Search results for: Early%20intervention%20program%20%28curriculum%29
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 616

Search results for: Early%20intervention%20program%20%28curriculum%29

346 Motion Estimator Architecture with Optimized Number of Processing Elements for High Efficiency Video Coding

Authors: Seongsoo Lee

Abstract:

Motion estimation occupies the heaviest computation in HEVC (high efficiency video coding). Many fast algorithms such as TZS (test zone search) have been proposed to reduce the computation. Still the huge computation of the motion estimation is a critical issue in the implementation of HEVC video codec. In this paper, motion estimator architecture with optimized number of PEs (processing element) is presented by exploiting early termination. It also reduces hardware size by exploiting parallel processing. The presented motion estimator architecture has 8 PEs, and it can efficiently perform TZS with very high utilization of PEs.

Keywords: Motion estimation, test zone search, high efficiency video coding, processing element, optimization.

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345 Role of Environmental Focus in Legal Protection and Efficient Management of Wetlands in the Republic of Kazakhstan

Authors: K. R. Balabiyev, A. O. Kaipbayeva

Abstract:

The article discusses the legal framework of the government’s environmental function and analyzes the role of the national policy in protection of wetlands. The problem is of interest for it deals with the most important branch of economy – utilization of Kazakhstan’s natural resources, protection of health and environmental wellbeing of the population. Development of a longterm environmental program addressing the protection of wetlands represents the final stage of the government’s environmental policy, and is a relatively new function for the public administration system. It appeared due to the environmental measures that require immediate decisions to be taken. It is an integral part of the effort in the field of management of state-owned natural resource, as well as of the measures aimed at efficient management of natural resources to avoid their early depletion or contamination.

Keywords: Environmental focus, government’s environmental function, protection of wetlands.

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344 An Automated Method to Segment and Classify Masses in Mammograms

Authors: Viet Dzung Nguyen, Duc Thuan Nguyen, Tien Dzung Nguyen, Van Thanh Pham

Abstract:

Mammography is the most effective procedure for an early diagnosis of the breast cancer. Nowadays, people are trying to find a way or method to support as much as possible to the radiologists in diagnosis process. The most popular way is now being developed is using Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) system to process the digital mammograms and prompt the suspicious region to radiologist. In this paper, an automated CAD system for detection and classification of massive lesions in mammographic images is presented. The system consists of three processing steps: Regions-Of- Interest detection, feature extraction and classification. Our CAD system was evaluated on Mini-MIAS database consisting 322 digitalized mammograms. The CAD system-s performance is evaluated using Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) and Freeresponse ROC (FROC) curves. The archived results are 3.47 false positives per image (FPpI) and sensitivity of 85%.

Keywords: classification, computer-aided detection, featureextraction, mass detection.

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343 Knowledge Management in a Combined/Joint Environment

Authors: Cory Cannon

Abstract:

In the current era of shrinking budgets, increasing amounts of worldwide natural disasters, state and non-state initiated conflicts within the world. The response has involved multinational coalitions to conduct effective military operations. The need for a Knowledge Management strategy when developing these coalitions have been overlooked in the past and the need for developing these accords early on will save time and help shape the way information and knowledge are transferred from the staff and action officers of the coalition to the decision-makers in order to make timely decisions within an ever changing environment. The aim of this paper is to show how Knowledge Management has developed within the United States military and how the transformation of working within a Combined/ Joint environment in both the Middle East and the Far East has improved relations between members of the coalitions as well as being more effective as a military force. These same principles could be applied to multinational corporations when dealing with cultures and decision-making processes.

Keywords: Civil-military, culture, joint environment, knowledge management.

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342 Machine Learning for Aiding Meningitis Diagnosis in Pediatric Patients

Authors: Karina Zaccari, Ernesto Cordeiro Marujo

Abstract:

This paper presents a Machine Learning (ML) approach to support Meningitis diagnosis in patients at a children’s hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The aim is to use ML techniques to reduce the use of invasive procedures, such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collection, as much as possible. In this study, we focus on predicting the probability of Meningitis given the results of a blood and urine laboratory tests, together with the analysis of pain or other complaints from the patient. We tested a number of different ML algorithms, including: Adaptative Boosting (AdaBoost), Decision Tree, Gradient Boosting, K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Logistic Regression, Random Forest and Support Vector Machines (SVM). Decision Tree algorithm performed best, with 94.56% and 96.18% accuracy for training and testing data, respectively. These results represent a significant aid to doctors in diagnosing Meningitis as early as possible and in preventing expensive and painful procedures on some children.

Keywords: Machine learning, medical diagnosis, meningitis detection, gradient boosting.

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341 Auditory Brainstem Response in Wave VI for the Detection of Learning Disabilities

Authors: M.Victoria Garcia-Camba, M.Isabel Garcia-Planas

Abstract:

The use of brain stem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) is a common way to study the hearing function of people, a way to learn the functionality of a part of the brain neuronal groups that intervene in the learning process by studying the behaviour of wave VI. The latest advances in neuroscience have revealed the existence of different brain activity in the learning process that can be highlighted through the use of innocuous, low-cost and easy-access techniques such as, among others, the BAEP that can help us to detect early possible neurodevelopmental difficulties for their subsequent assessment and cure. To date and the authors best knowledge, only the latency data obtained, observing the first to V waves and mainly in the left ear, were taken into account. This work shows that it is essential to consider both ears; with these latest data, it has been possible to diagnose more precisely some cases than with the previous data had been diagnosed as “normal”despite showing signs of some alteration that motivated the new consultation to the specialist.

Keywords: Ear, neurodevelopment, auditory evoked potentials, intervals of normality, learning disabilities.

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340 Dynamics of Functional Composition of a Brazilian Tropical Forest in Response to Drought Stress

Authors: Theodore N.S. Karfakis, Anna Andrade

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to examine the dynamics of functional composition of a non flooded Amazonian forest in response to drought stress in terms of diameter growth, recruitment and mortality. The survey was carried out in the continuous forest of the Biological dynamics of forest fragments project 90 km outside the city of Manaus, state of Amazonas Brazil. All stems >10 cm dbh where identified to species level and monitored in 18 one hectare permanent sample plots from 1981 to 2004.For statistical analysis all species where aggregated in three ecological guilds. Two distinct drought events occurred in 1983 and 1997. Results showed that more early successional species performed better than later successional ones. Response was significant for both events but for the 1997 event this was more pronounced possibly because of the fact that the event was in the middle of the dry rather than the wet period as was the 1983 one.

Keywords: Brazil, functional composition, drought, Amazonian non flooded forest.

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339 Inhibiting Gene for a Late-Heading Gene Responsible for Photoperiod Sensitivity in Rice (Oryza sativa)

Authors: Amol Dahal, Shunsuke Hori, Haruki Nakazawa, Kazumitsu Onishi, Toshio Kawano, Masayuki Murai

Abstract:

Two indica varieties, IR36 and ‘Suweon 258’ (“S”) are middle-heading in southern Japan. 36U, also middle-heading, is an isogenic line of IR36 carrying Ur1 (Undulate rachis-1) gene. However, late-heading plants segregated in the F2 population from the F1 of S × 36U, and so did in the following generations. The concerning lateness gene is designated as Ex. From the F8 generation, isogenic-line pair of early-heading and late-heading lines, denoted by “E” (ex/ex) and “L” (Ex/Ex), were developed. Genetic analyses of heading time were conducted, using F1s and F2s among L, E, S and 36U. The following inferences were drawn from the experimental results: 1) L, and both of E and 36U harbor Ex and ex, respectively; 2) Besides Ex, S harbors an inhibitor gene to it, i.e. I-Ex which is a novel finding of the present study. 3) Ex is a dominant allele at the E1 locus.

Keywords: Basic vegetative phase, heading time, lateness gene, photoperiod-sensitive phase.

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338 An ANN-Based Predictive Model for Diagnosis and Forecasting of Hypertension

Authors: O. O. Obe, V. Balanica, E. Neagoe

Abstract:

The effects of hypertension are often lethal thus its early detection and prevention is very important for everybody. In this paper, a neural network (NN) model was developed and trained based on a dataset of hypertension causative parameters in order to forecast the likelihood of occurrence of hypertension in patients. Our research goal was to analyze the potential of the presented NN to predict, for a period of time, the risk of hypertension or the risk of developing this disease for patients that are or not currently hypertensive. The results of the analysis for a given patient can support doctors in taking pro-active measures for averting the occurrence of hypertension such as recommendations regarding the patient behavior in order to lower his hypertension risk. Moreover, the paper envisages a set of three example scenarios in order to determine the age when the patient becomes hypertensive, i.e. determine the threshold for hypertensive age, to analyze what happens if the threshold hypertensive age is set to a certain age and the weight of the patient if being varied, and, to set the ideal weight for the patient and analyze what happens with the threshold of hypertensive age.

Keywords: Neural Network, hypertension, data set, training set, supervised learning.

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337 Computer Aided Classification of Architectural Distortion in Mammograms Using Texture Features

Authors: Birmohan Singh, V. K. Jain

Abstract:

Computer aided diagnosis systems provide vital opinion to radiologists in the detection of early signs of breast cancer from mammogram images. Architectural distortions, masses and microcalcifications are the major abnormalities. In this paper, a computer aided diagnosis system has been proposed for distinguishing abnormal mammograms with architectural distortion from normal mammogram. Four types of texture features GLCM texture, GLRLM texture, fractal texture and spectral texture features for the regions of suspicion are extracted. Support vector machine has been used as classifier in this study. The proposed system yielded an overall sensitivity of 96.47% and an accuracy of 96% for mammogram images collected from digital database for screening mammography database.

Keywords: Architecture Distortion, GLCM Texture features, GLRLM Texture Features, Mammograms, Support Vector Machine.

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336 Lateral Behavior of Concrete

Authors: Ali Khajeh Samani, Mario M. Attard

Abstract:

Lateral expansion is a factor defining the level of confinement in reinforced concrete columns. Therefore, predicting the lateral strain relationship with axial strain becomes an important issue. Measuring lateral strains in experiments is difficult and only few report experimental lateral strains. Among the existing analytical formulations, two recent models are compared with available test results in this paper with shortcomings highlighted. A new analytical model is proposed here for lateral strain axial strain relationship and is based on the supposition that the concrete behaves linear elastic in the early stages of loading and then nonlinear hardening up to the peak stress and then volumetric expansion. The proposal for the lateral strain axial strain relationship after the peak stress is mainly based on the hypothesis that the plastic lateral strain varies linearly with the plastic axial strain and it is shown that this is related to the lateral confinement level.

Keywords: Confined Concrete, Lateral Strain, Triaxial test, Postpeak behavior

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335 Debye Layer Confinement of Nucleons in Nuclei by Laser Ablated Plasma

Authors: M. Ghanaatian, N. Ghahramany, A. Bazrafshan

Abstract:

Following the laser ablation studies leading to a theory of nuclei confinement by a Debye layer mechanism, we present here numerical evaluations for the known stable nuclei where the Coulomb repulsion is included as a rather minor component especially for lager nuclei. In this research paper the required physical conditions for the formation and stability of nuclei particularly endothermic nuclei with mass number greater than to which is an open astrophysical question have been investigated. Using the Debye layer mechanism, nuclear surface energy, Fermi energy and coulomb repulsion energy it is possible to find conditions under which the process of nucleation is permitted in early universe. Our numerical calculations indicate that about 200 second after the big bang at temperature of about 100 KeV and subrelativistic region with nucleon density nearly equal to normal nuclear density namely, 10cm all endothermic and exothermic nuclei have been formed.

Keywords: Endothermic nuclear synthesis, Fermi energy, Surface tension, Debye length.

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334 Defect-Based Urgency Index for Bridge Maintenance Ranking and Prioritization

Authors: Saleh Abu Dabous, Khaled Hamad, Rami Al-Ruzouq

Abstract:

Bridge condition assessment and rating provide essential information needed for bridge management. This paper reviews bridge inspection and condition rating practices and introduces a defect-based urgency index. The index is estimated at the element-level based on the extent and severity of the different defects typical to the bridge element. The urgency index approach has the following advantages: (1) It facilitates judgment submission, i.e. instead of rating the bridge element with a specific linguistic overall expression (which can be subjective and used differently by different people), the approach is based on assessing the defects; (2) It captures multiple defects that can be present within a deteriorated element; and (3) It reflects how critical the element is through quantifying critical defects and their severity. The approach can be further developed and validated. It is expected to be useful for practical purposes as an early-warning system for critical bridge elements.

Keywords: Condition rating, deterioration, inspection, maintenance.

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333 Mechanical Properties of Fibre Reinforced Concrete - A Comparative Experimental Study

Authors: Amir M. Alani, Morteza Aboutalebi

Abstract:

This paper in essence presents comparative experimental data on the mechanical performance of steel and synthetic fibre-reinforced concrete under compression, tensile split and flexure. URW1050 steel fibre and HPP45 synthetic fibre, both with the same concrete design mix, have been used to make cube specimens for a compression test, cylinders for a tensile split test and beam specimens for a flexural test. The experimental data demonstrated steel fibre reinforced concrete to be stronger in flexure at early stages, whilst both fibre reinforced concrete types displayed comparatively the same performance in compression, tensile splitting and 28-day flexural strength. In terms of post-crack controlHPP45 was preferable.

Keywords: Steel Fibre, Synthetic Fibre, Fibre Reinforced Concrete, Failure, Ductility, Experimental Study.

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332 A Data Mining Model for Detecting Financial and Operational Risk Indicators of SMEs

Authors: Ali Serhan Koyuncugil, Nermin Ozgulbas

Abstract:

In this paper, a data mining model to SMEs for detecting financial and operational risk indicators by data mining is presenting. The identification of the risk factors by clarifying the relationship between the variables defines the discovery of knowledge from the financial and operational variables. Automatic and estimation oriented information discovery process coincides the definition of data mining. During the formation of model; an easy to understand, easy to interpret and easy to apply utilitarian model that is far from the requirement of theoretical background is targeted by the discovery of the implicit relationships between the data and the identification of effect level of every factor. In addition, this paper is based on a project which was funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).

Keywords: Risk Management, Financial Risk, Operational Risk, Financial Early Warning System, Data Mining, CHAID Decision Tree Algorithm, SMEs.

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331 Affective Approach to Selected Ingmar Bergman Films

Authors: Grzegorz Zinkiewicz

Abstract:

The paper explores affective potential implicit in Bergman’s movies. This is done by the use of affect theory and the concept of affect in terms of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, from both diachronic and synchronic perspective. Since its inception in the early 2000s, affect theory has been applied to a number of academic fields. In Film Studies, it offers new avenues for discovering deeper, hidden layers of a given film. The aim is to show that the form and content of the films by Ingmar Bergman are determined by their inner affects that function independently of the viewer and, to an extent, are autonomous entities that can be analysed in separation from the auteur and actual characters. The paper discovers layers in Ingmar Bergman films and focuses on aspects that are often marginalised or studied from other viewpoints such as the connection between the content and visual side. As a result, a revaluation of Bergman films is possible that is more consistent with his original interpretations and comments included in his lectures, interviews and autobiography.

Keywords: Affect theory, experimental cinema, Ingmar Bergman, film as autonomous entity.

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330 Canonical PSO based Nanorobot Control for Blood Vessel Repair

Authors: Pinfa Boonrong, Boonserm Kaewkamnerdpong

Abstract:

As nanotechnology advances, the use of nanotechnology for medical purposes in the field of nanomedicine seems more promising; the rise of nanorobots for medical diagnostics and treatments could be arriving in the near future. This study proposes a swarm intelligence based control mechanism for swarm nanorobots that operate as artificial platelets to search for wounds. The canonical particle swarm optimization algorithm is employed in this study. A simulation in the circulatory system is constructed and used for demonstrating the movement of nanorobots with essential characteristics to examine the performance of proposed control mechanism. The effects of three nanorobot capabilities including their perception range, maximum velocity and respond time are investigated. The results show that canonical particle swarm optimization can be used to control the early version nanorobots with simple behaviors and actions.

Keywords: Artificial platelets, canonical particle swarm optimization, nanomedicine, nanorobot, swarm intelligence.

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329 Structural Optimization Method for 3D Reinforced Concrete Building Structure with Shear Wall

Authors: H. Nikzad, S. Yoshitomi

Abstract:

In this paper, an optimization procedure is applied for 3D Reinforced concrete building structure with shear wall.  In the optimization problem, cross sections of beams, columns and shear wall dimensions are considered as design variables and the optimal cross sections can be derived to minimize the total cost of the structure. As for final design application, the most suitable sections are selected to satisfy ACI 318-14 code provision based on static linear analysis. The validity of the method is examined through numerical example of 15 storied 3D RC building with shear wall.  This optimization method is expected to assist in providing a useful reference in design early stage, and to be an effective and powerful tool for structural design of RC shear wall structures.

Keywords: Structural optimization, linear static analysis, ETABS, MATLAB, RC moment frame, RC shear wall structures.

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328 A 3Y/3Y Pole-Changing Winding of High-Power Asynchronous Motors

Authors: Gábor Kovács

Abstract:

Requirement for pole-changing motors emerged at the very early times of asynchronous motor design. Different solutions have been elaborated and some of them are generally used. An alternative is the so called 3 Y/3 Y pole-changing winding. This paper deals with high power application of this solution. A complete and comprehensive study is introduced, including features and design guidelines. The method presented in this paper is especially suitable for pole numbers being close to each other. The study also reveals that the method is more advantageous then the existing solutions for high power motors with 1:3 pole ratio. Using this motor, a new and complete drive supply system has been proposed as most appropriate arrangement of high power main naval propulsion drive. Further, the method makes possible to extend the pole ratio to 1:6, 1:9, 1:12, etc. At the end, the proposal is further extended to the here so far missing 1:4, 1:5, 1:7 etc. pole ratios. A complete proposal for the theoretically infinite range has been given in this way.

Keywords: Induction motor, pole changing 3Y/3Y, pole phase modulation, pole changing 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6.

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327 Antioxidant Capacity of Maize Corn under Drought Stress from the Different Zones of Growing

Authors: Astghik R. Sukiasyan

Abstract:

The semidental sweet maize of Armenian population under drought stress and pollution by some heavy metals (HMs) in sites along the river Debet was studied. Accordingly, the objective of this work was to investigate the antioxidant status of maize plant in order to identify simple and reliable criteria for assessing the degree of adaptation of plants to abiotic stress of drought and HMs. It was found that in the case of removal from the mainstream of the river, the antioxidant status of the plant varies. As parameters, the antioxidant status of the plant has been determined by the activity of malondialdehyde (MDA) and Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma (FRAP), taking into account the characteristics of natural drought of this region. The possibility of using some indicators which characterized the antioxidant status of the plant was concluded. The criteria for assessing the extent of environmental pollution could be HMs. This fact can be used for the early diagnosis of diseases in the population who lives in these areas and uses corn as the main food.

Keywords: Antioxidant status, maize corn, drought stress, heavy metal.

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326 Exit Strategies from The Global Crisis

Authors: Petr Teply

Abstract:

While the form of crises may change, their essence remains the same (such as a cycle of abundant liquidity, rapid credit growth, and a low-inflation environment followed by an asset-price bubble). The current market turbulence began in mid-2000s when the US economy shifted to imbalanced both internal and external macroeconomic positions. We see two key causes of these problems – loose US monetary policy in early 2000s and US government guarantees issued on the securities by government-sponsored enterprises what was further fueled by financial innovations such as structured credit products. We have discovered both negative and positive lessons deriving from this crisis and divided the negative lessons into three groups: financial products and valuation, processes and business models, and strategic issues. Moreover, we address key risk management lessons and exit strategies derived from the current crisis and recommend policies that should help diminish the negative impact of future potential crises.

Keywords: exist strategy, global crisis, risk management, corporate governance

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325 Improvement in Silicon on Insulator Devices using Strained Si/SiGe Technology for High Performance in RF Integrated Circuits

Authors: Morteza Fathipour, Samira Omidbakhsh, Kimia Khodayari

Abstract:

RF performance of SOI CMOS device has attracted significant amount of interest recently. In order to improve RF parameters, Strained Si/Relaxed Si0.8Ge0.2 investigated as a replacement for Si technology .Enhancement of carrier mobility associated with strain engineering makes Strained Si a promising candidate for improving RF performance of CMOS technology. From the simulation, the cut-off frequency is estimated to be 224 GHZ, whereas in SOI at similar bias is about 188 GHZ. Therefore, Strained Si exhibits 19% improvement in cut-off frequency over similar Si counterpart. In this paper, Ion/Ioff ratio is studied as one of the key parameters in logic and digital application. Strained Si/SiGe demonstrates better Ion/Ioff characteristic than SOI, in similar channel length of 100 nm.Another important key analog figures of merit such as Early Voltage (VEA) ,transconductance vs drain current (gm /Ids) are studied. They introduce the efficiency of the devices to convert dc power into ac frequency.

Keywords: cut-off frequency, RF application, Silicon oninsulator, Strained Si/SiGe on insulator.

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324 Tree-on-DAG for Data Aggregation in Sensor Networks

Authors: Prakash G L, Thejaswini M, S H Manjula, K R Venugopal, L M Patnaik

Abstract:

Computing and maintaining network structures for efficient data aggregation incurs high overhead for dynamic events where the set of nodes sensing an event changes with time. Moreover, structured approaches are sensitive to the waiting time that is used by nodes to wait for packets from their children before forwarding the packet to the sink. An optimal routing and data aggregation scheme for wireless sensor networks is proposed in this paper. We propose Tree on DAG (ToD), a semistructured approach that uses Dynamic Forwarding on an implicitly constructed structure composed of multiple shortest path trees to support network scalability. The key principle behind ToD is that adjacent nodes in a graph will have low stretch in one of these trees in ToD, thus resulting in early aggregation of packets. Based on simulations on a 2,000-node Mica2- based network, we conclude that efficient aggregation in large-scale networks can be achieved by our semistructured approach.

Keywords: Aggregation, Packet Merging, Query Processing.

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323 Investigation on Pore Water Pressure in Core of Karkheh Dam

Authors: Bahar Razavi, Mansour Parehkar, Ali Gholami

Abstract:

Pore water pressure is normally because of consolidation, compaction and water level fluctuation on reservoir. Measuring, controlling and analyzing of pore water pressure have significant importance in both of construction and operation period. Since end of 2002, (dam start up) nature of KARKHEH dam has been analyzed by using the gathered information from instrumentation system of dam. In this lecture dam condition after start up have been analyzed by using the gathered data from located piezometers in core of dam. According to TERZAGHI equation and records of piezometers, consolidation lasted around five years during early years of construction stage, and current pore water pressure in core of dam is caused by water level fluctuation in reservoir. Although there is time lag between water level fluctuation and results of piezometers. These time lags have been checked and the results clearly show that one of the most important causes of it is distance between piezometer and reservoir.

Keywords: Earth dam, Reservoir, Piezometer, Terzaghi, Consolidation

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322 Wireless Distributed Load-Shedding Management System for Non-Emergency Cases

Authors: Taha Landolsi, A. R. Al-Ali, Tarik Ozkul, Mohammad A. Al-Rousan

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a cost-effective wireless distributed load shedding system for non-emergency scenarios. In power transformer locations where SCADA system cannot be used, the proposed solution provides a reasonable alternative that combines the use of microcontrollers and existing GSM infrastructure to send early warning SMS messages to users advising them to proactively reduce their power consumption before system capacity is reached and systematic power shutdown takes place. A novel communication protocol and message set have been devised to handle the messaging between the transformer sites, where the microcontrollers are located and where the measurements take place, and the central processing site where the database server is hosted. Moreover, the system sends warning messages to the endusers mobile devices that are used as communication terminals. The system has been implemented and tested via different experimental results.

Keywords: Smart Grid, Load shedding, Demand SideManagement, GSM Wireless Networks, SCADA systems.

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321 WPRiMA Tool: Managing Risks in Web Projects

Authors: Thamer Al-Rousan, Shahida Sulaiman, Rosalina Abdul Salam

Abstract:

Risk management is an essential fraction of project management, which plays a significant role in project success. Many failures associated with Web projects are the consequences of poor awareness of the risks involved and lack of process models that can serve as a guideline for the development of Web based applications. To circumvent this problem, contemporary process models have been devised for the development of conventional software. This paper introduces the WPRiMA (Web Project Risk Management Assessment) as the tool, which is used to implement RIAP, the risk identification architecture pattern model, which focuses upon the data from the proprietor-s and vendor-s perspectives. The paper also illustrates how WPRiMA tool works and how it can be used to calculate the risk level for a given Web project, to generate recommendations in order to facilitate risk avoidance in a project, and to improve the prospects of early risk management.

Keywords: Architecture pattern model, risk factors, risk identification, web project, web project risk management assessment.

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320 Automatic Detection and Classification of Diabetic Retinopathy Using Retinal Fundus Images

Authors: A. Biran, P. Sobhe Bidari, A. Almazroe V. Lakshminarayanan, K. Raahemifar

Abstract:

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a severe retinal disease which is caused by diabetes mellitus. It leads to blindness when it progress to proliferative level. Early indications of DR are the appearance of microaneurysms, hemorrhages and hard exudates. In this paper, an automatic algorithm for detection of DR has been proposed. The algorithm is based on combination of several image processing techniques including Circular Hough Transform (CHT), Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE), Gabor filter and thresholding. Also, Support Vector Machine (SVM) Classifier is used to classify retinal images to normal or abnormal cases including non-proliferative or proliferative DR. The proposed method has been tested on images selected from Structured Analysis of the Retinal (STARE) database using MATLAB code. The method is perfectly able to detect DR. The sensitivity specificity and accuracy of this approach are 90%, 87.5%, and 91.4% respectively.

Keywords: Diabetic retinopathy, fundus images, STARE, Gabor filter, SVM.

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319 Developing Models for Predicting Physiologically Impaired Arm Reaching Paths

Authors: Nina Robson, Kenneth John Faller II, Vishalkumar Ahir, Mustafa Mhawesh, Reza Langari

Abstract:

This paper describes the development of a model of an impaired human arm performing a reaching motion, which will be used to predict hand path trajectories for people with reduced arm joint mobility. Assuming that the arm was in contact with a surface during the entire movement, the contact conditions at the initial and final task locations were determined and used to generate the entire trajectory. The model was validated by comparing it to experimental data, which simulated an arm joint impairment by physically constraining the joint motion with a brace. Future research will include using the model in the development of physical training protocols that avoid early recruitment of “healthy” Degrees-Of-Freedom (DOF) for reaching motions, thus facilitating an Active Range-Of-Motion Recovery (AROM) for a particular impaired joint.

Keywords: Higher order kinematic specifications, human motor coordination, impaired movement, kinematic synthesis.

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318 A Study of the Cyclic Variations of the Enzyme and the Electrolyte Activity in Uterine and Oviducal Secretions during an Estrous Cycle of the Ewe

Authors: Yahia M., Laanani I., Benbia S., Hachemi M., Massinissa Y.

Abstract:

Uterine and oviducal fluids are necessary for capacitation of the spermatozoa and early embryonic development. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of estrous cycle phases (follicular and luteal) on some biological parameters (enzymes, electrolytes and total proteins) in uterine and oviducal secretions of ewes. Oviducal and uterine fluids were collected, diluted and centrifuged. According to our results, concentrations of GPT, G6PDH, total proteins, K and Na were significantly (P <0.05) higher at the luteal phase, however, the levels of aldolase, Mg, Ca and P were significantly (P <0.05) higher at the follicular phase in uterine secretions. While, only oviducal K and Ca were significantly (P<0.05) higher at the follicular phase. Our study revealed the existence of significant cyclic variations for some uterine and oviducal parameters which indicates the effect of ovarian hormones on the components of genital secretions.

Keywords: Biochemical parameters, estrous cycle, ewe, genital secretion.

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317 An Evaluation of Sputum Smear Conversion and Haematological Parameter Alteration in Early Detection Period of New Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) Patients

Authors: Tasnuva Tamanna, Sanjida Halim Topa

Abstract:

Sputum smear conversion after one month of antituberculosis therapy in new smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients (PTB+) is a vital indicator towards treatment success. The objective of this study is to determine the rate of sputum smear conversion in new PTB+ patients after one month under treatment of National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH). Analysis of sputum smear conversion was done by re-clinical examination with sputum smear microscopic test after one month. Socio-demographic and hematological parameters were evaluated to perceive the correlation with the disease status. Among all enrolled patients only 33.33% were available for follow up diagnosis and of them only 42.86% patients turned to smear negative. Probably this consequence is due to non-coherence to the proper disease management. 66.67% and 78.78% patients reported low haemoglobin and packed cell volume level respectively whereas 80% and 93.33% patients accounted accelerated platelet count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate correspondingly.

Keywords: Followed up patients, PTB+ patients, sputum smear conversion, and sputum smear microscopic test.

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