Abstract: The Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a metaheuristic inspired by the behavior of real ants in their search for the shortest paths to food sources. It has recently attracted a lot of attention and has been successfully applied to a number of different optimization problems. Due to the importance of the feature selection problem and the potential of ACO, this paper presents a novel method that utilizes the ACO algorithm to implement a feature subset search procedure. Initial results obtained using the classification of speech segments are very promising.
Abstract: Water quality and freshwater fish diversity from nine
waterfalls at Khao Luang National Park, Thailand was examined.
Streams were shallow, fast flowing with clear water and rocky and
sandy substrate. The mean water quality of waterfalls at Khao Luang
National Park were as following pH 7.50, air temperature 24.27 °C,
water temperature 26.37 °C, dissolved oxygen 7.88 mg/l, hardness
4.44-21.33 mg/l, alkalinity 3.55-11.88 mg/(as CaCO3). Twenty fish
species were found at Khao Luang National Park belonging to nine
families. A cluster analysis of water quality at Khao Luang National
Park revealed that waterfalls at Khao Luang National Park were
divided into two groups: A and B. Group A composed of two
waterfalls (i.e. Aie Kaew and Wangmaipak) that flew to the Gulf of
Thailand side. Group B composed of seven waterfalls (i.e. Promlok,
Kalom, Nuafa, Suankun, Soidaw, Suanhai, and Thapae) that flew to
the Andaman Sea side (Fig. 2) .The Cyprinids represented the major
species in all the waterfalls comprising of 45%.
Abstract: Political transition of agricultural properties in Poland and the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) after 1989 had
to include not only Reprivatization but also the issue of returning the
properties in kind to their former owners. Restitution in kind applied
in GDR to all forms of ownership which were subject to
expropriation between 1933 and 1989 except for properties taken
over during Soviet occupation in 1945-49. This issue was one of the flashpoints during the process of ownership changes. Privatization,
limited as it was, took place in unequal legal environment where only
one group of owners was privileged. Executing restitution in kind
created a feeling of uncertainty among potential real estate buyers.
Abstract: Government of Indonesia held a certification program to enhance the professionalism of teachers by using portfolio assessment. This research discusses about the effectiveness of certification programs to enhance the professionalism of teacher in Indonesia. Portfolio assessment method has drawbacks. The certified teachers do not show significant performance improvement. Therefore, the government changes the portfolio assessment method to the education and training for teachers.
Abstract: Cities denote instantaneously a challenge and an
opportunity for climate change policy. Cities are the place where
most energy services are needed because urbanization is closely
linked to high population densities and concentration of economic
activities and production (Urban energy demand). Consequently, it is
critical to explain about the role of cities within the world-s energy
systems and its correlation with the climate change issue. With more
than half of the world-s population already living in urban areas, and
that percentage expected to rise to 75 per cent by 2050, it is clear that
the path to sustainable development must pass through cities. Cities
expanding in size and population pose increased challenges to the
environment, of which energy is part as a natural resource, and to the
quality of life. Nowadays, most cities have already understood the
importance of sustainability, both at their local scale as in terms of
their contribution to sustainability at higher geographical scales. It
requires the perception of a city as a complex and dynamic
ecosystem, an open system, or cluster of systems, where the energy
as well as the other natural resources is transformed to satisfy the
needs of the different urban activities. In fact, buildings and
transportation generally represent most of cities direct energy
demand, i.e., between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of the overall
consumption. Buildings, both residential and services are usually
influenced by the local physical and social conditions. In terms of
transport, the energy demand is also strongly linked with the specific
characteristics of a city (urban mobility).The concept of a “smart
city" builds on statistics as seven key axes of a city-s success in
moving towards common platform (brain nerve)of sustainable urban
energy systems.
With the aforesaid knowledge, the authors have suggested a frame
work to role of cities, as energy actors for smart city management.
The authors have discusses the potential elements needed for energy
in smart cities and also identified potential energy actions and
relevant barriers. Furthermore, three levels of city smartness in cities
actions to overcome market /institutional failures with a local
approach are distinguished. The authors have made an attempt to
conceive and implement concepts of city smartness by adopting the
city or local government as nerve center through an integrated
planning approach. Finally, concluding with recommendations for
the organization of the Smart Sustainable Cities for positive changes
of urban India.
Abstract: In this paper, a new cooling system using a nacelle duct
is proposed for the mechanical room in the household refrigerator. The
conventional mechanical room consists of a condenser, a compressor
and an axial fan. The axial fan is mainly responsible for cooling the
condenser and the compressor. The new cooling system is developed
by replacing the axial fan with the nacelle duct including the small
centrifugal fan. The parametric study is carried out to find the optimum
designs of the nacelle duct in terms of performance and efficiency.
Through this study, it is revealed that the new system can reduce the
space, electrical power and noise compared with the conventional
system
Abstract: Nowadays, obtaining traditional statistics and reports
is not adequate for the needs of organizational managers. The
managers need to analyze and to transform the raw data into
knowledge in the world filled with information. Therefore in this
regard various processes have been developed. In the meantime the
artificial intelligence-based processes are used and the new topics
such as business intelligence and knowledge discovery have
emerged. In the current paper it is sought to study the business
intelligence and its applications in the organizations.
Abstract: Micro electromechanical sensors (MEMS) play a vital
role along with global positioning devices in navigation of
autonomous vehicles .These sensors are low cost ,easily available but
depict colored noises and unpredictable discontinuities .Conventional
filters like Kalman filters and Sigma point filters are not able to cope
with nonwhite noises. This research has utilized H∞ filter in nonlinear
frame work both with Kalman filter and Unscented filter for
navigation and self alignment of an airborne vehicle. The system is
simulated for colored noises and discontinuities and results are
compared with not robust nonlinear filters. The results are found
40%-70% more robust against colored noises and discontinuities.
Abstract: This paper discusses on the use of Spline Interpolation
and Mean Square Error (MSE) as tools to process data acquired from
the developed simulator that shall replicate sea bed logging environment.
Sea bed logging (SBL) is a new technique that uses marine
controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) sounding technique and is
proven to be very successful in detecting and characterizing hydrocarbon
reservoirs in deep water area by using resistivity contrasts. It uses
very low frequency of 0.1Hz to 10 Hz to obtain greater wavelength.
In this work the in house built simulator was used and was provided
with predefined parameters and the transmitted frequency was varied
for sediment thickness of 1000m to 4000m for environment with and
without hydrocarbon. From series of simulations, synthetics data were
generated. These data were interpolated using Spline interpolation
technique (degree of three) and mean square error (MSE) were
calculated between original data and interpolated data. Comparisons
were made by studying the trends and relationship between frequency
and sediment thickness based on the MSE calculated. It was found
that the MSE was on increasing trends in the set up that has the
presence of hydrocarbon in the setting than the one without. The MSE
was also on decreasing trends as sediment thickness was increased
and with higher transmitted frequency.
Abstract: Optical 1x12 fused-taper-twisted polymer optical fiber (POF) couplers has been fabricated by a perform technique. Characterization of the coupler which proposed to be used in passive night vision application to tracking a blind sport area was reported. During the development process of fused-taper-twisted POF couplers was carried out, red LED fully utilized to be injected into the couplers to test the quality of fabricated couplers. Some characterization parameters, such as optical output power, POFs attenuation characteristics and power losses on the network were observed. The maximum output power efficiency of the coupler is about 40%, but it can be improved gradually through experience and practice.
Abstract: With the turn of this century, many researchers
started showing interest in Embedded Firewall (EF) implementations.
These are not the usual firewalls that are used as checkpoints at network gateways. They are, rather, applied near those hosts that need protection. Hence by using them, individual or grouped network
components can be protected from the inside as well as from external attacks.
This paper presents a study of EF-s, looking at their architecture and problems. A comparative study assesses how practical each kind is. It particularly focuses on the architecture, weak points, and
portability of each kind. A look at their use by different categories of users is also presented.
Abstract: In order to give high expertise the computer aided
design of mechanical systems involves specific activities focused on
processing two type of information: knowledge and data. Expert rule
based knowledge is generally processing qualitative information and
involves searching for proper solutions and their combination into
synthetic variant. Data processing is based on computational models
and it is supposed to be inter-related with reasoning in the knowledge
processing. In this paper an Intelligent Integrated System is proposed,
for the objective of choosing the adequate material. The software is
developed in Prolog – Flex software and takes into account various
constraints that appear in the accurate operation of gears.
Abstract: Current air conditioning system is using refrigerant as
the cooling medium. The main purpose of this study is to develop an
air conditioning system using chill water as the cooling medium. In
this system, chill water used to replace refrigerant as the cooling
medium. This study is focus on the split type unit air conditioning
system only. It will be involving some renovation on the indoor unit
and freezer. The cooling capability of this system was validate by few
series of testing, which conducted at standard 36m3 office room.
Result of the testing found that 0.1 m3 of chill water is able to
maintain the room temperature within standard up to 4 ~ 8 hours. It
expected able to maintain room temperature up to 10 hour with some
improvement.
Abstract: The mitigation of crop loss due to damaging freezes
requires accurate air temperature prediction models. Previous work
established that the Ward-style artificial neural network (ANN) is a
suitable tool for developing such models. The current research
focused on developing ANN models with reduced average prediction
error by increasing the number of distinct observations used in
training, adding additional input terms that describe the date of an
observation, increasing the duration of prior weather data included in
each observation, and reexamining the number of hidden nodes used
in the network. Models were created to predict air temperature at
hourly intervals from one to 12 hours ahead. Each ANN model,
consisting of a network architecture and set of associated parameters,
was evaluated by instantiating and training 30 networks and
calculating the mean absolute error (MAE) of the resulting networks
for some set of input patterns. The inclusion of seasonal input terms,
up to 24 hours of prior weather information, and a larger number of
processing nodes were some of the improvements that reduced
average prediction error compared to previous research across all
horizons. For example, the four-hour MAE of 1.40°C was 0.20°C, or
12.5%, less than the previous model. Prediction MAEs eight and 12
hours ahead improved by 0.17°C and 0.16°C, respectively,
improvements of 7.4% and 5.9% over the existing model at these
horizons. Networks instantiating the same model but with different
initial random weights often led to different prediction errors. These
results strongly suggest that ANN model developers should consider
instantiating and training multiple networks with different initial
weights to establish preferred model parameters.
Abstract: In this paper, we establish several oscillation criteria for the nonlinear second-order damped delay dynamic equation r(t)|xΔ(t)|β-1xΔ(t)Δ + p(t)|xΔσ(t)|β-1xΔσ(t) + q(t)f(x(τ (t))) = 0 on an arbitrary time scale T, where β > 0 is a constant. Our results generalize and improve some known results in which β > 0 is a quotient of odd positive integers. Some examples are given to illustrate our main results.
Abstract: There is a growing interest in the food industry and in preventive health care for the development and evaluation of natural antioxidants from medicinal plant materials. In the present work, extracts of three medicinal plants (Tilia argentea, Crataegi folium leaves and Polygonum bistorta roots) used in Turkish phytotheraphy were screened for their phenolic profiles and antioxidant properties. Crude extracts were obtained from different parts of plants, by solidliquid extraction with pure water, 70% acetone and 70% methanol aqueous solvents. The antioxidant activity of the extracts was determined by ABTS.+ radical cation scavenging activity. The Folin Ciocalteu procedure was used to assess the total phenolic concentrations of the extracts as gallic acid equivalents. A modified liquid chromatography-electro spray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) was used to obtain chromatographic profiles of the phenolic compounds in the medicinal plants. The predominant phenolic compounds detected in different extracts of the plants were catechin, protocatechuic and chlorogenic acids. The highest phenolic contents were obtained by using 70% acetone as aqueous solvent, whereas the lowest phenolic contents were obtained by water extraction due to Folin Ciocalteu results. The results indicate that acetone extracts of Tilia argentea had the highest antioxidant capacity as free ABTS radical scavengers. The lowest phenolic contents and antioxidant capacities were obtained from Polygonum bistorta root extracts.
Abstract: One of the methods for detecting the target position
error in the laser tracking systems is using Four Quadrant (4Q)
detectors. If the coordinates of the target center is yielded through the
usual relations of the detector outputs, the results will be nonlinear,
dependent on the shape, target size and its position on the detector
screen. In this paper we have designed an algorithm with using
neural network that coordinates of the target center in laser tracking
systems is calculated by using detector outputs obtained from visual
modeling. With this method, the results except from the part related
to the detector intrinsic limitation, are linear and dependent from the
shape and target size.
Abstract: Truncated multiplier is a good candidate for digital
signal processing (DSP) applications including finite impulse
response (FIR) and discrete cosine transform (DCT). Through
truncated multiplier a significant reduction in Field Programmable
Gate Array (FPGA) resources can be achieved. This paper presents
for the first time a comparison of resource utilization of Spartan-3AN
and Virtex-5 implementation of standard and truncated multipliers
using Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description
Language (VHDL). The Virtex-5 FPGA shows significant
improvement as compared to Spartan-3AN FPGA device. The
Virtex-5 FPGA device shows better performance with a percentage
ratio of number of occupied slices for standard to truncated
multipliers is increased from 40% to 73.86% as compared to Spartan-
3AN is decreased from 68.75% to 58.78%. Results show that the
anomaly in Spartan-3AN FPGA device average connection and
maximum pin delay have been efficiently reduced in Virtex-5 FPGA
device.
Abstract: More and more natural disasters are happening every
year: floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. In order to reduce
the risk of possible damages, governments all around the world are
investing into development of Early Warning Systems (EWS) for
environmental applications. The most important task of the EWS is
identification of the onset of critical situations affecting environment
and population, early enough to inform the authorities and general
public. This paper describes an approach for monitoring of flood
protections systems based on machine learning methods. An
Artificial Intelligence (AI) component has been developed for
detection of abnormal dike behaviour. The AI module has been
integrated into an EWS platform of the UrbanFlood project (EU
Seventh Framework Programme) and validated on real-time
measurements from the sensors installed in a dike.
Abstract: This study compared socio-economic status attainment between the Muslim and Santal couples in rural Bangladesh. For this we hypothesized that socio-economic status attainment (occupation, education and income) of the Muslim couples was higher than the Santal ones in rural Bangladesh. In order to examine the hypothesis 288 couples (145 couples for Muslim and 143 couples for Santal) selected by cluster random sampling from Kalna village, Bangladesh were individually interviewed with semistructured questionnaire method. The results of Pearson Chi-Squire test suggest that there were significant differences in socio-economic status attainment between the two communities- couples. In addition, Pearson correlation coefficients also suggest that there were significant associations between the socio-economic statuses attained by the two communities- couples in rural Bangladesh. Further crosscultural study should conduct on how inter-community relations in rural social structure of Bangladesh influence the differences among the couples- socio-economic status attainment