Sharp Response Microstrip LPF using Folded Stepped Impedance Open Stubs

A novel microstrip lowpass filter with high selectivity and wide stopband is proposed that comprises two lateral folded open stubs and a central mirrored semi-circle ended suppressing cell. The proposed filter has cut-off frequency of 2.28 GHz and is very compact. The stopband width with attenuation level more than -20 dB is equal to 5.47 fc and the transition band is only 0.14 GHz. This filter is designed, fabricated and measured and the simulated and measured results are in good agreemen

Use of Computer-based Clinical Examination for Assessment of Medical Students in Surgery

Background: The Video-projected Structured Clinical Examination (ViPSCE) replaced the oral (viva) examination as a student assessment tool in clinical surgery in our department since its invention in 2001 (1, 2). It has been useful for assessing higher knowledge domain includingproblem-solving abilities.Objectives: To improve the viewing of the Video-projected Structured Clinical Examination (ViPSCE), we developed a computerized version, and called it ‘Computerized Clinical Examination’ or (CCE). This was used to assess medical students’ higher knowledge and problem solving skills in surgery. We present how we did it, test scores descriptive statistics, and the students’ evaluation. To our knowledge the use of computers in this way has not been reported before.Methods: A computer-based clinical examination (CCE) in surgery is administered to assess a class of 43 final year medical students at the end of their surgical clerkship. Like the ViPSCE, the exam was delivered as a slide show, using ‘PowerPoint’ computer program. However, instead of projecting it onto a screen with a video-projector, each student had his/her own computer. The CCE consisted of 20 slides containing either still photos or short video clips of clinical situations in surgery. The students answered by hand writing on the exam papers. At the end, they filled evaluation forms. The exam papers were corrected manually. The test scores descriptive statistics were calculated, and correlated with the students’ scores in other exams in surgery. The evaluation forms wereanalyzed.Results: Administration of the CCE was straightforward. The test scores were normally distributed. They correlated significantly with the scores obtained by the students in the other exams in surgery. Students’ acceptability was high.Conclusion: CCE is feasible. It inherits the validity and reliability of the ViPSCE with the added advantage of improving the viewing of the slides. It proved popular with the students

New White Method of Parameters and Reliability Estimation for Transmuted Power Function Distribution

في هذا البحث تم تقدير معلمات توزيع تحويل دالة القوة (TPF)، ودالة المعولية له من خلال بعض طرائق التقدير وهي مقترح للطريقة وايت،النسب المئينية ، المربعات الصغرى ، المربعات الصغرى الموزونة وطريقة العزوم المطورة. استخدمت المحاكاة في توليد بيانات عشوائية تتبع توزيع (TPF) على ثلاث تجارب (E1, E2, E3) من القيم الحقيقية للمعلمات ، ومع حجم العينة(n=10, 25, 50, 100)  وتكرار العينة (N = 1000)، وأخذت قيم اوقات المعولية (0<t<0) التي من خلالها تم تقدير دالة المعولية لكل حالة من التجارب الثلاثة. تم إجراء مقارنات بين النتائج التي تم الحصول عليها من مقدرات دالة المعولية باستخدام متوسط مربع ​​الخطأ (MSE) وعرضت النتائج في جداول خاصة بها لغرض المقارنة.        In this paper, an estimate has been made for parameters and the reliability function for Transmuted power function (TPF) distribution through using some estimation methods as proposed new technique for white, percentile, least square, weighted least square and modification moment methods. A simulation was used to generate random data that follow the (TPF) distribution on three experiments (E1 , E2 , E3)  of the real values of the parameters, and with sample size (n=10,25,50 and 100) and iteration samples (N=1000), and taking reliability times (0< t < 0) . Comparisons have been made between the obtained results from the estimators using mean square error (MSE). The results showed the percentile estimator is the best in (E1, E2)  but modification moment is the best in (E3) .

Private Military Companies and the Proliferation of Small Arms: Regulating the Actors.

yesThe 1990s witnessed a change in the way wars were fought as the amount of available weaponry increased and the types of actors engaged in warfare multiplied. The opening up of the international arms trade, in particular with new buyers and more channels of supply, has raised concerns about who purchases weapons and for what use. Afeature of this changing nature of conflict has been the continuing, if not growing, presence of mercenaries and the emergence of private companies contracted to provide military and security services. These range from logistical support and training to advice and procurement of arms and on-the-ground intervention. This briefing highlights how the activities of mercenaries and private military and security companies can contribute to small arms proliferation and misuse and examines steps the international community can take at the UN Small Arms Conference and elsewhere to effectively combat mercenarism and regulate the activities of private military and security companies. The role played by these companies relates not only to provisions contained in the contracts they sign with their clients to provide large amounts of weaponry, but also how the military and security services and training that they provide contributes to the demand for weapons in the regions where they operate. There are a number of ways in which mercenaries and private military and security companies are involved in small arms proliferation. These include: l Arms brokering and transportation activities l Violations of UN arms embargoes l Impact on human rights and humanitarian law l Driving demand for small arms Various measures already exist to ban the activities of mercenaries and regulate some of the activities of private military and security companies either through national legislation or international agreements. However, there is concern these efforts are neither comprehensive nor accepted widely enough to effectively control the activities of mercenaries and private military and security companies

Automated Chemical Equation Balancing Using the Apriori Algorithm

Chemical equations must be balanced to maintain mass conservation. Traditional chemists employed manual processes with meticulous investigation and trial-and-error iterations. Automating and enhancing this difficult process is becoming more popular as machine learning (ML) progresses. We provide a novel Apriori algorithm-based chemical equation balancing method in this paper. Our solution uses the Apriori algorithm to find common itemsets of balanced reactions and translates unbalanced equations into machine-readable language. After that, it reconstructs balanced equations, automating a tedious task

Real-time seat allocation for minimizing boarding/alighting time and improving quality of service and safety for passengers

Rail is considered as one of the most important ways of transferring passengers. High passenger loads has implications on train punctuality. One of the important parameters affecting punctuality is the average boarding/alighting time. Organizing boarding/alighting flows not only reduces the risk of extended dwell time, but also minimizes the risk of injuries and improves the overall service quality. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of minimizing the boarding/alighting time by maintaining a uniform load on carriages through systematic distribution of passengers with flexible tickets, such as season or anytime tickets where no seat information are provided at the time of reservation. To achieve this, the proposed algorithm takes other information such as passenger final destination, uniform load of luggage areas, as well as group travelers into account. Moreover, a discrete event simulation is designed for measuring the performance of the proposed method. The performance of the proposed method is compared with three algorithms on different test scenarios. The results show the superiority of the proposed method in terms of minimizing boarding/alighting time as well as increasing the success rate of assigning group of seats to group of passengers

Design of Fully Homomorphic Encryption by Prime Modular Operation

The meaning of cloud computing is the Information Technology (IT) model for computing, which consists of all the IT components (software, hardware, services and, networking) that are needed to enable the delivery and development of cloud services through a private network or the internet. In cloud computing, the client (user) puts his data in the cloud, and any computations on his stored data will be implemented in the cloud. Security is the main thing in cloud computing because a service provider can access, intentionally change or even delete the stored data. To protect data that is stored in the cloud, it is necessary to use an encryption system that can perform computations on the encrypted data. The scheme that allows executing several computations on the encrypted message without decrypting the message is called homomorphic encryption. The implementation of fully homomorphic encryption over the integer (DGHV scheme) and a Simple Fully Homomorphic Encryption Scheme Available in Cloud Computing (SDC Scheme), are slow in execution time because all of them convert the message to a binary format and then encrypt it. Therefore, we propose another scheme called Fully Homomorphic encryption based on a prime modular operation, this scheme encrypts the message character by character by using a prime secret key without converting that character into a binary format. As a result, we compute the time complexity and compare the execution time among the three schemes and analyse the security of the three schemes

An Attitude Navigation System Based on the GPS

In this paper, the use of multi-GPS receiver to estimate the parameters ofattitude (orientation) of a platform is developed. The GPS receiver has twomeasurements; pseudorange and carrier phase. The latter is highly accurate (subcentimeter-level).Therefore, it is used to give precise attitude parameters. But thecarrier phase has one problem; an initial integer ambiguity must be resolved first.Without resolution of this integer, the carrier phase is meaningless. Therefore, theattitude determination technique based on the carrier phase observable of the GPSinvolves two steps; integer ambiguity resolution and attitude estimation. Here, twomethods are used for attitude estimation; first, Single-point method that is based onthe least square approach is developed using the quaternion representation. Second,Eigenproblem algorithm that is used to minimize a quartic quaternion-based costfunction. In order to resolve the integer ambiguity, an attitude-independentalgorithm is developed. This algorithm first incorporates an instantaneous integersearch to significantly reduce the search space using a geometric inequality. Then,a batch-type loss function is used to check the remaining integers in order todetermine the optimal integer. The results show that the Single-point method ismore accurate (with RMS 0.137, 0.079 and 0.197 degree in yaw, pitch and rollrespectively), and it convergences exponentially to the correct solution. TheEigenproblem may diverge when the initial quaternion is far

Urban-Tissue Optimization through Evolutionary Computation

The experiments analyzed in this paper focus their research on the use of Evolutionary Computation (EC) applied to a parametrized urban tissue. Through the application of EC, it is possible to develop a design under a single model that addresses multiple conflicting objectives. The experiments presented are based on Cerdà’s master plan in Barcelona, specifically on the iconic Eixample block which is grouped into a 4 × 4 urban Superblock. The proposal aims to reach the existing high density of the city while reclaiming the block relations proposed by Cerdà’s original plan. Generating and ranking multiple individuals in a population through several generations ensures a flexible solution rather than a single “optimal” one. Final results in the Pareto front show a successful and diverse set of solutions that approximate Cerdà’s and the existing Barcelona’s Eixample states. Further analysis proposes different methodologies and considerations to choose appropriate individuals within the front depending on design requirements

Specialization and time: Two core principles for adult learning

Overview: Training plays an important role in the profession of social services to improve the quality of services. Interviewing ten social service providers, data analysis demonstrated that the most important principles pursued by participants are specialization and time. Consistent with adult learning theory, if training is designed to meet these principles, participants will become actively involved in training, and their perceived relevancy and in-depth learning will be improved. Abstract: Training plays an important role in the profession of social services to improve the quality of services through workforce development. Since 2006, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Division of Mental Health and Addiction in collaboration with Indiana University has sponsored training for the staff. Annually, more than 500 trainees attend these in-person statewide workshops. In this study, ten social service providers who attended these trainings were interviewed in order to understand strategies to improve effectiveness of workshops. Grounded theory approach was applied to analyze data. Data analysis demonstrated that the most important principles and values pursued by participants are specialization and time. Participants frequently emphasized the importance of specialized learning tailored toward their needs. Time is also crucial. Adult learners would rather shorter trainings for several reasons. For example, participants leave their workplace for training purposes, when they come back; they face many in-complete tasks, which is overwhelming for them. If trainings are designed to meet these principles, participants will become actively involved in training, and their perceived relevancy and in-depth learning will be improved. These two core principles are consistent with adult learning theory mentioned by Knowles (1980, 1990). According to this theory, understanding of intrinsic value, autonomy, direct impact on the work and meaningful engagement are important components for adult learning. Adherence to these two principles, in designing training for adult, helps meet fundamental components of adult learning theory and attract adult learners. In this case, technology, organizational supportive environment and activities beside and out of workshops can be employed to serve these two principles. It is also helpful to consider dynamics of any specific group of participants to tailor the training toward their needs. In this case, having need assessment a few days before training is recommended to discover expectations