Exploiting information extraction techniques for automatic semantic video indexing with an application to Turkish news videos

This paper targets at the problem of automatic semantic indexing of news videos by presenting a video annotation and retrieval system which is able to perform automatic semantic annotation of news video archives and provide access to the archives via these annotations. The presented system relies on the video texts as the information source and exploits several information extraction techniques on these texts to arrive at representative semantic information regarding the underlying videos. These techniques include named entity recognition, person entity extraction, coreference resolution, and semantic event extraction. Apart from the information extraction components, the proposed system also encompasses modules for news story segmentation, text extraction, and video retrieval along with a news video database to make it a full-fledged system to be employed in practical settings. The proposed system is a generic one employing a wide range of techniques to automate the semantic video indexing process and to bridge the semantic gap between what can be automatically extracted from videos and what people perceive as the video semantics. Based on the proposed system, a novel automatic semantic annotation and retrieval system is built for Turkish and evaluated on a broadcast news video collection, providing evidence for its feasibility and convenience for news videos with a satisfactory overall performance.     

Biosorption of Acid Red P-2BX by lichens as low-cost biosorbents

The aim of this study is to examine the dye biosorption properties of lichen species called Cladonia convoluta and Evernia prunastri. Since lichens are extensively found in the environment, their suitability as a cheap adsorbent has been investigated in this study. The optimal parameters for textile dye biosorption were also determined. The dried lichen biomass showed better dye biosorption capacity than ash lichen biomass. C. convoluta had better dye biosorption capacity than E. prunastri. Dye biosorption rate was found as 71.41% at optimal conditions. This study concluded that C. convoluta was a successful and cheap biosorbent for treatment of water contaminated by Acid Red P-2BX dye.     

Investigating the effect of production process of ball mill refiner on some physical quality parameters of compound chocolate: response surface methodology approach

Chocolate compound was produced using ball mill refiner, and the effect of agitator shaft speed and refining time on the physical quality parameters (particle size, colour and steady‐state rheology) of compound chocolate was determined using response surface methodology. The shaft speed and refining time range were selected between 40–60 r.p.m. and 10–30 min, respectively. Determination coefficient of the models established for particle size, Newtonian viscosity and colour parameters (brightness, chroma and hue angle) were found to be very close to unity. Increasing shaft speed and time induced a reduction in particle size and an increase in viscosity of the samples. Temperature sweep test was also performed, and the obtained data were successfully fitted to Arrhenius equation to calculate the corresponding parameters representing temperature dependency of the compounds. The results highlighted that the establishment of such models can provide essential information in terms of optimisation of production processes regarding usage purpose of the compound chocolate.     

Highly active and stable CeO2 supported nickel-complex catalyst in hydrogen generation

Cerium oxide supported 5-Amino-2,4-dichlorophenol-3,5-ditertbutylsalisylaldimine-Nickel complex for the first time was used to produce H₂ from hydrolysis of sodium borohydride. Cerium oxide supported Nickel complex catalyzed hydrolysis system was studied depend on temperature, concentration of sodium hydroxide, amount of Cerium oxide supported Ni complex catalyst, concentration of Ni complex and concentration of sodium borohydride. Cerium oxide supported Ni(II) complex display highly effective catalytic activity in sodium borohydride hydrolysis reaction. The obtained Cerium oxide supported Ni(II) complex catalyst was characterized by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscope, Transmission Electron Microscope, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller Surface Area Analysis, X-Ray Diffraction Analysis techniques. The catalyst stability was tested, even the fifth recycle the catalytic activity was maintained at 100%. Additionally the proposed Cerium oxide supported-Ni (II) complex catalyzed sodium borohydride hydrolysis mechanism was determined carefully. The experimental results showed that Cerium oxide supported Ni (II) complex catalyst accelerate sodium borohydride hydrolysis with 43,392 and 19,630 mL H₂ g_cat^?1 min^?1 hydrogen production rates at 50 °C and 30 °C respectively and 20,587 kJ mol^?1 activation energy.     

Historical narratives as strategic resources: analysis of the Turkish international contracting sector

The Turkish contracting sector has an enviable reputation for operating in high-risk international markets. The sector’s ability to respond to market instability could meaningfully be construed as sectoral-level capability. We aim to demonstrate how history can be mobilised in a formalised “strategy text” to create a strategic narrative on the sectoral level. The Geography of Contractors as published by the Turkish Contractors Association (TCA) ostensively portrays the strategic development of Turkish international contractors over four decades. Such quasi-historical narratives are routinely mobilised for the purposes of creating a shared memory on the sectoral level. The chosen strategy text draws from multiple narrative fragments derived from past experience to generate a strategic agenda for the future. The representation given to multiple voices reflects the pluralistic nature of strategy making praxis. The overarching strategy narrative reflects a performative intent in legitimising some practices whilst discrediting others. Narrative analysis demonstrates the way in which actors, actions and events are positioned within a plot structure, with direct implications for the enactment of future strategic practices. The findings suggest that strategic actions can only ever be identified in retrospect and that such arguments are always made with an eye on the future.     

High temperature bending creep behavior of a multi-cation doped α/β-SiAlON composite

SiAlON ceramics with high hardness and high toughness can be made through designing α/β-SiAlON composites. An important advantage of α-SiAlON phase is that the amount of intergranular phase is reduced by the transient liquid phase being absorbed into the matrix of α-SiAlON phase during sintering. But, the thermal stability of the α-SiAlON phase is an important concern for α/β-SiAlON composites especially at high temperatures. The use of different types of single or multiple cations during fabrication directly affects resultant microstructures and mechanical behavior of α/β-SiAlON composites. In this study, the creep behavior of a multi-cation (Y, Sm and Ca) doped α/β-SiAlON composite, in which aluminum-containing nitrogen melilite solid solution phase was designed as intergranular phase, was investigated by four-point bending creep tests under stresses from 50 to 150 MPa and at temperatures from 1300 °C to 1400 °C in air. The stress exponent was determined to be 1.6 ± 0.13 at 1400 °C and the creep activation energy was calculated to be 692 ± 37 kJ/mol⁻¹. Grain boundary sliding coupled with diffusion was identified as the rate-controlling creep mechanism for the α/β-SiAlON composite.     

Comparison of additive effects on the PVA/starch cryogels: Synthesis,characterization, cytotoxicity,and genotoxicity studies

The research goal of this study is to produce suitable scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Different ratios of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/starch (90:10, 70:30, 50:50) and crosslinking methods have been used to prepare cryogels. Chemically crosslinked cryogels were synthesized using glutaraldehyde as the crosslinking agent. For the physically crosslinked cryogels, sodium dodecyl sulfate was used during cryogelation as the foaming agent. Chemical structure and pore morphology were demonstrated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Swelling ratio and degradation profile of the scaffolds were also determined. 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazoyl-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and SEM were used to investigate the biocompatibility of the scaffolds and cell morphology. Genotoxicity test was performed to show DNA fragmentation. The overall results demonstrated that PVA/starch cryogels could have potentially appealing application as scaffolds for tissue engineering applications and additives affect the architecture and characteristic properties of the cryogels.     

Improvements in microstructural,mechanical, and biocompatibility properties of nano-sized hydroxyapatites doped with yttrium and fluoride

Hydroxyapatite was doped with Y³⁺ (2.5, 5 and 7.5 mol%) and F⁻ (2.5 mol%) ions (2.5YFHA, 5YFHA, 7.5YFHA, respectively) to compare its structural and mechanical properties and cellular response with pure-hydroxyapatite. No second phases were observed by X-ray diffraction spectra of 2.5YFHA. Doped hydroxyapatites had F⁻ bonds in addition to OH⁻ bonds. Hydroxyapatites sintered at 900 and 1100 °C were in nano-size. 7.5YFHA sintered at 1300 °C had the highest microhardness value. 2.5YFHA sintered at 1100 °C had the highest fracture toughness value. MTT viability assays showed high cell attachments on 2.5YFHA. Cell proliferation on 2.5YFHA and 5YFHA sintered at 1100 and 1300 °C was comparable with the control after 5-day culture. The highest ALP production and calcium deposition were observed on all hydroxyapatites sintered at 1100 °C. 2.5YFHA sintered at 1100 °C can be an alternative for hydroxyapatite in orthopedic applications.     

Pre-disaster investment decisions for strengthening a highway network

We address a pre-disaster planning problem that seeks to strengthen a highway network whose links are subject to random failures due to a disaster. Each link may be either operational or non-functional after the disaster. The link failure probabilities are assumed to be known a priori, and investment decreases the likelihood of failure. The planning problem seeks connectivity for first responders between various origin–destination (O–D) pairs and hence focuses on uncapacitated road conditions. The decision-maker's goal is to select the links to invest in under a limited budget with the objective of maximizing the post-disaster connectivity and minimizing traversal costs between the origin and destination nodes. The problem is modeled as a two-stage stochastic program in which the investment decisions in the first stage alter the survival probabilities of the corresponding links. We restructure the objective function into a monotonic non-increasing multilinear function and show that using the first order terms of this function leads to a knapsack problem whose solution is a local optimum to the original problem. Numerical experiments on real-world data related to strengthening Istanbul's urban highway system against earthquake risk illustrate the tractability of the method and provide practical insights for decision-makers.