Search results for: primary measures of music audiation
1038 Applications of High-Order Compact Finite Difference Scheme to Nonlinear Goursat Problems
Authors: Mohd Agos Salim Nasir, Ahmad Izani Md. Ismail
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Several numerical schemes utilizing central difference approximations have been developed to solve the Goursat problem. However, in a recent years compact discretization methods which leads to high-order finite difference schemes have been used since it is capable of achieving better accuracy as well as preserving certain features of the equation e.g. linearity. The basic idea of the new scheme is to find the compact approximations to the derivative terms by differentiating centrally the governing equations. Our primary interest is to study the performance of the new scheme when applied to two Goursat partial differential equations against the traditional finite difference scheme.Keywords: Goursat problem, partial differential equation, finite difference scheme, compact finite difference
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19011037 An ANN-Based Predictive Model for Diagnosis and Forecasting of Hypertension
Authors: O. O. Obe, V. Balanica, E. Neagoe
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The effects of hypertension are often lethal thus its early detection and prevention is very important for everybody. In this paper, a neural network (NN) model was developed and trained based on a dataset of hypertension causative parameters in order to forecast the likelihood of occurrence of hypertension in patients. Our research goal was to analyze the potential of the presented NN to predict, for a period of time, the risk of hypertension or the risk of developing this disease for patients that are or not currently hypertensive. The results of the analysis for a given patient can support doctors in taking pro-active measures for averting the occurrence of hypertension such as recommendations regarding the patient behavior in order to lower his hypertension risk. Moreover, the paper envisages a set of three example scenarios in order to determine the age when the patient becomes hypertensive, i.e. determine the threshold for hypertensive age, to analyze what happens if the threshold hypertensive age is set to a certain age and the weight of the patient if being varied, and, to set the ideal weight for the patient and analyze what happens with the threshold of hypertensive age.
Keywords: Neural Network, hypertension, data set, training set, supervised learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16591036 Burst on Hurst Algorithm for Detecting Activity Patterns in Networks of Cortical Neurons
Authors: G. Stillo, L. Bonzano, M. Chiappalone, A. Vato, F. Davide, S. Martinoia
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Electrophysiological signals were recorded from primary cultures of dissociated rat cortical neurons coupled to Micro-Electrode Arrays (MEAs). The neuronal discharge patterns may change under varying physiological and pathological conditions. For this reason, we developed a new burst detection method able to identify bursts with peculiar features in different experimental conditions (i.e. spontaneous activity and under the effect of specific drugs). The main feature of our algorithm (i.e. Burst On Hurst), based on the auto-similarity or fractal property of the recorded signal, is the independence from the chosen spike detection method since it works directly on the raw data.
Keywords: Burst detection, cortical neuronal networks, Micro-Electrode Array (MEA), wavelets.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15571035 A New Biometric Human Identification Based On Fusion Fingerprints and Finger Veins Using monoLBP Descriptor
Authors: Alima Damak Masmoudi, Randa Boukhris Trabelsi, Dorra Sellami Masmoudi
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Single biometric modality recognition is not able to meet the high performance supplies in most cases with its application become more and more broadly. Multimodal biometrics identification represents an emerging trend recently. This paper investigates a novel algorithm based on fusion of both fingerprint and fingervein biometrics. For both biometric recognition, we employ the Monogenic Local Binary Pattern (MonoLBP). This operator integrate the orginal LBP (Local Binary Pattern ) with both other rotation invariant measures: local phase and local surface type. Experimental results confirm that a weighted sum based proposed fusion achieves excellent identification performances opposite unimodal biometric systems. The AUC of proposed approach based on combining the two modalities has very close to unity (0.93).
Keywords: fingerprint, fingervein, LBP, MonoLBP, fusion, biometric trait.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23891034 Impact of Crises on Official Statistics: A Case Study of Environmental Statistics at Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Ibtihaj Al-Siyabi
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The crisis of COVID-19 posed enormous challenges to the statistical providers. While official statistics were disrupted by the pandemic and related containment measures, there was a growing and pressing need for real-time data and statistics to inform decisions. This paper gives an account of the way the pandemic impacted the operations of the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in general in terms of data collection and methods used, and the main challenges encountered by them based on international surveys. It highlights the performance of the Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf, GCC-STAT, and its responsiveness to the pandemic placing special emphasis on environmental statistics. The paper concludes by confirming the GCC-STAT’s resilience and success in facing the challenges.
Keywords: NSO, COVID-19, pandemic, National Statistical Offices.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2241033 The Strategy for Increasing the Competitiveness of Georgia
Authors: G. Erkomaishvili
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The paper discusses economic policy of Georgia aiming to increase national competitiveness as well as the tools and means which will help to improve the competitiveness of the country. The sectors of the economy, in which the country can achieve the competitive advantage, are studied. It is noted that the country’s economic policy plays an important role in obtaining and maintaining the competitive advantage - authority should take measures to ensure high level of education; scientific and research activities should be funded by the state; foreign direct investments should be attracted mainly in science-intensive industries; adaptation with the latest scientific achievements of the modern world and deepening of scientific and technical cooperation. Stable business environment and export oriented strategy is the basis for the country’s economic growth. As the outcome of the research, the paper suggests the strategy for improving competitiveness in Georgia; recommendations are provided based on relevant conclusions.
Keywords: Competitive advantage, competitiveness, competitiveness improvement strategy, competitiveness of Georgia.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18921032 Anti-Money Laundering Requirements – Perceived Effectiveness
Authors: C. C. Huang, M. S. Amirrudin, N. A. Ahamad Noruddin, R. Othman
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Anti-money laundering is commonly recognized as a set of procedures, laws or regulations designed to reduce the practice of generating income through illegal actions. In Malaysia, the government and law enforcement agencies have stepped up their capacities and efforts to curb money laundering since 2001. One of these measures was the enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) in 2001. The implementation costs on anti-money laundering requirements (AMLR) can be burdensome to those who are involved in enforcing them. The objective of this paper is to explore the perceived effectiveness of AMLR from the enforcement agencies- perspective. This is a preliminary study whose findings will help to give direction for further AML research in Malaysia. In addition, the results of this study provide empirical evidences on the perceived effectiveness of AMLR prior to further investigations on barriers and improvements of the implementation of the anti-money laundering regime in Malaysia.Keywords: Anti-money laundering, anti-money laundering requirements, perceived effectiveness, enforcement agencies.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23901031 A Cooperative Weighted Discriminator Energy Detector Technique in Fading Environment
Authors: Muhammad R. Alrabeiah, Ibrahim S. Alnomay
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The need in cognitive radio system for a simple, fast, and independent technique to sense the spectrum occupancy has led to the energy detection approach. Energy detector is known by its dependency on noise variation in the system which is one of its major drawbacks. In this paper, we are aiming to improve its performance by utilizing a weighted collaborative spectrum sensing, it is similar to the collaborative spectrum sensing methods introduced previously in the literature. These weighting methods give more improvement for collaborative spectrum sensing as compared to no weighting case. There is two method proposed in this paper: the first one depends on the channel status between each sensor and the primary user while the second depends on the value of the energy measured in each sensor.
Keywords: Cognitive radio, Spectrum sensing, Collaborative sensors, Weighted Decisions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17301030 Single Input ANC for Suppression of Breath Sound
Authors: Yunjung Lee, Pil Un Kim, Gyhyoun Lee, Jin Ho Cho, Myoung Nam Kim
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Various sounds generated in the chest are included in auscultation sound. Adaptive Noise Canceller (ANC) is one of the useful techniques for biomedical signal. But the ANC is not suitable for auscultation sound. Because the ANC needs two input channels as a primary signal and a reference signals, but a stethoscope can provide just one input sound. Therefore, in this paper, it was proposed the Single Input ANC (SIANC) for suppression of breath sound in a cardiac auscultation sound. For the SIANC, it was proposed that the reference generation system which included Heart Sound Detector, Control and Reference Generator. By experiment and comparison, it was confirmed that the proposed SIANC was efficient for heart sound enhancement and it was independent of variations of a heartbeat.Keywords: Adaptive noise canceller, Auscultation, Breath soundsuppression, Signal enhancement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14641029 Assamese Numeral Corpus for Speech Recognition using Cooperative ANN Architecture
Authors: Mousmita Sarma, Krishna Dutta, Kandarpa Kumar Sarma
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Speech corpus is one of the major components in a Speech Processing System where one of the primary requirements is to recognize an input sample. The quality and details captured in speech corpus directly affects the precision of recognition. The current work proposes a platform for speech corpus generation using an adaptive LMS filter and LPC cepstrum, as a part of an ANN based Speech Recognition System which is exclusively designed to recognize isolated numerals of Assamese language- a major language in the North Eastern part of India. The work focuses on designing an optimal feature extraction block and a few ANN based cooperative architectures so that the performance of the Speech Recognition System can be improved.Keywords: Filter, Feature, LMS, LPC, Cepstrum, ANN.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23831028 Health Expenditure and its Place in Economy: The Case of Turkey
Authors: Ayşe Coban, Orhan Coban, Haldun Soydal, Sükrü Sürücü
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While health is a source of prosperity for individuals, it is also one of the most important determinants of economic growth for a country. Health, by increasing the productivity of labor, contributes to economic growth. Therefore, countries should give the necessary emphasis to health services. The primary aim of this study is to analyze the changes occurring in health services in Turkey by examining the developments in the sector. In this scope, the second aim of the study is to reveal the place of health expenditures in the Turkish economy. As a result of the analysis in the dataset, in which the 1999-2013 periods is considered, it was determined that some increase in health expenditures took place and that the increase in the share of health expenditures in GDP was too small. Furthermore, analysis of the results points out that in financing health expenditures, the public sector is prominent compared to the private sector.Keywords: Healthcare, health service, health expenditures, Turkey.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10121027 A Mixed Integer Linear Programming Model for Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem
Authors: Mohsen Ziaee
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In this paper, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is presented to solve the flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP). This problem is one of the hardest combinatorial problems. The objective considered is the minimization of the makespan. The computational results of the proposed MILP model were compared with those of the best known mathematical model in the literature in terms of the computational time. The results show that our model has better performance with respect to all the considered performance measures including relative percentage deviation (RPD) value, number of constraints, and total number of variables. By this improved mathematical model, larger FJS problems can be optimally solved in reasonable time, and therefore, the model would be a better tool for the performance evaluation of the approximation algorithms developed for the problem.Keywords: Scheduling, flexible job shop, makespan, mixed integer linear programming.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16851026 An Integrated Cognitive Performance Evaluation Framework for Urban Search and Rescue Applications
Authors: Antonio D. Lee, Steven X. Jiang
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A variety of techniques and methods are available to evaluate cognitive performance in Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) applications. However, traditional cognitive performance evaluation techniques typically incorporate either the conscious or systematic aspect, failing to take into consideration the subconscious or intuitive aspect. This leads to incomplete measures and produces ineffective designs. In order to fill the gaps in past research, this study developed a theoretical framework to facilitate the integration of situation awareness (SA) and intuitive pattern recognition (IPR) to enhance the cognitive performance representation in USAR applications. This framework provides guidance to integrate both SA and IPR in order to evaluate the cognitive performance of the USAR responders. The application of this framework will help improve the system design.Keywords: Cognitive performance, intuitive pattern recognition, situation awareness, urban search and rescue.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14941025 Hepatitis B Virus Infection among Egyptian Children Vaccinated during Infancy
Authors: Iman I. Salama, Samia M. Sami, Somaia I. Salama, Zeinab N. Said, Thanaa M. Rabah, Aida M. Abdel-Mohsin
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This is a national community based project to evaluate effectiveness of HBV vaccination program in prevention of infection. HBV markers were tested in the sera of 3600 vaccinated children. Infected children were followed up for 1 year. Prevalence of HBV infection was 0.39 % (0.28% positive for anti-HBc, 0.03% positive for HBsAg and 0.08% positive for both). One year later, 50% of positive anti-HBc children turned negative with sustained positivity for positive HBsAg cases. HBV infection was significantly higher at age above 9 years (0.6%) compared to 0.2% at age 3-9 years and 0% at younger age (P<0.05). Logistic analysis revealed that predictors for HBV infection were history of blood transfusion, regular medical injection, and family history of either HBV infection or drug abuse (adjusted odds ratios 6.2, 5.6, 7.6 & 19.1 respectively). HBV vaccination program produced adequate protection. Adherence to infection control measures and safe blood transfusion are recommended.
Keywords: Children, Egypt, HBV Infection, HBV Vaccine.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27211024 Implementation of a Virtual Testbed for Secure IoT Firmware Update Using Blockchain
Authors: Tarun Chand, Michael Jurczyk
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With the increasing need and popularity of IoT devices and how integrated they are becoming in our daily lives and industries; these devices make for a very lucrative target for malicious actors. And since these devices have such limited resources, the implementation of robust security features is a tradeoff to be made for the actual functionality the device was intended for. This makes them an easy target with high returns. Several frameworks for the secure firmware update of these devices have been recently proposed in the literature. They focus on methods such as blockchains and distributed file systems to secure firmware updates, but do not go into the details of the actual implementation of these frameworks and the lower-level interactions among these methods used. This work integrates some of these security measures into one overall framework and details the actual lower-level implementation of this framework in a virtual dockerized testbed running on AWS.
Keywords: Blockchain, Ethereum, Geth, IPFS, secure IoT-firmware update, virtual testbed development
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 681023 Use of Smartphones in 6th and 7th Grade (Elementary Schools) in Istria: Pilot Study
Authors: Maja Ruzic-Baf, Vedrana Keteles, Andrea Debeljuh
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Younger and younger children are now using a smartphone, a device which has become ‘a must have’ and the life of children would be almost ‘unthinkable’ without one. Devices are becoming lighter and lighter but offering an array of options and applications as well as the unavoidable access to the Internet, without which it would be almost unusable. Numerous features such as taking of photographs, listening to music, information search on the Internet, access to social networks, usage of some of the chatting and messaging services, are only some of the numerous features offered by ‘smart’ devices. They have replaced the alarm clock, home phone, camera, tablet and other devices. Their use and possession have become a part of the everyday image of young people. Apart from the positive aspects, the use of smartphones has also some downsides. For instance, free time was usually spent in nature, playing, doing sports or other activities enabling children an adequate psychophysiological growth and development. The greater usage of smartphones during classes to check statuses on social networks, message your friends, play online games, are just some of the possible negative aspects of their application. Considering that the age of the population using smartphones is decreasing and that smartphones are no longer ‘foreign’ to children of pre-school age (smartphones are used at home or in coffee shops or shopping centers while waiting for their parents, playing video games often inappropriate to their age), particular attention must be paid to a very sensitive group, the teenagers who almost never separate from their ‘pets’. This paper is divided into two sections, theoretical and empirical ones. The theoretical section gives an overview of the pros and cons of the usage of smartphones, while the empirical section presents the results of a research conducted in three elementary schools regarding the usage of smartphones and, specifically, their usage during classes, during breaks and to search information on the Internet, check status updates and 'likes’ on the Facebook social network.
Keywords: Education, smartphone, social networks, teenagers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15211022 FEM Analysis of the Interaction between a Piezoresistive Tactile Sensor and Biological Tissues
Authors: Ahmad Atieh, Masoud Kalantari, Roozbeh Ahmadi, Javad Dargahi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Mehrdad Hosseini Zadeh
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The present paper presents a finite element model and analysis for the interaction between a piezoresistive tactile sensor and biological tissues. The tactile sensor is proposed for use in minimally invasive surgery to deliver tactile information of biological tissues to surgeons. The proposed sensor measures the relative hardness of soft contact objects as well as the contact force. Silicone rubbers were used as the phantom of biological tissues. Finite element analysis of the silicone rubbers and the mechanical structure of the sensor were performed using COMSOL Multiphysics (v3.4) environment. The simulation results verify the capability of the sensor to be used to differentiate between different kinds of silicone rubber materials.Keywords: finite element analysis, minimally invasive surgery, Neo-Hookean hyperelastic materials, tactile sensor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27611021 Protecting Elephants from Poaching: Case Study of the Application of GIS for Elephants Conservation in Amboseli National Park in Kenya
Authors: Ahmed A. Hassan, Al-Ramadan Baqer
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Kenya Amboseli National Park hosts the largest elephant’s population in the country, protected and managed by the government under the Kenya Wildlife Service. The park has been experiencing highly organized poaching, in terms of both total elephant deaths and the level of sophistication employed by the poachers. The main objective of this study is to use GIS to map the entire park properly. GIS map of the park was produced including all leading roads, neighboring land use, main gates and water points with geographic co-ordinates well documented. The result obtained indicates the three main gates and the airport as the hotspot points that the tusks can be ferried out of the park. Therefore, this study recommends the government to put strong security measures on these areas. These procedures can lower the poaching threat and assist the game warders properly manage the endangered species.Keywords: Elephants, GIS, poaching, Amboseli National Park.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19051020 Performance Evaluation of an Efficient Asynchronous Protocol for WDM Ring MANs
Authors: Peristera A. Baziana
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The idea of the asynchronous transmission in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) ring MANs is studied in this paper. Especially, we present an efficient access technique to coordinate the collisions-free transmission of the variable sizes of IP traffic in WDM ring core networks. Each node is equipped with a tunable transmitter and a tunable receiver. In this way, all the wavelengths are exploited for both transmission and reception. In order to evaluate the performance measures of average throughput, queuing delay and packet dropping probability at the buffers, a simulation model that assumes symmetric access rights among the nodes is developed based on Poisson statistics. Extensive numerical results show that the proposed protocol achieves apart from high bandwidth exploitation for a wide range of offered load, fairness of queuing delay and dropping events among the different packets size categories.
Keywords: Asynchronous transmission, collision avoidance, wavelength division multiplexing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20921019 Prediction of Cardiovascular Disease by Applying Feature Extraction
Authors: Nebi Gedik
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Heart disease threatens the lives of a great number of people every year around the world. Heart issues lead to many of all deaths; therefore, early diagnosis and treatment are critical. The diagnosis of heart disease is complicated due to several factors affecting health such as high blood pressure, raised cholesterol, an irregular pulse rhythm, and more. Artificial intelligence has the potential to assist in the early detection and treatment of diseases. Improving heart failure prediction is one of the primary goals of research on heart disease risk assessment. This study aims to determine the features that provide the most successful classification prediction in detecting cardiovascular disease. The performances of each feature are compared using the K-Nearest Neighbor machine learning method. The feature that gives the most successful performance has been identified.
Keywords: Cardiovascular disease, feature extraction, supervised learning, k-NN.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1321018 Using Interval Constrained Petri Nets and Fuzzy Method for Regulation of Quality: The Case of Weight in Tobacco Factory
Authors: Nabli L., Dhouibi H., Collart Dutilleul S., Craye E.
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The existence of maximal durations drastically modifies the performance evaluation in Discrete Event Systems (DES). The same particularity may be found on systems where the associated constraints do not concern the time. For example weight measures, in chemical industry, are used in order to control the quantity of consumed raw materials. This parameter also takes a fundamental part in the product quality as the correct transformation process is based upon a given percentage of each essence. Weight regulation therefore increases the global productivity of the system by decreasing the quantity of rejected products. In this paper we present an approach based on mixing different characteristics theories, the fuzzy system and Petri net system to describe the behaviour. An industriel application on a tobacco manufacturing plant, where the critical parameter is the weight is presented as an illustration.
Keywords: Petri Net, Manufacturing systems, Performance evaluation, Fuzzy logic, Tolerant system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19251017 Image Processing Using Color and Object Information for Wireless Capsule Endoscopy
Authors: Jin-Hee Park, Yong-Gyu Lee, Gilwon Yoon
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Wireless capsule endoscopy provides real-time images in the digestive tract. Capsule images are usually low resolution and are diverse images due to travel through various regions of human body. Color information has been a primary reference in predicting abnormalities such as bleeding. Often color is not sufficient for this purpose. In this study, we took morphological shapes into account as additional, but important criterion. First, we processed gastric images in order to indentify various objects in the image. Then, we analyzed color information in the object. In this way, we could remove unnecessary information and increase the accuracy. Compared to our previous investigations, we could handle images of various degrees of brightness and improve our diagnostic algorithm.
Keywords: Capsule Endoscopy, HSV model, Image processing, Object Identification, Color Separation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20521016 An Empirical Investigation of Big Data Analytics: The Financial Performance of Users versus Vendors
Authors: Evisa Mitrou, Nicholas Tsitsianis, Supriya Shinde
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In the age of digitisation and globalisation, businesses have shifted online and are investing in big data analytics (BDA) to respond to changing market conditions and sustain their performance. Our study shifts the focus from the adoption of BDA to the impact of BDA on financial performance. We explore the financial performance of both BDA-vendors (business-to-business) and BDA-clients (business-to-customer). We distinguish between the five BDA-technologies (big-data-as-a-service (BDaaS), descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics) and discuss them individually. Further, we use four perspectives (internal business process, learning and growth, customer, and finance) and discuss the significance of how each of the five BDA-technologies affect the performance measures of these four perspectives. We also present the analysis of employee engagement, average turnover, average net income, and average net assets for BDA-clients and BDA-vendors. Our study also explores the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on business continuity for both BDA-vendors and BDA-clients.
Keywords: BDA-clients, BDA-vendors, big data analytics, financial performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6111015 Does Training in the Use of a Magnifier Improve Efficiency?
Authors: Norliza Mohamad Fadzil, Kerry Fitzmaurice, Linda Malesic
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Provision of optical devices without proper instruction and training may cause frustration resulting in rejection or incorrect use of the magnifiers. However training in the use of magnifiers increases the cost of providing these devices. This study compared the efficacy of providing instruction alone and instruction plus training in the use of magnifiers. 24 participants randomly assigned to two groups. 15 received instruction and training and 9 received instruction only. Repeated measures of print size and reading speed were performed at pre, post training and follow up. Print size decreased in both groups between pre and post training maintained at follow up. Reading speed increased in both groups over time with the training group demonstrating more rapid improvement. Whilst overall outcomes were similar, training decreased the time required to increase reading speed supporting the use of training for increased efficiency. A cost effective form of training is suggested.Keywords: Low vision, magnification, training, reading.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14131014 Mixed Frequency Excitation of an Electrostatically Actuated Resonator
Authors: Mixed Frequency Excitation of an Electrostatically Actuated Resonator
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We investigate experimentally and theoretically the dynamics of a capacitive resonator under mixed frequency excitation of two AC harmonic signals. The resonator is composed of a proof mass suspended by two cantilever beams. Experimental measurements are conducted using a laser Doppler Vibrometer to reveal the interesting dynamics of the system when subjected to twosource excitation. A nonlinear single-degree-of-freedom model is used for the theoretical investigation. The results reveal combination resonances of additive and subtractive type, which are shown to be promising to increase the bandwidth of the resonator near primary resonance frequency. Our results also demonstrate the ability to shift the combination resonances to much lower or much higher frequency ranges. We also demonstrate the dynamic pull-in instability under mixed frequency excitation.Keywords: Nonlinear electrostatically actuated resonator.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16181013 User Acceptance of Location-based Services
Authors: Neven Vrček, Goran Bubaš, Neven Bosilj
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Location-based services (LBS) exploit the known location of a user to provide services dependent on their geographic context and personalized needs [1]. The development and arrival of broadband mobile data networks supported with mobile terminals equipped with new location technologies like GPS have finally created opportunities for implementation of LBS applications. But, from the other side, collecting location information data in general raises privacy concerns. This paper presents results from two surveys of LBS acceptance in Croatia. The first survey was administered on 181 students, and the second extended survey involved pattern of 180 Croatian citizens. We developed questionnaire which consists of descriptions of 15 different applications with scale which measures perceptions and attitudes of users towards these applications. We report the results to identify potential commercial applications for LBS in B2C segment. Our findings suggest that some types of applications like emergency&safety services and navigation have significantly higher rate of acceptance than other types.Keywords: Acceptance, location-based services, m-application.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19641012 Simple Procedure for Probability Calculation of Tensile Crack Occurring in Rigid Pavement – Case Study
Authors: Aleš Florian, Lenka Ševelová, Jaroslav Žák
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Formation of tensile cracks in concrete slabs of rigid pavement can be (among others) the initiation point of the other, more serious failures which can ultimately lead to complete degradation of the concrete slab and thus the whole pavement. Two measures can be used for reliability assessment of this phenomenon - the probability of failure and/or the reliability index. Different methods can be used for their calculation. The simple ones are called moment methods and simulation techniques. Two methods - FOSM Method and Simple Random Sampling Method - are verified and their comparison is performed. The influence of information about the probability distribution and the statistical parameters of input variables as well as of the limit state function on the calculated reliability index and failure probability are studied in three points on the lower surface of concrete slabs of the older type of rigid pavement formerly used in the Czech Republic.
Keywords: Failure, pavement, probability, reliability index, simulation, tensile crack.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23041011 Color Shift of Printing with Hybrid Halftone Images for Overlay Misalignment
Authors: Xu Guoliang, Tan Qingping
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Color printing proceeds with multiple halftone separations overlay. Because of separation overlay misalignment in printing, the percentage of different primary color combination may vary and it will result in color shift. In traditional printing procedure with AM halftone, every separation has different screening angle to make the superposition pattern in a random style, which will reduce the color shift. To evaluate the color shift of printing with hybrid halftoning, we simulate printing procedure with halftone images overlay and calculate the color difference between expected color and color in different overlay misalignment configurations. The color difference for hybrid halftone and AM halftone is very close. So the color shift for hybrid halftone is acceptable with current color printing procedure.Keywords: color printing, AM halftone, Hybrid halftone, misalignment, color shift, Neugebauer Color Equation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16861010 Owner/Managers’ External Financing Used and Preference towards Islamic Banking
Authors: Khalid Hassan Abdesamed, Kalsom Abd Wahab
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Economic development and growth are significantly linked to the consistent and sustainable sector of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Banks are the frontrunners in financing and advising SMEs. The main objective of the study is to assess the tendency of SMEs to use the Islamic bank. Model was developed using quantitative method with a hypothetical-deductive testing approach. Model (N = 364) used primary data on the tendency of SMEs to use Islamic banks gathered from questionnaire. It is found by Mann-Whitney test that the tendency to use Islamic bank varies between those firms which consider formal financing with the ones relying on informal financing with the latter tends more to use Islamic bank. This study can serve academic researchers, policy makers, and developing countries as a model of SMEs’ desirability to Islamic banking.Keywords: Formal financing, informal financing, Islamic bank, SMEs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16651009 Aggressive Interactions in Hospital Emergency Units
Authors: C. Blatier, M. El Methni, F. Carpentier, S. Abdellaoui, C. Kock, M. Maillard
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International literature emphasizes on the concern regarding the phenomenon of aggression in hospital. This paper focuses on the reality of aggressive interactions reigning within an emergency triage involving three chaps of protagonists: the professionals, the patients and their carers. The data collection was made from a grid of observation, in which the various variables exposed in the literature were integrated. They observations took place around the clock, for three weeks, at the rate of one week a month. In this research 331 aggressive interactions have been listed and analyzed by means of the software SPSS. This research is one of the very few continuous observation surveys in the literature. It shows the various human factors at play in the emergence of aggressive interaction. The data may be used both for taking steps in primary prevention, thanks to the analysis of interaction modes, and in secondary prevention by integrating the useful results in situational prevention.
Keywords: Aggressive interaction, emergency unit, observational study.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1999