Abstract: This paper proposes an architectural and graphical
user interface (GUI) design of a traditional Thai musical instrument
application for tablet computers for practicing “Ranaad Ek" which is
a trough-resonated keyboard percussion instrument. The application
provides percussion methods for a player as real as a physical
instrument. The application consists of two playing modes. The first
mode is free playing, a player can freely multi touches on wooden bar
to produce instrument sounds. The second mode is practicing mode
that guilds the player to follow percussions and rhythms of practice
songs. The application has achieved requirements and specifications.
Abstract: Due to the call of global warming effects, city planners aim at actions for reducing carbon emission. One of the approaches is to promote the usage of public transportation system toward the transit-oriented-development. For example, rapid transit system in Taipei city and Kaohsiung city are opening. However, until November 2008 the average daily patronage counted only 113,774 passengers at Kaohsiung MRT systems, much less than which was expected. Now the crucial questions: how the public transport competes with private transport? And more importantly, what factors would enhance the use of public transport? To give the answers to those questions, our study first applied regression to analyze the factors attracting people to use public transport around cities in the world. It is shown in our study that the number of MRT stations, city population, cost of living, transit fare, density, gasoline price, and scooter being a major mode of transport are the major factors. Subsequently, our study identified successful and unsuccessful cities in regard of the public transport usage based on the diagnosis of regression residuals. Finally, by comparing transportation strategies adopted by those successful cities, our conclusion stated that Kaohsiung City could apply strategies such as increasing parking fees, reducing parking spaces in downtown area, and reducing transfer time by providing more bus services and public bikes to promote the usage of public transport.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss a low-cost methodology that can predict traffic flow conflicts and quantitatively rank crash expectancies (based on relative probability) for various traffic facilities. This paper focuses on the application of statistical distributions to model traffic flow and Monte Carlo techniques to simulate traffic and discusses how to create a tool in order to predict the possibility of a traffic crash. A low-cost data collection methodology has been discussed for the heterogeneous traffic flow that exists and a GIS platform has been proposed to thematically represent traffic flow from simulations and the probability of a crash. Furthermore, discussions have been made to reflect the dynamism of the model in reference to its adaptability, adequacy, economy, and efficiency to ensure adoption.
Abstract: One part of the total employee-s reward is apart from basic wages or salary, employee-s benefits and intangible elements also so called contingent (variable) pay. Contingent pay is connected to performance, contribution, capcompetency or skills of individual employees, and to team-s or company-wide performance or to combination of few of the mentioned possibilities. Main aim of this article is to define, based on available information, contingent pay, describe reasons for its implementation and arguments for and against this type of remuneration, but also bring information not only about its extent and level of utilization by organizations of the Czech Republic operating in the field of environmental protection, but also mention their practical experience with this type of remuneration.
Abstract: The question of interethnic and interreligious conflicts
in ex-Yugoslavia receives much attention within the framework of
the international context created after 1991 because of the impact of
these conflicts on the security and the stability of the region of
Balkans and of Europe.
This paper focuses on the rationales leading to the declaration of
independence by Kosovo according to ethnic and religious criteria
and analyzes why these same rationales were not applied in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. The approach undertaken aims at comparatively
examining the cases of Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the
same time, it aims at understanding the political decision making of
the international community in the case of Kosovo. Specifically, was
this a good political decision for the security and the stability of the
region of Balkans, of Europe, or even for global security and
stability?
This research starts with an overview on the European security
framework post 1991, paying particular attention to Kosovo and
Bosnia and Herzegovina. It then presents the theoretical and
methodological framework and compares the representative cases.
Using the constructivism issue and the comparative methodology, it
arrives at the results of the study. An important issue of the paper is
the thesis that this event modifies the principles of international law
and creates dangerous precedents for regional stability in the
Balkans.
Abstract: A fast and efficient model of application development called user interface oriented application development (UIOAD) is proposed. This approach introduces a convenient way for users to develop a platform independent client-server application.
Abstract: This paper puts forward one kind of air-fuel ratio
control method with PI controller. With the help of
MATLAB/SIMULINK software, the mathematical model of air-fuel
ratio control system for distributorless CNG engine is constructed.
The objective is to maintain cylinder-to-cylinder air-fuel ratio at a
prescribed set point, determined primarily by the state of the Three-
Way-Catalyst (TWC), so that the pollutants in the exhaust are
removed with the highest efficiency. The concurrent control of airfuel
under transient conditions could be implemented by Proportional
and Integral (PI) controller. The simulation result indicates that the
control methods can easily eliminate the air/fuel maldistribution and
maintain the air/fuel ratio at the stochiometry within minimum
engine events.
Abstract: This paper presents an adaptive feedback linearization approach to derive helicopter. Ideal feedback linearization is defined for the cases when the system model is known. Adaptive feedback linearization is employed to get asymptotically exact cancellation for the inherent uncertainty in the knowledge of the given parameters of system. The control algorithm is implemented using the feedback linearization technique and adaptive method. The controller parameters are unknown where an adaptive control law aims to drive them towards their ideal values for providing perfect model matching between the reference model and the closed-loop plant model. The converged parameters of controller would then provide good estimates for the unknown plant parameters.
Abstract: Atmospheric stability plays the most important role in
the transport and dispersion of air pollutants. Different methods are
used for stability determination with varying degrees of complexity.
Most of these methods are based on the relative magnitude of
convective and mechanical turbulence in atmospheric motions.
Richardson number, Monin-Obukhov length, Pasquill-Gifford
stability classification and Pasquill–Turner stability classification, are
the most common parameters and methods. The Pasquill–Turner
Method (PTM), which is employed in this study, makes use of
observations of wind speed, insolation and the time of day to classify
atmospheric stability with distinguishable indices. In this study, a
model is presented to determination of atmospheric stability
conditions using PTM. As a case study, meteorological data of
Mehrabad station in Tehran from 2000 to 2005 is applied to model.
Here, three different categories are considered to deduce the pattern
of stability conditions. First, the total pattern of stability classification
is obtained and results show that atmosphere is 38.77%, 27.26%,
33.97%, at stable, neutral and unstable condition, respectively. It is
also observed that days are mostly unstable (66.50%) while nights are
mostly stable (72.55%). Second, monthly and seasonal patterns are
derived and results indicate that relative frequency of stable
conditions decrease during January to June and increase during June
to December, while results for unstable conditions are exactly in
opposite manner. Autumn is the most stable season with relative
frequency of 50.69% for stable condition, whilst, it is 42.79%,
34.38% and 27.08% for winter, summer and spring, respectively.
Hourly stability pattern is the third category that points out that
unstable condition is dominant from approximately 03-15 GTM and
04-12 GTM for warm and cold seasons, respectively. Finally,
correlation between atmospheric stability and CO concentration is
achieved.
Abstract: Ethical Education is a compulsorily optional subject in
primary and secondary schools. The Ethical Education objective is
the education of a personality with one´s own identity, with
interiorized ethical standards, with mature moral judgement and
therefore with the behaviour determined by one´s own beliefs; with a
positive attitude to himself/herself and other people and that is why
he/she is able to cooperate and to initiate cooperation. In the paper we
describe the contents and the principles of Ethical education. We also
shows that Ethical education is subject supported primary socialpathological
prevention and education to citizenship. In this context
we try to show that ethical education contributes to the education of
good people who are aware of the necessity to respect social norms
and are able to assume responsibility for their own behaviour in any
situation at present and in the future.
Abstract: Selecting the data modeling technique for an
information system is determined by the objective of the resultant
data model. Dimensional modeling is the preferred modeling
technique for data destined for data warehouses and data mining,
presenting data models that ease analysis and queries which are in
contrast with entity relationship modeling. The establishment of data
warehouses as components of information system landscapes in
many organizations has subsequently led to the development of
dimensional modeling. This has been significantly more developed
and reported for the commercial database management systems as
compared to the open sources thereby making it less affordable for
those in resource constrained settings. This paper presents
dimensional modeling of HIV patient information using open source
modeling tools. It aims to take advantage of the fact that the most
affected regions by the HIV virus are also heavily resource
constrained (sub-Saharan Africa) whereas having large quantities of
HIV data. Two HIV data source systems were studied to identify
appropriate dimensions and facts these were then modeled using two
open source dimensional modeling tools. Use of open source would
reduce the software costs for dimensional modeling and in turn make
data warehousing and data mining more feasible even for those in
resource constrained settings but with data available.
Abstract: Importance of environmental efficiency of electric power industry stems from high demand for energy combined with global warming concerns. It is especially essential for the world largest economies like that of the United States. The paper introduces a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model of environmental efficiency using indicators of fossil fuels utilization, emissions rate, and electric power losses. Using DEA is advantageous in this situation over other approaches due to its nonparametric nature. The paper analyzes data for the period of 1990 - 2006 by comparing actual yearly levels in each dimension with the best values of partial indicators for the period. As positive factors of efficiency, tendency to the decline in emissions rates starting 2000, and in electric power losses starting 2004 may be mentioned together with increasing trend of fuel utilization starting 1999. As a result, dynamics of environmental efficiency is positive starting 2002. The main concern is the decline in fossil fuels utilization in 2006. This negative change should be reversed to comply with ecological and economic requirements.
Abstract: The mobile systems are powered by batteries.
Reducing the system power consumption is a key to increase its
autonomy. It is known that mostly the systems are dealing with time
varying signals. Thus, we aim to achieve power efficiency by smartly
adapting the system processing activity in accordance with the input
signal local characteristics. It is done by completely rethinking the
processing chain, by adopting signal driven sampling and processing.
In this context, a signal driven filtering technique, based on the level
crossing sampling is devised. It adapts the sampling frequency and
the filter order by analysing the input signal local variations. Thus, it
correlates the processing activity with the signal variations. It leads
towards a drastic computational gain of the proposed technique
compared to the classical one.
Abstract: Benefits to the organisation are just as important as technical ability when it comes to software success. The challenge is to provide industry with professionals who understand this. In other words: How to teach computer engineering students to look beyond technology, and at the benefits of software to organizations? This paper reports on the conceptual design of a section of the computer networks module aimed to sensitize the students to the organisational context.
Checkland focuses on different worldviews represented by various role players in the organisation. He developed the Soft Systems Methodology that guides purposeful action in organisations, while incorporating different worldviews in the modeling process. If we can sensitize students to these methods, they are likely to appreciate the wider context of application of system software. This paper will provide literature on these concepts as well as detail on how the students will be guided to adopt these concepts.
Abstract: Software metric is a measure of some property of a
piece of software or its specification. The aim of this paper is to
present an application of evolutionary decision trees in software
engineering in order to classify the software modules that have or
have not one or more reported defects. For this some metrics are used
for detecting the class of modules with defects or without defects.
Abstract: e-mail has become an important means of electronic
communication but the viability of its usage is marred by Unsolicited
Bulk e-mail (UBE) messages. UBE consists of many types
like pornographic, virus infected and 'cry-for-help' messages as well
as fake and fraudulent offers for jobs, winnings and medicines. UBE
poses technical and socio-economic challenges to usage of e-mails.
To meet this challenge and combat this menace, we need to
understand UBE. Towards this end, the current paper presents a
content-based textual analysis of more than 2700 body enhancement
medicinal UBE. Technically, this is an application of Text Parsing
and Tokenization for an un-structured textual document and we
approach it using Bag Of Words (BOW) and Vector Space Document
Model techniques. We have attempted to identify the most
frequently occurring lexis in the UBE documents that advertise
various products for body enhancement. The analysis of such top
100 lexis is also presented. We exhibit the relationship between
occurrence of a word from the identified lexis-set in the given UBE
and the probability that the given UBE will be the one advertising for
fake medicinal product. To the best of our knowledge and survey of
related literature, this is the first formal attempt for identification of
most frequently occurring lexis in such UBE by its textual analysis.
Finally, this is a sincere attempt to bring about alertness against and
mitigate the threat of such luring but fake UBE.
Abstract: Data Warehouses (DWs) are repositories which contain the unified history of an enterprise for decision support. The data must be Extracted from information sources, Transformed and integrated to be Loaded (ETL) into the DW, using ETL tools. These tools focus on data movement, where the models are only used as a means to this aim. Under a conceptual viewpoint, the authors want to innovate the ETL process in two ways: 1) to make clear compatibility between models in a declarative fashion, using correspondence assertions and 2) to identify the instances of different sources that represent the same entity in the real-world. This paper presents the overview of the proposed framework to model the ETL process, which is based on the use of a reference model and perspective schemata. This approach provides the designer with a better understanding of the semantic associated with the ETL process.
Abstract: The paper investigates the feasibility of constructing a software multi-agent based monitoring and classification system and utilizing it to provide an automated and accurate classification of end users developing applications in the spreadsheet domain. The agents function autonomously to provide continuous and periodic monitoring of excels spreadsheet workbooks. Resulting in, the development of the MultiAgent classification System (MACS) that is in compliance with the specifications of the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA). However, different technologies have been brought together to build MACS. The strength of the system is the integration of the agent technology with the FIPA specifications together with other technologies that are Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Oracle Data Mining (ODM). The Microsoft's .NET widows service based agents were utilized to develop the monitoring agents of MACS, the .NET WCF services together with SOA approach allowed the distribution and communication between agents over the WWW that is in order to satisfy the monitoring and classification of the multiple developer aspect. ODM was used to automate the classification phase of MACS.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to research on thoughts transmitted from virtual fitting-room and to deduce discussion in an auxiliary narrative way. The research structure is based on 3D virtual fitting-room as the research subject. Initially, we will discuss the principles of narrate study, User Demand and so on by using a narrative design pattern to transmit their objective indications of “people-situation-reason-object", etc, and then to analyze the virtual fitting-room examples that are able to provide a new thinking for designers who engaged in clothing related industry – which comes in “story telling" and “user-centered design" forms. Clothing designs are not just to cover up the body to keep warm but to draw closer to people-s demand physiologically and psychologically through interactive designs so as to achieve cognition between people and environment. In the “outside" goal of clothing-s functional designs, we use tribal group-s behavior characteristics to “transform" the existing personal cultural stories, and “reform" them to design appropriate interactive products. Synthesizing the above matters, apart from being able to regard “narrate" as a kind of functional thinking process, we are also able to regard it as a kind of choice, arrangement and an activity of story expression, allowing interactive design-s spirit, product characteristics and experience ideas be transmitted to target tribal group in a visual image performance method. It is a far more confident and innovative attempt, and meanwhile, able to achieve entertainment, joyful and so forth fundamental interactive transmissions. Therefore, this study takes “user-centered design" thinking as a basis to establish a set of clothing designs with interactive experience patterns and to assist designers to examine the five sensual feeling of interactive demands in order to initiate a new value in textile industry.
Abstract: In this paper, we proposed a new framework to incorporate an intelligent agent software robot into a crisis communication portal (CCNet) in order to send alert news to subscribed users via email and other mobile services such as Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and General Packet Radio Services (GPRS). The content on the mobile services can be delivered either through mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistance (PDA). This research has shown that with our proposed framework, the embodied conversation agents system can handle questions intelligently with our multilayer architecture. At the same time, the extended framework can take care of delivery content through a more humanoid interface on mobile devices.