Bibliographic analysis of persuasive systems: techniques, methods and domains of application

This paper presents findings of our study on peer-reviewed papers published in the International Conference on Persuasive Technology from 2006 to 2010. The study indicated that out of 44 systems reviewed, 23 were reported to be successful, 2 to be unsuccessful and 19 did not specify whether or not it was successful. 56 different techniques were mentioned and it was observed that most designers use ad hoc definitions for techniques or methods used in design. Hence we propose the need for research to establish unambiguous definitions of techniques and methods in the field.

Analysis of wall plasters and natural sediments from the Neolithic town of Çatalhöyük (Turkey) by a range of analytical techniques

Wall plaster sequences from the Neolithic town of Çatalhöyük have been analysed and compared to three types of natural sediment found in the vicinity of the site, using a range of analytical techniques. Block samples containing the plaster sequences were removed from the walls of several different buildings on the East Mound. Sub-samples were examined by IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence to determine the overall mineralogical and elemental composition, whilst thin sections were studied using optical polarising microscopy, IR Microscopy and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis. The results of this study have shown that there are two types of wall plaster found in the sequences and that the sediments used to produce these were obtained from at least two distinct sources. In particular, the presence of clay, calcite and magnesian calcite in the foundation plasters suggested that these were prepared predominantly from a marl source. On the other hand, the finishing plasters were found to contain dolomite with a small amount of clay and no calcite, revealing that softlime was used in their preparation. Whilst marl is located directly below and around Çatalhöyük, the nearest source of softlime is 6.5 km away, an indication that the latter was important to the Neolithic people, possibly due to the whiter colour (5Y 8/1) of this sediment. Furthermore, the same two plaster types were found on each wall of Building 49, the main building studied in this research, and in all five buildings investigated, suggesting that the use of these sources was an established practice for the inhabitants of several different households across the site.

A survey of data mining techniques for social media analysis

Social network has gained remarkable attention in the last decade. Accessing social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook LinkedIn and Google+ through the internet and the web 2.0 technologies has become more affordable. People are becoming more interested in and relying on social network for information, news and opinion of other users on diverse subject matters. The heavy reliance on social network sites causes them to generate massive data characterised by three computational issues namely; size, noise and dynamism. These issues often make social network data very complex to analyse manually, resulting in the pertinent use of computational means of analysing them. Data mining provides a wide range of techniques for detecting useful knowledge from massive datasets like trends, patterns and rules [44]. Data mining techniques are used for information retrieval, statistical modelling and machine learning. These techniques employ data pre-processing, data analysis, and data interpretation processes in the course of data analysis. This survey discusses different data mining techniques used in mining diverse aspects of the social network over decades going from the historical techniques to the up-to-date models, including our novel technique named TRCM. All the techniques covered in this survey are listed in the Table.1 including the tools employed as well as names of their authors.

Reduced relative entropy techniques for a posteriori analysis of multiphase problems in elastodynamics

We give an a posteriori analysis of a semidiscrete discontinuous Galerkin scheme approximating solutions to a model of multiphase elastodynamics, which involves an energy density depending not only on the strain but also the strain gradient. A key component in the analysis is the reduced relative entropy stability framework developed in Giesselmann (2014, SIAM J. Math. Anal., 46, 3518–3539). This framework allows energy-type arguments to be applied to continuous functions. Since we advocate the use of discontinuous Galerkin methods we make use of two families of reconstructions, one set of discrete reconstructions and a set of elliptic reconstructions to apply the reduced relative entropy framework in this setting.

Reduced relative entropy techniques for a priori analysis of multiphase problems in elastodynamics

We give an a priori analysis of a semi-discrete discontinuous Galerkin scheme approximating solutions to a model of multiphase elastodynamics which involves an energy density depending not only on the strain but also the strain gradient. A key component in the analysis is the reduced relative entropy stability framework developed in Giesselmann (SIAM J Math Anal 46(5):3518–3539, 2014). The estimate we derive is optimal in the L∞(0,T;dG) norm for the strain and the L2(0,T;dG) norm for the velocity, where dG is an appropriate mesh dependent H1-like space.

Outcome Analysis of Immediate and Delayed Conservative Breast Surgery Reconstruction With Mastopexy and Reduction Mammaplasty Techniques

Background: Bilateral mammaplasty or mastopexy is frequently used for oncoplastic objectives. However, little information has been available regarding outcome following immediate and delayed reconstruction. Method: Patients were divided into Group I (immediate reconstruction) and Group II (delayed reconstruction). Retrospective review was performed to compare complications, length of hospital stay, revision surgeries, and satisfaction. The associations between the complications with potential risk factors (timing, age, body mass index, smoking, and comorbid medical conditions) were analyzed. Results: There were a total of 144 patients with a mean follow-up of 47 months. Of the 106 patients in Group I, complications occurred in 24 (22.6%), skin necrosis was observed in 7.5%, fat necrosis in 5.6%, and 6.6% patients developed local recurrence. Mean period of hospitalization was 1.89 days. Of the 38 patients of the Group II, complications occurred in 12 (31.5%), skin necrosis was observed in 7 (18.4%), fat necrosis in 4 (10.5%), and 5.2% patients developed local recurrence. Mean period of hospitalization was 1.35 days. Increased length of hospital stay greater than 1 day (P < 0.001) and the number of revision surgeries (P = 0.043) were associated with the timing of the reconstruction. In univariate analysis, no difference between groups was found with respect to complication incidence (P = 0.275); however, after adjusting for other risk factors, the probability of complications tend to be higher for Group II (OR = 2.65; 95% confidence interval - 1.01-7.00; P = 0.049). Conclusions: On the basis of the results of our study, the probability of complications tends to be higher for delayed reconstructions, and it is demonstrated that obesity and smoking are risk factors for complications. Ultimately, these data may facilitate the provision of individualized risk information for shared medical decision-making.

DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES OF LOCAL INFLUENCE IN SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF SOYBEAN YIELD

Modeling of spatial dependence structure, concerning geoestatistics approach, is an indispensable tool for fixing parameters that define this structure, applied on interpolation of values in places that are not sampled, by kriging techniques. However, the estimation of parameters can be greatly affected by the presence of atypical observations on sampled data. Thus, this trial aimed at using diagnostics techniques of local influence in spatial linear Gaussians models, applied at geoestatistics in order to evaluate sensitivity of maximum likelihood estimators and restrict maximum likelihood to small perturbations in these data. So, studies with simulated and experimental data were performed. Those results, obtained from the study of real data, allowed us to conclude that the presence of atypical values among the sampled data can have a strong influence on thematic maps, changing, therefore, the spatial dependence. The application of diagnostics techniques of local influence should be part of any geoestatistic analysis, ensuring that the information from thematic maps has better quality and can be used with greater security by farmers.

ANALYSIS & STUDY OF AI TECHNIQUES FORAUTOMATIC CONDITION MONITORING OFRAILWAY TRACK INFRASTRUCTURE : Artificial Intelligence Techniques

Since the last decade the problem of surface inspection has been receiving great attention from the scientific community, the quality control and the maintenance of products are key points in several industrial applications.The railway associations spent much money to check the railway infrastructure. The railway infrastructure is a particular field in which the periodical surface inspection can help the operator to prevent critical situations. The maintenance and monitoring of this infrastructure is an important aspect for railway association.That is why the surface inspection of railway also makes importance to the railroad authority to investigate track components, identify problems and finding out the way that how to solve these problems. In railway industry, usually the problems find in railway sleepers, overhead, fastener, rail head, switching and crossing and in ballast section as well. In this thesis work, I have reviewed some research papers based on AI techniques together with NDT techniques which are able to collect data from the test object without making any damage. The research works which I have reviewed and demonstrated that by adopting the AI based system, it is almost possible to solve all the problems and this system is very much reliable and efficient for diagnose problems of this transportation domain. I have reviewed solutions provided by different companies based on AI techniques, their products and reviewed some white papers provided by some of those companies. AI based techniques likemachine vision, stereo vision, laser based techniques and neural network are used in most cases to solve the problems which are performed by the railway engineers.The problems in railway handled by the AI based techniques performed by NDT approach which is a very broad, interdisciplinary field that plays a critical role in assuring that structural components and systems perform their function in a reliable and cost effective fashion. The NDT approach ensures the uniformity, quality and serviceability of materials without causing any damage of that materials is being tested. This testing methods use some way to test product like, Visual and Optical testing, Radiography, Magnetic particle testing, Ultrasonic testing, Penetrate testing, electro mechanic testing and acoustic emission testing etc. The inspection procedure has done periodically because of better maintenance. This inspection procedure done by the railway engineers manually with the aid of AI based techniques.The main idea of thesis work is to demonstrate how the problems can be reduced of thistransportation area based on the works done by different researchers and companies. And I have also provided some ideas and comments according to those works and trying to provide some proposal to use better inspection method where it is needed.The scope of this thesis work is automatic interpretation of data from NDT, with the goal of detecting flaws accurately and efficiently. AI techniques such as neural networks, machine vision, knowledge-based systems and fuzzy logic were applied to a wide spectrum of problems in this area. Another scope is to provide an insight into possible research methods concerning railway sleeper, fastener, ballast and overhead inspection by automatic interpretation of data.In this thesis work, I have discussed about problems which are arise in railway sleepers,fastener, and overhead and ballasted track. For this reason I have reviewed some research papers related with these areas and demonstrated how their systems works and the results of those systems. After all the demonstrations were taking place of the advantages of using AI techniques in contrast with those manual systems exist previously.This work aims to summarize the findings of a large number of research papers deploying artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for the automatic interpretation of data from nondestructive testing (NDT). Problems in rail transport domain are mainly discussed in this work. The overall work of this paper goes to the inspection of railway sleepers, fastener, ballast and overhead.

Effectiveness of high-throughput miniaturized sorbent- and solid phase microextraction techniques combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis for a rapid screening of volatile and semi-volatile composition of wines: a comparative study

In this study the feasibility of different extraction procedures was evaluated in order to test their potential for the extraction of the volatile (VOCs) and semi-volatile constituents (SVOCs) from wines. In this sense, and before they could be analysed by gas chromatography–quadrupole first stage masss spectrometry (GC–qMS), three different high-throughput miniaturized (ad)sorptive extraction techniques, based on solid phase extraction (SPE), microextraction by packed sorbents (MEPS) and solid phase microextraction (SPME), were studied for the first time together, for the extraction step. To achieve the most complete volatile and semi-volatile signature, distinct SPE (LiChrolut EN, Poropak Q, Styrene-Divinylbenzene and Amberlite XAD-2) and MEPS (C2, C8, C18, Silica and M1 (mixed C8-SCX)) sorbent materials, and different SPME fibre coatings (PA, PDMS, PEG, DVB/CAR/PDMS, PDMS/DVB, and CAR/PDMS), were tested and compared. All the extraction techniques were followed by GC–qMS analysis, which allowed the identification of up to 103 VOCs and SVOCs, distributed by distinct chemical families: higher alcohols, esters, fatty acids, carbonyl compounds and furan compounds. Mass spectra, standard compounds and retention index were used for identification purposes. SPE technique, using LiChrolut EN as sorbent (SPELiChrolut EN), was the most efficient method allowing for the identification of 78 VOCs and SVOCs, 63 and 19 more than MEPS and SPME techniques, respectively. In MEPS technique the best results in terms of number of extractable/identified compounds and total peak areas of volatile and semi-volatile fraction, were obtained by using C8 resin whereas DVB/CAR/PDMS was revealed the most efficient SPME coating to extract VOCs and SVOCs from Bual wine. Diethyl malate (18.8 ± 3.2%) was the main component found in wine SPELiChrolut EN extracts followed by ethyl succinate (13.5 ± 5.3%), 3-methyl-1-butanol (13.2 ± 1.7%), and 2-phenylethanol (11.2 ± 9.9%), while in SPMEDVB/CAR/PDMS technique 3-methyl-1-butanol (43.3 ± 0.6%) followed by diethyl succinate (18.9 ± 1.6%), and 2-furfural (10.4 ± 0.4%), are the major compounds. The major VOCs and SVOCs isolated by MEPSC8 were 3-methyl-1-butanol (26.8 ± 0.6%, from wine total volatile fraction), diethyl succinate (24.9 ± 0.8%), and diethyl malate (16.3 ± 0.9%). Regardless of the extraction technique, the highest extraction efficiency corresponds to esters and higher alcohols and the lowest to fatty acids. Despite some drawbacks associated with the SPE procedure such as the use of organic solvents, the time-consuming and tedious sampling procedure, it was observed that SPELiChrolut EN, revealed to be the most effective technique allowing the extraction of a higher number of compounds (78) rather than the other extraction techniques studied.

Petroleum well drilling monitoring through cutting image analysis and artificial intelligence techniques

Petroleum well drilling monitoring has become an important tool for detecting and preventing problems during the well drilling process. In this paper, we propose to assist the drilling process by analyzing the cutting images at the vibrating shake shaker, in which different concentrations of cuttings can indicate possible problems, such as the collapse of the well borehole walls. In such a way, we present here an innovative computer vision system composed by a real time cutting volume estimator addressed by support vector regression. As far we know, we are the first to propose the petroleum well drilling monitoring by cutting image analysis. We also applied a collection of supervised classifiers for cutting volume classification. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Techniques of digital image analysis for histological quantification of melanin

A análise morfométrica da melanina tecidual pode subsidiar quantitativamente a pesquisa em discromias. Os autores demonstram três técnicas de análise de imagem digital que permitem a identificação dos pixels equivalentes à melanina na epiderme pela coloração de Fontana-Masson, possibilitando o cálculo da sua porcentagem nas diferentes camadas da epiderme, e discutem os principais elementos relacionados à análise e a necessidade de rigorosa padronização do processo.

Remote sensing techniques applied to slope failure analysis

The paper evaluates the applicability of products of remote sensing in studies related to the structural conditionings of slope stability in saprolites, usually conducted through field surveys. In this article we use a regional approach concentrating on an area of lane duplication of a major highway. In that area, resistance reduction to stress and the low cohesions of muscovite saprolites - schists and gneiss which are associated to geological discontinuities, all result in inumerous instabilities. The joints and foliations were extracted from satellite images as well as aerial photographs. Following that, the study area was divided into various sectors based on the directions and dips of the foliation. Different relationships between the structures and the slopes were analyzed in order to indicate the most feasible type of slope failure in each sector of analysis. The aim of the study is to subsidize further detailed future research.

Analysis of various conditions in order to measure electromyography of isometric contractions in water and on air

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)