Abstract: A trustworthy voting process in democratic is
important that each vote is recorded with accuracy and impartiality.
The accuracy and impartiality are tallied in high rate with biometric
system. One of the sign is a fingerprint. Fingerprint recognition is
still a challenging problem, because of the distortions among the
different impression of the same finger. Because of the trustworthy of
biometric voting technologies, it may give a great effect on numbers
of voter-s participation and outcomes of the democratic process.
Hence in this study, the authors are interested in designing and
analyzing the Electronic Voting System and the participation of the
users. The system is based on the fingerprint minutiae with the
addition of person ID number. This is in order to enhance the
accuracy and speed of the voting process. The new design is analyzed
by conducting pilot election among a class of students for selecting
their representative.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks consist of inexpensive, low power sensor nodes deployed to monitor the environment and collect
data. Gathering information in an energy efficient manner is a critical aspect to prolong the network lifetime. Clustering algorithms have an advantage of enhancing the network lifetime. Current clustering algorithms usually focus on global re-clustering and local re-clustering separately. This paper, proposed a combination of those two reclustering methods to reduce the energy consumption of the network. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm can apply to homogeneous as well as heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. In addition, the cluster head rotation happens, only when its energy drops below a dynamic threshold value computed by the algorithm. The simulation result shows that the proposed algorithm prolong the network lifetime compared to existing algorithms.
Abstract: Many advanced Routing protocols for wireless sensor networks have been implemented for the effective routing of data. Energy awareness is an essential design issue and almost all of these routing protocols are considered as energy efficient and its ultimate objective is to maximize the whole network lifetime. However, the introductions of video and imaging sensors have posed additional challenges. Transmission of video and imaging data requires both energy and QoS aware routing in order to ensure efficient usage of the sensors and effective access to the gathered measurements. In this paper, the performance of the energy-aware QoS routing Protocol are analyzed in different performance metrics like average lifetime of a node, average delay per packet and network throughput. The parameters considered in this study are end-to-end delay, real time data generation/capture rates, packet drop probability and buffer size. The network throughput for realtime and non-realtime data was also has been analyzed. The simulation has been done in NS2 simulation environment and the simulation results were analyzed with respect to different metrics.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to propose a text mining
approach to evaluate companies- practices on affective management.
Affective management argues that it is critical to take stakeholders-
affects into consideration during decision-making process, along with
the traditional numerical and rational indices. CSR reports published
by companies were collected as source information. Indices were
proposed based on the frequency and collocation of words relevant to
affective management concept using text mining approach to analyze
the text information of CSR reports. In addition, the relationships
between the results obtained using proposed indices and traditional
indicators of business performance were investigated using
correlation analysis. Those correlations were also compared between
manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. The results of this
study revealed the possibility to evaluate affective management
practices of companies based on publicly available text documents.
Abstract: Air pollution is still considered as one of the major
environmental and health issues. There is enough research evidence
to show a strong relationship between exposure to air contaminants
and respiratory illnesses among children and adults. In this paper we
used the Copula approach to study a potential relationship between
selected air pollutants (PM10 and NO2) and hospital admissions for
respiratory diseases. Kendall-s tau and Spearman-s rho rank
correlation coefficients are calculated and used in Copula method.
This paper demonstrates that copulas can be used to provide
additional information as a measure of an association when compared
to the standard correlation coefficients. The results find a significant
correlation between the selected air pollutants and hospital
admissions for most of the selected respiratory illnesses.
Abstract: A new approach to predict the 3D structures of proteins by combining the knowledge-based method and Molecular Dynamics Simulation is presented on the chicken villin headpiece subdomain (HP-36). Comparative modeling is employed as the knowledge-based method to predict the core region (Ala9-Asn28) of the protein while the remaining residues are built as extended regions (Met1-Lys8; Leu29-Phe36) which then further refined using Molecular Dynamics Simulation for 120 ns. Since the core region is built based on a high sequence identity to the template (65%) resulting in RMSD of 1.39 Å from the native, it is believed that this well-developed core region can act as a 'nucleation center' for subsequent rapid downhill folding. Results also demonstrate that the formation of the non-native contact which tends to hamper folding rate can be avoided. The best 3D model that exhibits most of the native characteristics is identified using clustering method which then further ranked based on the conformational free energies. It is found that the backbone RMSD of the best model compared to the NMR-MDavg is 1.01 Å and 3.53 Å, for the core region and the complete protein, respectively. In addition to this, the conformational free energy of the best model is lower by 5.85 kcal/mol as compared to the NMR-MDavg. This structure prediction protocol is shown to be effective in predicting the 3D structure of small globular protein with a considerable accuracy in much shorter time compared to the conventional Molecular Dynamics simulation alone.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks (WSANs) constitute an emerging and pervasive technology that is attracting increasing interest in the research community for a wide range of applications. WSANs have two important requirements: coordination interactions and real-time communication to perform correct and timely actions. This paper introduces a methodology to facilitate the task of the application programmer focusing on the coordination and real-time requirements of WSANs. The methodology proposed in this model uses a real-time component model, UM-RTCOM, which will help us to achieve the design and implementation of applications in WSAN by using the component oriented paradigm. This will help us to develop software components which offer some very interesting features, such as reusability and adaptability which are very suitable for WSANs as they are very dynamic environments with rapidly changing conditions. In addition, a high-level coordination model based on tuple channels (TC-WSAN) is integrated into the methodology by providing a component-based specification of this model in UM-RTCOM; this will allow us to satisfy both sensor-actor and actor-actor coordination requirements in WSANs. Finally, we present in this paper the design and implementation of an application which will help us to show how the methodology can be easily used in order to achieve the development of WSANs applications.
Abstract: Nowadays, keyless entry systems are widely adopted
for vehicle immobilizer systems due to both advantages of security and
convenience. Keyless entry systems could overcome brute-force key
guessing attack, statistics attack and masquerade attack, however,
they can't prevent from thieves stealing behavior. In this paper, we
proposed a new architecture try to improve the existent flaws. The
integration of the keyless entry system and the fingerprint
identification technology is more suitable to implement on the
portable transponder to achieve higher security needs. We also adopt
and modify AES security protocol for life expectancy and security of
the portable transponder. In addition, the identification of a driver's
fingerprint makes the service of automatic reinstatement of a driver's
preferences become possible. Our design can satisfy not only the three
kinds of previous illegal attacks, but also the stealing situation.
Furthermore, many practical factors, such as costs, life expectancy and
performance, have been well considered in the design of portable
transponder.
Abstract: Celiac disease is an immune-mediated disease, triggered in genetically susceptible individuals by ingested gluten from wheat, rye, barley and other closely related cereal grains. The only effective treatment is a strict gluten free diet for life. Latvian producers do not offer gluten-free products. In this research, use of extruded maize flour was tested for substituting rice, maize or buckwheat flour in gluten-free bread formulations at different ratios. Also the influence of extruded maize flour on the quality parameters of gluten-free bread was investigated. The aim of research was to study the influence of extruded maize flour on gluten-free bread quality. Addition of extruded maize flour affect gluten-free bread crumb color, structure of crumb, weight loss and dry off of bread.
Abstract: The power system network is becoming more
complex nowadays and it is very difficult to maintain the stability
of the system. Today-s enhancement of technology makes it
possible to include new energy storage devices in the electric
power system. In addition, with the aid of power electronic
devices, it is possible to independently exchange active and
reactive power flow with the utility grid. The main purpose of this
paper proposes a Proportional – Integral (PI) control based 48 –
pulse Inverter based Static Synchronous Series Compensator
(SSSC) with and without Superconducting Magnetic Energy
Storage (SMES) used for enhancing the transient stability and
regulating power flow in automatic mode. Using a test power
system through the dynamic simulation in Matlab/Simulink
platform validates the performance of the proposed SSSC with and
without SMES system.
Abstract: Cities expansion, urban travels increase, the
technology development, the automobile price cheapen, and the
families' income ascending cause the considerable increase in
automobile numbers of the city. This fact has led to the traffic
creation and the automobile parking site shortage in the city. Also in
Esfahan metropolis, the parking lots shortage has been the great
problem of this town; in addition, in designing and constructing of
the parking sites the traditional methods are utilized which do not
have a reasonable and optimized usage of the valuable urban lands. In
this article, by introducing the prefabricate mechanized parking
system which is inexpensive, simple and quick, and occupies very
small space, therefore provides the high content of parking site for
the cities, we can eliminate the parking space shortage difficulty of
the cities. The achieved results of this research represent that an
optimized utilization of the existent urban spaces for parking site
construction has not been accomplished. By employing the new
parking site technologies such as mechanization categorized parking
sites and the capacity prefabricate mechanized of each parking space
have become 8 multiples; in this case, the valuable urban lands can
be used in an optimized way.
Abstract: This presentation narrates the comparative analysis of
the dissolution data nimesulide microparticles prepared with
ethylcellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, chitosan and
Poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) as polymers. The analysis of release
profiles showed that the variations noted in the release behavior of
nimesulide from various microparticulate formulations are due to the
nature of used polymer. In addition, maximum retardation in the
nimesulide release was observed with HPMC (floating particles).
Thus HPMC miacroparticles may be preferably employed for
sustained release dosage form development.
Abstract: Islamic institutions in Malaysia play a variety of
socioeconomic roles such as poverty alleviation. To perform this role,
these institutions face a major task in identifying the poverty group.
Most of these institutions measure and operationalize poverty from
the monetary perspective using variables such as income, expenditure
or consumption. In practice, most Islamic institutions in Malaysia use
the monetary approach in measuring poverty through the
conventional Poverty Line Income (PLI) method and recently, the
had al kifayah (HAK) method using total necessities of a household
from an Islamic perspective. The objective of this paper is to present
the PLI and also the HAK method. This micro-data study would
highlight the similarities and differences of both the methods.A
survey aided by a structured questionnaire was carried out on 260
selected head of households in the state of Selangor. The paper
highlights several demographic factors that are associated with the
three monetary indicators in the study, namely income, PLI and
HAK. In addition, the study found that these monetary variables are
significantly related with each other.
Abstract: Magnesium wastes are produced by many industrial activities. This waste problem is becoming a future problem for the world. Magnesium borates have many advantages such as; high corrosion resistance, heat resistance, high coefficient of elasticity and can also be used in the production of material against radiation. Addition, magnesium borates have great potential in sectors
including ceramic and detergents industry and superconducting materials.
In this study, using the starting materials of waste magnesium and H3BO3 the hydrothermal method was applied at a moderate
temperature of 70oC. Several mole ratios of waste magnesium to H3BO3 are selected as; 1:2, 1:4, 1:6, 1:8, 1:10. Reaction time was determined as 1 hour. After the synthesis, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) techniques are applied to products. As a result the forms of mcallisterite “Mg2(B6O7(OH)6)2.9(H2O)”, admontite “MgO(B2O3)3.7(H2O)” and magnesium boron hydrate (MgO(B2O3)3.6(H2O)” are obtained.
Abstract: Addition of an oily waste to a co-composting process of dairy cow manure with food waste, and the influence in the final product was evaluated. Three static composting piles with different substrates concentrations were assessed. Sawdust was also added to all composting piles to attain 60%, humidity at the beginning of the process. In pile 1, the co-substrates were the solid-phase of dairy cow manure, food waste and sawdust as bulking agent. In piles 2 and 3 there was an extra input of oily waste of 7 and 11% of the total volume, respectively, corresponding to 18 and 28% in dry weight. The results showed that the co-composting process was feasible even at the highest fat content. Another positive effect due to the oily waste addition was the requirement of extra humidity, due to the hydrophobic properties of this specific waste, which may imply reduced need of a bulking agent. Moreover, this study shows that composting can be a feasible way of adding value to fatty wastes. The three final composts presented very similar and suitable properties for land application.
Abstract: Most of researches for conventional simulations were
studied focusing on flocks with a single species. While there exist the
flocking behaviors with a single species in nature, the flocking
behaviors are frequently observed with multi-species. This paper
studies on the flocking simulation for heterogeneous agents. In order
to simulate the flocks for heterogeneous agents, the conventional
method uses the identifier of flock, while the proposed method defines
the feature vector of agent and uses the similarity between agents by
comparing with those feature vectors. Based on the similarity, the
paper proposed the attractive force and repulsive force and then
executed the simulation by applying two forces. The results of
simulation showed that flock formation with heterogeneous agents is
very natural in both cases. In addition, it showed that unlike the
existing method, the proposed method can not only control the density
of the flocks, but also be possible for two different groups of agents to
flock close to each other if they have a high similarity.
Abstract: Computational techniques derived from digital image processing are playing a significant role in the security and digital copyrights of multimedia and visual arts. This technology has the effect within the domain of computers. This research presents discrete M-band wavelet transform (MWT) and cosine transform (DCT) based watermarking algorithm by incorporating the principal component analysis (PCA). The proposed algorithm is expected to achieve higher perceptual transparency. Specifically, the developed watermarking scheme can successfully resist common signal processing, such as geometric distortions, and Gaussian noise. In addition, the proposed algorithm can be parameterized, thus resulting in more security. To meet these requirements, the image is transformed by a combination of MWT & DCT. In order to improve the security further, we randomize the watermark image to create three code books. During the watermark embedding, PCA is applied to the coefficients in approximation sub-band. Finally, first few component bands represent an excellent domain for inserting the watermark.
Abstract: Liners are made to protect the groundwater table from
the infiltration of leachate which normally carries different kinds of
toxic materials from landfills. Although these liners are engineered to
last for long period of time; unfortunately these liners fail; therefore,
toxic materials pass to groundwater. This paper focuses on the
changes of the hydraulic conductivity of a sand-bentonite liner due to
the infiltration of biofuel and ethanol fuel. Series of laboratory tests
were conducted in 20-cm-high PVC columns. Several compositions
of sand-bentonite liners were tested: 95% sand: 5% bentonite; 90%
sand: 10% bentonite; and 100% sand (passed mesh #40). The
columns were subjected to extreme pressures of 40 kPa, and 100 kPa
to evaluate the transport of alternative fuels (biofuel and ethanol
fuel). For comparative studies, similar tests were carried out using
water. Results showed that hydraulic conductivity increased due to
the infiltration of alternative fuels through the liners. Accordingly,
the increase in the hydraulic conductivity showed significant
dependency on the type of liner mixture and the characteristics of the
liquid. The hydraulic conductivity of a liner (subjected to biofuel
infiltration) consisting of 5% bentonite: 95% sand under pressure of
40 kPa and 100 kPa had increased by one fold. In addition, the
hydraulic conductivity of a liner consisting of 10% bentonite: 90%
sand under pressure of 40 kPa and 100 kPa and infiltrated by biofuel
had increased by three folds. On the other hand, the results obtained
by water infiltration under 40 kPa showed lower hydraulic
conductivities of 1.50×10-5 and 1.37×10-9 cm/s for 5% bentonite:
95% sand, and 10% bentonite: 90% sand, respectively. Similarly,
under 100 kPa, the hydraulic conductivities were 2.30×10-5 and
1.90×10-9 cm/s for 5% bentonite: 95% sand, and 10% bentonite: 90%
sand, respectively.
Abstract: In the present work the internal sulfate attack on
pastes made from pure clinker phases was studied. Two binders were
produced: (a) a binder with 2% C3A and 18% C4AF content; (b) a
binder with 10% C3A and C4AF content each. Gypsum was used as
the sulfate bearing compound, while calcium carbonate added to
differentiate the binders produced. The phases formed were identified
by XRD analysis. The results showed that ettringite was the
deterioration phase detected in the case of the low C3A content
binder. Carbonation occurred in the specimen without calcium
carbonate addition, while portlandite was observed in the one
containing calcium carbonate. In the case of the high C3A content
binder, traces of thaumasite were detected when calcium carbonate
was not incorporated in the binder. A solid solution of thaumasite and
ettringite was found when calcium carbonate was added. The amount
of C3A had not fully reacted with sulfates, since its corresponding
peaks were detected.
Abstract: At present, dictionary attack has been the basic tool for
recovering key passwords. In order to avoid dictionary attack, users
purposely choose another character strings as passwords. According to
statistics, about 14% of users choose keys on a keyboard (Kkey, for
short) as passwords. This paper develops a framework system to attack
the password chosen from Kkeys and analyzes its efficiency. Within
this system, we build up keyboard rules using the adjacent and parallel
relationship among Kkeys and then use these Kkey rules to generate
password databases by depth-first search method. According to the
experiment results, we find the key space of databases derived from
these Kkey rules that could be far smaller than the password databases
generated within brute-force attack, thus effectively narrowing down
the scope of attack research. Taking one general Kkey rule, the
combinations in all printable characters (94 types) with Kkey adjacent
and parallel relationship, as an example, the derived key space is about
240 smaller than those in brute-force attack. In addition, we
demonstrate the method's practicality and value by successfully
cracking the access password to UNIX and PC using the password
databases created