Abstract: A new target detection technique is presented in this
paper for the identification of small boats in coastal surveillance. The
proposed technique employs an adaptive progressive thresholding (APT) scheme to first process the given input scene to separate any
objects present in the scene from the background. The preprocessing
step results in an image having only the foreground objects, such as
boats, trees and other cluttered regions, and hence reduces the search
region for the correlation step significantly. The processed image is then fed to the shifted phase-encoded fringe-adjusted joint transform
correlator (SPFJTC) technique which produces single and delta-like
correlation peak for a potential target present in the input scene. A
post-processing step involves using a peak-to-clutter ratio (PCR) to determine whether the boat in the input scene is authorized or unauthorized. Simulation results are presented to show that the
proposed technique can successfully determine the presence of an authorized boat and identify any intruding boat present in the given input scene.
Abstract: Oxidative stress is considered to be the cause for onset
and the progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and
complications including neuropathy. It is a deleterious process that
can be an important mediator of damage to cell structures: protein,
lipids and DNA. Data suggest that in patients with diabetes and
diabetic neuropathy DNA repair is impaired, which prevents effective
removal of lesions. Objective: The aim of our study was to evaluate
the association of the hOGG1 (326 Ser/Cys) and XRCC1 (194
Arg/Trp, 399 Arg/Gln) gene polymorphisms whose protein is
involved in the BER pathway with DNA repair efficiency in patients
with diabetes type 2 and diabetic neuropathy compared to the healthy
subjects. Genotypes were determined by PCR-RFLP analysis in 385
subjects, including 117 with type 2 diabetes, 56 with diabetic
neuropathy and 212 with normal glucose metabolism. The
polymorphisms studied include codon 326 of hOGG1 and 194, 399
of XRCC1 in the base excision repair (BER) genes. Comet assay was
carried out using peripheral blood lymphocytes from the patients and
controls. This test enabled the evaluation of DNA damage in cells
exposed to hydrogen peroxide alone and in the combination with the
endonuclease III (Nth). The results of the analysis of polymorphism
were statistically examination by calculating the odds ratio (OR) and
their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) using the ¤ç2-tests. Our data
indicate that patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (including those
with neuropathy) had higher frequencies of the XRCC1 399Arg/Gln
polymorphism in homozygote (GG) (OR: 1.85 [95% CI: 1.07-3.22],
P=0.3) and also increased frequency of 399Gln (G) allele (OR: 1.38
[95% CI: 1.03-1.83], P=0.3). No relation to other polymorphisms
with increased risk of diabetes or diabetic neuropathy. In T2DM
patients complicated by neuropathy, there was less efficient repair of
oxidative DNA damage induced by hydrogen peroxide in both the
presence and absence of the Nth enzyme. The results of our study
suggest that the XRCC1 399 Arg/Gln polymorphism is a significant
risk factor of T2DM in Polish population. Obtained data suggest a
decreased efficiency of DNA repair in cells from patients with
diabetes and neuropathy may be associated with oxidative stress.
Additionally, patients with neuropathy are characterized by even
greater sensitivity to oxidative damage than patients with diabetes,
which suggests participation of free radicals in the pathogenesis of
neuropathy.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to find out and analyze the
role of gender and age on the perceptions of students to the distant
online program offered by Vocational High School in Sakarya
University. The research is based on a questionnaire as a mean of
data collection method to find out the role of age and gender on the
student-s perceptions toward online education, and the study
progressed through finding relationships between the variables used
in the data collection instrument. The findings of the analysis
revealed that although the students registered to the online program
by will, they preferred the traditional face-to-face education due to
the difficulty of the nonverbal communication, their incompetence of
using the technology required, and their belief in traditional face-toface
learning more than online education.
Regarding gender, the results showed that the female students
have a better perception of the online education as opposed to the
male students. Regarding age, the results showed that the older the
students are the more is their preference towards attending face-toface
classes.
Abstract: The study investigated the practices of organisations in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries with regards to G2C egovernment maturity. It reveals that e-government G2C initiatives in the surveyed countries in particular, and arguably around the world in general, are progressing slowly because of the lack of a trusted and secure medium to authenticate the identities of online users. The authors conclude that national ID schemes will play a major role in helping governments reap the benefits of e-government if the three advanced technologies of smart card, biometrics and public key infrastructure (PKI) are utilised to provide a reliable and trusted authentication medium for e-government services.
Abstract: This work involved the use of phytoremediation to
remediate an aged soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs). At microcosm scale, tests were prepared using soil samples
that have been collected in an industrial area with a total PCBs
concentration of about 250 μg kg-1. Medicago sativa and Lolium
italicum were the species selected in this study that is used as
“feasibility test" for full scale remediation. The experiment was
carried out with the addition of a mixture of randomly methylatedbeta-
cyclodextrins (RAMEB). At the end of the experiment analysis
of soil samples showed that in general the presence of plants has led
to a higher degradation of most congeners with respect to not
vegetated soil. The two plant species efficiencies were comparable
and improved by RAMEB addition with a final reduction of total
PCBs near to 50%. With increasing the chlorination of the congeners
the removal percentage of PCBs progressively decreased.
Abstract: Cardiovascular disease mostly in the form of atherosclerosis is responsible for 30% of all world deaths amounting to 17 million people per year. Atherosclerosis is due to the formation of plaque. The fatty plaque may be at risk of rupture, leading typically to stroke and heart attack. The plaque is usually associated with a high degree of lumen reduction, called a stenosis. The initiation and progression of the disease is strongly linked to the hemodynamic environment near the vessel wall. The aim of this study is to validate the flow of blood mimic through an arterial stenosis model with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package. In experiment, an axisymmetric model constructed consists of contraction and expansion region that follow a mathematical form of cosine function. A 30% diameter reduction was used in this study. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to characterize the flow. The fluid consists of rigid spherical particles suspended in waterglycerol- NaCl mixture. The particles with 20 μm diameter were selected to follow the flow of fluid. The flow at Re=155, 270 and 390 were investigated. The experimental result is compared with FLUENT simulated flow that account for viscous laminar flow model. The results suggest that laminar flow model was sufficient to predict flow velocity at the inlet but the velocity at stenosis throat at Re =390 was overestimated. Hence, a transition to turbulent regime might have been developed at throat region as the flow rate increases.
Abstract: The environment pollution with pesticides and heavy
metals is a recognized problem nowadays, with extension to the
global scale the tendency of amplification. Even with all the progress
in the environmental field, both in the emphasize of the effect of the
pollutants upon health, the linked studies environment-health are
insufficient, not only in Romania but all over the world also. We aim
to describe the particular situation in Romania regarding the
uncontrolled use of pesticides, to identify and evaluate the risk zones
for health and the environment in Romania, with the final goal of
designing adequate programs for reduction and control of the risk
sources. An exploratory study was conducted to determine the
magnitude of the pesticide use problem in a population living in
Saliste, a rural setting in Transylvania, Romania. The significant
stakeholders in Saliste region were interviewed and a sample from
the population living in Saliste area was selected to fill in a designed
questionnaire. All the selected participants declared that they used
pesticides in their activities for more than one purpose. They
declared they annually applied pesticides for a period of time
between 11 and 30 years, from 5 to 9 days per year on average,
mainly on crops situated at some distance from the houses but high
risk behavior was identified as the volunteers declared the use of
pesticides in the backyard gardens, near their homes, where children
were playing. The pesticide applicators did not have the necessary
knowledge about safety and exposure. The health data must be
correlated with exposure biomarkers in attempt to identify the
possible health effects of the pesticides exposure. Future plans
include educational campaigns to raise the awareness of the
population on the danger of uncontrolled use of pesticides.
Abstract: This paper presents an adaptive technique for generation
of data required for construction of artificial neural network-based
performance model of nano-scale CMOS inverter circuit. The training
data are generated from the samples through SPICE simulation. The
proposed algorithm has been compared to standard progressive sampling
algorithms like arithmetic sampling and geometric sampling.
The advantages of the present approach over the others have been
demonstrated. The ANN predicted results have been compared with
actual SPICE results. A very good accuracy has been obtained.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate a process of modernization of the People-s Republic of China. The theme of scientific research is interesting, first, because the Chinese model of development is recognized as successful and most dynamically developing. They are obliged by these successes of the modernization spent in the country. Economy modernization as the basic motive power of progress of the country is a priority direction of development in the Republic of Kazakhstan. So the example of successful development modernization processes in China can be rather useful to use in working out of the Kazakhstan national reforms.
Abstract: Postmenopausal osteoporosis is a disorder
characterized by the progressive bone loss induced by estrogen
deficiency in postmenopausal women. This imbalance affects
calcium–phosphate metabolism and results in secondary
hyperparathyroidism. Purariae Radix (PR), the root of P. lobata
(Wild.) Ohwi, is one of the earliest medicinal herbs employed in
ancient China. PR contains a high quantity of isoflavones and their
glycosides, which are regarded as phytoestrogen. Few investigations
of PR are related to its osteoprotective effects. The present study is
designed to administer PR water extract to ovariectomized (OVX)
female rats, for the investigation of its possibly protective actions on
bone and to delineate the potential mechanisms involved. Our results
demonstrated that long-term treatment of PR could not significantly
improve bone properties, whereas it greatly ameliorated the condition
of secondary hyperparathyroidism induced by ovariectomy in those
animals. PR might be useful as alternative regimen for protecting
against postmenopausal bone loss.
Abstract: Recent medical studies have investigated the importance of enteral feeding and the use of feeding pumps for recovering patients unable to feed themselves or gain nourishment and nutrients by natural means. The most of enteral feeding system uses a peristaltic tube pump. A peristaltic pump is a form of positive displacement pump in which a flexible tube is progressively squeezed externally to allow the resulting enclosed pillow of fluid to progress along it. The squeezing of the tube requires a precise and robust controller of the geared motor to overcome parametric uncertainty of the pumping system which generates due to a wide variation of friction and slip between tube and roller. So, this paper proposes fuzzy adaptive controller for the robust control of the peristaltic tube pump. This new adaptive controller uses a fuzzy multi-layered architecture which has several independent fuzzy controllers in parallel, each with different robust stability area. Out of several independent fuzzy controllers, the most suited one is selected by a system identifier which observes variations in the controlled system parameter. This paper proposes a design procedure which can be carried out mathematically and systematically from the model of a controlled system. Finally, the good control performance, accurate dose rate and robust system stability, of the developed feeding pump is confirmed through experimental and clinic testing.
Abstract: In order to derive important parameters concerning
mobile subscriber MS with ongoing calls in Low Earth Orbit Mobile
Satellite Systems LEO MSSs, a positioning system had to be
integrated into MSS in order to localize mobile subscribers MSs and
track them during the connection. Such integration is regarded as a
complex implementation.
We propose in this paper a novel method based on advantages of
mobility model of Low Earth Orbit Mobile Satellite System LEO
MSS called Evaluation Parameters Method EPM which allows for
such systems the evaluation of different information concerning a
MS with a call in progress even if its location is unknown.
Abstract: The scattering effect of light in fog improves the
difficulty in visibility thus introducing disturbances in transport
facilities in urban or industrial areas causing fatal accidents or public
harassments, therefore, developing an enhanced fog vision system
with radio wave to improvise the way outs of these severe problems
is really a big challenge for researchers. Series of experimental
studies already been done and more are in progress to know the
weather effect on radio frequencies for different ranges. According to
Rayleigh scattering Law, the propagating wavelength should be
greater than the diameter of the particle present in the penetrating
medium. Direct wave RF signal thus have high chance of failure to
work in such weather for detection of any object. Therefore an
extensive study was required to find suitable region in the RF band
that can help us in detecting objects with proper shape. This paper
produces some results on object detection using 912 MHz band with
successful detection of the persistence of any object coming under the
trajectory of a vehicle navigating in indoor and outdoor environment.
The developed images are finally transformed to video signal to
enable continuous monitoring.
Abstract: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a severe
cardiovascular disorder characterized by progressive systolic
dysfunction due to cardiac chamber dilatation and inefficient
myocardial contractility often leading to chronic heart failure.
Recently, a genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on DCM
indicate that the ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 single nucleotide
polymorphism is associated with DCM. The aim of the study was to
identify the distribution of ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 polymorphism
in 50 Slovak patients with DCM and 80 healthy control subjects
using the Custom Taqman®SNP Genotyping assays. Risk factors
detected at baseline in each group included age, sex, body mass
index, smoking status, diabetes and blood pressure. The mean age of
patients with DCM was 52.9±6.3 years; the mean age of individuals
in control group was 50.3±8.9 years. The distribution of investigated
genotypes of rs10927875 polymorphism within ZBTB17 gene in the
cohort of Slovak patients with DCM was as follows: CC (38.8%), CT
(55.1%), TT (6.1%), in controls: CC (43.8%), CT (51.2%), TT
(5.0%). The risk allele T was more common among the patients with
dilated cardiomyopathy than in normal controls (33.7% versus
30.6%). The differences in genotype or allele frequencies of ZBTB17
gene rs10927875 polymorphism were not statistically significant
(p=0.6908; p=0.6098). The results of this study suggest that ZBTB17
gene rs10927875 polymorphism may be a risk factor for
susceptibility to DCM in Slovak patients with DCM. Studies of
numerous files and additional functional investigations are needed to
fully understand the roles of genetic associations.
Abstract: Microarray data profiles gene expression on a whole
genome scale, therefore, it provides a good way to study associations
between gene expression and occurrence or progression of cancer.
More and more researchers realized that microarray data is helpful
to predict cancer sample. However, the high dimension of gene
expressions is much larger than the sample size, which makes this
task very difficult. Therefore, how to identify the significant genes
causing cancer becomes emergency and also a hot and hard research
topic. Many feature selection algorithms have been proposed in
the past focusing on improving cancer predictive accuracy at the
expense of ignoring the correlations between the features. In this
work, a novel framework (named by SGS) is presented for stable gene
selection and efficient cancer prediction . The proposed framework
first performs clustering algorithm to find the gene groups where
genes in each group have higher correlation coefficient, and then
selects the significant genes in each group with Bayesian Lasso and
important gene groups with group Lasso, and finally builds prediction
model based on the shrinkage gene space with efficient classification
algorithm (such as, SVM, 1NN, Regression and etc.). Experiment
results on real world data show that the proposed framework often
outperforms the existing feature selection and prediction methods,
say SAM, IG and Lasso-type prediction model.
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, their effect on the progressive
collapse resistance of an RC building subjected to sudden column loss
is investigated. Three notional column loss conditions with four
different brick-infill locations are considered. Column-loss response
analyses of the RC building with and without brick infills are carried
out. Analysis results indicate that the collapse resistance is only
slightly influenced by the brick infills due to their brittle failure
characteristic. Even so, they may help to reduce the inelastic
displacement response under column loss. For practical engineering, it
is reasonably conservative to only consider the weight of brick-infill
partitions in the structural analysis.
Abstract: In the paper it is questioned whether effective state
social policy provides happiness and social progress. For this purpose
selected correlations between Human Development Index (HDI),
share of public social expenditures in GDP, the Happy Planet Index
(HPI), GDP per capita, and Government Effectiveness are examined
and the results are graphically presented. It is shown how a
government can affect well-being and happiness in different countries
of modern world. Also, it is tested the hypothesis about existence of a
certain optimum of well-being and public social expenditures, which
affect direction of social progress. It is concluded that efficient social
policy and wealth are not the only factors determining human
happiness.
Abstract: This study presents a mathematical modeling approach to the planning of HIV therapies on an individual basis. The model replicates clinical data from typical-progressors to AIDS for all stages of the disease with good agreement. Clinical data from rapid-progressors and long-term non-progressors is also matched by estimation of immune system parameters only. The ability of the model to reproduce these phenomena validates the formulation, a fact which is exploited in the investigation of effective therapies. The therapy investigation suggests that, unlike continuous therapy, structured treatment interruptions (STIs) are able to control the increase in both the drug-sensitive and drug-resistant virus population and, hence, prevent the ultimate progression from HIV to AIDS. The optimization results further suggest that even patients characterised by the same progression type can respond very differently to the same treatment and that the latter should be designed on a case-by-case basis. Such a methodology is presented here.
Abstract: Dual phase steels (DPS)s have a microstructure
consisting of a hard second phase called Martensite in the soft Ferrite
matrix. In recent years, there has been interest in dual-phase steels,
because the application of these materials has made significant usage;
particularly in the automotive sector Composite microstructure of
(DPS)s exhibit interesting characteristic mechanical properties such
as continuous yielding, low yield stress to tensile strength
ratios(YS/UTS), and relatively high formability; which offer
advantages compared with conventional high strength low alloy
steels(HSLAS). The research dealt with the characterization of
damage in (DPS)s. In this study by review the mechanisms of failure
due to volume fraction of martensite second phase; a new method is
introduced to identifying the mechanisms of failure in the various
phases of these types of steels. In this method the acoustic emission
(AE) technique was used to detect damage progression. These failure
mechanisms consist of Ferrite-Martensite interface decohesion and/or
martensite phase fracture. For this aim, dual phase steels with
different volume fraction of martensite second phase has provided by
various heat treatment methods on a low carbon steel (0.1% C), and
then AE monitoring is used during tensile test of these DPSs. From
AE measurements and an energy ratio curve elaborated from the
value of AE energy (it was obtained as the ratio between the strain
energy to the acoustic energy), that allows detecting important
events, corresponding to the sudden drops. These AE signals events
associated with various failure mechanisms are classified for ferrite
and (DPS)s with various amount of Vm and different martensite
morphology. It is found that AE energy increase with increasing Vm.
This increasing of AE energy is because of more contribution of
martensite fracture in the failure of samples with higher Vm. Final
results show a good relationship between the AE signals and the
mechanisms of failure.
Abstract: Position based routing protocols are the kinds of
routing protocols, which they use of nodes location information,
instead of links information to routing. In position based routing
protocols, it supposed that the packet source node has position
information of itself and it's neighbors and packet destination node.
Greedy is a very important position based routing protocol. In one of
it's kinds, named MFR (Most Forward Within Radius), source node
or packet forwarder node, sends packet to one of it's neighbors with
most forward progress towards destination node (closest neighbor to
destination). Using distance deciding metric in Greedy to forward
packet to a neighbor node, is not suitable for all conditions. If closest
neighbor to destination node, has high speed, in comparison with
source node or intermediate packet forwarder node speed or has very
low remained battery power, then packet loss probability is
increased. Proposed strategy uses combination of metrics distancevelocity
similarity-power, to deciding about giving the packet to
which neighbor. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy
has lower lost packets average than Greedy, so it has more reliability.