Search results for: Personal Information Leakage Problem
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 7414

Search results for: Personal Information Leakage Problem

5134 A study of Cancer-related MicroRNAs through Expression Data and Literature Search

Authors: Chien-Hung Huang, Chia-Wei Weng, Chang-Chih Chiang, Shih-Hua Wu, Chih-Hsien Huang, Ka-Lok Ng

Abstract:

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that hybridize to mRNAs and induce either translation repression or mRNA cleavage. Recently, it has been reported that miRNAs could possibly play an important role in human diseases. By integrating miRNA target genes, cancer genes, miRNA and mRNA expression profiles information, a database is developed to link miRNAs to cancer target genes. The database provides experimentally verified human miRNA target genes information, including oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. In addition, fragile sites information for miRNAs, and the strength of the correlation of miRNA and its target mRNA expression level for nine tissue types are computed, which serve as an indicator for suggesting miRNAs could play a role in human cancer. The database is freely accessible at http://ppi.bioinfo.asia.edu.tw/mirna_target/index.html.

Keywords: MicroRNA, miRNA expression profile, mRNAexpression profile, cancer genes, oncogene, tumor suppressor gene

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5133 Primary Level Teachers’ Response to Gender Representation in Textbook Contents

Authors: Pragya Paneru

Abstract:

This paper explores altogether 10 primary teachers’ views on gender representation in primary level textbooks. Data were collected from the teachers who taught in private schools in the Kailali and Kathmandu districts. This research uses a semi-structured interview method to obtain information regarding teachers’ attitudes toward gender representations in textbook contents. The interview data were analysed by using critical skills of qualitative research. The findings revealed that most of the teachers were unaware and regarded gender issues as insignificant to discuss in primary-level classes. Most of them responded to the questions personally and claimed that there were no gender issues in their classrooms. Some of the teachers connected gender issues with contexts other than textbook representations such as school discrimination in the distribution of salary among male and female teachers, school practices of awarding girls rather than boys as the most disciplined students, following girls’ first rule in the assembly marching, encouraging only girls in the stage shows, and involving students in gender-specific activities such as decorating works for girls and physical tasks for boys. The interview also revealed teachers’ covert gendered attitudes in their remarks. Nevertheless, most of the teachers accepted that gender-biased contents have an impact on learners and this problem can be solved with more gender-centred research in the education field, discussions, and training to increase awareness regarding gender issues. Agreeing with the suggestion of teachers, this paper recommends proper training and awareness regarding how to confront gender issues in textbooks.

Keywords: Content analysis, gender equality, school education, critical awareness.

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5132 Knowledge Representation and Retrieval in Design Project Memory

Authors: Smain M. Bekhti, Nada T. Matta

Abstract:

Knowledge sharing in general and the contextual access to knowledge in particular, still represent a key challenge in the knowledge management framework. Researchers on semantic web and human machine interface study techniques to enhance this access. For instance, in semantic web, the information retrieval is based on domain ontology. In human machine interface, keeping track of user's activity provides some elements of the context that can guide the access to information. We suggest an approach based on these two key guidelines, whilst avoiding some of their weaknesses. The approach permits a representation of both the context and the design rationale of a project for an efficient access to knowledge. In fact, the method consists of an information retrieval environment that, in the one hand, can infer knowledge, modeled as a semantic network, and on the other hand, is based on the context and the objectives of a specific activity (the design). The environment we defined can also be used to gather similar project elements in order to build classifications of tasks, problems, arguments, etc. produced in a company. These classifications can show the evolution of design strategies in the company.

Keywords: Project Memory, Knowledge re-use, Design rationale, Knowledge representation.

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5131 Bidirectional Discriminant Supervised Locality Preserving Projection for Face Recognition

Authors: Yiqin Lin, Wenbo Li

Abstract:

Dimensionality reduction and feature extraction are of crucial importance for achieving high efficiency in manipulating the high dimensional data. Two-dimensional discriminant locality preserving projection (2D-DLPP) and two-dimensional discriminant supervised LPP (2D-DSLPP) are two effective two-dimensional projection methods for dimensionality reduction and feature extraction of face image matrices. Since 2D-DLPP and 2D-DSLPP preserve the local structure information of the original data and exploit the discriminant information, they usually have good recognition performance. However, 2D-DLPP and 2D-DSLPP only employ single-sided projection, and thus the generated low dimensional data matrices have still many features. In this paper, by combining the discriminant supervised LPP with the bidirectional projection, we propose the bidirectional discriminant supervised LPP (BDSLPP). The left and right projection matrices for BDSLPP can be computed iteratively. Experimental results show that the proposed BDSLPP achieves higher recognition accuracy than 2D-DLPP, 2D-DSLPP, and bidirectional discriminant LPP (BDLPP).

Keywords: Face recognition, dimension reduction, locality preserving projection, discriminant information, bidirectional projection.

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5130 Developing Vision-Based Digital Public Display as an Interactive Media

Authors: Adrian Samuel Limanto, Yunli Lee

Abstract:

Interactive public displays give access as an innovative media to promote enhanced communication between people and information. However, digital public displays are subject to a few constraints, such as content presentation. Content presentation needs to be developed to be more interesting to attract people’s attention and motivate people to interact with the display. In this paper, we proposed idea to implement contents with interaction elements for vision-based digital public display. Vision-based techniques are applied as a sensor to detect passers-by and theme contents are suggested to attract their attention for encouraging them to interact with the announcement content. Virtual object, gesture detection and projection installation are applied for attracting attention from passers-by. Preliminary study showed positive feedback of interactive content designing towards the public display. This new trend would be a valuable innovation as delivery of announcement content and information communication through this media is proven to be more engaging.

Keywords: Digital announcement, digital public display, human-information interaction, interactive media.

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5129 A Blue Print of a Unified Communications and Integrated Collaborations System in the Health Sector of Developing Countries: A Case of Uganda

Authors: Excellence Favor, Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa, Damian D. Haule, Fakih H. Omar

Abstract:

Access to information is the key to the empowerment of everybody despite where they are living. This research is to be carried out in respect of the people living in developing countries, considering their plight and complex geographical, demographic, social-economic conditions surrounding the areas they live, which hinder access to information and of professionals providing services such as medical workers, which has led to high death rates and development stagnation. Research on Unified Communications and Integrated Collaborations (UCIC) system in the health sector of developing countries comes in to create a possible solution of bridging the digital canyon among the communities. The aim is to deliver services in a seamless manner to assist health workers situated anywhere to be accessed easily and access information which will help in service delivery. The proposed UCIC provides the most immersive Telepresence experience for one-to-one or many-tomany meetings. Extending to locations anywhere in the world, the transformative platform delivers Ultra-low operating costs through the use of general purpose networks and using special lenses and track systems.

Keywords: Developing countries, Unified communications and integrated collaborations.

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5128 Drivers of Customer Satisfaction in an Industrial Company from Marketing Aspect

Authors: M. Arefi, A.M. Amini, K. Fallahi

Abstract:

One of the basic concepts in marketing is the concept of meeting customers- needs. Since customer satisfaction is essential for lasting survival and development of a business, screening and observing customer satisfaction and recognizing its underlying factors must be one of the key activities of every business. The purpose of this study is to recognize the drivers that effect customer satisfaction in a business-to-business situation in order to improve marketing activities. We conducted a survey in which 93 business customers of a manufacturer of Diesel Generator in Iran participated and they talked about their ideas and satisfaction of supplier-s services related to its products. We developed the measures for drivers of satisfaction first by as investigative research (by means of feedback from executives and customers of sponsoring firm). Then based on these measures, we created a mail survey, and asked the respondents to explain their opinion about the sponsoring firm which was a supplier of diesel generator and similar products. Furthermore, the survey required the participants to mention their functional areas and their company features. In Conclusion we found that there are three drivers for customer satisfaction, which are reliability, information about product, and commercial features. Buyers/users from different functional areas attribute different degree of importance to the last two drivers. For instance, people from buying and management areas believe that commercial features are more important than information about products. But people in engineering, maintenance and production areas believe that having information about products is more important than commercial aspects. Marketing experts should consider the attribute of customers regarding information about the product and commercial features to improve market share.

Keywords: B2B, Customer satisfaction, Commercial, Industry.

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5127 Rotation Invariant Fusion of Partial Image Parts in Vista Creation using Missing View Regeneration

Authors: H. B. Kekre, Sudeep D. Thepade

Abstract:

The automatic construction of large, high-resolution image vistas (mosaics) is an active area of research in the fields of photogrammetry [1,2], computer vision [1,4], medical image processing [4], computer graphics [3] and biometrics [8]. Image stitching is one of the possible options to get image mosaics. Vista Creation in image processing is used to construct an image with a large field of view than that could be obtained with a single photograph. It refers to transforming and stitching multiple images into a new aggregate image without any visible seam or distortion in the overlapping areas. Vista creation process aligns two partial images over each other and blends them together. Image mosaics allow one to compensate for differences in viewing geometry. Thus they can be used to simplify tasks by simulating the condition in which the scene is viewed from a fixed position with single camera. While obtaining partial images the geometric anomalies like rotation, scaling are bound to happen. To nullify effect of rotation of partial images on process of vista creation, we are proposing rotation invariant vista creation algorithm in this paper. Rotation of partial image parts in the proposed method of vista creation may introduce some missing region in the vista. To correct this error, that is to fill the missing region further we have used image inpainting method on the created vista. This missing view regeneration method also overcomes the problem of missing view [31] in vista due to cropping, irregular boundaries of partial image parts and errors in digitization [35]. The method of missing view regeneration generates the missing view of vista using the information present in vista itself.

Keywords: Vista, Overlap Estimation, Rotation Invariance, Missing View Regeneration.

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5126 The Model of the Genre of Literary Portrait in Modern Literary Criticism

Authors: B. K. Bazylova, Zh. D. Suleimenova

Abstract:

In modern literary criticism the problem of genre is one of discussion. Genre is a phenomenon, located in the intersection of the synchronous and diachronic processes in the development of literature, and this is due to the complexity of its solutions. It defines the place of contact between literary works and literary process.

Keywords: Literary, criticism, literary portrait.

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5125 The Problems of Legal Regulation of Intellectual Property Rights in Innovation Activities in Russia (Institutional Approach)

Authors: Zhanna Mingaleva, Irina Mirskikh

Abstract:

Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation dedicated to legal regulation of Intellectual property rights came into force in 2008. It is a first attempt of codification in Intellectual property sphere in Russia. That is why a lot of new norms appeared. The main problem of the Russian Civil Code (part IV) is that many rules (norms of Law) contradict the norms of International Intellectual property Law (i.e. protection of inventions, creations, ideas, know-how, trade secrets, innovations). Intellectual property rights protect innovations and creations and reward innovative and creative activity. Intellectual property rights are international in character and in that respect they fit in rather well with the economic reality of the global economy. Inventors prefer not to take out a patent for inventions because it is a very difficult procedure, it takes a lot of time and is very expensive. That-s why they try to protect their inventions as ideas, know-how, confidential information. An idea is the main element of any object of Intellectual property (creation, invention, innovation, know-how, etc.). But ideas are not protected by Civil Code of Russian Federation. The aim of the paper is to reveal the main problems of legal regulation of Intellectual property in Russia and to suggest possible solutions. The authors of this paper have raised these essential issues through different activities. Through the panel survey, questionnaires which were spread among the participants of intellectual activities the main problems of implementation of innovations, protecting of the ideas and know-how were identified. The implementation of research results will help to solve economic and legal problems of innovations, transfer of innovations and intellectual property.1

Keywords: Innovation activities, intellectual property rights, know-how, patents, indicators of innovation activities

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5124 Objective and Subjective Preconditions for Entrepreneurship – From the Point of View of Enterprise Risk Management

Authors: Maria Luskova, Maria Hudakova, Katarina Buganova

Abstract:

Established objective and subjective preconditions for entrepreneurship, forming the business organically related whole, are the necessary condition of successful entrepreneurial activities. Objective preconditions for entrepreneurship are developed by market economy that should stimulate entrepreneurship by allowing the use of economic opportunities for all those who want to do business in respective field while providing guarantees to all owners and creating a stable business environment for entrepreneurs. Subjective preconditions of entrepreneurship are formed primarily by personal characteristics of the entrepreneur. These are his properties, abilities, skills, physiological and psychological preconditions which may be inherited, inborn or sequentially developed and obtained during his life on the basis of education and influences of surrounding environment. The paper is dealing with issues of objective and subjective preconditions for entrepreneurship and provides their analysis in view of the current situation in Slovakia. It presents risks of the business environment in Slovakia that the Slovak managers considered the most significant in 2014 and defines the dominant attributes of the entrepreneur in the current business environment in Slovakia.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, innovations, opportunity, risk, uncertainty.

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5123 Overcrowding and Adequate Housing: The Potential of Adaptability

Authors: Inês Ramalhete, Hugo Farias, Rui da Silva Pinto

Abstract:

Adequate housing has been a widely discussed theme in academic circles related to low-cost housing, whereas its physical features are easy to deal with, overcrowding (related to social, cultural and economic aspects) is still ambiguous, particularly regarding the set of indicators that can accurately reflect and measure it. This paper develops research on low-cost housing models for developing countries and what is the best method to embed overcrowding as an important parameter for adaptability. A critical review of international overcrowding indicators and their application in two developing countries, Cape Verde and Angola, is presented. The several rationales and the constraints for an accurate assessment of overcrowding are considered, namely baseline data (statistics), which can induce misjudgments, as well as social and cultural factors (such as personal choices of residents). This paper proposes a way to tackle overcrowding through housing adaptability, considering factors such as physical flexibility, functional ambiguity, and incremental expansion schemes. Moreover, a case-study is presented to establish a framework for the theoretical application of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Adaptive housing, low-cost housing, overcrowding.

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5122 An Adaptive Memetic Algorithm With Dynamic Population Management for Designing HIV Multidrug Therapies

Authors: Hassan Zarei, Ali Vahidian Kamyad, Sohrab Effati

Abstract:

In this paper, a mathematical model of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is utilized and an optimization problem is proposed, with the final goal of implementing an optimal 900-day structured treatment interruption (STI) protocol. Two type of commonly used drugs in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTI) and protease inhibitors (PI), are considered. In order to solving the proposed optimization problem an adaptive memetic algorithm with population management (AMAPM) is proposed. The AMAPM uses a distance measure to control the diversity of population in genotype space and thus preventing the stagnation and premature convergence. Moreover, the AMAPM uses diversity parameter in phenotype space to dynamically set the population size and the number of crossovers during the search process. Three crossover operators diversify the population, simultaneously. The progresses of crossover operators are utilized to set the number of each crossover per generation. In order to escaping the local optima and introducing the new search directions toward the global optima, two local searchers assist the evolutionary process. In contrast to traditional memetic algorithms, the activation of these local searchers is not random and depends on both the diversity parameters in genotype space and phenotype space. The capability of AMAPM in finding optimal solutions compared with three popular metaheurestics is introduced.

Keywords: HIV therapy design, memetic algorithms, adaptivealgorithms, nonlinear integer programming.

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5121 Knowledge Management in Cross- Organizational Networks as Illustrated by One of the Largest European ICT Associations A Case Study of the “METORA

Authors: Thomas Klauß

Abstract:

In networks, mainly small and medium-sized businesses benefit from the knowledge, experiences and solutions offered by experts from industry and science or from the exchange with practitioners. Associations which focus, among other things, on networking, information and knowledge transfer and which are interested in supporting such cooperations are especially well suited to provide such networks and the appropriate web platforms. Using METORA as an example – a project developed and run by the Federal Association for Information Economy, Telecommunications and New Media e.V. (BITKOM) for the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) – This paper will discuss how associations and other network organizations can achieve this task and what conditions they have to consider.

Keywords: Associations, collaboration, communities, crossdepartmental organizations, semantic web, web 2.0.

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5120 A Novel Hopfield Neural Network for Perfect Calculation of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Authors: Hazem M. El-Bakry

Abstract:

In this paper, an automatic determination algorithm for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of the metabolites in the living body by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) without human intervention or complicated calculations is presented. In such method, the problem of NMR spectrum determination is transformed into the determination of the parameters of a mathematical model of the NMR signal. To calculate these parameters efficiently, a new model called modified Hopfield neural network is designed. The main achievement of this paper over the work in literature [30] is that the speed of the modified Hopfield neural network is accelerated. This is done by applying cross correlation in the frequency domain between the input values and the input weights. The modified Hopfield neural network can accomplish complex dignals perfectly with out any additinal computation steps. This is a valuable advantage as NMR signals are complex-valued. In addition, a technique called “modified sequential extension of section (MSES)" that takes into account the damping rate of the NMR signal is developed to be faster than that presented in [30]. Simulation results show that the calculation precision of the spectrum improves when MSES is used along with the neural network. Furthermore, MSES is found to reduce the local minimum problem in Hopfield neural networks. Moreover, the performance of the proposed method is evaluated and there is no effect on the performance of calculations when using the modified Hopfield neural networks.

Keywords: Hopfield Neural Networks, Cross Correlation, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Fast Fourier Transform.

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5119 Energy Efficient and Reliable Geographic Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

Authors: Eunil Park, Kwangsu Cho

Abstract:

The wireless link can be unreliable in realistic wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Energy efficient and reliable data forwarding is important because each node has limited resources. Therefore, we must suggest an optimal solution that considers using the information of the node-s characteristics. Previous routing protocols were unsuited to realistic asymmetric WSNs. In this paper, we propose a Protocol that considers Both sides of Link-quality and Energy (PBLE), an optimal routing protocol that balances modified link-quality, distance and energy. Additionally, we propose a node scheduling method. PBLE achieves a longer lifetime than previous routing protocols and is more energy-efficient. PBLE uses energy, local information and both sides of PRR in a 1-hop distance. We explain how to send data packets to the destination node using the node's information. Simulation shows PBLE improves delivery rate and network lifetime compared to previous schemes. Moreover, we show the improvement in various WSN environments.

Keywords: energy-efficient, lifetime, PBLE, unreliable

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5118 A Study and Implementation of On-line Learning Diagnosis and Inquiry System

Authors: YuLung Wu

Abstract:

In Knowledge Structure Graph, each course unit represents a phase of learning activities. Both learning portfolios and Knowledge Structure Graphs contain learning information of students and let teachers know which content are difficulties and fails. The study purposes "Dual Mode On-line Learning Diagnosis System" that integrates two search methods: learning portfolio and knowledge structure. Teachers can operate the proposed system and obtain the information of specific students without any computer science background. The teachers can find out failed students in advance and provide remedial learning resources.

Keywords: Knowledge Structure Graph, On-line LearningDiagnosis

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5117 Climate Change and Food Security: The Legal Aspects with Special Focus on the European Union

Authors: M. Adamczak-Retecka, O. Hołub-Śniadach

Abstract:

Dangerous of climate change is now global problem and as such has a strategic priority also for the European Union. Europe and European citizens try to do their best to cut greenhouse gas emissions, moreover they substantially encourage other nations and regions to follow the same way. The European Commission and a number of Member States have developed adaptation strategies in order to help strengthen EU's resilience to the inevitable impacts of climate change. The EU has long been a driving force in international negotiations on climate change and was instrumental in the development of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. As the world's leading donor of development aid, the EU also provides substantial funding to help developing countries tackle climate change problem. Global warming influences human health, biodiversity, ecosystems but also many social and economic sectors. The aim of this paper is to focus on impact of claimant change on for food security. Food security challenges are directly related to globalization, climate change. It means that current and future food policy is exposed to all cross-cutting and that must be linked with environmental and climate targets, which supposed to be achieved. In the 7th EAP —The new general Union Environment Action Program to 2020, called “Living well, within the limits of our planet” EU has agreed to step up its efforts to protect natural capital, stimulate resource efficient, low carbon growth and innovation, and safeguard people’s health and wellbeing– while respecting the Earth’s natural limits.

Keywords: Climate change, EU law, food policy, food security.

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5116 Memory and Higher Cognition

Authors: A. Páchová

Abstract:

Working memory (WM) can be defined as the system which actively holds information in the mind to do tasks in spite of the distraction. Contrary, short-term memory (STM) is a system that represents the capacity for the active storing of information without distraction. There has been accumulating evidence that these types of memory are related to higher cognition (HC). The aim of this study was to verify the relationship between HC and memory (visual STM and WM, auditory STM and WM). 59 primary school children were tested by intelligence test, mathematical tasks (HC) and memory subtests. We have shown that visual but not auditory memory is a significant predictor of higher cognition. The relevance of these results are discussed.

Keywords: higher cognition, long-term memory, short-term memory, working memory

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5115 Enhancing Retrieval Effectiveness of Malay Documents by Exploiting Implicit Semantic Relationship between Words

Authors: Mohd Pouzi Hamzah, Tengku Mohd Tengku Sembok

Abstract:

Phrases has a long history in information retrieval, particularly in commercial systems. Implicit semantic relationship between words in a form of BaseNP have shown significant improvement in term of precision in many IR studies. Our research focuses on linguistic phrases which is language dependent. Our results show that using BaseNP can improve performance although above 62% of words formation in Malay Language based on derivational affixes and suffixes.

Keywords: Information Retrieval, Malay Language, Semantic Relationship, Retrieval Effectiveness, Conceptual Indexing.

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5114 Corporate Governance Practices and Analysts Forecast Accuracy Evidence for Romania

Authors: M. Ionascu, L. Olimid

Abstract:

In the last few years, several steps were taken in order to improve the quality of corporate governance for Romanian listed companies. Higher standards of corporate governance is documented in the literature to lead to a better information environment, and, consequently, to increase analysts forecast accuracy. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which corporate governance policies affect analysts forecasts for companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange. The results showed that there is indeed a negative correlation between a corporate governance index – used as a proxy for the quality of corporate governance practices - and analysts forecast errors.

Keywords: corporate governance, aanalysts' forecasts, information environment

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5113 Optimization and GIS-Based Intelligent Decision Support System for Urban Transportation Systems Analysis

Authors: Mohamad K. Hasan, Hameed Al-Qaheri

Abstract:

Optimization plays an important role in most real world applications that support decision makers to take the right decision regarding the strategic directions and operations of the system they manage. Solutions for traffic management and traffic congestion problems are considered major problems that most decision making authorities for cities around the world are looking for. This review paper gives a full description of the traffic problem as part of the transportation planning process and present a view as a framework of urban transportation system analysis where the core of the system is a transportation network equilibrium model that is based on optimization techniques and that can also be used for evaluating an alternative solution or a combination of alternative solutions for the traffic congestion. Different transportation network equilibrium models are reviewed from the sequential approach to the multiclass combining trip generation, trip distribution, modal split, trip assignment and departure time model. A GIS-Based intelligent decision support system framework for urban transportation system analysis is suggested for implementation where the selection of optimized alternative solutions, single or packages, will be based on an intelligent agent rather than human being which would lead to reduction in time, cost and the elimination of the difficulty, by human being, for finding the best solution to the traffic congestion problem.

Keywords: Multiclass simultaneous transportation equilibrium models, transportation planning, urban transportation systems analysis, intelligent decision support system.

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5112 Personal Authentication Using FDOST in Finger Knuckle-Print Biometrics

Authors: N. B. Mahesh Kumar, K. Premalatha

Abstract:

The inherent skin patterns created at the joints in the finger exterior are referred as finger knuckle-print. It is exploited to identify a person in a unique manner because the finger knuckle print is greatly affluent in textures. In biometric system, the region of interest is utilized for the feature extraction algorithm. In this paper, local and global features are extracted separately. Fast Discrete Orthonormal Stockwell Transform is exploited to extract the local features. Global feature is attained by escalating the size of Fast Discrete Orthonormal Stockwell Transform to infinity. Two features are fused to increase the recognition accuracy. A matching distance is calculated for both the features individually. Then two distances are merged mutually to acquire the final matching distance. The proposed scheme gives the better performance in terms of equal error rate and correct recognition rate.

Keywords: Hamming distance, Instantaneous phase, Region of Interest, Recognition accuracy.

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5111 The Distance between a Point and a Bezier Curveon a Bezier Surface

Authors: Wen-Haw Chen, Sheng-Gwo Chen

Abstract:

The distance between two objects is an important problem in CAGD, CAD and CG etc. It will be presented in this paper that a simple and quick method to estimate the distance between a point and a Bezier curve on a Bezier surface.

Keywords: Geodesic-like curve, distance, projection, Bezier.

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5110 International Comparative Study of International Financial Reporting Standards Adoption and Earnings Quality: Effects of Differences in Accounting Standards, Industry Category, and Country Characteristics

Authors: Ichiro Mukai

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether firms applying International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), provide high-quality and comparable earnings information that is useful for decision making of information users relative to firms applying local Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Focus is placed on the earnings quality of listed firms in several developed countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US). Except for Japan and the US, the adoption of IFRS is mandatory for listed firms in these countries. In Japan, the application of IFRS is allowed for specific listed firms. In the US, the foreign firms listed on the US securities market are permitted to apply IFRS but the listed domestic firms are prohibited from doing so. In this paper, the differences in earnings quality are compared between firms applying local GAAP and those applying IFRS in each country and industry category, and the reasons of differences in earnings quality are analyzed using various factors. The results show that, although the earnings quality of firms applying IFRS is higher than that of firms applying local GAAP, this varies with country and industry category. Thus, even if a single set of global accounting standards is used for all listed firms worldwide, it is difficult to establish comparability of financial information among global firms. These findings imply that various circumstances surrounding firms, industries, and countries etc. influence business operations and affect the differences in earnings quality.

Keywords: Accruals, earnings quality, IFRS, information comparability.

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5109 Effective Density for the Classification of Transport Activity Centers

Authors: Dubbale Daniel A., Tsutsumi J.

Abstract:

This research work takes a different approach in the discussion of urban form impacts on transport planning and auto dependency. Concentrated density represented by effective density explains auto dependency better than the conventional density and it is proved to be a realistic density representative for the urban transportation analysis. Model analysis reveals that effective density is influenced by the shopping accessibility index as well as job density factor. It is also combined with the job access variable to classify four levels of Transport Activity Centers (TACs) in Okinawa, Japan. Trip attraction capacity and levels of the newly classified TACs was found agreeable with the amount of daily trips attracted to each center. The trip attraction data set was drawn from a 2007 Okinawa personal trip survey. This research suggests a planning methodology which guides logical transport supply routes and concentrated local development schemes.

Keywords: Effective density, urban form, auto-dependency, transport activity centers

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5108 Regional Medical Imaging System

Authors: Michal Javornik, Otto Dostal, Karel Slavicek

Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to introduce an advanced system for the support of processing of medical image information, and the terminology related to this system, which can be an important element to a faster transition to a fully digitalized hospital. The core of the system is a set of DICOM compliant applications running over a dedicated computer network. The whole integrated system creates a collaborative platform supporting daily routines in the radiology community, developing communication channels, supporting the exchange of information and special consultations among various medical institutions as well as supporting medical training for practicing radiologists and medical students. It gives the users outside of hospitals the tools to work in almost the same conditions as in the radiology departments.

Keywords: DICOM, Integration, Medical Education, MedicalImaging

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5107 Increased Capacity of Information Hiding in LSB-s Method for Text and Image

Authors: H.B.Kekre, Archana Athawale, Pallavi N.Halarnkar

Abstract:

Steganography, derived from Greek, literally means “covered writing". It includes a vast array of secret communications methods that conceal the message-s very existence. These methods include invisible inks, microdots, character arrangement, digital signatures, covert channels, and spread spectrum communications. This paper proposes a new improved version of Least Significant Bit (LSB) method. The approach proposed is simple for implementation when compared to Pixel value Differencing (PVD) method and yet achieves a High embedding capacity and imperceptibility. The proposed method can also be applied to 24 bit color images and achieve embedding capacity much higher than PVD.

Keywords: Information Hiding, LSB Matching, PVD Steganography.

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5106 Open Source Software in Higher Education: Oman SQU Case Study

Authors: Amal S. Al-Badi, Ali H. Al-Badi

Abstract:

Many organizations are opting to adopt Open Source Software (OSS) as it is the current trend to rely on each other rather than on companies (Software vendors). It is a clear shift from organizations to individuals, the concept being to rely on collective participation rather than companies/vendors.

The main objectives of this research are 1) to identify the current level of OSS usage in Sultan Qaboos University; 2) to identify the potential benefits of using OSS in educational institutes; 3) to identify the OSS applications that are most likely to be used within an educational institute; 4) to identify the existing and potential barriers to the successful adoption of OSS in education.

To achieve these objectives a two-stage research method was conducted. First a rigorous literature review of previously published material was performed (interpretive/descriptive approach), and then a set of interviews were conducted with the IT professionals at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman in order to explore the extent and nature of their usage of OSS.

Keywords: Open source software; social software, e-learning 2.0, Web 2.0, connectivism, personal learning environment (PLE), OpenID, OpenSocial and OpenCourseWare.

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5105 An Agent-based Model for Analyzing Interaction of Two Stable Social Networks

Authors: Masatora Daito, Hisashi Kojima

Abstract:

In this research, the authors analyze network stability using agent-based simulation. Firstly, the authors focus on analyzing large networks (eight agents) by connecting different two stable small social networks (A small stable network is consisted on four agents.). Secondly, the authors analyze the network (eight agents) shape which is added one agent to a stable network (seven agents). Thirdly, the authors analyze interpersonal comparison of utility. The “star-network "was not found on the result of interaction among stable two small networks. On the other hand, “decentralized network" was formed from several combination. In case of added one agent to a stable network (seven agents), if the value of “c"(maintenance cost of per a link) was larger, the number of patterns of stable network was also larger. In this case, the authors identified the characteristics of a large stable network. The authors discovered the cases of decreasing personal utility under condition increasing total utility.

Keywords: Social Network, Symmetric Situation, Network Stability, Agent-Based Modeling.

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