bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
It Sharpens My Brain
Authors: Wang Yang
Published: May 2018

In this case study, the author investigated how international teaching assistants in the U.S. learned English language and teaching skills within a course they took about teaching at an American college. Four participants from three different countries and three disciplines volunteered to participate in this study. The results suggested that by talking with a partner, all of the participants acquired communication and conferring skills and learned teaching skills by practicing, sharing, getting feedback, and reflecting with their peers. All participants contributed to this social learning environment and enjoyed the communication between each other no matter what backgrounds and disciplines they came from. Their conversations revealed their strengths and challenges and represented their various cultural backgrounds, disciplines, and personal goals. The findings from this study suggest that teachers in the international teaching assistant training program should encourage peer learning and provide opportunities for students to work in pairs or small groups. They should also plan meaningful activities for students through which students can learn language skills and cultivate communicative competence.
Analysis of Factors Influencing Chinese Undergraduate Students' Choice of Foreign Postgraduate Education
Authors: Lu Genshu , Tian Mei , Lai Man Hong
Published: May 2018

This questionnaire study, involving 4,903 final year undergraduate students in China, investigated Chinese students' intention to seek foreign postgraduate education. Drawing on college choice models and “push-pull” models, this research presented a comprehensive model to explain Chinese college students' choices of foreign education. Logistic regression analysis showed that personal academic performance, foreign language proficiency, family socio-economic status, institutional factors, and quality of foreign education had significant impact on the intention to study abroad. The students' outward mobility was also driven by their dissatisfaction with domestic postgraduate education. The participants' perception of the academic quality of postgraduate education in the USA was the most positive, followed respectively by the UK, Hong Kong, and Australia. Theoretically, the research indicated that it was the “push-pull” pairs, as exemplified by dissatisfaction with domestic postgraduate education and perceived positive images of foreign postgraduate education, that led to Chinese students' decision to study abroad and their selection of specific study destinations. This study has implications for recruitment and retention of Chinese students in higher education institutions both in and outside China.
Wavelet Packet Analysis of ECG signals to Understand the Effect of a Motivating Song on Heart of Indian Male Volunteers
Authors: Yadu Gitika , Nayak Suraj Kumar , Panigrahi Debasisha , Dey Anilesh , Pal Kunal
Published: May 2018

This chapter investigates the effect of a motivational song (acting as a stimulus) on the electrical activity of the heart using wavelet packet analysis of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. ECG signals were acquired from 18 healthy male volunteers during the pre- and the post-stimulus conditions. Wavelet packet decomposition of the ECG signals was performed up to level 3 using db04 wavelet, which resulted in the formation of 8 wavelet packet coefficients. Linear (t-test) and nonlinear (classification and regression tree [CART], boosted tree [BT], and random forest [RF]) methods were used to identify the statistically significant parameters. The statistically significant parameters were used as categorical inputs for multilayer perceptron (MLP)-based artificial neural network (ANN) classification of the ECG signals. A classification efficiency of ≥ 80% was obtained, suggesting an alteration in the cardiac electrophysiology of the volunteers caused by the music stimulus.
Using Social Media for Healthcare Recruiting
Authors: Swayze Susan , Gronow Thomas M. , Sweet Johanna
Published: May 2018

Healthcare organizations have turned to social media to attract applicants to hard-to-fill positions. This chapter is focused on the use of social media as part of e-recruiting strategies in two healthcare organizations—one located in the Rocky Mountain region and the other in the Mid-Atlantic region. Interviews with human resources recruiters and administrators provided insight into the mechanisms by which healthcare organizations are utilizing social media to move the needle within their organizations.
Information Technology Security as Scored by Management Budget
Authors: Rodrigue Tiina K. O.
Published: May 2018

In information technology security as scored by management budget, the author examines information technology (IT) security in the context of organizational management, business, complexity leadership theories, and current IT security scholarship. Based on well-known organizational power and politics theory as well as accounting, budget, and management literature, the chapter examines what is known about the impact of power and politics on IT security and the importance of budgetary gamesmanship as illustrated by understanding that the budget as a game, the politics of allocation within an organization, the influence of budgetary bias and how it shapes what CISOs must understand and master, the unfunded mandate impediment through which each the organization picks winners and losers under the auspices of “doing more with less.” The author suggests a future framework for IT security-management-budget review that includes measures that track expenditure versus the power alignment and how to gauge the net effect on an organization's information-technology security posture.
The Role of Value Facilitation Regarding Cloud Service Provider Profitability in the Cloud Ecosystem
Authors: Herzfeldt Alexander , Floerecke Sebastian , Ertl Christoph , Krcmar Helmut
Published: May 2018

With the increasing maturity of cloud technologies and the growing demand from customers, the cloud computing ecosystem has been expanding continuously with both incumbents and new entrants, whereby it has become more distributed and less transparent. For cloud service providers previously focusing on growth strategies, it is now necessary to shift the attention to providing service efficiently, as well as profitably. Based on 14 explorative interviews with cloud service experts, the relationship between cloud service provider profitability and value facilitation, which stands for the capability to build up resources in advance of future customer engagements, is investigated. The results indicate a positive relationship between cloud service profitability and value facilitation and deliver valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners. In particular, guidelines on how to design profitable cloud service offerings are discussed.
Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Corporate Reputation in the Wine Sector
Authors: Iannone Barbara
Published: May 2018

This article offers a comprehensive overview on the relationship between sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and corporate reputation (CR) by examining a field study case of a wine family firm located in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Through qualitative research methods, direct interviews to the family, social accountability, archives and observations of the company's life, information is organized in thematic areas suggesting the need of an alignment between environmental and business interests. The results are further used in proposing a framework model focused on the identification of key performance indicators (KPI). The main pillars of this concept are evaluating, monitoring and improving CR. The conclusion stresses the importance of replicating this type of modelling initiative with the purpose of professionalizing the wine industry into a more sustainable production and more successful business practices.
An Exhaustive Study and Analysis of Assorted Application and Challenges in Fog Computing and Emerging Ubiquitous Computing Technology
Authors: Rath Mamata , Misra Rachita
Published: May 2018

The growing demand of new technology is impulsively observing the introduction of an innovative and computing paradigm that guarantees to profoundly affect the way we associate with PCs, electronic gadgets, mobile devices, cyber spaces, and associate peripherals. This new emerging technology, called ubiquitous computing, imagines a world where inserted processors, PCs, sensors, and advanced correspondences are reasonable products that are accessible all around any time. Ubiquitous computing will encompass clients with an agreeable and helpful data condition that unions physical and computational foundations into incorporated natural surroundings. This living space will include an expansion of hundreds or thousands of computing gadgets and sensors that will give new usefulness, offer specific administrations, and lift efficiency and cooperation. The current research article projects on basic computing theme on application challenges using mobile computing, emergence of fog computing and how more technical challenges were solved using IoT and ubiquitous computing from social, health care and networking point of view.
Real-Time Recognition of Series Seven New Zealand Banknotes
Authors: Ren Yueqiu , Nguyen Minh , Yan Wei Qi
Published: May 2018

This article proposes an effective method for real-time banknote recognition, using digital image processing. The new Series 7 New Zealand banknotes are considered, as a case study, for intelligent real-time recognition. The composite feature of a banknote containing the elements of color and texture is extracted, and a three-layer back-propagation neural network is trained for classification. The proposed method has demonstrated excellent recognition results in an indoor environment and is comparatively less time-consuming that makes it suitable for real-time applications. This article fills in the vacancy of real-time recognition of the newly released paper currency. Practically, our proposed approach can be served as the uppermost for the future development of the prototype assisting the blind or the visually impaired in recognizing the new series of New Zealand banknotes.
An Analysis of Capstone Courses Given Through Distance Education in Turkey
Authors: Kaysi Feyzi
Published: May 2018

The purpose of this article is to determine the opinions and experiences of participants who took both distance and formal education courses concerning practice. The case study method was employed for this study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Distance education software and recorded virtual course videos were analyzed and observations were made. The participants comprised eight students enrolled in formal education courses and who also took distance education courses during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years, two instructors who were giving lectures through distance education and an instructor promoted in the students' education program. Findings indicated that the participants were aware of the time and space advantages of distance education but they do not use the system because they are not given sufficient information and they do not know how to use it. Findings also showed that virtual courses were almost never watched, and the most important factor related to this lack of use was the lack of interaction with instructors.
A Heuristic Approach for Ranking Items Based on Inputs from Multiple Experts
Authors: Xu Dong , Shaikh Nazrul I.
Published: May 2018

This article describes how rank aggregation focuses on synthesizing a single ranked list based on rankings supplied by multiple judges. Such aggregations are widely applied in the areas of information retrieval, web search, and data mining. The problem of rank aggregation has been shown to be NP-hard and this article presents a heuristic approach to create an aggregated ranking score for all items on the lists. The proposed heuristic is scalable and performs. A computational study, as well as a real-life study involving the ranking of 147 engineering colleges in the US is presented to elucidate the performance. The authors' key finding is that the quality of the solution is sensitive to (a) the number of judges available to rank, (b) how the items are assigned to judges, and (c) how consistent/inconsistent the judges are. All these factors are generally considered exogenous in most of the rank aggregation algorithms in extant literature.
A Framework for Recommender System to Support Personalization in an E-Learning System
Authors: Gulzar Zameer , Leema A. Anny
Published: May 2018

This article describes how nowadays, the learner-centered approach is becoming more and more popular by providing liberties to the learner to choose and study courses of interest. The common problem which persists among the researchers is that they do not exactly point out which subject or coursework which would be suitable for them from their research standpoint. This is because it is very important for researcher scholars to acquire knowledge and skills that will help them to do research in an efficient and effective way. Because of the availability of a wide variety of choices among courses, researchers can be in an uncomfortable situation making a decision about which courses would be more appropriate for them. In such kinds of conditions, a recommender system can be helpful in decision making to choose some suitable courses according to interest and requirements. This article proposes a framework which is novel and convenient for any learning system by integrating various techniques together within this framework.
A womanist exposition of pseudo-spirituality and the cry of an oppressed African woman
Authors: Kobo Fundiswa A.
Published: April 2018

Women have for centuries suffered different forms of oppression and arguably continue to suffer in subtle forms in the 21st century. Marion Young points to five types of oppression, namely, violence, exploitation, marginalisation, powerlessness and cultural imperialism. For South African black women, all of these types of oppression have manifested three times more as they have suffered triple oppression of race, class and gender to employ the widely used notion of triple jeopardy in the womanist discourses and Black Theology of Liberation. The struggle of women to challenge the patriarchal culture of subordination is still pertinent for our context today. Patriarchy is a reality that has been inscribed in the minds, souls and bodies of these women. It arguably continues to be inscribed in subtle forms. Patriarchy and the oppression of women have been justified and perpetuated by a complex interplay of Christian teachings and practices fused with culture and the use of the Bible. Yet, for these women, church and the Bible continue to be central in their lives. This article looks at the cries of African women in juxtaposition to their prayers, faith and thus spirituality, and to argue that theirs is a pseudo-spirituality. This article is thus a womanist exposition of the pseudo-spirituality of an African woman in a quest for liberation of her spirituality.
Os Efeitos da Contemporaneidade nos Centros de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS)
Authors: Próchno Caio César Souza Camargo , Bessa Wellington Luís Cardoso
Published: April 2018

A sociedade contemporânea é reflexo de uma série de transformações no âmbito social, político, cultural e econômico, que alteram as formas de se estabelecer laços sociais. O saber-fazer na Saúde Mental também passou por importantes e significativas transformações no Brasil, evoluindo, em definitivo, de um modelo centrado na referência hospitalar para um modelo de atenção diversificada, de base territorial comunitária, que encontra nos Centros de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS) uma das suas principais referências. O objetivo deste trabalho é demonstrar como a montagem desse serviço sofre os efeitos das mudanças descritas sobre o nome de pós-modernidade. O mal-estar, descrito por Freud, encontra na perspectiva contemporânea novas formas de expressão. Isso implica em novas formas de modulação do sofrimento psíquico. Nesse contexto, o corpo torna-se palco privilegiado para sustentar essas diferentes formas de apresentação do mal-estar, sendo, por vezes, capturado pelo jogo de linguagem de uma clínica neurobiológica que exclui a dimensão do sujeito, silenciando consequentemente o seu sofrimento.
Características do Ambiente Sociofamiliar e Desenvolvimento Neuropsicomotor de Crianças: Associações e Implicações
Authors: Matos Larissa Araújo , Cavalcante Lília Iêda Chaves , Costa Elson Ferreira
Published: April 2018

O desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor de crianças está relacionado a um conjunto de mudanças encadeadas que envolvem sistemas biológicos em interação com contextos ambientais capazes de exercer significativa influência nesse processo. Este estudo objetivou analisar associações entre os fatores do ambiente familiar e o desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor de crianças das Unidades de Educação Infantil do município de Belém. Foram triadas 319 crianças, de ambos os sexos, de 36 a 48 meses de idade. Os instrumentos utilizados foram o Questionário de características biopsicossociais da criança (QCBC), aplicado aos responsáveis das crianças, e o Teste de triagem do desenvolvimento Denver II (TTDDII), que avaliou o desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor das crianças. Para a análise estatística utilizou-se o teste do qui-quadrado, considerados significantes os valores em que p< 0,05. Os resultados identificaram associações significativas entre o escore de suspeita de atraso no desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor e três variáveis: escolaridade paterna (p<0,001), ocupação paterna (p=0,008), e gravidez não planejada (p=0,007). Conclui-se que, de modo geral, os resultados corroboram a literatura sobre essa relação, características socioeconômicas e o desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor. Este é o caminho para pensar em políticas públicas mais sensíveis às demandas da população infantil, considerando as especificidades de cada região do país.
Sobre a Análise Fílmica Psicanalítica
Authors: Weinmann Amadeu De Oliveira
Published: April 2018

A partir de algumas reflexões freudianas sobre a arte, o artigo pergunta pelas condições de possibilidade de uma pesquisa psicanalítica do cinema. É possível pensar a imagem cinematográfica como linguagem? A fim de enfrentar este problema, este trabalho debruça-se sobre os fundamentos teórico-metodológicos do conceito linguagem cinematográfica, tal como pensado pela semiótica do cinema, de Christian Metz, e pela análise fílmica, de Raymond Bellour. É nos marcos dessas elaborações que, no início dos anos 1970, floresce uma intensa pesquisa sobre as articulações possíveis entre psicanálise e cinema. Nela, coloca-se o problema dos efeitos subjetivantes dessa linguagem singular. Ao adotar a premissa lacaniana de que a linguagem oferece ao infans a possibilidade de resistir à captura pela imagem, por meio da enunciação de si, o artigo avança algumas proposições de cunho metodológico acerca de uma singular orientação de pesquisa, que denomina análise fílmica psicanalítica.
A Polêmica do Tratamento Psicanalítico do Autismo: Dimensões Políticas, Sociais e Econômicas
Authors: De Moraes Natália De Andrade , Perrone Claudia Maria
Published: April 2018

Este estudo problematiza a polêmica do tratamento psicanalítico do autismo, situando a forma como se apresenta atualmente no Brasil. Assumindo a indissociabilidade entre os campos político e clínico, propõe a discussão dos aspectos sociopolíticos e econômicos componentes do problema como via de compreensão contextual do que se apresenta como questão clínica. Nesse sentido, trabalha sobre o modo como os avanços da lógica comportamental testemunham um apagamento da dimensão do sujeito, levando à biologização do humano e à relações de supressão da diferença e do sofrimento,  discutindo os efeitos do pensamento neoliberal sobre o campo da saúde, especificamente em relação à psicanálise e ao autismo, de forma a evidenciar a submissão a uma lógica de mercado. Por fim, busca situar o lugar da psicanálise no contexto composto, sinalizando seu movimento de resistência à lógica de disputa incorporada nos debates sobre o tratamento do autismo.
“Eu Queria Mudar”: A Psicanálise Face à Adolescência Pobre e sem Lugar
Authors: Torossian Sandra , Ribeiro Maria D. de Araujo , Silva Thiago Pereira da , Barbosa Marcos Rafael de O.
Published: April 2018

O presente artigo tem por objetivo, a partir da articulação de interrogantes que emergem da condução de um caso clínico, refletir acerca das possibilidades de intervenção da Psicanálise e das políticas públicas no caso de adolescências que se constituem em contexto de “ralé”. Partimos de uma breve problematização das políticas públicas direcionadas aos adolescentes para desdobrar, posteriormente, ao modo de estudo clínico, questões e proposições sobre a adolescência e seus contextos, bem como as possibilidades de intervenção no cenário da socioeducação. Discutindo o caso, apontamos como direção de trabalho, nesta situação de adolescência sem lugar, a construção de ancoragens possíveis para a sustentação do sujeito e seu desejo em sua relação com o Outro.
Educação superior intercultural, reconhecimento e redistribuição: o duro caminho dos povos indígenas no Equador
Authors: Wendhausen Cavallazzi Vanessa , Perrone Campos Mello Patrícia , Soares Raony
Published: April 2018

O objetivo deste artigo é investigar, a partir da experiência da Universidade Intercultural AMAWTAY WASI, do Equador, se o ensino superior intercultural se justifica com base no princípio da igualdade, como instrumento voltado a garantir aos povos indígenas uma educação fundada em premissas ligadas aos seus valores culturais, étnicos e morais, ou se, ao contrário, sublinha a desigualdade, favorecendo a segregação destas populações e dificultando a sua inserção e ascensão sociais. Para tanto, incursionou-se pelo princípio da igualdade e pelo direito à diferença, com o propósito de contrastá-los com os conceitos de multiculturalismo e, assim, compreender em que medida a educação tradicional pode ou não produzir a assimilação social. Na sequência, buscou-se explorar a ideia de educação superior intercultural com o objetivo de identificar a existência de um suposto direito à diferença, seus limites e as possibilidades de que disporia de garantir princípios vetores da Constituição do Equador, como o da multiculturalidade. Por fim, avaliou-se a capacidade da educação intercultural de favorecer a inserção social das populações indígenas, investigando que espécie de inclusão no tecido social pode ser facilitada: uma inserção totalizante ou uma outra capaz de produzir reconhecimento e redistribuição.
Grounds for dialogue: Intersectionality and superdiversity
Authors: Khazaei Faten
Published: May 2018

This paper investigates the possibility of a fruitful dialogue between intersectionality and superdiversity. It argues that, despite the shortcomings of superdiversity, the complex migration-related configurations it focuses on can enable intersectionality to overcome some of its own challenges by becoming more precise and accurate. To empirically expose the mechanisms through which race-, gender-, and class-based inequalities are reproduced, it is necessary to anchor those mechanisms in a specific time and space – a historical, social, economic, and legal context. Through a case study of institutional responses to domestic violence, the paper demonstrates that superdiversity can help clarify the context in which these responses occur. Finally, by distinguishing between the object of study (the intersectional construction of disadvantage and prejudice) and the object of observation (public institutions where superdiverse situations are created by migration-related configurations), this paper examines a challenging situation for intersectional analysis in the context of Switzerland, a context that opens up to surprising articulations of discrimination and inequality for ‘migrants’ subjects to domestic violence.
Triterpenoids with Cytotoxic Potential from the Leaves of Tridax procumbens L.
Authors: Rai Vaishali , Pai Vinitha Ramanath , Duwal Surya Ram
Published: April 2018

The anticancer activity of crude extracts of the leaves of Tridax procumbens, against two breast cancer cell lines-MCF-7 (benign) and MDA-MB-231 (metastatic) were investigated and an attempt was made to identify the anticancer principle. The extracts with methanol (TPM), ethanol (TPE) and chloroform (TPC) as solvents were screened for cytotoxicity by MTT assay against MCF-7 cells. The effective extract was further evaluated on MDA-MB-231 cells. Among the three extracts, TPC was effective at an IC50 value of 136 µg/ml and 129 µg/ml on MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells respectively. Phytochemical analysis of the extract showed the presence of only steroids and terpenoids and their concentration was high (77.4% w/w). HPLC-MS of the chloroform soluble crude extract revealed a major peak (57.59% concentration) at a retention time of 4.78 min and MS data of this peak revealed presence of two fragments of molecular weight 475.80 and 701.80. The compounds were identified to be 3β, 9β-Dihydroxy-18α-oleanan-28-oic acid, a derivative of oleanolic acid and 3β, 28-Bis (cinnamoyl) betulin respectively, both from the triterpenoid family. 
Antioxidant activity and green synthesis of selenium nanoparticles using allium sativum extract
Authors: Vyas Jay , Rana Shafkat
Published: April 2018

Abstract

The green synthesis of nanoparticles has provided cost effective, environment friendly procedure and raising safe strategies for synthesis of non-materials. In this study we investigated the clove of Allium sataivum, which is used for the synthesis of Selenium nanoparticles. The biosynthesized selenium nanoparticles were characterized by using UV-Visible (UV-VIS) spectrophotometer, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDAX). The selenium nanoparticles synthesized by garlic were observed as hollow and spherical particles in size ranging 7-45nm which is found more stable more than two months. The present study also reports the efficiency of ABTS, DPPH and FRAP assay to estimate the antioxidant potential of selenium nanoparticles which synthesized by garlic extract.

 
Phytochemistry investigation and antioxidant activity of four edible Verbenaceae of Burkina Faso
Authors: Jean BANGOU Mindiédiba , Alfonso REYES-MARTÍNEZ , Hervé COULIDIATI Tangbadioa , Véronique MEGALIZZI , Germaine NACOULMA Odile
Published: April 2018

Lantana rhodesiensis Moldenke, Lippia chevalieri Moldenke, Vitex diversifolia Bak and Vitex doniana Sweet are four species of Verbenaceae family widely used in traditional medicines in Burkina. The aim of this investigation was to study the chromatographic profile of phenols acids and that of the flavonoids as well as the antioxidants activities. Then, three types of extraction were made: acetonic (100%), decoction, ethanol-water(80/20 + 20/80); and fractions of ethanol-water which arehexane fraction (HF), ethyl acetate fraction (EAF), butanol fraction (BF) and aqueous fraction (AqF) of each species. These evaluations were supplemented by the quantification of the metal ions and the characterization by atomic absorption and HPLC-DAD methods of totals phenols acids and totals flavonoids.The whole of these proportioning was directed against the antioxidant activity through the anti-DPPH* (free radical scavenging activity), anti-TAC (total antioxidant capacity) and anti-IRP(iron reducing power).36 flavonoids on 41 were highlighted by the HPLC-DAD method. A derivative glycosylate of quercetin was detected in the V. diversifolia extracts. L. chevalieri presented the strongest value in terms of ions content with a 55.88 g/kg of calcium.In terms of antioxidant activity, L. rhodesiensis and L. chevalieri presented the best activities on total antioxidant activity and anti-DPPH, and iron reducing power respectively.It’s arise that decoction extract have the best’s activities and can justify the traditional uses.
Role of Quercetin in chemoprevention against wide range of carcinogens and mutagens
Authors: Shivakumar Savithiri , Tadakaluru Yasodha Lakshmi , Yakkanti Raja Ratna Reddy , Suresh Sannidhi Ranga , Sekhar Pasula Chandra
Published: April 2018

Quercetin is a ubiquitous plant flavoniod with significant pharmacological and clinical activity. In this study we determined to demonstrate the protective role of quercetin against range of mutagens and carcinogens in a combination of in vitro and in vivo studies via different mechanisms. Quercetin demonstrated significant protective role against sodium azide, benzo(a)pyrene, cyclophosphamide monohydrate, methyl methane sulphonate and etoposide compared to other mutagens. Quercetin is effective in both in vitro and in vivo test conditions and also in the presence as well as in the absence of metabolic activation system (Rat liver S9).  Auto oxidation, antioxidant properties, inhibition of pro-mutagens metabolism by CYP1A activity and multiple antimutagenic and adaptive response, mechanisms of quercetin may account for its protective role in cancer prevention. In conclusion, the results clearly indicate that quercetin plays a significant role against mutagens that act by direct DNA binding (form DNA adducts), pro-mutagens and alkylating agents with free radical generation; which could be the rationale for its potent anticancer activity against particular cancer types.
Virtual Screening and ADMET Studies to Identify KSP Inhibitors as Anticancer Therapeutics
Authors: Chelamalla Raadhika , Makula Ajitha
Published: April 2018

Virtual Screening plays an important role to achieve binding affinity, receptor and library pre-processing, docking, scoring and top scoring hits. Optimization of drug ADME parameters continues to play an important role to ensure that the exposure is sufficient to achieve proof of concept, and ultimately efficacy, safely in clinical trials to address unmet medical need. In order to identify potential inhibitors we employed various computational approaches. In this work, we computationally screened and analyzed 60 analogs and further tested their ADME/T profiles. Library of the molecules was constructed based upon structural modifications of pyrimidines and indole nucleus. Structural modifications were performed for the series of 4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-6-methyl-2-oxo-N-substituted[(Z)-(2-oxoindolin-3-ylidene)amino]-3,4-dihydro-1H-pyrimidine-5-carboxamide derivatives in an order to get better  binding energies as compared with Ispinseb. The molecules with better (lower) binding energies were subjected to predict ADMET properties. Ten molecules from the series IP1-IP60 were found acceptable with binding energies and pharmacokinetic properties. On the basis of the binding energies and ADMET properties we have identified compound IP2 and IP4 to be the best interacting molecules. The molecules with acceptable ADMET properties and better binding energies were prioritized for synthesis and anticancer evaluation. 
RESEARCH ON OPTIMAL OBSERVATION SCALE FOR DAMAGED BUILDINGS AFTER EARTHQUAKE BASED ON OPTIMAL FEATURE SPACE
Authors: Chen J. , Chen W. , Dou A. , Li W. , Sun Y.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. A new information extraction method of damaged buildings rooted in optimal feature space is put forward on the basis of the traditional object-oriented method. In this new method, ESP (estimate of scale parameter) tool is used to optimize the segmentation of image. Then the distance matrix and minimum separation distance of all kinds of surface features are calculated through sample selection to find the optimal feature space, which is finally applied to extract the image of damaged buildings after earthquake. The overall extraction accuracy reaches 83.1 %, the kappa coefficient 0.813. The new information extraction method greatly improves the extraction accuracy and efficiency, compared with the traditional object-oriented method, and owns a good promotional value in the information extraction of damaged buildings. In addition, the new method can be used for the information extraction of different-resolution images of damaged buildings after earthquake, then to seek the optimal observation scale of damaged buildings through accuracy evaluation. It is supposed that the optimal observation scale of damaged buildings is between 1 m and 1.2 m, which provides a reference for future information extraction of damaged buildings.
ESTIMATION OF SURFACE DEFORMATION DUE TO PASNI EARTHQUAKE USING SAR INTERFEROMETRY
Authors: Ali M. , Shahzad M. I. , Nazeer M. , Kazmi J. H.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. Earthquake cause ground deformation in sedimented surface areas like Pasni and that is a hazard. Such earthquake induced ground displacements can seriously damage building structures. On 7 February 2017, an earthquake with 6.3 magnitudes strike near to Pasni. We have successfully distinguished widely spread ground displacements for the Pasni earthquake by using InSAR-based analysis with Sentinel-1 satellite C-band data. The maps of surface displacement field resulting from the earthquake are generated. Sentinel-1 Wide Swath data acquired from 9 December 2016 to 28 February 2017 was used to generate displacement map. The interferogram revealed the area of deformation. The comparison map of interferometric vertical displacement in different time period was treated as an evidence of deformation caused by earthquake. Profile graphs of interferogram were created to estimate the vertical displacement range and trend. Pasni lies in strong earthquake magnitude effected area. The major surface deformation areas are divided into different zones based on significance of deformation. The average displacement in Pasni is estimated about 250 mm. Maximum pasni area is uplifted by earthquake and maximum uplifting occurs was about 1200 mm. Some of areas was subsidized like the areas near to shoreline and maximum subsidence was estimated about 1500 mm. Pasni is facing many problems due to increasing sea water intrusion under prevailing climatic change where land deformation due to a strong earthquake can augment its vulnerability.
COPERNICUS BIG DATA AND GOOGLE EARTH ENGINE FOR GLACIER SURFACE VELOCITY FIELD MONITORING: FEASIBILITY DEMONSTRATION ON SAN RAFAEL AND SAN QUINTIN GLACIERS
Authors: Di Tullio M. , Nocchi F. , Camplani A. , Emanuelli N. , Nascetti A. , Crespi M.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. The glaciers are a natural global resource and one of the principal climate change indicator at global and local scale, being influenced by temperature and snow precipitation changes. Among the parameters used for glacier monitoring, the surface velocity is a key element, since it is connected to glaciers changes (mass balance, hydro balance, glaciers stability, landscape erosion). The leading idea of this work is to continuously retrieve glaciers surface velocity using free ESA Sentinel-1 SAR imagery and exploiting the potentialities of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. GEE has been recently released by Google as a platform for petabyte-scale scientific analysis and visualization of geospatial datasets. The algorithm of SAR off-set tracking developed at the Geodesy and Geomatics Division of the University of Rome La Sapienza has been integrated in a cloud based platform that automatically processes large stacks of Sentinel-1 data to retrieve glacier surface velocity field time series. We processed about 600 Sentinel-1 image pairs to obtain a continuous time series of velocity field measurements over 3 years from January 2015 to January 2018 for two wide glaciers located in the Northern Patagonian Ice Field (NPIF), the San Rafael and the San Quintin glaciers. Several results related to these relevant glaciers also validated with respect already available and renown software (i.e. ESA SNAP, CIAS) and with respect optical sensor measurements (i.e. LANDSAT8), highlight the potential of the Big Data analysis to automatically monitor glacier surface velocity fields at global scale, exploiting the synergy between GEE and Sentinel-1 imagery.
FEATURE RELEVANCE ASSESSMENT OF MULTISPECTRAL AIRBORNE LIDAR DATA FOR TREE SPECIES CLASSIFICATION
Authors: Amiri N. , Heurich M. , Krzystek P. , Skidmore A. K.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. The presented experiment investigates the potential of Multispectral Laser Scanning (MLS) point clouds for single tree species classification. The basic idea is to simulate a MLS sensor by combining two different Lidar sensors providing three different wavelngthes. The available data were acquired in the summer 2016 at the same date in a leaf-on condition with an average point density of 37 points/m2. For the purpose of classification, we segmented the combined 3D point clouds consisiting of three different spectral channels into 3D clusters using Normalized Cut segmentation approach. Then, we extracted four group of features from the 3D point cloud space. Once a varity of features has been extracted, we applied forward stepwise feature selection in order to reduce the number of irrelevant or redundant features. For the classification, we used multinomial logestic regression with L1 regularization. Our study is conducted using 586 ground measured single trees from 20 sample plots in the Bavarian Forest National Park, in Germany. Due to lack of reference data for some rare species, we focused on four classes of species. The results show an improvement between 4–10 pp for the tree species classification by using MLS data in comparison to a single wavelength based approach. A cross validated (15-fold) accuracy of 0.75 can be achieved when all feature sets from three different spectral channels are used. Our results cleary indicates that the use of MLS point clouds has great potential to improve detailed forest species mapping.
AN IMPROVED INTERFEROMETRIC CALIBRATION METHOD BASED ON INDEPENDENT PARAMETER DECOMPOSITION
Authors: Fan J. , Zuo X. , Li T. , Chen Q. , Geng X.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. Interferometric SAR is sensitive to earth surface undulation. The accuracy of interferometric parameters plays a significant role in precise digital elevation model (DEM). The interferometric calibration is to obtain high-precision global DEM by calculating the interferometric parameters using ground control points (GCPs). However, interferometric parameters are always calculated jointly, making them difficult to decompose precisely. In this paper, we propose an interferometric calibration method based on independent parameter decomposition (IPD). Firstly, the parameters related to the interferometric SAR measurement are determined based on the three-dimensional reconstruction model. Secondly, the sensitivity of interferometric parameters is quantitatively analyzed after the geometric parameters are completely decomposed. Finally, each interferometric parameter is calculated based on IPD and interferometric calibration model is established. We take Weinan of Shanxi province as an example and choose 4 TerraDEM-X image pairs to carry out interferometric calibration experiment. The results show that the elevation accuracy of all SAR images is better than 2.54 m after interferometric calibration. Furthermore, the proposed method can obtain the accuracy of DEM products better than 2.43 m in the flat area and 6.97 m in the mountainous area, which can prove the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed IPD based interferometric calibration method. The results provide a technical basis for topographic mapping of 1 : 50000 and even larger scale in the flat area and mountainous area.
A MATCHING METHOD TO REDUCE THE INFLUENCE OF SAR GEOMETRIC DEFORMATION
Authors: Gao C. , Xue G.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. There are large geometrical deformations in SAR image, including foreshortening, layover, shade，which leads to SAR Image matching with low accuracy. Especially in complex terrain area, the control points are difficult to obtain, and the matching is difficult to achieve. Considering the impact of geometric distortions in SAR image pairs, a matching algorithm with a combination of speeded up robust features (SURF) and summed of normalize cross correlation (SNCC) was proposed, which can avoid the influence of SAR geometric deformation. Firstly, SURF algorithm was utilized to predict the search area. Then the matching point pairs was selected based on summed of normalized cross correlation. Finally, false match points were eliminated by the bidirectional consistency. SURF algorithm can control the range of matching points, and the matching points extracted from the deformation area are eliminated, and the matching points with stable and even distribution are obtained. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm had high precision, and can effectively avoid the effect of geometric distortion on SAR image matching. Meet accuracy requirements of the block adjustment with sparse control points.
SAR IMAGE SIMULATION OF SHIP TARGETS BASED ON MULTI-PATH SCATTERING
Authors: Guo Y. , Wang H. , Ma H. , Li K. , Xia Z. , Hao Y. , Guo H. , Shi H. , Liao X. , Yue H.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) plays an important role in the classification and recognition of ship targets because of its all-weather working ability and fine resolution. In SAR images, besides the sea clutter, the influence of the sea surface on the radar echo is also known as the so-called multipath effect. These multipath effects will generate some extra "pseudo images", which may cause the distortion of the target image and affect the estimation of the characteristic parameters. In this paper,the multipath effect of rough sea surface and its influence on the estimation of ship characteristic parameters are studied. The imaging of the first and the secondary reflection of sea surface is presented . The artifacts not only overlap with the image of the target itself, but may also appear in the sea near the target area. It is difficult to distinguish them, and this artifact has an effect on the length and width of the ship.
AN INSTANTANEOUS POINT SOURCE DETECTION AND EXTRACTION SYSTEM FOR GEO REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE
Authors: Guo Y. , Li Q. , Wu W.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. To accomplish the task of detecting the instantaneous point source, an on-board information real-time processing system is designed which can process the point-source detection with reconfigurable function. The system has the algorithm reconfigurable function, which can detect and extract the instantaneous point source from the remote sensing image. By using FPGA programming, the satellite target detection and processing algorithm can be update easily. At the same time, the software can be reconfigured to improve the system's information processing capabilities. The system has been verified by simulating real instantaneous source point target image data to meet the real-time processing requirements of instantaneous point source information detection.
SOIL MOISTURE RETRIEVAL USING CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORKS: APPLICATION TO PASSIVE MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING
Authors: Hu Z. , Xu L. , Yu B.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. A empirical model is established to analyse the daily retrieval of soil moisture from passive microwave remote sensing using convolutional neural networks (CNN). Soil moisture plays an important role in the water cycle. However, with the rapidly increasing of the acquiring technology for remotely sensed data, it's a hard task for remote sensing practitioners to find a fast and convenient model to deal with the massive data. In this paper, the AMSR-E brightness temperatures are used to train CNN for the prediction of the European centre for medium-range weather forecasts (ECMWF) model. Compared with the classical inversion methods, the deep learning-based method is more suitable for global soil moisture retrieval. It is very well supported by graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration, which can meet the demand of massive data inversion. Once the model trained, a global soil moisture map can be predicted in less than 10 seconds. What's more, the method of soil moisture retrieval based on deep learning can learn the complex texture features from the big remote sensing data. In this experiment, the results demonstrates that the CNN deployed to retrieve global soil moisture can achieve a better performance than the support vector regression (SVR) for soil moisture retrieval.
A THRESHOLD-FREE FILTERING ALGORITHM FOR AIRBORNE LIDAR POINT CLOUDS BASED ON EXPECTATION-MAXIMIZATION
Authors: Hui Z. , Cheng P. , Ziggah Y. Y. , Nie Y.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. Filtering is a key step for most applications of airborne LiDAR point clouds. Although lots of filtering algorithms have been put forward in recent years, most of them suffer from parameters setting or thresholds adjusting, which will be time-consuming and reduce the degree of automation of the algorithm. To overcome this problem, this paper proposed a threshold-free filtering algorithm based on expectation-maximization. The proposed algorithm is developed based on an assumption that point clouds are seen as a mixture of Gaussian models. The separation of ground points and non-ground points from point clouds can be replaced as a separation of a mixed Gaussian model. Expectation-maximization (EM) is applied for realizing the separation. EM is used to calculate maximum likelihood estimates of the mixture parameters. Using the estimated parameters, the likelihoods of each point belonging to ground or object can be computed. After several iterations, point clouds can be labelled as the component with a larger likelihood. Furthermore, intensity information was also utilized to optimize the filtering results acquired using the EM method. The proposed algorithm was tested using two different datasets used in practice. Experimental results showed that the proposed method can filter non-ground points effectively. To quantitatively evaluate the proposed method, this paper adopted the dataset provided by the ISPRS for the test. The proposed algorithm can obtain a 4.48 % total error which is much lower than most of the eight classical filtering algorithms reported by the ISPRS.
A GROSS ERROR ELIMINATION METHOD FOR POINT CLOUD DATA BASED ON KD-TREE
Authors: Kang Q. , Huang G. , Yang S.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. Point cloud data has been one type of widely used data sources in the field of remote sensing. Key steps of point cloud data’s pro-processing focus on gross error elimination and quality control. Owing to the volume feature of point could data, existed gross error elimination methods need spend massive memory both in space and time. This paper employed a new method which based on Kd-tree algorithm to construct, k-nearest neighbor algorithm to search, settled appropriate threshold to determine with result turns out a judgement that whether target point is or not an outlier. Experimental results show that, our proposed algorithm will help to delete gross error in point cloud data and facilitate to decrease memory consumption, improve efficiency.
A NOVEL TECHNIQUE FOR PRECISION GEOMETRIC CORRECTION OF JITTER DISTORTION FOR THE EUROPA IMAGING SYSTEM AND OTHER ROLLING-SHUTTER CAMERAS
Authors: Kirk R. L. , Shepherd M. , Sides S. C.
Published: April 2018

Abstract. We use simulated images to demonstrate a novel technique for mitigating geometric distortions caused by platform motion (“jitter”) as two-dimensional image sensors are exposed and read out line by line (“rolling shutter”). The results indicate that the Europa Imaging System (EIS) on NASA’s Europa Clipper can likely meet its scientific goals requiring 0.1-pixel precision. We are therefore adapting the software used to demonstrate and test rolling shutter jitter correction to become part of the standard processing pipeline for EIS. The correction method will also apply to other rolling-shutter cameras, provided they have the operational flexibility to read out selected “check lines” at chosen times during the systematic readout of the frame area.