Abstract: The automatic construction of large, high-resolution
image vistas (mosaics) is an active area of research in the fields of
photogrammetry [1,2], computer vision [1,4], medical image
processing [4], computer graphics [3] and biometrics [8]. Image
stitching is one of the possible options to get image mosaics. Vista
Creation in image processing is used to construct an image with a
large field of view than that could be obtained with a single
photograph. It refers to transforming and stitching multiple images
into a new aggregate image without any visible seam or distortion in
the overlapping areas. Vista creation process aligns two partial
images over each other and blends them together. Image mosaics
allow one to compensate for differences in viewing geometry. Thus
they can be used to simplify tasks by simulating the condition in
which the scene is viewed from a fixed position with single camera.
While obtaining partial images the geometric anomalies like rotation,
scaling are bound to happen. To nullify effect of rotation of partial
images on process of vista creation, we are proposing rotation
invariant vista creation algorithm in this paper. Rotation of partial
image parts in the proposed method of vista creation may introduce
some missing region in the vista. To correct this error, that is to fill
the missing region further we have used image inpainting method on
the created vista. This missing view regeneration method also
overcomes the problem of missing view [31] in vista due to cropping,
irregular boundaries of partial image parts and errors in digitization
[35]. The method of missing view regeneration generates the missing
view of vista using the information present in vista itself.
Abstract: The theatre-auditorium under investigation following
the highly reflective characteristics of materials used in it (marble,
painted wood, smooth plaster, etc), architectural and structural
features of the Protocol and its intended use (very multifunctional:
Auditorium, theatre, cinema, musicals, conference room) from the
analysis of the statement of fact made by the acoustic simulation
software Ramsete and supported by data obtained through a
campaign of acoustic measurements of the state of fact made on the
spot by a Fonomet Svantek model SVAN 957, appears to be
acoustically inadequate. After the completion of the 3D model
according to the specifications necessary software used forecast in
order to be recognized by him, have made three simulations, acoustic
simulation of the state of and acoustic simulation of two design
solutions.
Improved noise characteristics found in the first design solution,
compared to the state in fact consists therefore in lowering
Reverberation Time that you turn most desirable value, while the
Indicators of Clarity, the Baricentric Time, the Lateral Efficiency,
Ratio of Low Tmedia BR and defined the Speech Intelligibility
improved significantly. Improved noise characteristics found instead
in the second design solution, as compared to first design solution, is
finally mostly in a more uniform distribution of Leq and in lowering
Reverberation Time that you turn the optimum values. Indicators of
Clarity, and the Lateral Efficiency improve further but at the expense
of a value slightly worse than the BR. Slightly vary the remaining
indices.
Abstract: This paper presents an analytical method to solve
governing consolidation parabolic partial differential equation (PDE)
for inelastic porous Medium (soil) with consideration of variation of
equation coefficient under cyclic loading. Since under cyclic loads,
soil skeleton parameters change, this would introduce variable
coefficient of parabolic PDE. Classical theory would not rationalize
consolidation phenomenon in such condition. In this research, a
method based on time space mapping to a virtual time space along
with superimposing rule is employed to solve consolidation of
inelastic soils in cyclic condition. Changes of consolidation
coefficient applied in solution by modification of loading and
unloading duration by introducing virtual time. Mapping function is
calculated based on consolidation partial differential equation results.
Based on superimposing rule a set of continuous static loads in
specified times used instead of cyclic load. A set of laboratory
consolidation tests under cyclic load along with numerical
calculations were performed in order to verify the presented method.
Numerical solution and laboratory tests results showed accuracy of
presented method.
Abstract: Process planning and production scheduling play
important roles in manufacturing systems. In this paper a multiobjective
mixed integer linear programming model is presented for
the integrated planning and scheduling of multi-product. The aim is
to find a set of high-quality trade-off solutions. This is a
combinatorial optimization problem with substantially large solution
space, suggesting that it is highly difficult to find the best solutions
with the exact search method. To account for it, a PSO-based
algorithm is proposed by fully utilizing the capability of the
exploration search and fast convergence. To fit the continuous PSO
in the discrete modeled problem, a solution representation is used in
the algorithm. The numerical experiments have been performed to
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Abstract: Evidence-based medicine is a new direction in modern healthcare. Its task is to prevent, diagnose and medicate diseases using medical evidence. Medical data about a large patient population is analyzed to perform healthcare management and medical research. In order to obtain the best evidence for a given disease, external clinical expertise as well as internal clinical experience must be available to the healthcare practitioners at right time and in the right manner. External evidence-based knowledge can not be applied directly to the patient without adjusting it to the patient-s health condition. We propose a data warehouse based approach as a suitable solution for the integration of external evidence-based data sources into the existing clinical information system and data mining techniques for finding appropriate therapy for a given patient and a given disease. Through integration of data warehousing, OLAP and data mining techniques in the healthcare area, an easy to use decision support platform, which supports decision making process of care givers and clinical managers, is built. We present three case studies, which show, that a clinical data warehouse that facilitates evidence-based medicine is a reliable, powerful and user-friendly platform for strategic decision making, which has a great relevance for the practice and acceptance of evidence-based medicine.
Abstract: Manufacturing Industries face a crucial change as products and processes are required to, easily and efficiently, be reconfigurable and reusable. In order to stay competitive and flexible, situations also demand distribution of enterprises globally, which requires implementation of efficient communication strategies. A prototype system called the “Broadcaster" has been developed with an assumption that the control environment description has been engineered using the Component-based system paradigm. This prototype distributes information to a number of globally distributed partners via an adoption of the circular-based data processing mechanism. The work highlighted in this paper includes the implementation of this mechanism in the domain of the manufacturing industry. The proposed solution enables real-time remote propagation of machine information to a number of distributed supply chain client resources such as a HMI, VRML-based 3D views and remote client instances regardless of their distribution nature and/ or their mechanisms. This approach is presented together with a set of evaluation results. Authors- main concentration surrounds the reliability and the performance metric of the adopted approach. Performance evaluation is carried out in terms of the response times taken to process the data in this domain and compared with an alternative data processing implementation such as the linear queue mechanism. Based on the evaluation results obtained, authors justify the benefits achieved from this proposed implementation and highlight any further research work that is to be carried out.
Abstract: For evaluating the severity of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), one is interested in inspecting the airway wall thickening due to inflammation. Although airway segmentations have being well developed to reconstruct in high order, airway wall segmentation remains a challenge task. While tackling such problem as a multi-surface segmentation, the interrelation within surfaces needs to be considered. We propose a new method for three-dimensional airway wall segmentation using spring structural active contour model. The method incorporates the gravitational field of the image and repelling force field of the inner lumen as the soft constraint and the geometric spring structure of active contour as the hard constraint to approximate a three-dimensional coupled surface readily for thickness measurements. The results show the preservation of topology constraints of coupled surfaces. In conclusion, our springy, soft-tissue-like structure ensures the globally optimal solution and waives the shortness following by the inevitable improper inner surface constraint.
Abstract: Discovery schools in Jordan are connected in one flat
ATM bridge network. All Schools connected to the network will hear
broadcast traffic. High percentage of unwanted traffic such as
broadcast, consumes the bandwidth between schools and QRC.
Routers in QRC have high CPU utilization. The number of
connections on the router is very high, and may exceed recommend
manufacturing specifications. One way to minimize number of
connections to the routers in QRC, and minimize broadcast traffic is
to use PPPoE. In this study, a PPPoE solution has been presented
which shows high performance for the clients when accessing the
school server resources. Despite the large number of the discovery
schools at MoE, the experimental results show that the PPPoE
solution is able to yield a satisfactory performance for each client at
the school and noticeably reduce the traffic broadcast to the QRC.
Abstract: In situ observation of absorption spectral change of
heptil viologen cation radical (HV+.) was performed by slab optical
waveguide (SOWG) spectroscopy utilizing indium-tin-oxide (ITO)
electrodes. Synchronizing with electrochemical techniques, we
observed the adsorption process of HV+.on the ITO electrode. In this
study, we carried out the ITO-SOWG observations using KBr aqueous
solution containing different concentration of HV to investigate the
concentration dependent spectral change. A few specific absorption
bands, which indicated HV+.existed as both monomer and dimer on
ITO electrode surface with a monolayer or a few layers deposition,
were observed in UV-visible region. The change in the peak position
of the absorption spectra from adsorption species of HV+. were
correlated with the concentration of HV as well as the electrode
potential.
Abstract: The renewable energy has been attracting attention as
a new alternative energy due to the problem of environmental
pollution and resource depletion. In particular, daylighting and PV
system are regarded as the solutions. In this paper, the hybrid
dimming control system supplied by solar cell and daylighting
system was designed. Daylighting system is main source and PV
system is spare source. PV system operates the LED lamp which
supports daylighting system because daylighting system is unstable
due to the variation of irradiance. In addition, PV system has a role
charging batteries. Battery charging has a benefit that PV system
operate LED lamp in the bad weather. However, LED lamp always
can`t turn on that-s why dimming control system was designed. In
particular, the solar charging robot was designed to check the
interior irradiance intensity. These systems and the application of
the solar charging robot are expected to contribute developing
alternative energy in the near future.
Abstract: The Minimum Vertex Cover (MVC) problem is a classic
graph optimization NP - complete problem. In this paper a competent
algorithm, called Vertex Support Algorithm (VSA), is designed to
find the smallest vertex cover of a graph. The VSA is tested on a
large number of random graphs and DIMACS benchmark graphs.
Comparative study of this algorithm with the other existing methods
has been carried out. Extensive simulation results show that the VSA
can yield better solutions than other existing algorithms found in the
literature for solving the minimum vertex cover problem.
Abstract: The menace of counterfeiting pharmaceuticals/drugs has become a major threat to consumers, healthcare providers, drug manufacturers and governments. It is a source of public health concern both in the developed and developing nations. Several solutions for detecting and authenticating counterfeit drugs have been adopted by different nations of the world. In this article, a dialogue system-based drug counterfeiting detection system was developed and the results of the user satisfaction and acceptability of the system are presented. The results show that the users were satisfied with the system and the system was widely accepted as a means of fighting counterfeited drugs.
Abstract: Learning programming is difficult for many learners. Some researches have found that the main difficulty relates to cognitive load. Cognitive overload happens in programming due to the nature of the subject which is intrinisicly over-bearing on the working memory. It happens due to the complexity of the subject itself. The problem is made worse by the poor instructional design methodology used in the teaching and learning process. Various efforts have been proposed to reduce the cognitive load, e.g. visualization softwares, part-program method etc. Use of many computer based systems have also been tried to tackle the problem. However, little success has been made to alleviate the problem. More has to be done to overcome this hurdle. This research attempts at understanding how cognitive load can be managed so as to reduce the problem of overloading. We propose a mechanism to measure the cognitive load during pre instruction, post instruction and in instructional stages of learning. This mechanism is used to help the instruction. As the load changes the instruction is made to adapt itself to ensure cognitive viability. This mechanism could be incorporated as a sub domain in the student model of various computer based instructional systems to facilitate the learning of programming.
Abstract: In this paper, a two-dimensional (2D) numerical
model for the tidal currents simulation in Persian Gulf is presented.
The model is based on the depth averaged equations of shallow water
which consider hydrostatic pressure distribution. The continuity
equation and two momentum equations including the effects of bed
friction, the Coriolis effects and wind stress have been solved. To
integrate the 2D equations, the Alternative Direction Implicit (ADI)
technique has been used. The base of equations discritization was
finite volume method applied on rectangular mesh. To evaluate the
model validation, a dam break case study including analytical
solution is selected and the comparison is done. After that, the
capability of the model in simulation of tidal current in a real field is
represented by modeling the current behavior in Persian Gulf. The
tidal fluctuations in Hormuz Strait have caused the tidal currents in
the area of study. Therefore, the water surface oscillations data at
Hengam Island on Hormoz Strait are used as the model input data.
The check point of the model is measured water surface elevations at
Assaluye port. The comparison between the results and the
acceptable agreement of them showed the model ability for modeling
marine hydrodynamic.
Abstract: In this paper, the existence of 2n positive periodic solutions for n species non-autonomous Lotka-Volterra cooperative systems with harvesting terms is established by using Mawhin-s continuation theorem of coincidence degree theory and matrix inequality. An example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of our results.
Abstract: One of the mayor problems of programming a cruise
circuit is to decide which destinations to include and which don-t.
Thus a decision problem emerges, that might be solved using a linear
and goal programming approach. The problem becomes more
complex if several boats in the fleet must be programmed in a limited
schedule, trying their capacity matches best a seasonal demand and
also attempting to minimize the operation costs. Moreover, the
programmer of the company should consider the time of the
passenger as a limited asset, and would like to maximize its usage.
The aim of this work is to design a method in which, using linear and
goal programming techniques, a model to design circuits for the
cruise company decision maker can achieve an optimal solution
within the fleet schedule.
Abstract: E-learning aims to build knowledge and skills in order
to enhance the quality of learning. Research has shown that the
majority of the e-learning solutions lack in pedagogical background
and present some serious deficiencies regarding teaching strategies
and content delivery, time and pace management, interface design
and preservation of learners- focus. The aim of this review is to
approach the design of e-learning solutions with a pedagogical
perspective and to present some good practices of e-learning design
grounded on the core principles of Learning Theories (LTs).
Abstract: In this research, we have developed a new efficient
heuristic algorithm for the dynamic facility layout problem with
budget constraint (DFLPB). This heuristic algorithm combines two
mathematical programming methods such as discrete event
simulation and linear integer programming (IP) to obtain a near
optimum solution. In the proposed algorithm, the non-linear model
of the DFLP has been changed to a pure integer programming (PIP)
model. Then, the optimal solution of the PIP model has been used in
a simulation model that has been designed in a similar manner as the
DFLP for determining the probability of assigning a facility to a
location. After a sufficient number of runs, the simulation model
obtains near optimum solutions. Finally, to verify the performance of
the algorithm, several test problems have been solved. The results
show that the proposed algorithm is more efficient in terms of speed
and accuracy than other heuristic algorithms presented in previous
works found in the literature.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel method that allows an
agent host to delegate its signing power to an anonymous mobile
agent in such away that the mobile agent does not reveal any information about its host-s identity and, at the same time, can be authenticated by the service host, hence, ensuring fairness of service
provision. The solution introduces a verification server to verify the
signature generated by the mobile agent in such a way that even if colluding with the service host, both parties will not get more information than what they already have. The solution incorporates
three methods: Agent Signature Key Generation method, Agent
Signature Generation method, Agent Signature Verification method.
The most notable feature of the solution is that, in addition to allowing secure and anonymous signature delegation, it enables
tracking of malicious mobile agents when a service host is attacked. The security properties of the proposed solution are analyzed, and the solution is compared with the most related work.
Abstract: Because nodes are usually battery-powered, the energy
presents a very scarce resource in wireless sensor networks. For this
reason, the design of medium access control had to take energy
efficiency as one of its hottest concerns. Accordingly, in order to
improve the energy performance of MAC schemes in wireless sensor
networks, several ways can be followed. In fact, some researchers try
to limit idle listening while others focus on mitigating overhearing
(i.e. a node can hear a packet which is destined to another node)
or reducing the number of the used control packets. We, in this
paper, propose a new hybrid MAC protocol termed ELE-MAC
(i.e. Energy Latency Efficient MAC). The ELE-MAC major design
goals are energy and latency efficiencies. It adopts less control
packets than SMAC in order to preserve energy. We carried out ns-
2 simulations to evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol.
Thus, our simulation-s results prove the ELE-MAC energy efficiency.
Additionally, our solution performs statistically the same or better
latency characteristic compared to adaptive SMAC.