Search results for: hyperspectral imaging technology

Authors: Halimatu S. Abdullahi, Ray E. Sheriff, Fatima Mahieddine

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Agriculture is essential to the continuous existence of human life as they directly depend on it for the production of food. The exponential rise in population calls for a rapid increase in food with the application of technology to reduce the laborious work and maximize production. Technology can aid/improve agriculture in several ways through pre-planning and post-harvest by the use of computer vision technology through image processing to determine the soil nutrient composition, right amount, right time, right place application of farm input resources like fertilizers, herbicides, water, weed detection, early detection of pest and diseases etc. This is precision agriculture which is thought to be solution required to achieve our goals. There has been significant improvement in the area of image processing and data processing which has being a major challenge. A database of images is collected through remote sensing, analyzed and a model is developed to determine the right treatment plans for different crop types and different regions. Features of images from vegetations need to be extracted, classified, segmented and finally fed into the model. Different techniques have been applied to the processes from the use of neural network, support vector machine, fuzzy logic approach and recently, the most effective approach generating excellent results using the deep learning approach of convolution neural network for image classifications. Deep Convolution neural network is used to determine soil nutrients required in a plantation for maximum production. The experimental results on the developed model yielded results with an average accuracy of 99.58%.

Keywords: convolution, feature extraction, image analysis, validation, precision agriculture

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Authors: Memory Ranga, Phillip Pretorious

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The South African Government has invested a lot of money in Information Technology Governance (ITG) within the Government departments. The ITG framework was spearheaded by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). This led to the development of a governing ITG DPSA framework and later the Government Wide Enterprise Architecture (GWEA) Framework for assisting the departments to implement ITG. In addition to this, the government departments have adopted the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) for ITG processes. Despite all these available frameworks, departments fail to fully capitalise and improve the ITG processes mainly as these are too generic and difficult to apply for specific governance needs. There has been less research done to evaluate the progress on ITG initiatives within the government departments. This paper aims to evaluate the existing ITG frameworks within selected government departments in South Africa. A quantitative research approach was used in this study. Data was collected through an online questionnaire targeting ICT Managers and Directors from government departments. The study is undertaken within a case study and only the Eastern Cape Province was selected for the research. Document review mainly on ITG framework and best practices was also used. Data was analysed using the Google Analytic tools and SPSS. A one–sample Chi-Squared Test was used to verity the evaluation findings. Findings show that there is evidence that the current guiding National governance framework (DPSA) is out dated and does not accommodate the new changes in other governance frameworks. The Eastern Cape Government Departments have spent huge amount of money on ITG but not yet able to identify the benefits of the ITG initiatives. The guiding framework is rigid and does to address some of the departmental needs making it difficult to be flexible and apply the DPSA framework. Furthermore, despite the large budget on ITG, the departments still find themselves with many challenges and unable to improve some of the processes and services. All the engaged Eastern Cape departments have adopted the COBIT framework, but none has been conducting COBIT maturity Assessment which is a functionality of COBIT. There is evidence of too many the ITG frameworks and underutilisation of these frameworks. The study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the ITG frameworks that have been adopted by the South African Government Departments in the Eastern Cape Province. The evaluation guides and recommends the government departments to rethink and adopt ITG frameworks that could be customised to accommodate their needs. The adoption and application of ITG by government departments should assist in better governance and service delivery to the citizens.

Keywords: information technology governance, COBIT, evaluate, framework, governance, DPSA framework

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Authors: Mona Elhelbawy, Mac Gray

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Traditional wired endoscopy is an intrusive process that requires a long flexible tube to be inserted through the patient’s mouth while intravenously sedated. Only images of the upper 4 feet of stomach, colon, and rectum can be captured, leaving the remaining 20 feet of small intestines. Wireless capsule endoscopy offers a painless, non-intrusive, efficient and effective alternative to traditional endoscopy. In wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE), ingestible vitamin-pill-shaped capsules with imaging capabilities, sensors, batteries, and antennas are designed to send images of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in real time. In this paper, we investigate the radiation performance and specific absorption rate (SAR) of a miniature conformal capsule antenna operating at the Medical Implant Communication Service (MICS) frequency band in the human body. We perform numerical simulations using the finite element method based commercial software, high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) and the ANSYS human body model (HBM). We also investigate the in-body channel characteristics between the implantable capsule and an external antenna placed on the surface of the human body.

Keywords: IEEE 802.15.6, MICS, SAR, WCE

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Authors: Yumee Kim, Seung-Guk Hyeon, Kukjin Chun

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An adjustable aperture using a liquid crystal is proposed for real-time range detection and obtaining images simultaneously. The adjustable aperture operates as two types of aperture stops which can create two different Depth of Field images. By analyzing these two images, the distance can be extracted from camera to object. Initially, the aperture stop has large size with zero voltage. When the input voltage is applied, the aperture stop transfer to smaller size by orientational transition of liquid crystal molecules in the device. The diameter of aperture stop is 1.94mm and 1.06mm. The proposed device has low driving voltage of 7.0V and fast response time of 6.22m. Compact size aperture of 6×6×1.1 mm3 is assembled in conventional camera which contain 1/3” HD image sensor and focal length of 3.3mm that can be used in autonomous. The measured range was up to 5m. The adjustable aperture has high stability due to no mechanically moving parts. This range sensor can be applied to the various field of 3D depth map application which is the Advanced Driving Assistance System (ADAS), drones and manufacturing machine.

Keywords: adjustable aperture, dual aperture, liquid crystal, ranging and imaging, ADAS, range sensor

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Authors: Sardorbek Numonov, Hyohun Kim, Dongwha Shin, Yeonseok Kim, Ji-Su Ahn, Dongeun Choi, Byung-Woo Hong

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The detection of curvilinear structures often plays an important role in the analysis of images. In particular, it is considered as a crucial step for the diagnosis of chronic respiratory diseases to localize the fissures in chest CT imagery where the lung is divided into five lobes by the fissures that are characterized by linear features in appearance. However, the characteristic linear features for the fissures are often shown to be subtle due to the high intensity variability, pathological deformation or image noise involved in the imaging procedure, which leads to the uncertainty in the quantification of anatomical or functional properties of the lung. Thus, it is desired to enhance the linear features present in the chest CT images so that the distinctiveness in the delineation of the lobe is improved. We propose a recursive diffusion process that prefers coherent features based on the analysis of structure tensor in an anisotropic manner. The local image features associated with certain scales and directions can be characterized by the eigenanalysis of the structure tensor that is often regularized via isotropic diffusion filters. However, the isotropic diffusion filters involved in the computation of the structure tensor generally blur geometrically significant structure of the features leading to the degradation of the characteristic power in the feature space. Thus, it is required to take into consideration of local structure of the feature in scale and direction when computing the structure tensor. We apply an anisotropic diffusion in consideration of scale and direction of the features in the computation of the structure tensor that subsequently provides the geometrical structure of the features by its eigenanalysis that determines the shape of the anisotropic diffusion kernel. The recursive application of the anisotropic diffusion with the kernel the shape of which is derived from the structure tensor leading to the anisotropic scale-space where the geometrical features are preserved via the eigenanalysis of the structure tensor computed from the diffused image. The recursive interaction between the anisotropic diffusion based on the geometry-driven kernels and the computation of the structure tensor that determines the shape of the diffusion kernels yields a scale-space where geometrical properties of the image structure are effectively characterized. We apply our recursive anisotropic diffusion algorithm to the detection of curvilinear structure in the chest CT imagery where the fissures present curvilinear features and define the boundary of lobes. It is shown that our algorithm yields precise detection of the fissures while overcoming the subtlety in defining the characteristic linear features. The quantitative evaluation demonstrates the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for the detection of fissures in the chest CT in terms of the false positive and the true positive measures. The receiver operating characteristic curves indicate the potential of our algorithm as a segmentation tool in the clinical environment. This work was supported by the MISP(Ministry of Science and ICT), Korea, under the National Program for Excellence in SW (20170001000011001) supervised by the IITP(Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion).

Keywords: anisotropic diffusion, chest CT imagery, chronic respiratory disease, curvilinear structure, fissure detection, structure tensor

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Authors: Theresa Bacon-Baguley, Martina Reinhold

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Introduction: Evaluation and analysis are the cornerstones of any successful program in higher education. When developing a program at a distant campus, it is essential that the process of evaluation and analysis be orchestrated in a timely manner with tools that can identify both the positive and negative components of distant education. We describe the utilization of a newly developed tool used to evaluate and analyze the successful expansion to a distant campus using Telepresence Technology. Like interactive television, Telepresence allows live interactive delivery but utilizes broadband cable. The tool developed is adaptable to any distant campus as the framework for the tool was derived from a systematic review of the literature. Methodology: Because Telepresence is a relatively new delivery system, the evaluation tool was developed based on a systematic review of literature in the area of distant education and ITV. The literature review identified four potential areas of concern: 1) technology, 2) confidence in the system, 3) faculty delivery of the content and, 4) resources at each site. Each of the four areas included multiple sub-components. Benchmark values were determined to be 80% or greater positive responses to each of the four areas and the individual sub-components. The tool was administered each semester during the didactic phase of the curriculum. Results: Data obtained identified site-specific issues (i.e., technology access, student engagement, laboratory access, and resources), as well as issues common at both sites (i.e., projection screen size). More specifically, students at the parent location did not have adequate access to printers or laboratory space, and students at the distant campus did not have adequate access to library resources. The evaluation tool identified that both sites requested larger screens for visualization of the faculty. The deficiencies were addressed by replacing printers, including additional orientation for students on library resources and increasing the screen size of the Telepresence system. When analyzed over time, the issues identified in the tool as deficiencies were resolved. Conclusions: Utilizing the tool allowed adjustments of the Telepresence delivery system in a timely manner resulting in successful implementation of an entire curriculum at a distant campus.

Keywords: physician assistant, telepresence technology, distant education, assessment

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Authors: Alexandra-Veronica Luca, Letitia Petrescu

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Steel production is a major contributor to global warming potential. An average value of 1.83 tons of CO₂ is emitted for every ton of steel produced, resulting in over 3.3 Mt of CO₂ emissions each year. The present paper is focused on the investigation and comparison of two O₂ separation methods and two CO₂ capture technologies applicable to iron and steel industry. The O₂ used in steel production comes from an Air Separation Unit (ASU) using distillation or from air separation using membranes. The CO₂ capture technologies are represented by a two-stage membrane separation process and the gas-liquid absorption using methyl di-ethanol amine (MDEA). Process modelling and simulation tools, as well as environmental tools, are used in the present study. The production capacity of the steel mill is 4,000,000 tones/year. In order to compare the two CO₂ capture technologies in terms of efficiency, performance, and sustainability, the following cases have been investigated: Case 1: steel production using O₂ from ASU and no CO₂ capture; Case 2: steel production using O₂ from ASU and gas-liquid absorption for CO₂ capture; Case 3: steel production using O₂ from ASU and membranes for CO₂ capture; Case 4: steel production using O₂ from membrane separation method and gas-liquid absorption for CO₂ capture and Case-5: steel production using membranes for air separation and CO₂ capture. The O₂ separation rate obtained in the distillation technology was about 96%, and about 33% in the membrane technology. Similarly, the O₂ purity resulting in the conventional process (i.e. distillation) is higher compared to the O₂ purity obtained in the membrane unit (e.g., 99.50% vs. 73.66%). The air flow-rate required for membrane separation is about three times higher compared to the air flow-rate for cryogenic distillation (e.g., 549,096.93 kg/h vs. 189,743.82 kg/h). A CO₂ capture rate of 93.97% was obtained in the membrane case, while the CO₂ capture rate for the gas-liquid absorption was 89.97%. A quantity of 6,626.49 kg/h CO₂ with a purity of 95.45% is separated from the total 23,352.83 kg/h flue-gas in the membrane process, while with absorption of 6,173.94 kg/h CO₂ with a purity of 98.79% is obtained from 21,902.04 kg/h flue-gas and 156,041.80 kg/h MDEA is recycled. The simulation results, performed using ChemCAD process simulator software, lead to the conclusion that membrane-based technology can be a suitable alternative for CO₂ removal for steel production. An environmental evaluation using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was also performed. Considering the electricity consumption, the performance, and environmental indicators, Case 3 can be considered the most effective. The environmental evaluation, performed using GaBi software, shows that membrane technology can lead to lower environmental emissions if membrane production is based on benzene derived from toluene hydrodealkilation and chlorine and sodium hydroxide are produced using mixed technologies.

Keywords: CO₂ capture, gas-liquid absorption, Life Cycle Assessment, membrane separation, steel production

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Authors: Hassan Attahiru Gwandu

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This study aims at surveying and analyzing the contribution of Sokoto scholars or Sokoto Caliphate in the development of science and technology in West Africa. Today, it is generally accepted that the 19^th century Islamic revivalism in Hausaland was a very important revolution in the history of Hausa society and beyond. It is therefore, as a result of this movement or Jihad; the Hausaland (West Africa in general) witnessed several changes and transformations. These changes were in different sectors of life from politics, economy to social and religious aspect. It is these changes especially on religion that will be given considerations in this paper. The jihad resulted is the establishment of an Islamic state of Sokoto Caliphate, the revival Islam and development of learning and scholarship. During the existence of this Caliphate, a great deal of scholarship on Islamic laws were revived, written and documented by mostly, the three Jihad leaders; Usmanu Danfodiyo, his brother Abdullahi Fodiyo and his son Muhammad Bello. The trio had written more than one thousand books and made several verdicts on Islamic medicine. This study therefore, seeks to find out the contributions of these scholars or the Sokoto caliphate in the development of science in West Africa.

Keywords: Sokoto caliphate, scholarship, science and technology, West Africa

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Authors: AnnWon Chew, Nik Norulaini Nik Ab Rahman, Mohd Omar Ab Kadir, C. C. Chen, Jaafar Chua

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This paper presents an innovative process to solve the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate build-up problem in recirculating system using Biological Aquaculture System (BAS). The novel aspects of the process lie in a series of bioreactors that specially arrange and design to meet the required conditions for water purification. The BAS maximizes the utilization of bio-balls as the ideal surface for beneficial microbes to flourish. It also serves as a physical barrier that traps organic particles, which in turn becomes source for the microbes to perform their work. The operation in the proposed system gives a low concentration and average range of good maintain excellent water quality, i.e., with low levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, a suitable pH range for aquaculture and low turbidity. The BAS thus provides a solution for sustainable small-scale, urban aquaculture operation with a high recovery water and minimal waste disposal.

Keywords: ammonia, bioreactor, Biological Aquaculture System (BAS), bio-balls, water recirculating technology

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Authors: Michal Krčál

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Since their introduction in 1990’s, Enterprise Information Portals (EIPs) were investigated from different perspectives (e.g. project management, technology acceptance, IS success). However, no systematic literature review was produced to systematize both the research efforts and the technology itself. This paper reports first results of an extent systematic literature review study focused on research of EIPs and its categorization, specifically it reports a conceptual model of EIP features. The previous attempt to categorize EIP features was published in 2002. For the purpose of the literature review, content of 89 articles was analyzed in order to identify and categorize features of EIPs. The methodology of the literature review was as follows. Firstly, search queries in major indexing databases (Web of Science and SCOPUS) were used. The results of queries were analyzed according to their usability for the goal of the study. Then, full-texts were coded in Atlas.ti according to previously established coding scheme. The codes were categorized and the conceptual model of EIP features was created.

Keywords: enterprise information portal, content analysis, features, systematic literature review

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Authors: D. Kuvshinov, A. Siswanto, W. Zimmerman

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A phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (TPA) is a synthetic analogue of phorbol ester (PE), a natural toxic compound of Euphorbiaceae plant. The oil extracted from plants of this family is useful source for primarily biofuel. However this oil can also be used as a food stock due to its significant nutrition content. The limitations for utilizing the oil as a food stock are mainly due to a toxicity of PE. Nowadays a majority of PE detoxification processes are expensive as include multi steps alcohol extraction sequence. Ozone is considered as a strong oxidative agent. It reaction with PE it attacks the carbon double bond of PE. This modification of PE molecular structure results into nontoxic ester with high lipid content. This report presents data on development of simple and cheap PE detoxification process with water application as a buffer and ozone as reactive component. The core of this new technique is a simultaneous application of new microscale plasma unit for ozone production and patented gas oscillation technology. In combination with a reactor design the technology permits ozone injection to the water-TPA mixture in form of microbubbles. The efficacy of a heterogeneous process depends on diffusion coefficient which can be controlled by contact time and interface area. The low velocity of rising microbubbles and high surface to volume ratio allow fast mass transfer to be achieved during the process. Direct injection of ozone is the most efficient process for a highly reactive and short lived chemical. Data on the plasma unit behavior are presented and influence of the gas oscillation technology to the microbubbles production mechanism has been discussed. Data on overall process efficacy for TPA degradation is shown.

Keywords: microbubble, ozonolysis, synthetic phorbol ester, chemical engineering

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Authors: Xia Luo, Cheng Zeng

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Under the promotion of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council in 2017, Xiong'an New Area is the third crucial new area in China established after Shenzhen and Shanghai. Its constructions' significance lies in mitigating Beijing's non-capital functions and exploring a new mode of optimizing development in densely populated and economically intensive areas. For this purpose, developing underground logistics can assume the role of goods distribution in the capital, relieve the road transport pressure in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration, adjust and optimize the urban layout and spatial structure of it. Firstly, the construction planning of Xiong'an New Area and underground logistics development are summarized, especially the development status abroad, the development trend, and bottlenecks of underground logistics in China. This paper explores the technicality, feasibility, and necessity of four modes of transportation. There are pneumatic capsule pipeline (PCP) technology, the CargoCap technology, cable hauled mule, and automatic guided vehicle (AGV). The above technical parameters and characteristics are introduced to relevant experts or scholars. Through establishing an indicator system, carrying out a questionnaire survey with the Delphi method, the final suggestion is obtained: China should develop logistics vehicles similar to CargoCap, adopting rail mode and driverless mode. Based on China's temporal and spatial logistics demand and the geographical pattern of Xiong'an New Area, the construction scale, technical parameters, node location, and other vital parameters of underground logistics are planned. In this way, we hope to speed up the new area's construction and the logistics industry's innovation.

Keywords: the Xiong'an new area, underground logistics, contrastive analysis, CargoCap, logistics planning

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Authors: Monika Konieczyńska, Joanna Fajfer, Olga Lipińska

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In Poland works related to the exploration and prospection of unconventional hydrocarbons (natural gas accumulated in the Silurian shale formations) started in 2007, based on the experience of the other countries that have created new possibilities for the use of existing hydrocarbons resources. The highly water-consuming process of hydraulic fracturing is required for the exploitation of shale gas which implies a need to ensure large volume of water available. As a result considerable amount of mining waste is generated, particularly liquid waste, i.e. flowback fluid with variable chemical composition. The chemical composition of the flowback fluid depends on the composition of the fracturing fluid and the chemistry of the fractured geological formations. Typically, flowback fluid is highly salinated, can be enriched in heavy metals, including rare earth elements, naturally occurring radioactive materials and organic compounds. The generated fluids considered as the extractive waste should be properly managed in the recovery or disposal facility. Problematic issue is both high hydration of waste as well as their variable chemical composition. Also the limited capacity of currently operating facilities is a growing problem. Based on the estimates, currently operating facilities will not be sufficient for the need of waste disposal when extraction of unconventional hydrocarbons starts. Further more, the content of metals in flowback fluids including rare earth elements is a considerable incentive to develop technology of metals recovery. Also recycling is a key factor in terms of selection of treatment process, which should provide that the thresholds required for reuse are met. The paper will present the study of the flowback fluids chemical composition, based on samples from hydraulic fracturing processes performed in Poland. The scheme of flowback fluid cleaning and recovering technology will be reviewed along with a discussion of the results and an assessment of environmental impact, including all generated by-products. The presented technology is innovative due to the metal recovery, as well as purified water supply for hydraulic fracturing process, which is significant contribution to reducing water consumption.

Keywords: environmental impact, flowback fluid, management of special waste streams, metals recovery, shale gas

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Authors: Ramkumar Gunasekaran, John Cater, Vinod Suresh, Haribalan Kumar

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The main objective of this project is to develop a statistical shape model using principal component analysis that could be used for analyzing the shape of the human airway. The ultimate goal of this project is to identify geometric risk factors for diagnosis and management of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). Anonymous CBCT scans of 25 individuals were obtained from the Otago Radiology Group. The airways were segmented between the hard-palate and the aryepiglottic fold using snake active contour segmentation. The point data cloud of the segmented images was then fitted with a bi-cubic mesh, and pseudo landmarks were placed to perform PCA on the segmented airway to analyze the shape of the airway and to find the relationship between the shape and OSA risk factors. From the PCA results, the first four modes of variation were found to be significant. Mode 1 was interpreted to be the overall length of the airway, Mode 2 was related to the anterior-posterior width of the retroglossal region, Mode 3 was related to the lateral dimension of the oropharyngeal region and Mode 4 was related to the anterior-posterior width of the oropharyngeal region. All these regions are subjected to the risk factors of OSA.

Keywords: medical imaging, image processing, FEM/BEM, statistical modelling

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Authors: Lucas Bublitz, Michael Herdrich

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By achieving the first commercialization approval in San Francisco the Autonomous Driving (AD) industry proves the technology maturity of the SAE L4 AD systems and the corresponding software and hardware stack. This milestone reflects the upcoming phase in the industry, where the focus is now about scaling and supervising larger autonomous vehicle (AV) fleets in different operation areas. This requires an operation framework, which organizes and assigns responsibilities to the relevant AV technology and operation stakeholders from the AV system provider, the Remote Intervention Operator, the MaaS provider and regulatory & approval authority. This holistic operation framework consists of technological, processual, and organizational activities to ensure safe operation for fully automated vehicles. Regarding the supervision of large autonomous vehicle fleets, a major focus is on the continuous field monitoring. The field monitoring approach must reflect the safety and security criticality of incidents in the field during driving operation. This includes an automatic containment approach, with the overall goal to avoid safety critical incidents and reduce downtime by a malfunction of the AD software stack. An End-to-end (E2E) field monitoring approach detects critical faults in the field, uses a knowledge-based approach for evaluating the safety criticality and supports the automatic containment of these E/E faults. Applying such an approach will ensure the scalability of AV fleets, which is determined by the handling of incidents in the field and the continuous regulatory compliance of the technology after enhancing the Operational Design Domain (ODD) or the function scope by Functions on Demand (FoD) over the entire digital product lifecycle.

Keywords: field monitoring, incident management, multicompliance management for AI in AD, root cause analysis, database approach

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Authors: Perpetual Nwakaego Ibe

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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), were an integrated project formed to eradicate many unnatural situations the citizens of the third world country may found themselves in. The MDGs, to be a sustainable project for the future depends 100% on the actions of governments, multilateral institutions and civil society. This paper first looks at the political views on the MDGs and relates it to the current electoral situations around the country by underlining the drastic changes over the few months. The second part of the paper presents ICT in tertiary institutions as one of the solutions in terms of the success of the MDGs. ICT is vital in all phases of educational process and development of the cloud connectivity is an added advantage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for sharing a common data bank for research purposes among UNICEF, RED CROSS, NPS, INEC, NMIC, and WHO. Finally, the paper concludes with areas that needs twigging and recommendations for the tertiary institutions committed to delivering an ambitious set of goals. A combination of observation, and document materials for data gathering was employed as the methodology for carrying out this research.

Keywords: MDG, ICT, data bank, database

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Authors: Wei-Chen Chang, Yu-Cheng Pei

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This research examines wearable interaction design to mediate the design anthropology and participatory design found in technology and fashion. We will discuss the principles of design anthropology and participatory design using a wearable and fashion product process to transmit the ‘people-situation-reason-object’ method and analyze five sense applied examples that provide new thinking for designers engaged in future industry. Design anthropology and Participatory Design attempt to engage physiological and psychological design through technology-function, meaning-form and fashion aesthetics to achieve cognition between user and environment. The wearable interaction provides technological characteristics and semantic ideas transmitted to craft-cultural, collective, cheerful and creative performance. It is more confident and innovative attempt, that is able to achieve a joyful, fundamental interface. This study takes two directions for cultural thinking as the basis to establish a set of life-craft designs with interactive experience objects by users that assist designers in examining the sensual feelings to initiate a new lifestyle value.

Keywords: design anthropology, wearable design, design communication, participatory design

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Authors: Jorge Martinez-Garcia, Ingrid Stelzner, Joerg Stelzner, Damian Gwerder, Philipp Schuetz

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Tree-ring analysis is an important part of the quality assessment and the dating of (archaeological) wood samples. It provides quantitative data about the whole anatomical ring structure, which can be used, for example, to measure the impact of the fluctuating environment on the tree growth, for the dendrochronological analysis of archaeological wooden artefacts and to estimate the wood mechanical properties. Despite advances in computer vision and edge recognition algorithms, detection and counting of annual rings are still limited to 2D datasets and performed in most cases manually, which is a time consuming, tedious task and depends strongly on the operator’s experience. This work presents an image processing approach to detect the whole 3D tree-ring structure directly from X-ray computed tomography imaging data. The approach relies on a modified Canny edge detection algorithm, which captures fully connected tree-ring edges throughout the measured image stack and is validated on X-ray computed tomography data taken from six wood species.

Keywords: ring recognition, edge detection, X-ray computed tomography, dendrochronology

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Authors: Mahmoud Ashraf Farouk

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Shipping transportation is the foremost imperative mode of transportation in universal coordination. At display, more than 2/3 of the full worldwide exchange volume accounts for shipping transportation. Ships are utilized as an implies of marine transportation, introducing large-power diesel motors with exhaust containing nitrogen oxide NOx, sulfur oxide SOx, carbo di-oxide CO₂, particular matter PM10, hydrocarbon HC and carbon mono-oxide CO which are the most dangerous contaminants found in exhaust gas from ships. Ships radiating a large amount of exhaust gases have become a significant cause of pollution in the air in coastal areas, harbors and oceans. Therefore, IMO (the International Maritime Organization) has established rules to reduce this emission. This experiment shows the measurement of the exhaust gases emitted from the Aida IV ship's main engine using marine diesel oil fuel (MDO). The measurement is taken by the Sensonic2000 device on 85% load, which is the main sailing load. Moreover, the paper studies different emission reduction technologies as an alternative fuel, which as liquefied natural gas (LNG) applied to the system and reduction technology which is represented as selective catalytic reduction technology added to the marine diesel oil system (MDO+SCR). The experiment calculated the amount of nitrogen oxide NOx, sulfur oxide SOx, carbon-di-oxide CO₂, particular matter PM10, hydrocarbon HC and carbon mono-oxide CO because they have the most effect on the environment. The reduction technologies are applied on the same ship engine with the same load. Finally, the study found that MDO+SCR is the more efficient technology for the Aida IV ship as a training and supply ship due to low consumption and no need to modify the engine. Just add the SCR system to the exhaust line, which is easy and cheapest. Moreover, the differences between them in the emission are not so big.

Keywords: marine, emissions, reduction, shipping

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Authors: Heesu Kim

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This paper determines the varieties of state roles played in East Asia’s telecommunication market, regarding broadband industry. Technological capacity and the relationship between state and market affect the varieties of state role. In explaining the state’s engagement in the market, technology has always been considered as a necessary and sufficient condition. However technology variable has been useful in only explaining the extent of state’s involvement. This paper contributes by bringing in the political-economic factor, which is the relationship between state and market. This factor aids in distinguishing the varieties of state role played in emerging industries. Interaction between these two variables distinguishes 4 types of state roles played in the broadband industry. These roles are distinguished and characterized by the intensity of state’s intervention and the existence of technological capacity. This paper classifies four types of state role through the case of Singapore, China, Taiwan and Korea’s broadband industrial policy.

Keywords: East Asia, entrpreneurial state, industrial policy, regulatory state, technological capacity

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Authors: Theophilus Adedokun, Sylvia Zulu, Felix Awung, Sam Usadolo

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The proliferation of technology into teaching process has brought about transformation into the field of education. Language teaching is not left behind from this tremendous transformation which has drastically altered the teaching of language. It is, however, appalling that some language instructors seem to possess negative attitudes toward the use of technology in language teaching, which in this study is referred to as Computer Assisted Language Teaching (CALT). The purpose of this study, therefore, is to explore sustainable lesson that can be learnt from the attitudes of language instructors towards language teaching in some public universities. The knowledge gained from this study could inform and advance the use of Computer Assisted Language Teaching. This study considers the historical progression of CALT and recommends that a fundamental approach is required for institutions to develop and advance the use of CALT for teaching. A review of sustainable lessons learnt from the attitudes of language instructors towards CALT are provided, and the CALT experience of 3 institutions are described. Drawing from this succinct description, this study makes recommendations on how operative CALT could be executed on a personal and institutional basis.

Keywords: attitudes, language instructors, sustainable lessons, computer assisted language teaching

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Authors: Jiaxu Huang

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The melt carbonized blast furnace slag containing TiC was produced by carbothermal reduction of high titanium blast furnace slag. The treatment technology of melt carbonized blast furnace slag with TiC as raw material was studied, including the influence of different cooling methods, crushing atmosphere and sieving particle size on the target product TiC in the slag. The results show that air-cooling and water-cooling have little effect on TiC content of molten carbide blast furnace slag, and have great effect on crystal structure and grain size. TiC content in slag is different when carbide blast furnace slag is crushed in argon atmosphere and air atmosphere. After screening, the difference of TiC content of carbide blast furnace slag with different particle size distribution is obvious. The average TiC content of 100-400 mesh carbide blast furnace slag is 14%. And the average TiC content of carbide blast furnace slag with particle size less than 400 mesh is 10.5%.

Keywords: crushing atmosphere, cooling methods, sieving particle size, TiC

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Authors: Ali Ben Abbes, Imed Riadh Farah

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Due to the considerable advances in Multi-Temporal Satellite Images (MTSI), remote sensing application became more accurate. Recently, many advances in modeling MTSI are developed using various models. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of studies using Hidden Markov Model (HMM). First of all, we provide a background of using HMM and their applications in this context. A comparison of the different works is discussed, and possible areas and challenges are highlighted. Secondly, we discussed the difference on vegetation monitoring as well as urban growth. Nevertheless, most research efforts have been used only stationary data. From another point of view, in this paper, we describe a new non-stationarity HMM, that is defined with a set of parts of the time series e.g. seasonal, trend and random. In addition, a new approach giving more accurate results and improve the applicability of the HMM in modeling a non-stationary data series. In order to assess the performance of the HMM, different experiments are carried out using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI time series of the northwestern region of Tunisia and Landsat time series of tres Cantos-Madrid in Spain.

Keywords: multi-temporal satellite image, HMM , nonstationarity, vegetation, urban

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Authors: Yihao Kuang, Bowen Ding

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With the increasing scale and complexity of knowledge graph, modern knowledge graph contains more and more types of entity, relationship, and attribute information. Therefore, in recent years, it has been a trend for knowledge graph inference to use reinforcement learning to deal with large-scale, incomplete, and noisy knowledge graphs and improve the inference effect and interpretability. The Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm utilizes a near-end strategy optimization approach. This allows for more extensive updates of policy parameters while constraining the update extent to maintain training stability. This characteristic enables PPOs to converge to improved strategies more rapidly, often demonstrating enhanced performance early in the training process. Furthermore, PPO has the advantage of offline learning, effectively utilizing historical experience data for training and enhancing sample utilization. This means that even with limited resources, PPOs can efficiently train for reinforcement learning tasks. Based on these characteristics, this paper aims to obtain a better and more efficient inference effect by introducing PPO into knowledge inference technology.

Keywords: reinforcement learning, PPO, knowledge inference

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Authors: Nesrine Bougarech, Habib Affes

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This research lays the emphasis on the business process reengineering (BPR) which consists in radically altering the organizational processes through the optimal use of information technology (IT) to attain major enhancements in terms of quality, performance and productivity. A survey of the business process reengineering (BPR) was carried out in three French groups and their subsidiaries in Tunisia. The data collected were qualitatively analyzed in an attempt to test the main indicators of the success of a business process reengineering project (BPR) and to compare the importance of these indicators in the context of France versus Tunisia. The study corroborates that the respect of the inherent principles of the business process reengineering (BPR) and the diversity of the human resources involved in the project can lead to better productivity, higher quality of the goods or services and lower cost. Additionally, our results mirror the extent to which the respect of the principles and the diversity of resources are more important in the French companies than in their Tunisian subsidiaries.

Keywords: business process reengineering (BPR), human resources management (HRM), information technology (IT), management

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Authors: Yen-Ku Kuo, Chie-Bein Chen, Jyh-Yi Shih, Kuang-Yi Lin, Chien-Han Peng

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This study is primarily concerned with exploring what factors affect the consumer’s intention of using mobile phone e-book. In developing research structure, we adopted technology acceptance model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) as a foundation. The analysis method of structural equation model (SEM) was used to carry out this study. Subjects were 261 users who are using or used the mobile phone e-book. The findings can be summed up as follows: (1) The subjective norm and job relevance has non-significant and positive influence to the perceived usefulness. This represents now the user are still in a small number and most of them used it in non-work related purpose. (2) The output quality, result demonstrability and perceived ease of use were confirmed to have positive and significant influence to the perceived usefulness. (3) The moderator “innovative diffusion” affects the relationship between the attitude and behavior intention. These findings could be a reference for the practice and future study to make further exploration.

Keywords: mobile phone e-book, technology acceptance model (TAM), innovation diffusion theory (IDT), structural equation model (SEM)

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Authors: Miroslav Dumbrovsky, Lucie Larisova

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The infiltration characteristic of the soil surface is one of the major factors that determines the potential soil degradation risk. The physical, chemical and biological characteristic of soil is changed by the processing of soil. The infiltration soil ability has an important role in soil and water conservation. The subject of the contribution is the evaluation of the influence of the conventional tillage and reduced tillage technology on soil surface crusting processing and infiltration properties of the soil in the North Bohemia region. Field experimental work at the area was carried out in the years 2013-2016 on Cambisol district medium-heavy clayey soil. The research was conducted on sloping erosion-endangered blocks of compacted arable land. The areas were chosen each year in the way that one of the experimental areas was handled by conventional tillage technologies and the other by reduced tillage technologies. Intact soil samples were taken into Kopecký´s cylinders in the three landscape positions, at a depth of 10 cm (representing topsoil) and 30 cm (representing subsoil). The cumulative infiltration was measured using a mini-disc infiltrometer near the consumption points. The Zhang method (1997), which provides an estimate of the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity K(h), was used for the evaluation of the infiltration tests of the mini-disc infiltrometer. The soil profile processed by conventional tillage showed a higher degree of compaction and soil crusting processing. The bulk density was between 1.10–1.67 g.cm⁻³, compared to the land processed by the reduced tillage technology, where the values were between 0.80–1.29 g.cm⁻³. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity values were about one-third higher within the reduced tillage technology soil processing.

Keywords: soil crusting processing, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, cumulative infiltration, bulk density, porosity

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Authors: Shunsuke Aoki, Taku Ri, Tatsuya Yamazaki

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These days, along with the development of e-sports, video games as a competitive sport is attracting attention. But, in many cases, action in the screen does not match the real motion of operation. Inclusiveness of player motion is needed to increase reality and excitement for sports games. Therefore, in this study, the authors propose a method to recognize player motion by using the motion capture technology and develop a virtual basketball game. The virtual basketball game consists of a screen with nine targets, players, depth sensors, and no ball. The players pretend a two-handed basketball shot without a ball aiming at one of the nine targets on the screen. Time-series data of three-dimensional coordinates of player joints are captured by the depth sensor. 20 joints data are measured for each player to estimate the shooting motion in real-time. The trajectory of the thrown virtual ball is calculated based on the time-series data and hitting on the target is judged as success or failure. The virtual basketball game can be played by 2 to 4 players as a competitive game among the players. The developed game was exhibited to the public for evaluation on the authors' university open campus days. 339 visitors participated in the exhibition and enjoyed the virtual basketball game over the two days. A questionnaire survey on the developed game was conducted for the visitors who experienced the game. As a result of the survey, about 97.3% of the players found the game interesting regardless of whether they had experienced actual basketball before or not. In addition, it is found that women are easy to comfort for shooting motion. The virtual game with motion capture technology has the potential to become a universal entertainment between e-sports and actual sports.

Keywords: basketball, motion capture, questionnaire survey, video ga

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Authors: Junqi Zou

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As one of the world’s most tech-ready countries, Singapore has initiated the Smart Nation plan to harness the full power and potential of digital technologies to transform the way people live and work, through the more efficient government and business processes, to make the economy more productive. The key evolutions of digital technology transformation in healthcare and the increasing deployment of Internet of Things (IoTs), Big Data, AI/cognitive, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Electronic Health Record Systems (EHR), Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMR), Warehouse Management System (WMS in the most recent decade have significantly stepped up the move towards an information-driven healthcare ecosystem. The advances in information technology not only bring benefits to patients but also act as a key force in changing management accounting in healthcare sector. The aim of this study is to investigate the impacts of digital technology transformation on Singapore’s healthcare sector from a management accounting perspective. Adopting a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) analysis approach, this paper conducted an exploratory case study of a newly launched Singapore public hospital, which has been recognized as amongst the most digitally advanced healthcare facilities in Asia-Pacific region. Specifically, this study gains insights on how the new technology is changing healthcare organizations’ management accounting from four perspectives under the Balanced Scorecard approach, 1) Financial Perspective, 2) Customer (Patient) Perspective, 3) Internal Processes Perspective, and 4) Learning and Growth Perspective. Based on a thorough review of archival records from the government and public, and the interview reports with the hospital’s CIO, this study finds the improvements from all the four perspectives under the Balanced Scorecard framework as follows: 1) Learning and Growth Perspective: The Government (Ministry of Health) works with the hospital to open up multiple training pathways to health professionals that upgrade and develops new IT skills among the healthcare workforce to support the transformation of healthcare services. 2) Internal Process Perspective: The hospital achieved digital transformation through Project OneCare to integrate clinical, operational, and administrative information systems (e.g., EHR, EMR, WMS, EPIB, RTLS) that enable the seamless flow of data and the implementation of JIT system to help the hospital operate more effectively and efficiently. 3) Customer Perspective: The fully integrated EMR suite enhances the patient’s experiences by achieving the 5 Rights (Right Patient, Right Data, Right Device, Right Entry and Right Time). 4) Financial Perspective: Cost savings are achieved from improved inventory management and effective supply chain management. The use of process automation also results in a reduction of manpower costs and logistics cost. To summarize, these improvements identified under the Balanced Scorecard framework confirm the success of utilizing the integration of advanced ICT to enhance healthcare organization’s customer service, productivity efficiency, and cost savings. Moreover, the Big Data generated from this integrated EMR system can be particularly useful in aiding management control system to optimize decision making and strategic planning. To conclude, the new digital technology transformation has moved the usefulness of management accounting to both financial and non-financial dimensions with new heights in the area of healthcare management.

Keywords: balanced scorecard, digital technology transformation, healthcare ecosystem, integrated information system

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Authors: Eid Alharbi, Yaser Miaji, Saeed Alzahrani

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The importance of fruit quality and freshness is potential in today’s life. Most recent studies show and automatic online sorting system according to the internal disorder for fresh apple fruit has developed by using near infrared (NIR) spectroscopic technology. The automatic convener belts system along with sorting mechanism was constructed. To check the internal quality of the apple fruit, apple was exposed to the NIR radiations in the range 650-1300 nm and the data were collected in form of absorption spectra. The collected data were compared to the reference (data of known sample) analyzed and an electronic signal was pass to the sorting system. The sorting system was separate the apple fruit samples according to electronic signal passed to the system. It is found that absorption of NIR radiation in the range 930-950 nm was higher in the internally defected samples as compared to healthy samples. On the base of this high absorption of NIR radiation in 930-950 nm region the online sorting system was constructed.

Keywords: mechatronics design, NIR, fruit quality, spectroscopic technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 483