The SHARC framework for data quality in Web archiving

Web archives preserve the history of born-digital content and offer great potential for sociologists, business analysts, and legal experts on intellectual property and compliance issues. Data quality is crucial for these purposes. Ideally, crawlers should gather coherent captures of entire Web sites, but the politeness etiquette and completeness requirement mandate very slow, long-duration crawling while Web sites undergo changes. This paper presents the SHARC framework for assessing the data quality in Web archives and for tuning capturing strategies toward better quality with given resources. We define data quality measures, characterize their properties, and develop a suite of quality-conscious scheduling strategies for archive crawling. Our framework includes single-visit and visit?Crevisit crawls. Single-visit crawls download every page of a site exactly once in an order that aims to minimize the ??blur?? in capturing the site. Visit?Crevisit strategies revisit pages after their initial downloads to check for intermediate changes. The revisiting order aims to maximize the ??coherence?? of the site capture(number pages that did not change during the capture). The quality notions of blur and coherence are formalized in the paper. Blur is a stochastic notion that reflects the expected number of page changes that a time-travel access to a site capture would accidentally see, instead of the ideal view of a instantaneously captured, ??sharp?? site. Coherence is a deterministic quality measure that counts the number of unchanged and thus coherently captured pages in a site snapshot. Strategies that aim to either minimize blur or maximize coherence are based on prior knowledge of or predictions for the change rates of individual pages. Our framework includes fairly accurate classifiers for change predictions. All strategies are fully implemented in a testbed and shown to be effective by experiments with both synthetically generated sites and a periodic crawl series for different Web sites.     

Student progress assessment with the help of an intelligent pupil analysis system

Students and lecturers would like to know how well students have learned the study materials being taught. A formal test or exam would cause needless stress for students. To resolve this problem, the authors of this article have developed an Intelligent Pupil Analysis (IPA) System. A sufficient amount of studies worldwide prove an interrelation between pupil size and a person's cognitive load. The obtained research results are comparable with the results from other similar studies. The original contribution of this article, compared to the research results published earlier, is as follows: the IPA System developed by the authors is superior to the traditional pupil analysis research due to the integration of pupil analysis with subsystems of decision support, recommender and intelligent tutoring systems and innovative Models of the Model-base, which permit a more detailed analysis of the knowledge attained by a student. This article ends with a case study to demonstrate the practical operation of the IPA System.     

Model for a Complex Analysis of Intelligent Built Environment

The purpose of intelligent built environment is to improve inhabitant's quality of life and to satisfy inhabitants by replacing routine work with smart devices and robots. Smart devices and robots can interpret changes in the built environment and respond appropriately. The problem is how to define a rational intelligent built environment when many various stakeholders are involved, projects have thousands of alternative versions and the quality of life and economical efficiency changes with alterations in micro and macro environmental conditions and the constituent parts of the process in question. Moreover, the realization of some objectives seems more rational from the economic perspective though their significance is varied from other perspectives. The formalized Model for Complex Analysis of Intelligent Built Environment and the Multiple Criteria Decision Support System of Intelligent Built Environment developed by the authors of this paper show how changes in project alternatives and the extent to which the goals of various stakeholders are satisfied cause respective changes in the value and utility degree of a project. To achieve the above-mentioned aims new multiple criteria analysis methods were developed.     

Modelling of the shielding capabilities of the existing solid radioactive waste storages at Ignalina NPP

There is only one nuclear power plant in Lithuania--Ignalina NPP (INPP). The INPP operates two similar units with design electrical power of 1500 MW. The units were commissioned in 1983 and 1987 respectively. From the beginning of the INPP operation all generated solid radioactive waste was collected and stored at the Soviet type solid radwaste facility located at INPP site. The INPP solid radwaste storage facility consists of four buildings, namely building No. 155, No. 155/1, No. 157 and No. 157/1. The buildings of the INPP solid radwaste storage facility are reinforced concrete structures above ground. State Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) has specified that particular safety analysis must be performed for existing radioactive waste storage facilities of the INPP. As part of the safety analysis, shielding capabilities of the walls and roofs of these buildings were analysed. This paper presents radiation shielding analysis of the buildings No. 157 and No. 157/1 that are still in operation. The buildings No. 155 and No. 155/1 are already filled up with the waste and no additional waste loading is expected.     

Controlling electric dipoles in nanodielectrics and its applications for enabling air-stable n-channel organic transistors

We present a new method to manipulate the channel charge density of field-effect transistors using dipole-generating self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) with different anchor groups. Our approach maintains an ideal interface between the dipole layers and the semiconductor while changing the built-in electric potential by 0.41-0.50 V. This potential difference can be used to change effectively the electrical properties of nanoelectronic devices. We further demonstrate the application of the SAM dipoles to enable air-stable operation of n-channel organic transistors.     

Polymer Nanoparticles Encased in a Cyclodextrin Complex Shell for Potential Site‐ and Sequence‐Specific Drug Release

Time‐staggered combination chemotherapy strategies show immense potential in cell culture systems, but fail to successfully translate clinically due to different routes of administration and disparate formulation parameters that preclude a specific order of drug presentation. A novel platform consisting of drug‐containing PLGA polymer nanoparticles, stably fashioned with a shell composed of drug complexed with cationic cyclodextrin, capable of releasing drugs time‐ and sequence‐specifically within tumors is designed. Morphological examination of nanoparticles measuring 150 nm highlight stable and distinct compartmentalization of model drugs, rhodamine and bodipy, within the core and shell, respectively. Sequential release is observed in vitro, owing to cyclodextrin shell displacement and subsequent sustained release of core‐loaded drug, kinetics preserved in breast cancer cells following internalization. Importantly, time‐staggered release is corroborated in a murine breast cancer model following intravenous administration. Precise control of drug release order, site‐specifically, potentially opens novel avenues in polychemotherapy for synergy and chemosensitization strategies.     

Method and system for Multi-Attribute Market Value Assessment in analysis of construction and retrofit projects

Multi-Attribute Decision-Making (MADM) methods prioritize the alternatives of comparative projects quite accurately. Problems arise when there is a need to determine the utility degrees and market values of the project alternatives. This becomes especially important for establishing the market value of real estate property in tender offers. However, the available MADM methods cannot accomplish this. Thus the authors of this article developed the MAMVA method, which permits determining the utility degrees and market values of project alternatives, and also developed a system on the basis of this developed method. This article presents the proposed Multi-Attribute Market Value Assessment (MAMVA) Method and the Decision Support System for Construction and Retrofit Projects (DSS-CRP). It also presents a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of this method and system. The application of the MAMVA Method and DSS-CRP System for prioritizing and for determining the utility degrees and market values of construction and retrofit projects under consideration for financing by the European Economic Area (EEA) and Norway Financial Mechanism Grant made it possible to decrease the amount of requested support.This article also presents the analysis and comprehensive assessment of the noted construction and retrofit projects. These were performed in consideration of the entire life cycle of a project and of needs satisfaction relevant to all the groups interested in a project. The developed MAMVA Method and DSS-CRP System permit assessing the appropriateness of projects under analysis in conceptual and qualitative forms. This method and system automatically submit the values of the project alternatives.     

Modelling of activation processes for GR-280 graphite at Ignalina NPP

Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) operates two RBMK-1500 water-cooled graphite-moderated channel-type power reactors. The total mass of graphite in the cores of both units at INPP is about 3600 tons. Modelling of activation processes in the reactor's structural materials is necessary for decommissioning planning, because large amounts of activated structural materials (graphite, stainless steel, concrete, etc.) should be managed as radioactive waste. Knowledge of radiological characteristics and a radioactive inventory of irradiated materials are essential in planning of the decommissioning processes. The purpose of this work was to perform conservative neutron activation analysis for decommissioning purposes of INPP. ORIGEN computer code was used for the calculations. Activity levels were calculated for different nuclides present in the graphite and estimates were made how these activity levels depend on irradiation time, neutron flux value and other parameters. Obtained results were compared with the data available from other investigations for GR-280 graphite.     

Vibrational analysis of angle measurement comparator

The comparators of angle measurement are designed for measurement of angle gauges (limbs) and angular movements (turning) for calibration measurement errors of measuring systems. The vibration isolation issue for angle comparators is particularly relevant. Vibration analysis became essential for angle comparators operating in dynamic mode and used for precise angular measurements. In this paper, an analysis of wavelet intensity distributions of angle comparators is carried out by applying the theory of covariance functions. Data from measurements of vibrational signals at fixed points were acquired in the form of data arrays (matrices). Estimates of covariance functions between the arrays of data and the estimates of covariance functions of single arrays were calculated upon changing the quantization interval on the time scale. For signal processing, MATLAB 7 software was applied.     

Efficient cerium-based sol-gel derived phosphors in different garnet matrices for light-emitting diodes

Efficiency of sol-gel derived Y_3−xAl₅O₁₂:Ce_x³⁺ (YAG:Ce) and Y_3−xMg₂AlSi₂O₁₂:Ce_x³⁺ (YMASG:Ce) phosphors, which are prospective for application in white light emitting diodes (LED), is studied. Sets of samples containing different cerium amount x from 0.015 to 0.06 and sintered at different temperatures (1400-1550 °C) were investigated. Importance of absorption peculiarities in agglomerates of phosphor nanocrystals is demonstrated by studying the excitation wavelength dependence of quantum efficiency and by applying PL measurements in confocal mode. Emission saturation is demonstrated to occur at higher excitation intensities than those typical for operating white LEDs.