Search results for: text classification

Authors: Ozge Nilay Yalcin

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Dialogue has been proposed to be the natural basis for the human-computer interaction, which is behaviorally rich and includes different modalities such as gestures, posture changes, gaze, para-linguistic parameters and linguistic context. However, equipping the system with these capabilities might have consequences on the usability of the system. One issue is to be able to find a good balance between rich behavior and fluent behavior, as planning and generating these behaviors is computationally expensive. In this work, we propose a multi-modal dialogue management system that automates the conversational flow from text-based dialogue examples and uses synchronized verbal and non-verbal conversational cues to achieve a fluent interaction. Our system is integrated with Smartbody behavior realizer to provide real-time interaction with embodied agent. The nonverbal behaviors are used according to turn-taking behavior, emotions, and personality of the user and linguistic analysis of the dialogue. The verbal behaviors are responsive to the emotional value of the utterance and the feedback from the user. Our system is aimed for online planning of these affective multi-modal components, in order to achieve enhanced user experience with richer and more natural interaction.

Keywords: affect, embodied conversational agents, human-agent interaction, multimodal interaction, natural interfaces

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Authors: Bensaid A., Mostephaoui T., Nedjai R.

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A considerable area of Algerian lands are threatened by the phenomenon of wind erosion. For a long time, wind erosion and its associated harmful effects on the natural environment have posed a serious threat, especially in the arid regions of the country. In recent years, as a result of increases in the irrational exploitation of natural resources (fodder) and extensive land clearing, wind erosion has particularly accentuated. The extent of degradation in the arid region of the Algerian Mécheriadepartment generated a new situation characterized by the reduction of vegetation cover, the decrease of land productivity, as well as sand encroachment on urban development zones. In this study, we attempt to investigate the potential of remote sensing and geographic information systems for detecting the spatial dynamics of the ancient dune cords based on the numerical processing of PlanetScope PSB.SB sensors images by September 29, 2021. As a second step, we prospect the use of a multi-scale geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) approach to segment the high spatial resolution images acquired on heterogeneous surfaces that vary according to human influence on the environment. We have used the fractal net evolution approach (FNEA) algorithm to segment images (Baatz&Schäpe, 2000). Multispectral data, a digital terrain model layer, ground truth data, a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) layer, and a first-order texture (entropy) layer were used to segment the multispectral images at three segmentation scales, with an emphasis on accurately delineating the boundaries and components of the sand accumulation areas (Dune, dunes fields, nebka, and barkhane). It is important to note that each auxiliary data contributed to improve the segmentation at different scales. The silted areas were classified using a nearest neighbor approach over the Naâma area using imagery. The classification of silted areas was successfully achieved over all study areas with an accuracy greater than 85%, although the results suggest that, overall, a higher degree of landscape heterogeneity may have a negative effect on segmentation and classification. Some areas suffered from the greatest over-segmentation and lowest mapping accuracy (Kappa: 0.79), which was partially attributed to confounding a greater proportion of mixed siltation classes from both sandy areas and bare ground patches. This research has demonstrated a technique based on very high-resolution images for mapping sanded and degraded areas using GEOBIA, which can be applied to the study of other lands in the steppe areas of the northern countries of the African continent.

Keywords: land development, GIS, sand dunes, segmentation, remote sensing

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Authors: Tomas Barnak, Libor Matejka

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The aim of this study is to create a standard application using multi-criteria evaluation in the field of forensic engineering. This situation can occur in the professional assessment in several cases such as when it is necessary to consider more criteria variant of the structural subsystems, more variants according to several criteria based on a court claim, which requires expert advice. A problematic situation arises when it is necessary to clearly determine the ranking of the options according to established criteria, and reduce subjective evaluation. For the procurement in the field of construction which is based on the prepared text of the law not only economic criteria but also technical, technological and environmental criteria will be determined. This fact substantially changes the style of evaluation of individual bids. For the above-mentioned needs of procurement, the unification of expert’s decisions and the use of multi-criteria assessment seem to be a reasonable option. In the case of experimental verification when using multi-criteria evaluation of alternatives construction subsystem the economic, technical, technological and environmental criteria will be compared. The core of the solution is to compare a selected number of set criteria, application methods and evaluation weighting based on the weighted values assigned to each of the criteria to use multi-criteria evaluation methods. The sequence of individual variations is determined by the evaluation of the importance of the values of corresponding criteria concerning expertise in the problematic of outside wall constructional subsystems.

Keywords: criteria, expertise, multi-criteria evaluation, outside wall subsystems

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Authors: Adam Kok Wey Leong

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The comparison between the Western ways of war and Eastern ways of war has raised contemporary debates on the validity of these arguments. The Western way of war is popularly propounded by Victor Davis Hanson as originating from the Greek hoplite tactics, direct military maneuvers, democratic principles and social freedom and cohesion that has continued to yield military success for the Western powers for centuries. On the other hand, the Eastern way of war has been deemed as relying on indirect tactics, deception, and ruses. This often accepted notion of the divide between Western and Eastern style does not sustain in view of the available classical strategic texts from both sides from the same period that has proposed similar principles of warfare. This paper analyses the similarities between classical strategic texts on war from the Eastern perspective namely Sun Tzu’s Art of War with a similar temporal strategic text from the West which is Sextus Iuluis Frontinus’s Stratagematon, and deduces answers to this core research question - Does the hypothesis of the existence of distinctive Western and Eastern ways of warfare stands? The main thesis advanced by this research is that ways of warfare share universal principles, and it transcends cultural and spatial boundaries. Warfare is a human endeavour, and the same moral actions guide humans from different geo-cultural spheres in warfare’s objectives, which are winning over an enemy in the most economical way and serve as a mean to an end.

Keywords: ways of warfare, strategic culture, strategy, Sun Tzu, frontinus

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Authors: T. O. Adekunle, R. L. Makhubu, C. N. Ngwane

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This research was designed to assess the validity of the Sapir Whorf hypothesis in relation to the linguistic and cultural notions of the Yoruba and Zulu language speakers’ via the evaluation of the culture enriched dramatic text The Lion and The Jewel by Wole Soyinka. The study queried both the hypothesis’ strong version, (language governs thought: linguistic classifications restrain and influence mental classifications); and its weak version, (linguistic classifications and their use influence thought as well as some other classes of non-linguistic activities) and their possible reliability. Participants were purposively selected and their ages ranged from 16-46 years old. The participants amounted to 38 (18 Yoruba and 20 Zulu) students of DUT who all speak both English and Zulu (Zulu participants) and English and Yoruba (Yoruba participants) and the mixed methods approach was used. Thus with the use of questionnaire and interviews the research questions were answered and the findings provided support for validity of the linguistic relativity hypothesis, languages indeed influence thought. The findings also revealed that linguistic influence on cognition is not limited to different language users alone, but also same language speakers per level of exposure to other languages and concepts.

Keywords: culture, cognition, DUT, language, linguistic relativity hypothesis, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, The Lion and The Jewel, thought, Wole Soyinka, Yoruba, Zulu

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Authors: Pavan K. Rallabandi, Kailash C. Patidar

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In this paper, we present an optimization technique or a learning algorithm using the hybrid architecture by combining the most popular sequence recognition models such as Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) and Hidden Markov models (HMMs). In order to improve the sequence or pattern recognition/ classification performance by applying a hybrid/neural symbolic approach, a gradient descent learning algorithm is developed using the Real Time Recurrent Learning of Recurrent Neural Network for processing the knowledge represented in trained Hidden Markov Models. The developed hybrid algorithm is implemented on automata theory as a sample test beds and the performance of the designed algorithm is demonstrated and evaluated on learning the deterministic finite state automata.

Keywords: hybrid systems, hidden markov models, recurrent neural networks, deterministic finite state automata

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Authors: Feras Hanandeh, Majdi Shannag

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This research studies the different factors that could affect the Faculty of Information Technology in Hashemite University students’ accumulative average. The research paper verifies the student information, background, their academic records, and how this information will affect the student to get high grades. The student information used in the study is extracted from the student’s academic records. The data mining tools and techniques are used to decide which attribute(s) will affect the student’s accumulative average. The results show that the most important factor which affects the students’ accumulative average is the student Acceptance Type. And we built a decision tree model and rules to determine how the student can get high grades in their courses. The overall accuracy of the model is 44% which is accepted rate.

Keywords: data mining, classification, extracting rules, decision tree

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Authors: Maziyar Nouraee

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Electronic markets in recent decades contribute remarkably in business transactions. Many organizations consider traditional ways of trade non-economical and therefore they do trade only through electronic markets. There are different categorizations of electronic markets functions. In one classification, functions of electronic markets are categorized into classes as information, transactions, and value added. In the present paper, effects of the three classes on the two major elements of the supply chain management are measured. The two elements are decrease in the product unit cost and reduction in response time to the customer. The results of the current research show that among nine minor elements related to the three classes of electronic markets functions, six factors and three factors influence on reduction of the product unit cost and reduction of response time to the customer, respectively.

Keywords: electronic commerce, electronic market, B2B trade, supply chain management

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Authors: Chamseddine Barki, Salam Labidi, Hanen Boussi Rahmouni

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In this article, we present the principle and suitable methodology for the design of a medical ontology that highlights the radiological and dosimetric knowledge, applied in diagnostic radiology and radiation-therapy. Our ontology, which we named «Onto.Rap», is the subject of radiation protection in medical and radiology centers by providing a standardized regulatory oversight. Thanks to its added values of knowledge-sharing, reuse and the ease of maintenance, this ontology tends to solve many problems. Of which we name the confusion between radiological procedures a practitioner might face while performing a patient radiological exam. Adding to it, the difficulties they might have in interpreting applicable patient radioprotection standards. Here, the ontology, thanks to its concepts simplification and expressiveness capabilities, can ensure an efficient classification of radiological procedures. It also provides an explicit representation of the relations between the different components of the studied concept. In fact, an ontology based-radioprotection expert system, when used in radiological center, could implement systematic radioprotection best practices during patient exam and a regulatory compliance service auditing afterwards.

Keywords: knowledge, ontology, radiation protection, radiology

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Authors: N. W. U. D. Chathurani, Shlomo Geva, Vinod Chandran, Proboda Rajapaksha

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Selecting an appropriate image representation is the most important factor in implementing an effective Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system. This paper presents a multi-feature fusion approach for efficient CBIR, based on the distance distribution of features and relative feature weights at the time of query processing. It is a simple yet effective approach, which is free from the effect of features' dimensions, ranges, internal feature normalization and the distance measure. This approach can easily be adopted in any feature combination to improve retrieval quality. The proposed approach is empirically evaluated using two benchmark datasets for image classification (a subset of the Corel dataset and Oliva and Torralba) and compared with existing approaches. The performance of the proposed approach is confirmed with the significantly improved performance in comparison with the independently evaluated baseline of the previously proposed feature fusion approaches.

Keywords: feature fusion, image retrieval, membership function, normalization

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Authors: K. Badron, A. F. Ismail, A. L. Asnawi, N. F. A. Malik, S. Z. Abidin, S. Dzulkifly

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The occurrences of precipitation, also commonly referred as rain, in the form of "convective" and "stratiform" have been identified to exist worldwide. In this study, the radar return echoes or known as reflectivity values acquired from radar scans have been exploited in the process of classifying the type of rain endured. The investigation use radar data from Malaysian Meteorology Department (MMD). It is possible to discriminate the types of rain experienced in tropical region by observing the vertical characteristics of the rain structure. .Heavy rain in tropical region profoundly affects radiowave signals, causing transmission interference and signal fading. Required wireless system fade margin depends on the type of rain. Information relating to the two mentioned types of rain is critical for the system engineers and researchers in their endeavour to improve the reliability of communication links. This paper highlights the quantification of percentage occurrences over one year period in 2009.

Keywords: stratiform, convective, tropical region, attenuation radar reflectivity

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Authors: Matan Cohen, Maxim Shoshany

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Climatic, topographic and geological diversity, together with frequent disturbance and recovery cycles, produce highly complex spatial patterns of trees, shrubs, dwarf shrubs and bare ground patches. Assessment of spatial and temporal variations of these life-forms patterns under climate change is of high ecological priority. Here we report on one of the first attempts to discriminate between images of three Mediterranean life-forms patterns at three densities. The development of an extensive database of orthophoto images representing these 9 pattern categories was instrumental for training and testing pre-trained and newly-trained DL models utilizing DenseNet architecture. Both models demonstrated the advantages of using Deep Learning approaches over existing spectral and spatial (pattern or texture) algorithmic methods in differentiation 9 life-form spatial mixtures categories.

Keywords: texture classification, deep learning, desert fringe ecosystems, climate change

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Authors: Bello Yusuf Idi

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The Gongola arm of the Upper Banue Trough, Northeastern Nigeria is predominantly covered by the outcrops of Limestone-bearing rocks in form of Sandstone with intercalation of carbonate clay, shale, basaltic, felsphatic and migmatide rocks at subpixel dimension. In this work, subpixel classification algorithm was used to classify the data acquired from landsat 7 Enhance Thematic Mapper (ETM+) satellite system with the aim of producing fractional distribution image for three most economically important solid minerals of the area: Limestone, Basalt and Migmatide. Linear Spectral Unmixing (LSU) algorithm was used to produce fractional distribution image of abundance of the three mineral resources within a 100Km2 portion of the area. The results show that the minerals occur at different proportion all over the area. The fractional map could therefore serve as a guide to the ongoing reconnaissance for the economic potentiality of the formation.

Keywords: linear spectral un-mixing, upper benue trough, gongola arm, geological engineering

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Authors: Mahdi Daghmhehci Firoozjaei, Minchang Kim, Dima Alhadidi

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In this paper, we present a power profiling model for smart grid consumers based on real time load data acquired smart meters. It profiles consumers’ power consumption behaviour using the dynamic time warping (DTW) clustering algorithm. Due to the invariability of signal warping of this algorithm, time-disordered load data can be profiled and consumption features be extracted. Two load types are defined and the related load patterns are extracted for classifying consumption behaviour by DTW. The classification methodology is discussed in detail. To evaluate the performance of the method, we analyze the time-series load data measured by a smart meter in a real case. The results verify the effectiveness of the proposed profiling method with 90.91% true positive rate for load type clustering in the best case.

Keywords: power profiling, user privacy, dynamic time warping, smart grid

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Authors: Takanori Tanaka, Daisuke Kitao, Daisuke Ikeda

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The aurora is an attractive phenomenon but it is difficult to understand the whole mechanism of it. An approach of data-intensive science might be an effective approach to elucidate such a difficult phenomenon. To do that we need labeled data, which shows when and what types of auroras, have appeared. In this paper, we propose an image retrieval system for auroral all-sky images, some of which include discrete and diffuse aurora, and the other do not any aurora. The proposed system retrieves images which are similar to the query image by using a popular image recognition method. Using 300 all-sky images obtained at Tromso Norway, we evaluate two methods of image recognition methods with or without our original color filtering method. The best performance is achieved when SIFT with the color filtering is used and its accuracy is 81.7% for discrete auroras and 86.7% for diffuse auroras.

Keywords: data-intensive science, image classification, content-based image retrieval, aurora

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Authors: Sumaira Saleem, Sajjad Hussain, Asma Kashif Shahzad, Hina Shaheen

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This study aims at exploring the relationship between language and ideology and how such relationships are represented in the analysis of spoken texts, following Van Dijk’s Socio Cognitive Model (2002). In this study, it is tried to show that political Talk shows broadcast by Private TV channels are working apparatuses of ideology and store meanings which are not always obvious for readers. This analysis was about the situation created by Arslan Iftkhar, the son of ex-Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry and PTI Chief Imran Khan. Arslan Iftikhar submitted an application against Imran Khan that he is not able to become a member of parliament of Pakistan. In the application, he demanded the documents, which are submitted by Imran Khan at the time of Election to the Election Commission of Pakistan. Murad Ali from PTI also submitted an application against PM Nawaz Sharif to the Election Commission of Pakistan for providing the copies. It also suggests that these talk shows mystify the agency of processes by using various strategies. In other words, critical text analyses reveal how these choices enable speakers to manipulate the realizations of agency and power in the representation of action to produce particular meanings which are not always explicit for all readers.

Keywords: ECP, CDA, socio cognitive model, ideology, TV channels, power

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Authors: Çiğdem Bakır, Mecit Yüzkat

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With the increasing emphasis on water quality worldwide, the search for and expanding the market for new and intelligent monitoring systems has increased. The current method is the laboratory process, where samples are taken from bodies of water, and tests are carried out in laboratories. This method is time-consuming, a waste of manpower, and uneconomical. To solve this problem, we used machine learning methods to detect water pollution in our study. We created decision trees with the Orange3 software we used in our study and tried to determine all the factors that cause water pollution. An automatic prediction model based on water quality was developed by taking many model inputs such as water temperature, pH, transparency, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and ammonia nitrogen with machine learning methods. The proposed approach consists of three stages: preprocessing of the data used, feature detection, and classification. We tried to determine the success of our study with different accuracy metrics and the results. We presented it comparatively. In addition, we achieved approximately 98% success with the decision tree.

Keywords: decision tree, water quality, water pollution, machine learning

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Authors: Newton Rathnasiri Ranaweera Kalu Arachchige

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Academics argue that Greek myths and legends have had an influence on Buddhist stories: Jataka tales, Theri Gata (Psalms of older Buddhist nuns), and even Mahavansa (a Sri Lankan historical chronicle). However, this article asserts that there is evidence in Sophocles King Oedipus to argue that the Buddha’s life story and key Buddhist concepts have influenced pre-Christian Greek philosophy and literature, especially Sophocles’ King Oedipus. When reading the text with the notion that there could be intertextual relationships or new texts are built on the existing texts and discourses, the reader may see that Sophocles’ play contains incidents that remind them of the special occasions of the Buddha’s life, his utterances and the key Buddhist concepts such as the truth of suffering, cessation of suffering, the three poisons (greed, hatred, and delusion), and finding the truth within one’s own self. The present intertextual study explored only the special occasions of the Buddha’s life to make it more focused and found that Sophocles alludes to the Buddha’s life story in his attempt to raise a moral culprit to a moral hero with higher moral values. This article, however, acknowledges that one needs to cross-check the other historical and philosophical references when claiming that Sophocles has had influence from the Buddha’s life story in King Oedipus.

Keywords: Buddhism, the Buddha’s life story, King Oedipus, Greece, tragedy, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Krishnanunni S.

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The COVID-19 Pandemic has had an impact on every part of our lives, and the film industry is no exception. The restrictions the pandemic has brought made filmmakers confine their films to limited spaces. In India, Malayalam cinema was the first to incorporate the pandemic into its stories and started producing films within existing constraints. The purpose of this study was to study how the limited location storytelling concept influenced Malayalam independent and lockdown films. To answer this question, the three of the most popular films that we shot during the pandemic: The Great Indian Kitchen, Joji and Joyful Mystery, were dissected through text analysis and in-depth interviews were conducted with the makers of The Great Indian Kitchen and Joyful Mystery. The study revealed that the pandemic had had an influence on the way filmmakers visualize their stories and shoot them, especially while working within the restrictions of the pandemic. It was also observed that working with limited locations was the only way for filmmakers to make films during the times of pandemic. But rather than a hindrance to their work, filmmakers saw it as a new possibility to create in times of confinement. The findings of this study expanded the work of previous researchers about films shot in limited locations and the significant changes the pandemic has brought to the film industry.

Keywords: limited location storytelling, pandemic, pandemic restrictions, lockdown cinema, pandemic films, Malayalam cinema, OTT revolution, cinema, films

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Authors: Eko Budi Santoso

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There is a growing interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues in developing countries such as Indonesia. Firms disclose their CSR activities, and some provide assurance to gain recognition as socially responsible firms. However, several of those socially responsible firms involve in tax scandals and raise a question of whether CSR disclosure is used to disguise firm misconduct or as a reflection of socially responsible firms. Specifically, whether firms engage in CSR disclosure and its assurance also responsible for their tax matters. This study examines the association between CSR disclosure and tax aggressiveness and the role of sustainability reporting assurance to the association. This research develops a modified index according to global reporting initiatives to measure CSR disclosure and various measurement for tax aggressiveness. Using a sample of Indonesian go public companies issued CSR disclosure, the empirical result shows that there is an association between CSR disclosure and tax aggressiveness. In addition, results also indicate sustainability reporting assurance moderate those association. The findings suggest that stakeholder in developing countries should examine carefully firms with active CSR disclosure before label it as socially responsible firms. JEL Classification: M14

Keywords: CSR disclosure, tax aggressiveness, assurance, business ethics

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Authors: L. Arumuru

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The paper investigates computer anxiety and the use of computerized library system by university librarians in Delta State University library, Abraka, Nigeria. Some of the root causes of computer anxiety among university librarians such as lack of exposure to computers at early age, inadequate computer skills, inadequate computer training, fear at the sight of a computer, lack of understanding of how computers work, etc. were pin-pointed in the study. Also, the different services rendered in the university libraries with the aid of computers such as reference services, circulation services, acquisition services, cataloguing and classification services, etc. were identified. The study employed the descriptive survey research design through the expo-facto method, with a population of 56 librarians, while the simple percentage and frequency counts were used to analyze the data generated from the administered copies of the questionnaire. Based on the aforementioned root causes of computer anxiety and the resultant effect on computerized library system, recommendations were proffered in the study.

Keywords: computer anxiety, computerized library system, library services, university librarians

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Authors: Victor Radich, Tania Basso, Regina Moraes

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Lead qualification is one of the main procedures in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) projects. Its main goal is to identify potential consumers who have the ideal characteristics to establish a profitable and long-term relationship with a certain organization. Social networks can be an important source of data for identifying and qualifying leads since interest in specific products or services can be identified from the users’ expressed feelings of (dis)satisfaction. In this context, this work proposes the use of machine learning techniques and sentiment analysis as an extra step in the lead qualification process in order to improve it. In addition to machine learning models, sentiment analysis or opinion mining can be used to understand the evaluation that the user makes of a particular service, product, or brand. The results obtained so far have shown that it is possible to extract data from social networks and combine the techniques for a more complete classification.

Keywords: lead qualification, sentiment analysis, opinion mining, machine learning, CRM, lead scoring

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Authors: P. S. Jagadeesh Kumar, Mingmin Pan, Xianpei Li, Yanmin Yuan, Tracy Lin Huan

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Researchers are doing enchanting research into the inherited features of Alzheimer’s disease and probable consistent therapies. In Alzheimer’s, memories are extinct in reverse order; memories formed lately are more transitory than those from formerly. Reminiscence therapy includes the conversation of past actions, trials and knowledges with another individual or set of people, frequently with the help of perceptible reminders such as photos, household and other acquainted matters from the past, music and collection of tapes. In this manuscript, the competence of reminiscence therapy for Alzheimer’s disease is measured using logistic regression based linear bootstrap aggregating. Logistic regression is used to envisage the experiential features of the patient’s memory through various therapies. Linear bootstrap aggregating shows better stability and accuracy of reminiscence therapy used in statistical classification and regression of memories related to validation therapy, supportive psychotherapy, sensory integration and simulated presence therapy.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, linear bootstrap aggregating, logistic regression, reminiscence therapy

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Authors: Rosa Nurtazina, Yerkebulan Zhumashov, Maral Tomanova

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Humanity is entering an era when 'virtual reality' as the image of the world created by the media with the help of the Internet does not match the reality in many respects, when new communication technologies create a fundamentally different and previously unknown 'global space'. According to these technologies, the state begins to change the basic technology of political communication of the state and society, the state and the state. Nowadays, image of the state becomes the most important tool and technology. Image is a purposefully created image granting political object (person, organization, country, etc.) certain social and political values and promoting more emotional perception. Political image of the state plays an important role in international relations. The success of the country's foreign policy, development of trade and economic relations with other countries depends on whether it is positive or negative. Foreign policy image has an impact on political processes taking place in the state: the negative image of the countries can be used by opposition forces as one of the arguments to criticize the government and its policies.

Keywords: image of the country, country's image classification, function of the country image, country's image components

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Authors: Fernanda Conforto de Oliveira

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a central role in global financial governance as the world’s leading crisis lender. Its practice of conditional lending – conditioning loans on the implementation of economic policy adjustments – is the primary lever by which the institution interacts with and influences the policy choices of member countries and has been a key topic of interest to scholars and public opinion. However, empirical evidence about the economic and (geo)political determinants of IMF lending behavior remains inconclusive, and no model that explains IMF policies has been identified. This research moves beyond panel analysis to focus on financial negotiations for the first IMF programs in Argentina and Brazil in the early post-war period. It seeks to understand why negotiations achieved distinct objectives: Argentinean officials cooperated and complied with IMF policies, whereas their Brazilian counterparts hesitated. Using qualitative and automated text analysis, this paper analyses the hypothesis about whether a differential IMF treatment could help to explain these distinct outcomes. This paper contributes to historical studies on IMF-Latin America relations and the broader literature in international policy economy about IMF policies.

Keywords: international monetary fund, international history, financial history, Latin American economic history, natural language processing, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Christina Cheong, Naomi Keena

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In the face of growing urbanization the construction of new buildings is inevitable and with current construction methods leading to environmental degradation much questioning is needed around reducing the environmental impact of buildings. This paper explores the global environmental issue of concrete production in parallel with the problem of plastic waste, and questions if new solutions into plastic waste additions in concrete is a viable sustainable solution with positive systematic implications to living systems, both human and non-human. We investigate how certification programs can be used to access the sustainability of the new concrete composition. With this classification we look to the health impacts as well as reusability of such concrete in a second or third life cycle. We conclude that such an approach has benefits to the environment and that taking a circular approach to its development, in terms of the overall life cycle of the new concrete product, can help understand the nuances in terms of the material’s environmental and human health impacts.

Keywords: Concrete, Plastic waste additions to concrete, sustainability ratings, sustainable materials

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Authors: Yanmeng Liu

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This article analyzes and compares the linguistic differences between machine translation and manual translation, through a case study of the book Gone with the Wind. As an important carrier of human feeling and thinking, the literature translation poses a huge difficulty for machine translation, and it is supposed to expose distinct translation features apart from manual translation. In order to display linguistic features objectively, tentative uses of computerized and statistical evidence to the systematic investigation of large scale translation corpora by using quantitative methods have been deployed. This study compiles bilingual corpus with four versions of Chinese translations of the book Gone with the Wind, namely, Piao by Chunhai Fan, Piao by Huairen Huang, translations by Google Translation and Baidu Translation. After processing the corpus with the software of Stanford Segmenter, Stanford Postagger, and AntConc, etc., the study analyzes linguistic data and answers the following questions: 1. How does the machine translation differ from manual translation linguistically? 2. Why do these deviances happen? This paper combines translation study with the knowledge of corpus linguistics, and concretes divergent linguistic dimensions in translated text analysis, in order to present linguistic deviances in manual and machine translation. Consequently, this study provides a more accurate and more fine-grained understanding of machine translation products, and it also proposes several suggestions for machine translation development in the future.

Keywords: corpus-based analysis, linguistic deviances, machine translation, statistical evidence

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Authors: Natasha Petrovska, Mirjana Pavlovic, Maria M. Larrondo-Petrie

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Neural stem cells (NSCs) are multi-potent, self-renewing cells that generate new neurons. Three subtypes of NSCs can be separated regarding the stages of NSC lineage: quiescent neural stem cells (qNSCs), activated neural stem cells (aNSCs) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs), but their gene expression signatures are not utterly understood yet. Single-cell examinations have started to elucidate the complex structure of NSC populations. Nevertheless, there is a lack of thorough molecular interpretation of the NSC lineage heterogeneity and an increasing need for tools to analyze and improve the efficiency and correctness of single-cell sequencing data. Feature selection and ordering can identify and classify the gene expression signatures of these subtypes and can discover novel subpopulations during the NSCs activation and differentiation processes. The aim here is to review the implementation of the feature selection technique on NSC subtypes and the classification techniques that have been used for the identification of gene expression signatures.

Keywords: feature selection, feature similarity, neural stem cells, genes, feature selection methods

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Authors: Mohammed Abdulridha Hamdan

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To face the water crisis, understanding the role of human activities on nutrient concentrations in aquatic ecosystems needs more investigations compare to extensively studies which have been carried out to understand these impacts on water quality of different aquatic ecosystems. We hypothesized human activates on the catchments of Tigris river may change nutrient concentrations in water along the river. The results showed that phosphate concentration differed significantly among the studied sites due to distributed human activities, while nitrate concentration did not. Phosphate and nitrate concentrations were not affected by water temperature. We concluded that human activities on the surrounding landscapes could be more essential sources for nutrients of aquatic ecosystems than role of ongoing climate warming. Despite the role of warming in driving nutrients availability in aquatic ecosystems, our findings suggest to take the different activities on the surrounding catchments into account in the studies caring about trophic status classification of aquatic ecosystems.

Keywords: phosphate, nitrate, anthropogenic, warming

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Authors: Mohammed Abdulridha Hamdan

Abstract:

To face the water crisis, understanding the role of human activities on nutrient concentrations in aquatic ecosystems needs more investigations compare to extensively studies, which have been carried out to understand these impacts on water quality of different aquatic ecosystems. We hypothesized human activates on the catchments of Tigris river may change nutrient concentrations in water along the river. The results showed that phosphate concentration differed significantly among the studied sites due to distributed human activities, while nitrate concentration did not. Phosphate and nitrate concentrations were not affected by water temperature. We concluded that human activities on the surrounding landscapes could be more essential sources for nutrients of aquatic ecosystems than role of ongoing climate warming. Despite the role of warming in driving nutrients availability in aquatic ecosystems, our findings suggest to take the different activities on the surrounding catchments into account in the studies caring about trophic status classification of aquatic ecosystems.

Keywords: phosphate, nitrate, Anthropogenic, warming

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