Abstract: Segmentation in ultrasound images is challenging due to the interference from speckle noise and fuzziness of boundaries. In this paper, a segmentation scheme using fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering incorporating both intensity and texture information of images is proposed to extract breast lesions in ultrasound images. Firstly, the nonlinear structure tensor, which can facilitate to refine the edges detected by intensity, is used to extract speckle texture. And then, a spatial FCM clustering is applied on the image feature space for segmentation. In the experiments with simulated and clinical ultrasound images, the spatial FCM clustering with both intensity and texture information gets more accurate results than the conventional FCM or spatial FCM without texture information.
Abstract: This paper deals with the synthesis of fuzzy state feedback controller of induction motor with optimal performance. First, the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is employed to approximate a non linear system in the synchronous d-q frame rotating with electromagnetic field-oriented. Next, a fuzzy controller is designed to stabilise the induction motor and guaranteed a minimum disturbance attenuation level for the closed-loop system. The gains of fuzzy control are obtained by solving a set of Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI). Finally, simulation results are given to demonstrate the controller-s effectiveness.
Abstract: SAD (Sum of Absolute Difference) algorithm is
heavily used in motion estimation which is computationally highly
demanding process in motion picture encoding. To enhance the
performance of motion picture encoding on a VLIW processor, an
efficient implementation of SAD algorithm on the VLIW processor is
essential. SAD algorithm is programmed as a nested loop with a
conditional branch. In VLIW processors, loop is usually optimized by
software pipelining, but researches on optimal scheduling of software
pipelining for nested loops, especially nested loops with conditional
branches are rare. In this paper, we propose an optimal scheduling and
implementation of SAD algorithm with conditional branch on a VLIW
DSP processor. The proposed optimal scheduling first transforms the
nested loop with conditional branch into a single loop with conditional
branch with consideration of full utilization of ILP capability of the
VLIW processor and realization of earlier escape from the loop. Next,
the proposed optimal scheduling applies a modulo scheduling
technique developed for single loop. Based on this optimal scheduling
strategy, optimal implementation of SAD algorithm on TMS320C67x,
a VLIW DSP is presented. Through experiments on TMS320C6713
DSK, it is shown that H.263 encoder with the proposed SAD
implementation performs better than other H.263 encoder with other
SAD implementations, and that the code size of the optimal SAD
implementation is small enough to be appropriate for embedded
environments.
Abstract: The aim of this research is to develop a fast and
reliable surveillance system based on a personal digital assistant
(PDA) device. This is to extend the capability of the device to detect
moving objects which is already available in personal computers.
Secondly, to compare the performance between Background
subtraction (BS) and Temporal Frame Differencing (TFD) techniques
for PDA platform as to which is more suitable. In order to reduce
noise and to prepare frames for the moving object detection part,
each frame is first converted to a gray-scale representation and then
smoothed using a Gaussian low pass filter. Two moving object
detection schemes i.e., BS and TFD have been analyzed. The
background frame is updated by using Infinite Impulse Response
(IIR) filter so that the background frame is adapted to the varying
illuminate conditions and geometry settings. In order to reduce the
effect of noise pixels resulting from frame differencing
morphological filters erosion and dilation are applied. In this
research, it has been found that TFD technique is more suitable for
motion detection purpose than the BS in term of speed. On average
TFD is approximately 170 ms faster than the BS technique
Abstract: Traditional wind tunnel models are meticulously machined from metal in a process that can take several months. While very precise, the manufacturing process is too slow to assess a new design's feasibility quickly. Rapid prototyping technology makes this concurrent study of air vehicle concepts via computer simulation and in the wind tunnel possible. This paper described the Affects layer thickness models product with rapid prototyping on Aerodynamic Coefficients for Constructed wind tunnel testing models. Three models were evaluated. The first model was a 0.05mm layer thickness and Horizontal plane 0.1μm (Ra) second model was a 0.125mm layer thickness and Horizontal plane 0.22μm (Ra) third model was a 0.15mm layer thickness and Horizontal plane 4.6μm (Ra). These models were fabricated from somos 18420 by a stereolithography (SLA). A wing-body-tail configuration was chosen for the actual study. Testing covered the Mach range of Mach 0.3 to Mach 0.9 at an angle-of-attack range of -2° to +12° at zero sideslip. Coefficients of normal force, axial force, pitching moment, and lift over drag are shown at each of these Mach numbers. Results from this study show that layer thickness does have an effect on the aerodynamic characteristics in general; the data differ between the three models by fewer than 5%. The layer thickness does have more effect on the aerodynamic characteristics when Mach number is decreased and had most effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of axial force and its derivative coefficients.
Abstract: This paper studies the optimum design for reducing
optical loss of an 8x8 mechanical type optical switch due to the
temperature change. The 8x8 optical switch is composed of a base, 8
input fibers, 8 output fibers, 3 fixed mirrors and 17 movable mirrors.
First, an innovative switch configuration is proposed with
thermal-compensated design. Most mechanical type optical switches
have a disadvantage that their precision and accuracy are influenced
by the ambient temperature. Therefore, the thermal-compensated
design is to deal with this situation by using materials with different
thermal expansion coefficients (α). Second, a parametric modeling
program is developed to generate solid models for finite element
analysis, and the thermal and structural behaviors of the switch are
analyzed. Finally, an integrated optimum design program, combining
Autodesk Inventor Professional software, finite element analysis
software, and genetic algorithms, is developed for improving the
thermal behaviors that the optical loss of the switch is reduced. By
changing design parameters of the switch in the integrated design
program, the final optimum design that satisfies the design constraints
and specifications can be found.
Abstract: Place is a where dimension formed by people-s
relationship with physical settings, individual and group activities,
and meanings. 'Place Attachment', 'Place Identity'and 'Sense of
Place' are some concepts that could describe the quality of people-s
relationships with a place. The concept of Sense of place is used in
studying human-place bonding, attachment and place meaning. Sense
of Place usually is defined as an overarching impression
encompassing the general ways in which people feel about places,
senses it, and assign concepts and values to it. Sense of place is
highlighted in this article as one of the prevailing concepts among
place-based researches. Considering dimensions of sense of place has
always been beneficial for investigating public place attachment and
pro-environmental attitudes towards these places. The creation or
preservation of Sense of place is important in maintaining the quality
of the environment as well as the integrity of human life within it.
While many scholars argued that sense of place is a vague concept,
this paper will summarize and analyze the existing seminal literature.
Therefore, in this paper first the concept of Sense of place and its
characteristics will be examined afterward the scales of Sense of
place will be reviewed and the factors that contribute to form Sense
of place will be evaluated and finally Place Attachment as an
objective dimension for measuring the sense of place will be
described.
Abstract: Globalization, supported by information and
communication technologies, changes the rules of competitiveness
and increases the significance of information, knowledge and
network cooperation. In line with this trend, the need for efficient
trust-building tools has emerged. The absence of trust building
mechanisms and strategies was identified within several studies.
Through trust development, participation on e-business network and
usage of network services will increase and provide to SMEs new
economic benefits. This work is focused on effective trust building
strategies development for electronic business network platforms.
Based on trust building mechanism identification, the questionnairebased
analysis of its significance and minimum level of requirements
was conducted. In the paper, we are confirming the trust dependency
on e-Skills which play crucial role in higher level of trust into the
more sophisticated and complex trust building ICT solutions.
Abstract: ECG contains very important clinical information about the cardiac activities of the heart. Often the ECG signal needs to be captured for a long period of time in order to identify abnormalities in certain situations. Such signal apart of a large volume often is characterised by low quality due to the noise and other influences. In order to extract features in the ECG signal with time-varying characteristics at first need to be preprocessed with the best parameters. Also, it is useful to identify specific parts of the long lasting signal which have certain abnormalities and to direct the practitioner to those parts of the signal. In this work we present a method based on wavelet transform, standard deviation and variable threshold which achieves 100% accuracy in identifying the ECG signal peaks and heartbeat as well as identifying the standard deviation, providing a quick reference to abnormalities.
Abstract: A new fast correlation algorithm for calibrating the
wavelength of Optical Spectrum Analyzers (OSAs) was introduced
in [1]. The minima of acetylene gas spectra were measured and
correlated with saved theoretical data [2]. So it is possible to find the
correct wavelength calibration data using a noisy reference spectrum.
First tests showed good algorithmic performance for gas line spectra
with high noise. In this article extensive performance tests were made
to validate the noise resistance of this algorithm. The filter and
correlation parameters of the algorithm were optimized for improved
noise performance. With these parameters the performance of this
wavelength calibration was simulated to predict the resulting
wavelength error in real OSA systems. Long term simulations were
made to evaluate the performance of the algorithm over the lifetime
of a real OSA.
Abstract: The one of most important objects in implementation
of damage analysis observations is manner of dam break wave
propagation. In this paper velocity and wave height due dam break in
with and without tailwater states for appointment hazardous lands
and flood radius are investigate. In order to modeling above
phenomenon finite volume method of Roe type for solving shallow
water equations is used. Results indicated that in the dry bed state
risk radius due to dam break is too high. While in the wet bed risk
radius has a less wide. Therefore in the first state constructions and
storage facilities are encountered with destruction risk. Further
velocity due to dam break in the second state is more comparing to
the first state. Hence erosion and scour the river bed in the dry bed is
too more compare to the wet bed.
Abstract: The effects of irrigation with dairy factory wastewater on soil properties were investigated at two sites that had received irrigation for > 60 years. Two adjoining paired sites that had never received DFE were also sampled as well as another seven fields from a wider area around the factory. In comparison with paired sites that had not received effluent, long-term wastewater irrigation resulted in an increase in pH, EC, extractable P, exchangeable Na and K and ESP. These changes were related to the use of phosphoric acid, NaOH and KOH as cleaning agents in the factory. Soil organic C content was unaffected by DFE irrigation but the size (microbial biomass C and N) and activity (basal respiration) of the soil microbial community were increased. These increases were attributed to regular inputs of soluble C (e.g. lactose) present as milk residues in the wastewater. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the soils data from all 11sites confirmed that the main effects of DFE irrigation were an increase in exchangeable Na, extractable P and microbial biomass C, an accumulation of soluble salts and a liming effect. PCA analysis of soil bacterial community structure, using PCR-DGGE of 16S rDNA fragments, generally separated individual sites from one another but did not group them according to irrigation history. Thus, whilst the size and activity of the soil microbial community were increased, the structure and diversity of the bacterial community remained unaffected.
Abstract: For the past one decade, biclustering has become popular data mining technique not only in the field of biological data analysis but also in other applications like text mining, market data analysis with high-dimensional two-way datasets. Biclustering clusters both rows and columns of a dataset simultaneously, as opposed to traditional clustering which clusters either rows or columns of a dataset. It retrieves subgroups of objects that are similar in one subgroup of variables and different in the remaining variables. Firefly Algorithm (FA) is a recently-proposed metaheuristic inspired by the collective behavior of fireflies. This paper provides a preliminary assessment of discrete version of FA (DFA) while coping with the task of mining coherent and large volume bicluster from web usage dataset. The experiments were conducted on two web usage datasets from public dataset repository whereby the performance of FA was compared with that exhibited by other population-based metaheuristic called binary Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The results achieved demonstrate the usefulness of DFA while tackling the biclustering problem.
Abstract: The object of this work is the probabilistic performance evaluation of safety instrumented systems (SIS), i.e. the average probability of dangerous failure on demand (PFDavg) and the average frequency of failure (PFH), taking into account the uncertainties related to the different parameters that come into play: failure rate (λ), common cause failure proportion (β), diagnostic coverage (DC)... This leads to an accurate and safe assessment of the safety integrity level (SIL) inherent to the safety function performed by such systems. This aim is in keeping with the requirement of the IEC 61508 standard with respect to handling uncertainty. To do this, we propose an approach that combines (1) Monte Carlo simulation and (2) fuzzy sets. Indeed, the first method is appropriate where representative statistical data are available (using pdf of the relating parameters), while the latter applies in the case characterized by vague and subjective information (using membership function). The proposed approach is fully supported with a suitable computer code.
Abstract: When the characteristic length of an elastic solid is
down to the nanometer level, its deformation behavior becomes size
dependent. Surface energy /surface stress have recently been applied
to explain such dependency. In this paper, the effect of
strain-independent surface stress on the deformation of an isotropic
elastic solid containing a nanosized elliptical hole is studied by the
finite element method. Two loading cases are considered, in the first
case, hoop stress along the rim of the elliptical hole induced by pure
surface stress is studied, in the second case, hoop stress around the
elliptical opening under combined remote tension and surface stress is
investigated. It has been shown that positive surface stress induces
compressive hoop stress along the hole, and negative surface stress has
opposite effect, maximum hoop stress occurs near the major semi-axes
of the ellipse. Under combined loading of remote tension and surface
stress, stress concentration around the hole can be either intensified or
weakened depending on the sign of the surface stress.
Abstract: Environmental decision making, particularly about
hazardous waste management, is inherently exposed to a high
potential conflict, principally because of the trade-off between sociopolitical,
environmental, health and economic factors. The need to
plan complex contexts has led to an increasing request for decision
analytic techniques as support for the decision process. In this work,
alternative systems of asbestos-containing waste management
(ACW) in Puglia (Southern Italy) were explored by a multi-criteria
decision analysis. In particular, through Analytic Hierarchy Process
five alternatives management have been compared and ranked
according to their performance and efficiency, taking into account
environmental, health and socio-economic aspects. A separated
valuation has been performed for different temporal scale. For short
period results showed a narrow deviation between the disposal
alternatives “mono-material landfill in public quarry" and “dedicate
cells in existing landfill", with the best performance of the first one.
While for long period “treatment plant to eliminate hazard from
asbestos-containing waste" was prevalent, although high energy
demand required to achieve the change of crystalline structure. A
comparison with results from a participative approach in valuation
process might be considered as future development of method
application to ACW management.
Abstract: Intelligent schools are those which use IT devices and
technologies as media software, hardware and networks to improve
learning process. On the other hand Strategic management is a field
that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by
general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments. Here, we present a model Strategic Management System that has been applied on some schools and have made strict
improvement.
Abstract: Computational simulation of steam flow and heat transfer in power plant condensers on the basis of the threedimensional mathematical model for the flow through porous media is presented. In order to solve the mathematical model of steam flow and heat transfer in power plant condensers, the Streamline Upwind Petrov-Galerkin finite element method is applied. By comparison of the results of simulation with experimental results about an experimental condenser, it is confirmed that SUPG finite element method can be successfully applied for solving the three-dimensional mathematical model of steam flow and heat transfer in power plant condensers.
Abstract: Iris pattern is an important biological feature of human body; it becomes very hot topic in both research and practical applications. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for iris recognition and a simple, efficient and fast method is introduced to extract a set of discriminatory features using first order gradient operator applied on grayscale images. The gradient based features are robust, up to certain extents, against the variations may occur in contrast or brightness of iris image samples; the variations are mostly occur due lightening differences and camera changes. At first, the iris region is located, after that it is remapped to a rectangular area of size 360x60 pixels. Also, a new method is proposed for detecting eyelash and eyelid points; it depends on making image statistical analysis, to mark the eyelash and eyelid as a noise points. In order to cover the features localization (variation), the rectangular iris image is partitioned into N overlapped sub-images (blocks); then from each block a set of different average directional gradient densities values is calculated to be used as texture features vector. The applied gradient operators are taken along the horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions. The low order norms of gradient components were used to establish the feature vector. Euclidean distance based classifier was used as a matching metric for determining the degree of similarity between the features vector extracted from the tested iris image and template features vectors stored in the database. Experimental tests were performed using 2639 iris images from CASIA V4-Interival database, the attained recognition accuracy has reached up to 99.92%.
Abstract: Based on the one-bit-matching principle and by turning the de-mixing matrix into an orthogonal matrix via certain normalization, Ma et al proposed a one-bit-matching learning algorithm on the Stiefel manifold for independent component analysis [8]. But this algorithm is not adaptive. In this paper, an algorithm which can extract kurtosis and its sign of each independent source component directly from observation data is firstly introduced.With the algorithm , the one-bit-matching learning algorithm is revised, so that it can make the blind separation on the Stiefel manifold implemented completely in the adaptive mode in the framework of natural gradient.