Improving articulated hand pose detection for static finger sign recognition in RGB-D images

Multimedia Tools and Applications - With the emergence of consumer RGB-D sensors, discriminative modeling has been shown to perform well in estimating human body pose. However, articulated hand...     

Flexibility Potential of Photovoltaic Power Plant and Biogas Plant Hybrid Systems in the Distribution Grid

The potential of combining biogas and photovoltaic (PV) power plants in hybrid systems in the German distribution grid is analyzed. The focus of the present research is on balancing the intermittent power supply from PV power plants with the controllable power production of combined heat and power (CHP) units of biogas plants within a period of seconds. To achieve an increase of the total energy feed-in of biogas and PV power plants to the electricity grid, a biogas plant energy management system is described. System parameters, such as the variable feed-in of PV power plants or power ramps of the start-up process of controllable biogas plant CHP unit, are described and adapted to the global installed capacity of PV power plant and biogas plants in the German distribution grid.     

On the Maximal Output Admissible Set for a Class of Bilinear Discrete-time Systems

International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems - Given a discrete-time controlled bilinear systems with initial state x0 and output function yi, we investigate the maximal output set...     

Seed composition of non-industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) varieties from four regions in northern Morocco

This study aims to determine the chemical composition of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) seeds of two varieties cultivated in four different regions of northern Morocco. The content of protein, insoluble fibre, ash, total phenols and flavonoids was found to be 19.25%–24.18%, 26.40%–37.40%, 3.72%–5.39%, 134.57–199.90 mg 100g⁻¹ and 39.40–69.54 mg 100g⁻¹ respectively. Oil contents ranged from 26.42 to 35.19 g 100 g⁻¹ of seeds in the four collection sites with variable oxidative stability at 100°C from 9.73 to 15.42 h. Total tocopherol content was between 376.46 and 796.06 mg kg⁻¹ of oil, with a dominance of γ-tocopherol. Fatty acids consisted mainly of unsaturated fatty acids (87.30-88.96%) with a predominance of linoleic acid (48.26%–55.39%). Triacylglycerols (TAGs) composition analysis revealed the presence of 18 TAGs with an equivalent carbon number of 38–48. The composition of TAGs was predominated by LLL (14.34%–22.62%), OLL (12.77%–18.78%) and LLLn (12.32%–18.59%). Furthermore, the majority of the evaluated parameters were strongly influenced by the varietal factor, growing area and their interaction. The knowledge of this composition variability in seeds of non-industrial Cannabis sativa varieties cultivated in northern Morocco could be useful in new Cannabis variety breeding programmes potentially valuable as non-conventional oil in cosmetic and agro-industry.     

Assessment of Trace Elements in Soils and Mine Water Surrounding a Closed Manganese Mine (Anti Atlas,Morocco)

Five mine water samples, 23 topsoil samples, and four mine waste (tailings) samples were collected to assess the effects of a closed Moroccan Mn mine. Based on the pH, electrical conductivity, and concentrations of sulphate, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Pb, and Mn, mining has not adversely influenced mine water quality. Soil samples were analyzed for 23 chemical elements and the results were interpreted by univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. Based on an enrichment factor (EF) calculation, only Cd, As, V, and Mn were selected for further study. Geochemical background (GB) and geoaccumulation index (I_geo) were determined for these elements to differentiate between geogenic and anthropogenic enrichment. The GB values showed that the Tiwiyyine soils contained a high geogenic content of Cd, As, V, and Mn that reflected the geochemistry of the parental rocks in this mineralized region. The I_geo calculation revealed that these soils were moderately influenced by anthropogenic activity, which had increased the concentrations of those elements. Finally, geochemical maps revealed that mining was likely responsible for the anthropogenic soil pollution.     

Aggregation and systematic sampling of periodic ARMA processes

The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of temporal aggregation and systematic sampling on periodic autoregressive moving average (PARMA) time series. Firstly, it is shown that the class of weak PARMA processes, i.e. with uncorrelated but possibly dependent errors, is closed under a particular class of linear transformations that include both temporal aggregation and systematic sampling. This extends a similar result for autoregressive moving average processes; see [Wei, W.W.S., 2006. Time Series Analysis: Univariate and Multivariate Methods, second ed. Addison-Wesley, New York (Chapter 20)] for a review on the subject. Secondly, the properties of the noise of the transformed process are investigated. A sufficient condition is given under which aggregation and systematic sampling of a strong PARMA process, i.e. with independent errors, give rise in general to a weak PARMA process. Under that condition, the noise of the transformed process is neither strong nor a martingale difference. This result points out that the assumption of strong PARMA should not be used without careful considerations when analyzing aggregated time series that naturally occur in many scientific fields. The sufficient condition for non-independent errors is illustrated with the PARMA(1,1) model. A simulation study underlines the practical relevance of our findings and the importance of taking into account the dependence of the errors when fitting a PARMA model to an aggregated time series.     

Pipeline Corrosion,Modeling and Analysis

Degradation of pipelines is the result of the continuous attack by the environment of these conduits like climate change (temperature, rate moisture in the ground, etc.…) that may lead to a corrosive environment. The design and the maintenance of these conduits and pipelines is a challenge for oil industry seen the serious consequences which can occur because of several reasons, example: defects of the cracks types, rust…, etc. Which can cause escapes of the transported matter or ruptures of these conduits with all that involves like economic loss and pollution of the environment.     

Multivariate trees for mixed outcomes

In this paper, we propose a tree-based method for multivariate outcomes consisting in a mixture of categorical and continuous responses. The split function for tree-growing is derived from a likelihood-based approach for a general location model (GLOM). One situation where the new approach should be appealing is when mixed types of multiple outcomes are used as surrogates for an unobserved latent outcome. Two illustrations of the application of the new method are given with health care data.     

Optimisation of springback in bending processes using FEM simulation and response surface method

The aim of this work includes the springback optimisation of bending processes using the concept of experimental design and response surface methodology (RSM). The optimisation method includes two phases. The first involves the objective function prediction using design of experiments and response surface method, while the second is an optimisation process using a FORTRAN gradient algorithm. Springback of sheet parts during bending processes is simulated using finite element model (FEM) including damage evolution effects within the sheet. The numerical simulation of the damage evolution has been modelled by means of continuum damage approach. The Lemaitre damage model, taking into account the influence of triaxiality, has been implemented into ABAQUS/Standard code in order to predict the external fibres rupture evolution during the process and the material characteristics changes after bending. The simulation included die corner radius and punch-die clearance as the main variables.