Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Media Quality Assessment'

Detta examensarbete gjordes i samarbete med Husfoto AB där syftet var att undersöka potentialen i att använda maskininlärniningsalgoritmer för att utföra automatiska klassificeringar mellan godkända och icke-godkända bilder enligt en subjektivt framställd kvalitetsstandard. Både metoder som använder maskininlärning, samt mer traditionella bildanalysmetoder användes, testades och jämfördes inom kvalitetsmåtten precision, känslighet, träffsäkerhet och balanserad träffsäkerhet. Maskininlärningsmetoder som användes var en linjär och en icke-linjär variant av Support Vector Machine (SVM), samt XGboost. De manuella metoderna var en variant av White Patch, samt två egna metoder framtagna för projektet. Bildfelen som undersöktes var vitbalans och färgen på himmel för exteriörbilder, och datan samlades in och annoterades parallellt med arbetet. Trots att mängden data var begränsad så erhölls bättre resultat än förväntat, vilket ger en indikation på att maskininlärning kan användas för klassificeringar med subjektiva bedömningar som referensmått med gott resultat. Resultaten visar att kvalitetsmåtten för flera metoder presterar relativt likvärdigt i många fall med vissa avvikande skillnader. Genom att använda den subjektiva bedömningen av Husfoto för att skapa ett objektivt mått med metoderna som används så visar resultatet att metoderna för vissa fel kommer upp i över 80% träffsäkerhet.

Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska högskolan, Linköpings universitet

Information communication technologies (ICT) in education is an expanding field, and within this field there is a need for development of effective systems for faculty and learners to communicate feedback and assess performance. The increasing migration of many academic disciplines and courses to an online format has prompted an increased need for the development of evidence-based tools and techniques that can be made available to educational institutions in order to connect and communicate with the learner. Many faculty and students have been faced with a less than optimal transition to the online environments and for these faculty and students, educational performance can be hindered. Guided by a developmental research methodology (DRM), the researcher examined the need for a novel communication and assessment system, the elements required for such a system to succeed, the building of such a system, and finally the testing of the initial effectiveness of the system. The developed system, known as an Online Assessment System (OAS) or Gradeswift (prototype name), incorporated criterion based assessment utility with multi-modal (text, voice, and video) functionality to create an asynchronous means for communicating effectively through online information storage and delivery. It was shown that the OAS had a significant impact on the educational landscape by providing better communication and performance assessment. Additionally, the OAS had been designed to increase the efficiency of the process of assessment, thus assisting faculty with workload and time required to assess student assignments. Last, students have the added benefit of receiving personalized feedback from instructors, enhancing the experience and perceived usefulness of online assessment.

Introduction: Light microscopy has remained the primary tool for the assessment of embryo quality and the selection of embryos for transfer in clinical IVF practice. Recent studies have suggested that metabolomic profiling of embryo culture media can distinguish human embryos with better implantation potential. We therefore undertook the following study to further assess the usefulness of metabolomic profiling “spent” embryo culture medium using Raman spectroscopy. Methods: Patients undergoing IVF+/-ICSI treatment from the UBC Centre for Reproductive Health were recruited for study. Demographic and clinical information was collected. As part of routine clinical procedures, embryos were individually cultured in G1 media from Day 1-3 and in G2 media from Day 4-6. G1 and G2 culture medium (vitrolife, Englewood, CO) introduced specifically for cleavage embryo and blastocyst culture respectively. Embryo-free G1 and G2 droplets were placed alongside the embryo-containing ones as controls. For the study, fresh droplets of spent and control culture media were individually collected on Day 3 and 6 and prepared for assessment by Raman spectroscopy. The assessment score under light microscopy of the corresponding embryo and its fate were recorded for comparison and correlation. To validate the detection limits of Raman spectroscopy a wide range of glucose and glycine concentrations between 0 and 500 mM in distilled water were analyzed. Results: A total of 300 embryos/spent media droplets from 54 patients aged 27-43 years (mean age ± SD: 36.33 ± 3.26) were evaluated. Of 111 embryos transferred, 19 implanted and led to a pregnancy: 7 (12.96%) single and 6 (11.1%) twin pregnancies. Irrespective of pregnancy, there were no systematic differences between the Raman spectra generated from spent media of Day 3 and Day 6 embryos, or between spent media and control media. Conclusions: In contrast to published reports, our study does not show that metabolomic profiling of spent embryo culture media by Raman spectroscopy can differentiate embryos with better implantation potential or add value to light microscopic assessment as in clinical practice.

Ce travail vise à mieux évaluer la qualité perceptuelle des images contenant des distorsions structurelles et géométriques notamment dans le contexte de médias immersifs. Nous proposons et explorons un cadre algorithmique hiérarchique de la perception visuelle. Inspiré par le système visuel humain, nous investiguons plusieurs niveaux de représentations des images : bas niveau (caractéristiques élémentaires comme les segments), niveau intermédiaire (motif complexe, encodage de contours), haut niveau (abstraction et reconnaissance des données visuelles). La première partie du manuscrit traite des représentations bas niveau pour la structure et texture. U n modèle basé filtre bilatéral est d’abord introduit pour qualifier les rôles respectifs de l’information texturale et structurelle dans diverses tâches d’évaluation (utilité, qualité. . . ). Une mesure de qualité d’image/vidéo est proposée pour quantifier les déformations de structure spatiales et temporelles perçues en utilisant une métrique dite élastique. La seconde partie du mémoire explore les représentations de niveaux intermédiaires. Un modèle basé « schetch token » et un autre basé sur codage d’un arbre de contexte sont présentés pour évaluer la qualité perçue. La troisième partie traite des représentations haut niveau. Deux approches d’apprentissage machine sont proposées pour apprendre ces représentations : une basée sur un technique de convolutional sparse coding, l’autre sur des réseaux profonds de type generative adversarial network. Au long du manuscrit, plusieurs expériences sont menées sur différentes bases de données pour plusieurs applications (FTV, visualisation multi-vues, images panoramiques 360. . . ) ainsi que des études utilisateurs
This work aims to better evaluate the perceptual quality of image/video that contains structural and geometric related distortions in the context of immersive multimedia. We propose and explore a hierarchical framework of visual perception for image/video. Inspired by representation mechanism of the visual system, low-level (elementary visual features, e.g. edges), mid-level (intermediate visual patterns, e.g. codebook of edges), and higher-level (abstraction of visual input, e.g. category of distorted edges) image/video representations are investigated for quality assessment. The first part of this thesis addresses the low-level structure and texture related representations. A bilateral filter-based model is first introduced to qualify the respective role of structure and texture information in various assessment tasks (utility, quality . . . ). An image quality/video quality measure is proposed to quantify structure deformation spatially and temporally using new elastic metric. The second part explores mid-level structure related representations. A sketch-token based model and a context tree based model are presented in this part for the image and video quality evaluation. The third part explores higher-level structure related representations. Two machine learning approaches are proposed to learn higher-level representation: a convolutional sparse coding based and a generative adversarial network. Along the thesis, experiments an user studies have been conducted on different databases for different applications where special structure related distortions are observed (FTV, multi-view rendering, omni directional imaging . . . )

La création des vidéos panoramiques de haute qualité pour des contenus immersifs en VR est généralement faite à l'aide d'un appareil doté de plusieurs caméras couvrant une scène cible. Malheureusement, cette configuration introduit à la fois des artefacts spatiaux et temporels dus à la différence entre les centres optiques et à la synchronisation imparfaite. Les mesures de qualité d'image traditionnelles ne peuvent pas être utilisées pour évaluer la qualité de ces vidéos, en raison de leur incapacité à capturer des distorsions géométriques. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons des méthodes pour l'évaluation objective des vidéos panoramiques basées sur le flux optique et la saillance visuelle. Nous validons cette métrique avec une étude centrée sur l'homme qui combine l'annotation d'erreurs percues et l'eye-tracking.Un défi important pour mesurer la qualité des vidéos panoramiques est le manque d'une vérité-terrain. Nous avons étudié l'utilisation des vidéos originales comme référence pour le panorama de sortie. Nous notons que cette approche n'est pas directement applicable, car chaque pixel du panorama final peut avoir une à $N$ sources correspondant à $N$ vidéos d'entrée avec des régions se chevauchant. Nous montrons que ce problème peut être résolu en calculant l'écart type des déplacements de tous les pixels sources à partir du déplacement du panorama en tant que mesure de la distorsion. Cela permet de comparer la différence de mouvement entre deux images données dans les vidéos originales et le mouvement dans le panorama final. Les cartes de saillance basées sur la perception humaine sont utilisées pour pondérer la carte de distorsion pour un filtrage plus précis.Cette méthode a été validée par une étude centrée sur l'homme utilisant une expérience empirique. L'expérience visait à déterminer si les humains et la métrique d'évaluation détectaient et mesuraient les mêmes erreurs, et à explorer quelles erreurs sont les plus importantes pour les humains lorsqu'ils regardent une vidéo panoramique.Les méthodes décrites ont été testées et validées et fournissent des résultats intéressants en ce qui concerne la perception humaine pour les mesures de qualité. Ils ouvrent également la voie à de nouvelles méthodes d'optimisation de l'assemblage vidéo, guidées par ces mesures de qualité
High quality panoramic videos for immersive VR content are commonly created using a rig with multiple cameras covering a target scene. Unfortunately, this setup introduces both spatial and temporal artifacts due to the difference in optical centers as well as the imperfect synchronization. Traditional image quality metrics cannot be used to assess the quality of such videos, due to their inability to capture geometric distortions. In this thesis, we propose methods for the objective assessment of panoramic videos based on optical flow and visual salience. We validate this metric with a human-centered study that combines human error annotation and eye-tracking.An important challenge in measuring quality for panoramic videos is the lack of ground truth. We have investigated the use of the original videos as a reference for the output panorama. We note that this approach is not directly applicable, because each pixel in the final panorama can have one to N sources corresponding to N input videos with overlapping regions. We show that this problem can be solved by calculating the standard deviation of displacements of all source pixels from the displacement of the panorama as a measure of distortion. This makes it possible to compare the difference in motion between two given frames in the original videos and motion in the final panorama. Salience maps based on human perception are used to weight the distortion map for more accurate filtering.This method was validated with a human-centered study using an empirical experiment. The experiment was designed to investigate whether humans and the evaluation metric detect and measure the same errors, and to explore which errors are more salient to humans when watching a panoramic video.The methods described have been tested and validated and they provide interesting findings regarding human-based perception for quality metrics. They also open the way to new methods for optimizing video stitching guided by those quality metrics

This diploma thesis deals with company performance assessment of MEDIN, a.s. Choosen company is analyzed according to multi-criterial model START PLUS. The final score of the company is done by this model, there are indentified company’s strenghts, areas for improvements and in conclusion of this work, there are suggested measures, which should lead to the company’s higher performance.

GPS technology has been embedded into portable, low-cost electronic devices nowadays to track the movements of mobile objects. This implication has greatly impacted the transportation field by creating a novel and rich source of traffic data on the road network. Although the promise offered by GPS devices to overcome problems like underreporting, respondent fatigue, inaccuracies and other human errors in data collection is significant; the technology is still relatively new that it raises many issues for potential users. These issues tend to revolve around the following areas: reliability, data processing and the related application. This thesis aims to study the GPS tracking form the methodological, technical and practical aspects. It first evaluates the reliability of GPS based traffic data based on data from an experiment containing three different traffic modes (car, bike and bus) traveling along the road network. It then outline the general procedure for processing GPS tracking data and discuss related issues that are uncovered by using real-world GPS tracking data of 316 cars. Thirdly, it investigates the influence of road network density in finding optimal location for enhancing travel efficiency and decreasing travel cost. The results show that the geographical positioning is reliable. Velocity is slightly underestimated, whereas altitude measurements are unreliable.Post processing techniques with auxiliary information is found necessary and important when solving the inaccuracy of GPS data. The densities of the road network influence the finding of optimal locations. The influence will stabilize at a certain level and do not deteriorate when the node density is higher.

Como pesquisadora do Departamento de Planejamento do Instituto de Medicina Social da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, tive acesso a bibliografia acerca da avaliação da qualidade dos serviços de saúde pela ótica do usuário. Estes estudos, paradigmáticos na área, são (em sua grande maioria) pautados por uma abordagem funcionalista que nos deixam entreabertas questões conceituais que priorizamos. Como incorporar instrumentais elaborados em e para realidades distintas da brasileira sem prévia redefinição teórica, portanto política? Neste estudo, o objeto privilegiado de nossas reflexões é a obra de Avédis Donabedian, autor que ha mais de vinte anos estuda e pesquisa Avaliação da Qualidade dos Serviços de Saúde. Utilizando a metodologia da análise de discurso abordamos, no capitulo II, as principais idéias com as quais o autor sistematiza seu Modelo Normativo, priorizando o entendimento da satisfação do paciente enquanto uma das medidas da avaliação da qualidade da atenção prestada.
As a researcher in the Department of Planning of the Institute of Social Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, had access to literature on the assessment of quality of health services from the perspective of the user. These studies, paradigmatic in the area are (mostly) guided by a functionalist approach that let us ajar conceptual issues we prioritize. How to incorporate in instrumental elaborate and distinct realities of Brazil without prior theoretical reset, so political? In this study, the privileged object of our reflections is the work of Avedis Donabedian, author ha over twenty years studying and researching Quality Assessment Health Services Using the methodology of discourse analysis approach, in Chapter II, the main ideas with which the author systematizes its Normative Model, emphasizing the understanding of patient satisfaction as one of the measures of assessing the quality of care provided.

An optimal strategy for monitoring water quality should be based on a combination of different technologies depending on the particularities of the system being observed. The final solution will be a combination of laboratory techniques, on-line instruments and statistical methods. In this case, the investigation was based on the Llobregat River basin in order to monitor natural and drinking waters after treatment in the Sant Joan Despi Water Treatment Plant (Barcelona). The thesis includes an optimization method for laboratory analysis of pharmacueticals in surface waters. 23 of the 28 compounds tested were detected. The highest concentrations were obtained for ß-blockers metoprolol and sotalol; the antibiotic ofloxacin; and lipid regulator gemfibrozil. Within the group of estrogens, estrone and estrone-3-sulfate were identified. The latter showed concentrations in some points high enough to induce estrogenic effects on aquatic organisms. A series of indexes have been developed for the assessment of the risks posed by certain substances found in the Llobregat River to the ecosystems. The methodology is based on comparison of average concentrations with the higher concentrations that have been proved to show no effect on the environment. According to the results, the studied metals (barium, copper, nickel and zinc) had higher rates than 1 for aquatic organisms. For the organic compounds, the most significant indexes are referred to the pesticides terbuthylazine, diazinon and MCPA; and the antibiotics ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin. When the relationship is established to the legal threshold, chlorpyrifos and lindane showed indexes above 1 over some months. The work also includes the development of indexes for measuring the potential danger of these substances to human health. The methodology considers the systemic and carcinogenic effects caused by the ingestion of water based on data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Information System Risk Assessment (RAIS). Over 5 years, systemic RAIS index drops from 0.64 to 0.42 for surface water and from 0.61 to 0.31 for potable water; the carcinogenic index is insignificant for the water inlet and varies from 4.2x10-05 to 7.4x10-06 for drinking water; WHO systemic index ranges from 0.41 to 0.16 for surface water and from 0.61 to 0.31 for potable water. All indices are below the thresholds, except for the carcinogenic risk in treated water in 2008 and 2009, where the rate is slightly above the limit. One of the technologies being explored to provide useful information for operators of water is UV-Visible spectrophotometry. A probe based on this technology along with statistical methods have been used to obtain a multivariate model that will predict the origins of water in the drinking water network of Barcelona. The analysis of the combination of the spectral fingerprints with conductivity, boron and fluoride was performed to improve predictability. The information that reports on the physical and chemical parameters in the water can be combined with toxicological information. An automatic biosensor was tested to measure its response to a series of priority pollutants. EC50 values (effective concentration that causes a 50% decrease in the activity; in mg L-1) were calculated for nonylphenol (0.03 and 0.06 for 15 and 30 min), triclosan (0.13 and 0.13), terbuthylazine (2.88 and 2.74), dimethoate (6.80 and 6.20), diclofenac (10.26 and 9.82), DBSS (50 and 39), diazinon (193 for 15 min), propanil (1594 for 15 min) and MCPA (2.0 for 15 min). For heavy metals, results were obtained with copper (II) (10.61 and 4.68), nickel (II) (317 and 222), chromium (III) (190 and 123) and iron (III) (52 for 15 min).
Una estrategia óptima para monitorizar la calidad del agua se debe basar en una combinación de diferentes tecnologías en función de las particularidades del sistema a supervisar. La solución final será una combinación de técnicas de laboratorio, equipos en continuo, y métodos estadísticos. En este caso, la investigación se ha basado en el río Llobregat, para monitorizar las aguas naturales o potables después de su paso por la potabilizadora de Sant Joan Despí (Barcelona). La tesis incluye una optimización del método para el análisis en laboratorio de fármacos en aguas superficiales. Se detectaron 23 de los 28 compuestos analizados. Las concentraciones más altas se obtuvieron para los ß-bloqueantes metoprolol y sotalol; el antibiótico ofloxacina; y el regulador lipídico gemfibrozilo. Dentro del grupo de los estrógenos, se identificaron estrona y estrona-3-sulfato . Esta última mostró concentraciones en algunos puntos suficientes para inducir efectos estrogénicos en los organismos acuáticos. Para la evaluación del riesgo para los ecosistemas de las sustancias que se encuentran en el río Llobregat, se han desarrollado una serie de índices. La metodología se basa en la comparación de las concentraciones medias con las concentraciones más altas que no tienen efecto en el medio ambiente. Según los resultados, los metales estudiados (bario, cobre, níquel y zinc) dieron índices superiores a 1 para los organismos acuáticos. En cuanto a los compuestos orgánicos, los índices más significativos son los referidos a los pesticidas terbutilazina, diazinón y MCPA; y a los antibióticos claritromicina y ciprofloxacina. Cuando la relación se establece con el umbral legal, clorpirifos y lindano mostraron índices superiores a 1 en algunos meses. Asimismo, se han desarrollado índices para medir el peligro potencial de estas sustancias en la salud humana. La metodología considera los efectos sistémicos y cancerígenos causados por la ingestión oral de agua basados en los datos de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) y el Sistema de Información de Evaluación de Riesgos (RAIS). En 5 años, el índice sistémico RAIS desciende de 0,64 a 0,42 para aguas superficiales y de 0,61 a 0,31 para agua potable; el índice cancerígeno es insignificante para el agua de entrada y varía de 4.2x10-05 a 7.4x10-06 para agua potable; el índice sistémico OMS va de 0,41 a 0,16 para aguas superficiales y de 0,61 a 0,31 para agua potable. Todos los índices se encuentran por debajo de los umbrales, a excepción del riesgo cancerígeno en el agua tratada durante 2008 y 2009, donde el índice está ligeramente por encima del umbral. Una de las tecnologías que se explora para obtener información útil para los operadores de agua es la espectrofotometría Ultravioleta-Visible. En la red de agua potable de Barcelona, se utilizó una sonda basada en esta tecnología junto a métodos estadísticos, para obtener un modelo multivariante que sirva para predecir los orígenes del agua. Con el fin de mejorar la capacidad de predicción, se realizó el análisis de la combinación de las huellas espectrales con los parámetros: conductividad, flúor y boro. La información que refleja los parámetros físicos y químicos en el agua puede ser combinada con información toxicológica. Un biosensor automático ha sido probado para medir su respuesta a una serie de contaminantes prioritarios. Se calcularon los valores de EC50 (concentración efectiva que causa una disminución del 50% de la actividad en mg L-1) para nonilfenol (0,03 y 0,06 para 15 y 30 min), triclosán (0,13 y 0,13), terbutilazina (2,88 y 2,74), dimetoato (6,80 y 6,20), diclofenaco (10,26 y 9,82), DBSS (50 y 39), diazinon (193 para 15 min), propanil (1594 para 15 min) y MCPA (2,0 para 15 min). Para los metales pesados, los resultados se obtuvieron con cobre (II) (10,61 y 4,68), níquel (II) (317 y 222), cromo (III) (190 y 123) y hierro (III) (52 para 15 min).

The research domain on the Quality of Experience (QoE) of 2D video streaming has been well established. However, a new video format is emerging and gaining popularity and availability: VR 360-degree video. The processing and transmission of 360-degree videos brings along new challenges such as large bandwidth requirements and the occurrence of different distortions. The viewing experience is also substantially different from 2D video, it offers more interactive freedom on the viewing angle but can also be more demanding and cause cybersickness. Further research on the QoE of 360-videos specifically is thus required.The first goal of this thesis is to complement earlier research by (Tran, Ngoc, Pham, Jung, and Thank, 2017) testing the effects of quality degradation, freezing, and content on the QoE of 360-videos. The second goal is to test the contribution of visual attention as influence factor in the QoE assessment. Data will be gathered through subjective tests where participants watch degraded versions of 360-videos through an HMD with integrated eye-tracking sensors. After each video they will answer questions regarding their quality perception, experience, perceptual load, and cybersickness.Results of the first part show overall rather low QoE ratings and it decreases even more as quality is degraded and freezing events are added. Cyber sickness was found not to be an issue. The effects of the manipulation on visual attention were minimal. Attention was mainly directed by content, but also by surprising elements. The addition of eye-tracking metrics did not further explain individual differences in subjective ratings. Nevertheless it was found that looking at moving objects increased the negative effect of freezing events and made participants less sensitive for quality distortions. The results of this thesis alone are not enough to successfully regard visual attention as an influence factor in 360-video.

The Internet has been serving as an effective marketing tool in tourism. It provides both the business and the customers with a valuable tool for information sharing, communication, and online purchasing. Photos posted along traveling are fast and up to date, and as they are available everywhere, and they have become the word of mouth of the digital age. Research accomplished throughout the last couple of decades has demonstrated that the photo is an essential concept for understanding the process of selection of a destination by tourists. They are easily recognised and remembered by customer than words. Photographs were also found to attract attention from a customer more than textual content when visiting web sites of online shops and they evoke feeling and generate desire for the associated products or places. However, there have been very limited attempt to assess visual content and visual quality of online photos. That is probably due to the limited background in photography among tourism researchers, and the inefficiency of manual assessment approach for large scale dataset such as the case of online hotel photos shared by travellers. As a result, prior works were unable to provide comprehensive understanding about traveler's perception and interests toward hotels, especially the differences between visual photo content and visual photo quality shared by different groups of travellers online. Aiming to overcome these barriers, the focus of this thesis is to introduce computational approaches to automatic photo content recognition and visual features extraction for automatic photo quality assessment from online hotel photos.

博士
國立陽明大學
藥理學研究所
104
The material basis of the pharmacological effects of Chinese Materia medica is poorly understood and an efficient quality control method available for Chinese Materia medica (CMM) is insufficient. These issues have led to various problems including inconsistent quality of product. Therefore, this study focuses on two aspects: firstly an investigation of the protective effects of a common component of pharmaceutical plants on metabolic diseases, and, secondly, the development of a new methodology for the quality control of CMM. Gallic acid (GA), a naturally abundant plant phenolic compound present in vegetables and fruits, has been shown to have potent anti-oxidative and anti-obesity activity. However, the effects of GA on metabolic disease are poorly understood. In the first part of this study, the beneficial effects of GA administration on a nutritional hepatosteatosis model and on a high‐fat diet‐fed, streptozotocin (HFD/STZ) treated diabetes model were investigated using a more “holistic view” approach, namely 1H NMR-based metabolomics. The aim was to confirm the efficacy of gallic acid in this context and to obtain information that might lead to a better understanding of the mode of action of gallic acid. Liver histopathology and serum biochemical examinations indicated that the daily administration of GA protects against hepatic steatosis, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and insulin resistance among the HFD-induced NAFLD mice and against nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and hyperglycemia among HFD/STZ-induced diabetes mice. The findings show that GA has beneficial effects with respect to both models and that this in part occurs through a reversal of HFD or HFD/STZ caused disturbances to a range of metabolic pathways, including lipid metabolism, glucose metabolism, and gut-microbiota-associated metabolism. The selected metabolites identified during this part of the study are also potentially useful as preventive action biomarkers and, furthermore, could also be used to help our understanding of the effect of GA on mice with metabolic disease. As more people worldwide are beginning to use traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the quality assurance issue regarding CMM has begun to raise international concerns. In the second part of this study, an exploratory study was conducted to try and develop a new approach to quality control assurance of CMM products. A number of appropriate methods have been developed over the years for the authentication of CMMs. Nevertheless, how to differentiate “good” from “bad” CMM remains a relatively undeveloped field. Unlike Western medicine, TCM has a totally different philosophical system. The traditional usage of CMM products makes it difficult to use Western medicine quality control methods in order to achieve CMM quality control. We used Astragalus radix as a model CMM and propose a new methodology for quality control of CMM products. Initially, a literature review approach was used to determine what criteria are needed to differentiate “good” from “bad” CMM. Additionally, different batches of samples were examined by a panel of experts and these individuals then scored the CMM samples independent of each other in terms of quality. On the basis of the expert scores, the various samples were classified into three classes. When the experts’ scores were examined they were found to be highly reproducible. Secondly, we used a metabolomics approach and biological response assays in order to evaluate the various different batches of Astragalus radix. Correlation analysis was then carried out and this showed it was possible to detect a number of chemical components changes that were reflected in the expert scores; however this was not true for the biological response results. These findings demonstrated that traditional usage is not equal to modern pharmacological effects and imply that when developing a useful platform for CMM evaluation there is a need to consider the traditional usage of CMM products. Another important topic that affects the quality control of CMM products is post-harvest processing, which involves drying; this is believed to have a significant effect on the effectiveness of Uraria crinita (UC) as a CMM. UC is traditionally and widely used for digestion regulation and deworming in Taiwan. However little is known about how post-harvest operations affect chemical composition/bioactivity of UC. We assessed three drying methods (oven-drying/air-drying/sun-drying), as well as oven drying temperature, by exploring the herb’s metabolic profile and biological activity profile. NMR spectra showed that extracts from UC contained various secondary metabolites namely triterpenoids, apigenin, glycosides and salicylic acid, as well as a range of primary metabolites. Multivariate analysis showed a clear separation of the samples into three groups that were consistent with their biological activity assays. These findings can ascribed to the presence of higher amounts of secondary metabolites in the oven-dried samples. The recommended oven-drying method gave good reproducibility when two batches were compared using the same PCA score plot as samples from other groups. Thus metabolomics is a useful tool when evaluating processing methods. An appropriate post-harvest drying method is a good approach to increase the bioactivity and quality of UC, both being required to fulfill Good Agricultural and Collection Practices. Taken as a whole, this study suggests that a metabolomics approach is a useful platform for the functional evaluation of natural products. The targets of GA treatment are lipid metabolism and ketogenesis, glucose metabolism and gut-microbiota metabolism. The current investigation provides further evidence supporting GA as a natural dietary compound that is able to ameliorate NAFLD and other metabolic disorders. The findings also suggest that QC is still a very important key issue that will affect CMM development in the future. An appropriate post-harvesting process and a good QC method are necessary if there are to be improvements in the quality of CMM.

The research project intends to develop a methodology for the conservation of the architectural heritage in the Maghreb countries, threatened by both natural (in particular seismic events) and anthropic attacks (loss of knowledge and uncritical affirmation of technological cultures incompatible with the previous ones). The field of application of the study was the Medina of Fes in Morocco, considered a representative example of the processes and dynamics in progress. The theme of preservation of cultural heritage is investigated following a multidisciplinary approach in which the purely technical aspects have been addressed by seeking comparison with socio-cultural aspects. In order to gain an in-depth knowledge of the systems and construction types characterizing the area under investigation, it was decided to study the living and construction culture in northern Morocco and specifically in the Fes region, paying attention, thanks to field investigations, on the main critical points of the buildings and on the techniques that can be associated with the “rule of the art”, including those devices that seem to play a role in contrasting the seismic action. In addition, for the same purpose, a survey campaign was carried out on traditional masonry as representative of recurrent types, trying to associate a structural assessment with it and verify its mechanical properties. In particular, the following were carried out: a) physical-mineralogical analyses on mortar and brick samples; b) mechanical characterization tests, i.e. compression tests, indirect traction tests and three-points-bending tests for on brick samples; c) an evaluation of the efficiency of the different wall types through the application of the Wall Quality Index (IQM) integrating it into the GNDT data form; d) tilt tests on wall models to assess the contribution to the resistance in the plane of the walls by the wooden “radications”, characteristic of the local construction technique. The results obtained allowed to support the subsequent analysis phase related to the evaluation of seismic vulnerability, a subject that has not yet been sufficiently studied in the Maghreb area. A methodology is then proposed for assessing the seismic vulnerability calibrated on the specific characteristics of historical settlements (essentially consisting of patio buildings in aggregate) that can be extended and replicated in other similar contexts. The proposed method is based on the II level GNDT Vulnerability Index and allowed the realization of vulnerability curves, fragility curves, damage scenarios for different seismic intensities and loss scenarios. The results of the vulnerability assessment are also presented through their spatial distribution in the form of maps created in the GIS environment. Finally, the proposed methodology for the assessment of seismic vulnerability was applied a second time to the case study imagining that it had performed a consolidation of the building through the implementation of interventions for coherent and mechanically compatible with the historicized building structural reinforcement.