A one decade survey of autonomous mobile robot systems

Recently, autonomous mobile robots have gained popularity in the modern world due to their relevance technology and application in real world situations. The global market for mobile robots will grow significantly over the next 20 years. Autonomous mobile robots are found in many fields including institutions, industry, business, hospitals, agriculture as well as private households for the purpose of improving day-to-day activities and services. The development of technology has increased in the requirements for mobile robots because of the services and tasks provided by them, like rescue and research operations, surveillance, carry heavy objects and so on. Researchers have conducted many works on the importance of robots, their uses, and problems. This article aims to analyze the control system of mobile robots and the way robots have the ability of moving in real-world to achieve their goals. It should be noted that there are several technological directions in a mobile robot industry. It must be observed and integrated so that the robot functions properly: Navigation systems, localization systems, detection systems (sensors) along with motion and kinematics and dynamics systems. All such systems should be united through a control unit; thus, the mission or work of mobile robots are conducted with reliability

Bangla optical character recognition

This thesis paper is a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering, BRAC University

Offline signatures matching using haar wavelet subbands

The complexity of multimedia contents is significantly increasing in the current world. This leads to an exigent demand for developing highly effective systems tosatisfy human needs. Until today, handwritten signature considered an important means that is used in banks and businesses to evidence identity, so there are many works triedto develop a method for recognition purpose. This paper introduced an efficient technique for offline signature recognition depending on extracting the local feature by utilizing the haar wavelet subbands and energy. Three different setsof features are utilized by partitioning the signature image into non overlapping blocks where different block sizes are used. CEDAR signature database is used asa dataset for testing purpose. The results achieved by this technique indicate a high performance in signature recognition

The dilemma of malaria diagnosis: How accurate are the diagnostic tools?

Background: Malaria represents a major health problem for the public as well as clinicians and diagnosticians, because many diseases have similar symptoms to the symptoms of malaria. This study aimed to determine the accuracy of malaria diagnosis both clinically and using various laboratory tests compared to the gold standard microscopy.Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional hospital-based study, conducted at the casualty of Atbara Hospital, in January 2011. Any patient clinically suspected to have malaria in this month was included. Demographic and clinical data was collected using a standardized pre-tested questionnaire. Each patient was diagnosed primarily by the clinician, mainly medical officers and houseofficers, investigated by a thick blood film stained by Giemsa stain in the hospital laboratory. We, thereafter, obtained blood samples from the same patient, made thick and thin films stained by Giemsa and Field stains in addition to rapid tests for malaria antigens and antibodies. For quality assurance, tests were reviewed by expert technicians in the State Reference Laboratory for Malaria. Giemsa thick blood film was taken as the gold standard. Results of the various diagnostic methods were compared.Results: Two hundred patients volunteered to participate in this study. Females were 121(60.5%). The age range was from 7 months to 70 years, mean 25.85(+20.5). Only 5(2.5%) cases were confirmed positive for malaria. When compared to the gold standard test, giemsa thin film and Field stain showed 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. The sensitivity and specificity of the blood film done by hospital laboratory was 80% and 99.5% respectively. While Rapid Antibody scored 60% and 89.7%, and for Rapid Antigen scored 80% and 96.9% for the sensitivity and specificity respectively. The clinical diagnosis was the least accurate method 80% sensitivity and 38.5% specificity.Conclusion: The prevalence of malaria among symptomatic patients in Atbara hospital is low. The ICT antigen and antibody tests, as well as clinicians over diagnose malaria when compared to the blood film. A combination of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) with thick blood film for suspected malaria cases is recommended.Keywords: Malaria, Diagnosis, Blood film, Suda

Combined shear/compression structural testing of asymmetric sandwich structures

Asymmetric sandwich technology can be applied in the design of lightweight, non-pressurized aeronautical structures such as those of helicopters. A test rig of asymmetric sandwich structures subjected to compression/shear loads was designed, validated, and set up. It conforms to the standard certification procedure for composite aeronautical structures set out in the “test pyramid”, a multiscale approach. The static tests until failure showed asymmetric sandwich structures to be extremely resistant, which, in the case of the tested specimen shape, were characterized by the absence of buckling and failure compressive strains up to 10,000 μ strains. Specimens impacted with perforation damage were also tested, enabling the original phenomenon of crack propagation to be observed step-by-step. The results of the completed tests thus enable the concept to be validated, and justify the possibility of creating a much larger machine to overcome the drawbacks linked to the use of small specimens

Development of an Effective Procedure Writer’s Guide using a Human Factors and Regulatory Compliance Approach

PresentationWell-written procedures are an integral part of any industrial organization for safe operation, managing risks, and continuous improvement. Regulatory bodies around the world require industries to have current, accurate, and appropriate procedures for most processes. Although the importance of procedures is recognized by all industries in general, significant incidents have occurred in the past due to procedural breakdowns. Some of the procedural breakdowns come from obvious problems such as the procedure not being available or the procedure being wrong. However, some incidents have occurred when correct procedures were available and the operator used those procedures. In these instances, the reason why operators do not follow procedures correctly may be attributable to many factors, one of them being that the procedure is presented or designed in a manner that does not sufficiently communicate to the operators the information that is needed in a manner that is easily and quickly understood. The work presented here is focused on the latter circumstance and is part of a program of research that will ultimately lead to the development of a writer’s guide for procedures that supports operators’ comprehension and compliance with all types of industrial procedures. The writer’s guide is based on empirical findings from human factors and human performance studies and provides writers with information on how to present procedures in a manner that is clear, thorough, and (if necessary) implementable with short notice. For the first phase of the project, a sample of the regulations and standards from several industries were used to identify procedure writing practices necessary for ensure regulatory compliance. Regulations and industrial standards from around the world were organized to reflect common ideas and the implications in terms of human factors needs were identified with regard to procedure design. Any human factors (HF) that had implications for the writer’s guide that had empirical support, were included in the writer’s guide (with the reference) with an explanation of the HF implication and empirical support. The writer’s guide developed is structured to allow procedure writers access to guidance on various types of procedures they are writing, the type of information they are trying to communicate, and methods for maintaining accurate and current procedures. As mentioned, the current project is the beginning of a program of research and then next phase will include feedback from operators regarding the challenges they face when using procedures

Impact of Separation on Refugee Families: Syrian Refugees in Jordan

The ongoing conflict in Syria, now entering its eighth year, has resulted in the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Nearly 6.5 million Syrians have become internally displaced, with an additional 5.6 million forced to leave their country to seek asylum. In the face of this displacement, greater attention is being given to complementary and alternative solutions such as reunification of separated family members. However, serious legal and procedural obstacles are obstructing the reunification of Syrian families across the Middle East and Europe. This study outlines several ways in which family separation negatively impacts Syrian refugees in Jordan. These effects are significant, and include financial burdens, increased child labour, emotional distress, broken social networks, parenting challenges and changes to familial roles

Preparation of H3PO4 modified Sidr biochar for the enhanced removal of ciprofloxacin from water

In this study, biochar was prepared from Sidr plant leaves and used for the treatment of ciprofloxacin (CIP)-contaminated water. CIP is important class of emerging water pollutants from pharmaceutical industries. The biochar showed 65% adsorption efficiency and 43.48 mg/g adsorption capacity of CIP. Adsorption efficiency as well as adsorption capacity were improved to 91% and 62.50 mg/g, respectively, by phosphoric acid (H3PO4) modified biochar. Removal of CIP by the prepared biochar was due to different surface functional groups of CIP and biochar as revealed from the study of different characterization analyses. The presence of PO43- group in modified biochar led to maximum binding of CIP. Also, the modified biochar showed higher reusability potential and less leaching of ions when compared to the raw biochar. Removal of CIP was affected by concentrations of CIP, the amount of biochar and different pH\u27s; the maximum removal of CIP was achieved at pH 4. The Freundlich and pseudo-first-order models best fitted the removal of CIP by modified biochar. Advanced characterization techniques were applied to investigate surface and physiological characteristics of the biochar and modified biochar. The modification showed high impact on the performance and stability of biochar. The study showed significant impacts of modification on the potential of the biochar for treatment of CIP-contaminated water

Population parameters of Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1816) in the Marudu Bay, Sabah, Malaysia

An investigation of the population parameters of Indian mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1816) in the Marudu Bay, Sabah, Malaysia was carried out from January to September 2013. The relationship between total length and body weight was estimated as W=0.006TL3.215 or Log W=3.215LogTL – 2.22 (R2=0.946). Monthly length frequency data of R. kanagurta were analyzed by FiSAT software to evaluate the mortality rates and its exploitation level. Asymptotic length (Lµ) and growth co-efficient (K) were estimated at 27.83 cm and 1.50 yr-1, respectively. The growth performance index (φ') was calculated as 3.07. Total mortality (Z), natural mortality (M) and fishing mortality (F) was calculated at 4.44 yr-1, 2.46 yr-1 and 1.98 yr-1, respectively. Exploitation level (E) of R. kanagurta was found to be 0.45. The exploitation level was below the optimum level of exploitation (E=0.50). It is revealed that the stock of R. kanagurta was found to be still under exploited in Marudu Bay