Search results for: Fixed point theorem of a sum operator

Authors: S. Sowmyayani, P. Arockia Jansi Rani

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This paper integrates Octagon and Square Search pattern (OCTSS) motion estimation algorithm into H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Coding) video codec in Adaptive Group of Pictures (AGOP) mode. AGOP structure is computed based on scene change in the video sequence. Octagon and square search pattern block-based motion estimation method is implemented in inter-prediction process of H.264/AVC. Both these methods reduce bit rate and computational complexity while maintaining the quality of the video sequence respectively. Experiments are conducted for different types of video sequence. The results substantially proved that the bit rate, computation time and PSNR gain achieved by the proposed method is better than the existing H.264/AVC with fixed GOP and AGOP. With a marginal gain in quality of 0.28dB and average gain in bitrate of 132.87kbps, the proposed method reduces the average computation time by 27.31 minutes when compared to the existing state-of-art H.264/AVC video codec.

Keywords: Block Distortion Measure, Block Matching Algorithms, H.264/AVC, Motion estimation, Search patterns, Shot cut detection.

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Authors: Guohua Tu, Zhi Fu, Zhiwei Hu, Neil D Sandham, Jianqiang Chen

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Tripping of boundary-layers from laminar to turbulent flow, which may be necessary in specific practical applications, requires high amplitude disturbances to be introduced into the boundary layers without large drag penalties. As a possible improvement on fixed trip devices, a technique based on vortex shedding for enhancing supersonic flow transition is demonstrated in the present paper for a Mach 1.5 boundary layer. The compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved directly using a high-order (fifth-order in space and third-order in time) finite difference method for small-scale cylinders suspended transversely near the wall. For cylinders with proper diameter and mount location, asymmetry vortices shed within the boundary layer are capable of tripping laminar-turbulent transition. Full three-dimensional simulations showed that transition was enhanced. A parametric study of the size and mounting location of the cylinder is carried out to identify the most effective setup. It is also found that the vortex shedding can be suppressed by some factors such as wall effect.

Keywords: Boundary layer instability, boundary layer transition, vortex shedding, supersonic flows, flow control.

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Authors: Thanida Sujarittham, Narumon Emarat, Jintawat Tanamatayarat, Kwan Arayathanitkul, Suchai Nopparatjamjomras

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Electric field is an important fundamental concept in electrostatics. In high-school, generally Thai students have already learned about definition of electric field, electric field due to a point charge, and superposition of electric fields due to multiple-point charges. Those are the prerequisite basic knowledge students holding before entrancing universities. In the first-year university level, students will be quickly revised those basic knowledge and will be then introduced to a more complicated topic—electric field due to continuous charged distributions. We initially found that our freshman students, who were from the Faculty of Science and enrolled in the introductory physic course (SCPY 158), often seriously struggled with the basic physics concepts—superposition of electric fields and inverse square law and mathematics being relevant to this topic. These also then resulted on students’ understanding of advanced topics within the course such as Gauss's law, electric potential difference, and capacitance. Therefore, it is very important to determine students' understanding of electric field due to continuous charged distributions. The open-ended question about sketching net electric field vectors from a uniformly charged insulating rod was administered to 260 freshman science students as pre- and post-tests. All of their responses were analyzed and classified into five levels of understandings. To get deep understanding of each level, 30 students were interviewed toward their individual responses. The pre-test result found was that about 90% of students had incorrect understanding. Even after completing the lectures, there were only 26.5% of them could provide correct responses. Up to 50% had confusions and irrelevant ideas. The result implies that teaching methods in Thai high schools may be problematic. In addition for our benefit, these students’ alternative conceptions identified could be used as a guideline for developing the instructional method currently used in the course especially for teaching electrostatics.

Keywords: Electrostatics Electric field due to continuous charged distributions, inverse square law, superposition principle, levels of student understandings.

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Authors: Ejaz Khan, Conor Heneghan

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In this paper we propose a new criterion for solving the problem of channel shortening in multi-carrier systems. In a discrete multitone receiver, a time-domain equalizer (TEQ) reduces intersymbol interference (ISI) by shortening the effective duration of the channel impulse response. Minimum mean square error (MMSE) method for TEQ does not give satisfactory results. In [1] a new criterion for partially equalizing severe ISI channels to reduce the cyclic prefix overhead of the discrete multitone transceiver (DMT), assuming a fixed transmission bandwidth, is introduced. Due to specific constrained (unit morm constraint on the target impulse response (TIR)) in their method, the freedom to choose optimum vector (TIR) is reduced. Better results can be obtained by avoiding the unit norm constraint on the target impulse response (TIR). In this paper we change the cost function proposed in [1] to the cost function of determining the maximum of a determinant subject to linear matrix inequality (LMI) and quadratic constraint and solve the resulting optimization problem. Usefulness of the proposed method is shown with the help of simulations.

Keywords: Equalizer, target impulse response, convex optimization, matrix inequality.

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Authors: Muhammad Haitham Albahnassi, Adnan Malki, Shokri Almekdad

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In this paper, a method for reconfiguring bandwidth in a circular dual-mode resonator is presented. The method concerns the optimized geometry of a structure that may be used to host the tuning elements, which are typically RF (Radio Frequency) switches. The tuning elements themselves, and their performance during tuning, are not the focus of this paper. The designed resonator is able to reconfigure its fractional bandwidth by adjusting the inter-coupling level between the degenerate modes, while at the same time improving its response by adjusting the external-coupling level and keeping the center frequency fixed. The inter-coupling level has been adjusted by changing the dimensions of the perturbation element, while the external-coupling level has been adjusted by changing one of the feeder dimensions. The design was arrived at via optimization. Agreeing simulation and measurement results of the designed and implemented filters showed good improvements in return loss values and the stability of the center frequency.

Keywords: Dual-mode resonators, perturbation element, perturbation theory, reconfigurable filters, software defined radio (SDR), cognitine radio.

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Authors: Javier Barbaran, Manuel Dıaz, Inaki Esteve, Bartolome Rubio

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Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have attracted the attention of many researchers. This has resulted in their rapid integration in very different areas such as precision agriculture,environmental monitoring, object and event detection and military surveillance. Due to the current WSN characteristics this technology is specifically useful in industrial areas where security, reliability and autonomy are basic, such as nuclear power plants, chemical plants, and others. In this paper we present a system based on WSNs to monitor environmental conditions around and inside a nuclear power plant, specifically, radiation levels. Sensor nodes, equipped with radiation sensors, are deployed in fixed positions throughout the plant. In addition, plant staff are also equipped with mobile devices with higher capabilities than sensors such as for example PDAs able to monitor radiation levels and other conditions around them. The system enables communication between PDAs, which form a Mobile Ad-hoc Wireless Network (MANET), and allows workers to monitor remote conditions in the plant. It is particularly useful during stoppage periods for inspection or in the event of an accident to prevent risk situations.

Keywords: MANETs, Mobile computing, Radiation monitoring, Wireless Sensor Networks.

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Authors: Kevin Spencer G. Anglim, Zhenyu Zhang, Qingbin Gao

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Reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) present a more environmentally-friendly approach to accessing space when compared to traditional launch vehicles that are discarded after each flight. This paper studies the recyclable nature of RLVs by presenting a solution method for determining minimum-fuel optimal trajectories using principles from optimal control theory and particle swarm optimization (PSO). This problem is formulated as a minimum-landing error powered descent problem where it is desired to move the RLV from a fixed set of initial conditions to three different sets of terminal conditions. However, unlike other powered descent studies, this paper considers the highly nonlinear effects caused by atmospheric drag, which are often ignored for studies on the Moon or on Mars. Rather than optimizing the controls directly, the throttle control is assumed to be bang-off-bang with a predetermined thrust direction for each phase of flight. The PSO method is verified in a one-dimensional comparison study, and it is then applied to the two-dimensional cases, the results of which are illustrated.

Keywords: Minimum-fuel optimal trajectory, particle swarm optimization, reusable rocket, SpaceX.

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Authors: Henry Foulds, Magda Huisman, Gunther R. Drevin

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Privacy is regarded as a fundamental human right and it is clear that the study of digital privacy is an important field. Digital privacy is influenced by new and constantly evolving technologies and this continuous change makes it hard to create legislation to protect people’s privacy from being exploited by misuse of these technologies.

This study aims to benefit digital privacy legislation efforts by evaluating the awareness and perceived importance of digital privacy legislation among computer science students. The chosen fixed variables for the population are study year and gamer classification.

The use of location based services in mobile applications and games are a concern for digital privacy. For this reason the study focused on computer science students as they have a high likelihood to use and develop this type of software. Surveys were used to evaluate awareness and perceived importance of digital privacy legislation.

The results of the study show that privacy legislation and awareness of privacy legislation are important to people. The perception of the importance of privacy legislation increases with academic experience. Awareness of privacy legislation increases from non-gamers to pro gamers. 

Keywords: Digital privacy, Legislation awareness, Gaming.

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Authors: R. Vedhapriya Vadhana, Ruba Soundar, K. G. Jothi Shalini

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We address the problem of interference over all the channels in multiuser MIMO-OFDM systems. This paper contributes three beamforming strategies designed for multiuser multiple-input and multiple-output by way of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, in which the transmit and receive beamformers are acquired repetitious by secure-form stages. In the principal case, the transmit (TX) beamformers remain fixed then the receive (RX) beamformers are computed. This eradicates one interference span for every user by means of extruding the transmit beamformers into a null space of relevant channels. Formerly, by gratifying the orthogonality condition to exclude the residual interferences in RX beamformer for every user is done by maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The second case comprises mutually optimizing the TX and RX beamformers from controlled SNR maximization. The outcomes of first case is used here. The third case also includes combined optimization of TX-RX beamformers; however, uses the both controlled SNR and signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio maximization (SINR). By the standardized channel model for IEEE 802.11n, the proposed simulation experiments offer rapid beamforming and enhanced error performance.

Keywords: Beamforming, interference channels, MIMO-OFDM, multi-objective optimization.

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Authors: Yuxuan Huang, Weixin Qian, Hongfang Ma, Haitao Zhang, Weiyong Ying

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Light olefins are important building blocks for chemical industry. Direct conversion of syngas to light olefins has been investigated for decades. Meanwhile, the limit for light olefins selectivity described by Anderson-Schulz-Flory (ASF) distribution model is still a great challenge to conventional Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The emerging strategy called oxide-zeolite concept (OX-ZEO) is a promising way to get rid of this limit. ZnCrO_x was prepared by co-precipitation method and (NH₄)₂CO₃ was used as precipitant. SAPO-34 was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis, and Tetraethylammonium hydroxide (TEAOH) was used as template, while silica sol, pseudo-boehmite, and phosphoric acid were Al, Si and P source, respectively. The bifunctional catalyst was prepared by mechanical mixing of ZnCrO_x and SAPO-34. Catalytic reactions were carried out under H₂/CO=2, 380 ℃, 1 MPa and 6000 mL·g_cat^-1·h^-1 in a fixed-bed reactor with a quartz lining. Catalysts were characterized by XRD, N₂ adsorption-desorption, NH₃-TPD, H₂-TPR, and CO-TPD. The addition of Al as structure promoter enhances CO conversion and selectivity to light olefins. Zn/Cr ratio, which decides the active component content and chemisorption property of the catalyst, influences CO conversion and selectivity to light olefins at the same time. C_2-4⁼ distribution of 86% among hydrocarbons at CO conversion of 14% was reached when Zn/Cr=1.5.

Keywords: Light olefins, OX-ZEO, syngas, ZnCrOx.

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Authors: Su-Hyun Jung, Chang-Bin Ha, Hyoung-Kyu Song

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Recently, increasing the quality of experience (QoE) is an important issue. Since performance degradation at cell edge extremely reduces the QoE, several techniques are defined at LTE/LTE-A standard to remove inter-cell interference (ICI). However, the conventional techniques have disadvantage because there is a trade-off between resource allocation and reliable communication. The proposed scheme reduces the ICI more efficiently by using channel state information (CSI) smartly. It is shown that the proposed scheme can reduce the ICI with fewer resources.

Keywords: Adaptive beam forming, CoMP, LTE-A, ICI reduction.

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Authors: Adnene Arbi, Chaouki Aouiti, Abderrahmane Touati

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In this paper, we consider the global exponential stability of the equilibrium point of Hopfield neural networks with delays and impulsive perturbation. Some new exponential stability criteria of the system are derived by using the Lyapunov functional method and the linear matrix inequality approach for estimating the upper bound of the derivative of Lyapunov functional. Finally, we illustrate two numerical examples showing the effectiveness of our theoretical results.

Keywords: Hopfield Neural Networks, Exponential stability.

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Authors: Christos Meletis, Paul Bougas, George Economakos , Paraskevas Kalivas, Kiamal Pekmestzi

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In this paper, we propose a new architecture for the implementation of the N-point Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), based on the Radix-2 Decimation in Frequency algorithm. This architecture is based on a pipeline circuit that can process a stream of samples and produce two FFT transform samples every clock cycle. Compared to existing implementations the architecture proposed achieves double processing speed using the same circuit complexity.

Keywords: Digital signal processing, systolic circuits, FFTalgorithm.

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Authors: Meng-Cong Zheng

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When the public space is in an emergency, how to quickly establish spatial cognition and emergency shelter in the closed underground space is the urgent task. This study takes Taipei Station as the research base and aims to apply the use of Internet of things (IoT) application for underground evacuation mobility design. The first experiment identified passengers' evacuation behaviors and spatial cognition in underground spaces by wayfinding tasks and thinking aloud, then defined the design conditions of User Interface (UI) and proposed the UI design.  The second experiment evaluated the UI design based on passengers' evacuation behaviors by wayfinding tasks and think aloud again as same as the first experiment. The first experiment found that the design conditions that the subjects were most concerned about were "map" and hoping to learn the relative position of themselves with other landmarks by the map and watch the overall route. "Position" needs to be accurately labeled to determine the location in underground space. Each step of the escape instructions should be presented clearly in "navigation bar." The "message bar" should be informed of the next or final target exit. In the second experiment with the UI design, we found that the "spatial map" distinguishing between walking and non-walking areas with shades of color is useful. The addition of 2.5D maps of the UI design increased the user's perception of space. Amending the color of the corner diagram in the "escape route" also reduces the confusion between the symbol and other diagrams. The larger volume of toilets and elevators can be a judgment of users' relative location in "Hardware facilities." Fire extinguisher icon should be highlighted. "Fire point tips" of the UI design indicated fire with a graphical fireball can convey precise information to the escaped person. "Fire point tips" of the UI design indicated fire with a graphical fireball can convey precise information to the escaped person. However, "Compass and return to present location" are less used in underground space.

Keywords: Evacuation behaviors, IoT application, map UI design, underground station.

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Authors: Adrián D. García-Soto, Alejandro Hernández-Martínez, Jesús G. Valdés-Vázquez, Reyna A. Vizguerra-Alvarez

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Reinforced concrete bridges designed by code are intended to achieve target reliability levels adequate for the geographical environment where the code is applicable. Several methods can be used to estimate such reliability levels. Many of them require the establishment of an explicit limit state function (LSF). When such LSF is not available as a close-form expression, the simulation techniques are often employed. The simulation methods are computing intensive and time consuming. Note that if the reliability of real bridges designed by code is of interest, numerical schemes, the finite element method (FEM) or computational mechanics could be required. In these cases, it can be quite difficult (or impossible) to establish a close-form of the LSF, and the simulation techniques may be necessary to compute reliability levels. To overcome the need for a large number of simulations when no explicit LSF is available, the point estimate method (PEM) could be considered as an alternative. It has the advantage that only the probabilistic moments of the random variables are required. However, in the PEM, fitting of the resulting moments of the LSF to a probability density function (PDF) is needed. In the present study, a very simple alternative which allows the assessment of the reliability levels when no explicit LSF is available and without the need of extensive simulations is employed. The alternative includes the use of the PEM, and its applicability is shown by assessing reliability levels of reinforced concrete bridges in Mexico when a numerical scheme is required. Comparisons with results by using the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) technique are included. To overcome the problem of approximating the probabilistic moments from the PEM to a PDF, a well-known distribution is employed. The approach mixes the PEM and other classic reliability method (first order reliability method, FORM). The results in the present study are in good agreement whit those computed with the MCS. Therefore, the alternative of mixing the reliability methods is a very valuable option to determine reliability levels when no close form of the LSF is available, or if numerical schemes, the FEM or computational mechanics are employed.

Keywords: Structural reliability, reinforced concrete bridges, mixing approaches, point estimate method, Monte Carlo simulation.

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Authors: Corrado Grassi, Achim Schröter, Yves Gloy, Thomas Gries

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Air jet weaving is the most productive, but also the most energy consuming weaving method. Increasing energy costs and environmental impact are constantly a challenge for the manufacturers of weaving machines. Current technological developments concern with low energy costs, low environmental impact, high productivity, and constant product quality. The high degree of energy consumption of the method can be ascribed to the high need of compressed air. An energy efficiency method is applied to the air jet weaving technology. Such method identifies and classifies the main relevant energy consumers and processes from the exergy point of view and it leads to the identification of energy efficiency potentials during the weft insertion process. Starting from the design phase, energy efficiency is considered as the central requirement to be satisfied. The initial phase of the method consists of an analysis of the state of the art of the main weft insertion components in order to point out a prioritization of the high demanding energy components and processes. The identified major components are investigated to reduce the high demand of energy of the weft insertion process. During the interaction of the flow field coming from the relay nozzles within the profiled reed, only a minor part of the stream is really accelerating the weft yarn, hence resulting in large energy inefficiency. Different tools such as FEM analysis, CFD simulation models and experimental analysis are used in order to design a more energy efficient design of the involved components in the filling insertion. A different concept for the metal strip of the profiled reed is developed. The developed metal strip allows a reduction of the machine energy consumption. Based on a parametric and aerodynamic study, the designed reed transmits higher values of the flow power to the filling yarn. The innovative reed fulfills both the requirement of raising energy efficiency and the compliance with the weaving constraints.

Keywords: Air jet weaving, aerodynamic simulation, energy efficiency, experimental measurements, power costs, weft insertion.

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Authors: Khalil el Hindi

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This paper presents a simple and effective method for approximate indexing of instances for instance based learning. The method uses an interval tree to determine a good starting search point for the nearest neighbor. The search stops when an early stopping criterion is met. The method proved to be very effective especially when only the first nearest neighbor is required.

Keywords: Instance based learning, interval trees, the knn algorithm, machine learning.

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Authors: Tao Chen, ShiHua Liu, JiWei Zhang

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Assembly of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) has a very important influence on its performance and efficiency. The various components of PEMFC stack are usually locked and fixed by bolts. Locking bolt will cause the deformation of the bipolar plate and the other components, which will affect directly the deformation degree of the integral parts of the PEMFC as well as the performance of PEMFC. This paper focuses on the object of three-cell stack of PEMFC. Finite element simulation is used to investigate the deformation of bipolar plate caused by quantity and layout of bolts, bolt locking pressure, and bolt locking sequence, etc. Finally, we made a conclusion that the optimal combination packaging scheme was adopted to assemble the fuel cell stack. The scheme was in use of 3.8 MPa locking pressure imposed on the fuel cell stack, type Ⅱ of four locking bolts and longitudinal locking method. The scheme was obtained by comparatively analyzing the overall displacement contour of PEMFC stack, absolute displacement curve of bipolar plate along the given three paths in the Z direction and the polarization curve of fuel cell. The research results are helpful for the fuel cell stack assembly.

Keywords: Bipolar plate, deformation, finite element simulation, fuel cell, locking bolt.

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Authors: Reza Ghasemi, Negin Amiri Hazaveh

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In this paper, control methodology based on the selection of the type of traffic light and the period of the green phase to accomplish an optimum balance at intersections is proposed. This balance should be flexible to the static behavior of time, and randomness in a traffic situation; the goal of the proposed method is to reduce traffic volume in transportation, the average delay for each vehicle, and control over the crash of cars. The proposed method was specifically investigated at the intersection through an appropriate timing of traffic lights by sampling a multi-agent system. It consists of a large number of intersections, each of which is considered as an independent agent that exchanges information with each other, and the stability of each agent is provided separately. The robustness against uncertainties, scalability, and stability of the closed-loop overall system are the main merits of the proposed methodology. The simulation results show that the fuzzy intelligent controller in this multi-factor system which is a Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy is more useful than scheduling in the fixed-time method and it reduces the lengths of vehicles queuing.

Keywords: Fuzzy intelligent controller, traffic-light control, multi-agent systems, state space equations, stability.

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Authors: Tien-Tung Chung, Chin-Te Lin, Chung-Yun Lee, Kuang-Chao Fan, Shou-Heng Chen

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This paper studies the optimum design for reducing optical loss of an 8x8 mechanical type optical switch due to the temperature change. The 8x8 optical switch is composed of a base, 8 input fibers, 8 output fibers, 3 fixed mirrors and 17 movable mirrors. First, an innovative switch configuration is proposed with thermal-compensated design. Most mechanical type optical switches have a disadvantage that their precision and accuracy are influenced by the ambient temperature. Therefore, the thermal-compensated design is to deal with this situation by using materials with different thermal expansion coefficients (α). Second, a parametric modeling program is developed to generate solid models for finite element analysis, and the thermal and structural behaviors of the switch are analyzed. Finally, an integrated optimum design program, combining Autodesk Inventor Professional software, finite element analysis software, and genetic algorithms, is developed for improving the thermal behaviors that the optical loss of the switch is reduced. By changing design parameters of the switch in the integrated design program, the final optimum design that satisfies the design constraints and specifications can be found.

Keywords: Optical switch, finite element analysis, thermal-compensated design, optimum design.

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Authors: A. B. Khoshnevis, F. Zeydabadi, F. Sokhanvar

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The data measurement of mean velocity has been taken for the wake of single circular cylinder with three different diameters for two different velocities. The effects of change in diameter and in velocity are studied in self-similar coordinate system. The spatial variations of velocity defect and that of the half-width have been investigated. The results are compared with those published by H.Schlichting. In the normalized coordinates, it is also observed that all cases except for the first station are self-similar. By attention to self-similarity profiles of mean velocity, it is observed for all the cases at the each station curves tend to zero at a same point.

Keywords: Self-similarity, wake of single circular cylinder

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Authors: Elnura Assyltayeva, Zhanar Aldubasheva, Zhengisbek Tolen, Ziyakul Assyltayeva, Aliya Alimzhanova

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Mankind has entered into an extremely complex and controversial stage of its development: the world is simultaneously organized and chaoticized, globalized and localized, combined and split. Analysts point out that globalization as a process of strengthening economic, cultural, financial and other ties of states cause many problems. In the economic sphere, it creates the danger of growing gap between the states, in the sphere of politics it leads to the weakening of political power and influence of nation-states.

Keywords: Civic identity, globalization, identity crisis, culture identity

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Authors: Hind Bouami, Patrick Millot

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Medication dispensing system is a life-critical system whose failure may result in preventable adverse events leading to longer patient stays in hospitals or patient death. Automation has led to great improvements in life-critical systems as it increased safety, efficiency, and comfort. However, critical risks related to medical organization complexity and automated solutions integration can threaten drug dispensing security and performance. Knowledge about the system’s complexity aspects and human machine parameters to control for automated equipment’s security and performance will help operators to secure their automation process and to optimize their system’s reliability. In this context, this study aims to document the operator’s situation awareness about automation risks and parameters involved in automation security and performance. Our risk management approach has been deployed in the North Luxembourg hospital center’s pharmacy, which is equipped with automated drug dispensing systems since 2009. With more than 4 million euros of gains generated, North Luxembourg hospital center’s success story was enabled by the management commitment, pharmacy’s involvement in the implementation and improvement of the automation project, and the close collaboration between the pharmacy and Sinteco’s firm to implement the necessary innovation and organizational actions for automated solutions integration security and performance. An analysis of the actions implemented by the hospital and the parameters involved in automated equipment’s integration security and performance has been made. The parameters to control for automated equipment’s integration security and performance are human aspects (6.25%), technical aspects (50%), and human-machine interaction (43.75%). The implementation of an anthropocentric analysis system before automation would have prevented and optimized the control of risks related to automation.

Keywords: Automated drug delivery systems, hospitals, human-centered automated system, risk management.

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Kers Kapa, Rialda Xhizdari, Ilma Robo

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Despite the existence of different dental specialties, the dentist-patient relationship is unique, in the very fact that the treatment is performed by one doctor and the patient identifies the malpractice presented as part of that doctor's practice; this is in complete contrast to cases of medical treatments where the patient can be presented to a team of doctors, to treat a specific pathology. The rules of dental ethics are almost the same as the rules of medical ethics. The appearance of dental malpractice affects exactly this two-party relationship, created on the basis of professionalism, without deviations in this direction, between the dentist and the patient, but with very narrow individual boundaries, compared to cases of medical malpractice. Malpractice can have different reasons for its appearance, starting from professional negligence, but also from the lack of professional knowledge of the dentist who undertakes the dental treatment. It should always be seen in perspective that we are not talking about the individual - the dentist who goes to work with the intention of harming their patients. Malpractice can also be a consequence of the impossibility, for anatomical or physiological reasons of the tooth under dental treatment, to realize the predetermined dental treatment plan. On the other hand, the dentist himself is an individual who can be affected by health conditions, or have vices that affect the systemic health of the dentist as an individual, which in these conditions can cause malpractice. So, depending on the reason that led to the appearance of malpractice, the method of treatment from a legal point of view also varies, for the dentist who committed the malpractice, evaluating the latter if the malpractice came under the conditions of applying the rules of dental ethics. The deviation from the predetermined dental plan is the minimum sign of malpractice and the latter should not be definitively related only to cases of difficult dental treatments. The identification of the reason for the appearance of malpractice is the initial element, which makes the difference in the way of its treatment, from a legal point of view, and the involvement of the dentist in the assessment of the malpractice committed, must be based on the legislation in force, which must be said to have their specific changes in different states. Malpractice should be referred to, or included in the lectures or in the continuing education of professionals, because it serves as a method of obtaining professional experience in order not to repeat the same thing several times, by different professionals.

Keywords: Dental ethics, malpractice, negligence, legal basis, continuing education, dental treatments.

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Authors: Ben-Edigbe J, RahmanR

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Since primary school trips usually start from home, attention by many scholars have been focused on the home end for data gathering. Thereafter category analysis has often been relied upon when predicting school travel demands. In this paper, school end was relied on for data gathering and multivariate regression for future travel demand prediction. 9859 pupils were surveyed by way of questionnaires at 21 primary schools. The town was divided into 5 zones. The study was carried out in Skudai Town, Malaysia. Based on the hypothesis that the number of primary school trip ends are expected to be the same because school trips are fixed, the choice of trip end would have inconsequential effect on the outcome. The study compared empirical data for home and school trip end productions and attractions. Variance from both data results was insignificant, although some claims from home based family survey were found to be grossly exaggerated. Data from the school trip ends was relied on for travel demand prediction because of its completeness. Accessibility, trip attraction and trip production were then related to school trip rates under daylight and dry weather conditions. The paper concluded that, accessibility is an important parameter when predicting demand for future school trip rates.

Keywords: Trip generation, regression analysis, multiple linearregressions

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Authors: Davide D’Aria, Paolo Falcone, Luigi Maggi, Aldo Cero, Giovanni Amoroso

Abstract:

The paper presents a methodology for real-time structural health monitoring and geophysical applications. The key elements of the system are a high performance MIMO RADAR sensor, an optical camera and a dedicated set of software algorithms encompassing interferometry, tomography and photogrammetry. The MIMO Radar sensor proposed in this work, provides an extremely high sensitivity to displacements making the system able to react to tiny deformations (up to tens of microns) with a time scale which spans from milliseconds to hours. The MIMO feature of the system makes the system capable of providing a set of two-dimensional images of the observed scene, each mapped on the azimuth-range directions with noticeably resolution in both the dimensions and with an outstanding repetition rate. The back-scattered energy, which is distributed in the 3D space, is projected on a 2D plane, where each pixel has as coordinates the Line-Of-Sight distance and the cross-range azimuthal angle. At the same time, the high performing processing unit allows to sense the observed scene with remarkable refresh periods (up to milliseconds), thus opening the way for combined static and dynamic structural health monitoring. Thanks to the smart TX/RX antenna array layout, the MIMO data can be processed through a tomographic approach to reconstruct the three-dimensional map of the observed scene. This 3D point cloud is then accurately mapped on a 2D digital optical image through photogrammetric techniques, allowing for easy and straightforward interpretations of the measurements. Once the three-dimensional image is reconstructed, a 'repeat-pass' interferometric approach is exploited to provide the user of the system with high frequency three-dimensional motion/vibration estimation of each point of the reconstructed image. At this stage, the methodology leverages consolidated atmospheric correction algorithms to provide reliable displacement and vibration measurements.

Keywords: Interferometry, MIMO RADAR, SAR, tomography.

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Authors: Bibhya Sharma, Jito Vanualailai, Ravindra Rai

Abstract:

This research paper designs a unique motion planner of multiple platoons of nonholonomic car-like robots as a feasible solution to the lane changing/merging maneuvers. The decentralized planner with a leaderless approach and a path-guidance principle derived from the Lyapunov-based control scheme generates collision free avoidance and safe merging maneuvers from multiple lanes to a single lane by deploying a split/merge strategy. The fixed obstacles are the markings and boundaries of the road lanes, while the moving obstacles are the robots themselves. Real and virtual road lane markings and the boundaries of road lanes are incorporated into a workspace to achieve the desired formation and configuration of the robots. Convergence of the robots to goal configurations and the repulsion of the robots from specified obstacles are achieved by suitable attractive and repulsive potential field functions, respectively. The results can be viewed as a significant contribution to the avoidance algorithm of the intelligent vehicle systems (IVS). Computer simulations highlight the effectiveness of the split/merge strategy and the acceleration-based controllers.

Keywords: Lane merging, Lyapunov-based control scheme, path-guidance principle, split/merge strategy.

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Authors: Zdeněk Mikoláš, Zuzana Wozniaková

Abstract:

In the 21. century it comes true, that competitiveness of the firm is - to a considerable level - influenced by its participation in the chain of suppliers, customers and partners and by the way how the subject cooperates in the chain. This is valid also for new forms of enterprise such as virtual organization or virtual firm. In the first part of the paper there are determined the differences between these forms of enterprise. Another part will bring methodological framework for analysis of the factors, that influence the competitiveness of the virtual organization from spontaneity and order point of view.

Keywords: abstraction, competitiveness, order, potential, spontaneity, virtual firm, virtual organization.

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Authors: Juliana A. Fracarolli, Adilson M. Enes, Inácio M. Dal Fabbro, Silvestre Rodrigues

Abstract:

The dynamic speckle or biospeckle is an interference phenomenon generated at the reflection of a coherent light by an active surface or even by a particulate or living body surface. The above mentioned phenomenon gave scientific support to a method named biospeckle which has been employed to study seed viability, biological activity, tissue senescence, tissue water content, fruit bruising, etc. Since the above mentioned method is not invasive and yields numerical values, it can be considered for possible automation associated to several processes, including selection and sorting. Based on these preliminary considerations, this research work proposed to study the interaction of a laser beam with vegetative samples by measuring the incident light intensity and the transmitted light beam intensity at several vegetative slabs of varying thickness. Tests were carried on fifteen slices of apple tissue divided into three thickness groups, i.e., 4 mm, 5 mm, 18 mm and 22 mm. A diode laser beam of 10mW and 632 nm wavelength and a Samsung digital camera were employed to carry the tests. Outgoing images were analyzed by comparing the gray gradient of a fixed image column of each image to obtain a laser penetration scale into the tissue, according to the slice thickness.

Keywords: Fruit, laser, laser transmission, vegetative tissue.

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Authors: Juris Burlakovs, Maris Klavins, Raimonds Ernsteins, Armands Ruskulis

Abstract:

Environmental contamination is a common problem in ex-industrial and industrial sites. This article gives a brief description of general applied environmental investigation methodologies and possible remediation applications in Latvia. Most of contaminated areas are situated in former and active industrial, military areas and ports. Industrial and logistic activities very often have been with great impact for more than hundred years thus the contamination level with heavy metals, hydrocarbons, pesticides, persistent organic pollutants is high and is threatening health and environment in general. 242 territories now are numbered as contaminated and fixed in the National Register of contaminated territories in Latvia. Research and remediation of contamination in densely populated areas are of important environmental policy domain. Four different investigation case studies of contaminated areas are given describing the history of use, environmental quality assessment as well as planned environmental management actions. All four case study locations are situated in Riga - the capital of the Republic of Latvia. The aim of this paper is to analyze the situation and problems with management of contaminated areas in Latvia, give description of field research methods and recommendations for remediation industry based on scientific data and innovations.

Keywords: Remediation technology, environmental quality assessment, heavy metals, hydrocarbon contamination, environmental management.

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