Standardized maximim D-optimal designs for enzyme kineticinhibition models

Locally optimal designs for nonlinear models require a single set of nominal values for the unknown parameters.An alternative is the maximin approach that allows the user to specify a range of values for each parameter ofinterest. However, the maximin approach is difficult because we first have to determine the locally optimal designfor each set of nominal values before maximin types of optimal designs can be found via a nested optimizationprocess. We show that particle swarm optimization (PSO) techniques can solve such complex optimizationproblems effectively. We demonstrate numerical results from PSO can help find, for the first time, formulae forstandardized maximin D-optimal designs for nonlinear model with 3 or 4 parameters on the compact andnonnegative design space. Additionally, we show locally and standardized maximin D-optimal designs for inhibitionmodels are not necessarily supported at a minimum number of points. To facilitate use of such designs, wecreate a web-based tool for practitioners to find tailor-made locally and standardized maximin optimal designs

Pilot test results of a video-based HIV intervention for Chinese college students in the United States

Background: No culturally relevant and appropriate HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) programs are available to Chinese college students in the United States. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a translated Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) intervention, Video Opportunities for Innovative Condom Education and Safer Sex (VOICES), to change condom use intention and self-efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers, and HIV/AIDS knowledge among Chinese students in a U.S. university. The VOICES program includes video viewing and a facilitated small-group discussion. Methods: A quasi-experimental design with single-group pretest-posttest was conducted in Chinese. Chinese students (N=67) from a local university were recruited to watch a 20-minute video with Chinese captions followed by a 25-minute small group discussion and condom feature education. The questions collected reports of demographic information, condom use, condom use in different situations in relation to self-efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers to using condoms, and knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Results: McNemar’s test showed that students significantly increased their condom use intention between pretest and posttest (77.6% vs. 95.2%, McNemar P=0.002). Significant posttest increases in self-efficacy (P\u3c0.0001), perceived benefits (P=0.008), and HIV/AIDS knowledge (P\u3c0.0001) were also observed using paired t-tests. Students demonstrated significantly lower posttest perceived barrier scores. Conclusions: The use of a translated VOICES for Chinese students suggests increased empowerment and knowledge about condom use and HIV/AIDS. Universities with Chinese students may consider incorporating this intervention during orientation. The transtheoretical model (TTM) has implications for designing HIV programs

Cryptanalysis of a chaotic block cipher with external key and its improved version

Recently, Pareek et al. proposed a symmetric key block cipher using multiple one-dimensional chaotic maps. This paper reports some new findings on the security problems of this kind of chaotic cipher: 1) a number of weak keys exists; 2) some important intermediate data of the cipher are not sufficiently random; 3) the whole secret key can be broken by a known-plaintext attack with only 120 consecutive known plain-bytes in one known plaintext. In addition, it is pointed out that an improved version of the chaotic cipher proposed by Wei et al. still suffers from all the same security defects.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, formatted with elsart.cl

Beyond the Innovation: An Exploratory Study of Designing Web-based Self-services

AbstractCustomized web-based self-services play an important role in today's product/service innovation. Compared to traditional tangible services, helpful web-based self-services and off-line services may better facilitate creativity, accelerate value co-creation, and reduce the costs and risks of development and commercialization. Therefore, in order to offer a conceptual framework for a web-based self-service system that enhances the fuzzy-front end (FFE) of new product/service development, this study analyzed the needs and challenges found during the transition of the Dechnology (Design Thinking plus Technology Innovation) project at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the largest R&D organization in Taiwan. Through literature review, in-depth interviews, and participatory action research, we formalized five core system modules, including: 1) user behavior and lifestyle, 2) thematic trend analysis, 3) technology screening and translation, 4) idea visualization, and 5) O2O service connection, with corresponding design principles for supporting user creativity in a web-based self-services environment. Finally, this study proposes a conceptual framework integrated with service design to serve as an important reference for enterprises that undergo similar innovation projects in the future

Implementation of Data Synchronization Mechanism in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

There are more and more applications and services of Cloud technology. Whether the government, enterprises or organizations, even everyone may have requirements of constructing cloud systems. To build the virtual cloud infrastructure VMware vSphere which is the leader of the information industry on virtual platforms can let users use Virtual Desktop Infrastructure by their mobile device. This study integrated some management programs such as Activity Directory, VMware vCenter, View connection server, VMware vSphere and used the shared storage system of FreeNAS to provide the cloud virtual environment to users. With the simple interface to manage, it successfully provides administrators to build Virtual Desktop Infrastructure faster. Users can use their own device to control the virtual desktop in a mobile classroom by VMware Horizon View or browser. Users can also use a shared storage system to be the information exchange platform. If you can connect to the Internet, you can use your own virtual desktop anywhere. Finally, the complete construction implements the combination of several operating systems and improves their performance to save lots of hardware cost. It also meets the social focus of carbon reduction and environment protection to achieve sustainable use

Temperature Swing Adsorption Process for CO2 Capture Using Polyaniline Solid Sorbent

AbstractTo capture carbon dioxide from power plant flue gas which consists of 15% CO2 and 85% N2, with a temperature swing adsorption (TSA) by using polyaniline solid sorbent as the adsorbent, is explored experimentally and theoretically. First, single component adsorption equilibrium data of carbon dioxide on polyaniline solid sorbent is obtained by using Micro-Balance Thermo D-200. Then isotherm curves and the parameters are obtained by numerical method. The adsorption is expressed by the Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm. After accomplishment of isotherm curves, the breakthrough curve experiment is investigated with single adsorption column. The experiments test the change in adsorbed gas concentration at the outlet by adsorbed gas, CO2, and non-adsorbed gas, helium. Finally, this study accentuates the TSA experiments on CO2 purity and recovery by operation variable discussion which includes feed pressure, adsorption temperature and desorption temperature to find optimal operation condition. The results of optimal operation condition are CO2 purity of 47.65% with a 92.46% recovery