Search results for: Abdul Aziz Othman
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 442

Search results for: Abdul Aziz Othman

322 A New Approach to Workforce Planning

Authors: M. Othman, N. Bhuiyan, G. J. Gouw

Abstract:

In today-s global and competitive market, manufacturing companies are working hard towards improving their production system performance. Most companies develop production systems that can help in cost reduction. Manufacturing systems consist of different elements including production methods, machines, processes, control and information systems. Human issues are an important part of manufacturing systems, yet most companies do not pay sufficient attention to them. In this paper, a workforce planning (WP) model is presented. A non-linear programming model is developed in order to minimize the hiring, firing, training and overtime costs. The purpose is to determine the number of workers for each worker type, the number of workers trained, and the number of overtime hours. Moreover, a decision support system (DSS) based on the proposed model is introduced using the Excel-Lingo software interfacing feature. This model will help to improve the interaction between the workers, managers and the technical systems in manufacturing.

Keywords: Decision Support System, Human Factors, Manufacturing System, Workforce Planning.

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321 Automatic Clustering of Gene Ontology by Genetic Algorithm

Authors: Razib M. Othman, Safaai Deris, Rosli M. Illias, Zalmiyah Zakaria, Saberi M. Mohamad

Abstract:

Nowadays, Gene Ontology has been used widely by many researchers for biological data mining and information retrieval, integration of biological databases, finding genes, and incorporating knowledge in the Gene Ontology for gene clustering. However, the increase in size of the Gene Ontology has caused problems in maintaining and processing them. One way to obtain their accessibility is by clustering them into fragmented groups. Clustering the Gene Ontology is a difficult combinatorial problem and can be modeled as a graph partitioning problem. Additionally, deciding the number k of clusters to use is not easily perceived and is a hard algorithmic problem. Therefore, an approach for solving the automatic clustering of the Gene Ontology is proposed by incorporating cohesion-and-coupling metric into a hybrid algorithm consisting of a genetic algorithm and a split-and-merge algorithm. Experimental results and an example of modularized Gene Ontology in RDF/XML format are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Keywords: Automatic clustering, cohesion-and-coupling metric, gene ontology; genetic algorithm, split-and-merge algorithm.

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320 Hippocratic Database: A Privacy-Aware Database

Authors: Norjihan Abdul Ghani, Zailani Mohd Sidek

Abstract:

Nowadays, organizations and business has several motivating factors to protect an individual-s privacy. Confidentiality refers to type of sharing information to third parties. This is always referring to private information, especially for personal information that usually needs to keep as a private. Because of the important of privacy concerns today, we need to design a database system that suits with privacy. Agrawal et. al. has introduced Hippocratic Database also we refer here as a privacy-aware database. This paper will explain how HD can be a future trend for web-based application to enhance their privacy level of trustworthiness among internet users.

Keywords: Hippocratic database, privacy, privacy-aware.

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319 GPS INS Integration Application in Flight Management System

Authors: Othman Maklouf, Abdurazag Ghila, Saleh Gashoot, Ahmed Abdulla

Abstract:

Flight management system (FMS) is a specialized computer system that automates a wide variety of in-flight tasks, reducing the workload on the flight crew to the point that modern aircraft no longer carry flight engineers or navigators. The primary function of FMS is to perform the in-flight management of the flight plan using various sensors (such as GPS and INS often backed up by radio navigation) to determine the aircraft's position. From the cockpit FMS is normally controlled through a Control Display Unit (CDU) which incorporates a small screen and keyboard or touch screen. This paper investigates the performance of GPS/ INS integration techniques in which the data fusion process is done using Kalman filtering. This will include the importance of sensors calibration as well as the alignment of the strap down inertial navigation system. The limitations of the inertial navigation systems are investigated in order to understand why INS sometimes is integrated with other navigation aids and not just operating in standalone mode. Finally, both the loosely coupled and tightly coupled configurations are analyzed for several types of situations and operational conditions.

Keywords: GPS, INS, Kalman Filter.

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318 Non-Linear Control Based on State Estimation for the Convoy of Autonomous Vehicles

Authors: M-M. Mohamed Ahmed, Nacer K. M’Sirdi, Aziz Naamane

Abstract:

In this paper, a longitudinal and lateral control approach based on a nonlinear observer is proposed for a convoy of autonomous vehicles to follow a desired trajectory. To authors best knowledge, this topic has not yet been sufficiently addressed in the literature for the control of multi vehicles. The modeling of the convoy of the vehicles is revisited using a robotic method for simulation purposes and control design. With these models, a sliding mode observer is proposed to estimate the states of each vehicle in the convoy from the available sensors, then a sliding mode control based on this observer is used to control the longitudinal and lateral movement. The validation and performance evaluation are done using the well-known driving simulator Scanner-Studio. The results are presented for different maneuvers of 5 vehicles.

Keywords: Autonomous vehicles, convoy, nonlinear control, nonlinear observer, sliding mode.

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317 Beta-spline Surface Fitting to Multi-slice Images

Authors: Normi Abdul Hadi, Arsmah Ibrahim, Fatimah Yahya, Jamaludin Md. Ali

Abstract:

Beta-spline is built on G2 continuity which guarantees smoothness of generated curves and surfaces using it. This curve is preferred to be used in object design rather than reconstruction. This study however, employs the Beta-spline in reconstructing a 3- dimensional G2 image of the Stanford Rabbit. The original data consists of multi-slice binary images of the rabbit. The result is then compared with related works using other techniques.

Keywords: Beta-spline, multi-slice image, rectangular surface, 3D reconstruction

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316 A High Accuracy Measurement Circuit for Soil Moisture Detection

Authors: Sheroz Khan, A. H. M. Zahirul Alam, Othman O. Khalifa, Mohd Rafiqul Islam, Zuraidah Zainudin, Muzna S. Khan, Nurul Iman Muhamad Pauzi

Abstract:

The study of soil for agriculture purposes has remained the main focus of research since the beginning of civilization as humans- food related requirements remained closely linked with the soil. The study of soil has generated an interest among the researchers for very similar other reasons including transmission, reflection and refraction of signals for deploying wireless underground sensor networks or for the monitoring of objects on (or in ) soil in the form of better understanding of soil electromagnetic characteristics properties. The moisture content has been very instrumental in such studies as it decides on the resistance of the soil, and hence the attenuation on signals traveling through soil or the attenuation the signals may suffer upon their impact on soil. This work is related testing and characterizing a measurement circuit meant for the detection of moisture level content in soil.

Keywords: Analog–digital Conversion, Bridge Circuits, Intelligent sensors, Pulse Time Modulation, Relaxation Oscillator

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315 Rule-Based Fuzzy Logic Controller with Adaptable Reference

Authors: Sheroz Khan, I. Adam, A. H. M. Zahirul Alam, Mohd Rafiqul Islam, Othman O. Khalifa

Abstract:

This paper attempts to model and design a simple fuzzy logic controller with Variable Reference. The Variable Reference (VR) is featured as an adaptability element which is obtained from two known variables – desired system-input and actual system-output. A simple fuzzy rule-based technique is simulated to show how the actual system-input is gradually tuned in to a value that closely matches the desired input. The designed controller is implemented and verified on a simple heater which is controlled by PIC Microcontroller harnessed by a code developed in embedded C. The output response of the PIC-controlled heater is analyzed and compared to the performances by conventional fuzzy logic controllers. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that it gives better performance by using less number of rules compared to conventional fuzzy logic controllers.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic controller, Variable reference, Adaptability, Rule-based.

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314 Simulation of the Airflow Characteristic inside a Hard Disk Drive by Applying a Computational Fluid Dynamics Software

Authors: Chanchal Saha, Huynh Trung Luong, M. H. Aziz, Tharinan Rattanalert

Abstract:

Now-a-days, numbers of simulation software are being used all over the world to solve Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) related problems. In this present study, a commercial CFD simulation software namely STAR-CCM+ is applied to analyze the airflow characteristics inside a 2.5" hard disk drive. Each step of the software is described adequately to obtain the output and the data are verified with the theories to justify the robustness of the simulation outcome. This study gives an insight about the accuracy level of the CFD simulation software to compute CFD related problems although it largely depends upon the computer speed. Also this study will open avenues for further research.

Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics, Hard disk drive, Meshing, Recirculation filter, and Filter physics parameter.

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313 Green Synthesis of Butyl Acetate, A Pineapple Flavour via Lipase-Catalyzed Reaction

Authors: S. Mat Radzi, W.A.F. Mustafa, S.S Othman, H.M. Noor

Abstract:

Nowadays, butyl acetate, a pineapple flavor has been applied widely in food, beverage, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. In this study, Butyl acetate, a flavor ester was successfully synthesized via green synthesis of enzymatic reaction route. Commercial immobilized lipase from Rhizomucor miehei (Lipozyme RMIM) was used as biocatalyst in the esterification reaction between acetic acid and butanol. Various reaction parameters such as reaction time (RT), temperature (T) and amount of enzyme (E) were chosen to optimize the reaction synthesis in solvent-free system. The optimum condition to produce butyl acetate was at reaction time (RT), 18 hours; temperature (T), 37°C and amount of enzyme, 25 % (w/w of total substrate). Analysis of yield showed that at optimum condition, >78 % of butyl acetate was produced. The product was confirmed as butyl acetate from FTIR analysis whereby the presence of an ester group was observed at wavenumber of 1742 cm-1.

Keywords: Butyl acetate, immobilized enyzme, esterification, flavor ester, green synthesis

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312 Determination of Sensitive Transmission Lines Due to the Effect of Protection System Hidden Failure in a Critical System Cascading Collapse

Authors: N. A. Salim, M. M. Othman, I. Musirin, M. S. Serwan

Abstract:

Protection system hidden failures have been identified as one of the main causes of system cascading collapse resulting to power system instability. In this paper, a systematic approach is presented in order to identify the probability of a system cascading collapse by taking into consideration the effect of protection system hidden failure. This includes the accurate calculation of the probability of hidden failure as it will provide significant impinge on the findings of the probability of system cascading collapse. The probability of a system cascading collapse is then used to identify the initial tripping of sensitive transmission lines which will contribute to a critical system cascading collapse. Based on the results obtained from this study, it is important to decide on the accurate value of the hidden failure probability as it will affect the probability of a system cascading collapse.

Keywords: Critical system cascading collapse, hidden failure, probability of cascading collapse, sensitive transmission lines.

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311 Performance of Modified Wedge Anchorage System for Pre-Stressed FRP Bars

Authors: Othman S. Alsheraida, Sherif El-Gamal

Abstract:

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) is a composite material with exceptional properties that are capable to replace conventional steel reinforcement in reinforced and pre-stressed concrete structures. However, the main obstacle for their wide use in pre-stressed concrete application is the anchorage system. Due to the weakness of FRP in the transverse direction, the pre-stressing capacity of FRP bars are limited. This paper investigates the modification of the conventional wedge anchorage system to be used for stressing of FRP bars in pre-stressed applications. Epoxy adhesive material with glass FRP (GFRP) bars and conventional steel wedge were used in this paper. The GFRP bars are encased with epoxy at the anchor zone and the wedge system was used in pull-out test. The results showed a loading capacity of 47.6 kN which is 69% of the bar ultimate capacity. Additionally, nylon wedge was made with the same dimensions of the steel wedge and tested for GFRP bars without epoxy layer. The nylon wedge showed a loading capacity of 19.7 kN which is only 28.5% of the ultimate bar capacity.

Keywords: Anchorage, concrete, epoxy, FRP, pre-stressed.

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310 Utilization and Characterizations of Olive Oil Industry By-Products

Authors: Sawsan Dacrory, Hussein Abou-Yousef, Samir Kamel, Ragab E. Abou-Zeid, Mohamed S. Abdel-Aziz, Mohamed Elbadry

Abstract:

A considerable amount of lignocellulosic by-product could be obtained from olive pulp during olive oil extraction industry. The major constituents of the olive pulp are husks and seeds. The separation of each portion of olive pulp (seeds and husks) was carried out by water flotation where seeds were sediment in the bottom. Both seeds and husks were dignified by 15% NaOH followed by complete lignin removal by using sodium chlorite in acidic medium. The isolated holocellulose, α-cellulose, hydrogel and CMC of both seeds and husk fractions were characterized by FTIR and SEM. The present study focused on the investigation of the chemical components of the lignocellulosic fraction of olive pulp and using them in medical application. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is produced and applied in the preparation of antimicrobial hydrogel.

Keywords: Carboxymethyl cellulose, cellulose, hydrogel olive pulp.

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309 A Hybrid Technology for a Multiagent Consultation System in Obesity Domain

Authors: Rohana Mahmud, Hairul Aysa Abdul Halim Sithiq, Haryuna Mohd Taharim

Abstract:

In this paper, the authors present architecture of a multi agent consultation system for obesity related problems, which hybrid the technology of an expert system (ES) and an intelligent agent (IA). The strength of the ES which is capable of pulling the expert knowledge is consulted and presented to the end user via the autonomous and friendly pushing environment of the intelligent agent.

Keywords: Expert System, Hybrid Technology, Intelligent Agent, Medical Informatics, Multi Agent Consultation System.

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308 Performance Analysis of Artificial Neural Network Based Land Cover Classification

Authors: Najam Aziz, Nasru Minallah, Ahmad Junaid, Kashaf Gul

Abstract:

Landcover classification using automated classification techniques, while employing remotely sensed multi-spectral imagery, is one of the promising areas of research. Different land conditions at different time are captured through satellite and monitored by applying different classification algorithms in specific environment. In this paper, a SPOT-5 image provided by SUPARCO has been studied and classified in Environment for Visual Interpretation (ENVI), a tool widely used in remote sensing. Then, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) classification technique is used to detect the land cover changes in Abbottabad district. Obtained results are compared with a pixel based Distance classifier. The results show that ANN gives the better overall accuracy of 99.20% and Kappa coefficient value of 0.98 over the Mahalanobis Distance Classifier.

Keywords: Landcover classification, artificial neural network, remote sensing, SPOT-5.

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307 Operations Research Applications in Audit Planning and Scheduling

Authors: Abdel-Aziz M. Mohamed

Abstract:

This paper presents a state-of-the-art survey of the operations research models developed for internal audit planning. Two alternative approaches have been followed in the literature for audit planning: (1) identifying the optimal audit frequency; and (2) determining the optimal audit resource allocation. The first approach identifies the elapsed time between two successive audits, which can be presented as the optimal number of audits in a given planning horizon, or the optimal number of transactions after which an audit should be performed. It also includes the optimal audit schedule. The second approach determines the optimal allocation of audit frequency among all auditable units in the firm. In our review, we discuss both the deterministic and probabilistic models developed for audit planning. In addition, game theory models are reviewed to find the optimal auditing strategy based on the interactions between the auditors and the clients.

Keywords: Operations research applications, audit frequency, audit planning, audit-staff scheduling.

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306 A Comparative Study of Transient Flow through Cerebral Aneurysms using CFD

Authors: S.M. Abdul Khader, Md. Zubair, Raghuvir Pai. B, V.R.K. Rao, S. Ganesh Kamath

Abstract:

The recent advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be useful in observing the detailed hemodynamics in cerebral aneurysms for understanding not only their formation and rupture but also for clinical evaluation and treatment. However, important hemodynamic quantities are difficult to measure in vivo. In the present study, an approximate model of normal middle cerebral artery (MCA) along with two cases consisting broad and narrow saccular aneurysms are analyzed. The models are generated in ANSYS WORKBENCH and transient analysis is performed in ANSYS-CFX. The results obtained are compared for three cases and agree well with the available literature.

Keywords: Aneurysms, ANSYS – CFX, CFD, Pulsatile flow.

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305 Learning Styles Difference in Difficulties of Generating Idea

Authors: M. H. Yee, J. Md Yunos, W. Othman, R. Hassan, T. K. Tee, M. M. Mohamad

Abstract:

The generation of an idea that goes through several  phases is affected by individual factors, interests, preferences and  motivation. The purpose of this research was to analyze the  difference in difficulties of generating ideas according to individual  learning styles. A total of 375 technical students from four technical  universities in Malaysia were randomly selected as samples. The  Kolb Learning Styles Inventory and a set of developed questionnaires  were used in this research. The results showed that the most dominant  learning style among technical students is Doer. A total of 319  (85.1%) technical students faced difficulties in solving individual  assignments. Most of the problem faced by technical students is the  difficulty of generating ideas for solving individual assignments.  There was no significant difference in difficulties of generating ideas  according to students’ learning styles. Therefore, students need to  learn higher order thinking skills enabling students to generate ideas  and consequently complete assignments.

 

Keywords: Difference, difficulties, generating idea, learning styles.

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304 Influence of Thermal Annealing on The Structural Properties of Vanadyl Phthalocyanine Thin Films: A Comparative Study

Authors: Fakhra Aziz, K. Sulaiman, M. R. Muhammad, M. Hassan Sayyad, Kh. Karimov

Abstract:

This paper presents a comparative study on Vanadyl Phthalocyanine (VOPc) thin films deposited by thermal evaporation and spin coating techniques. The samples were prepared on cleaned glass substrates and annealed at various temperatures ranging form 95oC to 155oC. To obtain the morphological and structural properties of VOPc thin films, X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been implied. The AFM topographic images show a very slight difference in the thermally grown films, before and after annealing, however best results are achieved for the spin-cast film annealed at 125oC. The XRD spectra show no existence of the sharp peaks, suggesting the material to be amorphous. The humps in the XRD patterns indicate the presence of some crystallites.

Keywords: Annealing, optical properties, thin films, Vanadylphthalocyanine.

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303 Radiation Effect on Unsteady MHD Flow over a Stretching Surface

Authors: Zanariah Mohd Yusof, Siti Khuzaimah Soid, Ahmad Sukri Abd Aziz, Seripah Awang Kechil

Abstract:

Unsteady magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) boundary layer flow and heat transfer over a continuously stretching surface in the presence of radiation is examined. By similarity transformation, the governing partial differential equations are transformed to a set of ordinary differential equations. Numerical solutions are obtained by employing the Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method scheme with shooting technique in Maple software environment. The effects of unsteadiness parameter, radiation parameter, magnetic parameter and Prandtl number on the heat transfer characteristics are obtained and discussed. It is found that the heat transfer rate at the surface increases as the Prandtl number and unsteadiness parameter increase but decreases with magnetic and radiation parameter.

Keywords: Heat transfer, magnetohydrodynamics, radiation, unsteadiness.

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302 Tool Failure Detection Based on Statistical Analysis of Metal Cutting Acoustic Emission Signals

Authors: Othman Belgassim, Krzysztof Jemielniak

Abstract:

The analysis of Acoustic Emission (AE) signal generated from metal cutting processes has often approached statistically. This is due to the stochastic nature of the emission signal as a result of factors effecting the signal from its generation through transmission and sensing. Different techniques are applied in this manner, each of which is suitable for certain processes. In metal cutting where the emission generated by the deformation process is rather continuous, an appropriate method for analysing the AE signal based on the root mean square (RMS) of the signal is often used and is suitable for use with the conventional signal processing systems. The aim of this paper is to set a strategy in tool failure detection in turning processes via the statistic analysis of the AE generated from the cutting zone. The strategy is based on the investigation of the distribution moments of the AE signal at predetermined sampling. The skews and kurtosis of these distributions are the key elements in the detection. A normal (Gaussian) distribution has first been suggested then this was eliminated due to insufficiency. The so called Beta distribution was then considered, this has been used with an assumed β density function and has given promising results with regard to chipping and tool breakage detection.

Keywords: AE signal, skew, kurtosis, tool failure

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301 A Longitudinal Study of the Readability of the Chairman’s Narratives in Corporate Reports: Malaysian Evidence

Authors: Azhar Abdul Rahman

Abstract:

This paper examines the readability of the chairman’s narratives, as determined by the Flesch score, of a Malaysian public listed company’s corporate reports from 1962 to 2009. It partially supports earlier studies which demonstrated that corporate reports were difficult to read, and had shown very negligible decrease in difficulty over time. Net profit to sales and readability was significantly positively correlated but number of financial statements was significantly negatively correlated with readability.

Keywords: Chairman’s narratives, corporate communications, readability, longitudinal.

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300 Fast High Voltage Solid State Switch Using Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor for Discharge-Pumped Lasers

Authors: Nur Syarafina Binti Othman, Tsubasa Jindo, Makato Yamada, Miho Tsuyama, Hitoshi Nakano

Abstract:

A novel method to produce a fast high voltage solid states switch using Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) is presented for discharge-pumped gas lasers. The IGBTs are connected in series to achieve a high voltage rating. An avalanche transistor is used as the gate driver. The fast pulse generated by the avalanche transistor quickly charges the large input capacitance of the IGBT, resulting in a switch out of a fast high-voltage pulse. The switching characteristic of fast-high voltage solid state switch has been estimated in the multi-stage series-connected IGBT with the applied voltage of several tens of kV. Electrical circuit diagram and the mythology of fast-high voltage solid state switch as well as experimental results obtained are presented.

Keywords: High voltage, IGBT, Solid states switch.

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299 Optimization Using Simulation of the Vehicle Routing Problem

Authors: Nayera E. El-Gharably, Khaled S. El-Kilany, Aziz E. El-Sayed

Abstract:

A key element of many distribution systems is the routing and scheduling of vehicles servicing a set of customers. A wide variety of exact and approximate algorithms have been proposed for solving the vehicle routing problems (VRP). Exact algorithms can only solve relatively small problems of VRP, which is classified as NP-Hard. Several approximate algorithms have proven successful in finding a feasible solution not necessarily optimum. Although different parts of the problem are stochastic in nature; yet, limited work relevant to the application of discrete event system simulation has addressed the problem. Presented here is optimization using simulation of VRP; where, a simplified problem has been developed in the ExtendSimTM simulation environment; where, ExtendSimTM evolutionary optimizer is used to minimize the total transportation cost of the problem. Results obtained from the model are very satisfactory. Further complexities of the problem are proposed for consideration in the future.

Keywords: Discrete event system simulation, optimization using simulation, vehicle routing problem.

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298 Enhancement of Shape Description and Representation by Slope

Authors: Ali Salem Bin Samma, Rosalina Abdul Salam

Abstract:

Representation and description of object shapes by the slopes of their contours or borders are proposed. The idea is to capture the essence of the features that make it easier for a shape to be stored, transmitted, compared and recognized. These features must be independent of translation, rotation and scaling of the shape. A approach is proposed to obtain high performance, efficiency and to merge the boundaries into sequence of straight line segments with the fewest possible segments. Evaluation on the performance of the proposed method is based on its comparison with established method of object shape description.

Keywords: Shape description, Shape representation and Slope.

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297 Analysis and Categorization of e-Learning Activities Based On Meaningful Learning Characteristics

Authors: Arda Yunianta, Norazah Yusof, Mohd Shahizan Othman, Dewi Octaviani

Abstract:

Learning is the acquisition of new mental schemata, knowledge, abilities and skills which can be used to solve problems potentially more successfully. The learning process is optimum when it is assisted and personalized. Learning is not a single activity, but should involve many possible activities to make learning become meaningful. Many e-learning applications provide facilities to support teaching and learning activities. One way to identify whether the e-learning system is being used by the learners is through the number of hits that can be obtained from the e-learning system's log data. However, we cannot rely solely to the number of hits in order to determine whether learning had occurred meaningfully. This is due to the fact that meaningful learning should engage five characteristics namely active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative. This paper aims to analyze the e-learning activities that is meaningful to learning. By focusing on the meaningful learning characteristics, we match it to the corresponding Moodle e-learning activities. This analysis discovers the activities that have high impact to meaningful learning, as well as activities that are less meaningful. The high impact activities is given high weights since it become important to meaningful learning, while the low impact has less weight and said to be supportive e-learning activities. The result of this analysis helps us categorize which e-learning activities that are meaningful to learning and guide us to measure the effectiveness of e-learning usage.

Keywords: e-learning system, e-learning activity, meaningful learning characteristics, Moodle

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296 On Formalizing Predefined OCL Properties

Authors: Meryem Lamrani, Younès El Amrani, Aziz Ettouhami

Abstract:

The ability of UML to handle the modeling process of complex industrial software applications has increased its popularity to the extent of becoming the de-facto language in serving the design purpose. Although, its rich graphical notation naturally oriented towards the object-oriented concept, facilitates the understandability, it hardly successes to report all domainspecific aspects in a satisfactory way. OCL, as the standard language for expressing additional constraints on UML models, has great potential to help improve expressiveness. Unfortunately, it suffers from a weak formalism due to its poor semantic resulting in many obstacles towards the build of tools support and thus its application in the industry field. For this reason, many researches were established to formalize OCL expressions using a more rigorous approach. Our contribution join this work in a complementary way since it focuses specifically on OCL predefined properties which constitute an important part in the construction of OCL expressions. Using formal methods, we mainly succeed in expressing rigorously OCL predefined functions.

Keywords: Formal methods, Z, OCL, predefined properties, metamodel types.

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295 Performance Evaluation of an Online Text-Based Strategy Game

Authors: Nazleeni S. Haron, Mohd K. Zaime , Izzatdin A. Aziz, Mohd H. Hasan

Abstract:

Text-based game is supposed to be a low resource consumption application that delivers good performances when compared to graphical-intensive type of games. But, nowadays, some of the online text-based games are not offering performances that are acceptable to the users. Therefore, an online text-based game called Star_Quest has been developed in order to analyze its behavior under different performance measurements. Performance metrics such as throughput, scalability, response time and page loading time are captured to yield the performance of the game. The techniques in performing the load testing are also disclosed to exhibit the viability of our work. The comparative assessment between the results obtained and the accepted level of performances are conducted as to determine the performance level of the game. The study reveals that the developed game managed to meet all the performance objectives set forth.

Keywords: Online text-based games, performance evaluation

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294 Nonlinearity and Spectrum Analysis of Drill Strings with Component Mass Unbalance

Authors: F. Abdul Majeed, H. Karki, Y. Abdel Magid, M. Karkoub

Abstract:

This paper analyses the non linear properties exhibited by a drill string system under various un balanced mass conditions. The drill string is affected by continuous friction in the form of drill bit and well bore hole interactions. This paper proves the origin of limit cycling and increase of non linearity with increase in speed of the drilling in the presence of friction. The spectrum of the frequency response is also studied to detect the presence of vibration abnormalities arising during the drilling process.

Keywords: Drill strings, Nonlinear, Spectrum analysis, Unbalanced mass

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293 Hardware Centric Machine Vision for High Precision Center of Gravity Calculation

Authors: Xin Cheng, Benny Thörnberg, Abdul Waheed Malik, Najeem Lawal

Abstract:

We present a hardware oriented method for real-time measurements of object-s position in video. The targeted application area is light spots used as references for robotic navigation. Different algorithms for dynamic thresholding are explored in combination with component labeling and Center Of Gravity (COG) for highest possible precision versus Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). This method was developed with a low hardware cost in focus having only one convolution operation required for preprocessing of data.

Keywords: Dynamic thresholding, segmentation, position measurement, sub-pixel precision, center of gravity.

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