Abstract: In this paper we present an extension to Vision Based
LRTA* (VLRTA*) known as Vision Based Moving Target Search
(VMTS) for capturing unknown moving target in unknown territory
with randomly generated obstacles. Target position is unknown to the
agents and they cannot predict its position using any probability
method. Agents have omni directional vision but can see in one
direction at some point in time. Agent-s vision will be blocked by the
obstacles in the search space so agent can not see through the
obstacles. Proposed algorithm is evaluated on large number of
scenarios. Scenarios include grids of sizes from 10x10 to 100x100.
Grids had obstacles randomly placed, occupying 0% to 50%, in
increments of 10%, of the search space. Experiments used 2 to 9
agents for each randomly generated maze with same obstacle ratio.
Observed results suggests that VMTS is effective in locate target
time, solution quality and virtual target. In addition, VMTS becomes
more efficient if the number of agents is increased with proportion to
obstacle ratio.
Abstract: With the widespread growth of applications of
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), the need for reliable security
mechanisms these networks has increased manifold. Many security
solutions have been proposed in the domain of WSN so far. These
solutions are usually based on well-known cryptographic
algorithms.
In this paper, we have made an effort to survey well known
security issues in WSNs and study the behavior of WSN nodes that
perform public key cryptographic operations. We evaluate time
and power consumption of public key cryptography algorithm for
signature and key management by simulation.
Abstract: The rheological properties of light crude oil and its mixture with water were investigated experimentally. These rheological properties include steady flow behavior, yield stress, transient flow behavior, and viscoelastic behavior. A RheoStress RS600 rheometer was employed in all of the rheological examination tests. The light crude oil exhibits a Newtonian and for emulsion exhibits a non-Newtonian shear thinning behavior over the examined shear rate range of 0.1–120 s-1. In first time, a series of samples of crude oil from the Algerian Sahara has been tested and the results expressed in terms of τ=f(γ) have demonstrated their Newtonian character for the temperature included in [20°C, 70°C]. In second time and at T=20°C, the oil-water emulsions (30%, 50% and 70%) by volume of water), thermodynamically stable, have demonstrated a non-Newtonian rheological behavior that is to say, Herschel-Bulkley and Bingham types. For each type of crude oil-water emulsion, the rheological parameters are calculated by numerical treatment of results.
Abstract: Computer worm detection is commonly performed by
antivirus software tools that rely on prior explicit knowledge of the
worm-s code (detection based on code signatures). We present an
approach for detection of the presence of computer worms based on
Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) using the computer's behavioral
measures. Identification of significant features, which describe the
activity of a worm within a host, is commonly acquired from security
experts. We suggest acquiring these features by applying feature
selection methods. We compare three different feature selection
techniques for the dimensionality reduction and identification of the
most prominent features to capture efficiently the computer behavior
in the context of worm activity. Additionally, we explore three
different temporal representation techniques for the most prominent
features. In order to evaluate the different techniques, several
computers were infected with five different worms and 323 different
features of the infected computers were measured. We evaluated
each technique by preprocessing the dataset according to each one
and training the ANN model with the preprocessed data. We then
evaluated the ability of the model to detect the presence of a new
computer worm, in particular, during heavy user activity on the
infected computers.
Abstract: Two-dimensional finite element model was created in this work to investigate the stresses distribution within rock-like samples with offset open non-persistent joints under biaxial loading. The results of this study have explained the fracture mechanisms observed in tests on rock-like material with open non-persistent offset joints [1]. Finite element code SAP2000 was used to study the stresses distribution within the specimens. Four-nodded isoperimetric plain strain element with two degree of freedom per node, and the three-nodded constant strain triangular element with two degree of freedom per node were used in the present study.The results of the present study explained the formation of wing cracks at the tip of the joints for low confining stress as well as the formation of wing cracks at the middle of the joint for the higher confining stress. High shear stresses found in the numerical study at the tip of the joints explained the formation of secondary cracks at the tip of the joints in the experimental study. The study results coincide with the experimental observations which showed that for bridge inclination of 0o, the coalescence occurred due to shear failure and for bridge inclination of 90o the coalescence occurred due to tensile failure while for the other bridge inclinations coalescence occurred due to mixed tensile and shear failure.
Abstract: It is shown that the relationship of tick-borne
encephalitis virus with the human body comes in two ways, the
development of acute infection with the outcome in convalescence
and long stay by the virus in the body, its persistence in the nervous
tissue with periodic reactivation and prolonged circulating
immunoglobulin M. In spite of the fact that tick-borne encephalitis
virus has a tropism for nerve tissue, involvement in the process of
blood cells is an integral component of the infection. Comprehensive
study of the relation of factors of innate and adaptive immunity in the
tick-borne encephalitis providing insight into the features of chronic
disease.
Abstract: The blood ducts must be occluded to avoid loss of
blood from vessels in laparoscopic surgeries. This paper presents a
locking mechanism to be used in a ligation laparoscopic procedure
(LigLAP I), as an alternative solution for a stapling procedure.
Currently, stapling devices are being used to occlude vessels. Using
these devices may result in some problems, including injury of bile
duct, taking up a great deal of space behind the vessel, and bile leak.
In this new procedure, a two-layer suture occludes a vessel. A
locking mechanism is also required to hold the suture. Since there is
a limited space at the device tip, a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA)
actuator is used in this mechanism. Suitability for cleanroom
applications, small size, and silent performance are among the
advantages of SMA actuators in biomedical applications. An
experimental study is conducted to examine the function of the
locking mechanism. To set up the experiment, a prototype of a
locking mechanism is built using nitinol, which is a nickel-titanium
shape memory alloy. The locking mechanism successfully locks a
polymer suture for all runs of the experiment. In addition, the effects
of various surface materials on the applied pulling forces are studied.
Various materials are mounted at the mechanism tip to compare the
maximum pulling forces applied to the suture for each material. The
results show that the various surface materials on the device tip
provide large differences in the applied pulling forces.
Abstract: International literature emphasizes on the concern regarding the phenomenon of aggression in hospital. This paper focuses on the reality of aggressive interactions reigning within an emergency triage involving three chaps of protagonists: the professionals, the patients and their carers. The data collection was made from a grid of observation, in which the various variables exposed in the literature were integrated. They observations took place around the clock, for three weeks, at the rate of one week a month. In this research 331 aggressive interactions have been listed and analyzed by means of the software SPSS. This research is one of the very few continuous observation surveys in the literature. It shows the various human factors at play in the emergence of aggressive interaction. The data may be used both for taking steps in primary prevention, thanks to the analysis of interaction modes, and in secondary prevention by integrating the useful results in situational prevention.
Abstract: In the present study, the effects of ultrasound as
emerging technology were investigated on germination stimulation,
amount of alpha-amylase activity on dry barley seeds before steeping
stage of malting process. All experiments were carried out at 20 KHz
on the ultrasonic generator in 3 different ultrasonic intensities (20, 60
and 100% setting from total power of device) and time (5, 10 and 15
min) at constant temperature (30C). For determining the effects of
these parameters on enzyme the Fuwa method assay based on the
decreased staining value of blue starch–iodine complexes employed
for measurement an activity. The results of these assays were
analyzed by Qualitek4 software using the Taguchi statistical method
to evaluate the factor-s effects on enzyme activity. It has been found
that when malting barley is irradiated with an ultrasonic power, a
stimulating effect occurs as to the enzyme activity.
Abstract: The choice of finite element to use in order to predict
nonlinear static or dynamic response of complex structures becomes
an important factor. Then, the main goal of this research work is to
focus a study on the effect of the in-plane rotational degrees of
freedom in linear and geometrically non linear static and dynamic
analysis of thin shell structures by flat shell finite elements. In this
purpose: First, simple triangular and quadrilateral flat shell finite
elements are implemented in an incremental formulation based on the
updated lagrangian corotational description for geometrically
nonlinear analysis. The triangular element is a combination of DKT
and CST elements, while the quadrilateral is a combination of DKQ
and the bilinear quadrilateral membrane element. In both elements,
the sixth degree of freedom is handled via introducing fictitious
stiffness. Secondly, in the same code, the sixth degrees of freedom in
these elements is handled differently where the in-plane rotational
d.o.f is considered as an effective d.o.f in the in-plane filed
interpolation. Our goal is to compare resulting shell elements. Third,
the analysis is enlarged to dynamic linear analysis by direct
integration using Newmark-s implicit method. Finally, the linear
dynamic analysis is extended to geometrically nonlinear dynamic
analysis where Newmark-s method is used to integrate equations of
motion and the Newton-Raphson method is employed for iterating
within each time step increment until equilibrium is achieved. The
obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the
interpolation of the in-plane rotational d.o.f. and present deficiencies
of using fictitious stiffness in dynamic linear and nonlinear analysis.
Abstract: In this paper, the typical exponential method, diamond difference and modified time discrete scheme is researched for self adaptive time step. The second-order time evolution scheme is applied to time-dependent spherical neutron transport equation by discrete ordinates method. The numerical results show that second-order time evolution scheme associated exponential method has some good properties. The time differential curve about neutron current is more smooth than that of exponential method and diamond difference and modified time discrete scheme.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to study the oblique
stagnation point flow on vertical plate with uniform surface heat flux
in presence of magnetic field. Using Stream function, partial
differential equations corresponding to the momentum and energy
equations are converted into non-linear ordinary differential
equations. Numerical solutions of these equations are obtained using
Runge-Kutta Fehlberg method with the help of shooting technique.
In the present work the effects of striking angle, magnetic field
parameter, Grashoff number, the Prandtl number on velocity and heat
transfer characteristics have been discussed. Effect of above
mentioned parameter on the position of stagnation point are also
studied.
Abstract: In this paper, a Smart Home Service Robot, McBot II,
which performs mess-cleanup function etc. in house, is designed much
more optimally than other service robots. It is newly developed in
much more practical system than McBot I which we had developed
two years ago. One characteristic attribute of mobile platforms
equipped with a set of dependent wheels is their omni- directionality
and the ability to realize complex translational and rotational
trajectories for agile navigation in door. An accurate coordination of
steering angle and spinning rate of each wheel is necessary for a
consistent motion. This paper develops trajectory controller of
3-wheels omni-directional mobile robot using fuzzy azimuth estimator.
A specialized anthropomorphic robot manipulator which can be
attached to the housemaid robot McBot II, is developed in this paper.
This built-in type manipulator consists of both arms with 3 DOF
(Degree of Freedom) each and both hands with 3 DOF each. The
robotic arm is optimally designed to satisfy both the minimum
mechanical size and the maximum workspace. Minimum mass and
length are required for the built-in cooperated-arms system. But that
makes the workspace so small. This paper proposes optimal design
method to overcome the problem by using neck joint to move the arms
horizontally forward/backward and waist joint to move them
vertically up/down. The robotic hand, which has two fingers and a
thumb, is also optimally designed in task-based concept. Finally, the
good performance of the developed McBot II is confirmed through
live tests of the mess-cleanup task.
Abstract: The incidence of oral cancer in Taiwan increased year
by year. It replaced the nasopharyngeal as the top incurrence among
head and neck cancers since 1994. Early examination and earlier
identification for earlier treatment is the most effective medical
treatment for these cancers. Although the government fully subsidized
the expenses with tremendous promotion program for oral cancer
screening, the citizen-s participation remained low. Purpose of this
study is to understand the factors affecting the citizens- behavior
intensions of taking an oral cancer screening. Based on the Theory of
Planned Behavior, this study adopted four distinctive variables in
explaining the captioned behavior intentions.700 questionnaires were
dispatched with 500 valid responses or 71.4% returned by the citizens
with an age 30 or above from the eastern counties of Taiwan. Test
results has shown that attitude toward, subjective norms of, and
perceived behavioral control over the oral cancer screening varied
from some demographic factors to another. The study proofed that
attitude toward, subjective norms of, and perceived behavioral control
over the oral cancer screening had positive impacts on the
corresponding behavior intention. The test concluded that the theory
of planned behavior was appropriate as a theoretical framework in
explaining the influencing factors of intentions of taking oral cancer
screening. This study suggested the healthcare professional should
provide high accessibility of screening services other than just
delivering knowledge on oral cancer to promote the citizens-
intentions of taking the captioned screening. This research also
provided a practical implication to the healthcare professionals when
formulating and implementing promotion instruments for lifting the
screening rate of oral cancer.
Abstract: Information Retrieval has the objective of studying
models and the realization of systems allowing a user to find the
relevant documents adapted to his need of information. The
information search is a problem which remains difficult because the
difficulty in the representing and to treat the natural languages such
as polysemia. Intentional Structures promise to be a new paradigm to
extend the existing documents structures and to enhance the different
phases of documents process such as creation, editing, search and
retrieval. The intention recognition of the author-s of texts can reduce
the largeness of this problem. In this article, we present intentions
recognition system is based on a semi-automatic method of
extraction the intentional information starting from a corpus of text.
This system is also able to update the ontology of intentions for the
enrichment of the knowledge base containing all possible intentions
of a domain. This approach uses the construction of a semi-formal
ontology which considered as the conceptualization of the intentional
information contained in a text. An experiments on scientific
publications in the field of computer science was considered to
validate this approach.
Abstract: In this study, The physico-chemical and nutritional
properties of `Musmula` Medlar (Mespilus germanica L.) fruit and
seed grown in Northeast Anatolia was investigated. In the fruit,
length, width, thickness, weight, total soluble solids, colour (1),
colour (2) [L, a, b values], protein, crude ash, crude fiber, crude oil,
texture and pH were determinated as 4.34 cm, 4.22 cm, 3.67 cm,
38.36 g, 23.97 %, S60O60Y41,, [53.85, 17.15, 33.75], 1.06 %, 0.79 %,
4.24 %, 0.005 %, 1.21 kg/cm2 and 4.26 respectively. Also, pulp ratio,
seed ratio and pulp/seed ratio were found to be 92.88 %, 7.11 % and
14.07 %, respectively. In addition, the mineral composition of medlar
fruit in Northeast Anatolia was studied. In the fruit, 23 minerals were
analyzed and 19 minerals were present at detectable levels. The
medlar fruit was richest in potassium (6962 ppm), calcium (1186.378
ppm), magnesium (1070.08 ppm) and phosphor (763.425 ppm).
Abstract: Image target detection and tracking methods based on
target information such as intensity, shape model, histogram and
target dynamics have been proven to be robust to target model
variations and background clutters as shown by recent researches.
However, no definitive answer has been given to occluded target by
counter measure or limited field of view(FOV). In this paper, we
will present a novel tracking method using filtering and computational
geometry. This paper has two central goals: 1) to deal with vulnerable
target measurements; and 2) to maintain target tracking out of FOV
using non-target-originated information. The experimental results,
obtained with airborne images, show a robust tracking ability with
respect to the existing approaches. In exploring the questions of target
tracking, this paper will be limited to consideration of airborne image.
Abstract: Wood as a natural renewable material is vulnerable to
degradation by microorganisms and susceptible to change in
dimension by water. In order to effectively improve the durability of
wood, an active reagent, maleic anhydride (Man) was selected for
wood modification. Man was first dissolved into a solvent, and then
penetrated into wood porous structure under a vacuum/pressure
condition. After a final catalyst-thermal treatment, wood modification
was finished. The test results indicate that acetone is a good solvent for
transporting Man into wood matrix. SEM observation proved that
wood samples treated by Man kept a good cellular structure, indicating
a well penetration of Man into wood cell walls. FTIR analysis
suggested that Man reacted with hydroxyl groups on wood cell walls
by its ring-ether group, resulting in reduction of amount of hydroxyl
groups and resultant good dimensional stability as well as fine decay
resistance. Consequently, Man modifying wood to improve its
durability is an effective method.
Abstract: In recent years with the rapid development of Internet and the Web, more and more web applications have been deployed in many fields and organizations such as finance, military, and government. Together with that, hackers have found more subtle ways to attack web applications. According to international statistics, SQL Injection is one of the most popular vulnerabilities of web applications. The consequences of this type of attacks are quite dangerous, such as sensitive information could be stolen or authentication systems might be by-passed. To mitigate the situation, several techniques have been adopted. In this research, a security solution is proposed using Artificial Neural Network to protect web applications against this type of attacks. The solution has been experimented on sample datasets and has given promising result. The solution has also been developed in a prototypic web application firewall called ANNbWAF.
Abstract: Urbanization and related anthropogenic modifications
cause extent of habitat fragmentation and directly lead to decline of
local biodiversity. Conservation biologists advocate corridor creation
as one approach to rescue biodiversity. Here we examine the utility of
roads as corridors in preserving plant diversity by investigating
roadside vegetation in Yellow River Delta (YRD), China. We
examined the spatio-temporal distribution pattern of plant species
richness, diversity and composition along roadside. The results
suggest that roads, as dispersal conduits, increase occurrence
probability of new settlers to a new area, meanwhile, roads accumulate
the greater propagule pressure and favourable survival condition
during operation phase. As a result, more species, including native and
alien plants, non- halophyte and halophyte species, threatened and
cosmopolitic species, were found prosperous at roadside. Roadside
may be a refuge for more species, and the pattern of vegetation
distribution is affected by road age and the distance from road verge.