Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Techniques for Predicting Air Pollution

The modern and motorized way of life has cultured air pollution.  Air pollution has become the biggest rival of robust living. This situation is becoming more lethal in developing countries and so in Pakistan.  Hence, this inquiry was carried out to propose an architecture design that could make real-time prediction of air pollution with another purpose of scanning the frequently adopted algorithm in past investigations. In addition, it was also intended to narrate the toxic effects of air pollution on human health. So, this research was carried out on a large dataset of Seoul as an adequate dataset of Pakistan was not attainable. The dataset consisted of three years (2017-2019) including 647,512 instances and 11 attributes. The four distinctive algorithms termed Random Forest, Linear Regression, Decision Tree and XGBoosting were employed. It was inferred that XGB is more promising and feasible in predicting concentration level of NO2, O3, SO2, PM10, PM2.5 and CO with the lowest RMSE and MAE values of 0.0111, 0.0262, 0.0168, 49.64, 41.68 and 0.1856 and 0.0067, 0.0096, 0.0017, 12.28, 7.63 and 0.0982 respectively. Furthermore, it was found out as well that the Random Forest was preferred mostly in the previous studies related to air pollution prophecy while many probes supported that air pollution is very detrimental to human health especially long-lasting exposure causes lung cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases

Personal Identification Using Ear Recognition

 Biometric authentication for personal identification is very popular now a days. Human ear recognition system is a new technology in this field. The change of appearance with the expression was a major problem in face biometrics but in case of ear biometrics the shape and appearance is fixed. That is why it is advantageous to use it for personal identification. In this paper, we have proposed a new approach for an automated system for human ear identification. Our proposed method consists of three stages. In the first stage, preprocessing of ear image is done for its contrast enhancement and size normalization. In the second stage, features are extracted through Haar wavelets followed by ear identification using fast normalized cross correlation in the third stage. The proposed method is applied on USTB ear image database and IIT Delhi. Experimental results show that our proposed system achieves an average accuracy of 97.2% and 95.2% on these databases respectively

Lung Nodule Detection in CT Images using Neuro Fuzzy Classifier

Automated lung cancer detection using computer aided diagnosis (CAD) is an important area in clinical applications. As the manual nodule detection is very time consuming and costly so computerized systems can be helpful for this purpose. In this paper, we propose a computerized system for lung nodule detection in CT scan images. The automated system consists of two stages i.e. lung segmentation and enhancement, feature extraction and classification. The segmentation process will result in separating lung tissue from rest of the image, and only the lung tissues under examination are considered as candidate regions for detecting malignant nodules in lung portion. A feature vector for possible abnormal regions is calculated and regions are classified using neuro fuzzy classifier. It is a fully automatic system that does not require any manual intervention and experimental results show the validity of our system

Blood Vessel Enhancement and Segmentation for Screening of Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is an eye disease caused by the increase of insulin in blood and it is one of the main cuases of blindness in idusterlized countries. It is a progressive disease and needs an early detection and treatment. Vascular pattern of human retina helps the ophthalmologists in automated screening and diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy. In this article, we present a method for vascular pattern ehnacement and segmentation. We present an automated system which uses wavelets to enhance the vascular pattern and then it applies a piecewise threshold probing and adaptive thresholding for vessel localization and segmentation respectively. The method is evaluated and tested using publicly available retinal databases and we further compare our method with already proposed techniques.

Retinal Image Preprocessing: Background and Noise Segmentation

Medical imaging is very popular research area these days and includes computer aided diagnosis of different diseases by taking digital images as input. Digital retinal images are used for the screening and diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease. An automated system for the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy should highlight all signs of disease present in the image and in order to improve the accuracy of the system, the retinal image quality must be improved. In this article, we present a method to improve the quality of input retinal image and we consider this method as a preprocessing step in automated diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy. The preprocessing consists of background estimation and noise removal from retinal image by applying coarse and fine segmentation. We perform extensive results to check the validity of proposed preprocessing technique using standard fundus image database

Cryptanalytic attacks on Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman (RSA) cryptosystem: issues and challenges

RSA cryptosystem is an information security algorithm used for encrypting and decrypting of digital data in order to protect the content of the data and to ensure its privacy. Prior research studies have shown that RSA algorithm is very successful in protecting enterprises commercial services and systems as well as web servers and browsers to secure web traffic. In an email application, it's utilized to ensure the privacy and authenticity of email message. Some studies have also shown the efficiency of RSA algorithm in securing remote login sessions, and electronic credit-card payment systems. Generally RSA algorithm gain a security support because of it’s frequently use in most applications where security of digital data is mostly a concern. Its strength lies with its ability of withstanding many forms of attacks. While many studies focus on proving that RSA algorithm is breakable under certain cryptanalytic attacks, yet there are some confrontations on the circumstances of applying those attacks. This paper presents the issues and challenges on some key aspects of cryptanalytic attacks on RSA algorithm. The paper also explores the perceived vulnerabilities of implementing RSA algorithm which can render a cryptanalyst easier means of attack

Plasticiser-free 3D printed hydrophilic matrices: Quantitative 3D surface texture, mechanical, swelling, erosion, drug release and pharmacokinetic studies

Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, HPMC, a hydrophilic polymer, is widely used for the development of extended release hydrophilic matrices and it is also considered as a good contender for the fabrication of 3D printing of matrix tablets. It is often combined with plasticisers to enable extrusion. The aim of the current project was to develop plasticizer-free 3D printed hydrophilic matrices using drug loaded filaments prepared via HME to achieve an in vitro (swelling, erosion and drug release) and in vivo (drug absorption) performance which is analogous to hydrophilic matrix tablets developed through conventional approaches. Additionally, the morphology of the printed tablets was studied using quantitative 3D surface texture studies and the porosity calculated. Filaments were produced successfully and used to produce matrix tablets with acceptable drug loading (95–105%), mechanical and surface texture properties regardless of the employed HPMC grade. The viscosity of HPMC had a discernible impact on the swelling, erosion, HPMC dissolution, drug release and pharmacokinetic findings. The highest viscosity grade (K100M) results in higher degree of swelling, decreased HPMC dissolution, low matrix erosion, decreased drug release and extended drug absorption profile. Overall, this study demonstrated that the drug loaded (glipizide) filaments and matrix tablets of medium to high viscosity grades of HPMC, without the aid of plasticisers, can be successfully prepared. Furthermore, the in vitro and in vivo studies have revealed the successful fabrication of extended release matrices

Rendimento, estoque de carbono e dinâmica de preços das espécies de árvore agroflorestal no distrito de Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Paquistão

Abstract A socio-economic study was conducted in district Mardan of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of Pakistan to get a comprehensive knowledge of the agroforestry tree species grown on the farmlands, their yield, and carbon stock. For yield and carbon stock estimation, data were collected from 59 sample plots by measuring the diameter, height, volume, and biomass of selected agroforestry tree species through D-tape and Haga altimeter. A total of 59 sample plots were inventoried using 2.5 percent sampling intensity. Each sample plot has an area of 0.5 ha, where each tree with a Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) ≥ 5 cm was inventoried. The calculated amount of volume of each tree species was then converted to biomass by multiplying it by the density of wood and the Biomass Expansion Factor (BEF). Total yield and C stock for the selected agroforestry tree species were 11535.2 metric tons and 2102.2 metric tons, respectively. Populus euroamericana is classified as the main tree with 28% growing stock prior to Morus alba by 21%, while Melia azedarach, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Dalbergia sissoo, Acacia nilotica, Salix tetrasperma, and Bombax ceiba consist of 15%, 12%, 8%, 6%,7% and 3% growing stock respectively. Among the species found in different sampling plots the yield of Populus euroamericana was found to be 4747.5 metric tons and it was followed by the species Morus alba found at 2027.3 metric tons. Similarly, the volume for Melia azedarach, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Dalbergia sissoo, Salix spp, Boombox ceiba, and Acacia nilotica was 1532.2 tons,1503 ton,745.7,203.5ton, 555.4ton and 220.5ton, respectively. The carbon stock for Populus euroamericana was calculated as 777.8 ton/ha, while for Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Melia azedarach, Morus alba, Dalbergia sissoo, Acacia nilotica, Salix species, and Bombax ceiba it was calculated as 312.3ton/ha, 272.1ton/ha, 363ton/ha, 245.1ton/ha, 51.4ton/ha, 27.3ton/ha and 53.2ton/ha, respectively. The questionnaire survey conducted for price dynamics showed that the majority of respondents purchase timber from the market for construction. But they use farm trees with low-quality city construction. They dislike using local timber in the conventional building as timber from farm trees is liable to insect attack. Rs. 50,000-100000, (33.33%) of daily sales was concluded from 50% of the trader while (16.7%) of the traders have their sales between Rs.150,000-200,000. Therefore, it is concluded by the authors that both provincial and federal government should promote agroforestry in Pakistan through different incentives because it has the potential to cope with dilemma of deforestation of natural forests and improve the livelihood of local peoples. It is strongly recommended that special projects just like the Ten Billion Tree Afforestation Project (T-BTTP) should be launched for agroforestry plantation and promotion in the country to sustain the ecological harmony and uplift the socio-economic condition of the peoples of Pakistan

Are we doing enough? Evaluation of the Polio Eradication Initiative in a district of Pakistan's Punjab province: a LQAS study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was remarkable, but four countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria - never interrupted polio transmission. Pakistan reportedly achieved all milestones except interrupting virus transmission. The aim of the study was to establish valid and reliable estimate for: routine oral polio vaccine (OPV) coverage, logistics management and the quality of monitoring systems in health facilities, NIDs OPV coverage, the quality of NIDs service delivery in static centers and mobile teams, and to ultimately provide scientific evidence for tailoring future interventions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study using lot quality assessment sampling was conducted in the District Nankana Sahib of Pakistan's Punjab province. Twenty primary health centers and their catchment areas were selected randomly as <it>'lots'</it>. The study involved the evaluation of 1080 children aged 12-23 months for routine OPV coverage, 20 health centers for logistics management and quality of monitoring systems, 420 households for NIDs OPV coverage, 20 static centers and 20 mobile teams for quality of NIDs service delivery. Study instruments were designed according to WHO guidelines.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Five out of twenty lots were rejected for unacceptably low routine immunization coverage. The validity of coverage was questionable to extent that all lots were rejected. Among the 54.1% who were able to present immunization cards, only 74.0% had valid immunization. Routine coverage was significantly associated with card availability and socioeconomic factors. The main reasons for routine immunization failure were absence of a vaccinator and unawareness of need for immunization. Health workers (96.9%) were a major source of information. All of the 20 lots were rejected for poor compliance in logistics management and quality of monitoring systems. Mean compliance score and compliance percentage for logistics management were 5.4 ± 2.0 (scale 0-9) and 59.4% while those for quality of monitoring systems were 3.3 ± 1.2 (scale 0-6) and 54.2%. The 15 out of 20 lots were rejected for unacceptably low NIDs coverage by finger-mark. All of the 20 lots were rejected for poor NIDs service delivery (mean compliance score = 11.7 ± 2.1 [scale 0-16]; compliance percentage = 72.8%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Low coverage, both routine and during NIDs, and poor quality of logistics management, monitoring systems and NIDs service delivery were highlighted as major constraints in polio eradication and these should be considered in prioritizing future strategies.</p