Search results for: Ying Chern Yeoh

Authors: Yuqing Chen, Ying Xu, Renfa Li

Abstract:

The development of matrix completion theory provides new approaches for data gathering in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The existing matrix completion algorithms for WSN mainly consider how to reduce the sampling number without considering the real-time performance when recovering the data matrix. In order to guarantee the recovery accuracy and reduce the recovery time consumed simultaneously, we propose a new ALM algorithm to recover the weather monitoring data. A lot of experiments have been carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed ALM algorithm by using different parameter settings, different sampling rates and sampling models. In addition, we compare the proposed ALM algorithm with some existing algorithms in the literature. Experimental results show that the ALM algorithm can obtain better overall recovery accuracy with less computing time, which demonstrate that the ALM algorithm is an effective and efficient approach for recovering the real world weather monitoring data in WSN.

Keywords: wireless sensor network, matrix completion, singular value thresholding, augmented Lagrange multiplier

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Authors: Fouzi Harrou, Ying Sun, Sofiane Khadraoui

Abstract:

Anomaly detection based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was studied intensively and largely applied to multivariate processes with highly cross-correlated process variables. Monitoring metrics such as the Hotelling's T2 and the Q statistics are usually used in PCA-based monitoring to elucidate the pattern variations in the principal and residual subspaces, respectively. However, these metrics are ill suited to detect small faults. In this paper, the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) based on the Q and T statistics, T2-EWMA and Q-EWMA, were developed for detecting faults in the process mean. The performance of the proposed methods was compared with that of the conventional PCA-based fault detection method using synthetic data. The results clearly show the benefit and the effectiveness of the proposed methods over the conventional PCA method, especially for detecting small faults in highly correlated multivariate data.

Keywords: data-driven method, process control, anomaly detection, dimensionality reduction

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Authors: Rita Gill Singh, Alex Chun Koon, Cindy Sing Bik Ngai, Joanna Wen Ying Ho, Mei Li Khong, Enoch Chan, Terrence Lau

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Although humour is viewed as a beneficial element in teaching, there has been little attempt to systematize humour in teaching, possibly because it is difficult to teach someone to be humorous. This study integrated planned humour pedagogical approach into teaching and learning activities and examined the effect of systematically planned humour on students’ engagement and learning in different courses. Specifically, appropriate types of humour (i.e. analogy, absurdity and wordplay) and incorporation methods and frequency were systematically integrated into the lessons of courses at some higher education institutions in Hong Kong. The results showed that the planned humour pedagogical approach increased student engagement, as well as enhanced learning and motivation while reducing students’ stress. The pedagogical implications of this study will be useful for researchers, practitioners, and educators.

Keywords: higher education, pedagogy, humour, student engagement, learning, motivation

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Authors: Ying Zhang

Abstract:

In ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, the plastic load is defined by applying the twice elastic slope (TES) criterion of plastic collapse to a characteristic load-deformation curve for the vessel. Several other plastic criterion such as tangent intersection (TI) criterion, plastic work (PW) criterion have been proposed in the literature, but all exhibit a practical limitation: difficult to define the load parameter for vessels subject to several combined loads. An alternative criterion: plastic work-tangent (PWT) criterion for evaluating plastic load in pressure vessel design by analysis is presented in this paper. According to the plastic work-load curve, when the tangent variation is less than a given value in the plastic phase, the corresponding load is the plastic load. Application of the proposed criterion is illustrated by considering the elastic-plastic response of the lower head of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and nozzle intersection of (RPV). It is proposed that this is because the PWT criterion more fully represents the constraining effect of material strain hardening on the spread of plastic deformation and more efficiently ton evaluating the plastic load.

Keywords: plastic load, plastic work, strain hardening, plastic work-tangent criterion

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Authors: Ying Zhou, Jian-Hua Wang

Abstract:

Based upon the self-determination theory and self-regulated learning theory, this study examined the predictiveness of goal orientation and self-regulated learning strategies on academic achievement of adult students in distance learning. The results show a positive relation between goal orientation and the use of self-regulated strategies, and academic achievements. A significant and positive indirect relation of mastery goal orientation through self-regulated learning strategies was also found. In addition, results pointed to a positive indirect impact of performance-approach goal orientation on academic achievement. The effort regulation strategy fully mediated this relation. The theoretical and instructional implications are discussed. Interventions can be made to motivate students’ mastery or performance approach goal orientation and help them manage their time or efforts.

Keywords: goal orientation, self-regulated strategies, achievement, adult distance students

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Authors: Tiantian Gu, Dezhi Li, Mian Zhang, Ying Jiang

Abstract:

Considering the characteristics of residents’ participation in the governance of old community renewal (OCR), a theoretical model of the determinant of residents’ intention to participate in the governance of OCR has been built based on the theory of planned behavior. Seven old communities in Nanjing have been chosen as cases to conduct empirical analysis. The result indicates that participation attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have significant positive effects on residents’ intention to participate in the governance of the OCR. Recognition of the community, cognition of the OCR and perceived behavioral control have indirect positive effects on residents’ intention to participate in the OCR. In addition, the education level and the length of residence have positive effects on their participation intention, while the gender, age, and monthly income have little effect on it. The research result provides suggestions for the improvement of residents’ participation in the OCR.

Keywords: old community renewal, residents’ participation in governance, intention, theory of planned behavior

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Authors: Yu-Kai Ting, Jia-Ying Tu, Chung-Chun Hsiao

Abstract:

New physical insights into the nonlinear Lorenz equations related to flow resistance is discussed in this work. The chaotic dynamics related to Lorenz equations has been studied in many papers, which is due to the sensitivity of Lorenz equations to initial conditions and parameter uncertainties. However, the physical implication arising from Lorenz equations about convectional motion attracts little attention in the relevant literature. Therefore, as a first step to understand the related fluid mechanics of convectional motion, this paper derives the Lorenz equations again with different forced conditions in the model. Simulation work of the modified Lorenz equations without the viscosity or buoyancy force is discussed. The time-domain simulation results may imply that the states of the Lorenz equations are related to certain flow speed and flow resistance. The flow speed of the underlying fluid system increases as the flow resistance reduces. This observation would be helpful to analyze the coupling effects of different fluid parameters in a convectional model in future work.

Keywords: Galerkin method, Lorenz equations, Navier-Stokes equations, convectional motion

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Authors: Yongzhe Zhao, Ying Liu, Zhiyong Liu, Hui You

Abstract:

The soil behind retaining wall is normally subjected to cyclic loading, for example traffic loading. Geotextile has been widely used to reinforce the soil for the purpose of reducing the settlement of the soil. A series of physical model tests were performed to investigate the settlement of footing under cyclic loading. The settlement of the footing, ground deformation and the vertical earth pressure in subsoil were presented and discussed under different types of geotextiles. The results indicate that including geotextiles significantly decreases the footing settlement and the stiffer the geotextile, the less the settlement. Under cyclic loading, the soil below the footing shows dilation within certain depths and beyond that it experiences contraction. The location of footing relative to the retaining wall has important effects on the deformation behavior of the soil in the ground, and the closer the footing to the retaining wall, the greater the contraction soil shows. This is because the retaining wall experienced greater lateral displacement.

Keywords: physical model tests, reinforced retaining wall, cyclic loading, footing

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Authors: Ying Xin, Shigeki Kametani

Abstract:

This paper deals the energy saving performance of GHP (Gas engine heat pump) air conditioning system has improved with time-series variation. There are two types of air conditioning systems, VRF (Variable refrigerant flow) and central cooling and heating system. VRF is classified as EHP (Electric driven heat pump) and GHP. EHP drives the compressor with electric motor. GHP drives the compressor with the gas engine. The electric consumption of GHP is less than one tenth of EHP does. In this study, the energy consumption data of GHP installed the junior high schools was collected. An annual and monthly energy consumption per rated thermal output power of each apparatus was calculated, and then their energy efficiency was analyzed. From these data, we investigated improvement of the energy saving of the GHP air conditioning system by the change in the generation.

Keywords: energy-saving, variable refrigerant flow, gas engine heat pump, electric driven heat pump, air conditioning system

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Authors: Chun-Ying Lee, Mei-Wen Wu, Li-Yi Cheng, Chiang-Ho Cheng

Abstract:

This research studies the electroplating of zinc coating in the zinc chloride bath mixed with supercritical CO2. The sodium fluoride (NaF) was used as the bath additive to change the structure and property of the coating, and therefore the roughness and corrosion resistance of the zinc coating was investigated. The surface characterization was performed using optical microscope (OM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and α-step profilometer. Moreover, the potentiodynamic polarization measurement in 3% NaCl solution was employed in the corrosion resistance evaluation. Because of the emulsification of the electrolyte mixed in Sc-CO2, the electroplated zinc produced the coating with smoother surface, smaller grain, better throwing power and higher corrosion resistance. The main role played by the NaF was to reduce the coating’s roughness and grain size. In other words, the CO2 mixed with the electrolyte under the supercritical condition performed the similar function as brighter and leveler in zinc electroplating to enhance the throwing power and corrosion resistance of the coating.

Keywords: supercritical CO2, zinc-electroplating, sodium fluoride, electroplating

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Authors: Jianhua Wang, Ying Zhou, Xi Zhang

Abstract:

To establish the influential mechanism of learning engagement on interpreter’s performance, the present study submitted a questionnaire to a sample of 927 English major students with 804 valid ones and used the structural equation model as the basis for empirical analysis and statistical inference on the sample data. In order to explore the mechanism for interpreting learning engagement on student interpreters’ performance, a path model of interpreting processes with three variables of ‘input-environment-output’ was constructed. The results showed that the effect of each ‘environment’ variable on interpreting ability was different from and greater than the ‘input’ variable, and learning engagement was the greatest influencing factor. At the same time, peer interaction on interpreting performance has significant influence. Results suggest that it is crucial to provide effective guidance for optimizing learning engagement and interpreting teaching research by both improving the environmental support and building the platform of peer interaction, beginning with learning engagement.

Keywords: learning engagement, interpreting performance, interpreter training, English major students

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Authors: Mingchuan Zhou, Haitao Zhang, Hongfang Ma, Weiyong Ying

Abstract:

Alumina supported PtSn catalysts with cylindrical particles were prepared and characterized by using low temperature N2 adsorption/desorption and X-ray diffraction. Low temperature N2 adsorption/desorption demonstrate that the tableting changed the texture properties of catalysts. XRD pattern indicate that the crystal structure of supports had no change after reaction. The performances over particles of PtSn/Al2O3 catalysts were investigated with regards to reaction temperature, pressure, and H2/AcOH mole ratio. After tableting, the conversion of acetic acid and selectivity of ethanol and acetyl acetate decreased. High reaction temperature and pressure can improve conversion of acetic acid. H2/AcOH mole ratio of 9.36 showed the best performance on acetic acid hydrogenation. High pressure had benefits for the selectivity of ethanol and other two parameters had no obvious effect on selectivity.  

Keywords: acetic acid hydrogenation, cylindrical particles, ethanol, PtSn

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Authors: Stanley Yap Peng Lok, Chong Wei Ying, Leow Hon Wei, Fatemeh Kimiyaghalam

Abstract:

Purpose: This paper examines how people treat on the importance of financial planning for their retirement. There is lack of standard instrument that enable us to access the retirement planning behavior. This paper studies the reliability and validity of a proposed scale for accessing this behavior. Design/methodology/approach: The Retirement Planning Behavior scale (RPB) is developed from the results of reviewing different papers on this topic. A total of 900 Malaysians from the age of 18 and above are used as the sample. Findings: Our results show, firstly, the RPB meets all criteria from the instrument reliability and validity which based on the theory of planned behavior. Second, our findings propose two components for this RPB scale; attitude toward planning for retirement and intention towards retirement planning behavior. Practical implication: An effective retirement planning achieves financial independence after the retirement. Our findings have important implications for the scope and significance of the retirement planning behavior measurement, especially for retirees. Originality/value: This study proposes a new approach to cater consumers’ needs for retirement planning. Therefore, consumers are able to achieve financial independence in their retirement age.

Keywords: retirement planning behavior (RPB) scale, reliability, validity, retirement planning, financial independence

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Authors: Tak-Chung Fu, Ying-Kit Hung, Fu-Lai Chung

Abstract:

In the field of time series data mining, the concept of the Perceptually Important Point (PIP) identification process is first introduced in 2001. This process originally works for financial time series pattern matching and it is then found suitable for time series dimensionality reduction and representation. Its strength is on preserving the overall shape of the time series by identifying the salient points in it. With the rise of Big Data, time series data contributes a major proportion, especially on the data which generates by sensors in the Internet of Things (IoT) environment. According to the nature of PIP identification and the successful cases, it is worth to further explore the opportunity to apply PIP in time series ‘Big Data’. However, the performance of PIP identification is always considered as the limitation when dealing with ‘Big’ time series data. In this paper, two distributed versions of PIP identification based on the Specialized Binary (SB) Tree are proposed. The proposed approaches solve the bottleneck when running the PIP identification process in a standalone computer. Improvement in term of speed is obtained by the distributed versions.

Keywords: distributed computing, performance analysis, Perceptually Important Point identification, time series data mining

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Authors: Zhiqiang Xu, Hongfang Ma, Haitao Zhang, Weixin Qian, Weiyong Ying

Abstract:

SSZ-13 materials with different Si/Al ratio were prepared by varying the composition of aluminosilicate precursor solutions upon hydrothermal treatment at 150 °C. The Si/Al ratio of the initial system was systematically changed from 12.5 to infinity in order to study the limits of Al composition in precursor solutions for constructing CHA structure. The intermediates and final products were investigated by complementary techniques such as XRD, HRTEM, FESEM, and chemical analysis. NH₃-TPD was used to study the Brønsted acidity of SSZ-13 samples with different Si/Al ratios. The effect of the Si/Al ratio on the precursor species, ultimate crystal size, morphology and yield was investigated. The results revealed that Al species determine the nucleation rate and the number of nuclei, which is tied to the morphology and yield of SSZ-13. The size of SSZ-13 increased and the yield decreased as the Si/Al ratio was improved. Varying Si/Al ratio of the initial system is a facile, commercially viable method of tailoring SSZ-13 crystal size and morphology. Furthermore, SSZ-13 materials with different Si/Al ratio were tested as catalysts for the methanol to olefins (MTO) reaction at 350 °C. SSZ-13 with the Si/Al ratio of 35 shows the best MTO catalytic performance.

Keywords: crystallization, MTO, Si/Al ratio, SSZ-13

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Authors: Ji Chen, Chunhui Zhang, Fanming Zeng, Lei Zhang, Ying Li, Wei Zhang

Abstract:

Based on the synthetic principle of force, a pre-compressed nonlinear isolator with quasi-zero-stiffness (QZS) is developed for shock isolation of ship equipment. The proposed isolator consists of a vertical spring with positive stiffness and several lateral springs with negative stiffness. An analytical expression of vertical stiffness of the nonlinear isolator is derived and numerical simulation on the effect of the geometric design parameters is carried out. Besides, a pre-compressed QZS shock isolation system model is established. The stiffness characteristic of the system is studied and the effects of excitation amplitude and friction damping on shock isolation performance are discussed respectively. The research results show that in comparison with linear shock isolation system, the pre-compressed QZS shock isolation system could realize constant-force or approximately constant-force function and perform better anti-impact performance.

Keywords: quasi-zero-stiffness, constant-force, pre-compressed, large deformation, shock isolation, friction damping

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Authors: Liu Ying-jie, Lu Wen-bo, Peng Cheng-jian

Abstract:

With the development of the automotive technology and electric vehicle, the contribution of the wind noise on the interior noise becomes the main source of noise. The main transfer path which the exterior excitation is transmitted through is the greenhouse panels and side windows. Simulating the wind noise transmitted into the vehicle accurately in the early development stage can be very challenging. The basic methodologies of this study were based on the Lighthill analogy; the exterior flow field around a passenger car was computed using unsteady Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) firstly and then a Finite Element Method (FEM) was used to compute the interior acoustic response. The major findings of this study include: 1) The Sound Pressure Level (SPL) response at driver’s ear locations is mainly induced by the turbulence pressure fluctuation; 2) Peaks were found over the full frequency range. It is found that the methodology used in this study could predict the interior wind noise induced by the exterior aerodynamic excitation in industry.

Keywords: wind noise, computational fluid dynamics, finite element method, passenger car

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Authors: Wenzhe Li, Xiaoyu Ying, Grace Ding

Abstract:

Architecture plane form is an important consideration in the design of green buildings due to its significant impact on energy performance. The most effective method to consider energy performance in the early design stages is parametric modelling. This paper presents a methodology to program plane forms using MATLAB language, generating 16 kinds of plane forms by changing four designed parameters. DesignBuilder (an energy consumption simulation software) was proposed to simulate the energy consumption of the generated planes. A regression mathematical model was established to study the relationship between the plane forms and their energy consumption. The main finding of the study suggested that there was a cubic function relationship between the depth-ratio of U-shaped buildings and energy consumption, and there is also a cubic function relationship between the width-ratio and energy consumption. In the design, the depth-ratio of U-shaped buildings should not be less than 2.5, and the width-ratio should not be less than 2.

Keywords: graphic parameterization, green building design, mathematical model, plane form

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Authors: Ying Su, Morgan C. Wang

Abstract:

Long-term time series forecasting is an important research area for automated machine learning (AutoML). Currently, forecasting based on either machine learning or statistical learning is usually built by experts, and it requires significant manual effort, from model construction, feature engineering, and hyper-parameter tuning to the construction of the time series model. Automation is not possible since there are too many human interventions. To overcome these limitations, this article proposed to use recurrent neural networks (RNN) through the memory state of RNN to perform long-term time series prediction. We have shown that this proposed approach is better than the traditional Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA). In addition, we also found it is better than other network systems, including Fully Connected Neural Networks (FNN), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), and Nonpooling Convolutional Neural Networks (NPCNN).

Keywords: automated machines learning, autoregressive integrated moving average, neural networks, time series analysis

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Authors: Wanqing You, Kai Qian, Ying Qian

Abstract:

The concepts of Cloud Computing provide users with infrastructure, platform and software as service, which make those services more accessible for people via Internet. To better analysis the performance of Cloud Computing provisioning policies as well as resources allocation strategies, a toolkit named CloudSim proposed. With CloudSim, the Cloud Computing environment can be easily constructed by modelling and simulating cloud computing components, such as datacenter, host, and virtual machine. A good scheduling strategy is the key to achieve the load balancing among different machines as well as to improve the utilization of basic resources. Recently, the existing scheduling algorithms may work well in some presumptive cases in a single machine; however they are unable to make the best decision for the unforeseen future. In real world scenario, there would be numbers of tasks as well as several virtual machines working in parallel. Based on the concepts of multi-queue, this paper presents a new scheduling algorithm to schedule tasks with CloudSim by taking into account several parameters, the machines’ capacity, the priority of tasks and the history log.

Keywords: hierarchical queue, load balancing, CloudSim, information technology

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Authors: Hung-Jiun Chi, Cheng-En Tsai, Jia-Ying Tu

Abstract:

Semi-active control of Magnetorheological (MR) dampers for vibration reduction of structural systems has received considerable attention in civil and earthquake engineering, because the effective stiffness and damping properties of MR fluid can change in a very short time in reaction to external loading, requiring only a low level of power. However, the inherent nonlinear dynamics of hysteresis raise challenges in the modeling and control processes. In order to control the MR damper, an innovative Duffing-like equation is proposed to approximate the hysteresis dynamics in a deterministic and systematic manner than previously has been possible. Then, the model-reference adaptive control technique based on the Duffing-like model and the Lyapunov method is discussed. Parameter identification work with experimental data is presented to show the effectiveness of the Duffing-like model. In addition, simulation results show that the resulting adaptive gains enable the MR damper force to track the desired response of the reference model satisfactorily, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and control techniques.

Keywords: magnetorheological damper, duffing equation, model-reference adaptive control, Lyapunov function, hysteresis

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Authors: Yu-Kuei Hsu, Ying-Chu Chen, Yan-Gu Lin

Abstract:

The hierarchical Cu2S nano structural film is successfully fabricated via an electroplated ZnO nanorod array as a template and subsequently chemical solution process for the growth of Cu2S in the application of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection. The as-grown Cu2S nano structures were thermally treated at temperature of 150-300 oC under nitrogen atmosphere to improve the crystal quality and unexpectedly induce the Cu nano particles on surface of Cu2S. The structure and composition of thermally treated Cu2S nano structures were carefully analyzed by SEM, XRD, XPS, and XAS. Using 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) as probing molecules, the SERS experiments showed that the thermally treated Cu2S nano structures exhibit excellent detecting performance, which could be used as active and cost-effective SERS substrate for ultra sensitive detecting. Additionally, this novel hierarchical SERS substrates show good reproducibility and a linear dependence between analyte concentrations and intensities, revealing the advantage of this method for easily scale-up production.

Keywords: cuprous sulfide, copper, nanostructures, surface-enhanced raman scattering

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Authors: Hui-Ling Huang, Tamara Vasylenko, Phasit Charoenkwan, Shih-Hsiang Chiu, Shinn-Ying Ho

Abstract:

The knowledge of the human transporters is still limited due to technically demanding procedure of crystallization for the structural characterization of transporters by spectroscopic methods. It is desirable to develop bioinformatics tools for effective analysis of available sequences in order to identify human transmembrane transporter proteins (HMTPs). This study proposes a scoring card method (SCM) based method for predicting HMTPs. We estimated a set of propensity scores of dipeptides to be HMTPs using SCM from the training dataset (HTS732) consisting of 366 HMTPs and 366 non-HMTPs. SCM using the estimated propensity scores of 20 amino acids and 400 dipeptides -as HMTPs, has a training accuracy of 87.63% and a test accuracy of 66.46%. The five top-ranked dipeptides include LD, NV, LI, KY, and MN with scores 996, 992, 989, 987, and 985, respectively. Five amino acids with the highest propensity scores are Ile, Phe, Met, Gly, and Leu, that hydrophobic residues are mostly highly-scored. Furthermore, obtained propensity scores were used to analyze physicochemical properties of human transporters.

Keywords: dipeptide composition, physicochemical property, human transmembrane transporter proteins, human transmembrane transporters binding propensity, scoring card method

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Authors: A. M. Naraghi, V. Gonzalez, M. O'Sullivan, C. G. Walker, M. Poshdar, F. Ying, M. Abdelmegid

Abstract:

Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and Agent Based Simulation (ABS) are two simulation approaches that have been proposed to support decision-making in the construction industry. Despite the wide use of these simulation approaches in the construction field, their applications for production and material planning is still limited. This is largely due to the dynamic and complex nature of construction material supply chain systems. Moreover, managing the flow of construction material is not well integrated with site logistics in traditional construction planning methods. This paper presents a hybrid of DES and ABS to simulate on-site and off-site material supply processes. DES is applied to determine the best production scenarios with information of on-site production systems, while ABS is used to optimize the supply chain network. A case study of a construction piling project in New Zealand is presented illustrating the potential benefits of using the proposed hybrid simulation model in construction material flow planning. The hybrid model presented can be used to evaluate the impact of different decisions on construction supply chain management.

Keywords: construction supply-chain management, simulation modeling, decision-support tools, hybrid simulation

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Authors: Yu-Fu Chen, Zih-Jyun Dai, Chen-Te Chiu, Shiue-Chen Chiou, Yung-Wei Chen, Yu-Ming Lin, Kuan-Yu Chen, Hung-Wei Wu, Hsin-Ying Lee, Yan-Kuin Su, Shoou-Jinn Chang

Abstract:

This paper presents a compact dual-band bandpass filter that involves using the quarter wavelength stepped impedance resonators (SIRs) for achieving simultaneously compact circuit size and good dual-band performance. The filter is designed at 2.4 / 3.5 GHz and constructed by two pairs of quarter wavelength SIRs and source-load lines. By properly tuning the impedance ratio, length ratio and radius of via hole of the SIRs, dual-passbands performance can be easily determined. To improve the passband selectivity, the use of source-load lines is to increase coupling energy between the resonators. The filter is showing simple configuration, effective design method and small circuit size. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulation results.

Keywords: dual-band, bandpass filter, stepped impedance resonators, SIR

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Authors: Ying Zhao, Xingyan Bin

Abstract:

Semi-supervised clustering algorithms have been shown effective to improve clustering process with even limited supervision. However, semi-supervised hierarchical clustering remains challenging due to the complexities of expressing constraints for agglomerative clustering algorithms. This paper proposes novel semi-supervised agglomerative clustering algorithms to build a hierarchy based on a known reference tree. We prove that by enforcing distance constraints defined by a reference tree during the process of hierarchical clustering, the resultant tree is guaranteed to be consistent with the reference tree. We also propose a framework that allows the hierarchical tree generation be aware of levels of levels of the agglomerative tree under creation, so that metric weights can be learned and adopted at each level in a recursive fashion. The experimental evaluation shows that the additional cost of our contraint-based semi-supervised hierarchical clustering algorithm (HAC) is negligible, and our combined semi-supervised HAC algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms on real-world datasets. The experiments also show that our proposed methods can improve clustering performance even with a small number of unevenly distributed labeled data.

Keywords: semi-supervised clustering, hierarchical agglomerative clustering, reference trees, distance constraints

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Authors: Pui Hong Chung, Cyrus Leung, Jun Li, Kin On Kwok, Ek Yeoh

Abstract:

Introduction: Studies for TB control in intermediate tuberculosis burden countries (IBCs) comprise a relatively small proportion in TB control literature, as compared to the effort put in high and low burden counterparts. It currently lacks of consensus in the optimal weapons and strategies we can use to combat TB in IBCs; guidelines of TB control are inadequate and thus posing a great obstacle in eliminating TB in these countries. To fill-in the research and services gap, we need to summarize the findings of the effort in this regard and to seek consensus in terms of policy making for TB control, we have devised a series of scoping and Delphi studies for these purposes. Method: The scoping and Delphi studies are conducted in parallel to feed information for each other. Before the Delphi iterations, we have invited three local experts in TB control in Hong Kong to participate in the pre-assessment round of the Delphi study to comments on the validity, relevance, and clarity of the Delphi questionnaire. Result: Two scoping studies, regarding LTBI control in health care workers in IBCs and TB control in elderly of IBCs respectively, have been conducted. The result of these two studies is used as the foundation for developing the Delphi questionnaire, which tapped on seven areas of question, namely: characteristics of IBCs, adequacy of research and services in LTBI control in IBCs, importance and feasibility of interventions for TB control and prevention in hospital, screening and treatment of LTBI in community, reasons of refusal to/ default from LTBI treatment, medical adherence of LTBI treatment, and importance and feasibility of interventions for TB control and prevention in elderly in IBCs. The local experts also commented on the two scoping studies conducted, thus act as the sixth phase of expert consultation in Arksey and O’Malley framework of scoping studies, to either nourish the scope and strategies used in these studies or to supplement ideas for further scoping or systematic review studies. In the subsequent stage, an international expert panel, comprised of 15 to 20 experts from IBCs in Western Pacific Region, will be recruited to join the two-round anonymous Delphi iterations. Four categories of TB control experts, namely clinicians, policy makers, microbiologists/ laboratory personnel, and public health clinicians will be our target groups. A consensus level of 80% is used to determine the achievement of consensus on particular issues. Key messages: 1. Scoping review and Delphi method are useful to identify gaps and then achieve consensus in research. 2. Lots of resources are put in the high burden countries now. However, the usually neglected intermediate-burden countries with TB is an indispensable part for achieving the ambitious WHO End TB 2035 target.

Keywords: dephi questionnaire, tuberculosis, WHO, latent TB infection

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Authors: Chih-Chia Lin, Ching-Ying Huang, Cheng-Hong Liu, Wen-Lin Wang

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A complete fuel cell stack comprises several single cells with end plates, bipolar plates, gaskets and membrane electrode assembly (MEA) components. Electrons generated from cells are conducted through bipolar plates. The amount of cells' components increases as the stack voltage increases, complicating the fuel cell assembly process and mass production. Stack assembly error influence cell performance. PEM fuel cell stack importing laser welding technique could eliminate transverse deformation between bipolar plates to promote stress uniformity of cell components as bipolar plates and MEA. Simultaneously, bipolar plates were melted together using laser welding to decrease interface resistance. A series of experiments as through-plan and in-plan resistance measurement test was conducted to observe the laser welding effect. The result showed that the through-plane resistance with laser welding was a drop of 97.5-97.6% when the contact pressure was about 1MPa to 3 MPa, and the in-plane resistance was not significantly different for laser welding.

Keywords: PEM fuel cell, laser welding, through-plan, in-plan, resistance

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Authors: Yen-Ting Chiu, Chia-Ying Lin, Pei-Hsuan Ho

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New technologies can help solve the problem of labor shortage and the decline of birthrate. Technologies can improve human’s life and reduce the burden on the staff and bring convenience to people. That’s why unmanned retail store X-Store was established in Taiwan to create more valuable services and shopping experiences based on smart retailing. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of unmanned stores, X-Store, on customers’ behavioral intentions. It uses the Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model as a basis and adds a perceived value factor to explain customer willingness to use the X-Store. In addition, the study further divided the sample into gender and age groups to compare behavioral differences between different groups. The study collected 214 valid questionnaires through online questionnaires. Using SPSS as a statistical analysis tool, the results of the study show that effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and perceived value have a significant impact on behavioral intention to use X-Store. However, performance expectancy is not significant. This research concludes with managerial implications and suggestions for retail practitioners.

Keywords: perceived value, smart retailing, unmanned store, UTAUT, X-Store

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Authors: Zheng-Yan Ruan, Chien-Hao Wang, Hong-Jen Lin, Chien-Peng Huang, Ying-Hao Chen, En-Cheng Yang, Chwan-Lu Tseng, Joe-Air Jiang

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Bees play a vital role in pollination. This paper focuses on the weighing process of honey. Honey is usually stored at the comb in a hive. Bee farmers brush bees away from the comb and then collect honey, and the collected honey is weighed afterward. However, such a process brings strong negative influences on bees and even leads to the death of bees. This paper therefore presents an Internet of Things-based weight monitoring system which uses weight sensors to measure the weight of honey and simplifies the whole weighing procedure. To verify the system, the weight measured by the system is compared to the weight of standard weights used for calibration by employing a linear regression model. The R² of the regression model is 0.9788, which suggests that the weighing system is highly reliable and is able to be applied to obtain actual weight of honey. In the future, the weight data of honey can be used to find the relationship between honey production and different ecological parameters, such as bees’ foraging behavior and weather conditions. It is expected that the findings can serve as critical information for honey production improvement.

Keywords: internet of things, weight, honey, bee

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