Search results for: YCbCr image format.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1677

Search results for: YCbCr image format.

657 Prediction of Compressive Strength of SCC Containing Bottom Ash using Artificial Neural Networks

Authors: Yogesh Aggarwal, Paratibha Aggarwal

Abstract:

The paper presents a comparative performance of the models developed to predict 28 days compressive strengths using neural network techniques for data taken from literature (ANN-I) and data developed experimentally for SCC containing bottom ash as partial replacement of fine aggregates (ANN-II). The data used in the models are arranged in the format of six and eight input parameters that cover the contents of cement, sand, coarse aggregate, fly ash as partial replacement of cement, bottom ash as partial replacement of sand, water and water/powder ratio, superplasticizer dosage and an output parameter that is 28-days compressive strength and compressive strengths at 7 days, 28 days, 90 days and 365 days, respectively for ANN-I and ANN-II. The importance of different input parameters is also given for predicting the strengths at various ages using neural network. The model developed from literature data could be easily extended to the experimental data, with bottom ash as partial replacement of sand with some modifications.

Keywords: Self compacting concrete, bottom ash, strength, prediction, neural network, importance factor.

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656 Lower energy Gait Pattern Generation in 5-Link Biped Robot Using Image Processing

Authors: Byounghyun Kim, Youngjoon Han, Hernsoo Hahn

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to find natural gait of biped robot such as human being by analyzing the COG (Center Of Gravity) trajectory of human being's gait. It is discovered that human beings gait naturally maintain the stability and use the minimum energy. This paper intends to find the natural gait pattern of biped robot using the minimum energy as well as maintaining the stability by analyzing the human's gait pattern that is measured from gait image on the sagittal plane and COG trajectory on the frontal plane. It is not possible to apply the torques of human's articulation to those of biped robot's because they have different degrees of freedom. Nonetheless, human and 5-link biped robots are similar in kinematics. For this, we generate gait pattern of the 5-link biped robot by using the GA algorithm of adaptation gait pattern which utilize the human's ZMP (Zero Moment Point) and torque of all articulation that are measured from human's gait pattern. The algorithm proposed creates biped robot's fluent gait pattern as that of human being's and to minimize energy consumption because the gait pattern of the 5-link biped robot model is modeled after consideration about the torque of human's each articulation on the sagittal plane and ZMP trajectory on the frontal plane. This paper demonstrate that the algorithm proposed is superior by evaluating 2 kinds of the 5-link biped robot applied to each gait patterns generated both in the general way using inverse kinematics and in the special way in which by considering visuality and efficiency.

Keywords: 5-link biped robot, gait pattern, COG (Center OfGravity), ZMP (Zero Moment Point).

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655 Effect of Linear Thermal Gradient on Steady-State Creep Behavior of Isotropic Rotating Disc

Authors: Minto Rattan, Tania Bose, Neeraj Chamoli

Abstract:

The present paper investigates the effect of linear thermal gradient on the steady-state creep behavior of rotating isotropic disc using threshold stress based Sherby’s creep law. The composite discs made of aluminum matrix reinforced with silicon carbide particulate has been taken for analysis. The stress and strain rate distributions have been calculated for discs rotating at linear thermal gradation using von Mises’ yield criterion. The material parameters have been estimated by regression fit of the available experimental data. The results are displayed and compared graphically in designer friendly format for the above said temperature profile with the disc operating under uniform temperature profile. It is observed that radial and tangential stresses show minor variation and the strain rates vary significantly in the presence of thermal gradation as compared to disc having uniform temperature.

Keywords: Creep, isotropic, steady-state, thermal gradient.

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654 The Design of the HL7 RIM-based Sharing Components for Clinical Information Systems

Authors: Wei-Yi Yang, Li-Hui Lee, Hsiao-Li Gien, Hsing-Yi Chu, Yi-Ting Chou, Der-Ming Liou

Abstract:

The American Health Level Seven (HL7) Reference Information Model (RIM) consists of six back-bone classes that have different specialized attributes. Furthermore, for the purpose of enforcing the semantic expression, there are some specific mandatory vocabulary domains have been defined for representing the content values of some attributes. In the light of the fact that it is a duplicated effort on spending a lot of time and human cost to develop and modify Clinical Information Systems (CIS) for most hospitals due to the variety of workflows. This study attempts to design and develop sharing RIM-based components of the CIS for the different business processes. Therefore, the CIS contains data of a consistent format and type. The programmers can do transactions with the RIM-based clinical repository by the sharing RIM-based components. And when developing functions of the CIS, the sharing components also can be adopted in the system. These components not only satisfy physicians- needs in using a CIS but also reduce the time of developing new components of a system. All in all, this study provides a new viewpoint that integrating the data and functions with the business processes, it is an easy and flexible approach to build a new CIS.

Keywords: HL7, Reference Information Model (RIM), web service, process management.

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653 Accurate Positioning Method of Indoor Plastering Robot Based on Line Laser

Authors: Guanqiao Wang, Hongyang Yu

Abstract:

There is a lot of repetitive work in the traditional construction industry. These repetitive tasks can significantly improve production efficiency by replacing manual tasks with robots. Therefore, robots appear more and more frequently in the construction industry. Navigation and positioning is a very important task for construction robots, and the requirements for accuracy of positioning are very high. Traditional indoor robots mainly use radio frequency or vision methods for positioning. Compared with ordinary robots, the indoor plastering robot needs to be positioned closer to the wall for wall plastering, so the requirements for construction positioning accuracy are higher, and the traditional navigation positioning method has a large error, which will cause the robot to move. Without the exact position, the wall cannot be plastered or the error of plastering the wall is large. A positioning method is proposed, which is assisted by line lasers and uses image processing-based positioning to perform more accurate positioning on the traditional positioning work. In actual work, filter, edge detection, Hough transform and other operations are performed on the images captured by the camera. Each time the position of the laser line is found, it is compared with the standard value, and the position of the robot is moved or rotated to complete the positioning work. The experimental results show that the actual positioning error is reduced to less than 0.5 mm by this accurate positioning method.

Keywords: Indoor plastering robot, navigation, precise positioning, line laser, image processing.

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652 Recycling Motivations and Barriers in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Authors: Jasmine Adela Mutang, Rosnah Ismail, Chua Bee Seok, Ferlis Bahari, Lailawati Madlan, Walton Wider, Rickless Das

Abstract:

Public participation in recycling domestic waste is still very low in Malaysia. Only 10.5% of solid waste was recycled up to now which is far below than of in developed countries. Therefore, understanding public motivations towards recycling domestic waste are important to improve current recycling rate. Thus, this study attempts to identify what are the possible motivations and hindrances for the public to recycle. Open-ended questions format were administered to 484 people in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Two specific questions we asked to explore their general determinants and barriers in practicing recycling: “What motivates you to recycle?” and “What are the barriers you encountered in doing recycling activities?” Thematic was conducted on the open-ended questions in which themes were created with the raw comments. It was found that the underlying recycling motivations are (i) awareness’ towards the environment; (ii) benefits to the society and individual; and (iii) social influence. Non participations are influence by (i) attitudes; (ii) commitment; (iii) facilities; (iv) knowledge; (v) inconvenience; and (vi) enforcement.

Keywords: Recycling motivation, recycling barrier, sustainable, household waste.

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651 An Evaluation of Drivers in Implementing Sustainable Manufacturing in India: Using DEMATEL Approach

Authors: D. Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

Abstract:

Due to growing concern about environmental and social consequences throughout the world, a need has been felt to incorporate sustainability concepts in conventional manufacturing. This paper is an attempt to identify and evaluate drivers in implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. Nine possible drivers for successful implementation of sustainable manufacturing have been identified from extensive review. Further, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach has been utilized to evaluate and categorize these identified drivers for implementing sustainable manufacturing in to the cause and effect groups. Five drivers (Societal Pressure and Public Concerns; Regulations and Government Policies; Top Management Involvement, Commitment and Support; Effective Strategies and Activities towards Socially Responsible Manufacturing and Market Trends) have been categorized into the cause group and four drivers (Holistic View in Manufacturing Systems; Supplier Participation; Building Sustainable culture in Organization; and Corporate Image and Benefits) have been categorized into the effect group. “Societal Pressure and Public Concerns” has been found the most critical driver and “Corporate Image and Benefits” as least critical or the most easily influenced driver to implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. This paper may surely help practitioners in better understanding of these drivers and their priorities towards effective implementation of sustainable manufacturing.

Keywords: Drivers, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), India, Sustainable Manufacturing (SM).

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650 Low Resolution Face Recognition Using Mixture of Experts

Authors: Fatemeh Behjati Ardakani, Fatemeh Khademian, Abbas Nowzari Dalini, Reza Ebrahimpour

Abstract:

Human activity is a major concern in a wide variety of applications, such as video surveillance, human computer interface and face image database management. Detecting and recognizing faces is a crucial step in these applications. Furthermore, major advancements and initiatives in security applications in the past years have propelled face recognition technology into the spotlight. The performance of existing face recognition systems declines significantly if the resolution of the face image falls below a certain level. This is especially critical in surveillance imagery where often, due to many reasons, only low-resolution video of faces is available. If these low-resolution images are passed to a face recognition system, the performance is usually unacceptable. Hence, resolution plays a key role in face recognition systems. In this paper we introduce a new low resolution face recognition system based on mixture of expert neural networks. In order to produce the low resolution input images we down-sampled the 48 × 48 ORL images to 12 × 12 ones using the nearest neighbor interpolation method and after that applying the bicubic interpolation method yields enhanced images which is given to the Principal Component Analysis feature extractor system. Comparison with some of the most related methods indicates that the proposed novel model yields excellent recognition rate in low resolution face recognition that is the recognition rate of 100% for the training set and 96.5% for the test set.

Keywords: Low resolution face recognition, Multilayered neuralnetwork, Mixture of experts neural network, Principal componentanalysis, Bicubic interpolation, Nearest neighbor interpolation.

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649 Observatory of Sustainability of the Algarve Region for Tourism: Proposal for Environmental and Sociocultural Indicators

Authors: Miguel José Oliveira, Fátima Farinha, Elisa M. J. da Silva, Rui Lança, Manuel Duarte Pinheiro, Cátia Miguel

Abstract:

The Observatory of Sustainability of the Algarve Region for Tourism (OBSERVE) will be a valuable tool to assess the sustainability of this region. The OBSERVE tool is designed to provide data and maintain an up-to-date, consistent set of indicators defined to describe the region on the environmental, sociocultural, economic and institutional domains. This ongoing two-year project has the active participation of the Algarve’s stakeholders, since they were consulted and asked to participate in the discussion for the indicators proposal. The environmental and sociocultural indicators chosen must indicate the characteristics of the region and should be in alignment with other global systems used to monitor the sustainability. This paper presents a review of sustainability indicators systems that support the first proposal for the environmental and sociocultural indicators. Others constraints are discussed, namely the existing data and the data available in digital platforms in a format suitable for automatic importation to the platform of OBSERVE. It is intended that OBSERVE will be a valuable tool to assess the sustainability of the region of Algarve.

Keywords: Sustainability, observatory, environmental indicators, sociocultural indicators, development, tourism, Algarve.

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648 Development of a Basic Robot System for Medical and Nursing Care for Patients with Glaucoma

Authors: Naoto Suzuki

Abstract:

Medical methods to completely treat glaucoma are yet to be developed. Therefore, ophthalmologists manage patients mainly to delay disease progression. Patients with glaucoma are mainly elderly individuals. In elderly people's houses, having an equipment that can provide medical treatment and care can release their family from their care. For elderly people with the glaucoma to live by themselves as much as possible, we developed a support robot having five functions: elderly people care, ophthalmological examination, trip assistance to the neighborhood, medical treatment, and data referral to a hospital. The medical and nursing care robot should approach the visual field that the patients can see at a speed suitable for their eyesight. This is because the robot will be dangerous if it approaches the patients from the visual field that they cannot see. We experimentally developed a robot that brings a white cane to elderly people with glaucoma. The base part of the robot is a carriage, which is a Megarover 1.1, and it has two infrared sensors. The robot moves along a white line on the floor using the infrared sensors and has a special arm, which does not use electricity. The arm can scoop the block attached to the white cane. Next, we also developed a direction detector comprised of a charge-coupled device camera (SVR41ResucueHD; Sun Mechatronics), goggles (MG-277MLF; Midori Anzen Co. Ltd.), and biconvex lenses with a focal length of 25 mm (Edmund Co.). Some young people were photographed using the direction detector, which was put on their faces. Image processing was performed using Scilab 6.1.0 and Image Processing and Computer Vision Toolbox 4.1.2. To measure the people's line of vision, we calculated the iris's center of gravity using five processes: reduction, trimming, binarization or gray scale, edge extraction, and Hough transform. We compared the binarization and gray scale processes in image processing. The binarization process was better than the gray scale process. For edge extraction, we compared five methods: Sobel, Prewitt, Laplacian of Gaussian, fast Fourier transform, and Canny. The Canny method was the optimal extraction method. We performed the Hough transform to search for the main coordinates from the iris's edge, and we found that the Hough transform could calculate the center point of the iris.

Keywords: Glaucoma, support robot, elderly people, Hough transform, direction detector, line of vision.

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647 A Supervised Learning Data Mining Approach for Object Recognition and Classification in High Resolution Satellite Data

Authors: Mais Nijim, Rama Devi Chennuboyina, Waseem Al Aqqad

Abstract:

Advances in spatial and spectral resolution of satellite images have led to tremendous growth in large image databases. The data we acquire through satellites, radars, and sensors consists of important geographical information that can be used for remote sensing applications such as region planning, disaster management. Spatial data classification and object recognition are important tasks for many applications. However, classifying objects and identifying them manually from images is a difficult task. Object recognition is often considered as a classification problem, this task can be performed using machine-learning techniques. Despite of many machine-learning algorithms, the classification is done using supervised classifiers such as Support Vector Machines (SVM) as the area of interest is known. We proposed a classification method, which considers neighboring pixels in a region for feature extraction and it evaluates classifications precisely according to neighboring classes for semantic interpretation of region of interest (ROI). A dataset has been created for training and testing purpose; we generated the attributes by considering pixel intensity values and mean values of reflectance. We demonstrated the benefits of using knowledge discovery and data-mining techniques, which can be on image data for accurate information extraction and classification from high spatial resolution remote sensing imagery.

Keywords: Remote sensing, object recognition, classification, data mining, waterbody identification, feature extraction.

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646 Topographical Image Transference Compatibility Generated Through Moiré Technique Applying Parametrical Softwares of Computer Assisted Design

Authors: M. V. G. Silva, J. Gazzola, I. M. Dal Fabbro, A. C. L. Lino

Abstract:

Computer aided design accounts with the support of parametric software in the design of machine components as well as of any other pieces of interest. The complexities of the element under study sometimes offer certain difficulties to computer design, or ever might generate mistakes in the final body conception. Reverse engineering techniques are based on the transformation of already conceived body images into a matrix of points which can be visualized by the design software. The literature exhibits several techniques to obtain machine components dimensional fields, as contact instrument (MMC), calipers and optical methods as laser scanner, holograms as well as moiré methods. The objective of this research work was to analyze the moiré technique as instrument of reverse engineering, applied to bodies of nom complex geometry as simple solid figures, creating matrices of points. These matrices were forwarded to a parametric software named SolidWorks to generate the virtual object. Volume data obtained by mechanical means, i.e., by caliper, the volume obtained through the moiré method and the volume generated by the SolidWorks software were compared and found to be in close agreement. This research work suggests the application of phase shifting moiré methods as instrument of reverse engineering, serving also to support farm machinery element designs.

Keywords: Reverse engineering, Moiré technique, three dimensional image generation.

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645 Barriers to Competitive Tenders in Building Conservation Works

Authors: Yoke-Mui Lim, Yahaya Ahmad

Abstract:

Conservation works in Malaysia that is procured by public organisation usually follow the traditional approach where the works are tendered based on Bills of Quantities (BQ). One of the purposes of tendering is to enable the selection of a competent contractor that offers a competitive price. While competency of the contractors are assessed by their technical knowledge, experience and track records, the assessment of pricing will be dependent on the tender amount. However, the issue currently faced by the conservation works sector is the difficulty in assessing the competitiveness and reasonableness of the tender amount due to the high variance between the tenders amount. Thus, this paper discusses the factors that cause difficulty to the tenderers in pricing competitively in a bidding exercise for conservation tenders. Data on tendering is collected from interviews with conservation works contractors to gain in-depth understanding of the barriers faced in pricing tenders of conservation works. Findings from the study lent support to the contention that the variance of tender amount is very high amongst tenderers. The factors identified in the survey are the format of BQ, hidden works, experience and labour and material costs.

Keywords: Building Conservation, Malaysia, Bill of Quantities, Tender.

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644 The Effect of Development of Two-Phase Flow Regimes on the Stability of Gas Lift Systems

Authors: Khalid. M. O. Elmabrok, M. L. Burby, G. G. Nasr

Abstract:

Flow instability during gas lift operation is caused by three major phenomena – the density wave oscillation, the casing heading pressure and the flow perturbation within the two-phase flow region. This paper focuses on the causes and the effect of flow instability during gas lift operation and suggests ways to control it in order to maximise productivity during gas lift operations. A laboratory-scale two-phase flow system to study the effects of flow perturbation was designed and built. The apparatus is comprised of a 2 m long by 66 mm ID transparent PVC pipe with air injection point situated at 0.1 m above the base of the pipe. This is the point where stabilised bubbles were visibly clear after injection. Air is injected into the water filled transparent pipe at different flow rates and pressures. The behavior of the different sizes of the bubbles generated within the two-phase region was captured using a digital camera and the images were analysed using the advanced image processing package. It was observed that the average maximum bubbles sizes increased with the increase in the length of the vertical pipe column from 29.72 to 47 mm. The increase in air injection pressure from 0.5 to 3 bars increased the bubble sizes from 29.72 mm to 44.17 mm and then decreasing when the pressure reaches 4 bars. It was observed that at higher bubble velocity of 6.7 m/s, larger diameter bubbles coalesce and burst due to high agitation and collision with each other. This collapse of the bubbles causes pressure drop and reverse flow within two phase flow and is the main cause of the flow instability phenomena.

Keywords: Gas lift instability, bubble forming, bubble collapsing, image processing.

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643 Energy Efficient Transmission of Image over DWT-OFDM System

Authors: Lakshmi Pujitha Dachuri, Nalini Uppala

Abstract:

In many applications retransmissions of lost packets are not permitted. OFDM is a multi-carrier modulation scheme having excellent performance which allows overlapping in frequency domain. With OFDM there is a simple way of dealing with multipath relatively simple DSP algorithms.

 In this paper, an image frame is compressed using DWT, and the compressed data is arranged in data vectors, each with equal number of coefficients. These vectors are quantized and binary coded to get the bit steams, which are then packetized and intelligently mapped to the OFDM system. Based on one-bit channel state information at the transmitter, the descriptions in order of descending priority are assigned to the currently good channels such that poorer sub-channels can only affect the lesser important data vectors. We consider only one-bit channel state information available at the transmitter, informing only about the sub-channels to be good or bad. For a good sub-channel, instantaneous received power should be greater than a threshold Pth. Otherwise, the sub-channel is in fading state and considered bad for that batch of coefficients. In order to reduce the system power consumption, the mapped descriptions onto the bad sub channels are dropped at the transmitter. The binary channel state information gives an opportunity to map the bit streams intelligently and to save a reasonable amount of power. By using MAT LAB simulation we can analysis the performance of our proposed scheme, in terms of system energy saving without compromising the received quality in terms of peak signal-noise ratio.

Keywords: Binary channel state, Channel state feedback, DWT-OFDM system, Energy saving, Fading broadcast channel.

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642 A Perceptually Optimized Wavelet Embedded Zero Tree Image Coder

Authors: A. Bajit, M. Nahid, A. Tamtaoui, E. H. Bouyakhf

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a Perceptually Optimized Embedded ZeroTree Image Coder (POEZIC) that introduces a perceptual weighting to wavelet transform coefficients prior to control SPIHT encoding algorithm in order to reach a targeted bit rate with a perceptual quality improvement with respect to the coding quality obtained using the SPIHT algorithm only. The paper also, introduces a new objective quality metric based on a Psychovisual model that integrates the properties of the HVS that plays an important role in our POEZIC quality assessment. Our POEZIC coder is based on a vision model that incorporates various masking effects of human visual system HVS perception. Thus, our coder weights the wavelet coefficients based on that model and attempts to increase the perceptual quality for a given bit rate and observation distance. The perceptual weights for all wavelet subbands are computed based on 1) luminance masking and Contrast masking, 2) the contrast sensitivity function CSF to achieve the perceptual decomposition weighting, 3) the Wavelet Error Sensitivity WES used to reduce the perceptual quantization errors. The new perceptually optimized codec has the same complexity as the original SPIHT techniques. However, the experiments results show that our coder demonstrates very good performance in terms of quality measurement.

Keywords: DWT, linear-phase 9/7 filter, 9/7 Wavelets Error Sensitivity WES, CSF implementation approaches, JND Just Noticeable Difference, Luminance masking, Contrast masking, standard SPIHT, Objective Quality Measure, Probability Score PS.

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641 How the Conversations in Social Media Concern in Sales in the Automobile Industry in Spain

Authors: González Carreño G., Rejas Muslera Rj., Padilla Fernández-Vega J., Cepeda González M. I.

Abstract:

Automobile Industry has great importance in the Spanish economy (8,7 % of the active Spanish population is employed in this sector).The above mentioned sector has been one of the principal sectors affected by the current economic crisis, consistently, the budgets in advertising have been severely limited (46,9 % less in the period of reference), these needs of reduction have originated a substantial change in the advertising strategy (from 2007 the increase of the advertising investment in Internet is 251,6 %), and increase profitability. The growing use of social media by consumers therefore makes online consumer conversations an attractive additional format for Automobile firms to promote products at a lower cost. This research analyzes the relation between the activity in Social Media and the design in the car industry, looking for relations between strategies of design based on Social Media and sales and a channel of information for companies to know what the consumer preferences. For this ongoing research we used a longitudinal withdrawal of information has been used using information of panel. Managerial and research implications of the finding are discussed.

Keywords: Automobile Industry, Design, Economics Crisis, Innovation, Internet, Social Media.

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640 Prediction Compressive Strength of Self-Compacting Concrete Containing Fly Ash Using Fuzzy Logic Inference System

Authors: O. Belalia Douma, B. Boukhatem, M. Ghrici

Abstract:

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) developed in Japan in the late 80s has enabled the construction industry to reduce demand on the resources, improve the work condition and also reduce the impact of environment by elimination of the need for compaction. Fuzzy logic (FL) approaches has recently been used to model some of the human activities in many areas of civil engineering applications. Especially from these systems in the model experimental studies, very good results have been obtained. In the present study, a model for predicting compressive strength of SCC containing various proportions of fly ash, as partial replacement of cement has been developed by using Fuzzy Inference System (FIS). For the purpose of building this model, a database of experimental data were gathered from the literature and used for training and testing the model. The used data as the inputs of fuzzy logic models are arranged in a format of five parameters that cover the total binder content, fly ash replacement percentage, water content, superplasticizer and age of specimens. The training and testing results in the fuzzy logic model have shown a strong potential for predicting the compressive strength of SCC containing fly ash in the considered range.

Keywords: Self-compacting concrete, fly ash, strength prediction, fuzzy logic.

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639 Performance Analysis of Reconstruction Algorithms in Diffuse Optical Tomography

Authors: K. Uma Maheswari, S. Sathiyamoorthy, G. Lakshmi

Abstract:

Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) is a non-invasive imaging modality used in clinical diagnosis for earlier detection of carcinoma cells in brain tissue. It is a form of optical tomography which produces gives the reconstructed image of a human soft tissue with by using near-infra-red light. It comprises of two steps called forward model and inverse model. The forward model provides the light propagation in a biological medium. The inverse model uses the scattered light to collect the optical parameters of human tissue. DOT suffers from severe ill-posedness due to its incomplete measurement data. So the accurate analysis of this modality is very complicated. To overcome this problem, optical properties of the soft tissue such as absorption coefficient, scattering coefficient, optical flux are processed by the standard regularization technique called Levenberg - Marquardt regularization. The reconstruction algorithms such as Split Bregman and Gradient projection for sparse reconstruction (GPSR) methods are used to reconstruct the image of a human soft tissue for tumour detection. Among these algorithms, Split Bregman method provides better performance than GPSR algorithm. The parameters such as signal to noise ratio (SNR), contrast to noise ratio (CNR), relative error (RE) and CPU time for reconstructing images are analyzed to get a better performance.

Keywords: Diffuse optical tomography, ill-posedness, Levenberg Marquardt method, Split Bregman, the Gradient projection for sparse reconstruction.

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638 Towards an Intelligent Ontology Construction Cost Estimation System: Using BIM and New Rules of Measurement Techniques

Authors: F. H. Abanda, B. Kamsu-Foguem, J. H. M. Tah

Abstract:

Construction cost estimation is one of the most important aspects of construction project design. For generations, the process of cost estimating has been manual, time-consuming and error-prone. This has partly led to most cost estimates to be unclear and riddled with inaccuracies that at times lead to over- or underestimation of construction cost. The development of standard set of measurement rules that are understandable by all those involved in a construction project, have not totally solved the challenges. Emerging Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies can exploit standard measurement methods to automate cost estimation process and improve accuracies. This requires standard measurement methods to be structured in ontological and machine readable format; so that BIM software packages can easily read them. Most standard measurement methods are still text-based in textbooks and require manual editing into tables or Spreadsheet during cost estimation. The aim of this study is to explore the development of an ontology based on New Rules of Measurement (NRM) commonly used in the UK for cost estimation. The methodology adopted is Methontology, one of the most widely used ontology engineering methodologies. The challenges in this exploratory study are also reported and recommendations for future studies proposed.

Keywords: BIM, Construction projects, Cost estimation, NRM, Ontology.

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637 Student Perceptions of Defense Acquisition University Courses: An Explanatory Data Collection Approach

Authors: Melissa C. LaDuke

Abstract:

The overarching purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the current format of online delivery for Defense Acquisition University (DAU) courses and Air Force Acquisition (AFA) personnel participation. AFA personnel (hereafter named “student”) were particularly of interest, as they have been mandated to take anywhere from 3 to 30 online courses to earn various DAU specialization certifications. Participants in this qualitative case study were AFA personnel who pursued DAU certifications in science and technology management, program/contract management, and other related fields. Air Force personnel were interviewed about their experiences with online courses. The data gathered were analyzed and grouped into 12 major themes. The themes tied into the theoretical framework and addressed either teacher-centered or student-centered educational practices within DAU. Based on the results of the data analysis, various factors contributed to student perceptions of DAU courses to include the online course construct and relevance to their job. The analysis also found students want to learn the information presented but would like to be able to apply the information learned in meaningful ways.

Keywords: Educational theory, computer-based training, interview, student perceptions, online course design, teacher positionality.

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636 Analysis of Aiming Performance for Games Using Mapping Method of Corneal Reflections Based on Two Different Light Sources

Authors: Yoshikazu Onuki, Itsuo Kumazawa

Abstract:

Fundamental motivation of this paper is how gaze estimation can be utilized effectively regarding an application to games. In games, precise estimation is not always important in aiming targets but an ability to move a cursor to an aiming target accurately is also significant. Incidentally, from a game producing point of view, a separate expression of a head movement and gaze movement sometimes becomes advantageous to expressing sense of presence. A case that panning a background image associated with a head movement and moving a cursor according to gaze movement can be a representative example. On the other hand, widely used technique of POG estimation is based on a relative position between a center of corneal reflection of infrared light sources and a center of pupil. However, a calculation of a center of pupil requires relatively complicated image processing, and therefore, a calculation delay is a concern, since to minimize a delay of inputting data is one of the most significant requirements in games. In this paper, a method to estimate a head movement by only using corneal reflections of two infrared light sources in different locations is proposed. Furthermore, a method to control a cursor using gaze movement as well as a head movement is proposed. By using game-like-applications, proposed methods are evaluated and, as a result, a similar performance to conventional methods is confirmed and an aiming control with lower computation power and stressless intuitive operation is obtained.

Keywords: Point-of-gaze, gaze estimation, head movement, corneal reflections, two infrared light sources, game.

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635 Optimal Document Archiving and Fast Information Retrieval

Authors: Hazem M. El-Bakry, Ahmed A. Mohammed

Abstract:

In this paper, an intelligent algorithm for optimal document archiving is presented. It is kown that electronic archives are very important for information system management. Minimizing the size of the stored data in electronic archive is a main issue to reduce the physical storage area. Here, the effect of different types of Arabic fonts on electronic archives size is discussed. Simulation results show that PDF is the best file format for storage of the Arabic documents in electronic archive. Furthermore, fast information detection in a given PDF file is introduced. Such approach uses fast neural networks (FNNs) implemented in the frequency domain. The operation of these networks relies on performing cross correlation in the frequency domain rather than spatial one. It is proved mathematically and practically that the number of computation steps required for the presented FNNs is less than that needed by conventional neural networks (CNNs). Simulation results using MATLAB confirm the theoretical computations.

Keywords: Information Storage and Retrieval, Electronic Archiving, Fast Information Detection, Cross Correlation, Frequency Domain.

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634 A Process of Forming a Single Competitive Factor in the Digital Camera Industry

Authors: Kiyohiro Yamazaki

Abstract:

This paper considers a forming process of a single competitive factor in the digital camera industry from the viewpoint of product platform. To make product development easier for companies and to increase product introduction ratios, development efforts concentrate on improving and strengthening certain product attributes, and it is born in the process that the product platform is formed continuously. It is pointed out that the formation of this product platform raises product development efficiency of individual companies, but on the other hand, it has a trade-off relationship of causing unification of competitive factors in the whole industry. This research tries to analyze product specification data which were collected from the web page of digital camera companies. Specifically, this research collected all product specification data released in Japan from 1995 to 2003 and analyzed the composition of image sensor and optical lens; and it identified product platforms shared by multiple products and discussed their application. As a result, this research found that the product platformation was born in the development of the standard product for major market segmentation. Every major company has made product platforms of image sensors and optical lenses, and as a result, this research found that the competitive factors were unified in the entire industry throughout product platformation. In other words, this product platformation brought product development efficiency of individual firms; however, it also caused industrial competition factors to be unified in the industry.

Keywords: Digital camera industry, product evolution trajectory, product platform, unification of competitive factors.

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633 Automated Video Surveillance System for Detection of Suspicious Activities during Academic Offline Examination

Authors: G. Sandhya Devi, G. Suvarna Kumar, S. Chandini

Abstract:

This research work aims to develop a system that will analyze and identify students who indulge in malpractices/suspicious activities during the course of an academic offline examination. Automated Video Surveillance provides an optimal solution which helps in monitoring the students and identifying the malpractice event immediately. This work is organized into three modules. The first module deals with performing an impersonation check using a PCA-based face recognition method which is done by cross checking his profile with the database. The presence or absence of the student is even determined in this module by implementing an image registration technique wherein a grid is formed by considering all the images registered using the frontal camera at the determined positions. Second, detecting such facial malpractices in which a student gets involved in conversation with another, trying to obtain unauthorized information etc., based on the threshold range evaluated by considering his/her mouth state whether open or closed. The third module deals with identification of unauthorized material or gadgets used in the examination hall by training the positive samples of the object through various stages. Here, a top view camera feed is analyzed to detect the suspicious activities. The system automatically alerts the administration when any suspicious activities are identified, thereby reducing the error rate caused due to manual monitoring. This work is an improvement over our previous work published in identifying suspicious activities done by examinees in an offline examination.

Keywords: Impersonation, image registration, incrimination, object detection, threshold evaluation.

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632 Near-Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging Spectroscopy to Detect Microplastics and Pieces of Plastic in Almond Flour

Authors: H. Apaza, L. Chévez, H. Loro

Abstract:

Plastic and microplastic pollution in human food chain is a big problem for human health that requires more elaborated techniques that can identify their presences in different kinds of food. Hyperspectral imaging technique is an optical technique than can detect the presence of different elements in an image and can be used to detect plastics and microplastics in a scene. To do this statistical techniques are required that need to be evaluated and compared in order to find the more efficient ones. In this work, two problems related to the presence of plastics are addressed, the first is to detect and identify pieces of plastic immersed in almond seeds, and the second problem is to detect and quantify microplastic in almond flour. To do this we make use of the analysis hyperspectral images taken in the range of 900 to 1700 nm using 4 unmixing techniques of hyperspectral imaging which are: least squares unmixing (LSU), non-negatively constrained least squares unmixing (NCLSU), fully constrained least squares unmixing (FCLSU), and scaled constrained least squares unmixing (SCLSU). NCLSU, FCLSU, SCLSU techniques manage to find the region where the plastic is found and also manage to quantify the amount of microplastic contained in the almond flour. The SCLSU technique estimated a 13.03% abundance of microplastics and 86.97% of almond flour compared to 16.66% of microplastics and 83.33% abundance of almond flour prepared for the experiment. Results show the feasibility of applying near-infrared hyperspectral image analysis for the detection of plastic contaminants in food.

Keywords: Food, plastic, microplastic, NIR hyperspectral imaging, unmixing.

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631 An Ontology Based Question Answering System on Software Test Document Domain

Authors: Meltem Serhatli, Ferda N. Alpaslan

Abstract:

Processing the data by computers and performing reasoning tasks is an important aim in Computer Science. Semantic Web is one step towards it. The use of ontologies to enhance the information by semantically is the current trend. Huge amount of domain specific, unstructured on-line data needs to be expressed in machine understandable and semantically searchable format. Currently users are often forced to search manually in the results returned by the keyword-based search services. They also want to use their native languages to express what they search. In this paper, an ontology-based automated question answering system on software test documents domain is presented. The system allows users to enter a question about the domain by means of natural language and returns exact answer of the questions. Conversion of the natural language question into the ontology based query is the challenging part of the system. To be able to achieve this, a new algorithm regarding free text to ontology based search engine query conversion is proposed. The algorithm is based on investigation of suitable question type and parsing the words of the question sentence.

Keywords: Description Logics, ontology, question answering, reasoning.

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630 Animation of Objects on the Website by Application of CSS3 Language

Authors: Vladimir Simovic, Matija Varga, Robert Svetlacic

Abstract:

Scientific work analytically explores and demonstrates techniques that can animate objects and geometric characters using CSS3 language by applying proper formatting and positioning of elements. This paper presents examples of optimum application of the CSS3 descriptive language when generating general web animations (e.g., billiards and movement of geometric characters, etc.). The paper presents analytically, the optimal development and animation design with the frames within which the animated objects are. The originally developed content is based on the upgrading of existing CSS3 descriptive language animations with more complex syntax and project-oriented work. The purpose of the developed animations is to provide an overview of the interactive features of CSS3 descriptive language design for computer games and the animation of important analytical data based on the web view. It has been analytically demonstrated that CSS3 as a descriptive language allows inserting of various multimedia elements into websites for public and internal sites.

Keywords: Animation recording, web page graphics, HTML5 forms, Cascading Style Sheets 3 - CSS3, man-computer interaction, KML animation presenting format, GML, Google Earth Professional.

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629 A Hybrid Nature Inspired Algorithm for Generating Optimal Query Plan

Authors: R. Gomathi, D. Sharmila

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The emergence of the Semantic Web technology increases day by day due to the rapid growth of multiple web pages. Many standard formats are available to store the semantic web data. The most popular format is the Resource Description Framework (RDF). Querying large RDF graphs becomes a tedious procedure with a vast increase in the amount of data. The problem of query optimization becomes an issue in querying large RDF graphs. Choosing the best query plan reduces the amount of query execution time. To address this problem, nature inspired algorithms can be used as an alternative to the traditional query optimization techniques. In this research, the optimal query plan is generated by the proposed SAPSO algorithm which is a hybrid of Simulated Annealing (SA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms. The proposed SAPSO algorithm has the ability to find the local optimistic result and it avoids the problem of local minimum. Experiments were performed on different datasets by changing the number of predicates and the amount of data. The proposed algorithm gives improved results compared to existing algorithms in terms of query execution time.

Keywords: Semantic web, RDF, Query optimization, Nature inspired algorithms, PSO, SA.

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628 Constitutive Equations for Human Saphenous Vein Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

Authors: Hynek Chlup, Lukas Horny, Rudolf Zitny, Svatava Konvickova, Tomas Adamek

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Coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG) are widely studied with respect to hemodynamic conditions which play important role in presence of a restenosis. However, papers which concern with constitutive modeling of CABG are lacking in the literature. The purpose of this study is to find a constitutive model for CABG tissue. A sample of the CABG obtained within an autopsy underwent an inflation–extension test. Displacements were recoredered by CCD cameras and subsequently evaluated by digital image correlation. Pressure – radius and axial force – elongation data were used to fit material model. The tissue was modeled as onelayered composite reinforced by two families of helical fibers. The material is assumed to be locally orthotropic, nonlinear, incompressible and hyperelastic. Material parameters are estimated for two strain energy functions (SEF). The first is classical exponential. The second SEF is logarithmic which allows interpretation by means of limiting (finite) strain extensibility. Presented material parameters are estimated by optimization based on radial and axial equilibrium equation in a thick-walled tube. Both material models fit experimental data successfully. The exponential model fits significantly better relationship between axial force and axial strain than logarithmic one.

Keywords: Constitutive model, coronary artery bypass graft, digital image correlation, fiber reinforced composite, inflation test, saphenous vein.

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