Abstract: The advances in location-based data collection
technologies such as GPS, RFID etc. and the rapid reduction of their
costs provide us with a huge and continuously increasing amount of
data about movement of vehicles, people and goods in an urban area.
This explosive growth of geospatially-referenced data has far
outpaced the planner-s ability to utilize and transform the data into
insightful information thus creating an adverse impact on the return
on the investment made to collect and manage this data. Addressing
this pressing need, we designed and developed DIVAD, a dynamic
and interactive visual analytics dashboard to allow city planners to
explore and analyze city-s transportation data to gain valuable
insights about city-s traffic flow and transportation requirements. We
demonstrate the potential of DIVAD through the use of interactive
choropleth and hexagon binning maps to explore and analyze large
taxi-transportation data of Singapore for different geographic and
time zones.
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: Due to the coexistence of different Radio Access
Technologies (RATs), Next Generation Wireless Networks (NGWN)
are predicted to be heterogeneous in nature. The coexistence of
different RATs requires a need for Common Radio Resource
Management (CRRM) to support the provision of Quality of Service
(QoS) and the efficient utilization of radio resources. RAT selection
algorithms are part of the CRRM algorithms. Simply, their role is to
verify if an incoming call will be suitable to fit into a heterogeneous
wireless network, and to decide which of the available RATs is most
suitable to fit the need of the incoming call and admit it.
Guaranteeing the requirements of QoS for all accepted calls and at
the same time being able to provide the most efficient utilization of
the available radio resources is the goal of RAT selection algorithm.
The normal call admission control algorithms are designed for
homogeneous wireless networks and they do not provide a solution
to fit a heterogeneous wireless network which represents the NGWN.
Therefore, there is a need to develop RAT selection algorithm for
heterogeneous wireless network. In this paper, we propose an
approach for RAT selection which includes receiving different
criteria, assessing and making decisions, then selecting the most
suitable RAT for incoming calls. A comprehensive survey of
different RAT selection algorithms for a heterogeneous wireless
network is studied.
Abstract: Numerical studies have been carried out using a two
dimensional code to examine the influence of pressure / thrust
transient of solid propellant rockets at liftoff. This code solves
unsteady Reynolds-averaged thin-layer Navier–Stokes equations by
an implicit LU-factorization time-integration method. The results
from the parametric study indicate that when the port is narrow there
is a possibility of increase in pressure / thrust-rise rate due to
relatively high flame spread rate. Parametric studies further reveal
that flame spread rate can be altered by altering the propellant
properties, igniter jet characteristics and nozzle closure burst pressure
without altering the grain configuration and/or the mission
demanding thrust transient. We observed that when the igniter
turbulent intensity is relatively low the vehicle could liftoff early due
to the early flow choking of the rocket nozzle. We concluded that the
high pressurization-rate has structural implications at liftoff in
addition to transient burning effect. Therefore prudent selection of the
port geometry and the igniter, for meeting the mission requirements,
within the given envelop are meaningful objectives for any designer
for the smooth liftoff of solid propellant rockets.
Abstract: In this paper we investigate the watermarking authentication when applied to medical imagery field. We first give an overview of watermarking technology by paying attention to fragile watermarking since it is the usual scheme for authentication.We then analyze the requirements for image authentication and integrity in medical imagery, and we show finally that invertible schemes are the best suited for this particular field. A well known authentication method is studied. This technique is then adapted here for interleaving patient information and message authentication code with medical images in a reversible manner, that is using lossless compression. The resulting scheme enables on a side the exact recovery of the original image that can be unambiguously authenticated, and on the other side, the patient information to be saved or transmitted in a confidential way. To ensure greater security the patient information is encrypted before being embedded into images.
Abstract: This paper presents a design of source encoding
calculator software which applies the two famous algorithms in the
field of information theory- the Shannon-Fano and the Huffman
schemes. This design helps to easily realize the algorithms without
going into a cumbersome, tedious and prone to error manual
mechanism of encoding the signals during the transmission. The
work describes the design of the software, how it works, comparison
with related works, its efficiency, its usefulness in the field of
information technology studies and the future prospects of the
software to engineers, students, technicians and alike. The designed
“Encodia" software has been developed, tested and found to meet the
intended requirements. It is expected that this application will help
students and teaching staff in their daily doing of information theory
related tasks. The process is ongoing to modify this tool so that it can
also be more intensely useful in research activities on source coding.
Abstract: For about two decades scientists have been
developing techniques for enhancing the quality of medical images
using Fourier transform, DWT (Discrete wavelet transform),PDE
model etc., Gabor wavelet on hexagonal sampled grid of the images
is proposed in this work. This method has optimal approximation
theoretic performances, for a good quality image. The computational
cost is considerably low when compared to similar processing in the
rectangular domain. As X-ray images contain light scattered pixels,
instead of unique sigma, the parameter sigma of 0.5 to 3 is found to
satisfy most of the image interpolation requirements in terms of high
Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) , lower Mean Squared Error
(MSE) and better image quality by adopting windowing technique.
Abstract: As German companies roll out their standardized
production systems to offshore manufacturing plants, they face the
challenge of implementing them in different cultural environments.
Studies show that the local adaptation is one of the key factors for a
successful implementation. Thus the question arises of where the line
between standardization and adaptation can be drawn. To answer
this question the influence of culture on production systems is
analysed in this paper. The culturally contingent components of
production systems are identified. Also the contingency factors are
classified according to their impact on the necessary adaptation
changes and implementation effort. Culturally specific decision
making, coordination, communication and motivation patterns
require one-time changes in organizational and process design. The
attitude towards rules requires more intense coaching and controlling.
Lastly a framework is developed to depict standardization and
adaption needs when transplanting production systems into different
cultural environments.
Abstract: Multirate multimedia delivery applications in multihop Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) are data redundant and delay-sensitive, which brings a lot of challenges for designing efficient transmission systems. In this paper, we propose a new cross layer resource allocation scheme to minimize the receiver side distortion within the delay bound requirements, by exploring application layer Position and Value (P-V) diversity as well as the multihop Effective Capacity (EC). We specifically consider image transmission optimization here. First of all, the maximum supportable source traffic rate is identified by exploring the multihop Effective Capacity (EC) model. Furthermore, the optimal source coding rate is selected according to the P-V diversity of multirate media streaming, which significantly increases the decoded media quality. Simulation results show the proposed approach improved media quality significantly compared with traditional approaches under the same QoS requirements.
Abstract: Today, any organization - regardless of the specific activity - must be prepared to face continuous radical changes, innovation thus becoming a condition of survival in a globalized market. Few managers have a wider vision that includes innovation, to enable better performance of the critical activities, namely the degree of novelty that it must submit an innovation to be considered as such. Companies need not only radical changes in the products or their services, but also to their business strategies. Not all managers have an overall view on the real size of necessary innovation potential. Unfortunately there is still no common understanding (and correct) of the term of innovation among managers. Moreover, not all managers are aware of the need for innovation. In these conditions, increasing the processes adaptability of firms (through innovation) to meet the needs and performance requirements is difficult without a systematic framework. To overcome this disadvantage, the authors propose a framework for designing an innovation management system,, to cover all the important aspects of a business system, to reach the actual performance of an organization.
Abstract: Home Automation is a field that, among other
subjects, is concerned with the comfort, security and energy
requirements of private homes. The configuration of automatic
functions in this type of houses is not always simple to its inhabitants
requiring the initial setup and regular adjustments. In this work, the
ubiquitous computing system vision is used, where the users- action
patterns are captured, recorded and used to create the contextawareness
that allows the self-configuration of the home automation
system. The system will try to free the users from setup adjustments
as the home tries to adapt to its inhabitants- real habits. In this paper
it is described a completely automated process to determine the light
state and act on them, taking in account the users- daily habits.
Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used as a pattern recognition
method, classifying for each moment the light state. The work
presented uses data from a real house where a family is actually
living.
Abstract: Knowledge is a key asset for any organisation to
sustain competitive advantages, but it is difficult to identify and
represent knowledge which is needed to perform activities in
business processes. The effective knowledge management and
support for relevant business activities definitely gives a huge impact
to the performance of the organisation as a whole. This is because
that knowledge have the functions of directing, coordinating and
controlling actions within business processes. The study has
introduced organisational morphology, a norm-based approach by
applying semiotic theories which emphasise on the representation of
knowledge in norms. This approach is concerned with the
identification of activities into three categories: substantive,
communication and control activities. All activities are directed by
norms; hence three types of norms exist; each is associated to a
category of activities. The paper describes the approach briefly and
illustrates the application of this approach through a case study of
academic activities in higher education institutions. The result of the
study shows that the approach provides an effective way to profile
business knowledge and the profile enables the understanding and
specification of business requirements of an organisation.
Abstract: Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address is decreasing and a rapid transition method to the next generation IP address (IPv6) should be established. This study aims to evaluate and select the best performance of the IPv6 address network transitionmechanisms, such as IPv4/IPv6 dual stack, transport Relay Translation (TRT) and Reverse Proxy with additional features. It is also aim to prove that faster access can be done while ensuring optimal usage of available resources used during the test and actual implementation. This study used two test methods such asInternet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)ping and ApacheBenchmark (AB) methodsto evaluate the performance.Performance metrics for this study include aspects ofaverageaccessin one second,time takenfor singleaccess,thedata transfer speed and the costof additional requirements.Reverse Proxy with Caching featureis the most efficientmechanism because of it simpler configurationandthe best performerfrom the test conducted.
Abstract: The study of soil for agriculture purposes has
remained the main focus of research since the beginning of civilization as humans- food related requirements remained closely linked with the soil. The study of soil has generated an interest
among the researchers for very similar other reasons including transmission, reflection and refraction of signals for deploying
wireless underground sensor networks or for the monitoring of objects on (or in ) soil in the form of better understanding of soil
electromagnetic characteristics properties. The moisture content has
been very instrumental in such studies as it decides on the resistance of the soil, and hence the attenuation on signals traveling through soil
or the attenuation the signals may suffer upon their impact on soil. This work is related testing and characterizing a measurement circuit
meant for the detection of moisture level content in soil.
Abstract: In many applications there is a broad variety of
information relevant to a focal “object" of interest, and the fusion of such heterogeneous data types is desirable for classification and
categorization. While these various data types can sometimes be treated as orthogonal (such as the hull number, superstructure color,
and speed of an oil tanker), there are instances where the inference and the correlation between quantities can provide improved fusion
capabilities (such as the height, weight, and gender of a person). A
service-oriented architecture has been designed and prototyped to
support the fusion of information for such “object-centric" situations.
It is modular, scalable, and flexible, and designed to support new data sources, fusion algorithms, and computational resources without affecting existing services. The architecture is designed to simplify
the incorporation of legacy systems, support exact and probabilistic entity disambiguation, recognize and utilize multiple types of
uncertainties, and minimize network bandwidth requirements.
Abstract: Policy management in organizations became rising issue in the last decade. It’s because of today’s regulatory requirements in the organizations. To manage policies in large organizations is an imperative work. However, major challenges facing organizations in the last decade is managing all the policies in the organization and making them an active documents rather than simple (inactive) documents stored in computer hard drive or on a shelf. Because of this challenge, organizations need policy management program. This policy management program can be either manual or automated. This paper presents suggestions towards managing policies in organizations. As well as possible policy management solution or program to be utilized, manual or automated. The research first examines the models and frameworks used for managing policies from various perspectives in the literature of the research area/domain. At the end of this paper, a policy management framework is proposed for managing enterprise policies effectively and in a simplified manner.
Abstract: Functionalities and control behavior are both primary
requirements in design of a complex system. Automata theory plays
an important role in modeling behavior of a system. Z is an ideal
notation which is used for describing state space of a system and then
defining operations over it. Consequently, an integration of automata
and Z will be an effective tool for increasing modeling power for a
complex system. Further, nondeterministic finite automata (NFA)
may have different implementations and therefore it is needed to
verify the transformation from diagrams to a code. If we describe
formal specification of an NFA before implementing it, then
confidence over transformation can be increased. In this paper, we
have given a procedure for integrating NFA and Z. Complement of a
special type of NFA is defined. Then union of two NFAs is
formalized after defining their complements. Finally, formal
construction of intersection of NFAs is described. The specification
of this relationship is analyzed and validated using Z/EVES tool.
Abstract: In this paper, zigbee communication based wireless energy surveillance system is presented. The proposed system consists of multiple energy surveillance devices and an energy surveillance monitor. Each different standby power-off value of electric device is set automatically by using learning function of energy surveillance device. Thus adaptive standby power-off function provides user convenience and it maximizes the energy savings. Also, power consumption monitoring function is helpful to reduce inefficient energy consumption in home. The zigbee throughput simulator is designed to evaluate minimum transmission power and maximum allowable information quantity in the proposed system. The test result of prototype has been satisfied all the requirements. The proposed system has confirmed that can be used as an intelligent energy surveillance system for energy savings in home or office.
Abstract: This paper presents the generation of bipolar square
wave pulses with characteristics that are suitable for liquid food
sterilization using a Cascaded H-bridge Multilevel Inverter (CHMI).
Bipolar square waves pulses have been reported as stable for a
longer time during the sterilization process with minimum heat
emission and increased efficiency. The CHMI allows the system to
produce bipolar square wave pulses and yielding high output voltage
without using a transformer while fulfilling the pulse requirements
for effective liquid food sterilization. This in turn can reduce power
consumption and cost of the overall liquid food sterilization system.
The simulation results have shown that pulses with peak output
voltage of 2.4 kV, pulse width of between 1 2s and 1 ms at
frequencies of 50 Hz and 100 Hz can be generated by a 7-level
CHMI. Results from the experimental set-up based on a 5-level
CHMI has indicated the potential of the proposed circuit in
producing bipolar square wave output pulses with peak values that
depends on the DC source level supplied to the CHMI modules,
pulse width of between 12.5 2s and 1 ms at frequencies of 50 Hz
and 100 Hz.
Abstract: Recently, much research has been conducted for
security for wireless sensor networks and ubiquitous computing.
Security issues such as authentication and data integrity are major
requirements to construct sensor network systems. Advanced
Encryption Standard (AES) is considered as one of candidate
algorithms for data encryption in wireless sensor networks. In this
paper, we will present the hardware architecture to implement low
power AES crypto module. Our low power AES crypto module has
optimized architecture of data encryption unit and key schedule unit
which could be applicable to wireless sensor networks. We also details
low power design methods used to design our low power AES crypto
module.