Convolutional Drift Networks for Video Classification

Analyzing spatio-temporal data like video is a challenging task that requires processing visual and temporal information effectively. Convolutional Neural Networks have shown promise as baseline fixed feature extractors through transfer learning, a technique that helps minimize the training cost on visual information. Temporal information is often handled using hand-crafted features or Recurrent Neural Networks, but this can be overly specific or prohibitively complex. Building a fully trainable system that can efficiently analyze spatio-temporal data without hand-crafted features or complex training is an open challenge. We present a new neural network architecture to address this challenge, the Convolutional Drift Network (CDN). Our CDN architecture combines the visual feature extraction power of deep Convolutional Neural Networks with the intrinsically efficient temporal processing provided by Reservoir Computing. In this introductory paper on the CDN, we provide a very simple baseline implementation tested on two egocentric (first-person) video activity datasets.We achieve video-level activity classification results on-par with state-of-the art methods. Notably, performance on this complex spatio-temporal task was produced by only training a single feed-forward layer in the CDN.Comment: Published in IEEE Rebooting Computin

Co-creation and consumer’s purchasing intentions, any value in B2B activities?

Given the increasing competitive nature of global markets, consumers are able to choose from an ever- increasing quality of products and services with constant declining prices. Hence, better understanding of B2B value co-creation activities that governs suppliers’ relationship with a direct impact on consumer is of great importance. The general purpose behind the study is that customers are willing to buy products only if consumers are in demand of the manufactured products, and therefore, the marketing efforts should target the ultimate consumer as opposed to the buyer. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of B2B value co-creation on consumers in South East Asia’s manufacturing industry. The research questions of this study are as following; what is the impact of B2B value co-creation on consumer satisfaction? What is the effect of value co-creation behavior on repurchase Intention? What is the effect of value co-creation behavior on willingness to pay premium? Available literature that deals with B2B co-creation in South-East Asia is primarily concerned with examining the concept of value co-creation behavior and its impact within organizational settings, with little consideration given to B2B value co-creation from consumer standpoint. Hence, an approach that attempts to assess B2B value co-creation impact on the ultimate consumer provides a new insights and a greater understanding of B2B value co-creation relationship within this important geographical part of the Asian market. Findings show that B2B value co-creation activities have a positive impact on consumer satisfaction in SE-Asian manufacturing sector. Findings also reveal that B2B value co-creation activities have a positive effect on ultimate consumer repurchase intentions. This suggests that B2B activities involving value co-creation have a positive effect on ultimate product consumer repurchase intention

The independent effects of ferrous and phosphorus on growth and development of Tetraselmis suecica; an in vitro study

Five treatments including Conway medium, media containing 0.1, 0.17, 0.3 and 0.5 mg l-1 ferrous (Fe; in the first experiment), media with 1, 1.26, 1.59, 2 mg l-1 concentrations of phosphorous (P; in the second experiment) and a pure sample of Tetraselmis suecica were cultured under laboratory conditions. Growth rate of the algae was determined using the optical density method at 750 nm and number of algal cells was counted with a hemocytometer. The results of the first experiment showed that the amount of Fe for maximum growth of this species was 0.3 mg l-1, while Fe concentration in Conway medium was 0.27 mg l-1 (P>0.05). The results of second experiment showed that 1.59 mg l-1 P caused the maximum growth of algae which was not significantly different from that of the control medium (with 1.6 mg l-1; Conway; P>0.05).These results showed that due to the lack of significant differences in maximum growth of this alga recorded in 0.3 mg l-1 Fe and that recorded in 1.59 mg l-1 P in Conway medium, increase or decrease of these doses will have a significant negative effect on algal growth

Effect of shark cartilage derived protein on the NK cells activity

Context: Shark cartilage has been used for its beneficial effects on various diseases. There are evidences, that shark cartilage stimulates cellular and humoral immune responses, which makes it an anti-tumor and immunomodulator candidate. Objective: The immunostimulatory effect of shark cartilage derived proteins on the cytotoxic activity of natural killer (NK) cells from healthy human peripheral blood mononuclear cells was studied. Material and methods: The shark cartilage was extracted and its bioactive proteins were purified using ion-exchange chromatography (DE-52) and sequential fractionation on Amicon ultrafiltration membranes. The effect of each protein fraction on the modulation of cytotoxic activity of NK cells, as effectors, against K562, as target cells, was assayed by enzymatic lactate dehydrogenase test. Results: The most immunostimulatory effect on the cytotoxic activity of NK cells was observed for AR10 fraction, containing proteins with molecular weight of about 14.5kDa on the reducible discontinuous sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Discussion: Among the examined shark cartilage derived proteins, the most immunostimulatory effects on the NK cells cytotoxicity was found for AR10 fraction with molecular weight of about 14kDa. We propose—the direct interactions of shark cartilage derived proteins with NK cells surface receptors may lead to the enhancing in the cytotoxic activity of NK cells. Conclusion: Thus AR10 fraction, proteins of about 14.5kDa, has a novel immunostimulatory effect on the NK cells activity in vitro and if confirmed by in vivo trials, it may lead to its future clinical applications as, immunotherapy of cancer, HIV, and augmentation of host immune system related immunodeficiency disorders. Keywords: Immunostimulation, purification, shark cartilage, K562, NK cel

Can social media predict soccer clubs' stock prices?: The case of Turkish teams

Finance literature in sports focuses on three main methods of stock price prediction in soccer: based on match results, pre-match expectations or match importance. For pre-match expectations, betting odds is commonly used as the indicator of investors' sentiments. We propose to include Twitter data as another indicator of this variable, and analyze the links between soccer match results, sentiments, and stock returns of the four major Turkish soccer teams. Our results show that social media can be a strong indicator of pre-match expectations and investors’ sentiments in stock price prediction