Abstract: A new, combinatorial model for analyzing and inter-
preting an electrocardiogram (ECG) is presented. An application of
the model is QRS peak detection. This is demonstrated with an
online algorithm, which is shown to be space as well as time efficient.
Experimental results on the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database show that
this novel approach is promising. Further uses for this approach are
discussed, such as taking advantage of its small memory requirements
and interpreting large amounts of pre-recorded ECG data.
Abstract: In this paper the development of a software to
encrypt messages with asymmetric cryptography is presented. In
particular, is used the RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) algorithm
to encrypt alphanumeric information. The software allows to
generate different public keys from two prime numbers provided by
the user, the user must then select a public-key to generate the
corresponding private-key. To encrypt the information, the user must
provide the public-key of the recipient as well as the message to be
encrypted. The generated ciphertext can be sent through an insecure
channel, so that would be very difficult to be interpreted by an
intruder or attacker. At the end of the communication, the recipient
can decrypt the original message if provide his/her public-key and
his/her corresponding private-key.
Abstract: Solar energy is not only sustainable but also a clean
alternative to be used as source of high temperature heat for many
processes and power generation. However, the major drawback of
solar energy is its transient nature. Especially in solar
thermochemical processing, it is crucial to maintain constant or semiconstant
temperatures inside the solar reactor. In our laboratory, we
have developed a mechanism allowing us to achieve semi-constant
temperature inside the solar reactor. In this paper, we introduce the
concept along with some updated designs and provide the optical
analysis of the concept under various incoming flux.
Abstract: In this paper, a novel corner detection method is
presented to stably extract geometrically important corners.
Intensity-based corner detectors such as the Harris corner can detect
corners in noisy environments but has inaccurate corner position and
misses the corners of obtuse angles. Edge-based corner detectors such
as Curvature Scale Space can detect structural corners but show
unstable corner detection due to incomplete edge detection in noisy
environments. The proposed image-based direct curvature estimation
can overcome limitations in both inaccurate structural corner detection
of the Harris corner detector (intensity-based) and the unstable corner
detection of Curvature Scale Space caused by incomplete edge
detection. Various experimental results validate the robustness of the
proposed method.
Abstract: Relevant agricultural information disseminator
(extension agent) ratio of 1:3500 farm families which become a
menace to agricultural production capacity in developing countries
necessitate this study. Out of 4 zones in the state, 24 extension agents
in each zone, 4 extension agents using cell phones and 120 farmers
using cell phone and 120 other farmers not using cell phone were
purposively selected to give 240 farmers that participated in the
research. Data were collected using interview guide and analysized
using frequency, percentage and t-test.. Frequency of contact with
agricultural information centers revealed that cell phone user farmers
had greater means score of X 41.43 contact as against the low mean
X19.32 contact recorded by farmers receiving agricultural
information from extension agents not using cell phone and their
production was statistically significant at P < 0.05. Usage of cell
phone increase extension agent contact and increase farmers-
production capacity.
Abstract: Optimal design of structure has a main role in reduction of material usage which leads to deduction in the final cost of construction projects. Evolutionary approaches are found to be more successful techniques for solving size and shape structural optimization problem since it uses a stochastic random search instead of a gradient search. By reviewing the recent literature works the problem found was the optimization of weight. A new meta-heuristic algorithm called as Cuckoo Search (CS) Algorithm has used for the optimization of the total weight of the truss structures. This paper has used set of 10 bars and 25 bars trusses for the testing purpose. The main objective of this work is to reduce the number of iterations, weight and the total time consumption. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present method, minimum weight design of truss structures is performed and the results of the CS are compared with other algorithms.
Abstract: In this paper we are interested in Moufang-Klingenberg
planesM(A) defined over a local alternative ring A of dual numbers.
We show that some collineations of M(A) preserve cross-ratio.
Abstract: The effects of commercial or bovine yeasts on the
performance and blood variables of broiler chickens intoxicated with
aflatoxin were investigated in broilers. Four hundred eighty broilers
(Arbor Acres; 3-wk-old) were randomly assigned to 4 groups. Each
group (120 broiler chickens) was further randomly divided into 6
replicates of 20 chickens. The treatments were control diet without
additives (treatment 1), 250 ppb AFB1 (treatment 2), commercial
yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, (CY 2.5 x 107 CFU/g) + 250 ppb
AFB1 (treatment 3) and bovine yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae,
(BY 2.5 x 107 CFU/g + 250 ppb AFB1 (treatment 4). Complete
randomized design (CRD) was used in the experiment. Feed
consumption and body weight were recorded at every five-day
period. On day 42, carcass compositions were determined from 30
birds per treatment. While chicks were sacrificed, 3-4 ml blood
sample was taken and stored frozen at (-20°C) for serum chemical
analysis to determine effects of consumption of diets on blood
chemistry (total protein, albumin, glucose, urea, cholesterol and
triglycerides). There were no significant differences in ADFI among
the treatments(P>0.05). However, BWG, FCR and mortality were
highly significantly different (P
Abstract: The IFRS for Small and Medium-sized Entities
(SMEs) was issued in July 2009 and currently regulators are
considering various implementation strategies of this standard.
Romania is a member of the European Union since 2007, thus
accounting regulations were issued in order to ensure compliance
with the European Accounting Directives. As the European
Commission rejected recently the mandatory use of IFRS for SMEs,
regulatory bodies from the Member States have to decide if the
standard will affect or not the accounting practices of SMEs from
their countries. Recently IASB invited stakeholders to discuss the
revision of IFRS for SMEs. Empirical studies on the differences and
similarities between national standards and IFRS for SMEs could
inform decision makers on the actual level of convergence in
different countries. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical
evidences on the convergence of the Romanian regulations with IFRS
for SMEs analyzing the results in the context of the last revisions
proposed to the EU Accounting Directives.
Abstract: SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), using HTML based
call control messaging which is quite simple and efficient, is being
replaced for VoIP networks recently. As for authentication and
authorization purposes there are many approaches and considerations
for securing SIP to eliminate forgery on the integrity of SIP
messages. On the other hand Elliptic Curve Cryptography has
significant advantages like smaller key sizes, faster computations on
behalf of other Public Key Cryptography (PKC) systems that obtain
data transmission more secure and efficient. In this work a new
approach is proposed for secure SIP authentication by using a public
key exchange mechanism using ECC. Total execution times and
memory requirements of proposed scheme have been improved in
comparison with non-elliptic approaches by adopting elliptic-based
key exchange mechanism.
Abstract: The research objective was to study the toxicity of silver nanoparticles in aquatic organisms. Three forms of free silver ion nanoparticles (Ag+), silver nano particles (nano-Ag0) and silver oxide nanoparticles (nano Ag2O) were examined for toxic effects with Chlorella sp. and Moina macrocopa. The results showed that the toxicity of three silver ion forms to both organisms was examined
Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks can be used to monitor the
physical phenomenon in such areas where human approach is nearly
impossible. Hence the limited power supply is the major constraint of
the WSNs due to the use of non-rechargeable batteries in sensor
nodes. A lot of researches are going on to reduce the energy
consumption of sensor nodes. Energy map can be used with
clustering, data dissemination and routing techniques to reduce the
power consumption of WSNs. Energy map can also be used to know
which part of the network is going to fail in near future. In this paper,
Energy map is constructed using the prediction based approach.
Adaptive alpha GM(1,1) model is used as the prediction model.
GM(1,1) is being used worldwide in many applications for predicting
future values of time series using some past values due to its high
computational efficiency and accuracy.
Abstract: In this paper we propose a novel approach for ascertaining human identity based on fusion of profile face and gait biometric cues The identification approach based on feature learning in PCA-LDA subspace, and classification using multivariate Bayesian classifiers allows significant improvement in recognition accuracy for low resolution surveillance video scenarios. The experimental evaluation of the proposed identification scheme on a publicly available database [2] showed that the fusion of face and gait cues in joint PCA-LDA space turns out to be a powerful method for capturing the inherent multimodality in walking gait patterns, and at the same time discriminating the person identity..
Abstract: Binder drainage test is widely used to set an upper
limit to the design binder content of porous asphalt. However, the
presence of high amount of fine particles in the drained binder may
affect the accuracy of the test result. This paper presents a study to
characterize the composition and particle size distribution of fine
particles accumulated in the drained binder. Fine aggregates and filler
in the drained binder were extracted using a suitable solvent. Then,
wet and dry sieve analysis was carried out to identify the actual
composition of the extracted fine aggregates and filler. From the
results, almost half of the drained binder consisted of fine aggregates
and this significantly affects the accuracy of the design binder content
of porous asphalt mix. This simple finding highlights the importance
of taking into account the presence of fine aggregates in the
calculation of drained binder.
Abstract: Service innovations are central concerns in fast
changing environment. Due to the fitness in customer demands and
advances in information technologies (IT) in service management, an
expanded conceptualization of e-service innovation is required.
Specially, innovation practices have become increasingly more
challenging, driving managers to employ a different open innovation
model to maintain competitive advantages. At the same time, firms
need to interact with external and internal customers in innovative
environments, like the open innovation networks, to co-create values.
Based on these issues, an important conceptual framework of e-service
innovation is developed. This paper aims to examine the contributing
factors on e-service innovation and firm performance, including
financial and non-financial aspects. The study concludes by showing
how e-service innovation will play a significant role in growing the
overall values of the firm. The discussion and conclusion will lead to a
stronger understanding of e-service innovation and co-creating values
with customers within open innovation networks.
Abstract: This article first summarizes reasons why current approaches supporting Open Learning and Distance Education need to be complemented by tools permitting lecturers, researchers and students to cooperatively organize the semantic content of Learning related materials (courses, discussions, etc.) into a fine-grained shared semantic network. This first part of the article also quickly describes the approach adopted to permit such a collaborative work. Then, examples of such semantic networks are presented. Finally, an evaluation of the approach by students is provided and analyzed.
Abstract: The paper focuses on the area of context modeling with respect to the specification of context-aware systems supporting ubiquitous applications. The proposed approach, followed within the SIMPLICITY IST project, uses a high-level system ontology to derive context models for system components which consequently are mapped to the system's physical entities. For the definition of user and device-related context models in particular, the paper suggests a standard-based process consisting of an analysis phase using the Common Information Model (CIM) methodology followed by an implementation phase that defines 3GPP based components. The benefits of this approach are further depicted by preliminary examples of XML grammars defining profiles and components, component instances, coupled with descriptions of respective ubiquitous applications.
Abstract: A study was carried out to determine the effect of water quality on flotation performance. The experimental test work comprised of batch flotation tests using Denver lab cell for a period of 10 minutes. Nine different test runs were carried out in triplicates to ensure reproducibility using different water types from different thickener overflows, return and sewage effluent water (process water) and portable water. The water sources differed in pH, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids and conductivity. Process water was found to reduce the concentrate recovery and mass pull, while portable water increased the concentrate recovery and mass pull. Portable water reduced the concentrate grade while process water increased the concentrate grade. It is proposed that a combination of process water and portable water supply be used in flotation circuits to balance the different effects that the different water types have on the flotation efficiency.
Abstract: The recognition of human faces, especially those with
different orientations is a challenging and important problem in image
analysis and classification. This paper proposes an effective scheme
for rotation invariant face recognition using Log-Polar Transform and
Discrete Cosine Transform combined features. The rotation invariant
feature extraction for a given face image involves applying the logpolar
transform to eliminate the rotation effect and to produce a row
shifted log-polar image. The discrete cosine transform is then applied
to eliminate the row shift effect and to generate the low-dimensional
feature vector. A PSO-based feature selection algorithm is utilized to
search the feature vector space for the optimal feature subset.
Evolution is driven by a fitness function defined in terms of
maximizing the between-class separation (scatter index).
Experimental results, based on the ORL face database using testing
data sets for images with different orientations; show that the
proposed system outperforms other face recognition methods. The
overall recognition rate for the rotated test images being 97%,
demonstrating that the extracted feature vector is an effective rotation
invariant feature set with minimal set of selected features.
Abstract: When binary decision diagrams are formed from
uniformly distributed Monte Carlo data for a large number of
variables, the complexity of the decision diagrams exhibits a
predictable relationship to the number of variables and minterms. In
the present work, a neural network model has been used to analyze the
pattern of shortest path length for larger number of Monte Carlo data
points. The neural model shows a strong descriptive power for the
ISCAS benchmark data with an RMS error of 0.102 for the shortest
path length complexity. Therefore, the model can be considered as a
method of predicting path length complexities; this is expected to lead
to minimum time complexity of very large-scale integrated circuitries
and related computer-aided design tools that use binary decision
diagrams.