Exploiting temporal information in Web search

Time plays important roles in Web search, because most Web pages contain temporal information and a lot of Web queries are time-related. How to integrate temporal information in Web search engines has been a research focus in recent years. However, traditional search engines have little support in processing temporal-textual Web queries. Aiming at solving this problem, in this paper, we concentrate on the extraction of the focused time for Web pages, which refers to the most appropriate time associated with Web pages, and then we used focused time to improve the search efficiency for time-sensitive queries. In particular, three critical issues are deeply studied in this paper. The first issue is to extract implicit temporal expressions from Web pages. The second one is to determine the focused time among all the extracted temporal information, and the last issue is to integrate focused time into a search engine. For the first issue, we propose a new dynamic approach to resolve the implicit temporal expressions in Web pages. For the second issue, we present a score model to determine the focused time for Web pages. Our score model takes into account both the frequency of temporal information in Web pages and the containment relationship among temporal information. For the third issue, we combine the textual similarity and the temporal similarity between queries and documents in the ranking process. To evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approaches, we build a prototype system called Time-Aware Search Engine (TASE). TASE is able to extract both the explicit and implicit temporal expressions for Web pages, and calculate the relevant score between Web pages and each temporal expression, and re-rank search results based on the temporal-textual relevance between Web pages and queries. Finally, we conduct experiments on real data sets. The results show that our approach has high accuracy in resolving implicit temporal expressions and extracting focused time, and has better ranking effectiveness for time-sensitive Web queries than its competitor algorithms.     

Process conditions affect pigment quality and yield in extracts of purple sunflower hulls

Extract of purple sunflower hulls is a potential red food colorant; however, suitable process conditions must still be identified. Selected process variables were studied using bench-scale units to prepare, clarify, concentrate and spray dry extracts. Concentration by evaporation at 32°C and addition of maltodextrin to 15% (wt/dry wt) prior to drying largely eliminated pigment degradation during those steps. Relative to water extracts, extracts prepared with 5 to 15% ethanol in water generally yielded more pigment with similar levels of degradation and loss during subsequent processing. Use of 5% ethanol/2% citric acid reduced yield by about half relative to water, but gave a powder with a lower degradation index and wetting time. Percentage recovery of pigment during concentration and drying was not greatly affected by solvent type or extraction temperature.     

汽轮发电机组负荷波动的原因分析及解决措施

详细分析了汽轮发电机组在运行过程中出现电负荷波动和瞬间突降的原因，重点介绍了如何调节、维持汽轮发电机组的经济运行以及解决电负荷波动的措施，从而保证汽轮发电机组的稳定运行。     

Direct measures of digital information processing and communication skills in primary education: Using item response theory for the development and validation of an ICT competence scale

In the past decade, several studies have measured ICT competences from the perspective of ICT self-efficacy. Such indirect measurements tend to have validity problems, as they depend on the pupils' ability to judge their own ICT competences. This study outlines the development of a performance-based digital test and the validation of a direct measure of ICT competence through the use of item response theory (IRT). More specifically, the test and the developed measure focus on primary-school pupils' proficiency in digital information processing and communication. 56 Items were administered to 560 pupils at the end of their primary-school education (age between 10.79 and 13.85 years old). The items were controlled for dimensionality, model-data fit, local item dependence and monotonicity. The final measure contains 27 items that refer to retrieving and processing digital information, and communication with a computer. The results indicate that the instrument is particularly reliable for low and median ability levels. Further refinement and possible future use of the instrument is discussed.     

超临界流体技术应用研究

超临界流体技术具有许多传统技术所没有的快速，高效，低能耗，污染少等优点，在材料制备，医药工业，生物工程，食物，环境，化工等许多方面展现了广阔的应用前景。综述了其在萃取，材料制备和作为反应介质等方面的应用。     

温度对密闭式微波辅助提取二氢杨梅素的影响

以藤茶为原料,水为溶剂,采用密闭式提取罐在微波加速反应系统(MARS5)中提取二氢杨梅素,研究提取温度对二氢杨梅素提取效率的影响。结果表明,在80℃以下,二氢杨梅素的提取率很低,80℃~110℃范围内,随着提取温度的提高,二氢杨梅素的提取率呈上升趋势,在110℃时达到最高。此后,随着提取温度的升高,二氢杨梅素的提取率呈下降趋势。HPLC分析结果表明,二氢杨梅素在高温水相体系发生了分解,在180℃下分解产物又进一步发生分解。所以,在本实验条件下110℃是二氢杨梅素的最佳提取温度。     

Alternative hydrocarbon solvents for cottonseed extraction: Plant trials

Hexane has been used for decades to extract oil from cottonseed and is still the solvent of choice for the edible-oil industry. Due to increased regulations as a result of the 1990 Clean Air Act and potential health risks, the edible-oil extraction industry urgently needs an alternate hydrocarbon solvent to replace hexane. Based on laboratory-scale extraction tests, two hydrocarbon solvents, heptane and isohexane, were recommended as potential replacements for hexane. A cottonseed processing mill with a 270 MT/day (300 tons/day) capacity agreed to test both solvents with their expander-solvent process. Extraction efficiencies of isohexane and heptane, judged by extraction time and residual oil in meal, refined and bleached color of miscella refined oil, and solvent loss, were comparable to that of hexane. However, fewer problems were encountered with the lower-boiling isohexane than with the higher-boiling heptane. With isohexane, the daily throughput increased more than 20%, and natural gas consumption decreased more than 40% as compared to hexane.     

固相萃取技术在农药残留分析中的应用

固相萃取是一种新型的样品预处理技术，操作简便，节省有机溶剂，易于实现自动化操作，已广泛应用于环境保护、药物检测、食品检验检疫等领域。在农药残留分析中，固相萃取技术的应用还使得提取不同类别农药的选择性增强，样品回收率提高，尤其是结合HPLC—MS、GC-MS、CE-MS等仪器的联合鉴定，可实现自动化分析，能简单、快速、灵敏地提取定量许多物质，从而大大提高了分析效率和精密度，具有广阔的发展前景。     

HMM-based state classification of a user with a walking support system using visual PCA features

The improvement of safety and dependability in systems that physically interact with humans requires investigation with respect to the possible states of the user’s motion and an attempt to recognize these states. In this study, we propose a method for real-time visual state classification of a user with a walking support system. The visual features are extracted using principal component analysis and classification is performed by hidden Markov models, both for real-time fall detection (one-class classification) and real-time state recognition (multi-class classification). The algorithms are used in experiments with a passive-type walker robot called “RT Walker” equipped with servo brakes and a depth sensor (Microsoft Kinect). The experiments are performed with 10 subjects, including an experienced physiotherapist who can imitate the walking pattern of the elderly and people with disabilities. The results of the state classification can be used to improve fall-prevention control algorithms for walking support systems. The proposed method can also be used for other vision-based classification applications, which require real-time abnormality detection or state recognition.