Search results for: land space
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1845

Search results for: land space

705 Leadership in Future Operational Environment

Authors: M. Şimşek

Abstract:

Rapidly changing factors that affect daily life also affect operational environment and the way military leaders fulfill their missions. With the help of technological developments, traditional linearity of conflict and war has started to fade away. Furthermore, mission domain has broadened to include traditional threats, hybrid threats and new challenges of cyber and space. Considering the future operational environment, future military leaders need to adapt themselves to the new challenges of the future battlefield. But how to decide what kind of features of leadership are required to operate and accomplish mission in the new complex battlefield? In this article, the main aim is to provide answers to this question. To be able to find right answers, first leadership and leadership components are defined, and then characteristics of future operational environment are analyzed. Finally, leadership features that are required to be successful in redefined battlefield are explained. 

Keywords: Future operational environment, leadership, leadership components.

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704 Stress Variation of Underground Building Structure during Top-Down Construction

Authors: Soo-yeon Seo, Seol-ki Kim, Su-jin Jung

Abstract:

In the construction of a building, it is necessary to minimize construction period and secure enough work space for stacking of materials during the construction especially in city area. In this manner, various top-down construction methods have been developed and widely used in Korea. This paper investigates the stress variation of underground structure of a building constructed by using SPS (Strut as Permanent System) known as a top-down method in Korea through an analytical approach. Various types of earth pressure distribution related to ground condition were considered in the structural analysis of an example structure at each step of the excavation. From the analysis, the most high member force acting on beams was found when the ground type was medium sandy soil and a stress concentration was found in corner area.

Keywords: Construction of building, top-down construction method, earth pressure distribution, member force, stress concentration.

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703 A Hybrid GMM/SVM System for Text Independent Speaker Identification

Authors: Rafik Djemili, Mouldi Bedda, Hocine Bourouba

Abstract:

This paper proposes a novel approach that combines statistical models and support vector machines. A hybrid scheme which appropriately incorporates the advantages of both the generative and discriminant model paradigms is described and evaluated. Support vector machines (SVMs) are trained to divide the whole speakers' space into small subsets of speakers within a hierarchical tree structure. During testing a speech token is assigned to its corresponding group and evaluation using gaussian mixture models (GMMs) is then processed. Experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the performance of text independent speaker identification task. We report improvements of up to 50% reduction in identification error rate compared to the baseline statistical model.

Keywords: Speaker identification, Gaussian mixture model (GMM), support vector machine (SVM), hybrid GMM/SVM.

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702 Mechanical Qualification Test Campaign on the Demise Observation Capsule

Authors: B. Tiseo, V. Quaranta, G. Bruno, R. Gardi, T. Watts, S. Dussy

Abstract:

This paper describes the qualification test campaign performed on the Demise Observation Capsule DOC-EQM as part of the Future Launch Preparatory Program FLPP3. The mechanical environment experienced during launch ascent and separation phase was first identified and then replicated in terms of sine, random and shock vibration. The loads identification is derived by selecting the worst possible case. Vibration and shock qualification test performed at CIRA Space Qualification laboratory is herein described. Mechanical fixtures’ design and validation, carried out by means of FEM, is also addressed due to its fundamental role in the vibrational test campaign. The Demise Observation Capsule (DOC) successfully passed the qualification test campaign. Functional test and resonance search have not been point any fault and damages of the capsule.

Keywords: Capsule, demise, DOC, launch environment, Re-Entry, qualification.

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701 Ensemble Learning with Decision Tree for Remote Sensing Classification

Authors: Mahesh Pal

Abstract:

In recent years, a number of works proposing the combination of multiple classifiers to produce a single classification have been reported in remote sensing literature. The resulting classifier, referred to as an ensemble classifier, is generally found to be more accurate than any of the individual classifiers making up the ensemble. As accuracy is the primary concern, much of the research in the field of land cover classification is focused on improving classification accuracy. This study compares the performance of four ensemble approaches (boosting, bagging, DECORATE and random subspace) with a univariate decision tree as base classifier. Two training datasets, one without ant noise and other with 20 percent noise was used to judge the performance of different ensemble approaches. Results with noise free data set suggest an improvement of about 4% in classification accuracy with all ensemble approaches in comparison to the results provided by univariate decision tree classifier. Highest classification accuracy of 87.43% was achieved by boosted decision tree. A comparison of results with noisy data set suggests that bagging, DECORATE and random subspace approaches works well with this data whereas the performance of boosted decision tree degrades and a classification accuracy of 79.7% is achieved which is even lower than that is achieved (i.e. 80.02%) by using unboosted decision tree classifier.

Keywords: Ensemble learning, decision tree, remote sensingclassification.

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700 Simulated Annealing and Genetic Algorithm in Telecommunications Network Planning

Authors: Aleksandar Tsenov

Abstract:

The main goal of this work is to propose a way for combined use of two nontraditional algorithms by solving topological problems on telecommunications concentrator networks. The algorithms suggested are the Simulated Annealing algorithm and the Genetic Algorithm. The Algorithm of Simulated Annealing unifies the well known local search algorithms. In addition - Simulated Annealing allows acceptation of moves in the search space witch lead to decisions with higher cost in order to attempt to overcome any local minima obtained. The Genetic Algorithm is a heuristic approach witch is being used in wide areas of optimization works. In the last years this approach is also widely implemented in Telecommunications Networks Planning. In order to solve less or more complex planning problem it is important to find the most appropriate parameters for initializing the function of the algorithm.

Keywords: Concentrator network, genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, UCPL.

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699 Looking for a Favorable Central Place for the Establishment of Educational and Health Care Centre to Equally Facilitate Both Genders in Taluka Kunri of District Umerkot, Sindh, Pakistan

Authors: Muhammad Liaquat Ali, Nasir-uddin Khan, Mushtaq Hussain, Asif Mansoor, Muhammad Shahid

Abstract:

Population in rural areas are scattered in the form of different villages or settlements. The proper selection of land to launch any educational or health activities to equally facilitate both the genders is the sticky situation, both for Govt. and Private organizations. Govt. spends substantial funds for the establishment of education institution/health centre at the place which is feasible and accessible to general public. However for specific gender, the gender population is also considered so that both the gender may be benefited equally. In this research, efforts have been made to illustrate how one can choose or locate the best central place/ area in Taluka Kunri of district Umerkot Sindh Pakistan where the Educational or Health activity is to be initiated. For the purpose the concept of centre of mass theorem is used as a tool to develop mathematical model, subsequently utilize in achieving the objectives.

Keywords: Centre of mass theorem, Establishment of technical/ vocational/ health care centre, Gender population of taluka Kunri of District Umerkot, Graphical interpretation of town committee/villages.

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698 Communities of Interest: Three Unique Case Studies in Wider University and School Partnerships in Australia

Authors: M. Zeegers, D. Barron

Abstract:

In this paper we canvass three case studies of unique research partnerships between universities and schools in the wider community. In doing so, we consider those areas of indeterminate zones of professional practice explored by academics in their research activities within the wider community. We discuss three cases: an artist-in-residence program designed to engage primary school children with new understandings about local Indigenous Australian issues in their pedagogical and physical landscapes; an assessment of pedagogical concerns in relation to the use of physical space in classrooms; and the pedagogical underpinnings of a costumed museum school program. In doing so, we engage issues of research as playing an integral part in the development, implementation and maintenance of academic engagements with wider community issues.

Keywords: communities of interest, universities, schools, partnerships

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697 Soil Moisture Control System: A Product Development Approach

Authors: Swapneel U. Naphade, Dushyant A. Patil, Satyabodh M. Kulkarni

Abstract:

In this work, we propose the concept and geometrical design of a soil moisture control system (SMCS) module by following the product development approach to develop an inexpensive, easy to use and quick to install product targeted towards agriculture practitioners. The module delivers water to the agricultural land efficiently by sensing the soil moisture and activating the delivery valve. We start with identifying the general needs of the potential customer. Then, based on customer needs we establish product specifications and identify important measuring quantities to evaluate our product. Keeping in mind the specifications, we develop various conceptual solutions of the product and select the best solution through concept screening and selection matrices. Then, we develop the product architecture by integrating the systems into the final product. In the end, the geometric design is done using human factors engineering concepts like heuristic analysis, task analysis, and human error reduction analysis. The result of human factors analysis reveals the remedies which should be applied while designing the geometry and software components of the product. We find that to design the best grip in terms of comfort and applied force, for a power-type grip, a grip-diameter of 35 mm is the most ideal.

Keywords: Agriculture, human factors, product design, soil moisture control.

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696 Advanced Information Extraction with n-gram based LSI

Authors: Ahmet Güven, Ö. Özgür Bozkurt, Oya Kalıpsız

Abstract:

Number of documents being created increases at an increasing pace while most of them being in already known topics and little of them introducing new concepts. This fact has started a new era in information retrieval discipline where the requirements have their own specialties. That is digging into topics and concepts and finding out subtopics or relations between topics. Up to now IR researches were interested in retrieving documents about a general topic or clustering documents under generic subjects. However these conventional approaches can-t go deep into content of documents which makes it difficult for people to reach to right documents they were searching. So we need new ways of mining document sets where the critic point is to know much about the contents of the documents. As a solution we are proposing to enhance LSI, one of the proven IR techniques by supporting its vector space with n-gram forms of words. Positive results we have obtained are shown in two different application area of IR domain; querying a document database, clustering documents in the document database.

Keywords: Document clustering, Information Extraction, Information Retrieval, LSI, n-gram.

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695 Theory of Nanowire Radial p-n-Junction

Authors: Stepan Petrosyan, Ashkhen Yesayan, Suren Nersesyan

Abstract:

We have developed an analytic model for the radial pn-junction in a nanowire (NW) core-shell structure utilizing as a new building block in different semiconductor devices. The potential distribution through the p-n-junction is calculated and the analytical expressions are derived to compute the depletion region widths. We show that the widths of space charge layers, surrounding the core, are the functions of core radius, which is the manifestation of so called classical size effect. The relationship between the depletion layer width and the built-in potential in the asymptotes of infinitely large core radius transforms to square-root dependence specific for conventional planar p-n-junctions. The explicit equation is derived to compute the capacitance of radial p-n-junction. The current-voltage behavior is also carefully determined taking into account the “short base" effects.

Keywords: Snanowire, p-n- junction, barrier capacitance, high injection.

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694 Graphene Oxide Fiber with Different Exfoliation Time and Activated Carbon Particle

Authors: Nuray Uçar, Mervin Ölmez, Özge Alptoğa, Nilgün K. Yavuz, Ayşen Önen

Abstract:

In recent years, research on continuous graphene oxide fibers has been intensified. Therefore, many factors of production stages are being studied. In this study, the effect of exfoliation time and presence of activated carbon particle (ACP) on graphene oxide fiber’s properties has been analyzed. It has been seen that cross-sectional appearance of sample with ACP is harsh and porous because of ACP. The addition of ACP did not change the electrical conductivity. However, ACP results in an enormous decrease of mechanical properties. Longer exfoliation time results to higher crystallinity degree, C/O ratio and less d space between layers. The breaking strength and electrical conductivity of sample with less exfoliation time is some higher than sample with high exfoliation time.

Keywords: Activated carbon, coagulation by wet spinning, exfoliation, graphene oxide fiber.

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693 Spatial Variability in Human Development Patterns in Assiut, Egypt

Authors: Abdel-Samad M. Ali

Abstract:

Given the motivation of maps impact in enhancing the perception of the quality of life in a region, this work examines the use of spatial analytical techniques in exploring the role of space in shaping human development patterns in Assiut governorate. Variations of human development index (HDI) of the governorate-s villages, districts and cities are mapped using geographic information systems (GIS). Global and local spatial autocorrelation measures are employed to assess the levels of spatial dependency in the data and to map clusters of human development. Results show prominent disparities in HDI between regions of Assiut. Strong patterns of spatial association were found proving the presence of clusters on the distribution of HDI. Finally, the study indicates several "hot-spots" in the governorate to be area of more investigations to explore the attributes of such levels of human development. This is very important for accomplishing the development plan of poorest regions currently adopted in Egypt.

Keywords: Human development, Egypt, GIS, Spatial analysis.

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692 Making a ‘Once-upon-a-Time’ Mythology in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant

Authors: Masami Usui

Abstract:

Kazuo Ishiguro’s challenging novel, The Buried Giant, embodies how contemporary writers and readers have to discover the voices buried in our history. By avoiding setting or connecting the modern and contemporary historical incidents such as World War II this time, Ishiguro ventures into retelling myth, transfiguring historical facts, and revealing what has been forgotten in a process of establishing history and creating mythology. As generally known, modernist writers in the twentieth century employed materials from authorized classical mythologies, especially Greek mythology. As an heir of this tradition, Ishiguro imposes his mission of criticizing the repeatedly occurring yet easily-forgotten history of dictatorship and a slaughter on mythology based on King Arthur and its related heroes and myths in Britain. On an open ground, Ishiguro can start his own mythical story and space.

Keywords: English literature, fantasy, global literature, mythology.

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691 Hardware Prototyping of an Efficient Encryption Engine

Authors: Muhammad I. Ibrahimy, Mamun B.I. Reaz, Khandaker Asaduzzaman, Sazzad Hussain

Abstract:

An approach to develop the FPGA of a flexible key RSA encryption engine that can be used as a standard device in the secured communication system is presented. The VHDL modeling of this RSA encryption engine has the unique characteristics of supporting multiple key sizes, thus can easily be fit into the systems that require different levels of security. A simple nested loop addition and subtraction have been used in order to implement the RSA operation. This has made the processing time faster and used comparatively smaller amount of space in the FPGA. The hardware design is targeted on Altera STRATIX II device and determined that the flexible key RSA encryption engine can be best suited in the device named EP2S30F484C3. The RSA encryption implementation has made use of 13,779 units of logic elements and achieved a clock frequency of 17.77MHz. It has been verified that this RSA encryption engine can perform 32-bit, 256-bit and 1024-bit encryption operation in less than 41.585us, 531.515us and 790.61us respectively.

Keywords: RSA, FPGA, Communication, Security, VHDL.

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690 Exploring the Physical Environment and Building Features in Earthquake Disaster Areas

Authors: Chang Hsueh-Sheng, Chen Tzu-Ling

Abstract:

Earthquake is an unpredictable natural disaster and intensive earthquakes have caused serious impacts on social-economic system, environmental and social resilience. Conventional ways to mitigate earthquake disaster are to enhance building codes and advance structural engineering measures. However, earthquake-induced ground damage such as liquefaction, land subsidence, landslide happen on places nearby earthquake prone or poor soil condition areas. Therefore, this study uses spatial statistical analysis to explore the spatial pattern of damaged buildings. Afterwards, principle components analysis (PCA) is applied to categorize the similar features in different kinds of clustered patterns. The results show that serious landslide prone area, close to fault, vegetated ground surface and mudslide prone area are common in those highly damaged buildings. In addition, the oldest building might not be directly referred to the most vulnerable one. In fact, it seems that buildings built between 1974 and 1989 become more fragile during the earthquake. The incorporation of both spatial statistical analyses and PCA can provide more accurate information to subsidize retrofit programs to enhance earthquake resistance in particular areas.

Keywords: Earthquake disaster, spatial statistical analysis, principle components analysis, clustered patterns.

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689 A Study of Geographic Information System Combining with GPS and 3G for Parking Guidance and Information System

Authors: Yu-Chi Shiue, Jyong Lin, Shih-Chang Chen

Abstract:

With the increase of economic behavior and the upgrade of living standar, the ratio for people in Taiwan who own automobiles and motorcycles have recently increased with multiples. Therefore, parking issues will be a big challenge to facilitate traffic network and ensure urban life quality. The Parking Guidance and Information System is one of important systems for Advanced Traveler Information Services (ATIS). This research proposes a parking guidance and information system which integrates GPS and 3G network for a map on the Geographic Information System to solution inadequate of roadside information kanban. The system proposed in this study mainly includes Parking Host, Parking Guidance and Information Server, Geographic Map and Information System as well as Parking Guidance and Information Browser. The study results show this system can increase driver-s efficiency to find parking space and efficiently enhance parking convenience in comparison with roadside kanban system.

Keywords: Geographic Information System, 3G, GPS, parkinginformation

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688 State Feedback Speed Controller for Turbocharged Diesel Engine and Its Robustness

Authors: Dileep Malkhede, Bhartendu Seth

Abstract:

In this paper, the full state feedback controllers capable of regulating and tracking the speed trajectory are presented. A fourth order nonlinear mean value model of a 448 kW turbocharged diesel engine published earlier is used for the purpose. For designing controllers, the nonlinear model is linearized and represented in state-space form. Full state feedback controllers capable of meeting varying speed demands of drivers are presented. Main focus here is to investigate sensitivity of the controller to the perturbations in the parameters of the original nonlinear model. Suggested controller is shown to be highly insensitive to the parameter variations. This indicates that the controller is likely perform with same accuracy even after significant wear and tear of engine due to its use for years.

Keywords: Diesel engine model, Engine speed control, State feedback controller, Controller robustness.

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687 Evolution of Cord Absorbed Dose during of Larynx Cancer Radiotherapy, with 3D Treatment Planning and Tissue Equivalent Phantom

Authors: Mohammad Hassan Heidari, Amir Hossein Goodarzi, Majid Azarniush

Abstract:

Radiation doses to tissues and organs were measured using the anthropomorphic phantom as an equivalent to the human body. When high-energy X-rays are externally applied to treat laryngeal cancer, the absorbed dose at the laryngeal lumen is lower than given dose because of air space, which it should pass through, before reaching the lesion. Specially, in case of high-energy X-rays, the loss of dose is considerable. Three-dimensional absorbed dose distributions have been computed for high-energy photon radiation therapy of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers, using a coaxial pair of opposing lateral beams in fixed positions. Treatment plans obtained under various conditions of irradiation.

Keywords: 3D Treatment Planning, anthropomorphic phantom, larynx cancer, radiotherapy.

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686 How the Decrease of Collagen or Mineral Affect the Fracture in the Turkey Long Bones

Authors: P. Vosynek, T. Návrat, M. Peč, J. Pořízka, P. Diviš

Abstract:

Bone properties and response behavior after static or dynamic activation (loading) are still interesting topics in many fields of the science especially in the biomechanical problems such as bone loss of astronauts in space, osteoporosis, bone remodeling after fracture or remodeling after surgery (endoprosthesis and implants) and in osteointegration. This contribution deals with the relation between physiological, demineralized and deproteinized state of the turkey long bone – tibia. Three methods for comparison were used: 1) densitometry, 2) three point bending and 3) frequency analysis. The main goal of this work was to describe the decrease of the protein (collagen) or mineral of the bone with relation to the fracture in three point bending. The comparison is linked to the problem of different bone mechanical behavior in physiological and osteoporotic state.

Keywords: Bone properties, long bone, osteoporosis, response behavior.

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685 Cubic Trigonometric B-spline Approach to Numerical Solution of Wave Equation

Authors: Shazalina Mat Zin, Ahmad Abd. Majid, Ahmad Izani Md. Ismail, Muhammad Abbas

Abstract:

The generalized wave equation models various problems in sciences and engineering. In this paper, a new three-time level implicit approach based on cubic trigonometric B-spline for the approximate solution of wave equation is developed. The usual finite difference approach is used to discretize the time derivative while cubic trigonometric B-spline is applied as an interpolating function in the space dimension. Von Neumann stability analysis is used to analyze the proposed method. Two problems are discussed to exhibit the feasibility and capability of the method. The absolute errors and maximum error are computed to assess the performance of the proposed method. The results were found to be in good agreement with known solutions and with existing schemes in literature.

Keywords: Collocation method, Cubic trigonometric B-spline, Finite difference, Wave equation.

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684 Flagging Critical Components to Prevent Transient Faults in Real-Time Systems

Authors: Muhammad Sheikh Sadi, D. G. Myers, Cesar Ortega Sanchez

Abstract:

This paper proposes the use of metrics in design space exploration that highlight where in the structure of the model and at what point in the behaviour, prevention is needed against transient faults. Previous approaches to tackle transient faults focused on recovery after detection. Almost no research has been directed towards preventive measures. But in real-time systems, hard deadlines are performance requirements that absolutely must be met and a missed deadline constitutes an erroneous action and a possible system failure. This paper proposes the use of metrics to assess the system design to flag where transient faults may have significant impact. These tools then allow the design to be changed to minimize that impact, and they also flag where particular design techniques – such as coding of communications or memories – need to be applied in later stages of design.

Keywords: Criticality, Metrics, Real-Time Systems, Transient Faults.

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683 Parallel Text Processing: Alignment of Indonesian to Javanese Language

Authors: Aji P. Wibawa, Andrew Nafalski, Neil Murray, Wayan F. Mahmudy

Abstract:

Parallel text alignment is proposed as a way of aligning bahasa Indonesia to words in Javanese. Since the one-to-one word translator does not have the facility to translate pragmatic aspects of Javanese, the parallel text alignment model described uses a phrase pair combination. The algorithm aligns the parallel text automatically from the beginning to the end of each sentence. Even though the results of the phrase pair combination outperform the previous algorithm, it is still inefficient. Recording all possible combinations consume more space in the database and time consuming. The original algorithm is modified by applying the edit distance coefficient to improve the data-storage efficiency. As a result, the data-storage consumption is 90% reduced as well as its learning period (42s).

Keywords: Parallel text alignment, phrase pair combination, edit distance coefficient, Javanese-Indonesian language.

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682 Ultra-Poor Revisited: A Case of Southern Thailand

Authors: Sirirat Taneerananon

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a study of the ultra-poor in the south of Thailand, revisited after 10 years since the original study in 2000. The original study was conducted in four provinces. The first two namely Phatthalung and Nakorn were chosen to represent the Thai Buddhists and the others, Satun and Pattani were chosen to represent the Thai Muslims. For this study, only the results from the three provinces except Pattani are reported as it was difficult and dangerous to conduct fieldwork in Pattani due to the continued unrest in the area since 2005.

The objectives of the study are to find out the changes of the poverty situation after 10 years and to see the impacts of the poverty reduction projects implemented by the government on the poor. The research methodology used both quantitative and qualitative methods. The same villages in the four provinces studied in 1999 were again chosen. In each village, five ultra-poor people and heads of the villages were interviewed. The results show that the poverty situation of the ultra-poor groups has not changed much since they lacked the basic key factor to get themselves out of poverty: The ownership of land. Their chronic poverty situation has been passed on from the last generation. In the province of Phatthalung, the ultra-poor have improved in terms of economic situation because of the big increase in the price of rubber. However, the same could not be said for other provinces. Even though the government’s projects have not reduced the poverty directly, the projects have significantly contributed to the improvement of the quality of life of the poor and the people in the areas. 

Keywords: Poverty, Southern Thailand, Ultra-poor.

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681 Extended Low Power Bus Binding Combined with Data Sequence Reordering

Authors: Jihyung Kim, Taejin Kim, Sungho Park, Jun-Dong Cho

Abstract:

In this paper, we address the problem of reducing the switching activity (SA) in on-chip buses through the use of a bus binding technique in high-level synthesis. While many binding techniques to reduce the SA exist, we present yet another technique for further reducing the switching activity. Our proposed method combines bus binding and data sequence reordering to explore a wider solution space. The problem is formulated as a multiple traveling salesman problem and solved using simulated annealing technique. The experimental results revealed that a binding solution obtained with the proposed method reduces 5.6-27.2% (18.0% on average) and 2.6-12.7% (6.8% on average) of the switching activity when compared with conventional binding-only and hybrid binding-encoding methods, respectively.

Keywords: low power, bus binding, switching activity, multiple traveling salesman problem, data sequence reordering

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680 Tuberculosis Modelling Using Bio-PEPA Approach

Authors: Dalila Hamami, Baghdad Atmani

Abstract:

Modelling is a widely used tool to facilitate the evaluation of disease management. The interest of epidemiological models lies in their ability to explore hypothetical scenarios and provide decision makers with evidence to anticipate the consequences of disease incursion and impact of intervention strategies.

All models are, by nature, simplification of more complex systems. Models that involve diseases can be classified into different categories depending on how they treat the variability, time, space, and structure of the population. Approaches may be different from simple deterministic mathematical models, to complex stochastic simulations spatially explicit.

Thus, epidemiological modelling is now a necessity for epidemiological investigations, surveillance, testing hypotheses and generating follow-up activities necessary to perform complete and appropriate analysis.

The state of the art presented in the following, allows us to position itself to the most appropriate approaches in the epidemiological study.

Keywords: Bio-PEPA, Cellular automata, Epidemiological modelling, multi agent system, ordinary differential equations, PEPA, Process Algebra, Tuberculosis.

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679 Color Image Segmentation Using Competitive and Cooperative Learning Approach

Authors: Yinggan Tang, Xinping Guan

Abstract:

Color image segmentation can be considered as a cluster procedure in feature space. k-means and its adaptive version, i.e. competitive learning approach are powerful tools for data clustering. But k-means and competitive learning suffer from several drawbacks such as dead-unit problem and need to pre-specify number of cluster. In this paper, we will explore to use competitive and cooperative learning approach to perform color image segmentation. In competitive and cooperative learning approach, seed points not only compete each other, but also the winner will dynamically select several nearest competitors to form a cooperative team to adapt to the input together, finally it can automatically select the correct number of cluster and avoid the dead-units problem. Experimental results show that CCL can obtain better segmentation result.

Keywords: Color image segmentation, competitive learning, cluster, k-means algorithm, competitive and cooperative learning.

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678 Interbank Networks and the Benefits of Using Multilayer Structures

Authors: Danielle Sandler dos Passos, Helder Coelho, Flávia Mori Sarti

Abstract:

Complexity science seeks the understanding of systems adopting diverse theories from various areas. Network analysis has been gaining space and credibility, namely with the biological, social and economic systems. Significant part of the literature focuses only monolayer representations of connections among agents considering one level of their relationships, and excludes other levels of interactions, leading to simplistic results in network analysis. Therefore, this work aims to demonstrate the advantages of the use of multilayer networks for the representation and analysis of networks. For this, we analyzed an interbank network, composed of 42 banks, comparing the centrality measures of the agents (degree and PageRank) resulting from each method (monolayer x multilayer). This proved to be the most reliable and efficient the multilayer analysis for the study of the current networks and highlighted JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank as the most important banks of the analyzed network.

Keywords: Complexity, interbank networks, multilayer networks, network analysis.

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677 Video-Based Tracking of Laparoscopic Instruments Using an Orthogonal Webcams System

Authors: Fernando Pérez, Humberto Sossa, Rigoberto Martínez, Daniel Lorias, Arturo Minor

Abstract:

This paper presents a system for tracking the movement of laparoscopic instruments which is based on an orthogonal system of webcams and video image processing. The movements are captured with two webcams placed orthogonally inside of the physical trainer. On the image, the instruments were detected by using color markers placed on the distal tip of each instrument. The 3D position of the tip of the instrument within the work space was obtained by linear triangulation method. Preliminary results showed linearity and repeatability in the motion tracking with a resolution of 0.616 mm in each axis; the accuracy of the system showed a 3D instrument positioning error of 1.009 ± 0.101 mm. This tool is a portable and low-cost alternative to traditional tracking devices and a trustable method for the objective evaluation of the surgeon’s surgical skills.

Keywords: Laparoscopic Surgery, Orthogonal Vision, Tracking Instruments, Triangulation.

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676 Traffic Density Estimation for Multiple Segment Freeways

Authors: Karandeep Singh, Baibing Li

Abstract:

Traffic density, an indicator of traffic conditions, is one of the most critical characteristics to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). This paper investigates recursive traffic density estimation using the information provided from inductive loop detectors. On the basis of the phenomenological relationship between speed and density, the existing studies incorporate a state space model and update the density estimate using vehicular speed observations via the extended Kalman filter, where an approximation is made because of the linearization of the nonlinear observation equation. In practice, this may lead to substantial estimation errors. This paper incorporates a suitable transformation to deal with the nonlinear observation equation so that the approximation is avoided when using Kalman filter to estimate the traffic density. A numerical study is conducted. It is shown that the developed method outperforms the existing methods for traffic density estimation.

Keywords: Density estimation, Kalman filter, speed-densityrelationship, Traffic surveillance.

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