Exploiting behavioral user models for point of interest recommendation in smart museums

ABSTRACT

The Internet of Things (IoT) holds the promise to blend real-world and online behaviors in principled ways, yet we are only beginning to understand how to effectively exploit insights from the online realm into effective applications in smart environments. Such smart environments aim to provide an improved, personalized experience based on the trail of user interactions with smart devices, but how does recommendation in smart environments differ from the usual online recommender systems? And can we exploit similarities to truly blend behavior in both realms to address the fundamental cold-start problem? In this article, we experiment with behavioral user models based on interactions with smart devices in a museum, and investigate the personalized recommendation of what to see after visiting an initial set of Point of Interests (POIs), a key problem in personalizing museum visits or tour guides, and focus on a critical one-shot POI recommendation task—where to go next? We have logged users' onsite physical information interactions during visits in an IoT-augmented museum exhibition at scale. Furthermore, we have collected an even larger set of search logs of the online museum collection. Users in both sets are unconnected, for privacy reasons we do not have shared IDs. We study the similarities between users' online digital and onsite physical information interaction behaviors, and build new behavioral user models based on the information interaction behaviors in (i) the physical exhibition space, (ii) the online collection, or (iii) both. Specifically, we propose a deep neural multilayer perceptron (MLP) based on explicitly given users' contextual information, and set-based extracted features using users' physical information interaction behaviors and similar users' digital information interaction behaviors. Our experimental results indicate that the proposed behavioral user modeling approach, using both physical and online user information interaction behaviors, improves the onsite POI recommendation baselines' performances on all evaluation metrics. Our proposed MLP approach achieves 83% precision at rank 1 on the critical one-shot POI recommendation problem, realizing the high accuracy needed for fruitful deployment in practical situations. Furthermore, the MLP model is less sensitive to amount of real-world interactions in terms of the seen POIs set-size, by backing of to the online data, hence helps address the cold start problem in recommendation. Our general conclusion is that it is possible to fruitfully combine information interactions in the online and physical world for effective recommendation in smart environments.     

An enhanced premium power park configuration using active power and voltage conditioning devices

In this paper, an enhanced premium power park (PPP) configuration is proposed to effectively mitigate power quality disturbances using a combination of active power and voltage conditioning devices in a spot-configuration-based distribution system. Furthermore, a new coordination algorithm is proposed to achieve full-range coordination between the controllers, thus ensuring the maximum reliability of the proposed configuration. To prove the enhancement of the proposed PPP configuration in terms of improved power quality and investigate the performance of the system under different types of power quality disturbances, several scenarios are simulated using the Matlab/Simulink software.     

Investigation on Physicomechanical,Thermal, and Morphological of Dipodal Silane-Modified Walnut Shell Powder-Filled Polyurethane Green Composites and Their Application for Removal of Heavy Metal Ions from Water

Dipodal silane-modified walnut shell powder polyurethane green composites have been prepared with different weight fractions of walnut shell powder viz., 0, 3, 6, and 10?wt% with surface-modified dipodal silane. The properties of dipodal silane-modified walnut shell powder-filled polyurethane green composites was investigated by tensile testing, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The polyurethane/dipodal silane-modified walnut shell powder has been fabricated based on 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and γ-glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane. The green composites were analyzed by ultraviolet–visible in two different water solutions with Ni²⁺ and Pd²⁺ ions concentrations.     

Application of PCR and SYBR Green Q Rti-PCR Assays for the Identification and Quantification of Chicken Meat Under Different Cooking Conditions

Conventional and SYBR Green Q Rti-PCR assays using primers targeting the 12S rRNA of chicken mitochondrial genes were employed for the detection and quantification of chicken used in food stuffs. The assays were recruited to amplify different known concentrations of DNA in the mixtures. Different kinds of processed meats were prepared using various amounts of chicken that were heated at different temperatures in order to detect the chicken in the mixtures. The PCR amplification of DNA revealed that the assay can amplify the species-specific amplicons as little as 0.01 ng of DNA in PCR reactions. Different concentrations of raw chicken were detected based on the threshold cycle. The technique was able to detect from 5% to 90% ratios of the chicken materials in sausages. Analysis of the experimental meat mixtures revealed the usefulness of the assays in detecting and quantifying chicken mitochondrial DNA in the mixtures.     

Fine Tuning of Antibiotic Activity by a Tailoring Hydroxylase in a Trans‐AT Polyketide Synthase Pathway

The addition or removal of hydroxy groups modulates the activity of many pharmacologically active biomolecules. It can be integral to the basic biosynthetic factory or result from associated tailoring steps. For the anti‐MRSA antibiotic mupirocin, removal of a C8‐hydroxy group late in the biosynthetic pathway gives the active pseudomonic acid A. An extra hydroxylation, at C4, occurs in the related but more potent antibiotic thiomarinol A. We report here in vivo and in vitro studies that show that the putative non‐haem‐iron(II)/α‐ketoglutaratedependent dioxygenase TmuB, from the thiomarinol cluster, 4‐hydroxylates various pseudomonic acids whereas C8‐OH, and other substituents around the tetrahydropyran ring, block enzyme action but not substrate binding. Molecular modelling suggested a basis for selectivity, but mutation studies had a limited ability to rationally modify TmuB substrate specificity. 4‐Hydroxylation had opposite effects on the potency of mupirocin and thiomarinol. Thus, TmuB can be added to the toolbox of polyketide tailoring technologies for the in vivo generation of new antibiotics in the future.     

Chiral phosphoric triamide-based polymers for enantioseparation

Novel optical isomers of phosphoramide-methacrylate monomers were synthesized and used for the preparation of corresponding polymers and hydrogels as chiral absorbents. In order to direct enantioseparation, two simple and inexpensive methods were designed: (a) immobilization of the chiral polymers on glass beads as packing material for the separation columns and (b) filling of chiral hydrogels in tea bags to fabricate separation bags. The specific rotations for R- and S-monomers were + 22.0° and − 21.8°, while those for R- and S-polymers were + 20.8° and − 22.1°, respectively. The enantioseparation of (±)-α-methylbenzylamine, DL-alanine, DL-valine, DL-tartaric acid, DL-phenylalanine, and omeprazole was evaluated. The maximum enantioseparation (optical purity) of 97% was observed for (±)-α-methylbenzylamine by S-hydrogel. Chiral hydrogels resulted in enantioseparations with higher purities (up to 97%) comparing to the chiral polymers, but in longer times (2–3 days). The desorption process easily occurred from the absorbed columns or bags. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48034.     

1,1′-butylenebis(3-methyl-3H-imidazol-1-ium) Hydrogen Sulfate Catalyzed One-Pot Multi-Component Synthesis of Unsymmetrical Polyhydroquinoline Derivatives

1,1′-butylenebis(3-methyl-3H-imidazol-1-ium) hydrogen sulfate as an efficient, halogen-free, and reusable binuclear Brönsted ionic liquid catalyzed the synthesis of ethyl-4-aryl/heteryl-hexahydro-trimehtyl-5-oxoquinoline-3-carboxylates by the one-pot condensation of dimedone, aryl/heteryl aldehydes, ethyl acetoacetate, and ammonium acetate under solvent-free conditions. This method has the advantages of high yields, clean reaction, simple methodology, and short reaction time. The ionic liquid could be recycled and reused four times without significant loss of in the catalytic activity.     

Cellulose acetate-iron oxide nanocomposites for trace detection of fluorene from water samples by solid-phase extraction technique

In this study, cellulose acetate (CA)/iron oxide nanocomposites (NC1 and NC2) were synthesized and utilized as extractors for the selective separation of fluorene from aqueous samples. The selectivity of nanocomposites to different organic compounds was assessed. Based on the results, fluorene was the most quantitatively adsorbed on NC2. Batch method was performed by varying the initial fluorene concentrations and contact time. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were used for modeling the experimental data and were best correlated by the Langmuir model. Adsorption data were also followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Finally, validation of the developed method was achieved for fluorene determination in real water samples.