Receiver-side semantic reasoning for digital TV personalization in the absence of return channels

Experience has proved that interactive applications delivered through Digital TV must provide personalized information to the viewers in order to be perceived as a valuable service. Due to the limited computational power of DTV receivers (either domestic set-top boxes or mobile devices), most of the existing systems have opted to place the personalization engines in dedicated servers, assuming that a return channel is always available for bidirectional communication. However, in a domain where most of the information is transmitted through broadcast, there are still many cases of intermittent, sporadic or null access to a return channel. In such situations, it is impossible for the servers to learn who is watching TV at the moment, and so the personalization features become unavailable. To solve this problem without sacrificing much personalization quality, this paper introduces solutions to run a downsized semantic reasoning process in the DTV receivers, supported by a pre-selection of material driven by audience stereotypes in the head-end. Evaluation results are presented to prove the feasibility of this approach, and also to assess the quality it achieves in comparison with previous ones.

Effectiveness of trisodium phosphate, acidified sodium chlorite, citric acid, and peroxyacids against pathogenic bacteria on poultry during refrigerated storage

The effects of dipping treatments (15 min) in potable water or in solutions (wt/vol) of 12% trisodium phosphate (TSP), 1,200 ppm acidified sodium chlorite (ASC), 2% citric acid (CA), and 220 ppm peroxyacids (PA) on inoculated pathogenic bacteria (Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella Enteritidis, Escherichia coli, and Yersinia enterocolitica) and skin pH were investigated throughout storage of chicken legs (days 0, 1, 3, and 5) at 3 +/- 1 degrees C. All chemical solutions reduced microbial populations (P < 0.001) as compared with the control (untreated) samples. Similar bacterial loads (P > 0.05) were observed on water-dipped and control legs. Type of treatment, microbial group, and sampling day influenced microbial counts (P < 0.001). Average reductions with regard to control samples were 0.28 to 2.41 log CFU/g with TSP, 0.33 to 3.15 log CFU/g with ASC, 0.82 to 1.97 log CFU/g with CA, and 0.07 to 0.96 log CFU/g with PA. Average reductions were lower (P < 0.001) for gram-positive (0.96 log CFU/g) than for gram-negative (1.33 log CFU/g) bacteria. CA and ASC were the most effective antimicrobial compounds against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, respectively. TSP was the second most effective compound for both bacterial groups. Average microbial reductions per gram of skin were 0.87 log CFU/g with TSP, 0.86 log CFU/g with ASC, 1.39 log CFU/g with CA, and 0.74 log CFU/g with PA for gram-positive bacteria, and 1.28 log CFU/g with TSP, 2.03 log CFU/g with ASC, 1.23 log CFU/g with CA, and 0.78 log CFU/g with PA for gram-negative bacteria. With only a few exceptions, microbial reductions in TSP- and ASC-treated samples decreased and those in samples treated with CA increased throughout storage. Samples treated with TSP and samples dipped in CA and ASC had the highest and lowest pH values, respectively, after treatment. The pH of the treated legs tended to return to normal (6.3 to 6.6) during storage. However, at the end of storage, the pH of legs treated with TSP remained higher and that of legs treated with CA remained lower than normal.     

Chromium dinicocysteinate supplementation can lower blood glucose,CRP, MCP‐1, ICAM‐1, creatinine,apparently mediated by elevated blood vitamin C and adiponectin and inhibition of NFκB,Akt, and Glut‐2 in livers of zucker diabetic fatty rats

Chromium and cysteine supplementation can improve glucose metabolism in animal studies. This study examined the hypothesis that a cysteinate complex of chromium is significantly beneficial than either of them in lowering blood glucose and vascular inflammation markers in Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats. Starting at the age of 6 wk, ZDF rats were supplemented orally (daily gavages for 8 more weeks) with saline‐placebo (D) or chromium (400 μg Cr/Kg body weight) as chromium dinicocysteinate (CDNC), chromium dinicotinate (CDN) or chromium picolinate (CP) or equimolar L ‐cysteine (LC, img/Kg body weight), and fed Purina 5008 diet for 8 wk. ZDF rats of 6 wk age before any supplementations and onset of diabetes were considered as baseline. D rats showed elevated levels of fasting blood glucose, HbA₁, CRP, MCP‐1, ICAM‐1 and oxidative stress (lipid peroxidation) and lower adiponectin and vitamin C, when compared with baseline rats. In comparison to D group, CDNC group had significantly lower blood glucose, HbA₁, CRP, MCP‐1, ICAM‐1 and lipid peroxidation and increased vitamin C and adiponectin levels. CDN, CP or LC showed significantly less or no effect on these biomarkers. Only CDNC lowered blood creatinine levels in comparison to D. While CDN and CP had no effect, activation of NFκB, Akt and glucose transporter‐2 levels were decreased, insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS‐1) activation increased in livers of CDNC‐rats. CDNC effect on glycemia, NFκB, Akt and IRS‐1 in liver was significantly greater compared with LC. Blood chromium levels did not differ between Cr‐groups. Exogenous vitamin C supplementation significantly inhibited MCP‐1 secretion in U937 monocytes cultured in high‐glucose‐medium. CDNC is a potent hypoglycemic compound with anti‐inflammatory activity apparently mediated by elevated blood vitamin C and adiponectin and inhibition of NFκB, Akt, and Glut‐2 and increased IRS‐1 activation in livers of type 2 diabetic rats.     

Evolution of the deactivation mode and nature of coke of HZSM-5 and USY zeolites in the catalytic cracking of low-density polyethylene during successive cracking runs

The coke deposited in the HZSM-5 zeolite at higher coke levels causes a more important pore blockage than the coke deposited in the HZSM-5 zeolite at low coke content. On the other hand, it would appear that there is an important deactivation mode change in the USY coked zeolites during the cracking runs and when the coke level in the catalyst increases an important pore blockage is observed. In the HZSM-5 zeolite, it seems that the formation of insoluble coke during the several polymer cracking runs, as well as the possible location in the external surface could be responsible for the important pore blockage observed in this zeolite. In the USY coked zeolites, the study of the nature of the soluble coke suggests that the pyrene compounds and their evolution to insoluble coke could probably be responsible for the important pore blockage observed after the second cracking run.     

All-plastic electrochromic devices based on PEDOT as switchable optical attenuator in the near IR

Advanced materials for IR applications such as thermal control in spacecraft applications or variable optical attenuators which could replace the present systems have been sought. The use of electrochromic devices based on conducting polymers will add lightness and flexibility to the final device in order to overcome the limitations of the present materials used in IR applications. In this work, we present a new all-plastic electrochromic device with optical contrast (%ΔT) of 44% at 1971 nm in the IR region based on PEDOT formulations and ionic liquid blends as electrolytes. The switching time of the device is in the order of a few seconds, with a t_c 2.7 s and t_b 3.8 s.     

Pyrrolidinium-based polymeric ionic liquids as mechanically and electrochemically stable polymer electrolytes

A new family of polymeric ionic liquids having pyrrolidinium cation pendant units was synthesized from commercially available poly(diallyldimethylammonium) chloride. A simple anion exchange procedure was applied to the poly(diallyldimethylammonium) chloride using different salts such as LiTFSI, KPF₆, LiBF₄ and NaDBSA. The anion exchange reaction was quantitative as confirmed by NMR, FT-IR and titration experiments. Among these polymers, poly(diallyldimethylammonium) bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (TFSI) showed excellent performance as polymer matrix for polymer electrolyte compositions together with pyrrolidinium ionic liquid and lithium salt having a similar TFSI counter-anion. In this sense, free standing mechanically stable transparent polymer films showing an ionic conductivity higher than 10⁻⁴ S cm⁻¹ at room temperature were prepared and characterized. Furthermore, the polymer electrolytes presented a wide electrochemical stability window (7.0 V) which makes them interesting candidates for solid-state lithium batteries.     

An MHP framework to provide intelligent personalized recommendations about digital TV contents

Digital Television will bring a significant increase in the amount of channels and programs available to end users, with many more difficulties to find contents appealing to them among a myriad of irrelevant information. Thus, automatic content recommenders should receive special attention in the following years to improve their assistance to users. The current content recommenders have important deficiencies that hamper their wide acceptance. In this paper, we present a new approach for automatic content recommendation that significantly reduces those deficiencies. This approach, based on Semantic Web technologies, has been implemented in the AdVAnced Telematic search of Audiovisual contents by semantic Reasoning tool, a hybrid content recommender that makes extensive use of well‐known standards, such as Multimedia Home Platform, TV‐Anytime and OWL. Also, we have carried out an experimental evaluation, the results of which show that our proposal performs better than other existing approaches. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Behavior of flexible poly(vinyl chloride)/poly(hydroxybutyrate valerate) blends

Blends of flexible poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and a poly(hydroxybutyrate valerate) (PHBV) copolymer were prepared and characterized with different techniques. The tensile strength of PVC did not show a marked reduction at PHBV concentrations up to 50 phr, despite a lack of miscibility between the two polymers. The crystallization of the PHBV copolymer was markedly hindered by the presence of PVC, as calorimetric results revealed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008