Search results for: Human Behaviour Representation
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2862

Search results for: Human Behaviour Representation

2622 Mobile App versus Website: A Comparative Eye-Tracking Case Study of Topshop

Authors: Zofija Tupikovskaja-Omovie, David Tyler, Sam Dhanapala, Steve Hayes

Abstract:

The UK is leading in online retail and mobile adoption. However, there is a dearth of information relating to mobile apparel retail, and developing an understanding about consumer browsing and purchase behaviour in m-retail channel would provide apparel marketers, mobile website and app developers with the necessary understanding of consumers’ needs. Despite the rapid growth of mobile retail businesses, no published study has examined shopping behaviour on fashion mobile apps and websites. A mixed method approach helped to understand why fashion consumers prefer websites on smartphones, when diverse mobile apps are also available. The following research methods were employed: survey, eye-tracking experiments, observation, and interview with retrospective think aloud. The mobile gaze tracking device by SensoMotoric Instruments was used to understand frustrations in navigation and other issues facing consumers in mobile channel. This method helped to validate and compliment other traditional user-testing approaches in order to optimize user experience and enhance the development of mobile retail channel. The study involved eight participants - females aged 18 to 35 years old, who are existing mobile shoppers. The participants used the Topshop mobile app and website on a smart phone to complete a task according to a specified scenario leading to a purchase. The comparative study was based on: duration and time spent at different stages of the shopping journey, number of steps involved and product pages visited, search approaches used, layout and visual clues, as well as consumer perceptions and expectations. The results from the data analysis show significant differences in consumer behaviour when using a mobile app or website on a smart phone. Moreover, two types of problems were identified, namely technical issues and human errors. Having a mobile app does not guarantee success in satisfying mobile fashion consumers. The differences in the layout and visual clues seem to influence the overall shopping experience on a smart phone. The layout of search results on the website was different from the mobile app. Therefore, participants, in most cases, behaved differently on different platforms. The number of product pages visited on the mobile app was triple the number visited on the website due to a limited visibility of products in the search results. Although, the data on traffic trends held by retailers to date, including retail sector breakdowns for visits and views, data on device splits and duration, might seem a valuable source of information, it cannot explain why consumers visit many product pages, stay longer on the website or mobile app, or abandon the basket. A comprehensive list of pros and cons was developed by highlighting issues for website and mobile app, and recommendations provided. The findings suggest that fashion retailers need to be aware of actual consumers’ behaviour on the mobile channel and their expectations in order to offer a seamless shopping experience. Added to which is the challenge of retaining existing and acquiring new customers. There seem to be differences in the way fashion consumers search and shop on mobile, which need to be explored in further studies.

Keywords: Consumer behaviour, eye-tracking technology, fashion retail, mobile app, m-retail, smart phones, Topshop, user experience, website.

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2621 Computationally Efficient Adaptive Rate Sampling and Adaptive Resolution Analysis

Authors: Saeed Mian Qaisar, Laurent Fesquet, Marc Renaudin

Abstract:

Mostly the real life signals are time varying in nature. For proper characterization of such signals, time-frequency representation is required. The STFT (short-time Fourier transform) is a classical tool used for this purpose. The limitation of the STFT is its fixed time-frequency resolution. Thus, an enhanced version of the STFT, which is based on the cross-level sampling, is devised. It can adapt the sampling frequency and the window function length by following the input signal local variations. Therefore, it provides an adaptive resolution time-frequency representation of the input. The computational complexity of the proposed STFT is deduced and compared to the classical one. The results show a significant gain of the computational efficiency and hence of the processing power. The processing error of the proposed technique is also discussed.

Keywords: Level Crossing Sampling, Activity Selection, Adaptive Resolution Analysis, Computational Complexity

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2620 Geometric Representation of Modified Forms of Seven Important Failure Criteria

Authors: Ranajay Bhowmick

Abstract:

Elastoplastic analysis of a structural system involves defining failure/yield criterion, flow rules and hardening rules. The failure/yield criterion defines the limit beyond which the material flows plastically and hardens/softens or remains perfectly plastic before ultimate collapse. The failure/yield criterion is represented geometrically in three/two dimensional Haigh-Westergaard stress-space to facilitate a better understanding of the behavior of the material. In the present study geometric representations in three and two-dimensional stress-space of a few important failure/yield criterion are presented. The criteria presented are the modified forms obtained due to the conditional solutions of the equation of stress invariants. A comparison of the failure/yield surfaces is also presented here to obtain the effectiveness of each of them and it has been found that for identical conditions the Rankine’s criterion gives the largest values of limiting stresses.

Keywords: Deviatoric plane, failure criteria, geometric representation, hydrostatic axis, modified form.

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2619 Shear Behaviour of RC Deep Beams with Openings Strengthened with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer

Authors: Mannal Tariq

Abstract:

Construction industry is making progress at a high pace. The trend of the world is getting more biased towards the high rise buildings. Deep beams are one of the most common elements in modern construction having small span to depth ratio. Deep beams are mostly used as transfer girders. This experimental study consists of 16 reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams. These beams were divided into two groups; A and B. Groups A and B consist of eight beams each, having 381 mm (15 in) and 457 mm (18 in) depth respectively. Each group was further subdivided into four sub groups each consisting of two identical beams. Each subgroup was comprised of solid/control beam (without opening), opening above neutral axis (NA), at NA and below NA. Except for control beams, all beams with openings were strengthened with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) vertical strips. These eight groups differ from each other based on depth and location of openings. For testing sake, all beams have been loaded with two symmetrical point loads. All beams have been designed based on strut and tie model concept. The outcome of experimental investigation elaborates the difference in the shear behaviour of deep beams based on depth and location of circular openings variation. 457 mm (18 in) deep beam with openings above NA show the highest strength and 381 mm (15 in) deep beam with openings below NA show the least strength. CFRP sheets played a vital role in increasing the shear capacity of beams.

Keywords: CFRP, deep beams, openings in deep beams, strut and tie model, shear behaviour.

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2618 Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection and Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy

Authors: Sharan Badiger, Prema T. Akkasaligar, Deepak Kadeli

Abstract:

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is known to affect almost all organ systems in the body. In addition to central nervous system it also affects the autonomic nervous system. Autonomic nervous dysfunction has been known to severely affect the quality of life in human immunodeficiency virus positive patients. It is known to have caused fatal consequences in late stages of the disease in patients who go in for invasive diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. The aim of this review is to determine the incidence, clinical significance and frequency of cardiac autonomic neuropathy in patients human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Keywords: Autonomic nervous system, autonomic nervous dysfunction, cardiac autonomic dysfunction, human immunodeficiency virus.

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2617 Mathematical Model for the Transmission of Leptospirosis in Juvennile and Adults Humans

Authors: P. Pongsumpun

Abstract:

Leptospirosis occurs worldwide (except the poles of the earth), urban and rural areas, developed and developing countries, especially in Thailand. It can be transmitted to the human by rats through direct and indirect ways. Human can be infected by either touching the infected rats or contacting with water, soil containing urine from the infected rats through skin, eyes and nose. The data of the people who are infected with this disease indicates that most of the patients are adults. The transmission of this disease is studied through mathematical model. The population is separated into human and rat. The human is divided into two classes, namely juvenile and adult. The model equation is constructed for each class. The standard dynamical modeling method is then used for analyzing the behaviours of solutions. In addition, the conditions of the parameters for the disease free and endemic states are obtained. Numerical solutions are shown to support the theoretical predictions. The results of this study guide the way to decrease the disease outbreak.

Keywords: Adult human, juvenile human, leptospirosis, mathematical model.

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2616 Intelligent Vision System for Human-Robot Interface

Authors: Al-Amin Bhuiyan, Chang Hong Liu

Abstract:

This paper addresses the development of an intelligent vision system for human-robot interaction. The two novel contributions of this paper are 1) Detection of human faces and 2) Localizing the eye. The method is based on visual attributes of human skin colors and geometrical analysis of face skeleton. This paper introduces a spatial domain filtering method named ?Fuzzily skewed filter' which incorporates Fuzzy rules for deciding the gray level of pixels in the image in their neighborhoods and takes advantages of both the median and averaging filters. The effectiveness of the method has been justified over implementing the eye tracking commands to an entertainment robot, named ''AIBO''.

Keywords: Fuzzily skewed filter, human-robot interface, rmscontrast, skin color segmentation.

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2615 Chose the Right Mutation Rate for Better Evolve Combinational Logic Circuits

Authors: Emanuele Stomeo, Tatiana Kalganova, Cyrille Lambert

Abstract:

Evolvable hardware (EHW) is a developing field that applies evolutionary algorithm (EA) to automatically design circuits, antennas, robot controllers etc. A lot of research has been done in this area and several different EAs have been introduced to tackle numerous problems, as scalability, evolvability etc. However every time a specific EA is chosen for solving a particular task, all its components, such as population size, initialization, selection mechanism, mutation rate, and genetic operators, should be selected in order to achieve the best results. In the last three decade the selection of the right parameters for the EA-s components for solving different “test-problems" has been investigated. In this paper the behaviour of mutation rate for designing logic circuits, which has not been done before, has been deeply analyzed. The mutation rate for an EHW system modifies the number of inputs of each logic gates, the functionality (for example from AND to NOR) and the connectivity between logic gates. The behaviour of the mutation has been analyzed based on the number of generations, genotype redundancy and number of logic gates for the evolved circuits. The experimental results found provide the behaviour of the mutation rate during evolution for the design and optimization of simple logic circuits. The experimental results propose the best mutation rate to be used for designing combinational logic circuits. The research presented is particular important for those who would like to implement a dynamic mutation rate inside the evolutionary algorithm for evolving digital circuits. The researches on the mutation rate during the last 40 years are also summarized.

Keywords: Design of logic circuit, evolutionary computation, evolvable hardware, mutation rate.

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2614 Modelling of Hydric Behaviour of Textiles

Authors: A. Marolleau, F. Salaun, D. Dupont, H. Gidik, S. Ducept.

Abstract:

The goal of this study is to analyze the hydric behaviour of textiles which can impact significantly the comfort of the wearer. Indeed, fabrics can be adapted for different climate if hydric and thermal behaviors are known. In this study, fabrics are only submitted to hydric variations. Sorption and desorption isotherms obtained from the dynamic vapour sorption apparatus (DVS) are fitted with the parallel exponential kinetics (PEK), the Hailwood-Horrobin (HH) and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) models. One of the major finding is the relationship existing between PEK and HH models. During slow and fast processes, the sorption of water molecules on the polymer can be in monolayer and multilayer form. According to the BET model, moisture regain, a physical property of textiles, show a linear correlation with the total amount of water taken in monolayer. This study provides potential information of the end uses of these fabrics according to the selected activity level.

Keywords: Comfort, hydric properties, modelling, underwear.

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2613 Graph-Based Text Similarity Measurement by Exploiting Wikipedia as Background Knowledge

Authors: Lu Zhang, Chunping Li, Jun Liu, Hui Wang

Abstract:

Text similarity measurement is a fundamental issue in many textual applications such as document clustering, classification, summarization and question answering. However, prevailing approaches based on Vector Space Model (VSM) more or less suffer from the limitation of Bag of Words (BOW), which ignores the semantic relationship among words. Enriching document representation with background knowledge from Wikipedia is proven to be an effective way to solve this problem, but most existing methods still cannot avoid similar flaws of BOW in a new vector space. In this paper, we propose a novel text similarity measurement which goes beyond VSM and can find semantic affinity between documents. Specifically, it is a unified graph model that exploits Wikipedia as background knowledge and synthesizes both document representation and similarity computation. The experimental results on two different datasets show that our approach significantly improves VSM-based methods in both text clustering and classification.

Keywords: Text classification, Text clustering, Text similarity, Wikipedia

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2612 Evolutionary Eigenspace Learning using CCIPCA and IPCA for Face Recognition

Authors: Ghazy M.R. Assassa, Mona F. M. Mursi, Hatim A. Aboalsamh

Abstract:

Traditional principal components analysis (PCA) techniques for face recognition are based on batch-mode training using a pre-available image set. Real world applications require that the training set be dynamic of evolving nature where within the framework of continuous learning, new training images are continuously added to the original set; this would trigger a costly continuous re-computation of the eigen space representation via repeating an entire batch-based training that includes the old and new images. Incremental PCA methods allow adding new images and updating the PCA representation. In this paper, two incremental PCA approaches, CCIPCA and IPCA, are examined and compared. Besides, different learning and testing strategies are proposed and applied to the two algorithms. The results suggest that batch PCA is inferior to both incremental approaches, and that all CCIPCAs are practically equivalent.

Keywords: Candid covariance-free incremental principal components analysis (CCIPCA), face recognition, incremental principal components analysis (IPCA).

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2611 Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making Using Information and Communication Technology

Authors: Marina Diković

Abstract:

By giving personal opinions, suggestions and criticism through e-democracy, young people can reinforce the adoption of decisions which they have an impact on. The purpose of this research was to examine the opinion of university students about the possibility of their decision-making by using information and communication technology (ICT). The questionnaire examined young people's values and behaviour associated with e-democracy and the related decision-making. Students are most active online when it comes to finding information connected with their academic responsibilities, but less frequently take part in democratic processes in society, both at the national and local level. E-democracy as a tool can be learned in programmes of Human Rights Education and Citizenship Education. 

Keywords: Active citizens, e-democracy, information and communication technology, university students.

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2610 Investigating Breakdowns in Human Robot Interaction: A Conversation Analysis Guided Single Case Study of a Human-Robot Communication in a Museum Environment

Authors: B. Arend, P. Sunnen, P. Caire

Abstract:

In a single case study, we show how a conversation analysis (CA) approach can shed light onto the sequential unfolding of human-robot interaction. Relying on video data, we are able to show that CA allows us to investigate the respective turn-taking systems of humans and a NAO robot in their dialogical dynamics, thus pointing out relevant differences. Our fine grained video analysis points out occurring breakdowns and their overcoming, when humans and a NAO-robot engage in a multimodally uttered multi-party communication during a sports guessing game. Our findings suggest that interdisciplinary work opens up the opportunity to gain new insights into the challenging issues of human robot communication in order to provide resources for developing mechanisms that enable complex human-robot interaction (HRI).

Keywords: Human-robot interaction, conversation analysis, dialogism, museum, breakdown.

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2609 On the Oil Repellency of Nanotextured Aluminum Surface

Authors: G. Momen, R. Jafari, M. Farzaneh

Abstract:

Two different superhydrophobic surfaces were elaborated and their oil repellency behavior was evaluated using several liquid with different surface tension. A silicone rubber/SiO2 nanocomposite coated (A) on aluminum substrate by “spin-coating" and the sample B was an anodized aluminum surface covered by Teflon-like coating. A high static contact angle about ∼162° was measured for two prepared surfaces on which the water droplet rolloff. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed the presence of micro/nanostructures for both sample A and B similar to that of lotus leaf. However the sample A presented significantly different behaviour of wettability against the low surface tension liquid. Sample A has been wetted totally by oil (dodecan) droplet while sample B showed oleophobic behaviour. Oleophobic property of Teflon like coating can be contributed to the presence of CF2 and CF3 functional group which was shown by XPS analysis.

Keywords: Oleophobic, Superhydrophobic, Aluminum surface, Nano-texture.

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2608 A Parametric Study on Deoiling Hydrocyclones Flow Field

Authors: Maysam Saidi, Reza Maddahian, Bijan Farhanieh

Abstract:

Hydrocyclones flow field study is conducted by performing a parametric study. Effect of cone angle on deoiling hydrocyclones flow behaviour is studied in this research. Flow field of hydrocyclone is obtained by three-dimensional simulations with OpenFOAM code. Because of anisotropic behaviour of flow inside hydrocyclones LES is a suitable method to predict the flow field since it resolves large scales and model isotropic small scales. Large eddy simulation is used to predict the flow behavior of three different cone angles. Differences in tangential velocity and pressure distribution are reported in some figures.

Keywords: Deoiling hydrocyclones, Flow field, Hydrocyclone cone angle, Large Eddy Simulation, Pressure distribution

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2607 Investigating the Shear Behaviour of Fouled Ballast Using Discrete Element Modelling

Authors: Ngoc Trung Ngo, Buddhima Indraratna, Cholachat Rujikiathmakjornr

Abstract:

For several hundred years, the design of railway tracks has practically remained unchanged. Traditionally, rail tracks are placed on a ballast layer due to several reasons, including economy, rapid drainage, and high load bearing capacity. The primary function of ballast is to distributing dynamic track loads to sub-ballast and subgrade layers, while also providing lateral resistance and allowing for rapid drainage. Upon repeated trainloads, the ballast becomes fouled due to ballast degradation and the intrusion of fines which adversely affects the strength and deformation behaviour of ballast. This paper presents the use of three-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) in studying the shear behaviour of the fouled ballast subjected to direct shear loading. Irregularly shaped particles of ballast were modelled by grouping many spherical balls together in appropriate sizes to simulate representative ballast aggregates. Fouled ballast was modelled by injecting a specified number of miniature spherical particles into the void spaces. The DEM simulation highlights that the peak shear stress of the ballast assembly decreases and the dilation of fouled ballast increases with an increase level of fouling. Additionally, the distributions of contact force chain and particle displacement vectors were captured during shearing progress, explaining the formation of shear band and the evolutions of volumetric change of fouled ballast.

Keywords: Railway ballast, coal fouling, discrete element modelling, discrete element method.

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2606 How Do Politicians Recover Their Costs? The Political Economy of Representative Democracy in India

Authors: Subramaniam Chandran

Abstract:

This paper explores the features of political economy in the dynamics of representative politics in India. Politics is seen as enhancing economic benefits through acquiring and maintenance of power in the realm of democratic set up. The system of representation is riddled with competitive populism. Emerging leaders and parties are forced to accommodate their ideologies in coping with competitive politics. Electoral politics and voting behaviour reflect series of influences mooted by the politicians. Voters are accustomed to expect benefits outs of state exchequer. The electoral competitors show a changing phase of investment and return policy. Every elector has to spend and realize his costs in his tenure. In the case of defeated electors, even the cost recovery is not possible directly; there are indirect means to recover their costs. The series of case studies show the method of party funding, campaign financing, electoral expenditure, and cost recovery. Regulations could not restrict the level of spending. Several cases of disproportionate accumulation of wealth by the politicians reveal that money played a major part in electoral process. The political economy of representative politics hitherto ignores how a politician spends and recovers his cost and multiples his wealth. To be sure, the acquiring and maintenance of power is to enhance the wealth of the electors.

Keywords: Political economy, representative politics, costrecovery, electoral politics

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2605 Precombining Adaptive LMMSE Detection for DS-CDMA Systems in Time Varying Channels: Non Blind and Blind Approaches

Authors: M. D. Kokate, T. R. Sontakke, P. W. Wani

Abstract:

This paper deals with an adaptive multiuser detector for direct sequence code division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) systems. A modified receiver, precombinig LMMSE is considered under time varying channel environment. Detector updating is performed with two criterions, mean square estimation (MSE) and MOE optimization technique. The adaptive implementation issues of these two schemes are quite different. MSE criterion updates the filter weights by minimizing error between data vector and adaptive vector. MOE criterion together with canonical representation of the detector results in a constrained optimization problem. Even though the canonical representation is very complicated under time varying channels, it is analyzed with assumption of average power profile of multipath replicas of user of interest. The performance of both schemes is studied for practical SNR conditions. Results show that for poor SNR, MSE precombining LMMSE is better than the blind precombining LMMSE but for greater SNR, MOE scheme outperforms with better result.

Keywords: LMMSE, MOE, MUD.

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2604 Composite Kernels for Public Emotion Recognition from Twitter

Authors: Chien-Hung Chen, Yan-Chun Hsing, Yung-Chun Chang

Abstract:

The Internet has grown into a powerful medium for information dispersion and social interaction that leads to a rapid growth of social media which allows users to easily post their emotions and perspectives regarding certain topics online. Our research aims at using natural language processing and text mining techniques to explore the public emotions expressed on Twitter by analyzing the sentiment behind tweets. In this paper, we propose a composite kernel method that integrates tree kernel with the linear kernel to simultaneously exploit both the tree representation and the distributed emotion keyword representation to analyze the syntactic and content information in tweets. The experiment results demonstrate that our method can effectively detect public emotion of tweets while outperforming the other compared methods.

Keywords: Public emotion recognition, natural language processing, composite kernel, sentiment analysis, text mining.

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2603 Research on Strategy for Automated Scaleless-Map Compilation

Authors: Yin Jie, Qin Qiming, Yin Yong

Abstract:

As a tool for human spatial cognition and thinking, the map has been playing an important role. Maps are perhaps as fundamental to society as language and the written word. Economic and social development requires extensive and in-depth understanding of their own living environment, from the scope of the overall global to urban housing. This has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges for traditional cartography . This paper first proposed the concept of scaleless-map and its basic characteristics, through the analysis of the existing multi-scale representation techniques. Then some strategies are presented for automated mapping compilation. Taking into account the demand of automated map compilation, detailed proposed the software - WJ workstation must have four technical features, which are generalization operators, symbol primitives, dynamically annotation and mapping process template. This paper provides a more systematic new idea and solution to improve the intelligence and automation of the scaleless cartography.

Keywords: scaleless-map, strategy, map generalization, automated compilation, WJ workstation.

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2602 Learning a Song: an ACT-R Model

Authors: Belkacem Chikhaoui, Helene Pigot, Mathieu Beaudoin, Guillaume Pratte, Philippe Bellefeuille, Fernando Laudares

Abstract:

The way music is interpreted by the human brain is a very interesting topic, but also an intricate one. Although this domain has been studied for over a century, many gray areas remain in the understanding of music. Recent advances have enabled us to perform accurate measurements of the time taken by the human brain to interpret and assimilate a sound. Cognitive computing provides tools and development environments that facilitate human cognition simulation. ACT-R is a cognitive architecture which offers an environment for implementing human cognitive tasks. This project combines our understanding of the music interpretation by a human listener and the ACT-R cognitive architecture to build SINGER, a computerized simulation for listening and recalling songs. The results are similar to human experimental data. Simulation results also show how it is easier to remember short melodies than long melodies which require more trials to be recalled correctly.

Keywords: Computational model, cognitive modeling, simulation, learning, song, music.

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2601 Relations between Human Capital Investments and Business Excellence in Croatian Companies

Authors: Ivana Tadić, Željana Aljinović Barać, Nikolina Plazonić

Abstract:

Living today in turbulent business environment forces companies to distinguish from each other, securing sustainable competitive growth and competitive advantage. The best possible solution is to invest (effort and financial resources) within companies’ different practices of human resource management (HRM), more specifically in employees’ knowledge, skills and abilities. Applying this approach companies will create enviable level of human capital securing its economic growth. Employees become human capital for their employers at the moment when they contribute with their own knowledge and abilities in creating material and non-material value of the company. The main aim of this research is to explore the relations between human capital investments and business excellence of Croatian companies. Furthermore, the differences in the level of human capital investments with regard to several companies’ characteristics (e.g. size of the company, ownership and type of the industry) are investigated.

Keywords:

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2600 Discrimination of Seismic Signals Using Artificial Neural Networks

Authors: Mohammed Benbrahim, Adil Daoudi, Khalid Benjelloun, Aomar Ibenbrahim

Abstract:

The automatic discrimination of seismic signals is an important practical goal for earth-science observatories due to the large amount of information that they receive continuously. An essential discrimination task is to allocate the incoming signal to a group associated with the kind of physical phenomena producing it. In this paper, two classes of seismic signals recorded routinely in geophysical laboratory of the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research in Morocco are considered. They correspond to signals associated to local earthquakes and chemical explosions. The approach adopted for the development of an automatic discrimination system is a modular system composed by three blocs: 1) Representation, 2) Dimensionality reduction and 3) Classification. The originality of our work consists in the use of a new wavelet called "modified Mexican hat wavelet" in the representation stage. For the dimensionality reduction, we propose a new algorithm based on the random projection and the principal component analysis.

Keywords: Seismic signals, Wavelets, Dimensionality reduction, Artificial neural networks, Classification.

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2599 Digital Geomatics Trends for Production and Updating Topographic Map by Using Digital Generalization Procedures

Authors: O. Z. Jasim

Abstract:

An accuracy digital map must satisfy the users for two main requirements, first, map must be visually readable and second, all the map elements must be in a good representation. These two requirements hold especially true for map generalization which aims at simplifying the representation of cartographic data. Different scales of maps are very important for any decision in any maps with different scales such as master plan and all the infrastructures maps in civil engineering. Cartographer cannot project the data onto a piece of paper, but he has to worry about its readability. The map layout of any geodatabase is very important, this layout is help to read, analyze or extract information from the map. There are many principles and guidelines of generalization that can be find in the cartographic literature. A manual reduction method for generalization depends on experience of map maker and therefore produces incompatible results. Digital generalization, rooted from conventional cartography, has become an increasing concern in both Geographic Information System (GIS) and mapping fields. This project is intended to review the state of the art of the new technology and help to understand the needs and plans for the implementation of digital generalization capability as well as increase the knowledge of production topographic maps.

Keywords: Cartography, digital generalization, mapping, GIS.

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2598 Swelling Behaviour of Kappa Carrageenan Hydrogel in Neutral Salt Solution

Authors: Sperisa Distantina, Fadilah Fadilah, Mujtahid Kaavessina

Abstract:

Hydrogel films were prepared from kappa carrageenan by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde. Carrageenan films extracted from Kappaphycus alvarezii seaweed were immersed in glutaraldehyde solution for 2 min and then cured at 110 °C for 25 min. The obtained crosslinked films were washed with ethanol to remove the unreacted glutaraldehyde and then air dried to constant weights. The aim of this research was to study the swelling degree behaviour of the hydrogel film to neutral salts solution, namely NaCl, KCl, and CaCl2. The results showed that swelling degree of crosslinked films varied non-monotonically with salinity of NaCl. Swelling degree decreased with the increasing of KCl concentration. Swelling degree of crosslinked film in CaCl2 solution was lower than that in NaCl and in KCl solutions.

Keywords: Hydrogel, carrageenan, glutaraldehyde, swelling, salt.

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2597 An Improved Algorithm of SPIHT based on the Human Visual Characteristics

Authors: Meng Wang, Qi-rui Han

Abstract:

Because of excellent properties, people has paid more attention to SPIHI algorithm, which is based on the traditional wavelet transformation theory, but it also has its shortcomings. Combined the progress in the present wavelet domain and the human's visual characteristics, we propose an improved algorithm based on human visual characteristics of SPIHT in the base of analysis of SPIHI algorithm. The experiment indicated that the coding speed and quality has been enhanced well compared to the original SPIHT algorithm, moreover improved the quality of the transmission cut off.

Keywords: Lifted wavelet transform, SPIHT, Human Visual Characteristics.

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2596 Effects of Human Capital and Openness on Economic Growth of Developed and Developing Countries: A Panel Data Analysis

Authors: Fatma Didin Sonmez, Pinar Sener

Abstract:

Technology transfer by international trade and foreign direct investment is the most important positive outcome of open economy. It is widely accepted that new technology and knowledge have an important role in enhancing economic growth. Human capital is the other important factor assisting economic growth. In this study, the role of human capital in the growth process is examined in a view of new endogenous growth theory emphasizing on the technology transfer resulting from international trade. Using the panel data of 10 developed and 10 developing countries, impact of human capital and openness on the rate of economic growth of different countries is analysed. Evidence suggests the view that human capital and openness contribute to the economic growth in both developing and developed countries, but with different rates.

Keywords: economic growth, human capital, openness, technology

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2595 Dignity and Suffering: Reading of Human Rights in Untouchable by Anand

Authors: Norah A. Elgibreen

Abstract:

Cultural stories are political. They register cultural phenomena and their relations with the world and society in term of their existence, function, characteristics by using different context. This paper will provide a new way of rethinking which will help us to rethink the relationship between fiction and politics. It discusses the theme of human rights and it shows the relevance between art and politics by studying the civil society through a literary framework. Reasons to establish a relationship between fiction and politics are the relevant themes and universal issues among the two disciplines. Both disciplines are sets of views and ideas formulated by the human mind to explain political or cultural phenomenon. Other reasons are the complexity and depth of the author-s vision, and the need to explain the violations of human rights in a more active structure which can relate to emotional and social existence.

Keywords: dignity, human rights, politics and literature, Untouchable.

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2594 Classification of Extreme Ground-Level Ozone Based on Generalized Extreme Value Model for Air Monitoring Station

Authors: Siti Aisyah Zakaria, Nor Azrita Mohd Amin, Noor Fadhilah Ahmad Radi, Nasrul Hamidin

Abstract:

Higher ground-level ozone (GLO) concentration adversely affects human health, vegetations as well as activities in the ecosystem. In Malaysia, most of the analysis on GLO concentration are carried out using the average value of GLO concentration, which refers to the centre of distribution to make a prediction or estimation. However, analysis which focuses on the higher value or extreme value in GLO concentration is rarely explored. Hence, the objective of this study is to classify the tail behaviour of GLO using generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution estimation the return level using the corresponding modelling (Gumbel, Weibull, and Frechet) of GEV distribution. The results show that Weibull distribution which is also known as short tail distribution and considered as having less extreme behaviour is the best-fitted distribution for four selected air monitoring stations in Peninsular Malaysia, namely Larkin, Pelabuhan Kelang, Shah Alam, and Tanjung Malim; while Gumbel distribution which is considered as a medium tail distribution is the best-fitted distribution for Nilai station. The return level of GLO concentration in Shah Alam station is comparatively higher than other stations. Overall, return levels increase with increasing return periods but the increment depends on the type of the tail of GEV distribution’s tail. We conduct this study by using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method to estimate the parameters at four selected stations in Peninsular Malaysia. Next, the validation for the fitted block maxima series to GEV distribution is performed using probability plot, quantile plot and likelihood ratio test. Profile likelihood confidence interval is tested to verify the type of GEV distribution. These results are important as a guide for early notification on future extreme ozone events.

Keywords: Extreme value theory, generalized extreme value distribution, ground-level ozone, return level.

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2593 Lower energy Gait Pattern Generation in 5-Link Biped Robot Using Image Processing

Authors: Byounghyun Kim, Youngjoon Han, Hernsoo Hahn

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to find natural gait of biped robot such as human being by analyzing the COG (Center Of Gravity) trajectory of human being's gait. It is discovered that human beings gait naturally maintain the stability and use the minimum energy. This paper intends to find the natural gait pattern of biped robot using the minimum energy as well as maintaining the stability by analyzing the human's gait pattern that is measured from gait image on the sagittal plane and COG trajectory on the frontal plane. It is not possible to apply the torques of human's articulation to those of biped robot's because they have different degrees of freedom. Nonetheless, human and 5-link biped robots are similar in kinematics. For this, we generate gait pattern of the 5-link biped robot by using the GA algorithm of adaptation gait pattern which utilize the human's ZMP (Zero Moment Point) and torque of all articulation that are measured from human's gait pattern. The algorithm proposed creates biped robot's fluent gait pattern as that of human being's and to minimize energy consumption because the gait pattern of the 5-link biped robot model is modeled after consideration about the torque of human's each articulation on the sagittal plane and ZMP trajectory on the frontal plane. This paper demonstrate that the algorithm proposed is superior by evaluating 2 kinds of the 5-link biped robot applied to each gait patterns generated both in the general way using inverse kinematics and in the special way in which by considering visuality and efficiency.

Keywords: 5-link biped robot, gait pattern, COG (Center OfGravity), ZMP (Zero Moment Point).

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