Abstract: To distinguish small retinal hemorrhages in early
diabetic retinopathy from dust artifacts, we analyzed hue, lightness,
and saturation (HLS) color spaces. The fundus of 5 patients with
diabetic retinopathy was photographed. For the initial experiment, we
placed 4 different colored papers on the ceiling of a darkroom. Using
each color, 10 fragments of house dust particles on a magnifier were
photographed. The colored papers were removed, and 3 different
colored light bulbs were suspended from the ceiling. Ten fragments of
house dust particles on the camera-s object lens were photographed.
We then constructed an experimental device that can photograph
artificial eyes. Five fragments of house dust particles under the ocher
fundus of the artificial eye were photographed. On analyzing HLS
color space of the dust artifact, lightness and saturation were found to
be highly sensitive. However, hue was not highly sensitive.
Abstract: Tourism industry is an important sector in Malaysia economy and this motivates the examination of long-run relationships between tourist arrivals from three selected European countries in Malaysia and four possible determinants; relative prices, exchange rates, transportation cost and relative prices of substitute destination. The study utilizes data from January 1999 to September 2008 and employs standard econometric techniques that include unit root test and cointegration test. The estimated demand model indicates that depreciation of local currency and increases in prices at substitute destination have positive impact on tourist arrivals while increase in transportation cost has negative impact on tourist arrivals. In addition, the model suggests that higher rate of increase in local prices relative to prices at tourist country of origin may not deter tourists from coming to Malaysia
Abstract: Business Process Modeling (BPM) is the first and
most important step in business process management lifecycle. Graph
based formalism and rule based formalism are the two most
predominant formalisms on which process modeling languages are
developed. BPM technology continues to face challenges in coping
with dynamic business environments where requirements and goals
are constantly changing at the execution time. Graph based
formalisms incur problems to react to dynamic changes in Business
Process (BP) at the runtime instances. In this research, an adaptive
and flexible framework based on the integration between Object
Oriented diagramming technique and Petri Net modeling language is
proposed in order to support change management techniques for
BPM and increase the representation capability for Object Oriented
modeling for the dynamic changes in the runtime instances. The
proposed framework is applied in a higher education environment to
achieve flexible, updatable and dynamic BP.
Abstract: This paper focuses on a critical component of the situational awareness (SA), the neural control of depth flight of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Constant depth flight is a challenging but important task for AUVs to achieve high level of autonomy under adverse conditions. With the SA strategy, we proposed a multirate neural control of an AUV trajectory for a nontrivial mid-small size AUV “r2D4" stochastic model. This control system has been demonstrated and evaluated by simulation of diving maneuvers using software package Simulink. From the simulation results it can be seen that the chosen AUV model is stable in the presence of noises, and also can be concluded that the proposed research technique will be useful for fast SA of similar AUV systems in real-time search-and-rescue operations.
Abstract: In a lowland dipterocarp forest, we assessed the impact of canopy openness (CO) and the resultant changes under different logging systems using hemispherical photography. CO was assessed in a primary forest and two forests logged selectively using reduced impact logging. At one site, 3-m-wide strip cutting was conducted for line planting. From the comparison of CO among the three sites, we found significant changes caused by logging. However, no significant difference was observed between the two logged sites. Strip cutting treatment did not affect CO. One year after, significant canopy closure occurred in both of the logged sites. Canopy closure was significant regardless of the disturbance element, logging gap, skid trail, or strip cutting line. Significant establishment of seedlings within a year was observed in the strip cutting line. Seedling establishment seemed to contribute to rapid canopy closure and prospected to affect to the survival and growth of planted trees.
Abstract: Wavelet neural networks (WNNs) have emerged as a vital alternative to the vastly studied multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) since its first implementation. In this paper, we applied various clustering algorithms, namely, K-means (KM), Fuzzy C-means (FCM), symmetry-based K-means (SBKM), symmetry-based Fuzzy C-means (SBFCM) and modified point symmetry-based K-means (MPKM) clustering algorithms in choosing the translation parameter of a WNN. These modified WNNs are further applied to the heterogeneous cancer classification using benchmark microarray data and were compared against the conventional WNN with random initialization method. Experimental results showed that a WNN classifier with the MPKM algorithm is more precise than the conventional WNN as well as the WNNs with other clustering algorithms.
Abstract: In the present work, we introduce the particle swarm optimization called (PSO in short) to avoid the Runge-s phenomenon occurring in many numerical problems. This new approach is tested with some numerical examples including the generalized integral quadrature method in order to solve the Volterra-s integral equations
Abstract: The Euler-s equation of motion is extended to include
the viscosity stress tensor leading to the formulation of Navier–
Stokes type equation. The latter is linearized and applied to
investigate the rotational motion or vorticity in a viscous fluid.
Relations for the velocity of viscous waves and attenuation parameter
are obtained in terms of viscosity (μ) and the density (¤ü) of the fluid.
μ and ¤ü are measured experimentally as a function of temperature for
two different samples of light and heavy crude oil. These data
facilitated to determine the activation energy, velocity of viscous
wave and the attenuation parameter. Shear wave velocity in heavy oil
is found to be much larger than the light oil, whereas the attenuation
parameter in heavy oil is quite low in comparison to light one. The
activation energy of heavy oil is three times larger than light oil.
Abstract: The analytical solutions for geodesic acoustic
eigenmodes in tokamak plasmas with circular concentric magnetic
surfaces are found. In the frame of ideal magnetohydrodynamics the
dispersion relation taking into account the toroidal coupling between
electrostatic perturbations and electromagnetic perturbations with
poloidal mode number |m| = 2 is derived. In the absence of such
a coupling the dispersion relation gives the standard continuous
spectrum of geodesic acoustic modes. The analysis of the existence
of global eigenmodes for plasma equilibria with both off-axis
and on-axis maximum of the local geodesic acoustic frequency is
performed.
Abstract: In this paper, we present parallel alternating two-stage
methods for solving linear system Ax=b, where A is a symmetric
positive definite matrix. And we give some convergence results of
these methods for nonsingular linear system.
Abstract: Peer review is an activity where students review their
classmates- writing and then evaluate the content, development, unity
and organization. Studies have shown that peer review activities
benefit both the reviewer and the writer in developing their reading
and writing skills. Furthermore, peer review activities may also
enhance students- soft skills. This study was conducted to find out the
benefits of peer review activity in a technical writing class based on
engineering students- perceptions. The study also highlights how
these benefits could improve the students- soft skills. A set of
questionnaire was given to 200 undergraduate students of a technical
writing course. The results of the study indicate that the activity could
help improve their critical thinking skills, written and oral
communication skills, as well as team work. This paper further
discusses how the implications of these benefits could help enhance
students- soft skills.
Abstract: Smart Grids employ wireless sensor networks for
their control and monitoring. Sensors are characterized by limitations
in the processing power, energy supply and memory spaces, which
require a particular attention on the design of routing and data
management algorithms.
Since most routing algorithms for sensor networks, focus on
finding energy efficient paths to prolong the lifetime of sensor
networks, the power of sensors on efficient paths depletes quickly,
and consequently sensor networks become incapable of monitoring
events from some parts of their target areas. In consequence, the
design of routing protocols should consider not only energy
efficiency paths, but also energy efficient algorithms in general.
In this paper we propose an energy efficient routing protocol for
wireless sensor networks without the support of any location
information system. The reliability and the efficiency of this protocol
have been demonstrated by simulation studies where we compare
them to the legacy protocols. Our simulation results show that these
algorithms scale well with network size and density.
Abstract: In elevating performance in competetive sports, an
athlete must continously train in achieving maximum
performance,but needs to pay attention to recovery therapy, that is to
recover from fatigue as well as injury.The correct recovery therapy
will assist in process of recovery and helps in the training in
achieving better performace. Binahong (Anredera cordifolia) was
proven empirically by the locals in assisting speedy recovery from an
injury.Clinical research with lab animals receiving blunt trauma
injury, microscopically shown signs of: 1) redness, 2) heatiness, 3)
swelling and, 4) lack of activity. There is also microscopic indication
of: 1) infiltration of inflame cells (migration of cells to the trauma
area), 2) Cells necrosis, 3) Congestion (as a result of dead red blood
cells), 4) uedema. On administration of Binahong for 3 days, there is
a significant drop of 5% in cell inflammation, 2% increase of
fibroblast (cell membrance) count.Conclutin: Binahong do assist in
reducing cell inflammation and increase counts of cells fibroblast.
Suggestion: In helping athlete's to recover from force injury, we need
study about Binahong's roots to inflammation cell and healing of
injuried cell.
Abstract: In this paper, the semi–ratio–dependent predator-prey system with nonmonotonic functional response on time scales is investigated. By using the coincidence degree theory, sufficient conditions for existence of periodic solutions are obtained.
Abstract: This paper establishes some closed formulas for
Riemann- Liouville impulsive fractional integral calculus and also
for Riemann- Liouville and Caputo impulsive fractional
derivatives.
Abstract: In order to derive important parameters concerning
mobile subscriber MS with ongoing calls in Low Earth Orbit Mobile
Satellite Systems LEO MSSs, a positioning system had to be
integrated into MSS in order to localize mobile subscribers MSs and
track them during the connection. Such integration is regarded as a
complex implementation.
We propose in this paper a novel method based on advantages of
mobility model of Low Earth Orbit Mobile Satellite System LEO
MSS called Evaluation Parameters Method EPM which allows for
such systems the evaluation of different information concerning a
MS with a call in progress even if its location is unknown.
Abstract: Understanding the cell's large-scale organization is an interesting task in computational biology. Thus, protein-protein interactions can reveal important organization and function of the cell. Here, we investigated the correspondence between protein interactions and function for the yeast. We obtained the correlations among the set of proteins. Then these correlations are clustered using both the hierarchical and biclustering methods. The detailed analyses of proteins in each cluster were carried out by making use of their functional annotations. As a result, we found that some functional classes appear together in almost all biclusters. On the other hand, in hierarchical clustering, the dominancy of one functional class is observed. In the light of the clustering data, we have verified some interactions which were not identified as core interactions in DIP and also, we have characterized some functionally unknown proteins according to the interaction data and functional correlation. In brief, from interaction data to function, some correlated results are noticed about the relationship between interaction and function which might give clues about the organization of the proteins, also to predict new interactions and to characterize functions of unknown proteins.
Abstract: Here are many methods for designing and
implementation of virtual laboratories, because of their special
features. The most famous architectural designs are based on
the events. This model of architecting is so efficient for virtual
laboratories implemented on a local network. Later, serviceoriented
architecture, gave the remote access ability to them
and Peer-To-Peer architecture, hired to exchanging data with
higher quality and more speed. Other methods, such as Agent-
Based architecting, are trying to solve the problems of
distributed processing in a complicated laboratory system.
This study, at first, reviews the general principles of
designing a virtual laboratory, and then compares the different
methods based on EDA, SOA and Agent-Based architecting
to present weaknesses and strengths of each method. At the
end, we make the best choice for design, based on existing
conditions and requirements.
Abstract: The process parameters, temperature, pH and
substrate concentration, were optimized for the production of
gentamicin using Micromonouspora echinospora. Experiments were
carried out according to central composite design in response surface
method. The optimum conditions for the maximum production of
gentamicin were found to be: temperature – 31.7oC, pH – 6.8 and
substrate concentration – 3%. At these optimized conditions the
production of gentamicin was found to be – 1040 mg/L. The R2 value
of 0.9465 indicates a good fitness of the model.
Abstract: This paper reports a new approach on identifying the
individuality of persons by using parametric classification of multiple
mental thoughts. In the approach, electroencephalogram (EEG)
signals were recorded when the subjects were thinking of one or
more (up to five) mental thoughts. Autoregressive features were
computed from these EEG signals and classified by Linear
Discriminant classifier. The results here indicate that near perfect
identification of 400 test EEG patterns from four subjects was
possible, thereby opening up a new avenue in biometrics.