Search results for: unified medical language system (UMLS)
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 9407

Search results for: unified medical language system (UMLS)

9227 A Universal Approach for the Intuitive Control of Mobile Robots using an AR/VR-based Interface

Authors: Juergen Rossmann, Andre Kupetz, Roland Wischnewski

Abstract:

Mobile robots are used in a large field of scenarios, like exploring contaminated areas, repairing oil rigs under water, finding survivors in collapsed buildings, etc. Currently, there is no unified intuitive user interface (UI) to control such complex mobile robots. As a consequence, some scenarios are done without the exploitation of experience and intuition of human teleoperators. A novel framework has been developed to embed a flexible and modular UI into a complete 3-D virtual reality simulation system. This new approach wants to access maximum benefits of human operators. Sensor information received from the robot is prepared for an intuitive visualization. Virtual reality metaphors support the operator in his decisions. These metaphors are integrated into a real time stereo video stream. This approach is not restricted to any specific type of mobile robot and allows for the operation of different robot types with a consistent concept and user interface.

Keywords: 3-D simulation system, augmented reality, teleoperation of mobile robots, user interface.

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9226 Learning Programming for Hearing Impaired Students via an Avatar

Authors: Nihal Esam Abuzinadah, Areej Abbas Malibari, Arwa Abdulaziz Allinjawi, Paul Krause

Abstract:

Deaf and hearing-impaired students face many obstacles throughout their education, especially with learning applied sciences such as computer programming. In addition, there is no clear signs in the Arabic Sign Language that can be used to identify programming logic terminologies such as while, for, case, switch etc. However, hearing disabilities should not be a barrier for studying purpose nowadays, especially with the rapid growth in educational technology. In this paper, we develop an Avatar based system to teach computer programming to deaf and hearing-impaired students using Arabic Signed language with new signs vocabulary that is been developed for computer programming education. The system is tested on a number of high school students and results showed the importance of visualization in increasing the comprehension or understanding of concepts for deaf students through the avatar.

Keywords: Hearing-impaired students, isolation, self-esteem, learning difficulties.

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9225 Relationship-Centred Care in Cross-Linguistic Medical Encounters

Authors: Nami Matsumoto

Abstract:

This study explores the experiences of cross-linguistic medical encounters by patients, and their views of receiving language support therein, with a particular focus on Japanese-English cases. The aim of this study is to investigate the reason for the frequent use of a spouse as a communication mediator from a Japanese perspective, through a comparison with that of English speakers. This study conducts an empirical qualitative analysis of the accounts of informants. A total of 31 informants who have experienced Japanese-English cross-linguistic medical encounters were recruited in Australia and Japan for semi-structured in-depth interviews. A breakdown of informants is 15 English speakers and 16 Japanese speakers. In order to obtain a further insight into collected data, additional interviews were held with 4 Australian doctors who are familiar with using interpreters. This study was approved by the Australian National University Human Research Ethics Committee, and written consent to participate in this study was obtained from all participants. The interviews lasted up to over one hour. They were audio-recorded and subsequently transcribed by the author. Japanese transcriptions were translated into English by the author. An analysis of interview data found that patients value relationship in communication. Particularly, Japanese informants, who have an English-speaking spouse, value trust-based communication interventions by their spouse, regardless of the language proficiency of the spouse. In Australia, health care interpreters are required to abide by the national code of ethics for interpreters. The Code defines the role of an interpreter exclusively to be language rendition and enshrines the tenets of accuracy, confidentiality and professional role boundaries. However, the analysis found that an interpreter who strictly complies with the Code sometimes fails to render the real intentions of the patient and their doctor. Findings from the study suggest that an interpreter should not be detached from the context and should be more engaged in the needs of patients. Their needs are not always communicated by an interpreter when they simply follow a professional code of ethics. The concept of relationship-centred care should be incorporated in the professional practice of health care interpreters.

Keywords: Health care, Japanese-English medical encounters, language barriers, trust.

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9224 Role of Natural Language Processing in Information Retrieval; Challenges and Opportunities

Authors: Khaled M. Alhawiti

Abstract:

This paper aims to analyze the role of natural language processing (NLP). The paper will discuss the role in the context of automated data retrieval, automated question answer, and text structuring. NLP techniques are gaining wider acceptance in real life applications and industrial concerns. There are various complexities involved in processing the text of natural language that could satisfy the need of decision makers. This paper begins with the description of the qualities of NLP practices. The paper then focuses on the challenges in natural language processing. The paper also discusses major techniques of NLP. The last section describes opportunities and challenges for future research.

Keywords: Data Retrieval, Information retrieval, Natural Language Processing, Text Structuring.

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9223 Intelligent Agent Communication by Using DAML to Build Agent Community Ontology

Authors: Cheng-Hsiung Hung, Hong-Jie Dai, Jason Jen-Yen Chen

Abstract:

This paper presents a new approach for intelligent agent communication based on ontology for agent community. DARPA agent markup language (DAML) is used to build the community ontology. This paper extends the agent management specification by the foundation for intelligent physical agents (FIPA) to develop an agent role called community facilitator (CF) that manages community directory and community ontology. CF helps build agent community. Precise description of agent service in this community can thus be achieved. This facilitates agent communication. Furthermore, through ontology update, agents with different ontology are capable of communicating with each other. An example of advanced traveler information system is included to illustrate practicality of this approach.

Keywords: Intelligent agent communication, DARPA agent markup language (DAML), Community ontology, Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS).

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9222 Proposition of an Ontology of Diseases and Their Signs from Medical Ontologies Integration

Authors: Adama Sow, Abdoulaye Guiss´e, Oumar Niang

Abstract:

To assist medical diagnosis, we propose a federation of several existing and open medical ontologies and terminologies. The goal is to merge the strengths of all these resources to provide clinicians the access to a variety of shared knowledges that can facilitate identification and association of human diseases and all of their available characteristic signs such as symptoms and clinical signs. This work results to an integration model loaded from target known ontologies of the bioportal platform such as DOID, MESH, and SNOMED for diseases selection, SYMP, and CSSO for all existing signs.

Keywords: Medical decision, medical ontologies, ontologies integration, linked data, knowledge ingeneering, e-health system.

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9221 Mobile Medical Operation Route Planning

Authors: K. Somprasonk, R. Boondiskulchok

Abstract:

Medical services are usually provided in hospitals; however, in developing country, some rural residences have fewer opportunities to access in healthcare services due to the limitation of transportation communication. Therefore, in Thailand, there are charitable organizations operating to provide medical treatments to these people by shifting the medical services to operation sites; this is commonly known as mobile medical service. Operation routing is important for the organization to reduce its transportation cost in order to focus more on other important activities; for instance, the development of medical apparatus. VRP is applied to solve the problem of high transportation cost of the studied organization with the searching techniques of saving algorithm to find the minimum total distance of operation route and satisfy available time constraints of voluntary medical staffs.

Keywords: Decision Support System, Mobile Medical Service Planning, Saving Algorithm, Vehicle Routing Problem

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9220 Native Language Identification with Cross-Corpus Evaluation Using Social Media Data: 'Reddit'

Authors: Yasmeen Bassas, Sandra Kuebler, Allen Riddell

Abstract:

Native Language Identification is one of the growing subfields in Natural Language Processing (NLP). The task of Native Language Identification (NLI) is mainly concerned with predicting the native language of an author’s writing in a second language. In this paper, we investigate the performance of two types of features; content-based features vs. content independent features when they are evaluated on a different corpus (using social media data “Reddit”). In this NLI task, the predefined models are trained on one corpus (TOEFL) and then the trained models are evaluated on a different data using an external corpus (Reddit). Three classifiers are used in this task; the baseline, linear SVM, and Logistic Regression. Results show that content-based features are more accurate and robust than content independent ones when tested within corpus and across corpus.

Keywords: NLI, NLP, content-based features, content independent features, social media corpus, ML.

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9219 Fingerprint Verification System Using Minutiae Extraction Technique

Authors: Manvjeet Kaur, Mukhwinder Singh, Akshay Girdhar, Parvinder S. Sandhu

Abstract:

Most fingerprint recognition techniques are based on minutiae matching and have been well studied. However, this technology still suffers from problems associated with the handling of poor quality impressions. One problem besetting fingerprint matching is distortion. Distortion changes both geometric position and orientation, and leads to difficulties in establishing a match among multiple impressions acquired from the same finger tip. Marking all the minutiae accurately as well as rejecting false minutiae is another issue still under research. Our work has combined many methods to build a minutia extractor and a minutia matcher. The combination of multiple methods comes from a wide investigation into research papers. Also some novel changes like segmentation using Morphological operations, improved thinning, false minutiae removal methods, minutia marking with special considering the triple branch counting, minutia unification by decomposing a branch into three terminations, and matching in the unified x-y coordinate system after a two-step transformation are used in the work.

Keywords: Biometrics, Minutiae, Crossing number, False Accept Rate (FAR), False Reject Rate (FRR).

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9218 Creating a Space for Teaching Problem Solving Skills to Engineering Students through English Language Teaching

Authors: Mimi N. A. Mohamed

Abstract:

The complexity of teaching English in higher institutions by non-native speakers within a second/foreign language setting has created continuous discussions and research about teaching approaches and teaching practises, professional identities and challenges. In addition, there is a growing awareness that teaching English within discipline-specific contexts adds up to the existing complexity. This awareness leads to reassessments, discussions and suggestions on course design and content and teaching approaches and techniques. In meeting expectations teaching at a university specified in a particular discipline such as engineering, English language educators are not only required to teach students to be able to communicate in English effectively but also to teach soft skills such as problem solving skills. This paper is part of a research conducted to investigate how English language educators negotiate with the complexities of teaching problem solving skills through English language teaching at a technical university. This paper reports the way an English language educator identified himself and the way he approached his teaching in this institutional context.

Keywords: English Language Teaching, Teacher Agency, Problem Solving Skills, Professional Identities.

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9217 Applying Clustering of Hierarchical K-means-like Algorithm on Arabic Language

Authors: Sameh H. Ghwanmeh

Abstract:

In this study a clustering technique has been implemented which is K-Means like with hierarchical initial set (HKM). The goal of this study is to prove that clustering document sets do enhancement precision on information retrieval systems, since it was proved by Bellot & El-Beze on French language. A comparison is made between the traditional information retrieval system and the clustered one. Also the effect of increasing number of clusters on precision is studied. The indexing technique is Term Frequency * Inverse Document Frequency (TF * IDF). It has been found that the effect of Hierarchical K-Means Like clustering (HKM) with 3 clusters over 242 Arabic abstract documents from the Saudi Arabian National Computer Conference has significant results compared with traditional information retrieval system without clustering. Additionally it has been found that it is not necessary to increase the number of clusters to improve precision more.

Keywords: Hierarchical K-mean like clustering (HKM), Kmeans, cluster centroids, initial partition, and document distances

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9216 A Hybrid Technology for a Multiagent Consultation System in Obesity Domain

Authors: Rohana Mahmud, Hairul Aysa Abdul Halim Sithiq, Haryuna Mohd Taharim

Abstract:

In this paper, the authors present architecture of a multi agent consultation system for obesity related problems, which hybrid the technology of an expert system (ES) and an intelligent agent (IA). The strength of the ES which is capable of pulling the expert knowledge is consulted and presented to the end user via the autonomous and friendly pushing environment of the intelligent agent.

Keywords: Expert System, Hybrid Technology, Intelligent Agent, Medical Informatics, Multi Agent Consultation System.

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9215 The Investigation of the Possible Connections between Acculturation and the Acquisition of a Second Language on Libyan Teenage Students

Authors: Hamza M. A. Muftah

Abstract:

The study investigates the possible connections between acculturation and the acquisition of a second language on Libyan teenage students in Australia. Specifically, the study examined how various socio-psychological variables influenced English oral proficiency (oral communicative competence and native-like pronunciation) of the participants. In addition, it looked at whether or not SLA affects acculturation towards the target language group. This is achieved by analysing data obtained from semi-structured interviews and oral proficiency interviews. The present study found a definite link between the students’ acculturation process and their oral communicative competence but not native-like pronunciation. The results also provided evidence that SLL process has an impact on integration into the host society as well as the acquisition of a second language culture. Yet, it did not draw a clear conclusion with respect to how such a process affects these aspects.

Keywords: Acculturation, Native-like pronunciation, Oral communicative competence, Second language acquisition, Second language learners.

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9214 An Angioplasty Intervention Simulator with a Specific Virtual Environment

Authors: G. Aloisio, L. T. De Paolis, A. De Mauro, A. Mongelli

Abstract:

One of the essential requirements of a realistic surgical simulator is to reproduce haptic sensations due to the interactions in the virtual environment. However, the interaction need to be performed in real-time, since a delay between the user action and the system reaction reduces the immersion sensation. In this paper, a prototype of a coronary stent implant simulator is present; this system allows real-time interactions with an artery by means of a specific haptic device. To improve the realism of the simulation, the building of the virtual environment is based on real patients- images and a Web Portal is used to search in the geographically remote medical centres a virtual environment with specific features in terms of pathology or anatomy. The functional architecture of the system defines several Medical Centres in which virtual environments built from the real patients- images and related metadata with specific features in terms of pathology or anatomy are stored. The searched data are downloaded from the Medical Centre to the Training Centre provided with a specific haptic device and with the software necessary both to manage the interaction in the virtual environment. After the integration of the virtual environment in the simulation system it is possible to perform training on the specific surgical procedure.

Keywords: Medical Simulation, Web Portal, Virtual Reality.

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9213 A Unified Approach for Naval Telecommunication Architectures

Authors: Y. Lacroix, J.-F. Malbranque

Abstract:

We present a chronological evolution for naval telecommunication networks. We distinguish periods: with or without multiplexers, with switch systems, with federative systems, with medium switching, and with medium switching with wireless networks. This highlights the introduction of new layers and technology in the architecture. These architectures are presented using layer models of transmission, in a unified way, which enables us to integrate pre-existing models. A ship of a naval fleet has internal communications (i.e. applications' networks of the edge) and external communications (i.e. the use of the means of transmission between edges). We propose architectures, deduced from the layer model, which are the point of convergence between the networks on board and the HF, UHF radio, and satellite resources. This modelling allows to consider end-to-end naval communications, and in a more global way, that is from the user on board towards the user on shore, including transmission and networks on the shore side. The new architectures need take care of quality of services for end-to-end communications, the more remote control develops a lot and will do so in the future. Naval telecommunications will be more and more complex and will use more and more advanced technologies, it will thus be necessary to establish clear global communication schemes to grant consistency of the architectures. Our latest model has been implemented in a military naval situation, and serves as the basic architecture for the RIFAN2 network.

Keywords: Equilibrium beach profile, eastern tombolo of Giens, potential function, erosion.

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9212 The Effectiveness of Implementing Interactive Training for Teaching Kazakh Language

Authors: Samal Abzhanova, Saule Mussabekova

Abstract:

Today, a new system of education is being created in Kazakhstan in order to develop the system of education and to satisfy the world class standards. For this purpose, there have been established new requirements and responsibilities to the instructors. Students should not be limited with providing only theoretical knowledge. Also, they should be encouraged to be competitive, to think creatively and critically. Moreover, students should be able to implement these skills into practice. These issues could be resolved through the permanent improvement of teaching methods. Therefore, a specialist who teaches the languages should use up-to-date methods and introduce new technologies. The result of the investigation suggests that an interactive teaching method is one of the new technologies in this field. This paper aims to provide information about implementing new technologies in the process of teaching language. The paper will discuss about necessity of introducing innovative technologies and the techniques of organizing interactive lessons. At the same time, the structure of the interactive lesson, conditions, principles, discussions, small group works and role-playing games will be considered. Interactive methods are carried out with the help of several types of activities, such as working in a team (with two or more group of people), playing situational or role-playing games, working with different sources of information, discussions, presentations, creative works and learning through solving situational tasks and etc.

Keywords: Games, interactive learning, Kazakh language, teaching methods.

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9211 Multi-Agent Model for Automation of Business Process Management System Based on Service Oriented Architecture

Authors: Soe Winn, May Thwe Oo

Abstract:

Business process automation is an important task in an enterprise business environment software development. The requirements of processing acceleration and automation level of enterprises are inherently different from one organization to another. We present a methodology and system for automation of business process management system architecture by multi-agent collaboration based on SOA. Design layer processes are modeled in semantic markup language for web services application. At the core of our system is considering certain types of human tasks to their further automation across over multiple platform environments. An improved abnormality processing with model for automation of BPMS architecture by multi-agent collaboration based on SOA is introduced. Validating system for efficiency of process automation, an application for educational knowledge base instance would also be described.

Keywords: Business process management system, businessprocess automation, multi-agent collaboration, Service OrientedArchitecture, extensible service application

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9210 Language Politics and Identity in Translation: From a Monolingual Text to Multilingual Text in Chinese Translations

Authors: Chu-Ching Hsu

Abstract:

This paper focuses on how the government-led language policies and the political changes in Taiwan manipulate the languages choice in translations and what translation strategies are employed by the translator to show his or her language ideology behind the power struggles and decision-making. Therefore, framed by Lefevere’s theoretical concept of translating as rewriting, and carried out a diachronic and chronological study, this paper specifically sets out to investigate the language ideology and translator’s idiolect of Chinese language translations of Anglo-American novels. The examples drawn to explore these issues were taken from different versions of Chinese renditions of Mark Twain’s English-language novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in which there are several different dialogues originally written in the colloquial language and dialect used in the American state of Mississippi and reproduced in Mark Twain’s works. Also, adapted corpus methodology, many examples are extracted as instances from the translated texts and source text, to illuminate how the translators in Taiwan deal with the dialectal features encoded in Twain’s works, and how different versions of Chinese translations are employed by Taiwanese translators to confirm the language polices and to express their language identity textually in different periods of the past five decades, from the 1960s onward. The finding of this study suggests that the use of Taiwanese dialect and language patterns in translations does relate to the movement of the mother-tongue language and language ideology of the translator as well as to the issue of language identity raised in the island of Taiwan. Furthermore, this study confirms that the change of political power in Taiwan does bring significantly impact in language policy-- assimilationism, pluralism or multiculturalism, which also makes Taiwan from a monolingual to multilingual society, where the language ideology and identity can be revealed not only in people’s daily communication but also in written translations.

Keywords: Language politics and policies, literary translation, mother-tongue, multiculturalism, translator’s ideology.

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9209 EEG Analysis of Brain Dynamics in Children with Language Disorders

Authors: Hamed Alizadeh Dashagholi, Hossein Yousefi-Banaem, Mina Naeimi

Abstract:

Current study established for EEG signal analysis in patients with language disorder. Language disorder can be defined as meaningful delay in the use or understanding of spoken or written language. The disorder can include the content or meaning of language, its form, or its use. Here we applied Z-score, power spectrum, and coherence methods to discriminate the language disorder data from healthy ones. Power spectrum of each channel in alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and theta frequency bands was measured. In addition, intra hemispheric Z-score obtained by scoring algorithm. Obtained results showed high Z-score and power spectrum in posterior regions. Therefore, we can conclude that peoples with language disorder have high brain activity in frontal region of brain in comparison with healthy peoples. Results showed that high coherence correlates with irregularities in the ERP and is often found during complex task, whereas low coherence is often found in pathological conditions. The results of the Z-score analysis of the brain dynamics showed higher Z-score peak frequency in delta, theta and beta sub bands of Language Disorder patients. In this analysis there were activity signs in both hemispheres and the left-dominant hemisphere was more active than the right.

Keywords: EEG, electroencephalography, coherence methods, language disorder, power spectrum, z-score.

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9208 Quranic Braille System

Authors: Abdallah M. Abualkishik, Khairuddin Omar

Abstract:

This article concerned with the translation of Quranic verses to Braille symbols, by using Visual basic program. The system has the ability to translate the special vibration for the Quran. This study limited for the (Noun + Scoon) vibrations. It builds on an existing translation system that combines a finite state machine with left and right context matching and a set of translation rules. This allows to translate the Arabic language from text to Braille symbols after detect the vibration for the Quran verses.

Keywords: Braille, Quran vibration, Finite State Machine.

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9207 Personal Health Assistance Service Expert System (PHASES)

Authors: Chakkrit Snae, Michael Brueckner

Abstract:

In this paper the authors present the framework of a system for assisting users through counseling on personal health, the Personal Health Assistance Service Expert System (PHASES). Personal health assistance systems need Personal Health Records (PHR), which support wellness activities, improve the understanding of personal health issues, enable access to data from providers of health services, strengthen health promotion, and in the end improve the health of the population. This is especially important in societies where the health costs increase at a higher rate than the overall economy. The most important elements of a healthy lifestyle are related to food (such as balanced nutrition and diets), activities for body fitness (such as walking, sports, fitness programs), and other medical treatments (such as massage, prescriptions of drugs). The PHASES framework uses an ontology of food, which includes nutritional facts, an expert system keeping track of personal health data that are matched with medical treatments, and a comprehensive data transfer between patients and the system.

Keywords: Personal health assistance service, expert system, ontologies, knowledge management, information technology.

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9206 Sentiment Analysis: Comparative Analysis of Multilingual Sentiment and Opinion Classification Techniques

Authors: Sannikumar Patel, Brian Nolan, Markus Hofmann, Philip Owende, Kunjan Patel

Abstract:

Sentiment analysis and opinion mining have become emerging topics of research in recent years but most of the work is focused on data in the English language. A comprehensive research and analysis are essential which considers multiple languages, machine translation techniques, and different classifiers. This paper presents, a comparative analysis of different approaches for multilingual sentiment analysis. These approaches are divided into two parts: one using classification of text without language translation and second using the translation of testing data to a target language, such as English, before classification. The presented research and results are useful for understanding whether machine translation should be used for multilingual sentiment analysis or building language specific sentiment classification systems is a better approach. The effects of language translation techniques, features, and accuracy of various classifiers for multilingual sentiment analysis is also discussed in this study.

Keywords: Cross-language analysis, machine learning, machine translation, sentiment analysis.

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9205 EMOES: Eye Motion and Ocular Expression Simulator

Authors: Nicoletta Adamo-Villani, Gerardo Beni, Jeremy White

Abstract:

We introduce, a new interactive 3D simulation system of ocular motion and expressions suitable for: (1) character animation applications to game design, film production, HCI (Human Computer Interface), conversational animated agents, and virtual reality; (2) medical applications (ophthalmic neurological and muscular pathologies: research and education); and (3) real time simulation of unconscious cognitive and emotional responses (for use, e.g., in psychological research). The system is comprised of: (1) a physiologically accurate parameterized 3D model of the eyes, eyelids, and eyebrow regions; and (2) a prototype device for realtime control of eye motions and expressions, including unconsciously produced expressions, for application as in (1), (2), and (3) above. The 3D eye simulation system, created using state-of-the-art computer animation technology and 'optimized' for use with an interactive and web deliverable platform, is, to our knowledge, the most advanced/realistic available so far for applications to character animation and medical pedagogy.

Keywords: 3D animation, HCI, medical simulation, ocularmotion and expression.

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9204 Comparing the Willingness to Communicate in a Foreign Language of Bilinguals and Monolinguals

Authors: S. Tarighat, F. Shateri

Abstract:

This study explored the relationship between L2 Willingness to Communicate (WTC) of bilinguals and monolinguals in a foreign language using a snowball sampling method to collect questionnaire data from 200 bilinguals and monolinguals studying a foreign language (FL). The results indicated a higher willingness to communicate in a foreign language (WTC-FL) performed by bilinguals compared to that of the monolinguals with a weak significance. Yet a stronger significance was found in the relationship between the age of onset of bilingualism and WTC-FL. The researcher proposed that L2 WTC is indirectly influenced by knowledge of other languages, which can boost L2 confidence and reduce L2 anxiety and consequently lead to higher L2 WTC when learning a different L2. The study also found the age of onset of bilingualism to be a predictor of L2 WTC when learning a FL. The results emphasize the importance of bilingualism and early bilingualism in particular.

Keywords: Bilingualism, foreign language learning, L2 acquisition, willingness to communicate.

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9203 Fault Diagnosis of Nonlinear Systems Using Dynamic Neural Networks

Authors: E. Sobhani-Tehrani, K. Khorasani, N. Meskin

Abstract:

This paper presents a novel integrated hybrid approach for fault diagnosis (FD) of nonlinear systems. Unlike most FD techniques, the proposed solution simultaneously accomplishes fault detection, isolation, and identification (FDII) within a unified diagnostic module. At the core of this solution is a bank of adaptive neural parameter estimators (NPE) associated with a set of singleparameter fault models. The NPEs continuously estimate unknown fault parameters (FP) that are indicators of faults in the system. Two NPE structures including series-parallel and parallel are developed with their exclusive set of desirable attributes. The parallel scheme is extremely robust to measurement noise and possesses a simpler, yet more solid, fault isolation logic. On the contrary, the series-parallel scheme displays short FD delays and is robust to closed-loop system transients due to changes in control commands. Finally, a fault tolerant observer (FTO) is designed to extend the capability of the NPEs to systems with partial-state measurement.

Keywords: Hybrid fault diagnosis, Dynamic neural networks, Nonlinear systems.

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9202 Management of English Language Teaching in Higher Education

Authors: Vishal D. Pandya

Abstract:

A great deal of perceptible change has been taking place in the way our institutions of higher learning are being managed in India today. It is believed that managers, whose intuition proves to be accurate, often tend to be the most successful, and this is what makes them almost like entrepreneurs. A certain entrepreneurial spirit is what is expected and requires a degree of insight of the manager to be successful depending upon the situational and more importantly, the heterogeneity as well as the socio-cultural aspect. Teachers in Higher Education have to play multiple roles to make sure that the Learning-Teaching process becomes effective in the real sense of the term. This paper makes an effort to take a close look at that, especially in the context of the management of English language teaching in Higher Education and, therefore, focuses on the management of English language teaching in higher education by understanding target situation analyses at the socio-cultural level.

Keywords: Management, language teaching, English language teaching, higher education.

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9201 Edge Detection Using Multi-Agent System: Evaluation on Synthetic and Medical MR Images

Authors: A. Nachour, L. Ouzizi, Y. Aoura

Abstract:

Recent developments on multi-agent system have brought a new research field on image processing. Several algorithms are used simultaneously and improved in deferent applications while new methods are investigated. This paper presents a new automatic method for edge detection using several agents and many different actions. The proposed multi-agent system is based on parallel agents that locally perceive their environment, that is to say, pixels and additional environmental information. This environment is built using Vector Field Convolution that attract free agent to the edges. Problems of partial, hidden or edges linking are solved with the cooperation between agents. The presented method was implemented and evaluated using several examples on different synthetic and medical images. The obtained experimental results suggest that this approach confirm the efficiency and accuracy of detected edge.

Keywords: Edge detection, medical MR images, multi-agent systems, vector field convolution.

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9200 A Two-Stage Adaptation towards Automatic Speech Recognition System for Malay-Speaking Children

Authors: Mumtaz Begum Mustafa, Siti Salwah Salim, Feizal Dani Rahman

Abstract:

Recently, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems were used to assist children in language acquisition as it has the ability to detect human speech signal. Despite the benefits offered by the ASR system, there is a lack of ASR systems for Malay-speaking children. One of the contributing factors for this is the lack of continuous speech database for the target users. Though cross-lingual adaptation is a common solution for developing ASR systems for under-resourced language, it is not viable for children as there are very limited speech databases as a source model. In this research, we propose a two-stage adaptation for the development of ASR system for Malay-speaking children using a very limited database. The two stage adaptation comprises the cross-lingual adaptation (first stage) and cross-age adaptation. For the first stage, a well-known speech database that is phonetically rich and balanced, is adapted to the medium-sized Malay adults using supervised MLLR. The second stage adaptation uses the speech acoustic model generated from the first adaptation, and the target database is a small-sized database of the target users. We have measured the performance of the proposed technique using word error rate, and then compare them with the conventional benchmark adaptation. The two stage adaptation proposed in this research has better recognition accuracy as compared to the benchmark adaptation in recognizing children’s speech.

Keywords: Automatic speech recognition system, children speech, adaptation, Malay.

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9199 Thai Student Ability on Speexx Language Training Program

Authors: Toby Gibbs, Glen Craigie, Suwaree Yordchim

Abstract:

The Speexx results revealed four main factors affecting the success of 190 Thai sophomores as follows: 1) Future English training should be pursued in applied Speexx development. 2) Thai students didn’t see the benefit of having an Online Language Training Program. 3) There is a great need to educate the next generation of learners on the benefits of Speexx within the community. 4) A great majority of Thai Sophomores didn't know what Speexx was. A guideline for self-reliance planning consisted of four aspects: 1) Development planning: by arranging groups to further improve English abilities with the Speexx Language Training program and encourage using Speexx into every day practice. Local communities need to develop awareness of the usefulness of Speexx and share the value of using the program among family and friends. 2) Humanities and Social Science staff should develop skills using this Online Language Training Program to expand on the benefits of Speexx within their departments. 3) Further research should be pursued on the Thai Students progression with Speexx and how it helps them improve their language skills with Business English. 4) University’s and Language centers should focus on using Speexx to encourage learning for any language, not just English.

Keywords: Ability, Comprehension, Sophomore, Speexx.

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9198 A Pattern Language for Software Debugging

Authors: Mehdi Amoui, Mohammad Zarafshan, Caro Lucas

Abstract:

In spite of all advancement in software testing, debugging remains a labor-intensive, manual, time consuming, and error prone process. A candidate solution to enhance debugging process is to fuse it with testing process. To achieve this integration, a possible solution may be categorizing common software tests and errors followed by the effort on fixing the errors through general solutions for each test/error pair. Our approach to address this issue is based on Christopher Alexander-s pattern and pattern language concepts. The patterns in this language are grouped into three major sections and connect the three concepts of test, error, and debug. These patterns and their hierarchical relationship shape a pattern language that introduces a solution to solve software errors in a known testing context. Finally, we will introduce our developed framework ADE as a sample implementation to support a pattern of proposed language, which aims to automate the whole process of evolving software design via evolutionary methods.

Keywords: Coding Errors, Software debugging, Testing, Patterns, Pattern Language

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