A Framework for Agent-Based Traffic Light Control

As traffic congestion rises within large cities, intelligent traffic control is becoming increasingly important. In this filed, intelligent traffic light control has received much attention. Considering the distributed characteristic of traffic light, multi-agent system can simulate the traffic light control easily. Based on analyzing the traffic light pattern at junctions, an agent-based framework is proposed in this paper, which consists of two kinds of agents： system agent and junction agent. System agent is responsible for gathering the history information of different junction agents to preset the time for each traffic light pattern. While, junction agent controls the traffic light at a road junction by preset-observe-ponder-act cycle. The detailed procedure of pondering is also given. In the authors method, not only the history information but also the dynamic data and communication between agents are considered. People expect the proposed framework can provide a more balanced, coordinated and optimal method for the traffic light control.     

Predicting Causes of Traffic Road Accidents Using Multi-class Support Vector Machines

Road traffic accidents have caused a myriad of problems for many countries, ranging from untimely loss of loved ones to disability and disruption of work. In many cases, when a road traffic accident occurs that results in the death of both drivers of the vehicles involved in the accident, there are some difficulties in identifying the cause of the accident and the driver who committed the accident. There is a need for methods to identify the cause of road traffic accidents in the absence of eyewitnesses or when there is a dispute between those who are involved in the accident. This paper attempts to predict the causes of road accidents based on real data collected from the police department in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Data mining techniques were used to predict the causes of road accidents. Results obtained have shown that the model can predict the cause of road accidents with accuracy greater than 75%.     

Solve the Humanware Problem： Take the Full Advantage of Telemedicine

Telemedicine＇s greatest problem is not found in software and hardware. Many can make software and hardware work. It has for long been clear that telemedicine has diffusion problems. Focus should be shifted over to the humanware. Telemedicine means work is done by virtual organizations. For the future of telemedicine, organizational issues will represent a challenge. Organizations consist of humans in interaction. In Norwegian telemedicine projects, organizational problems were identified and solutions to the problems were designed. More than 40 publications show numerous organizational consequences and numerous types of organizational consequences. When it comes to the solving telemedicine＇s organizational problems, learning from the experience others have is important. It is not necessary for all to invent what the organizational problems are. Organizing health care around the physical telecommunication networks is associated with the concept of network organization. The electronic networks become an infrastructure around which single health care providers are distributed. Such network organization means a formation of alliances between organizations. Centralization and decentralization are important terms for all organizing. Telemedicine makes the question of centralization or decentralization relevant. Telemedicine requires collaboration between participating parties. Obtaining the benefits of telemedicine is dependent on implementing the right measures for good collaboration. We know there are problems with telemedicine virtual organizations, but solutions to these problems exist. For the future of telemedicine, doing work with organization is important. Skilled managers have an important role to play.     

Study of the Preprocessing Influence in the Accuracy of Semi-automated Shadow Detection Approach

Shadows may occupy a significant portion of the image mainly in urban scenes. This research has the objective to detect shadows in high resolution orbital images using morphological operators. In order to verify preprocessing contribution in this shadow detection methodology, we have tested the median, morphological, bilateral and mean curvature filters to evaluate which one has the characteristic of mitigate the noise of the images and contribute to enhance detection performance. During the study, 10 panchromatic images of Worldview II satellite from the urban area of Presidente Prudente, in the state of Sao Paulo, were used. According to the shadow detection methodology by mathematical morphology, we checked the accuracy value using the images resulting of the smoothing methods applied in the preprocessing step. Finally, we evaluated all the smoothing levels in order to select the most appropriated according to accuracy and if images preserves the elements of interest. By analyzing the obtained results it is easy to see that the bilateral filter has presented satisfactory results, since it considers the spatial domain in the smooth ing process, despite incorporating the pixels intensity domain as well. Therefore, we can conclude that the bilateral filter is a good alternative considering an adequate choice of the parameters.     

Platoon dispersion prediction under the condition of adjacent cycle traffic flow overlapping based on Support Vector Regression

Coordinated signal control can improve the continuity of vehicular traffic flow movement and reduce delay. Cycle Flow Profile is the base for calculating coordinated signal control parameters. Platoon dispersion characteristic determines the Cycle Flow Profile. So, improving platoon dispersion prediction accuracy can obtain significant benefit for signal coordination. When the velocities of the vehicles vary greatly, faster vehicles of next cycle can catch up the slower vehicles of the current cycle. Traffic flow overlapping of adjacent cycle is an important characteristic. Support Vector Regression is adopted to predict platoon dispersion and compares prediction accuracy with Robertson formula. The results are encouraging; Support Vector Regression has higher prediction accuracy.     

Evaluation of the Websites of Logistics Operators by Customers

In this article, the results were presented of research concerning the visual and functional aspects of the websites of three largest logistics operators in Poland. The research was carried out with the participation of the following three groups： institutional customers, individual customers and marketing management students. The article covers an attempt to evaluate cooperation through virtual contacts with the company. The analysis also concerned such issues as information on corporate social responsibility （CSR）, information on job offers and the position of the company on the market.     

Exploring the Interactions of Storylines from Informative News Events

Today＇s news readers can be easily overwhelmed by the numerous news articles online. To cope with information overload, online news media publishes timelines for continuously developing news topics. However, the timeline summary does not show the relationship of storylines, and is not intuitive for readers to comprehend the development of a complex news topic. In this paper, we study a novel problem of exploring the interactions of storylines in a news topic. An interaction of two storylines is signified by informative news events that play a key role in both storylines. Storyline interactions can indicate key phases of a news topic, and reveal the latent connections among various aspects of the story. We address the coherence between news articles which is not considered in traditional similarity-based methods, and discover salient storyline interactions to form a clear, global picture of the news topic. User preference can be naturally integrated into our method to generate query-specific results. Comprehensive experiments on ten news topics show the effectiveness of our method over alternative approaches.     

The Influence of the Color Model on the Performance of a CBIR System Based on Color Moments

In this paper, we evaluate the influence of color models on the performance of a CBIR system based on color moments signature. The color models considered are： RGB （red, green, blue）, HSV （hue, saturation, value） and the mixture RGB-HSV. We specifically investigate also the effect of the moment＇s degree （0： mean, 1： variance, 2： skewness） and their conjunction on the system relevance. Practically, many scenarios have been checked： three, six, nine, twelve and eighteen values extracted from moments over the three color models. For the evaluation, we use the precision recall curves on the Wang database. We also employ the utility concept in the evaluation of the ranking quality of the returned images. Results show that the combination （RGB-HSV, mean） is the best configuration. In addition, results show also that the mean （three values） is the best signature regardless of the color space and the HSV color model is the best regardless of the number of values to consider.     

A comparative study of two formal semantics of the SIGNAL language

SIGNAL is a part of the synchronous languages family, which are broadly used in the design of safety-critical real-time systems such as avionics, space systems, and nu- clear power plants. There exist several semantics for SIG- NAL, such as denotational semantics based on traces （called trace semantics）, denotational semantics based on tags （called tagged model semantics）, operational semantics presented by structural style through an inductive definition of the set of possible transitions, operational semantics defined by syn- chronous transition systems （STS）, etc. However, there is lit- tle research about the equivalence between these semantics. In this work, we would like to prove the equivalence be- tween the trace semantics and the tagged model semantics, to get a determined and precise semantics of the SIGNAL language. These two semantics have several different defini- tions respectively, we select appropriate ones and mechanize them in the Coq platform, the Coq expressions of the abstract syntax of SIGNAL and the two semantics domains, i.e., the trace model and the tagged model, are also given. The dis- tance between these two semantics discourages a direct proof of equivalence. Instead, we transform them to an intermediate model, which mixes the features of both the trace semantics and the tagged model semantics. Finally, we get a determined and precise semantics of SIGNAL.     

Use Case for the Development of a Mobile Learning Application

This paper presents use cases developed for a mobile learning application named MLEA （mobile learning environment adapter）, developed in collaboration with the Universidad do Vale do Rio dos Sinos-Unisinos, Brazil and UTP （Universidad Tecnologica de Panama）. MLEA allows users to access, through a single platform, courses in a content management system--Moodle. The objective of this project is to create a communication platform that allows users of Android based mobile devices to use services of the virtual campus of UTP. The work team is composed of six professors and researchers in Panama and three in Brazil, with voluntary students in both countries. A complete, step by step use case is documented, including requirement specifications, interface designs based on Android patterns, as well as programming patterns used for the communication between mobile devices and Moodle platform.     

An Efficient Algorithm for the Evaluate of the Electromagnetic Field near Several Radio Base Stations

This paper is motivated by the increased presence of the radio base stations, and the need to calculate the electromagnet ic field near them. The debate on the effects of the electromagnetic field exposure, in line with the increased success and presence of the mobile telephony, has attracted the public interest and it has become a concern for the community. The standard procedures in place for estimation of the electromagnetic field require prior knowledge of the criteria for the field evaluation, be it near field, far field, presence of one or several base stations, the operating frequencies bands and their combinations. Aiming to have a practical method for the evaluation, the authors will try to do develop a theoretic model, on which base the authors will simulate the antenna of the base station and prepare the numeric method that will provide the baseline for the application. They will than compare the calculations for real situations for which all know the geometrical features, with the ones calculated based on a known theoretical method also knows as method of the moments MoM, simulated with NEC-2 （numerical electromagnetic code）, and further more with the values measured in the field under the same conditions as the ones for the simulated environments. The results are interpreted in order to define the efficiency of the proposed method as well as to have an idea on the simplicity, accuracy and computing capacities.     

Counterworking the Operation Disturbance of a Radiators Structure due to External Actions

The operation of a complicated radiators structure creating a required field in a given area is disturbed often due to different external actions. As an example, the impact of metallic objects approaching off to an antenna system with minimal irradiation on user＇s body is analyzed. In this case, the zone itself, where the area of a weak field （a dark spot） is created, is generally not approachable for sensors installation. In order to counteract the disturbance of the system operation due to presence of different metallic objects in close proximity to the radiators, two methods based on two information sources are studied. These information sources are antennas driving currents and fields at a predetermined point outside the given area. As an example, the antenna system used in the compensation method for reducing human＇s body irradiation, to which a metal object approaches, is analyzed. The conditions of severe external actions are considered： a great metal body and a small distance from this body to the dark spot. It is shown that under these conditions of severe external actions the second method based on the field values measuring demonstrates a higher efficiency. A block scheme for structure of an automatic adjustment is suggested. The considered problem is a common one, and developers of radio circuits are faced with them constantly.     

On the simulation of expressional animation based on facial MoCap

MoCap(motion capture)-based animation is a hot issue in computer animation research currently.Based on the optical MoCap system,this paper proposes a novel cross-mapping based facial expression simulating method.To overcome the problem of the false upper and lower jaw correlation derived from the facial global RBFbased cross-mapping method,we construct a functional partition based RBF cross-mapping method.During model animating,enhanced markers are added and animated by our proposed skin motion mechanism.In addition,based on the enhanced markers,an improved RBF-based animating approach is raised to derive realistic facial animation.Further more,a pre-computing algorithm is presented to reduce computational cost for real-time simulation.The experiments proved that the method can not only map the MoCap data of one subject to diferent personalized faces but generate realistic facial animation.     

Teaching and Learning on the Internet： A New Model of University,the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO

The convergence of telecommunications and computer science, the realization of computer-based networks and the integration of languages, by overcoming space and time constraints, gave rise to the globalization process and to the development of the knowledge society. We are facing a true revolution that is based on the multiplication of knowledge and its corresponding applications, but also on the knowledge codification, memorization and knowledge transfer. The challenges that educational institutions, and the University in particular, are called to face are linked to the fact that classrooms or lecture halls are no longer the only places where one can follow study courses： anybody from anywhere, if he has the required technological equipment and the appropriate materials can build his own environment to carry on his own educational and self-learning process. This is the reason why we need to identify new models of university and psycho-pedagogic theories allowing for the development of new Internet-based teaching and learning models by carrying on research work. This paper describes the university model proposed by International Telematic University UN1NETTUNO, rapidly become acknowledged at an international level.     

Modelling the User

The relatively high percentage of people with disabilities in Europe combined with the facts of ageing population, strong relation of impairment to age, and as State of the Art shows, dissatisfaction or even unawareness of people with disabilities of available assistive technology are revealing the necessity to incorporate a user-centric approach that beyond 2nd generation practices will achieve to provide embedded and built-in accessibility solutions, as well as toolkits for developers, for ＂engraving＂ accessibility in existing and emerging mass-market ICT-based products, aiming to make accessibility open, plug and play, personalised and configurable, realistic and applicable in various contexts, keeping always the user in the loop. The AEGIS （Accessibility Everywhere： Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards） IP （Integrated Project） of the 7th European Framework Programme seeks to determine whether 3rd generation access techniques will provide a more accessible, more exploitable and deeply embeddable approach in mainstream ICT （information and communication technologies）. This paper presents the holistic UCD （user-centered design） implementation plan, upon which AEGIS has been based in order to achieve its targets, starting from modelling its target users, in the most efficient way possible.     

Effect of atmospheric angular momentum turbulence on the orbital of hollow vortex beams

The phase fluctuation of Laguerre-Gaussian （LG） vortex beams induced by atmospheric turbulence affects the quantum phase associated with azimuth coordinates and affects the orbital angular momentum of the vortex beams. The measurement of orbital angular momentum is affected by the change in the classical phase and the quantum phase in the Hilbert space. This paper analyzes the additional random complex phase of the vortex beam generated by the atmospheric turbulence and discusses the effect of atmospheric turbulence on the orbital angular momentum of an LG vortex beam using the photon state-vector function. The distributions of the classical phase of vortex beams affected by turbulence of different strengths are calculated and compared with the case for LG vortex beams transmitted through free space. Results show that the atmospheric turbulence affects the phase value of LG vortex beams transmitted in the external field and significantly affects the beam phase structure in the near field. However, the effect of turbulence on the phase of vortex beams is insignificant for a transmission range z 〉 2000 m while the phase values vary slowly and gradually become constant.     

Automatic Estimation of the Number of Soil Profile Layers Using Bayesian Information Criterion

In this study, Bayesian Information Criterion algorithm is utilized for the estimation of number of soil profile layers. In order to collect data, several probes are performed by geotechnical specialists in WUoLS （Warsaw University of Life Sciences） campus. Then soil profiles have been manually generated by geotechnical experts. It lets us to compare the results of novel automated method presented in this paper to real soil profile manually generated by geotechnical engineers. The database has been generated based on values derive from a probe CPT applied by geotechnical experts. Examination and accuracy calculation of the proposed method is presented and compared to reference real soil profile obtained by experts group.     

System Reconstruction in the Field-Specific Methodology of Economic Subjects

The proposal is focused on reconsideration and total reconstruction of recent economic education on the basis of different teaching styles, real competence-based learning, education for entrepreneurship and other trends in life-long education. These qualities are closely and mainly linked to target competencies which are the results of education and are reconditioned by these qualities. A modernized taxonomy of teaching methods and styles and instructions for their application in a diverse form will be proposed. The project applicants believe that the conceptual changes should be addressed by basic research as an innovation of methodological support in the form of teaching aids stratification. Teachers of economic subjects must be able to create their own teaching aids independently. They should be field methodology innovators, too. The new proposed taxonomy should be reflected in the training of teachers so that they avail of the new paradigm. This article is provided as one of the outputs of the research project of the Faculty of Finance and Accounting, which is realized in the framework of institutional support University of Economics IP 100040.     

An Analysis of Newly Built Forecasting Method to the Sanitary Materials Data

Correct sales forecasting is inevitable in industries. In industries, how to improve forecasting accuracy such as sales, shipping is an important issue. There are many researches made on this. In this paper, a hybrid method is introduced and plural methods are compared. Focusing that the equation of ESM （exponential smoothing method） is equivalent to （1,1） order ARMA model equation, a new method of estimation of smoothing constant in exponential smoothing method is proposed before by us which satisfies minimum variance of forecasting error. In this paper, trend removing by the combination of linear and 2nd order non-linear function and 3rd order non-linear function is carried out to the manufacturer＇s data of sanitary materials. The new method shows that it is useful for the time series that has various trend characteristics and rather strong seasonal trend. The effectiveness of this method should be examined in various cases.