Research classification of software modules was done to validate the approaches proposed for addr... more Research classification of software modules was done to validate the approaches proposed for addressing limitations in existing classification approaches. The objective of this study was to replicate the experiments of a recently published research study and re-evaluate its results. The reason to repeat the experiment(s) and re-evaluate the results was to verify the approach to identify the faulty and non-faulty modules applied in the original study for the prioritization of test cases. As a methodology, we conducted this study to re-evaluate the results of the study. The results showed that binary logistic regression analysis remains helpful for researchers for predictions, as it provides an overall prediction of accuracy in percentage. Our study shows a prediction accuracy of 92.9% for the PureMVC Java open source program, while the original study showed an 82% prediction accuracy for the same Java program classes. It is believed by the authors that future research can refine the ...
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder affecting millions of people worldwide. Especially, type... more Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder affecting millions of people worldwide. Especially, type-1 diabetics have required strict glycemic control. In this paper, close loop control system is designed to normalize the high blood glucose level for diabetes patients. Glucose-insulin dynamics in blood plasma are represented by Bergman minimal mathematical model which is used as base model. The dynamical variations between different and same individual poses a major challenge in designing of controller for biological systems. The contribution of this research work lies in designing a backstepping based nonlinear controller which perfectly deals with nonlinearities present in the system. In order to visualize the robust behavior, meal and exercise are added as a disturbance factor and controller effectively track the set point value of 70 mg/dL from an initial state of hyperglycemia. The control criteria imposed on the proposed controller are hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia.
Automation of insulin infusion by closed loop control method is the center of attention for many ... more Automation of insulin infusion by closed loop control method is the center of attention for many researchers for the last few decades. The main idea behind the insulin automation is artificial pancreas for the accurate measurements of glucose level so the key role is played by the control strategy used to design control algorithm. This paper proposes a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) algorithm based on switching technique to control and maintain the glucose level. We have used mathematical models like Havorka model and Meal Simulation model to deal with the dynamics of insulin and glucagon. Simulation results show that the PID control algorithm performs well in many situations such as insulin sensitivity. To check the effectiveness of the control scheme the glucose profile of patient is generated by using MATLAB. The presented control techniques found to be better as compared to traditional method of insulin injection and are helpful in reducing the risks of hypoglycemia.
The study was conducted in District Mardan KP Pakistan, with the objectives to find out the sanit... more The study was conducted in District Mardan KP Pakistan, with the objectives to find out the sanitation situation and CLTS interventions in the universe of the study and to analyze the afore-mentioned innovative approach expected to provide new dimensions for further improvements. The community response was very clear and positive pertaining the activities of IRSP interventions to overcome sanitation situation in the project area. The NGO staff was in contact with community members even after its completion of project tenure. They learnt various in-practice sanitation activities which were very common in daily life but awareness and ignorance was obstacle, like other rural areas in third world countries i.e. using of towel, hand washing with soap, tooth paste, open defecation and construction of latrines. The majority house holds comprising 89 sample size were quite satisfied from their performance. Projects on this novel idea is needed in rural and remote areas of KP to improve thei...
When a system crashes, fast and accurate log-based fault diagnosis can remarkably reduce the reco... more When a system crashes, fast and accurate log-based fault diagnosis can remarkably reduce the recovery time of the system and avoid further economic losses. Especially for the nuclear power industry, recovery time will lead not only to economic losses but also to international repercussions. Nevertheless, the massive quantity of obscure log information and the existence of hidden nodes pose major challenges to fault diagnosis and root cause determination. To overcome these obstacles, we propose the nowhere to hide (NTH) methodology, an efficient method to diagnose faults and locate root causes. We implement log-node and node-log mapping to avoid vital data loss in collecting fault logs and hidden nodes; furthermore, we utilize the logic of the nuclear power unit process system to reveal the crucial information in fault logs and hidden nodes and their causality to determine the root cause. We evaluate the methodology in a real nuclear industrial environment. The results show that system administrators can efficiently determine the root cause with the proposed methodology. Finally, we discuss the enhancements that are underway to improve the methodology. INDEX TERMS Clustering fault diagnosis, key log, distributed control system (DCS), hidden target nodes (HTNs), hidden nontarget nodes (HNNs), detectable target nodes (DTNs), detectable nontarget nodes (DNNs), topological graph, mapping, fault log correlation analysis, and logic correlation analysis.
This paper presents interaction techniques and algorithms for modeling and editing virtual 3D hai... more This paper presents interaction techniques and algorithms for modeling and editing virtual 3D hairstyles with a user-friendly sketching interface. Using a pressure-sensitive tablet, a user makes freeform strokes to mimic a number of real-world hairstyling operations such as cutting, combing, curling, frizzing, and twisting. Additionally, the user can perform other localized operations such as implanting new hair strands onto a 3D surface (usually the scalp), lengthening the strands, and adjusting hair density. Virtual hairpins can also be placed onto strands to temporarily fix the position of hair which allows for the creation of more advanced styles such as ponytails. The system runs at interactive rates, thereby providing instant visual feedback to users as they work. Unlike existing hair modeling systems that require hours of complicated control point manipulations and parameter tweaking, our interface allows for creating expressive hairstyles quickly and easily, even for first-t...
2019 IEEE International Conference On Artificial Intelligence Testing (AITest), 2019
With the widespread application of deep learning systems, the robustness of deep neural networks ... more With the widespread application of deep learning systems, the robustness of deep neural networks (DNNs) is received increasing attentions recently. By studying the distribution of neurons outputs in DNN models, we found that the behavior patterns of neurons are different for different kinds of DNNs' inputs, e.g. test cases generated by different adversarial attack techniques. In this paper, we extract the neuron behavior patterns of DNNs under different adversarial attack techniques, use them as the guidance for test case selection. Experimental results show that this method is more efficient than random technology.
Sufficient and necessary results have been proven on Lipschitz type integral conditions and bound... more Sufficient and necessary results have been proven on Lipschitz type integral conditions and bounds of its Fourier transform for an L 2 function, in the setting of Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 1 whose growth depends on a kth-order modulus of continuity.
Objectives: Interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF) refers to patients with inters... more Objectives: Interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF) refers to patients with interstitial lung disease and autoimmune features not fulfilling the classification criteria for a specific connective tissue disease. We sought to study the characteristics, disease progression, response to treatment and complications of patients with IPAF in 1-year follow-up period. Methods: Clinical and laboratory findings, comorbidities, medications, pulmonary function tests (PFTs), chest HRCT and complications during the one-year follow-up period were documented for each of the 39 enrolled patients with IPAF. Results: The mean age at the time of IPAF diagnosis was 63.2 (±11) years, and 62% of patients were female. The most common clinical features were arthritis (82%) and rash (54%-not included in the IPAF criteria). Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) (59%) and non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP-61.5%) were the most prevalent autoantibodies and radiological pattern respectively. PFTs at 12 months from baseline stabilized or improved in 79.5% of patients (p> 0.05). Infections were observed in 23.1% of patients during the first and in 12.8% during the second semester of follow-up. Two patients (5.1%) required hospitalization. All infections occurred in patients with non-usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern (p=0.02). Conclusions: Arthritis and rash are among the most common features in IPAF suggesting rash could be included into IPAF criteria. Almost 80% of patients had stable/improved PFTs at the end of follow-up. Infections occurred mainly in the first semester of treatment and in patients with non-UIP radiological pattern probably due to higher doses of corticosteroids used in these patients.
A griculture is important sectors of a country's economy. History of economic development of the ... more A griculture is important sectors of a country's economy. History of economic development of the developed nations or those who have embarked on the path of development, it is "agriculture" which has made the foundation of the prosperity of other sectors and economy as well (Pretty, 2008). Therefore, agriculture is considered backbone of economies of many nations including Pakistan. This is a fact that agriculture has contributed significantly and brought precious amount of foreign exchange to the national exchequer. Agriculture sector in Pakistan performs a vital role in economy. It is largest sector which Abstract | The present study was conducted in central valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to evaluate the capacity building of farmers by public and private agriculture extension sectors. Three districts namely Peshawar, Mardan and Charsadda were selected purposively. In order to carry out the research, in the three districts of Peshawar, Mardan and Charsadda one tehsil was selected from each district i.e. Town-4 from Peshawar, Takhtbhai from Mardan and tehsil Charsadda from district Charsadda. Sample size for the present study was 270 respondents i.e. 90 respondents from each tehsil. Data were collected from respondents by using well-structured interview schedule. The data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences V.20 (SPSS). Simple percentages and percentages were calculated whereas paired t-test was applied to compare gap/differences between capacity building of farmers offered by public and private extension services. It was found that the respondents praised private sector in capacity building regarding farm management (59.2%), selection of varieties (54.4%), selection of fertilizers (56.3%), and harvesting techniques (57.4%). There was highly significant (p≤0.01) difference among public and private services regarding capacity building of farmers in terms of farm management, improve marketing skills, harvesting techniques, organic farming, integrated pest management, seed rate ratio and orchard layout. Overall, there was a big gap in the performance of the public sector extension and private sector extension in capacity building. It is therefore, recommended that both the Public and Private Agriculture Extension Sector should work on joint venture basis and hold joint extension activities for the betterment of farming community.
Augmented reality is a technology which allows 2D and 3D computer graphics to be accurately align... more Augmented reality is a technology which allows 2D and 3D computer graphics to be accurately aligned or registered with scenes of the real-world in real-time. The potential uses of this technology are numerous, from architecture and medicine, to manufacturing and entertainment. Vision-based techniques which augment objects onto predetermined planar patterns are considered the most promising approach for achieving accurate registrations, but the majority of the proposed methods fail to provide any robustness to significant changes in pattern scale, orientation, or partial pattern occlusion. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a robust pattern-based augmentation system that addresses these problems, and analyzes its performance using standard consumer-level hardware. Known planar patterns are tracked in a real-time video feed, and virtual 2D and 3D objects are accurately augmented onto these patterns based on the plane's orientation. A method to achieve perspective-correct augmentations without the need for a manual camera calibration procedure is also described. First, I would like to thank my thesis supervisors Gerhard Roth and Jit Bose. Without their support, this thesis would not have been possible. It's not often that the path to a master's thesis is laid out on a yellow brick road, but Gerhard has provided just that. Without his expert guidance and knowledge, his continuous flow of ideas and improvements, his quick turnaround in providing feedback on my writing, and the non-stop stream of technical papers that he would leave for me on my desk, I would not have been able to come this far this quickly. I am especially grateful for the encouragement he has given me throughout this masters experience, as well as the insights he has given me regarding what it takes to become a successful researcher. Additionally, his discussions and opinions regarding government and politics provided a refreshing break from my C++ code. I thank Jit for always being available to discuss thesis issues, course and degree requirements, and potential future PhD research topics and directions, even despite his busy schedule. I am most impressed by his humble demeanor, even though he is an expert in almost everything (including ping-pong and squash). I've always had a bad habit of attempting to finish things as late as possible, and the submission and defense of this thesis was no exception. Both Linda Pfeiffer and Nicki Enouy deserve a huge thank you for scheduling my thesis examination at the last minute, and making sure all my degree requirements were met. Additionally, I would like to thank professors Eric Dubois, Wilf LaLonde, and Doron Nussbaum for agreeing to be on my defense committee with less than two weeks of preparation time. The majority of my thesis research was carried out at the National Research Council (NRC), and I thank the members of the Computational Video Group for allowing me to make use of their facilities and equipment. Additionally, I'd like to thank Dmitry Gorodnichy, Chang Shu, and William Scott for reviewing my research paper submissions v and providing valuable feedback on my technical writing. Chris McDonald also deserves a thank you for providing a nice implementation of a blob-based augmented reality system that could be directly compared to my corner-based tracking system. Finally, Dmitry, Chang, and Philippe Massicotte (from the VIT group) deserve a thank you for providing some great competition during our after lunch ping-pong games in the Ballard Room. I would also like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) for providing excellent funding to graduate students studying at Canadian universities. Without their financial support, my decision to attend graduate school would have been much more difficult. Of course, without my parents, I would never have had the opportunity to explore a career in research. They have always taught me that a solid education and dedicated work ethic are the keys to success in life, and their endless love, support, and patience help me accomplish anything I set my mind to. They are the best parents I could have ever dreamed to have, and I dedicate this thesis to them. Finally, I thank my wife, Jawairia, for being the most loving and wonderful person that I have ever known. She was willing to leave behind a loving family and lifelong friends, and travel to the other side of the world just to be with someone who spends endless hours in front of the computer. I can't thank her enough for the sacrifices she has made, and I look forward to a lifetime together with her. vi Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi List of Tables viii List of Equations ix List of Figures x 6 Conclusions 6.
This research focuses on a decomposed-weighted-sum particle swarm optimization (DWS-PSO) approach... more This research focuses on a decomposed-weighted-sum particle swarm optimization (DWS-PSO) approach that is proposed for optimal operations of price-driven demand response (PDDR) and PDDR-synergized with the renewable and energy storage dispatch (PDDR-RED) based home energy management systems (HEMSs). The algorithm for PDDR-RED-based HEMS is developed by combining a DWS-PSO-based PDDR scheme for load shifting with the dispatch strategy for the photovoltaic (PV), storage battery (SB), and power grid systems. Shiftable home appliances (SHAs) are modeled for mixed scheduling (MS). The MS includes advanced as well as delayed scheduling (AS/DS) of SHAs to maximize the reduction in the net cost of energy ( C E ). A set of weighting vectors is deployed while implementing algorithms and a multi-objective-optimization (MOO) problem is decomposed into single-objective sub-problems that are optimized simultaneously in a single run. Furthermore, an innovative method to carry out the diversified p...
A demand response (DR) based home energy management systems (HEMS) synergies with renewable energ... more A demand response (DR) based home energy management systems (HEMS) synergies with renewable energy sources (RESs) and energy storage systems (ESSs). In this work, a three-step simulation based posteriori method is proposed to develop a scheme for eco-efficient operation of HEMS. The proposed method provides the trade-off between the net cost of energy ( C E n e t ) and the time-based discomfort ( T B D ) due to shifting of home appliances (HAs). At step-1, primary trade-offs for C E n e t , T B D and minimal emissions T E M i s s are generated through a heuristic method. This method takes into account photovoltaic availability, the state of charge, the related rates for the storage system, mixed shifting of HAs, inclining block rates, the sharing-based parallel operation of power sources, and selling of the renewable energy to the utility. The search has been driven through multi-objective genetic algorithm and Pareto based optimization. A filtration mechanism (based on the trends e...
IEEE International Workshop HAVE Haptic Virtual Environments and Their
To begin, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Gerhard Roth, for his dedication and commit... more To begin, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Gerhard Roth, for his dedication and commitment to my successful completion of this Master's degree. His guidance, assistance and encouragement were invaluable to this thesis, and I am especially grateful to him for providing me with this opportunity. I would also like to thank my cosupervisor, Jit Bose, for his support and assistance throughout my graduate program. I would also like to thank Shahzad Malik, for without his previous hard work in this field, my thesis would not have been possible. I also thank him for his assistance with software development and his partnership on our research publications. Mark Fiala deserves a thank you for his helpful comments on this thesis and his insightful perspective on the graduate experience. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, whose endless support has enabled me to pursue my goals with full attention and rewarding success.
Background: Non-adherence to antiretroviral treatment (ART) has been associated with emergence of... more Background: Non-adherence to antiretroviral treatment (ART) has been associated with emergence of viral resistance and higher viral loads (VL). Gastrostomy tubes (G-tubes) have been suggested to enhance adherence and improve clinical outcome but data to support this intervention are limited. Methods: HIV-infected pediatric patients who received a G-tube to improve adherence and/or nutrition between 03/92 and 12/03 were evaluated. Clinical, laboratory, and demographic data were collected by chart review for one year prior to and one year following tube insertion. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariable analyses including GEE (using an independent correlation matrix) were conducted to identify associations between G-tube and decreased VL. GEE adjusts for the intraperson correlation over time and the dependence between observations. Analysis was performed using Stata Version 8.0 se (College Station, TX) Results: Of the 14 evaluable children, 8 received the G-tube to improve adherence,...
The 3rd ACS/IEEE International Conference onComputer Systems and Applications, 2005.
This work focuses on improving throughput and fairness of end-to-end transport connections in IEE... more This work focuses on improving throughput and fairness of end-to-end transport connections in IEEE 802.11 based wireless networks. The IEEE 802.11 MAC provides node-level fairness in sharing wireless bandwidth but that causes uneven bandwidth distribution among uplink and downlink transmissions of transport connections, which results in their end-to-end performance degradation. This is because the access point obtains share of bandwidth as a single node although it has to manage multiple downlink transmissions. Thus, the AP is not able to send as much data downlink as it receives uplink, causing unfair bandwidth utilization by uplink and downlink transmissions. We propose a wireless bandwidth management (WBM) framework to provide fair distribution of bandwidth to transport connections, which consequently improves their throughput performance. The proposed framework utilizes the idea of TCP Trunks and sets up a Control TCP connection (a trunk or circuit) between a mobile node and the access point (AP) in order to regulate the amount of data being transferred in the uplink direction. This arrangement permits AP to control the transmission rate of TCP trunks and allocate bandwidth to uplink and downlink connections in a fair manner. Detailed analysis of the approach through simulations indicates that it achieves fair bandwidth sharing in addition to improving end-to-end throughput performance for transport connections.
ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Sketches on - SIGGRAPH '06, 2006
We explore the idea of using vision-based hand tracking over a constrained tabletop surface area ... more We explore the idea of using vision-based hand tracking over a constrained tabletop surface area to perform multifinger and whole-hand gestural interactions with large displays from a distance. We develop bimanual techniques to support a variety of asymmetric and symmetric interactions, including fast targeting and navigation to all parts of a large display from the comfort of a desk and chair, as well as techniques that exploit the ability of the vision-based hand tracking system to provide multi-finger identification and full 2D hand segmentation. We also posit a design that allows for handling multiple concurrent users.
2012 Ninth Conference on Computer and Robot Vision, 2012
This paper describes how to accelerate a real-world face detection and tracking system by taking ... more This paper describes how to accelerate a real-world face detection and tracking system by taking advantage of the multiple processing cores that are present in most modern CPUs. This work makes three key contributions. The first is the presentation of a highly optimized serial face detection and tracking algorithm that uses motion estimation and local search windows to achieve fast processing rates. The second is redefining the face detection process based on a set of independent face scales that can be processed in parallel on separate CPU cores while also achieving a target processing rate. The third contribution is demonstrating how multiple cores can be used to accelerate the face tracking process which provides significant speed boosts when tracking a large number of faces simultaneously. Used in a real-world application, the parallel face detector and tracker yields a 50-70% speed boost over the serial version when tested on a commodity multi-core CPU.
Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Multimodal interfaces - ICMI '04, 2004
This paper presents the Visual Touchpad, a low-cost vision-based input device that allows for flu... more This paper presents the Visual Touchpad, a low-cost vision-based input device that allows for fluid two-handed interactions with desktop PCs, laptops, public kiosks, or large wall displays. Two downward-pointing cameras are attached above a planar surface, and a stereo hand tracking system provides the 3D positions of a user's fingertips on and above the plane. Thus the planar surface can be used as a multi-point touch-sensitive device, but with the added ability to also detect hand gestures hovering above the surface. Additionally, the hand tracker not only provides positional information for the fingertips but also finger orientations. A variety of one and two-handed multi-finger gestural interaction techniques are then presented that exploit the affordances of the hand tracker. Further, by segmenting the hand regions from the video images and then augmenting them transparently into a graphical interface, our system provides a compelling direct manipulation experience without the need for more expensive tabletop displays or touch-screens, and with significantly less self-occlusion.
Implicit user modeling has always long since played an important role in supporting personalized ... more Implicit user modeling has always long since played an important role in supporting personalized web-based e-learning environments and is increasingly important in other learning environments such as serious games. Its main concern is to unobtrusively and ubiquitously learn from a learner's previous experiences and characteristics, in order to adapt the services to their personal needs. An empirical investigation for understanding learning behavior patterns forms the basis for establishing stronger implicit user modeling mechanisms and this study aims to get a better insight into types of learning behavior. The proposed usage of data mining and visualization elicited some interesting learning behavior patterns. We analyzed these from two perspectives: action frequency and action sequences, based on an expert-designed classification of behavior patterns that helped rank the various action categories according to significance from a user's perspective. The initial results of t...
Research classification of software modules was done to validate the approaches proposed for addr... more Research classification of software modules was done to validate the approaches proposed for addressing limitations in existing classification approaches. The objective of this study was to replicate the experiments of a recently published research study and re-evaluate its results. The reason to repeat the experiment(s) and re-evaluate the results was to verify the approach to identify the faulty and non-faulty modules applied in the original study for the prioritization of test cases. As a methodology, we conducted this study to re-evaluate the results of the study. The results showed that binary logistic regression analysis remains helpful for researchers for predictions, as it provides an overall prediction of accuracy in percentage. Our study shows a prediction accuracy of 92.9% for the PureMVC Java open source program, while the original study showed an 82% prediction accuracy for the same Java program classes. It is believed by the authors that future research can refine the ...
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder affecting millions of people worldwide. Especially, type... more Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder affecting millions of people worldwide. Especially, type-1 diabetics have required strict glycemic control. In this paper, close loop control system is designed to normalize the high blood glucose level for diabetes patients. Glucose-insulin dynamics in blood plasma are represented by Bergman minimal mathematical model which is used as base model. The dynamical variations between different and same individual poses a major challenge in designing of controller for biological systems. The contribution of this research work lies in designing a backstepping based nonlinear controller which perfectly deals with nonlinearities present in the system. In order to visualize the robust behavior, meal and exercise are added as a disturbance factor and controller effectively track the set point value of 70 mg/dL from an initial state of hyperglycemia. The control criteria imposed on the proposed controller are hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia.
Automation of insulin infusion by closed loop control method is the center of attention for many ... more Automation of insulin infusion by closed loop control method is the center of attention for many researchers for the last few decades. The main idea behind the insulin automation is artificial pancreas for the accurate measurements of glucose level so the key role is played by the control strategy used to design control algorithm. This paper proposes a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) algorithm based on switching technique to control and maintain the glucose level. We have used mathematical models like Havorka model and Meal Simulation model to deal with the dynamics of insulin and glucagon. Simulation results show that the PID control algorithm performs well in many situations such as insulin sensitivity. To check the effectiveness of the control scheme the glucose profile of patient is generated by using MATLAB. The presented control techniques found to be better as compared to traditional method of insulin injection and are helpful in reducing the risks of hypoglycemia.
The study was conducted in District Mardan KP Pakistan, with the objectives to find out the sanit... more The study was conducted in District Mardan KP Pakistan, with the objectives to find out the sanitation situation and CLTS interventions in the universe of the study and to analyze the afore-mentioned innovative approach expected to provide new dimensions for further improvements. The community response was very clear and positive pertaining the activities of IRSP interventions to overcome sanitation situation in the project area. The NGO staff was in contact with community members even after its completion of project tenure. They learnt various in-practice sanitation activities which were very common in daily life but awareness and ignorance was obstacle, like other rural areas in third world countries i.e. using of towel, hand washing with soap, tooth paste, open defecation and construction of latrines. The majority house holds comprising 89 sample size were quite satisfied from their performance. Projects on this novel idea is needed in rural and remote areas of KP to improve thei...
When a system crashes, fast and accurate log-based fault diagnosis can remarkably reduce the reco... more When a system crashes, fast and accurate log-based fault diagnosis can remarkably reduce the recovery time of the system and avoid further economic losses. Especially for the nuclear power industry, recovery time will lead not only to economic losses but also to international repercussions. Nevertheless, the massive quantity of obscure log information and the existence of hidden nodes pose major challenges to fault diagnosis and root cause determination. To overcome these obstacles, we propose the nowhere to hide (NTH) methodology, an efficient method to diagnose faults and locate root causes. We implement log-node and node-log mapping to avoid vital data loss in collecting fault logs and hidden nodes; furthermore, we utilize the logic of the nuclear power unit process system to reveal the crucial information in fault logs and hidden nodes and their causality to determine the root cause. We evaluate the methodology in a real nuclear industrial environment. The results show that system administrators can efficiently determine the root cause with the proposed methodology. Finally, we discuss the enhancements that are underway to improve the methodology. INDEX TERMS Clustering fault diagnosis, key log, distributed control system (DCS), hidden target nodes (HTNs), hidden nontarget nodes (HNNs), detectable target nodes (DTNs), detectable nontarget nodes (DNNs), topological graph, mapping, fault log correlation analysis, and logic correlation analysis.
This paper presents interaction techniques and algorithms for modeling and editing virtual 3D hai... more This paper presents interaction techniques and algorithms for modeling and editing virtual 3D hairstyles with a user-friendly sketching interface. Using a pressure-sensitive tablet, a user makes freeform strokes to mimic a number of real-world hairstyling operations such as cutting, combing, curling, frizzing, and twisting. Additionally, the user can perform other localized operations such as implanting new hair strands onto a 3D surface (usually the scalp), lengthening the strands, and adjusting hair density. Virtual hairpins can also be placed onto strands to temporarily fix the position of hair which allows for the creation of more advanced styles such as ponytails. The system runs at interactive rates, thereby providing instant visual feedback to users as they work. Unlike existing hair modeling systems that require hours of complicated control point manipulations and parameter tweaking, our interface allows for creating expressive hairstyles quickly and easily, even for first-t...
2019 IEEE International Conference On Artificial Intelligence Testing (AITest), 2019
With the widespread application of deep learning systems, the robustness of deep neural networks ... more With the widespread application of deep learning systems, the robustness of deep neural networks (DNNs) is received increasing attentions recently. By studying the distribution of neurons outputs in DNN models, we found that the behavior patterns of neurons are different for different kinds of DNNs' inputs, e.g. test cases generated by different adversarial attack techniques. In this paper, we extract the neuron behavior patterns of DNNs under different adversarial attack techniques, use them as the guidance for test case selection. Experimental results show that this method is more efficient than random technology.
Sufficient and necessary results have been proven on Lipschitz type integral conditions and bound... more Sufficient and necessary results have been proven on Lipschitz type integral conditions and bounds of its Fourier transform for an L 2 function, in the setting of Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 1 whose growth depends on a kth-order modulus of continuity.
Objectives: Interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF) refers to patients with inters... more Objectives: Interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF) refers to patients with interstitial lung disease and autoimmune features not fulfilling the classification criteria for a specific connective tissue disease. We sought to study the characteristics, disease progression, response to treatment and complications of patients with IPAF in 1-year follow-up period. Methods: Clinical and laboratory findings, comorbidities, medications, pulmonary function tests (PFTs), chest HRCT and complications during the one-year follow-up period were documented for each of the 39 enrolled patients with IPAF. Results: The mean age at the time of IPAF diagnosis was 63.2 (±11) years, and 62% of patients were female. The most common clinical features were arthritis (82%) and rash (54%-not included in the IPAF criteria). Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) (59%) and non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP-61.5%) were the most prevalent autoantibodies and radiological pattern respectively. PFTs at 12 months from baseline stabilized or improved in 79.5% of patients (p> 0.05). Infections were observed in 23.1% of patients during the first and in 12.8% during the second semester of follow-up. Two patients (5.1%) required hospitalization. All infections occurred in patients with non-usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern (p=0.02). Conclusions: Arthritis and rash are among the most common features in IPAF suggesting rash could be included into IPAF criteria. Almost 80% of patients had stable/improved PFTs at the end of follow-up. Infections occurred mainly in the first semester of treatment and in patients with non-UIP radiological pattern probably due to higher doses of corticosteroids used in these patients.
A griculture is important sectors of a country's economy. History of economic development of the ... more A griculture is important sectors of a country's economy. History of economic development of the developed nations or those who have embarked on the path of development, it is "agriculture" which has made the foundation of the prosperity of other sectors and economy as well (Pretty, 2008). Therefore, agriculture is considered backbone of economies of many nations including Pakistan. This is a fact that agriculture has contributed significantly and brought precious amount of foreign exchange to the national exchequer. Agriculture sector in Pakistan performs a vital role in economy. It is largest sector which Abstract | The present study was conducted in central valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to evaluate the capacity building of farmers by public and private agriculture extension sectors. Three districts namely Peshawar, Mardan and Charsadda were selected purposively. In order to carry out the research, in the three districts of Peshawar, Mardan and Charsadda one tehsil was selected from each district i.e. Town-4 from Peshawar, Takhtbhai from Mardan and tehsil Charsadda from district Charsadda. Sample size for the present study was 270 respondents i.e. 90 respondents from each tehsil. Data were collected from respondents by using well-structured interview schedule. The data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences V.20 (SPSS). Simple percentages and percentages were calculated whereas paired t-test was applied to compare gap/differences between capacity building of farmers offered by public and private extension services. It was found that the respondents praised private sector in capacity building regarding farm management (59.2%), selection of varieties (54.4%), selection of fertilizers (56.3%), and harvesting techniques (57.4%). There was highly significant (p≤0.01) difference among public and private services regarding capacity building of farmers in terms of farm management, improve marketing skills, harvesting techniques, organic farming, integrated pest management, seed rate ratio and orchard layout. Overall, there was a big gap in the performance of the public sector extension and private sector extension in capacity building. It is therefore, recommended that both the Public and Private Agriculture Extension Sector should work on joint venture basis and hold joint extension activities for the betterment of farming community.
Augmented reality is a technology which allows 2D and 3D computer graphics to be accurately align... more Augmented reality is a technology which allows 2D and 3D computer graphics to be accurately aligned or registered with scenes of the real-world in real-time. The potential uses of this technology are numerous, from architecture and medicine, to manufacturing and entertainment. Vision-based techniques which augment objects onto predetermined planar patterns are considered the most promising approach for achieving accurate registrations, but the majority of the proposed methods fail to provide any robustness to significant changes in pattern scale, orientation, or partial pattern occlusion. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a robust pattern-based augmentation system that addresses these problems, and analyzes its performance using standard consumer-level hardware. Known planar patterns are tracked in a real-time video feed, and virtual 2D and 3D objects are accurately augmented onto these patterns based on the plane's orientation. A method to achieve perspective-correct augmentations without the need for a manual camera calibration procedure is also described. First, I would like to thank my thesis supervisors Gerhard Roth and Jit Bose. Without their support, this thesis would not have been possible. It's not often that the path to a master's thesis is laid out on a yellow brick road, but Gerhard has provided just that. Without his expert guidance and knowledge, his continuous flow of ideas and improvements, his quick turnaround in providing feedback on my writing, and the non-stop stream of technical papers that he would leave for me on my desk, I would not have been able to come this far this quickly. I am especially grateful for the encouragement he has given me throughout this masters experience, as well as the insights he has given me regarding what it takes to become a successful researcher. Additionally, his discussions and opinions regarding government and politics provided a refreshing break from my C++ code. I thank Jit for always being available to discuss thesis issues, course and degree requirements, and potential future PhD research topics and directions, even despite his busy schedule. I am most impressed by his humble demeanor, even though he is an expert in almost everything (including ping-pong and squash). I've always had a bad habit of attempting to finish things as late as possible, and the submission and defense of this thesis was no exception. Both Linda Pfeiffer and Nicki Enouy deserve a huge thank you for scheduling my thesis examination at the last minute, and making sure all my degree requirements were met. Additionally, I would like to thank professors Eric Dubois, Wilf LaLonde, and Doron Nussbaum for agreeing to be on my defense committee with less than two weeks of preparation time. The majority of my thesis research was carried out at the National Research Council (NRC), and I thank the members of the Computational Video Group for allowing me to make use of their facilities and equipment. Additionally, I'd like to thank Dmitry Gorodnichy, Chang Shu, and William Scott for reviewing my research paper submissions v and providing valuable feedback on my technical writing. Chris McDonald also deserves a thank you for providing a nice implementation of a blob-based augmented reality system that could be directly compared to my corner-based tracking system. Finally, Dmitry, Chang, and Philippe Massicotte (from the VIT group) deserve a thank you for providing some great competition during our after lunch ping-pong games in the Ballard Room. I would also like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) for providing excellent funding to graduate students studying at Canadian universities. Without their financial support, my decision to attend graduate school would have been much more difficult. Of course, without my parents, I would never have had the opportunity to explore a career in research. They have always taught me that a solid education and dedicated work ethic are the keys to success in life, and their endless love, support, and patience help me accomplish anything I set my mind to. They are the best parents I could have ever dreamed to have, and I dedicate this thesis to them. Finally, I thank my wife, Jawairia, for being the most loving and wonderful person that I have ever known. She was willing to leave behind a loving family and lifelong friends, and travel to the other side of the world just to be with someone who spends endless hours in front of the computer. I can't thank her enough for the sacrifices she has made, and I look forward to a lifetime together with her. vi Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi List of Tables viii List of Equations ix List of Figures x 6 Conclusions 6.
This research focuses on a decomposed-weighted-sum particle swarm optimization (DWS-PSO) approach... more This research focuses on a decomposed-weighted-sum particle swarm optimization (DWS-PSO) approach that is proposed for optimal operations of price-driven demand response (PDDR) and PDDR-synergized with the renewable and energy storage dispatch (PDDR-RED) based home energy management systems (HEMSs). The algorithm for PDDR-RED-based HEMS is developed by combining a DWS-PSO-based PDDR scheme for load shifting with the dispatch strategy for the photovoltaic (PV), storage battery (SB), and power grid systems. Shiftable home appliances (SHAs) are modeled for mixed scheduling (MS). The MS includes advanced as well as delayed scheduling (AS/DS) of SHAs to maximize the reduction in the net cost of energy ( C E ). A set of weighting vectors is deployed while implementing algorithms and a multi-objective-optimization (MOO) problem is decomposed into single-objective sub-problems that are optimized simultaneously in a single run. Furthermore, an innovative method to carry out the diversified p...
A demand response (DR) based home energy management systems (HEMS) synergies with renewable energ... more A demand response (DR) based home energy management systems (HEMS) synergies with renewable energy sources (RESs) and energy storage systems (ESSs). In this work, a three-step simulation based posteriori method is proposed to develop a scheme for eco-efficient operation of HEMS. The proposed method provides the trade-off between the net cost of energy ( C E n e t ) and the time-based discomfort ( T B D ) due to shifting of home appliances (HAs). At step-1, primary trade-offs for C E n e t , T B D and minimal emissions T E M i s s are generated through a heuristic method. This method takes into account photovoltaic availability, the state of charge, the related rates for the storage system, mixed shifting of HAs, inclining block rates, the sharing-based parallel operation of power sources, and selling of the renewable energy to the utility. The search has been driven through multi-objective genetic algorithm and Pareto based optimization. A filtration mechanism (based on the trends e...
IEEE International Workshop HAVE Haptic Virtual Environments and Their
To begin, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Gerhard Roth, for his dedication and commit... more To begin, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Gerhard Roth, for his dedication and commitment to my successful completion of this Master's degree. His guidance, assistance and encouragement were invaluable to this thesis, and I am especially grateful to him for providing me with this opportunity. I would also like to thank my cosupervisor, Jit Bose, for his support and assistance throughout my graduate program. I would also like to thank Shahzad Malik, for without his previous hard work in this field, my thesis would not have been possible. I also thank him for his assistance with software development and his partnership on our research publications. Mark Fiala deserves a thank you for his helpful comments on this thesis and his insightful perspective on the graduate experience. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, whose endless support has enabled me to pursue my goals with full attention and rewarding success.
Background: Non-adherence to antiretroviral treatment (ART) has been associated with emergence of... more Background: Non-adherence to antiretroviral treatment (ART) has been associated with emergence of viral resistance and higher viral loads (VL). Gastrostomy tubes (G-tubes) have been suggested to enhance adherence and improve clinical outcome but data to support this intervention are limited. Methods: HIV-infected pediatric patients who received a G-tube to improve adherence and/or nutrition between 03/92 and 12/03 were evaluated. Clinical, laboratory, and demographic data were collected by chart review for one year prior to and one year following tube insertion. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariable analyses including GEE (using an independent correlation matrix) were conducted to identify associations between G-tube and decreased VL. GEE adjusts for the intraperson correlation over time and the dependence between observations. Analysis was performed using Stata Version 8.0 se (College Station, TX) Results: Of the 14 evaluable children, 8 received the G-tube to improve adherence,...
The 3rd ACS/IEEE International Conference onComputer Systems and Applications, 2005.
This work focuses on improving throughput and fairness of end-to-end transport connections in IEE... more This work focuses on improving throughput and fairness of end-to-end transport connections in IEEE 802.11 based wireless networks. The IEEE 802.11 MAC provides node-level fairness in sharing wireless bandwidth but that causes uneven bandwidth distribution among uplink and downlink transmissions of transport connections, which results in their end-to-end performance degradation. This is because the access point obtains share of bandwidth as a single node although it has to manage multiple downlink transmissions. Thus, the AP is not able to send as much data downlink as it receives uplink, causing unfair bandwidth utilization by uplink and downlink transmissions. We propose a wireless bandwidth management (WBM) framework to provide fair distribution of bandwidth to transport connections, which consequently improves their throughput performance. The proposed framework utilizes the idea of TCP Trunks and sets up a Control TCP connection (a trunk or circuit) between a mobile node and the access point (AP) in order to regulate the amount of data being transferred in the uplink direction. This arrangement permits AP to control the transmission rate of TCP trunks and allocate bandwidth to uplink and downlink connections in a fair manner. Detailed analysis of the approach through simulations indicates that it achieves fair bandwidth sharing in addition to improving end-to-end throughput performance for transport connections.
ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Sketches on - SIGGRAPH '06, 2006
We explore the idea of using vision-based hand tracking over a constrained tabletop surface area ... more We explore the idea of using vision-based hand tracking over a constrained tabletop surface area to perform multifinger and whole-hand gestural interactions with large displays from a distance. We develop bimanual techniques to support a variety of asymmetric and symmetric interactions, including fast targeting and navigation to all parts of a large display from the comfort of a desk and chair, as well as techniques that exploit the ability of the vision-based hand tracking system to provide multi-finger identification and full 2D hand segmentation. We also posit a design that allows for handling multiple concurrent users.
2012 Ninth Conference on Computer and Robot Vision, 2012
This paper describes how to accelerate a real-world face detection and tracking system by taking ... more This paper describes how to accelerate a real-world face detection and tracking system by taking advantage of the multiple processing cores that are present in most modern CPUs. This work makes three key contributions. The first is the presentation of a highly optimized serial face detection and tracking algorithm that uses motion estimation and local search windows to achieve fast processing rates. The second is redefining the face detection process based on a set of independent face scales that can be processed in parallel on separate CPU cores while also achieving a target processing rate. The third contribution is demonstrating how multiple cores can be used to accelerate the face tracking process which provides significant speed boosts when tracking a large number of faces simultaneously. Used in a real-world application, the parallel face detector and tracker yields a 50-70% speed boost over the serial version when tested on a commodity multi-core CPU.
Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Multimodal interfaces - ICMI '04, 2004
This paper presents the Visual Touchpad, a low-cost vision-based input device that allows for flu... more This paper presents the Visual Touchpad, a low-cost vision-based input device that allows for fluid two-handed interactions with desktop PCs, laptops, public kiosks, or large wall displays. Two downward-pointing cameras are attached above a planar surface, and a stereo hand tracking system provides the 3D positions of a user's fingertips on and above the plane. Thus the planar surface can be used as a multi-point touch-sensitive device, but with the added ability to also detect hand gestures hovering above the surface. Additionally, the hand tracker not only provides positional information for the fingertips but also finger orientations. A variety of one and two-handed multi-finger gestural interaction techniques are then presented that exploit the affordances of the hand tracker. Further, by segmenting the hand regions from the video images and then augmenting them transparently into a graphical interface, our system provides a compelling direct manipulation experience without the need for more expensive tabletop displays or touch-screens, and with significantly less self-occlusion.
Implicit user modeling has always long since played an important role in supporting personalized ... more Implicit user modeling has always long since played an important role in supporting personalized web-based e-learning environments and is increasingly important in other learning environments such as serious games. Its main concern is to unobtrusively and ubiquitously learn from a learner's previous experiences and characteristics, in order to adapt the services to their personal needs. An empirical investigation for understanding learning behavior patterns forms the basis for establishing stronger implicit user modeling mechanisms and this study aims to get a better insight into types of learning behavior. The proposed usage of data mining and visualization elicited some interesting learning behavior patterns. We analyzed these from two perspectives: action frequency and action sequences, based on an expert-designed classification of behavior patterns that helped rank the various action categories according to significance from a user's perspective. The initial results of t...
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