Abstract: the cursive nature of the Arabic writing makes it
difficult to accurately segment characters or even deal with the whole
word efficiently. Therefore, in this paper, a printed Arabic sub-word
recognition system is proposed. The suggested algorithm utilizes
geometrical moments as descriptors for the separated sub-words.
Three types of moments are investigated and applied to the printed
sub-word images after dividing each image into multiple parts using
windowing. Since moments are global descriptors, the windowing
mechanism allows the moments to be applied to local regions of the
sub-word. The local-global mixture of the proposed scheme increases
the discrimination power of the moments while keeping the
simplicity and ease of use of moments.
Abstract: Routing security is a major concerned in Wireless
Sensor Network since a large scale of unattended nodes is deployed
in ad hoc fashion with no possibility of a global addressing due to a
limitation of node-s memory and the node have to be self organizing
when the systems require a connection with the other nodes. It
becomes more challenging when the nodes have to act as the router
and tightly constrained on energy and computational capabilities
where any existing security mechanisms are not allowed to be fitted
directly. These reasons thus increasing vulnerabilities to the network
layer particularly and to the whole network, generally. In this paper,
a Dynamic Window Secured Implicit Geographic Forwarding
(DWSIGF) routing is presented where a dynamic time is used for
collection window to collect Clear to Send (CTS) control packet in
order to find an appropriate hoping node. The DWIGF is expected to
minimize a chance to select an attacker as the hoping node that
caused by a blackhole attack that happen because of the CTS rushing
attack, which promise a good network performance with high packet
delivery ratios.
Abstract: In this paper, a numerical study has been made to
analyze the transient 2-D flows of a viscous incompressible fluid
through channels with forward or backward constriction. Problems
addressed include flow through sudden contraction and sudden
expansion channel geometries with rounded and increasingly sharp
reentrant corner. In both the cases, numerical results are presented for
the separation and reattachment points, streamlines, vorticity and
flow patterns. A fourth order accurate compact scheme has been
employed to efficiently capture steady state solutions of the
governing equations. It appears from our study that sharpness of the
throat in the channel is one of the important parameters to control the
strength and size of the separation zone without modifying the
general flow patterns. The comparison between the two cases shows
that the upstream geometry plays a significant role on vortex growth
dynamics.
Abstract: The use of wind energy for electricity generation is
growing rapidly across the world and in Portugal. However, the
geographical characteristics of the country along with the average
wind regime and with the environmental restrictions imposed to these
projects create limitations to the exploit of the onshore wind
resource. The best onshore wind spots are already committed and the
possibility of offshore wind farms in the Portuguese cost is now
being considered. This paper aims to make a contribution to the
evaluation of offshore wind power projects in Portugal. The technical
restrictions are addressed and the strategic, environmental and
financial interest of the project is analysed from the private company
and public points of view. The results suggest that additional support
schemes are required to ensure private investors interest for these
projects. Assuming an approach of direct substitution of energy
sources for electricity generation, the avoided CO2 equivalent
emissions for an offshore wind power project were quantified. Based
on the conclusions, future research is proposed to address the
environmental and social impacts of these projects.
Abstract: the current study presents a modeling framework to determine the torsion strength of an induction hardened splined shaft by considering geometry and material aspects with the aim to optimize the static torsion strength by selection of spline geometry and hardness depth. Six different spline geometries and seven different hardness profiles including non-hardened and throughhardened shafts have been considered. The results reveal that the torque that causes initial yielding of the induction hardened splined shaft is strongly dependent on the hardness depth and the geometry of the spline teeth. Guidelines for selection of the appropriate hardness depth and spline geometry are given such that an optimum static torsion strength of the component can be achieved.
Abstract: The seismic vulnerability of an urban area is of a great
deal for local authorities especially those facing earthquakes. So, it is
important to have an efficient tool to assess the vulnerability of
existing buildings. The use of the VIP (Vulnerability Index Program)
and the GIS (Geographic Information System) let us to identify the
most vulnerable districts of an urban area.
The use of the vulnerability index method lets us to assess the
vulnerability of the center town of Blida (Algeria) which is a
historical town and which has grown enormously during the last
decades. In this method, three levels of vulnerability are defined. The
GIS has been used to build a data base in order to perform different
thematic analyses. These analyses show the seismic vulnerability of
Blida.
Abstract: This study aims to assess the vulnerability and risk of
the coastal areas of Taijiang to abnormal oceanographic phenomena.
In addition, this study aims to investigate and collect data regarding
the disaster losses, land utilization, and other social, economic, and
environmental issues in these coastal areas to construct a coastal
vulnerability and risk map based on the obtained climate-change risk
assessment results. Considering the indexes of the three coastal
vulnerability dimensions, namely, man-made facilities, environmental
geography, and social economy, this study adopted the equal
weighting process and Analytic Hierarchy Process to analyze the
vulnerability of these coastal areas to disasters caused by climatic
changes. Among the areas with high coastal vulnerability to climatic
changes, three towns had the highest coastal vulnerability and four had
the highest relative vulnerability. Areas with lower disaster risks were
found to be increasingly vulnerable to disasters caused by climatic
changes as time progresses.
Abstract: Thousands of masters athletes participate
quadrennially in the World Masters Games (WMG), yet this cohort
of athletes remains proportionately under-investigated. Due to a
growing global obesity pandemic in context of benefits of physical
activity across the lifespan, the BMI trends for this unique population
was of particular interest. The nexus between health, physical
activity and aging is complex and has raised much interest in recent
times due to the realization that a multifaceted approach is necessary
in order to counteract the obesity pandemic. By investigating age
based trends within a population adhering to competitive sport at
older ages, further insight might be gleaned to assist in understanding
one of many factors influencing this relationship.BMI was derived
using data gathered on a total of 6,071 masters athletes (51.9% male,
48.1% female) aged 25 to 91 years ( =51.5, s =±9.7), competing at
the Sydney World Masters Games (2009). Using linear and loess
regression it was demonstrated that the usual tendency for prevalence
of higher BMI increasing with age was reversed in the sample. This
trend in reversal was repeated for both male and female only sub-sets
of the sample participants, indicating the possibility of improved
prevalence of BMI with increasing age for both the sample as a
whole and these individual sub-groups.This evidence of improved
classification in one index of health (reduced BMI) for masters
athletes (when compared to the general population) implies there are
either improved levels of this index of health with aging due to
adherence to sport or possibly the reduced BMI is advantageous and
contributes to this cohort adhering (or being attracted) to masters
sport at older ages.
Abstract: In this survey the process of crack propagation at the
toe of concrete gravity dam is investigated by applying principals
and criteria of linear elastic fracture mechanic. Simulating process of
earthquake conditions for three models of dam with different
geometrical condition, in empty reservoir under plain stress is
calculated through special fracture mechanic software FRANNC2D
[1] for determining fracture mechanic criteria. The outcomes showed
that in spite of the primary expectations, the simultaneous existence
of fillet in both toe and heel area (model 3), the rate of maximum
principal stress has not been decreased; however, even the maximum
principal stress has increased, so it caused stress intensity factors
increase which is undesirable. On the other hand, the dam with heel
fillet has shown the best attitude and it is because of items like
decreasing the rates of maximum and minimum principal stresses and
also is related to decreasing the rates of stress intensity factors for 1st
& 2nd modes of the model.
Abstract: Natural Language Understanding Systems (NLU) will not be widely deployed unless they are technically mature and cost effective to develop. Cost effective development hinges on the availability of tools and techniques enabling the rapid production of NLU applications through minimal human resources. Further, these tools and techniques should allow quick development of applications in a user friendly way and should be easy to upgrade in order to continuously follow the evolving technologies and standards. This paper presents a visual tool for the structuring and editing of dialog forms, the key element of driving conversation in NLU applications based on IBM technology. The main focus is given on the basic component used to describe Human – Machine interactions of that kind, the Dialogue Manager. In essence, the description of a tool that enables the visual representation of the Dialogue Manager mainly during the implementation phase is illustrated.
Abstract: All the geophysical phenomena including river
networks and flow time series are fractal events inherently and fractal
patterns can be investigated through their behaviors. A non-linear
system like a river basin can well be analyzed by a non-linear
measure such as the fractal analysis. A bilateral study is held on the
fractal properties of the river network and the river flow time series.
A moving window technique is utilized to scan the fractal properties
of them. Results depict both events follow the same strategy
regarding to the fractal properties. Both the river network and the
time series fractal dimension tend to saturate in a distinct value.
Abstract: This paper tries to study the effect of geosynthetic inclusion on the improvement of the load-settlement characters of two layered soil. In addition, the effect of geogrid and geotextile in reduction of the required thickness of subbase layer in unpaved roads is studied. Considering the vast application of bearing ratio tests in road construction projects, this test is used in present investigation. Bearing ratio tests were performed on two layered soil including a granular soil layer at the top (as the subbase layer) and a weak clayey soil placed at the bottom (as the subgrade layer). These tests were performed for different conditions including unreinforced and reinforced by geogrid and geotextile and three thicknesses for top layer soil (subbase layer). In the reinforced condition the reinforcing element was placed on the interface of the top granular layer and the beneath clayey layer to study the separation effect of geosynthetics. In all tests the soils (both granular and clayey soil layers) were compacted according to optimum water content. At the end, the diagrams were plotted and were compared with each other. Furthermore, a comparison between geogrids and geotextiles behaviors on two layer soil is done in this paper. The results show an increase in compression strength of reinforced specimen in comparison with unreinforced soil sample. The effect of geosynthetic inclusion reduces by increasing the subbase thickness. In addition it was found that geogrids have more desirable behavior rather than geotextiles due to interlocking with the subbase layer aggregates.
Abstract: The study investigates the mixing performance of
electrokinetically-driven power-law fluids in a microchannel
containing patterned trapezoid blocks. The effects of the geometry
parameters of the patterned trapezoid blocks and the flow behavior
index in the power-law model on the mixing efficiency within the
microchannel are explored. The results show that the mixing efficiency
can be improved by increasing the width of the blocks and extending
the length of upper surface of the blocks. In addition, the results show
that the mixing efficiency increases with an increasing flow behavior
index. Furthermore, it is shown that a heterogeneous patterning of the
zeta potential on the upper surfaces of the trapezoid blocks prompts
the formation of local flow recirculations, and therefore improves the
mixing efficiency. Consequently, it is shown that the mixing
performance improves with an increasing magnitude of the
heterogeneous surface zeta potential.
Abstract: In recent years Malaysia has included renewable
energy as an alternative fuel to help in diversifying the country-s
energy reliance on oil, natural gas, coal and hydropower with
biomass and solar energy gaining priority. The scope of this paper is
to look at the designing procedures and analysis of a solar thermal
parabolic trough concentrator by simulation utilizing meteorological
data in several parts of Malaysia. Parameters which include the
aperture area, the diameter of the receiver and the working fluid may
be varied to optimize the design. Aperture area is determined by
considering the width and the length of the concentrator whereas the
geometric concentration ratio (CR) is obtained by considering the
width and diameter of the receiver. Three types of working fluid are
investigated. Theoretically, concentration ratios can be very high in
the range of 10 to 40 000 depending on the optical elements used and
continuous tracking of the sun. However, a thorough analysis is
essential as discussed in this paper where optical precision and
thermal analysis must be carried out to evaluate the performance of
the parabolic trough concentrator as the theoretical CR is not the only
factor that should be considered.
Abstract: The parametrical study of Shrouded Contra-rotating
Rotor was done in this paper based on 2D axisymmetric simulations.
The calculations were made with an actuator disk as double rotor
model. It objects to explore and quantify the effects of different shroud
geometry parameters mainly using the performance of power loading
(PL), which could evaluate the whole propulsion system capability as
5 Newtontotal thrust generationfor hover demand. The numerical
results show that:The increase of nozzle radius is desired but limited
by the flow separation, its optimal design is around 1.15 times rotor
radius, the viscosity effects greatly constraint the influence of nozzle
shape, the divergent angle around 10.5° performs best for chosen
nozzle length;The parameters of inlet such as leading edge curvature,
radius and internal shape do not affect thrust great but play an
important role in pressure distribution which could produce most part
of shroud thrust, they should be chosen according to the reduction of
adverse pressure gradients to reduce the risk of boundary separation.
Abstract: Based on an analysis of the current research and application of Road maintenance, geographic information system (WebGIS) and ArcGIS Server, the platform overhead construction for Road maintenance development is studied and the key issues are presented, including the organization and design of spatial data on the basis of the geodatabase technology, middleware technology, tiles cache index technology and dynamic segmentation of WebGIS. Road maintenance geographic information platform is put forward through the researching ideas of analysis of the system design. The design and application of WebGIS system are discussed on the basis of a case study of BaNan district of Chongqing highway maintenance management .The feasibility of the theories and methods are validated through the system.
Abstract: An experimental and simulation flight test has been carried out to evaluate the longitudinal gliding characteristics of a lifting body with blunted half-cone geometry. The novelty here is the lifting body's pitch control mechanism, which consists of a pair of leading-edge rotating cylinders. Flight simulation uses aerodynamic data from computational fluid dynamics supported by wind-tunnel test. Flight test consists of releasing an aluminum lifting body model from a moving vehicle at the appropriate wind speed while measuring the lifting body's variation of altitude against time of flight. Results show that leading-edge rotating cylinder is able to give small amounts of improvement to the longitudinal stability and pitch control to the lifting body.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to briefly review the opportunities that social media present to counselors and psychologists. Particular attention was given to understanding some of the more important common risks inherent in social media and the potential ethical dilemmas which may arise for counselors and psychologists who embrace them in their practice. Key considerations of issues pertinent to an online presence such as multiple relationships, visibility and privacy, maintaining ethical principles and professional boundaries are being discussed.
Abstract: Because of increasing demands for security in today-s
society and also due to paying much more attention to machine
vision, biometric researches, pattern recognition and data retrieval in
color images, face detection has got more application. In this article
we present a scientific approach for modeling human skin color, and
also offer an algorithm that tries to detect faces within color images
by combination of skin features and determined threshold in the
model. Proposed model is based on statistical data in different color
spaces. Offered algorithm, using some specified color threshold, first,
divides image pixels into two groups: skin pixel group and non-skin
pixel group and then based on some geometric features of face
decides which area belongs to face.
Two main results that we received from this research are as follow:
first, proposed model can be applied easily on different databases and
color spaces to establish proper threshold. Second, our algorithm can
adapt itself with runtime condition and its results demonstrate
desirable progress in comparison with similar cases.
Abstract: This work contains information about the influence low-level optical irradiation on sperm motility of sturgeon fish. On the basis of given and earlier received data the following conclusion has been made. Among the photophysical processes of a resonant and not resonant nature (oriented action of light; action of gradient forces; dipole-dipole interaction; termooptical processes), which are capable to cause the photobiological effects depended on such laserspecific characteristics as polarization and coherency, determining influence belongs to oriented action of light and dipole-dipole interactions among the processes studied in the present work.