Search results for: Human Body Recognition
2551 Optimized Facial Features-based Age Classification
Authors: Md. Zahangir Alom, Mei-Lan Piao, Md. Shariful Islam, Nam Kim, Jae-Hyeung Park
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The evaluation and measurement of human body dimensions are achieved by physical anthropometry. This research was conducted in view of the importance of anthropometric indices of the face in forensic medicine, surgery, and medical imaging. The main goal of this research is to optimization of facial feature point by establishing a mathematical relationship among facial features and used optimize feature points for age classification. Since selected facial feature points are located to the area of mouth, nose, eyes and eyebrow on facial images, all desire facial feature points are extracted accurately. According this proposes method; sixteen Euclidean distances are calculated from the eighteen selected facial feature points vertically as well as horizontally. The mathematical relationships among horizontal and vertical distances are established. Moreover, it is also discovered that distances of the facial feature follows a constant ratio due to age progression. The distances between the specified features points increase with respect the age progression of a human from his or her childhood but the ratio of the distances does not change (d = 1 .618 ) . Finally, according to the proposed mathematical relationship four independent feature distances related to eight feature points are selected from sixteen distances and eighteen feature point-s respectively. These four feature distances are used for classification of age using Support Vector Machine (SVM)-Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO) algorithm and shown around 96 % accuracy. Experiment result shows the proposed system is effective and accurate for age classification.Keywords: 3D Face Model, Face Anthropometrics, Facial Features Extraction, Feature distances, SVM-SMO
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20472550 How the Kinematic Swimming of European Eel Anguilla Anguilla Changes from Axial to Non-axial Velocity Flow
Authors: Younes Matar, Fabien Candelier, Camille Solliec
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The aim of this study is to investigate the kinematics of undulatory elongated fish swimming against a velocity flow. We perform the experiments on European eel Anguilla Anguilla swimming in a hydrodynamic re-circulating tank with the velocity flow fixed at 0.2 m/s. We find that the undulating shape of overall eel body changes when it swims slantwise from the flow direction, by comparison to axial undulation shape. We examine this kinematics and we propose a general equation describing the lateral position of undulation body taking into account the direction of the eel-s swimming.
Keywords: Undulatory swimming, maneuver, eel Anguilla Anguilla, biomechanic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15062549 Software Process Improvement: A Organizational Change that Need to be Managed and Motivated
Authors: Marília Guterres Ferreira, Raul Sidnei Wazlawick
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As seen in literature, about 70% of the improvement initiatives fail, and a significant number do not even get started. This paper analyses the problem of failing initiatives on Software Process Improvement (SPI), and proposes good practices supported by motivational tools that can help minimizing failures. It elaborates on the hypothesis that human factors are poorly addressed by deployers, especially because implementation guides usually emphasize only technical factors. This research was conducted with SPI deployers and analyses 32 SPI initiatives. The results indicate that although human factors are not commonly highlighted in guidelines, the successful initiatives usually address human factors implicitly. This research shows that practices based on human factors indeed perform a crucial role on successful implantations of SPI, proposes change management as a theoretical framework to introduce those practices in the SPI context and suggests some motivational tools based on SPI deployers experience to support it.
Keywords: Change management, human factors, motivation, software process improvement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23492548 Problem-based Learning Approach to Human Computer Interaction
Authors: Oon-Seng Tan
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Human Computer Interaction (HCI) has been an emerging field that draws in the experts from various fields to enhance the application of computer programs and the ease of computer users. HCI has much to do with learning and cognition and an emerging approach to learning and problem-solving is problembased learning (PBL). The processes of PBL involve important cognitive functions in the various stages. This paper will illustrate how closely related fields to HCI, PBL and cognitive psychology can benefit from informing each other through analysing various cognitive functions. Several cognitive functions from cognitive function disc (CFD) would be presented and discussed in relation to human-computer interface. This paper concludes with the implications of bridging the gaps amongst these disciplines.Keywords: problem-based learning, human computerinteraction, cognitive psychology, Cognitive Function Disc (CFD)
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25142547 Weed Classification using Histogram Maxima with Threshold for Selective Herbicide Applications
Authors: Irshad Ahmad, Abdul Muhamin Naeem, Muhammad Islam, Shahid Nawaz
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Information on weed distribution within the field is necessary to implement spatially variable herbicide application. Since hand labor is costly, an automated weed control system could be feasible. This paper deals with the development of an algorithm for real time specific weed recognition system based on Histogram Maxima with threshold of an image that is used for the weed classification. This algorithm is specifically developed to classify images into broad and narrow class for real-time selective herbicide application. The developed system has been tested on weeds in the lab, which have shown that the system to be very effectiveness in weed identification. Further the results show a very reliable performance on images of weeds taken under varying field conditions. The analysis of the results shows over 95 percent classification accuracy over 140 sample images (broad and narrow) with 70 samples from each category of weeds.Keywords: Image processing, real-time recognition, weeddetection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21632546 Unconstrained Arabic Online Handwritten Words Segmentation using New HMM State Design
Authors: Randa Ibrahim Elanwar, Mohsen Rashwan, Samia Mashali
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In this paper we propose a segmentation system for unconstrained Arabic online handwriting. An essential problem addressed by analytical-based word recognition system. The system is composed of two-stages the first is a newly special designed hidden Markov model (HMM) and the second is a rules based stage. In our system, handwritten words are broken up into characters by simultaneous segmentation-recognition using HMMs of unique design trained using online features most of which are novel. The HMM output characters boundaries represent the proposed segmentation points (PSP) which are then validated by rules-based post stage without any contextual information help to solve different segmentation errors. The HMM has been designed and tested using a self collected dataset (OHASD) [1]. Most errors cases are cured and remarkable segmentation enhancement is achieved. Very promising word and character segmentation rates are obtained regarding the unconstrained Arabic handwriting difficulty and not using context help.
Keywords: Arabic, Hidden Markov Models, online handwriting, word segmentation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18362545 An Adaptive Hand-Talking System for the Hearing Impaired
Authors: Zhou Yu, Jiang Feng
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An adaptive Chinese hand-talking system is presented in this paper. By analyzing the 3 data collecting strategies for new users, the adaptation framework including supervised and unsupervised adaptation methods is proposed. For supervised adaptation, affinity propagation (AP) is used to extract exemplar subsets, and enhanced maximum a posteriori / vector field smoothing (eMAP/VFS) is proposed to pool the adaptation data among different models. For unsupervised adaptation, polynomial segment models (PSMs) are used to help hidden Markov models (HMMs) to accurately label the unlabeled data, then the "labeled" data together with signerindependent models are inputted to MAP algorithm to generate signer-adapted models. Experimental results show that the proposed framework can execute both supervised adaptation with small amount of labeled data and unsupervised adaptation with large amount of unlabeled data to tailor the original models, and both achieve improvements on the performance of recognition rate.Keywords: sign language recognition, signer adaptation, eMAP/VFS, polynomial segment model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17592544 Tissue Composition and Muscularity of Lamb Legs Fed with Sunflower Seeds and Vitamin E
Authors: A. G. Silva Sobrinho, G. M. Manzi, N. L. L. Lima, F. A. Almeida, V. Endo, N. M. B. L. Zeola
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the tissue composition and carcass muscularity of 32 legs of Ile de France lambs fed with diets containing sunflower seeds and vitamin E, with mean body weight of 15 kg, lodged in individual pens at 15 kg and slaughtered at 32 kg of body weight. The treatments influenced (P<0,05) leg weight, femur length and muscle:bone ratio, being the highest values (2,13 kg, 16,19 cm and 7,38, respectively) in lambs that received diet without sunflower seeds and vitamin E. The other variables were not affected (P>0,05) by the treatments. The interaction of the sunflower and vitamin E was positive for bone total weights and intermuscular fat.Keywords: sheep, conformation, feedlot, nutrition, sugar-cane
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22832543 Disaggregating and Forecasting the Total Energy Consumption of a Building: A Case Study of a High Cooling Demand Facility
Authors: Juliana Barcelos Cordeiro, Khashayar Mahani, Farbod Farzan, Mohsen A. Jafari
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Energy disaggregation has been focused by many energy companies since energy efficiency can be achieved when the breakdown of energy consumption is known. Companies have been investing in technologies to come up with software and/or hardware solutions that can provide this type of information to the consumer. On the other hand, not all people can afford to have these technologies. Therefore, in this paper, we present a methodology for breaking down the aggregate consumption and identifying the highdemanding end-uses profiles. These energy profiles will be used to build the forecast model for optimal control purpose. A facility with high cooling load is used as an illustrative case study to demonstrate the results of proposed methodology. We apply a high level energy disaggregation through a pattern recognition approach in order to extract the consumption profile of its rooftop packaged units (RTUs) and present a forecast model for the energy consumption.Keywords: Energy consumption forecasting, energy efficiency, load disaggregation, pattern recognition approach.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14592542 Spanner Barb at Thepchana Waterfall, Khao Nan National Park, Thailand
Authors: S. Sutin, M. Pollar, M. Jaroensutasinee, K. Jaroensutasinee
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This study investigated morphology of the Spanner Barb (Puntius lateristriga Valenciennes, 1842) and water quality at Thepchana waterfall. This study was conducted at Thepchana Waterfall, Khao Nan National Park from March to May 2007. There were 40 Spanner Barb collected with 20 males and 20 females. Males had an average of 5.57 cm in standard length, 6.62 cm in total length and 5.18 g in total body weight. Females had an average of 7.25 cm in standard length, 8.24 cm in total length and 10.96 g in total body weight. The length (L) – weight (W) relationships for combining sexes, males and females were LogW = -2.137 + 3.355logL, log W = -0.068 + 3.297logL, and log W = -2.068 + 3.297logL, respectively. The Spanner Barb were smaller size fish with a compressed form; terminal mouth; villiform teeth; ctenoid scale; concave tail; general body color yellowish olive, with slight reddish tint to fins; vertical band beginning below dorsal and horizontal stripe from base of tail almost to vertical band. They also had a vertical band midway between the eye and first vertical band. There was a black spot above anal fin. The bladder looked like J-shape. Inside of the bladder was found small insects and insect lava. The body length and the bowels length was 1:1 ratio. The water temperature ranged from 25.00 – 27.00 °C which was appropriate for their habitat characteristics. Acid - alkalinity ranged from 6.65 – 6.90 mg/l. Dissolved oxygen ranged from 4.55 – 4.70 mg/l. Water hardness ranged from 31.00 – 48.00 mg/l. The amount of ammonia was about 0.25 mg/l.
Keywords: Spanner barb, morphology, water quality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16512541 Rigid and Non-rigid Registration of Binary Objects using the Weighted Ratio Image
Authors: Panos Kotsas, Tony Dodd
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This paper presents the application of a signal intensity independent similarity criterion for rigid and non-rigid body registration of binary objects. The criterion is defined as the weighted ratio image of two images. The ratio is computed on a voxel per voxel basis and weighting is performed by setting the raios between signal and background voxels to a standard high value. The mean squared value of the weighted ratio is computed over the union of the signal areas of the two images and it is minimized using the Chebyshev polynomial approximation.Keywords: rigid and non-rigid body registration, binary objects
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13312540 Parameters Influencing Human-Machine Interaction in Hospitals
Authors: Hind Bouami, Patrick Millot
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Handling life-critical systems complexity requires to be equipped with appropriate technology and the right human agents’ functions such as knowledge, experience, and competence in problem’s prevention and solving. Human agents are involved in the management and control of human-machine system’s performance. Documenting human agent’s situation awareness is crucial to support human-machine designers’ decision-making. Knowledge about risks, critical parameters and factors that can impact and threaten automation system’s performance should be collected using preventive and retrospective approaches. This paper aims to document operators’ situation awareness through the analysis of automated organizations’ feedback. The analysis of automated hospital pharmacies feedback helps identify and control critical parameters influencing human machine interaction in order to enhance system’s performance and security. Our human machine system evaluation approach has been deployed in Macon hospital center’s pharmacy which is equipped with automated drug dispensing systems since 2015. Automation’s specifications are related to technical aspects, human-machine interaction, and human aspects. The evaluation of drug delivery automation performance in Macon hospital center has shown that the performance of the automated activity depends on the performance of the automated solution chosen, and also on the control of systemic factors. In fact, 80.95% of automation specification related to the chosen Sinteco’s automated solution is met. The performance of the chosen automated solution is involved in 28.38% of automation specifications performance in Macon hospital center. The remaining systemic parameters involved in automation specifications performance need to be controlled.
Keywords: Life-critical systems, situation awareness, human-machine interaction, decision-making.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5752539 Whole Body CT for a Patient with Sepsis
Authors: Y. Yanagawa, K. Aihara, S. Watanabe, M. Takemoto, T. Naito, T. Iba, H. Tanaka
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This study retrospectively investigated the significance of whole body CT (WCT) for patients with sepsis. A medical chart review was retrospectively performed for all patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome that were treated initially between April 2011 and March 2012. The subjects were divided into a WCT group that underwent WCT on arrival and a control group. Results of this study suggested that WCT for sepsis was useful for elderly patients whose chief complaint or physiological findings could not suggest the anatomical site of infection, to determine the infectious focus and indications/method for surgery, to diagnose the basic diseases associated with opportunistic infections and to evaluate complicated diseases
Keywords: Sepsis, CT, outcome.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18812538 Design of Orientation-Free Handler and Fuzzy Controller for Wire-Driven Heavy Object Lifting System
Authors: Bo-Wei Song, Yun-Jung Lee
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This paper presents an intention interface and controller for a wire-driven heavy object lifting system that assists the operator with moving a heavy object. The handler is designed to allow a comfortable working posture for the operator. Plus, as a human assistive system, the operator is involved in the control loop, where a fuzzy control system is used to consider the human control characteristics. The effectiveness and performance of the proposed system are proved by experiments.
Keywords: Fuzzy controller, Handler design, Heavy object lifting system, Human-assistive device, Human-in-the-loop system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16572537 Human Resource Management in the Innovation Activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan
Authors: A. T. Omarova, G. N. Nakipova
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This article discusses the principles of object-oriented human capital development using the technology program. Also the article includes priorities of the strategy of industrial-innovative development of Kazakhstan in conditions of integration activity into the world community. The article shows the tasks of human resource management in the implementation of industrial and innovation development, particularities of Kazakhstan's theory of management staff, as well as due to the specificity of the Kazakhstan authorities. In the article had considered the factors which are affecting to the people in the organization and also had considered mechanisms of HRM within organization in the conditions of innovative development in Kazakhstan.
Keywords: Programming, management of human resources, innovation, investment, innovation process, HRD model, innovative development, integration, management, transformation, economic potential, competitiveness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19942536 Cereals' Products with Red Grape and Walnut Extracts as Functional Foods for Prevention of Kidney Dysfunction
Authors: Sahar Y. Al-Okbi, Doha A. Mohamed, Thanaa E. Hamed, Ahmed Ms Hussein
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In the present research, two nutraceuticals made from red grape and walnut that showed previously to improve kidney dysfunction were incorporated separately into functional foods' bread made from barley and rice bran. The functional foods were evaluated in rats in which chronic renal failure was induced through feeding diet rich in adenine and phosphate (APD). The evaluation based on assessing kidney function, oxidative stress, inflammatory biomarkers and body weight gain. Results showed induction of chronic kidney failure reflected in significant increase in plasma urea, creatinine, malondialdehyde, tumor necrosis factor- α and low density lipoprotein cholesterol along with significant reduction of plasma albumin, and total antioxidant and creatinine clearance and body weight gain on feeding APD compared to control healthy group. Feeding the functional foods produced amelioration in the different biochemical parameters and body weight gain indicating improvement in kidney function.
Keywords: Functional food, kidney dysfunction, rats.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23102535 Real-Time Recognition of the Terrain Configuration to Improve Driving Stability for Unmanned Robots
Authors: Bongsoo Jeon, Jayoung Kim, Jihong Lee
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Methods for measuring or estimating ground shape by a laser range finder and a vision sensor (Exteroceptive sensors) have critical weaknesses in terms that these methods need a prior database built to distinguish acquired data as unique surface conditions for driving. Also, ground information by Exteroceptive sensors does not reflect the deflection of ground surface caused by the movement of UGVs. Therefore, this paper proposes a method of recognizing exact and precise ground shape using an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) as a proprioceptive sensor. In this paper, firstly this method recognizes the attitude of a robot in real-time using IMU and compensates attitude data of a robot with angle errors through analysis of vehicle dynamics. This method is verified by outdoor driving experiments of a real mobile robot.
Keywords: Inertial Measurement Unit, Laser Range Finder, Real-time recognition of the ground shape.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16952534 De Broglie Wavelength Defined by the Rest Energy E0 and Its Velocity
Authors: K. Orozović, B. Balon
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In this paper, we take a different approach to de Broglie wavelength, as we relate it to relativistic physics. The quantum energy of the photon radiated by a body with de Broglie wavelength, as it moves with velocity v, can be defined within relativistic physics by rest energy E₀. In this way, we can show the connection between the quantum of radiation energy of the body and the rest of energy E₀ and thus combine what has been incompatible so far, namely relativistic and quantum physics. So, here we discuss the unification of relativistic and quantum physics by introducing the factor k that is analog to the Lorentz factor in Einstein's theory of relativity.
Keywords: de Brogli wavelength, relativistic physics, rest energy, quantum physics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12642533 Emergency Condition Discrimination for Single People Using a CO2 Sensor and Body Detectors
Authors: Taiyo Matsumura, Kota Funabashi, Nobumichi Sakai, Takashi Ono
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The purpose of this research is to construct a watching system that monitors human activity in a room and detects abnormalities at an early stage to prevent unattended deaths of people living alone. In this article, we propose a method whereby highly urgent abnormal conditions of a person are determined by changes in the concentration of CO2 generated from activity and respiration in a room. We also discussed the effects the amount of activity has on the determination. The results showed that this discrimination method is not dependent on the amount of activity and is effective in judging highly urgent abnormal conditions.
Keywords: Abnormal conditions, multiple sensors, people living alone, respiratory arrest, unattended death, watching system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8152532 Degraded Document Analysis and Extraction of Original Text Document: An Approach without Optical Character Recognition
Authors: L. Hamsaveni, Navya Prakash, Suresha
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Document Image Analysis recognizes text and graphics in documents acquired as images. An approach without Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for degraded document image analysis has been adopted in this paper. The technique involves document imaging methods such as Image Fusing and Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) Detection to identify and extract the degraded regions from a set of document images to obtain an original document with complete information. In case, degraded document image captured is skewed, it has to be straightened (deskew) to perform further process. A special format of image storing known as YCbCr is used as a tool to convert the Grayscale image to RGB image format. The presented algorithm is tested on various types of degraded documents such as printed documents, handwritten documents, old script documents and handwritten image sketches in documents. The purpose of this research is to obtain an original document for a given set of degraded documents of the same source.Keywords: Grayscale image format, image fusing, SURF detection, YCbCr image format.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11552531 Application of Kansei Engineering and Association Rules Mining in Product Design
Authors: Pitaktiratham J., Sinlan T., Anuntavoranich P., Sinthupinyo S.
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The Kansei engineering is a technology which converts human feelings into quantitative terms and helps designers develop new products that meet customers- expectation. Standard Kansei engineering procedure involves finding relationships between human feelings and design elements of which many researchers have found forward and backward relationship through various soft computing techniques. In this paper, we proposed the framework of Kansei engineering linking relationship not only between human feelings and design elements, but also the whole part of product, by constructing association rules. In this experiment, we obtain input from emotion score that subjects rate when they see the whole part of the product by applying semantic differentials. Then, association rules are constructed to discover the combination of design element which affects the human feeling. The results of our experiment suggest the pattern of relationship of design elements according to human feelings which can be derived from the whole part of product.Keywords: Association Rules Mining, Kansei Engineering, Product Design, Semantic Differentials
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25232530 Real-Time Testing of Steel Strip Welds based on Bayesian Decision Theory
Authors: Julio Molleda, Daniel F. García, Juan C. Granda, Francisco J. Suárez
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One of the main trouble in a steel strip manufacturing line is the breakage of whatever weld carried out between steel coils, that are used to produce the continuous strip to be processed. A weld breakage results in a several hours stop of the manufacturing line. In this process the damages caused by the breakage must be repaired. After the reparation and in order to go on with the production it will be necessary a restarting process of the line. For minimizing this problem, a human operator must inspect visually and manually each weld in order to avoid its breakage during the manufacturing process. The work presented in this paper is based on the Bayesian decision theory and it presents an approach to detect, on real-time, steel strip defective welds. This approach is based on quantifying the tradeoffs between various classification decisions using probability and the costs that accompany such decisions.Keywords: Classification, Pattern Recognition, ProbabilisticReasoning, Statistical Data Analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14102529 Numerical Study of Effects of Air Dam on the Flow Field and Pressure Distribution of a Passenger Car
Authors: Min Ye Koo, Ji Ho Ahn, Byung Il You, Gyo Woo Lee
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Everything that is attached to the outside of the vehicle to improve the driving performance of the vehicle by changing the flow characteristics of the surrounding air or to pursue the external personality is called a tuning part. Typical tuning components include front or rear air dam, also known as spoilers, splitter, and side air dam. Particularly, the front air dam prevents the airflow flowing into the lower portion of the vehicle and increases the amount of air flow to the side and front of the vehicle body, thereby reducing lift force generation that lifts the vehicle body, and thus, improving the steering and driving performance of the vehicle. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of anterior air dam in the flow around a sedan passenger car using computational fluid dynamics. The effects of flow velocity, trajectory of fluid particles on static pressure distribution and pressure distribution on body surface were investigated by varying flow velocity and size of air dam. As a result, it has been confirmed that the front air dam improves the flow characteristics, thereby reducing the generation of lift force of the vehicle, so it helps in steering and driving characteristics.
Keywords: Numerical study, computational fluid dynamics, air dam, tuning parts, drag, lift force.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16362528 Human Capital and the Innovation System – Case Study of the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
Authors: Maria E. Eggink
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Innovation plays an important role in economic growth and development. Evolutionary economics has entrepreneurs at the centre of the innovation system, but includes all other participants as contributors to the performance of the innovation system. Education and training institutions, one of the participants in the innovation system, contributes in different ways to human capital. The gap in literature on the competence building as part of human capital in the analysis of innovation systems is addressed in this paper. The Mpumalanga Province of South Africa is used as a case study. It was found that the absence of a university, the level of education, the quality and performance in the education sector and the condition of the education infrastructure have not been conducive to learning.
Keywords: Education institutions, human capital, innovation systems, Mpumalanga Province.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20332527 Human Elastin-derived Biomimetic Coating Surface to Support Cell Growth
Authors: Antonella Bandiera
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A new sythetic gene coding for a Human Elastin-Like Polypeptide was constructed and expressed. The recombinant product was tested as coating agent to realize a surface suitable for cell growth. Coatings showed peculiar features and different human cell lines were seeded and cultured. All cell lines tested showed to adhere and proliferate on this substrate that has been shown also to exert a specific effect on cells, depending on cell type.Keywords: elastin, recombinant protein, coating, cell adhesion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18292526 The Prostitute’s Body in Diasporic Space: Sexualized China and Chineseness in Yu Dafu’s Sinking and Yan Geling’s The Lost Daughter of Happiness
Authors: Haizhi Wu
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Sexualization brings together the interdependent experiences of prostitution and diaspora, establishing a masculine structure where a female’s body mediates the hegemony and sexuality of men from different races. Between eroticism and homesickness, writers of the Chinese diaspora develop sensual approaches to reflect on the diasporic experience and sexual frustration. Noticeably, Yu Dafu in Sinking and Yan Geling in The Lost Daughter of Happiness both take an interest in sexual encounters between an immature teen client and an erotically powerful prostitute in Japan or America, both countries considered colonizers in Chinese history. Both are utilizing the metaphor of body-space interplay to hint at the out-of-text transnational interactions, two writers, however, present distinct understandings of their bond with history and memory of the semi-colonial, semi-feudal China. Examining prostitutes’ bodies in multi-layer diasporic spaces, the central analysis of this paper works on the sexual, colonial, and historical representations of this bodily symbol and the prostitution’s engagement in negotiating with diaspora and “Chineseness”.
Keywords: Chineseness, Diasporic spaces, Prostitutes’s bodies, Sexualization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3732525 Investigating the Contemporary Architecture Education Challenges in India
Authors: Vriddhi Prasad
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The paper briefly outlines the nature of contemporary Architecture Education in India and its present challenges with theoretically feasible solutions. It explores in detail the arduous position of architecture education owing to, privatization of higher education institutes in India, every changing demand of the technology driven industry and discipline, along with regional and cultural resources that should be explored academically for the enrichment of graduates. With the government's education policy of supporting privatization, a comprehensive role for the regulating body of Architecture Education becomes imperative. The paper provides key insights through empirical research into the nature of these roles and the areas which need attention in light of the problems. With the aid of critically acclaimed education model like Design Build, contextual retrofits for Indian institutes can be stressed for inclusion in the curriculum. The pairing of a private institute and public industry/research body and vice versa can lead to pro-economic and pro-social research environment. These reforms if stressed by an autonomous nationwide regulating body rather than the state will lead to uniformity and flexibility of curriculum which promotes the creation of fresh graduates who are adaptable to the changing needs.
Keywords: Architecture education, building information modeling, design build, pedagogy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11112524 Adhesion Properties of Bifidobacterium Pseudocatenulatum G4 and Bifidobacterium Longum BB536 on HT-29 Human Epithelium Cell Line at Different Times and pH
Authors: Ali Q. S., Farid A. J., Kabeir B. M., Zamberi S., Shuhaimi M., Ghazali H. M., Yazid A. M.
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Adhesion to the human intestinal cell is considered as one of the main selection criteria of lactic acid bacteria for probiotic use. The adhesion ability of two Bifidobacteriums strains Bifidobacterium longum BB536 and Bifidobacterium psudocatenulatum G4 was done using HT-29 human epithelium cell line as in vitro study. Four different level of pH were used 5.6, 5.7, 6.6, and 6.8 with four different times 15, 30, 60, and 120 min. Adhesion was quantified by counting the adhering bacteria after Gram staining. The adhesion of B. longum BB536 was higher than B. psudocatenulatum G4. Both species showed significant different in the adhesion properties at the factors tested. The highest adhesion for both Bifidobacterium was observed at 120 min and the low adhesion was in 15 min. The findings of this study will contribute to the introduction of new effective probiotic strain for future utilization.Keywords: Bifidobacterium, Adhesion, HT-29 human epithelium cells.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18502523 Negative Selection as a Means of Discovering Unknown Temporal Patterns
Authors: Wanli Ma, Dat Tran, Dharmendra Sharma
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The temporal nature of negative selection is an under exploited area. In a negative selection system, newly generated antibodies go through a maturing phase, and the survivors of the phase then wait to be activated by the incoming antigens after certain number of matches. These without having enough matches will age and die, while these with enough matches (i.e., being activated) will become active detectors. A currently active detector may also age and die if it cannot find any match in a pre-defined (lengthy) period of time. Therefore, what matters in a negative selection system is the dynamics of the involved parties in the current time window, not the whole time duration, which may be up to eternity. This property has the potential to define the uniqueness of negative selection in comparison with the other approaches. On the other hand, a negative selection system is only trained with “normal" data samples. It has to learn and discover unknown “abnormal" data patterns on the fly by itself. Consequently, it is more appreciate to utilize negation selection as a system for pattern discovery and recognition rather than just pattern recognition. In this paper, we study the potential of using negative selection in discovering unknown temporal patterns.
Keywords: Artificial Immune Systems, ComputationalIntelligence, Negative Selection, Pattern Discovery.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16652522 Glorification Trap in Combating Human Trafficking in Indonesia: An Application of Three-Dimensional Model of Anti-Trafficking Policy
Authors: M. Kosandi, V. Susanti, N. I. Subono, E. Kartini
Abstract:
This paper discusses the risk of glorification trap in combating human trafficking, as it is shown in the case of Indonesia. Based on a research on Indonesian combat against trafficking in 2017-2018, this paper shows the tendency of misinterpretation and misapplication of the Indonesian anti-trafficking law into misusing the law for glorification, to create an image of certain extent of achievement in combating human trafficking. The objective of this paper is to explain the persistent occurrence of human trafficking crimes despite the significant progress of anti-trafficking efforts of Indonesian government. The research was conducted in 2017-2018 by qualitative approach through observation, depth interviews, discourse analysis, and document study, applying the three-dimensional model for analyzing human trafficking in the source country. This paper argues that the drive for glorification of achievement in the combat against trafficking has trapped Indonesian government in the loop of misinterpretation, misapplication, and misuse of the anti-trafficking law. In return, the so-called crime against humanity remains high and tends to increase in Indonesia.Keywords: Human trafficking, anti-trafficking policy, transnational crime, source country, glorification trap.
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