Automatic Qualitative Analysis Research Articles

Narratives of Self-Harm at School: Identifying Trajectories of Intervention in Educational Contexts.

Recent studies have shown that self-harming behaviour is increasingly widespread among adolescents, in particular at school. However, educational institutions perceive themselves unable to cope with the phenomenon, searching for protocols and guidelines to improve its management. Considering schools as useful contexts for intercepting the young malaise, this study aims at exploring the main meanings of self-harming behaviours made within the educational cultural contexts starting from the student’s narrations, in order to understand the possible trajectories of practice. In two high schools we have collected 96 narratives of self-harm written by adolescents (mean age 14; 74% females), who have been engaged in non-suicidal self-injury once in their life. The analysis of the narratives, produced with the help of a software for the automatic qualitative analysis of texts, has allowed to identify four prevalent themes organized into three sense vectors. The findings highlighted significant gender differences in the representation of the experience of self-harm between males and females, as well as the importance of meaningful relationships developed in familiar and educational contexts, which may allow the help seeking process. The emerging of culturally-shared meanings among adolescents within the investigated contexts may allow to think about possible protocols of preventive and clinical practices in schools.

Estimation of the Content of Elements in Automatic Qualitative Analysis of a Substance Using a Cross-Correlation Function

In the article, a method and tools for the automatic estimation of the content of chemical elements using a single spectrum of a sample are described. The presence of the elements in the sample is determined by the technique of cross-correlation qualitative analysis, featuring a low probability of false detection and high speed. The content of the detected elements is calculated using the method of emergence and strengthening of spectral lines modified for the use in an automatic mode in modern spectral complexes. The tools need tuning to a certain complex with the help of the results of quantitative spectral analysis obtained using this complex earlier. The tool operating efficiency is demonstrated with the estimation of the content of the elements of the basis of geological powder samples (Si, Ti, Al, Mg, Fe, Ca, Mn) using the spectra obtained with two different spectral complexes.

Approximation of fuzzy functions by fuzzy interpolating bicubic splines: 2018 CMMSE conference

One of the most interesting and important techniques in applied mathematics is interpolation and approximation. It can be also shown that basic theory of fuzzy sets and operations with fuzzy numbers can be used, and result very convenient, for solving many analytical chemistry problems: as depth profile comparison or calibration with errors in signals and/or concentrations, for spectra interpretation, or even for automatic qualitative analysis or expert systems with X-ray spectroscopy. In this special context, we introduce in this paper a new fuzzy interpolation method of fuzzy data or functions, specially indicated in all these chemical applications. We will use bicubic splines (cubic splines of two variables) of class $$\mathcal {C}^2$$ as linear combinations of a basis constructed by a tensor product of univariate B-splines in each of these variables. First we establish a bicubic interpolation spline method of a given fuzzy data set or a given fuzzy bivariate function. We proof the existence of a unique solution of this problem and we show a convergence result. Finally, we test the effectiveness of this method by some numerical and graphical examples.

Evaluation of children cursive handwritten words for e-education

As part of an innovative e-education project, a digital workbook is being developed to help teach handwriting at school for children aged three to seven. The main objective of this project is to offer an advanced digital writing experience at school by using pen-based tablets. In this paper, an automatic qualitative analysis process of cursive handwriting words is presented. This approach is original because the goal is not to recognise the word that was handwritten by children (it is an explicit instruction) but to design a precise evaluation of the quality of his handwriting production to give them a real-time feedback. The presented method is based on a specific explicit elastic letter spotting segmentation able to deal with the imprecision of the handwriting of young children. This approach is suited to automatically and precisely highlight the difficulties encountered by children (adding or missing letters, incorrect shapes...). The validation of the proposed approach has been done on a dataset collected in French preschools and primary schools from 231 children. Beyond quantitative results, this paper reports the very positive impact of using this digital workbook that allows children to work independently with online and real-time feedbacks.

Evaluation of the Element Content in an Automatic Qualitative Analysis of Substances Using a Cross-Correlation Function

A method and tools for automated evaluation of the element content in a sample using the only one sample spectrum is presented. The presence of elements in the sample is determined by qualitative cross-correlation analysis with a low probability of false alarm and high performance. The element content is calculated by modified spectral-line detection and enhancement method and adjusted to use in modern automated systems. The tool kit requires tuning to a particular spectral system using previously obtained results of quantitative spectral analysis for this system. The efficiency of the procedure is exemplified in evaluation of the content of matrix elements of geological powder samples of Si, Ti, Al, Mg, Fe, Ca, and Mn using two different analytical spectral systems.

Smart pile-up consideration for evaluation of high count rate EDS spectra

This work describes a new pile-up consideration for the very high count rate spectra which are possible to acquire with silicon drift detector (SDD) technology. Pile-up effects are the major and still remaining challenge with the use of SDD for EDS in scanning electron microscopes (SEM) with ultra thin windows for soft X-ray detection. The ability to increase the count rates up to a factor of 100 compared with conventional Si(Li) detectors, comes with the problem that the pile-up recognition (pile-up rejection) in pulse processors is not able to improve by the same order of magnitude, just only with a factor of about 3. Therefore, it is common that spectra will show significant pile-up effects if count rates of more than 10000 counts per second (10 kcps) are used. These false counts affect both automatic qualitative analysis and quantitative evaluation of the spectra. The new idea is to use additional inputs for pile-up calculation to shift the applicability towards very high count rates of up to 200 kcps and more, which can be easily acquired with the SDD. The additional input is the 'known' (estimated) background distribution, calculated iteratively during all automated qualitative or quantitative evaluations. This additional knowledge gives the opportunity for self adjustment of the pile-up calculation parameters and avoids over-corrections which challenge the evaluation as well as the pile-up artefacts themselves. With the proposed method the pile-up correction is no longer a 'correction' but an integral part of all spectra evaluation steps. Examples for the application are given with evaluation of very high count rate spectra.

Imagination and society: the role of visual sociology

The paper presents the field of Visual Sociology as an approach that makes use of photographs, films, documentaries, videos, to capture and assess aspects of social life and social signals. It overviews some relevant works in the field, it deals with methodological and epistemological issues, by raising the question of the relation between the observer and the observed, and makes reference to some methods of analysis, such as those proposed by the Grounded Theory, and to some connected tools for automatic qualitative analysis, like NVivo. The relevance of visual sociology to the study of social signals lies in the fact that it can validly integrate the information, introducing a multi-modal approach in the analysis of social signals.

Misidentification of Major Constituents by Automatic Qualitative Energy Dispersive X-ray Microanalysis: A Problem that Threatens the Credibility of the Analytical Community

Automatic qualitative analysis for peak identification is a standard feature of virtually all modern computer-aided analysis software for energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry with electron excitation. Testing of recently installed systems from four different manufacturers has revealed the occasional occurrence of misidentification of peaks of major constituents whose concentrations exceeded 0.1 mass fraction (10 wt%). Test materials where peak identification failures were observed included ZnS, KBr, FeS2, tantalum-niobium alloy, NIST Standard Reference Material 482 (copper-gold alloy), Bi2Te3, uranium-rhodium alloys, platinum-chromium alloy, GaAs, and GaP. These misidentifications of major constituents were exacerbated when the incident beam energy was 10 keV or lower, which restricted or excluded the excitation of the high photon energy K- and L-shell X-rays where multiple peaks, for example, Kalpha (K-L2,3)-Kbeta (K-M2,3); Lalpha (L3-M4,5)-Lbeta (L2-M4)-Lgamma (L2-N4), are well resolved and amenable to identification with high confidence. These misidentifications are so severe as to properly qualify as blunders that present a serious challenge to the credibility of this critical analytical technique. Systematic testing of a peak identification system with a suite of diverse materials can reveal the specific elements and X-ray peaks where failures are likely to occur.

Blunders in Automatic Qualitative Analysis (Peak Identification) for Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry: The Low Voltage Microanalysis Situation

Blunders in Automatic Qualitative Analysis (Peak Identification) for Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry: The Low Voltage Microanalysis Situation

Automatic qualitative analysis of dynamic systems using piecewise linear approximations

This paper explores automating the qualitative analysis of physical systems. It describes a program, called PLR (for Piecewise Linear Reasoner), that formalizes an analysis strategy employed by experts. PLR takes parameterized ordinary differential equations as input and produces a qualitative description of the solutions for all initial values. It approximates intractable nonlinear systems with piecewise linear ones, analyzes the approximations, and draws conclusions about the original systems. It chooses approximations that are accurate enough to reproduce the essential properties of their nonlinear prototypes, yet simple enough to be analyzed completely and efficiently. It derives additional properties, such as boundedness or periodicity, by theoretical methods. PLR's analysis depends on abstract properties of systems rather than on specific numeric values. This makes its conclusions more robust and enables it to handle parameterized equations transparently. I demonstrate PLR on several common nonlinear systems and on published examples from mechanical engineering.

Software for automatic qualitative analysis and determination of elements by atomic emission spectroscopy with recognition of spectral interferences

This paper describes software for automatic qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectrometry with a high-resolution scanning monochromator. This software can be also used for automatic collection of wavelengths and intensities of spectral lines emitted from an ICP.

Algorithm for Qualitative Analysis of Carbon-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra

An algorithm and a computer program applicable to automatic qualitative analysis were developed of the carbon-13 NMR spectral data base. This algorithm was based upon a kind of pattern recognition method, where the assembly of the chemical shifts was patterned by the number of peaks around each peak. The similarity between the unknown and the reference compounds in the data base was evaluated by the similarity of their patterns, by the average difference of the chemical shifts which have the same pattern, and by the ratio of the number of peaks of the unknown and the reference compounds. The method was applied to the identification of some unknown compounds and compared with the results certified by the gate decoupled analysis of the carbon-13 NMR spectra. The results were shown to be quite successful.

Correlation-Based Data Processing for an Inductively Coupled Plasma/Fourier Transform Spectrometer System

A simple cross-correlation technique is presented for processing interferograms generated by an ultraviolet-visible Fourier transform spectrometer coupled to an inductively coupled plasma. Interferograms resulting from the emission of samples in the ICP can be automatically interrogated for the presence or absence of up to 70 elements, and automatic qualitative analysis is possible, complete with an assessment of spectral overlaps. In concept, the cross-correlation method amounts to “software slew-scanning” as it provides one with an a posteriori method to study and select the spectral information about the sample as measured with the FTS-ICP system. This represents a unique spectrochemical measurement capability compared with current dispersive-based, direct-reading, and slew-scanning spectrometers as applied to ICP emission spectrometry.

Data acquisition and computation in spectrochemical analysis: a forecast

Some new applications of automation and computerization in emission spectrochemical analysis are proposed. Automated microphotometers now make it possible to digitize complete photographically-recorded emission spectra in a reasonable time. Television techniques offer the prospect of digitally recording complete spectra photoelectrically, circumventing the problems and loss of time encountered with photographic spectroscopy. Reduction of the data with computers should make possible completely automatic qualitative analysis. Semiquantitative analysis without standards may also be possible. When standards are available, the use of computers for data reduction should improve the accuracy of analysis by allowing complex corrections to be made for interelement effects. The cost of programming could delay the development of these proposals, and a cooperative research program is suggested to reduce the cost to any one laboratory.