Abstract: Recent advances in both the testing and verification of software based on formal specifications of the system to be built have reached a point where the ideas can be applied in a powerful way in the design of agent-based systems. The software engineering research has highlighted a number of important issues: the importance of the type of modeling technique used; the careful design of the model to enable powerful testing techniques to be used; the automated verification of the behavioural properties of the system; the need to provide a mechanism for translating the formal models into executable software in a simple and transparent way. This paper introduces the use of the X-machine formalism as a tool for modeling biology inspired agents proposing the use of the techniques built around X-machine models for the construction of effective, and reliable agent-based software systems.
Abstract: Roadways in Amman city face many problems consequent upon poor drainage systems. Evaluation tools are necessary to identify those roads needing improvement in their drainage system, and those needing regular maintenance. This work aims at evaluating drainage conditions in selected roadways in Amman city with the intent of identifying the problems encountered in their drainage systems. Three sites in the vicinity of Amman city have been selected and then inspected via several field visits to determine the state of their existing drainage systems and define the major problems encountered in these systems. The evaluation tool used in this study is based on visual inspection supported by photographs that depicted the defined problems. Following the field assessment, the drainage system in each road was rated as excellent, fair, good, or poor. The study reveals that more than 60% of the roadways in the selected sites were in poor drainage conditions, which lead to tremendous environmental problems. This assessment serves as a guide for local decision makers to help plan for the maintenance of Amman city roadways drainage systems, and propose ways of managing the associated problems.
Abstract: This study explores perceptions of English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) learners on using computer mediated communication
technology in their learner of English. The data consists of
observations of both synchronous and asynchronous communication
participants engaged in for over a period of 4 months, which included
online, and offline communication protocols, open-ended interviews
and reflection papers composed by participants.
Content analysis of interview data and the written documents listed
above, as well as, member check and triangulation techniques are the
major data analysis strategies. The findings suggest that participants
generally do not benefit from computer-mediated communication in
terms of its effect in learning a foreign language. Participants regarded
the nature of CMC as artificial, or pseudo communication that did not
aid their authentic communicational skills in English. The results of
this study sheds lights on insufficient and inconclusive findings, which
most quantitative CMC studies previously generated.
Abstract: ZnO nanocrystals with mean diameter size 14 nm
have been prepared by precipitation method, and examined as
photocatalyst for the UV-induced degradation of insecticide diazinon
as deputy of organic pollutant in aqueous solution. The effects of
various parameters, such as illumination time, the amount of
photocatalyst, initial pH values and initial concentration of
insecticide on the photocatalytic degradation diazinon were
investigated to find desired conditions. In this case, the desired
parameters were also tested for the treatment of real water containing
the insecticide. Photodegradation efficiency of diazinon was
compared between commercial and prepared ZnO nanocrystals. The
results indicated that UV/ZnO process applying prepared
nanocrystalline ZnO offered electrical energy efficiency and
quantum yield better than commercial ZnO. The present study, on the
base of Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism, illustrated a pseudo
first-order kinetic model with rate constant of surface reaction equal
to 0.209 mg l-1 min-1 and adsorption equilibrium constant of 0.124 l
mg-1.
Abstract: Telemedicine is brought to life by contemporary changes of our world and summarizes the entire range of services that are at the crossroad of traditional healthcare and information technology. It is believed that eHealth can help in solving critical issues of rising costs, care for ageing and housebound population, staff shortage. It is a feasible tool to provide routine as well as specialized health service as it has the potential to improve both the access to and the standard of care. eHealth is no more an optional choice. It has already made quite a way but it still remains a fantastic challenge for the future requiring cooperation and coordination at all possible levels. The strategic objectives of this paper are: 1. To start with an attempt to clarify the mass of terms used nowadays; 2. To answer the question “Who needs eHealth"; 3. To focus on the necessity of bridging telemedicine and medical (health) informatics as well as on the dual relationship between them; as well as 4. To underline the need of networking in understanding, developing and implementing eHealth.
Abstract: Automatic segmentation of skin lesions is the first step
towards the automated analysis of malignant melanoma. Although
numerous segmentation methods have been developed, few studies
have focused on determining the most effective color space for
melanoma application. This paper proposes an automatic segmentation
algorithm based on color space analysis and clustering-based histogram
thresholding, a process which is able to determine the optimal
color channel for detecting the borders in dermoscopy images. The
algorithm is tested on a set of 30 high resolution dermoscopy images.
A comprehensive evaluation of the results is provided, where borders
manually drawn by four dermatologists, are compared to automated
borders detected by the proposed algorithm, applying three previously
used metrics of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity and a new metric
of similarity. By performing ROC analysis and ranking the metrics,
it is demonstrated that the best results are obtained with the X and
XoYoR color channels, resulting in an accuracy of approximately
97%. The proposed method is also compared with two state-of-theart
skin lesion segmentation methods.
Abstract: In this paper a novel approach for generalized image
retrieval based on semantic contents is presented. A combination of
three feature extraction methods namely color, texture, and edge
histogram descriptor. There is a provision to add new features in
future for better retrieval efficiency. Any combination of these
methods, which is more appropriate for the application, can be used
for retrieval. This is provided through User Interface (UI) in the
form of relevance feedback. The image properties analyzed in this
work are by using computer vision and image processing algorithms.
For color the histogram of images are computed, for texture cooccurrence
matrix based entropy, energy, etc, are calculated and for
edge density it is Edge Histogram Descriptor (EHD) that is found.
For retrieval of images, a novel idea is developed based on greedy
strategy to reduce the computational complexity. The entire system
was developed using AForge.Imaging (an open source product),
MATLAB .NET Builder, C#, and Oracle 10g. The system was tested
with Coral Image database containing 1000 natural images and
achieved better results.
Abstract: It was determined that woody biomass and livestock excreta can be utilized as hydrogen resources and hydrogen produced from such sources can be used to fill fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) at hydrogen stations. It was shown that the biomass transport costs for hydrogen production may be reduced the costs for co-generation. In the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, there are only a few sites capable of producing hydrogen from woody biomass in amounts greater than 200 m3/h-the scale required for a hydrogen station to be operationally practical. However, in the case of livestock excreta, it was shown that 15% of the municipalities in this area are capable of securing sufficient biomass to be operationally practical for hydrogen production. The differences in feasibility of practical operation depend on the type of biomass.
Abstract: Under the limitation of investment budget, a utility
company is required to maximize the utilization of their existing
assets during their life cycle satisfying both engineering and financial
requirements. However, utility does not have knowledge about the
status of each asset in the portfolio neither in terms of technical nor
financial values. This paper presents a knowledge based model for
the utility companies in order to make an optimal decision on power
transformer with their utilization. CommonKADS methodology, a
structured development for knowledge and expertise representation,
is utilized for designing and developing knowledge based model. A
case study of One MVA power transformer of Nepal Electricity
Authority is presented. The results show that the reusable knowledge
can be categorized, modeled and utilized within the utility company
using the proposed methodologies. Moreover, the results depict that
utility company can achieve both engineering and financial benefits
from its utilization.
Abstract: This paper presents a generalized form of the
mechanistic deconvolution technique (GMD) to modeling image sensors applicable in various pan–tilt planes of view. The mechanistic deconvolution technique (UMD) is modified with the
given angles of a pan–tilt plane of view to formulate constraint parameters and characterize distortion effects, and thereby, determine
the corrected image data. This, as a result, does not require experimental setup or calibration. Due to the mechanistic nature of
the sensor model, the necessity for the sensor image plane to be
orthogonal to its z-axis is eliminated, and it reduces the dependency on image data. An experiment was constructed to evaluate the
accuracy of a model created by GMD and its insensitivity to changes in sensor properties and in pan and tilt angles. This was compared
with a pre-calibrated model and a model created by UMD using two sensors with different specifications. It achieved similar accuracy
with one-seventh the number of iterations and attained lower mean error by a factor of 2.4 when compared to the pre-calibrated and
UMD model respectively. The model has also shown itself to be robust and, in comparison to pre-calibrated and UMD model, improved the accuracy significantly.
Abstract: The upgrading of low quality crude natural gas (NG) is attracting interest due to high demand of pipeline-grade gas in recent years. Membrane processes are commercially proven technology for the removal of impurities like carbon dioxide from NG. In this work, cross flow mathematical model has been suggested to be incorporated with ASPEN HYSYS as a user defined unit operation in order to design the membrane system for CO2/CH4 separation. The effect of operating conditions (such as feed composition and pressure) and membrane selectivity on the design parameters (methane recovery and total membrane area required for the separation) has been studied for different design configurations. These configurations include single stage (with and without recycle) and double stage membrane systems (with and without permeate or retentate recycle). It is shown that methane recovery can be improved by recycling permeate or retentate stream as well as by using double stage membrane systems. The ASPEN HYSYS user defined unit operation proposed in the study has potential to be applied for complex membrane system design and optimization.
Abstract: Among the numerous economic evaluation techniques currently available, Multi-criteria Spatial Analysis lends itself to solving localization problems of property complexes and, in particular, production plants. The methodology involves the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and the mapping overlay technique, which overlaps the different information layers of a territory in order to obtain an overview of the parameters that characterize it. This first phase is used to detect possible settlement surfaces of a new agglomeration, subsequently selected through Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), so as to choose the best alternative. The result ensures the synthesis of a multidimensional profile that expresses both the quantitative and qualitative effects. Each criterion can be given a different weight.
Abstract: Motion capturing technology has been used for quite a
while and several research has been done within this area. Nevertheless,
we discovered open issues within current motion capturing
environments. In this paper we provide a state-of-the-art overview of
the addressed research areas and show issues with current motion
capturing environments. Observations, interviews and questionnaires
have been used to reveal the challenges actors are currently facing in
a motion capturing environment. Furthermore, the idea to create a
more immersive motion capturing environment to improve the acting
performances and motion capturing outcomes as a potential solution
is introduced. It is hereby the goal to explain the found open issues
and the developed ideas which shall serve for further research as a
basis. Moreover, a methodology to address the interaction and
systems design issues is proposed. A future outcome could be that
motion capture actors are able to perform more naturally, especially
if using a non-body-worn solution.
Abstract: In this study, a Loop Back Algorithm for component
connected labeling for detecting objects in a digital image is
presented. The approach is using loop back connected component
labeling algorithm that helps the system to distinguish the object
detected according to their label. Deferent than whole window
scanning technique, this technique reduces the searching time for
locating the object by focusing on the suspected object based on
certain features defined. In this study, the approach was also
implemented for a face detection system. Face detection system is
becoming interesting research since there are many devices or
systems that require detecting the face for certain purposes. The input
can be from still image or videos, therefore the sub process of this
system has to be simple, efficient and accurate to give a good result.
Abstract: In this paper the problem of face recognition under variable illumination conditions is considered. Most of the works in the literature exhibit good performance under strictly controlled acquisition conditions, but the performance drastically drop when changes in pose and illumination occur, so that recently number of approaches have been proposed to deal with such variability. The aim of this work is to introduce an efficient local appearance feature extraction method based steerable pyramid (SP) for face recognition. Local information is extracted from SP sub-bands using LBP(Local binary Pattern). The underlying statistics allow us to reduce the required amount of data to be stored. The experiments carried out on different face databases confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Abstract: The present paper deals with the analysis and development of noise-reduction transformer that has a filter function for conductive noise transmission. Two types of prototype noise-reduction transformers with two different output voltages are proposed. To determine an optimum design for the noise-reduction transformer, noise attenuation characteristics are discussed based on the experiments and the equivalent circuit analysis. The analysis gives a relation between the circuit parameters and the noise attenuation. High performance step-down noise-reduction transformer for direct power supply to electronics equipment is developed. The input voltage of the transformer is 100 V and the output voltage is 5 V. Frequency characteristics of noise attenuation are discussed, and prevention of pulse noise transmission is demonstrated. Normal mode noise attenuation of this transformer is –80 dB, and common mode exceeds –90 dB. The step-down noise-reduction transformer eliminates pulse noise efficiently.
Abstract: We developed an effective microfluidic device for photoreactions with low reflectance and good heat conductance. The performance of this microfluidic device was tested by carrying out a photoreactive synthesis of benzopinacol and acetone from benzophenone and 2-propanol. The yield reached 36% with an irradiation time of 469.2 s and was improved by more than 30% when compared to the values obtained by the batch method. Therefore, the microfluidic device was found to be effective for improving the yields of photoreactions.
Abstract: The most planted cover crops in the Czech Republic
are mustard (Sinapis alba) and phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia
Benth.). A field trial was executed to evaluate root system size (RSS)
in eight varieties of mustard and five varieties of phacelia on two
locations, in three BBCH phases and in two years. The relationship
between RSS and aboveground biomass was inquired. The root
system was assessed by measuring its electric capacity. Aboveground
mass and root samples to be evaluated by means of a digital image
analysis were recovered in the BBCH phase 70. The yield of
aboveground biomass of mustard was always statistically
significantly higher than that of phacelia. Mustard showed a
statistically significant negative correlation between root length
density (RLD) within 10 cm and aboveground biomass weight (r = -
0.46*). Phacelia featured a statistically significant correlation
between aboveground biomass production and nitrate nitrogen
content in soil (r=0.782**).
Abstract: We demonstrate a nonfaradaic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement of biochemically modified gold plated electrodes using a two-electrode system. The absence of any redox indicator in the impedance measurements provide more precise and accurate characterization of the measured bioanalyte at molecular resolution. An equivalent electrical circuit of the electrodeelectrolyte interface was deduced from the observed impedance data of saline solution at low and high concentrations. The detection of biomolecular interactions was fundamentally correlated to electrical double-layer variation at modified interface. The investigations were done using 20mer deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) strands without any label. Surface modification was performed by creating mixed monolayer of the thiol-modified single-stranded DNA and a spacer thiol (mercaptohexanol) by a two-step self-assembly method. The results clearly distinguish between the noncomplementary and complementary hybridization of DNA, at low frequency region below several hundreds Hertz.
Abstract: The class of geometric deformable models, so-called
level sets, has brought tremendous impact to medical imagery. In
this paper we present yet another application of level sets to medical
imaging. The method we give here will in a way modify the speed
term in the standard level sets equation of motion. To do so we
build a potential based on the distance and the gradient of the
image we study. In turn the potential gives rise to the force field:
F~F(x, y) = P
∀(p,q)∈I
((x, y) - (p, q)) |ÔêçI(p,q)|
|(x,y)-(p,q)|
2 . The direction
and intensity of the force field at each point will determine the
direction of the contour-s evolution. The images we used to test
our method were produced by the Univesit'e de Sherbrooke-s PET
scanners.