Search results for: long short-term memory networks

Authors: Katharina M. Rischer, Angelika Dierolf, Ana M. Gonzalez-Roldan, Pedro Montoya, Fernand Anton, Marian van der Meulen

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Even though age has been associated with increased and prolonged episodes of pain, little is known about potential age-related changes in the ˈtop-downˈ modulation of pain, such as cognitive distraction from pain. The analgesic effects of distraction result from competition for attentional resources in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a region that is also involved in executive functions. Given that the PFC shows pronounced age-related atrophy, distraction may be less effective in reducing pain in older compared to younger adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of aging on task-related analgesia and the underpinning neural mechanisms, with a focus on the role of executive functions in distraction from pain. In a first session, 64 participants (32 young adults: 26.69 ± 4.14 years; 32 older adults: 68.28 ± 7.00 years) completed a battery of neuropsychological tests. In a second session, participants underwent a pain distraction paradigm, while fMRI images were acquired. In this paradigm, participants completed a low (0-back) and a high (2-back) load condition of a working memory task while receiving either warm or painful thermal stimuli to their lower arm. To control for age-related differences in sensitivity to pain and perceived task difficulty, stimulus intensity, and task speed were individually calibrated. Results indicate that both age groups showed significantly reduced activity in a network of regions involved in pain processing when completing the high load distraction task; however, young adults showed a larger neural distraction effect in different parts of the insula and the thalamus. Moreover, better executive functions, in particular inhibitory control abilities, were associated with a larger behavioral and neural distraction effect. These findings clearly demonstrate that top-down control of pain is affected in older age, and could explain the higher vulnerability for older adults to develop chronic pain. Moreover, our findings suggest that the assessment of executive functions may be a useful tool for predicting the efficacy of cognitive pain modulation strategies in older adults.

Keywords: executive functions, cognitive pain modulation, fMRI, PFC

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Authors: Aude Gounelle, Gloria Senfaute, Ludivine Saint-Mard, Thomas Chartier

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The long-term deformation rates of faults are not fully captured by Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA). PSHA that use catalogues to develop area or smoothed-seismicity sources is limited by the data available to constraint future earthquakes activity rates. The integration of faults in PSHA can at least partially address the long-term deformation. However, careful treatment of fault sources is required, particularly, in low strain rate regions, where estimated seismic hazard levels are highly sensitive to assumptions concerning fault geometry, segmentation and slip rate. When integrating faults in PSHA various constraints on earthquake rates from geologic and seismologic data have to be satisfied. For low strain rate regions where such data is scarce it would be especially challenging. Faults in PSHA requires conversion of the geologic and seismologic data into fault geometries, slip rates and then into earthquake activity rates. Several approaches exist for translating slip rates into earthquake activity rates. In the most frequently used approach, the background earthquakes are handled using a truncated approach, in which earthquakes with a magnitude lower or equal to a threshold magnitude (Mw) occur in the background zone, with a rate defined by the rate in the earthquake catalogue. Although magnitudes higher than the threshold are located on the fault with a rate defined using the average slip rate of the fault. As high-lighted by several research, seismic events with magnitudes stronger than the selected magnitude threshold may potentially occur in the background and not only at the fault, especially in regions of slow tectonic deformation. It also has been known that several sections of a fault or several faults could rupture during a single fault-to-fault rupture. It is then essential to apply a consistent modelling procedure to allow for a large set of possible fault-to-fault ruptures to occur aleatory in the hazard model while reflecting the individual slip rate of each section of the fault. In 2019, a tool named SHERIFS (Seismic Hazard and Earthquake Rates in Fault Systems) was published. The tool is using a methodology to calculate the earthquake rates in a fault system where the slip-rate budget of each fault is conversed into rupture rates for all possible single faults and faultto-fault ruptures. The objective of this paper is to compare the SHERIFS method with one other frequently used model to analyse the impact on the seismic hazard and through sensibility studies better understand the influence of key parameters and assumptions. For this application, a simplified but realistic case study was selected, which is in an area of moderate to hight seismicity (South Est of France) and where the fault is supposed to have a low strain.

Keywords: deformation rates, faults, probabilistic seismic hazard, PSHA

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Authors: Hafiza Khaddija Saman, Muhammad Sufyan

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The increase in availability and popularity of mobile wireless devices has led researchers to develop a wide variety of Mobile Ad-hoc Networking (MANET) protocols to exploit the unique communication opportunities presented by these devices. Devices are able to communicate directly using the wireless spectrum in a peer-to-peer fashion, and route messages through intermediate nodes, however, the nature of wireless shared communication and mobile devices result in many routing and security challenges which must be addressed before deploying a MANET. In this paper, we investigate the range of MANET routing protocols available and discuss the functionalities of several ranging from early protocols such as DSDV to more advanced such as MAODV, our protocol study focuses upon works by Perkins in developing and improving MANET routing. A range of literature relating to the field of MANET routing was identified and reviewed, we also reviewed literature on the topic of securing AODV based MANETs as this may be the most popular MANET protocol. The literature review identified a number of trends within research papers such as exclusive use of the random waypoint mobility model, excluding key metrics from simulation results and not comparing protocol performance against available alternatives.

Keywords: protocol, MANET, ad-Hoc, communication

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Authors: Hossein Mohammadi Rouzbahani, Hadis Karimipour, Evan Fraser, Ali Dehghantanha, Emily Duncan, Arthur Green, Conchobhair Russell

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Human population growth has driven rising demand for food that has, in turn, imposed huge impacts on the environment. In an effort to reconcile our need to produce more sustenance while also protecting the world’s ecosystems, farming is becoming more reliant on smart tools and communication technologies. Developing a smart farming framework allows farmers to make more efficient use of inputs, thus protecting water quality and biodiversity habitat. Internet of Things (IoT), which has revolutionized every sphere of the economy, is being applied to agriculture by connecting on-farm devices and providing real-time monitoring of everything from environmental conditions to market signals through to animal health data. However, utilizing IoT means farming networks are now vulnerable to malicious activities, mostly when wireless communications are highly employed. With that in mind, this research aims to review different utilized communication technologies in smart farming. Moreover, possible cyber-attacks are investigated to discover the vulnerabilities of communication technologies considering the most frequent cyber-attacks that have been happened.

Keywords: smart farming, Internet of Things, communication layer, cyber-attack

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Authors: Ali Abdrhman M. Ukasha

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Data security needed in data transmission, storage, and communication to ensure the security. The color image is decomposed into red, green, and blue channels. The blue and green channels are compressed using 3-levels discrete wavelet transform. The Arnold transform uses to changes the locations of red image channel pixels as image scrambling process. Then all these channels are encrypted separately using a key image that has same original size and is generating using private keys and modulo operations. Performing the X-OR and modulo operations between the encrypted channels images for image pixel values change purpose. The extracted contours of color image recovery can be obtained with accepted level of distortion using Canny edge detector. Experiments have demonstrated that proposed algorithm can fully encrypt 2D color image and completely reconstructed without any distortion. It has shown that the color image can be protected with a higher security level. The presented method has easy hardware implementation and suitable for multimedia protection in real time applications such as wireless networks and mobile phone services.

Keywords: color image, wavelet transform, edge detector, Arnold transform, lossy image encryption

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Authors: Hakan Erol, Altan Elibol, Ömer Eryılmaz, Mehmet Şimşek

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Organizations aim to manage information in a most possible effective way for sustainment and development. In doing so, they apply various procedures and methods. The very same situation is valid for each service of Armed Forces. During long-lasting endeavors such as shaping and maintaining security environment, supporting and securing peace, knowledge management is a crucial asset. Optimum Balance Model aims to promote the system from a decisive point to a higher decisive point. In this context, this paper analyses the application of optimum balance model to knowledge management in Armed Forces and tries to find answer to the question how Optimum Balance Model is integrated in knowledge management.

Keywords: optimum balance model, knowledge management, security environment, supporting peace

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Authors: Jong Han Joo, Jung Hoon Lee, Young Sun Kim, Jae Young Kang, Seung Ho Choi

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In this study, we propose a novel technique for acoustic echo suppression (AES) during speech recognition under barge-in conditions. Conventional AES methods based on spectral subtraction apply fixed weights to the estimated echo path transfer function (EPTF) at the current signal segment and to the EPTF estimated until the previous time interval. We propose a new approach that adaptively updates weight parameters in response to abrupt changes in the acoustic environment due to background noises or double-talk. Furthermore, we devised a voice activity detector and an initial time-delay estimator for barge-in speech recognition in communication networks. The initial time delay is estimated using log-spectral distance measure, as well as cross-correlation coefficients. The experimental results show that the developed techniques can be successfully applied in barge-in speech recognition systems.

Keywords: acoustic echo suppression, barge-in, speech recognition, echo path transfer function, initial delay estimator, voice activity detector

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Authors: Arash Najmaei, Jo Rhodes, Peter Lok, Zahra Sadeghinejad

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In this article, we endeavor to explore how a new business model comes into existence in the Australian cloud-computing eco-system. Findings from multiple case study methodology reveal that to develop a business model new ventures adopt a three-phase approach. In the first phase, labelled as business model ideation (BMID) various ideas for a viable business model are generated from both internal and external networks of the entrepreneurial team and the most viable one is chosen. Strategic consensus and commitment are generated in the second phase. This phase is a business modelling strategic action phase. We labelled this phase as business model strategic commitment (BMSC) because through commitment and the subsequent actions of executives resources are pooled, coordinated and allocated to the business model. Three complementary sets of resources shape the business model: managerial (MnRs), marketing (MRs) and technological resources (TRs). The third phase is the market-test phase where the business model is reified through the delivery of the intended value to customers and conversion of revenue into profit. We labelled this phase business model actualization (BMAC). Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings will be discussed and several directions for future research will be illuminated.

Keywords: entrepreneur business model, high-tech venture, resources, conversion of revenue

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Authors: Ana Sofia Saldanha

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The globalization is changing the translation world day after day, year after year. The need to know more about new technologies, clients, companies and social networks is becoming more and more demanding and competitive. The recently graduated translators usually do not know where to go, what to do or even who to contact to start their careers in translation. It is well known that there are innumerous webinars, books, blogs, webpages and even Facebook pages indicating what to do, what not to do, rates, how your CV should look like, etc. but are these pieces of advice of real translators? Translators, who work daily with clients, who understand their demands, requests, questions? As far as today`s trends, the answer is NO. Most of these pieces of advice are just theoretical and far away from the real translation world. Therefore, mentoring is becoming a very important tool to help and guide new translators starting their career. An effective and well-oriented mentoring is a powerful way to orient these translators on how to create their CVs, where to send CVs, how to approach clients, how to answer emails and how to negotiate rates in an efficient way. Mentoring is crucial when properly delivered by professional and experienced translators, to help developing careers. The advice and orientation sessions are almost a 'weapon' to destroy the barriers created by opinions, by influences or even by universities. This new trend is the future path of new translators and is the future of the translation industry and professionals, however minds and spirits need to be opened and engaged in this new way of developing skills.

Keywords: mentoring, translation, translators, orientation, professional path

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Authors: Benedetta Caglioti

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The ecclesiastical complex of San Paolo in Ferrara represents a monument of great historical, religious and architectural importance. Its long and articulated story, over time, is already manifested by the mere reading of its planimetric and altimetric configuration, apparently unitary but, in reality, marked by modifications and repeated additions, even of high quality. It follows, in terms of protection, restoration and enhancement, a commitment of due respect for how the ancient building was built and enriched over its centuries of life. Hence a rigorous methodological approach, while being aware of the fact that every monument, in order to live and make use of the indispensable maintenance, must always be enjoyed and visited, therefore it must enjoy, in the right measure and compatibly with its nature, the possibility of improvements and functional, distributive, technological adjustments and related to the safety of people and things. The methodological approach substantiates the different elements of the project (such as distribution functionality, safety, structural solidity, environmental comfort, the character of the site, building and urban planning regulations, financial resources and materials, the same organization methods of the construction site) through the guiding principles of restoration, defined for a long time: the 'minimum intervention,' the 'recognisability' or 'distinguishability' of old and new, the Physico-chemical and figurative 'compatibility,' the 'durability' and the, at least potential, 'reversibility' of what is done, leading to the definition of appropriate "critical choices." The project tackles, together with the strictly functional ones, also the directly conservative and restoration issues, of a static, structural and material technology nature, with special attention to precious architectural surfaces, In order to ensure the best architectural quality through conscious enhancement, the project involves a redistribution of the interior and service spaces, an accurate lighting system inside and outside the church and a reorganization of the adjacent urban space. The reorganization of the interior is designed with particular attention to the issue of accessibility for people with disabilities. To accompany the community to regain possession of the use of the church's own space, already in its construction phase, the project proposal has hypothesized a permeability and flexibility in the management of the works such as to allow the perception of the found Monument to gradually become more and more familiar at the citizenship. Once the interventions have been completed, it is expected that the Church of San Paolo, second in importance only to the Cathedral, from which it is a few steps away, will be inserted in an already existing circuit of use of the city which over the years has systematized the different aspects of culture, the environment and tourism for the creation of greater awareness in the perception of what Ferrara can offer in cultural terms.

Keywords: conservation, accessibility, regeneration, urban space

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Authors: Abigail Mosetsanagape Mooketsi, Itumeleng Pleasure Mongale, Joel Hinaunye Eita

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The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of transport infrastructure on economic growth in South Africa through Engle Granger two step approach using the data from 1970 to 2013. GDP is used as a proxy for economic growth whilst rail transport (rail lines, rail goods transported) and air transport(air passengers carried, air freight) are used as proxies for transport infrastructure. The results showed that there is a positive long-run relationship between transport infrastructure and economic growth. The results show that South Africa’s economic growth can be boosted by providing transport infrastructure. The estimated models were simulated and the results that the model is a good fit. The findings of this research will be beneficial to policy makers, academics and it will also enhance the ability of the investors to make informed decisions about investing in South Africa.

Keywords: transport, infrastructure, economic growth, South Africa

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Authors: Aaminah Hassan

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Advertisements carry a great potential to influence our lives because they are crafted to meet particular ends. Stereotypical representation in advertisements is capable of forming unconscious attitudes among people towards any gender and their abilities. This study focuses on gender representation in Pakistani prime time advertisements. For this purpose, 13 advertisements were selected from three different categories of foods and beverages, cosmetics, cell phones and cellular networks from the prime time slots of one of the leading Pakistani entertainment channel, ‘Urdu 1’. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are carried out for range of variables like gender, age, roles, activities, setting, appearance and voice overs. The results revealed that gender representation in advertisements is stereotypical. Moreover, in few instances, the portrayal of women is not only culturally inappropriate but is demeaning to the image of women as well. Their bodily charm is used to promote products. Comparing different entertainment channels for their prime time advertisements and broadening the scope of this research will yield greater implications for the researchers who want to carry out the similar research. It is hoped that the current study would help in the promotion of media literacy among the viewers and media authorities in Pakistan.

Keywords: Advertisements, Content Analysis, Gender, Prime time

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Authors: S. Belhour, A. K. Ferouani, C. Azizi

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In recent years, a considerable effort (experience, numerical simulation, and theoretical prediction models) has characterised by high efficiency and low cost. Then an improved physics analytical model for simulating is proposed. The performance of GaAs MESFETs has been developed for use in device design for high frequency. This model is based on mathematical analysis, and a new approach for the standard model is proposed, this approach allowed to conceive applicable model for MESFET’s operating in the turn-one or pinch-off region and valid for the short-channel and the long channel MESFET’s in which the two dimensional potential distribution contributed by the depletion layer under the gate is obtained by conventional approximation. More ever, comparisons between the analytical models with different values of mobility are proposed, and a good agreement is obtained.

Keywords: analytical, gallium arsenide, MESFET, mobility, models

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Authors: Ahmed Noor Al-Qayyim

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During the past decades, the bridge structures are considered very important portions of transportation networks, due to the fast urban sprawling. With the failure of bridges that under operating conditions lead to focus on updating the default bridge inspection methodology. The structures health monitoring (SHM) using the vibration response appeared as a promising method to evaluate the condition of structures. The rapid development in the sensors technology and the condition assessment techniques based on the vibration-based damage detection made the SHM an efficient and economical ways to assess the bridges. SHM is set to assess state and expects probable failures of designated bridges. In this paper, a presentation for Frequency Response function method that uses the captured vibration test information of structures to evaluate the structure condition. Furthermore, the main steps of the assessment of bridge using the vibration information are presented. The Frequency Response function method is applied to the experimental data of a full-scale bridge.

Keywords: bridge assessment, health monitoring, damage detection, frequency response function (FRF), signal processing, structure identification

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Authors: Panagiotis I. Mallios, Vassilis S. Moustakis

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The research reported herein presents a conceptual model that explores the relationship between social media factors and entrepreneurial intention, with a focus on the Greek startup ecosystem. The significance of the study is that social media have gained importance in explaining the entrepreneurial process, and through them, nascent and potential entrepreneurs seem to get inspired and motivated to initiate their businesses. The research methodology employed in this study included a qualitative research approach, utilizing in-depth interviews with a sample of 15 startup entrepreneurs providing valuable retrospective information. The data collected were analyzed using the content analysis method. The major findings of the study are that social media factors such as usefulness, influence, and credibility have a significant impact on entrepreneurial intention. We also found that social media can be a powerful tool for entrepreneurs to access resources, knowledge and networks that can help them in their venture creation. Overall, this research contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by uncovering the relationship between social media factors and entrepreneurial intention and has implications for entrepreneurial education, policymakers, and official partners, highlighting the potential of social media to enhance the startup ecosystem.

Keywords: entrepreneurial intention, social media, start up ecosystem, entrepreneurship

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Authors: Ibrahim Musa, Mohammed Abdul-Aziz Mabrouk, Yusuf Tanko

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Introduction: Long term physical training affect the performance of athletes especially the females. Soccer which is a team sport, played in an outdoor field, require adequate oxygen transport system for the maximal aerobic power during exercise in order to complete 90 minutes of competitive play. Suboptimal haematological status has often been recorded in athletes with intensive physical activity. It may be due to the iron depletion caused by hemolysis or haemodilution results from plasma volume expansion. There is lack of data regarding the dynamics of red blood cell variables, in male football players. We hypothesized that, a long competitive season involving frequent matches and intense training could influence red blood cell variables, as a consequence of applying repeated physical loads when compared with sedentary. Methods: This cross sectional study was carried on 40 adult males (20 athletes and 20 non athletes) between 18-25 years of age. The 20 apparently healthy male non athletes were taken as sedentary and 20 male footballers comprise the study group. The university institutional review board (ABUTH/HREC/TRG/36) gave approval for all procedures in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Red blood cell (RBC) concentration, packed cell volume (PCV), and plasma volume were measured in fasting state and immediately after exercise. Statistical analysis was done by using SPSS/ win.20.0 for comparison within and between the groups, using student’s paired and unpaired “t” test respectively. Results: The finding from our study shows that, immediately after termination of exercise, the mean RBC counts and PCV significantly (p<0.005) decreased with significant increased (p<0.005) in plasma volume when compared with pre-exercised values in both group. In addition the post exercise RBC was significantly higher in untrained (261.10±8.5) when compared with trained (255.20±4.5). However, there was no significant differences in the post exercise hematocrit and plasma volume parameters between the sedentary and the footballers. Moreover, beside changes in pre-exercise values among the sedentary and the football players, the resting red blood cell counts and Plasma volume (PV %) was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the sedentary group (306.30±10.05 x 104 /mm3; 58.40±0.54%) when compared with football players (293.70±4.65 x 104 /mm3; 55.60±1.18%). On the other hand, the sedentary group exhibited significant (p < 0.05) decrease in PCV (41.60±0.54%) when compared with the football players (44.40±1.18%). Conclusions: It is therefore proposed that the acute football exercise induced reduction in RBC and PCV is entirely due to plasma volume expansion, and not of red blood cell hemolysis. In addition, the training status also influenced haematological indices of male football players differently from the sedentary at rest due to adaptive response. This is novel.

Keywords: Haematological Indices, Performance Status, Sedentary, Male Football Players

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Authors: Arindam Roy, Madhushree Das, Apurba Manna, Samir Maity

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In this research paper, an algorithmic approach is developed to solve a novel multi-objective four-dimensional traveling salesman problem (MO4DTSP) where different paths with various numbers of conveyances are available to travel between two cities. NSGA-II and Decomposition algorithms are modified to solve MO4DTSP in an IoT-based transport system. This IoT-based transport system can be widely observed, analyzed, and controlled by an extensive distribution of traffic networks consisting of various types of sensors and actuators. Due to urbanization, most of the cities are connected using an intelligent traffic management system. Practically, for a traveler, multiple routes and vehicles are available to travel between any two cities. Thus, the classical TSP is reformulated as multi-route and multi-vehicle i.e., 4DTSP. The proposed MO4DTSP is designed with traveling cost, time, and customer satisfaction as objectives. In reality, customer satisfaction is an important parameter that depends on travel costs and time reflects in the present model.

Keywords: multi-objective four-dimensional traveling salesman problem (MO4DTSP), decomposition, NSGA-II, IoT-based transport system, customer satisfaction

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Authors: Buntheng Chhorn, WooYoung Jung

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Large-scale swing has been used in entertainment and performance, especially in circus, for a very long time. To increase the safety of this type of structure, a thorough analysis for displacement and bearing stress was performed for an extreme condition where a full cycle swing occurs. Different masses, ranging from 40 kg to 220 kg, and velocities were applied on the swing. Then, based on the solution of differential dynamics equation, swing velocity response to harmonic force was obtained. Moreover, the resistance capacity was estimated based on ACI steel structure design guide. Subsequently, numerical analysis was performed in ABAQUS to obtain the stress on each frame of the swing. Finally, the analysis shows that the expansion of swing structure frame section was required for mass bigger than 150kg.

Keywords: swing structure, displacement, bearing stress, dynamic loads response, finite element analysis

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Authors: Hamed Alqahtani, Manolya Kavakli-Thorne

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The large pose discrepancy is one of the critical challenges in face recognition during video surveillance. Due to the entanglement of pose attributes with identity information, the conventional approaches for pose-independent representation lack in providing quality results in recognizing largely posed faces. In this paper, we propose a practical approach to disentangle the pose attribute from the identity information followed by synthesis of a face using a classifier network in latent space. The proposed approach employs a modified generative adversarial network framework consisting of an encoder-decoder structure embedded with a classifier in manifold space for carrying out factorization on the latent encoding. It can be further generalized to other face and non-face attributes for real-life video frames containing faces with significant attribute variations. Experimental results and comparison with state of the art in the field prove that the learned representation of the proposed approach synthesizes more compelling perceptual images through a combination of adversarial and classification losses.

Keywords: disentanglement, face detection, generative adversarial networks, video surveillance

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Authors: Arūnas Burinskas

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Although Europe is on the threshold of a new industrial revolution called Industry 4.0, many believe that this will increase the flexibility of production, the mass adaptation of products to consumers and the speed of their service; it will also improve product quality and dramatically increase productivity. However, as expected, all the benefits of Industry 4.0 face many of the inevitable changes and challenges they pose. One of them is the inevitable transformation of current competition and business models. This article examines the possible results of competitive conversion from the classic Bertrand and Cournot models to qualitatively new competition based on innovation. Ability to deliver a new product quickly and the possibility to produce the individual design (through flexible and quickly configurable factories) by reducing equipment failures and increasing process automation and control is highly important. This study shows that the ongoing transformation of the competition model is changing the game. This, together with the creation of complex value networks, means huge investments that make it particularly difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, the ongoing digitalization of data raises new concerns regarding legal obligations, intellectual property, and security.

Keywords: Bertrand and Cournot Competition, competition model, industry 4.0, industrial organisation, monopolistic competition

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Authors: Ahmed Omar Bali, Sherko Jabar, Hazhar Jalal, Mahdi Sofi-Karim

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For a long while in Iraq, media organizations were owned by political parties, particularly the ruling parties, because media traditional organizations required big capital and human resources. This paper has examined the dynamics of Iraqi media market transformation with emphasizing on factors that help to merge media entrepreneurs and digital media firms which target audience on social media. A qualitative method was adopted in this study using open, in-depth interviews with 19 media entrepreneurs and three managers of media firms. The study revealed that relative freedom and advanced communication technologies have encouraged media entrepreneurs to drive the new media on producing short videos and broadcast them on social media which has become popular among media consumers.

Keywords: media entrepreneur, Iraq, journalists, media technicians, digital media firms, media market

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Authors: Nguyen Huy Hoang, Do Thanh Quan, Tran Vu Kien

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The use of the active radar to measure the coordinates of ultra-light drones is frequently difficult due to long-distance, absolutely small radar cross-section (RCS) and obstacles. Since ultra-light drones are usually controlled by the Time Difference of Arrival (RF), the paper proposed a method to measure the coordinates of ultra-light drones in the space based on the arrival time of the signal at receiving antennas and the time difference of arrival (TDOA). The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is really potential and highly accurate.

Keywords: ultra-light drone, TDOA, radar cross-section (RCS), RF

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Authors: Sun Zhe, Ruggero Micheletto

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The research of neural network is very important for the development of advanced next generation intelligent devices and the medical treatment. The most important part of the neural network research is the learning. The process of learning in our brain is essentially several adjustment processes of connection strength between neurons. It is very difficult to figure out how this mechanism works in the complex network and how the connection strength influences brain functions. For this reason, we made a model with only two coupled neurons and studied the influence of connection strength between them. To emulate the neuronal activity of realistic neurons, we prefer to use the Izhikevich neuron model. This model can simulate the neuron variables accurately and it’s simplicity is very suitable to implement on computers. In this research, the parameter ρ is used to estimate the correlation coefficient between spike train of two coupling neurons.We think the results is very important for figuring out the mechanism between synchronization of coupling neurons and synaptic plasticity. The result also presented the importance of the spike frequency adaptation in complex systems.

Keywords: neural networks, noise, stochastic processes, coupled neurons, correlation coefficient, synchronization, pacemaker, synaptic plasticity

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Authors: B. Y. Danjuma, A. Archibong-Eso, Aliyu M. Aliyu, H. Yeung

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In this experimental investigation, a new data for slugging frequency for high viscosity oil-gas flow are reported. Scale experiments were carried out using a mixture of air and mineral oil as the liquid phase in a 17 m long horizontal pipe with 0.0762 ID. The data set was acquired using two high-speed Gamma Densitometers at a data acquisition frequency of 250 Hz over a time interval of 30 seconds. For the range of flow conditions investigated, increase in liquid oil viscosity was observed to strongly influence the slug frequency. A comparison of the present data with prediction models available in the literature revealed huge discrepancies. A new correlation incorporating the effect of viscosity on slug frequency has been proposed for the horizontal flow, which represents the main contribution of this work.

Keywords: gamma densitometer, flow pattern, pressure gradient, slug frequency

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Authors: Hadi Rezghimaleki, Masatoshi Kubouchi, Yoshihiko Arao

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The use of natural fiber composites (NFCs) is growing at a fast rate regarding industrial applications and principle researches due to their eco-friendly, renewable nature, and low density/costs. Drilling is one of the most important machining operations that are carried out on natural fiber composites. Delamination is a major concern in the drilling process of NFCs that affects the structural integrity and long-term reliability of the machined components. Flax fiber reinforced epoxy composite laminates were prepared by hot press technique. In this research, we evaluated drilling-induced delamination of flax/epoxy composites by X-ray computed tomography (CT), ultrasonic testing (UT), and optical methods and compared the results.

Keywords: natural fiber composites, flax/epoxy, X-ray CT, ultrasonic testing

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Authors: Salwa Salman

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On February 2016, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ordered the former Prime Minister, Ibrahim Mehleb, to establish a committee responsible for retrieving looted state lands or providing squatters with land titles according to their individual cases. The specificity of desert lands emerges from its unique position in both Islamic law and Egypt’s Civil Code. In Egypt, desert lands can be transferred to private ownership through peaceful occupation and cultivation. This study explores the (re-) conceptualization of land rights, state territoriality, and sovereignty as a part of an emerging narrative on informal land tenure. Through the lens of an informal settlement, the study employs methodological insights from studies in the anthropology of development and their interpretation of Foucauldian discourse analysis to examine official representations on squatting over state lands and put them in conversation with individual narratives on land ownership and dispossession. It also employs Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory to explore the development of social networks through primary land contracts and informal local resource management.

Keywords: State lands, squatter community, Islamic law, Egypt’s Civil Code

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Authors: Huimin Liu, Li Xiang, Yue Liu, Jing Wang

Abstract:

Background: As one of typical case for the developing countries who are stepping into the aging times globally, more and more older people in China might face the problem of which they could not maintain normal life due to the functional disability. While the government take efforts to build long-term care system and further carry out related policies for the core concept, there is still lack of strong evidence to evaluating the profile of disability states in the elderly population and its transition rate. It has been proved that disability is a dynamic condition of the person rather than irreversible so it means possible to intervene timely on them who might be in a risk of severe disability. Objective: The aim of this study was to depict the picture of the disability transferring status of the older people in China, and then find out individual characteristics that change the state of disability to provide theory basis for disability prevention and early intervention among elderly people. Methods: Data for this study came from the 2011 baseline survey and the 2013 follow-up survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Normal ADL function, 1~2 ADLs disability,3 or above ADLs disability and death were defined from state 1 to state 4. Multi-state Markov model was applied and the four-state homogeneous model with discrete states and discrete times from two visits follow-up data was constructed to explore factors for various progressive stages. We modeled the effect of explanatory variables on the rates of transition by using a proportional intensities model with covariate, such as gender. Result: In the total sample, state 2 constituent ratio is nearly about 17.0%, while state 3 proportion is blow the former, accounting for 8.5%. Moreover, ADL disability statistics difference is not obvious between two years. About half of the state 2 in 2011 improved to become normal in 2013 even though they get elder. However, state 3 transferred into the proportion of death increased obviously, closed to the proportion back to state 2 or normal functions. From the estimated intensities, we see the older people are eleven times as likely to develop at 1~2 ADLs disability than dying. After disability onset (state 2), progression to state 3 is 30% more likely than recovery. Once in state 3, a mean of 0.76 years is spent before death or recovery. In this model, a typical person in state 2 has a probability of 0.5 of disability-free one year from now while the moderate disabled or above has a probability of 0.14 being dead. Conclusion: On the long-term care cost considerations, preventive programs for delay the disability progression of the elderly could be adopted based on the current disabled state and main factors of each stage. And in general terms, those focusing elderly individuals who are moderate or above disabled should go first.

Keywords: Markov model, elderly people, disability, transition intensity

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Authors: Gorkem Algan, Ilkay Ulusoy, Saban Gonul, Banu Turgut, Berker Bakbak

Abstract:

Computer vision systems recently made a big leap thanks to deep neural networks. However, these systems require correctly labeled large datasets in order to be trained properly, which is very difficult to obtain for medical applications. Two main reasons for label noise in medical applications are the high complexity of the data and conflicting opinions of experts. Moreover, medical imaging datasets are commonly tiny, which makes each data very important in learning. As a result, if not handled properly, label noise significantly degrades the performance. Therefore, a label-noise-robust learning algorithm that makes use of the meta-learning paradigm is proposed in this article. The proposed solution is tested on retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) dataset with a very high label noise of 68%. Results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the classification algorithm's performance in the presence of noisy labels.

Keywords: deep learning, label noise, robust learning, meta-learning, retinopathy of prematurity

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Authors: Swarna Pundir, Prabuddha Hans

Abstract:

As AI has already stepped into the daily life of human society, one cannot be ignorant about the data it collects and used it to provide a quality of services depending up on the individuals’ choices. It also helps in giving option for making decision Vs choice selection with a calculation based on the history of our search criteria. Over the past decade or so, the way Artificial Intelligence (AI) has impacted society is undoubtedly large.AI has changed the way we shop, the way we entertain and challenge ourselves, the way information is handled, and has automated some sections of our life. We have answered as to what AI is, but not why one may see it as useful. AI is useful because it is capable of learning and predicting outcomes, using Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) with the help of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). AI can also be a system that can act like humans. One of the major impacts be Joblessness through automation via AI which is seen mostly in manufacturing sectors, especially in the routine manual and blue-collar occupations and those without a college degree. It raises some serious concerns about AI in regards of less employment, ethics in making moral decisions, Individuals privacy, human judgement’s, natural emotions, biased decisions, discrimination. So, the question is if an error occurs who will be responsible, or it will be just waved off as a “Machine Error”, with no one taking the responsibility of any wrongdoing, it is essential to form some rules for using the AI where both machines and humans are involved.

Keywords: AI, ML, DL, ANN

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Maassoumeh Bemani Naeini

Abstract:

Studies on interlanguage have long been engaged in describing the phenomenon of variation in SLA. Pursuing the same goal and particularly addressing the role of linguistic features, this study describes the use of Persian morphology in the interlanguage of two adult English-speaking learners of Persian L2. Taking the general approach of a combination of contrastive analysis, error analysis and interlanguage analysis, this study focuses on the identification and prediction of some possible instances of transfer from English L1 to Persian L2 across six elicitation tasks aiming to investigate whether any of contextual features may variably influence the learners’ order of morpheme accuracy in the areas of copula, possessives, articles, demonstratives, plural form, personal pronouns, and genitive cases.  Results describe the existence of task variation in the interlanguage system of Persian L2 learners.

Keywords: English L1, Interlanguage Analysis, Persian L2, SLA variation

Procedia PDF Downloads 311