial approximation and is seamless from
low degree local, to high degree global approximations. The representation
of the smoothing operator as a projection onto orthonormal
basis functions enables the computation of: the covariance matrix
for noise propagation through the filter; the noise gain and; the
frequency response of the polynomial filters. A virtually perfect Gram
polynomial basis is synthesized, whereby polynomials of degree
d = 1000 can be synthesized without significant errors. The perfect
basis ensures that the filters are strictly polynomial preserving. Given
n points and a support length ls = 2m + 1 then the smoothing
operator is strictly linear phase for the points xi, i = m+1. . . n-m.
The method is demonstrated on geometric surfaces data lying on an
invariant 2D lattice.
Abstract: power-line networks are promise infrastructure for
broadband services provision to end users. However, the network
performance is affected by stochastic channel changing which is due
to load impedances, number of branches and branched line lengths. It
has been proposed that multi-carrier modulations techniques such as
orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), Multi-Carrier
Spread Spectrum (MC-SS), wavelet OFDM can be used in such
environment. This paper investigates the performance of different
indoor topologies of power-line networks that uses MC-SS
modulation scheme.It is observed that when a branch is added in the
link between sending and receiving end of an indoor channel an
average of 2.5dB power loss is found. In additional, when the branch
is added at a node an average of 1dB power loss is found.
Additionally when the terminal impedances of the branch change
from line characteristic impedance to impedance either higher or
lower values the channel performances were tremendously improved.
For example changing terminal load from characteristic impedance
(85 .) to 5 . the signal to noise ratio (SNR) required to attain the
same performances were decreased from 37dB to 24dB respectively.
Also, changing the terminal load from channel characteristic
impedance (85 .) to very higher impedance (1600 .) the SNR
required to maintain the same performances were decreased from
37dB to 23dB. The result concludes that MC-SS performs better
compared with OFDM techniques in all aspects and especially when
the channel is terminated in either higher or lower impedances.
Abstract: The gel-supported precipitation (GSP) process can be
used to make spherical particles (spherules) of nuclear fuel,
particularly for very high temperature reactors (VHTR) and even for
implementing the process called SPHEREPAC. In these different
cases, the main characteristics are the sphericity of the particles to be
manufactured and the control over their grain size. Nonetheless,
depending on the specifications defined for these spherical particles,
the GSP process has intrinsic limits, particularly when fabricating
very small particles. This paper describes the use of secondary
fragmentation (water, water/PVA and uranyl nitrate) on solid
surfaces under varying temperature and vibration conditions to assess
the relevance of using this new technique to manufacture very small
spherical particles by means of a modified GSP process. The
fragmentation mechanisms are monitored and analysed, before the
trends for its subsequent optimised application are described.
Abstract: The survival of publicly listed companies largely
depends on their stocks being liquidly traded. This goal can be
achieved when new investors are attracted to invest on companies-
stocks. Among different groups of investors, individual investors are
generally less able to objectively evaluate companies- risks and
returns, and tend to be emotionally biased in their investing
decisions. Therefore their decisions may be formed as a result of
perceived risks and returns, and influenced by companies- images.
This study finds that perceived risk, perceived returns and trust
directly affect individual investors- trading decisions while attitude
towards brand partially mediates the relationships. This finding
suggests that, in courting individual investors, companies still need to
perform financially while building a good image can result in their
stocks being accepted quicker than the stocks of good performing
companies with hidden images.
Abstract: The whole-cell protein-profiling technique was
evaluated for studying differences in banding pattern of three
different species of Cyanobacteria i.e. Anabaena fertilissima,
Aulosira fertilissima and Westiellopsis prolifica under the influence
of four different pesticides-2,4-D (Ethyl Ester of 2,4-Dichloro
Phenoxy Acetic Acid), Pencycuron (N-[(4-chlorophenyl)methyl]-Ncyclopentyl-
N'–phenylurea), Endosulfan (6,7,8,9,10,10hexachloro-
1,5,5a,6,9,9a-hexahydro-6,9-methano-2,4,3-benzodioxathiepine-3-
oxide) and Tebuconazole (1-(4-Chlorophenyl)-4,4-dimethyl-3-(1,2,4-
triazol-1-ylmethyl)pentan-3-ol). Whole-cell extracts were obtained by
sonication treatment (Sonifier cell disruptor -Branson Digital Sonifier
S-450D, USA) and were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). SDS-PAGE
analyses of the total protein profile of Anabaena fertilissima,
Aulosira fertilissima and Westiellopsis prolifica showed a linear
decrease in the protein content with increasing pesticide stress when
administered to different concentrations of 2, 4-D, Pencycuron,
Endosulfan and Tebuconazole. The results indicate that different
stressors exert specific effects on cyanobacterial protein synthesis.
Abstract: The theory of Groebner Bases, which has recently been
honored with the ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award,
has become a crucial building block to computer algebra, and is
widely used in science, engineering, and computer science. It is wellknown
that Groebner bases computation is EXP-SPACE in a general
polynomial ring setting.
However, for many important applications in computer science
such as satisfiability and automated verification of hardware and
software, computations are performed in a Boolean ring. In this paper,
we give an algorithm to show that Groebner bases computation is PSPACE
in Boolean rings. We also show that with this discovery,
the Groebner bases method can theoretically be as efficient as
other methods for automated verification of hardware and software.
Additionally, many useful and interesting properties of Groebner
bases including the ability to efficiently convert the bases for different
orders of variables making Groebner bases a promising method in
automated verification.
Abstract: Sinc-collocation scheme is one of the new techniques
used in solving numerical problems involving integral equations. This
method has been shown to be a powerful numerical tool for finding
fast and accurate solutions. So, in this paper, some properties of the
Sinc-collocation method required for our subsequent development
are given and are utilized to reduce integral equation of the first
kind to some algebraic equations. Then convergence with exponential
rate is proved by a theorem to guarantee applicability of numerical
technique. Finally, numerical examples are included to demonstrate
the validity and applicability of the technique.
Abstract: In this paper, the effect of transmission codes on the
performance of coherent square M-ary quadrature amplitude
modulation (CSMQAM) under hybrid selection/maximal-ratio
combining (H-S/MRC) diversity is analysed. The fading channels are
modeled as frequency non-selective slow independent and identically
distributed Rayleigh fading channels corrupted by additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN). The results for coded MQAM are
computed numerically for the case of (24,12) extended Golay code
and compared with uncoded MQAM under H-S/MRC diversity by
plotting error probabilities versus average signal to noise ratio (SNR)
for various values L and N in order to examine the improvement in
the performance of the digital communications system as the number
of selected diversity branches is increased. The results for no
diversity, conventional SC and Lth order MRC schemes are also
plotted for comparison. Closed form analytical results derived in this
paper are sufficiently simple and therefore can be computed
numerically without any approximations. The analytical results
presented in this paper are expected to provide useful information
needed for design and analysis of digital communication systems
over wireless fading channels.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to examine the dynamics of functional composition of a non flooded Amazonian forest in response to drought stress in terms of diameter growth, recruitment and mortality. The survey was carried out in the continuous forest of the Biological dynamics of forest fragments project 90 km outside the city of Manaus, state of Amazonas Brazil. All stems >10 cm dbh where identified to species level and monitored in 18 one hectare permanent sample plots from 1981 to 2004.For statistical analysis all species where aggregated in three ecological guilds. Two distinct drought events occurred in 1983 and 1997. Results showed that more early successional species performed better than later successional ones. Response was significant for both events but for the 1997 event this was more pronounced possibly because of the fact that the event was in the middle of the dry rather than the wet period as was the 1983 one.
Abstract: In this paper, an analytical approach is used to study the coupled lateral-torsional vibrations of laminated composite beam. It is known that in such structures due to the fibers orientation in various layers, any lateral displacement will produce a twisting moment. This phenomenon is modeled by the bending-twisting material coupling rigidity and its main feature is the coupling of lateral and torsional vibrations. In addition to the material coupling, the effects of shear deformation and rotary inertia are taken into account in the definition of the potential and kinetic energies. Then, the governing differential equations are derived using the Hamilton-s principle and the mathematical model matches the Timoshenko beam model when neglecting the effect of bending-twisting rigidity. The equations of motion which form a system of three coupled PDEs are solved analytically to study the free vibrations of the beam in lateral and rotational modes due to the bending, as well as the torsional mode caused by twisting. The analytic solution is carried out in three steps: 1) assuming synchronous motion for the kinematic variables which are the lateral, rotational and torsional displacements, 2) solving the ensuing eigenvalue problem which contains three coupled second order ODEs and 3) imposing different boundary conditions related to combinations of simply, clamped and free end conditions. The resulting natural frequencies and mode shapes are compared with similar results in the literature and good agreement is achieved.
Abstract: Human genome is not only the evolutionary
summation of all advantageous events, but also houses lesions of
deleterious foot prints. A single gene mutation sometimes may
express multiple consequences in numerous tissues and a linear
relationship of the genotype and the phenotype may often be obscure.
ß Thalassemia minor, a transfusion independent mild anaemia,
coupled with environment among other factors may articulate into
phenotypic pleotropy with Hypocholesterolemia, Vitamin D
deficiency, Tissue hypoxia, Hyper-parathyroidism and Psychological
alterations. Occurrence of Pancreatic insufficiency, resultant
steatorrhoea, Vitamin-D (25-OH) deficiency (13.86 ngm/ml) with
Hypocholesterolemia (85mg/dl) in a 30 years old male ß Thal-minor
patient (Hemoglobin 11mg/dl with Fetal Hemoglobin 2.10%, Hb A2
4.60% and Hb Adult 84.80% and altered Hemogram) with increased
Para thyroid hormone (62 pg/ml) & moderate Serum Ca+2
(9.5mg/ml) indicate towards a cascade of phenotypic pleotropy
where the ß Thalassemia mutation ,be it in the 5’ cap site of the
mRNA , differential splicing etc in heterozygous state is effecting
several metabolic pathways. Compensatory extramedulary
hematopoiesis may not coped up well with the stressful life style of
the young individual and increased erythropoietic stress with high
demand for cholesterol for RBC membrane synthesis may have
resulted in Hypocholesterolemia.Oxidative stress and tissue hypoxia
may have caused the pancreatic insufficiency, leading to Vitamin D
deficiency. This may in turn have caused the secondary
hyperparathyroidism to sustain serum Calcium level. Irritability and
stress intolerance of the patient was a cumulative effect of the vicious
cycle of metabolic compromises. From these findings we propose
that the metabolic deficiencies in the ß Thalassemia mutations may
be considered as the phenotypic display of the pleotropy to explain
the genetic epidemiology.
According to the recommendations from the NIH Workshop on
Gene-Environment Interplay in Common Complex Diseases: Forging
an Integrative Model, study design of observations should be
informed by gene-environment hypotheses and results of a study
(genetic diseases) should be published to inform future hypotheses.
Variety of approaches is needed to capture data on all possible
aspects, each of which is likely to contribute to the etiology of
disease. Speakers also agreed that there is a need for development of
new statistical methods and measurement tools to appraise
information that may be missed out by conventional method where
large sample size is needed to segregate considerable effect.
A meta analytic cohort study in future may bring about significant
insight on to the title comment.