A Middleware for Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning Ecosystems Based on a Reconfigurable Plug-and-Play Architecture: Application to Mashups

This paper describes a middleware intended to support the development of mashup applications in mobile and ubiquitous learning environments. It is based on a framework that integrates different contextual information (e.g. geographic location, profile, history) and services from e-learning platforms or other learning tools. The integration of the services into the middleware is carried out through a reconfigurable plug and play architecture based on Web Services. It provides a better and more flexible management of the involved services in the system

Modeling input validation in UML

Security is an integral part of most software systems but it is not considered as an explicit part in the development process yet. Input validation is the most critical part ofsoftware security that is not covered in the design phase of software development life-cycle resulting in many security vulnerabilities. Our objective is to extend UML to new integrated jramework for model driven security engineering leading to ideal way to design more secure software. Input validation in UML has not been addressed previously, hence we incorporate input validation into UML diagrams such as use case, class, sequence and activity. This approach has some advantages such as preventing jrom common input tampering attacks, having both security and convenience in software at high level of abstraction and ability of solving the problem ofweak security backgroundfor developers

Diabetic Muscle Infarction - A Case Report

Diabetic muscle infarction is a rare complication in patients of longstanding diabetes mellitus with multiple end organ microvascular sequelae. A case of a 69 year old lady with a 10 year history of diabetes mellitus, with sudden onset of right thigh pain is described here. This case illustrates the need for increasing awareness among clinicians for early recognition of diabetic muscle infarction.Key words: Diabetic complications; Muscle infarctio

Maximally robust controllers for multivariable systems

Published versio

Stability, Gain, and Robustness in Quantum Feedback Networks

This paper concerns the problem of stability for quantum feedback networks. We demonstrate in the context of quantum optics how stability of quantum feedback networks can be guaranteed using only simple gain inequalities for network components and algebraic relationships determined by the network. Quantum feedback networks are shown to be stable if the loop gain is less than one-this is an extension of the famous small gain theorem of classical control theory. We illustrate the simplicity and power of the small gain approach with applications to important problems of robust stability and robust stabilization.Comment: 16 page

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACY & LIFE SCIENCES Ethnomedicinal plants used to treat menstrual disorders by tribal people in Bellary district of Karnataka, India

Abstract An ethnobotanical survey of Bellary district, comprising seven taluks was conducted during May 2009 to July 2011. The main purpose of this survey was to document the traditional use of medicinal plants for the treatment of menstrual disorders of women in Bellary district. Twenty six species of folk drug plants belonging to 24 genera and 21 families were found to be used as a remedy for this problem by the tribal and rural women. The scientific name, family and local names of these medicinal plants along with habit, part used and mode of their administrations are provided

Synchronization of Coupled Nonidentical Genetic Oscillators

The study on the collective dynamics of synchronization among genetic oscillators is essential for the understanding of the rhythmic phenomena of living organisms at both molecular and cellular levels. Genetic oscillators are biochemical networks, which can generally be modelled as nonlinear dynamic systems. We show in this paper that many genetic oscillators can be transformed into Lur'e form by exploiting the special structure of biological systems. By using control theory approach, we provide a theoretical method for analyzing the synchronization of coupled nonidentical genetic oscillators. Sufficient conditions for the synchronization as well as the estimation of the bound of the synchronization error are also obtained. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results, a population of genetic oscillators based on the Goodwin model are adopted as numerical examples.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Phytochemical screening and antimicrobial activity of shade dried and sun-dried Aerva lanata (L.) juss. ex schult.

578-584Aerva lanata (L.) Juss. ex Schult. is an important medicinal plant widely used in the treatment of several human ailments in the southern part of India including as a source of Pashana Bheda (Stone Breaker). The plant materials were extracted in different solvent extracts and analyzed to know the composition of minerals, secondary metabolites and the efficacy of solvent extracts against pathogenic bacteria and Candida species. Ethyl acetate extract of sun-dried plant inhibited the growth of S. typhie and K. pneumoniae. The anticandidal activity displayed in ethyl acetate and methanol extracts was very effective against C. glabrata, C. albicans and C. haemulonii respectively. A maximum of 11.834 ppm calcium content was recorded, followed by potassium (6.87 ppm) and magnesium (6.5 ppm). Similarly, amongst the secondary metabolites, saponins (1.987 mg/g) content was maximum, followed by flavonoids (1.85 mg/g) and sterol (0.85 mg/g) in sundried plant material. In shade dried plant material, phenol content was more (1.14 mg/g). No significant difference was observed in the occurrence of secondary metabolites, minerals, and antimicrobial activity between sundried and shade dried plant materials

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: Is India ready to incorporate recent advances in day to day practice?

Background : Non Hodgkin\u2032s Lymphoma (NHL) cure rates are increasing and morbidities are decreasing, with more active pharmacological agents and technological advancements. In spite of this, India is still battling with the prejudices of an economically and educationally impoverished patient base. Methods and Results : We analyzed NHL cases from 2000 to 2006 using data from case sheets. Of 303 cases, only 100 patients had complete workup and received some form of treatment. For 203 patients, reasons for non-compliance were: financial constraint (119), distance from center (38), inability of physician to provide guarantees of cure (13), poor prognosis/fear of recurrence (28)), preferences for alternate medicine (5). Most common investigations that could not be afforded for staging were whole body CT scans and bone marrow aspiration and biopsy. Thirteen patients were in stage III and 53 in Stage IV. The most common regimen was CHOP (Cyclophosphamide, Adriamycin, Vincristine, Prednisolone). Forty-five patients did not complete six courses of CHOP and 35 patients had significant delay. Reasons for delay were intermittent availability of cash (35), intolerable toxicities (30), absence of supportive care (21), given-up attitudes (17). Eighty-three patients suffered Grade III/IV debilitating toxicities. Overall survival at five years was 50%. Conclusions : NHL in India is no different from the developed world. However, there are disparities in survivorship and outcomes, due to un-affordability and attitudes of the patients. Therefore, we suggest the development of Community Health Insurance Schemes (CHIs), with the hospital as the nodal center to address the above mentioned issues

Model Reduction in Flexible-Aircraft Dynamics with Large Rigid-Body Motion

This paper investigates the model reduction, using balanced realizations, of the unsteady aerodynamics of maneuvering flexible aircraft. The aeroelastic response of the vehicle, which may be subject to large wing deformations at trimmed flight, is captured by coupling a displacement-based, flexible-body dynamics formulation with an aerodynamic model based on the unsteady vortex lattice method. Consistent linearization of the aeroelastic problem allows the projection of the structural degrees of freedom on a few vibration modes of the unconstrained vehicle, but preserves all couplings between the rigid and elastic motions and permits the vehicle fiight dynamics to have arbitrarily-large angular velocities. The high-order aerodynamic system, which defines the mapping between the small number of generalized coordinates and unsteady aerodynamic loads, is then reduced using the balanced truncation method. Numerical studies on a representative high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft show a very substantial reduction in model size, by up to three orders of magnitude, that leads to model orders (and computational cost) similar to those in conventional frequency-based methods but with higher modeling fidelity to compute maneuver loads. Closed-loop results for the Goland wing finally demonstrate the application of this approach in the synthesis of a robust flutter suppression controller. © 2013 by Henrik Hesse and Rafael Palacios