Abstract: This paper presents a new strategy of identification
and classification of pathological voices using the hybrid method
based on wavelet transform and neural networks. After speech
acquisition from a patient, the speech signal is analysed in order to
extract the acoustic parameters such as the pitch, the formants, Jitter,
and shimmer. Obtained results will be compared to those normal and
standard values thanks to a programmable database. Sounds are
collected from normal people and patients, and then classified into
two different categories. Speech data base is consists of several
pathological and normal voices collected from the national hospital
“Rabta-Tunis". Speech processing algorithm is conducted in a
supervised mode for discrimination of normal and pathology voices
and then for classification between neural and vocal pathologies
(Parkinson, Alzheimer, laryngeal, dyslexia...). Several simulation
results will be presented in function of the disease and will be
compared with the clinical diagnosis in order to have an objective
evaluation of the developed tool.
Abstract: The purpose of this work is to present a method for
rigid registration of medical images using 1D binary projections
when a part of one of the two images is missing. We use 1D binary
projections and we adjust the projection limits according to the
reduced image in order to perform accurate registration. We use the
variance of the weighted ratio as a registration function which we
have shown is able to register 2D and 3D images more accurately and
robustly than mutual information methods. The function is computed
explicitly for n=5 Chebyshev points in a [-9,+9] interval and it is
approximated using Chebyshev polynomials for all other points. The
images used are MR scans of the head. We find that the method is
able to register the two images with average accuracy 0.3degrees for
rotations and 0.2 pixels for translations for a y dimension of 156 with
initial dimension 256. For y dimension 128/256 the accuracy
decreases to 0.7 degrees for rotations and 0.6 pixels for translations.
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: Aluminum salt that is generally presents as a solid
phase in the water purification sludge (WPS) can be dissolved,
recovering a liquid phase, by adding strong acid to the sludge solution.
According to the reaction kinetics, when reactant is in the form of
small particles with a large specific surface area, or when the reaction
temperature is high, the quantity of dissolved aluminum salt or
reaction rate, respectively are high. Therefore, in this investigation,
water purification sludge (WPS) solution was treated with ultrasonic
waves to break down the sludge, and different acids (1 N HCl and 1 N
H2SO4) were used to acidify it. Acid dosages that yielded the solution
pH of less than two were used. The results thus obtained indicate that
the quantity of dissolved aluminum in H2SO4-acidified solution
exceeded that in HCl-acidified solution. Additionally, ultrasonic
treatment increased the rate of dissolution of aluminum and the
amount dissolved. The quantity of aluminum dissolved at 60℃ was 1.5
to 2.0 times higher than that at 25℃.
Abstract: The visualization of geographic information on mobile devices has become popular as the widespread use of mobile Internet. The mobility of these devices brings about much convenience to people-s life. By the add-on location-based services of the devices, people can have an access to timely information relevant to their tasks. However, visual analysis of geographic data on mobile devices presents several challenges due to the small display and restricted computing resources. These limitations on the screen size and resources may impair the usability aspects of the visualization applications. In this paper, a variable-scale visualization method is proposed to handle the challenge of small mobile display. By merging multiple scales of information into a single image, the viewer is able to focus on the interesting region, while having a good grasp of the surrounding context. This is essentially visualizing the map through a fisheye lens. However, the fisheye lens induces undesirable geometric distortion in the peripheral, which renders the information meaningless. The proposed solution is to apply map generalization that removes excessive information around the peripheral and an automatic smoothing process to correct the distortion while keeping the local topology consistent. The proposed method is applied on both artificial and real geographical data for evaluation.
Abstract: This study proposes a new recommender system based on the collaborative folksonomy. The purpose of the proposed system is to recommend Internet resources (such as books, articles, documents, pictures, audio and video) to users. The proposed method includes four steps: creating the user profile based on the tags, grouping the similar users into clusters using an agglomerative hierarchical clustering, finding similar resources based on the user-s past collections by using content-based filtering, and recommending similar items to the target user. This study examines the system-s performance for the dataset collected from “del.icio.us," which is a famous social bookmarking website. Experimental results show that the proposed tag-based collaborative and content-based filtering hybridized recommender system is promising and effectiveness in the folksonomy-based bookmarking website.
Abstract: Carbon steel is used in boilers, pressure vessels, heat
exchangers, piping, structural elements and other moderatetemperature
service systems in which good strength and ductility are
desired. ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section II Part A
(2004) provides specifications of ferrous materials for construction of
pressure equipment, covering wide range of mechanical properties
including high strength materials for power plants application.
However, increased level of springback is one of the major problems
in fabricating components of high strength steel using bending.
Presented work discuss the springback simulations for five different
steels (i.e. SA-36, SA-299, SA-515 grade 70, SA-612 and SA-724
grade B) using finite element analysis of air V-bending. Analytical
springback simulations of hypothetical layered materials are
presented. Result shows that; (i) combination of the material property
parameters controls the springback, (ii) layer of the high ductility
steel on the high strength steel greatly suppresses the springback.
Abstract: The study is aimed to test causal relationship between
growth and unemployment, using time series data for Pakistan from
1972 to 2006. Growth is considered to be a pathway to decrease the
level of unemployment. Unemployment is a social and political
issue. It is a phenomenon where human resources are wasted leading
to deacceleration in growth. Johanson Cointegration shows that there
is long run relationship between growth and unemployment. For
short run dynamics and causality, the study utilizes Vector Error
Correction Model (VECM). The results of VECM indicate that there
is short and long run causal relation between growth and
unemployment including capital, labor and human capital as
explanatory variables.
Abstract: In online context, the design and implementation of
effective remote laboratories environment is highly challenging on
account of hardware and software needs. This paper presents the
remote laboratory software framework modified from ilab shared
architecture (ISA). The ISA is a framework which enables students to
remotely acccess and control experimental hardware using internet
infrastructure. The need for remote laboratories came after
experiencing problems imposed by traditional laboratories. Among
them are: the high cost of laboratory equipment, scarcity of space,
scarcity of technical personnel along with the restricted university
budget creates a significant bottleneck on building required
laboratory experiments. The solution to these problems is to build
web-accessible laboratories. Remote laboratories allow students and
educators to interact with real laboratory equipment located
anywhere in the world at anytime. Recently, many universities and
other educational institutions especially in third world countries rely
on simulations because they do not afford the experimental
equipment they require to their students. Remote laboratories enable
users to get real data from real-time hand-on experiments. To
implement many remote laboratories, the system architecture should
be flexible, understandable and easy to implement, so that different
laboratories with different hardware can be deployed easily. The
modifications were made to enable developers to add more
equipment in ISA framework and to attract the new developers to
develop many online laboratories.
Abstract: In this paper static and dynamic response of a
varactor of a micro-phase shifter to DC, step DC and AC
voltages have been studied. By presenting a mathematical
modeling Galerkin-based step by step linearization method
(SSLM) and Galerkin-based reduced order model have been
used to solve the governing static and dynamic equations,
respectively. The calculated static and dynamic pull-in
voltages have been validated by previous experimental and
theoretical results and a good agreement has been achieved.
Then the frequency response and phase diagram of the system
has been studied. It has been shown that applying the DC
voltage shifts down the phase diagram and frequency
response. Also increasing the damping ratio shifts up the
phase diagram.
Abstract: In this experimental study, performance of a counter
flow Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube (RHVT) with threads cut on its inner
surface was investigated experimentally (pitch is 1 and 2 mm). The
inner diameter of the vortex tube used was D=9 mm and the ratio of
the tube’s length to diameter was L/D=12. The experimental system
was a thermodynamic open system. Flow was controlled by a valve
on the hot outlet side, where the valve was changed from a nearly
closed position to its nearly open position. Fraction of cold flow (ξ) =
0.1-0.9, was determined under 300 and 350 kPa pressurized air. All
experimental data were compared with each other, the maximum
heating performance of the RHVT system was found to be 38.2 oC
and the maximum cooling performance of the RHVT in this study
was found to be -30.9 oC at pitch 1 mm.
Abstract: Advances in information technology, recent changes in business environment, globalization, deregulation, privatization have made running a successful business more difficult than ever before. To remain successful and to be competitive have forced companies to react to the new changes in order to survive and succeed. The implementation of an Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) system improves information flow, reduce costs, establish linkage with suppliers and reduce response time to customer needs. This paper focuses on a sample of Greek companies, investigates the ERP market in Greece, the reasons why the Greek companies are investing in ERP systems, the benefits that users have achieved and the influence of ERP systems on the use of new accounting practices. The results indicate a greater level on information integration, flexibility in information access and greater functionality provided by ERP systems but little influence on the use of new accounting practices.
Abstract: In this paper, we analyze the rotor eddy currents losses provoqued by the stator slot harmonics developed in the permanent magnets or pole pieces of synchronous machines. An analytical approach is presented to evaluate the effect of slot ripples on rotor field and losses calculation. This analysis is then tested on a model by 2D/3D finite element (FE) calculation. The results show a good agreement on loss calculations when skin effect is negligible and the magnet is considered.
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: As the information age matures, major social
infrastructures such as communication, finance, military and energy,
have become ever more dependent on information communication
systems. And since these infrastructures are connected to the Internet,
electronic intrusions such as hacking and viruses have become a new
security threat. Especially, disturbance or neutralization of a major
social infrastructure can result in extensive material damage and social
disorder. To address this issue, many nations around the world are
researching and developing various techniques and information
security policies as a government-wide effort to protect their
infrastructures from newly emerging threats. This paper proposes an
evaluation method for information security levels of CIIP (Critical
Information Infrastructure Protection), which can enhance the security
level of critical information infrastructure by checking the current
security status and establish security measures accordingly to protect
infrastructures effectively.
Abstract: One of the essential components of much of DSP
application is noise cancellation. Changes in real time signals are
quite rapid and swift. In noise cancellation, a reference signal which
is an approximation of noise signal (that corrupts the original
information signal) is obtained and then subtracted from the noise
bearing signal to obtain a noise free signal. This approximation of
noise signal is obtained through adaptive filters which are self
adjusting. As the changes in real time signals are abrupt, this needs
adaptive algorithm that converges fast and is stable. Least mean
square (LMS) and normalized LMS (NLMS) are two widely used
algorithms because of their plainness in calculations and
implementation. But their convergence rates are small. Adaptive
averaging filters (AFA) are also used because they have high
convergence, but they are less stable. This paper provides the
comparative study of LMS and Normalized NLMS, AFA and new
enhanced average adaptive (Average NLMS-ANLMS) filters for noise
cancelling application using speech signals.
Abstract: Due to the liberalization of countless electricity markets, load forecasting has become crucial to all public utilities for which electricity is a strategic variable. With the goal of contributing to the forecasting process inside public utilities, this paper addresses the issue of applying the Holt-Winters exponential smoothing technique and the time series analysis for forecasting the hourly electricity load curve of the Italian railways. The results of the analysis confirm the accuracy of the two models and therefore the relevance of forecasting inside public utilities.
Abstract: In general dynamic analyses, lower mode response is
of interest, however the higher modes of spatially discretized
equations generally do not represent the real behavior and not affects
to global response much. Some implicit algorithms, therefore, are
introduced to filter out the high-frequency modes using intended
numerical error. The objective of this study is to introduce the
P-method and PC α-method to compare that with dissipation method
and Newmark method through the stability analysis and numerical
example. PC α-method gives more accuracy than other methods
because it based on the α-method inherits the superior properties of the
implicit α-method. In finite element analysis, the PC α-method is more
useful than other methods because it is the explicit scheme and it
achieves the second order accuracy and numerical damping
simultaneously.
Abstract: Soursop (Anona muricata) is one of the underutilized tropical fruits containing nutrients, particularly dietary fibre and antioxidant properties that are beneficial to human health. This objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of matured soursop pulp flour (SPF) to be substituted with high-protein wheat flour in bread. Bread formulation was substituted with different levels of SPF (0%, 5%, 10% and 15%). The effect on physicochemical properties and sensory attributes were evaluated. Higher substitution level of SPF resulted in significantly higher (p
Abstract: Software maintenance is extremely important activity in software development life cycle. It involves a lot of human efforts, cost and time. Software maintenance may be further subdivided into different activities such as fault prediction, fault detection, fault prevention, fault correction etc. This topic has gained substantial attention due to sophisticated and complex applications, commercial hardware, clustered architecture and artificial intelligence. In this paper we surveyed the work done in the field of software maintenance. Software fault prediction has been studied in context of fault prone modules, self healing systems, developer information, maintenance models etc. Still a lot of things like modeling and weightage of impact of different kind of faults in the various types of software systems need to be explored in the field of fault severity.