Optimal Detection of Faulty Traffic Sensors Used in Route Planning

In a smart city, real-time traffic sensors may be deployed for various applications, such as route planning. Unfortunately, sensors are prone to failures, which result in erroneous traffic data. Erroneous data can adversely affect applications such as route planning, and can cause increased travel time. To minimize the impact of sensor failures, we must detect them promptly and accurately. However, typical detection algorithms may lead to a large number of false positives (i.e., false alarms) and false negatives (i.e., missed detections), which can result in suboptimal route planning. In this paper, we devise an effective detector for identifying faulty traffic sensors using a prediction model based on Gaussian Processes. Further, we present an approach for computing the optimal parameters of the detector which minimize losses due to false-positive and false-negative errors. We also characterize critical sensors, whose failure can have high impact on the route planning application. Finally, we implement our method and evaluate it numerically using a real-world dataset and the route planning platform OpenTripPlanner.Comment: Proceedings of The 2nd Workshop on Science of Smart City Operations and Platforms Engineering (SCOPE 2017), Pittsburgh, PA USA, April 2017, 6 page

Investigating the Effect of Different Methods of Financial Supply on the Profitability Ratios of Companies Accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange

One  of the most important stimulating factors that have an accelerating role in achievement the countries to stage of development are capital adequacy and financial supply. To supply required capital, there are different ways. These ways mainly consist of the use of debt, the use of shareholders' capital in the form of common stock, the use of retained earnings, the combination of these methods and etc. Different ways of financial supply have various risks and efficiencies and different economic, accounting, functional, liquidity and profitability variables of the company are markedly changed under the influence of different methods of financial supply. In this study, the influence of different conventional methods of financial supply (retained earnings, common stock and debt) as independent variables on profitability of companies (return on asset, operating profit margin, net profit margin and return on equity) as dependent variables has been examined.  The present study is applicable and descriptive in correlation branches from view points of objective and the nature of method, respectively. Simple random and cluster methods were used for sampling. Thus, at first, the samples were selected among various industries active in Tehran Securities and Exchange using simple random sampling. And then all of the companies in the oil and petrochemical industry during years 2005-2012 were considered as research sample. Test results of the assumptions show that there was a statistically significant relationship between financial supply through retained earnings and the logarithm of return on equity and but a statistically significant relationship was not found between the financial supply of common stock and debt. Also, results showed that a statistically significant relationship exists between financial supply through retained earnings and debt with net profit margin. But a statistically significant relationship was not observed between financial supply through debt, retained earnings and common stock with return on asset and between financial supply through debt, retained earnings and common stock with operational profit margin. Keywords: Common stock, Debt, Return on equity, Operational profit, net profit of profitabilit

Who rallies around the flag? Analyzing the impact of foreign interventions on nations' political stance using social media data

There is a common-sense that in times of foreign interventions, the country’s political actors are likely to set aside their differences and support the state or the government for a period of time as a temporary reaction to that foreign intervention. This study focuses on the specific case of Iran-U.S. conflicts to investigate the effects of events such as U.S. sanctions and military interventions on political discourse among Iranian influencers on Twitter. The quantitative approach in this study utilizes Classical Natural Language Processing to measure Iranian tweeps’ sentiment towards the state across the time. We have grouped Iranian Twitter Influencers by their political affiliations to analyze which political affiliations in Iran (e.g. Conservatives, Reformists, . . . ) are more likely to rally around the flag in correspondence to foreign interventions and what categories of foreign interventions have more potential in stimulating them for such reaction

Book Review of In Dialogue With Reggio Emilia: Listening, Researching, and Learning by Carlina Rinaldi

This article comprises a book review of "In dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, researching, and learning" by Carlina Rinaldi. The book is about the early childhood program of Reggio Emilia, Italy as interpreted by Carlina Rinaldi, the pedagogista and Director of the municipal schools of Reggio Emilia for 30 years. Rinaldi’s most important articles, lectures, and interviews from 1984 to 2004 are collected in the 15 chapters of this text. This book review aims to highlight for readers a unique historical and cultural experience in relation to its particular philosophical and theoretical perspectives within a wider socio-cultural and political context. Moreover, this review locates theory and practice in Reggio Emilia schools as situated within its particular context

Optimal Trading of a Storable Commodity via Forward Markets

A commodity market participant trading via her inventory has access to both spot and forward markets. To liquidate her inventory, she can sell at the spot price, take a short forward position, or do a combination of both. A trade is proposed in which there is always a hedging forward contract, which can be considered a dynamic cash and carry arbitrage. The trader can adjust the maturity of the forward contract dynamically until the inventory is depleted or a time constraint is reached. In the first setup, the storage contract (to carry inventory) is assumed to have a constant cost and a flexible duration. The risk and return characteristics of an Approximate Dynamic Programming (ADP) and a Forward Dynamic Optimization solution are compared. The trade is contrasted with optimal spot sale among other alternative liquidation strategies. Independent from the underlying stochastic forward price model, it is proved and verified numerically that a partial sale strategy is not optimal. The optimally selected forward maturities are limited to the subset comprising the immediate, next, and last timesteps. Under a more realistic storage contract, which assumes a stochastic cost and a fixed duration, a new ADP approach is developed. The optimal policy shows the tanker rent decision is accompanied by a buy order since the loss from an empty tanker is more than the gain of renting it cheaply yet early. Given the nonadjustable duration of the rent contract, a longer contract generates a higher value by benefiting from a tanker refill option

An Upgrade Pinning Block: A Mechanical Practical Aid for Fast Labelling of the Insect Specimens

A new mechanical innovation is described to deal with standard labelling of dried specimens on triangular cards and/or pinned specimens in personal and public collections. It works quickly, precisely, and easily and is very useful for maintaining label uniformity in collections. The tools accurately sets the position of labels in the shortest possible time. This tools has advantages including rapid processing, cost effectiveness, light weight, and high accuracy, compared to conventional methods. It is fully customisable, compact, and does not require specialist equipment to assemble. Conventional methods generally require locating holes on the pinning block surface when labelling with a resulting risk to damage of the specimens. Insects of different orders can be labelled by this simple and effective tool

Comparison of Stability Criteria for Concrete Dams in Different Approximate Methods Based on Finite Element Analysis

AbstractDifferent regulations for the design of concrete dams suggest various criteria for stability control of dams. Some of these criteria, which are conservative, lead to the over-design of dam sections. By using the finite element method, which is considered more accurate than many, this research is intended to determine the accuracy of approximate methods and compare them with each other. Since, according to the regulations, the length of an established crack within the interface between the dam and its foundation is considered a stability indicator to calculate overturning and sliding, the same index has been used here. To give a practical example, using the approximate methods of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulations for gravity dams, the stability control and safety factors are calculated in all three. Then, the same example is analyzed on the basis of finite element analytical software such as ANSYS as well as the uplift pressure distribution of regulations, and the safety factors are determined and compared with those calculated by other methods. It is important to note that none of the above regulations refers to the elastic properties of foundation materials in the calculation of base stress distribution and safety factors. Accordingly, for different kinds of foundation materials, the stresses of the base are calculated in the same way, and the types of materials have no effect on the safety factors related to stability. This poses a serious problem in all the above regulations, but this problem does not exist in the finite element method. This research demonstrates the necessity of the finite element method for analyzing gravity dams, even in their initial design phase

Design and Evaluation of an Optimal Fuzzy PID Controller for an Active Vehicle Suspension System

The goal of studying the vehicle suspension systems is to reduce the vehicle vibrations which are due to the irregularities of road levels and the fluctuations in the vehicle velocity. These vibrations are transferred to the body and occupants of vehicles through the suspension system. In general, the main function of an active suspension system is to support the vehicle body by reducing the input vibrations and to provide a safe and smooth ride on a bumpy road surface. In this research, a quarter vehicle model has been employed for designing a suspension system. The road level irregularities have been considered as disturbances to this system. The optimal fuzzy PID (OFPD+I) controller has been used to optimize the performance of the suspension system in reducing the adverse effects resulting from road level irregularities, vehicle braking, and moving around the road curves. To verify the efficacy of the optimal fuzzy PID controller, its performance has been evaluated and compared with the performances of three separate controllers (PID, fuzzy, and fuzzy PID) and a system without any controller. The findings indicate the advantage of the optimal fuzzy PID controller over the other systems. Thus, in the integral of the absolute error criterion for the vehicle body velocity and displacement changes, the OFPD+I controller has a superior performance relative to the other systems