Search results for: information systems failure

Authors: Joshua Midha

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The basis for information campaigns and behavioral interventions has long reigned as a tactic. From the Soviet-era propaganda machines to the opinion hijacks in Iran, these measures are now commonplace and are used for dissemination and disassembly. However, the use of these tools for strategic diffusion, specifically in a counter-terrorism setting, has only been explored on the surface. This paper aims to introduce a larger conceptual portion of guided information campaigns into preexisting terror cells and situations. It provides an alternative, low-risk intervention platform for future military strategy. This paper highlights a theoretical framework to lay out the foundationary details and explanations for behavioral interventions and moves into using a case study to highlight the possibility of implementation. It details strategies, resources, circumstances, and risk factors for intervention. It also sets an expanding foundation for offensive PsyOps and argues for tactical diffusion of information to battle extremist sentiment. The two larger frameworks touch on the internal spread of information within terror cells and external political sway, thus charting a larger holistic purpose of strategic operations.

Keywords: terrorism, behavioral intervention, propaganda, SNA, extremism

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Authors: Faran Chaudhry, Anser Daud, Doris Braunstein, Oleg Safir, Allan Gross, Paul Kuzyk

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Background: Acetabular reconstruction in the context of massive acetabular bone loss is challenging. In rare scenarios where the extent of bone loss precludes shell placement (cup-cage), reconstruction at our center consisted of a cage combined with highly porous metal augments. This study evaluates survivorship, complications, and functional outcomes using this technique. Methods: A total of 131 cup-cage implants (129 patients) were included in our retrospective review of revisions of total hip arthroplasty from January 2003 to January 2022. Among these cases, 100/131 (76.3%) were women, the mean age at surgery time was 68.7 years (range, 29.0 to 92.0; SD, 12.4), and the mean follow-up was 7.7 years (range, 0.02 to 20.3; SD, 5.1). Kaplan-Meier survivorship analysis was conducted with failure defined as revision surgery and/or failure of the cup-cage reconstruction. Results: A total of 30 implants (23%) reached the study endpoint involving all-cause revision. Overall survivorship was 74.8% at 10 years and 69.8% at 15 years. Reasons for revision included infection 12/131 (9.1%), dislocation 10/131 (7.6%), aseptic loosening of cup and/or cage 5/131 (3.8%), and aseptic loosening of the femoral stem 2/131 (1.5%). The mean LLD improved from 12.2 ± 15.9 mm to 3.9 ± 11.8 (p<0.05). The horizontal and vertical hip centres on plain film radiographs were significantly improved (p<0.05). Functionally, there was a decrease in the number of patients requiring the use of gait aids, with fewer patients (34, 25.9%) using a cane, walker, or wheelchair post-operatively compared to pre-operatively (58, 44%). There was a significant increase in the number of independent ambulators from 24 to 47 (36%). Conclusion: The cup-cage construct is a reliable treatment option for the treatment of various acetabular defects. There are favourable survivorship, clinical and radiographic outcomes, with a satisfactory complication rate.

Keywords: revision total hip arthroplasty, acetabular defect, pelvic discontinuity, trabecular metal augment, cup-cage

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Authors: Juliana A. Knocikova

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Methods of nonlinear signal analysis are based on finding that random behavior can arise in deterministic nonlinear systems with a few degrees of freedom. Considering the dynamical systems, entropy is usually understood as a rate of information production. Changes in temporal dynamics of physiological data are indicating evolving of system in time, thus a level of new signal pattern generation. During last decades, many algorithms were introduced to assess some patterns of physiological responses to external stimulus. However, the reflex responses are usually characterized by short periods of time. This characteristic represents a great limitation for usual methods of nonlinear analysis. To solve the problems of short recordings, parameter of approximate entropy has been introduced as a measure of system complexity. Low value of this parameter is reflecting regularity and predictability in analyzed time series. On the other side, increasing of this parameter means unpredictability and a random behavior, hence a higher system complexity. Reduced neurophysiological data complexity has been observed repeatedly when analyzing electroneurogram and electromyogram activities during defence reflex responses. Quantitative phrenic neurogram changes are also obvious during severe hypoxia, as well as during airway reflex episodes. Concluding, the approximate entropy parameter serves as a convenient tool for analysis of reflex behavior characterized by short lasting time series.

Keywords: approximate entropy, neurophysiological data, nonlinear dynamics, reflex

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Authors: Dina Kon Mushid, Kabutakapua Kakanda, Dibu Dave Mbako

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The failure of material usually involves elastoplastic deformation and fracturing. Continuum mechanics can effectively deal with plastic deformation by using a yield function and the flow rule. At the same time, it has some limitations in dealing with the fracture problem since it is a theory based on the continuous field hypothesis. The lattice model can simulate the fracture problem very well, but it is inadequate for dealing with plastic deformation. Based on the discretized virtual internal bond model (DVIB), this paper proposes a lattice model that can account for plasticity. DVIB is a lattice method that considers material to comprise bond cells. Each bond cell may have any geometry with a finite number of bonds. The two-body or multi-body potential can characterize the strain energy of a bond cell. The two-body potential leads to the fixed Poisson ratio, while the multi-body potential can overcome the limitation of the fixed Poisson ratio. In the present paper, the modified Stillinger-Weber (SW), a multi-body potential, is employed to characterize the bond cell energy. The SW potential is composed of two parts. One part is the two-body potential that describes the interatomic interactions between particles. Another is the three-body potential that represents the bond angle interactions between particles. Because the SW interaction can represent the bond stretch and bond angle contribution, the SW potential-based DVIB (SW-DVIB) can represent the various Poisson ratios. To embed the plasticity in the SW-DVIB, the plasticity is considered in the two-body part of the SW potential. It is done by reducing the bond stiffness to a lower level once the bond reaches the yielding point. While before the bond reaches the yielding point, the bond is elastic. When the bond deformation exceeds the yielding point, the bond stiffness is softened to a lower value. When unloaded, irreversible deformation occurs. With the bond length increasing to a critical value, termed the failure bond length, the bond fails. The critical failure bond length is related to the cell size and the macro fracture energy. By this means, the fracture energy is conserved so that the cell size sensitivity problem is relieved to a great extent. In addition, the plasticity and the fracture are also unified at the bond level. To make the DVIB able to simulate different Poisson ratios, the three-body part of the SW potential is kept elasto-brittle. The bond angle can bear the moment before the bond angle increment is smaller than a critical value. By this method, the SW-DVIB can simulate the plastic deformation and the fracturing process of material with various Poisson ratios. The elastoplastic SW-DVIB is used to simulate the plastic deformation of a material, the plastic fracturing process, and the tunnel plastic deformation. It has been shown that the current SW-DVIB method is straightforward in simulating both elastoplastic deformation and plastic fracture.

Keywords: lattice model, discretized virtual internal bond, elastoplastic deformation, fracture, modified stillinger-weber potential

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Authors: Aleksandrs Kovalcuks

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Egg yolk oil is a natural source of bioactive compounds such as unsaturated fatty acids, oil soluble vitamins, pigments and others. Bioactive compound content in egg yolk oil depends from its content in eggs, from which oil was extracted. Many studies show that bioactive compound content in egg is correlated to the content of these compounds in hen feed, but there is also an opinion that hen housing systems also have influence on egg chemical content. The aim of this study was to determine which factor, laying hen housing system or hen diet, has a primary influence on bioactive compound content in egg yolk oil. The egg yolk oil was extracted from eggs obtained from 4 different hen housing systems: cage, barn and two groups of free range. All hens were fed with commercially produced compound feed except one group of free range hens which get free diet – pastured hens. Extracted egg yolk oils were analyzed for fatty acids, oil soluble vitamins and β-carotene content. α-tocopherol, ergocalcipherol and polyunsaturated fatty acid content in egg yolk oil was higher from eggs obtained from all housing systems where hens were fed with commercial compound feed. β-carotene and retinol content in egg yolk oils from free range free diet eggs was significantly (p>0.05) higher that from other eggs because hens have access to green forage. Hen physical activity in free range housing systems decreases content of some bioactive compound in egg yolk oil.

Keywords: egg yolk oil, vitamins, caged eggs, free range

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Authors: Expedito Pinto De Paula Junior

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Current systems such as artificial satellites, airplanes, automobiles, turbines, power systems and air traffic controls are becoming increasingly more complex and/or highly integrated as defined in SAE-ARP-4754A (Society Automotive Engineering - Certification considerations for highly-integrated or complex aircraft systems standard). Among other processes, the development of such systems requires careful Change and Configuration Management (CCM) to establish and maintain product integrity. Understand the maturity of CCM process based in historical approach is crucial for better implementation in hardware and software lifecycle. The sense of work organization, in all fields of development is directly related to the order and interrelation of the parties, changes in time, and record of these changes. Generally, is observed that engineers, administrators and managers invest more time in technical activities than in organization of work. More these professionals are focused in solving complex problems with a purely technical bias. CCM process is fundamental for development, production and operation of new products specially in the safety critical systems. The objective of this paper is open a discussion about the historical revision based in standards focus of CCM around the world in order to understand and reflect the importance across the years, the contribution of this process for technology evolution, to understand the mature of organizations in the system lifecycle project and the benefits of CCM to avoid errors and mistakes during the Lifecycle Product.

Keywords: changes, configuration management, historical, revision

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Authors: Mojtaba Sadeghi, Farshid Baniassadi, Hamed Kashani

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One of the challenging issues faced by seismic retrofitting consultants and employers is quick decision-making on the demolition or retrofitting of a structure at the current time or in the future. For this reason, the existing models proposed by researchers have only covered one of the aspects of cost, execution method, and structural vulnerability. Given the effect of each factor on the final decision, it is crucial to devise a new comprehensive model capable of simultaneously covering all the factors. This study attempted to provide an integrated framework that can be utilized to select the most appropriate earthquake risk mitigation solution for buildings. This framework can overcome the limitations of current models by taking into account several factors such as cost, execution method, risk-taking and structural failure. In the newly proposed model, the database and essential information about retrofitting projects are developed based on the historical data on a retrofit project. In the next phase, an analysis is conducted in order to assess the vulnerability of the building under study. Then, artificial neural networks technique is employed to calculate the cost of retrofitting. While calculating the current price of the structure, an economic analysis is conducted to compare demolition versus retrofitting costs. At the next stage, the optimal method is identified. Finally, the implementation of the framework was demonstrated by collecting data concerning 155 previous projects.

Keywords: decision making, demolition, construction management, seismic retrofit

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Authors: Yaghoubi N., Moore Z., Van Der Veen S. M., Pidcoe P. E., Thomas J. S., Dexheimer B.

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Optoelectronic 3D motion capture systems, such as the Vicon kinematic system, are widely utilized in biomedical research to track joint motion. These systems are considered powerful and accurate measurement tools with <2 mm average error. However, these systems are costly and may be difficult to implement and utilize in a clinical setting. 3D virtual reality (VR) is gaining popularity as an affordable and accessible tool to investigate motor control and perception in a controlled, immersive environment. The HTC Vive VR system includes puck-style trackers that seamlessly integrate into its VR environments. These affordable, wireless, lightweight trackers may be more feasible for clinical kinematic data collection. However, the accuracy of HTC Vive Trackers (3.0), when compared to optoelectronic 3D motion capture systems, remains unclear. In this preliminary study, we compared the HTC Vive Tracker system to a Vicon kinematic system in a simulated lumbar flexion task. A 6-DOF robot arm (SCORBOT ER VII, Eshed Robotec/RoboGroup, Rosh Ha’Ayin, Israel) completed various reaching movements to mimic increasing levels of hip flexion (15°, 30°, 45°). Light reflective markers, along with one HTC Vive Tracker (3.0), were placed on the rigid segment separating the elbow and shoulder of the robot. We compared position measures simultaneously collected from both systems. Our preliminary analysis shows no significant differences between the Vicon motion capture system and the HTC Vive tracker in the Z axis, regardless of hip flexion. In the X axis, we found no significant differences between the two systems at 15 degrees of hip flexion but minimal differences at 30 and 45 degrees, ranging from .047 cm ± .02 SE (p = .03) at 30 degrees hip flexion to .194 cm ± .024 SE (p < .0001) at 45 degrees of hip flexion. In the Y axis, we found a minimal difference for 15 degrees of hip flexion only (.743 cm ± .275 SE; p = .007). This preliminary analysis shows that the HTC Vive Tracker may be an appropriate, affordable option for gross motor motion capture when the Vicon system is not available, such as in clinical settings. Further research is needed to compare these two motion capture systems in different body poses and for different body segments.

Keywords: lumbar, vivetracker, viconsystem, 3dmotion, ROM

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Authors: Anette Hay, Zama Simamane

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Capacity-building and integration of practical activities is one of the key SDGs of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This paper will focus on SDG# 17 – “the means of implementation” - and the role of systems thinking in practice (STiP) in supporting both competence and SDG implementation capability in teacher education curricula at North-West University, South Africa. The “Environmental Management for Sustainability” module (EDTM 312), which is compulsory for all students enrolled in the education program at North-West University, will be used as a case study. There is a need for higher education to implement and practically integrate SDG goals into their curricula, and one way to achieve this is through the development of competencies. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has the potential to offer approaches that can be useful in the development of capacity-building activities to foster sustainability. The methodological approach adopted is based on a participatory paradigm followed by two cycles and reflection. This paper focuses on systems thinking in practice demonstrating how students apply and reflect on competencies to situations and how praxis captures the actual experiences. The results of this research indicated how to re-orientate the EDTM 312 curriculum to include an environmental justice focus. This research shares practical knowledge of systems thinking as a sustainability competency.

Keywords: education for sustainable development, environmental justice competencies, sustainable development goals, systems thinking in practice

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Authors: Rajoo Balaji, Omar Yaakob

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The Ballast Water Convention requires less than 5% of the world tonnage for ratification. Consequently, ships will have to comply with the requirements. Compliance evaluation and enforcement will become mandatory. Ship owners have to invest in treatment systems and shipboard personnel have to operate them and ensure compliance. The monitoring and enforcement will be the responsibilities of the Administrations. Herein, a review of the current status of the Ballast Water Management and the issues faced by these are projected. Issues range from efficacy and economics of the treatment systems to sampling and testing. Health issues of chemical systems, paucity of data for decision support etc., are other issues. It is emphasized that management of ballast water must be extended to ashore and sustainable solutions must be researched upon. An exemplar treatment system based on ship’s waste heat is also suggested.

Keywords: Ballast Water Management, compliance evaluation, compliance enforcement, sustainability

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Authors: Vladimíra Čavojová, Eva Ballová Mikušková

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In this study we tried to replicate the unconscious thought advantage (UTA), which states that complex decisions are better handled by unconscious thinking. We designed an experiment in e-prime using similar material as the original study (choosing between four different apartments, each described by 12 attributes). A total of 73 participants (52 women (71.2%); 18 to 62 age: M=24.63; SD=8.7) took part in the experiment. We did not replicate the results suggested by UTT. However, from the present study we cannot conclude whether this was the case of flaws in the theory or flaws in our experiment and we discuss several ways in which the issue of UTA could be examined further.

Keywords: decision making, unconscious thoughts, UTT, complex decisions

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Authors: Mahan Qwamizadeh, Kun Zhou, Zuoqi Zhang, Yong Wei Zhang

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Typical load-bearing biological materials like bone, mineralized tendon and shell, are biocomposites made from both organic (collagen) and inorganic (biomineral) materials. This amazing class of materials with intrinsic internally designed hierarchical structures show superior mechanical properties with regard to their weak components from which they are formed. Extensive investigations concentrating on static loading conditions have been done to study the biological materials failure. However, most of the damage and failure mechanisms in load-bearing biological materials will occur whenever their structures are exposed to dynamic loading conditions. The main question needed to be answered here is: What is the relation between the layout and architecture of the load-bearing biological materials and their dynamic behavior? In this work, a staggered model has been developed based on the structure of natural materials at nanoscale and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been used to study the dynamic behavior of the structure of load-bearing biological materials to answer why the staggered arrangement has been selected by nature to make the nanocomposite structure of most of the biological materials. The results showed that the staggered structures will efficiently attenuate the stress wave rather than the layered structure. Furthermore, such staggered architecture is effectively in charge of utilizing the capacity of the biostructure to resist both normal and shear loads. In this work, the geometrical parameters of the model like the thickness and aspect ratio of the mineral inclusions selected from the typical range of the experimentally observed feature sizes and layout dimensions of the biological materials such as bone and mineralized tendon. Furthermore, the numerical results validated with existing theoretical solutions. Findings of the present work emphasize on the significant effects of dynamic behavior on the natural evolution of load-bearing biological materials and can help scientists to design bioinspired materials in the laboratories.

Keywords: load-bearing biological materials, nanostructure, staggered structure, stress wave decay

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Authors: S. Valarmathi, P. B. Harathi, R. Sridhar, S. Balasubramanian

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Machine learning tools in medical diagnosis is increasing due to the improved effectiveness of classification and recognition systems to help medical experts in diagnosing breast cancer. In this study, ID3 chooses the splitting attribute with the highest gain in information, where gain is defined as the difference between before the split versus after the split. It is applied for age, location, taluk, stage, year, period, martial status, treatment, heredity, sex, and habitat against Very Serious (VS), Very Serious Moderate (VSM), Serious (S) and Not Serious (NS) to calculate the gain of information. The ranked histogram gives the gain of each field for the breast cancer data. The doctors use TNM staging which will decide the risk level of the breast cancer and play an important decision making field in fuzzy logic for perception based measurement. Spatial risk area (taluk) of the breast cancer is calculated. Result clearly states that Coimbatore (North and South) was found to be risk region to the breast cancer than other areas at 20% criteria. Weighted value of taluk was compared with criterion value and integrated with Map Object to visualize the results. ID3 algorithm shows the high breast cancer risk regions in the study area. The study has outlined, discussed and resolved the algorithms, techniques / methods adopted through soft computing methodology like ID3 algorithm for prognostic decision making in the seriousness of the breast cancer.

Keywords: ID3 algorithm, breast cancer, fuzzy logic, MATLAB

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Authors: Bing Li

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The primitive code-level design patterns (PDP) are the rudimentary programming elements to develop any distributed systems in the generic distributed programming environment, GreatFree. The PDP works with the primitive distributed application programming interfaces (PDA), the distributed modeling, and the distributed concurrency for scaling-up. They not only hide developers from underlying technical details but also support sufficient adaptability to a variety of distributed computing environments. Programming with them, the simplest distributed system, the lightweight messaging two-node client/server (TNCS) system, is constructed rapidly with straightforward and repeatable behaviors, copy-paste-replace (CPR). As any distributed systems are made up of the simplest ones, those PDAs, as well as the PDP, are generic for distributed programming.

Keywords: primitive APIs, primitive code-level design patterns, generic distributed programming, distributed systems, highly patterned development environment, messaging

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Authors: Ayat-Allah Bouramdane

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Since 2010, there have been sustained decreases in the unit costs of onshore wind energy and large increases in its deployment, varying widely across regions. In fact, the onshore wind production is affected by air density— because cold air is more dense and therefore more effective at producing wind power— and by wind speed—as wind turbines cannot operate in very low or extreme stormy winds. The wind speed is essentially affected by the surface friction or the roughness and other topographic features of the land, which slow down winds significantly over the continent. Hence, the identification of the most appropriate locations of onshore wind systems is crucial to maximize their energy output and therefore minimize their Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). This study focuses on the preliminary assessment of onshore wind energy potential, in several areas in Morocco with a particular focus on the Dakhla city, by analyzing the diurnal and seasonal variability of wind speed for different hub heights, the frequency distribution of wind speed, the wind rose and the wind performance indicators such as wind power density, capacity factor, and LCOE. In addition to climate criterion, other criteria (i.e., topography, location, environment) were selected fromGeographic Referenced Information (GRI), reflecting different considerations. The impact of each criterion on the suitability map of onshore wind farms was identified using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). We find that the majority of suitable zones are located along the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. We discuss the sensitivity of the onshore wind site suitability to different aspects such as the methodology—by comparing the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM)-AHP results to the Mean-Variance Portfolio optimization framework—and the potential impact of climate change on this suitability map, and provide the final recommendations to the Moroccan energy strategy by analyzing if the actual Morocco's onshore wind installations are located within areas deemed suitable. This analysis may serve as a decision-making framework for cost-effective investment in onshore wind power in Morocco and to shape the future sustainable development of the Dakhla city.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process (ahp), dakhla, geographic referenced information, morocco, multi-criteria decision-making, onshore wind, site suitability.

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Authors: Daniel S. Gamba, Marc Sánchez, Javier Pérez, Juan J. Castillo, Juan A. Cabrera

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The conventional hydraulic braking system operates through the activation of a master cylinder and solenoid valves that distribute and regulate brake fluid flow, adjusting the pressure at each wheel to prevent locking during sudden braking. However, in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the integration of electronic units into various vehicle control systems. In this context, one of the technologies most recently researched is the Brake-by-wire system, which combines electronic, hydraulic, and mechanical technologies to manage braking. This proposal introduces the design and control of a Brake-by-wire system, which will be part of a fully electric and teleoperated vehicle. This vehicle will have independent four-wheel drive, braking, and steering systems. The vehicle will be operated by embedded controllers programmed into a Speedgoat test system, which allows programming through Simulink and real-time capabilities. The braking system comprises all mechanical and electrical components, a vehicle control unit (VCU), and an electronic control unit (ECU). The mechanical and electrical components include a permanent magnet synchronous motor from Odrive and its inverter, the mechanical transmission system responsible for converting torque into pressure, and the hydraulic system that transmits this pressure to the brake caliper. The VCU is responsible for controlling the pressure and communicates with the other components through the CAN protocol, minimizing response times. The ECU, in turn, transmits the information obtained by a sensor installed in the caliper to the central computer, enabling the control loop to continuously regulate pressure by controlling the motor's speed and current. To achieve this, tree controllers are used, operating in a nested configuration for effective control. Since the computer allows programming in Simulink, a digital model of the braking system has been developed in Simscape, which makes it possible to reproduce different operating conditions, faithfully simulate the performance of alternative brake control systems, and compare the results with data obtained in various real tests. These tests involve evaluating the system's response to sinusoidal and square wave inputs at different frequencies, with the results compared to those obtained from conventional braking systems.

Keywords: braking, CAN protocol, permanent magnet motor, pressure control

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Authors: Adela Mariana Vadastreanu, Adrian Bot, Andreea Maier, Dorin Maier

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This paper approaches the need for innovation management in the context of an existing integrated management system implemented in an organization. The road to success for companies in today’s economic environment is more demanding than ever and the capacity of adapting to the rapid changes is compensatory in order to resist on the market. The managers struggle, daily, with increasingly complex problems, caused by fierce competition in the market but also from the rising demands of customers. Innovation seems to be the solution for these problems. During the last decade almost all companies have been certificated according to various management systems, like quality management system, environmental management system, health and safety management system and others; furthermore many companies have implemented an integrated management system, by integrating two or more management systems. The problem rising today is how to integrate innovation in this integrated management systems. The challenge of the problem is that the development of an innovation management system is in the early phase. In this paper we have studied the possibility of integrating some of the innovation request in an existing management system, we have identify the innovation performance request and we proposed some recommendations regarding innovation management and its implementation as a part of an integrated management system. This paper lies down the bases for developing an model of integration management systems that include innovation as a main part of it. Organizations are becoming more aware of the importance of Integrated Management Systems (IMS). Integrating two or more management systems into an integrated management system can have much advantages.This paper examines various models of management systems integration in accordance with professional references ISO 9001, ISO 18001 and OHSAS 18001, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, creating a basis for future development of integrated management systems, and their involvement in various other processes within the organization, such as innovation management. The more and more demanding economic context emphasizes the awareness of the importance of innovation for organizations. This paper highlights the importance of the innovation for an organization and also gives some practical solution in order to improve the overall success of the business through a better approach of innovation. Various standards have been developed in order to certificate organizations that they respect the requirements. Applying an integrated standards model is shown to be a more effective way then applying the standards independently. The problem that arises is that in order to adopt the integrated version of standards there have to be made some changes at the organizational level. Every change that needs to be done has an effect on its activity, and in this sense the paper tries to deal with the changes needed for adopting an integrated management system and if those changes have an influence over the performance. After the analysis of the results, we can conclude that in order to improve the performance a necessary step is the implementation of innovation in the existing integrated management system.

Keywords: innovation, integrated management systems, innovation management, quality

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Authors: Siti Khadijah Che Osmi, Mohammed Ahmad Syed

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Underground structures are crucial components which required detailed analysis and design. Tunnels, for instance, are massively constructed as transportation infrastructures and utilities network especially in urban environments. Considering their prime importance to the economy and public safety that cannot be compromised, thus any instability to these tunnels will be highly detrimental to their performance. Recent experience suggests that tunnels become vulnerable during earthquakes and blast scenarios. However, a very limited amount of studies has been carried out to study and understanding the dynamic response and performance of underground tunnels under those unpredictable extreme hazards. In view of the importance of enhancing the resilience of these structures, the overall aims of the study are to evaluate probabilistic future performance of shallow tunnels subjected to seismic and blast loads by developing detailed fragility analysis. Critical non-linear time history numerical analyses using sophisticated finite element software Midas GTS NX have been presented about the current methods of analysis, taking into consideration of structural typology, ground motion and explosive characteristics, effect of soil conditions and other associated uncertainties on the tunnel integrity which may ultimately lead to the catastrophic failure of the structures. The proposed fragility curves for both extreme loadings are discussed and compared which provide significant information the performance of the tunnel under extreme hazards which may beneficial for future risk assessment and loss estimation.

Keywords: fragility analysis, seismic loads, shallow tunnels, blast loads

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Authors: Shabir Ahmad Sofi, Shubham Aggarwal, Sanyam Singhal, Roohie Naaz

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Biometric recognition refers to an automatic recognition of individuals based on a feature vector(s) derived from their physiological and/or behavioral characteristic. Biometric recognition systems should provide a reliable personal recognition schemes to either confirm or determine the identity of an individual. These features are used to provide an authentication for computer based security systems. Applications of such a system include computer systems security, secure electronic banking, mobile phones, credit cards, secure access to buildings, health and social services. By using biometrics a person could be identified based on 'who she/he is' rather than 'what she/he has' (card, token, key) or 'what she/he knows' (password, PIN). In this paper, a brief overview of biometric methods, both unimodal and multimodal and their advantages and disadvantages, will be presented.

Keywords: biometric, DNA, fingerprint, ear, face, retina scan, gait, iris, voice recognition, unimodal biometric, multimodal biometric

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Authors: Eurico Lima Basto, Ofélia Pinto, Anabela Silva, Amélia Ferreira-Da-Silva

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The purpose if this study is two-fold: on the one hand, to identify the accounting information systems implemented in third sector organizations, as well as its components, its tools and the decisions and control purposes they serve; on the other hand, and by confronting these two theories - institutional theory versus rational choice – we intent to go further by understanding the reasons behind the adoption of the aforementioned tools. Data has been collected from third sector organizations operating in Portugal. Our sample includes all juridical types of organizations such as foundations, cooperative, associations or private institutions of social solidarity. The questionnaire contained sixteen close-ended questions and four open-questions. Results confirm the theoretical perspective of institutionalism. Most third sector organizations operating in Portugal implemented only traditional accounting tools like standard accounting statements, cost accounting, budgeting. Moreover, there is clear evidence that the decisions about the implementation of these tools were coercive oriented. With this study it is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the context of third sector organizations in Portugal, in particular the role that accounting plays in this sector, with a special focus on management accounting tools, and the factors that influence their use and the degree of their usefulness in the process of decision making.

Keywords: third sector, accounting tools, institutional theory, Portugal, descriptive research

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Authors: Jaehoon Ha, Byungmo Kang, Kilho Hong, Jungsoo Park

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Electro-optical (EO) stabilized platforms have been widely used for surveillance and reconnaissance on various types of vehicles, from surface ships to unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). EO stabilized platforms usually consist of an assembly of structure, bearings, and motors called gimbals in which a gyroscope is installed. EO elements such as a CCD camera and IR camera, are mounted to a gimbal, which has a range of motion in elevation and azimuth and can designate and track a target. In addition, a laser range finder (LRF) can be added to the gimbal in order to acquire the precise slant range from the platform to the target. Recently, a versatile functionality of target localization is needed in order to cooperate with the weapon systems that are mounted on the same platform. The target information, such as its location or velocity, needed to be more accurate. The accuracy of the target information depends on diverse component errors and alignment errors of each component. Specially, the type of moving platform can affect the accuracy of the target information. In the case of flying platforms, or UAVs, the target location error can be increased with altitude so it is important to measure altitude as precisely as possible. In the case of surface ships, target location error can be increased with obliqueness of the elevation angle of the gimbal since the altitude of the EO stabilized platform is supposed to be relatively low. The farther the slant ranges from the surface ship to the target, the more extreme the obliqueness of the elevation angle. This can hamper the precise acquisition of the target information. So far, there have been many studies on EO stabilized platforms of flying vehicles. However, few researchers have focused on ship-borne EO stabilized platforms of the surface ship. In this paper, we deal with a target localization method when an EO stabilized platform is located on the mast of a surface ship. Especially, we need to overcome the limitation caused by the obliqueness of the elevation angle of the gimbal. We introduce a well-known approach for target localization using Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) and present the problem definition showing the above-mentioned limitation. Finally, we want to show the effectiveness of the approach that will be demonstrated through computer simulations.

Keywords: target localization, ship-borne electro-optical stabilized platform, unscented kalman filter

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Authors: Ghodhbani Salah, Jemili Farah

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With the growth of cyber attacks, information safety has become an important issue all over the world. Many firms rely on security technologies such as intrusion detection systems (IDSs) to manage information technology security risks. IDSs are considered to be the last line of defense to secure a network and play a very important role in detecting large number of attacks. However the main problem with today’s most popular commercial IDSs is generating high volume of alerts and huge number of false positives. This drawback has become the main motivation for many research papers in IDS area. Hence, in this paper we present a data mining technique to assist network administrators to analyze and reduce false positive alarms that are produced by an IDS and increase detection accuracy. Our data mining technique is unsupervised clustering method based on hybrid ANT algorithm. This algorithm discovers clusters of intruders’ behavior without prior knowledge of a possible number of classes, then we apply K-means algorithm to improve the convergence of the ANT clustering. Experimental results on real dataset show that our proposed approach is efficient with high detection rate and low false alarm rate.

Keywords: intrusion detection system, alarm filtering, ANT class, ant clustering, intruders’ behaviors, false alarms

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Authors: Nesli Aydin

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Waste management decision making in developing countries has moved towards being more pragmatic, transparent, sustainable and comprehensive. Turkey is required to make its waste related legislation compatible with European Legislation as it is a candidate country of the European Union. Improper Turkish practices such as open burning and open dumping practices must be abandoned urgently, and robust waste management systems have to be structured. The determination of an optimum waste management system in any region requires a comprehensive analysis in which many criteria are taken into account by stakeholders. In conducting this sort of analysis, there are two main criteria which are evaluated by waste management analysts; economic viability and environmentally friendliness. From an analytical point of view, a central characteristic of sustainable development is an economic-ecological integration. It is predicted that building a robust waste management system will need significant effort and cooperation between the stakeholders in developing countries such as Turkey. In this regard, this study aims to provide data regarding the cost and environmental burdens of waste treatment technologies such as an incinerator, an autoclave (with different capacities), a hydroclave and a microwave coupled with updated information on calculation methods, and a framework for comparing any proposed scenario performances on a cost and environmental basis.

Keywords: decision making, economic viability, environmentally friendliness, waste management systems

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Authors: Ralf Gliniorz, Carolin Petzoldt, Andreas Ehrlich, Sandra Gelbrich, Lothar Kroll

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The building envelope is integral part of buildings, and renewable resources have a key role in energy consumption. So our aim was the development and implementation of a free forming facade system, consisting of fibre-reinforced polymer, which is built up of commercial biobased resin systems and natural fibre reinforcement. The field of application is aimed in modern architecture, like the office block 'Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e.V.' with its oak wood recyclate facade. The build-up of our elements is a classically sandwich-structured composite: face sheets as fibre-reinforced composite using polymer matrix, here a biobased epoxy, and natural fibres. The biobased core consists of stuck cardboard structure (BC-flute). Each element is manufactured from two shells in a counterpart, via hand lay-up laminate. These natural fibre skins and cardboard core have adhered 'wet-on-wet'. As a result, you get the effect of translucent face sheets with matrix illumination. Each created pixel can be controlled in RGB-colours and form together a screen at buildings. A 10 x 5 m² area 'NFP-BIO' with 25 elements is planned as a reference object in Chemnitz. The resolution is about 100 x 50 pixels. Specials are also the efficient technology of production and the possibility to extensively 3D-formed elements for buildings, replacing customary facade systems, which can give out information or advertising.

Keywords: biobased facade, cardboard core, natural fibre skins, sandwich element

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Authors: S. Gherbi, F. Bouchareb

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This paper deals with the novel intelligent bio-inspired control strategies, it presents a novel approach based on an optimal fuzzy immune PID parameters tuning, it is a combination of a PID controller, inspired by the human immune mechanism with fuzzy logic. Such controller offers more possibilities to deal with the delayed systems control difficulties due to the delay term. Indeed, we use an optimization approach to tune the four parameters of the controller in addition to the fuzzy function; the obtained controller is implemented in a modified Smith predictor structure, which is well known that it is the most efficient to the control of delayed systems. The application of the presented approach to control a three tank delay system shows good performances and proves the efficiency of the method.

Keywords: delayed systems, fuzzy immune PID, optimization, Smith predictor

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Authors: Mohsen Shakerinejad

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Due to the growing momentum of technology, the present age is called age of communication and information. And With Astounding progress of Communication and information tools, current world Is likened to the "global village". That a message can be sent from one point to another point of the world in a Time scale Less than a minute. However, one of the new sociologists -Alain Touraine- in describing the destructive effects of new changes arising from the development of information appliances refers to the "new fields for undemocratic social control And the incidence of acute and unrest social and political tensions", Yet, in this era That With the advancement of the industry, the life of people has been industrial too, quickly and accurately Data Transfer, Causes Blowing new life in the Body of Society And according to the features of each society and the progress of science and technology, Various tools should be used. One of these communication tools is Mobile. Cellular phone As Communication and telecommunication revolution in recent years, Has had a great influence on the individual and collective life of societies. This powerful communication tool Have had an Undeniable effect, On all aspects of life, including social, economic, cultural, scientific, etc. so that Ignoring It in Design, Implementation and enforcement of any system is not wise. Nowadays knowledge and information are one of the most important aspects of human life. Therefore, in this article, it has been tried to introduce mobile potentials in receive and transmit News and Information. As it follows, among the numerous capabilities of current mobile phones features such as sending text, photography, sound recording, filming, and Internet connectivity could indicate the potential of this medium of communication in the process of sending and receiving information. So that nowadays, mobile journalism as an important component of citizen journalism Has a unique role in information dissemination.

Keywords: mobile, informing, receiving information, mobile journalism, citizen journalism

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Authors: Iruka C. Anugwo, Winston M. Shakantu

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The objective of this study is to uncover the basic business-forces that necessitated the survival and sustainable performance of the medium scale contractors in the South African construction market. This study is essential as it set to contribute towards long-term strategic solutions for combating the incessant failure of start-ups construction organizations within South African. The study used a qualitative research methodology; as the most appropriate approach to elicit and understand, and uncover the phenomena that are basic business-forces for the active contractors in the market. The study also adopted a phenomenological study approach; and in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 medium scale contractors in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, between months of August to October 2015. This allowed for an in-depth understanding of the critical and basic business-forces that influenced their survival and performance beyond the first five years of business operation. Findings of the study showed that for potential contractors (startups), to survival in the competitive business environment such as construction industry, they must possess the basic business-forces. These forces are educational knowledge in construction and business management related disciplines, adequate industrial experiences, competencies and capabilities to delivery excellent services and products as well as embracing the spirit of entrepreneurship. Convincingly, it can be concluded that the strategic approach to minimize the endless failure of startups construction businesses; the potential construction contractors must endeavoring to access and acquire the basic educationally knowledge, training and qualification; need to acquire industrial experiences in collaboration with required competencies, capabilities and entrepreneurship acumen. Without these basic business-forces as been discovered in this study, the majority of the contractors gaining entrance in the market will find it difficult to develop and grow a competitive and sustainable construction organization in South Africa.

Keywords: basic business-forces, medium scale contractors, South Africa, sustainable organisations

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Authors: Fernanda Mary R. G. Da Silva, Adriana C. F. Mozzambani, Marcelo F. Mello

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Introduction: Sexual assault against children and adolescents is a public health problem with serious consequences on their quality of life, especially for those who develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The broad literature in this research area points to greater losses in verbal learning, explicit memory, speed of information processing, attention and executive functioning in PTSD. Objective: To compare the neuropsychological functions of adolescents from 14 to 17 years of age, victims of sexual violence with PTSD with those of healthy controls. Methodology: Application of a neuropsychological battery composed of the following subtests: WASI vocabulary and matrix reasoning; Digit subtests (WISC-IV); verbal auditory learning test RAVLT; Spatial Span subtest of the WMS - III scale; abbreviated version of the Wisconsin test; concentrated attention test - D2; prospective memory subtest of the NEUPSILIN scale; five-digit test - FDT and the Stroop test (Trenerry version) in adolescents with a history of sexual violence in the previous six months, referred to the Prove (Violence Care and Research Program of the Federal University of São Paulo), for further treatment. Results: The results showed a deficit in the word coding process in the RAVLT test, with impairment in A3 (p = 0.004) and A4 (p = 0.016) measures, which compromises the verbal learning process (p = 0.010) and the verbal recognition memory (p = 0.012), seeming to present a worse performance in the acquisition of verbal information that depends on the support of the attentional system. A worse performance was found in list B (p = 0.047), a lower priming effect p = 0.026, that is, lower evocation index of the initial words presented and less perseveration (p = 0.002), repeated words. Therefore, there seems to be a failure in the creation of strategies that help the mnemonic process of retention of the verbal information necessary for learning. Sustained attention was found to be impaired, with greater loss of setting in the Wisconsin test (p = 0.023), a lower rate of correct responses in stage C of the Stroop test (p = 0.023) and, consequently, a higher index of erroneous responses in C of the Stroop test (p = 0.023), besides more type II errors in the D2 test (p = 0.008). A higher incidence of total errors was observed in the reading stage of the FDT test p = 0.002, which suggests fatigue in the execution of the task. Performance is compromised in executive functions in the cognitive flexibility ability, suggesting a higher index of total errors in the alternating step of the FDT test (p = 0.009), as well as a greater number of persevering errors in the Wisconsin test (p = 0.004). Conclusion: The data from this study suggest that sexual violence and PTSD cause significant impairment in the neuropsychological functions of adolescents, evidencing risk to quality of life in stages that are fundamental for the development of learning and cognition.

Keywords: adolescents, neuropsychological functions, PTSD, sexual violence

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Moez Yeddes

Abstract:

The property of opacity is widely used in the formal verification of security in computer systems and protocols. Opacity is a general language-theoretic scheme of many security properties of systems. Opacity is parametrized with framework in which several security properties of a system can be expressed. A secret behaviour of a system is opaque if a passive attacker can never deduce its occurrence from the system observation. Instead of considering the case of static observability where the set of observable events is fixed off-line or dynamic observability where the set of observable events changes over time depending on the history of the trace, we introduce Orwellian partial observability where unobservable events are not revealed provided that downgrading events never occurs in the future of the trace. Orwellian partial observability is needed to model intransitive information flow. This Orwellian observability is knwon as ipurge function. We show in previous work how to verify opacity for regular secret is opaque for a regular language L w.r.t. an Orwellian projection is PSPACE-complete while it has been proved undecidable even for a regular language L w.r.t. a general Orwellian observation function. In this paper, we address two problems of opacification of a regular secret ϕ for a regular language L w.r.t. an Orwellian projection: Given L and a secret ϕ ∈ L, the first problem consist to compute some minimal regular super-language M of L, if it exists, such that ϕ is opaque for M and the second consists to compute the supremal sub-language M′ of L such that ϕ is opaque for M′. We derive both language-theoretic characterizations and algorithms to solve these two dual problems.

Keywords: security policies, opacity, formal verification, orwellian observation

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Authors: Vipin Kumar, Girish S. Setlur

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Graphene has been recognized as a promising 2D material with many new properties. However, pristine graphene is gapless which hinders its direct application towards graphene-based semiconducting devices. Graphene is a zero-gapp and linearly dispersing semiconductor. Massless charge carriers (quasi-particles) in graphene obey the relativistic Dirac equation. These Dirac fermions show very unusual physical properties such as electronic, optical and transport. Graphene is analogous to two-level atomic systems and conventional semiconductors. We may expect that graphene-based systems will also exhibit phenomena that are well-known in two-level atomic systems and in conventional semiconductors. Rabi oscillation is a nonlinear optical phenomenon well-known in the context of two-level atomic systems and also in conventional semiconductors. It is the periodic exchange of energy between the system of interest and the electromagnetic field. The present work describes the phenomenon of Rabi oscillations in graphene based systems. Rabi oscillations have already been described theoretically and experimentally in the extensive literature available on this topic. To describe Rabi oscillations they use an approximation known as rotating wave approximation (RWA) well-known in studies of two-level systems. RWA is valid only near conventional resonance (small detuning)- when the frequency of the external field is nearly equal to the particle-hole excitation frequency. The Rabi frequency goes through a minimum close to conventional resonance as a function of detuning. Far from conventional resonance, the RWA becomes rather less useful and we need some other technique to describe the phenomenon of Rabi oscillation. In conventional systems, there is no second minimum - the only minimum is at conventional resonance. But in graphene we find anomalous Rabi oscillations far from conventional resonance where the Rabi frequency goes through a minimum that is much smaller than the conventional Rabi frequency. This is known as anomalous Rabi frequency and is unique to graphene systems. We have shown that this is attributable to the pseudo-spin degree of freedom in graphene systems. A new technique, which is an alternative to RWA called asymptotic RWA (ARWA), has been invoked by our group to discuss the phenomenon of Rabi oscillation. Experimentally accessible current density shows different types of threshold behaviour in frequency domain close to the anomalous Rabi frequency depending on the system chosen. For single layer graphene, the exponent at threshold is equal to 1/2 while in case of bilayer graphene, it is computed to be equal to 1. Bilayer graphene shows harmonic (anomalous) resonances absent in single layer graphene. The effect of asymmetry and trigonal warping (a weak direct inter-layer hopping in bilayer graphene) on these oscillations is also studied in graphene systems. Asymmetry has a remarkable effect only on anomalous Rabi oscillations whereas the Rabi frequency near conventional resonance is not significantly affected by the asymmetry parameter. In presence of asymmetry, these graphene systems show Rabi-like oscillations (offset oscillations) even for vanishingly small applied field strengths (less than the gap parameter). The frequency of offset oscillations may be identified with the asymmetry parameter.

Keywords: graphene, Bilayer graphene, Rabi oscillations, Dirac fermion systems

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