Abstract: Quantum cryptography offers a way of key agreement,
which is unbreakable by any external adversary. Authentication is
of crucial importance, as perfect secrecy is worthless if the identity
of the addressee cannot be ensured before sending important information.
Message authentication has been studied thoroughly, but no
approach seems to be able to explicitly counter meet-in-the-middle
impersonation attacks. The goal of this paper is the development of
an authentication scheme being resistant against active adversaries
controlling the communication channel. The scheme is built on top
of a key-establishment protocol and is unconditionally secure if built
upon quantum cryptographic key exchange. In general, the security
is the same as for the key-agreement protocol lying underneath.
Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of trajectory
tracking control of an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle
(AUV) in the horizontal plane. The underwater vehicle under
consideration is not actuated in the sway direction, and the system
matrices are not assumed to be diagonal and linear, as often found in
the literature. In addition, the effect of constant bias of environmental
disturbances is considered. Using backstepping techniques and the
tracking error dynamics, the system states are stabilized by forcing
the tracking errors to an arbitrarily small neighborhood of zero. The
effectiveness of the proposed control method is demonstrated through
numerical simulations. Simulations are carried out for an
experimental vehicle for smooth, inertial, two dimensional (2D)
reference trajectories such as constant velocity trajectory (a circle
maneuver – constant yaw rate), and time varying velocity trajectory
(a sinusoidal path – sinusoidal yaw rate).
Abstract: Grid environments consist of the volatile integration
of discrete heterogeneous resources. The notion of the Grid is to
unite different users and organisations and pool their resources into
one large computing platform where they can harness, inter-operate,
collaborate and interact. If the Grid Community is to achieve this
objective, then participants (Users and Organisations) need to be
willing to donate or share their resources and permit other
participants to use their resources. Resources do not have to be
shared at all times, since it may result in users not having access to
their own resource. The idea of reward-based computing was
developed to address the sharing problem in a pragmatic manner.
Participants are offered a reward to donate their resources to the
Grid. A reward may include monetary recompense or a pro rata share
of available resources when constrained. This latter point may imply
a quality of service, which in turn may require some globally agreed
reservation mechanism. This paper presents a platform for economybased
computing using the WebCom Grid middleware. Using this
middleware, participants can configure their resources at times and
priority levels to suit their local usage policy. The WebCom system
accounts for processing done on individual participants- resources
and rewards them accordingly.
Abstract: The development of wearable sensing technologies is a great challenge which is being addressed by the Proetex FP6 project (www.proetex.org). Its main aim is the development of wearable sensors to improve the safety and efficiency of emergency personnel. This will be achieved by continuous, real-time monitoring of vital signs, posture, activity, and external hazards surrounding emergency workers. We report here the development of carbon dioxide (CO2) sensing boot by incorporating commercially available CO2 sensor with a wireless platform into the boot assembly. Carefully selected commercially available sensors have been tested. Some of the key characteristics of the selected sensors are high selectivity and sensitivity, robustness and the power demand. This paper discusses some of the results of CO2 sensor tests and sensor integration with wireless data transmission
Abstract: Optimum communication and performance in
Wireless Sensor Networks, constitute multi-facet challenges due to
the specific networking characteristics as well as the scarce resource
availability. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that
isolated layer based approaches often do not meet the demands posed
by WSNs applications due to omission of critical inter-layer
interactions and dependencies. As a counterpart, cross-layer is
receiving high interest aiming to exploit these interactions and
increase network performance. However, in order to clearly identify
existing dependencies, comprehensive performance studies are
required evaluating the effect of different critical network parameters
on system level performance and behavior.This paper-s main
objective is to address the need for multi-parametric performance
evaluations considering critical network parameters using a well
known network simulator, offering useful and practical conclusions
and guidelines. The results reveal strong dependencies among
considered parameters which can be utilized by and drive future
research efforts, towards designing and implementing highly efficient
protocols and architectures.
Abstract: People usually have a telephone voice, which means
they adjust their speech to fit particular situations and to blend in with
other interlocutors. The question is: Do we speak differently to
different people? This possibility has been suggested by social
psychologists within Accommodation Theory [1]. Converging toward
the speech of another person can be regarded as a polite speech
strategy while choosing a language not used by the other interlocutor
can be considered as the clearest example of speech divergence [2].
The present study sets out to investigate such processes in the course
of everyday telephone conversations. Using Joos-s [3] model of
formality in spoken English, the researchers try to explore
convergence to or divergence from the addressee. The results
propound the actuality that lexical choice, and subsequently, patterns
of style vary intriguingly in concordance with the person being
addressed.
Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of asymptotic tracking
control of a linear parabolic partial differential equation with indomain
point actuation. As the considered model is a non-standard
partial differential equation, we firstly developed a map that allows
transforming this problem into a standard boundary control problem
to which existing infinite-dimensional system control methods can
be applied. Then, a combination of energy multiplier and differential
flatness methods is used to design an asymptotic tracking controller.
This control scheme consists of stabilizing state-feedback derived
from the energy multiplier method and feed-forward control based
on the flatness property of the system. This approach represents
a systematic procedure to design tracking control laws for a class
of partial differential equations with in-domain point actuation. The
applicability and system performance are assessed by simulation
studies.
Abstract: Within the last years, several technologies have been developed to help building e-learning portals. Most of them follow approaches that deliver a vast amount of functionalities, suitable for class-like learning. The SuGI project, as part of the D-Grid (funded by the BMBF), targets on delivering a highly scalable and sustainable learning solution to provide materials (e.g. learning modules, training systems, webcasts, tutorials, etc.) containing knowledge about Grid computing to the D-Grid community. In this article, the process of the development of an e-learning portal focused on the requirements of this special user group is described. Furthermore, it deals with the conceptual and technical design of an e-learning portal, addressing the special needs of heterogeneous target groups. The main focus lies on the quality management of the software development process, Web templates for uploading new contents, the rich search and filter functionalities which will be described from a conceptual as well as a technical point of view. Specifically, it points out best practices as well as concepts to provide a sustainable solution to a relatively unknown and highly heterogeneous community.
Abstract: A feature weighting and selection method is proposed
which uses the structure of a weightless neuron and exploits the
principles that govern the operation of Genetic Algorithms and
Evolution. Features are coded onto chromosomes in a novel way
which allows weighting information regarding the features to be
directly inferred from the gene values. The proposed method is
significant in that it addresses several problems concerned with
algorithms for feature selection and weighting as well as providing
significant advantages such as speed, simplicity and suitability for
real-time systems.
Abstract: This research aims to study value-creation process of
producing monk-s bowls, Thai traditional handicrafts, which is facing problems in adapting to the changing society. It also aims to identify
problems and obstacles to value creation. This research is based on a case study of monk-s bowl manufactures from Ban-Baat Village,
Bangkok. The conceptual framework is based on the model of value
chain to analyze the process.
The research methodology is qualitative. This research found that the value-creation process of monk-s bowls consists of eight
activities contributing to adding value to the products and increasing
profits to the producers in return. Five major problems and obstacles
are found.
The research suggests that these problems and obstacles limit the manufacturers- potential for creating more valued product and lead to business stagnation. These problems should be addressed and solved with collaboration among the government, the private sector and the
manufacturers.
Abstract: Acoustical properties of speech have been shown to
be related to mental states of speaker with symptoms: depression
and remission. This paper describes way to address the issue of
distinguishing depressed patients from remitted subjects based on
measureable acoustics change of their spoken sound. The vocal-tract
related frequency characteristics of speech samples from female
remitted and depressed patients were analyzed via speech
processing techniques and consequently, evaluated statistically by
cross-validation with Support Vector Machine. Our results
comparatively show the classifier's performance with effectively
correct separation of 93% determined from testing with the subjectbased
feature model and 88% from the frame-based model based on
the same speech samples collected from hospital visiting interview
sessions between patients and psychiatrists.
Abstract: Control of commutation of switched reluctance (SR)
motor has been an area of interest for researchers for sometime now
with mixed successes in addressing the inherent challenges. New
technologies, processing schemes and methods have been adopted to
make sensorless SR drive a reality. There are a number of
conceptual, offline, analytical and online solutions in literature that
have varying complexities and achieved equally varying degree of
robustness and accuracies depending on the method used to address
the challenges and the SR drive application. Magnetic coupling is
one such challenge when using active probing techniques to
determine rotor position of a SR motor from stator winding. This
paper studies the effect of back-of-core saturation on the detected
rotor position and presents results on measurement made on a 4-
phase SR motor. The results shows that even for a four phase motor
which is excited one phase at a time and using the electrically
opposite phase for active position probing, the back-of-core
saturation effects should not be ignored.
Abstract: Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in
Zimbabwe. Addressing vitamin A deficiency has the potential of
enhancing resistance to disease and reducing mortality especially in
children less than 5 years. We implemented and adapted vitamin A
outreach supplementation strategy within the National Immunization
Days and Extended Programme of Immunization in a rural district in
Zimbabwe. Despite usual operational challenges faced this approach
enabled the district to increase delivery of supplementation coverage.
This paper describes the outreach strategy that was implemented in
the remote rural district. The strategy covered 63 outreach sites with
2 sites being covered per day and visited once per month for the
whole year. Coverage reached 71% in an area of previous coverage
rates of around less than 50%. We recommend further exploration of
this strategy by others working in similar circumstances. This
strategy can be a potential way for use by Scaling-Up-Nutrition
member states.
Abstract: This work addresses the problem of optimizing
completely batch water-using network with multiple contaminants
where the flow change caused by mass transfer is taken into
consideration for the first time. A mathematical technique for
optimizing water-using network is proposed based on
source-tank-sink superstructure. The task is to obtain the freshwater
usage, recycle assignments among water-using units, wastewater
discharge and a steady water-using network configuration by
following steps. Firstly, operating sequences of water-using units are
determined by time constraints. Next, superstructure is simplified by
eliminating the reuse and recycle from water-using units with
maximum concentration of key contaminants. Then, the non-linear
programming model is solved by GAMS (General Algebra Model
System) for minimum freshwater usage, maximum water recycle and
minimum wastewater discharge. Finally, numbers of operating periods
are calculated to acquire the steady network configuration. A case
study is solved to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach.
Abstract: Each year many people are reported missing in most of the countries in the world owing to various reasons. Arrangements have to be made to find these people after some time. So the investigating agencies are compelled to make out these people by using manpower. But in many cases, the investigations carried out to find out an absconding for a long time may not be successful. At a time like that it may be difficult to identify these people by examining their old photographs, because their facial appearance might have changed mainly due to the natural aging process. On some occasions in forensic medicine if a dead body is found, investigations should be held to make sure that this corpse belongs to the same person disappeared some time ago. With the passage of time the face of the person might have changed and there should be a mechanism to reveal the person-s identity. In order to make this process easy, we must guess and decide as to how he will look like by now. To address this problem this paper presents a way of synthesizing a facial image with the aging effects.
Abstract: EPC Class-1 Generation-2 UHF tags, one of Radio
frequency identification or RFID tag types, is expected that most
companies are planning to use it in the supply chain in the short term
and in consumer packaging in the long term due to its inexpensive
cost. Because of the very cost, however, its resources are extremely
scarce and it is hard to have any valuable security algorithms in it. It
causes security vulnerabilities, in particular cloning the tags for
counterfeits. In this paper, we propose a product authentication
solution for anti-counterfeiting at application level in the supply chain
and mobile RFID environment. It aims to become aware of
distribution of spurious products with fake RFID tags and to provide a
product authentication service to general consumers with mobile
RFID devices like mobile phone or PDA which has a mobile RFID
reader. We will discuss anti-counterfeiting mechanisms which are
required to our proposed solution and address requirements that the
mechanisms should have.
Abstract: This paper describes a new method for affine parameter
estimation between image sequences. Usually, the parameter
estimation techniques can be done by least squares in a quadratic
way. However, this technique can be sensitive to the presence
of outliers. Therefore, parameter estimation techniques for various
image processing applications are robust enough to withstand the
influence of outliers. Progressively, some robust estimation functions
demanding non-quadratic and perhaps non-convex potentials adopted
from statistics literature have been used for solving these. Addressing
the optimization of the error function in a factual framework for
finding a global optimal solution, the minimization can begin with
the convex estimator at the coarser level and gradually introduce nonconvexity
i.e., from soft to hard redescending non-convex estimators
when the iteration reaches finer level of multiresolution pyramid.
Comparison has been made to find the performance of the results
of proposed method with the results found individually using two
different estimators.
Abstract: As the information age matures, major social
infrastructures such as communication, finance, military and energy,
have become ever more dependent on information communication
systems. And since these infrastructures are connected to the Internet,
electronic intrusions such as hacking and viruses have become a new
security threat. Especially, disturbance or neutralization of a major
social infrastructure can result in extensive material damage and social
disorder. To address this issue, many nations around the world are
researching and developing various techniques and information
security policies as a government-wide effort to protect their
infrastructures from newly emerging threats. This paper proposes an
evaluation method for information security levels of CIIP (Critical
Information Infrastructure Protection), which can enhance the security
level of critical information infrastructure by checking the current
security status and establish security measures accordingly to protect
infrastructures effectively.
Abstract: Due to the liberalization of countless electricity markets, load forecasting has become crucial to all public utilities for which electricity is a strategic variable. With the goal of contributing to the forecasting process inside public utilities, this paper addresses the issue of applying the Holt-Winters exponential smoothing technique and the time series analysis for forecasting the hourly electricity load curve of the Italian railways. The results of the analysis confirm the accuracy of the two models and therefore the relevance of forecasting inside public utilities.
Abstract: Applying a rigorous process to optimize the elements
of a supply-chain network resulted in reduction of the waiting time
for a service provider and customer. Different sources of downtime
of hydraulic pressure controller/calibrator (HPC) were causing
interruptions in the operations. The process examined all the issues to
drive greater efficiencies. The issues included inherent design issues
with HPC pump, contamination of the HPC with impurities, and the
lead time required for annual calibration in the USA.
HPC is used for mandatory testing/verification of formation
tester/pressure measurement/logging-while drilling tools by oilfield
service providers, including Halliburton.
After market study andanalysis, it was concluded that the current
HPC model is best suited in the oilfield industry. To use theexisting
HPC model effectively, design andcontamination issues were
addressed through design and process improvements. An optimum
network is proposed after comparing different supply-chain models
for calibration lead-time reduction.