An Intelligent Monitoring System of Vehicles on Highway Traffic

Vehicle speed monitoring and management of highways is the critical problem of the road in this modern age of growing technology and population. A poor management results in frequent traffic jam, traffic rules violation and fatal road accidents. Using traditional techniques of RADAR, LIDAR and LASAR to address this problem is time-consuming, expensive and tedious. This paper presents an efficient framework to produce a simple, cost efficient and intelligent system for vehicle speed monitoring. The proposed method uses an HD (High Definition) camera mounted on the road side either on a pole or on a traffic signal for recording video frames. On the basis of these frames, a vehicle can be tracked by using radius growing method, and its speed can be calculated by calculating vehicle mask and its displacement in consecutive frames. The method uses pattern recognition, digital image processing and mathematical techniques for vehicle detection, tracking and speed calculation. The validity of the proposed model is proved by testing it on different highways.Comment: 5 page

Social and Financial Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions in Pakistan

Financial efficiency and profitability of „for profit‟ institutions have been traditionally measured with the help of financial ratios [Hassan and Sanchez (2009)]. However, financial ratios are inappropriate to investigate the sources of inefficiency, estimate financial or social efficiency with multiple inputs and outputs, and to decompose the sources of efficiency or inefficiency into technical, technological and scale efficiencies or inefficiencies respectively [Hassan and Sanchez (2009)]. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are special institutions, which simultaneously consider their social role to uplift the marginalised community members along with their commercial objective to secure self-sustainability. In standard literature this phenomenon is coined MFIs as being „double bottom line” institutions. [Gutierrez-Nieto, Serrano-Cinca, and Mar Molinero (2007); Gutiérrez-Nieto, Serrano-Cinca, and Molinero (2007)]. This simultaneity differentiates MFIs from conventional financial institutions. The achievement of socioeconomic efficiency is indispensable for MFIs to operate independently and on a wider scale. Thus investigation of socioeconomic efficiency of MFIs is important for monitoring and optimal policy implications

On the Theoretical Analysis of the Plant Propagation Algorithms

Plant Propagation Algorithms (PPA) are powerful and flexible solvers for optimisation problems. They are nature-inspired heuristics which can be applied to any optimisation/search problem. There is a growing body of research, mainly experimental, on PPA in the literature. Little, however, has been done on the theoretical front. Given the prominence this algorithm is gaining in terms of performance on benchmark problems as well as practical ones, some theoretical insight into its convergence is needed. The current paper is aimed at fulfilling this by providing a sketch for a global convergence analysis

Zebrafish (<em>Danio rerio</em>) as a Model Organism

Animals as model organisms, the silent sentinels, stand watch over the environmental health of the world. These are non-human animal species which can be used to understand specific biological processes and to obtain informations which can provide an insight into working of other organisms. Among the model organisms, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) is one of the best leading models to study developmental biology, cancer, toxicology, drug discovery, and molecular genetics. In addition, the zebrafish is increasingly used as a genetic model organism for aquaculture species and in toxicogenomics and also to generate zebrafish disease models for application in human biomedicines. This tiny fish is a versatile model organism for many fields of research because of its easy maintenance, breeding, and transparent body during early development

APPLICATION OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION (HEI) IN OMAN: SHINAS COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY- A CASE STUDY

PURPOSE The objective of the study is to investigate into the quality of the systems, processes, and practices at ShinasCollege of Technology (ShCT) and to propose a plan for future improvements in relates to quality perspectives and to provide recommendations in various areas of operations on the lines of OAAA institutional accreditation standards. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH&nbsp; Samples include 50 students, 33 academics, and 16 management employees were selected, and the data was collected through a well-defined questionnaire. Students from the Department of Engineering, Business and Information Technology, were selected on a stratified random sampling basis whereas staff was selected on a simple random sampling basis. FINDINGS The survey reveals that the systems prevailing in ShCT and the practices are aligned with OAAA requirements except for staff promotion and incentives. The ADRI analysis and the study of SAR, QAR and QIP indicate thatShCT practices about Management, Staff, and Students are continuously assessed and well-defined. &nbsp; SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS The study considers TQM as the most important method for HEIs to achieve efficiency for providing better services and continuous improvements. The Quality is considered as the required power to implement the entire objective desired by the HEIs to attain the efficiency and get the HEIs accredited. ORIGINALITY/VALUE No study has attempted to find out the application of TQM in ShCT, Oman ever before considering the quality assurance in education and it is the first-hand study of its kind. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS The study was restricted to various areas of the operations of the college on three stakeholders namely management, staff and students only. The study could be extended to other areas as well as to other stakeholders so that a detailed insight could be obtained.&nbsp

Effect of stem cell and vitamin E for the reduction of liver fibrosis

Liver disease is seventh leading cause of death worldwide. In the past, liver transplantation was thought to be the only treatment for the last stage liver disease but currently stem cells therapy is an alternative method for the treatment of liver disease. So mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplantation is one of the best tool for treatment of liver disease. The aim of the current study was to investigate the combined effect of vitamin E (Vit E) and MSCs on liver fibrosis. Liver damage was induced in male albino mice intraperitoneally with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) twice a week for six weeks. Mice bone marrow derived MSC was cultured in vitro and then transplanted to CCl4 injured mice through their tail vain injection. Two weeks after MSCs transplantation, all group of mice were examined. The morphological result showed that the combined therapy of Vit E (orally) and MSCs transplantation have significant therapeutic effect on CCl4 injured mice as compared to Vit E and MSCs individually. Biochemical data also showed that serum ALT and bilirubin level were found to be significantly decreased by the combined treatment of Vit E and MSCs as compared to those mice which received MSCs and Vit E separately. MSCs and Vit E treated mice combined showed a significant decrease in liver weight, closely to normal. Reverse transcriptase PCR result also confirmed a significant anti fibrotic effect of Vit E combined with MSCs transplanted mice on liver fibrosis as showed by down-regulating apoptotic marker (Bax) expression and increasing the expression of antiapoptotic marker (Bcl-xl). Therefore Vit E along with MSCs have strong therapeutic potential on liver fibrosis in CCl4 injured mice

Profiles of Diabetic Ketoacidosis in Multiethnic Diabetic Population of Malaysia

Purpose: To outline first-time patient profiles of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in the absence of reported incidence and mortality rates of DKA in Malaysian diabetic population.Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was designed and all medical records of patients with a discharge note of DKA were reviewed. Admissions from January 2009 to December 2011 were included. Data were analyzed in terms of socio-demographic variables in order to provide incidence and mortality rates. Medical history, as well as physical and biochemical characteristics were analyzed to report epidemiology of DKA patients.Results: Out of a total of 207 admissions for DKA, 132 were selected for the present study. Female (62.9 %), Malay ethnic (47.0 %) and the elderly (45.1 years and above) contributed most to DKA episodes. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (51.1 %) patients were prone to develop DKA. Most patients experienced mild to moderate episode of DKA by the time they sought medical attention. Although, there was no significant relationship between chronic co-morbidity and occurrence of DKA, hypertension (54.5 %), dyslipidemia (43.0 %) and cardiac disorders (35.6 %) were, however, the most frequently observed co-morbidities. Non-adherence (43.2 %), sepsis (31.9 %) and respiratory tract infection (12.2 %) were the most encountered precipitating factors for DKA episode. Mortality rate was as high as 17.6 %.Conclusion: With a higher incidence and mortality rate of DKA in Malaysia, the patterns observed in this study seem to be different from those of developed nations. Further extended studies need to be undertaken to elaborate regional and national patterns of DKA.Keywords: Incidence, Mortality, Diabetic ketoacidosis, Diabetes, Hypertension, Cardiac disorders, Dyslipidemia, Comorbidit