Steady-State movement related potentials for brain–computer interfacing

An approach for brain-computer interfacing (BCI) by analysis of steady-state movement related potentials (ssMRPs) produced during rhythmic finger movements is proposed in this paper. The neurological background of ssMRPs is briefly reviewed. Averaged ssMRPs represent the development of a lateralized rhythmic potential, and the energy of the EEG signals at the finger tapping frequency can be used for single-trial ssMRP classification. The proposed ssMRP-based BCI approach is tested using the classic Fisher's linear discriminant classifier. Moreover, the influence of the current source density transform on the performance of BCI system is investigated. The averaged correct classification rates (CCRs) as well as averaged information transfer rates (ITRs) for different sliding time windows are reported. Reliable single-trial classification rates of 88%-100% accuracy are achievable at relatively high ITRs. Furthermore, we have been able to achieve CCRs of up to 93% in classification of the ssMRPs recorded during imagined rhythmic finger movements. The merit of this approach is in the application of rhythmic cues for BCI, the relatively simple recording setup, and straightforward computations that make the real-time implementations plausible

The Study of the Relationship between House Architecture and Crime: A Case Study in Shahre-Kord, Iran

The issue of crime prevention is one of the main human concerns throughout history. Different methods have been applied to reach this goal including social, penal and legal conditional prevention. Dwelling (at the micro-scale) which is considered as the physical dimension of living in the social environment is so important as the principal location for survival of human and society and in this study, we tried to identify and study the relationship between the architecture of house and crime by collecting library information such as study of books, and articles and available resources relevant to the topic. The statistical population of this research included all the criminals in the Shahre-kord province and the sample population were 135 criminals from 2012/06/04 to 2012/06/19 in police stations and all the military authorities in Shahre-kord province. The criminals filled the questionnaire and they were analyzed. The research method was survey and by using descriptive statistics, the correlation between two variables was investigated. The result of Gama Test about the architecture of dwelling and crime shows that the kind of dwelling architecture is different with regard to crime. From the statistical point of view, the relationship is significant (s=0/05). Thus, the hypothesis that there is a significant difference between architecture of people's dwelling with regard to crime was confirmed

The Caspian Sea Legal Regime, Pipeline Diplomacy, and the Prospects for Iran\u27s Isolation from the Oil and Gas Frenzy

The signing of the deal of the century in Bahu creating one of the first major Caspian energy consortiums between Azerbaijan and western oil companies signaled the beginning of a new era in world energy politics. The discovery of potentially huge oil and gas reserves in the newly-independent states of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan opened the door for western oil companies rushing to gain a competitive foothold in the new energy market. For Asia and the West this discovery provides a golden opportunity to ensure market stability through diversification of energy export routes. For the United States and its political allies, however, the Caspian region holds the key to the realization of a long-term strategic agenda. By establishing its presence in the region, Washington could: 1) weaken the influence of the Persian Gulf states and prevent the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) from monopolizing the production and distribution of world energy reserves; 2) create a controlled environment ensuring that the flow of petro-dollars will lead to political and economic reform in Central Asia and the Caucuses; and 3) undermine the historical dominance of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran not only in the Caspian Sea region but in Eurasia and Central Asia. The political and economic changes brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reemergence of the Caspian region as a focal point of geopolitical importance have broad implications for the new government in Tehran. On the one hand Iran clearly finds itself in a tough and unfamiliar neighborhood. It seems to have lost the game of political and cultural influence over the newly-independent states to Turkey, which claims common ethnic and linguistic bonds with its Turkic brethren in the east. It has failed to play the religious card effectively--both Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and even Shi\u27ite Azerbaijan have looked to secular Turkey as the model of governance and reform. On the economic front the discovery of vast reserves in the Caspian has done little to increase the prospects for Iran\u27s share of the world hydrocarbon market--relatively small oil and gas capacity has been found in the deep waters off Iran\u27s coastline. Finally, Washington has actively engaged in a political and economic campaign to isolate Iran by allying itself with Turkey and the newly-independent states and continues to discourage the establishment of economic relations with Tehran. In this regard the imposition of unilateral trade sanctions on Tehran, the most important of which seeks to disrupt the country\u27s economy by discouraging foreign involvement in the development of its oil and gas sector, have far-reaching legal implications for Iran\u27s involvement in the Caspian energy scene

The Study of the Relationship between House Architecture and Crime: A Case Study in Shahre-Kord, Iran

The issue of crime prevention is one of the main human concerns throughout history. Different methods have been applied to reach this goal including social, penal and legal conditional prevention. Dwelling (at the micro-scale) which is considered as the physical dimension of living in the social environment is so important as the principal location for survival of human and society and in this study, we tried to identify and study the relationship between the architecture of house and crime by collecting library information such as study of books, and articles and available resources relevant to the topic. The statistical population of this research included all the criminals in the Shahre-kord province and the sample population were 135 criminals from 2012/06/04 to 2012/06/19 in police stations and all the military authorities in Shahre-kord province. The criminals filled the questionnaire and they were analyzed. The research method was survey and by using descriptive statistics, the correlation between two variables was investigated. The result of Gama Test about the architecture of dwelling and crime shows that the kind of dwelling architecture is different with regard to crime. From the statistical point of view, the relationship is significant (s=0/05). Thus, the hypothesis that there is a significant difference between architecture of people's dwelling with regard to crime was confirmed

Enumerating Top-k Quasi-Cliques

Quasi-cliques are dense incomplete subgraphs of a graph that generalize the notion of cliques. Enumerating quasi-cliques from a graph is a robust way to detect densely connected structures with applications to bio-informatics and social network analysis. However, enumerating quasi-cliques in a graph is a challenging problem, even harder than the problem of enumerating cliques. We consider the enumeration of top-k degree-based quasi-cliques, and make the following contributions: (1) We show that even the problem of detecting if a given quasi-clique is maximal (i.e. not contained within another quasi-clique) is NP-hard (2) We present a novel heuristic algorithm KernelQC to enumerate the k largest quasi-cliques in a graph. Our method is based on identifying kernels of extremely dense subgraphs within a graph, following by growing subgraphs around these kernels, to arrive at quasi-cliques with the required densities (3) Experimental results show that our algorithm accurately enumerates quasi-cliques from a graph, is much faster than current state-of-the-art methods for quasi-clique enumeration (often more than three orders of magnitude faster), and can scale to larger graphs than current methods.Comment: 10 page

The Study of the Relationship between House Architecture and Crime: A Case Study in Shahre-Kord, Iran

The issue of crime prevention is one of the main human concerns throughout history. Different methods have been applied to reach this goal including social, penal and legal conditional prevention. Dwelling (at the micro-scale) which is considered as the physical dimension of living in the social environment is so important as the principal location for survival of human and society and in this study, we tried to identify and study the relationship between the architecture of house and crime by collecting library information such as study of books, and articles and available resources relevant to the topic. The statistical population of this research included all the criminals in the Shahre-kord province and the sample population were 135 criminals from 2012/06/04 to 2012/06/19 in police stations and all the military authorities in Shahre-kord province. The criminals filled the questionnaire and they were analyzed. The research method was survey and by using descriptive statistics, the correlation between two variables was investigated. The result of Gama Test about the architecture of dwelling and crime shows that the kind of dwelling architecture is different with regard to crime. From the statistical point of view, the relationship is significant (s=0/05). Thus, the hypothesis that there is a significant difference between architecture of people's dwelling with regard to crime was confirmed

The Comparative Analysis of the Scoring System Used in BREEAM International New Construction 2016 and the Recent Trends in Housing Sustainability-Related Literature

Paying attention to the sustainability of houses and any effort in this direction can be extremely important in achieving more sustainable societies. In this regard, sustainability assessment tools and more specifically the certificates that are used to evaluate the sustainability of urban houses can play major roles and, therefore, present points that need to be as efficient as possible. The study is an attempt at analyzing the efficiency of BREEAM (The British Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), as one of the most advanced and highest used certificates (in the world) in the housing sector, based on the results from a systematic literature review. To achieve this goal, the scoring system used in the BREEAM International New Construction 2016 is evaluated in order to see if the credits and weightings that are assigned to the assessment issues are aligned with the trends existing in the recent literature related to urban housing sustainability. The results of a previously published systematic review of 118 recent papers are used to extract the most important factors (and their importance degrees) affecting the sustainability of urban houses on a global scale. The analysis outcome shows significant differences in the prioritization of factors and the importance degree given to each factor between the BREEAM evaluation process and the literature review factors

Rotary displacement piezoelectric energy harvester

“This study proposes a novel piezoelectric energy harvester for rotary motion applications. It is based on an annular unimorph plate, mounted on a shaft rotating at a constant angular velocity, under constant amplitude point-wise force. The mathematical model and the analysis was proposed for the inverse problem of a rotating disk under a static stationary force. The disk, however, is assumed to be stationary subjected to a traveling force. The distributed parameter electromechanical equations governing the behavior of the system are provided in closed-form, incorporating both an AC and a simple rectifier circuit. The performance of the energy harvester was compared in both the AC and the rectifier circuits. Multi-modal voltage and vibration frequency responses of the energy harvester have been illustrated and discussed in detail. The performance of the modal coupling terms in both the mechanical and the electrical equations have been investigated. Based on the electromechanical coupling terms, a scheme for prevention of charge cancellation in non-axisymmetric vibration has been proposed. A multiple electrode pattern was used to overcome the charge cancellation. In addition, the prevention of charge cancellation was shown to require a knowledge of the vibratory modes of the system rather than the simple knowledge of the system\u27s dependence on the boundary conditions”--Abstract, page iv