Abstract: This paper presents an new vision technique for
robotic manipulation of randomly oriented objects in industrial
applications. The proposed approach uses 2D and 3D vision for
efficiently extracting the 3D pose of an object in the presence of
multiple randomly positioned objects. 2D vision permits to quickly
select the objects of interest for 3D processing with a new modified
ICP algorithm (FaR-ICP), thus reducing significantly the processing
time. The extracted 3D pose is then sent to the robot manipulator for
picking. The tests show that the proposed system achieves high
performances
Abstract: Deciding the numerous parameters involved in
designing a competent artificial neural network is a complicated task.
The existence of several options for selecting an appropriate
architecture for neural network adds to this complexity, especially
when different applications of heterogeneous natures are concerned.
Two completely different applications in engineering and medical
science were selected in the present study including prediction of
workpiece's surface roughness in ultrasonic-vibration assisted turning
and papilloma viruses oncogenicity. Several neural network
architectures with different parameters were developed for each
application and the results were compared. It was illustrated in this
paper that some applications such as the first one mentioned above
are apt to be modeled by a single network with sufficient accuracy,
whereas others such as the second application can be best modeled
by different expert networks for different ranges of output.
Development of knowledge about the essentials of neural networks
for different applications is regarded as the cornerstone of
multidisciplinary network design programs to be developed as a
means of reducing inconsistencies and the burden of the user
intervention.
Abstract: Two completely different approaches for a Gigabit
Ethernet compliant stream transmission over 50m of 1mm PMMA SI-POF have been experimentally demonstrated and are compared in this paper. The first solution is based on a commercial RC-LED
transmission and a careful optimization of the physical layer architecture, realized during the POF-PLUS EU Project. The second solution exploits the performance of an edge-emitting laser at the
transmitter side in order to avoid any sort of electrical equalization at the receiver side.
Abstract: A concept of switched beam antennas consisting of
2×2 rectangular array spaced by λ/4 accompanied with a null locating
has been proposed in the previous work. In this letter, the
performance evaluations of its prototype are presented. The benefits
of using proposed system have been clearly measured in term of
signal quality, throughput and delays. Also, the impact of position
shift which mesh router is not located on the expected beam direction
has also been investigated.
Abstract: Portuguese diet has been gradually diverging from the basic principles of healthy eating, leading to an unbalanced dietary pattern which, associated with increasing sedentary lifestyle, has a negative impact on public health. The main objective of this work was to characterize the dietary habits of university students in Viseu, Portugal. The study consisted of a sample of 80 university students, aged between 18 and 28 years. Anthropometric data (weight (kg) and height (m)) were collected and Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated. The dietary habits were assessed through a three-day food record and the software Medpoint was used to convert food into energy and nutrients. The results showed that students present a normal body mass index. Female university students made a higher number of daily meals than male students, and these last skipped breakfast more frequently. The values of average daily intake of energy, macronutrients and calcium were higher in males. The food pattern was characterized by a predominant consumption of meat, cereal, fats and sugar. Dietary intake of dairy products, fruits, vegetables and legumes does not meet the recommendations, revealing inadequate food habits such as hypoglycemic, hyperprotein and hyperlipidemic diet. Our findings suggest that preventive interventions should be focus in promoting healthy eating habits and physical activity in adulthood.
Abstract: Processing the data by computers and performing
reasoning tasks is an important aim in Computer Science. Semantic
Web is one step towards it. The use of ontologies to enhance the
information by semantically is the current trend. Huge amount of
domain specific, unstructured on-line data needs to be expressed in
machine understandable and semantically searchable format.
Currently users are often forced to search manually in the results
returned by the keyword-based search services. They also want to use
their native languages to express what they search. In this paper, an
ontology-based automated question answering system on software
test documents domain is presented. The system allows users to enter
a question about the domain by means of natural language and
returns exact answer of the questions. Conversion of the natural
language question into the ontology based query is the challenging
part of the system. To be able to achieve this, a new algorithm
regarding free text to ontology based search engine query conversion
is proposed. The algorithm is based on investigation of suitable
question type and parsing the words of the question sentence.
Abstract: Low frequency power oscillations may be triggered
by many events in the system. Most oscillations are damped by the
system, but undamped oscillations can lead to system collapse.
Oscillations develop as a result of rotor acceleration/deceleration
following a change in active power transfer from a generator. Like
the operations limits, the monitoring of power system oscillating
modes is a relevant aspect of power system operation and control.
Unprevented low-frequency power swings can be cause of cascading
outages that can rapidly extend effect on wide region. On this regard,
a Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control Systems
(WAMPCS) help in detecting such phenomena and assess power
system dynamics security. The monitoring of power system
electromechanical oscillations is very important in the frame of
modern power system management and control. In first part, this
paper compares the different technique for identification of power
system oscillations. Second part analyzes possible identification
some power system dynamics behaviors Using Wide Area
Monitoring Systems (WAMS) based on Phasor Measurement Units
(PMUs) and wavelet technique.
Abstract: The use of solar control film on windows as one of
solar passive strategies for building have becoming important and is
gaining recognition. Malaysia located close to equator is having
warm humid climate with long sunshine hours and abundant solar
radiation throughout the year. Hence, befitting solar control on
windows is absolutely necessary to capture the daylight whilst
moderating thermal impact and eliminating glare problems. This is
one of the energy efficient strategies to achieve thermal and visual
comfort in buildings. Therefore, this study was carried out to
investigate the effect of window solar controls on thermal and visual
performance of naturally ventilated buildings. This was conducted via
field data monitoring using a test building facility. Four types of
window glazing systems were used with three types of solar control
films. Data were analysed for thermal and visual impact with
reference to thermal and optical characteristics of the films. Results
show that for each glazing system, the surface temperature of
windows are influenced by the Solar Energy Absorption property, the
indoor air temperature are influenced by the Solar Energy
Transmittance and Solar Energy Reflectance, and the daylighting by
Visible Light Transmission and Shading Coefficient. Further
investigations are underway to determine the mathematical relation
between thermal energy and visual performance with the thermal and
optical characteristics of solar control films.
Abstract: Effect of temperature and light was investigated on a
thin film of organic semiconductor formyl-TIPPCu(II) deposited on a
glass substrate with preliminary evaporated gold electrodes. The
electrical capacitance and resistance of the fabricated device were
evaluated under the effect of temperature and light. The relative
capacitance of the fabricated sensor increased by 4.3 times by rising
temperature from 27 to 1870C, while under illumination up to 25000
lx, the capacitance of the Au/formyl-TIPPCu(II)/Au photo capacitive
sensor increased continuously by 13.2 times as compared to dark
conditions.
Abstract: Measurements of radioactivity in the environment is of great importance to monitor and control the levels of radiation to which man is exposed directly or indirectly. It is necessary to show that regardless of working or being close to nuclear power plants, people are daily in contact with some amount of radiation from the actual environment and food that are ingested, contradicting the view of most of them. The aim of this study was to analyze the rate of natural and artificial radiation from radionuclides present in cement, soil and fertilizers used in Sergipe State – Brazil. The radionuclide activitiesmeasured all samples arebelow the Brazilian limit of the exclusion and exemption criteria from the requirement of radiation protection.It was detected Be-7 in organic fertilizers that means a short interval between the brewing processes for use in agriculture. It was also detected an unexpected Cs-137 in some samples; however its activities does not represent risk for the population. Th-231 was also found in samples of soil and cement in the state of Sergipe that is an unprecedented result.
Abstract: This paper describes a novel optimized JTAG interface circuit between a JTAG controller and target IC. Being able to access JTAG using only one or two pins, this circuit does not change the original boundary scanning test frequency of target IC. Compared with the traditional JTAG interface which based on IEEE std. 1149.1, this reduced pin technology is more applicability in pin limited devices, and it is easier to control the scale of target IC for the designer.
Abstract: In this work, we present a novel active learning approach
for learning a visual object detection system. Our system
is composed of an active learning mechanism as wrapper around
a sub-algorithm which implement an online boosting-based learning
object detector. In the core is a combination of a bootstrap procedure
and a semi automatic learning process based on the online boosting
procedure. The idea is to exploit the availability of classifier during
learning to automatically label training samples and increasingly
improves the classifier. This addresses the issue of reducing labeling
effort meanwhile obtain better performance. In addition, we propose
a verification process for further improvement of the classifier.
The idea is to allow re-update on seen data during learning for
stabilizing the detector. The main contribution of this empirical study
is a demonstration that active learning based on an online boosting
approach trained in this manner can achieve results comparable or
even outperform a framework trained in conventional manner using
much more labeling effort. Empirical experiments on challenging data
set for specific object deteciton problems show the effectiveness of
our approach.
Abstract: In this study, a classification-based video
super-resolution method using artificial neural network (ANN) is
proposed to enhance low-resolution (LR) to high-resolution (HR)
frames. The proposed method consists of four main steps:
classification, motion-trace volume collection, temporal adjustment,
and ANN prediction. A classifier is designed based on the edge
properties of a pixel in the LR frame to identify the spatial information.
To exploit the spatio-temporal information, a motion-trace volume is
collected using motion estimation, which can eliminate unfathomable
object motion in the LR frames. In addition, temporal lateral process is
employed for volume adjustment to reduce unnecessary temporal
features. Finally, ANN is applied to each class to learn the complicated
spatio-temporal relationship between LR and HR frames. Simulation
results show that the proposed method successfully improves both
peak signal-to-noise ratio and perceptual quality.
Abstract: The evolution of information and communication
technology has made a very powerful support for the improvement of
online learning platforms in creation of courses. This paper presents a
study that attempts to explore new web architecture for creating an
adaptive online learning system to profiles of learners, using the Web
as a source for the automatic creation of courses for the online
training platform. This architecture will reduce the time and decrease
the effort performed by the drafters of the current e-learning
platform, and direct adaptation of the Web content will greatly enrich
the quality of online training courses.
Abstract: In this study, to accurately predict cavitation of a
centrifugal pump, numerical analysis was compared with experimental
results modeled on a small industrial centrifugal pump. In this study,
numerical analysis was compared with experimental results modeled
on a small industrial centrifugal pump for reliable prediction on
cavitation of a centrifugal pump. To improve validity of the numerical
analysis, transient analysis was conducted on the calculated domain of
full-type geometry, such as an experimental apparatus. The numerical
analysis from the results was considered to be a reliable prediction of
cavitaion.
Abstract: Direct Torque Control is a control technique in AC
drive systems to obtain high performance torque control. The
conventional DTC drive contains a pair of hysteresis comparators.
DTC drives utilizing hysteresis comparators suffer from high torque
ripple and variable switching frequency. The most common solution
to those problems is to use the space vector depends on the reference
torque and flux. In this Paper The space vector modulation technique
(SVPWM) is applied to 2 level inverter control in the proposed
DTC-based induction motor drive system, thereby dramatically
reducing the torque ripple. Then the controller based on space vector
modulation is designed to be applied in the control of Induction
Motor (IM) with a three-level Inverter. This type of Inverter has
several advantages over the standard two-level VSI, such as a greater
number of levels in the output voltage waveforms, Lower dV/dt, less
harmonic distortion in voltage and current waveforms and lower
switching frequencies. This paper proposes a general SVPWM
algorithm for three-level based on standard two-level SVPWM. The
proposed scheme is described clearly and simulation results are
reported to demonstrate its effectiveness. The entire control scheme is
implemented with Matlab/Simulink.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate whether
magnetite nanoparticles affect the viability of Bradyrhizobium
japanicum cells residing on the surface of soybean seeds during
desiccation. Different concentrations of nanoparticles suspended in
liquid medium, mixed with and adhering to Bradyrhizobium
japanicum, were investigated at two temperatures, using both
soybean seeds and glass beads as surrogates. Statistical design was a
complete randomized block (CRB) in a factorial 6×2×2×6
experimental arrangement with four replications. The most important
variable was the viability of Bradyrhizobium on the surface of the
seeds. The nanoparticles increased Bradyrhizobium viability and
inoculated seeds stored at low temperature had greater viability when
nanoparticles had been added. At the optimum nanoparticle
concentration, 50% bacterium viability on the seeds was retained
after 5 days at 4ºC. Possible explanations for the observed effects are
proposed.
Abstract: The combustion chamber dimensions have important
effects on pollutant emission in furnaces as a direct result of
temperature distribution and maximum temperature value. In this
paper the pollutant emission and the temperature distribution in two
cylindrical furnaces with different dimensions (with similar length to
diameter ratio) in similar condition have been investigated
experimentally. The furnace fuel is gas oil that is used with three
different flow rates. The results show that in these two cases the
temperature increases to its maximum value quickly, and then
decreases slowly. The results also show that increase in fuel flow rate
cause to increase in NOx emission in each case, but this increase is
greater in small furnace. With increase in fuel flow rate, CO emission
decreases firstly, and then it increases. Combustion efficiency
reduces with increase in fuel flow rate but the rate of reduction in
small furnace is greater than large furnace. The results of axial
temperature distribution have been compared with those have been
obtained numerically and experimentally by Moghiman.
Abstract: In this work, we address theoretically the influence of red and white Gaussian noise for electronic energies and eigenstates of cylindrically shaped quantum dots. The stochastic effect can be imagined as resulting from crystal-growth statistical fluctuations in the quantum-dot material composition. In particular we obtain analytical expressions for the eigenvalue shifts and electronic envelope functions in the k . p formalism due to stochastic variations in the confining band-edge potential. It is shown that white noise in the band-edge potential leaves electronic properties almost unaffected while red noise may lead to changes in state energies and envelopefunction amplitudes of several percentages. In the latter case, the ensemble-averaged envelope function decays as a function of distance. It is also shown that, in a stochastic system, constant ensembleaveraged envelope functions are the only bounded solutions for the infinite quantum-wire problem and the energy spectrum is completely discrete. In other words, the infinite stochastic quantum wire behaves, ensemble-averaged, as an atom.
Abstract: In this paper, a framework is presented trying to make
the most secure web system out of the available generic and web
security technology which can be used as a guideline for
organizations building their web sites. The framework is designed to
provide necessary security services, to address the known security
threats, and to provide some cover to other security problems
especially unknown threats. The requirements for the design are
discussed which guided us to the design of secure web system. The
designed security framework is then simulated and various quality of
service (QoS) metrics are calculated to measure the performance of
this system.