Web cluster load balancing via genetic-fuzzy based algorithm

In this genetic-fuzzy based Generalized Dimension Exchange (GDE) method is proposed to uniformly distribute the unprecedented Web cluster workload. Fuzzy set theory is used to capture the vagueness of the workload during redistribution period. Fuzzy set theory is used to capture the vagueness of the workload during redistribution period. According to the experts’ subjective evaluations, a fuzzy inference system is established to aggregate the fuzzy web performance metrics into a so-called load-weight index which indicates the servers workload intensity. Based on the load-weight index, the genetic-fuzzy algorithm is applied to equally redistribute the workload among in the servers. Finally, a simulation of 20 load-weight indices in a topology of 3-cube form Web cluster is implemented to illustrate the functionality of the proposed method

Lessons After Barbauld: The Conversational Primer in Late-Eighteenth-Century Britain

This thesis explores how Anna Letitia Barbauld’s book Lessons for Children Aged Two to Three Years (1778) facilitated the development of the conversational primer. This genre, which has not yet been theorised, may be identified by the way the texts present themselves as verisimilar and replicable sets of conversations, and depict parent-teachers and child-pupils as companions. This genre challenges the idea that there is a dichotomy between ‘adult’ and ‘child’ readers, a concept that inflects many contemporary approaches to children’s literature studies. Through a close reading of Lessons for Children and subsequent conversational primers, this thesis suggests that Barbauld’s Rational Dissenting value of discursive diversity influenced British middle-class children’s culture, enabling the voices of verisimilar children to proliferate children’s books on a previously unknown scale. The Introduction establishes ways in which concepts of child-parent relationships were used as paradigms for understanding modes of government in eighteenth-century Britain. Chapter One examines how children’s books prior to Lessons for Children addressed different types of implied child readers with the aim of producing members of an ideal society. Chapter Two explores how Barbauld created a space in which parents could participate in the children’s literature market through her introduction of the parent-author as a literary trope, her portrayals of verisimilar mother-child interactions in accessible, domestic spaces. Chapter Three charts how Lessons for Children became the prototype from which subsequent conversational primers drew their literary identity. The fourth chapter contextualises Lessons for Children as an expression of Barbauld’s Rational Dissent, and posits that the rise of the conversational primer is indicative of the influence of Rational Dissenting values upon British middle-class children’s culture. Chapter Five contrasts the afterlife of the conversational primer with children’s books that generated readers’ imaginative identification with characters. This comparison suggests that conversational primers encapsulated middle-class Georgian ideals regarding familial learning; an historical specificity that is, in part, responsible for the genre’s popular demise. This thesis studies the lifecycle of the conversational primer in the British children’s literature market. It examines the porousness between paratextual materials and texts, and shows how an individual author stimulated generic development by popularising specific literary tropes. By theorising the genre of the conversational primer, this study provides a new and productive discourse concerning adult-child interactions in children’s literature

Assessing the expected current and future competencies of quantity surveyors in the Malaysian built environment

Purpose: Quantity surveying is a profession that blends engineering, construction and economics. To be competent is to have the ability to apply the set of related knowledge, skills and abilities to perform a task effectively. This paper examines the competency requirements for quantity surveyors (QSs) in the face of changing and increasing client needs. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a detailed meta-analysis of the literature, 12 basic/core and 16 evolving competencies are identified. Primary data were gathered through a field survey involving practicing QSs from client, consultant and contractor organisations, and university students undertaking QS programmes in Malaysia. The data obtained were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Findings: The significance of the basic/core and evolving competencies are presented. Overall, the most important contemporary skills are cost planning, valuation of works, measurement/quantification and contract documentation. The evolved roles require expertise in communication and negotiation, ethics and professional conduct and value management. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates there are misaligned expectations of the proficiency levels needed to provide contemporary and future services between practitioners in client/consultant organisations, contractors and new generation students. Originality/value: The findings provide guidance on the education, training and practice of quantity surveying to deal with emerging challenges in the dynamic built environments in Malaysia and beyond.</p

Targeted drug delivery system:- formulation and evaluation of chitosan nanospheres containing doxorubicin hydrochloride

A chitosan molecule form self-assembled nanoparticles that can encapsulate a quantity of drugs and deliver them to a specific site. Chemical attachment of drug to chitosan throughout the functional linker has possibility to produce useful prodrugs, exhibiting biological activity at target site. In vivo residence time of the dosage form in the gastrointestinal tract and bioavailability of various drugs increases by mucoadhesive and absorption enhancement properties of chitosan. Antitumour activity of doxorubicin(DOX)-incorporated nanoparticles in vitro on DOX- resistant C6 glioma cells. Nanoparticles showed increased cytotoxicity compared to DOX alone. These results suggest that doxorubicin (DOX) was unable to penetrate into cells and did not effectively inhibit cell proliferation. In contrast, nanoparticles can penetrate into cells and effectively inhibit cell proliferation. There are 3 batches of drug loaded nanospheres in which 2.5mg,5mg and 10mg of DOX were loaded into nanospheres where the concentration of chitosan is 1%w/v. Anticancer drugs without targeting a specific site cause side effects. The objective of this research is to reduce side effects. HPLC device was used to quantitatively analyze amount of doxorubicin loaded in nanospheres. The result had showed concentration of anticancer drug loaded in nanospheres is directly proportional to the drug payload capacity until saturation point. The in vitro drug release studies was carried out for 48 hours to obtain a more precise result by carrying out this studies in a medium resembling our body environment such as pH7.4, 37ºC with analytical grade water for this studies. In vitro release of doxorubicin is of zero order kinetic. This shows that release is independent of the concentration of drug loaded in the nanospheres. Besides that, the graphs also show a sustained release manner, indicating these nanospheres formulation are suitable for targeting drug delivery system and for efficient treatment of cancerous cells

ASIC Layout Design-Space Exploration of Pan-and-Tompkins Pre-Processing Algorithm for High Efficiency Electrocardiogram Monitor

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is the leading cause of the death globally. Ambulatory Electrocardiogram (ECG) and mobile monitoring is very important for early heart disease detection and prevention, but its measurement normally contains various types of noise which affect the analysis accuracy. Moreover, long hour ECG monitoring requires an efficient architecture to support real-time processing and low power consumption. This paper presents an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design of Pan-and-Tompkins ECG pre-processing algorithm which aims to remove several unwanted noise to increase analysis accuracy. The complete design flow covers high-level algorithm modelling in Matlab, followed by synthesizable design at Register Transfer Level (RTL) until logic synthesis, physical synthesis and static timing analysis to produce VLSI layout. Several power optimization techniques as well as different ASIC process technology libraries in terms of SilTerra’s 180nm CMOS Logic Generic Library (CL180G) and Synopsys 32nm Generic Library (SAED32) are deployed for design-space exploration to study the design trade-off in terms of power consumption, timing performance, and the logic area usage. Results show that the clock gating technique is able to reduce 32.4% of dynamic power in design using CL180G generic library, whereas the integration of several power optimization techniques using SAED32 generic library is able to reduce 43.82% of dynamic power, 91.21% of leakage power and 91.25% of total power

Water-Energy Nexus Cascade Analysis (WENCA) for simultaneous water-energy system optimisation

This paper presents a new numerical method called the Water-Energy Nexus Cascade Analysis (WENCA), developed based on the principal of Pinch Analysis. Water and energy are both valuable resources that are majorly used in industrial processes. Both water and energy are interdependent where increasing water demand will increase the energy demand and vice versa. In this paper, WENCA is introduced to simultaneously optimise both water and energy system that is interdependent. The methodology applies Cascade Analysis to individually optimise both system. As both systems are interdependent, altering one of the system will result in a change to the other system. An iterative method is then introduced to converge the analysis to obtain the optimal result for both systems. A case study comprising of both electricity and water demand of 6,875 kWh and 3,000 m3 from a residential area with 1,000 unit of houses is applied in this work. The electricity demand is met using fuel cell where hydrogen is produced through coal gasification (which utilised water as it raw material), a water treatment plant (WTP) is also introduced for water treatment to fulfil the water demands. The optimal result reveals that the WTP capacity is 3,200.73 m3, its corresponding water storage tank capacity is 175 m3, hydrogen power plant is 9 MW and its corresponding energy storage capacity is 4.13 MW

Driving rehabilitation by occupational therapists in Malaysia : what are the current practices?

Occupational therapists have a significant role in driving rehabilitation by helping clients with disabilities to return to driving. To date, the services for driving rehabilitation are still limited in Malaysia. Furthermore, the current practice of driving rehabilitation in Malaysia is still underreported. Therefore, this study aims to assess occupational therapists’ challenges, attitudes, and skills towards driving rehabilitation, the sociodemographic differences, and associations between the developed constructs. A cross-sectional study was conducted from June to September 2020. A convenience sampling method was used to recruit 177 occupational therapists with at least one year of working experience in Malaysia. The questionnaire consists of three constructs: the challenges, attitudes, and skills related to driving rehabilitation. The content validity of the questionnaire was good (S-CVI/Ave= 0.992; S-CVI/UA= 0.950; modified kappa= 0.812 to 1.000). Based on the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), three items had been deleted due to low communalities. The Cronbach’s alpha for all constructs was acceptable (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.7). Experience in practicing driving rehabilitation, workplace settings, and educational level had significant differences in at least one of the constructs. Age and years graduated had a significant positive correlation with skills. This questionnaire proved to be a tool with good content validity and reliability to assess occupational therapists’ challenges, attitudes, and skills related to driving rehabilitation. In the future, qualitative studies are recommended to better understand the occupational therapists towards driving rehabilitation, especially from their personal experience

Replication and Meta-analysis of the Association between BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism and Cognitive Impairment in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy.

Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) adversely affects cancer patients. We had previously demonstrated that the BDNF Val66Met genetic polymorphism is associated with lower odds of subjective CRCI in the multitasking and verbal ability domains among breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. To further assess our previous findings, we evaluated the association of BDNF Val66Met polymorphism with subjective and objective CRCI in a temporally separate cohort of patients and pooled findings from both the original (n = 145) and current (n = 193) cohorts in a meta-analysis. Subjective CRCI was assessed using FACT-Cog. Objective CRCI was evaluated using computerized neuropsychological tests. Genotyping was carried out using Sanger sequencing. The association of BDNF Val66Met genotypes and CRCI was examined with logistic regression. A fixed-effect meta-analysis was conducted using the inverse variance method. In the meta-analysis (n = 338), significantly lower odds of CRCI were associated with Met allele carriers based on the global FACT-Cog score (OR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.29-0.94). Furthermore, Met allele carriers were at lower odds of developing impairment in the domains of memory (OR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.17-0.70), multitasking (OR = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.18-0.59), and verbal ability (OR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.24-0.88). Consistent with the previous study, lower odds of subjective CRCI among patients with the BDNF Met allele was observed after adjusting for potential confounders in the multitasking (OR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.14-0.67) domain. In conclusion, carriers of the BDNF Met allele were protected against global subjective CRCI, particularly in the domains of memory, multitasking, and verbal ability. Our findings further contribute to the understanding of CRCI pathophysiology

Targeted drug delivery system:- formulation and evaluation of chitosan nanospheres containing doxorubicin hydrochloride

A chitosan molecule form self-assembled nanoparticles that can encapsulate a quantity of drugs and deliver them to a specific site. Chemical attachment of drug to chitosan throughout the functional linker has possibility to produce useful prodrugs, exhibiting biological activity at target site. In vivo residence time of the dosage form in the gastrointestinal tract and bioavailability of various drugs increases by mucoadhesive and absorption enhancement properties of chitosan. Antitumour activity of doxorubicin(DOX)-incorporated nanoparticles in vitro on DOX- resistant C6 glioma cells. Nanoparticles showed increased cytotoxicity compared to DOX alone. These results suggest that doxorubicin (DOX) was unable to penetrate into cells and did not effectively inhibit cell proliferation. In contrast, nanoparticles can penetrate into cells and effectively inhibit cell proliferation. There are 3 batches of drug loaded nanospheres in which 2.5mg,5mg and 10mg of DOX were loaded into nanospheres where the concentration of chitosan is 1%w/v. Anticancer drugs without targeting a specific site cause side effects. The objective of this research is to reduce side effects. HPLC device was used to quantitatively analyze amount of doxorubicin loaded in nanospheres. The result had showed concentration of anticancer drug loaded in nanospheres is directly proportional to the drug payload capacity until saturation point. The in vitro drug release studies was carried out for 48 hours to obtain a more precise result by carrying out this studies in a medium resembling our body environment such as pH7.4, 37ºC with analytical grade water for this studies. In vitro release of doxorubicin is of zero order kinetic. This shows that release is independent of the concentration of drug loaded in the nanospheres. Besides that, the graphs also show a sustained release manner, indicating these nanospheres formulation are suitable for targeting drug delivery system and for efficient treatment of cancerous cells

A non-canonical Raf function is required for dorsal–ventral patterning during Drosophila embryogenesis

Proper embryonic development requires directional axes to pattern cells into embryonic structures. In Drosophila, spatially discrete expression of transcription factors determines the anterior to posterior organization of the early embryo, while the Toll and TGFβ signalling pathways determine the early dorsal to ventral pattern. Embryonic MAPK/ERK signaling contributes to both anterior to posterior patterning in the terminal regions and to dorsal to ventral patterning during oogenesis and embryonic stages. Here we describe a novel loss of function mutation in the Raf kinase gene, which leads to loss of ventral cell fates as seen through the loss of the ventral furrow, the absence of Dorsal/NFκB nuclear localization, the absence of mesoderm determinants Twist and Snail, and the expansion of TGFβ. Gene expression analysis showed cells adopting ectodermal fates much like loss of Toll signaling. Our results combine novel mutants, live imaging, optogenetics and transcriptomics to establish a novel role for Raf, that appears to be independent of the MAPK cascade, in embryonic patterning