Abstract: An algorithm for learning an overcomplete dictionary
using a Cauchy mixture model for sparse decomposition of an underdetermined
mixing system is introduced. The mixture density
function is derived from a ratio sample of the observed mixture
signals where 1) there are at least two but not necessarily more
mixture signals observed, 2) the source signals are statistically
independent and 3) the sources are sparse. The basis vectors of the
dictionary are learned via the optimization of the location parameters
of the Cauchy mixture components, which is shown to be more
accurate and robust than the conventional data mining methods
usually employed for this task. Using a well known sparse
decomposition algorithm, we extract three speech signals from two
mixtures based on the estimated dictionary. Further tests with
additive Gaussian noise are used to demonstrate the proposed
algorithm-s robustness to outliers.
Abstract: Performance management seems to be essential in
business area and is also an exciting topic. Despite significant and
myriads of research efforts, performance management guide today as a
rigorous approach is still in an immature state and metrics are often
selected based on intuitive and heuristic approach. In R&D side, the
difficulty to guide the proper performance management is even more
increasing due to the natural characteristics of R&D such as unique or
domain-specific problems. In our approach, we present R&D
performance management guide considering various characteristics of
R&D side: performance evaluation objectives, dimensions, metrics,
and uncertainties of R&D sector.
Abstract: During last decades, worldwide researchers dedicated
efforts to develop machine-based seismic Early Warning systems,
aiming at reducing the huge human losses and economic damages.
The elaboration time of seismic waveforms is to be reduced in order
to increase the time interval available for the activation of safety
measures. This paper suggests a Data Mining model able to correctly
and quickly estimate dangerousness of the running seismic event.
Several thousand seismic recordings of Japanese and Italian
earthquakes were analyzed and a model was obtained by means of a
Bayesian Network (BN), which was tested just over the first
recordings of seismic events in order to reduce the decision time and
the test results were very satisfactory.
The model was integrated within an Early Warning System
prototype able to collect and elaborate data from a seismic sensor
network, estimate the dangerousness of the running earthquake and
take the decision of activating the warning promptly.
Abstract: Management is required to understand all information security risks within an organization, and to make decisions on which information security risks should be treated in what level by allocating how much amount of cost. However, such decision-making is not usually easy, because various measures for risk treatment must be selected with the suitable application levels. In addition, some measures may have objectives conflicting with each other. It also makes the selection difficult. Therefore, this paper provides a model which supports the selection of measures by applying multi-objective analysis to find an optimal solution. Additionally, a list of measures is also provided to make the selection easier and more effective without any leakage of measures.
Abstract: As the latest advancement and trend in IT field, Green
& Smart IT has attracted more and more attentions from researchers.
This study focuses on the development of assessing tools which can be
used for evaluating Green & Smart IT level within an organization. In
order to achieve meaningful results, a comprehensive review of
relevant literature was performed in advance, then, Delphi survey and
other processes were also employed to develop the assessment tools
for Green & Smart IT level. Two rounds of Delphi questionnaire
survey were conducted with 20 IT experts in public sector. The results
reveal that the top five weighted KPIs to evaluate maturity of Green &
Smart IT were: (1) electronic execution of business process; (2)
shutdown of unused IT devices; (3) virtualization of severs; (4)
automation of constant temperature and humidity; and (5) introduction
of smart-work system. Finally, these tools were applied to case study
of a public research institute in Korea. The findings presented in this
study provide organizations with useful implications for the
introduction and promotion of Green & Smart IT in the future
Abstract: The need for reputation assessment is particularly strong in peer-to-peer (P2P) systems because the peers' personal site autonomy is amplified by the inherent technological decentralization of the environment. However, the decentralization notion makes the problem of designing a peer-to-peer based reputation assessment substantially harder in P2P networks than in centralized settings.Existing reputation systems tackle the reputation assessment process in an ad-hoc manner. There is no systematic and coherent way to derive measures and analyze the current reputation systems. In this paper, we propose a reputation assessment process and use it to classify the existing reputation systems. Simulation experiments are conducted and focused on the different methods in selecting the recommendation sources and retrieving the recommendations. These two phases can contribute significantly to the overall performance due to communication cost and coverage.
Abstract: The automatic discrimination of seismic signals is an important practical goal for earth-science observatories due to the large amount of information that they receive continuously. An essential discrimination task is to allocate the incoming signal to a group associated with the kind of physical phenomena producing it. In this paper, two classes of seismic signals recorded routinely in geophysical laboratory of the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research in Morocco are considered. They correspond to signals associated to local earthquakes and chemical explosions. The approach adopted for the development of an automatic discrimination system is a modular system composed by three blocs: 1) Representation, 2) Dimensionality reduction and 3) Classification. The originality of our work consists in the use of a new wavelet called "modified Mexican hat wavelet" in the representation stage. For the dimensionality reduction, we propose a new algorithm based on the random projection and the principal component analysis.
Abstract: Grid scheduling is the process of mapping grid jobs to resources over multiple administrative domains. Traditionally, application-level schedulers have been tightly integrated with the application itself and were not easily applied to other applications. This design is generic that decouples the scheduler core (the search procedure) from the application-specific (e.g. application performance models) and platform-specific (e.g. collection of resource information) components used by the search procedure. In this decoupled approach the application details are not revealed completely to broker, but customer will give the application to resource provider for execution. In a decoupled approach, apart from scheduling, the resource selection can be performed independently in order to achieve scalability.
Abstract: To simulate heating systems in buildings, a research oriented computer code has been developed in Sharif University of Technology in Iran where the climate, existing heating equipment in buildings, consumer behavior and their interactions are considered for simulating energy consumption in conventional systems such as heaters, radiators and fan-coils. In order to validate the computer code, the available data of five buildings was used and the computed consumed energy was compared with the estimated energy extracted from monthly bills. The initial heating system was replaced by the alternative system and the effect of this change was observed on the energy consumption. As a result, the effect of changing heating equipment on energy consumption was investigated in different climates. Changing heater to radiator renders energy conservation up to 50% in all climates and changing radiator to fan-coil decreases energy consumption in climates with cold and dry winter.
Abstract: The information systems with incomplete attribute
values and fuzzy decisions commonly exist in practical problems. On
the base of the notion of variable precision rough set model for
incomplete information system and the rough set model for
incomplete and fuzzy decision information system, the variable rough
set model for incomplete and fuzzy decision information system is
constructed, which is the generalization of the variable precision
rough set model for incomplete information system and that of rough
set model for incomplete and fuzzy decision information system. The
knowledge reduction and heuristic algorithm, built on the method and
theory of precision reduction, are proposed.
Abstract: This study reports the preparation of soft magnetic
ribbons of Fe-based amorphous alloys using the single-roller melt-spinning technique. Ribbon width varied from 142 mm to 213
mm and, with a thickness of approximately 22 μm ± 2 μm. The microstructure and magnetic properties of the ribbons were
characterized by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and electrical resistivity measurements (ERM). The amorphous material
properties dependence of the cooling rate and nozzle pressure have uneven surface in ribbon thicknesses are investigated. Magnetic
measurement results indicate that some region of the ribbon exhibits good magnetic properties, higher saturation induction and lower coercivity. However, due to the uneven surface of 213 mm wide
ribbon, the magnetic responses are not uniformly distributed. To
understand the transformer magnetic performances, this study analyzes the measurements of a three-phase 2 MVA amorphous-cored transformer. Experimental results confirm that the transformer with a
ribbon width of 142 mm has better magnetic properties in terms of lower core loss, exciting power, and audible noise.
Abstract: The neurogenic potential of many herbal extracts used
in Indian medicine is hitherto unknown. Extracts derived from
Clitoria ternatea Linn have been used in Indian Ayurvedic system of
medicine as an ingredient of “Medhya rasayana", consumed for
improving memory and longevity in humans and also in treatment of
various neurological disorders. Our earlier experimental studies with
oral intubation of Clitoria ternatea aqueous root extract (CTR) had
shown significant enhancement of learning and memory in postnatal
and young adult Wistar rats. The present study was designed to
elucidate the in vitro effects of 200ng/ml of CTR on proliferation,
differentiation and growth of anterior subventricular zone neural
stem cells (aSVZ NSC-s) derived from prenatal and postnatal rat
pups. Results show significant increase in proliferation and growth of
neurospheres and increase in the yield of differentiated neurons of
aSVZ neural precursor cells (aSVZNPC-s) at 7 days in vitro when
treated with 200ng/ml of CTR as compared to age matched control.
Results indicate that CTR has growth promoting neurogenic effect on
aSVZ neural stem cells and their survival similar to neurotrophic
factors like Survivin, Neuregulin 1, FGF-2, BDNF possibly the basis
for enhanced learning and memory.
Abstract: Hair is a non homogenous complex material which
can be associated with a polymer. It is made up 95% of Keratin.
Hair has a great social significance for human beings. In the High
Middle Ages, for example, long hairs have been reserved for kings
and nobles.
Most common interest in hair is focused on hair growth, hair types
and hair care, but hair is also an important biomaterial which can
vary depending on ethnic origin or on age, hair colour for example
can be a sign of ethnic ancestry or age (dark hair for Asiatic, blond
hair for Caucasian and white hair for old people in general).
In this context, different approaches have been conducted to
determine the differences in mechanical properties and characterize
the fracture topography at the surface of hair depending on its type
and its age.
A tensile testing machine was especially designed to achieve
tensile tests on hair. This device is composed of a microdisplacement
system and a force sensor whose peak load is limited to
3N. The curves and the values extracted from each experiment, allow
us to compare the evolution of the mechanical properties from one
hair to another.
Observations with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and
with an interferometer were made on different hairs. Thus, it is
possible to access the cuticle state and the fracture topography for
each category.
Abstract: Fractional Fourier Transform, which is a
generalization of the classical Fourier Transform, is a powerful tool
for the analysis of transient signals. The discrete Fractional Fourier
Transform Hamiltonians have been proposed in the past with varying
degrees of correlation between their eigenvectors and Hermite
Gaussian functions. In this paper, we propose a new Hamiltonian for
the discrete Fractional Fourier Transform and show that the
eigenvectors of the proposed matrix has a higher degree of
correlation with the Hermite Gaussian functions. Also, the proposed
matrix is shown to give better Fractional Fourier responses with
various transform orders for different signals.
Abstract: This paper reports the study results on neural network
training algorithm of numerical optimization techniques multiface
detection in static images. The training algorithms involved are scale
gradient conjugate backpropagation, conjugate gradient
backpropagation with Polak-Riebre updates, conjugate gradient
backpropagation with Fletcher-Reeves updates, one secant
backpropagation and resilent backpropagation. The final result of
each training algorithms for multiface detection application will also
be discussed and compared.
Abstract: The Post colonial society in India has witnessed the turmoil to come out from the widespread control and influence of colonialism. The socio-cultural life of a society with all its dynamics is reflected in realistic forms of literature. The social events and human experience are drawn into a new creative form and are given to the reader as a new understanding and perspective of life. It enables the reader to understand the essence of life and motivates him to prepare for a positive change. After India becoming free from the colonial rule in 1947, systematic efforts were made by central and state governments and institutions to limit the role of English and simultaneously enlarge the function of Indian languages by planning in a strategic manner. The eighteen languages recognized as national languages are having very rich literatures. Telugu language is one among the Dravidian language family and is widely spoken by a majority of people. The post colonial socio-cultural factors were very well reflected in Telugu literature. The anti-colonial, reform oriented, progressive, post modernistic trends in Telugu literature are nothing but creative reflections of the post colonial society. This paper examines the major socio-cultural reflections in Telugu literature of the post colonial period.
Abstract: Usually, the solid-fuel flow of an iron ore sinter plant
consists of different types of the solid-fuels, which differ from each
other. Information about the composition of the solid-fuel flow
usually comes every 8-24 hours. It can be clearly seen that this
information cannot be used to control the sintering process in real
time. Due to this, we propose an expert system which uses indirect
measurements from the process in order to obtain the composition of
the solid-fuel flow by solving an optimization task. Then this
information can be used to control the sintering process. The
proposed technique can be successfully used to improve sinter
quality and reduce the amount of solid-fuel used by the process.
Abstract: In two studies we challenged the well consolidated
position in regret literature according to which the necessary
condition for the emergence of regret is a bad outcome ensuing from
free decisions. Without free choice, and, consequently, personal
responsibility, other emotions, such as disappointment, but not regret,
are supposed to be elicited. In our opinion, a main source of regret is
being obliged by circumstance out of our control to chose an
undesired option. We tested the hypothesis that regret resulting from
a forced choice is more intense than regret derived from a free choice
and that the outcome affects the latter, not the former. Besides, we
investigated whether two other variables – the perception of the level
of freedom of the choice and the choice justifiability – mediated the
relationships between choice and regret, as well as the other four
emotions we examined: satisfaction, anger toward oneself,
disappointment, anger towards circumstances. The two studies were
based on the scenario methodology and implied a 2 x 2 (choice x
outcome) between design. In the first study the foreseen short-term
effects of the choice were assessed; in the second study the
experienced long-term effects of the choice were assessed. In each
study 160 students of the Second University of Naples participated.
Results largely corroborated our hypotheses. They were discussed in
the light of the main theories on regret and decision making.
Abstract: This study retrospectively investigated the significance of whole body CT (WCT) for patients with sepsis. A medical chart review was retrospectively performed for all patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome that were treated initially between April 2011 and March 2012. The subjects were divided into a WCT group that underwent WCT on arrival and a control group. Results of this study suggested that WCT for sepsis was useful for elderly patients whose chief complaint or physiological findings could not suggest the anatomical site of infection, to determine the infectious focus and indications/method for surgery, to diagnose the basic diseases associated with opportunistic infections and to evaluate complicated diseases
Abstract: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) viewpoint have challenged the traditional perception to understand corporations position. Production- and managerial-centred views are expanding towards reference group-centred policies. Consequently, the significance of new kind of knowledge has emerged. In addition to management of the organisation, the idea of CSR emphasises the importance to recognise the value-expectations of operational environment. It is know that management is often well-aware of corporate social responsibilities, but it is less clear how well these high level goals are understood in practical product design and development work. In this study, the apprehension above proved to be real to some degree. While management was very aware of CSR it was less familiar to designers. The outcome shows that it is essential to raise ethical values and issues higher in corporate communication, if it is wished that they materialize also in products.