Abstract: In the last years numerous applications of Human-
Computer Interaction have exploited the capabilities of Time-of-
Flight cameras for achieving more and more comfortable and precise
interactions. In particular, gesture recognition is one of the most active
fields. This work presents a new method for interacting with a virtual
object in a 3D space. Our approach is based on the fusion of depth
data, supplied by a ToF camera, with color information, supplied
by a HD webcam. The hand detection procedure does not require
any learning phase and is able to concurrently manage gestures of
two hands. The system is robust to the presence in the scene of
other objects or people, thanks to the use of the Kalman filter for
maintaining the tracking of the hands.
Abstract: This paper solves the Non Linear Schrodinger
Equation using the Split Step Fourier method for modeling an optical
fiber. The model generates a complex wave of optical pulses and
using the results obtained two graphs namely Loss versus
Wavelength and Dispersion versus Wavelength are generated. Taking
Chromatic Dispersion and Polarization Mode Dispersion losses into
account, the graphs generated are compared with the graphs
formulated by JDS Uniphase Corporation which uses standard values
of dispersion for optical fibers. The graphs generated when compared
with the JDS Uniphase Corporation plots were found to be more or
less similar thus verifying that the model proposed is right.
MATLAB software was used for doing the modeling.
Abstract: An HPLC-UV analytical method was developed to
determine ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in dairy
wastewater and surface water. The optimizing separation was achieved
by reversed–phase ion-pair liquid chromatography on a C18 column
using methanol as mobile phase solvent, tetrabutylammonium bromide
as the ion-pair reagent in pH 3.3 formate buffer solution at a flow rate
of 0.9 mL min-1 with a UV detector at 265 nm. No interference of Ca,
Mg or NO3
- was detected. Method performance was evaluated in terms
of linearity, repeatability and reproducibility. The method detection
limit was 5 μg L-1. The contents of EDTA in dairy effluents were 72 ~
261 μg L-1 at a large dairy site. A change of EDTA concentration was
observed downstream of the dairy effluent discharge, but this was well
under the predicted no effect concentration for aquatic ecosystem.
Abstract: The use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) in
roadway lighting to show the state of street-lighting and nighttime
accident is demonstrated. Geographical maps were generated
showing colored streets based on how much of the street's length is
illuminated. The night to daytime accidents ratio at intersections
were found along with the state of lighting at those intersections.
The result is a method to show the state of street-lighting at roads and
intersections and a quick guide for decision makers to implement
strategies for better street-lighting to reduce night time traffic
accidents in a particular district.
Abstract: The 9/11 suicide attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, triggered a number of security responses both in the United States of America and other Countries in the World. Kenya, which is an ally and a close partner to North America and Europe, was not left behind. While many states had been parties to numerous terrorism conventions, their response in implementing them had been slow and needed this catalyst. This special case offered a window of opportunity for many “security conscious" regimes in cementing their legal-criminological and political security apparatus. At the international level, the 9/11 case led to the hasty adoption of Security Council resolution 1373 in 2001, which called upon states to adopt wide-ranging and comprehensive steps and strategies to combat international terrorism and to become parties to the relevant international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism. Since then, Kenya has responded with speed in devising social-legal-criminological-political actions.
Abstract: A new Markovianity approach is introduced in this
paper. This approach reduces the response time of classic Markov
Random Fields approach. First, one region is determinated by a
clustering technique. Then, this region is excluded from the study.
The remaining pixel form the study zone and they are selected for a
Markovianity segmentation task. With Selective Markovianity
approach, segmentation process is faster than classic one.
Abstract: Image mosaicing techniques are usually employed to offer researchers a wider field of view of microscopic image of biological samples. a mosaic is commonly achieved using automated microscopes and often with one “color" channel, whether it refers to natural or fluorescent analysis. In this work we present a method to achieve three subsequent mosaics of the same part of a stem cell culture analyzed in phase contrast and in fluorescence, with a common non-automated inverted microscope. The mosaics obtained are then merged together to mark, in the original contrast phase images, nuclei and cytoplasm of the cells referring to a mosaic of the culture, rather than to single images. The experiments carried out prove the effectiveness of our approach with cultures of cells stained with calcein (green/cytoplasm and nuclei) and hoechst (blue/nuclei) probes.
Abstract: Porcine production in China represents approximately
the 50% of the worldwide pig production. Information about pig
husbandry characteristics in China and manure properties from sows
to fatteners in intensive pig farms are not broadly available for
scientific studies as it is a time consuming, expensive task and highly
inaccessible. This study provides a report about solid pig manures
(28% dry matter) in a commercial pig farm located in the peri-urban
area of Beijing as well as a general overview of the current pig
husbandry techniques including pig breeds, feeds, diseases, housing as
well as pig manure and wastewater disposal. The main results are
intended to serve as a literature source for young scientists in order to
understand the main composition of pig manures as well as to identify
the husbandry techniques applied in an intensive pig farm in Beijing.
Abstract: This paper examines the role and the place of
transdisciplinarity in the urbanism of the 21st century, with the
emphasis on Montenegro urbanism. Global processes require a
systematic strategy and systemic synergistic engagement in the
development of cities in 21st centuries. Urbanism as a profession and
a discipline should be developed parallel and in correlation, based on
the principles of integrality and communication skills, in order to
enable development of the sustainable urban system. The importance
of integrated urbanism and other disciplines are also emphasized as
well as their synergies activities. The paper also presents the positive
examples of urban theory and practice in the world, which influenced
the direction of development of the modern urbanism.
Transdisciplinarity is a priority methodology for sustainable urban
development, which is insufficiently developed in Montenegro, but
there is a basis for its development. It is necessary to unite different
social sensibilities, academic and non-academic knowledge, as well
as the public and private sectors in order to develop holistic,
inclusive and sustainable urban spaces of the 21st centuries.
Abstract: Methods for organizing web data into groups in order
to analyze web-based hypertext data and facilitate data availability
are very important in terms of the number of documents available
online. Thereby, the task of clustering web-based document structures
has many applications, e.g., improving information retrieval on the
web, better understanding of user navigation behavior, improving web
users requests servicing, and increasing web information accessibility.
In this paper we investigate a new approach for clustering web-based
hypertexts on the basis of their graph structures. The hypertexts will
be represented as so called generalized trees which are more general
than usual directed rooted trees, e.g., DOM-Trees. As a important
preprocessing step we measure the structural similarity between the
generalized trees on the basis of a similarity measure d. Then,
we apply agglomerative clustering to the obtained similarity matrix
in order to create clusters of hypertext graph patterns representing
navigation structures. In the present paper we will run our approach
on a data set of hypertext structures and obtain good results in
Web Structure Mining. Furthermore we outline the application of
our approach in Web Usage Mining as future work.
Abstract: In this paper, the significant wave height at the Upper Gulf of Thailand and the changing of wave height at Bangkhuntien shoreline were simulated by using the Simulating WAves Nearshore Model (SWAN) version 40.51. The simulated results indicated that the significant wave height by SWAN model corresponded with the observed data. The results showed that the maximum significant wave height at the Bangkhuntien shoreline were 1.06-2.05 m. and the average significant wave height at the Bangkhuntien shoreline were 0.30-0.47 m. The significant wave height can be used to calculate the erosion through the Bangkhuntien shoreline. The erosion rates at the Bangkhuntien shoreline were prepared by using the aerial photo and they were about 1.80 m/yr. from 1980- 1986, 4.75 m/yr from 1987-1993, 15.28 m/yr from 1994-1996 and 10.03 m/yr from 1997-2002. The relation between the wave energy and the erosion were in good agreement. Therefore, the significant wave height was one of the major factors of the erosion at the Bangkhuntien shoreline.
Abstract: Geopolymer cement was evaluated as wellbore sealing material for carbon dioxide geosequestration application. Curing of cement system in saline water and strength testing in triaxial stress state condition under lateral confinement is relevant to primary cementing in CO2 geosequestration wellbore in saline aquifer. Geopolymer cement was cured in saline water (both at ambient conditions for 28 days and heated (60°C) conditions for 12 hours) and tested for triaxial strength at different levels of lateral confinement. Normal water and few other curing techniques were also studied both for geopolymer and API ‘G’ cement. Results reported were compared to evaluate the suitability of saline water for curing of geopolymer cement. Unconfined compression test results showed higher strength for curing in saline water than normal water. Besides, testing strength under lateral confinement demonstrated the material failure behavior from brittle to plastic.
Abstract: Pressure vessels are usually operating at temperatures
where the conditions of linear elastic fracture mechanics are no
longer met because massive plasticity precedes crack propagation. In
this work the development of a surface crack in a pressure vessel
subject to bending and tension under elastic-plastic fracture
mechanics conditions was investigated. Finite element analysis was
used to evaluate the hydrostatic stress, the J-integral and crack
growth for semi-elliptical surface-breaking cracks. The results
showed non-uniform stress triaxiality and crack driving force around
the crack front at large deformation levels. Different ductile crack
extensions were observed which emphasis the dependent of ductile
tearing on crack geometry and type of loading. In bending the crack
grew only beneath the surface, and growth was suppressed at the
deepest segment. This contrasts to tension where the crack breaks
through the thickness with uniform growth along the entire crack
front except at the free surface. Current investigations showed that
the crack growth developed under linear elastic fracture mechanics
conditions will no longer be applicable under ductile tearing
scenarios.
Abstract: As known that efficiency of photovoltaic cells is not
high as desired level. Efficiency of PVs could be improved by
selecting convenient locations that have high solar irradiation,
sunshine duration, mild temperature, low level air pollution and dust
concentration. Additionally, some environmental parameters called
derating factors effect to decrease PV efficiencies such as cloud, high
temperature, aerosol optical depth, high dust concentration, shadow,
snow, humidity etc. In this paper, all parameters that effect PV
efficiency are considered in detail under climatic conditions of
Istanbul. A 750 Wp PV system with measurement devices is
constructed in Maslak campus of Istanbul Technical University.
Abstract: In today-s competitive global business environment,
the concept of supply chain management (SCM) continues to become
increasingly market-oriented, shifting the primary driver of the value
chain from supply to demand. Recent recommendations encourage
researchers to focus investigations on the supply chain process
integration (SCPI) capabilities that integrate a focal firm with its
network of suppliers and business customers to create value for it.
However, theoretical and empirical researches pertaining to the
antecedents and consequences of a focal firm-s SCPI capabilities have
been limited and piecemeal. The purpose of this study is to investigate
the critical determinants and consequences of a focal firm-s SCPI
capabilities. We test our proposed research framework using a sample
of 139 sales managers of manufacturing industries in Taiwan, our
research findings show that (1) both perceived business customer-s
power and focal firm-s market-oriented culture positively influences a
focal firm-s SCPI capabilities, and (2) SCPI capabilities positively
influence a focal firm-s SCM performance, both operational and
strategic benefits. Implications for practitioners and researchers and
suggestions for future research are also addressed in this study.
Abstract: In the study of chironomids in Armenia several
species of Orthocladiinae subfamily of Cricotopus genus,
Diamesinae subfamily of Diamesa genus, and Chironominae
subfamily of Chironomus genus, have been identified. In the
Cricotopus genus two sibling species were found, not distinguishable
by larval morphological features, but clearly distinct cytogenetically.
Abstract: A prototype of an anomaly detection system was
developed to automate process of recognizing an anomaly of
roentgen image by utilizing fuzzy histogram hyperbolization image
enhancement and back propagation artificial neural network.
The system consists of image acquisition, pre-processor, feature
extractor, response selector and output. Fuzzy Histogram
Hyperbolization is chosen to improve the quality of the roentgen
image. The fuzzy histogram hyperbolization steps consist of
fuzzyfication, modification of values of membership functions and
defuzzyfication. Image features are extracted after the the quality of
the image is improved. The extracted image features are input to the
artificial neural network for detecting anomaly. The number of nodes
in the proposed ANN layers was made small.
Experimental results indicate that the fuzzy histogram
hyperbolization method can be used to improve the quality of the
image. The system is capable to detect the anomaly in the roentgen
image.
Abstract: Operational safety of critical systems, such as nuclear power plants, industrial chemical processes and means of transportation, is a major concern for system engineers and operators. A means to assure that is on-line safety monitors that deliver three safety tasks; fault detection and diagnosis, alarm annunciation and fault controlling. While current monitors deliver these tasks, benefits and limitations in their approaches have at the same time been highlighted. Drawing from those benefits, this paper develops a distributed monitor based on semi-independent agents, i.e. a multiagent system, and monitoring knowledge derived from a safety assessment model of the monitored system. Agents are deployed hierarchically and provided with knowledge portions and collaboration protocols to reason and integrate over the operational conditions of the components of the monitored system. The monitor aims to address limitations arising from the large-scale, complicated behaviour and distributed nature of monitored systems and deliver the aforementioned three monitoring tasks effectively.
Abstract: Flexible manufacturing system is a system that is able to respond to changed conditions. In general, this flexibility is divided into two key categories and several subcategories. The first category is the so called machine flexibility which enables to make various products by the given machinery. The second category is routing flexibility enabling to execute the same operation by various machines. Flexible manufacturing systems usually consist of three main parts: CNC machine tools, transport system and control system. A higher level of flexible manufacturing systems is represented by the so called intelligent manufacturing systems.
Abstract: Australia, while being a large and eager consumer of
innovative and cutting edge Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT), continues to struggle to remain a leader in
Technological Innovation. This paper has two main contributions to
address certain aspects of this complex issue. The first being the
current findings of an ongoing research project on Information and
Innovation Management in the Australian Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) sector. The major issues being
considered by the project include: investigation of the possible
inherent entrepreneurial nature of ICT; how to foster ICT innovation;
and examination of the inherent difficulties currently found within
the ICT industry of Australia in regards to supporting the
development of innovative and creative ideas. The second major
contribution is details of the I.-C.A.N. (Innovation by Collaborative
Anonymous Networking) software application information
management tool created and evolving in our research group. I-CAN,
besides having a positive reinforcement acronym, is aimed at
facilitating productive collaborative innovation in an Australian
workplace. Such a work environment is frequently subjected to
cultural influences such as the 'tall poppy syndrome' and 'negative'
or 'unconstructive' peer-pressure. There influences are frequently
seen as inhibitors to employee participation, entrepreneurship and
innovation.