Search results for: critical path method
6755 Automatic Generation of Ontology from Data Source Directed by Meta Models
Authors: Widad Jakjoud, Mohamed Bahaj, Jamal Bakkas
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Through this paper we present a method for automatic generation of ontological model from any data source using Model Driven Architecture (MDA), this generation is dedicated to the cooperation of the knowledge engineering and software engineering. Indeed, reverse engineering of a data source generates a software model (schema of data) that will undergo transformations to generate the ontological model. This method uses the meta-models to validate software and ontological models.
Keywords: Meta model, model, ontology, data source.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19986754 A Comparative Understanding of Critical Problems Faced by Pakistani and Indian Transportation Industry
Authors: Saleh Abduallah Saleh, Mohammad Basir Bin Saud, Mohd Azwardi Md Isa
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It is very important for a developing nation to developing their infrastructure on the prime priority because their infrastructure particularly their roads and transportation functions as a blood in the system. Almost 1.1 billion populations share the travel and transportation industry in India. On the other hand, the Pakistan transportation industry is also extensive and elevating about 170 million users of transportation. Indian and Pakistani specifically within bus industry are well connected within and between the urban and rural areas. The transportation industry is radically helping the economic alleviation of both countries. Due to high economic instability, unemployment and poverty rate both countries governments are very serious and committed to help for boosting their economy. They believe that any form of transportation development would play a vital role in the development of land, infrastructure which could indirectly support many other industries’ developments, such as tourism, freighting and shipping businesses, just to mention a few. However, it seems that their previous transportation planning in the due course has failed to meet the fast growing demand. As with the span of time, both the countries are looking forward to a long-term, and economical solutions, because the demand is from time to time keep appreciating and reacting according to other key economic drivers. Content analysis method and case study approach is used in this paper and secondary data from the bureau of statistic is used for case analysis. The paper focused on the mobility concerns of the lower and middle-income people in India and Pakistan. The paper is aimed to highlight the weaknesses, opportunities and limitations resulting from low priority industry for a government, which is making the either country's public suffer. The paper has concluded that the main issue is identified as the slow, inappropriate, and unfavorable decisions which are not in favor of long-term country’s economic development and public interest. The paper also recommends to future research avenues for public and private transportation, which is continuously failing to meet the public expectations.
Keywords: Bus transportation industries, transportation demand, government parallel initiatives, road and traffic congestions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19106753 A Diagnostic Fuzzy Rule-Based System for Congenital Heart Disease
Authors: Ersin Kaya, Bulent Oran, Ahmet Arslan
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In this study, fuzzy rule-based classifier is used for the diagnosis of congenital heart disease. Congenital heart diseases are defined as structural or functional heart disease. Medical data sets were obtained from Pediatric Cardiology Department at Selcuk University, from years 2000 to 2003. Firstly, fuzzy rules were generated by using medical data. Then the weights of fuzzy rules were calculated. Two different reasoning methods as “weighted vote method" and “singles winner method" were used in this study. The results of fuzzy classifiers were compared.Keywords: Congenital heart disease, Fuzzy rule-basedclassifiers, Classification
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18226752 Information Resource Management Maturity Model
Authors: Afshari H., Khosravi Sh.
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Nowadays there are more than thirty maturity models in different knowledge areas. Maturity model is an area of interest that contributes organizations to find out where they are in a specific knowledge area and how to improve it. As Information Resource Management (IRM) is the concept that information is a major corporate resource and must be managed using the same basic principles used to manage other assets, assessment of the current IRM status and reveal the improvement points can play a critical role in developing an appropriate information structure in organizations. In this paper we proposed a framework for information resource management maturity model (IRM3) that includes ten best practices for the maturity assessment of the organizations' IRM.Keywords: Information resource management (IRM), information resource management maturity model (IRM3), maturity model, best practice.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23846751 Pruning Method of Belief Decision Trees
Authors: Salsabil Trabelsi, Zied Elouedi, Khaled Mellouli
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The belief decision tree (BDT) approach is a decision tree in an uncertain environment where the uncertainty is represented through the Transferable Belief Model (TBM), one interpretation of the belief function theory. The uncertainty can appear either in the actual class of training objects or attribute values of objects to classify. In this paper, we develop a post-pruning method of belief decision trees in order to reduce size and improve classification accuracy on unseen cases. The pruning of decision tree has a considerable intention in the areas of machine learning.Keywords: machine learning, uncertainty, belief function theory, belief decision tree, pruning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19106750 Analysis of the Shielding Effectiveness of Several Magnetic Shields
Authors: Diako Azizi, Hosein Heydari, Ahmad Gholami
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Today with the rapid growth of telecommunications equipment, electronic and developing more and more networks of power, influence of electromagnetic waves on one another has become hot topic discussions. So in this article, this issue and appropriate mechanisms for EMC operations have been presented. First, a source of alternating current (50 Hz) and a clear victim in a certain distance from the source is placed. With this simple model, the effects of electromagnetic radiation from the source to the victim will be investigated and several methods to reduce these effects have been presented. Therefore passive and active shields have been used. In some steps, shielding effectiveness of proposed shields will be compared. . It should be noted that simulations have been done by the finite element method (FEM).
Keywords: Electrical field, field distribution, finite element method, shielding effectiveness
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17526749 Preparation and Evaluation of New Nanocatalysts for Selective Oxidation of H2S to Sulfur
Authors: Mohammad Rezaee, Mohammad Kazemeini, Ali Morad Rashidi, Moslem Fattahi
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Selective oxidation of H2S to elemental sulfur in a fixed bed reactor over newly synthesized alumina nanocatalysts was physio-chemically investigated and results compared with a commercial Claus catalyst. Amongst these new materials, Al2O3- supported sodium oxide prepared with wet chemical technique and Al2O3 nanocatalyst prepared with spray pyrolysis method were the most active catalysts for selective oxidation of H2S to elemental sulfur. Other prepared nanocatalysts were quickly deactivated, mainly due to the interaction with H2S and conversion into sulfides.Keywords: H2S, Claus process, Al2O3, Spray pyrolysis method, Wet chemical technique
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25136748 Tritium Determination in Danube River Water in Serbia by Liquid Scintillation Counter
Authors: S. Forkapic, J. Nikolov, N. Todorovic, D. Mrdja, I. Bikit
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Tritium activity concentration in Danube river water in Serbia has been determinate using a liquid scintillation counter Quantulus 1220. During December 2010, water samples were taken along the entire course of Danube through Serbia, from Hungarian- Serbian to Romanian-Serbian border. This investigation is very important because of the nearness of nuclear reactor Paks in Hungary. Sample preparation was performed by standard test method using Optiphase HiSafe 3 scintillation cocktail. We used a rapid method for the preparation of environmental samples, without electrolytic enrichment.Keywords: detection limit, liquid scintillation counter, low-leveltritium analysis, monitoring.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21516747 Theoretical Investigation of Steel Plated Girder Resistance
Authors: J. Kala, J. Melcher, M. Škaloud, Z. Kala
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In the paper, the results of sensitivity analysis of the influence of initial imperfections on the web stress state of a thinwalled girder are presented. The results of the study corroborate a very good and effective agreement of experiments with theory. Most input random quantities were found experimentally. The change of sensitivity coefficients in dependence on working load value is analysed. The stress was analysed by means of a geometrically and materially non-linear solution by applying the program ANSYS. This research study offers important background for theoretical studies of stability problems, post-critical effects and limit states of thin-walled steel structures.
Keywords: Buckling, Fatigue, Imperfection, Steel, Sensitivity analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18106746 An Approach to Improvement of Information Integrity in Key Areas of Portfolio Management
Authors: Victoria A. Bakhtina
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At a time of growing market turbulence and a strong shifts towards increasingly complex risk models and more stringent audit requirements, it is more critical than ever to maintain the highest quality of financial and credit information. IFC implemented an approach that helps increase data integrity and quality significantly. This approach is called “Screening". Screening is based on linking information from different sources to identify potential inconsistencies in key financial and credit data. That, in turn, can help to ease the trials of portfolio supervision, and improve overall company global reporting and assessment systems. IFC experience showed that when used regularly, Screening led to improved information.Keywords: Information Integrity, Information Quality, Business Rules, Portfolio Management
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14526745 Hardware Description Language Design of Σ-Δ Fractional-N Phase-Locked Loop for Wireless Applications
Authors: Ahmed El Oualkadi, Abdellah Ait Ouahman
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This paper discusses a systematic design of a Σ-Δ fractional-N Phase-Locked Loop based on HDL behavioral modeling. The proposed design consists in describing the mixed behavior of this PLL architecture starting from the specifications of each building block. The HDL models of critical PLL blocks have been described in VHDL-AMS to predict the different specifications of the PLL. The effect of different noise sources has been efficiently introduced to study the PLL system performances. The obtained results are compared with transistor-level simulations to validate the effectiveness of the proposed models for wireless applications in the frequency range around 2.45 GHz.
Keywords: Phase-locked loop, frequency synthesizer, fractional-N PLL, Σ-Δ modulator, HDL models
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 37786744 Probabilistic Robustness Assessment of Structures under Sudden Column-Loss Scenario
Authors: Ali Y Al-Attraqchi, P. Rajeev, M. Javad Hashemi, Riadh Al-Mahaidi
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This paper presents a probabilistic incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) of a full reinforced concrete building subjected to column loss scenario for the assessment of progressive collapse. The IDA is chosen to explicitly account for uncertainties in loads and system capacity. Fragility curves are developed to predict the probability of progressive collapse given the loss of one or more columns. At a broader scale, it will also provide critical information needed to support the development of a new generation of design codes that attempt to explicitly quantify structural robustness.
Keywords: Incremental dynamic analysis, progressive collapse, structural engineering, pushdown analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10616743 Time-Dependent Behavior of Damaged Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls Strengthened with Composite Plates Having Variable Fibers Spacing
Authors: R. Yeghnem, L. Boulefrakh, S. A. Meftah, A. Tounsi, E. A. Adda Bedia
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In this study, the time-dependent behavior of damaged reinforced concrete shear wall structures strengthened with composite plates having variable fibers spacing was investigated to analyze their seismic response. In the analytical formulation, the adherent and the adhesive layers are all modeled as shear walls, using the mixed Finite Element Method (FEM). The anisotropic damage model is adopted to describe the damage extent of the Reinforced Concrete shear walls. The phenomenon of creep and shrinkage of concrete has been determined by Eurocode 2. Large earthquakes recorded in Algeria (El-Asnam and Boumerdes) have been tested to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method. Numerical results are obtained for non-uniform distributions of carbon fibers in epoxy matrices. The effects of damage extent and the delay mechanism creep and shrinkage of concrete are highlighted. Prospects are being studied.Keywords: RC shear wall structures, composite plates, creep and shrinkage, damaged reinforced concrete structures, finite element method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16736742 A New Method of Adaptation in Integrated Learning Environment
Authors: Ildar Galeev, Renat Mustaphin, C. Ardil
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A new method of adaptation in a partially integrated learning environment that includes electronic textbook (ET) and integrated tutoring system (ITS) is described. The algorithm of adaptation is described in detail. It includes: establishment of Interconnections of operations and concepts; estimate of the concept mastering level (for all concepts); estimate of student-s non-mastering level on the current learning step of information on each page of ET; creation of a rank-order list of links to the e-manual pages containing information that require repeated work.
Keywords: Adaptation, Integrated Learning Environment, Integrated Tutoring System, Electronic Textbook.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14686741 Study of Characteristics of Multi-Layer Piezoelectric Transformers by using 3-D Finite Element Method
Authors: C. Panya-Isara, T. Kulworawanichpong, P. Pao-La-Or
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Piezoelectric transformers are electronic devices made from piezoelectric materials. The piezoelectric transformers as the name implied are used for changing voltage signals from one level to another. Electrical energy carried with signals is transferred by means of mechanical vibration. Characterizing in both electrical and mechanical properties leads to extensively use and efficiency enhancement of piezoelectric transformers in various applications. In this paper, study and analysis of electrical and mechanical properties of multi-layer piezoelectric transformers in forms of potential and displacement distribution throughout the volume, respectively. This paper proposes a set of quasi-static mathematical model of electromechanical coupling for piezoelectric transformer by using a set of partial differential equations. Computer-based simulation utilizing the three-dimensional finite element method (3-D FEM) is exploited as a tool for visualizing potentials and displacements distribution within the multi-layer piezoelectric transformer. This simulation was conducted by varying a number of layers. In this paper 3, 5 and 7 of the circular ring type were used. The computer simulation based on the use of the FEM has been developed in MATLAB programming environment.Keywords: Multi-layer Piezoelectric Transformer, 3-D Finite Element Method (3-D FEM), Electro-mechanical Coupling, Mechanical Vibration
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16446740 Critical Issues of Inclusion of Aviation in EU Emissions Trading System
Authors: Jakub Hospodka
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This paper dissertates about issues which may occur after next year will be major part of civil aviation in EU included into system of Emission trading. This system should help to fight against global warming and to fulfill Kyoto Protocol commitments of European countries. Main issues mentioned in this paper are connected with problem of radiative forcing from emissions and lack of their monitoring and charging in EU legislative. There are mentioned main differences between industrial emissions and emissions form aviation with notification about possible negative impacts of neglecting these differences. Special attention is dedicated to risk of possible reverse effect of inclusion aviation in EU ETS, which may theoretically occur.Keywords: EU ETS, radiative forcing, aviation, emissiontrading.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14176739 Design of Variable Fractional-Delay FIR Differentiators
Authors: Jong-Jy Shyu, Soo-Chang Pei, Min-Han Chang
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In this paper, the least-squares design of variable fractional-delay (VFD) finite impulse response (FIR) digital differentiators is proposed. The used transfer function is formulated so that Farrow structure can be applied to realize the designed system. Also, the symmetric characteristics of filter coefficients are derived, which leads to the complexity reduction by saving almost a half of the number of coefficients. Moreover, all the elements of related vectors or matrices for the optimal process can be represented in closed forms, which make the design easier. Design example is also presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Keywords: Differentiator, variable fractional-delay filter, FIR filter, least-squares method, Farrow structure.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14166738 Investigation of the Effect of Milling Time on the Mechanochemical Synthesis of Fe3Al/ Al2O3 Nanocomposite
Authors: B. Ghasemi, A. A. Najafzadeh Khoee
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In this study, the effect of mechanical activation on the synthesis of Fe3Al/Al2O3 nanocomposite has been investigated by using mechanochemical method. For this purpose, Aluminum powder and hematite as precursors, with stoichiometric ratio, have been utilized and other effective parameters in milling process were kept constant. Phase formation analysis, crystallite size measurement and lattice strain were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) by using Williamson-Hall method as well as microstructure and morphology were explored by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis was used in order to probe the particle distribution. The results showed that after 30-hour milling, the reaction was started, combustibly done and completed.
Keywords: hematite, mechanochemical, milling, nanocomposite
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19056737 Constructing Approximate and Exact Solutions for Boussinesq Equations using Homotopy Perturbation Padé Technique
Authors: Mohamed M. Mousa, Aidarkhan Kaltayev
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Based on the homotopy perturbation method (HPM) and Padé approximants (PA), approximate and exact solutions are obtained for cubic Boussinesq and modified Boussinesq equations. The obtained solutions contain solitary waves, rational solutions. HPM is used for analytic treatment to those equations and PA for increasing the convergence region of the HPM analytical solution. The results reveal that the HPM with the enhancement of PA is a very effective, convenient and quite accurate to such types of partial differential equations.Keywords: Homotopy perturbation method, Padé approximants, cubic Boussinesq equation, modified Boussinesq equation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 45786736 Wasting Human and Computer Resources
Authors: Mária Csernoch, Piroska Biró
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The legends about “user-friendly” and “easy-to-use” birotical tools (computer-related office tools) have been spreading and misleading end-users. This approach has led us to the extremely high number of incorrect documents, causing serious financial losses in the creating, modifying, and retrieving processes. Our research proved that there are at least two sources of this underachievement: (1) The lack of the definition of the correctly edited, formatted documents. Consequently, end-users do not know whether their methods and results are correct or not. They are not aware of their ignorance. They are so ignorant that their ignorance does not allow them to realize their lack of knowledge. (2) The end-users’ problem solving methods. We have found that in non-traditional programming environments end-users apply, almost exclusively, surface approach metacognitive methods to carry out their computer related activities, which are proved less effective than deep approach methods. Based on these findings we have developed deep approach methods which are based on and adapted from traditional programming languages. In this study, we focus on the most popular type of birotical documents, the text based documents. We have provided the definition of the correctly edited text, and based on this definition, adapted the debugging method known in programming. According to the method, before the realization of text editing, a thorough debugging of already existing texts and the categorization of errors are carried out. With this method in advance to real text editing users learn the requirements of text based documents and also of the correctly formatted text. The method has been proved much more effective than the previously applied surface approach methods. The advantages of the method are that the real text handling requires much less human and computer sources than clicking aimlessly in the GUI (Graphical User Interface), and the data retrieval is much more effective than from error-prone documents.
Keywords: Deep approach metacognitive methods, error-prone birotical documents, financial losses, human and computer resources.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19116735 Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of the Carbonization of Wood Particle
Authors: Ahmed Mahmoudi, Imen Mejri, Mohamed A. Abbassi, Ahmed Omri
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A numerical study based on the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is proposed to solve one, two and three dimensional heat and mass transfer for isothermal carbonization of thick wood particles. To check the validity of the proposed model, computational results have been compared with the published data and a good agreement is obtained. Then, the model is used to study the effect of reactor temperature and thermal boundary conditions, on the evolution of the local temperature and the mass distributions of the wood particle during carbonization
Keywords: Lattice Boltzmann Method, pyrolysis conduction, carbonization, Heat and mass transfer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27076734 Simulation of Complex-Shaped Particle Breakage Using the Discrete Element Method
Authors: Felix Platzer, Eric Fimbinger
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In Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations, the breakage behavior of particles can be simulated based on different principles. In the case of large, complex-shaped particles that show various breakage patterns depending on the scenario leading to the failure and often only break locally instead of fracturing completely, some of these principles do not lead to realistic results. The reason for this is that in said cases, the methods in question, such as the Particle Replacement Method (PRM) or Voronoi Fracture, replace the initial particle (that is intended to break) into several sub-particles when certain breakage criteria are reached, such as exceeding the fracture energy. That is why those methods are commonly used for the simulation of materials that fracture completely instead of breaking locally. That being the case, when simulating local failure, it is advisable to pre-build the initial particle from sub-particles that are bonded together. The dimensions of these sub-particles consequently define the minimum size of the fracture results. This structure of bonded sub-particles enables the initial particle to break at the location of the highest local loads – due to the failure of the bonds in those areas – with several sub-particle clusters being the result of the fracture, which can again also break locally. In this project, different methods for the generation and calibration of complex-shaped particle conglomerates using bonded particle modeling (BPM) to enable the ability to depict more realistic fracture behavior were evaluated based on the example of filter cake. The method that proved suitable for this purpose and which furthermore allows efficient and realistic simulation of breakage behavior of complex-shaped particles applicable to industrial-sized simulations is presented in this paper.
Keywords: Bonded particle model (BPM), DEM, filter cake, particle breakage, particle fracture.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4026733 Prediction of a Human Facial Image by ANN using Image Data and its Content on Web Pages
Authors: Chutimon Thitipornvanid, Siripun Sanguansintukul
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Choosing the right metadata is a critical, as good information (metadata) attached to an image will facilitate its visibility from a pile of other images. The image-s value is enhanced not only by the quality of attached metadata but also by the technique of the search. This study proposes a technique that is simple but efficient to predict a single human image from a website using the basic image data and the embedded metadata of the image-s content appearing on web pages. The result is very encouraging with the prediction accuracy of 95%. This technique may become a great assist to librarians, researchers and many others for automatically and efficiently identifying a set of human images out of a greater set of images.Keywords: Metadata, Prediction, Multi-layer perceptron, Human facial image, Image mining.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12146732 Solving Fuzzy Multi-Objective Linear Programming Problems with Fuzzy Decision Variables
Authors: Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh, Aliyeh Kazemi
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In this paper, a method is proposed for solving Fuzzy Multi-Objective Linear Programming problems (FMOLPP) with fuzzy right hand side and fuzzy decision variables. To illustrate the proposed method, it is applied to the problem of selecting suppliers for an automotive parts producer company in Iran in order to find the number of optimal orders allocated to each supplier considering the conflicting objectives. Finally, the obtained results are discussed.Keywords: Fuzzy multi-objective linear programming problems, triangular fuzzy numbers, fuzzy ranking, supplier selection problem.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14156731 Capital Accumulation and Unemployment in Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa
Authors: Abubakar Dikko
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The research investigates the causes of unemployment in Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa and the role of Capital Accumulation in reducing the unemployment profile of these economies as proposed by the post-Keynesian economics. This is conducted through extensive review of literature on the NAIRU models and focused on the post-Keynesian view of unemployment within the NAIRU framework. The NAIRU (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) model has become a dominant framework used in macroeconomic analysis of unemployment. The study views the post-Keynesian economics arguments that capital accumulation is a major determinant of unemployment. Unemployment remains the fundamental socio-economic challenge facing African economies. It has been a burden to citizens of those economies. Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa are great African nations battling with high unemployment rates. The high unemployment rate in the country led the citizens to chase away foreigners in the country claiming that they have taken away their jobs. The study proposes there is a strong relationship between capital accumulation and unemployment in Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa, and capital accumulation is responsible for high unemployment rates in these countries. For the economies to achieve steady state level of employment and satisfactory level of economic growth and development, there is need for capital accumulation to take place. The countries in the study have been selected after a critical research and investigations. They are selected based on the following criteria; African economies with high unemployment rates above 15% and have about 40% of their workforce unemployed. This level of unemployment is the critical level of unemployment in Africa as expressed by International Labour Organization (ILO). And finally, the African countries experience a slow growth in their Gross fixed capital formation. Adequate statistical measures have been employed using a time-series analysis in the study and the results revealed that capital accumulation is the main driver of unemployment performance in the chosen African countries. An increase in the accumulation of capital causes unemployment to reduce significantly. The results of the research work will be useful and relevant to federal governments and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa to resolve the issue of high and persistent unemployment rates in their economies which are great burden that slows growth and development of developing economies. Also, the result can be useful to World Bank, African Development Bank and International Labour Organization (ILO) in their further research and studies on how to tackle unemployment in developing and emerging economies.Keywords: Capital accumulation, NAIRU, post-Keynesian economics, unemployment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32686730 Quality-Controlled Compression Method using Wavelet Transform for Electrocardiogram Signals
Authors: Redha Benzid, Farid Marir, Nour-Eddine Bouguechal
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This paper presents a new Quality-Controlled, wavelet based, compression method for electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. Initially, an ECG signal is decomposed using the wavelet transform. Then, the resulting coefficients are iteratively thresholded to guarantee that a predefined goal percent root mean square difference (GPRD) is matched within tolerable boundaries. The quantization strategy of extracted non-zero wavelet coefficients (NZWC), according to the combination of RLE, HUFFMAN and arithmetic encoding of the NZWC and a resulting look up table, allow the accomplishment of high compression ratios with good quality reconstructed signals.
Keywords: ECG compression, Non-uniform Max-Lloydquantizer, PRD, Quality-Controlled, Wavelet transform
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17486729 Simulation of the Finite Difference Time Domain in Two Dimension
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The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is one of the most widely used computational methods in electromagnetic. This paper describes the design of two-dimensional (2D) FDTD simulation software for transverse magnetic (TM) polarization using Berenger's split-field perfectly matched layer (PML) formulation. The software is developed using Matlab programming language. Numerical examples validate the software.Keywords: Finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, perfectly matched layer (PML), split-filed formulation, transverse magnetic (TM) polarization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 56216728 Power of Involvement over Rewards for Retention Likelihood in IT Professionals
Authors: Humayun Rashid, Lin Zhao
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Retention in the IT profession is critical for organizations to stay competitive and operate reliably in the dynamic business environment. Most organizations rely on compensation and rewards as primary tools to enhance retention of employees. In this quantitative survey-based study conducted at a large global bank, we analyze the perceptions of 575 information technology (IT) software professionals in India and Malaysia and find that fairness of rewards has very little impact on retention likelihood. It is far more important to actively involve employees in organizational activities. In addition, our findings indicate that involvement is far more important than information flow: the typical organizational communication to keep employees informed.Keywords: fairness of rewards, information flow, informationinvolvement, retention
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14376727 Transmit Sub-aperture Optimization in MSTA Ultrasound Imaging Method
Authors: YuriyTasinkevych, Ihor Trots, AndrzejNowicki, Marcin Lewandowski
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The paper presents the optimization problem for the multi-element synthetic transmit aperture method (MSTA) in ultrasound imaging applications. The optimal choice of the transmit aperture size is performed as a trade-off between the lateral resolution, penetration depth and the frame rate. Results of the analysis obtained by a developed optimization algorithm are presented. Maximum penetration depth and the best lateral resolution at given depths are chosen as the optimization criteria. The optimization algorithm was tested using synthetic aperture data of point reflectors simulated by Filed II program for Matlab® for the case of 5MHz 128-element linear transducer array with 0.48 mm pitch are presented. The visualization of experimentally obtained synthetic aperture data of a tissue mimicking phantom and in vitro measurements of the beef liver are also shown. The data were obtained using the SonixTOUCH Research systemequipped with a linear 4MHz 128 element transducerwith 0.3 mm element pitch, 0.28 mm element width and 70% fractional bandwidth was excited by one sine cycle pulse burst of transducer's center frequency.Keywords: synthetic aperture method, ultrasound imaging, beamforming.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18856726 Study of Natural Convection in a Triangular Cavity Filled with Water: Application of the Lattice Boltzmann Method
Authors: Imen Mejri, Ahmed Mahmoudi, Mohamed A. Abbassi, Ahmed Omri
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The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) with double populations is applied to solve the steady-state laminar natural convective heat transfer in a triangular cavity filled with water. The bottom wall is heated, the vertical wall is cooled, and the inclined wall is kept adiabatic. The buoyancy effect was modeled by applying the Boussinesq approximation to the momentum equation. The fluid velocity is determined by D2Q9 LBM and the energy equation is discritized by D2Q4 LBM to compute the temperature field. Comparisons with previously published work are performed and found to be in excellent agreement. Numerical results are obtained for a wide range of parameters: the Rayleigh number from to and the inclination angle from 0° to 360°. Flow and thermal fields were exhibited by means of streamlines and isotherms. It is observed that inclination angle can be used as a relevant parameter to control heat transfer in right-angled triangular enclosures.
Keywords: Heat transfer, inclination angle, Lattice Boltzmann Method, Nusselt number, Natural convection, Rayleigh number.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2757