Abstract: Flexible macroblock ordering (FMO), adopted in the
H.264 standard, allows to partition all macroblocks (MBs) in a frame
into separate groups of MBs called Slice Groups (SGs). FMO can not
only support error-resilience, but also control the size of video packets
for different network types. However, it is well-known that the number
of bits required for encoding the frame is increased by adopting FMO.
In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm that can reduce the bitrate
overhead caused by utilizing FMO. In the proposed algorithm, all MBs
are grouped in SGs based on the similarity of the transform
coefficients. Experimental results show that our algorithm can reduce
the bitrate as compared with conventional FMO.
Abstract: Cashew nut shells were converted into activated carbon powders using KOH activation plus CO2 gasification at 1027 K. The increase both of impregnation ratio and activation time, there was swiftly the development of mesoporous structure with increasing of mesopore volume ratio from 20-28% and 27-45% for activated carbon with ratio of KOH per char equal to 1 and 4, respectively. Activated carbon derived from KOH/char ratio equal to 1 and CO2 gasification time from 20 to 150 minutes were exhibited the BET surface area increasing from 222 to 627 m2.g-1. And those were derived from KOH/char ratio of 4 with activation time from 20 to 150 minutes exhibited high BET surface area from 682 to 1026 m2.g-1. The adsorption of Lead(II) and Cadmium(II) ion was investigated. This adsorbent exhibited excellent adsorption for Lead(II) and Cadmium(II) ion. Maximum adsorption presented at 99.61% at pH 6.5 and 98.87% at optimum conditions. The experimental data was calculated from Freundlich isotherm and Langmuir isotherm model. The maximum capacity of Pb2+ and Cd2+ ions was found to be 28.90 m2.g-1 and 14.29 m2.g-1, respectively.
Abstract: In this paper the Analytic Network Process (ANP) is
applied to the selection of photovoltaic (PV) solar power projects.
These projects follow a long management and execution process
from plant site selection to plant start-up. As a consequence, there are
many risks of time delays and even of project stoppage.
In the case study presented in this paper a top manager of an
important Spanish company that operates in the power market has to
decide on the best PV project (from four alternative projects) to
invest based on risk minimization. The manager identified 50 project
execution delay and/or stoppage risks.
The influences among elements of the network (groups of risks
and alternatives) were identified and analyzed using the ANP
multicriteria decision analysis method. After analyzing the results the
main conclusion is that the network model can manage all the
information of the real-world problem and thus it is a decision
analysis model recommended by the authors. The strengths and
weaknesses ANP as a multicriteria decision analysis tool are also
described in the paper.
Abstract: The goal of Gene Expression Analysis is to understand the processes that underlie the regulatory networks and pathways controlling inter-cellular and intra-cellular activities. In recent times microarray datasets are extensively used for this purpose. The scope of such analysis has broadened in recent times towards reconstruction of gene networks and other holistic approaches of Systems Biology. Evolutionary methods are proving to be successful in such problems and a number of such methods have been proposed. However all these methods are based on processing of genotypic information. Towards this end, there is a need to develop evolutionary methods that address phenotypic interactions together with genotypic interactions. We present a novel evolutionary approach, called Phenomic algorithm, wherein the focus is on phenotypic interaction. We use the expression profiles of genes to model the interactions between them at the phenotypic level. We apply this algorithm to the yeast sporulation dataset and show that the algorithm can identify gene networks with relative ease.
Abstract: Chitosan is an attractive polysaccharide obtained by
deacetylation of an abundant natural biopolymer called chitin. Chitin
and chitosan are excellent materials. To improve the potential of
chitin and chitosan modification is needed. In the present study,
grafting of maleic acid on to chitosan by cerium ammonium nitrate in
acetic acid solution was investigated with use of a microwave and
reflux system. The grafted chitosan was characterized by using a
Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry. The solubility and swelling
behavior of grafted chitosans were determined in acetate buffer (pH
3.6), citrophosphate buffer (pH 5.6 and pH 7.0), and boric buffer (pH
9.2) solutions. The sample obtained by microwave system with use of
a chitosan/maleic anhydride/ceric ammonium nitrate 0.2/3.922/0.99
gram of raw material within 30 minute showed the maximum
swelling ratio (13.6) in boric buffer solution.
Abstract: In this paper, a predator-prey model with time delay and habitat complexity is investigated. By analyzing the characteristic equations, the local stability of each feasible equilibria of the system is discussed and the existence of a Hopf bifurcation at the coexistence equilibrium is established. By choosing the sum of two delays as a bifurcation parameter, we show that Hopf bifurcations can occur as crosses some critical values. By deriving the equation describing the flow on the center manifold, we can determine the direction of the Hopf bifurcations and the stability of the bifurcating periodic solutions. Numerical simulations are carried out to illustrate the main theoretical results.
Abstract: During recent years, the traditional learning
approaches have undergone fundamental changes due to the
emergence of new technologies such as multimedia, hypermedia and
telecommunication. E-learning is a modern world phenomenon that
has come into existence in the information age and in a knowledgebased
society. E-learning has developed significantly within a short
period of time. Thus it is of a great significant to secure information,
allow a confident access and prevent unauthorized accesses. Making
use of individuals- physiologic or behavioral (biometric) properties is
a confident method to make the information secure. Among the
biometrics, fingerprint is more acceptable and most countries use it as
an efficient methods of identification. This article provides a new
method to compare the fingerprint comparison by pattern recognition
and image processing techniques. To verify fingerprint, the shortest
distance method is used together with perceptronic multilayer neural
network functioning based on minutiae. This method is highly
accurate in the extraction of minutiae and it accelerates comparisons
due to elimination of false minutiae and is more reliable compared
with methods that merely use directional images.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to identify the
vegetation-soil relationships in Nodushan arid rangelands of Yazd. 5
sites were selected for measuring the cover of plant species and soil
attributes. Soil samples were taken in 0-10 and 10-80 cm layers. The
species studied were Salsola tomentosa, Salsola arbuscula, Peganum
harmala, Zygophylum eurypterum and Eurotia ceratoides. Canonical
correspondence analysis (CCA) was used to analyze the data. Based
on the CCA results, 74.9 % of vegetation-soil variation was explained
by axis 1-3. Axis 1, 2 and 3 accounted for 27.2%, 24.9 % and 22.8%
of variance respectively. Correlation between axis 1, 2, 3 and speciesedaphic
variables were 0.995, 0.989, 0.981 respectively. Soil texture,
lime, salinity and organic matter significantly influenced the
distribution of these plant species. Determination of soil-vegetation
relationships will be useful for managing and improving rangelands
in arid and semi arid environments.
Abstract: In this paper is described a new conception of the
Cartesian robot for automated assembly and also disassembly
process. The advantage of this conception is the utilization the
Cartesian assembly robot with its all peripheral automated devices for
assembly of the assembled product. The assembly product in the end
of the lifecycle can be disassembled with the same Cartesian
disassembly robot with the use of the same peripheral automated
devices and equipment. It is a new approach to problematic solving
and development of the automated assembly systems with respect to
lifecycle management of the assembly product and also assembly
system with Cartesian robot. It is also important to develop the
methodical process for design of automated assembly and
disassembly system with Cartesian robot. Assembly and disassembly
system use the same Cartesian robot input and output devices,
assembly and disassembly units in one workplace with different
application. Result of design methodology is the verification and
proposition of real automated assembly and disassembly workplace
with Cartesian robot for known verified model of assembled actuator.
Abstract: In this paper, image compression using hybrid vector
quantization scheme such as Multistage Vector Quantization
(MSVQ) and Pyramid Vector Quantization (PVQ) are introduced. A
combined MSVQ and PVQ are utilized to take advantages provided
by both of them. In the wavelet decomposition of the image, most of
the information often resides in the lowest frequency subband.
MSVQ is applied to significant low frequency coefficients. PVQ is
utilized to quantize the coefficients of other high frequency
subbands. The wavelet coefficients are derived using lifting scheme.
The main aim of the proposed scheme is to achieve high compression
ratio without much compromise in the image quality. The results are
compared with the existing image compression scheme using MSVQ.
Abstract: The segmentation of mouth and lips is a fundamental
problem in facial image analyisis. In this paper we propose a method
for lip segmentation based on rg-color histogram. Statistical analysis
shows, using the rg-color-space is optimal for this purpose of a pure
color based segmentation. Initially a rough adaptive threshold selects
a histogram region, that assures that all pixels in that region are
skin pixels. Based on that pixels we build a gaussian model which
represents the skin pixels distribution and is utilized to obtain a
refined, optimal threshold. We are not incorporating shape or edge
information. In experiments we show the performance of our lip pixel
segmentation method compared to the ground truth of our dataset and
a conventional watershed algorithm.
Abstract: The objective from this paper is to design a solar
thermal engine for space vehicles orbital control and electricity
generation. A computational model is developed for the prediction of
the solar thermal engine performance for different design parameters and conditions in order to enhance the engine efficiency. The engine is divided into two main subsystems. First, the concentrator dish
which receives solar energy from the sun and reflects them to the
cavity receiver. The second one is the cavity receiver which receives
the heat flux reflected from the concentrator and transfers heat to the
fluid passing over. Other subsystems depend on the application required from the engine. For thrust application, a nozzle is
introduced to the system for the fluid to expand and produce thrust.
Hydrogen is preferred as a working fluid in the thruster application.
Results model developed is used to determine the thrust for a
concentrator dish 4 meters in diameter (provides 10 kW of energy),
focusing solar energy to a 10 cm aperture diameter cavity receiver.
The cavity receiver outer length is 50 cm and the internal cavity is 47
cm in length. The suggested design material of the internal cavity is
tungsten to withstand high temperature. The thermal model and
analysis shows that the hydrogen temperature at the plenum reaches
2000oK after about 250 seconds for hot start operation for a flow rate
of 0.1 g/sec.Using solar thermal engine as an electricity generation
device on earth is also discussed. In this case a compressor and
turbine are used to convert the heat gained by the working fluid (air)
into mechanical power. This mechanical power can be converted into
electrical power by using a generator.
Abstract: In this work, the primary compressive strength
components of human femur trabecular bone are qualitatively
assessed using image processing and wavelet analysis. The Primary
Compressive (PC) component in planar radiographic femur trabecular
images (N=50) is delineated by semi-automatic image processing
procedure. Auto threshold binarization algorithm is employed to
recognize the presence of mineralization in the digitized images. The
qualitative parameters such as apparent mineralization and total area
associated with the PC region are derived for normal and abnormal
images.The two-dimensional discrete wavelet transforms are utilized
to obtain appropriate features that quantify texture changes in medical
images .The normal and abnormal samples of the human femur are
comprehensively analyzed using Harr wavelet.The six statistical
parameters such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, mean
absolute deviation and median absolute deviation are derived at level
4 decomposition for both approximation and horizontal wavelet
coefficients. The correlation coefficient of various wavelet derived
parameters with normal and abnormal for both approximated and
horizontal coefficients are estimated. It is seen that in almost all cases
the abnormal show higher degree of correlation than normals. Further
the parameters derived from approximation coefficient show more
correlation than those derived from the horizontal coefficients. The
parameters mean and median computed at the output of level 4 Harr
wavelet channel was found to be a useful predictor to delineate the
normal and the abnormal groups.
Abstract: In this work, we obtain some analytic solutions for the (3+1)-dimensional breaking soliton after obtaining its Hirota-s bilinear form. Our calculations show that, three-wave method is very easy and straightforward to solve nonlinear partial differential equations.
Abstract: Breast skin-line estimation and breast segmentation is an important pre-process in mammogram image processing and computer-aided diagnosis of breast cancer. Limiting the area to be processed into a specific target region in an image would increase the accuracy and efficiency of processing algorithms. In this paper we are presenting a new algorithm for estimating skin-line and breast segmentation using fast marching algorithm. Fast marching is a partial-differential equation based numerical technique to track evolution of interfaces. We have introduced some modifications to the traditional fast marching method, specifically to improve the accuracy of skin-line estimation and breast tissue segmentation. Proposed modifications ensure that the evolving front stops near the desired boundary. We have evaluated the performance of the algorithm by using 100 mammogram images taken from mini-MIAS database. The results obtained from the experimental evaluation indicate that this algorithm explains 98.6% of the ground truth breast region and accuracy of the segmentation is 99.1%. Also this algorithm is capable of partially-extracting nipple when it is available in the profile.
Abstract: In the present work, study of the vibration of thin cylindrical shells made of a functionally gradient material (FGM) composed of stainless steel and nickel is presented. Material properties are graded in the thickness direction of the shell according to volume fraction power law distribution. The objective is to study the natural frequencies, the influence of constituent volume fractions and the effects of boundary conditions on the natural frequencies of the FG cylindrical shell. The study is carried out using third order shear deformation shell theory. The analysis is carried out using Hamilton's principle. The governing equations of motion of FG cylindrical shells are derived based on shear deformation theory. Results are presented on the frequency characteristics, influence of constituent volume fractions and the effects of clamped-free boundary conditions
Abstract: There are a number of different cars for transferring hundreds of close contacts of swine influenza patients to hospital, and we need to carefully assign the passengers to those cars in order to minimize the risk of influenza spreading during transportation. The paper presents an approach to straightforward obtain the optimal solution of the relaxed problems, and develops two iterative improvement algorithms to effectively tackle the general problem.
Abstract: Quantitative trait loci (QTL) experiments have yielded
important biological and biochemical information necessary for
understanding the relationship between genetic markers and
quantitative traits. For many years, most QTL algorithms only
allowed one observation per genotype. Recently, there has been an
increasing demand for QTL algorithms that can accommodate more
than one observation per genotypic distribution. The Bayesian
hierarchical model is very flexible and can easily incorporate this
information into the model. Herein a methodology is presented that
uses a Bayesian hierarchical model to capture the complexity of the
data. Furthermore, the Markov chain Monte Carlo model composition
(MC3) algorithm is used to search and identify important markers. An
extensive simulation study illustrates that the method captures the
true QTL, even under nonnormal noise and up to 6 QTL.
Abstract: Video-on-demand (VOD) is designed by using content delivery networks (CDN) to minimize the overall operational cost and to maximize scalability. Estimation of the viewing pattern (i.e., the relationship between the number of viewings and the ranking of VOD contents) plays an important role in minimizing the total operational cost and maximizing the performance of the VOD systems. In this paper, we have analyzed a large body of commercial VOD viewing data and found that the viewing rank distribution fits well with the parabolic fractal distribution. The weighted linear model fitting function is used to estimate the parameters (coefficients) of the parabolic fractal distribution. This paper presents an analytical basis for designing an optimal hierarchical VOD contents distribution system in terms of its cost and performance.
Abstract: There are many sources trough which the soil get
enriched and contaminated with REEs. The determination of REEs in
environmental samples has been limited because of the lack of
sensitive analytical techniques. Soil samples were collected from
four sites including open cast coal mine, natural coal burning, coal
washery and control in the coal field located in Dhanbad, India.
Total concentrations of rare earth elements (REEs) were determined
using the inductively coupled plasma atomic absorption spectrometry
in order to assess enrichment status in the coal field. Results showed
that the mean concentrations of La, Pr, Eu, Tb, Ho, and Tm in open
cast mine and natural coal burning sites were elevated compared to
the reference concentrations, while Ce, Nd, Sm, and Gd were
elevated in coal washery site. When compared to reference soil,
heavy REEs (HREEs) were enriched in open cast mines and natural
coal burning affected soils, however, the HREEs were depleted in the
coal washery sites. But, the Chondrite-normalization diagram showed
significant enrichment for light REEs (LREEs) in all the soils. High
concentration of Pr, Eu, Tb, Ho, Tm, and Lu in coal mining and coal
burning sites may pose human health risks. Factor analysis showed
that distribution and relative abundance of REEs of the coal washery
site is comparable with the control. Eventually washing or cleaning
of coal could significantly decrease the emission of REEs from coal
into the environment.