Abstract: In this paper, we propose a practical digital music matching system that is robust to variation in sound qualities. The proposed system is subdivided into two parts: client and server. The client part consists of the input, preprocessing and feature extraction modules. The preprocessing module, including the music onset module, revises the value gap occurring on the time axis between identical songs of different formats. The proposed method uses delta-grouped Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) to extract music features that are robust to changes in sound quality. According to the number of sound quality formats (SQFs) used, a music server is constructed with a feature database (FD) that contains different sub feature databases (SFDs). When the proposed system receives a music file, the selection module selects an appropriate SFD from a feature database; the selected SFD is subsequently used by the matching module. In this study, we used 3,000 queries for matching experiments in three cases with different FDs. In each case, we used 1,000 queries constructed by mixing 8 SQFs and 125 songs. The success rate of music matching improved from 88.6% when using single a single SFD to 93.2% when using quadruple SFDs. By this experiment, we proved that the proposed method is robust to various sound qualities.
Abstract: This paper introduces a method of calculating the
quantities of construction materials and construction waste on site in
city of Novi Sad. In buildings is about 40% of the total weight of
materials that are in circulation in the world economic space. The
best solution for this waste is to be stored at source, at the point of
generation. There are several treatment options for this type of waste,
reduction at source, reuse, recycling. Beside its negative effects on
the environment, construction waste can be and resource. Novi Sad is
divided in 16 single family resident zones and 10 multi family
resident zones. For every zone of the city, quantities of used
construction materials and construction waste were obtained.
Rational use of natural resources is an essential factor in applying the
principles of development with savings.
Abstract: Air quality in Setapak district of Kuala Lumpur was
studied by analysing the rainwater chemical composition using ion
chromatography method. Twelve sampling sites were selected and
120 rainwater samples were collected in the period of 10 weeks. The
results of this study were compared to the earlier published data and
the evaluation showed that the NO3
- ion concentration increased from
0.41 to 3.32 ppm, while SO4
2- ion concentration increased from 0.39
to 3.26 ppm over the past two decades that is mostly due to rapid
urban development of the city. However, it was found that the
chemical composition for both residential and industrial areas does
not have significant difference. Most of the rainwater samples
showed alkaline pH (pH > 5.6). The possible factors for such alkaline
pH in rainwater samples are assumed to be the marine sources,
biomass burning and alkaline character of soil particles.
Abstract: A variable structure model reference adaptive control
(VS-MRAC) strategy for active steering assistance of a two wheel
steering car is proposed. An ideal steering system with fixed
properties and moving on an ideal road is used as the reference
model, and the active steering assistance system is forced to attain
the same behavior as the reference model. The proposed system can
treat the nonlinear relationships between the side slip angles and
lateral forces on tire, and the uncertainties on friction of the road
surface, whose compensation are very important under critical
situations. Simulation results show improvements on yaw rate and
side slip.
Abstract: Machine Translation, (hereafter in this document
referred to as the "MT") faces a lot of complex problems from its
origination. Extracting multiword expressions is also one of the
complex problems in MT. Finding multiword expressions during
translating a sentence from English into Urdu, through existing
solutions, takes a lot of time and occupies system resources. We have
designed a simple relational data approach, in which we simply set a
bit in dictionary (database) for multiword, to find and handle
multiword expression. This approach handles multiword efficiently.
Abstract: The flow field around a flat plate of infinite span has
been investigated for several values of the angle of attack. Numerical
predictions have been compared to experimental measurements, in
order to examine the effect of turbulence model and grid resolution
on the resultant aerodynamic forces acting on the plate. Also the
influence of the free-stream turbulence intensity, at the entrance of
the computational domain, has been investigated. A full campaign of
simulations has been conducted for three inclination angles (9°, 15°
and 30°), in order to obtain some practical guidelines to be used for
the simulation of the flow field around inclined plates and discs.
Abstract: This evaluation of land supply system performance in
China shall examine the combination of government functions and
national goals in order to perform a cost-benefit analysis of system
results. From the author's point of view, it is most productive to
evaluate land supply system performance at moments of system
transformation for the following reasons. The behavior and
input-output change of beneficial results at different times can be
observed when the system or policy changes and system performance
can be evaluated through a cost-benefit analysis during the process of
system transformation. Moreover, this evaluation method can avoid
the influence of land resource endowment. Different land resource
endowment methods and different economy development periods
result in different systems. This essay studies the contents, principles
and methods of land supply system performance evaluation. Taking
Beijing as an example, this essay optimizes and classifies the land
supply index, makes a quantitative evaluation of land supply system
performance through principal component analysis (PCA), and finally
analyzes the factors that influence land supply system performance at
times of system transformation.
Abstract: When designing satellites, one of the major issues aside for designing its primary subsystems is to devise its thermal. The thermal management of satellites requires solving different sets of issues with regards to modelling. If the satellite is well conditioned all other parts of the satellite will have higher temperature no matter what. The main issue of thermal modelling for satellite design is really making sure that all the other points of the satellite will be within the temperature limits they are designed. The insertion of power electronics in aerospace technologies is becoming widespread and the modern electronic systems used in space must be reliable and efficient with thermal management unaffected by outer space constraints. Many advanced thermal management techniques have been developed in recent years that have application in high power electronic systems. This paper presents a Three-Dimensional Modal Transmission Line Matrix (3D-TLM) implementation of transient heat flow in space power electronics. In such kind of components heat dissipation and good thermal management are essential. Simulation provides the cheapest tool to investigate all aspects of power handling. The 3DTLM has been successful in modeling heat diffusion problems and has proven to be efficient in terms of stability and complex geometry. The results show a three-dimensional visualisation of self-heating phenomena in the device affected by outer space constraints, and will presents possible approaches for increasing the heat dissipation capability of the power modules.
Abstract: One of the approaches enabling people with amputated
limbs to establish some sort of interface with the real world includes
the utilization of the myoelectric signal (MES) from the remaining
muscles of those limbs. The MES can be used as a control input to a
multifunction prosthetic device. In this control scheme, known as the
myoelectric control, a pattern recognition approach is usually utilized
to discriminate between the MES signals that belong to different
classes of the forearm movements. Since the MES is recorded using
multiple channels, the feature vector size can become very large. In
order to reduce the computational cost and enhance the generalization
capability of the classifier, a dimensionality reduction method is
needed to identify an informative yet moderate size feature set. This
paper proposes a new fuzzy version of the well known Fisher-s
Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) feature projection technique.
Furthermore, based on the fact that certain muscles might contribute
more to the discrimination process, a novel feature weighting scheme
is also presented by employing Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
for estimating the weight of each feature. The new method, called
PSOFLDA, is tested on real MES datasets and compared with other
techniques to prove its superiority.
Abstract: The aim of this qualitative case study is to examine how school principals perform their new roles and responsibilities defined in accordance with the new curriculum. Of ten primary schools that the new curriculum was piloted in Istanbul in school year of 2004-2005, one school was randomly selected as the sample of the study. The participants of the study were comprised of randomly-selected 26 teachers working in the case school. To collect data, an interview schedule was developed based on the new role definitions for school principals by the National Ministry of Education. Participants were interviewed on one-to-one basis in February and March 2007. Overall results showed that the school principal was perceived to be successful in terms of the application of the new curriculum in school. According to the majority of teachers, the principal has done his best to establish the infrastructure that is necessary for successful application of the new program. In addition to these, the principal was reported to adopt a collegial and participatory leadership style by creating a positive school atmosphere that enables the school community (teachers, parents and students) to involve school more than before. Keywordscase study, curriculum implementation, school principals and curriculum
Abstract: This article describes the implementation of an intelligent agent that provides recommendations for educational resources in a virtual learning environment (VLE). It aims to support pending (undeveloped) student learning activities. It begins by analyzing the proposed VLE data model entities in the recommender process. The pending student activities are then identified, which constitutes the input information for the agent. By using the attribute-based recommender technique, the information can be processed and resource recommendations can be obtained. These serve as support for pending activity development in the course. To integrate this technique, we used an ontology. This served as support for the semantic annotation of attributes and recommended files recovery.
Abstract: In this paper we report a study aimed at determining
the effects of animation on usability and appeal of educational
software user interfaces. Specifically, the study compares 3
interfaces developed for the Mathsigner™ program: a static
interface, an interface with highlighting/sound feedback, and an
interface that incorporates five Disney animation principles. The
main objectives of the comparative study were to: (1) determine
which interface is the most effective for the target users of
Mathsigner™ (e.g., children ages 5-11), and (2) identify any Gender
and Age differences in using the three interfaces. To accomplish
these goals we have designed an experiment consisting of a
cognitive walkthrough and a survey with rating questions. Sixteen
children ages 7-11 participated in the study, ten males and six
females. Results showed no significant interface effect on user task
performance (e.g., task completion time and number of errors);
however, interface differences were seen in rating of appeal, with
the animated interface rated more 'likeable' than the other two.
Task performance and rating of appeal were not affected
significantly by Gender or Age of the subjects.
Abstract: Age at first marriage is a basic temporal term that is
culturally constructed for marriage relationship between an adult
male and an adult female intended to have sex, to reproduce and to
adapt to environment from one generation to another around the
world. Cross-cultural evidences suggest that age at first marriage for
both male and female not only varies across the cultures, but also
varies among the subcultures of the same society. The purpose of the
study was to compare age at first marriage for husband and wife
including age differences between them between Muslim and Santal
communities in rural Bangladesh. For this we hypothesized that (1)
there were significant differences in age at first marriage and age
interval between husband and wife between Muslim and Santal
communities in rural Bangladesh. In so doing, 288 couples (145 pairs
of couples for Muslim and 143 pairs of couples for Santal) were
selected by cluster random sampling from the Kalna village situated
in the Tanore Upazila of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh, whose
current mean age range was 36.59 years for husband and 28.85 years
for wife for the Muslim and 31.74 years for husband and 25.21 years
for wife for the Santal respectively. The results of Independent
Sample t test showed that mean age at first marriage for the Muslim
samples was 23.05 years for husbands and 15.11 years for wives,
while mean age at first marriage for the Santal samples was 20.71
years for husbands and 14.34 years for wives respectively that were
significantly different at p0.05) among the selected husbands
and wives between the two communities. This study recommends
that further cross-cultural researches should be done on the causeeffect
relationships between socio-cultural factors and age at
marriage between the two communities in Bangladesh.
Abstract: Equipment miniaturisation offers several opportunities such as an increased surface-to-volume ratio and higher heat transfer coefficients. However, moving towards small-diameter channels demands extra attention to fouling, reliability and stable operation of the system. The present investigation explores possibilities to enhance the stability of the once-through micro evaporator by reducing its flow boiling induced pressure fluctuations. Experimental comparison shows that the measured reduction factor approaches a theoretically derived value. Pressure fluctuations are reduced by a factor of ten in the solid conical channel and a factor of 15 in the porous conical channel. This presumably leads to less backflow and therefore to a better flow control.
Abstract: In practice, wireless networks has the property that
the signal strength attenuates with respect to the distance from the
base station, it could be better if the nodes at two hop away are
considered for better quality of service. In this paper, we propose a
procedure to identify delay preserving substructures for a given
wireless ad-hoc network using a new graph operation G 2 – E (G) =
G* (Edge difference of square graph of a given graph and the
original graph). This operation helps to analyze some induced
substructures, which preserve delay in communication among them.
This operation G* on a given graph will induce a graph, in which 1-
hop neighbors of any node are at 2-hop distance in the original
network. In this paper, we also identify some delay preserving
substructures in G*, which are (i) set of all nodes, which are mutually
at 2-hop distance in G that will form a clique in G*, (ii) set of nodes
which forms an odd cycle C2k+1 in G, will form an odd cycle in G*
and the set of nodes which form a even cycle C2k in G that will form
two disjoint companion cycles ( of same parity odd/even) of length k
in G*, (iii) every path of length 2k+1 or 2k in G will induce two
disjoint paths of length k in G*, and (iv) set of nodes in G*, which
induces a maximal connected sub graph with radius 1 (which
identifies a substructure with radius equal 2 and diameter at most 4 in
G). The above delay preserving sub structures will behave as good
clusters in the original network.
Abstract: Huge losses in apple production are caused by pathogens that cannot be seen shortly after harvest. After-harvest thermotherapy treatments can considerably improve control of storage diseases on apples and become an alternative to chemical pesticides. In the years 2010-2012 carried out research in this area. Apples of 'Topaz' cultivar were harvested at optimal maturity time for long storage and subject to water bath treatment at 45, 50, 52, 55°C for 60, 120, 180 and 240 seconds. The control was untreated fruits. After 12 and 24 weeks and during so called simulated trade turnover the fruits were checked for their condition and the originators of diseases were determined by using the standard phytopathological methods. The most common originator of 'Topaz' apple infection during storage were the fungi of genus Gloeosporium. In this paper it was proven that for effective protection of 'Topaz' apples against diseases, thermotherapy by using water treatments at temperature range of 50-52°C is quite sufficient.
Abstract: The soil ecology of the organic and mineral soil layers
of laurel-leaved and Cryptomeria japonica forest in the Kasuga-yama
Hill Primeval Forest (Nara, Japan) was assessed. The number of
bacteria obtained by the dilution plate count method was less than
0.05% of those counted by the direct microscopic count. We therefore
found that forest soil contains large numbers of non-culturable
bacteria compared with agricultural soils. The numbers of bacteria and
fungi obtained by both the dilution plate count and the direct
microscopic count were larger in the deeper horizons (F and H) of the
organic layer than in the mineral soil layer. This suggests that active
microbial metabolism takes place in the organic layer. The numbers of
bacteria and the length of fungal hyphae obtained by the direct count
method were greater in the H horizon than in the F horizon. The direct
microscopic count revealed numerous non-culturable bacteria and
fungi in the soil. The ratio of fungal to bacterial biomass was lower in
the laurel-leaved forest soil. The fungal biomass was therefore
relatively low in the laurel-leaved forest soil due to differences in
forest vegetation.
Abstract: Rise/span ratio has been mentioned as one of the
reasons which contribute to the lower buckling load as compared to
the Classical theory buckling load but this ratio has not been quantified
in the equation. The purpose of this study was to determine a more
realistic buckling load by quantifying the effect of the rise/span ratio
because experiments have shown that the Classical theory
overestimates the load. The buckling load equation was derived based
on the theorem of work done and strain energy. Thereafter, finite
element modeling and simulation using ABAQUS was done to
determine the variables that determine the constant in the derived
equation. The rise/span was found to be the determining factor of the
constant in the buckling load equation. The derived buckling load
correlates closely to the load obtained from experiments.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel algorithm for path planning of mobile robots in known 3D environments using Binary Integer Programming (BIP). In this approach the problem of path planning is formulated as a BIP with variables taken from 3D Delaunay Triangulation of the Free Configuration Space and solved to obtain an optimal channel made of connected tetrahedrons. The 3D channel is then partitioned into convex fragments which are used to build safe and short paths within from Start to Goal. The algorithm is simple, complete, does not suffer from local minima, and is applicable to different workspaces with convex and concave polyhedral obstacles. The noticeable feature of this algorithm is that it is simply extendable to n-D Configuration spaces.
Abstract: Preliminary results for a new flat plate test
facility are presented here in the form of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), flow visualisation, pressure measurements and thermal anemometry. The results from the CFD and flow
visualisation show the effectiveness of the plate design, with the trailing edge flap anchoring the stagnation point on the working surface and reducing the extent of the leading edge separation. The flow visualization technique demonstrates the
two-dimensionality of the flow in the location where the
thermal anemometry measurements are obtained.
Measurements of the boundary layer mean velocity profiles compare favourably with the Blasius solution, thereby allowing for comparison of future measurements with the
wealth of data available on zero pressure gradient Blasius
flows. Results for the skin friction, boundary layer thickness,
frictional velocity and wall shear stress are shown to agree well with the Blasius theory, with a maximum experimental deviation from theory of 5%. Two turbulence generating grids
have been designed and characterized and it is shown that the turbulence decay downstream of both grids agrees with established correlations. It is also demonstrated that there is
little dependence of turbulence on the freestream velocity.