Novelty Assessment Research Articles

Adsorption of malachite green by Aegle marmelos-derived activated biochar: Novelty assessment through phytotoxicity tests and economic analysis

The efficacy of chemically activated Indian bael (Aegle marmelos) shell biochar (CAIBSB) was investigated as an adsorbent. The adsorbent was used for the sequestration of the toxic dye malachite green (MG) from wastewater. The activation of biochar by sodium hydroxide introduced more pores, hence more surface area, leading to enhanced adsorption capacity. CAIBSB was characterized with XRD, FEGSEM, EDX, BET, and FTIR spectroscopy for estimating its adsorption prospects. The XRD pattern of CAIBSB displayed a diffuse peak and indicated that the biochar was amorphous. The BET and isotherms of CAIBSB revealed biochar to be mesoporous, with a favourable surface area of 70.9 m2/g. An uptake capacity of 120.45 mg/g with 95 % removal at optimum process conditions (initial dye concentration of 50 mg/L, solution pH of 8.0, and equilibrium time of 60 min) were observed. The adsorption mechanism followed pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherms. Over 80 % of the adsorption capacity remained intact after five cycles of use and regeneration. The fabrication cost of CAIBSB adsorbent was estimated to be only 7.79 USD/kg of adsorbent. A substantial reduction in the toxicity of MG dye was confirmed in the phytotoxicity experiments on the growth of Vigna mungo seeds.

Arabic Music Genre Identification

Music Information Retrieval (MIR) is one data science application crucial for different tasks such as recommendation systems, genre identification, fingerprinting, and novelty assessment. Different Machine Learning techniques are utilised to analyse digital music records, such as clustering, classification, similarity scoring, and identifying various properties for the different tasks. Music is represented digitally using diverse transformations and is clustered and classified successfully for Western Music. However, Eastern Music poses a challenge, and some techniques have achieved success in clustering and classifying Turkish and Persian Music. This research presents an evaluation of machine learning algorithms' performance on pre-labelled Arabic Music with their Arabic genre (Maqam). The study introduced new data representations of the Arabic music dataset and identified the most suitable machine-learning methods and future enhancements.

The ScholarNet and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Supervisor in Material Science Research.

The past decade has witnessed extensive applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in chemistry and material science. However, the current focus mainly revolves around idea execution, neglecting the significance of idea generation, which plays a pivotal role in determining research novelty and potential breakthroughs. Concurrently, the exponential growth of scientific publications has resulted in overpublishing, making it challenging for researchers to grasp multiple fields effectively. As most opportunities for innovation lie in interdisciplinary realms, there is a risk of missing out on the development of new ideas. To address these challenges, we present a deep learning-based AI supervisor trained on correlation-based ScholarNet data of publications. Primarily tailored for material science, this AI supervisor excels in recommending research ideas, analyzing their novelty, and providing comprehensive guidance to researchers. By offering invaluable support in idea generation and novelty assessment, our AI supervisor has emerged as a promising digital infrastructure for future material science research.

Serendipitous collective creativity at family making programs in public libraries

Collective creativity is increasingly being emphasized, yet there is less focus on serendipitous or accidental collective creativity. Understanding serendipitous collective creativity can bring implications for unexplored ways to facilitate collective creativity in learning settings. This paper reports a video-based study that investigates how moments of serendipitous collective creativity emerge and influence families’ creative experience in informal making programs at public libraries. Twenty-four parent-child pairs’ interaction and creative products are analyzed through interaction analysis and novelty assessment. Our study demonstrates showcasing and providing feedback as two social mechanisms that facilitated moments of serendipitous collective creativity, which influenced families to adopt, expand, and solidify the serendipitous idea. The study brings implications to library professionals who provide educational programming to children and family patrons to reconsider the role of participating families at library making programs as not just patrons but community members with shared ownership to facilitate creative process of one another.

ASSESSMENT OF THE RISK OF LOSS OF STABILITY OF A SLOPE DRIFT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STEEP COAL SEAMS

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to assess the risk of loss of stability of the preparatory mine workings in order to adjust measures to prevent hazards and their consequences in the excavation areas of a coal mine with steep seams.. Method. An integrated approach was used, including: analysis and synthesis of known studies, expert evaluation, application of the basic principles of probability theory, processing, analysis and interpretation of the results. Results. During the examination of 7 objects (excavation sites), the a priori ranking identified significant factors that affect the loss of stability of preparatory mine workings. Accidental events were considered: the collapse of the roof, the slippage of the sole in the produced space of the coal massif, and the failure of fastening in the roll-back stretch. The ranking results are confirmed by the concordance coefficient (0,9). The analysis of accidents related to the loss of stability of the preparatory workings with different methods of protection allowed establishing the frequency of roof collapses and ground slides in the coal massif at the excavation site. To statistically evaluate the failures of the arch support ω in the working face, field studies were carried out. It was found that in the area of influence of the cleaning operations when protecting the heading with coal blocks, the failure rate of the arch support is ω=0.24, bushes from the racks ω=0,27, and wooden fires ω=0,16. Taking into account the combination of the identified significant factors, the a posteriori probability of loss of stability of the heading in the area of influence of the longwall face in the area of 10 ≤ l ≤ 45 m is 0,036-0,055 m when using coal blocks, 0,044-0,078 bushes from the risers and 0,0176-0,036 wooden fires. The probability of arch support failure is approximately 0,6. On the basis of research, a quantitative assessment of the component risks wa established, which leads to the loss of stability of the rollback stretch. The maximum risk assessment R = 576 corresponds to the conditions when the production is protected by bushes made of wooden risers. Scientific novelty Assessment of the risk of loss of stability of the preparatory mine workings is a set of research and analytical measures aimed at reducing the manifestation of hazards in the coal massif at the excavation sections of a coal mine. Practical significance. To obtain qualitative and quantitative estimates of the risk of loss of stability of the preparatory mine workings along the length of the excavation section, a model of formation of a possible dangerous situation was proposed. Key words: coal mine, preparatory workings, cave-in, side rocks, simulation modelling, miners’ safety.

Designing deep-network based novelty assessment model in Design education

Novelty is a significant factor in evaluating creative aptitude of mass examination in Design education. Novelty is a measure of uniqueness which is computed based on relative comparison among solutions. Presently, novelty assessment of solutions illustrating creative aptitude in mass examination is conducted by domain-specific experts. During the process of evaluation, examiners drill their thought processes and assesses based on their frame of reference. Moreover due to the ever-increasing number of students in these examinations where students compete for admission to Design schools, examiners are confronted with multiple challenges viz., evaluation in stipulated time, evaluation to be conducted in large scale, etc. These difficulties might frustrate examiners and might lead to errors in evaluation. The investigation in this paper is exactly geared towards this issue and we explored whether technology can support examiners in situations like this. Features are extracted for evaluating novelty by human-centred design approach. A model is proposed to evaluate novelty in academic settings specifically in mass examinations. This model is validated by utilizing it in different case studies based on the type of Design solutions in mass examinations. This model is implemented using Deep Learning (DL)-based architectures. Findings emphasize that there is negligible difference in outcome of these architectures and human expert-based evaluation, which confirms the capacity of the devised model. This study would support pedagogues in the evaluation process that are conducted on a large scale. It would also help reducing logistics, time, and man-power in evaluation process. Consistency in subjective assessment would ensure selection of right candidate, thereby increases trust in the assessment system.

Ethnomedicinal appraisal of plants used for the treatment of gastrointestinal complaints by tribal communities living in Diamir district, Western Himalayas, Pakistan.

Majority of the mountain dwelling communities living in the Himalayas rely on traditional herbal medicines for primary healthcare needs. Present study was conducted in fairy meadows and allied valleys in District Diamir, Gilgit Baltistan autonomous territory in northern Pakistan. Documentation of traditional medicinal knowledge (TMK) of local communities for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders was carried out as a component of a wider medico-botanical expedition conducted in the entire base camp of the great Nanga Parbat peak during 2016-19. Various ethnobotanical parameters i.e. use value (UV), informant consensus factor (ICF), Fidelity level (FL), direct matrix ranking test (DMRT) and preference ranking (PR) were applied to evaluate the data collected during field surveys. The plants were also subjected to a comparative review for novelty assessment. A total of 61 medicinal plant species belonging to 55 genera and 35 families are reported here for the treatment of GIDs. Compositae was the leading family with 8 (13%) species. Fourteen gastrointestinal disorders were cured with 32% taxon were reported for stomachic followed by diarrhea (15%) and constipation (14%). Highest use reports (5) and use citations (207) were reported for Mentha longifolia L. while highest UV (1.79) was obtained for Artemisia maritima L. Hylotelephium telephioides (Ledeb.), A. maritima, M. longifolia, M. piperita L., Allium cepa L., and A. annua L. exhibited 100% FL. Highest ICF was calculated against dysentery and flatulence. DMRT ranked Prunus persica L. first for its multipurpose uses. Taking constipation as a reference gastrointestinal disease, PR for ten plant species was calculated where H. telephioides was ranked first followed by A. maritima. Present study concluded that 19 out of 61 plant species were documented for the first time with novel medicinal uses to cure GIDs. These plant species could act as potential reservoirs of novel lead compounds for the treatments of gastrointestinal disorders.

Novelty metrics in engineering design

In the field of design, novelty is widely acknowledged as a key parameter for creativity assessments. Accordingly, scholars have proposed several definitions, metrics and procedures to assess novelty for different purposes. Although the availability of many alternatives allows researchers to perform in-depth investigations, it makes the orientation among the available combinations of novelty concepts, types and metrics quite hard. In such a manifold context, the aim of this work is to map the literature about novelty assessment in engineering design. To this purpose, a systematic literature review has been performed on the Scopus database to identify a relevant set of contributions through specific search strategies and skimming processes. A map of novelty metrics has been obtained, which shows that most of them belong to the uncommonness type, while others need further investigations. The obtained results are intended to support scholars in browsing the different metrics, when selecting the most suited for their specific research objectives.

Urban ecological novelty assessment: Implications for urban green infrastructure planning and management

Urban areas are continuously subjected to anthropogenic transformations that result in the emergence of novel urban ecosystems. To prepare for and respond to contemporary negative environmental impacts (e.g., climate change, land-use change, biological invasions), it is increasingly urgent to plan and adapt cities' green infrastructure. Accordingly, the inclusion of the novel ecosystems concept in urban planning and management is pertinent and necessary. Nevertheless, identification or measurement of ecological novelty has been challenging and can be problematic without the appropriate methods. The objectives of this study are to 1) develop and test a methodology to assess novelty in urban ecosystems grounded on the combination of both human and biotic dimensions of the novel ecosystems concept, and 2) discuss the implications that urban ecological novelty assessment can have for future urban green infrastructure planning and management. In contrast to other proposed methods, this assessment considers the human dimension of the concept as equally important as the biotic dimension, once the human presence is pervasive and a fundamental component of urban landscapes. The proposed working methodology was tested in Porto, Portugal, in study sites with contrasting human-induced transformation pathways and plant species assemblages, thus theoretically representing different degrees of urban ecological novelty. The methodology developed in this work is straightforward and can be adjusted and replicated to other cities according to available data and tools. Above all, the assessment of urban ecological novelty can inform future urban planning and management and assist in investigating novel urban ecosystems.

From Multisensory Assessment to Functional Interpretation of Social Behavioral Phenotype in Transgenic Mouse Models for Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common heterogeneous disorder, defined solely by the core behavioral characteristics, including impaired social interaction and restricted and repeated behavior. Although an increasing number of studies have been performed extensively, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the core symptoms of ASD remain largely unknown. Transgenic mouse models provide a useful tool for evaluating genetic and neuronal mechanisms underlying ASD pathology, which are prerequisites for validating behavioral phenotypes that mimic the core symptoms of human ASD. The purpose of this review is to propose a better strategy for analyzing and interpreting social investigatory behaviors in transgenic mouse models of ASD. Mice are nocturnal, and employ multimodal processing mechanisms for social communicative behaviors, including those that involve olfactory and tactile senses. Most behavioral paradigms that have been developed for measuring a particular ASD-like behavior in mouse models, such as social recognition, preference, and discrimination tests, are based on the evaluation of distance-based investigatory behavior in response to social stimuli. This investigatory behavior in mice is regulated by multimodal processing involving with two different motives: first, an olfactory-based novelty assessment, and second, tactile-based social contact, in a temporally sequential manner. Accurate interpretation of investigatory behavior exhibited by test mice can be achieved by functional analysis of these multimodal, sequential behaviors, which will lead to a better understanding of the specific features of social deficits associated with ASD in transgenic mouse models, at high temporal and spatial resolutions.

Subjectivity of novelty metrics based on idea decomposition

ABSTRACT The novelty metric suggested by Shah and colleagues is one of the most widespread among the suggestions made by scholars, and it is based on the subjective identification of attributes and/or functions underpinning analyzed ideas. If not correctly managed, this subjectivity can lead to non-negligible ambiguity of assessments, which could potentially invalidate the research results. Several variants to this metric have been proposed in the last two decades, with some of them claiming to have improved the original metric. However, the related benefits and drawbacks are still unclear, especially in terms of subjectivity. The aim of this study is to estimate the potential misalignment between research teams that independently perform the assessment of the same set of ideas. To this purpose, the considered metrics have been applied to a set of 100 ideas by utilizing the assessment results from three independent evaluators. It was revealed that the obtained novelty scores can be extremely different owing to the plethora of different possible interpretations of the analyzed ideas. Accordingly, the results highlight that for the same set of ideas, very different novelty assessment rationales can be followed by the evaluators.

Preliminary ruling to the CJEU on geographical boundaries of UCD novelty assessment

Abstract Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company v PMS International Group Plc [2019] EWHC 2419 (IPEC), High Court of England and Wales, 17 September 2019 The High Court of Justice of England and Wales has sought guidance from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) as regards whether the disclosure of a design outside the Community can still qualify for protection within the Community.

Design creativity: refined method for novelty assessment

Novelty is an important characteristic of a creative idea, forming a core component of creativity. Measurement of novelty is therefore essential to assess creativity. We found deficiencies in a frequently cited method of novelty assessment found in the literature. We refine this method by proposing four modifications, supported by drawing on examples of products and ideas. The refined method and the original method are evaluated by benchmarking them against the collective, intuitive assessment of product novelty by experienced designers. The overall achievement of the refined method as presented in this paper is its contribution to a better assessment of product novelty.

Mapping the Energetic Epitope of an Antibody/Interleukin-23 Interaction with Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange, Fast Photochemical Oxidation of Proteins Mass Spectrometry, and Alanine Shave Mutagenesis.

Epitope mapping the specific residues of an antibody/antigen interaction can be used to support mechanistic interpretation, antibody optimization, and epitope novelty assessment. Thus, there is a strong need for mapping methods, particularly integrative ones. Here, we report the identification of an energetic epitope by determining the interfacial hot-spot that dominates the binding affinity for an anti-interleukin-23 (anti-IL-23) antibody by using the complementary approaches of hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS), fast photochemical oxidation of proteins (FPOP), alanine shave mutagenesis, and binding analytics. Five peptide regions on IL-23 with reduced backbone amide solvent accessibility upon antibody binding were identified by HDX-MS, and five different peptides over the same three regions were identified by FPOP. In addition, FPOP analysis at the residue level reveals potentially key interacting residues. Mutants with 3-5 residues changed to alanine have no measurable differences from wild-type IL-23 except for binding of and signaling blockade by the 7B7 anti-IL-23 antibody. The M5 IL-23 mutant differs from wild-type by five alanine substitutions and represents the dominant energetic epitope of 7B7. M5 shows a dramatic decrease in binding to BMS-986010 (which contains the 7B7 Fab, where Fab is fragment antigen-binding region of an antibody), yet it maintains functional activity, binding to p40 and p19 specific reagents, and maintains biophysical properties similar to wild-type IL-23 (monomeric state, thermal stability, and secondary structural features).

Screening and hit evaluation of a chemical library against blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum.

BackgroundIn view of the need to continuously feed the pipeline with new anti-malarial agents adapted to differentiated and more stringent target product profiles (e.g., new modes of action, transmission-blocking activity or long-duration chemo-protection), a chemical library consisting of more than 250,000 compounds has been evaluated in a blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum growth inhibition assay and further assessed for chemical diversity and novelty.MethodsThe selection cascade used for the triaging of hits from the chemical library started with a robust three-step in vitro assay followed by an in silico analysis of the resulting confirmed hits. Upon reaching the predefined requirements for selectivity and potency, the set of hits was subjected to computational analysis to assess chemical properties and diversity. Furthermore, known marketed anti-malarial drugs were co-clustered acting as ‘signposts’ in the chemical space defined by the hits. Then, in cerebro evaluation of the chemical structures was performed to identify scaffolds that currently are or have been the focus of anti-malarial medicinal chemistry programmes. Next, prioritization according to relaxed physicochemical parameters took place, along with the search for structural analogues. Ultimately, synthesis of novel chemotypes with desired properties was performed and the resulting compounds were subsequently retested in a P. falciparum growth inhibition assay.ResultsThis screening campaign led to a 1.25% primary hit rate, which decreased to 0.77% upon confirmatory repeat screening. With the predefined potency (EC50 < 1 μM) and selectivity (SI > 10) criteria, 178 compounds progressed to the next steps where chemical diversity, physicochemical properties and novelty assessment were taken into account. This resulted in the selection of 15 distinct chemical series.ConclusionA selection cascade was applied to prioritize hits resulting from the screening of a medium-sized chemical library against blood-stage P. falciparum. Emphasis was placed on chemical novelty whereby computational clustering, data mining of known anti-malarial chemotypes and the application of relaxed physicochemical filters, were key to the process. This led to the selection of 15 chemical series from which ten confirmed their activity when newly synthesized sample were tested.

Evidence mining and novelty assessment of protein–protein interactions with the ConsensusPathDB plugin for Cytoscape

Summary: Protein–protein interaction detection methods are applied on a daily basis by molecular biologists worldwide. After generating a set of potential interactions, biologists face the problem of highlighting the ones that are novel and collecting evidence with respect to literature and annotation. This task can be as tedious as searching for every predicted interaction in several interaction data repositories, or manually screening the scientific literature. To facilitate the task of evidence mining and novelty assessment of protein–protein interactions, we have developed a Cytoscape plugin that automatically mines publication references, database references, interaction detection method descriptions and pathway annotation for a user-supplied network of interactions. The basis for the annotation is ConsensusPathDB—a meta-database that integrates numerous protein–protein, signaling, metabolic and gene regulatory interaction repositories for currently three species: Homo sapiens, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Mus musculus.Availability: The ConsensusPathDB plugin for Cytoscape (version 2.7.0 or later) can be installed within Cytoscape on a major operating system (Windows, Mac OS, Unix/Linux) with Sun Java 1.5 or later installed through Cytoscape's Plugin manager (category ‘Network and Attribute I/O’). The plugin is freely available for download on the ConsensusPathDB web site (http://cpdb.molgen.mpg.de).Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.Contact: kamburov@molgen.mpg.de

Distinct patterns of Fos immunoreactivity in striatum and hippocampus induced by different kinds of novelty in mice

In this study the immediate-early gene Fos was used to investigate the response to different novel stimuli in a wide array of brain regions including the hippocampus, the rhinal cortex, the frontal cortex and different components of the striatal complex. Independent groups of CD-1 mice were exposed to three different novelty conditions: (1) novel environment (empty open field); (2) complex novel environment (i.e. open field containing objects); and (3) identity-based detection of novel objects. We observed that a complex novel environment and a knowledge-based novelty modulated Fos levels in both the dorsal and the ventral components of the striatum, while Fos immunoreactivity in the medial temporal lobe was only increased after exposure to novel environments, regardless of their complexity. Finally, we observed a strong increase of Fos levels in the prefrontal cortex in all the three novel conditions examined, indicating a major involvement of this structure in novelty assessment. Overall the present study demonstrates that distinct brain regions are recruited in different kinds of novelty and emphasizes the role of the striatal complex in processing complex novel information.

The impact of change in stimulus format on the electrophysiological indices of recognition

The present study investigated the impact of changes in stimulus format between study and test on the event-related potential (ERP) correlates of recognition. To this end subjects studied the names and pictures of common objects. At retrieval, subjects were presented with old items for which the presentational format had changed (from picture to name or vice versa), old items that were shown in the same format as at study, and new items. ERPs revealed three temporally, spatially and functionally dissociable memory-related effects: an early bilateral frontal effect, which was sensitive to the perceptual similarity between study and test stimulus; a left temporo-parietal effect, which was sensitive to the type of stimulus that was encoded; and a late frontal effect, which was largest over right electrode sites and appeared to be sensitive to the type of test stimulus. The results provide further evidence for a functional dissociation between the early bilateral frontal and the later temporo-parietal old/new effect, suggesting an interpretation in terms of processes contributing to a perceptually-driven familiarity or novelty assessment and recollection, respectively.

On the relation between conceptual priming, neural priming, and novelty assessment.

A consistently reported finding in functional neuroimaging studies which compare processing of new information to processing of old information is a reduction in blood flow, and hence neural activity, associated with the old condition. This deactivation has been labeled neural priming. Some investigators have hypothesized that neural priming is the physiological mechanism underlying conceptual priming--a facilitation in the semantic processing of repeated information. Others, however, have hypothesized that neural priming reflects novelty assessment--a mechanism which minimizes the probability that redundant information will be stored in long-term memory. In this paper, the conceptual priming and novelty assessment hypotheses are compared and contrasted in order to ask, and tentatively answer, the question: Are conceptual priming and novelty assessment cognitively and neurophysiologically distinct? Based on a review of the literature, it is suggested that whereas novelty assessment and conceptual priming are distinct cognitive entities, they cannot be presently separated neurophysiologically. That is, some novelty assessment deactivations may in fact reflect priming, and some priming deactivations may in fact reflect novelty assessment.

Functions of Parahippocampal Regions and Frontal Lobes in Novelty and Familiarity Assessment for Auditorily Presented Words

Functions of Parahippocampal Regions and Frontal Lobes in Novelty and Familiarity Assessment for Auditorily Presented Words