Search results for: Environmental data
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 8593

Search results for: Environmental data

5983 Consumption Insurance against the Chronic Illness: Evidence from Thailand

Authors: Yuthapoom Thanakijborisut

Abstract:

This paper studies consumption insurance against the chronic illness in Thailand. The study estimates the impact of household consumption in the chronic illness on consumption growth. Chronic illness is the health care costs of a person or a household’s decision in treatment for the long term; the causes and effects of the household’s ability for smooth consumption. The chronic illnesses are measured in health status when at least one member within the household faces the chronic illness. The data used is from the Household Social Economic Panel Survey conducted during 2007 and 2012. The survey collected data from approximately 6,000 households from every province, both inside and outside municipal areas in Thailand. The study estimates the change in household consumption by using an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model. The result shows that the members within the household facing the chronic illness would reduce the consumption by around 4%. This case indicates that consumption insurance in Thailand is quite sufficient against chronic illness.

Keywords: Consumption insurance, chronic illness, health care, Thailand.

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5982 Applications of Support Vector Machines on Smart Phone Systems for Emotional Speech Recognition

Authors: Wernhuar Tarng, Yuan-Yuan Chen, Chien-Lung Li, Kun-Rong Hsie, Mingteh Chen

Abstract:

An emotional speech recognition system for the applications on smart phones was proposed in this study to combine with 3G mobile communications and social networks to provide users and their groups with more interaction and care. This study developed a mechanism using the support vector machines (SVM) to recognize the emotions of speech such as happiness, anger, sadness and normal. The mechanism uses a hierarchical classifier to adjust the weights of acoustic features and divides various parameters into the categories of energy and frequency for training. In this study, 28 commonly used acoustic features including pitch and volume were proposed for training. In addition, a time-frequency parameter obtained by continuous wavelet transforms was also used to identify the accent and intonation in a sentence during the recognition process. The Berlin Database of Emotional Speech was used by dividing the speech into male and female data sets for training. According to the experimental results, the accuracies of male and female test sets were increased by 4.6% and 5.2% respectively after using the time-frequency parameter for classifying happy and angry emotions. For the classification of all emotions, the average accuracy, including male and female data, was 63.5% for the test set and 90.9% for the whole data set.

Keywords: Smart phones, emotional speech recognition, socialnetworks, support vector machines, time-frequency parameter, Mel-scale frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC).

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5981 Java Based Automatic Curriculum Generator for Children with Trisomy 21

Authors: E. Supriyanto, S. C. Seow

Abstract:

Early Intervention Program (EIP) is required to improve the overall development of children with Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome). In order to help trainer and parent in the implementation of EIP, a support system has been developed. The support system is able to screen data automatically, store and analyze data, generate individual EIP (curriculum) with optimal training duration and to generate training automatically. The system consists of hardware and software where the software has been implemented using Java language and Linux Fedora. The software has been tested to ensure the functionality and reliability. The prototype has been also tested in Down syndrome centers. Test result shows that the system is reliable to be used for generation of an individual curriculum which includes the training program to improve the motor, cognitive, and combination abilities of Down syndrome children under 6 years.

Keywords: Early intervention program (curriculum), Trisomy21, support system, Java.

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5980 Threshold Based Region Incrementing Secret Sharing Scheme for Color Images

Authors: P. Mohamed Fathimal, P. Arockia Jansi Rani

Abstract:

In this era of online communication, which transacts data in 0s and 1s, confidentiality is a priced commodity. Ensuring safe transmission of encrypted data and their uncorrupted recovery is a matter of prime concern. Among the several techniques for secure sharing of images, this paper proposes a k out of n region incrementing image sharing scheme for color images. The highlight of this scheme is the use of simple Boolean and arithmetic operations for generating shares and the Lagrange interpolation polynomial for authenticating shares. Additionally, this scheme addresses problems faced by existing algorithms such as color reversal and pixel expansion. This paper regenerates the original secret image whereas the existing systems regenerates only the half toned secret image.

Keywords: Threshold Secret Sharing Scheme, Access Control, Steganography, Authentication, Secret Image Sharing, XOR, Pixel Expansion.

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5979 Dynamic Bus Binding for Low Power Using Multiple Binding Tables

Authors: Jihyung Kim, Taejin Kim, Sungho Park, Jun-Dong Cho

Abstract:

A conventional binding method for low power in a high-level synthesis mainly focuses on finding an optimal binding for an assumed input data, and obtains only one binding table. In this paper, we show that a binding method which uses multiple binding tables gets better solution compared with the conventional methods which use a single binding table, and propose a dynamic bus binding scheme for low power using multiple binding tables. The proposed method finds multiple binding tables for the proper partitions of an input data, and switches binding tables dynamically to produce the minimum total switching activity. Experimental result shows that the proposed method obtains a binding solution having 12.6-28.9% smaller total switching activity compared with the conventional methods.

Keywords: low power, bus binding, switching activity, multiplebinding tables

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5978 Investigating Activity Recognition Using 9-Axis Sensors and Filters in Wearable Devices

Authors: Jun Gil Ahn, Jong Kang Park, Jong Tae Kim

Abstract:

In this paper, we analyze major components of activity recognition (AR) in wearable device with 9-axis sensors and sensor fusion filters. 9-axis sensors commonly include 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope and 3-axis magnetometer. We chose sensor fusion filters as Kalman filter and Direction Cosine Matrix (DCM) filter. We also construct sensor fusion data from each activity sensor data and perform classification by accuracy of AR using Naïve Bayes and SVM. According to the classification results, we observed that the DCM filter and the specific combination of the sensing axes are more effective for AR in wearable devices while classifying walking, running, ascending and descending.

Keywords: Accelerometer, activity recognition, directional cosine matrix filter, gyroscope, Kalman filter, magnetometer.

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5977 Applying Gibbs Sampler for Multivariate Hierarchical Linear Model

Authors: Satoshi Usami

Abstract:

Among various HLM techniques, the Multivariate Hierarchical Linear Model (MHLM) is desirable to use, particularly when multivariate criterion variables are collected and the covariance structure has information valuable for data analysis. In order to reflect prior information or to obtain stable results when the sample size and the number of groups are not sufficiently large, the Bayes method has often been employed in hierarchical data analysis. In these cases, although the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is a rather powerful tool for parameter estimation, Procedures regarding MCMC have not been formulated for MHLM. For this reason, this research presents concrete procedures for parameter estimation through the use of the Gibbs samplers. Lastly, several future topics for the use of MCMC approach for HLM is discussed.

Keywords: Gibbs sampler, Hierarchical Linear Model, Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Multivariate Hierarchical Linear Model

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5976 User Pattern Learning Algorithm based MDSS(Medical Decision Support System) Framework under Ubiquitous

Authors: Insung Jung, Gi-Nam Wang

Abstract:

In this paper, we present user pattern learning algorithm based MDSS (Medical Decision support system) under ubiquitous. Most of researches are focus on hardware system, hospital management and whole concept of ubiquitous environment even though it is hard to implement. Our objective of this paper is to design a MDSS framework. It helps to patient for medical treatment and prevention of the high risk patient (COPD, heart disease, Diabetes). This framework consist database, CAD (Computer Aided diagnosis support system) and CAP (computer aided user vital sign prediction system). It can be applied to develop user pattern learning algorithm based MDSS for homecare and silver town service. Especially this CAD has wise decision making competency. It compares current vital sign with user-s normal condition pattern data. In addition, the CAP computes user vital sign prediction using past data of the patient. The novel approach is using neural network method, wireless vital sign acquisition devices and personal computer DB system. An intelligent agent based MDSS will help elder people and high risk patients to prevent sudden death and disease, the physician to get the online access to patients- data, the plan of medication service priority (e.g. emergency case).

Keywords: Neural network, U-healthcare, MDSS, CAP, DSS.

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5975 Artificial Neural Network Models of the Ruminal pH in Holstein Steers

Authors: Alireza Vakili, Mohsen Danesh Mesgaran, Majid Abdollazade

Abstract:

In this study four Holstein steers with rumen fistula fed 7 kg of dry matter (DM) of diets differing in concentrate to alfalfa hay ratios as 60:40, 70:30, 80:20, and 90:10 in a 4 × 4 latin square design. The pH of the ruminal fluid was measured before the morning feeding (0.0 h) to 8 h post feeding. In this study, a two-layered feed-forward neural network trained by the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was used for modelling of ruminal pH. The input variables of the network were time, concentrate to alfalfa hay ratios (C/F), non fiber carbohydrate (NFC) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF). The output variable was the ruminal pH. The modeling results showed that there was excellent agreement between the experimental data and predicted values, with a high determination coefficient (R2 >0.96). Therefore, we suggest using these model-derived biological values to summarize continuously recorded pH data.

Keywords: Ruminal pH, Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Non Fiber Carbohydrate, Neutral Detergent Fiber.

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5974 The Effect of Risky Assets to Operating Efficiencies for Listed Securities Firms in Taiwan Using the Data Envelopment Analysis

Authors: Ying-Hsiu Chen, Pao-Peng Hsu, Mou-Yuan Liao, Shu-Min Hsieh

Abstract:

This paper employs a the variable returns to scale DEA model to take account of risky assets and estimate the operating efficiencies for the 21 domestic listed securities firms during the period 2005-2009. Evidence is found that on average the brokerage securities firms- operating efficiencies are better than integrated securities firms. Evidence is also found that the technical inefficiency from inappropriate management constitutes the main source of the operating inefficiency for both types of securities firms. Moreover, the scale economies prevail in brokerage and integrated securities firms, in other words, which exhibit the characteristic of increasing returns to scale.

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, Risky Assets, PureTechnical Efficiency, Scale Efficiency, Scale Economies.

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5973 Adaptive Hierarchical Key Structure Generation for Key Management in Wireless Sensor Networks using A*

Authors: Jin Myoung Kim, Tae Ho Cho

Abstract:

Wireless Sensor networks have a wide spectrum of civil and military applications that call for secure communication such as the terrorist tracking, target surveillance in hostile environments. For the secure communication in these application areas, we propose a method for generating a hierarchical key structure for the efficient group key management. In this paper, we apply A* algorithm in generating a hierarchical key structure by considering the history data of the ratio of addition and eviction of sensor nodes in a location where sensor nodes are deployed. Thus generated key tree structure provides an efficient way of managing the group key in terms of energy consumption when addition and eviction event occurs. A* algorithm tries to minimize the number of messages needed for group key management by the history data. The experimentation with the tree shows efficiency of the proposed method.

Keywords: Heuristic search, key management, security, sensor network.

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5972 Use of Detectors Technology for Gamma Ray Issued from Radioactive Isotopes and its Impact on Knowledge of Behavior of the Stationary Case of Solid Phase Holdup

Authors: Abbas Ali Mahmood Karwi

Abstract:

For gamma radiation detection, assemblies having scintillation crystals and a photomultiplier tube, also there is a preamplifier connected to the detector because the signals from photomultiplier tube are of small amplitude. After pre-amplification the signals are sent to the amplifier and then to the multichannel analyser. The multichannel analyser sorts all incoming electrical signals according to their amplitudes and sorts the detected photons in channels covering small energy intervals. The energy range of each channel depends on the gain settings of the multichannel analyser and the high voltage across the photomultiplier tube. The exit spectrum data of the two main isotopes studied ,putting data in biomass program ,process it by Matlab program to get the solid holdup image (solid spherical nuclear fuel)

Keywords: Multichannel analyzer, Spectrum, Energies, Fluids holdup, Image

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5971 A Risk Assessment Tool for the Contamination of Aflatoxins on Dried Figs based on Machine Learning Algorithms

Authors: Kottaridi Klimentia, Demopoulos Vasilis, Sidiropoulos Anastasios, Ihara Diego, Nikolaidis Vasileios, Antonopoulos Dimitrios

Abstract:

Aflatoxins are highly poisonous and carcinogenic compounds produced by species of the genus Aspergillus spp. that can infect a variety of agricultural foods, including dried figs. Biological and environmental factors, such as population, pathogenicity and aflatoxinogenic capacity of the strains, topography, soil and climate parameters of the fig orchards are believed to have a strong effect on aflatoxin levels. Existing methods for aflatoxin detection and measurement, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), can provide accurate results, but the procedures are usually time-consuming, sample-destructive and expensive. Predicting aflatoxin levels prior to crop harvest is useful for minimizing the health and financial impact of a contaminated crop. Consequently, there is interest in developing a tool that predicts aflatoxin levels based on topography and soil analysis data of fig orchards. This paper describes the development of a risk assessment tool for the contamination of aflatoxin on dried figs, based on the location and altitude of the fig orchards, the population of the fungus Aspergillus spp. in the soil, and soil parameters such as pH, saturation percentage (SP), electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter, particle size analysis (sand, silt, clay), concentration of the exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg, K, Na), extractable P and trace of elements (B, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu), by employing machine learning methods. In particular, our proposed method integrates three machine learning techniques i.e., dimensionality reduction on the original dataset (Principal Component Analysis), metric learning (Mahalanobis Metric for Clustering) and K-nearest Neighbors learning algorithm (KNN), into an enhanced model, with mean performance equal to 85% by terms of the Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) between observed and predicted values.

Keywords: aflatoxins, Aspergillus spp., dried figs, k-nearest neighbors, machine learning, prediction

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5970 Physicochemical Characterizations of Marine and River Sediments in the North of France

Authors: Abriak Nor Edine, Zentar Rachid, Achour Raouf, Tran Ngoc Thanh

Abstract:

This work is undertaken to develop a methodology to enhance the management of dredged marine and river sediments in the North of France. The main objective of this study is to determine the main characteristics of these sediments. In this order, physical, mineralogical and chemical properties of both types of sediments are measured. Moreover, their potential impacts on the environment are assessed throughout leaching tests. From the obtained results, the potential of their use in road engineering is discussed.

Keywords: Marine sediments, River sediments, Physicochemical characterizations, Environmental characterizations.

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5969 Analysis of Developments in the Understanding of In-Service Training in Turkish Public Administration: Personnel Management to Human Resource Management

Authors: Sema Müge Özdemiray

Abstract:

In line with the new public management approach to provide effective and efficient services necessary to achieve the social goals of public institutions, employees must have the knowledge and skills required by the age. In conjunction with the transition from personnel management to human resources management, it is seen that there is a change in the understanding of in-service training, the understanding of "required in-service training" has switched to the understanding of "continuous in-service training". However, in terms of in-service training in Turkey, it seems to be trouble at the point of adopting to change. The main purpose of this study is to primarily create a conceptual framework of in-service training and subsequently determine, analyze and discuss the developments and problems faced by in-service training in Turkey in the transition from personnel management to human resources management. In accordance with this purpose, the necessary data of this study were collected using qualitative approaches. Observation and document analysis was used and content analysis was performed on the data gathered in the study. The results of this study, according to data such as the number of institutions requesting in-service training, allocated budget of in-service training, the number of people participating in such training, transition of personnel management to human resources management should not lead to a paradigm shift in Turkey’s understanding of in-service training, although this is compulsory for public institutions in accordance with the law in Turkey. In-service training in Turkish public administration is still not implemented effectively and is seen as a social activity for employees and a formality for institutions.

Keywords: Human resources management, in-service training, personnel management, public institutions.

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5968 Six Sigma Assessment in the Latvian Commercial Banking Sector

Authors: J. Erina, I. Erins

Abstract:

The goals of the present research are to estimate Six Sigma implementation in Latvian commercial banks and to identify the perceived benefits of its implementation. To achieve the goals, the authors used sequential explanatory method. To obtain empirical data, the authors have developed the questionnaire and adapted it for the employees of Latvian commercial banks. The questions are related to Six Sigma implementation and its perceived benefits. The questionnaire mainly consists of closed questions, the evaluation of which is based on 5 point Likert scale. The obtained empirical data has shown that of the two hypotheses put forward in the present research – Hypothesis 1 – has to be rejected, while Hypothesis 2 has been partially confirmed. The authors have also faced some research limitations related to the fact that the participants in the questionnaire belong to different rank of the organization hierarchy.

Keywords: Six Sigma, Quality, Commercial banking sector, Latvia.

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5967 Analyzing Periurban Fringe with Rough Set

Authors: Benedetto Manganelli, Beniamino Murgante

Abstract:

The distinction among urban, periurban and rural areas represents a classical example of uncertainty in land classification. Satellite images, geostatistical analysis and all kinds of spatial data are very useful in urban sprawl studies, but it is important to define precise rules in combining great amounts of data to build complex knowledge about territory. Rough Set theory may be a useful method to employ in this field. It represents a different mathematical approach to uncertainty by capturing the indiscernibility. Two different phenomena can be indiscernible in some contexts and classified in the same way when combining available information about them. This approach has been applied in a case of study, comparing the results achieved with both Map Algebra technique and Spatial Rough Set. The study case area, Potenza Province, is particularly suitable for the application of this theory, because it includes 100 municipalities with different number of inhabitants and morphologic features.

Keywords: Land Classification, Map Algebra, Periurban Fringe, Rough Set, Urban Planning, Urban Sprawl.

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5966 Indexing and Searching of Image Data in Multimedia Databases Using Axial Projection

Authors: Khalid A. Kaabneh

Abstract:

This paper introduces and studies new indexing techniques for content-based queries in images databases. Indexing is the key to providing sophisticated, accurate and fast searches for queries in image data. This research describes a new indexing approach, which depends on linear modeling of signals, using bases for modeling. A basis is a set of chosen images, and modeling an image is a least-squares approximation of the image as a linear combination of the basis images. The coefficients of the basis images are taken together to serve as index for that image. The paper describes the implementation of the indexing scheme, and presents the findings of our extensive evaluation that was conducted to optimize (1) the choice of the basis matrix (B), and (2) the size of the index A (N). Furthermore, we compare the performance of our indexing scheme with other schemes. Our results show that our scheme has significantly higher performance.

Keywords: Axial Projection, images, indexing, multimedia database, searching.

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5965 Production and Recycling of Construction and Demolition Waste

Authors: Vladimira Vytlacilova

Abstract:

Recycling of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) and their new reuse in structures is one of the solutions of environmental problems. Construction and demolition waste creates a major portion of total solid waste production in the world and most of it is used in landfills all the time. The paper deals with the situation of the recycling of the building and demolition waste in the Czech Republic during the recent years. The paper is dealing with questions of C&D waste recycling, it also characterizes construction and demolition waste in general, furthermore it analyses production of construction waste and subsequent production of recycled materials.

Keywords: Recycling, Construction and demolition waste, Recycled rubble, Waste management.

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5964 Folksonomy-based Recommender Systems with User-s Recent Preferences

Authors: Cheng-Lung Huang, Han-Yu Chien, Michael Conyette

Abstract:

Social bookmarking is an environment in which the user gradually changes interests over time so that the tag data associated with the current temporal period is usually more important than tag data temporally far from the current period. This implies that in the social tagging system, the newly tagged items by the user are more relevant than older items. This study proposes a novel recommender system that considers the users- recent tag preferences. The proposed system includes the following stages: grouping similar users into clusters using an E-M clustering algorithm, finding similar resources based on the user-s bookmarks, and recommending the top-N items to the target user. The study examines the system-s information retrieval performance using a dataset from del.icio.us, which is a famous social bookmarking web site. Experimental results show that the proposed system is better and more effective than traditional approaches.

Keywords: Recommender systems, Social bookmarking, Tag

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5963 Physiological Effects during Aerobatic Flights on Science Astronaut Candidates

Authors: Pedro Llanos, Diego García

Abstract:

Spaceflight is considered the last frontier in terms of science, technology, and engineering. But it is also the next frontier in terms of human physiology and performance. After more than 200,000 years humans have evolved under earth’s gravity and atmospheric conditions, spaceflight poses environmental stresses for which human physiology is not adapted. Hypoxia, accelerations, and radiation are among such stressors, our research involves suborbital flights aiming to develop effective countermeasures in order to assure sustainable human space presence. The physiologic baseline of spaceflight participants is subject to great variability driven by age, gender, fitness, and metabolic reserve. The objective of the present study is to characterize different physiologic variables in a population of STEM practitioners during an aerobatic flight. Cardiovascular and pulmonary responses were determined in Science Astronaut Candidates (SACs) during unusual attitude aerobatic flight indoctrination. Physiologic data recordings from 20 subjects participating in high-G flight training were analyzed. These recordings were registered by wearable sensor-vest that monitored electrocardiographic tracings (ECGs), signs of dysrhythmias or other electric disturbances during all the flight. The same cardiovascular parameters were also collected approximately 10 min pre-flight, during each high-G/unusual attitude maneuver and 10 min after the flights. The ratio (pre-flight/in-flight/post-flight) of the cardiovascular responses was calculated for comparison of inter-individual differences. The resulting tracings depicting the cardiovascular responses of the subjects were compared against the G-loads (Gs) during the aerobatic flights to analyze cardiovascular variability aspects and fluid/pressure shifts due to the high Gs. In-flight ECG revealed cardiac variability patterns associated with rapid Gs onset in terms of reduced heart rate (HR) and some scattered dysrhythmic patterns (15% premature ventricular contractions-type) that were considered as triggered physiological responses to high-G/unusual attitude training and some were considered as instrument artifact. Variation events were observed in subjects during the +Gz and –Gz maneuvers and these may be due to preload and afterload, sudden shift. Our data reveal that aerobatic flight influenced the breathing rate of the subject, due in part by the various levels of energy expenditure due to the increased use of muscle work during these aerobatic maneuvers. Noteworthy was the high heterogeneity in the different physiological responses among a relatively small group of SACs exposed to similar aerobatic flights with similar Gs exposures. The cardiovascular responses clearly demonstrated that SACs were subjected to significant flight stress. Routine ECG monitoring during high-G/unusual attitude flight training is recommended to capture pathology underlying dangerous dysrhythmias in suborbital flight safety. More research is currently being conducted to further facilitate the development of robust medical screening, medical risk assessment approaches, and suborbital flight training in the context of the evolving commercial human suborbital spaceflight industry. A more mature and integrative medical assessment method is required to understand the physiology state and response variability among highly diverse populations of prospective suborbital flight participants.

Keywords: Aerobatic maneuvers, G force, hypoxia, suborbital flight, commercial astronauts.

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5962 A Hybrid Approach for Selection of Relevant Features for Microarray Datasets

Authors: R. K. Agrawal, Rajni Bala

Abstract:

Developing an accurate classifier for high dimensional microarray datasets is a challenging task due to availability of small sample size. Therefore, it is important to determine a set of relevant genes that classify the data well. Traditionally, gene selection method often selects the top ranked genes according to their discriminatory power. Often these genes are correlated with each other resulting in redundancy. In this paper, we have proposed a hybrid method using feature ranking and wrapper method (Genetic Algorithm with multiclass SVM) to identify a set of relevant genes that classify the data more accurately. A new fitness function for genetic algorithm is defined that focuses on selecting the smallest set of genes that provides maximum accuracy. Experiments have been carried on four well-known datasets1. The proposed method provides better results in comparison to the results found in the literature in terms of both classification accuracy and number of genes selected.

Keywords: Gene selection, genetic algorithm, microarray datasets, multi-class SVM.

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5961 Energy Map Construction using Adaptive Alpha Grey Prediction Model in WSNs

Authors: Surender Kumar Soni, Dhirendra Pratap Singh

Abstract:

Wireless Sensor Networks can be used to monitor the physical phenomenon in such areas where human approach is nearly impossible. Hence the limited power supply is the major constraint of the WSNs due to the use of non-rechargeable batteries in sensor nodes. A lot of researches are going on to reduce the energy consumption of sensor nodes. Energy map can be used with clustering, data dissemination and routing techniques to reduce the power consumption of WSNs. Energy map can also be used to know which part of the network is going to fail in near future. In this paper, Energy map is constructed using the prediction based approach. Adaptive alpha GM(1,1) model is used as the prediction model. GM(1,1) is being used worldwide in many applications for predicting future values of time series using some past values due to its high computational efficiency and accuracy.

Keywords: Adaptive Alpha GM(1, 1) Model, Energy Map, Prediction Based Data Reduction, Wireless Sensor Networks

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5960 Online Structural Health Monitoring of Ball Bearings

Authors: Matta S. N. S. Kiran, Manikantadhar Maheswaram, Akshat Upadhyay, Rohit Mishra, Bhagat Singh

Abstract:

A bearing is a very common and useful component of mechanical systems in order to transfer power from one end to another. Therefore, to ensure the accountability and robustness of the rotating mechanical systems, the bearing part's health condition must be checked at regular intervals, also known as preventive maintenance. This condition may lead to unnecessary higher maintenance costs and later result in higher production costs. These costs can be minimized by diagnosing the faulty bearing in its incipient stage. This paper describes an approach to detect rolling bearing defects based on Empirical Mode Decomposition. The novelty of the proposed methodology is validated experimentally using Case Western Reserve University bearing's data sets. The selected data sets comprise the two vibration signals, i.e., inner race and outer, for healthy and faulty conditions.

Keywords: Ball bearing, denoising, signal processing, statistical indicators.

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5959 The Success of E-Collaborative in E-Commerce: The Study of B2C Business in Thailand

Authors: Wanida Suwunniponth

Abstract:

The objectives of this research were to study the influencing factors that contributed to the success of e-collaborative in e-commerce of B2C (Business to Customer) business in Bangkok, Thailand. The influencing factors included organization, people, information technology and the process of e-collaborative. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 200 small e-commerce businesses and the path analysis was utilized as the tool for data analysis. By using the path analysis, it was revealed that the factors concerning with organization, people and information technology played an influence on e-collaborative process and the success of ecollaborative, whereas the process of e-collaborative factor manipulated its success. The findings suggested that B2C ecommerce business in Thailand should opt in improvement approach in terms of managerial structure, leaderships, staff’s skills and knowledge, and investment of information technology in order to capacitate higher efficiency of e-collaborative process that would result in profit and competitive advantage.

Keywords: E-collaborative, E-commerce, B2C.

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5958 The Incidence of Metabolic Syndrome in Women with Impaired Reproductive Function According to Astana, Kazakhstan

Authors: A. T. Nakysh, A. S. Idrisov, S. A. Baidurin

Abstract:

This work presents the results of a study the incidence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in women with impaired reproductive function (IRF) according to the data of Astana, Kazakhstan. The anthropometric, biochemical and instrumental studies were conducted among 515 women, of which 53 patients with MetS according to IDF criteria, 2006, were selected. The frequency of occurrence of the IRF, due to MetS is 10.3% of cases according to the data of Astana. In women of childbearing age with IRF and the MetS, blood pressure (BP), indicators of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism were significantly higher and the level of high density lipoprotein (HDL) significantly lower compared to the same in women with the IRF without MetS. The hyperandrogenism, the hyperestrogenemia, the hyperprolactinemia and the hypoprogesteronemia were found in the patients with MetS and IRF, indicating the impact of MetS on the development of the polycystic ovary syndrome in 28% of cases and hyperplastic processes of the myometrium in 20% of cases.

Keywords: Dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, reproductive disorders, obesity.

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5957 Volatile Organic Compounds Destruction by Catalytic Oxidation for Environmental Applications

Authors: Mohammed Nasir Kajama, Ngozi Claribelle Nwogu, Edward Gobina

Abstract:

Pt/γ-Al2O3 membrane catalysts were prepared via an evaporative-crystallization deposition method. The obtained Pt/γ- Al2O3 catalyst activity was tested after characterization (SEM-EDAX observation, BET measurement, permeability assessment) in the catalytic oxidation of selected volatile organic compound (VOC) i.e. propane, fed in mixture of oxygen. The VOC conversion (nearly 90%) obtained by varying the operating temperature showed that flow-through membrane reactor might do better in the abatement of VOCs.

Keywords: VOC combustion, flow-through membrane reactor, platinum supported alumina catalysts.

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5956 Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Planning in the United States: Evidences from North Carolina

Authors: Asmaa Benbaba

Abstract:

This paper aims to reconsider relationships between animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and planning. It stresses the idea of the necessity for a methodological revolution in order to increase the chances for dialogue between different actors and various planning agencies and create possibilities to manage conflicts. The explored case of North Carolina shows limitations in environmental agencies’ actions and methods. It also calls for a more integrated approach among agencies including the local agencies.

Keywords: (CAFOs), North Carolina, Planning, United States.

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5955 Gender Justice and Feminist Self-Management Practices in the Solidarity Economy: A Quantitative Analysis of the Factors that Impact Enterprises Formed by Women in Brazil

Authors: Maria de Nazaré Moraes Soares, Silvia Maria Dias Pedro Rebouças, José Carlos Lázaro

Abstract:

The Solidarity Economy (SE) acts in the re-articulation of the economic field to the other spheres of social action. The significant participation of women in SE resulted in the formation of a national network of self-managed enterprises in Brazil: The Solidarity and Feminist Economy Network (SFEN). The objective of the research is to identify factors of gender justice and feminist self-management practices that adhere to the reality of women in SE enterprises. The conceptual apparatus related to feminist studies in this research covers Nancy Fraser approaches on gender justice, and Patricia Yancey Martin approaches on feminist management practices, and authors of postcolonial feminism such as Mohanty and Maria Lugones, who lead the discussion to peripheral contexts, a necessary perspective when observing the women’s movement in SE. The research has a quantitative nature in the phases of data collection and analysis. The data collection was performed through two data sources: the database mapped in Brazil in 2010-2013 by the National Information System in Solidary Economy and 150 questionnaires with women from 16 enterprises in SFEN, in a state of Brazilian northeast. The data were analyzed using the multivariate statistical technique of Factor Analysis. The results show that the factors that define gender justice and feminist self-management practices in SE are interrelated in several levels, proving statistically the intersectional condition of the issue of women. The evidence from the quantitative analysis allowed us to understand the dimensions of gender justice and feminist management practices intersectionality; in this sense, the non-distribution of domestic work interferes in non-representation of women in public spaces, especially in peripheral contexts. The study contributes with important reflections to the studies of this area and can be complemented in the future with a qualitative research that approaches the perspective of women in the context of the SE self-management paradigm.

Keywords: Feminist management practices, gender justice, self-management, solidarity economy.

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5954 Gas-Liquid Two Phase Flow Phenomenon in Near Horizontal Upward and Downward Inclined Pipe Orientations

Authors: Afshin J. Ghajar, Swanand M. Bhagwat

Abstract:

The main purpose of this work is to experimentally investigate the effect of pipe orientation on two phase flow phenomenon. Flow pattern, void fraction and two phase pressure drop is measured in a polycarbonate pipe with an inside diameter of 12.7mm for inclination angles ranging from -20o to +20o using air-water fluid combination. The experimental data covers all flow patterns and the entire range of void fraction typically observed in two phase flow. The effect of pipe orientation on void fraction and two phase pressure drop is justified with reference to the change in flow structure and two phase flow behavior. In addition to this, the top performing void fraction and two phase pressure drop correlations available in the literature are presented and their performance is assessed against the experimental data in the present study and that available in the literature.

Keywords: Flow patterns, inclined two phase flow, pressure drop, void fraction.

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