Engineering Commons^™

The Evolution Of The Internet And Social Media: A Literature Review, Charles Alves De Castro, Isobel O'Reilly Dr, Aiden Carthy

Articles

This article reviews and analyses factors impacting the evolution of the internet, the web, and social media channels, charting historic trends and highlight recent technological developments. The review comprised a deep search using electronic journal databases. Articles were chosen according to specific criteria with a group of 34 papers and books selected for complete reading and deep analysis. The 34 elements were analysed and processed using NVIVO 12 Pro, enabling the creation of dimensions and categories, codes and nodes, identifying the most frequent words, cluster analysis of the terms, and creating a word cloud based on each word's frequency. The …

Evaluating Technology-Mediated Collaborative Workflows For Telehealth, Christopher Bondy Ph.D., Pengcheng Shi, Pamela Grover Md, Vicki Hanson, Linlin Chen, Rui Li

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Goals: This paper discusses the need for a predictable method to evaluate gains and gaps of collaborative technology-mediated workflows and introduces an evaluation framework to address this need. Methods: The Collaborative Space Analysis Framework (CS-AF), introduced in this research, is a cross-disciplinary evaluation method designed to evaluate technology-mediated collaborative workflows. The 5-step CS-AF approach includes: (1) current-state workflow definition, (2) current-state (baseline) workflow assessment, (3) technology-mediated workflow development and deployment, (4) technology-mediated workflow assessment, (5) analysis, and conclusions. For this research, a comprehensive, empirical study of hypertension exam workflow for telehealth was conducted using the CS-AF approach. Results: The CS-AF …

Artificial Intelligence-Based Power System Stabilizers For Frequency Stability Enhancement In Multi-Machine Power Systems, Aliyu Sabo, Noor Izzri Abdul Wahab, Mohammad Lutfi Othman, Mai Zurwatul Ahlam Mohd Jaffar, Hakan Acikgoz, Hamed Nafisi, Hossein Shahinzadeh

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Low frequency oscillations (LFOs) occur in a system of interconnected generators connected by weak interconnection. A power system stabilizer (PSS) is commonly used to improve the capacity of the power system dampening. Under a variety of operating conditions, traditional PSSs fail to deliver superior damping. To address this issue, a Farmland Fertility Algorithm (FFA-PSSs controller) was used to solve an optimization problem for optimal design of PSSs system parameters, and its performance efficiency was compared to GA and PSO-based PSSs controllers. In addition to PSS, flexible current transmission (FACTS) devices are widely used. PSSs controllers and FACTS devices are frequently …

A Sinusoidal Signal Reconstruction Method For The Inversion Of The Mel-Spectrogram, Anastasia Natsiou, Sean O'Leary

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The synthesis of sound via deep learning methods has recently received much attention. Some problems for deep learning approaches to sound synthesis relate to the amount of data needed to specify an audio signal and the necessity of preserving both the long and short time coherence of the synthesised signal. Visual time-frequency representations such as the log-mel-spectrogram have gained in popularity. The log- mel-spectrogram is a perceptually informed representation of audio that greatly compresses the amount of information required for the description of the sound. However, because of this compression, this representation is not directly invertible. Both signal processing and …

Knowtext: Auto-Generated Knowledge Graphs For Custom Domain Applications, Bojan Bozic, Jayadeep Kumar Sasikumar, Tamara Matthews

Articles

While industrial Knowledge Graphs enable information extraction from massive data volumes creating the backbone of the Semantic Web, the specialised, custom designed knowledge graphs focused on enterprise specific information are an emerging trend. We present “KnowText”, an application that performs automatic generation of custom Knowledge Graphs from unstructured text and enables fast information extraction based on graph visualisation and free text query methods designed for non-specialist users. An OWL ontology automatically extracted from text is linked to the knowledge graph and used as a knowledge base. A basic ontological schema is provided including 16 Classes and Data type Properties. The …

The Effect Of Green Biobased Binder On Structural, Mechanical, Liquid Absorption And Wetting Properties Of Coated Papers, Bilge N. Altay, Charles Klass, Ting Chen, Alexandar Fleck, Cem Aydemir, Arif Karademir, Paul D. Fleming

Articles

Synthetic styrene-butadiene (SB) and styrene-acrylic (SA) latex binders used in paper coating formulations are common and based on unsustainable petroleum sources. Today's papermaking industry turns towards sustainable substitutes that do not compromise quality, and reduce carbon emission, toxic substance release and waste disposal concerns related to fossil fuel sources. In this study, colloidal starch-based latex nanoparticles that do not require cooking were used for pigment coating and coated on the paper surfaces. The effects of these new biobased binders on the structural and mechanical strength properties, liquid absorption, wetting and surface topography of the paper were investigated and compared with …

Social Media Influencers (Smis) In Context: A Literature Review, Charles Alves De Castro, Isobel O'Reilly Dr, Aiden Carthy

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This review focused on three main areas, "Social Media Influencers (SMIs) in Context, The Impact of SMIs on Adolescents, and Consumer Behaviour in a Digital Era – Generation Z in Perspective". This article aims to further the overall understanding of SMIs and outlines the impact of SMIs on adolescents‘ lives. Thus, the main objective of this literature review is to raise awareness within the marketing field about the influence of social media influencers on adolescents and how brands promote their products and content through social media influencers. The review comprised a regular search using electronic journal databases and secondary data …

Audio Representations For Deep Learning In Sound Synthesis: A Review, Anastasia Natsiou, Sean O'Leary

Articles

The rise of deep learning algorithms has led many researchers to withdraw from using classic signal processing methods for sound generation. Deep learning models have achieved expressive voice synthesis, realistic sound textures, and musical notes from virtual instruments. However, the most suitable deep learning architecture is still under investigation. The choice of architecture is tightly coupled to the audio representations. A sound’s original waveform can be too dense and rich for deep learning models to deal with efficiently - and complexity increases training time and computational cost. Also, it does not represent sound in the manner in which it is …

Real-Time Bidding Campaigns Optimization Using User Profile Settings, Luis Miralles-Pechuán, Muhammad Atif Qureshi, Brian Mac Namee

Articles

Real-time bidding is nowadays one of the most promising systems in the online advertising ecosystem. In this study, the performance of RTB campaigns is improved by optimising the parameters of the users' profiles and the publishers' websites. Most studies concerning optimising RTB campaigns are focused on the bidding strategy, i.e., estimating the best value for each bid. However, this research focuses on optimising RTB campaigns by finding out configurations that maximise both the number of impressions and the average profitability of the visits. An online campaign configuration generally consists of a set of parameters along with their values such as …

A Survey Of Machine Learning Techniques For Video Quality Prediction From Quality Of Delivery Metrics, Obinna Izima, Ruairí De Fréin, Ali Malik

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A growing number of video streaming networks are incorporating machine learning (ML) applications. The growth of video streaming services places enormous pressure on network and video content providers who need to proactively maintain high levels of video quality. ML has been applied to predict the quality of video streams. Quality of delivery (QoD) measurements, which capture the end-to-end performances of network services, have been leveraged in video quality prediction. The drive for end-to-end encryption, for privacy and digital rights management, has brought about a lack of visibility for operators who desire insights from video quality metrics. In response, numerous solutions …

Provenance: An Intermediary-Free Solution For Digital Content Verification, Bilal Yousuf, M. Atif Qureshi, Brendan Spillane, Gary Munnelly, Oisin Carroll, Matthew Runswick, Kirsty Park, Eileen Culloty, Owen Conlan, Jane Suiter

Articles

The threat posed by misinformation and disinformation is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. Provenance is designed to help combat this threat by warning users when the content they are looking at may be misinformation or disinformation. It is also designed to improve media literacy among its users and ultimately reduce susceptibility to the threat among vulnerable groups within society. The Provenance browser plugin checks the content that users see on the Internet and social media and provides warnings in their browser or social media feed. Unlike similar plugins, which require human experts to provide evaluations and …

Rces: Rapid Cues Exploratory Search Using Taxonomies For Covid-19, Wei Li, Rishi Choudhary, Arjumand Younus, Bruno Ohana, Nicole Baker, Brendan Leen, Muhammad Atif Qureshi

Articles

To assist the COVID-19 focused researchers in life science and healthcare in understanding the pandemic, we present an exploratory information retrieval system called RCES. The system employs a previously developed EVE (Explainable Vector-based Embedding) model using DBpedia and an adopted model using MeSH taxonomies to exploit concept relations related to COVID-19. Various expansion methods are also developed, along with explanations and facets that collectively form rapid cues for a valuable navigational and informed user experience.

Synergistic Anticancer Response Of Curcumin And Piperine Loaded Lignin-G-P (Nipam-Co-Dmaema) Gold Nanogels Against Glioblastoma Multiforme, Xinyi Zhao, Bilal Javad, Daxing Cui, James Curtin, Furong Tian

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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive and commonly diag- 11 nosed brain cancer and presents a strong resistance to routine chemotherapeutic drugs. 12 The present study involves the synthesis of Lignin-g- p (NIPAM-co-DMAEMA) gold 13 nanogel, loaded with curcumin and piperine to treat GBM. The application has three 14 functions: (1) overcome the limitations of biodistribution, (2) enhance the toxicity of an- 15 ticancer drugs against GBM, (3) identify the uptake pathway. Atom transfer radical 16 polymerization was used to synthesize the Lignin-g-PNIPAM network, crosslinked with 17 the gold nanoparticles (GNPs) to self-assemble into nanogels. The size distribution and …

Enhanced Anticancer Response Of Curcumin- And Piperine-Loaded Lignin-G-P (Nipam-Co-Dmaema) Gold Nanogels Against U-251 Mg Glioblastoma Multiforme, Bilal Javed, Xinyi Zhao, Daxiang Cui, James Curtin, Furong Tian

Articles

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive and commonly diagnosed brain cancer and is highly resistant to routine chemotherapeutic drugs. The present study involves the synthesis of Lignin-g-p (NIPAM-co-DMAEMA) gold nanogel, loaded with curcumin and piperine, to treat GBM. The ongoing study has the application potential to (1) overcome the limitations of drugs biodistribution, (2) enhance the toxicity of anticancer drugs against GBM, and (3) identify the drugs uptake pathway. Atom transfer radical polymerization was used to synthesize the Lignin-g-PNIPAM network, crosslinked with the gold nanoparticles (GNPs) to self-assemble into nanogels. The size distribution and morphological analysis confirmed that the …

Cleanpage: Fast And Clean Document And Whiteboard Capture, Jane Courtney

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The move from paper to online is not only necessary for remote working, it is also significantly more sustainable. This trend has seen a rising need for the high-quality digitization of content from pages and whiteboards to sharable online material. However, capturing this information is not always easy nor are the results always satisfactory. Available scanning apps vary in their usability and do not always produce clean results, retaining surface imperfections from the page or whiteboard in their output images. CleanPage, a novel smartphone-based document and whiteboard scanning system, is presented. CleanPage requires one button-tap to capture, identify, crop, and …

Biodegradable Nanocomposite Multifunctional Packaging Film For Fruits, Kalpani Y. Perera, Shubham Sharma, Dileswar Pradhan, Amit Jaiswal, Swarna Jaiswal

Articles

Biopolymers have been used in food packaging in recent years due to high pollution rates and decreased biodegradation of synthetic polymers. Chitosan (CH) and Sodium alginate (SA) are both biodegradable biopolymers with excellent film forming capability. TiO2 nanoparticles have high mechanical strength, degradation ability and antimicrobial properties, which are beneficial in food packaging. The aim of the current work is to develop the biodegradable multifunctional nanocomposite film for fruit (i.e., Pear) packaging applications. Bionanocomposite film was prepared by solvent casting method using CH-SA and various concentrations of TiO2. The multifunctional properties such as UV barrier, thermal, water retention, mechanical, chemical, …

Perspectives On Computing Ethics: A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis, Damian Gordon, Ioannis Stavrakakis, Paul J. Gibson, Brendan Tierney, Anna Becevel, Andrea Curley, Michael Collins, William O'Mahony, Dympna O'Sullivan

Articles

Purpose:

Computing ethics represents a long established, yet rapidly evolving, discipline that grows in complexity and scope on a near-daily basis. Therefore, to help understand some of that scope it is essential to incorporate a range of perspectives, from a range of stakeholders, on current and emerging ethical challenges associated with computer technology. This study aims to achieve this by using, a three-pronged, stakeholder analysis of Computer Science academics, ICT industry professionals, and citizen groups was undertaken to explore what they consider to be crucial computing ethics concerns. The overlap between these stakeholder groups are explored, as well as whether …

Optimal Placement Of Fuses And Switches In Active Distribution Networks Using Value-Based Minlp, N. Gholizadeh, S.H. Hosseinian, M. Abedi, Hamed Nafisi, P. Siano

Articles

Contingency conditions in distribution networks create financial losses for different parts of the system including electricity customers, electricity retailers, distributed generation (DG) units, etc. Therefore, protective device allocation methods have been introduced in recent years to enhance the reliability of the power system. In this study, a new formulation is proposed to find the optimal places of sectionalizing switches and fuses while taking the financial loss of both electricity customers and DG units into account. The current method has the flexibility to consider DG effect on any location of the network and its islanded operation in case of contingencies. Moreover, …

Seaweed Polysaccharide In Food Contact Materials (Active Packaging, Intelligent Packaging, Edible Films, And Coatings), Kalpani Y. Perera, Shubham Sharma, Amit K. Jaiswal, Swarna Jaiswal

Articles

Food contact materials (FCMs) are materials that come in contact with food products such as food packaging which play a significant role in the food quality and safety. Plastic, which is a major food packaging material, harms the eco-system, wildlife, and the environment. As a result, numerous researches have been in progress on alternative polymers, which has similar properties as plastic but is also environmentally friendly (biodegradable). In recent years, the utilization of seaweed polysaccharides has piqued interest due to its biodegradability, non-toxicity, antioxidant capabilities, and excellent film formation ability. However, it has a number of drawbacks such as low …

Dynamic Stochastic Joint Expansion Planning Of Power Systems, Natural Gas Networks, And Electrical And Natural Gas Storage, Arash Gholami, Hamed Nafisi, H. Askarian A., Ali Jahanbani Ardakani

Articles

Over the last decades, electricity generation from natural gas has substantially increased, mostly driven by low natural gas prices due to fracturing and lower extraction costs. The geographic distance between natural gas resources and load centers calls for a holistic tool for joint expansion of power systems and natural gas networks. In this paper, a Dynamic Stochastic Joint Expansion Planning (DSJEP) of power systems and natural gas networks is proposed to minimize the investment and operational costs of power and natural gas systems. Electrical and natural gas storage (ENGS) are considered as an option for decision-makers in the DSJEP problem. …

Sediqa: Sound Emitting Document Image Quality Assessment In A Reading Aid For The Visually Impaired, Jane Courtney

Articles

For visually impaired people (VIPs), the ability to convert text to sound can mean a new level of independence or the simple joy of a good book. With significant advances in optical character recognition (OCR) in recent years, a number of reading aids are appearing on the market. These reading aids convert images captured by a camera to text which can then be read aloud. However, all of these reading aids suffer from a key issue—the user must be able to visually target the text and capture an image of sufficient quality for the OCR algorithm to function—no small task …

Probabilistic Analysis Of The Active Earth Pressure On Earth Retaining Walls For C‑Φ Soils According To The Mazindrani And Ganjali Method, Julian Osorio, Juan Camilo Viviescas, Juan Pablo Osorio

Articles

The determination of the earth pressure coefficients (K) in geotechnical engineering is one of the most critical procedures in designing earth retaining walls. However, most earth pressure theories are made for either clay or sands, where the c-ϕ soils are the least analysed. In this paper, an analysis of the earth pressure for drained mixed soils based in Mazindrani and Ganjali (J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 123:110–112, 1997) theory was carried out. Earth pressure coefficients are generally used in a deterministic way and can represent designs under an inadmissible risk. Therefore, Reliability-based design arises as an essential tool to deal with …

Experimental Investigation Of The Performance Of A Hybrid Self-Healing System In Porous Asphalt Under Fatigue Loadings, Shi Xu, Liu Xueyan, Amir Tabakovic, Erik Schlangen

Articles

Self-healing asphalt, which is designed to achieve autonomic damage repair in asphalt pavement, offers a great life-extension prospect and therefore not only reduces pavement maintenance costs but also saves energy and reduces CO2 emissions. The combined asphalt self-healing system, incorporating both encapsulated rejuvenator and induction heating, can heal cracks with melted binder and aged binder rejuvenation, and the synergistic effect of the two technologies shows significant advantages in healing efficiency over the single self-healing method. This study explores the fatigue life extension prospect of the combined healing system in porous asphalt. To this aim, porous asphalt (PA) test specimens with …

Flying Free: A Research Overview Of Deep Learning In Drone Navigation Autonomy, Thomas Lee, Susan Mckeever, Jane Courtney

Articles

With the rise of Deep Learning approaches in computer vision applications, significant strides have been made towards vehicular autonomy. Research activity in autonomous drone navigation has increased rapidly in the past five years, and drones are moving fast towards the ultimate goal of near-complete autonomy. However, while much work in the area focuses on specific tasks in drone navigation, the contribution to the overall goal of autonomy is often not assessed, and a comprehensive overview is needed. In this work, a taxonomy of drone navigation autonomy is established by mapping the definitions of vehicular autonomy levels, as defined by the …

An Lpc Pole Processing Method For Enhancing The Identification Of Dominant Spectral Features, Jin Xu, Mark Davis, Ruairí De Fréin

Articles

This paper proposes a new time-resolved spectral analysis method based on a modification to the linear predictive coding (LPC) method for enhancing the identification of the dominant frequencies of a signal. The method described here is based on a z-plane analysis of the LPC poles. These poles are used to produce a series of reduced order filter transfer functions which can accurately identify and estimate the frequency of the dominant spectral features. The standard LPC method has been shown to suffer from a sensitivity to noise and its performance is dependent on the filter order. The proposed method can …

Internet Of Medical Things (Iomt): Overview, Emerging Technologies, And Case Studies, Sahshanu Razdan, Sachin Sharma

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No abstract provided.

Unveiling Women’S Needs And Expectations As Users Of Bike Sharing Services: The H2020 Diamond Project, Andrea Gorrini, Rawad Choubassi, Federico Messa, Wafaa Saleh, Augustus Ababio-Donkor, Maria Chiara Leva, Lorraine D'Arcy, Francesco Fabbri, David Laniado, Pablo Aragon

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Within the objectives of the H2020 DIAMOND project, the paper investigates women’s needs and expectations as users of the bike-sharing service managed by Syndicat Mixte Autolib et Velib Métropole in the territory of Paris Region-Petite Couronne (France). The paper presents a thematic literature review focused on gender inclusion in bike-sharing schemes. The proposed methodological approach is based on (i) Geographic Information Systems for the analysis of geolocated open datasets related to land, sociodemographic and mobility characteristics of the areas surrounding each docking stations. This was aimed at identifying a short list of suitable bike-sharing docking stations, which were further characterized …

U-251mg Spheroid Generation Using A Scaffold Based Method Protocol, Lara J. Carroll, Brijesh K. Tiwari, James F. Curtin, Janith Wanigasekara

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3D cell culture is a technique that is used to grow cells in vitro that will mimic an in vivo environment. 3D cell models are a helpful learning tool for researchers to better understand disease mechanisms and to explore different therapeutic properties of drugs. 3D cell cultures can be developed using patient derived cancer cells. Once they have been grown, these 3D cells can be used to screen for small molecule drugs or for genetic modification in for analysis of disease pathways or to predict drug treatments toxicity or efficacy. 3D cell cultures are a big step towards the more …

A Systematic Review Of Urban Navigation Systems For Visually Impaired People, Fatma Eltaher, Ayman Taha, Jane Courtney, Susan Mckeever

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Blind and Visually impaired people (BVIP) face a range of practical difficulties when undertaking outdoor journeys as pedestrians. Over the past decade, a variety of assistive devices have been researched and developed to help BVIP navigate more safely and independently. In~addition, research in overlapping domains are addressing the problem of automatic environment interpretation using computer vision and machine learning, particularly deep learning, approaches. Our aim in this article is to present a comprehensive review of research directly in, or relevant to, assistive outdoor navigation for BVIP. We breakdown the navigation area into a series of navigation phases and tasks. We …

The Role Of Rejuvenators In Embedded Damage Healing For Asphalt Pavement, Shi Xu, Xueyan Liu, Amir Tabakovic, P Lin, Y Zhang, S Nahar, B J. Lommerts, Erik Schlangen

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Rejuvenator encapsulation technique showed great potential for extrinsic asphalt pavement damage healing. Once the capsules are embedded within asphalt pavement, the healing is activated on-demand via progressing microcrack. When the microcrack encounters the capsule, the fracture energy at the tip opens the capsule and releases the rejuvenator. Then the released rejuvenator wets the crack surfaces, diffuses into and softens the aged bitumen, allowing two broken edges to come in the contact, preventing further asphalt pavement deterioration. The quality and speed of the damage repair process strongly depend on the quality of rejuvenator, thus it is important to choose a proper …