bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Robust Automated Image Co-Registration of Optical Multi-Sensor Time Series Data: Database Generation for Multi-Temporal Landslide Detection
Authors: Behling Robert , Roessner Sigrid , Segl Karl , Kleinschmit Birgit , Kaufmann Hermann
Published: March 2014

Reliable multi-temporal landslide detection over longer periods of time requires multi-sensor time series data characterized by high internal geometric stability, as well as high relative and absolute accuracy. For this purpose, a new methodology for fully automated co-registration has been developed allowing efficient and robust spatial alignment of standard orthorectified data products originating from a multitude of optical satellite remote sensing data of varying spatial resolution. Correlation-based co-registration uses world-wide available terrain corrected Landsat Level 1T time series data as the spatial reference, ensuring global applicability. The developed approach has been applied to a multi-sensor time series of 592 remote sensing datasets covering an approximately 12,000 km2 area in Southern Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia) strongly affected by landslides. The database contains images acquired during the last 26 years by Landsat (E)TM, ASTER, SPOT and RapidEye sensors. Analysis of the spatial shifts obtained from co-registration has revealed sensor-specific alignments ranging between 5 m and more than 400 m. Overall accuracy assessment of these alignments has resulted in a high relative image-to-image accuracy of 17 m (RMSE) and a high absolute accuracy of 23 m (RMSE) for the whole co-registered database, making it suitable for multi-temporal landslide detection at a regional scale in Southern Kyrgyzstan.
Multi-Sensor Fusion for Enhanced Contextual Awareness of Everyday Activities with Ubiquitous Devices
Authors: Guiry John , Van de Ven Pepijn , Nelson John
Published: March 2014

In this paper, the authors investigate the role that smart devices, including smartphones and smartwatches, can play in identifying activities of daily living. A feasibility study involving N = 10 participants was carried out to evaluate the devices’ ability to differentiate between nine everyday activities. The activities examined include walking, running, cycling, standing, sitting, elevator ascents, elevator descents, stair ascents and stair descents. The authors also evaluated the ability of these devices to differentiate indoors from outdoors, with the aim of enhancing contextual awareness. Data from this study was used to train and test five well known machine learning algorithms: C4.5, CART, Naïve Bayes, Multi-Layer Perceptrons and finally Support Vector Machines. Both single and multi-sensor approaches were examined to better understand the role each sensor in the device can play in unobtrusive activity recognition. The authors found overall results to be promising, with some models correctly classifying up to 100% of all instances.
Fully Distributed Monitoring Architecture Supporting Multiple Trackees and Trackers in Indoor Mobile Asset Management Application
Authors: Jeong Seol , Jo Hyeong , Kang Soon
Published: March 2014

A tracking service like asset management is essential in a dynamic hospital environment consisting of numerous mobile assets (e.g., wheelchairs or infusion pumps) that are continuously relocated throughout a hospital. The tracking service is accomplished based on the key technologies of an indoor location-based service (LBS), such as locating and monitoring multiple mobile targets inside a building in real time. An indoor LBS such as a tracking service entails numerous resource lookups being requested concurrently and frequently from several locations, as well as a network infrastructure requiring support for high scalability in indoor environments. A traditional centralized architecture needs to maintain a geographic map of the entire building or complex in its central server, which can cause low scalability and traffic congestion. This paper presents a self-organizing and fully distributed indoor mobile asset management (MAM) platform, and proposes an architecture for multiple trackees (such as mobile assets) and trackers based on the proposed distributed platform in real time. In order to verify the suggested platform, scalability performance according to increases in the number of concurrent lookups was evaluated in a real test bed. Tracking latency and traffic load ratio in the proposed tracking architecture was also evaluated.
Analyzing Body Movements within the Laban Effort Framework Using a Single Accelerometer
Authors: Kikhia Basel , Gomez Miguel , Jiménez Lara , Hallberg Josef , Karvonen Niklas , Synnes Kåre
Published: March 2014

This article presents a study on analyzing body movements by using a single accelerometer sensor. The investigated categories of body movements belong to the Laban Effort Framework: Strong—Light, Free—Bound and Sudden—Sustained. All body movements were represented by a set of activities used for data collection. The calculated accuracy of detecting the body movements was based on collecting data from a single wireless tri-axial accelerometer sensor. Ten healthy subjects collected data from three body locations (chest, wrist and thigh) simultaneously in order to analyze the locations comparatively. The data was then processed and analyzed using Machine Learning techniques. The wrist placement was found to be the best single location to record data for detecting Strong—Light body movements using the Random Forest classifier. The wrist placement was also the best location for classifying Bound—Free body movements using the SVM classifier. However, the data collected from the chest placement yielded the best results for detecting Sudden—Sustained body movements using the Random Forest classifier. The study shows that the choice of the accelerometer placement should depend on the targeted type of movement. In addition, the choice of the classifier when processing data should also depend on the chosen location and the target movement.
A Hydrograph-Based Sediment Availability Assessment: Implications for Mississippi River Sediment Diversion
Authors: Rosen Timothy , Xu Y.
Published: March 2014

The Mississippi River Delta Plain has undergone substantial land loss caused by subsidence, relative sea-level rise, and loss of connectivity to the Mississippi River. Many restoration projects rely on diversions from the Mississippi River, but uncertainty exists about the timing and the amount of actually available sediment. This study examined long-term (1980–2010) suspended sediment yield as affected by different hydrologic regimes to determine actual suspended sediment availability and how this may affect diversion management. A stage hydrograph-based approach was employed to quantify total suspended sediment load (SSL) of the lower Mississippi River at Tarbert Landing during three river flow conditions: Peak Flow Stage (stage = 16.8 m, discharge >32,000 m3 s−1), High Flow Stage (stage = 14.6 m, discharge = 25,000–32,000 m3 s−1), and Intermediate Flow Stage (Stage = 12.1 m, discharge = 18,000–25,000 m3 s−1). Suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and SSL were maximized during High Flow and Intermediate Flow Stages, accounting for approximately 50% of the total annual sediment yield, even though duration of the stages accounted for only one-third of a year. Peak Flow Stage had the highest discharge, but significantly lower SSC (p < 0.05), indicating that diversion of the river at this stage would be less effective for sediment capture. The lower Mississippi River showed significantly higher SSC (p < 0.0001) and SSL (p < 0.0001) during the rising than the receding limb. When the flood pulse was rising, Intermediate Flow and High Flow Stages showed greater SSC and SSL than Peak Flow Stage. Together, Intermediate Flow and High Flow Stages on the rising limb annually discharged 28 megatonnes over approximately 42 days, identifying this to be the best period for sediment capture and diversion.
L'art pictural : une source pour l'histoire de l'Athènes préclassique
Authors: Prost Francis
Published: March 2014

À partir des textes concernant l'art de la grande peinture de la première moitié du Ve siècle, et des vases à figure rouge du courant appelé par J.D. Beazley «maniériste», l'auteur se propose de voir dans les différents courants stylistiques qui prévalent à l'époque de Cimon le reflet d'une aristocratie athénienne en pleine mutation.
La rumeur chez les orateurs attiques : vérité ou vraisemblance?
Authors: Gotteland Sophie
Published: March 2014

Pour désigner les bruits qui circulent entre des individus et le procédé même de leur transmission, les orateurs attiques emploient fréquemment le substantif φήμη. Utilisé de préférence pour qualifier une rameur récente, ce terme répond à un certain nombre de critères bien précis ; nécessaire anonymat, transmission orale, diffusion rapide et spontanée, absence de toute vérification, large consensus de la foule. À l'inverse des historiens, pour qui ce type d'information ne peut remplacer une enquête personnelle, les orateurs n'hésitent pas à renverser la hiérarchie traditionnelle entre la vue et l'ouïe et à réhabiliter une rameur dont les caractéristiques garantissent à leurs yeux l'objectivité. La rameur, transformée en information vraisemblable, voire même véridique, peut alors servir d'argument dans un discours ou de témoignage dans un procès.
La mort de Virgile d'après Properce et Ovide
Authors: Maleuvre Jean-Yves
Published: March 2014

Les difficultés propres aux élégies II, 26, 27, 28 ; m, 7 de Properce, et II, 11, 12 d'Ovide se résolvent si l'on vient à les considérer comme des pièces à conviction à verser au dossier de l'assassinat de Virgile par l'empereur Auguste. Elles se répartissent entre deux locuteurs ennemis, avec une parité remarquable pour ce qui est de Properce et une proportion de 2 à 1 dans le cas d'Ovide (56 vers à Ego contre 28 à anti-Ego).
Un portrait «césarien» de Gélon chez Diodore de Sicile (XI, 20-26)
Authors: Devillers Olivier
Published: March 2014

Cet article met en évidence la présence de traits «césariens» dans le portrait de Gélon, tyran de Syracuse, que livre Diodore de Sicile lorsqu'il relate la bataille d'Himère (480 av. J.-C). Après un rappel sur la tradition historiographique relative à cette bataille sont d'abord envisagés les traits qui ressortissent à l'image du chef telle que César l'avait donnée de lui-même dans ses Commentaires, puis ceux qui permettent de dresser un parallèle entre son action politique et celle de Gélon ; une attention particulière est alors portée à la question du «dessein monarchique» du conquérant des Gaules.
THE PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF ADAPTATION POTENTIAL IN EXISTING OFFICE BUILDINGS
Authors: Wilkinson Sara
Published: March 2014

It is said that the battle for sustainability will be won or lost in the world's cities and a major tactic in this challenge will be the sustainable adaptation of existing buildings. Evidence based decision-making tools are required for the management of built assets. This research examined every building adaptation event between 1998 and 2008 with the relative importance of property attributes derived using a principal component analysis (PCA), from which a weighted index of optimal decision- making attributes in a predictive model was proposed; the Preliminary Assessment Adaptation Model (PAAM). The model is discussed and applied in an illustrative case study. Given further development and testing the PAAM might be useable by non-experts and property managers to appraise the suitability of a building for potential adaptation.
CAN WE BEAT THE “BUY-AND-HOLD” STRATEGY? ANALYSIS ON EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SECURITIZED REAL ESTATE INDICES
Authors: Hui Eddie C. M. , Yam Sheung-Chi Phillip
Published: March 2014

The aim of this paper is to use the Shiryaev-Zhou index to examine the performances of securitized real estate indices of four countries: US, UK, Canada and Germany. The result reveals that the Shiryaev-Zhou index is a leading indicator and can act as a predictor on certain securitized real estate indices. Furthermore, our results show that the trading strategy we constructed according to the Shiryaev-Zhou index generally outperforms the “buy-and-hold” strategy under the assumption of no transaction costs. The stronger the predictive power of the Shiryaev-Zhou index is, the larger extent our trading strategy beats the “buy-and-hold” strategy. This is useful in strategic property management that property practitioners can follow our strategy to trade real estate stocks/funds in order to increase their profits.
Quand la co-localisation contraint la coordination : l'apport du modèle ‘exit-voice' à l'analyse des dynamiques territoriales
Authors: Rivaud Audrey , Cazals Clarisse
Published: March 2014

Les formes de coordination qui découlent des dimensions négatives de la proximité géographique sont le plus souvent appréhendées sous l’angle de la conflictualité. Pourtant, les conflits d’usage et leur pendant en termes de concertation ne sont pas les seuls moyens d’action des acteurs co-localisés. Les stratégies de délocalisation ou d’évitement sont également des réponses adaptées. Nous insistons sur l’intérêt du diptyque exit-voice pour envisager plus globalement les stratégies d’acteurs, et saisir de manière fine certaines dynamiques territoriales. Pour illustrer notre propos, nous nous intéressons à l’ostréiculture, activité productive confrontée à divers problèmes de coordination territorialisés. Nous analysons plus précisément les stratégies mises en œuvre par les ostréiculteurs sur deux espaces particuliers : le bassin de Marennes-Oléron, où le problème d’approvisionnement en eau douce donne lieu à des stratégies de sortie du jeu ; le bassin d’Arcachon, où les problèmes de qualité du milieu suscitent des stratégies de prise de parole.
La réforme aéroportuaire et les relations stratégiques entre aéroports et compagnies aériennes : une analyse à l'aide de la théorie des jeux
Authors: Carrard Michel
Published: March 2014

L’objet de cet article est d’analyser les enjeux de la réforme aéroportuaire sur les aéroports régionaux et locaux et sur leurs relations avec les compagnies aériennes (classiques et low cost). Pour développer notre analyse, nous proposons un modèle de jeu coopératif visant à décrire les effets de la mise en œuvre de stratégies aéroportuaires de concurrence et de coopération et leurs impacts sur les compagnies aériennes.
Operative Role Management in Information Systems
Authors: Kurki Taina , Sihvonen Hanna-Miina
Published: March 2014

Operative role management relates to the commanding officers' work of managing their resources dealing with emergency situations. It concerns assigning and delegating the right roles to the right resources at a specific moment. Role management is commonly understood as system role management, relating to access control and administrative role management. Operative role management is in turn the practical daily work of emergency organizations' personnel and relates to overall resource management. In-depth ethnographic research has been carried out, and the difference between operative and system role management has been distinguished in this chapter. The research concentrates both on the practical work processes of the emergency management staff and on the information systems and their functionalities. Through this two-folded approach, role management approach has been divided into three domains: administrative management domain, operative domain, and their common domain. The chapter focuses on describing the interdependencies between the role management approaches with examples from field studies and findings from literature.
A Modular Collaborative Web-Based Framework for Humanitarian Crisis Management
Authors: Annunziato Alessandro , Doherty Brian , Khanh Hong
Published: March 2014

In humanitarian crisis situations there is always more than one organization or agency involved in early warning, preparedness, and response to the crisis. These participating actors usually need a shared computer-based framework to exchange information, monitor the status of the crisis, communicate and coordinate operations among them in order to make their collaborations better and make the right decisions at the right times. The aim of this chapter is to present a Web framework that has a modular architecture. This Web framework has been realized by advanced Web technologies and design patterns in software engineering. It is made up of diverse Web modules and can be reusable and configurable to adapt with particular crisis contexts. The feasibility as well as the efficiency of this Web framework is also demonstrated in the chapter through real and complex crisis management scenarios.
Supporting Policy-Makers with Social Media Analysis Tools to Get Aware of Citizens' Opinions
Authors: Wandhöfer Timo , Taylor Steve , Fernandez Miriam , Allen Beccy , Alani Harith , Joshi Somya , Walland Paul , Sizov Sergej , van Eeckhaute Catherine , Thamm Mark , Bleier Arnim , Mutschke Peter , Koulolias Vasilis
Published: March 2014

The role of social media in politics has increased considerably. A particular challenge is how to deal with the deluge of information generated on social media: it is impractical to read lots of messages with the hope of finding useful information. In this chapter, the authors suggest an alternative approach: utilizing analysis software to extract the most relevant information of the discussions taking place. This chapter discusses the WeGov Toolbox as one concept for policy-makers to deal with the information overload on Social Media, and how it may be applied. Two complementary, in depth case studies were carried out to validate the usefulness of the analysis results of the WeGov Toolbox components' within its target audience's everyday life. Firstly, the authors used the “HeadsUp” forum, operated by the Hansard Society. Here, they were able to compare the key themes and opinions extracted automatically by the Toolbox to a control group of manually pre-analyzed data sets. In parallel, results of analyses based on four weeks' intensive monitoring on policy area-specific Facebook pages selected by German policy makers, as well as topics on Twitter globally and local, were assessed by taking into account their existing experience with content discussed and user behavior in their respective public spheres. The cases show that there are interesting applications for policy-makers to use the Toolbox in combination with online forums (blogs) and social networks, if behavioral user patterns will be considered and the framework will be refined.
Successful Adoption of M-Voting System in Egypt
Authors: Abdelghaffar Hany , Galal Lina
Published: March 2014

Citizens everywhere are continuously demanding to be given the chance to participate more in the democratic process. Mobile technology is seen as a new method to fulfill such a demand. A remote voting using mobile device is considered an effectual way in enabling citizens to get involved in the voting process, especially in developing countries. In spite of the the perceived benefits of applying m-voting, it is not widely used by governments in several countries. This chapter identifies the factors that affect citizens' intentions of adopting a mobile voting system by introducing a prototype of an m-voting system to citizens in Egypt. Findings show that ease of use, usefulness, trust, and mobility have significant impact on citizens' willingness to use an m-voting system.
Cognitive and Environmental Factors Influencing the Process of Spatial Knowledge Acquisition within Virtual Reality Environments
Authors: Kyritsis Markos , Gulliver Stephen R. , Morar Sonali
Published: March 2014

As the fidelity of virtual environments (VE) continues to increase, the possibility of using them as training platforms is becoming increasingly realistic for a variety of application domains, including military and emergency personnel training. In the past, there was much debate on whether the acquisition and subsequent transfer of spatial knowledge from VEs to the real world is possible, or whether the differences in medium during training would essentially be an obstacle to truly learning geometric space. In this paper, the authors present various cognitive and environmental factors that not only contribute to this process, but also interact with each other to a certain degree, leading to a variable exposure time requirement in order for the process of spatial knowledge acquisition (SKA) to occur. The cognitive factors that the authors discuss include a variety of individual user differences such as: knowledge and experience; cognitive gender differences; aptitude and spatial orientation skill; and finally, cognitive styles. Environmental factors discussed include: Size, Spatial layout complexity and landmark distribution. It may seem obvious that since every individual's brain is unique - not only through experience, but also through genetic predisposition that a one size fits all approach to training would be illogical. Furthermore, considering that various cognitive differences may further emerge when a certain stimulus is present (e.g. complex environmental space), it would make even more sense to understand how these factors can impact spatial memory, and to try to adapt the training session by providing visual/auditory cues as well as by changing the exposure time requirements for each individual. The impact of this research domain is important to VE training in general, however within service and military domains, guaranteeing appropriate spatial training is critical in order to ensure that disorientation does not occur in a life or death scenario.
A Hybrid Lossless-Lossy Binary Image Compression Scheme
Authors: alZahir Saif , Naqvi Syed M.
Published: March 2014

In this paper, the authors present a binary image compression scheme that can be used either for lossless or lossy compression requirements. This scheme contains five new contributions. The lossless component of the scheme partitions the input image into a number of non-overlapping rectangles using a new line-by-line method. The upper-left and the lower-right vertices of each rectangle are identified and the coordinates of which are efficiently encoded using three methods of representation and compression. The lossy component, on the other hand, provides higher compression through two techniques. 1) It reduces the number of rectangles from the input image using our mathematical regression models. These mathematical models guarantees image quality so that rectangular reduction should not produce visual distortion in the image. The mathematical models have been obtained through subjective tests and regression analysis on a large set of binary images. 2) Further compression gain is achieved through discarding isolated pixels and 1-pixel rectangles from the image. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes provide significant improvements over previously published work for both the lossy and the lossless components.
A Forensic Tool for Investigating Image Forgeries
Authors: Fontani Marco , Bianchi Tiziano , De Rosa Alessia , Piva Alessandro , Barni Mauro
Published: March 2014

Images have always been considered a reliable source of evidence in the past. Today, the wide availability of photo editing software urges the authors to investigate the origin and the integrity of a digital image before trusting it. Although several algorithms have been developed for image integrity verification, a comprehensive tool that allows the analyst to synergically exploit these algorithms, and to reach a final decision based on their output, is still lacking. In this work the authors propose an image forensic tool trying to fill this gap. The proposed tool exploits state of the art algorithms for splicing detection, with forgery localization capabilities, and make them available to the analyst through a graphical interface. In order to help the analyst in reaching a final assessment, a decision fusion engine is employed to intelligently merge the output of different algorithms, boosting detection performance. The tool has a modular architecture, that makes it easily scalable.
Audio Watermarking Scheme Using IMFs and HHT for Forensic Applications
Authors: alZahir Saif , Islam Md Wahedul
Published: March 2014

Audio signals and applications are numerous and ubiquitous. Most of these applications especially those on the Internet require authentication and proof(s) of ownership. There are several efficient methods in the literature address these crucial and critical concerns. In this paper, the authors present a new non-blind audio watermarking scheme for forensic audio authentication and proof of ownership. The proposed scheme is based on empirical mode decomposition and Hilbert Haung Transformation (HHT). In this method, the audio signal is decomposed into frames of 1024 sample each. These frames are further decomposed into its several mono-component signals called Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF). These Intrinsic Mode Functions will serve as the addressee for the watermark. In this research, the chosen watermark is a pseudo random number generated by Matlab-7, which is added to the highest and lowest IMFs of each frame of the decomposed signal. This is done to accommodate for time scale modification attacks as well as MP3 compression respectively. Experimental results show that the watermarked audio signals maintained high fidelity of more than 20 dBs which meets the International Federation of Phonographic Industry requirements. The results also show that the proposed scheme is robust against signal processing attacks such as MP3, time scale modification, and resizing attacks.
Rethinking E-Government Adoption
Authors: Persaud Ajax , Persaud Priya
Published: March 2014

E-government acceptance has attracted substantial research interest over the last fifteen years. The majority of this research is based on technology acceptance models primarily because e-government is viewed as a technology for achieving efficiency, transparency, and information management. However, the adoption of e-government ultimately depends on whether users perceive the technology as serving their needs and meeting their expectations. Thus, understanding and incorporating users' needs in the design, organisation, and deployment of e-government are crucial but have been overlooked. This study develops and tests a user-centric model of e-government by using six factors that have been widely discussed in the literature. The factors have been labelled content, accessibility, localisation, e-participation, user-friendliness and awareness/government literacy. The results show that all six factors plus the interaction of e-participation with user-friendliness are statistically significant in promoting e-government use. The research and practical implications of the results are discussed.
Browsing Large Concept Lattices through Tree Extraction and Reduction Methods
Authors: Melo Cassio , Le-Grand Bénédicte , Aufaure Marie-Aude
Published: March 2014

Browsing concept lattices from Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) becomes a problem as the number of concepts can grow significantly with the number of objects and attributes. Interpreting the lattice through direct graph-based visualisation of the Hasse diagram rapidly becomes difficult and more synthetic representations are needed. In this work the authors propose an approach to simplify concept lattices by extracting and visualising trees derived from them. The authors further simplify the browse-able trees with two reduction methods: fault-tolerance and concept clustering.
Towards the Semantic Representation of Biological Images
Authors: McLeod Kenneth , Iskandar D. N. F. Awang , Burger Albert
Published: March 2014

Biomedical images and models contain vast amounts of information. Regrettably, much of this information is only accessible by domain experts. This paper describes a biological use case in which this situation occurs. Motivation is given for describing images, from this use case, semantically. Furthermore, links are provided to the medical domain, demonstrating the transferability of this work. Subsequently, it is shown that a semantic representation in which every pixel is featured is needlessly expensive. This motivates the discussion of more abstract renditions, which are dealt with next. As part of this, the paper discusses the suitability of existing technologies. In particular, Region Connection Calculus and one implementation of the W3C Geospatial Vocabulary are considered. It transpires that the abstract representations provide a basic description that enables the user to perform a subset of the desired queries. However, a more complex depiction is required for this use case.
Gene Co-Expression in Mouse Embryo Tissues
Authors: Andrews Simon , McLeod Kenneth
Published: March 2014

This paper develops some existing ideas in Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) to provide an analysis of a large data set of gene expressions in mouse embryo tissues. It develops a new technique for managing complexity based on 'fault tolerance' and the identification of disjoint sets in data. Using this technique, distinct groups of co-expressed genes are identified. The work represents some early experiments with FCA, with many questions arising and much left as future research, although promising results are shown that are of interest to both FCA developers and geneticists. This work has been carried out as part the European CUBIST Project.
Computing Nash Equilibria in Non-Cooperative Games
Authors: Garro Alfredo
Published: March 2014

Game Theory has recently drawn attention in new fields which go from algorithmic mechanism design to cybernetics. However, a fundamental problem to solve for effectively applying Game Theory in real word applications is the definition of well-founded solution concepts of a game and the design of efficient algorithms for their computation. A widely accepted solution concept for games in which any cooperation among the players must be self-enforcing (non-cooperative games) is represented by the Nash equilibrium. However, even in the two players case, the best algorithm known for computing Nash equilibria has an exponential worst-case running time; furthermore, if the computation of equilibria with simple additional properties is required, the problem becomes NP-hard. The paper aims to provide a solution for efficiently computing the Nash equilibria of a game as the result of the evolution of a system composed by interacting agents playing the game.
SensFloor® and NaviFloor®
Authors: Steinhage Axel , Lauterbach Christl
Published: March 2014

The following chapter describes two systems, which both are perfect examples for ambient intelligence: sensor electronics, which is invisibly integrated into the floor. The first system comprises active sensors with high spatial resolution. It is able to detect people walking across the floor and recognizes peoples' location and movement behaviour. While the main application domains are Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), health care, security systems and home automation, several robotics applications are possible and have been investigated already. The second system serves for localizing moving objects such as robots, wheelchairs or hospital beds by means of passive RFID tags in the floor and an active RFID reader attached to the moving object. In the following, we describe the technical details of the two systems and robotics applications, which have already been realized or are under development.
Estimation of Always Best Connected Network in Heterogeneous Environment Based on Prediction of Recent Call History and Call Blocking Probability
Authors: Mariappan Bhuvaneswari , Ramachandran Shanmugalakshmi
Published: March 2014

Presently, the emergence of 4G heterogeneous network has attracted most of the user centric applications like video chatting, online mobile interactive classroom besides voice services. To facilitate such bandwidth hungry multimedia applications and to ensure QoS (Quality of Service), Always Best Connected (ABC) network is to be selected among available heterogeneous network. The selection of the ABC network is based on certain design parameters such as cost factor, bandwidth utilization, packet delivery ratio, security, throughput, delay, packet loss ratio and call blocking probability. In this paper, all the above mentioned design parameters are considered to evaluate the performance of Always Best Connected network under heterogeneous environment for mobile users. In addition, to select Always Best Connected network in a heterogeneous environment, a novel parameter namely recent call history-‘rch' is proposed to predict the call blocking probability (Cbp) of a network.The estimation of ‘rch' parameter in terms of Cbp avoids unnecessary hand-off and enhances the effective bandwidth utilization of a cellular network under heavy load condition.A QoS mapper submodule is proposed in the QoS broker module to predict the ‘rch' parameter of a network to select an optimum network. Further, a statistcal model based on Bayesian network using the data on recent call history is applied for Cbp estimation and simulated over various heterogeneous environment condition. The simulated results show improved performance of user centric applications when compared with non-predictive methods.
Proposal of a Hierarchical and Distributed Method for Selecting a Radio Network and a Transmission Mode
Authors: Penhoat J. , Guillouard K. , Omnès N. , Zhang J. , Lemlouma T. , Salaun M.
Published: March 2014

The deployment of heterogeneous radio networks and the deployment of Unicast Internet Protocol (IP)/Multicast IP architectures can impact the quality of services received by the users. The authors think that they will accept these quality variations if they have the possibility to choose the radio network and the transmission mode, multicast versus unicast. But, when choosing a radio network or a transmission mode, the choices of the users can be opposed to the choices of the operators managing the networks. To overcome this drawback, the authors defined a method allowing the users, the operators managing the networks and the service providers to cooperate in the selection process.
Design and Implementation of a Fast General Purpose Fuzzy Processor
Authors: Mahmoud Mohamed Ibrahim , El-Araby Sayed Mohamed , Shehata Safey Ahmed , AbouZaid Refaat Mohamed Fikry , El-Samie Fathi Abd
Published: March 2014

In this paper, a Fast Fuzzy processor (FP) is proposed. This processor, which is implemented using FPGA, has four inputs and one output with 8-bits width for each. The proposed processor is synthesized, functionally verified and implemented using Xilinx Integrated Software Environment (ISE) and is tested using Xilinx Spartan 3E starter kit. A PC Graphical User Interface (GUI) is programmed using C# programming language to select and download the parameters of the processor through the serial port communication. The proposed processor is experimentally tested through water sprinkler system example. The experimental results approve the excellent performance of the proposed processor.
A Comparative Analysis of Rough Set Based Intelligent Techniques for Unsupervised Gene Selection
Authors: Banu P. K. Nizar , Inbarani H. Hannah
Published: March 2014

As the micro array databases increases in dimension and results in complexity, identifying the most informative genes is a challenging task. Such difficulty is often related to the huge number of genes with very few samples. Research in medical data mining addresses this problem by applying techniques from data mining and machine learning to the micro array datasets. In this paper Unsupervised Tolerance Rough Set based Quick Reduct (U-TRS-QR), a diverse feature selection algorithm, which extends the existing equivalent rough sets for unsupervised learning, is proposed. Genes selected by the proposed method leads to a considerably improved class predictions in wide experiments on two gene expression datasets: Brain Tumor and Colon Cancer. The results indicate consistent improvement among 12 classifiers.
Effects of Free Goods on Market Sustainability
Authors: Cavaleri Steven , Friedman Sheldon
Published: March 2014

Various types of ‘bubbles', e.g. stock market, housing, dot.com, high-tech, historically, are commonly-observed phenomena in complex systems. Yet, their emergence often surprises people who remain unaware of history or their systemic roots. Bubbles are often considered to be simply the product of unwise speculative investments or social mania. Alternatively, conventional economic theories often consider factors, such as interest rates, to be the trigger. However, economic theories rarely account for the systemic structure of markets or for non-linear dynamics. The authors propose that special cases may emerge in some markets to trigger instability. Specifically, when minimal interest rates and capital requirements (down payments) are become extremely low a perceptual shift occurs among consumers such that they become viewed as approximate free goods. This paper proposes that unwise economic policies may activate a free goods scenario initiating a cascading series of destabilizing events leading to market collapse. The authors propose hypothesize that such incendiary policies caused both the 1929 stock market crash and the 2008 subprime housing crisis in the United States. To more deeply examine this claim, these policies were tested using a system dynamics model based on data from both the 1929 and 2008 crises. The model simulated and tested the effects of alternative rate policies on market dynamics. Some of the rates and down payments used in both crises set off tsunami-like shock waves through markets leading to their sudden collapse in these simulations. Based on the findings of this study, found that economic policies lessened market stability. The authors propose several revisions to these policies to foster greater market sustainability.
The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence of a Leader and Employee Motivation to Job Performance
Authors: Acha Vera , Hargiss Kathleen M. , Howard Caroline
Published: March 2014

This quantitative study investigated the bond between a leader's emotional intelligence to employee motivation. The research was conducted at a federal government agency resided north bound of the United States of America. Participants consisted of 350 full time employees from various units of the organization. The leader's emotional intelligence was tested with Emotional Social Competence Inventory (ESCI) tool, whereas employees' motivation was verified with the Four Drive (4-D) instrument. The study depicted a link between a leader's emotions and employee interest to excel. Emotional aptitude scored high, which indicates that the leader's emotion affected employees' behavior. Employees likely to stay with the organization displayed strong organizational awareness with high sense of belonging. The different groups observed, revealed results with both positive and negative significant correlations (p < .05). The final outcome depicted that a leader's emotional intelligence influenced employees' motivation to excel. As the sample size was large some of the results were generalized.
The Significance of the Hidden Curriculum in Medical Ethics
Authors: Nalini Annaswamy
Published: March 2014

The need to teach medical professionalism, especially medical ethics, has been emphasized by medical educators. The aim of medical ethics education is providing the basic knowledge regarding ethical analysis, enabling the students to develop the analytical skills for resolving the ethical dilemmas in clinical practice. But, a more important aspect is the assimilation of the core values of the profession by the students. The hidden curriculum, “the informal learning in which the students engage and which is unrelated to what is taught” (Harden, 2001, p.16) has a greater role in imparting education regarding the humanistic aspects of medical practice than the formal curriculum. Experiences of the medical students in the clinical setting should be considered significant for ethics education by the teachers. A review of the experiences of the students and the ethical dilemmas they face during the clinical clerkships is provided and their impact on the moral development of the students is analysed.
Reforming Medical Education
Authors: Khaddar Jayesh
Published: March 2014

The academic discussions on the way medical education needs to be reformed often revolve around how to make it more interesting & more clinically relevant, while any discussions regarding these issues is welcome, it is equally essential to enlarge the scope of the debate on educational reform from merely focusing on skill related issues and pay attention to an equally important issue of shaping the outlook of a medical graduate who needs to become socially responsible. The paper highlights the depoliticized nature of medical education & its implications on the outlook of a medical graduate. It argues for a need to add a human touch to the medical curriculum, it looks into some initiatives taken in this direction while also arguing for the need to also learn from experiments in other disciplines.
The Significance of the Hidden Curriculum in Medical Ethics
Authors: Singh Satendra
Published: March 2014

This commentary discusses the paper by Annaswamy Nalini, “The Significance of the Hidden Curriculum in Medical Ethics: Literature Review with Focus on Students' Experiences”. The ethical dilemmas encountered by students may be because of early induction of students into medicine. The rigours and demands of professional education also deny our adolescents the chance to grow. It is this fledgling state when the students need the guidance from near peers and role models the most. Ethical feedback and experiential methods under Medical Humanities have been suggested as a coping mechanism to reveal and address the “hidden” emotional ethical dilemmas.
Using Web Portals to Model and Manage Enterprise Projects
Authors: Zykov Sergey , Kukushkin Alexey
Published: March 2014

Enterprise content management is quite an issue because of heterogeneity, complexity and size. Moreover, this burden is exponentially growing. In order to efficiently handle the enterprise content, a systematic approach is required, which embraces object-based models and software engineering tools. The paper outlines the approach, and gives the primary attention to the formal models for content management. The formal models are fully supported by problem-oriented languages and CASE level tools. The proposed approach has been extended for application in project integration management. The paper also suggests the method of dynamic modeling of planning and change management processes taking into account particular project constraints, priorities, environment etc. This method is based on ER-model of project structures (WBS, OBS, TRM, network etc.) and the Selective-function Linear resolution for Definite Clause. The resolution procedure defines the sequence of the project structures determination i.e. the management process including inputs and outputs on the basis of specified initial conditions. This method was applied in a consulting project in public management domain. It could be implemented as a web-service for another web-based Enterprise Project Management Systems or as a stand-alone solution with GUI. The approach has been approved by a number of successful enterprise-scale implementations in oil-and-gas industry, public management, trading and banking enterprises, nuclear power plant construction and other areas.
Project Management Simulation Portal
Authors: Nascimento João , Resende da Silva Paulo , Samartinho João
Published: March 2014

Simulation, in the context of Project Management teaching / learning process, has been described as an effective way to achieve better outcomes. There are already some tools developed to simulate the management of technical work. Still, project management is much more than dealing with technical tasks. The system developed aims to sustain the process of teaching / learning the subject of project management in a broad range. When compared with other work in the field, there are two aspects that stand out from the product described in this paper: (1) the use of the Web to enhance the interaction between the agents involved in the teaching / learning process, and (2) the variety of skills considered in the system. More than focusing on a small set of processes dealing with technical work management, the solution presented here involves nearly the full project management life cycle. This paper proposes a simulation system for Project Management, based on the Web environment (Project Management Virtual Environment). It also presents the process of the system's construction and describes its features.
Establishing a Chest MRI Practice and its Clinical Applications: Our Insight and Protocols
Authors: Lee Christine U. , White Darin B. , Sykes Anne-Marie G.
Published: March 2014

Despite its nonionizing technique and exquisite soft tissue characterization, noncardiovascular, and nonmusculoskeletal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the chest has been considered impractical due to various challenges such as respiratory motion, cardiac motion, vascular pulsatility, air susceptibility, and paucity of signal in the lung. With advances in MRI, it is now possible to perform diagnostically useful and good quality MRIs of the chest, but literature on subspecialized chest MRI practices is limited. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the rationale, nuances, and logistics that went into developing such a practice in the Division of Thoracic Radiology at our institution. The topics addressed include technical and clinical considerations, support at administrative and clinical levels, protocol development, and economic considerations compared with conventional practices. Various MRI techniques are also specifically discussed to facilitate chest MRI at other sites. Although chest MRI is used in a relatively small number of patients at this point, in certain patients, chest MRI can provide additional information to optimize medical management. A few clinical cases illustrate the quality and clinical utility of chest MRI. Given recent advances in MRI techniques, it is now an opportune time to develop a chest MRI practice.
Alongside the right to water, a posthumanist feminist imaginary
Authors: Neimanis Astrida
Published: March 2014

Arguing that a discourse of human rights may not allow for a robust understanding of water, this paper aims to expand the imaginary of what water can be, of what water might need, and of our human implications and responsibilities within a more-than-human aqueous ecology. It does so by offering posthumanist feminist theory as a means of troubling the anthropocentrism, individualism and nature–culture binaries of which human rights may not be able to divest itself, even when acknowledging community, relationality, and the rights of nature. At the same time, this paper acknowledges that the human right to water can be necessary and valuable, as it responds to a particular kind of relation between human bodies and watery nature. The posthumanist feminist aqueous imaginary offered in this paper is thus not a means of thinking against the human right to water, as much as it is a necessary thinking alongside it.