Abstract: We discuss the convergence property of the minimum residual (MINRES) method for the solution of complex shifted Hermitian system (αI + H)x = f. Our convergence analysis shows that the method has a faster convergence than that for real shifted Hermitian system (Re(α)I + H)x = f under the condition Re(α) + λmin(H) > 0, and a larger imaginary part of the shift α has a better convergence property. Numerical experiments show such convergence properties.
Abstract: In the end of the day, meteorological data and environmental data becomes widely used such as plant varieties selection system. Variety plant selection for planted area is of almost importance for all crops, including varieties of sugarcane. Since sugarcane have many varieties. Variety plant non selection for planting may not be adapted to the climate or soil conditions for planted area. Poor growth, bloom drop, poor fruit, and low price are to be from varieties which were not recommended for those planted area. This paper presents plant varieties selection system for planted areas in Thailand from meteorological data and environmental data by the use of decision tree techniques. With this software developed as an environmental data analysis tool, it can analyze resulting easier and faster. Our software is a front end of WEKA that provides fundamental data mining functions such as classify, clustering, and analysis functions. It also supports pre-processing, analysis, and decision tree output with exporting result. After that, our software can export and display data result to Google maps API in order to display result and plot plant icons effectively.
Abstract: There was studied dynamic of the number of
nematodes fauna of various ecosystems of Gombori Mountain Ridge
that belongs to peak of fauna dynamic. The nature of dynamic is in
general similar in all six biotypes and the difference is evident only in
total number of nematodes.
Abstract: Deflocculation and gel characterization were
investigated for three different composition of porcelain slips at
specific gravity 1.8. The suspensions were dispersed with sodium
silicate (Na2SiO3) in under-deflocculated slips and fully deflocculated
slips. The rheology characterization of slips was conducted by the
deflocculation curves and the gel curves. The results showed that
decreasing the amount of the ball clay composition in the slips
consumed less dosages of the dispersants. The under-deflocculated
slips tended to have a gelation rate faster than the fully deflocculated
slips.
Abstract: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has emerged as a cost-effective transport system for urban mobility. However its ability to stimulate land development remains largely unexplored. The study makes use of qualitative (interview method) and quantitative analysis (questionnaire survey and longitudinal analysis of property data) to investigate land development impact resulting from BRT in Beijing, China. The empirical analysis suggests that BRT has a positive impact on the residential and commercial property attractiveness along the busway corridor. The statistical analysis suggests that accessibility advantage conferred by BRT is capitalized into higher property price. The average price of apartments adjacent to a BRT station has gained a relatively faster increase than those not served by the BRT system. The capitalization effect mostly occurs after the full operation of BRT, and is more evident over time and particularly observed in areas which previously lack alternative mobility opportunity.
Abstract: Pre-germinated parboiled brown rice or Khao hang (in Thai) is paddy which undergoing the processes of soaking, steaming, drying and dehusking to obtain the edible form for consumption. The objectives of this research were to study the kinetic of pre-germinated parboiled brown rice drying using fluidization technique and to study the properties of pre-germinated parboiled brown rice after drying. The dryings were performed at the different temperatures of 110, 120 and 130 oC at the bed depth of 2 cm with the air velocity of 1.98 m/s. The results found that the higher drying temperature led to the faster moisture reduction. After drying until the moisture content of pre-germinated parboiled brown rice was lower than 14%wet basis, samples were taken to determine various qualities such as percentage of head rice and L* a* b* color values. The shade drying was used as a control. The results found that the higher drying temperature resulted in the decrease of head rice percentage. For the color assessment, the trend of L* and a* values was increased with the drying temperature, while the b* value was not significantly difference (p › 0.05) by drying temperatures. However, the b value of drying by fluidized bed dryer was higher than the control.
Abstract: In Geographic Information System, one of the sources
of obtaining needed geographic data is digitizing analog maps and
evaluation of aerial and satellite photos. In this study, a method will
be discussed which can be used to extract vectorial features and
creating vectorized drawing files for aerial photos. At the same time
a software developed for these purpose. Converting from raster to
vector is also known as vectorization and it is the most important step
when creating vectorized drawing files. In the developed algorithm,
first of all preprocessing on the aerial photo is done. These are;
converting to grayscale if necessary, reducing noise, applying some
filters and determining the edge of the objects etc. After these steps,
every pixel which constitutes the photo are followed from upper left
to right bottom by examining its neighborhood relationship and one
pixel wide lines or polylines obtained. The obtained lines have to be
erased for preventing confusion while continuing vectorization
because if not erased they can be perceived as new line, but if erased
it can cause discontinuity in vector drawing so the image converted
from 2 bit to 8 bit and the detected pixels are expressed as a different
bit. In conclusion, the aerial photo can be converted to vector form
which includes lines and polylines and can be opened in any CAD
application.
Abstract: Polynomial maps offer analytical properties used to obtain better performances in the scope of chaos synchronization under noisy channels. This paper presents a new method to simplify equations of the Exact Polynomial Kalman Filter (ExPKF) given in [1]. This faster algorithm is compared to other estimators showing that performances of all considered observers vanish rapidly with the channel noise making application of chaos synchronization intractable. Simulation of ExPKF shows that saturation drawn on the emitter to keep it stable impacts badly performances for low channel noise. Then we propose a particle filter that outperforms all other Kalman structured observers in the case of noisy channels.
Abstract: In the globalized e-learning environment, students coming from different cultures and countries have different characteristics and require different support designed for their approaches to study and learning styles. This paper explores the ways in which cultural background influences students- approaches to study and learning styles. Participants in the study consisted of 131 eastern students and 54 western students from an Australian university. The students were tested using the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) for assessing their approaches to study and the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (ILS) for assessing their learning styles. The results of the study led to a set of principles being proposed to guide personalization of e-learning system design on the basis of cultural differences.
Abstract: Whilst there is growing evidence that activity across
the lifespan is beneficial for improved health, there are also many
changes involved with the aging process and subsequently the
potential for reduced indices of health. The nexus between all forms
of health, physical activity and aging is complex and has raised much
interest in recent times due to the realization that a multifaceted
approached is necessary in order to counteract a growing obesity
epidemic. By investigating age based trends within a population
adherring to competitive sport at older ages, further insight might be
gleaned to assist in understanding one of many factors influencing
this relationship. This study evaluated those sport psychological
constructs of health, physical fitness, mental health states, and social
dimension factors in sport that were associated with factors to
participate in sport and physical activity based on responses from the
2009 World Masters Games in Sydney. The sample consisted of
7846 athletes who competed at the games and who completed a 56
item sports participation survey using a 7-point Likert response (1 -
not important to 7 - very important). Questions focuses on factors
thought to promote participation, such as weight control, living
longer, improving mental health (self-esteem, mood states),
improving physical health and factors related to the athlete-s
competitive perspective. The most significant factors related to
participation with this cohort of masters athletes were the socializing
environment of sport, getting physically fit and improving
competitive personal best performances. Strategies to increase
participation in masters sport should focus on these factors as other
factors such as weight loss, improving mental health and living
longer were not identified as important determinates of sports
participation at the World Masters level.
Abstract: The aim of the study was to determine how different
ripening processes (traditional vs. industrial) influenced the
proteolysis in traditional Serbian dry-fermented sausage Petrovská
klobása. The obtained results indicated more intensive pH decline
(0.7 units after 9 days) in industrially ripened products (I), what had a
positive impact on drying process and proteolytic changes in these
samples. Thus, moisture content in I sausages was lower at each
sampling time, amounting 24.7% at the end of production period
(90 days). Likewise, the process of proteolysis was more pronounced
in I samples, resulting in higher contents of non-protein nitrogen
(NPN) and free amino acids nitrogen (FAAN), as well as in faster
and more intensive degradation of myosin (≈220 kDa), actin (≈45
kDa) and other polypeptides during processing. Consequently, the
appearance and accumulation of several protein fragments were
registered.
Abstract: Drought is natural and climate phenomenon and in fact server as a part of climate in an area and also it has significant environmental, social ,and economic consequences .drought differs from the other natural disasters from this viewpoint that it s a creeping phenomenon meaning that it progresses little and its difficult to determine the time of its onset and termination .most of the drought definitions are on based on precipitation shortage and consequently ,the shortage of water some of the activities related to the water such as agriculture In this research ,drought condition in Fars province was evacuated using SPI method within a 37 year – statistical –period(1974-2010)and maps related to the drought were prepared for each of the statistical period years. According to the results obtained from this research, the years 1974, 1976, 1975, 1982 with SPI (-1.03, 0.39, -1.05, -1.49) respectively, were the doughiest years and 1996,1997,2000 with SPI (2.49, 1.49, 1.46, 1.04) respectively, the most humid within the studying time series and the rest are in more normal conditions in the term of drought.
Abstract: Segmentation, filtering out of measurement errors and
identification of breakpoints are integral parts of any analysis of
microarray data for the detection of copy number variation (CNV).
Existing algorithms designed for these tasks have had some successes
in the past, but they tend to be O(N2) in either computation time or
memory requirement, or both, and the rapid advance of microarray
resolution has practically rendered such algorithms useless. Here we
propose an algorithm, SAD, that is much faster and much less thirsty
for memory – O(N) in both computation time and memory requirement
-- and offers higher accuracy. The two key ingredients of SAD are the
fundamental assumption in statistics that measurement errors are
normally distributed and the mathematical relation that the product of
two Gaussians is another Gaussian (function). We have produced a
computer program for analyzing CNV based on SAD. In addition to
being fast and small it offers two important features: quantitative
statistics for predictions and, with only two user-decided parameters,
ease of use. Its speed shows little dependence on genomic profile.
Running on an average modern computer, it completes CNV analyses
for a 262 thousand-probe array in ~1 second and a 1.8 million-probe
array in 9 seconds
Abstract: The objective of this work is to explicit knowledge on the interactions between the chlorophyll-a and nine meroplankton larvae of epibenthonic fauna. The studied case is the Arraial do Cabo upwelling system, Southeastern of Brazil, which provides different environmental conditions. To assess this information a network approach based in probability estimative was used. Comparisons among the generated graphs are made in the light of different water masses, application of Shannon biodiversity index, and the closeness and betweenness centralities measurements. Our results show the main pattern among different water masses and how the core organisms belonging to the network skeleton are correlated to the main environmental variable. We conclude that the approach of complex networks is a promising tool for environmental diagnostic.
Abstract: The objective this study was to characterize and
develop anthropomorphic liver phantoms in tomography hepatic
procedures for quality control and improvement professionals in
nuclear medicine. For the conformation of the anthropomorphic
phantom was used in plaster and acrylic. We constructed three
phantoms representing processes with liver cirrhosis. The phantoms
were filled with 99mTc diluted with water to obtain the scintigraphic
images. Tomography images were analyzed anterior and posterior
phantom representing a body with a greater degree cirrhotic. It was
noted that the phantoms allow the acquisition of images similar to
real liver with cirrhosis. Simulations of hemangiomas may contribute
to continued professional education of nuclear medicine, on the
question of image acquisition, allowing of the study parameters such
of the matrix, energy window and count statistics.
Abstract: Validity is an overriding consideration in language testing. If a test score is intended for a particular purpose, this must be supported through empirical evidence. This article addresses the validity of a multiple-choice achievement test (MCT). The test is administered at the end of each semester to decide about students' mastery of a course in general English. To provide empirical evidence pertaining to the validity of this test, two criterion measures were used. In so doing, a Cloze test and a C-test which are reported to gauge general English proficiency were utilized. The results of analyses show that there is a statistically significant correlation among participants' scores on the MCT, Cloze, and Ctest. Drawing on the findings of the study, it can be cautiously deduced that these tests measure the same underlying trait. However, allowing for the limitations of using criterion measures to validate tests, we cannot make any absolute claim as to the validity of this MCT test.
Abstract: This paper presents a comparative analysis of a new
unsupervised PCA-based technique for steel plates texture segmentation
towards defect detection. The proposed scheme called Variance
Based Component Analysis or VBCA employs PCA for feature
extraction, applies a feature reduction algorithm based on variance of
eigenpictures and classifies the pixels as defective and normal. While
the classic PCA uses a clusterer like Kmeans for pixel clustering,
VBCA employs thresholding and some post processing operations to
label pixels as defective and normal. The experimental results show
that proposed algorithm called VBCA is 12.46% more accurate and
78.85% faster than the classic PCA.
Abstract: A new method of adaptation in a partially integrated learning environment that includes electronic textbook (ET) and integrated tutoring system (ITS) is described. The algorithm of adaptation is described in detail. It includes: establishment of Interconnections of operations and concepts; estimate of the concept mastering level (for all concepts); estimate of student-s non-mastering level on the current learning step of information on each page of ET; creation of a rank-order list of links to the e-manual pages containing information that require repeated work.
Abstract: The aim of this research is to develop a fast and
reliable surveillance system based on a personal digital assistant
(PDA) device. This is to extend the capability of the device to detect
moving objects which is already available in personal computers.
Secondly, to compare the performance between Background
subtraction (BS) and Temporal Frame Differencing (TFD) techniques
for PDA platform as to which is more suitable. In order to reduce
noise and to prepare frames for the moving object detection part,
each frame is first converted to a gray-scale representation and then
smoothed using a Gaussian low pass filter. Two moving object
detection schemes i.e., BS and TFD have been analyzed. The
background frame is updated by using Infinite Impulse Response
(IIR) filter so that the background frame is adapted to the varying
illuminate conditions and geometry settings. In order to reduce the
effect of noise pixels resulting from frame differencing
morphological filters erosion and dilation are applied. In this
research, it has been found that TFD technique is more suitable for
motion detection purpose than the BS in term of speed. On average
TFD is approximately 170 ms faster than the BS technique
Abstract: Terrorism represents an unexpected and unwanted change which challenges one-s social identity. We carried out a study to explore the demographic variables- role on the perception of personal and national threat, and to investigate the effects of perceived terrorist threat on people-s ways of life, moods, opinions and hopes. 313 residents of Palermo (Italy) were interviewed. The results pointed out that the fear of terrorism affects three areas: the cognitive, the emotional and the behavioural one.