bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Common Spaces of Multi-Commercial Complexes from Urban Sustainability
Authors: Kim Soomi
Published: August 2017

In contemporary society, multi-commercial complexes have been developed in various ways according to the circumstances and historical situation of different cities with a vision to implement sustainability. Design direction centered on public and common spaces proposed in recent commercial complexes has shown a tendency to perform beyond its original role, not only supporting private space, but also taking a public role. In this study, urban sustainability implemented in the perspective of architectural design was defined in three categories: environmental, social, and economic sustainability. For each category, the planned aspects of multi-commercial complexes of passive circulation system, amenity and mobility, complexity, and flexibility were analyzed. Multi-commercial complexes from the viewpoint of urban sustainability were analyzed. The results showed that they were displayed through various expansion methods of common space rather than specific programs or designated spaces. Additionally, the development aspect of expansion could be characterized by common space, boundary, ground, and context. The results of this study revealed that a planned strategy for urban sustainability did not increase the program or space quantitatively. Therefore, the possibility of extending common space in terms of quality should be seriously considered. Moreover, it is imperative to monitor its actual use after completion.
Precision Agriculture Technologies Positively Contributing to GHG Emissions Mitigation, Farm Productivity and Economics
Authors: Balafoutis Athanasios , Beck Bert , Fountas Spyros , Vangeyte Jurgen , Wal Tamme , Soto Iria , Gómez-Barbero Manuel , Barnes Andrew , Eory Vera
Published: August 2017

Agriculture is one of the economic sectors that affect climate change contributing to greenhouse gas emissions directly and indirectly. There is a trend of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions reduction, but any practice in this direction should not affect negatively farm productivity and economics because this would limit its implementation, due to the high global food and feed demand and the competitive environment in this sector. Precision agriculture practices using high-tech equipment has the ability to reduce agricultural inputs by site-specific applications, as it better target inputs to spatial and temporal needs of the fields, which can result in lower greenhouse gas emissions. Precision agriculture can also have a positive impact on farm productivity and economics, as it provides higher or equal yields with lower production cost than conventional practices. In this work, precision agriculture technologies that have the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are presented providing a short description of the technology and the impacts that have been reported in literature on greenhouse gases reduction and the associated impacts on farm productivity and economics. The technologies presented span all agricultural practices, including variable rate sowing/planting, fertilizing, spraying, weeding and irrigation.
Spatiotemporal Variation in Full-Flowering Dates of Tree Peonies in the Middle and Lower Reaches of China’s Yellow River: A Simulation through the Panel Data Model
Authors: Liu Haolong , Dai Junhu , Liu Jun
Published: August 2017

The spring flowering of tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa) not only attract tens of million tourists every year, but it can also serve as a bio-indicator of climate change. Examining climate-associated spatiotemporal changes in peony flowering can contribute to the development of smarter flower-viewing tourism by providing more efficient decision-making information. We developed a panel data model for the tree peony to quantify the relationship between full-flowering date (FFD) and air temperature in the middle and lower reaches of China’s Yellow River. Then, on the basis of the model and temperature data, FFD series at 24 sites during 1955–2011 were reconstructed and the spatiotemporal variation in FFD over the region was analysed. Our results showed that the panel data model could well simulate the phenophase at the regional scale with due consideration paid to efficiency and difficulty, and the advance of peony FFD responded to the increase in February–April temperature at a rate of 3.02 days/1 °C. In addition, the simulation revealed that regional FFDs followed the latitudinal gradient and had advanced by 6–9 days over the past 57 years, at the rate of 0.8 to 1.8 days/decade. Among sub-areas, the eastern forelands of Taihang Mountains and Luliang Mountains showed more FFD advances than the other areas.
Realising Operational Energy Performance in Non-Domestic Buildings: Lessons Learnt from Initiatives Applied in Cambridge
Authors: Pritchard Ray , Kelly Scott
Published: August 2017

The gap between the intended and actual energy performance of buildings is increasingly well documented in the non-domestic building sector. Recognition of this issue has led to the availability of a large range of initiatives that seek to ensure energy efficient building operation. This article reviews the practical implementation of three such initiatives in a case study building at the University of Cambridge. The notionally high-performance office/laboratory building implemented two voluntary design frameworks during building planning and construction: the voluntary rating scheme BREEAM and a bespoke Soft Landings framework called the Cambridge Work Plan. The building additionally meets the energy reporting criteria for the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), a legislative requirement for many publicly owned buildings in the UK. The relative impact of these three approaches for optimising building energy performance is reviewed through a mixed methods approach of building occupant and operator interviews, document analysis and energy performance review. The building’s core functions were revealed to consume 140% more energy than the building logbook estimate for the same needs. This difference, referred to widely as the energy performance gap, is larger than the majority of reported UK university buildings in the energy reporting database CarbonBuzz. The three implemented initiatives are demonstrated to be inadequate for reducing the energy performance gap in the case study, thus a number of alternative energy efficiency approaches are additionally reviewed. Common to the three approaches used in the case study is a lack of verification of actual building performance despite ambitious sustainability targets, due to a heavy focus on the design-stage and few follow-up mechanisms. The paper demonstrates the potential of energy efficiency initiatives that are focussed on operational performance as a core criterion (such as the Living Building Challenge) together with those that ensure the creation of realistic energy estimates at the design stage (such as the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Technical Memorandum 54).
A Consistent Fuzzy Preference Relations Based ANP Model for R&D Project Selection
Authors: Cheng Chia-Hua , Liou James , Chiu Chui-Yu
Published: August 2017

In today’s rapidly changing economy, technology companies have to make decisions on research and development (R&D) projects investment on a routine bases with such decisions having a direct impact on that company’s profitability, sustainability and future growth. Companies seeking profitable opportunities for investment and project selection must consider many factors such as resource limitations and differences in assessment, with consideration of both qualitative and quantitative criteria. Often, differences in perception by the various stakeholders hinder the attainment of a consensus of opinion and coordination efforts. Thus, in this study, a hybrid model is developed for the consideration of the complex criteria taking into account the different opinions of the various stakeholders who often come from different departments within the company and have different opinions about which direction to take. The decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach is used to convert the cause and effect relations representing the criteria into a visual network structure. A consistent fuzzy preference relations based analytic network process (CFPR-ANP) method is developed to calculate the preference-weights of the criteria based on the derived network structure. The CFPR-ANP is an improvement over the original analytic network process (ANP) method in that it reduces the problem of inconsistency as well as the number of pairwise comparisons. The combined complex proportional assessment (COPRAS-G) method is applied with fuzzy grey relations to resolve conflicts arising from differences in information and opinions provided by the different stakeholders about the selection of the most suitable R&D projects. This novel combination approach is then used to assist an international brand-name company to prioritize projects and make project decisions that will maximize returns and ensure sustainability for the company.
The Fusion of an Ultrasonic and Spatially Aware System in a Mobile-Interaction Device
Authors: Wang Di , Zhao Chunying , Kong Jun
Published: August 2017

Over the past four decades, the prophecy from computer pundits and prognosticators pointed to the looming arrival of the paperless office era. However, forty years later, physical paper documents are still playing a significant role due to the ease of use, superior readability, and availability. The drawbacks of paper sheets are that they are hard to modify and retrieve, have limited space, and are environmentally unfriendly. Augmenting paper documents with digital information from mobile devices extends the two-dimensional space of physical paper documents. Various camera-based recognition and detection devices have been proposed to augment paper documents with digital information. However, there are still some limitations that exist in these systems. This paper presents a novel, low cost, spatially aware, mobile system called Ultrasonic PhoneLens. The Ultrasonic PhoneLens adopts two-dimensional dynamic image presentation and ultrasonic sound positioning techniques. It consists of two ultrasonic sound sensors, one Arduino mini-controller board, and one android mobile device. Based on the location of the mobile device over the physical paper, Ultrasonic PhoneLens can retrieve pre-saved digital information from a mobile database for the object (such as a text, a paragraph, or an image) in a paper document. An empirical study was conducted to evaluate the system performance. The results indicate that our system has a better performance in tasks such as browsing multivalent documents and sharing digital information than the Wiimote PhoneLens system.
A Multiplex RT-PCR Assay to Detect and Discriminate Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Viruses in Clinical Specimens
Authors: Yang Keli , Tian Yongxiang , Zhou Danna , Duan Zhengying , Guo Rui , Liu Zewen , Yuan Fangyan , Liu Wei
Published: August 2017

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (HP-PRRSV) have led to large economic losses in China. The attenuated vaccine (HP-PRRSV JXA1-R) was used to control HP-PRRSV. However, in recent years, co-infection with classical PRRSV (C-PRRSV), HP-PRRSV, and/or HP-PRRSV JXA1-R has been increasing in China, resulting in a significant impact on PRRSV diagnostics and management. To facilitate rapid discrimination of HP-PRRSV JXA1-R from HP-PRRSV and C-PRRSV, a multiplex RT-PCR assay for the visual detection of HP-PRRSV JXA1-R, HP-PRRSV, and C-PRRSV was established and evaluated with reference PRRSV strains and clinical samples. Primer specificities were evaluated with RNA/DNA extracted from 10 viral strains, and our results revealed that the primers had a high specificity for PRRSV. The assay sensitivity was 24 copies/μL for PRRSVs. A total of 516 serum samples were identified, of which 12.21% (63/516) were HP-PRRSV-positive, 2.33% (12/516) were HP-PRRSV JXA1-R-positive, and 1.16% (6/516) were C-PRRSV-positive, respectively, which was completely consistent with the sequencing method. The high specificity, sensitivity, and reliability of the multiplex RT-PCR assay described in this study indicate that it is useful for the rapid and differential diagnosis of HP-PRRSV JXA1-R, HP-PRRSV, and C-PRRSV.
Characteristics associated with joint replacement in early symptomatic knee or hip osteoarthritis: 6-year results from a nationwide prospective cohort study (CHECK)
Authors: Bastick Alex N , Damen Jurgen , Agricola Rintje , Brouwer Reinoud W , Bindels Patrick JE , Bierma-Zeinstra Sita MA
Published: August 2017

Background

Many patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee and/or hip undergo total joint replacement (TJR) because of severely progressed symptoms.

Aim

To determine patient and disease characteristics associated with undergoing TJR in participants with recent-onset knee and/or hip OA.

Design and setting

Participants with hip or knee pain from the nationwide prospective Cohort Hip and Cohort Knee (CHECK) study were included.

Method

The outcome measure was total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) during 6 years of follow-up. Joint-dependent characteristics were compared using generalised estimating equations (GEE). Multivariable models were built for both subgroups. Differences in symptomatic and radiographic progression were determined between baseline and 2-year follow-up (T2).

Results

The knee subgroup included 751 participants (1502 knees), and there were 538 participants in the hip subgroup (1076 hips). Nineteen participants (22 knees) underwent TKA and 53 participants (62 hips) THA. Participants who underwent TKA had higher baseline body mass index, painful knee flexion, and higher Kellgren and Lawrence scores. Participants who underwent THA had painful internal hip rotation and showed more severe radiographic OA features. Participants who underwent TKA or THA showed more rapid symptomatic and radiographic OA progression at T2.

Conclusion

In patients with recent-onset knee or hip pain, radiographic OA features already exist and a substantial number of patients fulfil existing criteria for knee and hip OA. A trend was observed in rapid progression of radiographic and symptomatic OA severity among patients with TKA and THA. Early detection of OA by the GP is important in managing knee and hip OA.
The influence of aluminium, steel and polyurethane shoeing systems and of the unshod hoof on the injury risk of a horse kick
Authors: Sprick Miriam , Fürst Anton , Baschnagel Fabio , Michel Silvain , Piskoty Gabor , Hartnack Sonja , Jackson Michelle
Published: August 2017

Objectives: To evaluate the damage inflicted by an unshod hoof and by the various horseshoe materials (steel, aluminium and polyurethane) on the long bones of horses after a simulated kick.

Methods: Sixty-four equine radii and tibiae were evaluated using a drop impact test setup. An impactor with a steel, aluminium, polyurethane, or hoof horn head was dropped onto prepared bones. An impactor velocity of 8 m/s was initially used with all four materials and then testing was repeated with a velocity of 12 m/s with the polyurethane and hoof horn heads. The impact process was analysed using a high-speed camera, and physical parameters, including peak contact force and impact duration, were calculated.

Results: At 8 m/s, the probability of a fracture was 75% for steel and 81% for aluminium, whereas polyurethane and hoof horn did not damage the bones. At 12 m/s, the probability of a fracture was 25% for polyurethane and 12.5% for hoof horn. The peak contact force and impact duration differed significantly between ‘hard materials’ (aluminium and steel) and ‘soft materials’ (polyurethane and hoof horn).

Clinical significance: The observed bone injuries were similar to those seen in analogous experimental studies carried out previously and comparable to clinical fracture cases suggesting that the simulated kick was realistic. The probability of fracture was significantly higher for steel and aluminium than for polyurethane and hoof horn, which suggests that the horseshoe material has a significant influence on the risk of injury for humans or horses kicked by a horse.

Supplementary Material for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.3415/VCOT-17-01-0003

ORCID iD MAJ: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2142-2942
The Causes of Quasi-homologous CMEs
Authors: Liu Lijuan , Wang Yuming , Liu Rui , Zhou Zhenjun , Temmer M. , Thalmann J. K. , Liu Jiajia , Liu Kai , Shen Chenglong , Zhang Quanhao , Veronig A. M.
Published: August 2017

In this paper, we identified the magnetic source locations of 142 quasi-homologous (QH) coronal mass ejections (CMEs), of which 121 are from solar cycle (SC) 23 and 21 from SC 24. Among those CMEs, 63% originated from the same source location as their predecessor (defined as S-type), while 37% originated from a different location within the same active region as their predecessor (defined as D-type). Their distinctly different waiting time distributions, peaking around 7.5 and 1.5 hr for S- and D-type CMEs, suggest that they might involve different physical mechanisms with different characteristic timescales. Through detailed analysis based on nonlinear force-free coronal magnetic field modeling of two exemplary cases, we propose that the S-type QH CMES might involve a recurring energy release process from the same source location (by magnetic free energy replenishment), whereas the D-type QH CMEs can happen when a flux tube system is disturbed by a nearby CME.
Diverse Escherichia coli pathovars of phylogroups B2 and D isolated from animals in Tunisia
Authors: Kilani Hajer , Abbassi Mohamed Salah , Ferjani Sana , Ben Salem Rakia , Mansouri Riadh , Ben Chehida Noureddine , Boutiba-Ben Boubaker Ilhem
Published: August 2017

Introduction: The virulent Escherichia coli strains responsible for extraintestinal infections were mainly belonged to B2 and D phylogroups. However, no past studies have determinate via the presence of virulence genes the frequency of E. coli pathovars recovered from animals housed in farms in Tunisia. The aims of this study were to investigate 26 E. coli isolated from healthy and diarrheic animals and to determinate via the presence of virulence genes the frequency of pathovars.

Methodology: Twenty-six E. coli isolates of phylogroups B2 (n = 14), B22 (n = 9), B23 (n = 5), and D2 (n = 12) were characterized. Genes encoding virulence factors (fimH,eaeA,aggC,papC, papG allele III, hlyA, east1, cnf1, exhA,stx1, stx2, iutA, fyuA, ibeA,and ipaH), and antibiotic resistance as well as class 1 and 2 integrons were searched by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The genetic relationship of isolates was done by PFGE.

Results: According to the occurrence of specific genes the 26 isolates were classified as:9 EAEC, 2 EHEC, 4 UPEC, 3 EPEC/EHEC and 1 NTEC. Therefore, 2 Ex-PEC and 5 APEC were presented amongst our strains. Some isolates (12) were clonal and the remaining was unrelated.

Conclusions: Higher diversity of pathovars which carried diverse combinations of virulence genes in healthy isolates. In addition, it seems that the infections were caused by different mechanisms.
Nasal carriage of sequence type 22 MRSA and livestock-associated ST398 clones in Tangier, Morocco
Authors: Mourabit Nadira , Arakrak Abdelhay , Bakkali Mohammed , Laglaoui Amin
Published: August 2017

Introduction: This study aimed to provide data of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) nasal carriage as well as to determine the genetic lineages of this circulating MRSA in the Tangier community.

Methodology:  Between 2012 and 2013 two subpopulations consisting of randomly chosen healthy volunteers and outpatients in 11 healthcare facilities were screened. The antibiotic resistance phenotype was determined by disk diffusion. Toxin Panton-Valentin Leukocidin (PVL), toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 gene (tst), and mecA were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Nasal swabs were obtained from persons with no identified risk factors for MRSA acquisition. MRSA molecular typing was performed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec, and Staphylococcus protein A (spa) typing.

Results: A total of400 subjects (33.3%) were nasally colonized with S. aureus, and 17 (1.4%) were nasal carriers of MRSA. The analysis did not identify age, gender, and the two subpopulations as predictors for MRSA colonization. MRSA were more likely to harbor the tst gene (p < 0.05). This work highlighted a low prevalence of nasal MRSA carriage, with 52.94% belonging to sequence type (ST) ST22. The remaining isolates were distributed as singletons (ST8, ST1, and ST398), whereas approximately one-third of MRSA was not identified, including three novel spa-types (t13247, t13248, and t13249).

Conclusions: Although we highlighted the current clones present in the Tangier community, they are limited in space and time. Therefore, further studies would be required to obtain a comprehensive picture of the dissemination of MRSA in the community, hospital, and livestock.
Space In Fashion Design – Ƒ2 (Fabiani Fashion) Case Study
Authors: Devetak Tanja
Published: August 2017

TThese research inquiries into the transformation of complex architectural spatial objects into contemporary garments by implementing creative pattern cutting as an integrated part of the fashion design process. From the architecture design process, a creative process of generating ideas using the human body as the centre point of the creative process, and an understanding of the envelope around that space were implemented and researched in fashion design. A creative construction method evolved using the standard matrix of basic blocks and implementation of the sculptural work by creating three-dimensional paper garment forms. In this way, garment design is created inside - outside. The resulting garment forms visually articulate meanings arising from the architectural design works of Maks Fabiani regarding structure, historical context, content from within the premises and personal sensory experiences. The envisaged results are highly applicable, but, with a theoretical significance, they also open different views on a fashion design development process. The Ƒ2 (Fabiani Fashion) case study was carried out in 2015 by the author Tanja Devetak.
Pulmonary Involvement in Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibodies (ANCA)-associated Vasculitis: The Influence of ANCA Subtype
Authors: Mohammad Aladdin J. , Mortensen Kristian H. , Babar Judith , Smith Rona , Jones Rachel B. , Nakagomi Daiki , Sivasothy Pasupathy , Jayne David R.W.
Published: August 2017

Objective.

To describe pulmonary involvement at time of diagnosis in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV), as defined by computed tomography (CT).

Methods.

Patients with thoracic CT performed on or after the onset of AAV (n = 140; 75 women; granulomatosis with polyangiitis, n = 79; microscopic polyangiitis MPA, n = 61) followed at a tertiary referral center vasculitis clinic were studied. Radiological patterns of pulmonary involvement were evaluated from the CT studies using a predefined protocol, and compared to proteinase 3 (PR3)-ANCA and myeloperoxidase (MPO)-ANCA specificity.

Results.

Of the patients, 77% had an abnormal thoracic CT study. The most common abnormality was nodular disease (24%), of which the majority were peribronchial nodules, followed by bronchiectasis and pleural effusion (19%, each), pulmonary hemorrhage and lymph node enlargement (14%, each), emphysema (13%), and cavitating lesions (11%). Central airways disease and a nodular pattern of pulmonary involvement were more common in PR3-ANCA–positive patients (p < 0.05). Usual interstitial pneumonitis (UIP) and bronchiectasis were more prevalent in MPO-ANCA–positive patients (p < 0.05). Alveolar hemorrhage, pleural effusion, lymph node enlargement, and pulmonary venous congestion were more frequent in MPO-ANCA–positive patients.

Conclusion.

Pulmonary involvement is frequent and among 140 patients with AAV who underwent a thoracic CT study, almost 80% have pulmonary abnormalities on thoracic CT. Central airway disease occurs exclusively among patients with PR3-ANCA while UIP were mainly seen in those with MPO-ANCA. These findings may have important implications for the investigation, management, and pathogenesis of AAV.
Research on the Comprehensive Strength Evaluation for Universities based on the Fuzzy TOPSIS Method
Authors: Yue Fuqin
Published: August 2017

In recent years, the scale of enrollment in colleges and universities continues to expand. The private colleges are also springing up. The comprehensive strength of each university is uneven. Evaluating the comprehensive strength for the colleges is not only to provide the reference for the majority students’ parents, but also to promote the continue development for the comprehensive strength of the colleges. In this paper, in order to make the better evaluation of the comprehensive strength for the colleges, we combine the fuzzy theory with the TOPSIS method and propose an improved fuzzy TOPSIS method. Then, we use the method to evaluate the comprehensive strength for the college. The experimental results demonstrate the reliability and the validity of the method.
A Study on Simulating Crowdsourcing Translation in Flipped Classroom
Authors: Mei Zhongwei
Published: August 2017

As IT dramatically revolutionizes the world; many visionaries have introduced many new pedagogical methodologies and technologies over the years. Present translation teaching was hindered by the teacher-centered mode, while flipped classroom meets the challenges of IT revolution well. Crowdsourcing, as an emerging business mode in the era of internet+, builds up the problem solving strength of the public, is the trend of the times. Likewise, crowdsourcing translation subverts the traditional translation mode. This mode is based on network technologies, translating and proofreading jobs are handed over to volunteers via internet, and the jobs are completed on the wisdom of the masses, which inspires us to try a novel translator training approach. This paper proposes the novel approach to train market-oriented translators via simulating crowdsourcing translation model (CTM) in the “flipped classroom”, and analyzes the effects of the effects of the pedagogical reform. The study is of great significance for translator training and online learning.
Social Structure Discovery Using Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Moghaddam Saeed Nasehi , Ghazanfari Mehdi , Teimourpour Babak
Published: August 2017

As a way of simplifying, size reducing and making the structure of each social network be comprehensible, blockmodeling consists of two major, essential components: partitioning of actors to equivalent classes, called positions, and clarifying relations between and within positions. While actor partitioning in conventional blockmodeling is performed by several equivalence definitions, generalized blockmodeling, searches, locally, the best partition vector that best satisfies a predetermined structure. The need for known predefined structure and using a local search procedure, makes generalized blockmodeling be restricted. In this paper, the authors formulate blockmodel problem and employ a genetic algorithm for to search for the best partition vector fitting into original relational data in terms of the known indices. In addition, during multiple samples and situations such as dichotomous, signed, ordinal and interval valued, and multiple relations, the quality of results shows better fitness than classic and generalized blockmodeling.
A Hybrid GSA-K-Mean Classifier Algorithm to Predict Diabetes Mellitus
Authors: Priyadarshini Rojalina , Barik Rabindra Kumar , Dash Nilamadhab , Mishra Brojo Kishore , Misra Rachita
Published: August 2017

Lots of research has been carried out globally to design a machine classifier which could predict it from some physical and bio-medical parameters. In this work a hybrid machine learning classifier has been proposed to design an artificial predictor to correctly classify diabetic and non-diabetic people. The classifier is an amalgamation of the widely used K-means algorithm and Gravitational search algorithm (GSA). GSA has been used as an optimization tool which will compute the best centroids from the two classes of training data; the positive class (who are diabetic) and negative class (who are non-diabetic). In K-means algorithm instead of using random samples as initial cluster head, the optimized centroids from GSA are used as the cluster centers. The inherent problem associated with k-means algorithm is the initial placement of cluster centers, which may cause convergence delay thereby degrading the overall performance. This problem is tried to overcome by using a combined GSA and K-means.
Design Optimization of Radar Absorbing Materials Using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Sivakoti Kavya Kumari , Basava Mamatha , Balaga Rao Venkata , Sannidhi Balarama Murty
Published: August 2017

Microwave absorbers have numerous applications in the modern-day military and civil industries. This paper presents the performance of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to obtain optimal designs for multilayer microwave absorber over different frequency ranges. The goal of this optimization is to make decision about number of layers, selection of suitable combination of materials from a predefined database, thereby minimizing the overall reflection coefficient and designing a low weight electromagnetic absorber, which absorbs the maximum amount of incident electromagnetic energy. Microwave absorbers or radar absorbing materials (RAM) performance is studied by varying thickness and number of layers. For each different configuration obtained with PSO, simulated results are presented. The best results obtained using PSO are compared with those obtained using another optimization technique, genetic algorithm and also compared with the results computed using standard RCS computation software.
Supplier Performance Prediction for Future Collaboration
Authors: Azadfallah Mohammad
Published: August 2017

Today, long-term relationship plays a vital role in supplier selection for supply chain management. The main reason is that long-term relationships can act as a mechanism for shifting the chains strategic focus from price to value and priorities long-term benefit over short-term gains. Since, in this paper we tried to address a method for optimal long-term alternative prediction and selection, focusing on purchase volume factor. For this, Markov chain model had been used and the final result showed improved effectiveness.
Analysis and Resolution of Semantic Ambiguity of Toggle Buttons by Standardizing the Design in Software GUI and Mobile Apps
Authors: Guo Hongyu , Nusayr Amjad , Hu Wen-Chen
Published: August 2017

Toggle buttons are intuitive gadgets widely used in software GUI design and mobile app interfaces with increasing popularity on mobile devices. However, the current practice of toggle button design is prone to semantic ambiguity, which causes confusions to the users. This paper presents an analysis of the various paradigms of toggle button design in the current practice and provides a resolution of the sematic ambiguities by proposing a set of design standards regarding toggle buttons. State semantics and action semantics are distinguished and it is advocated that state semantics should be used in lieu of action semantics.
Experimental Validation of Distributed Cooperative Control of Multiple Mobile Robots via Local Information Exchange
Authors: Bock Gregory A , Hendrickson Ryan T , Lamkin Jared Allen , Dhall Brittany , Wang Jing , Ahn In Soo
Published: August 2017

In this paper, we present the experimental testing results of distributed cooperative control algorithms for multiple mobile robots with limited sensing/communication capacity and kinematic constraints. Rendezvous and formation control problems are considered, respectively. To deal with the inherent kinematic constraints with robot model, the input/output linearization via feedback is used to convert the nonlinear robot model into a linear one, and then the distributed cooperative control algorithms are designed via local information exchange among robots. Extensive experiments using Quanser's QBot2 mobile robot platforms are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed cooperative control algorithms. Specifically, the robot's onboard Kinect vision sensor is applied to solve the localization problem, and the information exchange is done through an ad-hoc peer-to-peer wireless TCP/IP connection among neighboring robots. Collision avoidance problem is also addressed based on the utilization of fuzzy logic rules.
Designing Extreme Learning Machine Network Structure Based on Tolerance Rough Set
Authors: Ke Han
Published: August 2017

In this paper, we present a new extreme learning machine network structure on the basis of tolerance rough set. The purpose of this paper is to realize the high-efficiency and multi-dimensional ELM network structure. Various published algorithms have been applied to breast cancer datasets, but rough set is a fairly new intelligent technique that applies to predict breast cancer recurrence. We analyze Ljubljana Breast Cancer Dataset, firstly, obtain lower and upper approximations and calculate the accuracy and quality of the classification. The high values of the quality of classification and accuracy prove that the attributes selected can well approximate the classification. Rough sets approach is established to solve the prolem of tolerance.
Coordination and Optimization of Large Equipment Complete Service in Cloud Based Manufacturing
Authors: Sheng Xiaochun , Wang Kefeng
Published: August 2017

The paper studies the cloud manufacturing service platform and mode in the coordination and optimization of large equipment complete service (LECS). A set of theory based system of coordination and optimization is systematically established to support and implement LECS' cloud manufacturing mode. The research results show that the collaborative logic framework proposed is of macro guidance significance; the composite synergy mechanism system designed realizes all-round cooperative target; the collaborative optimization model and algorithm established have validity and practicality through instance verification. It systematically realizes the collaborative management of resource choice and optimizing configuration, the plan and control in the process of service, and so on. It can ensure the stability of manufacturing resource service seamless, green, environmental protection, and high quality. It achieves optimization of the overall system coordination. The study also provides a theoretical basis and scientific method for large equipment enterprise from manufacturer to a service integrator transformation.
Selecting Success Criteria for Customer Solution Projects
Authors: Otra-Aho Ville
Published: August 2017

Project firms are increasingly integrating tangible products and intangible services when building customer solutions aiming to increase firms' competitiveness. On the other hand, the efficient customer solutions increase firms' competitiveness only when the solution projects can utilize all of its performance potential. Efficient integration requires both the product and service oriented multi-dimensional success criteria and the context-specific performance measures. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the project professional's ability to create and prioritize the multidimensional success criteria for the customer solution projects. The results indicate that the project professionals are capable of prioritizing the success criteria for the customer solution projects. Conversely, the critical customer specific success criteria are not effectively used in the customer solution projects.
Central Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Development Facility for Enhancing Government Obligation and Efficiency in PPP Project
Authors: Abu Rashed Md. , Alam Md. Mahmudul , Ibrahim Yusnidah
Published: August 2017

The implications of public-private partnership (PPP) concept has gained utmost attention from different governments around the world because of the opportunities inherent in it in terms of overcoming budgetary constraints, improved service quality, enhanced efficiencies in procurement and risk management, and prospects of generating managerial and technical capabilities. The government obligations in PPP projects are often limited to feasibility study, transaction support and implementing linked government or public sector projects which subsequently raise the question regarding how the required funds should be mobilized by the government for these services as upfront development cost. Generally, any government agency driving a PPP project has to secure budgetary allocation from the central authority for performing the government-side obligations, which is often a complicated and time consuming process due to other priorities of the central treasury. To overcome this challenge, establishment of a central PPP development facility by the government is required. The ability to create and manage such a facility within the government mechanism will ensure seamless development and implementation of PPP projects by different government agencies and will contribute to foster a good relationship between the government and the private sector investors.
Multi-Sensor Motion Fusion Using Deep Neural Network Learning
Authors: Sun Xinyao , Basu Anup , Cheng Irene
Published: August 2017

Hand pose estimation for a continuous sequence has been an important topic not only in computer vision but also human-computer-interaction. Exploring the feasibility to use hand gestures to replace input devices, e.g., mouse, keyboard, joy-stick and touch screen, has attracted increasing attention from academic and industrial researchers. The fast advancement of hand pose estimation techniques is complemented by the rapid development of smart sensors technology such as Kinect and Leap. We introduce a hand pose estimation multi-sensor system. Two tracking models are proposed based on Deep (Recurrent) Neural Network (DRNN) architecture. Data captured from different sensors are analyzed and fused to produce an optimal hand pose sequence. Experimental results show that our models outperform previous methods with better accuracy, meeting real-time application requirement. Performance comparisons between DNN and DRNN, spatial and spatial-temporal features, and single- and dual- sensors, are also presented.
Adding Expressiveness to Smartwatch Notifications Through Ambient Illumination
Authors: Kerber Frederic , Gehring Sven , Krüger Antonio , Löchtefeld Markus
Published: August 2017

The ongoing miniaturization of technology provides the possibility to create more and more powerful devices in smaller form factors. One characteristic of this development is smart wearable devices, such as smartwatches, which open up new possibilities for mobile human-computer interaction. While recent research has revealed that these devices are mainly used to display notifications, the very small screen size can be a hindrance. Consequently, explicit user interaction is, for example, required to browse through notifications to get an overview of them. The authors present an alternative by providing an aggregation and filtering approach to better handle notifications. Furthermore, they investigated several display concepts based on a self-built smartwatch prototype equipped with twelve full-color LEDs to present notifications through ambient illumination. Derived from a user study with twelve participants, the work concludes with guidelines that could be employed when designing notification systems.
A Novel Approach for Ontology-Based Dimensionality Reduction for Web Text Document Classification
Authors: Elhadad Mohamed K. , Badran Khaled M. , Salama Gouda I.
Published: August 2017

Dimensionality reduction of feature vector size plays a vital role in enhancing the text processing capabilities; it aims in reducing the size of the feature vector used in the mining tasks (classification, clustering, etc.). This paper proposes an efficient approach to be used in reducing the size of the feature vector for web text document classification process. This approach is based on using WordNet ontology, utilizing the benefit of its hierarchal structure, to eliminate words from the generated feature vector that has no relation with any of WordNet lexical categories; this leads to the reduction of the feature vector size without losing information on the text. For mining tasks, the Vector Space Model (VSM) is used to represent text documents and the Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency (TFIDF) is used as a term weighting method. The proposed ontology based approach was evaluated against the Principal component analysis (PCA) approach using several experiments. The experimental results reveal the effectiveness of the authors' proposed approach against other traditional approaches to achieve a better classification accuracy F-measure, precision, and recall.
High Capacity Hydrogen Storage in Li Decorated Octagraphene - A First Principles Study
Authors: Rekha B. , Seenithurai S. , Pandyan R. Kodi , Kumar S. Vinodh , Mahendran Manickam
Published: August 2017

From first principles density functional theory, Li-decorated octagraphene and its usage as a hydrogen storage media is theoretically investigated. Octagraphene is a versatile structure with periodic sp2 – bonded carbon atomic planar sheet. This carbon allotrope consists of carbon octagons and rectangular lattices with two bond lengths. The Li binding energy in octagraphene is 2.5 eV, which is much higher than that of pristine graphene. Maximum of four hydrogen molecules can be adsorbed on Li decorated on one side of octagraphene and this leads to a gravimetric storage capacity of 2.4 wt% with an average adsorption binding energy of 0.35eV/H2. Li decorated on both sides of octagraphene, attains a gravimetric storage capacity of 8.1 wt% with an average binding energy of 0.23 eV/ H2. Thus, the structure investigated here is flattering for the reversible hydrogen adsorption/ desorption at the room temperature.
Effect of Thickness on Micro-Structural and Optical Properties of Al-Doped ZnO Films Prepared by Sol-Gel Spin Coating
Authors: Ganesh T. , Perumal K. , Kumar R. , Bhaskar N.
Published: August 2017

Aluminium (Al) doped Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films of different thicknesses were prepared on glass substrates by sol-gel spin coating method. The effect of thicknesses on micro-structural and optical properties was investigated for transparent conducting oxide (TCO) application in solar cells and other optoelectronic applications. Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) showed maximum orientation along (002) plane of c-axis. The variation of different structural parameters like crystallite size, micro-strain, c-axis strain, dislocation density as a function of film thickness was investigated. The FTIR spectra confirmed the formation of Al-doped ZnO film. FESEM images showed spherical shaped nanosized grains and formation of micro pores. The optical absorption increased and absorption peak shifted towards longer wavelength (red shift) with increase in the thickness of the film respectively. The optical transmittance of all the films has a transparency of more than 75% in the visible region. The optical band gap (Eg) decreased with increase in the film thickness. The diffused reflectance (DRS) showed very low reflectance in the region of 400-800 nm, but increased in the 800-900 nm region. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the prepared films showed intense band edge UV and low intense visible emissions respectively. The effect of thickness of Al-doped ZnO film on micro-structure, surface morphology, optical absorption and transmittance, diffused reflectance and PL have been investigated and the results are reported.
A Comparative Study on Sintering Behaviour of Low and High Density Pellets of Ni-YSZ by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy
Authors: Kuppusami P. , Dharini T. , Soman Ajith Kumar , Kirubaharan A.M. Kamalan , Rabel Arul Maximus
Published: August 2017

In this study, a systematic investigation on in-situ sintering behavior of Ni-YSZ (50: 50wt. %) pellets of density of 4.2 (low density) and 4.9 g/cm3 (high density) in ambient and oxygen environment by impedance spectroscopy is presented. X-ray diffraction indicated the formation of cubic phases of NiO and YSZ. The low density pellet sintered for 16 h showed low content of monoclinic phase when compared to high density pellet. The microstructure of the high density pellet revealed finer and homogenous distribution of Ni in YSZ matrix due to longer sintering duration when compared with the low density pellet. AC impedance spectra were recorded for both low and high density pellets during sintering in ambient and oxygen environment in the temperature range 873-1173 K. The results indicate that for both the pellets, the impedance values decreased when sintering temperature increased from 873 to 1173 K in both ambient and oxygen environment. However, the impedance was low while sintering in oxygen atmosphere than in ambient. Besides these observation, impedance of the high density pellet was much lower than that of the low density pellet at all sintering temperature in both ambient and oxygen atmosphere. While the impedance decreased with increasing sintering temperature, the capacitance increased slowly in both the ambient and oxygen atmosphere. The change in the impedance behavior due to grain interior and grain boundaries is explained in relation with the microstructural changes that occur during sintering in different environments.
Numerical Modeling of Thermophoresis and Diffusiophoresis in Water-Alumina Nano Fluids
Authors: Gobinath Natarajan , Karthikeyan C.P.
Published: August 2017

Analysis of major heat transfer mechanisms in nanofluids specifically, thermophoresis and diffusiophoresis under pool boiling condition is attempted in this paper. Basic approach of the study tries to correlate thermophoresis in nanofluids to the behavior of rigid particles in gases. Ultimate objective of the study is to elucidate the thermophoresis/diffusiophoresis mechanism in nanofluids using thermophoretic velocity and viscosity of nanofluids. Thermophoretic velocity of water-alumina nanofluid analyzed in this study is assumed to be inversely proportional to fluid viscosity. Experiments and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool are used for analyzing the effects of thermophoresis and diffusiophoresis on the heat transfer enhancement process. The numerical model considered for the study is a (2-D) rectangular container with the dimensions of the experimental set-up and a stainless steel heater inside it. Energy equation constituent of ANSYS Fluent is solved using a pressure based implicit solver and appropriate boundary conditions to obtain the temperature distribution pattern of the model. SIMPLE is used as the pressure correction method with Gauss-Siedel iterative method. Numerical simulation results for temperature distribution are validated using experimental readings. Thermophoretic velocity outputs derived from numerical simulation show significant movement of nanoparticles very close to realistic values. However, numerical results of viscosity, specific heat and diffusion coefficient of nanofluids were found to deviate from the results of the experiments. The dependency effect of these parameters needs further attention.