Archives-November 2015

Kidney stone disease is very common among Indians and approximately 5-7 million patients suffer from stone disease.The most popular imaging modality for its treatment is ultrasound imaging.Segmentation accuracy determines the eventual success or failure of computerized analysis procedures. Traditional methods available for segmentation of kidney stones are not accurate. We use the evolutionary techniques for segmentation of the kidney stone ultrasound images for the first time based on electromagnetism optimization algorithm and harmony search algorithm for determining multilevel threshold of images. In most cases, the optimal thresholds are found by the minimizing or maximizing an objective function, which depends on the positions of the thresholds. We identify a class of objective functions for which the optimal thresholds can be found using algorithms with low time complexities. The Kapur’s entropy function and Otsu’s between class variance is maximized using these algorithms and an optimal threshold values at different levels are found out. The area of extracted stone is calculated and compared with the area given by the expert radiologist. The other metric used to compare the segmented image and the original image is the peak signal to-noise-ratio (PSNR) value. The relative error is also calculated to show the segmentation accuracy of each method.

The study was undertaken to know the investment behaviour of investors towards commodity market. Commodity markets have become alternative investment class world over. Commodity markets are an ideal investment for today’s modern financial scenario. The study evidences that the investors are risk averse on past performance. Their experience and knowledge in investment activity helps them to analyze the price variations at regular intervals in commodity market and make rational decision making. The impacts of various demographic factors on investment behaviour of investors towards commodity market have also been studied. For measuring various phenomena and analysing the collected data effectively and efficiency for ANOVA and t-test has been used to analyze the various demographic values. A Sample of 119 respondents is taken for this study.

If the Business Model is a central concept in traditional entrepreneurship research, it constitutes also an emergent concept and a subject of many pioneer investigations in the context of social entrepreneurship. Indeed, assuring a sufficient and sustainable financing of social activities is one of the most critical issues facing the social entrepreneurship. This paper introduces the concept of Social Business Model and present its specificities compared to the Traditional Business Model. By transposing the traditional business model literature, we will present a framework able to apprehend the specificity of social activities.

The concentration and spatial distribution of trace metals Cr, Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu and Hg were measured in surface water and sediment of East Usambara Mountains (EUMs) River in Tanzania. Concentrations ranged from below detection limit (bdl) to 4.86 mg/l and bdl to 157.98 mg/kg dw in surface water and sediments, respectively. The levels of the metals in water were within the Tanzanian drinking water limit standards, but exceeded the World Health Organisation (WHO) drinking water limit guidelines. Concentrations of the metals in sediments in most of the locations were observed to be higher than the average concentration in the upper Earth’s crust. Wastes from artisanal gold mining and agricultural runoff were considered to be the major sources of the elevated metal concentrations in water and sediments of the study area. The extent of the trace metals pollution in surface water and sediments of EUMs rivers catchment implies that acute health consequences could be insignificant, but chronic adverse health effects due to prolonged pollution and long term exposure through food contamination, washings, animal keeping and fishing could be certain.

In this paper, an attempt is made to develop an optimization model for design of a steel truss using Genetic Algorithms (GAs) and 2D truss analysis using stiffness method program of NewCivil.com in the MATLAB. The objective function is to minimize the total weight of the truss, subjected to satisfaction of the constraints of axial stresses in the members of the truss and nodal displacements. The 2D truss analysis program is validated with STADD.Pro V8i. The constraints violation is handled by using an adaptive penalty function. GA tool kit functions and the 2D analysis program are combined and implemented in MATLAB. The proposed model is tested on a 3-bar steel tubular truss. After several runs and out of many optimal solutions obtained, the solution with a total weight of 150.15 Kg is considered as the best and the corresponding results are presented.

The goal of the present study is to conduct a comprehensive examination of reliability and validity of Malay language version of adjusted workplace happiness scales developed by Pryce-Jones (2010) in Malaysian school setting. Therefore a translated and adjusted version of established content and concurrent validity scale was used. Exploratory factor analysis in Malaysian secondary school teachers sample was conducted to examine convergent and discriminant validity of translated and adjusted version of the workplace happiness scales. Following this, the reliabilities and subscale intercorrelations were determined. Next, the reliabilities and nomological validity was evaluated. The overall pattern of results indicated that the Malay language adjusted workplace happiness scale version was reasonably reliable and valid in Malaysian school settings.

The industrial/military power of any nation is attributed to its ability to produce steel. Alloys are as a result of the combination of a base material with other constituent elements. It is therefore interesting to note that for this well researched paper metallic alloys are a combination of a base metal and other constituents. The main constituents here are the carbon. It is the addition of carbon that change metals to an engineering material, thus, various constituents of carbon carbides can be constituted to give different categories of steel alloys which can be used to produce different spare parts. With various production methods, these steel alloys can be better appreciated by what it can be used to accomplish.

Numerous industrial components or spare parts require a hard resistant surface, known as the case and relativity soft, tough and shock resistant inside called the core. This paper therefore runs through all the processes that are necessary in heat treating steels and alloys and finally case hardening which is required for structures of parts needed in the industries. It is the application of this heat treatment known as case hardening that we can obtain a structural member that is hard and soft, i.e. strong and tough. Hardness refers to the ability to resist wear while toughness is the ability to resist tear. Therefore a steel or alloy piece that contains these amazing qualities has its special applications in gears and cams, etc. A combination of the ability to withstand shock and serration makes this topic case hardening attractive for heat treatment of steels and alloys.

ABSTRACT Batch arrival retrial queue with positive and negative customers is considered. Positive customers arrive in batches according to Poisson process. If the server is idle upon the arrival of a batch, one of the customers in the batch receives service immediately and others join the orbit. If the server is busy, the arriving batch joins the orbit or collides with the customer in service resulting in all being shifted to the orbit or one of the customers in the batch interrupts the customer in service to get his own service. The arrival of a negative customer brings the server down and makes the interrupted customer to leave the system. The repair of the failed server starts after a random amount of time. During the repair time and delay time, customers may balk the system. After each service completion, the server searches for customers in the orbit with certain probability. Using supplementary variable technique various performance measures are derived. Stochastic decomposition property is established. Special cases are discussed and numerical results are presented.

Shahnameh, one of the most important literary works of the world that, from the perspective of a variety of criticism and review. Given that, this effect is based precious and many great stories, and one of the main elements of the story, the character, is, so in this paper, we investigate Rostam character in the story "Rostam and Sohrab" and "Rostam and Esfandiar" will be discussed. Rostam in the Ferdowsi's view, is' perfect human, with attributes such as: if the crown section, angry elephant, famous ancient, world champion, valiant, brave, patriotism, courage in battle and the care and. . . ,Accompanied . When Rostam different story, behavioral and moral differences. Rostam character to deal with Sohrab, some of which humans are the cause, and a gray and semi-bright character, but in the face of Esfandiar, Rostam personality characteristics have changed, and so far not a perfect man and unrivaled hero .