Mining and exploiting domain-specific corpora in the PANACEA platform

The objective of the PANACEA ICT-2007.2.2 EU project is to build a platform that automates the stages involved in the acquisition,production, updating and maintenance of the large language resources required by, among others, MT systems. The development of a Corpus Acquisition Component (CAC) for extracting monolingual and bilingual data from the web is one of the most innovative building blocks of PANACEA. The CAC, which is the first stage in the PANACEA pipeline for building Language Resources, adopts an efficient and distributed methodology to crawl for web documents with rich textual content in specific languages and predefined domains. The CAC includes modules that can acquire parallel data from sites with in-domain content available in more than one language. In order to extrinsically evaluate the CAC methodology, we have conducted several experiments that used crawled parallel corpora for the identification and extraction of parallel sentences using sentence alignment. The corpora were then successfully used for domain adaptation of Machine Translation Systems.

Educational data mining and learning analytics : Clasificación de las matriculaciones de A.D.E. en la UOC

Trabajo de investigación que realiza un estudio clasificatorio de las asignaturas matriculadas en la carrera de Administración y Dirección de Empresas de la UOC en relación a su resultado. Se proponen diferentes métodos y modelos de comprensión del entorno en el que se realiza el estudio.

Data mining and mall users profile

Marketing scholars have suggested a need for more empirical research on consumer response to malls, in order to have a better understanding of the variables that explain the behavior of the consumers. The segmentation methodology CHAID (Chi-square automatic interaction detection) was used in order to identify the profiles of consumers with regard to their activities at malls, on the basis of socio-demographic variables and behavioral variables (how and with whom they go to the malls). A sample of 790 subjects answered an online questionnaire. The CHAID analysis of the results was used to identify the profiles of consumers with regard to their activities at malls. In the set of variables analyzed the transport used in order to go shopping and the frequency of visits to centers are the main predictors of behavior in malls. The results provide guidelines for the development of effective strategies to attract consumers to malls and retain them there.

Between specialization and globalization. The marketing of agrarian products and its environmental impacts seen from a historical perspective: the province of Barcelona in the mid-nineteenth century

Ecological economics has five good reasons to consider that economic globalisation, spurred by commercial and financial fluxes, to be one of the main driving forces responsible for causing environmental degradation to our planet. The first, is the energy consumption and the socio-environmental impacts which long-distance haulage entails. The second, is the ever-increasing flow of goods to far-away destinations which renders their recycling practically impossible. This is particularly significant, because it prevents the metabolic lock of the nutrients present in food and other agrarian products from taking place. The third, is that the high degree of specialization attained in agriculture, forestry, cattle, mining and industry in each region, generates deleterious effects not only on the eco-landscape structure of the uses of the soil, but on the capability to provide habitat and environmental functions to maintain biodiversity as well

The global uranium rush and its Africa frontier. Lessons from Namibia

Uranium mines are the - often forgotten - source of nuclear power. The promotion of nuclear energy as a clean alternative and the projected increase of electricity demand in countries such as China and India, have led to a global “uranium rush”, unseen since the peak of the Cold War. This article studies the formation of the expanding nuclear frontier looking at the interaction between the global uranium metabolism, industrial dynamics and local ecologies of resistance using Namibia as a case-study. Namibia, the world´s fourth largest producer of uranium, stands at the frontier of this rush with sixty-six recently granted prospecting licenses that could turn into mines, compared to only three currently operating mines. We focus on three generic attributes that help to explain the emergence and intensity of resistance by local communities to uranium mining: the ecology and geography of the resource; the degree and type of political and economic marginalization of the community; and crucially, the connection and integration of local concerns with broader social movements and political demands. We show with the use of empirical material how these factors play out differently in five Namibian communities that have been, or stand to be, affected by uranium mining, and explain how local ecologies of resistance shape the global uranium rush.

Plant uses in different bronze and iron age settlements from the Nuoro province (Sardinia). The results of phytolith analyses from several ceramic fragments and grinding stones.

Ceramic vessels and milling stones are important components of the archaeological record in several Nuraghi from the Pranemuru Plateau (Sardinia). To obtain information on the possible uses of the milling stones and the content vessels is of great interest to understand the economical activities carried out in these sites by these populations. One of the approaches to obtain information on the plant uses was the phytolith analyses of the sediment adhered both to the surface of the milling stones and to the surface of the vessel content. In total we analyzed eleven archaeological samples and two control samples collected from five different Nuraghi in the Pranemuru Plateau (Nuoro Province, Sardinia). The Nuraghi were located in an area of 10 km radius from nuraghe Arrubiu and were chronologically ascribed to the Bronze Age and one site -Pranu Illixi- to the Iron Age.

Porta Firmas

El present projecte de final de carrera ha sigut desenvolupat en el marc d'un conveni de col·laboració entre la UAB i l'empresa Unit4. Aquest projecte reflecteix les millores que s'han implementat en l'aplicació anomenada Porta Firmas, que és una aplicació web de gestió de signatura digital de documents electrònics de Unit4. Aquesta aplicació utilitza frameworks com ara Struts 2, Hibernate i Web Services per oferir serveis de signatura, validació i gestió de documents.

Escritorio de trabajo del médico

El proyecto se desarrolla en el marco de un convenio entre la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona y la empresa UNIT4 en las oficinas de UNIT4 Ibérica en Barberà del Vallès. Consiste en realizar y disponer de una nueva versión del escritorio, o estación, de trabajo del médico totalmente remodelada, más visual y energizante con la ayuda de las nuevas usabilidades de creación de escritorios de la empresa, mejorando sus fortalezas a la vez que reduciendo las debilidades y aportando nuevas perspectivas de usabilidad que permitirán potenciar la productividad de los usuarios en el empleo de la aplicación.

Editor de imágenes por capas y con anotaciones

El proyecto se desarrolla en el marco de un convenio de colaboración entre la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona y la empresa UNIT4 en las oficinas de UNIT4 Ibérica en Barberà del Vallès. El proyecto tiene por finalidad crear un control que permita la edición de imágenes mediante capas y anotaciones, que se añadirá al software de gestión empresarial que comercializa UNIT4. Este control está desarrollado en la plataforma Java.

Desarrollo del nuevo karat Starter Kit

El proyecto se desarrolla en el marco de un convenio entre la UAB y la empresa UNIT4 en las oficinas de UNIT4 Ibérica en Barberà del Vallès. El objetivo del proyecto es crear una nueva herramienta, denominada karat Starter Kit Reloaded, que sirva de autoformación y demostración de la plataforma de desarrollo propia utilizada en la empresa (karat) reforzando los puntos débiles de la anterior y manteniendo los puntos fuertes de los que ya disponía.

Solució global per la gestió de dades d'empleat mitjançant J2ME/J2EE.

Aquest treball final de carrera es basa en l'anàlisi, disseny i implementació d'una solució per comunicar un empleat i la seva empresa per tal de gestionar informació i dades de l'empleat com poden ser: la nòmina, el full d'hores, el full de despeses i la consulta i sol·licitud de vacances.

Análisis y diseño de una aplicación control de inventarios de una empresa lechera. "Holandesa"

El present treball consisteix en un sistema per a una empresa de producció i distribució de productes làctics basat en l'anàlisi i disseny amb les noves tecnologies. L'aplicació, que es dirà Control d'Inventaris, durà a terme la gestió del procés de revisió d'inventaris en magatzems registrant l'entrada de productes per a l'elaboració i la producció dels diferents productes. També realitzarà la gestió de reserves de comandes per a la seva cartera de clients.

El Forment a la Barcelona baixmedieval: preus, mesures i fiscalitat (1283-1345)

A través de l'anàlisi de dos sèries de diferents llibres de comptabilitat de Barcelona, els procedents de la gestió dels molins reals i els redactats per una institució eclesiàstica, la Pia Almoina, vam començar a estudiar el mercat del blat a Barcelona durant l'edat mitjana. Hem analitzat anteriorment el valor de les mesures a Barcelona i, per poder qualificar el preu real del pa, també hem estudiat els diferents processos industrials per fer pa de blat. Després, hem analitzat el conjunt d'impostos que pesaven sobre la comercialització de cereals. A través de l'estudi de l'evolució dels preus, hem tractat de fer una primera aproximació de la primera etapa de la crisi baixmedieval, concretament entre 1283 i 1345, tenint en compte els contrastos amb els treballs ja coneguts sobre la base de les fonts on la noció de quantitat no va ser considerada. Finalment, hem comparat els nostres resultats amb alguns treballs referents a la Corona d'Aragó i el món mediterrani, a fi d'obtenir una idea més precisa de la cronologia de les crisis de subsistència

A Factor analysis of hidrochemical composition of Llobregat river basin

Hydrogeological research usually includes some statistical studies devised to elucidate mean background state, characterise relationships among different hydrochemical parameters, and show the influence of human activities. These goals are achieved either by means of a statistical approach or by mixing modelsbetween end-members. Compositional data analysis has proved to be effective with the first approach, but there is no commonly accepted solution to the end-member problem in a compositional framework.We present here a possible solution based on factor analysis of compositions illustrated with a case study.We find two factors on the compositional bi-plot fitting two non-centered orthogonal axes to the most representative variables. Each one of these axes defines a subcomposition, grouping those variables thatlay nearest to it. With each subcomposition a log-contrast is computed and rewritten as an equilibrium equation. These two factors can be interpreted as the isometric log-ratio coordinates (ilr) of three hiddencomponents, that can be plotted in a ternary diagram. These hidden components might be interpreted as end-members.We have analysed 14 molarities in 31 sampling stations all along the Llobregat River and its tributaries, with a monthly measure during two years. We have obtained a bi-plot with a 57% of explained totalvariance, from which we have extracted two factors: factor G, reflecting geological background enhanced by potash mining; and factor A, essentially controlled by urban and/or farming wastewater. Graphicalrepresentation of these two factors allows us to identify three extreme samples, corresponding to pristine waters, potash mining influence and urban sewage influence. To confirm this, we have available analysisof diffused and widespread point sources identified in the area: springs, potash mining lixiviates, sewage, and fertilisers. Each one of these sources shows a clear link with one of the extreme samples, exceptfertilisers due to the heterogeneity of their composition.This approach is a useful tool to distinguish end-members, and characterise them, an issue generally difficult to solve. It is worth note that the end-member composition cannot be fully estimated but only characterised through log-ratio relationships among components. Moreover, the influence of each endmember in a given sample must be evaluated in relative terms of the other samples. These limitations areintrinsic to the relative nature of compositional data

Assistent de formularis Walnut

El projecte es desenvolupa en el marc d'un conveni entre la UAB i la empresa UNIT4 Business Software Ibérica a les oficines de Barberà del Vallès. L'objectiu del projecte consisteix en crear un assistent de formularis per a la plataforma de treball de l'aplicació de gestió de l'empresa UNIT4 que permeti tant a usuaris com a clients crear els seus propis formularis personalitzats complint sempre les directrius de disseny predefinides.