A Novel Voice Priority Queue (VPQ) Schedule and Algorithm for VoIP over WLAN Network

The VoIP deployment on Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), which is based on IEEE 802.11 standards, is increasing. Currently, many schedulers have been introduced such as Weighted Fair Queueing (WFQ), Strict Priority (SP) General processor sharing (GPS), Deficit Round Robin (DRR), and Contention-Aware Temporally fair Scheduling (CATS). Unfortunately, the current scheduling techniques have some drawbacks on real-time applications and therefore will not be able to handle the VoIP packets in a proper way. The objective of this research is to propose a new scheduler system model for the VoIP application named final stage of Voice Priority Queue (VPQ) scheduler. The scheduler system model is to ensure efficiency by producing a higher throughput and fairness for VoIP packets. In this paper, only the final Stage of the VPQ packet scheduler and its algorithm are presented. Simulation topologies for VoIP traffic were implemented and analyzed using the Network Simulator (NS-2). The results show that this method can achieve a better and more accurate VoIP quality throughput and fairness index over WLANs

Dimensions of Literature and Journalism, History, Ideology and Culture

Literature is a hugely loaded term that brings within its ambit a variety of concerns ranging from philosophy to journalism as there is almost a photo finish between what is construed as journalism and what is commonly and widely presumed literature. Adding interactive or writing multi-platform stories/literature/fiction is quickly becoming a new craft of publishing onto itself and a tool for writers to use. The media field could be very different in coming years---or it could still be just a bunch of promotional tie-tins. The dimensions of literature breach boundaries to conform to the possibilities of generating discourses on issues of humanitarian concerns. Hemingway, Dos Passos, Dickens and Thackeray came to the writing of fiction through journalism. Psychology and Philosophy have given the edges to literature as the likes of James Joyce, Joseph Conrad and Virginia Woolf. Journalism aided the growth of imperial culture and simultaneously provoking a debate between the East and West, between the Fascist and the Liberals and between the Diary of A young Girl and Tin Drum and again between what Bertolt Brecht did in Germany to stave off the last remains of Nazism though diced up in ruins. The difference lies in the manner of treating its shades and colors

Study of radon concentration and toxic elements in drinking and irrigated water and its implications in Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia

AbstractThe radon activity concentration and toxic elements have been assessed in drinking and irrigated water samples collected from different locations of Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia. The water samples were collected from wells, streams and taps. A calibrated alpha spectrometer RAD-7 (Model 2890) and Atomic Absorption Spectrometers (Perkin–Elmer, Model AAnalyst 200, Shimadzu, Model AA-700) were used to estimate radon activity concentration and toxic elements, respectively. Maximum average value of radon concentration among the various types of water sources was found 14.7 ± 1.44 Bq/l in well water used for drinking and irrigation and minimum was found 5.37 ± 0.58 Bq/l in tap water used for drinking. Contribution of radon in drinking water to indoor air and age dependent associated annual effective doses were calculated from the measured radon concentration and were found less than lower limit of recommended action level. The activity concentrations of Ni > Pb > Cd > As > Cr were found higher for streams water as compared to wells and tap water. Values of radon concentration in well water were found higher than EPA recommended level and lower than WHO action level while the annual effective doses and level of toxic elements in water reported in this study were found lower than recommended level

Improving stability of zinc nanoparticles in chitosan solution with a nanosecond pulsed laser

A green method is presented to fabricate zinc nanoparticles using laser ablation synthesis in a natural polymer solution. The main aims are to reduce the zinc nanoparticles size and to increase their stability by using different ablation times in a chitosan solution as a natural polymer stabilizer. A Nd:YAG pulsed laser (532 nm) of energy 60 mJ/pulse, with a pulse duration of 10 ns was used to ablate a zinc plate immersed in chitosan solution from which the nanoparticles were produced. The average particle sizes as well as the volume fraction of the zinc nanoparticles in the solution were measured at 5, 10, 15, 30 min of ablation time. The results showed that the particle size decreased from 9.43 to 5.04 nm with spherical morphology and its volume fraction increased from 0.24 × 10−7 to 8.5 × 10−7 as the ablation time progressed from 5 to 30 min respectively. As a comparative study, a reasonable decrease was observed in the particle size for chitosan than distilled water. It was also noted that the stability and dispersion of zinc nanoparticles were much higher in the chitosan solution compared to water. In addition, the COSMO (conductor-like screening model) solvation model was used to compare the enthalpies of Zn-NPs in different media. Obtained results confirmed their stability was higher when merged in a natural polymer compared to water

Geographical Indications in Maharashtra

The present paper aims to find the current situation of the registered commodities in the state of Maharashtra, the registered commodities are from three different categories i.e. Agriculture, Arts and Handicrafts and Manufactured products. These commodities mostly belong to agricultural category, among agricultural category fruits have taken lions share. All the registered commodities since the implementation of the Act have been included in the study. The paper discusses the present condition of the registered Geographical Indications of the Maharashtra State. Since the implementation of the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, till now there are 34 products or commodities which have been registered with the authority of the Government of India. In this paper the authors have analysed the retrieved data by category of the product, involving districts of the products and chronologically registration of the products. Definition, purpose, history and genesis of Geographical indication have also been discussed. Some of the commodities which are not included or registered with the GI register are also identified by the author

Efficient approximate analytical technique to solve nonlinear coupled Jaulent–Miodek system within a time-fractional order

In this article, we considered the nonlinear time-fractional Jaulent–Miodek model (FJMM), which is applied to modeling many applications in basic sciences and engineering, especially physical phenomena such as plasma physics, fluid dynamics, electromagnetic waves in nonlinear media, and many other applications. The Caputo fractional derivative (CFD) was applied to express the fractional operator in the mathematical formalism of the FJMM. We implemented the modified generalized Mittag-Leffler method (MGMLFM) to show the analytical approximate solution of FJMM, which is represented by a set of coupled nonlinear fractional partial differential equations (FPDEs) with suitable initial conditions. The suggested method produced convergent series solutions with easily computable components. To demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the MGMLFM, a comparison was made between the solutions obtained by MGMLFM and the known exact solutions in some tables. Also, the absolute error was compared with the absolute error provided by some of the other famous methods found in the literature. Our findings confirmed that the presented method is easy, simple, reliable, competitive, and did not require complex calculations. Thus, it can be extensively applied to solve more linear and nonlinear FPDEs that have applications in various areas such as mathematics, engineering, and physics

LodgeNet: an automated framework for precise detection and classification of wheat lodging severity levels in precision farming

Wheat lodging is a serious problem affecting grain yield, plant health, and grain quality. Addressing the lodging issue in wheat is a desirable task in breeding programs. Precise detection of lodging levels during wheat screening can aid in selecting lines with resistance to lodging. Traditional approaches to phenotype lodging rely on manual data collection from field plots, which are slow and laborious, and can introduce errors and bias. This paper presents a framework called ‘LodgeNet,’ that facilitates wheat lodging detection. Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Deep Learning (DL), LodgeNet improves traditional methods of detecting lodging with more precision and efficiency. Using a dataset of 2000 multi-spectral images of wheat plots, we have developed a novel image registration technique that aligns the different bands of multi-spectral images. This approach allows the creation of comprehensive RGB images, enhancing the detection and classification of wheat lodging. We have employed advanced image enhancement techniques to improve image quality, highlighting the important features of wheat lodging detection. We combined three color enhancement transformations into two presets for image refinement. The first preset, ‘Haze & Gamma Adjustment,’ minimize atmospheric haze and adjusts the gamma, while the second, ‘Stretching Contrast Limits,’ extends the contrast of the RGB image by calculating and applying the upper and lower limits of each band. LodgeNet, which relies on the state-of-the-art YOLOv8 deep learning algorithm, could detect and classify wheat lodging severity levels ranging from no lodging (Class 1) to severe lodging (Class 9). The results show the mean Average Precision (mAP) of 0.952% @0.5 and 0.641% @0.50-0.95 in classifying wheat lodging severity levels. LodgeNet promises an efficient and automated high-throughput solution for real-time crop monitoring of wheat lodging severity levels in the field

Towards secure IoT-based payments by extension of payment card industry data security standard (PCI DSS)

IoT emergence has given rise to a new digital experience of payment transactions where physical objects like refrigerators, cars, and wearables will make payments. These physical objects will be storing the cardholder credentials and will directly make payments with the vendors over insecure public networks. For such payment transactions, government regulations and standards organizations require to implement PCI DSS for adapting similar set of security measures at the global level. The current version of PCI DSS is not suitable for IoT-based payment systems due to characteristics of IoT such as resourceconstrained nature of devices and updating software/firmware of so many physical devices. Also, there arises an emergent need of implementing PCI DSS requirements and assessments for security of all stakeholders that store or process the user credentials in a payment. This paper is an initial effort to bring the researcher’s attention to make upcoming versions of PCI DSS suitable for IoT and thus securing the new ways of IoT-based payment systems. The paper has reviewed the traditional payment process along with considerations for IoT-based payment systems to make recommendations to modify the PCI DSS in a suitable way for IoT

Experimental and in silico evaluation of Carthamus tinctorius L. oil emulgel: a promising treatment for bacterial skin infections

PurposeThe current study aimed to develop a topical herbal emulgel containing Carthamus tinctorius L. (CT) oil extract, which has been scientifically proven for its antibacterial and antioxidant activities for the ailment of bacterial skin infections.MethodThe CT emulgel was formulated by response surface methodology (RSM) and was evaluated by various parameters like extrudability, spreadability, pH, viscosity, and antibacterial and antioxidant activities. Molecular docking was also performed using AutoDock.ResultsAmong all formulated CT emulgels, F9 and F8 were optimized. Optimized formulations had shown good spreadability and extrudability characteristics. Sample F8 had % inhibition of 42.131 ± 0.335, 56.720 ± 0.222, and 72.440 ± 0.335 at different concentrations. Sample F9 had % inhibition of 26.312 ± 0.280, 32.461 ± 0.328, and 42.762 ± 0.398 at concentrations of 250 µg/ml, 500 µg/ml, and 1,000 µg/ml, respectively, which shows that both samples F8 and F9 have significant antioxidant potential. Optimized CT emulgels F8 and F9 had significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli at p-value = 0.00, the Emulgel-F8 shows zone of inhibition of 24 mm for E-coli and 19 mm for S-aureus. Emulgel-F9 shows zone of inhibition of 22 mm for E-coli and 15 mm for S-aureus while pure CT- Oil extract shows zone of inhibition of 25 mm for E-coli and 20 mm for S-aureus and ciprofloxacin used as standard shows 36mm zone of inhibition against both E-coli and S-aureus. The comparative investigation through molecular docking binding affinities and interactions of ligands with various target proteins provides insights into the molecular processes behind ligand binding and may have significance for drug discovery and design for the current study.ConclusionThe current study suggests that C. tinctorius L.-based emulgel has good antioxidant and antibacterial activities against E. coli for the treatment of bacterial skin infections