Search results for: soft classifiers
751 Using AI for Analysing Political Leaders
Authors: Shuai Zhao, Shalendra D. Sharma, Jin Xu
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This research uses advanced machine learning models to learn a number of hypotheses regarding political executives. Specifically, it analyses the impact these powerful leaders have on economic growth by using leaders’ data from the Archigos database from 1835 to the end of 2015. The data is processed by the AutoGluon, which was developed by Amazon. Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) and AutoGluon can automatically extract features from the data and then use multiple classifiers to train the data. Use a linear regression model and classification model to establish the relationship between leaders and economic growth (GDP per capita growth), and to clarify the relationship between their characteristics and economic growth from a machine learning perspective. Our work may show as a model or signal for collaboration between the fields of statistics and artificial intelligence (AI) that can light up the way for political researchers and economists.Keywords: comparative politics, political executives, leaders’ characteristics, artificial intelligence
Procedia PDF Downloads 86750 Periodontal Soft Tissue Sculpturing and Use of Interim Appliance for Rehabilitation of Anterior Edentulousness: Case Report
Authors: Hande Yesil, Seda Aycan Altan, M. Vehbi Bal, Alper Uyar, O. Cumhur Sipahi
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Purpose: Fixed partial dentures (FPDs) must fulfill functional requirements such as phonetics, chewing efficiency and esthetics especially in the anterior region. A convex type tissue surface is usually recommended for pontics of FPDs. That pontic design also provides suitable oral hygiene and ease of cleaning. However, high esthetic requirements and correct emergence profile are not always achievable because of the convex shape of adjacent soft tissues. Therefore, the ovate type pontic which fulfills the high esthetic demands of the patients may be a good alternative to the modified ridge lap pontic design. Clinical Report: A female patient referred with the complaint of anterior upper edentulousness. In the oral examination it was determined that teeth 11, 12, 21, 22 were deficient. A thick and convex gingival tissue that may cause aesthetic problems was also observed.. Periodontal augmentation surgery was performed to ensure proper papillary configuration and gingival contour. An interim removable partial denture (IRPD) which applied pressure to operated gingival tissues was fabricated postoperatively. The IRPD was used for 4 weeks and after completion of tissue sculpting, the permanent FPD with an ovate pontic was fabricated and cemented. After a follow-up period of 6 months, not any esthetical and hygienic problem was detected and the patient was satisfied with her prosthesis. Conclusion: It was concluded that shaping of gingival contours with IRPD and use of a FPD with ovate pontic fulfills all esthetic and hygienic requirements.Keywords: interim appliance, ovate pontic, tissue sculpturing, fixed partial denture
Procedia PDF Downloads 280749 Improving Pneumatic Artificial Muscle Performance Using Surrogate Model: Roles of Operating Pressure and Tube Diameter
Authors: Van-Thanh Ho, Jaiyoung Ryu
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In soft robotics, the optimization of fluid dynamics through pneumatic methods plays a pivotal role in enhancing operational efficiency and reducing energy loss. This is particularly crucial when replacing conventional techniques such as cable-driven electromechanical systems. The pneumatic model employed in this study represents a sophisticated framework designed to efficiently channel pressure from a high-pressure reservoir to various muscle locations on the robot's body. This intricate network involves a branching system of tubes. The study introduces a comprehensive pneumatic model, encompassing the components of a reservoir, tubes, and Pneumatically Actuated Muscles (PAM). The development of this model is rooted in the principles of shock tube theory. Notably, the study leverages experimental data to enhance the understanding of the interplay between the PAM structure and the surrounding fluid. This improved interactive approach involves the use of morphing motion, guided by a contraction function. The study's findings demonstrate a high degree of accuracy in predicting pressure distribution within the PAM. The model's predictive capabilities ensure that the error in comparison to experimental data remains below a threshold of 10%. Additionally, the research employs a machine learning model, specifically a surrogate model based on the Kriging method, to assess and quantify uncertainty factors related to the initial reservoir pressure and tube diameter. This comprehensive approach enhances our understanding of pneumatic soft robotics and its potential for improved operational efficiency.Keywords: pneumatic artificial muscles, pressure drop, morhing motion, branched network, surrogate model
Procedia PDF Downloads 98748 Off-Topic Text Detection System Using a Hybrid Model
Authors: Usama Shahid
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Be it written documents, news columns, or students' essays, verifying the content can be a time-consuming task. Apart from the spelling and grammar mistakes, the proofreader is also supposed to verify whether the content included in the essay or document is relevant or not. The irrelevant content in any document or essay is referred to as off-topic text and in this paper, we will address the problem of off-topic text detection from a document using machine learning techniques. Our study aims to identify the off-topic content from a document using Echo state network model and we will also compare data with other models. The previous study uses Convolutional Neural Networks and TFIDF to detect off-topic text. We will rearrange the existing datasets and take new classifiers along with new word embeddings and implement them on existing and new datasets in order to compare the results with the previously existing CNN model.Keywords: off topic, text detection, eco state network, machine learning
Procedia PDF Downloads 85747 Postmodern Navy to Transnational Adaptive Navy: Positive Peace with Borderless Institutional Network
Authors: Serkan Tezgel
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Effectively managing threats and power that transcend national boundaries requires a reformulation from the traditional post-modern navy to an adaptive and institutional transnational navy. By analyzing existing soft power concept, post-modern navy, and sea power, this study proposes the transnational navy, founded on the triangle of main attributes of transnational companies, 'Global Competitiveness, Local Responsiveness, Worldwide Learning and Innovation Sharing', a new model which will lead to a positive peace with an institutional network. This transnational model necessitates 'Transnational Navies' to help establish peace with collective and transnational understanding during a transition period 'Reactive Postmodern Navy' has been experiencing. In this regard, it is fairly claimed that a new paradigm shift will revolve around sea power to establish good order at sea with collective and collaborative initiatives and bound to breed new theories and ideas in the forthcoming years. However, there are obstacles to overcome. Postmodern navies, currently shaped by 'Collective Maritime Security' and 'Collective Defense' concepts, can not abandon reactive applications and acts. States deploying postmodern navies to realize their policies on international platforms and seapower structures shaped by the axis of countries’ absolute interests resulted in multipolar alliances and coalitions, but the establishment of the peace. These obstacles can be categorized into three tiers in establishing a unique transnational model navy: Strategic, Organizational and Management challenges. To overcome these obstacles and challenges, postmodern navies should transform into cooperative, collective and independent soft transnational navies with the transnational mentality, global commons, and institutional network. Such an adaptive institution can help the world navigate to a positive peace.Keywords: postmodern navy, transnational navy, transnational mentality, institutional network
Procedia PDF Downloads 519746 CT Images Based Dense Facial Soft Tissue Thickness Measurement by Open-source Tools in Chinese Population
Authors: Ye Xue, Zhenhua Deng
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Objectives: Facial soft tissue thickness (FSTT) data could be obtained from CT scans by measuring the face-to-skull distances at sparsely distributed anatomical landmarks by manually located on face and skull. However, automated measurement using 3D facial and skull models by dense points using open-source software has become a viable option due to the development of computed assisted imaging technologies. By utilizing dense FSTT information, it becomes feasible to generate plausible automated facial approximations. Therefore, establishing a comprehensive and detailed, densely calculated FSTT database is crucial in enhancing the accuracy of facial approximation. Materials and methods: This study utilized head CT scans from 250 Chinese adults of Han ethnicity, with 170 participants originally born and residing in northern China and 80 participants in southern China. The age of the participants ranged from 14 to 82 years, and all samples were divided into five non-overlapping age groups. Additionally, samples were also divided into three categories based on BMI information. The 3D Slicer software was utilized to segment bone and soft tissue based on different Hounsfield Unit (HU) thresholds, and surface models of the face and skull were reconstructed for all samples from CT data. Following procedures were performed unsing MeshLab, including converting the face models into hollowed cropped surface models amd automatically measuring the Hausdorff Distance (referred to as FSTT) between the skull and face models. Hausdorff point clouds were colorized based on depth value and exported as PLY files. A histogram of the depth distributions could be view and subdivided into smaller increments. All PLY files were visualized of Hausdorff distance value of each vertex. Basic descriptive statistics (i.e., mean, maximum, minimum and standard deviation etc.) and distribution of FSTT were analysis considering the sex, age, BMI and birthplace. Statistical methods employed included Multiple Regression Analysis, ANOVA, principal component analysis (PCA). Results: The distribution of FSTT is mainly influenced by BMI and sex, as further supported by the results of the PCA analysis. Additionally, FSTT values exceeding 30mm were found to be more sensitive to sex. Birthplace-related differences were observed in regions such as the forehead, orbital, mandibular, and zygoma. Specifically, there are distribution variances in the depth range of 20-30mm, particularly in the mandibular region. Northern males exhibit thinner FSTT in the frontal region of the forehead compared to southern males, while females shows fewer distribution differences between the northern and southern, except for the zygoma region. The observed distribution variance in the orbital region could be attributed to differences in orbital size and shape. Discussion: This study provides a database of Chinese individuals distribution of FSTT and suggested opening source tool shows fine function for FSTT measurement. By incorporating birthplace as an influential factor in the distribution of FSTT, a greater level of detail can be achieved in facial approximation.Keywords: forensic anthropology, forensic imaging, cranial facial reconstruction, facial soft tissue thickness, CT, open-source tool
Procedia PDF Downloads 58745 Comparison of Various Classification Techniques Using WEKA for Colon Cancer Detection
Authors: Beema Akbar, Varun P. Gopi, V. Suresh Babu
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Colon cancer causes the deaths of about half a million people every year. The common method of its detection is histopathological tissue analysis, it leads to tiredness and workload to the pathologist. A novel method is proposed that combines both structural and statistical pattern recognition used for the detection of colon cancer. This paper presents a comparison among the different classifiers such as Multilayer Perception (MLP), Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO), Bayesian Logistic Regression (BLR) and k-star by using classification accuracy and error rate based on the percentage split method. The result shows that the best algorithm in WEKA is MLP classifier with an accuracy of 83.333% and kappa statistics is 0.625. The MLP classifier which has a lower error rate, will be preferred as more powerful classification capability.Keywords: colon cancer, histopathological image, structural and statistical pattern recognition, multilayer perception
Procedia PDF Downloads 574744 Foot Recognition Using Deep Learning for Knee Rehabilitation
Authors: Rakkrit Duangsoithong, Jermphiphut Jaruenpunyasak, Alba Garcia
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The use of foot recognition can be applied in many medical fields such as the gait pattern analysis and the knee exercises of patients in rehabilitation. Generally, a camera-based foot recognition system is intended to capture a patient image in a controlled room and background to recognize the foot in the limited views. However, this system can be inconvenient to monitor the knee exercises at home. In order to overcome these problems, this paper proposes to use the deep learning method using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for foot recognition. The results are compared with the traditional classification method using LBP and HOG features with kNN and SVM classifiers. According to the results, deep learning method provides better accuracy but with higher complexity to recognize the foot images from online databases than the traditional classification method.Keywords: foot recognition, deep learning, knee rehabilitation, convolutional neural network
Procedia PDF Downloads 161743 Electroencephalogram Based Alzheimer Disease Classification using Machine and Deep Learning Methods
Authors: Carlos Roncero-Parra, Alfonso Parreño-Torres, Jorge Mateo Sotos, Alejandro L. Borja
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In this research, different methods based on machine/deep learning algorithms are presented for the classification and diagnosis of patients with mental disorders such as alzheimer. For this purpose, the signals obtained from 32 unipolar electrodes identified by non-invasive EEG were examined, and their basic properties were obtained. More specifically, different well-known machine learning based classifiers have been used, i.e., support vector machine (SVM), Bayesian linear discriminant analysis (BLDA), decision tree (DT), Gaussian Naïve Bayes (GNB), K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). A total of 668 patients from five different hospitals have been studied in the period from 2011 to 2021. The best accuracy is obtained was around 93 % in both ADM and ADA classifications. It can be concluded that such a classification will enable the training of algorithms that can be used to identify and classify different mental disorders with high accuracy.Keywords: alzheimer, machine learning, deep learning, EEG
Procedia PDF Downloads 126742 Extraskeletal Ewing Sarcoma- Experience in a Tertiary Cancer Care Centre of India
Authors: Himanshu Rohela
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BACKGROUND: Ewing sarcoma can arise in either bone or soft tissue. Extraskeletal Ewing sarcoma (EES) is an uncommon primary tumor of the soft tissues, accounting for 20 30% of all reported cases of ES. AIM: Was to investigate demographic distribution, survival analysis and factors affecting the survival and recurrence in patients of EES. METHODS: Retrospective study of 19 biopsy-proven EES was performed. Overall survival (OS) using log-rank test and factors affecting OS and local recurrence (LR) were evaluated for the entire cohort. RESULTS: Patients with EES had a mean age of 19.5 and it was more commonly seen in males (63%). Axial location (58%) and solitary presentation (84%) were more common. The average size was 11 cm, 3 of 19 were metastatic at presentation, with the lung beings the most common site for metastasis. 17 received NACT, 16 with VAC-IE regimen and 1 underwent a second line with GEM/DOCE regimen. Unplanned surgery was done in 2 of 19. 3 patients received definitive RT and 13 underwent surgical-wide local excision. 2 of 13 showed good response to NACT. 10 patients required readmission out of which 6 patients had chemotherapy-related complications, 2 had surgical site complications and one patient developed secondary AML post-completion of treatment. A total of 4 patients had a recurrence. One had local recurrence alone, one had distant recurrence alone and 2 patients had a distant and local recurrence both. Tumor size >10 cm, axial location, and previous unplanned surgery was associated with higher LR rate. The mean overall survival was 32 months (2.66 years), with higher rates seen in non-metastatic and non-recurrent settings. CONCLUSIONS: Early and accurate diagnosis is the key to the management of EES, with promising results seen via NACT and RO resection regimens. But further studies with larger study groups are needed to standardize the treatment protocol and evaluate its efficacy.Keywords: Ewings, sarcoma, extraskeletal, chemotherapy
Procedia PDF Downloads 70741 EEG-Based Screening Tool for School Student’s Brain Disorders Using Machine Learning Algorithms
Authors: Abdelrahman A. Ramzy, Bassel S. Abdallah, Mohamed E. Bahgat, Sarah M. Abdelkader, Sherif H. ElGohary
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Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), epilepsy, and autism affect millions of children worldwide, many of which are undiagnosed despite the fact that all of these disorders are detectable in early childhood. Late diagnosis can cause severe problems due to the late treatment and to the misconceptions and lack of awareness as a whole towards these disorders. Moreover, electroencephalography (EEG) has played a vital role in the assessment of neural function in children. Therefore, quantitative EEG measurement will be utilized as a tool for use in the evaluation of patients who may have ADHD, epilepsy, and autism. We propose a screening tool that uses EEG signals and machine learning algorithms to detect these disorders at an early age in an automated manner. The proposed classifiers used with epilepsy as a step taken for the work done so far, provided an accuracy of approximately 97% using SVM, Naïve Bayes and Decision tree, while 98% using KNN, which gives hope for the work yet to be conducted.Keywords: ADHD, autism, epilepsy, EEG, SVM
Procedia PDF Downloads 190740 Detect Critical Thinking Skill in Written Text Analysis. The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Text Analysis vs Chat/Gpt
Authors: Lucilla Crosta, Anthony Edwards
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Companies and the market place nowadays struggle to find employees with adequate skills in relation to anticipated growth of their businesses. At least half of workers will need to undertake some form of up-skilling process in the next five years in order to remain aligned with the requests of the market . In order to meet these challenges, there is a clear need to explore the potential uses of AI (artificial Intelligence) based tools in assessing transversal skills (critical thinking, communication and soft skills of different types in general) of workers and adult students while empowering them to develop those same skills in a reliable trustworthy way. Companies seek workers with key transversal skills that can make a difference between workers now and in the future. However, critical thinking seems to be the one of the most imprtant skill, bringing unexplored ideas and company growth in business contexts. What employers have been reporting since years now, is that this skill is lacking in the majority of workers and adult students, and this is particularly visible trough their writing. This paper investigates how critical thinking and communication skills are currently developed in Higher Education environments through use of AI tools at postgraduate levels. It analyses the use of a branch of AI namely Machine Learning and Big Data and of Neural Network Analysis. It also examines the potential effect the acquisition of these skills through AI tools and what kind of effects this has on employability This paper will draw information from researchers and studies both at national (Italy & UK) and international level in Higher Education. The issues associated with the development and use of one specific AI tool Edulai, will be examined in details. Finally comparisons will be also made between these tools and the more recent phenomenon of Chat GPT and forthcomings and drawbacks will be analysed.Keywords: critical thinking, artificial intelligence, higher education, soft skills, chat GPT
Procedia PDF Downloads 110739 Room Level Indoor Localization Using Relevant Channel Impulse Response Parameters
Authors: Raida Zouari, Iness Ahriz, Rafik Zayani, Ali Dziri, Ridha Bouallegue
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This paper proposes a room level indoor localization algorithm based on the use Multi-Layer Neural Network (MLNN) classifiers and one versus one strategy. Seven parameters of the Channel Impulse Response (CIR) were used and Gram-Shmidt Orthogonalization was performed to study the relevance of the extracted parameters. Simulation results show that when relevant CIR parameters are used as position fingerprint and when optimal MLNN architecture is selected good room level localization score can be achieved. The current study showed also that some of the CIR parameters are not correlated to the location and can decrease the localization performance of the system.Keywords: mobile indoor localization, multi-layer neural network (MLNN), channel impulse response (CIR), Gram-Shmidt orthogonalization
Procedia PDF Downloads 356738 Identification of Breast Anomalies Based on Deep Convolutional Neural Networks and K-Nearest Neighbors
Authors: Ayyaz Hussain, Tariq Sadad
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Breast cancer (BC) is one of the widespread ailments among females globally. The early prognosis of BC can decrease the mortality rate. Exact findings of benign tumors can avoid unnecessary biopsies and further treatments of patients under investigation. However, due to variations in images, it is a tough job to isolate cancerous cases from normal and benign ones. The machine learning technique is widely employed in the classification of BC pattern and prognosis. In this research, a deep convolution neural network (DCNN) called AlexNet architecture is employed to get more discriminative features from breast tissues. To achieve higher accuracy, K-nearest neighbor (KNN) classifiers are employed as a substitute for the softmax layer in deep learning. The proposed model is tested on a widely used breast image database called MIAS dataset for experimental purposes and achieved 99% accuracy.Keywords: breast cancer, DCNN, KNN, mammography
Procedia PDF Downloads 135737 Self-Assembly of TaC@Ta Core-Shell-Like Nanocomposite Film via Solid-State Dewetting: Toward Superior Wear and Corrosion Resistance
Authors: Ping Ren, Mao Wen, Kan Zhang, Weitao Zheng
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The improvement of comprehensive properties including hardness, toughness, wear, and corrosion resistance in the transition metal carbides/nitrides TMCN films, especially avoiding the trade-off between hardness and toughness, is strongly required to adapt to various applications. Although incorporating ductile metal DM phase into the TMCN via thermally-induced phase separation has been emerged as an effective approach to toughen TMCN-based films, the DM is just limited to some soft ductile metal (i.e. Cu, Ag, Au immiscibility with the TMCN. Moreover, hardness is highly sensitive to soft DM content and can be significantly worsened. Hence, a novel preparation method should be attempted to broaden the DM selection and assemble much more ordered nanocomposite structure for improving the comprehensive properties. Here, we provide a new strategy, by activating solid-state dewetting during layered deposition, to accomplish the self-assembly of ordered TaC@Ta core-shell-like nanocomposite film consisting of TaC nanocrystalline encapsulated with thin pseudocrystal Ta tissue. That results in the superhard (~45.1 GPa) dominated by Orowan strengthening mechanism and high toughness attributed to indenter-induced phase transformation from the pseudocrystal to body-centered cubic Ta, together with the drastically enhanced wear and corrosion resistance. Furthermore, very thin pseudocrystal Ta encapsulated layer (~1.5 nm) in the TaC@Ta core-shell-like structure helps for promoting the formation of lubricious TaOₓ Magnéli phase during sliding, thereby further dropping the coefficient of friction. Apparently, solid-state dewetting may provide a new route to construct ordered TMC(N)@TM core-shell-like nanocomposite capable of combining superhard, high toughness, low friction, superior wear with corrosion resistance.Keywords: corrosion, nanocomposite film, solid-state dewetting, tribology
Procedia PDF Downloads 135736 3D Classification Optimization of Low-Density Airborne Light Detection and Ranging Point Cloud by Parameters Selection
Authors: Baha Eddine Aissou, Aichouche Belhadj Aissa
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Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is an active remote sensing technology used for several applications. Airborne LiDAR is becoming an important technology for the acquisition of a highly accurate dense point cloud. A classification of airborne laser scanning (ALS) point cloud is a very important task that still remains a real challenge for many scientists. Support vector machine (SVM) is one of the most used statistical learning algorithms based on kernels. SVM is a non-parametric method, and it is recommended to be used in cases where the data distribution cannot be well modeled by a standard parametric probability density function. Using a kernel, it performs a robust non-linear classification of samples. Often, the data are rarely linearly separable. SVMs are able to map the data into a higher-dimensional space to become linearly separable, which allows performing all the computations in the original space. This is one of the main reasons that SVMs are well suited for high-dimensional classification problems. Only a few training samples, called support vectors, are required. SVM has also shown its potential to cope with uncertainty in data caused by noise and fluctuation, and it is computationally efficient as compared to several other methods. Such properties are particularly suited for remote sensing classification problems and explain their recent adoption. In this poster, the SVM classification of ALS LiDAR data is proposed. Firstly, connected component analysis is applied for clustering the point cloud. Secondly, the resulting clusters are incorporated in the SVM classifier. Radial basic function (RFB) kernel is used due to the few numbers of parameters (C and γ) that needs to be chosen, which decreases the computation time. In order to optimize the classification rates, the parameters selection is explored. It consists to find the parameters (C and γ) leading to the best overall accuracy using grid search and 5-fold cross-validation. The exploited LiDAR point cloud is provided by the German Society for Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, and Geoinformation. The ALS data used is characterized by a low density (4-6 points/m²) and is covering an urban area located in residential parts of the city Vaihingen in southern Germany. The class ground and three other classes belonging to roof superstructures are considered, i.e., a total of 4 classes. The training and test sets are selected randomly several times. The obtained results demonstrated that a parameters selection can orient the selection in a restricted interval of (C and γ) that can be further explored but does not systematically lead to the optimal rates. The SVM classifier with hyper-parameters is compared with the most used classifiers in literature for LiDAR data, random forest, AdaBoost, and decision tree. The comparison showed the superiority of the SVM classifier using parameters selection for LiDAR data compared to other classifiers.Keywords: classification, airborne LiDAR, parameters selection, support vector machine
Procedia PDF Downloads 147735 Use of Corporate Social Responsibility in Environmental Protection: Modern Mechanisms of Environmental Self-Regulation
Authors: Jakub Stelina, Janina Ciechanowicz-McLean
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Fifty years of existence and development of international environmental law brought a deep disappointment with efficiency and effectiveness of traditional command and control mechanisms of environmental regulation. Agenda 21 agreed during the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 1992 was one of the first international documents, which explicitly underlined the importance of public participation in environmental protection. This participation includes also the initiatives undertaken by business corporations in the form of private environmental standards setting. Twenty years later during the Rio 20+ Earth Summit the private sector obligations undertaken during the negotiations have proven to be at least as important as the ones undertaken by the governments. The private sector has taken the leading role in environmental standard setting. Among the research methods used in the article two are crucial in the analysis. The comparative analysis of law is the instrument used in the article to analyse the practice of states and private business companies in the field of sustainable development. The article uses economic analysis of law to estimate the costs and benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility Projects in the field of environmental protection. The study is based on the four premises. First is the role of social dialogue, which is crucial for both Corporate Social Responsibility and modern environmental protection regulation. The Aarhus Convention creates a procedural environmental human right to participate in administrative procedures of law setting and environmental decisions making. The public participation in environmental impact assessment is nowadays a universal standard. Second argument is about the role of precaution as a principle of modern environmental regulation. This principle can be observed both in governmental regulatory undertakings and also private initiatives within the Corporate Social Responsibility environmental projects. Even in the jurisdictions which are relatively reluctant to use the principle of preventive action in environmental regulation, the companies often use this standard in their own private business standard setting initiatives. This is often due to the fact that soft law standards are used as the basis for private Corporate Social Responsibility regulatory initiatives. Third premise is about the role of ecological education in environmental protection. Many soft law instruments underline the importance of environmental education. Governments use environmental education only to the limited extent due to the costs of such projects and problems with effects assessment. Corporate Social Responsibility uses various means of ecological education as the basis of their actions in the field of environmental protection. Last but not least Sustainable development is a goal of both legal protection of the environment, and economic instruments of companies development. Modern environmental protection law uses to the increasing extent the Corporate Social Responsibility. This may be the consequence of the limits of hard law regulation. Corporate Social Responsibility is nowadays not only adapting to soft law regulation of environmental protection but also creates such standards by itself, showing new direction for development of international environmental law. Corporate Social Responsibility in environmental protection can be good investment in future development of the company.Keywords: corporate social responsibility, environmental CSR, environmental justice, stakeholders dialogue
Procedia PDF Downloads 299734 The Mechanical and Comfort Properties of Cotton/Micro-Tencel Lawn Fabrics
Authors: Abdul Basit, Shahid Latif, Shah Mehmood
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Lawn fabric was usually prepared from originally of linen but at present chiefly cotton. Lawn fabric is worn in summer. Cotton Lawn is a lightweight pure cloth which is heavier than voile. It is so fine that it is somewhat transparent. It is soft and superb to wear thus it is perfect for summer clothes or for regular wear in hotter climates. Tencel (Lyocell) fiber is considered as the fiber of the future as Tencel fibers are absorbent, soft, and extremely strong when wet or dry, and resistant to wrinkles. Fibers are more absorbent than cotton, softer than silk and cooler than linen. High water absorption and water vapor absorption give more heat capacity and heat balancing effect for thermo-regulation. This thermo-regulation is analogous with the action of phase-change-materials. The thermal wear properties result in cool and dry touch that gives cooling effect in sportswear, and the warmth properties (when used as an insulation layer). These cooling and warming effects are adaptive to the environment giving comfort in a broad range of climatic conditions. In this work, single yarns of Ne 80s were made. Yarns were made from conventional ring spinning. Different yarns of 100% cotton, 100% micro-Tencel and Cotton:micro-Tencel blends (67:33, 50:50:33:67) were made. The mechanical and comfort properties of the woven fabrics were compared. The mechanical properties include the tensile and tear strength, bending length, pilling and abrasion resistance whereas comfort properties include the air permeability, moisture management and thermal resistance. It is found that as the content of the micro-Tencel is increased, the mechanical and comfort properties of the woven fabric are also increased.Keywords: combed cotton, comfort properties , mechanical properties, micro-Tencel
Procedia PDF Downloads 316733 Comparison of Equivalent Linear and Non-Linear Site Response Model Performance in Kathmandu Valley
Authors: Sajana Suwal, Ganesh R. Nhemafuki
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Evaluation of ground response under earthquake shaking is crucial in geotechnical earthquake engineering. Damage due to seismic excitation is mainly correlated to local geological and geotechnical conditions. It is evident from the past earthquakes (e.g. 1906 San Francisco, USA, 1923 Kanto, Japan) that the local geology has strong influence on amplitude and duration of ground motions. Since then significant studies has been conducted on ground motion amplification revealing the importance of influence of local geology on ground. Observations from the damaging earthquakes (e.g. Nigata and San Francisco, 1964; Irpinia, 1980; Mexico, 1985; Kobe, 1995; L’Aquila, 2009) divulged that non-uniform damage pattern, particularly in soft fluvio-lacustrine deposit is due to the local amplification of seismic ground motion. Non-uniform damage patterns are also observed in Kathmandu Valley during 1934 Bihar Nepal earthquake and recent 2015 Gorkha earthquake seemingly due to the modification of earthquake ground motion parameters. In this study, site effects resulting from amplification of soft soil in Kathmandu are presented. A large amount of subsoil data was collected and used for defining the appropriate subsoil model for the Kathamandu valley. A comparative study of one-dimensional total-stress equivalent linear and non-linear site response is performed using four strong ground motions for six sites of Kathmandu valley. In general, one-dimensional (1D) site-response analysis involves the excitation of a soil profile using the horizontal component and calculating the response at individual soil layers. In the present study, both equivalent linear and non-linear site response analyses were conducted using the computer program DEEPSOIL. The results show that there is no significant deviation between equivalent linear and non-linear site response models until the maximum strain reaches to 0.06-0.1%. Overall, it is clearly observed from the results that non-linear site response model perform better as compared to equivalent linear model. However, the significant deviation between two models is resulted from other influencing factors such as assumptions made in 1D site response, lack of accurate values of shear wave velocity and nonlinear properties of the soil deposit. The results are also presented in terms of amplification factors which are predicted to be around four times more in case of non-linear analysis as compared to equivalent linear analysis. Hence, the nonlinear behavior of soil prevails the urgent need of study of dynamic characteristics of the soft soil deposit that can specifically represent the site-specific design spectra for the Kathmandu valley for building resilient structures from future damaging earthquakes.Keywords: deep soil, equivalent linear analysis, non-linear analysis, site response
Procedia PDF Downloads 290732 A Similarity Measure for Classification and Clustering in Image Based Medical and Text Based Banking Applications
Authors: K. P. Sandesh, M. H. Suman
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Text processing plays an important role in information retrieval, data-mining, and web search. Measuring the similarity between the documents is an important operation in the text processing field. In this project, a new similarity measure is proposed. To compute the similarity between two documents with respect to a feature the proposed measure takes the following three cases into account: (1) The feature appears in both documents; (2) The feature appears in only one document and; (3) The feature appears in none of the documents. The proposed measure is extended to gauge the similarity between two sets of documents. The effectiveness of our measure is evaluated on several real-world data sets for text classification and clustering problems, especially in banking and health sectors. The results show that the performance obtained by the proposed measure is better than that achieved by the other measures.Keywords: document classification, document clustering, entropy, accuracy, classifiers, clustering algorithms
Procedia PDF Downloads 518731 Seismic Fragility Assessment of Strongback Steel Braced Frames Subjected to Near-Field Earthquakes
Authors: Mohammadreza Salek Faramarzi, Touraj Taghikhany
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In this paper, seismic fragility assessment of a recently developed hybrid structural system, known as the strongback system (SBS) is investigated. In this system, to mitigate the occurrence of the soft-story mechanism and improve the distribution of story drifts over the height of the structure, an elastic vertical truss is formed. The strengthened members of the braced span are designed to remain substantially elastic during levels of excitation where soft-story mechanisms are likely to occur and impose a nearly uniform story drift distribution. Due to the distinctive characteristics of near-field ground motions, it seems to be necessary to study the effect of these records on seismic performance of the SBS. To this end, a set of 56 near-field ground motion records suggested by FEMA P695 methodology is used. For fragility assessment, nonlinear dynamic analyses are carried out in OpenSEES based on the recommended procedure in HAZUS technical manual. Four damage states including slight, moderate, extensive, and complete damage (collapse) are considered. To evaluate each damage state, inter-story drift ratio and floor acceleration are implemented as engineering demand parameters. Further, to extend the evaluation of the collapse state of the system, a different collapse criterion suggested in FEMA P695 is applied. It is concluded that SBS can significantly increase the collapse capacity and consequently decrease the collapse risk of the structure during its life time. Comparing the observing mean annual frequency (MAF) of exceedance of each damage state against the allowable values presented in performance-based design methods, it is found that using the elastic vertical truss, improves the structural response effectively.Keywords: IDA, near-fault, probabilistic performance assessment, seismic fragility, strongback system, uncertainty
Procedia PDF Downloads 114730 Nitrogen Fixation in Hare Gastrointestinal Tract
Authors: Tatiana A. Kuznetsova, Maxim V. Vechersky, Natalia V. Kostina, Marat M. Umarov, Elena I. Naumova
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One of the main problems of nutrition of phytophagous animals is the insufficiency of protein in their forage. Usually, symbiotic microorganisms highly contribute both to carbohydrates and nitrogen compounds of the food. But it is not easy to utilize microbial biomass in the large intestine and caecum for the animals with hindgut fermentation. So that, some animals, as well hares, developed special mechanism of contribution of such biomass - obligate autocoprophagy, or reingestion. Hares have two types of feces - the hard and the soft. Hard feces are excreted at night, while hares are vigilance ("foraging period"), and the soft ones (caecotrophs) are produced and reingested in the day-time during hares "resting-period". We examine the role of microbial digestion in providing nitrogen nutrition of hare (Lepus europaeus). We determine the ability of nitrogen fixation in fornix and stomach body, small intestine, caecum and colon of hares' gastro-intestinal tract in two main period of hares activity - "resting-period" (day time) and "foraging period" (late-evening and very-early-morning). We use gas chromatography to measure levels of nitrogen fixing activity (acetylene reduction). Nitrogen fixing activity was detected in the contents of all analyzed parts of the gastrointestinal tract. Maximum values were recorded in the large intestine. Also daily dynamics of the process was detected. Thus, during hare “resting-period” (caecotrophs formation) N2-fixing activity was significantly higher than during “foraging period”, reaching 0,3 nmol C2H4/g*h. N2-fixing activity in the gastrointestinal tract can allocate to significant contribution of nitrogen fixers to microbial digestion in hare and confirms the importance of coprophagy as a nitrogen source in lagomorphs.Keywords: coprophagy, gastrointestinal tract, lagomorphs, nitrogen fixation
Procedia PDF Downloads 364729 Cosmetic Dermatology Procedures: Survey Results of American Society for Dermatologic Surgery
Authors: Marina S. Basta, Kirollos S. Basta
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Cosmetic dermatology procedures have witnessed exponential growth and diversification over the last 10 years. Thus, the purpose of this study was to collect data about the latest trends for cosmetic procedures reported by dermatologists during the year 2018. This study was performed by American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS) in 2018 through sending survey invitations to 3,358 practicing dermatologists in the U.S. containing streamline questions as well as statistical questions targeted to specific analysis of cosmetic dermatology trends. Out of the targeted physicians, only 596 dermatologists reply to the survey invitation (15% overall response rate). It was noted that data collected from that survey was generalized to represent all ASDS members. Results show that there is an increase in cosmetic dermatology procedures since 12.5 million procedures were reported for 2018 compared to only 7.8 million for 2012. Injectable neuromodulators and soft tissue fillers have topped the list with a 3.7 million procedure count. Body sculpting, chemical peeling, hair transplantation, and microneedling procedures were reported to be 1.57 million cases combined. Also, the top two procedures using laser were represented in wrinkle treatment as well as sun damage correction, while the lowest two trends for laser usage were for treatments of tattoos and birthmarks. Cryolipolysis was found to be at the head of body sculpting procedures with 287,435 cases, while tumescent liposuction was reported as the least performed body sculpting procedure (18,286 cases). In conclusion, comparing the procedural trends for the last 7 years has indicated that there has been a 78% increase in soft tissue filler treatment compared to 2012. In addition, it was further noted that laser procedures scored 74% increase in the last 7 years while body contouring procedures have had four folds increase in general compared to 2012.Keywords: cosmetic dermatology, ASDS procedure survey, laser, body sculpting
Procedia PDF Downloads 124728 A Quantitative Evaluation of Text Feature Selection Methods
Authors: B. S. Harish, M. B. Revanasiddappa
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Due to rapid growth of text documents in digital form, automated text classification has become an important research in the last two decades. The major challenge of text document representations are high dimension, sparsity, volume and semantics. Since the terms are only features that can be found in documents, selection of good terms (features) plays an very important role. In text classification, feature selection is a strategy that can be used to improve classification effectiveness, computational efficiency and accuracy. In this paper, we present a quantitative analysis of most widely used feature selection (FS) methods, viz. Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (tfidf ), Mutual Information (MI), Information Gain (IG), CHISquare (x2), Term Frequency-Relevance Frequency (tfrf ), Term Strength (TS), Ambiguity Measure (AM) and Symbolic Feature Selection (SFS) to classify text documents. We evaluated all the feature selection methods on standard datasets like 20 Newsgroups, 4 University dataset and Reuters-21578.Keywords: classifiers, feature selection, text classification
Procedia PDF Downloads 458727 A Computer-Aided System for Detection and Classification of Liver Cirrhosis
Authors: Abdel Hadi N. Ebraheim, Eman Azomi, Nefisa A. Fahmy
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This paper designs and implements a computer-aided system (CAS) to help detect and diagnose liver cirrhosis in patients with Chronic Hepatitis C. Our system reduces the required features (tests) the patient is asked to do to tests to their minimal best most informative subset of tests, with a diagnostic accuracy above 99%, and hence saving both time and costs. We use the Support Vector Machine (SVM) with cross-validation, a Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP), and a Generalized Regression Neural Network (GRNN) that employs a base of radial functions for functional approximation, as classifiers. Our system is tested on 199 subjects, of them 99 Chronic Hepatitis C.The subjects were selected from among the outpatient clinic in National Herpetology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute (NHTMRI).Keywords: liver cirrhosis, artificial neural network, support vector machine, multi-layer perceptron, classification, accuracy
Procedia PDF Downloads 461726 Towards a Balancing Medical Database by Using the Least Mean Square Algorithm
Authors: Kamel Belammi, Houria Fatrim
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imbalanced data set, a problem often found in real world application, can cause seriously negative effect on classification performance of machine learning algorithms. There have been many attempts at dealing with classification of imbalanced data sets. In medical diagnosis classification, we often face the imbalanced number of data samples between the classes in which there are not enough samples in rare classes. In this paper, we proposed a learning method based on a cost sensitive extension of Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm that penalizes errors of different samples with different weight and some rules of thumb to determine those weights. After the balancing phase, we applythe different classifiers (support vector machine (SVM), k- nearest neighbor (KNN) and multilayer neuronal networks (MNN)) for balanced data set. We have also compared the obtained results before and after balancing method.Keywords: multilayer neural networks, k- nearest neighbor, support vector machine, imbalanced medical data, least mean square algorithm, diabetes
Procedia PDF Downloads 531725 Study of Elastic-Plastic Fatigue Crack in Functionally Graded Materials
Authors: Somnath Bhattacharya, Kamal Sharma, Vaibhav Sonkar
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Composite materials emerged in the middle of the 20th century as a promising class of engineering materials providing new prospects for modern technology. Recently, a new class of composite materials known as functionally graded materials (FGMs) has drawn considerable attention of the scientific community. In general, FGMs are defined as composite materials in which the composition or microstructure or both are locally varied so that a certain variation of the local material properties is achieved. This gradual change in composition and microstructure of material is suitable to get gradient of properties and performances. FGMs are synthesized in such a way that they possess continuous spatial variations in volume fractions of their constituents to yield a predetermined composition. These variations lead to the formation of a non-homogeneous macrostructure with continuously varying mechanical and / or thermal properties in one or more than one direction. Lightweight functionally graded composites with high strength to weight and stiffness to weight ratios have been used successfully in aircraft industry and other engineering applications like in electronics industry and in thermal barrier coatings. In the present work, elastic-plastic crack growth problems (using Ramberg-Osgood Model) in an FGM plate under cyclic load has been explored by extended finite element method. Both edge and centre crack problems have been solved by taking additionally holes, inclusions and minor cracks under plane stress conditions. Both soft and hard inclusions have been implemented in the problems. The validity of linear elastic fracture mechanics theory is limited to the brittle materials. A rectangular plate of functionally graded material of length 100 mm and height 200 mm with 100% copper-nickel alloy on left side and 100% ceramic (alumina) on right side is considered in the problem. Exponential gradation in property is imparted in x-direction. A uniform traction of 100 MPa is applied to the top edge of the rectangular domain along y direction. In some problems, domain contains major crack along with minor cracks or / and holes or / and inclusions. Major crack is located the centre of the left edge or the centre of the domain. The discontinuities, such as minor cracks, holes, and inclusions are added either singly or in combination with each other. On the basis of this study, it is found that effect of minor crack in the domain’s failure crack length is minimum whereas soft inclusions have moderate effect and the effect of holes have maximum effect. It is observed that the crack growth is more before the failure in each case when hard inclusions are present in place of soft inclusions.Keywords: elastic-plastic, fatigue crack, functionally graded materials, extended finite element method (XFEM)
Procedia PDF Downloads 389724 Flood Management Plans in Different Flooding Zones of Gujranwala and Rawalpindi Divisions, Punjab, Pakistan
Authors: Muhammad Naveed
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In this paper, flood issues in Gujranwala and Rawalpindi divisions are discussed as a primary importance as these zones are affected continuously from flooding in recent years, provincial variability of the issue, introduce status of the continuous administration measures, their adequacy and future needs in flood administration are secured. Flood issues in these zones are exhibited by Chenab River Basin, Jhelum Rivers Basin. Some unique problems, related to floods in these divisions is lack of major dams on Chenab and Jhelum rivers and also mismanagement of rivers and canal water like dam break stream, and water signing in Tal zones, are additionally mentioned. There are major Nalaas in these regions like Nalaa Lai of Rawalpindi and Nalaa Daik, Nalaa Palkhu, Nalaa Aik of Gujranwala are major cause of floods in these regions other than rivers. Proper management of these Nalaas and moving of nearby population well in time could reduce impacts from flood in these regions. Progress of different flood administration measures, both auxiliary and non-basic, are discussed. Likewise, future needs to accomplish proficient and fruitful flood management measures in Pakistan are additionally brought up. In this paper, we describe different hard and soft engineering techniques to overcome flood situations in these zones as these zones are more vulnerable due to lack of management in canal and river water. Effective management and use of hard and soft techniques are need of time in coming future for controlling greater flooding in flood risk zones to overcome or minimize people’s death as well as agricultural and financial resources as flood and other natural disasters are a major drawback in the economic prosperity of the country.Keywords: flood management, rivers, major dams, agricultural and financial loss, future management and control
Procedia PDF Downloads 197723 Native Language Identification with Cross-Corpus Evaluation Using Social Media Data: ’Reddit’
Authors: Yasmeen Bassas, Sandra Kuebler, Allen Riddell
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Native language identification is one of the growing subfields in natural language processing (NLP). The task of native language identification (NLI) is mainly concerned with predicting the native language of an author’s writing in a second language. In this paper, we investigate the performance of two types of features; content-based features vs. content independent features, when they are evaluated on a different corpus (using social media data “Reddit”). In this NLI task, the predefined models are trained on one corpus (TOEFL), and then the trained models are evaluated on different data using an external corpus (Reddit). Three classifiers are used in this task; the baseline, linear SVM, and logistic regression. Results show that content-based features are more accurate and robust than content independent ones when tested within the corpus and across corpus.Keywords: NLI, NLP, content-based features, content independent features, social media corpus, ML
Procedia PDF Downloads 137722 Interdependence of Vocational Skills and Employability Skills: Example of an Industrial Training Centre in Central India
Authors: Mahesh Vishwakarma, Sadhana Vishwakarma
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Vocational education includes all kind of education which can help students to acquire skills related to a certain profession, art, or activity so that they are able to exercise that profession, art or activity after acquiring such qualification. However, in this global economy of the modern world, job seekers are expected to have certain soft skills over and above the technical knowledge and skills acquired in their areas of expertise. These soft skills include but not limited to interpersonal communication, understanding, personal attributes, problem-solving, working in team, quick adaptability to the workplace environment, and other. Not only the hands-on, job-related skills, and competencies are now being sought by the employers, but also a complex of attitudinal dispositions and affective traits are being looked by them in their prospective employees. This study was performed to identify the employability skills of technical students from an Industrial Training Centre (ITC) in central India. It also aimed to convey a message to the students currently on the role, that for them to remain relevant in the job market, they would need to constantly adapt to changes and evolving requirements in the work environment, including the use of updated technologies. Five hypotheses were formulated and tested on the employability skills of students as a function of gender, trade, work experience, personal attributes, and IT skills. Data were gathered with the help of center’s training officers who approached 200 recently graduated students from the center and administered the instrument to students. All 200 respondents returned the completed instrument. The instrument used for the study consisted of 2 sections; demographic details and employability skills. To measure the employability skills of the trainees, the instrument was developed by referring to the several instruments developed by the past researchers for similar studies. The 1st section of the instrument of demographic details recorded age, gender, trade, year of passing, interviews faced, and employment status of the respondents. The 2nd section of the instrument on employability skills was categorized into seven specific skills: basic vocational skills; personal attributes; imagination skills; optimal management of resources; information-technology skills; interpersonal skills; adapting to new technologies. The reliability and validity of the instrument were checked. The findings revealed valuable information on the relationship and interdependence of vocational education and employability skills of students in the central Indian scenario. The findings revealed a valuable information on supplementing the existing vocational education programs with few soft skills and competencies so as to develop a superior workforce much better equipped to face the job market. The findings of the study can be used as an example by the management of government and private industrial training centers operating in the other parts of the Asian region. Future research can be undertaken on a greater population base from different geographical regions and backgrounds for an enhanced outcome.Keywords: employability skills, vocational education, industrial training centers, students
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