Precise navigation is a vital need for many modern vehicular applications. The global positioning system (GPS) cannot provide continuous navigation information in urban areas. The widely used inertial navigation system (INS) can provide full vehicle state at high rates. However, the accuracy diverges quickly in low cost microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based INS due to bias, drift, noise, and other errors. These errors can be corrected in a stationary state. But detecting stationary state is a challenging task. A novel stationary state detection technique from the variation of acceleration, heading, and pitch and roll of an attitude heading reference system (AHRS) built from the inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors is proposed. Besides, the map matching (MM) algorithm detects the intersections where the vehicle is likely to stop. Combining these two results, the stationary state is detected with a smaller timing window of 3 s. A longer timing window of 5 s is used when the stationary state is detected only from the AHRS. The experimental results show that the stationary state is correctly identified and the position error is reduced to 90% and outperforms previously reported work. The proposed algorithm would help to reduce INS errors and enhance the performance of the navigation system.
Unified Modeling Language is the most popular and widely used Object-Oriented modelling language in the IT industry. This study focuses on investigating the ability to expand UML to some extent to model crosscutting concerns (Aspects) to support AspectJ. Through a comprehensive literature review, we identify and extensively examine all the available Aspect-Oriented UML modelling approaches and find that the existing Aspect-Oriented Design Modelling approaches using UML cannot be considered to provide a framework for a comprehensive Aspectual UML modelling approach and also that there is a lack of adequate Aspect-Oriented tool support. This study also proposes a set of Aspectual UML semantic rules and attempts to generate AspectJ pseudocode from UML diagrams. The proposed Aspectual UML modelling approach is formally evaluated using a focus group to test six hypotheses regarding performance; a "good design" criteria-based evaluation to assess the quality of the design; and an AspectJ-based evaluation as a reference measurement-based evaluation. The results of the focus group evaluation confirm all the hypotheses put forward regarding the proposed approach. The proposed approach provides a comprehensive set of Aspectual UML structural and behavioral diagrams, which are designed and implemented based on a comprehensive and detailed set of AspectJ programming constructs.
This paper presents a new practical QPSK receiver that uses digitized samples of incoming QPSK analog signal to determine the phase of the QPSK symbol. The proposed technique is more robust to phase noise and consumes up to 89.6% less power for signal detection in demodulation operation. On the contrary, the conventional QPSK demodulation process where it uses coherent detection technique requires the exact incoming signal frequency; thus, any variation in the frequency of the local oscillator or incoming signal will cause phase noise. A software simulation of the proposed design was successfully carried out using MATLAB Simulink software platform. In the conventional system, at least 10 dB signal to noise ratio (SNR) is required to achieve the bit error rate (BER) of 10(-6), whereas, in the proposed technique, the same BER value can be achieved with only 5 dB SNR. Since some of the power consuming elements such as voltage control oscillator (VCO), mixer, and low pass filter (LPF) are no longer needed, the proposed QPSK demodulator will consume almost 68.8% to 99.6% less operational power compared to conventional QPSK demodulator.
The dynamic behavior of a body-in-white (BIW) structure has significant influence on the noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) and crashworthiness of a car. Therefore, by improving the dynamic characteristics of BIW, problems and failures associated with resonance and fatigue can be prevented. The design objectives attempt to improve the existing torsion and bending modes by using structural optimization subjected to dynamic load without compromising other factors such as mass and stiffness of the structure. The natural frequency of the design was modified by identifying and reinforcing the structure at critical locations. These crucial points are first identified by topology optimization using mass and natural frequencies as the design variables. The individual components obtained from the analysis go through a size optimization step to find their target thickness of the structure. The thickness of affected regions of the components will be modified according to the analysis. The results of both optimization steps suggest several design modifications to achieve the target vibration specifications without compromising the stiffness of the structure. A method of combining both optimization approaches is proposed to improve the design modification process.
Glutathione transferases (GST) were purified from locally isolated bacteria, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus Y1, by glutathione-affinity chromatography and anion exchange, and their substrate specificities were investigated. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that the purified GST resolved into a single band with a molecular weight (MW) of 23 kDa. 2-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis showed the presence of two isoforms, GST1 (pI 4.5) and GST2 (pI 6.2) with identical MW. GST1 was reactive towards ethacrynic acid, hydrogen peroxide, 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene, and trans,trans-hepta-2,4-dienal while GST2 was active towards all substrates except hydrogen peroxide. This demonstrated that GST1 possessed peroxidase activity which was absent in GST2. This study also showed that only GST2 was able to conjugate GSH to isoproturon, a herbicide. GST1 and GST2 were suggested to be similar to F0KLY9 (putative glutathione S-transferase) and F0KKB0 (glutathione S-transferase III) of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus strain PHEA-2, respectively.
Cloud computing is a new generation of technology which is designed to provide the commercial necessities, solve the IT management issues, and run the appropriate applications. Another entry on the list of cloud functions which has been handled internally is Identity Access Management (IAM). Companies encounter IAM as security challenges while adopting more technologies became apparent. Trust Multi-tenancy and trusted computing based on a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) are great technologies for solving the trust and security concerns in the cloud identity environment. Single sign-on (SSO) and OpenID have been released to solve security and privacy problems for cloud identity. This paper proposes the use of trusted computing, Federated Identity Management, and OpenID Web SSO to solve identity theft in the cloud. Besides, this proposed model has been simulated in .Net environment. Security analyzing, simulation, and BLP confidential model are three ways to evaluate and analyze our proposed model.
A pavement structure consists of several layers for the primary purpose of transmitting and distributing traffic loads to the subgrade. Rutting is one form of pavement distresses that may influence the performance of road pavements. Geosynthetics is one type of synthetic materials utilized for improving the performance of pavements against rutting. Various studies have been conducted on using different geosynthetic materials in pavement structures by different researchers. One of the practices is a reinforcing material in asphalt pavements. This paper intends to present and discuss the discoveries from some of the studies on utilizing geosynthetics in flexible pavements as reinforcement against permanent deformation (rutting).
This paper mainly forecasts the daily closing price of stock markets. We propose a two-stage technique that combines the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) with nonparametric methods of local linear quantile (LLQ). We use the proposed technique, EMD-LLQ, to forecast two stock index time series. Detailed experiments are implemented for the proposed method, in which EMD-LPQ, EMD, and Holt-Winter methods are compared. The proposed EMD-LPQ model is determined to be superior to the EMD and Holt-Winter methods in predicting the stock closing prices.
Salmacis sphaeroides (Linnaeus, 1758) is one of the regular echinoids, occuring in the warm Indo-West Pacific, including Johor Straits, between Malaysia and Singapore. In order to investigate the developmental basis of morphological changes in embryos and larvae, we documented the ontogeny of S. sphaeroides in laboratory condition. Gametes were obtained from adult individuals by 0.5 M KCl injection into the coelomic cavity. Fertilization rate at limited sperm concentration (10(-5) dilution) was 96.6 ± 1.4% and the resulting embryos were reared at 24°C. First cleavage (2-cell), 4-cell, 8-cell, 16-cell, 32-cell, and multicell (Morulla) stages were achieved 01.12, 02.03, 02.28, 02.51, 03.12, and 03.32 h postfertilization. Ciliated blastulae with a mean length of 174.72 ± 4.43 μm hatched 08.45 h after sperm entry. The gastrulae formed 16.15 h postfertilization and the archenteron elongated constantly while ectodermal red-pigmented cells migrated synchronously to the apical plate. Pluteus larva started to feed unicellular algae in 2 d, grew continuously, and finally attained metamorphic competence in 35 d after fertilization. Metamorphosis took approximately 1 h 30 min from attachment to the complete resorption of larval tissues and the development of complete juvenile structure with adult spines, extended tubefeet and well-developed pedicellaria, the whole event of which usually took place within 1 d postsettlement. This study represents the first successful investigation on embryonic, larval, and early juvenile development of S. sphaeroides. The findings would greatly be helpful towards the understanding of ontogeny and life-history strategies, which will facilitate us to develop the breeding, seed production, and culture techniques of sea urchins in captive condition.
Maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) nanoparticles have been synthesized using a chemical coprecipitation method at different nitric acid concentrations as an oxidizing agent. Characterization of all samples performed by several techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), alternating gradient magnetometry (AGM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential. The XRD patterns confirmed that the particles were maghemite. The crystallite size of all samples decreases with the increasing concentration of nitric acid. TEM observation showed that the particles have spherical morphology with narrow particle size distribution. The particles showed superparamagnetic behavior with decreased magnetization values at the increasing concentration of nitric acid. TGA measurement showed that the stability temperature decreases with the increasing concentration of nitric acid. DLS measurement showed that the hydrodynamic particle sizes decrease with the increasing concentration of nitric acid. Zeta potential values show a decrease with the increasing concentration of nitric acid. The increasing concentration of nitric acid in synthesis of maghemite nanoparticles produced smaller size particles, lower magnetization, better thermal stability, and more stable maghemite nanoparticles suspension.
Axonopus compressus is one of the native soft grass species in oil palm in Malaysia which can be used as a cover crop. The competitive ability of A. compressus to overcome A. gangetica was studied using multiple-density, multiple-proportion replacements series under a glasshouse and full sunlight conditions in a poly bag for 10 weeks. A. compressus produced more dry weight and leaf area when competing against A. gangetica than in monoculture at both densities in the full sunlight and at high density in the shade. Moreover, the relative yield and relative crowding coefficients also indicated A. compressus is a stronger competitor than A. gangetica at both densities in the full sunlight and high density in the shade. It seemed that A. gangetica plants in the shade did not compete with each other and were more competitive against A. compressus as could influence A. compressus height in the shade. It is concluded that although suppression of A. gangetica by A. compressus occurred under full sunlight, irrespective of plant density, this ability reduced under shade as A. compressus density decreased. The result suggests that A. compressus in high density could be considered as a candidate for cover crops under oil palm canopy.
Soil phosphorus (P) release capability could be assessed through the degree of P saturation (DPS). Our main objective was to determine DPS and, hence, P threshold DPS values of an Ultisol treated with triple superphosphate (TSP), Gafsa phosphate rocks (GPR), or Christmas Island phosphate rocks (CIPR), plus or minus manure. P release was determined by the iron oxide-impregnated paper strip (strip P), while DPS was determined from ammonium oxalate-extractable aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), and P. Soils were sampled from a closed incubation study involving soils treated with TSP, GPR, and CIPR at 0-400 mg P kg-1, and a field study where soils were fertilized with the same P sources at 100-300 kg P ha-1 plus or minus manure. The DPS was significantly influenced by P source x P rate, P source x manure (incubated soils), and by P source x P rate x time (field-sampled soils). Incubated soil results indicated that both initial P and total strip P were related to DPS by exponential functions: initial strip P = 1.38exp0.18DPS, R2 = 0.82** and total strip P = 8.01exp0.13DPS, R2 = 0.65**. Initial strip P was linearly related to total P; total P = 2.45, initial P + 8.41, R2 = 0.85**. The threshold DPS value established was about 22% (incubated soil). Field soils had lower DPS values <12% and strip P was related to initial DPS and average DPS in exponential functions: strip P = 2.6exp0.44DPS, R2 = 0.77** and strip P = 1.1DPS2 ¨C 2.4DPS + 6.2, R2 = 0.58**, respectively. The threshold values were both approximately equal to 8% and P release was 11-14 mg P kg-1. Results are evident that DPS can be used to predict P release, but the threshold values are environmentally sensitive; hence, recommendations should be based on field trials.
Cloud computing is a significant shift of computational paradigm where computing as a utility and storing data remotely have a great potential. Enterprise and businesses are now more interested in outsourcing their data to the cloud to lessen the burden of local data storage and maintenance. However, the outsourced data and the computation outcomes are not continuously trustworthy due to the lack of control and physical possession of the data owners. To better streamline this issue, researchers have now focused on designing remote data auditing (RDA) techniques. The majority of these techniques, however, are only applicable for static archive data and are not subject to audit the dynamically updated outsourced data. We propose an effectual RDA technique based on algebraic signature properties for cloud storage system and also present a new data structure capable of efficiently supporting dynamic data operations like append, insert, modify, and delete. Moreover, this data structure empowers our method to be applicable for large-scale data with minimum computation cost. The comparative analysis with the state-of-the-art RDA schemes shows that the proposed scheme is secure and highly efficient in terms of the computation and communication overhead on the auditor and server.
The effectiveness of different soil tests in assessing soil phosphorus (P) in soils amended with phosphate rocks (PRs) is uncertain. We evaluated the effects of triple superphosphate (TSP) and PRs on extractable P by conventional soil tests (Mehlich 3 [Meh3] and Bray-1 [B1]) and a nonconventional test (iron oxide-impregnated paper, strip). Extracted amounts of P were in the order: Meh3 >B1 > strip. All the tests were significantly correlated (p = 0.001). Acidic reagents extracted more P from TSP than PRs, while the strip removed equal amounts from the two sources. The P removed by the three tests was related significantly to dry matter yield (DMY), but only in the first harvest, except for B1. Established critical P levels (CPLs) differed for TSP and PRs. In PR-fertilized soils, CPLs were 27, 17, and 12 mg P kg(-1) soil for Meh3, B1, and strip, respectively, and 42, 31, and 12 mg P kg(-1) soil, respectively, in TSP-fertilized soils. Thus, the strip resulted in a common CPL for TSP and PRs (12 mg P kg(-1) soil). This method can be used effectively in soils where integrated nutrient sources have been used, but there is need to establish CPLs for different crops. For cost-effective fertilizer P recommendations based on conventional soil tests, there is a need to conduct separate calibrations for TSP- and PR-fertilized soils.
This study investigated the allelopathic effect of Axonopus compressus litter on Asystasia gangetica and Pennisetum polystachion. In experiment 1 the bioassays with 0, 10, 30, and 50 g L⁻¹ of aqueous A. compressus litter leachate were conducted. Experiment 2 was carried out by incorporating 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 g L⁻¹ of A. compressus litter leachate into soil. In experiment 3, the fate of A. compressus litter leachate phenolics in the soil was investigated. A. compressus leachates did not affect the germination percentage of A. gangetica and P. polystachion, but delayed germination of A. gangetica seeds and decreased seed germination time of P. polystachion. A. compressus litter leachates affected weeds hypocotyl length. Hypocotyl length reductions of 18 and 31% were observed at the highest concentration (50 g L⁻¹) compared to the control in A. gangetica and P. polystachion, respectively. When concentration of A. compressus litter leachate-amended soil increased A. gangetica and P. polystachion seedling shoot length, root length, seedling weight and chlorophyll concentration were not affected. The 5-week decomposition study of A. compressus showed that the phenolic compounds in A. compressus litter abruptly decreased about 52% after two weeks and remained steady until the end of the incubation.
Software birthmark is a unique quality of software to detect software theft. Comparing birthmarks of software can tell us whether a program or software is a copy of another. Software theft and piracy are rapidly increasing problems of copying, stealing, and misusing the software without proper permission, as mentioned in the desired license agreement. The estimation of birthmark can play a key role in understanding the effectiveness of a birthmark. In this paper, a new technique is presented to evaluate and estimate software birthmark based on the two most sought-after properties of birthmarks, that is, credibility and resilience. For this purpose, the concept of soft computing such as probabilistic and fuzzy computing has been taken into account and fuzzy logic is used to estimate properties of birthmark. The proposed fuzzy rule based technique is validated through a case study and the results show that the technique is successful in assessing the specified properties of the birthmark, its resilience and credibility. This, in turn, shows how much effort will be required to detect the originality of the software based on its birthmark.
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) combined with multivariate calibration of partial least square (PLS) was developed and optimized for the analysis of Nigella seed oil (NSO) in binary and ternary mixtures with corn oil (CO) and soybean oil (SO). Based on PLS modeling performed, quantitative analysis of NSO in binary mixtures with CO carried out using the second derivative FTIR spectra at combined frequencies of 2977-3028, 1666-1739, and 740-1446 cm(-1) revealed the highest value of coefficient of determination (R (2), 0.9984) and the lowest value of root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC, 1.34% v/v). NSO in binary mixtures with SO is successfully determined at the combined frequencies of 2985-3024 and 752-1755 cm(-1) using the first derivative FTIR spectra with R (2) and RMSEC values of 0.9970 and 0.47% v/v, respectively. Meanwhile, the second derivative FTIR spectra at the combined frequencies of 2977-3028 cm(-1), 1666-1739 cm(-1), and 740-1446 cm(-1) were selected for quantitative analysis of NSO in ternary mixture with CO and SO with R (2) and RMSEC values of 0.9993 and 0.86% v/v, respectively. The results showed that FTIR spectrophotometry is an accurate technique for the quantitative analysis of NSO in binary and ternary mixtures with CO and SO.
Hypercholesterolemia is one of the most common chronic diseases in human. Along with chemical therapy traditional medication is used as hypocholesterolemic remedy, however, with unfavorable side effects. Recently, Monascus fermented product (MFP) has become a popular hypocholesterolemic natural supplement. In the present study, the hypocholesterolemic activity of Monascus purpureus FTC5391 fermented product ethanolic extract (MFPe) was investigated in hypercholesterolemic rats. Results showed that MFPe not only reduced the serum total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C, TG concentration, and TC/HDL-C ratio but also increased the HDL-C. Further, solid phase extraction (SPE) was carried out to obtain the hypocholesterolemic bioactive fraction. The high polar fraction of SPE increased the HDL-C (42%) and decreased the TC (53.3%), LDL-C (47%), and TG (50.7%) levels as well as TC/HDL-C ratio (69.1%) in serum. The GC-MS results of the active fraction revealed two main compounds, isosorbide and erythritol, which act as coronary vasodilator compounds.
Mixotrophic metabolism was evaluated as an option to augment the growth and lipid production of marine microalga Tetraselmis sp. FTC 209. In this study, a five-level three-factor central composite design (CCD) was implemented in order to enrich the W-30 algal growth medium. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to model the effect of three medium variables, that is, glucose (organic C source), NaNO3 (primary N source), and yeast extract (supplementary N, amino acids, and vitamins) on biomass concentration, X(max), and lipid yield, P(max)/X(max). RSM capability was also weighed against an artificial neural network (ANN) approach for predicting a composition that would result in maximum lipid productivity, Pr(lipid). A quadratic regression from RSM and a Levenberg-Marquardt trained ANN network composed of 10 hidden neurons eventually produced comparable results, albeit ANN formulation was observed to yield higher values of response outputs. Finalized glucose (24.05 g/L), NaNO3 (4.70 g/L), and yeast extract (0.93 g/L) concentration, affected an increase of X(max) to 12.38 g/L and lipid a accumulation of 195.77 mg/g dcw. This contributed to a lipid productivity of 173.11 mg/L per day in the course of two-week cultivation.
The values of pseudo-first-order rate constants (k(obs)) for alkaline hydrolysis of 1, obtained at 1.0 mM NaOH and within [C(m)E(n)]T (total concentration of C(m)E(n)) range of 3.0-5.0 mM for C(12)E(23) and 10-20 mM for C(18)E(20), fail to obey pseudophase micellar (PM) model. The values of the fraction of near irreversible C m E n micellar trapped 1 molecules (F(IT1)) vary in the range ~0-0.75 for C(12)E(23) and ~0-0.83 for C(18)E(20) under such conditions. The values of F(IT1) become 1.0 at ≥ 10 mM C(12)E(23) and 50 mM C(18)E(20). Kinetic analysis of the observed data at ≥ 10 mM C(12)E(23) shows near irreversible micellar entrapment of 1 molecules under such conditions.