Relevance feedback for CBIR: a new approach based on probabilistic feature weighting with positive and negative examples.

In content-based image retrieval, understanding the user's needs is a challenging task that requires integrating him in the process of retrieval. Relevance feedback (RF) has proven to be an effective tool for taking the user's judgement into account. In this paper, we present a new RF framework based on a feature selection algorithm that nicely combines the advantages of a probabilistic formulation with those of using both the positive example (PE) and the negative example (NE). Through interaction with the user, our algorithm learns the importance he assigns to image features, and then applies the results obtained to define similarity measures that correspond better to his judgement. The use of the NE allows images undesired by the user to be discarded, thereby improving retrieval accuracy. As for the probabilistic formulation of the problem, it presents a multitude of advantages and opens the door to more modeling possibilities that achieve a good feature selection. It makes it possible to cluster the query data into classes, choose the probability law that best models each class, model missing data, and support queries with multiple PE and/or NE classes. The basic principle of our algorithm is to assign more importance to features with a high likelihood and those which distinguish well between PE classes and NE classes. The proposed algorithm was validated separately and in image retrieval context, and the experiments show that it performs a good feature selection and contributes to improving retrieval effectiveness.     

Gastric ECL-cell hyperplasia produces enhanced basal and stimulated gastric acid output but not gastric erosion formation in the rat

Cervical involvement is one of the major prognostic factors in carcinoma of the endometrium confined to the uterus. The purpose of this study was to determine whether intrauterine ultrasound with a high-frequency miniature probe can depict the degree of cervical involvement of the disease. Thirty-two women with endometrial carcinoma underwent preoperative transvaginal and intrauterine sonography. By both scans, the degree of cervical involvement was prospectively evaluated. Sonograms were compared with the findings from histologic examination. Intrauterine sonography was completed in 30 of the 32 patients. In these 30 patients, the degree of cervical involvement (none, endocervical gland, or cervical stroma) based on transvaginal scan was correct in 23 cases (77%), and that based on intrauterine scan was correct in 26 cases (87%). Three tumors with endocervical glandular involvement were correctly diagnosed by intrauterine sonography, whereas they were incorrectly diagnosed by transvaginal scan. The specificity and positive predictive value of intrauterine sonography for the assessment of the presence of cervical stromal invasion are 100% (26/26 and 3/3, respectively). Although this study is preliminary, our experience with intrauterine sonography shows that it has potential for assessing cervical stromal invasion in endometrial carcinoma.     

Effect of short-term storage on phenolic content,o-diphenolase and peroxidase activities of cut yam tubers (Dioscorea sp)

The effect of short-term storage on the protein, phosphorus and phenolic content as well as peroxidase and o-diphenolase activities of cut, harvested Jamaican yam (Dioscorea sp) tubers (D rotundata. D alata and D cayenensis) was studied. There was an initial increase in the total phenolic content up to the third week of storage followed by a gradual decrease to the sixth week. Phenolic content was found to be highest in D cayenensis followed by D rotundata and D alata. The activities of peroxidase (EC 1. 11. 1. 7) and o-diphenolase (EC 1. 10.3.1) increased steadily up to the third week of storage and thereafter decreased to the fifth week. The intensity and rapidity of browning in tubers when cut, correlated very closely with the tuber o-diphenolase and phenolic content levels while the onset of rotting correlated with the peroxidase activity levels in the species studied.     

Studies on the interactions of metal oxides and Na2 SO4 at 1100 and 1200 K in oxygen

The interaction of different metal oxides such as Co₃O₄, NiO, Al₂O₃, Cr₂O₃, Fe₂O₃ and SiO₂ with Na₂SO₄ at a temperature of 1100 and 1200 K in flowing oxygen has been studied. The thermogravimetric studies for each system were carried out as a function of Na₂SO₄ in the mixture. The presence of different constituents in the reaction products were identified by X-ray diffraction analysis and the morphologies of the reaction products were characterized using metallography and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The formation of products was also investigated by thermodynamic computation of free energies of the reactions and the study of relevant equilibrium phase diagrams. The soluble species in the aqueous solutions of the reaction products were determined quantitatively using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The high temperature interaction products usually contain a 3-phase structure namely, Na₂O·M₂O _x , M₂O _x and metal sulphide and/or metal sulphate. The formation of Na₂O·M₂O _x depends upon the solid state solubility of metal oxide in the molten salt at high temperatures. Under limited solubility conditions Na₂O·M₂O _x is invariably formed, but as soon as this condition is relaxed the oxide. M₂O _x , precipitates and forms a separate phase.     

The flame retardant mechanism of polyolefins modified with chalk and silicone elastomer

This paper presents the current understanding of the flame retardant mechanism of Casico?. The study includes the flame retardant effect of each individual component: ethylene–acrylate copolymer, chalk and silicone elastomer, as well as the formation of an intumescent structure during heating. The flame retardant properties were investigated by cone calorimetry and oxygen index tests. To obtain insight into the flame retardant mechanism, heat treatment under different conditions has also been performed. The results indicate that the flame retardant mechanism of Casico is complex and is related to a number of reactions, e.g. ester pyrolysis of acrylate groups, formation of carbon dioxide by reaction between carboxylic acid and chalk, ionomer formation and formation of an intumescent structure stabilized by a protecting char. Special emphasis is given to the formation of the intumescent structure and its molecular structure as evaluated from ¹³C MAS‐NMR and ²⁹Si MAS‐NMR, ESCA and XRD analysis. After treatment at 500°C the intumescent structure consists mainly of silicon oxides and calcium carbonate and after treatment at 1000°C the intumescent structure consists of calcium silicate, calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel silicon Schottky diode for NLTL applications

The design and simulation of a novel silicon Schottky diode for nonlinear transmission line (NLTL) applications is discussed in this paper. The Schottky diode was fabricated on a novel silicon-on-silicide-on-insulator (SSOI) substrate for minimized series resistance. Ion implantation technology was used as a low-cost alternative to molecular beam epitaxy to approximate the delta (/spl delta/) doping profile, which results in strong nonlinear CV characteristics. The equivalent circuit model of the Schottky diode under reverse bias conditions was extracted from the S-parameter measurement performed on the diode. The measured CV characteristics show strong nonlinearity, the junction capacitance varies from 182 to 47.5 fF as the reverse bias voltage is varied from 0 to -5 V. A parasitic inductance of 40 pH was measured for the silicon Schottky diode, which is much smaller than a comparable sized GaAs Schottky diode. This small inductance is an advantage for the silicon Schottky diode offering improvement in the silicon NLTL performance.     

Pyramid collaborative filtering technique for an intelligent autonomous guide agent

This article presents an autonomous guide agent that can observe a community of learners on the web, interpret the learners' inputs, and then assess their sharing. The goal of this agent is to find a reliable helper (tutor or other learner) to assist a learner in solving his task. Despite the growing number of Internet users, the ability to find helpers is still a challenging and important problem. Although helpers could have much useful information about courses to be taught, many learners fail to understand their presentations. For that, the agent must be able to deal autonomously with the following challenges: Do helpers have information that the learners need? Will helpers present information that learners can understand? And can we guarantee that these helpers will collaborate effectively with learners? We have developed a new filtering framework, called a pyramid collaborative filtering model, to whittle the number of helpers down to just one. We have proposed four levels for the pyramid. Moving from one level to another depends on three filtering techniques: domain model filtering, user model filtering, and credibility model filtering. A new technique is filtering according to helpers' credibilities. Our experiments show that this method greatly improves filtering effectiveness. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 22: 1065–1082, 2007.     

CONTEXTUALIZING LEARNING OBJECTS USING ONTOLOGIES

Educational research over the past three years has intensified such that the context of learning resources needs to be properly modeled. Many researchers have described and even mandated the use of ontologies in the research being conducted, yet the process of actually connecting one or more ontologies to a learning object has not been extensively discussed. This paper describes a practical model for associating multiple ontologies with learning objects while making full use of the IEEE LOM specification. The model categorizes these ontologies according to five major categories of context based on the most popular fields of study actively being pursued by the educational research community: Thematic context, Pedagogical context, Learner context, Organizational context, and Historical/Statistical context.