A Novel Fuzzy Logic Based Adaptive Supertwisting Sliding Mode Control Algorithm for Dynamic Uncertain Systems

This paper presents a novel fuzzy logic based Adaptive Super-twisting Sliding Mode Controller for the control of dynamic uncertain systems. The proposed controller combines the advantages of Second order Sliding Mode Control, Fuzzy Logic Control and Adaptive Control. The reaching conditions, stability and robustness of the system with the proposed controller are guaranteed. In addition, the proposed controller is well suited for simple design and implementation. The effectiveness of the proposed controller over the first order Sliding Mode Fuzzy Logic controller is illustrated by Matlab based simulations performed on a DC-DC Buck converter. Based on this comparison, the proposed controller is shown to obtain the desired transient response without causing chattering and error under steady-state conditions. The proposed controller is able to give robust performance in terms of rejection to input voltage variations and load variations.Comment: 14 page

BRIDE VALUE: A FEMINIST READING OF BUCHI EMECHETA’S THE BRIDE PRICE

The Bride Price is one of the most influential modern novels authored by Buchi Emecheta through which the voice of a female character is expressed. The study has two points of discussion: the first deals with patriarchal society in which women suffer and become the only victims, and the second does with African culture from which Emecheta criticizes severely. Men have all the powers in controlling the whole family. The traditional society of Africa follows their culture as it is especially in paying the bride from the groom’s family. The paper aims at both men and women to keep this belief for the rest of their life no matter how modern the society has become. To some extent, the idea of “double colonization” proposed by Peterson and Rutherford (1986) will be identified in the paper and further explanation will be given. The paper also is an attempt to analyze the reflection of the African system related to marriage in the novel; as similar idea can be found in Iraqi Kurdistan that would be counted as the main objective behind writing the current paper. Furthermore, it shows some cultural similarities between both countries. By applying “double colonization” theory, the researcher confirms that Emecheta’s female characters suffer a traumatic experience in which they are controlled by two colonizers: the power of males and the reality of colonization. The researcher tries to send his messages through this paper out to avoid such conflicts and spread self and cultural awareness among the society

PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF THEMES IN TONI MORISON’S THE BLUEST EYE THROUGH INFERIORITY COMPLEX

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) is one of the controversial modern American novels. She is a Noble Prize winner whose works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism and colour issue in America. The story is written during 1941, the Great Depression in which a black family suffers from poverty, colour skin, and familial issues. Pecola Breedlove, as the protagonist, suffers from Inferiority Complex in a dysfunctional family whose desire is to have white skin and blue eyes.  The inferiority complex theory was taken from Alfred Adler, whose works are significantly backbone in the world of psychology. The aims of this research are to analyse the personality of Pecola through which she searches for an ideal beauty as a black female character in the novel and to demonstrate the impact of racist attitude and incestuous relationship within a family. The research result shows that Pecola’s lives provide an example of the pain which results from facing Inferiority Complex on which she never sees herself as a complete image of being. It is somewhat broken and lacks self-esteem through which she was seen as a mad woman in the attic

THE SENSE OF BELONGING: HYBRID OR REINVENTION? A STUDY OF K. S. MANIAM’S IN A FAR COUNTRY

The issue of race, identity, and multiculturalism are focal points in modern novels. K. S. Maniam, as an Indian-Malaysian as such, explains the same question again in his writings. There is a longing or rather a forlorn look at India as the Motherland of some of the Indians in Malaysia in the setting of K. S. Maniam’s stories. The novel does not provide a complete recovery of the original country; it is instead giving a deep insight into finding out a connection to the place one settles in. In a Far Country  is a typical example of the modern chaotic world through which Maniam sheds light on it. The research aims to analyse the redefinition of identity and determining race. It is also to explore the choices between a native and nonnative value in a foreign land. Under the analysis, Homi Bahbah’s theory of hybridity is chosen for the study of the novel. It is a significant and difficult step at the same time to reinvent one’s identity through a hybrid culture or rather to be called “reinvented” when the final solution fails and instead “reinvention” shapes a new identity

Best Practices for Talent Management: Critical Drivers for Organisational Success and Survival

In this global knowledge-based economy, talent management is found to be instrumental for contemporary organisations, and the success and survival of organisations are directly linked to the practices employed for talent management. Talent management is a process that ensures that organisations have the right number of people and the right kind of people at the right place capable of meeting current and future business priorities. Over the past years, talent management practices have been improperly handled thereby causing organisations to move from surfeits of talent to deficits, then to surfeits and back again. It is on this premise this article explores best practices for talent management that can serve as key drivers for organisational success and survival. It also throws some lights on the growing importance of talent management and factors affecting talent management practices. Managerial implications for Human Resource Practitioners are also included. Keywords: Talent Management, Human Capital, Effective Talent Management Practice, Organisational Success and Survival

Informed consent in personalized medicine

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013.Vita. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 27-30).The next era of medicine will be one of personalization, scientists and physicians promise. Personalized medicine is a refined clinical approach in which clinicians will utilize your genomic information to help you prevent disease, and tailor targeted therapies for you when you fall ill. This is the future science has slowly been approaching. However, the human genome is not enough, not unless we can decipher its language. One ambitious study to this effect is the Personal Genome Project, led by Dr. George Church at Harvard Medical School. This project will eventually recruit 100,000 volunteers to donate their genomes and a full body of information concerning their biological health. With this data, Church hopes others can cross-analyze these profiles and better determine the role in disease of each gene of the human genome. However, the Personal Genome Project is as much a study in the ethical, legal and social aspects of genomic studies as it is an effort toward personalized medicine. Church envisions a future where privacy cannot be guaranteed. Society is becoming more open and technology is more invasive than ever. Considering this, Church has informed his participants that their information will likely not remain anonymous. With their fully informed consent, he has in turn made all this data public, to promote open science. This ethical approach raises several important questions about expansive genomic studies. The scientific community will have to decide on an approach that will eventually deliver personalized medicine. On one end of the spectrum, there is Church's open approach, and the other, more security, more firewalls and more legislation. In order for personalized medicine to become a reality, society will have to prepare itself for our ever-changing ethical, technological and scientific landscape.by Abdul-Kareem H. Ahmed.S.M.in Science Writin

Interior Visual Intruders Detection Module Based on Multi-Connect Architecture MCA Associative Memory

ركزت معظم الدراسات الحديثة على استخدام التقنيات الذكية الحديثة مكانيًا ، مثل تلك التي تم تطويرها في وحدة اكتشاف الدخلاء (IDS). تم بناء هذه التقنيات اعتمادًا على وحدات حديثة قائمة على الذكاء الاصطناعي. هذه الوحدات تعمل مثل الدماغ البشري. وبالتالي ، كان ينبغي أن تكون لديهم القدرة على التعلم والتعرف على ما تعلموه. وجاءت أهمية تطوير مثل هذه الأنظمة بعد مطالب العملاء والمنشآت بالحفاظ على ممتلكاتهم وتجنب الإضرار بالمتطفلين. سيتم توفير ذلك من خلال وحدة ذكية تضمن الإنذار الصحيح. وبالتالي ، تم اقتراح وحدة كشف دخيل بصرية داخلية تعتمد على الذاكرة الترابطية متعددة التوصيلات (MCA). من خلال استخدام الذاكرة الترابطية MCA كإتجاه جديد ، تمر الوحدة المقترحة بمرحلتين: الأولى هي مرحلة التدريب (التي يتم تنفيذها مرة واحدة أثناء عملية تثبيت الوحدة) والثانية هي مرحلة التحليل. سيتم تطوير كلتا المرحلتين من خلال استخدام MCA ، كل حسب عمليتها. ستتم مرحلة التدريب خلال مرحلة التعلم في MCA ، بينما ستتم مرحلة التحليل من خلال مرحلة التقارب في MCA. يزيد استخدام MCA من كفاءة عملية التدريب للنظام المقترح باستخدام حد أدنى من صور التدريب لا يتجاوز 10 صور تدريبية من إجمالي عدد الإطارات بتنسيق JPG. تم تقييم الوحدة المقترحة باستخدام 11825 صورة تم استخلاصها من 11 مقطع فيديو تم اختباره. نتيجة لذلك ، يمكن للوحدة الكشف عن الدخيل بنسبة دقة تتراوح من 97٪ إلى 100٪. كان متوسط ​​وقت عملية التدريب لمقاطع الفيديو التدريبية في حدود 10.2 ثانية إلى 23.2 ثانية.Most recent studies have focused on using modern intelligent techniques spatially, such as those developed in the Intruder Detection Module (IDS). Such techniques have been built based on modern artificial intelligence-based modules. Those modules act like a human brain. Thus, they should have had the ability to learn and recognize what they had learned. The importance of developing such systems came after the requests of customers and establishments to preserve their properties and avoid intruders’ damage. This would be provided by an intelligent module that ensures the correct alarm. Thus, an interior visual intruder detection module depending on Multi-Connect Architecture Associative Memory (MCA) has been proposed. Via using the MCA associative memory as a new trend, the proposed module goes through two phases: the first is the training phase (which is executed once during the module installation process) and the second is the analysis phase. Both phases will be developed through the use of MCA, each according to its process. The training phase will take place through the learning phase of MCA, while the analysis phase will take place through the convergence phase of MCA. The use of MCA increases the efficiency of the training process for the proposed system by using a minimum number of training images that do not exceed 10 training images of the total number of frames in JPG format. The proposed module has been evaluated using 11,825 images that have been extracted from 11 tested videos. As a result, the module can detect the intruder with an accuracy ratio in the range of 97%–100%. The average training process time for the training videos was in the range of 10.2 s to 23.2 s

A COMPARISON OF TWO METHODS FOR REDUCING TEST-ANXIETY AND IMPROVING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

This study examined the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and study skills training (SST) in reducing test-anxiety and improving academic performance. Eighty one high test-anxious male students in the tenth grade were randomly assigned to three groups: CBT, SST and waiting-list control (WLC). CBT aimed to help participants become aware of the anxiety-producing self-statements they emitted both before and during exams, and to train them to develop positive self-statements that would facilitate task attending; whereas SST aimed to teach participants the skills necessary for effective learning, namely SQ3R method of studying, techniques of time management, note-taking methods, test preparation techniques and test-taking techniques. All participants receiving treatment met for a total of six 50-minute treatment sessions spanning over six weeks. The data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA and one way MANOVA. The results indicated that both treatment groups made significant improvements from pretest to posttest in test-anxiety when compared to the WLC group. However, only the CBT group was superior to the WLC group in improving academic performance. Overall, the results were interpreted as giving support to the interference model of the debilitating effect of anxiety on performance

Exploring the Heteromeric Interface of the 5-HT2A-mGlu2 Receptor Complex

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder characteristic of several neurotransmitters including dopamine, serotonin, and glutamate being in imbalance. Early therapies focused solely on dopamine antagonism and second-generation antipsychotics focused on the dopamine and serotonin systems and their respective G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) proteins. Although debate for dimerization of certain classes of GPCR exist, the establishment of an mGlu2-5-HT2A heterocomplex, which is implicated in schizophrenia is of interest. Previous studies have used a mutation-based approach to identify transmembrane domain 4 (TM4) as the domain responsible in mGlu2 for mediating heteromerization before narrowing down the individual amino acids responsible for the interface. A similar approach to consider which portion of 5-HT2A is responsible for the heterodimeric interface was used in this study. We confirm that wild type 5-HT2A and mGlu2 coimmunoprecipitate. Two 5-HT2A chimeric constructs involving full and partial N terminal half TM4 mutations were created using aligned residues of 5-HT2C (which is unable to dimerize with mGlu2). In addition to providing valuable insight into the structural arrangement of GPCR heteromers involving different families, these findings offer future direction for photo-crosslinking experiments aiming to identify individual amino acids within the 5-HT2A responsible for mediating the heteromeric interface of the mGlu2-5-HT2A complex