Existence of solutions for nonlinear fractional q-difference integral equations with two fractional orders and nonlocal four-point boundary conditions

We investigate the existence of solutions for a nonlinear fractional q-difference integral equation (q-variant of the Langevin equation) with two different fractional orders and nonlocal four-point boundary conditions. Our results are based on some classical fixed point theorems. An illustrative example is also presented.     

Characterization of Human Serum Immunoglobulin G Modified with Singlet Oxygen

Reactive oxygen species, as singlet oxygen (¹O₂), is continuously being generated by aerobic organisms, and react actively with biomolecules. At excessive amounts, ¹O₂ induces oxidative stress and shows carcinogenic and toxic effects due to oxidation of lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. In our study, immunoglobulin G (IgG) was modified by ¹O₂ generated by the ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of methylene blue. The modified IgG was characterized by UV spectroscopy, carbonyl content determination, thermal denaturation and electrophoretic study. Oxidation induced by modification of IgG by ¹O₂ also analyzed by scavenging studies. It was found that ultraviolet absorption spectra of modified IgG shows marked hyperchromicity. The carbonyl content was found to be high in modified IgG as compared to native IgG which confirms its oxidation. Thermal denaturation of modified protein sample shows decrease in Tm value by 3 °C and less intensity banding pattern on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The quenching effect of sodium azide provides clue for modification of IgG by methylene blue, as it is known ¹O₂ scavenger. Hence, the IgG modified with ¹O₂ may be one of the etiological pathogenic factors for rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.     

Is e-government a way to e-democracy?: A longitudinal study of the Iranian situation

Some scholars have supported e-government as a path to e-democracy, whereas others have been more cautious about the subject. In this article, we review the similarities between the concepts of e-government and e-democracy as well as evaluate e-government initiatives and e-democracy requirements in the case of Iran. We used a longitudinal study at two points in time to evaluate the path from e-government to e-democracy using two different methods: a systematic evaluation based on a checklist and a questionnaire survey. The trend of change in e-government initiatives was positive but low from 2008 to 2009, whereas the trend of change in e-democracy requirements was negative and substantial during the same period. We conclude that an emphasis on e-government as a way to e-democracy is not recommended in countries such as Iran.     

Entrepreneurship education in Malaysian universities

Entrepreneurship education in the strongly emerging market of Malaysia was examined throughout the country’s 20 public universities. A broad based interview process amongst multiple stakeholders profiled educational policies as well as revealing shortcomings in practice. Observers noted that students showed a preference for salaried jobs after graduation rather than setting up their own businesses, despite participation in entrepreneurship classes and programmes. Policymakers indicated that curricula had deficiencies despite their hype. Passive lectures were far more common than more interactive methods. It is suggested that if Malaysian universities are to promote entrepreneurship education in an effective way, they must address these issues.

     

PF-BTS: A Privacy-Aware Fog-enhanced Blockchain-assisted task scheduling

In recent years, the deployment of Cloud Computing (CC) has become more popular both in research and industry applications, arising form various fields including e-health, manufacturing, logistics and social networking. This is due to the easiness of service deployment and data management, and the unlimited provision of virtual resources (VR). In simple scenarios, users/applications send computational or storage tasks to be executed in the cloud, by manually assigning those tasks to the available computational resources. In complex scenarios, such as a smart city applications, where there is a large number of tasks, VRs, or both, task scheduling is exposed as an NP-Hard problem. Consequently, it is preferred and more efficient in terms of time and effort, to use a task scheduling automation technique. As there are many automated scheduling solutions proposed, new possibilities arise with the advent of Fog Computing (FC) and Blockchain (BC) technologies. Accordingly, such automation techniques may help the quick, secure and efficient assignment of tasks to the available VRs. In this paper, we propose an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm in a Fog-enabled Blockchain-assisted scheduling model, namely PF-BTS. The protocol and algorithms of PF-BTS exploit BC miners for generating efficient assignment of tasks to be performed in the cloud’s VRs using ACO, and award miner nodes for their contribution in generating the best schedule. In our proposal, PF-BTS further allows the fog to process, manage, and perform the tasks to enhance latency measures. While this processing and managing is taking place, the fog is enforced to respect the privacy of system components, and assure that data, location, identity, and usage information are not exposed. We evaluate and compare PF-BTS performance, with a recently proposed Blockchain-based task scheduling protocol, in a simulated environment. Our evaluation and experiments show high privacy awareness of PF-BTS, along with noticeable enhancement in execution time and network load.     

A noise cross PSD estimator for dual-microphone speech enhancement based on minimum statistics

Some two-microphone noise reduction techniques that work in the frequency domain exploit coherence function between two noisy signals. They have shown good results when noise signals on two sensors are uncorrelated, but their performance decreases with correlated noises. Coherence based methods can be improved when the cross power spectral density （CPSD） of correlated noise signals is available. In this paper, we propose a new method for estimation of the CPSD of the noise, which is based on the minimum tracking technique. Despite the fact that the proposed estimator does not need to implement a voice activity detector （VAD）, its performance is comparable to a CPSD estimator that uses an ideal VAD.     

Performance improvement of complementary feeders using static transfer switch system

The performance of complementary feeders, running in parallel, can be significantly improved by installing static transfer switches （STSs） at critical locations. We develop the STS control logic, which transfers the critical load from the preferred feeder to the alternate feeder when a voltage sag or a fault occurs on the preferred feeder. A forced commutation technique is proposed and implemented to turn off the preferred feeders＇ thyristor, thus avoiding cross current to flow and minimizing the transfer time. Simulation results show that the forced commutation technique is more effective as compared to the recently proposed time delay technique for STS operation. Two different feeders, namely New Exchange, the preferred feeder, and Sector 1-10/2, the alternate feeder of Islamabad Electric Supply COmpany （IESCO）, Pakistan, have been selected for case studies. The software PSCAD/EMTDC professional package has been used for simulation.     

Evaluation of Oxidative Stress and DNA Damage in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Patients and Comparison with Controls

In the present study, oxidative stress and lymphocytic DNA damage in both pre-op and post-op benign prostrate hyperplasia (BPH) patients with age >50 years was evaluated and compared with normal healthy subjects (controls- without any evidence of disease) of the same sex and age group. From December 2007 to November 2009, oxidative stress in 45 BPH patients were evaluated both before (pre-op patients) and after 7 days of surgery (post-op patients) in terms of measurements of plasma levels of (1) various anti-oxidative enzymes, (2) non-enzymatic antioxidants and (3) malondialdehyde which is a product of lipid peroxidation. The lymphocyte DNA damage was also evaluated by single cell alkaline gel electrophoresis in terms of tail length migration in these patients. These values were compared with their respective control subjects of similar sex and age group. The activities of antioxidant enzymes and the levels of antioxidant, reduced glutathione were found significantly decreased (p < 0.05) in serum samples of pre-operative group of BPH patients as compared to the controls. These altered parameters increased significantly (p < 0.05) and returned to their near normal control values, but not up to baseline values, in post operative patients i.e. after the cancer load was decreased by surgery. Lymphocytic DNA damage was found to be significantly increased in pre-op group as compared to controls and was reduced after surgery in post-op group. The present study therefore, shows significantly increased levels of oxidative stress and DNA damage in BPH patients which were reduced after removal of tumour load. Thus oxidative damage plays an important role in prostate tumourogenesis and timely management of oxidative stress can be of importance in preventing the occurrence of BPH.     

International students’ choice to study in China: an exploratory study

Tertiary Education and Management - International higher education is a major source of revenue in many developed countries. Historically the top destination countries for international students...