Archives-February 2013

In this paper, we propose an integrated face recognition system that is robust against facial expressions by combining information from the computed intra-person optical flow and the synthesized face image in a probabilistic framework. Making recognition more reliable under uncontrolled lighting conditions is one of the most important challenges for practical face recognition systems. We tackle this by combining the strengths of robust illumination normalization. Our experimental results show that the proposed system improves the accuracy of face recognition from expressional face images and lighting variations.

In this paper, It examines the Face detection and recognition system using three fast CFV modules which are face skin verification module, face symmetry verification module, and eye template verification module. The three verification modules can eliminate the tilted faces, the backs of the head, and any other non-face moving objects in the video. Only the frontal face images are sent to face recognition engine. The frontal face detection reliability can be adjusted by simply setting the verification thresholds in the verification modules. Then three hybrid feature sets are applied to face recognition. Experiments demonstrated that the frontal face detection rate can be achieved as high as 95% in the low quality video images. The overall face recognition rate and reliability are increased at the same time using the proposed ensemble classifier in the system. An ensemble classifier scheme is proposed to congregate three individual Artificial Neural Network classifiers trained by the three hybrid feature sets.

In present year ad-hoc parallel data processing has emerged to be one of the killer applications for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IAAS) clouds. Major Cloud computing companies have started to integrate frameworks for parallel data and making it easy for customers to access these. However, the processing frameworks which are currently used have been designed for static, homogeneous cluster setups and disregard the particular nature of a cloud. Consequently, the allocated compute resources may be inadequate for big parts of the submitted job and unnecessarily increase processing time and cost. In this project the data processing framework to explicitly exploit the dynamic resource allocation offered by today’s IAAS clouds for both, task scheduling and execution is constructed. Particular tasks of a processing job can be assigned to different types of virtual machines which are automatically instantiated and terminated during the job execution.

Today, with advances in information and communication technologies and the emergence of information management system, using of these technologies in organizations is inevitable. Therefore, only managers who can invest in areas related to information technology and management system of information will be successful in enterprise management system. However, it is an important discussion that how these investments should be performed or how much it is invested? Moreover, managers must be aware of the effectiveness of using information technology and information management systems. Actually, Information Technology impacts necessary indicators for the success of today’s organization. Therefore, this study investigates the application of IT systems (IT) and management information systems (MIS) on effectiveness of these systems based on users’ view. Among the key indicators of information technology system, some indicators are selected as follows: increasing the speed of work performance, increasing accuracy of work performance, timely retrieval of information, more storage and faster access to information. In addition, the effect of these indices on providing good services in the financial reporting is investigated.

Malenized Linseed oil and Coconut oil suitable for use in Powder detergent has been synthesized. The reaction conditions such as mole ratio, temperature, time of reaction and use of catalyst have been standardized to get a product with desired HLB ratio, viscosity and solubility. A standard Powder detergent mainly based on malenised vegetables oils and Alpha olefin sulphonate has been prepared. In successive compositions acid slurry has been replaced by neutralized malenized linseed oil by 50 to 100% .A comparison of our maleic based detergents with commercial samples shows that maleic treated oils give excellent foaming, surface tension reduction and detergency properties. The raw material cost of our novel Powder detergents in reasonable and they can be tried on pilot scale and commercial scale production. The special feature of these Powder detergents is freedom from conventional linear alkyl benzene sulphonate and sodium tripoly phosphate so they can be labeled as ecofriendly products for green environment.

The introduction of corporate government practices in Nairobi stock exchange saw the Bull Run that kicked off in the Nairobi Securities Exchange in the year 2006, which made the market gain more than 50%. As earnings of companies increased, so did the demand for shares by the public, corporate governance was incorporated as a strategy for the company success. The price appreciation forced many companies to split shares owing to the nature of majority of the Kenyan and foreign investors who wanted to invest in listed companies. Companies such as Kenol/ Kobil (Kenya Oil Company Limited), East African Cables Limited, CMC Holdings Limited, ICDCI (Centum Investments Company Limited) and Barclays Bank Limited that were highly priced opted to split shares to make them accessible to the public, and to benefit the company as well as potential investors. Corporate governance formulated and implemented legislation and enforcement procedure in place within the CMA and the NSE, to curb massive falsification of financial reports, conspicuous dealings in the NSE and illegal collaboration of stockbrokers with the intention to defraud investors. It is good corporate governance that even with the recent collapse of many stockbrokerage firms investor confidence in the capital corporate governance still is high. This study explores the contribution of the corporate governance on investor confidence in Nairobi Securities Exchange; recommend the possible solutions to curb corporate governance irregularities that lead to tremendous loss of investor money and confidence.

In this research toward optimizing resource allocation, an innovative learning algorithm will used to select and optimize portfolio in Tehran Stock Exchange. A new method was proposed based on the combination of ICA (Imperial Competitive Algorithm) and GA (Genetic Algorithm) which improves the convergence speed and accuracy of the optimization results.. The obtained results show that compared with the previous method, the proposed algorithms are at least 32% faster in optimization processes; also the variance convergence speed is smaller than the ICA and GA.

An access control mechanism in a user hierarchy is used to provide the management of sensitive information for authorized users. The users and their own information can be organized into a number of disjoint sets of security classes according to their responsibilities. Each security class in a user hierarchy is assigned an encryption key and can derive the encryption keys of all lower security classes according to predefined partially ordered relation. In 2006, Jeng and Wang proposed an efficient key management scheme based on elliptic curve cryptosystems. This paper, however, pointed out that Jeng–Wang scheme is vulnerable to the so-called compromising attack that the secret keys of some security classes can be compromised by any adversary if some public information modified. We further proposed a secure key management scheme based on elliptic curve cryptosystems to eliminate the pointed out the security leak and provide better security requirements. As compared with Jeng and Wang’s scheme (Jeng and Wang, 2006), the proposed scheme has the following properties. (i) It is simple to execute the key generation and key derivation phases. (ii) It is easily to address dynamic access control when a security class is added into or deleted from the hierarchy. (iii) It is secure against some potential attacks. (iv) The required storage of the public/secret parameters is constant.

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between the legislative, executive and judicial thinking styles of the vocational schools’ students and their academic performance. This is an applied research and both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. A sample of 250 students, 125 girls and 125 boys, were selected through simple random sampling from among the sophomore students of the vocational schools in Ilam province, Iran , in the academic year 2009-2010.To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and multivariable regression were used. The findings revealed that the students who possessed executive thinking style obeyed and performed the orders in terms of practical thought .However; these students got lower grades compared to other students in specified courses such as mathematics, fundamentals of IT and computer programming. The students who possessed judicial thinking style got better grades compared to other students in terms of practical thought and academic progression in the specified courses. These thinking styles(legislative, executive, and judicial thinking styles) had the potential to predict the standard variable and this potentiality was 0/05 for the executive thinking style and 0/01 for judicial and legislative thinking styles. As for the students who possessed legislative thinking style there was a significant relation between their academic performance and their thinking style. Furthermore, the correlation coefficient of girls and boys was not significant in terms of gender. Analysis of different thinking styles showed that there was a linear relationship between the standard variable (the students' performance) and predicting variables (legislative, executive and judicial thinking style).

Relationship of landscape position and soil properties to maize (Zea mays L.) yield was studied in coastal plain soils of Akwa Ibom state. The study aimed at assessing the physico-chemical soil attributes down the geomorphic surface as well as assessing the yield of maize in the respective landscape positions. A total of 3600 plant population (hybrid maize) were planted on 0.072ha in a Randomized complete block design. The traditional land preparation technique was employed after slashing the re-growth vegetation with cutlass. The trashes was left on the sites and allowed to dry for three weeks before burning. Pre-burn soil samples were taken before burning the trashes at the end of three weeks after slashing. The samples collected were analyzed in the laboratory for physico-chemical properties using standard methods (ASTM and IITA). Collected data were statistically analyzed and means of statistically significant parameters were separated using LSD (0.05). The results showed that sand particle of burnt and un-burnt soils were significantly different at 0-15cm of Upper slope (US) but not significantly different in other landscape positions (p<0.05). Soil pH in burnt soil was significantly different from the un-burnt soil (both at surface and sub surface) in the three landscape positions. Mean maize yields (with husk) was 0.09 and 0.11kg/ha ‘before’ and ‘after’ burning plots of US ; 0.12 and 0.16kg/ha in ‘before’ and ‘after’ burning plot of the middle Slope (MS) while the Bottom valley (BV) had 0.14 and 0.16kg/ha in ‘before’ and ‘after’ burning plots. Altogether, both husked and de-husked yields were higher in burnt plots than un-burnt plots. Along the slope, husked yield followed the order: BV (0.15kg/ha) > MS (0.14kg/ha) > UP (0.10kg/ha)) while de-husked yield also followed similar pattern but different magnitude.