RLECN—A learning based dynamic threshold control of ECN

Shahzad,정은성,김형석 한국통신학회 2023 ICT Express Vol.9 No.6

Explicit congestion notification (ECN) enables the network routers to mark packets instead of dropping them. When the queue size reaches a certain threshold, the queued packets are marked to indicate predicted congestion. However, an optimal value of the ECN threshold is not defined. A pre-decided value is chosen either by estimation or by hit and trial and therefore, it does not generalize well under a wide range of network scenarios. We propose a reinforcement learning (RL)-based ECN mechanism that utilizes software-defined networks (SDN) to address this problem. Our solution enables the routers to keep a dynamic ECN threshold according to the current network conditions. SDN provides the network visibility and reach to train the RL model and to dynamically adjust the ECN threshold. We show through experimental results that our proposed model outperforms the current state of the art.

Effects of Varying Levels of Fungal (Arachniotus sp.) Treated Wheat Straw as an Ingredient of Total Mixed Ration on Growth Performance and Nutrient Digestibility in Nili Ravi Buffalo Calves

Shahzad, F.,Abdullah, M.,Chaudhry, A.S.,Bhatti, J.A.,Jabbar, M.A.,Ahmed, F.,Mehmood, T.,Asim, M.,Ahmed, S.,Kamran, Z.,Irshad, I.,Tahir, M.N. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2016 Animal Bioscience Vol.29 No.3

The study was carried out to explore the effects of replacing wheat straw with fungal treated wheat straw as an ingredient of total mixed ration (TMR) on the growth performance and nutrient digestibility in Nili Ravi buffalo male calves. Fungal treated wheat straw was prepared using Arachniotus sp. Four TMRs were formulated where wheat straw was replaced with 0 (TMR1), 33 (TMR2), 67 (TMR3), and 100% (TMR4) fungal treated wheat straw in TMR. All TMRs were iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous. The experimental TMRs were randomly assigned to four groups of male calves (n = 6) according to completely randomized design and the experiment continued for four months. The calves fed TMR2 exhibited a significant improve in dry matter intake, average daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio and feed economics compared to other groups. The same group also showed higher digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, neutral-, and acid detergent fibers than those fed on other TMRs. It is concluded that TMR with 33% fungal-treated wheat straw replacement has a potential to give an enhanced growth performance and nutrient digestibility in male Nili Ravi buffalo calves.

Quantitative Assessment of Balance Impairment for Fall-Risk Estimation Using Wearable Triaxial Accelerometer

Shahzad, Ahsan,Ko, Seunguk,Lee, Samgyu,Lee, Jeong-A,Kim, Kiseon IEEE 2017 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL Vol.17 No.20

<P>Falls are a major cause of morbidity and long-term hospitalization among growing older population. An automated and accurate fall-risk assessment system is vital to identify high fall-risk population and to prevent falls by early intervention. Therefore, this paper provides an objective, cost-effective, and unsupervised method to obtain functional balance and mobility assessment-based fall-risk of community-dwelling older adults. More specifically, waist-mounted triaxial accelerometer signals acquired from directed routine (supervised control movements) are used to estimate the well-known clinical assessment score-Berg balance scale (BBS). The trunk acceleration signals are used to extract features and to find the optimal subset of features for each training data during repeated tenfold cross validation of the BBS estimation model. The average of two BBS estimates based on test and retest yielded a strong correlation rho = 0.86 with the standard BBS score. Also, high correlation (rho = 0.90) and low root-mean-square error (1.66) was observed between the two estimates of each subject. The proposed method is well suited for the assessment of balance impairment and pre-screening of quantitative fall-risk in an unsupervised setting. It has the potential to act as a surrogate of the standard clinical assessment-BBS.</P>

Reliable and Advanced Predictors for Corporate Financial Choices in Pakistan

SHAHZAD, Umeair,FUKAI, Luo,MAHMOOD, Faisal,JING, Liu,AHMED, Zahoor Korea Distribution Science Association 2020 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.7 No.7

Existing studies disagree over the core predictors of firm-level financial choices in developing countries. The general practice only validates the traditional capital structure model, which leads to inconsistency and a lack of novelty. This study removed overfitting issues among existing factors and presented the most reliable and advanced capital structure model in Pakistani firms. The panel data include 368 Pakistani companies from 19 non-financial sectors over the period 2004 to 2017. We apply Akaike and Bayesian Information Criteria to remove overfitting issues among inconsistent proxies in the capital structure model. The fixed effects regression is used for basic results and the Generalized Method of Moments is applied to control the endogeneity. Besides the conventional proxies, we report that credit rating, distance from bankruptcy, managerial concentration, and institutional quality are the most advanced capital structure determinants in Pakistan. These predictors remain significant across firm size and growth levels. Also, the findings confirm that new predictors are reliable to define capital structure dynamics and improve the speed of adjustment in overall and sub-sample analysis. The major findings suggest that managers and policymakers should consider these advanced predictors to design their financial settings in firms.

New Dimensions in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel: A Critical Discourse

Shahzad Ahmad 한국예이츠학회 2024 한국예이츠 저널 Vol.74 No.-

Most of the people are in the gutter but some of them, as Nissim Ezekiel, look at the stars. Right from the days when he came of life, till he died, he had something especial in him which ordinary people do not have. He had the capacity “to churn” the springs of unborn songs and felt the wind in whose heart fire did rest. The difference between a poet and a common man is hidden in the use of words. Ezekiel was like an adroit sculptor. He was accustomed to select appropriate words and phrases for a particular line of his poem. In case he was not satisfied with the original drafts, he would write and write until final product glowed with majesty which can be witnessed in it even today. He had raised the banners of revolt against obscurity. He owned that expression should be clear and in simple diction. Besides it, for Ezekiel poetry is not a mere collection of poems but is something greater than such a collection of poems. It is worth noting that the evolutionary process of the development of poetic creed of this stellar poet was not smooth. It was undulating.

Dual targeting of EphA2 and FAK in ovarian carcinoma.

Shahzad, Mian M K,Lu, Chunhua,Lee, Jeong-Won,Stone, Rebecca L,Mitra, Rahul,Mangala, Lingegowda S,Lu, Yiling,Baggerly, Keith A,Danes, Christopher G,Nick, Alpa M,Halder, Jyotsnabaran,Kim, Hye-Sun,Vivas- Landes Bioscience 2009 Cancer Biology & Therapy Vol.8 No.11

<P>EphA2 gene silencing has been shown to result in antitumor efficacy. Here we considered whether silencing additional targets downstream of EphA2 would further enhance the therapeutic effect. EphA2 targeted siRNA was tested in combination with either FAK or Src targeted siRNA using DOPC nanoliposomes in orthotopic models of ovarian carcinoma. The effects of therapy were determined by changes in tumor weight, proliferation (Ki-67), and microvessel density (CD31). In our initial in vivo study, EphA2 plus FAK silencing resulted in the greatest reduction in tumor growth (by 73%, p < 0.005) as compared to control siRNA alone. In the SKOV3ip1 and HeyA8 ovarian cancer models, EphA2 siRNA-DOPC treatment resulted in a 50-67% decrease in tumor growth (p < 0.02, for both), and FAK siRNA-DOPC resulted in a 61-62% decrease in tumor growth (p < 0.009, p < 0.05, respectively). EphA2 plus FAK siRNA-DOPC treatment resulted in a significant reduction (SKOV3ip1: 76%, p < 0.007, HeyA8: 90%, p < 0.003) in tumor growth compared to control siRNA-DOPC. Combination treatment with EphA2 + FAK siRNA-DOPC resulted in significant decreases in tumor cell proliferation (p < 0.001) and microvessel density compared to control siRNA-DOPC (80%; p < 0.001), or the monotherapy groups (p values <0.001). These data suggest that the antitumor efficacy of in vivo EphA2 targeting is enhanced in combination with FAK silencing. Dual targeting of EphA2 and FAK may have therapeutic implications for ovarian cancer management.</P>

A Study on IPTV Standardization

Shahzad, Aamir,Ali, Mumtaz,Shin, Seo-Yong,Kim, Han-Su Korean Society for Internet Information 2007 인터넷정보학회지 Vol.8 No.3

The IPTV Standardization work being done by the ITU-T in collaboration with other SDOs and telecommunication companies. Currently IPTV services are provided with no global standards and interoperability. ITU-T leads the process of IPTV standardization. We used the ITU-Ts working documents which were publically available to investigate the direction of IPTV standardization process. Many things including architecture, services, service requirements, codec and error correction mechanisms etc already defined through recommendations. But still there is effort going on to standardize the complete IPTV system.

Impact of Social and Institutional Quality Capital on Total Factor Productivity and Economic Growth

Shahzad Saeed,유태환 경성대학교 산업개발연구소 2018 산업혁신연구 Vol.34 No.3

This study examines whether economic growth is affected by social and institutional quality capital directly or indirectly via total factor productivity (TFP). Based on the fifth-wave data of the World Values Survey conducted during 1995–2014 (2005–2009 for short-run analysis), we adopt a cross-sectional and pooled time series regression framework to investigate the role of social and institutional quality capital on economic growth and TFP changes for 12 high-income and 15 low- and middle-income countries (24 high-income and 25 low- and middle-income countries for the short-run), respectively. The research extrapolates that there are considerable differences in the strength of impact for social and institutional quality capital in the countries with different income levels over different time horizons. Specifically, social capital explicates a positive effect on economic growth only for high-income countries in the long-run. While having both direct and indirect effects, the institutional quality capital affects economic growth indirectly via TFP with a higher magnitude, except for low- and middle-income countries in the long-run, compared to the short-run with regard to other income groups.

Multi-Objective Optimization for a Reliable Localization Scheme in Wireless Sensor Networks

Shahzad, Farrukh,Sheltami, Tarek R.,Shakshuki, Elhadi M. The Korea Institute of Information and Commucation 2016 Journal of communications and networks Vol.18 No.5

In many wireless sensor network (WSN) applications, the information transmitted by an individual entity or node is of limited use without the knowledge of its location. Research in node localization is mostly geared towards multi-hop range-free localization algorithms to achieve accuracy by minimizing localization errors between the node's actual and estimated position. The existing localization algorithms are focused on improving localization accuracy without considering efficiency in terms of energy costs and algorithm convergence time. In this work, we show that our proposed localization scheme, called DV-maxHop, can achieve good accuracy and efficiency. We formulate the multi-objective optimization functions to minimize localization errors as well as the number of transmission during localization phase. We evaluate the performance of our scheme using extensive simulation on several anisotropic and isotropic topologies. Our scheme can achieve dual objective of accuracy and efficiency for various scenarios. Furthermore, the recently proposed algorithms require random uniform distribution of anchors. We also utilized our proposed scheme to compare and study some practical anchor distribution schemes.

Heterostructural TiO₂/Ti₃C₂T_x (MXene) for photocatalytic degradation of antiepileptic drug carbamazepine

Shahzad, Asif,Rasool, Kashif,Nawaz, Mohsin,Miran, Waheed,Jang, Jiseon,Moztahida, Mokrema,Mahmoud, Khaled A.,Lee, Dae Sung Elsevier 2018 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL -LAUSANNE- Vol.349 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>A simple hydrothermal treatment process was used for the fabrication of a Ti<SUB>3</SUB>C<SUB>2</SUB>T<SUB>x</SUB> (MXene) nanosheet-based hybrid photocatalyst. The chemical composition of the MXene and its derivatives (nanosize {0 0 1} facets of TiO<SUB>2</SUB> in Ti<SUB>3</SUB>C<SUB>2</SUB>T<SUB>x</SUB> (001-T/MX)), as well as the structural properties and morphology of the as-prepared photocatalyst, were well characterised. The heterostructure of the as-prepared photocatalyst was obtained by controlled oxidation action via the Schottky junction formed between TiO<SUB>2</SUB>-MXene interfaces. The adsorption/photocatalytic degradation abilities of the pristine MXene and the as-synthesised 001-T/MX nanocomposite for carbamazepine (CBZ) were investigated. The determined <I>K<SUB>app</SUB> </I> value of CBZ under ultraviolet light was 0.0304 min<SUP>−1</SUP>, higher than that under natural solar light, and the degradation capacity was strongly controlled under acidic conditions (pH 3.0–5.0). During the photocatalytic degradation, <SUP> </SUP>OH and <SUP> </SUP>O<SUB>2</SUB> attacked the CBZ molecule; detailed degradation pathways were proposed accordingly. The novel heterojunction 001-T/MX exhibited excellent applicability for CBZ decomposition.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> A simple hydrothermal process is used for the fabrication of Ti<SUB>3</SUB>C<SUB>2</SUB>T<SUB>x</SUB> (MXene) nanosheets. </LI> <LI> Ti<SUB>3</SUB>C<SUB>2</SUB>T<SUB>x</SUB> MXene-based heterojunction (001-T/MX) can be used as a photocatalyst. </LI> <LI> Carbamazepine (CBZ) degradation under direct sunlight and ultraviolet light is studied. </LI> <LI> T/MX photocatalyst degrades 98.67% CBZ under UV light irradiation. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>