Search results for: visual interpretation
289 The Effects of Local Factors on the Concentrations and Flora of Viable Fungi in School Buildings
Authors: H. Salonen, E. Castagnoli, C. Vornanen-Winqvist, R. Mikkola, C. Duchaine, L. Morawska, J. Kurnitski
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A wide range of health effects among occupants are associated with the exposure to bioaerosols from fungal sources. Although the accurate role of these aerosols in causing the symptoms and diseases is poorly understood, the important effect of bioaerosol exposure on human health is well recognized. Thus, there is a need to determine all of the contributing factors related to the concentration of fungi in indoor air. In this study, we reviewed and summarized the different factors affecting the concentrations of viable fungi in school buildings. The literature research was conducted using Pubmed and Google Scholar. In addition, we searched the lists of references of selected articles. According to the literature, the main factors influencing the concentration of viable fungi in the school buildings are moisture damage in building structures, the season (temperature and humidity conditions), the type and rate of ventilation, the number and activities of occupants and diurnal variations. This study offers valuable information that can be used in the interpretation of the fungal analysis and to decrease microbial exposure by reducing known sources and/or contributing factors. However, more studies of different local factors contributing to the human microbial exposure in school buildings—as well as other type of buildings and different indoor environments—are needed.
Keywords: Fungi, concentration, indoor, school, contributing factor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1034288 Housing Defect of Newly Completed House: An Analysis Using Condition Survey Protocol (CSP) 1 Matrix
Authors: I. Ismail, A.I. Che-Ani, N.M. Tawil, H. Yahaya, M.Z. Abd-Razak
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Housing is a basic human right. The provision of new house shall be free from any defects, even for the defects that people do normally considered as 'cosmetic defects'. This paper studies about the building defects of newly completed house of 72 unit of double-storey terraced located in Bangi, Selangor. The building survey implemented using protocol 1 (visual inspection). As for new house, the survey work is very stringent in determining the defects condition and priority. Survey and reporting procedure is carried out based on CSP1 Matrix that involved scoring system, photographs and plan tagging. The analysis is done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The finding reveals that there are 2119 defects recorded in 72 terraced houses. The cumulative score obtained was 27644 while the overall rating is 13.05. These results indicate that the construction quality of the newly terraced houses is low and not up to an acceptable standard as the new house should be.Keywords: terraced houses, building defects, construction, CSP1 Matrix, Malaysia.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2407287 Computer-Aided Classification of Liver Lesions Using Contrasting Features Difference
Authors: Hussein Alahmer, Amr Ahmed
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Liver cancer is one of the common diseases that cause the death. Early detection is important to diagnose and reduce the incidence of death. Improvements in medical imaging and image processing techniques have significantly enhanced interpretation of medical images. Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems based on these techniques play a vital role in the early detection of liver disease and hence reduce liver cancer death rate. This paper presents an automated CAD system consists of three stages; firstly, automatic liver segmentation and lesion’s detection. Secondly, extracting features. Finally, classifying liver lesions into benign and malignant by using the novel contrasting feature-difference approach. Several types of intensity, texture features are extracted from both; the lesion area and its surrounding normal liver tissue. The difference between the features of both areas is then used as the new lesion descriptors. Machine learning classifiers are then trained on the new descriptors to automatically classify liver lesions into benign or malignant. The experimental results show promising improvements. Moreover, the proposed approach can overcome the problems of varying ranges of intensity and textures between patients, demographics, and imaging devices and settings.
Keywords: CAD system, difference of feature, Fuzzy c means, Liver segmentation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1421286 The Effect of Closed Circuit Television Image Patch Layout on Performance of a Simulated Train-Platform Departure Task
Authors: Aaron J. Small, Craig A. Fletcher
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This study investigates the effect of closed circuit television (CCTV) image patch layout on performance of a simulated train-platform departure task. The within-subjects experimental design measures target detection rate and response latency during a CCTV visual search task conducted as part of the procedure for safe train dispatch. Three interface designs were developed by manipulating CCTV image patch layout. Eye movements, perceived workload and system usability were measured across experimental conditions. Task performance was compared to identify significant differences between conditions. The results of this study have not been determined.Keywords: Rail human factors, workload, closed circuit television, platform departure, attention, information processing, interface design.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 735285 Automation of Web-Portal Construction Processes with SQL Server for the Black Sea Ecosystem Monitoring
Authors: Gia Surguladze, Nino Topuria, Ana Gavardashvili, Tsatsa Namchevadze
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The present article discusses design and development of Information System for monitoring ecology within the Black Sea basin of Georgia. Sea parameters, river, estuary, vulnerable district, water sample, etc. were considered as the major parameters of the sea ecosystem. A conceptual schema has been developed for the Black Sea ecosystem based on object-role model. The experimental database for the Black Sea ecosystem has been constructed using Ms SQL Server, while the object-role model NORMA has been developed using graphical instrument Ms Visual Studio within the integrated environment of .NET Framework 4.5. Web portal has been designed based on Ms SharePoint Server. The server database connection with web-portal has been carried out by means of External List of Ms SharePoint Server Designer.
Keywords: Web-application, service-oriented architecture, database, object-role modelling, SharePoint, Black sea, river, estuary, ecology, monitoring system, automation of data processing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1309284 Preliminary Geophysical Assessment of Soil Contaminants around Wacot Rice Factory Argungu, North-Western Nigeria
Authors: A. I. Augie, Y. Alhassan, U. Z. Magawata
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Geophysical investigation was carried out at wacot rice factory Argungu north-western Nigeria, using the 2D electrical resistivity method. The area falls between latitude 12˚44′23ʺN to 12˚44′50ʺN and longitude 4032′18′′E to 4032′39′′E covering a total area of about 1.85 km. Two profiles were carried out with Wenner configuration using resistivity meter (Ohmega). The data obtained from the study area were modeled using RES2DIVN software which gave an automatic interpretation of the apparent resistivity data. The inverse resistivity models of the profiles show the high resistivity values ranging from 208 Ωm to 651 Ωm. These high resistivity values in the overburden were due to dryness and compactness of the strata that lead to consolidation, which is an indication that the area is free from leachate contaminations. However, from the inverse model, there are regions of low resistivity values (1 Ωm to 18 Ωm), these zones were observed and identified as clayey and the most contaminated zones. The regions of low resistivity thereby indicated the leachate plume or the highly leachate concentrated zones due to similar resistivity values in both clayey and leachate. The regions of leachate are mainly from the factory into the surrounding area and its groundwater. The maximum leachate infiltration was found at depths 1 m to 15.9 m (P1) and 6 m to 15.9 m (P2) vertically, as well as distance along the profiles from 67 m to 75 m (P1), 155 m to 180 m (P1), and 115 m to 192 m (P2) laterally.Keywords: Contaminant, leachate, soil, groundwater, 2D, electrical, resistivity, Argungu.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 577283 Development of a Fiber based Interferometric Sensor for Non-contact Displacement Measurement
Authors: S. Pullteap
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In this paper, a fiber based Fabry-Perot interferometer is proposed and demonstrated for a non-contact displacement measurement. A piece of micro-prism which attached to the mechanical vibrator is served as the target reflector. Interference signal is generated from the superposition between the sensing beam and the reference beam within the sensing arm of the fiber sensor. This signal is then converted to the displacement value by using a developed program written in visual Cµ programming with a resolution of λ/8. A classical function generator is operated for controlling the vibrator. By fixing an excitation frequency of 100 Hz and varying the excitation amplitude range of 0.1 – 3 Volts, the output displacements measured by the fiber sensor are obtained from 1.55 μm to 30.225 μm. A reference displacement sensor with a sensitivity of ~0.4 μm is also employed for comparing the displacement errors between both sensors. We found that over the entire displacement range, a maximum and average measurement error are obtained of 0.977% and 0.44% respectively.Keywords: Non-contact displacement measurement, extrinsicfiber based Fabry-Perot interferometer, interference signal, zerocrossingfringe counting technique.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2027282 Insight-Based Evaluation of a Map-based Dashboard
Authors: Anna Fredriksson Häägg, Charlotte Weil, Niklas Rönnberg
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Map-based dashboards are used for data exploration every day. The present study used an insight-based methodology for evaluating a map-based dashboard that presents research findings of water management and ecosystem services in the Amazon. In addition to analyzing the insights gained from using the dashboard, the evaluation method was compared to standardized questionnaires and task-based evaluations. The result suggests that the dashboard enabled the participants to gain domain-relevant, complex insights regarding the topic presented. Furthermore, the insight-based analysis highlighted unexpected insights and hypotheses regarding causes and potential adaptation strategies for remediation. Although time- and resource-consuming, the insight-based methodology was shown to have the potential of thoroughly analyzing how end users can utilize map-based dashboards for data exploration and decision making. Finally, the insight-based methodology is argued to evaluate tools in scenarios more similar to real-life usage, compared to task-based evaluation methods.
Keywords: Visual analytics, dashboard, insight-based evaluation, geographic visualization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 409281 The Wavelet-Based DFT: A New Interpretation, Extensions and Applications
Authors: Abdulnasir Hossen, Ulrich Heute
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In 1990 [1] the subband-DFT (SB-DFT) technique was proposed. This technique used the Hadamard filters in the decomposition step to split the input sequence into low- and highpass sequences. In the next step, either two DFTs are needed on both bands to compute the full-band DFT or one DFT on one of the two bands to compute an approximate DFT. A combination network with correction factors was to be applied after the DFTs. Another approach was proposed in 1997 [2] for using a special discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to compute the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). In the first step of the algorithm, the input sequence is decomposed in a similar manner to the SB-DFT into two sequences using wavelet decomposition with Haar filters. The second step is to perform DFTs on both bands to obtain the full-band DFT or to obtain a fast approximate DFT by implementing pruning at both input and output sides. In this paper, the wavelet-based DFT (W-DFT) with Haar filters is interpreted as SB-DFT with Hadamard filters. The only difference is in a constant factor in the combination network. This result is very important to complete the analysis of the W-DFT, since all the results concerning the accuracy and approximation errors in the SB-DFT are applicable. An application example in spectral analysis is given for both SB-DFT and W-DFT (with different filters). The adaptive capability of the SB-DFT is included in the W-DFT algorithm to select the band of most energy as the band to be computed. Finally, the W-DFT is extended to the two-dimensional case. An application in image transformation is given using two different types of wavelet filters.
Keywords: Image Transform, Spectral Analysis, Sub-Band DFT, Wavelet DFT.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1669280 A Two-Stage Expert System for Diagnosis of Leukemia Based on Type-2 Fuzzy Logic
Authors: Ali Akbar Sadat Asl
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Diagnosis and deciding about diseases in medical fields is facing innate uncertainty which can affect the whole process of treatment. This decision is made based on expert knowledge and the way in which an expert interprets the patient's condition, and the interpretation of the various experts from the patient's condition may be different. Fuzzy logic can provide mathematical modeling for many concepts, variables, and systems that are unclear and ambiguous and also it can provide a framework for reasoning, inference, control, and decision making in conditions of uncertainty. In systems with high uncertainty and high complexity, fuzzy logic is a suitable method for modeling. In this paper, we use type-2 fuzzy logic for uncertainty modeling that is in diagnosis of leukemia. The proposed system uses an indirect-direct approach and consists of two stages: In the first stage, the inference of blood test state is determined. In this step, we use an indirect approach where the rules are extracted automatically by implementing a clustering approach. In the second stage, signs of leukemia, duration of disease until its progress and the output of the first stage are combined and the final diagnosis of the system is obtained. In this stage, the system uses a direct approach and final diagnosis is determined by the expert. The obtained results show that the type-2 fuzzy expert system can diagnose leukemia with the average accuracy about 97%.
Keywords: Expert system, leukemia, medical diagnosis, type-2 fuzzy logic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1053279 Evolution of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) via Fuzzy Concepts and Neural Networks
Authors: M. Haghighi, M. Zowghi, B. Zohouri
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Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an expounded, multi-step planning method for delivering commodity, services, and processes to customers, both external and internal to an organization. It is a way to convert between the diverse customer languages expressing demands (Voice of the Customer), and the organization-s languages expressing results that sate those demands. The policy is to establish one or more matrices that inter-relate producer and consumer reciprocal expectations. Due to its visual presence is called the “House of Quality" (HOQ). In this paper, we assumed HOQ in multi attribute decision making (MADM) pattern and through a proposed MADM method, rank technical specifications. Thereafter compute satisfaction degree of customer requirements and for it, we apply vagueness and uncertainty conditions in decision making by fuzzy set theory. This approach would propound supervised neural network (perceptron) for MADM problem solving.
Keywords: MADM, fuzzy set, QFD, supervised neural network (perceptron).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1742278 A Novel Approach for Tracking of a Mobile Node Based on Particle Filter and Trilateration
Authors: Muhammad Haroon Siddiqui, Muhammad Rehan Khalid
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This paper evaluates the performance of a novel algorithm for tracking of a mobile node, interms of execution time and root mean square error (RMSE). Particle Filter algorithm is used to track the mobile node, however a new technique in particle filter algorithm is also proposed to reduce the execution time. The stationary points were calculated through trilateration and finally by averaging the number of points collected for a specific time, whereas tracking is done through trilateration as well as particle filter algorithm. Wi-Fi signal is used to get initial guess of the position of mobile node in x-y coordinates system. Commercially available software “Wireless Mon" was used to read the WiFi signal strength from the WiFi card. Visual Cµ version 6 was used to interact with this software to read only the required data from the log-file generated by “Wireless Mon" software. Results are evaluated through mathematical modeling and MATLAB simulation.Keywords: Particle Filter, Tracking, Wireless Local Area Network, WiFi, Trilateration
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2067277 Effects of Length of Time of Fasting upon Subjective and Objective Variables When Controlling Sleep, Food and Fluid Intakes
Authors: H. Alabed, K. Abuzayan. L. Fgie, K. Zarug
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Ramadan requires individuals to abstain from food and fluid intake between sunrise and sunset; physiological considerations predict that poorer mood, physical performance and mental performance will result. In addition, any difficulties will be worsened because preparations for fasting and recovery from it often mean that nocturnal sleep is decreased in length, and this independently affects mood and performance.
A difficulty of interpretation in many studies is that the observed changes could be due to fasting but also to the decreased length of sleep and altered food and fluid intakes before and after the daytime fasting. These factors were separated in this study, which took place over three separate days and compared the effects of different durations of fasting (4, 8 or 16h) upon a wide variety of measures (including subjective and objective assessments of performance, body composition, dehydration and responses to a short bout of exercise) - but with an unchanged amount of nocturnal sleep, controlled supper the previous evening, controlled intakes at breakfast and daytime naps not being allowed. Many of the negative effects of fasting observed in previous studies were present in this experiment also. These findings indicate that fasting was responsible for many of the changes previously observed, though some effect of sleep loss, particularly if occurring on successive days (as would occur in Ramadan) cannot be excluded.
Keywords: Drinking, Eating, Mental Performance, Physical Performance, Social Activity, Blood, Sleepiness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1650276 Simulation and Realization of a Battery Charge Regulator
Authors: B. Nasri, M. Bensaada
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We present a simulation and realization of a battery charge regulator (BCR) in microsatellite earth observation. The tests were performed on battery pack 12volt, capacity 24Ah and the solar array open circuit voltage of 100 volt and optimum power of about 250 watt. The battery charge is made by solar module. The principle is to adapt the output voltage of the solar module to the battery by using the technique of pulse width modulation (PWM). Among the different techniques of charge battery, we opted for the technique of the controller ON/OFF is a standard technique and simple, it-s easy to be board executed validation will be made by simulation "Proteus Isis Professional software ". The circuit and the program of this prototype are based on the PIC16F877 microcontroller, a serial interface connecting a PC is also realized, to view and save data and graphics in real time, for visualization of data and graphs we develop an interface tool “visual basic.net (VB)--.Keywords: Battery Charge Regulator, Batteries, Buck converter, Power System, Power Conditioning, Power Distribution, Solar arrays.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3214275 Four Decades of Greek Artistic Presence in Paris (1970-2010): Theory and Interpretation
Authors: Sapfo A. Mortaki
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This article examines the presence of Greek immigrant artists (painters and sculptors) in Paris during 1970-2010. The aim is to highlight their presence in the French capital through archival research in the daily and periodical press as well as present the impact of their artistic activity on the French intellectual life and society. At the same time, their contribution to the development of cultural life in Greece becomes apparent. The integration of those migrant artists into an environment of cultural coexistence and the understanding of the social phenomenon of their migration, in the context of postmodernity, are being investigated. The cultural relations between the two countries are studied in the context of support mechanisms, such as the Greek community, cultural institutions, museums and galleries. The recognition of the Greek artists by the French society and the social dimension in the context of their activity in Paris, are discussed in terms of the assimilation theory. Since the 1970s, and especially since the fall of the dictatorship in Greece, in opposition to the prior situation, artists' contacts with their homeland have been significantly enhanced, with most of them now travelling to Paris, while others work in parallel in both countries. As a result, not only do the stages of the development of their work through their pursuits become visible, but, most importantly, the artistic world becomes informed about the multifaceted expression of art through the succession of various contemporary currents. Thus, the participation of Greek artists in the international cultural landscape is demonstrated.
Keywords: Artistic migration, cultural impact, Greek artists, postmodernity, theory of assimilation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 805274 Hand Gesture Interpretation Using Sensing Glove Integrated with Machine Learning Algorithms
Authors: Aqsa Ali, Aleem Mushtaq, Attaullah Memon, Monna
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In this paper, we present a low cost design for a smart glove that can perform sign language recognition to assist the speech impaired people. Specifically, we have designed and developed an Assistive Hand Gesture Interpreter that recognizes hand movements relevant to the American Sign Language (ASL) and translates them into text for display on a Thin-Film-Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT LCD) screen as well as synthetic speech. Linear Bayes Classifiers and Multilayer Neural Networks have been used to classify 11 feature vectors obtained from the sensors on the glove into one of the 27 ASL alphabets and a predefined gesture for space. Three types of features are used; bending using six bend sensors, orientation in three dimensions using accelerometers and contacts at vital points using contact sensors. To gauge the performance of the presented design, the training database was prepared using five volunteers. The accuracy of the current version on the prepared dataset was found to be up to 99.3% for target user. The solution combines electronics, e-textile technology, sensor technology, embedded system and machine learning techniques to build a low cost wearable glove that is scrupulous, elegant and portable.Keywords: American sign language, assistive hand gesture interpreter, human-machine interface, machine learning, sensing glove.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2731273 Hybrid Feature and Adaptive Particle Filter for Robust Object Tracking
Authors: Xinyue Zhao, Yutaka Satoh, Hidenori Takauji, Shun'ichi Kaneko
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A hybrid feature based adaptive particle filter algorithm is presented for object tracking in real scenarios with static camera. The hybrid feature is combined by two effective features: the Grayscale Arranging Pairs (GAP) feature and the color histogram feature. The GAP feature has high discriminative ability even under conditions of severe illumination variation and dynamic background elements, while the color histogram feature has high reliability to identify the detected objects. The combination of two features covers the shortage of single feature. Furthermore, we adopt an updating target model so that some external problems such as visual angles can be overcame well. An automatic initialization algorithm is introduced which provides precise initial positions of objects. The experimental results show the good performance of the proposed method.Keywords: Hybrid feature, adaptive Particle Filter, robust Object Tracking, Grayscale Arranging Pairs (GAP) feature.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1528272 Significance of Bike-Frame Geometric Factors for Cycling Efficiency and Muscle Activation
Authors: Luen Chow Chan
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With the advocacy of green transportation and green traveling, cycling has become increasingly popular nowadays. Physiology and bike design are key factors for the influence of cycling efficiency. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the significance of bike-frame geometric factors on cycling efficiency and muscle activation for different body sizes of non-professional Asian male cyclists. Participants who represented various body sizes, as measured by leg and back lengths, carried out cycling tests using a tailor-assembled road bike with different ergonomic design configurations including seat-height adjustments (i.e., 96%, 100%, and 104% of trochanteric height) and bike frame sizes (i.e., small and medium frames) for an assessable distance of 1 km. A specific power meter and self-developed adaptable surface electromyography (sEMG) were used to measure average pedaling power and cadence generated and muscle activation, respectively. The results showed that changing the seat height was far more significant than the body and bike frame sizes. The sEMG data evidently provided a better understanding of muscle activation as a function of different seat heights. Therefore, the interpretation of this study is that the major bike ergonomic design factor dominating the cycling efficiency of Asian participants with different body sizes was the seat height.
Keywords: Bike frame sizes, cadence rate, pedaling power, seat height.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 922271 Coconut Shells as the Alternative Equipment for Foot Reflexology
Authors: Nichanant Sermsri, Chananchida Yuktirat
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This research was the experimental research. Its purpose was to find out how coconut shells can be adapted to be equipment for foot and calf reflexology. The sample group was 58 female street vendors in Thewet Market, Bangkok, selected by selection criteria and voluntary. The data collecting tool was the Visual Analogue Scale. The massaging tool made from coconut shells was the key equipment for this research. The research team assessed the level of exhaustion and heart rate among sample group before and after the massage, then analyzed the data by mean, standard deviation and paired sample t-test.
We found out from the research that
- The level of exhaustion decreased 4.529 levels after the massage and the standard deviation was 1.6195. The heart rates went down 11.67 times/minute and the standard deviation was 6.742.
- The level of exhaustion and heart rate after the massage decreased with the statistically significance at 0.01
Keywords: Coconut Shells, Foot Massage, Foot Reflexology, Massaging Plate.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1838270 Mobile Robot Control by Von Neumann Computer
Authors: E. V. Larkin, T. A. Akimenko, A. V. Bogomolov, A. N. Privalov
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The digital control system of mobile robots (MR) control is considered. It is shown that sequential interpretation of control algorithm operators, unfolding in physical time, suggests the occurrence of time delays between inputting data from sensors and outputting data to actuators. Another destabilizing control factor is presence of backlash in the joints of an actuator with an executive unit. Complex model of control system, which takes into account the dynamics of the MR, the dynamics of the digital controller and backlash in actuators, is worked out. The digital controller model is divided into two parts: the first part describes the control law embedded in the controller in the form of a control program that realizes a polling procedure when organizing transactions to sensors and actuators. The second part of the model describes the time delays that occur in the Von Neumann-type controller when processing data. To estimate time intervals, the algorithm is represented in the form of an ergodic semi-Markov process. For an ergodic semi-Markov process of common form, a method is proposed for estimation a wandering time from one arbitrary state to another arbitrary state. Example shows how the backlash and time delays affect the quality characteristics of the MR control system functioning.
Keywords: Mobile robot, backlash, control algorithm, Von Neumann controller, semi-Markov process, time delay.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 366269 An Application-Based Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Calculator for Residential Buildings
Authors: Kwok W. Mui, Ling T. Wong, Chin T. Cheung, Ho C. Yu
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Based on an indoor environmental quality (IEQ) index established by previous work that indicates the overall IEQ acceptance from the prospect of an occupant in residential buildings in terms of four IEQ factors - thermal comfort, indoor air quality, visual and aural comforts, this study develops a user-friendly IEQ calculator for iOS and Android users to calculate the occupant acceptance and compare the relative performance of IEQ in apartments. “IEQ calculator” is easy to use and it preliminarily illustrates the overall indoor environmental quality on the spot. Users simply input indoor parameters such as temperature, number of people and windows are opened or closed for the mobile application to calculate the scores in four areas: the comforts of temperature, brightness, noise and indoor air quality. The calculator allows the prediction of the best IEQ scenario on a quantitative scale. Any indoor environments under the specific IEQ conditions can be benchmarked against the predicted IEQ acceptance range. This calculator can also suggest how to achieve the best IEQ acceptance among a group of residents.
Keywords: Calculator, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), residential buildings, 5-star benchmarks.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2413268 A Prediction-Based Reversible Watermarking for MRI Images
Authors: Nuha Omran Abokhdair, Azizah Bt Abdul Manaf
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Reversible watermarking is a special branch of image watermarking, that is able to recover the original image after extracting the watermark from the image. In this paper, an adaptive prediction-based reversible watermarking scheme is presented, in order to increase the payload capacity of MRI medical images. The scheme divides the image into two parts, Region of Interest (ROI) and Region of Non-Interest (RONI). Two bits are embedded in each embeddable pixel of RONI and one bit is embedded in each embeddable pixel of ROI. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is able to achieve high embedding capacity. This is mainly caused by two reasons. First, the pixels that were excluded from data embedding due to overflow/underflow are used for data embedding. Second, large location map that need to be added to watermark data as overhead is eliminated and thus lower data embedding capacity is prevented. Moreover, the scheme provides good visual quality to the watermarked image.
Keywords: Medical image watermarking, reversible watermarking, Difference Expansion, Prediction-Error Expansion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1916267 Use of Visualization Techniques for Active Learning Engagement in Environmental Science Engineering Courses
Authors: Srinivasan Latha, M. R. Christhu Raj, Rajeev Sukumaran
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Active learning strategies have completely rewritten the concept of teaching and learning. Academicians have clocked back to Socratic approaches of questioning. Educators have started implementing active learning strategies for effective learning with the help of tools and technology. As Generation-Y learners are mostly visual, engaging them using visualization techniques play a vital role in their learning process. The facilitator has an important role in intrinsically motivating the learners using different approaches to create self-learning interests. Different visualization techniques were used along with lectures to help students understand and appreciate the concepts. Anonymous feedback was collected from learners. The consolidated report shows that majority of learners accepted the usage of visualization techniques was helpful in understanding concepts as well as create interest in learning the course. This study helps to understand, how the use of visualization techniques help the facilitator to engage learners effectively as well create and intrinsic motivation for their learning.
Keywords: Visualization techniques, concept maps, mind maps, argument maps, flowchart, tree diagram, problem solving.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1912266 Decimation Filter Design Toolbox for Multi-Standard Wireless Transceivers using MATLAB
Authors: Shahana T. K., Babita R. Jose, K. Poulose Jacob, Sreela Sasi
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The demand for new telecommunication services requiring higher capacities, data rates and different operating modes have motivated the development of new generation multi-standard wireless transceivers. A multi-standard design often involves extensive system level analysis and architectural partitioning, typically requiring extensive calculations. In this research, a decimation filter design tool for wireless communication standards consisting of GSM, WCDMA, WLANa, WLANb, WLANg and WiMAX is developed in MATLAB® using GUIDE environment for visual analysis. The user can select a required wireless communication standard, and obtain the corresponding multistage decimation filter implementation using this toolbox. The toolbox helps the user or design engineer to perform a quick design and analysis of decimation filter for multiple standards without doing extensive calculation of the underlying methods.
Keywords: Decimation filter, MATLAB® toolbox, Multistandard transceivers, Sigma-delta A/D converter.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2923265 Multimodal Database of Emotional Speech, Video and Gestures
Authors: Tomasz Sapiński, Dorota Kamińska, Adam Pelikant, Egils Avots, Cagri Ozcinar, Gholamreza Anbarjafari
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People express emotions through different modalities. Integration of verbal and non-verbal communication channels creates a system in which the message is easier to understand. Expanding the focus to several expression forms can facilitate research on emotion recognition as well as human-machine interaction. In this article, the authors present a Polish emotional database composed of three modalities: facial expressions, body movement and gestures, and speech. The corpora contains recordings registered in studio conditions, acted out by 16 professional actors (8 male and 8 female). The data is labeled with six basic emotions categories, according to Ekman’s emotion categories. To check the quality of performance, all recordings are evaluated by experts and volunteers. The database is available to academic community and might be useful in the study on audio-visual emotion recognition.Keywords: Body movement, emotion recognition, emotional corpus, facial expressions, gestures, multimodal database, speech.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1125264 Filtering and Reconstruction System for Gray Forensic Images
Authors: Ahd Aljarf, Saad Amin
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Images are important source of information used as evidence during any investigation process. Their clarity and accuracy is essential and of the utmost importance for any investigation. Images are vulnerable to losing blocks and having noise added to them either after alteration or when the image was taken initially, therefore, having a high performance image processing system and it is implementation is very important in a forensic point of view. This paper focuses on improving the quality of the forensic images. For different reasons packets that store data can be affected, harmed or even lost because of noise. For example, sending the image through a wireless channel can cause loss of bits. These types of errors might give difficulties generally for the visual display quality of the forensic images. Two of the images problems: noise and losing blocks are covered. However, information which gets transmitted through any way of communication may suffer alteration from its original state or even lose important data due to the channel noise. Therefore, a developed system is introduced to improve the quality and clarity of the forensic images.
Keywords: Image Filtering, Image Reconstruction, Image Processing, Forensic Images.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2213263 Multivariate Analytical Insights into Spatial and Temporal Variation in Water Quality of a Major Drinking Water Reservoir
Authors: Azadeh Golshan, Craig Evans, Phillip Geary, Abigail Morrow, Zoe Rogers, Marcel Maeder
Abstract:
22 physicochemical variables have been determined in water samples collected weekly from January to December in 2013 from three sampling stations located within a major drinking water reservoir. Classical Multivariate Curve Resolution Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS) analysis was used to investigate the environmental factors associated with the physico-chemical variability of the water samples at each of the sampling stations. Matrix augmentation MCR-ALS (MA-MCR-ALS) was also applied, and the two sets of results were compared for interpretative clarity. Links between these factors, reservoir inflows and catchment land-uses were investigated and interpreted in relation to chemical composition of the water and their resolved geographical distribution profiles. The results suggested that the major factors affecting reservoir water quality were those associated with agricultural runoff, with evidence of influence on algal photosynthesis within the water column. Water quality variability within the reservoir was also found to be strongly linked to physical parameters such as water temperature and the occurrence of thermal stratification. The two methods applied (MCR-ALS and MA-MCR-ALS) led to similar conclusions; however, MA-MCR-ALS appeared to provide results more amenable to interpretation of temporal and geological variation than those obtained through classical MCR-ALS.
Keywords: Catchment management, drinking water reservoir, multivariate curve resolution alternating least squares, thermal stratification, water quality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 921262 Assisted Approach as a Tool for Increasing Attention When Using the iPad in a Special Elementary School: Action Research
Authors: Vojtěch Gybas, Libor Klubal, Kateřina Kostolányová
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Nowadays, mobile touch technologies, such as tablets, are an integral part of teaching and learning in many special elementary schools. Many special education teachers tend to choose an iPad tablet with iOS. The reason is simple; the iPad has a function for pupils with special educational needs. If we decide to use tablets in teaching, in general, first we should try to stimulate the cognitive abilities of the pupil at the highest level, while holding the pupil’s attention on the task, when working with the device. This paper will describe how student attention can be increased by eliminating the working environment of selected applications, while using iPads with pupils in a special elementary school. Assisted function approach is highly effective at eliminating unwanted touching by a pupil when working on the desktop iPad, thus actively increasing the pupil´s attention while working on specific educational applications. During the various stages of the action, the research was conducted via data collection and interpretation. After a phase of gaining results and ideas for practice and actions, we carried out the check measurement, this time using the tool-assisted approach. In both cases, the pupils worked in the Math Board application and the resulting differences were evident.
Keywords: Special elementary school, mobile touch device, iPad, attention, math board.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1287261 Architecture of Speech-based Registration System
Authors: Mayank Kumar, D B Mahesh Kumar, Ashwin S Kumar, N K Srinath
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In this era of technology, fueled by the pervasive usage of the internet, security is a prime concern. The number of new attacks by the so-called “bots", which are automated programs, is increasing at an alarming rate. They are most likely to attack online registration systems. Technology, called “CAPTCHA" (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) do exist, which can differentiate between automated programs and humans and prevent replay attacks. Traditionally CAPTCHA-s have been implemented with the challenge involved in recognizing textual images and reproducing the same. We propose an approach where the visual challenge has to be read out from which randomly selected keywords are used to verify the correctness of spoken text and in turn detect the presence of human. This is supplemented with a speaker recognition system which can identify the speaker also. Thus, this framework fulfills both the objectives – it can determine whether the user is a human or not and if it is a human, it can verify its identity.
Keywords: CAPTCHA, automatic speech recognition, keyword spotting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1547260 Sustainable Urban Waterfronts Using Sustainability Assessment Rating System
Authors: R. M. R. Hussein
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Sustainable urban waterfront development is one of the most interesting phenomena of urban renewal in the last decades. However, there are still many cities whose visual image is compromised due to the lack of a sustainable urban waterfront development, which consequently affects the place of those cities globally. This paper aims to reimagine the role of waterfront areas in city design, with a particular focus on Egypt, so that they provide attractive, sustainable urban environments while promoting the continued aesthetic development of the city overall. This aim will be achieved by determining the main principles of a sustainable urban waterfront and its applications. This paper concentrates on sustainability assessment rating systems. A number of international case-studies, wherein a city has applied the basic principles for a sustainable urban waterfront and have made use of sustainability assessment rating systems, have been selected as examples which can be applied to the urban waterfronts in Egypt. This paper establishes the importance of developing the design of urban environments in Egypt, as well as identifying the methods of sustainability application for urban waterfronts.
Keywords: Sustainable Urban Waterfront, Green Infrastructure, Energy Efficient, Cairo.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3494