Abstract: Malaysia is aggressive in promoting the usage of ICT
to its mass population through the support by the government
policies and programs targeting the general population. However,
with the uneven distribution of the basic telecommunication
infrastructure between the urban and rural area, cost for being
“interconnected" that is considered high among the poorer rural
population and the lack of local contents that suit the rural population
needs or lifestyles, it is still a challenge for Malaysia to achieve its
Vision 2020 Agenda moving the nation towards an information
society by the year 2020. Among the existing programs that have
been carried out by the government to encourage the usage of ICT by
the rural population is “Kedaikom", a community telecenter with the
general aim is to engage the community to get exposed and to use the
ICT, encouraging the diffusion of the ICT technology to the rural
population. The research investigated by using a questionnaire
survey of how Kedaikom, as a community telecenter could play a
role in encouraging the rural or underserved community to use the
ICT. The result from the survey has proven that the community
telecenter could bridge the digital divide between the underserved
rural population and the well-accessed urban population in Malaysia.
More of the rural population, especially from the younger generation
and those with higher educational background are using the
community telecenter to be connected to the ICT.
Abstract: Drought is one of the most important natural disasters which is probable to occur in all regions with completely different climates and in addition to causing death. It results in many economic losses and social consequences. For this reason. Studying the effects and losses caused by drought which include limitation or shortage of agricultural and drinking water resources. Decreased rainfall and increased evapotranspiration. Limited plant growth and decreased agricultural products. Especially those of dry-farming. Lower levels of surface and ground waters and increased immigrations. Etc. in the country is statistical period (1988-2007) for six stations in Roudbar town were used for statistical analysis and calculating humid and dry years. The dependable rainfall index (DRI) was the main method used in this research. Results showed that during the said statistical period and also during the years 1996-1998 and 2007. more than half of the stations had faced drought. With consideration of the conducted studies. Drawing diagrams and comparing the available data with those of dry and humid years it was found that drought affected agricultural products (e.g.olive) in a way that during the year 1996 1996 drought. Olive groves of Roudbar suffered the greatest damages. Whereupon about 70% of the crops were lost.
Abstract: Many studies have been conducted for derivation of
attenuation relationships worldwide, however few relationships have
been developed to use for the seismic region of Iranian plateau and
only few of these studies have been conducted for derivation of
attenuation relationships for parameters such as uniform duration.
Uniform duration is the total time during which the acceleration is
larger than a given threshold value (default is 5% of PGA). In this
study, the database was same as that used previously by Ghodrati
Amiri et al. (2007) with same correction methods for earthquake
records in Iran. However in this study, records from earthquakes with
MS< 4.0 were excluded from this database, each record has
individually filtered afterward, and therefore the dataset has been
expanded. These new set of attenuation relationships for Iran are
derived based on tectonic conditions with soil classification into rock
and soil. Earthquake parameters were chosen to be
hypocentral distance and magnitude in order to make it easier to use
the relationships for seismic hazard analysis. Tehran is the capital
city of Iran wit ha large number of important structures. In this study,
a probabilistic approach has been utilized for seismic hazard
assessment of this city. The resulting uniform duration against return
period diagrams are suggested to be used in any projects in the area.
Abstract: The effectiveness of consuming a nutrient fortified oat drink on iron, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin C status was assessed among a cohort of school-aged Filipino children. Ultimate study implementation permitted only a within-subject comparison of change in nutritional status after four months of consuming a nutrient fortified oat drink. Thirty-eight anemic children (5-8 years) consumed an oat drink fortified with iron as NaFeEDTA, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin C for 120 days. Height, weight, serum nutrient levels, anemia status and dietary intake were assessed pre and post intervention. Thirty-four anemic children completed the intervention. After 4 months of intervention, prevalence of anemia decreased by 68% and significant improvements in iron and vitamin A status were observed. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the fortified oat drink in alleviating anemia in young children and highlight the value of fortification programs
Abstract: Simulation and modeling computer programs are
concerned with construction of models for analyzing different
perspectives and possibilities in changing conditions environment.
The paper presents theoretical justification and evaluation of
qualitative e-learning development model in perspective of advancing
modern technologies. There have been analyzed principles of
qualitative e-learning in higher education, productivity of studying
process using modern technologies, different kind of methods and
future perspectives of e-learning in formal education. Theoretically
grounded and practically tested model of developing e-learning
methods using different technologies for different type of classroom,
which can be used in professor-s decision making process to choose
the most effective e-learning methods has been worked out.
Abstract: Recently, we have presented an initial implementation
of a model agent-based e-commerce system, which utilized a simple
price negotiation mechanism–English Auction. In this note we
discuss how a Dutch Auction involving multiple units of a product
can be included in our system. We present UML diagrams of
agents involved in price negotiations and briefly discuss rule-based
mechanism exemplifying Dutch Auction.
Abstract: Many metrics were proposed to evaluate the
characteristics of the analysis and design model of a given product
which in turn help to assess the quality of the product. Function point
metric is a measure of the 'functionality' delivery by the software.
This paper presents an analysis of a set of programs of a project
developed in Cµ through Function Points metric. Function points
are measured for a Data Flow Diagram (DFD) of the case developed
at initial stage. Lines of Codes (LOCs) and possible errors are
calculated with the help of measured Function Points (FPs). The
calculations are performed using suitable established functions.
Calculated LOCs and errors are compared with actual LOCs and
errors found at the time of analysis & design review, implementation
and testing. It has been observed that actual found errors are more
than calculated errors. On the basis of analysis and observations,
authors conclude that function point provides useful insight and helps
to analyze the drawbacks in the development process.
Abstract: Sensors possess several properties of physical
measures. Whether devices that convert a sensed signal into an
electrical signal, chemical sensors and biosensors, thus all these
sensors can be considered as an interface between the physical and
electrical equipment. The problem is the analysis of the multitudes of
saved settings as input variables. However, they do not all have the
same level of influence on the outputs. In order to identify the most
sensitive parameters, those that can guide users in gathering
information on the ground and in the process of model calibration
and sensitivity analysis for the effect of each change made.
Mathematical models used for processing become very complex.
In this paper a fuzzy rule-based system is proposed as a solution
for this problem. The system collects the available signals
information from sensors. Moreover, the system allows the study of
the influence of the various factors that take part in the decision
system. Since its inception fuzzy set theory has been regarded as a
formalism suitable to deal with the imprecision intrinsic to many
problems. At the same time, fuzzy sets allow to use symbolic models.
In this study an example was applied for resolving variety of
physiological parameters that define human health state. The
application system was done for medical diagnosis help. The inputs
are the signals expressed the cardiovascular system parameters, blood
pressure, Respiratory system paramsystem was done, it will be able
to predict the state of patient according any input values.
Abstract: In this paper we present a new method for over-height
vehicle detection in low headroom streets and highways using digital
video possessing. The accuracy and the lower price comparing to
present detectors like laser radars and the capability of providing
extra information like speed and height measurement make this
method more reliable and efficient. In this algorithm the features are
selected and tracked using KLT algorithm. A blob extraction
algorithm is also applied using background estimation and
subtraction. Then the world coordinates of features that are inside the
blobs are estimated using a noble calibration method. As, the heights
of the features are calculated, we apply a threshold to select overheight
features and eliminate others. The over-height features are
segmented using some association criteria and grouped using an
undirected graph. Then they are tracked through sequential frames.
The obtained groups refer to over-height vehicles in a scene.
Abstract: Cognitive Science appeared about 40 years ago,
subsequent to the challenge of the Artificial Intelligence, as common
territory for several scientific disciplines such as: IT, mathematics,
psychology, neurology, philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. The
new born science was justified by the complexity of the problems
related to the human knowledge on one hand, and on the other by the
fact that none of the above mentioned sciences could explain alone
the mental phenomena. Based on the data supplied by the
experimental sciences such as psychology or neurology, models of
the human mind operation are built in the cognition science. These
models are implemented in computer programs and/or electronic
circuits (specific to the artificial intelligence) – cognitive systems –
whose competences and performances are compared to the human
ones, leading to the psychology and neurology data reinterpretation,
respectively to the construction of new models. During these
processes if psychology provides the experimental basis, philosophy
and mathematics provides the abstraction level utterly necessary for
the intermission of the mentioned sciences.
The ongoing general problematic of the cognitive approach
provides two important types of approach: the computational one,
starting from the idea that the mental phenomenon can be reduced to
1 and 0 type calculus operations, and the connection one that
considers the thinking products as being a result of the interaction
between all the composing (included) systems. In the field of
psychology measurements in the computational register use classical
inquiries and psychometrical tests, generally based on calculus
methods. Deeming things from both sides that are representing the
cognitive science, we can notice a gap in psychological product
measurement possibilities, regarded from the connectionist
perspective, that requires the unitary understanding of the quality –
quantity whole. In such approach measurement by calculus proves to
be inefficient. Our researches, deployed for longer than 20 years,
lead to the conclusion that measuring by forms properly fits to the
connectionism laws and principles.
Abstract: The ever-growing usage of aspect-oriented
development methodology in the field of software engineering
requires tool support for both research environments and industry. So
far, tool support for many activities in aspect-oriented software
development has been proposed, to automate and facilitate their
development. For instance, the AJaTS provides a transformation
system to support aspect-oriented development and refactoring. In
particular, it is well established that the abstract interpretation of
programs, in any paradigm, pursued in static analysis is best served
by a high-level programs representation, such as Control Flow Graph
(CFG). This is why such analysis can more easily locate common
programmatic idioms for which helpful transformation are already
known as well as, association between the input program and
intermediate representation can be more closely maintained.
However, although the current researches define the good concepts
and foundations, to some extent, for control flow analysis of aspectoriented
programs but they do not provide a concrete tool that can
solely construct the CFG of these programs. Furthermore, most of
these works focus on addressing the other issues regarding Aspect-
Oriented Software Development (AOSD) such as testing or data flow
analysis rather than CFG itself. Therefore, this study is dedicated to
build an aspect-oriented control flow graph construction tool called
AJcFgraph Builder. The given tool can be applied in many software
engineering tasks in the context of AOSD such as, software testing,
software metrics, and so forth.
Abstract: Human-related information security breaches within organizations are primarily caused by employees who have not been made aware of the importance of protecting the information they work with. Information security awareness is accordingly attracting more attention from industry, because stakeholders are held accountable for the information with which they work. The authors developed an Information Security Retrieval and Awareness model – entitled “ISRA" – that is tailored specifically towards enhancing information security awareness in industry amongst all users of information, to address shortcomings in existing information security awareness models. This paper is principally aimed at expounding a prototype for the ISRA model to highlight the advantages of utilizing the model. The prototype will focus on the non-technical, humanrelated information security issues in industry. The prototype will ensure that all stakeholders in an organization are part of an information security awareness process, and that these stakeholders are able to retrieve specific information related to information security issues relevant to their job category, preventing them from being overburdened with redundant information.
Abstract: With major technological advances and to reduce the
cost of training apprentices for real-time critical systems, it was
necessary the development of Intelligent Tutoring Systems for
training apprentices in these systems. These systems, in general, have
interactive features so that the learning is actually more efficient,
making the learner more familiar with the mechanism in question. In
the home stage of learning, tests are performed to obtain the student's
income, a measure on their use. The aim of this paper is to present a
framework to model an Intelligent Tutoring Systems using the UML
language. The various steps of the analysis are considered the
diagrams required to build a general model, whose purpose is to
present the different perspectives of its development.
Abstract: Information regarding early onset neonatal sepsis
(EONS) pathogens may vary between regions. Global perspectives
showed Group B Streptococcal (GBS) as the most common causative
pathogens, but the widespread use of intrapartum antibiotics has
changed the pathogens pattern towards gram negative
microorganisms, especially E. coli. Objective of this study is to
describe the pathogens isolated, to assess current treatment and risk
of EONS. Records of 899 neonates born in three General Hospitals
between 2009 until 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Proven was
found in 22 (3%) neonates. The majority was isolated with gram
positive organisms, 17 (2.3%). All grams positive and most gram
negative organisms showed sensitivity to the tested antibiotics. Only
two rare gram negative organisms showed total resistant. Male was
possible risk of proven EONS. Although proven EONS remains
uncommon in Malaysia, nonetheless, the effect of intrapartum
antibiotics still required continuous surveillance.
Abstract: Data from 1731 Gentile di Puglia lambs, sired by 65 rams over a 5-year period were analyzed by a mixed model to estimate the variance components for heritability. The considered growth traits were: birth weight (BW), weight at 30 days of age (W30) and average daily gain from birth to 30 days of age (DG). Year of birth, sex of lamb, type of birth (single or twin), dam age at lambing and farm were significant sources of variation for all the considered growth traits. The average lamb weights were 3.85±0.16 kg at birth, 9.57±0.91 kg at 30 days of age and the average daily gain was 191±14 g. Estimates of heritability were 0.33±0.05, 0.41±0.06 and 0.16±0.05 respectively for the same traits. These values suggest there is a good opportunity to improve Gentile di Puglia lambs by selecting animals for growth traits.
Abstract: Design and land use are closely linked to the
energy efficiency levels for an urban area. The current city
planning practice does not involve an effective land useenergy
evaluation in its 'blueprint' urban plans. The study
proposed an appraisal method that can be embedded in GIS
programs using five planning criteria as how far a planner can
give away from the planning principles (criteria) for the most
energy output s/he can obtain. The case of Balcova, a district
in the Izmir Metropolitan area, is used conformingly for
evaluating the proposed master plan and the geothermal
energy (heating only) use for the concern district.
If the land use design were proposed accordingly at-most
energy efficiency (a 30% obtained), mainly increasing the
density around the geothermal wells and also proposing more
mixed use zones, we could have 17% distortion (infidelity to
the main planning principles) from the original plan. The
proposed method can be an effective tool for planners as
simulation media, of which calculations can be made by GIS
ready tools, to evaluate efficiency levels for different plan
proposals, letting to know how much energy saving causes
how much deviation from the other planning ideals. Lower
energy uses can be possible for different land use proposals
for various policy trials.
Abstract: In real-time networks a large number of application programs are relying on video data and heterogeneous data transmission techniques. The aim of this research is presenting a method for end-to-end vouch quality service in surface applicationlayer for sending video data in comparison form in wireless heterogeneous networks. This method tries to improve the video sending over the wireless heterogeneous networks with used techniques in surface layer, link and application. The offered method is showing a considerable improvement in quality observing by user. In addition to this, other specifications such as shortage of data load that had require to resending and limited the relation period length to require time for second data sending, help to be used the offered method in the wireless devices that have a limited energy. The presented method and the achieved improvement is simulated and presented in the NS-2 software.
Abstract: The selection of parents and breeding strategies for
the successful maize hybrid production will be facilitated by
heterotic groupings of parental lines and determination of combining
abilities of them. Fourteen maize inbred lines, used in maize breeding
programs in Iran, were crossed in a diallel mating design. The 91 F1
hybrids and the 14 parental lines were studied during two years at
four locations of Iran for investigation of combining ability of
gentypes for grain yield and to determine heterotic patterns among
germplasm sources, using both, the Griffing-s method and the biplot
approach for diallel analysis. The graphical representation offered by
biplot analysis allowed a rapid and effective overview of general
combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA)
effects of the inbred lines, their performance in crosses, as well as
grouping patterns of similar genotypes. GCA and SCA effects were
significant for grain yield (GY). Based on significant positive GCA
effects, the lines derived from LSC could be used as parent in crosses
to increase GY. The maximum best- parent heterosis values and
highest SCA effects resulted from crosses B73 × MO17 and A679 ×
MO17 for GY. The best heterotic patterns were LSC × RYD, which
would be potentially useful in maize breeding programs to obtain
high-yielding hybrids in the same climate of Iran.
Abstract: Heart failure is the most common reason of death
nowadays, but if the medical help is given directly, the patient-s life
may be saved in many cases. Numerous heart diseases can be
detected by means of analyzing electrocardiograms (ECG). Artificial
Neural Networks (ANN) are computer-based expert systems that
have proved to be useful in pattern recognition tasks. ANN can be
used in different phases of the decision-making process, from
classification to diagnostic procedures. This work concentrates on a
review followed by a novel method.
The purpose of the review is to assess the evidence of healthcare
benefits involving the application of artificial neural networks to the
clinical functions of diagnosis, prognosis and survival analysis, in
ECG signals. The developed method is based on a compound neural
network (CNN), to classify ECGs as normal or carrying an
AtrioVentricular heart Block (AVB). This method uses three
different feed forward multilayer neural networks. A single output
unit encodes the probability of AVB occurrences. A value between 0
and 0.1 is the desired output for a normal ECG; a value between 0.1
and 1 would infer an occurrence of an AVB. The results show that
this compound network has a good performance in detecting AVBs,
with a sensitivity of 90.7% and a specificity of 86.05%. The accuracy
value is 87.9%.
Abstract: Models are placed by modeling paradigm at the center of development process. These models are represented by languages, like UML the language standardized by the OMG which became necessary for development. Moreover the ontology engineering paradigm places ontologies at the center of development process; in this paradigm we find OWL the principal language for knowledge representation. Building ontologies from scratch is generally a difficult task. The bridging between UML and OWL appeared on several regards such as the classes and associations. In this paper, we have to profit from convergence between UML and OWL to propose an approach based on Meta-Modelling and Graph Grammars and registered in the MDA architecture for the automatic generation of OWL ontologies from UML class diagrams. The transformation is based on transformation rules; the level of abstraction in these rules is close to the application in order to have usable ontologies. We illustrate this approach by an example.