Email categorization using multi-stage classification technique

This paper presents an innovative email categorization using a serialized multi-stage classification ensembles technique. Many approaches are used in practice for email categorization to control the menace of spam emails in different ways. Content-based email categorization employs filtering techniques using classification algorithms to learn to predict spam e-mails given a corpus of training e-mails. This process achieves a substantial performance with some amount of FP tradeoffs. It has been studied and investigated with different classification algorithms and found that the outputs of the classifiers vary from one classifier to another with same email corpora. In this paper we have proposed a multi-stage classification technique using different popular learning algorithms with an analyser which reduces the FP (false positive) problems substantially and increases classification accuracy compared to similar existing techniques.

Monitoring employees emails without violating their privacy right

The capability of an employee to violate the policy of an organization is a concern for an employer. Monitoring is a measure taken by an employer to discourage an employee from acting inappropriately. However, current monitoring techniques tend to raise privacy issues because they violate the privacy rights of employees. Applying a monitoring technique without violating the privacy of employees is the aim of this paper. We propose a design and a protocol which give an employer the opportunity to monitor employee email in order to detect company policy violations. This can be achieved without violating the privacy of honest employees, while at the same time revealing evidence about the illegal actions of dishonest employees.

A resource-search and routing algorithm within PCDN autonomy area

This paper studied a new type of network model; it is formed by the dynamic autonomy area, the structured source servers and the proxy servers. The new network model satisfies the dynamics within the autonomy area, where each node undertakes different tasks according to their different abilities, to ensure that each node has the load ability fit its own; it does not need to exchange information via the central servers, so it can carry out the efficient data transmission and routing search. According to the highly dynamics of the autonomy area, we established dynamic tree structure-proliferation system routing and resource-search algorithms and simulated these algorithms. Test results show the performance of the proposed network model and the algorithms are very stable.

Public environmental consumerism : recycling behaviour and its impact on intentions to purchase green products

Recycling behaviour has been used as indicators of green behavior since research has indicated that there is a positive relationship between environmental concern and ecologically responsible behavior such as recycling. The objective of this study is to find out if there is a difference between recyclers and non-recyclers and heavy and light recyclers with respect to their willingness to pay more for green products despite the perception of green products being of a lower quality in comparison to alternative products. The answers to this will help us to better understand environmentally conscious consumerism of both groups of consumers i.e. the light and heavy recyclers. The results indicate that willingness to pay somewhat higher prices and accepting somewhat lower quality of green products appears to be, generally, independent of recycling and non-recycling, as well as heavy and light recycling behaviour. It also addresses the implications of these findings for business managers.

Statphylococcus aureus bacteraemia : a major cause of mortaility in Australia and New Zealand

Objective : To document the types of, and mortality from, Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia in Australia and New Zealand, and determine factors associated with mortality.

Design and setting : Prospective observational study in 27 independent or hospital pathology laboratories in Australia (24) and New Zealand (3), employing a web-based database to prospectively record demographic features, selected risk factors, principal antibiotic treatment and mortality data on all patients with positive blood cultures for S. aureus from June 2007 to May 2008.

Main outcome measure : 30-day all-cause mortality.

Results : 1994 episodes of S. aureus bacteraemia were identified, and complete 30-day follow-up data were available for 1865. Most episodes had their onset in the community (60.8%; 95% CI, 58.7%–63.0%). Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) caused 450 episodes (24.1%; 95% CI, 22.2%–25.9%), and 123 of these (27.3%) had a susceptibility profile consistent with community-associated MRSA. All-cause mortality at 30 days was 20.6% (95% CI, 18.8%–22.5%). On univariate analysis, increased mortality was significantly associated with older age, European ethnicity, MRSA infection, infections not originating from a medical device, sepsis syndrome, pneumonia/empyema, and treatment with a glycopeptide or other non-β-lactam antibiotic. On multivariable analysis, independent predictors of mortality were age, sepsis syndrome, pneumonia/empyema, device-associated infection with a secondary focus, left-sided endocarditis, and treatment with a glycopeptide such as vancomycin, but not MRSA infection.

Conclusions : S. aureus bacteraemia is a common infection in both the community and hospitals in Australia and New Zealand, and is associated with appreciable mortality. Invasive MRSA infection may be more life-threatening, partly because of the inferior efficacy of the standard treatment, vancomycin. National web-based surveillance of S. aureus bacteraemia and its outcomes is not only important but also easily achievable.

Does baiting influence the relative composition of the diet of foxes?

The changes in the diet of foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in the Jervis Bay Region was assessed following a long-term baiting program by analysing the composition of fox faecal excreta (scats). In all, 470 fox scats were collected between April and August 2003 from two baited sites, Booderee National Park (BNP) and Beecroft Peninsula, and from two unbaited sites in the southern and northern parts of Jervis Bay National Park (SJBNP and NJBNP respectively). Diet was compared between these sites and mammalian diet was also compared from scats collected before baiting in 1996 and after baiting in 2000 at Beecroft Peninsula and in 2001 at Booderee National Park. In 2003, the most common species consumed by foxes was the common ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus), except at unbaited NJBNP, where the swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) was the most frequent dietary item. Significant dietary differences were found between unbaited and baited sites, with the long-nosed bandicoot (Perameles nasuta) and P. peregrinus featuring more in the diet of foxes from the baited sites. Marked increases in the frequency of occurrence of P. peregrinus and P. nasuta in fox scats occurred from before baiting through to after baiting. Relative fox abundance, as indexed by the number of scats collected per kilometre, was lowest in Booderee, followed by Beecroft, then SJBNP, with NJBNP having the highest relative abundance of foxes. We suggest that baiting did affect the diet of foxes on both peninsulas and that the dietary changes across baiting histories were intrinsically related to an increase in abundance in some taxa as a result of relaxed predator pressure following sustained fox control. However, the lack of unbaited control sites over the whole study precludes a definitive conclusion.

Genome - wide association study identifies novel breast cancer susceptibility loci

Breast cancer exhibits familial aggregation, consistent with variation in genetic susceptibility to the disease. Known susceptibility genes account for less than 25% of the familial risk of breast cancer, and the residual genetic variance is likely to be due to variants conferring more moderate risks. To identify further susceptibility alleles, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study in 4,398 breast cancer cases and 4,316 controls, followed by a third stage in which 30 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were tested for confirmation in 21,860 cases and 22,578 controls from 22 studies. We used 227,876 SNPs that were estimated to correlate with 77% of known common SNPs in Europeans at r² > 0.5. SNPs in five novel independent loci exhibited strong and consistent evidence of association with breast cancer (P < 10^-7). Four of these contain plausible causative genes (FGFR2, TNRC9, MAP3K1 and LSP1). At the second stage, 1,792 SNPs were significant at the P < 0.05 level compared with an estimated 1,343 that would be expected by chance, indicating that many additional common susceptibility alleles may be identifiable by this approach.

Self-taught approach to teaching with computers : a case study

The study has investigated the pedagogy of teachers with litle or no training in computer use. The value of a self-taught approach to teacher learning about teaching with computers was scrutinised, and a range of practical implications for the professional development of such teachers was identified.

Crash landing at INSEAD : initiating a grounded theory of the pedagogical effectiveness of simulation games for teaching aspects of entrepreneurship

A practical teaching difficulty arising in a conducive environment provided opportunity to turn the particular problem into a case study with generic implications. Little research has been conducted on the use or effectiveness of simulation games for teaching entrepreneurship. In the context of established literature critiquing the effectiveness of simulation games as teaching devices in managerial contexts and at a point where problems in using a simulation game as part of entrepreneurship course became evident, the authors designed and executed a single-case research project to generate initial theoretical propositions about the pedagogical effectiveness of simulation games for teaching various concepts and aspects of entrepreneurship. The case analysed the perceived learning environment created when the Sky-High simulation was played by 41 MBA students taking an elective entrepreneurship course at INSEAD. The research design embodied the established methodological principles specified by Yin (1989), for effective case research. Theory building was based upon the grounded-theorizing procedures articulated by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Analysis and synthesis produced a grounded theory, in the form of a normative argument, containing four attribute categories and associated properties required of a simulation game to make it an efficacious teaching device in entrepreneurship contexts. The establishment of this grounded theory has made it both desirable and feasible to contemplate creation of an ISO quality standard for educational simulation games.

Marsupial milk : identifying signals for regulating mammary function and development of the young

The role of milk in providing nutrition for the young is well established. However, it is becoming apparent that milk has a more comprehensive role in programming and regulating growth and development of the suckled young, and an autocrine impact on the mammary gland so that it functions appropriately during the lactation cycle. This central role of milk is best studied in animal models, such as marsupials that have evolved a different lactation strategy to eutherians and allow researchers to more easily identify regulatory mechanisms that are not as readily apparent in eutherian species. For example, the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) has evolved with a unique reproductive strategy of a short gestation, birth of an altricial young and a relatively long lactation during which the mother progressively changes the composition of the major, and many of the minor components of milk. Thus, in contrast to eutherians, there is a far greater investment in development of the young during lactation and it is likely that many of the signals that regulate development of eutherian embryos in utero are delivered by the milk. This requires the co-ordinated development and function of the mammary gland. Inappropriate timing of these signalling events in mammals may result in either limited or abnormal development of the young, and potentially a higher incidence of mature onset disease. The tammar is emerging as an attractive model to better understand the role of milk factors in these processes.

Effects of variation in modulator temperature during cryogenic modulation in comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

Many modulation systems in comprehensive 2D GC (GC×GC) are based on cryogenic methods. High trapping temperatures in these systems can result in ineffective trapping of the more volatile compounds, whilst temperatures that are too low can prevent efficient remobilisation of some compounds. To better understand the trapping and release of compounds over a wide range of volatilities, we have investigated a number of different constant temperature modulator settings, and have also examined a constant temperature differential between the cryo-trap and the chromatographic oven. These investigations have led us to modify the temperature regulation capabilities of the longitudinally modulated cryogenic system (LMCS). In contrast to the current system, where the user sets a constant temperature for the cooling chamber, the user now sets the temperature difference between the cryo-trap and the chromatographic oven. In this configuration, the cooling chamber temperature increases during the chromatographic run, tracking the oven temperature ramp. This produces more efficient, volatility-dependent modulation, and increases the range of volatile compounds that can be analysed under optimal trap-and-release conditions within a single analytical run. This system also reduces cryogenic fluid consumption.