Search results for: parliamentary representation
434 Genetic Algorithm and Multi Criteria Decision Making Approach for Compressive Sensing Based Direction of Arrival Estimation
Authors: Ekin Nurbaş
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One of the essential challenges in array signal processing, which has drawn enormous research interest over the past several decades, is estimating the direction of arrival (DOA) of plane waves impinging on an array of sensors. In recent years, the Compressive Sensing based DoA estimation methods have been proposed by researchers, and it has been discovered that the Compressive Sensing (CS)-based algorithms achieved significant performances for DoA estimation even in scenarios where there are multiple coherent sources. On the other hand, the Genetic Algorithm, which is a method that provides a solution strategy inspired by natural selection, has been used in sparse representation problems in recent years and provides significant improvements in performance. With all of those in consideration, in this paper, a method that combines the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approaches for Direction of Arrival (DoA) estimation in the Compressive Sensing (CS) framework is proposed. In this method, we generate a multi-objective optimization problem by splitting the norm minimization and reconstruction loss minimization parts of the Compressive Sensing algorithm. With the help of the Genetic Algorithm, multiple non-dominated solutions are achieved for the defined multi-objective optimization problem. Among the pareto-frontier solutions, the final solution is obtained with the multiple MCDM methods. Moreover, the performance of the proposed method is compared with the CS-based methods in the literature.Keywords: genetic algorithm, direction of arrival esitmation, multi criteria decision making, compressive sensing
Procedia PDF Downloads 139433 Analysis and Comparison of Prototypes of an Ergometric Step in a Multidisciplinary Design Process
Authors: M. B. Ricardo De Oliveira, A. Borghi-Silva, L. Di Thommazo, D. Braatz
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Prototypes can be understood as representations of a product concept. Furthermore, prototyping consists in an important stage in product development and results in better team communication, decision making, testing and problem solving through feedback. Although there are several methods of prototyping suggested by recent studies for designers to choose from, some methods present different advantages, such as cost and time reduction, performance and fidelity, which should be taken in account during a product development project. In this multidisciplinary study, involving areas of physiotherapy, engineering and computer science (hardware and software), we compared four developed prototypes of an ergometric step: a virtual prototype, a 3D printed prototype, a bricolage prototype and a prototype manufactured by a third-party company. These prototypes were evaluated in a comparative-qualitative approach for their contribution to the concept’s maturation of the product, the different prototyping methods used and the advantages and disadvantages of each one based on the product’s design specifications (performance, safety, materials, cost, maintenance, usability, ergonomics and portability). Our results indicated that despite prototypes show overall advantages, all of them have limitations, thus being crucial to have different methods of testing and interacting with the product. Additionally, virtual and 3D printed prototypes were essential at early stages of the project due to their low-cost and high-fidelity representation of the product, while the prototype manufactured by a third-party company and bricolage prototype introduced functional tests in real scenarios, allowing more detailed evaluations. This study also resulted in a patent for an ergometric step.Keywords: Product Design, Product Development, Prototypes, Step
Procedia PDF Downloads 110432 Memory and Narratives Rereading before and after One Week
Authors: Abigail M. Csik, Gabriel A. Radvansky
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As people read through event-based narratives, they construct an event model that captures information about the characters, goals, location, time, and causality. For many reasons, memory for such narratives is represented at different levels, namely, the surface form, textbase, and event model levels. Rereading has been shown to decrease surface form memory, while, at the same time, increasing textbase and event model memories. More generally, distributed practice has consistently shown memory benefits over massed practice for different types of materials, including texts. However, little research has investigated distributed practice of narratives at different inter-study intervals and these effects on these three levels of memory. Recent work in our lab has indicated that there may be dramatic changes in patterns of forgetting around one week, which may affect the three levels of memory. The present experiment aimed to determine the effects of rereading on the three levels of memory as a factor of whether the texts were reread before versus after one week. Participants (N = 42) read a set of stories, re-read them either before or after one week (with an inter-study interval of three days, seven days, or fourteen days), and then took a recognition test, from which the three levels of representation were derived. Signal detection results from this study reveal that differential patterns at the three levels as a factor of whether the narratives were re-read prior to one week or after one week. In particular, an ANOVA revealed that surface form memory was lower (p = .08) while textbase (p = .02) and event model memory (p = .04) were greater if narratives were re-read 14 days later compared to memory when narratives were re-read 3 days later. These results have implications for what type of memory benefits from distributed practice at various inter-study intervals.Keywords: memory, event cognition, distributed practice, consolidation
Procedia PDF Downloads 216431 Study of Religious Women's Acceptance of Religious Women Bloggers on Instagram
Authors: Ali Momeni
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Visual media has had a significant impact on the mental structure and behaviors of humanity. One interactive platform that has played a major role in this is Instagram. In Islamic countries, particularly Iran, many Muslims have embraced this interactive media platform for various reasons. Instagram has also provided an opportunity for individuals to become famous and gain micro-celebrity status through its semi-algorithmic features. A notable group of Iranian women who have gained fame through Instagram are religious Muslim women who have transitioned into bloggers. These Iranian religious women bloggers (IRWB) have garnered a large following by showcasing different models of hijab and their private lives. This research aims to qualitatively study the representation of femininity and religiosity of these women. The main question addressed in this study is the acceptance of Instagram activity by IRWB among religious women. Drawing on concepts such as 'The Society of the Spectacle' and 'Celebrity Online', this study utilized the netnography method to analyze 14 pages of IRWB. Data was collected in two phases, with the first phase involving the analysis of religious women's comments on posts related to these themes. The second phase included interviews with religious women students who view or follow these pages. A total of 120 comments and 14 interviews were thematically analyzed. The results revealed that the reception of these pages by religious women fell into four main themes: the spectacle of femininity, the commercialization of religiosity, the distortion of Islam, and the construction of religiosity and femininity. Ultimately, religious women did not find these pages to be reflective of their own experiences of female and religious life.Keywords: women, bloggers, instagram, IRWB, reception.
Procedia PDF Downloads 63430 A Blending Analysis of Metaphors and Metonymies Used to Depict the Deal of the Century by Jordanian Cartoonists
Authors: Aseel Zibin, Abdel Rahman Altakhaineh
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This study analyses 30 cartoons depicting THE DEAL OF THE CENTURY as envisaged by two Jordanian cartoonists, namely, EmadHajjaj and Osama Hajjaj. Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT) and Multimodal Metaphor Theory (MMT) are adopted as a theoretical framework to interpret the metaphors and metonymies used in the target cartoons. The results reveal that the target domain THE DEAL OF THE CENTURY was conceptualized mainly through layered metaphors that have metonymic basis and event metaphors\allegories. Specifically, 6 groups were identified: OBJECT or a situation involving OBJECTS, situations involving HUMANS\HYBRIDS of HUMANS and OBJECTS, an ANIMAL OR situation involving an ANIMAL, hybrids of WEAPONS and humans, and event metaphors used to build a story\allegory. The target domain was also depicted via event metaphors used to build a story; some of which are embedded in the Jordanian culture, while others could be perceivable cross-culturally. The results also demonstrate that the most widely used configurations to construe the metaphors was the pictorial source–verbal target in line with Lan and Zuo (2016); the motivation was probably the greater conceptual density and concreteness of visual representation since the target is better captured verbally because of its abstractness. The use of cross-modal mappings of this type was attributed to the abstractness of the target domain, THE DEAL OF THE CENTURY, which makes it more construable via verbal cues rather than visual ones. In contrast, the source domains used were mainly concrete and thus perceivable pictorially rather than verbally.Keywords: semiotics, cognitive semantics, metaphor, culture, blending, cartoon
Procedia PDF Downloads 163429 Discrimination Faced by Dalit Women in India
Authors: Soundarya Lahari Vedula
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Dalit women make up a significant portion of the Indian population. However, they are victims of age old discrimination. This paper presents a brief background of the Indian caste system which is a hierarchical division placing Dalits at the lowest rank. Dalits are forced to perform menial and harsh tasks. They often face social ostracism. The situation of Dalit women is of unique significance as they face triple discrimination due to their caste, gender, and class. Dalit women are strictly withheld by the rigid boundaries of the caste system. They are discriminated at every stage of their life and are denied access to public places, education and healthcare facilities among others. They face the worst forms of sexual violence. In spite of legislations and international conventions in place, their plight is not adequately addressed. This paper discusses, in brief, the legal mechanism in place to prohibit untouchability. Furthermore, this paper details on the specific human rights violations faced by Dalit women in the social, economic and political spheres. The violations range from discrimination in public places, denial of education and health services, sexual exploitation and barriers to political representation. Finally, this paper identifies certain lacunae in the existing Indian statutes and broadens on the measures to be taken to improve the situation of Dalit women. This paper offers some recommendations to address the plight of Dalit women such as amendments to the existing statutes, effective implementation of legal mechanisms and a more meaningful interpretation of the international conventions.Keywords: Dalit, caste, class, discrimination, equality
Procedia PDF Downloads 197428 A Framework for Secure Information Flow Analysis in Web Applications
Authors: Ralph Adaimy, Wassim El-Hajj, Ghassen Ben Brahim, Hazem Hajj, Haidar Safa
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Huge amounts of data and personal information are being sent to and retrieved from web applications on daily basis. Every application has its own confidentiality and integrity policies. Violating these policies can have broad negative impact on the involved company’s financial status, while enforcing them is very hard even for the developers with good security background. In this paper, we propose a framework that enforces security-by-construction in web applications. Minimal developer effort is required, in a sense that the developer only needs to annotate database attributes by a security class. The web application code is then converted into an intermediary representation, called Extended Program Dependence Graph (EPDG). Using the EPDG, the provided annotations are propagated to the application code and run against generic security enforcement rules that were carefully designed to detect insecure information flows as early as they occur. As a result, any violation in the data’s confidentiality or integrity policies is reported. As a proof of concept, two PHP web applications, Hotel Reservation and Auction, were used for testing and validation. The proposed system was able to catch all the existing insecure information flows at their source. Moreover and to highlight the simplicity of the suggested approaches vs. existing approaches, two professional web developers assessed the annotation tasks needed in the presented case studies and provided a very positive feedback on the simplicity of the annotation task.Keywords: web applications security, secure information flow, program dependence graph, database annotation
Procedia PDF Downloads 467427 Philippine Film Industry and Cultural Policy: A Critical Analysis and Case Study
Authors: Michael Kho Lim
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This paper examines the status of the film industry as an industry in the Philippines—where or how it is classified in the Philippine industrial classification system and how this positioning gives the film industry an identity (or not) and affects (film) policy development and impacts the larger national economy. It is important to look at how the national government recognises Philippine cinema officially, as this will have a direct and indirect impact on the industry in terms of its representation, conduct of business, international relations, and most especially its implications on policy development and implementation. Therefore, it is imperative that the ‘identity’ of Philippine cinema be clearly established and defined in the overall industrial landscape. Having a clear understanding of Philippine cinema’s industry status provides a better view of the bigger picture and helps us determine cinema’s position in the national agenda in terms of priority setting, future direction and how the state perceives and thereby values the film industry as an industry. This will then serve as a frame of reference that will anchor the succeeding discussion. Once the Philippine film industry status is identified, the paper will then clarify how cultural policy is defined, understood, and applied in the Philippines in relation to Philippine cinema by reviewing and analyzing existing policy documents and pending bills in the Philippine Congress and Senate. Lastly, the paper delves into the roles that (national) cultural institutions and industry organisations play as primary drivers or support mechanisms and how they become platforms (or not) for the upliftment of the independent film sector and towards the sustainability of the film industry. The paper concludes by arguing that the role of the government and how government officials perceive and treats culture is far more important than cultural policy itself, as these policies emanate from them.Keywords: cultural and creative industries, cultural policy, film industry, Philippine cinema
Procedia PDF Downloads 426426 A Network of Nouns and Their Features :A Neurocomputational Study
Authors: Skiker Kaoutar, Mounir Maouene
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Neuroimaging studies indicate that a large fronto-parieto-temporal network support nouns and their features, with some areas store semantic knowledge (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory,…), other areas store lexical representation and other areas are implicated in general semantic processing. However, it is not well understood how this fronto-parieto-temporal network can be modulated by different semantic tasks and different semantic relations between nouns. In this study, we combine a behavioral semantic network, functional MRI studies involving object’s related nouns and brain network studies to explain how different semantic tasks and different semantic relations between nouns can modulate the activity within the brain network of nouns and their features. We first describe how nouns and their features form a large scale brain network. For this end, we examine the connectivities between areas recruited during the processing of nouns to know which configurations of interaction areas are possible. We can thus identify if, for example, brain areas that store semantic knowledge communicate via functional/structural links with areas that store lexical representations. Second, we examine how this network is modulated by different semantic tasks involving nouns and finally, we examine how category specific activation may result from the semantic relations among nouns. The results indicate that brain network of nouns and their features is highly modulated and flexible by different semantic tasks and semantic relations. At the end, this study can be used as a guide to help neurosientifics to interpret the pattern of fMRI activations detected in the semantic processing of nouns. Specifically; this study can help to interpret the category specific activations observed extensively in a large number of neuroimaging studies and clinical studies.Keywords: nouns, features, network, category specificity
Procedia PDF Downloads 511425 Effect of Dual Wavelength Light Exposure on Regeneration of Dugesia dorotocephala
Authors: Zayedali Shaikh
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Increasingly now more than ever, UV damage brings with it a litany of minor deformities that can range from mild lesions and discoloring to cataracts and blindness. Pluripotent stem cells in planaria and human skin can be used to treat wounds and skin damage, with the primary limitations being inadequate growth factors. Photobiomodulation therapy in the form of low-intensity red light therapy has been proven to provide helpful benefits in the healing of skin that displays some of the symptoms of UV damage, such as burns and lesions, along with stimulating the proliferation of stem cells in recellularizing tissue. This paper puts forth an alternate means by which to treat the effects of UV damage using the freshwater planarian model system, Dugesia dorotocephala, known for its regenerative abilities and abundance of pluripotent stem cells, which allow for the rapid growth and repair of missing or damaged structures. Our work consisted of exposing planaria to different types of light: red light, blue light, white light, darkness, red and blue light together, UV light, and finally, red and UV light together. The primary focus of this research was on the red and UV lights, with six controls acting as metrics to compare our findings. Through computer-assisted morphological analysis, the results show that there is no significant difference in the rates of regeneration of planaria treated with simultaneous exposure to red and UV light versus planaria in darkness (p > .05), a representation of their preferred natural habitat. Our research suggests the viability of red-light therapy in actively combating UV damage and expediting the growth of epidermal stem cells by acting as another growth factor.Keywords: regenerative medicine, stem cells, planaria, photobiomodulation
Procedia PDF Downloads 66424 Misconception of the Idea ‘Oshinowoism’ and the Later Development in the ‘Yaba Painting School'
Authors: Irokanulo I. Emmanuel
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The idea of ‘Oshinowoism’ is a representational school, which is a concept based on pure and rustic energy in painting. It is described as any painting that depicts the actions of significant through simple illusions. The idea is never to replicate a photographic resemblance with paint but to create an affinity between what one sees and what one artistically intends to create as a representation of that which one beholds in society as an illusion of reality, not as a reality in itself, but as subjective analysis of reality. The disciples of ‘Oshinowoism’ pursue their art from a representational point of view, creating material realities within feels of colours, forms and space, not trying to confuse the art as a substitute for reality nor reality as a substitute for art, but giving each its space and materialism to exist. The depictions of Oshinowo are the constant reminders or perhaps interpretations of those developments that emerged in contemporary African societies because of neocolonialism. This essay has three objectives. First, it examines the misconception around the development of this thought. Secondly, it contextualizes the later contemporary development of painting as art and craft in present-day Lagos, and third, it constructs the misconception and misconstruction of the concept of ‘Oshinowoism’ and offers a correct ideology of this thought with the body of Oshinowo’s work to give the existence to this philosophy. This study looks at the students of Kolade Oshinowo, especially those students who share similar elements and an affinity with the master painting skills, as a way of reconstructing and addressing the misconception in his style. The early works of Olaku, Edosa, and Lara Ige Jacks are plausible evidence of the existential essence of Oshinowo’s artistic philosophy. To this end, therefore, this study would explore the quality of their pictorial techniques and skills in painting as a way of preserving their master’s philosophy.Keywords: Oshinowoism, colour scheme, drawing, philosophy, representations
Procedia PDF Downloads 31423 Studying in Private Muslim Schools in Australia: Implications for Identity, Religiosity, and Adjustment
Authors: Hisham Motkal Abu-Rayya, Maram Hussein Abu-Rayya
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Education in religious private schools raises questions regarding identity, belonging and adaptation in multicultural Australia. This research project aimed at examined cultural identification styles among Australian adolescent Muslims studying in Muslim schools, adolescents’ religiosity and the interconnections between cultural identification styles, religiosity, and adaptation. Two Muslim high school samples were recruited for the purposes of this study, one from Muslim schools in metropolitan Sydney and one from Muslim schools in metropolitan Melbourne. Participants filled in a survey measuring themes of the current study. Findings revealed that the majority of Australian adolescent Muslims showed a preference for the integration identification style (55.2%); separation was less prevailing (26.9%), followed by assimilation (9.7%) and marginalisation (8.3%). Supporting evidence suggests that the styles of identification were valid representation of the participants’ identification. A series of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that while adolescents’ preference for integration of their cultural and Australian identities was advantageous for a range of their psychological and socio-cultural adaptation measures, marginalisation was consistently the worst. Further hierarchical regression analyses showed that adolescent Muslims’ religiosity was better for a range of their adaptation measures compared to their preference for an integration acculturation style. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.Keywords: adaptation, identity, multiculturalism, religious school education
Procedia PDF Downloads 295422 Transforming Healthcare with Immersive Visualization: An Analysis of Virtual and Holographic Health Information Platforms
Authors: Hossein Miri, Zhou YongQi, Chan Bormei-Suy
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The development of advanced technologies and innovative solutions has opened up exciting new possibilities for revolutionizing healthcare systems. One such emerging concept is the use of virtual and holographic health information platforms that aim to provide interactive and personalized medical information to users. This paper provides a review of notable virtual and holographic health information platforms. It begins by highlighting the need for information visualization and 3D representation in healthcare. It then proceeds to provide background knowledge on information visualization and historical developments in 3D visualization technology. Additional domain knowledge concerning holography, holographic computing, and mixed reality is then introduced, followed by highlighting some of their common applications and use cases. After setting the scene and defining the context, the need and importance of virtual and holographic visualization in medicine are discussed. Subsequently, some of the current research areas and applications of digital holography and holographic technology are explored, alongside the importance and role of virtual and holographic visualization in genetics and genomics. An analysis of the key principles and concepts underlying virtual and holographic health information systems is presented, as well as their potential implications for healthcare are pointed out. The paper concludes by examining the most notable existing mixed-reality applications and systems that help doctors visualize diagnostic and genetic data and assist in patient education and communication. This paper is intended to be a valuable resource for researchers, developers, and healthcare professionals who are interested in the use of virtual and holographic technologies to improve healthcare.Keywords: virtual, holographic, health information platform, personalized interactive medical information
Procedia PDF Downloads 76421 The Posthuman Condition and a Translational Ethics of Entanglement
Authors: Shabnam Naderi
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Traditional understandings of ethics considered translators, translations, technologies and other agents as separate and prioritized human agents. In fact, ethics was equated with morality. This disengaged understanding of ethics is superseded by an ethics of relation/entanglement in the posthuman philosophy. According to this ethics of entanglement, human and nonhuman agents are in constant ‘intra-action’. The human is not separate from nature, from technology and from other nonhuman entities, and an ethics of translation in this regard cannot be separated from technology and ecology and get defined merely within the realm of human-human encounter. As such, a posthuman ethics offers opportunities for change and responds to the changing nature of reality, it is negotiable and reveals itself as a moment-by-moment practice (i.e. as temporally emergent and beyond determinacy and permanence). Far from the linguistic or cultural, or individual concerns, posthuman translational ethics discusses how the former rigid norms and laws are challenged in a process ontology which puts emphasis on activity and activation and considers ethics as surfacing in activity, not as a predefined set of rules and values. In this sense, traditional ethical principles like faithfulness, accuracy and representation are superseded by principles of privacy, sustainability, multiplicity and decentralization. The present conceptual study, drawing on Ferrando’s philosophical posthumanism (as a post-humanism, as a post-dualism and as a post-anthropocentrism), Deleuze-Guattarian philosophy of immanence and Barad’s physics-philosophy strives to destabilize traditional understandings of translation ethics and bring an ethics that has loose ends and revolves around multiplicity and decentralization into the picture.Keywords: ethics of entanglement, post-anthropocentrism, post-dualism, post-humanism, translation
Procedia PDF Downloads 67420 A Study of Transferable Skills for Work-Based Learning (WBL) Assessment
Authors: Abdool Qaiyum Mohabuth
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Transferrable skills are learnt abilities which are mainly acquired when experiencing work. University students have the opportunities to develop the knowledge and aptitude at work when they undertake WBL placement during their studies. There is a range of transferrable skills which students may acquire at their placement settings. Several studies have tried to identify a core set of transferrable skills which students can acquire at their placement settings. However, the different lists proposed have often been criticised for being exhaustive and duplicative. In addition, assessing the achievement of students on practice learning based on the transferrable skills is regarded as being complex and tedious due to the variability of placement settings. No attempt has been made in investigating whether these skills are assessable at practice settings. This study seeks to define a set of generic transferrable skills that can be assessed during WBL practice. Quantitative technique was used involving the design of two questionnaires. One was administered to University of Mauritius students who have undertaken WBL practice and the other was slightly modified, destined to mentors who have supervised and assessed students at placement settings. To obtain a good representation of the student’s population, the sample considered was stratified over four Faculties. As for the mentors, probability sampling was considered. Findings revealed that transferrable skills may be subject to formal assessment at practice settings. Hypothesis tested indicate that there was no significant difference between students and mentors as regards to the application of transferrable skills for formal assessment. A list of core transferrable skills that are assessable at any practice settings has been defined after taking into account their degree of being generic, extent of acquisition at work settings and their consideration for formal assessment. Both students and mentors assert that these transferrable skills are accessible at work settings and require commitment and energy to be acquired successfully.Keywords: knowledge, skills, assessment, placement, mentors
Procedia PDF Downloads 268419 'Critical Performance,' an Arts-Based Method for Exploring HIV-Related Stigma, Social Support, and Access to Care among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Rural China
Authors: Chiao-Wen Lan, David Gere
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Background and Significance: Performance has a rich history of imparting information and encouraging reflection, yet there is a paucity of literature on applying performance as a method of analysis and not as a medium for health education. This study aimed to apply ethnodrama strategies to the issue of HIV-related stigma in rural China and to use a critical performance as a vehicle for communication of health research. Methods: The program, titled 'STOP STIGMA,' included dance, narratives and original quotes from people living with HIV/AIDS in China, and spectacle such as photographs, set, and props corresponding to the history of HIV in rural China. Results: The performance represented a step away from a completely textual interpretation of data towards a theatrical style that begins to privilege what arts-based research scholars Rossiter and colleagues have termed 'an embodied, theatrical representation of data.' It offered an opportunity to deliver individual and collective stories that represent how HIV-positive people experience living with HIV/AIDS in China, which could play an integral part in the formulation of actions to effect change. Discussion: This method of communicating health research has implications for fostering dialogue among researchers, community members, and medical practitioners. Although arts-based approaches are not new to the scientific community, the integration of dance, video, ethnodrama, and sciences provides opportunities to innovate in non-traditional research dissemination and communication.Keywords: health communication, HIV/AIDS, stigma, vulnerable populations
Procedia PDF Downloads 112418 The Impact of Window Opening Occupant Behavior Models on Building Energy Performance
Authors: Habtamu Tkubet Ebuy
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Purpose Conventional dynamic energy simulation tools go beyond the static dimension of simplified methods by providing better and more accurate prediction of building performance. However, their ability to forecast actual performance is undermined by a low representation of human interactions. The purpose of this study is to examine the potential benefits of incorporating information on occupant diversity into occupant behavior models used to simulate building performance. The co-simulation of the stochastic behavior of the occupants substantially increases the accuracy of the simulation. Design/methodology/approach In this article, probabilistic models of the "opening and closing" behavior of the window of inhabitants have been developed in a separate multi-agent platform, SimOcc, and implemented in the building simulation, TRNSYS, in such a way that the behavior of the window with the interconnectivity can be reflected in the simulation analysis of the building. Findings The results of the study prove that the application of complex behaviors is important to research in predicting actual building performance. The results aid in the identification of the gap between reality and existing simulation methods. We hope this study and its results will serve as a guide for researchers interested in investigating occupant behavior in the future. Research limitations/implications Further case studies involving multi-user behavior for complex commercial buildings need to more understand the impact of the occupant behavior on building performance. Originality/value This study is considered as a good opportunity to achieve the national strategy by showing a suitable tool to help stakeholders in the design phase of new or retrofitted buildings to improve the performance of office buildings.Keywords: occupant behavior, co-simulation, energy consumption, thermal comfort
Procedia PDF Downloads 93417 Learning Dynamic Representations of Nodes in Temporally Variant Graphs
Authors: Sandra Mitrovic, Gaurav Singh
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In many industries, including telecommunications, churn prediction has been a topic of active research. A lot of attention has been drawn on devising the most informative features, and this area of research has gained even more focus with spread of (social) network analytics. The call detail records (CDRs) have been used to construct customer networks and extract potentially useful features. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies including network features have yet proposed a generic way of representing network information. Instead, ad-hoc and dataset dependent solutions have been suggested. In this work, we build upon a recently presented method (node2vec) to obtain representations for nodes in observed network. The proposed approach is generic and applicable to any network and domain. Unlike node2vec, which assumes a static network, we consider a dynamic and time-evolving network. To account for this, we propose an approach that constructs the feature representation of each node by generating its node2vec representations at different timestamps, concatenating them and finally compressing using an auto-encoder-like method in order to retain reasonably long and informative feature vectors. We test the proposed method on churn prediction task in telco domain. To predict churners at timestamp ts+1, we construct training and testing datasets consisting of feature vectors from time intervals [t1, ts-1] and [t2, ts] respectively, and use traditional supervised classification models like SVM and Logistic Regression. Observed results show the effectiveness of proposed approach as compared to ad-hoc feature selection based approaches and static node2vec.Keywords: churn prediction, dynamic networks, node2vec, auto-encoders
Procedia PDF Downloads 310416 'Infection in the Sentence': The Castration of a Black Woman's Dream of Authorship as Manifested in Buchi Emecheta's Second Class Citizen
Authors: Aseel Hatif Jassam, Hadeel Hatif Jassam
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The paper discusses the phallocentric discourse that is challenged by women in general and of women of color in particular in spite of the simultaneity of oppression due to race, class, and gender in the diaspora. Therefore, the paper gives a brief account of women's experience in the light of postcolonial feminist theory. The paper also cast light on the theories of Luce Irigaray and Helen Cixous, two Feminist theorists who support and advise women to have their own discourse to challenge the infectious patriarchal sentence advocated by Sigmund Freud and Harold Bloom's model of literary history. Black women authors like BuchiEmecheta as well as her alter ego Adah, a Nigerian-born girl and the protagonist of her semi-autobiographical novel, Second Class Citizen, suffer from this phallocentric and oppressive sentence and displacement as they migrate from Nigeria, a former British colony where they feel marginalized to North London with the hope of realizing their dreams. Yet, in the British diaspora, they get culturally shocked and continue to suffer from further marginalization due to class and race and are insulted and interiorized ironically by their patriarchal husbands who try to put an end to their dreams of authorship. With the phallocentric belief that women aren't capable of self-representation in the background of their mindsets, the violent Sylvester Onwordi and Francis Obi, the husbands of both Emecheta and Adah, respectively have practiced oppression on them by burning their own authoritative voice, represented by the novels they write while they are struggling with their economically atrocious living experience in the British diaspora.Keywords: authorship, British diaspora, discourse, phallocentric, patriarchy
Procedia PDF Downloads 169415 A New Multi-Target, Multi-Agent Search and Rescue Path Planning Approach
Authors: Jean Berger, Nassirou Lo, Martin Noel
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Perfectly suited for natural or man-made emergency and disaster management situations such as flood, earthquakes, tornadoes, or tsunami, multi-target search path planning for a team of rescue agents is known to be computationally hard, and most techniques developed so far come short to successfully estimate optimality gap. A novel mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) formulation is proposed to optimally solve the multi-target multi-agent discrete search and rescue (SAR) path planning problem. Aimed at maximizing cumulative probability of successful target detection, it captures anticipated feedback information associated with possible observation outcomes resulting from projected path execution, while modeling agent discrete actions over all possible moving directions. Problem modeling further takes advantage of network representation to encompass decision variables, expedite compact constraint specification, and lead to substantial problem-solving speed-up. The proposed MIP approach uses CPLEX optimization machinery, efficiently computing near-optimal solutions for practical size problems, while giving a robust upper bound obtained from Lagrangean integrality constraint relaxation. Should eventually a target be positively detected during plan execution, a new problem instance would simply be reformulated from the current state, and then solved over the next decision cycle. A computational experiment shows the feasibility and the value of the proposed approach.Keywords: search path planning, search and rescue, multi-agent, mixed-integer linear programming, optimization
Procedia PDF Downloads 366414 Code Embedding for Software Vulnerability Discovery Based on Semantic Information
Authors: Joseph Gear, Yue Xu, Ernest Foo, Praveen Gauravaran, Zahra Jadidi, Leonie Simpson
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Deep learning methods have been seeing an increasing application to the long-standing security research goal of automatic vulnerability detection for source code. Attention, however, must still be paid to the task of producing vector representations for source code (code embeddings) as input for these deep learning models. Graphical representations of code, most predominantly Abstract Syntax Trees and Code Property Graphs, have received some use in this task of late; however, for very large graphs representing very large code snip- pets, learning becomes prohibitively computationally expensive. This expense may be reduced by intelligently pruning this input to only vulnerability-relevant information; however, little research in this area has been performed. Additionally, most existing work comprehends code based solely on the structure of the graph at the expense of the information contained by the node in the graph. This paper proposes Semantic-enhanced Code Embedding for Vulnerability Discovery (SCEVD), a deep learning model which uses semantic-based feature selection for its vulnerability classification model. It uses information from the nodes as well as the structure of the code graph in order to select features which are most indicative of the presence or absence of vulnerabilities. This model is implemented and experimentally tested using the SARD Juliet vulnerability test suite to determine its efficacy. It is able to improve on existing code graph feature selection methods, as demonstrated by its improved ability to discover vulnerabilities.Keywords: code representation, deep learning, source code semantics, vulnerability discovery
Procedia PDF Downloads 148413 Survey of Hawke's Bay Tourism Based Businesses: Tsunami Understanding and Preparation
Authors: V. A. Ritchie
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The loss of life and livelihood experienced after the magnitude 9.3 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami on 26 December 2004 and magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan on 11 March 2011, has raised global awareness and brought tsunami phenomenology, nomenclature, and representation into sharp focus. At the same time, travel and tourism continue to increase, contributing around 1 in 11 jobs worldwide. This increase in tourism is especially true for coastal zones, placing pressure on decision-makers to downplay tsunami risks and at the same time provide adequate tsunami warning so that holidaymakers will feel confident enough to visit places of high tsunami risk. This study investigates how well tsunami preparedness messages are getting through for tourist-based businesses in Hawke’s Bay New Zealand, a region of frequent seismic activity and a high probability of experiencing a nearshore tsunami. The aim of this study is to investigate whether tourists based businesses are well informed about tsunamis, how well they understand that information and to what extent their clients are included in awareness raising and evacuation processes. In high-risk tsunami zones, such as Hawke’s Bay, tourism based businesses face competitive tension between short term business profitability and longer term reputational issues related to preventable loss of life from natural hazards, such as tsunamis. This study will address ways to accommodate culturally and linguistically relevant tourist awareness measures without discouraging tourists or being too costly to implement.Keywords: tsunami risk and response, travel and tourism, business preparedness, cross cultural knowledge transfer
Procedia PDF Downloads 144412 Community Forest Management and Ecological and Economic Sustainability: A Two-Way Street
Authors: Sony Baral, Harald Vacik
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This study analyzes the sustainability of community forest management in two community forests in Terai and Hills of Nepal, representing four forest types: 1) Shorearobusta, 2) Terai hardwood, 3) Schima-Castanopsis, and 4) other Hills. The sustainability goals for this region include maintaining and enhancing the forest stocks. Considering this, we analysed changes in species composition, stand density, growing stock volume, and growth-to-removal ratio at 3-5 year intervals from 2005-2016 within 109 permanent forest plots (57 in the Terai and 52 in the Hills). To complement inventory data, forest users, forest committee members, and forest officials were consulted. The results indicate that the relative representation of economically valuable tree species has increased. Based on trends in stand density, both forests are being sustainably managed. Pole-sized trees dominated the diameter distribution, however, with a limited number of mature trees and declined regeneration. The forests were over-harvested until 2013 but under-harvested in the recent period in the Hills. In contrast, both forest types were under-harvested throughout the inventory period in the Terai. We found that the ecological dimension of sustainable forest management is strongly achieved while the economic dimension is lacking behind the current potential. Thus, we conclude that maintaining a large number of trees in the forest does not necessarily ensure both ecological and economical sustainability. Instead, priority should be given on a rational estimation of the annual harvest rates to enhance forest resource conditions together with regular benefits to the local communities.Keywords: community forests, diversity, growing stock, forest management, sustainability, nepal
Procedia PDF Downloads 87411 I Feel Pretty: Using Discretization to Unpack Gender Disparity in Musical Theatre - A Study of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story
Authors: Erin McKellar, Narelle Yeo
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Gender disparity can be found in the representation of the female characters in Leonard Bernstein’s musical West Side Story. As a postmodern composer, Bernstein was open about his social activism, yet did not consider his compositional portrayal of female characters as part of that activism. Using discretization as an analysis tool, this thesis explores the melodic contours of male and female songs in West Side Story to show differences in complexity between male and female characterisation. The analysis explores the intervallic relationship between the vocal line and melodic color in relation to the accompaniment harmony, taking into consideration the use of consonance and dissonance. West Side Story is commonly known for its distinct use of the tritone motif and its inherent dissonance. It is evident when reviewing the findings of this study that there is a distinct disparity between male-led and female-led music. The male-led numbers consistently adhere to a dissonant aesthetic with the tritone motif implemented in all of the extracted songs. By contrast, the female songs remain consonant with simple intervallic movements. By examining the results of this study through the lens of Equality Feminism, this thesis finds that Bernstein has simplified the characterisations of the female leads. The thesis further proposes that without cognisant consideration of the compositional portrayal of women, the musical theatre will continue to reinforce gender stereotypes, as evident through this study of Bernstein’s West Side Story.Keywords: music theatre, gender bias, composition, Leonard Bernstein
Procedia PDF Downloads 150410 Setting Uncertainty Conditions Using Singular Values for Repetitive Control in State Feedback
Authors: Muhammad A. Alsubaie, Mubarak K. H. Alhajri, Tarek S. Altowaim
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A repetitive controller designed to accommodate periodic disturbances via state feedback is discussed. Periodic disturbances can be represented by a time delay model in a positive feedback loop acting on system output. A direct use of the small gain theorem solves the periodic disturbances problem via 1) isolating the delay model, 2) finding the overall system representation around the delay model and 3) designing a feedback controller that assures overall system stability and tracking error convergence. This paper addresses uncertainty conditions for the repetitive controller designed in state feedback in either past error feedforward or current error feedback using singular values. The uncertainty investigation is based on the overall system found and the stability condition associated with it; depending on the scheme used, to set an upper/lower limit weighting parameter. This creates a region that should not be exceeded in selecting the weighting parameter which in turns assures performance improvement against system uncertainty. Repetitive control problem can be described in lifted form. This allows the usage of singular values principle in setting the range for the weighting parameter selection. The Simulation results obtained show a tracking error convergence against dynamic system perturbation if the weighting parameter chosen is within the range obtained. Simulation results also show the advantage of weighting parameter usage compared to the case where it is omitted.Keywords: model mismatch, repetitive control, singular values, state feedback
Procedia PDF Downloads 145409 Climate Change Effects on Agriculture
Authors: Abdellatif Chebboub
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Agricultural production is sensitive to weather and thus directly affected by climate change. Plausible estimates of these climate change impacts require combined use of climate, crop, and economic models. Results from previous studies vary substantially due to differences in models, scenarios, and data. This paper is part of a collective effort to systematically integrate these three types of models. We focus on the economic component of the assessment, investigating how nine global economic models of agriculture represent endogenous responses to seven standardized climate change scenarios produced by two climate and five crop models. These responses include adjustments in yields, area, consumption, and international trade. We apply biophysical shocks derived from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s representative concentration pathway with end-of-century radiative forcing of 8.5 W/m2. The mean biophysical yield effect with no incremental CO2 fertilization is a 17% reduction globally by 2050 relative to a scenario with unchanging climate. Endogenous economic responses reduce yield loss to 11%, increase area of major crops by 11%, and reduce consumption by 3%. Agricultural production, cropland area, trade, and prices show the greatest degree of variability in response to climate change, and consumption the lowest. The sources of these differences include model structure and specification; in particular, model assumptions about ease of land use conversion, intensification, and trade. This study identifies where models disagree on the relative responses to climate shocks and highlights research activities needed to improve the representation of agricultural adaptation responses to climate change.Keywords: climate change, agriculture, weather change, danger of climate change
Procedia PDF Downloads 308408 Biodiversity and Climate Change: Consequences for Norway Spruce Mountain Forests in Slovakia
Authors: Jozef Mindas, Jaroslav Skvarenina, Jana Skvareninova
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Study of the effects of climate change on Norway Spruce (Picea abies) forests has mainly focused on the diversity of tree species diversity of tree species as a result of the ability of species to tolerate temperature and moisture changes as well as some effects of disturbance regime changes. The tree species’ diversity changes in spruce forests due to climate change have been analyzed via gap model. Forest gap model is a dynamic model for calculation basic characteristics of individual forest trees. Input ecological data for model calculations have been taken from the permanent research plots located in primeval forests in mountainous regions in Slovakia. The results of regional scenarios of the climatic change for the territory of Slovakia have been used, from which the values are according to the CGCM3.1 (global) model, KNMI and MPI (regional) models. Model results for conditions of the climate change scenarios suggest a shift of the upper forest limit to the region of the present subalpine zone, in supramontane zone. N. spruce representation will decrease at the expense of beech and precious broadleaved species (Acer sp., Sorbus sp., Fraxinus sp.). The most significant tree species diversity changes have been identified for the upper tree line and current belt of dwarf pine (Pinus mugo) occurrence. The results have been also discussed in relation to most important disturbances (wind storms, snow and ice storms) and phenological changes which consequences are little known. Special discussion is focused on biomass production changes in relation to carbon storage diversity in different carbon pools.Keywords: biodiversity, climate change, Norway spruce forests, gap model
Procedia PDF Downloads 279407 Full-Face Hyaluronic Acid Implants Assisted by Artificial Intelligence-Generated Post-treatment 3D Models
Authors: Ciro Cursio, Pio Luigi Cursio, Giulia Cursio, Isabella Chiardi, Luigi Cursio
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Introduction: Full-face aesthetic treatments often present a difficult task: since different patients possess different anatomical and tissue characteristics, there is no guarantee that the same treatment will have the same effect on multiple patients; additionally, full-face rejuvenation and beautification treatments require not only a high degree of technical skill but also the ability to choose the right product for each area and a keen artistic eye. Method: We present an artificial intelligence-based algorithm that can generate realistic post-treatment 3D models based on the patient’s requests together with the doctor’s input. These 3-dimensional predictions can be used by the practitioner for two purposes: firstly, they help ensure that the patient and the doctor are completely aligned on the expectations of the treatment; secondly, the doctor can use them as a visual guide, obtaining a natural result that would normally stem from the practitioner's artistic skills. To this end, the algorithm is able to predict injection zones, the type and quantity of hyaluronic acid, the injection depth, and the technique to use. Results: Our innovation consists in providing an objective visual representation of the patient that is helpful in the patient-doctor dialogue. The patient, based on this information, can express her desire to undergo a specific treatment or make changes to the therapeutic plan. In short, the patient becomes an active agent in the choices made before the treatment. Conclusion: We believe that this algorithm will reveal itself as a useful tool in the pre-treatment decision-making process to prevent both the patient and the doctor from making a leap into the dark.Keywords: hyaluronic acid, fillers, full face, artificial intelligence, 3D
Procedia PDF Downloads 77406 Statistical Assessment of Models for Determination of Soil–Water Characteristic Curves of Sand Soils
Authors: S. J. Matlan, M. Mukhlisin, M. R. Taha
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Characterization of the engineering behavior of unsaturated soil is dependent on the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC), a graphical representation of the relationship between water content or degree of saturation and soil suction. A reasonable description of the SWCC is thus important for the accurate prediction of unsaturated soil parameters. The measurement procedures for determining the SWCC, however, are difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. During the past few decades, researchers have laid a major focus on developing empirical equations for predicting the SWCC, with a large number of empirical models suggested. One of the most crucial questions is how precisely existing equations can represent the SWCC. As different models have different ranges of capability, it is essential to evaluate the precision of the SWCC models used for each particular soil type for better SWCC estimation. It is expected that better estimation of SWCC would be achieved via a thorough statistical analysis of its distribution within a particular soil class. With this in view, a statistical analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the reliability of the SWCC prediction models against laboratory measurement. Optimization techniques were used to obtain the best-fit of the model parameters in four forms of SWCC equation, using laboratory data for relatively coarse-textured (i.e., sandy) soil. The four most prominent SWCCs were evaluated and computed for each sample. The result shows that the Brooks and Corey model is the most consistent in describing the SWCC for sand soil type. The Brooks and Corey model prediction also exhibit compatibility with samples ranging from low to high soil water content in which subjected to the samples that evaluated in this study.Keywords: soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC), statistical analysis, unsaturated soil, geotechnical engineering
Procedia PDF Downloads 331405 On the Existence of Homotopic Mapping Between Knowledge Graphs and Graph Embeddings
Authors: Jude K. Safo
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Knowledge Graphs KG) and their relation to Graph Embeddings (GE) represent a unique data structure in the landscape of machine learning (relative to image, text and acoustic data). Unlike the latter, GEs are the only data structure sufficient for representing hierarchically dense, semantic information needed for use-cases like supply chain data and protein folding where the search space exceeds the limits traditional search methods (e.g. page-rank, Dijkstra, etc.). While GEs are effective for compressing low rank tensor data, at scale, they begin to introduce a new problem of ’data retreival’ which we observe in Large Language Models. Notable attempts by transE, TransR and other prominent industry standards have shown a peak performance just north of 57% on WN18 and FB15K benchmarks, insufficient practical industry applications. They’re also limited, in scope, to next node/link predictions. Traditional linear methods like Tucker, CP, PARAFAC and CANDECOMP quickly hit memory limits on tensors exceeding 6.4 million nodes. This paper outlines a topological framework for linear mapping between concepts in KG space and GE space that preserve cardinality. Most importantly we introduce a traceable framework for composing dense linguistic strcutures. We demonstrate performance on WN18 benchmark this model hits. This model does not rely on Large Langauge Models (LLM) though the applications are certainy relevant here as well.Keywords: representation theory, large language models, graph embeddings, applied algebraic topology, applied knot theory, combinatorics
Procedia PDF Downloads 63