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: The aerodynamic stall control of a baseline 13-percent
thick NASA GA(W)-2 airfoil using a synthetic jet actuator (SJA) is
presented in this paper. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
equations are solved on a hybrid grid using a commercial software to
simulate the effects of a synthetic jet actuator located at 13% of the
chord from the leading edge at a Reynolds number Re = 2.1x106 and
incidence angles from 16 to 22 degrees. The experimental data for the
pressure distribution at Re = 3x106 and aerodynamic coefficients at
Re = 2.1x106 (angle of attack varied from -16 to 22 degrees) without
SJA is compared with the computational fluid dynamic (CFD)
simulation as a baseline validation. A good agreement of the CFD
simulations is obtained for aerodynamic coefficients and pressure
distribution.
A working SJA has been integrated with the baseline airfoil and
initial focus is on the aerodynamic stall control at angles of attack
from 16 to 22 degrees. The results show a noticeable improvement in
the aerodynamic performance with increase in lift and decrease in
drag at these post stall regimes.
Abstract: This study employs the use of the fourth order
Numerov scheme to determine the eigenstates and eigenvalues of
particles, electrons in particular, in single and double delta function
potentials. For the single delta potential, it is found that the
eigenstates could only be attained by using specific potential depths.
The depth of the delta potential well has a value that varies depending
on the delta strength. These depths are used for each well on the
double delta function potential and the eigenvalues are determined.
There are two bound states found in the computation, one with a
symmetric eigenstate and another one which is antisymmetric.
Abstract: This paper presents an automated inspection algorithm
for a thick plate. Thick plates typically have various types of surface
defects, such as scabs, scratches, and roller marks. These defects have
individual characteristics including brightness and shape. Therefore, it
is not simple to detect all the defects. In order to solve these problems
and to detect defects more effectively, we propose a dual light
switching lighting method and a defect detection algorithm based on
Gabor filters.
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.
Abstract: Directive 2009/28/CE establishes, as obligatory objective, a share of renewable energies on energetic consumption of 20%, in European Union, in 2020 However, such European normative gives freedom to member states in the selection of the renewable promotion mechanism that allows them to obtain that objective. In this paper, we analyze the main characteristics of the promotion mechanisms of renewable energy used in the countries that shape the Electricity Iberian Market (Spain and Portugal) and the results in employment. The importance of these countries is given by the great increasing of the renewable energies which suppose a share higher than 30% of the overall generation in 2010. Therefore, this research paper can serve as the basis for the learning of other countries with regard to the main advantages that entail the use of a feed-in tariff system.
Abstract: In syntactic pattern recognition a pattern can be
represented by a graph. Given an unknown pattern represented by
a graph g, the problem of recognition is to determine if the graph g
belongs to a language L(G) generated by a graph grammar G. The
so-called IE graphs have been defined in [1] for a description of
patterns. The IE graphs are generated by so-called ETPL(k) graph
grammars defined in [1]. An efficient, parsing algorithm for ETPL(k)
graph grammars for syntactic recognition of patterns represented by
IE graphs has been presented in [1]. In practice, structural
descriptions may contain pattern distortions, so that the assignment
of a graph g, representing an unknown pattern, to
a graph language L(G) generated by an ETPL(k) graph grammar G is
rejected by the ETPL(k) type parsing. Therefore, there is a need for
constructing effective parsing algorithms for recognition of distorted
patterns. The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach to
syntactic recognition of distorted patterns. To take into account all
variations of a distorted pattern under study, a probabilistic
description of the pattern is needed. A random IE graph approach is
proposed here for such a description ([2]).
Abstract: Combined conduction-free convection heat transfer in
vertical eccentric annuli is numerically investigated using a finitedifference
technique. Numerical results, representing the heat transfer
parameters such as annulus walls temperature, heat flux, and heat
absorbed in the developing region of the annulus, are presented for a
Newtonian fluid of Prandtl number 0.7, fluid-annulus radius ratio 0.5,
solid-fluid thermal conductivity ratio 10, inner and outer wall
dimensionless thicknesses 0.1 and 0.2, respectively, and
dimensionless eccentricities 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7. The annulus walls
are subjected to thermal boundary conditions, which are obtained by
heating one wall isothermally whereas keeping the other wall at inlet
fluid temperature. In the present paper, the annulus heights required
to achieve thermal full development for prescribed eccentricities are
obtained. Furthermore, the variation in the height of thermal full
development as function of the geometrical parameter, i.e.,
eccentricity is also investigated.
Abstract: In this paper we propose a novel Run Time Interface
(RTI) technique to provide an efficient environment for MPI jobs on
the heterogeneous architecture of PARAM Padma. It suggests an
innovative, unified framework for the job management interface
system in parallel and distributed computing. This approach employs
proxy scheme. The implementation shows that the proposed RTI is
highly scalable and stable. Moreover RTI provides the storage access
for the MPI jobs in various operating system platforms and improve
the data access performance through high performance C-DAC
Parallel File System (C-PFS). The performance of the RTI is
evaluated by using the standard HPC benchmark suites and the
simulation results show that the proposed RTI gives good
performance on large scale supercomputing system.
Abstract: True stress-strain curve of railhead steel is required to
investigate the behaviour of railhead under wheel loading through elasto-plastic Finite Element (FE) analysis. To reduce the rate of wear, the railhead material is hardened through annealing and
quenching. The Australian standard rail sections are not fully hardened and hence suffer from non-uniform distribution of the
material property; usage of average properties in the FE modelling can potentially induce error in the predicted plastic strains. Coupons
obtained at varying depths of the railhead were, therefore, tested under axial tension and the strains were measured using strain gauges as well as an image analysis technique, known as the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The head hardened steel exhibit existence of three distinct zones of yield strength; the yield strength as the ratio of the average yield strength provided in the standard (σyr=780MPa) and
the corresponding depth as the ratio of the head hardened zone along
the axis of symmetry are as follows: (1.17 σyr, 20%), (1.06 σyr, 20%-80%) and (0.71 σyr, > 80%). The stress-strain curves exhibit limited plastic zone with fracture occurring at strain less than 0.1.
Abstract: This paper presents a wavelet transform and Support
Vector Machine (SVM) based algorithm for estimating fault location
on transmission lines. The Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is used
for data pre-processing and this data are used for training and testing
SVM. Five types of mother wavelet are used for signal processing to
identify a suitable wavelet family that is more appropriate for use in
estimating fault location. The results demonstrated the ability of SVM
to generalize the situation from the provided patterns and to
accurately estimate the location of faults with varying fault resistance.
Abstract: The goal of speech parameterization is to extract the relevant information about what is being spoken from the audio signal. In speech recognition systems Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Relative Spectral Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (RASTA-MFCC) are the two main techniques used. It will be shown in this paper that it presents some modifications to the original MFCC method. In our work the effectiveness of proposed changes to MFCC called Modified Function Cepstral Coefficients (MODFCC) were tested and compared against the original MFCC and RASTA-MFCC features. The prosodic features such as jitter and shimmer are added to baseline spectral features. The above-mentioned techniques were tested with impulsive signals under various noisy conditions within AURORA databases.
Abstract: The hard clam (meretrix lusoria) cultivated industry
has been developed vigorously for recent years in Taiwan, and
seawater quality determines the cultivated environment. The pH
concentration variation affects survival rate of meretrix lusoria
immediately. In order to monitor seawater quality, solid-state sensing
electrode of ruthenium-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2:Ru) is developed
to measure hydrogen ion concentration in different cultivated
solutions. Because the TiO2:Ru sensing electrode has high chemical
stability and superior sensing characteristics, thus it is applied as a pH
sensor. Response voltages of TiO2:Ru sensing electrode are readout by
instrument amplifier in different sample solutions. Mean sensitivity
and linearity of TiO2:Ru sensing electrode are 55.20 mV/pH and 0.999
from pH1 to pH13, respectively. We expect that the TiO2:Ru sensing
electrode can be applied to real environment measurement, therefore
we collect two sample solutions by different meretrix lusoria
cultivated ponds in the Yunlin, Taiwan. The two sample solutions are
both measured for 200 seconds after calibration of standard pH buffer
solutions (pH7, pH8 and pH 9). Mean response voltages of sample 1
and sample 2 are -178.758 mV (Standard deviation=0.427 mV) and
-180.206 mV (Standard deviation =0.399 mV), respectively. Response
voltages of the two sample solutions are between pH 8 and pH 9 which
conform to weak alkali range and suitable meretrix lusoria growth. For
long-term monitoring, drift of cultivated solutions (sample 1 and
sample 2) are 1.16 mV/hour and 1.03 mV/hour, respectively.
Abstract: Today-s children, who are born into a more colorful,
more creative, more abstract and more accessible communication
environment than their ancestors as a result of dizzying advances in
technology, have an interesting capacity to perceive and make sense
of the world. Millennium children, who live in an environment where
all kinds of efforts by marketing communication are more intensive
than ever are, from their early childhood on, subject to all kinds of
persuasive messages. As regards advertising communication, it
outperforms all the other marketing communication efforts in
creating little consumer individuals and, as a result of processing of
codes and signs, plays a significant part in building a world of seeing,
thinking and understanding for children. Children who are raised with
metaphorical expressions such as tales and riddles also meet that fast
and effective meaning communication in advertisements.
Children-s perception of metaphors, which help grasp the “product
and its promise" both verbally and visually and facilitate association
between them is the subject of this study. Stimulating and activating
imagination, metaphors have unique advantages in promoting the
product and its promise especially in regard to print advertisements,
which have certain limitations. This study deals comparatively with
both literal and metaphoric versions of print advertisements
belonging to various product groups and attempts to discover to what
extent advertisements are liked, recalled, perceived and are
persuasive. The sample group of the study, which was conducted in
two elementary schools situated in areas that had different socioeconomic
features, consisted of children aged 12.
Abstract: Recently ORC(Organic Rankine Cycle) has attracted
much attention due to its potential in reducing consumption of fossil
fuels and its favorable characteristics to exploit low-grade heat sources.
In this work thermodynamic performance of ORC with superheating of
vapor is comparatively assessed for various working fluids. Special
attention is paid to the effects of system parameters such as the evaporating
temperature and the turbine inlet temperature on the characteristics
of the system such as maximum possible work extraction from
the given source, volumetric flow rate per 1 kW of net work and
quality of the working fluid at turbine exit as well as thermal and
exergy efficiencies. Results show that for a given source the thermal
efficiency increases with decrease of the superheating but exergy
efficiency may have a maximum value with respect to the superheating
of the working fluid. Results also show that in selection of working
fluid it is required to consider various criteria of performance characteristics
as well as thermal efficiency.
Abstract: Aerospace vehicles are subjected to non-uniform
thermal loading that may cause thermal buckling. A study was
conducted on the thermal post-buckling of shape memory alloy
composite plates subjected to the non-uniform tent-like temperature
field. The shape memory alloy wires were embedded within the
laminated composite plates to add recovery stress to the plates. The
non-linear finite element model that considered the recovery stress of
the shape memory alloy and temperature dependent properties of the
shape memory alloy and composite matrix along with its source
codes were developed. It was found that the post-buckling paths of
the shape memory alloy composite plates subjected to various tentlike
temperature fields were stable within the studied temperature
range. The addition of shape memory alloy wires to the composite
plates was found to significantly improve the post-buckling behavior
of laminated composite plates under non-uniform temperature
distribution.
Abstract: The study investigated the educational implications
that can be derived from the work of a variety of celebrated figures
such as Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner that will be helpful in the field
of language learning. However, the writer believed these views were
previously expressed not full–fledged by Comenius who has been
described by Howatt (1984) as a genius–the one that the history of
language teaching can claim. And we owe to him more than anyone.
Abstract: This paper examines economic and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development influence on recently increasing Internet purchases by individuals for European Union member states. After a growing trend for Internet purchases in EU27 was noticed, all possible regression analysis was applied using nine independent variables in 2011. Finally, two linear regression models were studied in detail. Conducted simple linear regression analysis confirmed the research hypothesis that the Internet purchases in analyzed EU countries is positively correlated with statistically significant variable Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPpc). Also, analyzed multiple linear regression model with four regressors, showing ICT development level, indicates that ICT development is crucial for explaining the Internet purchases by individuals, confirming the research hypothesis.
Abstract: The complex shape of the human pelvic bone was
successfully imaged and modeled using finite element FE processing.
The bone was subjected to quasi-static and dynamic loading
conditions simulating the effect of both weight gain and impact.
Loads varying between 500 – 2500 N (~50 – 250 Kg of weight) was
used to simulate 3D quasi-static weight gain. Two different 3D
dynamic analyses, body free fall at two different heights (1 and 2 m)
and forced side impact at two different velocities (20 and 40 Km/hr)
were also studied. The computed resulted stresses were compared for
the four loading cases, where Von Misses stresses increases linearly
with the weight gain increase under quasi-static loading. For the
dynamic models, the Von Misses stress history behaviors were
studied for the affected area and effected load with respect to time.
The normalization Von Misses stresses with respect to the applied
load were used for comparing the free fall and the forced impact load
results. It was found that under the forced impact loading condition
an over lapping behavior was noticed, where as for the free fall the
normalized Von Misses stresses behavior was found to nonlinearly
different. This phenomenon was explained through the energy
dissipation concept. This study will help designers in different
specialization in defining the weakest spots for designing different
supporting systems.