New markov chain based methods for single and cross-domain sentiment classification

Nowadays communication is switching from a centralized scenario, where communication media like newspapers, radio, TV programs produce information and people are just consumers, to a completely different decentralized scenario, where everyone is potentially an information producer through the use of social networks, blogs, forums that allow a real-time worldwide information exchange. These new instruments, as a result of their widespread diffusion, have started playing an important socio-economic role. They are the most used communication media and, as a consequence, they constitute the main source of information enterprises, political parties and other organizations can rely on. Analyzing data stored in servers all over the world is feasible by means of Text Mining techniques like Sentiment Analysis, which aims to extract opinions from huge amount of unstructured texts. This could lead to determine, for instance, the user satisfaction degree about products, services, politicians and so on. In this context, this dissertation presents new Document Sentiment Classification methods based on the mathematical theory of Markov Chains. All these approaches bank on a Markov Chain based model, which is language independent and whose killing features are simplicity and generality, which make it interesting with respect to previous sophisticated techniques. Every discussed technique has been tested in both Single-Domain and Cross-Domain Sentiment Classification areas, comparing performance with those of other two previous works. The performed analysis shows that some of the examined algorithms produce results comparable with the best methods in literature, with reference to both single-domain and cross-domain tasks, in $2$-classes (i.e. positive and negative) Document Sentiment Classification. However, there is still room for improvement, because this work also shows the way to walk in order to enhance performance, that is, a good novel feature selection process would be enough to outperform the state of the art. Furthermore, since some of the proposed approaches show promising results in $2$-classes Single-Domain Sentiment Classification, another future work will regard validating these results also in tasks with more than $2$ classes.

Aufbau hochfunktionaler Intralogistik-Knoten mittels kleinskaliger Module als Cognitive Conveyor

Kleinskalige, multifunktionale Module haben ein hohes Potential bei der wirtschaftlichen und flexiblen Gestaltung intralogistischer Systeme mit hoher Funktionalität. Durch dezentrale Steuerung und eigener Intelligenz der Module ist das System frei skalierbar und der Installationsaufwand wird minimiert. Mittels eines neuartigen Konzeptes der Datenkommunikation für Stetigförderer erfolgt der Informationsaustausch drahtlos mit Hilfe optoelektrischer Elemente. Die Kleinskaligkeit der Transportmodule gegenüber der Transporteinheit im Zusammenhang mit dem Steuerungskonzept erlaubt eine selektive Beschaltung der Module nach Bedarf und damit eine optimierte Energieausnutzung im Betrieb. Prototypen auf Basis von Schwenkrollen mit integrierter Antriebstechnik und Steuerung lassen das Potential des Prinzips erkennen. Das neu entwickelte Konzept der Schrägscheibe hilft bei der anspruchsvollen Integration der Antriebstechnik in das Modul durch das Prinzip der koaxialen Aktoren. Durch omnidirektionalen Funktionsumfang der Module entsteht im Zusammenschluss zu einer Modulmatrix ein hochflexibel einsetzbares Intralogistik-Modul. Die Vernetzung dieser hochfunktionalen Knoten durch einfache Fördertechnik bietet die Möglichkeit einfacher Planung flexibler Logistiksysteme.

E-Learning Systems, Environments and Approaches

The volume consists of twenty-five chapters selected from among peer-reviewed papers presented at the CELDA (Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age) 2013 Conference held in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, in October 2013 and also from world class scholars in e-learning systems, environments and approaches. The following sub-topics are included: Exploratory Learning Technologies (Part I), e-Learning social web design (Part II), Learner communities through e-Learning implementations (Part III), Collaborative and student-centered e-Learning design (Part IV). E-Learning has been, since its initial stages, a synonym for flexibility. While this dynamic nature has mainly been associated with time and space it is safe to argue that currently it embraces other aspects such as the learners’ profile, the scope of subjects that can be taught electronically and the technology it employs. New technologies also widen the range of activities and skills developed in e-Learning. Electronic learning environments have evolved past the exclusive delivery of knowledge. Technology has endowed e-Learning with the possibility of remotely fomenting problem solving skills, critical thinking and team work, by investing in information exchange, collaboration, personalisation and community building.

Understanding and Characterizing Shared Decision-Making and Behavioral Intent in Medical Uncertainty

Applying Theoretical Constructs to Address Medical Uncertainty Situations involving medical reasoning usually include some level of medical uncertainty. Despite the identification of shared decision-making (SDM) as an effective technique, it has been observed that the likelihood of physicians and patients engaging in shared decision making is lower in those situations where it is most needed; specifically in circumstances of medical uncertainty. Having identified shared decision making as an effective, yet often a neglected approach to resolving a lack of information exchange in situations involving medical uncertainty, the next step is to determine the way(s) in which SDM can be integrated and the supplemental processes that may facilitate its integration. SDM involves unique types of communication and relationships between patients and physicians. Therefore, it is necessary to further understand and incorporate human behavioral elements - in particular, behavioral intent - in order to successfully identify and realize the potential benefits of SDM. This paper discusses the background and potential interaction between the theories of shared decision-making, medical uncertainty, and behavioral intent. Identifying Shared Decision-Making Elements in Medical Encounters Dealing with Uncertainty A recent summary of the state of medical knowledge in the U.S. reported that nearly half (47%) of all treatments were of unknown effectiveness, and an additional 7% involved an uncertain tradeoff between benefits and harms. Shared decision-making (SDM) was identified as an effective technique for managing uncertainty when two or more parties were involved. In order to understand which of the elements of SDM are used most frequently and effectively, it is necessary to identify these key elements, and understand how these elements related to each other and the SDM process. The elements identified through the course of the present research were selected from basic principles of the SDM model and the “Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom” (DIKW) Hierarchy. The goal of this ethnographic research was to identify which common elements of shared decision-making patients are most often observed applying in the medical encounter. The results of the present study facilitated the understanding of which elements patients were more likely to exhibit during a primary care medical encounter, as well as determining variables of interest leading to more successful shared decision-making practices between patients and their physicians. Understanding Behavioral Intent to Participate in Shared Decision-Making in Medically Uncertain Situations Objective: This article describes the process undertaken to identify and validate behavioral and normative beliefs and behavioral intent of men between the ages of 45-70 with regard to participating in shared decision-making in medically uncertain situations. This article also discusses the preliminary results of the aforementioned processes and explores potential future uses of this information which may facilitate greater understanding, efficiency and effectiveness of doctor-patient consultations.Design: Qualitative Study using deductive content analysisSetting: Individual semi-structure patient interviews were conducted until data saturation was reached. Researchers read the transcripts and developed a list of codes.Subjects: 25 subjects drawn from the Philadelphia community.Measurements: Qualitative indicators were developed to measure respondents’ experiences and beliefs related to behavioral intent to participate in shared decision-making during medical uncertainty. Subjects were also asked to complete the Krantz Health Opinion Survey as a method of triangulation.Results: Several factors were repeatedly described by respondents as being essential to participate in shared decision-making in medical uncertainty. These factors included past experience with medical uncertainty, an individual’s personality, and the relationship between the patient and his physician.Conclusions: The findings of this study led to the development of a category framework that helped understand an individual’s needs and motivational factors in their intent to participate in shared decision-making. The three main categories include 1) an individual’s representation of medically uncertainty, 2) how the individual copes with medical uncertainty, and 3) the individual’s behavioral intent to seek information and participate in shared decision-making during times of medically uncertain situations.

Nacional/regional/transnacional : La diáspora catalana y el universo de la ayuda humanitaria desde la Guerra Civil española al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial

Este artículo se propone interrogar las relaciones entre comunidad diaspórica catalana del Cono Sur y prácticas regionales solidarias, enfatizando aquellos proyectos e iniciativas que se articularon a ambos lados de la cordillera es pos de la ayuda hacia los desplazados (primero los desplazados al interior de la península durante la Guerra Civil, luego los desplazados a Francia tras la "retirada" y por último los evacuados desde el país galo hacia América Latina). Asimismo, intenta pensar desde un conjunto de trayectorias individuales y grupales de destierro que tuvieron como destinos a Chile y la Argentina, en qué medida estos países de recepción operaron, para esos sujetos y también para las instituciones (oficiales o societales catalanas) generadoras del auxilio, como un espacio poroso de tránsitos, de relaciones fluidas, de intercambio de información y de proyectos comunes, cimentado en complejas redes familiares, político-partidarias, profesionales e ideológicas, transfronterizas y también transnacionales

Nacional/regional/transnacional : La diáspora catalana y el universo de la ayuda humanitaria desde la Guerra Civil española al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial

Este artículo se propone interrogar las relaciones entre comunidad diaspórica catalana del Cono Sur y prácticas regionales solidarias, enfatizando aquellos proyectos e iniciativas que se articularon a ambos lados de la cordillera es pos de la ayuda hacia los desplazados (primero los desplazados al interior de la península durante la Guerra Civil, luego los desplazados a Francia tras la "retirada" y por último los evacuados desde el país galo hacia América Latina). Asimismo, intenta pensar desde un conjunto de trayectorias individuales y grupales de destierro que tuvieron como destinos a Chile y la Argentina, en qué medida estos países de recepción operaron, para esos sujetos y también para las instituciones (oficiales o societales catalanas) generadoras del auxilio, como un espacio poroso de tránsitos, de relaciones fluidas, de intercambio de información y de proyectos comunes, cimentado en complejas redes familiares, político-partidarias, profesionales e ideológicas, transfronterizas y también transnacionales

Nacional/regional/transnacional : La diáspora catalana y el universo de la ayuda humanitaria desde la Guerra Civil española al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial

Este artículo se propone interrogar las relaciones entre comunidad diaspórica catalana del Cono Sur y prácticas regionales solidarias, enfatizando aquellos proyectos e iniciativas que se articularon a ambos lados de la cordillera es pos de la ayuda hacia los desplazados (primero los desplazados al interior de la península durante la Guerra Civil, luego los desplazados a Francia tras la "retirada" y por último los evacuados desde el país galo hacia América Latina). Asimismo, intenta pensar desde un conjunto de trayectorias individuales y grupales de destierro que tuvieron como destinos a Chile y la Argentina, en qué medida estos países de recepción operaron, para esos sujetos y también para las instituciones (oficiales o societales catalanas) generadoras del auxilio, como un espacio poroso de tránsitos, de relaciones fluidas, de intercambio de información y de proyectos comunes, cimentado en complejas redes familiares, político-partidarias, profesionales e ideológicas, transfronterizas y también transnacionales

Nacional/regional/transnacional : La diáspora catalana y el universo de la ayuda humanitaria desde la Guerra Civil española al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial

Este artículo se propone interrogar las relaciones entre comunidad diaspórica catalana del Cono Sur y prácticas regionales solidarias, enfatizando aquellos proyectos e iniciativas que se articularon a ambos lados de la cordillera es pos de la ayuda hacia los desplazados (primero los desplazados al interior de la península durante la Guerra Civil, luego los desplazados a Francia tras la "retirada" y por último los evacuados desde el país galo hacia América Latina). Asimismo, intenta pensar desde un conjunto de trayectorias individuales y grupales de destierro que tuvieron como destinos a Chile y la Argentina, en qué medida estos países de recepción operaron, para esos sujetos y también para las instituciones (oficiales o societales catalanas) generadoras del auxilio, como un espacio poroso de tránsitos, de relaciones fluidas, de intercambio de información y de proyectos comunes, cimentado en complejas redes familiares, político-partidarias, profesionales e ideológicas, transfronterizas y también transnacionales

Simulated agricultural subsistence, timing of transition, and percentage of immigrant farmers

Farming and herding were introduced to Europe from the Near East and Anatolia; there are, however, considerable arguments about the mechanisms of this transition. Were it the people who moved and either outplaced, or admixed with, the indigenous hunter-gatherer groups? Or was it material and information that moved---the Neolithic Package---consisting of domesticated plants and animals and the knowledge of their use? The latter process is commonly referred to as cultural diffusion and the former as demic diffusion. Despite continuous and partly combined efforts by archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, palaeontologists and geneticists, a final resolution of the debate has not yet been reached. In the present contribution we interpret results from the Global Land Use and technological Evolution Simulator (GLUES). GLUES is a mathematical model for regional sociocultural development, embedded in the geoenvironmental context, during the Holocene. We demonstrate that the model is able to realistically hindcast the expansion speed and the inhomogeneous space-time evolution of the transition to agropastoralism in western Eurasia. In contrast to models that do not resolve endogenous sociocultural dynamics, our model describes and explains how and why the Neolithic advanced in stages. We uncouple the mechanisms of migration and information exchange and also of migration and the spread of agropastoralism. We find that: (1) An indigenous form of agropastoralism could well have arisen in certain Mediterranean landscapes, but not in Northern and Central Europe, where it depended on imported technology and material. (2) Both demic diffusion by migration and cultural diffusion by trade may explain the western European transition equally well. (3) Migrating farmers apparently contribute less than local adopters to the establishment of agropastoralism. Our study thus underlines the importance of adoption of introduced technologies and economies by resident foragers.

Governance Structure Choices in Supply Chain Management Evidence from Spanish and Chinese Pork Chain Cases

The author participated in the 6 th EU Framework Project ―Q-pork Chains (FP6-036245-2)‖ from 2007 to 2009. With understanding of work reports from China and other countries, it is found that compared with other countries, China has great problems in pork quality and safety. By comparing the pork chain management between China and Spain, It is found that the difference in governance structure is one of the main differences in pork chain management between Spain and China. In China, spot-market relationship still dominates governance structure of pork chain, especially between the numerous house-hold pig holders and the great number of small slaughters. While in Spain, chain agents commonly apply cooperatives or integrations to cooperate. It also has been proven by recent studies, that in quality management at the chain level that supply chain integration has a direct effect on quality management practices (Han, 2010). Therefore, the author started to investigate the governance structure choices in supply chain management. And it has been set as the first research objective, which is to explain the governance structure choices process and the influencing factors in supply chain management, analyzing the pork chains cases in Spain and in China. During the further investigation, the author noticed the international trade of pork between Spain and China is not smooth since the signature of bi-lateral agreement on pork trade in 2007. Thus, another objective of the research is to find and solve the problems exist in the international pork chain between Spain and China. For the first objective, to explain the governance structure choices in supply chain management, the thesis conducts research in three main sections. 10 First of all, the thesis gives a literature overview in chapter two on Supply Chain Management (SCM), agri-food chain management and pork chain management. It concludes that SCM is a systems approach to view the supply chains as a whole, and to manage the total flow of goods inventory from the supplier to the ultimate customer. It includes the bi-directional flow of products (materials and services) and information, and the associated managerial and operational activities. And it also is a customer focus to create unique and individual source of customer value with an appropriate use of resources, leading to customer satisfaction and building competitive chain advantages. Agri-food chain management and pork chain management are applications of SCM in agri-food sector and pork sector respectively. Then, the research gives a comparative study in chapter three in the pork chain and pork chain management between Spain and China. Many differences are found, while the main difference is governance structure in pork chain management. Furthermore, the author gives an empirical study on governance structure choice in chapter five. It is concluded that governance structure of supply chain consists of a collection of rules/institutions/constraints structuring the transactions between the various stakeholders. Based on the overview on literatures closely related with governance structure, such as transaction cost economics, transaction value analysis and resource-based view theories, seven hypotheses are proposed, which are: Hypothesis 1: Transaction cost has positive relationship with governance structure choice Hypothesis 2: Uncertainty has positive relationship with transaction cost; higher uncertainty exerts high transaction cost Hypothesis 3: The relationship between asset specificity and transaction cost is positive Hypothesis 4: Collaboration advantages and governance structure choice have positive relationship11 Hypothesis 5: Willingness to collaborate has positive relationship with collaboration advantages Hypothesis 6: Capability to collaborate has positive relationship with collaboration advantages Hypothesis 7: Uncertainty has negative effect on collaboration advantages It is noted that as transaction cost value is negative, the transaction cost mentioned in the hypotheses is its absolute value. To test the seven hypotheses, Structural Equation Model (SEM) is applied and data collected from 350 pork slaughtering and processing companies in Jiangsu, Shandong and Henan Provinces in China is used. Based on the empirical SEM model and its results, the seven hypotheses are proved. The author generates several conclusions accordingly. It is found that the governance structure choice of the chain not only depends on transaction cost, it also depends on collaboration advantages. Exchange partners establish more stable and more intense relationship to reduce transaction cost and to maximize collaboration advantages. ―Collaboration advantages‖ in this thesis is defined as the joint value achieved through transaction (mutual activities) of agents in supply chains. This value forms as improvements, mainly in mutual logistics systems, cash response, information exchange, technological improvements and innovative improvements and quality management improvements, etc. Governance structure choice is jointly decided by transaction cost and collaboration advantages. Chain agents take different governance structures to coordinate in order to decrease their transaction cost and to increase their collaboration advantages. In China´s pork chain case, spot market relationship dominates the governance structure among the numerous backyard pig farmer and small family slaughterhouse 12 as they are connected by acquaintance relationship and the transaction cost in turn is low. Their relationship is reliable as they know each other in the neighborhood; as a result, spot market relationship is suitable for their exchange. However, the transaction between large-scale slaughtering and processing industries and small-scale pig producers is becoming difficult. The information hold back behavior and hold-up behavior of small-scale pig producers increase transaction cost between them and large-scale slaughtering and processing industries. Thus, through the more intense and stable relationship between processing industries and pig producers, processing industries reduce the transaction cost and improve the collaboration advantages with their chain partners, in which quality and safety collaboration advantages be increased, meaning that processing industries are able to provide consumers products with better quality and higher safety. It is also drawn that transaction cost is influenced mainly by uncertainty and asset specificity, which is in line with new institutional economics theories developed by Williamson O. E. In China´s pork chain case, behavioral uncertainty is created by the hold-up behaviors of great numbers of small pig producers, while big slaughtering and processing industries having strong asset specificity. On the other hand, ―collaboration advantages‖ is influenced by chain agents´ willingness to collaborate and chain agents´ capabilities to cooperate. With the fast growth of big scale slaughtering and processing industries, they are more willing to know and make effort to cooperate with their chain members, and they are more capable to create joint value together with other chain agents. Therefore, they are now the main chain agents who drive more intense and stable governance structure in China‘s pork chain. For the other objective, to find and solve the problems in the international pork chain between Spain and China, the research gives an analysis in chapter four on the 13 international pork chain. This study gives explanations why the international trade of pork between Spain and China is not sufficient from the chain perspective. It is found that the first obstacle is the high quality and safety requirement set by Chinese government. It makes the Spanish companies difficult to get authorities to export. Other aspects, such as Spanish pork is not competitive in price compared with other countries such as Denmark, United States, Canada, etc., Chinese consumers do not have sufficient information on Spanish pork products, are also important reasons that Spain does not export great quantity of pork products to China. It is concluded that China´s government has too much concern on the quality and safety requirements to Spanish pork products, which makes trade difficult to complete. The two countries need to establish a more stable and intense trade relationship. They also should make the information exchange sufficient and efficient and try to break trade barriers. Spanish companies should consider proper price strategies to win the Chinese pork market

The determinants of the quality of Sales-Marketing Interface in a Multinational Customer Brand Focused Company: The Latin American Branches

Customer evolution and changes in consumers, determine the fact that the quality of the interface between marketing and sales may represent a true competitive advantage for the firm. Building on multidimensional theoretical and empirical models developed in Europe and on social network analysis, the organizational interface between the marketing and sales departments of a multinational high-growth company with operations in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay is studied. Both, attitudinal and social network measures of information exchange are used to make operational the nature and quality of the interface and its impact on performance. Results show the existence of a positive relationship of formalization, joint planning, teamwork, trust and information transfer on interface quality, as well as a positive relationship between interface quality and business performance. We conclude that efficient design and organizational management of the exchange network are essential for the successful performance of consumer goods companies that seek to develop distinctive capabilities to adapt to markets that experience vertiginous changes

Arquitectura de información para medicion de rendimiento en entornos e-manufacturing

La implantación de las tecnologías Internet ha permitido la extensión del uso de estrategias e-manufacturing y el desarrollo de herramientas para la recopilación, transformación y sincronización de datos de fabricación vía web. En este ámbito, un área de potencial desarrollo es la extensión del virtual manufacturing a los procesos de Performance Management (PM), área crítica para la toma de decisiones y ejecución de acciones de mejora en fabricación. Este trabajo doctoral propone un Arquitectura de Información para el desarrollo de herramientas virtuales en el ámbito PM. Su aplicación permite asegurar la interoperabilidad necesaria en los procesos de tratamiento de información de toma de decisión. Está formado por tres sub-sistemas: un modelo conceptual, un modelo de objetos y un marco Web compuesto de una plataforma de información y una arquitectura de servicios Web (WS). El modelo conceptual y el modelo de objetos se basa en el desarrollo de toda la información que se necesita para definir y obtener los diferentes indicadores de medida que requieren los procesos PM. La plataforma de información hace uso de las tecnologías XML y B2MML para estructurar un nuevo conjunto de esquemas de mensajes de intercambio de medición de rendimiento (PMXML). Esta plataforma de información se complementa con una arquitectura de servicios web que hace uso de estos esquemas para integrar los procesos de codificación, decodificación, traducción y evaluación de los performance key indicators (KPI). Estos servicios realizan todas las transacciones que permiten transformar los datos origen en información inteligente usable en los procesos de toma de decisión. Un caso práctico de intercambio de datos en procesos de medición del área de mantenimiento de equipos es mostrado para verificar la utilidad de la arquitectura. ABSTRAC The implementation of Internet technologies has led to e-Manufacturing technologies becoming more widely used and to the development of tools for compiling, transforming and synchronizing manufacturing data through the Web. In this context, a potential area for development is the extension of virtual manufacturing to Performance Measurement (PM) processes, a critical area for decision-making and implementing improvement actions in manufacturing. This thesis proposes a Information Architecture to integrate decision support systems in e-manufacturing. Specifically, the proposed architecture offers a homogeneous PM information exchange model that can be applied trough decision support in emanufacturing environment. Its application improves the necessary interoperability in decision-making data processing tasks. It comprises three sub-systems: a data model, a object model and Web Framework which is composed by a PM information platform and PM-Web services architecture. . The data model and the object model are based on developing all the information required to define and acquire the different indicators required by PM processes. The PM information platform uses XML and B2MML technologies to structure a new set of performance measurement exchange message schemas (PM-XML). This PM information platform is complemented by a PM-Web Services architecture that uses these schemas to integrate the coding, decoding, translation and assessment processes of the key performance indicators (KPIs). These services perform all the transactions that enable the source data to be transformed into smart data that can be used in the decision-making processes. A practical example of data exchange for measurement processes in the area of equipment maintenance is shown to demonstrate the utility of the architecture.