Search results for: enjoyment of physical activity

Authors: Omar Salah, Ahmed A. Ramadan, Salvatore Sessa, Ahmed A. Abo-Ismail

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Walking and sit to stand are activities carried out by all the people many times during the day, but physical disabilities due to age and diseases create needs of assistive devices to help elderly people during their daily life. This study aims to study the different types and mechanisms of the assistive devices. We will analyze the limitations and the challenges faced by the researchers in this field. We will introduce the Assistive Device developed at the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, named E-JUST Assistive Device (EJAD). EJAD will be a low cost intelligent assistive device to help elders in walking and sit-to-stand activities.

Keywords: Active walker, Assistive robotics, Standing Assistance, Walking Assistance

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Authors: Sathida Phonoy, Bongotrut Pitiyont, Vichien kitpreechavanich

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Sugarcane Shoots is an abundantly available residual resources consisting of lignocelluloses which take it into the benefit. The present study was focused on utilizing of sugarcane shoot for reducing sugar production as a substrate in ethanol production. Physical and chemical pretreatments of sugarcane shoot were investigated. Results showed that the size of sugarcane shoot influenced the cellulose content. The maximum cellulose yield (60 %) can be obtained from alkaline pretreated sugarcane shoot with 1.0 M NaOH at 30 oC for 90 min. The cellulose yield reached up to 93.9% (w/w). Enzymatically hydrolyzed of cellulosic residual in 0.04 citrate buffer (pH 5) with celluclast 1.5L (0.7 FPU/ml) resulted in the highest amount of reducing sugar at a rate of 32.1 g/l after 4 h incubation at 50°C, and 100 oC for 5 min . Cellulose conversion was 55.5%.

Keywords: Conversion, Sugarcane Shoots, Reducing Sugars.

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Authors: Saeed Mian Qaisar, Laurent Fesquet, Marc Renaudin

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The frequency contents of the non-stationary signals vary with time. For proper characterization of such signals, a smart time-frequency representation is necessary. Classically, the STFT (short-time Fourier transform) is employed for this purpose. Its limitation is the fixed timefrequency resolution. To overcome this drawback an enhanced STFT version is devised. It is based on the signal driven sampling scheme, which is named as the cross-level sampling. It can adapt the sampling frequency and the window function (length plus shape) by following the input signal local variations. This adaptation results into the proposed technique appealing features, which are the adaptive time-frequency resolution and the computational efficiency.

Keywords: Level Crossing Sampling, Activity Selection, Adaptive Resolution Analysis, Computational Complexity.

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Authors: Zixuan Xu, Yichun Lou, Yang Song, Zihuai Lin

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MediaPipe is an open-source machine learning computer vision framework that can be ported into a multi-platform environment, which makes it easier to use it to recognize human activity. Based on this framework, many human recognition systems have been created, but the fundamental issue is the recognition of human behavior and posture. In this paper, two methods are proposed to recognize human gestures based on MediaPipe, the first one uses the Adaptive Boosting algorithm to recognize a series of fitness gestures, and the second one uses the Fast Dynamic Time Warping algorithm to recognize 413 continuous fitness actions. These two methods are also applicable to any human posture movement recognition.

Keywords: Computer Vision, MediaPipe, Adaptive Boosting, Fast Dynamic Time Warping.

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Authors: Tomáš Melichar, Jiří Bydžovský, Vít Černý

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In this article our research focused on study of basic physical and mechanical parameters of polymer-cement repair materials is presented. Namely the influence of applied aggregates in combination with active admixture is specially considered. New formulas which were exposed in ambient with temperature even to 1000°C were suggested. Subsequently densities and strength characteristics including their changes were evaluated. Selected samples were analyzed using electron microscope. The positive influence of porous aggregates based on sintered ash was definitely demonstrated. Further it was found than in terms of thermal resistance the effective micro silica amount represents 5% to 7.5% of cement weight.

Keywords: Aggregate, ash, high, lightweight, microsilica, mortar, polymer-cement, repair, temperature.

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Authors: Irina Severin, M. Caramihai, K. Chung, G. Tasca, T. Park

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The current study has investigated the ageing phenomena of silica optical fibres in relation to water activity which might be accelerated when exposed to a supplementary energy, such as microwaves. A controlled stress by winding fibres onto accurate diameter mandrel was applied. Taking into account that normally a decrease in fibre strength is induced in time by chemical action of water, the effects of cumulative reagents such as: water, applied stress and supplementary energy (microwave) in some cases acted in the opposite manner. The microwave effect as a structural relaxation catalyst appears unexpected, even if the overall gain in fibre strength is not high, but the stress corrosion factor revealed significant increase in certain simulation conditions.

Keywords: optical fibres, mechanical testing, aging, microwave, structural relaxation.

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Authors: N.Poolsawad, C.Kambhampati, J. G. F. Cleland

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In this paper, we investigated the characteristic of a clinical dataseton the feature selection and classification measurements which deal with missing values problem.And also posed the appropriated techniques to achieve the aim of the activity; in this research aims to find features that have high effect to mortality and mortality time frame. We quantify the complexity of a clinical dataset. According to the complexity of the dataset, we proposed the data mining processto cope their complexity; missing values, high dimensionality, and the prediction problem by using the methods of missing value replacement, feature selection, and classification.The experimental results will extend to develop the prediction model for cardiology.

Keywords: feature selection, missing values, classification, clinical dataset, heart failure.

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Authors: Z. H. Shi, T. J. Dou, H. Zhang, H. X. Huang, N. Zeng

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The contamination of significant quantities of soils and sediments with uranium and other actinide elements as a result of nuclear activity poses many environmental risks. The electrokinetic process is one of the most promising remediation techniques for sludge, sediment, and saturated or unsaturated soils contaminated with heavy metals and radionuclides. However, secondary waste is a major concern for soil contaminated with nuclides. To minimize the generation of secondary wastes, this study used the anion and cation exchange membranes to improve the performance of the experimental apparatus. Remediation experiments of uranium-contaminated soil were performed with different agents. The results show that using acetic acid and EDTA as chelating agents clearly enhances the migration ability of the uranium. The ion exchange membranes (IEMs) used in the experiments not only reduce secondary wastes, but also, keep the soil pH stable.

Keywords: Electrokinetic remediation, ion exchange membranes, soil, uranium.

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Authors: Thanutch Sukwimolseree, Preeyaphorn Kosa

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Many problems are occurred in watershed due to human activity and economic development. The purpose is to determine the effects of the land use change on surface runoff using land use map on 1980, 2001 and 2008 and daily weather data during January 1, 1979 to September 30, 2010 applied to SWAT. The results can be presented that the polynomial equation is suitable to display that relationship. These equations for land use in 1980, 2001 and 2008 are consisted of y = -0.0076x⁵ + 0.1914x⁴–1.6386x³ + 6.6324x²–8.736x + 7.8023(R² = 0.9255), y = -0.0298x⁵ + 0.8794x⁴ - 9.8056x³ + 51.99x² - 117.04x + 96.797; (R² = 0.9186) and y = -0.0277x⁵ + 0.8132x⁴ - 8.9598x³ + 46.498x²–101.83x +81.108 (R² = 0.9006), respectively. Moreover, if the agricultural area is the largest area, it is a sensitive parameter to concern surface runoff.

Keywords: Land use, Runoff, SWAT, Upper Mun River Basin.

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Authors: Kyunghee Oh, Dooho Choi

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Although there is no theoretical weakness in a cryptographic algorithm, Side Channel Analysis can find out some secret data from the physical implementation of a cryptosystem. The analysis is based on extra information such as timing information, power consumption, electromagnetic leaks or even sound which can be exploited to break the system. Differential Power Analysis is one of the most popular analyses, as computing the statistical correlations of the secret keys and power consumptions. It is usually necessary to calculate huge data and takes a long time. It may take several weeks for some devices with countermeasures. We suggest and evaluate the methods to shorten the time to analyze cryptosystems. Our methods include distributed computing and parallelized processing.

Keywords: DPA, distributed computing, parallelized processing.

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Authors: U. Kairov, T. Karpenyuk, E. Ramanculov, A. Zinovyev

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The most common result of analysis of highthroughput data in molecular biology represents a global list of genes, ranked accordingly to a certain score. The score can be a measure of differential expression. Recent work proposed a new method for selecting a number of genes in a ranked gene list from microarray gene expression data such that this set forms the Optimally Functionally Enriched Network (OFTEN), formed by known physical interactions between genes or their products. Here we present calculation results of relative connectivity of genes from META-OFTEN network and tentative biological interpretation of the most reproducible signal. The relative connectivity and inbetweenness values of genes from META-OFTEN network were estimated.

Keywords: Microarray, META-OFTEN, gene network.

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Authors: Takaaki Ishibashi

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Independent component analysis can estimate unknown source signals from their mixtures under the assumption that the source signals are statistically independent. However, in a real environment, the separation performance is often deteriorated because the number of the source signals is different from that of the sensors. In this paper, we propose an estimation method for the number of the sources based on the joint distribution of the observed signals under two-sensor configuration. From several simulation results, it is found that the number of the sources is coincident to that of peaks in the histogram of the distribution. The proposed method can estimate the number of the sources even if it is larger than that of the observed signals. The proposed methods have been verified by several experiments.

Keywords: blind source separation, independent component analysys, estimation for the number of the blind sources, voice activity detection, target extraction.

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Authors: Irene Winkler, Mark Jager, Vojkan Mihajlovic, Tsvetomira Tsoneva

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In this work we evaluate the possibility of predicting the emotional state of a person based on the EEG. We investigate the problem of classifying valence from EEG signals during the presentation of affective pictures, utilizing the "frontal EEG asymmetry" phenomenon. To distinguish positive and negative emotions, we applied the Common Spatial Patterns algorithm. In contrast to our expectations, the affective pictures did not reliably elicit changes in frontal asymmetry. The classifying task thereby becomes very hard as reflected by the poor classifier performance. We suspect that the masking of the source of the brain activity related to emotions, coming mostly from deeper structures in the brain, and the insufficient emotional engagement are among main reasons why it is difficult to predict the emotional state of a person.

Keywords: Emotion, Valence, EEG, Common Spatial Patterns(CSP).

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Authors: Kutub Uddin Chisty, Md. Ashraful Islam, Shahjalal Misuk

Abstract:

Chittagong is the commercial capital of Bangladesh. Here Agrabad is one of the most commercial activity centers of Chittagong. Due to many light industry and commercial land use, Agrabad to CEPZ road at Agrabad is the only major road of Chittagong port city which encompasses a huge number of vehicles every day. It has many junctions which distribute traffic flow in different roads. In these junctions vehicles gather at some conflict point to create traffic jam and make the performance of the road downward. This study is parallel focused on the existing level of service with traffic volume, capacity, and speed by traffic survey. After all of these analyses the performance of the road is determined with finding the factors that influences the performance.

Keywords: Level of service, Traffic volume, Speed, Influences factors.

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Authors: Y. Yongli, M. H. Aissa

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The purpose of this paper aims for a geotechnical analysis based on experimental physical and mechanical characteristics of Miocene marl situated at Medea region in Algeria. More than 150 soil samples were taken in the investigation part of the North-South Highway which extends over than 53 km from Chiffa in the North to Berrouaghia in the South of Algeria. The analysis of data in terms of Atterberg limits, plasticity index, and clay content reflects an acceptable correlation justified by a high coefficient of regression which was compared with the previous works in the region. Finally, approximated equations that serve as a guideline for geotechnical design locally have been suggested.

Keywords: Correlation, geotechnical properties, Miocene marl, north-south highway.

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Authors: Salem El-t. Ashoor, Ibtisam M. Ediab

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Zirconium diamine and triamine complexes can possess biological activities. These complexes were synthesised via the reaction of equimolar quantities of 1,10-phenanthroline {NC₃H₃(C₆H₂)NC₃H₃} (L1) or 4-4-amino phenazone {ONC₆H₅(NH)CH(NH₂} (L2) or diphenyl carbizon {HNNCO(NH)₂(C₆H₅)} (L3) with a Zirconium Salt {ZrOCl₂} in a 1:1 ratio to form complexes [{NC₃H₃(C₆H₂)NC₃H₃}ZrOCl₂}] [ZrOCl₂L₁], [{(O₂NC₆H₄(NH)(NH₂)}ZrOCl₂] [ZrOCl₂L₂] and [{HNNCO(NH)₂(C₆H₅)ZrOCl₂}] [ZrOCl₂L₃] respectively. They were characterised using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) and UV-Visible spectroscopy. Also a variable temperature study of these complexes was completed, using UV-Visible spectroscopy to observe electronic transitions under temperature control. Also a DFT study was done on these complexes via the information from FT-IR and UV-Visible spectroscopy.

These complexes were found to show different inhibition to the growth of bacterial strains of Bacillus spp. & Klebsiella spp. & E. coli & Proteus spp. & Pseudomona spp. at different concentrations (0.001, 0.2 and 1M). For better understanding these complexes were examined by using a Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation.

Keywords: (1:10-phenanthroline) (L1), 4-4-amino phenazone (L2), diphenyl carbizon (L3), DFT study, antibacterial.

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Authors: H. Farkisch, A.I. Che-Ani, V. Ahmadi, M. Surat

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The role of neighborhood center as semi public (the balance space) is disappeared in bonding between private and public in new urbanism. In this way, a hierarchical principle in the traditional neighborhood center appears to create or develop the conditions for residents` relationships and belonging. This paper evaluates significant of hierarchical principles of the neighborhood center in residents` territoriality and its factors. In this way Miandeh neighborhood center from Boshrooyeh city was determined as a case study area. Results indicated that a hierarchical principle is the best instrument to improve the territoriality as the subcomponent of place belonging in residents. The findings help the urban designer to revitalization the neighborhoods and proceedings in organization of physical space.

Keywords: Belonging, Neighborhood center, Revitalization, Territoriality

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Authors: Faisal Al Yahmadi, Muhammad R. Ahmed

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Electric power is a fundamental necessity in the 21^st century. Consequently, any break in electric power is probably going to affect the general activity. To make the power supply smooth and efficient, a smart grid network is introduced which uses communication technology. In any communication network, security is essential. It has been observed from several recent incidents that adversary causes an interruption to the operation of networks. In order to resolve the issues, it is vital to understand the threats and vulnerabilities associated with the smart grid networks. In this paper, we have investigated the threats and vulnerabilities in Smart Grid Networks (SGN) and the few solutions in the literature. Proposed solutions showed developments in electricity theft countermeasures, Denial of services attacks (DoS) and malicious injection attacks detection model, as well as malicious nodes detection using watchdog like techniques and other solutions.

Keywords: Smart grid network, security, threats, vulnerabilities.

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Authors: V. Weinzettl, M. Imrisek, J. Havlicek, J. Mlynar, D. Naydenkova, P. Hacek, M. Hron, F. Janky, D. Sarychev, M. Berta, A. Bencze, T. Szabolics

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Semiconductor detector arrays are widely used in high-temperature plasma diagnostics. They have a fast response, which allows observation of many processes and instabilities in tokamaks. In this paper, there are reviewed several diagnostics based on semiconductor arrays as cameras, AXUV photodiodes (referred often as fast “bolometers") and detectors of both soft X-rays and visible light installed on the COMPASS tokamak recently. Fresh results from both spring and summer campaigns in 2012 are introduced. Examples of the utilization of the detectors are shown on the plasma shape determination, fast calculation of the radiation center, two-dimensional plasma radiation tomography in different spectral ranges, observation of impurity inflow, and also on investigation of MHD activity in the COMPASS tokamak discharges.

Keywords: Bolometry, plasma diagnostics, soft X-rays, tokamak.

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Authors: Juha Kettunen

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to visualize the strategic network of higher education institutions and its strategic directions. The strategy map of the balanced scorecard approach is developed to describe the strategic objectives and their causal relationships in higher education. The empirical part of the study presents the survey results of the desired strategic directions of the network obtained from the teachers and other staff of the member institutions. Research and development projects are the most important form of activity in the network, but education and many other forms also turn out to be important. The results of this study support the argument that a strategic innovation alliance is a suitable and useful way to promote collaboration among European higher education institutions. The results of the study can be used by those who wish to promote such international collaboration among higher education institutions.

Keywords: Balanced scorecard, higher education, social networking, strategic planning.

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Authors: H. T. Barney, G. C. Low

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The design of distributed systems involves the partitioning of the system into components or partitions and the allocation of these components to physical nodes. Techniques have been proposed for both the partitioning and allocation process. However these techniques suffer from a number of limitations. For instance object replication has the potential to greatly improve the performance of an object orientated distributed system but can be difficult to use effectively and there are few techniques that support the developer in harnessing object replication. This paper presents a methodological technique that helps developers decide how objects should be allocated in order to improve performance in a distributed system that supports replication. The performance of the proposed technique is demonstrated and tested on an example system.

Keywords: Allocation, Distributed Systems, Replication.

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Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Ying-Chuan Chen, Hsi-Ya Chang

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The rapid improvement of the microprocessor and network has made it possible for the PC cluster to compete with conventional supercomputers. Lots of high throughput type of applications can be satisfied by using the current desktop PCs, especially for those in PC classrooms, and leave the supercomputers for the demands from large scale high performance parallel computations. This paper presents our development on enabling an automated deployment mechanism for cluster computing to utilize the computing power of PCs such as reside in PC classroom. After well deployment, these PCs can be transformed into a pre-configured cluster computing resource immediately without touching the existing education/training environment installed on these PCs. Thus, the training activities will not be affected by this additional activity to harvest idle computing cycles. The time and manpower required to build and manage a computing platform in geographically distributed PC classrooms also can be reduced by this development.

Keywords: PC cluster, automated deployment, cluster computing, PC classroom.

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Authors: Marios Poulos, Eirini Maliagani, Minas Paschopoulos, George Bokos

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The purpose of my research proposal is to demonstrate that there is a relationship between EEG and endometrial cancer. The above relationship is based on an Aristotelian Syllogism; since it is known that the 14-3-3 protein is related to the electrical activity of the brain via control of the flow of Na+ and K+ ions and since it is also known that many types of cancer are associated with 14-3-3 protein, it is possible that there is a relationship between EEG and cancer. This research will be carried out by well-defined diagnostic indicators, obtained via the EEG, using signal processing procedures and pattern recognition tools such as neural networks in order to recognize the endometrial cancer type. The current research shall compare the findings from EEG and hysteroscopy performed on women of a wide age range. Moreover, this practice could be expanded to other types of cancer. The implementation of this methodology will be completed with the creation of an ontology. This ontology shall define the concepts existing in this research-s domain and the relationships between them. It will represent the types of relationships between hysteroscopy and EEG findings.

Keywords: Bioinformatics, Protein 14-3-3, EEG, Endometrial cancer, Ontology.

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Authors: Jae Un Jung, Hyun Soo Kim, Doo Hwan Kim

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Quick and qualitative services are not new issues anymore in Logistics but those are still important problems along with cost-cutting. Related to the issues, though advanced information technologies are introduced unceasingly from laboratories, yet there is long way to go for smooth and seamless information flows on physical distribution processes in the industrial field. For the reason, the study aims to seek an advanced information delivery and management strategy through an in-depth case study of a Korea intermodal transportation company. It provides an industrial reference and a way to improve the endemic problems of logistics information systems.

Keywords: Exploratory Study, Overland Logistics, Information Flows, Seamless Connectivity.

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Authors: Sameer Kumar, Jariah Mohd. Jan

Abstract:

Earlier studies in kinship networks have primarily focused on observing the social relationships existing between family relatives. In this study, we pre-identified hubs in the network to investigate if they could play a catalyst role in the transfer of physical information. We conducted a case study of a ceremony performed in one of the families of a small Hindu community – the Uttar Rarhi Kayasthas. Individuals (n = 168) who resided in 11 geographically dispersed regions were contacted through our hub-based representation. We found that using this representation, over 98% of the individuals were successfully contacted within the stipulated period. The network also demonstrated a small-world property, with an average geodesic distance of 3.56.

Keywords: Social Networks, Kinship Networks, Social Network Analysis, Geospatial Communication, Hubs

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Authors: M. G. Albanesi, R. Amadeo

Abstract:

In this paper, a new approach for quality assessment tasks in lossy compressed digital video is proposed. The research activity is based on the visual fixation data recorded by an eye tracker. The method involved both a new paradigm for subjective quality evaluation and the subsequent statistical analysis to match subjective scores provided by the observer to the data obtained from the eye tracker experiments. The study brings improvements to the state of the art, as it solves some problems highlighted in literature. The experiments prove that data obtained from an eye tracker can be used to classify videos according to the level of impairment due to compression. The paper presents the methodology, the experimental results and their interpretation. Conclusions suggest that the eye tracker can be useful in quality assessment, if data are collected and analyzed in a proper way.

Keywords: eye tracker, video compression, video qualityassessment, visual attention

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Authors: P. Hajek, J. Stejskal

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to analyze the ability to identify and acquire knowledge from external sources at the regional level in the Czech Republic. The results show that the most important sources of knowledge for innovative activities are sources within the businesses themselves, followed by customers and suppliers. Furthermore, the analysis of relationships between the objective of the innovative activity and the ability to identify and acquire knowledge implies that knowledge obtained from (1) customers aims at replacing outdated products and increasing product quality; (2) suppliers aims at increasing capacity and flexibility of production; and (3) competing businesses aims at growing market share and increasing the flexibility of production and services. Regions should therefore direct their support especially into development and strengthening of networks within the value chain.

Keywords: Knowledge, acquisition, innovative business, Czech republic, region.

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Authors: Ngozi Nwogu, Edward Gobina

Abstract:

A dip-coating process has been used to form an asymmetric silica membrane with improved membrane performance and reproducibility. First, we deposited repeatedly silica on top of a commercial alumina membrane support to improve its structural make up. The membrane is further processed under clean room conditions to avoid dust impurity and subsequent drying in an oven for high thermal, chemical and physical stability. The resulting asymmetric membrane exhibits a gradual change in the membrane layer thickness. Compared to the support, the dual-layer process improves the gas flow rates. For the scientific applications for natural gas purification, CO2, CH4 and H2 gas flow rates were. In addition, the membrane selectively separated hydrogen.

Keywords: Gas permeation, Silica membrane, separation factor, membrane layer thickness.

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Authors: Fabrizio Logiurato

Abstract:

Light Polarization has many technological applications, and its discovery was crucial to reveal the transverse nature of the electromagnetic waves. However, despite its fundamental and practical importance, in high school, this property of light is often neglected. This is a pity not only for its conceptual relevance, but also because polarization gives the possibility to perform many brilliant experiments with low cost materials. Moreover, the treatment of this matter lends very well to an interdisciplinary approach between art, biology and technology, which usually makes things more interesting to students. For these reasons, we have developed, and in this work, we introduce a laboratory on light polarization for high school and undergraduate students. They can see beautiful pictures when birefringent materials are set between two crossed polarizing filters. Pupils are very fascinated and drawn into by what they observe. The colourful images remind them of those ones of abstract painting or alien landscapes. With this multidisciplinary teaching method, students are more engaged and participative, and also, the learning process of the respective physics concepts is more effective.

Keywords: Light polarization, optical activity, multidisciplinary education, science and art.

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Authors: Branko Skoric, Aleksandar Miletic, Pal Terek, Lazar Kovacevic, Milan Kukuruzovic

Abstract:

In this paper, we present the results of a study of TiN thin films which are deposited by a Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) and Ion Beam Assisted Deposition (IBAD). In the present investigation the subsequent ion implantation was provided with N⁵⁺ ions. The ion implantation was applied to enhance the mechanical properties of surface. The thin film deposition process exerts a number of effects such as crystallographic orientation, morphology, topography, densification of the films. A variety of analytic techniques were used for characterization, such as scratch test, calo test, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX).

Keywords: Steel, coating, super hard, ion implantation, nanohardness.

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