Abstract: In the current research, neuro-fuzzy model and regression model was developed to predict Material Removal Rate in Electrical Discharge Machining process for AISI D2 tool steel with copper electrode. Extensive experiments were conducted with various levels of discharge current, pulse duration and duty cycle. The experimental data are split into two sets, one for training and the other for validation of the model. The training data were used to develop the above models and the test data, which was not used earlier to develop these models were used for validation the models. Subsequently, the models are compared. It was found that the predicted and experimental results were in good agreement and the coefficients of correlation were found to be 0.999 and 0.974 for neuro fuzzy and regression model respectively
Abstract: In this paper, some practical solid transportation models are formulated considering per trip capacity of each type of conveyances with crisp and rough unit transportation costs. This is applicable for the system in which full vehicles, e.g. trucks, rail coaches are to be booked for transportation of products so that transportation cost is determined on the full of the conveyances. The models with unit transportation costs as rough variables are transformed into deterministic forms using rough chance constrained programming with the help of trust measure. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the proposed models in crisp environment as well as with unit transportation costs as rough variables.
Abstract: A satured liquid is warmed until boiling in a parallelepipedic boiler. The heat is supplied in a liquid through the horizontal bottom of the boiler, the other walls being adiabatic. During the process of boiling, the liquid evaporates through its free surface by deforming it. This surface which subdivides the boiler into two regions occupied on both sides by the boiled liquid (broth) and its vapor which surmounts it. The broth occupying the region and its vapor the superior region. A two- fluids model is used to describe the dynamics of the broth, its vapor and their interface. In this model, the broth is treated as a monophasic fluid (homogeneous model) and form with its vapor adiphasic pseudo fluid (two-fluid model). Furthermore, the interface is treated as a zone of mixture characterized by superficial void fraction noted α* . The aim of this article is to describe the dynamics of the interface between the boiled fluid and its vapor within a boiler. The resolution of the problem allowed us to show the evolution of the broth and the level of the liquid.
Abstract: In a particular case of behavioural model reduction by ANNs, a validity domain shortening has been found. In mechanics, as in other domains, the notion of validity domain allows the engineer to choose a valid model for a particular analysis or simulation. In the study of mechanical behaviour for a cantilever beam (using linear and non-linear models), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) Backpropagation (BP) networks have been applied as model reduction technique. This reduced model is constructed to be more efficient than the non-reduced model. Within a less extended domain, the ANN reduced model estimates correctly the non-linear response, with a lower computational cost. It has been found that the neural network model is not able to approximate the linear behaviour while it does approximate the non-linear behaviour very well. The details of the case are provided with an example of the cantilever beam behaviour modelling.
Abstract: If price and quantity are the fundamental building
blocks of any theory of market interactions, the importance of trading
volume in understanding the behavior of financial markets is clear.
However, while many economic models of financial markets have
been developed to explain the behavior of prices -predictability,
variability, and information content- far less attention has been
devoted to explaining the behavior of trading volume. In this article,
we hope to expand our understanding of trading volume by
developing a new measure of herding behavior based on a cross
sectional dispersion of volumes betas. We apply our measure to the
Toronto stock exchange using monthly data from January 2000 to
December 2002. Our findings show that the herd phenomenon
consists of three essential components: stationary herding, intentional
herding and the feedback herding.
Abstract: Given the motivation of maps impact in enhancing the
perception of the quality of life in a region, this work examines the
use of spatial analytical techniques in exploring the role of space in
shaping human development patterns in Assiut governorate.
Variations of human development index (HDI) of the governorate-s
villages, districts and cities are mapped using geographic information
systems (GIS). Global and local spatial autocorrelation measures are
employed to assess the levels of spatial dependency in the data and to
map clusters of human development. Results show prominent
disparities in HDI between regions of Assiut. Strong patterns of
spatial association were found proving the presence of clusters on the
distribution of HDI. Finally, the study indicates several "hot-spots" in
the governorate to be area of more investigations to explore the
attributes of such levels of human development. This is very
important for accomplishing the development plan of poorest regions
currently adopted in Egypt.
Abstract: This paper proposes a “soft systems" approach to
domain-driven design of computer-based information systems. We
propose a systemic framework combining techniques from Soft
Systems Methodology (SSM), the Unified Modelling Language
(UML), and an implementation pattern known as “Naked Objects".
We have used this framework in action research projects that have
involved the investigation and modelling of business processes using
object-oriented domain models and the implementation of software
systems based on those domain models. Within the proposed
framework, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used as a guiding
methodology to explore the problem situation and to generate a
ubiquitous language (soft language) which can be used as the basis
for developing an object-oriented domain model. The domain model
is further developed using techniques based on the UML and is
implemented in software following the “Naked Objects"
implementation pattern. We argue that there are advantages from
combining and using techniques from different methodologies in this
way.
The proposed systemic framework is overviewed and justified as
multimethodologyusing Mingers multimethodology ideas.
This multimethodology approach is being evaluated through a
series of action research projects based on real-world case studies. A
Peer-Tutoring case study is presented here as a sample of the
framework evaluation process
Abstract: Internet computer games turn to be more and more
attractive within the context of technology enhanced learning.
Educational games as quizzes and quests have gained significant
success in appealing and motivating learners to study in a different
way and provoke steadily increasing interest in new methods of
application. Board games are specific group of games where figures
are manipulated in competitive play mode with race conditions on a
surface according predefined rules. The article represents a new,
formalized model of traditional quizzes, puzzles and quests shown as
multimedia board games which facilitates the construction process of
such games. Authors provide different examples of quizzes and their
models in order to demonstrate the model is quite general and does
support not only quizzes, mazes and quests but also any set of
teaching activities. The execution process of such models is
explained and, as well, how they can be useful for creation and
delivery of adaptive e-learning courseware.
Abstract: In image processing and visualization, comparing two
bitmapped images needs to be compared from their pixels by matching
pixel-by-pixel. Consequently, it takes a lot of computational time
while the comparison of two vector-based images is significantly
faster. Sometimes these raster graphics images can be approximately
converted into the vector-based images by various techniques. After
conversion, the problem of comparing two raster graphics images
can be reduced to the problem of comparing vector graphics images.
Hence, the problem of comparing pixel-by-pixel can be reduced to
the problem of polynomial comparisons. In computer aided geometric
design (CAGD), the vector graphics images are the composition of
curves and surfaces. Curves are defined by a sequence of control
points and their polynomials. In this paper, the control points will be
considerably used to compare curves. The same curves after relocated
or rotated are treated to be equivalent while two curves after different
scaled are considered to be similar curves. This paper proposed an
algorithm for comparing the polynomial curves by using the control
points for equivalence and similarity. In addition, the geometric
object-oriented database used to keep the curve information has also
been defined in XML format for further used in curve comparisons.
Abstract: Whereas cellular wireless communication systems are
subject to short-and long-term fading. The effect of wireless channel
has largely been ignored in most of the teletraffic assessment
researches. In this paper, a mathematical teletraffic model is proposed
to estimate blocking and forced termination probabilities of cellular
wireless networks as a result of teletraffic behavior as well as the
outage of the propagation channel. To evaluate the proposed
teletraffic model, gamma inter-arrival and general service time
distributions have been considered based on wireless channel fading
effect. The performance is evaluated and compared with the classical
model. The proposed model is dedicated and investigated in different
operational conditions. These conditions will consider not only the
arrival rate process, but also, the different faded channels models.
Abstract: Detection and tracking of the lip contour is an important
issue in speechreading. While there are solutions for lip tracking
once a good contour initialization in the first frame is available,
the problem of finding such a good initialization is not yet solved
automatically, but done manually. We have developed a new tracking
solution for lip contour detection using only few landmarks (15
to 25) and applying the well known Active Shape Models (ASM).
The proposed method is a new LMS-like adaptive scheme based on
an Auto regressive (AR) model that has been fit on the landmark
variations in successive video frames. Moreover, we propose an extra
motion compensation model to address more general cases in lip
tracking. Computer simulations demonstrate a fair match between
the true and the estimated spatial pixels. Significant improvements
related to the well known LMS approach has been obtained via a
defined Frobenius norm index.
Abstract: Sharing motivations of viral advertisements by
consumers and the impacts of these advertisements on the
perceptions for brand will be questioned in this study. Three
fundamental questions are answered in the study. These are
advertisement watching and sharing motivations of individuals,
criteria of liking viral advertisement and the impact of individual
attitudes for viral advertisement on brand perception respectively.
This study will be carried out via a viral advertisement which was
practiced in Turkey. The data will be collected by survey method and
the sample of the study consists of individuals who experienced the
practice of sample advertisement. Data will be collected by online
survey method and will be analyzed by using SPSS statistical
package program.
Recently traditional advertisement mind have been changing. New
advertising approaches which have significant impacts on consumers
have been argued. Viral advertising is a modernist advertisement
mind which offers significant advantages to brands apart from
traditional advertising channels such as television, radio and
magazines. Viral advertising also known as Electronic Word-of-
Mouth (eWOM) consists of free spread of convincing messages sent
by brands among interpersonal communication. When compared to
the traditional advertising, a more provocative thematic approach is
argued.
The foundation of this approach is to create advertisements that
are worth sharing with others by consumers. When that fact is taken
into consideration, in a manner of speaking it can also be stated that
viral advertising is media engineering.
The content worth sharing makes people being a volunteer
spokesman of a brand and strengthens the emotional bonds among
brand and consumer. Especially for some sectors in countries which
are having traditional advertising channel limitations, viral
advertising creates vital advantages.
Abstract: This paper aims to present the main instruments used
in the economic literature for measuring the price risk, pointing out
on the advantages brought by the conditional variance in this respect.
The theoretical approach will be exemplified by elaborating an
EGARCH model for the price returns of wheat, both on Romanian
and on international market. To our knowledge, no previous
empirical research, either on price risk measurement for the
Romanian markets or studies that use the ARIMA-EGARCH
methodology, have been conducted. After estimating the
corresponding models, the paper will compare the estimated
conditional variance on the two markets.
Abstract: Ontology Matching is a task needed in various applica-tions, for example for comparison or merging purposes. In literature,many algorithms solving the matching problem can be found, butmost of them do not consider instances at all. Mappings are deter-mined by calculating the string-similarity of labels, by recognizinglinguistic word relations (synonyms, subsumptions etc.) or by ana-lyzing the (graph) structure. Due to the facts that instances are oftenmodeled within the ontology and that the set of instances describesthe meaning of the concepts better than their meta information,instances should definitely be incorporated into the matching process.In this paper several novel instance-based matching algorithms arepresented which enhance the quality of matching results obtainedwith common concept-based methods. Different kinds of formalismsare use to classify concepts on account of their instances and finallyto compare the concepts directly.KeywordsInstances, Ontology Matching, Semantic Web
Abstract: This work presents a new phonetic transcription system based on a tree of hierarchical pronunciation rules expressed as context-specific grapheme-phoneme correspondences. The tree is automatically inferred from a phonetic dictionary by incrementally analyzing deeper context levels, eventually representing a minimum set of exhaustive rules that pronounce without errors all the words in the training dictionary and that can be applied to out-of-vocabulary words. The proposed approach improves upon existing rule-tree-based techniques in that it makes use of graphemes, rather than letters, as elementary orthographic units. A new linear algorithm for the segmentation of a word in graphemes is introduced to enable outof- vocabulary grapheme-based phonetic transcription. Exhaustive rule trees provide a canonical representation of the pronunciation rules of a language that can be used not only to pronounce out-of-vocabulary words, but also to analyze and compare the pronunciation rules inferred from different dictionaries. The proposed approach has been implemented in C and tested on Oxford British English and Basic English. Experimental results show that grapheme-based rule trees represent phonetically sound rules and provide better performance than letter-based rule trees.
Abstract: Snake bite cases in Malaysia most often involve the
species Naja-naja and Calloselasma rhodostoma. In keeping with the
need for a rapid snake venom detection kit in a clinical setting, plate
and dot-ELISA test for the venoms of Naja-naja sumatrana,
Calloselasma rhodostoma and the cobra venom fraction V antigen
was developed. Polyclonal antibodies were raised and further used to
prepare the reagents for the dot-ELISA test kit which was tested in
mice, rabbit and virtual human models. The newly developed dot-
ELISA kit was able to detect a minimum venom concentration of
244ng/ml with cross reactivity of one antibody type. The dot-ELISA
system was sensitive and specific for all three snake venom types in
all tested animal models. The lowest minimum venom concentration
detectable was in the rabbit model, 244ng/ml of the cobra venom
fraction V antigen. The highest minimum venom concentration was
in mice, 1953ng/ml against a multitude of venoms. The developed
dot-ELISA system for the detection of three snake venom types was
successful with a sensitivity of 95.8% and specificity of 97.9%.
Abstract: TUSAT is a prospective Turkish
Communication Satellite designed for providing mainly data
communication and broadcasting services through Ku-Band
and C-Band channels. Thermal control is a vital issue in
satellite design process. Therefore, all satellite subsystems and
equipments should be maintained in the desired temperature
range from launch to end of maneuvering life. The main
function of the thermal control is to keep the equipments and
the satellite structures in a given temperature range for various
phases and operating modes of spacecraft during its lifetime.
This paper describes the thermal control design which uses
passive and active thermal control concepts. The active
thermal control is based on heaters regulated by software via
thermistors. Alternatively passive thermal control composes of
heat pipes, multilayer insulation (MLI) blankets, radiators,
paints and surface finishes maintaining temperature level of
the overall carrier components within an acceptable value.
Thermal control design is supported by thermal analysis using
thermal mathematical models (TMM).
Abstract: Least Significant Bit (LSB) technique is the earliest
developed technique in watermarking and it is also the most simple,
direct and common technique. It essentially involves embedding the
watermark by replacing the least significant bit of the image data with
a bit of the watermark data. The disadvantage of LSB is that it is not
robust against attacks. In this study intermediate significant bit (ISB)
has been used in order to improve the robustness of the watermarking
system. The aim of this model is to replace the watermarked image
pixels by new pixels that can protect the watermark data against
attacks and at the same time keeping the new pixels very close to the
original pixels in order to protect the quality of watermarked image.
The technique is based on testing the value of the watermark pixel
according to the range of each bit-plane.
Abstract: In very narrow pathways, the speed of sound propagation and the phase of sound waves change due to the air viscosity. We have developed a new finite element method (FEM) that includes the effects of air viscosity for modeling a narrow sound pathway. This method is developed as an extension of the existing FEM for porous sound-absorbing materials. The numerical calculation results for several three-dimensional slit models using the proposed FEM are validated against existing calculation methods.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new optimization techniques
for the optimization a gas processing plant uncertain feed and
product flows. The problem is first formulated using a continuous
linear deterministic approach. Subsequently, the single and joint
chance constraint models for steady state process with timedependent
uncertainties have been developed. The solution approach
is based on converting the probabilistic problems into their
equivalent deterministic form and solved at different confidence
levels Case study for a real plant operation has been used to
effectively implement the proposed model. The optimization results
indicate that prior decision has to be made for in-operating plant
under uncertain feed and product flows by satisfying all the
constraints at 95% confidence level for single chance constrained and
85% confidence level for joint chance constrained optimizations
cases.