Abstract: The expectation of network performance from the
early days of ARPANET until now has been changed significantly.
Every day, new advancement in technological infrastructure opens
the doors for better quality of service and accordingly level of
perceived quality of network services have been increased over the
time. Nowadays for many applications, late information has no value
or even may result in financial or catastrophic loss, on the other hand,
demands for some level of guarantee in providing and maintaining
quality of service are ever increasing. Based on this history, having a
QoS aware routing system which is able to provide today's required
level of quality of service in the networks and effectively adapt to the
future needs, seems as a key requirement for future Internet. In this
work we have extended the traditional AntNet routing system to
support QoS with multiple metrics such as bandwidth and delay
which is named Q-Net. This novel scalable QoS routing system aims
to provide different types of services in the network simultaneously.
Each type of service can be provided for a period of time in the
network and network nodes do not need to have any previous
knowledge about it. When a type of quality of service is requested,
Q-Net will allocate required resources for the service and will
guarantee QoS requirement of the service, based on target objectives.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine the financing
practices of SMEs in Libya in two different phases of business life
cycle: start-up and matured stages. Moreover, SMEs- accessing bank
loan issues is also identified. The study was conducted by taking into
account the aspect of demand. The findings are based on a sample of
76 SMEs in Libya through the adoption of questionnaires. The results
have pinpointed several things- evidently, SMEs use informal
financing sources which prefer personal savings; SME owners are
willing to apply for bank loan, that the most pressing problem has
been identified, not to apply bank loan is loan with interest (religion
factor).
Abstract: Although electrical motors are still the main devices
used in vehicular exhaust comprises more than 95 percent of the air
pollution in Taiwan's largest city, Taipei. On average, all commuters in Taipei travel 13.6 km daily, while motorcycle commuters travel 12.2 km. The convenience and mobility of motorcycles makes them
irreplaceable in Taiwan city traffic but they add significantly to air pollution problems. In order to improve air pollution conditions, some
new types of vehicles have been proposed, such as fuel cell driven and
hybrid energy vehicles. In this study, we develop a model pneumatic hybrid motorcycle system and simulate its acceleration and mileage
(km/L) performance. The results show that the pneumatic hybrid
motorcycle can improve efficiency.
Abstract: Exposure to ambient air pollution has been linked to a
number of health outcomes, starting from modest transient changes in
the respiratory tract and impaired pulmonary function, continuing to
restrict activity/reduce performance and to the increase emergency
rooms visits, hospital admissions or mortality. The increase of
allergenic symptoms has been associated with air contaminants such
as ozone, particulate matter, fungal spores and pollen.
Considering the potential relevance of crossed effects of nonbiological
pollutants and airborne pollens and fungal spores on
allergy worsening, the aim of this work was to evaluate the influence
of non-biological pollutants (O3 and PM10) and meteorological
parameters on the concentrations of pollen and fungal spores using
multiple linear regressions.
The data considered in this study were collected in Oporto which
is the second largest Portuguese city, located in the North. Daily
mean of O3, PM10, pollen and fungal spore concentrations,
temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, wind velocity, pollen
and fungal spore concentrations, for 2003, 2004 and 2005 were
considered. Results showed that the 90th percentile of the adjusted
coefficient of determination, P90 (R2aj), of the multiple regressions
varied from 0.613 to 0.916 for pollen and from 0.275 to 0.512 for
fungal spores. O3 and PM10 showed to have some influence on the
biological pollutants. Among the meteorological parameters
analysed, temperature was the one that most influenced the pollen
and fungal spores airborne concentrations. Relative humidity also
showed to have some influence on the fungal spore dispersion.
Nevertheless, the models for each pollen and fungal spore were
different depending on the analysed period, which means that the
correlations identified as statistically significant can not be, even so,
consistent enough.
Abstract: In this paper we present a GP-based method for automatically evolve projections, so that data can be more easily classified in the projected spaces. At the same time, our approach can reduce dimensionality by constructing more relevant attributes. Fitness of each projection measures how easy is to classify the dataset after applying the projection. This is quickly computed by a Simple Linear Perceptron. We have tested our approach in three domains. The experiments show that it obtains good results, compared to other Machine Learning approaches, while reducing dimensionality in many cases.
Abstract: In this paper, we proposed an invention of an
accessory into a communication device that will help humans to be
connected universally. Generally, this device will be made up of
crystal and will combine many technologies that will enable the user
to run various applications and software anywhere and everywhere.
Bringing up the concept of from being user friendly, we had used the
crystal as the main material of the device that will trap the
surrounding lights to produce projection of its screen. This leads to a
lesser energy consumption and allows smaller sized battery to be
used, making the device less bulky. Additionally, we proposed the
usage of micro batteries as our energy source. Thus, researches
regarding crystal were made along with explanations in details of
specification and function of the technology used in the device.
Finally, we had also drawn several views of the invention from
different sides to be visualized.
Abstract: Machine tools are improved capacity remarkably during the 20th century. Improving the precision of machine tools are related with precision of products and accurate processing is always associated with the subject of interest. There are a lot of the elements that determine the precision of the machine, as guides, motors, structure, control, etc. In this paper we focused on the phenomenon that vertical movement system has worse precision than horizontal movement system even they were made up with same components. The vertical movement system needs to be studied differently from the horizontal movement system to develop its precision. The vertical movement system has load on its transfer direction and it makes the movement system weak in precision than the horizontal one. Some machines have mechanical counter balance, hydraulic or pneumatic counter balance to compensate the weight of the machine head. And there is several type of compensating the weight. It can push the machine head and also can use chain or wire lope to transfer the compensating force from counter balance to machine head. According to the type of compensating, there could be error from friction, pressure error of hydraulic or pressure control error. Also according to what to use for transferring the compensating force, transfer error of compensating force could be occur.
Abstract: The concept of sacred and nature have long been
interlinked. Various cultural aspects such as religion, faith, traditions
bring people closer to nature and the natural environment. Memorial
Parks and Sacred Groves are examples of two such cultural
landscapes that exist today. The project mainly deals with the
significance of such sites to the environment and the deep rooted
significance it has to the people. These parks and groves play an
important role in biodiversity conservation and environmental
protection. There are many differences between the establishment of
memorial parks and sacred groves, but the underlying significance is
the same. Sentiments, emotions play an important role in landscape
planning and management. Hence the people and communities living
at these sites need to be involved in any planning activity or
decisions. The conservation of the environment should appeal to the
sentiments of the people; the need to be 'with nature' should be used
in the setting up of memorial forests and in the preservation of sacred
groves.
Abstract: A three-dimensional and pulsatile blood flow in the left ventricle of heart model has been studied numerically. The geometry was derived from a simple approximation of the left ventricle model and the numerical simulations were obtained using a formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations. In this study, simulation was used to investigate the pattern of flow velocity in 3D model of heart with consider the left ventricle based on critical parameter of blood under steady condition. Our results demonstrate that flow velocity focused from mitral valve channel and continuous linearly to left ventricle wall but this skewness progresses into outside wall in atrium through aortic valve with random distribution that is irregular due to force subtract from ventricle wall during cardiac cycle. The findings are the prediction of the behavior of the blood flow velocity pattern in steady flow condition which can assist the medical practitioners in their decision on the patients- treatments.
Abstract: This paper presents an innovative computer system
that contributes to sustainable development of the enterprise. The
research refers to a rethinking of traditional systems of collaboration
and risk assessment, present in any organization, leading to a
sustainable enterprise. This concept integrates emerging tools that
allow the implementation and exploitation of the collective
intelligence of the enterprise, allowing the exchange of contextual,
agile and simplified information, and collaboration with networks of
customers and partners in an environment where risks are controlled.
Risk assessment is done in a systemic way: the enterprise as the
system compared to the contained departments and the enterprise as a
subsystem compared to: families of international standards and
sustainability-s responsibilities. The enterprise, in this systemic
vision, responds to the requirements that any existing system to
operate continuously in an indefinite future without reaching key
resource depletion. The research is done by integrating collaborative
science, engineering, management, psychology, obtaining thus a
cornerstone of sustainable development of the enterprise.
Abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with raw or heat-treated sunflower oil seed with two levels of 7.5% or 15% on unsaturated fatty acids in milk fat and performances of high-yielding lactating cows. Twenty early lactating Holstein cows were used in a complete randomized design. Treatments included: 1) CON, control (without sunflower oil seed). 2) LS-UT, 7.5% raw sunflower oil seed. 3) LS-HT, 7.5% heat-treated sunflower oil seed. 4) HS-UT, 15% raw sunflower oil seed. 5) HS-HT, 15% heat-treated sunflower oil seed. Experimental period lasted for 4 wk, with first 2 wk used for adaptation to the diets. Supplementation with 7.5% raw sunflower seed (LS-UT) tended to decrease milk yield, with 28.37 kg/d compared with the control (34.75 kg/d). Milk fat percentage was increased with the HS-UT treatment that obtained 3.71% compared with CON that was 3.39% and without significant different. Milk protein percent was decreased high level sunflower oil seed treatments (15%) with 3.18% whereas CON treatment is caused 3.40% protein. The cows fed added low sunflower heat-treated (LS-HT) produced milk with the highest content of total unsaturated fatty acid with 32.59 g/100g of milk fat compared with the HS-UT with 23.59 g/100g of milk fat. Content of C18 unsaturated fatty acids in milk fat increased from 21.68 g/100g of fat in the HS-UT to 22.50, 23.98, 27.39 and 30.30 g/100g of fat from the cow fed HS-HT, CON, LS-UT and LS-HT treatments, respectively. C18:2 isomers of fatty acid in milk were greater by LSHT supplementation with significant effect (P < 0.05). Total of C18 unsaturated fatty acids content was significantly higher in milk of animal fed added low heat-treated sunflower (7.5%) than those fed with high sunflower. In all, results of this study showed that diet cow's supplementation with sunflower oil seed tended to reduce milk production of lactating cows but can improve C18 UFA (Unsaturated Fatty Acid) content in milk fat. 7.5% level of sunflower oil seed that heated seemed to be the optimal source to increase UFA production.
Abstract: Removing noise from the any processed images is very important. Noise should be removed in such a way that important information of image should be preserved. A decisionbased nonlinear algorithm for elimination of band lines, drop lines, mark, band lost and impulses in images is presented in this paper. The algorithm performs two simultaneous operations, namely, detection of corrupted pixels and evaluation of new pixels for replacing the corrupted pixels. Removal of these artifacts is achieved without damaging edges and details. However, the restricted window size renders median operation less effective whenever noise is excessive in that case the proposed algorithm automatically switches to mean filtering. The performance of the algorithm is analyzed in terms of Mean Square Error [MSE], Peak-Signal-to-Noise Ratio [PSNR], Signal-to-Noise Ratio Improved [SNRI], Percentage Of Noise Attenuated [PONA], and Percentage Of Spoiled Pixels [POSP]. This is compared with standard algorithms already in use and improved performance of the proposed algorithm is presented. The advantage of the proposed algorithm is that a single algorithm can replace several independent algorithms which are required for removal of different artifacts.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a fast and efficient method for drawing very large-scale graph data. The conventional force-directed method proposed by Fruchterman and Rheingold (FR method) is well-known. It defines repulsive forces between every pair of nodes and attractive forces between connected nodes on a edge and calculates corresponding potential energy. An optimal layout is obtained by iteratively updating node positions to minimize the potential energy. Here, the positions of the nodes are updated every global timestep at the same time. In the proposed method, each node has its own individual time and time step, and nodes are updated at different frequencies depending on the local situation. The proposed method is inspired by the hierarchical individual time step method used for the high accuracy calculations for dense particle fields such as star clusters in astrophysical dynamics. Experiments show that the proposed method outperforms the original FR method in both speed and accuracy. We implement the proposed method on the MDGRAPE-3 PCI-X special purpose parallel computer and realize a speed enhancement of several hundred times.
Abstract: The present study describes the biosynthesis of a milkclotting
protease by solid state fermentation (SSF) of a locally
isolated mould, Rhizopus stolonifer. The production medium was
prepared using wheat bran at 50% (w/v). The production conditions
are optimized by varying 7 parameters: carbon and nitrogen sources,
medium moisture, temperature, pH, fermentation time and
inoculum-s size. The maximum enzyme synthesis was measured after
96 h of incubation time at temperature of 28°C. The optimum pH
determined was 6 and the inoculum size was 3.106spores/ml. The
optimum initial moisture content is comprised between 50 to 70%.
The formation of milk clotting protease is enhanced when galactose
and peptone are used at 10% (w/v) and 1% (w/v) concentrations
respectively. The maximum production of milk clotting protease is
120 US/ml.
Abstract: We present a method for the selection of students
in interdisciplinary studies based on the hybrid averaging
operator. We assume that the available information given in
the problem is uncertain so it is necessary to use interval
numbers. Therefore, we suggest a new type of hybrid
aggregation called uncertain induced generalized hybrid
averaging (UIGHA) operator. It is an aggregation operator
that considers the weighted average (WA) and the ordered
weighted averaging (OWA) operator in the same formulation.
Therefore, we are able to consider the degree of optimism of
the decision maker and grades of importance in the same
approach. By using interval numbers, we are able to represent
the information considering the best and worst possible results
so the decision maker gets a more complete view of the
decision problem. We develop an illustrative example of the
proposed scheme in the selection of students in
interdisciplinary studies. We see that with the use of the
UIGHA operator we get a more complete representation of the
selection problem. Then, the decision maker is able to
consider a wide range of alternatives depending on his
interests. We also show other potential applications that could
be used by using the UIGHA operator in educational problems
about selection of different types of resources such as
students, professors, etc.
Abstract: Hospital staff and managers are under pressure and
concerned for effective use and management of scarce resources. The
hospital admissions require many decisions that have complex and
uncertain consequences for hospital resource utilization and patient
flow. It is challenging to predict risk of admissions and length of stay
of a patient due to their vague nature. There is no method to capture
the vague definition of admission of a patient. Also, current methods
and tools used to predict patients at risk of admission fail to deal with
uncertainty in unplanned admission, LOS, patients- characteristics.
The main objective of this paper is to deal with uncertainty in
health system variables, and handles uncertain relationship among
variables. An introduction of machine learning techniques along with
statistical methods like Regression methods can be a proposed
solution approach to handle uncertainty in health system variables. A
model that adapts fuzzy methods to handle uncertain data and
uncertain relationships can be an efficient solution to capture the
vague definition of admission of a patient.
Abstract: The story of Alibaba demonstrates a credible example of how a small start-up company can eventually make it big in the global economy through the Internet. This case study does not attempt to present Alibaba as a perfect formula; rather, it discusses the strategies carried out by the firm and, in the process, culls out the important lessons that can guide start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs in the complex world of online trading. Similar to the interesting and exotic Asian cuisine that continuously evolves from the diversity of Asia-s people and their unique culture and personality, Alibaba has successfully transformed itself over the years, adapting to the changes in and demands of online businessto- business (B2B) commerce.
Abstract: During the past several years, face recognition in video
has received significant attention. Not only the wide range of
commercial and law enforcement applications, but also the availability
of feasible technologies after several decades of research contributes
to the trend. Although current face recognition systems have reached a
certain level of maturity, their development is still limited by the
conditions brought about by many real applications. For example,
recognition images of video sequence acquired in an open
environment with changes in illumination and/or pose and/or facial
occlusion and/or low resolution of acquired image remains a largely
unsolved problem. In other words, current algorithms are yet to be
developed. This paper provides an up-to-date survey of video-based
face recognition research. To present a comprehensive survey, we
categorize existing video based recognition approaches and present
detailed descriptions of representative methods within each category.
In addition, relevant topics such as real time detection, real time
tracking for video, issues such as illumination, pose, 3D and low
resolution are covered.
Abstract: Students with high level skills are in demand, especially in scare skill environments. If universities wish to be successful and competitive, its students need to be adequately equipped with the necessary tools. Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is an essential component of the education of a student. The relevance of higher education should be assessed in terms of how it meets the needs of society and the world of work in a global economy. This paper demonstrates how to use Habermas's theory of communicative action to reflect on students- perceptions on their integration in the work environment to achieve social integration and financial justification. Interpretive questionnaires are used to determine the students- view of how they are integrated into society, and contributing to the economy. This paper explores the use of Habermas-s theory of communicative action to give theoretical and methodological guidance for the practice of social findings obtained in this inquiry.
Abstract: To respond to the Kyoto Protocol, the policy of Payment for Environmental Service (PES), which was entitled “Plain Landscape Afforestation Program (PLAP)", was certified by Executive Yuan in Taiwan on 31 August 2001 and has been implementing for six years since 1 January 2002. Although the PLAP has received a lot of positive comments, there are still many difficulties during the process of implementation, such as insufficient technology for afforestation, private landowners- low interests in participating in PLAP, insufficient subsidies, and so on, which are potential threats that hinder the PLAP from moving forward in future. In this paper, selecting Ping-Tung County in Taiwan as a sample region and targeting those private landowners with and without intention to participate in the PLAP, respectively, we conduct an empirical analysis based on the Logit model to investigate the factors that determine whether those private landowners join the PLAP, so as to realize the incentive effects of the PLAP upon the personal decision on afforestation. The possible factors that might determine private landowner-s participation in the PLAP include landowner-s characteristics, cropland characteristics, as well as policy factors. Among them, the policy factors include afforestation subsidy amount (+), duration of afforestation subsidy (+), the rules on adjoining and adjacent areas (+), and so on, which do not reach the remarkable level in statistics though, but the directions of variable signs are consistent with the intuition behind the policy. As for the landowners- characteristics, each of age (+), education level (–), and annual household income (+) variables reaches 10% of the remarkable level in statistics; as for the cropland characteristics, each of cropland area (+), cropland price (–), and the number of cropland parcels (–) reaches 1% of the remarkable level in statistics. In light of the above, the cropland characteristics are the dominate factor that determines the probability of landowner-s participation in the PLAP. In the Logit model established by this paper, the probability of correctly estimating nonparticipants is 98%, the probability of correctly estimating the participants is 71.8%, and the probability for the overall estimation is 95%. In addition, Hosmer-Lemeshow test and omnibus test also revealed that the Logit model in this paper may provide fine goodness of fit and good predictive power in forecasting private landowners- participation in this program. The empirical result of this paper expects to help the implementation of the afforestation programs in Taiwan.