Abstract: Using mobile Internet access technologies and eservices,
various economic agents can efficiently offer their products
or services to a large number of clients. With the support of mobile
communications networks, the clients can have access to e-services,
anywhere and anytime. This is a base to establish a convergence of
technological and financial interests of mobile operators, software
developers, mobile terminals producers and e-content providers. In
this paper, a client server system is presented, using 3G, EDGE,
mobile terminals, for Stock Exchange e-services access.
Abstract: Rice, which is the staple food in Sierra Leone, is
consumed on a daily basis. It is the most imperative food crop
extensively grown by farmers across all ecologies in the country.
Though much attention is now given to rice grain production through
the small holder commercialization programme (SHCP), however, no
attention has been given in investigating the limitations faced by rice
producers. This paper will contribute to attempts to overcome the
development challenges caused by food insecurity. The objective of
this paper is thus, to analysis the relationship between rice production
and the domestic retail price of rice. The study employed a log linear
model in which, the quantity of rice produced is the dependent
variable, quantity of rice imported, price of imported rice and price of
domestic rice as explanatory variables. Findings showed that, locally
produced rice is even more expensive than the imported rice per ton,
and almost all the inhabitants in the capital city which hosts about
65% of the entire population of the country favor imported rice, as it
is free from stones with other impurities. On the other hand, to
control price and simultaneously increase rice production, the
government should purchase the rice from the farmers and then sell to private retailers.
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: This study investigated the number of Aedes larvae,
the key breeding sites of Aedes sp., and the relationship between
climatic factors and the incidence of DHF in Samui Islands. We
conducted our questionnaire and larval surveys from randomly
selected 105 households in Samui Islands in July-September 2006.
Pearson-s correlation coefficient was used to explore the primary
association between the DHF incidence and all climatic factors.
Multiple stepwise regression technique was then used to fit the
statistical model. The results showed that the positive indoor
containers were small jars, cement tanks, and plastic tanks. The
positive outdoor containers were small jars, cement tanks, plastic
tanks, used cans, tires, plastic bottles, discarded objects, pot saucers,
plant pots, and areca husks. All Ae. albopictus larval indices (i.e., CI,
HI, and BI) were higher than Ae. aegypti larval indices in this area.
These larval indices were higher than WHO standard. This indicated
a high risk of DHF transmission at Samui Islands. The multiple
stepwise regression model was y = –288.80 + 11.024xmean temp. The
mean temperature was positively associated with the DHF incidence
in this area.
Abstract: Prostate cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in men and is a major cause of mortality in the most of countries. In many diagnostic and treatment procedures for prostate disease accurate detection of prostate boundaries in transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images is required. This is a challenging and difficult task due to weak prostate boundaries, speckle noise and the short range of gray levels. In this paper a novel method for automatic prostate segmentation in TRUS images is presented. This method involves preprocessing (edge preserving noise reduction and smoothing) and prostate segmentation. The speckle reduction has been achieved by using stick filter and top-hat transform has been implemented for smoothing. A feed forward neural network and local binary pattern together have been use to find a point inside prostate object. Finally the boundary of prostate is extracted by the inside point and an active contour algorithm. A numbers of experiments are conducted to validate this method and results showed that this new algorithm extracted the prostate boundary with MSE less than 4.6% relative to boundary provided manually by physicians.
Abstract: Musculoskeletal problems are common in high
performance dance population. This study attempts to identify lower
extremity muscle flexibility parameters prevailing among
bharatanatyam dancers and analyze if there is any significant
difference exist between normal and injured dancers in flexibility
parameters. Four hundred and one female dancers and 17 male
dancers were participated in this study. Flexibility parameters
(hamstring tightness, hip internal and external rotation and
tendoachilles in supine and sitting posture) were measured using
goniometer. Results of our study it is evident that injured female
bharathnatyam dancers had significantly (p < 0.05) high hamstring
tightness on left side lower extremity compared to normal female
dancers. The range of motion for left tendoachilles was significantly
(p < 0.05) high for the normal female group when compared to
injured dancers during supine lying posture. Majority of the injured
dancers had high hamstring tightness that could be a possible reason
for pain and MSDs.