DBpedia Spotlight: Shedding Light on the Web of Documents

Interlinking text documents with Linked Open Data enables the Web of Data to be used as background knowledge within document-oriented applications such as search and faceted browsing. As a step towards interconnecting the Web of Documents with the Web of Data, we developed DBpedia Spotlight, a system for automatically annotating text documents with DBpedia URIs. DBpedia Spotlight allows users to configure the annotations to their specific needs through the DBpedia Ontology and quality measures such as prominence, topical pertinence, contextual ambiguity and disambiguation confidence. We compare our approach with the state of the art in disambiguation, and evaluate our results in light of three baselines and six publicly available annotation systems, demonstrating the competitiveness of our system. DBpedia Spotlight is shared as open source and deployed as a Web Service freely available for public use.

Generating Automated News to Explain the Meaning of Sensor Data

An important competence of human data analysts is to interpret and explain the meaning of the results of data analysis to end-users. However, existing automatic solutions for intelligent data analysis provide limited help to interpret and communicate information to non-expert users. In this paper we present a general approach to generating explanatory descriptions about the meaning of quantitative sensor data. We propose a type of web application: a virtual newspaper with automatically generated news stories that describe the meaning of sensor data. This solution integrates a variety of techniques from intelligent data analysis into a web-based multimedia presentation system. We validated our approach in a real world problem and demonstrate its generality using data sets from several domains. Our experience shows that this solution can facilitate the use of sensor data by general users and, therefore, can increase the utility of sensor network infrastructures.

A multinational SDI-based system to facilitate disaster risk management in the Andean Community

A useful strategy for improving disaster risk management is sharing spatial data across different technical organizations using shared information systems. However, the implementation of this type of system requires a large effort, so it is difficult to find fully implemented and sustainable information systems that facilitate sharing multinational spatial data about disasters, especially in developing countries. In this paper, we describe a pioneer system for sharing spatial information that we developed for the Andean Community. This system, called SIAPAD (Andean Information System for Disaster Prevention and Relief), integrates spatial information from 37 technical organizations in the Andean countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru). SIAPAD was based on the concept of a thematic Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and includes a web application, called GEORiesgo, which helps users to find relevant information with a knowledge-based system. In the paper, we describe the design and implementation of SIAPAD together with general conclusions and future directions which we learned as a result of this work.

Semantic technologies in idea management systems: a model for interoperability, linking and filtering

Abstract Idea Management Systems are web applications that implement the notion of open innovation though crowdsourcing. Typically, organizations use those kind of systems to connect to large communities in order to gather ideas for improvement of products or services. Originating from simple suggestion boxes, Idea Management Systems advanced beyond collecting ideas and aspire to be a knowledge management solution capable to select best ideas via collaborative as well as expert assessment methods. In practice, however, the contemporary systems still face a number of problems usually related to information overflow and recognizing questionable quality of submissions with reasonable time and effort allocation. This thesis focuses on idea assessment problem area and contributes a number of solutions that allow to filter, compare and evaluate ideas submitted into an Idea Management System. With respect to Idea Management System interoperability the thesis proposes theoretical model of Idea Life Cycle and formalizes it as the Gi2MO ontology which enables to go beyond the boundaries of a single system to compare and assess innovation in an organization wide or market wide context. Furthermore, based on the ontology, the thesis builds a number of solutions for improving idea assessment via: community opinion analysis (MARL), annotation of idea characteristics (Gi2MO Types) and study of idea relationships (Gi2MO Links). The main achievements of the thesis are: application of theoretical innovation models for practice of Idea Management to successfully recognize the differentiation between communities, opinion metrics and their recognition as a new tool for idea assessment, discovery of new relationship types between ideas and their impact on idea clustering. Finally, the thesis outcome is establishment of Gi2MO Project that serves as an incubator for Idea Management solutions and mature open-source software alternatives for the widely available commercial suites. From the academic point of view the project delivers resources to undertake experiments in the Idea Management Systems area and managed to become a forum that gathered a number of academic and industrial partners. Resumen Los Sistemas de Gestión de Ideas son aplicaciones Web que implementan el concepto de innovación abierta con técnicas de crowdsourcing. Típicamente, las organizaciones utilizan ese tipo de sistemas para conectar con comunidades grandes y así recoger ideas sobre cómo mejorar productos o servicios. Los Sistemas de Gestión de Ideas lian avanzado más allá de recoger simplemente ideas de buzones de sugerencias y ahora aspiran ser una solución de gestión de conocimiento capaz de seleccionar las mejores ideas por medio de técnicas colaborativas, así como métodos de evaluación llevados a cabo por expertos. Sin embargo, en la práctica, los sistemas contemporáneos todavía se enfrentan a una serie de problemas, que, por lo general, están relacionados con la sobrecarga de información y el reconocimiento de las ideas de dudosa calidad con la asignación de un tiempo y un esfuerzo razonables. Esta tesis se centra en el área de la evaluación de ideas y aporta una serie de soluciones que permiten filtrar, comparar y evaluar las ideas publicadas en un Sistema de Gestión de Ideas. Con respecto a la interoperabilidad de los Sistemas de Gestión de Ideas, la tesis propone un modelo teórico del Ciclo de Vida de la Idea y lo formaliza como la ontología Gi2MO que permite ir más allá de los límites de un sistema único para comparar y evaluar la innovación en un contexto amplio dentro de cualquier organización o mercado. Por otra parte, basado en la ontología, la tesis desarrolla una serie de soluciones para mejorar la evaluación de las ideas a través de: análisis de las opiniones de la comunidad (MARL), la anotación de las características de las ideas (Gi2MO Types) y el estudio de las relaciones de las ideas (Gi2MO Links). Los logros principales de la tesis son: la aplicación de los modelos teóricos de innovación para la práctica de Sistemas de Gestión de Ideas para reconocer las diferenciasentre comu¬nidades, métricas de opiniones de comunidad y su reconocimiento como una nueva herramienta para la evaluación de ideas, el descubrimiento de nuevos tipos de relaciones entre ideas y su impacto en la agrupación de estas. Por último, el resultado de tesis es el establecimiento de proyecto Gi2MO que sirve como incubadora de soluciones para Gestión de Ideas y herramientas de código abierto ya maduras como alternativas a otros sistemas comerciales. Desde el punto de vista académico, el proyecto ha provisto de recursos a ciertos experimentos en el área de Sistemas de Gestión de Ideas y logró convertirse en un foro que reunión para un número de socios tanto académicos como industriales.

Unsupervised system to classify SO2 pollutant concentrations in Salamanca, Mexico

Salamanca is cataloged as one of the most polluted cities in Mexico. In order to observe the behavior and clarify the influence of wind parameters on the Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) concentrations a Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) Neural Network have been implemented at three monitoring locations for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2006. The maximum and minimum daily values of SO2 concentrations measured during the year of 2006 were correlated with the wind parameters of the same period. The main advantages of the SOM Neural Network is that it allows to integrate data from different sensors and provide readily interpretation results. Especially, it is powerful mapping and classification tool, which others information in an easier way and facilitates the task of establishing an order of priority between the distinguished groups of concentrations depending on their need for further research or remediation actions in subsequent management steps. For each monitoring location, SOM classifications were evaluated with respect to pollution levels established by Health Authorities. The classification system can help to establish a better air quality monitoring methodology that is essential for assessing the effectiveness of imposed pollution controls, strategies, and facilitate the pollutants reduction.

Distributed System for Cognitive Stimulation Over Interactive TV.

Descripción y evaluación de sistema de estimulación cognitiva a través de la TDT orientada a personas con enfermedad de Parkinson, con supervisión por parte de sus terapeutas de forma remota. Abstract: This paper details the full design, implementation, and validation of an e-health service in order to improve the community health care services for patients with cognitive disorders. Specifically, the new service allows Parkinson’s disease patients benefit from the possibility of doing cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) at home by using a familiar device such as a TV set. Its use instead of a PC could be a major advantage for some patients whose lack of familiarity with the use of a PC means that they can do therapy only in the presence of a therapist. For these patients this solution could bring about a great improvement in their autonomy. At the same time, this service provides therapists with the ability to conduct follow-up of therapy sessions via the web,benefiting from greater and easier control of the therapy exercises performed by patients and allowing them to customize new exercises in accordance with the particular needs of each patient. As a result, this kind of CST is considered to be a complement of other therapies oriented to the Parkinson patients. Furthermore, with small changes, the system could be useful for patients with a different cognitive disease such as Alzheimer’s or mild cognitive impairment.

A Web Implementation of A Generalized NEP

The Networks of Evolutionary Processors (NEPs) are computing mechanisms directly inspired from the behavior of cell populations more specifically the point mutations in DNA strands. These mechanisms are been used for solving NP-complete problems by means of a parallel computation postulation. This paper describes an implementation of the basic model of NEP using Web technologies and includes the possibility of designing some of the most common variants of it by means the use of the web page design which eases the configuration of a given problem. It is a system intended to be used in a multicore processor in order to benefit from the multi thread use.

Crowdsourcing malaria parasite quantification: an online game for analyzing images of infected thick blood smears

Background: There are 600,000 new malaria cases daily worldwide. The gold standard for estimating the parasite burden and the corresponding severity of the disease consists in manually counting the number of parasites in blood smears through a microscope, a process that can take more than 20 minutes of an expert microscopist’s time. Objective: This research tests the feasibility of a crowdsourced approach to malaria image analysis. In particular, we investigated whether anonymous volunteers with no prior experience would be able to count malaria parasites in digitized images of thick blood smears by playing a Web-based game. Methods: The experimental system consisted of a Web-based game where online volunteers were tasked with detecting parasites in digitized blood sample images coupled with a decision algorithm that combined the analyses from several players to produce an improved collective detection outcome. Data were collected through the MalariaSpot website. Random images of thick blood films containing Plasmodium falciparum at medium to low parasitemias, acquired by conventional optical microscopy, were presented to players. In the game, players had to find and tag as many parasites as possible in 1 minute. In the event that players found all the parasites present in the image, they were presented with a new image. In order to combine the choices of different players into a single crowd decision, we implemented an image processing pipeline and a quorum algorithm that judged a parasite tagged when a group of players agreed on its position. Results: Over 1 month, anonymous players from 95 countries played more than 12,000 games and generated a database of more than 270,000 clicks on the test images. Results revealed that combining 22 games from nonexpert players achieved a parasite counting accuracy higher than 99%. This performance could be obtained also by combining 13 games from players trained for 1 minute. Exhaustive computations measured the parasite counting accuracy for all players as a function of the number of games considered and the experience of the players. In addition, we propose a mathematical equation that accurately models the collective parasite counting performance. Conclusions: This research validates the online gaming approach for crowdsourced counting of malaria parasites in images of thick blood films. The findings support the conclusion that nonexperts are able to rapidly learn how to identify the typical features of malaria parasites in digitized thick blood samples and that combining the analyses of several users provides similar parasite counting accuracy rates as those of expert microscopists. This experiment illustrates the potential of the crowdsourced gaming approach for performing routine malaria parasite quantification, and more generally for solving biomedical image analysis problems, with future potential for telediagnosis related to global health challenges.

Prototipo para la Creación de un Sistema de Información Geográfica web, para la Gestión de Elementos Universitarios Localizados Espacialmente

RESUMEN Este trabajo nace con la necesidad de ofrecer un Sistema de Información Geográfico implantado en un entorno Web, para una comunidad de usuarios,que proporcione información sobre recursos, instalaciones y servicios que se ofrecen localizados espacialmente. Se trata de estudiar y seleccionar ciertos objetos de interés relevantes para una Comunidad universitaria, en concreto se ha utilizado el Campus Sur de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Estos objetos serán representados en su localización geográfica, sobre el mapa de los exteriores del Campus o sobre planos digitalizados de los interiores de algunos de los edificios que lo componen. La Escuela Universitaria de Informática es la utilizada para el prototipo presentado en este trabajo. Además los objetos de interés llevarán asociada información temática con distintos formatos. Este sistema podrá aplicarse en la planificación de futuras obras, tanto nuevas como de remodelación, de los elementos que constituyen el Campus como, edificios,caminos, aparcamientos, etc. SUMMARY: This work comes with the need to provide a Geographic Information System,implanted in a web environment, for a user community, which gives information on resources, facilities and services offered at a university spatially located. That consists in to study and select some objects of interest, relevant for a University community; in particular the South Campus of the Polytechnic University of Madrid where it has been used. These objects will be represented in their geographic location, over the outside map of the Campus or over digitized maps which represent the interiors of some Campus buildings. The Computer Science University School is used in the prototype shown in this paper. Also, the interest objects will have associated thematic information in different formats. This system may be applied in the planning of future works, both new and remodeling, of the elements that constitute the Campus such as buildings,roads, car parks, etc.

Workflow-centric research objects: First class citizens in scholarly discourse.

A workflow-centric research object bundles a workflow, the provenance of the results obtained by its enactment, other digital objects that are relevant for the experiment (papers, datasets, etc.), and annotations that semantically describe all these objects. In this paper, we propose a model to specify workflow-centric research objects, and show how the model can be grounded using semantic technologies and existing vocabularies, in particular the Object Reuse and Exchange (ORE) model and the Annotation Ontology (AO).We describe the life-cycle of a research object, which resembles the life-cycle of a scienti?c experiment.

Servicio Web para gestión de juego cooperativo sobre desarrollo humano

Este Proyecto Fin de Carrera (PFC) tiene como objetivos el análisis, diseño e implementación de un sistema web que permita a los usuarios familiarizarse con el Índice de Desarrollo Humano (IDH), publicado anualmente por Naciones Unidas, ofreciendo un servicio de gestión y descarga de una aplicación móvil relacionada con dicho índice. La aplicación móvil es un juego educativo basado en preguntas sobre el IDH de los países, desarrollada en paralelo con este proyecto. El servicio web implementado en este proyecto facilita tanto la descarga, administración y actualización de contenidos como la interacción entre los usuarios. El sistema está formado por un servidor web, una base de datos de usuarios y contenidos y un portal web desde el cual puede descargarse la aplicación móvil, realizar consultas sobre estadísticas de juego y conocer el IDH sin necesidad de jugar. El buscador avanzado que ha sido desarrollado para conocer el IDH permite al usuario adquirir destrezas y entrenarse por sí solo para mejorar sus resultados de juego. Los administradores del sistema tienen la capacidad de gestionar el contenido del portal, los usuarios que solicitan darse de alta y la funcionalidad ofrecida, es decir, actualización del juego, foros y noticias. La instalación del sistema implementado en un servidor web ha permitido su verificación exitosa así como la provisión del servicio de información y sensibilización sobre el IDH, actualizado mediante la información de Naciones Unidas, motivación original del proyecto. ABSTRACT This Final Year Project takes as targets the analysis, design and implementation of a web system that allows to the users to familiarize with the Human Development Index (HDI), published annually by United Nations, offering a service of management and download a mobile application associated with that index. The mobile application is an educational game based on questions on the IDH of the countries, developed in parallel with this project. The web service implemented by means of this Project facilitates download, administration and update of contents and the interaction between the users across the cooperative game. The system consists of a web server, a database of users and content and a web portal from which you can download the mobile application, perform queries on game statistics, or discover the HDI without need for play. The advanced search engine that has been developed for the HDI allows the user to purchase and train for skills to improve their game results. System administrators have the ability to manage the content of the portal, users requesting register and the functionality offered, i.e., update to the game, forums and news. The installation of the system that was implemented has allowed successful verification and the provision of an information and awareness on the HDI, updated with the information from the United Nations, original motivation of the project.

Intelligent automatic overtaking system using vision for vehicle detection

There is clear evidence that investment in intelligent transportation system technologies brings major social and economic benefits. Technological advances in the area of automatic systems in particular are becoming vital for the reduction of road deaths. We here describe our approach to automation of one the riskiest autonomous manœuvres involving vehicles – overtaking. The approach is based on a stereo vision system responsible for detecting any preceding vehicle and triggering the autonomous overtaking manœuvre. To this end, a fuzzy-logic based controller was developed to emulate how humans overtake. Its input is information from the vision system and from a positioning-based system consisting of a differential global positioning system (DGPS) and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). Its output is the generation of action on the vehicle’s actuators, i.e., the steering wheel and throttle and brake pedals. The system has been incorporated into a commercial Citroën car and tested on the private driving circuit at the facilities of our research center, CAR, with different preceding vehicles – a motorbike, car, and truck – with encouraging results.

Vision-based active safety system for automatic stopping

ntelligent systems designed to reduce highway fatalities have been widely applied in the automotive sector in the last decade. Of all users of transport systems, pedestrians are the most vulnerable in crashes as they are unprotected. This paper deals with an autonomous intelligent emergency system designed to avoid collisions with pedestrians. The system consists of a fuzzy controller based on the time-to-collision estimate – obtained via a vision-based system – and the wheel-locking probability – obtained via the vehicle’s CAN bus – that generates a safe braking action. The system has been tested in a real car – a convertible Citroën C3 Pluriel – equipped with an automated electro-hydraulic braking system capable of working in parallel with the vehicle’s original braking circuit. The system is used as a last resort in the case that an unexpected pedestrian is in the lane and all the warnings have failed to produce a response from the driver.

Detecting Good Practices and Pitfalls when Publishing Vocabularies on the Web

The uptake of Linked Data (LD) has promoted the proliferation of datasets and their associated ontologies bringing their semantic to the data being published. These ontologies should be evaluated at different stages, both during their development and their publication. As important as correctly modelling the intended part of the world to be captured in an ontology, is publishing, sharing and facilitating the (re)use of the obtained model. In this paper, 11 evaluation characteristics, with respect to publish, share and facilitate the reuse, are proposed. In particular, 6 good practices and 5 pitfalls are presented, together with their associated detection methods. In addition, a grid-based rating system is generated. Both contributions, the set of evaluation characteristics and the grid system, could be useful for ontologists in order to reuse existing LD vocabularies or to check the one being built.

System supporting public transport based on geolocation

El propósito de este proyecto de fin de Grado es el estudio y desarrollo de una aplicación basada en Android que proporcionará soporte y atención a los servicios de transporte público existentes en Cracovia, Polonia. La principal funcionalidad del sistema será consultar la posición de un determinado autobús o tranvía y mostrar su ubicación con exactitud. Para lograr esto, necesitaremos tres fases de desarrollo. En primer lugar, deberemos implementar un sistema que obtenga las coordenadas geográficas de los vehículos de transporte público en cada instante. A continuación, tendremos que registrar todos estos datos y almacenarlos en una base de datos en un servidor web. Por último, desarrollaremos un sistema cliente que realice consultas a tiempo real sobre estos datos almacenados, obteniendo la posición para una línea determinada y mostrando su ubicación con un marcador en el mapa. Para hacer el seguimiento de los vehículos, sería necesario tener acceso a una API pública que nos proporcionase la posición registrada por los GPS que integran cada uno de ellos. Como esta API no existe actualmente para los servicios de autobús, y para los tranvías es de uso meramente privado, desarrollaremos una segunda aplicación en Android que hará las funciones del lado servidor. En ella podremos elegir mediante una simple interfaz el número de línea y un código específico que identificará a cada vehículo en particular (e.g. podemos tener 6 tranvías recorriendo la red al mismo tiempo para la línea 24). Esta aplicación obtendrá las coordenadas geográficas del teléfono móvil, lo cual incluye latitud, longitud y orientación a través del proveedor GPS. De este modo, podremos realizar una simulación de como el sistema funcionará a tiempo real utilizando la aplicación servidora desde dentro de un tranvía o autobús y, al mismo tiempo, utilizando la aplicación cliente haciendo peticiones para mostrar la información de dicho tranvía. El cliente, además, podrá consultar la ruta de cualquier línea sin necesidad de tener acceso a Internet. Almacenaremos las rutas y paradas de cada línea en la memoria del teléfono móvil utilizando ficheros XML debido al poco espacio que ocupan y a lo útil que resulta poder consultar un trayecto en cualquier momento, independientemente del acceso a la red. El usuario también podrá consultar las tablas de horarios oficiales para cada línea. Aunque en este caso si será necesaria una conexión a Internet debido a que se realizará a través de la web oficial de MPK. Para almacenar todas las coordenadas de cada vehículo en cada instante necesitaremos crear una base de datos en un servidor. Esto se resolverá mediante el uso de MYSQL y PHP. Se enviarán peticiones de tipo GET y POST a los servicios PHP que se encargarán de traducir y realizar la consulta correspondiente a la base de datos MYSQL. Por último, gracias a todos los datos recogidos relativos a la posición de los vehículos de transporte público, podremos realizar algunas tareas de análisis. Comparando la hora exacta a la que los vehículos pasaron por cada parada y la hora a la que deberían haber pasado según los horarios oficiales, podremos descubrir fallos en estos. Seremos capaces de determinar si es un error puntual debido a factores externos (atascos, averías,…) o si por el contrario, es algo que ocurre muy a menudo y se debería corregir el horario oficial. ABSTRACT The aim of this final Project (for University) is to develop an Android application thatwill provide support and feedback to the public transport services in Krakow. The main functionality of the system will be to track the position of a desired bus or tram line, and display its position on the map. To achieve this, we will need 3 stages: the first one will be to implement a system that sends the geographical position of the public transport vehicles, the second one will be to collect this data in a web server, and the last one will be to get the last location registered for the desired line and display it on the map. For tracking the vehicles, we would need to have access to a public API that should be connected with each bus/tram GPS. As this doesn’t exist in Krakow or at least is not available for public use, we will develop a second android application that will do the server side job. We will be able to choose in a simple interface the line number and a code letter to identify each vehicle (e.g. we can have 6 trams that belong to the line number 24 working at the same time). It will take the current mobile geolocation; this includes getting latitude, longitude and bearing from the GPS provider. Thus, we will be able to make a simulation of how the system works in real time by using the server app inside a tram and at the same time, using the client app and making requests to display the information of that tram. The client will also be able to check the path of the desired line without internet access. We will store the path and stops for each line locally in the phone memory using xml files due to the few requirements of available space it needs and the usefulness of checking a path when needed. This app will also offer the functionality of checking the timetable for the line, but in this case, it will link to the official Mpk website, so Internet access will be required. For storing all the coordinates for each vehicle at every moment we will need to create a database on a server. We have decided that the easiest way is to use Mysql and PHP for the deployment of the service. We will send GET and POST requests to the php files and those files will make the according queries to our database. Finally, based on all the collected data, we will be able to get some information about errors in the system of public transport timetables. We will check at what time a line was in each specific stop and compare it with the official timetable to find mistakes of time. We will determine if it is something that happens occasionally and related to external factors (e.g. traffic jams, breakdowns…) or if on the other hand, it is something that happens very often and the public transport timetables should be looked over and corrected.