Abstract: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a severe
cardiovascular disorder characterized by progressive systolic
dysfunction due to cardiac chamber dilatation and inefficient
myocardial contractility often leading to chronic heart failure.
Recently, a genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on DCM
indicate that the ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 single nucleotide
polymorphism is associated with DCM. The aim of the study was to
identify the distribution of ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 polymorphism
in 50 Slovak patients with DCM and 80 healthy control subjects
using the Custom Taqman®SNP Genotyping assays. Risk factors
detected at baseline in each group included age, sex, body mass
index, smoking status, diabetes and blood pressure. The mean age of
patients with DCM was 52.9±6.3 years; the mean age of individuals
in control group was 50.3±8.9 years. The distribution of investigated
genotypes of rs10927875 polymorphism within ZBTB17 gene in the
cohort of Slovak patients with DCM was as follows: CC (38.8%), CT
(55.1%), TT (6.1%), in controls: CC (43.8%), CT (51.2%), TT
(5.0%). The risk allele T was more common among the patients with
dilated cardiomyopathy than in normal controls (33.7% versus
30.6%). The differences in genotype or allele frequencies of ZBTB17
gene rs10927875 polymorphism were not statistically significant
(p=0.6908; p=0.6098). The results of this study suggest that ZBTB17
gene rs10927875 polymorphism may be a risk factor for
susceptibility to DCM in Slovak patients with DCM. Studies of
numerous files and additional functional investigations are needed to
fully understand the roles of genetic associations.
Abstract: This paper analyses the non linear properties
exhibited by a drill string system under various un balanced mass
conditions. The drill string is affected by continuous friction in the
form of drill bit and well bore hole interactions. This paper proves
the origin of limit cycling and increase of non linearity with increase
in speed of the drilling in the presence of friction. The spectrum of
the frequency response is also studied to detect the presence of
vibration abnormalities arising during the drilling process.
Abstract: Due to some reasons, observed images are degraded which are mainly caused by noise. Recently image denoising using the wavelet transform has been attracting much attention. Waveletbased approach provides a particularly useful method for image denoising when the preservation of edges in the scene is of importance because the local adaptivity is based explicitly on the values of the wavelet detail coefficients. In this paper, we propose several methods of noise removal from degraded images with Gaussian noise by using adaptive wavelet threshold (Bayes Shrink, Modified Bayes Shrink and Normal Shrink). The proposed thresholds are simple and adaptive to each subband because the parameters required for estimating the threshold depend on subband data. Experimental results show that the proposed thresholds remove noise significantly and preserve the edges in the scene.
Abstract: Many water supply systems in Australia are currently
undergoing significant reconfiguration due to reductions in long term
average rainfall and resulting low inflows to water supply reservoirs
since the second half of the 20th century. When water supply systems
undergo change, it is necessary to develop new operating rules,
which should consider climate, because the climate change is likely
to further reduce inflows. In addition, water resource systems are
increasingly intended to be operated to meet complex and multiple
objectives representing social, economic, environmental and
sustainability criteria. This is further complicated by conflicting
preferences on these objectives from diverse stakeholders. This paper
describes a methodology to develop optimum operating rules for
complex multi-reservoir systems undergoing significant change,
considering all of the above issues. The methodology is demonstrated
using the Grampians water supply system in northwest Victoria,
Australia. Initial work conducted on the project is also presented in
this paper.
Abstract: Recently, Northeast Asia has become one of the three
largest trade areas, covering approximately 30% of the total trade
volume of the world. However, the distribution facilities are saturated
due to the increase in the transportation volume within the area and
with the European countries. In order to accommodate the increase of
the transportation volume, the transportation networking with the
major countries in Northeast Asia and Europe is absolutely necessary.
The Eurasian Logistics Network will develop into an international
passenger transportation network covering the Northeast Asian region
and an international freight transportation network connecting across
Eurasia Continent. This paper surveys the changes and trend of the
distribution network in the Eurasian Region according to the political,
economic and environmental changes of the region, analyses the
distribution network according to the changes in the transportation
policies of the related countries, and provides the direction of the
development of composite transportation on the basis of the present
conditions of transportation means. The transportation means optimal
for the efficiency of transportation system are suggested to be train
ferries, sea & rail or sea & rail & sea. It is suggested to develop
diversified composite transportation means and routes within the
boundary of international cooperation system.
Abstract: This paper proposes an architecture of dynamically
reconfigurable arithmetic circuit. Dynamic reconfiguration is a
technique to realize required functions by changing hardware
construction during operations. The proposed circuit is based on a
complex number multiply-accumulation circuit which is used
frequently in the field of digital signal processing. In addition, the
proposed circuit performs real number double precision arithmetic
operations. The data formats are single and double precision floating
point number based on IEEE754. The proposed circuit is designed
using VHDL, and verified the correct operation by simulations and
experiments.
Abstract: This work concerns the evolution and the maintenance
of an ontological resource in relation with the evolution of the corpus
of texts from which it had been built.
The knowledge forming a text corpus, especially in dynamic domains,
is in continuous evolution. When a change in the corpus occurs, the
domain ontology must evolve accordingly. Most methods manage
ontology evolution independently from the corpus from which it is
built; in addition, they treat evolution just as a process of knowledge
addition, not considering other knowledge changes. We propose a
methodology for managing an evolving ontology from a text corpus
that evolves over time, while preserving the consistency and the
persistence of this ontology.
Our methodology is based on the changes made on the corpus to
reflect the evolution of the considered domain - augmented surgery
in our case. In this context, the results of text mining techniques,
as well as the ARCHONTE method slightly modified, are used to
support the evolution process.
Abstract: This article presents the results of a study conducted to identify operational risks for information systems (IS) with service-oriented architecture (SOA). Analysis of current approaches to risk and system error classifications revealed that the system error classes were never used for SOA risk estimation. Additionally system error classes are not normallyexperimentally supported with realenterprise error data. Through the study several categories of various existing error classifications systems are applied and three new error categories with sub-categories are identified. As a part of operational risks a new error classification scheme is proposed for SOA applications. It is based on errors of real information systems which are service providers for application with service-oriented architecture. The proposed classification approach has been used to classify SOA system errors for two different enterprises (oil and gas industry, metal and mining industry). In addition we have conducted a research to identify possible losses from operational risks.
Abstract: The double exponential model (DEM), or Laplace
distribution, is used in various disciplines. However, there are issues
related to the construction of confidence intervals (CI), when using
the distribution.In this paper, the properties of DEM are considered
with intention of constructing CI based on simulated data. The
analysis of pivotal equations for the models here in comparisons with
pivotal equations for normal distribution are performed, and the
results obtained from simulation data are presented.
Abstract: A mobile ad hoc network is a network of mobile nodes
without any notion of centralized administration. In such a network,
each mobile node behaves not only as a host which runs applications
but also as a router to forward packets on behalf of others. Clustering
has been applied to routing protocols to achieve efficient
communications. A CH network expresses the connected relationship
among cluster-heads. This paper discusses the methods for
constructing a CH network, and produces the following results: (1)
The required running costs of 3 traditional methods for constructing a
CH network are not so different from each other in the static
circumstance, or in the dynamic circumstance. Their running costs in
the static circumstance do not differ from their costs in the dynamic
circumstance. Meanwhile, although the routing costs required for the
above 3 methods are not so different in the static circumstance, the
costs are considerably different from each other in the dynamic
circumstance. Their routing costs in the static circumstance are also
very different from their costs in the dynamic circumstance, and the
former is one tenths of the latter. The routing cost in the dynamic
circumstance is mostly the cost for re-routing. (2) On the strength of
the above results, we discuss new 2 methods regarding whether they
are tolerable or not in the dynamic circumstance, that is, whether the
times of re-routing are small or not. These new methods are revised
methods that are based on the traditional methods. We recommended
the method which produces the smallest routing cost in the dynamic
circumstance, therefore producing the smallest total cost.
Abstract: In this paper, a three dimensional autonomous chaotic system is considered. The existence of Hopf bifurcation is investigated by choosing the appropriate bifurcation parameter. Furthermore, formulas for determining the direction of the Hopf bifurcation and the stability of bifurcating periodic solutions are derived with the help of normal form theory. Finally, a numerical example is given.
Abstract: We present a discussion of three adaptive filtering
algorithms well known for their one-step termination property, in
terms of their relationship with the minimal residual method. These
algorithms are the normalized least mean square (NLMS), Affine
Projection algorithm (APA) and the recursive least squares algorithm
(RLS). The NLMS is shown to be a result of the orthogonality
condition imposed on the instantaneous approximation of the Wiener
equation, while APA and RLS algorithm result from orthogonality
condition in multi-dimensional minimal residual formulation. Further
analysis of the minimal residual formulation for the RLS leads to
a triangular system which also possesses the one-step termination
property (in exact arithmetic)
Abstract: Since 1991 Ethiopia has officially adopted multi-party democracy. At present, there are 89 registered political parties in the country. Though political parties play an important role in the functioning of a democratic government, how to fund them is an issue of major concern. Political parties and individual candidates running for political office have to raise funds for election campaigns, and to survive as political candidates. The aim of this paper is to examine party funding problems in Africa by taking the case of Ethiopia as an example. The paper also evaluates the motives of local and international donors in giving financial and material support to political parties in emerging democracies and assesses the merits and de-merits of their donations.
Abstract: A kind of singularly perturbed boundary value problems is under consideration. In order to obtain its approximation, simple upwind difference discretization is applied. We use a moving mesh iterative algorithm based on equi-distributing of the arc-length function of the current computed piecewise linear solution. First, a maximum norm a posteriori error estimate on an arbitrary mesh is derived using a different method from the one carried out by Chen [Advances in Computational Mathematics, 24(1-4) (2006), 197-212.]. Then, basing on the properties of discrete Green-s function and the presented posteriori error estimate, we theoretically prove that the discrete solutions computed by the algorithm are first-order uniformly convergent with respect to the perturbation parameter ε.
Abstract: High Strength Concrete (HSC) is defined as concrete
that meets special combination of performance and uniformity
requirements that cannot be achieved routinely using conventional
constituents and normal mixing, placing, and curing procedures. It is
a highly complex material, which makes modeling its behavior a very
difficult task. This paper aimed to show possible applicability of
Neural Networks (NN) to predict the slump in High Strength
Concrete (HSC). Neural Network models is constructed, trained and
tested using the available test data of 349 different concrete mix
designs of High Strength Concrete (HSC) gathered from a particular
Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) batching plant. The most versatile
Neural Network model is selected to predict the slump in concrete.
The data used in the Neural Network models are arranged in a format
of eight input parameters that cover the Cement, Fly Ash, Sand,
Coarse Aggregate (10 mm), Coarse Aggregate (20 mm), Water,
Super-Plasticizer and Water/Binder ratio. Furthermore, to test the
accuracy for predicting slump in concrete, the final selected model is
further used to test the data of 40 different concrete mix designs of
High Strength Concrete (HSC) taken from the other batching plant.
The results are compared on the basis of error function (or
performance function).
Abstract: Detection of human emotions has many potential applications. One of application is to quantify attentiveness audience in order evaluate acoustic quality in concern hall. The subjective audio preference that based on from audience is used. To obtain fairness evaluation of acoustic quality, the research proposed system for multimodal emotion detection; one modality based on brain signals that measured using electroencephalogram (EEG) and the second modality is sequences of facial images. In the experiment, an audio signal was customized which consist of normal and disorder sounds. Furthermore, an audio signal was played in order to stimulate positive/negative emotion feedback of volunteers. EEG signal from temporal lobes, i.e. T3 and T4 was used to measured brain response and sequence of facial image was used to monitoring facial expression during volunteer hearing audio signal. On EEG signal, feature was extracted from change information in brain wave, particularly in alpha and beta wave. Feature of facial expression was extracted based on analysis of motion images. We implement an advance optical flow method to detect the most active facial muscle form normal to other emotion expression that represented in vector flow maps. The reduce problem on detection of emotion state, vector flow maps are transformed into compass mapping that represents major directions and velocities of facial movement. The results showed that the power of beta wave is increasing when disorder sound stimulation was given, however for each volunteer was giving different emotion feedback. Based on features derived from facial face images, an optical flow compass mapping was promising to use as additional information to make decision about emotion feedback.
Abstract: With the advancement of wireless sensor network technology,
its practical utilization is becoming an important challange.
This paper overviews my past environmental monitoring project,
and discusses the process of starting the monitoring by classifying
it into four steps. The steps to start environmental monitoring can
be complicated, but not well discussed by researchers of wireless
sensor network technology. This paper demonstrates our activity and
challenges in each of the four steps to ease the process, and argues
future challenges to enable quick start of environmental monitoring.
Abstract: Tasks of an application program of an embedded system are managed by the scheduler of a real-time operating system
(RTOS). Most RTOSs adopt just fixed priority scheduling, which is not optimal in all cases. Some applications require earliest deadline
first (EDF) scheduling, which is an optimal scheduling algorithm.
In order to develop an efficient real-time embedded system, the
scheduling algorithm of the RTOS should be selectable. The paper presents a method to customize the scheduler using aspectoriented
programming. We define aspects to replace the fixed priority scheduling mechanism of an OSEK OS with an EDF scheduling
mechanism. By using the aspects, we can customize the scheduler
without modifying the original source code. We have applied the
aspects to an OSEK OS and get a customized operating system with
EDF scheduling. The evaluation results show that the overhead of
aspect-oriented programming is small enough.
Abstract: The two-dimensional gel electrophoresis method
(2-DE) is widely used in Proteomics to separate thousands of proteins
in a sample. By comparing the protein expression levels of proteins in
a normal sample with those in a diseased one, it is possible to identify
a meaningful set of marker proteins for the targeted disease. The major
shortcomings of this approach involve inherent noises and irregular
geometric distortions of spots observed in 2-DE images. Various
experimental conditions can be the major causes of these problems. In
the protein analysis of samples, these problems eventually lead to
incorrect conclusions. In order to minimize the influence of these
problems, this paper proposes a partition based pair extension method
that performs spot-matching on a set of gel images multiple times and
segregates more reliable mapping results which can improve the
accuracy of gel image analysis. The improved accuracy of the
proposed method is analyzed through various experiments on real
2-DE images of human liver tissues.
Abstract: A passive system "Qanat" is collection of some
underground wells. A mother-well was dug in a place far from the
city where they could reach to the water table maybe 100 meters
underground, they dug other wells to direct water toward the city,
with minimum possible gradient. Using the slope of the earth they
could bring water close to the surface in the city. The source of water
or the appearance of Qanat, land slope and the ownership lines are
the important and effective factors in the formation of routes and the
segment division of lands to the extent that making use of Qanat as
the techniques of extracting underground waters creates a channel of
routes with an organic order and hierarchy coinciding the slope of
land and it also guides the Qanat waters in the tradition texture of salt
desert and border provinces of it. Qanats are excavated in a specified
distinction from each other. The quantity of water provided by
Qanats depends on the kind of land, distance from mountain,
geographical situation of them and the rate of water supply from the
underground land. The rate of underground waters, possibility of
Qanat excavation, number of Qanats and rate of their water supply
from one hand and the quantity of cultivable fertile lands from the
other hand are the important natural factors making the size of cities.
In the same manner the cities with several Qanats have multi central
textures. The location of cities is in direct relation with land quality,
soil fertility and possibility of using underground water by excavating
Qanats. Observing the allowable distance for Qanat watering is a
determining factor for distance between villages and cities.
Topography, land slope, soil quality, watering system, ownership,
kind of cultivation, etc. are the effective factors in directing Qanats
for excavation and guiding water toward the cultivable lands and it
also causes the formation of different textures in land division of
farming provinces. Several divisions such as orderly and wide, inorderly,
thin and long, comb like, etc. are the introduction to organic
order. And at the same time they are complete coincidence with
environmental conditions in the typical development of ecological
architecture and planning in the traditional cities and settlements
order.