Abstract: In the last few years, three multivariate spectral
analysis techniques namely, Principal Component Analysis (PCA),
Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Non-negative Matrix
Factorization (NMF) have emerged as effective tools for oscillation
detection and isolation. While the first method is used in determining
the number of oscillatory sources, the latter two methods
are used to identify source signatures by formulating the detection
problem as a source identification problem in the spectral domain.
In this paper, we present a critical drawback of the underlying linear
(mixing) model which strongly limits the ability of the associated
source separation methods to determine the number of sources
and/or identify the physical source signatures. It is shown that the
assumed mixing model is only valid if each unit of the process gives
equal weighting (all-pass filter) to all oscillatory components in its
inputs. This is in contrast to the fact that each unit, in general, acts
as a filter with non-uniform frequency response. Thus, the model
can only facilitate correct identification of a source with a single
frequency component, which is again unrealistic. To overcome
this deficiency, an iterative post-processing algorithm that correctly
identifies the physical source(s) is developed. An additional issue
with the existing methods is that they lack a procedure to pre-screen
non-oscillatory/noisy measurements which obscure the identification
of oscillatory sources. In this regard, a pre-screening procedure
is prescribed based on the notion of sparseness index to eliminate
the noisy and non-oscillatory measurements from the data set used
for analysis.
Abstract: The paper makes part from a complex research project
on Romanian Grey Steppe, a unique breed in terms of biological and
cultural-historical importance, on the verge of extinction and which
has been included in a preservation programme of genetic resources
from Romania. The study of genetic polymorphism of protean
fractions, especially kappa-casein, and the genotype relations of
these lactoproteins with some quantitative and qualitative features of
milk yield represents a current theme and a novelty for this breed. In
the estimation of the genetic parameters we used R.E.M.L.
(Restricted Maximum Likelihood) method.
The main lactoprotein from milk, kappa - casein (K-cz),
characterized in the specialized literature as a feature having a high
degree of hereditary transmission, behaves as such in the nucleus under
study, a value also confirmed by the heritability coefficient (h2 = 0.57
%). We must mention the medium values for milk and fat quantity
(h2=0.26, 0.29 %) and the fat and protein percentage from milk
having a high hereditary influence h2 = 0.71 - 0.63 %.
Correlations between kappa-casein and the milk quantity are
negative and strong. Between kappa-casein and other qualitative
features of milk (fat content 0.58-0.67 % and protein content 0.77-
0.87%), there are positive and very strong correlations. At the same
time, between kappa-casein and β casein (β-cz), β lactoglobulin (β-
lg) respectively, correlations are positive having high values (0.37 –
0.45 %), indicating the same causes and determining factors for the
two groups of features.
Abstract: Biologically active peptides are of particular interest
in food science and human nutrition because they have been shown to play several physiological roles. In vitro gastrointestinal digestion of lentil and whey proteins in this study produced high angiotensin-I converting enzyme inhibitory activity with 75.5±1.9 and 91.4±2.3%
inhibition, respectively. High ACE inhibitory activity was observed in lentil after 5 days of germination (84.3±1.2%). Fractionation by
reverse phase chromatography gave inhibitory activities as high as
86.3±2.0 for lentil, 94.8±1.8% for whey and 93.7±1.7% at 5th day of germination. Further purification by HPLC resulted in several
inhibitory peptides with IC50 values ranging from 0.064 to 0.164
mg/ml. These results demonstrate that lentil proteins are a good
source of peptides with ACE inhibitory activity that can be released by germination or gastrointestinal digestion. Despite the lower bioactivity in comparison with whey proteins, incorporation of lentil proteins in functional food formulations and natural drugs look promising.
Abstract: In this paper we propose a novel approach for
searching eCommerce products using a mobile phone, illustrated by a
prototype eCoMobile. This approach aims to globalize the mobile
search by integrating the concept of user multilinguism into it. To
show that, we particularly deal with English and Arabic languages.
Indeed the mobile user can formulate his query on a commercial
product in either language (English/Arabic). The description of his
information need on commercial products relies on the ontology that
represents the conceptualization of the product catalogue knowledge
domain defined in both English and Arabic languages. A query
expressed on a mobile device client defines the concept that
corresponds to the name of the product followed by a set of pairs
(property, value) specifying the characteristics of the product. Once a
query is submitted it is then communicated to the server side which
analyses it and in its turn performs an http request to an eCommerce
application server (like Amazon). This latter responds by returning
an XML file representing a set of elements where each element
defines an item of the searched product with its specific
characteristics. The XML file is analyzed on the server side and then
items are displayed on the mobile device client along with its
relevant characteristics in the chosen language.
Abstract: The NGN (Next Generation Network), which can
provide advanced multimedia services over an all-IP based network, has been the subject of much attention for years. While there have
been tremendous efforts to develop its architecture and protocols, especially for IMS, which is a key technology of the NGN, it is far
from being widely deployed. However, efforts to create an advanced
signaling infrastructure realizing many requirements have resulted in a
large number of functional components and interactions between those
components. Thus, the carriers are trying to explore effective ways to
deploy IMS while offering value-added services. As one such
approach, we have proposed a self-organizing IMS. A self-organizing
IMS enables IMS functional components and corresponding physical
nodes to adapt dynamically and automatically based on situation such
as network load and available system resources while continuing IMS
operation. To realize this, service continuity for users is an important
requirement when a reconfiguration occurs during operation. In this
paper, we propose a mechanism that will provide service continuity to
users and focus on the implementation and describe performance
evaluation in terms of number of control signaling and processing time
during reconfiguration
Abstract: This paper proposes an innovative approach for the Connection Admission Control (CAC) problem. Starting from an abstract network modelling, the CAC problem is formulated in a technology independent fashion allowing the proposed concepts to be applied to any wireless and wired domain. The proposed CAC is decoupled from the other Resource Management procedures, but cooperates with them in order to guarantee the desired QoS requirements. Moreover, it is based on suitable performance measurements which, by using proper predictors, allow to forecast the domain dynamics in the next future. Finally, the proposed CAC control scheme is based on a feedback loop aiming at maximizing a suitable performance index accounting for the domain throughput, whilst respecting a set of constraints accounting for the QoS requirements.