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Evolution of Virtual Prey using a Virtual Predator
Can evolution happen on a computer is it possible for Images to evolve? This paper tries to show that Mother Nature has got it right and evolution is the future for programs. How many times will a new release come to solve my previous problem and in the process create new problems! Evolution can happen on a computer is very clear in this work titled Evolution of a Virtual Prey using a Virtual Predator. The Virtual Prey can evolve its skin color based on an Artificial Intelligent Virtual Predator. Monochrome patterns have evolved very successfully. Some repeatable patterns in the Brodatz Texture Database have also evolved. Charles Darwin in his famous book Origin of Species suggests that evolution takes place using a method he termed Natural Selection. Survival of fittest has to be considered in context of the environment in which the species are living. One of the criteria of survival depends on whether the specie was able to propagate before it was hunted down by a predator. For example the skin color of a prey like an insect evolves to match the background it is living on such that the predators like birds and frogs will not detect them. Assume there are thousand insects on a surface and if nine hundred and ninety are eaten over a period of time are eaten. Then the last 10 will be those which have got skin color, pattern, and texture closest to the original. Some findings have been in the comparison of different genetic operators to evolve specie. Use of Mutation and Crossover operator is critical. Some level of continuation is required in the next generation to maintain and not lose the quality which has been already attained. The number of generations required depend on DNA length and on the correct use of these three parameters.. The runtime from thirty minutes has been reduced to ten minutes to evolve specie of 100 plus variables in the DNA of the images. If we are ready to run the program for a day on multiple machine in parallel then the possibilities of great diversity is very much possible. The predator will be an algorithm which tries to do a basic computer vision operation of correlating two images and ranking them. Then it eliminates a certain percentage of the population. The dissertation is broken down in chapters. Chapter 1 gives the Introduction and Chapter 2 gives an idea of what all research is happening in this area. Chapter 3 is the core content of my work and it shows the different approaches I have used to evolve textures, the use of different operators. This chapter is followed by the testing I had to do due to the complexity of the application and high chance of error creeping into the results. An idea of the application can be got from the Appendix where I have given a walk through of the Zing World -
Localization Method for Camera Networks in Surveillance System
The significance of prevention and mitigation of critical issues especially in the homeland security has been increasing day by day. Emergence of autonomous video analytics tools greatly helped in the prevention of security threats. The recognition of video analytics for anomaly detection based on a set of unsupervised approaches has many fundamental technical challenges. This entails autonomous object localization and tracking technique especially in the presence of occlusion. This paper focuses on deriving a solution for the object detection and tracking in a heterogeneous camera network. The object tracking method is mainly based on Kalman filter whereas frame difference algorithm is used for object localization. This detection and tracking solution is expected to significantly reduce the effect of occlusion while tracking the anomaly. The organisation of the thesis is done into various chapters. The first chapter contains an introduction to the video surveillance system and the need for an unsupervised approach. This chapter also states the objective of the research. The solution overview gives high level solution architecture of the proposed system. The second chapter focus on the literature overview in which the citation from different papers in the field of video analytics, Kalman filter implementation and camera configuration has been referred. Chapter 3 provides the methodology in which a brief introduction to the basic algorithms used in the solution, the Kalman filter and the frame difference algorithm, are discussed. This is followed by the solution architecture of the proposed system. Chapter 4 shows the Matlab implementation of the mentioned algorithms. In Chapter 5, the results of the implementation are discussed. Chapter 6 talks about the summary of the work done and conclusion. This chapter also includes the future enhancements suggested. -
Energy efficient routing protocols for wireless sensor networks
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have gained universal attention now a day???s owing to the advancements made in the fields of information and communication technologies and the electronics field. This innovative sensing technology incorporate an immense number of sensor nodes or motes set up in an area to perceive any continuously fluctuating physical phenomena. These tiny sensor nodes sense and process the sensed data and transfer this information to a base station or sink via radio frequency (RF) channel. The small size of these sensors is an advantage as it can be easily embedded within any device or in any environment. This feature has attracted the use of WSNs in immense applications especially in monitoring and tracking; the most prominent being the surveillance applications. But this tiny size of sensor nodes restricts the resource capabilities. Usually the WSNs are installed in application areas where the human intervention is quite risky or difficult. The sensed information might be needed to take critical decisions in emergency applications. So maintaining the connectivity of the network is of utmost importance. The efficient use of the available resources to the maximum extend is a necessity to prolong the network lifetime. If any node runs out of power, the entire network connectivity collapses and intend of the deployment might become futile. Because of this reason most of the research in the area of WSNs has concentrated on energy efficiency where the design of energy efficient routing protocols plays a major role. This research work titled ???Energy Efficient Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks??? proposes to develop energy efficient routing protocol strategies so as to enhance the lifetime of the WSNs. A thorough study of the existing literature serves as the back bone for attaining acquaintance concerning the pertinent scenario, the problems faced and the application of the WSNs. The use of clustering and sink mobility to enhance the energy utilisation is explored in this research. A modification of the most traditional energy efficient routing protocol for WSNs, LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy) is implemented initially by modifying the clustering mechanism. An enhancement of it by incorporating sink mobility, to further augment the energy efficiency is executed next. A modification of HEED (Hybrid Energy Efficient Distributed Clustering Hierarchy) protocol using the unequal clustering technique is also proposed. The modified protocols are simulated using MATLAB under different circumstances by varying the number of sensor nodes and the area of deployment. These modified protocols are intended for delay tolerant applications that require periodic sensing. The performance of the modified protocols is evaluated using metrics like residual energy of the network, packet delivery ratio, energy consumed by the network, delay, and the number of live nodes. The simulation outcomes showcased the effectiveness of the modified protocols compared to the relevant existing protocols in literature. -
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Life Skills Development for Adolescent Girls at Risk with Special Reference to Rescued Devadasi Girls: An Intervention Study
Devadasi means to servant of God. The word is derived from Sanskrit language. It is originated from two words ??deva and ??dasi which mean God and servant respectively. The devadasi is attributed to girls dedicated to a Goddess called Yellama through the marriage to the deity. There are some important psycho social implications of devadasi system. The system of devadasi is a form of slave trade. In this system the young girls are exploited in the name of religious practices. A major disadvantage of this system is that it disintegrates an individual especially an adolescent girl in context of her overall development and social development in particular. Intervention has always been the essence of social work. Life skills education can be given prime importance and adolescent girls especially in situations such as rescued devadasi can be trained to apply life skills to redress their mental health problems. Teaching life skills to adolescents would help them to transform knowledge, skills, attitudes and values into real abilities. The aim of the current study was to assess the level of Life skills among the rescued devadasi adolescent girls and provide life skills training and evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the Programme. The design used was a pre experimental research design without a control group. 25 adolescent girls who are rescued from the devadasi system were part of the study from northern Karnataka. Based on the need assessment carried in the initial phase of the study, an intervention Programme was developed for the participants based on the 10 life skills laid out by the World Health Organization. A standardized Life skills assessment scale developed by Vranda (2009) was used in pre assessment and post assessments. The results indicate that the Programme was effective and displayed statistical significance in rendering the participants with Life skills. The implication of the study reiterates the importance of developing tailor made life skills Programme for vulnerable groups and girls at risk. KEY WORDS: Life skills, rescued devadasi girls -
The Relationship between Assertiveness and Decision Making Styles among Emerging Adults
Emerging adulthood, the prolonged years from late teens through twenties marked by change and exploration before arriving at enduring life choices is becoming a normative period for young people worldwide. Past researches have described the emerging adults to be optimistic, assertive, self confident and making independent and effective decisions at the same time as miserable and indecisive. Lack of coherence in the conception about this new and distinct period in human development, the likelihood that it is pervading Indian culture and significance of this stage make it an important area to be explored. Hence, the current study investigates the relationship between assertiveness and decision making styles of emerging adults and attempts to identify the gender differences in their assertiveness and decision making styles.The Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire that measures self-reported decision making coping patterns and Rathus Assertiveness schedule that assesses self reported assertiveness level were administered to 1209 (Male, N = 581; Female, N= 628) undergraduate and post graduate students who were in the age range of 18-25 from five colleges in the city of Bangalore. The results of one way analysis of variance shows that decision making styles do have an influence on assertiveness such that assertiveness is significantly different for vigilance and buck-passing; vigilance and procrastination; vigilance and hyper-vigilance; buck-passing and procrastination and buck-passing and hyper-vigilance. Assertiveness was not significantly different for procrastination and hyper-vigilance. The emerging adults with vigilant style found to be more assertive than those with other decision making styles. 69% of the total sample had vigilant decision making style which is considered to be the effective coping style while only 31% had maladaptive coping styles like buck-passing (10%), procrastination (10%) and Hyper-vigilance (11%). A multiple regression results indicates that decision making style and assertiveness are moderately correlated (R=0.661); decision making style can predict assertiveness with a 0.661 accuracy level and that this value is significant at the 0.01 level of significance and that decision making style explains 43.7% of the variance in assertiveness (R2=0.437). No statistically significant gender differences were found in assertiveness and decision making styles. The study reveals that emerging adults choice and the frequency of usage of decision making style indicate the individual differences like assertiveness. It is recommended that existing literature on the decision making style and assertiveness can be enhanced with additional research that further examines the relationships among these constructs with a sample of emerging adults from different social, economic, cultural and academic background, adopting both qualitative and quantitative methods to reduce the sampling error and weaknesses of self report measures. In line with the findings obtained from the research, a training programme for improving decision making styles like assertiveness skill training could be developed even in educational settings. The results have implications for professionals working with university-aged individuals, particularly in the area of career and guidance and making stressful personal decisions with regard to life. Key Words: Emerging adults, Decision-Making Styles, vigilance, buck-passing, procrastination, hyper-vigilance, Assertiveness -
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Play therapy as a rehabilitative measure among child survivors of bonded labour
A bonded labour condition is customarily because of relocation of persons due to the situations that are obligatory in nature. Bonded labour, which is characterized by a long-term affiliation between employer and employee, is usually congealed over a loan, and is entrenched complexly in India’s socio-economic culture - a culture that is a creation of class relations, a colonial history, and tenacious scarcity of resources among many citizens. The children living in such conditions face a lot of mistreatment and go through undeniable exploitation. The children present at the facility may or may not work with the parents yet go through a lot of pain, distress and abuse as the journey of cruelty and suffering is just the same as what their parent’s ordeal with. Children as young as 4 Years old are molested, beaten and abused on an average basis traumatizing the children before and after the rescue. These children are not permitted to enroll in schools as they do not have identity proofs or birth certificates. The only way of addressing the subject of emotional, physical and mental turbulence of the child in this perimeter is by enforcing play as a rehabilitative measure to help with past experiences and impending consequences. Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. Play also offers an ideal opportunity for parents or facilitators to engage fully with the children. Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. When forms of play like puppetry, art, story-telling etc are added the child conjectures unpleasant feelings which she cannot hide the child is better able to act differently in relation to what he/she is feeling. The study aims to see if play therapy is a technique of rehabilitating child survivors of bonded labour. -
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A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY ENVIRONMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR IN CHILDREN
This study designates the influence of family environment in the development of aggressive behavior in children. The purpose of the study was to find out how the family environment influences the aggressive behavior in children. The study was conducted in 5 government aided schools run by the diocese of Mananthavady in Wayanad district of Kerala State. The study included fifty, 10 to 12 year old school going children and their mothers. Family environment scale was used to find the family environment of the children and Aggressive Questionnaire was used to find the level of aggression in children. The raw data were subjected to various statistical analyses. The study brings in (1) the structure and systems in the families (2) the types and levels of aggression in children. The study found that 54 % of the children are with high aggression and 36 % of the children are with very high aggression. Over all the result found that the family environment has a significant role in the development of aggressive behavior in children. The more poor structure and systems in family environment creates the more aggressive children. Key words: family environment, physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, hostility. -
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QUALITY OF WORK LIFE IN RELATION TO PEOPLE CAPABILITY MATURITY MODEL IN IT AND ITES ORGANIZATIONS
The new found concern for Quality of Work Life in corporate life perhaps has been due to the realization that human resource is the most important asset which must be released and developed. Management viewed QWL programs as a way of reducing costs and improving productivity. The success of any organization depends on how it attracts recruits, motivates and retains its workforce. Human capital is clearly emerging as a key engine of economic growth, and it is evident that the skills and competencies of the workforce impact positively on productivity and competitiveness. In this regard investment in human capital would appear to be a prerequisite to economic success .In this new scenario People capability maturity model offers unlimited potential to develop and maximize human capital and organizational competence in the interest of the firm ,the employee ,the consumer ,the shareholder and not least the family. People capability maturity model is a maturity framework developed at the software engineering institute that guides the organizations in improving the ability to attract, develop, motivate, organize and retain talent.. Economies of the world over and companies facing tough domestic and international markets have been posing a serious challenge to all concerned. This coupled with every changing technology and increased access to information has necessitated studying organization with respect to productivity, efficiency and quality of service rendered. All this demands a new work culture, employee motivation, commitment to the job and organizational goals. Some organizations in the service sector have implemented PCMM to address all these organizational issues. However we have very little information at the grass root level to comprehend QWL, and very little research on QWL Life in relation to PCMM hence this study. Based on the objectives of the study a detailed questionnaire was constructed by the researcher. The questionnaire has three parts measuring demographics, implementation of PCMM and six dimensions of QWL. It was measured on a 5 point likert scale 1 indicating strongly disagree to 5 indicating strongly agree. The Cronbachs alpha reliability for the PCMM and the QWL for the present sample was .80 and above. The questionnaire was completed by 230 respondents using judgmental sampling technique from PCMM implemented and non implemented IT and ITES organizations. It was found that Quality of work life was not significantly higher in companies that implemented People capability maturity model as compared to other companies. Amongst all the dimensions of Quality of work life the only dimension influenced and affected by People capability maturity model was self evaluation of performance .It was found that there was a variation of 20.1% in the Quality of work life. In terms of correlation, the study indicated that there was significant intra relationship between the 6 dimensions of Quality of work Life; significant intra relationship between the People Capability Maturity Model related items and significant interrelationship between 6 dimensions of Quality of Work Life and the People capability maturity model related items. Amongst all the 6 dimensions of Quality of Work Life the only dimension that was significantly different across gender was self evaluation of performance. Females had higher self evaluation of performance as compared to the male counterparts. On the basis of the results attained from the current study we can clearly imply that Quality of work life dimensions is definitely positively influenced, affected and correlated with People Capability Maturity Model though there is no difference in Quality of Work Life among People Capability Maturity Model implemented and Non implemented IT and ITES organizations. The results from the study will have significant implications on the companies that have not implemented People Capability Maturity Model to join the group of People capability maturity model implemented companies as this will help the organizations to prepare the employees psychologically to meet the demands and challenges which otherwise may risk a poor Quality of work life program implementation. Key Words: Organizational behavior, Human Resource Management, People Capability Maturity Model, Quality of Work Life, General linear model. -
Synthesis, Characterization and Studies of Hydrazine Based Polyfunctional Ligands and their Metal Chelates
Eight new hydrazine-based zinc (II), copper (II) complexes were synthesized by reacting Zn (OAc)2.2H2O and Cu(CH3COO)2 with N'??(3,5-dibromo-2-hydroxy benzylidene) benzohydrazide (H2L1) and N'??(3,5-dibromo-2-hydroxy benzylidene) nicotinichydrazide (H2L2) respectively. The synthesized complexes were characterized by CHN analyses, IR, UV and 1H NMR. Based on these studies, square planar and octahedral geometries of the metal complexes were revealed. The synthesized metal complexes named [Zn(H2L1)2](OAc)2, [Zn(H2L1)Py](OAc)2, [ZnL2]2, [ZnL2Py], [CuL1]2, [CuL1Py], [CuL2]2 and [CuL2Py]. The formed metal complexes were investigated for DNA binding studies by fluorescence and UV spectroscopy using calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) and DNA cleavage studies against pBR322 DNA. Both the ligands and their corresponding metal complexes showed the ability for binding to DNA through intercalation/ electrostatic binding. -
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A study on the self-esteem and social relations of adolescents with learning disability /
According to World Health Organization Learning disability is a state of arrested or incomplete development of mind. The most common learning disabilities are Dyslexia, Dyscalculia Dysgraphia, Auditory and Visual Processing Disorders and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities. Adolescents with learning difficulty have trouble expressing their feelings, calming themselves down, and reading non-verbal cues which can lead to difficulty in the classroom and with their peers. In India approximately 13 to 14 per cent of all school children suffer from learning disorders (Sadaket 2009). The social relationships of the adolescents with learning disability have a positive influence on their self esteem. It helps them to maintain a constructive relationship with their peers, teachers and parents. The study was focused to know the relationship of self esteem and social relation in adolescents with learning disability. The study was conducted among all the Adolescents with Learning Disability, in an alternative school in Bangalore. The size of the sample was 50 which include both genders and the sampling design was purposive sampling.