Search results for: local image gradient

Authors: S. S. P. M. Isa, N. M. Arifin, R. Nazar, N. Bachok, F. M. Ali, I. Pop

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A theoretical study has been presented to describe the boundary layer flow and heat transfer on an exponentially shrinking sheet with a variable wall temperature and suction, in the presence of magnetic field. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are converted into ordinary differential equations by similarity transformation, which are then solved numerically using the shooting method. Results for the skin friction coefficient, local Nusselt number, velocity profiles as well as temperature profiles are presented through graphs and tables for several sets of values of the parameters. The effects of the governing parameters on the flow and heat transfer characteristics are thoroughly examined.

Keywords: Exponentially shrinking sheet, magnetic field, mixed convection, suction.

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Authors: Danesh Nourzadeh, Majid Ebad-Sichani, Shiro Takada

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Widespread use of response spectra in seismic design and evaluation of different types of structures makes them one of the most important seismic inputs. This importance urges the local design codes to adapt precise data based on updated information about the recent major earthquakes happened and also localized geotechnical data. In this regard, this paper derives the response spectra with a geotechnical approach for various scenarios coming from the recent major earthquakes happened in Iran for different types of hard soils, and compares the results to the corresponding spectra from the current seismic code. This comparison implies the need for adapting new design spectra for seismic design, because of major differences in the frequency domains and amplifications.

Keywords: Earthquake engineering, response spectra, seismic design, site response.

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Authors: Vichada Chokesikarin

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The study aims to determine which factors account for customer satisfaction and to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business success, in particular, context of the information understanding of hostel business in Pranakorn district, Bangkok and the significant element of entrepreneurship in tourism industry. This study covers 352 hostels customers and 61 hostel owners/managers nearby Khao San road. Data collection methods were used by survey questionnaire and a series of hypotheses were developed from services marketing literature. The findings suggest the customer satisfaction most influenced by image, service quality, room quality and price accordingly. Furthermore the findings revealed that significant relationships exist between entrepreneurial orientation and business success; while competitive aggressiveness was found unrelated. The ECSI model’s generic measuring customer satisfaction was found partially mediate the business success. A reconsideration of other variables applicable should be supported with the model of hostel business. The study provides context and overall view of hostel business while discussing from the entrepreneurial orientation to customer satisfaction, thereby reducing decision risk on hostel investment.

Keywords: Customer satisfaction, ECSI Model, entrepreneurial orientation, small hotels, hostel, business performance.

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Authors: Joanne Muscat

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The study explored the question of who am I? As a (re)construction of cultural identity by delving into globalization, communication, and social change in Malta during a historical moment when Malta became a European Union Member State. Three objectives guided this qualitative study. Firstly the study reviewed European Union (EU) policies that regulate broadcasting and their implementation in Member States, whilst meeting the challenges of globalization and new media technology. Secondly the research investigated the changes of the media landscape via organizational structures, programs and television (TV) content. Finally the study explored the impact of these transformations taking place in the way Maltese live as they (re)construct their cultural identity. Despite the choices available to the Maltese audience, old local traditions and new foreign customs coexist as informants continue to (re)construct their cultural identity and define who they are.

Keywords: Cultural Identity, Globalization, Transnational Media.

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Authors: Hongyu Wei, Wenliang Chen, Lin Gao

Abstract:

Incremental forming is a complex forming process with continuously local cumulative deformation taking place during its process, and springback that forming quality affected by would occur. The springback evaluation method based on forming error compensation also was proposed, which it can be defined as the difference between theory and the actual amount of compensation along the measured direction. According to forming error compensation evaluation method, experiments was designed and implemented. And from the results that obtained it can be show, the magnitude of springback average (δE) of formed parts was very small, and the forming precision could be significantly improved by adopting compensation method. Based on double tensile stress state in the main deformation area, a hypothesis that there is little springback be arisen by bending behavior on the formed parts that was proposed.

Keywords: Sheet metal, incremental forming, springback, forming error compensation, geometric accuracy

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Authors: Milton Pavezzi Netto, Gustavo D'Almeida Scarpinella, Ricardo Siloto da Silva

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The springs located in urban areas are the outpouring of surface water, which can serve as water supply, effluent receptors and important local macro-drainage elements. With unplanned occupation, non-compliance with environmental legislation and the importance of these water bodies, it is vital to analyze the springs within urban areas, considering the Brazilian forest code. This paper submits an analysis and discussion methodology proposal of environmental compliance functions of urban springs, by means of G.I.S. - Geographic Information System analysis - and in situ analysis. The case study included two springs which exhibit a history of occupation along its length, with different degrees of impact. The proposed method is effective and easy to apply, representing a powerful tool for analyzing the environmental conditions of springs in urban areas.

Keywords: Springs, urban area, Brazilian forest code.

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Authors: Hichem Omrani, Philippe Gerber, Patrick Bousch

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The problem of Small Area Estimation (SAE) is complex because of various information sources and insufficient data. In this paper, an approach for SAE is presented for decision-making at national, regional and local level. We propose an Empirical Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (EBLUP) as an estimator in order to combine several information sources to evaluate various indicators. First, we present the urban audit project and its environmental, social and economic indicators. Secondly, we propose an approach for decision making in order to estimate indicators. An application is used to validate the theoretical proposal. Finally, a decision support system is presented based on open-source environment.

Keywords: Small area estimation, statistical method, sampling, empirical best linear unbiased predictor (EBLUP), decision-making.

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Authors: Hamed Ahmadi Moghadam, Omolbanin Arasteh Khoshbin

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Nowadays, the performance required for concrete structures is more complicated and diversified. Self-compacting concrete is a fluid mixture suitable for placing in structures with congested reinforcement without vibration. Self-compacting concrete development must ensure a good balance between deformability and stability. Also, compatibility is affected by the characteristics of materials and the mix proportions; it becomes necessary to evolve a procedure for mix design of SCC. This paper presents an experimental procedure for the design of self-compacting concrete mixes with different water-cement ratios (w/c) and other constant ratios by local materials. The test results for acceptance characteristics of self-compacting concrete such as slump flow, V-funnel and L-Box are presented. Further, compressive strength, tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of specimens were also determined and results are included here

Keywords: Self-Compacting Concrete, Mix Design, Compressive Strength, Tensile Strength, Modulus of Elasticity

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Authors: Panagiotis Lemonakis, Theodoros Αlimonakis, George Kaliabetsos, Nikos Eliou

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It is very well known that certain vertical and longitudinal slopes have to be assured in order to achieve adequate rainwater runoff from the pavement. The selection of longitudinal slopes, between the turning points of the vertical curves that meet the afore-mentioned requirement does not ensure adequate drainage because the same condition must also be applied at the transition curves. In this way none of the pavement edges’ slopes (as well as any other spot that lie on the pavement) will be opposite to the longitudinal slope of the rotation axis. Horizontal and vertical alignment must be properly combined in order to form a road which resultant slope does not take small values and hence, checks must be performed in every cross section and every chainage of the road. The present research investigates the rain water runoff from the road surface in order to identify the conditions under which, areas of inadequate drainage are being created, to analyze the rainwater behavior in such areas, to provide design examples of good and bad drainage zones and to track down certain motorcycle types which might encounter hazardous situations due to the presence of water film between the pavement and both of their tires resulting loss of traction. Moreover, it investigates the combination of longitudinal and cross slope values in critical pavement areas. It should be pointed out that the drainage gradient is analytically calculated for the whole road width and not just for an oblique slope per chainage (combination of longitudinal grade and cross slope). Lastly, various combinations of horizontal and vertical design are presented, indicating the crucial zones of bad pavement drainage. The key conclusion of the study is that any type of motorcycle will travel for some time inside the area of improper runoff for a certain time frame which depends on the speed and the trajectory that the rider chooses along the transition curve. Taking into account that on this section the rider will have to lean his motorcycle and hence reduce the contact area of his tire with the pavement it is apparent that any variations on the friction value due to the presence of a water film may lead to serious problems regarding his safety. The water runoff from the road pavement is improved when between reverse longitudinal slopes, crest instead of sag curve is chosen and particularly when its edges coincide with the edges of the horizontal curve. Lastly, the results of the investigation have shown that the variation of the longitudinal slope involves the vertical shift of the center of the poor water runoff area. The magnitude of this area increases as the length of the transition curve increases.

Keywords: Drainage, motorcycle safety, superelevation, transition curves, vertical grade.

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Authors: Lei Shi, Zhibin Yu, Artur J. Jaworski, Abdulrahman S. Abduljalil

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This paper investigates vortex shedding processes occurring at the end of a stack of parallel plates, due to an oscillating flow induced by an acoustic standing wave within an acoustic resonator. Here, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is used to quantify the vortex shedding processes within an acoustic cycle phase-by-phase, in particular during the “ejection" of the fluid out of the stack. Standard hot-wire anemometry measurement is also applied to detect the velocity fluctuations near the end of the stack. Combination of these two measurement techniques allowed a detailed analysis of the vortex shedding phenomena. The results obtained show that, as the Reynolds number varies (by varying the plate thickness and drive ratio), different flow patterns of vortex shedding are observed by the PIV measurement. On the other hand, the time-dependent hot-wire measurements allow obtaining detailed frequency spectra of the velocity signal, used for calculating characteristic Strouhal numbers. The impact of the plate thickness and the Reynolds number on the vortex shedding pattern has been discussed. Furthermore, a detailed map of the relationship between the Strouhal number and Reynolds number has been obtained and discussed.

Keywords: Oscillatory flow, Parallel-plate thermoacoustic stack, Strouhal numbers, Vortex shedding.

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Authors: Say Wei Foo, Qi Dong

Abstract:

A novel robust audio watermarking scheme is proposed in this paper. In the proposed scheme, the host audio signals are segmented into frames. Two consecutive frames are assessed if they are suitable to represent a watermark bit. If so, frequency transform is performed on these two frames. The compressionexpansion technique is adopted to generate distortion over the two frames. The distortion is used to represent one watermark bit. Psychoacoustic model is applied to calculate local auditory mask to ensure that the distortion is not audible. The watermarking schemes using mono and stereo audio signals are designed differently. The correlation-based detection method is used to detect the distortion and extract embedded watermark bits. The experimental results show that the quality degradation caused by the embedded watermarks is perceptually transparent and the proposed schemes are very robust against different types of attacks.

Keywords: Audio watermarking, Compression-expansion, Stereo signals, Robustness.

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Authors: Yi-Shiang Shiu, Meng-Lung Lin, Kang-Tsung Chang, Tzu-How Chu

Abstract:

Most paddy rice fields in East Asia are small parcels, and the weather conditions during the growing season are usually cloudy. FORMOSAT-2 multi-spectral images have an 8-meter resolution and one-day recurrence, ideal for mapping paddy rice fields in East Asia. To map rice fields, this study first determined the transplanting and the most active tillering stages of paddy rice and then used multi-temporal images to distinguish different growing characteristics between paddy rice and other ground covers. The unsupervised ISODATA (iterative self-organizing data analysis techniques) and supervised maximum likelihood were both used to discriminate paddy rice fields, with training areas automatically derived from ten-year cultivation parcels in Taiwan. Besides original bands in multi-spectral images, we also generated normalized difference vegetation index and experimented with object-based pre-classification and post-classification. This paper discusses results of different image classification methods in an attempt to find a precise and automatic solution to mapping paddy rice in Taiwan.

Keywords: paddy rice fields; multi-temporal; FORMOSAT-2images, normalized difference vegetation index, object-basedclassification.

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Authors: Reinhard Haas, Amela Ajanovic

Abstract:

In recent years various types of electric vehicles has gained again increasing attention as an environmentally benign technology in transport. Especially for urban areas with high local pollution this Zero-emission technology (at the point of use) is considered to provide proper solutions. Yet, the bad economics and the limited driving ranges are still major barriers for a broader market penetration of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and of fuel cell vehicles (FCV). The major result of our analyses is that the most important precondition for a further dissemination of BEV in urban areas are emission-free zones. This is an instrument which allows the promotion of BEV without providing excessive subsidies. In addition, it is important to note that the full benefits of EV can only be harvested if the electricity used is produced from renewable energy sources. That is to say, it has to be ensured that the use of BEV in urban areas is clearly linked to a green electricity purchase model. And moreover, the introduction of a CO2- emission-based tax system would support this requirement.

Keywords: Electric vehicles, economics, policies, history.

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Authors: A. Basu, A. A. Purohit, M. M. Vaidya, M. D. Kudale

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Mumbai, being traditionally the epicenter of India's trade and commerce, the existing major ports such as Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru Ports (JN) situated in Thane estuary are also developing its waterfront facilities. Various developments over the passage of decades in this region have changed the tidal flux entering/leaving the estuary. The intake at Pir-Pau is facing the problem of shortage of water in view of advancement of shoreline, while jetty near Ulwe faces the problem of ship scheduling due to existence of shallower depths between JN Port and Ulwe Bunder. In order to solve these problems, it is inevitable to have information about tide levels over a long duration by field measurements. However, field measurement is a tedious and costly affair; application of artificial intelligence was used to predict water levels by training the network for the measured tide data for one lunar tidal cycle. The application of two layered feed forward Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with back-propagation training algorithms such as Gradient Descent (GD) and Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) was used to predict the yearly tide levels at waterfront structures namely at Ulwe Bunder and Pir-Pau. The tide data collected at Apollo Bunder, Ulwe, and Vashi for a period of lunar tidal cycle (2013) was used to train, validate and test the neural networks. These trained networks having high co-relation coefficients (R= 0.998) were used to predict the tide at Ulwe, and Vashi for its verification with the measured tide for the year 2000 & 2013. The results indicate that the predicted tide levels by ANN give reasonably accurate estimation of tide. Hence, the trained network is used to predict the yearly tide data (2015) for Ulwe. Subsequently, the yearly tide data (2015) at Pir-Pau was predicted by using the neural network which was trained with the help of measured tide data (2000) of Apollo and Pir-Pau. The analysis of measured data and study reveals that: The measured tidal data at Pir-Pau, Vashi and Ulwe indicate that there is maximum amplification of tide by about 10-20 cm with a phase lag of 10-20 minutes with reference to the tide at Apollo Bunder (Mumbai). LM training algorithm is faster than GD and with increase in number of neurons in hidden layer and the performance of the network increases. The predicted tide levels by ANN at Pir-Pau and Ulwe provides valuable information about the occurrence of high and low water levels to plan the operation of pumping at Pir-Pau and improve ship schedule at Ulwe.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, back-propagation, tide data, training algorithm.

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Authors: Fu E. Tang, Vun J. Ngu

Abstract:

The pollutant removal efficiency of the Intermittently Decanted Extended Aeration (IDEA) wastewater treatment system at Curtin University Sarawak Campus, and conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment system at a local resort, Resort A, is monitored. The influent and effluent characteristics are tested during wet and dry weather conditions, and peak and off peak periods. For the wastewater treatment systems at Curtin Sarawak and Resort A, during dry weather and peak season, it was found that the BOD5 concentration in the influent is 121.7mg/L and 80.0mg/L respectively, and in the effluent, 18.7mg/L and and 18.0mg/L respectively. Analysis of the performance of the IDEA treatment system showed that the operational costs can be minimized by 3%, by decreasing the number of operating cycles. As for the treatment system in Resort A, by utilizing a smaller capacity air blower, a saving of 12% could be made in the operational costs.

Keywords: Conventional Activated Sludge, IDEA, Performance Monitoring, Wastewater Treatment

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Authors: A. Yazdanmehr, H. Jahed

Abstract:

Being made with the lightest commercially available industrial metal, Magnesium (Mg) alloys are of interest for light-weighting. Expanding their application to different material processing methods requires Mg properties at large strains. Several room-temperature processes such as shot and laser peening and hole cold expansion need compressive large strain data. Two methods have been proposed in the literature to obtain the stress-strain curve at high strains: 1) anti-buckling guides and 2) small cubic samples. In this paper, an anti-buckling fixture is used with the help of digital image correlation (DIC) to obtain the compression-tension (C-T) of AZ31B-H24 rolled sheet at large strain values of up to 10.5%. The effect of the anti-bucking fixture on stress-strain curves is evaluated experimentally by comparing the results with those of the compression tests of cubic samples. For testing cubic samples, a new fixture has been designed to increase the accuracy of testing cubic samples with DIC strain measurements. Results show a negligible effect of anti-buckling on stress-strain curves, specifically at high strain values.

Keywords: Large strain, compression-tension, loading-unloading, Mg alloys.

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Authors: E. Irankhah, M. Zarif, E. Mazrooei Rad, K. Ghandehari

Abstract:

Alzheimer's prevalence is on the rise, and the disease comes with problems like cessation of treatment, high cost of treatment, and the lack of early detection methods. The pathology of this disease causes the formation of protein deposits in the brain of patients called plaque amyloid. Generally, the diagnosis of this disease is done by performing tests such as a cerebrospinal fluid, CT scan, MRI, and spinal cord fluid testing, or mental testing tests and eye tracing tests. In this paper, we tried to use the Medial Temporal Atrophy (MTA) method and the Leave One Out (LOO) cycle to extract the statistical properties of the three Fz, Pz, and Cz channels of ERP signals for early diagnosis of this disease. In the process of CT scan images, the accuracy of the results is 81% for the healthy person and 88% for the severe patient. After the process of ERP signaling, the accuracy of the results for a healthy person in the delta band in the Cz channel is 81% and in the alpha band the Pz channel is 90%. In the results obtained from the signal processing, the results of the severe patient in the delta band of the Cz channel were 89% and in the alpha band Pz channel 92%.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, image and signal processing, medial temporal atrophy, LOO Cycle.

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Authors: Mohamed Afla, Mohamad Reza

Abstract:

Land shortage for burials is one of many issues that emerge out of accelerated urban growth in most developing Asian cities, including Kuala Lumpur. Despite actions taken by the federal government and local authorities in addressing this issue, there is no strategic solution being formulated. Apart from making provisions for land to be developed as new cemeteries, the future plan is merely to allocate reserve land to accommodate the increasing demands of burial grounds around the city. This paper examines problems that arise from the traditional practices of Malay funerary as well as an insight to current urban practices in managing Muslim burial spaces around Kuala Lumpur metropolitan region. This paper will also provide some solutions through design approach that can be applied to counter the existing issues.

Keywords: Kuala Lumpur metropolitan region, Malay burial practices, sustainable development, urban cemeteries.

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Authors: H. Baskar, A. S. Chakravarthy, P. Garg, D. Goel, A. S. Raj, K. Kumar, Lakshya, R. Parvatham, V. Sushant, B. Kumar Rout

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a computer vision task called nighttime dehaze-enhancement. This task aims to jointly perform dehazing and lightness enhancement. Our task fundamentally differs from nighttime dehazing – our goal is to jointly dehaze and enhance scenes, while nighttime dehazing aims to dehaze scenes under a nighttime setting. In order to facilitate further research on this task, we release a benchmark dataset called Reside-β Night dataset, consisting of 4122 nighttime hazed images from 2061 scenes and 2061 ground truth images. Moreover, we also propose a network called NDENet (Nighttime Dehaze-Enhancement Network), which jointly performs dehazing and low-light enhancement in an end-to-end manner. We evaluate our method on the proposed benchmark and achieve Structural Index Similarity (SSIM) of 0.8962 and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) of 26.25. We also compare our network with other baseline networks on our benchmark to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. We believe that nighttime dehaze-enhancement is an essential task particularly for autonomous navigation applications, and hope that our work will open up new frontiers in research. The code for our network is made publicly available.

Keywords: Dehazing, image enhancement, nighttime, computer vision.

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Authors: Zurinahni Zainol, Rosalina Abdul Salam, Rosni Abdullah, Nur'Aini, Wahidah Husain

Abstract:

The size, complexity and number of databases used for protein information have caused bioinformatics to lag behind in adapting to the need to handle this distributed information. Integrating all the information from different databases into one database is a challenging problem. Our main research is to develop a tool which can be used to access and manipulate protein information from difference databases. In our approach, we have integrated difference databases such as Swiss-prot, PDB, Interpro, and EMBL and transformed these databases in flat file format into relational form using XML and Bioperl. As a result, we showed this tool can search different sizes of protein information stored in relational database and the result can be retrieved faster compared to flat file database. A web based user interface is provided to allow user to access or search for protein information in the local database.

Keywords: Protein sequence database, relational database, integrated database.

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Authors: X. Gumara Rigol, I. Martínez de Apellaniz Anzuola, A. Garcia Serrano, A. Franzi Cros, O. Vidal Calbet, A. Al Maruf

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Traditional federated architectures for data warehousing work well when corporations have existing regional data warehouses and there is a need to aggregate data at a global level. Schibsted Media Group has been maturing from a decentralised organisation into a more globalised one and needed to build both some of the regional data warehouses for some brands at the same time as the global one. In this paper, we present the architectural alternatives studied and why a custom federated approach was the notable recommendation to go further with the implementation. Although the data warehouses are logically federated, the implementation uses a single database system which presented many advantages like: cost reduction and improved data access to global users allowing consumers of the data to have a common data model for detailed analysis across different geographies and a flexible layer for local specific needs in the same place.

Keywords: Data integration, data warehousing, federated architecture, online analytical processing.

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Authors: S. Mehrab Amiri, Nasser Talebbeydokhti

Abstract:

Modeling sediment transport processes by means of numerical approach often poses severe challenges. In this way, a number of techniques have been suggested to solve flow and sediment equations in decoupled, semi-coupled or fully coupled forms. Furthermore, in order to capture flow discontinuities, a number of techniques, like artificial viscosity and shock fitting, have been proposed for solving these equations which are mostly required careful calibration processes. In this research, a numerical scheme for solving shallow water and Exner equations in fully coupled form is presented. First-Order Centered scheme is applied for producing required numerical fluxes and the reconstruction process is carried out toward using Monotonic Upstream Scheme for Conservation Laws to achieve a high order scheme.  In order to satisfy C-property of the scheme in presence of bed topography, Surface Gradient Method is proposed. Combining the presented scheme with fourth order Runge-Kutta algorithm for time integration yields a competent numerical scheme. In addition, to handle non-prismatic channels problems, Cartesian Cut Cell Method is employed. A trained Multi-Layer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network which is of Feed Forward Back Propagation (FFBP) type estimates sediment flow discharge in the model rather than usual empirical formulas. Hydrodynamic part of the model is tested for showing its capability in simulation of flow discontinuities, transcritical flows, wetting/drying conditions and non-prismatic channel flows. In this end, dam-break flow onto a locally non-prismatic converging-diverging channel with initially dry bed conditions is modeled. The morphodynamic part of the model is verified simulating dam break on a dry movable bed and bed level variations in an alluvial junction. The results show that the model is capable in capturing the flow discontinuities, solving wetting/drying problems even in non-prismatic channels and presenting proper results for movable bed situations. It can also be deducted that applying Artificial Neural Network, instead of common empirical formulas for estimating sediment flow discharge, leads to more accurate results.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, morphodynamic model, sediment continuity equation, shallow water equations.

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Authors: Marco Raciti Castelli, Sergio Toniato, Ernesto Benini

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The flow field over a three dimensional pole barn characterized by a cylindrical roof has been numerically investigated. Wind pressure and viscous loads acting on the agricultural building have been analyzed for several incoming wind directions, so as to evaluate the most critical load condition on the structure. A constant wind velocity profile, based on the maximum reference wind speed in the building site (peak gust speed worked out for 50 years return period) and on the local roughness coefficient, has been simulated. In order to contemplate also the hazard due to potential air wedging between the stored hay and the lower part of the ceiling, the effect of a partial filling of the barn has been investigated. The distribution of wind-induced loads on the structure have been determined, allowing a numerical quantification of the effect of wind direction on the induced stresses acting on a hemicylindrical roof.

Keywords: CFD, wind, building, hemicylindrical roof.

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Authors: Mohammad-Eghbal Ghobadi, Mokhtar Ghobadi

Abstract:

Coriander is an annual and herbaceous plant, belong to the apiaceae family. This plant is cultivated world widely. It is well known for having medicinal properties. The aim of this experiment was to study seed quality of species grown in Kermanshah conditions. The experiment was carried out in research farm, Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. Coriander (local type) was grown in late spring May (5th and 20th) and Jun (4th and 19th), and plant density (10, 30, 50 and 70 plants m-2) in 2009. The experimental plots were laid out in a factorial according to a randomized complete block design with three replications. The fruits were harvest between 83.5 – 106.5 days after sowing. The essential oil and oil content was extracted by Clevenger and Soxhlet apparatuses, respectively. Results showed that delay at planting date increased the oil content. Also, with the increase at plant density was decreased oil content and essential oil.

Keywords: coriander, late sowing, plant density, oil content, essential oil

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Authors: Arturo Aquino, Manuel Emilio Gegundez, Diego Marin

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In this paper, a new automated methodology to detect the optic disc (OD) automatically in retinal images from patients with risk of being affected by Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) and Macular Edema (ME) is presented. The detection procedure comprises two independent methodologies. On one hand, a location methodology obtains a pixel that belongs to the OD using image contrast analysis and structure filtering techniques and, on the other hand, a boundary segmentation methodology estimates a circular approximation of the OD boundary by applying mathematical morphology, edge detection techniques and the Circular Hough Transform. The methodologies were tested on a set of 1200 images composed of 229 retinographies from patients affected by DR with risk of ME, 431 with DR and no risk of ME and 540 images of healthy retinas. The location methodology obtained 98.83% success rate, whereas the OD boundary segmentation methodology obtained good circular OD boundary approximation in 94.58% of cases. The average computational time measured over the total set was 1.67 seconds for OD location and 5.78 seconds for OD boundary segmentation.

Keywords: Diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, optic disc, automated detection, automated segmentation.

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Authors: Siyathorn Khunon, Thanawit Buafai

Abstract:

This paper aims to investigate management of beach safety with a focus on tourist drownings in Samui. The data collected in this investigation will then lead to the proposal of a practical management model suitable for use in Samui. Qualitative research was conducted in the following manner: nine stakeholders from local government organizations and tourism businesses were interviewed in-depth. Additionally, a best practice case study from Phuket was applied to analyze beach safety. Twelve foreign tourists were also interviewed. Then, a focus group comprised of 32 people was used to determine practical solutions for enhancing tourists’ safety on the beach in Samui. A steering committee to coordinate between public and private organizations was proposed to manage and enhance tourists’ safety. A practical model is proposed to increase the safety level of tourists in Samui

Keywords: Beach safety, drowning, tourists, Samui.

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Authors: Ch.V.Rama Rao, Gowthami., Harsha., Rajkumar., M.B.Rama Murthy, K.Srinivasa Rao, K.AnithaSheela

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This paper presents a new method for estimating the nonstationary noise power spectral density given a noisy signal. The method is based on averaging the noisy speech power spectrum using time and frequency dependent smoothing factors. These factors are adjusted based on signal-presence probability in individual frequency bins. Signal presence is determined by computing the ratio of the noisy speech power spectrum to its local minimum, which is updated continuously by averaging past values of the noisy speech power spectra with a look-ahead factor. This method adapts very quickly to highly non-stationary noise environments. The proposed method achieves significant improvements over a system that uses voice activity detector (VAD) in noise estimation.

Keywords: Noise estimation, Non-stationary noise, Speechenhancement.

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Authors: G. Schuh, T. Potente, D. Kupke, S. Ivanescu

Abstract:

As German companies roll out their standardized production systems to offshore manufacturing plants, they face the challenge of implementing them in different cultural environments. Studies show that the local adaptation is one of the key factors for a successful implementation. Thus the question arises of where the line between standardization and adaptation can be drawn. To answer this question the influence of culture on production systems is analysed in this paper. The culturally contingent components of production systems are identified. Also the contingency factors are classified according to their impact on the necessary adaptation changes and implementation effort. Culturally specific decision making, coordination, communication and motivation patterns require one-time changes in organizational and process design. The attitude towards rules requires more intense coaching and controlling. Lastly a framework is developed to depict standardization and adaption needs when transplanting production systems into different cultural environments.

Keywords: Culture, influence of national culture on production systems, lean production, production systems.

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Authors: Zuraidasahana Zulkarnain, Mohd Shafry Mohd Rahim, Nor Anita Fairos Ismail, Mohd Azhar M. Arsad

Abstract:

Handwritten signature is accepted widely as a biometric characteristic for personal authentication. The use of appropriate features plays an important role in determining accuracy of signature verification; therefore, this paper presents a feature based on the geometrical concept. To achieve the aim, triangle attributes are exploited to design a new feature since the triangle possesses orientation, angle and transformation that would improve accuracy. The proposed feature uses triangulation geometric set comprising of sides, angles and perimeter of a triangle which is derived from the center of gravity of a signature image. For classification purpose, Euclidean classifier along with Voting-based classifier is used to verify the tendency of forgery signature. This classification process is experimented using triangular geometric feature and selected global features. Based on an experiment that was validated using Grupo de Senales 960 (GPDS-960) signature database, the proposed triangular geometric feature achieves a lower Average Error Rates (AER) value with a percentage of 34% as compared to 43% of the selected global feature. As a conclusion, the proposed triangular geometric feature proves to be a more reliable feature for accurate signature verification.

Keywords: biometrics, euclidean classifier, feature extraction, offline signature verification, VOTING-based classifier

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Authors: M. E. Abou-Hashem El Dib, M. K. Swailem, M. M. Metwally, A. I. El Awady

Abstract:

The present work illustrates a parametric study for the effect of stiffeners on the performance of slender built up steel I-columns. To achieve the desired analysis, finite element technique is used to develop nonlinear three-dimensional models representing the investigated columns. The finite element program (ANSYS 13.0) is used as a calculation tool for the necessary nonlinear analysis. A validation of the obtained numerical results is achieved. The considered parameters in the study are the column slenderness ratio and the horizontal stiffener's dimensions as well as the number of stiffeners. The dimensions of the stiffeners considered in the analysis are the stiffener width and the stiffener thickness. Numerical results signify a considerable effect of stiffeners on the performance and failure load of slender built up steel I-columns.

Keywords: Steel I-columns, local buckling, slender, stiffener, thin walled section.

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