Short Term Traffic State Prediction via Hyperparameter Optimization Based Classifiers.

Short-term traffic state prediction has become an integral component of an advanced traveler information system (ATIS) in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Accurate modeling and short-term traffic prediction are quite challenging due to its intricate characteristics, stochastic, and dynamic traffic processes. Existing works in this area follow different modeling approaches that are focused to fit speed, density, or the volume data. However, the accuracy of such modeling approaches has been frequently questioned, thereby traffic state prediction over the short-term from such methods inflicts an overfitting issue. We address this issue to accurately model short-term future traffic state prediction using state-of-the-art models via hyperparameter optimization. To do so, we focused on different machine learning classifiers such as local deep support vector machine (LD-SVM), decision jungles, multi-layers perceptron (MLP), and CN2 rule induction. Moreover, traffic states are evaluated using traffic attributes such as level of service (LOS) horizons and simple if-then rules at different time intervals. Our findings show that hyperparameter optimization via random sweep yielded superior results. The overall prediction performances obtained an average improvement by over 95%, such that the decision jungle and LD-SVM achieved an accuracy of 0.982 and 0.975, respectively. The experimental results show the robustness and superior performances of decision jungles (DJ) over other methods.

Improving Efficiency of Passive RFID Tag Anti-Collision Protocol Using Dynamic Frame Adjustment and Optimal Splitting.

Radio frequency identification is a wireless communication technology, which enables data gathering and identifies recognition from any tagged object. The number of collisions produced during wireless communication would lead to a variety of problems including unwanted number of iterations and reader-induced idle slots, computational complexity in terms of estimation as well as recognition of the number of tags. In this work, dynamic frame adjustment and optimal splitting are employed together in the proposed algorithm. In the dynamic frame adjustment method, the length of frames is based on the quantity of tags to yield optimal efficiency. The optimal splitting method is conceived with smaller duration of idle slots using an optimal value for splitting level M o p t , where (M > 2), to vary slot sizes to get the minimal identification time for the idle slots. The application of the proposed algorithm offers the advantages of not going for the cumbersome estimation of the quantity of tags incurred and the size (number) of tags has no effect on its performance efficiency. Our experiment results show that using the proposed algorithm, the efficiency curve remains constant as the number of tags varies from 50 to 450, resulting in an overall theoretical gain in the efficiency of 0.032 compared to system efficiency of 0.441 and thus outperforming both dynamic binary tree slotted ALOHA (DBTSA) and binary splitting protocols.

Effect of fructose and sucralose on flow-mediated vasodilatation in healthy, white European males.

OBJECTIVE: To assess how acute consumption of fructose affects flow-mediated dilatation in brachial artery. METHODS: The randomised cross-over study was conducted at the University of Nottingham's Medical School, Nottingham, United Kingdom in July 2009. Ten healthy, white European males visited the laboratory twice, on separate mornings. On each visit, the volunteers consumed water (3 ml/kg bodyweight) and rested semi-supine on the bed. After 30 minutes, baseline diastolic brachial artery diameter and blood velocity was measured. At 60 minutes, blood velocity and five scans of brachial artery diameter were recorded before a blood pressure cuff was inflated on the forearm for 5 minutes and at 50-60-70-80 and 90 sec after cuff deflation. Fifteen minutes later, the volunteers consumed 500 ml of test-drink containing either fructose (0.75 g/kg bodyweight) or sucralose (sweetness-matched with fructose drink); 45 minutes later, baseline and flow-mediated dilatation was re-measured. RESULTS: Pre-drink and post-drink baseline values were similar on two occasions (p > 0.05). Brachial artery diameter increased (p < 0.05) by 7 +/- 3% pre-fructose and by 6.9 +/- 3% above baseline values post-fructose with no significant difference in these responses (p < 0.15). It increased (p < 0.05) by 5.9 +/- 3% above baseline before and by 6.7 +/- 2% (p < 0.01) after sucralose; a significant difference was noted in these flow-mediated dilatation responses (p < 0.02). Responses before and after sucralose were not different from those before and after fructose (p < 0.294). CONCLUSION: Acute ingestion of fructose or sucralose had no effect on flow-mediated dilatation measured at brachial artery.

Variation in lung volumes and capacities among young males in relation to height.

BACKGROUND: Vital Capacity (VC) is defined as a change in volume of lung after maximal inspiration followed by maximal expiration is called Vital Capacity of lungs. It is the sum of tidal volume, inspiratory reserve volume .and expiratory reserve volume. Vital capacity of normal adults ranges between 3 to 5 litres. A number of physiological factors like age, gender, height and ethnicity effect lung volumes. The reference values of lung volume and capacities were calculated previously and those studies played pivotal role in establishing the fact that air volume capacities measured in an individual fall within a wide range among healthy persons of same age, gender and height buit with different ethnicity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes in vital capacity in with height and gender. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 74 male students in the Department of Physiology, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro during January-March, 2014. The volunteers were divided into 2 groups of height ≤ 167.4 cm and > 167.4 cm. The volunteers' height was measured in cm. Vital capacity of the subjects was measured using standard protocol. Mean ± SD of age, height and vital capacity were calculated. RESULTS: Mean vital capacity in students with height > 167.4 cm was higher than average vital capacity of students with height ≤ 167.4 cm. It might be due to the increased surface area of the lungs in relation with increasing height. CONCLUSIONS: There are variations in vital capacity of individuals in relation to their heights, within the same ethnic and age groups.

The fructose mystery: how bad or good is it?

This review article endeavoured to ascertain the facts about fructose, a mono-saccharide sugar being increasingly used in daily diet. Human and animal studies suggest that fructose ingestion produces deleterious effects on the cardiovascular system, such as increase in blood pressure and also has adverse metabolic effects, for example insulin resistance and hypertriglyceridaemia. On the other hand it has also been determined that fructose, especially that is contained in natural sources as apples, dates and honey may produce beneficial effects on human health; smaller amounts of fructose may even help improve diabetic control and that adequate seminal fructose concentrations help promote male fertility. In conclusion, fructose appears to be not all that bad; is essential for male fertility, small amounts of fructose, specifically which comes from dietary sources appears to be beneficial for health.