Desire For Information Research Articles

Denoising of surface electromyogram based on complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition and improved interval thresholding.

Surface electromyogram (sEMG) signals are physiological signals that are widely applied in certain fields. However, sEMG signals are frequently corrupted by noise, which can lead to catastrophic consequences. A novel scheme based on complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD), improved interval thresholding (IT), and component correlation analysis is developed in this study to reduce noise contamination. To solve the problem of losing desired information from sEMG, an sEMG signal is first decomposed using CEEMD to obtain intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Subsequently, IMFs are selected via component correlation analysis, which is a measure used to select relevant modes. Thus, each selected IMF is modified through improved IT. Finally, the sEMG signal is reconstructed using the processed and residual IMFs. Root-mean-square error (RMSE) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are introduced as evaluation criteria for the sEMG signal from the standard database. With SNR varying from 1 dB to 25 dB, the proposed method increases SNR by at least 1 dB and reduces RMSE compared with stationary wavelet transform and other denoising algorithms based on empirical mode decomposition. Moreover, the proposed method is applied to hand motion recognition. Results show that the rate of the denoised sEMG signal is higher than that of the raw sEMG signal.

K-Space Aware Multi-Static Millimeter-Wave Imaging.

This paper focuses on an ef?cient approach of designing multi-static arrays for millimeter-wave imaging, based on the k-space or Fourier-spatial domain characteristic of imaging systems. Our goal is to decrease the redundancy of the data measured by each antenna, and to improve the resolution of the reconstructed image. The proposed technique is based on determining the role of each transmitter and receiver, in collecting the data from each voxel of the target in k-space domain and then rotating transmitters' beams to measure the desirable information. The effect of non-uniform redundant k-space domain frequency samples that act as an undesirable ?lter, is compensated using a modi?ed SAR back-projection algorithm. Experimental and simulation results are presented and compared with that of a sparse multi-static array with the same number of transmitters and receivers. Our simulations and measurements show signi?cant improvement in terms of overall quality and edge preservation in the reconstructed images. Also, the obtained results demonstrate that using the proposed structure and algorithm, the average improvement in peak-signalto-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM) and digital image correlation (DIC) metrics of 3.03 dB, 0.22 and 0.173, are achieved, respectively.

Developing and Pretesting a Survey About Immigrant Women’s Experiences With Postpartum Depression Screening

ObjectiveTo develop a survey about immigrant women’s experiences with and reasons for seeking postpartum depression (PPD) screening, to assess content validity of the survey, and to evaluate the cultural and linguistic appropriateness and acceptability for immigrant women of the survey. DesignGuided by the Theory of Care-Seeking Behavior, this three-phase descriptive study involved survey development, pretesting, and revisions. SettingA Midwestern university town. ParticipantsA total of 9 experts rated content validity, and 12 participants who were Chinese immigrant women provided feedback on the survey. MethodsExperts rated items on relevance. Participants provided feedback through cognitive interviews. We revised items on the basis of experts’ ratings and participants’ feedback. ResultsThe average content validity index score for items was .88. Participants suggested the following improvements: editing items for use of more common terms, reducing the number and length of items, revising the flow of the survey, reformatting some questions, and clarifying items to yield desired information. Participants’ spontaneous comments affirmed the importance of studying PPD among immigrant women. ConclusionFindings about validity, acceptability, and cultural and linguistic appropriateness informed our revisions of a new survey about immigrant women’s experiences with and reasons for seeking or not seeking PPD screening.

EFFECT OF FINANCIAL RATIO ANALYSIS ON PROFIT GROWTH IN THE FUTURE(IN MINING COMPANIES REGISTERED ON THE INDONESIA STOCK EXCHANGE FOR THE 2013-2015 PERIOD)

Profit is the most desirable company information in financial markets,one way to predict the company's earnings are using financial ratios.In this research used five financial ratios to predict profit growth in the mining company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI).The sampling technique used purposive sampling, this research uses 15 sample companies. The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of financial ratio analysis (Quick Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, Total Asset Turnover, Inventory Turnover) partially and simultaneously influence on earnings growth.Results from this study showed that partially QR has a significant influence on earnings growth,DR does not have a significant effect on earnings growth, DER has a significant influence on earnings growth,TATO not have a significant effect on earnings growth, ITO has a significant effect on earnings growth. Simultaneously Quick Ratio, Debt to Total Assets Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, Total Asset Turnover, Inventory Turnover effect on profit growth. Keyword: Quick Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, Total Asset Turnover, Inventory Turnover, Profit Growth.

NeuroMuscleDB: a Database of Genes Associated with Muscle Development, Neuromuscular Diseases, Ageing, and Neurodegeneration

Skeletal muscle is a highly complex, heterogeneous tissue that serves a multitude of biological functions in living organisms. With the advent of methods, such as microarrays, transcriptome analysis, and proteomics, studies have been performed at the genome level to gain insight of changes in the expression profiles of genes during different stages of muscle development and of associated diseases. In the present study, a database was conceived for the straightforward retrieval of information on genes involved in skeletal muscle formation, neuromuscular diseases (NMDs), ageing, and neurodegenerative disorders (NDs). The resulting database named NeuroMuscleDB ( http://yu-mbl-muscledb.com/NeuroMuscleDB ) is the result of a wide literature survey, database searches, and data curation. NeuroMuscleDB contains information of genes in Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, and Bos Taurus, and their promoter sequences and specified roles at different stages of muscle development and in associated myopathies. The database contains information on ~1102 genes, 6030 mRNAs, and 5687 proteins, and embedded analytical tools that can be used to perform tasks related to gene sequence usage. The authors believe NeuroMuscleDB provides a platform for obtaining desired information on genes related to myogenesis and their associations with various diseases (NMDs, ageing, and NDs). NeuroMuscleDB is freely available on the web at http://yu-mbl-muscledb.com/NeuroMuscleDB and supports all major browsers.

Two-layer distributed hybrid affine formation control of networked Euler–Lagrange systems

This paper tackles a distributed hybrid affine formation control (HAFC) problem for Euler–Lagrange multi-agent systems with modelling uncertainties using full-state feedback in both time-varying and constant formation cases. First, a novel two-layer framework is adopted to define the HAFC problem. Using the property of the affine transformation, we present the sufficient and necessary conditions of achieving the affine localizability. Because only parts of the leaders and followers can access to the desired formation information and states of the dynamic leaders, respectively, we design a distributed finite-time sliding-mode estimator to acquire the desired position, velocity, and acceleration of each agent. In the sequel, combined with the integral barrier Lyapunov functions, we propose a distributed formation control law for each leader in the first layer and a distributed affine formation control protocol for each follower in the second layer respectively with bounded velocities for all agents, meanwhile the adaptive neural networks are applied to compensate the model uncertainties. The uniform ultimate boundedness of all the tracking errors can be guaranteed by Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, corresponding simulations are carried out to verify the theoretical results and demonstrate that with the proposed control approach the agents can accurately and continuously track the given references.

The complete mitochondrial genome of an important root crop cassava (Manihot esculenta)

Manihot esculenta (M. esculenta) is the most important root crop in the world, which has high potential carbohydrate production and adaptability to diverse environments. In this study, we assembled the complete mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequence of M. esculenta into a circular genome of length 682,840 bp, comprising of 32 protein-coding genes, 17 tRNA genes, and three rRNA genes. A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree was constructed based on 25 plant species and 23 conserved protein-coding genes, suggesting that M. esculenta is evolutionarily close to the Salicaceae plants (Populus tremula and Salix suchowensis) in the same Malpighiales order. The complete mt genome of M. esculenta will provide more desirable information for better understanding the genomic breeding of cassava.

Full State Tracking and Formation Control for Under-Actuated VTOL UAVs

In this paper, a coupled-attitude based trajectory tracking scheme is proposed to track both the position and attitude of under-actuated unmanned aerial vehicles, and its application on formation control is further demonstrated. An intermediate attitude which is composed of the desired attitude and position information is designed in a two-stage framework, wherein the first stage is the controller design of a translational subsystem and the second stage is that of an attitude subsystem. By virtue of the intermediate attitude, trajectory tracking which includes both attitude and position is realized. The proposed intermediate attitude can be viewed as a bridge connecting the position and attitude motion, and it is a new approach for both single and multiple under-actuated rigid bodies’ control. Based on the approach of coupled-attitude-based trajectory tracking, both the set point stabilization and formation tracking tasks for under-actuated vertical takeoff and landing vehicles over a directed acyclic graph can be achieved. The performances of the proposed control laws are illustrated through numerical simulations.

UNCERTAINTY AND BIAS IN EXTREME VALUE ANALYSIS OF RECORDS OF STORM SURGES FOR COASTAL PROTECTION PLANS

There are several arguments to be discussed for the probability of hazards due to the storm surge. One is a common point of describing the uncertainty of extreme events, and another point is for the special case due to the storm surge. 1) Return level is one of the important results by extreme value analysis, and the confidence interval also serves us an useful and desirable information for uncertainty. Is it true? The answer is negative. Return period is right, and important. But the confidence interval, in this case, is shown for return level which is the constant value that is significant after the repeating encounters of the exceedance levels over very long period. But it is of our interest to know which value is the successively occurring level in the future return period, which is a stochastic variable. It is not a constant value but unknown even for the God. The prediction interval should be employed for the next realized value of our interest.

Non-parametric spectral estimation techniques for DNA sequence analysis and exon region prediction

Bioinformatics is the analysis of biological information using computers and statistical techniques. This paper presents non-parametric spectral estimation techniques based on the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) for the analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences. These techniques are efficient frequency-domain signal representation techniques, which improve the analysis of DNA sequences and enable the extraction of some desirable information that cannot be extracted from the time-domain representation of these sequences. The adopted techniques are the periodogram, average periodogram (Bartlett), modified average periodogram (Welch), and Blackman and Tukey spectral estimation techniques. The objective of these spectral estimation techniques is to investigate the locations of exons in DNA sequences for gene prediction. A comparison study is presented in this paper between the suggested spectral estimation techniques from the exon prediction perspective. The methods presented in this paper improve the detectability of peaks representing exon regions.

An approach to information security culture change combining ADKAR and the ISCA questionnaire to aid transition to the desired culture

PurposeEmployee behaviour is a continuous concern owing to the number of information security incidents resulting from employee behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to information security culture change management (ISCCM) that integrates existing change management approaches, such as the ADKAR model of Prosci, and the Information Security Culture Assessment (ISCA) diagnostic instrument (questionnaire), to aid in addressing the risk of employee behaviour that could compromise information security.Design/methodology/approachThe ISCCM approach is constructed based on literature and the inclusion of the ISCA diagnostic instrument. The ISCA diagnostic instrument statements are also presented in this paper. The ISCCM approach using ISCA is illustrated using data from an empirical study.FindingsThe ISCCM approach was found to be useful in defining change management interventions for organisations using the data of the ISCA survey. Employees’ perception and acceptance of change to ensure information security and the effectiveness of the information security training initiatives improved significantly from the as-is survey to the follow-up survey.Research limitations/implicationsThe research illustrates the ISCCM approach and shows how it should be combined with the ISCA diagnostic instrument. Future research will focus on including a qualitative assessment of information security culture to complement the empirical data.Practical implicationsOrganisations do not have to rely on or adapt organisational development approaches to change their information security culture – they can use the proposed ISCCM approach, which has been customised from information security and change management approaches, together with the presented ISCA questionnaire, to address information security culture change purposefully.Originality/valueThe proposed ISCCM approach can be applied to complement existing information security management approaches through a holistic and structured approach that combines the ADKAR model, Prosci’s approach of change management and the ISCA diagnostic instrument. It will enable organisations to focus on transitioning to a positive or desired information security culture that mitigates the risk of the human element in the protection of information.

Coordinated trajectory tracking of multiple vertical take-off and landing UAVs

This paper investigates the coordinated trajectory tracking problem of multiple vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The case of unidirectional information flow is considered and the objective is to drive all the follower VTOL UAVs to accurately track a desired trajectory associated with a leader. Firstly, a novel distributed estimator is developed for each VTOL UAV to obtain the leader’s desired information asymptotically. With the outputs of the estimators, the solution to the coordinated trajectory tracking problem of multiple VTOL UAVs is transformed to individually solving the tracking problem of each VTOL UAV. Due to the under-actuated nature of the VTOL UAV, a hierarchical framework is introduced for each VTOL UAV such that a command force and an applied torque are exploited in sequence, then the position tracking to the estimated desired position and the attitude tracking to the command attitude are achieved. Moreover, an auxiliary system with proper parameters is implemented to guarantee the singularity-free command attitude extraction and to obviate the use of the unavailable desired information. The stability analysis and simulations effectively validate the achievement of the coordinated trajectory tracking of multiple VTOL UAVs with the proposed control approach.

Power generation from a pH-regulated nanochannel through reverse electrodialysis: Effects of nanochannel shape and non-uniform H+ distribution

The power generated from the Gibbs free energy of mixing through reverse electrodialysis (RED) is a promising renewable energy of great potential. In this study the performance of a nanochannel having a pH-regulated surface in RED is examined, focusing on the influence of the bulk salt concentration, the distribution of H+, and the nanochannel size and its shape. Taking account of the effect of osmotic flow, we consider three types of nanochannel: bullet-shaped, conical, and trumpet-shaped nanochannels. Because the smaller the nanochannel space the more significant the degree of electric double layer overlapping the trumpet-shaped nanochannel has the best ion selectivity. As the ratio of (nanochannel length/curvature radius) varies the maximum power generated from a bullet-shaped nanochannel has a local maximum. This can be explained by the associated diffusion potential and the electric current passing through it. The results gathered provide desirable and necessary information for designing RED devices. In particular, the maximum power generation can be achieved by choosing appropriately the shape and the size of a nanochannel, and the bulk concentration ratio.

Visual Tracking and Depth Estimation of Mobile Robots Without Desired Velocity Information.

In this paper, a visual servoing approach is developed for the trajectory tracking control and depth estimation problem of a mobile robot without a priori knowledge about desired velocities. By exploiting the multiple images captured by the on-board camera, the current and desired poses (i.e., scaled translation and orientation) of the mobile robot are reconstructed to define system errors. Then, an adaptive time-varying controller is proposed to achieve the trajectory tracking task in the presence of nonholonomic constraint and unknown depth parameters. Most of previous works require the measurement of the desired velocity information to facilitate the controller design, leading to tedious offline computation. In this paper, to eliminate this requirement, the desired velocities are estimated in real-time based on a reduced order observer. Moreover, an augmented update law is designed to compensate for the unknown depth parameters and identify the inverse depth constant. The Lyapunov-based method is employed to prove that the proposed controller achieves asymptotic tracking, and the inverse depth estimate converges to its actual value provided that a persistent excitation condition is satisfied. Subsequently, a robust data-driven algorithm is introduced to ensure the convergence of the inverse depth estimate under a relaxed finite excitation condition. Simulation and experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Survey on content based image retrieval

Now-a-days, because of the advancement in the digital technology and the use of internet, a huge amount of digital data is available in the form of medical images, remote sensing, digital museums, geographical information, etc. This has lead to the need of accurate and efficient techniques for the search and retrieval of relevant images from such voluminous datasets. Content based image retrieval (CBIR) is one such approach which is increasingly being used to search and retrieve query image from the databases. CBIR combines features of color, texture as well as shape which ease out the process of extracting desired information from the retrieved images. This paper pre- sents a systematic and a detailed review of the CBIR method along with the different databases and evaluation parameters used for the analysis. An attempt has been made to include an exhaustive literature survey of the various CBIR approaches.

DESAIN MEDIA INFORMASI PT. PLN (PERSERO) DISTRIBUSI BANTEN

The times growing rapidly very possible, for information on access very easily and obtainable by anyone, anytime and anywhere. From this moment the information becomes very important, and with the information makes it easy for people to get the desired data and information is the message in the form of speech or a facial. Information or communication that is perfect it is that can be digested and accepted easily by the public clearly. The Foundation of the current communication tool delivering the message that we know with communication media. Its function is to simplify, accelerate, in conveying information, resulting in more efficient, effective, and concrete. Communication media lately is very useful for the company, because it can help performance and make an example of creativity in the fields of design, such as banners, billboards and banners which is currently enough demand in the workforce. Background problems that exist today in PT. PLN (Persero) distribution of Banten is a lack of media design information update should be therefore made some design information can be addressed to the public and consumers i.e., design the notice regarding the termination of temporary, Info maintenance, banners to commemorate the Christmas day and new year's, design maintenance Info, as users of electricity, electric bayarlah electric smart, timely, applications and mobile money info PLN. With the graphic design of PT. PLN (Persero) distribution of Banten, may be able to attract people's interest in listening or paying attention to the latest information given to PT. PLN (Persero) Distribution Of Banten.

Updating Beliefs under Perceived Threat.

Humans are better at integrating desirable information into their beliefs than undesirable information. This asymmetry poses an evolutionary puzzle, as it can lead to an underestimation of risk and thus failure to take precautionary action. Here, we suggest a mechanism that can speak to this conundrum. In particular, we show that the bias vanishes in response to perceived threat in the environment. We report that an improvement in participants' tendency to incorporate bad news into their beliefs is associated with physiological arousal in response to threat indexed by galvanic skin response and self-reported anxiety. This pattern of results was observed in a controlled laboratory setting (Experiment I), where perceived threat was manipulated, and in firefighters on duty (Experiment II), where it naturally varied. Such flexibility in how individuals integrate information may enhance the likelihood of responding to warnings with caution in environments rife with threat, while maintaining a positivity bias otherwise, a strategy that can increase well-being.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The human tendency to be overly optimistic has mystified scholars and lay people for decades: How could biased beliefs have been selected over unbiased beliefs? Scholars have suggested that although the optimism bias can lead to negative outcomes, including financial collapse and war, it can also facilitate health and productivity. Here, we demonstrate that a mechanism generating the optimism bias, namely asymmetric information integration, evaporates under threat. Such flexibility could result in enhanced caution in dangerous environments while supporting an optimism bias otherwise, potentially increasing well-being.

Estimating News Coverage Patterns using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)

The growing rate of unstructured textual data has made an open challenge for the knowledge discovery, which aims extracting desired information from large collection of data. This study presents a system to derive news coverage patterns with the help of probabilistic model – Latent Dirichlet Allocation. Pattern is an arrangement of words within collected data that more likely appear together in certain context. The news coverage patterns have been computed as number function of news articles comprising of such patterns. A prototype, as a proof, has been developed to estimate the news coverage patterns for a newspaper – The Dawn. Analyzing the news coverage patterns from different aspects has been carried out using multidimensional data model. Further, the extracted news coverage patterns are illustrated by visual graphs to yield in-depth understanding of the topics, which have been covered in the news. The results also assist in identification of schema related to newspaper and journalists’ articles.

Oscillator Phase Noise Suppression in Surface Acoustic Wave Sensor Systems

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors are widely used in different fields of application. In order to maximize the limit of detection of such sensor systems, it is of high importance to understand and to be able to quantify the relevant noise sources. A straightforward approach to detect the desired phase information of SAW sensors is to compare the sensor output signal with a reference signal. In this paper, the effect of decorrelation of oscillator phase noise as a function of delay time and offset frequency is discussed and analyzed. An analytical expression is derived which describes the degree of phase noise suppression in heterodyne readout systems. The model is verified by various measurement series, showing a degree of phase noise suppression of −100 dB for an offset frequency of 1 Hz and for a decorrelation time of 1500 ns which represents a typical time delay of SAW sensors. Although the effect is analyzed with respect to SAW sensors, the results are basically applicable to all kinds of phase sensitive sensors.

The impact of gender on control behavior when purchasing a new type of cheese

The impact of gender on control behavior when purchasing a new type of cheeseThe evidence for a sustainable perspective method is not a relatively small phenomenon in the EU and around the world; and eventually costumers are the last link of supply chains. But many consumers do not care about different values of food, they do not pay attention to information about food product. The aim of the paper is to investigate effect of gender on control behavior when purchasing a new kind of cheese. Data were collected in the Czech Republic using a paperbased questionnaire. Respondents were university students. Differences between genders in these variables were tested using ordered probit model. Stata was used for data analysis. Findings are that nutrient value of the products, name of the products, producer, the origin of the product, Internet information are significantly impacted by gender. Namely, female are more considerate of the nutrient value of the products they buy, of the name of the products, and producer; they search for desirable information on the labelings, than man. Contrary, man are more considerate of the origin of the product, and of Internet information on the product. The remaining variables were not significantly influenced by gender. Gender variable can be regarded as an indication to explain why some consumers have a positive attitude to solving food-related issue. These findings can help to understand the role of gender on consumer behavior, and may be relevant where there is an organic market at the beginning. The study also underlines the importance of effective nutrition education which should incorporate gender diff erences, it represents a key issue in human health and is compliant with the WHO as stated that “the increased knowledge and evidence of the impact of gender inequalities on specific health problems and health services and of successful responses, and developing tools to promote and expand health sector policies, interventions and programs that systematically address gender concerns”.