Spoken document retrieval experiments with IR-n system

This paper describes the first participation of IR-n system at Spoken Document Retrieval, focusing on the experiments we made before participation and showing the results we obtained. IR-n system is an Information Retrieval system based on passages and the recognition of sentences to define them. So, the main goal of this experiment is to adapt IR-n system to the spoken document structure by means of the utterance splitter and the overlapping passage technique allowing to match utterances and sentences.

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.

Prueba de concepto de expansión de consultas basada en ontologías de dominio financiero

Este trabajo presenta el uso de una ontología en el dominio financiero para la expansión de consultas con el fin de mejorar los resultados de un sistema de recuperación de información (RI) financiera. Este sistema está compuesto por una ontología y un índice de Lucene que permite recuperación de conceptos identificados mediante procesamiento de lenguaje natural. Se ha llevado a cabo una evaluación con un conjunto limitado de consultas y los resultados indican que la ambigüedad sigue siendo un problema al expandir la consulta. En ocasiones, la elección de las entidades adecuadas a la hora de expandir las consultas (filtrando por sector, empresa, etc.) permite resolver esa ambigüedad.

Question answering and multi-search engines in geo-temporal information retrieval

In this paper we present a complete system for the treatment of both geographical and temporal dimensions in text and its application to information retrieval. This system has been evaluated in both the GeoTime task of the 8th and 9th NTCIR workshop in the years 2010 and 2011 respectively, making it possible to compare the system to contemporary approaches to the topic. In order to participate in this task we have added the temporal dimension to our GIR system. The system proposed here has a modular architecture in order to add or modify features. In the development of this system, we have followed a QA-based approach as well as multi-search engines to improve the system performance.

Hybrid simulation-optimization based approach for the optimal design of single-product biotechnological processes

In this work, we present a systematic method for the optimal development of bioprocesses that relies on the combined use of simulation packages and optimization tools. One of the main advantages of our method is that it allows for the simultaneous optimization of all the individual components of a bioprocess, including the main upstream and downstream units. The design task is mathematically formulated as a mixed-integer dynamic optimization (MIDO) problem, which is solved by a decomposition method that iterates between primal and master sub-problems. The primal dynamic optimization problem optimizes the operating conditions, bioreactor kinetics and equipment sizes, whereas the master levels entails the solution of a tailored mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model that decides on the values of the integer variables (i.e., number of equipments in parallel and topological decisions). The dynamic optimization primal sub-problems are solved via a sequential approach that integrates the process simulator SuperPro Designer® with an external NLP solver implemented in Matlab®. The capabilities of the proposed methodology are illustrated through its application to a typical fermentation process and to the production of the amino acid L-lysine.

Polarimetric Response of Rice Fields at C-Band: Analysis and Phenology Retrieval

A set of ten RADARSAT-2 images acquired in fully polarimetric mode over a test site with rice fields in Seville, Spain, has been analyzed to extract the main features of the C-band radar backscatter as a function of rice phenology. After observing the evolutions versus phenology of different polarimetric observables and explaining their behavior in terms of scattering mechanisms present in the scene, a simple retrieval approach has been proposed. This algorithm is based on three polarimetric observables and provides estimates from a set of four relevant intervals of phenological stages. The validation against ground data, carried out at parcel level for a set of six stands and up to nine dates per stand, provides a 96% rate of coincidence. Moreover, an equivalent compact-pol retrieval algorithm has been also proposed and validated, providing the same performance at parcel level. In all cases, the inversion is carried out by exploiting a single satellite acquisition, without any other auxiliary information.

Application of Text Summarization techniques to the Geographical Information Retrieval task

Automatic Text Summarization has been shown to be useful for Natural Language Processing tasks such as Question Answering or Text Classification and other related fields of computer science such as Information Retrieval. Since Geographical Information Retrieval can be considered as an extension of the Information Retrieval field, the generation of summaries could be integrated into these systems by acting as an intermediate stage, with the purpose of reducing the document length. In this manner, the access time for information searching will be improved, while at the same time relevant documents will be also retrieved. Therefore, in this paper we propose the generation of two types of summaries (generic and geographical) applying several compression rates in order to evaluate their effectiveness in the Geographical Information Retrieval task. The evaluation has been carried out using GeoCLEF as evaluation framework and following an Information Retrieval perspective without considering the geo-reranking phase commonly used in these systems. Although single-document summarization has not performed well in general, the slight improvements obtained for some types of the proposed summaries, particularly for those based on geographical information, made us believe that the integration of Text Summarization with Geographical Information Retrieval may be beneficial, and consequently, the experimental set-up developed in this research work serves as a basis for further investigations in this field.

Selective SWIFT-R. A Flexible Software-Based Technique for Soft Error Mitigation in Low-Cost Embedded Systems

Commercial off-the-shelf microprocessors are the core of low-cost embedded systems due to their programmability and cost-effectiveness. Recent advances in electronic technologies have allowed remarkable improvements in their performance. However, they have also made microprocessors more susceptible to transient faults induced by radiation. These non-destructive events (soft errors), may cause a microprocessor to produce a wrong computation result or lose control of a system with catastrophic consequences. Therefore, soft error mitigation has become a compulsory requirement for an increasing number of applications, which operate from the space to the ground level. In this context, this paper uses the concept of selective hardening, which is aimed to design reduced-overhead and flexible mitigation techniques. Following this concept, a novel flexible version of the software-based fault recovery technique known as SWIFT-R is proposed. Our approach makes possible to select different registers subsets from the microprocessor register file to be protected on software. Thus, design space is enriched with a wide spectrum of new partially protected versions, which offer more flexibility to designers. This permits to find the best trade-offs between performance, code size, and fault coverage. Three case studies have been developed to show the applicability and flexibility of the proposal.

Logic-Based Outer Approximation for the Design of Discrete-Continuous Dynamic Systems with Implicit Discontinuities

We address the optimization of discrete-continuous dynamic optimization problems using a disjunctive multistage modeling framework, with implicit discontinuities, which increases the problem complexity since the number of continuous phases and discrete events is not known a-priori. After setting a fixed alternative sequence of modes, we convert the infinite-dimensional continuous mixed-logic dynamic (MLDO) problem into a finite dimensional discretized GDP problem by orthogonal collocation on finite elements. We use the Logic-based Outer Approximation algorithm to fully exploit the structure of the GDP representation of the problem. This modelling framework is illustrated with an optimization problem with implicit discontinuities (diver problem).

Logic-Based Outer-Approximation Algorithm for Solving Discrete-Continuous Dynamic Optimization Problems

We present an extension of the logic outer-approximation algorithm for dealing with disjunctive discrete-continuous optimal control problems whose dynamic behavior is modeled in terms of differential-algebraic equations. Although the proposed algorithm can be applied to a wide variety of discrete-continuous optimal control problems, we are mainly interested in problems where disjunctions are also present. Disjunctions are included to take into account only certain parts of the underlying model which become relevant under some processing conditions. By doing so the numerical robustness of the optimization algorithm improves since those parts of the model that are not active are discarded leading to a reduced size problem and avoiding potential model singularities. We test the proposed algorithm using three examples of different complex dynamic behavior. In all the case studies the number of iterations and the computational effort required to obtain the optimal solutions is modest and the solutions are relatively easy to find.

Rigorous design of distillation columns using surrogate models based on Kriging interpolation

The economic design of a distillation column or distillation sequences is a challenging problem that has been addressed by superstructure approaches. However, these methods have not been widely used because they lead to mixed-integer nonlinear programs that are hard to solve, and require complex initialization procedures. In this article, we propose to address this challenging problem by substituting the distillation columns by Kriging-based surrogate models generated via state of the art distillation models. We study different columns with increasing difficulty, and show that it is possible to get accurate Kriging-based surrogate models. The optimization strategy ensures that convergence to a local optimum is guaranteed for numerical noise-free models. For distillation columns (slightly noisy systems), Karush–Kuhn–Tucker optimality conditions cannot be tested directly on the actual model, but still we can guarantee a local minimum in a trust region of the surrogate model that contains the actual local minimum.

Optimization of Chemical Processes Using Surrogate Models Based on a Kriging Interpolation

Superstructure approaches are the solution to the difficult problem which involves the rigorous economic design of a distillation column. These methods require complex initialization procedures and they are hard to solve. For this reason, these methods have not been extensively used. In this work, we present a methodology for the rigorous optimization of chemical processes implemented on a commercial simulator using surrogate models based on a kriging interpolation. Several examples were studied, but in this paper, we perform the optimization of a superstructure for a non-sharp separation to show the efficiency and effectiveness of the method. Noteworthy that it is possible to get surrogate models accurate enough with up to seven degrees of freedom.

Green and fair economy – a holistic concept for a sustainable economy. Policy Brief #2013/02

Solution approaches based purely on economics do not lead to optimal success – at least, not in the medium to long term. Rather, a sustainable economy requires an equal consideration of the ecological and social dimensions. The green economy concept, or, better said, the green and fair economy concept, is in principle suitable for, if not avoiding an economic and financial crisis as experienced in the last five years, at least moderating its negative effects. The important thing here is to integrate the design of the concept as much as possible at the political, economic and individual level.

Knowledge-based systems /

"UILU-ENG 80 1704."