89 research outputs found
Unveiling the Symbolic Tapestry: The Mauritian Traditional Hindu Symbolic Kerchief in the Artworks of Arvin Ombika
No full textThe paper looks at the works of Arvin Ombika, a descendant of indentured background, who
appropriates the traditional Mauritian Hindu kerchief, commonly called mouswar or mouswar latet, in
his paintings. The research briefly provides historical and cultural knowledge about the significance of
the scarf within the Hindu communities in Mauritius to create the context. From previous research, it
was recognised that the kerchief has shifted from its pragmatic use over time and has become an integral
part of rituals across the Hindu cultures in Mauritius, establishing itself as a symbol of the Indian
Indentured ancestors. The study also brushes over the depictions and uses of the kerchief in the works
of other local artists to further reinforce its potential as a symbol of expression. It then focuses on the
creative results of Ombika, where the latter depicts, uses and re-interprets the traditional kerchief to his
artistic ends. The study traces the beginnings of Arvin’s using the bandanna at the beginning of his
artistic career, its brief secession and reusing the traditional symbol as a readymade or painted pattern.
The paper also analyses the thought process and underlying concept behind using the mouswar. The
author also looks at the other creative possibilities through the designs of the kerchief, leaving behind
all the traditional and political connotations towards becoming a pure aesthetic motif of expression
Outline studies in the history of education, by Arvin S. Olin, A.M.
No full text2d ed., rev. and enl.135 p
Concept Based Author Recommender System for CiteSeer
Full text linkThe information explosion in today's electronic world has created the need for information filtering techniques that help users filter out extraneous content to identify the right information they need to make important decisions. Recommender systems are one approach to this problem, based on presenting potential items of interest to a user rather than requiring the user to go looking for them. In this paper we propose a recommender system that recommends research papers of potential interest to the author from the CiteSeer database. For each author participating in the study, we create a user profile based on their previously published papers. Based on similarities between the user profile and profiles for documents in the collection, additional papers are recommended to the author. We introduce a novel way of representing the user profiles as tree of concepts and an algorithm for computing the similarity between the user profiles and document profiles using a tree-edit distance measure. Experiments with a group of volunteers show that our tree based algorithm provides better recommendations than a traditional vector-space model based technique
Predicting Author Traits Through Topic Modeling of Multilingual Social Media Text
Full text linkOne source of insight into the motivations of a modern human being is the text they write and post for public consumption online, in forms such as personal status updates, product reviews, or forum discussions. The task of inferring traits about an author based on their writing is often called "author profiling." One challenging aspect of author profiling in today’s world is the increasing diversity of natural languages represented on social media websites. Furthermore, the informal nature of such writing often inspires modifications to standard spelling and grammatical structure which are highly language-specific. These are some of the dilemmas that inspired a series of "shared task" competitions, in which many participants work to solve a single problem in different ways, in order to compare their methods and results. This thesis describes our submission to one author profiling shared task in which 22 teams implemented software to predict the age, gender, and certain personality traits of Twitter users based on the content of their posts to the website. We will also analyze the performance and implementation of our system compared to those of other teams, all of which were described in open-access reports. The competition organizers provided a labeled training dataset of tweets in English, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian, and evaluated the submitted software on a similar but hidden dataset. Our approach is based on applying a topic modeling algorithm to an auxiliary, unlabeled but larger collection of tweets we collected in each language, and representing tweets from the competition dataset in terms of a vector of 100 topics. We then trained a random forest classifier based on the labeled training dataset to predict the age, gender and personality traits for authors of tweets in the test set. Our software ranked in the top half of participants in English and Italian, and the top third in Dutch
Cue-based aggregation with a mobile robot swarm: A novel fuzzy-based method
No full textAggregation in swarm robotics is referred to as the gathering of spatially distributed robots into a single aggregate. Aggregation can be classified as cue-based or self-organized. In cue-based aggregation, there is a cue in the environment that points to the aggregation area, whereas in self-organized aggregation no cue is present. In this paper, we proposed a novel fuzzy-based method for cue-based aggregation based on the state-of-the-art BEECLUST algorithm. In particular, we proposed three different methods: naïve, that uses a deterministic decision-making mechanism; vector-averaging, using a vectorial summation of all perceived inputs; and fuzzy, that uses a fuzzy logic controller. We used different experiment settings: one-source and two-source environments with static and dynamic conditions to compare all the methods. We observed that the fuzzy method outperformed all the other methods and it is the most robust method against noise. © The Author(s) 2014
Identification of Parametric Resonances in a Geometrically Exact Model of a Rotating Blade
No full textMuch research has been done in the past couple of decades on the vibrations of rotating structures, such as helicopter and wind turbine blades. This is the consequence of ever increasing standards towards dynamic performance of these systems. Previous investigations have primarily dealt with constant rotational velocity, with a focus on the determination of the linear dynamic response. The rotational speed cannot always be considered constant due to fluctuating external loads or due to specific ramp-up regimes. This non-constant angular velocity brings about terms with time dependent coefficients in the equations of motion which can result in the existence of so-called parametric resonances. These resonance phenomena are quite unknown in this field of application. Nevertheless, they are of major concern to mechanical engineers because it can lead to structural damage due to large amplitude oscillations as a result of parametric resonances. In this thesis a fully geometrically nonlinear beam model is set up to study the fundamental behavior that causes parametric resonances in rotating blades. These equations are solved by means of two numerical approaches, the finite element method and the Galerkin method. The first one is used to obtain the linear modal properties. The Galerkin discretized equations are adopted to examine the linear and non-linear dynamics in time. The linear response is investigated to obtain the regions in which the unstable motions occurs due to parametric excitation. The non-linear response is obtained to show the stable post-critical behavior in these instability regions. Furthermore, it is shown that for specific values of the rotational speed and the parametric excitation frequency, instability occurs in each principal direction.Engineering MechanicsPrecision and Microsystems EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-82-062-1077: Boise Medical Arts Center; Boise, Idaho
Full text linkThe source of intermittent odors and the cause of headaches, nausea, and vomiting being experienced by office workers in the basement of the Boise Medical Arts Center (SIC-8011), Boise, Idaho were investigated. The building management firm requested the study, which was performed on December 30, 1981, with environmental sampling conducted on January 4, 1982. Odors were found to be coming up through cracks in the foundation. The odor was identified as a petroleum product derivative and ranged up to 280 parts per million in the basement rooms. The source was thought to be a large gas and oil tank farm located near the medical center. The author concludes that a hazardous exposure existed to petroleum product vapors that caused the adverse health effects experienced by the employees. The author recommended that all accessible cracks and joints be sealed, and the ventilation system be adjusted. Corrections were subsequently made, and employee symptoms ceased
Health Hazard Evaluation Determination HHE 80-43-679: Procraft: Spokane, Washington
No full textPersonal air samples were collected on December 4 and 5, 1979, to determine if a health hazard existed during the installation of plastic laminates to kitchen and bathroom counter tops at Procraft contractors (SIC-2434) in Spokane, Washington. The evaluation was requested by the company owner who reported behavioral changes following exposure to the installation process. Based on time weighted average determinations, exposures to the vapors of a solvent containing acetone (67641), methyl-ethyl-ketone (78933), naphtha (8030306) and toluene (108883) were well above recommended exposure limits. The author concludes that the solvent vapors pose a health hazard. The author recommends the continued wearing of a respirator, use of protective rubber gloves, and provision of fresh air through open windows and doors. [Description provided by NIOSH
ORIGINAL ARTICLE Corresponding Author Impact of Information Technology On the Entrepreneurship Development
No full textABSTRACT Information and communication technology is advancing rapidly and the world community has undergone a fundamental changes. Activities, jobs, skills, cultures, needs and have changed and been affected by this technology. Entrepreneurship is undoubtedly a major contribution and has had a special role in the development of these technologies; however, these technologies also have an impact on entrepreneurship and have created a sense of modern entrepreneurship. In this context, information and communication are two basic tools needed for entrepreneurial activity. Nowadays information technology has spread widely in society and is integrated into all aspects of life. Entrepreneurial is process of creating something new, with time and effort and financial, psychological and social risks to obtain financial resources, job satisfaction and independence. In fact, information technology is considered as the engine driving wheel to move while employment caused growth and dynamism in economy and create a new kind of economic called the knowledge-based economy. The purpose of this paper is review of information technology and emphasizes the role of entrepreneurial as one of the solutions to unemployment and entrepreneurship in communities that the vast majority of young people despite having the talent and enough energy still suffer from the problem of unemployment
Friend Lens: Novel Web Content Sharing through Strategic Manipulation of Cached HTML
Full text linkContent sharing has become a part our everyday lives. There are many forms for content sharing. Current methods of content sharing include blogs, Facebook, and Clip Marks. Content can be authored by users or taken from external sites. Blogs and Facebook allow for the quick and easy authoring of new content but do not support the complete extraction of external content. Clip Marks is a Firefox plug-in that does not allow for user to author original content, only allowing for the extraction of external content. This thesis details the construction and novel features of Friend Lens. Friend Lens is a web application that allows for user to author original content and for the extraction of complete copies of external sites using PHP. Friend Lens also implemented a novel means of collaboration with the ability to highlight posts and to make composite of multiple highlights. When viewing a composite of multiple highlights, a color scale is used to emphasize the content that received the most highlights. To evaluate Friend Lens, human subject evaluated Facebooks, Clip Marks, and Friend Lens in three general categories: community, posting content, and practicality of use. Friend Lens scored poorly in the community category since it does not have many features that allow for social networking. In the posting content category, Friend Lens ranked highest in the areas of extracting external content, showing other users the web sites one enjoys/visits most. In the practicality of use category, Friend Lens ranked highest is the areas of usability for peers to review one's work, and usability for one's profession
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