Building a Computer-Based Expert System for Malaria Environmental Diagnosis: An Alternative Malaria Control Strategy

As a predominant environmental health problem in Africa, malaria constitutes a great threat to the existence of many communities. The harmful effects of malaria parasites to the human body cannot be underestimated. In this paper, an expert system for malaria environmental diagnosis was presented for providing decision support to malaria researchers, institutes and other healthcare practitioners in malaria endemic regions of the world. The motivation behind this work was due to the insufficient malaria control measures in existence and the need to provide novel approaches towards malaria control. A malaria expert system prototype was developed that involved a knowledge component, the application component (AC), the database system component (DC), the Graphical User Interface (GUI) component and the User component (UC). The User interface component was implemented using the Java Programming language. The application component was implemented using the Java Expert System Shell (JESS) and the Java IDE of Netbeans while the database component was implemented using SQL Server

A combinatorial approach to knot recognition

This is a report on our ongoing research on a combinatorial approach to knot recognition, using coloring of knots by certain algebraic objects called quandles. The aim of the paper is to summarize the mathematical theory of knot coloring in a compact, accessible manner, and to show how to use it for computational purposes. In particular, we address how to determine colorability of a knot, and propose to use SAT solving to search for colorings. The computational complexity of the problem, both in theory and in our implementation, is discussed. In the last part, we explain how coloring can be utilized in knot recognition

WESTT (Workload, Error, Situational Awareness, Time and Teamwork): An analytical prototyping system for command and control

Modern developments in the use of information technology within command and control allow unprecedented scope for flexibility in the way teams deal with tasks. These developments, together with the increased recognition of the importance of knowledge management within teams present difficulties for the analyst in terms of evaluating the impacts of changes to task composition or team membership. In this paper an approach to this problem is presented that represents team behaviour in terms of three linked networks (representing task, social network structure and knowledge) within the integrative WESTT software tool. In addition, by automating analyses of workload and error based on the same data that generate the networks, WESTT allows the user to engage in the process of rapid and iterative “analytical prototyping”. For purposes of illustration an example of the use of this technique with regard to a simple tactical vignette is presented

Improving acoustic vehicle classification by information fusion

We present an information fusion approach for ground vehicle classification based on the emitted acoustic signal. Many acoustic factors can contribute to the classification accuracy of working ground vehicles. Classification relying on a single feature set may lose some useful information if its underlying sound production model is not comprehensive. To improve classification accuracy, we consider an information fusion diagram, in which various aspects of an acoustic signature are taken into account and emphasized separately by two different feature extraction methods. The first set of features aims to represent internal sound production, and a number of harmonic components are extracted to characterize the factors related to the vehicle’s resonance. The second set of features is extracted based on a computationally effective discriminatory analysis, and a group of key frequency components are selected by mutual information, accounting for the sound production from the vehicle’s exterior parts. In correspondence with this structure, we further put forward a modifiedBayesian fusion algorithm, which takes advantage of matching each specific feature set with its favored classifier. To assess the proposed approach, experiments are carried out based on a data set containing acoustic signals from different types of vehicles. Results indicate that the fusion approach can effectively increase classification accuracy compared to that achieved using each individual features set alone. The Bayesian-based decision level fusion is found fusion is found to be improved than a feature level fusion approac

On Deletion in Delaunay Triangulation

This paper presents how the space of spheres and shelling may be used to delete a point from a $d$-dimensional triangulation efficiently. In dimension two, if k is the degree of the deleted vertex, the complexity is O(k log k), but we notice that this number only applies to low cost operations, while time consuming computations are only done a linear number of times. This algorithm may be viewed as a variation of Heller's algorithm, which is popular in the geographic information system community. Unfortunately, Heller algorithm is false, as explained in this paper.Comment: 15 pages 5 figures. in Proc. 15th Annu. ACM Sympos. Comput. Geom., 181--188, 199

Open to Ideas: Information flows from Dairy Directions to Dairy Farmers

The ‘openness’ of farming systems that is the focus of this paper is ‘open to information’, in particular the way that new information from the farming systems research project, Dairy Directions, flows from research outputs to dairy farmers. Dairy Directions is a multidisciplinary research activity centred on a steering group of interested parties, mostly farmers, scientists and economists, but also drawing on extension agents, natural resource managers, water service providers, community service providers and public policy participants. The core general research question of Dairy Directions is ‘What options do farmers running different dairy farming systems have to achieve their goals in an uncertain future?’ The goals analysed by the project are predominantly economic and financial – maintaining or increasing profit and cash flow, growing wealth, managing risk, preparing for succession and balancing the dairy work-life balance. Their uncertain future encompasses variability in prices, as well as the natural environment and the policy setting.Farm Management,

Attack vectors against social networking systems : the Facebook example

Social networking systems (SNS&rsquo;s) such as Facebook are an ever evolving and developing means of social interaction, which is not only being used to disseminate information to family, friends and colleagues but as a way of meeting and interacting with &quot;strangers&quot; through the advent of a large number of social applications. The attractiveness of such software has meant a dramatic increase in the number of frequent users of SNS&rsquo;s and the threats which were once common to the Internet have now been magnified, intensified and altered as the potential for criminal behaviour on SNS&rsquo;s increases. Social networking sites including Facebook contain a vast amount of personal information, that if obtained could be used for other purposes or to carry out other crimes such as identity theft. This paper will focus on the security threats posed to social networking sites and gain an understanding of these risks by using a security approach known as &ldquo;attack trees&rdquo;. This will allow for a greater understanding of the complexity associated with protecting Social Networking systems with a particular focus on Facebook.<br /