A grouping journals using multi-dimensional perceptual criteria of North American marketing academics

This paper seeks to develop groupings of journals (A, B, C) using multi-dimensional perceptual rankings, based on North American respondents’ evaluation of a journal’s prestige, contribution to theory, contribution to practice and contribution to teaching. Nonparametric comparisons of criterion mean values indicate that there are generally statistically significant correlations between criteria. Cluster analysis identifies A, B, and C 'categorisations' of journals are different in regards to all four evaluative criteria.

Offline grouping proof protocol for RFID systems

Several grouping proof protocols have been proposed over the years but they are either found to be vulnerable to certain attacks or do not comply with EPC Class-1 Gen-2 (C1G2) standard because they use hash functions or other complex encryption schemes. Also, synchronization of keys, forward security, proving simultaneity, creating dependence, detecting illegitimate tags, eliminating unwanted tag processing and denial-of-proof (DoP) attacks have not been fully addressed by many. Our protocol addresses these important gaps and is based on Quadratic Residues property where the tags are only required to use XOR, 128-bit Pseudo Random Number Generators (PRNG) and Modulo (MOD) operations which can be easily implemented on low-cost passive tags and hence achieves EPC C1G2 compliance.

RFID tags : grouping proof with forward security

Several grouping proof protocols have been proposed over the years but they are either found to be vulnerable to certain attacks or do not comply with EPC Class-1 Gen-2 (C1G2) standard because they use hash functions or other complex encryption schemes. Among other requirements, synchronization of keys, forward security, dependence, detecting illegitimate tags, eliminating unwanted tag processing and denial-of-proof (DoP) attacks have not been fully addressed by many. Our protocol addresses these important gaps and is based on simple XOR encryption and 128-bit Pseudo Random Number Generators (PRNG), operations that are easily implemented on low-cost passive tags and hence achieves EPC C1G2 compliance.

A robust grouping proof protocol for RFID EPC C1G2 tags

Several grouping proof protocols for RFID systems have been proposed over the years but they are either found to be vulnerable to certain attacks or do not comply with the EPC class-1 gen-2 (C1G2) standard because they use hash functions or other complex encryption schemes. Among other requirements, synchronization of keys, simultaneity, dependence, detecting illegitimate tags, eliminating unwanted tag processing, and denial-of-proof attacks have not been fully addressed by many. Our protocol addresses these important gaps by taking a holistic approach to grouping proofs and provides forward security, which is an open research issue. The protocol is based on simple (XOR) encryption and 128-bit pseudorandom number generators, operations that can be easily implemented on low-cost passive tags. Thus, our protocol enables large-scale implementations and achieves EPC C1G2 compliance while meeting the security requirements.

Mixed-age grouping in early childhood – creating the outdoor learning environment

Children attending centre-based early childhood care and education programmesacross Australia are most likely to be grouped according to age anddevelopment. While multi- or mixed-age grouping has been seen to havepositive benefits on young children’s learning and pro-social behaviours, thisapproach is not usually adopted in the organisation of children’s grouping inmost long day care settings across the county. This paper reports on a case studywhich explored one urban children’s setting where the outdoor learning spacehas been specifically designed to enable a mixed-age approach for children. Thefindings suggest that while the educators see many benefits across the age groupsin engaging in this approach, there is still a preference to segregate the veryyoung children arising from concerns for their safety. The study also found thatplanning for learning especially in regards pro-social learning with the olderchildren has been problematic

Stabilizing l1-norm prediction models by supervised feature grouping

Emerging Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) have reformed the modern healthcare. These records have great potential to be used for building clinical prediction models. However, a problem in using them is their high dimensionality. Since a lot of information may not be relevant for prediction, the underlying complexity of the prediction models may not be high. A popular way to deal with this problem is to employ feature selection. Lasso and l1-norm based feature selection methods have shown promising results. But, in presence of correlated features, these methods select features that change considerably with small changes in data. This prevents clinicians to obtain a stable feature set, which is crucial for clinical decision making. Grouping correlated variables together can improve the stability of feature selection, however, such grouping is usually not known and needs to be estimated for optimal performance. Addressing this problem, we propose a new model that can simultaneously learn the grouping of correlated features and perform stable feature selection. We formulate the model as a constrained optimization problem and provide an efficient solution with guaranteed convergence. Our experiments with both synthetic and real-world datasets show that the proposed model is significantly more stable than Lasso and many existing state-of-the-art shrinkage and classification methods. We further show that in terms of prediction performance, the proposed method consistently outperforms Lasso and other baselines. Our model can be used for selecting stable risk factors for a variety of healthcare problems, so it can assist clinicians toward accurate decision making.

Zero knowledge grouping proof protocol for RFID EPC C1G2 Tags

In this paper, we propose a novel zero knowledge grouping proof protocol for RFID Systems. Over the years, several protocols have been proposed in this area but they are either found to be vulnerable to certain attacks or do not comply with the EPC Class 1 Gen 2 (C1G2) standard because they use hash functions or other complex encryption schemes. Also, the unique design requirements of grouping proofs have not been fully addressed by many. Our protocol addresses these important security and design gaps in grouping proofs. We present a novel approach based on pseudo random squares and quadratic residuosity to realize a zero knowledge system. Tag operations are limited to functions such as modulo (MOD), exclusive-or (XOR) and 128 bit Pseudo Random Number Generators (PRNG). These can be easily implemented on passive tags and hence achieves compliance with the EPC Global standard while meeting the security requirements.

Effects of environmental conditions, human activity, reproduction, antler cycle and grouping on fecal glucocorticoids of free-ranging Pampas deer stags (Ozotoceros bezoarticus bezoarticus)

In this study, a commercial enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was validated in detecting glucocorticoids in Pampas deer feces, in order to investigate the influence of several factors on the adrenocortical function. Fecal samples, behavioral data and information concerning male grouping and antlers status were collected at a monthly basis during a 1 year period from free-ranging stags living at Emas National Park, Brazil (18 degrees S/52 degrees W). The results revealed that concentrations of fecal glucocorticoids in winter were significantly higher than those corresponding to spring and summer. In addition, dry season data presented higher levels than during the wet season. Significant difference was found between fecal levels of breeding stags in summer and nonbreeding stags, whereas no difference was observed between breeding stags in winter and nonbreeding stags. on the other hand, males from areas with frequent human disturbance exhibited higher glucocorticoid concentrations and flight distances than individuals from areas of lower human activity. Males with antlers in velvet had elevated levels compared with animals in hard antler or antler casting. Also, we found that glucocorticoid levels were higher in groups with three or more males than in groups with only one male. The flight distances showed positive correlation with fecal glucocorticoid. These data indicate that fecal glucocorticoid provides a useful approach in the evaluation of physiological effects of environment, inter-individuals relationship and human-induced stressors on free-ranging Pampas deer stags. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Seasonal changes in fecal testosterone concentrations and their relationship to the reproductive behavior, antler cycle and grouping patterns in free-ranging male Pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus bezoarticus)

The purpose of this study was to validate noninvasive endocrine monitoring techniques for Pampas deer and to evaluate seasonal changes in testicular steroidogenic activity and their correlation to reproductive behavior, antler cycle and group size. Thus, fecal samples, behavioral data and observations of antler status were collected at monthly intervals during 1 year from free-ranging Pampas deer stags (three radio-collared individuals and 15 random individuals) living in Emas National Park, Brazil (18 degrees S latitude). Fecal steroids were extracted using 80% methanol and steroid concentrations were quantified by a commercial enzyme immunoassay (EIA). Fecal testosterone concentrations peaked in December-January (summer), March (early autumn) and in August-September (winter-spring), with minimal values from April-July. Reproductive behavior had two peaks, the first in December-January, characterized by predominately anogenital sniffing, flehmen, urine sniffing, chasing and mounting behavior, and the second peak in July-September (behavior primarily related to gland marking). There were significant correlations between fecal testosterone and reproductive behavior (r = 0.490), and between fecal testosterone and antler phases (r = 0.239). Antler casting and regrowth occurred under low testosterone concentrations, whereas velvet shedding was associated with high concentrations of testosterone. We inferred that Pampas deer stags exhibited a seasonal cycle that modulated sexual behavior and the antler cycle, and we concluded that fecal steroid analysis was a practical and reliable non-invasive method for the evaluation of the endocrine status of free-ranging Pampas deer. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Genetic grouping of avian infectious bronchitis virus isolated in Brazil based on RT-PCR/RFLP analysis of the S1 gene

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Efectos de las agrupaciones económicas de los países desarrollados = Impact of economic grouping of developed countries

Incluye Bibliografía

Molecular and cytogenetic analyses of cryptic species within the Synbranchus marmoratus Bloch, 1795 (Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae) grouping: species delimitations, karyotypic evolution and intraspecific diversification

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Grouping of countries according to indicators of standard of living

The position of 125 countries is studied on the basis of a collection of 26 basic, health, economic and educational indicators. Multivariate statistical methods were used, including Cluster Analysis, Principal Component Analysis and Multivariate Analysis of Variance. The most discriminating variables were life expectancy the child mortality rate, the mortality rate of children of less than five years of age, the birth and fertility rates and the high-school female matriculation rate. The first principal component was interpreted as a measure of the living standard which made it possible to place the countries in order. Five clusters of countries are suggested.