Search results for: knowledge based systems

Authors: Maumita Bhattacharya

Abstract:

Optimization is often a critical issue for most system design problems. Evolutionary Algorithms are population-based, stochastic search techniques, widely used as efficient global optimizers. However, finding optimal solution to complex high dimensional, multimodal problems often require highly computationally expensive function evaluations and hence are practically prohibitive. The Dynamic Approximate Fitness based Hybrid EA (DAFHEA) model presented in our earlier work [14] reduced computation time by controlled use of meta-models to partially replace the actual function evaluation by approximate function evaluation. However, the underlying assumption in DAFHEA is that the training samples for the meta-model are generated from a single uniform model. Situations like model formation involving variable input dimensions and noisy data certainly can not be covered by this assumption. In this paper we present an enhanced version of DAFHEA that incorporates a multiple-model based learning approach for the SVM approximator. DAFHEA-II (the enhanced version of the DAFHEA framework) also overcomes the high computational expense involved with additional clustering requirements of the original DAFHEA framework. The proposed framework has been tested on several benchmark functions and the empirical results illustrate the advantages of the proposed technique.

Keywords: Evolutionary algorithm, Fitness function, Optimization, Meta-model, Stochastic method.

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Authors: Sanghoon Kim, Sun-Tae Chung, Souhwan Jung, Dusik Oh, Jaemin Kim, Seongwon Cho

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Eye localization is necessary for face recognition and related application areas. Most of eye localization algorithms reported so far still need to be improved about precision and computational time for successful applications. In this paper, we propose an eye location method based on multi-scale Gabor feature vectors, which is more robust with respect to initial points. The eye localization based on Gabor feature vectors first needs to constructs an Eye Model Bunch for each eye (left or right eye) which consists of n Gabor jets and average eye coordinates of each eyes obtained from n model face images, and then tries to localize eyes in an incoming face image by utilizing the fact that the true eye coordinates is most likely to be very close to the position where the Gabor jet will have the best Gabor jet similarity matching with a Gabor jet in the Eye Model Bunch. Similar ideas have been already proposed in such as EBGM (Elastic Bunch Graph Matching). However, the method used in EBGM is known to be not robust with respect to initial values and may need extensive search range for achieving the required performance, but extensive search ranges will cause much more computational burden. In this paper, we propose a multi-scale approach with a little increased computational burden where one first tries to localize eyes based on Gabor feature vectors in a coarse face image obtained from down sampling of the original face image, and then localize eyes based on Gabor feature vectors in the original resolution face image by using the eye coordinates localized in the coarse scaled image as initial points. Several experiments and comparisons with other eye localization methods reported in the other papers show the efficiency of our proposed method.

Keywords: Eye Localization, Gabor features, Multi-scale, Gabor wavelets.

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Authors: Sheroz Khan, I. Adam, A. H. M. Zahirul Alam, Mohd Rafiqul Islam, Othman O. Khalifa

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This paper attempts to model and design a simple fuzzy logic controller with Variable Reference. The Variable Reference (VR) is featured as an adaptability element which is obtained from two known variables – desired system-input and actual system-output. A simple fuzzy rule-based technique is simulated to show how the actual system-input is gradually tuned in to a value that closely matches the desired input. The designed controller is implemented and verified on a simple heater which is controlled by PIC Microcontroller harnessed by a code developed in embedded C. The output response of the PIC-controlled heater is analyzed and compared to the performances by conventional fuzzy logic controllers. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that it gives better performance by using less number of rules compared to conventional fuzzy logic controllers.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic controller, Variable reference, Adaptability, Rule-based.

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Authors: Franklin Nantui Mabe, Samuel A. Donkoh, Seidu Al-Hassan

Abstract:

Rice yields among agro-ecological zones are heterogeneous. Farmers, researchers and policy makers are making frantic efforts to bridge rice yield gaps between agro-ecological zones through the promotion of improved agricultural technologies (IATs). Farmers are also modifying these IATs and blending them with indigenous farming practices (IFPs) to form farmer innovation systems (FISs). Also, different metafrontier models have been used in estimating productivity performances and their drivers. This study used the two-step stochastic metafrontier model to estimate the productivity performances of rice farmers and their determining factors in GSZ, FSTZ and CSZ. The study used both primary and secondary data. Farmers in CSZ are the most technically efficient. Technical inefficiencies of farmers are negatively influenced by age, sex, household size, education years, extension visits, contract farming, access to improved seeds, access to irrigation, high rainfall amount, less lodging of rice, and well-coordinated and synergized adoption of technologies. Albeit farmers in CSZ are doing well in terms of rice yield, they still have the highest potential of increasing rice yield since they had the lowest TGR. It is recommended that government through the ministry of food and agriculture, development partners and individual private companies promote the adoption of IATs as well as educate farmers on how to coordinate and synergize the adoption of the whole package. Contract farming concept and agricultural extension intensification should be vigorously pursued to the latter.

Keywords: Efficiency, farmer innovation systems, improved agricultural technologies, two-step stochastic metafrontier approach.

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Authors: R. Bharanidaran, B. T. Ramesh

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High precision in motion is required to manipulate the micro objects in precision industries for micro assembly, cell manipulation etc. Precision manipulation is achieved based on the appropriate mechanism design of micro devices such as microgrippers. Design of a compliant based mechanism is the better option to achieve a highly precised and controlled motion. This research article highlights the method of designing a compliant based three fingered microgripper suitable for holding asymmetric objects. Topological optimization technique, a systematic method is implemented in this research work to arrive a topologically optimized design of the mechanism needed to perform the required micro motion of the gripper. Optimization technique has a drawback of generating senseless regions such as node to node connectivity and staircase effect at the boundaries. Hence, it is required to have post processing of the design to make it manufacturable. To reduce the effect of post processing stage and to preserve the edges of the image, a cubic spline interpolation technique is introduced in the MATLAB program. Structural performance of the topologically developed mechanism design is tested using finite element method (FEM) software. Further the microgripper structure is examined to find its fatigue life and vibration characteristics.

Keywords: Compliant mechanism, Cubic spline interpolation, FEM, Topology optimization.

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Authors: H. Juma, F. Al-hujaili, R. Kashani

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Modern structures such as floor systems, pedestrian bridges and high-rise buildings have become lighter in mass and more flexible with negligible damping and thus prone to vibration. In this paper, a semi-actively controlled pendulum tuned mass dampers (PTMD) is presented that uses air springs as both the restoring (resilient) and energy dissipating (damping) elements; the tuned mass damper (TMD) uses no passive dampers. The proposed PTMD can readily be fine-tuned and re-tuned, via software, without changing any hardware. Almost all existing semi-active systems have the three elements that passive TMDs have, i.e., inertia, resilient, and dissipative elements with some adjustability built into one or two of these elements. The proposed semi-active air suspended TMD, on the other hand, is made up of only inertia and resilience elements. A notable feature of this TMD is the absence of a physical damping element in its make-up. The required viscous damping is introduced into the TMD using a semi-active control scheme residing in a micro-controller which actuates a high-speed proportional valve regulating the flow of air in and out of the air springs. In addition to introducing damping into the TMD, the semi-active control scheme adjusts the stiffness of the TMD. The focus of this work has been the synthesis and analysis of the control algorithms and strategies to vary the tuning accuracy, introduce damping into air suspended PTMD, and enable the PTMD to self-tune itself. The accelerations of the main structure and PTMD as well as the pressure in the air springs are used as the feedback signals in control strategies. Numerical simulation and experimental evaluation of the proposed tuned damping system are presented in this paper.

Keywords: Tuned mass damper, air spring, semi-active, vibration control.

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Authors: A. El Ougli, I. Lagrat, I. Boumhidi

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In this paper we propose a robust adaptive fuzzy controller for a class of nonlinear system with unknown dynamic. The method is based on type-2 fuzzy logic system to approximate unknown non-linear function. The design of the on-line adaptive scheme of the proposed controller is based on Lyapunov technique. Simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Fuzzy set type-2, Adaptive fuzzy control, Nonlinear system.

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Authors: E. Golden Julie, S. Tamil Selvi, Y. Harold Robinson

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Many Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications necessitate secure multicast services for the purpose of broadcasting delay sensitive data like video files and live telecast at fixed time-slot. This work provides a novel method to deal with end-to-end delay and drop rate of packets. Opportunistic Routing chooses a link based on the maximum probability of packet delivery ratio. Null Key Generation helps in authenticating packets to the receiver. Markov Decision Process based Adaptive Scheduling algorithm determines the time slot for packet transmission. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed protocol ensures better performance in terms of packet delivery ratio, average end-to-end delay and normalized routing overhead.

Keywords: Delay-sensitive data, Markovian Decision Process based Adaptive Scheduling, Opportunistic Routing, Digital Signature authentication.

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Authors: L. Sandu, F. Topalâ, S. Porojan

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Knowledge of factors, which influence stress and its distribution, is of key importance to the successful production of durable restorations. One of this is the marginal geometry. The objective of this study was to evaluate, by finite element analysis (FEA), the influence of different marginal designs on the stress distribution in teeth prepared for cast metal crowns. Five margin designs were taken into consideration: shoulderless, chamfer, shoulder, sloped shoulder and shoulder with bevel. For each kind of preparation three dimensional finite element analyses were initiated. Maximal equivalent stresses were calculated and stress patterns were represented in order to compare the marginal designs. Within the limitation of this study, the shoulder and beveled shoulder margin preparations of the teeth are preferred for cast metal crowns from biomechanical point of view.

Keywords: finite element, marginal geometry, metal crown

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Authors: Marina Gorunescu, Florin Gorunescu, Kenneth Revett

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Hepatocellular carcinoma, also called hepatoma, most commonly appears in a patient with chronic viral hepatitis. In patients with a higher suspicion of HCC, such as small or subtle rising of serum enzymes levels, the best method of diagnosis involves a CT scan of the abdomen, but only at high cost. The aim of this study was to increase the ability of the physician to early detect HCC, using a probabilistic neural network-based approach, in order to save time and hospital resources.

Keywords: Early HCC diagnosis, probabilistic neural network.

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Authors: Jinghui Peng, Shanyu Tang, Jia Li

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Steganalysis seeks to detect the presence of secret data embedded in cover objects, and there is an imminent demand to detect hidden messages in streaming media. This paper shows how a steganalysis algorithm based on Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) can be used to detect the existence of secret data embedded in streaming media. The proposed algorithm uses machine parameter characteristics and a network sniffer to determine whether the Internet traffic contains streaming channels. The detected streaming data is then transferred from the time domain to the frequency domain through FFT. The distributions of power spectra in the frequency domain between original VoIP streams and stego VoIP streams are compared in turn using t-test, achieving the p-value of 7.5686E-176 which is below the threshold. The results indicate that the proposed FFT-based steganalysis algorithm is effective in detecting the secret data embedded in VoIP streaming media.

Keywords: Steganalysis, security, fast Fourier transform, streaming media.

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Authors: D.M. Weeraddana, K.S. Walgama, E.C. Kulasekere

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A framework to estimate the state of dynamically varying environment where data are generated from heterogeneous sources possessing partial knowledge about the environment is presented. This is entirely derived within Dempster-Shafer and Evidence Filtering frameworks. The belief about the current state is expressed as belief and plausibility functions. An addition to Single Input Single Output Evidence Filter, Multiple Input Single Output Evidence Filtering approach is introduced. Variety of applications such as situational estimation of an emergency environment can be developed within the framework successfully. Fire propagation scenario is used to justify the proposed framework, simulation results are presented.

Keywords: Dempster-Shafer Belief theory, Evidence Filtering, Evidence Fusion, Sensor Modalities, Wireless Sensor Networks

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Authors: Mijoh A. Gbededo, Kapila Liyanage, Ilias Oraifige

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Decision making for sustainable manufacturing design and management requires critical considerations due to the complexity and partly conflicting issues of economic, social and environmental factors. Although there are tools capable of assessing the combination of one or two of the sustainability factors, the frameworks have not adequately integrated all the three factors. Case study and review of existing simulation applications also shows the approach lacks integration of the sustainability factors. In this paper we discussed the development of a simulation based framework for support of a holistic assessment of sustainable manufacturing design and management. To achieve this, a strategic approach is introduced to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of the existing decision supporting tools. Investigation reveals that Discrete Event Simulation (DES) can serve as a rock base for other Life Cycle Analysis frameworks. Simio-DES application optimizes systems for both economic and competitive advantage, Granta CES EduPack and SimaPro collate data for Material Flow Analysis and environmental Life Cycle Assessment, while social and stakeholders’ analysis is supported by Analytical Hierarchy Process, a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis method. Such a common and integrated framework creates a platform for companies to build a computer simulation model of a real system and assess the impact of alternative solutions before implementing a chosen solution.

Keywords: Discrete event simulation, life cycle sustainability analysis, manufacturing, sustainability.

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Authors: Jehad Al Dallal, Paul Sorenson

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An application framework provides a reusable design and implementation for a family of software systems. Frameworks are introduced to reduce the cost of a product line (i.e., family of products that share the common features). Software testing is a time consuming and costly ongoing activity during the application software development process. Generating reusable test cases for the framework applications at the framework development stage, and providing and using the test cases to test part of the framework application whenever the framework is used reduces the application development time and cost considerably. Framework Interface Classes (FICs) are classes introduced by the framework hooks to be implemented at the application development stage. They can have reusable test cases generated at the framework development stage and provided with the framework to test the implementations of the FICs at the application development stage. In this paper, we conduct a case study using thirteen applications developed using three frameworks; one domain oriented and two application oriented. The results show that, in general, the percentage of the number of FICs in the applications developed using domain frameworks is, on average, greater than the percentage of the number of FICs in the applications developed using application frameworks. Consequently, the reduction of the application unit testing time using the reusable test cases generated for domain frameworks is, in general, greater than the reduction of the application unit testing time using the reusable test cases generated for application frameworks.

Keywords: FICs, object-oriented framework, object-orientedframework application, software testing.

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Authors: Sang-Hun Lee, Bum-Soo Kim, Yang-Sae Moon, Jinho Kim

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In this paper we present a photo mosaic smartphone application in client-server based large-scale image databases. Photo mosaic is not a new concept, but there are very few smartphone applications especially for a huge number of images in the client-server environment. To support large-scale image databases, we first propose an overall framework working as a client-server model. We then present a concept of image-PAA features to efficiently handle a huge number of images and discuss its lower bounding property. We also present a best-match algorithm that exploits the lower bounding property of image-PAA. We finally implement an efficient Android-based application and demonstrate its feasibility.

Keywords: smartphone applications; photo mosaic; similarity search; data mining; large-scale image databases.

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Authors: Naveen Chauhan, L.K. Awasthi, Narottam chand, Vivek Katiyar, Ankit Chug

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Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are a form of wireless networks which do not require a base station for providing network connectivity. Mobile ad-hoc networks have many characteristics which distinguish them from other wireless networks which make routing in such networks a challenging task. Cluster based routing is one of the routing schemes for MANETs in which various clusters of mobile nodes are formed with each cluster having its own clusterhead which is responsible for routing among clusters. In this paper we have proposed and implemented a distributed weighted clustering algorithm for MANETs. This approach is based on combined weight metric that takes into account several system parameters like the node degree, transmission range, energy and mobility of the nodes. We have evaluated the performance of proposed scheme through simulation in various network situations. Simulation results show that proposed scheme outperforms the original distributed weighted clustering algorithm (DWCA).

Keywords: MANETs, Clustering, Routing, WirelessCommunication, Distributed Clustering

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Authors: Gergely Horváth

Abstract:

The study presents the complexity of food safety dividing it into two layers. Beyond the basic layer of requirements, there is a more demanding higher level linked with quality and purity aspects. It would be important to give special prominence to both layers, given that massive illnesses are caused by foods even though officially licensed. Then the study discusses an exciting safety challenge stemming from the risks of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Furthermore, it features legal case examples that illustrate how certain liability questions are solved or not yet decided in connection with the production of genetically modified crops. In addition, a special kind of land grabbing, more precisely land grabbing from non-GMO farming systems can also be noticed as well as a new phenomenon eroding food sovereignty. Coexistence, the state where organic, conventional, and GM farming systems are standing alongside each other is an unsuitable experiment that cannot be successful, because of biophysical reasons (such as cross-pollination). Agricultural and environmental lawyers both try to find the optimal solution. Agri-environmental measures are introduced as a special subfield of law maintaining also food safety. The important steps of agri-environmental legislation are aiming at the protection of natural values, the environmental media and strengthening food safety as well, practically the quality of agricultural products intended for human consumption. The major findings of the study focus on searching for the appropriate approach capable of solving the security and safety problems of food production. The most interesting concepts of the Hungarian national and EU food law legislation are analyzed in more detail with descriptive, analytic and comparative methods.

Keywords: Food law, food safety, food security, GMO, agri-environmental measures.

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Authors: Hassan Berbia, Faissal Elbouanani, Rahal Romadi, Mostafa Belkasmi

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This paper introduces two decoders for binary linear codes based on Metaheuristics. The first one uses a genetic algorithm and the second is based on a combination genetic algorithm with a feed forward neural network. The decoder based on the genetic algorithms (DAG) applied to BCH and convolutional codes give good performances compared to Chase-2 and Viterbi algorithm respectively and reach the performances of the OSD-3 for some Residue Quadratic (RQ) codes. This algorithm is less complex for linear block codes of large block length; furthermore their performances can be improved by tuning the decoder-s parameters, in particular the number of individuals by population and the number of generations. In the second algorithm, the search space, in contrast to DAG which was limited to the code word space, now covers the whole binary vector space. It tries to elude a great number of coding operations by using a neural network. This reduces greatly the complexity of the decoder while maintaining comparable performances.

Keywords: Block code, decoding, methaheuristic, genetic algorithm, neural network

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Authors: Hussain Syed Asad, Richard Kwok Kit Yuen, Gongsheng Huang

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Real-time optimization has been considered an effective approach for improving energy efficient operation of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. In model-based real-time optimization, model mismatches cannot be avoided. When model mismatches are significant, the performance of the real-time optimization will be impaired and hence the expected energy saving will be reduced. In this paper, the model mismatches for chiller plant on real-time optimization are considered. In the real-time optimization of the chiller plant, simplified semi-physical or grey box model of chiller is always used, which should be identified using available operation data. To overcome the model mismatches associated with the chiller model, hybrid Genetic Algorithms (HGAs) method is used for online real-time training of the chiller model. HGAs combines Genetic Algorithms (GAs) method (for global search) and traditional optimization method (i.e. faster and more efficient for local search) to avoid conventional hit and trial process of GAs. The identification of model parameters is synthesized as an optimization problem; and the objective function is the Least Square Error between the output from the model and the actual output from the chiller plant. A case study is used to illustrate the implementation of the proposed method. It has been shown that the proposed approach is able to provide reliability in decision making, enhance the robustness of the real-time optimization strategy and improve on energy performance.

Keywords: Energy performance, hybrid adaptive modeling, hybrid genetic algorithms, real-time optimization, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning.

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Authors: Johann Barbier, Guillaume Sicot, Sebastien Houcke

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In this paper we present a generic approach for the problem of the blind estimation of the parameters of linear and convolutional error correcting codes. In a non-cooperative context, an adversary has only access to the noised transmission he has intercepted. The intercepter has no knowledge about the parameters used by the legal users. So, before having acess to the information he has first to blindly estimate the parameters of the error correcting code of the communication. The presented approach has the main advantage that the problem of reconstruction of such codes can be expressed in a very simple way. This allows us to evaluate theorical bounds on the complexity of the reconstruction process but also bounds on the estimation rate. We show that some classical reconstruction techniques are optimal and also explain why some of them have theorical complexities greater than these experimentally observed.

Keywords: Blind estimation parameters, error correcting codes, non-cooperative context, reconstruction algorithm

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Authors: C. Asarkaya, S. Z. Siretioglu Girgin

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Turkish migrants constitute the largest group among people with migration background living in Germany. Turkish women’s labor market participation is of significant importance for their social and economic integration to the German society. This paper thus aims to investigate their labor market positions. Turkish migrant women participate less in the labor market compared to men, and are responsible for most of the housework, child care, and elderly care. This is due to their traditional roles in the family, educational level, insufficient knowledge of German language, and insufficient professional experience. We strongly recommend that wide-reaching integration policies for women are formulated, so as to encourage participation of not only migrant women but also their husbands, fathers and/or brothers, and natives.

Keywords: Empowerment, Germany, Labor Market, Migration, Turkish, Women.

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Authors: Hui-Chuan Lu

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In a perfect secret-sharing scheme, a dealer distributes a secret among a set of participants in such a way that only qualified subsets of participants can recover the secret and the joint share of the participants in any unqualified subset is statistically independent of the secret. The access structure of the scheme refers to the collection of all qualified subsets. In a graph-based access structures, each vertex of a graph G represents a participant and each edge of G represents a minimal qualified subset. The average information ratio of a perfect secret-sharing scheme realizing a given access structure is the ratio of the average length of the shares given to the participants to the length of the secret. The infimum of the average information ratio of all possible perfect secret-sharing schemes realizing an access structure is called the optimal average information ratio of that access structure. We study the optimal average information ratio of the access structures based on bipartite graphs. Based on some previous results, we give a bound on the optimal average information ratio for all bipartite graphs of girth at least six. This bound is the best possible for some classes of bipartite graphs using our approach.

Keywords: Secret-sharing scheme, average information ratio, star covering, deduction, core cluster.

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Authors: Mohammad A. Khasawneh

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The design of high pressure water jet based polishing equipment and its fabrication conducted in this study is reported herein, together with some preliminary test results for assessing its applicability for HMA surface polishing. This study also provides preliminary findings concerning the test variables, such as the rotational speed, the water jet pressure, the abrasive agent used, and the impact angel that were experimentally investigated in this study. The preliminary findings based on four trial tests (two on large slab specimens and two on small size gyratory compacted specimens), however, indicate that both friction and texture values tend to increase with the polishing durations for two combinations of pressure and rotation speed of the rotary deck. It seems that the more polishing action the specimen is subjected to; the aggregate edges are created such that the surface texture values are increased with the accompanied increase in friction values. It may be of interest (but which is outside the scope of this study) to investigate if the similar trend exist for HMA prepared with aggregate source that is sand and gravel.

Keywords: High-pressure, water jet, Friction, Texture, Polishing, Statistical Analysis.

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Authors: Jin Woo Hwang, Byung Kwan Oh, Yousok Kim, Hyo Seon Park

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As greenhouse effect has been recognized as serious environmental problem of the world, interests in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission which comprises major part of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been increased recently. Since construction industry takes a relatively large portion of total CO₂ emissions of the world, extensive studies about reducing CO₂ emissions in construction and operation of building have been carried out after the 2000s. Also, performance based design (PBD) methodology based on nonlinear analysis has been robustly developed after Northridge Earthquake in 1994 to assure and assess seismic performance of building more exactly because structural engineers recognized that prescriptive code based design approach cannot address inelastic earthquake responses directly and assure performance of building exactly. Although CO₂ emissions and PBD approach are recent rising issues on construction industry and structural engineering, there were few or no researches considering these two issues simultaneously. Thus, the objective of this study is to minimize the CO₂ emissions and cost of building designed by PBD approach in structural design stage considering structural materials. 4 story and 4 span reinforced concrete building optimally designed to minimize CO₂ emissions and cost of building and to satisfy specific seismic performance (collapse prevention in maximum considered earthquake) of building satisfying prescriptive code regulations using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II). Optimized design result showed that minimized CO₂ emissions and cost of building were acquired satisfying specific seismic performance. Therefore, the methodology proposed in this paper can be used to reduce both CO₂ emissions and cost of building designed by PBD approach.

Keywords: CO2 emissions, performance based design, optimization, sustainable design.

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Authors: Michael Johnson, Vincenzo Oliveri

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This work considers an interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning (PBL) project developed by lecturers from the Aeronautical and Electronic and Computer Engineering departments at the University of Limerick. This “CANSAT” project utilises the CanSat can-sized satellite platform in order to allow students from aeronautical and electronic engineering to engage in a mixed format (online/face-to-face), interdisciplinary PBL assignment using a real-world platform and application. The project introduces students to the design, development, and construction of the CanSat system over the course of a single semester, enabling student(s) to apply their aeronautical and technical skills/capabilities to the realisation of a working CanSat system. In this case study, the CanSat kits are used to pivot the real-world, discipline-relevant PBL goal of designing, building, and testing the CanSat system with payload(s) from a traditional module-based setting to an online PBL setting. Feedback, impressions, benefits, and challenges identified through the semester are presented. Students found the project to be interesting and rewarding, with the interdisciplinary nature of the project appealing to them. Challenges and difficulties encountered are also addressed, with solutions developed between the students and facilitators to overcoming these discussed.

Keywords: Problem-Based Learning, Online PBL, Electronic Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, Interdisciplinary Project, CanSat.

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Authors: Daniel Murrant, Andrew Quinn, Lee Chapman

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A growing population has led to increasing global water and energy demand. This demand, combined with the effects of climate change and an increasing need to maintain and protect the natural environment, represents a potentially severe threat to many national infrastructure systems. This has resulted in a considerable quantity of published material on the interdependencies that exist between the supply of water and the thermal generation of electricity, often known as the water-energy nexus. Focusing specifically on the UK, there is a growing concern that the future availability of water may at times constrain thermal electricity generation, and therefore hinder the UK in meeting its increasing demand for a secure, and affordable supply of low carbon electricity. To provide further information on the threat the water-energy nexus may pose to the UK’s energy system, this paper models the regional water demand of UK thermal electricity generation in 2030 and 2050. It uses the strategically important Energy Systems Modelling Environment model developed by the Energy Technologies Institute. Unlike previous research, this paper was able to use abstraction and consumption factors specific to UK power stations. It finds that by 2050 the South East, Yorkshire and Humber, the West Midlands and North West regions are those with the greatest freshwater demand and therefore most likely to suffer from a lack of resource. However, it finds that by 2050 it is the East, South West and East Midlands regions with the greatest total water (fresh, estuarine and seawater) demand and the most likely to be constrained by environmental standards.

Keywords: Water-energy nexus, water resources, abstraction, climate change, power station cooling.

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Authors: W. Jay Gabbard, Saundra H. Starks, Jeremiah Jaggers, Amy C. Cappiccie

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An ethical mandate of the social work profession in the United States is that BSW and MSW graduates are sufficiently prepared to both understand diverse cultural values and beliefs and offer services that are culturally sensitive and relevant to clients. This skill set is particularly important for social workers in the 21st Century, given the increasing globalization of the U.S. and world. The purpose of this paper is to outline a pedagogical model for teaching cultural competency that resulted in a significant increase in cultural competency for MSW graduates at Western Kentucky University (WKU). More specifically, this model is predicated on five specific culturally sensitive principles and activities that were found to be highly effective in conveying culturally relevant knowledge and skills to MSW students at WKU. Future studies can assess the effectiveness of these principles in other MSW programs across the U.S. and abroad.

Keywords: Cultural Competence, Social Work, Teaching

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Authors: Tsai-Hsiu Lin

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Presentism is one of the orientations of teachers’ teaching culture. However, there are few researchers to explore it in Taiwan. The objective of this study is to establish an expert-based determination of the content of teachers’ presentism in Taiwan. The author reviewed the works of Jackson, Lortie, and Hargreaves and employed Hargreaves’ three forms of teachers’ presentism as a framework to design the questionnaire of this study. The questionnaire of teachers’ presentism comprised of 42 statements. A three-round web-based Delphi survey was proposed to 14 participants (two teacher educators, two educational administrators, three school principals, and seven schoolteachers), 13 participants (92.86%) completed the three-rounds of the study. The participants were invited to indicate the importance of each statement. The Delphi study used means and standard deviation to present information concerning the collective judgments of respondents. Finally, the author obtained consensual results for 67% (28/42). However, the outcome of this study could be the result of identifying a series of general statements rather than an in-depth exposition of the topic.

Keywords: Delphi Technique, teachers’ presentism, sociology of teaching, teaching culture.

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Authors: Fan-Yong Meng, Yan Wang

Abstract:

In this paper, we discuss the egalitarianism solution (ES) and center-of-gravity of the imputation-set value (CIV) for bicooperative games, which can be seen as the extensions of the solutions for traditional games given by Dutta and Ray [1] and Driessen and Funaki [2]. Furthermore, axiomatic systems for the given values are proposed. Finally, a numerical example is offered to illustrate the player ES and CTV.

Keywords: Bicooperative games, egalitarianism solution, center of- gravity of the imputation-set value.

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Authors: Ali Sarhadi, Mohammad Reza Meybodi, Ali Yousefi

Abstract:

Resource discovery is one of the chief services of a grid. A new approach to discover the provenances in grid through learning automata has been propounded in this article. The objective of the aforementioned resource-discovery service is to select the resource based upon the user-s applications and the mercantile yardsticks that is to say opting for an originator which can accomplish the user-s tasks in the most economic manner. This novel service is submitted in two phases. We proffered an applicationbased categorization by means of an intelligent nerve-prone plexus. The user in question sets his or her application as the input vector of the nerve-prone nexus. The output vector of the aforesaid network limns the appropriateness of any one of the resource for the presented executive procedure. The most scrimping option out of those put forward in the previous stage which can be coped with to fulfill the task in question is picked out. Te resource choice is carried out by means of the presented algorithm based upon the learning automata.

Keywords: Resource discovery, learning automata, neural network, economic policy

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