Search results for: Multiple Criteria Fuzzy Optimization
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4714

Search results for: Multiple Criteria Fuzzy Optimization

904 Legal Basis for Water Resources Management in Brazil: Case Study of the Rio Grande Basin

Authors: Janaína F. Guidolini, Jean P. H. B. Ometto, Angélica Giarolla, Peter M. Toledo, Carlos A. Valera

Abstract:

The water crisis, a major problem of the 21st century, occurs mainly due to poor management. The central issue that should govern the management is the integration of the various aspects that interfere with the use of water resources and their protection, supported by legal basis. A watershed is a unit of water interacting with the physical, biotic, social, economic and cultural variables. The Brazilian law recognized river basin as the territorial management unit. Based on the diagnosis of the current situation of the water resources of the Rio Grande Basin, a discussion informed in the Brazilian legal basis was made to propose measures to fight or mitigate damages and environmental degradation in the Basin. To manage water resources more efficiently, conserve water and optimize their multiple uses, the integration of acquired scientific knowledge and management is essential. Moreover, it is necessary to monitor compliance with environmental legislation.

Keywords: Conservation of soil and water, river basin, sustainability, water governance.

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903 A Comparison of Energy Calculations for a Single-Family Detached Home with Two Energy Simulation Methods

Authors: Amir Sattari

Abstract:

For newly produced houses and energy renovations, an energy calculation needs to be conducted. This is done to verify whether the energy consumption criteria of the house -to reach the energy targets by 2020 and 2050- are in-line with the norms. The main purpose of this study is to confirm whether easy to use energy calculation software or hand calculations used by small companies or individuals give logical results compared to advanced energy simulation program used by researchers or bigger companies. There are different methods for calculating energy consumption. In this paper, two energy calculation programs are used and the relation of energy consumption with solar radiation is compared. A hand calculation is also done to validate whether the hand calculations are still reasonable. The two computer programs which have been used are TMF Energi (the easy energy calculation variant used by small companies or individuals) and IDA ICE - Indoor Climate and Energy (the advanced energy simulation program used by researchers or larger companies). The calculations are done for a standard house from the Swedish house supplier Fiskarhedenvillan. The method is based on having the same conditions and inputs in the different calculation forms so that the results can be compared and verified. The house has been faced differently to see how the orientation affects energy consumption in different methods. The results for the simulations are close to each other and the hand calculation differs from the computer programs by only 5%. Even if solar factors differ due to the orientation of the house, energy calculation results from different computer programs and even hand calculation methods are in line with each other.

Keywords: Energy calculation, energy consumption, energy simulation, IDA ICE, TMF Energi.

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902 Experimental and Numerical Study of A/C Outletsand Its Impact on Room Airflow Characteristics

Authors: Mohammed A. Aziz, Ibrahim A. M. Gad, El Shahat F. A. Mohammed, Ramy H. Mohammed

Abstract:

This paper investigates experimental and numerical study of the airflow characteristics for vortex, round and square ceiling diffusers and its effect on the thermal comfort in a ventilated room. Three different thermal comfort criteria namely; Mean Age of the Air (MAA), ventilation effectiveness (E), and Effective Draft Temperature (EDT) have been used to predict the thermal comfort zone inside the room. In experimental work, a sub-scale room is set-up to measure the temperature field in the room. In numerical analysis, unstructured grids have been used to discretize the numerical domain. Conservation equations are solved using FLUENT commercial flow solver. The code is validated by comparing the numerical results obtained from three different turbulence models with the available experimental data. The comparison between the various numerical models shows that the standard k-ε turbulence model can be used to simulate these cases successfully. After validation of the code, effect of supply air velocity on the flow and thermal field could be investigated and hence the thermal comfort. The results show that the pressure coefficient created by the square diffuser is 1.5 times greater than that created by the vortex diffuser. The velocity decay coefficient is nearly the same for square and round diffusers and is 2.6 times greater than that for the vortex diffuser.

Keywords: Ceiling diffuser, Thermal Comfort, MAA, EDT, Fluent, Turbulence model.

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901 Sentiment Analysis: Comparative Analysis of Multilingual Sentiment and Opinion Classification Techniques

Authors: Sannikumar Patel, Brian Nolan, Markus Hofmann, Philip Owende, Kunjan Patel

Abstract:

Sentiment analysis and opinion mining have become emerging topics of research in recent years but most of the work is focused on data in the English language. A comprehensive research and analysis are essential which considers multiple languages, machine translation techniques, and different classifiers. This paper presents, a comparative analysis of different approaches for multilingual sentiment analysis. These approaches are divided into two parts: one using classification of text without language translation and second using the translation of testing data to a target language, such as English, before classification. The presented research and results are useful for understanding whether machine translation should be used for multilingual sentiment analysis or building language specific sentiment classification systems is a better approach. The effects of language translation techniques, features, and accuracy of various classifiers for multilingual sentiment analysis is also discussed in this study.

Keywords: Cross-language analysis, machine learning, machine translation, sentiment analysis.

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900 Unsteady Aerodynamics of Multiple Airfoils in Configuration

Authors: Hossain Aziz, Rinku Mukherjee

Abstract:

A potential flow model is used to study the unsteady flow past two airfoils in configuration, each of which is suddenly set into motion. The airfoil bound vortices are modeled using lumped vortex elements and the wake behind the airfoil is modeled by discrete vortices. This consists of solving a steady state flow problem at each time-step where unsteadiness is incorporated through the “zero normal flow on a solid surface" boundary condition at every time instant. Additionally, along with the “zero normal flow on a solid surface" boundary condition Kelvin-s condition is used to compute the strength of the latest wake vortex shed from the trailing edge of the airfoil. Location of the wake vortices is updated at each time-step to get the wake shape at each time instant. Results are presented to show the effect of airfoil-airfoil interaction and airfoil-wake interaction on the aerodynamic characteristics of each airfoil.

Keywords: Aerodynamics, Airfoils, Configuration, Unsteady.

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899 Land Suitability Analysis for Maize Production in Egbeda Local Government Area of Oyo State Using GIS Techniques

Authors: Abegunde Linda, Adedeji Oluwatola, Tope-Ajayi Opeyemi

Abstract:

Maize constitutes a major agrarian production for use by the vast population but despite its economic importance; it has not been produced to meet the economic needs of the country. Achieving optimum yield in maize can meaningfully be supported by land suitability analysis in order to guarantee self-sufficiency for future production optimization. This study examines land suitability for maize production through the analysis of the physicochemical variations in soil properties and other land attributes over space using a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework. Physicochemical parameters of importance selected include slope, landuse, physical and chemical properties of the soil, and climatic variables. Landsat imagery was used to categorize the landuse, Shuttle Radar Topographic Mapping (SRTM) generated the slope and soil samples were analyzed for its physical and chemical components. Suitability was categorized into highly, moderately and marginally suitable based on Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) classification, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique of GIS. This result can be used by small scale farmers for efficient decision making in the allocation of land for maize production.

Keywords: AHP, GIS, MCE, Suitability, Zea mays.

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898 Multi-Agent Simulation of Wayfinding for Rescue Operation during Building Fire

Authors: G. Sokhansefat, M. Delavar, M. Banedj-Schafii

Abstract:

Recently research on human wayfinding has focused mainly on mental representations rather than processes of wayfinding. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the rationality behind applying multi-agent simulation paradigm to the modeling of rescuer team wayfinding in order to develop computational theory of perceptual wayfinding in crisis situations using image schemata and affordances, which explains how people find a specific destination in an unfamiliar building such as a hospital. The hypothesis of this paper is that successful navigation is possible if the agents are able to make the correct decision through well-defined cues in critical cases, so the design of the building signage is evaluated through the multi-agent-based simulation. In addition, a special case of wayfinding in a building, finding one-s way through three hospitals, is used to demonstrate the model. Thereby, total rescue time for rescue operation during building fire is computed. This paper discuses the computed rescue time for various signage localization and provides experimental result for optimization of building signage design. Therefore the most appropriate signage design resulted in the shortest total rescue time in various situations.

Keywords: Multi-Agent system (MAS), Spatial Cognition, Wayfinding, Indoor Environment, Geospatial Information System (GIS).

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897 Process and Supply-Chain Optimization for Testing and Verification of Formation Tester/Pressure-While- Drilling Tools

Authors: Vivek V, Hafeez Syed, Darren W Terrell, Harit Naik, Halliburton

Abstract:

Applying a rigorous process to optimize the elements of a supply-chain network resulted in reduction of the waiting time for a service provider and customer. Different sources of downtime of hydraulic pressure controller/calibrator (HPC) were causing interruptions in the operations. The process examined all the issues to drive greater efficiencies. The issues included inherent design issues with HPC pump, contamination of the HPC with impurities, and the lead time required for annual calibration in the USA. HPC is used for mandatory testing/verification of formation tester/pressure measurement/logging-while drilling tools by oilfield service providers, including Halliburton. After market study andanalysis, it was concluded that the current HPC model is best suited in the oilfield industry. To use theexisting HPC model effectively, design andcontamination issues were addressed through design and process improvements. An optimum network is proposed after comparing different supply-chain models for calibration lead-time reduction.

Keywords: Hydraulic Pressure Controller/Calibrator, M/LWD, Pressure, FTWD

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896 Parallel Vector Processing Using Multi Level Orbital DATA

Authors: Nagi Mekhiel

Abstract:

Many applications use vector operations by applying single instruction to multiple data that map to different locations in conventional memory. Transferring data from memory is limited by access latency and bandwidth affecting the performance gain of vector processing. We present a memory system that makes all of its content available to processors in time so that processors need not to access the memory, we force each location to be available to all processors at a specific time. The data move in different orbits to become available to other processors in higher orbits at different time. We use this memory to apply parallel vector operations to data streams at first orbit level. Data processed in the first level move to upper orbit one data element at a time, allowing a processor in that orbit to apply another vector operation to deal with serial code limitations inherited in all parallel applications and interleaved it with lower level vector operations.

Keywords: Memory organization, parallel processors, serial code, vector processing.

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895 Neuropedagogy as a Scientific Discipline: Interdisciplinary Description of the Theoretical Basis for the Development of a Research Field

Authors: M. Chojak

Abstract:

Recently, more and more scientific disciplines refer to research in the field of neurobiology. Interdisciplinary research procedures are created using modern methods of brain imaging. Neither did the pedagogues start looking for neuronal conditions for various processes. The publications began to show concepts such as ‘neuropedagogy’, ‘neuroeducation’, ‘neurodidactics’, ‘brain-friendly education’. They were and are still used interchangeably. In the offer of training for teachers, the topics of multiple intelligences or educational kinesiology began to be more and more popular. These and other ideas have been actively introduced into the curricula. To our best knowledge, the literature on the subject lacks articles organizing the new nomenclature and indicating the methodological framework for research that would confirm the effectiveness of the above-mentioned innovations. The author of this article tries to find the place for neuropedagogy in the system of sciences, define its subject of research, methodological framework and basic concepts. This is necessary to plan studies that will verify the so-called neuromyths.

Keywords: Brain, education, neuropedagogy, research.

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894 Accrual Based Scheduling for Cloud in Single and Multi Resource System: Study of Three Techniques

Authors: R. Santhosh, T. Ravichandran

Abstract:

This paper evaluates the accrual based scheduling for cloud in single and multi-resource system. Numerous organizations benefit from Cloud computing by hosting their applications. The cloud model provides needed access to computing with potentially unlimited resources. Scheduling is tasks and resources mapping to a certain optimal goal principle. Scheduling, schedules tasks to virtual machines in accordance with adaptable time, in sequence under transaction logic constraints. A good scheduling algorithm improves CPU use, turnaround time, and throughput. In this paper, three realtime cloud services scheduling algorithm for single resources and multiple resources are investigated. Experimental results show Resource matching algorithm performance to be superior for both single and multi-resource scheduling when compared to benefit first scheduling, Migration, Checkpoint algorithms.

Keywords: Cloud computing, Scheduling, Migration, Checkpoint, Resource Matching.

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893 Designing Social Care Policies in the Long Term: A Study Using Regression, Clustering and Backpropagation Neural Nets

Authors: Sotirios Raptis

Abstract:

Linking social needs to social classes using different criteria may lead to social services misuse. The paper discusses using ML and Neural Networks (NNs) in linking public services in Scotland in the long term and advocates, this can result in a reduction of the services cost connecting resources needed in groups for similar services. The paper combines typical regression models with clustering and cross-correlation as complementary constituents to predict the demand. Insurance companies and public policymakers can pack linked services such as those offered to the elderly or to low-income people in the longer term. The work is based on public data from 22 services offered by Public Health Services (PHS) Scotland and from the Scottish Government (SG) from 1981 to 2019 that are broken into 110 years series called factors and uses Linear Regression (LR), Autoregression (ARMA) and 3 types of back-propagation (BP) Neural Networks (BPNN) to link them under specific conditions. Relationships found were between smoking related healthcare provision, mental health-related health services, and epidemiological weight in Primary 1(Education) Body Mass Index (BMI) in children. Primary component analysis (PCA) found 11 significant factors while C-Means (CM) clustering gave 5 major factors clusters.

Keywords: Probability, cohorts, data frames, services, prediction.

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892 Development of a Three-Dimensional-Flywheel Robotic System

Authors: Chung-Chun Hsiao, Yu-Kai, Ting, Kai-Yuan Liu, Pang-Wei Yen, Jia-Ying Tu

Abstract:

In this paper, a new design of spherical robotic system based on the concepts of gimbal structure and gyro dynamics is presented. Robots equipped with multiple wheels and complex steering mechanics may increase the weight and degrade the energy transmission efficiency. In addition, the wheeled and legged robots are relatively vulnerable to lateral impact and lack of lateral mobility. Therefore, the proposed robotic design uses a spherical shell as the main body for ground locomotion, instead of using wheel devices. Three spherical shells are structured in a similar way to a gimbal device and rotate like a gyro system. The design and mechanism of the proposed robotic system is introduced. In addition, preliminary results of the dynamic model based on the principles of planar rigid body kinematics and Lagrangian equation are included. Simulation results and rig construction are presented to verify the concepts.

Keywords: Gyro, gimbal, Lagrange equation, spherical robots.

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891 A Foresight into Green Housing Industry in Malaysia

Authors: N. Zainul Abidin, N. Yusof, H. Awang

Abstract:

Bringing change to the housing industry requires multiple efforts from various angles especially to overcome any resistances in the form of technology, human aspects, financial and resources. The transition from conventional to sustainable approach consumes time as it requires changes from different facets in the industry ranging from individual, organisational to industry level. In Malaysia, there are various efforts to bring green into the industry but the progress is low-moderate. Will the current efforts bear larger fruits in the near future? This study examines the perceptions of the developers in Malaysia on the future of the green housing sector for the next 5 years. The introduction of GBI rating system, improvement of awareness and knowledge among the stakeholders, support from the government and local industry and the effect of competitive advantage would support brighter future. Meanwhile, the status quo in rules and regulation, lack of public interest and demand, organization disinterest, local authority enforcement and project cost escalation would hinder a faster progress.

Keywords: Developers, Green Concept, Housing Industry, Sustainable Construction

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890 Multiple Approaches for Ultrasonic Cavitation Monitoring of Oxygen-Loaded Nanodroplets

Authors: Simone Galati, Adriano Troia

Abstract:

Ultrasound (US) is widely used in medical field for a variety diagnostic techniques but, in recent years, it has also been creating great interest for therapeutic aims. Regarding drug delivery, the use of US as an activation source provides better spatial delivery confinement and limits the undesired side effects. However, at present there is no complete characterization at a fundamental level of the different signals produced by sono-activated nanocarriers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to obtain a metrological characterization of the cavitation phenomena induced by US through three parallel investigation approaches. US was focused into a channel of a customized phantom in which a solution with oxygen-loaded nanodroplets (OLNDs) was led to flow and the cavitation activity was monitored. Both quantitative and qualitative real-time analysis were performed giving information about the dynamics of bubble formation, oscillation and final implosion with respect to the working acoustic pressure and the type of nanodroplets, compared with pure water. From this analysis a possible interpretation of the observed results is proposed.

Keywords: Cavitation, Drug Delivery, Nanodroplets, Ultrasound.

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889 Statistical Optimization of Process Variables for Direct Fermentation of 226 White Rose Tapioca Stem to Ethanol by Fusarium oxysporum

Authors: A. Magesh, B. Preetha, T. Viruthagiri

Abstract:

Direct fermentation of 226 white rose tapioca stem to ethanol by Fusarium oxysporum was studied in a batch reactor. Fermentation of ethanol can be achieved by sequential pretreatment using dilute acid and dilute alkali solutions using 100 mesh tapioca stem particles. The quantitative effects of substrate concentration, pH and temperature on ethanol concentration were optimized using a full factorial central composite design experiment. The optimum process conditions were then obtained using response surface methodology. The quadratic model indicated that substrate concentration of 33g/l, pH 5.52 and a temperature of 30.13oC were found to be optimum for maximum ethanol concentration of 8.64g/l. The predicted optimum process conditions obtained using response surface methodology was verified through confirmatory experiments. Leudeking-piret model was used to study the product formation kinetics for the production of ethanol and the model parameters were evaluated using experimental data.

Keywords: Fusarium oxysporum, Lignocellulosic biomass, Product formation kinetics, Statistical experimental design

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888 Progressive Watershed Management Approaches in Iran

Authors: S. H. R. Sadeghi, A. Sadoddin, A. Najafinejad

Abstract:

Expansionism and ever-increasing population menace all different resources worldwide. The issue, hence, is critical in developing countries like Iran where new technologies are rapidly luxuriated and unguardedly applied, resulting in unexpected outcomes. However, uncommon and comprehensive approaches are introduced to take all the different aspects involved into consideration. In the last decade, few approaches such as community-based, stakeholders-oriented, adaptive and ultimately integrated management, have emerged and are developing for efficient, Co-management or best management, economic and sustainable development and management of watershed resources in Iran. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to focus on state-of-the-art approaches for the management of watershed resources applied in Iran. The study has been then supported by reports of some case studies conducted throughout the country involving previously mentioned approaches. Scrutinizing results of the researches verified a progressive tendency of the managerial approaches in watershed management strategies leading to a general approaching balance situation. The approaches are firmly rooted in educational, research, executive, legal and policy-making sectors leading to some recuperation at different levels. However, there is a long way ahead to naturalize detrimental effects of unscientific, illegal and over exploitation of the watershed resources in Iran.

Keywords: Comprehensive management, ecosystem balance, integrated watershed management, land resources optimization.

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887 Evaluation of the MCFLIRT Correction Algorithm in Head Motion from Resting State fMRI Data

Authors: V. Sacca, A. Sarica, F. Novellino, S. Barone, T. Tallarico, E. Filippelli, A. Granata, P. Valentino, A. Quattrone

Abstract:

In the last few years, resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) was widely used to investigate the architecture of brain networks by investigating the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent response. This technique represented an interesting, robust and reliable approach to compare pathologic and healthy subjects in order to investigate neurodegenerative diseases evolution. On the other hand, the elaboration of rs-fMRI data resulted to be very prone to noise due to confounding factors especially the head motion. Head motion has long been known to be a source of artefacts in task-based functional MRI studies, but it has become a particularly challenging problem in recent studies using rs-fMRI. The aim of this work was to evaluate in MS patients a well-known motion correction algorithm from the FMRIB's Software Library - MCFLIRT - that could be applied to minimize the head motion distortions, allowing to correctly interpret rs-fMRI results.

Keywords: Head motion correction, MCFLIRT algorithm, multiple sclerosis, resting state fMRI.

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886 Matrix-Interleaved Serially Concatenated Block Codes for Speech Transmission in Fixed Wireless Communication Systems

Authors: F. Mehran

Abstract:

In this paper, we study a class of serially concatenated block codes (SCBC) based on matrix interleavers, to be employed in fixed wireless communication systems. The performances of SCBC¬coded systems are investigated under various interleaver dimensions. Numerical results reveal that the matrix interleaver could be a competitive candidate over conventional block interleaver for frame lengths of 200 bits; hence, the SCBC coding based on matrix interleaver is a promising technique to be employed for speech transmission applications in many international standards such as pan-European Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Digital Cellular Systems (DCS) 1800, and Joint Detection Code Division Multiple Access (JD-CDMA) mobile radio systems, where the speech frame contains around 200 bits.

Keywords: Matrix Interleaver, serial concatenated block codes (SCBC), turbo codes, wireless communications.

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885 A Goal Programming Approach for Plastic Recycling System in Thailand

Authors: Wuthichai Wongthatsanekorn

Abstract:

Plastic waste is a big issue in Thailand, but the amount of recycled plastic in Thailand is still low due to the high investment and operating cost. Hence, the rest of plastic waste are burnt to destroy or sent to the landfills. In order to be financial viable, an effective reverse logistics infrastructure is required to support the product recovery activities. However, there is a conflict between reducing the cost and raising environmental protection level. The purpose of this study is to build a goal programming (GP) so that it can be used to help analyze the proper planning of the Thailand-s plastic recycling system that involves multiple objectives. This study considers three objectives; reducing total cost, increasing the amount of plastic recovery, and raising the desired plastic materials in recycling process. The results from two priority structures show that it is necessary to raise the total cost budget in order to achieve targets on amount of recycled plastic and desired plastic materials.

Keywords: Goal Programming, Plastic Recycling, Thailand.

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884 Truck Routing Problem Considering Platooning and Drivers’ Breaks

Authors: Xiaoyuan Yan, Min Xu

Abstract:

Truck platooning refers to a convoy of digitally connected automated trucks traveling safely with a small inter-vehicle gap. It has been identified as one of the most promising and applicable technologies towards automated and sustainable freight transportation. Although truck platooning delivers significant energy-saving benefits, it cannot be realized without good coordination of drivers’ shifts to lead the platoons subject to their mandatory breaks. Therefore, this study aims to route a fleet of trucks to their destinations using the least amount of fuel by maximizing platoon opportunities under the regulations of drivers’ mandatory breaks. We formulate this platoon coordination problem as a mixed-integer linear programming problem and solve it by CPLEX. Numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed model. In addition, we also explore the impacts of drivers’ compulsory breaks on the fuel-savings performance. The results show a slight increase in the total fuel costs in the presence of drivers’ compulsory breaks, thanks to driving-while-resting benefit provided for the trailing trucks. This study may serve as a guide for the operators of automated freight transportation.

Keywords: Truck platooning, route optimization, compulsory breaks, energy saving.

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883 Deriving Causal Explanation from Qualitative Model Reasoning

Authors: Alicia Y. C. Tang, Sharifuddin M. Zain, Noorsaadah A. Rahman, Rukaini Abdullah

Abstract:

This paper discusses a qualitative simulator QRiOM that uses Qualitative Reasoning (QR) technique, and a process-based ontology to model, simulate and explain the behaviour of selected organic reactions. Learning organic reactions requires the application of domain knowledge at intuitive level, which is difficult to be programmed using traditional approach. The main objective of QRiOM is to help learners gain a better understanding of the fundamental organic reaction concepts, and to improve their conceptual comprehension on the subject by analyzing the multiple forms of explanation generated by the software. This paper focuses on the generation of explanation based on causal theories to explicate various phenomena in the chemistry subject. QRiOM has been tested with three classes problems related to organic chemistry, with encouraging results. This paper also presents the results of preliminary evaluation of QRiOM that reveal its explanation capability and usefulness.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, explanation, ontology, organicreactions, qualitative reasoning, QPT.

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882 A Collaborative Platform for Multilingual Ontology Development

Authors: Ahmed Tawfik, Fausto Giunchiglia, Vincenzo Maltese

Abstract:

Ontologies provide a common understanding of a specific domain of interest that can be communicated between people and used as background knowledge for automated reasoning in a wide range of applications. In this paper, we address the design of multilingual ontologies following well-defined knowledge engineering methodologies with the support of novel collaborative development approaches. In particular, we present a collaborative platform which allows ontologies to be developed incrementally in multiple languages. This is made possible via an appropriate mapping between language independent concepts and one lexicalization per language (or a lexical gap in case such lexicalization does not exist). The collaborative platform has been designed to support the development of the Universal Knowledge Core, a multilingual ontology currently in English, Italian, Chinese, Mongolian, Hindi and Bangladeshi. Its design follows a workflow-based development methodology that models resources as a set of collaborative objects and assigns customizable workflows to build and maintain each collaborative object in a community driven manner, with extensive support of modern web 2.0 social and collaborative features.

Keywords: Knowledge Diversity, Knowledge Representation, Ontology Development.

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881 A Few Descriptive and Optimization Issues on the Material Flow at a Research-Academic Institution: The Role of Simulation

Authors: D. R. Delgado Sobrino, P. Košťál, J. Oravcová

Abstract:

Lately, significant work in the area of Intelligent Manufacturing has become public and mainly applied within the frame of industrial purposes. Special efforts have been made in the implementation of new technologies, management and control systems, among many others which have all evolved the field. Aware of all this and due to the scope of new projects and the need of turning the existing flexible ideas into more autonomous and intelligent ones, i.e.: Intelligent Manufacturing, the present paper emerges with the main aim of contributing to the design and analysis of the material flow in either systems, cells or work stations under this new “intelligent" denomination. For this, besides offering a conceptual basis in some of the key points to be taken into account and some general principles to consider in the design and analysis of the material flow, also some tips on how to define other possible alternative material flow scenarios and a classification of the states a system, cell or workstation are offered as well. All this is done with the intentions of relating it with the use of simulation tools, for which these have been briefly addressed with a special focus on the Witness simulation package. For a better comprehension, the previous elements are supported by a detailed layout, other figures and a few expressions which could help obtaining necessary data. Such data and others will be used in the future, when simulating the scenarios in the search of the best material flow configurations.

Keywords: Flexible/Intelligent Manufacturing System/Cell (F/IMS/C), material flow/design/configuration (MF/D/C), workstation.

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880 Application of Strong Optical Feedback to Enhance the Modulation Bandwidth of Semiconductor Lasers to the Millimeter-Wave Band

Authors: Moustafa Ahmed, Ahmed Bakry, Fumio Koyama

Abstract:

We report on the use of strong external optical feedback to enhance the modulation response of semiconductor lasers over a frequency passband around modulation frequencies higher than 60 GHz. We show that this modulation enhancement is a type of photon-photon resonance (PPR) of oscillating modes in the external cavity formed between the laser and the external reflector. The study is based on a time-delay rate equation model that takes into account both the strong feedback and multiple reflections in the external cavity. We examine the harmonic and intermodulation distortions associated with single and two-tone modulations in the mm-wave band of the resonant modulation. We show that compared with solitary lasers modulated around the carrier-photon resonance frequency, the present mm-wave modulated signal has lower distortions.

Keywords: Distortion, intensity modulation, optical feedback, semiconductor laser.

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879 Flocking Behaviors for Multiple Groups with Heterogeneous Agents

Authors: Jae Moon Lee

Abstract:

Most of researches for conventional simulations were studied focusing on flocks with a single species. While there exist the flocking behaviors with a single species in nature, the flocking behaviors are frequently observed with multi-species. This paper studies on the flocking simulation for heterogeneous agents. In order to simulate the flocks for heterogeneous agents, the conventional method uses the identifier of flock, while the proposed method defines the feature vector of agent and uses the similarity between agents by comparing with those feature vectors. Based on the similarity, the paper proposed the attractive force and repulsive force and then executed the simulation by applying two forces. The results of simulation showed that flock formation with heterogeneous agents is very natural in both cases. In addition, it showed that unlike the existing method, the proposed method can not only control the density of the flocks, but also be possible for two different groups of agents to flock close to each other if they have a high similarity.

Keywords: Flocking behavior, heterogeneous agents, similarity, simulation

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878 Generational PipeLined Genetic Algorithm (PLGA)using Stochastic Selection

Authors: Malay K. Pakhira, Rajat K. De

Abstract:

In this paper, a pipelined version of genetic algorithm, called PLGA, and a corresponding hardware platform are described. The basic operations of conventional GA (CGA) are made pipelined using an appropriate selection scheme. The selection operator, used here, is stochastic in nature and is called SA-selection. This helps maintaining the basic generational nature of the proposed pipelined GA (PLGA). A number of benchmark problems are used to compare the performances of conventional roulette-wheel selection and the SA-selection. These include unimodal and multimodal functions with dimensionality varying from very small to very large. It is seen that the SA-selection scheme is giving comparable performances with respect to the classical roulette-wheel selection scheme, for all the instances, when quality of solutions and rate of convergence are considered. The speedups obtained by PLGA for different benchmarks are found to be significant. It is shown that a complete hardware pipeline can be developed using the proposed scheme, if parallel evaluation of the fitness expression is possible. In this connection a low-cost but very fast hardware evaluation unit is described. Results of simulation experiments show that in a pipelined hardware environment, PLGA will be much faster than CGA. In terms of efficiency, PLGA is found to outperform parallel GA (PGA) also.

Keywords: Hardware evaluation, Hardware pipeline, Optimization, Pipelined genetic algorithm, SA-selection.

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877 An Investigation of Final Tests of Translation as Practiced in Iranian Undergraduate English Translation Program

Authors: Hossein Heidari Tabrizi, Azizeh Chalak

Abstract:

The present study examined how translation teachers develop final tests as measures for checking on the quality of students’ academic translation in Iranian context. To achieve this goal, thirty experienced male and female translation teachers from the four types of the universities offering the program were invited to an in-depth 30-minute one-session semi-structured interview. The responses provided showed how much discrepancy exists among the Iranian translation teachers (as developers of final translation tests), who are least informed with the current translation evaluation methods. It was also revealed that the criteria they use for developing such tests and scoring student translations are not theory-driven but are highly subjective, mainly based on their personal experience and intuition. Hence, the quality and accountability of such tests are under serious question. The results also confirmed that the dominant method commonly and currently practiced is the purely essay-type format. To remedy the situation, some suggestions are in order. As part of the solution, to improve the reliability and validity of such tests, the present summative, product-oriented evaluation should be accompanied with some formative, process-oriented methods of evaluation. Training the teachers and helping them get acquainted with modern principles of translation evaluation as well as the existing models, and rating scales does improve the quality of academic translation evaluation.

Keywords: Iranian universities, students’ academic translations, translation final tests, undergraduate translation programs.

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876 Recovering Artifacts from Legacy Systems Using Pattern Matching

Authors: Ghulam Rasool, Ilka Philippow

Abstract:

Modernizing legacy applications is the key issue facing IT managers today because there's enormous pressure on organizations to change the way they run their business to meet the new requirements. The importance of software maintenance and reengineering is forever increasing. Understanding the architecture of existing legacy applications is the most critical issue for maintenance and reengineering. The artifacts recovery can be facilitated with different recovery approaches, methods and tools. The existing methods provide static and dynamic set of techniques for extracting architectural information, but are not suitable for all users in different domains. This paper presents a simple and lightweight pattern extraction technique to extract different artifacts from legacy systems using regular expression pattern specifications with multiple language support. We used our custom-built tool DRT to recover artifacts from existing system at different levels of abstractions. In order to evaluate our approach a case study is conducted.

Keywords: Artifacts recovery, Pattern matching, Reverseengineering, Program understanding, Regular expressions, Sourcecode analysis.

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875 Optical Road Monitoring of the Future Smart Roads – Preliminary Results

Authors: Maria Jokela, Matti Kutila, Jukka Laitinen, Florian Ahlers, Nicolas Hautière, TobiasSchendzielorz

Abstract:

It has been shown that in most accidents the driver is responsible due to being distracted or misjudging the situation. In order to solve such problems research has been dedicated to developing driver assistance systems that are able to monitor the traffic situation around the vehicle. This paper presents methods for recognizing several circumstances on a road. The methods use both the in-vehicle warning systems and the roadside infrastructure. Preliminary evaluation results for fog and ice-on-road detection are presented. The ice detection results are based on data recorded in a test track dedicated to tyre friction testing. The achieved results anticipate that ice detection could work at a performance of 70% detection with the right setup, which is a good foundation for implementation. However, the full benefit of the presented cooperative system is achieved by fusing the outputs of multiple data sources, which is the key point of discussion behind this publication.

Keywords: Smart roads, traffic monitoring, traffic scenedetection.

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