Search results for: functional independence measure (FIM)

Authors: Y. S. Lee, F. Malek, E. M. Cheng, W. W. Liu, F. H. Wee, M. N. Iqbal, Z. Liyana, B. S. Yew, F. S. Abdullah

Abstract:

This paper presents the electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness of rice husk and carbon nanotubes (RHCNTs) composites in the X-band region (8.2-12.4 GHz). The difference weight ratio of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were mix with the rice husk. The rectangular waveguide technique was used to measure the complex permittivity of the RHCNTs composites materials. The complex permittivity is represented in terms of both the real and imaginary parts of permittivity in X-band frequency. The conductivity of RHCNTs shows increasing when the ratio of CNTs mixture increases. The composites materials were simulated using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave Studio simulation software. The shielding effectiveness of RHCNTs and pure rice husk was compared. The highest EMI SE of 30 dB is obtained for RHCNTs composites of 10 wt % CNTs with 10mm thickness.

Keywords: EMI Shielding effectiveness, Carbon nanotube, Composite materials, Waveguide, X-band.

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Authors: Roman Novak, Matjaz Vencelj

Abstract:

The angular distribution of Compton scattering of two quanta originating in the annihilation of a positron with an electron is investigated as a quantum key distribution (QKD) mechanism in the gamma spectral range. The geometry of coincident Compton scattering is observed on the two sides as a way to obtain partially correlated readings on the quantum channel. We derive the noise probability density function of a conceptually equivalent prepare and measure quantum channel in order to evaluate the limits of the concept in terms of the device secrecy capacity and estimate it at roughly 1.9 bits per 1 000 annihilation events. The high error rate is well above the tolerable error rates of the common reconciliation protocols; therefore, the proposed key agreement protocol by public discussion requires key reconciliation using classical error-correcting codes. We constructed a prototype device based on the readily available monolithic detectors in the least complex setup.

Keywords: Compton scattering, gamma-ray polarization, quantumcryptography, quantum key distribution

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Authors: Mallappa A. Devani, John U. Kennedy Oubagaranadin, Basudeb Munshi

Abstract:

In this preliminary work, locally available husk of Cajanus cajan (commonly known in India as Tur or Arhar), a bio-waste, has been used in its physically treated and chemically activated form for the removal of binary Cu (II) and Zn(II) ions from the real waste water obtained from an electroplating industry in Bangalore, Karnataka, India and from laboratory prepared binary solutions having almost similar composition of the metal ions, for comparison. The real wastewater after filtration and dilution for five times was used for biosorption studies at the normal pH of the solutions at room temperature. Langmuir's binary model was used to calculate the metal uptake capacities of the biosorbents. It was observed that Cu(II) is more competitive than Zn(II) in biosorption. In individual metal biosorption, Cu(II) uptake was found to be more than that of the Zn(II) and a similar trend was observed in the binary metal biosorption from real wastewater and laboratory prepared solutions. FTIR analysis was carried out to identify the functional groups in the industrial wastewater and EDAX for the elemental analysis of the biosorbents after experiments.

Keywords: Biosorption, Cajanus cajan, multi metal remediation, wastewater.

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Authors: Zahra Amirhosseini, Alireza Bashiri

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to examine and identify the type of Iranian financial market in terms of being symmetrical or asymmetrical and to measure relationship between type of market and the market's indices. In this study, daily information on the market-s Share Price Index, Industrial Index and Top Fifty Most Active Companies during the years 1999-2010 has been used. In addition, to determine type of the financial market, rate of return on Security is taken into account. In this research, by using logistic regression analysis methods, relationship of the market type with the above mentioned indices have been examined. The results showed that the type of the financial market has a positive significant association with market share price index and Industrial Index. Index of Top Fifty Most Active Companies is significantly associated with type of financial market, however this relationship is inverse.

Keywords: All Share Price Index, Asymmetrical Market, Industrial Index, Symmetrical Market, Top Fifty Most Active Companies Index

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Authors: Bella Llego

Abstract:

This study on “The relationship between human resource practices and Firm Performance is a speculative investigation research. The purpose of this research are (1) to provide and to understand of HRM history and current HR practices in the Philippines (2) to examine the extent of HRM practice among its Philippine firms effectively; (3) to investigate the relationship between HRM practice and firm performance in the Philippines. The survey was done to 233 companies in the Philippines. The questionnaire is divided into three parts a) to gathers information on the profile of respondent, b) to measures the extent to which human resource practices are being practiced in their organization c) to measure the organizations performance as perceived by human resource managers and top executives as compared with their competitors in the same industry. As a result an interesting finding was that almost 50 percent of firm performance is affected by the extent of implementation of HR practices in the firm. These results show that HR practices that are in line with the organization’s strategic goals are important for future performance.

Keywords: Economic Growth, Firm performance, Human Resource Practices, Management.

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Authors: Dinesh Rao, M.G.M. Khan, Sabiha Khan

Abstract:

Calibration estimation is a method of adjusting the original design weights to improve the survey estimates by using auxiliary information such as the known population total (or mean) of the auxiliary variables. A calibration estimator uses calibrated weights that are determined to minimize a given distance measure to the original design weights while satisfying a set of constraints related to the auxiliary information. In this paper, we propose a new multivariate calibration estimator for the population mean in the stratified sampling design, which incorporates information available for more than one auxiliary variable. The problem of determining the optimum calibrated weights is formulated as a Mathematical Programming Problem (MPP) that is solved using the Lagrange multiplier technique.

Keywords: Calibration estimation, Stratified sampling, Multivariate auxiliary information, Mathematical programming problem, Lagrange multiplier technique.

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Authors: Muhammad Zeeshan UlHaque, Peng Du, Leo K. Cheng, Marc D. Jacobs

Abstract:

Sensory nerves in the foot play an important part in the diagnosis of various neuropathydisorders, especially in diabetes mellitus.However, a detailed description of the anatomical distribution of the nerves is currently lacking. A computationalmodel of the afferent nerves inthe foot may bea useful tool for the study of diabetic neuropathy. In this study, we present the development of an anatomically-based model of various major sensory nerves of the sole and dorsal sidesof the foot. In addition, we presentan algorithm for generating synthetic somatosensory nerve networks in the big-toe region of a right foot model. The algorithm was based on a modified version of the Monte Carlo algorithm, with the capability of being able to vary the intra-epidermal nerve fiber density in differentregionsof the foot model. Preliminary results from the combinedmodel show the realistic anatomical structure of the major nerves as well as the smaller somatosensory nerves of the foot. The model may now be developed to investigate the functional outcomes of structural neuropathyindiabetic patients.

Keywords: Diabetic neuropathy, Finite element modeling, Monte Carlo Algorithm, Somatosensory nerve networks

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Authors: Sonia Manhas, Parvinder S. Sandhu, Vinay Chopra, Nirvair Neeru

Abstract:

The cost of developing the software from scratch can be saved by identifying and extracting the reusable components from already developed and existing software systems or legacy systems [6]. But the issue of how to identify reusable components from existing systems has remained relatively unexplored. We have used metric based approach for characterizing a software module. In this present work, the metrics McCabe-s Cyclometric Complexity Measure for Complexity measurement, Regularity Metric, Halstead Software Science Indicator for Volume indication, Reuse Frequency metric and Coupling Metric values of the software component are used as input attributes to the different types of Neural Network system and reusability of the software component is calculated. The results are recorded in terms of Accuracy, Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE).

Keywords: Software reusability, Neural Networks, MAE, RMSE, Accuracy.

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Authors: C. M. A. Robles G., R. A. Hernandez-Becerril

Abstract:

We board the problem of creating a seismic alert system, based upon artificial neural networks, trained by using the well-known back-propagation and genetic algorithms, in order to emit the alarm for the population located into a specific city, about an eminent earthquake greater than 4.5 Richter degrees, and avoiding disasters and human loses. In lieu of using the propagation wave, we employed the magnitude of the earthquake, to establish a correlation between the recorded magnitudes from a controlled area and the city, where we want to emit the alarm. To measure the accuracy of the posed method, we use a database provided by CIRES, which contains the records of 2500 quakes incoming from the State of Guerrero and Mexico City. Particularly, we performed the proposed method to generate an issue warning in Mexico City, employing the magnitudes recorded in the State of Guerrero.

Keywords: Seismic Alert System, Artificial Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms.

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Authors: Rita C. Ramos

Abstract:

Medical Surgical Nursing is one of the major subjects in nursing. This study examined the validity and reliability of the achievement examination utilizing the Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory. The study answered the following objectives specifically : ( a) To establish the validity and reliability of the achievement examination utilizing Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory ; ( b ) To determine the dimensionality measure of items and ( c ) to compare the item difficulty and item discrimination of the Medical Surgical Nursing Achievement examination using Classical Test Theory ( CTT ) and Item Response Theory ( IRT ). The developed instrument was administered to fourth year nursing students (N= 136) of a private university in Manila. The findings yielded the following results: The achievement examination is reliable both using CTT and IRT. The findings indicate person and item statistics from two frameworks are quite alike. The achievement examination formed a unidimensional construct.

Keywords: Achievement Examination, Item Response Theory, Medical Surgical, Nursing.

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Authors: H. Mehdi, Kh. S. Karimov, A. A. Kavokin

Abstract:

Methods of clustering which were developed in the data mining theory can be successfully applied to the investigation of different kinds of dependencies between the conditions of environment and human activities. It is known, that environmental parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and illumination have significant effects on the human mental performance. To investigate these parameters effect, data mining technique of clustering using entropy and Information Gain Ratio (IGR) K(Y/X) = (H(X)–H(Y/X))/H(Y) is used, where H(Y)=-ΣPi ln(Pi). This technique allows adjusting the boundaries of clusters. It is shown that the information gain ratio (IGR) grows monotonically and simultaneously with degree of connectivity between two variables. This approach has some preferences if compared, for example, with correlation analysis due to relatively smaller sensitivity to shape of functional dependencies. Variant of an algorithm to implement the proposed method with some analysis of above problem of environmental effects is also presented. It was shown that proposed method converges with finite number of steps.

Keywords: Clustering, Correlation analysis, EnvironmentalParameters, Information Gain Ratio, Mental Performance.

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Authors: Efthymios Gravas, Anastasios Alexandridis, Antonios Stavropoulos

Abstract:

The growing interest in the issue of intangible assets not only in the scientific community but also in some professional bodies internationally can be explained by several points of view. From the business perspective, enterprises are increasingly motivated by external and internal forces to measure and proactively manage their intangibles. With respect to the issue of intangibles, goodwill has been debated in many countries throughout the world. Despite the numerous efforts and the existence of international accounting standards there is not yet a common accepted accounting treatment for goodwill. This study attempts on the one hand to impress the accounting treatment of goodwill internationally, on the other hand analyses the major subjects in relation to the accounting treatment of goodwill in Greece, since 2005, year where the international accounting standards have been in use for the Greek listed companies. The results indicate that the accounting treatment for the goodwill in Greece, despite the effort for accounting harmonization in Europe from 2005, sustains many differences especially for the no listed companies.

Keywords: Intangible Assets, Goodwill, International Accounting Standards, Greek Accounting System and Law

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Authors: Kok, M.O., Omar-Fauzee, M.S., Rosli, M.H.

Abstract:

This study investigated the relationship between exercise imagery use and level of physical activity within a wide range of exercisers in Klang valley, Malaysia. One hundred and twenty four respondents (Mage = 28.92, SD = 9.34) completed two sets of questionnaires (Exercise Imagery Inventory and Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire) that measure the use of imagery and exercise frequency of participants. From the result obtained, exercise imagery is found to be significantly correlated to level of physical activity. Besides that, variables such as gender, age and ethnicity that may affect the use of imagery and exercise frequency were also being assessed in this study. Among all variables, only ethnicity showed significant difference in level of physical activity (p < 0.05). Findings in this study suggest that further investigation should be done on other variables such as socioeconomic, educational level, and selfefficacy that may affect the imagery use and frequency of physical activity among exercisers.

Keywords: Physical activity, exercise imagery, ExerciseImagery Inventory, Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire

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Authors: Hong Yi Huang, Wei Ti Kuo, Yi You Huang

Abstract:

Non-viral gene carriers composed of biodegradable polymers or lipids have been considered as a safer alternative for gene carriers over viral vectors. We have developed multi-functional nano-micelles for both drug and gene delivery application. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) was modified by grafting stearic acid (SA) and formulated to polymeric micelles (PEI-SA) with positive surface charge for gene and drug delivery. Our results showed that PEI-SA micelles provided high siRNA binding efficiency. In addition, siRNA delivered by PEI-SA carriers also demonstrated significantly high cellular uptake even in the presence of serum proteins. The post-transcriptional gene silencing efficiency was greatly improved by the polyplex formulated by 10k PEI-SA/siRNA. The amphiphilic structure of PEI-SA micelles provided advantages for multifunctional tasks; where the hydrophilic shell modified with cationic charges can electrostatically interact with DNA or siRNA, and the hydrophobic core can serve as payloads for hydrophobic drugs, making it a promising multifunctional vehicle for both genetic and chemotherapy application.

Keywords: polyethyleneimine, gene delivery, micelles, siRNA

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Authors: Mohsen Shirani, Shadi Asadzandi, Micaela Demichela

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a study to assess crucial aspects and the strength of the scientific basis of a typically interdisciplinary, applied field: food supply chain risk assessment research. Our approach is based on an advanced scientometrics analysis that is a quantitative study of the disciplines of science based on published literature to measure interdisciplinary. This paper aims to describe the quantity and quality of the publication trends in food supply chain risk assessment. The publication under study was composed of 266 articles from database web of science. The results were analyzed based on date of publication, type of document, language of the documents, source of publications, subject areas, authors and their affiliations, and the countries involved in developing the articles.

Keywords: Food Supply Chain, Risk Assessment, Scientometrics, Web of science.

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Authors: Chang Lee Shu-Jung, Mei-Se Chien, Chien-Chiang Lee, Hui-Ting Hu

Abstract:

This paper applies recursive cointegration analysis to examine the dynamic changes in Feldstein-Horioka saving-investment (S-I) coefficients across China and the ASEAN-5 countries over time. To the extent that the S-I coefficients measure international capital mobility, the main empirical results are as follows. The recursive trace statistics show that the investment- savings nexus varies in these six countries. There is no cointegration between investment and savings in three countries (China, Malaysia, and Singapore), which means that the mobility of the capital markets in the three is high and that domestic investment in them will be financed by the global pool of capital. As to the other three countries (Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines), there is cointegration between investment and savings for part of the sample period in the three, including before 2002 for Thailand, before 2001 for Indonesia, and before 2002 for Philippines. This shows these three countries achieved highly mobile and open capital markets later.

Keywords: Investment, savings, recursive cointegration test, ASEAN, China.

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Authors: T. Chandrasekhar, K. Thangavel, E. N. Sathishkumar

Abstract:

Microarrays are made it possible to simultaneously monitor the expression profiles of thousands of genes under various experimental conditions. It is used to identify the co-expressed genes in specific cells or tissues that are actively used to make proteins. This method is used to analysis the gene expression, an important task in bioinformatics research. Cluster analysis of gene expression data has proved to be a useful tool for identifying co-expressed genes, biologically relevant groupings of genes and samples. In this work K-Means algorithms has been applied for clustering of Gene Expression Data. Further, rough set based Quick reduct algorithm has been applied for each cluster in order to select the most similar genes having high correlation. Then the ACV measure is used to evaluate the refined clusters and classification is used to evaluate the proposed method. They could identify compact clusters with feature selection method used to genes are selected.

Keywords: Clustering, Feature selection, Gene expression data, Quick reduct.

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Authors: Emanuele Stomeo, Tatiana Kalganova, Cyrille Lambert

Abstract:

The evolution of logic circuits, which falls under the heading of evolvable hardware, is carried out by evolutionary algorithms. These algorithms are able to automatically configure reconfigurable devices. One of main difficulties in developing evolvable hardware with the ability to design functional electrical circuits is to choose the most favourable EA features such as fitness function, chromosome representations, population size, genetic operators and individual selection. Until now several researchers from the evolvable hardware community have used and tuned these parameters and various rules on how to select the value of a particular parameter have been proposed. However, to date, no one has presented a study regarding the size of the chromosome representation (circuit layout) to be used as a platform for the evolution in order to increase the evolvability, reduce the number of generations and optimize the digital logic circuits through reducing the number of logic gates. In this paper this topic has been thoroughly investigated and the optimal parameters for these EA features have been proposed. The evolution of logic circuits has been carried out by an extrinsic evolvable hardware system which uses (1+λ) evolution strategy as the core of the evolution.

Keywords: Evolvable hardware, genotype size, computational intelligence, design of logic circuits.

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Authors: K. S. Jasmine, R. Vasantha

Abstract:

The overriding goal of software engineering is to provide a high quality system, application or a product. To achieve this goal, software engineers must apply effective methods coupled with modern tools within the context of a mature software process [2]. In addition, it is also must to assure that high quality is realized. Although many quality measures can be collected at the project levels, the important measures are errors and defects. Deriving a quality measure for reusable components has proven to be challenging task now a days. The results obtained from the study are based on the empirical evidence of reuse practices, as emerged from the analysis of industrial projects. Both large and small companies, working in a variety of business domains, and using object-oriented and procedural development approaches contributed towards this study. This paper proposes a quality metric that provides benefit at both project and process level, namely defect removal efficiency (DRE).

Keywords: Software Reuse, Defect density, Reuse metrics, Defect Removal efficiency.

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Authors: H. K. G. K. D. K. Hapuhinna, R. D. Gunaratne, H. M. J. C. Pitawala

Abstract:

This study aimed to find out chemical and structural suitability of synthesized eppawala hydroxyapatite composite as bone cement, by comparing and contrasting it with human bone as well as commercially available bone cement, which is currently used in orthopedic surgeries. Therefore, a mixture of commercially available bone cement and its liquid monomer, commercially available methyl methacrylate (MMA) and a mixture of solid state synthesized eppawala hydroxyapatite powder with commercially available MMA were prepared as the direct substitution for bone cement. Then physical and chemical properties including composition, crystallinity, presence of functional groups, thermal stability, surface morphology, and microstructural features were examined compared to human bone. Results show that there is a close similarity between synthesized product and human bone and it has exhibited high thermal stability, good crystalline and porous properties than the commercial product. Finally, the study concluded that synthesized hydroxyapatite composite can be used directly as a substitution for commercial bone cement.

Keywords: Hydroxyapatite, bone cement, methyl methacrylate, orthopedics.

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Authors: Omid A. Zargar

Abstract:

Material damages dynamic analysis is difficult to deal with different material geometry and mechanism. In addition, it is difficult to measure the dynamic behavior of cracks, debond and delamination inside the material. Different simulation methods are developed in recent years for different physical features of mechanical systems like vibration and acoustic. Nonlinear fractures are analyzed and identified for different locations in this paper. The main idea of this work is to perform dynamic analysis on different types of materials (from normal homogeneous material to complex composite laminates). Technical factors like cracks, voids, interfaces and the damages’ locations are evaluated. In this project the modal analysis is performed on different types of materials. The results could be helpful in finding modal frequencies, natural frequencies, Time domain and fast Fourier transform (FFT) in industrial applications.

Keywords: Finite element method, dynamic analysis, vibration and acoustic, composite, crack, delamination.

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Authors: Anas M. Fares, A. Touqan

Abstract:

A common approach in resisting lateral forces is the use of reinforced concrete shear walls in buildings. These walls represent the main elements to resist the lateral forces due to their large strength and stiffness. However, such walls may contain many openings due to functional requirements, and this may largely affect the overall lateral stiffness of them. It is thus of prime importance to quantify the effect of openings on the dynamic performance of the shear walls. SAP2000 structural analysis program is used as a main source after verifying the results. This study is made by using linear elastic analysis. The results are compared to ASCE7-16 code empirical equations for estimating the fundamental period of shear wall structures. Finally, statistical regression is used to fit an equation for estimating the increase in the fundamental period of shear-walled regular structures due to windows openings in the walls.

Keywords: Concrete, earthquake-resistant design, finite element, fundamental period, lateral stiffness, linear analysis, modal analysis, rayleigh, SAP2000, shear wall, ASCE7-16.

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Authors: Jee-Sang Kim, Jong Ho Park

Abstract:

Geopolymer concretes are new class of construction materials that have emerged as an alternative to Ordinary Portland cement concrete. Considerable researches have been carried out on material development of geopolymer concrete; however, a few studies have been reported on the structural use of them. This paper presents the bond behaviors of reinforcement embedded in fly ash based geopolymer concrete. The development lengths of reinforcement for various compressive strengths of concrete, 20, 30 and 40 MPa, and reinforcement diameters, 10, 16 and 25 mm, are investigated. Total 27 specimens were manufactured and pull-out test according to EN 10080 was applied to measure bond strength and slips between concrete and reinforcements. The average bond strengths decreased from 23.06MPa to 17.26 MPa, as the diameters of reinforcements increased from 10mm to 25mm. The compressive strength levels of geopolymer concrete showed no significant influence on bond strengths in this study. Also, the bond-slip relations between geopolymer concrete and reinforcement are derived using non-linear regression analysis for various experimental conditions.

Keywords: Bond-slip relation, bond strength, geopolymer concrete, pull-out test.

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Authors: Sudip Ghosh, Probir Kumar Ghosh, Paramita Bhattacharjee

Abstract:

Supercritical carbon dioxide extracts of Cinnamomum tamala (bay) leaves obtained at 55°C, 512 bar was found to have appreciable nutraceutical properties and was successfully employed as value-added ingredients in preparation of tofu. The bay leaf formulated tofu sample was evaluated for physicochemical properties (pH, texture analysis and lipid peroxidation), proximate analysis, phytochemical properties (total phenol content, antioxidant properties and total reducing sugar), microbial load and sensory profile analysis for a storage period of ten days, vis-à-vis an experimental control sample. These assays established the superiority of the tofu sample formulated with supercritical carbon dioxide extract of bay leaf over the control sample. Bay leaf extract formulated tofu is a new green functional food with promising nutraceutical benefits. 

Keywords: Cinnamomum tamala, Physicochemical properties Phytochemical properties, Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction, Tofu.

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Authors: Peter Rothenpieler, Daniela Kruger, Dennis Pfisterer, Stefan Fischer, Denise Dudek, Christian Haas, Martina Zitterbart

Abstract:

In the project FleGSens, a wireless sensor network (WSN) for the surveillance of critical areas and properties is currently developed which incorporates mechanisms to ensure information security. The intended prototype consists of 200 sensor nodes for monitoring a 500m long land strip. The system is focused on ensuring integrity and authenticity of generated alarms and availability in the presence of an attacker who may even compromise a limited number of sensor nodes. In this paper, two of the main protocols developed in the project are presented, a tracking protocol to provide secure detection of trespasses within the monitored area and a protocol for secure detection of node failures. Simulation results of networks containing 200 and 2000 nodes as well as the results of the first prototype comprising a network of 16 nodes are presented. The focus of the simulations and prototype are functional testing of the protocols and particularly demonstrating the impact and cost of several attacks.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Network, Security, Trespass Detection, Testbed.

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Authors: Helene Martin, Solmaz Boroomandi Barati, Jean-Charles Pinoli, Stephane Valette, Yann Gavet

Abstract:

In the present work we developed an image processing algorithm to measure water droplets characteristics during dropwise condensation on pillared surfaces. The main problem in this process is the similarity between shape and size of water droplets and the pillars. The developed method divides droplets into four main groups based on their size and applies the corresponding algorithm to segment each group. These algorithms generate binary images of droplets based on both their geometrical and intensity properties. The information related to droplets evolution during time including mean radius and drops number per unit area are then extracted from the binary images. The developed image processing algorithm is verified using manual detection and applied to two different sets of images corresponding to two kinds of pillared surfaces.

Keywords: Dropwise condensation, textured surface, image processing, watershed.

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Authors: R. J. Chang

Abstract:

A cyclostationary Gaussian linearization method is formulated for investigating the time average response of nonlinear system under sinusoidal signal and white noise excitation. The quantitative measure of cyclostationary mean, variance, spectrum of mean amplitude, and mean power spectral density of noise are analyzed. The qualitative response behavior of stochastic jump and bifurcation are investigated. The validity of the present approach in predicting the quantitative and qualitative statistical responses is supported by utilizing Monte Carlo simulations. The present analysis without imposing restrictive analytical conditions can be directly derived by solving non-linear algebraic equations. The analytical solution gives reliable quantitative and qualitative prediction of mean and noise response for the Duffing system subjected to both sinusoidal signal and white noise excitation.

Keywords: Cyclostationary, Duffing system, Gaussian linearization, sinusoidal signal and white noise.

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Authors: Sarah Reker

Abstract:

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) provides the basis of this study. For all countries which have ratified the convention since its entry into force in 2007, the effective implementation of the requirements often leads to considerable challenges. Furthermore, missing indicators make it difficult to measure progress. Therefore, the aim of the research project is to contribute to analyze the consequences of the implementation process on the inclusion and exclusion conditions for people with disabilities in Germany. Disabled People’s Organisations and other associations consider the social space to be relevant for the successful implementation of the CRPD. Against this background, the research project wants to focus on the relationship between a barrier-free access to the social space and the “full and effective participation and inclusion” (Art. 3) of persons with disabilities. The theoretical basis of the study is the sociological theory of social space (“Sozialraumtheorie”).

Keywords: Decentralisation, qualitative research, residential facilities, social space.

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Authors: J. Yang, Y. Ma, X. Zhang, S. Li, Y. Zhang

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The traditional k-means algorithm has been widely used as a simple and efficient clustering method. However, the algorithm often converges to local minima for the reason that it is sensitive to the initial cluster centers. In this paper, an algorithm for selecting initial cluster centers on the basis of minimum spanning tree (MST) is presented. The set of vertices in MST with same degree are regarded as a whole which is used to find the skeleton data points. Furthermore, a distance measure between the skeleton data points with consideration of degree and Euclidean distance is presented. Finally, MST-based initialization method for the k-means algorithm is presented, and the corresponding time complexity is analyzed as well. The presented algorithm is tested on five data sets from the UCI Machine Learning Repository. The experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the presented algorithm compared to three existing initialization methods.

Keywords: Degree, initial cluster center, k-means, minimum spanning tree.

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Authors: Bruno Félix, André Vasconcelos, José Tribolet

Abstract:

Nowadays increasingly the population makes use of Information Technology (IT). As such, in recent year the Portuguese government increased its focus on using the IT for improving people-s life and began to develop a set of measures to enable the modernization of the Public Administration, and so reducing the gap between Public Administration and citizens.Thus the Portuguese Government launched the Simplex Program. However these SIMPLEX eGov measures, which have been implemented over the years, present a serious challenge: how to forecast its impact on existing Information Systems Architecture (ISA). Thus, this research is focus in addressing the problem of automating the evaluation of the actual impact of implementation an eGovSimplification and Modernization measures in the Information Systems Architecture. To realize the evaluation we proposes a Framework, which is supported by some key concepts as: Quality Factors, ISA modeling, Multicriteria Approach, Polarity Profile and Quality Metrics

Keywords: Information System Architecture, Evaluation, eGov Simplification measure, Multicriteria Evaluation

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