Search results for: iterated local search
1726 Phase Control Array Synthesis Using Constrained Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Mohammad Taha, Dia abu al Nadi
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In this paper, the phase control antenna array synthesis is presented. The problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem that imposes nulls with prescribed level while maintaining the sidelobe at a prescribed level. For efficient use of the algorithm memory, compared to the well known Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), the Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization (APSO) is used to estimate the phase parameters of the synthesized array. The objective function is formed using a main objective and set of constraints with penalty factors that measure the violation of each feasible solution in the search space to each constraint. In this case the obtained feasible solution is guaranteed to satisfy all the constraints. Simulation results have shown significant performance increases and a decreased randomness in the parameter search space compared to a single objective conventional particle swarm optimization.Keywords: Array synthesis, Sidelobe level control, Constrainedoptimization, Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19271725 Assessing Local Knowledge Dynamics: Regional Knowledge Economy Indicators
Authors: Francesca Affortunato, Edgardo Bucciarelli, Mariateresa Ciommi, Gianfranco Giulioni
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The paper represents a reflection on how to select proper indicators to assess the progress of regional contexts towards a knowledge-based society. Taking the first research methodologies elaborated at an international level (World Bank, OECD, etc.) as a reference point, this work intends to identify a set of indicators of the knowledge economy suitable to adequately understand in which manner and to which extent the territorial development dynamics are correlated with the knowledge-base of the considered local society. After a critical survey of the variables utilized within other approaches adopted by international or national organizations, this paper seeks to elaborate a framework of variables, named Regional Knowledge Economy Indicators (ReKEI), necessary to describe the knowledge-based relations of subnational socio-economic contexts. The realization of this framework has a double purpose: an analytical one consisting in highlighting the regional differences in the governance of knowledge based processes, and an operative one consisting in providing some reference parameters for contributing to increasing the effectiveness of those economic policies aiming at enlarging the knowledge bases of local societies.
Keywords: Knowledge economy, knowledge society, information society, regional innovation system, territorial competitiveness, local development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17381724 Comparison of Compression Ability Using DCT and Fractal Technique on Different Imaging Modalities
Authors: Sumathi Poobal, G. Ravindran
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Image compression is one of the most important applications Digital Image Processing. Advanced medical imaging requires storage of large quantities of digitized clinical data. Due to the constrained bandwidth and storage capacity, however, a medical image must be compressed before transmission and storage. There are two types of compression methods, lossless and lossy. In Lossless compression method the original image is retrieved without any distortion. In lossy compression method, the reconstructed images contain some distortion. Direct Cosine Transform (DCT) and Fractal Image Compression (FIC) are types of lossy compression methods. This work shows that lossy compression methods can be chosen for medical image compression without significant degradation of the image quality. In this work DCT and Fractal Compression using Partitioned Iterated Function Systems (PIFS) are applied on different modalities of images like CT Scan, Ultrasound, Angiogram, X-ray and mammogram. Approximately 20 images are considered in each modality and the average values of compression ratio and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) are computed and studied. The quality of the reconstructed image is arrived by the PSNR values. Based on the results it can be concluded that the DCT has higher PSNR values and FIC has higher compression ratio. Hence in medical image compression, DCT can be used wherever picture quality is preferred and FIC is used wherever compression of images for storage and transmission is the priority, without loosing picture quality diagnostically.Keywords: DCT, FIC, PIFS, PSNR.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18241723 Feature Preserving Nonlinear Diffusion for Ultrasonic Image Denoising and Edge Enhancement
Authors: Shujun Fu, Qiuqi Ruan, Wenqia Wang, Yu Li
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Utilizing echoic intension and distribution from different organs and local details of human body, ultrasonic image can catch important medical pathological changes, which unfortunately may be affected by ultrasonic speckle noise. A feature preserving ultrasonic image denoising and edge enhancement scheme is put forth, which includes two terms: anisotropic diffusion and edge enhancement, controlled by the optimum smoothing time. In this scheme, the anisotropic diffusion is governed by the local coordinate transformation and the first and the second order normal derivatives of the image, while the edge enhancement is done by the hyperbolic tangent function. Experiments on real ultrasonic images indicate effective preservation of edges, local details and ultrasonic echoic bright strips on denoising by our scheme.
Keywords: anisotropic diffusion, coordinate transformationdirectional derivatives, edge enhancement, hyperbolic tangentfunction, image denoising.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18131722 4-Transitivity and 6-Figures in Finite Klingenberg Planes of Parameters (p2k−1, p)
Authors: Atilla Akpinar, Basri Celik, Suleyman Ciftci
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In this paper, we carry over some of the results which are valid on a certain class of Moufang-Klingenberg planes M(A) coordinatized by an local alternative ring A := A(ε) = A+Aε of dual numbers to finite projective Klingenberg plane M(A) obtained by taking local ring Zq (where prime power q = pk) instead of A. So, we show that the collineation group of M(A) acts transitively on 4-gons, and that any 6-figure corresponds to only one inversible m ∈ A.Keywords: finite Klingenberg plane, projective collineation, 4-transitivity, 6-figures.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12331721 Development of Innovative Islamic Web Applications
Authors: Farrukh Shahzad
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The rich Islamic resources related to religious text, Islamic sciences, and history are widely available in print and in electronic format online. However, most of these works are only available in Arabic language. In this research, an attempt is made to utilize these resources to create interactive web applications in Arabic, English and other languages. The system utilizes the Pattern Recognition, Knowledge Management, Data Mining, Information Retrieval and Management, Indexing, storage and data-analysis techniques to parse, store, convert and manage the information from authentic Arabic resources. These interactive web Apps provide smart multi-lingual search, tree based search, on-demand information matching and linking. In this paper, we provide details of application architecture, design, implementation and technologies employed. We also presented the summary of web applications already developed. We have also included some screen shots from the corresponding web sites. These web applications provide an Innovative On-line Learning Systems (eLearning and computer based education).Keywords: Islamic resources, Muslim scholars, hadith, narrators, history, fiqh.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13021720 A Scalable Media Job Framework for an Open Source Search Engine
Authors: Pooja Mishra, Chris Pollett
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This paper explores efficient ways to implement various media-updating features like news aggregation, video conversion, and bulk email handling. All of these jobs share the property that they are periodic in nature, and they all benefit from being handled in a distributed fashion. The data for these jobs also often comes from a social or collaborative source. We isolate the class of periodic, one round map reduce jobs as a useful setting to describe and handle media updating tasks. As such tasks are simpler than general map reduce jobs, programming them in a general map reduce platform could easily become tedious. This paper presents a MediaUpdater module of the Yioop Open Source Search Engine Web Portal designed to handle such jobs via an extension of a PHP class. We describe how to implement various media-updating tasks in our system as well as experiments carried out using these implementations on an Amazon Web Services cluster.Keywords: Distributed jobs framework, news aggregation, video conversion, email.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10301719 On Cross-Ratio in some Moufang-Klingenberg Planes
Authors: Atilla Akpinar, Basri Celik
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In this paper we are interested in Moufang-Klingenberg planesM(A) defined over a local alternative ring A of dual numbers. We show that a collineation of M(A) preserve cross-ratio. Also, we obtain some results about harmonic points.Keywords: Moufang-Klingenberg planes, local alternative ring, projective collineation, cross-ratio, harmonic points.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12251718 Mobile Robot Navigation Using Local Model Networks
Authors: Hamdi. A. Awad, Mohamed A. Al-Zorkany
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Developing techniques for mobile robot navigation constitutes one of the major trends in the current research on mobile robotics. This paper develops a local model network (LMN) for mobile robot navigation. The LMN represents the mobile robot by a set of locally valid submodels that are Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs). Training these submodels employs Back Propagation (BP) algorithm. The paper proposes the fuzzy C-means (FCM) in this scheme to divide the input space to sub regions, and then a submodel (MLP) is identified to represent a particular region. The submodels then are combined in a unified structure. In run time phase, Radial Basis Functions (RBFs) are employed as windows for the activated submodels. This proposed structure overcomes the problem of changing operating regions of mobile robots. Read data are used in all experiments. Results for mobile robot navigation using the proposed LMN reflect the soundness of the proposed scheme.Keywords: Mobile Robot Navigation, Neural Networks, Local Model Networks
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20211717 Decision Tree-based Feature Ranking using Manhattan Hierarchical Cluster Criterion
Authors: Yasmin Mohd Yacob, Harsa A. Mat Sakim, Nor Ashidi Mat Isa
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Feature selection study is gaining importance due to its contribution to save classification cost in terms of time and computation load. In search of essential features, one of the methods to search the features is via the decision tree. Decision tree act as an intermediate feature space inducer in order to choose essential features. In decision tree-based feature selection, some studies used decision tree as a feature ranker with a direct threshold measure, while others remain the decision tree but utilized pruning condition that act as a threshold mechanism to choose features. This paper proposed threshold measure using Manhattan Hierarchical Cluster distance to be utilized in feature ranking in order to choose relevant features as part of the feature selection process. The result is promising, and this method can be improved in the future by including test cases of a higher number of attributes.
Keywords: Feature ranking, decision tree, hierarchical cluster, Manhattan distance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19681716 Stress, Perceived Social Support, Coping Capability and Depression: A Study of Local and Foreign Students in the Malaysian Context
Authors: Shamirah-Farah Faleel, Cai-Lian Tam, Teck-Heang Lee, Wai-Mun Har, Yie-Chu Foo
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The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of perceived social support and stress on the coping capability and level of depression of foreign and local students in Malaysia. Using convenience sampling, 200 students from three universities in Selangor, Malaysia participated in the study. The results of this study revealed that there was a significant relationship between perceived social support and coping capability. It is also found that there is a negative relationship between coping capability and depression. Further, stress and depression are positively related whereas stress and coping capability are negatively related. Lastly, there is no significant difference for the stress level and coping capability amongst local and foreign students.Keywords: Coping capability, depression, perceived social support, stress.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 46751715 Thai Arts and Culture the Formation of Thai Identity Letter Font Designed
Authors: Kreetha Thumcharoensathit
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The purpose of the analysis of Thai Arts and Culture which concerning the formation of Thai identity letter font designed is to identify The Aumphawa local community identity so as to select the suitable letter font which can applicable to the computer software usage. The populated survey was from the group of local people who live in Aumphawa sub-district. The methodological is cluster sampling from 100 surveyed, those 50 were from people who have household registration done in Aumphawa sub-district and other from people who live outside. In order to analyze and design the Thai identity letter font computer software designed for both Thai and English language version, the analysis had been completed by compiling of document and field survey from local people’s opinion on their Arts and Culture identity. The out-put will be submitted to the experts for evaluation.
Keywords: Thai Arts, Design, Font, Identity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17161714 A Robust Optimization Model for the Single-Depot Capacitated Location-Routing Problem
Authors: Abdolsalam Ghaderi
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In this paper, the single-depot capacitated location-routing problem under uncertainty is presented. The problem aims to find the optimal location of a single depot and the routing of vehicles to serve the customers when the parameters may change under different circumstances. This problem has many applications, especially in the area of supply chain management and distribution systems. To get closer to real-world situations, travel time of vehicles, the fixed cost of vehicles usage and customers’ demand are considered as a source of uncertainty. A combined approach including robust optimization and stochastic programming was presented to deal with the uncertainty in the problem at hand. For this purpose, a mixed integer programming model is developed and a heuristic algorithm based on Variable Neighborhood Search(VNS) is presented to solve the model. Finally, the computational results are presented and future research directions are discussed.Keywords: Location-routing problem, robust optimization, Stochastic Programming, variable neighborhood search.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7551713 Fast Wavelet Image Denoising Based on Local Variance and Edge Analysis
Authors: Gaoyong Luo
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The approach based on the wavelet transform has been widely used for image denoising due to its multi-resolution nature, its ability to produce high levels of noise reduction and the low level of distortion introduced. However, by removing noise, high frequency components belonging to edges are also removed, which leads to blurring the signal features. This paper proposes a new method of image noise reduction based on local variance and edge analysis. The analysis is performed by dividing an image into 32 x 32 pixel blocks, and transforming the data into wavelet domain. Fast lifting wavelet spatial-frequency decomposition and reconstruction is developed with the advantages of being computationally efficient and boundary effects minimized. The adaptive thresholding by local variance estimation and edge strength measurement can effectively reduce image noise while preserve the features of the original image corresponding to the boundaries of the objects. Experimental results demonstrate that the method performs well for images contaminated by natural and artificial noise, and is suitable to be adapted for different class of images and type of noises. The proposed algorithm provides a potential solution with parallel computation for real time or embedded system application.Keywords: Edge strength, Fast lifting wavelet, Image denoising, Local variance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20281712 Adaptive Anisotropic Diffusion for Ultrasonic Image Denoising and Edge Enhancement
Authors: Shujun Fu, Qiuqi Ruan, Wenqia Wang, Yu Li
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Utilizing echoic intension and distribution from different organs and local details of human body, ultrasonic image can catch important medical pathological changes, which unfortunately may be affected by ultrasonic speckle noise. A feature preserving ultrasonic image denoising and edge enhancement scheme is put forth, which includes two terms: anisotropic diffusion and edge enhancement, controlled by the optimum smoothing time. In this scheme, the anisotropic diffusion is governed by the local coordinate transformation and the first and the second order normal derivatives of the image, while the edge enhancement is done by the hyperbolic tangent function. Experiments on real ultrasonic images indicate effective preservation of edges, local details and ultrasonic echoic bright strips on denoising by our scheme.
Keywords: anisotropic diffusion, coordinate transformation, directional derivatives, edge enhancement, hyperbolic tangent function, image denoising.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19001711 A Proposed Hybrid Color Image Compression Based on Fractal Coding with Quadtree and Discrete Cosine Transform
Authors: Shimal Das, Dibyendu Ghoshal
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Fractal based digital image compression is a specific technique in the field of color image. The method is best suited for irregular shape of image like snow bobs, clouds, flame of fire; tree leaves images, depending on the fact that parts of an image often resemble with other parts of the same image. This technique has drawn much attention in recent years because of very high compression ratio that can be achieved. Hybrid scheme incorporating fractal compression and speedup techniques have achieved high compression ratio compared to pure fractal compression. Fractal image compression is a lossy compression method in which selfsimilarity nature of an image is used. This technique provides high compression ratio, less encoding time and fart decoding process. In this paper, fractal compression with quad tree and DCT is proposed to compress the color image. The proposed hybrid schemes require four phases to compress the color image. First: the image is segmented and Discrete Cosine Transform is applied to each block of the segmented image. Second: the block values are scanned in a zigzag manner to prevent zero co-efficient. Third: the resulting image is partitioned as fractals by quadtree approach. Fourth: the image is compressed using Run length encoding technique.
Keywords: Fractal coding, Discrete Cosine Transform, Iterated Function System (IFS), Affine Transformation, Run length encoding.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15701710 N-Grams: A Tool for Repairing Word Order Errors in Ill-formed Texts
Authors: Theologos Athanaselis, Stelios Bakamidis, Ioannis Dologlou, Konstantinos Mamouras
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This paper presents an approach for repairing word order errors in English text by reordering words in a sentence and choosing the version that maximizes the number of trigram hits according to a language model. A possible way for reordering the words is to use all the permutations. The problem is that for a sentence with length N words the number of all permutations is N!. The novelty of this method concerns the use of an efficient confusion matrix technique for reordering the words. The confusion matrix technique has been designed in order to reduce the search space among permuted sentences. The limitation of search space is succeeded using the statistical inference of N-grams. The results of this technique are very interesting and prove that the number of permuted sentences can be reduced by 98,16%. For experimental purposes a test set of TOEFL sentences was used and the results show that more than 95% can be repaired using the proposed method.
Keywords: Permutations filtering, Statistical language model N-grams, Word order errors, TOEFL
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16681709 Solving Bus Terminal Location Problem Using Genetic Algorithm
Authors: S. Babaie-Kafaki, R. Ghanbari, S.H. Nasseri, E. Ardil
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Bus networks design is an important problem in public transportation. The main step to this design, is determining the number of required terminals and their locations. This is an especial type of facility location problem, a large scale combinatorial optimization problem that requires a long time to be solved. The genetic algorithm (GA) is a search and optimization technique which works based on evolutionary principle of natural chromosomes. Specifically, the evolution of chromosomes due to the action of crossover, mutation and natural selection of chromosomes based on Darwin's survival-of-the-fittest principle, are all artificially simulated to constitute a robust search and optimization procedure. In this paper, we first state the problem as a mixed integer programming (MIP) problem. Then we design a new crossover and mutation for bus terminal location problem (BTLP). We tested the different parameters of genetic algorithm (for a sample problem) and obtained the optimal parameters for solving BTLP with numerical try and error.Keywords: Bus networks, Genetic algorithm (GA), Locationproblem, Mixed integer programming (MIP).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23051708 Estimation of Synchronous Machine Synchronizing and Damping Torque Coefficients
Authors: Khaled M. EL-Naggar
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Synchronizing and damping torque coefficients of a synchronous machine can give a quite clear picture for machine behavior during transients. These coefficients are used as a power system transient stability measurement. In this paper, a crow search optimization algorithm is presented and implemented to study the power system stability during transients. The algorithm makes use of the machine responses to perform the stability study in time domain. The problem is formulated as a dynamic estimation problem. An objective function that minimizes the error square in the estimated coefficients is designed. The method is tested using practical system with different study cases. Results are reported and a thorough discussion is presented. The study illustrates that the proposed method can estimate the stability coefficients for the critical stable cases where other methods may fail. The tests proved that the proposed tool is an accurate and reliable tool for estimating the machine coefficients for assessment of power system stability.Keywords: Optimization, estimation, synchronous, machine, crow search.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6651707 Normalizing Scientometric Indicators of Individual Publications Using Local Cluster Detection Methods on Citation Networks
Authors: Levente Varga, Dávid Deritei, Mária Ercsey-Ravasz, Răzvan Florian, Zsolt I. Lázár, István Papp, Ferenc Járai-Szabó
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One of the major shortcomings of widely used scientometric indicators is that different disciplines cannot be compared with each other. The issue of cross-disciplinary normalization has been long discussed, but even the classification of publications into scientific domains poses problems. Structural properties of citation networks offer new possibilities, however, the large size and constant growth of these networks asks for precaution. Here we present a new tool that in order to perform cross-field normalization of scientometric indicators of individual publications relays on the structural properties of citation networks. Due to the large size of the networks, a systematic procedure for identifying scientific domains based on a local community detection algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is tested with different benchmark and real-world networks. Then, by the use of this algorithm, the mechanism of the scientometric indicator normalization process is shown for a few indicators like the citation number, P-index and a local version of the PageRank indicator. The fat-tail trend of the article indicator distribution enables us to successfully perform the indicator normalization process.Keywords: Citation networks, scientometric indicator, cross-field normalization, local cluster detection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7251706 Monte Carlo Estimation of Heteroscedasticity and Periodicity Effects in a Panel Data Regression Model
Authors: Nureni O. Adeboye, Dawud A. Agunbiade
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This research attempts to investigate the effects of heteroscedasticity and periodicity in a Panel Data Regression Model (PDRM) by extending previous works on balanced panel data estimation within the context of fitting PDRM for Banks audit fee. The estimation of such model was achieved through the derivation of Joint Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test for homoscedasticity and zero-serial correlation, a conditional LM test for zero serial correlation given heteroscedasticity of varying degrees as well as conditional LM test for homoscedasticity given first order positive serial correlation via a two-way error component model. Monte Carlo simulations were carried out for 81 different variations, of which its design assumed a uniform distribution under a linear heteroscedasticity function. Each of the variation was iterated 1000 times and the assessment of the three estimators considered are based on Variance, Absolute bias (ABIAS), Mean square error (MSE) and the Root Mean Square (RMSE) of parameters estimates. Eighteen different models at different specified conditions were fitted, and the best-fitted model is that of within estimator when heteroscedasticity is severe at either zero or positive serial correlation value. LM test results showed that the tests have good size and power as all the three tests are significant at 5% for the specified linear form of heteroscedasticity function which established the facts that Banks operations are severely heteroscedastic in nature with little or no periodicity effects.
Keywords: Audit fee, heteroscedasticity, Lagrange multiplier test, periodicity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7391705 An Efficient Segmentation Method Based on Local Entropy Characteristics of Iris Biometrics
Authors: Ali Shojaee Bakhtiari, Ali Asghar Beheshti Shirazi, Amir Sepasi Zahmati
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An efficient iris segmentation method based on analyzing the local entropy characteristic of the iris image, is proposed in this paper and the strength and weaknesses of the method are analyzed for practical purposes. The method shows special strength in providing designers with an adequate degree of freedom in choosing the proper sections of the iris for their application purposes.Keywords: Iris segmentation, entropy, biocryptosystem, biometric identification.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14281704 The Impact of Local Decision-Making in Regional Development Schemes on the Achievement of Efficiency in EU Funds
Authors: Kuyucu Helvacioglu Asli Deniz, Tektas Arzu
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European Union candidate status provides a strong motivation for decision-making in the candidate countries in shaping the regional development policy where there is an envisioned transfer of power from center to the periphery. The process of Europeanization anticipates the candidate countries configure their regional institutional templates in the context of the requirements of the European Union policies and introduces new instruments of incentive framework of enlargement to be employed in regional development schemes. It is observed that the contribution of the local actors to the decision making in the design of the allocation architectures enhances the efficiency of the funds and increases the positive effects of the projects funded under the regional development objectives. This study aims at exploring the performances of the three regional development grant schemes in Turkey, established and allocated under the pre-accession process with a special emphasis given to the roles of the national and local actors in decision-making for regional development. Efficiency analyses have been conducted using the DEA methodology which has proved to be a superior method in comparative efficiency and benchmarking measurements. The findings of this study as parallel to similar international studies, provides that the participation of the local actors to the decision-making in funding contributes both to the quality and the efficiency of the projects funded under the EU schemes.Keywords: Efficiency, European Union Funds, RegionalDevelopment, Turkey
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16431703 Nutrition Program Planning Based on Local Resources in Urban Fringe Areas of a Developing Country
Authors: Oktia Woro Kasmini Handayani, Bambang Budi Raharjo, Efa Nugroho, Bertakalswa Hermawati
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Obesity prevalence and severe malnutrition in Indonesia has increased from 2007 to 2013. The utilization of local resources in nutritional program planning can be used to program efficiency and to reach the goal. The aim of this research is to plan a nutrition program based on local resources for urban fringe areas in a developing country. This research used a qualitative approach, with a focus on local resources including social capital, social system, cultural system. The study was conducted in Mijen, Central Java, as one of the urban fringe areas in Indonesia. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques are used to determine participants. A total of 16 participants took part in the study. Observation, interviews, focus group discussion, SWOT analysis, brainstorming and Miles and Huberman models were used to analyze the data. We have identified several local resources, such as the contributions from nutrition cadres, social organizations, social financial resources, as well as the cultural system and social system. The outstanding contribution of nutrition cadres is the participation and creativity to improve nutritional status. In addition, social organizations, like the role of the integrated health center for children (Pos Pelayanan Terpadu), can be engaged in the nutrition program planning. This center is supported by House of Nutrition to assist in nutrition program planning, and provide social support to families, neighbors and communities as social capitals. The study also reported that cultural systems that show appreciation for well-nourished children are a better way to improve the problem of balanced nutrition. Social systems such as teamwork and mutual cooperation can also be a potential resource to support nutritional programs and overcome associated problems. The impact of development in urban areas such as the introduction of more green areas which improve the perceived status of local people, as well as new health services facilitated by people and companies, can also be resources to support nutrition programs. Local resources in urban fringe areas can be used in the planning of nutrition programs. The expansion of partnership with all stakeholders, empowering the community through optimizing the roles of nutrition care centers for children as our recommendation with regard to nutrition program planning.Keywords: Developing country, local resources, nutrition program, urban fringe.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10361702 Fused Structure and Texture (FST) Features for Improved Pedestrian Detection
Authors: Hussin K. Ragb, Vijayan K. Asari
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In this paper, we present a pedestrian detection descriptor called Fused Structure and Texture (FST) features based on the combination of the local phase information with the texture features. Since the phase of the signal conveys more structural information than the magnitude, the phase congruency concept is used to capture the structural features. On the other hand, the Center-Symmetric Local Binary Pattern (CSLBP) approach is used to capture the texture information of the image. The dimension less quantity of the phase congruency and the robustness of the CSLBP operator on the flat images, as well as the blur and illumination changes, lead the proposed descriptor to be more robust and less sensitive to the light variations. The proposed descriptor can be formed by extracting the phase congruency and the CSLBP values of each pixel of the image with respect to its neighborhood. The histogram of the oriented phase and the histogram of the CSLBP values for the local regions in the image are computed and concatenated to construct the FST descriptor. Several experiments were conducted on INRIA and the low resolution DaimlerChrysler datasets to evaluate the detection performance of the pedestrian detection system that is based on the FST descriptor. A linear Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to train the pedestrian classifier. These experiments showed that the proposed FST descriptor has better detection performance over a set of state of the art feature extraction methodologies.Keywords: Pedestrian detection, phase congruency, local phase, LBP features, CSLBP features, FST descriptor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14891701 Loop-free Local Path Repair Strategy for Directed Diffusion
Authors: Basma M. Mohammad El-Basioni, Sherine M. Abd El-kader, Hussein S. Eissa
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This paper proposes an implementation for the directed diffusion paradigm aids in studying this paradigm-s operations and evaluates its behavior according to this implementation. The directed diffusion is evaluated with respect to the loss percentage, lifetime, end-to-end delay, and throughput. From these evaluations some suggestions and modifications are proposed to improve the directed diffusion behavior according to this implementation with respect to these metrics. The proposed modifications reflect the effect of local path repair by introducing a technique called Loop-free Local Path Repair (LLPR) which improves the directed diffusion behavior especially with respect to packet loss percentage by about 92.69%. Also LLPR improves the throughput and end-to-end delay by about 55.31% and 14.06% respectively, while the lifetime decreases by about 29.79%.Keywords: Attribute-value based naming scheme, data gathering, data-centric routing, energy-efficiency, locality, wireless sensor network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14261700 A Face-to-Face Education Support System Capable of Lecture Adaptation and Q&A Assistance Based On Probabilistic Inference
Authors: Yoshitaka Fujiwara, Jun-ichirou Fukushima, Yasunari Maeda
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Keys to high-quality face-to-face education are ensuring flexibility in the way lectures are given, and providing care and responsiveness to learners. This paper describes a face-to-face education support system that is designed to raise the satisfaction of learners and reduce the workload on instructors. This system consists of a lecture adaptation assistance part, which assists instructors in adapting teaching content and strategy, and a Q&A assistance part, which provides learners with answers to their questions. The core component of the former part is a “learning achievement map", which is composed of a Bayesian network (BN). From learners- performance in exercises on relevant past lectures, the lecture adaptation assistance part obtains information required to adapt appropriately the presentation of the next lecture. The core component of the Q&A assistance part is a case base, which accumulates cases consisting of questions expected from learners and answers to them. The Q&A assistance part is a case-based search system equipped with a search index which performs probabilistic inference. A prototype face-to-face education support system has been built, which is intended for the teaching of Java programming, and this approach was evaluated using this system. The expected degree of understanding of each learner for a future lecture was derived from his or her performance in exercises on past lectures, and this expected degree of understanding was used to select one of three adaptation levels. A model for determining the adaptation level most suitable for the individual learner has been identified. An experimental case base was built to examine the search performance of the Q&A assistance part, and it was found that the rate of successfully finding an appropriate case was 56%.
Keywords: Bayesian network, face-to-face education, lecture adaptation, Q&A assistance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13581699 FIR Filter Design via Linear Complementarity Problem, Messy Genetic Algorithm, and Ising Messy Genetic Algorithm
Authors: A.M. Al-Fahed Nuseirat, R. Abu-Zitar
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In this paper the design of maximally flat linear phase finite impulse response (FIR) filters is considered. The problem is handled with totally two different approaches. The first one is completely deterministic numerical approach where the problem is formulated as a Linear Complementarity Problem (LCP). The other one is based on a combination of Markov Random Fields (MRF's) approach with messy genetic algorithm (MGA). Markov Random Fields (MRFs) are a class of probabilistic models that have been applied for many years to the analysis of visual patterns or textures. Our objective is to establish MRFs as an interesting approach to modeling messy genetic algorithms. We establish a theoretical result that every genetic algorithm problem can be characterized in terms of a MRF model. This allows us to construct an explicit probabilistic model of the MGA fitness function and introduce the Ising MGA. Experimentations done with Ising MGA are less costly than those done with standard MGA since much less computations are involved. The least computations of all is for the LCP. Results of the LCP, random search, random seeded search, MGA, and Ising MGA are discussed.Keywords: Filter design, FIR digital filters, LCP, Ising model, MGA, Ising MGA.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20231698 Local Buckling of Web-Core and Foam-Core Sandwich Panels
Authors: Ali N. Suri, Ahmad A. Al-Makhlufi
Abstract:
Sandwich construction is widely accepted as a method of construction especially in the aircraft industry. It is a type of stressed skin construction formed by bonding two thin faces to a thick core, the faces resist all of the applied edge loads and provide all or nearly all of the required rigidities, the core spaces the faces to increase cross section moment of inertia about common neutral axis and transmit shear between them provides a perfect bond between core and faces is made.
Material for face sheets can be of metal or reinforced plastics laminates, core material can be metallic cores of thin sheets forming corrugation or honeycomb, or non metallic core of Balsa wood, plastic foams, or honeycomb made of reinforced plastics.
For in plane axial loading web core and web-foam core Sandwich panels can fail by local buckling of plates forming the cross section with buckling wave length of the order of length of spacing between webs.
In this study local buckling of web core and web-foam core Sandwich panels is carried out for given materials of facing and core, and given panel overall dimension for different combinations of cross section geometries.
The Finite Strip Method is used for the analysis, and Fortran based computer program is developed and used.
Keywords: Local Buckling, Finite Strip, Sandwich panels, Web and foam core.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22551697 An Integrative Review of Changes of Family Relationship and Mental Health that Chinese Men Experience during Transition to Fatherhood
Authors: Mo Zhou, Samantha Ashby, Lyn Ebert
Abstract:
In China, the changes that men experience in the perinatal period are not well researched. Men are also at risk of maladaptation to parenthood. The aim of this research is to review current studies regarding changes that Chinese men experience during transitioning to parenthood. 5 databases were employed to search relevant papers. The search found 128 articles. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 35 articles were included in this integrative review. Results showed the changes that Chinese fathers experienced during the transition to parenthood can be divided into two aspects: family relationships and mental problems. During transition to parenthood, fathers usually experienced an increase in their disappointment with marital conflict resolution and decreased sexual intimacy with their partner. Mental health declined, with fathers often feeling depressed and/or anxious during this time. Some men were diagnosed with clinical depression. The predictors of these changes included three domains: personal background (age and income), family background (gender of infant, relationship status and unplanned child) and cultural background (‘doing the month’, Confucianism, policy, social support).
Keywords: China, fathers, life change, prenatal, postpartum.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 675