A new hybrid model of dengue incidence rate using negative binomial generalised additive model and fuzzy c-means model: a case study in Selangor

Dengue is one of the top reason for illness and mortality in the world with beyond one­third of the world's population living in the risk areas of dengue infection. In this study, there are five stages to achieve the research objectives. Firstly, the verification of predetem1ined variables. Secondly, the identification of new datasets after clustered by district and Fuzzy C-Means Model (FCM). Thirdly, the development of models using the existing dataset and the new datasets which clustered by the two different clustering categories. Then, to assess the models developed by using three measurement methods which are deviance (D), Akaike Jnfonnation Criteria (AIC) and Bayesian Infonnation Criteria (BIC} Lastly, the validation of model developed by comparing the value of D, AIC and BIC between the existing model and the new models developed which used the new datasets. There are two different clustering techniques applied which are clustering the data by district and by FCM. This study proposed a new modelling hybrid framework by using two statistical models which are FCM and negative binomial Generalised Additive Model (GAM). This study successfully presents the significant difference in the climatic and non-climatic factors that influenced dengue incidence rate (DIR) in Selangor, Malaysia. Results show that the climatic factors such as rainfall with current month up to 3 months and number of rainy days with current month up to lag 3 months are significant to DIR. Besides, the interaction between rainfall and number of rainy days also shows strong positive relationship to DIR. Meanwhile, non-climatic vaiiables such as population density, number of locality and lag DIR from I month until 3 months also show significant relationship towards DIR For both clustering techniques, there are two clusters fonned and there are four new models developed in this study. After comparing the values of D, AIC ai1d BIC between the existing model and the new models, this study concluded that four new models recorded lower values compared to the existing model. Therefore, the four new models are selected to present the dengue incidence in Selangor

Design and Optimization of FTTH Architecture

Recently, the growth of Internet and uses of digital contents have significantly increased the demand for high-speed access network. Similar cases are also seen for the use of intranet and extranet services. The limitation of current access network such as the asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) in terms of low bit rate and short of coverage span resulted in the exploration on fibre access scenario. Fibre-tothe- home (FTTH) brings the broadband access network capabilities directly to the customer premises with high splitting ratio and wide fibre span. It is seen as the linchpin technology to enable the future applications such as voice, video and data run, satisfying the ever-increasing need for bandwidth. This thesis shows the study of FTTH access network based on passive optical network (PON). The two types of FTTH; A-PON and Super-PON have been studied thoroughly to optimize their architecture to help network engineers in designing the system. The cost analysis is also carried out. The simulation is done using OptSim 3.0 and the result is verified with the experiment in the laboratory. It is found that the optimum configuration of a A-PON FTTH access systems with the bit rate of 2Gb/s with the use of 32 branching number is at the distance of 20 km. The power enhancement offered by Erbium-doped Fibre Amplifier (EDFA) provides for large distribution branches (thus the subscribers) and the length of fibre span can be extended up to 100 km

Channel equalization to achieve high bit rates in discrete multitone systems

textMulticarrier modulation (MCM) techniques such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and discrete multi-tone (DMT) modulation are attractive for high-speed data communications due to the ease with which MCM can combat channel dispersion. With all the benefits MCM could give, DMT modulation has an extra ability to perform dynamic bit loading, which has the potential to exploit fully the available bandwidth in a slowly time-varying channel. In broadband wireline communications, DMT modulation is standardized for asymmetric digital subscribe line (ADSL) and very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) modems. ADSL and VDSL standards are used by telephone companies to provide high speed data service to residences and offices. In an ADSL receiver, an equalizer is required to compensate for the channel’s dispersion in the time domain and the channel’s distortion in the frequency domain of the transmitted waveform. This dissertation proposes design methods for linear equalizers to increase the bit rate of the connection. The methods are amenable to implementation on programmable fixed-point digital signal processors, which are employed in ADSL/VDSL transceivers. A conventional ADSL equalizer consists of a time-domain equalizer, a fast Fourier transform, and a frequency domain equalizer. The time domain equalizer (TEQ) is a finite impulse response filter that when coupled with a discretized channel produces an equivalent channel whose impulse response is shorter than that of the discretized channel. This channel shortening is required by the ADSL standards. In this dissertation, I first propose a linear phase TEQ design that exploits symmetry in existing eigen-filter approaches such as minimum mean square error(MMSE), maximum shortening signal to noise ratio (MSSNR) and minimum intersymbol interference (Min-ISI) equalizers. TEQs with symmetric coefficients can reach the same performance as non-symmetric ones with much lower training complexity. Second, I improve Min-ISI design. I reformulate the cost function to make long TEQs design feasible. I remove the dependency of transmission delay in order to reduce the complexity associated with delay optimization. The quantized weighting is introduced to further lower the complexity. I also propose an iterative optimization procedure of Min-ISI that completely avoids Cholesky decomposition hence is better suited for a fixed-point implementation. Finally I propose a dual-path TEQ structure, which designs a standard singleFIR TEQ to achieve good bit rate over the entire transmission bandwidth, and designs another FIR TEQ to improve the bit rate over a subset of subcarriers. Dualpath TEQ can be viewed as a special case of a complex valued filter bank structure that delivers the best bit rate of existing DMT equalizers. However, dual-path TEQ provides a very good tradeoff between achievable bit rate vs. implementation complexity on a programmable digital signal processor.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Dynamic bandwidth management with service differentiation over ethernet passive optical networks

Ethernet passive optical networks (EPONs) address the first mile of the communication infrastructure between the service provider central offices and the customer sites. As a low-cost, high speed technology, EPONs are deemed as the solution to the bottleneck problem of the broadband access network. A major feature of EPONs is the utility of a shared upstream channel among the end users. Only a single optical network unit (GNU) may transmit during a timeslot to avoid data collisions. In order to provide diverse quality of service (QoS), the bandwidth management of the upstream channel is essential for the successful implementation of EPONs, and thus, an efficient medium access control is required to facilitate statistical multiplexing among local traffics. This dissertation addresses the upstream bandwidth allocation over EPONs. An efficient mechanism, i.e., limited sharing with traffic prediction (LSTP), has been proposed to arbitrate the upstream bandwidth among ONUs. The MultiPoint Control Protocol (MPCP) messages, which are stipulated by the IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) Task Force, are adopted by LSTP to facilitate the dynamic bandwidth negotiation between an GNU and the OLT. The bandwidth requirement of an ONU includes the already enqueued frames and the predicted incoming frames during the waiting time. The OLT arbitrates the bandwidth assignment based on the queue status report from an GNU, the traffic prediction, and the agreed service contract. With respect to the performance evaluation, theoretical analysis on the frame loss, the frame delay, and the queue length has been conducted. The quantitative results demonstrate that 1) the innovative LSTP mechanism dynamically allocates the upstream bandwidth among multiple ONUs; 2) the traffic predictor at the OLT delivers satisfactory prediction for the bursty self-similar traffic, and thereby, contributing to the reduction of frame loss, frame delay, and queue length; and 3) the bandwidth arbitration at the OLT effectively restricts the aggressive bandwidth competition among ONUs by adopting the service level agreement (SLA) parameter as the upper bound. Aside from analysis, the LSTP mechanism has been substantiated by experimental simulations. In order to differentiate the service provisioning among diverse users, LSTP is further enhanced with the support of dynamic bandwidth negotiation based on multiple queues. The incoming traffics are first classified into three classes, and then enqueued into the corresponding queues. A traffic predictor is dedicated to one class of traffic from an GNU. Service differentiation among classes are provided by the combination of queuing and scheduling at the GNU side. At the OLT side, the bandwidth allocation for each class of traffic is based on the reported queue status and the traffic prediction, and is upper-bounded by the SLA parameter. Experimental simulations have justified the feasibility of providing service differentiation over the broadband EPONs

ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

In This Issue Wireless Andrew Colleges Take to the Air Wireless LANs: Coming to a Campus Near You? Going Wireless for Last-Mile Connectivity Cutting the Wires: Wireless Research at Michigan Tech Communicating on a Beam of Light Remote Access at Amherst College Institutional Excellence Award: Michigan Technological University Interview Profile Columns Book Revie

46th Rocky Mountain Conference on Analytical Chemistry

Final program, abstracts, and information about the 46th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Conference on Analytical Chemistry, co-endorsed by the Colorado Section of the American Chemical Society and the Rocky Mountain Section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. Held in Denver, Colorado, August 1-5, 2004

Convergence: the next big step

Recently, web based multimedia services have gained popularity and have proven themselves to be viable means of communication. This has inspired the telecommunication service providers and network operators to reinvent themselves to try and provide value added IP centric services. There was need for a system which would allow new services to be introduced rapidly with reduced capital expense (CAPEX) and operational expense (OPEX) through increased efficiency in network utilization. Various organizations and standardization agencies have been working together to establish such a system. Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a result of these efforts. IMS is an application level system. It is being developed by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2) in collaboration with IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunication Standardization Sector), and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) etc. Initially, the main aim of IMS was to bring together the internet and the cellular world, but it has extended to include traditional wire line telecommunication systems as well. It utilizes existing internet protocols such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting protocol), and COPS (Common Open Policy Service) etc, and modifies them to meet the stringent requirements of reliable, real time communication systems. The advantages of IMS include easy service quality management (QoS), mobility management, service control and integration. At present a lot of attention is being paid to providing bundled up services in the home environment. Service providers have been successful in providing traditional telephony, high speed internet and cable services in a single package. But there is very little integration among these services. IMS can provide a way to integrate them as well as extend the possibility of various other services to be added to allow increased automation in the home environment. This thesis extends the concept of IMS to provide convergence and facilitate internetworking of the various bundled services available in the home environment; this may include but is not limited to communications (wired and wireless), entertainment, security etc. In this thesis, I present a converged home environment which has a number of elements providing a variety of communication and entertainment services. The proposed network would allow effective interworking of these elements, based on IMS architecture. My aim is to depict the possible advantages of using IMS to provide convergence, automation and integration at the residential level