Human Identification Based on Electrocardiogram and Palmprint

In this paper, a new approach in human identification is investigated. For this purpose, we fused ECG and Palm print biometrics to achieve a multimodal biometric system. In the proposed system for fusing biometrics, we used MFCC approach in order to extract features of ECG biometric and PCA to extract features of Palm print. The features undergo a KNN classification. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated against the standard MIT-BIH and POLYU databases. Moreover, in order to achieve more realistic and reliable results, we gathered Holter ECG recordings acquired from 50 male and female subjects in age between 18 and 54. The numerical results indicated that the algorithm achieved 94.7% of the detection rate.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v2i2.29

Comparing the Personality Types, Quality of Life and Coping Styles in Men Consuming Crack and Healthy Individuals

The current research aims to compare the personality types, quality of life and coping styles in men consuming crack and healthy individuals. The current study is a casual-comparative research with convenience sampling method. 100 individuals (50 crack consumers and 50 healthy individuals) were chosen from the individuals visiting 4 addiction treatment clinics and from the healthy individuals of different places in Tehran in 2013. Then both groups filled the NEO-five factor personality inventory (NEO), quality of life questionnaire (WHO), and Lazarus coping strategies (WOCQ). Regarding the research hypotheses the statistical method of MANOVA has been used for comparing each factor. Results showed that in terms of components of physical health, mental health, social relationship, and environmental health, a significant difference exists between the quality of life of men consuming crack and healthy people (α= 0.05). No significant difference exists in the components of direct coping between the emotion-focused coping style of men consuming crack and healthy individuals (α< 0.05, F= 3.141). But in components of distancing, self-control and escape-avoidance a significant difference exists (α= 0.05), and a significant difference exists between the problem-focused coping style of men consuming crack and healthy individuals except for the components of accepting responsibility, other components of social support, wise problem solving, and positive reappraisal (α= 0.05)

Comparing the Personality Types, Quality of Life and Coping Styles in Men Consuming Crack and Healthy Individuals

The current research aims to compare the personality types, quality of life and coping styles in men consuming crack and healthy individuals. The current study is a casual-comparative research with convenience sampling method. 100 individuals (50 crack consumers and 50 healthy individuals) were chosen from the individuals visiting 4 addiction treatment clinics and from the healthy individuals of different places in Tehran in 2013. Then both groups filled the NEO-five factor personality inventory (NEO), quality of life questionnaire (WHO), and Lazarus coping strategies (WOCQ). Regarding the research hypotheses the statistical method of MANOVA has been used for comparing each factor. Results showed that in terms of components of physical health, mental health, social relationship, and environmental health, a significant difference exists between the quality of life of men consuming crack and healthy people (α= 0.05). No significant difference exists in the components of direct coping between the emotion-focused coping style of men consuming crack and healthy individuals (α< 0.05, F= 3.141). But in components of distancing, self-control and escape-avoidance a significant difference exists (α= 0.05), and a significant difference exists between the problem-focused coping style of men consuming crack and healthy individuals except for the components of accepting responsibility, other components of social support, wise problem solving, and positive reappraisal (α= 0.05)

Purification and partial characterization of a coagulant serine protease from the venom of the Iranian snake Agkistrodon halys

Agkistrodon halys is one of several dangerous snake species in Iran. Among the most important signs and symptoms in patients envenomated by this snake is disseminated intravascular coagulation. A thrombin-like enzyme, called AH143, was isolated from Agkistrodon halys venom by gel filtration on a Sephadex G-50 column, ion-exchange chromatography on a DEAE-Sepharose and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a C18 column. In the final stage of purification, 0.82 mg of purified enzyme was obtained from 182.5 mg of venom. The purified enzyme showed a single protein band by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), under reducing conditions, and its molecular mass was found to be about 30 kDa. AH143 revealed clotting activity in human plasma, which was not inhibited by EDTA or heparin. This enzyme still demonstrated coagulation activity when exposed to variations in temperature and pH ranging, respectively, from 30 to 40°C and from 7.0 to 8.0. It also displayed proteolytic activities on synthetic substrate. The purified enzyme did not show any effect on casein. We concluded that the venom of the Iranian snake Agkistrodon halys contains about 0.45% single procoagulant protein which appears to be a thrombin-like enzyme

A combined network model for membrane fouling

Membrane fouling during particle filtration occurs through a variety of mechanisms, including internal pore clogging by contaminants, coverage of pore entrances, and deposition on the membrane surface. Each of these fouling mechanisms results in a decline in the observed flow rate over time, and the decrease in filtration efficiency can be characterized by a unique signature formed by plotting the volumetric flux, bQ , as a function of the total volume of fluid processed, bV . When membrane fouling takes place via any one of these mechanisms independently the bQ bV signature is always convex downwards for filtration under a constant transmembrane pressure. However, in many such filtration scenarios, the fouling mechanisms are inherently coupled and the resulting signature is more difficult to interpret. For instance, blocking of a pore entrance will be exacerbated by the internal clogging of a pore, while the deposition of a layer of contaminants is more likely once the pores have been covered by particulates. As a result, the experimentally observed bQ bV signature can vary dramatically from the canonical convex-downwards graph, revealing features that are not captured by existing continuum models. In a range of industrially relevant cases we observe a concave downwards bQ bV signature, indicative of a fouling rate that becomes more severe with time. We derive a network model for membrane fouling that accounts for the inter-relation between fouling mechanisms and demonstrate the impact on the bQ bV signature. Our formulation recovers the behaviour of existing models when the mechanisms are treated independently, but also elucidates the concave-downward bQ bV signature for multiple interactive fouling mechanisms. The resulting model enables post-experiment analysis to identify the dominant fouling modality at each stage, and is able to provide insight into selecting appropriate operating regimes

Individual identification via electrocardiogram analysis

Background: During last decade the use of ECG recordings in biometric recognition studies has increased. ECG characteristics made it suitable for subject identification: it is unique, present in all living individuals, and hard to forge. However, in spite of the great number of approaches found in literature, no agreement exists on the most appropriate methodology. This study aimed at providing a survey of the techniques used so far in ECG-based human identification. Specifically, a pattern recognition perspective is here proposed providing a unifying framework to appreciate previous studies and, hopefully, guide future research. Methods: We searched for papers on the subject from the earliest available date using relevant electronic databases (Medline, IEEEXplore, Scopus, and Web of Knowledge). The following terms were used in different combinations: electrocardiogram, ECG, human identification, biometric, authentication and individual variability. The electronic sources were last searched on 1st March 2015. In our selection we included published research on peer-reviewed journals, books chapters and conferences proceedings. The search was performed for English language documents. Results: 100 pertinent papers were found. Number of subjects involved in the journal studies ranges from 10 to 502, age from 16 to 86, male and female subjects are generally present. Number of analysed leads varies as well as the recording conditions. Identification performance differs widely as well as verification rate. Many studies refer to publicly available databases (Physionet ECG databases repository) while others rely on proprietary recordings making difficult them to compare. As a measure of overall accuracy we computed a weighted average of the identification rate and equal error rate in authentication scenarios. Identification rate resulted equal to 94.95 % while the equal error rate equal to 0.92 %. Conclusions: Biometric recognition is a mature field of research. Nevertheless, the use of physiological signals features, such as the ECG traits, needs further improvements. ECG features have the potential to be used in daily activities such as access control and patient handling as well as in wearable electronics applications. However, some barriers still limit its growth. Further analysis should be addressed on the use of single lead recordings and the study of features which are not dependent on the recording sites (e.g. fingers, hand palms). Moreover, it is expected that new techniques will be developed using fiducials and non-fiducial based features in order to catch the best of both approaches. ECG recognition in pathological subjects is also worth of additional investigations

Electronic Payment Systems Evaluation: A Case Study in Iran

As moving businesses from face-to-face trading, mail order and telephone order to electronic commerce over open networks such as the Internet, there be an exponentially growth in electronic payment transactions. Therefore, monitoring and evaluating the current electronic payment systems greatly affects the efficiency of money transactions, trades and, finally, the overall economy of the countries. In this paper, the Iranian e-payment systems are examined as a special case. The aim is to examine and evaluate the current epayment systems, and rank they based on the experts opinions. Considering the nature of the gathered data, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), as a decision-making method, is used to evaluate the data. The findings of this research are intended to be useful for both academic researchers and companies planning to adopt or to improve an electronic payment system