Abstract: Many real-world data sets consist of a very high dimensional feature space. Most clustering techniques use the distance or similarity between objects as a measure to build clusters. But in high dimensional spaces, distances between points become relatively uniform. In such cases, density based approaches may give better results. Subspace Clustering algorithms automatically identify lower dimensional subspaces of the higher dimensional feature space in which clusters exist. In this paper, we propose a new clustering algorithm, ISC – Intelligent Subspace Clustering, which tries to overcome three major limitations of the existing state-of-art techniques. ISC determines the input parameter such as є – distance at various levels of Subspace Clustering which helps in finding meaningful clusters. The uniform parameters approach is not suitable for different kind of databases. ISC implements dynamic and adaptive determination of Meaningful clustering parameters based on hierarchical filtering approach. Third and most important feature of ISC is the ability of incremental learning and dynamic inclusion and exclusions of subspaces which lead to better cluster formation.
Abstract: There is strong evidence that water channel proteins
'aquaporins (AQPs)' are central components in plant-water relations
as well as a number of other physiological parameters. We had
previously reported the isolation of 24 plasma membrane intrinsic
protein (PIP) type AQPs. However, the gene numbers in rice and the
polyploid nature of bread wheat indicated a high probability of
further genes in the latter. The present work focused on identification
of further AQP isoforms in bread wheat. With the use of altered
primer design, we identified five genes homologous, designated
PIP1;5b, PIP2;9b, TaPIP2;2, TaPIP2;2a, TaPIP2;2b. Sequence
alignments indicate PIP1;5b, PIP2;9b are likely to be homeologues of
two previously reported genes while the other three are new genes
and could be homeologs of each other. The results indicate further
AQP diversity in wheat and the sequence data will enable physical
mapping of these genes to identify their genomes as well as genetic to
determine their association with any quantitative trait loci (QTLs)
associated with plant-water relation such as salinity or drought
tolerance.
Abstract: Nowadays in applications of renewable energy sources
it is important to develop powerful and energy-saving photovoltaic
converters and to keep the prescriptions of the standards. In grid
connected PV converters the obvious solution to increase the
efficiency is to reduce the switching losses. Our new developed
control method reduces the switching losses and keeps the limitations
of the harmonic distortion standards. The base idea of the method is
the utilization of 3-state control causing discontinuous current mode
at low input power. In the following sections the control theory, the
realizations and the simulation results are presented.
Abstract: Checkpointing is one of the commonly used techniques to provide fault-tolerance in distributed systems so that the system can operate even if one or more components have failed. However, mobile computing systems are constrained by low bandwidth, mobility, lack of stable storage, frequent disconnections and limited battery life. Hence, checkpointing protocols having lesser number of synchronization messages and fewer checkpoints are preferred in mobile environment. There are two different approaches, although not orthogonal, to checkpoint mobile computing systems namely, time-based and index-based. Our protocol is a fusion of these two approaches, though not first of its kind. In the present exposition, an index-based checkpointing protocol has been developed, which uses time to indirectly coordinate the creation of consistent global checkpoints for mobile computing systems. The proposed algorithm is non-blocking, adaptive, and does not use any control message. Compared to other contemporary checkpointing algorithms, it is computationally more efficient because it takes lesser number of checkpoints and does not need to compute dependency relationships. A brief account of important and relevant works in both the fields, time-based and index-based, has also been included in the presentation.
Abstract: Security management has changed from the
management of security equipments and useful interface to manager.
It analyzes the whole security conditions of network and preserves the
network services from attacks. Secure router technology has security
functions, such as intrusion detection, IPsec(IP Security) and access
control, are applied to legacy router for secure networking. It controls
an unauthorized router access and detects an illegal network intrusion.
This paper relates to a security engine management of router based on
a security policy, which is the definition of security function against a
network intrusion. This paper explains the security policy and designs
the structure of security engine management framework.
Abstract: This paper explores the changing trend in citizenship
norms among young citizens from various ethnic groups in Malaysia
and the extent to which it influences the participation of young
citizens in political and civil issues. Embedded in democratic
constitutions are the rights and freedoms that accompany citizenship,
and these rights and freedoms include participation. Participation in
democracies should go beyond voting; it should include taking part in
the governance process. The political process is not at risk even
though politics does not work as it did in the past. A national sample
of 1697 respondents between the ages of 21 and 40 years were
interviewed in January 2011. The findings show that respondents
embrace an engaged-citizenship norm more than they do the
traditional duty-citizen norm. Among the ethnic groups, the Chinese
show lower means in both citizenship norms compared with other
ethnic groups, namely, the Malays and the Indians. The duty-citizen
norm correlates higher with political participation than with civic
participation. On the other hand, the engaged-citizen norm correlates
higher with civic participation than with political participation.
Abstract: Waiting times and queues are a daily problem for theme parks. Fast lines or priority queues appear as a solution for a specific segment of customers, that is, tourists who are willing to pay to avoid waiting. This paper analyzes the fast line system and explores the factors that affect the decision to purchase a fast line pass. A greater understanding of these factors may help companies to design appropriate products and services. This conceptual paper was based on a literature review in marketing and consumer behavior. Additional research was identified in related disciplines such as leisure studies, psychology, and sociology. A conceptual framework of the factors influencing the decision to purchase a fast line pass is presented.
Abstract: The dynamic speckle or biospeckle is an interference
phenomenon generated at the reflection of a coherent light by an
active surface or even by a particulate or living body surface. The
above mentioned phenomenon gave scientific support to a method
named biospeckle which has been employed to study seed viability,
biological activity, tissue senescence, tissue water content, fruit
bruising, etc. Since the above mentioned method is not invasive and
yields numerical values, it can be considered for possible automation
associated to several processes, including selection and sorting.
Based on these preliminary considerations, this research work
proposed to study the interaction of a laser beam with vegetative
samples by measuring the incident light intensity and the transmitted
light beam intensity at several vegetative slabs of varying thickness.
Tests were carried on fifteen slices of apple tissue divided into three
thickness groups, i.e., 4 mm, 5 mm, 18 mm and 22 mm. A diode laser
beam of 10mW and 632 nm wavelength and a Samsung digital
camera were employed to carry the tests. Outgoing images were
analyzed by comparing the gray gradient of a fixed image column of
each image to obtain a laser penetration scale into the tissue,
according to the slice thickness.
Abstract: This paper presents Qmulus- a Cloud Based GPS
Model. Qmulus is designed to compute the best possible route which
would lead the driver to the specified destination in the shortest time
while taking into account real-time constraints. Intelligence
incorporated to Qmulus-s design makes it capable of generating and
assigning priorities to a list of optimal routes through customizable
dynamic updates. The goal of this design is to minimize travel and
cost overheads, maintain reliability and consistency, and implement
scalability and flexibility. The model proposed focuses on
reducing the bridge between a Client Application and a Cloud
service so as to render seamless operations. Qmulus-s system
model is closely integrated and its concept has the potential to be
extended into several other integrated applications making it capable
of adapting to different media and resources.
Abstract: Order reduction of linear-time invariant systems employing two methods; one using the advantages of Routh approximation and other by an evolutionary technique is presented in this paper. In Routh approximation method the denominator of the reduced order model is obtained using Routh approximation while the numerator of the reduced order model is determined using the indirect approach of retaining the time moments and/or Markov parameters of original system. By this method the reduced order model guarantees stability if the original high order model is stable. In the second method Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is employed to reduce the higher order model. PSO method is based on the minimization of the Integral Squared Error (ISE) between the transient responses of original higher order model and the reduced order model pertaining to a unit step input. Both the methods are illustrated through numerical examples.
Abstract: In this paper, a second order autoregressive (AR)
model is proposed to discriminate alcoholics using single trial
gamma band Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) signals using 3 different
classifiers: Simplified Fuzzy ARTMAP (SFA) neural network (NN),
Multilayer-perceptron-backpropagation (MLP-BP) NN and Linear
Discriminant (LD). Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were
recorded from alcoholic and control subjects during the presentation
of visuals from Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set. Single trial
VEP signals were extracted from EEG signals using Elliptic filtering
in the gamma band spectral range. A second order AR model was
used as gamma band VEP exhibits pseudo-periodic behaviour and
second order AR is optimal to represent this behaviour. This
circumvents the requirement of having to use some criteria to choose
the correct order. The averaged discrimination errors of 2.6%, 2.8%
and 11.9% were given by LD, MLP-BP and SFA classifiers. The
high LD discrimination results show the validity of the proposed
method to discriminate between alcoholic subjects.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new version of the Particle
Swarm Optimization (PSO) namely, Modified PSO (MPSO) for
model order formulation of Single Input Single Output (SISO) linear
time invariant continuous systems. In the General PSO, the
movement of a particle is governed by three behaviors namely
inertia, cognitive and social. The cognitive behavior helps the
particle to remember its previous visited best position. In Modified
PSO technique split the cognitive behavior into two sections like
previous visited best position and also previous visited worst
position. This modification helps the particle to search the target very
effectively. MPSO approach is proposed to formulate the higher
order model. The method based on the minimization of error
between the transient responses of original higher order model and
the reduced order model pertaining to the unit step input. The results
obtained are compared with the earlier techniques utilized, to validate
its ease of computation. The proposed method is illustrated through
numerical example from literature.
Abstract: A direct connection between ElectroEncephaloGram
(EEG) and the genetic information of individuals has been
investigated by neurophysiologists and psychiatrists since 1960-s;
and it opens a new research area in the science. This paper focuses on
the person identification based on feature extracted from the EEG
which can show a direct connection between EEG and the genetic
information of subjects. In this work the full EO EEG signal of
healthy individuals are estimated by an autoregressive (AR) model
and the AR parameters are extracted as features. Here for feature
vector constitution, two methods have been proposed; in the first
method the extracted parameters of each channel are used as a
feature vector in the classification step which employs a competitive
neural network and in the second method a combination of different
channel parameters are used as a feature vector. Correct classification
scores at the range of 80% to 100% reveal the potential of our
approach for person classification/identification and are in agreement
to the previous researches showing evidence that the EEG signal
carries genetic information. The novelty of this work is in the
combination of AR parameters and the network type (competitive
network) that we have used. A comparison between the first and the
second approach imply preference of the second one.
Abstract: Estimation of stature is an important step in developing a biological profile for human identification. It may provide a valuable indicator for unknown individual in a population. The aim of this study was to analyses the relationship between stature and lower limb dimensions in the Malaysian population. The sample comprised 100 corpses, which included 69 males and 31 females between age ranges of 20 to 90 years old. The parameters measured were stature, thigh length, lower leg length, leg length, foot length, foot height and foot breadth. Results showed that mean values in males were significantly higher than those in females (P < 0.05). There were significant correlations between lower limb dimensions and stature. Cross-validation of the equation on 100 individuals showed close approximation between known stature and estimated stature. It was concluded that lower limb dimensions were useful for estimation of stature, which should be validated in future studies.
Abstract: Does education matter to the quality of our life? The results of extensive studies offer an affirmative answer to this question: high education levels are positively associated with higher income, with more highly qualified professions, with lower risk of unemployment, with better physical health and also, it is said, with more happiness. However, exploring these relationships is far from straightforward. Aside from educational credentials, what properties distinguish functionally literate individuals? How can their personal level of satisfaction be measured? What are the social mechanisms whereby education affects well-being?Using a literacy index and several measures for well-being developed by secondary analysis of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey database, this investigation examined the relationship between literacy skills and subjective wellbeing in several OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. Special attention was been addressed to Italy, and in particular to two regions representing territorial differences in this country: Piedmont and Campania.
Abstract: In the upgrade process of enterprise information
systems, whether new systems will be success and their development
will be efficient, depends on how to deal with and utilize those legacy systems. We propose an evaluation system, which comprehensively
describes the capacity of legacy information systems in five aspects.
Then a practical legacy systems evaluation method is scripted. Base on
the evaluation result, we put forward 4 kinds of migration strategy: eliminated, maintenance, modification, encapsulating. The methods
and strategies play important roles in practice.
Abstract: Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) has demonstrated
far superior to previous Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and
standard JPEG in natural as well as medical image compression. Due
to its localization properties both in special and transform domain,
the quantization error introduced in DWT does not propagate
globally as in DCT. Moreover, DWT is a global approach that avoids
block artifacts as in the JPEG. However, recent reports on natural
image compression have shown the superior performance of
contourlet transform, a new extension to the wavelet transform in two
dimensions using nonseparable and directional filter banks,
compared to DWT. It is mostly due to the optimality of contourlet in
representing the edges when they are smooth curves. In this work, we
investigate this fact for medical images, especially for CT images,
which has not been reported yet. To do that, we propose a
compression scheme in transform domain and compare the
performance of both DWT and contourlet transform in PSNR for
different compression ratios (CR) using this scheme. The results
obtained using different type of computed tomography images show
that the DWT has still good performance at lower CR but contourlet
transform performs better at higher CR.
Abstract: Supply chain management has become more
challenging with the emerging trend of globalization and
sustainability. Lately, research related to perishable products supply
chains, in particular agricultural food products, has emerged. This is
attributed to the additional complexity of managing this type of
supply chains with the recently increased concern of public health,
food quality, food safety, demand and price variability, and the
limited lifetime of these products. Inventory management for agrifood
supply chains is of vital importance due to the product
perishability and customers- strive for quality. This paper
concentrates on developing a simulation model of a real life case
study of a two echelon production-distribution system for agri-food
products. The objective is to improve a set of performance measures
by developing a simulation model that helps in evaluating and
analysing the performance of these supply chains. Simulation results
showed that it can help in improving overall system performance.
Abstract: Antimicrobial (AM) starch-based films were
developed by incorporating chitosan and lauric acid as antimicrobial
agent into starch-based film. Chitosan has wide range of applications
as a biomaterial, but barriers still exist to its broader use due to its
physical and chemical limitations. In this work, a series of
starch/chitosan (SC) blend films containing 8% of lauric acid was
prepared by casting method. The structure of the film was
characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Xray
diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
The results indicated that there were strong interactions were present
between the hydroxyl groups of starch and the amino groups of
chitosan resulting in a good miscibility between starch and chitosan
in the blend films. Physical properties and optical properties of the
AM starch-based film were evaluated. The AM starch-based films
incorporated with chitosan and lauric acid showed an improvement in
water vapour transmission rate (WVTR) and addition of starch
content provided more transparent films while the yellowness of the
film attributed to the higher chitosan content. The improvement in
water barrier properties was mainly attributed to the hydrophobicity
of lauric acid and optimum chitosan or starch content. AM starch
based film also showed excellent oxygen barrier. Obtaining films
with good oxygen permeability would be an indication of the
potential use of these antimicrobial packaging as a natural packaging
and an alternative packaging to the synthetic polymer to protect food
from oxidation reactions
Abstract: In this paper, a data mining model to SMEs for detecting financial and operational risk indicators by data mining is presenting. The identification of the risk factors by clarifying the relationship between the variables defines the discovery of knowledge from the financial and operational variables. Automatic and estimation oriented information discovery process coincides the definition of data mining. During the formation of model; an easy to understand, easy to interpret and easy to apply utilitarian model that is far from the requirement of theoretical background is targeted by the discovery of the implicit relationships between the data and the identification of effect level of every factor. In addition, this paper is based on a project which was funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).