The impact of website content dimension and e-trust on e-marketing effectiveness: The case of Iranian commercial saffron corporations

By considering the problems that commercial saffron companies have faced in international markets, the aim of this study is to investigate the impact of website content, including informational and design dimensions, on the effectiveness of e-marketing and e-trust as mediator variables. These aspects are examined with reference to sales and marketing division managers in a sample of 100 commercial saffron corporations in the Khorasan province. The findings support the ideas that website content has an effect on e-marketing and e-trust and that e-trust plays a mediating role in the relationship between e-trust and e-marketing effectiveness.     

Location detection and disambiguation from twitter messages

A remarkable amount of Twitter messages are generated every second. Detecting the location entities mentioned in these messages is useful in text mining applications. Therefore, techniques for extracting the location entities from the Twitter textual content are needed. In this work, we approach this task in a similar manner to the Named Entity Recognition (NER) task, but we focus only on locations, while NER systems detect names of persons, organizations, locations, and sometimes more (e.g., dates, times). But, unlike NER systems, we address a deeper task: classifying the detected locations into names of cities, provinces/states, and countries in order to map them into physical locations. We approach the task in a novel way, consisting in two stages. In the first stage, we train Conditional Random Fields (CRF) models that are able to detect the locations mentioned in the messages. We train three classifiers: one for cities, one for provinces/states, and one for countries, with various sets of features. Since a dataset annotated with this kind of information was not available, we collected and annotated our own dataset to use for training and testing. In the second stage, we resolve the remaining ambiguities, namely, cases when there exists more than one place with the same name. We proposed a set of heuristics able to choose the correct physical location in these cases. Our two-stage model will allow a social media monitoring system to visualize the places mentioned in Twitter messages on a map of the world or to compute statistics about locations. This kind of information can be of interest to business or marketing applications.     

A Tradeoff Between Accuracy and Speed for K-Means Seed Determination

With a sharp increase in the information volume, analyzing and retrieving this vast data volume is much more essential than ever. One of the main techniques that would be beneficial in this regard is called the Clustering method. Clustering aims to classify objects so that all objects within a cluster have similar features while other objects in different clusters are as distinct as possible. One of the most widely used clustering algorithms with the well and approved performance in different applications is the k-means algorithm. The main problem of the k-means algorithm is its performance which can be directly affected by the selection in the primary clusters. Lack of attention to this crucial issue has consequences such as creating empty clusters and decreasing the convergence time. Besides, the selection of appropriate initial seeds can reduce the cluster’s inconsistency. In this paper, we present a new method to determine the initial seeds of the k-mean algorithm to improve the accuracy and decrease the number of iterations of the algorithm. For this purpose, a new method is proposed considering the average distance between objects to determine the initial seeds. Our method attempts to provide a proper tradeoff between the accuracy and speed of the clustering algorithm. The experimental results showed that our proposed approach outperforms the Chithra with 1.7% and 2.1% in terms of clustering accuracy for Wine and Abalone detection data, respectively. Furthermore, achieved results indicate that comparing with the Reverse Nearest Neighbor (RNN) search approach, the proposed method has a higher convergence speed.     

Synthesis,characterization, thermal and optical properties of soluble polyimides derived from an unsymmetrical diamine

A new unsymmetrical diamine monomer, 2,4‐diaminophenyl [4′‐(2′′,6′′‐diphenyl‐4′′‐pyridyl)phenyl]ether, was successfully synthesized by nucleophilic substitution of 1‐chloro‐2,4‐dinitrobenzene with 4‐(2′,6′‐diphenyl‐4′‐pyridyl) phenol. The diamine monomer was characterized by FTIR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, and elemental analysis techniques and used for the preparation of novel polyimides (PIs) by reaction with commercially available tetracarboxylic dianhydrides such as pyromellitic dianhydride, 3,3′,4,4′‐benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride, and bicyclo[2.2.2]‐oct‐7‐ene‐2,3,5,6‐tetracarboxylic dianhydride. These PIs with inherent viscosities ranged from 0.43 to 0.48 dL/g were readily soluble in many organic solvents and afforded tough and flexible films by solution casting. These polymers exhibited T_gs between 237 and 294°C, and 10% weight loss temperatures in excess of 500°C with up to 56% char yield at 600°C in air. Their maximum fluorescence emission in dilute (0.2 g/dL) NMP solution appeared at 450 nm. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Dielectric spectroscopy techniques as quality control tool: a feasibility study - [feature article]

In this article, the feasibility of using time- and frequency-domain dielectric spectroscopy measurements to monitor the condition of oil-impregnated paper (OIP) condenser bushings is discussed.     

Surface modification of commercial carbon black by silane coupling agents for improving dispersibility in rubber compounds

The dispersion of a filler in a rubber matrix is a crucial parameter affecting the mechanical and dynamical properties of a rubber compound. It is the current issue of the rubber compounding industry because, most fillers are categorized as a mineral, while the rubber is an organic material. The surface modification of the filler has been accepted as an effective technique for the improvement of the abovementioned parameter. First, the surface premodification of commercial carbon black with a grade of N660 (CB) was implemented by four different oxidation methods. After that, among of used methods, the oxidation method using citric acid was selected to produce modified carbon black (CB-Oxi) for further treatment. Subsequently, the coupling agent, Bis[3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl] tetrasulfide (TESPT) was functionalized on the surface of CB-Oxi to produce modified-CB-Oxi. Also, for comparison purposes, the TESPT functionalization was accomplished on untreated CB to form modified-CB. The FTIR spectra of CB-Oxi showed using the premodification method introduced the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups on the surface of CB. The correspondent spectra for modified-CB-Oxi confirmed the existence of silane groups on the surface of the carbon black. However, the mentioned silane groups were not observed on the surface of modified-CB. The findings were strengthened by several characteristic techniques including, FESEM, XRD, EDS, CHNS elemental analysis, and RAMAN spectra. The FESEM graphs and elemental mapping showed homogeneous dispersion and uniform distribution of sulfur and silicon elements on the modified-CB-Oxi surface. According to RAMAN spectra, the disturbance in the structure of carbon black graphite was reduced after surface modification. modified-CB-Oxi is proposed as a potential substitute filler for current commercial carbon black in rubber compounding.     

How Can We Improve Vaccination Response in Old People? Part I: Targeting Immunosenescence of Innate Immunity Cells

Vaccination, being able to prevent millions of cases of infectious diseases around the world every year, is the most effective medical intervention ever introduced. However, immunosenescence makes vaccines less effective in providing protection to older people. Although most studies explain that this is mainly due to the immunosenescence of T and B cells, the immunosenescence of innate immunity can also be a significant contributing factor. Alterations in function, number, subset, and distribution of blood neutrophils, monocytes, and natural killer and dendritic cells are detected in aging, thus potentially reducing the efficacy of vaccines in older individuals. In this paper, we focus on the immunosenescence of the innate blood immune cells. We discuss possible strategies to counteract the immunosenescence of innate immunity in order to improve the response to vaccination. In particular, we focus on advances in understanding the role and the development of new adjuvants, such as TLR agonists, considered a promising strategy to increase vaccination efficiency in older individuals.     

Stoffaustausch zwischen flüssigem Eisen und Schlacke beim Sprühraffinationsverfahren

Erläuterung des Sprühraffinationsverfahrens, bei dem eine Schmelze mit inertem Gas verdüst wird und die entstehenden Metalltropfen durch eine Raffinationsschlacke fallen. Erörterung der Gesetzmäßigkeiten für die Stoffaustauschvorgänge zwischen Metalltropfen und Schlacke. Bestimmung der mittleren Tropfengröße beim Versprühen von kohlenstoffgesättigtem Roheisen. Untersuchung der Wirkung der Sprühraffination am Beispiel der Entschwefelung des Roheisens mit Schlacken des Systems CaO–CaF₂–Al₂O₃ bei 1600 °C. Ermittlung des Stoffübergangskoeffizienten des Schwefels für den umgekehrt transitorischen Phasenkontakt und Vergleich mit Werten bei anderen Techniken des Phasenkontaktes Metall-Schlacke.