Abstract: At present, intelligent planning in the Graphplan framework is a focus of artificial intelligence. While the Creating or Destroying Objects Planning (CDOP) is one unsolved problem of this field, one of the difficulties, too. In this paper, we study this planning problem and bring forward the idea of transforming objects to propositions, based on which we offer an algorithm, Creating or Destroying Objects in the Graphplan framework (CDOGP). Compared to Graphplan, the new algorithm can solve not only the entire problems that Graphplan do, but also a part of CDOP. It is for the first time that we introduce the idea of object-proposition, and we emphasize the discussion on the representations of creating or destroying objects operator and an algorithm in the Graphplan framework. In addition, we analyze the complexity of this algorithm.
Abstract: In this article, we expose our research work in
Human-machine Interaction. The research consists in manipulating
the workspace by eyes. We present some of our results, in particular
the detection of eyes and the mouse actions recognition. Indeed, the
handicaped user becomes able to interact with the machine in a more
intuitive way in diverse applications and contexts. To test our
application we have chooses to work in real time on videos captured
by a camera placed in front of the user.
Abstract: A talking head system (THS) is presented to animate
the face of a speaking 3D avatar in such a way that it realistically
pronounces the given Korean text. The proposed system consists of
SAPI compliant text-to-speech (TTS) engine and MPEG-4 compliant
face animation generator. The input to the THS is a unicode text that is
to be spoken with synchronized lip shape. The TTS engine generates a
phoneme sequence with their duration and audio data. The TTS
applies the coarticulation rules to the phoneme sequence and sends a
mouth animation sequence to the face modeler. The proposed THS can
make more natural lip sync and facial expression by using the face
animation generator than those using the conventional visemes only.
The experimental results show that our system has great potential for
the implementation of talking head for Korean text.
Abstract: This paper presents an algorithm to estimate the parameters of two closely spaced sinusoids, providing a frequency resolution that is more than 800 times greater than that obtained by using the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). The strategy uses a highly optimized grid search approach to accurately estimate frequency, amplitude and phase of both sinusoids, keeping at the same time the computational effort at reasonable levels. The proposed method has three main characteristics: 1) a high frequency resolution; 2) frequency, amplitude and phase are all estimated at once using one single package; 3) it does not rely on any statistical assumption or constraint. Potential applications to this strategy include the difficult task of resolving coincident partials of instruments in musical signals.
Abstract: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an imaging radar form by taking full advantage of the relative movement of the antenna with respect to the target. Through the simultaneous processing of the radar reflections over the movement of the antenna via the Range Doppler Algorithm (RDA), the superior resolution of a theoretical wider antenna, termed synthetic aperture, is obtained. Therefore, SAR can achieve high resolution two dimensional imagery of the ground surface. In addition, two filtering steps in range and azimuth direction provide accurate enough result. This paper develops a simulation in which realistic SAR images can be generated. Also, the effect of velocity errors in the resulting image has also been investigated. Taking some velocity errors into account, the simulation results on the image resolution would be presented. Most of the times, algorithms need to be adjusted for particular datasets, or particular applications.
Abstract: This article investigates a contribution of synthesized visual speech. Synthesis of visual speech expressed by a computer consists in an animation in particular movements of lips. Visual speech is also necessary part of the non-manual component of a sign language. Appropriate methodology is proposed to determine the quality and the accuracy of synthesized visual speech. Proposed methodology is inspected on Czech speech. Hence, this article presents a procedure of recording of speech data in order to set a synthesis system as well as to evaluate synthesized speech. Furthermore, one option of the evaluation process is elaborated in the form of a perceptual test. This test procedure is verified on the measured data with two settings of the synthesis system. The results of the perceptual test are presented as a statistically significant increase of intelligibility evoked by real and synthesized visual speech. Now, the aim is to show one part of evaluation process which leads to more comprehensive evaluation of the sign speech synthesis system.
Abstract: Accounts of language acquisition differ significantly in their treatment of the role of prediction in language learning. In particular, nativist accounts posit that probabilistic learning about words and word sequences has little to do with how children come to use language. The accuracy of this claim was examined by testing whether distributional probabilities and frequency contributed to how well 3-4 year olds repeat simple word chunks. Corresponding chunks were the same length, expressed similar content, and were all grammatically acceptable, yet the results of the study showed marked differences in performance when overall distributional frequency varied. It was found that a distributional model of language predicted the empirical findings better than a number of other models, replicating earlier findings and showing that children attend to distributional probabilities in an adult corpus. This suggested that language is more prediction-and-error based, rather than on abstract rules which nativist camps suggest.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the
controversial subject of tax incentives to promote regional
development. Although extensive research has been conducted, a
review of the literature gives an inconclusive answer to whether
economic incentives are effective. One reason is the fact that for
some researchers “effective" means the significant location of new
firms in targeted areas, while for others the creation of jobs
regardless if new firms are arriving in a significant fashion. We
present this dichotomy by analyzing a tax incentive program via both
alternatives: location and job creation. The contribution of the paper
is to inform policymakers about the potential opportunities and
pitfalls when designing incentive strategies. This is particularly
relevant, given that both the US and Europe have been promoting
incentives as a tool for regional economic development.
Abstract: The Kowsar dam supply water for different usages
such as drinking, industrial, agricultural and aquaculture farms
usages and located next to the city of Dehdashat in Kohgiluye and
Boyerahmad province in southern Iran. There are some towns and
villages on the Kowsar dam watersheds, which Dehdasht and Choram
are the most important and populated cities in this area. The study
was undertaken to assess the status of water quality in the urban areas
of the Kowsar dam. A total of 28 water samples were collected from
6 stations on surface water and 1 station from groundwater on the
watershed of the Kowsar dam. All the samples were analyzed for Ni
concentration using standard procedures. The results were compared
with other national and international standards. Among the analyzed
samples, as the maximum value of Nickel (0.01 mg/L) was observed
on the station 2 at the autumn 2010, all the samples analyzed were
within the maximum admissible limits by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency, EU, WHO and the Iranian. In
general results of the present study have shown that a Ni mean value
of station No. 2 with 0.006 mg/L is higher than the other stations. Ni
level of all samples and stations have had normal values and this is an
indication of pollution potential and hazards because of human
activity and waste water of towns in the areas, which can effect on
human health implications in future. This research, therefore,
recommends the government and other responsible authorities to take
suitable improving measures in the Kowsar dam watersheds.
Abstract: In a state-of-the-art industrial production line of
photovoltaic products the handling and automation processes are of
particular importance and implication. While processing a fully
functional crystalline solar cell an as-cut photovoltaic wafer is subject
to numerous repeated handling steps. With respect to stronger
requirements in productivity and decreasing rejections due to defects
the mechanical stress on the thin wafers has to be reduced to a
minimum as the fragility increases by decreasing wafer thicknesses.
In relation to the increasing wafer fragility, researches at the
Fraunhofer Institutes IPA and CSP showed a negative correlation
between multiple handling processes and the wafer integrity. Recent
work therefore focused on the analysis and optimization of the dry
wafer stack separation process with compressed air. The achievement
of a wafer sensitive process capability and a high production
throughput rate is the basic motivation in this research.
Abstract: Low temperature (LT) is one of the most abiotic
stresses causing loss of yield in wheat (T. aestivum). Four major
genes in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) with the dominant alleles
designated Vrn–A1,Vrn–B1,Vrn–D1 and Vrn4, are known to have
large effects on the vernalization response, but the effects on cold
hardiness are ambiguous. Poor cold tolerance has restricted winter
wheat production in regions of high winter stress [9]. It was known
that nearly all wheat chromosomes [5] or at least 10 chromosomes of
21 chromosome pairs are important in winter hardiness [15]. The
objective of present study was to clarify the role of each chromosome
in cold tolerance. With this purpose we used 20 isogenic lines of
wheat. In each one of these isogenic lines only a chromosome from
‘Bezostaya’ variety (a winter habit cultivar) was substituted to
‘Capple desprez’ variety. The plant materials were planted in
controlled conditions with 20º C and 16 h day length in moderately
cold areas of Iran at Karaj Agricultural Research Station in 2006-07
and the acclimation period was completed for about 4 weeks in a
cold room with 4º C. The cold hardiness of these isogenic lines was
measured by LT50 (the temperature in which 50% of the plants are
killed by freezing stress).The experimental design was completely
randomized block design (RCBD)with three replicates. The results
showed that chromosome 5A had a major effect on freezing
tolerance, and then chromosomes 1A and 4A had less effect on this
trait. Further studies are essential to understanding the importance of
each chromosome in controlling cold hardiness in wheat.
Abstract: Bicycle usage for exercise, recreation, and commuting
to work in Australia shows that pedal cycling is the fourth most
popular activity with 10.6% increase in participants between 2001
and 2007. As with other means of transport, accident and injury
becomes common although mandatory bicycle helmet wearing has
been introduced. The research aims to develop a face surrogate made
of sandwich of rigid foam and rubber sheets to represent human
facial bone under blunt impact. The facial surrogate will serve as an
important test device for further development of facial-impact
protection for cyclist. A test procedure was developed to simulate the
energy of impact and record data to evaluate the effect of impact on
facial bones. Drop tests were performed to establish a suitable
combination of materials. It was found that the sandwich structure of
rigid extruded-polystyrene foam (density of 40 kg/m3 with a pattern
of 6-mm-holes), Neoprene rubber sponge, and Abrasaflex rubber
backing, had impact characteristics comparable to that of human
facial bone. In particular, the foam thickness of 30 mm and 25 mm
was found suitable to represent human zygoma (cheekbone) and
maxilla (upper-jaw bone), respectively.
Abstract: The present paper discusses the selection of process
parameters for obtaining optimal nanocrystallites size in the CuOZrO2
catalyst. There are some parameters changing the inorganic
structure which have an influence on the role of hydrolysis and
condensation reaction. A statistical design test method is
implemented in order to optimize the experimental conditions of
CuO-ZrO2 nanoparticles preparation. This method is applied for the
experiments and L16 orthogonal array standard. The crystallites size
is considered as an index. This index will be used for the analysis in
the condition where the parameters vary. The effect of pH, H2O/
precursor molar ratio (R), time and temperature of calcination,
chelating agent and alcohol volume are particularity investigated
among all other parameters. In accordance with the results of
Taguchi, it is found that temperature has the greatest impact on the
particle size. The pH and H2O/ precursor molar ratio have low
influences as compared with temperature. The alcohol volume as
well as the time has almost no effect as compared with all other
parameters. Temperature also has an influence on the morphology
and amorphous structure of zirconia. The optimal conditions are
determined by using Taguchi method. The nanocatalyst is studied by
DTA-TG, XRD, EDS, SEM and TEM. The results of this research
indicate that it is possible to vary the structure, morphology and
properties of the sol-gel by controlling the above-mentioned
parameters.
Abstract: Self-organizing map (SOM) is a well known data
reduction technique used in data mining. It can reveal structure in
data sets through data visualization that is otherwise hard to detect
from raw data alone. However, interpretation through visual
inspection is prone to errors and can be very tedious. There are
several techniques for the automatic detection of clusters of code
vectors found by SOM, but they generally do not take into account
the distribution of code vectors; this may lead to unsatisfactory
clustering and poor definition of cluster boundaries, particularly
where the density of data points is low. In this paper, we propose the
use of an adaptive heuristic particle swarm optimization (PSO)
algorithm for finding cluster boundaries directly from the code
vectors obtained from SOM. The application of our method to
several standard data sets demonstrates its feasibility. PSO algorithm
utilizes a so-called U-matrix of SOM to determine cluster boundaries;
the results of this novel automatic method compare very favorably to
boundary detection through traditional algorithms namely k-means
and hierarchical based approach which are normally used to interpret
the output of SOM.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was primarily assessing how important economic factors namely: The Thai export price of white rice, the exchange rate, and the world rice consumption affect the overall Thai white rice export, using historical data during the period 1989-2013 from the Thai Rice Exporters Association, and Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. The co-integration method, regression analysis, and error correction model were applied to investigate the econometric model. The findings indicated that in the long-run, the world rice consumption, the exchange rate, and the Thai export price of white rice were the important factors affecting the export quantity of Thai white rice respectively, as indicated by their significant coefficients. Meanwhile, the rice export price was an important factor affecting the export quantity of Thai white rice in the short-run. This information is useful in the business, export opportunities, price competitiveness, and policymaker in Thailand.
Abstract: We propose a reduced-ordermodel for the instantaneous
hydrodynamic force on a cylinder. The model consists of a system of
two ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which can be integrated
in time to yield very accurate histories of the resultant force and
its direction. In contrast to several existing models, the proposed
model considers the actual (total) hydrodynamic force rather than its
perpendicular or parallel projection (the lift and drag), and captures
the complete force rather than the oscillatory part only. We study
and provide descriptions of the relationship between the model
parameters, evaluated utilizing results from numerical simulations,
and the Reynolds number so that the model can be used at any
arbitrary value within the considered range of 100 to 500 to provide
accurate representation of the force without the need to perform timeconsuming
simulations and solving the partial differential equations
(PDEs) governing the flow field.
Abstract: We report the results of an lattice Boltzmann
simulation of magnetohydrodynamic damping of sidewall convection
in a rectangular enclosure filled with a porous medium. In particular
we investigate the suppression of convection when a steady magnetic
field is applied in the vertical direction. The left and right vertical
walls of the cavity are kept at constant but different temperatures
while both the top and bottom horizontal walls are insulated. The
effects of the controlling parameters involved in the heat transfer and
hydrodynamic characteristics are studied in detail. The heat and mass
transfer mechanisms and the flow characteristics inside the enclosure
depended strongly on the strength of the magnetic field and Darcy
number. The average Nusselt number decreases with rising values of
the Hartmann number while this increases with increasing values of
the Darcy number.
Abstract: Fuzzy fingerprint vault is a recently developed cryptographic construct based on the polynomial reconstruction problem to secure critical data with the fingerprint data. However, the previous researches are not applicable to the fingerprint having a few minutiae since they use a fixed degree of the polynomial without considering the number of fingerprint minutiae. To solve this problem, we use an adaptive degree of the polynomial considering the number of minutiae extracted from each user. Also, we apply multiple polynomials to avoid the possible degradation of the security of a simple solution(i.e., using a low-degree polynomial). Based on the experimental results, our method can make the possible attack difficult 2192 times more than using a low-degree polynomial as well as verify the users having a few minutiae.
Abstract: This paper presents the outcomes of a qualitative
study which aims to investigate the pedagogical potentials of serious
games in the preparation of future teachers. The authors discuss the
existing problems and barriers associated with the organization of
teaching practices in Bulgaria as part of the pre-service teacher
training, as well as the attitudes and perceptions of the interviewed
academics, teachers and trainees concerning the integration of serious
games in the teaching practicum. The study outcomes strongly
confirm the positive attitudes of the respondents to the introduction
of virtual learning environments for the development of professional
skills of future teachers as a supplement to the traditional forms of
education. Through the inclusion of serious games it is expected to
improve the quality of practical training of pre-service teachers as
they overcome many of the problems identified in the existing
teaching practices. The outcomes of the study will inform the design
of the educational simulation software which is part of the project
SimAula Tomorrow's Teachers Training.
Abstract: Renewable water resources are crucial production
variables in arid and semi-arid regions where intensive agriculture is
practiced to meet ever-increasing demand for food and fiber. This is
crucial for the Dez and Moghan command areas where water delivery
problems and adverse environmental issues are widespread. This
paper aims to identify major problems areas using on-farm surveys of
200 farmers, agricultural extensionists and water suppliers which was
complemented by secondary data and field observations during 2010-
2011 cultivating season. The SPSS package was used to analyze and
synthesis data. Results indicated inappropriate canal operations in
both schemes, though there was no unanimity about the underlying
causes. Inequitable and inflexible distribution was found to be rooted
in deficient hydraulic structures particularly in the main and
secondary canals. The inadequacy and inflexibility of water
scheduling regime was the underlying causes of recurring pest and
disease spread which often led to the decline of crop yield and
quality, although these were not disputed, the water suppliers were
not prepared to link with the deficiencies in the operation of the main
and secondary canals. They rather attributed these to the prevailing
salinity; alkalinity, water table fluctuations and leaching of the
valuable agro-chemical inputs from the plants- route zone with farreaching
consequences. Examples of these include the pollution of
ground and surface resources due to over-irrigation at the farm level
which falls under the growers- own responsibility. Poor irrigation
efficiency and adverse environmental problems were attributed to
deficient and outdated farming practices that were in turn rooted in
poor extension programs and irrational water charges.