Utilização de um aplicativo de simulação computacional na avaliação de desempenho térmico de protótipo de habitação de interesse social (his)

This Masters Degree dissertation seeks to make a comparative study of internal air temperature data, simulated through the thermal computer application DesignBuilder 1.2, and data registered in loco through HOBO® Temp Data Logger, in a Social Housing Prototype (HIS), located at the Central Campus of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte UFRN. The prototype was designed and built seeking strategies of thermal comfort recommended for the local climate where the study was carried out, and built with panels of cellular concrete by Construtora DoisA, a collaborator of research project REPESC Rede de Pesquisa em Eficiência Energética de Sistemas Construtivos (Research Network on Energy Efficiency of Construction Systems), an integral part of Habitare program. The methodology employed carefully examined the problem, reviewed the bibliography, analyzing the major aspects related to computer simulations for thermal performance of buildings, such as climate characterization of the region under study and users thermal comfort demands. The DesignBuilder 1.2 computer application was used as a simulation tool, and theoretical alterations were carried out in the prototype, then they were compared with the parameters of thermal comfort adopted, based on the area s current technical literature. Analyses of the comparative studies were performed through graphical outputs for a better understanding of air temperature amplitudes and thermal comfort conditions. The data used for the characterization of external air temperature were obtained from the Test Reference Year (TRY), defined for the study area (Natal-RN). Thus the author also performed comparative studies for TRY data registered in the years 2006, 2007 and 2008, at weather station Davis Precision Station, located at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais INPE-CRN (National Institute of Space Research), in a neighboring area of UFRN s Central Campus. The conclusions observed from the comparative studies performed among computer simulations, and the local records obtained from the studied prototype, point out that the simulations performed in naturally ventilated buildings is quite a complex task, due to the applications limitations, mainly owed to the complexity of air flow phenomena, the influence of comfort conditions in the surrounding areas and climate records. Lastly, regarding the use of the application DesignBuilder 1.2 in the present study, one may conclude that it is a good tool for computer simulations. However, it needs some adjustments to improve reliability in its use. There is a need for continued research, considering the dedication of users to the prototype, as well as the thermal charges of the equipment, in order to check sensitivity

Perfil radial e uniformidade de precipitação do aspersor NaanDanJain 427, em função da regulagem do defletor

The study aimed to evaluate the radial profile and the uniformity of water distribution of sprinkler manufactured by the company NaanDanJain, model 427 1/2 '' M and nozzle with 2.8 mm of internal diameter, operating at pressures of 150, 200, 300 and 400 kPa and five positions of the deflector (0, 20, 50, 80 and 100%). For the determination of the parameters evaluated, the grid method was used and with the help of computer application CATCH 3D, overlapping layers of water depths was calculated with ten spacing. The results show that the deflector adjustment influences the radius of wetness and the distribution profile while the uniformity of water application showed as an important mechanism, since it permits different behavior for the sprinkler, ensuring wide track of utilization of the equipment.

Tradução e adaptação da escala de dependência de substâncias do Millon Clinical Multiaxial III para o Brasil

Millon describes the normal personality by means of adaptation styles that are effective in normal environments and personality disorders such as unadapted operating styles. To operacionalize his theoretical model, Millon has built several instruments, including the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III (MCMI-III), wich consists of a self report inventory composed by 175 true or false response items, containing four verification scales, and others scales wich evaluates 14 personality patterns and 10 clinical syndromes. The Substance Dependence scale (T) is placed along with Clinical Syndromes scales. This research is justified by the lack of a Brazilian instrument to assess personality psychopathological aspects, and aims to translate and semantically adapt the MCMI-III to the Brazilian context, checking validity elements of the Substance Dependence scale, and developing a computer application for assisting the evaluation of assessment results. To this intent, 2.588 individuals data was collected, male and female, aged between 18 and 85 years, characterized as belonging to a clinical or non-clinical group, who took part in the survey via the internet or in person. Respondents completed the MCMI-III, a socio-demographic questionnaire and a subgroup also answered to the Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Besides descriptive statistics, we performed the analysis using the Student t test, principal components analysis and internal consistency. Despite difficulties related to translating very specific English terms, the assessment by judges, experts on Millon´s theory, and the back translation, attested the adequacy of the Brazilian version. Factorial analysis indicated the grouping of translated T scale items into three factors (social activities prejudice, lack of impulse control, and oppositional behavior), by presenting a single item on a fourth factor (apparently related to seeking pleasurable stimuli). The Cronbach alpha for this set of items was 0,82, indicating an acceptable scale reliability. The data analysis resulted in distinction of scores between clinical and non-clinical groups and between men and women; the relationship between high scores on the scale T and the other scales; scores of drug users according to the declared used substance; and the relationship between high scores on T and the verification of disorder or risk on GHQ mental health factor, indicating the instrument´s adequate sensistivity in identifying psychopathologies and the relationship between the different disorders or psychopathological personality patterns. Although further studies are necessary to develop the scores transformation factors, the computerized correction tool was adequate.

Aplicativo informatizado com o nursing activities score: instrumento para gerenciamento da assistência em unidade de terapia intensiva

A gravidade do paciente ou o número de intervenções nem sempre serão proporcionais à carga de trabalho de enfermagem. Este estudo descritivo teve como objetivo demonstrar a trajetória da construção de um aplicativo (software) com o conteúdo do Nursing Activities Score e suas características operacionais. Foi realizado um teste piloto com 12 pacientes seguindo-se a coleta de dados por 90 dias consecutivos em 123 pacientes. Houve compatibilidade na transmissão de dados do Personal Digital Assistent para o computador de mesa, via wireless. A construção do aplicativo resultou em um sistema com coleta e administração de dados e permitiu realizar a interface gráfica. A utilização do aplicativo possibilita o uso de um sistema tecnológico para aplicação diária, com alimentação de um banco de dados sobre as características dos cuidados requeridos. Conhecendo a evolução destas variáveis durante a internação, o enfermeiro poderá planejar, intervir e avaliar a qualidade do cuidado.

Perfil radial e uniformidade de precipitação do aspersor NaanDanJain 427, em função do defletor de ajuste

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Avaliação de frequências não convencionais na obtenção de curvas de DMA de compósitos poliméricos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Caracterização hidráulica do aspersor Super 10 e sua influência na energia cinética e erosividade

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Ciência do Solo) - FCAV

Indicadores-chave de desempenho e a gestão integrada da mineração

The exceptional advance of information technology and computer application to the mineral sector has allowed the automation of several processes of the mineral value chain. ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning) provided the platform for the efficient integration of all support activities of the mineral value chain. Despite all advances gathered with the application of computers, it was not possible to date, to effectively integrate the primary activities of the mineral value chain. The main reason for that are the uncertainties present in the productive process, which are intrinsic to the business, and the difficulty to quantify and qualify the benefits obtained with this integration due to the lack of a clear definition of the key performance indicators (KPIs). This work presents an analysis of the ERP systems application in Brazilian mining, identifies the KPIs of some of the most important Brazilian mining companies, and discusses the importance of mapping and measuring these indicators for the effective. management of the mining business.

Il linguaggio spagnolo del turismo nel web 2.0. tripadvisor: Un caso di studio

Internet e turismo sono due settori che si intersecano profondamente e che da sempre risultano interconnessi. Grazie al progresso delle nuove tecnologie l’ambito turistico ha mutato profondamente i suoi connotati, sia da un punto di vista strutturale sia nella gestione e nella distribuzione delle informazioni. Con l’ingresso nell’era digitale, lo sviluppo delle ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) e l’avvento del web 2.0, la comunicazione turistica si è modificata in modo sostanziale: si è passati da una comunicazione monologica e unidirezionale da esperti a pubblico, a un dialogo tra le varie parti coinvolte, dove la centralità dell’utente/consumatore, che ha acquisito un ruolo proattivo e guadagnato il diritto di parola, si fa sempre più evidente. In particolare la comparsa del web sociale, che si contraddistingue per la sua forte dinamicità e un carattere collaborativo e comunitario, ha permesso lo sviluppo di modelli comunicativi originali, che sono riusciti ad apportare elementi innovativi e peculiari anche nel linguaggio del turismo, varietà linguistica già di per sé piuttosto particolare ed eterogenea. Tramite l’analisi della versione spagnola del portale di viaggi più famoso al mondo (Tripadvisor.es), si è cercato di evidenziare quali caratteristiche mostrate nei testi pubblicati in questo spazio fossero riconducibili all’influenza del linguaggio del turismo dei generi più tradizionali (guide, dépliant, cataloghi) e quali invece fossero gli elementi attribuibili al mezzo computer e quindi appartenessero alla sfera della comunicazione mediata dal computer.

Il contributo di Konrad Zuse alla nascita dell'informatica

computer

¿Impact from road transport of radioactive wastes in Spain?

Transports of radioactive wastes in Spain are becoming issues of renewed interest, due to the increased mobility of these materials which can be expected after the building and operation of the planned central repository for this country in a near future. Such types of residues will be mainly of the medium and high activity classes and have raised concerns on the safety of the operations, the radiological protection of the individuals, the compliance with the legal regulations and their environmental consequences of all kind. In this study, relevant information for the assessment of radiological risk of road transport were taken into account, as the sources and destination of the radioactive transports, the amount of traveling to be done, the preferred routes and populations affected, the characterization of the residues and containers, their corresponding testing, etc. These data were supplied by different organizations fully related with these activities, like the nuclear power stations, the companies in charge of radioactive transports, the enterprises for inspection and control of the activities, etc., as well as the government institutions which are responsible for the selection and location of the storage facility and other decisions on the nuclear policies of the country. Thus, we have developed a program for computing the data in such a form that by entering the radiation levels at one meter of the transport loads and by choosing a particular displacement, the computer application is capable to calculate the corresponding radiological effects, like the global estimated impact, its relevance to the population in general or on those people living and driving near the main road routes, the doses received by the most exposed individuals (e.g. the workers for loading or driving the vehicle), or the probability of detrimental on the human health. The results of this work could be of help for a better understanding and management of these activities and their related impacts; at the same time that the generated reports of the computer application are considered of particular interest as innovative and complementary information to the current legal documentation, which is basically required for transporting radioactive wastes in the country, according with the international safety rules (like IAEA and ADR).Though main studies are still in progress, as the definite location for the Spanish storage facility has not been decided yet, preliminary results with the existing transports of residues of medium activity indicate that the radiological impact is very low in conventional operations. Nevertheless, the management of these transports is complex and laborious, making it convenient to progress further in the analysis and quantification of this kind of events, which constitutes one of the main objectives of the present study for the radioactive road mobility in Spain.

OntoTag - A Linguistic and Ontological Annotation Model Suitable for the Semantic Web

OntoTag - A Linguistic and Ontological Annotation Model Suitable for the Semantic Web 1. INTRODUCTION. LINGUISTIC TOOLS AND ANNOTATIONS: THEIR LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Computational Linguistics is already a consolidated research area. It builds upon the results of other two major ones, namely Linguistics and Computer Science and Engineering, and it aims at developing computational models of human language (or natural language, as it is termed in this area). Possibly, its most well-known applications are the different tools developed so far for processing human language, such as machine translation systems and speech recognizers or dictation programs. These tools for processing human language are commonly referred to as linguistic tools. Apart from the examples mentioned above, there are also other types of linguistic tools that perhaps are not so well-known, but on which most of the other applications of Computational Linguistics are built. These other types of linguistic tools comprise POS taggers, natural language parsers and semantic taggers, amongst others. All of them can be termed linguistic annotation tools. Linguistic annotation tools are important assets. In fact, POS and semantic taggers (and, to a lesser extent, also natural language parsers) have become critical resources for the computer applications that process natural language. Hence, any computer application that has to analyse a text automatically and ‘intelligently’ will include at least a module for POS tagging. The more an application needs to ‘understand’ the meaning of the text it processes, the more linguistic tools and/or modules it will incorporate and integrate. However, linguistic annotation tools have still some limitations, which can be summarised as follows: 1. Normally, they perform annotations only at a certain linguistic level (that is, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, etc.). 2. They usually introduce a certain rate of errors and ambiguities when tagging. This error rate ranges from 10 percent up to 50 percent of the units annotated for unrestricted, general texts. 3. Their annotations are most frequently formulated in terms of an annotation schema designed and implemented ad hoc. A priori, it seems that the interoperation and the integration of several linguistic tools into an appropriate software architecture could most likely solve the limitations stated in (1). Besides, integrating several linguistic annotation tools and making them interoperate could also minimise the limitation stated in (2). Nevertheless, in the latter case, all these tools should produce annotations for a common level, which would have to be combined in order to correct their corresponding errors and inaccuracies. Yet, the limitation stated in (3) prevents both types of integration and interoperation from being easily achieved. In addition, most high-level annotation tools rely on other lower-level annotation tools and their outputs to generate their own ones. For example, sense-tagging tools (operating at the semantic level) often use POS taggers (operating at a lower level, i.e., the morphosyntactic) to identify the grammatical category of the word or lexical unit they are annotating. Accordingly, if a faulty or inaccurate low-level annotation tool is to be used by other higher-level one in its process, the errors and inaccuracies of the former should be minimised in advance. Otherwise, these errors and inaccuracies would be transferred to (and even magnified in) the annotations of the high-level annotation tool. Therefore, it would be quite useful to find a way to (i) correct or, at least, reduce the errors and the inaccuracies of lower-level linguistic tools; (ii) unify the annotation schemas of different linguistic annotation tools or, more generally speaking, make these tools (as well as their annotations) interoperate. Clearly, solving (i) and (ii) should ease the automatic annotation of web pages by means of linguistic tools, and their transformation into Semantic Web pages (Berners-Lee, Hendler and Lassila, 2001). Yet, as stated above, (ii) is a type of interoperability problem. There again, ontologies (Gruber, 1993; Borst, 1997) have been successfully applied thus far to solve several interoperability problems. Hence, ontologies should help solve also the problems and limitations of linguistic annotation tools aforementioned. Thus, to summarise, the main aim of the present work was to combine somehow these separated approaches, mechanisms and tools for annotation from Linguistics and Ontological Engineering (and the Semantic Web) in a sort of hybrid (linguistic and ontological) annotation model, suitable for both areas. This hybrid (semantic) annotation model should (a) benefit from the advances, models, techniques, mechanisms and tools of these two areas; (b) minimise (and even solve, when possible) some of the problems found in each of them; and (c) be suitable for the Semantic Web. The concrete goals that helped attain this aim are presented in the following section. 2. GOALS OF THE PRESENT WORK As mentioned above, the main goal of this work was to specify a hybrid (that is, linguistically-motivated and ontology-based) model of annotation suitable for the Semantic Web (i.e. it had to produce a semantic annotation of web page contents). This entailed that the tags included in the annotations of the model had to (1) represent linguistic concepts (or linguistic categories, as they are termed in ISO/DCR (2008)), in order for this model to be linguistically-motivated; (2) be ontological terms (i.e., use an ontological vocabulary), in order for the model to be ontology-based; and (3) be structured (linked) as a collection of ontology-based triples, as in the usual Semantic Web languages (namely RDF(S) and OWL), in order for the model to be considered suitable for the Semantic Web. Besides, to be useful for the Semantic Web, this model should provide a way to automate the annotation of web pages. As for the present work, this requirement involved reusing the linguistic annotation tools purchased by the OEG research group (http://www.oeg-upm.net), but solving beforehand (or, at least, minimising) some of their limitations. Therefore, this model had to minimise these limitations by means of the integration of several linguistic annotation tools into a common architecture. Since this integration required the interoperation of tools and their annotations, ontologies were proposed as the main technological component to make them effectively interoperate. From the very beginning, it seemed that the formalisation of the elements and the knowledge underlying linguistic annotations within an appropriate set of ontologies would be a great step forward towards the formulation of such a model (henceforth referred to as OntoTag). Obviously, first, to combine the results of the linguistic annotation tools that operated at the same level, their annotation schemas had to be unified (or, preferably, standardised) in advance. This entailed the unification (id. standardisation) of their tags (both their representation and their meaning), and their format or syntax. Second, to merge the results of the linguistic annotation tools operating at different levels, their respective annotation schemas had to be (a) made interoperable and (b) integrated. And third, in order for the resulting annotations to suit the Semantic Web, they had to be specified by means of an ontology-based vocabulary, and structured by means of ontology-based triples, as hinted above. Therefore, a new annotation scheme had to be devised, based both on ontologies and on this type of triples, which allowed for the combination and the integration of the annotations of any set of linguistic annotation tools. This annotation scheme was considered a fundamental part of the model proposed here, and its development was, accordingly, another major objective of the present work. All these goals, aims and objectives could be re-stated more clearly as follows: Goal 1: Development of a set of ontologies for the formalisation of the linguistic knowledge relating linguistic annotation. Sub-goal 1.1: Ontological formalisation of the EAGLES (1996a; 1996b) de facto standards for morphosyntactic and syntactic annotation, in a way that helps respect the triple structure recommended for annotations in these works (which is isomorphic to the triple structures used in the context of the Semantic Web). Sub-goal 1.2: Incorporation into this preliminary ontological formalisation of other existing standards and standard proposals relating the levels mentioned above, such as those currently under development within ISO/TC 37 (the ISO Technical Committee dealing with Terminology, which deals also with linguistic resources and annotations). Sub-goal 1.3: Generalisation and extension of the recommendations in EAGLES (1996a; 1996b) and ISO/TC 37 to the semantic level, for which no ISO/TC 37 standards have been developed yet. Sub-goal 1.4: Ontological formalisation of the generalisations and/or extensions obtained in the previous sub-goal as generalisations and/or extensions of the corresponding ontology (or ontologies). Sub-goal 1.5: Ontological formalisation of the knowledge required to link, combine and unite the knowledge represented in the previously developed ontology (or ontologies). Goal 2: Development of OntoTag’s annotation scheme, a standard-based abstract scheme for the hybrid (linguistically-motivated and ontological-based) annotation of texts. Sub-goal 2.1: Development of the standard-based morphosyntactic annotation level of OntoTag’s scheme. This level should include, and possibly extend, the recommendations of EAGLES (1996a) and also the recommendations included in the ISO/MAF (2008) standard draft. Sub-goal 2.2: Development of the standard-based syntactic annotation level of the hybrid abstract scheme. This level should include, and possibly extend, the recommendations of EAGLES (1996b) and the ISO/SynAF (2010) standard draft. Sub-goal 2.3: Development of the standard-based semantic annotation level of OntoTag’s (abstract) scheme. Sub-goal 2.4: Development of the mechanisms for a convenient integration of the three annotation levels already mentioned. These mechanisms should take into account the recommendations included in the ISO/LAF (2009) standard draft. Goal 3: Design of OntoTag’s (abstract) annotation architecture, an abstract architecture for the hybrid (semantic) annotation of texts (i) that facilitates the integration and interoperation of different linguistic annotation tools, and (ii) whose results comply with OntoTag’s annotation scheme. Sub-goal 3.1: Specification of the decanting processes that allow for the classification and separation, according to their corresponding levels, of the results of the linguistic tools annotating at several different levels. Sub-goal 3.2: Specification of the standardisation processes that allow (a) complying with the standardisation requirements of OntoTag’s annotation scheme, as well as (b) combining the results of those linguistic tools that share some level of annotation. Sub-goal 3.3: Specification of the merging processes that allow for the combination of the output annotations and the interoperation of those linguistic tools that share some level of annotation. Sub-goal 3.4: Specification of the merge processes that allow for the integration of the results and the interoperation of those tools performing their annotations at different levels. Goal 4: Generation of OntoTagger’s schema, a concrete instance of OntoTag’s abstract scheme for a concrete set of linguistic annotations. These linguistic annotations result from the tools and the resources available in the research group, namely • Bitext’s DataLexica (http://www.bitext.com/EN/datalexica.asp), • LACELL’s (POS) tagger (http://www.um.es/grupos/grupo-lacell/quees.php), • Connexor’s FDG (http://www.connexor.eu/technology/machinese/glossary/fdg/), and • EuroWordNet (Vossen et al., 1998). This schema should help evaluate OntoTag’s underlying hypotheses, stated below. Consequently, it should implement, at least, those levels of the abstract scheme dealing with the annotations of the set of tools considered in this implementation. This includes the morphosyntactic, the syntactic and the semantic levels. Goal 5: Implementation of OntoTagger’s configuration, a concrete instance of OntoTag’s abstract architecture for this set of linguistic tools and annotations. This configuration (1) had to use the schema generated in the previous goal; and (2) should help support or refute the hypotheses of this work as well (see the next section). Sub-goal 5.1: Implementation of the decanting processes that facilitate the classification and separation of the results of those linguistic resources that provide annotations at several different levels (on the one hand, LACELL’s tagger operates at the morphosyntactic level and, minimally, also at the semantic level; on the other hand, FDG operates at the morphosyntactic and the syntactic levels and, minimally, at the semantic level as well). Sub-goal 5.2: Implementation of the standardisation processes that allow (i) specifying the results of those linguistic tools that share some level of annotation according to the requirements of OntoTagger’s schema, as well as (ii) combining these shared level results. In particular, all the tools selected perform morphosyntactic annotations and they had to be conveniently combined by means of these processes. Sub-goal 5.3: Implementation of the merging processes that allow for the combination (and possibly the improvement) of the annotations and the interoperation of the tools that share some level of annotation (in particular, those relating the morphosyntactic level, as in the previous sub-goal). Sub-goal 5.4: Implementation of the merging processes that allow for the integration of the different standardised and combined annotations aforementioned, relating all the levels considered. Sub-goal 5.5: Improvement of the semantic level of this configuration by adding a named entity recognition, (sub-)classification and annotation subsystem, which also uses the named entities annotated to populate a domain ontology, in order to provide a concrete application of the present work in the two areas involved (the Semantic Web and Corpus Linguistics). 3. MAIN RESULTS: ASSESSMENT OF ONTOTAG’S UNDERLYING HYPOTHESES The model developed in the present thesis tries to shed some light on (i) whether linguistic annotation tools can effectively interoperate; (ii) whether their results can be combined and integrated; and, if they can, (iii) how they can, respectively, interoperate and be combined and integrated. Accordingly, several hypotheses had to be supported (or rejected) by the development of the OntoTag model and OntoTagger (its implementation). The hypotheses underlying OntoTag are surveyed below. Only one of the hypotheses (H.6) was rejected; the other five could be confirmed. H.1 The annotations of different levels (or layers) can be integrated into a sort of overall, comprehensive, multilayer and multilevel annotation, so that their elements can complement and refer to each other. • CONFIRMED by the development of: o OntoTag’s annotation scheme, o OntoTag’s annotation architecture, o OntoTagger’s (XML, RDF, OWL) annotation schemas, o OntoTagger’s configuration. H.2 Tool-dependent annotations can be mapped onto a sort of tool-independent annotations and, thus, can be standardised. • CONFIRMED by means of the standardisation phase incorporated into OntoTag and OntoTagger for the annotations yielded by the tools. H.3 Standardisation should ease: H.3.1: The interoperation of linguistic tools. H.3.2: The comparison, combination (at the same level and layer) and integration (at different levels or layers) of annotations. • H.3 was CONFIRMED by means of the development of OntoTagger’s ontology-based configuration: o Interoperation, comparison, combination and integration of the annotations of three different linguistic tools (Connexor’s FDG, Bitext’s DataLexica and LACELL’s tagger); o Integration of EuroWordNet-based, domain-ontology-based and named entity annotations at the semantic level. o Integration of morphosyntactic, syntactic and semantic annotations. H.4 Ontologies and Semantic Web technologies (can) play a crucial role in the standardisation of linguistic annotations, by providing consensual vocabularies and standardised formats for annotation (e.g., RDF triples). • CONFIRMED by means of the development of OntoTagger’s RDF-triple-based annotation schemas. H.5 The rate of errors introduced by a linguistic tool at a given level, when annotating, can be reduced automatically by contrasting and combining its results with the ones coming from other tools, operating at the same level. However, these other tools might be built following a different technological (stochastic vs. rule-based, for example) or theoretical (dependency vs. HPS-grammar-based, for instance) approach. • CONFIRMED by the results yielded by the evaluation of OntoTagger. H.6 Each linguistic level can be managed and annotated independently. • REJECTED: OntoTagger’s experiments and the dependencies observed among the morphosyntactic annotations, and between them and the syntactic annotations. In fact, Hypothesis H.6 was already rejected when OntoTag’s ontologies were developed. We observed then that several linguistic units stand on an interface between levels, belonging thereby to both of them (such as morphosyntactic units, which belong to both the morphological level and the syntactic level). Therefore, the annotations of these levels overlap and cannot be handled independently when merged into a unique multileveled annotation. 4. OTHER MAIN RESULTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS First, interoperability is a hot topic for both the linguistic annotation community and the whole Computer Science field. The specification (and implementation) of OntoTag’s architecture for the combination and integration of linguistic (annotation) tools and annotations by means of ontologies shows a way to make these different linguistic annotation tools and annotations interoperate in practice. Second, as mentioned above, the elements involved in linguistic annotation were formalised in a set (or network) of ontologies (OntoTag’s linguistic ontologies). • On the one hand, OntoTag’s network of ontologies consists of − The Linguistic Unit Ontology (LUO), which includes a mostly hierarchical formalisation of the different types of linguistic elements (i.e., units) identifiable in a written text; − The Linguistic Attribute Ontology (LAO), which includes also a mostly hierarchical formalisation of the different types of features that characterise the linguistic units included in the LUO; − The Linguistic Value Ontology (LVO), which includes the corresponding formalisation of the different values that the attributes in the LAO can take; − The OIO (OntoTag’s Integration Ontology), which  Includes the knowledge required to link, combine and unite the knowledge represented in the LUO, the LAO and the LVO;  Can be viewed as a knowledge representation ontology that describes the most elementary vocabulary used in the area of annotation. • On the other hand, OntoTag’s ontologies incorporate the knowledge included in the different standards and recommendations for linguistic annotation released so far, such as those developed within the EAGLES and the SIMPLE European projects or by the ISO/TC 37 committee: − As far as morphosyntactic annotations are concerned, OntoTag’s ontologies formalise the terms in the EAGLES (1996a) recommendations and their corresponding terms within the ISO Morphosyntactic Annotation Framework (ISO/MAF, 2008) standard; − As for syntactic annotations, OntoTag’s ontologies incorporate the terms in the EAGLES (1996b) recommendations and their corresponding terms within the ISO Syntactic Annotation Framework (ISO/SynAF, 2010) standard draft; − Regarding semantic annotations, OntoTag’s ontologies generalise and extend the recommendations in EAGLES (1996a; 1996b) and, since no stable standards or standard drafts have been released for semantic annotation by ISO/TC 37 yet, they incorporate the terms in SIMPLE (2000) instead; − The terms coming from all these recommendations and standards were supplemented by those within the ISO Data Category Registry (ISO/DCR, 2008) and also of the ISO Linguistic Annotation Framework (ISO/LAF, 2009) standard draft when developing OntoTag’s ontologies. Third, we showed that the combination of the results of tools annotating at the same level can yield better results (both in precision and in recall) than each tool separately. In particular, 1. OntoTagger clearly outperformed two of the tools integrated into its configuration, namely DataLexica and FDG in all the combination sub-phases in which they overlapped (i.e. POS tagging, lemma annotation and morphological feature annotation). As far as the remaining tool is concerned, i.e. LACELL’s tagger, it was also outperformed by OntoTagger in POS tagging and lemma annotation, and it did not behave better than OntoTagger in the morphological feature annotation layer. 2. As an immediate result, this implies that a) This type of combination architecture configurations can be applied in order to improve significantly the accuracy of linguistic annotations; and b) Concerning the morphosyntactic level, this could be regarded as a way of constructing more robust and more accurate POS tagging systems. Fourth, Semantic Web annotations are usually performed by humans or else by machine learning systems. Both of them leave much to be desired: the former, with respect to their annotation rate; the latter, with respect to their (average) precision and recall. In this work, we showed how linguistic tools can be wrapped in order to annotate automatically Semantic Web pages using ontologies. This entails their fast, robust and accurate semantic annotation. As a way of example, as mentioned in Sub-goal 5.5, we developed a particular OntoTagger module for the recognition, classification and labelling of named entities, according to the MUC and ACE tagsets (Chinchor, 1997; Doddington et al., 2004). These tagsets were further specified by means of a domain ontology, namely the Cinema Named Entities Ontology (CNEO). This module was applied to the automatic annotation of ten different web pages containing cinema reviews (that is, around 5000 words). In addition, the named entities annotated with this module were also labelled as instances (or individuals) of the classes included in the CNEO and, then, were used to populate this domain ontology. • The statistical results obtained from the evaluation of this particular module of OntoTagger can be summarised as follows. On the one hand, as far as recall (R) is concerned, (R.1) the lowest value was 76,40% (for file 7); (R.2) the highest value was 97, 50% (for file 3); and (R.3) the average value was 88,73%. On the other hand, as far as the precision rate (P) is concerned, (P.1) its minimum was 93,75% (for file 4); (R.2) its maximum was 100% (for files 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10); and (R.3) its average value was 98,99%. • These results, which apply to the tasks of named entity annotation and ontology population, are extraordinary good for both of them. They can be explained on the basis of the high accuracy of the annotations provided by OntoTagger at the lower levels (mainly at the morphosyntactic level). However, they should be conveniently qualified, since they might be too domain- and/or language-dependent. It should be further experimented how our approach works in a different domain or a different language, such as French, English, or German. • In any case, the results of this application of Human Language Technologies to Ontology Population (and, accordingly, to Ontological Engineering) seem very promising and encouraging in order for these two areas to collaborate and complement each other in the area of semantic annotation. Fifth, as shown in the State of the Art of this work, there are different approaches and models for the semantic annotation of texts, but all of them focus on a particular view of the semantic level. Clearly, all these approaches and models should be integrated in order to bear a coherent and joint semantic annotation level. OntoTag shows how (i) these semantic annotation layers could be integrated together; and (ii) they could be integrated with the annotations associated to other annotation levels. Sixth, we identified some recommendations, best practices and lessons learned for annotation standardisation, interoperation and merge. They show how standardisation (via ontologies, in this case) enables the combination, integration and interoperation of different linguistic tools and their annotations into a multilayered (or multileveled) linguistic annotation, which is one of the hot topics in the area of Linguistic Annotation. And last but not least, OntoTag’s annotation scheme and OntoTagger’s annotation schemas show a way to formalise and annotate coherently and uniformly the different units and features associated to the different levels and layers of linguistic annotation. This is a great scientific step ahead towards the global standardisation of this area, which is the aim of ISO/TC 37 (in particular, Subcommittee 4, dealing with the standardisation of linguistic annotations and resources).

Software para análisis automático de ficheros de imagen

El presente proyecto fin de carrera consiste en el diseño, desarrollo e implementación de una aplicación informática cuya función sea la identificación de distintos ficheros de imagen, audio y video y la interpretación y presentación de los metadatos asociados a los mismos. El software desarrollado, EXTRACTORDATOS_LBS, reconocerá el tipo de formato del fichero bajo estudio a partir del análisis de los bytes de identificación contenidos en la cabecera del archivo. En base a la información registrada en dicha cabecera, la aplicación interpretará el contenido de los metadatos asociados al fichero, mostrando por pantalla aquellos que resulten de interés para el análisis de los mismos. Previamente a la implementación del software se acomete el análisis teórico de los formatos de diversos archivos multimedia, recogidos en múltiples normas y recomendaciones. Tras esa identificación, se procede al desarrollo de la aplicación EXTRACTORDATOS_LBS , que informa de los parámetros de interés contenidos en las cabeceras de los archivos. El desarrollo se ilustra con los diagramas conceptuales asociados a la arquitectura del software implementado. De igual forma, se muestran las salidas por pantalla de una serie de ficheros de muestra, y se presenta el manual de usuario de la aplicación. La versión electrónica de este documento acompaña el ejecutable que permite el análisis de los archivos. This final project consists in the design, development and implementation of a computer application whose function is the identification of different image, audio and video files and the interpretation and presentation of their metadata. The software developed, EXTRACTORDATOS_LBS, will recognize the type of the file under study through the analysis of the identification bytes contained on the file’s header. Based on information registered in this header, the application will interpret the metadata content associated to file, displaying the most interesting ones for their analysis. Prior to the software implementation, a theoretical analysis of the different formats of media files is undertaken. After this identification, the application EXTRACTORDATOS_LBS is developed. This software analyzes and displays the most interesting parameters contained in multimedia file’s header. The development of the application is illustrated with flow charts associated to the architecture of the software. Furthermore, some graphic examples of use of the program are included, as well as the user’s manual. The electronic version of this document attaches the executable file that permits file analysis.

Estudios corológicos de plantas vasculares en la cuenca media del Tajo

Se ha realizado un estudio de la distribución de plantas vasculares en un territorio situado entre las provincias de Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid y Toledo (España). El territorio estudiado está en la Submeseta Sur de la península ibérica, al sur del Sistema Central, norte de los Montes de Toledo y oeste del Sistema Ibérico, en zonas sedimentarias con poco relieve y clima mediterráneo, con grandes contrastes de temperatura y precipitaciones muy irregulares. Coincide con las regiones naturales llamadas: “Alcarrias”, “Campiñas de Madrid y Guadalajara” y “Vegas de los ríos de la Cuenca del Tajo”. Es lo que he llamado Cuenca Media del Tajo. En una primera fase se ha estudiado la flora regional para adquirir conocimientos previos mediante las consultas bibliográficas y de herbarios, se ha contado con bases de datos disponibles para MA, MACB, MAF, JACA, AH, ABH, VAL, SALA y EMMA. Se han revisado las aportaciones propias que en los últimos años he realizado en el territorio en relación a los temas tratados en la tesis. El trabajo de campo ha consistido en la realización de inventarios de presencia de flora. Ha sido muy importante la tarea herborizadora para llegar a la correcta identificación de las especies colectadas en los inventarios. De esta forma el autor ha confeccionado un herbario propio JML que en el territorio muestreado ha reunido cerca de 15000 números en las cuatro provincias estudiadas. Se ha hecho un muestreo sistemático del territorio con unos 6000 listados de plantas. Se ha tomado como unidad de muestreo la cuadrícula de UTM de 1 km de lado incluida como una centésima parte de la cuadrícula de UTM de 10 km. Se han seguido criterios para uniformizar el muestreo. Se ha apuntado el tiempo empleado y la superficie muestreada estimada en cada toma de datos. El criterio mínimo que tienen que cumplir todas las cuadrículas en el área estudiada ha sido que para cada cuadrícula de UTM de 5 km se han realizado al menos 5 inventarios en 5 cuadrículas diferentes de UTM de 1 km y al menos en una hora de tiempo. La unidad de comparación ha sido la cuadrícula UTM de 5 km. Se han informatizado los inventarios de campo, para ello se ha creado la base de datos TESIS en Microsoft office –Access-. Las principales tablas son LOCALIDAD, en la que se anotan las características del lugar muestreado y ESPECIES, que lista las especies de flora consideradas en las cuatro provincias del estudio. Por medio de formularios se han rellenado las tablas; destaca la tabla ESPECIE INVENTARIO que relaciona las tablas ESPECIES y LOCALIDAD; esta tabla cuenta en este momento con unos 165.000 registros. En la tabla ESPECIES_FPVI se visualizan las especies recopiladas. Se ha creado un indicador llamado FPVI “Flora permanentemente visible identificable” que consiste en atribuir a cada especie unos índices que nos permiten saber si una determinada planta se puede detectar en cualquier época del año. Los resultados presentados son: Creación de la base de datos TESIS. El Catálogo Florístico de la Cuenca Media del Tajo, que es el catálogo de la flora de las cuatro provincias desde el principio de la sistemática hasta las Saxifragáceas. En total se han recopilado 1028 taxones distribuidos en 77 familias. Se ha calculado el índice FPVI, para las especies del catálogo. La finalidad para la que se ha diseñado este índice es para poder comparar territorios. Para el desarrollo de ambos resultados ha sido fundamental el desarrollo de la tabla ESPECIES_PVI de la base de datos TESIS. En la tabla ESPECIES_PVI se han apuntado las características ecológicas y se revisa la información bibliográfica disponible para cada especie; las principales fuentes de información consultadas han sido Flora iberica, el proyecto “Anthos” y las bases de datos de los herbarios. Se ha apuntado sí se ha visto, sí está protegida o sí en un endemismo. Otros resultados son: la localización de las cuadrículas de UTM de 10 km, con mayor número de endemismos o especies singulares, con mayor valor botánico. Se ha realizado un par de ejemplos de estudios de autoecología de especie, en concreto Teucrium pumilum y Clematis recta. Se han confeccionando salidas cartográficas de distribución de especies. Se ha elaborado el herbario JML. Se ha presentado una sencilla herramienta para incluir inventarios florísticos, citas corológicas, consultas de autoecología o etiquetado de pliegos de herbario. Como colofón, se ha colaborado para desarrollar una aplicación informática de visualización, análisis y estudio de la distribución de taxones vegetales, que ha utilizado como datos de partida un porcentaje importante de los obtenidos para esta tesis. ABSTRACT I have made a study of the distribution of vascular plants in a territory located between the provinces of Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid and Toledo (Spain). The studied area is in the “Submeseta” South of the Iberian Peninsula, south of the Central System, north of the Montes de Toledo and west of the Iberian System, in sedimentary areas with little relief and Mediterranean climate, with big temperature contrasts and irregular rainfall. Coincides with the natural regions called "Alcarrias", "countryside of Madrid and Guadalajara" and “Vegas River Tagus Basin”. This is what I have called Middle Tagus Basin. In a first step we have studied the regional flora to acquire prior knowledge through the literature and herbaria consultations, it has had available databases for MA, MACB, MAF, JACA, AH, ABH, VAL, SALA and EMMA herbaria. The contributions I have made in the last years in the territory in relation to the topics discussed in the thesis have been revised. The field work consisted of conducting inventories presence of flora. Botanize was a very important task to get to the correct identification of the species collected in inventories. In this way the author has made his own herbarium JML in the sampled area has met at least 15000 samples in the four studied provinces. There has been a systematic sampling of the territory with nearly 6,000 listings of plants. Was taken as the sampling unit grid UTM 1 km side included as a hundredth of the UTM grid of 10 km from side. Criteria have been taken to standardize the sampling. Data were taken of the time spent and the estimated sampled surface. The minimum criteria they have to meet all the grids in the study area has been that for each UTM grid of 5 km have been made at least 5 stocks in 5 different grids UTM 1 km and at least one hour of time. The unit of comparison was the UTM grid of 5 km. I have computerized inventories of field, for it was created a database in Access- Microsoft office -TESIS. The main tables are LOCALIDAD, with caracteristics of the sampled location and ESPECIES, which lists the plant species considered in the four provinces of the study, is. Through forms I filled in the tables; highlights ESPECIE INVENTARIO table that relates the tables ESPECIES and LOCALIDAD, this table is counted at the moment with about 165,000 records. The table ESPECIES FPVI visualizes all recollected species. We have created an indicator called FPVI "Flora permanently visible identifiable" that attributes to each species indices that allow us to know whether a given plant can be detected in any season. The results presented are: Creating data base TESIS. The Floristic Books Middle Tagus Basin, which is a catalog of the flora of the four provinces since the beginning of the systematic until Saxifragaceae. In total 1028 collected taxa in 77 families. We calculated FPVI index for species catalog. The purpose for which this index designed is, to compare territories. For the development of both results, it was essential to develop the table ESPECIES_PVI TESIS data base. Table ESPECIES_PVI has signed the ecological characteristics and bibliographic information available for each species is revised; the main sources of information has been Flora iberica, the Anthos project databases of herbaria. Targeted species has been recorded, when seen, protected or endemism. Have also been located UTM grids of 10 km, with the largest number of endemic or unique species and more botanical value. There have been a couple of species autecology studies, namely Teucrium pumilum and Clematis recta, as an example of this type of study. They have been putting together maps of species distribution. We made herbarium JML. I have presented a simple tool to include floristic inventories, chorological appointments, consultations or to tag autoecology herbarium specimens. To cap it has worked to develop a computer application for visualization, analysis and study of the distribution of plant taxa, which has used as input data a significant percentage of those obtained for this thesis.

Design of Reinforcement in Concrete Shells: a unified Approach

The problem of design/verification of reinforcement in concrete shells is reviewed. Methods of analysis are classified, and the elastic-plastic approach is described in detail in the general case of shells subjected to both bending and membrane action. The procedure is then reduced to membrane shells (applicable also to concrete walls) and to pure bending, as in the case of plates. The procedure, which is based on previous research,generally requires the use of a desk-top computer.