Design and Implementation of a Hybrid Face Recognition Technique

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Elmer R. Smith College of Business and Technology at Morehead State University in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Science by Asim S. Chaudhry on October 16, 2018

Acclimation to warm temperatures modulates lactate and malate dehydrogenase isozymes in juvenile Horabagrus brachysoma (Günther)

Differential expression of isozymes enables fish to tolerate temperature fluctuations in their environment. The present study explores the modulation of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and cytoplasmic malate dehydrogenase (sMDH) isozyme expression in the heart, muscle, brain, liver, gill, and kidney of juvenile Horabagrus brachysoma after 30 days of acclimation at 26, 31, 33, and 36°C. LDH and sMDH zymography were performed using native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The zymography revealed five distinct bands of LDH isoenzymes (labelled from cathode to anode as LDH-A4, LDH-A3B1, LDH-A2B2, LDH-A1B3, and LDH-B4) and three distinct bands of sMDH isoenzymes (labelled from cathode to anode as sMDH-A2, sMDH-AB, and sMDH-B2), with considerable variation in their expression in the tissues. Acclimation to the test temperatures did not influence the expression patterns of LDH or sMDH isozymes. Densitometric analysis of individual isozyme bands revealed a reduction in the densities of bands containing the LDH-B and sMDH-B molecules, while the densities of bands containing the LDH-A and sMDH-A molecules increased in the gills and muscle, indicating the role of these organs in adaptive responses to thermal acclimation. However, the total densities of the LDH and sMDH isozymes increased with higher acclimation temperatures, indicating that adaptation to increased temperatures in H. brachysoma is primarily characterised by quantitative changes in isozyme expression

A Policy Specification Language for Composite Services

Creating complex systems by combining smaller component services is one of the fundamental concepts in Service Oriented Architecture. Service compositions are built by combining loosely coupled services that are, usually, offered and operated by different service providers. While this approach offers several benefits, it makes the implementation and representation of the security requirements difficult. This paper reviews several requirement specification languages and analyses their suitability for composite services. A set of requirements is identified and a comparison between different specification languages is presented along with some conclusion on the suitability of each language in expressing security requirements for composite services

Coaching or gaming? Implications of strategy choice for home based stroke rehabilitation

Background: The enduring aging of the world population and prospective increase of age-related chronic diseases urge the implementation of new models for healthcare delivery. One strategy relies on ICT (Information and Communications Technology) home-based solutions allowing clients to pursue their treatments without institutionalization. Stroke survivors are a particular population that could strongly benefit from such solutions, but is not yet clear what the best approach is for bringing forth an adequate and sustainable usage of home-based rehabilitation systems. Here we explore two possible approaches: coaching and gaming. Methods: We performed trials with 20 healthy participants and 5 chronic stroke survivors to study and compare execution of an elbow flexion and extension task when performed within a coaching mode that provides encouragement or within a gaming mode. For each mode we analyzed compliance, arm movement kinematics and task scores. In addition, we assessed the usability and acceptance of the proposed modes through a customized self-report questionnaire. Results: In the healthy participants sample, 13/20 preferred the gaming mode and rated it as being significantly more fun (p < .05), but the feedback delivered by the coaching mode was subjectively perceived as being more useful (p < .01). In addition, the activity level (number of repetitions and total movement of the end effector) was significantly higher (p <.001) during coaching. However, the quality of movements was superior in gaming with a trend towards shorter movement duration (p=.074), significantly shorter travel distance (p <.001), higher movement efficiency (p <.001) and higher performance scores (p <.001). Stroke survivors also showed a trend towards higher activity levels in coaching, but with more movement quality during gaming. Finally, both training modes showed overall high acceptance. Conclusions: Gaming led to higher enjoyment and increased quality in movement execution in healthy participants. However, we observed that game mechanics strongly determined user behavior and limited activity levels. In contrast, coaching generated higher activity levels. Hence, the purpose of treatment and profile of end-users has to be considered when deciding on the most adequate approach for home based stroke rehabilitation