XMage: An image retrieval method based on partial similarity

XMage is introduced in this paper as a method for partial similarity searching in image databases. Region-based image retrieval is a method of retrieving partially similar images. It has been proposed as a way to accurately process queries in an image database. In region-based image retrieval, region matching is indispensable for computing the partial similarity between two images because the query processing is based upon regions instead of the entire image. A naive method of region matching is a sequential comparison between regions, which causes severe overhead and deteriorates the performance of query processing. In this paper, a new image contents representation, called Condensed eXtended Histogram (CXHistogram), is presented in conjunction with a well-defined distance function CXSim() on the CX-Histogram. The CXSim() is a new image-to-image similarity measure to compute the partial similarity between two images. It achieves the effect of comparing regions of two images by simply comparing the two images. The CXSim() reduces query space by pruning irrelevant images, and it is used as a filtering function before sequential scanning. Extensive experiments were performed on real image data to evaluate XMage. It provides a significant pruning of irrelevant images with no false dismissals. As a consequence, it achieves up to 5.9-fold speed-up in search over the R*-tree search followed by sequential scanning.     

Mentoring Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Mathematics Research Students: Junior Faculty Experiences

Abstract

To be successful, junior faculty must properly manage their time in the face of expanding responsibilities. One such responsibility is supervising undergraduate research projects. Student research projects (either single or multi-student) can be undertaken as a full-time summer experience, or as a part-time academic year commitment. With many potential undergraduate research formats, and with different types of students, junior faculty may find challenges in forming their research group, establishing a structure that promotes student productivity, picking an appropriate project, or in effectively mentoring their students. This article draws from the authors’ experiences to help junior faculty navigate these complexities so that all parties reap the benefits of undergraduate research in interdisciplinary mathematical disciplines.     

Understanding the Language Demands on Science Students from an Integrated Science and Language Perspective

This case study of a science lesson, on the topic thermal expansion, examines the language demands on students from an integrated science and language perspective. The data were generated during a sequence of 9 lessons on the topic of ‘States of Matter’ in a Grade 7 classroom (12–13 years old students). We identify the language demands by comparing students' writings with the scientific account of expansion that the teacher intended the students to learn. The comparison involved both content analysis and lexicogrammatical (LG) analysis. The framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics was adopted for the LG analysis. Our analysis reveals differences in the meaning and the way LG resources were employed between the students' writings and the scientific account. From these differences, we found the notion of condition-of-use for LG resources to be a significant aspect of the language that students need to appropriate in order to employ the language of school science appropriately. This notion potentially provides a means by which teachers could concurrently address the conceptual and representational demands of science learning. Finally, we reflect on how the complementary use of content analysis and LG analysis provides a way for integrating the science and language perspectives in order to understand the demands of learning science through language.     

Antimelanogenic effects of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Inula britannica</Emphasis> flower petal extract fermented by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lactobacillus plantarum</Emphasis> KCCM 11613P

The inhibitory effects of Lactobacillus plantarum-fermented and non-fermented Inula britannica extracts on the tyrosinase activity were comparatively investigated to examine whether and how they improve the whitening activity, and the contents of total flavonoids and polyphenolics as bioactive compounds were determined. The skin whitening activity using in vitro or ex vivo tyrosinase and L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) staining was examined. The total flavonoid content (TFC) was increased by 13.4% after 72 h-fermentation. The viabilities of the B16F10 cells treated with the fermented and non-fermented control extracts were 100.26% and 92.15% at 500 μg/ml, respectively. In addition, the inhibition of tyrosinase activity was increased by the fermented samples from 29.33% to 41.74% following fermentation for up to 72 h. The tyrosinase activity of the untreated control group was increased to 145.69% in B16F10 cells. The results showed that I. britannica fermented by L. plantarum dose-dependently inhibited tyrosinase activity, which was stimulated by α-melanocyte stimulating hormone. These results suggest that lactic fermented I. britannica extracts can be used as effective skin-whitening materials.     

Dual-mode on-demand droplet routing in multiple microchannels using a magnetic fluid as carrier phase

We present dual-mode, on-demand droplet routing in a multiple-outlet microfluidic device using an oil-based magnetic fluid. Magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticle-contained oleic acid (MNOA) was used as a carrier phase for droplet generation and manipulation. The water-in-MNOA droplets were selectively distributed in a curved microchannel with three branches by utilizing both a hydrodynamic laminar flow pattern and an external magnetic field. Without the applied magnetic field, the droplets travelled along a hydrodynamic centerline that was displaced at each bifurcating junction. However, in the presence of a permanent magnet, they were repelled from the centerline and diverted into the desired channel when the repelled distance exceeded the minimum offset allocated to the channel. The repelled distance, which is proportional to the magnetic field gradient, was manipulated by controlling the magnet''s distance from the device. To evaluate routing performance, three different sizes of droplets with diameters of 63, 88, and 102 μm were directed into designated outlets with the magnet positioned at varying distances. The result demonstrated that the 102-μm droplets were sorted with an accuracy of ∼93%. Our technique enables on-demand droplet routing in multiple outlet channels by simply manipulating magnet positions (active mode) as well as size-based droplet separation with a fixed magnet position (passive mode).     

A Corpus-Based Learning Method of Compound Noun Indexing Rules for Korean

In Korean information retrieval, compound nouns play an important role in improving precision in search experiments. There are two major approaches to compound noun indexing in Korean: statistical and linguistic. Each method, however, has its own shortcomings, such as limitations when indexing diverse types of compound nouns, over-generation of compound nouns, and data sparseness in training. In this paper, we propose a corpus-based learning method, which can index diverse types of compound nouns using rules automatically extracted from a large corpus. The automatic learning method is more portable and requires less human effort, although it exhibits a performance level similar to the manual-linguistic approach. We also present a new filtering method to solve the problems of compound noun over-generation and data sparseness.     

Assessing mentoring in organizations: an evaluation of commercial mentoring instruments

The purpose of this article is to inform readers about the types of instruments available for assessing and improving mentoring in organizations. Extensive review of the psychological, business and medical literature was conducted to identify commercially published, practitioner‐oriented instruments. All of the instruments that were identified – including the Alleman mentoring activities questionnaire, Mentoring in the moment, Mentoring skills assessment, and Principles of adult mentoring scale – are evaluated herein. Each instrument’s target audience, raters, subscales, response options, psychometric properties, and relative strengths and weaknesses are described. Although these instruments are reported to be used extensively, evidence of their validity is not always available. This review presents information that, in combination with first‐hand inspection of the instruments, should enable practitioners to differentiate between instruments that may be a fit for their needs from those that are not. Furthermore, it may introduce academic readers to instruments that are not covered in the scholarly literature in spite of their common use for non‐research purposes.     

From Honeymoon to Divorce: Fragmenting Relations between China and South Korea in Politics,Economics – and Sport

This is an analysis of two East Asian Nations, South Korea and China, and a descent from growing friendship to growing friction in economics, politics and sport – with sport as an analogue of fragmentation and the Guangzhou Asian Games as an analogous illustration of crescive tension between the two nations in economics, politics and sport in the twenty-first century.     

Sport-based physical activity intervention on body weight in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis

Controversial results reported in past research pertaining to the effectiveness of sport-based physical activity interventions on weight loss. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of sport-based physical activity intervention on body weight in children and adolescents using a meta-analysis. Academic Search Complete, Education Source, ERIC, Medline, ProQuest, PsycINFO and SportDiscus databases were searched from January 2000 to April 2015. Eighteen studies met following inclusion criteria: sport-based intervention studies; subjects aged 6–18 years; reported body weight; published in peer-reviewed journals written in English. The mean intervention duration was 17.72 weeks. The overall effect size (ES) was 0.52 (Cohen’s d (ES) = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.08, 0.95, P = 0.021), using a random effects model. Moderator analyses results showed that the Q statistic for the sport type (individual sport or team sport, Qbetween (Q_b) = 14.52, df = 1, P = 0.001) and diet control (Qbetween (Q_b) = 8.85, df = 1, P = 0.001), explained the heterogeneity of ESs. Our study showed that there was a moderate overall effect of sport-based physical activity intervention on body weight reduction. The team sport type (ES = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.44, 1.66) and diet control group (ES = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.26, 1.41) appeared to be more effective in reducing body weight.     

Effects of the “Gangnam Style Syndrome” on the South Korean stock market

This study attempts to answer two questions. First, can a single cultural event impact the stock prices of a wide range of companies and sectors? Second, was the positive stock market response in the information technology (IT) sector as well as performing arts sector significant? To answer these questions, we examine whether a hit pop single, “Gangnam Style” by Park Jae-Sang in 2012, affected related sectors of the Korean stock market and whether market reactions went beyond the stock price of the singer’s agency to affect those of other firms. We use an event study approach. The results show two notable empirical findings. First, although the findings indicating abnormal returns and cumulative abnormal returns appear mixed, the overall results imply that the unprecedented worldwide hit single by the South Korean singer positively affected the Recreation & Culture and Digital Content sectors. In other words, the market interpreted the event as good news, with shareholders expecting positive effects on the related sectors. Second, a positive stock market response was observed in the IT sector as well.