Abstract: Traditional optical networks are gradually evolving towards intelligent optical networks due to the need for faster bandwidth provisioning, protection and restoration of the network that can be accomplished with devices like optical switch, add drop multiplexer and cross connects. Since dense wavelength multiplexing forms the physical layer for intelligent optical networking, the roll of high speed all optical switch is important. This paper analyzes such an ultra-high speed polymer electro-optic switch. The performances of the 2x2 optical waveguide switch with rectangular, triangular and trapezoidal grating profiles on various device parameters are analyzed. The simulation result shows that trapezoidal grating is the optimized structure which has the coupling length of 81μm and switching voltage of 11V for the operating wavelength of 1550nm. The switching time for this proposed switch is 0.47 picosecond. This makes the proposed switch to be an important element in the intelligent optical network.
Abstract: In this era of globalization, the role of the State in all aspects of development is widely debated. Some scholars contend the 'demise' and diminishing role of the State whilst others claim that the State is still “de facto developmental". Clearly, it is vital to ascertain which of these two contentions are reflective of the role of the State as nations ascend their development trajectories. Based on the findings of this paper, the perception that the Malaysian State plays an active and committed role towards distributing equitable educational opportunities and enhancing employability of Malaysian PWDs is actually a myth and not reality. Thus, in order to fulfill the promise of Vision 2020 to transform Malaysia into a caring and socially-inclusive society; this paper calls for a more interventionist and committed role by the Malaysian State to translate the universal rights of education and employment opportunities for PWDs from mere policy rhetoric into inclusive realities.
Abstract: Speeded-Up Robust Feature (SURF) is commonly used for feature matching in stereovision because of their robustness towards scale changes and rotational changes. However, SURF feature cannot cope with large viewpoint changes or skew distortion. This paper introduces a method which can help to improve the wide baseline-s matching performance in term of accuracy by rectifying the image using two vanishing points. Simplified orientation correction was used to remove the false matching..
Abstract: Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) has been
one on the most vivid research areas in the field of computer vision
over the last 10 years. Many programs and tools have been
developed to formulate and execute queries based on the visual or
audio content and to help browsing large multimedia repositories.
Still, no general breakthrough has been achieved with respect to
large varied databases with documents of difering sorts and with
varying characteristics. Answers to many questions with respect to
speed, semantic descriptors or objective image interpretations are
still unanswered. In the medical field, images, and especially
digital images, are produced in ever increasing quantities and used
for diagnostics and therapy. In several articles, content based
access to medical images for supporting clinical decision making
has been proposed that would ease the management of clinical data
and scenarios for the integration of content-based access methods
into Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) have
been created. This paper gives an overview of soft computing
techniques. New research directions are being defined that can
prove to be useful. Still, there are very few systems that seem to be
used in clinical practice. It needs to be stated as well that the goal
is not, in general, to replace text based retrieval methods as they
exist at the moment.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel method that allows an
agent host to delegate its signing power to an anonymous mobile
agent in such away that the mobile agent does not reveal any information about its host-s identity and, at the same time, can be authenticated by the service host, hence, ensuring fairness of service
provision. The solution introduces a verification server to verify the
signature generated by the mobile agent in such a way that even if colluding with the service host, both parties will not get more information than what they already have. The solution incorporates
three methods: Agent Signature Key Generation method, Agent
Signature Generation method, Agent Signature Verification method.
The most notable feature of the solution is that, in addition to allowing secure and anonymous signature delegation, it enables
tracking of malicious mobile agents when a service host is attacked. The security properties of the proposed solution are analyzed, and the solution is compared with the most related work.
Abstract: Channel junctions can be analyzed in two ways of
division (lateral intake) and combined flows (confluence). The
present paper investigates 3D flow pattern at lateral intake using
Navier-Stokes equation and κ -ε (RNG) turbulent model. The
equations are solved by Finite-Volume Method (FVM) and results
are compared with the experimental data of (Barkdoll, B.D., 1997)
to test the validity of the findings. Comparison of the results with
the experimental data indicated a close proximity between the two
sets of data which suggest a very close simulation. Results further
indicated an inverse relation between the effects of discharge ratio
( r Q ) on the length and width of the separation zone. In other words,
as the discharge ration increases, the length and width of separation
zone decreases.
Abstract: This study, focusing on the importance of encouraging
outdoor activities for children, aims to propose and implement a
Web-GIS based outdoor education program for elementary schools,
which will then be evaluated by users. Specifically, for the purpose of
improved outdoor activities in the elementary school education, the
outdoor education program, with chiefly using the Web-GIS that
provides a good information provision and sharing tool, is proposed
and implemented before being evaluated by users. Conclusions of the
study boil down to:
(1) An eight-staged outdoor education program based on the Web-GIS
was proposed for a “second school" of an elementary school that
was then implemented before being evaluated by users (teachers,
instructors, students, and their parents).
(2) The program generally received a good evaluation, while a lot of
students and their parents evaluated negatively for the degree of
discovery and for the degree of interest, respectively, in the
questionnaire survey of students and their parents conducted after
the “second school". The surveys clearly show that an issue to be
solved, from the viewpoint of teachers in particular, is the
establishment of the GIS that will easily represent teaching materials
developed by teachers and of Web-GIS, and improved significance
of the use of GIS and Web-GIS for their widespread.
Abstract: This text studies glass bottle intelligent inspector
based machine vision instead of manual inspection. The system
structure is illustrated in detail in this paper. The text presents the
method based on watershed transform methods to segment the
possible defective regions and extract features of bottle wall by rules.
Then wavelet transform are used to exact features of bottle finish
from images. After extracting features, the fuzzy support vector
machine ensemble is putted forward as classifier. For ensuring that
the fuzzy support vector machines have good classification ability,
the GA based ensemble method is used to combining the several
fuzzy support vector machines. The experiments demonstrate that
using this inspector to inspect glass bottles, the accuracy rate may
reach above 97.5%.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the integration of hybrid renewable energy resources available in remote isolated islands of Sundarban-24 Parganas-South of Eastern part of India to National Grid of conventional power supply to give a Smart-Grid scenario. Before grid-integration, feasibility of optimization of hybrid renewable energy system is monitored through an Intelligent Controller proposed to be installed at Moushuni Island of Sundarban. The objective is to ensure the reliability and efficiency of the system to optimize the utilization of the hybrid renewable energy sources and also a proposition of how theses isolated Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems at remote islands can be grid-connected is analyzed towards vision of green smart-grid.
Abstract: Recent developments in automotive technology are focused on economy, comfort and safety. Vehicle tracking and collision detection systems are attracting attention of many investigators focused on safety of driving in the field of automotive mechatronics. In this paper, a vision-based vehicle detection system is presented. Developed system is intended to be used in collision detection and driver alert. The system uses RGB images captured by a camera in a car driven in the highway. Images captured by the moving camera are used to detect the moving vehicles in the image. A vehicle ahead of the camera is detected in daylight conditions. The proposed method detects moving vehicles by subtracting successive images. Plate height of the vehicle is determined by using a plate recognition algorithm. Distance of the moving object is calculated by using the plate height. After determination of the distance of the moving vehicle relative speed of the vehicle and Time-to-Collision are calculated by using distances measured in successive images. Results obtained in road tests are discussed in order to validate the use of the proposed method.
Abstract: power-line networks are promise infrastructure for
broadband services provision to end users. However, the network
performance is affected by stochastic channel changing which is due
to load impedances, number of branches and branched line lengths. It
has been proposed that multi-carrier modulations techniques such as
orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), Multi-Carrier
Spread Spectrum (MC-SS), wavelet OFDM can be used in such
environment. This paper investigates the performance of different
indoor topologies of power-line networks that uses MC-SS
modulation scheme.It is observed that when a branch is added in the
link between sending and receiving end of an indoor channel an
average of 2.5dB power loss is found. In additional, when the branch
is added at a node an average of 1dB power loss is found.
Additionally when the terminal impedances of the branch change
from line characteristic impedance to impedance either higher or
lower values the channel performances were tremendously improved.
For example changing terminal load from characteristic impedance
(85 .) to 5 . the signal to noise ratio (SNR) required to attain the
same performances were decreased from 37dB to 24dB respectively.
Also, changing the terminal load from channel characteristic
impedance (85 .) to very higher impedance (1600 .) the SNR
required to maintain the same performances were decreased from
37dB to 23dB. The result concludes that MC-SS performs better
compared with OFDM techniques in all aspects and especially when
the channel is terminated in either higher or lower impedances.
Abstract: We present a novel construction of 16-QAM codewords of length n = 2k . The number of constructed codewords is 162×[4k-1×k-k+1] . When these constructed codewords are utilized as a code in OFDM systems, their peak-to-mean envelope power ratios (PMEPR) are bounded above by 3.6 . The principle of our scheme is illustrated with a four subcarrier example.
Abstract: This paper presents an Extended Kaman Filter
implementation of a single-camera Visual Simultaneous Localization
and Mapping algorithm, a novel algorithm for simultaneous
localization and mapping problem widely studied in mobile robotics
field. The algorithm is vision and odometry-based, The odometry
data is incremental, and therefore it will accumulate error over time,
since the robot may slip or may be lifted, consequently if the
odometry is used alone we can not accurately estimate the robot
position, in this paper we show that a combination of odometry and
visual landmark via the extended Kalman filter can improve the robot
position estimate. We use a Pioneer II robot and motorized pan tilt
camera models to implement the algorithm.
Abstract: For Seismic design, it is important to estimate,
maximum lateral displacement (inelastic displacement) of the
structures due to sever earthquakes for several reasons. Seismic
design provisions estimate the maximum roof and storey drifts
occurring in major earthquakes by amplifying the drifts of the
structures obtained by elastic analysis subjected to seismic design
load, with a coefficient named “displacement amplification factor"
which is greater than one. Here, this coefficient depends on various
parameters, such as ductility and overstrength factors. The present
research aims to evaluate the value of the displacement amplification
factor in seismic design codes and then tries to propose a value to
estimate the maximum lateral structural displacement from sever
earthquakes, without using non-linear analysis. In seismic codes,
since the displacement amplification is related to “force reduction
factor" hence; this aspect has been accepted in the current study.
Meanwhile, two methodologies are applied to evaluate the value of
displacement amplification factor and its relation with the force
reduction factor. In the first methodology, which is applied for all
structures, the ratio of displacement amplification and force reduction
factors is determined directly. Whereas, in the second methodology
that is applicable just for R/C moment resisting frame, the ratio is
obtained by calculating both factors, separately. The acquired results
of these methodologies are alike and estimate the ratio of two factors
from 1 to 1.2. The results indicate that the ratio of the displacement
amplification factor and the force reduction factor differs to those
proposed by seismic provisions such as NEHRP, IBC and Iranian
seismic code (standard no. 2800).
Abstract: For the past thirty years the Malaysian economy has been said to contribute well to the progress of the nations. However, the intensification of global economy activity and the extensive use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in recent years are challenging government-s effort to further develop Malaysian society. The competition posed by the low wage economies such as China and Vietnam have made the government realise the importance of engaging in high-skill and high technology industries. It is hoped this will be the basis of attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to help the country to compete in globalised world. Using Vision 2020 as it targeted vision, the government has decided to engage in the use of ICTs and introduce many policies pertaining to it. Mainly based on the secondary analysis approach, the findings show that policy pertaining to ICTs in Malaysia contributes to economic growth, but the consequences of this have resulted in greater division within society. Although some of the divisions such as gender and ethnicity are narrowing down, the gap in important areas such as regions and class differences is becoming wider. The widespread use of ICTs might contribute to the further establishment of democracy in Malaysia, but the increasing number of foreign entities such as FDI and foreign workers, cultural hybridisation and to some extent cultural domination are contributing to neocolonialism in Malaysia. This has obvious consequences for the government-s effort to create a Malaysian national identity. An important finding of this work is that there are contradictions within ICT policy between the effort to develop the economy and society.
Abstract: It is the living conditions in the cities that determine the future of our livelihood. “To change life, we must first change space"- Henri Lefebvre. Sustainable development is a utopian aspiration for South African cities (especially the case study of the Gauteng City Region), which are currently characterized by unplanned growth and increasing urban sprawl. While the reasons for poor environmental quality and living conditions are undoubtedly diverse and complex, having political, economical and social dimensions, it is argued that the prevailing approach to layout planning in South Africa is part of the problem. This article seeks a solution to the problem of sustainability, from a spatial planning perspective. The spatial planning tool, the urban development boundary, is introduced as the concept that will ensure empty talk being translated into a sustainable vision. The urban development boundary is a spatial planning tool that can be used and implemented to direct urban growth towards a more sustainable form. The urban development boundary aims to ensure planned urban areas, in contrast to the current unplanned areas characterized by urban sprawl and insufficient infrastructure. However, the success of the urban development boundary concept is subject to effective implementation measures, as well as adequate and efficient management. The concept of sustainable development can function as a driving force underlying societal change and transformation, but the interface between spatial planning and environmental management needs to be established (as this is the core aspects underlying sustainable development), and authorities needs to understand and implement this interface consecutively. This interface can, however, realize in terms of the objectives of the planning tool – the urban development boundary. The case study, the Gauteng City Region, is depicted as a site of economic growth and innovation, but there is a lack of good urban and regional governance, impacting on the design (layout) and function of urban areas and land use, as current authorities make uninformed decisions in terms of development applications, leading to unsustainable urban forms and unsustainable nodes. Place and space concepts are thus critical matters applicable to planning of the Gauteng City Region. The urban development boundary are thus explored as a planning tool to guide decision-making, and create a sustainable urban form, leading to better environmental and living conditions, and continuous sustainability.
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 proposes two novel schemes for pilot-aided
integer frequency offset (IFO) estimation in orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM)-based digital video broadcastingterrestrial
(DVB-T) systems. The conventional scheme proposed for
estimating the IFO uses only partial information of combinations
that pilots can provide, which stems from a rigorous assumption
that the channel responses of pilots used for estimating the IFO
change very rapidly. Thus, in this paper, we propose the novel IFO
estimation schemes exploiting all information of combinations that
pilots can provide to improve the performance of IFO estimation.
The simulation results show that the proposed schemes are highly
accurate in terms of the IFO detection probability.
Abstract: This paper suggests a calibration method to reduce
errors occurring due to mobile robot sliding during location estimation
using the Dead-reckoning. Due to sliding of the mobile robot caused
between its wheels and the road surface while on free run, location
estimation can be erroneous. Sliding especially occurs during
cornering of mobile robot. Therefore, in order to reduce these frequent
sliding errors in cornering, we calibrated the mobile robot-s heading
values using a vision camera and templates of the ceiling.
Abstract: At a time of growing market turbulence and a strong
shifts towards increasingly complex risk models and more stringent audit requirements, it is more critical than ever to maintain the highest quality of financial and credit information. IFC implemented
an approach that helps increase data integrity and quality significantly. This approach is called “Screening". Screening is based on linking information from different sources to identify potential
inconsistencies in key financial and credit data. That, in turn, can help
to ease the trials of portfolio supervision, and improve overall company global reporting and assessment systems. IFC experience
showed that when used regularly, Screening led to improved information.