Towards Next Generation Vertical Search Engines

As the Web evolves unexpectedly fast, information grows explosively. Useful resources become more and more difficult to find because of their dynamic and unstructured characteristics. A vertical search engine is designed and implemented towards a specific domain. Instead of processing the giant volume of miscellaneous information distributed in the Web, a vertical search engine targets at identifying relevant information in specific domains or topics and eventually provides users with up-to-date information, highly focused insights and actionable knowledge representation. As the mobile device gets more popular, the nature of the search is changing. So, acquiring information on a mobile device poses unique requirements on traditional search engines, which will potentially change every feature they used to have. To summarize, users are strongly expecting search engines that can satisfy their individual information needs, adapt their current situation, and present highly personalized search results. In my research, the next generation vertical search engine means to utilize and enrich existing domain information to close the loop of vertical search engine's system that mutually facilitate knowledge discovering, actionable information extraction, and user interests modeling and recommendation. I investigate three problems in which domain taxonomy plays an important role, including taxonomy generation using a vertical search engine, actionable information extraction based on domain taxonomy, and the use of ensemble taxonomy to catch user's interests. As the fundamental theory, ultra-metric, dendrogram, and hierarchical clustering are intensively discussed. Methods on taxonomy generation using my research on hierarchical clustering are developed. The related vertical search engine techniques are practically used in Disaster Management Domain. Especially, three disaster information management systems are developed and represented as real use cases of my research work.

A Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical System (MOEMS) for Microstructure Manipulation

Microstructure manipulation is a fundamental process to the study of biology and medicine, as well as to advance micro- and nano-system applications. Manipulation of microstructures has been achieved through various microgripper devices developed recently, which lead to advances in micromachine assembly, and single cell manipulation, among others. Only two kinds of integrated feedback have been demonstrated so far, force sensing and optical binary feedback. As a result, the physical, mechanical, optical, and chemical information about the microstructure under study must be extracted from macroscopic instrumentation, such as confocal fluorescence microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. In this research work, novel Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical-System (MOEMS) microgrippers are presented. These devices utilize flexible optical waveguides as gripping arms, which provide the physical means for grasping a microobject, while simultaneously enabling light to be delivered and collected. This unique capability allows extensive optical characterization of the structure being held such as transmission, reflection, or fluorescence. The microgrippers require external actuation which was accomplished by two methods: initially with a micrometer screw, and later with a piezoelectric actuator. Thanks to a novel actuation mechanism, the “fishbone”, the gripping facets remain parallel within 1 degree. The design, simulation, fabrication, and characterization are systematically presented. The devices mechanical operation was verified by means of 3D finite element analysis simulations. Also, the optical performance and losses were simulated by the 3D-to-2D effective index (finite difference time domain FDTD) method as well as 3D Beam Propagation Method (3D-BPM). The microgrippers were designed to manipulate structures from submicron dimensions up to approximately 100 µm. The devices were implemented in SU-8 due to its suitable optical and mechanical properties. This work demonstrates two practical applications: the manipulation of single SKOV-3 human ovarian carcinoma cells, and the detection and identification of microparts tagged with a fluorescent “barcode” implemented with quantum dots. The novel devices presented open up new possibilities in the field of micromanipulation at the microscale, scalable to the nano-domain.

Pedagogía y política. La campaña de alfabetización CREAR en la historia reciente de la educación de adultos en la Argentina de los '70

La tesis que presentamos es el resultado de un trabajo de investigación sobre la campaña de alfabetización CREAR realizada entre 1973 y 1975. La Campaña de Reactivación de la Educación del Adulto para la Reconstrucción, estuvo dirigida por la Dirección Nacional de Educación de Adultos (DINEA) en la etapa de la recuperación democrática luego de dieciocho años de gobiernos autoritarios combinados con la proscripción de la fuerza política mayoritaria. Apoyada en el registro testimonial de quienes fueron sus inspiradores, conductores, coordinadores, alfabetizadores, la investigación se propone analizar la articulación entre pedagogía y política durante la realización de la campaña. Los testimonios rescatados en la presente investigación, representan figuras destacadas de la campaña de alfabetización en su doble dimensión de pedagogos y militantes políticos. En esta dirección, la presente tesis se propone recuperar los principales debates y discusiones que se generaron en torno a su desarrollo a partir de quienes fueron sus testigos. ¿Qué sueños proyectaban en la alfabetización? ¿Qué formas de imbricación entre lo político y lo pedagógico se produjo en su desarrollo? ¿Cómo se plasmó dicha articulación? ¿Sobre qué ejes vertebraron su discurso? Entre la pedagogía de la liberación y la doctrina del peronismo ¿qué lectura predominó? El desarrollo de este trabajo de investigación se propone invitar a recorrer este camino cargado de tensiones y contradicciones que, esperamos, se convierta en una contribución al campo de la historia de la educación reciente de la Argentina

La escuela con los pies en el aire. Hacer escuela, entre la desigualdad y la emancipación

El propósito de este trabajo de investigación es relevar la experiencia de una escuela pública del distrito de La Matanza, en el conurbano bonaerense. Esta institución enclavada en una zona popular, Villa Scasso, fue creada hace trece años y atiende a una población infantil y juvenil de educación especial. El motivo de la investigación no se centra en la especificidad de este campo educativo sino en el proceso de construcción de una propuesta pedagógica que tensiona las formas escolares, amplía las fronteras educativas y transforma el tiempo y el espacio escolar. La atención de la presente indagación está puesta en problematizar la relación de la educación con la desigualdad y la igualdad, con el objetivo de abrir nuevos interrogantes sobre el carácter de determinación que se le otorga a la pobreza, la marginalidad y la exclusión en el terreno educativo, en particular en su relación con las escuelas de sectores populares. Las infancias populares acceden a circuitos de escolarización diferenciados, pero su carácter reproductor y/o emancipador configura un discurso que no se clausura a priori. Esta tesis doctoral abre interrogantes sobre esta problemática y documenta una experiencia educativa que "hace escuela" de manera "especial"

Pedagogía y política. La campaña de alfabetización CREAR en la historia reciente de la educación de adultos en la Argentina de los '70

La tesis que presentamos es el resultado de un trabajo de investigación sobre la campaña de alfabetización CREAR realizada entre 1973 y 1975. La Campaña de Reactivación de la Educación del Adulto para la Reconstrucción, estuvo dirigida por la Dirección Nacional de Educación de Adultos (DINEA) en la etapa de la recuperación democrática luego de dieciocho años de gobiernos autoritarios combinados con la proscripción de la fuerza política mayoritaria. Apoyada en el registro testimonial de quienes fueron sus inspiradores, conductores, coordinadores, alfabetizadores, la investigación se propone analizar la articulación entre pedagogía y política durante la realización de la campaña. Los testimonios rescatados en la presente investigación, representan figuras destacadas de la campaña de alfabetización en su doble dimensión de pedagogos y militantes políticos. En esta dirección, la presente tesis se propone recuperar los principales debates y discusiones que se generaron en torno a su desarrollo a partir de quienes fueron sus testigos. ¿Qué sueños proyectaban en la alfabetización? ¿Qué formas de imbricación entre lo político y lo pedagógico se produjo en su desarrollo? ¿Cómo se plasmó dicha articulación? ¿Sobre qué ejes vertebraron su discurso? Entre la pedagogía de la liberación y la doctrina del peronismo ¿qué lectura predominó? El desarrollo de este trabajo de investigación se propone invitar a recorrer este camino cargado de tensiones y contradicciones que, esperamos, se convierta en una contribución al campo de la historia de la educación reciente de la Argentina

La escuela con los pies en el aire. Hacer escuela, entre la desigualdad y la emancipación

El propósito de este trabajo de investigación es relevar la experiencia de una escuela pública del distrito de La Matanza, en el conurbano bonaerense. Esta institución enclavada en una zona popular, Villa Scasso, fue creada hace trece años y atiende a una población infantil y juvenil de educación especial. El motivo de la investigación no se centra en la especificidad de este campo educativo sino en el proceso de construcción de una propuesta pedagógica que tensiona las formas escolares, amplía las fronteras educativas y transforma el tiempo y el espacio escolar. La atención de la presente indagación está puesta en problematizar la relación de la educación con la desigualdad y la igualdad, con el objetivo de abrir nuevos interrogantes sobre el carácter de determinación que se le otorga a la pobreza, la marginalidad y la exclusión en el terreno educativo, en particular en su relación con las escuelas de sectores populares. Las infancias populares acceden a circuitos de escolarización diferenciados, pero su carácter reproductor y/o emancipador configura un discurso que no se clausura a priori. Esta tesis doctoral abre interrogantes sobre esta problemática y documenta una experiencia educativa que "hace escuela" de manera "especial"

Pedagogía y política. La campaña de alfabetización CREAR en la historia reciente de la educación de adultos en la Argentina de los '70

La tesis que presentamos es el resultado de un trabajo de investigación sobre la campaña de alfabetización CREAR realizada entre 1973 y 1975. La Campaña de Reactivación de la Educación del Adulto para la Reconstrucción, estuvo dirigida por la Dirección Nacional de Educación de Adultos (DINEA) en la etapa de la recuperación democrática luego de dieciocho años de gobiernos autoritarios combinados con la proscripción de la fuerza política mayoritaria. Apoyada en el registro testimonial de quienes fueron sus inspiradores, conductores, coordinadores, alfabetizadores, la investigación se propone analizar la articulación entre pedagogía y política durante la realización de la campaña. Los testimonios rescatados en la presente investigación, representan figuras destacadas de la campaña de alfabetización en su doble dimensión de pedagogos y militantes políticos. En esta dirección, la presente tesis se propone recuperar los principales debates y discusiones que se generaron en torno a su desarrollo a partir de quienes fueron sus testigos. ¿Qué sueños proyectaban en la alfabetización? ¿Qué formas de imbricación entre lo político y lo pedagógico se produjo en su desarrollo? ¿Cómo se plasmó dicha articulación? ¿Sobre qué ejes vertebraron su discurso? Entre la pedagogía de la liberación y la doctrina del peronismo ¿qué lectura predominó? El desarrollo de este trabajo de investigación se propone invitar a recorrer este camino cargado de tensiones y contradicciones que, esperamos, se convierta en una contribución al campo de la historia de la educación reciente de la Argentina

La escuela con los pies en el aire. Hacer escuela, entre la desigualdad y la emancipación

El propósito de este trabajo de investigación es relevar la experiencia de una escuela pública del distrito de La Matanza, en el conurbano bonaerense. Esta institución enclavada en una zona popular, Villa Scasso, fue creada hace trece años y atiende a una población infantil y juvenil de educación especial. El motivo de la investigación no se centra en la especificidad de este campo educativo sino en el proceso de construcción de una propuesta pedagógica que tensiona las formas escolares, amplía las fronteras educativas y transforma el tiempo y el espacio escolar. La atención de la presente indagación está puesta en problematizar la relación de la educación con la desigualdad y la igualdad, con el objetivo de abrir nuevos interrogantes sobre el carácter de determinación que se le otorga a la pobreza, la marginalidad y la exclusión en el terreno educativo, en particular en su relación con las escuelas de sectores populares. Las infancias populares acceden a circuitos de escolarización diferenciados, pero su carácter reproductor y/o emancipador configura un discurso que no se clausura a priori. Esta tesis doctoral abre interrogantes sobre esta problemática y documenta una experiencia educativa que "hace escuela" de manera "especial"

Pollen records of five sediment cores from northern Germany

Within a larger program research work is being done on the history of settlement and landscape of the 'Siedlungskammer' Flögeln and the adjacent area. The 'Siedlungskammer' consists of an isolated pleistocene sand ground (Geest-island) surroundet by bogs. Starting from the edge of the Geest, near which large-scale archaeological excavations are carried out, three raised bog profiles were taken at 300, 500 and 4000 m off the prehistoric settlement. They were investigated by means of pollen analysis, and reflect in a decreasing way the activities of man on the Geestisland. Another pollen diagram from the nearby fen peat was worked out for comparison. At the same time it helped to date back a prehistoric sand path to the Roman period. The pollen diagrams cover the vegetational history without gaps from the early Atlantic period to modern times. The vegetation was decisively determined by the poor soils of this area. T'he pollen diagrams give evidence of the activity of settlers since the Neolithic age, with some gaps in the beginning, but later continuously from the middle of the Bronze age until the early migration period. The influence of the nearby settlement, which existed from the Birth of Christ to the 4/5th century, comes out distinctly. Among the cereals which were then cultivated here, there also was rye, at least in the 4/5th century, but most probably already during the Roman period. Besides that people cultivated barley, oats, and flax. The settlement break during the so-called dark ages between the 4/5th century and the time about 800 A.D. was confirmed by pollen analysis. During this time the area was once more covered by forests. The fluctuations of man's activities during the late Middle Ages and modern times, as they are made visible by pollen analysis, correspond to historically wellknown developments.

Time-dependency of Rocks and Implications Associated with Tunnelling

The formulation of a geotechnical model and the associated prediction of the mechanical behaviour is a challenge engineers need to overcome in order to optimize tunnel design and meet project requirements. Special challenges arise in cases where rocks and rockmasses are susceptible to time-effects and time-dependent processes govern. Progressive rockmass deformation and instability, time-dependent overloading of support and delayed failures are commonly the result of time-dependent phenomena. The research work presented in this thesis serves as an attempt to provide more insight into the time-dependent behaviour of rocks. Emphasis is given on investigating and analyzing creep deformation and time-dependent stress relaxation phenomenon at the laboratory scale and in-depth analyses are presented. This thesis further develops the understanding of these phenomena and practical yet scientific tools for estimating and predicting the long-term strength and the maximum stress relaxation of rock materials are proposed. The identification of the existence of three distinct behavioural stages during stress relaxation is presented and discussed. The main observations associated with time-dependent behaviour are employed in numerical analyses and applied at the tunnel scale. A new approach for simulating and capturing the time-dependent behaviour coupled with the tunnel advancement effect is also developed and analyzed. Guidance is provided to increase the understanding of the support-rockmass interaction and the main implications and significance of time-dependent behaviour associated with rock tunnelling are discussed. The work presented in this thesis advances the scientific understanding of time-dependent rock and rockmass behaviour, increases the awareness of how such phenomena are captured numerically, and lays out a framework for dealing with such deformations when predicting tunnel deformations. Practical aspects of this thesis are also presented, which will increase their usage in the associated industries and close the gap between the scientific and industry communities.

An innovative electroforming process for oil heated rotational moulding tools

Rotational moulding is a method to produce hollow plastic articles. Heating is normally carried out by placing the mould into a hot air oven where the plastic material in the mould is heated. The most common cooling media are water and forced air. Due to the inefficient nature of conventional hot air ovens most of the energy supplied by the oven does not go to heat the plastic and as a consequence the procedure has very long cycle times. Direct oil heating is an effective alternative in order to achieve better energy efficiency and cycle times. This research work has combined this technology with new innovative design of mould, applying the advantages of electroforming and rapid prototyping. Complex cavity geometries are manufactured by electroforming from a rapid prototyping mandrel. The approach involves conformal heating and cooling channels , where the oil flows into a parallel channel to the electroformed cavity (nickel or copper). Because of this the mould enables high temperature uniformity with direct heating and cooling of the electroformed shell, Uniform heating and cooling is important not only for good quality parts but also for good uniform wall thickness distribution in the rotationally moulded part. The experimental work with the manufactured prototype mould has enabled analysis of the thermal uniformity in the cavity, under different temperatures. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.

SOL-GEL Lanthanum Phosphate, Composite and coating for functional Applications.

Lanthanum phosphate is one among the lanthanide family of “Rare Earths” following the periodic table of elements. Known under the generic name, Monazite, the rare earth phosphates have melting points above 1900 °C, high thermal phase stability, low thermal conductivity and thermal expansion coefficient similar to some of the high temperature oxides like alumina and zirconia.

Influence of Forecasting, Planning and Controlling on the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises

Production Planning and Control (PPC) systems have grown and changed because of the developments in planning tools and models as well as the use of computers and information systems in this area. Though so much is available in research journals, practice of PPC is lagging behind and does not use much from published research. The practices of PPC in SMEs lag behind because of many reasons, which need to be explored. This research work deals with the effect of identified variables such as forecasting, planning and control methods adopted, demographics of the key person, standardization practices followed, effect of training, learning and IT usage on firm performance. A model and framework has been developed based on literature. Empirical testing of the model has been done after collecting data using a questionnaire schedule administered among the selected respondents from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in India. Final data included 382 responses. Hypotheses linking SME performance with the use of forecasting, planning and controlling were formed and tested. Exploratory factor analysis was used for data reduction and for identifying the factor structure. High and low performing firms were classified using a Logistic Regression model. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to study the structural relationship between firm performance and dependent variables.

Methods, Models & Systems for Dealing with Some Business, Management & Engineering Problems

This keynote presentation will report some of our research work and experience on the development and applications of relevant methods, models, systems and simulation techniques in support of different types and various levels of decision making for business, management and engineering. In particular, the following topics will be covered. Modelling, multi-agent-based simulation and analysis of the allocation management of carbon dioxide emission permits in China (Nanfeng Liu & Shuliang Li Agent-based simulation of the dynamic evolution of enterprise carbon assets (Yin Zeng & Shuliang Li) A framework & system for extracting and representing project knowledge contexts using topic models and dynamic knowledge maps: a big data perspective (Jin Xu, Zheng Li, Shuliang Li & Yanyan Zhang) Open innovation: intelligent model, social media & complex adaptive system simulation (Shuliang Li & Jim Zheng Li) A framework, model and software prototype for modelling and simulation for deshopping behaviour and how companies respond (Shawkat Rahman & Shuliang Li) Integrating multiple agents, simulation, knowledge bases and fuzzy logic for international marketing decision making (Shuliang Li & Jim Zheng Li) A Web-based hybrid intelligent system for combined conventional, digital, mobile, social media and mobile marketing strategy formulation (Shuliang Li & Jim Zheng Li) A hybrid intelligent model for Web & social media dynamics, and evolutionary and adaptive branding (Shuliang Li) A hybrid paradigm for modelling, simulation and analysis of brand virality in social media (Shuliang Li & Jim Zheng Li) Network configuration management: attack paradigms and architectures for computer network survivability (Tero Karvinen & Shuliang Li)

Estudo sobre a Transferência da Formação na EFAPEL, S.A.

O presente trabalho de investigação pretendeu estudar e avaliar a transferência da formação para o local de trabalho e os seus impactos ao nível das alterações no desempenho dos colaboradores da EFAPEL, S.A. De forma a tornar possível esse objetivo, o estudo procurou apoiar-se nos pressupostos teóricos que sustêm um projeto desta natureza. Abordando a transferência da formação no contexto organizacional, procurou-se determinar quais os fatores que afetam a mesma para o local de trabalho e para a função desempenhada. Neste sentido, e considerando as três dimensões que influenciam a transferência da formação, o presente estudo pretende, de alguma forma, ser um contributo para um melhor conhecimento da transferência da formação através, da análise empírica de como determinadas variáveis relacionadas com as características individuais, as características da conceção da formação e com as características organizacionais, influenciam a transferência da formação. Os resultados obtidos indicam-nos que os fatores identificados como os que mais influenciam a transferência da formação são, sem dúvida, os fatores organizacionais, o que indica que a cultura e as práticas da organização são decisivas na transferência e eficácia da formação. Deseja-se que os resultados obtidos na investigação contribuam para a melhoria e ajustamentos no processo de gestão e implementação da formação na EFAPEL, S.A., com ganhos de eficiência e eficácia. / This research work was to study and evaluate the transfer of training to the workplace and their impacts in terms of changes in the performance of employees EFAPEL, SA. In order to make this goal possible, the study sought to build on the theoretical assumptions that sustain a project of this nature. Addressing the transfer of training in the organizational context, we sought to determine which factors affect the same for the workplace and for the function performed. In this sense, and considering the three dimensions that influence the transfer of training, the present study intends to somehow be a contribution to a better knowledge transfer through training, the empirical analysis of how certain variables related to individual characteristics, the characteristics of the design of training and organizational characteristics influence the transfer of training. The results show us that the factors identified as those that most influence the transfer of training are undoubtedly organizational factors, indicating that the culture and practices of the organization are crucial in the transfer and training effectiveness. It is hoped that the results obtained in the research will contribute to the improvement and adjustments in management process and implementation of training in EFAPEL, SA, with gains in efficiency and effectiveness.