Abstract: An algorithm is a well-defined procedure that takes
some input in the form of some values, processes them and gives the
desired output. It forms the basis of many other algorithms such as
searching, pattern matching, digital filters etc., and other applications
have been found in database systems, data statistics and processing,
data communications and pattern matching. This paper introduces
algorithmic “Enhanced Bidirectional Selection” sort which is
bidirectional, stable. It is said to be bidirectional as it selects two
values smallest from the front and largest from the rear and assigns
them to their appropriate locations thus reducing the number of
passes by half the total number of elements as compared to selection
sort.
Abstract: The paper follows a discourse on computer-assisted
language learning. We examine problems of foreign language
teaching and learning and introduce a metamodel that can be used to
define learning models of language grammar structures in order to
support teacher/student interaction. Special attention is paid to the
concept of a virtual language lab. Our approach to language
education assumes to encourage learners to experiment with a
language and to learn by discovering patterns of grammatically
correct structures created and managed by a language expert.
Abstract: The electric power supplied by a photovoltaic power
generation systems depends on the solar irradiation and temperature.
The PV system can supply the maximum power to the load at a
particular operating point which is generally called as maximum
power point (MPP), at which the entire PV system operates with
maximum efficiency and produces its maximum power. Hence, a
Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods are used to
maximize the PV array output power by tracking continuously the
maximum power point. The proposed MPPT controller is designed
for 10kW solar PV system installed at Cape Institute of Technology.
This paper presents the fuzzy logic based MPPT algorithm. However,
instead of one type of membership function, different structures of
fuzzy membership functions are used in the FLC design. The
proposed controller is combined with the system and the results are
obtained for each membership functions in Matlab/Simulink
environment. Simulation results are decided that which membership
function is more suitable for this system.
Abstract: The research conducted in early seventies apparently
assumed the existence of a universal decision model for union
negotiators and furthermore tended to regard financial information as
a ‘neutral’ input into a rational decision making process. However,
research in the eighties began to question the neutrality of financial
information as an input in collective bargaining rather viewing it as a
potentially effective means for controlling the labour force.
Furthermore, this later research also started challenging the simplistic
assumptions relating particularly to union objectives which have
underpinned the earlier search for universal union decision models.
Despite the above developments there seems to be a dearth of studies
in developing countries concerning the use of financial information in
collective bargaining. This paper seeks to begin to remedy this
deficiency. Utilising a case study approach based on two enterprises,
one in the public sector and the other a multinational, the universal
decision model is rejected and it is argued that the decision whether
or not to use financial information is a contingent one and such a
contingency is largely defined by the context and environment in
which both union and management negotiators work. An attempt is
also made to identify the factors constraining as well as promoting
the use of financial information in collective bargaining, these being
regarded as unique to the organisations within which the case studies
are conducted.
Abstract: Images are important source of information used as
evidence during any investigation process. Their clarity and accuracy
is essential and of the utmost importance for any investigation.
Images are vulnerable to losing blocks and having noise added to
them either after alteration or when the image was taken initially,
therefore, having a high performance image processing system and it
is implementation is very important in a forensic point of view. This
paper focuses on improving the quality of the forensic images.
For different reasons packets that store data can be affected,
harmed or even lost because of noise. For example, sending the
image through a wireless channel can cause loss of bits. These types
of errors might give difficulties generally for the visual display
quality of the forensic images.
Two of the images problems: noise and losing blocks are covered.
However, information which gets transmitted through any way of
communication may suffer alteration from its original state or even
lose important data due to the channel noise. Therefore, a developed
system is introduced to improve the quality and clarity of the forensic
images.
Abstract: As enterprise computing becomes more and more
complex, the costs and technical challenges of IT system maintenance
and support are increasing rapidly. One popular approach to managing
IT system maintenance is to prepare and use a FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions) system to manage and reuse systems knowledge. Such a
FAQ system can help reduce the resolution time for each service
incident ticket. However, there is a major problem where over time the
knowledge in such FAQs tends to become outdated. Much of the
knowledge captured in the FAQ requires periodic updates in response
to new insights or new trends in the problems addressed in order to
maintain its usefulness for problem resolution. These updates require a
systematic approach to define the exact portion of the FAQ and its
content. Therefore, we are working on a novel method to
hierarchically structure the FAQ and automate the updates of its
structure and content. We use structured information and the
unstructured text information with the timelines of the information in
the service incident tickets. We cluster the tickets by structured
category information, by keywords, and by keyword modifiers for the
unstructured text information. We also calculate an urgency score
based on trends, resolution times, and priorities. We carefully studied
the tickets of one of our projects over a 2.5-year time period. After the
first 6 months we started to create FAQs and confirmed they improved
the resolution times. We continued observing over the next 2 years to
assess the ongoing effectiveness of our method for the automatic FAQ
updates. We improved the ratio of tickets covered by the FAQ from
32.3% to 68.9% during this time. Also, the average time reduction of
ticket resolution was between 31.6% and 43.9%. Subjective analysis
showed more than 75% reported that the FAQ system was useful in
reducing ticket resolution times.
Abstract: Oases are complex and fragile agro-ecosystems. They
have always existed in environments characterized by an arid climate,
scarcity of rainfall, high temperatures and high evaporation. These
palms have grown up despite the severity of the physical
characteristics thanks to the water's existence and irrigation practice.
The oases are generally spread along non-perennial rivers (wadis),
shallow water table or deep artesian groundwater. However, the
sustainability of oasis system is threatened by water scarcity and
declining of water table levels particularly in arid areas. Located in
the southern east area of Morocco, Tafilalet plain encompasses one of
the largest palm groves in the kingdom. In recent years, this area has
become increasingly threatened by water shortage and has seen a
sharp deterioration under the effect of several combined
anthropogenic and climatic factors. The Bayoud disease, successive
years of drought, Hassan Addakhil dam construction etc are all
factors that have affected both water and phoenicicole heritage of the
area. The objective of this study is to understand the interaction
between qualitative and quantitative degradation of groundwater
resources, and the palm grove dynamics, while reviewing the
assumption that groundwater resources contribute in a direct way to
the conservation of this oasis agroecosystem. A historical analysis
tracing both the oasis dynamics and the groundwater evolution has
been established. Data were collected from satellite images, surveys
with different actors (farmers, Regional Office for Agricultural
Development, Basin agency...). They were complemented by a
synthesis of numerous technical reports in the area. The results
showed that within 40 years, the thickness of the groundwater table
has dropped in 50 %. Along with this, there has been a downsizing of
date palm by 50 %. Areas with higher groundwater level were the
least affected by the downsizing. So we can say that the shallow
groundwater contribute significantly and directly to the water supply
of date palm through its root system, and largely ensures the oasis
ecosystem sustainability.
Abstract: Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a network of many interconnected networked systems, they equipped with energy resources and they are used to detect other physical characteristics. On WSN, there are many researches are performed in past decades. WSN applicable in many security systems govern by military and in many civilian related applications. Thus, the security of WSN gets attention of researchers and gives an opportunity for many future aspects. Still, there are many other issues are related to deployment and overall coverage, scalability, size, energy efficiency, quality of service (QoS), computational power and many more. In this paper we discus about various applications and security related issue and requirements of WSN.
Abstract: This article is deal with the experimental
investigations of the laser diode matrixes (LDM) based on the
AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures (lasing wavelength 790-880 nm) to
find optimal LDM parameters for active vision systems. In particular,
the dependence of LDM radiation pulse power on the pulse duration
and LDA active layer heating as well as the LDM radiation
divergence are discussed.
Abstract: Currently, seismic probabilistic risk assessments
(SPRA) for nuclear facilities use In-Structure Response Spectra
(ISRS) in the calculation of fragilities for systems and components.
ISRS are calculated via dynamic analyses of the host building
subjected to two orthogonal components of horizontal ground
motion. Each component is defined as the median motion in any
horizontal direction. Structural engineers applied the components
along selected X and Y Cartesian axes. The ISRS at different
locations in the building are also calculated in the X and Y directions.
The choice of the directions of X and Y are not specified by the
ground motion model with respect to geographic coordinates, and are
rather arbitrarily selected by the structural engineer. Normally, X and
Y coincide with the “principal” axes of the building, in the
understanding that this practice is generally conservative. For SPRA
purposes, however, it is desirable to remove any conservatism in the
estimates of median ISRS. This paper examines the effects of the
direction of horizontal seismic motion on the ISRS on typical nuclear
structure. We also evaluate the variability of ISRS calculated along
different horizontal directions. Our results indicate that some central
measures of the ISRS provide robust estimates that are practically
independent of the selection of the directions of the horizontal
Cartesian axes.
Abstract: In this paper an isolated wind-diesel hybrid power
system has been considered for reactive power control study having
an induction generator for wind power conversion and synchronous
alternator with automatic voltage regulator (AVR) for diesel unit is
presented. The dynamic voltage stability evaluation is dependent on
small signal analysis considering a Static VAR Compensator (SVC)
and IEEE type -I excitation system. It's shown that the variable
reactive power source like SVC is crucial to meet the varying
demand of reactive power by induction generator and load and to
acquire an excellent voltage regulation of the system with minimum
fluctuations. Integral square error (ISE) criterion can be used to
evaluate the optimum setting of gain parameters. Finally the dynamic
responses of the power systems considered with optimum gain setting
will also be presented.
Abstract: In today’s highly competitive, dynamic and
technology driven business circumstances, marketers are under
steady pressure to deliver the best. Organizations are continuously
improving and upgrading themselves to meet customer expectations
and demands. Technology has not only changed the way in which
business is done in modern times but has also transformed the way to
reach out to target audience. Marketers have identified most recent
media options to communicate and convince potential customers.
Numerous scholars have studied the research domain of advertising
and have tried to recognize different measures of advertisement
effectiveness in context of various media. The objective of this paper
is to critically review accessible literature on advertisement
effectiveness in context of varied advertising media, recognize major
gaps in the literature and identify future research prospects on the
basis of critical analysis of literature.
Abstract: Skin detection is an important task for computer
vision systems. A good method of skin detection means a good and
successful result of the system.
The colour is a good descriptor for image segmentation and
classification; it allows detecting skin colour in the images. The
lighting changes and the objects that have a colour similar than skin
colour make the operation of skin detection difficult.
In this paper, we proposed a method using the YCbCr colour space
for skin detection and lighting effects elimination, then we use the
information of texture to eliminate the false regions detected by the
YCbCr skin model.
Abstract: This paper illustrates the effect of nano Magnesium
Hydroxide (MH) loading on the thermal properties of Low Density
Polyethylene (LDPE)/Poly (ethylene-co vinyl acetate) (EVA) nano
composite. Thermal studies were conducted, as it understanding is
vital for preliminary development of new polymeric systems.
Thermal analysis of nanocomposite was conducted using thermo
gravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry
(DSC). Major finding of TGA indicated two main stages of
degradation process found at (350 ± 25oC) and (480 ± 25oC)
respectively. Nano metal filler expressed better fire resistance as it
stand over high degree of temperature. Furthermore, DSC analysis
provided a stable glass temperature around 51 (±1oC) and captured
double melting point at 84 (±2oC) and 108 (±2oC). This binary
melting point reflects the modification of nano filler to the polymer
matrix forming melting crystals of folded and extended chain. The
percent crystallinity of the samples grew vividly with increasing filler
content. Overall, increasing the filler loading improved the
degradation temperature and weight loss evidently and a better
process and phase stability was captured in DSC.
Abstract: Maturity models, used descriptively to explain
changes in reality or normatively to guide managers to make
interventions to make organizations more effective and efficient, are
based on the principles of statistical quality control and PDCA
continuous improvement (Plan, Do, Check, Act). Some frameworks
developed over the concept of maturity models include COBIT,
CMM, and ITIL.
This paper presents some limitations of traditional maturity
models, most of them related to the mechanistic and reductionist
principles over which those models are built. As systems theory helps
the understanding of the dynamics of organizations and
organizational change, the development of a systemic maturity model
can help to overcome some of those limitations.
This document proposes a systemic maturity model, based on a
systemic conceptualization of organizations, focused on the study of
the functioning of the parties, the relationships among them, and their
behavior as a whole. The concept of maturity from the system theory
perspective is conceptually defined as an emergent property of the
organization, which arises as a result of the degree of alignment and
integration of their processes. This concept is operationalized through
a systemic function that measures the maturity of organizations, and
finally validated by the measuring of maturity in some organizations.
For its operationalization and validation, the model was applied to
measure the maturity of organizational Governance, Risk and
Compliance (GRC) processes.
Abstract: Many problems in science and engineering field require
the solution of shifted linear systems with multiple right hand
sides and multiple shifts. To solve such systems efficiently, the
implicitly restarted global GMRES algorithm is extended in this
paper. However, the shift invariant property could no longer hold over
the augmented global Krylov subspace due to adding the harmonic
Ritz matrices. To remedy this situation, we enforce the collinearity
condition on the shifted system and propose shift implicitly restarted
global GMRES. The new method not only improves the convergence
but also has a potential to simultaneously compute approximate
solution for the shifted systems using only as many matrix vector
multiplications as the solution of the seed system requires. In
addition, some numerical experiments also confirm the effectiveness
of our method.
Abstract: Frequency stability of microgrids under islanded
operation attracts particular attention recently. A new cooperative
frequency control strategy based on centralized multi-agent system
(CMAS) is proposed in this study. Based on this strategy, agents sent
data and furthermore each component has its own to center operating
decisions (MGCC).After deciding on the information, they are
returned. Frequency control strategies include primary and secondary
frequency control and disposal of multi-stage load in which this study
will also provide a method and algorithm for load shedding. This
could also be a big problem for the performance of micro-grid in
times of disaster. The simulation results show the promising
performance of the proposed structure of the controller based on
multi agent systems.
Abstract: Artificial Immune Systems (AIS), inspired by the
human immune system, are algorithms and mechanisms which are
self-adaptive and self-learning classifiers capable of recognizing and
classifying by learning, long-term memory and association. Unlike
other human system inspired techniques like genetic algorithms and
neural networks, AIS includes a range of algorithms modeling on
different immune mechanism of the body. In this paper, a mechanism
of a human immune system based on apoptosis is adopted to build an
Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to protect computer networks.
Features are selected from network traffic using Fisher Score. Based
on the selected features, the record/connection is classified as either
an attack or normal traffic by the proposed methodology. Simulation
results demonstrates that the proposed AIS based on apoptosis
performs better than existing AIS for intrusion detection.
Abstract: City shrinkage is one of the thorny problems that many
European cities have to face with nowadays. It is mainly expressed as
the decrease of population in these cities. Eastern Germany is one of
the pioneers of European shrinking cities with long shrinking history.
The paper selects one representative shrinking city Halle (Saale) in
eastern Germany as research objective, collecting and investigating
nearly 20 years (1993-2010) municipal data after the reunification of
Germany. These data based on five dimensions, which are
demographic, economic, social, spatial and environmental and total 16
eligible variables. Factor Analysis is used to deal with these variables
in order to assess the most important factors affecting shrinking Halle.
The results show that there are three main factors determine the
shrinkage of Halle, respectively named “demographical and
economical factor”, “social stability factor”, and “city vitality factor”.
The three factors act at different time period of Halle’s shrinkage: from
1993 to 1997 the demographical and economical factor played an
important role; from 1997 to 2004 the social stability factor is
significant to city shrinkage; since 2005 city vitality factor determines
the shrinkage of Halle. In recent years, the shrinkage in Halle mitigates
that shows the sign of growing population. Thus the city Halle should
focus on attaching more importance on the city vitality factor to
prevent the city from shrinkage. Meanwhile, the city should possess a
positive perspective to shift the growth-oriented development to tap
the potential of shrinking cities. This method is expected to apply to
further research and other shrinking cities
Abstract: This review summarizes the potential of starch
agroindustrial residues as substrate for biohydrogen production.
Types of potential starch agroindustrial residues, recent developments
and bio-processing conditions for biohydrogen production will be
discussed. Biohydrogen is a clean energy source with great potential
to be an alternative fuel, because it releases energy explosively in
heat engines or generates electricity in fuel cells producing water as
only by-product. Anaerobic hydrogen fermentation or dark
fermentation seems to be more favorable, since hydrogen is yielded
at high rates and various organic waste enriched with carbohydrates
as substrate result in low cost for hydrogen production. Abundant
biomass from various industries could be source for biohydrogen
production where combination of waste treatment and energy
production would be an advantage. Carbohydrate-rich nitrogendeficient
solid wastes such as starch residues can be used for
hydrogen production by using suitable bioprocess technologies.
Alternatively, converting biomass into gaseous fuels, such as
biohydrogen is possibly the most efficient way to use these
agroindustrial residues.