Evaluating an intelligent diagnosis system of historical text comprehension

This work aims to present and evaluate a Fuzzy-Case Based Reasoning Diagnosis system of Historical Text Comprehension. The synergism of fuzzy logic and case based reasoning techniques handles the uncertainty in the acquisition of human expert's knowledge regarding learner's observable behaviour and integrates the right balance between expert's knowledge described in the form of fuzzy sets and previous experiences documented in the form of cases. The formative evaluation focused on the comparison of the system's performance to the performance of human experts concerning the diagnosis accuracy. The system was also evaluated for its behaviour when using two different historical texts. Empirical evaluation conducted with human experts and real students indicated the need for revision of the diagnosis model. The evaluation results are encouraging for the system's educational impact on learners and for future work concerning an intelligent educational system for individualized learning.     

Degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aqueous solutions by ultrasonic irradiation

The effect of various operating conditions (initial concentration, liquid phase temperature, applied power, ultrasound frequency) and of the presence of matrix components (1-butanol, NaCl and FeSO(4)) on the sonochemical degradation of naphthalene, acenaphthylene and phenanthrene in water has been studied. A horn-type sonicator was used to deliver the ultrasound energy, while immersion sampling solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with GC-MS was employed to follow concentration-time profiles of the chosen PAHs. At the operating conditions in question (initial concentrations of 150, 300 and 450 microg/l, temperatures of 20 and 40 degrees C, applied power of 45, 75 and 150 W and ultrasound frequencies of 24 and 80 kHz), all PAHs were susceptible to sonochemical treatment and, in most cases, complete degradation could be achieved in up to 120 min of treatment. Conversion was found to decrease with increasing initial concentration and temperature and decreasing power and frequency as well as in the presence of an excess of dissolved salts. Addition of 1-butanol, a known hydroxyl radical scavenger, substantially suppressed degradation throughout the course of the reaction, thus highlighting the role of oxidation reactions in PAHs degradation. In contrast, addition of Fe(2+) ions at a low concentration enhanced degradation through a Fenton-like reaction.