Making assistive reading tools user friendly: a new platform for Greek dyslexic students empowered by automatic speech recognition

This work presents our effort to incorporate a state of the art speech recognition engine into a new platform for assistive reading for improving reading ability of Greek dyslexic students. This platform was developed in the framework of the Agent-DYSL, IST project, and facilitates dyslexic children in learning to read fluently. Unlike previously presented approaches, the aim of the system is not only to enable access to the reading materials within an inclusive learning system but to promote the development of reading skills by adjusting and adapting in the light of feedback to the system. The idea is to improve speech recognition performance so that gradually increase the reading capabilities of the user, gradually diminish the assistance provided, till he is able to read as a non-dyslexic reader. The evaluation results show that both learners’ reading pace and learners’ reading accuracy were increased.     

Multicamera human detection and tracking supporting natural interaction with large-scale displays

This paper presents a computer vision system that supports non-instrumented, location-based interaction of multiple users with digital representations of large-scale artifacts. The proposed system is based on a camera network that observes multiple humans in front of a very large display. The acquired views are used to volumetrically reconstruct and track the humans robustly and in real time, even in crowded scenes and challenging human configurations. Given the frequent and accurate monitoring of humans in space and time, a dynamic and personalized textual/graphical annotation of the display can be achieved based on the location and the walk-through trajectory of each visitor. The proposed system has been successfully deployed in an archaeological museum, offering its visitors the capability to interact with and explore a digital representation of an ancient wall painting. This installation permits an extensive evaluation of the proposed system in terms of tracking robustness, computational performance and usability. Furthermore, it proves that computer vision technology can be effectively used to support non-instrumented interaction of humans with their environments in realistic settings.     

Immobilization of Copper, Lead, and Tungsten in Mixed Munitions Firing Range–Contaminated Soils by Various Amendments

Batch and column leaching tests were conducted to assess the simultaneous stabilization of copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and tungsten (W) in eight representative contaminated firing range soils in the United States using various amendments. The amendments included granulated ferric oxide (GFO), granulated titanium dioxide (GTD), Pahokee peat soil (PPS), Gascoyne leonardite soil (GLS), Elliot silty loam soil (ESLS), calcium phosphate monobasic (CPM), and apatite II. The metal oxides and the organic soil amendments were applied at a dosage of 10%, and phosphates were applied at phosphorus to lead (P/Pb) molar ratio of 1.8. The experimental results indicated that GFO was superior to all materials tested for simultaneously stabilizing Cu, Pb, and W during the batch leaching tests. Flow-through column tests were conducted for one of the soil samples to test the effectiveness of GFO to immobilize Cu, Pb, and W. The concentrations of Cu, Pb, and W were significantly reduced in the effluent of the amended soil columns as compared with the control soil columns.     

A new CNC turning canned cycle for revolved parts with free-form profile

Laser micromilling technique is a thermal machining process which is used to remove material on the target geometry and has been widely employed in mold and die making industry. In this technique, the control factors of process such as scan speed, scan direction, frequency, and fill spacing play major affect on the surface quality. The selected quality characteristics are the mean surface roughness and milling depth. The main objective of this study is to determine the optimal milling conditions based on machining direction for minimizing the surface roughness and maximizing the milling depth. Therefore, L18 orthogonal array is constituted and subsequently signal/noise ratio and analysis of variance were employed to investigate the optimal levels of process parameters. The analysis results show that the scan speed has the highest effect on the surface roughness of which percentage contribution is 39.68% and also the beam scan direction and fill spacing have significant effects which contribute 19.67% and 16.09%, respectively. The experimental result for optimal condition is 2.23?μm. The results for milling depth show that only scan speed and fill spacing have significant effects which contribute 69.08% and 19.21%, respectively. Moreover, the scan direction has the least effect on the milling depth which can be neglected. The frequency has no effect on both surface roughness and milling depth. The result obtained from experiment at the optimal condition is 121.4?μm.     

Wind forces on porous elevated panels

Agricultural nets are used in fruit and ornamentals production as covering material in various light structures such as anti-hail and/or anti-frost shields, windbreaks, and coverings of shading or anti-insect structures. There is limited information in the existing standards for the calculation of wind loads on structures with permeable cladding like nets. Moreover, there are few experimental data concerning the wind pressure distribution around air permeable structures. For this reason, the wind-pressure distributions over permeable claddings need to be systematically investigated by field experiments and numerical simulations. In the present work, special full-scale field tests were designed and carried out to measure the wind pressures on experimental scale panels covered by various types of nets and by film. The film covering was functioning as impermeable reference material, for comparative purposes. The forces were measured at a central independent segment of the panel suspended on specially designed spring units by using displacement transducers. The measurements were compared to data obtained from a similar structure covered with impermeable plastic film and against the provisions of relevant standards. The full scale measurements were also compared to computational results obtained by CFD simulations.     

Automotive industry challenges in meeting EU 2015 environmental standard

Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR) generation in EU is approximately 2–2.5 million t/y, constituting 10% of total hazardous waste in the EU. Currently, about 75% of ELVs total weight is recycled while the remaining 25% (ASR). Not surprisingly, Europe is the world’s largest vehicle producer as about 30% of the 50 million cars produced globally are manufactured in the EU. Worldwide, ASR is considered an increasingly problematic waste, consisting of a large number of different materials that basically remains unprocessed and directed to landfills. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the ASR problem and the options for processing this waste in order to minimize the waste directed to landfills.     

Application of the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) technique as an efficient diagnostic tool for ciliate communities in soil

Ciliates (or Ciliophora) are ubiquitous organisms which can be widely used as bioindicators in ecosystems exposed to anthropogenic and industrial influences. The evaluation of the environmental impact on soil ciliate communities with methods relying on morphology-based identification may be hampered by the large number of samples usually required for a statistically supported, reliable conclusion. Cultivation-independent molecular-biological diagnostic tools are a promising alternative to greatly simplify and accelerate such studies. In this present work a ciliate-specific fingerprint method based on the amplification of a phylogenetic marker gene (i.e. the 18S ribosomal RNA gene) with subsequent analysis by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) was developed and used to monitor community shifts in a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) polluted soil. The semi-nested approach generated ciliate-specific amplification products from all soil samples and allowed to distinguish community profiles from a PAH-polluted and a non-polluted control soil. Subsequent sequence analysis of excised bands provided evidence that polluted soil samples are dominated by organisms belonging to the class Colpodea. The general DGGE approach presented in this study might thus in principle serve as a fast and reproducible diagnostic tool, complementing and facilitating future ecological and ecotoxicological monitoring of ciliates in polluted habitats.     

Market reaction to application service provider (ASP) adoption: An empirical investigation

We examined the impact of ASP adoption on the market value of the firms and explored contextual factors in the positive abnormal returns. We employed event study methodology to analyze 268 ASP adoption announcements from 1998 to 2007. The results indicated that ASP adoption announcements were associated with positive increases in the market value of the firm. In addition, differences in market returns to ASP adoption were found to depend on strategic adoption intent, firm size, industry, and vendor status. These results provide useful implications for making decisions about whether, when, and how to adopt ASP to maximize the business value.