Sentiment Lexicon Construction Using SentiWordNet 3.0

Opinion mining and sentiment analysis have become popular in linguistic resource rich languages. Opinions for such analysis are drawn from many forms of freely available online/electronic sources, such as websites, blogs, news re-ports and product reviews. But attention received by less resourced languages is significantly less. This is because the success of any opinion mining algorithm depends on the availability of resources, such as special lexicon and WordNet type tools. In this research, we implemented a less complicated but an effective approach that could be used to classify comments in less resourced languages. We experimented the approach for use with Sinhala Language where no such opinion mining or sentiment analysis has been carried out until this day. Our algorithm gives significantly promising results for analyzing sentiments in Sinhala for the first time

Turbulent jet flow generated downstream of a low temperature dielectric barrier atmospheric pressure plasma device

© The Author(s) 2016.Flowing low temperature atmospheric pressure plasma devices have been used in many technological applications ranging from energy efficient combustion through to wound healing and cancer therapy. The generation of the plasma causes a sudden onset of turbulence in the inhomogeneous axisymmetric jet flow downstream of the plasma plume. The mean turbulent velocity fields are shown to be self-similar and independent of the applied voltage used to generate the plasma. It is proposed that the production of turbulence is related to a combination of the small-amplitude plasma induced body forces and gas heating causing perturbations in the unstable shear layers at the jet exit which grow as they move downstream, creating turbulence

Applications of Image Processing in Viticulture: A Review

The production of high quality grapes for wine making is challenging. Significant progress has been made in the automated prediction of harvest yields from images but the analysis of images to predict the quality of the harvest has yet to be fully addressed. The quality of wine produced depends in part on the quality of the grapes harvested and therefore on the presence of disease in the vineyard. There is potential for automated early detection of disease in grape crops through the development of accurate techniques for image processing. This paper presents a review of current research and highlights some of the key challenges for geo-computation (image processing, computer vision and data mining techniques) to inform the management of vineyards and highlights the key challenges for in-field image capture and analysis. An exploration of potential applications for the knowledge generated by imaging techniques is then presented. This discussion is driven by the current interest in the effect of rapid and dramatic climate change on the production of wine and focuses on how this information might be utilized to inform the design and validation of accurate predictive models

The BRACElet 2009.1 (Wellington) Specification

BRACElet is a multi-institutional computer education research study of novice programmers. The project is open to new members. The purpose of this paper is to: (1) provide potential new members with an overview of BRACElet, and (2) specify the common core for the next data collection cycle. In this paper, BRACElet is taking the unusual step of making its study design public before data is collected. We invite anyone to run their own study using our study design, and publish their findings, irrespective of whether they formally join BRACElet. We look forward to reading their paper. © 2009, Australian Computer Society, Inc

A Comparative Analysis of Opinion Mining and Sentiment Classification in Non-english Languages

In the past decade many opinion mining and sentiment classification studies have been carried out for opinions in English. However, the amount of work done for non-English text opinions is very limited.In this review, we investigate opinion mining and sentiment classification studies in three non-English languages to find the classification methods and the efficiency of each algorithm used in these methods. It is found that most of the research conducted for non-English has followed the methods used in the English language with onlylimited usage of language specific properties, such as morphological variations. The application domains seem to be restricted to particular fields and significantly less research has been conducted in cross domains. Keywords—Natural Language processing, Text mining, Machine Learning

Not seeing the forest for the trees: Novice programmers and the SOLO taxonomy

This paper reports on the authors use of the SOLO taxonomy to describe differences in the way students and educators solve small code reading exercises. SOLO is a general educational taxonomy, and has not previously been applied to the study of how novice programmers manifest their understanding of code. Data was collected in the form of written and think-aloud responses from students (novices) and educators (experts), using exam questions. During analysis, the responses were mapped to the different levels of the SOLO taxonomy. From think-aloud responses, the authors found that educators tended to manifest a SOLO relational response on small reading problems, whereas students tended to manifest a multistructural response. These results are consistent with the literature on the psychology of programming, but the work in this paper extends on these findings by analyzing the design of exam questions. Copyright 2006 ACM

A solar powered handheld plasma source for microbial decontamination applications

A fully portable atmospheric pressure air plasma system is reported to be suitable for the microbial decontamination of both surfaces and liquids. The device operates in quiescent air, and includes an integrated battery which is charged from a solar cell and weighs less than 750 g, making it highly amenable for a wide variety of applications beyond the laboratory. Using particle imaging velocimetry to visualise air flows around the device, the geometric configuration of the plasma generating electrodes was enhanced to induce a gas flow on the order of 0.5 m s-1 directed towards a sample placed downstream, thus improving the transport of plasma generated reactive species to the sample. The microbial decontamination efficiency of the system was assessed using potable water samples inoculated with common waterborne organisms Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas fluorescens. The reduction in the number of microorganisms was found to be in the range of 2-8 log and was strongly dependent on the plasma generation conditions

Prediction of Depression in Individuals at High Familial Risk of Mood Disorders Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Objective Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable condition. First-degree relatives of affected individuals have a more than a ten-fold increased risk of developing bipolar disorder (BD), and a three-fold risk of developing major depressive disorder (MDD) than the general population. It is unclear however whether differences in brain activation reported in BD and MDD are present before the onset of illness. Methods We studied 98 young unaffected individuals at high familial risk of BD and 58 healthy controls using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans and a task involving executive and language processing. Twenty of the high-risk subjects subsequently developed MDD after the baseline fMRI scan. Results At baseline the high-risk subjects who later developed MDD demonstrated relatively increased activation in the insula cortex, compared to controls and high risk subjects who remained well. In the healthy controls and high-risk group who remained well, this region demonstrated reduced engagement with increasing task difficulty. The high risk subjects who subsequently developed MDD did not demonstrate this normal disengagement. Activation in this region correlated positively with measures of cyclothymia and neuroticism at baseline, but not with measures of depression. Conclusions These results suggest that increased activation of the insula can differentiate individuals at high-risk of bipolar disorder who later develop MDD from healthy controls and those at familial risk who remain well. These findings offer the potential of future risk stratification in individuals at risk of mood disorder for familial reasons

Medial temporal lobe function during emotional memory in early Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment and healthy ageing:an fMRI study

Background Relative to intentional memory encoding, which quickly declines in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), incidental memory for emotional stimuli appears to deteriorate more slowly. We hypothesised that tests of incidental emotional memory may inform on different aspects of cognitive decline in MCI and AD. Methods Patients with MCI, AD and Healthy Controls (HC) were asked to attend to emotional pictures (i.e., positive and neutral) sequentially presented during an fMRI session. Attention was monitored behaviourally. A surprise post-scan recognition test was then administered. Results The groups remained attentive within the scanner. The post-scan recognition pattern was in the form of (HC = MCI) > AD, with only the former group showing a clear benefit from emotional pictures. fMRI analysis of incidental encoding demonstrated clusters of activation in para-hippocampal regions and in the hippocampus in HC and MCI patients but not in AD patients. The pattern of activation observed in MCI patients tended to be greater than that found in HC. Conclusions The results suggest that incidental emotional memory might offer a suitable platform to investigate, using behavioural and fMRI measures, subtle changes in the process of developing AD. These changes seem to differ from those found using standard episodic memory tests. The underpinnings of such differences and the potential clinical use of this methodology are discussed in depth

The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936: a study to examine influences on cognitive ageing from age 11 to age 70 and beyond

BACKGROUND: Cognitive ageing is a major burden for society and a major influence in lowering people's independence and quality of life. It is the most feared aspect of ageing. There are large individual differences in age-related cognitive changes. Seeking the determinants of cognitive ageing is a research priority. A limitation of many studies is the lack of a sufficiently long period between cognitive assessments to examine determinants. Here, the aim is to examine influences on cognitive ageing between childhood and old age. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is designed as a follow-up cohort study. The participants comprise surviving members of the Scottish Mental Survey of 1947 (SMS1947; N = 70,805) who reside in the Edinburgh area (Lothian) of Scotland. The SMS1947 applied a valid test of general intelligence to all children born in 1936 and attending Scottish schools in June 1947. A total of 1091 participants make up the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. They undertook: a medical interview and examination; physical fitness testing; extensive cognitive testing (reasoning, memory, speed of information processing, and executive function); personality, quality of life and other psycho-social questionnaires; and a food frequency questionnaire. They have taken the same mental ability test (the Moray House Test No. 12) at age 11 and age 70. They provided blood samples for DNA extraction and testing and other biomarker analyses. Here we describe the background and aims of the study, the recruitment procedures and details of numbers tested, and the details of all examinations. DISCUSSION: The principal strength of this cohort is the rarely captured phenotype of lifetime cognitive change. There is additional rich information to examine the determinants of individual differences in this lifetime cognitive change. This protocol report is important in alerting other researchers to the data available in the cohort