Search results for: visual comfort criteria

Authors: K. Venclova, H. Urbancova, H. Vostra Vydrova

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In current global economics the application of Business Continuity Management is the prerequisite for sustainable competitive advantage in an organization. Business Continuity Management is a managerial which identifies the potential impact of losses in an organization. The aim of this paper is to identify and critically evaluate the relative advantages and disadvantages of deploying Business Continuity Management in an organization on the basis of seven criteria. The strongest advantage of Business Continuity Management is in its capacity to identify a crisis situation and help the organization to flexibly and also to keep the critical knowledge within the organization. By contrast the main disadvantage is that establishing Business Continuity Management in an organization is time-consuming and its implementation as an integral part of the organizational culture present significant difficulties.

Keywords: Business continuity management, criteria, advantages, disadvantages, organisations, survey.

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Authors: Radomir Perzina, Jaroslav Ramik

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The Analytic Hierarchy Process is frequently used approach for solving decision making problems. There exists wide range of software programs utilizing that approach. Their main disadvantage is that they are relatively expensive and missing intermediate calculations. This work introduces a Microsoft Excel add-in called DAME – Decision Analysis Module for Excel. Comparing to other computer programs DAME is free, can work with scenarios or multiple decision makers and displays intermediate calculations. Users can structure their decision models into three levels – scenarios/users, criteria and variants. Items on all levels can be evaluated either by weights or pair-wise comparisons. There are provided three different methods for the evaluation of the weights of criteria, the variants as well as the scenarios – Saaty’s Method, Geometric Mean Method and Fuller’s Triangle Method. Multiplicative and additive syntheses are supported. The proposed software package is demonstrated on couple of illustrating examples of real life decision problems.

Keywords: Analytic hierarchy process, multi-criteria decision making, pair-wise comparisons, Microsoft Excel, Scenarios.

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Authors: Hilmi Kuscu, Ahmet Cihan, Kamil Kahveci, Ugur Akyol

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In this study, a software has been developed to predict the optimum conditions for drying of cotton based yarn bobbins in a hot air dryer. For this purpose, firstly, a suitable drying model has been specified using experimental drying behavior for different values of drying parameters. Drying parameters in the experiments were drying temperature, drying pressure, and volumetric flow rate of drying air. After obtaining a suitable drying model, additional curve fittings have been performed to obtain equations for drying time and energy consumption taking into account the effects of drying parameters. Then, a software has been developed using Visual Basic programming language to predict the optimum drying conditions for drying time and energy consumption.

Keywords: Drying, bobbin, cotton, PLC control, Visual Basic.

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Authors: M. G. Albanesi, R. Amadeo

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In this paper, a new approach for quality assessment tasks in lossy compressed digital video is proposed. The research activity is based on the visual fixation data recorded by an eye tracker. The method involved both a new paradigm for subjective quality evaluation and the subsequent statistical analysis to match subjective scores provided by the observer to the data obtained from the eye tracker experiments. The study brings improvements to the state of the art, as it solves some problems highlighted in literature. The experiments prove that data obtained from an eye tracker can be used to classify videos according to the level of impairment due to compression. The paper presents the methodology, the experimental results and their interpretation. Conclusions suggest that the eye tracker can be useful in quality assessment, if data are collected and analyzed in a proper way.

Keywords: eye tracker, video compression, video qualityassessment, visual attention

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Authors: Jafreezal Jaafar, Eric McKenzie

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This paper presents a solution for the behavioural animation of autonomous virtual agent navigation in virtual environments. We focus on using Dempster-Shafer-s Theory of Evidence in developing visual sensor for virtual agent. The role of the visual sensor is to capture the information about the virtual environment or identifie which part of an obstacle can be seen from the position of the virtual agent. This information is require for vitual agent to coordinate navigation in virtual environment. The virual agent uses fuzzy controller as a navigation system and Fuzzy α - level for the action selection method. The result clearly demonstrates the path produced is reasonably smooth even though there is some sharp turn and also still not diverted too far from the potential shortest path. This had indicated the benefit of our method, where more reliable and accurate paths produced during navigation task.

Keywords: Agent, navigation, Dempster Shafer, fuzzy logic.

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Authors: František Šebek, Petr Kubík, Jindřich Petruška, Jiří Hůlka

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Present study is aimed on the cutting process of circular cross-section rods where the fracture is used to separate one rod into two pieces. Incorporating the phenomenological ductile fracture model into the explicit formulation of finite element method, the process can be analyzed without the necessity of realizing too many real experiments which could be expensive in case of repetitive testing in different conditions. In the present paper, the steel AISI 1045 was examined and the tensile tests of smooth and notched cylindrical bars were conducted together with biaxial testing of the notched tube specimens to calibrate material constants of selected phenomenological ductile fracture models. These were implemented into the Abaqus/Explicit through user subroutine VUMAT and used for cutting process simulation. As the calibration process is based on variables which cannot be obtained directly from experiments, numerical simulations of fracture tests are inevitable part of the calibration. Finally, experiments regarding the cutting process were carried out and predictive capability of selected fracture models is discussed. Concluding remarks then make the summary of gained experience both with the calibration and application of particular ductile fracture criteria.

Keywords: Ductile fracture, phenomenological criteria, cutting process, explicit formulation, AISI 1045 steel.

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Authors: A. Sherif, H. Sabry, A. Elzafarany, M. Gadelhak, R. Arafa, M. Aly

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This paper addresses the design of hospital Intensive Care Unit windows for the achievement of visual comfort and energy savings. The aim was to identify the window size and shading system configurations that could fulfill daylighting adequacy, avoid glare and reduce energy consumption. The study focused on addressing the effect of utilizing different shading systems in association with a range of Window-to-Wall Ratios (WWR) in different orientations under the desert clear-sky of Cairo, Egypt. The results of this study demonstrated that solar penetration is a critical concern affecting the design of ICU windows in desert locations, as in Cairo, Egypt. Use of shading systems was found to be essential in providing acceptable daylight performance and energy saving. Careful positioning of the ICU window towards a proper orientation can dramatically improve performance. It was observed that ICU windows facing the north direction enjoyed the widest range of successful window configuration possibilities at different WWRs. ICU windows facing south enjoyed a reasonable number of configuration options as well. By contrast, the ICU windows facing the east orientation had a very limited number of options that provide acceptable performance. These require additional local shading measures at certain times due to glare incidence. Moreover, use of horizontal sun breakers and solar screens to protect the ICU windows proved to be more successful than the other alternatives in a wide range of Window to Wall Ratios. By contrast, the use of light shelves and vertical shading devices seemed questionable.

Keywords: Daylighting, Desert, Energy Efficiency, Shading.

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Authors: Vasco de Oliveira, Rute F. Meneses, Nuno Trigueiros-Cunha

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Tinnitus is commonly defined as an aberrant  perception of sound without external stimulus. It’s a chronic  condition with consequences on the QOL. The coping strategies used  were not always effective and coping was identified as a predictor of  QOL in individuals with tinnitus, which reinforces the idea that in  health the use of effective coping styles should be promoted. This  work intend to verify relations between coping strategies assessed by  BriefCope in subjects with tinnitus and variables such as gender, age  and severity of tinnitus measured by THI and the Visual Analogue  Scale and also hearing and hyperacusis. The results indicate that there  are any statistically significant relationships between the variables  assessed in relation to the results of BriefCope except in the Visual  Analogue Scale.These results, indicating no relationship between  almost all variables, reinforce the need for further study of coping  strategies use by these patients.

 

Keywords: BriefCope, Coping strategies, Quality of Live, THI, Tinnitus.

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Authors: N. Türkmenoğlu Bayraktar, E. Kishalı

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Campus buildings are educational facilities where various amount of energy consumption for lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation occurs. Some of the new universities in Turkey, where this investigation takes place, still continue their educational activities in existing buildings primarily designed for different architectural programs and converted to campus buildings via changes of function, space organizations and structural interventions but most of the time without consideration of appropriate micro climatic conditions. Reducing energy consumption in these structures not only contributes to the national economy but also mitigates the negative effects on environment. Furthermore, optimum thermal comfort conditions should be provided during the refurbishment of existing campus structures and their building envelope. Considering this issue, the first step is to investigate the climatic performance of building elements regarding refurbishment process. In the context of the study Kocaeli University, Faculty of Design and Architecture building constructed in 1980s in Anıtpark campus located in the central part of Kocaeli, Turkey was investigated. Climatic factors influencing thermal conditions; the deteriorations on building envelope; temperature distribution; heat losses from façade elements observed by thermography were presented in order to improve strategies for retrofit process for the building envelope. Within the scope of the survey, refurbishment strategies towards providing optimum climatic comfort conditions, increasing energy efficiency of building envelope were proposed.

Keywords: Building envelope, IRT, refurbishment, non-destructive test.

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Authors: C. Ardil

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Aircraft selection decisions can be challenging due to their multidimensional and interdisciplinary nature. They involve multiple stakeholders with conflicting objectives and numerous alternative options with uncertain outcomes. This study focuses on the analysis of aerial firefighting aircraft that can be chosen for the Air Fire Service to extinguish forest fires. To make such a selection, the characteristics of the fire zones must be considered, and the capability to manage the logistics involved in such operations, as well as the purchase and maintenance of the aircraft, must be determined. The selection of firefighting aircraft is particularly complex because they have longer fleet lives and require more demanding operation and maintenance than scheduled passenger air service. This paper aims to use the fuzzy proximity measure method to select the most appropriate aerial firefighting aircraft based on decision criteria using multiple attribute decision making analysis. Following fuzzy decision analysis, the most suitable aerial firefighting aircraft is ranked and determined for the Air Fire Service.

Keywords: Aerial firefighting aircraft selection, multiple criteria decision making, fuzzy sets, standard fuzzy sets, determinate fuzzy sets, indeterminate fuzzy sets, proximity measure method, Minkowski distance family function, Hausdorff distance function, MCDM, PMM, PMM-F

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Authors: M. Sallam, A. Ramadan, M. Fanni, M. Abdellatif

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Time delay in bilateral teleoperation system was introduced as a sufficient reason to make the system unstable or certainly degrade the system performance. In this paper, simulations and experimental results of implementing p-like control scheme, under different ranges of variable time delay, will be presented to verify a certain criteria, which guarantee the system stability and position tracking. The system consists of two Phantom premium 1.5A devices. One of them acts as a master and the other acts as a slave. The study includes deriving the Phantom kinematic and dynamic model, establishing the link between the two Phantoms over Simulink in Matlab, and verifying the stability criteria with simulations and real experiments.

Keywords: bilateral teleoperation, Phantom premium 1.5, varying time delay

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Authors: Ali Gholami, M.Esfadiari, M.H.Masihabadi

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In this research three methods of Maximum Likelihood, Mahalanobis Distance and Minimum Distance were analyzed in the Western part of Isfahan province in the Iran country. For this purpose, the IRS satellite images and various land preparation uses in region including rangelands, irrigation farming, dry farming, gardens and urban areas were separated and identified. In these methods, matrix error and Kappa index were calculated and accuracy of each method, based on percentages: 53.13, 56.64 and 48.44, were obtained respectively. Considering the low accuracy of these methods to separate land uses due to spread of the land uses, it-s suggested the visual interpretation of the map, to preparing the land use map in this region. The map prepared by visual interpretation is in high accuracy if it will be accompany with the visit of the region.

Keywords: Aghche Region, land use map, MaximumLikelihood, Mahalanobis Distance and Minimum Distance.

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Authors: W. S. Hsu, Y. Chiang, H. C. Chen, J. R. Wang, S. W. Chen, J. H. Yang, C. Shih

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Not only radiation materials, but also the normal chemical material stored in the power plant can cause a risk to the residents. In this research, the ALOHA code was used to perform the concentration analysis under the CO₂ storage burst or leakage conditions for Kuosheng nuclear power plant (NPP). The Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) and data were used in this study. Additionally, the analysis results of ALOHA code were compared with the R.G. 1.78 failure criteria in order to confirm the control room habitability. The comparison results show that the ALOHA result for burst case was 0.923 g/m³ which was below the criteria. However, the ALOHA results for leakage case was 11.3 g/m³.

Keywords: BWR, ALOHA, habitability, Kuosheng.

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Authors: Lae-Jeong Park, Kyusoo Chung, Jungho Moon

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This paper introduces an effective method of segmenting Korean text (place names in Korean) from a Korean road sign image. A Korean advanced directional road sign is composed of several types of visual information such as arrows, place names in Korean and English, and route numbers. Automatic classification of the visual information and extraction of Korean place names from the road sign images make it possible to avoid a lot of manual inputs to a database system for management of road signs nationwide. We propose a series of problem-specific heuristics that correctly segments Korean place names, which is the most crucial information, from the other information by leaving out non-text information effectively. The experimental results with a dataset of 368 road sign images show 96% of the detection rate per Korean place name and 84% per road sign image.

Keywords: Segmentation, road signs, characters, classification.

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Authors: Adam Marks, Munir Majdalawieh, Maytha Al Ali

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While research is rich with what criteria could be included in the academic program review processes, there is rarely any mention of how this significant and complex process should be managed. This paper proposes using project management methodology in alignment with the program review criteria of the Dickeson’s Prioritizing Academic Programs model. Project management and academic program review share two distinct characteristics; one is their life cycle, and the second is the core knowledge areas they use. This aligned and structured approach offers academic administrators a step-by-step guide that can help them manage this process and effectively assess academic programs.

Keywords: Project management, academic program, program review, education, higher education institution, strategic management.

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Authors: C. Ardil

Abstract:

This paper aims to present an objective quantitative methodology on how to evaluate individual’s scholarly research output using multiple criteria decision analysis. A multiple criteria decision making analysis (MCDMA) methodological process is adopted to build a multiple criteria evaluation model. With the introduction of the scholar index, which gives significant information about a researcher's productivity and the scholarly impact of his or her publications in a single number (s is the number of publications with at least s citations); cumulative research citation index; the scholar index is included in the citation databases to cover the multidimensional complexity of scholarly research performance and to undertake objective evaluations with scholar index. The scholar index, one of publication activity indexes, is analyzed by considering it to be the most appropriate sciencemetric indicator which allows to smooth over many drawbacks of scholarly output assessment by mere calculation of the number of publications (quantity) and citations (quality). Hence, this study includes a set of indicators-based scholar index to be used for evaluating scholarly researchers. Google Scholar open science database was used to assess and discuss scholarly productivity and impact of researchers. Based on the experiment of computing the scholar index, and its derivative indexes for a set of researchers on open research database platform, quantitative methods of assessing scholarly research output were successfully considered to rank researchers. The proposed methodology considers the ranking, and the selection of data on which a scholarly research performance evaluation was based, the analysis of the data, and the presentation of the multiple criteria analysis results.

Keywords: Multiple Criteria Decision Making Analysis, MCDMA, Research Performance Evaluation, Scholar Index, h index, Science Citation Index, Science Efficiency, Cumulative Citation Index, Sciencemetrics

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Authors: E. Bruno, F. Lacarbonara, M. C. Placentino, D. Gramegna

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Environmental decision making, particularly about hazardous waste management, is inherently exposed to a high potential conflict, principally because of the trade-off between sociopolitical, environmental, health and economic factors. The need to plan complex contexts has led to an increasing request for decision analytic techniques as support for the decision process. In this work, alternative systems of asbestos-containing waste management (ACW) in Puglia (Southern Italy) were explored by a multi-criteria decision analysis. In particular, through Analytic Hierarchy Process five alternatives management have been compared and ranked according to their performance and efficiency, taking into account environmental, health and socio-economic aspects. A separated valuation has been performed for different temporal scale. For short period results showed a narrow deviation between the disposal alternatives “mono-material landfill in public quarry" and “dedicate cells in existing landfill", with the best performance of the first one. While for long period “treatment plant to eliminate hazard from asbestos-containing waste" was prevalent, although high energy demand required to achieve the change of crystalline structure. A comparison with results from a participative approach in valuation process might be considered as future development of method application to ACW management.

Keywords: Multi-criteria decision analysis, Hazardous wastemanagement, Asbestos.

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Authors: Ali Heidari

Abstract:

This paper presents the principles for improving flood mitigation operation in multipurpose dams and maximizing reservoir performance during flood occurrence with a focus on the real-time operation of gated spillways. The criteria of operation include the safety of dams during flood management, minimizing the downstream flood risk by decreasing the flood hazard and fulfilling water supply and other purposes of the dam operation in mid and long terms horizons. The parameters deemed to be important include flood inflow, outlet capacity restrictions, downstream flood inundation damages, economic revenue of dam operation, and environmental and sedimentation restrictions. A simulation model was used to determine the real-time release of the Dez Dam located in the Dez Rivers in southwest Iran, considering the gate regulation curves for the gated spillway. The results of the simulation model show that there is a possibility to improve the current procedures used in the real-time operation of the dams, particularly using gate regulation curves and early flood forecasting system results. The Dez Dam operation data show that in one of the best flood control records, 17% of the total active volume and flood control pool of the reservoir have not been used in decreasing the downstream flood hazard despite the availability of a flood forecasting system.

Keywords: Dam operation, flood control criteria, Dez Dam, Iran.

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Authors: Nafaâ Nacereddine, Latifa Hamami, Djemel Ziou

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In non destructive testing by radiography, a perfect knowledge of the weld defect shape is an essential step to appreciate the quality of the weld and make decision on its acceptability or rejection. Because of the complex nature of the considered images, and in order that the detected defect region represents the most accurately possible the real defect, the choice of thresholding methods must be done judiciously. In this paper, performance criteria are used to conduct a comparative study of thresholding methods based on gray level histogram, 2-D histogram and locally adaptive approach for weld defect extraction in radiographic images.

Keywords: 1D and 2D histogram, locally adaptive approach, performance criteria, radiographic image, thresholding, weld defect.

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Authors: Esther T. Akinlabi, Stephen A. Akinlabi

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The design of temperature measuring approach for a re-configured milling machine to produce friction stir welds is reported in this paper. The product design specifications for the redesigning of a milling machine were first outlined and the ranking criteria were determined. Three different concepts were generated for the temperature measurement on the reconfigured system and the preferred or the best concept was selected based on the set design ranking criteria. Further simulation and performance analysis was then conducted on the concept. The Infrared Thermography (IRT) concept was selected for the temperature measurement among other concepts generated because it is an ideal and most effective system of measurement in this regard.

Keywords: Clamping system, Friction Stir Welding, Reconfiguration, Support systems.

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Authors: Yue Wang, Jixin Ma, Brian Knight

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This paper presents a visualized computer aided case tool for non-expert, called Visual Time, for representing and reasoning about incomplete and uncertain temporal information. It is both expressive and versatile, allowing logical conjunctions and disjunctions of both absolute and relative temporal relations, such as “Before”, “Meets”, “Overlaps”, “Starts”, “During”, and “Finishes”, etc. In terms of a visualized framework, Visual Time provides a user-friendly environment for describing scenarios with rich temporal structure in natural language, which can be formatted as structured temporal phrases and modeled in terms of Temporal Relationship Diagrams (TRD). A TRD can be automatically and visually transformed into a corresponding Time Graph, supported by automatic consistency checker that derives a verdict to confirm if a given scenario is temporally consistent or inconsistent.

Keywords: Time Visualization, Uncertainty, Incompleteness, Consistency Checking.

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Authors: Lijiang Xiang, Shouming Zhong, Yucai Ding

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The problems of globally exponential stability and dissipativity analysis for static neural networks (NNs) with time delay is investigated in this paper. Some delay-dependent stability criteria are established for static NNs with time delay using the delay partitioning technique. In terms of this criteria, the delay-dependent sufficient condition is given to guarantee the dissipativity of static NNs with time delay. All the given results in this paper are not only dependent upon the time delay but also upon the number of delay partitions. Two numerical examples are used to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Keywords: Globally exponential stability, Dissipativity, Static neural networks, Time delay.

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Authors: A. K. Abd El-Aleem, W. F. Abd El-wahed, N. A. Ismail, F. A. Torkey

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This study suggests a model of a new set of evaluation criteria that will be used to measure the efficiency of real-world E-commerce websites. Evaluation criteria include design, usability and performance for websites, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique has been used to measure the websites efficiency. An efficient Web site is defined as a site that generates the most outputs, using the smallest amount of inputs. Inputs refer to measurements representing the amount of effort required to build, maintain and perform the site. Output is amount of traffic the site generates. These outputs are measured as the average number of daily hits and the average number of daily unique visitors.

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, E-commerce, Efficiency.

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Authors: John N. Ellinas, Panagiotis Kenterlis

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The efficiency of an image watermarking technique depends on the preservation of visually significant information. This is attained by embedding the watermark transparently with the maximum possible strength. The current paper presents an approach for still image digital watermarking in which the watermark embedding process employs the wavelet transform and incorporates Human Visual System (HVS) characteristics. The sensitivity of a human observer to contrast with respect to spatial frequency is described by the Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF). The strength of the watermark within the decomposition subbands, which occupy an interval on the spatial frequencies, is adjusted according to this sensitivity. Moreover, the watermark embedding process is carried over the subband coefficients that lie on edges where distortions are less noticeable. The experimental evaluation of the proposed method shows very good results in terms of robustness and transparency.

Keywords: Image watermarking, wavelet transform, human visual system, contrast sensitivity function.

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Authors: C. Ardil

Abstract:

In this research, a multidimensional  compromise optimization method is proposed for multidimensional decision making analysis in the development ranking of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries and Turkey. The proposed approach presents ranking solutions resulting from different multicriteria decision analyses, which yield different ranking orders for the same ranking problem, consisting of a set of alternatives in terms of numerous competing criteria when they are applied with the same numerical data. The multiobjective optimization decision making problem is considered in three sequential steps. In the first step, five different criteria related to the development ranking are gathered from the research field. In the second step, identified evaluation criteria are, objectively, weighted using standard deviation procedure. In the third step, a country selection problem is illustrated with a numerical example as an application of the proposed multidimensional  compromise optimization model. Finally, multidimensional  compromise optimization approach is applied to rank the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries and Turkey. 

Keywords: Standard deviation, performance evaluation, multicriteria decision making, multidimensional compromise optimization, vector normalization, multicriteria decision making, multicriteria analysis, multidimensional decision analysis.

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Authors: E. Cintura, M. I. Gomes

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Nowadays, sustainable development issues have a key role in the planning of the man-made environment. Ensuring this development means limiting the impact of human activity on nature. It is essential to secure healthy places and good living conditions. For these reasons, indoor air quality and building materials play a fundamental role in sustainable architectural projects. These factors significantly affect human health: they can radically change the quality of the internal environment and energy consumption. The use of natural materials such as earth has many beneficial aspects in comfort and indoor air quality. As well as advantages in the environmental impact of the construction, they ensure a low energy consumption. Since they are already present in nature, their production and use do not require a high-energy consumption. Furthermore, they have a high thermo-hygrometric capacity, being able to absorb moisture, contributing positively to indoor conditions. Indoor air quality is closely related to relative humidity. For these reasons, it can be affirmed that the use of earth materials guarantees a sustainable development and at the same time improves the health of the building users. This paper summarizes several researches that demonstrate the importance of indoor air quality for human health and how it strictly depends on the building materials used. Eco-efficient plasters are also considered: earth and ash mortar. The bibliography consulted has the objective of supporting future experimental and laboratory analyzes. It is necessary to carry on with research by the use of simulations and testing to confirm the hygrothermal properties of eco-efficient plasters and therefore their ability to improve indoor air quality.

Keywords: Hygroscopicity, hygrothermal comfort, mortar, plaster.

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Authors: Eric S. Lee, Connie Bygrave, Jordan Mahar, Naina Garg, Suzanne Cottreau

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Marking exams is universally detested by lecturers. Final exams in many higher education courses often last 3.0 hrs. Do exams really need to be so long? Can we justifiably reduce the number of questions on them? Surprisingly few have researched these questions, arguably because of the complexity and difficulty of using traditional methods. To answer these questions empirically, we used a new approach based on three key elements: Use of an unusual variation of a true experimental design, equivalence hypothesis testing, and an expanded set of six psychometric criteria to be met by any shortened exam if it is to replace a current 3.0-hr exam (reliability, validity, justifiability, number of exam questions, correspondence, and equivalence). We compared student performance on each official 3.0-hr exam with that on five shortened exams having proportionately fewer questions (2.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, and 0.5 hours) in a series of four experiments conducted in two classes in each of two finance courses (224 students in total). We found strong evidence that, in these courses, shortening of final exams to 2.0 hrs was warranted on all six psychometric criteria. Shortening these exams by one hour should result in a substantial one-third reduction in lecturer time and effort spent marking, lower student stress, and more time for students to prepare for other exams. Our approach provides a relatively simple, easy-to-use methodology that lecturers can use to examine the effect of shortening their own exams.

Keywords: Exam length, psychometric criteria, synthetic experimental designs, test length.

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Authors: Ehsan Bashiri

Abstract:

A 7-step method (with 25 sub-steps) to assess risk of air pollutants is introduced. These steps are: pre-considerations, sampling, statistical analysis, exposure matrix and likelihood, doseresponse matrix and likelihood, total risk evaluation, and discussion of findings. All mentioned words and expressions are wellunderstood; however, almost all steps have been modified, improved, and coupled in such a way that a comprehensive method has been prepared. Accordingly, the SADRA (Statistical Analysis-Driven Risk Assessment) emphasizes extensive and ongoing application of analytical statistics in traditional risk assessment models. A Sulfur Dioxide case study validates the claim and provides a good illustration for this method.

Keywords: Criteria air pollutants, Matrix of risk, Riskassessment, Statistical analysis.

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Authors: S. Sabbour, H. Lasi, P. von Tessin

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The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, it attempts to explore potential opportunities for utilizing visual interactive simulations along with Business Intelligence (BI) as a decision support tool for strategic decision making. Second, it tries to figure out the essential top-level managerial requirements that would transform strategic decision simulation into an integral component of BI systems. The domain of particular interest was the application of visual interactive simulation capabilities in the field of supply chains. A qualitative exploratory method was applied, through the use of interviews with two leading companies. The collected data was then analysed to demonstrate the difference between the literature perspective and the practical managerial perspective on the issue. The results of the study suggest that although the use of simulation particularly in managing supply chains is very evident in literature, yet, in practice such utilization is still in its infancy, particularly regarding strategic decisions. Based on the insights a prototype of a simulation based BI-solution-extension was developed and evaluated.

Keywords: Business Intelligence, decision support, strategic decisions, simulation, SCM.

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Authors: J. L. Liu, L. Wang, B. Zhu, J. Zhou, W. D. Gao

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Fabric textures are very common in our daily life. However, the representation of fabric textures has never been explored from neuroscience view. Theoretical studies suggest that primary visual cortex (V1) uses a sparse code to efficiently represent natural images. However, how the simple cells in V1 encode the artificial textures is still a mystery. So, here we will take fabric texture as stimulus to study the response of independent component analysis that is established to model the receptive field of simple cells in V1. We choose 140 types of fabrics to get the classical fabric textures as materials. Experiment results indicate that the receptive fields of simple cells have obvious selectivity in orientation, frequency and phase when drifting gratings are used to determine their tuning properties. Additionally, the distribution of optimal orientation and frequency shows that the patch size selected from each original fabric image has a significant effect on the frequency selectivity.

Keywords: Fabric Texture, Receptive Filed, Simple Cell, Spare Coding.

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