ShopWithMe!: Collaborative Information Searching and Shopping for Online Retail

We present research on the development and evaluation of a collaborative search and shopping system for online retail tasks based on domain specific product requirements. We describe the design rationale for the system development and inclusion of collaborative features, including search, chat, clip-board, product suggestions, shared views, and shopping cart with a focus on how these features are used for collaborative online retail shopping and information searching and sharing. Our research goal is to understand whether collaborative search tools are useful in supporting actual collaborative online retail shopping tasks for experience goods. We describe system development and report findings from preliminary user studies of the system, using mixed methods analysis, with an emphasis on the qualitative findings. The findings highlight that systems for the online shopping domain can support searching, shared views, and group communication to aid in collaborative shopping for experience goods by improving information sharing among group members. Implications are that ecommerce systems, websites, and web apps should support collaboration based on product types

Special Second Order Non Symmetric Fitted Method for Singular Perturbation Problems

In this paper, we present a special second order non symmetric fitted difference method for solving singular perturbed two point boundary value problems having boundary layer at one end. We introduce a fitting factor in the special second order non symmetric finite difference scheme which takes care of the rapid changes occur that in the boundary layer. The value of this fitting factor is obtained from the theory of singular perturbations. The discrete invariant imbedding algorithm is used to solve the tridiagonal system obtained by the method. We discuss the existence and uniqueness of the discrete problem along with stability estimates and the convergence of the method. We present the maximum absolute errors in numerical results to illustrate the proposed method. Keywords: Singularly perturbed two-point boundary value problem, Boundary layer, Fitting factor, Maximum absolute erro

Simplified Video Surveillance Framework for Dynamic Object Detection under Challenging Environment

An effective video surveillance system is highly essential in order to ensure constructing better form of video analytics. Existing review of literatures pertaining to video analytics are found to directly implement algorithms on the top of the video file without much emphasis on following problems i.e. i) dynamic orientation of subject, ii)poor illumination condition, iii) identification and classification of subjects, and iv) faster response time. Therefore, the proposed system implements an analytical concept that uses depth-image of the video feed along with the original colored video feed to apply an algorithm for extracting significant information about the motion blob of the dynamic subjects. Implemented in MATLAB, the study outcome shows that it is capable of addressing all the above mentioned problems associated with existing research trends on video analytics by using a very simple and non-iterative process of implementation. The applicability of the proposed system in practical world is thereby proven

Framework for Contextual Outlier Identification using Multivariate Analysis approach and Unsupervised Learning

Majority of the existing commercial application for video surveillance system only captures the event frames where the accuracy level of captures is too poor. We reviewed the existing system to find that at present there is no such research technique that offers contextual-based scene identification of outliers. Therefore, we presented a framework that uses unsupervised learning approach to perform precise identification of outliers for a given video frames concerning the contextual information of the scene. The proposed system uses matrix decomposition method using multivariate analysis to maintain an equilibrium better faster response time and higher accuracy of the abnormal event/object detection as an outlier. Using an analytical methodology, the proposed system blocking operation followed by sparsity to perform detection. The study outcome shows that proposed system offers an increasing level of accuracy in contrast to the existing system with faster response time

High-Frequency Ultrasound M-Mode Imaging for Identifying Lesion and Bubble Activity During High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Ablation

Effective real-time monitoring of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation is important for application of HIFU technology in interventional electrophysiology. This study investigated rapid, high-frequency M-mode ultrasound imaging for monitoring spatiotemporal changes during HIFU application. HIFU (4.33 MHz, 1 kHz PRF, 50% duty cycle, 1 s, 2600 – 6100 W/cm2 ) was applied to ex-vivo porcine cardiac tissue specimens with a confocally and perpendicularly aligned high-frequency imaging system (Visualsonics Vevo 770, 55 MHz center frequency). Radiofrequency (RF) data from M-mode imaging (1 kHz PRF, 2 s × 7 mm) was acquired before, during, and after HIFU treatment (n = 12). Among several strategies, the temporal maximum integrated backscatter with a threshold of +12 dB change showed the best results for identifying final lesion width (receiver-operating characteristic curve area 0.91 ± 0.04, accuracy 85 ± 8%, as compared to macroscopic images of lesions). A criterion based on a line-to-line decorrelation coefficient is proposed for identification of transient gas bodies

A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF SERVICES RENDERED BY E-COMMERCE AND THEIR INNOVATIONS IN TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION TOWARDS AGRICULTURE SECTOR

E-Commerce is commercial transactions conducted electronically on the Internet. E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These business transactions occur either as business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business. There are a lot of innovations in e-commerce which took place in recent years. The benefits of e-commerce include its around-the-clock availability, the speed of access, the wide availability of goods and services for the consumer, easy accessibility, and international reach. The technology adopted has also gone through a lot of changes. The technology advancements in e-commerce have been discussed in the study.  The main objective of the study is to analyze the advantages of adopting E-Commerce in agricultural sector and to know the advancement in technology adoption. Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, bio fuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. As agriculture plays a major role for the country to develop. The study clearly helps farmers to farm with less input and gain adequate output using e-commerce. It helps farmers to shop online from where ever they are for irrigation like purchasing seeds, fertilizers and search for markets for their output. Descriptive type of research is used for the study. The data gathered is primary as well as secondary. Websites, books, journals are the sources used for data gathering. Formulation of hypothesis, objectives, advantages and limitations have been discussed in the study

Spectral Ultrasound Characterization of Tissues and Tissue Engineered Constructs.

Even though ultrasound imaging is widely used in clinical diagnosis and image-guided interventions, the field is far behind other areas of clinical quantitative image analysis, such as MRI, CT and X-ray mammography. In this thesis, non-destructive and non-invasive ultrasound characterization techniques were developed to study the tissue micro-structural details using high frequency spectral ultrasound imaging (SUSI). The techniques were explored in in-vitro conditions of acellular and cellular tissue engineered constructs and then on ex-vivo tissues for their characterization. SUSI was used to assess the amount of hydroxyl-apatite (HA) mineral, differentiate HA mineral types and study their distribution in acellular tissue engineered constructs. The process of mineral deposition from surrounding mineralizing media onto simple collagen constructs was also studied and characterized with SUSI. 3D morphological changes of the constructs with MC3t3 cells was monitored and characterized for the developmental changes such as net cell proliferation/apoptosis and cell differentiation process through mineral production by the early osteoblastic MC3t3-cell constructs in-situ. A novel method was introduced using SUSI to estimate the amount of mineral secreted by the differentiated osteoblast cells in a non-destructive method. Then, SUSI was investigated in ex-vivo cardiac tissues to monitor and characterize the cellular changes during high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation with high-frame-rate and high-resolution ultrasound imaging. The mechanistic hypotheses behind the improvement in lesion detection were investigated and best identification methods to assess lesion formation and transient gas body activities were proposed to provide a method for visualizing spatiotemporal evolution of lesion and gas–body activity and for predicting macroscopic cavity formation upon its implementation as a real-time monitoring technique with feedback control system for HIFU treatment of atrial fibrillation to improve the ablation process. Even though the results from the developed techniques show great promise in in-vitro and ex-vivo settings, additional work needs to be carried out to demonstrate the applicability of the techniques in in-vivo.PHDBiomedical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99788/1/msreddy_1.pd

Photosynthesis in relation to some selected environmental parameters in prawn culture fields.

Photosynthesis is the process by which chlorophyll containing plants convert solar energy into photochemical energy. This energy stored in the forin of carbohydrates, provides food for man and all other heterotropic organisms. In addition, it provides the most vitally needed supply of oxygen. It is becoming more and more apparent that, evaluation of the true productive potential of water bodies is necessary for utilization of this most fundamental metabolic activity of green plants. The process of photosynthesis is initiated when light is absorbed by an antenna molecule within the photosynthetic membrane. Although there are several pigments that are involved in the light-gathering process, the fundamental importance of chlorophyll (chi) or bacteriophyll (Bchl) is clear from the fact that this molecule is common to all photosynthesis antenna systems, as well as reaction centre

ESTIMATION OF PHYTOCHEMICALS SCREENING AND SUN PROTECTION FACTOR (SPF) NUMBER IN COMMONLY USED ETHANOLIC FRUIT EXTRACTS

The aim of the present study is phytochemical screening and the ultraviolet absorption properties of ethanolic herbal extracts of some commonly used vegetable sources by determining the sun protection factor (spf) number. The invitro SPF number is determined according to the spectrophotomertic method described by Mansur et.al.,. Ethanolic herbal extracts were prepared and after dilution with alcoholic solutions the absorbance were recorded between 290-320 using uv-vis spectrophotometry. It was observed that all of the ethanolic herbal extract showed some UV protection capability. keywords :sun protection factor, spectrophotomertic , ethanolic extrac