A general proposal to multilingual information access based on syntactic-semantic patterns

In the last few years, there has been a wide development in the research on textual information systems. The goal is to improve these systems in order to allow an easy localization, treatment and access to the information stored in digital format (Digital Databases, Documental Databases, and so on). There are lots of applications focused on information access (for example, Web-search systems like Google or Altavista). However, these applications have problems when they must access to cross-language information, or when they need to show information in a language different from the one of the query. This paper explores the use of syntactic-sematic patterns as a method to access to multilingual information, and revise, in the case of Information Retrieval, where it is possible and useful to employ patterns when it comes to the multilingual and interactive aspects. On the one hand, the multilingual aspects that are going to be studied are the ones related to the access to documents in different languages from the one of the query, as well as the automatic translation of the document, i.e. a machine translation system based on patterns. On the other hand, this paper is going to go deep into the interactive aspects related to the reformulation of a query based on the syntactic-semantic pattern of the request.

TEXT-MESS: Intelligent, Interactive and Multilingual Text Mining based on Human Language Technologies, TIN2006-15265-C06

The goal of the project is to analyze, experiment, and develop intelligent, interactive and multilingual Text Mining technologies, as a key element of the next generation of search engines, systems with the capacity to find "the need behind the query". This new generation will provide specialized services and interfaces according to the search domain and type of information needed. Moreover, it will integrate textual search (websites) and multimedia search (images, audio, video), it will be able to find and organize information, rather than generating ranked lists of websites.

Fire behaviour of lightweight concrete units based on corn cob aggregate

Recent research works have concluded that corn cob may have interesting material properties, in particular, lightness, and thermal and sound insulation abilities. In this research work, corn cob is proposed as an alternative sustainable aggregate for lightweight concrete masonry unit (CMU) manufacturing. The corn cob requires to be granulated previously in order to obtain adequate particle size grade. Subsequently, the particles are wrapped in a cement paste with the purpose of reducing their water abortion and adherent capacities. CMU are current applied in the building of partition walls. The main goal of this research work consists on studying the fire behaviour of partition walls built with CMU of processed corn cob granulate (CMU-PCC).

Community Based Residential Facilities Demonstration Project.

"Public Act 89-530 requires the Illinois Dept. on Aging to report annually to the General Assembly regarding its efforts to implement a Community Based Residential Facilities Demonstration Project (CBRFDP). The goal of the project is to reduce Medicaid expenditures for long-term care by allowing individuals to remain in a community setting, rather than reside in a nursing facility, thus reducing the dependency upon Medicaid."

A comparison of landslide inventories along the shoreline of Steamboat Island Peninsula, Thurston County, WA: office based protocol vs. field based protocol

The mountain ranges and coastlines of Washington State have steep slopes, and they are susceptible to landslides triggered by intense rainstorms, rapid snow melts, earthquakes, and rivers and waves removing slope stability. Over a 30-year timespan (1984-2014 and includes State Route (SR) 530), a total of 28 deep-seated landslides caused 300 million dollars of damage and 45 deaths (DGER, 2015). During that same timeframe, ten storm events triggered shallow landslides and debris flows across the state, resulting in nine deaths (DGER, 2015). The loss of 43 people, due to the SR 530 complex reactivating and moving at a rate and distance unexpected to residents, highlighted the need for an inventory of the stateís landslides. With only 13% of the state mapped (Lombardo et al., 2015), the intention of this statewide inventory is to communicate hazards to citizens and decision makers. In order to compile an accurate and consistent landslide inventory, Washington needs to adopt a graphic information system (GIS) based mapping protocol. A mapping protocol provides consistency for measuring and recording information about landslides, including such information as the type of landslide, the material involved, and the size of the movement. The state of Oregon shares similar landslide problems as Washington, and it created a GIS-based mapping protocol designed to inform its residents, while also saving money and reducing costly hours in the field (Burns and Madin, 2009). In order to determine if the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) protocol, developed by Burns and Madin (2009), could serve as the basis for establishing Washingtonís protocol, I used the office-based DOGAMI protocol to map landslides along a 40-50 km (25-30 mile) shoreline in Thurston County, Washington. I then compared my results to the field-based landslide inventory created in 2009 by the Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources (DGER) along this same shoreline. If the landslide area I mapped reasonably equaled the area of the DGER (2009) inventory, I would consider the DOGAMI protocol useful for Washington, too. Utilizing 1m resolution lidar flown for Thurston County in 2011 and a GIS platform, I mapped 36 landslide deposits and scarp flanks, covering a total area of 879,530 m2 (9,467,160 ft2). I also found 48 recent events within these deposits. With an exception of two slides, all of the movements occurred within the last fifty years. Along this same coastline, the DGER (2009) recorded 159 individual landslides and complexes, for a total area of 3,256,570 m2 (35,053,400 ft2). At a first glance it appears the DGER (2009) effort found a larger total number and total area of landslides. However, in addition to their field inventory, they digitized landslides previously mapped by other researchers, and they did not field confirm these landslides, which cover a total area of 2,093,860 m2 (22,538,150 ft2) (DGER, 2009). With this questionable landslide area removed and the toes and underwater landslides accounted for because I did not have a bathymetry dataset, my results are within 6,580 m2 (70,840 ft2) of the DGERís results. This similarity shows that the DOGAMI protocol provides a consistent and accurate approach to creating a landslide inventory. With a few additional modifications, I recommend that Washington State adopts the DOGAMI protocol. Acquiring additional 1m lidar and adopting a modified DOGAMI protocol poises the DGER to map the remaining 87% of the state, with an ultimate goal of informing citizens and decision makers of the locations and frequencies of landslide hazards on a user-friendly GIS platform.

Safety of oral tenofovir disoproxil fumarate-based pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention: prospective studies in HIV-uninfected men and women

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Classifying client goals in community-based ABI rehabilitation: a taxonomy for profiling service delivery and conceptualizing outcomes

Purpose: To develop, confirm and trial a framework for analysing the content of goals set within community-based rehabilitation. This framework (taxonomy) is proposed as a tool to assist in service evaluation and outcome exploration. Method: Qualitative thematic analysis and categorization of 1765 rehabilitation goal statements in a four phase process of synthesis, refinement, verification and application. Results: A taxonomy of goal content was developed comprising 21 categories within five domains, utilizing 125 descriptors. The taxonomy demonstrated good inter-rater consistency and was able to discriminate between similar but related data sets comprising goal statements. Conclusion: Structured analysis of the content of goal setting (particularly in community rehabilitation) utilizing a framework such as the proposed taxonomy has considerable potential as a 'window' into service delivery to broaden the parameters of existing service evaluation and to more clearly link outcome exploration to intervention.

A Comparison of Methodologies from Two Longitudinal Community-Based Randomized Controlled Trials of Similar Interventions in Palliative Care: What Worked and What Did Not

Background: Methodological challenges such as recruitment problems and participant burden make clinical trials in palliative care difficult. In 2001-2004, two community-based randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of case conferences in palliative care settings were independently conducted in Australia-the Queensland Case Conferences trial (QCC) and the Palliative Care Trial (PCT). Design: A structured comparative study of the QCC and PCT was conducted, organized by known practical and organizational barriers to clinical trials in palliative care. Results: Differences in funding dictated study designs and recruitment success; PCT had 6 times the budget of QCC. Sample size attainment. Only PCT achieved the sample size goal. QCC focused on reducing attrition through gatekeeping while PCT maximized participation through detailed recruitment strategies and planned for significant attrition. Testing sustainable interventions. QCC achieved a higher percentage of planned case conferences; the QCC strategy required minimal extra work for clinicians while PCT superimposed conferences on normal work schedules. Minimizing participant burden. Differing strategies of data collection were implemented to reduce participant burden. QCC had short survey instruments. PCT incorporated all data collection into normal clinical nursing encounters. Other. Both studies had acceptable withdrawal rates. Intention-to-treat analyses are planned. Both studies included substudies to validate new outcome measures. Conclusions: Health service interventions in palliative care can be studied using RCTs. Detailed comparative information of strategies, successes and challenges can inform the design of future trials. Key lessons include adequate funding, recruitment focus, sustainable interventions, and mechanisms to minimize participant burden.

Personality and goal orientation as predictors of performance in a learning context

The current study aimed to investigate and provide furthering evidence of individual differences as determinants of task performance. This research focused on the effects of the personality traits Openness to Experience and Neuroticism, and two goal orientation traits. Learning Orientation and Avoid Orientation, on task performance. The hypotheses addressed the predictability of the traits, the differential effects of personality and goal orientation traits, and the mediating effects of goal orientation on the relationship between personality and performance. The results were based on questionnaire responses completed by a sample of 103 students. Scores on a computerised Air Traffic Control (ATC) decision-making task were used as a measure of task performance. Learning Orientation was found to be a significant predictor of performance, whilst the effect of Neuroticism was 'approaching' significance. Results indicated strong support for the differential relationship between personality traits and corresponding goal orientation traits. The mediating relationship between Openness to Experience, Learning Orientation and performance was also found to be 'approaching' significance. Results were indicative of the influences of personality and goal orientation on consequent performance outcomes. Implications were discussed, as well as suggestions for possible future directions in research assessing the predictabilit)' of individual differences in learning contexts.

A concept-based framework for retrieving evidence to support emergency physician decision making at the point of care

The goal of evidence-based medicine is to uniformly apply evidence gained from scientific research to aspects of clinical practice. In order to achieve this goal, new applications that integrate increasingly disparate health care information resources are required. Access to and provision of evidence must be seamlessly integrated with existing clinical workflow and evidence should be made available where it is most often required - at the point of care. In this paper we address these requirements and outline a concept-based framework that captures the context of a current patient-physician encounter by combining disease and patient-specific information into a logical query mechanism for retrieving relevant evidence from the Cochrane Library. Returned documents are organized by automatically extracting concepts from the evidence-based query to create meaningful clusters of documents which are presented in a manner appropriate for point of care support. The framework is currently being implemented as a prototype software agent that operates within the larger context of a multi-agent application for supporting workflow management of emergency pediatric asthma exacerbations. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Achieving cost competitiveness with an agent based integrated process planning and production scheduling system

From a manufacturing perspective, the efficiency of manufacturing operations (such as process planning and production scheduling) are the key element for enhancing manufacturing competence. Process planning and production scheduling functions have been traditionally treated as two separate activities, and have resulted in a range of inefficiencies. These include infeasible process plans, non-available/overloaded resources, high production costs, long production lead times, and so on. Above all, it is unlikely that the dynamic changes can be efficiently dealt with. Despite much research has been conducted to integrate process planning and production scheduling to generate optimised solutions to improve manufacturing efficiency, there is still a gap to achieve the competence required for the current global competitive market. In this research, the concept of multi-agent system (MAS) is adopted as a means to address the aforementioned gap. A MAS consists of a collection of intelligent autonomous agents able to solve complex problems. These agents possess their individual objectives and interact with each other to fulfil the global goal. This paper describes a novel use of an autonomous agent system to facilitate the integration of process planning and production scheduling functions to cope with unpredictable demands, in terms of uncertainties in product mix and demand pattern. The novelty lies with the currency-based iterative agent bidding mechanism to allow process planning and production scheduling options to be evaluated simultaneously, so as to search for an optimised, cost-effective solution. This agent based system aims to achieve manufacturing competence by means of enhancing the flexibility and agility of manufacturing enterprises.

Enzymatic stabilization of gelatin-based scaffolds

The definitive goal of this research is to develop protein-based scaffolds for use in soft tissue regeneration, particularly in the field of dermal healing. The premise of this investigation was to characterize the mechanical properties of gelatin cross-linked with microbial transglutaminase (mTGase) and to investigate the cytocompatibility of mTGase cross-linked gelatin. Dynamic rheological analysis revealed a significant increase in the storage modulus and thermal stability of gelatin after cross-linking with mTGase. Static, unconfined compression tests showed an increase in Young's modulus of gelatin gels after mTGase cross-linking. A comparable increase in gel strength was observed with 0.03% mTGase and 0.25% glutaraldehyde cross-linked gelatin gels. In vitro studies using 3T3 fibroblasts indicated cytotoxicity at a concentration of 0.05% mTGase after 72 h. However, no significant inhibition of cell proliferation was seen with cells grown on lower concentrations of mTGase cross-linked gelatin substrates. The mechanical improvement and cytocompatibility of mTGase cross-linked gelatin suggests mTGase has potential for use in stabilizing gelatin gels for tissue-engineering applications.

Evaluation of public housing strategies in Mexico City : an exploratory goal programming approach

This thesis describes the development and use of a goal programming methodology for the evaluation of public housjng strategies in Mexico City, The methodology responds to the need to incorporate the location, size and densities of housing projects on the one hand, and "external" constraints such as the ability of low income families to pay for housing, and the amounts of capital and land available, on the other. The provision of low cost housing by public housing agencies in Mexico City is becoming increasingly difficult because there are so many constraints to be met and overcome, the most important of which is the ability of families to pay for housing. Other important limiting factors are the availability of capital and of land plots of the right size in desired locations. The location of public housing projects is significant because it determines the cost and pattern of work trips, which in a metropolitan area such as Mexico City are of considerable importance to both planners and potential. house owners. In addition, since the price of land is closely related to its location, the last factor is also significant in determining the price of the total housing package. Consequently there is a major trade-off between a housing strategy based on the provision of housing at locations close to employment, and the opposite one based on the provjsion of housjng at locations where employment accessibility is poorer but housing can be provided at a lower price. The goal programming evaluation methodology presented in this thesis was developed to aid housing planners to evaluate housing strategies which incorporate the issues raised above,

TiN-based coatings on fuel cladding tubes for advanced nuclear reactors

Titanium nitride (TiN) thin films are coated on HT-9 and MA957 fuel cladding tubes and bars to explore their mechanical strength, thermal stability, diffusion barrier properties, and thermal conductivity properties. The ultimate goal is to implement TiN as an effective diffusion barrier to prevent the inter-diffusion between the nuclear fuel and the cladding material, and thus lead to a longer lifetime of the cladding tubes. Mechanical tests including hardness and scratch tests for the samples before and after thermal cycle tests show that the films have a high hardness of 28GPa and excellent adhesion properties despite the thermal treatment. Thermal conductivity measurements demonstrate that the thin TiN films have very minimal impact on the overall thermal conductivity of the MA957 and HT-9 substrates, i.e., the thermal conductivity of the uncoated HT-9 and MA957 substrates was 26.25 and 28.44 W m-1 K-1, and that of the coated ones was 26.21 and 28.38W m-1 K-1, respectively. A preliminary Ce diffusion test on the couple of Ce/TiN/HT-9 suggests that TiN has excellent material compatibility and good diffusion barrier properties.

Supporting decision-making for self-adaptive systems:from goal models to dynamic decision networks

Context/Motivation - Different modeling techniques have been used to model requirements and decision-making of self-adaptive systems (SASs). Specifically, goal models have been prolific in supporting decision-making depending on partial and total fulfilment of functional (goals) and non-functional requirements (softgoals). Different goalrealization strategies can have different effects on softgoals which are specified with weighted contribution-links. The final decision about what strategy to use is based, among other reasons, on a utility function that takes into account the weighted sum of the different effects on softgoals. Questions/Problems - One of the main challenges about decisionmaking in self-adaptive systems is to deal with uncertainty during runtime. New techniques are needed to systematically revise the current model when empirical evidence becomes available from the deployment. Principal ideas/results - In this paper we enrich the decision-making supported by goal models by using Dynamic Decision Networks (DDNs). Goal realization strategies and their impact on softgoals have a correspondence with decision alternatives and conditional probabilities and expected utilities in the DDNs respectively. Our novel approach allows the specification of preferences over the softgoals and supports reasoning about partial satisfaction of softgoals using probabilities. We report results of the application of the approach on two different cases. Our early results suggest the decision-making process of SASs can be improved by using DDNs. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.