An Integer Programming Formulation of the Minimum Common String Partition problem

We consider the problem of finding a minimum common partition of two strings (MCSP). The problem has its application in genome comparison. MCSP problem is proved to be NP-hard. In this paper, we develop an Integer Programming (IP) formulation for the problem and implement it. The experimental results are compared with the previous state-of-the-art algorithms and are found to be promising.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1401.453

Impact of land fragmentation and resource ownership on productivity and efficiency: The case of rice producers in Bangladesh

The paper analyzes the impact of land fragmentation and ownership of resources on productivity and technical efficiency in rice production in Bangladesh using farm level survey data. Results reveal that land fragmentation has a significant detrimental effect on productivity and efficiency as expected. The elasticity estimates of land fragmentation reveal that a 1% increase in land fragmentation reduces rice output by 0.05% and efficiency by 0.03%. On the other hand, ownership of key resources (land, family labour, and draft animals) significantly increases efficiency. The mean elasticity estimates reveal that a 1% increase in family labour and owned draft animal improve technical efficiency by 0.04% and 0.03%, respectively. Also, a 1% increase in the adoption of modern technology improves efficiency by 0.04%. The mean technical efficiency in rice production is estimated at 0.91 indicating little scope to improve rice production per se using existing varieties. Policy implications include addressing structural causes of land fragmentation (e.g., law of inheritance and political economy of agrarian structure), building of physical capital (e.g., land and livestock resources), improvements in extension services and adoption of modern rice technology. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Solution of Linear Programming Problems using a Neural Network with Non-Linear Feedback

This paper presents a recurrent neural circuit for solving linear programming problems. The objective is to minimize a linear cost function subject to linear constraints. The proposed circuit employs non-linear feedback, in the form of unipolar comparators, to introduce transcendental terms in the energy function ensuring fast convergence to the solution. The proof of validity of the energy function is also provided. The hardware complexity of the proposed circuit compares favorably with other proposed circuits for the same task. PSPICE simulation results are presented for a chosen optimization problem and are found to agree with the algebraic solution. Hardware test results for a 2–variable problem further serve to strengthen the proposed theory

Assessment of Nutrition Profile of Pregnant Women in Rural Area (Mymensingh District) of Bangladesh

Malnutrition is the most common nutritional disorders in the developing countries like Bangladesh. The most vulnerable groups of population to malnutrition are under-5 children, pregnant women and lactating mother. This study makes an attempt to investigate the nutritional status of pregnant women and to correlate different factors with pregnancy. The cross-sectional study was followed to determine nutritional status by anthropometric and biochemical assessment as well as clinical appearance. The obtaining result of all assessments was compared with standard data (NCHS & UNHCR/WFP). A total of 380 pregnant women were randomly selected from health care centers (governments and non-governments) in the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh from early June 2007 to January 2008. The result of research showed that 30.52% severely malnourished, 36.57% moderately malnourished, and 23.15% well nourished and 9.73% were overnourished by calculating weight gain during different stages of pregnancy. By using Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) 28.94%, 35%, 25.26% and 10.78% of pregnant women were found severely malnourished, moderately malnourished, well nourished and overnourished respectively. It observed that the prevalence of nutritional status to pregnant women were found 29.69% severely malnourished, 34.39% moderately malnourished, 26.36% well nourished and 9.56% over nourished by observing the clinical appearance. In average it showed that 29.71% were severely malnourished, 35.32% were moderately malnourished, 24.92% were well nourished and 10.02% were overnourished. By estimating hemoglobin (Hb) level during pregnancy it obtained that 5.52% severely anemic, 61.84% moderately anemic, 18.15% mildly anemic and 14.47% of pregnant women were nonanemic. In my study, 12.63% of pregnant women were under 18 years old while 50% were severely malnourished and 30.4% were malnourished. It found that the primary education levels were 16.57% and total monthly family incomes of 16.57% of pregnant women were below Tk. 5000. Most of them (73.66%) were malnourished because of those stated reasons. In Mymensingh district, the major responsible factors were younger marriage, frequent birth, illiteracy, poverty, misconceptions, food taboos, lack of nutritional knowledge, geographical location (hill tract region) etc. The data obtained from my study is very much alarming and need to address by governments and nongovernmental organization

Monthly and Diurnal Variability of Rain Rate and Rain Attenuation during the Monsoon Period in Malaysia

Rain is the major source of attenuation for microwave propagation above 10 GHz. In tropical and equatorial regions where the rain intensity is higher, designing a terrestrial and earth-to-satellite microwave links is very critical and challenging at these frequencies. This paper presents the preliminary results of rain effects in a 23 GHz terrestrial point-to-point communication link 1.3km long. The experimental test bed had been set up at Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. In this area, a monsoon equatorial climate prevails and the rainfall rate can reach values well above 100mm/h with significant monthly and diurnal variability. Hence, it is necessary to implement a mitigation technique for maintaining an adequate radio link performance for the action of very heavy rain. Since we now know that the ULPC (Up Link Power Control) cannot guarantee the desired performance, a solution based on frequency band diversity is proposed in this paper. Here, a secondary radio link operating in a frequency not affected by rain (C band for instance) is placed parallel with the main link. Under no rain or light rain conditions, the secondary link carries without priority radio signals. When there is an outage of the main link due to rain, the secondary link assumes the priority traffic. The outcome of the research shows a solution for higher operating frequencies during rainy events