The contribution of CO2 emissions to environmental stress in the Middle East: challenges and potential solutions

The increasing demand for water and electricity in the Middle East causes environmental stress. Along with the industrial sector, desalination and power plants are linked to fossil fuel combustion, which is chiefly responsible for increased carbon dioxide emissions. The magnitude of certain sustainable development indicators (such as the ecological footprint) has led to growing concern. This paper presents some of the challenges facing the transition to sustainable development.     

Support vector regression and multilayer feed forward neural networks for non-exercise prediction of VO2max

The purpose of this study is to develop non-exercise (N-Ex) VO₂max prediction models by using support vector regression (SVR) and multilayer feed forward neural networks (MFFNN). VO₂max values of 100 subjects (50 males and 50 females) are measured using a maximal graded exercise test. The variables; gender, age, body mass index (BMI), perceived functional ability (PFA) to walk, jog or run given distances and current physical activity rating (PA-R) are used to build two N-Ex prediction models. Using 10-fold cross validation on the dataset, standard error of estimates (SEE) and multiple correlation coefficients (R) of both models are calculated. The MFFNN-based model yields lower SEE (3.23 ml kg^?1 min^?1) whereas the SVR-based model yields higher R (0.93). Compared with the results of the other N-Ex prediction models in literature that are developed using multiple linear regression analysis, the reported values of SEE and R in this study are considerably more accurate. Therefore, the results suggest that SVR-based and MFFNN-based N-Ex prediction models can be valid predictors of VO₂max for heterogeneous samples.     

Diversity analysis of single and multiple beamforming

In this letter, we study two techniques, known as single and multiple beamforming, to exploit the perfect channel state information (CSI) available both at the transmitter and the receiver of a multiantenna wireless system. Assuming N and M are the number of antennas at the transmitter and the receiver, respectively, we show that single beamforming (transmission of a single symbol from all transmit antennas at the same time, employing the best subchannel) can achieve the maximum spatial diversity order in the channel (NM). We extend our analytical results to multiple beamforming (transmission of S symbols simultaneously, S>1) and calculate that the diversity order achievable for this system is (N-S+1)(M-S+1).     

Synthesis of Cascaded Lossless Commensurate Lines

A scattering transfer matrix factorization based algorithm for cascaded lossless commensurate line synthesis is presented. The characteristic impedances of the extracted commensurate lines and the reflection factors of the remaining networks are formulated in terms of reflection factor coefficients of the whole circuit. There is no need to use root search routines so as to cancel common terms, to get degree reduction. The formulation of the method is explained, and an example is included, to illustrate the implementation of the synthesis algorithm.     

The effect of learning analytics-based interventions in mobile learning on students' academic achievements,self-regulated learning skills,and motivations

Universal Access in the Information Society - This study examines the effects of using learning analytics (LA) in a mobile-based learning setting on students' self-regulated learning (SRL)...     

Investigation of thermal comfort properties of electrospun thermoplastic polyurethane fiber coated knitted fabrics for wind-resistant clothing

The integration of nanofibers into conventional fabrics may open up new opportunities such as improving the comfort performance and thermal management properties of outdoor clothing. Nanofibers are able to form a highly porous mesh and their large surface-to-volume ratio improves performance for many applications. This study shows the possible utility of the nanofiber coating on conventional knitted fabrics for improving the wind-resistance and breathability properties. It was seen that nanofiber coating did not cause a significant effect on water vapor and thermal resistance of electrospun thermoplastic polyurethane nanofiber coated cotton (CO), modal (CMD), viscose (CV), and lyocell (CLY) single jersey fabrics, while resistance to air permeability was increased with the increased nanofiber coating. High level of air resistance was achieved with 30 min of coating. In terms of comfort properties, the nanofiber coating proved to be advantageous due to its lower air permeability with its water vapor permeable structure. However, thermal insulation level of these fabrics was still low and fragile nanofiber layer needed to be protected. Therefore, a multi-layered fabric form was derived from combination of cotton and lyocell fabrics with a nanofiber layer. The results showed that nanofibers could be used to improve the wind-resistance and comfort properties of multi-layered knitted structures.     

Automated major depressive disorder detection using melamine pattern with EEG signals

Applied Intelligence - Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most common modern ailments affected huge population throughout the world. The electroencephalogram (EEG) signal is widely used...     

A deep feature warehouse and iterative MRMR based handwritten signature verification method

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Offline handwritten signature verification has been widely used for document forensics and biometrics, and it is a popular issue. Deep learning models have...     

Automated malware recognition method based on local neighborhood binary pattern

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Malware recognition has been widely used in the literature. One of the malware recognition methods is the byte code based methods. These methods generally use...