Benchmarking performance of machine and deep learning-based methodologies for Urdu text document classification

Neural Computing and Applications - In order to provide benchmark performance for Urdu text document classification, the contribution of this paper is manifold. First, it provides a publicly...     

Determining trust in media-rich websites using semantic similarity

Significant growth of multimedia content on the World Wide Web (or simply ??Web??) has made it an essential part of peoples lives. The web provides enormous amount of information, however, it is very important for the users to be able to gauge the trustworthiness of web information. Users normally access content from the first few links provided to them by search engines such as Google or Yahoo!. This is assuming that these search engines provide factual information, which may be popular due to criteria such as page rank but may not always be trustworthy from the factual aspects. This paper presents a mechanism to determine trust of websites based on the semantic similarity of their multimedia content with already established and trusted websites. The proposed method allows for dynamic computation of the trust level of websites of different domains and hence overcomes the dependency on traditional user feedback methods for determining trust. In fact, our method attempts to emulate the evolving process of trust that takes place in a user??s mind. The experimental results have been provided to demonstrate the utility and practicality of the proposed method.     

Eco‐friendly durable press finishing of cellulose‐containing fabrics

To impart easy‐care properties to cellulose‐containing fabrics along with avoiding any harmful effects of formaldehyde on both the health and the environment, attempts have been made to use citric acid (CA) as an ester crosslinking agent along with different catalytic systems in the absence and presence of certain additives. Further, fixation conditions, type of crosslinking agent, as well as type of substrate have been studied. Results revealed that the enhancement in carboxyl content, performance properties, and the decrease in tear strength (TS) as well as in whiteness indices (WI) of the finished fabric samples were increased by increasing CA concentration up to 80 g/L and by raising thermofixation temperature from 140 up to 180°C for 90 s. Inclusion of triethanolamine hydrochloride (TEA. HCl), decreased the carboxyl content, TS, color strength K/S, as well as oily stain release rating (SRR) of the finished fabric samples along with an increase in bound nitrogen (%N), wrinkle recovery angle WRA, and an improvement in WI without affecting the durable press rating (DP). Within the range examined (0–30 g/L), increasing PEG‐600 concentration improved the wet resiliency, TS, as well as WI properties of the finished samples. Increasing DMDHEU ratio in the CA/DMDHEU crosslinking system gave rise to an increase in %N, WRA (dry and wet), DP, as well as in free CH₂O of finished fabrics, along with a slight improvement in WI values. On the other hand, the TS, carboxyl content, K/S, SRR values of the finished fabric samples were lower at a higher DMDHEU ratio. Increase in carboxyl content, %N, WRA (dry and wet), DP and SRR, as well as extent of post dyeing (K/S) of the treated fabric samples upon using different ester crosslinking agents followed the descending order: citric acid > pyromellitic dianhydride. The opposite holds true for the TS, and WI values. Among the esterifying catalysts used, and for a given set of finishing conditions, NaH₂PO₂ · H₂O proved to be the most effective one, and the following order of effectiveness may be drawn: NaH₂PO₂ · H₂O > K₂HPO₄ > Na₃–citrate > Na₂–tartrate. Inclusion of silicone softener in the finishing formulation brought about an improvement in softeness degree, WRA, %N, DP, TS as well as K/S values along with a decrease in carboxyl content, SRR, and WI values of the treated fabric samples, regardless of the used silicone softener.The performance properties of the finished fabric samples were determined by the type and nature of the substrate. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 2243–2253, 2002     

Design of a Commercial Hybrid VTOL UAV System

For the last four decades Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) have been extensively used for military operations that include tracking, surveillance, active engagement with weapons and airborne data acquisition. UAVs are also in demand commercially due to their advantages in comparison to manned vehicles. These advantages include lower manufacturing and operating costs, flexibility in configuration depending on customer request and not risking the pilot on demanding missions. Even though civilian UAVs currently constitute 3 % of the UAV market, it is estimated that their numbers will reach up to 10 % of the UAV market within the next 5 years. Most of the civilian UAV applications require UAVs that are capable of doing a wide range of different and complementary operations within a composite mission. These operations include taking off and landing from limited runway space, while traversing the operation region in considerable cruise speed for mobile tracking applications. This is in addition to being able traverse in low cruise speeds or being able to hover for stationary measurement and tracking. All of these complementary and but different operational capabilities point to a hybrid unmanned vehicle concept, namely the Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) UAVs. In addition, the desired UAV system needs to be cost-efficient while providing easy payload conversion for different civilian applications. In this paper, we review the preliminary design process of such a capable civilian UAV system, namely the TURAC VTOL UAV. TURAC UAV is aimed to have both vertical take-off and landing and Conventional Take-off and Landing (CTOL) capability. TURAC interchangeable payload pod and detachable wing (with potential different size variants) provides capability to perform different mission types, including long endurance and high cruise speed operations. In addition, the TURAC concept is to have two different variants. The TURAC A variant is an eco-friendly and low-noise fully electrical platform which includes 2 tilt electric motors in the front, and a fixed electric motor and ducted fan in the rear, where as the TURAC B variant is envisioned to use high energy density fuel cells for extended hovering time. In this paper, we provide the TURAC UAV’s iterative design and trade-off studies which also include detailed aerodynamic and structural configuration analysis. For the aerodynamic analysis, an in-house software including graphical user interface has been developed to calculate the aerodynamic forces and moments by using the Vortex Lattice Method (VLM). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) studies are performed to determine the aerodynamic effects for various configurations For structural analysis, a Finite Element Model (FEM) of the TURAC has been prepared and its modal analysis is carried out. Maximum displacements and maximal principal stresses are calculated and used for streamlining a weight efficient fuselage design. Prototypes have been built to show success of the design at both hover and forward flight regime. In this paper, we also provide the flight management and autopilot architecture of the TURAC. The testing of the controller performance has been initiated with the prototype of TURAC. Current work focuses on the building of the full fight test prototype of the TURAC UAV and aerodynamic modeling of the transition flight.     

Robots learn to dance through interaction with humans

In this paper, we investigated an approach for robots to learn to adapt dance actions to human’s preferences through interaction and feedback. Human’s preferences were extracted by analysing the common action patterns with positive or negative feedback from the human during robot dancing. By using a buffering technique to store the dance actions before a feedback, each individual’s preferences can be extracted even when a reward is received late. The extracted preferred dance actions from different people were then combined to generate improved dance sequences, i.e. performing more of what was preferred and less of that was not preferred. Together with Softmax action-selection method, the Sarsa reinforcement learning algorithm was used as the underlining learning algorithm and to effectively control the trade-off between exploitation of the learnt dance skills and exploration of new dance actions. The results showed that the robot learnt, using interactive reinforcement learning, the preferences of human partners, and the dance improved with the extracted preferences from more human partners.     

Mechanisms of degradation of cotton and effects of mercerization-stretching upon the course of these mechanisms,part VII. Characterization of microstructural differences between scoured cotton and slack mercerized-stretched cottons

Conditions were established to introduce almost equal and reproduciple amounts of diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) substituents into the molecular structure of scoured cotton (substrate I), slack mercerized cotton (substrate II), slack mercerized-stretched (94%, substrate III), and slack mercerized-stretched (103%, substrate IV) cotton. Similarities between the original structures of these substrates before and after the chemical modification were assessed by X-ray analysis. Comparison between the DEAE cottons and the corresponding unmodified cottons upon acid hydrolysis with respect to moisture regain, loss in weight and degree of polymerization was also made. Chemical analysis was used to study the compositions and structures of the hydrolyzates (i.e., hydrocelluloses and solublized fractions) resulting from hydrolysis of the modified cottons with 2.5 N HCl under reflux for different lengths of time. Studies of rates of hydrolysis of the cellulose, rates of removal of substituted glucoses and rates of removal of individual types of substituted glucose units were considered as means to provide information regarding: (a) distribution of DEAE substitutents throughout the structure of cellulose, (b) nature of accessible regions where the DEAE substituents are developed, and (c) selective availability of the hydroxyl groups at C-2, C-3 and C-6 of the D-glucopyranosyl units in the cellulose elementary fibril.     

Improving the dyeing properties of textiles via utilization of redox systems. I. Dyeing of wool and wool/polyacrylic blend fabrics with acid dye

Dyeing of wool and wool/polyacrylic fabrics with an acid dye, namely, Kiton Scarlet 4 R, was carried out in absence or presence of different redox systems. The latter were based on sodium, potassium, or ammonium peroxodisulphate or potassium periodate as oxidant and glucose, sodium thiosulphate, potassium pyrosulphite or thiourea as reductant. Regardless of the redox system used, the colour strength was far greater in presence than in absence of the redox system. Except in case of potassium periodate/glucose redox system, increasing the oxidant concentration up to 0.03 mol/l caused significant enhancement in colour strength. The same was observed upon increasing the temperature from 30 to 60°C as well as the time from 10 to 40 minutes. It is postulated that presence of the redox system alters the mode of dye attachment to the substrate. Association of the dye with the substrate, wool in particular, seems to involve covalent bonding beside the usual salt-linkage. Hence the approach presented is advantageous in producing dyeings with much higher colour strength and dye fixation at relatively low temperature.     

Attitudes towards mobile banking: are there any differences between users and non-users?

Extant research has focused on monitoring the behaviour of people who use mobile banking (MB) but it has paid little attention to understanding the impact of information technology usage behaviour due to cultural differences. Humans are the weakest link in information technology adoption; past research has shown that not all users are predisposed to change their behaviour radically and adopt new channels of banking. This paper examines the demographic patterns of users and non-users of MB. The paper also investigates the attitudinal influences of users and non-users of MB based on innovation attributes. Using empirical research, the study identifies constructs of innovation attributes that were perceived to be significantly different among the users and non-users of MB. The study provides valuable insights into MB in Saudi Arabia that have not been previously investigated. From a practical point, findings of this study will be particularly useful to banks, financial institutions and telecommunication service providers.     

Tomato Seed Oil II Evaluation of the Egyptian Tomato Seed Oil and the Residual Meal

The oil extracted from tomato seeds and the resultant cake were evaluated. The whole seeds were analyzed for the gross composition. The oil extracted with hexane was examined for its physical and chemical properties. The residual meal was evaluated for the gross, minerals and amino acids. The obtained results were compared with those of cotton seeds.     

Dependence of soiling and soil release of easy care cotton on factors-controlling the finishing treatment

The conventional pad-dry-cure method was used for effecting crosslinking of cotton with N-methylol finishing agents under different conditions. Factors studied include nature and concentration of finishing agent and softener, type and concentration of catalyst, and curing temperatures. Variation of soiling and soil release characteristics of crosslinked cotton with these factors were investigated. The effect of finishing agent on aqueous soiling followed the order: Carbamate reactant-fabric > Dimethylolethylene urea-fabric > Dimethyloldihydroxyethylene urea-fabric > Untreated fabric > Modified triazinone-fabric ≥ Modified ethylene urea-fabric. On the other hand, the effect of these finishing agents was to enhance the susceptibility of the fabric to oily soiling. Nevertheless, nature of the finishing agent governed the magnitude of this enhancement. Aqueous and oily soil release depended also upon the nature of finishing agent, soiling increased and soil release decreased by increasing finishing agent concentration. Type of catalyst exerted a considerable influence on aqueous and oily soil release without significantly affecting the degree of soiling. For aqueous soil release, the following order was found: Al₂(SO₄)₃ · 18H₂O > MgCl₂ · 6H₂O > urea nitrate > ZnCl₂ · 6H₂O > Zn(NO₃)₂ · 6H₂O > urea phosphate > urea oxalate > NH₄ · H₂PO₄ ≥ NH₄Cl. A reverse order held good for oily soil release. Both aqueous and oily soil release were impaired by increasing catalyst concentration. Similarly, nature and concentration of the softener had no striking effect on soiling while they did on soil release. Raising the curing temperature from 80 to 140°C caused substantial reduction in case of soil removal of urea salts catalyzed-crosslinked cotton samples while having the degree of soiling practically intact.