Search results for: Corporate Group Networks
1581 Toxicological and Histopathological Studies on the Effect of Tartrazine in Male Albino Rats
Authors: F. Alaa Ali, S. A. Sherein Abdelgayed, S. Osama. EL-Tawil, M. Adel Bakeer
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Tartrazine is an organic azo dyes food additive widely used in foods, drugs, and cosmetics. The present study aimed to investigate the toxic effects of tartrazine on kidneys and liver biomarkers in addition to the investigation of oxidative stress and change of histopathological structure of liver and kidneys in 30 male rats. Tartrazine was orally administrated daily at dose 200 mg/ kg bw (1/ 10 LD50) for sixty days. Serum and tissue samples were collected at the end of the experiment to investigate the underlying mechanism of tartrazine through assessment oxidative stress (Glutathione (GSH), Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) and biochemical markers (alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Total protein and Urea). Liver and kidneys tissue were collected and preserved in 10% formalin for histopathological examination. The obtained values were statistically analyzed by one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by multiple comparison test. Biochemical analysis revealed that tartrazine induced significant increase in serum ALT, AST, total protein, urea level compared to control group. Tartrazine showed significant decrease in liver GSH and SOD where their values when compared to control group. Tartrazine induced increase in liver MDA compared to control group. Histopathology of the liver showed diffuse vacuolar degeneration in hepatic parenchyma, the portal area showed sever changes sever in hepatoportal blood vessels and in the bile ducts. The kidneys showed degenerated tubules at the cortex together with mononuclear leucocytes inflammatory cells infiltration. There is perivascular edema with inflammatory cell infiltration surrounding the congested and hyalinized vascular wall of blood vessel. The present study indicates that the subchronic effects of tartrazine have a toxic effect on the liver and kidneys together with induction of oxidative stress by formation of free radicals. Therefore, people should avoid the hazards of consuming tartrazine.
Keywords: Albino rats, tartrazine, toxicity, pathology
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22021580 Trust and Security in Electronic Payments: What We Have and Need to Know?
Authors: Theodosios Tsiakis, George Stephanides, George Pekos
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The growth of open networks created the interest to commercialise it. The establishment of an electronic business mechanism must be accompanied by a digital-electronic payment system to transfer the value of transactions. Financial organizations are requested to offer a secure e-payment synthesis with equivalent levels of trust and security served in conventional paper-based payment transactions. The paper addresses the challenge of the first trade problem in e-commerce, provides a brief literature review on electronic payment and attempts to explain the underlying concept and method of trust in relevance to electronic payment.
Keywords: Electronic payment, security, trust, electronic business mechanism.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27991579 A Study of Applying the Use of Breathing Training to Palliative Care Patients, Based on the Bio-Psycho-Social Model
Authors: Wenhsuan Lee, Yachi Chang, Yingyih Shih
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In clinical practices, it is common that while facing the unknown progress of their disease, palliative care patients may easily feel anxious and depressed. These types of reactions are a cause of psychosomatic diseases and may also influence treatment results. However, the purpose of palliative care is to provide relief from all kinds of pains. Therefore, how to make patients more comfortable is an issue worth studying. This study adopted the “bio-psycho-social model” proposed by Engel and applied spontaneous breathing training, in the hope of seeing patients’ psychological state changes caused by their physiological state changes, improvements in their anxious conditions, corresponding adjustments of their cognitive functions, and further enhancement of their social functions and the social support system. This study will be a one-year study. Palliative care outpatients will be recruited and assigned to the experimental group or the control group for six outpatient visits (once a month), with 80 patients in each group. The patients of both groups agreed that this study can collect their physiological quantitative data using an HRV device before the first outpatient visit. They also agreed to answer the “Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)”, the “Taiwanese version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire” before the first outpatient visit, to fill a self-report questionnaire after each outpatient visit, and to answer the “Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)”, the “Taiwanese version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire” after the last outpatient visit. The patients of the experimental group agreed to receive the breathing training under HRV monitoring during the first outpatient visit of this study. Before each of the following three outpatient visits, they were required to fill a self-report questionnaire regarding their breathing practices after going home. After the outpatient visits, they were taught how to practice breathing through an HRV device and asked to practice it after going home. Later, based on the results from the HRV data analyses and the pre-tests and post-tests of the “Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)”, the “Taiwanese version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire”, the influence of the breathing training in the bio, psycho, and social aspects were evaluated. The data collected through the self-report questionnaires of the patients of both groups were used to explore the possible interfering factors among the bio, psycho, and social changes. It is expected that this study will support the “bio-psycho-social model” proposed by Engel, meaning that bio, psycho, and social supports are closely related, and that breathing training helps to transform palliative care patients’ psychological feelings of anxiety and depression, to facilitate their positive interactions with others, and to improve the quality medical care for them.
Keywords: Palliative care, breathing training, bio-psycho-social Model, heart rate variability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9261578 Spatial Analysis and Statistics for Zoning of Urban Areas
Authors: Benedetto Manganelli, Beniamino Murgante
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The use of statistical data and of the neural networks, capable of elaborate a series of data and territorial info, have allowed the making of a model useful in the subdivision of urban places into homogeneous zone under the profile of a social, real estate, environmental and urbanist background of a city. The development of homogeneous zone has fiscal and urbanist advantages. The tools in the model proposed, able to be adapted to the dynamic changes of the city, allow the application of the zoning fast and dynamic.
Keywords: Homogeneous Urban Areas, Multidimensional Scaling, Neural Network, Real Estate Market, Urban Planning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19331577 Per Flow Packet Scheduling Scheme to Improve the End-to-End Fairness in Mobile Ad Hoc Wireless Network
Authors: K. Sasikala, R. S. D Wahidabanu
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Various fairness models and criteria proposed by academia and industries for wired networks can be applied for ad hoc wireless network. The end-to-end fairness in an ad hoc wireless network is a challenging task compared to wired networks, which has not been addressed effectively. Most of the traffic in an ad hoc network are transport layer flows and thus the fairness of transport layer flows has attracted the interest of the researchers. The factors such as MAC protocol, routing protocol, the length of a route, buffer size, active queue management algorithm and the congestion control algorithms affects the fairness of transport layer flows. In this paper, we have considered the rate of data transmission, the queue management and packet scheduling technique. The ad hoc network is dynamic in nature due to various parameters such as transmission of control packets, multihop nature of forwarding packets, changes in source and destination nodes, changes in the routing path influences determining throughput and fairness among the concurrent flows. In addition, the effect of interaction between the protocol in the data link and transport layers has also plays a role in determining the rate of the data transmission. We maintain queue for each flow and the delay information of each flow is maintained accordingly. The pre-processing of flow is done up to the network layer only. The source and destination address information is used for separating the flow and the transport layer information is not used. This minimizes the delay in the network. Each flow is attached to a timer and is updated dynamically. Finite State Machine (FSM) is proposed for queue and transmission control mechanism. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated in ns-2 simulation environment. The throughput and fairness based on mobility for different flows used as performance metrics. We have compared the performance of the proposed approach with ATP and the transport layer information is used. This minimizes the delay in the network. Each flow is attached to a timer and is updated dynamically. Finite State Machine (FSM) is proposed for queue and transmission control mechanism. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated in ns-2 simulation environment. The throughput and fairness based on not mobility for different flows used as performance metrics. We have compared the performance of the proposed approach with ATP and MC-MLAS and the performance of the proposed approach is encouraging.
Keywords: ATP, End-to-End fairness, FSM, MAC, QoS.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19861576 Traffic Flow on Road Junctions
Authors: Wah Wah Aung, Cho Cho San
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The paper deals with a mathematical model for fluid dynamic flows on road networks which is based on conservation laws. This nonlinear framework is based on the conservation of cars. We focus on traffic circle, which is a finite number of roads that meet at some junctions. The traffic circle with junctions having either one incoming and two outgoing or two incoming and one outgoing roads. We describe the numerical schemes with the particular boundary conditions used to produce approximated solutions of the problem.
Keywords: boundary conditions, conservation laws, finite difference Schemes, traffic flow.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22341575 The Application of Real Options to Capital Budgeting
Authors: George Yungchih Wang
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Real options theory suggests that managerial flexibility embedded within irreversible investments can account for a significant value in project valuation. Although the argument has become the dominant focus of capital investment theory over decades, yet recent survey literature in capital budgeting indicates that corporate practitioners still do not explicitly apply real options in investment decisions. In this paper, we explore how real options decision criteria can be transformed into equivalent capital budgeting criteria under the consideration of uncertainty, assuming that underlying stochastic process follows a geometric Brownian motion (GBM), a mixed diffusion-jump (MX), or a mean-reverting process (MR). These equivalent valuation techniques can be readily decomposed into conventional investment rules and “option impacts", the latter of which describe the impacts on optimal investment rules with the option value considered. Based on numerical analysis and Monte Carlo simulation, three major findings are derived. First, it is shown that real options could be successfully integrated into the mindset of conventional capital budgeting. Second, the inclusion of option impacts tends to delay investment. It is indicated that the delay effect is the most significant under a GBM process and the least significant under a MR process. Third, it is optimal to adopt the new capital budgeting criteria in investment decision-making and adopting a suboptimal investment rule without considering real options could lead to a substantial loss in value.
Keywords: real options, capital budgeting, geometric Brownianmotion, mixed diffusion-jump, mean-reverting process
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27701574 Organizational Data Security in Perspective of Ownership of Mobile Devices Used by Employees for Works
Authors: B. Ferdousi, J. Bari
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With advancement of mobile computing, employees are increasingly doing their job-related works using personally owned mobile devices or organization owned devices. The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model allows employees to use their own mobile devices for job-related works, while Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE) model allows both organizations and employees to install applications onto organization-owned mobile devices used for job-related works. While there are many benefits of using mobile computing for job-related works, there are also serious concerns of different levels of threats to the organizational data security. Consequently, it is crucial to know the level of threat to the organizational data security in the BOYD and COPE models. It is also important to ensure that employees comply with the organizational data security policy. This paper discusses the organizational data security issues in perspective of ownership of mobile devices used by employees, especially in BYOD and COPE models. It appears that while the BYOD model has many benefits, there are relatively more data security risks in this model than in the COPE model. The findings also showed that in both BYOD and COPE environments, a more practical approach towards achieving secure mobile computing in organizational setting is through the development of comprehensive cybersecurity policies balancing employees’ need for convenience with organizational data security. The study helps to figure out the compliance and the risks of security breach in BYOD and COPE models.
Keywords: Data security, mobile computing, BYOD, COPE, cybersecurity policy, cybersecurity compliance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3741573 Personas Help Understand Users’ Needs, Goals and Desires in an Online Institutional Repository
Authors: Maha ALjohani, James Blustein
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Communicating users' needs, goals and problems help designers and developers overcome challenges faced by end users. Personas are used to represent end users’ needs. In our research, creating personas allowed the following questions to be answered: Who are the potential user groups? What do they want to achieve by using the service? What are the problems that users face? What should the service provide to them? To develop realistic personas, we conducted a focus group discussion with undergraduate and graduate students and also interviewed a university librarian. The personas were created to help evaluating the Institutional Repository that is based on the DSpace system. The profiles helped to communicate users' needs, abilities, tasks, and problems, and the task scenarios used in the heuristic evaluation were based on these personas. Four personas resulted of a focus group discussion with undergraduate and graduate students and from interviewing a university librarian. We then used these personas to create focused task-scenarios for a heuristic evaluation on the system interface to ensure that it met users' needs, goals, problems and desires. In this paper, we present the process that we used to create the personas that led to devise the task scenarios used in the heuristic evaluation as a follow up study of the DSpace university repository.Keywords: Heuristic Evaluation, Institutional Repositories, User Experience, Human Computer Interaction, User Profiles, Personas, Task Scenarios, Heuristics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21681572 A Direct Down-conversion Receiver for Low-power Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Gianluca Cornetta, Abdellah Touhafi, David J. Santos, Jose Manuel Vazquez
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A direct downconversion receiver implemented in 0.13 μm 1P8M process is presented. The circuit is formed by a single-end LNA, an active balun for conversion into balanced mode, a quadrature double-balanced passive switch mixer and a quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator. The receiver operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and complies with IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee) specifications. The circuit exhibits a very low noise figure of only 2.27 dB and dissipates only 14.6 mW with a 1.2 V supply voltage and is hence suitable for low-power applications.
Keywords: LNA, Active Balun, Passive Mixer, VCO, IEEE 802.15.4(ZigBee).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23501571 Application of the Neural Network to the Synthesis of Multibeam Antennas Arrays
Authors: Ridha Ghayoula, Mbarek Traii, Ali Gharsallah
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In this paper, we intend to study the synthesis of the multibeam arrays. The synthesis implementation-s method for this type of arrays permits to approach the appropriated radiance-s diagram. The used approach is based on neural network that are capable to model the multibeam arrays, consider predetermined general criteria-s, and finally it permits to predict the appropriated diagram from the neural model. Our main contribution in this paper is the extension of a synthesis model of these multibeam arrays.Keywords: Multibeam, modelling, neural networks, synthesis, antennas.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12281570 The Effects of Whole-Body Vibration Training on Jump Performance in Handball Athletes
Authors: Yen-Ting Wang, Shou-Jing Guo, Hsiu-Kuang Chang, Kenny Wen-Chyuan Chen, Alex J.Y. Lee
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This study examined the effects of eight weeks of whole-body vibration training (WBVT) on vertical and decuple jump performance in handball athletes. Sixteen collegiate Level I handball athletes volunteered for this study. They were divided equally as control group and experimental group (EG). During the period of the study, all athletes underwent the same handball specific training, but the EG received additional WBVT (amplitude: 2 mm, frequency: 20 - 40 Hz) three time per week for eight consecutive weeks. The vertical jump performance was evaluated according to the maximum height of squat jump (SJ) and countermovement jump (CMJ). Single factor ANCOVA was used to examine the differences in each parameter between the groups after training with the pretest values as a covariate. The statistic significance was set at p < .05. After 8 weeks WBVT, the EG had significantly improved the maximal height of SJ (40.92 ± 2.96 cm vs. 48.40 ± 4.70 cm, F = 5.14, p < .05) and the maximal height CMJ (47.25 ± 7.48 cm vs. 52.20 ± 6.25 cm, F = 5.31, p < .05). 8 weeks of additional WBVT could improve the vertical and decuple jump performance in handball athletes. Enhanced motor unit synchronization and firing rates, facilitated muscular contraction stretch-shortening cycle, and improved lower extremity neuromuscular coordination could account for these enhancements.
Keywords: Muscle strength, explosive power, squat jump, and countermovement jump.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21191569 Utilization of 3-N-trimethylamino-1-propanol by Rhodococcus sp. strain A4 isolated from Natural Soil
Authors: Isam A. Mohamed Ahmed, Jiro Arima, Tsuyoshi Ichiyanagi, Emi Sakuno, Nobuhiro Mori
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The aim of this study was to screen for microorganism that able to utilize 3-N-trimethylamino-1-propanol (homocholine) as a sole source of carbon and nitrogen. The aerobic degradation of homocholine has been found by a gram-positive Rhodococcus sp. bacterium isolated from soil. The isolate was identified as Rhodococcus sp. strain A4 based on the phenotypic features, physiologic and biochemical characteristics, and phylogenetic analysis. The cells of the isolated strain grown on both basal-TMAP and nutrient agar medium displayed elementary branching mycelia fragmented into irregular rod and coccoid elements. Comparative 16S rDNA sequencing studies indicated that the strain A4 falls into the Rhodococcus erythropolis subclade and forms a monophyletic group with the type-strains of R. opacus, and R. wratislaviensis. Metabolites analysis by capillary electrophoresis, fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometry, and gas chromatography- mass spectrometry, showed trimethylamine (TMA) as the major metabolite beside β-alanine betaine and trimethylaminopropionaldehyde. Therefore, the possible degradation pathway of trimethylamino propanol in the isolated strain is through consequence oxidation of alcohol group (-OH) to aldehyde (-CHO) and acid (-COOH), and thereafter the cleavage of β-alanine betaine C-N bonds yielded trimethylamine and alkyl chain.Keywords: Homocholine, 3-N-trimethylamino-1-propanol, Quaternary ammonium compounds, 16S rDNA gene sequence.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15341568 Removal of Boron from Waste Waters by Ion- Exchange in a Batch System
Authors: Pelin Demirçivi, Gülhayat Nasün-Saygılı
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Boron minerals are very useful for various industrial activities, such as glass industry and detergent industry, due to its mechanical and chemical properties. During the production of boron compounds, many of these are introduced into the environment in the form of waste. Boron is also an important micro nutrient for the plants to vegetate but if it exists in high concentrations, it could have toxic effects. The maximum boron level in drinking water for human health is given as 0.3 mg/L in World Health Organization (WHO) standards. The toxic effects of boron should be noted especially for dry regions, thus, in recent years, increasing attention has been paid to remove the boron from waste waters. In this study, boron removal is implemented by ion exchange process using Amberlite IRA-743 resin. Amberlite IRA-743 resin is a boron specific resin and it belongs to the polymerizate sorbent group within the aminopolyol functional group. Batch studies were performed to investigate the effects of various experimental parameters, such as adsorbent dose, initial concentration and pH, on the removal of boron. It is found that, when the adsorbent dose increases removal of boron from the liquid phase increases. However, an increase in the initial concentration decreases the removal of boron. The effective pH values for removal of boron are determined between 8.5 and 9. Equilibrium isotherms were also analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The Langmuir isotherm is obeyed better than the Freundlich isotherm.Keywords: Amberlite resin, boron removal, ion exchange, isotherm models.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24221567 An Adaptive Model for Blind Image Restoration using Bayesian Approach
Authors: S.K. Satpathy, S.K. Nayak, K. K. Nagwanshi, S. Panda, C. Ardil
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Image restoration involves elimination of noise. Filtering techniques were adopted so far to restore images since last five decades. In this paper, we consider the problem of image restoration degraded by a blur function and corrupted by random noise. A method for reducing additive noise in images by explicit analysis of local image statistics is introduced and compared to other noise reduction methods. The proposed method, which makes use of an a priori noise model, has been evaluated on various types of images. Bayesian based algorithms and technique of image processing have been described and substantiated with experimentation using MATLAB.Keywords: Image Restoration, Probability DensityFunction (PDF), Neural Networks, Bayesian Classifier.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22471566 Five Vital Factors Related to Employees’ Job Performance
Authors: Siri-orn Champatong
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The purpose of this research was to study five vital factors related to employees’ job performance. A total of 250 respondents were sampled from employees who worked at a public warehouse organization, Bangkok, Thailand. Samples were divided into two groups according to their work experience. The average working experience was about 9 years for group one and 28 years for group two. A questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data. Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test analysis, one way ANOVA, and Pearson Product-moment correlation coefficient. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The findings disclosed that the majority of respondents were female between 23- 31 years old, single, and hold an undergraduate degree. The average income of respondents was less than 30,900 baht. The findings also revealed that the factors of organization chart awareness, job process and technology, internal environment, employee loyalty, and policy and management were ranked as medium level. The hypotheses testing revealed that difference in gender, age, and position had differences in terms of the awareness of organization chart, job process and technology, internal environment, employee loyalty, and policy and management in the same direction with low level.
Keywords: Employees, Factors Related, Job Performance, Public Warehouse Organization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16471565 Applications of Stable Distributions in Time Series Analysis, Computer Sciences and Financial Markets
Authors: Mohammad Ali Baradaran Ghahfarokhi, Parvin Baradaran Ghahfarokhi
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In this paper, first we introduce the stable distribution, stable process and theirs characteristics. The a -stable distribution family has received great interest in the last decade due to its success in modeling data, which are too impulsive to be accommodated by the Gaussian distribution. In the second part, we propose major applications of alpha stable distribution in telecommunication, computer science such as network delays and signal processing and financial markets. At the end, we focus on using stable distribution to estimate measure of risk in stock markets and show simulated data with statistical softwares.
Keywords: stable distribution, SaS, infinite variance, heavy tail networks, VaR.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20631564 Implementation of IEEE 802.15.4 Packet Analyzer
Authors: Sung Jun Ban, Hyeonwoo Cho, ChangWoo Lee, Sang Woo Kim
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A packet analyzer is a tool for debugging sensor network systems and is convenient for developers. In this paper, we introduce a new packet analyzer based on an embedded system. The proposed packet analyzer is compatible with IEEE 802.15.4, which is suitable for the wireless communication standard for sensor networks, and is available for remote control by adopting a server-client scheme based on the Ethernet interface. To confirm the operations of the packet analyzer, we have developed two types of sensor nodes based on PIC4620 and ATmega128L microprocessors and tested the functions of the proposed packet analyzer by obtaining the packets from the sensor nodes.Keywords: Sensor network, embedded system, packet analyzer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22041563 Improving Classification in Bayesian Networks using Structural Learning
Authors: Hong Choon Ong
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Naïve Bayes classifiers are simple probabilistic classifiers. Classification extracts patterns by using data file with a set of labeled training examples and is currently one of the most significant areas in data mining. However, Naïve Bayes assumes the independence among the features. Structural learning among the features thus helps in the classification problem. In this study, the use of structural learning in Bayesian Network is proposed to be applied where there are relationships between the features when using the Naïve Bayes. The improvement in the classification using structural learning is shown if there exist relationship between the features or when they are not independent.Keywords: Bayesian Network, Classification, Naïve Bayes, Structural Learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25991562 Power Minimization in Decode-and-XOR-Forward Two-Way Relay Networks
Authors: Dong-Woo Lim, Chang-Jae Chun, Hyung-Myung Kim
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We consider a two-way relay network where two sources exchange information. A relay helps the two sources exchange information using the decode-and-XOR-forward protocol. We investigate the power minimization problem with minimum rate constraints. The system needs two time slots and in each time slot the required rate pair should be achievable. The power consumption is minimized in each time slot and we obtained the closed form solution. The simulation results confirm that the proposed power allocation scheme consumes lower total power than the conventional schemes.
Keywords: Decode-and-XOR-forward, power minimization, two-way relay
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15881561 A Framework for University Social Responsibility and Sustainability: The Case of South Valley University, Egypt
Authors: Alaa Tag Eldin Mohamed
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The environmental, cultural, social, and technological changes have led higher education institutes to question their traditional roles. Many declarations and frameworks highlight the importance of fulfilling social responsibility of higher education institutes. The study aims at developing a framework of university social responsibility and sustainability (USR&S) with focus on South Valley University (SVU) as a case study of Egyptian Universities. The study used meetings with 12 vice deans of community services and environmental affairs on social responsibility and environmental issues. The proposed framework integrates social responsibility with strategic management through the establishment and maintenance of the vision, mission, values, goals and management systems; elaboration of policies; provision of actions; evaluation of services and development of social collaboration with stakeholders to meet current and future needs of the community and environment. The framework links between different stakeholders internally and externally using communication and reporting tools. The results show that SVU integrates social responsibility and sustainability in its strategic plans. It has policies and actions however fragmented and lack of appropriate structure and budgeting. The proposed framework could be valuable for researchers and decision makers of the Egyptian Universities. The study proposed recommendations and highlighted building on the results and conducting future research.Keywords: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), South Valley University, Sustainable University, university social responsibility and sustainability (USR&S).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 41091560 Optimal Synthesis of Multipass Heat Exchanger without Resorting to Correction Factor
Authors: Bharat B. Gulyani, Anuj Jain, Shalendra Kumar
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Customarily, the LMTD correction factor, FT, is used to screen alternative designs for a heat exchanger. Designs with unacceptably low FT values are discarded. In this paper, authors have proposed a more fundamental criterion, based on feasibility of a multipass exchanger as the only criteria, followed by economic optimization. This criterion, coupled with asymptotic energy targets, provide the complete optimization space in a heat exchanger network (HEN), where cost-optimization of HEN can be performed with only Heat Recovery Approach temperature (HRAT) and number-of-shells as variables.Keywords: heat exchanger, heat exchanger networks, LMTD correction factor, shell targeting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 43241559 Assessment the Quality of Telecommunication Services by Fuzzy Inferences System
Authors: Oktay Nusratov, Ramin Rzaev, Aydin Goyushov
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Fuzzy inference method based approach to the forming of modular intellectual system of assessment the quality of communication services is proposed. Developed under this approach the basic fuzzy estimation model takes into account the recommendations of the International Telecommunication Union in respect of the operation of packet switching networks based on IPprotocol. To implement the main features and functions of the fuzzy control system of quality telecommunication services it is used multilayer feedforward neural network.
Keywords: Quality of communication, IP-telephony, Fuzzy set, Fuzzy implication, Neural network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23471558 A Survey of Attacks and Security Requirements in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Vishnu Pratap Singh Kirar
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Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a network of many interconnected networked systems, they equipped with energy resources and they are used to detect other physical characteristics. On WSN, there are many researches are performed in past decades. WSN applicable in many security systems govern by military and in many civilian related applications. Thus, the security of WSN gets attention of researchers and gives an opportunity for many future aspects. Still, there are many other issues are related to deployment and overall coverage, scalability, size, energy efficiency, quality of service (QoS), computational power and many more. In this paper we discus about various applications and security related issue and requirements of WSN.
Keywords: Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), Wireless Network Attacks, Wireless Network Security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29961557 Forecasting of Grape Juice Flavor by Using Support Vector Regression
Authors: Ren-Jieh Kuo, Chun-Shou Huang
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The research of juice flavor forecasting has become more important in China. Due to the fast economic growth in China, many different kinds of juices have been introduced to the market. If a beverage company can understand their customers’ preference well, the juice can be served more attractive. Thus, this study intends to introducing the basic theory and computing process of grapes juice flavor forecasting based on support vector regression (SVR). Applying SVR, BPN, and LR to forecast the flavor of grapes juice in real data shows that SVR is more suitable and effective at predicting performance.
Keywords: Flavor forecasting, artificial neural networks, support vector regression, grape juice flavor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22161556 ZBTB17 Gene rs10927875 Polymorphism in Slovak Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy
Authors: I. Boroňová, J. Bernasovská, J. Kmec, E. Petrejčíková
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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.
Keywords: Dilated cardiomyopathy, SNP polymorphism, ZBTB17 gene.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21411555 Systematics of Water Lilies (Genus Nymphaea L.) Using 18S rDNA Sequences
Authors: M. Nakkuntod, S. Srinarang, K.W. Hilu
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Water lily (Nymphaea L.) is the largest genus of Nymphaeaceae. This family is composed of six genera (Nuphar, Ondinea, Euryale, Victoria, Barclaya, Nymphaea). Its members are nearly worldwide in tropical and temperate regions. The classification of some species in Nymphaea is ambiguous due to high variation in leaf and flower parts such as leaf margin, stamen appendage. Therefore, the phylogenetic relationships based on 18S rDNA were constructed to delimit this genus. DNAs of 52 specimens belonging to water lily family were extracted using modified conventional method containing cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). The results showed that the amplified fragment is about 1600 base pairs in size. After analysis, the aligned sequences presented 9.36% for variable characters comprising 2.66% of parsimonious informative sites and 6.70% of singleton sites. Moreover, there are 6 regions of 1-2 base(s) for insertion/deletion. The phylogenetic trees based on maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood with high bootstrap support indicated that genus Nymphaea was a paraphyletic group because of Ondinea, Victoria and Euryale disruption. Within genus Nymphaea, subgenus Nymphaea is a basal lineage group which cooperated with Euryale and Victoria. The other four subgenera, namely Lotos, Hydrocallis, Brachyceras and Anecphya were included the same large clade which Ondinea was placed within Anecphya clade due to geographical sharing.
Keywords: nrDNA, phylogeny, taxonomy, Waterlily.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11291554 Access Policy Specification for SCADA Networks
Authors: Rodrigo Chandia, Mauricio Papa
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Efforts to secure supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems must be supported under the guidance of sound security policies and mechanisms to enforce them. Critical elements of the policy must be systematically translated into a format that can be used by policy enforcement components. Ideally, the goal is to ensure that the enforced policy is a close reflection of the specified policy. However, security controls commonly used to enforce policies in the IT environment were not designed to satisfy the specific needs of the SCADA environment. This paper presents a language, based on the well-known XACML framework, for the expression of authorization policies for SCADA systems.Keywords: Access policy specification, process control systems, network security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23151553 Analysis and Prototyping of Biological Systems: the Abstract Biological Process Model
Authors: Antonio Di Leva, Roberto Berchi, Gianpiero Pescarmona, Michele Sonnessa
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The aim of a biological model is to understand the integrated structure and behavior of complex biological systems as a function of the underlying molecular networks to achieve simulation and forecast of their operation. Although several approaches have been introduced to take into account structural and environment related features, relatively little attention has been given to represent the behavior of biological systems. The Abstract Biological Process (ABP) model illustrated in this paper is an object-oriented model based on UML (the standard object-oriented language). Its main objective is to bring into focus the functional aspects of the biological system under analysis.Keywords: Biological processes, system dynamics, systemmodeling, UML.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16401552 Research of Strong-Column-Weak-Beam Criteria of Reinforced Concrete Frames Subjected to Biaxial Seismic Excitation
Authors: Chong Zhang, Mu-Xuan Tao
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In several earthquakes, numerous reinforced concrete (RC) frames subjected to seismic excitation demonstrated a collapse pattern characterized by column hinges, though designed according to the Strong-Column-Weak-Beam (S-C-W-B) criteria. The effect of biaxial seismic excitation on the disparity between design and actual performance is carefully investigated in this article. First, a modified load contour method is proposed to derive a closed-form equation of biaxial bending moment strength, which is verified by numerical and experimental tests. Afterwards, a group of time history analyses of a simple frame modeled by fiber beam-column elements subjected to biaxial seismic excitation are conducted to verify that the current S-C-W-B criteria are not adequate to prevent the occurrence of column hinges. A biaxial over-strength factor is developed based on the proposed equation, and the reinforcement of columns is appropriately amplified with this factor to prevent the occurrence of column hinges under biaxial excitation, which is proved to be effective by another group of time history analyses.
Keywords: Biaxial bending moment strength, biaxial seismic excitation, fiber beam-column model, load contour method, strong-column-weak-beam.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 622