Search results for: vision problems
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 7089

Search results for: vision problems

6759 Right Solution of Geodesic Equation in Schwarzschild Metric and Overall Examination of Physical Laws

Authors: Kwan U. Kim, Jin Sim, Ryong Jin Jang, Sung Duk Kim

Abstract:

108 years have passed since a great number of physicists explained astronomical and physical phenomena by solving geodesic equations in Schwarzschild metric. However, when solving the geodesic equations in Schwarzschild metric, they did not correctly solve one branch of the component of space among spatial and temporal components of four-dimensional force and did not come up with physical laws correctly by means of physical analysis from the results obtained by solving the geodesic equations. In addition to it, they did not treat the astronomical and physical phenomena in a physical way based on the correct physical laws obtained from the solution of the geodesic equations in Schwarzschild metric. Therefore, some former scholars mentioned that Einstein’s theoretical basis of the general theory of relativity was obscure and incorrect, but they have not given a correct physical solution to the problems. Furthermore, since the general theory of relativity has not given a quantitative solution to obscure and incorrect problems, the generalization of gravitational theory has not been successfully completed yet, although the former scholars thought of it and tried to do it. In order to solve the problems it is necessary to explore the obscure and incorrect problems in general theory of relativity based on the physical laws and to find out the methodology of solving the problems. Therefore, first of all, as the first step for achieving the purpose, the right solution of the geodesic equation in Schwarzschild metric has been presented. Next, the correct physical laws found by making a physical analysis of the results have been presented, the obscure and incorrect problems have been shown, and an analysis of them has been made based on the physical laws. In addition, the experimental verification of the physical laws found by us has been made.

Keywords: equivalence principle, general relativity, geometrodynamics, Schwarzschild, Poincaré

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6758 Sleep Ecology, Sleep Regulation and Behavior Problems in Maltreated Preschoolers: A Scoping Review

Authors: Sabrina Servot, Annick St-Amand, Michel Rousseau, Valerie Simard, Evelyne Touchette

Abstract:

Child maltreatment has a profound impact on children’s development. In its victims, internalizing and externalizing problems are highly prevalent, and sleep problems are common. Furthermore, the environment they live in is often disorganized, lacking routine and consistency. In non-maltreated children, several studies documented the important role of sleep regulation and sleep ecology. A poor sleep ecology (e.g., lack of sleep hygiene and bedtime routine, inappropriate sleeping location) may lead to sleep regulation problems (e.g., short sleep duration, nocturnal awakenings), and sleep regulation problems may increase the risk of behavior problems. Therefore, this scoping review aims to map evidence about sleep ecology and sleep regulation and the associations between sleep ecology, sleep regulation, and behavior problems in maltreated preschoolers. Literature from 1993 was searched in PsycInfo, Pubmed, Medline, Eric, and Proquest Dissertations and Theses. Articles and thesis were comprehensively reviewed based upon inclusion/exclusion criteria: 1) it concerns maltreated children aged 1-5 years, and 2) it addresses at least one of the following: sleep ecology, sleep regulation, and/or their associations with behavior problems in maltreated preschoolers. From the 650 studies screened, nine of them were included. Data were charted according to study characteristics, nature of variable documented, measures, analyses performed, and results of each study, then synthesized in a narrative summary. The main results show all included articles were quantitative. Foster children samples were used in four studies, children experienced different types of maltreatment in six studies, while one was specifically about sexually abused children. Regarding sleep ecology, only one study describing maltreated preschoolers’ sleep ecology was found, while seven studies documented sleep regulation. Among these seven studies, 17 different sleep variables (e.g., parasomnia, dyssomnia, total 24-h sleep duration) were used, each study documenting from one to nine of them. Actigraphic measures were employed in three studies, the others used parent-reported questionnaires or sleep diaries. Maltreated children’s sleep was described and/or compared to non-maltreated children’s sleep, or an intervention group, showing mild differences. As for associations between sleep regulation and behavior problems, five studies investigated it and performed correlational or linear regression analyses between sleep and behavior problems, revealing some significant associations. No study was found about associations between sleep ecology and sleep regulation, between sleep ecology and behavior problems, or between these three variables. In conclusion, literature about sleep ecology, sleep regulation, and their associations with behavior problems are far more scarce in maltreated preschoolers than in non-maltreated ones. At present, there is especially a paucity of research about sleep ecology and the association between sleep ecology and sleep regulation in maltreated preschoolers, while studies on non-maltreated children showed sleep ecology plays a major role in sleep regulation. In addition, as sleep regulation is measured in many different ways among the studies, it is difficult to compare their findings. Finally, it seems necessary that research fill these gaps, as recommendations could be made to clinicians working with maltreated preschoolers regarding the use of sleep ecology and sleep regulation as intervention tools.

Keywords: maltreated preschoolers, sleep ecology, sleep regulation, behavior problems

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6757 Power Quality Evaluation of Electrical Distribution Networks

Authors: Mohamed Idris S. Abozaed, Suliman Mohamed Elrajoubi

Abstract:

Researches and concerns in power quality gained significant momentum in the field of power electronics systems over the last two decades globally. This sudden increase in the number of concerns over power quality problems is a result of the huge increase in the use of non-linear loads. In this paper, power quality evaluation of some distribution networks at Misurata - Libya has been done using a power quality and energy analyzer (Fluke 437 Series II). The results of this evaluation are used to minimize the problems of power quality. The analysis shows the main power quality problems that exist and the level of awareness of power quality issues with the aim of generating a start point which can be used as guidelines for researchers and end users in the field of power systems.

Keywords: power quality disturbances, power quality evaluation, statistical analysis, electrical distribution networks

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6756 Human Computer Interaction Using Computer Vision and Speech Processing

Authors: Shreyansh Jain Jeetmal, Shobith P. Chadaga, Shreyas H. Srinivas

Abstract:

Internet of Things (IoT) is seen as the next major step in the ongoing revolution in the Information Age. It is predicted that in the near future billions of embedded devices will be communicating with each other to perform a plethora of tasks with or without human intervention. One of the major ongoing hotbed of research activity in IoT is Human Computer Interaction (HCI). HCI is used to facilitate communication between an intelligent system and a user. An intelligent system typically comprises of a system consisting of various sensors, actuators and embedded controllers which communicate with each other to monitor data collected from the environment. Communication by the user to the system is typically done using voice. One of the major ongoing applications of HCI is in home automation as a personal assistant. The prime objective of our project is to implement a use case of HCI for home automation. Our system is designed to detect and recognize the users and personalize the appliances in the house according to their individual preferences. Our HCI system is also capable of speaking with the user when certain commands are spoken such as searching on the web for information and controlling appliances. Our system can also monitor the environment in the house such as air quality and gas leakages for added safety.

Keywords: human computer interaction, internet of things, computer vision, sensor networks, speech to text, text to speech, android

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6755 The Study of Idiom Translation in Fiction from English into Thai

Authors: Chinchira Bunchutrakun

Abstract:

The purposes of the study are to investigate the problems that the translators encountered when translating English idioms into Thai and study the strategies they applied in solving the problems. The original English version and the Thai translated version of each of two works of fiction were purposively selected for the study. The first was Mr. Maybe, written by Jane Green and translated by Montharat Songphao. The second was The Trials of Tiffany Trott, written by Isabel Wolff and translated by Jitraporn Notoda. Thirty idioms of two translated works of fiction were, then, analyzed. Questionnaires and interviews with the translators of each novel were conducted to obtain the best possible information. The results indicated that the only type of problem that occurred was cultural problems, and these were solved differently by the two translators.

Keywords: translation, idiom translation, fiction translation, problem-solution strategies

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6754 Mobility and Effective Regulatory Policies in the 21st Century Transport Sector

Authors: Pedro Paulino

Abstract:

The majority of the world’s population is already living in urban areas and the urban population is expected to keep increasing in the next decades. This exponential increase in urban population carries with it obvious mobility problems. Not only a new paradigm in the transport sector is needed in order to address these problems; effective regulatory policies to ensure the quality of services, passenger rights, competition between operators and consistency of the entire mobile ecosystem are needed as well. The purpose of this paper is to present the problems the world faces in this sector and contribute to their solution. Indeed, our study concludes that only through the active supervision of the markets and the activity of monitoring the various operators will it be possible to develop a sustainable and efficient transport system which meets the needs of a changing world.

Keywords: mobility, regulation policies, sanctioning powers, sustainable transport

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6753 Radial Basis Surrogate Model Integrated to Evolutionary Algorithm for Solving Computation Intensive Black-Box Problems

Authors: Abdulbaset Saad, Adel Younis, Zuomin Dong

Abstract:

For design optimization with high-dimensional expensive problems, an effective and efficient optimization methodology is desired. This work proposes a series of modification to the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm for solving computation Intensive Black-Box Problems. The proposed methodology is called Radial Basis Meta-Model Algorithm Assisted Differential Evolutionary (RBF-DE), which is a global optimization algorithm based on the meta-modeling techniques. A meta-modeling assisted DE is proposed to solve computationally expensive optimization problems. The Radial Basis Function (RBF) model is used as a surrogate model to approximate the expensive objective function, while DE employs a mechanism to dynamically select the best performing combination of parameters such as differential rate, cross over probability, and population size. The proposed algorithm is tested on benchmark functions and real life practical applications and problems. The test results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is promising and performs well compared to other optimization algorithms. The proposed algorithm is capable of converging to acceptable and good solutions in terms of accuracy, number of evaluations, and time needed to converge.

Keywords: differential evolution, engineering design, expensive computations, meta-modeling, radial basis function, optimization

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6752 Experimental Study of the Efficacy and Emission Properties of a Compression Ignition Engine Running on Fuel Additives with Varying Engine Loads

Authors: Faisal Mahroogi, Mahmoud Bady, Yaser H. Alahmadi, Ahmed Alsisi, Sunny Narayan, Muhammad Usman Kaisan

Abstract:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia established Saudi Vision 2030, an initiative of the government with the goal of promoting more socioeconomic as well as cultural diversity. The kingdom, which is dedicated to sustainable development and clean energy, uses cutting-edge approaches to address energy-related issues, including the circular carbon economy (CCE) and a more varied energy mix. In order for Saudi Arabia to achieve its Vision 2030 goal of having a net zero future by 2060, sustainability is essential. By addressing the energy and climate issues of the modern world with responsibility and innovation, Vision 2030 is turning into a global role model for the transition to a sustainable future. As per the Ambitions of the National Environment Strategy of the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, and Water (MEWA), raising environmental compliance across all sectors and reducing pollution and adverse environmental impacts are critical focus areas. As a result, the current study presents an experimental analysis of the performance and exhaust emissions of a diesel engine running mostly on waste cooking oil (WCO). A one-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine with constant speed and natural aspiration is the engine type utilized. Research was done on how the engine performed and emission parameters when fueled with a mixture of 10% butanol, 10% diesel, 10% WCO, and 10% diethyl ether (D70B10W10DD10). The study's findings demonstrated that engine emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX) and carbon monoxide (CO) varied significantly depending on the load being applied. The brake thermal efficiency, cylinder pressure, and the brake power of the engine were all impacted by load change.

Keywords: ICE, waste cooking oil, fuel additives, butanol, combustion, emission characteristics

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6751 The Effect of Technology in Improving Tourism Cluster Competitveness

Authors: Nancy Ayman Kamal Mohamed Mehrz

Abstract:

Like the economies of other countries in the Mediterranean region, the tourism sector in our country has excellent economic prospects. Tourism companies are building tourism, a sector that faces various challenges in its activities. These problems have made business activities and competition between companies difficult. In this study, which was conducted to identify the problems of the tourism sector in the Central Anatolia region, most of the problems faced by the tourism sector and consumer information on consumer rights were used. The aim is to contribute to the awareness of workers and managers working in the tourism sector and to attract the attention of companies and legislators working in the tourism sector. E-tourism is one of the newest issues in the field of tourism. Infrastructure and Information Technology (or ICT) and partner government and tourism organizations are required to achieve this type of tourism. This study measures the views of managers and tourism managers in Leman City regarding e-tourism; In addition, the effect of the literacy level of the tourism management system on tourist attractions was also examined. This research has been carried out. One of the suburbs of Isfahan province. This research is a documentary research and source material that includes literature and surveys. The results obtained show that if managers use ICT, it can help the development of e-tourism in the region, and increasing managers' views about e-tourism and improving their literacy levels can affect the development of tourism.

Keywords: financial problems, the problems of tourism businesses, tourism businesses, internet, marketing, tourism, tourism management economic competitiveness, enhancing competitiveness

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6750 [Keynote Talk]: Applying p-Balanced Energy Technique to Solve Liouville-Type Problems in Calculus

Authors: Lina Wu, Ye Li, Jia Liu

Abstract:

We are interested in solving Liouville-type problems to explore constancy properties for maps or differential forms on Riemannian manifolds. Geometric structures on manifolds, the existence of constancy properties for maps or differential forms, and energy growth for maps or differential forms are intertwined. In this article, we concentrate on discovery of solutions to Liouville-type problems where manifolds are Euclidean spaces (i.e. flat Riemannian manifolds) and maps become real-valued functions. Liouville-type results of vanishing properties for functions are obtained. The original work in our research findings is to extend the q-energy for a function from finite in Lq space to infinite in non-Lq space by applying p-balanced technique where q = p = 2. Calculation skills such as Hölder's Inequality and Tests for Series have been used to evaluate limits and integrations for function energy. Calculation ideas and computational techniques for solving Liouville-type problems shown in this article, which are utilized in Euclidean spaces, can be universalized as a successful algorithm, which works for both maps and differential forms on Riemannian manifolds. This innovative algorithm has a far-reaching impact on research work of solving Liouville-type problems in the general settings involved with infinite energy. The p-balanced technique in this algorithm provides a clue to success on the road of q-energy extension from finite to infinite.

Keywords: differential forms, holder inequality, Liouville-type problems, p-balanced growth, p-harmonic maps, q-energy growth, tests for series

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6749 Automated Testing of Workshop Robot Behavior

Authors: Arne Hitzmann, Philipp Wentscher, Alexander Gabel, Reinhard Gerndt

Abstract:

Autonomous mobile robots can be found in a wide field of applications. Their types range from household robots over workshop robots to autonomous cars and many more. All of them undergo a number of testing steps during development, production and maintenance. This paper describes an approach to improve testing of robot behavior. It was inspired by the RoboCup @work competition that itself reflects a robotics benchmark for industrial robotics. There, scaled down versions of mobile industrial robots have to navigate through a workshop-like environment or operation area and have to perform tasks of manipulating and transporting work pieces. This paper will introduce an approach of automated vision-based testing of the behavior of the so called youBot robot, which is the most widely used robot platform in the RoboCup @work competition. The proposed system allows automated testing of multiple tries of the robot to perform a specific missions and it allows for the flexibility of the robot, e.g. selecting different paths between two tasks within a mission. The approach is based on a multi-camera setup using, off the shelf cameras and optical markers. It has been applied for test-driven development (TDD) and maintenance-like verification of the robot behavior and performance.

Keywords: supervisory control, testing, markers, mono vision, automation

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6748 Design of Speed Bump Recognition System Integrated with Adjustable Shock Absorber Control

Authors: Ming-Yen Chang, Sheng-Hung Ke

Abstract:

This research focuses on the development of a speed bump identification system for real-time control of adjustable shock absorbers in vehicular suspension systems. The study initially involved the collection of images of various speed bumps, and rubber speed bump profiles found on roadways. These images were utilized for training and recognition purposes through the deep learning object detection algorithm YOLOv5. Subsequently, the trained speed bump identification program was integrated with an in-vehicle camera system for live image capture during driving. These images were instantly transmitted to a computer for processing. Using the principles of monocular vision ranging, the distance between the vehicle and an approaching speed bump was determined. The appropriate control distance was established through both practical vehicle measurements and theoretical calculations. Collaboratively, with the electronically adjustable shock absorbers equipped in the vehicle, a shock absorber control system was devised to dynamically adapt the damping force just prior to encountering a speed bump. This system effectively mitigates passenger discomfort and enhances ride quality.

Keywords: adjustable shock absorbers, image recognition, monocular vision ranging, ride

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6747 Cutting Plane Methods for Integer Programming: NAZ Cut and Its Variations

Authors: A. Bari

Abstract:

Integer programming is a branch of mathematical programming techniques in operations research in which some or all of the variables are required to be integer valued. Various cuts have been used to solve these problems. We have also developed cuts known as NAZ cut & A-T cut to solve the integer programming problems. These cuts are used to reduce the feasible region and then reaching the optimal solution in minimum number of steps.

Keywords: Integer Programming, NAZ cut, A-T cut, Cutting plane method

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6746 A Hybrid Block Multistep Method for Direct Numerical Integration of Fourth Order Initial Value Problems

Authors: Adamu S. Salawu, Ibrahim O. Isah

Abstract:

Direct solution to several forms of fourth-order ordinary differential equations is not easily obtained without first reducing them to a system of first-order equations. Thus, numerical methods are being developed with the underlying techniques in the literature, which seeks to approximate some classes of fourth-order initial value problems with admissible error bounds. Multistep methods present a great advantage of the ease of implementation but with a setback of several functions evaluation for every stage of implementation. However, hybrid methods conventionally show a slightly higher order of truncation for any k-step linear multistep method, with the possibility of obtaining solutions at off mesh points within the interval of solution. In the light of the foregoing, we propose the continuous form of a hybrid multistep method with Chebyshev polynomial as a basis function for the numerical integration of fourth-order initial value problems of ordinary differential equations. The basis function is interpolated and collocated at some points on the interval [0, 2] to yield a system of equations, which is solved to obtain the unknowns of the approximating polynomial. The continuous form obtained, its first and second derivatives are evaluated at carefully chosen points to obtain the proposed block method needed to directly approximate fourth-order initial value problems. The method is analyzed for convergence. Implementation of the method is done by conducting numerical experiments on some test problems. The outcome of the implementation of the method suggests that the method performs well on problems with oscillatory or trigonometric terms since the approximations at several points on the solution domain did not deviate too far from the theoretical solutions. The method also shows better performance compared with an existing hybrid method when implemented on a larger interval of solution.

Keywords: Chebyshev polynomial, collocation, hybrid multistep method, initial value problems, interpolation

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6745 Secure Bio Semantic Computing Scheme

Authors: Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Phillip C. Y. Sheu, Ryo Fujita, Shigeo Tsujii

Abstract:

In this paper, the secure BioSemantic Scheme is presented to bridge biological/biomedical research problems and computational solutions via semantic computing. Due to the diversity of problems in various research fields, the semantic capability description language (SCDL) plays and important role as a common language and generic form for problem formalization. SCDL is expected the essential for future semantic and logical computing in Biosemantic field. We show several example to Biomedical problems in this paper. Moreover, in the coming age of cloud computing, the security problem is considered to be crucial issue and we presented a practical scheme to cope with this problem.

Keywords: biomedical applications, private information retrieval (PIR), semantic capability description language (SCDL), semantic computing

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6744 Nighttime Dehaze - Enhancement

Authors: Harshan Baskar, Anirudh S. Chakravarthy, Prateek Garg, Divyam Goel, Abhijith S. Raj, Kshitij Kumar, Lakshya, Ravichandra Parvatham, V. Sushant, Bijay Kumar Rout

Abstract:

In this paper, we introduce a new computer vision task called nighttime dehaze-enhancement. This task aims to jointly perform dehazing and lightness enhancement. Our task fundamentally differs from nighttime dehazing – our goal is to jointly dehaze and enhance scenes, while nighttime dehazing aims to dehaze scenes under a nighttime setting. In order to facilitate further research on this task, we release a new benchmark dataset called Reside-β Night dataset, consisting of 4122 nighttime hazed images from 2061 scenes and 2061 ground truth images. Moreover, we also propose a new network called NDENet (Nighttime Dehaze-Enhancement Network), which jointly performs dehazing and low-light enhancement in an end-to-end manner. We evaluate our method on the proposed benchmark and achieve SSIM of 0.8962 and PSNR of 26.25. We also compare our network with other baseline networks on our benchmark to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. We believe that nighttime dehaze-enhancement is an essential task, particularly for autonomous navigation applications, and we hope that our work will open up new frontiers in research. Our dataset and code will be made publicly available upon acceptance of our paper.

Keywords: dehazing, image enhancement, nighttime, computer vision

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6743 The Concepts of Urban Sustainable Development and Smart Cities: In the Understanding of Academia and the European Union

Authors: Wolfgang Haupt

Abstract:

When considering the future city one repeatedly comes across two sometimes sparsely differentiated terms: Sustainable and smart. ‘A European Strategy for Smart, Sustainable, and Inclusive Growth’, this is how the European Commission named its current growth strategy. Thus, Europe should become smarter and more sustainable. Both, the smart and the sustainable city represent a positive vision of urban development as well as a subject area for contemporary and future urban policies. However, more clarity on what is actually behind these terminologies is required. The paper analyses how the terms are defined academically and how this academic understanding is represented in the funding mechanisms of European urban policies. The theoretical framework is mainly based on sources such as journal articles and policy reports. It became clear that despite some similarities, such as the broad field of work or the tendency to operationalize the terms by defining sub-categories, both ideas are distinctly different in terms of the development history, the main driving forces behind and the theoretical scope. Moreover, the significantly more comprehensively defined term sustainability has found its way into the centre of European regional funding policies. On the contrary, the smart city vision still lacks terminological and content-related clarity and as a consequence, the corresponding European funding landscape is more small-scaled and less customized.

Keywords: European spatial policy, European union, smart city, urban sustainable development

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6742 Rathke’s Cleft Cyst Presenting as Unilateral Visual Field Defect

Authors: Ritesh Verma, Manisha Rathi, Chand Singh Dhull, Sumit Sachdeva, Jitender Phogat

Abstract:

A Rathke's cleft cyst is a benign growth found on the pituitary gland in the brain, specifically a fluid-filled cyst in the posterior portion of the anterior pituitary gland. It occurs when the Rathke's pouch does not develop properly and ranges in size from 2 to 40mm in diameter. A 38-year-old male presented to the outpatient department with loss of vision in the inferior quadrant of the left eye since 15 days. Visual acuity was 6/6 in the right eye and 6/9 in the left eye. Visual field analysis by HFA-24-2 revealed an inferior field defect extending to the supero-temporal quadrant in the left eye. MRI brain and orbit was advised to the patient and it revealed a well defined cystic pituitary adenoma indenting left optic nerve near optic chiasm consistent with the diagnosis of Rathke’s cleft cyst (RCC). The patient was referred to neurosurgery department for further management. Symptoms vary greatly between individuals having RCCs. RCCs can be non-functioning, functioning, or both. Besides headaches, neurocognitive deficits are almost always present but have a high rate of immediate reversal if the cyst is properly treated or drained.

Keywords: pituitary tumors, rathke’s cleft cyst, visual field defects, vision loss

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6741 Online Pose Estimation and Tracking Approach with Siamese Region Proposal Network

Authors: Cheng Fang, Lingwei Quan, Cunyue Lu

Abstract:

Human pose estimation and tracking are to accurately identify and locate the positions of human joints in the video. It is a computer vision task which is of great significance for human motion recognition, behavior understanding and scene analysis. There has been remarkable progress on human pose estimation in recent years. However, more researches are needed for human pose tracking especially for online tracking. In this paper, a framework, called PoseSRPN, is proposed for online single-person pose estimation and tracking. We use Siamese network attaching a pose estimation branch to incorporate Single-person Pose Tracking (SPT) and Visual Object Tracking (VOT) into one framework. The pose estimation branch has a simple network structure that replaces the complex upsampling and convolution network structure with deconvolution. By augmenting the loss of fully convolutional Siamese network with the pose estimation task, pose estimation and tracking can be trained in one stage. Once trained, PoseSRPN only relies on a single bounding box initialization and producing human joints location. The experimental results show that while maintaining the good accuracy of pose estimation on COCO and PoseTrack datasets, the proposed method achieves a speed of 59 frame/s, which is superior to other pose tracking frameworks.

Keywords: computer vision, pose estimation, pose tracking, Siamese network

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6740 The Seeds of Limitlessness: Dambudzo Marechera's Utopian Thinking

Authors: Emily S. M. Chow

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The word ‘utopia’ was coined by Thomas More in Utopia (1516). Its Greek roots ‘ou’ means ‘not’ and ‘topos’ means ‘place.’ In other words, it literally refers to ‘no-place.’ However, the possibility of having an alternative and better future society has always been appealing. In fact, at the core of every utopianism is the search for a future alternative state with the anticipation of a better life. Nonetheless, the practicalities of such ideas have never ceased to be questioned. At times, building a utopia presents itself as a divisive act. In addition to the violence that must be employed to sweep away the old regime in order to make space for the new, all utopias carry within them the potential for bringing catastrophic consequences to human life. After all, every utopia seeks to remodel the individual in a very particular way for the benefit of the masses. In this sense, utopian thinking has the potential both to create and destroy the future. While writing during a traumatic transitional period in Zimbabwe’s history, Dambudzo Marechera witnessed an age of upheavals in which different parties battled for power over Zimbabwe. Being aware of the fact that all institutionalized narratives, be they originated from the governance of the UK, Ian Smith’s white minority regime or Zimbabwe’s revolutionary parties, revealed themselves to be nothing more than fiction, Marechera realized the impossibility of determining reality absolutely. As such, this thesis concerns the writing of the Zimbabwean maverick, Dambudzo Marechera. It argues that Marechera writes a unique vision of utopia. In short, for Marechera utopia is not a static entity but a moment of perpetual change. He rethinks utopia in the sense that he phrases it as an event that ceaselessly contests institutionalized and naturalized narratives of a post-colonial self and its relationship to society. Marechera writes towards a vision of an alternative future of the country. Yet, it is a vision that does not constitute a fully rounded sense of utopia. Being cautious about the world and the operation of power upon the people, rather than imposing his own utopian ideals, Marechera chooses to instead peeling away the narrative constitution of the self in relation to society in order to turn towards a truly radical utopian thinking that empowers the individual.

Keywords: African literature, Marechera, post-colonial literature, utopian studies

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6739 Telecontrolled Service Robots for Increasing the Quality of Life of Elderly and Disabled

Authors: Nayden Chivarov, Denis Chikurtev, Kaloyan Yovchev, Nedko Shivarov

Abstract:

This paper represents methods for improving the efficiency and precision of service mobile robot. This robot is used for increasing the quality of life of elderly and disabled people. The key concept of the proposed Intelligent Service Mobile Robot is its easier adaptability to achieve services for a wide range of Elderly or Disabled Person’s needs, by performing different tasks for supporting Elderly or Disabled Persons care. We developed robot autonomous navigation and computer vision systems in order to recognize different objects and bring them to the people. Web based user interface is developed to provide easy access and tele-control of the robot by any device through the internet. In this study algorithms for object recognition and localization are proposed for providing successful object recognition and accuracy in the positioning. Different methods for sending movement commands to the mobile robot system are proposed and evaluated. After executing some experiments to show the results of the research, we can summarize that these systems and algorithms provide good control of the service mobile robot and it will be more useful to help the elderly and disabled persons.

Keywords: service robot, mobile robot, autonomous navigation, computer vision, web user interface, ROS

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6738 Vision of Justice in the Future of Humanity

Authors: Morteza Khorrami

Abstract:

The idea of final triumph of peace and justice on evil force, conflict and global spread of the religious faith, the full deployment of human values, constitute a utopia and the ideal society is discussed by many of religions. Thus, mankind has always been waiting for a savior and has received good tidings for coming of Great Savior at the end of Time. Of course, various persons were introduced as the Promised Saviors by different religions, but all of the religions share in this fact that the future of humanity is very bright and promising and the future will belong to the righteous and justice. In this article which is written with a descriptive and analytic method, the author tries to show the vision of global justice at the end of time. The opinion of various religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Islam and even idolatry about the great savior as well as the justice status in his era in the world will be discussed. Also the viewpoint of Muslims and specially Shiites, which is explained clearly in their scripts, will be depicted. Current human responsibility towards this golden era will be discussed, too. Based on paper findings, religious doctrine promises that a heaven person and sacred character will come as a reformer of the world. In his era, humanity will be saved from tyranny, oppression and inequality, and the earth will be filled with peace, security, justice, and equity. Moreover promoting justice, truth and spreading religion in the world, economic, scientific, political and moral development will be happened.

Keywords: future of humanity, global justice, islam, religions

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6737 Developmental Relationships between Alcohol Problems and Internalising Symptoms in a Longitudinal Sample of College Students

Authors: Lina E. Homman, Alexis C. Edwards, Seung Bin Cho, Danielle M. Dick, Kenneth S. Kendler

Abstract:

Research supports an association between alcohol problems and internalising symptoms, but the understanding of how the two phenotypes relate to each other is poor. It has been hypothesized that the relationship between the phenotypes is causal; however investigations in regards to direction are inconsistent. Clarity of the relationship between the two phenotypes may be provided by investigating the phenotypes developmental inter-relationships longitudinally. The objective of the study was to investigate a) changes in alcohol problems and internalising symptoms in college students across time and b) the direction of effect of growth between alcohol problems and internalising symptoms from late adolescent to emerging adulthood c) possible gender differences. The present study adds to the knowledge of comorbidity of alcohol problems and internalising symptoms by examining a longitudinal sample of college students and by examining the simultaneous development of the symptoms. A sample of college students is of particular interest as symptoms of both phenotypes often have their onset around this age. A longitudinal sample of college students from a large, urban, public university in the United States was used. Data was collected over a time period of 2 years at 3 time points. Latent growth models were applied to examine growth trajectories. Parallel process growth models were used to assess whether initial level and rate of change of one symptom affected the initial level and rate of change of the second symptom. Possible effects of gender and ethnicity were investigated. Alcohol problems significantly increased over time, whereas internalizing symptoms remained relatively stable. The two phenotypes were significantly correlated in each wave, correlations were stronger among males. Initial level of alcohol problems was significantly positively correlated with initial level of internalising symptoms. Rate of change of alcohol problems positively predicted rate of change of internalising symptoms for females but not for males. Rate of change of internalising symptoms did not predict rate of change of alcohol problems for either gender. Participants of Black and Asian ethnicities indicated significantly lower levels of alcohol problems and a lower increase of internalising symptoms across time, compared to White participants. Participants of Black ethnicity also reported significantly lower levels of internalising symptoms compared to White participants. The present findings provide additional support for a positive relationship between alcohol problems and internalising symptoms in youth. Our findings indicated that both internalising symptoms and alcohol problems increased throughout the sample and that the phenotypes were correlated. The findings mainly implied a bi-directional relationship between the phenotypes in terms of significant associations between initial levels as well as rate of change. No direction of causality was indicated in males but significant results were found in females where alcohol problems acted as the main driver for the comorbidity of alcohol problems and internalising symptoms; alcohol may have more detrimental effects in females than in males. Importantly, our study examined a population-based longitudinal sample of college students, revealing that the observed relationships are not limited to individuals with clinically diagnosed mental health or substance use problems.

Keywords: alcohol, comorbidity, internalising symptoms, longitudinal modelling

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6736 Motivational Antecedents that Influenced a Higher Education Institution in the Philippines to Adopt Enterprise Architecture

Authors: Ma. Eliza Jijeth V. dela Cruz

Abstract:

Technology is a recent prodigy in people’s everyday life that has taken off. It infiltrated almost every aspect of one’s lives, changing how people work, how people learn and how people perceive things. Academic Institutions, just like other organizations, have deeply modified its strategies to integrate technology into the institutional vision and corporate strategy that has never been greater. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) continues to be recognized as a major factor in organizations realizing its aims and objectives. Consequently, ICT has an important role in the mobilization of an academic institution’s strategy to support the delivery of operational, strategic or transformational objectives. This ICT strategy should align the institution with the radical changes of the ICT world through the use of Enterprise Architecture (EA). Hence, EA’s objective is to optimize the islands of legacy processes to be integrated that is receptive to change and supportive of the delivery of the strategy. In this paper, the focus is to explore the motivational antecedents during the adoption of EA in a Higher Education Institution in the Philippines for its ICT strategic plan. The seven antecedents (viewpoint, stakeholders, human traits, vision, revolutionary innovation, techniques and change components) provide understanding into EA adoption and the antecedents that influences the process of EA adoption.

Keywords: Enterprise Architecture, Adoption, Antecedents, Higher Educational Institutions

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6735 An Empirical Study of Performance Management System: Implementation of Performance Management Cycle to Achieve High-Performance Culture at Pertamina Company, Indonesia

Authors: Arif Budiman

Abstract:

Any organization or company that wishes to achieve vision, mission, and goals of the organization is required to implement a performance management system or known as the Performance Management System (PMS) in every part of the whole organization. PMS is a tool to help visualize the direction and work program of the organization to achieve the goal. The challenge is PMS should not stop merely as a visualization tool to achieve the vision and mission of the organization, but PMS should also be able to create a high-performance culture that is inherent in each individual of the organization. Establishment of a culture within an organization requires the support of top leaders and also requires a system or governance that encourages every individual in the organization to be involved in any work program of the organization. Keywords of creating a high-performance culture are the formation of communication pattern involving the whole individual, either vertically or horizontally, and performed consistently and persistently by all individuals in each line of the organization. PT Pertamina (Persero) as the state-owned national energy company holds a system to internalize the culture of high performance through a system called Performance Management System Cycle (PMS Cycle). This system has 7 stages of the cycle, those are: (1) defining vision, mission and strategic plan of the company, (2) defining key performance indicator of each line and the individual (‘expectation setting conversation’), (3) defining performance target and performance agreement, (4) monitoring performance on a monthly regular basis (‘pulse check’), (5) implementing performance dialogue between leaders and staffs periodically every 3 months (‘performance dialogue’), (6) defining rewards and consequences based on the achievement of the performance of each line and the individual, and (7) calculating the final performance value achieved by each line and individual from one period of the current year. Perform PMS is a continual communication running throughout the year, that is why any three performance discussion that should be performed, include expectation setting conversations, pulse check and performance dialogue. In addition, another significant point and necessary undertaken to complete the assessment of individual performance assessment is soft competencies through 360-degree assessment by leaders, staffs, and peers.

Keywords: 360-degree assessment, expectation setting conversation, performance management system cycle, performance dialogue, pulse check

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6734 Externalizing Behavior Problems Influencing Social Behavior in Early Adolescence

Authors: Zhidong Zhang, Zhi-Chao Zhang

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This study focuses on early adolescent externalizing behavioral problems which specifically concentrate on rule breaking behavior and aggressive behavior using the instrument of Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA). The purpose was to analyze the relationships between the externalizing behavioral problems and relevant background variables such as sports activities, hobbies, chores and the number of close friends. The stratified sampling method was used to collect data from 1975 participants. The results indicated that several background variables as predictors could significantly predict rule breaking behavior and aggressive behavior. Further, a hierarchical modeling method was used to explore the causal relations among background variables, breaking behavior variables and aggressive behavior variables.

Keywords: aggressive behavior, breaking behavior, early adolescence, externalizing problem

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6733 E-Learning Approaches Based on Artificial Intelligence Techniques: A Survey

Authors: Nabila Daly, Hamdi Ellouzi, Hela Ltifi

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In last year’s, several recent researches’ that focus on e-learning approaches having as goal to improve pedagogy and student’s academy level assessment. E-learning-related works have become an important research file nowadays due to several problems that make it impossible for students join classrooms, especially in last year’s. Among those problems, we note the current epidemic problems in the word case of Covid-19. For those reasons, several e-learning-related works based on Artificial Intelligence techniques are proposed to improve distant education targets. In the current paper, we will present a short survey of the most relevant e-learning based on Artificial Intelligence techniques giving birth to newly developed e-learning tools that rely on new technologies.

Keywords: artificial intelligence techniques, decision, e-learning, support system, survey

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6732 Driving What’s Next: The De La Salle Lipa Social Innovation in Quality Education Initiatives

Authors: Dante Jose R. Amisola, Glenford M. Prospero

Abstract:

'Driving What’s Next' is a strong campaign of the new administration of De La Salle Lipa in promoting social innovation in quality education. The new leadership directs social innovation in quality education in the institutional directions and initiatives to address real-world challenges with real-world solutions. This research under study aims to qualify the commitment of the institution to extend the Lasallian quality human and Christian education to all, as expressed in the Institution’s new mission-vision statement. The Classic Grounded Theory methodology is employed in the process of generating concepts in reference to the documents, a series of meetings, focus group discussions and other related activities that account for the conceptualization and formulation of the new mission-vision along with the new education innovation framework. Notably, Driving What’s Next is the emergent theory that encapsulates the commitment of giving quality human and Christian education to all. It directs the new leadership in driving social innovation in quality education initiatives. Correspondingly, Driving What’s Next is continually resolved through four interrelated strategies also termed as the institution's four strategic directions, namely: (1) driving social innovation in quality education, (2) embracing our shared humanity and championing social inclusion and justice initiatives, (3) creating sustainable futures and (4) engaging diverse stakeholders in our shared mission. Significantly, the four strategic directions capture and integrate the 17 UN sustainable development goals, making the innovative curriculum locally and globally relevant. To conclude, the main concern of the new administration and how it is continually resolved, provide meaningful and fun learning experiences and promote a new way of learning in the light of the 21st century skills among the members of the academic community including stakeholders and extended communities at large, which are defined as: learning together and by association (collaboration), learning through engagement (communication), learning by design (creativity) and learning with social impact (critical thinking).

Keywords: DLSL four strategic directions , DLSL Lipa mission-vision, driving what's next, social innovation in quality education

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6731 Navigating Life Transitions for Young People with Vision Impairment: A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach to Accessibility and Diversity

Authors: Aikaterini Tavoulari, Michael Proulx, Karin Petrini

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Objective: This study aims to explore the unique challenges faced by young individuals with vision impairment (VI) during key life transitions, utilizing a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to identify limitations and positive aspects of existing support systems, with a focus on accessibility and diversity. Design: The study employs a qualitative CBPR design, engaging young participants with VI through online and in-person working groups over six months, prioritizing their active involvement and diverse perspectives. Methods: Twenty-one young individuals with VI from across the UK and with different VI conditions were recruited to participate in the study via a climbing and virtual reality event and stakeholders’ support. Data collection methods included open discussions, forum exchanges, and qualitative questionnaires. The data were analyzed with NVivo using inductive thematic analysis to identify key themes and patterns related to the challenges and experiences of life transitions for this diverse population. Results: The analysis revealed barriers to accessibility, such as assumptions about what a person with VI can do, inaccessibility to material, noisy environments, and insufficient training with assistive technologies. Enablers included guidance from diverse professionals and peers, multisensory approaches (beyond tactile), and peer collaborations. This study underscores the need for developing accessible and tailored strategies together with these young people to address the specific needs of this diverse population during critical life transitions (e.g., to independent living, employment and higher education). Conclusion: Engaging and co-designing effective approaches and tools with young people with VI is key to tackling the specific accessibility barriers they encounter. These approaches should be targeted at different transitional periods of their life journey, promoting diversity and inclusion.

Keywords: vision impairement, life transitions, qualitative research, community-based participatory design, accessibility

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6730 The Role of Entrepreneur University in the Development of Entrepreneurship Education

Authors: Ramin Tafazzoli, Rahime Zamanfashami, Amir Mohagheghzadeh

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Entrepreneurship is the driving engine of countries’ economic development and has a determinant role in the economic, social and cultural improvement of the societies. Entrepreneurship and its impact on countries’ destiny, result in the planner and policy makers’ attempts to explore and extend it in various aspects. These days, all countries follow their social capital development and human resource quality improvement to achieve the strategic national objectives, economic growth, value creation, cultural dynamism, civil excellence and social solidarity, pursuing the sustainable development based on innovation, entrepreneurial technology , knowledge management and knowledge-focused in various levels and areas. Because of the rapid economic and cultural changes in recent decades and also the emerged need for reinforcing the knowledge-based structures and wealth generation via knowledge, a convenient infrastructure is strongly required for generating science and technology. Devoting attention to entrepreneurship and training and fostering the students who have the essential abilities and skills for creating a suitable business unit, is one of the duties of each university. New expectations necessitate that universities in the development trend by way of entrepreneurship, play a prominent role. Since, higher education has an important role in training and fostering the specialist human resource in the society, attention to the academic entrepreneurship help to develop this issue better. The higher education, relying on its core mission (training and researching) be expected to help the path where exploit and apply the created capabilities and also to cause the development in the society. In this term, the higher education play an essential role to expanse and extent the entrepreneurial concepts by establishing the entrepreneurship universities. Therefore, it is necessary to constitute and establish the entrepreneurship university to solve the problems and improve the development trend. The entrepreneurial courses follow the objectives such as: informing, creating culture, entrepreneurial morality, technical knowledge, entrepreneurial skills transferring, preparing the audiences or researching, job creation, business establishing and its preservation. According to the vision 1404 of Islamic republic of Iran in which the society has to include the advanced knowledge in the field of technology and science generation and also economic growth. In this essay, we investigate the entrepreneurship concepts, entrepreneurship university characteristics, entrepreneurship organizations values, entrepreneurship education process, meanwhile paying attention to that fact which the university can play an essential role in entrepreneurs training by education, culture and science. At the end, we present some suggestion and some solution for obstacles, emphasizing on the vision.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneur university, higher education, university

Procedia PDF Downloads 428