Using Windmill Expansion for Document Retrieval

SEMIOTIKS aims to utilise online information to support the crucial decision–making of those military and civilian agencies involved in the humanitarian removal of landmines in areas of conflict throughout the world. An analysis of the type of information required for such a task has given rise to four main areas of research: information retrieval, document annotation, summarisation and visualisation. The first stage of the research has focused on information retrieval, and a new algorithm, “Windmill Expansion” (WE) has been proposed to do this. The algorithm uses retrieval feedback techniques for automated query expansion in order to improve the effectiveness of information retrieval. WE is based on the extraction of human–generated written phases for automated query expansion. Top and Second Level expansion terms have been generated and their usefulness evaluated. The evaluation has concentrated on measuring the degree of overlap between the retrieved URLs. The less the overlap, the more useful the information provided. The Top Level expansion terms were found to provide 90% of useful URLs, and the Second Level 83% of useful URLs. Although there was a decline of useful URLs from the Top Level to the Second Level, the quantity of relevant information retrieved has increased. The originality of SEMIOTIKS lies in its use of the WE algorithm to help non–domain specific experts automatically explore domain words for relevant and precise information retrieval

Environmental determinants of landmine detection by dogs: Findings from a large-scale study in Afghanistan

This article’s purpose is to examine the strengths and weaknesses of mine-detection dogs in different environments. The experiments employed a total of 39 dogs in Afghanistan between October 2002 and July 2003. The results are discussed here

How Can Economists Help Clear Landmines and Unexploded Ordnance?

Millions of mines lie in or on the ground in 62 countries resulting in thousands of deaths and injuries each year. Most mines are cleared using probes and hand held mine detectors; although sniffer dogs and a variety of machines are becoming more common. Clearing landmines is very expensive with costs often reaching US$10 per square metre; over US$1.5 billion has been spent on clearing mines since 1992. Most of the organisations involved in mine clearance have concentrated on technical aspects and put less emphasis on the most cost effective way of getting the job done. This paper reviews the contribution that economists can make in the area of humanitarian mine clearance and describes the development of a software package and manual designed to help managers decide which combination of machine and manual methods should be used to clear minefields to the required safety standard at the lowest cost.Mine Clearance, Cost Effectiveness Analysis, Software Model, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use,

The value of statistical life and cost-benefit evaluations of landmine clearance in Cambodia

Development agencies spend approximately US$400 million per year on landmine clearance. Yet many cost-benefit evaluations suggest that landmine clearance is socially wasteful because costs appear to far outweigh social benefits. This paper presents new estimates of the benefits of clearing landmines based on a contingent valuation survey in two provinces in rural Cambodia where we asked respondents questions that elicit their tradeoffs between money and the risk of death from landmine accidents. The estimated Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) is US$0.4 million. In contrast, most previous studies of landmine clearance use foregone income or average GDP per capita, which has a lifetime value of only US$2,000 in Cambodia. Humanitarian landmine clearance emerges as a more attractive rural development policy when appropriate estimates of the VSL are used

Safety, Security and Socio-Economic Wellbeing in Somaliland

This report documents the findings from a study on the relationship between safety/security and socio-economic wellbeing in Somaliland. The study was conducted for the Danish Demining Group (DDG) and Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining in twelve of DDG's project sites. It is based on a quantitative survey of 378 households and qualitative focus group interviews. Findings suggest a high degree of correlation between improvements in safety and security, many associated with the community safety work of DDG, and socio-economic benefits to communities. Reported benefits include fewer conflicts, more secure communities at night, fewer accidents involving small arms and explosive remnants of war, and better community-police relations. These are perceived to have contributed to improvements in access to markets, lengthening hours that businesses can remain open, improved opportunities for participating in savings activities, and generally increased household incomes. Recommendations for maximizing the benefits of improved security for socio-economic gains are provided

The value of statistical life and cost–benefit evaluations of landmine clearance in Cambodia

Development agencies spend approximately US$400 million per year on landmine clearance. Yet many cost–benefit evaluations suggest that landmine clearance is socially wasteful because costs appear to far outweigh social benefits. This paper presents new estimates of the benefits of clearing landmines based on a contingent valuation survey in two provinces in rural Cambodia where we asked respondents questions that elicit their trade-offs between money and the risk of death from landmine accidents. The estimated Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) is US$ 0.4 million. In contrast, most previous studies of landmine clearance use foregone income or average GDP per capita, which has a lifetime value of only US$ 2,000 in Cambodia. Humanitarian landmine clearance emerges as a more attractive rural development policy when appropriate estimates of the VSL are used

Robots for Humanitarian Demining

More than 100,000,000 anti-personnel mines have been laid in deferent part of the world by terrorists or government forces. The mines are cheapest weapon, built to make horrible injuries, affecting active people, with major falls-off into economic growth. Therefore, after or during a war demining is a big technological problem which needs to address by the governments. All demining activities can be classified mainly in two different ways, military demining and humanitarian demining. Main objective of military demining is to make a quick safe path for troops and may be 80% clearing is enough for them. On the other hand, humanitarian demining target is to clear 100% to ensure the use of lands by people who are not involved in the conflicts for their day-to-day activities including farming. Mainly humanitarian demining has two tasks: detection and removal. Still the use of robots is questionable in this regard. Mainly robots work well for clean and reliable tasks. When the price to performance ratio is too high, they are academic toys. This chapter presents the overview of the available robotic technologies with a depth comparison between them by considering the appropriateness to the local context