Abstract: Visually impaired people find it extremely difficult to
acquire basic and vital information necessary for their living.
Therefore, they are at a very high risk of being socially excluded as a
result of poor access to information. In recent years, several attempts
have been made in improving the communication methods for
visually impaired people which involve tactile sensation such as
finger Braille, manual alphabets and the print on palm method and
several other electronic devices. But, there are some problems which
arise in such methods such as lack of privacy and lack of
compatibility to computer environment. This paper describes a low
cost Braille hand glove for blind people using slot sensors and
vibration motors with the help of which they can read and write emails,
text messages and read e-books. This glove allows the person
to type characters based on different Braille combination using six
slot sensors. The vibration in six different positions of the glove
which matches to the Braille code allows them to read characters.
Abstract: Physical urban form is recognized to be the media for
human transactions. It directly influences the travel demand of people
in a specific urban area and the amount of energy used for
transportation. Distorted, sprawling form often creates sustainability
problems in urban areas. It is declared in EU strategic planning
documents that compact urban form and mixed land use pattern must
be given the main focus to achieve better sustainability in urban
areas, but the methods to measure and compare these characteristics
are still not clear.
This paper presents the simple methods to measure the spatial
characteristics of urban form by analyzing the location and
distribution of objects in an urban environment. The extended CA
(cellular automata) model is used to simulate urban development
scenarios.
Abstract: This paper presents three models which enable the
customisation of Universal Description, Discovery and Integration
(UDDI) query results, based on some pre-defined and/or real-time
changing parameters. These proposed models detail the requirements,
design and techniques which make ranking of Web service discovery
results from a service registry possible. Our contribution is two fold:
First, we present an extension to the UDDI inquiry capabilities. This
enables a private UDDI registry owner to customise or rank the query
results, based on its business requirements. Second, our proposal
utilises existing technologies and standards which require minimal
changes to existing UDDI interfaces or its data structures. We believe
these models will serve as valuable reference for enhancing the
service discovery methods within a private UDDI registry
environment.
Abstract: The crossed cube is one of the most notable variations of hypercube, but some properties of the former are superior to those of the latter. For example, the diameter of the crossed cube is almost the half of that of the hypercube. In this paper, we focus on the problem embedding a Hamiltonian cycle through an arbitrary given edge in the crossed cube. We give necessary and sufficient condition for determining whether a given permutation with n elements over Zn generates a Hamiltonian cycle pattern of the crossed cube. Moreover, we obtain a lower bound for the number of different Hamiltonian cycles passing through a given edge in an n-dimensional crossed cube. Our work extends some recently obtained results.
Abstract: Protective relays are components of a protection system
in a power system domain that provides decision making element for
correct protection and fault clearing operations. Failure of the
protection devices may reduce the integrity and reliability of the power
system protection that will impact the overall performance of the
power system. Hence it is imperative for power utilities to assess the
reliability of protective relays to assure it will perform its intended
function without failure. This paper will discuss the application of
reliability analysis using statistical method called Life Data Analysis
in Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), a government linked power utility
company in Malaysia, namely Transmission Division, to assess and
evaluate the reliability of numerical overcurrent protective relays from
two different manufacturers.
Abstract: In this paper we discuss the behaviour of the longitudinal modes of a magnetized non collisional plasma subjected to an external electromagnetic field. We apply a semiclassical formalism, with the electrons being studied in a quantum mechanical viewpoint whereas the electromagnetic field in the classical context. We calculate the dielectric function in order to obtains the modes and found that, unlike the Bernstein modes, the presence of radiation induces oscillations around the cyclotron harmonics, which are smoothed as the energy stored in the radiation field becomes small compared to the thermal energy of the electrons. We analyze the influence of the number of photon involved in the electronic transitions between the Landau levels and how the parameters such as the external fields strength, plasma density and temperature affect the dispersion relation
Abstract: Happening of Ferroresonance phenomenon is one of the reasons of consuming and ruining transformers, so recognition of Ferroresonance phenomenon has a special importance. A novel method for classification of Ferroresonance presented in this paper. Using this method Ferroresonance can be discriminate from other transients such as capacitor switching, load switching, transformer switching. Wavelet transform is used for decomposition of signals and Competitive Neural Network used for classification. Ferroresonance data and other transients was obtained by simulation using EMTP program. Using Daubechies wavelet transform signals has been decomposed till six levels. The energy of six detailed signals that obtained by wavelet transform are used for training and trailing Competitive Neural Network. Results show that the proposed procedure is efficient in identifying Ferroresonance from other events.
Abstract: We consider the topological entropy of maps that in
general, cannot be described by one-dimensional dynamics. In particular,
we show that for a multivalued map F generated by singlevalued
maps, the topological entropy of any of the single-value map bounds the topological entropy of F from below.
Abstract: Green Lean Total Quality Management (TQM)
System is a system comprises of Environmental Management System
(EMS) practices which is integrated to TQM with Lean
Manufacturing (LM) principles. The ultimate goal of this system is to
focus on achieving total customer satisfaction and environmental care by removing eight wastes available in any process in an
organization. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 30 highly active automotive vendors in Malaysia and analyzed by
SPSS v.17. It was found out that some vendors have been practicing TQM and LM while some have started to implement EMS. This
study is only focusing on highly active companies that have been involved in MAJAICO Program and Proton Vendor Development
Program. This is the first study conducted to know the current status of TQM, LM and EMS practices in highly active automotive companies in Malaysia. It was found out that EMS has been
practiced by 16 companies out of 30. Within these 16 companies the
approach is more holistic and green. This is a preliminary study that combined 4 awards practices, ISO/TS16949, Toyota Production
System SAEJ4000, MAJAICO Lean Production System and EMS.
Abstract: A trend in agent community or enterprises is that they are shifting from closed to open architectures composed of a large number of autonomous agents. One of its implications could be that interface agent framework is getting more important in multi-agent system (MAS); so that systems constructed for different application domains could share a common understanding in human computer interface (HCI) methods, as well as human-agent and agent-agent interfaces. However, interface agent framework usually receives less attention than other aspects of MAS. In this paper, we will propose an interface web agent framework which is based on our former project called WAF and a Distributed HCI template. A group of new functionalities and implications will be discussed, such as web agent presentation, off-line agent reference, reconfigurable activation map of agents, etc. Their enabling techniques and current standards (e.g. existing ontological framework) are also suggested and shown by examples from our own implementation in WAF.
Abstract: Surface water pollution is one of the serious
environmental problems in rural areas of South Africa due to
discharge of household waste into the streams, turning them into
open sewers. In this study, samples of water were collected from a
stream in Soshanguve and analysed. The result showed that pollution
in the area was caused by man and its activities. The water quality in
the area was found to have deterioted significantly after water runoff
from farms and household wastes. The result shows, fertilizer runoff
contributes 50% of the pollution while pesticides and sediments
contribute up to 10% respectively in the streams, while household
waste contributes up to 30%. This study gives an outline of the
sources of water pollution in the area and provides a process of
creating a clean and unpolluted environment for Soshanguve
community in Pretoria north in order to achieve the 7th aim of the
millennium development goals by 2015, which is ensuring
environmental sustainability.
Abstract: A heuristic conceptual model for to develop the
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), especially in preventive
strategy, has been explored during this paper. In most real cases
which complicity of system obligates high degree of reliability, this
model proposes a more appropriate reliability function between life
time distribution based and another which is based on relevant
Extreme Value (EV) distribution. A statistical and mathematical
approach is used to estimate and verify these two distribution
functions. Then best one is chosen just among them, whichever is
more reliable. A numeric Industrial case study will be reviewed to
represent the concepts of this paper, more clearly.
Abstract: Endemic Artemia franciscana populations can be found throughout the American continent and also as an introduced specie in several country all over the world, such as in the Mediterranean region where Artemia franciscana was identified as an invasive specie replacing native Artemia parthenogenetica and Artemia salina. In the present study, the characterization of the new invasive Artemia franciscana reported from Sabkhet Halk El-Menzel (Tunisia) was done based on the cysts biometry, nauplii instar-I length, Adult sexual dimorphism and fatty acid profile. The mean value of the diameter of non-decapsulated and decapsulated cysts, chorion thickness and naupliar length is 235.8, 226.3, 4.75 and 426.8 μm, respectively. Sexual dimorphism for adults specimen showed that maximal distance between compound eyes, diameter for compound eyes, length of first antenna and the abdomen length compared to the total body length ratio, are the most important variables for males and females discrimination with a total contribution of 62.39 %. The analysis of fatty acid methyl esters profile of decapsulated cysts resulted in low levels of linolenic acid (LLA, C18:3n-3) and high levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5n-3) with 3.11 and 11.10 %, respectively. Low quantity of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) was also observed with 0.17 mg.g-1 dry weight.
Abstract: Piezoelectric transformers are electronic devices made
from piezoelectric materials. The piezoelectric transformers as the
name implied are used for changing voltage signals from one level to another. Electrical energy carried with signals is transferred by means of mechanical vibration. Characterizing in both electrical and
mechanical properties leads to extensively use and efficiency enhancement of piezoelectric transformers in various applications. In
this paper, study and analysis of electrical and mechanical properties of multi-layer piezoelectric transformers in forms of potential and
displacement distribution throughout the volume, respectively. This
paper proposes a set of quasi-static mathematical model of electromechanical
coupling for piezoelectric transformer by using a set of
partial differential equations. Computer-based simulation utilizing the three-dimensional finite element method (3-D FEM) is exploited
as a tool for visualizing potentials and displacements distribution
within the multi-layer piezoelectric transformer. This simulation was
conducted by varying a number of layers. In this paper 3, 5 and 7 of
the circular ring type were used. The computer simulation based on
the use of the FEM has been developed in MATLAB programming environment.
Abstract: This paper discusses EM algorithm and Bootstrap
approach combination applied for the improvement of the satellite
image fusion process. This novel satellite image fusion method based
on estimation theory EM algorithm and reinforced by Bootstrap
approach was successfully implemented and tested. The sensor
images are firstly split by a Bayesian segmentation method to
determine a joint region map for the fused image. Then, we use the
EM algorithm in conjunction with the Bootstrap approach to develop
the bootstrap EM fusion algorithm, hence producing the fused
targeted image. We proposed in this research to estimate the
statistical parameters from some iterative equations of the EM
algorithm relying on a reference of representative Bootstrap samples
of images. Sizes of those samples are determined from a new
criterion called 'hybrid criterion'. Consequently, the obtained results
of our work show that using the Bootstrap EM (BEM) in image
fusion improve performances of estimated parameters which involve
amelioration of the fused image quality; and reduce the computing
time during the fusion process.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose an architecture for easily
constructing a robot controller. The architecture is a multi-agent
system which has eight agents: the Man-machine interface, Task
planner, Task teaching editor, Motion planner, Arm controller,
Vehicle controller, Vision system and CG display. The controller has
three databases: the Task knowledge database, the Robot database and
the Environment database. Based on this controller architecture, we
are constructing an experimental power distribution line maintenance
robot system and are doing the experiment for the maintenance tasks,
for example, “Bolt insertion task".
Abstract: The utilization of renewable energy sources in electric
power systems is increasing quickly because of public apprehensions
for unpleasant environmental impacts and increase in the energy
costs involved with the use of conventional energy sources. Despite
the application of these energy sources can considerably diminish the
system fuel costs, they can also have significant influence on the
system reliability. Therefore an appropriate combination of the
system reliability indices level and capital investment costs of system
is vital. This paper presents a hybrid wind/photovoltaic plant, with
the aim of supplying IEEE reliability test system load pattern while
the plant capital investment costs is minimized by applying a hybrid
particle swarm optimization (PSO) / harmony search (HS) approach,
and the system fulfills the appropriate level of reliability.
Abstract: Directional over current relays (DOCR) are commonly used in power system protection as a primary protection in distribution and sub-transmission electrical systems and as a secondary protection in transmission systems. Coordination of protective relays is necessary to obtain selective tripping. In this paper, an approach for efficiency reduction of DOCRs nonlinear optimum coordination (OC) is proposed. This was achieved by modifying the objective function and relaxing several constraints depending on the four constraints classification, non-valid, redundant, pre-obtained and valid constraints. According to this classification, the far end fault effect on the objective function and constraints, and in consequently on relay operating time, was studied. The study was carried out, firstly by taking into account the near-end and far-end faults in DOCRs coordination problem formulation; and then faults very close to the primary relays (nearend faults). The optimal coordination (OC) was achieved by simultaneously optimizing all variables (TDS and Ip) in nonlinear environment by using of Genetic algorithm nonlinear programming techniques. The results application of the above two approaches on 6-bus and 26-bus system verify that the far-end faults consideration on OC problem formulation don-t lose the optimality.
Abstract: Today-s manufacturing companies are facing multiple and dynamic customer-supplier-relationships embedded in nonhierarchical production networks. This complex environment leads to problems with delivery reliability and wasteful turbulences throughout the entire network. This paper describes an operational model based on a theoretical framework which improves delivery reliability of each individual customer-supplier-relationship within non-hierarchical production networks of the European machinery and equipment industry. By developing a non-centralized coordination mechanism based on determining the value of delivery reliability and derivation of an incentive system for suppliers the number of in time deliveries can be increased and thus the turbulences in the production network smoothened. Comparable to an electronic stock exchange the coordination mechanism will transform the manual and nontransparent process of determining penalties for delivery delays into an automated and transparent market mechanism creating delivery reliability.
Abstract: During more than a decade, many proposals and standards have been designed to deal with the mobility issues; however, there are still some serious limitations in basing solutions on them. In this paper we discuss the possibility of handling mobility at the application layer. We do this while revisiting the conventional implementation of the Two Phase Commit (2PC) protocol which is a fundamental asset of transactional technology for ensuring the consistent commitment of distributed transactions. The solution is based on an execution framework providing an efficient extension that is aware of the mobility and preserves the 2PC principle.