Search results for: transition measure.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1441

Search results for: transition measure.

1351 Vessel Inscribed Trigonometry to Measure the Vessel Progressive Orientations in the Digital Fundus Image

Authors: Pil Un Kim, Yunjung Lee, Gihyoun Lee, Jin Ho Cho, Myoung Nam Kim

Abstract:

In this paper, the vessel inscribed trigonometry (VITM) for the vessel progression orientation (VPO) is proposed in the two-dimensional fundus image. The VPO is a major factor in the optic disc (OD) detection which is a basic process in the retina analysis. To measure the VPO, skeletons of vessel are used. First, the vessels are classified into three classes as vessel end, vessel branch and vessel stem. And the chain code maps of VS are generated. Next, two farthest neighborhoods of each point on VS are searched by the proposed angle restriction. Lastly, a gradient of the straight line between two farthest neighborhoods is estimated to measure the VPO. VITM is validated by comparing with manual results and 2D Gaussian templates. It is confirmed that VPO of the proposed mensuration is correct enough to detect OD from the results of experiment which applied VITM to detect OD in fundus images.

Keywords: Angle measurement, Optic disc, Retina vessel, Vessel progression orientation.

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1350 Development of the Maturity Sensor Prototype and Method of Its Placement in the Structure

Authors: Ye. B. Utepov, A. S. Tulebekova, A. B. Kazkeyev

Abstract:

Maturity sensors are used to determine concrete strength by the non-destructive method. The method of placement of the maturity sensors determines their number required for a certain frame of a monolithic building. This paper proposes a cheap prototype of an embedded wireless sensor for monitoring concrete structures, as well as an alternative strategy for placing sensors based on the transitional boundaries of the temperature distribution of concrete curing, which were determined by building a heat map of the temperature distribution, where unknown values are calculated by the method of inverse distance weighing. The developed prototype can simultaneously measure temperature and relative humidity over a smartphone-controlled time interval. It implements a maturity method to assess the in-situ strength of concrete, which is considered an alternative to the traditional shock impulse and compression testing method used in Kazakhstan. The prototype was tested in laboratory and field conditions. The tests were aimed at studying the effect of internal and external temperature and relative humidity on concrete's strength gain. Based on an experimentally poured concrete slab with randomly integrated maturity sensors, it the transition boundaries form elliptical forms were determined. Temperature distribution over the largest diameter of the ellipses was plotted, resulting in correct and inverted parabolas. As a result, the distance between the closest opposite crossing points of the parabolas is accepted as the maximum permissible step for setting the maturity sensors. The proposed placement strategy can be applied to sensors that measure various continuous phenomena such as relative humidity. Prototype testing has also revealed Bluetooth inconvenience due to weak signal and inability to access multiple prototypes simultaneously. For this reason, further prototype upgrades are planned in the future work.

Keywords: Heat map, placement strategy, temperature and relative humidity, wireless embedded sensor.

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1349 A Comparative Study of Global Power Grids and Global Fossil Energy Pipelines Using GIS Technology

Authors: Wenhao Wang, Xinzhi Xu, Limin Feng, Wei Cong

Abstract:

This paper comprehensively investigates current development status of global power grids and fossil energy pipelines (oil and natural gas), proposes a standard visual platform of global power and fossil energy based on Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. In this visual platform, a series of systematic visual models is proposed with global spatial data, systematic energy and power parameters. Under this visual platform, the current Global Power Grids Map and Global Fossil Energy Pipelines Map are plotted within more than 140 countries and regions across the world. Using the multi-scale fusion data processing and modeling methods, the world’s global fossil energy pipelines and power grids information system basic database is established, which provides important data supporting global fossil energy and electricity research. Finally, through the systematic and comparative study of global fossil energy pipelines and global power grids, the general status of global fossil energy and electricity development are reviewed, and energy transition in key areas are evaluated and analyzed. Through the comparison analysis of fossil energy and clean energy, the direction of relevant research is pointed out for clean development and energy transition.

Keywords: Energy Transition, geographic information system, fossil energy, power systems.

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1348 Prioritization of Mutation Test Generation with Centrality Measure

Authors: Supachai Supmak, Yachai Limpiyakorn

Abstract:

Mutation testing can be applied for the quality assessment of test cases. Prioritization of mutation test generation has been a critical element of the industry practice that would contribute to the evaluation of test cases. The industry generally delivers the product under the condition of time to the market and thus, inevitably sacrifices software testing tasks, even though many test cases are required for software verification. This paper presents an approach of applying a social network centrality measure, PageRank, to prioritize mutation test generation. The source code with the highest values of PageRank, will be focused first when developing their test cases as these modules are vulnerable for defects or anomalies which may cause the consequent defects in many other associated modules. Moreover, the approach would help identify the reducible test cases in the test suite, still maintaining the same criteria as the original number of test cases.

Keywords: Software testing, mutation test, network centrality measure, test case prioritization.

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1347 Optimal Aggregate Production Planning with Fuzzy Data

Authors: Wen-Lung Huang, Shih-Pin Chen

Abstract:

This paper investigates the optimization problem of multi-product aggregate production planning (APP) with fuzzy data. From a comprehensive viewpoint of conserving the fuzziness of input information, this paper proposes a method that can completely describe the membership function of the performance measure. The idea is based on the well-known Zadeh-s extension principle which plays an important role in fuzzy theory. In the proposed solution procedure, a pair of mathematical programs parameterized by possibility level a is formulated to calculate the bounds of the optimal performance measure at a . Then the membership function of the optimal performance measure is constructed by enumerating different values of a . Solutions obtained from the proposed method contain more information, and can offer more chance to achieve the feasible disaggregate plan. This is helpful to the decision-maker in practical applications.

Keywords: fuzzy data, aggregate production planning, membership function, parametric programming

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1346 Distribution Sampling of Vector Variance without Duplications

Authors: Erna T. Herdiani, Maman A. Djauhari

Abstract:

In recent years, the use of vector variance as a measure of multivariate variability has received much attention in wide range of statistics. This paper deals with a more economic measure of multivariate variability, defined as vector variance minus all duplication elements. For high dimensional data, this will increase the computational efficiency almost 50 % compared to the original vector variance. Its sampling distribution will be investigated to make its applications possible.

Keywords: Asymptotic distribution, covariance matrix, likelihood ratio test, vector variance.

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1345 A New Approach to Optimal Control Problem Constrained by Canonical Form

Authors: B. Farhadinia

Abstract:

In this article, it is considered a class of optimal control problems constrained by differential and integral constraints are called canonical form. A modified measure theoretical approach is introduced to solve this class of optimal control problems.

Keywords: control problem, Canonical form, Measure theory.

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1344 Durability Study of Pultruded CFRP Plates under Sustained Bending in Distilled Water and Seawater Immersions: Effects on the Visco-Elastic Properties

Authors: Innocent Kafodya, Guijun Xian

Abstract:

This paper presents effects of distilled water, seawater and sustained bending strains of 30% and 50% ultimate strain at room temperature, on the durability of unidirectional pultruded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates. In this study, dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) was used to investigate the synergic effects of the immersions and bending strains on the viscoelastic properties of (CFRP) such as storage modulus, tan delta and glass transition temperature. The study reveals that the storage modulus and glass transition temperature increase while tan delta peak decreases in the initial stage of both immersions due to the progression of curing. The storage modulus and Tg subsequently decrease and tan delta increases due to the matrix plasticization. The blister induced damages in the unstrained seawater samples enhance water uptake and cause more serious degradation of Tg and storage modulus than in water immersion. Increasing sustained bending decreases Tg and storage modulus in a long run for both immersions due to resin matrix cracking and debonding. The combined effects of immersions and strains are not clearly reflected due to the statistical effects of DMA sample sizes and competing processes of molecular reorientation and postcuring.

Keywords: Pultruded CFRP plate, bending strain, glass transition temperature, storage modulus, tan delta.

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1343 Target and Equalizer Design for Perpendicular Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording

Authors: P. Tueku, P. Supnithi, R. Wongsathan

Abstract:

Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) is one of the leading technologies identified to enable areal density beyond 1 Tb/in2 of magnetic recording systems. A key challenge to HAMR designing is accuracy of positioning, timing of the firing laser, power of the laser, thermo-magnetic head, head-disk interface and cooling system. We study the effect of HAMR parameters on transition center and transition width. The HAMR is model using Thermal Williams-Comstock (TWC) and microtrack model. The target and equalizer are designed by the minimum mean square error (MMSE). The result shows that the unit energy constraint outperforms other constraints.

Keywords: Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording, Thermal Williams-Comstock equation, Microtrack model, Equalizer.

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1342 Is It Important to Measure the Volumetric Mass Density of Nanofluids?

Authors: Z. Haddad, C. Abid, O. Rahli, O. Margeat, W. Dachraoui, A. Mataoui

Abstract:

The present study aims to measure the volumetric mass density of NiPd-heptane nanofluids synthesized using a one step method known as thermal decomposition of metal-surfactant complexes. The particle concentration is up to 7.55g/l and the temperature range of the experiment is from 20°C to 50°C. The measured values were compared with the mixture theory and good agreement between the theoretical equation and measurement were obtained. Moreover, the available nanofluids volumetric mass density data in the literature is reviewed.

Keywords: NiPd nanoparticles, nanofluids, volumetric mass density, stability.

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1341 Finding Viable Pollution Routes in an Urban Network under a Predefined Cost

Authors: Dimitra Alexiou, Stefanos Katsavounis, Ria Kalfakakou

Abstract:

In an urban area the determination of transportation routes should be planned so as to minimize the provoked pollution taking into account the cost of such routes. In the sequel these routes are cited as pollution routes.

The transportation network is expressed by a weighted graph G=(V,E,D,P) where every vertex represents a location to be served and contains unordered pairs (edges) of elements in V that indicate a simple road. The distances / cost and a weight that depict the provoked air pollution by a vehicle transition at every road are assigned to each road as well. These are the items of set D andrespectively.

Furthermore the investigated pollution routes must not exceed predefined corresponding values concerning the route cost and the route pollution level during the vehicle transition.

In this paper we present an algorithm that generates such routes in order that the decision maker selects the most appropriate one. 

Keywords: bi-criteria, pollution, shortest paths.

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1340 Incorporating Semantic Similarity Measure in Genetic Algorithm : An Approach for Searching the Gene Ontology Terms

Authors: Razib M. Othman, Safaai Deris, Rosli M. Illias, Hany T. Alashwal, Rohayanti Hassan, FarhanMohamed

Abstract:

The most important property of the Gene Ontology is the terms. These control vocabularies are defined to provide consistent descriptions of gene products that are shareable and computationally accessible by humans, software agent, or other machine-readable meta-data. Each term is associated with information such as definition, synonyms, database references, amino acid sequences, and relationships to other terms. This information has made the Gene Ontology broadly applied in microarray and proteomic analysis. However, the process of searching the terms is still carried out using traditional approach which is based on keyword matching. The weaknesses of this approach are: ignoring semantic relationships between terms, and highly depending on a specialist to find similar terms. Therefore, this study combines semantic similarity measure and genetic algorithm to perform a better retrieval process for searching semantically similar terms. The semantic similarity measure is used to compute similitude strength between two terms. Then, the genetic algorithm is employed to perform batch retrievals and to handle the situation of the large search space of the Gene Ontology graph. The computational results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: Gene Ontology, Semantic similarity measure, Genetic algorithm, Ontology search

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1339 Increase of Organization in Complex Systems

Authors: Georgi Yordanov Georgiev, Michael Daly, Erin Gombos, Amrit Vinod, Gajinder Hoonjan

Abstract:

Measures of complexity and entropy have not converged to a single quantitative description of levels of organization of complex systems. The need for such a measure is increasingly necessary in all disciplines studying complex systems. To address this problem, starting from the most fundamental principle in Physics, here a new measure for quantity of organization and rate of self-organization in complex systems based on the principle of least (stationary) action is applied to a model system - the central processing unit (CPU) of computers. The quantity of organization for several generations of CPUs shows a double exponential rate of change of organization with time. The exact functional dependence has a fine, S-shaped structure, revealing some of the mechanisms of self-organization. The principle of least action helps to explain the mechanism of increase of organization through quantity accumulation and constraint and curvature minimization with an attractor, the least average sum of actions of all elements and for all motions. This approach can help describe, quantify, measure, manage, design and predict future behavior of complex systems to achieve the highest rates of self organization to improve their quality. It can be applied to other complex systems from Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Ecology, Economics, Cities, network theory and others where complex systems are present.

Keywords: Organization, self-organization, complex system, complexification, quantitative measure, principle of least action, principle of stationary action, attractor, progressive development, acceleration, stochastic.

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1338 Migration of the Relational Data Base (RDB) to the Object Relational Data Base (ORDB)

Authors: Alae El Alami, Mohamed Bahaj

Abstract:

This paper proposes an approach for translating an existing relational database (RDB) schema into ORDB. The transition is done with methods that can extract various functions from a RDB which is based on aggregations, associations between the various tables, and the reflexive relationships. These methods can extract even the inheritance knowing that no process of reverse engineering can know that it is an Inheritance; therefore, our approach exceeded all of the previous studies made for ​​the transition from RDB to ORDB. In summation, the creation of the New Data Model (NDM) that stocks the RDB in a form of a structured table, and from the NDM we create our navigational model in order to simplify the implementation object from which we develop our different types. Through these types we precede to the last step, the creation of tables.

The step mentioned above does not require any human interference. All this is done automatically, and a prototype has already been created which proves the effectiveness of this approach.

Keywords: Relational databases, Object-relational databases, Semantic enrichment.

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1337 Optimum Performance Measures of Interdependent Queuing System with Controllable Arrival Rates

Authors: S. S. Mishra

Abstract:

In this paper, an attempt is made to compute the total optimal cost of interdependent queuing system with controllable arrival rates as an important performance measure of the system. An example of application has also been presented to exhibit the use of the model. Finally, numerical demonstration based on a computing algorithm and variational effects of the model with the help of the graph have also been presented.

Keywords: Computing, Controllable arrival rate, Optimum performance measure.

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1336 A New Approach to Design Policies for the Adoption of Alternative Fuel-Technology Powertrains

Authors: Reza Fazeli, Vitor Leal, Jorge Pinho de Sousa

Abstract:

Planning the transition period for the adoption of alternative fuel-technology powertrains is a challenging task that requires sophisticated analysis tools. In this study, a system dynamic approach was applied to analyze the bi-directional interaction between the development of the refueling station network and vehicle sales. Besides, the developed model was used to estimate the transition cost to reach a predefined target (share of alternative fuel vehicles) in different scenarios. Several scenarios have been analyzed to investigate the effectiveness and cost of incentives on the initial price of vehicles, and on the evolution of fuel and refueling stations. Obtained results show that a combined set of incentives will be more effective than just a single specific type of incentives.

Keywords: adoption of Alternative Fuel Vehicles, System Dynamic Analysis, Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles

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1335 Performance Modeling and Availability Analysis of Yarn Dyeing System of a Textile Industry

Authors: P. C. Tewari, Rajiv Kumar, Dinesh Khanduja

Abstract:

This paper discusses the performance modeling and availability analysis of Yarn Dyeing System of a Textile Industry. The Textile Industry is a complex and repairable engineering system. Yarn Dyeing System of Textile Industry consists of five subsystems arranged in series configuration. For performance modeling and analysis of availability, a performance evaluating model has been developed with the help of mathematical formulation based on Markov-Birth-Death Process. The differential equations have been developed on the basis of Probabilistic Approach using a Transition Diagram. These equations have further been solved using normalizing condition in order to develop the steady state availability, a performance measure of the system concerned. The system performance has been further analyzed with the help of decision matrices. These matrices provide various availability levels for different combinations of failure and repair rates for various subsystems. The findings of this paper are therefore, considered to be useful for the analysis of availability and determination of the best possible maintenance strategies which can be implemented in future to enhance the system performance.

Keywords: Availability Analysis, Markov Process, Performance Modeling, Steady State Availability.

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1334 Development of a Nano-Alumina-Zirconia Composite Catalyst as an Active Thin Film in Biodiesel Production

Authors: N. Marzban, J. K. Heydarzadeh M. Pourmohammadbagher, M. H. Hatami, A. Samia

Abstract:

A nano-alumina-zirconia composite catalyst was synthesized by a simple aqueous sol-gel method using AlCl3.6H2O and ZrCl4 as precursors. Thermal decomposition of the precursor and subsequent formation of γ-Al2O3 and t-Zr were investigated by thermal analysis. XRD analysis showed that γ-Al2O3 and t-ZrO2 phases were formed at 700 °C. FT-IR analysis also indicated that the phase transition to γ-Al2O3 occurred in corroboration with X-ray studies. TEM analysis of the calcined powder revealed that spherical particles were in the range of 8-12 nm. The nano-alumina-zirconia composite particles were mesoporous and uniformly distributed in their crystalline phase. In order to measure the catalytic activity, esterification reaction was carried out. Biodiesel, as a renewable fuel, was formed in a continuous packed column reactor. Free fatty acid (FFA) was esterified with ethanol in a heterogeneous catalytic reactor. It was found that the synthesized γ-Al2O3/ZrO2 composite had the potential to be used as a heterogeneous base catalyst for biodiesel production processes.

Keywords: Nano-alumina-zirconia, composite catalyst, thin film, biodiesel.

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1333 Iron Doped Biomaterial Calcium Borate: Synthesis and Characterization

Authors: G. Çelik Gül, F. Kurtuluş

Abstract:

Colemanite is the most common borate mineral, and the main source of the boron required by plants, human, and earth. Transition metals exhibit optical and physical properties such as; non-linear optical character, structural diversity, thermal stability, long cycle life and luminescent radiation. The doping of colemanite with a transition metal, bring it very interesting and attractive properties which make them applicable in industry. Iron doped calcium borate was synthesized by conventional solid state method at 1200 °C for 12 h with a systematic pathway. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive analyze (SEM/EDS) were used to characterize structural and morphological properties. Also, thermal properties were recorded by thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA). 

Keywords: Colemanite, conventional synthesis, powder x-ray diffraction, borates.

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1332 Noise Performance of Millimeter-wave Silicon Based Mixed Tunneling Avalanche Transit Time(MITATT) Diode

Authors: Aritra Acharyya, Moumita Mukherjee, J. P. Banerjee

Abstract:

A generalized method for small-signal simulation of avalanche noise in Mixed Tunneling Avalanche Transit Time (MITATT) device is presented in this paper where the effect of series resistance is taken into account. The method is applied to a millimeter-wave Double Drift Region (DDR) MITATT device based on Silicon to obtain noise spectral density and noise measure as a function of frequency for different values of series resistance. It is found that noise measure of the device at the operating frequency (122 GHz) with input power density of 1010 Watt/m2 is about 35 dB for hypothetical parasitic series resistance of zero ohm (estimated junction temperature = 500 K). Results show that the noise measure increases as the value of parasitic resistance increases.

Keywords: Noise Analysis, Silicon MITATT, Admittancecharacteristics, Noise spectral density.

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1331 A Novel Three Phase Hybrid Unidirectional Rectifier for High Power Factor Applications

Authors: P. Nammalvar, P. Meganathan

Abstract:

This paper presents a hybrid three phase rectifier for high power factor application. This rectifier is composed by zero voltage transition (ZVT) and zero current transition (ZCT) boost converter with three phase diode bridge rectifier, in parallel with a six pulse three phase pulse width modulation (PWM) controlled rectifier. The proposed topology is capable of high power factor with DC output voltage regulation by providing sinusoidal input. Also, it increases the overall efficiency of the new hybrid rectifier to 94.56% and the total harmonic distortion of the hybrid structure varies from 0% to 16% at nominal output power. This topology was simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment and the output waveforms presented with experimental result.

Keywords: Hybrid Rectifier, Total Harmonic Distortion, Power Quality, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), Unidirectional Rectifier.

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1330 Bioremediation Potential in Recalcitrant Areas of PCE in Alluvial Fan Deposits

Authors: J. Herrero, D. Puigserver, I. Nijenhuis, K. Kuntze, J. M. Carmona

Abstract:

In the transition zone between aquifers and basal aquitards, the perchloroethene (PCE)-pools are more recalcitrant than those elsewhere in the aquifer. Although biodegradation of chloroethenes occur in this zone, it is a slow process and a remediation strategy is needed. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that combined strategy of biostimulation and in situ chemical reduction (ISCR) is more efficient than the two separated strategies. Four different microcosm experiments with sediment and groundwater of a selected field site where an aged pool exists at the bottom of a transition zone were designed under i) natural conditions, ii) biostimulation with lactic acid, iii) ISCR with zero-value iron (ZVI) and under iv) a combined strategy with lactic acid and ZVI. Biotic and abiotic dehalogenation, terminal electron acceptor processes and evolution of microbial communities were determined for each experiment. The main results were: i) reductive dehalogenation of PCE-pools occurs under sulfate-reducing conditions; ii) biostimulation with lactic acid supports more pronounced reductive dehalogenation of PCE and trichloroethene (TCE), but results in an accumulation of 1,2-cis-dichloroethene (cDCE); iii) ISCR with ZVI produces a sustained dehalogenation of PCE and its metabolites iv) combined strategy of biostimulation and ISCR results in a fast dehalogenation of PCE and TCE and a sustained dehalogenation of cisDCE. These findings suggest that biostimulation and ISCR with ZVI are the most suitable strategies for a complete reductive dehalogenation of PCE-pools in the transition zone and further to enable the dissolution of dense non-aqueous phase liquids.

Keywords: Aged PCE-pool, anaerobic microcosm experiment, biostimulation, in situ chemical reduction, natural attenuation.

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1329 A Study on the Waiting Time for the First Employment of Arts Graduates in Sri Lanka

Authors: Imali T. Jayamanne, K. P. Asoka Ramanayake

Abstract:

Transition from tertiary level education to employment is one of the challenges that many fresh university graduates face after graduation. The transition period or the waiting time to obtain the first employment varies with the socio-economic factors and the general characteristics of a graduate. Compared to other fields of study, Arts graduates in Sri Lanka, have to wait a long time to find their first employment. The objective of this study is to identify the determinants of the transition from higher education to employment of these graduates using survival models. The study is based on a survey that was conducted in the year 2016 on a stratified random sample of Arts graduates from Sri Lankan universities who had graduated in 2012. Among the 469 responses, 36 (8%) waiting times were interval censored and 13 (3%) were right censored. Waiting time for the first employment varied between zero to 51 months. Initially, the log-rank and the Gehan-Wilcoxon tests were performed to identify the significant factors. Gender, ethnicity, GCE Advanced level English grade, civil status, university, class received, degree type, sector of first employment, type of first employment and the educational qualifications required for the first employment were significant at 10%. The Cox proportional hazards model was fitted to model the waiting time for first employment with these significant factors. All factors, except ethnicity and type of employment were significant at 5%. However, since the proportional hazard assumption was violated, the lognormal Accelerated failure time (AFT) model was fitted to model the waiting time for the first employment. The same factors were significant in the AFT model as in Cox proportional model.

Keywords: AFT model, first employment, proportional hazard, survey design, waiting time.

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1328 On the Existence and Global Attractivity of Solutions of a Functional Integral Equation

Authors: Asadollah Aghajani, Yaghoub Jalilian

Abstract:

Using the concept of measure of noncompactness, we present some results concerning the existence, uniform local attractivity and global attractivity of solutions for a functional integral equation. Our results improve and extend some previous known results and based on weaker conditions. Some examples which show that our results are applicable when the previous results are inapplicable are also included.

Keywords: Functional integral equation, fixed-point, measure of noncompactness, attractive solution, asymptotic stability.

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1327 Size Dependence of 1D Superconductivity in NbN Nanowires on Suspended Carbon Nanotubes

Authors: T. Hashimoto, N. Miki, H. Maki

Abstract:

We report the size dependence of 1D superconductivity in ultrathin (10-130 nm) nanowires produced by coating suspended carbon nanotubes with a superconducting NbN thin film. The resistance-temperature characteristic curves for samples with ≧25 nm wire width show the superconducting transition. On the other hand, for the samples with 10-nm width, the superconducting transition is not exhibited owing to the quantum size effect. The differential resistance vs. current density characteristic curves show some peak, indicating that Josephson junctions are formed in nanowires. The presence of the Josephson junctions is well explained by the measurement of the magnetic field dependence of the critical current. These understanding allow for the further expansion of the potential application of NbN, which is utilized for single photon detectors and so on.

Keywords: NbN nanowire, carbon nanotube, quantum size effect, Josephson junction

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1326 Using “Eckel” Model to Measure Income Smoothing Practices: The Case of French Companies

Authors: Feddaoui Amina

Abstract:

Income smoothing represents an attempt on the part of the company's management to reduce variations in earnings through the manipulation of the accounting principles. In this study, we aimed to measure income smoothing practices in a sample of 30 French joint stock companies during the period (2007-2009), we used Dummy variables method and “ECKEL” model to measure income smoothing practices and Binomial test accourding to SPSS program, to confirm or refute our hypothesis. This study concluded that there are no significant statistical indicators of income smoothing practices in the sample studied of French companies during the period (2007-2009), so the income series in the same sample studied of is characterized by stability and non-volatility without any intervention of management through accounting manipulation. However, this type of accounting manipulation should be taken into account and efforts should be made by control bodies to apply Eckel model and generalize its use at the global level.

Keywords: Income, smoothing, “Eckel”, French companies.

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1325 Aircraft Supplier Selection Process with Fuzzy Proximity Measure Method using Multiple Criteria Group Decision Making Analysis

Authors: C. Ardil

Abstract:

Being effective in every organizational activity has become necessary due to the escalating level of competition in all areas of corporate life. In the context of supply chain management, aircraft supplier selection is currently one of the most crucial activities. It is possible to choose the best aircraft supplier and deliver efficiency in terms of cost, quality, delivery time, economic status, and institutionalization if a systematic supplier selection approach is used. In this study, an effective multiple criteria decision-making methodology, proximity measure method (PMM), is used within a fuzzy environment based on the vague structure of the real working environment. The best appropriate aircraft suppliers are identified and ranked after the proposed multiple criteria decision making technique is used in a real-life scenario.

Keywords: Aircraft supplier selection, multiple criteria decision making, fuzzy sets, proximity measure method, Minkowski distance family function, Hausdorff distance function, PMM, MCDM

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1324 The Role of Middle Class in Forming of Consumption Habits of Market Institutions among Kazakh Households in Transition Period

Authors: Daurenbek Kuleimenov, Elmira Otar

Abstract:

Market institutions extension within transit societies  contributes to constituting the new type of middle class and  households livelihood strategies. The middle class households as an  example of prosperity in many cases encourage the ordinary ones to  do the same economic actions. Therefore, practices of using market  institutions by middle class households in transit societies, which are  mostly characterized by huge influence of traditional attitudes, can  carry habitual features for the whole society. Market institutions  consumption habit of the middle class households makes them  trendsetters of economic habits of other households while adapting to  the market economy. Moreover different social-economic positions  of households lead them to different consuming results such as  worsening or improving household economy due to indebtedness.

 

Keywords: Middle class, Households, Market institutions, Transition.

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1323 Inconsistency Discovery in Multiple State Diagrams

Authors: Mohammad N. Alanazi, David A. Gustafson

Abstract:

In this article, we introduce a new approach for analyzing UML designs to detect the inconsistencies between multiple state diagrams and sequence diagrams. The Super State Analysis (SSA) identifies the inconsistencies in super states, single step transitions, and sequences. Because SSA considers multiple UML state diagrams, it discovers inconsistencies that cannot be discovered when considering only a single UML state diagram. We have introduced a transition set that captures relationship information that is not specifiable in UML diagrams. The SSA model uses the transition set to link transitions of multiple state diagrams together. The analysis generates three different sets automatically. These sets are compared to the provided sets to detect the inconsistencies. SSA identifies five types of inconsistencies: impossible super states, unreachable super states, illegal transitions, missing transitions, and illegal sequences.

Keywords: Modeling Languages, Object-Oriented Analysis, Sequence Diagrams, Software Models, State Diagrams, UML.

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1322 Video Quality assessment Measure with a Neural Network

Authors: H. El Khattabi, A. Tamtaoui, D. Aboutajdine

Abstract:

In this paper, we present the video quality measure estimation via a neural network. This latter predicts MOS (mean opinion score) by providing height parameters extracted from original and coded videos. The eight parameters that are used are: the average of DFT differences, the standard deviation of DFT differences, the average of DCT differences, the standard deviation of DCT differences, the variance of energy of color, the luminance Y, the chrominance U and the chrominance V. We chose Euclidean Distance to make comparison between the calculated and estimated output.

Keywords: video, neural network MLP, subjective quality, DCT, DFT, Retropropagation

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