Search results for: Eccentric Connectivity Index

Authors: G.R.A. Alberio, D. Scalone, G. Spagna

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Anchovy (Engraulis Encrasicholus) and sardine (Sardina Pilchardus) are blue fishes linked to our alimentary tradition of Mediterranean. In our work, particularly, we tested for the first time physical and enzymatic methods to verify the freshness of species of blue fish, anchovy and sardine of Mediterranean. In connection with to the lowering of the pH after post-mortem stage we assisted to a increase in proteolytic activity of calpaine and catpsine. Already after 2 h in post-mortem there was a significant increase.

Keywords: Engraulis encrasicholus, Sardina pilchardus, freshness, index rigor.

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Authors: Vlado Kitanovski, Dimitar Taskovski, Sofija Bogdanova

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In this paper we present a combined hashing/watermarking method for image authentication. A robust image hash, invariant to legitimate modifications, but fragile to illegitimate modifications is generated from the local image characteristics. To increase security of the system the watermark is generated using the image hash as a key. Quantized Index Modulation of DCT coefficients is used for watermark embedding. Watermark detection is performed without use of the original image. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented method in terms of robustness and fragility.

Keywords: authentication, blind watermarking, image hash, semi-fragile watermarking

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Authors: Sindhu Govardhan, Kenneth G. Crowther

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Modernisation of the water sector is leading to increased connectivity and integration of emerging technologies with traditional ones, leading to new security risks. The convergence of Information Technology (IT) with Operation Technology (OT) results in solutions that are spread across larger geographic areas, increasingly consist of interconnected Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) devices and software, rely on the integration of legacy with modern technologies, use of complex supply chain components leading to complex architectures and communication paths. The result is that multiple parties collectively own and operate these emergent technologies, threat actors find new paths to exploit, and traditional cybersecurity controls are inadequate. Our approach is to explicitly identify and draw data flows that cross trust boundaries between owners and operators of various aspects of these emerging and interconnected technologies. On these data flows, we layer potential attack vectors to create a frame of reference for evaluating possible risks against connected technologies. Finally, we identify where existing controls, mitigations, and other remediations exist across industry partners (e.g., suppliers, product vendors, integrators, water utilities, and regulators). From these, we are able to understand potential gaps in security, the roles in the supply chain that are most likely to effectively remediate those security gaps, and test cases to evaluate and strengthen security across these partners. This informs a “shared responsibility” solution that recognises that security is multi-layered and requires collaboration to be successful. This shared responsibility security framework improves visibility, understanding, and control across the entire supply chain, and particularly for those water utilities that are accountable for safe and continuous operations.

Keywords: Cyber security, shared responsibility, IIOT, threat modelling.

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Authors: MA. Ansari

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In cancer progress, the optical properties of tissues like absorption and scattering coefficient change, so by these changes, we can trace the progress of cancer, even it can be applied for pre-detection of cancer. In this paper, we investigate the effects of changes of optical properties on light penetrated into tissues. The diffusion equation is widely used to simulate light propagation into biological tissues. In this study, the boundary integral method (BIM) is used to solve the diffusion equation. We illustrate that the changes of optical properties can modified the reflectance or penetrating light.

Keywords: Diffusion equation, boundary element method, refractive index

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Authors: Meysam Lak, Mohammad Fatehi Marji, Alireza Yarahamdi Bafghi, Abolfazl Abdollahipour

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A wellbore is a hole that is drilled to aid in the exploration and recovery of natural resources including oil and gas. Occasionally, in order to increase productivity index and porosity of the wellbore and reservoir, the well stimulation methods have been used. Hydraulic fracturing is one of these methods. Moreover, several explosions at the end of the well can stimulate the reservoir and create fractures around it. In this study, crack initiation in rock around the wellbore has been numerically modeled due to explosion. One, two, three, and four pairs of explosion have been set at the end of the wellbore on its wall. After each stage of the explosion, results have been presented and discussed. Results show that this method can initiate and probably propagate several fractures around the wellbore.

Keywords: Crack initiation, explosion, finite difference modelling, well productivity.

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Authors: Amean A. Yasir, Zainab Kh. A. Al-Mahdi Al-Amean

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In both developed and developing countries, obesity among women is increasing, but in different patterns and at very different speeds. It may have a negative effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems. This research studied the age distribution among obese women, the types of overweight and obesity, and the extent of the problem of overweight/obesity and the obesity etiological factors among women in Hillah city in central Iraq. A total of 322 overweight and obese women were included in the study, those women were randomly selected. The Body Mass Index was used as indicator for overweight/ obesity. The incidence of overweight/obesity among age groups were estimated, the etiology factors included genetic, environmental, genetic/environmental and endocrine disease. The overweight and obese women were screened for incidence of infection and/or diseases. The study found that the prevalence of 322 overweight and obese women in Hillah city in central Iraq was 19.25% and 80.78%, respectively. The obese women types were recorded based on BMI and WHO classification as class-1 obesity (29.81%), class-2 obesity (24.22%) and class-3 obesity (26.70%), the result was discrepancy non-significant, P value < 0.05. The incidence of overweight in women was high among those aged 20-29 years (90.32%), 6.45% aged 30-39 years old and 3.22% among ≥ 60 years old, while the incidence of obesity was 20.38% for those in the age group 20-29 years, 17.30% were 30-39 years, 23.84% were 40-49 years, 16.92% were 50-59 years group and 21.53% were ≥ 60 years age group. These results confirm that the age can be considered as a significant factor for obesity types (P value < 0.0001). The result also showed that the both genetic factors and environmental factors were responsible for incidents of overweight or obesity (84.78%) p value < 0.0001. The results also recorded cases of different repeated infections (skin infection, recurrent UTI and influenza), cancer, gallstones, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and infertility. Weight stigma and bias generally refers to negative attitudes; Obesity can affect quality of life, and the results of this study recorded depression among overweight or obese women. This can lead to sexual problems, shame and guilt, social isolation and reduced work performance. Overweight and Obesity are real problems among women of all age groups and is associated with the risk of diseases and infection and negatively affects quality of life. This result warrants further studies into the prevalence of obesity among women in Hillah City in central Iraq and the immune response of obese women.

Keywords: Obesity, overweight, Iraq, body mass index.

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Authors: M. Ionascu, L. Olimid

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In the last few years, several steps were taken in order to improve the quality of corporate governance for Romanian listed companies. Higher standards of corporate governance is documented in the literature to lead to a better information environment, and, consequently, to increase analysts forecast accuracy. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which corporate governance policies affect analysts forecasts for companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange. The results showed that there is indeed a negative correlation between a corporate governance index – used as a proxy for the quality of corporate governance practices - and analysts forecast errors.

Keywords: corporate governance, aanalysts' forecasts, information environment

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Authors: Robin V. Cupido

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Online dispute resolution has been identified in many countries as a viable alternative for resolving conflicts which have arisen in the so-called digital age. This system of dispute resolution is developing alongside the Internet, and as new types of transactions are made possible by our increased connectivity, new ways of resolving disputes must be explored. Developed nations, such as the United States of America and the European Union, have been involved in creating these online dispute resolution mechanisms from the outset, and currently have sophisticated systems in place to deal with conflicts arising in a number of different fields, such as e-commerce, domain name disputes, labour disputes and conflicts arising from family law. Specifically, in the field of e-commerce, the Internet’s borderless nature has served as a way to promote cross-border trade, and has created a global marketplace. Participation in this marketplace boosts a country’s economy, as new markets are now available, and consumers can transact from anywhere in the world. It would be especially advantageous for developing nations to be a part of this global marketplace, as it could stimulate much-needed investment in these nations, and encourage international co-operation and trade. However, for these types of transactions to proliferate, an effective system for resolving the inevitable disputes arising from such an increase in e-commerce is needed. Online dispute resolution scholarship and practice is flourishing in developed nations, and it is clear that the gap is widening between developed and developing nations in this regard. The potential for implementing online dispute resolution in developing countries has been discussed, but there are a number of obstacles that have thus far prevented its continued development. This paper aims to evaluate the various political, infrastructural and socio-economic challenges faced in developing nations, and to question how these have impacted the acceptance and development of online dispute resolution, scholarship and training of online dispute resolution practitioners and, ultimately, developing nations’ readiness to participate in cross-border e-commerce.

Keywords: Developing countries, feasibility, online dispute resolution, progress.

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Authors: K.Somasundaram, S.Domnic

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A low bit rate still image compression scheme by compressing the indices of Vector Quantization (VQ) and generating residual codebook is proposed. The indices of VQ are compressed by exploiting correlation among image blocks, which reduces the bit per index. A residual codebook similar to VQ codebook is generated that represents the distortion produced in VQ. Using this residual codebook the distortion in the reconstructed image is removed, thereby increasing the image quality. Our scheme combines these two methods. Experimental results on standard image Lena show that our scheme can give a reconstructed image with a PSNR value of 31.6 db at 0.396 bits per pixel. Our scheme is also faster than the existing VQ variants.

Keywords: Image compression, Vector Quantization, Residual Codebook.

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Authors: Vladyslav Povoroznyuk, Nataliia Dzerovych, Larysa Martynyuk, Tetiana Kovtun

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Obesity and osteoporosis are the two diseases whose increasing prevalence and high impact on the global morbidity and mortality, during the two recent decades, have gained a status of major health threats worldwide. Obesity purports to affect the bone metabolism through complex mechanisms. Debated data on the connection between the bone mineral density and fracture prevalence in the obese patients are widely presented in literature. There is evidence that the correlation of weight and fracture risk is sitespecific. This study is aimed at determining the connection between the bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS) parameters in Ukrainian women suffering from obesity. We examined 1025 40-89-year-old women, divided them into the groups according to their body mass index: Group A included 360 women with obesity whose BMI was ≥30 kg/m2, and Group B – 665 women with no obesity and BMI of <30 kg/m2. The BMD of total body, lumbar spine at the site L1-L4, femur and forearm were measured by DXA (Prodigy, GEHC Lunar, Madison, WI, USA). The TBS of L1- L4 was assessed by means of TBS iNsight® software installed on our DXA machine (product of Med-Imaps, Pessac, France). In general, obese women had a significantly higher BMD of lumbar spine, femoral neck, proximal femur, total body and ultradistal forearm (p<0.001) in comparison with women without obesity. The TBS of L1-L4 was significantly lower in obese women compared to nonobese women (p<0.001). The BMD of lumbar spine, femoral neck and total body differed to a significant extent in women of 40-49, 50- 59, 60-69 and 70-79 years (p<0.05). At same time, in women aged 80-89 years the BMD of lumbar spine (p=0.09), femoral neck (p=0.22) and total body (p=0.06) barely differed. The BMD of ultradistal forearm was significantly higher in women of all age groups (p<0.05). The TBS of L1-L4 in all the age groups tended to reveal the lower parameters in obese women compared with the nonobese; however, those data were not statistically significant. By contrast, a significant positive correlation was observed between the fat mass and the BMD at different sites. The correlation between the fat mass and TBS of L1-L4 was also significant, although negative. Women with vertebral fractures had a significantly lower body weight, body mass index and total body fat mass in comparison with women without vertebral fractures in their anamnesis. In obese women the frequency of vertebral fractures was 27%, while in women without obesity – 57%.

Keywords: Bone mineral density, trabecular bone score, obesity, women.

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Authors: T. Khampan, N. Thavarungkul, J. Tiansuwan, S. Kamthai

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This research aimed to modify pineapple leaf paper (PALP) for using as wet media in the evaporation cooling system by improving wet mechanical property (tensile strength) without compromising water absorption property. Polyamideamineepichorohydrin resin (PAE) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) were used to strengthen the paper, and the PAE and CMC ratio of 80:20 showed the optimum wet and dry tensile index values, which were higher than those of the commercial cooling pad (CCP). Compared with CCP, PALP itself and all the PAE/CMC modified PALP possessed better water absorption. The PAE/CMC modified PALP had potential to become a new type of wet media.

Keywords: wet strength, evaporative cooling, pineapple leaves, polyamideamine-epichorohydrin, carboxymethylcellulose.

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Authors: Semanur Soyyiğit Kaya, Ercan Eren

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Energy has a prominent role for development of nations. Countries which have energy resources also have strategic power in the international trade of energy since it is essential for all stages of production in the economy. Thus, it is important for countries to analyze the weaknesses and strength of the system. On the other side, international trade is one of the fields that are analyzed as a complex network via network analysis. Complex network is one of the tools to analyze complex systems with heterogeneous agents and interaction between them. A complex network consists of nodes and the interactions between these nodes. Total properties which emerge as a result of these interactions are distinct from the sum of small parts (more or less) in complex systems. Thus, standard approaches to international trade are superficial to analyze these systems. Network analysis provides a new approach to analyze international trade as a network. In this network, countries constitute nodes and trade relations (export or import) constitute edges. It becomes possible to analyze international trade network in terms of high degree indicators which are specific to complex networks such as connectivity, clustering, assortativity/disassortativity, centrality, etc. In this analysis, international trade of crude oil and coal which are types of fossil fuel has been analyzed from 2005 to 2014 via network analysis. First, it has been analyzed in terms of some topological parameters such as density, transitivity, clustering etc. Afterwards, fitness to Pareto distribution has been analyzed via Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Finally, weighted HITS algorithm has been applied to the data as a centrality measure to determine the real prominence of countries in these trade networks. Weighted HITS algorithm is a strong tool to analyze the network by ranking countries with regards to prominence of their trade partners. We have calculated both an export centrality and an import centrality by applying w-HITS algorithm to the data. As a result, impacts of the trading countries have been presented in terms of high-degree indicators.

Keywords: Complex network approach, fossil fuel, international trade, network theory.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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Obesity is a disease with an ever-increasing prevalence throughout the world. The metabolic network associated with obesity is very complicated. In metabolic syndrome (MetS), it becomes even more difficult to understand. Within this context, hormones, cytokines, and many others participate in this complex matrix. The collaboration among all of these parameters is a matter of great wonder. Cortisol, as a stress hormone, is closely associated with obesity. Thyroid hormones are involved in the regulation of energy as well as glucose metabolism with all of its associates. Fetuin A has been known for years; however, the involvement of this parameter in obesity discussions is rather new. Recently, it has been defined as one of the new generation markers of obesity. In this study, the aim was to introduce complex interactions among all to be able to make clear comparisons, at least for a part of this complicated matter. Morbid obese (MO) children participated in the study. Two groups with 46 MO children and 43 with MetS were constituted. All children included in the study were above 99th age- and sex-adjusted body mass index (BMI) percentiles according to World Health Organization criteria. Forty-three morbid obese children in the second group also had MetS components. Informed consent forms were filled by the parents of the participants. The institutional ethics committee has given approval for the study protocol. Data as well as the findings of the study were evaluated from a statistical point of view. Two groups were matched for their age and gender compositions. Significantly higher body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, thyrotropin, and insulin values were observed in the MetS group. Triiodothyronine concentrations did not differ between the groups. Elevated levels for thyroxin, cortisol, and fetuin-A were detected in the MetS group compared to the first group (p > 0.05). In MO MetS- group, cortisol was correlated with thyroxin and fetuin-A (p < 0.05). In the MO MetS+ group, none of these correlations were present. Instead, a correlation between cortisol and thyrotropin was found (p < 0.05). In conclusion, findings have shown that cortisol was the key player in severely obese children. The association of this hormone with the participants of thyroid hormone metabolism was quite important. The lack of association with fetuin A in the morbid obese MetS+ group has suggested the possible interference of MetS components in the behavior of this new generation obesity marker. The most remarkable finding of the study was the unique correlation between cortisol and thyrotropin in the morbid obese MetS+ group, suggesting that thyrotropin may serve as a target along with cortisol in the morbid obese MetS+ group. This association may deserve specific attention during the development of remedies against MetS in the pediatric population.

Keywords: children, cortisol, fetuin A, morbid obesity, thyrotropin

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Authors: Roya Bakhtiar, Alireza Abdolmohammadi, Hadi Hajarian, Zahra Nikousefat, Davood, Kalantar-Neyestanaki

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The objective of the present study was to determine the polymorphism in the leptin (332G>A) and its association with biometric traits in Sanjabi sheep. For this purpose, blood samples from 96 rams were taken, and tail length, width tail, circumference tail, body length, body width, and height were simultaneously recorded. PCR was performed using specific primer to amplify 463 bp fragment including exon 3 of leptin gene, and PCR products were digested by Cail restriction enzymes. The 332G>A (at 332th nucleotide of exon 3 leptin gene) that caused an amino acid change from Arg to Gln was detected by Cail (CAGNNNCTG) endonuclease, as the endonuclease cannot cut this region if G nucleotide is located in this position. Three genotypes including GG (463), GA (463, 360and 103 bp) and GG (360 bp and 103 bp) were identified after digestion by enzyme. The estimated frequencies of three genotypes including GG, GA, and AA for 332G>A locus were 0.68, 0.29 and 0.03 and those were 0.18 and 0.82 for A and G alleles, respectively. In the current study, chi-square test indicated that 332G>A positions did not deviate from the Hardy–Weinberg (HW) equilibrium. The most important reason to show HW equation was that samples used in this study belong to three large local herds with a traditional breeding system having random mating and without selection. Shannon index amount was calculated which represent an average genetic variation in Sanjabi rams. Also, heterozygosity estimated by Nei index indicated that genetic diversity of mutation in the leptin gene is moderate. Leptin gene polymorphism in the 332G>A had significant effect on body length (P<0.05) trait, and individuals with GA genotype had significantly the higher body length compared to other individuals. Although animals with GA genotype had higher body width, this difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). This non-synonymous SNP resulted in different amino acid changes at codon positions111(R/Q). As leptin activity is localized, at least in part, in domains between amino acid residues 106-1406, it is speculated that the detected SNP at position 332 may affect the activity of leptin and may lead to different biological functions. Based to our results, due to significant effect of leptin gene polymorphism on body size traits, this gene may be used a candidate gene for improving these traits.

Keywords: Body size, Leptin gene, PCR-RFLP, Sanjabi sheep.

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Authors: Young-Jae Kim, Young-Hwan You

Abstract:

This paper presents a integer frequency offset (IFO) estimation scheme for the 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) downlink system. Firstly, the conventional joint detection method for IFO and sector cell index (CID) information is introduced. Secondly, an IFO estimation without explicit sector CID information is proposed, which can operate jointly with the proposed IFO estimation and reduce the time delay in comparison with the conventional joint method. Also, the proposed method is computationally efficient and has almost similar performance in comparison with the conventional method over the Pedestrian and Vehicular channel models.

Keywords: LTE, OFDMA, primary synchronization signal (PSS), IFO, CID

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Authors: Houman Tamaddon, Mehrdad Behnia, Masud Behnia

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An accurate study of blood flow is associated with an accurate vascular pattern and geometrical properties of the organ of interest. Due to the complexity of vascular networks and poor accessibility in vivo, it is challenging to reconstruct the entire vasculature of any organ experimentally. The objective of this study is to introduce an innovative approach for the reconstruction of a full vascular tree from available morphometric data. Our method consists of implementing morphometric data on those parts of the vascular tree that are smaller than the resolution of medical imaging methods. This technique reconstructs the entire arterial tree down to the capillaries. Vessels greater than 2 mm are obtained from direct volume and surface analysis using contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT). Vessels smaller than 2mm are reconstructed from available morphometric and distensibility data and rearranged by applying Murray’s Laws. Implementation of morphometric data to reconstruct the branching pattern and applying Murray’s Laws to every vessel bifurcation simultaneously, lead to an accurate vascular tree reconstruction. The reconstruction algorithm generates full arterial tree topography down to the first capillary bifurcation. Geometry of each order of the vascular tree is generated separately to minimize the construction and simulation time. The node-to-node connectivity along with the diameter and length of every vessel segment is established and order numbers, according to the diameter-defined Strahler system, are assigned. During the simulation, we used the averaged flow rate for each order to predict the pressure drop and once the pressure drop is predicted, the flow rate is corrected to match the computed pressure drop for each vessel. The final results for 3 cardiac cycles is presented and compared to the clinical data.

Keywords: Blood flow, Morphometric data, Vascular tree, Strahler ordering system.

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Authors: Manjit Singh

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Multiscale entropy (MSE) is an extensively used index to provide a general understanding of multiple complexity of physiologic mechanism of heart rate variability (HRV) that operates on a wide range of time scales. Accurate selection of electrocardiogram (ECG) sampling frequency is an essential concern for clinically significant HRV quantification; high ECG sampling rate increase memory requirements and processing time, whereas low sampling rate degrade signal quality and results in clinically misinterpreted HRV. In this work, the impact of ECG sampling frequency on MSE based HRV have been quantified. MSE measures are found to be sensitive to ECG sampling frequency and effect of sampling frequency will be a function of time scale.

Keywords: ECG, heart rate variability, HRV, multiscale entropy, sampling frequency.

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Authors: É. Vincze

Abstract:

Demand on plant oils has increased to an enormous extent that is due to the change of human nutrition habits on the one hand, while on the other hand to the increase of raw material demand of some industrial sectors, just as to the increase of biofuel production. Besides the determining importance of sunflower in Hungary the production area, just as in part the average yield amount of rapeseed has increased among the produced oil crops. The variety/hybrid palette has changed significantly during the past decade. The available varieties’/hybrids’ palette has been extended to a significant extent. It is agreed that rapeseed production demands professionalism and local experience. Technological elements are successive; high yield amounts cannot be produced without system-based approach. The aim of the present work was to execute the complex study of one of the most critical production technology element of rapeseed production, that was sowing technology. Several sowing technology elements are studied in this research project that are the following: biological basis (the hybrid Arkaso is studied in this regard), sowing time (sowing time treatments were set so that they represent the wide period used in industrial practice: early, optimal and late sowing time) plant density (in this regard reaction of rare, optimal and too dense populations) were modelled. The multifactorial experimental system enables the single and complex evaluation of rapeseed sowing technology elements, just as their modelling using experimental result data. Yield quality and quantity have been determined as well in the present experiment, just as the interactions between these factors. The experiment was set up in four replications at the Látókép Plant Production Research Site of the University of Debrecen. Two different sowing times were sown in the first experimental year (2014), while three in the second (2015). Three different plant densities were set in both years: 200, 350 and 500 thousand plants ha-1. Uniform nutrient supply and a row spacing of 45 cm were applied. Winter wheat was used as pre-crop. Plant physiological measurements were executed in the populations of the Arkaso rapeseed hybrid that were: relative chlorophyll content analysis (SPAD) and leaf area index (LAI) measurement. Relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) and leaf area index (LAI) were monitored in 7 different measurement times.

Keywords: Inner quality, plant density, rapeseed, sowing time.

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Authors: Gebriel M. Shamia

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The Improved Generalized Diversity Index (IGDI) has been proposed as a tool that can be used to identify areas that have high conservation value and measure the ecological condition of an area. IGDI is based on the species relative abundances. This paper is concerned with particular attention is given to comparisons involving the MacArthur model of species abundances. The properties and performance of various species indices were assessed. Both IGDI and species richness increased with sampling area according to a power function. IGDI were also found to be acceptable ecological indicators of conditions and consistently outperformed coefficient of conservatism indices.

Keywords: Statistical ecology, MacArthur model, Functional Diversity.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

Abstract:

Obesity in children particularly draws attention, because it may threaten the individual’s future life due to many chronic diseases it may lead to. Most of these diseases including obesity itself altogether are related to inflammation. For this reason, inflammation-related parameters gain importance. Within this context, complete blood cell counts, ratios or indices derived from these counts have recently found some platform to be used as inflammatory markers. So far, mostly adipokines were investigated within the field of obesity. Metabolic inflammation is closely associated with cellular dysfunction. In this study, hematologic inflammatory markers and cytokines produced predominantly by the liver (fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21) and fetuin A) were investigated in pediatric obesity. Two groups were constituted from 76 obese children based on World Health Organization criteria. Group 1 was composed of children, whose age- and sex-adjusted body mass index (BMI) percentiles were between 95 and 99. Group 2 consists of children, who are above 99th percentile. The first and the latter groups were defined as obese (OB) and morbid obese (MO). Anthropometric measurements of the children were performed. Informed consent forms and the approval of the institutional ethics committee were obtained. Blood cell counts and ratios were determined by automated hematology analyzer. The related ratios and indexes were calculated. Statistical evaluation of the data was performed by SPSS program. There was no statistically significant difference in terms of neutrophil-to lymphocyte ratio, monocyte-to-high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio between the groups. Mean platelet volume and platelet distribution width values were decreased (p < 0.05), total platelet count, red cell distribution width (RDW) and systemic immune inflammation index values were increased (p < 0.01) in MO group. Both hepatokines were increased in the same group, however increases were not statistically significant. In this group, also a strong correlation was calculated between FGF-21 and RDW when controlled by age, hematocrit, iron and ferritin (r = 0.425; p < 0.01). In conclusion, the association between RDW, a hematologic inflammatory marker, and FGF-21, an inflammation-related hepatokine, found in MO group is an important finding discriminating between OB and MO children. This association is even more powerful when controlled by age and iron-related parameters.

Keywords: Childhood obesity, fetuin A, fibroblast growth factor-21, hematologic markers, red cell distribution width.

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Authors: M. H. Omar

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Cheating on standardized tests has been a major concern as it potentially minimizes measurement precision. One major way to reduce cheating by collusion is to administer multiple forms of a test. Even with this approach, potential collusion is still quite large. A Latin-square treatment structure for distributing multiple forms is proposed to further reduce the colluding potential. An index to measure the extent of colluding potential is also proposed. Finally, with a simple algorithm, the various Latin-squares were explored to find the best structure to keep the colluding potential to a minimum.

Keywords: Colluding pairs, Scale for Colluding Potential, Latin-Square Structure, Minimization of Cheating.

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Authors: C. B. Masera, M. Imprialou, L. Budd, C. Morton

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Even though signalised intersections are necessary for urban road traffic management, they can act as bottlenecks and disrupt traffic operations. Interrupted traffic flow causes congestion, delays, stop-and-go conditions (i.e. excessive acceleration/deceleration) and longer journey times. Vehicle and infrastructure connectivity offers the potential to provide improved new services with additional functions of assisting drivers. This paper focuses on one of the applications of vehicle-to-infrastructure communication namely Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory (GLOSA). To assess the effectiveness of GLOSA in the urban road network, an integrated microscopic traffic simulation framework is built into VISSIM software. Vehicle movements and vehicle-infrastructure communications are simulated through the interface of External Driver Model. A control algorithm is developed for recommending an optimal speed that is continuously updated in every time step for all vehicles approaching a signal-controlled point. This algorithm allows vehicles to pass a traffic signal without stopping or to minimise stopping times at a red phase. This study is performed with all connected vehicles at 100% penetration rate. Conventional vehicles are also simulated in the same network as a reference. A straight road segment composed of two opposite directions with two traffic lights per lane is studied. The simulation is implemented under 150 vehicles per hour and 200 per hour traffic volume conditions to identify how different traffic densities influence the benefits of GLOSA. The results indicate that traffic flow is improved by the application of GLOSA. According to this study, vehicles passed through the traffic lights more smoothly, and waiting times were reduced by up to 28 seconds. Average delays decreased for the entire network by 86.46% and 83.84% under traffic densities of 150 vehicles per hour per lane and 200 vehicles per hour per lane, respectively.

Keywords: Connected vehicles, GLOSA, intelligent transportation systems, infrastructure-to-vehicle communication.

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Authors: Chockpisit Thepsithar, Aree Thongpukdee

Abstract:

Two species of Physalis, P.angulataL. and P. peruviana L. were used as models for comparative study to understand the values of micro-morphological, -anatomical and architectural characteristics of leaf for taxonomic purposes and possibly breeding and commercial applications. Both speciespossess amphistomaticleaves with 1-layer epidermis, 3-4-layer spongy mesophyll andbicollateral bundle midrib. Palisade parenchyma cells of P. angulatawere almost twice longer (65-75 μm) than the other one. Type of stomata was similar as anomocyticbut stomatal index(SI) at adaxial surface and abaxial surface of P. angulata were less than of P. peruvianaas 3.57, 4.00 and6.25, 6.66 respectively. Some leaf architectural characteristics such as leaf shape, order of venationalsoprovided information of taxonomic significance

Keywords: Physalis, Solanaceae, micromorphology, anatomy, leaf architecture.

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Authors: Samia Dardouri, Ridha Bouallegue

Abstract:

Scheduling is the process of dynamically allocating physical resources to User Equipment (UE) based on scheduling algorithms implemented at the LTE base station. Various algorithms have been proposed by network researchers as the implementation of scheduling algorithm which represents an open issue in Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. This paper makes an attempt to study and compare the performance of PF, MLWDF and EXP/PF scheduling algorithms. The evaluation is considered for a single cell with interference scenario for different flows such as Best effort, Video and VoIP in a pedestrian and vehicular environment using the LTE-Sim network simulator. The comparative study is conducted in terms of system throughput, fairness index, delay, packet loss ratio (PLR) and total cell spectral efficiency.

Keywords: LTE, Multimedia flows, Scheduling algorithms.

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Authors: Encarnación Álvarez, Rosa M. García-Fernández, Francisco J. Blanco-Encomienda, Juan F. Muñoz

Abstract:

The European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is a popular survey which provides information on income, poverty, social exclusion and living conditions of households and individuals in the European Union. The EU-SILC contains variables which may contain outliers. The presence of outliers can have an impact on the measures and indicators used by the EU-SILC. In this paper, we used data sets from various countries to analyze the presence of outliers. In addition, we obtain some indicators after removing these outliers, and a comparison between both situations can be observed. Finally, some conclusions are obtained.

Keywords: Headcount index, poverty line, risk of poverty, skewness coefficient.

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Authors: Shimal Das, Dibyendu Ghoshal

Abstract:

The effect of directional search using iterated functional system has been studied on four images taken from databases. The images are portioned successively towards smaller dimension. Presented method provides the faster rate of convergence with respect to processing time in the flat region, but the same has been found to be slower at the border of the images and edges. It has also been revealed that the PSNR is lower at the edges and border portions of the image, and it is found to be higher in the uniform gray region, under the same external illumination and external noise environment.

Keywords: Iterated functional system, fractal compression, structural similarity index measure, fractal block coding, affine transformations.

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Authors: Arkadiusz Biernacki

Abstract:

In this paper we present a statistical analysis of Voice over IP (VoIP) packet streams produced by the G.711 voice coder with voice activity detection (VAD). During telephone conversation, depending whether the interlocutor speaks (ON) or remains silent (OFF), packets are produced or not by a voice coder. As index of dispersion for both ON and OFF times distribution was greater than one, we used hyperexponential distribution for approximation of streams duration. For each stage of the hyperexponential distribution, we tested goodness of our fits using graphical methods, we calculated estimation errors, and performed Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Obtained results showed that the precise VoIP source model can be based on the five-state Markov process.

Keywords: VoIP source modelling, distribution approximation, hyperexponential distribution.

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Authors: Rusu Ligia, Cosma Germina, Lica Eliana, Marin Mihnea, Cernăianu Sorina, Copilusi Petre Cristian, Rusu Petre Florinel

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to present the role of myotonometry in assessment muscle viscoelasticity by measurement of force index (IF) and stiffness (S) at thigh muscle groups. The results are used for improve the muscle training. The method is based on mechanic impulse on the muscle group, that involve a muscle response like acceleration, speed and amplitude curves. From these we have information about elasticity, stiffness beginning from mechanic oscillations of muscle tissue. Using this method offer the possibility for monitoring the muscle capacity for produce mechanic energy, that allows a efficiency of movement with a minimal tissue deformation.

Keywords: assessment, infraspinatus syndrome, kinetic therapy, rehabilitation

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Authors: Yung-Pin Cheng, Ching-Huei Wang

Abstract:

Process improvements have drawn much attention in practical software engineering. The capability maturity levels from CMMI have become an important index to assess a software company-s software engineering capability. However, in countries like Taiwan, customers often have no choices but to deal with vendors that are not CMMI prepared or qualified. We call these vendors maturitylevel- 1 (ML1) vendors. In this paper, we describe our experience from consulting an e-school project. We propose an approach to help our client tackle the ML1 vendors. Through our system analysis, we produce a design. This design is suggested to be used as part of contract and a blueprint to guide the implementation.

Keywords: CMMI, Software Engineering, Software Design, Designas Contract.

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Authors: M. Tarafdar Haque, A. Taheri

Abstract:

Application of neural networks in execution of programmed pulse width modulation (PPWM) of a voltage source inverter (VSI) is studied in this paper. Using the proposed method it is possible to cancel out the desired harmonics in output of VSI in addition to control the magnitude of fundamental harmonic, contineously. By checking the non-trained values and a performance index, the most appropriate neural network is proposed. It is shown that neural networks may solve the custom difficulties of practical utilization of PPWM such as large size of memory, complex digital circuits and controlling the magnitude of output voltage in a discrete manner.

Keywords: Neural Network, Inverter, PPWM.

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