The Bases of Association Rules of High Confidence

We develop a new approach for distributed computing of the association rules of high confidence in a binary table. It is derived from the D-basis algorithm in K. Adaricheva and J.B. Nation (TCS 2017), which is performed on multiple sub-tables of a table given by removing several rows at a time. The set of rules is then aggregated using the same approach as the D-basis is retrieved from a larger set of implications. This allows to obtain a basis of association rules of high confidence, which can be used for ranking all attributes of the table with respect to a given fixed attribute using the relevance parameter introduced in K. Adaricheva et al. (Proceedings of ICFCA-2015). This paper focuses on the technical implementation of the new algorithm. Some testing results are performed on transaction data and medical data.Comment: Presented at DTMN, Sydney, Australia, July 28, 201

The life and health challenges of young Malaysian couples: results from a stakeholder consensus and engagement study to support non-communicable disease prevention

BACKGROUND: Malaysia faces burgeoning obesity and diabetes epidemics with a 250% and 88% increase respectively between 1996 and 2006. Identifying the health challenges of young adults in Malaysia, who constitute 27.5 % of the population, is critical for NCD prevention. The aim of the study was two-fold: (1) to achieve consensus amongst stakeholders on the most important challenge impacting the health of young adults, and (2) to engage with stakeholders to formulate a NCD prevention framework.METHODS: The Delphi Technique was utilised to achieve group consensus around the most important life and health challenges that young adults face in Malaysia. Subsequently, the results of the consensus component were shared with the stakeholders in an engagement workshop to obtain input on a NCD prevention framework.RESULTS: We found that life stress was a significant concern. It would seem that the apathy towards pursuing or maintaining a healthy lifestyle among young adults may be significantly influenced by the broader distal determinant of life stress. The high cost of living is suggested to be the main push factor for young working adults towards attaining better financial security to improve their livelihood. In turn, this leads to a more stressful lifestyle with less time to focus on healthier lifestyle choices.CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight a pivotal barrier to healthier lifestyles. By assisting young adults to cope with daily living coupled with realistic opportunities to make healthier dietary choices, be more active, and less sedentary could assist in the development of NCD health promotion strategies<br/

Interfacial elastic relaxation during the ejection of bi-layered tablets

The predilection of a bi-layered tablet to fail in the interface region after its initial formation in the compaction process reduces its practicality as a choice for controlled release solid drug delivery system. Hence, a fundamental appreciation of the governing mechanism that causes the weakening of the interfacial bonds within the bi-layered tablet is crucial in order to improve the overall bi-layered tablet mechanical integrity. This work has shown that the occurrence of the elastic relaxation in the interface region during the ejection stage of the compaction process decreases with the increase in the bi-layered tablet interface strength. This is believed to be due to the increase in the plastic bonding in the interface region. The tablet diametrical elastic relaxation affects the tablet height elastic relaxation, where the impediment of the tablet height expansion is observed when the interface region experiences a diametrical expansion

Reproductive parameters of Chalcorana labialis (Anura: Ranidae) from Peninsular Malaysia

Egg clutches of Chalcorana labialis were collected from their natural habitat at Sungai Junjong, Kedah, between March 1998 and February 1999. Egg clutches were typically encountered in temporary pools, rock pools and isolated pools at the edge of the river. In the laboratory several reproductive parameters including clutch size, egg diameter, hatching and metamorphosis rates were measured. The mean ± SD (range, N) of clutch size, egg diameter, hatching and metamorphosis rates of C. labialis were 1365.4 ± 421.1 (787-2100, 10) eggs, 1.36 ± 0.15 (1.12-1.68, 20) mm, 97.30 ± 0.99% (95.87-98.86, 10) and 4.15 ± 0.74% (3.1-5.8, 10), respectively. These results indicated that the successfully rate of larvae to become froglets is relatively low, although it was reared in the laboratory. To keep survived, almost all species of frogs produced eggs in a large quantity

Improvement of Mechanical Properties of Injection-Molded Polylactic Acid–Kenaf Fiber Biocomposite

The motive of this study is to lessen the dependence on non-degradable plastic packaging by developing alternative material; reinforced poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with kenaf fiber (KF) biocomposite using available plastic processing machineries. For that reason, this study focuses on fabrication of PLA–KF biocomposite using intermeshing co-rotating twin-screw extruder and then injection molded for mechanical characterization. The effect of KF loading from 0 to 20 wt% was studied. No coupling agent was added due to high affinity of PLA and KF and both components are hydrophilic in nature. The average of KF aspect ratio is 30. Tensile properties and flexural properties show similar trend where significant improvement was attained at 20 wt% KF content. Scanning electron micrograph of tensile fracture specimen has revealed the hypothesis of interaction between fiber and matrix which subsequently amplified the tensile properties. It is an interesting finding where the experimental value of tensile modulus was 15% higher than theoretical tensile modulus at 20 wt% KF. Additionally, PLA–KF bicomposite produced, has high specific strength and specific modulus. This could suggest that KF may be incorporated into PLA to reduce mass of the end product and substantially reduce the cost of raw materials. As expected, impact strength however decreases with KF content

Traces of co-evolution in X-ray absorbed QSOs with high SFR at z~2

Póster presentado al Workshop Star Formation Across Space and Time, celebrado en Noordwijk (Holanda) del 11 al 14 de noviembre de 2014.Peer Reviewe

Detrimental consequences of the paracetamol tablet elastic relaxation during ejection

Background: It is generally accepted that the tablet elastic relaxation during compaction plays a vital role in undermining the final tablet mechanical integrity. One of the least investigated stages of the compaction process is the ejection stage. Method: This work has successfully monitored the paracetamol tablet dimensional changes during ejection using noncontact dimensional measuring devices. The extent of the tablet damage was physically viewed by examining the presence of cracks on the tablet side surfaces upon complete ejection from the die cavity. Results: Damaged tablets were obtained when the paracetamol tablets exhibited comparatively high elastic relaxation during the ejection stage of the compaction process. Conclusion: Hence, this work presents evidences of the detrimental consequences of the paracetamol tablet elastic relaxation during ejection on its final mechanical integrity