Modelling of E-Governance Framework for Mining Knowledge from Massive Grievance Redressal Data

With the massive proliferation of online applications for the citizens with abundant resources, there is a tremendous hike in usage of e-governance platforms. Right from entrepreneur, players, politicians, students, or anyone who are highly depending on web-based grievance redressal networking sites, which generates loads of massive grievance data that are not only challenging but also highly impossible to understand. The prime reason behind this is grievance data is massive in size and they are highly unstructured. Because of this fact, the proposed system attempts to understand the possibility of performing knowledge discovery process from grievance Data using conventional data mining algorithms. Designed in Java considering massive number of online e-governance framework from civilian’s grievance discussion forums, the proposed system evaluates the effectiveness of performing datamining for Big data

Fast and sensitive mapping of nanopore sequencing reads with GraphMap

Realizing the democratic promise of nanopore sequencing requires the development of new bioinformatics approaches to deal with its specific error characteristics. Here we present GraphMap, a mapping algorithm designed to analyse nanopore sequencing reads, which progressively refines candidate alignments to robustly handle potentially high-error rates and a fast graph traversal to align long reads with speed and high precision (>95%). Evaluation on MinION sequencing data sets against short- and long-read mappers indicates that GraphMap increases mapping sensitivity by 10–80% and maps >95% of bases. GraphMap alignments enabled single-nucleotide variant calling on the human genome with increased sensitivity (15%) over the next best mapper, precise detection of structural variants from length 100 bp to 4 kbp, and species and strain-specific identification of pathogens using MinION reads. GraphMap is available open source under the MIT license at https://github.com/isovic/graphmap

Characterizing the bacterial community associated with the model alcyoniid Lobophytum pauciflorum

Casey Whalen studied the bacterial community associated with microhabitats and developing larvae of the soft coral Lobophytum pauciflorum. He also identified in L. pauciflorum potential homologs of proteins with known antimicrobial properties in other Cnidaria. His findings contribute to our collective knowledge on host-symbiont interactions, especially in the understudied Octocorallia

Economic Analysis of Alternative Flood Control Measures by Digital Computer

The purpose of this project was to develop a digital computer program for selecting the optimum combination of flood proofing, flood-plain land use, channel improvement, and residual flood damage for a given floodplain. Based on economic efficiency, the optimum policy is selected for each planning unit of the total flood-plain for each period of time called a planning stage. The program was written in Fortran IV for the IBM 7040 and the University of Kentucky Computing Center compiler. The program requires about 23,000 words of core storage and about 30 seconds of execution time per planning-unit-stage for typical conditions. The program is not intended to furnish a finished design but is intended to select the optimum combination of flood control measures and residual flooding with regard to both time and space. The program was used to test the sensitivity of the optimum combination of measures to variation in discount rate, right-of-way value, population projections, value of open space amenities, adversion to large annual variation in flood damage, costs of restricting flood-plain land use, costs of flood proofing, and costs of channel improvements. It was also used to analyze the effectiveness of land use, flood proofing, and channel improvement used individually and in various combinations. Program development and sensitivity studies were based on data previously collected for the Morrison Creek Watershed near Sacramento, California

April 4, 1992, Ohio University Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes document the activities of Ohio University\u27s Board of Trustees

Consensus Modeling as a Cultural Practice: A Case Study From a Seventh-Grade Science Classroom

Recent reforms in science education aim to involve K-12 students in practices similar to those of professional scientists. These reforms promote student collaboration and science practices including developing models and engaging in scientific argumentation with evidence. Small group work in science classrooms has increased following the reforms. However, while small group collaboration has gained popularity, research suggests that it does not always lead to equitable participation. This qualitative case study uses discourse analysis to examine how two small groups of students in a seventh-grade science class develop consensus models of a phenomenon and how students are socialized to participate in those small groups. The results indicate that the groups used four different communicative pathways to include entities in the group consensus model. Each of the four pathways had varying amounts of participation for group members and influenced the consensus process. Analysis of how these pathways unfold during small group work suggests that students formed social hierarchies in the group that influenced participation for each group member. The results demonstrate that while small groups are assigned to create “consensus models,” the final models may not demonstrate true group consensus. There may still be benefits to consensus modeling instruction, however, more research is needed to understand the benefits and to develop instruction that promotes equitable opportunities to participate for all group members

Reinforcement Learning for Parameter Control of Image-Based Applications

The significant amount of data contained in digital images present barriers to methods of learning from the information they hold. Noise and the subjectivity of image evaluation further complicate such automated processes. In this thesis, we examine a particular area in which these difficulties are experienced. We attempt to control the parameters of a multi-step algorithm that processes visual information. A framework for approaching the parameter selection problem using reinforcement learning agents is presented as the main contribution of this research. We focus on the generation of state and action space, as well as task-dependent reward. We first discuss the automatic determination of fuzzy membership functions as a specific case of the above problem. Entropy of a fuzzy event is used as a reinforcement signal. Membership functions representing brightness have been automatically generated for several images. The results show that the reinforcement learning approach is superior to an existing simulated annealing-based approach. The framework has also been evaluated by optimizing ten parameters of the text detection for semantic indexing algorithm proposed by Wolf et al. Image features are defined and extracted to construct the state space. Generalization to reduce the state space is performed with the fuzzy ARTMAP neural network, offering much faster learning than in the previous tabular implementation, despite a much larger state and action space. Difficulties in using a continuous action space are overcome by employing the DIRECT method for global optimization without derivatives. The chosen parameters are evaluated using metrics of recall and precision, and are shown to be superior to the parameters previously recommended. We further discuss the interplay between intermediate and terminal reinforcement

Puerto Rican Teens\u27 Perceptions of Teen Pregnancy and Births in Holyoke, Massachusetts

The high teen birth rate in Holyoke, Massachusetts is a complex problem. The teen birth rate is over five times the state‘s rate and nearly three times the national rate. Since a majority of these births are to Latinas of Puerto Rican descent it is important to include the perceptions of Puerto Rican teens in approaches to prevent teen pregnancy and reduce the birth rate. Although there is a plethora of research on the topic of teen pregnancy and births, there is scarcity in the area of perceptions held by teens of Puerto Rican descent about teen pregnancy and births, future consequences faced by teen parents, contributing and protective factors of teen pregnancy, and potential preventive interventions. This qualitative study used a series of eight focus groups to gather data and examine perceptions held by Puerto Rican teens living in Holyoke about teen pregnancy and birth. The Ecological Model of Health Behavior provided the theoretical framework. Findings indicate that Puerto Rican teens in Holyoke perceive that: teen pregnancy is largely unintentional and a problem with negative outcomes, a lack of information on sexual health and reproduction contributes to this problem, sexual and reproductive health education should be provided to all teens, social factors may either contribute to or prevent teen pregnancy teens, and they want their ideas heard. These findings suggest that teen pregnancy and birth is a complex public health problem in need of a comprehensive approach recognizing that interventions focused on individuals are not likely to have powerful or sustained effects. Rather a combination of interventions addressing individual, interpersonal, community and societal levels are needed for risk reduction and effective behavior chang

Fourth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 90)

The proceedings of the SOAR workshop are presented. The technical areas included are as follows: Automation and Robotics; Environmental Interactions; Human Factors; Intelligent Systems; and Life Sciences. NASA and Air Force programmatic overviews and panel sessions were also held in each technical area

Children, media and regulation

Each new medium of communication that has emerged over the past century and more has generated concern over its alleged negative effect on children. This concern has (in most cases) generated a moral panic, involving campaigning by moral guardians and office spokespeople, calls for greater regulation and subsequent response from the government or designated regulators. Based on continued inconclusive media effects research and debates over adults' and children's rights, regulation has become increasingly problematic. Such questions as how far you should restrict and protect children and how it may be possible to balance protection with rights, are complex and fraught with practical difficulties. These are the kind of questions that regulators have currently to consider. In addition, media convergence and internet technology threaten traditional regulatory structures. Such developments pose a further regulatory quandary. How are regulators attempting to tackle these issues? The thesis attempts to examine this question by exploring how regulators have responded to panics over children's media and whether their attempts have resulted in robust regulatory systems. The regulation systems analysed embrace advertising and obesity, internet chat-rooms and grooming, video games and violence and cinema regulation (the 12A classification). Case studies of these particular areas of current concern show how regulation has developed and how it works in practice, assess whether such regulation is effective and if not, recommends ways in which it could be improved