Design of coupled mace filters for optical pattern recognition using practical spatial light modulators

Spatial light modulators (SLMs) are being used in correlation-based optical pattern recognition systems to implement the Fourier domain filters. Currently available SLMs have certain limitations with respect to the realizability of these filters. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate the SLM constraints in the design of the filters. The design of a SLM-constrained minimum average correlation energy (SLM-MACE) filter using the simulated annealing-based optimization technique was investigated. The SLM-MACE filter was synthesized for three different types of constraints. The performance of the filter was evaluated in terms of its recognition (discrimination) capabilities using computer simulations. The correlation plane characteristics of the SLM-MACE filter were found to be reasonably good. The SLM-MACE filter yielded far better results than the analytical MACE filter implemented on practical SLMs using the constrained magnitude technique. Further, the filter performance was evaluated in the presence of noise in the input test images. This work demonstrated the need to include the SLM constraints in the filter design. Finally, a method is suggested to reduce the computation time required for the synthesis of the SLM-MACE filter

Spectrally Efficient Cooperative Relay Networks using Signal Space Diversity

Cooperative relaying has received widespread attention in recent years from both academic and industrial communities. It offers significant benefits in enabling connectivity as well as in increasing coverage, power saving, spatial diversity and channel capacity. However, one of the main limitations of the conventional cooperative relaying system is the repetition of the received data by the relays, which reduces the spectral efficiency and the data rate. In this thesis, signal space diversity (SSD) based technique is proposed to incorporate into the conventional relaying system to enhance spectral efficiency, data rate and system performance. Firstly, SSD is introduced into a two-way cooperative relaying system with three-phase two-way decode-and-forward (DF) protocol. In this system, four symbols are exchanged in three time slots, thereby doubling the spectral efficiency and the data rate compared to the conventional three-phase two-way DF relaying system that uses six time slots to exchange the same four symbols. Next, SSD is employed in a dual-hop relaying system using DF protocol without a direct link between the source and the destination. In this system, two symbols are transmitted in three time slots as compared to four time slots to transmit the same two symbols in the conventional dual-hop DF relaying system. These proposed systems are designed to exploit the inherent diversity in the modulation signal-space by rotating and expanding the ordinary constellation. The improvement in spectral efficiency is achieved without adding extra complexity, bandwidth or transmit power. A comprehensive analysis of these proposed systems is carried out over Rayleigh fading channels, and closed-form expressions for various performance metrics, including error probability, outage probability and channel capacity, are derived and illustrated. An asymptotic approximation for the error probability is obtained and is used to illustrate the impact of system parameters and diversity gain on the system performance. The optimization of relay location and power allocation in these systems is also examined. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations are performed to ascertain the accuracy of the analytical results presented in the thesis. Indeed, it is observed that the use of SSD in cooperative relaying can play a major role in the system design and performance improvement

Multispectral Palmprint Encoding and Recognition

Palmprints are emerging as a new entity in multi-modal biometrics for human identification and verification. Multispectral palmprint images captured in the visible and infrared spectrum not only contain the wrinkles and ridge structure of a palm, but also the underlying pattern of veins; making them a highly discriminating biometric identifier. In this paper, we propose a feature encoding scheme for robust and highly accurate representation and matching of multispectral palmprints. To facilitate compact storage of the feature, we design a binary hash table structure that allows for efficient matching in large databases. Comprehensive experiments for both identification and verification scenarios are performed on two public datasets -- one captured with a contact-based sensor (PolyU dataset), and the other with a contact-free sensor (CASIA dataset). Recognition results in various experimental setups show that the proposed method consistently outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods. Error rates achieved by our method (0.003% on PolyU and 0.2% on CASIA) are the lowest reported in literature on both dataset and clearly indicate the viability of palmprint as a reliable and promising biometric. All source codes are publicly available.Comment: Preliminary version of this manuscript was published in ICCV 2011. Z. Khan A. Mian and Y. Hu, "Contour Code: Robust and Efficient Multispectral Palmprint Encoding for Human Recognition", International Conference on Computer Vision, 2011. MATLAB Code available: https://sites.google.com/site/zohaibnet/Home/code

Impact of perceived quality of work life on job performance of teachers in Ampara district of Sri Lanka

Quality of work life is one of the most important factors for human motivating and improving of job performance. The objective of the study was to determine the impact of quality of work life on job performance of teachers in government schools in the Ampara District in Sri Lanka. 562 teachers in government schools in 7 zones in the Ampara District of Sri Lanka participated in this study. The questionnaire administered had 26 questions of Quality of Work life measuring 8 variables and 45 questions on Job Performance measuring 7 variables. Data analysis was done using SPSS 16.0. The Descriptive Statistics showed based on the responses of the respondents that the level of Quality of Work Life and Job Performance were moderate. The Mean value was 2.79 and 2.57 respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient and Multiple Regression were used to test the relationship between the variables. Overall, there was a significant and positive correlation between Quality of Work Life of teachers and their Job Performance with the Correlation Coefficient of 0.53. Regression analysis was done to test the level of impact of Quality of Work Life of teachers on their Job Performance. The results showed that quality of work life had a significant impact on job performance with the value of R2 0.581 (58.1%). .Managerial dimensions of quality of work life make a better predictor for job performance among teachers in government schools. There have been studies on the influence of motivation on job performance and on job satisfaction and job performance; however there is a lack of studies on the impact of Quality of Work Life on the job performance of teachers serving in government schools. This study seems to fill the gap. Future study is also suggested to be carried out to private schools, and other educational institutions. Meanwhile other dimensions of the quality of work life such as psychological dimension could be added to improve the model

Ethical Leadership and Employee Creative Performance: Discussing the mediating role of Employer Feedback Environment in Software Houses of Pakistan

Purpose: The basic purpose of this study was to explore employee creative performance, the contextual issues in the form of the leader’s style, and the feedback environment established by the leader in the Pakistani context. This study has presented a mechanism model for an understanding predictor of employee creative performance with the help of various theories. Methodology: Data was collected and analyzed from software houses registered in PSEB from 320 leader-employee dyads. Our research design was correlational. To reduce the common method biases, data was collected from two sources: leaders and their subordinates by sending the online questionnaire. To measure the uni-dimensionality and validity of construct EFA was performed through SPSS. Further, to assess the common method biases Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT) was used. SEM was used to compute, analyze, and prove relationships of proposed hypotheses and model fitness. CFA was used to confirm the theoretical measurement model, on AMOS 24 by using the rotated factor analysis. Finding: To sustain in this era of the competitive global business environment, organizations can stimulate employee creative performance by focusing on contextual and subjective variables. As per the findings, contextual factors like feedback environment associated with the leader regarding his style should be ethical, have a vital position in an organization for improving creative performance among employees. Specifically, the current study owns its justification and contribution to the literature and practical implications in various ways. Conclusion: The study indicates that the ethical style of leadership has a strong positive (+) association with the creative performance of employees as well as with the employer feedback environment. Also the employer feedback environment has partial mediation among ethical leadership and employee creative performance

Diversity of Brachyuran crabs in Gulf of Mannar (Southeast coast of India)

Coral reefs protect the coastline against waves and erosion and constitute one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the World. Coral reefs provide Subsistence, security and cultural utility to the inhabitants of coastal areas in all the tropical nations. Nevertheless, reef degradation is Widespread, due to their manifold uses and importance to the people or developing countries. Therefore the lnternational Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural resources (IUCN) considers maintenance of reef fisheries as a global priority. Collection of data about the coral reef resources is the most basic information in a coral reef ecological study. Management could be done only on the basis of such informatio

Nutritional value of Pleurotus (Flabellatus) Djamor (R-22) cultivated on sawdusts of different woods

The sawdust of different woods were investigat ed for the cultivation of exotic strain of Pleurotus (flabellatus) djamor (R-22) to find out the efficiency of different nutrients including protein, fat, crude fiber, ash, dry matter and moisture. Among all type of nutrients, protein, fat, cr ude fiber, ash, dry matter and moisture of Pleurotus ostreatus on sawdust of different woods were observed. Protein was observed on cont rol treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (21.89), (21.64), (21.34), (21.16), (21.03) and (20.75) % respectively. Fat was observed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mi xed sawdust, simbal and kail (0.80), (0.53), (0 .41), (0.33), (0.24) and (0.11)% respectively. Crude fiber was observed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (8.92), (8.45), (8.17), (7.96), (7.70) and (7.32) % respectively. Ash was observ ed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (7.65), (6.75), (6 .47), (6.39), (6.33) and (6.23%) respectively. Dry matter was observed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (6.47), (6.27), (6.13), (6.01), (5.87) and (5.67) % respectively. Moisture was observed on control treatment (c otton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (84.55), (81.20), (79.85), (76.26), (74.35) and (71.14) % respectively. Oyster mushroom showed relatively more contents on control treatment cotton waste as compared to other substrates. The maximum protein, fat, crude fiber, ash, dry matter and moisture contents in Pleurotus (flabellatus) djamor (R-22) was obtained on Kikar sawdust .The lowest contents was obtained on kail sawdust

Influence of lunar phases on fish landings by gillnetters and trawlers

Observations made on new moon, full moon and during both quarters revealed variations in total catch as well as individual species catch in gillnetters and trawlers. Gillnet catches of sardines and mackerels showed a gradual increasing trend from new moon to full moon and then a decline towards the new moon whereas, barracuda and tuna catches exhibited an increasing trend from full moon to new moon. The catches of seerfish and sailfish were high during full moon to new moon quarter and were nominal during full moon. In trawl catches, during the first half of new moon and full moon days, Fenneropenaeus indicus and Penaeus semisulcatus were caught in large numbers and Fenneropenaeus merguiensis dominated the later half. Metapenaeus monoceros and Penaeus monodon were caught in lesser quantitie

Early detection of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity and its prevention by carvedilol

Background: The objective was to detect doxorubicin (Dox) - induced myocardial injury at early stage by quantitative estimation of cardio specific protein, cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and to explore the cardioprotective effects of carvedilol.Methods: The study design was lab-based randomized controlled in-vivo in rabbits conducted from January to August 2012. Cardiotoxicity was produced by single intravenous injection of 12 mg/kg body weight (BW) of Dox in a group of rabbits, control group was treated with normal saline only and the rabbits of third group were pre-treated with carvedilol 30 mg/kg of BW for 10 days before injecting Dox.Results: Dox induced cardiotoxicity was depicted by markedly raised serum levels of cTnI, creatine kinase-MB, lactate dehydrogenase, and Grade 3 necrosis of the heart tissue in rabbits. The pre-treatment with carvedilol resulted in improved serum levels of these biomarkers and the histological picture of heart tissue.Conclusions: Quantitative serum estimation of cTnI detects the presence of cardiotoxicity much before cardiac dysfunctions can be revealed by any other diagnostic technique. It can lead to significant economic impact in the management of cancer patients because the troponin-negative subjects can be excluded from long-term cardiac monitoring programs that involve high costs imaging techniques. The outcome of Dox chemotherapy can be made successful with the concurrent use of carvedilol