Abstract: This paper propose the robust character segmentation method for license plate with topological transform such as twist,rotation. The first step of the proposed method is to find a candidate region for character and license plate. The character or license plate
must be appeared as closed loop in the edge image. In the case of
detecting candidate for character region, the evaluation of detected
region is using topological relationship between each character. When
this method decides license plate candidate region, character features
in the region with binarization are used. After binarization for the detected candidate region, each character region is decided again. In
this step, each character region is fitted more than previous step. In the
next step, the method checks other character regions with different
scale near the detected character regions, because most license plates
have license numbers with some meaningful characters around them.
The method uses perspective projection for geometrical normalization.
If there is topological distortion in the character region, the method
projects the region on a template which is defined as standard license
plate using perspective projection. In this step, the method is able to
separate each number region and small meaningful characters. The
evaluation results are tested with a number of test images.
Abstract: Optimal selection of electrical insulations in electrical
machinery insures reliability during operation. From the insulation
studies of view for electrical machines, stator is the most important
part. This fact reveals the requirement for inspection of the electrical
machine insulation along with the electro-thermal stresses. In the
first step of the study, a part of the whole structure of machine in
which covers the general characteristics of the machine is chosen,
then based on the electromagnetic analysis (finite element method),
the machine operation is simulated. In the simulation results, the
temperature distribution of the total structure is presented
simultaneously by using electro-thermal analysis. The results of
electro-thermal analysis can be used for designing an optimal cooling
system. In order to design, review and comparing the cooling
systems, four wiring structures in the slots of Stator are presented.
The structures are compared to each other in terms of electrical,
thermal distribution and remaining life of insulation by using Finite
Element analysis. According to the steps of the study, an optimization
algorithm has been presented for selection of appropriate structure.
Abstract: In this paper, a novel algorithm based on Ridgelet
Transform and support vector machine is proposed for human action
recognition. The Ridgelet transform is a directional multi-resolution
transform and it is more suitable for describing the human action by
performing its directional information to form spatial features
vectors. The dynamic transition between the spatial features is carried
out using both the Principal Component Analysis and clustering
algorithm K-means. First, the Principal Component Analysis is used
to reduce the dimensionality of the obtained vectors. Then, the kmeans
algorithm is then used to perform the obtained vectors to form
the spatio-temporal pattern, called set-of-labels, according to given
periodicity of human action. Finally, a Support Machine classifier is
used to discriminate between the different human actions. Different
tests are conducted on popular Datasets, such as Weizmann and
KTH. The obtained results show that the proposed method provides
more significant accuracy rate and it drives more robustness in very
challenging situations such as lighting changes, scaling and dynamic
environment
Abstract: This study proposes a hybrid minimal repair policy
which combines periodic maintenance policy with age-based maintenance policy for a serial production system. Parameters of such policy are defined as and which indicate as hybrid minimal
repair time and planned preventive maintenance time
respectively . Under this hybrid policy, the system is
repaired minimally if it fails during , . A perfect repair is
conducted on the first failure after at any machines. At the same time, we take opportunity to advance the preventive maintenance of
other machines simultaneously. If the system is still operating
properly up to , then the preventive maintenance is carried out as its
predetermined schedule. For a given , we obtain the optimal value which minimizes the expected cost per time unit. Numerical
example is presented to illustrate the properties of the optimal solution.
Abstract: The Czech Republic has over the past decade carried out two waves of tax and benefit reforms. The first one took place in 2005–2006 during the left-wing government and the second one has been carried out in 2008 by the right-wing government. Using EUSILC data for selected types of households, the paper assesses changes in the distribution of gross incomes and effects of the changes in taxes and benefits on the distribution of incomes after taxes and a provision of social benefits. The analysis is carried out on four types of households with and without children. The analysis is performed using Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients. The results show that the tax system changes the distribution of incomes less significantly than benefits. The 2006 reform reduced the differential between the Gini coefficient for the gross income and the Gini coefficient after taxes and benefits for households with active parents and one child. Reform in 2008 supported families with children and an reduced the differential between the gross income and income after taxes and benefits for different types of families.
Abstract: A word recognition architecture based on a network
of neural associative memories and hidden Markov models has been
developed. The input stream, composed of subword-units like wordinternal
triphones consisting of diphones and triphones, is provided
to the network of neural associative memories by hidden Markov
models. The word recognition network derives words from this input
stream. The architecture has the ability to handle ambiguities on
subword-unit level and is also able to add new words to the
vocabulary during performance. The architecture is implemented to
perform the word recognition task in a language processing system
for understanding simple command sentences like “bot show apple".
Abstract: Automatic tube current modulation (ATCM) systems are available for all CT manufacturers and are used for the majority of patients. Understanding how the systems work and their influence on patient dose and image quality is important for CT users, in order to gain the most effective use of the systems. In the present study, a new phantom was used for evaluating dose distribution and image quality under the ATCM operation for the Toshiba Aquilion 64 CT scanner using different ATCM options and a fixed mAs technique. A routine chest, abdomen and pelvis (CAP) protocol was selected for study and Gafchromic film was used to measure entrance surface dose (ESD), peripheral dose and central axis dose in the phantom. The results show the dose reductions achievable with various ATCM options, in relation with the target noise. The doses and image noise distribution were more uniform when the ATCM system was implemented compared with the fixed mAs technique. The lower limit set for the tube current will affect the modulations especially for the lower dose option. This limit prevented the tube current being reduced further and therefore the lower dose ATCM setting resembled a fixed mAs technique. Selection of a lower tube current limit is likely to reduce doses for smaller patients in scans of chest and neck regions.
Abstract: The approaches to make an agent generate intelligent actions in the AI field might be roughly categorized into two ways–the classical planning and situated action system. It is well known that each system have its own strength and weakness. However, each system also has its own application field. In particular, most of situated action systems do not directly deal with the logical problem. This paper first briefly mentions the novel action generator to situatedly extract a set of actions, which is likely to help to achieve the goal at the current situation in the relaxed logical space. After performing the action set, the agent should recognize the situation for deciding the next likely action set. However, since the extracted action is an approximation of the action which helps to achieve the goal, the agent could be caught into the deadlock of the problem. This paper proposes the newly developed hybrid architecture to solve the problem, which combines the novel situated action generator with the conventional planner. The empirical result in some planning domains shows that the quality of the resultant path to the goal is mostly acceptable as well as deriving the fast response time, and suggests the correlation between the structure of problems and the organization of each system which generates the action.
Abstract: The importance of our country-s communication
system is noticeable when a disaster occurs. The communication
system in our country includes wired and wireless telephone
networks, radio, satellite system and more increasingly internet. Even
though our communication system is most extensive and dependable,
extreme conditions can put a strain on them. Interoperability between
heterogeneous wireless networks can be used to provide efficient
communication for emergency first response. IEEE 802.21 specifies
Media Independent Handover (MIH) services to enhance the mobile
user experience by optimizing handovers between heterogeneous
access networks. This paper presents an algorithm to improve
congestion control in MIH framework. It is analytically shown that
by including time factor in network selection we can optimize
congestion in the network.
Abstract: This paper deals with automatic sentence modality
recognition in French. In this work, only prosodic features are
considered. The sentences are recognized according to the three
following modalities: declarative, interrogative and exclamatory
sentences. This information will be used to animate a talking head for
deaf and hearing-impaired children. We first statistically study a real
radio corpus in order to assess the feasibility of the automatic
modeling of sentence types. Then, we test two sets of prosodic
features as well as two different classifiers and their combination. We
further focus our attention on questions recognition, as this modality
is certainly the most important one for the target application.
Abstract: Vickers indentation is used to measure the hardness
of materials. In this study, numerical simulation of Vickers
indentation experiment was performed for Diamond like Carbon
(DLC) coated materials. DLC coatings were deposited on stainless
steel 304 substrates with Chromium buffer layer using RF Magnetron
and T-shape Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc Dual system The
objective of this research is to understand the elastic plastic
properties, stress strain distribution, ring and lateral crack growth and
propagation, penetration depth of indenter and delamination of
coating from substrate with effect of buffer layer thickness. The
effect of Poisson-s ratio of DLC coating was also analyzed. Indenter
penetration is more in coated materials with thin buffer layer as
compared to thicker one, under same conditions. Similarly, the
specimens with thinner buffer layer failed quickly due to high
residual stress as compared to the coated materials with reasonable
thickness of 200nm buffer layer. The simulation results suggested the
optimized thickness of 200 nm among the prepared specimens for
durable and long service.
Abstract: Bone growth factors, such as Bone Morphogenic
Protein-2 (BMP-2) have been approved by the FDA to replace grafting for some surgical interventions, but the high dose requirement limits its use in patients. Noggin, an extracellular protein, blocks the effect of BMP-2 by binding to BMP. Preventing
the BMP-2/noggin interaction will help increase the free
concentration of BMP-2 and therefore should enhance its efficacy to
induce bone formation. The work presented here involves
computational design of novel small molecule inhibitory agents of BMP-2/noggin interaction, based on our current understanding of
BMP-2, and its known putative ligands (receptors and antagonists). A
successful acquisition of such an inhibitory agent of BMP-2/noggin interaction would allow clinicians to reduce the dose required of
BMP-2 protein in clinical applications to promote osteogenesis. The
available crystal structures of the BMPs, its receptors, and the binding partner noggin were analyzed to identify the critical residues
involved in their interaction. In presenting this study, LUDI de novo design method was utilized to perform virtual screening of a large
number of compounds from a commercially available library against the binding sites of noggin to identify the lead chemical compounds
that could potentially block BMP-noggin interaction with a high specificity.
Abstract: This paper describes an automated event detection and location system for water distribution pipelines which is based upon low-cost sensor technology and signature analysis by an Artificial
Neural Network (ANN). The development of a low cost failure sensor which measures the opacity or cloudiness of the local water
flow has been designed, developed and validated, and an ANN based system is then described which uses time series data produced by
sensors to construct an empirical model for time series prediction and
classification of events. These two components have been installed,
tested and verified in an experimental site in a UK water distribution
system. Verification of the system has been achieved from a series of
simulated burst trials which have provided real data sets. It is concluded that the system has potential in water distribution network
management.
Abstract: The forming process parameters of Selective Laser
Sintering(SLS) directly affect the forming efficiency and forming
quality. Therefore, to determine reasonable process parameters is
particularly important. In this paper, the weight of each target of the
forming quality and efficiency is firstly calculated with the Analytic
Hierarchy Process. And then the size of each target is measured by
orthogonal experiment. Finally, the sum of the product of each target
with the weight is compared to the process parameters in each group
and obtained the optimal molding process parameters.
Abstract: An integrated Artificial Neural Network- Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is presented for analyzing global electricity consumption. To aim this purpose, following steps are done: STEP 1: in the first step, PSO is applied in order to determine world-s oil, natural gas, coal and primary energy demand equations based on socio-economic indicators. World-s population, Gross domestic product (GDP), oil trade movement and natural gas trade movement are used as socio-economic indicators in this study. For each socio-economic indicator, a feed-forward back propagation artificial neural network is trained and projected for future time domain. STEP 2: in the second step, global electricity consumption is projected based on the oil, natural gas, coal and primary energy consumption using PSO. global electricity consumption is forecasted up to year 2040.
Abstract: Social, culture and artistic status of a society in
various historical eras is affected by numerous, and sometimes
imposed, factors that better understanding requires analysis of such
conditions. Throughout history Iran has been involved with
determining and significant events that examining each of these
events can improve the understanding of social conditions of this
country in the intended time. Mongolian conquest of Iran is one of
most significant events in the history of Iran with consequences that
never left Iranian societies. During this tragic invasion and
subsequent devastating wars, which led to establishment of Ilkhanate
dynasty, numerous cultural and artistic changes occurred both in
Mongolian conquerors and Iranian society. This study examines these
changes with a glimpse towards art and architecture as important part
of cultural aspects and social communication.
Abstract: Using the animations video of teaching materials is an
effective learning method. However, we thought that more effective learning method is to produce the teaching video by learners
themselves. The learners who act as the producer must learn and understand well to produce and present video of teaching materials to
others. The purpose of this study is to propose the project based learning (PBL) technique by co-producing video of IT (information
technology) teaching materials. We used the T2V player to produce
the video based on TVML a TV program description language. By
proposed method, we have assigned the learners to produce the
animations video for “National Examination for Information
Processing Technicians (IPA examination)" in Japan, in order to get
them learns various knowledge and skill on IT field. Experimental
result showed that learning effect has occurred at the video production
process that useful for IT personnel resources development.
Abstract: In a bi-fuel diesel engine, the carburetor plays a vital
role in switching from fuel gas to petrol mode operation and viceversa.
The carburetor is the most important part of the fuel system of
a diesel engine. All diesel engines carry variable venturi mixer
carburetors. The basic operation of the carburetor mainly depends on
the restriction barrel called the venturi. When air flows through the
venturi, its speed increases and its pressure decreases. The main
challenge focuses on designing a mixing device which mixes the
supplied gas is the incoming air at an optimum ratio. In order to
surmount the identified problems, the way fuel gas and air flow in
the mixer have to be analyzed. In this case, the Computational Fluid
Dynamics or CFD approach is applied in design of the prototype
mixer. The present work is aimed at further understanding of the air
and fuel flow structure by performing CFD studies using a software
code. In this study for mixing air and gas in the condition that has
been mentioned in continuance, some mixers have been designed.
Then using of computational fluid dynamics, the optimum mixer has
been selected. The results indicated that mixer with 12 holes can
produce a homogenous mixture than those of 8-holes and 6-holes
mixer. Also the result showed that if inlet convergency was smoother
than outlet divergency, the mixture get more homogenous, the reason
of that is in increasing turbulence in outlet divergency.
Abstract: The excessive consumption of fossil energies (electrical energy) during summer caused by the technological development involves more and more climate warming.
In order to reduce the worst impact of gas emissions produced from classical air conditioning, heat driven solar absorption chiller is pretty promising; it consists on using solar as motive energy which is clean and environmentally friendly to provide cold.
Solar absorption machine is composed by four components using Lithium Bromide /water as a refrigerating couple. LiBr- water is the most promising in chiller applications due to high safety, high volatility ratio, high affinity, high stability and its high latent heat. The lithium bromide solution is constitute by the salt lithium bromide which absorbs water under certain conditions of pressure and temperature however if the concentration of the solution is high in the absorption chillers; which exceed 70%, the solution will crystallize.
The main aim of this article is to study the phenomena of the crystallization and to evaluate how the dependence between the electric conductivity and the concentration which should be controlled.
Abstract: Most paddy rice fields in East Asia are small parcels,
and the weather conditions during the growing season are usually
cloudy. FORMOSAT-2 multi-spectral images have an 8-meter
resolution and one-day recurrence, ideal for mapping paddy rice fields
in East Asia. To map rice fields, this study first determined the
transplanting and the most active tillering stages of paddy rice and
then used multi-temporal images to distinguish different growing
characteristics between paddy rice and other ground covers. The
unsupervised ISODATA (iterative self-organizing data analysis
techniques) and supervised maximum likelihood were both used to
discriminate paddy rice fields, with training areas automatically
derived from ten-year cultivation parcels in Taiwan. Besides original
bands in multi-spectral images, we also generated normalized
difference vegetation index and experimented with object-based
pre-classification and post-classification. This paper discusses results
of different image classification methods in an attempt to find a
precise and automatic solution to mapping paddy rice in Taiwan.