Abstract: The nature of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks
make them very attractive to attackers. One of the most popular and
serious attacks in wireless ad hoc networks is wormhole attack and
most proposed protocols to defend against this attack used
positioning devices, synchronized clocks, or directional antennas.
This paper analyzes the nature of wormhole attack and existing
methods of defending mechanism and then proposes round trip time
(RTT) and neighbor numbers based wormhole detection mechanism.
The consideration of proposed mechanism is the RTT between two
successive nodes and those nodes- neighbor number which is needed
to compare those values of other successive nodes. The identification
of wormhole attacks is based on the two faces. The first consideration
is that the transmission time between two wormhole attack affected
nodes is considerable higher than that between two normal neighbor
nodes. The second detection mechanism is based on the fact that by
introducing new links into the network, the adversary increases the
number of neighbors of the nodes within its radius. This system does
not require any specific hardware, has good performance and little
overhead and also does not consume extra energy. The proposed
system is designed in ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV)
routing protocol and analysis and simulations of the proposed system
are performed in network simulator (ns-2).
Abstract: Data rate, tolerable bit error rate or frame error rate
and range & coverage are the key performance requirement of a
communication link. In this paper performance of MFSK link is
analyzed in terms of bit error rate, number of errors and total number
of data processed. In the communication link model proposed, which
is implemented using MATLAB block set, an improvement in BER
is observed. Different parameters which effects and enables to keep
BER low in M-ary communication system are also identified.
Abstract: This paper focuses on a critical component of the
situational awareness (SA), the control of autonomous vertical flight for tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (TUAV). With the SA strategy,
we proposed a two stage flight control procedure using two autonomous control subsystems to address the dynamics variation
and performance requirement difference in initial and final stages of flight trajectory for a nontrivial nonlinear eight-rotor helicopter
model. This control strategy for chosen model of mini-TUAV has been verified by simulation of hovering maneuvers using software
package Simulink and demonstrated good performance for fast
stabilization of engines in hovering, consequently, fast SA with
economy in energy of batteries can be asserted during search-andrescue
operations.
Abstract: The increasing number of senior population gradually
causes to demand the use of information and communication
technology for their satisfactory lives. This paper presents the
development of an integrated TV based system which offers an
opportunity to provide value added services to a large number of
elderly citizens, and thus helps improve their quality of life. The
design philosophy underlying this paper is to fulfill both technological
and human aspects. The balance between these two dimensions has
been currently stressed as a crucial element for the design of usable
systems in real use, particularly to the elderly who have physical and
mental decline. As the first step to achieve it, we have identified
human and social factors that affect the elder-s quality of life by a
literature review, and based on them, build four fundamental services:
information, healthcare, learning and social network services.
Secondly, the system architecture, employed technologies and the
elderly-friendly system design considerations are presented. This
reflects technological and human perspectives in terms of the system
design. Finally, we describe some scenarios that illustrate the
potentiality of the proposed system to improve elderly people-s quality
of life.
Abstract: An optimal control problem for a mathematical model of efficiency of antiviral therapy in hepatitis B virus infections is considered. The aim of the study is to control the new viral production, block the new infection cells and maintain the number of uninfected cells in the given range. The optimal controls represent the efficiency of antiviral therapy in inhibiting viral production and preventing new infections. Defining the cost functional, the optimal control problem is converted into the constrained optimization problem and the first order optimality system is derived. For the numerical simulation, we propose the steepest descent algorithm based on the adjoint variable method. A computer program in MATLAB is developed for the numerical simulations.
Abstract: Arbitrarily shaped video objects are an important
concept in modern video coding methods. The techniques presently
used are not based on image elements but rather video objects having
an arbitrary shape. In this paper, spatial shape error concealment
techniques to be used for object-based image in error-prone
environments are proposed. We consider a geometric shape
representation consisting of the object boundary, which can be
extracted from the α-plane. Three different approaches are used to
replace a missing boundary segment: Bézier interpolation, Bézier
approximation and NURBS approximation. Experimental results on
object shape with different concealment difficulty demonstrate the
performance of the proposed methods. Comparisons with proposed
methods are also presented.
Abstract: Despite many success stories of manufacturing safety, many organizations are still reluctant, perceiving it as cost increasing and time consuming. The clear contributor may be due to the use of lagging indicators rather than leading indicator measures. The study therefore proposes a combinatorial model for determining the best safety strategy. A combination theory and cost benefit analysis was employed to develop a monetary saving / loss function in terms value of preventions and cost of prevention strategy. Documentations, interviews and structured questionnaire were employed to collect information on Before-And-After safety programme records from a Tobacco company between periods of 1993-2001(for pre-safety) and 2002-2008 (safety period) for the model application. Three combinatorial alternatives A, B, C were obtained resulting into 4, 6 and 4 strategies respectively with PPE and Training being predominant. A total of 728 accidents were recorded for a 9 year period of pre-safety programme and 163 accidents were recorded for 7 years period of safety programme. Six preventions activities (alternative B) yielded the best results. However, all the years of operation experienced except year 2004. The study provides a leading resources for planning successful safety programme
Abstract: In this paper an analytical crack propagation scenario
is proposed which assumes that a crack propagates in the tooth root in
both the crack depth direction and the tooth width direction, and
which is more reasonable and realistic for non-uniform load
distribution cases than the other presented scenarios. An analytical
approach is used for quantifying the loss of time-varying gear mesh
stiffness with the presence of crack propagation in the gear tooth root.
The proposed crack propagation scenario can be applied for crack
propagation modelling and monitoring simulation, but further
research is required for comparison and evaluation of all the
presented crack propagation scenarios from the condition monitoring
point of view.
Abstract: In response to address different development challenges, Tanzania is striving to achieve its fourth attribute of the National Development Vision, i.e. to have a well educated and learned society by the year 2025. One of the most cost effective methods that can reach a large part of the society in a short time is to integrate ICT in education through e-learning initiatives. However, elearning initiatives are challenged by limited or lack of connectivity to majority of secondary schools, especially those in rural and remote areas. This paper has explores the possibility for rural secondary school to access online e-Learning resources from a centralized e- Learning Management System (e-LMS). The scope of this paper is limited to schools that have computers irrespective of internet connectivity, resulting in two categories schools; those with internet access and those without. Different connectivity configurations have been proposed according to the ICT infrastructure status of the respective schools. However, majority of rural secondary schools in Tanzania have neither computers nor internet connection. Therefore this is a challenge to be addressed for the disadvantaged schools to benefit from e-Learning initiatives.
Abstract: In this paper, we represent protein structure by using
graph. A protein structure database will become a graph database.
Each graph is represented by a spectral vector. We use Jacobi
rotation algorithm to calculate the eigenvalues of the normalized
Laplacian representation of adjacency matrix of graph. To measure
the similarity between two graphs, we calculate the Euclidean
distance between two graph spectral vectors. To cluster the graphs,
we use M-tree with the Euclidean distance to cluster spectral vectors.
Besides, M-tree can be used for graph searching in graph database.
Our proposal method was tested with graph database of 100 graphs
representing 100 protein structures downloaded from Protein Data
Bank (PDB) and we compare the result with the SCOP hierarchical
structure.
Abstract: In this paper, the least-squares design of variable fractional-delay (VFD) finite impulse response (FIR) digital differentiators is proposed. The used transfer function is formulated so that Farrow structure can be applied to realize the designed system. Also, the symmetric characteristics of filter coefficients are derived, which leads to the complexity reduction by saving almost a half of the number of coefficients. Moreover, all the elements of related vectors or matrices for the optimal process can be represented in closed forms, which make the design easier. Design example is also presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Abstract: Web applications have become very complex and
crucial, especially when combined with areas such as CRM
(Customer Relationship Management) and BPR (Business Process
Reengineering), the scientific community has focused attention to
Web applications design, development, analysis, and testing, by
studying and proposing methodologies and tools. This paper
proposes an approach to automatic multi-dimensional concern
mining for Web Applications, based on concepts analysis, impact
analysis, and token-based concern identification. This approach lets
the user to analyse and traverse Web software relevant to a particular
concern (concept, goal, purpose, etc.) via multi-dimensional
separation of concerns, to document, understand and test Web
applications. This technique was developed in the context of WAAT
(Web Applications Analysis and Testing) project. A semi-automatic
tool to support this technique is currently under development.
Abstract: The new programming technologies allow for the
creation of components which can be automatically or manually
assembled to reach a new experience in knowledge understanding
and mastering or in getting skills for a specific knowledge area. The
project proposes an interactive framework that permits the creation,
combination and utilization of components that are specific to
mathematical training in high schools.
The main framework-s objectives are:
• authoring lessons by the teacher or the students; all they need
are simple operating skills for Equation Editor (or something
similar, or Latex); the rest are just drag & drop operations,
inserting data into a grid, or navigating through menus
• allowing sonorous presentations of mathematical texts and
solving hints (easier understood by the students)
• offering graphical representations of a mathematical function
edited in Equation
• storing of learning objects in a database
• storing of predefined lessons (efficient for expressions and
commands, the rest being calculations; allows a high
compression)
• viewing and/or modifying predefined lessons, according to the
curricula
The whole thing is focused on a mathematical expressions minicompiler,
storing the code that will be later used for different
purposes (tables, graphics, and optimisations).
Programming technologies used. A Visual C# .NET
implementation is proposed. New and innovative digital learning
objects for mathematics will be developed; they are capable to
interpret, contextualize and react depending on the architecture
where they are assembled.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine the
influence of physical activity and dietary fat intake on Body Mass
Index (BMI) of lecturers within a higher learning institutionalized
setting. The study adopted a Cross-sectional Correlational Design
and included 120 lecturers selected proportionately by simple
random sampling techniques from a population of 600 lecturers. Data
was collected using questionnaires, which had sections including
physical activity checklist adopted from the international physical
activity questionnaire (IPAQ), 24-hour food recall, anthropometric
measurements mainly weight and height. Analysis involved the use
of bivariate correlations and linear regression. A significant inverse
association was registered between BMI and duration (in minutes)
spent doing moderate intense physical activity per day (r=-0.322,
p
Abstract: The stem cells have ability to differentiated
themselves through mitotic cell division and various range of
specialized cell types. Cellular differentiation is a way by which few
specialized cell develops into more specialized.This paper studies the
fundamental problem of computational schema for an artificial neural
network based on chemical, physical and biological variables of
state. By doing this type of study system could be model for a viable
propagation of various economically important stem cells
differentiation. This paper proposes various differentiation outcomes
of artificial neural network into variety of potential specialized cells
on implementing MATLAB version 2009. A feed-forward back
propagation kind of network was created to input vector (five input
elements) with single hidden layer and one output unit in output
layer. The efficiency of neural network was done by the assessment
of results achieved from this study with that of experimental data
input and chosen target data. The propose solution for the efficiency
of artificial neural network assessed by the comparatative analysis of
“Mean Square Error" at zero epochs. There are different variables of
data in order to test the targeted results.
Abstract: Based on the classical algorithm LSQR for solving (unconstrained) LS problem, an iterative method is proposed for the least-squares like-minimum-norm symmetric solution of AXB+CYD=E. As the application of this algorithm, an iterative method for the least-squares like-minimum-norm biymmetric solution of AXB=E is also obtained. Numerical results are reported that show the efficiency of the proposed methods.
Abstract: This paper proposes the requirements and design of
RFID based system for SFC (Shop Floor Control) in order to achieve
the factory real time controllability, Allowing to develop EManufacturing
System. The detailed logical specifications of the core
functions and the design diagrams of RFID based system are
developed. Then RFID deployment in E-Manufacturing systems is
investigated..
Abstract: Optical Bursts Switching (OBS) is a relatively new
optical switching paradigm. Contention and burst loss in OBS
networks are major concerns. To resolve contentions, an interesting
alternative to discarding the entire data burst is to partially drop the
burst. Partial burst dropping is based on burst segmentation concept
that its implementation is constrained by some technical challenges,
besides the complexity added to the algorithms and protocols on both
edge and core nodes. In this paper, the burst segmentation concept is
investigated, and an implementation scheme is proposed and
evaluated. An appropriate dropping policy that effectively manages
the size of the segmented data bursts is presented. The dropping
policy is further supported by a new control packet format that
provides constant transmission overhead.
Abstract: This paper proposes improved delay-dependent stability conditions of the linear time-delay systems of neutral type. The proposed methods employ a suitable Lyapunov-Krasovskii’s functional and a new form of the augmented system. New delay-dependent stability criteria for the systems are established in terms of Linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) which can be easily solved by various effective optimization algorithms. Numerical examples showed that the proposed method is effective and can provide less conservative results.
Abstract: One of the determinants of a firm-s prosperity is the
customers- perceived service quality and satisfaction. While service
quality is wide in scope, and consists of various dimensions, there
may be differences in the relative importance of these dimensions in
affecting customers- overall satisfaction of service quality.
Identifying the relative rank of different dimensions of service quality
is very important in that it can help managers to find out which
service dimensions have a greater effect on customers- overall
satisfaction. Such an insight will consequently lead to more effective
resource allocation which will finally end in higher levels of
customer satisfaction. This issue – despite its criticality- has not
received enough attention so far. Therefore, using a sample of 240
bank customers in Iran, an artificial neural network is developed to
address this gap in the literature. As customers- evaluation of service
quality is a subjective process, artificial neural networks –as a brain
metaphor- may appear to have a potentiality to model such a
complicated process. Proposing a neural network which is able to
predict the customers- overall satisfaction of service quality with a
promising level of accuracy is the first contribution of this study. In
addition, prioritizing the service quality dimensions in affecting
customers- overall satisfaction –by using sensitivity analysis of
neural network- is the second important finding of this paper.