Mathematical Model for the Transmission of Two Plasmodium Malaria

Malaria is transmitted to the human by biting of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. This disease is a serious, acute and chronic relapsing infection to humans. Fever, nausea, vomiting, back pain, increased sweating anemia and splenomegaly (enlargement of the spleen) are the symptoms of the patients who infected with this disease. It is caused by the multiplication of protozoa parasite of the genus Plasmodium. Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale are the four types of Plasmodium malaria. A mathematical model for the transmission of Plasmodium Malaria is developed in which the human and vector population are divided into two classes, the susceptible and the infectious classes. In this paper, we formulate the dynamical model of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria. The standard dynamical analysis is used for analyzing the behavior for the transmission of this disease. The Threshold condition is found and numerical results are shown to confirm the analytical results.

Automatic Feature Recognition for GPR Image Processing

This paper presents an automatic feature recognition method based on center-surround difference detecting and fuzzy logic that can be applied in ground-penetrating radar (GPR) image processing. Adopted center-surround difference method, the salient local image regions are extracted from the GPR images as features of detected objects. And fuzzy logic strategy is used to match the detected features and features in template database. This way, the problem of objects detecting, which is the key problem in GPR image processing, can be converted into two steps, feature extracting and matching. The contributions of these skills make the system have the ability to deal with changes in scale, antenna and noises. The results of experiments also prove that the system has higher ratio of features sensing in using GPR to image the subsurface structures.

TOPSIS Method for Supplier Selection Problem

Supplier selection, in real situation, is affected by several qualitative and quantitative factors and is one of the most important activities of purchasing department. Since at the time of evaluating suppliers against the criteria or factors, decision makers (DMS) do not have precise, exact and complete information, supplier selection becomes more difficult. In this case, Grey theory helps us to deal with this problem of uncertainty. Here, we apply Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method to evaluate and select the best supplier by using interval fuzzy numbers. Through this article, we compare TOPSIS with some other approaches and afterward demonstrate that the concept of TOPSIS is very important for ranking and selecting right supplier.

A Novel Prediction Method for Tag SNP Selection using Genetic Algorithm based on KNN

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) hold much promise as a basis for disease-gene association. However, research is limited by the cost of genotyping the tremendous number of SNPs. Therefore, it is important to identify a small subset of informative SNPs, the so-called tag SNPs. This subset consists of selected SNPs of the genotypes, and accurately represents the rest of the SNPs. Furthermore, an effective evaluation method is needed to evaluate prediction accuracy of a set of tag SNPs. In this paper, a genetic algorithm (GA) is applied to tag SNP problems, and the K-nearest neighbor (K-NN) serves as a prediction method of tag SNP selection. The experimental data used was taken from the HapMap project; it consists of genotype data rather than haplotype data. The proposed method consistently identified tag SNPs with considerably better prediction accuracy than methods from the literature. At the same time, the number of tag SNPs identified was smaller than the number of tag SNPs in the other methods. The run time of the proposed method was much shorter than the run time of the SVM/STSA method when the same accuracy was reached.

The Influence of Institutional Shareholder Activism as a Corporate Governance Monitoring Mechanism in Malaysia

Not many studies have been undertaken on shareholder activism in emerging economies, including Malaysia. Shareholder activism in emerging economies is on the rise. This paper seeks to comprehend the elements of this activism that are unique to Malaysia, specifically with respect to how the agency problem is controlled through shareholder activism in improving corporate governance practices within target companies. Through shareholder activism, shareholders make contact with a target company to voice their dissatisfaction, suggestions, or recommendations. This paper utilises agency theory to explain institutional shareholder activism. This theory has been extensively used within literature on corporate governance with regards to shareholder activism. The effectiveness of shareholder activism in improving corporate governance will be examined as well. This research provides a further understanding of shareholder activism in emerging economies, such as Malaysia; this research also has the potential to enhance shareholder activism and corporate governance practices in general.

Tourist Awareness of Environmental and Recreational Behaviors at the Guandu Wetland, North Taiwan

The aim of this study is to discuss the relationship between tourist awareness of environmental issues and their own recreational behaviors in the Taipei Guandu Wetland. A total of 392 questionnaires were gathered for data analysis using descriptive statistics, t-testing, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and least significant difference (LSD) post hoc comparisons. The results showed that most of the visitors there enjoying the beautiful scenery are 21 to 30 years old with a college education. The means and standard deviations indicate that tourists express a positive degree of cognition of environmental issues and recreational behaviors. They suggest that polluting the environment is harmful to the natural ecosystem and that the natural resources of ecotourism are fragile, as well as expressing a high degree of recognition of the need to protect wetlands. Most of respondents are cognizant of the regulations proposed by the Guandu Wetland administration which asks that users exercise self-control and follow recommended guidelines when traveling the wetland. There were significant differences in the degree of cognition related to the variables of age, number of visits and reasons for visiting. We found that most respondents with relatively high levels of education would like to learn more about the wetland and are supportive of its conservation.

Finite Element Analysis of Cooling Time and Residual Strains in Cold Spray Deposited Titanium Particles

In this article, using finite element analysis (FEA) and an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), cold-sprayed titanium particles on a steel substrate is investigated in term of cooling time and the development of residual strains. Three cooling-down models of sprayed particles after deposition stage are simulated and discussed: the first model (m1) considers conduction effect to the substrate only, the second model (m2) considers both conduction as well as convection effect to the environment, and the third model (m3) which is the same as the second model but with the substrate heated to a near particle temperature before spraying. Thereafter, residual strains developed in the third model is compared with the experimental measurement of residual strains, which involved a Bruker D8 Advance Diffractometer using CuKa radiation (40kV, 40mA) monochromatised with a graphite sample monochromator. For deposition conditions of this study, a good correlation was found to exist between the FEA results and XRD measurements of residual strains.

Bone Proteome Study in Ovariectomised Rats Supplemented with Palm Vitamin E

Supplementation of palm vitamin E has been reported to prevent loss of bone density in ovariectomised female rats. The mechanism by which palm vitamin E exerts these effects is still unknown. We hypothesized that palm vitamin E may act by preventing the protein expression changes. Two dimensional poly acyrilamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) and PD Quest software genomic solutions Investigator (proteomics) was used to analyze the differential protein expression profile in femoral and humeri bones harvested from three groups of rats; sham-operated rats (SO), ovariectomised rats (Ovx) and ovariectomised rats supplemented for 2 months with palm vitamin E. The results showed that there were over 300 valued spot on each of the groups PVE and OVX as compared to about 200 in SO. Comparison between the differential protein expression between OVX and PVE groups showed that ten spots were down –regulated in OVX but up-regulated in PVE. The ten differential spots were separately named P1-P10. The identification and understanding of the pathway of the differential protein expression among the groups is ongoing and may account for the molecular mechanism through which palm vitamin E exert its anti-osteoporotic effect.

Testing of DISAL D240 and D420 Ceramic Tool Materials with an Interrupted Cut Simulator

This paper presents a solution for ceramic cutting tools availability in interrupted machining. Experiments were performed on a special fixture – the interrupted cut simulator. This fixture was constructed at our Department of Machining and Assembly within the scope of a project by the Czech Science Foundation. The goals of the tests were to contribute to the wider usage of these cutting materials in machining, especially in interrupted machining. Through the centuries, producers of ceramic cutting tools have taken big steps forward. Namely, increasing durability in maintaining high levels of strength and hardness lends an advantage. Some producers of these materials advise cutting inserts for interrupted machining at the present time [1, 2].

Is China Replacing US in the International Monetary System?

The wisest economic decision of United States in the 20th century was establishing the favorable international monetary system, and capturing the leadership position in it. This decision gave economic hegemony to the US for the next more than 7 decades. The continuation of this hegemony till the next decade seems difficult as the US economy is under continuous streams of recessions since 2007. On the other hand, Chinese economy is progressing with a very fast speed and is estimated to pass the US economy till 2025, in various aspects. Will the US be able to continue its leadership in the IMS? Will China replace US in the international monetary system? The answers to these questions have been explored by comparing the economic competitiveness of US and China, with respect to each other. The paper concludes that the change in global economic environment will compel US to share the leadership of international monetary system with China. This sharing will solve most problems of the current IMS, but will also birth some new problems.

Wasp Venom Peptides may play a role in the Pathogenesis of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis in Humans: A Structural Similarity Analysis

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) has been reported to develop after a hymenoptera sting, but its pathogenesis is not known in detail. Myelin basic protein (MBP)- specific T cells have been detected in the blood of patients with ADEM, and a proportion of these patients develop multiple sclerosis (MS). In an attempt to understand the mechanisms underlying ADEM, molecular mimicry between hymenoptera venom peptides and the human immunodominant MBP peptide was scrutinized, based on the sequence and structural similarities, whether it was the root of the disease. The results suggest that the three wasp venom peptides have low sequence homology with the human immunodominant MBP residues 85-99. Structural similarity analysis among the three venom peptides and the MS-related HLA-DR2b (DRA, DRB1*1501)-associated immunodominant MHC binding/TCR contact residues 88-93, VVHFFK showed that hyaluronidase residues 7-12, phospholipase A1 residues 98-103, and antigen 5 residues 109-114 showed a high degree of similarity 83.3%, 100%, and 83.3% respectively. In conclusion, some wasp venom peptides, particularly phospholipase A1, may potentially act as the molecular motifs of the human 3HLA-DR2b-associated immunodominant MBP88-93, and possibly present a mechanism for induction of wasp sting-associated ADEM.

Service Identification Approach to SOA Development

Service identification is one of the main activities in the modeling of a service-oriented solution, and therefore errors made during identification can flow down through detailed design and implementation activities that may necessitate multiple iterations, especially in building composite applications. Different strategies exist for how to identify candidate services that each of them has its own benefits and trade offs. The approach presented in this paper proposes a selective identification of services approach, based on in depth business process analysis coupled with use cases and existing assets analysis and goal service modeling. This article clearly emphasizes the key activities need for the analysis and service identification to build a optimized service oriented architecture. In contrast to other approaches this article mentions some best practices and steps, wherever appropriate, to point out the vagueness involved in service identification.

Auto Classification for Search Intelligence

This paper proposes an auto-classification algorithm of Web pages using Data mining techniques. We consider the problem of discovering association rules between terms in a set of Web pages belonging to a category in a search engine database, and present an auto-classification algorithm for solving this problem that are fundamentally based on Apriori algorithm. The proposed technique has two phases. The first phase is a training phase where human experts determines the categories of different Web pages, and the supervised Data mining algorithm will combine these categories with appropriate weighted index terms according to the highest supported rules among the most frequent words. The second phase is the categorization phase where a web crawler will crawl through the World Wide Web to build a database categorized according to the result of the data mining approach. This database contains URLs and their categories.

Valuing Patents on Market Reaction to Patent Infringement Litigations

Innovation is more important in any companies. However, it is not easy to measure the innovation performance correctly. Patent is one of measuring index nowadays. This paper wants to purpose an approach for valuing patents based on market reaction to patent infringement litigations. The interesting phenomenon is found from collection of patent infringement litigation events. That is if any patent litigation event occurs the stock value will follow changing. The plaintiffs- stock value raises some percentage. According to this interesting phenomenon, the relationship between patent litigation and stock value is tested and verified. And then, the stock value variation is used to deduce the infringed patents- value. The purpose of this study is providing another concept model to evaluate the infringed patents. This study can provide a decision assist system to help drafting patent litigation strategy and determine the technology value

Mitigation of ISI for Next Generation Wireless Channels in Outdoor Vehicular Environments

In order to accommodate various multimedia services, next generation wireless networks are characterized by very high transmission bit rates. Thus, in such systems and networks, the received signal is not only limited by noise but - especially with increasing symbols rate often more significantly by the intersymbol interference (ISI) caused by the time dispersive radio channels such as those are used in this work. This paper deals with the study of the performance of detector for high bit rate transmission on some worst case models of frequency selective fading channels for outdoor mobile radio environments. This paper deals with a number of different wireless channels with different power profiles and different number of resolvable paths. All the radio channels generated in this paper are for outdoor vehicular environments with Doppler spread of 100 Hz. A carrier frequency of 1800 MHz is used and all the channels used in this work are such that they are useful for next generation wireless systems. Schemes for mitigation of ISI with adaptive equalizers of different types have been investigated and their performances have been investigated in terms of BER measured as a function of SNR.

Evaluation Techniques of Photography in Visual Communications in Iran

Although a picture can be automatically a graphic work, but especially in the field of graphics and images based on the idea of advertising and graphic design will be prepared and photographers to realize the design using his own knowledge and skills to help does. It is evident that knowledge of photography, photographer and designer of the facilities, fields of reaching a higher level of quality offers. At the same time do not have a graphic designer is also skilled photographer, but can execute your idea may delegate to an expert photographer. Using technology and methods in all fields of photography, graphic art may be applicable. But most of its application in Iran, in works such as packaging, posters, Bill Board, advertising, brochures and catalogs are. In this study, we review how the images and techniques in the chart should be used in Iranian graphic photo what impact has left. Using photography techniques and procedures can be designed and helped advance the goals graphic. Technique could not determine the idea. But what is important to think about design and photography and his creativity can flourish as a tool to be effective graphic designer in mind. Computer software to help it's very promotes creativity techniques shall graphic designer but also it is as a tool. Using images in various fields, especially graphic arts and only because it is not being documented, but applications are beautiful. As to his photographic style from today is graphics. Graphic works try to affect impacts on their audience. Hence the photo as an important factor is attention. The other hand saw the man with the extent of forgiving and understanding people's image, instead of using the word to your files, allows large messages and concepts should be sent in the shortest time. Posters, advertisements, brochures, catalog and packaging products very diverse agricultural, industrial and food could not be self-image. Today, the use of graphic images for a big score and the photos to richen the role graphic design plays a major.

Web Log Mining by an Improved AprioriAll Algorithm

This paper sets forth the possibility and importance about applying Data Mining in Web logs mining and shows some problems in the conventional searching engines. Then it offers an improved algorithm based on the original AprioriAll algorithm which has been used in Web logs mining widely. The new algorithm adds the property of the User ID during the every step of producing the candidate set and every step of scanning the database by which to decide whether an item in the candidate set should be put into the large set which will be used to produce next candidate set. At the meantime, in order to reduce the number of the database scanning, the new algorithm, by using the property of the Apriori algorithm, limits the size of the candidate set in time whenever it is produced. Test results show the improved algorithm has a more lower complexity of time and space, better restrain noise and fit the capacity of memory.

Some Peculiarities of Growth and Functional Activity of Escherichia coli Strain from Probiotic Formula “ASAP“

It has been shown that pH 7,3 and 37 0C are the optimal condition for the growth of E. coli “ASAP". The cells grow well on Glucose, Lactose, D-Mannitol, D-Sorbitol, (+)-Xylose, L- (+)-Arabinose and Dulcitol. No growth has been observed on Sucrose, Inositol, Phenylalanine, and Tryptophan. The strain is sensitive to a range of antibiotics. The present study has demonstrated that E. coli “ASAP" inhibit the growth of S. enterica ATCC #700931 in vitro. The studies on conjugating activity has revealed no conjugant of E. coli “ASAP" with plasmid strains E. coli G35#59 and S. enterica ATCC #700931. On the other hand, the conjugants with low frequencies were obtained from E. coli “ASAP" with E. coli G35#61, and E. coli “ASAP" with randomly chosen isolate from healthy human gut microflora: E. coli E6. The results of present study have demonstrated improvements in gut microflora condition of patients with different diseases after the administration of “ASAP"

Sensorless Sliding Power Control of Doubly Fed Induction Wind Generator Based on MRAS Observer

In this paper present a sensorless maximum wind power extraction for variable speed constant frequency (VSCF) wind power generation systems with a doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG), to ensure stability and to impose the ideal feedback control solution despite of model uncertainties , using the principles of an active and reactive power controller (DPC) a robust sliding mode power control has been proposed to guarantees fast response times and precise control actions for control the active and reactive power independently. The simulation results in MATLAB/Simulink platform confirmed the good dynamic performance of power control approach for DFIGbased variable speed wind turbines.

Numerical Simulation of Restenosis in a Stented Coronary Artery

Nowadays, cardiac disease is one of the most common cause of death. Each year almost one million of angioplasty interventions and stents implantations are made all over the world. Unfortunately, in 20-30% of cases neointimal proliferations leads to restenosis occurring within the following period of 3-6 months. Three major factors are believed to contribute mostly to the edge restenosis: (a) mechanical damage of the artery-s wall caused by the stent implantation, (b) interaction between the stent and the blood constituents and (c) endothelial growth stimulation by small (lower that 1.5 Pa) and oscillating wall shear stress. Assuming that this last actor is particularly important, a numerical model of restenosis basing on wall shear stress distribution in the stented artery was elaborated. A numerical simulations of the development of in-stent restenosis have been performed and realistic geometric patterns of a progressing lumen reduction have been obtained