Abstract: Association rules are an important problem in data
mining. Massively increasing volume of data in real life databases
has motivated researchers to design novel and incremental algorithms
for association rules mining. In this paper, we propose an incremental
association rules mining algorithm that integrates shocking
interestingness criterion during the process of building the model. A
new interesting measure called shocking measure is introduced. One
of the main features of the proposed approach is to capture the user
background knowledge, which is monotonically augmented. The
incremental model that reflects the changing data and the user beliefs
is attractive in order to make the over all KDD process more
effective and efficient. We implemented the proposed approach and
experiment it with some public datasets and found the results quite
promising.
Abstract: Mitochondria are dynamic organelles, capable to
interact with each other. While the number of mitochondria in a cell
varies, their quality and functionality depends on the operation of
fusion, fission, motility and mitophagy. Nowadays, several
researches declare as an important factor in neurogenerative diseases
the disruptions in the regulation of mitochondrial dynamics. In this
paper a stochastic model in BioAmbients calculus is presented,
concerning mitochondrial fusion and its distribution in the renewal of
mitochondrial population in a cell. This model describes the
successive and dependent stages of protein synthesis, protein-s
activation and merging of two independent mitochondria.
Abstract: Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in
Zimbabwe. Addressing vitamin A deficiency has the potential of
enhancing resistance to disease and reducing mortality especially in
children less than 5 years. We implemented and adapted vitamin A
outreach supplementation strategy within the National Immunization
Days and Extended Programme of Immunization in a rural district in
Zimbabwe. Despite usual operational challenges faced this approach
enabled the district to increase delivery of supplementation coverage.
This paper describes the outreach strategy that was implemented in
the remote rural district. The strategy covered 63 outreach sites with
2 sites being covered per day and visited once per month for the
whole year. Coverage reached 71% in an area of previous coverage
rates of around less than 50%. We recommend further exploration of
this strategy by others working in similar circumstances. This
strategy can be a potential way for use by Scaling-Up-Nutrition
member states.
Abstract: An automated wood recognition system is designed to
classify tropical wood species.The wood features are extracted based
on two feature extractors: Basic Grey Level Aura Matrix (BGLAM)
technique and statistical properties of pores distribution (SPPD)
technique. Due to the nonlinearity of the tropical wood species
separation boundaries, a pre classification stage is proposed which
consists ofKmeans clusteringand kernel discriminant analysis (KDA).
Finally, Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) classifier and KNearest
Neighbour (KNN) are implemented for comparison purposes.
The study involves comparison of the system with and without pre
classification using KNN classifier and LDA classifier.The results
show that the inclusion of the pre classification stage has improved
the accuracy of both the LDA and KNN classifiers by more than
12%.
Abstract: Although e-mail is the most efficient and popular communication method, unwanted and mass unsolicited e-mails, also called spam mail, endanger the existence of the mail system. This paper proposes a new algorithm called Dynamic Weighted Majority Concept Drift Detection (DWM-CDD) for content-based filtering. The design purposes of DWM-CDD are first to accurate the performance of the previously proposed algorithms, and second to speed up the time to construct the model. The results show that DWM-CDD can detect both sudden and gradual changes quickly and accurately. Moreover, the time needed for model construction is less than previously proposed algorithms.
Abstract: The gas safety management system using an
intelligent gas meter we proposed is to monitor flow and
pressure of gas, earthquake, temperature, smoke and leak of
methane. Then our system takes safety measures to protect a
serious risk by the result of an event, to communicate with a
wall-pad including a gateway by zigbee network in buildings
and to report the event to user by the safety management
program in a server. Also, the inner cutoff valve of an
intelligent gas meter is operated if any event occurred or
abnormal at each sensor.
Abstract: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most common
nosocomial infection in surgical patients resulting in significant
increases in postoperative morbidity and mortality. The commonly
causative bacteria developed resistance to virtually all antibiotics
available. The aim of this study was to isolation and identification the
most common bacteria that cause SSIs in Medical Research Institute,
and to compare their sensitivity to selected group of antibiotics and
natural products (garlic, oregano, olive, and Nigella sativa oils). The
isolated pathogens collected from infected surgical wounds were
identified, and their sensitivities to the antibiotics commonly
available for clinical use, and also to the different concentrations of
the used natural products were investigated. The results indicate to
the potential therapeutic effect of the tested natural products in
treatment of surgical wound infections.
Abstract: The main objective of this study was to determine the effects
of vermicompost and amino acids on the qualitative and quantitative yield of
chamomile. The experiment was conducted during the growing season of
2010 at the Alborz Medical Research Center. The Treatment groups consisted
of vermicompost (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 tons/ha) and the sprays of amino acids
(budding stag, flowering stage, and budding + flowering stage). The
experimental design was a factorial experiment based on Randomized
Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The present results
have shown that the highest plant height, flower head diameter, fresh and dry
flower yield and significant essential oil content were obtained by using 20-
ton vermicompost per hectare. Effects of amino acids were similar to those
seen in vermicompost treatment and all measured traits were seen to be
significant after the spray of amino acids at the budding + flowering stage).
Abstract: Each year many people are reported missing in most of the countries in the world owing to various reasons. Arrangements have to be made to find these people after some time. So the investigating agencies are compelled to make out these people by using manpower. But in many cases, the investigations carried out to find out an absconding for a long time may not be successful. At a time like that it may be difficult to identify these people by examining their old photographs, because their facial appearance might have changed mainly due to the natural aging process. On some occasions in forensic medicine if a dead body is found, investigations should be held to make sure that this corpse belongs to the same person disappeared some time ago. With the passage of time the face of the person might have changed and there should be a mechanism to reveal the person-s identity. In order to make this process easy, we must guess and decide as to how he will look like by now. To address this problem this paper presents a way of synthesizing a facial image with the aging effects.
Abstract: Whilst there is growing evidence that activity across
the lifespan is beneficial for improved health, there are also many
changes involved with the aging process and subsequently the
potential for reduced indices of health. The nexus between all forms
of health, physical activity and aging is complex and has raised much
interest in recent times due to the realization that a multifaceted
approached is necessary in order to counteract a growing obesity
epidemic. By investigating age based trends within a population
adherring to competitive sport at older ages, further insight might be
gleaned to assist in understanding one of many factors influencing
this relationship. This study evaluated those sport psychological
constructs of health, physical fitness, mental health states, and social
dimension factors in sport that were associated with factors to
participate in sport and physical activity based on responses from the
2009 World Masters Games in Sydney. The sample consisted of
7846 athletes who competed at the games and who completed a 56
item sports participation survey using a 7-point Likert response (1 -
not important to 7 - very important). Questions focuses on factors
thought to promote participation, such as weight control, living
longer, improving mental health (self-esteem, mood states),
improving physical health and factors related to the athlete-s
competitive perspective. The most significant factors related to
participation with this cohort of masters athletes were the socializing
environment of sport, getting physically fit and improving
competitive personal best performances. Strategies to increase
participation in masters sport should focus on these factors as other
factors such as weight loss, improving mental health and living
longer were not identified as important determinates of sports
participation at the World Masters level.
Abstract: Most of the drugs used for pharmaceutical purposes
are poorly water-soluble drugs. About 40% of all newly discovered
drugs are lipophilic and the numbers of lipophilic drugs seem to
increase more and more. Drug delivery systems such as
nanoparticles, micelles or liposomes are applied to improve their
solubility and thus their bioavailability. Besides various techniques of
solubilization, oil-in-water emulsions are often used to incorporate
lipophilic drugs into the oil phase. To stabilize emulsions surface
active substances (surfactants) are generally used. An alternative
method to avoid the application of surfactants was of great interest.
One possibility is to develop O/W-emulsion without any addition of
surface active agents or the so called “surfactant-free emulsion or
SFE”. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize SFE as a
drug carrier by varying the production conditions. Lidocaine base
was used as a model drug. The injection method was developed.
Effects of ultrasound as well as of temperature on the properties of
the emulsion were studied. Particle sizes and release were
determined. The long-term stability up to 30 days was performed.
The results showed that the surfactant-free O/W emulsions with
pharmaceutical oil as drug carrier can be produced.
Abstract: Today air-core coils (ACC) are a viable alternative to
ferrite-core coils in a range of applications due to their low induction
effect. An analytical study was carried out and the results were used as
a guide to understand the relationship between the magnet-coil
distance and the resulting attractive magnetic force. Four different
ACC models were fabricated for experimental study. The variation in
the models included the dimensions, the number of coil turns and the
current supply to the coil. Comparison between the analytical and
experimental results for all the models shows an average discrepancy
of less than 10%. An optimized ACC design was selected for the
scanner which can provide maximum magnetic force.
Abstract: In order to study of The Effect of seed inoculation
with Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus on yield and yield
components of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars, an experiment
was carried out as factorial based on Randomized Complete Block
Design (RCBD) in Agricultural Research Station of Shahrood
University of Technology. Results showed that inoculation with
Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus promoted seed germination.
Also, inoculation with Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus
significantly affected grain yield, Number of spikes per m2,
Number of grain per spike and 1000-seed weight and There was not
statistically significant difference between Chamran and Pishtaz
cultivars . Finally, the dosages of chemical fertilizers currently
applied in commercial wheat field in Iran (Shahrood region) could be
reduced through proper combination of Pseudomonas
putida+Bacillus lentus inoculation plus fertilization.
Abstract: Selective oxidation of H2S to elemental sulfur in a
fixed bed reactor over newly synthesized alumina nanocatalysts was
physio-chemically investigated and results compared with a
commercial Claus catalyst. Amongst these new materials, Al2O3-
supported sodium oxide prepared with wet chemical technique and
Al2O3 nanocatalyst prepared with spray pyrolysis method were the
most active catalysts for selective oxidation of H2S to elemental
sulfur. Other prepared nanocatalysts were quickly deactivated,
mainly due to the interaction with H2S and conversion into sulfides.
Abstract: Commercially available lipases (Candida antarctica lipase B, Novozyme 435, Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase, and Lipozyme TL IM), as well as sol-gel immobilized lipases, have been screened for their ability to acylate regioselectively xylitol, sorbitol, and mannitol with a phenolic ester in a binary mixture of t-butanol and dimethylsulfoxide. HPLC and MALDI-TOF MS analysis revealed the exclusive formation of monoesters for all studied sugar alcohols. The lipases immobilized by the sol-gel entrapment method proved to be efficient catalysts, leading to high conversions (up to 60%) in the investigated acylation reactions. From a sequence of silane precursors with different nonhydrolyzable groups in their structure, the presence of octyl and i-butyl group was most beneficial for the catalytic activity of sol-gel entrapped lipases in the studied process.
Abstract: Wireless LAN technologies have picked up
momentum in the recent years due to their ease of deployment, cost
and availability. The era of wireless LAN has also given rise to
unique applications like VOIP, IPTV and unified messaging.
However, these real-time applications are very sensitive to network
and handoff latencies. To successfully support these applications,
seamless roaming during the movement of mobile station has become
crucial. Nowadays, centralized architecture models support roaming
in WLANs. They have the ability to manage, control and
troubleshoot large scale WLAN deployments. This model is managed
by Control and Provision of Wireless Access Point protocol
(CAPWAP). This paper covers the CAPWAP architectural solution
along with its proposals that have emerged. Based on the literature
survey conducted in this paper, we found that the proposed
algorithms to reduce roaming latency in CAPWAP architecture do
not support seamless roaming. Additionally, they are not sufficient
during the initial period of the network. This paper also suggests
important design consideration for mobility support in future
centralized IEEE 802.11 networks.
Abstract: In this paper, a joint source-channel coding (JSCC) scheme for time-varying channels is presented. The proposed scheme uses hierarchical framework for both source encoder and transmission via QAM modulation. Hierarchical joint source channel codes with hierarchical QAM constellations are designed to track the channel variations which yields to a higher throughput by adapting certain parameters of the receiver to the channel variation. We consider the problem of still image transmission over time-varying channels with channel state information (CSI) available at 1) receiver only and 2) both transmitter and receiver being informed about the state of the channel. We describe an algorithm that optimizes hierarchical source codebooks by minimizing the distortion due to source quantizer and channel impairments. Simulation results, based on image representation, show that, the proposed hierarchical system outperforms the conventional schemes based on a single-modulator and channel optimized source coding.
Abstract: Korea Train eXpress (KTX) is now being operated,
which allows Korea being one of the countries that operates the
high-speed rail system. The high-speed rail has its advantage of short
time transportation of population and materials, which lead to many
researches performed in this matter. In the case of high speed classical
trackbed system, the maintenance and usability of gravel ballast
system is costly. Recently, the concrete trackbed structure has been
introduced as a replacement of classical trackbed system. In this case,
the sleeper plays a critical role. Current study investigated to develop
the track sleepers readily applicable to the top of the asphalt trackbed,
as part of the trcakbed study utilizing the asphalt material. Among
many possible shapes and design of sleepers, current study proposed
two types of wide-sleepers according to the shear-key installation
method. The structural behavior analysis and safety evaluation on each
case was conducted using Korean design standard.
Abstract: Interior brick-infill partitions are usually considered as
non-structural components, and only their weight is accounted for in
practical structural design. In this study, the brick-infill panels are
simulated by compression struts to clarify their effect on the
progressive collapse potential of an earthquake-resistant RC building.
Three-dimensional finite element models are constructed for the RC
building subjected to sudden column loss. Linear static analyses are
conducted to investigate the variation of demand-to-capacity ratio
(DCR) of beam-end moment and the axial force variation of the beams
adjacent to the removed column. Study results indicate that the
brick-infill effect depends on their location with respect to the
removed column. As they are filled in a structural bay with a shorter
span adjacent to the column-removed line, more significant reduction
of DCR may be achieved. However, under certain conditions, the
brick infill may increase the axial tension of the two-span beam
bridging the removed column.
Abstract: This paper proposes a Fuzzy Expert System design to
determine the wearing properties of nitrided and non nitrided steel.
The proposed Fuzzy Expert System approach helps the user and the
manufacturer to forecast the wearing properties of nitrided and non
nitrided steel under specified laboratory conditions. Surfaces of the
engineering components are often nitrided for improving wear,
corosion, fatigue specifications. A major property of nitriding
process is reducing distortion and wearing of the metalic alloys. A
Fuzzy Expert System was developed for determining the wearing and
durability properties of nitrided and non nitrided steels that were
tested under different loads and different sliding speeds in the
laboratory conditions.