Abstract: Semantic query optimization consists in restricting the
search space in order to reduce the set of objects of interest for a
query. This paper presents an indexing method based on UB-trees
and a static analysis of the constraints associated to the views of the
database and to any constraint expressed on attributes. The result of
the static analysis is a partitioning of the object space into disjoint
blocks. Through Space Filling Curve (SFC) techniques, each
fragment (block) of the partition is assigned a unique identifier,
enabling the efficient indexing of fragments by UB-trees. The search
space corresponding to a range query is restricted to a subset of the
blocks of the partition. This approach has been developed in the
context of a KB-DBMS but it can be applied to any relational
system.
Abstract: A combined three-microphone voice activity detector (VAD) and noise-canceling system is studied to enhance speech recognition in an automobile environment. A previous experiment clearly shows the ability of the composite system to cancel a single noise source outside of a defined zone. This paper investigates the performance of the composite system when there are frequently moving noise sources (noise sources are coming from different locations but are not always presented at the same time) e.g. there is other passenger speech or speech from a radio when a desired speech is presented. To work in a frequently moving noise sources environment, whilst a three-microphone voice activity detector (VAD) detects voice from a “VAD valid zone", the 3-microphone noise canceller uses a “noise canceller valid zone" defined in freespace around the users head. Therefore, a desired voice should be in the intersection of the noise canceller valid zone and VAD valid zone. Thus all noise is suppressed outside this intersection of area. Experiments are shown for a real environment e.g. all results were recorded in a car by omni-directional electret condenser microphones.
Abstract: In situ observation of absorption spectral change of
heptil viologen cation radical (HV+.) was performed by slab optical
waveguide (SOWG) spectroscopy utilizing indium-tin-oxide (ITO)
electrodes. Synchronizing with electrochemical techniques, we
observed the adsorption process of HV+.on the ITO electrode. In this
study, we carried out the ITO-SOWG observations using KBr aqueous
solution containing different concentration of HV to investigate the
concentration dependent spectral change. A few specific absorption
bands, which indicated HV+.existed as both monomer and dimer on
ITO electrode surface with a monolayer or a few layers deposition,
were observed in UV-visible region. The change in the peak position
of the absorption spectra from adsorption species of HV+. were
correlated with the concentration of HV as well as the electrode
potential.
Abstract: In this study, a frame work for verification of famous seismic codes is utilized. To verify the seismic codes performance, damage quantity of RC frames is compared with the target performance. Due to the randomness property of seismic design and earthquake loads excitation, in this paper, fragility curves are developed. These diagrams are utilized to evaluate performance level of structures which are designed by the seismic codes. These diagrams further illustrate the effect of load combination and reduction factors of codes on probability of damage exceedance. Two types of structures; very high important structures with high ductility and medium important structures with intermediate ductility are designed by different seismic codes. The Results reveal that usually lower damage ratio generate lower probability of exceedance. In addition, the findings indicate that there are buildings with higher quantity of bars which they have higher probability of damage exceedance. Life-cycle cost analysis utilized for comparison and final decision making process.
Abstract: In terms of total online audience, newspapers are the most successful form of online content to date. The online audience for newspapers continues to demand higher-quality services, including personalized news services. News providers should be able to offer suitable users appropriate content. In this paper, a news article recommender system is suggested based on a user-s preference when he or she visits an Internet news site and reads the published articles. This system helps raise the user-s satisfaction, increase customer loyalty toward the content provider.
Abstract: Numerous facts evidence the increasing religiosity of
the population and the intensification of religious movements in
various countries in the last decade of the 20th century. The number
of international religious institutions and foundations; religious
movements; parties and sects operating worldwide is increasing as
well. Some ethnic and inter-state conflicts are obviously of a
religious origin. All of this make a number of analysts to conclude
that the religious factor is becoming an important part of international
life, including the formation and activities of terrorist organizations.
Most of all is said and written about Islam, the second, after
Christianity, world religions professed according to various estimates
by 1.5 bln. individuals in 127 countries.
Abstract: Searching similar documents and document
management subjects have important place in text mining. One of the
most important parts of similar document research studies is the
process of classifying or clustering the documents. In this study, a
similar document search approach that includes discussion of out the
case of belonging to multiple categories (multiple categories
problem) has been carried. The proposed method that based on Fuzzy
Similarity Classification (FSC) has been compared with Rocchio
algorithm and naive Bayes method which are widely used in text
mining. Empirical results show that the proposed method is quite
successful and can be applied effectively. For the second stage,
multiple categories vector method based on information of categories
regarding to frequency of being seen together has been used.
Empirical results show that achievement is increased almost two
times, when proposed method is compared with classical approach.
Abstract: Nowadays, fluidized bed plays an important part in industry. The design of this kind of reactor requires knowing the interfacial area between two phases and this interfacial area leads to calculate the solid holdup in the bed. Consequently achieving interfacial area between gas and solid in the bed experimentally is so significant. On interfacial area measurement in fluidized bed with gas has been worked, but light transmission technique has been used less. Therefore, in the current research the possibility of using of this technique and its accuracy are investigated. Measuring, a fluidized bed was designed and the problems were averted as far as possible. By using fine solid with equal shape and diameter and installing an optical system, the absorption of light during the time of fluidization has been measured. Results indicate that this method that its validity has been proved in the gas-liquid system, by different reasons have less application in gas-solid system. One important reason could be non-uniformity in such systems.
Abstract: The renewable energy has been attracting attention as
a new alternative energy due to the problem of environmental
pollution and resource depletion. In particular, daylighting and PV
system are regarded as the solutions. In this paper, the hybrid
dimming control system supplied by solar cell and daylighting
system was designed. Daylighting system is main source and PV
system is spare source. PV system operates the LED lamp which
supports daylighting system because daylighting system is unstable
due to the variation of irradiance. In addition, PV system has a role
charging batteries. Battery charging has a benefit that PV system
operate LED lamp in the bad weather. However, LED lamp always
can`t turn on that-s why dimming control system was designed. In
particular, the solar charging robot was designed to check the
interior irradiance intensity. These systems and the application of
the solar charging robot are expected to contribute developing
alternative energy in the near future.
Abstract: One of the major problems in liberalized power
markets is loss allocation. In this paper, a different method for
allocating transmission losses to pool market participants is
proposed. The proposed method is fundamentally based on
decomposition of loss function and current projection concept. The
method has been implemented and tested on several networks and
one sample summarized in the paper. The results show that the
method is comprehensive and fair to allocating the energy losses of a
power market to its participants.
Abstract: The study examined the influence of pay differentials on employee retention in the State Colleges of Education in the South-South Region of Nigeria. 275 subjects drawn from members of the wage negotiating teams in the Colleges were administered questionnaires constructed for study. Analysis of Variance revealed that the observed pay differentials significantly influenced retainership, f(5,269 = 6.223, P< 0.05). However, the Multiple Classification Analysis and Post-Hoc test indicated that employees in two of the Colleges with slightly lower and higher pay levels may probably remain with their employers while employees in other Colleges with the least and highest pay levels suggested quitting. Based on these observations, the influence of pay on employee retention seems inconclusive. Generally, employees in the colleges studied are dissatisfied with current pay levels. Management should confront these challenges by improving pay packages to encourage employees to remain and be dedicated to duty.
Abstract: The chemistry of sulphone hydrazide has gained increase interest in both synthetic organic chemistry and biological fields and has considerable value. The therapeutic importance of these compounds is the attractive force to continue research in such a point. The present review covers the literature up to date for the synthesis, reactions and applications of such compounds.
Abstract: The menace of counterfeiting pharmaceuticals/drugs has become a major threat to consumers, healthcare providers, drug manufacturers and governments. It is a source of public health concern both in the developed and developing nations. Several solutions for detecting and authenticating counterfeit drugs have been adopted by different nations of the world. In this article, a dialogue system-based drug counterfeiting detection system was developed and the results of the user satisfaction and acceptability of the system are presented. The results show that the users were satisfied with the system and the system was widely accepted as a means of fighting counterfeited drugs.
Abstract: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a form of cloud
computing that relieves the user of the burden of hardware and
software installation and management. SaaS can be used at the course
level to enhance curricula and student experience. When cloud
computing and SaaS are included in educational literature, the focus
is typically on implementing administrative functions. Yet, SaaS can
make more immediate and substantial contributions to the technical
course content in educational offerings. This paper explores cloud
computing and SaaS, provides examples, reports on experiences
using SaaS to offer specialized software in courses, and analyzes the
advantages and disadvantages of using SaaS at the course level. The
paper contributes to the literature in higher education by analyzing
the major technical concepts, potential, and constraints for using
SaaS to deliver specialized software at the course level. Further it
may enable more educators and students to benefit from this
emerging technology.
Abstract: Microarrays have become the effective, broadly used tools in biological and medical research to address a wide range of problems, including classification of disease subtypes and tumors. Many statistical methods are available for analyzing and systematizing these complex data into meaningful information, and one of the main goals in analyzing gene expression data is the detection of samples or genes with similar expression patterns. In this paper, we express and compare the performance of several clustering methods based on data preprocessing including strategies of normalization or noise clearness. We also evaluate each of these clustering methods with validation measures for both simulated data and real gene expression data. Consequently, clustering methods which are common used in microarray data analysis are affected by normalization and degree of noise and clearness for datasets.
Abstract: This paper deals with heterogeneous autoregressive
models of realized volatility (HAR-RV models) on high-frequency
data of stock indices in the USA. Its aim is to capture the behavior of
three groups of market participants trading on a daily, weekly and
monthly basis and assess their role in predicting the daily realized
volatility. The benefits of this work lies mainly in the application of
heterogeneous autoregressive models of realized volatility on stock
indices in the USA with a special aim to analyze an impact of the
global financial crisis on applied models forecasting performance.
We use three data sets, the first one from the period before the global
financial crisis occurred in the years 2006-2007, the second one from
the period when the global financial crisis fully hit the U.S. financial
market in 2008-2009 years, and the last period was defined over
2010-2011 years. The model output indicates that estimated realized
volatility in the market is very much determined by daily traders and
in some cases excludes the impact of those market participants who
trade on monthly basis.
Abstract: Data mining, which is the exploration of
knowledge from the large set of data, generated as a result of
the various data processing activities. Frequent Pattern Mining
is a very important task in data mining. The previous
approaches applied to generate frequent set generally adopt
candidate generation and pruning techniques for the
satisfaction of the desired objective. This paper shows how
the different approaches achieve the objective of frequent
mining along with the complexities required to perform the
job. This paper will also look for hardware approach of cache
coherence to improve efficiency of the above process. The
process of data mining is helpful in generation of support
systems that can help in Management, Bioinformatics,
Biotechnology, Medical Science, Statistics, Mathematics,
Banking, Networking and other Computer related
applications. This paper proposes the use of both upward and
downward closure property for the extraction of frequent item
sets which reduces the total number of scans required for the
generation of Candidate Sets.
Abstract: We propose a method for discrimination and
classification of ovarian with benign, malignant and normal tissue
using independent component analysis and neural networks. The
method was tested for a proteomic patters set from A database, and
radial basis functions neural networks. The best performance was
obtained with probabilistic neural networks, resulting I 99% success
rate, with 98% of specificity e 100% of sensitivity.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose an effective relay
communication for layered video transmission as an alternative to
make the most of limited resources in a wireless communication
network where loss often occurs. Relaying brings stable multimedia
services to end clients, compared to multiple description coding
(MDC). Also, retransmission of only parity data about one or more
video layer using channel coder to the end client of the relay device is
paramount to the robustness of the loss situation. Using these
methods in resource-constrained environments, such as real-time user
created content (UCC) with layered video transmission, can provide
high-quality services even in a poor communication environment.
Minimal services are also possible. The mathematical analysis shows
that the proposed method reduced the probability of GOP loss rate
compared to MDC and raptor code without relay. The GOP loss rate
is about zero, while MDC and raptor code without relay have a GOP
loss rate of 36% and 70% in case of 10% frame loss rate.
Abstract: In this era of globalization, the role of the State in all aspects of development is widely debated. Some scholars contend the 'demise' and diminishing role of the State whilst others claim that the State is still “de facto developmental". Clearly, it is vital to ascertain which of these two contentions are reflective of the role of the State as nations ascend their development trajectories. Based on the findings of this paper, the perception that the Malaysian State plays an active and committed role towards distributing equitable educational opportunities and enhancing employability of Malaysian PWDs is actually a myth and not reality. Thus, in order to fulfill the promise of Vision 2020 to transform Malaysia into a caring and socially-inclusive society; this paper calls for a more interventionist and committed role by the Malaysian State to translate the universal rights of education and employment opportunities for PWDs from mere policy rhetoric into inclusive realities.