Abstract: It has been defined that the “network is the system".
This implies providing levels of service, reliability, predictability and
availability that are commensurate with or better than those that
individual computers provide today. To provide this requires
integrated network management for interconnected networks of
heterogeneous devices covering both the local campus. In this paper
we are addressing a framework to effectively deal with this issue. It
consists of components and interactions between them which are
required to perform the service fault management. A real-world
scenario is used to derive the requirements which have been applied
to the component identification. An analysis of existing frameworks
and approaches with respect to their applicability to the framework is
also carried out.
Abstract: Oilsands bitumen is an extremely important source of
energy for North America. However, due to the presence of large
molecules such as asphaltenes, the density and viscosity of the
bitumen recovered from these sands are much higher than those of
conventional crude oil. As a result the extracted bitumen has to be
diluted with expensive solvents, or thermochemically upgraded in
large, capital-intensive conventional upgrading facilities prior to
pipeline transport. This study demonstrates that globally abundant
natural zeolites such as clinoptilolite from Saint Clouds, New Mexico
and Ca-chabazite from Bowie, Arizona can be used as very effective
reagents for cracking and visbreaking of oilsands bitumen. Natural
zeolite cracked oilsands bitumen products are highly recoverable (up
to ~ 83%) using light hydrocarbons such as pentane, which indicates
substantial conversion of heavier fractions to lighter components.
The resultant liquid products are much less viscous, and have lighter
product distribution compared to those produced from pure thermal
treatment. These natural minerals impart similar effect on industrially
extracted Athabasca bitumen.
Abstract: Ever increasing capacities of contemporary storage devices
inspire the vision to accumulate (personal) information without
the need of deleting old data over a long time-span. Hence the target
of SemanticLIFE project is to create a Personal Information Management
system for a human lifetime data. One of the most important
characteristics of the system is its dedication to retrieve information
in a very efficient way. By adopting user demands regarding the
reduction of ambiguities, our approach aims at a user-oriented and
yet powerful enough system with a satisfactory query performance.
We introduce the query system of SemanticLIFE, the Virtual Query
System, which uses emerging Semantic Web technologies to fulfill
users- requirements.
Abstract: Traditionally, Internet has provided best-effort service to every user regardless of its requirements. However, as Internet becomes universally available, users demand more bandwidth and applications require more and more resources, and interest has developed in having the Internet provide some degree of Quality of Service. Although QoS is an important issue, the question of how it will be brought into the Internet has not been solved yet. Researches, due to the rapid advances in technology are proposing new and more desirable capabilities for the next generation of IP infrastructures. But neither all applications demand the same amount of resources, nor all users are service providers. In this way, this paper is the first of a series of papers that presents an architecture as a first step to the optimization of QoS in the Internet environment as a solution to a SMSE's problem whose objective is to provide public service to internet with certain Quality of Service expectations. The service provides new business opportunities, but also presents new challenges. We have designed and implemented a scalable service framework that supports adaptive bandwidth based on user demands, and the billing based on usage and on QoS. The developed application has been evaluated and the results show that traffic limiting works at optimum and so it does exceeding bandwidth distribution. However, some considerations are done and currently research is under way in two basic areas: (i) development and testing new transfer protocols, and (ii) developing new strategies for traffic improvements based on service differentiation.
Abstract: With a surge of stream processing applications novel
techniques are required for generation and analysis of association
rules in streams. The traditional rule mining solutions cannot handle
streams because they generally require multiple passes over the data
and do not guarantee the results in a predictable, small time. Though
researchers have been proposing algorithms for generation of rules
from streams, there has not been much focus on their analysis.
We propose Association rule profiling, a user centric process for
analyzing association rules and attaching suitable profiles to them
depending on their changing frequency behavior over a previous
snapshot of time in a data stream.
Association rule profiles provide insights into the changing nature
of associations and can be used to characterize the associations. We
discuss importance of characteristics such as predictability of
linkages present in the data and propose metric to quantify it. We
also show how association rule profiles can aid in generation of user
specific, more understandable and actionable rules.
The framework is implemented as SUPAR: System for Usercentric
Profiling of Association Rules in streaming data. The
proposed system offers following capabilities:
i) Continuous monitoring of frequency of streaming item-sets
and detection of significant changes therein for association rule
profiling.
ii) Computation of metrics for quantifying predictability of
associations present in the data.
iii) User-centric control of the characterization process: user
can control the framework through a) constraint specification and b)
non-interesting rule elimination.
Abstract: IEEE 802.16 is a new wireless technology standard, it
has some advantages, including wider coverage, higher bandwidth,
and QoS support. As the new wireless technology for last mile
solution, there are designed two models in IEEE 802.16 standard. One
is PMP (point to multipoint) and the other is Mesh. In this paper we
only focus on IEEE 802.16 Mesh model. According to the IEEE
802.16 standard description, Mesh model has two scheduling modes,
centralized and distributed. Considering the pros and cons of the two
scheduling, we present the combined scheduling QoS framework that
the BS (Base Station) controls time frame scheduling and selects the
shortest path from source to destination directly. On the other hand, we
propose the Expedited Queue mechanism to cut down the transmission
time. The EQ mechanism can reduce a lot of end-to-end delay in our
QoS framework. Simulation study has shown that the average delay is
smaller than contrasts. Furthermore, our proposed scheme can also
achieve higher performance.
Abstract: In this paper, the periodic surveillance scheme has
been proposed for any convex region using mobile wireless sensor
nodes. A sensor network typically consists of fixed number of
sensor nodes which report the measurements of sensed data such as
temperature, pressure, humidity, etc., of its immediate proximity
(the area within its sensing range). For the purpose of sensing an
area of interest, there are adequate number of fixed sensor
nodes required to cover the entire region of interest. It implies
that the number of fixed sensor nodes required to cover a given
area will depend on the sensing range of the sensor as well as
deployment strategies employed. It is assumed that the sensors to
be mobile within the region of surveillance, can be mounted on
moving bodies like robots or vehicle. Therefore, in our
scheme, the surveillance time period determines the number of
sensor nodes required to be deployed in the region of interest.
The proposed scheme comprises of three algorithms namely:
Hexagonalization, Clustering, and Scheduling, The first algorithm
partitions the coverage area into fixed sized hexagons that
approximate the sensing range (cell) of individual sensor node.
The clustering algorithm groups the cells into clusters, each of
which will be covered by a single sensor node. The later
determines a schedule for each sensor to serve its respective cluster.
Each sensor node traverses all the cells belonging to the cluster
assigned to it by oscillating between the first and the last cell for
the duration of its life time. Simulation results show that our
scheme provides full coverage within a given period of time using
few sensors with minimum movement, less power consumption,
and relatively less infrastructure cost.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose an improvement of pattern
growth-based PrefixSpan algorithm, called I-PrefixSpan. The general idea of I-PrefixSpan is to use sufficient data structure for Seq-Tree
framework and separator database to reduce the execution time and
memory usage. Thus, with I-PrefixSpan there is no in-memory database stored after index set is constructed. The experimental result
shows that using Java 2, this method improves the speed of PrefixSpan up to almost two orders of magnitude as well as the memory usage to more than one order of magnitude.
Abstract: The Application of e-health solutions has brought superb advancements in the health care industry. E-health solutions have already been embraced in the industrialized countries. In an effort to catch up with the growth, the developing countries have strived to revolutionize the healthcare industry by use of Information technology in different ways. Based on a technology assessment carried out in Kenya – one of the developing countries – and using multiple case studies in Nyanza Province, this work focuses on an investigation on how five rural hospitals are adapting to the technology shift. The issues examined include the ICT infrastructure and e-health technologies in place, the knowledge of participants in terms of benefits gained through the use of ICT and the challenges posing barriers to the use of ICT technologies in these hospitals. The results reveal that the ICT infrastructure in place is inadequate for e-health implementations as a result to various challenges that exist. Consequently, suggestions on how to tackle the various challenges have been addressed in this paper.
Abstract: This paper presents the effectiveness of artificial
intelligent technique to apply for pattern recognition and
classification of Partial Discharge (PD). Characteristics of PD signal
for pattern recognition and classification are computed from the
relation of the voltage phase angle, the discharge magnitude and the
repeated existing of partial discharges by using statistical and fractal
methods. The simplified fuzzy ARTMAP (SFAM) is used for pattern
recognition and classification as artificial intelligent technique. PDs
quantities, 13 parameters from statistical method and fractal method
results, are inputted to Simplified Fuzzy ARTMAP to train system
for pattern recognition and classification. The results confirm the
effectiveness of purpose technique.
Abstract: Mixed convection in two-dimensional shallow rectangular enclosure is considered. The top hot wall moves with constant velocity while the cold bottom wall has no motion. Simulations are performed for Richardson number ranging from Ri = 0.001 to 100 and for Reynolds number keeping fixed at Re = 408.21. Under these conditions cavity encompasses three regimes: dominating forced, mixed and free convection flow. The Prandtl number is set to 6 and the effects of cavity inclination on the flow and heat transfer are studied for different Richardson number. With increasing the inclination angle, interesting behavior of the flow and thermal fields are observed. The streamlines and isotherm plots and the variation of the Nusselt numbers on the hot wall are presented. The average Nusselt number is found to increase with cavity inclination for Ri ³ 1 . Also it is shown that the average Nusselt number changes mildly with the cavity inclination in the dominant forced convection regime but it increases considerably in the regime with dominant natural convection.
Abstract: Mobile ad hoc network is a collection of mobile
nodes communicating through wireless channels without any existing
network infrastructure or centralized administration. Because of the
limited transmission range of wireless network interfaces, multiple
"hops" may be needed to exchange data across the network. In order
to facilitate communication within the network, a routing protocol is
used to discover routes between nodes. The primary goal of such an
ad hoc network routing protocol is correct and efficient route
establishment between a pair of nodes so that messages may be
delivered in a timely manner. Route construction should be done
with a minimum of overhead and bandwidth consumption. This paper
examines two routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks– the
Destination Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV), the table- driven
protocol and the Ad hoc On- Demand Distance Vector routing
(AODV), an On –Demand protocol and evaluates both protocols
based on packet delivery fraction, normalized routing load, average
delay and throughput while varying number of nodes, speed and
pause time.
Abstract: The hydrothermal behavior of a bed consisting of
magnetic and shale oil particle admixtures under the effect of a
transverse magnetic field is investigated. The phase diagram, bed
void fraction are studied under wide range of the operating
conditions i.e., gas velocity, magnetic field intensity and fraction of
the magnetic particles. It is found that the range of the stabilized
regime is reduced as the magnetic fraction decreases. In addition, the
bed voidage at the onset of fluidization decreases as the magnetic
fraction decreases. On the other hand, Nusselt number and
consequently the heat transfer coefficient is found to increase as the
magnetic fraction decreases. An empirical equation is investigated to
relate the effect of the gas velocity, magnetic field intensity and
fraction of the magnetic particles on the heat transfer behavior in the
bed.
Abstract: This research explores visitor-s expectations of service
quality in intelligent living space showroom – Living 3.0 in Taiwan.
Based on the five dimensions of PZB service quality, a specialist
questionnaire is utilized to establish a complete service quality
evaluation framework for Living 3.0. In this research, analysis
hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to find the relative weights among
the criteria. Finally, the service quality evaluation framework and
evaluation results can be used as a guide for Living 3.0 proprietors to
review, improve, and enhance service planning and service qualities in
the future.
Abstract: The presence of chemical bonding between functionalized carbon nanotubes and matrix in carbon nanotube reinforced composites is modeled by elastic beam elements representing covalent bonding characteristics. Neglecting other reinforcing mechanisms in the composite such as relatively weak interatomic Van der Waals forces, this model shows close results to the Rule of Mixtures model-s prediction for effective Young-s modulus of a Representative Volume Element of composite for small volume fractions (~1%) and high aspect ratios (L/D>200) of CNTs.
Abstract: Technology transfer is a common method for
companies to acquire new technology and presents both challenges
and substantial benefits. In some cases especially in developing
countries, the mere possession of technology does not guarantee a
competitive advantage if the appropriate infrastructure is not in place.
In this paper, we identify the localization factors needed to provide a
better understanding of the conditions necessary for localization in
order to benefit from future technology developments. Our
theoretical and empirical analyses allow us to identify several factors
in the technology transfer process that affect localization and provide
leverage in enhancing capabilities and absorptive capacity.The
impact factors are categorized within different groups of government,
firms, institutes and market, and are verified through the empirical
survey of a technology transfer experience. Moreover, statistical
analysis has allowed a deeper understanding of the importance of
each factor and has enabled each group to prioritize their
organizational policies to effectively localize their technology.
Abstract: Ice cover County has a significant impact on rivers as it affects with the ice melting capacity which results in flooding, restrict navigation, modify the ecosystem and microclimate. River ices are made up of different ice types with varying ice thickness, so surveillance of river ice plays an important role. River ice types are captured using infrared imaging camera which captures the images even during the night times. In this paper the river ice infrared texture images are analysed using first-order statistical methods and secondorder statistical methods. The second order statistical methods considered are spatial gray level dependence method, gray level run length method and gray level difference method. The performance of the feature extraction methods are evaluated by using Probabilistic Neural Network classifier and it is found that the first-order statistical method and second-order statistical method yields low accuracy. So the features extracted from the first-order statistical method and second-order statistical method are combined and it is observed that the result of these combined features (First order statistical method + gray level run length method) provides higher accuracy when compared with the features from the first-order statistical method and second-order statistical method alone.
Abstract: Prior research evidenced that unimodal biometric
systems have several tradeoffs like noisy data, intra-class variations,
restricted degrees of freedom, non-universality, spoof attacks, and
unacceptable error rates. In order for the biometric system to be more
secure and to provide high performance accuracy, more than one
form of biometrics are required. Hence, the need arise for multimodal
biometrics using combinations of different biometric modalities. This
paper introduces a multimodal biometric system (MMBS) based on
fusion of whole dorsal hand geometry and fingerprints that acquires
right and left (Rt/Lt) near-infra-red (NIR) dorsal hand geometry (HG)
shape and (Rt/Lt) index and ring fingerprints (FP). Database of 100
volunteers were acquired using the designed prototype. The acquired
images were found to have good quality for all features and patterns
extraction to all modalities. HG features based on the hand shape
anatomical landmarks were extracted. Robust and fast algorithms for
FP minutia points feature extraction and matching were used. Feature
vectors that belong to similar biometric traits were fused using
feature fusion methodologies. Scores obtained from different
biometric trait matchers were fused using the Min-Max
transformation-based score fusion technique. Final normalized scores
were merged using the sum of scores method to obtain a single
decision about the personal identity based on multiple independent
sources. High individuality of the fused traits and user acceptability
of the designed system along with its experimental high performance
biometric measures showed that this MMBS can be considered for
med-high security levels biometric identification purposes.
Abstract: Single crystals of Magnesium alloys such as pure Mg,
Mg-1Zn-0.5Y, Mg-0.1Y, and Mg-0.1Ce alloys were successfully
fabricated in this study by employing the modified Bridgman method.
To determine the exact orientation of crystals, pole figure
measurement using X-ray diffraction were carried out on each single
crystal. Hardness and compression tests were conducted followed by
subsequent recrysatllization annealing. Recrystallization kinetics of
Mg alloy single crystals has been investigated. Fabricated single
crystals were cut into rectangular shaped specimen and solution
treated at 400oC for 24 hrs, and then deformed in compression mode
by 30% reduction. Annealing treatment for recrystallization has been
conducted on these cold-rolled plates at temperatures of 300oC for
various times from 1 to 20 mins. The microstructure observation and
hardness measurement conducted on the recrystallized specimens
revealed that static recrystallization of ternary alloy single crystal was
very slow, while recrystallization behavior of binary alloy single
crystals appeared to be very fast.
Abstract: Development of a Robust Supply Chain for Dynamic
Operating Environment as we move further into the twenty first
century, organisations are under increasing pressure to deliver a high
product variation at a reasonable cost without compromise in quality.
In a number of cases this will take the form of a customised or high
variety low volume manufacturing system that requires prudent
management of resources, among a number of functions, to achieve
competitive advantage. Purchasing and Supply Chain management is
one of such function and due to the substantial interaction with
external elements needs to be strategically managed. This requires a
number of primary and supporting tools that will enable the
appropriate decisions to be made rapidly. This capability is
especially vital in a dynamic environment as it provides a pivotal role
in increasing the profit margin of the product. The management of
this function can be challenging by itself and even more for Small
and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) due to the limited resources and
expertise available at their disposal.
This paper discusses the development of tools and concepts
towards effectively managing the purchasing and supply chain
function. The developed tools and concepts will provide a cost
effective way of managing this function within SMEs. The paper
further shows the use of these tools within Contechs, a manufacturer
of luxury boat interiors, and the associated benefits achieved as a
result of this implementation. Finally a generic framework towards
use in such environments is presented.