Linear-constant log-map,a fast accurate algorithm for map decoding

This paper proposes a new approximation to be used for the correction function in the turbo decoding algorithm, called Linear-Constant-log Map. Max-log Map, Linear-log Map and Constant-log Map are the well known simplified versions of Jacobi-log Map (Maximum a Posteriori) algorithm already in use but they cannot meet a proper performance in term of output BER and clock consumption of the CPU decoding encoded bits. The proposed algorithm first breaks the correction function domain of the Jacobi logarithm to three subsections by determining the border points between these sections and then uses a linear function and two constant values as an approximation of this function. Using an AWGN channel model, simulation results show that the new algorithm is almost more than six times faster than Jacobi-log Map algorithm with a Bit Error Rate (BER) very close to it.     

Challenging the myths about madaris in Pakistan: A national household survey of enrolment and reasons for choosing religious schools

There is speculation about madaris in Pakistan as sources of terrorists and about levels and reasons for enrolment, but a dearth of empirical data. We studied madarsah enrolment among 53,960 representative households; 853 focus groups of parents discussed enrolment choices. In 2004, 2.6% of all children (3.8% of school-going children) aged 5–9 years attended a madarsah. Children from urban and less educated households were more likely to attend a madarsah, but there was no difference by sex of the child or household vulnerability. Parents chose madaris because they offered an Islamic education. Our findings challenge misconceptions about madaris in Pakistan.     

New insights on the utilization of ultrasonicated mustard seed cake: chemical composition and antagonistic potential for root-knot nematode,Meloidogyne javanica

This study focused, for the first time, on the effect of ultrasonic features on the extraction efficiency of secondary metabolites in mustard seed cake(MSC). The nematostatic potential of sonicated seed cake was examined against the second-stage juveniles(J2 s) of root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica. The results show that a 35 ppm(parts per million) concentration of a sonicated extract(SE) sample of MSC caused 65% J2 s mortality at 18 h exposure period in vitro. It also significantly suppressed the root-knot index(RKI=0.94) in tomato roots. The lethal concentration values for SE were 51.76, 29.79, and 13.34 ppm,respectively, at 6, 12, and 18 h of the exposure period, and the lethal concentration values for the non-sonicated extract(NSE)sample were 116.95, 76.38, and 55.59 ppm, respectively, at similar exposure time. Sinapine and gluconapin were identified as the major compounds in ultrasonic-assisted MSC. Because of the high extraction efficiency of metabolites in the SE, all treatments of SE were shown to be antagonistic to J2 s. Thus, this study of ultrasonication activity-based profiling of MSC may help generate target-based compounds at a scale relevant to the control of disease caused by nematodes in economic crops.     

A GP-adaptive web ranking discovery framework based on combinative content and context features

The problem of ranking is a crucial task in the web information retrieval systems. The dynamic nature of information resources as well as the continuous changes in the information demands of the users has made it very difficult to provide effective methods for data mining and document ranking. Regarding these challenges, in this paper an adaptive ranking algorithm is proposed named GPRank. This algorithm which is a function discovery framework, utilizes the relatively simple features of web documents to provide suitable rankings using a multi-layer/multi-population genetic programming architecture. Experiments done, illustrate that GPRank has better performance in comparison with well-known ranking techniques and also against its full mode edition.     

The study of the success indicators for pre-implementation activities of Iran's E-Government development projects

E-Government and E-Government development project studies have been conducted in most industrialized societies, as well as in Iran. Due to their nature and structure, E-Government development projects have numerous political, social, and economic impacts on society. Given the incorporation of significant capital, human resources, information, and political commitments, these projects are considered quite vital to society. Following the systematic pre-implementation activities of E-Government development projects is critical for the success of such projects; ignoring such issues leads to various problems during E-Government project implementation. This research aims to explore and detect the success indicators for pre-implementation activities of E-Government development projects, evaluate the validity of these indicators, and investigate the indicators' status in the Fuel Smart Card Project. The researcher has also provided some suggestions on the successful implementation of E-Government development projects.