Personalized content retrieval in context using ontological knowledge

Personalized content retrieval aims at improving the retrieval process by taking into account the particular interests of individual users. However, not all user preferences are relevant in all situations. It is well known that human preferences are complex, multiple, heterogeneous, changing, even contradictory, and should be understood in context with the user goals and tasks at hand. In this paper, we propose a method to build a dynamic representation of the semantic context of ongoing retrieval tasks, which is used to activate different subsets of user interests at runtime, in a way that out-of-context preferences are discarded. Our approach is based on an ontology-driven representation of the domain of discourse, providing enriched descriptions of the semantics involved in retrieval actions and preferences, and enabling the definition of effective means to relate preferences and context

An online color naming experiment in Russian using Munsell color samples

Russian color naming was explored in a web-based experiment. The purpose was 3-fold: to examine (1) CIELAB coordinates of centroids for 12 Russian basic color terms (BCTs), including 2 Russian terms for “blue”, sinij “dark blue”, and goluboj “light blue”, and compare these with coordinates for the 11 English BCTs obtained in earlier studies; (2) frequent nonBCTs; and (3) gender differences in color naming. Native Russian speakers participated in the experiment using an unconstrained color-naming method. Each participant named 20 colors, selected from 600 colors densely sampling the Munsell Color Solid. Color names and response times of typing onset were registered. Several deviations between centroids of the Russian and English BCTs were found. The 2 “Russian blues”, as expected, divided the BLUE area along the lightness dimension; their centroids deviated from a centroid of English blue. Further minor departures were found between centroids of Russian and English counterparts of “brown” and “red”. The Russian color inventory confirmed the linguistic refinement of the PURPLE area, with high frequencies of nonBCTs. In addition, Russian speakers revealed elaborated naming strategies and use of a rich inventory of nonBCTs. Elicitation frequencies of the 12 BCTs were comparable for both genders; however, linguistic segmentation of color space, employing a synthetic observer, revealed gender differences in naming colors, with more refined naming of the “warm” colors from females. We conclude that, along with universal perceptual factors, that govern categorical partition of color space, Russian speakers’ color naming reflects language-specific factors, supporting the weak relativity hypothesis

Personalized information retrieval based on context and ontological knowledge

The article has been accepted for publication and appeared in a revised form, subsequent to peer review and/or editorial input by Cambridge University PressExtended papers from C&O-2006, the second International Workshop on Contexts and Ontologies, Theory, Practice and Applications1 collocated with the seventeenth European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI)Context modeling has been long acknowledged as a key aspect in a wide variety of problem domains. In this paper we focus on the combination of contextualization and personalization methods to improve the performance of personalized information retrieval. The key aspects in our proposed approach are a) the explicit distinction between historic user context and live user context, b) the use of ontology-driven representations of the domain of discourse, as a common, enriched representational ground for content meaning, user interests, and contextual conditions, enabling the definition of effective means to relate the three of them, and c) the introduction of fuzzy representations as an instrument to properly handle the uncertainty and imprecision involved in the automatic interpretation of meanings, user attention, and user wishes. Based on a formal grounding at the representational level, we propose methods for the automatic extraction of persistent semantic user preferences, and live, ad-hoc user interests, which are combined in order to improve the accuracy and reliability of personalization for retrieval.This research was partially supported by the European Commission under contracts FP6-001765 aceMedia and FP6-027685 MESH. The expressed content is the view of the authors but not necessarily the view of the aceMedia or MESH projects as a whole

Exploring the adoption of physical security controls in smartphones

The proliferation of smartphones has changed our life due to the enhanced connectivity, increased storage capacity and innovative functionality they offer. Their increased popularity has drawn the attention of attackers, thus, nowadays their users are exposed to many security and privacy threats. The fact that smartphones store significant data (e.g. personal, business, government, etc.) in combination with their mobility, increase the impact of unauthorized physical access to smartphones. However, past research has revealed that this is not clearly understood by smartphone users, as they disregard the available security controls. In this context, this paper explores the attitudes and perceptions towards security controls that protect smartphone user’s data from unauthorized physical access. We conducted a survey to measure their adoption and the rea-sons behind users’ selections. Our results, suggest that nowadays users are more concerned about their physical security, but still reveal that a considerable portion of our sample is prone to unauthorized physical access

The international face of Thessaloniki: the “Greek crisis,” the entrepreneurial mayor, and mainstream media discourses

Thessaloniki and its mayor have been portrayed quite favourably in international mainstream media compared to the Greek state after the 2008 economic crisis. The dominant (media) discourses on Greece interpret the crisis as the result of the failure of the Greek state to reform due to the prevalence of a traditional political culture over a modern one and the moral failures of the population. In the international media representations of Thessaloniki, the local government has been described as “exceptional” in its crisis management compared to the state and other local governments, and the city's mayor, Yiannis Boutaris, has been portrayed as a reform hero, due to the implemented entrepreneurial development strategy and the revamp of the city's image through place branding. Analysing the key role of international media in the production and reproduction of a place-branding campaign of Thessaloniki in international media by employing critical discourse analysis, the paper questions the favourable representations of the city compared to the Greek state during the same period. I argue that the serial repetition of positive images contributed to Thessaloniki being perceived as an example to be followed by other Greek local governments and the central state, acting as a best practice example for transformations envisioned on wider scales. The paper contributes to place-branding debates by illustrating the important role of international media in the dissemination of place brands, and by analysing how media representations of place may serve the legitimation of processes of neoliberalisation on scales wider than the concrete urban setting where they occur

Groupoids, Loop Spaces and Quantization of 2-Plectic Manifolds

We describe the quantization of 2-plectic manifolds as they arise in the context of the quantum geometry of M-branes and non-geometric flux compactifications of closed string theory. We review the groupoid approach to quantizing Poisson manifolds in detail, and then extend it to the loop spaces of 2-plectic manifolds, which are naturally symplectic manifolds. In particular, we discuss the groupoid quantization of the loop spaces of R^3, T^3 and S^3, and derive some interesting implications which match physical expectations from string theory and M-theory.Comment: 71 pages, v2: references adde

The EAES intellectual property awareness survey

Introduction: The protection of intellectual property (IP) is one of the fundamental elements in the process of medical device development. The significance of IP, however, is not well understood among clinicians and researchers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current status of IP awareness and IP-related behaviors among EAES members. / Methods: A web-based survey was conducted via questionnaires sent to EAES members. Data collected included participant demographics, level of understanding the need, new ideas and solutions, basic IP knowledge, e.g., employees' inventions and public disclosure, behaviors before and after idea disclosures. / Results: One hundred and seventy-nine completed forms were obtained through an email campaign conducted twice in 2019 (response rate = 4.8%). There was a dominancy in male, formally-trained gastrointestinal surgeons, working at teaching hospitals in European countries. Of the respondents, 71% demonstrated a high level of understanding the needs (frustration with current medical devices), with 66% developing specific solutions by themselves. Active discussion with others was done by 53%. Twenty-one percent of respondents presented their ideas at medical congresses, and 12% published in scientific journals. Only 20% took specific precautions or appropriate actions to protect their IPs before these disclosures. / Conclusions: The current level of awareness of IP and IP-related issues is relatively low among EAES members. A structured IP training program to gain basic IP knowledge and skill should be considered a necessity for clinicians. These skills would serve to prevent the loss of legitimate IP rights and avoid failure in the clinical implementation of innovative devices for the benefit of patients

Effects of in vivo treatment with the dopamine antagonist pimozide and gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) on the reproductive axis of Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis)

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Current engineering developments for robotic systems in flexible endoscopy

The past four decades have seen an increase in the incidence of early-onset gastrointestinal cancer. Because early-stage cancer detection is vital to reduce mortality rate, mass screening colonoscopy provides the most effective prevention strategy. However, conventional endoscopy is a painful and technically challenging procedure that requires sedation and experienced endoscopists to be performed. To overcome the current limitations, technological innovation is needed in colonoscopy. In recent years, researchers worldwide have worked to enhance the diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities of endoscopes. The new frontier of endoscopic interventions is represented by robotic flexible endoscopy. Among all options, self-propelling soft endoscopes are particularly promising thanks to their dexterity and adaptability to the curvilinear gastrointestinal anatomy. For these devices to replace the standard endoscopes, integration with embedded sensors and advanced surgical navigation technologies must be investigated. In this review, the progress in robotic endoscopy was divided into the fundamental areas of design, sensing, and imaging. The article offers an overview of the most promising advancements on these three topics since 2018. Continuum endoscopes, capsule endoscopes, and add-on endoscopic devices were included, with a focus on fluid-driven, tendon-driven, and magnetic actuation. Sensing methods employed for the shape and force estimation of flexible endoscopes were classified into model- and sensor-based approaches. Finally, some key contributions in molecular imaging technologies, artificial neural networks, and software algorithms are described. Open challenges are discussed to outline a path toward clinical practice for the next generation of endoscopic devices