Abstract: This paper presents a constrained valley detection
algorithm. The intent is to find valleys in the map for the path planning
that enables a robot or a vehicle to move safely. The constraint to the
valley is a desired width and a desired depth to ensure the space for
movement when a vehicle passes through the valley. We propose an
algorithm to find valleys satisfying these 2 dimensional constraints.
The merit of our algorithm is that the pre-processing and the
post-processing are not necessary to eliminate undesired small valleys.
The algorithm is validated through simulation using digitized
elevation data.
Abstract: This paper presents a portable robot that is to use for
welding process in shipbuilding yard. It has six degree of freedom and
3kg payload capability. Its weight is 21.5kg so that human workers can
carry it to the work place. Its body mainly made of magnesium alloy
and aluminum alloy for few parts that require high strength. Since the
distance between robot and controller should be 50m at most, the robot
controller controls the robot through EtherCAT. RTX and KPA are
used for real time EtherCAT control on Windows XP. The
performance of the developed robot was satisfactory, in welding of U
type cell in shipbuilding yard.
Abstract: CIM is the standard formalism for modeling management
information developed by the Distributed Management Task
Force (DMTF) in the context of its WBEM proposal, designed to
provide a conceptual view of the managed environment. In this
paper, we propose the inclusion of formal knowledge representation
techniques, based on Description Logics (DLs) and the Web Ontology
Language (OWL), in CIM-based conceptual modeling, and then we
examine the benefits of such a decision. The proposal is specified
as a CIM metamodel level mapping to a highly expressive subset
of DLs capable of capturing all the semantics of the models. The
paper shows how the proposed mapping provides CIM diagrams with
precise semantics and can be used for automatic reasoning about the
management information models, as a design aid, by means of newgeneration
CASE tools, thanks to the use of state-of-the-art automatic
reasoning systems that support the proposed logic and use algorithms
that are sound and complete with respect to the semantics. Such a
CASE tool framework has been developed by the authors and its
architecture is also introduced. The proposed formalization is not
only useful at design time, but also at run time through the use of
rational autonomous agents, in response to a need recently recognized
by the DMTF.
Abstract: The analysis of electromagnetic environment using
deterministic mathematical models is characterized by the
impossibility of analyzing a large number of interacting network
stations with a priori unknown parameters, and this is characteristic,
for example, of mobile wireless communication networks. One of the
tasks of the tools used in designing, planning and optimization of
mobile wireless network is to carry out simulation of electromagnetic
environment based on mathematical modelling methods, including
computer experiment, and to estimate its effect on radio
communication devices. This paper proposes the development of a
statistical model of electromagnetic environment of a mobile
wireless communication network by describing the parameters and
factors affecting it including the propagation channel and their
statistical models.
Abstract: Buildings are considered as significant part in the
cities, which plays main role in organization and arrangement of city
appearance, which is affects image of that building facades, as an
connective between inner and outer space, have a main role in city
image and they are classified as rich image and poor image by people
evaluation which related to visual architectural and urban elements in
building facades. the buildings in Karimi street , in Lahijan city
where, lies in north of Iran, contain the variety of building's facade
types which, have made a city image in Historical part of Lahijan
city, while reflected the Iranian cities identity. The study attempt to
identify the architectural and urban elements that impression the
image of building facades in historical area, based on public
evaluation. Quantitative method were used and the data was collected
through questionnaire survey, the result presented architectural style,
color, shape, and design evaluated by people as most important factor
which should be understate in future development. in fact, the rich
architectural style with strong design make strong city image as weak
design make poor city image.
Abstract: This work presents the mixed-mode II/III prestressed split-cantilever beam specimen for the fracture testing of composite materials. In accordance with the concept of prestressed composite beams one of the two fracture modes is provided by the prestressed state of the specimen, and the other one is increased up to fracture initiation by using a testing machine. The novel beam-like specimen is able to provide any combination of the mode-II and mode-III energy release rates. A simple closed-form solution is developed using beam theory as a data reduction scheme and for the calculation of the energy release rates in the new configuration. The applicability and the limitations of the novel fracture mechanical test are demonstrated using unidirectional glass/polyester composite specimens. If only crack propagation onset is involved then the mixed-mode beam specimen can be used to obtain the fracture criterion of transparent composite materials in the GII - GIII plane in a relatively simple way.
Abstract: The nexus between language and culture is so
intertwined and very significant that language is largely seen as a
vehicle for cultural transmission. Culture itself refers to the aggregate
belief system of a people, embellishing its corporate national image
or brand. If we conceive national rebranding as a campaign to
rekindle the patriotic flame in the consciousness of a people towards
its sociocultural imperatives and values, then, Nigerian indigenous
linguistic flame has not been ignited. Consequently, the paper
contends that the current national rebranding policy remains a myth
in the confines of the elitists' intellectual squabble. It however
recommends that the use of our indigenous languages should be
supported by adequate legislation and also propagated by Nollywood
in order to revamp and sustain the people’s interest in their local
languages. Finally, the use of the indigenous Nigerian languages
demonstrates patriotism, an important ingredient for actualizing a
genuine national rebranding.
Abstract: In this paper the Laplace Decomposition method is developed to solve linear and nonlinear fractional integro- differential equations of Volterra type.The fractional derivative is described in the Caputo sense.The Laplace decomposition method is found to be fast and accurate.Illustrative examples are included to demonstrate the validity and applicability of presented technique and comparasion is made with exacting results.
Abstract: This is the second part of the paper. It, aside from the
core subroutine test reported previously, focuses on the simulation of
turbulence governed by the full STF Navier-Stokes equations on a
large scale. Law of the wall is found plausible in this study as a model
of the boundary layer dynamics. Model validations proceed to
include velocity profiles of a stationary turbulent Couette flow, pure
sloshing flow simulations, and the identification of water-surface
inclination due to fluid accelerations. Errors resulting from the
irrotational and hydrostatic assumptions are explored when studying
a wind-driven water circulation with no shakings. Illustrative
examples show that this numerical strategy works for the simulation
of sloshing-shear mixed flow in a 3-D rigid rectangular base tank.
Abstract: Qualification of doctoral students- and the candidates for a scientific degree is evaluated by the ability to solve scientific ideas in an innovative way, consequently, being a potential of research and science they play a significant role in the sustainability context of the society. The article deals with the analysis of the results of the pilot project, the aim of which has been to study the structure of doctoral students- research competences in the sustainability context. With the existance of variety of theories on research competence development, their analysis focuses on the attained aim approach. Three competence groups have been identified in this study: informative, communicative and instrumental. Within the study the doctoral students and candidates for a scientific degree (N=64) made their self-assessment of research competences. The study results depict their present research competence development level and its dynamics according to the aim to attain.
Abstract: Reactiondiffusion systems are mathematical models that describe how the concentration of one or more substances distributed in space changes under the influence of local chemical reactions in which the substances are converted into each other, and diffusion which causes the substances to spread out in space. The classical representation of a reaction-diffusion system is given by semi-linear parabolic partial differential equations, whose general form is ÔêétX(x, t) = DΔX(x, t), where X(x, t) is the state vector, D is the matrix of the diffusion coefficients and Δ is the Laplace operator. If the solute move in an homogeneous system in thermal equilibrium, the diffusion coefficients are constants that do not depend on the local concentration of solvent and of solutes and on local temperature of the medium. In this paper a new stochastic reaction-diffusion model in which the diffusion coefficients are function of the local concentration, viscosity and frictional forces of solvent and solute is presented. Such a model provides a more realistic description of the molecular kinetics in non-homogenoeus and highly structured media as the intra- and inter-cellular spaces. The movement of a molecule A from a region i to a region j of the space is described as a first order reaction Ai k- → Aj , where the rate constant k depends on the diffusion coefficient. Representing the diffusional motion as a chemical reaction allows to assimilate a reaction-diffusion system to a pure reaction system and to simulate it with Gillespie-inspired stochastic simulation algorithms. The stochastic time evolution of the system is given by the occurrence of diffusion events and chemical reaction events. At each time step an event (reaction or diffusion) is selected from a probability distribution of waiting times determined by the specific speed of reaction and diffusion events. Redi is the software tool, developed to implement the model of reaction-diffusion kinetics and dynamics. It is a free software, that can be downloaded from http://www.cosbi.eu. To demonstrate the validity of the new reaction-diffusion model, the simulation results of the chaperone-assisted protein folding in cytoplasm obtained with Redi are reported. This case study is redrawing the attention of the scientific community due to current interests on protein aggregation as a potential cause for neurodegenerative diseases.
Abstract: E-tailing websites are often perceived to be static, impersonal and distant. However, with the movement of the World Wide Web to Web 2.0 in recent years, these online websites have been found to display personalities akin to 'humanistic' qualities and project impressions much like its retailing counterpart i.e. salespeople. This paper examines the personality of e-tailing websites and their impact on consumers- initial trust towards the sites. A total of 239 Internet users participated in this field experiment study which utilized 6 online book retailers- websites that the participants had not previously visited before. Analysis revealed that out of four website personalities (sincerity, competence, excitement and sophistication) only sincerity and competence are able to exert an influence in building consumers- trust upon their first visit to the website. The implications of the findings are further elaborated in this paper.
Abstract: The primary objective of the paper is to propose a new method for solving assignment problem under uncertain situation. In the classical assignment problem (AP), zpqdenotes the cost for assigning the qth job to the pth person which is deterministic in nature. Here in some uncertain situation, we have assigned a cost in the form of composite relative degree Fpq instead of and this replaced cost is in the maximization form. In this paper, it has been solved and validated by the two proposed algorithms, a new mathematical formulation of IVIF assignment problem has been presented where the cost has been considered to be an IVIFN and the membership of elements in the set can be explained by positive and negative evidences. To determine the composite relative degree of similarity of IVIFS the concept of similarity measure and the score function is used for validating the solution which is obtained by Composite relative similarity degree method. Further, hypothetical numeric illusion is conducted to clarify the method’s effectiveness and feasibility developed in the study. Finally, conclusion and suggestion for future work are also proposed.
Abstract: This study investigated the relationships between the
active learning strategies (discussion, video clips, game show, role–
play, five minute paper, clarification pauses, and small group) and
academic achievement among a sample of 158 undergraduate
psychology students in The University of the West Indies (UWI),
Barbados. Results revealed statistically significant positive
correlations between active learning strategies and students’
academic achievement; so also the active learning strategies
contributed 22% (Rsq=0.222) to the variance being accounted for in
academic achievement and this was found to be statistically
significant (F(7,150) = 6.12, p < .05). Additionally, group work
emerged as the best active learning strategy and had the highest
correlation with the students’ academic achievement. These results
were discussed in the light of the importance of the active learning
strategies promoting academic achievement among the university
students.
Abstract: The effect of thermally induced stress on the modal
properties of highly elliptical core optical fibers is studied in this
work using a finite element method. The stress analysis is carried out
and anisotropic refractive index change is calculated using both the
conventional plane strain approximation and the generalized plane
strain approach. After considering the stress optical effect, the modal
analysis of the fiber is performed to obtain the solutions of
fundamental and higher order modes. The modal effective index,
modal birefringence, group effective index, group birefringence, and
dispersion of different modes of the fiber are presented. For
propagation properties, it can be seen that the results depend much on
the approach of stress analysis.
Abstract: For the communication between human and computer
in an interactive computing environment, the gesture recognition is
studied vigorously. Therefore, a lot of studies have proposed efficient
methods about the recognition algorithm using 2D camera captured
images. However, there is a limitation to these methods, such as the
extracted features cannot fully represent the object in real world.
Although many studies used 3D features instead of 2D features for
more accurate gesture recognition, the problem, such as the processing
time to generate 3D objects, is still unsolved in related researches.
Therefore we propose a method to extract the 3D features combined
with the 3D object reconstruction. This method uses the modified
GPU-based visual hull generation algorithm which disables unnecessary
processes, such as the texture calculation to generate three kinds
of 3D projection maps as the 3D feature: a nearest boundary, a farthest
boundary, and a thickness of the object projected on the base-plane. In
the section of experimental results, we present results of proposed
method on eight human postures: T shape, both hands up, right hand
up, left hand up, hands front, stand, sit and bend, and compare the
computational time of the proposed method with that of the previous
methods.
Abstract: A new and novel approach in medicine is the use of
cold plasma for various applications such as sterilization blood
coagulation and cancer cell treatment. In this paper a pin-to-hole
plasma jet suitable for biological applications is investigated and
characterized and the possibility and feasibility of cancer cell
treatment is evaluated. The characterization includes power
consumption via Lissajous method, thermal behavior of plasma using
Infra-red camera as a novel method, Optical Emission Spectroscopy
(OES) to determine the species that are generated. Treatment of
leukemia cancer cells is also implemented and MTT assay is used to
evaluate viability.
Abstract: Nowadays there are lots of applications of power and
free conveyors in logistics. They are the most frequently used
conveyor systems worldwide. Overhead conveyor technologies like
power and free systems are used in the most intra-logistics
applications in trade and industry. The automotive, food, beverage
and textile industry as well as aeronautic catering or engineering are
among the applications. Power and free systems employ different
manufacturing intervals in manufacturing as well as in production as
temporary store and buffer. Depending on the application area, power
and free conveyors are equipped with target controls enabling
complex distribution-and sorting tasks. This article introduces a new
power and free conveyor design in intra-logistics and explains its
components. According to the explanation of the components, a
model is created by means of their technical characteristics. Through
the CAD software, the model is visualized. After that, the static
analysis is evaluated. This analysis helps the calculation of the
mandatory state of structures under force action. This powerful model
helps companies achieve lower development costs as well as quicker
market maturity.
Abstract: This study examines appearances of brand placement
as an alternative communication strategy in television series by
focusing on Yalan Dünya which is one of the most popular television
series in Turkey. Consequently, this study has a descriptive research
design and quantitative content analysis method is used in order to
analyze frequency and time data of brand placement appearances in
first 3 seasons of Yalan Dünya with 16 episodes.
Analysis of brand placement practices in Yalan Dünya is dealt in
three categories: episode-based analysis, season-based analysis and
comparative analysis. At the end, brand placement practices in Yalan
Dünya are evaluated in terms of type, form, duration and legal
arrangements.
As a result of this study, it is seen that brand placement plays a
determinant role in Yalan Dünya content. Also, current legal
arrangements make brand placement closer to other traditional
communication strategies instead of differing brand placement from
them distinctly.
Abstract: Atmospheric plasma is emerging as a promising
technology for many industrial sectors, because of its ecological and
economic advantages respect to the traditional production processes.
For textile industry, atmospheric plasma is becoming a valid
alternative to the conventional wet processes, but the plasma
machines realized so far do not allow the treatment of fibrous
mechanically weak material.
Novel atmospheric plasma machine for industrial applications,
developed by VenetoNanotech SCpA in collaboration with Italian
producer of corona equipment ME.RO SpA is presented. The main
feature of this pre-industrial scale machine is the possibility of the inline
plasma treatment of delicate fibrous substrates such as fibre
sleeves, for example wool tops, cotton fibres, polymeric tows,
mineral fibers and so on, avoiding burnings and disruption of the
faint materials.