Abstract: On-line handwritten scripts are usually dealt with pen tip traces from pen-down to pen-up positions. Time evaluation of the pen coordinates is also considered along with trajectory information. However, the data obtained needs a lot of preprocessing including filtering, smoothing, slant removing and size normalization before recognition process. Instead of doing such lengthy preprocessing, this paper presents a simple approach to extract the useful character information. This work evaluates the use of the counter- propagation neural network (CPN) and presents feature extraction mechanism in full detail to work with on-line handwriting recognition. The obtained recognition rates were 60% to 94% using the CPN for different sets of character samples. This paper also describes a performance study in which a recognition mechanism with multiple thresholds is evaluated for counter-propagation architecture. The results indicate that the application of multiple thresholds has significant effect on recognition mechanism. The method is applicable for off-line character recognition as well. The technique is tested for upper-case English alphabets for a number of different styles from different peoples.
Abstract: The modified Claus process is commonly used in oil
refining and gas processing to recover sulfur and destroy
contaminants formed in upstream processing. A Claus furnace feed
containing a relatively low concentration of H2S may be incapable of
producing a stable flame. Also, incomplete combustion of
hydrocarbons in the feed can lead to deterioration of the catalyst in
the reactors due to soot or carbon deposition. Therefore, special
consideration is necessary to achieve the appropriate overall sulfur
recovery. In this paper, some configurations available to treat lean
acid gas streams are described and the most appropriate ones are
studied to overcome low H2S concentration problems. As a result,
overall sulfur recovery is investigated for feed preheating and hot gas
configurations.
Abstract: In this study, direct numerical simulation for the bubble condensation in the subcooled boiling flow was performed. The main goal was to develop the CFD modeling for the bubble condensation and to evaluate the accuracy of the VOF model with the developed CFD modeling. CFD modeling for the bubble condensation was developed by modeling the source terms in the governing equations of VOF model using UDF. In the modeling, the amount of condensation was determined using the interfacial heat transfer coefficient obtained from the bubble velocity, liquid temperature and bubble diameter every time step. To evaluate the VOF model using the CFD modeling for the bubble condensation, CFD simulation results were compared with SNU experimental results such as bubble volume and shape, interfacial area, bubble diameter and bubble velocity. Simulation results predicted well the behavior of the actual condensing bubble. Therefore, it can be concluded that the VOF model using the CFD modeling for the bubble condensation will be a useful computational fluid dynamics tool for analyzing the behavior of the condensing bubble in a wide range of the subcooled boiling flow.
Abstract: Due to the legacy of apartheid segregation South Africa remains a divided society where most voters live in politically homogenous social environments. This paper argues that political discussion within one’s social context plays a primary role in shaping political attitudes and vote choice. Using data from the Comparative National Elections Project 2004 and 2009 South African post-election surveys, the paper explores the extent of social context partisan homogeneity in South Africa and finds that voters are not overly embedded in homogenous social contexts. It then demonstrates the consequences of partisan homogeneity on voting behavior. Homogenous social contexts tend to encourage stronger partisan loyalties and fewer defections in vote choice while voters in more heterogeneous contexts show less consistency in their attitudes and behaviour. Finally, the analysis shows how momentous sociopolitical events at the time of a particular election can change the social context, with important consequences for electoral outcomes.
Abstract: In recent years, several severe large-scale influenza
outbreaks happened in many countries, such as SARS in 2005 or
H1N1 in 2009. Those influenza Epidemics have greatly impacts not
only on people-s life and health, but medical systems in different
countries. Although severe diseases are more experienced, they are not
fully controlled. Governments have different policies to control the
spreads of diseases. However, those policies have both positive and
negative social or economical influence on people and society.
Therefore, it is necessary and essential to develop an appropriate
model for evaluations of policies. Consequently, a proper measure can
be implemented to confront the diseases. The main goal of this study is
to develop a SIR-based model for the further evaluations of the
candidate policies during the influenza outbreaks.
Abstract: Most real world systems express themselves formally
as a set of nonlinear algebraic equations. As applications grow, the
size and complexity of these equations also increase. In this work, we
highlight the key concepts in using the homotopy analysis method
as a methodology used to construct efficient iteration formulas for
nonlinear equations solving. The proposed method is experimentally
characterized according to a set of determined parameters which
affect the systems. The experimental results show the potential and
limitations of the new method and imply directions for future work.
Abstract: The Želazny Most tailing pond is one of the largest
facilities worldwide for waste disposal from the copper mines located
in South-West Poland. A potential failure of the dam would allow
more than 10 million cubic meters of contaminated slurry to flow to
the valley, causing immense environmental problems to the
surrounding area. Thus, the determination of the strength properties
of the dam's soils and their variability is of utmost importance.
An extensive site investigation consisting of more than 480 cone
penetration tests (CPTs) with or without pore water pressure
measurements were conducted within a period of 13 years to study
the mechanical properties of the tailings body. The present work
investigates the point variability of the soil strength parameters
(effective friction angle
Abstract: Nowadays, one of the most important problems of the
metropolises and the world large cities is the habitant traffic difficulty
and lack of sufficient parking site for the vehicles. Esfahan city as the
third metropolis of Iran has encountered with the vehicles parkingplace
problems in the most parts of fourteen regions of the city. The
non principled and non systematic dispersal and lack of parking sites
in the city has created an unfavorable status for its traffic and has
caused the air and sound pollutions increase; in addition, it wastes the
most portions of the citizenship and travelers' charge and time in
urban pathways and disturbs their mental and psychical calmness,
thus leads to their intensive dissatisfaction. In this study, by the usage
of AHP model in GIS environment, the effective criteria in selecting
the public parking sites have been combined with each other, and the
results of the created layers overlapping represent the parking
utilitarian vastness and widths. The achieved results of this research
indicate the pretty appropriate public parking sites selection in region
number 3 of Esfahan; but inconsequential dispersal and lack of these
parking sites in this region have caused abundant transportation
problems in Esfahan city.
Abstract: Nowadays, manufacturers are facing great challenges
with regard to the production of green products due to the emerging issue of hazardous substance management (HSM). In particular,
environmental legislation pressures have yielded to increased risk,
manufacturing complexity and green components demands. The green principles were expanded to many departments within
organization, including supply chain. Green supply chain
management (GSCM) was emerging in the last few years. This idea
covers every stage in manufacturing from the first to the last stage of
life cycle. From product lifecycle concept, the cycle starts at the design of a product. QFD is a customer-driven product development
tool, considered as a structured management approach for efficiently
translating customer needs into design requirements and parts deployment, as well as manufacturing plans and controls in order to
achieve higher customer satisfaction. This paper develops an Eco-
QFD to provide a framework for designing Eco-mobile phone by integrating the life cycle analysis LCA into QFD throughout the entire product development process.
Abstract: In this article, LQR based PID controller design for
3DOF helicopter system is investigated. The 3-DOF helicopter
system is a benchmark laboratory model having strongly nonlinear
characteristics and unstable dynamics which make the control of such
system a challenging task. This article first presents the mathematical
model of the 3DOF helicopter system and then illustrates the basic
idea and technical formulation for controller design. The paper
explains the simple approach for the approximation of PID design
parameters from the LQR controller gain matrix. The simulation
results show that the investigated controller has both static and
dynamic performance, therefore the stability and the quick control
effect can be obtained simultaneously for the 3DOF helicopter
system.
Abstract: Nowadays predicting political risk level of country
has become a critical issue for investors who intend to achieve
accurate information concerning stability of the business
environments. Since, most of the times investors are layman and
nonprofessional IT personnel; this paper aims to propose a
framework named GECR in order to help nonexpert persons to
discover political risk stability across time based on the political
news and events.
To achieve this goal, the Bayesian Networks approach was
utilized for 186 political news of Pakistan as sample dataset.
Bayesian Networks as an artificial intelligence approach has been
employed in presented framework, since this is a powerful technique
that can be applied to model uncertain domains. The results showed
that our framework along with Bayesian Networks as decision
support tool, predicted the political risk level with a high degree of
accuracy.
Abstract: Electronic commerce is growing rapidly with on-line
sales already heading for hundreds of billion dollars per year. Due to
the huge amount of money transferred everyday, an increased
security level is required. In this work we present the architecture of
an intelligent speaker verification system, which is able to accurately
verify the registered users of an e-commerce service using only their
voices as an input. According to the proposed architecture, a
transaction-based e-commerce application should be complemented
by a biometric server where customer-s unique set of speech models
(voiceprint) is stored. The verification procedure requests from the
user to pronounce a personalized sequence of digits and after
capturing speech and extracting voice features at the client side are
sent back to the biometric server. The biometric server uses pattern
recognition to decide whether the received features match the stored
voiceprint of the customer who claims to be, and accordingly grants
verification. The proposed architecture can provide e-commerce
applications with a higher degree of certainty regarding the identity
of a customer, and prevent impostors to execute fraudulent
transactions.
Abstract: In this paper we introduce new data oriented modeling
of uniform random variable well-matched with computing systems. Due to this conformity with current computers structure, this modeling will be efficiently used in statistical inference.
Abstract: A lot of recent research have spoken on the relation
between the increase of the homocysteinemia and some kinds of
cancer . For that, our study was based on the research of a possible
relation between the increase of the concentration of this amino-acid
in the plasma and the appearance of the disease of the Acute
Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in a part of Algerian children with Berber
origin in the East of Algeria . The study has done on 47 ill persons
with an average age of (09±06 ) years , with whom the disease has
diagnosed by blood and marrow examination in the hospital of blood
diseases in the CHU of Batna, and on 194 healthy witnesses of the
same age. The two groups were benefited by a dosage of the
concentration of the homocysteine vitamin B9 ,vitamin B12 , and
also of the study of special polymorphisms of indispensable enzymes
in the metabolism of this acid , and that by the use of the method (
Light cycler ) Real time PCR , on the following enzymes : MS (
C2756G ), MSR ( A66G ) ,MTHFR1 ( C677T ) and MTHFR2
(A1298C). The obtained results have revealed that the rate of the
homozygote muted genotype is the less frequent in the two groups ,
and that exist at list one genotype of each enzyme in the ill group and
in which the percentage exceed with remarkable way the same
genotype in the healthy group and we notice specially the muted
genotype GG of -the methionine synthetase-and the form TT of the
enzyme – methyline tetra hydrofolate reductase – We notice the
existence of considerable number of genotypes in the ill group lied
with characteristic increase of this Amino-acid ,and that for the
reduction of the biologic activity of these enzymes which become
inefficient in the transfer of the homocysteine into the methionine
and cause the diminution of the biologic activity of these enzymes
and with consequence the reduction of the percentage of methylic
radicals in the DNA of studied genes and that lead to the increase of
the activity and the capacity of transcription , and it-s so probably
that this last one is one of the factors of this disease especially if we
know that the specific check-up of vitamins is normal and similar in
the two groups , which ovoid the hypothesis of the reduction of
vitamins . We notice also that the heterozygote genotype is the less in
the sick category except the MTHFR2. Wild genotype is more
frequent in the witness group except MSR. Even these results are
partials; they open a new way in the genetic diagnosis of this
malicious disease which allow a precocious diagnosis and the use of
an effective and appropriated treatment in the same time.
Abstract: Facing the concern of the population to its environment and to climatic change, city planners are now considering the urban climate in their choices of planning. The urban climate, representing different urban morphologies across central Bangkok metropolitan area (BMA), are used to investigates the effects of both the composition and configuration of variables of urban morphology indicators on the summer diurnal range of urban climate, using correlation analyses and multiple linear regressions. Results show first indicate that approximately 92.6% of the variation in the average maximum daytime near-surface air temperature (Ta) was explained jointly by the two composition variables of urban morphology indicators including open space ratio (OSR) and floor area ratio (FAR). It has been possible to determine the membership of sample areas to the local climate zones (LCZs) using these urban morphology descriptors automatically computed with GIS and remote sensed data. Finally result found the temperature differences among zones of large separation, such as the city center could be respectively from 35.48±1.04ºC (Mean±S.D.) warmer than the outskirt of Bangkok on average for maximum daytime near surface temperature to 28.27±0.21ºC for extreme event and, can exceed as 8ºC. A spatially disaggregation of urban thermal responsiveness map would be helpful for several reasons. First, it would localize urban areas concerned by different climate behavior over summer daytime and be a good indicator of urban climate variability. Second, when overlaid with a land cover map, this map may contribute to identify possible urban management strategies to reduce heat wave effects in BMA.
Abstract: Changing technology and increased constituent
demand for government services derive the need for governmental
responsiveness. The government organisations in the developing
countries will be under increased pressure to change their
bureaucratic systems to be able to respond rapidly to changing and
increasing requirements and rapid technology advancements. This
paper aims to present a conceptual framework for explaining the
main barriers and drivers of public e-service development. Therefore,
the framework provides a basic context within which the process and
practice of E-Service can be implemented successfully in the public
sector organisations. The framework is flexible enough to be adopted
by governments at different levels; national or local by developing
countries around the world.
Abstract: While in practice negotiation is always a mix of
cooperation and competition, these two elements correspond to
different approaches of the relationship and also different orientations
in term of strategy, techniques, tactics and arguments employed by
the negotiators with related effects and in the end leading to different
outcomes. The levels of honesty, trust and therefore cooperation are
influenced not only by the uncertainty of the situation, the objectives,
stakes or power but also by the orientation given from the very
beginning of the relationship. When negotiation is reduced to a
confrontation of power, participants rely on coercive measures, using
different kinds of threats or make false promises and bluff in order to
establish a more acceptable balance of power.
Most of the negotiators have a tendency to complain about the
unethical aspects of the tactics used by their counterparts while, as
the same time, they are mostly unaware of the sources of influence of
their own vision and practices. In this article, our intention is to
clarify these sources and try to understand what can lead negotiators
to unethical practices.
Abstract: A macroscopic constitutive equation is developed for a high-density cellulose insulation material with emphasis on the outof- plane stress relaxation behavior. A hypothesis is proposed where the total stress is additively composed by an out-of-plane visco-elastic isotropic contribution and an in-plane elastic orthotropic response. The theory is validated against out-of-plane stress relaxation, compressive experiments and in-plane tensile hysteresis, respectively. For large scale finite element simulations, the presented model provides a balance between simplicity and capturing the materials constitutive behaviour.
Abstract: Needs of an efficient information retrieval in recent
years in increased more then ever because of the frequent use of
digital information in our life. We see a lot of work in the area of
textual information but in multimedia information, we cannot find
much progress. In text based information, new technology of data
mining and data marts are now in working that were started from the
basic concept of database some where in 1960.
In image search and especially in image identification,
computerized system at very initial stages. Even in the area of image
search we cannot see much progress as in the case of text based
search techniques. One main reason for this is the wide spread roots
of image search where many area like artificial intelligence,
statistics, image processing, pattern recognition play their role. Even
human psychology and perception and cultural diversity also have
their share for the design of a good and efficient image recognition
and retrieval system.
A new object based search technique is presented in this paper
where object in the image are identified on the basis of their
geometrical shapes and other features like color and texture where
object-co-relation augments this search process.
To be more focused on objects identification, simple images are
selected for the work to reduce the role of segmentation in overall
process however same technique can also be applied for other
images.
Abstract: Because of its global reach, reduction of time
restraints, and ability to reduce costs and increase sales, use of the
Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW), and related technologies
can be a competitive tool in the arsenal of small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs). Countries the world over are interested in the
successful adoption of the Internet by SMEs. Because a vast
majority of jobs come from that sector, greater financial success of
SMEs translates into greater job growth and, subsequently, higher
tax revenue to the government. This research investigated the level
of Internet usage for business solutions by small and medium
enterprises in Jordan. Through the survey of a random sample of
100 firms with less than 500 employees and from data obtained
from this survey that formed the basis for our study, we found that
a majority of respondents use the Internet in business activities ,
the adoption of the Internet as a business tool is limited to a
brochure where Web site which primarily provides one way. As
such, there wasn't interactive information about the company and
its products and services.