Abstract: The ever increasing use of World Wide Web in the
existing network, results in poor performance. Several techniques
have been developed for reducing web traffic by compressing the size
of the file, saving the web pages at the client side, changing the burst
nature of traffic into constant rate etc. No single method was
adequate enough to access the document instantly through the
Internet. In this paper, adaptive hybrid algorithms are developed for
reducing web traffic. Intelligent agents are used for monitoring the
web traffic. Depending upon the bandwidth usage, user-s preferences,
server and browser capabilities, intelligent agents use the best
techniques to achieve maximum traffic reduction. Web caching,
compression, filtering, optimization of HTML tags, and traffic
dispersion are incorporated into this adaptive selection. Using this
new hybrid technique, latency is reduced to 20 – 60 % and cache hit
ratio is increased 40 – 82 %.
Abstract: A scalable QoS aware multicast deployment in
DiffServ networks has become an important research dimension in
recent years. Although multicasting and differentiated services are
two complementary technologies, the integration of the two
technologies is a non-trivial task due to architectural conflicts
between them. A popular solution proposed is to extend the
functionality of the DiffServ components to support multicasting. In
this paper, we propose an algorithm to construct an efficient QoSdriven
multicast tree, taking into account the available bandwidth per
service class. We also present an efficient way to provision the
limited available bandwidth for supporting heterogeneous users. The
proposed mechanism is evaluated using simulated tests. The
simulated result reveals that our algorithm can effectively minimize
the bandwidth use and transmission cost
Abstract: In this paper we study the use of a new code called
Random Diagonal (RD) code for Spectral Amplitude Coding (SAC)
optical Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, using
Fiber Bragg-Grating (FBG), FBG consists of a fiber segment whose
index of reflection varies periodically along its length. RD code is
constructed using code level and data level, one of the important
properties of this code is that the cross correlation at data level is
always zero, which means that Phase intensity Induced Phase (PIIN)
is reduced. We find that the performance of the RD code will be
better than Modified Frequency Hopping (MFH) and Hadamard code
It has been observed through experimental and theoretical simulation
that BER for RD code perform significantly better than other codes.
Proof –of-principle simulations of encoding with 3 channels, and 10
Gbps data transmission have been successfully demonstrated together
with FBG decoding scheme for canceling the code level from SAC-signal.
Abstract: The aim of this research is to use artificial neural networks computing technology for estimating the net heating value (NHV) of crude oil by its Properties. The approach is based on training the neural network simulator uses back-propagation as the learning algorithm for a predefined range of analytically generated well test response. The network with 8 neurons in one hidden layer was selected and prediction of this network has been good agreement with experimental data.
Abstract: Load forecasting has always been the essential part of
an efficient power system operation and planning. A novel approach
based on support vector machines is proposed in this paper for annual
power load forecasting. Different kernel functions are selected to
construct a combinatorial algorithm. The performance of the new
model is evaluated with a real-world dataset, and compared with two
neural networks and some traditional forecasting techniques. The
results show that the proposed method exhibits superior performance.
Abstract: A systems approach model for prostate cancer in prostate duct, as a sub-system of the organism is developed. It is accomplished in two steps. First this research work starts with a nonlinear system of coupled Fokker-Plank equations which models continuous process of the system like motion of cells. Then extended to PDEs that include discontinuous processes like cell mutations, proliferation and deaths. The discontinuous processes is modeled by using intensity poisson processes. The model incorporates the features of the prostate duct. The system of PDEs spatial coordinate is along the proximal distal axis. Its parameters depend on features of the prostate duct. The movement of cells is biased towards distal region and mutations of prostate cancer cells is localized in the proximal region. Numerical solutions of the full system of equations are provided, and are exhibit traveling wave fronts phenomena. This motivates the use of the standard transformation to derive a canonically related system of ODEs for traveling wave solutions. The results obtained show persistence of prostate cancer by showing that the non-negative cone for the traveling wave system is time invariant. The traveling waves have a unique global attractor is proved also. Biologically, the global attractor verifies that evolution of prostate cancer stem cells exhibit the avascular tumor growth. These numerical solutions show that altering prostate stem cell movement or mutation of prostate cancer cells lead to avascular tumor. Conclusion with comments on clinical implications of the model is discussed.
Abstract: The term hybrid composite refers to the composite
containing more than one type of fiber material as reinforcing fillers.
It has become attractive structural material due to the ability of
providing better combination of properties with respect to single fiber
containing composite. The eco-friendly nature as well as processing
advantage, light weight and low cost have enhanced the attraction
and interest of natural fiber reinforced composite. The objective of
present research is to study the mechanical properties of jute-coir
fiber reinforced hybrid polypropylene (PP) composite according to
filler loading variation. In the present work composites were
manufactured by using hot press machine at four levels of fiber
loading (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt %). Jute and coir fibers were utilized at a
ratio of (1:1) during composite manufacturing. Tensile, flexural,
impact and hardness tests were conducted for mechanical
characterization. Tensile test of composite showed a decreasing trend
of tensile strength and increasing trend of the Young-s modulus with
increasing fiber content. During flexural, impact and hardness tests,
the flexural strength, flexural modulus, impact strength and hardness
were found to be increased with increasing fiber loading. Based on
the fiber loading used in this study, 20% fiber reinforced composite
resulted the best set of mechanical properties.
Abstract: e-Government structures permits the government to operate in a more transparent and accountable manner of which it increases the power of the individual in relation to that of the government. This paper identifies the factors that determine customer-s attitude towards e-Government services using a theoretical model based on the Technology Acceptance Model. Data relating to the constructs were collected from 200 respondents. The research model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques via the Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS 16) computer software. SEM is a comprehensive approach to testing hypotheses about relations among observed and latent variables. The proposed model fits the data well. The results demonstrated that e- Government services acceptance can be explained in terms of compatibility and attitude towards e-Government services. The setup of the e-Government services will be compatible with the way users work and are more likely to adopt e-Government services owing to their familiarity with the Internet for various official, personal, and recreational uses. In addition, managerial implications for government policy makers, government agencies, and system developers are also discussed.
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: The POD-assisted projective integration method based on the equation-free framework is presented in this paper. The method is essentially based on the slow manifold governing of given system. We have applied two variants which are the “on-line" and “off-line" methods for solving the one-dimensional viscous Bergers- equation. For the on-line method, we have computed the slow manifold by extracting the POD modes and used them on-the-fly along the projective integration process without assuming knowledge of the underlying slow manifold. In contrast, the underlying slow manifold must be computed prior to the projective integration process for the off-line method. The projective step is performed by the forward Euler method. Numerical experiments show that for the case of nonperiodic system, the on-line method is more efficient than the off-line method. Besides, the online approach is more realistic when apply the POD-assisted projective integration method to solve any systems. The critical value of the projective time step which directly limits the efficiency of both methods is also shown.
Abstract: Series of tellurite glass of the system 78TeO2-10PbO-
10Li2O-(2-x)Nd2O3-xEr2O3, where x = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 was
successfully been made. A study of upconversion luminescence of
the Nd3+/Er3+ co-doped tellurite glass has been carried out. From
Judd-Ofelt analysis, the experimental lifetime, exp. τ of the glass
serie are found higher in the visible region as they varies from
65.17ms to 114.63ms, whereas in the near infrared region (NIR) the
lifetime are varies from 2.133ms to 2.270ms. Meanwhile, the
emission cross section,σ results are found varies from 0.004 x 1020
cm2 to 1.007 x 1020 cm2 with respect to composition. The emission
spectra of the glass are found been contributed from Nd3+ and Er3+
ions by which nine significant transition peaks are observed. The
upconversion mechanism of the co-doped tellurite glass has been
shown in the schematic energy diagrams. In this works, it is found
that the excited state-absorption (ESA) is still dominant in the
upconversion excitation process as the upconversion excitation
mechanism of the Nd3+ excited-state levels is accomplished through a
stepwise multiphonon process. An efficient excitation energy transfer
(ET) has been observed between Nd3+ as a donor and Er3+ as the
acceptor. As a result, respective emission spectra had been observed.
Abstract: Following the loss of NASA's Space Shuttle
Columbia in 2003, it was determined that problems in the agency's
organization created an environment that led to the accident. One
component of the proposed solution resulted in the formation of the
NASA Engineering Network (NEN), a suite of information retrieval
and knowledge-sharing tools. This paper describes the
implementation of communities of practice, which are formed along
engineering disciplines. Communities of practice enable engineers to
leverage their knowledge and best practices to collaborate and take
information learning back to their jobs and embed it into the
procedures of the agency. This case study offers insight into using
traditional engineering disciplines for virtual collaboration, including
lessons learned during the creation and establishment of NASA-s
communities.
Abstract: To evaluate the ability to predict xerostomia after
radiotherapy, we constructed and compared neural network and
logistic regression models. In this study, 61 patients who completed a
questionnaire about their quality of life (QoL) before and after a full
course of radiation therapy were included. Based on this questionnaire,
some statistical data about the condition of the patients’ salivary
glands were obtained, and these subjects were included as the inputs of
the neural network and logistic regression models in order to predict
the probability of xerostomia. Seven variables were then selected from
the statistical data according to Cramer’s V and point-biserial
correlation values and were trained by each model to obtain the
respective outputs which were 0.88 and 0.89 for AUC, 9.20 and 7.65
for SSE, and 13.7% and 19.0% for MAPE, respectively. These
parameters demonstrate that both neural network and logistic
regression methods are effective for predicting conditions of parotid
glands.
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: Many difficulties are faced in the process of learning
computer programming. This paper will propose a system framework
intended to reduce cognitive load in learning programming. In first
section focus is given on the process of learning and the
shortcomings of the current approaches to learning programming.
Finally the proposed prototype is suggested along with the
justification of the prototype. In the proposed prototype the concept
map is used as visualization metaphor. Concept maps are similar to
the mental schema in long term memory and hence it can reduce
cognitive load well. In addition other method such as part code
method is also proposed in this framework to can reduce cognitive
load.
Abstract: Cancers could normally be marked by a number of
differentially expressed genes which show enormous potential as
biomarkers for a certain disease. Recent years, cancer classification
based on the investigation of gene expression profiles derived by
high-throughput microarrays has widely been used. The selection of
discriminative genes is, therefore, an essential preprocess step in
carcinogenesis studies. In this paper, we have proposed a novel gene
selector using information-theoretic measures for biological
discovery. This multivariate filter is a four-stage framework through
the analyses of feature relevance, feature interdependence, feature
redundancy-dependence and subset rankings, and having been
examined on the colon cancer data set. Our experimental result show
that the proposed method outperformed other information theorem
based filters in all aspect of classification errors and classification
performance.
Abstract: Characteristics and sonocatalytic activity of zeolite
Y catalysts loaded with TiO2 using impregnation and ion exchange
methods for the degradation of amaranth dye were investigated.
The Ion-exchange method was used to encapsulate the TiO2 into
the internal pores of the zeolite while the incorporation of TiO2
mostly on the external surface of zeolite was carried out using the
impregnation method. Different characterization techniques were
used to elucidate the physicochemical properties of the produced
catalysts. The framework of zeolite Y remained virtually
unchanged after the encapsulation of TiO2 while the crystallinity of
zeolite decreased significantly after the incorporation of 15 wt% of
TiO2. The sonocatalytic activity was enhanced by TiO2
incorporation with maximum degradation efficiencies of 50% and
68% for the encapsulated titanium and titanium loaded onto the
zeolite, respectively after 120min of reaction. Catalysts
characteristics and sonocatalytic behaviors were significantly
affected by the preparation method and the location of TiO2
introduced with zeolite structure. Behaviors in the sonocatalytic
process were successfully correlated with the characteristics of the
catalysts used.
Abstract: The number of framework conceived for e-learning
constantly increase, unfortunately the creators of learning materials
and educational institutions engaged in e-formation adopt a
“proprietor" approach, where the developed products (courses,
activities, exercises, etc.) can be exploited only in the framework
where they were conceived, their uses in the other learning
environments requires a greedy adaptation in terms of time and
effort. Each one proposes courses whose organization, contents,
modes of interaction and presentations are unique for all learners,
unfortunately the latter are heterogeneous and are not interested by
the same information, but only by services or documents adapted to
their needs. Currently the new tendency for the framework
conceived for e-learning, is the interoperability of learning materials,
several standards exist (DCMI (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative)[2],
LOM (Learning Objects Meta data)[1], SCORM (Shareable Content
Object Reference Model)[6][7][8], ARIADNE (Alliance of Remote
Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks for Europe)[9],
CANCORE (Canadian Core Learning Resource Metadata
Application Profiles)[3]), they converge all to the idea of learning
objects. They are also interested in the adaptation of the learning
materials according to the learners- profile. This article proposes an
approach for the composition of courses adapted to the various
profiles (knowledge, preferences, objectives) of learners, based on
two ontologies (domain to teach and educational) and the learning
objects.
Abstract: Pakistani doctors (MBBS) are emigrating towards developed countries for professional adjustments. This study aims to highlight causes and consequences of doctors- brain drain from Pakistan. Primary data was collected from Mayo Hospital, Lahore by interviewing doctors (n=100) through systematic random sampling technique. It found that various socio-economic and political conditions are working as push and pull factors for brain drain of doctors in Pakistan. Majority of doctors (83%) declared poor remunerations and professional infrastructure of health department as push factor of doctors- brain drain. 81% claimed that continuous instability in political situation and threats of terrorism are responsible for emigration of doctors. 84% respondents considered fewer opportunities of further studies responsible for their emigration. Brain drain of doctors is affecting health sector-s policies / programs, standard doctor-patient ratios and quality of health services badly.