On the application of short-term heart rate variability indices to track changes in cognitive arousal

Studies have demonstrated that Heart Rate Variability (HRV) can be utilized as an effective tool for monitoring the level of arousal. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is frequently measured by heart rate and principally controlled by the coordinated parasympathetic and sympathetic systems, which also regulate fluctuations in arousal. In HRV studies short-term analysis is more affordable and easier to measure rather than long-term analysis. Here, to track arousal changes, 31 participants (18 male and 13 female) with a mean age of 32 years were examined in both relaxed and aroused stages. Relax and arousal states are measured in two stages, each lasting five minutes. Relaxed status was carried out with closed eyes and listening to nature sounds. The arousal status was performed by playing a Stroop test while listening to traffic noise or death metal music. After data acquisition, 28 HRV features are calculated for each five-minute epoch. The observations have demonstrated that novel indices such as FnQ and ACI produced better results in arousal detection by using short-term (5 min) HRV analysis among all of the obtained indices. Moreover, the performance of ACI was significantly superior to the rest since it is a robust and easy-to-compute index. Consequently, ACI can be used as a powerful tool for monitoring cognitive arousal.Postprint (published version

An Intelligent Technique for Grape Fanleaf Virus Detection

Grapevine Fanleaf Virus (GFLV) is one of the most important viral diseases of grapes, which can damage up to 85% of the crop, if not treated at the right time. The aim of this study is to identify infected leaves with GFLV using artificial intelligent methods using an accessible database. To do this, some pictures are taken from infected and healthy leaves of grapes and labeled by technical specialists using conventional laboratory methods. In order to provide an intelligent method for distinguishing infected leaves from healthy ones, the area of unhealthy parts of each leaf is highlighted using Fuzzy C-mean Algorithm (FCM), and then the percentages of the first two segments area are fed to a Support Vector Machines (SVM). To increase the diagnostic reliability of the system, K-fold cross validation method with k = 3 and k =5 is applied. After applying the proposed method over all images using K-fold validation technique, average confusion matrix is extracted to show the True Positive, True Negative, False Positive and False Negative percentages of classification. The results show that specificity, as the ability of the algorithm to really detect healthy images, is 100%, and sensitivity, as the ability of the algorithm to correctly detect infected images is around 97.3%. The average accuracy of the system is around 98.6%. The results imply the ability of the proposed method compared to previous methods

A ground based circular synthetic aperture radar

Detecting on-the-ground objects is a subject of interest for some applications. Typical example is foreign object detection on the airport runway. In response to this demand, a ground-based Circular Synthetic Aperture Radar (CSAR) system is proposed and explained in the paper. In the proposed CSAR, the antennas represent a circular movement trajectory. Wideband Linear Frequency (LFM) chirps were used for transmission. A simulation model for CSAR, based on the Doppler Effect between the radar and object is developed in this paper. In addition, a processing method for object detection using correlation between image data produced by simulation and experimental data is developed. The resultant of the simulated model at each point, which represents the object's behavior in an ideal and clutter-free environment, is used as a template for object detection. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is well suited in detecting small objects at different positions

Comparison of three routine protein precipitation methods: acetone, TCA/acetone wash and TCA/acetone.

    The aim of this study was to compare three routine precipitation methods, including: acetone, TCA/acetone wash and TCA/acetone. 30 plasma samples were precipitated using above mentioned three methods. Pellets were dissolved in rehydration solution and protein quantification was done for this solution. According to statistical analysis using SPSS ver 16.0 software and one-way ANOVA test, the protein yield of acetone method was greater than two other methods and was statistically different from TCA/acetone precipitation method (p-value: 0.006). The acetone method is more efficient than two other methods in protein precipitation.

A multistatic circular synthethic aperture radar for small object detection

This paper introduces a ground-based Multistatic Circular Synthetic Aperture Radar (MuCSAR) used to detect small objects on the ground. The received signals have been modelled and the system prototype has been developed. The proposed signal processing is also described. An experimental investigation for Foreign Object Detection application has been analysed

A Linear Frequency Modulated bistatic radar for on-the-ground object detection

A radar system for detecting and localizing small targets on the ground is proposed in this paper. The system transmits wideband Linear Frequency Modulated pulses from ground-based transmitter. The reflected pulses will be collected simultaneously by two different ground-based receivers installed in different bistatic positions. Accurate range processing in this bistatic configuration will lead us to detect small objects like N-type connectors in several meters distances

The Impact of Corporate Governance on Firm Performance on Stock Price among Publicly Listed Companies in the

Abstract As corporations grew into Microsoft, GMs and GEs of today, they threw of the remaining shackles of state limitations. They gained the institutional rights and became self-perpetuating entities (Millstein, 2003). Nowadays, corporate scandals and bankruptcies have extremely affected many countries particularly those that happened in Enron Corp. and Xerox Corp, smooth the way for companies to improve their corporate governance practices. This study examined the impact of corporate governance on firm performance and stock price among publicly listed companies in the Philippines during 2009 to 2011. This study used multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesis in a sample of 52 firms. The researcher utilized Full model and Stepwise Model to come up with set of independent variables that were significant to ROE, ROA and Stock Price. The variables are transformed to make it comparable and were able to meet assumptions such as Linearity, Multicollinearity, Normality and Heteroscedasticity. Firm size directly related to ROE and Stock Price while inversely related on ROA. Interaction of Firm Size and Silver directly related to ROE and Stock Price while inversely related on ROA. The Interaction of Firm Size and Gold directly related to ROA while inversely related on ROE. Interaction of Firm Size and Platinum inversely related to Stock Price. Interaction of Firm Age and Silver directly related to ROA while inversely related on ROE. The Interaction of Firm Age and Gold directly related to ROE while inversely related on ROA and Stock Price. Interaction of Firm age and Platinum and Interaction of Firm age and Platinum Plus directly related to Stock Price

Foreign object detection based on circular bistatic synthetic aperture radar

Synthetic Aperture Radar is well known for producing a radar image of the ground, so it can be used for detecting on-the-ground object which is interesting for some applications. A possible application can be Foreign Object Detection (FOD), which is an important issue in aviation safety. A ground-based Circular Bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (Circular-BiSAR) is introduced in this paper. The circular movement makes it more practical while the bistatic configuration offers some advantages. Wideband Linear Frequency Modulated (LFM) chirp pulses are employed here, for transmission and reception of reflection pulses to and from the under test object. A simulated model is developed for the system which analyzes the transmitting, receiving, Doppler and LFM signals by considering the distances and movement of antennas. A prototype system is launched, and some experiments are done to detect and localize various objects based on their reflection properties of microwaves. A processing algorithm is proposed in this paper to confirm the detection. The results show that the proposed system can detect and localize on-the ground objects with as small a dimension as 2 cm height and 2 cm diameter located several metres away

Medical Images Encryption Based on Adaptive-Robust Multi-Mode Synchronization of Chen Hyper-Chaotic Systems

In this paper, a novel medical image encryption method based on multi-mode synchronization of hyper-chaotic systems is presented. The synchronization of hyper-chaotic systems is of great significance in secure communication tasks such as encryption of images. Multi-mode synchronization is a novel and highly complex issue, especially if there is uncertainty and disturbance. In this work, an adaptive-robust controller is designed for multimode synchronized chaotic systems with variable and unknown parameters, despite the bounded disturbance and uncertainty with a known function in two modes. In the first case, it is a main system with some response systems, and in the second case, it is a circular synchronization. Using theorems it is proved that the two synchronization methods are equivalent. Our results show that, we are able to obtain the convergence of synchronization error and parameter estimation error to zero using Lyapunov’s method. The new laws to update time-varying parameters, estimating disturbance and uncertainty bounds are proposed such that stability of system is guaranteed. To assess the performance of the proposed synchronization method, various statistical analyzes were carried out on the encrypted medical images and standard benchmark images. The results show effective performance of the proposed synchronization technique in the medical images encryption for telemedicine application.MINECO/ FEDER under the RTI2018-098913-B100 CV20-45250 and A-TIC- 080-UGR18 project