Abstract: The transformation of vocal characteristics aims at
modifying voice such that the intelligibility of aphonic voice is
increased or the voice characteristics of a speaker (source speaker) to
be perceived as if another speaker (target speaker) had uttered it. In
this paper, the current state-of-the-art voice characteristics
transformation methodology is reviewed. Special emphasis is placed
on voice transformation methodology and issues for improving the
transformed speech quality in intelligibility and naturalness are
discussed. In particular, it is suggested to use the modulation theory
of speech as a base for research on high quality voice transformation.
This approach allows one to separate linguistic, expressive, organic
and perspective information of speech, based on an analysis of how
they are fused when speech is produced. Therefore, this theory
provides the fundamentals not only for manipulating non-linguistic,
extra-/paralinguistic and intra-linguistic variables for voice
transformation, but also for paving the way for easily transposing the
existing voice transformation methods to emotion-related voice
quality transformation and speaking style transformation. From the
perspectives of human speech production and perception, the popular
voice transformation techniques are described and classified them
based on the underlying principles either from the speech production
or perception mechanisms or from both. In addition, the advantages
and limitations of voice transformation techniques and the
experimental manipulation of vocal cues are discussed through
examples from past and present research. Finally, a conclusion and
road map are pointed out for more natural voice transformation
algorithms in the future.
Abstract: Sharing motivations of viral advertisements by
consumers and the impacts of these advertisements on the
perceptions for brand will be questioned in this study. Three
fundamental questions are answered in the study. These are
advertisement watching and sharing motivations of individuals,
criteria of liking viral advertisement and the impact of individual
attitudes for viral advertisement on brand perception respectively.
This study will be carried out via a viral advertisement which was
practiced in Turkey. The data will be collected by survey method and
the sample of the study consists of individuals who experienced the
practice of sample advertisement. Data will be collected by online
survey method and will be analyzed by using SPSS statistical
package program.
Recently traditional advertisement mind have been changing. New
advertising approaches which have significant impacts on consumers
have been argued. Viral advertising is a modernist advertisement
mind which offers significant advantages to brands apart from
traditional advertising channels such as television, radio and
magazines. Viral advertising also known as Electronic Word-of-
Mouth (eWOM) consists of free spread of convincing messages sent
by brands among interpersonal communication. When compared to
the traditional advertising, a more provocative thematic approach is
argued.
The foundation of this approach is to create advertisements that
are worth sharing with others by consumers. When that fact is taken
into consideration, in a manner of speaking it can also be stated that
viral advertising is media engineering.
The content worth sharing makes people being a volunteer
spokesman of a brand and strengthens the emotional bonds among
brand and consumer. Especially for some sectors in countries which
are having traditional advertising channel limitations, viral
advertising creates vital advantages.
Abstract: Due to the emergence of “Humanized Healthcare"
introduced by Professor Dr. Prawase Wasi in 2003[1], the
development of this paradigm tends to be widely implemented. The
organizations included Healthcare Accreditation Institute (public
organization), National Health Foundation, Mahidol University in
cooperation with Thai Health Promotion Foundation, and National
Health Security Office (Thailand) have selected the hospitals or
infirmaries that are qualified for humanized healthcare since 2008-
2010 and 35 of them are chosen to be the outstandingly navigating
organizations for the development of humanized healthcare,
humanized healthcare award [2].
The research aims to study the current issue, characteristics and
patterns of hospital administration contributing to humanized
healthcare system in Thailand. The selected case studies are from
four hospitals including Dansai Crown Prince Hospital, Leoi;
Ubolrattana Hospital, Khon Kaen; Kapho Hospital, Pattani; and
Prathai Hospital, Nakhonrachasima. The methodology is in-depth
interviewing with 10 staffs working as hospital executive directors,
and representatives from leader groups including directors,
multidisciplinary hospital committees, personnel development
committees, physicians and nurses in each hospital. (Total=40) In
addition, focus group discussions between hospital staffs and general
people (including patients and their relatives, the community leader,
and other people) are held by means of setting 4 groups including 8
people within each group. (Total=128) The observation on the
working in each hospital is also implemented. The findings of the
study reveal that there are five important aspects found in each
hospital including (1) the quality improvement under the mental and
spiritual development policy from the chief executives and lead
teams, leaders as Role model and they have visionary leadership; (2)
the participation hospital administration system focusing on learning
process and stakeholder- needs, spiritual human resource
management and development; (3) the relationship among people
especially staffs, team work skills, mutual understanding, effective
communication and personal inner-development; (4) organization
culture relevant to the awareness of patients- rights as well as the
participation policy including spiritual growth achieving to the same
goals, sharing vision, developing public mind, and caring; and (5)
healing structures or environment providing warmth and convenience
for hospital staffs, patients and their relatives and visitors.
Abstract: In this paper the vibration behaviors of a structure equipped with a tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) under a harmonic type of earthquake loading are studied. However, due to inherent nonlinear liquid damping, it is no doubt that a great deal of computational effort is required to search the optimum parameters of the TLCD, numerically. Therefore by linearization the equation of motion of the single degree of freedom structure equipped with the TLCD, the closed form solutions of the TLCD-structure system are derived. To find the reliability of the analytical method, the results have been compared with other researcher and have good agreement. Further, the effects of optimal design parameters such as length ratio and mass ratio on the performance of the TLCD for controlling the responses of a structure are investigated by using the harmonic type of earthquake excitation. Finally, the Citicorp Center which has a very flexible structure is used as an example to illustrate the design procedure for the TLCD under the earthquake excitation.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with motion recognition based fuzzy WP(Wavelet Packet) feature extraction approach from Vicon physical data sets. For this purpose, we use an efficient fuzzy mutual-information-based WP transform for feature extraction. This method estimates the required mutual information using a novel approach based on fuzzy membership function. The physical action data set includes 10 normal and 10 aggressive physical actions that measure the human activity. The data have been collected from 10 subjects using the Vicon 3D tracker. The experiments consist of running, seating, and walking as physical activity motion among various activities. The experimental results revealed that the presented feature extraction approach showed good recognition performance.
Abstract: Lurking behavior is common in information-seeking oriented communities. Transferring users with lurking behavior to be contributors can assist virtual communities to obtain competitive advantages. Based on the ecological cognition framework, this study proposes a model to examine the antecedents of lurking behavior in information-seeking oriented virtual communities. This study argues desire for emotional support, desire for information support, desire for performance-approach, desire for performance -avoidance, desire for mastery-approach, desire for mastery-avoidance, desire for ability trust, desire for benevolence trust, and desire for integrity trust effect on lurking behavior. This study offers an approach to understanding the determinants of lurking behavior in online contexts.
Abstract: This paper explored the use of Importance- Performance Analysis in assessing the competitiveness of China-s Macao Special Administrative Region as a city for international conventions. Determinants of destination choice for convention tourists are grouped under three factors, namely the convention factor, the city factor and the tourism factor. Attributes of these three factors were studied through a survey with the convention participants and exhibitors of Macao SAR. Results indicate that the city boasts of strong traditional tourist attractions and infrastructure, but is deficient in specialized convention experts and promotion mechanisms. A reflection on the findings suggests that an urban city such as the Macao SAR can co-develop its the convention and the traditional tourism for a synergistic effect. With proper planning and co-ordination, both areas of the city-s tourism industry will grow as they feed off each other.
Abstract: Localization is one of the critical issues in the field of
robot navigation. With an accurate estimate of the robot pose, robots will be capable of navigating in the environment autonomously and efficiently. In this paper, a hybrid Distributed Vision System (DVS)
for robot localization is presented. The presented approach integrates
odometry data from robot and images captured from overhead cameras
installed in the environment to help reduce possibilities of fail
localization due to effects of illumination, encoder accumulated errors,
and low quality range data. An odometry-based motion model is applied to predict robot poses, and robot images captured by overhead
cameras are then used to update pose estimates with HSV histogram-based measurement model. Experiment results show the
presented approach could localize robots in a global world coordinate system with localization errors within 100mm.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to revisit the concept of
rape as represented by professionals in the literature as well as its
perception (beliefs and attitudes) in the population at large and to
propose methodological improvements to its measurement tool. Rape
is a serious crime threatening its victim-s physical and mental health
and integrity; and as such is legally prosecuted in all modern
societies. The problem is not in accepting or rejecting rape as a
criminal act, but rather in the vagueness of its interpretations and
“justifications" maintained in the mentality of modern societies -
known in the literature as the phenomenon of "rape-myth". The rapemyth
can be studied from different perspectives: criminology,
sociology, ethics, medicine and psychology. Its investigation requires
rigorous scientific objectivity, free of passion (victims of rape are at
risk of emotional bias), free of activism (social activists, even if wellintentioned
are also biased), free of any pre-emptive assumptions or
prejudices. To apply a rigorous scientific procedure, we need a solid,
valid and reliable measurement. Rape is a form of heterosexual or
homosexual aggression, violently forcing the victim to give-in in the
sexual activity of the aggressor against her/his will. Human beings
always try to “understand" or find a reason justifying their acts.
Psychological literature provides multiple clinical and experimental
examples of it; just to mention the famous studies by Milgram on the
level of electroshock delivered by the “teacher" towards the “learner"
if “scientifically justifiable" or the studies on the behavior of
“prisoners" and the “guards" and many other experiments and field
observations. Sigmund Freud presented the phenomenon of
unconscious justification and called it rationalization. The multiple
justifications, rationalizations and repeated opinions about sexual
behavior contribute to a myth maintained in the society. What kind of
“rationale" our societies apply to “understand" the non-consensual
sexual behavior? There are many, just to mention few:
• Sex is a ludistic activity for both participants, therefore –
even if not consented – it should bring pleasure to both.
• Everybody wants sex, but only men are allowed to manifest
it openly while women have to pretend the opposite, thus men have
to initiate sexual behavior and women would follow.
• A person who strongly needs sex is free to manifest it and
struggle to get it; the person who doesn-t want it must not reveal
her/his sexual attraction and avoid risky situations; otherwise she/he
is perceived as a promiscuous seducer.
• A person who doesn-t fight against the sexual initiator
unconsciously accepts the rape (does it explain why homosexual
rapes are reported less frequently than rapes against women?).
• Women who are raped deserve it because their wardrobe is
very revealing and seducing and they ''willingly'' go to highly risky
places (alleys, dark roads, etc.).
• Men need to ventilate their sexual energy and if they are
deprived of a partner their urge to have sex is difficult to control.
• Men are supposed to initiate and insist even by force to have
sex (their testosterone makes them both sexual and aggressive).
The paper overviews numerous cultural beliefs about masculine
versus feminine behavior and their impact on the “rape myth".
Abstract: Deployment of pneumatic muscles in various
industrial applications is still in its early days, considering the relative
newness of these components. The field of robotics holds particular
future potential for pneumatic muscles, especially in view of their
specific behaviour known as compliance. The paper presents and
discusses an innovative constructive solution for a gripper system
mountable on an industrial robot, based on actuation by a linear
pneumatic muscle and transmission of motion by gear and rack
mechanism. The structural, operational and constructive models of
the new gripper are presented, along with some of the experimental
results obtained subsequently to the testing of a prototype. Further
presented are two control variants of the gripper system, one by
means of a 3/2-way fast-switching solenoid valve, the other by means
of a proportional pressure regulator. Advantages and disadvantages
are discussed for both variants.
Abstract: In recent years various types of electric vehicles
has gained again increasing attention as an environmentally
benign technology in transport. Especially for urban areas with
high local pollution this Zero-emission technology (at the point
of use) is considered to provide proper solutions. Yet, the bad
economics and the limited driving ranges are still major barriers
for a broader market penetration of battery electric vehicles
(BEV) and of fuel cell vehicles (FCV). The major result of our
analyses is that the most important precondition for a further
dissemination of BEV in urban areas are emission-free zones.
This is an instrument which allows the promotion of BEV
without providing excessive subsidies. In addition, it is
important to note that the full benefits of EV can only be
harvested if the electricity used is produced from renewable
energy sources. That is to say, it has to be ensured that the use of
BEV in urban areas is clearly linked to a green electricity
purchase model. And moreover, the introduction of a CO2-
emission-based tax system would support this requirement.
Abstract: Fuzzy logic system (FLS) is used in this study to
predict the tractive performance in terms of traction force, and
motion resistance for an intelligent air cushion track vehicle while it
operates in the swamp peat. The system is effective to control the
intelligent air –cushion system with measuring the vehicle traction
force (TF), motion resistance (MR), cushion clearance height (CH)
and cushion pressure (CP). Ultrasonic displacement sensor, pull-in
solenoid electromagnetic switch, pressure control sensor, micro
controller, and battery pH sensor are incorporated with the Fuzzy
logic system to investigate experimentally the TF, MR, CH, and CP.
In this study, a comparison for tractive performance of an intelligent
air cushion track vehicle has been performed with the results obtained
from the predicted values of FLS and experimental actual values. The
mean relative error of actual and predicted values from the FLS
model on traction force, and total motion resistance are found as 5.58
%, and 6.78 % respectively. For all parameters, the relative error of
predicted values are found to be less than the acceptable limits. The
goodness of fit of the prediction values from the FLS model on TF,
and MR are found as 0.90, and 0.98 respectively.
Abstract: A frequency grouping approach for multi-channel
instantaneous blind source separation (I-BSS) of convolutive
mixtures is proposed for a lower net residual inter-symbol
interference (ISI) and inter-channel interference (ICI) than the
conventional short-time Fourier transform (STFT) approach. Starting
in the time domain, STFTs are taken with overlapping windows to
convert the convolutive mixing problem into frequency domain
instantaneous mixing. Mixture samples at the same frequency but
from different STFT windows are grouped together forming unique
frequency groups.
The individual frequency group vectors are input to the I-BSS
algorithm of choice, from which the output samples are dispersed
back to their respective STFT windows. After applying the inverse
STFT, the resulting time domain signals are used to construct the
complete source estimates via the weighted overlap-add method
(WOLA). The proposed algorithm is tested for source deconvolution
given two mixtures, and simulated along with the STFT approach to
illustrate its superiority for fairly motionless sources.
Abstract: The velocity of a moving point in a general path is the vector quantity, which has both magnitude and direction. The magnitude or the direction of the velocity vector can change over time as a result of acceleration that the time rate of velocity changes. Acceleration analysis is important because inertial forces and inertial torques are proportional to rectilinear and angular accelerations accordingly. The loads must be determined in advance to ensure that a machine is adequately designed to handle these dynamic loads. For planar motion, the vector direction of acceleration is commonly separated into two elements: tangential and centripetal or radial components of a point on a rotating body. All textbooks in physics, kinematics and dynamics of machinery consider the magnitude of a radial acceleration at condition when a point rotates with a constant angular velocity and it means without acceleration. The magnitude of the tangential acceleration considered on a basis of acceleration for a rotating point. Such condition of presentation of magnitudes for two components of acceleration logically and mathematically is not correct and may cause further confusion in calculation. This paper presents new analytical expressions of the radial and absolute accelerations of a rotating point with acceleration and covers the gap in theoretical study of acceleration analysis.
Abstract: Using of natural lighting has come into prominence in
constructed buildings, especially in last ten years, under scope of
energy efficiency. Natural lighting methods are one of the methods
that aim to take advantage of day light in maximum level and
decrease using of artificial lighting. Increasing of day light amount in
buildings by using suitable methods will give optimum result in
terms of comfort and energy saving when the daylight-artificial light
integration is ensured with a suitable control system. Using of natural
light in places that require lighting will ensure energy saving in great
extent. With this study, it is aimed to save energy used for purpose of
lighting. Under this scope, lighting of a scanning laboratory of a
hospital was realized by using a lighting automation containing
natural and artificial lighting. In natural lighting, light pipes were
used and in artificial lighting, dimmable power LED modules were
used. Necessity of lighting was followed with motion sensors. The
lighting automation containing natural and artificial light was ensured
with fuzzy logic control. At the scanning laboratory where this
application was realized, energy saving in lighting was obtained.
Abstract: Reactiondiffusion systems are mathematical models that describe how the concentration of one or more substances distributed in space changes under the influence of local chemical reactions in which the substances are converted into each other, and diffusion which causes the substances to spread out in space. The classical representation of a reaction-diffusion system is given by semi-linear parabolic partial differential equations, whose general form is ÔêétX(x, t) = DΔX(x, t), where X(x, t) is the state vector, D is the matrix of the diffusion coefficients and Δ is the Laplace operator. If the solute move in an homogeneous system in thermal equilibrium, the diffusion coefficients are constants that do not depend on the local concentration of solvent and of solutes and on local temperature of the medium. In this paper a new stochastic reaction-diffusion model in which the diffusion coefficients are function of the local concentration, viscosity and frictional forces of solvent and solute is presented. Such a model provides a more realistic description of the molecular kinetics in non-homogenoeus and highly structured media as the intra- and inter-cellular spaces. The movement of a molecule A from a region i to a region j of the space is described as a first order reaction Ai k- → Aj , where the rate constant k depends on the diffusion coefficient. Representing the diffusional motion as a chemical reaction allows to assimilate a reaction-diffusion system to a pure reaction system and to simulate it with Gillespie-inspired stochastic simulation algorithms. The stochastic time evolution of the system is given by the occurrence of diffusion events and chemical reaction events. At each time step an event (reaction or diffusion) is selected from a probability distribution of waiting times determined by the specific speed of reaction and diffusion events. Redi is the software tool, developed to implement the model of reaction-diffusion kinetics and dynamics. It is a free software, that can be downloaded from http://www.cosbi.eu. To demonstrate the validity of the new reaction-diffusion model, the simulation results of the chaperone-assisted protein folding in cytoplasm obtained with Redi are reported. This case study is redrawing the attention of the scientific community due to current interests on protein aggregation as a potential cause for neurodegenerative diseases.
Abstract: The present study is concerned with the absorption
center of photophoresis within a micro-sized and spheroidal particle in
a gaseous medium. A particle subjected to an intense light beam can
absorb electromagnetic energy within the particle unevenly, which
results in photophoretic force to drive the particle in motion. By
evaluating the energy distribution systematically at various conditions,
the study focuses on the effects of governing parameters, such as
particle aspect ratio, size parameter, refractivity, and absorptivity, on
the heat source function within the particle and their potential
influences to the photophoresis.
Abstract: This paper proposes a three-dimensional motion capture and feedback system of flying disc throwing action learners with use of Kinect device. Rather than conventional 3-D motion capture system, Kinect has advantages of cost merit, easy system development and operation. A novice learner of flying disc is trained to keep arm movement in steady height, to twist the waist, and to stretch the elbow according to the waist angle. The proposing system captures learners- body movement, checks their skeleton positions in pre-motion / motion / post-motion in several ways, and displays feedback messages to refine their actions.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to develop a new two dimensional time accurate Euler solver for shock tube applications. The solver was developed to study the performance of a newly built short-duration hypersonic test facility at Universiti Tenaga Nasional “UNITEN" in Malaysia. The facility has been designed, built, and commissioned for different values of diaphragm pressure ratios in order to get wide range of Mach number. The developed solver uses second order accurate cell-vertex finite volume spatial discretization and forth order accurate Runge-Kutta temporal integration and it is designed to simulate the flow process for similar driver/driven gases (e.g. air-air as working fluids). The solver is validated against analytical solution and experimental measurements in the high speed flow test facility. Further investigations were made on the flow process inside the shock tube by using the solver. The shock wave motion, reflection and interaction were investigated and their influence on the performance of the shock tube was determined. The results provide very good estimates for both shock speed and shock pressure obtained after diaphragm rupture. Also detailed information on the gasdynamic processes over the full length of the facility is available. The agreements obtained have been reasonable.
Abstract: In this paper motion analysis on a winding
stair-climbing is investigated using our proposed rotational arm type
of robotic wheelchair. For now, the robotic wheelchair is operated in
an open mode to climb winding stairs by a dynamic turning, therefore,
the dynamics model is required to ensure a passenger-s safety.
Equations of motion based on the skid-steering analysis are developed
for the trajectory planning and motion analysis on climbing winding
stairs. Since the robotic wheelchair must climb a winding staircase
stably, the winding trajectory becomes a constraint equation to be
followed, and the Baumgarte-s method is used to solve for the
constrained dynamics equations. Experimental results validate the
behavior of the prototype as it climbs a winding stair.