Search results for: landscape pattern evolution

Authors: Jan Cernohorsky

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This article aims to assess the evolution of imperfect competition in selected banking markets, in particular in the banking markets of Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Another objective is to assess the evolution of the relationship of imperfect competition and profit development in the banking markets. The article first provides an overview of literature on the topic. It then measures the degree of imperfect competition in individual markets using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The commonly used indicator of total assets was chosen as an indicator. Based on this measurement, the individual banking sectors are categorized into theoretical definitions of the various types of imperfect competition - namely all surveyed banking sectors falling within the theoretical definition of monopolistic competition. Subsequently, using correlation analysis, i.e., the Pearson correlation coefficient, or the Spearman correlation coefficient, the connection between the evolution of imperfect competition and the development of the gross profit on selected banking markets was surveyed. It was found that with the exception of the banking market in Slovenia, where there is a positive correlation; there is no correlation between the evolution of imperfect competition and profit development in the selected markets. This means a recommendation for the regulators that it is not appropriate to rationalize a higher degree of regulation in granting banking licenses on the size of the profits attained in the banking market, as the relationship between the degree of concentration in the banking market and the amount of profit according to our measurements does not exist.

Keywords: Banking system, imperfect competition, profitability.

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Authors: Agnieszka Danek, Rafał Pokrzywa

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Approximate tandem repeats in a genomic sequence are two or more contiguous, similar copies of a pattern of nucleotides. They are used in DNA mapping, studying molecular evolution mechanisms, forensic analysis and research in diagnosis of inherited diseases. All their functions are still investigated and not well defined, but increasing biological databases together with tools for identification of these repeats may lead to discovery of their specific role or correlation with particular features. This paper presents a new approach for finding approximate tandem repeats in a given sequence, where the similarity between consecutive repeats is measured using the Hamming distance. It is an enhancement of a method for finding exact tandem repeats in DNA sequences based on the Burrows- Wheeler transform.

Keywords: approximate tandem repeats, Burrows-Wheeler transform, Hamming distance, suffix array

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Authors: Eleftheria Tzamali, Panayiota Poirazi, Ioannis G. Tollis, Martin Reczko

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Stable bacterial polymorphism on a single limiting resource may appear if between the evolved strains metabolic interactions take place that allow the exchange of essential nutrients [8]. Towards an attempt to predict the possible outcome of longrunning evolution experiments, a network based on the metabolic capabilities of homogeneous populations of every single gene knockout strain (nodes) of the bacterium E. coli is reconstructed. Potential metabolic interactions (edges) are allowed only between strains of different metabolic capabilities. Bacterial communities are determined by finding cliques in this network. Growth of the emerged hypothetical bacterial communities is simulated by extending the metabolic flux balance analysis model of Varma et al [2] to embody heterogeneous cell population growth in a mutual environment. Results from aerobic growth on 10 different carbon sources are presented. The upper bounds of the diversity that can emerge from single-cloned populations of E. coli such as the number of strains that appears to metabolically differ from most strains (highly connected nodes), the maximum clique size as well as the number of all the possible communities are determined. Certain single gene deletions are identified to consistently participate in our hypothetical bacterial communities under most environmental conditions implying a pattern of growth-condition- invariant strains with similar metabolic effects. Moreover, evaluation of all the hypothetical bacterial communities under growth on pyruvate reveals heterogeneous populations that can exhibit superior growth performance when compared to the performance of the homogeneous wild-type population.

Keywords: Bacterial polymorphism, clique identification, dynamic FBA, evolution, metabolic interactions.

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Authors: Cătălin Mărculescu, Andrei Avram, Cătălin Pârvulescu, Marioara Avram, Cătălin Mihai Bălan

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The present microfluidic study is emphasizing the flow behavior within a Y shape micro-bifurcation in two similar flow configurations. We report here a numerical and experimental investigation on the velocity profiles evolution and secondary flows, manifested at different Reynolds numbers (Re) and for two different boundary conditions. The experiments are performed using special designed setup based on optical microscopic devices. With this setup, direct visualizations and quantitative measurements of the path-lines are obtained. A Micro-PIV measurement system is used to obtain velocity profiles distributions in a spatial evolution in the main flows domains. The experimental data is compared with numerical simulations performed with commercial computational code FLUENT in a 3D geometry with the same dimensions as the experimental one. The numerical flow patterns are found to be in good agreement with the experimental manifestations.

Keywords: Micro-PIV, numerical investigations, secondary flows, velocity profiles.

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Authors: Pedro M. A. Vitoriano, Tito. G. Amaral

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Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) Systems are commonly used on Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) manufacturing. The use of this technology has been proven as highly efficient for process improvements and quality achievements. The correct extraction of the component for posterior analysis is a critical step of the AOI process. Nowadays, the Pattern Matching Algorithm is commonly used, although this algorithm requires extensive calculations and is time consuming. This paper will present an improved algorithm for the component localization process, with the capability of implementation in a parallel execution system.

Keywords: AOI, automated optical inspection, SMD, surface mounting devices, pattern matching, parallel execution.

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Authors: Sarun Phibanchon

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The solitary wave solution of the quadratic nonlinear Schrdinger equation is determined by the iterative method called Petviashvili method. This solution is also used for the initial condition for the time evolution to study the stability analysis. The spectral method is applied for the time evolution.

Keywords: soliton, iterative method, spectral method, plasma

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Authors: Chouvalit Khancome, Veera Boonjing

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This paper proposes a new solution to string matching problem. This solution constructs an inverted list representing a  string pattern to be searched for. It then uses a new algorithm to process an input string in a single pass. The preprocessing phase  takes 1) time complexity O(m) 2) space complexity O(1) where m is  the length of pattern. The searching phase time complexity takes 1)  O(m+α ) in average case 2) O(n/m) in the best case and 3) O(n) in  the worst case, where α is the number of comparing leading to  mismatch and n is the length of input text.

Keywords: String matching, inverted list, inverted index, pattern, algorithm.

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Authors: Bekim Avdiaj

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Everyday life is and will be influenced depending on the developments that society undergoes throughout the history. Particularly, countries undergoing transition from one system to another sustain the greatest impact in trying to embrace the modern system. Kosovo society had the fortune to experience a change, which began in late 1999 to continue up to date. One of the 'developments' of the time with the evolution in Kosovo society was the transition from the traditional education system into the modern one. This transformation began immediately after the war, to continue even today. It was started by internationals, which governed and administered Kosovo society, including education. There was a great 'evolution', because almost the entire system was 'changed'. Among other things, for the first time it was enabled the opening of private schools from the lowest level up to the colleges and universities. This paper will address: how much was ready the society to embrace such a 'cultural' change in education, respectively, how much were prepared teachers for such changes; as it was actually thought to be a modern education system, how much was it according to international standards; what are the results and current situation in Kosovo education.

Keywords: Education, evolution, reform, transformation.

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Authors: N. Fuad, M. N. Taib, R. Jailani, M. E. Marwan

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This paper discusses on power spectral density (PSD) characteristics which are extracted from three-dimensional (3D) electroencephalogram (EEG) models. The EEG signal recording was conducted on 150 healthy subjects. Development of 3D EEG models involves pre-processing of raw EEG signals and construction of spectrogram images. Then, the values of maximum PSD were extracted as features from the model. These features are analyzed using mean relative power (MRP) and different mean relative power (DMRP) technique to observe the pattern among different brain balancing indexes. The results showed that by implementing these techniques, the pattern of brain balancing indexes can be clearly observed. Some patterns are indicates between index 1 to index 5 for left frontal (LF) and right frontal (RF).

Keywords: Power spectral density, 3D EEG model, brain balancing, mean relative power, different mean relative power.

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Authors: Zhaocheng Shang

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In order to study the topic of cities crossing rivers, a Four-Dimensional Analysis Method consisting of timeline, X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis is proposed. Policies, plans, and their implications are summarized and researched along with the timeline. The X-axis is the direction which is parallel to the river. The research area was chosen because of its important connection function. It is proposed that more surface water network should be built because of the ecological orientation of the research area. And the analysis of groundwater makes it for sure that the proposal is feasible. After the blue water network is settled, the green landscape network which is surrounded by it could be planned. The direction which is transversal to the river (Y-axis) should run through the transportation axis so that the urban texture could stretch in an ecological way. Therefore, it is suggested that the work of the planning bureau and river bureau should be coordinated. The Z-axis research is on the section view of the river, especially on the Yellow River’s special feature of being a perched river. Based on water control safety demands, river parks could be constructed on the embankment buffer zone, whereas many kinds of ornamental trees could be used to build the buffer zone. City Crossing River is a typical case where we make use of landscaping to build a symbiotic relationship between the urban landscape architecture and the environment. The local environment should be respected in the process of city expansion. The planning order of "Benefit- Flood Control Safety" should be replaced by "Flood Control Safety - Landscape Architecture- People - Benefit".

Keywords: Blue-Green landscape network, city crossing river, four-dimensional analysis method, planning order.

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Authors: Xiaoling Dai

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Many Chinese artists have used digital photography to create works with features of Chinese landscape paintings since the 20th century. The ‘New Mountains and Water’ works created by digital techniques reflect the fusion of photographic techniques and traditional Chinese aesthetic thoughts. Borrowing from Chinese landscape paintings in the Song Dynasty, the Chinese photographer Yao Lu uses digital photography to reflect contemporary environmental construction in his series New Landscapes. By portraying a variety of natural environments brought by urbanization in the contemporary period, Lu deconstructs traditional Chinese paintings and reconstructs contemporary photographic practices. The primary object of this study is to investigate how Chinese photographer Yao Lu redefines and re-interprets the relationship between tradition and contemporaneity. In this study, Yao Lu’s series work New Landscapes is used for photo elicitation, which seeks to broaden understanding of the development of Chinese landscape photography. Furthermore, discourse analysis will be used to evaluate how Chinese social developments influence the creation of photographic practices. Through the visual and discourse analysis, this study aims to excavate the relationship between tradition and contemporaneity in Lu’s works. According to New Landscapes, the study argues that in Lu’s interpretations of landscapes, tradition and contemporaneity are seen to establish a new relationship. Traditional approaches to creation do not become obsolete over time. On the contrary, traditional notions and styles of creation can shed new light on contemporary issues or techniques.

Keywords: Chinese aesthetics, contemporaneity, New Landscapes, tradition, Yao Lu.

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Authors: K. Balamurugan, V. Dharmalingam, R. Muralisachithanandam, R. Sankaran

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This paper deals with the optimal choice and location of FACTS devices in deregulated power systems using Differential Evolution algorithm. The main objective of this paper is to achieve the power system economic generation allocation and dispatch in deregulated electricity market. Using the proposed method, the locations of the FACTS devices, their types and ratings are optimized simultaneously. Different kinds of FACTS devices such as TCSC and SVC are simulated in this study. Furthermore, their investment costs are also considered. Simulation results validate the capability of this new approach in minimizing the overall system cost function, which includes the investment costs of the FACTS devices and the bid offers of the market participants. The proposed algorithm is an effective and practical method for the choice and location of suitable FACTS devices in deregulated electricity market.

Keywords: FACTS Devices, Deregulated Electricity Market, Optimal Location, Differential Evolution, Mat Lab.

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Authors: Whee Yen Wong, Kim Yeow Tshai, Chan Wai Lee

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There are various approaches to implement quality improvements. Organizations aim for a management standard which is capable of providing customers with quality assurance on their product/service via continuous process improvement. Carefully planned steps are necessary to ensure the right quality improvement methodology (QIM) and business operations are consistent, reliable and truly meet the customers' needs. This paper traces the evolution of QIM in Malaysia-s Information Technology (IT) industry in the past, current and future; and highlights some of the thought of researchers who contributed to the science and practice of quality, and identifies leading methodologies in use today. Some of the misconceptions and mistakes leading to quality system failures will also be examined and discussed. This paper aims to provide a general overview of different types of QIMs available for IT businesses in maximizing business advantages, enhancing product quality, improving process routines and increasing performance earnings.

Keywords: Evolution, Integrating and Aligning, Malaysia's Quality Improvement Methodology, Six Sigma Data Quality Management.

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Authors: R.Balamurugan, S.Subramanian

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This paper presents the solution of power economic dispatch (PED) problem of generating units with valve point effects and multiple fuel options using Self-Adaptive Differential Evolution (SDE) algorithm. The global optimal solution by mathematical approaches becomes difficult for the realistic PED problem in power systems. The Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm is found to be a powerful evolutionary algorithm for global optimization in many real problems. In this paper the key parameters of control in DE algorithm such as the crossover constant CR and weight applied to random differential F are self-adapted. The PED problem formulation takes into consideration of nonsmooth fuel cost function due to valve point effects and multi fuel options of generator. The proposed approach has been examined and tested with the numerical results of PED problems with thirteen-generation units including valve-point effects, ten-generation units with multiple fuel options neglecting valve-point effects and ten-generation units including valve-point effects and multiple fuel options. The test results are promising and show the effectiveness of proposed approach for solving PED problems.

Keywords: Multiple fuels, power economic dispatch, selfadaptivedifferential evolution and valve-point effects.

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Authors: Mahmoud Elmezain, Samar El-shinawy

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Many approaches to pattern recognition are founded on probability theory, and can be broadly characterized as either generative or discriminative according to whether or not the distribution of the image features. Generative and discriminative models have very different characteristics, as well as complementary strengths and weaknesses. In this paper, we study these models to recognize the patterns of alphabet characters (A-Z) and numbers (0-9). To handle isolated pattern, generative model as Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and discriminative models like Conditional Random Field (CRF), Hidden Conditional Random Field (HCRF) and Latent-Dynamic Conditional Random Field (LDCRF) with different number of window size are applied on extracted pattern features. The gesture recognition rate is improved initially as the window size increase, but degrades as window size increase further. Experimental results show that the LDCRF is the best in terms of results than CRF, HCRF and HMM at window size equal 4. Additionally, our results show that; an overall recognition rates are 91.52%, 95.28%, 96.94% and 98.05% for CRF, HCRF, HMM and LDCRF respectively.

Keywords: Statistical Pattern Recognition, Generative Model, Discriminative Model, Human Computer Interaction.

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Authors: Meng-Hui Chen, Chen-Yu Kao, Chia-Yu Hsu, Pei-Chann Chang

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The main idea in this paper is using sequential pattern mining to find the information which is helpful for finding high performance solutions. By combining this information, it is defined as blocks. Using the blocks to generate artificial chromosomes (ACs) could improve the structure of solutions. Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDAs) is adapted to solve the combinatorial problems. Nevertheless many of these approaches are advantageous for this application, but only some of them are used to enhance the efficiency of application. Generating ACs uses patterns and EDAs could increase the diversity. According to the experimental result, the algorithm which we proposed has a better performance to solve the permutation flow-shop problems.

Keywords: Combinatorial problems, Sequential Pattern Mining, Estimation of Distribution Algorithms, Artificial Chromosomes.

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Authors: J. Hossen, A. Rahman, K. Samsudin, F. Rokhani, S. Sayeed, R. Hasan

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The Neuro-Fuzzy hybridization scheme has become of research interest in pattern classification over the past decade. The present paper proposes a novel Modified Adaptive Fuzzy Inference Engine (MAFIE) for pattern classification. A modified Apriori algorithm technique is utilized to reduce a minimal set of decision rules based on input output data sets. A TSK type fuzzy inference system is constructed by the automatic generation of membership functions and rules by the fuzzy c-means clustering and Apriori algorithm technique, respectively. The generated adaptive fuzzy inference engine is adjusted by the least-squares fit and a conjugate gradient descent algorithm towards better performance with a minimal set of rules. The proposed MAFIE is able to reduce the number of rules which increases exponentially when more input variables are involved. The performance of the proposed MAFIE is compared with other existing applications of pattern classification schemes using Fisher-s Iris and Wisconsin breast cancer data sets and shown to be very competitive.

Keywords: Apriori algorithm, Fuzzy C-means, MAFIE, TSK

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Authors: C. Kalamani, K. Paramasivam

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In VLSI, testing plays an important role. Major problem in testing are test data volume and test power. The important solution to reduce test data volume and test time is test data compression. The Proposed technique combines the bit maskdictionary and 2n pattern run length-coding method and provides a substantial improvement in the compression efficiency without introducing any additional decompression penalty. This method has been implemented using Mat lab and HDL Language to reduce test data volume and memory requirements. This method is applied on various benchmark test sets and compared the results with other existing methods. The proposed technique can achieve a compression ratio up to 86%.

Keywords: Bit Mask dictionary, 2n pattern run length code, system-on-chip, SOC, test data compression.

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Authors: Jun Seok Kim, Cheong-Sool Park, Jun-Geol Baek, Sung-Shick Kim

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Control chart pattern recognition is one of the most important tools to identify the process state in statistical process control. The abnormal process state could be classified by the recognition of unnatural patterns that arise from assignable causes. In this study, a wavelet based neural network approach is proposed for the recognition of control chart patterns that have various characteristics. The procedure of proposed control chart pattern recognizer comprises three stages. First, multi-resolution wavelet analysis is used to generate time-shape and time-frequency coefficients that have detail information about the patterns. Second, distance based features are extracted by a bi-directional Kohonen network to make reduced and robust information. Third, a back-propagation network classifier is trained by these features. The accuracy of the proposed method is shown by the performance evaluation with numerical results.

Keywords: Control chart pattern recognition, Multi-resolution wavelet analysis, Bi-directional Kohonen network, Back-propagation network, Feature extraction.

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Authors: Md. Zahangir Alom, Mei-Lan Piao, Md. Ashraful Alam, Nam Kim, Jae-Hyeung Park

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A new approach for facial expressions recognition based on face context and adaptively weighted sub-pattern PCA (Aw-SpPCA) has been presented in this paper. The facial region and others part of the body have been segmented from the complex environment based on skin color model. An algorithm has been proposed to accurate detection of face region from the segmented image based on constant ratio of height and width of face (δ= 1.618). The paper also discusses on new concept to detect the eye and mouth position. The desired part of the face has been cropped to analysis the expression of a person. Unlike PCA based on a whole image pattern, Aw-SpPCA operates directly on its sub patterns partitioned from an original whole pattern and separately extracts features from them. Aw-SpPCA can adaptively compute the contributions of each part and a classification task in order to enhance the robustness to both expression and illumination variations. Experiments on single standard face with five types of facial expression database shows that the proposed method is competitive.

Keywords: Aw-SpPC, Expressoin Recognition, Face context, Face Detection, PCA

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Authors: Bruce K. Ferguson

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The design requirements for successful human accommodation in urban spaces are well known; and the range of facilities available for meeting urban water quality and quantity requirements is also well established. Their competing requirements must be reconciled in order for urban spaces to be successful for both. This paper outlines the separate human and water imperatives and their interactions in urban spaces. Stormwater management facilities- relative potential contributions to urban spaces are contrasted, and design choices for achieving those potentials are described. This study uses human success of urban space as the evaluative criterion of stormwater amenity: human values call on stormwater facilities to contribute to successful human spaces. Placing water-s contribution under the overall idea of successful urban space is an evolution from previous subjective evaluations. The information is based on photographs and notes from approximately 1,000 stormwater facilities and urban sites collected during the last 35 years in North America and overseas, and the author-s experience on multi-disciplinary design teams. This conceptual study combines the disciplinary roles of engineering, landscape architecture, and sociology in effecting successful urban design.

Keywords: Stormwater, SUDS, Urban design, Values, Urban space.

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Authors: Parvaneh Shabanzadeh, Malik Hj Abu Hassan, Leong Wah June, Maryam Mohagheghtabar

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Clustering is one of an interesting data mining topics that can be applied in many fields. Recently, the problem of cluster analysis is formulated as a problem of nonsmooth, nonconvex optimization, and an algorithm for solving the cluster analysis problem based on nonsmooth optimization techniques is developed. This optimization problem has a number of characteristics that make it challenging: it has many local minimum, the optimization variables can be either continuous or categorical, and there are no exact analytical derivatives. In this study we show how to apply a particular class of optimization methods known as pattern search methods to address these challenges. These methods do not explicitly use derivatives, an important feature that has not been addressed in previous studies. Results of numerical experiments are presented which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords: Clustering functions, Non-smooth Optimization, Nonconvex Optimization, Pattern Search Method.

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Authors: Hazem M. El-Bakry, Qiangfu Zhao

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Recently, neural networks have shown good results for detection of a certain pattern in a given image. In our previous papers [1-5], a fast algorithm for pattern detection using neural networks was presented. Such algorithm was designed based on cross correlation in the frequency domain between the input image and the weights of neural networks. Image conversion into symmetric shape was established so that fast neural networks can give the same results as conventional neural networks. Another configuration of symmetry was suggested in [3,4] to improve the speed up ratio. In this paper, our previous algorithm for fast neural networks is developed. The frequency domain cross correlation is modified in order to compensate for the symmetric condition which is required by the input image. Two new ideas are introduced to modify the cross correlation algorithm. Both methods accelerate the speed of the fast neural networks as there is no need for converting the input image into symmetric one as previous. Theoretical and practical results show that both approaches provide faster speed up ratio than the previous algorithm.

Keywords: Fast Pattern Detection, Neural Networks, Modified Cross Correlation

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Authors: L. Almulla

Abstract:

Native plants are better adapted to the local environment providing a more natural effect on landscape projects; their use will both conserve natural resources and produce sustainable greenery. Continuation of evaluation of additional native plants is essential to increase diversity of plant resources for greenery projects. Therefore, in this project an effort was made to study the mass multiplication of further native plants for greenery applications. Standardization of vegetative propagation methods is essential for conservation and sustainable utilization of native plants in restoration projects. Moreover, these simple propagation methods can be readily adapted by the local nursery sector in Kuwait. In the present study, various treatments were used to mass multiply selected plants using vegetative parts to secure maximum rooting and initial growth. Soft or semi-hardwood cuttings of selected native plants were collected from mother plants and subjected to different treatments. Pennisetum divisum can be vegetatively propagated by cuttings/off-shoots. However, Tamarix aucheriana showed maximum number of rooted cuttings and stronger vigor seedlings with the lowest growth hormone concentration. Standardizing the propagation techniques for the native plant species will add to the rehabilitation and landscape revegetation projects in Kuwait.

Keywords: Kuwait desert, landscape, rooting percentage vegetative propagation.

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Authors: Mohamed El Aroussi, Mohammed El Hassouni, Sanaa Ghouzali, Mohammed Rziza, Driss Aboutajdine

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In this paper the problem of face recognition under variable illumination conditions is considered. Most of the works in the literature exhibit good performance under strictly controlled acquisition conditions, but the performance drastically drop when changes in pose and illumination occur, so that recently number of approaches have been proposed to deal with such variability. The aim of this work is to introduce an efficient local appearance feature extraction method based steerable pyramid (SP) for face recognition. Local information is extracted from SP sub-bands using LBP(Local binary Pattern). The underlying statistics allow us to reduce the required amount of data to be stored. The experiments carried out on different face databases confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Face recognition (FR), Steerable pyramid (SP), localBinary Pattern (LBP).

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Authors: Valeri A. Makarov, Ezequiel Del Rio, Manuel G. Bedia, Manuel G. Velarde, Werner Ebeling

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We proposed the use of a Toda-Rayleigh ring as a central pattern generator (CPG) for controlling hexapodal robots. We show that the ring composed of six Toda-Rayleigh units coupled to the limb actuators reproduces the most common hexapodal gaits. We provide an electrical circuit implementation of the CPG and test our theoretical results obtaining fixed gaits. Then we propose a method of incorporation of the actuator (motor) dynamics in the CPG. With this approach we close the loop CPG – environment – CPG, thus obtaining a decentralized model for the leg control that does not require higher level intervention to the CPG during locomotion in a nonhomogeneous environments. The gaits generated by the novel CPG are not fixed, but adapt to the current robot bahvior.

Keywords: Central pattern generator, electrical circuit, hexapod robot

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Authors: Mamidi Ramakrishna Rao

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Doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG) due to their advantages like speed variation and four-quadrant operation, find its application in wind turbines. DFIG besides supplying power to the grid has to support reactive power (kvar) under grid voltage variations, should contribute minimum fault current during faults, have high efficiency, minimum weight, adequate rotor protection during crow-bar-operation from +20% to -20% of rated speed.  To achieve the optimum performance, a good electromagnetic design of DFIG is required. In this paper, a simple and heuristic global optimization – Differential Evolution has been used. Variables considered are lamination details such as slot dimensions, stack diameters, air gap length, and generator stator and rotor stack length. Two operating conditions have been considered - voltage and speed variations. Constraints included were reactive power supplied to the grid and limiting fault current and torque. The optimization has been executed separately for three objective functions - maximum efficiency, weight reduction, and grid fault stator currents. Subsequent calculations led to the conclusion that designs determined through differential evolution help in determining an optimum electrical design for each objective function.

Keywords: Design optimization, performance, doubly fed induction generators, DFIG, differential evolution.

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Authors: Dennis A. Apuan

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Categorical data based on description of the agricultural landscape imposed some mathematical and analytical limitations. This problem however can be overcome by data transformation through coding scheme and the use of non-parametric multivariate approach. The present study describes data transformation from qualitative to numerical descriptors. In a collection of 103 random soil samples over a 60 hectare field, categorical data were obtained from the following variables: levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, pH, hue, chroma, value and data on topography, vegetation type, and the presence of rocks. Categorical data were coded, and Spearman-s rho correlation was then calculated using PAST software ver. 1.78 in which Principal Component Analysis was based. Results revealed successful data transformation, generating 1030 quantitative descriptors. Visualization based on the new set of descriptors showed clear differences among sites, and amount of variation was successfully measured. Possible applications of data transformation are discussed.

Keywords: data transformation, numerical descriptors, principalcomponent analysis

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Authors: K. Massila, R. D. Stein, S. M. Suhaizan, A. A. Azlianor

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A number of mass spectrometry applications are already available as web-based and windows-based systems to calculate isotope pattern and to display the mass spectrum based on the specific molecular formula besides providing necessary information. These applications were evaluated and compared with our new alternative application called Theoretical Isotope Generator (TIG) in terms of its functionality and features provided to prove this new application is working better and performing well. TIG provides extra features than others, complete with several functionality such as drawing, normalizing and zooming the generated graph that convey with the molecular information in a number of formats by providing the details of the calculation and molecules. Thus, any chemist, students, lecturers and researchers from anywhere could use TIG to gain related information on molecules and their relative intensity.

Keywords: Isotope pattern calculator, mass number, massspectrum, relative intensity.

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Authors: Zhoucheng Bao, Haiyan Zhu, Tingting Pang, Zuling Wang

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This paper presents a multi population Differential Evolution (DE) with adaptive mutation and local search for global optimization, named AMMADE in order to better coordinate the cooperation between the populations and the rational use of resources. In AMMADE, the population is divided based on the Euclidean distance sorting method at each generation to appropriately coordinate the cooperation between subpopulations and the usage of resources, such that the best-performed subpopulation will get more computing resources in the next generation. Further, an adaptive local search strategy is employed on the best-performed subpopulation to achieve a balanced search. The proposed algorithm has been tested by solving optimization problems taken from CEC2014 benchmark problems. Experimental results show that our algorithm can achieve a competitive or better result than related methods. The results also confirm the significance of devised strategies in the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: Differential evolution, multi-mutation strategies, memetic algorithm, adaptive local search.

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