Search results for: Social Network Dynamics.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4944

Search results for: Social Network Dynamics.

3654 Agent-based Simulation for Blood Glucose Control in Diabetic Patients

Authors: Sh. Yasini, M. B. Naghibi-Sistani, A. Karimpour

Abstract:

This paper employs a new approach to regulate the blood glucose level of type I diabetic patient under an intensive insulin treatment. The closed-loop control scheme incorporates expert knowledge about treatment by using reinforcement learning theory to maintain the normoglycemic average of 80 mg/dl and the normal condition for free plasma insulin concentration in severe initial state. The insulin delivery rate is obtained off-line by using Qlearning algorithm, without requiring an explicit model of the environment dynamics. The implementation of the insulin delivery rate, therefore, requires simple function evaluation and minimal online computations. Controller performance is assessed in terms of its ability to reject the effect of meal disturbance and to overcome the variability in the glucose-insulin dynamics from patient to patient. Computer simulations are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique and to show its superiority in controlling hyperglycemia over other existing algorithms

Keywords: Insulin Delivery rate, Q-learning algorithm, Reinforcement learning, Type I diabetes.

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3653 Investigating the Effect of Using Capacitors in the Pumping Station on the Harmonic Contents (Case Study: Kafr El - Shikh Governorate, Egypt)

Authors: Khaled M. Fetyan

Abstract:

Power Factor (PF) is one of the most important parameters in the electrical systems, especially in the water pumping station. The low power factor value of the water pumping stations causes penalty for the electrical bill. There are many methods use for power factor improvement. Each one of them uses a capacitor on the electrical power network. The position of the capacitors is varied depends on many factors such as; voltage level and capacitors rating. Adding capacitors on the motor terminals increase the supply power factor from 0.8 to more than 0.9 but these capacitors cause some problems for the electrical grid network, such as increasing the harmonic contents of the grid line voltage. In this paper the effects of using capacitors in the water pumping stations to improve the power factor value on the harmonic contents of the electrical grid network are studied. One of large water pumping stations in Kafr El-Shikh Governorate in Egypt was used, as a case study. The effect of capacitors on the line voltage harmonic contents is measured. The station uses capacitors to improve the PF values at the 1 lkv grid network. The power supply harmonics values are measured by a power quality analyzer at different loading conditions. The results showed that; the capacitors improved the power factor value of the feeder and its value increased than 0.9. But the THD values are increased by adding these capacitors. The harmonic analysis showed that; the 13th, 17th, and 19th harmonics orders are increased also by adding the capacitors.

Keywords: Water pumping stations, power factor improvement, total harmonic distortions (THD), power quality.

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3652 Subjective Quality Assessment for Impaired Videos with Varying Spatial and Temporal Information

Authors: Muhammad Rehan Usman, Muhammad Arslan Usman, Soo Young Shin

Abstract:

The new era of digital communication has brought up many challenges that network operators need to overcome. The high demand of mobile data rates require improved networks, which is a challenge for the operators in terms of maintaining the quality of experience (QoE) for their consumers. In live video transmission, there is a sheer need for live surveillance of the videos in order to maintain the quality of the network. For this purpose objective algorithms are employed to monitor the quality of the videos that are transmitted over a network. In order to test these objective algorithms, subjective quality assessment of the streamed videos is required, as the human eye is the best source of perceptual assessment. In this paper we have conducted subjective evaluation of videos with varying spatial and temporal impairments. These videos were impaired with frame freezing distortions so that the impact of frame freezing on the quality of experience could be studied. We present subjective Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for these videos that can be used for fine tuning the objective algorithms for video quality assessment.

Keywords: Frame freezing, mean opinion score, objective assessment, subjective evaluation.

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3651 Improving the Elder-s Quality of Life with Smart Television Based Services

Authors: Van-Quang Trinh, Gi-Soo Chung, Hee-Cheol Kim

Abstract:

The increasing number of senior population gradually causes to demand the use of information and communication technology for their satisfactory lives. This paper presents the development of an integrated TV based system which offers an opportunity to provide value added services to a large number of elderly citizens, and thus helps improve their quality of life. The design philosophy underlying this paper is to fulfill both technological and human aspects. The balance between these two dimensions has been currently stressed as a crucial element for the design of usable systems in real use, particularly to the elderly who have physical and mental decline. As the first step to achieve it, we have identified human and social factors that affect the elder-s quality of life by a literature review, and based on them, build four fundamental services: information, healthcare, learning and social network services. Secondly, the system architecture, employed technologies and the elderly-friendly system design considerations are presented. This reflects technological and human perspectives in terms of the system design. Finally, we describe some scenarios that illustrate the potentiality of the proposed system to improve elderly people-s quality of life.

Keywords: Elderly people, human computer interaction, quality of life, smart television, user-centered system design

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3650 Stability of Stochastic Model Predictive Control for Schrödinger Equation with Finite Approximation

Authors: Tomoaki Hashimoto

Abstract:

Recent technological advance has prompted significant interest in developing the control theory of quantum systems. Following the increasing interest in the control of quantum dynamics, this paper examines the control problem of Schrödinger equation because quantum dynamics is basically governed by Schrödinger equation. From the practical point of view, stochastic disturbances cannot be avoided in the implementation of control method for quantum systems. Thus, we consider here the robust stabilization problem of Schrödinger equation against stochastic disturbances. In this paper, we adopt model predictive control method in which control performance over a finite future is optimized with a performance index that has a moving initial and terminal time. The objective of this study is to derive the stability criterion for model predictive control of Schrödinger equation under stochastic disturbances.

Keywords: Optimal control, stochastic systems, quantum systems, stabilization.

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3649 Performance Evaluation of Discrete Fourier Transform Algorithm Based PMU for Wide Area Measurement System

Authors: Alpesh Adeshara, Rajendrasinh Jadeja, Praghnesh Bhatt

Abstract:

Implementation of advanced technologies requires sophisticated instruments that deal with the operation, control, restoration and protection of rapidly growing power system network under normal and abnormal conditions. Presently, the applications of Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) are widely found in real time operation, monitoring, controlling and analysis of power system network as it eliminates the various limitations of supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) conventionally used in power system. The use of PMU data is very rapidly increasing its importance for online and offline analysis. Wide area measurement system (WAMS) is developed as new technology by use of multiple PMUs in power system. The present paper proposes a model of Matlab based PMU using Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) algorithm and evaluation of its operation under different contingencies. In this paper, PMU based two bus system having WAMS network is presented as a case study.

Keywords: DFT-Discrete Fourier Transform, GPS-Global Positioning System, PMU-Phasor Measurement System, WAMS-Wide Area Monitoring System.

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3648 An Acerbate Psychotics Symptoms, Social Support, Stressful Life Events, Medication Use Self-Efficacy Impact on Social Dysfunction: A Cross Sectional Self-Rated Study of Persons with Schizophrenia Patient and Misusing Methamphetamines

Authors: Ek-Uma Imkome, Jintana Yunibhand, Waraporn Chaiyawat

Abstract:

Background: Persons with schizophrenia patient and misusing methamphetamines suffering from social dysfunction that impact on their quality of life. Knowledge of factors related to social dysfunction will guide the effective intervention. Objectives: To determine the direct effect, indirect effect and total effect of an acerbate Psychotics’ Symptoms, Social Support, Stressful life events, Medication use self-efficacy impact on social dysfunction in Thai schizophrenic patient and methamphetamine misuse. Methods: Data were collected from schizophrenic and methamphetamine misuse patient by self report. A linear structural relationship was used to test the hypothesized path model. Results: The hypothesized model was found to fit the empirical data and explained 54% of the variance of the psychotic symptoms (X2 = 114.35, df = 92, p-value = 0.05, X2 /df = 1.24, GFI = 0.96, AGFI = 0.92, CFI = 1.00, NFI = 0.99, NNFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.02). The highest total effect on social dysfunction was psychotic symptoms (0.67, p<0.05). Medication use self-efficacy had a direct effect on psychotic symptoms (-0.25, p<0.01), and social support had direct effect on medication use self efficacy (0.36, p <0.01). Conclusions: Psychotic symptoms and stressful life events were the significance factors that influenced direct on social dysfunctioning. Therefore, interventions that are designed to manage these factors are crucial in order to enhance social functioning in this population.

Keywords: Psychotic symptoms, methamphetamine, schizophrenia, stressful life events, social dysfunction, social support, medication use self-efficacy.

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3647 Using Strategic CSR to Achieve the Hybrid Middle Ground in Social Entrepreneurship: The Case of Telenor Hungary

Authors: Peter Hardi, Bala Mulloth

Abstract:

To be considered a socially entrepreneurial organization today requires achieving what can be termed a “hybrid middle ground” equilibrium, comprising of economic as well as social sustainability. This middle ground requires some blend of both business and social commitments. In this paper, we use the case of Hungary's second ranked mobile operator, Telenor Hungary to illustrate an example of a company that is moving to the hybrid middle ground by transitioning from a for-profit company to a socially responsible business using the concept of strategic CSR. In this line of thinking, the organization explicitly supports programs and initiatives that have a direct link to the core business and bring operational and/or financial advantages for the company, while creating a positive social and/or environmental impact. The important lessons learned from the company transition are also discussed. 

Keywords: Hybrid middle ground, social entrepreneurship, strategic corporate social responsibility.

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3646 Detecting HCC Tumor in Three Phasic CT Liver Images with Optimization of Neural Network

Authors: Mahdieh Khalilinezhad, Silvana Dellepiane, Gianni Vernazza

Abstract:

The aim of this work is to build a model based on tissue characterization that is able to discriminate pathological and non-pathological regions from three-phasic CT images. With our research and based on a feature selection in different phases, we are trying to design a neural network system with an optimal neuron number in a hidden layer. Our approach consists of three steps: feature selection, feature reduction, and classification. For each region of interest (ROI), 6 distinct sets of texture features are extracted such as: first order histogram parameters, absolute gradient, run-length matrix, co-occurrence matrix, autoregressive model, and wavelet, for a total of 270 texture features. When analyzing more phases, we show that the injection of liquid cause changes to the high relevant features in each region. Our results demonstrate that for detecting HCC tumor phase 3 is the best one in most of the features that we apply to the classification algorithm. The percentage of detection between pathology and healthy classes, according to our method, relates to first order histogram parameters with accuracy of 85% in phase 1, 95% in phase 2, and 95% in phase 3.

Keywords: Feature selection, Multi-phasic liver images, Neural network, Texture analysis.

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3645 Use of Smartphones in 6th and 7th Grade (Elementary Schools) in Istria: Pilot Study

Authors: Maja Ruzic-Baf, Vedrana Keteles, Andrea Debeljuh

Abstract:

Younger and younger children are now using a smartphone, a device which has become ‘a must have’ and the life of children would be almost ‘unthinkable’ without one. Devices are becoming lighter and lighter but offering an array of options and applications as well as the unavoidable access to the Internet, without which it would be almost unusable. Numerous features such as taking of photographs, listening to music, information search on the Internet, access to social networks, usage of some of the chatting and messaging services, are only some of the numerous features offered by ‘smart’ devices. They have replaced the alarm clock, home phone, camera, tablet and other devices. Their use and possession have become a part of the everyday image of young people. Apart from the positive aspects, the use of smartphones has also some downsides. For instance, free time was usually spent in nature, playing, doing sports or other activities enabling children an adequate psychophysiological growth and development. The greater usage of smartphones during classes to check statuses on social networks, message your friends, play online games, are just some of the possible negative aspects of their application. Considering that the age of the population using smartphones is decreasing and that smartphones are no longer ‘foreign’ to children of pre-school age (smartphones are used at home or in coffee shops or shopping centers while waiting for their parents, playing video games often inappropriate to their age), particular attention must be paid to a very sensitive group, the teenagers who almost never separate from their ‘pets’. This paper is divided into two sections, theoretical and empirical ones. The theoretical section gives an overview of the pros and cons of the usage of smartphones, while the empirical section presents the results of a research conducted in three elementary schools regarding the usage of smartphones and, specifically, their usage during classes, during breaks and to search information on the Internet, check status updates and 'likes’ on the Facebook social network.

Keywords: Education, smartphone, social networks, teenagers.

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3644 Relationship between Codependency, Perceived Social Support, and Depression in Mothers of Children with Intellectual Disability

Authors: Sajed Yaghoubnezhad, Mina Karimi, Seyede Marjan Modirkhazeni

Abstract:

The goal of this research was to study the relationship between codependency, perceived social support and depression in mothers of children with intellectual disability (ID). The correlational method was used in this study. The research population is comprised of mothers of educable children with ID in the age range of 25 to 61 years. From among this, a sample of 251 individuals, in the multistage cluster sampling method, was selected from educational districts in Tehran, who responded to the Spann-Fischer Codependency Scale (SFCDS), the Social Support Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The findings of this study indicate that among mothers of children with ID depression has a positive and significant correlation with codependency (P<0.01, r=0.4) and a negative and significant correlation with the total score of social support (P<0.01, r=-0.34). Moreover, the results of stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that codependency is allocated a higher variance than social support in explaining depression (R2=0.023).

Keywords: Codependency, social support, depression, mothers of children with ID.

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3643 European Ecological Network Natura 2000 - Opportunities and Threats

Authors: Adam Niewiadomski

Abstract:

The research objective of the project and article “European Ecological Network Natura 2000 – opportunities and threats” Natura 2000 sites constitute a form of environmental protection, several legal problems are likely to result. Most controversially, certain sites will be subject to two regimes of protection: as national parks and as Natura 2000 sites. This dualism of the legal regulation makes it difficult to perform certain legal obligations related to the regimes envisaged under each form of environmental protection. Which regime and which obligations resulting from the particular form of environmental protection have priority and should prevail? What should be done if these obligations are contradictory? Furthermore, an institutional problem consists in that no public administration authority has the power to resolve legal conflicts concerning the application of a particular regime on a given site. There are also no criteria to decide priority and superiority of one form of environmental protection over the other. Which regulations are more important, those that pertain to national parks or to Natura 2000 sites? In the light of the current regulations, it is impossible to give a decisive answer to these questions. The internal hierarchy of forms of environmental protection has not been determined, and all such forms should be treated equally.

Keywords: Natura 2000, European Ecological Network.

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3642 Computer Aided Diagnosis of Polycystic Kidney Disease Using ANN

Authors: Anjan Babu G, Sumana G, Rajasekhar M

Abstract:

Many inherited diseases and non-hereditary disorders are common in the development of renal cystic diseases. Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a disorder developed within the kidneys in which grouping of cysts filled with water like fluid. PKD is responsible for 5-10% of end-stage renal failure treated by dialysis or transplantation. New experimental models, application of molecular biology techniques have provided new insights into the pathogenesis of PKD. Researchers are showing keen interest for developing an automated system by applying computer aided techniques for the diagnosis of diseases. In this paper a multilayered feed forward neural network with one hidden layer is constructed, trained and tested by applying back propagation learning rule for the diagnosis of PKD based on physical symptoms and test results of urinalysis collected from the individual patients. The data collected from 50 patients are used to train and test the network. Among these samples, 75% of the data used for training and remaining 25% of the data are used for testing purpose. Further, this trained network is used to implement for new samples. The output results in normality and abnormality of the patient.

Keywords: Dialysis, Hereditary, Transplantation, Polycystic, Pathogenesis.

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3641 A POX Controller Module to Collect Web Traffic Statistics in SDN Environment

Authors: Wisam H. Muragaa, Kamaruzzaman Seman, Mohd Fadzli Marhusin

Abstract:

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new norm of networks. It is designed to facilitate the way of managing, measuring, debugging and controlling the network dynamically, and to make it suitable for the modern applications. Generally, measurement methods can be divided into two categories: Active and passive methods. Active measurement method is employed to inject test packets into the network in order to monitor their behaviour (ping tool as an example). Meanwhile the passive measurement method is used to monitor the traffic for the purpose of deriving measurement values. The measurement methods, both active and passive, are useful for the collection of traffic statistics, and monitoring of the network traffic. Although there has been a work focusing on measuring traffic statistics in SDN environment, it was only meant for measuring packets and bytes rates for non-web traffic. In this study, a feasible method will be designed to measure the number of packets and bytes in a certain time, and facilitate obtaining statistics for both web traffic and non-web traffic. Web traffic refers to HTTP requests that use application layer; while non-web traffic refers to ICMP and TCP requests. Thus, this work is going to be more comprehensive than previous works. With a developed module on POX OpenFlow controller, information will be collected from each active flow in the OpenFlow switch, and presented on Command Line Interface (CLI) and wireshark interface. Obviously, statistics that will be displayed on CLI and on wireshark interfaces include type of protocol, number of bytes and number of packets, among others. Besides, this module will show the number of flows added to the switch whenever traffic is generated from and to hosts in the same statistics list. In order to carry out this work effectively, our Python module will send a statistics request message to the switch requesting its current ports and flows statistics in every five seconds; while the switch will reply with the required information in a message called statistics reply message. Thus, POX controller will be notified and updated with any changes could happen in the entire network in a very short time. Therefore, our aim of this study is to prepare a list for the important statistics elements that are collected from the whole network, to be used for any further researches; particularly, those that are dealing with the detection of the network attacks that cause a sudden rise in the number of packets and bytes like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS).

Keywords: Mininet, OpenFlow, POX controller, SDN.

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3640 Propagation Model for a Mass-Mailing Worm with Mailing List

Authors: Akira Kanaoka, Eiji Okamoto

Abstract:

Mass-mail type worms have threatened to become a large problem for the Internet. Although many researchers have analyzed such worms, there are few studies that consider worm propagation via mailing lists. In this paper, we present a mass-mailing type worm propagation model including the mailing list effect on the propagation. We study its propagation by simulation with a real e¬mail social network model. We show that the impact of the mailing list on the mass-mail worm propagation is significant, even if the mailing list is not large.

Keywords: Malware, simulation, complex networks

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3639 Using Reuse Water for Irrigation Green space of Naein City

Authors: Nasri M., Soleimani A.

Abstract:

Since water resources of desert Naein City are very limited, a approach which saves water resources and meanwhile meets the needs of the greenspace for water is to use city-s sewage wastewater. Proper treatment of Naein-s sewage up to the standards required for green space uses may solve some of the problems of green space development of the city. The present paper closely examines available statistics and information associated with city-s sewage system, and determines complementary stages of sewage treatment facilities of the city. In the present paper, population, per capita water use, and required discharge for various greenspace pieces including different plants are calculated. Moreover, in order to facilitate the application of water resources, a Crude water distribution network apart from drinking water distribution network is designed, and a plan for mixing municipal wells- water with sewage wastewater in proposed mixing tanks is suggested. Hence, following greenspace irrigation reform and complementary plan, per capita greenspace of the city will be increased from current amount of 13.2 square meters to 32 square meters.

Keywords: Sewage Treatment Facility, Wastewater, Greenspace, Distribution Network, Naein City

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3638 Scientific Production on Lean Supply Chains Published in Journals Indexed by SCOPUS and Web of Science Databases: A Bibliometric Study

Authors: T. Botelho de Sousa, F. Raphael Cabral Furtado, O. Eduardo da Silva Ferri, A. Batista, W. Augusto Varella, C. Eduardo Pinto, J. Mimar Santa Cruz Yabarrena, S. Gibran Ruwer, F. Müller Guerrini, L. Adalberto Philippsen Júnior

Abstract:

Lean Supply Chain Management (LSCM) is an emerging research field in Operations Management (OM). As a strategic model that focuses on reduced cost and waste with fulfilling the needs of customers, LSCM attracts great interest among researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of Lean Supply Chains literature, based on bibliometric analysis through 57 papers published in indexed journals by SCOPUS and/or Web of Science databases. The results indicate that the last three years (2015, 2016, and 2017) were the most productive on LSCM discussion, especially in Supply Chain Management and International Journal of Lean Six Sigma journals. India, USA, and UK are the most productive countries; nevertheless, cross-country studies by collaboration among researchers were detected, by social network analysis, as a research practice, appearing to play a more important role on LSCM studies. Despite existing limitation, such as limited indexed journal database, bibliometric analysis helps to enlighten ongoing efforts on LSCM researches, including most used technical procedures and collaboration network, showing important research gaps, especially, for development countries researchers.

Keywords: Lean supply chains, bibliometric study, SCOPUS, web of Science.

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3637 Coverage and Capacity Performance Degradation on a Co-Located Network Involving CDMA2000 and WCDMA @1.9GH

Authors: O. C. Nosiri, V. E. Idigo, C. O. Ohaneme, K. A. Akpado

Abstract:

Coverage and capacity performance in a cellular network determines the system potentials. If the coverage radius is limited, end users suffer poor service quality, if the system capacity reduces, fewer subscribers will be accommodated. This paper investigated the performance effects of the noise rise caused by the spurious emission from a co-located jammer involving downlink frequency of CDMA2000 and uplink frequency of WCDMA operating at 1.9GHz. Measurements were carried out to evaluate the impact on the coverage radius and the system capacity.

Keywords: Capacity, Co-location, Coverage, Noise rise.

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3636 Reverse Logistics Information Management Using Ontological Approach

Authors: F. Lhafiane, A. Elbyed, M. Bouchoum

Abstract:

Reverse Logistics (RL) Network is considered as complex and dynamic network that involves many stakeholders such as: suppliers, manufactures, warehouse, retails and costumers, this complexity is inherent in such process due to lack of perfect knowledge or conflicting information. Ontologies on the other hand can be considered as an approach to overcome the problem of sharing knowledge and communication among the various reverse logistics partners. In this paper we propose a semantic representation based on hybrid architecture for building the Ontologies in ascendant way, this method facilitates the semantic reconciliation between the heterogeneous information systems that support reverse logistics processes and product data.

Keywords: Reverse Logistics, information management, heterogeneity, Ontologies, semantic web.

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3635 Service Flow in Multilayer Networks: A Method for Evaluating the Layout of Urban Medical Resources

Authors: Guanglin Song

Abstract:

Situated within the context of China's tiered medical treatment system, this study aims to analyze spatial causes of urban healthcare access difficulties from the perspective of the configuration of healthcare facilities. A social network analysis approach is employed to construct a healthcare demand and supply flow network between major residential clusters and various tiers of hospitals in the city. The findings reveal that: 1) There exists overall maldistribution and over-concentration of healthcare resources in the study area, characterized by structural imbalance. 2) The low rate of primary care utilization in the study area is a key factor contributing to congestion at higher-tier hospitals, as excessive reliance on these institutions by neighboring communities exacerbates the problem. 3) Gradual optimization of the healthcare facility layout in the study area, encompassing holistic, local, and individual institutional levels, can enhance systemic efficiency and resource balance. This research proposes a method for evaluating urban healthcare resource distribution structures based on service flows within hierarchical networks. It offers spatially targeted optimization suggestions for promoting the implementation of the tiered healthcare system and alleviating challenges related to accessibility and congestion in seeking medical care. In addition, the study provides some new ideas for researchers and healthcare managers in countries, cities, and healthcare management around the world with similar challenges.

Keywords: Flow of public services, healthcare facilities, spatial planning, urban networks.

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3634 Numerical Study of a Butterfly Valve for Vibration Analysis and Reduction

Authors: Malik I. Al-Amayreh, Mohammad I. Kilani, Ahmed S. Al-Salaymeh

Abstract:

This work presents a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of a butterfly valve used to control the flow of combustible gas mixture in an industrial process setting.The work uses CFD simulation to analyze the flow characteristics in the vicinity of the valve, including the pressure distributions and Frequency spectrum of the pressure pulsations downstream the valves and the vortex shedding allow predicting the torque fluctuations acting on the valve shaft and the possibility of generating mechanical vibration and resonance.These fluctuations are due to aerodynamic torque resulting from fluid turbulence and vortex shedding in the valve vicinity. The valve analyzed is located in a pipeline between two opposing 90o elbows, which exposes the valve and the surrounding structure to the turbulence generated upstream and downstream the elbows at either end of the pipe.CFD simulations show that the best location for the valve from a vibration point of view is in the middle of the pipe joining the elbows.

Keywords: Butterfly Valve Vibration Analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Fluid Flow Circuit Design, Fluid Mechanics.

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3633 Performance Analysis of a WiMax/Wi-Fi System Whilst Streaming a Video Conference Application

Authors: Patrice Obinna Umenne, Marcel O. Odhiambo

Abstract:

WiMAX and Wi-Fi are considered as the promising broadband access solutions for wireless MAN’s and LANs, respectively. In the recent works WiMAX is considered suitable as a backhaul service to connect multiple dispersed Wi-Fi ‘hotspots’. Hence a new integrated WiMAX/Wi-Fi architecture has been proposed in literatures. In this paper the performance of an integrated WiMAX/Wi-Fi network has been investigated by streaming a video conference application. The difference in performance between the two protocols is compared with respect to video conferencing. The Heterogeneous network was simulated in the OPNET simulator.

Keywords: Throughput, delay, delay variance, packet loss, Quality of Service (QoS).

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3632 MinRoot and CMesh: Interconnection Architectures for Network-on-Chip Systems

Authors: Mohammad Ali Jabraeil Jamali, Ahmad Khademzadeh

Abstract:

The success of an electronic system in a System-on- Chip is highly dependent on the efficiency of its interconnection network, which is constructed from routers and channels (the routers move data across the channels between nodes). Since neither classical bus based nor point to point architectures can provide scalable solutions and satisfy the tight power and performance requirements of future applications, the Network-on-Chip (NoC) approach has recently been proposed as a promising solution. Indeed, in contrast to the traditional solutions, the NoC approach can provide large bandwidth with moderate area overhead. The selected topology of the components interconnects plays prime rule in the performance of NoC architecture as well as routing and switching techniques that can be used. In this paper, we present two generic NoC architectures that can be customized to the specific communication needs of an application in order to reduce the area with minimal degradation of the latency of the system. An experimental study is performed to compare these structures with basic NoC topologies represented by 2D mesh, Butterfly-Fat Tree (BFT) and SPIN. It is shown that Cluster mesh (CMesh) and MinRoot schemes achieves significant improvements in network latency and energy consumption with only negligible area overhead and complexity over existing architectures. In fact, in the case of basic NoC topologies, CMesh and MinRoot schemes provides substantial savings in area as well, because they requires fewer routers. The simulation results show that CMesh and MinRoot networks outperforms MESH, BFT and SPIN in main performance metrics.

Keywords: MinRoot, CMesh, NoC, Topology, Performance Evaluation

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3631 Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility Concept in Greece

Authors: Grigoris Giannarakis, Nikolaos Litinas, Ioannis Theotokas

Abstract:

This study attempts to clarify major perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Greek market related to companies that have sufficient CSR. An empirical analysis was undertaken, based on literature review and previous observations and surveys, in order to provide a general analysis of the CSR concept in Greece. The results of Accountability Rating institution were used in order to identify companies that adopt an integrated social responsibility approach. Companies that responded to the survey are both regional and international and belong to different industrial fields. Some of the main survey results reveal: multiple aspects for the CSR concept, weak consensus as regards the importance of stakeholders and benefits from the CSR implementation, the important role of CSR in the decision procedure and CSR practices concerning social issues that affect mostly company-s competitiveness. Sharing companies- experience could address common social issues through CSR best practices and develop new knowledge.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Greece, Kendall's co-efficient of concordance.

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3630 Recognition of Tifinagh Characters with Missing Parts Using Neural Network

Authors: El Mahdi Barrah, Said Safi, Abdessamad Malaoui

Abstract:

In this paper, we present an algorithm for reconstruction from incomplete 2D scans for tifinagh characters. This algorithm is based on using correlation between the lost block and its neighbors. This system proposed contains three main parts: pre-processing, features extraction and recognition. In the first step, we construct a database of tifinagh characters. In the second step, we will apply “shape analysis algorithm”. In classification part, we will use Neural Network. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method give good results.

Keywords: Tifinagh character recognition, Neural networks, Local cost computation.

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3629 Development of Energy Management System Based on Internet of Things Technique

Authors: Wen-Jye Shyr, Chia-Ming Lin, Hung-Yun Feng

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to develop an energy management system for university campuses based on the Internet of Things (IoT) technique. The proposed IoT technique based on WebAccess is used via network browser Internet Explore and applies TCP/IP protocol. The case study of IoT for lighting energy usage management system was proposed. Structure of proposed IoT technique included perception layer, equipment layer, control layer, application layer and network layer.

Keywords: Energy management, IoT technique, Sensor, WebAccess

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3628 A Four Architectures to Locate Mobile Users using Statistical Mapping of WLANs in Indoorand Outdoor Environments-Loids

Authors: K. Krishna Naik, M. N. Giri Prasad

Abstract:

These days wireless local area networks has become very popular, when the initial IEEE802.11 is the standard for providing wireless connectivity to automatic machinery, equipment and stations that require rapid deployment, which may be portable, handheld or which may be mounted on moving vehicles within a local area. IEEE802.11 Wireless local area network is a sharedmedium communication network that transmits information over wireless links for all IEEE802.11 stations in its transmission range to receive. When a user is moving from one location to another, how the other user knows about the required station inside WLAN. For that we designed and implemented a system to locate a mobile user inside the wireless local area network based on RSSI with the help of four specially designed architectures. These architectures are based on statistical or we can say manual configuration of mapping and radio map of indoor and outdoor location with the help of available Sniffer based and cluster based techniques. We found a better location of a mobile user in WLAN. We tested this work in indoor and outdoor environments with different locations with the help of Pamvotis, a simulator for WLAN.

Keywords: AP, RSSI, RPM, WLAN.

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3627 Providing Emotional Support to Children under Long-Term Health Treatments

Authors: Ramón Cruzat, Sergio F. Ochoa, Ignacio Casas, Luis A. Guerrero, José Bravo

Abstract:

Patients under health treatments that involve long  stays at a hospital or health center (e.g. cancer, organ transplants and  severe burns), tend to get bored or depressed because of the lack of  social interaction with family and friends. Such a situation also  affects the evolution and effectiveness of their treatments. In many  cases, the solution to this problem involves extra challenges, since  many patients need to rest quietly (or remain in bed) to their being  contagious. Considering the weak health condition in which usually  are these kinds, keeping them motivated and quiet represents an  important challenge for nurses and caregivers. This article presents a  mobile ubiquitous game called MagicRace, which allows hospitalized  kinds to interact socially with one another without putting to risk  their sensitive health conditions. The game does not require a  communication infrastructure at the hospital, but instead, it uses a  mobile ad hoc network composed of the handheld devices used by  the kids to play. The usability and performance of this application  was tested in two different sessions. The preliminary results show  that users experienced positive feelings from this experience.

 

Keywords: Ubiquitous game, children's emotional support, social isolation, mobile collaborative interactions.

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3626 A Noble Flow Rate Control based on Leaky Bucket Method for Multi-Media OBS Networks

Authors: Kentaro Miyoko, Yoshihiko Mori, Yugo Ikeda, Yoshihiro Nishino, Yong-Bok Choi, Hiromi Okada

Abstract:

Optical burst switching (OBS) has been proposed to realize the next generation Internet based on the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network technologies. In the OBS, the burst contention is one of the major problems. The deflection routing has been designed for resolving the problem. However, the deflection routing becomes difficult to prevent from the burst contentions as the network load becomes high. In this paper, we introduce a flow rate control methods to reduce burst contentions. We propose new flow rate control methods based on the leaky bucket algorithm and deflection routing, i.e. separate leaky bucket deflection method, and dynamic leaky bucket deflection method. In proposed methods, edge nodes which generate data bursts carry out the flow rate control protocols. In order to verify the effectiveness of the flow rate control in OBS networks, we show that the proposed methods improve the network utilization and reduce the burst loss probability through computer simulations.

Keywords: Optical burst switching, OBS, flow rate control.

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3625 Heteromolecular Structure Formation in Aqueous Solutions of Ethanol, Tetrahydrofuran and Dimethylformamide

Authors: Sh. Gofurov, O. Ismailova, U. Makhmanov, A. Kokhkharov

Abstract:

The refractometric method has been used to determine optical properties of concentration features of aqueous solutions of ethanol, tetrahydrofuran and dimethylformamide at the room temperature. Changes in dielectric permittivity of aqueous solutions of ethanol, tetrahydrofuran and dimethylformamide in a wide range of concentrations (0÷1.0 molar fraction) have been studied using molecular dynamics method. The curves depending on the concentration of experimental data on excess refractive indices and excess dielectric permittivity were compared. It has been shown that stable heteromolecular complexes in binary solutions are formed in the concentration range of 0.3÷0.4 mole fractions. The real and complex part of dielectric permittivity was obtained from dipole-dipole autocorrelation functions of molecules. At the concentrations of C = 0.3 / 0.4 m.f. the heteromolecular structures with hydrogen bonds are formed. This is confirmed by the extremum values of excessive dielectric permittivity and excessive refractive index of aqueous solutions.

Keywords: Refractometric method, dielectric constant, molecular dynamics, aqueous solution.

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