Consumer Attitudes toward News Delivering: An Experimental Evaluation of the Use and Efficacy of Personalized Recommendations

This paper presents an experiment on newsreaders’ behavior and preferences on the interaction with online personalized news. Different recommendation approaches, based on consumption profiles and user location, and the impact of personalized news on several aspects of consumer decision-making are examined on a group of volunteers. Results show a significant preference for reading recommended news over other news presented on the screen, regardless of the chosen editorial layout. In addition, the study also provides support for the creation of profiles taking into consideration the evolution of user’s interests. The proposed solution is valid for users with different reading habits and can be successfully applied even to users with small consumption history. Our findings can be used by news providers to improve online services, thus increasing readers’ perceived satisfaction.

The use of polyazolidineammonium and dimethyl-sulfoxide antigen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis to obtain hyperimmune serum

The use of polyazolidinammonium modified with iodine hydrate ions (PAAG) as an adjuvant made it possible to obtain rabbit hyperimmune blood serums for dimethyl-sulfoxide antigen (DA) of a pseudotuberculosis microbe with generic specificity. Antibody titers in ELISA with Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. enterocolitica cells amounted to 1:25600-1:12800, and with cells of other genera of intestinal microflora 1:100-1:400. The optimal immunizing dose for obtaining hyperimmune yersiniosis serum was a dose of 2 mg DA of Y. pseudotuberculosis per rabbit. Such a dose made it possible to obtain hyperimmune sera with a high titer of specific antibodies with a small consumption of antigen. The optimal concentration of PAAG solution for hyperimmunization of Y. pseudotuberculosis DA rabbits was 1%.

Proposals of applications of tension-strut systems in building structures

Tension-strut systems belong to the most economic types of structural systems. Component parts are subjected to act only of compression forces or they are subjected to act only of tension forces. Suitable pre-stressing is the necessary condition of their proper operational use. Due to this feature they are of relatively big spatial stiffness and they require relatively small consumption of materials needed to their construction. They are mostly applied in bearing structures of hanging or suspension bridges and in support systems of the lightweight roof covers, particularly of big spans. Construction formula of the tension-strut systems is nowadays widely applied in structures of the large curtain walls, in support structures of multi-story buildings and it is proposed to use in the foundation structures. The paper presents some selected types of such structures worked out by the author for various useful purposes. Complexity of these structures requires application of appropriate numerical methods during processes of the design and of the assembly stage in the building site.

Arduino Based Physics and Engineering Remote Laboratory

The concept of remote laboratories exists for some time with increasing importance for contemporary education in various fields and at various levels. Advance of remote labs is based on technology development and conceptual improvements with possible mutual influences such as when new technologies can make new concepts possible. Arduino is a family of small inexpensive single board computers (SBC) based primarily on microcontrollers with added Linux platforms on some boards for improved processing and Internet accessibility. Various shields extend interaction functionality of Arduino boards with environment. A number of other brands with quite similar concepts exist, with Arduino as one of very well-known and widespread. Arduino based remote lab concept relies on “Arduino only” implementation which is possible for many not too demanding applications without usual desktop or similar PC platforms. Such concept has many implications like project cheap price, interconnecting of boards for more demanding tasks, small consumption, autonomy, small dimensions, low installation requirements, which is suitable for applications at remote locations and applications requiring mobility. Hybrid solutions including Arduino or similar boards and other more powerful computer platforms may be optimal for more demanding applications. Programming and application development for Arduino and similar boards are supported by large community of developers and users that provide various libraries, solution examples, forums covering various thematic and application aspects. This paper discusses and presents some hardware and software configurations with Arduino and compatible boards that are used for implementation of experiments in physics and technics. Although the considered remotely operated experiments are different in nature, quite similar hardware and software architectures are used.

Safety Monitoring System Design Based on WIA-PA

The paper designed a safety monitoring network system which is composed of the wireless sensor network based on the emerging wireless communication technology.Tests indicate that the system runs well with small consumption and good mobility, and the data can be uploaded to host computer for real-time display and record so that it can provide effective help to quickly carry out rescue work.

Comparison of Combination of Flotation-Magnetic-Gravity Separation Process with Bluk Flotation for Recovering Fine Tin Slime

A comparative analysis of the combination of flotation-magnetic -gravity separation with bulk-floatation process for recovering fine tin slime was carried out in a mineral processing plant. Compared to the bulk floatation process, the flotation-magnetic-gravity separation process resulted in a higher recovery of tin and showed advantages of small consumption of reagents and electric power, stable production index and easy operation.

Comparison of Passive and Active Energy Pumping in Mechanical Nonlinear System

We describe nonlinear dynamics of essentially non-homogeneous system of coupled oscillators using the technique of multi-scale expansions. The resonant mechanism of passive energy transfer from a massive oscillator into a light auxiliary one provides essential reduction of energy of the massive oscillator. Proposed active control algorithm increases noticeably the efficiency of energy transfer in comparison with passive control. The important advantage of this algorithm is that it provides a small consumption of energy. It is expedient to use our algorithm in the certain limits of parameters determined in the paper. This algorithm provides a necessary level of reduction of oscillator amplitude in a wide range of external perturbations.

The irreversible formation of methane in the system ethane-ethylene-hydrogen

The irreversible formation of methane in the system C 2 H 6 ⇌ C 2 H 4 + H 2 has been studied by mass-spectrometric analysis and by kinetic methods. The methane is formed directly both from the ethane by a unimolecular reaction, little affected by nitric oxide, and from ethylene by a second-order reaction. In the formation from ethane in the presence of nitric oxide roughly two molecules of this are consumed for each molecule of methane (in marked contrast with the relatively small consumption in the decomposition of the higher paraffins). It is concluded that the major mode of production of methane from ethane is the reaction C 2 H 6 → CH 4 + CH 2 , the methylene suffering varying fates according to circumstances. From the ethylene-hydrogen side the methane arises by a primary condensation of ethylene followed by elimination of methane from the polymer. This is succeeded by further condensation and methane eliminations until a product approaching carbon in composition is left. Appreciable amounts of benzene are formed from some of the intermediates. In general, the amounts of the major products in the early stages of all the reactions are quite closely proportional to the pressure changes.