Mobile Apps as Supplements of a Typical Discrete Mathematics Course: Benefits, Features, and Design Elements

Mobile Apps have tremendous potential for use as very effective supplements to the exiting learning modalities in a typical introductory Discrete Mathematics course. In this article we consider the general nature of a typical introductory Discrete Mathematics courses and derive elements of design which are expected to make the mobile Apps intended for use as supplements to such a course more effective. We enumerate the elements of the topical coverage and inherent characteristics of typical introductory Discrete Mathematics course, and the benefits of a mobile App course supplement. We then present the design aspects and desired salient features of mobile Apps intended for uses as supplements in a typical introductory Discrete Mathematics course, and the elements of user experience (UX) of such an App. We believe that several of these design elements could be adapted across several different courses and disciplines to enhance the learning experience

Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Coding of Images Using Wavelet Transform and Predictive Coding

Image compression techniques are necessary for the storage of huge amounts of digital images using reasonable amounts of space, and for their transmission with limited bandwidth. Several techniques such as predictive coding, transform coding, subband coding, wavelet coding, and vector quantization have been used in image coding. While each technique has some advantages, most practical systems use hybrid techniques which incorporate more than one scheme. They combine the advantages of the individual schemes and enhance the coding effectiveness. This paper proposes and evaluates a hybrid coding scheme for images using wavelet transforms and predictive coding. The performance evaluation is done using a variety of different parameters such as kinds of wavelets, decomposition levels, types of quantizers, predictor coefficients, and quantization levels. The results of evaluation are presented

Treatment and prognostic assessment of acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous group of clonal malignant myeloid neoplasms. Malignant transformation of hematopoietic progenitor cell leads to clonal expansion and replacement of normal bone marrow cells with malignant cells leading to suppression of normal haematopoiesis. Advancements in our understanding of disease biology have allowed AML to be classified based on its gene expression profile, which includes previously identified cytogenetic subgroups, and distinct novel subgroups which have prognostic significance. Identification of mutations in DNMT3A and IDH 1 genes in cytogenetically normal AML (by gene sequencing) helps to identify patients with poor prognosis. Redesigning the treatment regimen consisting of cytarabine and daunorubicin has improved the treatment outcomes without increase in the treatment-related mortality. Increasing the dose of daunorubicin to 90 mg/m2 improves complete remission rates without increasing treatment-related complications both in young and elderly patients. Cytarabine (200 mg/m2 in cycle I and 2 g/m2 in cycle 2) is shown to be as effective as high dose cytarabine (1000 mg/m2 twice daily in cycle 1and 2 g/m2 twice daily in cycle 2) and is associated with less treatment-related toxicities

User-Controlled, Multimedia-Enhanced Communication using Prior Knowledge and Experience

This article focuses on enriching the communication, experience between human beings interacting through different kind of devices, including mobile phones and PDAs. the key point is how to effectively exploit multimedia data to enhance the richness of communication without overloading the communication channel. to this end, the system tries to minimize the quantity of information transmitted over the networks and to maximize the usage of locally stored information. the proposed system sends several kinds of data, including continuous video, video clips, still images, and avatars, over the communication channel. the specific data that are sent are based on the parameters set by the transmitting and receiving terminals. Bandwidth-consuming data, such as continuous video, are transmitted only occasionally at the receiving terminal. the system has been partially implemented and incorporated in avatar-enabled cellular phones. the user may then easily create different avatars combining components characterizing faces, hair, and so on, and associate them with different callers. When a call comes through, the avatar corresponding to the caller is retrieved and displayed on the screen and the corresponding information is retrieved from the personal database. © 2005 IEEE

Mushroom diversity in the Biligiri rangana hills of Karnataka (India)

Evergreen forests of Biligiri rangana hills (BR hills) spread over an area of 540 sq. KM over eastern most edge of Western Ghats in Karnataka. Climatic conditions are more favorable for establishment of mushrooms and complete their life cycle. In this study, fourteen mushroom species were collected from BR hills region during monsoon (June through September 2013) with the help of Solega tribe inhabited the region since many years. Of the fourteen mushrooms, two mushrooms were identified as Ganoderma lucidum and Polyporous flabelliformis based on their phenotypic characters. The other 12 mushrooms were identified by ITS (Internal Transcribed spacer)region sequence homology as Termitomyces sp. (BRM-3)., Auricularia delicate (BRM-4), Termitomyces microcarpus (BRM-5), Amanita sp. (BRM-6), Podoscypha petalodes (BRM-7), Agaricaceae sp. (BRM-8), Macrolepiota sp.(BRM-9), Calvatia holothurioides (BRM-10), Gymnopillus crociphyllus (BRM-11), Coprinus comatus (BRM-12), Gyrodontium sacchari (BRM-13) and Clitocybeafffellea (BRM-14). Among the fourteen mushrooms, three species viz., Termito-myces species, Auricularia delicate and Termitomyces microcarpus were edible. The others were non edible/poisonous species. This study reports the diverse mushroom species as addition to biodiversity at BR hills

A scheme for content based retrieval of music data in MIDI format

With phenomenal increases in the generation and storage of digital audio data in several applications, there is growing need for organizing audio data in databases and providing users with fast access to desired data. This paper presents a scheme for the content-based query and retrieval of audio data stored in MIDI format. This is based on extraction of melody from the MIDI files and suitably comparing with the melody of the query. The results of retrieval using the proposed algorithm are presented.<br /

Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of the DNA gyrase B protein from B-stearothermophilus

DNA gyrase B (GyrB) from B. stearothermophilus has been crystallized in the presence of the non-hydrolyzable ATP analogue, 5'-adenylpl-beta-gamma-imidodiphosphate (ADPNP), by the dialysis method. A complete native data set to 3.7 Angstrom has been collected from crystals which belonged to the cubic space group I23 with unit-cell dimension a = 250.6 Angstrom. Self-rotation function analysis indicates the position of a molecular twofold axis. Low-resolution data sets of a thimerosal and a selenomethionine derivative have also been analysed. The heavy-atom positions are consistent with one dimer in the asymmetric unit

Shadow Detection by Combined Photometric Invariants for Improved Foreground Segmentation

Detection and tracking of moving objects are the essential steps of many video understanding applications such as traffic monitoring, video surveillance and visual event recognition. Moving object detection process segments the scene into foreground (moving) and background regions. Moving cast shadows cause serious problems in this process because they can easily be misclassified as foreground. This misclassification may lead to drastic changes in the shapes of objects or merging of multiple objects. in this paper, we present a method to detect moving cast shadows to improve the performance of moving object detection. the foreground regions are processed in terms of intensity, chromaticity, and reflectance ratio. to further refine the results, compactness constraint is enforced on the foreground and shadow masks. the algorithm exploits spatial and spectral information; no a priori knowledge about camera, illumination or object/scene characteristics are required. Obtained results show better performance compared to other work in recent literature