Boundary Adjustment Research Articles

Iris Localization Algorithm based on Effective Area

Iris localization is the most crucial part of the iris processing because its accuracy can directly affect the accuracy of biometric identification in subsequent steps. Yet, the quality of iris images may be sharply degraded due to interference from eyelashes and reflections during image acquisition, which can affect the localization accuracy adversely. To solve the problem, an iris localization algorithm based on effective area is proposed. First, YOLOv4 is used to crop the image to obtain the effective iris area, which is beneficial in improving the accuracy of subsequent localization. Furthermore, a method to remove reflective noise is proposed, which can effectively avoid the problem of noise interference in the process of inner boundary determination. Finally, aiming at the edge deviation caused by eyelashes, an outer boundary adjustment method is proposed. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves good performance in the localization of iris images of both good quality and noise interference and outperforms other state-of-the-art methods.

행정구역경계조정의 합리적 기준에 관한 연구

행정은 현대 사회에서 끊임없이 나타나는 공적 과제의 해결을 위해 권한, 재원, 인재, 정보, 기술 등의 다양한 자원을 조합하면서 사회시스템을 관리해 가고, 갈등은 그러한 과정 속에서 발생하면서 우리들의 사회활동 속에 항상 존재하고 있다. 갈등은 연구자의 가치관과 관심영역과도 깊게 연관되어있어 그것을 한마디로 정의하는 것은 쉽지 않다. 그 때문에 갈등은 학자마다 다양한 개념과 의미로 사용되고 있다. 본 연구는 갈등해결과 갈등조정을 위한 제도마련의 관점에서 지방자치단체에서의 행정구역 경계조정과정에서 나타나는 갈등의 원인을 정치적 요인, 경제적 요인, 사회·문화적 요인으로 구분하고, 행정구역경계조정을 둘러싸고 갈등을 초래하고 있는 경기도내의 지역 사례의 비교를 통해 분석한다. 사례분석에서는 갈등은 하나의 요인에 근거하는 단순 갈등요인이라기 보다는 여러 개의 복수의 갈등요인이 복합적으로 작용되어 경계조정기준을 정하는 것이 단순하지 않으며, 더해서 이해관계가 다르고 대상지역의 특성이 고려되어 적용되는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 또한 행정구역경계조정의 과정에서의 정치적 요인, 경제적 요인, 사회․문화적 요인들의 각각의 역할은 동등한 비중을 가지지 않고, 개별 요인이 상호 복합성을 가지면서 조정을 어렵게 한다는 것을 발견할 수 있었다.

Zone Fare System Design in a Rail Transit Line

As a widely existing form of public transit fare structures, zone fare system is traditionally designed in a separate way, which may lead to suboptimal results. This paper aims to concurrently address the zone division and fare calculation issues of the zone fare system design in a rail transit line. It is necessary to consider passengers as well as operators to find an impartial zone fare system. A fair zone fare system is one where the zone fares are as close as possible to the distance-based fares, for the fares of the distance-based fare system are highly correlated with the actual distance of trips. Thus, the fare deviations for the trips between the zone fare system and the distance-based fare system are utilized as the evaluation metric of fairness. To achieve the goal of minimizing fare deviations for all trips, we introduce three indexes: average absolute deviation, average squared deviation, and maximum mileage fare deviation. With the three indexes as the objective functions, we develop a joint optimization algorithm where a novel zone boundary adjustment scheme is proposed as the key technique. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively provide a joint optimal scheme and the optimal number of planned zones is 5 for Changsha Metro Line 2. The proposed algorithm can provide guidance for the practical design and adjustment of the zone fare system.

Spatial optimization of watershed best management practice scenarios based on boundary-adaptive configuration units

Spatial optimization of watershed best management practice (BMP) scenarios based on watershed modeling is an effective decision support tool for watershed management. During such optimization, existing types of BMP configuration units for configuring BMPs (or BMP configuration units, e.g. subbasins, hydrologic response units, farms) remain fixed boundaries once they have been created through spatial discretization prior to BMP scenario optimization. This sort of “boundary-fixed” method does not allow for adjustments to the spatial characteristics of BMP configuration units. Hence, it runs the risk of missing superior BMP scenarios that could have been obtained by adjusting unit boundaries and may produce less effective spatial optimization. In this article, we propose a new approach to the spatial optimization of BMP scenarios based on boundary-adaptive configuration units. The proposed optimization approach adopts slope positions (basic landform units along hillslopes inherently related to physical hillslope processes) as BMP configuration units and dynamically adjusts their boundaries by using quantitative information about their spatial gradation (i.e. fuzzy slope positions) during the optimization. A case study conducted in the Youwuzhen watershed in Fujian, China, showed that the proposed optimization approach can significantly enlarge the search space and obtain optimal BMP scenarios with better cost-effectiveness and higher optimization efficiency than with boundary-fixed units. The proposed optimization approach provides a new alternative framework for spatial optimization of BMP scenarios, in which other watershed models, intelligent optimization algorithms, and BMP configuration units available for boundary adjustment can be applied to BMP scenario optimization in a boundary-adaptive manner. This study also exemplifies the potential for transforming qualitative, vague, and empirical geographical knowledge about slope position units related to physical hillslope processes and BMPs into quantitative, explicit, and automated geospatial algorithms for effectively resolving environmental management problems in a more geographically meaningful way.

Superior cryogenic toughness of high-Mn austenitic steel by welding thermal cycles: The role of grain boundary evolution

The high-Mn austenitic steel is expected to improve mechanical properties by grain boundary adjustment. The role of grain boundary on cryogenic toughness of high-Mn austenitic steel subjected to various welding thermal cycle was investigated by the means of instrumented Charpy V-notch impact tests and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis. The absorbed energy of samples at −196 °C decreased from 203 J to 163 J with the increase of peak temperature from 600 °C to 900 °C. When the peak temperature increased to 1000 °C, 1100 °C and 1300 °C, the absorbed energy of sample increased to 185 J, 204 J and 196 J, respectively. Phase transformation and abnormal grain growth were absent in the samples. The lowest cryogenic toughness in sample with the peak temperature of 900 °C was thus attributed to the highest proportion of the special grain boundary ∑3. Furthermore, during the cryogenic impact test, the crack formation energy was corresponded to the proportion change of the low angle boundary. While, the crack propagation energy was closely related to the proportion change of special grain boundary of ∑3 rather than the high fraction of ∑3 by welding thermal cycle. It is proposed that the increasing low angle boundary of 2–5° and the activation ∑3 special grain boundary are responsible for the superior cryogenic toughness for high-Mn austenitic steel.

Content-Sensitive Superpixel Generation with Boundary Adjustment

Superpixel segmentation has become a crucial tool in many image processing and computer vision applications. In this paper, a novel content-sensitive superpixel generation algorithm with boundary adjustment is proposed. First, the image local entropy was used to measure the amount of information in the image, and the amount of information was evenly distributed to each seed. It placed more seeds to achieve the lower under-segmentation in content-dense regions, and placed the fewer seeds to increase computational efficiency in content-sparse regions. Second, the Prim algorithm was adopted to generate uniform superpixels efficiently. Third, a boundary adjustment strategy with the adaptive distance further optimized the superpixels to improve the performance of the superpixel. Experimental results on the Berkeley Segmentation Database show that our method outperforms competing methods under evaluation metrics.

Analysis and Modeling of a New Coupled-Inductor Buck–Boost DC–DC Converter for Renewable Energy Applications

A new coupled-inductor buck–boost converter (CIBuBoC) is proposed in this article. In the proposed CIBuBoC, an ultra-high step-up/step-down voltage conversion ratio and step-up/step-down boundary adjustment are achieved compared to the other related buck–boost converters using two power switches with simultaneous operation along with a coupled inductor. This circuit has a simple structure with two cascade semistage and some features including ultra-extended output voltage, continuous input current with low ripple, positive polarity of the output voltage, and common ground. These features make the CIBuBoC more suitable for many applications such as photovoltaic systems. Moreover, the voltage stress across each power switch is much lower than the other buck–boost converters, which led to power mosfet s selection with lower drain-source on -resistance ( R ds). Therefore, the proposed converter has also enough high efficiency. All steady-state and stress analysis, and also, comparisons with other related converters in continuous conduction mode are provided in detail. Also, using the state-space averaging technique, the low-frequency behavior of the proposed CIBuBoC is studied completely. Experimental results of a 100-W step-up 30–200 V and a 35-W step-down 30–22 V confirm the theoretical advantages of the proposed circuit.

Risk-adjusted CUSUM control charts for shared frailty survival models with application to hip replacement outcomes: a study using the NJR dataset

BackgroundContinuous monitoring of surgical outcomes after joint replacement is needed to detect which brands’ components have a higher than expected failure rate and are therefore no longer recommended to be used in surgical practice. We developed a monitoring method based on cumulative sum (CUSUM) chart specifically for this application.MethodsOur method entails the use of the competing risks model with the Weibull and the Gompertz hazard functions adjusted for observed covariates to approximate the baseline time-to-revision and time-to-death distributions, respectively. The correlated shared frailty terms for competing risks, corresponding to the operating unit, are also included in the model. A bootstrap-based boundary adjustment is then required for risk-adjusted CUSUM charts to guarantee a given probability of the false alarm rates. We propose a method to evaluate the CUSUM scores and the adjusted boundary for a survival model with the shared frailty terms. We also introduce a unit performance quality score based on the posterior frailty distribution. This method is illustrated using the 2003-2012 hip replacement data from the UK National Joint Registry (NJR).ResultsWe found that the best model included the shared frailty for revision but not for death. This means that the competing risks of revision and death are independent in NJR data. Our method was superior to the standard NJR methodology. For one of the two monitored components, it produced alarms four years before the increased failure rate came to the attention of the UK regulatory authorities. The hazard ratios of revision across the units varied from 0.38 to 2.28.ConclusionsAn earlier detection of failure signal by our method in comparison to the standard method used by the NJR may be explained by proper risk-adjustment and the ability to accommodate time-dependent hazards. The continuous monitoring of hip replacement outcomes should include risk adjustment at both the individual and unit level.

Development of a near‐real‐time global in situ daily precipitation dataset for 0000–0000 UTC

AbstractIn this study, we have developed a global in situ daily precipitation dataset based on quasi‐real‐time sub‐daily observations of precipitation totals for the 0000–0000 UTC (Co‐ordinated Universal Time) day everywhere in the world. The sub‐daily precipitation data from meteorological stations are obtained via the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Global Telecommunication System (GTS) and China Meteorological Administration Net (CMANet) archived by the National Meteorological Information Centre (NMIC) in China and the Integrated Surface Database (ISD) released by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) in the USA. We have combined these three sources into a global dataset, referred to as NMIC. Accumulated precipitation totals (depending on the country and the WMO region) are transmitted at a variety of times on the GTS. Of these, about 4,500 stations report daily for the 0000–0000 UTC day. Here, we significantly add to this, by developing two‐way accumulation algorithms to decompose other reported sub‐daily totals to shorter intervals, and then re‐cumulate them where possible to the 0000–0000 UTC day. Using these algorithms, we increase by 51.1% of the number of stations during 2009–2016 to around 6,800 day−1. Additionally, date boundary adjustment (sliding between 1 and 6 hours either side of 0000 UTC) raises the data volume to between 7,800 and 8,700 day−1. We compare our NMIC product with the First Guess Daily (FGD) product from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and GHCN‐Daily from NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information). Root mean square differences between our NMIC and GPCC FGD products over the 2009–2016 period are around 3.4–3.7 mm·day−1 and the average consistency percentage is about 75.1–76.8%. Greater differences between NMIC and GHCN‐daily are found which are probably due to the non‐uniform date boundary in GHCN‐Daily.

Migration Wars in the Traditional Igbo Society and the Challenges of National Security: The Abakaliki Experience, 1800-1920

Traditionally, state formation was characterized with wars of different magnitude. The nature, types and causes of the war differed from one state to another. The Igbo nation was one of those areas that witnessed migratory wars arising from state formation, land dispute, slave raiding and boundary crises. Considering the fact that the Igbo history of origin underpins diverse integrations and accounts, one can say that some Igbo sub-groups at different times, fought different wars with one another in search of national homeland. The outcome of these wars underscores the migration and settlement that predated the Igbo nation before the 18^th century wars, particularly the Ezza that are scattered all over Nigeria. The continuous movement of these people and many other Igbo sub-groups has led to the intermittent wars that characterized Nigerian state. This manifested in boundary disputes between several Igbo groups with her neighbours such as Ikwo-Nsobo and Osopo of Cross River State, Izzi –Osopo and Yala of Cross River State and Mgbo-Igala of Benue State. Evidences of these wars translated into indigene/settlers’ question that tend to decimate Nigeria’s nation. Against this background therefore, this paper seeks to interrogate how war of migrations in the traditional Igbo societies have continued to challenge Nigeria’s national security. The position of this paper is that, war is a natural phenomenon that can still occur despite migration, but the inability of the National Boundary Adjustment Commission to embark on complete interstate boundary adjustment increases the volume of wars, thus, challenging the Nigeria’s national security. Hence, the paper concluded by arguing that wars that challenge Nigeria’s national security are man-made and could be avoided if the Nigerian state rises to take up her responsibilities.

基于边界调整的潜像隐蔽性优化方法

基于边界调整的潜像隐蔽性优化方法

A Greedy Method for Constructing Minimal Multiconlitron

Multiconlitron is a general theoretical framework for constructing piecewise linear classifier. However, it contains a relatively large number of linear functions, resulting in complicated model structure and poor generalization ability. Learning to prune redundant or excessive components may be a very necessary progression. We propose a novel greedy method, i.e., greedy support multiconlitron algorithm (GreSMA) to simplify the multiconlitron. In GreSMA, a procedure of greedy selection is first used. It generates the initial linear boundaries, each of which can separate maximum number of training samples under the current iteration. In this way, a minimal set of decision functions is established. In the second stage of GreSMA, a procedure of boundary adjustment is designed to retrain the classification boundary between convex hulls of local subsets, instead of individual samples. Thus, the adjusted boundary will fit the data more closely. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets show that GreSMA can produce minimal multiconlitron with better performance. It meets the criteria of “Occam's razor”, since simpler model can help prevent over-fitting and improve the generalization ability. More significantly, the proposed method does not contain parameters that depend on the datasets or make assumptions of the underlying statistical distributions of the samples. Therefore, it should be regarded as an attractive advancement of piecewise linear learning in the general framework of multiconlitron.

Food and Health Security Challenges among Vulnerable Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria

It has been estimated that out of the 33 million internally displaced persons in the world, Nigeria accounts for about 3.3 million, representing 10 percent of the total of IDPs.. This figure is currently on the increase as the spat of violence continues especially in the North East by Boko Haram insurgents, North Central by Fulani herdsmen marauders, and other parts of the country by natural disasters and boundary adjustment related issues. An overwhelming majority of Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria are said to be women and children. Most reports have indicated that, women and children constitute more than 50 percent of the Internally Displaced Camps formation. Given the increase of women and children who are trapped in the circle of violence, some accompanying challenges are those of food security and adequate health provision. Whereas most studies have focused on the general situations IDPs in the country experience, few studies have explored the food security and health challenges faced by the vulnerable population. It is on this note that this conceptual paper seeks to explore the food security and health challenges faced by vulnerable populations with special focus on women and children. The theoretical framework for this study was anchored on the Human security and Feminist Approach. The study concluded that the food security and health situations especially among women and children IDPs is at a critical point, hence, there is urgent need for intervention by concerned stakeholders.

An improved NSGA-II based control allocation optimisation for aircraft longitudinal automatic landing system

ABSTRACTIn this paper, an Improved Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II is proposed for control allocation optimisation in the field of aircraft automatic landing. The initial chromosomes are generated by using a quasi-random sequence to get a better initial searching ability. The adaptive crossover operator and mutation operator are proposed for the dynamic searching area by adaptively relocating the target according to the current searching results. The corresponding online boundary adjustment strategy is created to maintain the robustness of the algorithm during the whole searching process. The control relationships between the elevator and engine channels are presented and a set of feasible solutions are chosen as a reasonable control range for the ALS design. Finally, a 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) rigid model of the F/A-18 with external wind perturbation is used as a test bed to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.

Clash of Cultures? German Expatriates' Work‐Life Boundary Adjustment in South Korea

Managing work‐life balance abroad is considered as one of the key challenges associated with expatriation. That is particularly true when the enactment of the work‐life boundaries of expatriates' home and host countries diverge. Drawing from boundary theory, we investigate whether and how expatriates experience cross‐cultural challenges in terms of their work‐life boundaries abroad. We interviewed 28 German expatriates in South Korea because both cultures differ substantially in terms of their preferred work‐life boundaries. Our study shows that perceived work‐life boundary pressures in the foreign environment and willingness to adjust to the local work‐life boundary culture vary substantially among expatriates. Based on a function of these two forces, we develop a typology of four work‐life boundary adjustment styles and relate them to work‐life balance satisfaction. Furthermore, we identify individual and organizational factors that influence expatriates' work‐life boundary adjustment styles. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

AB3C: adaptive boundary-based band-categorization of hyperspectral images

The high dimensionality of hyperspectral images (HSIs) with significant levels of redundancy and noise is a pervasive problem that creates a heavy burden and many inconveniences in terms of accuracy and efficiency for all the subsequent applications. To address this problem, we proposed an adaptive-boundary adjustment-based groupwise band-categorization (BC) framework that classifies bands by the information contained within each band and redundant/noisy components without compromising the original content from the raw HSI. Since HSI labels are difficult to collect, an unsupervised spectral-spatial adaptive band-noise factor-based formulation is devised for BC based on the measurement of boundary movement/adjustment and band correlation. Robust clustering and boundary-adjustment-based methods involve two key issues: band correlation and band preference. Our proposed method contemplates band correlation and band synergy, and band preference is defined by the discriminative information contained in each band. According to different information-distribution levels, an adaptive mechanism is proposed to retain the spectral correlations in spectral dimensions and match the actual structure in spatial dimensions. The proposed method is based on the observation that clustering and boundary adjustment techniques are sensitive to noise and redundancy, which can effectively contribute to estimates and help classify the bands. Comprehensive experimental results on challenging airborne visible/infrared-imaging spectrometer datasets from Indian Pines, Moffett Field, and Salinas demonstrate the significant advancement in these two applications and show the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed framework without compromising the informative bands. Because of its usefulness, BC can be successfully applied to many practical applications of hyperspectral remote sensing. Effective application of the proposed framework is demonstrated by applying it on HSI classification and also for estimating the noise. The ability of the method to characterize the bands along with the noise estimation of HSIs is of significant benefit for subsequent remote-sensing techniques.

A New Breakpoint in Hybrid Particle Swarm-Neural Network Architecture: Individual Boundary Adjustment

Neural Network (NN) is an effective classifier, but it generally uses the Backpropagation type algorithms which are insufficient because of trapping to local minimum of error rate. For elimination of this handicap, stochastic optimization algorithms are used to update the parameters of NN. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is one of these providing a robust coherence with NN. In realized studies about Hybrid PSO-NN, position and velocity boundaries of weight and bias are chosen equal or set free in space which leave the performance of PSO-NN in suspense. In this paper, the limitations of weight velocity (wv), weight position (wp), bias velocity (bv) and bias position (bp) are diversely changed and their effects on the output of hybrid structure are examined. Concerning this, the formed structure is called as Bounded PSO-NN on account of adjusting the optimum operating conditions (intervals). On performance evaluation, proposed method is tested on binary and multiclass pattern classification by using six medical datasets: Wisconsin Breast Cancer (WBC), Pima Indian Diabetes (PID), Bupa Liver Disorders (BLD), Heart Statlog (HS), Breast Tissue (BT) and Dermatology Data (DD). Upon analyzing the results, it was revealed that Bounded PSO-NN has a faster processing time than general PSO-NNs in which set-free and wpi[Formula: see text]bpi and wvi[Formula: see text]bvi conditions are settled. The superiority in terms of processing time is about 199[Formula: see text]s (set-free) and 307[Formula: see text]s (wpi[Formula: see text]bpi and wvi[Formula: see text]bvi) for training, about 16[Formula: see text]ms (set-free) and 9[Formula: see text]ms (wpi[Formula: see text]bpi and wvi[Formula: see text]bvi) for test. In terms of classification performance, PSO-NN (set-free condition), PSO-NN (wpi[Formula: see text]bpi & wvi[Formula: see text]bvi) and PSO-NN with individual boundary adjustment (bounded PSO-NN) respectively achieves to accuracy rates as 69.84%, 95.31% and 97.22% on WBC, 47.01%, 76.69% and 77.73% on PID, 55.36%, 67.54% and 73.91% on BLD, 64.82%, 81.48% and 85.56% on HS, 75%, 92.31% and 100% on BT, 27.47%, 92.31% and 100% on DD. In the light of experiments, it is seen that Bounded PSO-NN is better than general PSO-NNs for obtaining the optimum results. Consequently, the importance of limitations is clarified and it is proven that each limitation must be adjusted individually, not be set free or not be chosen equal.

Recognition Difference of Local Residents and National Park Managers on National Park Adjustment: A Case of 37 Cancellation Areas

This study examined the recognition differences between local residents and national park managers on the adjustment of national parks which are conducted every ten years for the purpose of providing basic information for the park management, according to the Natural Parks Act. Both local residents and national park managers positively perceived the adjustment of national parks, but park managers showed concern towards the damage of natural resources resulting from the cancellation and adjustment of restricted development districts in Korean national parks. Local residents are more likely than park managers to recommend boundary adjustment in other national parks regarding the influence of parks adjustment on local change. While local residents recognized that the boundary adjustment of national parks improves the level of community management, park managers focused on damages on the local environment and the park landscape adjacent to the areas. The result shows the recognition differences of local residents and park managers. Further research into adjustment of national parks is necessary to diminish perception gaps among stakeholders and develop prediction indicators of cancellation effect in response to the future cancellation areas of national parks through the characteristics of cancellation communities, revitalization of local economy, and environmental change of local community.

Clash of cultures? German Expatriates’ Work-Life Boundary Adjustment in South Korea

Managing the work-life interface abroad is considered as one of the key challenges associated with expatriation. That is particularly true when work-life balance cultures of the expatriates’ home a...

Assimilating high-resolution winds from a Doppler lidar using an ensemble Kalman filter with lateral boundary adjustment

Monitoring severe weather, including wind shear and clear air turbulence, is important for aviation safety. To provide accurate information for nowcasts and very short-range forecasts up to an hour, a rapid-update prediction system has been developed, with a particular focus on lateral boundary adjustment (LBA) using the local ensemble transform Kalman filter (LETKF). Due to the small forecast domain, limited-area forecasts are dominated by the lateral boundary conditions from coarse-resolution global forecasts. To effectively extend the forecast lead time for the small domain, a new LBA scheme using the LETKF has been developed and assessed with three sea-breeze front cases. Observing system simulation experiments for high-resolution winds from a simulated Doppler lidar were performed with the Japan Meteorological Agency Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale Model at a horizontal resolution of 400 m and 15-minute update cycle. The results indicate that the LBA improved the forecast significantly. In particular, the 1-hour wind-speed forecast with the LBA is as accurate as the 15-minute forecast without the LBA. The assimilation of Doppler lidar high-resolution wind data with the LBA is a promising approach for very short-range forecasts up to an hour with a small domain, such as for aviation weather.