Spatio-Temporal Video Slice Edges Analysis for Shot Transition Detection and Classification

In this work we will present a new approach for shot transition auto-detection. Our approach is based on the analysis of Spatio-Temporal Video Slice (STVS) edges extracted from videos. The proposed approach is capable to efficiently detect both abrupt shot transitions 'cuts' and gradual ones such as fade-in, fade-out and dissolve. Compared to other techniques, our method is distinguished by its high level of precision and speed. Those performances are obtained due to minimizing the problem of the boundary shot detection to a simple 2D image partitioning problem.

A Novel Optimal Setting for Directional over Current Relay Coordination using Particle Swarm Optimization

Over Current Relays (OCRs) and Directional Over Current Relays (DOCRs) are widely used for the radial protection and ring sub transmission protection systems and for distribution systems. All previous work formulates the DOCR coordination problem either as a Non-Linear Programming (NLP) for TDS and Ip or as a Linear Programming (LP) for TDS using recently a social behavior (Particle Swarm Optimization techniques) introduced to the work. In this paper, a Modified Particle Swarm Optimization (MPSO) technique is discussed for the optimal settings of DOCRs in power systems as a Non-Linear Programming problem for finding Ip values of the relays and for finding the TDS setting as a linear programming problem. The calculation of the Time Dial Setting (TDS) and the pickup current (Ip) setting of the relays is the core of the coordination study. PSO technique is considered as realistic and powerful solution schemes to obtain the global or quasi global optimum in optimization problem.

Locating Critical Failure Surface in Rock Slope Stability with Hybrid Model Based on Artificial Immune System and Cellular Learning Automata (CLA-AIS)

Locating the critical slip surface with the minimum factor of safety for a rock slope is a difficult problem. In recent years, some modern global optimization methods have been developed with success in treating various types of problems, but very few of such methods have been applied to rock mechanical problems. In this paper, use of hybrid model based on artificial immune system and cellular learning automata is proposed. The results show that the algorithm is an effective and efficient optimization method with a high level of confidence rate.

Tuning of Power System Stabilizers in a Multi- Machine Power System using C-Catfish PSO

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the enhancement of power system stability via coordinated tuning of Power System Stabilizers (PSSs) in a multi-machine power system. The design problem of the proposed controllers is formulated as an optimization problem. Chaotic catfish particle swarm optimization (C-Catfish PSO) algorithm is used to minimize the ITAE objective function. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on a two-area, 4- machines system. The robustness of the proposed algorithm is verified on this system under different operating conditions and applying a three-phase fault. The nonlinear time-domain simulation results and some performance indices show the effectiveness of the proposed controller in damping power system oscillations and this novel optimization algorithm is compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO).

Detecting Defects in Textile Fabrics with Optimal Gabor Filters

This paper investigates the problem of automated defect detection for textile fabrics and proposes a new optimal filter design method to solve this problem. Gabor Wavelet Network (GWN) is chosen as the major technique to extract the texture features from textile fabrics. Based on the features extracted, an optimal Gabor filter can be designed. In view of this optimal filter, a new semi-supervised defect detection scheme is proposed, which consists of one real-valued Gabor filter and one smoothing filter. The performance of the scheme is evaluated by using an offline test database with 78 homogeneous textile images. The test results exhibit accurate defect detection with low false alarm, thus showing the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed scheme. To evaluate the detection scheme comprehensively, a prototyped detection system is developed to conduct a real time test. The experiment results obtained confirm the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed detection scheme.

Heuristic Optimization Techniques for Network Reconfiguration in Distribution System

Network reconfiguration is an operation to modify the network topology. The implementation of network reconfiguration has many advantages such as loss minimization, increasing system security and others. In this paper, two topics about the network reconfiguration in distribution system are briefly described. The first topic summarizes its impacts while the second explains some heuristic optimization techniques for solving the network reconfiguration problem.

The Number of Rational Points on Elliptic Curves and Circles over Finite Fields

In elliptic curve theory, number of rational points on elliptic curves and determination of these points is a fairly important problem. Let p be a prime and Fp be a finite field and k ∈ Fp. It is well known that which points the curve y2 = x3 + kx has and the number of rational points of on Fp. Consider the circle family x2 + y2 = r2. It can be interesting to determine common points of these two curve families and to find the number of these common points. In this work we study this problem.

K-Means for Spherical Clusters with Large Variance in Sizes

Data clustering is an important data exploration technique with many applications in data mining. The k-means algorithm is well known for its efficiency in clustering large data sets. However, this algorithm is suitable for spherical shaped clusters of similar sizes and densities. The quality of the resulting clusters decreases when the data set contains spherical shaped with large variance in sizes. In this paper, we introduce a competent procedure to overcome this problem. The proposed method is based on shifting the center of the large cluster toward the small cluster, and recomputing the membership of small cluster points, the experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm produces satisfactory results.

Face Reconstruction and Camera Pose Using Multi-dimensional Descent

This paper aims to propose a novel, robust, and simple method for obtaining a human 3D face model and camera pose (position and orientation) from a video sequence. Given a video sequence of a face recorded from an off-the-shelf digital camera, feature points used to define facial parts are tracked using the Active- Appearance Model (AAM). Then, the face-s 3D structure and camera pose of each video frame can be simultaneously calculated from the obtained point correspondences. This proposed method is primarily based on the combined approaches of Gradient Descent and Powell-s Multidimensional Minimization. Using this proposed method, temporarily occluded point including the case of self-occlusion does not pose a problem. As long as the point correspondences displayed in the video sequence have enough parallax, these missing points can still be reconstructed.

Fusion Filters Weighted by Scalars and Matrices for Linear Systems

An optimal mean-square fusion formulas with scalar and matrix weights are presented. The relationship between them is established. The fusion formulas are compared on the continuous-time filtering problem. The basic differential equation for cross-covariance of the local errors being the key quantity for distributed fusion is derived. It is shown that the fusion filters are effective for multi-sensor systems containing different types of sensors. An example demonstrating the reasonable good accuracy of the proposed filters is given.

A Generic Approach to Achieve Optimal Server Consolidation by Using Existing Servers in Virtualized Data Center

Virtualization-based server consolidation has been proven to be an ideal technique to solve the server sprawl problem by consolidating multiple virtualized servers onto a few physical servers leading to improved resource utilization and return on investment. In this paper, we solve this problem by using existing servers, which are heterogeneous and diversely preferred by IT managers. Five practical consolidation rules are introduced, and a decision model is proposed to optimally allocate source services to physical target servers while maximizing the average resource utilization and preference value. Our model can be regarded as a multi-objective multi-dimension bin-packing (MOMDBP) problem with constraints, which is strongly NP-hard. An improved grouping generic algorithm (GGA) is introduced for the problem. Extensive simulations were performed and the results are given.

Optimization of Unweighted Minimum Vertex Cover

The Minimum Vertex Cover (MVC) problem is a classic graph optimization NP - complete problem. In this paper a competent algorithm, called Vertex Support Algorithm (VSA), is designed to find the smallest vertex cover of a graph. The VSA is tested on a large number of random graphs and DIMACS benchmark graphs. Comparative study of this algorithm with the other existing methods has been carried out. Extensive simulation results show that the VSA can yield better solutions than other existing algorithms found in the literature for solving the minimum vertex cover problem.

Measuring Cognitive Load - A Solution to Ease Learning of Programming

Learning programming is difficult for many learners. Some researches have found that the main difficulty relates to cognitive load. Cognitive overload happens in programming due to the nature of the subject which is intrinisicly over-bearing on the working memory. It happens due to the complexity of the subject itself. The problem is made worse by the poor instructional design methodology used in the teaching and learning process. Various efforts have been proposed to reduce the cognitive load, e.g. visualization softwares, part-program method etc. Use of many computer based systems have also been tried to tackle the problem. However, little success has been made to alleviate the problem. More has to be done to overcome this hurdle. This research attempts at understanding how cognitive load can be managed so as to reduce the problem of overloading. We propose a mechanism to measure the cognitive load during pre instruction, post instruction and in instructional stages of learning. This mechanism is used to help the instruction. As the load changes the instruction is made to adapt itself to ensure cognitive viability. This mechanism could be incorporated as a sub domain in the student model of various computer based instructional systems to facilitate the learning of programming.

Evolutionary Algorithms for the Multiobjective Shortest Path Problem

This paper presents an overview of the multiobjective shortest path problem (MSPP) and a review of essential and recent issues regarding the methods to its solution. The paper further explores a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm as applied to the MSPP and describes its behavior in terms of diversity of solutions, computational complexity, and optimality of solutions. Results show that the evolutionary algorithm can find diverse solutions to the MSPP in polynomial time (based on several network instances) and can be an alternative when other methods are trapped by the tractability problem.

Design of a Fuzzy Feed-forward Controller for Monitor HAGC System of Cold Rolling Mill

In this study we propose a novel monitor hydraulic automatic gauge control (HAGC) system based on fuzzy feedforward controller. This is used in the development of cold rolling mill automation system to improve the quality of cold strip. According to features/ properties of entry steel strip like its average yield stress, width of strip, and desired exit thickness, this controller realizes the compensation for the exit thickness error. The traditional methods of adjusting the roller position, can-t tolerate the variance in the entry steel strip. The proposed method uses a mathematical model of the system together with the expert knowledge to perform this adjustment while minimizing the effect of the stated problem. In order to improve the speed of the controller in rejecting disturbances introduced by entry strip thickness variations, expert knowledge is added as a feed-forward term to the HAGC system. Simulation results for the application of the proposed controller to a real cold mill show that the exit strip quality is highly improved.

Two Individual Genetic Algorithm

The particular interests of this paper is to explore if the simple Genetic Algorithms (GA) starts with population of only two individuals and applying different crossover technique over these parents to produced 104 children, each one has different attributes inherited from their parents; is better than starting with population of 100 individuals; and using only one type crossover (order crossover OX). For this reason we implement GA with 52 different crossover techniques; each one produce two children; which means 104 different children will be produced and this may discover more search space, also we implement classic GA with order crossover and many experiments were done over 3 Travel Salesman Problem (TSP) to find out which method is better, and according to the results we can say that GA with Multi-crossovers is much better.

Adaptive Early Packet Discarding Policy Based on Two Traffic Classes

Unlike the best effort service provided by the internet today, next-generation wireless networks will support real-time applications. This paper proposes an adaptive early packet discard (AEPD) policy to improve the performance of the real time TCP traffic over ATM networks and avoid the fragmentation problem. Three main aspects are incorporated in the proposed policy. First, providing quality-of-service (QoS) guaranteed for real-time applications by implementing a priority scheduling. Second, resolving the partially corrupted packets problem by differentiating the buffered cells of one packet from another. Third, adapting a threshold dynamically using Fuzzy logic based on the traffic behavior to maintain a high throughput under a variety of load conditions. The simulation is run for two priority classes of the input traffic: real time and non-real time classes. Simulation results show that the proposed AEPD policy improves throughput and fairness over that using static threshold under the same traffic conditions.

The Knapsack Sharing Problem: A Tree Search Exact Algorithm

In this paper, we study the knapsack sharing problem, a variant of the well-known NP-Hard single knapsack problem. We investigate the use of a tree search for optimally solving the problem. The used method combines two complementary phases: a reduction interval search phase and a branch and bound procedure one. First, the reduction phase applies a polynomial reduction strategy; that is used for decomposing the problem into a series of knapsack problems. Second, the tree search procedure is applied in order to attain a set of optimal capacities characterizing the knapsack problems. Finally, the performance of the proposed optimal algorithm is evaluated on a set of instances of the literature and its runtime is compared to the best exact algorithm of the literature.

Project Selection Using Fuzzy Group Analytic Network Process

This paper deals with the project selection problem. Project selection problem is one of the problems arose firstly in the field of operations research following some production concepts from primary product mix problem. Afterward, introduction of managerial considerations into the project selection problem have emerged qualitative factors and criteria to be regarded as well as quantitative ones. To overcome both kinds of criteria, an analytic network process is developed in this paper enhanced with fuzzy sets theory to tackle the vagueness of experts- comments to evaluate the alternatives. Additionally, a modified version of Least-Square method through a non-linear programming model is augmented to the developed group decision making structure in order to elicit the final weights from comparison matrices. Finally, a case study is considered by which developed structure in this paper is validated. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis is performed to validate the response of the model with respect to the condition alteration.

Combining Diverse Neural Classifiers for Complex Problem Solving: An ECOC Approach

Combining classifiers is a useful method for solving complex problems in machine learning. The ECOC (Error Correcting Output Codes) method has been widely used for designing combining classifiers with an emphasis on the diversity of classifiers. In this paper, in contrast to the standard ECOC approach in which individual classifiers are chosen homogeneously, classifiers are selected according to the complexity of the corresponding binary problem. We use SATIMAGE database (containing 6 classes) for our experiments. The recognition error rate in our proposed method is %10.37 which indicates a considerable improvement in comparison with the conventional ECOC and stack generalization methods.