Abstract: In mobile environments, unspecified numbers of transactions
arrive in continuous streams. To prove correctness of their
concurrent execution a method of modelling an infinite number of
transactions is needed. Standard database techniques model fixed
finite schedules of transactions. Lately, techniques based on temporal
logic have been proposed as suitable for modelling infinite schedules.
The drawback of these techniques is that proving the basic
serializability correctness condition is impractical, as encoding (the
absence of) conflict cyclicity within large sets of transactions results
in prohibitively large temporal logic formulae. In this paper, we show
that, under certain common assumptions on the graph structure of
data items accessed by the transactions, conflict cyclicity need only
be checked within all possible pairs of transactions. This results in
formulae of considerably reduced size in any temporal-logic-based
approach to proving serializability, and scales to arbitrary numbers
of transactions.
Abstract: This paper describes an automatic algorithm to restore
the shape of three-dimensional (3D) left ventricle (LV) models created
from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data using a geometry-driven
optimization approach. Our basic premise is to restore the LV shape
such that the LV epicardial surface is smooth after the restoration. A
geometrical measure known as the Minimum Principle Curvature (κ2)
is used to assess the smoothness of the LV. This measure is used to
construct the objective function of a two-step optimization process.
The objective of the optimization is to achieve a smooth epicardial
shape by iterative in-plane translation of the MRI slices.
Quantitatively, this yields a minimum sum in terms of the magnitude
of κ
2, when κ2 is negative. A limited memory quasi-Newton algorithm,
L-BFGS-B, is used to solve the optimization problem. We tested our
algorithm on an in vitro theoretical LV model and 10 in vivo
patient-specific models which contain significant motion artifacts. The
results show that our method is able to automatically restore the shape
of LV models back to smoothness without altering the general shape of
the model. The magnitudes of in-plane translations are also consistent
with existing registration techniques and experimental findings.
Abstract: The aim of this research is to design a collaborative
framework that integrates risk analysis activities into the geospatial
database design (GDD) process. Risk analysis is rarely undertaken
iteratively as part of the present GDD methods in conformance to
requirement engineering (RE) guidelines and risk standards.
Accordingly, when risk analysis is performed during the GDD, some
foreseeable risks may be overlooked and not reach the output
specifications especially when user intentions are not systematically
collected. This may lead to ill-defined requirements and ultimately in
higher risks of geospatial data misuse. The adopted approach consists
of 1) reviewing risk analysis process within the scope of RE and
GDD, 2) analyzing the challenges of risk analysis within the context
of GDD, and 3) presenting the components of a risk-based
collaborative framework that improves the collection of the
intended/forbidden usages of the data and helps geo-IT experts to
discover implicit requirements and risks.
Abstract: The statistical distributions are modeled in explaining
nature of various types of data sets. Although these distributions are
mostly uni-modal, it is quite common to see multiple modes in the
observed distribution of the underlying variables, which make the
precise modeling unrealistic. The observed data do not exhibit
smoothness not necessarily due to randomness, but could also be due
to non-randomness resulting in zigzag curves, oscillations, humps
etc. The present paper argues that trigonometric functions, which
have not been used in probability functions of distributions so far,
have the potential to take care of this, if incorporated in the
distribution appropriately. A simple distribution (named as, Sinoform
Distribution), involving trigonometric functions, is illustrated in the
paper with a data set. The importance of trigonometric functions is
demonstrated in the paper, which have the characteristics to make
statistical distributions exotic. It is possible to have multiple modes,
oscillations and zigzag curves in the density, which could be suitable
to explain the underlying nature of select data set.
Abstract: There are many approaches proposed for solving
Sudoku puzzles. One of them is by modelling the puzzles as block
world problems. There have been three model for Sudoku solvers
based on this approach. Each model expresses Sudoku solver as
a parameterized multi agent systems. In this work, we propose a
new model which is an improvement over the existing models. This
paper presents the development of a Sudoku solver that implements
all the proposed models. Some experiments have been conducted to
determine the performance of each model.
Abstract: In this work, we developed the concept of
supercompression, i.e., compression above the compression standard
used. In this context, both compression rates are multiplied. In fact,
supercompression is based on super-resolution. That is to say,
supercompression is a data compression technique that superpose
spatial image compression on top of bit-per-pixel compression to
achieve very high compression ratios. If the compression ratio is very
high, then we use a convolutive mask inside decoder that restores the
edges, eliminating the blur. Finally, both, the encoder and the
complete decoder are implemented on General-Purpose computation
on Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU) cards. Specifically, the
mentio-ned mask is coded inside texture memory of a GPGPU.
Abstract: This paper is intended to assist anyone with some general technical experience, but perhaps limited specific knowledge of heat transfer equipment. A characteristic of heat exchanger design is the procedure of specifying a design, heat transfer area and pressure drops and checking whether the assumed design satisfies all requirements or not. The purpose of this paper is how to design the oil cooler (heat exchanger) especially for shell-and-tube heat exchanger which is the majority type of liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger. General design considerations and design procedure are also illustrated in this paper and a flow diagram is provided as an aid of design procedure. In design calculation, the MatLAB and AutoCAD software are used. Fundamental heat transfer concepts and complex relationships involved in such exchanger are also presented in this paper. The primary aim of this design is to obtain a high heat transfer rate without exceeding the allowable pressure drop. This computer program is highly useful to design the shell-and-tube type heat exchanger and to modify existing deign.
Abstract: Recently, various services such as television and the
Internet have come to be received through various terminals.
However, we could gain greater convenience by receiving these
services through cellular phone terminals when we go out and then
continuing to receive the same services through a large screen digital
television after we have come home. However, it is necessary to go
through the same authentication processing again when using TVs
after we have come home. In this study, we have developed an
authentication method that enables users to switch terminals in
environments in which the user receives service from a server through
a terminal. Specifically, the method simplifies the authentication of
the server side when switching from one terminal to another terminal
by using previously authenticated information.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a fully-utilized, block-based 2D DWT (discrete wavelet transform) architecture, which consists of four 1D DWT filters with two-channel QMF lattice structure. The proposed architecture requires about 2MN-3N registers to save the intermediate results for higher level decomposition, where M and N stand for the filter length and the row width of the image respectively. Furthermore, the proposed 2D DWT processes in horizontal and vertical directions simultaneously without an idle period, so that it computes the DWT for an N×N image in a period of N2(1-2-2J)/3. Compared to the existing approaches, the proposed architecture shows 100% of hardware utilization and high throughput rates. To mitigate the long critical path delay due to the cascaded lattices, we can apply the pipeline technique with four stages, while retaining 100% of hardware utilization. The proposed architecture can be applied in real-time video signal processing.
Abstract: The sensitivity of orifice plate metering to disturbed
flow (either asymmetric or swirling) is a subject of great concern to
flow meter users and manufacturers. The distortions caused by pipe
fittings and pipe installations upstream of the orifice plate are major
sources of this type of non-standard flows. These distortions can alter
the accuracy of metering to an unacceptable degree. In this work, a
multi-scale object known as metal foam has been used to generate a
predetermined turbulent flow upstream of the orifice plate. The
experimental results showed that the combination of an orifice plate
and metal foam flow conditioner is broadly insensitive to upstream
disturbances. This metal foam demonstrated a good performance in
terms of removing swirl and producing a repeatable flow profile
within a short distance downstream of the device. The results of using
a combination of a metal foam flow conditioner and orifice plate for
non-standard flow conditions including swirling flow and asymmetric
flow show this package can preserve the accuracy of metering up to
the level required in the standards.
Abstract: The competitive learning is an adaptive process in
which the neurons in a neural network gradually become sensitive to
different input pattern clusters. The basic idea behind the Kohonen-s
Self-Organizing Feature Maps (SOFM) is competitive learning.
SOFM can generate mappings from high-dimensional signal spaces
to lower dimensional topological structures. The main features of this
kind of mappings are topology preserving, feature mappings and
probability distribution approximation of input patterns. To overcome
some limitations of SOFM, e.g., a fixed number of neural units and a
topology of fixed dimensionality, Growing Self-Organizing Neural
Network (GSONN) can be used. GSONN can change its topological
structure during learning. It grows by learning and shrinks by
forgetting. To speed up the training and convergence, a new variant
of GSONN, twin growing cell structures (TGCS) is presented here.
This paper first gives an introduction to competitive learning, SOFM
and its variants. Then, we discuss some GSONN with fixed
dimensionality, which include growing cell structures, its variants
and the author-s model: TGCS. It is ended with some testing results
comparison and conclusions.
Abstract: The development of entrepreneurial competences of
farmers has been pointed out as a necessary condition for the
modernization of land in facing the phenomenon of globalization.
However, the educational processes involved in such a development
have been studied little, especially in emerging economies. This
research aims to enlighten some of the critical issues behind the early
stages of the transformation of farmers into entrepreneurs, through in
depth interviews with farmers, entrepreneurial promoters and public
officials participating in a public pilot project in Mexico. Although
major impacts were expected only in the long run, important positive
changes in the mind set of farmers and other participants were found
in early stages of the intervention. Apparently, the farmers started a
process of becoming more conscious about the importance of
preserving the aquiferous resources, as well as more market and
entrepreneurial oriented.
Abstract: The condition of lightning surge causes the traveling waves and the temporary increase in voltage in the transmission line system. Lightning is the most harmful for destroying the transmission line and setting devices so it is necessary to study and analyze the temporary increase in voltage for designing and setting the surge arrester. This analysis describes the figure of the lightning wave in transmission line with 115 kV voltage level in Thailand by using ATP/EMTP program to create the model of the transmission line and lightning surge. Because of the limit of this program, it must be calculated for the geometry of the transmission line and surge parameter and calculation in the manual book for the closest value of the parameter. On the other hand, for the effects on surge protector when the lightning comes, the surge arrester model must be right and standardized as metropolitan electrical authority's standard. The candidate compared the real information to the result from calculation, also. The results of the analysis show that the temporary increase in voltage value will be rise to 326.59 kV at the line which is done by lightning when the surge arrester is not set in the system. On the other hand, the temporary increase in voltage value will be 182.83 kV at the line which is done by lightning when the surge arrester is set in the system and the period of the traveling wave is reduced, also. The distance for setting the surge arrester must be as near to the transformer as possible. Moreover, it is necessary to know the right distance for setting the surge arrester and the size of the surge arrester for preventing the temporary increase in voltage, effectively.
Abstract: Amongst the consistently fluctuating conditions
prevailing today, changeability represents a strategic key factor for a
manufacturing company to achieve success on the international
markets. In order to cope with turbulences and the increasing level of
incalculability, not only the flexible design of production systems but
in particular the employee as enabler of change provide the focus
here. It is important to enable employees from manufacturing
companies to participate actively in change events and in change
decisions. To this end, the learning factory has been created, which is
intended to serve the development of change-promoting competences
and the sensitization of employees for the necessity of changes.
Abstract: This paper applies an anthropological approach to illuminate the dynamic cultural geography of Kazakhstani Korean ethnicity focusing on its turning point, the historic “Seoul Olympic Games in 1988." The Korean ethnic group was easily considered as a harmonious and homogeneous community by outsiders, but there existed deep-seated conflicts and hostilities within the ethnic group. The majority-s oppositional dichotomy of superiority and inferiority toward the minority was continuously reorganized and reinforced by difference in experience, memory and sentiment. However, such a chronic exclusive boundary was collapsed following the patriotism ignited by the Olympics held in their mother country. This paper explores the fluidity of subject by formation of the boundary in which constructed cultural differences are continuously essentialized and reproduced, and by dissolution of cultural barrier in certain contexts.
Abstract: A computer model of Quantum Theory (QT) has been
developed by the author. Major goal of the computer model was
support and demonstration of an as large as possible scope of QT.
This includes simulations for the major QT (Gedanken-) experiments
such as, for example, the famous double-slit experiment.
Besides the anticipated difficulties with (1) transforming exacting
mathematics into a computer program, two further types of problems
showed up, namely (2) areas where QT provides a complete mathematical
formalism, but when it comes to concrete applications the
equations are not solvable at all, or only with extremely high effort;
(3) QT rules which are formulated in natural language and which do
not seem to be translatable to precise mathematical expressions, nor
to a computer program.
The paper lists problems in all three categories and describes also
the possible solutions or circumventions developed for the computer
model.
Abstract: Face recognition is a technique to automatically
identify or verify individuals. It receives great attention in
identification, authentication, security and many more applications.
Diverse methods had been proposed for this purpose and also a lot of
comparative studies were performed. However, researchers could not
reach unified conclusion. In this paper, we are reporting an extensive
quantitative accuracy analysis of four most widely used face
recognition algorithms: Principal Component Analysis (PCA),
Independent Component Analysis (ICA), Linear Discriminant
Analysis (LDA) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) using AT&T,
Sheffield and Bangladeshi people face databases under diverse
situations such as illumination, alignment and pose variations.
Abstract: Metallic micro parts are playing an important role in micro-fabrication industry. Recently, we have demonstrated a new deformation mechanism for micro-formability of polycrystalline materials. Different depressed micro-features smaller than the grain size have been successfully fabricated on 6061 aluminum alloy (AA6061) substrates with good fidelity. To further verify this proposed deformation mechanism that grain size is not a limiting factor, we demonstrate here that in addition of depressed features, protruded micro-features on a polycrystalline substrate can similarly be fabricated.
Abstract: Nowadays, under developed countries for progress in
science and technology and decreasing the technologic gap with
developed countries, increasing the capacities and technology
transfer from developed countries. To remain competitive, industry is
continually searching for new methods to evolve their products.
Business model is one of the latest buzzwords in the Internet and
electronic business world. To be successful, organizations must look
into the needs and wants of their customers. This research attempts to
identify a specific feature of the company with a strong competitive
advantage by analyzing the cause of Customer satisfaction. Due to
the rapid development of knowledge and information technology,
business environments have become much more complicated.
Information technology can help a firm aiming to gain a competitive
advantage. This study explores the role and effect of Information
Communication Technology in Business Models and Customer
satisfaction on firms and also relationships between ICTs and
Outsourcing strategic.
Abstract: The unanticipated brittle fracture of connection of the
steel moment resisting frame (SMRF) occurred in 1994 the Northridge
earthquake. Since then, the researches for the vulnerability of
connection of the existing SMRF and for rehabilitation of those
buildings were conducted. This paper suggests performance-based
optimal seismic retrofit technique using connection upgrade. For
optimal design, a multi-objective genetic algorithm(NSGA-II) is used.
One of the two objective functions is to minimize initial cost and
another objective function is to minimize lifetime seismic damages
cost. The optimal algorithm proposed in this paper is performed
satisfying specified performance objective based on FEMA 356. The
nonlinear static analysis is performed for structural seismic
performance evaluation. A numerical example of SAC benchmark
SMRF is provided using the performance-based optimal seismic
retrofit technique proposed in this paper