Abstract: we propose a new normalized LMS (NLMS) algorithm, which gives satisfactory performance in certain applications in comaprison with con-ventional NLMS recursion. This new algorithm can be treated as a block based simplification of NLMS algorithm with significantly reduced number of multi¬ply and accumulate as well as division operations. It is also shown that such a recursion can be easily implemented in block floating point (BFP) arithmetic, treating the implementational issues much efficiently. In particular, the core challenges of a BFP realization to such adaptive filters are mainly considered in this regard. A global upper bound on the step size control parameter of the new algorithm due to BFP implementation is also proposed to prevent overflow in filtering as well as weight updating operations jointly.
Abstract: Mixed-traffic (e.g., pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles)
data at an intersection is one of the essential factors for intersection
design and traffic control. However, some data such as pedestrian
volume cannot be directly collected by common detectors (e.g.
inductive loop, sonar and microwave sensors). In this paper, a video
based detection algorithm is proposed for mixed-traffic data collection
at intersections using surveillance cameras. The algorithm is derived
from Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), and uses a mergence time
adjustment scheme to improve the traditional algorithm. Real-world
video data were selected to test the algorithm. The results show that
the proposed algorithm has the faster processing speed and more
accuracy than the traditional algorithm. This indicates that the
improved algorithm can be applied to detect mixed-traffic at
signalized intersection, even when conflicts occur.
Abstract: The paper shows some ability to manage two-phase
flows arising from the use of unsteady effects. In one case, we
consider the condition of fragmentation of the interface between the
two components leads to the intensification of mixing. The problem
is solved when the temporal and linear scale are small for the
appearance of the developed mixing layer. Showing that exist such
conditions for unsteady flow velocity at the surface of the channel,
which will lead to the creation and fragmentation of vortices at Re
numbers of order unity. Also showing that the Re is not a criterion of
similarity for this type of flows, but we can introduce a criterion that
depends on both the Re, and the frequency splitting of the vortices. It
turned out that feature of this situation is that streamlines behave
stable, and if we analyze the behavior of the interface between the
components it satisfies all the properties of unstable flows. The other
problem we consider the behavior of solid impurities in the extensive
system of channels. Simulated unsteady periodic flow modeled
breaths. Consider the behavior of the particles along the trajectories.
It is shown that, depending on the mass and diameter of the particles,
they can be collected in a caustic on the channel walls, stop in a
certain place or fly back. Of interest is the distribution of particle
velocity in frequency. It turned out that by choosing a behavior of the
velocity field of the carrier gas can affect the trajectory of individual
particles including force them to fly back.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to study the factors
related to the satisfaction of consumers who purchased a Toyota
SUV Fortuner. This paper was a survey data which collected 400
samples from 65 car dealerships. The survey was conducted mainly
in Bangkok, Thailand. The statistics utilized in this paper included
percentage, mean, standard deviation and Pearson Product-Moment.
The findings revealed that the majority of respondent were male with
an undergraduate degree, married and live together. The average
income of the respondents was between 20,001 - 30,000 baht. Most
of them worked for private companies. Most of them had a family
with the average of 4 members. The hypotheses testing revealed that
the factors of marketing mix in terms of product (ability, gas
mileage, and safety) were related to overall satisfaction at the
medium level. However, the findings also revealed that the factors of
marketing mix in terms of product (image), price, and promotion, and
service center were related to the overall satisfaction at the low level.
Abstract: Service innovations are central concerns in fast
changing environment. Due to the fitness in customer demands and
advances in information technologies (IT) in service management, an
expanded conceptualization of e-service innovation is required.
Specially, innovation practices have become increasingly more
challenging, driving managers to employ a different open innovation
model to maintain competitive advantages. At the same time, firms
need to interact with external and internal customers in innovative
environments, like the open innovation networks, to co-create values.
Based on these issues, an important conceptual framework of e-service
innovation is developed. This paper aims to examine the contributing
factors on e-service innovation and firm performance, including
financial and non-financial aspects. The study concludes by showing
how e-service innovation will play a significant role in growing the
overall values of the firm. The discussion and conclusion will lead to a
stronger understanding of e-service innovation and co-creating values
with customers within open innovation networks.
Abstract: This study examines age and sex patterns of
children-s disability in the Parila union of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. For
this we assumed that (1) prevalence of disability patterns and its
severity in the middle childhood are higher than in the infancy or
latter childhood in the Parila union of Rajshahi, (2) prevalence of
disability patterns and its severity among the boys compared to girls
are higher in the study area of Bangladesh. In order to examine the
assumptions 102 samples, including their mothers were selected
based on snowball process and the respondents were individually
interviewed with semi-structured questionnaire method. The results
of the study suggest that disability patterns and its severity among the
male children were two-fold higher than the female children. In
addition, these patterns of children-s disability and its severity in the
middle childhood were also higher than in the infancy or latter
childhood. Further study should conduct how socio-structural factors
influence age and sex patterns of children-s disability patterns and its
severity in Bangladesh.
Abstract: The recognition of human faces, especially those with
different orientations is a challenging and important problem in image
analysis and classification. This paper proposes an effective scheme
for rotation invariant face recognition using Log-Polar Transform and
Discrete Cosine Transform combined features. The rotation invariant
feature extraction for a given face image involves applying the logpolar
transform to eliminate the rotation effect and to produce a row
shifted log-polar image. The discrete cosine transform is then applied
to eliminate the row shift effect and to generate the low-dimensional
feature vector. A PSO-based feature selection algorithm is utilized to
search the feature vector space for the optimal feature subset.
Evolution is driven by a fitness function defined in terms of
maximizing the between-class separation (scatter index).
Experimental results, based on the ORL face database using testing
data sets for images with different orientations; show that the
proposed system outperforms other face recognition methods. The
overall recognition rate for the rotated test images being 97%,
demonstrating that the extracted feature vector is an effective rotation
invariant feature set with minimal set of selected features.
Abstract: The performance of an image filtering system depends
on its ability to detect the presence of noisy pixels in the image. Most
of the impulse detection schemes assume the presence of salt and
pepper noise in the images and do not work satisfactorily in case of
uniformly distributed impulse noise. In this paper, a new algorithm is
presented to improve the performance of switching median filter in
detection of uniformly distributed impulse noise. The performance of
the proposed scheme is demonstrated by the results obtained from
computer simulations on various images.
Abstract: Modern retailers such as hypermarket/supermarket
need to be more customer-oriented in order to survive in today-s
competitive business world. As a result, the investigation of
determinant factors of store loyalty becomes important issue for
modern retailing players. This study suggests that consumers- store
loyalty in the modern retailing market (hypermarkets and
supermarkets) is influenced by environmental factors (such as store
image, store personnel). Using a model of stimulus-organismresponse
(S-O-R), this research examines S-R relationship of store
loyalty. S-O-R framework is derived from the existence literature and
tested empirically based on Indonesian consumers- experience. The
stimuli for this study are store image, store personnel, satisfaction
and culture factors. Affect, or the consumers- liking to modern
retailing stores, mediates the chosen environmental factors on
consumer-s store loyalty. The findings showed that store image, store
satisfaction and culture have significant positive relationship to store
loyalty via affect.
Abstract: This paper discusses E-government, in particular the
challenges that face adoption in Saudi Arabia. E-government can be
defined based on an existing set of requirements. In this research we
define E-government as a matrix of stakeholders: governments to
governments, governments to business and governments to citizens,
using information and communications technology to deliver and
consume services. E-government has been implemented for a
considerable time in developed countries. However, E-government
services still face many challenges in their implementation and
general adoption in many countries including Saudi Arabia. It has
been noted that the introduction of E-government is a major
challenge facing the government of Saudi Arabia, due to possible
concerns raised by its citizens. In addition, the literature review and
the discussion identify the influential factors that affect the citizens’
intention to adopt E-government services in Saudi Arabia.
Consequently, these factors have been defined and categorized
followed by an exploratory study to examine the importance of these
factors. Therefore, this research has identified factors that determine
if the citizen will adopt E-government services and thereby aiding
governments in accessing what is required to increase adoption.
Abstract: Structural representation and technology mapping of
a Boolean function is an important problem in the design of nonregenerative
digital logic circuits (also called combinational logic
circuits). Library aware function manipulation offers a solution to
this problem. Compact multi-level representation of binary networks,
based on simple circuit structures, such as AND-Inverter Graphs
(AIG) [1] [5], NAND Graphs, OR-Inverter Graphs (OIG), AND-OR
Graphs (AOG), AND-OR-Inverter Graphs (AOIG), AND-XORInverter
Graphs, Reduced Boolean Circuits [8] does exist in
literature. In this work, we discuss a novel and efficient graph
realization for combinational logic circuits, represented using a
NAND-NOR-Inverter Graph (NNIG), which is composed of only
two-input NAND (NAND2), NOR (NOR2) and inverter (INV) cells.
The networks are constructed on the basis of irredundant disjunctive
and conjunctive normal forms, after factoring, comprising terms with
minimum support. Construction of a NNIG for a non-regenerative
function in normal form would be straightforward, whereas for the
complementary phase, it would be developed by considering a virtual
instance of the function. However, the choice of best NNIG for a
given function would be based upon literal count, cell count and
DAG node count of the implementation at the technology
independent stage. In case of a tie, the final decision would be made
after extracting the physical design parameters.
We have considered AIG representation for reduced disjunctive
normal form and the best of OIG/AOG/AOIG for the minimized
conjunctive normal forms. This is necessitated due to the nature of
certain functions, such as Achilles- heel functions. NNIGs are found
to exhibit 3.97% lesser node count compared to AIGs and
OIG/AOG/AOIGs; consume 23.74% and 10.79% lesser library cells
than AIGs and OIG/AOG/AOIGs for the various samples considered.
We compare the power efficiency and delay improvement achieved
by optimal NNIGs over minimal AIGs and OIG/AOG/AOIGs for
various case studies. In comparison with functionally equivalent,
irredundant and compact AIGs, NNIGs report mean savings in power
and delay of 43.71% and 25.85% respectively, after technology
mapping with a 0.35 micron TSMC CMOS process. For a
comparison with OIG/AOG/AOIGs, NNIGs demonstrate average
savings in power and delay by 47.51% and 24.83%. With respect to
device count needed for implementation with static CMOS logic
style, NNIGs utilize 37.85% and 33.95% lesser transistors than their
AIG and OIG/AOG/AOIG counterparts.
Abstract: In this paper, algorithm estimating the blood pressure
was proposed using the pulse transit time (PTT) as a more convenient
method of measuring the blood pressure. After measuring ECG and
pressure pulse, and photoplethysmography, the PTT was calculated
from the acquired signals. Thereafter, the system to indirectly measure
the systolic pressure and the diastolic pressure was composed using
the statistic method. In comparison between the blood pressure
indirectly measured by proposed algorithm estimating the blood
pressure and real blood pressure measured by conventional
sphygmomanometer, the systolic pressure indicates the mean error of
±3.24mmHg and the standard deviation of 2.53mmHg, while the
diastolic pressure indicates the satisfactory result, that is, the mean
error of ±1.80mmHg and the standard deviation of 1.39mmHg. These
results are satisfied with the regulation of ANSI/AAMI for
certification of sphygmomanometer that real measurement error value
should be within the mean error of ±5mmHg and the standard
deviation of 8mmHg. These results are suggest the possibility of
applying to portable and long time blood pressure monitoring system
hereafter.
Abstract: In many applications, it is a priori known that the
target function should satisfy certain constraints imposed by, for
example, economic theory or a human-decision maker. Here we
consider partially monotone problems, where the target variable
depends monotonically on some of the predictor variables but not all.
We propose an approach to build partially monotone models based
on the convolution of monotone neural networks and kernel
functions. The results from simulations and a real case study on
house pricing show that our approach has significantly better
performance than partially monotone linear models. Furthermore, the
incorporation of partial monotonicity constraints not only leads to
models that are in accordance with the decision maker's expertise,
but also reduces considerably the model variance in comparison to
standard neural networks with weight decay.
Abstract: A comprehensive discussion of feasible strategies for sustainable energy supply is urgently needed to achieve a turnaround of the current energy situation. The necessary fundamentals required for the development of a long term energy vision are lacking to a great extent due to the absence of reasonable long term scenarios that fulfill the requirements of climate protection and sustainable energy use. The contribution of the study is based on a search for sustainable energy paths in the long run for Austria. The analysis makes use of secondary data predominantly. The measures developed to avoid CO2 emissions and other ecological risk factors vary to a great extent among all economic sectors. This is shown by the calculation of CO2 cost of abatement curves. In this study it is demonstrated that the most effective technical measures with the lowest CO2 abatement costs yield solutions to the current energy problems. Various scenarios are presented concerning the question how the technological and environmental options for a sustainable energy system for Austria could look like in the long run. It is shown how sustainable energy can be supplied even with today-s technological knowledge and options available. The scenarios developed include an evaluation of the economic costs and ecological impacts. The results are not only applicable to Austria but demonstrate feasible and cost efficient ways towards a sustainable future.
Abstract: Optical flow is a research topic of interest for many
years. It has, until recently, been largely inapplicable to real-time
applications due to its computationally expensive nature. This paper
presents a new reliable flow technique which is combined with a
motion detection algorithm, from stationary camera image streams,
to allow flow-based analyses of moving entities, such as rigidity, in
real-time. The combination of the optical flow analysis with motion
detection technique greatly reduces the expensive computation of
flow vectors as compared with standard approaches, rendering the
method to be applicable in real-time implementation. This paper
describes also the hardware implementation of a proposed pipelined
system to estimate the flow vectors from image sequences in real
time. This design can process 768 x 576 images at a very high frame
rate that reaches to 156 fps in a single low cost FPGA chip, which is
adequate for most real-time vision applications.
Abstract: In this paper a new approach to face recognition is presented that achieves double dimension reduction making the system computationally efficient with better recognition results. In pattern recognition techniques, discriminative information of image increases with increase in resolution to a certain extent, consequently face recognition results improve with increase in face image resolution and levels off when arriving at a certain resolution level. In the proposed model of face recognition, first image decimation algorithm is applied on face image for dimension reduction to a certain resolution level which provides best recognition results. Due to better computational speed and feature extraction potential of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) it is applied on face image. A subset of coefficients of DCT from low to mid frequencies that represent the face adequately and provides best recognition results is retained. A trade of between decimation factor, number of DCT coefficients retained and recognition rate with minimum computation is obtained. Preprocessing of the image is carried out to increase its robustness against variations in poses and illumination level. This new model has been tested on different databases which include ORL database, Yale database and a color database. The proposed technique has performed much better compared to other techniques. The significance of the model is two fold: (1) dimension reduction up to an effective and suitable face image resolution (2) appropriate DCT coefficients are retained to achieve best recognition results with varying image poses, intensity and illumination level.
Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that negative
attitudes towards people with physical disabilities and obesity are
predicted by a component of perceived vulnerability to disease; germ
aversion. These findings have been suggested as illustrations of an
evolved but over-active mechanism which promotes the avoidance of
pathogen-carrying individuals. To date, this interpretation of attitude
formation has not been explored with regard to people with
intellectual disability, and no attempts have been made to examine
possible mediating factors. This study examined attitudes in 333
adults and demonstrated that the moderate positive relationship
between germ aversion and negative attitudes toward people with
intellectual disability is fully mediated by social dominance
orientation, a general preference for hierarchies and inequalities
among social groups. These findings have implications for the
design of programs which attempt to promote community acceptance
and inclusion of people with disabilities.
Abstract: The rapid development of manufacturing and information systems has caused significant changes in manufacturing environments in recent decades. Mass production has given way to flexible manufacturing systems, in which an important characteristic is customized or "on demand" production. In this scenario, the seamless and without gaps information flow becomes a key factor for success of enterprises. In this paper we present a framework to support the mapping of features into machining workingsteps compliant with the ISO 14649 standard (known as STEP-NC). The system determines how the features can be made with the available manufacturing resources. Examples of the mapping method are presented for features such as a pocket with a general surface.
Abstract: In this era of competitiveness, there is a growing need for supply chains also to become competitive enough to handle pressures like varying customer’s expectations, low cost high quality products to be delivered at the minimum time and the most important is throat cutting competition at world wide scale. In the recent years, supply chain competitiveness has been, therefore, accepted as one of the most important philosophies in the supply chain literature. Various researchers and practitioners have tried to identify and implement strategies in supply chains which can bring competitiveness in the supply chains i.e. supply chain competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to suggest select strategies for supply chain competitiveness in the Indian manufacturing sector using an integrated approach of literature review and exploratory interviews with eminent professionals from the supply chain area in various industries, academia and research. The aim of the paper is to highlight the important area of competitiveness in the supply chain and to suggest recommendations to the industry and managers of manufacturing sector.
Abstract: Most of the losses in a power system relate to
the distribution sector which always has been considered.
From the important factors which contribute to increase losses
in the distribution system is the existence of radioactive flows.
The most common way to compensate the radioactive power
in the system is the power to use parallel capacitors. In
addition to reducing the losses, the advantages of capacitor
placement are the reduction of the losses in the release peak of
network capacity and improving the voltage profile. The point
which should be considered in capacitor placement is the
optimal placement and specification of the amount of the
capacitor in order to maximize the advantages of capacitor
placement.
In this paper, a new technique has been offered for the
placement and the specification of the amount of the constant
capacitors in the radius distribution network on the basis of
Genetic Algorithm (GA). The existing optimal methods for
capacitor placement are mostly including those which reduce
the losses and voltage profile simultaneously. But the
retaliation cost and load changes have not been considered as
influential UN the target function .In this article, a holistic
approach has been considered for the optimal response to this
problem which includes all the parameters in the distribution
network: The price of the phase voltage and load changes. So,
a vast inquiry is required for all the possible responses. So, in
this article, we use Genetic Algorithm (GA) as the most
powerful method for optimal inquiry.