Facial Expression Recognition Using Uniform Local Binary Pattern with Improved Firefly Feature Selection

Facial expressions are essential communication tools in our daily life. In this paper, the uniform local binary pattern is employed to extract features from the face. However, this feature representation is very high in dimensionality. The high dimensionality would not only affect the recognition accuracy but also can impose computational constraints. Hence, to reduce the dimensionality of the feature vector, the firefly algorithm is used to select the optimal subset that leads to better classification accuracy. However, the standard firefly algorithm suffers from the risk of being trapped in local optima after a certain number of generations. Hence, this limitation has been addressed by proposing an improved version of the firefly where the great deluge algorithm (GDA) has been integrated. The great deluge is a local search algorithm that helps to enhance the exploitation ability of the firefly algorithm, thus preventing being trapped in local optima. The improved firefly algorithm has been employed in a facial expression system. Experimental results using the Japanese female facial expression database show that the proposed approach yielded good classification accuracy compared to state-of-the-art methods. The best classification accuracy obtained by the proposed method is 96.7% with 1230 selected features, whereas, Gabor-SRC method achieved 97.6% with 2560 features

An Improved-Water Filling Algorithm Power Allocation for DFFR Network MIMO

In wireless systems, interference is a major factor that limits the total network capacity. Power allocation is one of the effective techniques that has garnered interest in Network MIMO system and improved the efficiency of wireless systems. This study presents the development of a new power allocation algorithm based on water filling. This algorithm combines the Dynamic Fractional Frequency Reuse (DFFR) with a Network MIMO to maximise the performance of cell edge users. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm provides more ergodic capacity, compared with the existing power allocation strategies. In addition, it improves the network throughput, while ensuring fairness for cell edge users in the LTE-A system. When the total transmit power is 100W, the proposed algorithm offers 50% capacity, 37.5% throughput and 38% fairness advantage over the conventional water-filling algorithm

Effect of Thickness on the Photocatalytic Performance of ZnO/SBR Composites

Photocatalyst of zinc oxide/styrene butadiene rubber (ZnO/SBR) composite with 80/20 (wt./wt.) concentration were prepared by conventional rubber processing technique. The composite was mixed using two-roll mills at 27 °C for 10 min and compressed into a flat sheet with a thickness ranging from 0.15 to 1.08 mm. The characteristics of photocatalyst were studied by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). The photocatalyst activity of ZnO/SBR was evaluated using methylene blue (MB) as a pollutant under visible light. The ZnO/SBR with 0.54 mm thickness showed the highest performance of photodegradation of MB compared to other thicknesses. This is due to the sheet buoyancy increasing the light-capturing ability

Knowledge and practices of tobacco dependence treatment among junior doctors in a Malaysian teaching hospital

Introduction: Junior doctors are ideally placed to assist smokers quit yet little is known about their knowledge and practices. Aims: To determine knowledge and practices in providing smoking cessation support, among junior doctors in a Malaysian teaching hospital. Methods: In 2012, all junior doctors at University Malaya Medical Centre were invited to complete a self-administered questionnaire. The data were collated and analysed using standard descriptive methods. Results/Findings: Seventy per cent (n = 122/173) of those eligible completed the questionnaire, 71 reporting cessation training at medical school. Most (90) asked patients their smoking status but only 52 asked about quitting. Sixty-one per cent lacked confidence in providing assistance to quit, especially female doctors (70.8, p<0.01). Most (80) were unaware of local cessation clinics, and over half (59) were unaware of the existence of guidelines for smoking cessation (p<0.001). Conclusions: Asking about smoking was undertaken at satisfactory levels, but low knowledge, confidence and skills among this group of junior doctors indicates that cessation education should be included in undergraduate and in postgraduate curriculum training programmes. Awareness of specialist services and guidelines should be raised. Our findings are unlikely to be unique to this hospital, suggesting the need for a nationally consistent approach

Tilapia from most of the sources in Bangladesh are safe for human consumption: A Hazard Index (HI) based study on heavy metals

The present study was conducted to determine the variations of heavy metal (Cu, Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, and Zn) bioaccumulation in edible muscles among the wild, pond-, gher- and cage-cultured tilapia, followed by risk assessment in humans caused by consumption of the contaminated fish. A total of 120 fishes from four different aquatic environments were collected, and the heavy metal levels were analyzed using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The result found the highest Zn concentration in all tilapia samples; however, the Ni was below the detection limit. The average concentrations of metals were found as Zn > Pb > Cr > Cu in wild tilapia, Zn > Pb > Cr > Cu > Cd in pond-cultured tilapia, Zn > Pb > Cr > Cd in gher-cultured tilapia, and Zn > Cd > Cr > Pb > Cu in cage-cultured tilapia. The estimated daily intake (EDI) value was lower than the maximum tolerable daily intake value, and target hazard quotient (THQ) and hazard index (HI) for adults, adolescent, and children was < 1 for wild and cultured tilapia, indicating that tilapia is safe for human consumption. However, high HI of Pb and Cd might be alarming and need further investigation in the near future

Retracted: Smart cane with human detection capabilities for blind people

This article was withdrawn and retracted by the Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences and has been removed from AJOL at the request of the journal Editor in Chief and the organisers of the conference at which the articles were presented (www.iccmit.net). Please address any queries to [email protected]

Review of numerical studies on nox emission in the flameless combustion

The incomplete process of combustion produces unwanted emission and one of the major pollutant in the combustion of fossil fuels is the formation of nitrogen oxides. To mitigate the problem various combustion technologies have been explored and flameless combustion is one of the potential candidate. Flameless combustion is of a great interest since it simultaneously provides higher thermal efficiency together with controlling the pollutant emission such as NOX. In this technology, the preheat temperature of the combustion air must be higher than the auto-ignition temperature of the reactant mixture. This paper explores various numerical studies performed on the flameless combustion and the role of flameless combustion on the reduction of NOX emission are presented