Abstract: Authentication of multimedia contents has gained much attention in recent times. In this paper, we propose a secure semi-fragile watermarking, with a choice of two watermarks to be embedded. This technique operates in integer wavelet domain and makes use of semi fragile watermarks for achieving better robustness. A self-recovering algorithm is employed, that hides the image digest into some Wavelet subbands to detect possible malevolent object manipulation undergone by the image (object replacing and/or deletion). The Semi-fragility makes the scheme tolerant for JPEG lossy compression as low as quality of 70%, and locate the tempered area accurately. In addition, the system ensures more security because the embedded watermarks are protected with private keys. The computational complexity is reduced using parameterized integer wavelet transform. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme guarantees the safety of watermark, image recovery and location of the tempered area accurately.
Abstract: Reentry trajectory optimization is a multi-constraints
optimal control problem which is hard to solve. To tackle it, we
proposed a new algorithm named CDEN(Constrained Differential
Evolution Newton-Raphson Algorithm) based on Differential Evolution(
DE) and Newton-Raphson.We transform the infinite dimensional
optimal control problem to parameter optimization which is finite
dimensional by discretize control parameter. In order to simplify
the problem, we figure out the control parameter-s scope by process
constraints. To handle constraints, we proposed a parameterless constraints
handle process. Through comprehensive analyze the problem,
we use a new algorithm integrated by DE and Newton-Raphson to
solve it. It is validated by a reentry vehicle X-33, simulation results
indicated that the algorithm is effective and robust.
Abstract: The Expert Witness Testimony in the Battered
Woman Syndrome Expert witness testimony (EWT) is a kind of
information given by an expert specialized in the field (here in BWS)
to the jury in order to help the court better understand the case. EWT
does not always work in favor of the battered women. Two main
decision-making models are discussed in the paper: the Mathematical
model and the Explanation model. In the first model, the jurors
calculate ″the importance and strength of each piece of evidence″
whereas in the second model they try to integrate the EWT with the
evidence and create a coherent story that would describe the crime.
The jury often misunderstands and misjudges battered women for
their action (or in this case inaction). They assume that these women
are masochists and accept being mistreated for if a man abuses a
woman constantly, she should and could divorce him or simply leave
at any time. The research in the domain found that indeed, expert
witness testimony has a powerful influence on juror’s decisions thus
its quality needs to be further explored. One of the important factors
that need further studies is a bias called the dispositionist worldview
(a belief that what happens to people is of their own doing). This
kind of attributional bias represents a tendency to think that a
person’s behavior is due to his or her disposition, even when the
behavior is clearly attributed to the situation. Hypothesis The
hypothesis of this paper is that if a juror has a dispositionist
worldview then he or she will blame the rape victim for triggering the
assault. The juror would therefore commit the fundamental
attribution error and believe that the victim’s disposition caused the
rape and not the situation she was in. Methods The subjects in the
study were 500 randomly sampled undergraduate students from
McGill, Concordia, Université de Montréal and UQAM.
Dispositional Worldview was scored on the Dispositionist
Worldview Questionnaire. After reading the Rape Scenarios, each
student was asked to play the role of a juror and answer a
questionnaire consisting of 7 questions about the responsibility,
causality and fault of the victim. Results The results confirm the
hypothesis which states that if a juror has a dispositionist worldview
then he or she will blame the rape victim for triggering the assault.
By doing so, the juror commits the fundamental attribution error
because he will believe that the victim’s disposition, and not the
constraints or opportunities of the situation, caused the rape scenario.
Abstract: Reinforced concrete stair slabs with mid landings i.e.
Dog-legged shaped are conventionally designed as per specifications
of standard codes of practices which guide about the effective span
according to the varying support conditions. Presently, the behavior
of such slabs has been investigated using Finite Element method. A
single flight stair slab with landings on both sides and supported at
ends on wall, and a multi flight stair slab with landings and six
different support arrangements have been analyzed. The results
obtained for stresses, strains and deflections are used to describe the
behavior of such stair slabs, including locations of critical moments
and deflections. Values of critical moments obtained by F.E. analysis
have also have been compared with that obtained from conventional
analysis. Analytical results show that the moments are also critical
near the kinks i.e. junction of mid-landing and inclined waist slab.
This change in the behavior of dog-legged stair slab may be due to
continuity of the material in transverse direction in two landings
adjoining the waist slab, hence additional stiffness achieved. This
change in the behavior is generally not taken care of in conventional
method of design.
Abstract: Designing modern machine tools is a complex task. A
simulation tool to aid the design work, a virtual machine, has
therefore been developed in earlier work. The virtual machine
considers the interaction between the mechanics of the machine
(including structural flexibility) and the control system. This paper
exemplifies the usefulness of the virtual machine as a tool for product
development. An optimisation study is conducted aiming at
improving the existing design of a machine tool regarding weight and
manufacturing accuracy at maintained manufacturing speed. The
problem can be categorised as constrained multidisciplinary multiobjective
multivariable optimisation. Parameters of the control and
geometric quantities of the machine are used as design variables. This
results in a mix of continuous and discrete variables and an
optimisation approach using a genetic algorithm is therefore
deployed. The accuracy objective is evaluated according to
international standards. The complete systems model shows nondeterministic
behaviour. A strategy to handle this based on statistical
analysis is suggested. The weight of the main moving parts is reduced
by more than 30 per cent and the manufacturing accuracy is
improvement by more than 60 per cent compared to the original
design, with no reduction in manufacturing speed. It is also shown
that interaction effects exist between the mechanics and the control,
i.e. this improvement would most likely not been possible with a
conventional sequential design approach within the same time, cost
and general resource frame. This indicates the potential of the virtual
machine concept for contributing to improved efficiency of both
complex products and the development process for such products.
Companies incorporating such advanced simulation tools in their
product development could thus improve its own competitiveness as
well as contribute to improved resource efficiency of society at large.
Abstract: CFlow is a flow chart software, it contains facilities to
draw and evaluate a flow chart. A flow chart evaluation applies a
simulation method to enable presentation of work flow in a flow
chart solution. Flow chart simulation of CFlow is executed by
manipulating the CFlow data file which is saved in a graphical vector
format. These text-based data are organised by using a data
classification technic based on a Library classification-scheme. This
paper describes the file format for flow chart simulation software of
CFlow.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to survey the effect of
organizational communication system on the conflict in physical
education offices of Isfahan province. The research methodology of
this research was a descriptive study. All employees working in
physical education offices of Isfahan province were included in the
sample for this study (N= 236). Researcher made questionnaire and
demographic questionnaire were used as investigation instruments.
Based on the result of chi square test, there is significant difference
between organizational communication system and interpersonal
conflict. The most of participants evaluate communication in an
informal way and pointed out that the communication channels were
not open. Based on the result of binomial test, interpersonal conflict
exists in physical education offices of Isfahan.
Abstract: Artemia is one of the most conspicuous invertebrates
associated with aquaculture. It can be considered as a model
organism, offering numerous advantages for comprehensive and
multidisciplinary studies using morphologic or molecular methods.
Since DNA extraction is an important step of any molecular
experiment, a new and a rapid method of DNA extraction from adult
Artemia was described in this study. Besides, the efficiency of this
technique was compared with two widely used alternative techniques,
namely Chelex® 100 resin and SDS-chloroform methods. Data
analysis revealed that the new method is the easiest and the most cost
effective method among the other methods which allows a quick and
efficient extraction of DNA from the adult animal.
Abstract: It is an important problem to compute the geodesics on
a surface in many fields. To find the geodesics in practice, however,
the traditional discrete algorithms or numerical approaches can only
find a list of discrete points. The first author proposed in 2010 a new,
elegant and accurate method, the geodesic-like method, for
approximating geodesics on a regular surface. This paper will present
by use of this method a computation of the Bezier geodesic-like curves
on spheres.
Abstract: Real options theory suggests that managerial flexibility embedded within irreversible investments can account for a significant value in project valuation. Although the argument has become the dominant focus of capital investment theory over decades, yet recent survey literature in capital budgeting indicates that corporate practitioners still do not explicitly apply real options in investment decisions. In this paper, we explore how real options decision criteria can be transformed into equivalent capital budgeting criteria under the consideration of uncertainty, assuming that underlying stochastic process follows a geometric Brownian motion (GBM), a mixed diffusion-jump (MX), or a mean-reverting process (MR). These equivalent valuation techniques can be readily decomposed into conventional investment rules and “option impacts", the latter of which describe the impacts on optimal investment rules with the option value considered. Based on numerical analysis and Monte Carlo simulation, three major findings are derived. First, it is shown that real options could be successfully integrated into the mindset of conventional capital budgeting. Second, the inclusion of option impacts tends to delay investment. It is indicated that the delay effect is the most significant under a GBM process and the least significant under a MR process. Third, it is optimal to adopt the new capital budgeting criteria in investment decision-making and adopting a suboptimal investment rule without considering real options could lead to a substantial loss in value.
Abstract: It is suggested to evaluate environmental performance
of energy sector using Data Envelopment Analysis with nondiscretionary
factors (DEA-ND) with relative indicators as inputs and
outputs. The latter allows for comparison of the objects essentially
different in size. Inclusion of non-discretionary factors serves
separation of the indicators that are beyond the control of the objects.
A virtual perfect object comprised of maximal outputs and minimal
inputs was added to the group of actual ones. In this setting, explicit
solution of the DEA-ND problem was obtained. Energy sector of the
United States was analyzed using suggested approach for the period
of 1980 – 2006 with expected values of economic indicators for 2030
used for forming the perfect object. It was obtained that
environmental performance has been increasing steadily for the
period from 7.7% through 50.0% but still remains well below the
prospected level
Abstract: Visualizing “Courses – Pre – Required -
Architecture" on the screen has proven to be useful and helpful for
university actors and specially for students. In fact, these students
can easily identify courses and their pre required, perceive the
courses to follow in the future, and then can choose rapidly the
appropriate course to register in. Given a set of courses and their prerequired,
we present an algorithm for visualization a graph entitled
“Courses-Pre-Required-Graph" that present courses and their prerequired
in order to help students to recognize, lonely, what courses
to take in the future and perceive the contain of all courses that they
will study. Our algorithm using “Force Directed Placement"
technique visualizes the “Courses-Pre-Required-Graph" in such way
that courses are easily identifiable. The time complexity of our
drawing algorithm is O (n2), where n is the number of courses in the
“Courses-Pre-Required-Graph".
Abstract: The reduction of hexavalent chromium by scrap iron
was investigated in continuous system, using long-term column
experiments, for aqueous Cr(VI) solutions having low buffering
capacities, over the Cr(VI) concentration range of 5 – 40 mg/L. The
results showed that the initial Cr(VI) concentration significantly
affects the reduction capacity of scrap iron. Maximum reduction
capacity of scrap iron was observed at the beginning of the column
experiments; the lower the Cr(VI) concentration, the greater the
experiment duration with maximum scrap iron reduction capacity.
However, due to passivation of active surface, scrap iron reduction
capacity continuously decreased in time, especially after Cr(VI)
breakthrough. The experimental results showed that highest
reduction capacity recorded until Cr(VI) breakthrough was 22.8 mg
Cr(VI)/g scrap iron, at CI = 5 mg/L, and decreased with increasing
Cr(VI) concentration. In order to assure total reduction of greater
Cr(VI) concentrations for a longer period of time, either the mass of
scrap iron filling, or the hydraulic retention time should be increased.
Abstract: We describe a work with an evolutionary computing
algorithm for non photo–realistic rendering of a target image. The
renderings are produced by genetic programming. We have used two
different types of strokes: “empty triangle" and “filled triangle" in
color level. We compare both empty and filled triangular strokes to
find which one generates more aesthetic pleasing images. We found
the filled triangular strokes have better fitness and generate more
aesthetic images than empty triangular strokes.
Abstract: This paper deals with behavior and capacity of
punching shear force for flat slabs produced from steel fiber
reinforced self compacting concrete (SFRSCC) by application
nonlinear finite element method. Nonlinear finite element analysis on
nine slab specimens was achieved by using ANSYS software. A
general description of the finite element method, theoretical modeling
of concrete and reinforcement are presented. The nonlinear finite
element analysis program ANSYS is utilized owing to its capabilities
to predict either the response of reinforced concrete slabs in the post
elastic range or the ultimate strength of a flat slabs produced from
steel fiber reinforced self compacting concrete (SFRSCC). In order to
verify the analytical model used in this research using test results of
the experimental data, the finite element analysis were performed
then a parametric study of the effect ratio of flexural reinforcement,
ratio of the upper reinforcement, and volume fraction of steel fibers
were investigated. A comparison between the experimental results
and those predicted by the existing models are presented. Results and
conclusions may be useful for designers, have been raised, and
represented.
Abstract: Multilevel inverters supplied from equal and constant
dc sources almost don-t exist in practical applications. The variation
of the dc sources affects the values of the switching angles required
for each specific harmonic profile, as well as increases the difficulty
of the harmonic elimination-s equations. This paper presents an
extremely fast optimal solution of harmonic elimination of multilevel
inverters with non-equal dc sources using Tanaka's fuzzy linear
regression formulation. A set of mathematical equations describing
the general output waveform of the multilevel inverter with nonequal
dc sources is formulated. Fuzzy linear regression is then
employed to compute the optimal solution set of switching angles.
Abstract: Sense-antisense gene pair (SAGP) is a pair of two oppositely transcribed genes sharing a common region on a chromosome. In the mammalian genomes, SAGPs can be organized in more complex sense-antisense gene architectures (CSAGA) in which at least one gene could share loci with two or more antisense partners. Many dozens of CSAGAs can be found in the human genome. However, CSAGAs have not been systematically identified and characterized in context of their role in human diseases including cancers. In this work we characterize the structural-functional properties of a cluster of 5 genes –TMEM97, IFT20, TNFAIP1, POLDIP2 and TMEM199, termed TNFAIP1 / POLDIP2 module. This cluster is organized as CSAGA in cytoband 17q11.2. Affymetrix U133A&B expression data of two large cohorts (410 atients, in total) of breast cancer patients and patient survival data were used. For the both studied cohorts, we demonstrate (i) strong and reproducible transcriptional co-regulatory patterns of genes of TNFAIP1/POLDIP2 module in breast cancer cell subtypes and (ii) significant associations of TNFAIP1/POLDIP2 CSAGA with amplification of the CSAGA region in breast cancer, (ii) cancer aggressiveness (e.g. genetic grades) and (iv) disease free patient-s survival. Moreover, gene pairs of this module demonstrate strong synergetic effect in the prognosis of time of breast cancer relapse. We suggest that TNFAIP1/ POLDIP2 cluster can be considered as a novel type of structural-functional gene modules in the human genome.
Abstract: The integral form of equations of motion of composite
beams subjected to varying time loads are discretized using a
developed finite element model. The model consists of a straight five
node twenty-two degrees of freedom beam element. The stability
analysis of the beams is studied by solving the matrix form
characteristic equations of the system. The principle of virtual work
and the first order shear deformation theory are employed to analyze
the beams with large deformation and small strains. The regions of
dynamic instability of the beam are determined by solving the
obtained Mathieu form of differential equations. The effects of nonconservative
loads, shear stiffness, and damping parameters on
stability and response of the beams are examined. Several numerical
calculations are presented to compare the results with data reported
by other researchers.
Abstract: The paper reflects current state of popularization of
static elasticity modulus of concrete. This parameter is undoubtedly
very important for designing of concrete structures, and very often
neglected and rarely determined before designing concrete
technology itself. The paper describes assessment and comparison of
four mix designs with almost constant dosage of individual
components. The only difference is area of origin of small size
fraction of aggregate 0/4. Development of compressive strength and
static elasticity modulus at the age of 7, 28 and 180 days were
observed. As the experiment showed, designing of individual
components and their quality are the basic factor influencing
elasticity modulus of current concrete.
Abstract: Even it has been recognized that Shape Memory
Alloys (SMA) have a significant potential for deployment actuators,
the number of applications of SMA-based actuators to the present
day is still quite small, due to the need of deep understanding of the
thermo-mechanical behavior of SMA, causing an important need for
a mathematical model able to describe all thermo-mechanical
properties of SMA by relatively simple final set of constitutive
equations. SMAs offer attractive potentials such as: reversible strains
of several percent, generation of high recovery stresses and high
power / weight ratios. The paper tries to provide an overview of the
shape memory functions and a presentation of the designed and
developed temperature control system used for a gripper actuated by
two pairs of differential SMA active springs. An experimental setup
was established, using electrical energy for actuator-s springs heating
process. As for holding the temperature of the SMA springs at certain
level for a long time was developed a control system in order to
avoid the active elements overheating.