Abstract: Quality evaluation of an image is an important task in image processing applications. In case of image compression, quality of decompressed image is also the criterion for evaluation of given coding scheme. In the process of compression -decompression various artifacts such as blocking artifacts, blur artifact, ringing or edge artifact are observed. However quantification of these artifacts is a difficult task. We propose here novel method to quantify blur and ringing artifact in an image.
Abstract: Since hyaluronic acid (HA) receptor such as CD44 is
over-expressed at sites of cancer cells, HA can be used as a targeting
vehicles for anti-cancer drugs. The aim of this study is to synthesize
block copolymer composed of hyaluronic acid and
poly(ε-caprolactone) (HAPCL) and to fabricate polymeric micelles for
anticancer drug targeting against CD44 receptor of tumor cells.
Chemical composition of HAPCL was confirmed using 1H NMR
spectroscopy. Doxorubicin (DOX) was incorporated into polymeric
micelles of HAPCL. The diameters of HAPHS polymeric micelles
were changed around 80nm and have spherical shapes. Targeting
potential was investigated using CD44-overexpressing. When
DOX-incorporated polymeric micelles was added to KB cells, they
revealed strong red fluorescence color while blocking of CD44
receptor by pretreatment of free HA resulted in reduced intensity,
indicating that HAPCL polymeric micelles have targetability against
CD44 receptor.
Abstract: The optimal grid spacing and turbulence model for the
2D numerical analysis of a vertical-axis water turbine (VAWaterT)
operating in a 2 m/s freestream current has been investigated. The
results of five different spatial domain discretizations and two
turbulence models (k-ω SST and k-ε RNG) have been compared, in
order to gain the optimal y+ parameter distribution along the blade
walls during a full rotor revolution. The resulting optimal mesh has
appeared to be quite similar to that obtained for the numerical
analysis of a vertical-axis wind turbine.
Abstract: Mobile Ad hoc networks (MANETs) are collections
of wireless mobile nodes dynamically reconfiguring and collectively
forming a temporary network. These types of networks assume
existence of no fixed infrastructure and are often useful in battle-field
tactical operations or emergency search-and-rescue type of
operations where fixed infrastructure is neither feasible nor practical.
They also find use in ad hoc conferences, campus networks and
commercial recreational applications carrying multimedia traffic. All
of the above applications of MANETs require guaranteed levels of
performance as experienced by the end-user. This paper focuses on
key challenges in provisioning predetermined levels of such Quality
of Service (QoS). It also identifies functional areas where QoS
models are currently defined and used. Evolving functional areas
where performance and QoS provisioning may be applied are also
identified and some suggestions are provided for further research in
this area. Although each of the above functional areas have been
discussed separately in recent research studies, since these QoS
functional areas are highly correlated and interdependent, a
comprehensive and comparative analysis of these areas and their
interrelationships is desired. In this paper we have attempted to
provide such an overview.
Abstract: Mammals are known to use Interaural Intensity Difference (IID) to determine azimuthal position of high frequency sounds. In the Lateral Superior Olive (LSO) neurons have firing behaviours which vary systematicaly with IID. Those neurons receive excitatory inputs from the ipsilateral ear and inhibitory inputs from the contralateral one. The IID sensitivity of a LSO neuron is thought to be due to delay differences between both ears, delays due to different synaptic delays and to intensity-dependent delays. In this paper we model the auditory pathway until the LSO. Inputs to LSO neurons are at first numerous and differ in their relative delays. Spike Timing-Dependent Plasticity is then used to prune those connections. We compare the pruned neuron responses with physiological data and analyse the relationship between IID-s of teacher stimuli and IID sensitivities of trained LSO neurons.
Abstract: Selective harmonic elimination-pulse width modulation techniques offer a tight control of the harmonic spectrum of a given voltage waveform generated by a power electronic converter along with a low number of switching transitions. Traditional optimization methods suffer from various drawbacks, such as prolonged and tedious computational steps and convergence to local optima; thus, the more the number of harmonics to be eliminated, the larger the computational complexity and time. This paper presents a novel method for output voltage harmonic elimination and voltage control of PWM AC/AC voltage converters using the principle of hybrid Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm-Pattern Search (RGA-PS) method. RGA is the primary optimizer exploiting its global search capabilities, PS is then employed to fine tune the best solution provided by RGA in each evolution. The proposed method enables linear control of the fundamental component of the output voltage and complete elimination of its harmonic contents up to a specified order. Theoretical studies have been carried out to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method of selective harmonic elimination. Theoretical results are validated through simulation studies using PSIM software package.
Abstract: A new generation product made from bamboo strips,
known as laminated bamboo, has gained importance. The objective
of this research was to experiment the effect of three factors on the
mechanical property of laminated bamboo. The interested factors for
experimental design were (A) four bamboo species, namely Bambusa
blumeana Schultes (Pai See Suk), Dendrocalamus asper Backer (Pai
Tong), Dendrocalamus hamiltonii Nees (Pai Hok) and
Dendrocalamus sericeus Munro (Pai Sang Mon), (B) two types of
glue adhesive, polyvinyl acetate emulsion (PVAC) fortified with
urea-formaldehyde (UF) and urea-formaldehyde (UF) to make
parallel-oriented bamboo strips laminates and (C) glue weight per
strip area, 150 g/m2 and 190 g/m2. Experimental results showed that
Dendrocalamus asper Backer (Pai Tong) and Dendrocalamus
sericeus Munro (Pai Sang Mon) were best used for manufacturing
due to their highest MOR and MOE. The amount of glue weight 150
g/m2 yielded higher MOR and MOE than the amount of glue weight
190 g/m2. At the conclusion, the laminated bamboo manufacturers
can benefit from this research in order to select right materials
according to strength, cost and accessibility.
Abstract: The excellent suitability of the externally excited synchronous
machine (EESM) in automotive traction drive applications
is justified by its high efficiency over the whole operation range and
the high availability of materials. Usually, maximum efficiency is
obtained by modelling each single loss and minimizing the sum of all
losses. As a result, the quality of the optimization highly depends on
the precision of the model. Moreover, it requires accurate knowledge
of the saturation dependent machine inductances. Therefore, the
present contribution proposes a method to minimize the overall losses
of a salient pole EESM and its inverter in steady state operation based
on measurement data only. Since this method does not require any
manufacturer data, it is well suited for an automated measurement
data evaluation and inverter parametrization. The field oriented control
(FOC) of an EESM provides three current components resp. three
degrees of freedom (DOF). An analytic minimization of the copper
losses in the stator and the rotor (assuming constant inductances) is
performed and serves as a first approximation of how to choose the
optimal current reference values. After a numeric offline minimization
of the overall losses based on measurement data the results are
compared to a control strategy that satisfies cos (ϕ) = 1.
Abstract: Ad hoc networks are characterized by multi-hop
wireless connectivity and frequently changing network topology.
Forming security association among a group of nodes in ad-hoc
networks is more challenging than in conventional networks due to the
lack of central authority, i.e. fixed infrastructure. With that view in
mind, group key management plays an important building block of
any secure group communication. The main contribution of this paper
is a low complexity key management scheme that is suitable for fully
self-organized ad-hoc networks. The protocol is also password
authenticated, making it resilient against active attacks. Unlike other
existing key agreement protocols, ours make no assumption about the
structure of the underlying wireless network, making it suitable for
“truly ad-hoc" networks. Finally, we will analyze our protocol to show
the computation and communication burden on individual nodes for
key establishment.
Abstract: This paper details the application of a genetic
programming framework for induction of useful classification rules
from a database of income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow
statements for North American public companies. Potentially
interesting classification rules are discovered. Anomalies in the
discovery process merit further investigation of the application of
genetic programming to the dataset for the problem domain.
Abstract: This paper presents the application of an enhanced
Particle Swarm Optimization (EPSO) combined with Gaussian
Mutation (GM) for solving the Dynamic Economic Dispatch (DED)
problem considering the operating constraints of generators. The
EPSO consists of the standard PSO and a modified heuristic search
approaches. Namely, the ability of the traditional PSO is enhanced
by applying the modified heuristic search approach to prevent the
solutions from violating the constraints. In addition, Gaussian
Mutation is aimed at increasing the diversity of global search, whilst
it also prevents being trapped in suboptimal points during search. To
illustrate its efficiency and effectiveness, the developed EPSO-GM
approach is tested on the 3-unit and 10-unit 24-hour systems
considering valve-point effect. From the experimental results, it can
be concluded that the proposed EPSO-GM provides, the accurate
solution, the efficiency, and the feature of robust computation
compared with other algorithms under consideration.
Abstract: To extract the important physiological factors related to
diabetes from an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) by mathematical
modeling, highly informative but convenient protocols are required.
Current models require a large number of samples and extended
period of testing, which is not practical for daily use. The purpose
of this study is to make model assessments possible even from a
reduced number of samples taken over a relatively short period.
For this purpose, test values were extrapolated using a support
vector machine. A good correlation was found between reference and
extrapolated values in evaluated 741 OGTTs. This result indicates
that a reduction in the number of clinical test is possible through a
computational approach.
Abstract: Array signal processing involves signal enumeration and source localization. Array signal processing is centered on the ability to fuse temporal and spatial information captured via sampling signals emitted from a number of sources at the sensors of an array in order to carry out a specific estimation task: source characteristics (mainly localization of the sources) and/or array characteristics (mainly array geometry) estimation. Array signal processing is a part of signal processing that uses sensors organized in patterns or arrays, to detect signals and to determine information about them. Beamforming is a general signal processing technique used to control the directionality of the reception or transmission of a signal. Using Beamforming we can direct the majority of signal energy we receive from a group of array. Multiple signal classification (MUSIC) is a highly popular eigenstructure-based estimation method of direction of arrival (DOA) with high resolution. This Paper enumerates the effect of missing sensors in DOA estimation. The accuracy of the MUSIC-based DOA estimation is degraded significantly both by the effects of the missing sensors among the receiving array elements and the unequal channel gain and phase errors of the receiver.
Abstract: The explosive growth of World Wide Web has posed
a challenging problem in extracting relevant data. Traditional web
crawlers focus only on the surface web while the deep web keeps
expanding behind the scene. Deep web pages are created
dynamically as a result of queries posed to specific web databases.
The structure of the deep web pages makes it impossible for
traditional web crawlers to access deep web contents. This paper,
Deep iCrawl, gives a novel and vision-based approach for extracting
data from the deep web. Deep iCrawl splits the process into two
phases. The first phase includes Query analysis and Query translation
and the second covers vision-based extraction of data from the
dynamically created deep web pages. There are several established
approaches for the extraction of deep web pages but the proposed
method aims at overcoming the inherent limitations of the former.
This paper also aims at comparing the data items and presenting them
in the required order.
Abstract: This paper introduces a technique of distortion
estimation in image watermarking using Genetic Programming (GP).
The distortion is estimated by considering the problem of obtaining a
distorted watermarked signal from the original watermarked signal as
a function regression problem. This function regression problem is
solved using GP, where the original watermarked signal is
considered as an independent variable. GP-based distortion
estimation scheme is checked for Gaussian attack and Jpeg
compression attack. We have used Gaussian attacks of different
strengths by changing the standard deviation. JPEG compression
attack is also varied by adding various distortions. Experimental
results demonstrate that the proposed technique is able to detect the
watermark even in the case of strong distortions and is more robust
against attacks.
Abstract: BER analysis of Impulse Radio Ultra Wideband (IRUWB) pulse modulations over S-V channel model is proposed in this paper. The UWB pulse is Gaussian monocycle pulse modulated using Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) and Pulse Position Modulation (PPM). The channel model is generated from a modified S-V model. Bit-error rate (BER) is measured over several of bit rates. The result shows that all modulation are appropriate for both LOS and NLOS channel, but PAM gives better performance in bit rates and SNR. Moreover, as standard of speed has been given for UWB, the communication is appropriate with high bit rates in LOS channel.
Abstract: Fatigue is the major threat in service of steel structure
subjected to fluctuating loads. With the additional effect of corrosion
and presence of weld joints the fatigue failure may become more
critical in structural steel. One of the apt examples of such structural
is the sailing ship. This is experiencing a constant stress due to
floating and a pulsating bending load due to the waves. This paper
describes an attempt to verify theory of fatigue in fracture mechanics
approach with experimentation to determine the constants of crack
growth curve. For this, specimen is prepared from the ship building
steel and it is subjected to a pulsating bending load with a known
defect. Fatigue crack and its nature is observed in this experiment.
Application of fracture mechanics approach in fatigue with a simple
practical experiment is conducted and constants of crack growth
equation are investigated.
Abstract: Many-core GPUs provide high computing ability and
substantial bandwidth; however, optimizing irregular applications
like SpMV on GPUs becomes a difficult but meaningful task. In this
paper, we propose a novel method to improve the performance of
SpMV on GPUs. A new storage format called HYB-R is proposed to
exploit GPU architecture more efficiently. The COO portion of the
matrix is partitioned recursively into a ELL portion and a COO
portion in the process of creating HYB-R format to ensure that there
are as many non-zeros as possible in ELL format. The method of
partitioning the matrix is an important problem for HYB-R kernel, so
we also try to tune the parameters to partition the matrix for higher
performance. Experimental results show that our method can get
better performance than the fastest kernel (HYB) in NVIDIA-s
SpMV library with as high as 17% speedup.
Abstract: Green propellants used for satellite-level propulsion
system become attractive in recent years because the non-toxicity and
lower requirements of safety protection. One of the green propellants,
high-concentration hydrogen peroxide H2O2 solution (≥70% w/w,
weight concentration percentage), often known as high-test peroxide
(HTP), is considered because it is ITAR-free, easy to manufacture and
the operating temperature is lower than traditional monopropellant
propulsion. To establish satellite propulsion technology, the National
Space Organization (NSPO) in Taiwan has initialized a long-term
cooperation project with the National Cheng Kung University to
develop compatible tank and thruster. An experimental propulsion
payload has been allocated for the future self-reliant satellite to
perform orbit transfer and maintenance operations. In the present
research, an 1-Newton thruster prototype is designed and the thrusting
force is measured by a pendulum-type platform. The preliminary
hot-firing test at ambient environment showed the generated thrust and
the specific impulse are about 0.7 Newton and 102 seconds,
respectively.
Abstract: The article presents a new method for detection of
artificial objects and materials from images of the environmental
(non-urban) terrain. Our approach uses the hue and saturation (or Cb
and Cr) components of the image as the input to the segmentation
module that uses the mean shift method. The clusters obtained as the
output of this stage have been processed by the decision-making
module in order to find the regions of the image with the significant
possibility of representing human. Although this method will detect
various non-natural objects, it is primarily intended and optimized for
detection of humans; i.e. for search and rescue purposes in non-urban
terrain where, in normal circumstances, non-natural objects shouldn-t
be present. Real world images are used for the evaluation of the
method.