380 research outputs found
IoD swarms collision avoidance via improved particle swarm optimization
No full textDrones flights have been investigated widely. In the presence of high density and complex missions, collision avoidance among swarm of drones and with environment obstacles becomes a challenging task and indispensable. This paper aims to enhance the optimality and rapidity of three dimensional IoD path generation by improving the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The improvements include using chaos map logic to initialize the population of PSO. Also, adaptive mutation is utilized to balance local and global search. Then, the inactive particles are replaced by new fresh particles to push the solution toward global optimal. Furthermore, Monte Carlo simulation is carried out and the results are compared with slandered PSO and with recent work CIPSO. The results exhibit significant improvement in convergence speed as well as optimal solution which prove the ability of proposed method to generate safety path for IoD formation without collision with terrain obstacle and among drones.The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the department of the computer engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals for this work.Ahmed, G (corresponding author), King Fahd Univ Petr & Minerals, Comp Engn Dept, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
UAV-enabled intelligent traffic policing and emergency response handling system for the smart city
No full textAs modern cities expand and develop, the resultant increase in population density gives rise to the need for smart solutions to cope with the demands applied to the infrastructure of the city. In this paper, we investigate the shortcomings of traffic policing and emergency response handling systems; propose an intelligent, autonomous UAV-enabled solution; and describe the system in a simulated environment. Several scenarios of traffic monitoring and policing system are considered in the simulation: traffic light violations and accident detection, mobile speeding traps and automated notification, congestion detection and traffic rerouting, flagged stolen vehicles/pending arrest warrants and vehicle tracking using UAVs, and autonomous emergency response handling systems. Furthermore, smart city infrastructure enable intelligent handling of emergencies by providing traffic light prioritization for ground emergency response units to reduce delay for patient care, automated physical bollard on routes with congested points due to accidents or hazards, first responder support UAV units-medical supplies UAV, fire fighting UAV to combat or control small fires, and numerous other benefits. Lastly, we present the results of the simulated system and discuss our findings.This study received financial support from the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Hasselt University, Belgium.
Authors would like to thank the Department of Computer Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals for their support in this research.Beg, A (reprint author), King Fahd Univ Petr & Minerals, Dept Comp Engn, Az Zahran, Saudi Arabia.
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
A Novel Approach for Efficient Management of Data Lifespan of IoT Devices
No full textWireless sensor networks (WSNs) are mainly data-driven networks adopted to improve the Internet of Things (IoT) in terms of data throughput, energy efficiency, and self-management. Improving the data lifespan of WSN impacts the performance of the IoT. Achieving data reliability in applications of WSNs deployed in harsh environments is challenging due to the extreme constraints in resources of sensor nodes (SNs). Motivated by the inexpensive infrastructure of WSNs, a number of distributed storage systems have been proposed focusing on achieving data survivability rather than network reliability. In this article, we focus on data storage at the things layer (wireless sensors). We evaluate the performance of a number of distributed data storage systems (DDSSs) over WSN running over the ZigBee MAC protocol. Based on our findings, we introduce a new efficient-energy data dissemination scheme called data survivability with energy efficiency (DSwEE) that outperforms the existing schemes. We compare DSwEE against two prominent protocols in data storage, namely, decentralized erasure code for data survivability (DEC-DS) and decentralized erasure code encode-and-disseminate (DEC-EaD). Results show that DSwEE achieves better performance than both DEC-DS and DEC-EaD in terms of the energy consumption and data recoverability for localized failures, which improves the lifespan of the network.This work was supported in part by the Department of Computer Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals; in part by Najran University; and in part by the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Hasselt University, Belgium.Sheltami, T (corresponding author), King Fahd Univ Petr & Minerals, Dept Comp Engn, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia.
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Is the Qur'an part of the Late Antiquity of Europe? A Reading in German Orientalism
Full text linkقدمت المدرسة الاستشراقية الألمانية أبحاثا علمية متقدمة في مجال الدراسات القرآنية، ولعل ما قدمته كان من أكبر المشاريع العلمية التي أنجزت على مستوى الدراسات القرآنية في الغرب، وفي عام 2007 أطلقت الباحثة الألمانية أنجليكا نويفرت مشروع (Corpus Coranicum) في أكاديمية برلين-براندنبورج للعلوم في ألمانيا. وتعد الأستاذة الألمانية أنجليكا نويفرت (Angelika Neuwirth) واحدة من أهم وأشهر الباحثات في مجال الدراسات القرآنية ليس في ألمانيا فقط ولكن في أوربا كلها، فقد كتبت العديد من البحوث والدراسات حول القرآن. ويتناول هذا البحث دراسة أفكار وآراء وتصورات نويفرت حول القرآن وحول الدراسات القرآنية في أوربا، وخصوصا ما يتعلق منها بفكرتها بأن القرآن جزء من العصور القديمة المتأخرة لأوروبا.
وقد ناقش هذا البحث الفرق بين التصور الإسلامي وغير الإسلامي للقرآن، والمنهج النقدي التاريخي وتطبيقه على القرآن في القرن التاسع عشر في أوربا عموما وفي ألمانيا خصوصا، وعرض البحث منهج أنجليكا نويفرت في الدراسات القرآنية، وقدم تعريفا بمشروع كوربس كورآنيكوم الذي تشرف هي عليه. وقد وصل البحث إلى النتائج الآتية:
سعى البحث النقدي التاريخي للقرآن في القرن التاسع عشر إلى التأكيد على تأثر القرآن بالتراث اليهودي والمسيحي والعربي القديم، وعلى بشرية النص القرآني. وتناولت نويفرت في بحوث لها حال الدراسات القرآنية في أوربا، وانتقدت الاتجاهين السائدين في الغرب حول النص القرآني: الاتجاه الذي يدرس القرآن وقت نزوله ونشأته، والاتجاه الذي يشكك فيما ذكره التراث الإسلامي حول نشأة القرآن. وترى نويفرت أن الاتجاه الأول الذي اعتبر القرآن نصا من تأليف النبي محمد الذي تأثر في عصره بالتراث اليهودي والمسيحي أغفل جانباً مهماً داخل النص القرآني وهو العلاقة بين المبلغ والجماعة الإسلامية الأولى. حيث ترى النص القرآني عملية اتصال وجزءًا من التراث اليهودي والمسيحي لأوربا. وتختلف دراسة القرآن عند نويفرت عن دراسته عند باحثين آخرين، فبينما ينطلق باحثون أوربيون من أن القرآن يرجع إلى محمد (صلى الله عليه وسلم) باعتباره المؤلف الوحيد له، فإن نويفرت تبحث القرآن بوصفه عملية اتصال وجزءاً من الثقافة اليهودية والمسيحية لأوروبا. ولكن لا تختلف نويفرت عن غيرها من الباحثين الأوربيين في التأكيد على بشرية النص القرآني.The German Orientalist School has contributed extensively to the field of Quranic Sciences, and is recognized for its leading role in the development and advancement of the Western study of the Quran. In the year 2007, the German researcher Angelika Neuwirth launched the Corpus Coranicum project under the auspices of the Institute for Advanced Study, at Freie University, Berlin, Germany. Angelika Neuwirth is among the most accomplished European scholars of the Quran, and has produced numerous works of research in the field of Qur’anic Studies. Her research revolves around her thoughts and views on the Qur’an and Qur’anic studies in Europe, namely her idea that the Qur’an is part of the later antiquity of Europe. This paper also discusses the difference between the Islamic view and non-Islamic view of the Qur’an. Additionally, it investigates the critical historical method and its application on the Qur’an in 19th Century Europe. Furthermore, it describes the method of Angelika Neuwirth in Quranic Studies, and introduces the Corpus Coranicum project, which she oversees. This paper reached the following conclusions: The critical historical research of the 19th century attempted to prove the impact of the Judeo-Christian and Arab traditions on the Qur’an, and ultimately its human origins. Neuwirth analyzed the situation of the Qur’anic studies in Europe, and criticized the two widespread approaches to studying the Qur’anic text: the approach that studies the Quran at the time of its revelation, and the approach that doubts the Islamic narrative of the development of the Qur’an.
Neuwirth contends that the first approach, which considered the Quran a text written by the Prophet Muhammad and therefore a book influenced during his time by Jewish and Christian traditions, overlooked an important aspect within the Quranic text - the relationship between the Prophet and the first Islamic community. Therefore, she views the Quranic text as an extension and part of the Jewish and Christian heritage of Europe. Neuwirth’s study of the Quran differs from that of other scholars, in that most European scholars are of the view that Muhammad is the sole author of the Quran, meanwhile Neuwirth examines the Qur'an as an extension and part of the Jewish and Christian tradition of Europe. However, Neuwirth does not differ from other European researchers in emphasizing the human nature of the Quranic text
UPE: Utah Prototyping Environment For Robot Manipulators
No full textWe do not have a preprint copy of this article to post so please request it through inter-library loan from your home library or use the link below to obtain a final published copy from Springer.Developing an environment that enables optimal and flexible design of robot manipulators using reconfigurable links, joints, actuators, and sensors is an essential step for efficient robot design and prototyping. Such an environment should have the right "mix" of software and hardware components for designing the physical parts and the controllers, and for the algorithmic control of the robot modules (kinematics, inverse kinematics, dynamics, trajectory planning, analog control and digital computer control). Specifying object-based communications and catalog mechanisms between the software modules, controllers, physical parts, CAD designs, and actuator and sensor components is a necessary step in the prototyping activities. In this paper, we propose a flexible prototyping environment for robot manipulators with the required subsystems and interfaces between the different components of this environment. This environment provides a close tie between the design parameters of the robot manipulator and the design constraints imposed by the required tasks and desired behaviors of the robot and by the different subsystems involved in the design process. The design and implementation of this environment along with the implementation of some of the subsystems are presented, and some examples that demonstrate the functionality of the environment are discussed. This work was supported in part by DARPA agent N00014-91-J-4123, NSF grant CDA 9024721, and a University of Utah Research Committee grant. All opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF0043571
An Optimization Approach of IoD Deployment for Optimal Coverage Based on Radio Frequency Model
No full textRecently, Internet of Drones (IoD) has garnered significant attention due to its widespread applications. However, deploying IoD for area coverage poses numerous limitations and challenges. These include interference between neighboring drones, the need for directional antennas, and altitude restrictions for drones. These challenges necessitate the development of efficient solutions. This research paper presents a cooperative decision-making approach for an efficient IoD deployment to address these challenges effectively. The primary objective of this study is to achieve an efficient IoD deployment strategy that maximizes the coverage region while minimizing interference between neighboring drones. In deployment problem, the interference increases as the number of deployed drones increases, resulting in bad quality of communication. On the other hand, deploying a few drones cannot satisfy the coverage demand. To accomplish this, an enhanced version of a concise population-based meta-heuristic algorithm, namely Improved Particle Swarm Optimization (IPSO), is applied. The objective function of IPSO is defined based on the coverage probability, which is primarily influenced by the characteristics of the antennas and drone altitude. A radio frequency (RF) model is derived to evaluate the coverage quality, considering both Line of Sight (LOS) and Non-Line of Sight (NLOS) down-link coverage probabilities for ground communication. It is assumed that each drone is equipped with a directional antenna to optimize coverage in a given region. Extensive simulations are conducted to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves maximum coverage with minimum transmission power. Furthermore, a comparison is made against Collaborative Visual Area Coverage Approach (CVACA), and a game-based approach in terms of coverage quality and convergence speed. The simulation results reveal that our approach outperforms both CVACA and the gamebased schemes in terms of coverage and convergence speed. Comparisons validate the superiority of our approach over existing methods. To assess the robustness of the proposed RF model, we have considered two distinct ranges of noise: range1 spanning from -120 to -90 dBm, and range2 spanning from -90 to -70 dBm for different numbers of UAVs. In summary, this research presents a cooperative decision-making approach for efficient IoD deployment to address the challenges associated with area coverage and achieves an optimal coverage with minimal interference.This research was funded by Project Number INML2104 under the Interdisciplinary Center of Smart Mobility and Logistics at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. This study also was supported by the Special Research Fund BOF23KV17.
Authors at KFUPM would like to acknowledge the support received under University Funded Grant # INML2300. The author at Hasselt University acknowledges the support received from Special Research Fund (BOF) under Grant # BOF23KV17
Decentralized signal processing systems with conservation principles
No full textThesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2016.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-277).In this thesis, a framework for designing fixed-point and optimization algorithms realized as asynchronous, distributed signal processing systems is developed with an emphasis on the system's stability, robustness, and variational properties. These systems are formed by connecting basic modules together via interconnecting networks. Several classes of systems are constructed using interconnecting networks that obey certain conservation principles where these principles specifically allow steady-state system variables to be interpreted as solutions to optimization problems in a generally non-convex class and provide local conditions on the individual modules to ensure that the variables tend to such solutions, including when the communication between modules is asynchronous and uncoordinated. A particular class of signal processing systems, referred to as scattering systems, is designed that can solve convex and non-convex optimization problems, and where convex problems do not require problem-specific tuning parameters. Connections between scattering systems and their gradient-based and proximal counterparts are also established. The primary contributions of this thesis broadly serve to assist with designing and implementing scattering systems, both by leveraging existing signal processing paradigms and by developing new results in signal processing theory. To demonstrate the utility of the framework, scattering algorithms implemented as web-services and decentralized processor networks are presented and used to solve problems related to optimum filter design, sparse signal recovery, supervised learning, and non-convex regression.by Tarek Aziz Lahlou.Ph. D
Review: Tarek Badawia (2002). "Der dritte Stuhl" – Eine Grounded-Theory-Studie zum kreativen Umgang bildungserfolgreicher Immigrantenjugendlicher mit kultureller Differenz
No full textTarek BADAWIA beschreibt in seiner Dissertation, wie sich unter bildungserfolgreichen Immigrantenjugendlichen in Deutschland eine neue bikulturelle Identität durch den Umgang mit zwei Kulturen ergibt. Auf der Grundlage fokussierter und problemzentrierter Interviews generiert er die Theorie des "Dritten Stuhls", den sich die befragten Jugendlichen aus ihren beiden Identitäten "zimmern". Dieses Bild verdeutlicht, dass eine Synthese beider Kulturen durch die aktive Eigenleistung der Individuen möglich ist und es keineswegs zu kultureller Zerrissenheit oder einem "Zwischen-den-Stühlen-Sitzen" kommen muss. Mit dieser Sichtweise folgt BADAWIA dem Perspektivwechsel, der seit den 90ger Jahren die interkulturell akzentuierte pädagogische Forschung prägt. Neu ist in BADAWIAs Studie allerdings, dass er die betroffenen Jugendlichen selbst zu Wort kommen lässt und in seiner Analyse insbesondere deren kreative Eigenleistung in den Vordergrund stellt. Trotz einer an einigen Stellen (vor allem für den ungeübten Leser) schwer zu kodierenden "Wissenschaftssprache" ist die Studie von BADAWIA lesenswert, da sie authentische Einblicke in die Lebenswelt jugendlicher Migranten eröffnet.Tarek BADAWIA describes in his thesis how immigrant young people with a high level of educational achievement develop a new strategy of handling two different cultures. By using focused interviews BADAWIA generates the theory of the "third chair". The author paints a picture showing how the young immigrants interviewed create a new cross-cultural identity out of both of their cultures. By doing this they are no longer "sitting between two chairs." With this theory BADAWIA follows recent developments within intercultural educational research. What is new in this study is that BADAWIA asks the young immigrant people themselves and that he focuses in particular on their way of creating and handling their life. Unfortunately, BADAWIA uses a very complicated and artificial language. Nevertheless, the study is worth reading because it opens an authentic view of the environment of juvenile immigrants.En esta tesis Tarek BADAWIA describe cómo los jóvenes inmigrantes con estudios superiores realizados desarrollan una nueva estrategia para manejar dos diferentes culturas. Utilizando entrevistas focalizadas, BADAWIA genera la teoría de la "tercera silla". El autor traza un dibujo mostrando cómo los jóvenes inmigrantes entrevistados crean una nueva identidad supra-cultural al margen de sus dos culturas. Para hacer esto no permanecen por mucho tiempo "sentados entre dos sillas". Con esta teoría BADAWIA siguió los desarrollos recientes en la investigación educativa intercultural. Lo novedoso del estudio de BADAWIA es que pregunta a los jóvenes inmigrantes sobre ellos mismos, focalizando particularmente en su forma de crear y afrontar sus vidas. Desafortunadamente, BADAWIA utiliza un lenguaje complicado y artificial. No obstante, merece la pena leer el estudio porque abre una auténtica perspectiva del entorno de los inmigrantes jóvenes
What Explains the Canada-US ICT Investment Intensity Gap?
Full text linkIt is widely recognized that machinery and equipment investment intensity is less in Canada than in the United States. What is less well know is that it is information and communications technology (ICT) investment that largely accounts for this gap. The author documents trends in ICT investment in both Canada and the United States and attempts to explain why ICT investment per worker in the Canadian business sector in 2004 was only 45 per cent of that in the US business sector. While no definitive explanation emerges, among the factors he identifies as playing a role are industrial structure, firm size distribution of employment, the price of labour compared to ICT investment goods, and the underestimation of ICT investment in official statistics.Machinery and equipment investment, information and communications technology, ICT, Investment gap, Business sector, Industrial structure, Firm size
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