Group formation with neighbor similarity trust in P2P E-commerce

The simplicity with which products and prices are compared in e-commerce has introduced an attractive option for many online merchants. The completion of online business transactions with personal information provisioning has always been an act that beckons hesitation. Most online traders are highly conscious of various threats and attacks such as credit card fraud, identity theft, spoofing, hacking, phishing, and other abuses, leading to low trust in online business transactions. Online transactions take place among Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems at the edge of the Internet. Peer communities are often established dynamically with peers that are unrelated and unknown to each other. In our proposed mechanism, peers form groups in order to ensure trust and security. Each group is established based on interest among peers. In this paper, we show how peers form groups, and select group leaders. A peer can belong to more than one group. Comparing with some existing work, our work reveals that peers can have common neighbors which have a similarity based on their interest. Our simulation results show that the model can deal with the malicious attacks efficiently by comparison with existing models.     

Optical solitons to the nonlinear Shrödinger’s equation with spatio-temporal dispersion using complex amplitude ansatz

In this work, we investigate the optical solitons to the non-linear Shrödinger’s equation with spatio-temporal dispersion. There are two types of non-linear media studied in this paper. They are Kerr law and parabolic law. By adopting a complex amplitude ansatz method composed of the addition of bright and dark optical solitons, we present the exact dark, bright and dark-bright or combined optical solitons to the model. Numerical results and discussions are also presented.     

High activity supported gold catalysts by incipient wetness impregnation

It is generally thought that catalysts produced by incipient wetness impregnation (IW) are very poor for low temperature CO oxidation, and that it is necessary to use methods such as deposition–precipitation (DP) to make high activity materials. The former is true, indeed such IW catalysts are poor, and we present reactor data, XPS and TEM analysis which show that this is due to the very negative effect of the chloride anion involved in the preparation, which results in poisoning and excessive sintering of the Au particles. With the DP method, the chloride is largely removed during the preparation and so poisoning and sintering are avoided.

However, we show here that, contrary to previous considerations, high activity catalysts can indeed be prepared by the incipient wetness method, if care is taken to remove the chloride ion during the process. This is achieved by using the double impregnation method (DIM). In this a double impregnation of chloroauric acid and a base are made to precipitate out gold hydroxide within the pores of the catalyst, followed by limited washing. This results in a much more active catalyst, which is active for CO oxidation at ambient temperature. The results for DIM and DP are compared, and it is proposed that the DIM method may represent an environmentally and economically more favorable route to high activity gold catalyst production.     

Systematic Approach for Design of Broadband,High Efficiency,High Power RF Amplifiers

This paper demonstrates a systematic approach for the design of broadband, high efficiency, high power, Class‐AB RF amplifiers with high gain flatness. It is usually difficult to simultaneously achieve a high gain flatness and high efficiency in a broadband RF power amplifier, especially in a high power design. As a result, the use of a computer‐aided simulation is most often the best way to achieve these goals; however, an appropriate initial value and a systematic approach are necessary for the simulation results to rapidly converge. These objectives can be accomplished with a minimum of trial and error through the following techniques. First, signal gain variations are reduced over a wide bandwidth using a proper pre‐matching network. Then, the source and load impedances are satisfactorily obtained from small‐signal and load‐pull simulations, respectively. Finally, two high‐order Chebyshev low‐pass filters are employed to provide optimum input and output impedance matching networks over a bandwidth of 100 MHz–500 MHz. By using an EM simulation for the substrate, the simulation results were observed to be in close agreement with the measured results.     

Spoken character classification using abductive network

In this paper, we address the problem of learning a classifier for the classification of spoken character. We present a solution based on Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) learning paradigm for the development of a robust abductive network classifier. We improve the reliability of the classification process by introducing the concept of multiple abductive network classifier system. We evaluate the performance of the proposed classifier using three different speech datasets including spoken Arabic digit, spoken English letter, and spoken Pashto digit. The performance of the proposed classifier surpasses that reported in the literature for other classification techniques on the same speech datasets.     

Dynamics of optical solitons,multipliers and conservation laws to the nonlinear schrödinger equation in (2+1)-dimensions with non-Kerr law nonlinearity

This work studies the (2 + 1)-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation which arises in optical fibre. Grey and black optical solitons of the model are reported using a suitable complex envelope ansatz solution. The integration lead to some certain conditions which must be satisfied for the solitons to exist. On applying the Chupin Liu's theorem to the grey and black optical solitons, we construct new sets of combined optical soliton solutions of the model. Moreover, classification of conservation laws (Cls) of the model is implemented using the multipliers approach. This is achieved by constructing a set of first-order multipliers of a system of nonlinear partial differential equations acquired by transforming the model into real and imaginary components are derived, which are subsequently used to construct the Cls.     

Age-dependent fragility and life-cycle cost analysis of wood and steel power distribution poles subjected to hurricanes

Power distribution systems are susceptible to damage from natural hazards, especially hurricanes. Hurricane winds can knock down distribution poles thereby causing power outages resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue and restoration costs. Wood has been the dominant material used to support overhead lines in distribution systems in the US. Recently however, utility companies have been searching for cost-effective alternatives to wood due to environmental concerns, durability concerns and high cost of maintenance. Steel has emerged as a viable alternative to wood due to its advantages such as lower maintenance cost, light weight, consistent performance and invulnerability to insect attacks. Both wood and steel poles are prone to deterioration over time due to decay and corrosion, respectively. As utility companies increasingly adopt the use of steel poles, there is need for a comprehensive approach to compare the long-term reliability and cost-effectiveness of wood and steel poles. This study demonstrates a framework for comparing wood and steel poles subjected to hurricanes through fragility analysis that takes into account the strength deterioration over time. The framework also includes life-cycle cost analysis that incorporates fragility and strength deterioration. To demonstrate the framework, three locations in Florida, Virginia and Massachusetts were considered.     

Light-FireNet: an efficient lightweight network for fire detection in diverse environments

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Fire and smoke detection using deep learning have recently proven to be a robust and efficient detection approach in contrast to traditional vision-based...     

Towards early purchase intention prediction in online session based retailing systems

Electronic Markets - Purchase prediction has an important role for decision-makers in e-commerce to improve consumer experience, provide personalised recommendations and increase revenue. Many...     

Analytical and experimental studies on composite slabs utilising palm oil clinker concrete

The utilisation of waste materials in the construction industry is an effective way to sanitise the environment and reduces the cost of construction. In this research, palm oil clinker (POC) aggregates was used to fully replace normal aggregates to produce structural lightweight concrete. This concrete was used in the construction of composite slabs with profiled steel sheet. A total of eight full scale composite slabs, six palm oil clinker concrete (POCC) slabs and two conventional concrete slabs were constructed and tested in accordance to Eurocode 4: Part 1.1 and BS 5950: Part 4: 1994. Two shear spans were used, 450 mm for short shear span and 900 mm for long shear span. The structural behaviour of the slabs was investigated and compared. The horizontal shear-bond strength between the concrete and the steel was determined according to two methods; m–k and partial shear connection methods. Test results show that the structural behaviour and the horizontal shear-bond strength of the POCC slabs are nearly similar to the conventional concrete slabs. The mechanical interlock (m) and the friction (k) between the steel and the concrete are 117.67 N/mm² and 0.0973 N/mm², respectively and the design horizontal shear-bond strength using m-k and PSC methods is 0.248 N/mm² and 0.215 N/mm², respectively. The difference between the two methods is 13.3%. POCC is therefore suitable to be used for structural applications with a reduction in weight of 18.3% compared to conventional concrete composite slabs.