Abstract: In this study, data loss tolerance of Support Vector Machines (SVM) based activity recognition model and multi activity classification performance when data are received over a lossy wireless sensor network is examined. Initially, the classification algorithm we use is evaluated in terms of resilience to random data loss with 3D acceleration sensor data for sitting, lying, walking and standing actions. The results show that the proposed classification method can recognize these activities successfully despite high data loss. Secondly, the effect of differentiated quality of service performance on activity recognition success is measured with activity data acquired from a multi hop wireless sensor network, which introduces high data loss. The effect of number of nodes on the reliability and multi activity classification success is demonstrated in simulation environment. To the best of our knowledge, the effect of data loss in a wireless sensor network on activity detection success rate of an SVM based classification algorithm has not been studied before.
Abstract: Taking the design tolerance into account, this paper
presents a novel efficient approach to generate iso-scallop tool path for
five-axis strip machining with a barrel cutter. The cutter location is
first determined on the scallop surface instead of the design surface,
and then the cutter is adjusted to locate the optimal tool position based
on the differential rotation of the tool axis and satisfies the design
tolerance simultaneously. The machining strip width and error are
calculated with the aid of the grazing curve of the cutter. Based on the
proposed tool positioning algorithm, the tool paths are generated by
keeping the scallop height formed by adjacent tool paths constant. An
example is conducted to confirm the validity of the proposed method.
Abstract: This paper investigates the joint effect of the
interconnected (n,k)-star network topology and Multi-Agent
automated control on restoration and reconfiguration of power
systems. With the increasing trend in development in Multi-Agent
control technologies applied to power system reconfiguration
in presence of faulty components or nodes. Fault tolerance is
becoming an important challenge in the design processes of the
distributed power system topology. Since the reconfiguration of a
power system is performed by agent communication, the (n,k)-star
interconnected network topology is studied and modeled in this
paper to optimize the process of power reconfiguration. In this paper,
we discuss the recently proposed (n,k)-star topology and examine its
properties and advantages as compared to the traditional multi-bus
power topologies. We design and simulate the topology model for
distributed power system test cases. A related lemma based on the
fault tolerance and conditional diagnosability properties is presented
and proved both theoretically and practically. The conclusion is
reached that (n,k)-star topology model has measurable advantages
compared to standard bus power systems while exhibiting fault
tolerance properties in power restoration, as well as showing
efficiency when applied to power system route discovery.
Abstract: We model and simulate the combined effect of fiber
dispersion and frequency chirp of a directly modulated high-speed
laser diode on the figures of merit of a non-amplified 40-Gbps optical
fiber link. We consider both the return to zero (RZ) and non-return to
zero (NRZ) patterns of the pseudorandom modulation bits. The
performance of the fiber communication system is assessed by the
fiber-length limitation due to the fiber dispersion. We study the
influence of replacing standard single-mode fibers by non-zero
dispersion-shifted fibers on the maximum fiber length and evaluate
the associated power penalty. We introduce new dispersion
tolerances for 1-dB power penalty of the RZ and NRZ 40-Gbps
optical fiber links.
Abstract: To evaluate the factors which predetermine the
coronary artery disease in patients having positive Exercise Tolerance
Test (ETT) that is treadmill results and coronary artery findings. This
descriptive study was conducted at Department of Cardiology,
Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital & Research Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh
from 1st January, 2014 to 31st August, 2014. All patients who had
done ETT (treadmill) for chest pain diagnosis were studied. One
hundred and four patients underwent coronary angiogram after
positive treadmill result. Patients were divided into two groups
depending upon the angiographic findings, i.e. true positive and false
positive. Positive treadmill test patients who have coronary artery
involvement these are called true positive and who have no
involvement they are called false positive group. Both groups were
compared with each other. Out of 104 patients, 81 (77.9%) patients
had true positive ETT and 23 (22.1%) patients had false positive
ETT. The mean age of patients in positive ETT was 53.46± 8.06
years and male mean age was 53.63±8.36 years and female was
52.87±7.0 years. Sixty nine (85.19%) male patients and twelve
(14.81%) female patients had true positive ETT, whereas 15
(65.21%) males and 8 (34.79%) females had false positive ETT, this
was statistically significant (p
Abstract: Brain functional networks based on resting-state EEG
data were compared between patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease
(mAD) and matched patients with amnestic subtype of mild cognitive
impairment (aMCI). We integrated the time–frequency cross mutual
information (TFCMI) method to estimate the EEG functional
connectivity between cortical regions and the network analysis based
on graph theory to further investigate the alterations of functional
networks in mAD compared with aMCI group. We aimed at
investigating the changes of network integrity, local clustering,
information processing efficiency, and fault tolerance in mAD brain
networks for different frequency bands based on several topological
properties, including degree, strength, clustering coefficient, shortest
path length, and efficiency. Results showed that the disruptions of
network integrity and reductions of network efficiency in mAD
characterized by lower degree, decreased clustering coefficient, higher
shortest path length, and reduced global and local efficiencies in the
delta, theta, beta2, and gamma bands were evident. The significant
changes in network organization can be used in assisting
discrimination of mAD from aMCI in clinical.
Abstract: The objective of the study was to select the survival of
probiotic strains when exposed to acidic and bile salts condition. Four
probiotic strains Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus TISTR 047,
Lactobacillus casei TISTR 1500, Lactobacillus acidophilus TISTR
1338 and Lactobacillus plantarum TISTR 1465 were cultured in
MRS broth and incubated at 35ºC for 15 hours before being inoculated
into acidic condition 5 M HCl, pH 2 for 2 hours and bile salt 0.3%,
pH 5.8 for 8 hour. The survived probiotics were counted in MRS agar.
Among four stains, Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus TISTR 047
was the highest tolerance specie. Lactobacillus casei subsp.
rhamnosus TISTR 047 reduced 6.74±0.07 log CFU/ml after growing
in acid and 5.52±0.05 log CFU/ml after growing in bile salt. Then,
double emulsion of microorganisms was chosen to encapsulate before
spray drying. Spray drying was done with the inlet temperature 170ºC
and outlet temperature 80ºC. The results showed that the survival of
encapsulated Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus TISTR 047 after
spray drying decreased from 9.63 ± 0.32 to 8.31 ± 0.11 log CFU/ml
comparing with non-encapsulated, 9.63 ± 0.32 to 4.06 ± 0.08 log
CFU/ml. Therefore, Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus TISTR 047
would be able to survive in gastrointestinal and spray drying condition.
Abstract: Pollution of the Klip River has caused
microorganisms inhabiting it to develop protective survival
mechanisms. This study isolated and characterized the heavy metal
resistant bacteria in the Klip River. Water and sediment samples were
collected from six sites along the course of the river. The pH,
turbidity, salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen were measured
in-situ. The concentrations of six heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb
and Zn) of the water samples were determined by atomic absorption
spectroscopy. Biochemical and antibiotic profiles of the isolates were
assessed using the API 20E® and Kirby Bauer Method. Growth
studies were carried out using spectrophotometric methods. The
isolates were identified using 16SrDNA sequencing. The uppermost
part of the Klip River with the lowest pH had the highest levels of
heavy metals. Turbidity, salinity and specific conductivity increased
measurably at Site 4 (Henley on Klip Weir). MIC tests showed that
16 isolates exhibited high iron and lead resistance. Antibiotic
susceptibility tests revealed that the isolates exhibited multitolerances
to drugs such as Tetracycline, Ampicillin, and
Amoxicillin.
Abstract: A simple, accurate and precise direct spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of cefixime in tablets and capsules. The method is based on the reaction of cefixime with a mixture of potassium iodide and potassium iodate to form yellow coloured product in ethanol-distilled water medium at room temperature which absorbed maximally at 352 nm. The factors affecting the reaction product were carefully studied and optimized. The validation parameters based on International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH, USA) guidelines were followed. The effect of common excipients used as additives has been tested and the tolerance limit was calculated for the determination of cefixime. Beer’s law is obeyed in the concentration range of 4 – 24 ug mL-1 with apparent molar absorptivity of 1.52 × 104 L mol-1cm-1 and Sandell’s sensitivity of 0.033 ug/cm2/ 0.001 absorbance unit. The limits of detection and quantitation for the proposed method are 0.32 and 1.06 ug mL-1, respectively. The proposed method has been successfully applied for the determination of cefixime in pharmaceutical formulations. The results obtained by the proposed method were statistically compared with the reference method using t- and F- values and found no significant difference between the two methods. The proposed method can be used as an alternate method for routine quality control analysis of cefixime in pharmaceutical formulations.
Abstract: An analysis of the Australian Diabetes Screening
Study estimated undiagnosed diabetes mellitus [DM] prevalence in a
high risk general practice based cohort. DM prevalence varied from
9.4% to 18.1% depending upon the diagnostic criteria utilised with
age being a highly significant risk factor. Utilising the gold standard
oral glucose tolerance test, the prevalence of DM was 22-23% in
those aged >= 70 years and
Abstract: An optimisation method using both global and local
optimisation is implemented to determine the flapping profile which
will produce the most lift for an experimental wing-actuation system.
The optimisation method is tested using a numerical quasi-steady
analysis. Results of an optimised flapping profile show a 20% increase
in lift generated as compared to flapping profiles obtained by high
speed cinematography of a Sympetrum frequens dragonfly. Initial
optimisation procedures showed 3166 objective function evaluations.
The global optimisation parameters - initial sample size and stage
one sample size, were altered to reduce the number of function
evaluations. Altering the stage one sample size had no significant
effect. It was found that reducing the initial sample size to 400
would allow a reduction in computational effort to approximately
1500 function evaluations without compromising the global solvers
ability to locate potential minima. To further reduce the optimisation
effort required, we increase the local solver’s convergence tolerance
criterion. An increase in the tolerance from 0.02N to 0.05N decreased
the number of function evaluations by another 20%. However, this
potentially reduces the maximum obtainable lift by up to 0.025N.
Abstract: This paper presents a neural network based model predictive control (MPC) strategy to control a strongly exothermic reaction with complicated nonlinear kinetics given by Chylla-Haase polymerization reactor that requires a very precise temperature control to maintain product uniformity. In the benchmark scenario, the operation of the reactor must be guaranteed under various disturbing influences, e.g., changing ambient temperatures or impurity of the monomer. Such a process usually controlled by conventional cascade control, it provides a robust operation, but often lacks accuracy concerning the required strict temperature tolerances. The predictive control strategy based on the RBF neural model is applied to solve this problem to achieve set-point tracking of the reactor temperature against disturbances. The result shows that the RBF based model predictive control gives reliable result in the presence of some disturbances and keeps the reactor temperature within a tight tolerance range around the desired reaction temperature.
Abstract: Background. Food-related allergies and intolerances are frequently occurring in dogs. Diagnosis and monitoring according ‘Golden Standard’ of elimination efficiency is, however, time consuming, expensive, and requires expert clinical setting. In order to facilitate rapid and robust, quantitative testing of intolerance, and determining the individual offending foods, a serological test is implicated for Alimentary Induced Diseases and manifestations. Method. As we developed Medisynx IgG Human Screening Test ELISA before and the dog’ immune system is most similar to humans, we were able to develop Medisynx IgG Dog Screening Test ELISA as well. In this randomized, double-blind, split-sample, retro perspective study 47 dogs suffering from Canine Atopic Dermatitis (CAD) and several secondary induced reactions were included to participate in serological Medisynx IgG Dog Screening Test ELISA (within < 0,02 % SD). Results were expressed as titers relative to the standard OD readings to diagnose alimentary induced diseases and monitoring efficacy of an individual eliminating diet in dogs. Split sample analysis was performed by independently sending 2 times 3 ml serum under two unique codes. Results. The veterinarian monitored these dogs to check dog’ results at least at 3, 7, 21, 49, 70 days and after period of 6 and 12 months on an individual negative diet and a positive challenge (retrospectively) at 6 months. Data of each dog were recorded in a screening form and reported that a complete recovery of all clinical manifestations was observed at or less than 70 days (between 50 and 70 days) in the majority of dogs (44 out of 47 dogs =93.6%). Conclusion. Challenge results showed a significant result of 100% in specificity as well as 100% positive predicted value. On the other hand, sensitivity was 95,7% and negative predictive value was 95,7%. In conclusion, an individual diet based on IgG ELISA in dogs provides a significant improvement of atopic dermatitis and pruritus including all other non-specific defined allergic skin reactions as erythema, itching, biting and gnawing at toes, as well as to several secondary manifestations like chronic diarrhoea, chronic constipation, otitis media, obesity, laziness or inactive behaviour, pain and muscular stiffness causing a movement disorders, excessive lacrimation, hyper behaviour, nervous behaviour and not possible to stay alone at home, anxiety, biting and aggressive behaviour and disobedience behaviour. Furthermore, we conclude that a relatively more severe systemic candidiasis, as shown by relatively higher titer (class 3 and 4 IgG reactions to Candida albicans), influence the duration of recovery from clinical manifestations in affected dogs. These findings are consistent with our preliminary human clinical studies.
Abstract: Cloud outsource storage is one of important services in cloud computing. Cloud users upload data to cloud servers to reduce the cost of managing data and maintaining hardware and software. To ensure data confidentiality, users can encrypt their files before uploading them to a cloud system. However, retrieving the target file from the encrypted files exactly is difficult for cloud server. This study proposes a protocol for performing multikeyword searches for encrypted cloud data by applying k-nearest neighbor technology. The protocol ranks the relevance scores of encrypted files and keywords, and prevents cloud servers from learning search keywords submitted by a cloud user. To reduce the costs of file transfer communication, the cloud server returns encrypted files in order of relevance. Moreover, when a cloud user inputs an incorrect keyword and the number of wrong alphabet does not exceed a given threshold; the user still can retrieve the target files from cloud server. In addition, the proposed scheme satisfies security requirements for outsourced data storage.
Abstract: A dual tiered network model is designed to overcome the problem of energy alert and fault tolerance. This model minimizes the delay time and overcome failure of links. Performance analysis of the dual tiered network model is studied in this paper where the CA and LS schemes are compared with DEO optimal. We then evaluate the Integrated Network Topological Control and Key Management (INTK) Schemes, which was proposed to add security features of the wireless sensor networks. Clustering efficiency, level of protections, the time complexity is some of the parameters of INTK scheme that were analyzed. We then evaluate the Cluster based Energy Competent n-coverage scheme (CEC n-coverage scheme) to ensure area coverage for wireless sensor networks.
Abstract: Several yield-based stress indices have been developed that may be more applicable to work on drought tolerance. In this study, we investigate possibility of using stress susceptibility index (SSI), tolerance index (TOL), yield stability index (YSI), yield index (YI), stress tolerance index (STI), geometric mean productivity (GMP), harmonic mean (HARM), mean productivity (MP) to identify genotypic performance of some maize cultivars under normal and stressed condition. The results indicate that it was possible to identify superior genotypes for drought tolerance based on their stress indices and generally SSI indices which showed the lowest negative correlation with dry matter yield can be used as the best index for maize breeding programs to introduce drought tolerant hybrids. It was found that SC 647 showed the best behavior under drought stress condition based on TOL and SSI. A higher STI, GMP, and HARM values were attained for ko6. It can be suggested that ko6 should be cultivated in moderate stressful environment of Iran.
Abstract: The miniaturization of gas turbines promises many advantages. Miniature gas turbines can be used for local power generation or the propulsion of small aircraft, such as UAV and MAV. However, experience shows that the miniaturization of conventional gas turbines, which are optimized at their current large size, leads to a substantial loss of efficiency and performance at smaller scales. This may be due to a number of factors, such as the Reynolds-number effect, the increased heat transfer, and manufacturing tolerances. In the present work, we focus on computational investigations of the Reynolds number effect and the wall heat transfer on the performance of axial compressor during its size change. The NASA stage 35 compressor is selected as the configuration in this study and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to carry out the miniaturization process and simulations. We perform parameter studies on the effect of Reynolds number and wall thermal conditions. Our results indicate a decrease of efficiency, if the compressor is miniaturized based on its original geometry due to the increase of viscous effects. The increased heat transfer through wall has only a small effect and will actually benefit compressor performance based on our study.
Abstract: The goal of presented work is the development phytoremediation method targeted to cleaning environment polluted with organochlorine pesticides, based on joint application of plants and microorganisms. For this aim the selection of plants and microorganisms with corresponding capabilities towards three organochlorine pesticides (Lindane, DDT and PCP) has been carried out.
The tolerance of plants to tested pesticides and induction degree of plant detoxification enzymes by these compounds have been used as main criteria for estimating the applicability of plants in proposed technology. Obtained results show that alfalfa, maize and soybean among tested six plant species have highest tolerance to pesticides.
As a result of screening, more than 30 strains from genera Pseudomonas have been selected. As a result of GC analysis of incubation area, 11 active cultures for investigated pesticides are carefully chosen.
Abstract: The objectives of this study were to isolate LAB from various sources, dietary supplement, Thai traditional fermented food, and freshwater fish and to characterize their potential as probiotic cultures. Out of 1,558 isolates, 730 were identified as LAB based on isolation on MRS agar supplemented with a bromocresol purple indicator&CaCO3 and Gram-positive, catalase- and oxidase-negative characteristics. Eight isolates showed the potential probiotic properties including tolerance to acid, bile salt & heat, proteolytic, amylolytic & lipolytic activities and oxalate-degrading capability. They all showed the antimicrobial activity against some Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria. Based on 16S rDNA sequence analysis, they were identified as Enterococcus faecalis BT2 & MG30, Leconostoc mesenteroides SW64 and Pediococcus pentosaceous BD33, CF32, NP6, PS34 & SW5. The health beneficial effects and food safety will be further investigated and developed as a probiotic or protective culture used in Nile tilapia belly flap meat fermentation.
Abstract: The main purpose of this paper was to find a simple solution for load balancing and fault tolerance in OSGi. The challenge was to implement a highly available web application such as a shopping cart system with load balancing and fault tolerance, without having to change the core of OSGi.