On the application of remote sensing towards the estimation of cultivated land lost to urbanization

In this research work, a 40-km² SPOT-5 High-Resolution Imagery (HRI) of the Warsak locality in district Peshawar, Pakistan, was utilized to approximate the quantity of cultivated land lost to urbanization, due to the construction of new homes and buildings. The imagery from a period of 2005 to 2015 for wheat crop was taken, specifically during the months of March and June when the crop is rich green and golden ripe respectively. eCognition ® program’s Object-Oriented Classification Method (OOCM) was employed for recognition of land versus buildings. Nearest Neighbour (NN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Trees (DT) and Random Forests (RF) were utilized for the classification process. The results demonstrated that the urbanized area had increased by approximately 28 per cent in the area considered. Moreover, the efficacy of the proposed method is depicted by an accuracy of 97.9 per cent and a Kappa Statistics of 0.975 for the SVM classifier.     

A double laser filtering approach to vibration noise rejection for hot-rolled strip flatness measurement

This paper proposes a new filtering method based on the Kalman filtering algorithm for hot-rolled strip flatness measurement system. The system involves processing slowly changing signal, which can be considered as a bounded random process, and its model parameters are completely unknown. The noise rejection strategy in double lasers can generate a compensation signal. Since the initial and accumulative error would lead to negative filter effect or even cause divergence, Kalman filter is integrated to effectively deal with the initial error and enhance convergence. In this setting, the noise rejection strategy is used as a prediction model to constitute a similar Kalman filter. The correlated error caused by measurement error is coped with by a compensation model based on the feature of correlated error to enhance the filter effect. Both theoretical analysis and simulations show that the new algorithm has a better filter effect than the traditional Kalman filtering algorithm for the system.     

基于孪生支持向量回归机的转炉炼钢终点预测

为了提高转炉炼钢的终点命中率，建立了一种新的转炉终点预测模型，实现了对转炉终点碳质量分数和温度的准确预测。模型采用K最近邻孪生支持向量机(KNNWTSVR)算法，将权重矩阵引入到目标函数中，并利用鲸群优化算法进行求解，提高了传统算法的性能；然后基于某炼钢厂260 t转炉的实际生产数据，建立了转炉炼钢终点预测模型。结果表明，预测模型的终点碳质量分数(误差±0.005%)和温度(误差±15 ℃)的终点单命中率分别为94%和88%，双命中率达到84%。与其他两种现有的建模方法相比，本模型取得了最优的预测效果。该方法满足转炉炼钢实际生产的需求，也可适用于钢铁冶金其他领域的数学建模。     

Antenna selection for MIMO system based on pattern recognition

This paper proposes a novel Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission scheme based on Pattern Recognition (PR), which is termed as the PR aided Transmission Antenna Selection MIMO (PR-TAS aided MIMO). As the conventional TAS algorithms need to search all possible legitimate antenna subsets, they may impose some redundant calculations. In order to avoid this problem, we employ some pattern recognition methods to carry out the TAS algorithm in this paper. To be specific, two PR algorithms, namely the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) algorithm and the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm, are introduced and redesigned to obtain a TAS with lower complexity but higher efficiency. Moreover, in order to improve the performance of the SVM, we propose a new feature extraction of channel matrix for the TAS. Our simulation results show that the proposed KNN and SVM based PR-TAS algorithms are capable of striking a flexible tradeoff between the complexity and the Bit Error Rate (BER), and the new feature can effectively improve the BER performance compared with the conventional feature extraction method.     

Epos – an instrument for the assessment of the ethical position in software development

Digital technology becomes more powerful, intelligent, pervasive and ubiquitous. Ethical aspects of this development have not yet drawn the appropriate attention of researchers and engineers. This paper presents an instrument that aims at measuring the individual ethical position with regard to the design and development of computer software. The development of the Epos tool was based on two data collections. The data of the first survey (n₁ = 147 participants) were used to select items and to determine the factorial structure of the questionnaire. Results show that the Epos instrument reliably assesses peoples’ ethical opinion with respect to five central components: (1) regulation, (2) data privacy, (3) domain specific knowledge, (4) societal responsibility and (5) company responsibility. In the second survey, we determined the stability of the instruments factor structure by assessing a sample of n₂?=?196 participants. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the initial factor structure. Next steps and further implications are discussed regarding the final version of the questionnaire.     

Vibration analysis and identification of breathing cracks in beams subjected to single or multiple moving mass using online sequential extreme learning machine

In this paper, a novel approach was presented to vibration analysis and identification of breathing cracks in Timoshenko beam under single or multiple moving mass. Dynamic strain energies (DSEs) and translational accelerations in beam structures under moving mass were used as forward problem and application of an emergent learning algorithm called the online sequential extreme learning machine algorithm as inverse problem to predict crack depths and locations. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed vibration analysis over existing ones, two validation studies have been done. To evaluate the proposed method to identify breathing cracks, two examples, namely, clamped–clamped beam and two span continuous beams have been studied. Also, the effect of the discrepancy in stiffness between the finite-element model and the actual tested dynamic system has been investigated. Another examination has been performed in which moving mass with different speeds are utilized. Also, the effect of multi mass passing through the beam has been studied. The obtained results indicated that the proposed method could identify the breathing cracks existence and severity in the beam under moving mass using DSE and accelerations, which may be noisy or noise free.     

OWL‐based acquisition and editing of computer‐interpretable guidelines with the CompGuide editor

Computer‐Interpretable Guidelines (CIGs) are the dominant medium for the delivery of clinical decision support, given the evidence‐based nature of their source material. Therefore, these machine‐readable versions have the ability to improve practitioner performance and conformance to standards, with availability at the point and time of care. The formalisation of Clinical Practice Guideline knowledge in a machine‐readable format is a crucial task to make it suitable for the integration in Clinical Decision Support Systems. However, the current tools for this purpose reveal shortcomings with respect to their ease of use and the support offered during CIG acquisition and editing. In this work, we characterise the current landscape of CIG acquisition tools based on the properties of guideline visualisation, organisation, simplicity, automation, manipulation of knowledge elements, and guideline storage and dissemination. Additionally, we describe the CompGuide Editor, a tool for the acquisition of CIGs in the CompGuide model for Clinical Practice Guidelines that also allows the editing of previously encoded guidelines. The Editor guides the users throughout the process of guideline encoding and does not require proficiency in any programming language. The features of the CIG encoding process are revealed through a comparison with already established tools for CIG acquisition.     

A review on MRAS-type speed estimators for reliable and efficient induction motor drives

Induction machines have recently been very popular in variable-speed drives, because of their robust construction and relatively low manufacturing costs (brushless), maintenance-free and well-matured control methods. However, for high-precision control and efficiency optimization one needs the information on the rotor speed which can be measured using different speed sensors. All sensors require a mounting space and cabling, they also generate extra costs and reduce system reliability. Therefore, many of the recent research efforts have been dedicated to sensorless or encoderless electrical drives offering such considerable advantages as: lower cost, reduced size and hardware complexity of the drive system, elimination of sensor cables, lower maintenance requirements, possible operation in aggressive environment, higher noise immunity, reliable and user friendly operation. In this article all well-known sensorless techniques are shortly addressed, but the main focus is on the solutions based on the Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) concept. The mathematical models and schemes of all types of MRAS-type speed estimators known from the literature are gathered in this article. The comparative analysis of these speed estimators is done from the following points of view: the speed adaptation mechanism derivation based on the Lyapunov theory, stability problems near zero speed and in the regenerating operation mode, and the sensitivity of MRAS estimators to induction machine parameter changes.     

基于DAE-BP神经网络的股票预测研究

股票指标数据种类多、维度高，且指标之间存在多重共线性。为了降低数据的维度、消除指标间的多重共线性和预测股票价格，首先构建了基于受限布尔兹曼机的深度自编码器，实现了高维数据向低维空间的压缩编码。然后基于BP神经网络建立了低维编码序列与股票价格之间的回归模型。实验结果表明，深度自编码器提取特征的能力优于主成分分析法和因子分析法；相比较使用降维前的数据，使用编码后的数据用预测股票价格，模型可以减少计算开销，并且获得更高的预测精度。