Abstract: This study determines the effect of naked and heparinbased
super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles on the human
cancer cell lines of A2780. Doxorubicin was used as the anticancer
drug, entrapped in the SPIO-NPs. This study aimed to decorate
nanoparticles with heparin, a molecular ligand for 'active' targeting
of cancerous cells and the application of modified-nanoparticles in
cancer treatment. The nanoparticles containing the anticancer drug
DOX were prepared by a solvent evaporation and emulsification
cross-linking method. The physicochemical properties of the
nanoparticles were characterized by various techniques, and uniform
nanoparticles with an average particle size of 110±15 nm with high
encapsulation efficiencies (EE) were obtained. Additionally, a
sustained release of DOX from the SPIO-NPs was successful.
Cytotoxicity tests showed that the SPIO-DOX-HP had higher cell
toxicity than the individual HP and confocal microscopy analysis
confirmed excellent cellular uptake efficiency. These results indicate
that HP based SPIO-NPs have potential uses as anticancer drug
carriers and also have an enhanced anticancer effect.
Abstract: Proposal for a secure stream cipher based on Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSR) is presented here. In this method, shift register structure used for polynomial modular division is combined with LFSR keystream generator to yield a new keystream generator with much higher periodicity. Security is brought into this structure by using the Boolean function to combine state bits of the LFSR keystream generator and taking the output through the Boolean function. This introduces non-linearity and security into the structure in a way similar to the Non-linear filter generator. The security and throughput of the suggested stream cipher is found to be much greater than the known LFSR based structures for the same key length.
Abstract: DNA shuffling is a powerful method used for in vitro
evolute molecules with specific functions and has application in areas
such as, for example, pharmaceutical, medical and agricultural
research. The success of such experiments is dependent on a variety
of parameters and conditions that, sometimes, can not be properly
pre-established. Here, two computational models predicting DNA
shuffling results is presented and their use and results are evaluated
against an empirical experiment. The in silico and in vitro results
show agreement indicating the importance of these two models and
motivating the study and development of new models.
Abstract: An optimal power flow (OPF) based on particle swarm
optimization (PSO) was developed with more realistic generator
security constraint using the capability curve instead of only Pmin/Pmax
and Qmin/Qmax. Neural network (NN) was used in designing digital
capability curve and the security check algorithm. The algorithm is
very simple and flexible especially for representing non linear
generation operation limit near steady state stability limit and under
excitation operation area. In effort to avoid local optimal power flow
solution, the particle swarm optimization was implemented with
enough widespread initial population. The objective function used in
the optimization process is electric production cost which is
dominated by fuel cost. The proposed method was implemented at
Java Bali 500 kV power systems contain of 7 generators and 20
buses. The simulation result shows that the combination of generator
power output resulted from the proposed method was more economic
compared with the result using conventional constraint but operated
at more marginal operating point.
Abstract: Recently, many existing partially blind signature scheme based on a single hard problem such as factoring, discrete logarithm, residuosity or elliptic curve discrete logarithm problems. However sooner or later these systems will become broken and vulnerable, if the factoring or discrete logarithms problems are cracked. This paper proposes a secured partially blind signature scheme based on factoring (FAC) problem and elliptic curve discrete logarithms (ECDL) problem. As the proposed scheme is focused on factoring and ECDLP hard problems, it has a solid structure and will totally leave the intruder bemused because it is very unlikely to solve the two hard problems simultaneously. In order to assess the security level of the proposed scheme a performance analysis has been conducted. Results have proved that the proposed scheme effectively deals with the partial blindness, randomization, unlinkability and unforgeability properties. Apart from this we have also investigated the computation cost of the proposed scheme. The new proposed scheme is robust and it is difficult for the malevolent attacks to break our scheme.
Abstract: The join dependency provides the basis for obtaining
lossless join decomposition in a classical relational schema. The
existence of Join dependency shows that that the tables always
represent the correct data after being joined. Since the classical
relational databases cannot handle imprecise data, they were
extended to fuzzy relational databases so that uncertain, ambiguous,
imprecise and partially known information can also be stored in
databases in a formal way. However like classical databases, the
fuzzy relational databases also undergoes decomposition during
normalization, the issue of joining the decomposed fuzzy relations
remains intact. Our effort in the present paper is to emphasize on this
issue. In this paper we define fuzzy join dependency in the
framework of type-1 fuzzy relational databases & type-2 fuzzy
relational databases using the concept of fuzzy equality which is
defined using fuzzy functions. We use the fuzzy equi-join operator
for computing the fuzzy equality of two attribute values. We also
discuss the dependency preservation property on execution of this
fuzzy equi- join and derive the necessary condition for the fuzzy
functional dependencies to be preserved on joining the decomposed
fuzzy relations. We also derive the conditions for fuzzy join
dependency to exist in context of both type-1 and type-2 fuzzy
relational databases. We find that unlike the classical relational
databases even the existence of a trivial join dependency does not
ensure lossless join decomposition in type-2 fuzzy relational
databases. Finally we derive the conditions for the fuzzy equality to
be non zero and the qualification of an attribute for fuzzy key.
Abstract: Aptamers are useful tools in microorganism
researches, diagnoses, and treatment. Aptamers are specific target
molecules formed by oligonucleic acid molecules, and are not
decomposed by alcohol. Aptamers used to detect Mycobacterium
tuberculosis (MTB) have been proved to have specific affinity to the
outer membrane proteins of MTB. This article presents a biosensor
chip set with aptamers for early detection of MTB with high specificity
and sensitivity, even in very low concentration. Meanwhile, we have
already made a modified hydrophobic facial mask module with
internal rendering hydrophobic for effectively collecting M.
tuberculosis.
Abstract: The Internet is the global data communications
infrastructure based on the interconnection of both public and private
networks using protocols that implement Internetworking on a global
scale. Hence the control of protocol and infrastructure development,
resource allocation and network operation are crucial and interlinked
aspects. Internet Governance is the hotly debated and contentious
subject that refers to the global control and operation of key Internet
infrastructure such as domain name servers and resources such as
domain names. It is impossible to separate technical and political
positions as they are interlinked. Furthermore the existence of a
global market, transparency and competition impact upon Internet
Governance and related topics such as network neutrality and
security. Current trends and developments regarding Internet
governance with a focus on the policy-making process, security and
control have been observed to evaluate current and future
implications on the Internet. The multi stakeholder approach to
Internet Governance discussed in this paper presents a number of
opportunities, issues and developments that will affect the future
direction of the Internet. Internet operation, maintenance and
advisory organisations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) or the Internet Governance Forum
(IGF) are currently in the process of formulating policies for future
Internet Governance. Given the controversial nature of the issues at
stake and the current lack of agreement it is predicted that
institutional as well as market governance will remain present for the
network access and content.
Abstract: Freeways are originally designed to provide high
mobility to road users. However, the increase in population and
vehicle numbers has led to increasing congestions around the world.
Daily recurrent congestion substantially reduces the freeway capacity
when it is most needed. Building new highways and expanding the
existing ones is an expensive solution and impractical in many
situations. Intelligent and vision-based techniques can, however, be
efficient tools in monitoring highways and increasing the capacity of
the existing infrastructures. The crucial step for highway monitoring
is vehicle detection. In this paper, we propose one of such
techniques. The approach is based on artificial neural networks
(ANN) for vehicles detection and counting. The detection process
uses the freeway video images and starts by automatically extracting
the image background from the successive video frames. Once the
background is identified, subsequent frames are used to detect
moving objects through image subtraction. The result is segmented
using Sobel operator for edge detection. The ANN is, then, used in
the detection and counting phase. Applying this technique to the
busiest freeway in Riyadh (King Fahd Road) achieved higher than
98% detection accuracy despite the light intensity changes, the
occlusion situations, and shadows.
Abstract: Experimental data are presented to show the influence of different types of chemical demulsifier on the stability and demulsification of emulsions. Three groups of demulsifier with different functional groups were used in this work namely amines, alcohol and polyhydric alcohol. The results obtained in this study have exposed the capability of chemical breaking agents in destabilization of water in crude oil emulsions. From the present study, found that molecular weight of the demulsifier were influent the capability of the emulsion to separate.
Abstract: Rice, which is the staple food in Sierra Leone, is
consumed on a daily basis. It is the most imperative food crop
extensively grown by farmers across all ecologies in the country.
Though much attention is now given to rice grain production through
the small holder commercialization programme (SHCP), however, no
attention has been given in investigating the limitations faced by rice
producers. This paper will contribute to attempts to overcome the
development challenges caused by food insecurity. The objective of
this paper is thus, to analysis the relationship between rice production
and the domestic retail price of rice. The study employed a log linear
model in which, the quantity of rice produced is the dependent
variable, quantity of rice imported, price of imported rice and price of
domestic rice as explanatory variables. Findings showed that, locally
produced rice is even more expensive than the imported rice per ton,
and almost all the inhabitants in the capital city which hosts about
65% of the entire population of the country favor imported rice, as it
is free from stones with other impurities. On the other hand, to
control price and simultaneously increase rice production, the
government should purchase the rice from the farmers and then sell to private retailers.
Abstract: The present models and simulation algorithms of intracellular stochastic kinetics are usually based on the premise that diffusion is so fast that the concentrations of all the involved species are homogeneous in space. However, recents experimental measurements of intracellular diffusion constants indicate that the assumption of a homogeneous well-stirred cytosol is not necessarily valid even for small prokaryotic cells. In this work a mathematical treatment of diffusion that can be incorporated in a stochastic algorithm simulating the dynamics of a reaction-diffusion system is presented. The movement of a molecule A from a region i to a region j of the space is represented as a first order reaction Ai k- ! Aj , where the rate constant k depends on the diffusion coefficient. The diffusion coefficients are modeled as function of the local concentration of the solutes, their intrinsic viscosities, their frictional coefficients and the temperature of the system. The stochastic time evolution of the system is given by the occurrence of diffusion events and chemical reaction events. At each time step an event (reaction or diffusion) is selected from a probability distribution of waiting times determined by the intrinsic reaction kinetics and diffusion dynamics. To demonstrate the method the simulation results of the reaction-diffusion system of chaperoneassisted protein folding in cytoplasm are shown.
Abstract: A mobile agent is a software which performs an
action autonomously and independently as a person or an
organizations assistance. Mobile agents are used for searching
information, retrieval information, filtering, intruder recognition in
networks, and so on. One of the important issues of mobile agent is
their security. It must consider different security issues in effective
and secured usage of mobile agent. One of those issues is the
integrity-s protection of mobile agents.
In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages of each method,
after reviewing the existing methods, is examined. Regarding to this
matter that each method has its own advantage or disadvantage, it
seems that by combining these methods, one can reach to a better
method for protecting the integrity of mobile agents. Therefore, this
method is provided in this paper and then is evaluated in terms of
existing method. Finally, this method is simulated and its results are
the sign of improving the possibility of integrity-s protection of
mobile agents.
Abstract: We present a new method to reconstruct a temporally
coherent 3D animation from single or multi-view RGB-D video data
using unbiased feature point sampling. Given RGB-D video data, in
form of a 3D point cloud sequence, our method first extracts feature
points using both color and depth information. In the subsequent
steps, these feature points are used to match two 3D point clouds in
consecutive frames independent of their resolution. Our new motion
vectors based dynamic alignement method then fully reconstruct
a spatio-temporally coherent 3D animation. We perform extensive
quantitative validation using novel error functions to analyze the
results. We show that despite the limiting factors of temporal and
spatial noise associated to RGB-D data, it is possible to extract
temporal coherence to faithfully reconstruct a temporally coherent
3D animation from RGB-D video data.
Abstract: Let k ≥ 1 and t ≥ 0 be two integers and let d = k2 + k be a positive non-square integer. In this paper, we consider the integer solutions of Pell equation x2 - dy2 = 2t. Further we derive a recurrence relation on the solutions of this equation.
Abstract: Biometric techniques are gaining importance for
personal authentication and identification as compared to the
traditional authentication methods. Biometric templates are
vulnerable to variety of attacks due to their inherent nature. When a
person-s biometric is compromised his identity is lost. In contrast to
password, biometric is not revocable. Therefore, providing security
to the stored biometric template is very crucial. Crypto biometric
systems are authentication systems, which blends the idea of
cryptography and biometrics. Fuzzy vault is a proven crypto
biometric construct which is used to secure the biometric templates.
However fuzzy vault suffer from certain limitations like nonrevocability,
cross matching. Security of the fuzzy vault is affected
by the non-uniform nature of the biometric data. Fuzzy vault when
hardened with password overcomes these limitations. Password
provides an additional layer of security and enhances user privacy.
Retina has certain advantages over other biometric traits. Retinal
scans are used in high-end security applications like access control to
areas or rooms in military installations, power plants, and other high
risk security areas. This work applies the idea of fuzzy vault for
retinal biometric template. Multimodal biometric system
performance is well compared to single modal biometric systems.
The proposed multi modal biometric fuzzy vault includes combined
feature points from retina and fingerprint. The combined vault is
hardened with user password for achieving high level of security.
The security of the combined vault is measured using min-entropy.
The proposed password hardened multi biometric fuzzy vault is
robust towards stored biometric template attacks.
Abstract: Centrally controlled authentication and authorization services can provide enterprise with an increase in security, more flexible access control solutions and an increased users' trust. By using redirections, users of all Web-based applications within an organization are authenticated at a single well known and secure Web site and using secure communication protocol. Users are first authenticated at the central server using their domain wide credentials before being redirected to a particular Web-based application. The central authentication server will then provide others with pertinence authorization related particulars and credentials of the authenticated user to the specific application. The trust between the clients and the server hosts is established by secure session keys exchange. Case- studies are provided to demonstrate the usefulness and flexibility of the proposed solution.
Abstract: To improve the material characteristics of single- and
poly-crystals of pure copper, the respective relationships between crystallographic orientations and microstructures, and the bending and mechanical properties were examined. And texture distribution is also
analyzed. A grain refinement procedure was performed to obtain a
grained structure. Furthermore, some analytical results related to
crystal direction maps, inverse pole figures, and textures were obtained from SEM-EBSD analyses. Results showed that these
grained metallic materials have peculiar springback characteristics with various bending angles.
Abstract: In this study we investigate the insertion of
pioglitazone, a Thiazolidinedione, into the two different sizes of
Carbon nanotub. It was shown that the insertion of pioglitazone into
the carbon nanotube in a water solute environment could be related
to the diameter of the nanotube and in the flow of the waters via
hydrophilic interactions. This encapsulated drug-carbon nanotube
molecule can be further applicable in other investigations in target
therapy with these agents regarding to reduce their potential toxic
effects.
Abstract: The Taiwan government has started to promote the “Plain Landscape Afforestation and Greening Program" since 2002. A key task of the program was the payment for environmental services (PES), entitled the “Plain Landscape Afforestation Policy" (PLAP), which was certificated by the Executive Yuan on August 31, 2001 and enacted on January 1, 2002. According to the policy, it is estimated that the total area of afforestation will be 25,100 hectares by December 31, 2007. Until the end of 2007, the policy had been enacted for six years in total and the actual area of afforestation was 8,919.18 hectares. Among them, Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) was accounted for 7,960 hectares (with 2,450.83 hectares as public service area) which occupied 86.22% of the total afforestation area; the private farmland promoted by local governments was accounted for 869.18 hectares which occupied 9.75% of the total afforestation area. Based on the above, we observe that most of the afforestation area in this policy is executed by TSC, and the achievement ratio by TSC is better than by others. It implies that the success of the PLAP is seriously related to the execution of TSC. The objective of this study is to analyze the relevant policy planning of TSC-s participation in the PLAP, suggest complementary measures, and draw up effective adjustment mechanisms, so as to improve the effectiveness of executing the policy. Our main conclusions and suggestions are summarized as follows: 1. The main reason for TSC-s participation in the PLAP is based on their passive cooperation with the central government or company policy. Prior to TSC-s participation in the PLAP, their lands were mainly used for growing sugarcane. 2. The main factors of TSC-s consideration on the selection of tree species are based on the suitability of land and species. The largest proportion of tree species is allocated to economic forests, and the lack of technical instruction was the main problem during afforestation. Moreover, the method of improving TSC-s future development in leisure agriculture and landscape business becomes a key topic. 3. TSC has developed short and long-term plans on participating in the PLAP for the future. However, there is no great willingness or incentive on budgeting for such detailed planning. 4. Most people from TSC interviewed consider the requirements on PLAP unreasonable. Among them, an unreasonable requirement on the number of trees accounted for the greatest proportion; furthermore, most interviewees suggested that the government should continue to provide incentives even after 20 years. 5. Since the government shares the same goals as TSC, there should be sufficient cooperation and communication that support the technical instruction and reduction of afforestation cost, which will also help to improve effectiveness of the policy.