Abstract: Speech Segmentation is the measure of the change
point detection for partitioning an input speech signal into regions
each of which accords to only one speaker. In this paper, we apply
two features based on multi-scale product (MP) of the clean speech,
namely the spectral centroid of MP, and the zero crossings rate of
MP. We focus on multi-scale product analysis as an important tool
for segmentation extraction. The MP is based on making the product
of the speech wavelet transform coefficients (WTC). We have
estimated our method on the Keele database. The results show the
effectiveness of our method. It indicates that the two features can find
word boundaries, and extracted the segments of the clean speech.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the
laser and partial vibration stimulation on the mice tibia with
morphological characteristics. Twenty female C57BL/6 mice (12
weeks old) were used for the experiment. The study was carried out on
four groups of animals each consisting of five mice. Four groups of
mice were ovariectomized. Animals were scanned at 0 and 2 weeks
after ovariectomy by using micro computed tomography to estimate
morphological characteristics of tibial trabecular bone. Morphological
analysis showed that structural parameters of multi-stimuli group
appear significantly better phase in BV/TV, BS/BV, Tb.Th, Tb.N,
Tb.Sp, and Tb.pf than single stimulation groups. However, single
stimulation groups didn’t show significant effect on tibia with Sham
group. This study suggests that multi-stimuli may restrain the change
as the degenerate phase on osteoporosis in the mice tibia.
Abstract: Geometric and mechanical properties all influence the
resistance of RC structures and may, in certain combination of
property values, increase the risk of a brittle failure of the whole
system.
This paper presents a statistical and probabilistic investigation on
the resistance of RC beams designed according to Eurocodes 2 and 8,
and subjected to multiple failure modes, under both the natural
variation of material properties and the uncertainty associated with
cross-section and transverse reinforcement geometry. A full
probabilistic model based on JCSS Probabilistic Model Code is
derived. Different beams are studied through material nonlinear
analysis via Monte Carlo simulations. The resistance model is
consistent with Eurocode 2. Both a multivariate statistical evaluation
and the data clustering analysis of outcomes are then performed.
Results show that the ultimate load behaviour of RC beams
subjected to flexural and shear failure modes seems to be mainly
influenced by the combination of the mechanical properties of both
longitudinal reinforcement and stirrups, and the tensile strength of
concrete, of which the latter appears to affect the overall response of
the system in a nonlinear way. The model uncertainty of the
resistance model used in the analysis plays undoubtedly an important
role in interpreting results.
Abstract: These days, the field of tissue engineering is getting
serious attention due to its usefulness. Bone tissue engineering helps
to address and sort-out the critical sized and non-healing orthopedic
problems by the creation of manmade bone tissue. We will design
and validate an efficient numerical model, which will simulate the
effective diffusivity in bone tissue engineering. Our numerical model
will be based on the finite element analysis of the diffusion-reaction
equations. It will have the ability to optimize the diffusivity, even
at multi-scale, with the variation of time. It will also have a special
feature “parametric sweep”, with which we will be able to predict
the oxygen, glucose and cell density dynamics, more accurately. We
will fix these problems by modifying the governing equations, by
selecting appropriate spatio-temporal finite element schemes and by
transient analysis.
Abstract: The well been of human beings on construction site is
very important, many man power had been lost through accidents
which kills or make workers physically unfit to carry out construction
activities, these in turn have multiple effects on the whole economy.
Thus it is necessary to put all safety items and regulations in place
before construction activities can commence. This study was carried
out in Ondo state of Nigeria to known and analyse the state of health
and safety of construction workers in the state. The study was done
using first hand observation method, 50 construction project sites
were visited in 10 major towns of Ondo state, questionnaires were
distributed and the results were analysed. The result show that
construction workers are being exposed to a lot of construction site
hazards due to lack of inadequate safety programmes and nonprovision
of appropriate safety materials for workers on site. From the
data gotten for each site visited and the statistical analysis, it can be
concluded that occurrence of accident on construction sites depends
significantly on the available safety facilities on the sites. The result of
the regression statistics show that the level of significant of the
dependence of occurrence of accident on the availability of safety
items on site is 0.0362 which is less than 0.05 maximum significant
level required. Therefore a vital way of sustaining our building
strategy is by given a detail attention to provision of adequate health
and safety items on construction sites which will reduce the
occurrence of accident, loss of man power and death of skilled
workers among others.
Abstract: Modern low earth orbit (LEO) satellites that require multi-mission flexibility are highly likely to be repositioned between different operational orbits. While executing this process the satellite may experience high levels of vibration and environmental hazards, exposing the deployed solar panel to dangerous stress levels, fatigue and space debris, hence it is desirable to retract the solar array before satellite repositioning to avoid damage or failure.
A novel concept of deployable/retractable hybrid solar array systemcomposed of both rigid and flexible solar panels arranged within a petal formation, aimed to provide a greater power to volume ratio while dramatically reducing mass and cost is proposed.
Abstract: In this paper, the improvement by deconvolution of
the depth resolution in Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS)
analysis is considered. Indeed, we have developed a new Tikhonov-
Miller deconvolution algorithm where a priori model of the solution
is included. This is a denoisy and pre-deconvoluted signal obtained
from: firstly, by the application of wavelet shrinkage algorithm,
secondly by the introduction of the obtained denoisy signal in an
iterative deconvolution algorithm. In particular, we have focused the
light on the effect of the iterations number on the evolution of the
deconvoluted signals. The SIMS profiles are multilayers of Boron in
Silicon matrix.
Abstract: The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred at 14:46 on Friday, March 11, 2011. It was the most powerful known earthquake to have hit Japan. The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 40.5 meters in height. We focus on the ship’s evacuation from tsunami. Then we analyze about ships evacuation from tsunami using multi-agent simulation and we want to prepare for a coming earthquake. We developed a simulation model of ships that set sail from the port in order to evacuate from the tsunami considering the ship carrying dangerous goods.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to forecast the influences
of information and communication technology (ICT) on the structural
changes of Japanese economies. In this study, input-output (IO) and
statistical approaches are used as analysis instruments. More
specifically, this study employs Leontief IO coefficients and
constrained multivariate regression (CMR) model in order to achieve
the purpose. The periods of initial and forecast in this study are 2005
and 2015, respectively. In this study, ICT is represented by ICT capital
stocks. This study conducts two levels of analysis, namely macro and
micro. The results of macro level analysis show that the dynamics of
Japanese economies on the forecast period, relative to the initial period,
are not so high. We focus on (1) commerce, (2) business services and
office supplies, and (3) personal services sectors when conducting the
analysis of the micro level. Further, we analyze its specific IO
coefficients when doing this analysis. The results of the analysis
explain that ICT gives a strong influence on the changes of these
coefficients from initial to forecast periods.
Abstract: In this paper we describe one critical research
program within a complex, ongoing multi-year project (2010 to 2014
inclusive) with the overall goal to improve the learning outcomes for
first year undergraduate commerce/business students within an
Information Systems (IS) subject with very large enrolment. The
single research program described in this paper is the analysis of
student attitudes and decision making in relation to the availability of
formative assessment feedback via Web-based real time conferencing
and document exchange software (Adobe Connect). The formative
assessment feedback between teaching staff and students is in respect
of an authentic problem-based, team-completed assignment. The
analysis of student attitudes and decision making is investigated via
both qualitative (firstly) and quantitative (secondly) application of the
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) with a two statistically-significant
and separate trial samples of the enrolled students. The initial
qualitative TPB investigation revealed that perceived self-efficacy,
improved time-management, and lecturer-student relationship
building were the major factors in shaping an overall favorable
student attitude to online feedback, whilst some students expressed
valid concerns with perceived control limitations identified within the
online feedback protocols. The subsequent quantitative TPB
investigation then confirmed that attitude towards usage, subjective
norms surrounding usage, and perceived behavioral control of usage
were all significant in shaping student intention to use the online
feedback protocol, with these three variables explaining 63 percent of
the variance in the behavioral intention to use the online feedback
protocol. The identification in this research of perceived behavioral
control as a significant determinant in student usage of a specific
technology component within a virtual learning environment (VLE)
suggests that VLEs could now be viewed not as a single, atomic
entity, but as a spectrum of technology offerings ranging from the
mature and simple (e.g., email, Web downloads) to the cutting-edge
and challenging (e.g., Web conferencing and real-time document
exchange). That is, that all VLEs should not be considered the same.
The results of this research suggest that tertiary students have the
technological sophistication to assess a VLE in this more selective
manner.
Abstract: Fast changing knowledge systems on the Internet can
be accessed more efficiently with the help of automatic document
summarization and updating techniques. The aim of multi-document
update summary generation is to construct a summary unfolding the
mainstream of data from a collection of documents based on the
hypothesis that the user has already read a set of previous documents.
In order to provide a lot of semantic information from the documents,
deeper linguistic or semantic analysis of the source documents were
used instead of relying only on document word frequencies to select
important concepts. In order to produce a responsive summary,
meaning oriented structural analysis is needed. To address this issue,
the proposed system presents a document summarization approach
based on sentence annotation with aspects, prepositions and named
entities. Semantic element extraction strategy is used to select
important concepts from documents which are used to generate
enhanced semantic summary.
Abstract: VACTERL association is a rare disorder with various
congenital malformations. The aetiology remains unknown.
Combination of at least three congenital anomalies of the following
criteria is required for diagnosis: vertebral defects, anal atresia,
cardiac anomalies, tracheo-esophageal fistula, renal anomalies, and
limb defects. The first case was 1-day old male neonate with multiple
congenital anomalies was bore from 28 years old mother. The mother
had history of pregnancy with lymphocyte therapy. His anomalies
included: defects in thoracic and lumbar vertebral, anal atresia,
bilateral hydronephrosis, atrial septal defect, and lower limb
abnormality. Other anomalies were cryptorchidism and nasal canal
narrowing. The second case was born with 32 weeks gestational age
from mother with history of pregnancy with lymphocyte therapy. He
had thoracic vertebral defect, cardiac anomalies and renal defect.
diagnosis based on clinical finding is VACTERL association. Early
diagnosis is very important to investigation and treatment of other
coexistence anomalies. VACTERL association in mothers with
history of pregnancy with lymphocyte therapy has suggested possibly
of relationship between VACTERL association and this method of
pregnancy.
Abstract: The increasing demand of gallium, indium and
rare-earth elements for the production of electronics, e.g. solid
state-lighting, photovoltaics, integrated circuits, and liquid crystal
displays, will exceed the world-wide supply according to current
forecasts. Recycling systems to reclaim these materials are not yet in
place, which challenges the sustainability of these technologies. This
paper proposes a multispectral imaging system as a basis for a vision
based recognition system for valuable components of electronics
waste. Multispectral images intend to enhance the contrast of images
of printed circuit boards (single components, as well as labels) for
further analysis, such as optical character recognition and entire
printed circuit board recognition. The results show, that a higher
contrast is achieved in the near infrared compared to ultraviolett and
visible light.
Abstract: Clustering involves the partitioning of n objects into k
clusters. Many clustering algorithms use hard-partitioning techniques
where each object is assigned to one cluster. In this paper we propose
an overlapping algorithm MCOKE which allows objects to belong to
one or more clusters. The algorithm is different from fuzzy clustering
techniques because objects that overlap are assigned a membership
value of 1 (one) as opposed to a fuzzy membership degree. The
algorithm is also different from other overlapping algorithms that
require a similarity threshold be defined a priori which can be
difficult to determine by novice users.
Abstract: Water contamination by toxic compound is one of the serious environmental problems today. These toxic compounds mostly originated from industrial effluents, agriculture, natural sources and human waste. These studies focus on modification of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) with nanoparticle of calixarene and explore the possibility of using this modification for the remediation of cadmium in water. The nanocomposites were prepared by dissolving calixarene in chloroform solution as solvent, followed by additional multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) then sonication process for 3 hour and fabricated the nanocomposites on substrate by spin coating method. Finally, the nanocomposites were tested on cadmium ion (10 mg/ml). The morphology of nanocomposites was investigated by FESEM showing the formation of calixarene on the outer walls of carbon nanotube and cadmium ion also clearly seen from the micrograph. This formation was supported by using energy dispersive x-ray (EDX). The presence of cadmium ions in the films, leads to some changes in the surface potential and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).The nanocomposites MWCNTs-calixarene have potential for development of sensor for pollutant monitoring and nanoelectronics devices applications.
Abstract: High Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) of the
transmitted signal is a serious problem in multicarrier systems (MC),
such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), or in
Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) systems,
due to large number of subcarriers. This effect is possible reduce with
some PAPR reduction techniques. Spreading sequences at the
presence of Saleh and Rapp models of high power amplifier (HPA)
have big influence on the behavior of system. In this paper we
investigate the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of MC-CDMA
systems. Basically we can see from simulations that the MC-CDMA
system with Iterative algorithm can be providing significantly better
results than the MC-CDMA system. The results of our analyses are
verified via simulation.
Abstract: Iris codes contain bits with different entropy. This
work investigates different strategies to reduce the size of iris
code templates with the aim of reducing storage requirements and
computational demand in the matching process. Besides simple subsampling
schemes, also a binary multi-resolution representation as
used in the JBIG hierarchical coding mode is assessed. We find that
iris code template size can be reduced significantly while maintaining
recognition accuracy. Besides, we propose a two-stage identification
approach, using small-sized iris code templates in a pre-selection
stage, and full resolution templates for final identification, which
shows promising recognition behaviour.
Abstract: Many organizations bring e-Learning to use as a tool
in their training and human development department. It is getting
more popular because it is easy to access to get knowledge all the
time and also it provides a rich content, which can develop the
employees’ skill efficiently. This study is focused on the factors that
affect using e-Learning efficiently, so it will make job satisfaction
increasing. The questionnaires were sent to employees in large
commercial banks, which use e-Learning located in Bangkok, the
results from multiple linear regression analysis showed that
employee’s characteristics, characteristics of e-Learning, learning and
growth have influence on job satisfaction.
Abstract: This paper introduces novel approaches to partitioning
and mapping in terms of model-based embedded multicore system
engineering and further discusses benefits, industrial relevance and
features in common with existing approaches. In order to assess
and evaluate results, both approaches have been applied to a real
industrial application as well as to various prototypical demonstrative
applications, that have been developed and implemented for
different purposes. Evaluations show, that such applications improve
significantly according to performance, energy efficiency, meeting
timing constraints and covering maintaining issues by using
the AMALTHEA platform and the implemented approaches.
Furthermore, the model-based design provides an open, expandable,
platform independent and scalable exchange format between
OEMs, suppliers and developers on different levels. Our proposed
mechanisms provide meaningful multicore system utilization since
load balancing by means of partitioning and mapping is effectively
performed with regard to the modeled systems including hardware,
software, operating system, scheduling, constraints, configuration and
more data.
Abstract: Bacterial strains capable of degradation of malathion
from the domestic sewage were isolated by an enrichment culture
technique. Three bacterial strains were screened and identified as
Acinetobacter baumannii (AFA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PS1),
and Pseudomonas mendocina (PS2) based on morphological,
biochemical identification and 16S rRNA sequence analysis.
Acinetobacter baumannii AFA was the most efficient malathion
degrading bacterium, so used for further biodegradation study. AFA
was able to grow in mineral salt medium (MSM) supplemented with
malathion (100 mg/l) as a sole carbon source, and within 14 days,
84% of the initial dose was degraded by the isolate measured by high
performance liquid chromatography. Strain AFA could also degrade
other organophosphorus compounds including diazinon, chlorpyrifos
and fenitrothion. The effect of different culture conditions on the
degradation of malathion like inoculum density, other carbon or
nitrogen sources, temperature and shaking were examined.
Degradation of malathion and bacterial cell growth were accelerated
when culture media were supplemented with yeast extract, glucose
and citrate. The optimum conditions for malathion degradation by
strain AFA were; an inoculum density of 1.5x 10^12CFU/ml at 30°C
with shaking. A specific polymerase chain reaction primers were
designed manually using multiple sequence alignment of the
corresponding carboxylesterase enzymes of Acinetobacter species.
Sequencing result of amplified PCR product and phylogenetic
analysis showed low degree of homology with the other
carboxylesterase enzymes of Acinetobacter strains, so we suggested
that this enzyme is a novel esterase enzyme. Isolated bacterial strains
may have potential role for use in bioremediation of malathion
contaminated.