Abstract: In this paper, the structural genetic algorithm is used to optimize the neural network to control the joint movements of robotic arm. The robotic arm has also been modeled in 3D and simulated in real-time in MATLAB. It is found that Neural Networks provide a simple and effective way to control the robot tasks. Computer simulation examples are given to illustrate the significance of this method. By combining Genetic Algorithm optimization method and Neural Networks for the given robotic arm with 5 D.O.F. the obtained the results shown that the base joint movements overshooting time without controller was about 0.5 seconds, while with Neural Network controller (optimized with Genetic Algorithm) was about 0.2 seconds, and the population size of 150 gave best results.
Abstract: Visual attention allows user to select the most relevant
information to ongoing behaviour. This paper presents a study on; i)
the performance of people measurements, ii) accurateness of people
measurement of the peaks that correspond to chemical quantities
from the Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) graphs and iii)
affects of people measurements to the algorithm-based diagnosis.
Participant-s eye-movement was recorded using eye-tracker tool
(Eyelink II). This experiment involves three participants for
examining 20 MRS graphs to estimate the peaks of chemical
quantities which indicate the abnormalities associated with
Cerebellar Tumours (CT). The status of each MRS is verified by
using decision algorithm. Analysis involves determination of
humans-s eye movement pattern in measuring the peak of
spectrograms, scan path and determining the relationship of
distributions of fixation durations with the accuracy of measurement.
In particular, the eye-tracking data revealed which aspects of the
spectrogram received more visual attention and in what order they
were viewed. This preliminary investigation provides a proof of
concept for use of the eye tracking technology as the basis for
expanded CT diagnosis.
Abstract: A fast adaptive Tomlinson Harashima (T-H) precoder structure is presented for indoor wireless communications, where the channel may vary due to rotation and small movement of the mobile terminal. A frequency-selective slow fading channel which is time-invariant over a frame is assumed. In this adaptive T-H precoder, feedback coefficients are updated at the end of every uplink frame by using system identification technique for channel estimation in contrary with the conventional T-H precoding concept where the channel is estimated during the starting of the uplink frame via Wiener solution. In conventional T-H precoder it is assumed the channel is time-invariant in both uplink and downlink frames. However assuming the channel is time-invariant over only one frame instead of two, the proposed adaptive T-H precoder yields better performance than conventional T-H precoder if the channel is varied in uplink after receiving the training sequence.
Abstract: This study1 holds for the formation of international financial crisis and political factors for economic crisis in Turkey, are evaluated in chronological order. The international arena and relevant studies conducted in Turkey work in the literature are assessed. The main purpose of the study is to hold the linkage between the crises and political stability in Turkey in details, and to examine the position of Turkey in this regard. The introduction part follows the literature survey on the models explaining causes and results of the crises, the second part of the study. In the third part, the formations of the world financial crises are studied. The fourth part, financial crisis in Turkey in 1994, 2000, 2001 and 2008 are reviewed and their political reasons are analyzed. In the last part of the study the results and recommendations are held. Political administrations have laid the grounds for an economic crisis in Turkey. In this study, the emergence of an economic crisis in Turkey and the developments after the crisis are chronologically examined and an explanation is offered as to the cause and effect relationship between the political administration and economic equilibrium in the country. Economic crises can be characterized as follows: high prices of consumables, high interest rates, current account deficits, budget deficits, structural defects in government finance, rising inflation and fixed currency applications, rising government debt, declining savings rates and increased dependency on foreign capital stock. Entering into the conditions of crisis during a time when the exchange value of the country-s national currency was rising, speculative finance movements and shrinking of foreign currency reserves happened due to expectations for devaluation and because of foreign investors- resistance to financing national debt, and a financial risk occurs. During the February 2001 crisis and immediately following, devaluation and reduction of value occurred in Turkey-s stock market. While changing over to the system of floating exchange rates in the midst of this crisis, the effects of the crisis on the real economy are discussed in this study. Administered politics include financial reforms, such as the rearrangement of banking systems. These reforms followed with the provision of foreign financial support. There have been winners and losers in the imbalance of income distribution, which has recently become more evident in Turkey-s fragile economy.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new version of the Particle
Swarm Optimization (PSO) namely, Modified PSO (MPSO) for
model order formulation of Single Input Single Output (SISO) linear
time invariant continuous systems. In the General PSO, the
movement of a particle is governed by three behaviors namely
inertia, cognitive and social. The cognitive behavior helps the
particle to remember its previous visited best position. In Modified
PSO technique split the cognitive behavior into two sections like
previous visited best position and also previous visited worst
position. This modification helps the particle to search the target very
effectively. MPSO approach is proposed to formulate the higher
order model. The method based on the minimization of error
between the transient responses of original higher order model and
the reduced order model pertaining to the unit step input. The results
obtained are compared with the earlier techniques utilized, to validate
its ease of computation. The proposed method is illustrated through
numerical example from literature.
Abstract: Nowadays there is a growing environmental concern
and the business communities have slowly started recognising
environmental protection and sustainable utilization of natural
resources into their marketing strategies. This paper discusses the
various Ecolabeling and Certification Systems developed world
over to regulate and introduce Fair Trade in Ornamental Fish
Industry. Ecolabeling and green certification are considered as part
of these strategies implemented partly out of compulsion from the
National and International Regulatory Bodies and Environmental
Movements. All the major markets of ornamental fishes like
European Union, USA and Japan have started putting restrictions on
the trade to impose ecolabeling as a non tariff barrier like the one
imposed on seafood and aqua cultured products. A review was done
on the available Ecolabeling and Green Certification Schemes
available at local, national and international levels for fisheries
including aquaculture and ornamental fish trade and to examine the
success and constraints faced by these schemes during its
implementation. The primary downside of certification is the
multiplicity of ecolabels and cost incurred by applicants for
certification, costs which may in turn be passed on to consumers.
The studies reveal serious inadequacies in a number of ecolabels
and cast doubt on their overall contribution to effective fisheries
management and sustainability. The paper also discusses the
inititive taken in India to develop guidelines for Green Certification
of Fresh water ornamental fishes.
Abstract: Imitation learning is considered to be an effective way of teaching humanoid robots and action recognition is the key step to imitation learning. In this paper an online algorithm to recognize
parametric actions with object context is presented. Objects are key instruments in understanding an action when there is uncertainty.
Ambiguities arising in similar actions can be resolved with objectn context. We classify actions according to the changes they make to
the object space. Actions that produce the same state change in the object movement space are classified to belong to the same class. This allow us to define several classes of actions where members of
each class are connected with a semantic interpretation.
Abstract: Numerous facts evidence the increasing religiosity of
the population and the intensification of religious movements in
various countries in the last decade of the 20th century. The number
of international religious institutions and foundations; religious
movements; parties and sects operating worldwide is increasing as
well. Some ethnic and inter-state conflicts are obviously of a
religious origin. All of this make a number of analysts to conclude
that the religious factor is becoming an important part of international
life, including the formation and activities of terrorist organizations.
Most of all is said and written about Islam, the second, after
Christianity, world religions professed according to various estimates
by 1.5 bln. individuals in 127 countries.
Abstract: The electrical potentials generated during eye movements and blinks are one of the main sources of artifacts in Electroencephalogram (EEG) recording and can propagate much across the scalp, masking and distorting brain signals. In recent times, signal separation algorithms are used widely for removing artifacts from the observed EEG data. In this paper, a recently introduced signal separation algorithm Mutual Information based Least dependent Component Analysis (MILCA) is employed to separate ocular artifacts from EEG. The aim of MILCA is to minimize the Mutual Information (MI) between the independent components (estimated sources) under a pure rotation. Performance of this algorithm is compared with eleven popular algorithms (Infomax, Extended Infomax, Fast ICA, SOBI, TDSEP, JADE, OGWE, MS-ICA, SHIBBS, Kernel-ICA, and RADICAL) for the actual independence and uniqueness of the estimated source components obtained for different sets of EEG data with ocular artifacts by using a reliable MI Estimator. Results show that MILCA is best in separating the ocular artifacts and EEG and is recommended for further analysis.
Abstract: The understanding of knee movement during swing
importance for golf swing improving and preventing injury. Thirty
male professional and amateur golfers were assigned to swing time
by time for 3 times. Data from a vedio-based motion capture were
used to compute knee joint movement variables. The results showed
that professional and amateur golfers were significantly in left knee
flexion angle at the impact point and mid follow through phase.
Nevertheless, left knee external rotation in both groups was also
significant. The right knee were no significant different in all
variable. However, pattern of knee joint movement are also likely
between professional and amateur golfers.
Abstract: The objective of the paper was to understand the use
of an important element of design, namely color in a Semiotic
system. Semiotics is the study of signs and sign processes, it is often
divided into three branches namely (i) Semantics that deals with the
relation between signs and the things to which they refer to mean, (ii)
Syntactics which addresses the relations among signs in formal
structures and (iii) Pragmatics that relates between signs and its
effects on they have on the people who use them to create a plan for
an object or a system referred to as design. Cubism with its versatility
was the key design tool prevalent across the 20th century. In order to
analyze the user's understanding of interaction and appreciation of
color through the movement of Cubism, an exercise was undertaken
in Dept. of Design, IIT Guwahati. This included tasks to design a
composition using color and sign process to the theme 'Between the
Lines' on a given tessellation where the users relate their work to the
world they live in, which in this case was the college campus of IIT
Guwahati. The findings demonstrate impact of the key design
element color on the principles of visual perception based on image
analysis of specific compositions.
Abstract: For a long time as a result of accommodating car
traffic, planning ideologies in the past put a low priority on public
space, pedestrianism and the role of city space as a meeting place for
urban dwellers. In addition, according to authors such as Jan Gehl,
market forces and changing architectural perceptions began to shift
the focus of planning practice from the integration of public space in
various pockets around the contemporary city to individual buildings.
Eventually, these buildings have become increasingly more isolated
and introverted and have turned their backs to the realm of the public
space adjoining them. As a result of this practice, the traditional
function of public space as a social forum for city dwellers has in
many cases been reduced or even phased out. Author Jane Jacobs
published her seminal book “The Death and Life of Great American
Cities" more than fifty years ago, but her observations and
predictions at the time still ring true today, where she pointed out
how the dramatic increase in car traffic and its accommodation by the
urban planning ideology that was brought about by the Modern
movement has prompted a separation of the uses of the city. At the
same time it emphasizes free standing buildings that threaten urban
space and city life and result in underutilized and lifeless urban cores.
In this discussion context, the aim of this paper is to showcase a
reversal of just such a situation in the case of the Dasoupolis
neighborhood in Strovolos, Cyprus, where enlightened urban design
practice has see the reclamation of pedestrian space in a car
dominated area.
Abstract: With the demand of mobility by users, wireless
technologies have become the hotspot developing arena. Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) working group has developed Mobile
IP to support node mobility. The concept of node mobility indicates
that in spite of the movement of the node, it is still connected to the
internet and all the data transactions are preserved. It provides
location-independent access to Internet. After the incorporation of
host mobility, network mobility has undergone intense research.
There are several intricacies faced in the real world implementation
of network mobility significantly the problem of nested networks and
their consequences. This article is concerned regarding a problem of
nested network called pinball route problem and proposes a solution
to eliminate the above problem. The proposed mechanism is
implemented using NS2 simulation tool and it is found that the
proposed mechanism efficiently reduces the overload caused by the
pinball route problem.
Abstract: This paper aims to argue that religion and Faith-based Organizations (FBOs) contribute to building democratic process through the provision of education in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone experienced a civil war from 1991 to 2002 and about 70 percent of the population lives in poverty. While the government has been in the process of rebuilding the nation, many forms of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including FBOs, have played a significant role in promoting social development. Education plays an important role in supporting people-s democratic movements through knowledge acquisition, spiritual enlightenment and empowerment. This paper discusses religious tolerance in Sierra Leone and how FBOs have contributed to the provision of primary education in Sierra Leone. This study is based on the author-s field research, which involved interviews with teachers and development stakeholders, notably government officials, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and FBOs, as well as questionnaires completed by pupils, parents and teachers.
Abstract: This paper explores the opportunity of using tri-axial
wireless accelerometers for supervised monitoring of sports
movements. A motion analysis system for the upper extremities of
lawn bowlers in particular is developed. Accelerometers are placed
on parts of human body such as the chest to represent the shoulder
movements, the back to capture the trunk motion, back of the hand,
the wrist and one above the elbow, to capture arm movements. These
sensors placement are carefully designed in order to avoid restricting
bowler-s movements. Data is acquired from these sensors in soft-real
time using virtual instrumentation; the acquired data is then
conditioned and converted into required parameters for motion
regeneration. A user interface was also created to facilitate in the
acquisition of data, and broadcasting of commands to the wireless
accelerometers. All motion regeneration in this paper deals with the
motion of the human body segment in the X and Y direction, looking
into the motion of the anterior/ posterior and lateral directions
respectively.
Abstract: Signalized intersections on high-volume arterials are
often congested during peak hours, causing a decrease in through
movement efficiency on the arterial. Much of the vehicle delay
incurred at conventional intersections is caused by high left-turn
demand. Unconventional intersection designs attempt to reduce
intersection delay and travel time by rerouting left-turns away from
the main intersection and replacing it with right-turn followed by Uturn.
The proposed new type of U-turn intersection is geometrically
designed with a raised island which provides a protected U-turn
movement. In this study several scenarios based on different
distances between U-turn and main intersection, traffic volume of
major/minor approaches and percentage of left-turn volumes were
simulated by use of AIMSUN, a type of traffic microsimulation
software. Subsequently some models are proposed in order to
compute travel time of each movement. Eventually by correlating
these equations to some in-field collected data of some implemented
U-turn facilities, the reliability of the proposed models are approved.
With these models it would be possible to calculate travel time of
each movement under any kind of geometric and traffic condition. By
comparing travel time of a conventional signalized intersection with
U-turn intersection travel time, it would be possible to decide on
converting signalized intersections into this new kind of U-turn
facility or not. However comparison of travel time is not part of the
scope of this research. In this paper only travel time of this innovative
U-turn facility would be predicted. According to some before and
after study about the traffic performance of some executed U-turn
facilities, it is found that commonly, this new type of U-turn facility
produces lower travel time. Thus, evaluation of using this type of
unconventional intersection should be seriously considered.
Abstract: To comply with the international human right
legislation concerning the freedom of movement, transport systems
are required to be made accessible in order that all citizens, regardless
of their physical condition, have equal possibilities to use them. In
Hungary, apparently there is a considerable default in the
improvement of accessible public transport. This study is aiming to
overview the current Hungarian situation and to reveal the reasons of
the deficiency. The result shows that in spite of the relatively
favourable juridical background linked to the accessibility needs and
to the rights of persons with disabilities there is a strong delay in
putting all in practice in the field of public transport. Its main reason
is the lack of financial resource and referring to this the lack of
creating mandatory regulations. In addition to this the proprietary
rights related to public transport are also variable, which also limits
the improvement possibilities. Consequently, first of all an accurate
and detailed regulatory procedure is expected to change the present
unfavourable situation and to create the conditions of the fast
realization, which is already behind time.
Abstract: Educational reforms are focused point of different
nations. New reform movements generally claim that something is
wrong with the current state of affairs, and that the system is deficient in its goals, its accomplishments and it is accused not being
adopted into global changes all over the world. It is the same for
Turkish education system. It is considered those recent reforms of
teacher education in Turkey and the extent to which they reflect a
response to global economic pressures. The paper challenges the
view that such imposes are inevitable determinants of educational
policy and argues that any country will need to develop its own
national approach to modernizing teacher education in light of the
global context and its particular circumstances. It draws on the idea
of reflexive modernization developed by educators and discusses its
implications for teacher education policy. The paper deals with four
themes teacher education in last decade policy in Turkey; the shift
away from the educational disciplines, the shift towards school-based
approaches, and the emergence of more centralized forms of
accountability of teacher competence.
Abstract: In this paper, the bio-mechanical analysis of human joints is carried out and the study is extended to the robot manipulator. This study will first focus on the kinematics of human arm which include the movement of each joint in shoulder, wrist, elbow and finger complexes. Those analyses are then extended to the design of a human robot manipulator. A simulator is built for Direct Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics of human arm. In the simulation of Direct Kinematics, the human joint angles can be inserted, while the position and orientation of each finger tips (end-effector) are shown. Inverse Kinematics does the reverse of the Direct Kinematics. Based on previous materials obtained from kinematics analysis, the human manipulator joints can be designed to follow prescribed position trajectories.
Abstract: An important step in three-dimensional reconstruction
and computer vision is camera calibration, whose objective is to
estimate the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of each camera. In this
paper, two linear methods based on the different planes are given. In
both methods, the general plane is used to replace the calibration
object with very good precision. In the first method, after controlling
the camera to undergo five times- translation movements and taking
pictures of the orthogonal planes, a set of linear constraints of the
camera intrinsic parameters is then derived by means of homography
matrix. The second method is to get all camera parameters by taking
only one picture of a given radius circle. experiments on simulated
data and real images,indicate that our method is reasonable and is a
good supplement to camera calibration.