Search results for: security functional testing
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2623

Search results for: security functional testing

583 Influence of Service and Product Quality towards Customer Satisfaction: A Case Study at the Staff Cafeteria in the Hotel Industry

Authors: Dayang Nailul Munna Abang Abdullah, Francine Rozario

Abstract:

The main objectives of this study were to identify attributes that influence customer satisfaction and determine their relationships with customer satisfaction. The variables included in this research are place/ambience, food quality and service quality as independent variables and customer satisfaction as the dependent variable. A survey questionnaire which consisted of three parts to measure demographic factors, independent variables, and dependent variables was constructed based on items determined by past research. 149 respondents from one of the well known hotel in Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA were selected as a sample. Psychometric testing was conducted to determine the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. From the findings, there were positive significant relationship between place/ambience (r=0.563**, p=0.000) and service quality (r=0.544**, p=0.000) with customer satisfaction. However, although relationship between food quality and customer satisfaction was significant, it was in the negative direction (r=- 0.268**, p=0.001). New findings were discovered after conducting this research and previous research findings were strengthened by the results of this research. Future researchers could concentrate on determining attributes that influence customer satisfaction when cost/price is not a factor and reasons for place/ambience is currently becoming the leading factor in determining customer satisfaction.

Keywords: Ambience, Customer Satisfaction, Food Quality, Service Quality.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15266
582 Creating a Profound Sense of Comfort to Stimulate Workers’ Innovation and Productivity: Exploring Research and Case Study Applications

Authors: Rana Bazaid, Debajyoti Pati

Abstract:

Purpose: The aim of this research is to explore and discuss innovation-workspaces, and how the design of the workspace has the potential to boost the work process and encourage employees’ satisfaction, leading to inventive and creative results. Background: The relationship between the workers and the work environment has a strong potential to enhance work outcomes when optimized for work goals. Innovation-work environment can benefit employees’ satisfaction, health, and performance. To understand this complex relationship, this research explores innovation-work environments. Methods: A review of 26 peer-reviewed articles, seven books, and 23 companies’ websites was conducted; in addition, five case studies were analyzed to deduce appropriate examples for the study. Results: The research found all successful five innovation environments focused on two aspects: first, workers’ satisfaction and comfort, which includes a focus on physical, functional, and psychological comfort; second aspect, all five centers were diverse work environments that addressed workers’ needs, design for individuals and teamwork, design for workers’ freedom, and design for increasing interaction. Conclusion: understanding individuals' needs and creating work environments that enhance interaction between workers and with the space are key aspects of successful innovation-work environments.

Keywords: Innovation-workspace, productivity, work environment, workers’ satisfaction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 557
581 Analysis of Translational Ship Oscillations in a Realistic Environment

Authors: Chen Zhang, Bernhard Schwarz-Röhr, Alexander Härting

Abstract:

To acquire accurate ship motions at the center of gravity, a single low-cost inertial sensor is utilized and applied on board to measure ship oscillating motions. As observations, the three axes accelerations and three axes rotational rates provided by the sensor are used. The mathematical model of processing the observation data includes determination of the distance vector between the sensor and the center of gravity in x, y, and z directions. After setting up the transfer matrix from sensor’s own coordinate system to the ship’s body frame, an extended Kalman filter is applied to deal with nonlinearities between the ship motion in the body frame and the observation information in the sensor’s frame. As a side effect, the method eliminates sensor noise and other unwanted errors. Results are not only roll and pitch, but also linear motions, in particular heave and surge at the center of gravity. For testing, we resort to measurements recorded on a small vessel in a well-defined sea state. With response amplitude operators computed numerically by a commercial software (Seaway), motion characteristics are estimated. These agree well with the measurements after processing with the suggested method.

Keywords: Extended Kalman filter, nonlinear estimation, sea trial, ship motion estimation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1026
580 Improved Zero Text Watermarking Algorithm against Meaning Preserving Attacks

Authors: Jalil Z., Farooq M., Zafar H., Sabir M., Ashraf E.

Abstract:

Internet is largely composed of textual contents and a huge volume of digital contents gets floated over the Internet daily. The ease of information sharing and re-production has made it difficult to preserve author-s copyright. Digital watermarking came up as a solution for copyright protection of plain text problem after 1993. In this paper, we propose a zero text watermarking algorithm based on occurrence frequency of non-vowel ASCII characters and words for copyright protection of plain text. The embedding algorithm makes use of frequency non-vowel ASCII characters and words to generate a specialized author key. The extraction algorithm uses this key to extract watermark, hence identify the original copyright owner. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on text encountering meaning preserving attacks performed by five independent attackers.

Keywords: Copyright protection, Digital watermarking, Document authentication, Information security, Watermark.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2141
579 Architecture of Speech-based Registration System

Authors: Mayank Kumar, D B Mahesh Kumar, Ashwin S Kumar, N K Srinath

Abstract:

In this era of technology, fueled by the pervasive usage of the internet, security is a prime concern. The number of new attacks by the so-called “bots", which are automated programs, is increasing at an alarming rate. They are most likely to attack online registration systems. Technology, called “CAPTCHA" (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) do exist, which can differentiate between automated programs and humans and prevent replay attacks. Traditionally CAPTCHA-s have been implemented with the challenge involved in recognizing textual images and reproducing the same. We propose an approach where the visual challenge has to be read out from which randomly selected keywords are used to verify the correctness of spoken text and in turn detect the presence of human. This is supplemented with a speaker recognition system which can identify the speaker also. Thus, this framework fulfills both the objectives – it can determine whether the user is a human or not and if it is a human, it can verify its identity.

Keywords: CAPTCHA, automatic speech recognition, keyword spotting.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1531
578 Design and Fabrication of Stent with Negative Poisson’s Ratio

Authors: S. K. Bhullar, J. Ko, F. Ahmed, M. B. G. Jun

Abstract:

The negative Poisson’s ratios can be described in terms of models based on the geometry of the system and the way this geometry changes due to applied loads. As the Poisson’s ratio does not depend on scale hence deformation can take place at the nano to macro level the only requirement is the right combination of the geometry. Our thrust in this paper is to combine our knowledge of tailored enhanced mechanical properties of the materials having negative Poisson’s ratio with the micromachining and electrospining technology to develop a novel stent carrying a drug delivery system. Therefore, the objective of this paper includes (i) fabrication of a micromachined metal sheet tailored with structure having negative Poisson’s ratio through rotating solid squares geometry using femtosecond laser ablation; (ii) rolling fabricated structure and welding to make a tubular structure (iii) wrapping it with nanofibers of biocompatible polymer PCL (polycaprolactone) for drug delivery (iv) analysis of the functional and mechanical performance of fabricated structure analytically and experimentally. Further, as the applications concerned, tubular structures have potential in biomedical for example hollow tubes called stents are placed inside to provide mechanical support to a damaged artery or diseased region and to open a blocked esophagus thus allowing feeding capacity and improving quality of life.

Keywords: Micromachining, electrospining, auxetic materials, enhanced mechanical properties.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3636
577 Speaker Independent Quranic Recognizer Basedon Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression

Authors: Ehab Mourtaga, Ahmad Sharieh, Mousa Abdallah

Abstract:

An automatic speech recognition system for the formal Arabic language is needed. The Quran is the most formal spoken book in Arabic, it is spoken all over the world. In this research, an automatic speech recognizer for Quranic based speakerindependent was developed and tested. The system was developed based on the tri-phone Hidden Markov Model and Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression (MLLR). The MLLR computes a set of transformations which reduces the mismatch between an initial model set and the adaptation data. It uses the regression class tree, as well as, estimates a set of linear transformations for the mean and variance parameters of a Gaussian mixture HMM system. The 30th Chapter of the Quran, with five of the most famous readers of the Quran, was used for the training and testing of the data. The chapter includes about 2000 distinct words. The advantages of using the Quranic verses as the database in this developed recognizer are the uniqueness of the words and the high level of orderliness between verses. The level of accuracy from the tested data ranged 68 to 85%.

Keywords: Hidden Markov Model (HMM), MaximumLikelihood Linear Regression (MLLR), Quran, Regression ClassTree, Speech Recognition, Speaker-independent.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1899
576 An Experimental Investigation in Effect of Confining Stress and Matric Suction on the Mechanical Behavior of Sand with Different Fine Content

Authors: S. Asreazad

Abstract:

This paper presents the results that the soil volumetric strain and shear strength are closely related to the confining stress and initial matric suction under constant water content testing on the specimens of unsaturated sand with clay and silt fines contents. The silty sand specimens reached their peak strength after a very small axial strain followed by a post-peak softening towards an ultimate value. The post-peak drop in stress increased by an increment of the suction, while there is no peak strength for clayey sand specimens. The clayey sand shows compressibility and possesses ductile stress-strain behaviour. Shear strength increased nonlinearly with respect to matric suction for both soil types. When suction exceeds a certain range, the effect of suction on shear strength increment weakens gradually. Under the same confining stress, the dilatant tendencies in the silty sand increased under lower values of suction and decreased for higher suction values under the same confining stress. However, the amount of contraction increased with increasing initial suction for clayey sand specimens.

Keywords: Unsaturated soils, silty sand, clayey sand, triaxial test, constant water content.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 967
575 Towards Growing Self-Organizing Neural Networks with Fixed Dimensionality

Authors: Guojian Cheng, Tianshi Liu, Jiaxin Han, Zheng Wang

Abstract:

The competitive learning is an adaptive process in which the neurons in a neural network gradually become sensitive to different input pattern clusters. The basic idea behind the Kohonen-s Self-Organizing Feature Maps (SOFM) is competitive learning. SOFM can generate mappings from high-dimensional signal spaces to lower dimensional topological structures. The main features of this kind of mappings are topology preserving, feature mappings and probability distribution approximation of input patterns. To overcome some limitations of SOFM, e.g., a fixed number of neural units and a topology of fixed dimensionality, Growing Self-Organizing Neural Network (GSONN) can be used. GSONN can change its topological structure during learning. It grows by learning and shrinks by forgetting. To speed up the training and convergence, a new variant of GSONN, twin growing cell structures (TGCS) is presented here. This paper first gives an introduction to competitive learning, SOFM and its variants. Then, we discuss some GSONN with fixed dimensionality, which include growing cell structures, its variants and the author-s model: TGCS. It is ended with some testing results comparison and conclusions.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, Competitive learning, Growing cell structures, Self-organizing feature maps.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1527
574 Cold-pressed Kenaf and Fibreglass Hybrid Composites Laminates: Effect of Fibre Types

Authors: Z. Salleh, M. N. Berhan, Koay Mei Hyie, D. H. Isaac

Abstract:

Natural fibres have emerged as the potential reinforcement material for composites and thus gain attraction by many researchers. This is mainly due to their applicable benefits as they offer low density, low cost, renewable, biodegradability and environmentally harmless and also comparable mechanical properties with synthetic fibre composites. The properties of hybrid composites highly depends on several factors, including the interaction of fillers with the polymeric matrix, shape and size (aspect ratio), and orientation of fillers [1]. In this study, natural fibre kenaf composites and kenaf/fibreglass hybrid composites were fabricated by a combination of hand lay-up method and cold-press method. The effect of different fibre types (powder, short and long) on the tensile properties of composites is investigated. The kenaf composites with and without the addition of fibreglass were then characterized by tensile testing and scanning electron microscopy. A significant improvement in tensile strength and modulus were indicated by the introduction of long kenaf/woven fibreglass hybrid composite. However, the opposite trends are observed in kenaf powder composite. Fractographic observation shows that fibre/matrix debonding causes the fibres pull out. This phenomenon results in the fibre and matrix fracture.

Keywords: Kenaf, Fibreglass, Hybrid Composite, Tensile Strength, Tensile Modulus.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2162
573 Removal of Boron from Waste Waters by Ion- Exchange in a Batch System

Authors: Pelin Demirçivi, Gülhayat Nasün-Saygılı

Abstract:

Boron minerals are very useful for various industrial activities, such as glass industry and detergent industry, due to its mechanical and chemical properties. During the production of boron compounds, many of these are introduced into the environment in the form of waste. Boron is also an important micro nutrient for the plants to vegetate but if it exists in high concentrations, it could have toxic effects. The maximum boron level in drinking water for human health is given as 0.3 mg/L in World Health Organization (WHO) standards. The toxic effects of boron should be noted especially for dry regions, thus, in recent years, increasing attention has been paid to remove the boron from waste waters. In this study, boron removal is implemented by ion exchange process using Amberlite IRA-743 resin. Amberlite IRA-743 resin is a boron specific resin and it belongs to the polymerizate sorbent group within the aminopolyol functional group. Batch studies were performed to investigate the effects of various experimental parameters, such as adsorbent dose, initial concentration and pH, on the removal of boron. It is found that, when the adsorbent dose increases removal of boron from the liquid phase increases. However, an increase in the initial concentration decreases the removal of boron. The effective pH values for removal of boron are determined between 8.5 and 9. Equilibrium isotherms were also analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The Langmuir isotherm is obeyed better than the Freundlich isotherm.

Keywords: Amberlite resin, boron removal, ion exchange, isotherm models.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2394
572 Effects of Knitting Variables for Pressure Controlling of Tubular Compression Fabrics

Authors: Yu Shi, Rong Liu, Jingyun Lv

Abstract:

Compression textiles with ergonomic-fit and controllable pressure performance have demonstrated positive effect on prevention and treatment of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). Well-designed compression textile products contribute to improving user compliance in their daily application. This study explored the effects of multiple knitting variables (yarn-machinery settings) on the physical-mechanical properties and the produced pressure magnitudes of tubular compression fabrics (TCFs) through experimental testing and multiple regression modeling. The results indicated that fabric physical (stitch densities and circumference) and mechanical (tensile) properties were affected by the linear density of inlay yarns, which, to some extent, influenced pressure magnitudes of the TCFs. Knitting variables (e.g., feeding velocity of inlay yarns and loop size settings) can alter circumferences and tensile properties of tubular fabrics, respectively, and significantly varied pressure values of the TCFs. This study enhanced the understanding of the effects of knitting factors on pressure controlling of TCFs, thus facilitating dimension and pressure design of compression textiles in future development.

Keywords: Laid-in knitted fabric, yarn-machinery settings, pressure magnitudes, quantitative analysis, compression textiles.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 229
571 Unsupervised Clustering Methods for Identifying Rare Events in Anomaly Detection

Authors: Witcha Chimphlee, Abdul Hanan Abdullah, Mohd Noor Md Sap, Siriporn Chimphlee, Surat Srinoy

Abstract:

It is important problems to increase the detection rates and reduce false positive rates in Intrusion Detection System (IDS). Although preventative techniques such as access control and authentication attempt to prevent intruders, these can fail, and as a second line of defence, intrusion detection has been introduced. Rare events are events that occur very infrequently, detection of rare events is a common problem in many domains. In this paper we propose an intrusion detection method that combines Rough set and Fuzzy Clustering. Rough set has to decrease the amount of data and get rid of redundancy. Fuzzy c-means clustering allow objects to belong to several clusters simultaneously, with different degrees of membership. Our approach allows us to recognize not only known attacks but also to detect suspicious activity that may be the result of a new, unknown attack. The experimental results on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining-(KDDCup 1999) Dataset show that the method is efficient and practical for intrusion detection systems.

Keywords: Network and security, intrusion detection, fuzzy cmeans, rough set.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2838
570 Interpolation Issue in PVNPG-14M Application for Technical Control of Artillery Fire

Authors: Martin Blaha, Ladislav Potužák, Daniel Holesz

Abstract:

This paper focused on application support for technical control of artillery units – PVNPG-14M, especially on interpolation issue. Artillery units of the Army of the Czech Republic, reflecting the current global security neighborhood, can be used outside the Czech Republic. The paper presents principles, evolution and calculation in the process of complete preparation. The paper presents expertise using of application of current artillery communication and information system and suggests the perspective future system. The paper also presents problems in process of complete preparing of fire especially problems in permanently information (firing table) and calculated values. The paper presents problems of current artillery communication and information system and suggests requirements of the future system.

Keywords: Fire for effect, application, fire control, interpolation method, software development.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1132
569 Recycled Asphalt Pavement with Warm Mix Additive for Sustainable Road Construction

Authors: Meor Othman Hamzah, Lillian Gungat, Nur Izzi Md. Yusoff, Jan Valentin

Abstract:

The recent hike in raw materials costs and the quest for preservation of the environment has prompted asphalt industries to adopt greener road construction technology. This paper presents a study on such technology by means of asphalt recycling and use of warm mix asphalt (WMA) additive. It evaluates the effects of a WMA named RH-WMA on binder rheological properties and asphalt mixture performance. The recycled asphalt, obtained from local roads, was processed, fractionated, and incorporated with virgin aggregate and binder. For binder testing, the recycled asphalt was extracted and blended with virgin binder. The binder and mixtures specimen containing 30 % and 50 % recycled asphalt contents were mixed with 3 % RH-WMA. The rheological properties of the binder were evaluated based on fundamental, viscosity, and frequency sweep tests. Indirect tensile strength and resilient modulus tests were carried out to assess the mixture’s performances. The rheological properties and strength performance results showed that the addition of RH-WMA slightly reduced the binder and mixtures stiffness. The percentage of recycled asphalt increased the stiffness of binder and mixture, and thus improves the resistance to rutting. Therefore, the integration of recycled asphalt and RH-WMA can be an alternative material for road sustainable construction for countries in the tropics.

Keywords: Recycled asphalt, warm mix additive, rheological, mixture performance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2273
568 An Improved Method to Watermark Images Sensitive to Blocking Artifacts

Authors: Afzel Noore

Abstract:

A new digital watermarking technique for images that are sensitive to blocking artifacts is presented. Experimental results show that the proposed MDCT based approach produces highly imperceptible watermarked images and is robust to attacks such as compression, noise, filtering and geometric transformations. The proposed MDCT watermarking technique is applied to fingerprints for ensuring security. The face image and demographic text data of an individual are used as multiple watermarks. An AFIS system was used to quantitatively evaluate the matching performance of the MDCT-based watermarked fingerprint. The high fingerprint matching scores show that the MDCT approach is resilient to blocking artifacts. The quality of the extracted face and extracted text images was computed using two human visual system metrics and the results show that the image quality was high.

Keywords: Digital watermarking, data hiding, modified discretecosine transformation (MDCT).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1590
567 Emulation of a Wind Turbine Using Induction Motor Driven by Field Oriented Control

Authors: L. Benaaouinate, M. Khafallah, A. Martinez, A. Mesbahi, T. Bouragba

Abstract:

This paper concerns with the modeling, simulation, and emulation of a wind turbine emulator for standalone wind energy conversion systems. By using emulation system, we aim to reproduce the dynamic behavior of the wind turbine torque on the generator shaft: it provides the testing facilities to optimize generator control strategies in a controlled environment, without reliance on natural resources. The aerodynamic, mechanical, electrical models have been detailed as well as the control of pitch angle using Fuzzy Logic for horizontal axis wind turbines. The wind turbine emulator consists mainly of an induction motor with AC power drive with torque control. The control of the induction motor and the mathematical models of the wind turbine are designed with MATLAB/Simulink environment. The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the induction motor control system and the functionality of the wind turbine emulator for providing all necessary parameters of the wind turbine system such as wind speed, output torque, power coefficient and tip speed ratio. The findings are of direct practical relevance.

Keywords: Wind turbine, modeling, emulator, electrical generator, renewable energy, induction motor drive, field oriented control, real time control, wind turbine emulator, pitch angle control.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1346
566 Genetic Content-Based MP3 Audio Watermarking in MDCT Domain

Authors: N. Moghadam, H. Sadeghi

Abstract:

In this paper a novel scheme for watermarking digital audio during its compression to MPEG-1 Layer III format is proposed. For this purpose we slightly modify some of the selected MDCT coefficients, which are used during MPEG audio compression procedure. Due to the possibility of modifying different MDCT coefficients, there will be different choices for embedding the watermark into audio data, considering robustness and transparency factors. Our proposed method uses a genetic algorithm to select the best coefficients to embed the watermark. This genetic selection is done according to the parameters that are extracted from the perceptual content of the audio to optimize the robustness and transparency of the watermark. On the other hand the watermark security is increased due to the random nature of the genetic selection. The information of the selected MDCT coefficients that carry the watermark bits, are saves in a database for future extraction of the watermark. The proposed method is suitable for online MP3 stores to pursue illegal copies of musical artworks. Experimental results show that the detection ratio of the watermarks at the bitrate of 128kbps remains above 90% while the inaudibility of the watermark is preserved.

Keywords: Content-Based Audio Watermarking, Genetic AudioWatermarking.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1499
565 SVID: Structured Vulnerability Intelligence for Building Deliberated Vulnerable Environment

Authors: Wenqing Fan, Yixuan Cheng, Wei Huang

Abstract:

The diversity and complexity of modern IT systems make it almost impossible for internal teams to find vulnerabilities in all software before the software is officially released. The emergence of threat intelligence and vulnerability reporting policy has greatly reduced the burden on software vendors and organizations to find vulnerabilities. However, to prove the existence of the reported vulnerability, it is necessary but difficult for security incident response team to build a deliberated vulnerable environment from the vulnerability report with limited and incomplete information. This paper presents a structured, standardized, machine-oriented vulnerability intelligence format, that can be used to automate the orchestration of Deliberated Vulnerable Environment (DVE). This paper highlights the important role of software configuration and proof of vulnerable specifications in vulnerability intelligence, and proposes a triad model, which is called DIR (Dependency Configuration, Installation Configuration, Runtime Configuration), to define software configuration. Finally, this paper has also implemented a prototype system to demonstrate that the orchestration of DVE can be automated with the intelligence.

Keywords: DIR Triad Model, DVE, vulnerability intelligence, vulnerability recurrence.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 645
564 A Hybrid Expert System for Generating Stock Trading Signals

Authors: Hosein Hamisheh Bahar, Mohammad Hossein Fazel Zarandi, Akbar Esfahanipour

Abstract:

In this paper, a hybrid expert system is developed by using fuzzy genetic network programming with reinforcement learning (GNP-RL). In this system, the frame-based structure of the system uses the trading rules extracted by GNP. These rules are extracted by using technical indices of the stock prices in the training time period. For developing this system, we applied fuzzy node transition and decision making in both processing and judgment nodes of GNP-RL. Consequently, using these method not only did increase the accuracy of node transition and decision making in GNP's nodes, but also extended the GNP's binary signals to ternary trading signals. In the other words, in our proposed Fuzzy GNP-RL model, a No Trade signal is added to conventional Buy or Sell signals. Finally, the obtained rules are used in a frame-based system implemented in Kappa-PC software. This developed trading system has been used to generate trading signals for ten companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The simulation results in the testing time period shows that the developed system has more favorable performance in comparison with the Buy and Hold strategy.

Keywords: Fuzzy genetic network programming, hybrid expert system, technical trading signal, Tehran stock exchange.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1835
563 A Low-Cost Vision-Based Unmanned Aerial System for Extremely Low-Light GPS-Denied Navigation and Thermal Imaging

Authors: Chang Liu, John Nash, Stephen D. Prior

Abstract:

This paper presents the design and implementation details of a complete unmanned aerial system (UAS) based on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, focusing on safety, security, search and rescue scenarios in GPS-denied environments. In particular, The aerial platform is capable of semi-autonomously navigating through extremely low-light, GPS-denied indoor environments based on onboard sensors only, including a downward-facing optical flow camera. Besides, an additional low-cost payload camera system is developed to stream both infra-red video and visible light video to a ground station in real-time, for the purpose of detecting sign of life and hidden humans. The total cost of the complete system is estimated to be $1150, and the effectiveness of the system has been tested and validated in practical scenarios.

Keywords: Unmanned aerial system, commercial-off-the-shelf, extremely low-light, GPS-denied, optical flow, infrared video.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1930
562 A Signature-Based Secure Authentication Framework for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Authors: J. Jenefa, E. A. Mary Anita

Abstract:

Vehicular Ad hoc NETwork (VANET) is a kind of Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET). It allows the vehicles to communicate with one another as well as with nearby Road Side Units (RSU) and Regional Trusted Authorities (RTA). Vehicles communicate through On-Board Units (OBU) in which privacy has to be assured which will avoid the misuse of private data. A secure authentication framework for VANETs is proposed in which Public Key Cryptography (PKC) based adaptive pseudonym scheme is used to generate self-generated pseudonyms. Self-generated pseudonyms are used instead of real IDs for privacy preservation and non-repudiation. The ID-Based Signature (IBS) and ID-Based Online/Offline Signature (IBOOS) schemes are used for authentication. IBS is used to authenticate between vehicle and RSU whereas IBOOS provides authentication among vehicles. Security attacks like impersonation attack in the network are resolved and the attacking nodes are rejected from the network, thereby ensuring secure communication among the vehicles in the network. Simulation results shows that the proposed system provides better authentication in VANET environment.

Keywords: Non-repudiation, privacy preservation, public key cryptography, self- generated pseudonym.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1428
561 Fatigue Strength of S275 Mild Steel under Cyclic Loading

Authors: T. Aldeeb, M. Abduelmula

Abstract:

This study examines the fatigue life of S275 mild steel at room temperature. Mechanical components can fail under cyclic loading during period of time, known as the fatigue phenomenon. In order to prevent fatigue induced failures, material behavior should be investigated to determine the endurance limit of the material for safe design and infinite life, thus leading to reducing the economic cost and loss in human lives. The fatigue behavior of S275 mild steel was studied and investigated. Specimens were prepared in accordance with ASTM E3-11, and fatigue tests of the specimen were conducted in accordance with ASTM E466-07 on a smooth plate, with a continuous radius between ends (hourglass-shaped plate). The method of fatigue testing was applied with constant load amplitude and constant frequency of 4 Hz with load ratio (Fully Reversal R= -1). Surface fractures of specimens were investigated using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The experimental results were compared with the results of a Finite Element Analysis (FEA), using simulation software. The experiment results indicated that the endurance fatigue limit of S275 mild steel was 195.47 MPa.

Keywords: Fatigue life, fatigue strength, finite element analysis, S275 mild steel, scanning electron microscope.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2414
560 Developing Kazakh Language Fluency Test in Nazarbayev University

Authors: Saule Mussabekova, Samal Abzhanova

Abstract:

The Kazakh Language Fluency Test, based on the IELTS exam, was implemented in 2012 at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. We would like to share our experience in developing this exam and some exam results with other language instructors. In this paper, we will cover all these peculiarities and their related issues. The Kazakh Language Fluency Test is a young exam. During its development, we faced many difficulties. One of the goals of the university and the country is to encourage fluency in the Kazakh language for all citizens of the Republic. Nazarbayev University has introduced a Kazakh language program to assist in achieving this goal. This policy is one-step in ensuring that NU students have a thorough understanding of the Kazakh language through a fluency test based on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). The Kazakh Language Fluency Test exam aims to determine student’s knowledge of Kazakh language. The fact is that there are three types of students at Nazarbayev University: Kazakh-speaking heritage learners, Russian-speaking and English-speaking students. Unfortunately, we have Kazakh students who do not speak Kazakh. All students who finished school with Russian language instruction are given Kazakh Language Fluency Test in order to determine their Kazakh level. After the test exam, all students can choose appropriate Kazakh course: Basic Kazakh, Intermediate Kazakh and Upper-Intermediate Kazakh. The Kazakh Language Fluency Test consists of four parts: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. They are taken on the same day in the abovementioned order.

Keywords: Diagnostic language test, Kazakh language, placement test, test result.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 950
559 Web 2.0 in Higher Education: The Instructors’ Acceptance in Higher Educational Institutes in Kingdom of Bahrain

Authors: Amal M. Alrayes, Hayat M. Ali

Abstract:

Since the beginning of distance education with the rapid evolution of technology, the social network plays a vital role in the educational process to enforce the interaction been the learners and teachers. There are many Web 2.0 technologies, services and tools designed for educational purposes. This research aims to investigate instructors’ acceptance towards web-based learning systems in higher educational institutes in Kingdom of Bahrain. Questionnaire is used to investigate the instructors’ usage of Web 2.0 and the factors affecting their acceptance. The results confirm that instructors had high accessibility to such technologies. However, patterns of use were complex. Whilst most expressed interest in using online technologies to support learning activities, learners seemed cautious about other values associated with web-based system, such as the shared construction of knowledge in a public format. The research concludes that there are main factors that affect instructors’ adoption which are security, performance expectation, perceived benefits, subjective norm, and perceived usefulness.

Keywords: Web 2.0, Higher education, Acceptance, Students’ perception.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1292
558 Modified Plastic-Damage Model for Fiber Reinforced Polymer-Confined Repaired Concrete Columns

Authors: I. A Tijani, Y. F Wu, C.W. Lim

Abstract:

Concrete Damaged Plasticity Model (CDPM) is capable of modeling the stress-strain behavior of confined concrete. Nevertheless, the accuracy of the model largely depends on its parameters. To date, most research works mainly focus on the identification and modification of the parameters for fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) confined concrete prior to damage. And, it has been established that the FRP-strengthened concrete behaves differently to FRP-repaired concrete. This paper presents a modified plastic damage model within the context of the CDPM in ABAQUS for modelling of a uniformly FRP-confined repaired concrete under monotonic loading. The proposed model includes infliction damage, elastic stiffness, yield criterion and strain hardening rule. The distinct feature of damaged concrete is elastic stiffness reduction; this is included in the model. Meanwhile, the test results were obtained from a physical testing of repaired concrete. The dilation model is expressed as a function of the lateral stiffness of the FRP-jacket. The finite element predictions are shown to be in close agreement with the obtained test results of the repaired concrete. It was observed from the study that with necessary modifications, finite element method is capable of modeling FRP-repaired concrete structures.

Keywords: Concrete, FRP, damage, repairing, plasticity, and finite element method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 901
557 Modeling of a UAV Longitudinal Dynamics through System Identification Technique

Authors: Asadullah I. Qazi, Mansoor Ahsan, Zahir Ashraf, Uzair Ahmad

Abstract:

System identification of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), to acquire its mathematical model, is a significant step in the process of aircraft flight automation. The need for reliable mathematical model is an established requirement for autopilot design, flight simulator development, aircraft performance appraisal, analysis of aircraft modifications, preflight testing of prototype aircraft and investigation of fatigue life and stress distribution etc.  This research is aimed at system identification of a fixed wing UAV by means of specifically designed flight experiment. The purposely designed flight maneuvers were performed on the UAV and aircraft states were recorded during these flights. Acquired data were preprocessed for noise filtering and bias removal followed by parameter estimation of longitudinal dynamics transfer functions using MATLAB system identification toolbox. Black box identification based transfer function models, in response to elevator and throttle inputs, were estimated using least square error   technique. The identification results show a high confidence level and goodness of fit between the estimated model and actual aircraft response.

Keywords: Black box modeling, fixed wing aircraft, least square error, longitudinal dynamics, system identification.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1109
556 Effect of Installation of Long Cylindrical External Store on Performance, Stability, Control and Handling Qualities of Light Transport Aircraft

Authors: Ambuj Srivastava, Narender Singh

Abstract:

This paper presents the effect of installation of cylindrical external store on the performance, stability, control and handling qualities of light transport category aircraft. A pair of long cylindrical store was installed symmetrically on either side of the fuselage (port and starboard) ahead of the wing and below the fuselage bottom surface running below pilot and co-pilot window. The cylindrical store was installed as hanging from aircraft surface through specially designed brackets. The adjoining structure was sufficiently reinforced for bearing aerodynamic loads. The length to diameter ratio of long cylindrical store was ~20. Based on academic studies and flow simulation analysis, a considerable detrimental effect on single engine second segment climb performance was found which was later validated through extensive flight testing exercise. The methodology of progressive flight envelope opening was adopted. The certification was sought from Regional airworthiness authorities and for according approval.

Keywords: Second segment climb, maximum operating speed, cruise performance, single engine and twin engine, minimum control speed, and additional trim required.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1220
555 Maximum Common Substructure Extraction in RNA Secondary Structures Using Clique Detection Approach

Authors: Shih-Yi Chao

Abstract:

The similarity comparison of RNA secondary structures is important in studying the functions of RNAs. In recent years, most existing tools represent the secondary structures by tree-based presentation and calculate the similarity by tree alignment distance. Different to previous approaches, we propose a new method based on maximum clique detection algorithm to extract the maximum common structural elements in compared RNA secondary structures. A new graph-based similarity measurement and maximum common subgraph detection procedures for comparing purely RNA secondary structures is introduced. Given two RNA secondary structures, the proposed algorithm consists of a process to determine the score of the structural similarity, followed by comparing vertices labelling, the labelled edges and the exact degree of each vertex. The proposed algorithm also consists of a process to extract the common structural elements between compared secondary structures based on a proposed maximum clique detection of the problem. This graph-based model also can work with NC-IUB code to perform the pattern-based searching. Therefore, it can be used to identify functional RNA motifs from database or to extract common substructures between complex RNA secondary structures. We have proved the performance of this proposed algorithm by experimental results. It provides a new idea of comparing RNA secondary structures. This tool is helpful to those who are interested in structural bioinformatics.

Keywords: Clique detection, labeled vertices, RNA secondary structures, subgraph, similarity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1441
554 Counterfeit Drugs Prevention in Pharmaceutical Industry with RFID: A Framework Based On Literature Review

Authors: Zeeshan Hamid, Asher Ramish

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to focus on security and safety issues facing by pharmaceutical industry globally when counterfeit drugs are in question. Hence, there is an intense need to secure and authenticate pharmaceutical products in the emerging counterfeit product market. This paper will elaborate the application of radio frequency identification (RFID) in pharmaceutical industry and to identify its key benefits for patient’s care. The benefits are: help to co-ordinate the stream of supplies, accuracy in chains of supplies, maintaining trustworthy information, to manage the operations in appropriate and timely manners and finally deliver the genuine drug to patient. It is discussed that how RFID supported supply chain information sharing (SCIS) helps to combat against counterfeit drugs. And a solution how to tag pharmaceutical products; since, some products prevent RFID implementation in this industry. In this paper, a proposed model for pharma industry distribution suggested to combat against the counterfeit drugs when they are in supply chain.

Keywords: Supply chain, RFID, pharmaceutical industry, counterfeit drugs, patients care.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4617