Abstract: In this paper, an Interactive Compromise Approach
with Particle Swarm Optimization(ICA-PSO) is presented to solve the
Economic Emission Dispatch(EED) problem. The cost function and
emission function are modeled as the nonsmooth functions,
respectively. The bi-objective including both the minimization of cost
and emission is formulated in this paper. ICA-PSO is proposed to
solve EED problem for finding a better compromise solution. The
solution methodology can offer a global or near-global solution for
decision-making requirements. The effectiveness and efficiency of
ICA-PSO are demonstrated by a sample test system. Test results can
be shown that the proposed method provide a practical and flexible
framework for power dispatch.
Abstract: In this paper, we address the problem of adaptive radio
resource allocation (RRA) and packet scheduling in the downlink of a
cellular OFDMA system, and propose a downlink multi-carrier
proportional fair (MPF) scheduler and its joint with adaptive RRA
algorithm to distribute radio resources among multiple users according
to their individual QoS requirements. The allocation and scheduling
objective is to maximize the total throughput, while at the same time
maintaining the fairness among users. The simulation results
demonstrate that the methods presented provide for user more explicit
fairness relative to RRA algorithm, but the joint scheme achieves the
higher sum-rate capacity with flexible parameters setting compared
with MPF scheduler.
Abstract: Housebuilders in England have been the target of numerous government policies in recent years promoting increased productivity and affordability. As a result, the housebuilding industry is currently faced with objectives to improve the affordability and sustainability of new homes whilst also increasing production rates to 240,000 per year by 2016.Yet amidst a faltering economic climate, the UK Government is forging ahead with the 'Code for Sustainable Homes', which includes stringent sustainable standards for all new homes and sets ambitious targets for the housebuilding industry, the culmination of which is the production of zero carbon homes by 2016.Great uncertainty exists amongst housebuilders as to the costs, benefits and risks of building zero carbon homes. This paper examines the key barriers to zero carbon homes from housebuilders- perspective. A comprehensive opinion on the challenges to deliver zero carbon homes is gathered through a questionnaire survey issued to the major housing developers in England. The study found that a number of cultural, legislative, and financial barriers stand in the way of the widespread construction of zero carbon homes. The study concludes with several recommendations to both the Government and the housebuilding industry to address the barriers that hinder a successful delivery of zero carbon homes in England.
Abstract: The artificial intelligent controller in power system
plays as most important rule for many applications such as system
operation and its control specially Load Frequency Controller (LFC).
The main objective of LFC is to keep the frequency and tie-line power
close to their decidable bounds in case of disturbance. In this paper,
parallel fuzzy PI adaptive with conventional PD technique for Load
Frequency Control system was proposed. PSO optimization method
used to optimize both of scale fuzzy PI and tuning of PD. Two equal
interconnected power system areas were used as a test system.
Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed controller
compared with different PID and classical fuzzy PI controllers in terms
of speed response and damping frequency.
Abstract: The importance of low power consumption is widely
acknowledged due to the increasing use of portable devices, which
require minimizing the consumption of energy. Energy dissipation is
heavily dependent on the software used in the system. Applying
design patterns in object-oriented designs is a common practice
nowadays. In this paper we analyze six design patterns and explore
the effect of them on energy consumption and performance.
Abstract: An application framework provides a reusable design
and implementation for a family of software systems. If the
framework contains defects, the defects will be passed on to the
applications developed from the framework. Framework defects are
hard to discover at the time the framework is instantiated. Therefore,
it is important to remove all defects before instantiating the
framework. In this paper, two measures for the adequacy of an
object-oriented system-based testing technique are introduced. The
measures assess the usefulness and uniqueness of the testing
technique. The two measures are applied to experimentally compare
the adequacy of two testing techniques introduced to test objectoriented
frameworks at the system level. The two considered testing
techniques are the New Framework Test Approach and Testing
Frameworks Through Hooks (TFTH). The techniques are also
compared analytically in terms of their coverage power of objectoriented
aspects. The comparison study results show that the TFTH
technique is better than the New Framework Test Approach in terms
of usefulness degree, uniqueness degree, and coverage power.
Abstract: Software complexity metrics are used to predict
critical information about reliability and maintainability of software
systems. Object oriented software development requires a different
approach to software complexity metrics. Object Oriented Software
Metrics can be broadly classified into static and dynamic metrics.
Static Metrics give information at the code level whereas dynamic
metrics provide information on the actual runtime. In this paper we
will discuss the various complexity metrics, and the comparison
between static and dynamic complexity.
Abstract: A hybrid feature based adaptive particle filter algorithm is presented for object tracking in real scenarios with static camera.
The hybrid feature is combined by two effective features: the Grayscale Arranging Pairs (GAP) feature and the color histogram feature. The GAP feature has high discriminative ability even under conditions of severe illumination variation and dynamic background
elements, while the color histogram feature has high reliability to identify the detected objects. The combination of two features covers the shortage of single feature. Furthermore, we adopt an updating
target model so that some external problems such as visual angles can be overcame well. An automatic initialization algorithm is introduced which provides precise initial positions of objects. The experimental
results show the good performance of the proposed method.
Abstract: With data centers, end-users can realize the pervasiveness of services that will be one day the cornerstone of our lives. However, data centers are often classified as computing systems that consume the most amounts of power. To circumvent such a problem, we propose a self-adaptive weighted sum methodology that jointly optimizes the performance and power consumption of any given data center. Compared to traditional methodologies for multi-objective optimization problems, the proposed self-adaptive weighted sum technique does not rely on a systematical change of weights during the optimization procedure. The proposed technique is compared with the greedy and LR heuristics for large-scale problems, and the optimal solution for small-scale problems implemented in LINDO. the experimental results revealed that the proposed selfadaptive weighted sum technique outperforms both of the heuristics and projects a competitive performance compared to the optimal solution.
Abstract: The new concept of two–dimensional (2D) image
processing implementation for auto-guiding system is shown in this
paper. It is dedicated to astrophotography and operates with
astronomy CCD guide cameras or with self-guided dual-detector
CCD cameras and ST4 compatible equatorial mounts. This idea was
verified by MATLAB model, which was used to test all procedures
and data conversions. Next the circuit prototype was implemented at
Altera MAX II CPLD device and tested for real astronomical object
images. The digital processing speed of CPLD prototype board was
sufficient for correct equatorial mount guiding in real-time system.
Abstract: One of the major, difficult tasks in automated video
surveillance is the segmentation of relevant objects in the scene.
Current implementations often yield inconsistent results on average
from frame to frame when trying to differentiate partly occluding
objects. This paper presents an efficient block-based segmentation
algorithm which is capable of separating partly occluding objects and
detecting shadows. It has been proven to perform in real time with a
maximum duration of 47.48 ms per frame (for 8x8 blocks on a
720x576 image) with a true positive rate of 89.2%. The flexible
structure of the algorithm enables adaptations and improvements with
little effort. Most of the parameters correspond to relative differences
between quantities extracted from the image and should therefore not
depend on scene and lighting conditions. Thus presenting a
performance oriented segmentation algorithm which is applicable in
all critical real time scenarios.
Abstract: In Algeria, some fruit trees produce fruits in free nature. Such trees are Celtis australis, Crataegus azarolus, Crataegus monogyna and Zizyphus lotus. In spite of their appreciable consumption, their nutritional value remains unknown. The objective of this study is the determination of sugars in the pulpe and almond of the above fruits. The biochemical analysis shows that these fruits present interesting contents of soluble sugars which confers significant caloric intakes to them. As well as significant fibres which give them therapeutic and industrial benefits? The analysis of the almonds shows that it contains considerable contents of sugars which enable them to be an energetic food.
Abstract: The p53 tumor suppressor gene plays two important
roles in genomic stability: blocking cell proliferation after DNA
damage until it has been repaired, and starting apoptosis if the
damage is too critical. Codon 72 exon4 polymorphism (Arg72Pro) of
the P53 gene has been implicated in cancer risk. Various studies have
been done to investigate the status of p53 at codon 72 for arginine
(Arg) and proline (Pro) alleles in different populations and also the
association of this codon 72 polymorphism with various tumors. Our
objective was to investigate the possible association between P53
Arg72Pro polymorphism and susceptibility to colorectal cancer
among Isfahan and Chaharmahal Va Bakhtiari (a part of south west
of Iran) population. We investigated the status of p53 at codon 72 for
Arg/Arg, Arg/Pro and Pro/Pro allele polymorphisms in blood
samples from 145 colorectal cancer patients and 140 controls by
Nested-PCR of p53 exon 4 and digestion with BstUI restriction
enzyme and the DNA fragments were then resolved by
electrophoresis in 2% agarose gel. The Pro allele was 279 bp, while
the Arg allele was restricted into two fragments of 160 and 119 bp.
Among the 145 colorectal cancer cases 49 cases (33.79%) were
homozygous for the Arg72 allele (Arg/Arg), 18 cases (12.41%) were
homozygous for the Pro72 allele (Pro/Pro) and 78 cases (53.8%)
found in heterozygous (Arg/Pro).
In conclusion, it can be said that p53Arg/Arg genotype may be
correlated with possible increased risk of this kind of cancers in south
west of Iran.
Abstract: The use of power system stabilizers (PSSs) to damp
power system swing mode of oscillations is practical important. Our
purpose is to retune the power system stabilizer (PSS1A) parameters
in Unitrol D produced by ABB– was installed in 1995in Benghazi
North Power Plants (BNPPs) at General Electricity Company of
Libya (GECOL). The optimal values of the power system stabilizer
(PSS1A) parameters are determined off-line by a particle swarm
optimization technique (PSO). The objective is to damp the local and
inter-area modes of oscillations that occur following power system
disturbances. The retuned power system stabilizer (PSS1A) can cope
with large disturbance at different operating points and has enhanced
power system stability.
Abstract: Data objects are usually organized hierarchically, and
the relations between them are analyzed based on a corresponding
concept hierarchy. The relation between data objects, for example how
similar they are, are usually analyzed based on the conceptual distance
in the hierarchy. If a node is an ancestor of another node, it is enough
to analyze how close they are by calculating the distance vertically.
However, if there is not such relation between two nodes, the vertical
distance cannot express their relation explicitly. This paper tries to fill
this gap by improving the analysis method for data objects based on
hierarchy. The contributions of this paper include: (1) proposing an
improved method to evaluate the vertical distance between concepts;
(2) defining the concept horizontal distance and a method to calculate
the horizontal distance; and (3) discussing the methods to confine a
range by the horizontal distance and the vertical distance, and
evaluating the relation between concepts.
Abstract: In the past few years there is a change in the view of high performance applications and parallel computing. Initially such applications were targeted towards dedicated parallel machines. Recently trend is changing towards building meta-applications composed of several modules that exploit heterogeneous platforms and employ hybrid forms of parallelism. The aim of this paper is to propose a model of virtual parallel computing. Virtual parallel computing system provides a flexible object oriented software framework that makes it easy for programmers to write various parallel applications.
Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of preparation and control of orders on performance. The focused activities explored in this research are: procurement, production and distribution. These changes in performance were obtained through improvement of the supply chain. It is proved using all the company activities that it is possible to increase de efficiency and do services in an adequate way, placing the products in the market efficiently. For that, it was explored the importance of the supply chain, with privilege to the practical environment and the quantification of the obtained results.
Abstract: This study presents a new approach based on Tanaka's
fuzzy linear regression (FLP) algorithm to solve well-known power
system economic load dispatch problem (ELD). Tanaka's fuzzy linear
regression (FLP) formulation will be employed to compute the
optimal solution of optimization problem after linearization. The
unknowns are expressed as fuzzy numbers with a triangular
membership function that has middle and spread value reflected on
the unknowns. The proposed fuzzy model is formulated as a linear
optimization problem, where the objective is to minimize the sum of
the spread of the unknowns, subject to double inequality constraints.
Linear programming technique is employed to obtain the middle and
the symmetric spread for every unknown (power generation level).
Simulation results of the proposed approach will be compared with
those reported in literature.
Abstract: The object of this research is the design and
evaluation of an immersive Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for
deaf children. Recently we have developed a prototype immersive
VR game to teach sign language mathematics to deaf students age K-
4 [1] [2]. In this paper we describe a significant extension of the
prototype application. The extension includes: (1) user-centered
design and implementation of two additional interactive
environments (a clock store and a bakery), and (2) user-centered
evaluation including development of user tasks, expert panel-based
evaluation, and formative evaluation. This paper is one of the few to
focus on the importance of user-centered, iterative design in VR
application development, and to describe a structured evaluation
method.
Abstract: In this paper, a new formulation for acoustics coupled with linear elasticity is presented. The primary objective of the work is to develop a three dimensional hp adaptive finite element method code destinated for modeling of acoustics of human head. The code will have numerous applications e.g. in designing hearing protection devices for individuals working in high noise environments. The presented work is in the preliminary stage. The variational formulation has been implemented and tested on a sequence of meshes with concentric multi-layer spheres, with material data representing the tissue (the brain), skull and the air. Thus, an efficient solver for coupled elasticity/acoustics problems has been developed, and tested on high contrast material data representing the human head.