Next Generation of Product Search and Discovery

Online shopping has become an important part of people’s daily life with the rapid development of e-commerce. In some domains such as books, electronics, and CD/DVDs, online shopping has surpassed or even replaced the traditional shopping method. Compared with traditional retailing, e-commerce is information intensive. One of the key factors to succeed in e-business is how to facilitate the consumers’ approaches to discover a product. Conventionally a product search engine based on a keyword search or category browser is provided to help users find the product information they need. The general goal of a product search system is to enable users to quickly locate information of interest and to minimize users’ efforts in search and navigation. In this process human factors play a significant role. Finding product information could be a tricky task and may require an intelligent use of search engines, and a non-trivial navigation of multilayer categories. Searching for useful product information can be frustrating for many users, especially those inexperienced users. This dissertation focuses on developing a new visual product search system that effectively extracts the properties of unstructured products, and presents the possible items of attraction to users so that the users can quickly locate the ones they would be most likely interested in. We designed and developed a feature extraction algorithm that retains product color and local pattern features, and the experimental evaluation on the benchmark dataset demonstrated that it is robust against common geometric and photometric visual distortions. Besides, instead of ignoring product text information, we investigated and developed a ranking model learned via a unified probabilistic hypergraph that is capable of capturing correlations among product visual content and textual content. Moreover, we proposed and designed a fuzzy hierarchical co-clustering algorithm for the collaborative filtering product recommendation. Via this method, users can be automatically grouped into different interest communities based on their behaviors. Then, a customized recommendation can be performed according to these implicitly detected relations. In summary, the developed search system performs much better in a visual unstructured product search when compared with state-of-art approaches. With the comprehensive ranking scheme and the collaborative filtering recommendation module, the user’s overhead in locating the information of value is reduced, and the user’s experience of seeking for useful product information is optimized

Environmental Justice and Community-Based Reparations

This Article seeks to illuminate the lack of adequate legal remedies that are available for low-income, predominantly minority communities that have suffered historic environmental injustices. The Article not only discusses the lack of adequate legal remedies, but also proposes the use of local, state, and federal reparations programs for communities that have previously suffered environmental injustices; are still living with the effects of environmental injustices, by way of disease, air, soil, and water pollution; or are suffering current and ongoing environmental injustices. As has been recently illustrated by Michigan’s state action of providing lead-contaminated water for over a year to residents of Flint, Michigan, environmental injustices at the hands of local, state, and federal governments are, unfortunately, all too common. Certainly, governments are not the only entities perpetrating environmental injustices; however, because governments are charged with enforcing environmental and civil rights laws, their own perpetration of environmental injustice is sometimes even more egregious than environmental misconduct by private entities. This Article stems from the work of the University of Miami School of Law Center for Ethics & Public Service Environmental Justice Clinic. The Environmental Justice Clinic began as a community-based project working with historic black churches in the West Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. The Environmental Justice Clinic, in partnership with these historic black churches, community stakeholders, and local nonprofits, has been researching the environmental injustice of “Old Smokey”—the aptly nicknamed City of Miami Municipal Trash Incinerator

Types of Jewish education in the United States and Canada: A study in religious adaptation

This thesis contains a description of the several types of Jewish schooling, formal and informal, which can be found today in many Jewish communities in the United States of Canada

A Developmental Study of Concept Formation Behavior in Pre-school Children as Measured by the Hunter-Pascal Concept Formation Test

Introduction: In psychology the investigation of the formation of concepts has long been a part of the study of what has been called the thought processes. There are, however, very few studies of early concepts formation in humans, especially in children before and during the development of speech patterns. Most of the studies which have dealt with the investigation of concept formation have depended largely for their data on speech processes. It can, however, be shown that concept formation exists before speech behavior, and that its development seems to be somewhat parallel to the development of speech in the child. The literature on this problem indicates a considerable hiatus in this area of investigation of concept formation in the very earliest years of the human organism. In the present research the approach chosen was that of the investigation of the problem of the earliest appearance of a fairly limited form of concept formation behavior in the human organism, and of tracing its development as the organism matures, thus making some sort of a beginning in showing how the internal processes which we infer from the overt and observable behavior of the organism follow their maturational patterns. To clarify a term, the present study is concerned with a group of behaviors, observable and quantifiable, from which concept formation as some sort of internal, possibly central, symbolic process can be inferred. Such behavior will be called here concept formation behavior or concept behavior. An answer to the question of what the internal processes might be, will not be attempted here

Pengaruh Work-Life Balance terhadap Profesionalisme melalui Mediasi Kepuasan Kerja pada Aparatur Sipil Negara (ASN) di Lingkungan Pemerintah Kabupaten Tapanuli Selatan

The aim of this research is to analyze the mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between work-life balance and the professionalism of ASNs. These two factors are critical to study because an imbalance between work and life may result in unprofessional behavior, and job dissatisfaction may also lead to unprofessionalism at work. The study utilized quantitative research methods, employing Structural Equation Model (SEM) data analysis techniques using AMOS version 22 software. Stratified random sampling was used to select 300 ASNs as respondents, and data were collected using professionalism, work-life balance, and job satisfaction scales. The results indicated that job satisfaction significantly mediated the relationship between work-life balance and professionalism. This study highlights the importance of job satisfaction as a mediator in maintaining the professionalism of ASNs and suggests the need for policies to improve work-life balance in order to enhance professionalism in the workplace. Relevant keywords include job satisfaction, work-life balance, professionalism, ASNs, and Structural Equation Model

Defining the chromatin signature of inducible genes in T cells

BACKGROUND Specific chromatin characteristics, especially the modification status of the core histone proteins, are associated with active and inactive genes. There is growing evidence that genes that respond to environmental or developmental signals may possess distinct chromatin marks. Using a T cell model and both genome-wide and gene-focused approaches, we examined the chromatin characteristics of genes that respond to T cell activation. RESULTS To facilitate comparison of genes with similar basal expression levels, we used expression-profiling data to bin genes according to their basal expression levels. We found that inducible genes in the lower basal expression bins, especially rapidly induced primary response genes, were more likely than their non-responsive counterparts to display the histone modifications of active genes, have RNA polymerase II (Pol II) at their promoters and show evidence of ongoing basal elongation. There was little or no evidence for the presence of active chromatin marks in the absence of promoter Pol II on these inducible genes. In addition, we identified a subgroup of genes with active promoter chromatin marks and promoter Pol II but no evidence of elongation. Following T cell activation, we find little evidence for a major shift in the active chromatin signature around inducible gene promoters but many genes recruit more Pol II and show increased evidence of elongation. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that the majority of inducible genes are primed for activation by having an active chromatin signature and promoter Pol II with or without ongoing elongation