Abstract: This study presents a mathematical modeling approach to the planning of HIV therapies on an individual basis. The model replicates clinical data from typical-progressors to AIDS for all stages of the disease with good agreement. Clinical data from rapid-progressors and long-term non-progressors is also matched by estimation of immune system parameters only. The ability of the model to reproduce these phenomena validates the formulation, a fact which is exploited in the investigation of effective therapies. The therapy investigation suggests that, unlike continuous therapy, structured treatment interruptions (STIs) are able to control the increase in both the drug-sensitive and drug-resistant virus population and, hence, prevent the ultimate progression from HIV to AIDS. The optimization results further suggest that even patients characterised by the same progression type can respond very differently to the same treatment and that the latter should be designed on a case-by-case basis. Such a methodology is presented here.
Abstract: Although the World Wide Web is considered the
largest source of information there exists nowadays, due to its
inherent dynamic characteristics, the task of finding useful and
qualified information can become a very frustrating experience. This
study presents a research on the information mining systems in the
Web; and proposes an implementation of these systems by means of
components that can be built using the technology of Web services.
This implies that they can encompass features offered by a services
oriented architecture (SOA) and specific components may be used by
other tools, independent of platforms or programming languages.
Hence, the main objective of this work is to provide an architecture
to Web mining systems, divided into stages, where each step is a
component that will incorporate the characteristics of SOA. The
separation of these steps was designed based upon the existing
literature. Interesting results were obtained and are shown here.
Abstract: The building sector is the largest energy consumer and
CO2 emitter in the European Union (EU) and therefore the active
reduction of energy consumption and elimination of energy wastage
are among the main goals in it. Healthy housing and energy
efficiency are affected by many factors which set challenges to
monitoring, control and research of indoor air quality (IAQ) and
energy consumption, especially in old buildings. These challenges
include measurement and equipment costs, for example.
Additionally, the measurement results are difficult to interpret and
their usage in the ventilation control is also limited when taking into
account the energy efficiency of housing at the same time. The main
goal of this study is to develop a cost-effective building monitoring
and control system especially for old buildings. The starting point or
keyword of the development process is a wireless system; otherwise
the installation costs become too high. As the main result, this paper
describes an idea of a wireless building monitoring and control
system. The first prototype of the system has been installed in 10
residential buildings and in 10 school buildings located in the City of
Kuopio, Finland.
Abstract: The new technology of fuzzy neural networks for identification of parameters for mathematical models of geofields is proposed and checked. The effectiveness of that soft computing technology is demonstrated, especially in the early stage of modeling, when the information is uncertain and limited.
Abstract: Dispersions of casein micelles (CM) were studied at a
constant protein concentration of 5 wt % in high NaCl environment
ranging from 0% to 12% by Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and
Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). The rehydration profiles obtained
were interpreted in term of wetting, swelling and dispersion stages by
using a turbidity method. Two behaviours were observed depending
on the salt concentration. The first behaviour (low salt concentration)
presents a typical rehydration profile with a significant change
between 3 and 6% NaCl indicating quick wetting, swelling and long
dispersion stage. On the opposite, the dispersion stage of the second
behaviour (high salt concentration) was significantly shortened
indicating a strong modification of the protein backbone. A salt
increase result to a destabilization of the micelle and the formation of
mini-micelles more or less aggregated indicating an average micelles
size ranging from 100 to 200 nm. For the first time, the estimations
of secondary structural elements (irregular, ß-sheet, α-helix and turn)
by the Amide III assignments were correlated with results from
Amide I.
Abstract: The essentiality of maintenance assessment and
maintenance optimization in design stage is analyzed, and the existent
problems of conventional maintenance design method are illuminated.
MDMVM (Maintenance Design Method based Virtual Maintenance)
is illuminated, and the process of MDMVM established, and the
MDMVM architecture is given out. The key techniques of MDMVM
are analyzed, and include maintenance design based KBE (Knowledge
Based Engineering) and virtual maintenance based physically
attribute. According to physical property, physically based modeling,
visual object movement control, the simulation of operation force and
maintenance sequence planning method are emphatically illuminated.
Maintenance design system based virtual maintenance is established in
foundation of maintenance design method.
Abstract: A sequential decision problem, based on the task ofidentifying the species of trees given acoustic echo data collectedfrom them, is considered with well-known stochastic classifiers,including single and mixture Gaussian models. Echoes are processedwith a preprocessing stage based on a model of mammalian cochlearfiltering, using a new discrete low-pass filter characteristic. Stoppingtime performance of the sequential decision process is evaluated andcompared. It is observed that the new low pass filter processingresults in faster sequential decisions.
Abstract: In this paper, a new proposed system for Persian
printed numeral characters recognition with emphasis on
representation and recognition stages is introduced. For the first time,
in Persian optical character recognition, geometrical central moments
as character image descriptor and fuzzy min-max neural network for
Persian numeral character recognition has been used. Set of different
experiments on binary images of regular, translated, rotated and
scaled Persian numeral characters has been done and variety of
results has been presented. The best result was 99.16% correct
recognition demonstrating geometrical central moments and fuzzy
min-max neural network are adequate for Persian printed numeral
character recognition.
Abstract: Cooperative organizations in Malaysia are going
through a phase of rapid growth. They are seen by the government as
another crucial vehicle to drive and boost up the country-s
economical development and growth. Hence, the issue of cooperative
governance is of great importance. Unlike literatures on corporate
governance for public listed companies-, literatures on governance
for social enterprises, in particular the cooperative organizations are
still at the early stage in Malaysia and very scant in number. This
paper will look into current practices as well as issues and challenges
related to cooperative governance. The need for a better solution
towards forming best practices of cooperative governance framework
appears imperative in deterring cases of mismanagement and fraud.
Abstract: According to investigating impact of complexity of
stereoscopic frame pairs on stereoscopic video coding and
transmission, a new rate control algorithm is presented. The proposed
rate control algorithm is performed on three levels: stereoscopic group
of pictures (SGOP) level, stereoscopic frame (SFrame) level and
frame level. A temporal-spatial frame complexity model is firstly
established, in the bits allocation stage, the frame complexity, position
significance and reference property between the left and right frames
are taken into account. Meanwhile, the target buffer is set according to
the frame complexity. Experimental results show that the proposed
method can efficiently control the bitrates, and it outperforms the fixed
quantization parameter method from the rate distortion perspective,
and average PSNR gain between rate-distortion curves (BDPSNR) is
0.21dB.
Abstract: Carbon dioxide capture process has been simulated
and studied under different process conditions. It has been shown
that several process parameters such as lean amine temperature,
number of adsorber stages, number of stripper stages and stripper
pressure affect different process conditions and outputs such as
carbon dioxide removal and reboiler duty. It may be concluded that
the simulation of carbon dioxide capture process can help to estimate
the best process conditions.
Abstract: Evolvable Hardware (EHW) has been regarded as adaptive system acquired by wide application market. Consumer market of any good requires diversity to satisfy consumers- preferences. Adaptation of EHW is a key technology that could provide individual approach to every particular user. This situation raises a question: how to set target for evolutionary algorithm? The existing techniques do not allow consumer to influence evolutionary process. Only designer at the moment is capable to influence the evolution. The proposed consumer-triggered evolution overcomes this problem by introducing new features to EHW that help adaptive system to obtain targets during consumer stage. Classification of EHW is given according to responsiveness, imitation of human behavior and target circuit response. Home intelligent water heating system is considered as an example.
Abstract: Autofluorescence (AF) bronchoscopy is an
established method to detect dysplasia and carcinoma in situ (CIS).
For this reason the “Sotiria" Hospital uses the Karl Storz D-light
system. However, in early tumor stages the visualization is not that
obvious. With the help of a PC, we analyzed the color images we
captured by developing certain tools in Matlab®. We used statistical
methods based on texture analysis, signal processing methods based
on Gabor models and conversion algorithms between devicedependent
color spaces. Our belief is that we reduced the error made
by the naked eye. The tools we implemented improve the quality of
patients' life.
Abstract: Web services provide significant new benefits for SOAbased
applications, but they also expose significant new security
risks. There are huge number of WS security standards and
processes. At present, there is still a lack of a comprehensive
approach which offers a methodical development in the construction
of secure WS-based SOA. Thus, the main objective of this paper is
to address this needs, presenting a comprehensive method for Web
Services Security guaranty in SOA. The proposed method defines
three stages, Initial Security Analysis, Architectural Security
Guaranty and WS Security Standards Identification. These facilitate,
respectively, the definition and analysis of WS-specific security
requirements, the development of a WS-based security architecture
and the identification of the related WS security standards that the
security architecture must articulate in order to implement the
security services.
Abstract: Cobalt was acid nitric leached from a mixed cobaltcopper
oxide with variable acid concentration. Resulting
experimental data were used to analyze effects of increase in acid
concentration, based on a shrinking core model of the process. The
mathematical simulation demonstrated that the time rate of the
dissolution mechanism is an increasing function of acid
concentration. It was also shown that the magnitude of the acid
concentration effect is time dependent and the increase in acid
concentration is more effective at earlier stage of the dissolution than
at later stage. The remaining process parameters are comprehensively
affected by acid concentration and their interaction is synergetic.
Abstract: This paper focuses on a critical component of the
situational awareness (SA), the control of autonomous vertical flight for tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (TUAV). With the SA strategy,
we proposed a two stage flight control procedure using two autonomous control subsystems to address the dynamics variation
and performance requirement difference in initial and final stages of flight trajectory for a nontrivial nonlinear eight-rotor helicopter
model. This control strategy for chosen model of mini-TUAV has been verified by simulation of hovering maneuvers using software
package Simulink and demonstrated good performance for fast
stabilization of engines in hovering, consequently, fast SA with
economy in energy of batteries can be asserted during search-andrescue
operations.
Abstract: In this paper multi-objective genetic algorithms are
employed for Pareto approach optimization of ideal Turboshaft
engines. In the multi-objective optimization a number of conflicting
objective functions are to be optimized simultaneously. The
important objective functions that have been considered for
optimization are specific thrust (F/m& 0), specific fuel consumption
( P S ), output shaft power 0 (& /&) shaft W m and overall efficiency( ) O
η .
These objectives are usually conflicting with each other. The design
variables consist of thermodynamic parameters (compressor pressure
ratio, turbine temperature ratio and Mach number).
At the first stage single objective optimization has been
investigated and the method of NSGA-II has been used for multiobjective
optimization. Optimization procedures are performed for
two and four objective functions and the results are compared for
ideal Turboshaft engine. In order to investigate the optimal
thermodynamic behavior of two objectives, different set, each
including two objectives of output parameters, are considered
individually. For each set Pareto front are depicted. The sets of
selected decision variables based on this Pareto front, will cause the
best possible combination of corresponding objective functions.
There is no superiority for the points on the Pareto front figure,
but they are superior to any other point. In the case of four objective
optimization the results are given in tables.
Abstract: In the last decades to supply the various and different
demands of clients, a lot of manufacturers trend to use the mixedmodel
assembly line (MMAL) in their production lines, since this
policy make possible to assemble various and different models of the
equivalent goods on the same line with the MTO approach.
In this article, we determine the sequence of (MMAL) line, with
applying the kitting approach and planning of rest time for general
workers to reduce the wastages, increase the workers effectiveness
and apply the sector of lean production approach.
This Multi-objective sequencing problem solved in small size with
GAMS22.2 and PSO meta heuristic in 10 test problems and compare
their results together and conclude that their results are very similar
together, next we determine the important factors in computing the
cost, which improving them cost reduced. Since this problem, is NPhard
in large size, we use the particle swarm optimization (PSO)
meta-heuristic for solving it. In large size we define some test
problems to survey it-s performance and determine the important
factors in calculating the cost, that by change or improved them
production in minimum cost will be possible.
Abstract: The purpose of this research was develop a biological
nutrient removal (BNR) system which has low energy consumption, sludge production, and land usage. These indicate that BNR system could be a alternative of future wastewater treatment in ubiquitous
city(U-city). Organics and nitrogen compounds could be removed by this system so that secondary or tertiary stages of wastewater treatment satisfy their standards. This system was composed of oxic and anoxic
filter filed with PVDC and POM media. Anoxic/oxic filter system operated under empty bed contact time of 4 hours by increasing
recirculation ratio from 0 to 100 %. The system removals of total nitrogen and COD were 76.3% and 93%, respectively. To be observed
internal behavior in this system SCOD, NH3-N, and NO3-N were
conducted and removal shows range of 25~100%, 59~99%, and
70~100%, respectively.
Abstract: A multi-agent system is developed here to predict
monthly details of the upcoming peak of the 24th solar magnetic
cycle. While studies typically predict the timing and magnitude of
cycle peaks using annual data, this one utilizes the unsmoothed
monthly sunspot number instead. Monthly numbers display more
pronounced fluctuations during periods of strong solar magnetic
activity than the annual sunspot numbers. Because strong magnetic
activities may cause significant economic damages, predicting
monthly variations should provide different and perhaps helpful
information for decision-making purposes. The multi-agent system
developed here operates in two stages. In the first, it produces twelve
predictions of the monthly numbers. In the second, it uses those
predictions to deliver a final forecast. Acting as expert agents, genetic
programming and neural networks produce the twelve fits and
forecasts as well as the final forecast. According to the results
obtained, the next peak is predicted to be 156 and is expected to
occur in October 2011- with an average of 136 for that year.