Search results for: nominals with the incorporated object

Authors: Tokihiko Akita, Seiichi Mita

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A millimeter-wave radar is the most robust against adverse environments, making it an essential environment recognition sensor for automated driving. However, the reflection signal is sparse and unstable, so it is difficult to obtain the high recognition accuracy. Deep learning provides high accuracy even for them in recognition, but requires large scale datasets with ground truth. Specially, it takes a lot of cost to annotate for a millimeter-wave radar. For the solution, utilizing a simulator that can generate an annotated huge dataset is effective. Simulation of the radar is more difficult to match with real world data than camera image, and recognition by deep learning with higher-order features using the simulator causes further deviation. We have challenged to improve the accuracy of traffic participant classification by fusing simulator and real-world data with domain adaptation technique. Experimental results with the domain adaptation network created by us show that classification accuracy can be improved even with a few real-world data.

Keywords: millimeter-wave radar, object classification, deep learning, simulation, domain adaptation

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Authors: Ming Lu, Xiaojun Li, Bodi Lu, Juehui Xing

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Earthquake damage phenomenon of each large earthquake gives comprehensive and profound real test to the dynamic performance and failure mechanism of different engineering structures. Cognitive engineering structure characteristics through seismic damage phenomenon are often far superior to expensive shaking table experiments. After the earthquake, people will record a variety of different types of engineering damage photos. However, a large number of earthquake damage photographs lack sufficient information and reduce their using value. To improve the research value and the use efficiency of engineering seismic damage photographs, this paper objects to explore and show seismic damage background information, which includes the earthquake magnitude, earthquake intensity, and the damaged structure characteristics. From the research requirement in earthquake engineering field, the authors use the 2008 China Wenchuan M8.0 earthquake photographs, and provide four kinds of attribute indexes and classification, which are seismic information, structure types, earthquake damage parts and disaster causation factors. The final object is to set up an engineering structural seismic damage database based on these four attribute indicators and classification, and eventually build a website providing seismic damage photographs.

Keywords: attribute index, classification method, earthquake damage picture, engineering structure

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Authors: Christian Nounkeu Tatchou

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The concept of mediatization of politics describes changes with regards to media and politics, as the political sphere is increasingly shaped by the media and conforms to its logic. The mediatization of politics in established democracies of the West has been the object of several researches. However, there is an overwhelming paucity of literature on this reconfiguration of the political life around the media in the emerging democracies of the Sub-Saharan Africa. A majority of Sub-Saharan countries have been progressively experiencing the modernization of their societies and significant developments with respect to political communication since the early 1990s. This has been facilitated by factors such as the adoption of democratic reforms, the development of mass media, the advent of social media and the rapid spread of new information and communication technologies. Thus, this paper investigates the extent to which political communication in Sub-Saharan Africa is mediatized, especially with regards to the social media. Through in-depths interviews with twenty political leaders and political observers in Cameroon and Ghana, this article argues that the social media has become the main arena of voters’ mobilization and political participation in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, a greater extent of freedom for political activism on social media is observed in the new democracy of Ghana, unlike in the enduring authoritarian political system of Cameroon where the government attempts to control the use and content of political discourse on social media.

Keywords: mediatization, political communication, social media, sub-saharan africa

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Authors: Sajid Hussain

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The complex domain approach for image segmentation based on active contour has been designed, which deforms step by step to partition an image into numerous expedient regions. A novel region-based trigonometric complex pressure force function is proposed, which propagates around the region of interest using image forces. The signed trigonometric force function controls the propagation of the active contour and the active contour stops on the exact edges of the object accurately. The proposed model makes the level set function binary and uses Gaussian smoothing kernel to adjust and escape the re-initialization procedure. The working principle of the proposed model is as follows: The real image data is transformed into complex data by iota (i) times of image data and the average iota (i) times of horizontal and vertical components of the gradient of image data is inserted in the proposed model to catch complex gradient of the image data. A simple finite difference mathematical technique has been used to implement the proposed model. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed model have been verified and compared with other state-of-the-art models.

Keywords: image segmentation, active contour, level set, Mumford and Shah model

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Authors: F. R. Chen, C. Kisielowski, D. Van Dyck

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In principle, the latest generation aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopes (TEMs) could achieve sub-Å resolution, but there is bottleneck that hinders the final step towards revealing 3D structure. Firstly, in order to achieve a resolution around 1 Å with single atom sensitivity, the electron dose rate needs to be sufficiently large (10⁴-10⁵eÅ⁻² s⁻¹). With such large dose rate, the electron beam can induce surfaces alterations or even bulk modifications, in particular, for electron beam sensitive (soft) materials such as nm size particles, organic materials, proteins or macro-molecules. We will demonstrate methodology of low dose electron holography for observing 3D structure for soft materials such as single Oleic acid molecules at atomic resolution. The main improvement of this new type of electron holography is based on two concepts. Firstly, the total electron dose is distributed over many images obtained at different defocus values from which the electron hologram is then reconstructed. Secondly, in contrast to the current tomographic methods that require projections from several directions, the 3D structural information of the nano-object is then extracted from this one hologram obtained from only one viewing direction.

Keywords: low dose electron microscopy, in-line electron holography, atomic resolution tomography, soft materials

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Authors: Kashika P. H.

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The development of computer vision systems has been greatly aided by the efficient and precise detection of images and videos. Although the ability to recognize and comprehend images is a strength of the human brain, employing technology to tackle this issue is exceedingly challenging. In the past few years, the use of Deep Learning algorithms to treat object detection has dramatically expanded. One of the key issues in the realm of image recognition is the recognition and detection of certain notable people from randomly acquired photographs. Face recognition uses a way to identify, assess, and compare faces for a variety of purposes, including user identification, user counting, and classification. With the aid of an accessible deep learning-based API, this article intends to recognize various faces of people and their facial descriptors more accurately. The purpose of this study is to locate suitable individuals and deliver accurate information about them by using the Amazon Rekognition system to identify a specific human from a vast image dataset. We have chosen the Amazon Rekognition system, which allows for more accurate face analysis, face comparison, and face search, to tackle this difficulty.

Keywords: Amazon rekognition, API, deep learning, computer vision, face detection, text detection

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Authors: Benhui Fan, Fahmi Bedoui, Jinbo Bai

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Incorporated carbon nanotube-BaTiO₃ hybrids (H-CNT-BT) with core-shell structure, a better dispersion of CNTs can be achieved in a semi-crystalline polymeric matrix, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). Carried by BT particles, CNTs are easy to mutually connect which helps to obtain an extremely low percolation threshold (fc). After thermal treatments, the dielectric constants (ε’) of samples further increase which depends on the conditions of thermal treatments such as annealing temperatures, annealing durations and cooling ways. Thus, in order to study more comprehensively about the influence of thermal treatments on composite’s dielectric behaviors, in situ synchrotron X-ray is used to detect re-crystalline behavior of PVDF. Results of wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) show that after the thermal treatment, the content of β polymorph (the polymorph with the highest ε’ among all the polymorphs of PVDF’s crystalline structure) has increased nearly double times at the interfacial region of CNT-PVDF, and the thickness of amorphous layers (La) in PVDF’s long periods (Lp) has shrunk around 10 Å. The evolution of CNT’s network possibly occurs in the procedure of La shrinkage, where the strong interfacial polarization may be aroused and increases ε’ at low frequency. Moreover, an increase in the thickness of crystalline lamella may also arouse more orientational polarization and improve ε’ at high frequency.

Keywords: dielectric properties, thermal treatments, carbon nanotubes, crystalline structure

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Authors: Dechrit Maneetham

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Pick and place task is one among the most important tasks in industrial field handled by 'Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm' (SCARA). Repeatability with high-speed movement in a horizontal plane is a remarkable feature of this type of manipulator. The challenge of design SCARA is the difficulty of achieving stability of high-speed movement with the long length of links. Shorter links arm can move more stable. This condition made the links should be considered restrict then followed by restriction of operation area (workspace). In this research, authors demonstrated on expanding SCARA robot’s workspace in horizontal area via linear sliding actuator that embedded to base link of the robot arm. With one additional prismatic joint, the previous robot manipulator with 3 degree of freedom (3-DOF), 2 revolute joints and 1 prismatic joint becomes 4-DOF PRRP manipulator. This designation increased workspace of robot from 0.5698m² performed by the previous arm (without linear actuator) to 1.1281m² by the proposed arm (with linear actuator). The increasing rate was about 97.97% of workspace with the same links' lengths. The result of experimentation also indicated that the operation time spent to reach object position was also reduced.

Keywords: kinematics, linear sliding actuator, manipulator, control system

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Authors: Jianhua Zhou, Yuwen Zhang

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A two-step multigrid approach is proposed to solve the inverse heat conduction problem in a 3-D object under laser irradiation. In the first step, the location of the laser center is estimated using a coarse and uniform grid system. In the second step, the front-surface temperature is recovered in good accuracy using a multiple grid system in which fine mesh is used at laser spot center to capture the drastic temperature rise in this region but coarse mesh is employed in the peripheral region to reduce the total number of sensors required. The effectiveness of the two-step approach and the multiple grid system are demonstrated by the illustrative inverse solutions. If the measurement data for the temperature and heat flux on the back surface do not contain random error, the proposed multigrid approach can yield more accurate inverse solutions. When the back-surface measurement data contain random noise, accurate inverse solutions cannot be obtained if both temperature and heat flux are measured on the back surface.

Keywords: conduction, inverse problems, conjugated gradient method, laser

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Authors: Florence A. Undiyaundeye, Aniashie Akpanke

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Early identification of developmental disorders in infants and toddlers is critical for the well being of children. It is also an integral function of the primary care medical provider and the early care given in the home or crèche. This paper is focused at providing information on special need infants and toddlers and strategies to support them in developmental concern to cope with the challenges in and out of the classroom and to interact with their peers without stigmatization and inferiority complex. The target children are from birth through three years of age. There is a strong recommendation for developmental surveillance to be incorporated at every well child preventive care program in training and practical stage of formal school settings. The paper posits that any concerns raised during surveillance should be promptly addressed with standardized developmental screening by appropriate health service providers. In addition screening tests should be administered regularly at age 9+, 19+ and 30 months of these infants. The paper also establishes that the early identification of these developmental challenges of the infants and toddlers should lead to further developmental and medical evaluation, diagnosis and treatment, including early developmental school intervention, control and teaching and learning integration and inclusion for proper career build up. Children diagnosed with developmental disorders should be identified as children with special needs so that management is initiated and its underlying etiology may also drive a range of treatment of the child, to parents. Conselling and school integration as applicable to the child’s specific need and care for sustenance in societal functioning.

Keywords: care, special need, support, infants and toddlers, management and developmental disorders

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Authors: Nunziata Ivana Guarneri, Arcangelo Bruna, Giuseppe Spampinato, Antonio Buemi

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In the last decade, automotive companies have invested a lot in terms of innovation about many aspects regarding the automatic driver assistance systems. One innovation regards the usage of a smart camera placed on the car’s side mirror for monitoring the back and lateral road situation. A common road scenario is the overtaking of the preceding car and, in this case, a brief distraction or a loss of concentration can lead the driver to undertake this action, even if there is an already overtaking vehicle, leading to serious accidents. A valid support for a secure drive can be a smart camera system, which is able to automatically analyze the road scenario and consequentially to warn the driver when another vehicle is overtaking. This paper describes a method for monitoring the side view of a vehicle by using camera optical flow motion vectors. The proposed solution detects the presence of incoming vehicles, assesses their distance from the host car, and warns the driver through different levels of alert according to the estimated distance. Due to the low complexity and computational cost, the proposed system ensures real time performances.

Keywords: camera calibration, ego-motion, Kalman filters, object tracking, real time systems

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Authors: Rochelle Botha-Marais

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When lecturing future educators in South Africa, praxis is an indispensable aspect that is often neglected. Without properly understanding how the theory taught in lecture halls relates to their future position as educators, we can not expect these students to be fully equipped future teachers. To enable education students at the Vaal Campus of the North West University - who have the Afrikaans language as major - to discover the link between theory and practice, the author created an assignment on phonetics in which the use of technology was incorporated. In the past, students had to submit an assignment or worksheet and they did not get the opportunity to apply their newly found knowledge in a practical manner. For potential future teachers, this application is essential. This paper will demonstrate how technology is used in the second year Afrikaans education module to promote student engagement and self-directed learning. Students were introduced to innovative new technologies alongside more familiar applications to shape a 21st century learning environment where students can think, communicate, solve problems, collaborate and take responsibility for their own teaching and learning. The paper will also reflect on student feedback pertaining the use and efficiency of technology in the Afrikaans module and the possible impact thereof on their own teaching and learning landscape. The aim of this paper is to showcase how technology can be used to maximize the students learning experience and equip future education students with the tools and knowledge to introduce technology-enhanced learning in their own teaching practice.

Keywords: education students, theory and practice, self-directed learning, student engagement, technology

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Authors: Didik Sugiyanto

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Conditions that often occur in the framework of a particular vehicle at a car is a collision or collision with another object, an example of such damage is to the frame or chassis for the required design framework that is able to absorb impact energy. Characteristics of the material are influenced by the value of the stiffness of the material that need to be considered in choosing the material properties of the material. To obtain material properties that can be adapted to the experimental conditions tested the tensile and compression testing. In this study focused on the chassis at an angle of 150, 300, and 450. It is based on field studies that vehicle primarily for freight cars have a point of order light between 150 to 450. Research methods include design tools, design framework, procurement of materials and experimental tools, tool-making, the manufacture of the test framework, and the testing process, experiment is testing the power of the press to know the order. From this test obtained the maximum force on the corner of 150 was 569.76 kg at a distance of 16 mm, angle 300 is 370.3 kg at a distance of 15 mm, angle 450 is 391.71 kg at a distance of 28 mm. After reaching the maximum force the order will occur collapse, followed by a decrease in the next distance. It can be concluded that the greatest strain energy occurs at an angle of 150. So it is known that the frame at an angle of 150 produces the best level of security.

Keywords: buckling, collapse, body frame, vehicle

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Authors: Mohammed Hasan Salahat, Stave Wade

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This paper presents an application of a “Systematic Soft Domain Driven Design Framework” as a soft systems approach to domain-driven design of information systems development. The framework combining techniques from Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), the Unified Modeling Language (UML), and an implementation pattern knows as ‘Naked Objects’. This framework have been used in action research projects that have involved the investigation and modeling of business processes using object-oriented domain models and the implementation of software systems based on those domain models. Within this framework, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used as a guiding methodology to explore the problem situation and to develop the domain model using UML for the given business domain. The framework is proposed and evaluated in our previous works, and a real case study ‘Information Retrieval System for Academic Research’ is used, in this paper, to show further practice and evaluation of the framework in different business domain. We argue that there are advantages from combining and using techniques from different methodologies in this way for business domain modeling. The framework is overviewed and justified as multi-methodology using Mingers Multi-Methodology ideas.

Keywords: SSM, UML, domain-driven design, soft domain-driven design, naked objects, soft language, information retrieval, multimethodology

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Authors: S. Nandagopalan, N. Pradeep

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The aim of this paper is to propose a general framework for storing, analyzing, and extracting knowledge from two-dimensional echocardiographic images, color Doppler images, non-medical images, and general data sets. A number of high performance data mining algorithms have been used to carry out this task. Our framework encompasses four layers namely physical storage, object identification, knowledge discovery, user level. Techniques such as active contour model to identify the cardiac chambers, pixel classification to segment the color Doppler echo image, universal model for image retrieval, Bayesian method for classification, parallel algorithms for image segmentation, etc., were employed. Using the feature vector database that have been efficiently constructed, one can perform various data mining tasks like clustering, classification, etc. with efficient algorithms along with image mining given a query image. All these facilities are included in the framework that is supported by state-of-the-art user interface (UI). The algorithms were tested with actual patient data and Coral image database and the results show that their performance is better than the results reported already.

Keywords: active contour, Bayesian, echocardiographic image, feature vector

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Authors: G. C. Tikkiwal, Mukesh Upadhyay

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During the surveillance operations at war or peace time, the Radar operator gets a scatter of targets over the screen. This may be a tracked vehicle like tank vis-à-vis T72, BMP etc, or it may be a wheeled vehicle like ALS, TATRA, 2.5Tonne, Shaktiman or moving army, moving convoys etc. The Radar operator selects one of the promising targets into Single Target Tracking (STT) mode. Once the target is locked, the operator gets a typical audible signal into his headphones. With reference to the gained experience and training over the time, the operator then identifies the random target. But this process is cumbersome and is solely dependent on the skills of the operator, thus may lead to misclassification of the object. In this paper we present a technique using mathematical and statistical methods like Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify the random objects. The process of classification is based on transforming the audible signature of target into music octave-notes. The whole methodology is then automated by developing suitable software. This automation increases the efficiency of identification of the random target by reducing the chances of misclassification. This whole study is based on live data.

Keywords: radar target, fft, principal component analysis, eigenvector, octave-notes, dsp

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Authors: Akiko Kondo, Akio Kondo

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We are facing regional problems to low birth rate and longevity in Japan. Under this situation, there are some local municipalities which lose their vitality. The aims of this study are to clarify the present state of local public transportation services in local municipalities and relation between local public transportation services and population quantitatively. We conducted a questionnaire survey concerning regional agenda in all local municipalities in Japan. We obtained responses concerning the present state of convenience in use of public transportation and local public transportation services. Based on the data gathered from the survey, it is apparent that we should some sort of measures concerning public transportation services. Convenience in use of public transportation becomes an object of public concern in many rural regions. It is also clarified that some local municipalities introduce a demand bus for the purpose of promotion of administrative and financial efficiency. They also introduce a demand taxi in order to secure transportation to weak people in transportation and eliminate of blank area related to public transportation services. In addition, we construct a population model which includes explanatory variables of present states of local public transportation services. From this result, we can clarify the relation between public transportation services and population quantitatively.

Keywords: public transportation, local municipality, regional analysis, regional issue

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Authors: Manuela Nayantara Jeyaraj

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PostgreSQL is an Object-Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS) with an architecture that ensures optimal quality data management. But due to the shading growth of similar ORDBMS, PostgreSQL has not been renowned among the database user community. Despite having its features and in-built functionalities shadowed, PostgreSQL renders a vast range of utilities for data manipulation and hence calling for it to be upheld more among users. But introducing PostgreSQL in order to stimulate its advantageous features among users, mandates endorsing learn-ability as an add-on as the target groups considered consist of both amateur as well as professional PostgreSQL users. The scope of this paper deliberates providing easy contemplation of query formulations and flows through a visual editor designed according to user interface principles that standby to support every aspect of making PostgreSQL learn-able by self-operation and creation of queries within the visual editor. This paper tends to scrutinize the importance of choosing PostgreSQL as the working database environment, the visual perspectives that influence human behaviour and ultimately learning, the modes in which learn-ability can be provided via visualization and the advantages reaped by the implementation of the proposed system features.

Keywords: database, learn-ability, PostgreSQL, query, visual-editor

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Authors: Sarekha Woranuch, Rangrong Yoksan

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Active packaging has been developed based on the incorporation of certain additives, in particular antimicrobial and antioxidant agents, into packaging systems to maintain or extend product quality and shelf-life. Ferulic acid is one of the most effective natural phenolic antioxidants, which has been used in food, pharmaceutical and active packaging film applications. However, most phenolic compounds are sensitive to oxygen, light and heat; its activities are thus lost during product formulation and processing. Grafting ferulic acid onto polymer is an alternative to reduce its loss under thermal processes. Therefore, the objectives of the present research were to study the thermal stability of ferulic acid after grafting onto chitosan, and to investigate the possibility of using ferulic acid-grafted chitosan (FA-g-CTS) as an antioxidant for active biodegradable packaging film. FA-g-CTS was incorporated into biodegradable film via a two-step process, i.e. compounding extrusion at temperature up to 150 °C followed by blown film extrusion at temperature up to 175 °C. Although incorporating FA-g-CTS with a content of 0.02–0.16% (w/w) caused decreased water vapor barrier property and reduced extensibility, the films showed improved oxygen barrier property and antioxidant activity. Radical scavenging activity and reducing power of the film containing FA-g-CTS with a content of 0.04% (w/w) were higher than that of the naked film about 254% and 94%, respectively. Tensile strength and rigidity of the films were not significantly affected by adding FA-g-CTS with a content of 0.02–0.08% (w/w). The results indicated that FA-g-CTS could be potentially used as an antioxidant for active packaging film.

Keywords: active packaging film, antioxidant activity, chitosan, ferulic acid

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Authors: Ashish Kumar, T. Venkatappa Rao, Subhendu Ray Chowdhury, S. V. S. Ramana Reddy

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The main objective of this work is to determine the influence of electron beam irradiation on thermal and mechanical properties of Poly (lactic acid) (PLA)/Poly (ethylene-co-glycidyle methacrylate) (PEGM)/Hexagonal boron nitride (HBN) blend-composites. To reduce the brittleness and improve the toughness of PLA, the PLA/PEGM blend is prepared by using twin-screw Micro compounder. However, the heat deflection temperature (HDT) and other tensile properties were reduced. The HBN has been incorporated into the PLA/PEGM blend as part per hundred i.e. 5 phr and 10phr to improve the HDT. The prepared specimens of blend and blend-composites were irradiated to high energy (4.5 MeV) electron beam (E-beam) at different radiation doses to introduce the cross linking among the polymer chains and uniform dispersion of HBN particles in the PLA/PEGM/HBN blend-composites. The further improvement in the notched impact strength and HDT have been achieved in the case of PLA/PEGM/HBN blend-composites. The irradiated PLA/PEGM/HBN 5phr blend composite shows high notched impact strength and HDT as compared to other unirradiated and E-beam irradiated blend and blend-composites. The improvements in the yield strength and tensile modulus have also been noticed in the case of E-beam irradiated PLA/PEGM/HBN blend-composites as compared to unirradiated blend-composites.

Keywords: blend-composite, e-beam, HDT, PEGM, PLA

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Authors: Jiří Barta, Teodor Baláž, Tomáš Ludík, Jiří. F. Urbánek

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This article deals with the outputs of project acronym ADAPTIV of Czech Defence Research Project. This Project solved tends to adaptive camouflage. The camouflage is concealment by means of disguise. Perceptive interface between recipient and camouflaged object is visualized by means of textile modular screens. Screens special light semi-permeability enables front/ back projection with nearly identical light parameters. Information permeability, towards illusion creation, must be controlled by the camouflage provider by means sophisticated and mastered illusion with perfect scenarios. The project ADAPTIV was primarily funded with the maximum possible use of COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) principle asks special definition of feasibility conditions, especially recipient space position. This paper deals with uses the ADAPTIV output with name DATAsam with modification for infrared camouflage. It is focused on active camouflage in infrared spectrum of emissivity at <8;14> μm for laboratory conditions. The main chapter provides basic experiments and testing physical properties needed for camouflage in infrared environment. The evaluation experiments revealed the possibility of use case in various types of camouflage.

Keywords: camouflage, ADAPTIV, infrared camouflage, computer-aided, COTS

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Authors: Mohamed H. El-Newehy, Badr M. Thamer, Nasser A. M. Barakat, Mohammad A.Abdelkareem, Salem S. Al-Deyab, Hak Y. Kim

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In this study, the influence of nitrogen doping on the electrocatalytic activity of carbon nanofibers with nickel nanoparticles toward methanol oxidation is introduced. The modified carbon nanofibers have been synthesized from calcination of electrospun nanofiber mats composed of nickel acetate tetrahydrate, poly(vinyl alcohol) and urea in argon atmosphere at 750oC. The utilized physicochemical characterizations indicated that the proposed strategy leads to form carbon nanofibers having nickel nanoparticles and doped by nitrogen. Moreover, due to the high-applied voltage during the electrospinning process, the utilized urea chemically bonds with the polymer matrix, which leads to form nitrogen-doped CNFs after the calcination process. Investigation of the electrocatalytic activity indicated that nitrogen doping NiCNFs strongly enhances the oxidation process of methanol as the current density increases from 52.5 to 198.5 mA/cm2 when the urea content in the original electrospun solution was 4 wt% urea. Moreover, the nanofibrous morphology exhibits distinct impact on the electrocatalytic activity. Also, nitrogen-doping enhanced the stability of the introduced Ni-based electrocatalyst. Overall, the present study introduces effective and simple strategy to modify the electrocatalytic activity of the nickel-based materials.

Keywords: electrospinning, methanol electrooxidation, fuel cells, nitrogen-doping, nickel

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Authors: Man Chung Chu

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In the dynamic family interaction, parental self-efficacy is connected with parent-child attachment. Parental self-efficacy and its corresponding behavior played an influential role in the lifespan development of the child. Recently, Mindful parenting is popularly addressed as it lightens parents’ awareness to their own thoughts feelings and behaviors by adapting a nonjudgmental attitude in the present moment being with the child. The effectiveness of mindful parent is considerably significant in enhancing parent-child relationship as well as family functioning. Parenting in early developmental stage is always challenging and essential for later growth, however, literature is rarely exploring the mediation of mindful parenting on the effect of parent self-efficacy on parent-child attachment in preschoolers’ families. The mediation effect of the research shed light on how mindful parenting should head, where parental self-efficacy training should be incorporated together with mindful family program in attempt to yield the best outcome in the family of young-aged children. Two hundred and eight (208) parents, of two to six years old children, were participated in the study and results supported the significance in the mediator effect of mindful parenting in both facets, i.e. Parent-focused - ‘Mindful Discipline’ and Child-focused – ‘Being in the moment with the child’ where parental self-efficacy is a significant predictor of mindful parenting. The implication of the result suggests that mindful parenting would be a therapeutic framework in promoting family functioning and child’s well-being, it would also be a ‘significant helping hand’ in maintaining continuous secure attachment relationship and growing their mindful children in a family.

Keywords: mediation effect, mindful parenting, parental self efficacy, parent-child attachment, preschoolers

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Authors: Van Thinh Bui, Anh Tuan Tran, Quoc Viet Ngo, The Bao Pham

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Video retrieval is a searching problem on videos or clips based on content in which they are relatively close to an input image or video. The application of this retrieval consists of selecting video in a folder or recognizing a human in security camera. However, some recent approaches have been in challenging problem due to the diversity of video types, frame transitions and camera positions. Besides, that an appropriate measures is selected for the problem is a question. In order to overcome all obstacles, we propose a content-based video retrieval system in some main steps resulting in a good performance. From a main video, we process extracting keyframes and principal objects using Segmentation of Aggregating Superpixels (SAS) algorithm. After that, Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) are selected from those principal objects. Then, the model “Bag-of-words” in accompanied by SVM classification are applied to obtain the retrieval result. Our system is performed on over 300 videos in diversity from music, history, movie, sports, and natural scene to TV program show. The performance is evaluated in promising comparison to the other approaches.

Keywords: video retrieval, principal objects, keyframe, segmentation of aggregating superpixels, speeded up robust features, bag-of-words, SVM

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Authors: Siti Aishah Hasbullah

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Studies on identification of pork content in food have grown rapidly to meet the Halal food standard in Malaysia. The used mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) approaches for the identification of pig species is thought to be the most precise marker due to the mtDNA genes are present in thousands of copies per cell, the large variability of mtDNA. The standard method commonly used for DNA detection is based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method combined with gel electrophoresis but has major drawback. Its major drawbacks are laborious, need longer time and toxic to handle. Therefore, the need for simplicity and fast assay of DNA is vital and has triggered us to develop DNA biosensors for porcine DNA detection. Therefore, the aim of this project is to develop electrochemical DNA biosensor based on ruthenium (II) complex, [Ru(bpy)2(p-PIP)]2+ as DNA hybridization label. The interaction of DNA and [Ru(bpy)2(p-HPIP)]2+ will be studied by electrochemical transduction using Gold Screen-Printed Electrode (GSPE) modified with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and succinimide acrylic microspheres. The electrochemical detection by redox active ruthenium (II) complex was measured by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The results indicate that the interaction of [Ru(bpy)2(PIP)]2+ with hybridization complementary DNA has higher response compared to single-stranded and mismatch complementary DNA. Under optimized condition, this porcine DNA biosensor incorporated modified GSPE shows good linear range towards porcine DNA.

Keywords: gold, screen printed electrode, ruthenium, porcine DNA

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Authors: Tomáš Ludík, Jiří Barta, Sabina Chytilová, Josef Navrátil

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Emergency management is a discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. Appropriate emergency management software allows better management of these risks and has a direct influence on reducing potential negative impacts. Although there are several emergency management software products in the Czech Republic, they cover user requirements from the emergency management field only partially. Therefore, the paper focuses on the issues of requirement analysis within development of emergency management software. Analysis of the current state describes the basic features and properties of user requirements for software development as well as basic methods and approaches for gathering these requirements. Then, the paper presents more specific mechanisms for requirement analysis based on chosen software development approach: structured, object-oriented or agile. Based on these experiences it is designed new methodology for requirement analysis. Methodology describes how to map user requirements comprehensively in the field of emergency management and thus reduce misunderstanding between software analyst and emergency manager. Proposed methodology was consulted with department of fire brigade and also has been applied in the requirements analysis for their current emergency management software. The proposed methodology has general character and can be used also in other specific areas during requirement analysis.

Keywords: emergency software, methodology, requirement analysis, stakeholders, use case diagram, user stories

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Authors: M. G. N. A. S. Fernando

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This study uses a researchable framework to improve the quality of ICT education and the Teaching Learning Assessment/ Evaluation (TLA/TLE) process. It utilizes existing resources while improving the methodologies along with pedagogical techniques and e-Learning approaches used in the secondary schools of Sri Lanka. The study was carried out in two phases. Phase I focused on investigating the factors which affect the quality of ICT education. Based on the key factors of phase I, the Phase II focused on the design of an Experimental Application Model with 6 activity levels. Each Level in the Activity Model covers one or more levels in the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. Towards further enhancement of activity levels, other pedagogical techniques (activity based learning, e-learning techniques, problem solving activities and peer discussions etc.) were incorporated to each level in the activity model as appropriate. The application model was validated by a panel of teachers including a domain expert and was tested in the school environment too. The validity of performance was proved using 6 hypotheses testing and other methodologies. The analysis shows that student performance with problem solving activities increased by 19.5% due to the different treatment levels used. Compared to existing process it was also proved that the embedded techniques (mixture of traditional and modern pedagogical methods and their applications) are more effective with skills development of teachers and students.

Keywords: activity models, Bloom’s taxonomy, ICT education, pedagogies

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: E. E. S. Uy, T. Noda, K. Nakai, J. R. Dungca

Abstract:

Cyclic threshold shear strain is the cyclic shear strain amplitude that serves as the indicator of the development of pore water pressure. The parameter can be obtained by performing either cyclic triaxial test, shaking table test, cyclic simple shear or resonant column. In a cyclic triaxial test, other researchers install measuring devices in close proximity of the soil to measure the parameter. In this study, an attempt was made to estimate the cyclic threshold shear strain parameter using full-field measurement technique. The technique uses a camera to monitor and measure the movement of the soil. For this study, the technique was incorporated in a strain-controlled consolidated undrained cyclic triaxial test. Calibration of the camera was first performed to ensure that the camera can properly measure the deformation under cyclic loading. Its capacity to measure deformation was also investigated using a cylindrical rubber dummy. Two-dimensional image processing was implemented. Lucas and Kanade optical flow algorithm was applied to track the movement of the soil particles. Results from the full-field measurement technique were compared with the results from the linear variable displacement transducer. A range of values was determined from the estimation. This was due to the nonhomogeneous deformation of the soil observed during the cyclic loading. The minimum values were in the order of 10-2% in some areas of the specimen.

Keywords: cyclic loading, cyclic threshold shear strain, full-field measurement, optical flow

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Authors: Abdeljalil Métioui

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of research on the conceptual representations of 128 Quebec (Canada) pre-service teachers enrolled in their third year of university in a program to train elementary teachers about heat and temperature. To identify their conceptual representations about heat and temperature, we constructed a multiple-choice questionnaire consisting of five questions. For each question, they had to explain their choice of an answer. At the methodological level, this step is essential to be able to identify the student conceptual representations. It should be noted that the selected questions were based: (1) on the works have done worldwide on primary and secondary students’ misconceptions about heat and temperature; (2) on the notions prescribed in the curriculum related to the physical world and (3) on student’s everyday contexts. As illustrations, the following are the erroneous conceptual representations identified in our analysis of the data collected: (1) The change of state of the matter does not require a constant temperature, (2) The temperature is a measure in degrees to indicate the level of heat of an object or person, (3) The mercury contained in a thermometer expands when it is heated so that the particles which constitute it expand and (4) The sensation of cold (or warm) is related to the difference in temperature. In conclusion, we will see that it is possible to develop situations of conflict, dealing specifically with the limits of the analogy between heat and temperature. These situations must consider the conceptual representations of the pre-service teachers, as well as the relevant scientific understanding of the concept of heat and temperature.

Keywords: conceptual representation, heat, temperature, pre-service teachers

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Karim Kheloufi, El Hachemi Amara

Abstract:

In the present study, a three-dimensional transient numerical model was developed to study the temperature field and cutting kerf shape during laser fusion cutting. The finite volume model has been constructed, based on the Navier–Stokes equations and energy conservation equation for the description of momentum and heat transport phenomena, and the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method for free surface tracking. The Fresnel absorption model is used to handle the absorption of the incident wave by the surface of the liquid metal and the enthalpy-porosity technique is employed to account for the latent heat during melting and solidification of the material. To model the physical phenomena occurring at the liquid film/gas interface, including momentum/heat transfer, a new approach is proposed which consists of treating friction force, pressure force applied by the gas jet and the heat absorbed by the cutting front surface as source terms incorporated into the governing equations. All these physics are coupled and solved simultaneously in Fluent CFD®. The main objective of using a transient phase change model in the current case is to simulate the dynamics and geometry of a growing laser-cutting generated kerf until it becomes fully developed. The model is used to investigate the effect of some process parameters on temperature fields and the formed kerf geometry.

Keywords: laser cutting, numerical simulation, heat transfer, fluid flow

Procedia PDF Downloads 318