Search results for: content based retrieval

Authors: Ong Sing Goh, C. Ardil, Chun Che Fung, Kok Wai Wong, Arnold Depickere

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In this paper, we proposed a new framework to incorporate an intelligent agent software robot into a crisis communication portal (CCNet) in order to send alert news to subscribed users via email and other mobile services such as Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and General Packet Radio Services (GPRS). The content on the mobile services can be delivered either through mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistance (PDA). This research has shown that with our proposed framework, the embodied conversation agents system can handle questions intelligently with our multilayer architecture. At the same time, the extended framework can take care of delivery content through a more humanoid interface on mobile devices.

Keywords: Crisis Communication Network (CCNet), EmbodiedConversational Agents (ECAs), Mobile Services, ArtificialIntelligence Neural-network Identity (AINI)

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Authors: Mária Csernoch, Piroska Biró

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The legends about “user-friendly” and “easy-to-use” birotical tools (computer-related office tools) have been spreading and misleading end-users. This approach has led us to the extremely high number of incorrect documents, causing serious financial losses in the creating, modifying, and retrieving processes. Our research proved that there are at least two sources of this underachievement: (1) The lack of the definition of the correctly edited, formatted documents. Consequently, end-users do not know whether their methods and results are correct or not. They are not aware of their ignorance. They are so ignorant that their ignorance does not allow them to realize their lack of knowledge. (2) The end-users’ problem solving methods. We have found that in non-traditional programming environments end-users apply, almost exclusively, surface approach metacognitive methods to carry out their computer related activities, which are proved less effective than deep approach methods. Based on these findings we have developed deep approach methods which are based on and adapted from traditional programming languages. In this study, we focus on the most popular type of birotical documents, the text based documents. We have provided the definition of the correctly edited text, and based on this definition, adapted the debugging method known in programming. According to the method, before the realization of text editing, a thorough debugging of already existing texts and the categorization of errors are carried out. With this method in advance to real text editing users learn the requirements of text based documents and also of the correctly formatted text. The method has been proved much more effective than the previously applied surface approach methods. The advantages of the method are that the real text handling requires much less human and computer sources than clicking aimlessly in the GUI (Graphical User Interface), and the data retrieval is much more effective than from error-prone documents.

Keywords: Deep approach metacognitive methods, error-prone birotical documents, financial losses, human and computer resources.

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Authors: Jaruwan Chutrtong

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This research aims to study consumer acceptance of Tempeh from various raw materials (type of bean) and determine protein contents for comparison. Tempeh made from soybean, peanut, white kidney bean and sesame in the ratio: - soybean:sesame =1:0.1, soybean:white kidney:sesame =1:1:0.1, soybean:peanut:sesame =1:1:0.1 and peanut:white kidney bean: sesame =1:1:0.1. The study found that consumer is most satisfied with appearances on soybean mixed with white kidney and black sesame tempeh (3.98). The most satisfied tempeh with textures is soybean mixed with peanut and black sesame tempeh (4.00). The most satisfied tempeh with odor is peanut mixed with white kidney bean and black sesame tempeh (4.04). And the most satisfied tempeh with flavor is peanut mixed with white kidney bean and black sesame tempeh (4.2). The amount of protein in production, soybean tempeh has the highest protein. When we add sesame seeds, it made the protein content slightly decreased (1.86 and 0.6 %). When we use peanut as raw material, the protein content decreased 15.3%. And when we use white kidney bean as raw material, the protein content decreased (22.77- 26.11%). 

Keywords: Acceptance, bean, protein content, tempeh.

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Authors: S. Srinivasa Moorthy, K. Manonmani

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The new, polymer composites consisting of e-glass fiber reinforcement with titanium oxide filler in the double bonded unsaturated polyester resin matrix were made. The glass fiber and titanium oxide reinforcement composites were made in three different fiber lengths (3cm, 5cm, and 7cm), filler content (2 wt%, 4 wt%, and 6 wt%) and fiber content (20 wt%, 40 wt%, and 60 wt%). 27 different compositions were fabricated and a sequence of experiments were carried out to determine tensile strength and impact strength. The vital influencing factors fiber length, fiber content and filler content were chosen as 3 factors in 3 levels of Taguchi’s L₉ orthogonal array. The influences of parameters were determined for tensile strength and impact strength by Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and S/N ratio. Using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) an expert system was devised to predict the properties of hybrid reinforcement GFRP composites. The predict models were experimentally proved with the maximum coincidence.

Keywords: Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Artificial neural network (ANN), Polymer composites, Taguchi’s orthogonal array.

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Authors: Morteza Elsa, Amirhossein Moghanian

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The major aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of CaO content on in vitro hydroxyapatite formation, MC3T3 cells cytotoxicity and proliferation as well as antibacterial efficiency of sol-gel derived SiO₂–CaO–P₂O₅ ternary system. For this purpose, first two grades of bioactive glass (BG); BG-58s (mol%: 60%SiO₂–36%CaO–4%P₂O₅) and BG-68s (mol%: 70%SiO₂–26%CaO–4%P₂O₅)) were synthesized by sol-gel method. Second, the effect of CaO content in their composition on in vitro bioactivity was investigated by soaking the BG-58s and BG-68s powders in simulated body fluid (SBF) for time periods up to 14 days and followed by characterization inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Additionally, live/dead staining, 3-(4,5dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity assays were conducted respectively, as qualitatively and quantitatively assess for cell viability, proliferation and differentiations of MC3T3 cells in presence of 58s and 68s BGs. Results showed that BG-58s with higher CaO content showed higher in vitro bioactivity with respect to BG-68s. Moreover, the dissolution rate was inversely proportional to oxygen density of the BG. Live/dead assay revealed that both 58s and 68s increased the mean number live cells which were in good accordance with MTT assay. Furthermore, BG-58s showed more potential antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria. Taken together, BG-58s with enhanced MC3T3 cells proliferation and ALP activity, acceptable bioactivity and significant high antibacterial effect against MRSA bacteria is suggested as a suitable candidate in order to further functionalizing for delivery of therapeutic ions and growth factors in bone tissue engineering.

Keywords: Antibacterial, bioactive glass, hydroxyapatite, proliferation, sol-gel processes.

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Authors: Yong Jun Choi, Juman Byun, Simon Berkovich

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One of the ubiquitous routines in medical practice is searching through voluminous piles of clinical documents. In this paper we introduce a distributed system to search and exchange clinical documents. Clinical documents are distributed peer-to-peer. Relevant information is found in multiple iterations of cross-searches between the clinical text and its domain encyclopedia.

Keywords: Clinical documents, cross-search, document exchange, information retrieval, peer-to-peer.

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Authors: Chaitanya Chawla, Divya Panwar, Gurneesh Singh Anand, M. P. S Bhatia

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This paper presents a deep-learning mechanism for classifying computer generated images and photographic images. The proposed method accounts for a convolutional layer capable of automatically learning correlation between neighbouring pixels. In the current form, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) will learn features based on an image's content instead of the structural features of the image. The layer is particularly designed to subdue an image's content and robustly learn the sensor pattern noise features (usually inherited from image processing in a camera) as well as the statistical properties of images. The paper was assessed on latest natural and computer generated images, and it was concluded that it performs better than the current state of the art methods.

Keywords: Image forensics, computer graphics, classification, deep learning, convolutional neural networks.

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Authors: Saipunidzam Mahamad, Mohammad Noor Ibrahim, Rozana Kasbon, Chap Samol

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Animated graph gives some good impressions in presenting information. However, not many people are able to produce it because the process of generating an animated graph requires some technical skills. This work presents Content Management System with Animated Graph (CMS-AG). It is a webbased system enabling users to produce an effective and interactive graphical report in a short time period. It allows for three levels of user authentication, provides update profile, account management, template management, graph management, and track changes. The system development applies incremental development approach, object-oriented concepts and Web programming technologies. The design architecture promotes new technology of reporting. It also helps user cut off unnecessary expenses, save time and learn new things on different levels of users. In this paper, the developed system is described.

Keywords: Animated Graph, Content Management System.

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Authors: Jun-Yong Lee, Hyoung-Gook Kim

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In this paper, we propose a smart music player that combines the musical genre classification and the spatial audio processing. The musical genre is classified based on content analysis of the musical segment detected from the audio stream. In parallel with the classification, the spatial audio quality is achieved by adding an artificial reverberation in a virtual acoustic space to the input mono sound. Thereafter, the spatial sound is boosted with the given frequency gains based on the musical genre when played back. Experiments measured the accuracy of detecting the musical segment from the audio stream and its musical genre classification. A listening test was performed based on the virtual acoustic space based spatial audio processing.

Keywords: Automatic equalization, genre classification, music segment detection, spatial audio processing.

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Authors: Erika K. Méndez, Carlos E. Orrego, Diana L. Manrique, Juan D. Gonzalez, Doménica Vallejo

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High moisture content in fruits generates post-harvest problems such as mechanical, biochemical, microbial and physical losses. Dehydration, which is based on the reduction of water activity of the fruit, is a common option for overcoming such losses. However, regular hot air drying could affect negatively the quality properties of the fruit due to the long residence time at high temperature. Power ultrasound (US) application during the convective drying has been used as a novel method able to enhance drying rate and, consequently, to decrease drying time. In the present study, a new approach was tested to evaluate the effect of US on the drying time, the final antioxidant activity (AA) and the total polyphenol content (TPC) of banana slices (BS), mango slices (MS) and guava slices (GS). There were also studied the drying kinetics with nine different models from which water effective diffusivities (Deff) (with or without shrinkage corrections) were calculated. Compared with the corresponding control tests, US assisted drying for fruit slices showed reductions in drying time between 16.23 and 30.19%, 11.34 and 32.73%, and 19.25 and 47.51% for the MS, BS and GS respectively. Considering shrinkage effects, Deff calculated values ranged from 1.67*10-10 to 3.18*10-10 m2/s, 3.96*10-10 and 5.57*10-10 m2/s and 4.61*10-10 to 8.16*10-10 m2/s for the BS, MS and GS samples respectively. Reductions of TPC and AA (as DPPH) were observed compared with the original content in fresh fruit data in all kinds of drying assays.

Keywords: Banana, drying, effective diffusivity, guava, mango, ultrasound.

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Authors: Abigail Qian Zhou

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Since China has entered an era of mass tourism, there has been a fundamental change in the way Chinese people approach and perceive the image of other countries. With the advent of the new media era, social networking sites such as Sina Weibo have become a tool for many foreign governmental organizations to spread and promote their national image. Among them, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) was one of the first foreign official tourism agencies to register with Sina Weibo and actively implement communication activities. Due to historical and political reasons, cognition of Japan's national image by the Chinese has always been complicated and contradictory. However, since 2015, China has become the largest source of tourists visiting Japan. This clearly indicates that the broadening of Japan's national image in China has been effective and has value worthy of reference in promoting a positive Chinese perception of Japan and encouraging Japanese tourism. Within this context and using the method of content analysis in media studies through content mining software, this study analyzed how JNTO’s Sina Weibo accounts have constructed and spread Japan's national image. This study also summarized the characteristics of its content and form, and finally revealed the strategy of JNTO in building its international image. The findings of this study not only add a tourism-based perspective to traditional national image communications research, but also provide some reference for the effective international dissemination of national image in the future.

Keywords: National image, tourism, international communication, Japan, China.

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Authors: Natalia Polkanova, Sergey Kazakov

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In the second decade of the XXI century the role of tourism destination attractiveness is becoming increasingly important for destination management. Competition in tourism market moves from ordinary service quality to provision of unforgettable emotional experience for tourists. The main purpose of the present study is to identify the perception of the tourism destinations based on the number of factors related to its tourist attractiveness. The content analysis method was used to analyze the on-line tourist feedback data immensely available in Social Media and in travel related sites. The collected data made it possible to procure the information which is necessary to understand the perceived attractiveness of the destinations and key destination appeal factors that are important for Russian leisure travelers. Results of the present study demonstrate key attractiveness factors or destination ‘properties’ that were unveiled as the most important for Russian leisure tourists. The study targeted five main Spanish tourism destinations that initially were determined by in-depth interview with a number of Russian nationals who had visited Spain at least once. The research results can be useful for Spanish Tourism Organization Representation office in Russia as well as for the other national tourism organizations in order to promote their respective destinations for Russian travelers focusing on main attractiveness factors identified in this study.

Keywords: Tourism destination, destination attractiveness, destination competitiveness, content analysis, unstructured image.

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Authors: Rangrong Yoksan, Amporn Sane, Nattaporn Khanoonkon, Chanakorn Yokesahachart, Narumol Noivoil, Khanh Minh Dang

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Polylactic acid (PLA) is the most commercially available bio-based and biodegradable plastic at present. PLA has been used in plastic related industries including single-used containers, disposable and environmentally friendly packaging owing to its renewability, compostability, biodegradability, and safety. Although PLA demonstrates reasonably good optical, physical, mechanical and barrier properties comparable to the existing petroleum-based plastics, its brittleness and mold shrinkage as well as its price are the points to be concerned for the production of rigid and semi-rigid packaging. Blending PLA with other bio-based polymers including thermoplastic starch (TPS) is an alternative not only to achieve a complete bio-based plastic, but also to reduce the brittleness, shrinkage during molding and production cost of the PLA-based products. TPS is a material produced mainly from starch which is cheap, renewable, biodegradable, compostable, and nontoxic. It is commonly prepared by a plasticization of starch under applying heat and shear force. Although glycerol has been reported as one of the most plasticizers used for preparing TPS, its migration caused the surface stickiness of the TPS products. In some cases, mixed plasticizers or natural fibers have been applied to impede the retrogradation of starch or reduce the migration of glycerol. The introduction of fibers into TPS-based materials could reinforce the polymer matrix as well. Therefore, the objective of the present research is to study the effect of starch type (i.e. native starch and phosphate starch), plasticizer type (i.e. glycerol and xylitol with a weight ratio of glycerol to xylitol of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100) and fiber content (i.e. in the range of 1-25 %wt) on properties of PLA/TPS blend and composite. PLA/TPS blends and composites were prepared using a twin-screw extruder and then converted into dumbbell-shaped specimens using an injection molding machine. The PLA/TPS blends prepared by using phosphate starch showed higher tensile strength and stiffness than the blends prepared by using native one. In contrast, the blends from native starch exhibited higher extensibility and heat distortion temperature (HDT) than those from the modified starch. Increasing xylitol content resulted in enhanced tensile strength, stiffness and water resistance, but decreased extensibility and HDT of the PLA/TPS blend. Tensile properties and hydrophobicity of the blend could be improved by incorporating silane treated-jute fibers.

Keywords: Polylactic acid, Thermoplastic starch, Jute fiber, Composite, Blend.

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Authors: Henok Hailemariam, Frank Wuttke

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Collapsible soils are weak soils that appear to be stable in their natural state, normally dry condition, but rapidly deform under saturation (wetting), thus generating large and unexpected settlements which often yield disastrous consequences for structures unwittingly built on such deposits. In this study, a prediction model for the relative subsidence of stressed collapsible soils based on dielectric permittivity measurement is presented. Unlike most existing methods for soil subsidence prediction, this model does not require moisture content as an input parameter, thus providing the opportunity to obtain accurate estimation of the relative subsidence of collapsible soils using dielectric measurement only. The prediction model is developed based on an existing relative subsidence prediction model (which is dependent on soil moisture condition) and an advanced theoretical frequency and temperature-dependent electromagnetic mixing equation (which effectively removes the moisture content dependence of the original relative subsidence prediction model). For large scale sub-surface soil exploration purposes, the spatial sub-surface soil dielectric data over wide areas and high depths of weak (collapsible) soil deposits can be obtained using non-destructive high frequency electromagnetic (HF-EM) measurement techniques such as ground penetrating radar (GPR). For laboratory or small scale in-situ measurements, techniques such as an open-ended coaxial line with widely applicable time domain reflectometry (TDR) or vector network analysers (VNAs) are usually employed to obtain the soil dielectric data. By using soil dielectric data obtained from small or large scale non-destructive HF-EM investigations, the new model can effectively predict the relative subsidence of weak soils without the need to extract samples for moisture content measurement. Some of the resulting benefits are the preservation of the undisturbed nature of the soil as well as a reduction in the investigation costs and analysis time in the identification of weak (problematic) soils. The accuracy of prediction of the presented model is assessed by conducting relative subsidence tests on a collapsible soil at various initial soil conditions and a good match between the model prediction and experimental results is obtained.

Keywords: Collapsible soil, relative subsidence, dielectric permittivity, moisture content.

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Authors: Salise Oktay, Nilgün Kızılcan, Başak Bengü

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At present, formaldehyde-based adhesives such as urea formaldehyde (UF), melamine formaldehyde (MF), melamine-urea formaldehyde (MUF) etc. are mostly used in wood-based panel industry because of their high reactivity, chemical versatility and economic competitiveness. However, formaldehyde-based wood adhesives are produced from non-renewable resources. Hence, there has been a growing interest in the development of environment friendly, economically competitive, bio-based wood adhesives in order to meet wood-based panel industry requirements. In this study, as formaldehyde free adhesive, tannin and starch-based wood adhesive was synthesized. Citric acid and tartaric acid were used as hardener for the resin system. Solid content, viscosity and gel time analyzes of the prepared adhesive were performed in order to evaluate the adhesive processability. FTIR characterization technique was used to elucidate chemical structures of the cured adhesive samples. In order to evaluate the performance of the prepared bio-based resin formulation, particleboards were produced in laboratory scale and mechanical, physical properties of the boards were investigated. Besides, formaldehyde contents of the boards were determined by using perforator method. The obtained results revealed that the developed bio-based wood adhesive formulation can be a good potential candidate to use in wood-based panel industry with some developments.

Keywords: Wood adhesive, cornstarch, mimosa tannin, particleboard.

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Authors: B. Coşgun, Ö. Öztürk

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Canola is a specific edible type of rapeseed, developed in the 1970s, which contains about 40 percent oil. This research was carried out to determine the yield and some quality characteristics of some winter canola cultivars during the 2010-2011 vegetation period in Central Anatolia of Turkey. In this research; Oase, Dante, Californium, Excalibur, Elvis, ES Hydromel, Licord, Orkan, Vectra, Nelson, Champlain and NK Petrol winter canola varieties were used as material. The field experiment was set up in a “Randomized Complete Block Design” with three replications on 21 September 2010. In this research; seed yield, oil content, protein content, oil yield and protein yield were examined. As a result of this research; seed yield, oil content, oil yield and protein yield (except protein content) were significant differences between the cultivars. The highest seed yield (6348 kg ha-1) was obtained from the NK Petrol, while the lowest seed yield (3949 kg ha-1) was determined from the Champlain cultivar was obtained. The highest oil content (46.73%) was observed from Oase and the lowest value was obtained from Vectra (41.87%) cultivar. The highest oil yield (2950 kg ha-1) was determined from NK Petrol while the least value (1681 kg ha-1) was determined from Champlain cultivar. The highest protein yield (1539.3 kg ha-1) was obtained from NK Petrol and the lowest protein yield (976.5 kg ha-1) was obtained from Champlain cultivar. The main purpose of the cultivation of oil crops, to increase the yield of oil per unit area. According the result of this research, NK Petrol cultivar which ranks first with regard to both seed yield and oil yield between cultivars as the most suitable winter canola cultivar of local conditions.

Keywords: Cultivar, Oil yield, Rapeseed, Seed Yield.

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Authors: Hussein Yousif Aziz, Jianlin Ma

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This research investigates the suitability of fuel oil in improving gypseous soil. A detailed laboratory tests were carried-out on two soils (soil I with 51.6% gypsum content, and soil II with 26.55%), where the two soils were obtained from Al-Therthar site (Al-Anbar Province-Iraq). This study examines the improvement of soil properties using the gypsum material which is locally available with low cost to minimize the effect of moisture on these soils by using the fuel oil. This study was conducted on two models of the soil gypsum, from the Tharthar area. The first model was sandy soil with Gypsum content of (51.6%) and the second is clayey soil and the content of Gypsum is (26.55%). The program included tests measuring the permeability and compressibility of the soil and their collapse properties. The shear strength of the soil and the amounts of weight loss of fuel oil due to drying had been found. These tests have been conducted on the treated and untreated soils to observe the effect of soil treatment on the engineering properties when mixed with varying degrees of fuel oil with the equivalent of the water content. The results showed that fuel oil is a good material to modify the basic properties of the gypseous soil of collapsibility and permeability, which are the main problems of this soil and retained the soil by an appropriate amount of the cohesion suitable for carrying the loads from the structure.

Keywords: Collapsibility, Enhancement of Gypseous Soils, Geotechnical Engineering, Gypseous soil, Shear Strength.

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Authors: J. Bertrandt, A. Kłos, R. Waszkowski, T. Nowicki, R. Pytlak, E. Stęzycka, A. Gazdzinska

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 The aim of the work was estimation of copper intake with the daily food rations used for alimentation of students of military high schools and soldiers doing compulsory military service in the Polish Army. An average planned copper content in daily food rations used for alimentation of students and soldiers amounted to 2.49±0.35 mg, and 2.44±0.25 mg respectively. The copper content in the daily food ration given for consumption to students amounted from 1.81±0.14 mg to 2.58±0.44 mg while daily food rations served to soldiers delivered from 2.06±0.45 mg to 2.13±0.33 mg. The copper content in the rations planned for students and soldiers alimentation was within the limits of the norms obligatory in Poland. Daily food rations given for consumption, except rations served for students, were within the limits of the recommended norms, but food rations really eaten by examined men didn’t cover the requirements for copper.

Keywords: Copper, daily food ration, military service.

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Authors: Joel S. Mtebe, Aron Kondoro, Mussa M. Kissaka, Elia Kibga

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Sub-Saharan Africa is described as the second fastest growing in mobile phone penetration in the world more than in the United States or the European Union. Mobile phones have been used to provide a lot of opportunities to improve people’s lives in the region such as in banking, marketing, entertainment, and paying for various bills such as water, TV, and electricity. However, the potential of mobile phones to enhance teaching and learning has not been explored. This study presents an experience of developing and delivering SMS based quiz questions used to assess mastery of subject content knowledge of science and mathematics secondary school teachers in Tanzania. The SMS quizzes were used as a follow up support mechanism to 500 teachers who participated in a project to upgrade subject content knowledge of teachers in science and mathematics subjects in Tanzania. Quizzes of 10-15 questions were sent to teachers each week for 8 weeks and the results were analyzed using SPSS. Results show that teachers who participated in chemistry and biology subjects have better performance compared to those who participated in mathematics and physics subjects. Teachers reported some challenges that led to poor performance, This research has several practical implications for those who are implementing or planning to use mobile phones in teaching and learning especially in rural secondary schools in sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: Mobile learning, e-learning, educational technologies, SMS, secondary education, assessment.

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Authors: Temitope O. Tokosi

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Healthcare is a human right. The sensitivity of health issues has necessitated the introduction of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) at district hospitals in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The objective is understanding clinicians’ perception of ECM at their workplace. It is a descriptive case study design of constructivist paradigm. It employed a phenomenological data analysis method using a pattern matching deductive based analytical procedure. Purposive and s4nowball sampling techniques were applied in selecting participants. Clinicians expressed concerns and frustrations using ECM such as, non-integration with other hospital systems. Inadequate access points to ECM. Incorrect labelling of notes and bar-coding causes more time wasted in finding information. System features and/or functions (such as search and edit) are not possible. Hospital management and clinicians are not constantly interacting and discussing. Information turnaround time is unacceptably lengthy. Resolving these problems would involve a positive working relationship between hospital management and clinicians. In addition, prioritising the problems faced by clinicians in relation to relevance can ensure problem-solving in order to meet clinicians’ expectations and hospitals’ objective. Clinicians’ perception should invoke attention from hospital management with regards technology use. The study’s results can be generalised across clinician groupings exposed to ECM at various district hospitals because of professional and hospital homogeneity.

Keywords: Clinician, electronic content management, hospital, perception, technology.

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Authors: Nonlapun Meenil, Pisitpong Intarapong, Thitima Wongsheree, Pranchalee Samanpiboon

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In Thailand, once pineapples are harvested, they must be classified into two classes based on their sweetness: sweet and unsweet. This paper has studied and developed the assessment of internal quality of pineapples using a low-cost compact spectroscopy sensor according to the spectroscopy approach and Neural Network (NN). During the experiments, Batavia pineapples were utilized, generating 100 samples. The extracted pineapple juice of each sample was used to determine the Soluble Solid Content (SSC) labeling into sweet and unsweet classes. In terms of experimental equipment, the sensor cover was specifically designed to install the sensor and light source to read the reflectance at a five mm depth from pineapple flesh. By using a spectroscopy sensor, data on visible and near-infrared reflectance (Vis-NIR) were collected. The NN was used to classify the pineapple classes. Before the classification step, the preprocessing methods, which are class balancing, data shuffling, and standardization, were applied. The 510 nm and 900 nm reflectance values of the middle parts of pineapples were used as features of the NN. With the sequential model and ReLU activation function, 100% accuracy of the training set and 76.67% accuracy of the test set were achieved. According to the abovementioned information, using a low-cost compact spectroscopy sensor has achieved favorable results in classifying the sweetness of the two classes of pineapples.

Keywords: Spectroscopy, soluble solid content, pineapple, neural network.

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Authors: Akhtar N, Khan BA, Khan MS, Mahmood T, Khan HMS, Iqbal M, Bashir S

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This study was designed to formulate, pharmaceutically evaluate a topical skin-care cream (w/o emulsion) of Aloe Vera versus its vehicle (Base) as control and determine their effects on Stratum Corneum (SC) water content and Transepidermal water loss (TEWL). Base containing no extract and a Formulation containing 3% concentrated extract of Aloe Vera was developed by entrapping in the inner aqueous phase of w/o emulsion (cream). Lemon oil was incorporated to improve the odor. Both the Base and Formulation were stored at 8°C ±0.1°C (in refrigerator), 25°C±0.1°C, 40°C±0.1°C and 40°C± 0.1°C with 75% RH (in incubator) for a period of 4 weeks to predict their stability. The evaluation parameters consisted of color, smell, type of emulsion, phase separation, electrical conductivity, centrifugation, liquefaction and pH. Both the Base and Formulation were applied to the cheeks of 21 healthy human volunteers for a period of 8 weeks Stratum corneum (SC) water content and Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) were monitored every week to measure any effect produced by these topical creams. The expected organoleptic stability of creams was achieved from 4 weeks in-vitro study period. Odor was disappeared with the passage of time due to volatilization of lemon oil. Both the Base and Formulation produced significant (p≤0.05) changes in TEWL with respect to time. SC water content was significantly (p≤0.05) increased by the Formulation while the Base has insignificant (p 0.05) effects on SC water content. The newly formulated cream of Aloe Vera, applied is suitable for improvement and quantitative monitoring of skin hydration level (SC water content/ moisturizing effects) and reducing TEWL in people with dry skin.

Keywords: Aloe Vera; Skin; Stratum corneum (SC) water content and Transepidermal water loss (TEWL).

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Authors: Che-Wei Lee, Bay-Erl Lai

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A new steganographic method via the use of numeric data on public websites with a self-authentication capability is proposed. The proposed technique transforms a secret message into partial shares by Shamir’s (k, n)-threshold secret sharing scheme with n = k + 1. The generated k+1 partial shares then are embedded into the numeric items to be disguised as part of the website’s numeric content, yielding the stego numeric content. Afterward, a receiver links to the website and extracts every k shares among the k+1 ones from the stego numeric content to compute k+1 copies of the secret, and the phenomenon of value consistency of the computed k+1 copies is taken as an evidence to determine whether the extracted message is authentic or not, attaining the goal of self-authentication of the extracted secret message. Experimental results and discussions are provided to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords: Steganography, data hiding, secret authentication, secret sharing.

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Authors: Sarantos Psycharis

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Physical Computing, as an instructional model, is applied in the framework of the Engineering Pedagogy to teach “transversal/cross-cutting ideas” in a STEM content approach. Labview and Arduino were used in order to connect the physical world with real data in the framework of the so called Computational Experiment. Tertiary prospective engineering educators were engaged during their course and Computational Thinking (CT) concepts were registered before and after the intervention across didactic activities using validated questionnaires for the relationship between self-efficacy, computer programming, and CT concepts when STEM content epistemology is implemented in alignment with the Computational Pedagogy model. Results show a significant change in students’ responses for self-efficacy for CT before and after the instruction. Results also indicate a significant relation between the responses in the different CT concepts/practices. According to the findings, STEM content epistemology combined with Physical Computing should be a good candidate as a learning and teaching approach in university settings that enhances students’ engagement in CT concepts/practices.

Keywords: STEM, computational thinking, physical computing, Arduino, Labview, self-efficacy.

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Authors: Song Han, Elizabeth Chang

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Blind signatures enable users to obtain valid signatures for a message without revealing its content to the signer. This paper presents a new blind signature scheme, i.e. identity-based blind signature scheme with message recovery. Due to the message recovery property, the new scheme requires less bandwidth than the identitybased blind signatures with similar constructions. The scheme is based on modified Weil/Tate pairings over elliptic curves, and thus requires smaller key sizes for the same level of security compared to previous approaches not utilizing bilinear pairings. Security and efficiency analysis for the scheme is provided in this paper.

Keywords: Blind Signature, Message Recovery, Pairings, Elliptic Curves, Blindness

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Authors: D. Sathan, A. Meetoo, R. K. Subramaniam

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Context awareness is a capability whereby mobile computing devices can sense their physical environment and adapt their behavior accordingly. The term context-awareness, in ubiquitous computing, was introduced by Schilit in 1994 and has become one of the most exciting concepts in early 21st-century computing, fueled by recent developments in pervasive computing (i.e. mobile and ubiquitous computing). These include computing devices worn by users, embedded devices, smart appliances, sensors surrounding users and a variety of wireless networking technologies. Context-aware applications use context information to adapt interfaces, tailor the set of application-relevant data, increase the precision of information retrieval, discover services, make the user interaction implicit, or build smart environments. For example: A context aware mobile phone will know that the user is currently in a meeting room, and reject any unimportant calls. One of the major challenges in providing users with context-aware services lies in continuously monitoring their contexts based on numerous sensors connected to the context aware system through wireless communication. A number of context aware frameworks based on sensors have been proposed, but many of them have neglected the fact that monitoring with sensors imposes heavy workloads on ubiquitous devices with limited computing power and battery. In this paper, we present CALEEF, a lightweight and energy efficient context aware framework for resource limited ubiquitous devices.

Keywords: Context-Aware, Energy-Efficient, Lightweight, Ubiquitous Devices.

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Authors: G. E. Gandomkar, E. Bekhradinassab, S. Sabbaghi, M. M. Zerafat

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The reduction of water content in crude oil emulsions reduces pipeline corrosion potential and increases the productivity. Chemical emulsification of crude oil emulsions is one of the methods available to reduce the water content. Presence of demulsifier causes the film layer between the crude oil emulsion and water droplets to become unstable leading to the acceleration of water coalescence. This research has been performed to study the improvement performance of a chemical demulsifier by silica nanoparticles. The silica nano-particles have been synthesized by sol-gel technique and precipitation using poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) and poly ethylene glycol (PEG) as surfactants and then nano-particles are added to the demulsifier. The silica nanoparticles were characterized by Particle Size Analyzer (PSA) and SEM. Upon the addition of nanoparticles, bottle tests have been carried out to separate and measure the water content. The results show that silica nano-particles increase the demulsifier efficiency by about 40%.

Keywords: Demulsifier, dehydration, silicon dioxide, nanoparticle.

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Authors: Violina R. Angelova, Mariana N. Perifanova-Nemska, Galina P. Uzunova, Krasimir I. Ivanov, Huu Q. Lee

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A field study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) for phytoremediation of contaminated soils. The experiment was performed on an agricultural field contaminated by the Non-Ferrous-Metal Works near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Field experiments with a randomized, complete block design with five treatments (control, compost amendments added at 20 and 40 t/daa, and vemicompost amendments added at 20 and 40 t/daa) were carried out. The accumulation of heavy metals in the sunflower plant and the quality of the sunflower oil (heavy metals and fatty acid composition) were determined. The tested organic amendments significantly influenced the uptake of Pb, Zn and Cd by the sunflower plant. The incorporation of 40 t/decare of compost and 20 t/decare of vermicompost to the soil led to an increase in the ability of the sunflower to take up and accumulate Cd, Pb and Zn. Sunflower can be subjected to the accumulators of Pb, Zn and Cd and can be successfully used for phytoremediation of contaminated soils with heavy metals. The 40 t/daa compost treatment led to a decrease in heavy metal content in sunflower oil to below the regulated limits. Oil content and fatty acids composition were affected by compost and vermicompost amendment treatments. Adding compost and vermicompost increased the oil content in the seeds. Adding organic amendments increased the content of stearic, palmitoleic and oleic acids, and reduced the content of palmitic and gadoleic acids in sunflower oil. The possibility of further industrial processing of seeds to oil and use of the obtained oil will make sunflowers economically interesting crops for farmers of phytoremediation technology.

Keywords: Heavy metals, organic amendments, phytoremediation, sunflower.

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Authors: Aleksandrs Kovalcuks, Mara Duma

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Egg yolk oil is a concentrated source of egg bioactive compounds, such as fat-soluble vitamins, phospholipids, cholesterol, carotenoids and others. To extract lipids and other fat-soluble nutrients from liquid egg yolk, a two-step extraction process involving polar (ethanol) and non-polar (hexane) solvents were used. This extraction technique was based on egg yolk bioactive compounds polarities, where non-polar compound was extracted into non-polar hexane, but polar in to polar alcohol/water phase. But many egg yolk bioactive compounds are not strongly polar or non-polar. Egg yolk phospholipids, cholesterol and pigments are amphipatic (have both polar and non-polar regions) and their behavior in ethanol/hexane solvent system is not clear. The aim of this study was to clarify the behavior of phospholipids, cholesterol and carotenoids during extraction of egg yolk oil with ethanol and hexane and determine the loss of these compounds in egg yolk oil. Egg yolks and egg yolk oil were analyzed for phospholipids (phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE)), cholesterol and carotenoids (lutein, zeaxanthin, canthaxanthin and β-carotene) content using GC-FID and HPLC methods. PC and PE are polar lipids and were extracted into polar ethanol phase. Concentration of PC in ethanol was 97.89% and PE 99.81% from total egg yolk phospholipids. Due to cholesterol’s partial extraction into ethanol, cholesterol content in egg yolk oil was reduced in comparison to its total content presented in egg yolk lipids. The highest amount of lutein and zeaxanthin was concentrated in ethanol extract. The opposite situation was observed with canthaxanthin and β-carotene, which became the main pigments of egg yolk oil.

Keywords: Cholesterol, egg yolk oil, lutein, phospholipids, solvent extraction.

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Authors: Rashima Mahajan, Dipali Bansal, Shweta Singh

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Real time non-invasive Brain Computer Interfaces have a significant progressive role in restoring or maintaining a quality life for medically challenged people. This manuscript provides a comprehensive review of emerging research in the field of cognitive/affective computing in context of human neural responses. The perspectives of different emotion assessment modalities like face expressions, speech, text, gestures, and human physiological responses have also been discussed. Focus has been paid to explore the ability of EEG (Electroencephalogram) signals to portray thoughts, feelings, and unspoken words. An automated workflow-based protocol to design an EEG-based real time Brain Computer Interface system for analysis and classification of human emotions elicited by external audio/visual stimuli has been proposed. The front end hardware includes a cost effective and portable Emotiv EEG Neuroheadset unit, a personal computer and a set of external stimulators. Primary signal analysis and processing of real time acquired EEG shall be performed using MATLAB based advanced brain mapping toolbox EEGLab/BCILab. This shall be followed by the development of MATLAB based self-defined algorithm to capture and characterize temporal and spectral variations in EEG under emotional stimulations. The extracted hybrid feature set shall be used to classify emotional states using artificial intelligence tools like Artificial Neural Network. The final system would result in an inexpensive, portable and more intuitive Brain Computer Interface in real time scenario to control prosthetic devices by translating different brain states into operative control signals.

Keywords: Brain Computer Interface (BCI), Electroencephalogram (EEG), EEGLab, BCILab, Emotiv, Emotions, Interval features, Spectral features, Artificial Neural Network, Control applications.

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