Abstract: Nowadays increasingly the population makes use of
Information Technology (IT). As such, in recent year the Portuguese
government increased its focus on using the IT for improving
people-s life and began to develop a set of measures to enable the
modernization of the Public Administration, and so reducing the gap
between Public Administration and citizens.Thus the Portuguese
Government launched the Simplex Program. However these
SIMPLEX eGov measures, which have been implemented over the
years, present a serious challenge: how to forecast its impact on
existing Information Systems Architecture (ISA). Thus, this research
is focus in addressing the problem of automating the evaluation of the
actual impact of implementation an eGovSimplification and
Modernization measures in the Information Systems Architecture. To
realize the evaluation we proposes a Framework, which is supported
by some key concepts as: Quality Factors, ISA modeling,
Multicriteria Approach, Polarity Profile and Quality Metrics
Abstract: This paper describes the authorization system
architecture for Pervasive Grid environment. It discusses the
characteristics of classical authorization system and requirements of
the authorization system in pervasive grid environment as well.
Based on our analysis of current systems and taking into account the
main requirements of such pervasive environment, we propose new
authorization system architecture as an extension of the existing grid
authorization mechanisms. This architecture not only supports user
attributes but also context attributes which act as a key concept for
context-awareness thought. The architecture allows authorization of
users dynamically when there are changes in the pervasive grid
environment. For this, we opt for hybrid authorization method that
integrates push and pull mechanisms to combine the existing grid
authorization attributes with dynamic context assertions. We will
investigate the proposed architecture using a real testing environment
that includes heterogeneous pervasive grid infrastructures mapped
over multiple virtual organizations. Various scenarios are described
in the last section of the article to strengthen the proposed mechanism
with different facilities for the authorization procedure.
Abstract: This paper describes the architectural design
considerations for building a new class of application, a Personal
Knowledge Integrator and a particular example a Knowledge Theatre.
It then supports this description by describing a scenario of a child
acquiring knowledge and how this process could be augmented by
the proposed architecture and design of a Knowledge Theatre. David
Merrill-s first “principles of instruction" are kept in focus to provide
a background to view the learning potential.
Abstract: Bridge is an architectural symbol in Iran as Badgir
(wind catcher); fire temples and arch are vaults are such. Therefore, from the very old ages, construction of bridges in Iran has mixed with
architecture, social customs, alms and charity and holiness. Since long ago, from Mad, Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid times which construction of bridges got an inseparable relation with social dependency and architecture, based on those dependency bridges and
dams got holy names; as Dokhtar castle and Dokhtar bridges were constructed. This method continued even after Islam and whenever
Iranians got free from political fights and the immunity of roads were established the bridge construction did also prospered. In ancient
times bridge construction passes through it growing and completion process and in Sassanid time in some way it reached to the peak of art
and glory; as after Islam especially during 4th. century (Arab calendar) it put behind a period of glory and in Safavid time it
reached to an exceptional glory and magnificence by constructing
glorious bridges on Zayandeh Roud River in Isfahan.
Having a combined style and changeability into bridge barrier, some of these bridges develop into magnificent constructions. The
sustainable structures, mentioned above, are constructed for various
reasons as follows: connecting two sides of a river, storing water,
controlling floods, using water energy to operate water windmills, making lanes of streams for farms- use, and building recreational
places for people, etc. These studies carried in bridges reveals the fact
that in construction and designing mentioned above, lots of
technological factors have been taken into consideration such as
exceeding floods in the rives, hydraulic and hydrology of the rivers and bridges, geology, foundation, structure, construction material, and adopting appropriate executing methods, all of which are being analyzed in this article.
Abstract: Tracing and locating the geographical location of users (Geolocation) is used extensively in todays Internet. Whenever we, e.g., request a page from google we are - unless there was a specific configuration made - automatically forwarded to the page with the relevant language and amongst others, dependent on our location identified, specific commercials are presented. Especially within the area of Network Security, Geolocation has a significant impact. Because of the way the Internet works, attacks can be executed from almost everywhere. Therefore, for an attribution, knowledge of the origination of an attack - and thus Geolocation - is mandatory in order to be able to trace back an attacker. In addition, Geolocation can also be used very successfully to increase the security of a network during operation (i.e. before an intrusion actually has taken place). Similar to greylisting in emails, Geolocation allows to (i) correlate attacks detected with new connections and (ii) as a consequence to classify traffic a priori as more suspicious (thus particularly allowing to inspect this traffic in more detail). Although numerous techniques for Geolocation are existing, each strategy is subject to certain restrictions. Following the ideas of Endo et al., this publication tries to overcome these shortcomings with a combined solution of different methods to allow improved and optimized Geolocation. Thus, we present our architecture for improved Geolocation, by designing a new algorithm, which combines several Geolocation techniques to increase the accuracy.
Abstract: Reliable secure multicast communication in mobile
adhoc networks is challenging due to its inherent characteristics of
infrastructure-less architecture with lack of central authority, high
packet loss rates and limited resources such as bandwidth, time and
power. Many emerging commercial and military applications require
secure multicast communication in adhoc environments. Hence key
management is the fundamental challenge in achieving reliable
secure communication using multicast key distribution for mobile
adhoc networks. Thus in designing a reliable multicast key
distribution scheme, reliability and congestion control over
throughput are essential components. This paper proposes and
evaluates the performance of an enhanced optimized multicast cluster
tree algorithm with destination sequenced distance vector routing
protocol to provide reliable multicast key distribution. Simulation
results in NS2 accurately predict the performance of proposed
scheme in terms of key delivery ratio and packet loss rate under
varying network conditions. This proposed scheme achieves
reliability, while exhibiting low packet loss rate with high key
delivery ratio compared with the existing scheme.
Abstract: In this paper, a Bayesian Network (BN) based system
is presented for providing clinical decision support to healthcare
practitioners in rural or remote areas of India for young infants or
children up to the age of 5 years. The government is unable to
appoint child specialists in rural areas because of inadequate number
of available pediatricians. It leads to a high Infant Mortality Rate
(IMR). In such a scenario, Intelligent Pediatric System provides a
realistic solution. The prototype of an intelligent system has been
developed that involves a knowledge component called an Intelligent
Pediatric Assistant (IPA); and User Agents (UA) along with their
Graphical User Interfaces (GUI). The GUI of UA provides the
interface to the healthcare practitioner for submitting sign-symptoms
and displaying the expert opinion as suggested by IPA. Depending
upon the observations, the IPA decides the diagnosis and the
treatment plan. The UA and IPA form client-server architecture for
knowledge sharing.
Abstract: Full search block matching algorithm is widely used for hardware implementation of motion estimators in video compression algorithms. In this paper we are proposing a new architecture, which consists of a 2D parallel processing unit and a 1D unit both working in parallel. The proposed architecture reduces both data access power and computational power which are the main causes of power consumption in integer motion estimation. It also completes the operations with nearly the same number of clock cycles as compared to a 2D systolic array architecture. In this work sum of absolute difference (SAD)-the most repeated operation in block matching, is calculated in two steps. The first step is to calculate the SAD for alternate rows by a 2D parallel unit. If the SAD calculated by the parallel unit is less than the stored minimum SAD, the SAD of the remaining rows is calculated by the 1D unit. Early termination, which stops avoidable computations has been achieved with the help of alternate rows method proposed in this paper and by finding a low initial SAD value based on motion vector prediction. Data reuse has been applied to the reference blocks in the same search area which significantly reduced the memory access.
Abstract: The construction of a civil structure inside a urban
area inevitably modifies the outdoor microclimate at the building
site. Wind speed, wind direction, air pollution, driving rain, radiation
and daylight are some of the main physical aspects that are subjected
to the major changes. The quantitative amount of these modifications
depends on the shape, size and orientation of the building and on its
interaction with the surrounding environment.The flow field over a
flat roof model building has been numerically investigated in order to
determine two-dimensional CFD guidelines for the calculation of the
turbulent flow over a structure immersed in an atmospheric boundary
layer. To this purpose, a complete validation campaign has been
performed through a systematic comparison of numerical simulations
with wind tunnel experimental data.Several turbulence models and
spatial node distributions have been tested for five different vertical
positions, respectively from the upstream leading edge to the
downstream bottom edge of the analyzed model. Flow field
characteristics in the neighborhood of the building model have been
numerically investigated, allowing a quantification of the capabilities
of the CFD code to predict the flow separation and the extension of
the recirculation regions.The proposed calculations have allowed the
development of a preliminary procedure to be used as a guidance in
selecting the appropriate grid configuration and corresponding
turbulence model for the prediction of the flow field over a twodimensional
roof architecture dominated by flow separation.
Abstract: In this report, an OTA which is used in fully
differential pipelined ADC was described. Using gain-boost
architecture with difference-ended amplifier, this OTA achieve
high-gain and high-speed. Besides, the CMFB circuit is also used, and
some methods are concerned to improve the performance. Then, by
optimization the layout design, OTA-s mismatch was reduced. This
design was using TSMC 0.18um CMOS process and simulation both
schematic and layout in Cadence. The result of the simulation shows
that the OTA has a gain up to 80dB,a unity gain bandwidth of about
1.437GHz for a 2pF load, a slew rate is about 428V/μs, a output swing
is 0.2V~1.35V, with the power supply of 1.8V, the power
consumption is 88mW. This amplifier was used in a 10bit 150MHz
pipelined ADC.
Abstract: An adaptive Fuzzy Inference Perceptual model has
been proposed for watermarking of digital images. The model
depends on the human visual characteristics of image sub-regions in
the frequency multi-resolution wavelet domain. In the proposed
model, a multi-variable fuzzy based architecture has been designed to
produce a perceptual membership degree for both candidate
embedding sub-regions and strength watermark embedding factor.
Different sizes of benchmark images with different sizes of
watermarks have been applied on the model. Several experimental
attacks have been applied such as JPEG compression, noises and
rotation, to ensure the robustness of the scheme. In addition, the
model has been compared with different watermarking schemes. The
proposed model showed its robustness to attacks and at the same time
achieved a high level of imperceptibility.
Abstract: Nowadays companies strive to survive in a
competitive global environment. To speed up product
development/modifications, it is suggested to adopt a collaborative
product development approach. However, despite the advantages of
new IT improvements still many CAx systems work separately and
locally. Collaborative design and manufacture requires a product
information model that supports related CAx product data models. To
solve this problem many solutions are proposed, which the most
successful one is adopting the STEP standard as a product data model
to develop a collaborative CAx platform. However, the improvement
of the STEP-s Application Protocols (APs) over the time, huge
number of STEP AP-s and cc-s, the high costs of implementation,
costly process for conversion of older CAx software files to the STEP
neutral file format; and lack of STEP knowledge, that usually slows
down the implementation of the STEP standard in collaborative data
exchange, management and integration should be considered. In this
paper the requirements for a successful collaborative CAx system is
discussed. The STEP standard capability for product data integration
and its shortcomings as well as the dominant platforms for supporting
CAx collaboration management and product data integration are
reviewed. Finally a platform named LAYMOD to fulfil the
requirements of CAx collaborative environment and integrating the
product data is proposed. The platform is a layered platform to enable
global collaboration among different CAx software
packages/developers. It also adopts the STEP modular architecture
and the XML data structures to enable collaboration between CAx
software packages as well as overcoming the STEP standard
limitations. The architecture and procedures of LAYMOD platform
to manage collaboration and avoid contradicts in product data
integration are introduced.
Abstract: One of the most important aspects expected from an
ERP system is to mange user\administrator manual documents
dynamically. Since an ERP package is frequently changed during its
implementation in customer sites, it is often needed to add new
documents and/or apply required changes to existing documents in
order to cover new or changed capabilities. The worse is that since
these changes occur continuously, the corresponding documents
should be updated dynamically; otherwise, implementing the ERP
package in the organization encounters serious risks. In this paper, we
propose a new architecture which is based on the agent oriented
vision and supplies the dynamic document generation expected from
ERP systems using several independent but cooperative agents.
Beside the dynamic document generation which is the main issue of
this paper, the presented architecture will address some aspects of
intelligence and learning capabilities existing in ERP.
Abstract: In this era of technology, fueled by the pervasive usage of the internet, security is a prime concern. The number of new attacks by the so-called “bots", which are automated programs, is increasing at an alarming rate. They are most likely to attack online registration systems. Technology, called “CAPTCHA" (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) do exist, which can differentiate between automated programs and humans and prevent replay attacks. Traditionally CAPTCHA-s have been implemented with the challenge involved in recognizing textual images and reproducing the same. We propose an approach where the visual challenge has to be read out from which randomly selected keywords are used to verify the correctness of spoken text and in turn detect the presence of human. This is supplemented with a speaker recognition system which can identify the speaker also. Thus, this framework fulfills both the objectives – it can determine whether the user is a human or not and if it is a human, it can verify its identity.
Abstract: This paper presents an exact pruning algorithm with
adaptive pruning interval for general dynamic neural networks
(GDNN). GDNNs are artificial neural networks with internal dynamics.
All layers have feedback connections with time delays to the
same and to all other layers. The structure of the plant is unknown, so
the identification process is started with a larger network architecture
than necessary. During parameter optimization with the Levenberg-
Marquardt (LM) algorithm irrelevant weights of the dynamic neural
network are deleted in order to find a model for the plant as
simple as possible. The weights to be pruned are found by direct
evaluation of the training data within a sliding time window. The
influence of pruning on the identification system depends on the
network architecture at pruning time and the selected weight to be
deleted. As the architecture of the model is changed drastically during
the identification and pruning process, it is suggested to adapt the
pruning interval online. Two system identification examples show
the architecture selection ability of the proposed pruning approach.
Abstract: The main goal of this seminal paper is to introduce the
application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in long distance
infrastructure monitoring (in particular in pipeline infrastructure
monitoring) – one of the on-going research projects by the Wireless
Communication Research Group at the department of Electronic and
Computer Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The
current sensor network architectures for monitoring long distance
pipeline infrastructures are previewed. These are wired sensor
networks, RF wireless sensor networks, integrated wired and wireless
sensor networks. The reliability of these architectures is discussed.
Three reliability factors are used to compare the architectures in
terms of network connectivity, continuity of power supply for the
network, and the maintainability of the network. The constraints and
challenges of wireless sensor networks for monitoring and protecting
long distance pipeline infrastructure are discussed.
Abstract: The way music is interpreted by the human brain is a very interesting topic, but also an intricate one. Although this domain has been studied for over a century, many gray areas remain in the understanding of music. Recent advances have enabled us to perform accurate measurements of the time taken by the human brain to interpret and assimilate a sound. Cognitive computing provides tools and development environments that facilitate human cognition simulation. ACT-R is a cognitive architecture which offers an environment for implementing human cognitive tasks. This project combines our understanding of the music interpretation by a human listener and the ACT-R cognitive architecture to build SINGER, a computerized simulation for listening and recalling songs. The results are similar to human experimental data. Simulation results also show how it is easier to remember short melodies than long melodies which require more trials to be recalled correctly.
Abstract: The general purpose processors that are used in
embedded systems must support constraints like execution time,
power consumption, code size and so on. On the other hand an
Application Specific Instruction-set Processor (ASIP) has advantages
in terms of power consumption, performance and flexibility. In this
paper, a 16-bit Application Specific Instruction-set processor for the
sensor data transfer is proposed. The designed processor architecture
consists of on-chip transmitter and receiver modules along with the
processing and controlling units to enable the data transmission and
reception on a single die. The data transfer is accomplished with less
number of instructions as compared with the general purpose
processor. The ASIP core operates at a maximum clock frequency of
1.132GHz with a delay of 0.883ns and consumes 569.63mW power
at an operating voltage of 1.2V. The ASIP is implemented in Verilog
HDL using the Xilinx platform on Virtex4.
Abstract: Research in distributed artificial intelligence and multiagent systems consider how a set of distributed entities can interact and coordinate their actions in order to solve a given problem. In this paper an overview of this concept and its evolution is presented particularly its application in the design of intelligent tutoring systems. An intelligent tutor based on the concept of agent and centered specifically on the design of a pedagogue agent is illustrated. Our work has two goals: the first one concerns the architecture aspect and the design of a tutor using multiagent approach. The second one deals particularly with the design of a part of a tutor system: the pedagogue agent.
Abstract: A multilayer self organizing neural neural network
(MLSONN) architecture for binary object extraction, guided by a beta
activation function and characterized by backpropagation of errors
estimated from the linear indices of fuzziness of the network output
states, is discussed. Since the MLSONN architecture is designed to
operate in a single point fixed/uniform thresholding scenario, it does
not take into cognizance the heterogeneity of image information in
the extraction process. The performance of the MLSONN architecture
with representative values of the threshold parameters of the beta
activation function employed is also studied. A three layer bidirectional
self organizing neural network (BDSONN) architecture
comprising fully connected neurons, for the extraction of objects from
a noisy background and capable of incorporating the underlying image
context heterogeneity through variable and adaptive thresholding,
is proposed in this article. The input layer of the network architecture
represents the fuzzy membership information of the image scene to
be extracted. The second layer (the intermediate layer) and the final
layer (the output layer) of the network architecture deal with the self
supervised object extraction task by bi-directional propagation of the
network states. Each layer except the output layer is connected to the
next layer following a neighborhood based topology. The output layer
neurons are in turn, connected to the intermediate layer following
similar topology, thus forming a counter-propagating architecture
with the intermediate layer. The novelty of the proposed architecture
is that the assignment/updating of the inter-layer connection weights
are done using the relative fuzzy membership values at the constituent
neurons in the different network layers. Another interesting feature
of the network lies in the fact that the processing capabilities of
the intermediate and the output layer neurons are guided by a beta
activation function, which uses image context sensitive adaptive
thresholding arising out of the fuzzy cardinality estimates of the
different network neighborhood fuzzy subsets, rather than resorting to
fixed and single point thresholding. An application of the proposed
architecture for object extraction is demonstrated using a synthetic
and a real life image. The extraction efficiency of the proposed
network architecture is evaluated by a proposed system transfer index
characteristic of the network.