Abstract: Question answering (QA) aims at retrieving precise information from a large collection of documents. Most of the Question Answering systems composed of three main modules: question processing, document processing and answer processing. Question processing module plays an important role in QA systems to reformulate questions. Moreover answer processing module is an emerging topic in QA systems, where these systems are often required to rank and validate candidate answers. These techniques aiming at finding short and precise answers are often based on the semantic relations and co-occurrence keywords. This paper discussed about a new model for question answering which improved two main modules, question processing and answer processing which both affect on the evaluation of the system operations. There are two important components which are the bases of the question processing. First component is question classification that specifies types of question and answer. Second one is reformulation which converts the user's question into an understandable question by QA system in a specific domain. The objective of an Answer Validation task is thus to judge the correctness of an answer returned by a QA system, according to the text snippet given to support it. For validating answers we apply candidate answer filtering, candidate answer ranking and also it has a final validation section by user voting. Also this paper described new architecture of question and answer processing modules with modeling, implementing and evaluating the system. The system differs from most question answering systems in its answer validation model. This module makes it more suitable to find exact answer. Results show that, from total 50 asked questions, evaluation of the model, show 92% improving the decision of the system.
Abstract: In this paper, a new version of support vector regression (SVR) is presented namely Fuzzy Cost SVR (FCSVR). Individual property of the FCSVR is operation over fuzzy data whereas fuzzy cost (fuzzy margin and fuzzy penalty) are maximized. This idea admits to have uncertainty in the penalty and margin terms jointly. Robustness against noise is shown in the experimental results as a property of the proposed method and superiority relative conventional SVR.
Abstract: There is inadequate information on the practice of
female genital mutilation (FGM) in the UK, and there are often
myths and perceptions within communities that influence the
effectiveness of prevention programmes. This means it is difficult to
address the trends and changes in the practice in the UK.
To this end, FORWARD undertook novel and innovative research
using the Participatory Ethnographic and Evaluative Research
(PEER) method to explore the views of women from Eritrea, Sudan,
Somalia and Ethiopia that live in London and Bristol (two UK cities).
Women-s views, taken from PEER interviews, reflected reasons for
continued practice of FGM: marriageability, the harnessing and
control of female sexuality, and upholding traditions from their
countries of origin. It was also clear that the main supporters of the
practice were believed to be older women within families and
communities.
Women described the impact FGM was having on their lives as
isolating. And although it was clearly considered a private and
personal matter, they developed a real sense of connection with their
peers within the research process.
The women were overwhelmingly positive about combating the
practice, although they believed it would probably take a while
before it ends completely. They also made concrete
recommendations on how to improve support services for women
affected by FGM: Training for professionals (particularly in
healthcare), increased engagement with, and outreach to,
communities, culturally appropriate materials and information made
available and accessible to communities, and more consequent
implementation of legislation.
Finally, the women asked for more empathy and understanding,
particularly from health professionals. Rather than presenting FGM
as a completely alien and inconceivable practice, it may help for
those looking into these women-s lives and working with them to
understand the social and economic context in which the practice
takes place.
Abstract: The purposes of this study are 1) to identify
learning styles of university students in Bangkok, and 2) to study
the frequency of the relevant instructional context of the identified
learning styles. Learning Styles employed in this study are those of
Honey and Mumford, which include 1) Reflectors, 2) Theorists, 3)
Pragmatists, and 4) Activists. The population comprises 1383
students and 5 lecturers. Research tools are 2 questionnaires – one
used for identifying students- learning styles, and the other used for
identifying the frequency of the relevant instructional context of
the identified learning styles.
The research findings reveal that 32.30 percent - are Activists,
while 28.10 percent are Theorists, 20.10 are Reflectors, and 19.50
are Pragmatists. In terms of the relevant instructional context of the
identified 4 learning styles, it is found that the frequency level of
the instructional context is totally in high level. Moreover, 2 lists of
the context being conducted most frequently are 'Lead'in activity
to review background knowledge,- and 'Information retrieval
report.' And these two activities serve the learning styles of
theorists and activists. It is, therefore, suggested that more
instructional context supporting the activists, the majority of the
population, learning best by doing, as well as emotional learning
situation should be added.
Abstract: Appeared toward 1986, the object-oriented databases
management systems had not known successes knew five years after
their birth. One of the major difficulties is the query optimization.
We propose in this paper a new approach that permits to enrich
techniques of query optimization existing in the object-oriented
databases. Seen success that knew the query optimization in the
relational model, our approach inspires itself of these optimization
techniques and enriched it so that they can support the new concepts
introduced by the object databases.
Abstract: In this paper we propose a method for recognition of
adult video based on support vector machine (SVM). Different kernel
features are proposed to classify adult videos. SVM has an advantage
that it is insensitive to the relative number of training example in
positive (adult video) and negative (non adult video) classes. This
advantage is illustrated by comparing performance between different
SVM kernels for the identification of adult video.
Abstract: Route bus system is the fundamental public transportation
system and has an important role in every province. To improve
the usability of it greatly, we develop an AR application for "Bus-
Net". The Bus-Net system is the shortest path planning system.
Bus-Net supports bus users to make a plan to change buses by
providing them with information about the direction. However, with
Bus-Net, these information are provided in text-base. It is difficult
to understand them for the person who does not know the place. We
developed the AR application for Bus-Net. It supports the action of
a bus user in an innovative way by putting information on a camera
picture and leading the way to a bus stop. The application also inform
the user the correct bus to get, the direction the bus takes and the
fare, which ease many anxieties and worries people tend to feel when
they take buses.
Abstract: The paper aims to specify and build a system, a learning support in radiology-senology (breast radiology) dedicated to help assist junior radiologists-senologists in their radiologysenology- related activity based on experience of expert radiologistssenologists. This system is named SAFRS (i.e. system supporting the training of radiologists-senologists). It is based on the exploitation of radiologic-senologic images (primarily mammograms but also echographic images or MRI) and their related clinical files. The aim of such a system is to help breast cancer screening in education. In order to acquire this expert radiologist-senologist knowledge, we have used the CBR (case-based reasoning) approach. The SAFRS system will promote the evolution of teaching in radiology-senology by offering the “junior radiologist" trainees an advanced pedagogical product. It will permit a strengthening of knowledge together with a very elaborate presentation of results. At last, the know-how will derive from all these factors.
Abstract: According to the mobility of the satellite network nodes and the characteristic of management domain dynamic partition in the satellite network, the login and logout mechanism of the satellite network dynamic management domain partition was proposed in the paper. In the mechanism, a ground branch-station sends the packets of login broadcasting to satellites in view. After received the packets, the SNMP agents on the satellites adopt link-delay test to respond. According to the mechanism, the SNMP primitives were extended, and the new added primitives were as follows: broadcasting, login, login confirmation,delay_testing, test responses, and logout. The definition of primitives, which followed RFC1157 criterion, could be encoded by the BER coding. The policy of the dynamic management domain partition on the basis of the login and logout mechanism, which was supported by the SNMP protocol, was realized by the design of the extended primitives.
Abstract: An ontology is a data model that represents a set of
concepts in a given field and the relationships among those concepts.
As the emphasis on achieving a semantic web continues to escalate,
ontologies for all types of domains increasingly will be developed.
These ontologies may become large and complex, and as their size
and complexity grows, so will the need for multi-user interfaces for
ontology curation. Herein a functionally comprehensive, generic
approach to maintaining an ontology as a relational database is
presented. Unlike many other ontology editors that utilize a database,
this approach is entirely domain-generic and fully supports Webbased,
collaborative editing including the designation of different
levels of authorization for users.
Abstract: IPsec protocol[1] is a set of security extensions
developed by the IETF and it provides privacy and authentication
services at the IP layer by using modern cryptography. In this paper,
we describe both of H/W and S/W architectures of our router system,
SRS-10. The system is designed to support high performance routing
and IPsec VPN. Especially, we used Cavium-s CN2560 processor to
implement IPsec processing in inline-mode.
Abstract: Research in e-Business has been growing
tremendously covering all related aspects such as adoption issues, e-
Business models, strategies, etc. This research aims to explore the
potential of adopting e-Business for a micro size business operating
from home called home-based businesses (HBBs). In Malaysia, the
HBB industry started many years ago and were mostly monopolized
by women or housewives managed as a part-time job to support their
family economy. Today, things have changed. The availability of the
Internet technology and the emergence of e-Business concept
promote the evolution of HBBs, which have been adopted as another
alternative as a professional career for women without neglecting
their family needs especially the children. Although this study is
confined to a limited sample size and within geographical biasness,
the findings show that it concurs with previous large scale studies. In
this study, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used and
data were gathered using triangulation methods via interview, direct
observation, document analysis and survey questionnaires. This paper
discusses the literature review, research methods and findings
pertaining to e-Business adoption factors that influence the HBBs in
Malaysia.
Abstract: Liveable city is referred to as the quality of life in an
area that contributes towards a safe, healthy and enjoyable place. This
paper discusses the role of the streets- activities in making Kuala
Lumpur a liveable city and the happiness level of the residents
towards the city-s street activities. The study was conducted using the
residents of Kuala Lumpur. A mixed method technique is used with
the quantitative data as a main data and supported by the qualitative
data. Data were collected using questionnaires, observation and also
an interview session with a sample of residents of Kuala Lumpur.
The sampling technique is based on multistage cluster data sampling.
The findings revealed that, there is still no significant relationship
between the length of stay of the resident in Kuala Lumpur with the
happiness level towards the street activities that occurred in the city.
Abstract: This paper examines ethical and social issues which
have proved important when initiating and creating educational spaces within a virtual environment. It focuses on one project, identifying the key decisions made, the barriers to new practice
encountered and the impact these had on the project. It demonstrates
the importance of the 'backstage' ethical and social issues involved in
the creation of a virtual education community and offers conclusions,
and questions, which will inform future research and practice in this
area. These ethical issues are considered using Knobel-s framework
of front-end, in-process and back-end concerns, and include
establishing social practices for the islands, allocating access rights,
considering personal safety and supporting researchers appropriately
within this context.
Abstract: The proliferation of user-generated content (UGC) results in huge opportunities to explore event patterns. However, existing event recommendation systems primarily focus on advanced information technology users. Little work has been done to address novice and low-literacy users. The next billion users providing and consuming UGC are likely to include communities from developing countries who are ready to use affordable technologies for subsistence goals. Therefore, we propose a design framework for providing event recommendations to address the needs of such users. Grounded in information integration theory (IIT), our framework advocates that effective event recommendation is supported by systems capable of (1) reliable information gathering through structured user input, (2) accurate sense making through spatial-temporal analytics, and (3) intuitive information dissemination through interactive visualization techniques. A mobile pest management application is developed as an instantiation of the design framework. Our preliminary study suggests a set of design principles for novice and low-literacy users.
Abstract: Bringing change to the housing industry requires
multiple efforts from various angles especially to overcome any
resistances in the form of technology, human aspects, financial and
resources. The transition from conventional to sustainable approach
consumes time as it requires changes from different facets in the
industry ranging from individual, organisational to industry level. In
Malaysia, there are various efforts to bring green into the industry but
the progress is low-moderate. Will the current efforts bear larger
fruits in the near future? This study examines the perceptions of the
developers in Malaysia on the future of the green housing sector for
the next 5 years. The introduction of GBI rating system, improvement
of awareness and knowledge among the stakeholders, support from
the government and local industry and the effect of competitive
advantage would support brighter future. Meanwhile, the status quo
in rules and regulation, lack of public interest and demand,
organization disinterest, local authority enforcement and project cost
escalation would hinder a faster progress.
Abstract: In order to achieve better road utilization and traffic
efficiency, there is an urgent need for a travel information delivery
mechanism to assist the drivers in making better decisions in the
emerging intelligent transportation system applications. In this paper,
we propose a relayed multicast scheme under heterogeneous networks
for this purpose. In the proposed system, travel information consisting
of summarized traffic conditions, important events, real-time traffic
videos, and local information service contents is formed into layers
and multicasted through an integration of WiMAX infrastructure and
Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET). By the support of adaptive
modulation and coding in WiMAX, the radio resources can be
optimally allocated when performing multicast so as to dynamically
adjust the number of data layers received by the users. In addition to
multicast supported by WiMAX, a knowledge propagation and
information relay scheme by VANET is designed. The experimental
results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed
scheme.
Abstract: Nowadays increasingly the population makes use of
Information Technology (IT). As such, in recent year the Portuguese
government increased its focus on using the IT for improving
people-s life and began to develop a set of measures to enable the
modernization of the Public Administration, and so reducing the gap
between Public Administration and citizens.Thus the Portuguese
Government launched the Simplex Program. However these
SIMPLEX eGov measures, which have been implemented over the
years, present a serious challenge: how to forecast its impact on
existing Information Systems Architecture (ISA). Thus, this research
is focus in addressing the problem of automating the evaluation of the
actual impact of implementation an eGovSimplification and
Modernization measures in the Information Systems Architecture. To
realize the evaluation we proposes a Framework, which is supported
by some key concepts as: Quality Factors, ISA modeling,
Multicriteria Approach, Polarity Profile and Quality Metrics
Abstract: This paper describes the authorization system
architecture for Pervasive Grid environment. It discusses the
characteristics of classical authorization system and requirements of
the authorization system in pervasive grid environment as well.
Based on our analysis of current systems and taking into account the
main requirements of such pervasive environment, we propose new
authorization system architecture as an extension of the existing grid
authorization mechanisms. This architecture not only supports user
attributes but also context attributes which act as a key concept for
context-awareness thought. The architecture allows authorization of
users dynamically when there are changes in the pervasive grid
environment. For this, we opt for hybrid authorization method that
integrates push and pull mechanisms to combine the existing grid
authorization attributes with dynamic context assertions. We will
investigate the proposed architecture using a real testing environment
that includes heterogeneous pervasive grid infrastructures mapped
over multiple virtual organizations. Various scenarios are described
in the last section of the article to strengthen the proposed mechanism
with different facilities for the authorization procedure.
Abstract: In Thailand, both the 1997 and the current 2007 Thai Constitutions have mentioned the establishment of independent organizations as a new mechanism to play a key role in proposing policy recommendations to national decision-makers in the interest of collective consumers. Over the last ten years, no independent organizations have yet been set up. Evidently, nobody could point out who should be key players in establishing provincial independent consumer bodies. The purpose of this study was to find definitive stakeholders in establishing and developing independent consumer bodies in a Thai context. This was a cross-sectional study between August and September 2007, using a postal questionnaire with telephone follow-up. The questionnaire was designed and used to obtain multiple stakeholder assessment of three key attributes (power, interest and influence). Study population was 153 stakeholders associated with policy decision-making, formulation and implementation processes of civil-based consumer protection in pilot provinces. The population covered key representatives from five sectors (academics, government officers, business traders, mass media and consumer networks) who participated in the deliberative forums at 10 provinces. A 49.7% response rate was achieved. Data were analyzed, comparing means of three stakeholder attributes and classification of stakeholder typology. The results showed that the provincial health officers were the definitive stakeholders as they had legal power, influence and interest in establishing and sustaining the independent consumer bodies. However, only a few key representatives of the provincial health officers expressed their own paradigm on the civil-based consumer protection. Most provincial health officers put their own standpoint of building civic participation at only a plan-implementation level. For effective policy implementation by the independent consumer bodies, the Thai government should provide budgetary support for the operation of the provincial health officers with their paradigm shift as well as their own clarified standpoint on corporate governance.