103 research outputs found
Applications of machine learning in pervasive systems
No full textShakshuki, EM (corresponding author), Acadia Univ, Jodrey Sch Comp Sci, Wolfville, NS, Canada.
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
A microsimulation-based analysis for driving behaviour modelling on a congested expressway
No full textRecently, simulation models have been widely used around the world to evaluate the performance of different traffic facilities and management strategies for efficient and sustainable transportation systems. One of the keys factors for ensuring the reliability of the models in reflecting local conditions is the calibration and validation of microsimulation models. The majority of the existing calibration efforts focus is on the experimental designs of driver behaviour and lane-changing parameters. Towards this end, this paper describes the necessary procedure for the calibration and validation of a microscopic model using the VISSIM software, during peak hours. The procedure is applied on Muscat Expressway in the Sultanate of Oman. The calibration parameters and the measure-of-effectiveness are identified by using multi-parameter sensitivity analysis. The optimum values for these parameters are obtained by minimising errors between simulated data and field data. In our proposed model, we used traffic volume and travel speed for model calibration, as well as average travel time for validation of the calibrated model. The achieved results showed that driving characteristics significantly impacted the merging/diverging traffic flow ratio in the merging area, the link length and the distance between on-ramps and off-ramps, as well as the percentage of heavy vehicles. The results also showed that having both the advanced merging and cooperative lane-change settings active, along with safety distance reduction factor, necessary lane change, minimum headway (front/rear), and emergency stop, had a significant influence on simulation precision, especially at on-ramps and off-ramps. Finally, our proposed model can be utilized as a base for future traffic strategy analysis and intelligent transportation systems evaluation to help decision makers with long-term and sustainable development decisionsFarrag, SG (corresponding author), Hasselt Univ, Transportat Res Inst, Hasselt, Belgium.
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected], SG (corresponding author), Hasselt Univ, Transportat Res Inst, Hasselt, Belgium.
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Acknowledgment scheme using cloud for node networks with energy-aware hybrid scheduling strategy
No full textCloud computing is attracting a lot of traffic on the Internet. Due to the distributed nature of the ad hoc networks, there is no clear path for the communication between nodes. Additionally, there is no centralized or master node to guide the rest of the nodes in the distributed networks. Since the networks are continually expanding, it is vital to mention that there is a substantial increase in the number of attacks. As such, we became interested to consider monitoring the wireless network using cloud. This way, we will be able to deal with varies attacks and to provide better guidance for the networks. In this paper, we propose a new approach for acknowledgement scheme, using a one hop cloud technology, called Cloud Acknowledgement Scheme. This approach strengthens the wireless network by introducing cloud as a monitoring tool as well as to act as a leader node. An efficient cloud provisioning needs a better scheduling scheme. Towards this end, this paper is proposing a new approach to support the short-lived nature of acknowledgment packets in an efficient manner. Our proposed approach constitutes of two developed algorithms that act as one. These scheduling algorithms help to accomplish the purpose of cloud acknowledgment scheme. It is also important and significant to consider the cloud's awareness of energy consumption to reduce the impact on the environment. Towards this end, monitoring energy consumption is achieved by assigning priorities on the given tasks and balancing the performance and the energy of the cloud. The proposed approach is demonstrated and proved as working models using simulations. The results suggest that our proposed approach has the potential to alternate other existing acknowledgement schemes.Kaja, S (corresponding author), Acadia Univ, Wolfville, NS, Canada.
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma mistaken as rathke cleft cyst: a case report
No full textADAMANTINOMATOUS CRANIOPHARYNGIOMA MISTAKEN AS RATHKE
CLEFT CYST: A CASE REPORT
Raihanah Haroon*1
; Siti Nor Suzeana Mustfar1
; Intan Bazilah Abu Bakar1
; Radhiana Hassan1
;
Siti Kamariah Che Mohamed1
1Radiology Department, IIUM, International Islamic University of Malaysia
INTRODUCTION: A great variety of lesions can be found in the suprasellar region, often with
similar clinical presentations; posing difficulty while investigating it. When a suprasellar mass is
encountered, the differential diagnosis is crucial in order for the operating surgeon to determine
further management including the surgical approach as well as the degree of resection. However
it is not always easy if the mass exhibits mixed solid cystic or entirely cystic features.
REPORT: The author presents a case of a 19-year-old lady who initially presented with left facial
weakness, subsequently has been followed up several years for Rathke’s cleft cyst (RCC) in view
of its MR appearance. But recently the patient complained of eye symptoms, occipital headache
and amenorrhea. Repeat MRI showed increasing size of the suprasellar mass and local mass effect
unto the optic chiasm. Patient underwent deroofing of the cyst with the histopathological
examination which revealed adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma, WHO grade 1. Nevertheless,
possible transformation of RCC into craniopharyngioma is not known in view of no tissue
diagnosis obtained earlier on. Review of MR appearances of these two entities in previous
literature as well as the radiopathological correlation and differentiating features are presented.
CONCLUSION: Though the imaging features are characteristic for both entities, radiologists
should be aware of the possible atypical appearance mimicking each other. Postulated hypothesis
that both lesions arise from the same spectrum of cystic ectodermal lesions of the sellar region as
well as possible transformation of RCC into craniopharyngioma also needs to be considered
Warm Auto-Antibodies Resulting in a Transfusion Reaction in a Setting of ANCA-Associated Renal Failure
No full textWarm Auto-antibodies resulting in a Transfusion Reaction in a setting of ANCA-associated Renal Failure Christopher O. Alabi1, Haroon Nawaz1, Pallavi Aneja1, Adekunle O. Bamgboye2
1Westside Regional Medical Center, Plantation, FL 2Northwest Medical Center, Margate, FL Abstract Introduction ANCA-associated renal failure and presence of warm auto-antibodies are two fairly uncommon pathologies without any known connection especially because the cause of each one is not well understood so far. We report an uncommon tandem of ANCA-vasculitis and warm auto-immune hemolytic anemia (AIHA). Case description A 79-year-old retired lady presented at the ED with gradually worsening fatigue, anemia, and new onset renal failure. Asides from well controlled hypertension, she had been healthy all her life and all previous blood parameters had always been within normal limits. At admission, she was pale but not jaundiced. Pertinent laboratory findings include: elevated BUN and creatinine, hematuria, mild proteinuria and anemia. Additional laboratory findings include a positive Coombs’ test, positive P-ANCA and her renal biopsy revealed pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis. Bone marrow aspiration was normal. She was noted to have warm auto-antibodies during blood typing and cross-matching. She had a mild self-limited reaction of fever and back pain within 15 minutes when she was transfused with the best-matched packed red cells. As a result, the transfusion had to be stopped. She was subsequently treated with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, steroids, washed RBC transfusions, IV erythropoietin and courses of dialysis. Discussion AIHA is only seen in about 1-3 persons per 100,000/year. It is also not a common occurrence to see a transfusion reaction attributable to warm antibodies in a patient. The rarity of the ANCA-positive, pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis seen in this same patient possibly raises more questions. To the best of our knowledge, a combination of these conditions has not been reported in one single episode of illness. We report this to add to the known body of knowledge and provide basis for further study if more patients present with a similar picture later in the course of time. Keywords: warm antibodies, auto-immune hemolytic anemia, transfusion reaction, P-ANCA, crescentic glomerulonephritis. There is no conflict of interest involving any author and no grant was required for this article
Towards Monitoring the Water Quality Using Hierarchal Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks
No full textAbstractWater is a limited resource and essential for agriculture, industry and creatures existence on earth including human beings. Water quality monitoring is essential to control physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. In addition, water quality monitoring can help with water pollution detection and discharge of toxic chemicals and contamination in water. A large number of inexpensive sensor nodes using hierarchical communication structure can be deployed to cover a large monitoring area with enough density. The paper provides a hierarchical routing protocol to reduce the communication overhead and increase the life time of wireless sensor network (WSN) suitable for river/lake water quality monitoring. The proposed routing protocol is compared with its predecessor LEACH. Experiments conducted using our custom simulator shows that the proposed routing protocol, power by genetic algorithm, create an energy balance in the network, save the node energy and thus increase the lifetime of the network by 25% in comparison to LEACH
Improving Quality of Patient Information
No full textInternship Report - Summer 2007The level of data to process and the need of up-to-date data for quick analysis and decision-making are vital to retain its present position and growth in the industry. Hence, the Slic Laser decided to computerize their clinic through Electronic Patient Record (EPR). To find the existing status and system requirement for Slick Laser Clinic the author spend most of his time with clinic technicians, doctors and patients. The author also made a number of visits to their Head Office and had lot of discussions with the Managers and Technicians related to different activities. The author is trying to characterize his findings, which are: The clinic is in need of automation, in all departments with full integration for quick decision-making and increase efficiency. Presently, the clinic has few software developed by its own employees has very poor value in today's integrated concepts. This software covers few areas of data storage only. The rest of the jobs are done in manually with chances of error. Electronic Patient Record software has been recommended to capture various patient data with Ad-hoc report capability by which the clinicians will be able to generate various reports for data analysis. A back-up mass storage hard-drive needs to be put into place which will serve dual purpose. In case of any loss in primary hard-drive, back-up hard-drive will be used to retrieve lost data. In addition the clinicians will be able to perform data-mining in the future on this mass storage hard-drive. Upon initial negotiations, the implementation of the demo system is scheduled in the summer of 2007 which will be further enhanced in the near future.Slic Laser Clini
Towards Identifying Performance Anomalies
No full textAbstractLarge-scale-software systems (LSSs) are composed of hundreds of subsystems that interact with each other in an unforeseen and complex ways. The operators of these LSSs strictly monitor thousands of metrics (performance counters) to quickly identify performance anomalies before a catastrophe. The existing monitoring tools and methodologies have not kept in pace with the rapid growth and inherit complexity of these LSSs; hence are ineffective in assisting practitioners to effectively pinpoint performance anomalies. We propose a methodology that uses entropy analysis to assist practitioners/operators of LSSs in quickly detecting underlying anomalies in the system. Our performance tests conducted on an open source benchmark system reveal that the proposed methodology is robust in pinpointing anomalies, do not require any domain knowledge to operate, and avoid information overload on practitioners
Nadeem Ul Haque. Looking Back: How Pakistan Became an Asian Tiger by 2050
Get PDFThe book is about development economics and, at the same time,
a work of fiction, which predicts the future of Pakistan as a developed
country. Though the book is written and conceived on a strong
theoretical basis, that is, ‘complexity analysis,’ it remains a
fictional work. Because the book is based on complexity analysis, it
would fall under the rubric of ‘speculative fiction’, as it attempts to
speculate the future development of Pakistan. As far as speculative
fiction is concerned, it is of two types, namely, dystopian and utopian.
The book is indeed a ‘utopian speculative fiction’ as it presents
Pakistan as a very developed country, contrary to current conditions
where Pakistan is striving hard for its survival. Thus, the book equates
to the likes of ‘Orwellian’ works, such as “1984”. Right at the
beginning of the book, the author argues that conventional economic
analysis has failed to yield any sound analysis of the economy that can
be employed for development economics. He further adds that both
macroeconomics and microeconomics are inherently insufficient to lead to
any meaningful policy analysis and recommendations. Thus, the author
presents complexity analysis as an alternative tool for development
economics
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