Abstract: The paper presents an advanced control system for
tennis ball throwing machines to improve their accuracy according to
the ball impact points. A further advantage of the system is the much
easier calibration process involving the intelligent solution of the
automatic adjustment of the stroking parameters according to the ball
elasticity, the self-calibration, the use of the safety margin at very flat
strokes and the possibility to placing the machine to any position of
the half court. The system applies mathematical methods to
determine the exact ball trajectories and special approximating
processes to access all points on the aimed half court.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a four-step ortho-rectification
procedure for real-time geo-referencing of video data from a low-cost
UAV equipped with a multi-sensor system. The basic procedures for
the real-time ortho-rectification are: (1) decompilation of the video
stream into individual frames; (2) establishing the interior camera
orientation parameters; (3) determining the relative orientation
parameters for each video frame with respect to each other; (4)
finding the absolute orientation parameters, using a self-calibration
bundle and adjustment with the aid of a mathematical model. Each
ortho-rectified video frame is then mosaicked together to produce a
mosaic image of the test area, which is then merged with a well
referenced existing digital map for the purpose of geo-referencing
and aerial surveillance. A test field located in Abuja, Nigeria was
used to evaluate our method. Video and telemetry data were collected
for about fifteen minutes, and they were processed using the four-step
ortho-rectification procedure. The results demonstrated that the
geometric measurement of the control field from ortho-images is
more accurate when compared with those from original perspective
images when used to pin point the exact location of targets on the
video imagery acquired by the UAV. The 2-D planimetric accuracy
when compared with the 6 control points measured by a GPS receiver
is between 3 to 5 metres.
Abstract: In this paper, we explore the macroeconomic effects
of the European Single Market on Austria by simulating the
McKibbin-Sachs Global Model. Global interdependences and the
impact of long-run effects on short-run adjustments are taken into
account. We study the sensitivity of the results with respect to
different assumptions concerning monetary and fiscal policies for the
countries and regions of the world economy. The consequences of
different assumptions about budgetary policies in Austria are also
investigated. The simulation results are contrasted with ex-post
evaluations of the actual impact of Austria’s membership in the
Single Market. As a result, it can be concluded that the Austrian
participation in the European Single Market entails considerable
long-run gains for the Austrian economy with nearly no adverse sideeffects
on any macroeconomic target variable.
Abstract: Academicians at the Arab Open University have
always voiced their concern about the efficacy of the blended
learning process. Based on 75% independent study and 25% face-toface
tutorial, it poses the challenge of the predisposition to
adjustment. Being used to the psychology of traditional educational
systems, AOU students cannot be easily weaned from being spoonfed.
Hence they lack the motivation to plunge into self-study. For
better involvement of AOU students into the learning practices, it is
imperative to diagnose the factors that impede or increase their
motivation. This is conducted through an empirical study grounded
upon observations and tested hypothesis and aimed at monitoring and
optimizing the students’ learning outcome. Recommendations of the
research will follow the findings.
Abstract: Family is a basic unit of the society and the main
source of human development. The initial aim of the family is
psychological and social support of its members and has special
developmental stages. Researches show the families who have less
cohesion, have more conflicts and maladjustments and the members
of such families are not able to communicate effectively. Family is a
system in which any inter communication is related to child rearing
patterns and can affect it. Even the child rearing styles in childhood
can determine the family communications in adulthood. Therefore,
the aim of the present research was to examine the relationship
between child-rearing styles including authoritative, authoritarian and
permissive with dimensions of family communication patterns
including the conversation and conformity. The research design was a
correlational and the population consisted of the psychology students
of Roudehen Islamic Azad University who were studying in
academic year 2013-2014. A sample of 324 students was selected
randomly from the population. The research tools were the Baumrind
Child-rearing Questionnaires and Family Communication
Patterns Inventory, The Revised Scale of Koerner and Fitzpatrick.
The result was as below: (a) there was a positive and significant
relationship between conversation orientation and authoritative style.
(b) There was no significant relationship between conversation
orientation and other child-rearing styles. (c) There was a negative
significant relationship between conformity orientation and
authoritative style. (d) There was a positive significant relationship
between conformity orientation with authoritarian and permissive
styles. (e) There was a significant relationship between 3 dimensions
of child-rearing and communication patterns.
Abstract: The US Consumer Price Indices (CPIs) measures
hundreds of items in the US economy. Many social programs
and government benefits index to the CPIs. The purpose of
this project is to modernize an existing process. This paper will
show the development of a small, visual, software product that
documents the Economic Price Adjustment (EPA) for longterm
contracts. The existing workbook does not provide the
flexibility to calculate EPAs where the base-month and the
option-month are different. Nor does the workbook provide
automated error checking. The small, visual, software product
provides the additional flexibility and error checking. This
paper presents the feedback to project.
Abstract: A comprehensive CFD model is developed to
represent heterogeneous combustion and two burner designs of
supply sugar-cane bagasse into a furnace. The objective of this work
is to compare the insertion and burning of a Brazilian south-eastern
sugar-cane bagasse using a new swirl burner design against an actual
geometry under operation. The new design allows control the
particles penetration and scattering inside furnace by adjustment of
axial/tangential contributions of air feed without change their mass
flow. The model considers turbulence using RNG k-, combustion
using EDM, radiation heat transfer using DTM with 16 ray directions
and bagasse particle tracking represented by Schiller-Naumann
model. The obtained results are favorable to use of new design swirl
burner because its axial/tangential control promotes more penetration
or more scattering than actual design and allows reproduce the actual
design operation without change the overall mass flow supply.
Abstract: This study presented to reduce earthquake damage and
emergency rehabilitation of critical structures such as schools, hightech
factories, and hospitals due to strong ground motions associated
with climate changes. Regarding recent trend, a strong earthquake
causes serious damage to critical structures and then the critical
structure might be influenced by sequence aftershocks (or tsunami)
due to fault plane adjustments. Therefore, in order to improve seismic
performance of critical structures, retrofitted or strengthening study
of the structures under aftershocks sequence after emergency
rehabilitation of the structures subjected to strong earthquakes is
widely carried out. Consequently, this study used composite material
for emergency rehabilitation of the structure rather than concrete and
steel materials because of high strength and stiffness, lightweight,
rapid manufacturing, and dynamic performance. Also, this study was
to develop or improve the seismic performance or seismic retrofit of
critical structures subjected to strong ground motions and earthquake
aftershocks, by utilizing GFRP-Corrugated Infill Panels (GCIP).
Abstract: Experimental production methods of Chevreul’s salt
being an intermediate stage product in copper recovery were
investigated on this article. Chevreul’s salt, Cu2SO3.CuSO3.2H2O,
being a mixed valence copper sulphite compound, has been obtained
by using different methods and reagents. Chevreul’s salt has an
intense brick-red color. It is highly stable and expensive. The
production of Chevreul’s salt plays a key role in hydrometallurgy.
Thermodynamic tendency on precipitation of Chevreul’s salt is
related to pH and temperature. Besides, SO2 gaseous is a versatile
reagent for precipitating of copper sulphites, Using of SO2 for
selective precipitation can be made by appropriate adjustments of pH
and temperature. Chevreul’s salt does not form in acidic solutions if
those solutions contains considerable amount of sulfurous acid. It is
necessary to maintain between pH 2–4.5, because, solubility of
Chevreul’s salt increases with decreasing of pH values. Also, the
region which Chevreul’s salt is stable can be seen from the potentialpH
diagram.
Abstract: The effects of varying air temperature (full, ¾ full, ½ full aircon adjustment, no aircon) in polishing component of Single-Pass Mill on the quality of Philippine inbred rice variety, was investigated. Parameters measured were milling recovery (MR), headrice recovery (HR), and percentage with bran streaks. Cooling method (with aircon) increased MR, HR, and percentage with bran streaks of milled rice. Highest MR and HR (67.62%; 47.33%) were obtained from ¾ full adjustment whereas no aircon were lowest (66.27%; 39.76%). Temperature in polishing component at ¾ full adjustment was 33oC whereas no aircon was 45oC. There was increase of 1.35% in MR and 7.57% in HR. Additional cost of milling per kg due to aircon cooling was P0.04 at 300 tons/yr volume, with 0.15 yr payback period. Net income was estimated at ₱98,100.00. Percentage of kernels with bran streaks increased from 5%–14%, indicating more nutrients of milled rice.
Abstract: The work delineates the threats of maladjustment of the capacity of rain canals, designed and built in the early 20th century, in connection to heavy rainfall, especially in summer. This is the cause of the so called 'urban floods.' It directly relates to fierce raise of paving in the cities. Resolving this problem requires a change in philosophy of draining the rainfall by wider use of retention, infiltration and usage of rainwater.
In systemic approach to managing the safety of urban drainage systems the risk, which is directly connected to safety failures, has been accepted as a measure. The risk level defines the probability of occurrence of losses greater than the ones forecast for a given time frame. The procedure of risk modelling, enabling its numeric analysis by using appropriate weights, is a significant issue in this paper.
Abstract: This paper presents a wireless sensor network protocol for a car parking monitoring system. A wireless sensor network for the purpose is composed of multiple sensor nodes, a sink node, a gateway, and a server. Each of the sensor nodes is equipped with a 3-axis AMR sensor and deployed in the center of a parking space. The sensor node reads its sensor values periodically and transmits the data to the sink node if the current and immediate past sensor values show a difference exceeding a threshold value. The operations of the sink and sensor nodes are described in detail along with flow diagrams. The protocol allows a low-duty cycle operation of the sensor nodes and a flexible adjustment of the threshold value used by the sensor nodes.
Abstract: Five-axis computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools (three linear and two rotary axes) are ideally suited to the fabrication of complex work pieces, such as dies, turbo blades, and cams. The locations of the axis average line and centerline of the rotary axes strongly influence the performance of these machines; however, techniques to compensate for eccentric error in the rotary axes remain weak. This paper proposes optical (Non-Bar) techniques capable of calibrating five-axis CNC machine tools and compensating for eccentric error in the rotary axes. This approach employs the measurement path in ISO/CD 10791-6 to determine the eccentric error in two rotary axes, for which compensatory measures can be implemented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed techniques can improve the performance of various five-axis CNC machine tools by more than 90%. Finally, a result of the cutting test using a B-type five-axis CNC machine tool confirmed to the usefulness of this proposed compensation technique.
Abstract: Mosaic refers to a technique that makes image by gathering lots of small materials in various colors. This paper presents an automatic algorithm that makes the photo-mosaic image using photos. The algorithm is composed of 4 steps: partition and feature extraction, block matching, redundancy removal and color adjustment. The input image is partitioned in the small block to extract feature. Each block is matched to find similar photo in database by comparing similarity with Euclidean difference between blocks. The intensity of the block is adjusted to enhance the similarity of image by replacing the value of light and darkness with that of relevant block. Further, the quality of image is improved by minimizing the redundancy of tiles in the adjacent blocks. Experimental results support that the proposed algorithm is excellent in quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis.
Abstract: Rice grain is Sierra Leone’s staple food and the nation
imports over 120,000 metric tons annually due to a shortfall in its
cultivation. Thus, the insufficient level of the crop's cultivation in
Sierra Leone is caused by many problems and this led to the
endlessly widening supply and demand for the crop within the
country. Consequently, this has instigated the government to spend
huge money on the importation of this grain that would have been
otherwise cultivated domestically at a cheaper cost. Hence, this
research attempts to explore the response of rice supply with respect
to its demand in Sierra Leone within the period 1980-2010.
The Nerlovian adjustment model to the Sierra Leone rice data set
within the period 1980-2010 was used. The estimated trend equations
revealed that time had significant effect on output, productivity
(yield) and area (acreage) of rice grain within the period 1980-2010
and this occurred generally at the 1% level of significance. The
results showed that, almost the entire growth in output had the
tendency to increase in the area cultivated to the crop. The time trend
variable that was included for government policy intervention
showed an insignificant effect on all the variables considered in this
research. Therefore, both the short-run and long-run price response
was inelastic since all their values were less than one.
From the findings above, immediate actions that will lead to
productivity growth in rice cultivation are required.
To achieve the above, the responsible agencies should provide
extension service schemes to farmers as well as motivating them on
the adoption of modern rice varieties and technology in their rice
cultivation ventures.
Abstract: The goal of this study was to increase the awareness of the description and assessments of rice acreage response and to offer mechanisms for agricultural policy scrutiny. The ordinary least square (OLS) technique was utilized to determine the coefficients of acreage response models for the rice varieties. The magnitudes of the coefficients (λ) of both the ROK lagged and NERICA lagged acreages were found positive and highly significant, which indicates that farmers’ adjustment rate was very low. Regarding lagged actual price for both the ROK and NERICE rice varieties, the short-run price elasticitieswere lower than long-run, which is suggesting a long term adjustment of the acreage under the crop.
However, the apparent recommendations for policy transformation are to open farm gate prices and to decrease government’s involvement in agricultural sector especially in the acquisition of agricultural inputs. Impending research have to be centered on how this might be better realized. Necessary conditions should be made available to the private sector by means of minimizing price volatility. In accordance with structural reforms, it is necessary to convey output prices to farmers with minimum distortion. There is need to eradicate price subsidies and control, which generate distortion in the market in addition to huge financial costs.
Abstract: Software maintenance is one of the essential processes of Software-Development Life Cycle. The main philosophies of retaining software concern the improvement of errors, the revision of codes, the inhibition of future errors, and the development in piece and capacity. While the adjustment has been employing, the software structure has to be retested to an upsurge a level of assurance that it will be prepared due to the requirements. According to this state, the test cases must be considered for challenging the revised modules and the whole software. A concept of resolving this problem is ongoing by regression test selection such as the retest-all selections, random/ad-hoc selection and the safe regression test selection. Particularly, the traditional techniques concern a mapping between the test cases in a test suite and the lines of code it executes. However, there are not only the lines of code as one of the requirements that can affect the size of test suite but including the number of functions and faulty versions. Therefore, a model for test case selection is developed to cover those three requirements by the integral technique which can produce the smaller size of the test cases when compared with the traditional regression selection techniques.
Abstract: This study applies a simple and powerful nonlinear unit root test to test the validity of long-run purchasing power parity (PPP)
in a sample of 10 East-Asian countries (i.e., China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) over the period of March 1985 to September 2008. The empirical results indicate that PPP holds true for half of these 10 East-Asian countries under study, and the adjustment toward PPP is found to be nonlinear and in an asymmetric way.
Abstract: The decision-making processes in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among firms in the airlines industry borders on the benefits that accrue to firms through those investments. The crux of the matter is how firms can quantify the benefits derived from such investments. This paper analyses the cost benefit adjustment strategies for firms in the airline industry in their CSR strategy adoption and implementation. The paper discusses the CBA model in order to understand the ways airlines can reduce costs and increase returns on CSR, or balance the cost and benefits. The analysis indicates that, economic concepts especially the CBA are useful, though they are not without challenges. This paper concludes that the CBA model gives a basic understanding of the motivations for investing in intangible assets like CSR. It sets the tone for formulating relevant hypothesis in empirical studies in investment in CSR and other intangible assets in business operations.
Abstract: Enhancing the quality of two dimensional signals is one of the most important factors in the fields of video surveillance and computer vision. Usually in real-life video surveillance, false detection occurs due to the presence of random noise, illumination
and shadow artifacts. The detection methods based on background subtraction faces several problems in accurately detecting objects in realistic environments: In this paper, we propose a noise removal algorithm using neighborhood comparison method with thresholding. The illumination variations correction is done in the detected foreground objects by using an amalgamation of techniques like homomorphic decomposition, curvelet transformation and gamma adjustment operator. Shadow is removed using chromaticity estimator with local relation estimator. Results are compared with the existing methods and prove as high robustness in the video surveillance.