Marketing Plan for A High Performance XML Processing Technology

A venture founded by Dr. Robert D. Cameron endeavours to offer a software product, which optimizes the processing performance of the Extensible Markup Language (XML). The objective of this proposed research is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the market opportunities for this venture. This plan seeks to identify the optimal market niche, profile potential customers, analyse the decision/purchase process, gather market requirements, and provide demand estimation. Moreover, this analysis identifies suitable target segments and defines the appropriate product position to achieve differential advantage. The highlight of this plan is the exploitation of market opportunities, which enable rapid commercialization and provide substantial positive financial impact. These opportunities are attainable through a proactive approach to licensing technology, teaming-up with technology providers, and partnering with reputable local and regional technology suppliers to reduce competition, improve pricing, and reduce risks. This plan includes a competitor and business risk analysis to mitigate and reallocate risk

Delayed diagnosis of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome in an adult Chinese lady

We report a 32 year-old Chinese lady with history of tetralogy of Fallot, presented to us with chest pain due to hypocalcemia secondary to hypoparathyroidism. With her dysmorphic facial features and intellectual disability 22q11.2 deletion was suspected and confirmed by genetic study. Clinicians should consider the diagnosis of DiGeorge syndrome in adult patient with past medical history of congenital heart disease, facial dysmorphism, intellectual disability and primary hypoparathyroidism.published_or_final_versio

Frequency and accuracy of weight comments by others, and the association with weight misperception among Hong Kong adolescents

*Purpose:* To assess the frequency and accuracy of weight comments received from different sources among Chinese adolescents and the relation of weight comments to weight misperception.

*Methods:* In the Hong Kong Student Obesity Surveillance (HKSOS) project 2006-07, 22612 form 1 to 7 students (41.5% boys) completed a questionnaire on obesity. Students were asked if they had received serious "too fat" or "too thin" comments over the past 30 days from family members, peers and professionals, and the accuracy of the comments was assessed against the actual weight status. Weight misperception was defined as discordance between the actual and perceived weight status. Logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odd ratios (ORs) for weight misperception by weight comments received.

*Results:* One in three students received weight comments, most commonly from mother for both "too fat" and "too thin" comments. Health professional was the most accurate source of weight comments, yet less than half the comments were correct. Receiving incorrect weight comments was significantly associated with weight misperception in all sex-weight status sub-groups, particularly among obese girls. In contrast, student who received correct weight comments were less likely to have weight misperception.

*Conclusions:* Weight comments were commonly received by Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong, yet most of the comments were inaccurate, and such incorrect comments were associated with weight misperception. Family members, peers and professionals should realize the potential adverse effects of their weight comments and adolescents should be taught how to correctly assess their weight status to reduce misperceptions

Fuzzy rule based multiwavelet ECG signal denoising

Since different multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters have different impulse responses and frequency responses, different multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters should be selected and applied at different noise levels for signal denoising if signals are corrupted by additive white Gaussian noises. In this paper, some fuzzy rules are formulated for integrating different multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters together so that expert knowledge on employing different multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters at different noise levels on denoising performances is exploited. When an ECG signal is received, the noise level is first estimated. Then, based on the estimated noise level and our proposed fuzzy rules, different multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters are integrated together. A hard thresholding is applied on the multiwavelet coefficients. According to extensive numerical computer simulations, our proposed fuzzy rule based multiwavelet denoising algorithm outperforms traditional multiwavelet denoising algorithms by 30%

Control of chaos in nonlinear circuits and systems

Nonlinear circuits and systems, such as electronic circuits (Chapter 5), power converters (Chapter 6), human brains (Chapter 7), phase lock loops (Chapter 8), sigma delta modulators (Chapter 9), etc, are found almost everywhere. Understanding nonlinear behaviours as well as control of these circuits and systems are important for real practical engineering applications. Control theories for linear circuits and systems are well developed and almost complete. However, different nonlinear circuits and systems could exhibit very different behaviours. Hence, it is difficult to unify a general control theory for general nonlinear circuits and systems. Up to now, control theories for nonlinear circuits and systems are still very limited. The objective of this book is to review the state of the art chaos control methods for some common nonlinear circuits and systems, such as those listed in the above, and stimulate further research and development in chaos control for nonlinear circuits and systems. This book consists of three parts. The first part of the book consists of reviews on general chaos control methods. In particular, a time-delayed approach written by H. Huang and G. Feng is reviewed in Chapter 1. A master slave synchronization problem for chaotic Lur’e systems is considered. A delay independent and delay dependent synchronization criteria are derived based on the H performance. The design of the time delayed feedback controller can be accomplished by means of the feasibility of linear matrix inequalities. In Chapter 2, a fuzzy model based approach written by H.K. Lam and F.H.F. Leung is reviewed. The synchronization of chaotic systems subject to parameter uncertainties is considered. A chaotic system is first represented by the fuzzy model. A switching controller is then employed to synchronize the systems. The stability conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities are derived based on the Lyapunov stability theory. The tracking performance and parameter design of the controller are formulated as a generalized eigenvalue minimization problem which is solved numerically via some convex programming techniques. In Chapter 3, a sliding mode control approach written by Y. Feng and X. Yu is reviewed. Three kinds of sliding mode control methods, traditional sliding mode control, terminal sliding mode control and non-singular terminal sliding mode control, are employed for the control of a chaotic system to realize two different control objectives, namely to force the system states to converge to zero or to track desired trajectories. Observer based chaos synchronizations for chaotic systems with single nonlinearity and multi-nonlinearities are also presented. In Chapter 4, an optimal control approach written by C.Z. Wu, C.M. Liu, K.L. Teo and Q.X. Shao is reviewed. Systems with nonparametric regression with jump points are considered. The rough locations of all the possible jump points are identified using existing kernel methods. A smooth spline function is used to approximate each segment of the regression function. A time scaling transformation is derived so as to map the undecided jump points to fixed points. The approximation problem is formulated as an optimization problem and solved via existing optimization tools. The second part of the book consists of reviews on general chaos controls for continuous-time systems. In particular, chaos controls for Chua’s circuits written by L.A.B. Tôrres, L.A. Aguirre, R.M. Palhares and E.M.A.M. Mendes are discussed in Chapter 5. An inductorless Chua’s circuit realization is presented, as well as some practical issues, such as data analysis, mathematical modelling and dynamical characterization, are discussed. The tradeoff among the control objective, the control energy and the model complexity is derived. In Chapter 6, chaos controls for pulse width modulation current mode single phase H-bridge inverters written by B. Robert, M. Feki and H.H.C. Iu are discussed. A time delayed feedback controller is used in conjunction with the proportional controller in its simple form as well as in its extended form to stabilize the desired periodic orbit for larger values of the proportional controller gain. This method is very robust and easy to implement. In Chapter 7, chaos controls for epileptiform bursting in the brain written by M.W. Slutzky, P. Cvitanovic and D.J. Mogul are discussed. Chaos analysis and chaos control algorithms for manipulating the seizure like behaviour in a brain slice model are discussed. The techniques provide a nonlinear control pathway for terminating or potentially preventing epileptic seizures in the whole brain. The third part of the book consists of reviews on general chaos controls for discrete-time systems. In particular, chaos controls for phase lock loops written by A.M. Harb and B.A. Harb are discussed in Chapter 8. A nonlinear controller based on the theory of backstepping is designed so that the phase lock loops will not be out of lock. Also, the phase lock loops will not exhibit Hopf bifurcation and chaotic behaviours. In Chapter 9, chaos controls for sigma delta modulators written by B.W.K. Ling, C.Y.F. Ho and J.D. Reiss are discussed. A fuzzy impulsive control approach is employed for the control of the sigma delta modulators. The local stability criterion and the condition for the occurrence of limit cycle behaviours are derived. Based on the derived conditions, a fuzzy impulsive control law is formulated so that the occurrence of the limit cycle behaviours, the effect of the audio clicks and the distance between the state vectors and an invariant set are minimized supposing that the invariant set is nonempty. The state vectors can be bounded within any arbitrary nonempty region no matter what the input step size, the initial condition and the filter parameters are. The editors are much indebted to the editor of the World Scientific Series on Nonlinear Science, Prof. Leon Chua, and to Senior Editor Miss Lakshmi Narayan for their help and congenial processing of the edition

Managing inter-agency co-ordination : an analysis of district level administration in Hong Kong

published_or_final_versionPolitics and Public AdministrationMasterMaster of Public Administratio

Properties of an invariant set of weights of perceptrons

In this paper, the dynamics of weights of perceptrons are investigated based on the perceptron training algorithm. In particular, the condition that the system map is not injective is derived. Based on the derived condition, an invariant set that results to a bijective invariant map is characterized. Also, it is shown that some weights outside the invariant set will be moved to the invariant set. Hence, the invariant set is attracting. Computer numerical simulation results on various perceptrons with exhibiting various behaviors, such as fixed point behaviors, limit cycle behaviors and chaotic behaviors, are illustrated

HPV Knowledge, Attitudes, and Vaccination Among Hispanic/Latino College Students in the USA

This study evaluated Human Papillomavirus-related knowledge and attitudes, vaccination practices, and explored associated factors among Hispanic/Latino college students in the United States of America. Using a self-administered survey, a descriptive, cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted in 2018 at colleges and universities in the United States of America. Our results indicate that Hispanic/Latino college students had a low level of HPV-related knowledge, a moderately positive attitude, and a moderate rate of HPV vaccination. Students who were in a health-related major, married/divorced, and had health insurance had greater knowledge and more positive attitudes towards HPV and its vaccines. This study is important due to the disproportionate high rate of HPV associated cervical cancers among Hispanic/Latinos when compared to other races and ethnicities. Our findings will inform the development of innovative intervention to promote HPV vaccination uptake across educational institutions

Global convergence and limit cycle behavior of weights of perceptron

In this paper, it is found that the weights of a perceptron are bounded for all initial weights if there exists a nonempty set of initial weights that the weights of the perceptron are bounded. Hence, the boundedness condition of the weights of the perceptron is independent of the initial weights. Also, a necessary and sufficient condition for the weights of the perceptron exhibiting a limit cycle behavior is derived. The range of the number of updates for the weights of the perceptron required to reach the limit cycle is estimated. Finally, it is suggested that the perceptron exhibiting the limit cycle behavior can be employed for solving a recognition problem when downsampled sets of bounded training feature vectors are linearly separable. Numerical computer simulation results show that the perceptron exhibiting the limit cycle behavior can achieve a better recognition performance compared to a multilayer perceptro