Search results for: Spatial Decision Support System

Authors: Alessio Plebe

Abstract:

One astonishing capability of humans is to recognize thousands of different objects visually, and to learn the semantic association between those objects and words referring to them. This work is an attempt to build a computational model of such capacity,simulating the process by which infants learn how to recognize objects and words through exposure to visual stimuli and vocal sounds.One of the main fact shaping the brain of a newborn is that lights and colors come from entities of the world. Gradually the visual system learn which light sensations belong to same entities, despite large changes in appearance. This experience is common between humans and several other mammals, like non-human primates. But humans only can recognize a huge variety of objects, most manufactured by himself, and make use of sounds to identify and categorize them. The aim of this model is to reproduce these processes in a biologically plausible way, by reconstructing the essential hierarchy of cortical circuits on the visual and auditory neural paths.

Keywords: Auditory cortex, object recognition, self-organizingmaps

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Authors: F. Matusek, G. Pujolle, R. Reda

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Shadow detection is still considered as one of the potential challenges for intelligent automated video surveillance systems. A pre requisite for reliable and accurate detection and tracking is the correct shadow detection and classification. In such a landscape of conditions, privacy issues add more and more complexity and require reliable shadow detection. In this work the intertwining between security, accuracy, reliability and privacy is analyzed and, accordingly, a novel architecture for Privacy Enhancing Video Surveillance (PEVS) is introduced. Shadow detection and masking are dealt with through the combination of two different approaches simultaneously. This results in a unique privacy enhancement, without affecting security. Subsequently, the methodology was employed successfully in a large-scale wireless video surveillance system; privacy relevant information was stored and encrypted on the unit, without transferring it over an un-trusted network.

Keywords: Video Surveillance, Intelligent Video Surveillance, Physical Security, WSSU, Privacy, Shadow Detection.

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Authors: M. Nazmunnahar, J. J. Del Val, A. Vimmrova, J. González

Abstract:

We report the microstructural and magnetic properties of Ni50Mn39Sn11 and Ni50Mn36Sn14 ribbon Heusler alloys. Experimental results were obtained by differential scanning calorymetry, X-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry techniques. The Ni-Mn-Sn system undergoes a martensitic structural transformation in a wide temperature range. For example, for Ni50Mn39Sn11 the start and finish temperatures of the martensitic and austenite phase transformation for ribbon alloy were Ms=336K, Mf=328K, As=335K and Af=343K whereas no structural transformation is observed for Ni50Mn36Sn14 alloys. Magnetic measurements show the typical ferromagnetic behavior with Curie temperature 207 K at low applied field of 50 Oe. The complex behavior exhibited by these Heusler alloys should be ascribed to the strong coupling between magnetism and structure, being their magnetic behavior determined by the distance between Mn atoms.

Keywords: Structural transformation, as-cast ribbon, Heusler alloys, Magnetic properties.

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Authors: Despina Galani, Efthymios Gravas, Antonios Stavropoulos

Abstract:

Advances in information technology, recent changes in business environment, globalization, deregulation, privatization have made running a successful business more difficult than ever before. To remain successful and to be competitive have forced companies to react to the new changes in order to survive and succeed. The implementation of an Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) system improves information flow, reduce costs, establish linkage with suppliers and reduce response time to customer needs. This paper focuses on a sample of Greek companies, investigates the ERP market in Greece, the reasons why the Greek companies are investing in ERP systems, the benefits that users have achieved and the influence of ERP systems on the use of new accounting practices. The results indicate a greater level on information integration, flexibility in information access and greater functionality provided by ERP systems but little influence on the use of new accounting practices.

Keywords: Advanced Accounting Practices, EnterpriseResource Planning, Management Accounting.

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Authors: Rafal Maciag

Abstract:

Due to the development of the current civilization, one must create suitable models of its pervasive massive phenomena. Such a phenomenon is the digital transformation, which has a substantial number of disciplined, methodical interpretations forming the diversified reflection. This reflection could be understood pragmatically as the current temporal, a local differential state of knowledge. The model of the discursive space is proposed as a model for the analysis and description of this knowledge. Discursive space is understood as an autonomous multidimensional space where separate discourses traverse specific trajectories of what can be presented in multidimensional parallel coordinate system. Discursive space built on the world of facts preserves the complex character of that world. Digital transformation as a discursive space has a relativistic character that means that at the same time, it is created by the dynamic discourses and these discourses are molded by the shape of this space.

Keywords: Knowledge, digital transformation, discourse, discursive space, complexity.

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Authors: Mustafa Abdalla, Khaled A. Madi, Rajab Farhat

Abstract:

An array antenna system with innovative signal processing can improve the resolution of a source direction of arrival (DoA) estimation. High resolution techniques take the advantage of array antenna structures to better process the incoming waves. They also have the capability to identify the direction of multiple targets. This paper investigates performance of the DOA estimation algorithm namely; Capon and MUSIC on the uniform linear array (ULA). The simulation results show that in Capon and MUSIC algorithm the resolution of the DOA techniques improves as number of snapshots, number of array elements, signal-to-noise ratio and separation angle between the two sources θ increases.

Keywords: Antenna array, Capon, MUSIC, Direction-of-arrival estimation, signal processing, uniform linear arrays.

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Authors: Hendry Muljadi, Hideaki Takeda, Koichi Ando

Abstract:

A manufacturing feature can be defined simply as a geometric shape and its manufacturing information to create the shape. In a feature-based process planning system, feature library that consists of pre-defined manufacturing features and the manufacturing information to create the shape of the features, plays an important role in the extraction of manufacturing features with their proper manufacturing information. However, to manage the manufacturing information flexibly, it is important to build a feature library that can be easily modified. In this paper, the implementation of Semantic Wiki for the development of the feature library is proposed.

Keywords: Manufacturing feature, feature library, feature ontology, process planning, Wiki, MediaWiki, Semantic Wiki.

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Authors: M. Ovinis, D. Kerr, K. Bouazza-Marouf, M. Vloeberghs

Abstract:

The use of machine vision to inspect the outcome of surgical tasks is investigated, with the aim of incorporating this approach in robotic surgery systems. Machine vision is a non-contact form of inspection i.e. no part of the vision system is in direct contact with the patient, and is therefore well suited for surgery where sterility is an important consideration,. As a proof-of-concept, three primary surgical tasks for a common neurosurgical procedure were inspected using machine vision. Experiments were performed on cadaveric pig heads to simulate the two possible outcomes i.e. satisfactory or unsatisfactory, for tasks involved in making a burr hole, namely incision, retraction, and drilling. We identify low level image features to distinguish the two outcomes, as well as report on results that validate our proposed approach. The potential of using machine vision in a surgical environment, and the challenges that must be addressed, are identified and discussed.

Keywords: Visual inspection, machine vision, robotic surgery.

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Authors: Norah Almubairik, Wadha Almattar, Amani Alqarni

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Social media applications are increasingly being used in our everyday communications. These applications utilise end-to-end encryption mechanisms which make them suitable tools for criminals to exchange messages. These messages are preserved in the volatile memory until the device is restarted. Therefore, volatile forensics has become an important branch of digital forensics. In this study, the WormHex tool was developed to inspect the memory dump files for Windows and Mac based workstations. The tool supports digital investigators by enabling them to extract valuable data written in Arabic and English through web-based WhatsApp and Twitter applications. The results confirm that social media applications write their data into the memory, regardless of the operating system running the application, with there being no major differences between Windows and Mac.

Keywords: Volatile memory, REGEX, digital forensics, memory acquisition

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Authors: Avinesh Prasad, Bibhya Sharma, Jito Vanualailai

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In this paper, we propose a solution to the motion control problem of a 2-link revolute manipulator arm. We require the end-effector of the arm to move safely to its designated target in a priori known workspace cluttered with fixed circular obstacles of arbitrary position and sizes. Firstly a unique velocity algorithm is used to move the end-effector to its target. Secondly, for obstacle avoidance a turning angle is designed, which when incorporated into the control laws ensures that the entire robot arm avoids any number of fixed obstacles along its path enroute the target. The control laws proposed in this paper also ensure that the equilibrium point of the system is asymptotically stable. Computer simulations of the proposed technique are presented.

Keywords: 2-link revolute manipulator, motion control, obstacle avoidance, asymptotic stability.

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Authors: Dangjun Zhao, Yongji Wang, Lei Liu

Abstract:

Based on general proportional integral (GPI) observers and sliding mode control technique, a robust control method is proposed for the master-slave synchronization of chaotic systems in the presence of parameter uncertainty and with partially measurable output signal. By using GPI observer, the master dynamics are reconstructed by the observations from a measurable output under the differential algebraic framework. Driven by the signals provided by GPI observer, a sliding mode control technique is used for the tracking control and synchronization of the master-slave dynamics. The convincing numerical results reveal the proposed method is effective, and successfully accommodate the system uncertainties, disturbances, and noisy corruptions.

Keywords: GPI observer, sliding mode control, master-slave synchronization, chaotic systems.

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Authors: Elham Rastegari, Amirmasood Rahmani, Saeed Setayeshi

Abstract:

The hospital and the health-care center of a community, as a place for people-s life-care and health-care settings, must provide more and better services for patients or residents. After Establishing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system -which is a necessity- in the hospital, providing pervasive services is a further step. Our objective in this paper is to use pervasive computing in a case study of healthcare, based on EMR database that coordinates application services over network to form a service environment for medical and health-care. Our method also categorizes the hospital spaces into 3 spaces: Public spaces, Private spaces and Isolated spaces. Although, there are many projects about using pervasive computing in healthcare, but all of them concentrate on the disease recognition, designing smart cloths, or provide services only for patient. The proposed method is implemented in a hospital. The obtained results show that it is suitable for our purpose.

Keywords: Pervasive computing, RFID, Health-care.

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Authors: Ana Cristina García-Luna Romero

Abstract:

This document seeks to reflect on the urban project from its conceptual identity root. In the first instance, a proposal is made on how the city project is sustained from the conceptual root, from the logos: it opens a way to assimilate the imagination; what we imagine becomes a reality. In this way, firstly, the need to use language as a vehicle for transmitting the stories that sustain us as humanity can be deemed as an important social factor that enables us to social behavior. Secondly, the need to attend to the written language as a mechanism of power, as a means to consolidate a dominant ideology or a political position, is raised; as it served to carry out the modernization project, it is therefore addressed differences between the real and the literate city. Thus, the consolidated urban-architectural project is based on logos, the project, and planning. Considering the importance of materiality and its relation to subjective well-being contextualized from a socio-urban approach, we question ourselves into how we can look at something that is doubtful. From a philosophy perspective, the truth is considered to be nothing more than a matter of correspondence between the observer and the observed. To understand beyond the relative of the gaze, it is necessary to expose different perspectives since it depends on the understanding of what is observed and how it is critically analyzed. Therefore, the analysis of materiality, as a political field, takes a proposal based on this research in the principles in transgenesis: principle of communication, representativeness, security, health, malleability, availability of potentiality or development, conservation, sustainability, economy, harmony, stability, accessibility, justice, legibility, significance, consistency, joint responsibility, connectivity, beauty, among others. The (urban) human being acts because he wants to live in a certain way: in a community, in a fair way, with opportunity for development, with the possibility of managing the environment according to their needs, etc. In order to comply with this principle, it is necessary to design strategies from the principles in transgenesis, which must be named, defined, understood, and socialized by the urban being, the companies, and from themselves. In this way, the technical status of the city in the neoliberal present determines extraordinary conditions for reflecting on an almost emergency scenario created by the impact of cities that, far from being limited to resilient proposals, must aim at the reflection of the urban process that the present social model has generated. Therefore, can we rethink the paradigm of the perception of life quality in the current neoliberal model in the production of the character of public space related to the practices of being urban. What we are trying to do within this document is to build a framework to study under what logic the practices of the social system that make sense of the public space are developed, what the implications of the phenomena of the inscription of action and materialization (and its results over political action between the social and the technical system) are and finally, how we can improve the quality of life of individuals from the urban space.

Keywords: Cities, nature, society, urban quality of life.

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Authors: Benjawan Saengwichian, Alasdair E. Charles, Philip J. Hyde

Abstract:

Magnetically controlled growing rods (MCGRs) have been used to stabilise and correct spinal curvature in children to support non-invasive scoliosis adjustment. Although the encapsulated driving components are intended to be isolated from body fluid contact, in vivo corrosion was observed on these components due to sealing mechanism damage. Consequently, a corrosion circuit is created with the body fluids, resulting in malfunction of the lengthening mechanism. Particularly, the chloride ions in blood plasma or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) may corrode the MCGR alloys, possibly resulting in metal ion release in long-term use. However, there is no data available on the corrosion resistance of spinal implant alloys in CSF. In this study, an in vitro immersion configuration was designed to simulate in vivo corrosion of 440C SS-Ti6Al4V couples. The 440C stainless steel (SS) was heat-treated to investigate the effect of tempering temperature on intergranular corrosion (IGC), while crevice and galvanic corrosion were studied by limiting the clearance of dissimilar couples. Tests were carried out in a neutral artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF) and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) under aeration and deaeration for 2 months. The composition of the passive films and metal ion release were analysed. The effect of galvanic coupling, pH, dissolved oxygen and anion species on corrosion rates and corrosion mechanisms are discussed based on quantitative and qualitative measurements. The results suggest that ACSF is more aggressive than PBS due to the combination of aggressive chlorides and sulphate anions, while phosphate in PBS acts as an inhibitor to delay corrosion. The presence of Vivianite on the SS surface in PBS lowered the corrosion rate (CR) more than 5 times for aeration and nearly 2 times for deaeration, compared with ACSF. The CR of 440C is dependent on passive film properties varied by tempering temperature and anion species. Although the CR of Ti6Al4V is insignificant, it tends to release more Ti ions in deaerated ACSF than under aeration, about 6 µg/L. It seems the crevice-like design has more effect on macroscopic corrosion than combining the dissimilar couple, whereas IGC is dominantly observed on sensitized microstructure.

Keywords: Cerebrospinal fluid, crevice corrosion, intergranular corrosion, magnetically controlled growing rods.

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Authors: L. Sellami, D. Idoughi, P. F. Tiako

Abstract:

Cloud computing provides infrastructure to the enterprise through the Internet allowing access to cloud services at anytime and anywhere. This pervasive aspect of the services, the distributed nature of data and the wide use of information make cloud computing vulnerable to intrusions that violate the security of the cloud. This requires the use of security mechanisms to detect malicious behavior in network communications and hosts such as intrusion detection systems (IDS). In this article, we focus on the detection of intrusion into the cloud sing IDSs. We base ourselves on client authentication in the computing cloud. This technique allows to detect the abnormal use of ubiquitous service and prevents the intrusion of cloud computing. This is an approach based on client authentication data. Our IDS provides intrusion detection inside and outside cloud computing network. It is a double protection approach: The security user node and the global security cloud computing.

Keywords: Cloud computing, intrusion detection system, privacy, trust.

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Authors: Yang Li, Xiaorong Guan, Cheng Xu

Abstract:

In order to design a suitable control scheme for human extremity exoskeleton, the interaction force control scheme with traditional PI controller was presented, and the simulation study of the electromechanical system of the human extremity exoskeleton was carried out by using a MATLAB/Simulink module. By analyzing the simulation calculation results, it was shown that the traditional PI controller is not very suitable for every movement speed of human body. So, at last the fuzzy self-adaptive PI controller was presented to solve this problem. Eventually, the superiority and feasibility of the fuzzy self-adaptive PI controller was proved by the simulation results and experimental results.

Keywords: Human extremity exoskeleton, interaction force control scheme, simulation study, fuzzy self-adaptive pi controller, man-machine coordinated walking, bear payload.

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Authors: A. Mohammadi Torkashvand, N. Haghighat

Abstract:

Some methodologies were compared in providing erosion maps of surface, rill and gully and erosion features, in research which took place in the Varamin sub-basin, north-east Tehran, Iran. A photomorphic unit map was produced from processed satellite images, and four other maps were prepared by the integration of different data layers, including slope, plant cover, geology, land use, rocks erodibility and land units. Comparison of ground truth maps of erosion types and working unit maps indicated that the integration of land use, land units and rocks erodibility layers with satellite image photomorphic units maps provide the best methods in producing erosion types maps.

Keywords: Erosion Features, Geographic Information System, Remote Sensing.

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Authors: Jung-Woon Lee, Jung-Taek Kim, Jae-Chang Park, In-Koo Hwang, Sung-Pil Lyu

Abstract:

Computerized alarm systems have been applied increasingly to nuclear power plants. For existing plants, an add-on computer alarm system is often installed to the control rooms. Alarm avalanches during the plant transients are major problems with the alarm systems in nuclear power plants. Computerized alarm systems can process alarms to reduce the number of alarms during the plant transients. This paper describes various alarm processing methods, an alarm cause tracking function, and various alarm presentation schemes to show alarm information to the operators effectively which are considered during the development of several computerized alarm systems for Korean nuclear power plants and are found to be helpful to the operators.

Keywords: Alarm processing, Alarm presentation, Alarm causetracking, Alarm logic diagram computerization, Alarm patternrecognition.

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Authors: Lynn. J. MacFarlane. A

Abstract:

Within the healthcare system, training and continued professional development although essential, can be effected by cost and logistical restraints due to the nature of healthcare provision e.g employee shift patterns, access to expertise, cost factors in releasing staff to attend training etc. The use of multimedia technology for the development of e-learning applications is also a major cost consideration for healthcare management staff, and this type of media whether optical or on line requires careful planning in order to remain inclusive of all staff with potentially varied access to multimedia computing. This paper discusses a project in which the use of DVD authoring technology has been successfully implemented to meet the needs of distance learning and user considerations, and is based on film production techniques and reduced product turnaround deadlines.

Keywords: DVD, healthcare, distance learning, cost.

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Authors: Erik Lilienblum, Robert Niese, Bernd Michaelis

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This paper proposes a novel stereo vision technique for top view book scanners which provide us with dense 3d point clouds of page surfaces. This is a precondition to dewarp bound volumes independent of 2d information on the page. Our method is based on algorithms, which normally require the projection of pattern sequences with structured light. We use image sequences of the moving stripe lighting of the top view scanner instead of an additional light projection. Thus the stereo vision setup is simplified without losing measurement accuracy. Furthermore we improve a surface model dewarping method through introducing a difference vector based on real measurements. Although our proposed method is hardly expensive neither in calculation time nor in hardware requirements we present good dewarping results even for difficult examples.

Keywords: stereo vision, 3d surface reconstruction, dewarpingdocuments, book scanner

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Authors: Joon Sung Park, Jun-Hyuk Choi, Jin-Hong Kim, In-Soung Jung

Abstract:

Due to environmental concerns, the recent regulation on automobile fuel economy has been strengthened. The market demand for efficient vehicles is growing and automakers to improve engine fuel efficiency in the industry have been paying a lot of effort. To improve the fuel efficiency, it is necessary to reduce losses or to improve combustion efficiency of the engine. VVA (Variable Valve Actuation) technology enhances the engine's intake air flow, reduce pumping losses and mechanical friction losses. And also, VVA technology is the engine's low speed and high speed operation to implement each of appropriate valve lift. It improves the performance of engine in the entire operating range. This paper presents a design procedure of DC motor and drive for VVA system and shows the validity of the design result by experimental result with prototype.

Keywords: DC motor, Inverter, VVA, Electric Drive.

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Authors: Sharil Tumin, Sylvia Encheva

Abstract:

Centrally controlled authentication and authorization services can provide enterprise with an increase in security, more flexible access control solutions and an increased users' trust. By using redirections, users of all Web-based applications within an organization are authenticated at a single well known and secure Web site and using secure communication protocol. Users are first authenticated at the central server using their domain wide credentials before being redirected to a particular Web-based application. The central authentication server will then provide others with pertinence authorization related particulars and credentials of the authenticated user to the specific application. The trust between the clients and the server hosts is established by secure session keys exchange. Case- studies are provided to demonstrate the usefulness and flexibility of the proposed solution.

Keywords: Authentication, Authorization, Security, Protected Web-based Applications

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Authors: Jafreezal Jaafar, Eric McKenzie

Abstract:

This paper presents a solution for the behavioural animation of autonomous virtual agent navigation in virtual environments. We focus on using Dempster-Shafer-s Theory of Evidence in developing visual sensor for virtual agent. The role of the visual sensor is to capture the information about the virtual environment or identifie which part of an obstacle can be seen from the position of the virtual agent. This information is require for vitual agent to coordinate navigation in virtual environment. The virual agent uses fuzzy controller as a navigation system and Fuzzy α - level for the action selection method. The result clearly demonstrates the path produced is reasonably smooth even though there is some sharp turn and also still not diverted too far from the potential shortest path. This had indicated the benefit of our method, where more reliable and accurate paths produced during navigation task.

Keywords: Agent, navigation, Dempster Shafer, fuzzy logic.

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Authors: Mamdouh Y. Saleh, Gaber EL Enany, Medhat H. Elzahar, Mohamed Z. Elshikhipy, Rana Hamouda

Abstract:

The heavy metals pollution in water, sediments and fish of Lake Manzala affected form the disposal of wastewater, industrial and agricultural drainage water into the lake on the environmental situation. A pilot plant with an industrial discharge flow of 135L/h designed according to the activated sludge plant to simulate between the biological and chemical treatment with the addition of alum to the aeration tank with dosages of 100, 150, 200 and 250 mg/L. The industrial discharge had concentrations of Lead and BOD₅ with an average range 1.22, 145mg/L respectively. That means the average Pb was high up to 25 times than the allowed permissible concentration. The optimization of the chemical-biological process using 200mg/L Alum dosage compared has improvement of Lead and BOD₅ removal efficiency to 61.76% and 56% respectively.

Keywords: Industrial wastewater, Activated sludge, BOD5, Lead, Alum salt.

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Authors: Mohammad Sadeghi, Behrouz Heidari, Korush Montazeri

Abstract:

In this article, we synthesize a novel chitosan -based superabsorbent hydrogel via graft copolymerization of mixtures acrylic acid (AA) and N-vinyl pyrollidon onto chitosan backbones. The polymerization reaction was carried out in an aqueous medium and in the presence of ammonium persulfate (APS) as an initiator and N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker.The hydrogel structures were confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy. The swelling behavior of these absorbent polymers was also investigated in various salt solutions. Results indicated that the swelling capacity decreased with an increase in the ionic strength of the swelling medium. Furthermore, the swelling of superabsorbing hydrogels was examined in solutions with pH values ranging between 1.0 and 13.0. It showed a reversible pH-responsive behavior at pHs 2.0 and 8.0. This on-off switching behavior makes the synthesized hydrogels as an excellent candidate for controlled delivery of bioactive agents.

Keywords: chitosan, acrylic acid, N-vinyl pyrollidon, hydrogel, Ibuprofen's drug delivery

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Authors: Ghulam Nabi Naz

Abstract:

After independence, the popular belief that Gandhian will not indulge in corruption got a setback, post-independence setup paved the way for heavy corruption. The menace which would have dealt with strong legal provisions has become a way of life of Indian society. Corruption is recognized as the single biggest problem facing the country today. It undermines democracy and rule of law, violates human rights, distorts market and corrodes the moral fibre of people. The paper discusses the causes and possible remedial measures of corruption and response of people in Indian society. It emphasizes the factors which provide fertile ground for growth of corruption like, degradation of moral values, absence of a strong anti-corruption law and its effective enforcement, accountability, consistency and a defective system of fighting elections. The paper also highlights the reforms necessary for fighting corruption in India.

Keywords: Embezzlement, colonial, licence Raj, good governance, misappropriation, Sangh ideologue, Anna movement.

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Authors: Chien-Hua Lee, Cheng-Yi Chen

Abstract:

The stability test problem for homogeneous large-scale perturbed bilinear time-delay systems subjected to constrained inputs is considered in this paper. Both nonlinear uncertainties and interval systems are discussed. By utilizing the Lyapunove equation approach associated with linear algebraic techniques, several delay-independent criteria are presented to guarantee the robust stability of the overall systems. The main feature of the presented results is that although the Lyapunov stability theorem is used, they do not involve any Lyapunov equation which may be unsolvable. Furthermore, it is seen the proposed schemes can be applied to solve the stability analysis problem of large-scale time-delay systems.

Keywords: homogeneous bilinear system, constrained input, time-delay, uncertainty, transient response, decay rate.

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Authors: T. C. Kuo, Y. J. Huang, B. W. Hong

Abstract:

This paper proposes an adaptive sliding mode controller which combines adaptive control and sliding mode control to control a nonlinear robotic manipulator with uncertain parameters. We use an adaptive algorithm based on the concept of sliding mode control to alleviate the chattering phenomenon of control input. Adaptive laws are developed to obtain the gain of switching input and the boundary layer parameters. The stability and convergence of the robotic manipulator control system are guaranteed by applying the Lyapunov theorem. Simulation results demonstrate that the chattering of control input can be alleviated effectively. The proposed controller scheme can assure robustness against a large class of uncertainties and achieve good trajectory tracking performance.

Keywords: Robotic manipulators, sliding mode control, adaptive law, Lyapunov theorem, robustness.

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Authors: Vitalice K. Oduol

Abstract:

The paper considers a single-server queue with fixedsize batch Poisson arrivals and exponential service times, a model that is useful for a buffer that accepts messages arriving as fixed size batches of packets and releases them one packet at time. Transient performance measures for queues have long been recognized as being complementary to the steady-state analysis. The focus of the paper is on the use of the functions that arise in the analysis of the transient behaviour of the queuing system. The paper exploits practical modelling to obtain a solution to the integral equation encountered in the analysis. Results obtained indicate that under heavy load conditions, there is significant disparity in the statistics between the transient and steady state values.

Keywords: batch arrivals, modelling, single-server queue, time-varying probabilities, transient analysis.

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Authors: Odenigbo Veronica Ngozi, Lorreta Chika Ukwuaba

Abstract:

This study focuses on how the strengthening adult literacy programs can help accelerate transformative strategies to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Nigeria, specifically in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State. The research delved into the definition of FGM, adult literacy programs, and how to achieve ending FGM in order to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030. It further discussed the practice of FGM in Nigeria and emphasized the statement of the problem. Main purpose of the study was to investigate how strengthening adult literacy programs can help accelerate transformative strategies to end FGM in Nigeria and achieve SDGs in 2030. A survey research design was used to conduct the study in Nsukka L.G.A. The population was composed of 26 facilitators and adult learners in five adult learning centres in the area. The entire population was used as a sample. Structured questionnaires were employed to elicit information from the respondents. The items on the questionnaire were face-validated by three experts while the reliability of the instrument was verified using Cronbach Alpha Reliability Technique. The research questions were analysed using means and standard deviation while the hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of degree of significance using a t-test statistics. The result of the findings shows that the practices of FGM can end through strengthening adult literacy programs. Strengthening adult literacy programs is a good channel to end or stop FGM through the knowledge and skill acquired from the learning centres. The theoretical importance of the study lies in the fact that it highlights the role of adult literacy programs in accelerating transformative strategies to combat harmful cultural practices such as FGM. It further supports the importance of education and knowledge in achieving SDGs by 2030. The study addressed the question of how strengthening adult literacy programs can help accelerate transformative strategies which can end FGM in Nigeria and achieve SDGs by 2030. In conclusion, the study revealed that adult literacy is a good tool to end FGM in Nigeria. The recommendation was that (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and individuals should support the funding and establishment of adult literacy centres in communities so as to reach all illiterate parents or individuals so that they can acquire the knowledge and skill needed to understand the negative effect of FGM in the life of a girl child.

Keywords: Adult literacy, female genital mutilation, learning centres, Sustainable Development Goals.

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