Modeling of the Expected Lidar Return Signal for Wake Vortex Experiments

A computer program that models the Lidar return signal for Wake Vortex experiments conducted by the Aerosol Research Branch was written. The specifications of the program and basic theory behind the calculations are briefly discussed. Results of the research and possible future improvements on it are also discussed

Moving towards Adaptive Search

Information retrieval has become very popular over the last decade with the advent of the Web. Nevertheless, searching on the Web is very different to searching on smaller, often more structured collections such as intranets and digital libraries. Such collections are the focus of the recently started AutoAdapt project1. The project seeks to aid user search by providing well-structured domain knowledge to assist query modification and navigation. There are two challenges: acquiring the domain knowledge and adapting it automatically to the specific interest of the user community. At the workshop we will demonstrate an implemented prototype that serves as a starting point on the way to truly adaptive search

Using domain models for context-rich user logging

This paper describes the prototype interactive search sys- Tem being developed within the AutoAdapt project1. The AutoAdapt project seeks to enhance the user experience in searching for information and navigating within selected do- main collections by providing structured representations of domain knowledge to be directly explored, logged, adapted and updated to refject user needs. We propose that this structure is a valuable stepping-stone in context-rich logging of user activities within the information seeking environment. Here we describe the primary components that have been implemented and the user interactions that it will support

A Methodology for Simulated Experiments in Interactive Search

Interactive information retrieval has received much attention in recent years, e.g. [7]. Furthermore, increased activity in developing interactive features in search systems used across existing popular Web search engines suggests that interactive systems are being recognised as a promising next step in assisting information search. One of the most challenging problems with interactive systems however remains evaluation. We describe the general specifications of a methodology for conducting controlled and reproducible experiments in the context of interactive search. It was developed in the AutoAdapt project1 focusing on search in intranets, but the methodology is more generic than that and can be applied to interactive Web search as well. The goal of this methodology is to evaluate the ability of different algorithms to produce domain models that provide accurate suggestions for query modifications. The AutoAdapt project investigates the application of automatically constructed adaptive domain models for providing suggestions for query modifications to the users of an intranet search engine. This goes beyond static models such as the one employed to guide users who search the Web site of the University of Essex which is based on a domain model that has been built in advance using the documents’ markup structure

Macroscopic corrosion front computations of sulfate attack in sewer pipes based on a micro-macro reaction-diffusion model

We consider a two-scale reaction diffusion system able to capture the corrosion of concrete with sulfates. Our aim here is to define and compute two macroscopic corrosion indicators: typical pH drop and gypsum profiles. Mathematically, the system is coupled, endowed with micro-macro transmission conditions, and posed on two different spatially-separated scales: one microscopic (pore scale) and one macroscopic (sewer pipe scale). We use a logarithmic expression to compute values of pH from the volume averaged concentration of sulfuric acid which is obtained by resolving numerically the two-scale system (microscopic equations with direct feedback with the macroscopic diffusion of one of the reactants). Furthermore, we also evaluate the content of the main sulfatation reaction (corrosion) product –the gypsum– and point out numerically a persistent kink in gypsum's concentration profile. Finally, we illustrate numerically the position of the free boundary separating corroded from not-yet-corroded regions

Interludes and Irony in the Ancestral Narrative

The strange stories of Hagar, Dinah, and Tamar unsettle the ancestral narrative in Genesis. Whereas the ancestral narrative revolves around the interests of the ancestral family, these stories deviate from the main plot and draw attention to the interests of non- ancestral characters. Interpretation traditionally domesticates the strange stories by focusing on how they may serve the purposes of the embedding ancestral narrative. This thesis, however, revives the question of their strangeness and proposes an original response: the strange stories are interludes that ironize ancestral identity. The concepts of interlude and irony lay the methodological groundwork for this thesis. Because scholarship commonly identifies the strange stories as “interludes,” this study innovates a poetics of the interlude. This poetics, which derives from the model of certain musical interludes, suggests that the interlude’s function is to develop primary thematic content. While scholarship conventionally allows the primary narrative to determine the significance of the interlude, this poetics illumines how the interlude may determine aspects of the primary narrative. A hermeneutics of irony, in turn, offers a persuasive account of how an interlude may develop primary thematic material. This study bases its hermeneutics on the idea that irony consists in quoting a prior proposition and implying a negative judgment toward it. When the interludes invoke central ancestral motifs, they may mean something different—even contrary—to what was meant before. A poetics of the interlude and a hermeneutics of irony drive this study’s close readings of the strange stories. The close readings demonstrate how the interludes ironize key themes of ancestral identity: the ancestral-divine relationship, ancestral relations to the land and its inhabitants, and ancestral self-identity. Each interlude subverts the conventionally exclusive formulation of an ancestral theme and shows that, while ancestral identity may be contained in the ancestral family, it is not contained by it

Active Expert Learning for the Digital Humanities

Current platforms for paper sharing among scholars, such as Research Gate, could support Active Expert Learning, whereby the paper being uploaded is processed using human language technology techniques, and feedback is asked of the scholar doing the upload using active learning techniques to minimize the amount of feedback requested. We show that this approach could outperform traditional active learning as well as randomly asking for feedback

Development of a microchannel plate based gated x-ray imager for imaging and spectroscopy experiments on z

This poster describes a microchannelplate (MCP)–based, gated x-ray imager developed by National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec), and Sandia National Laboratories(SNL) over the past several years. The camera consists of a 40 mm × 40 mm MCP, coated with eight 4 mm wide microstrips. The camera is gated by sending subnanosecond high-voltage pulses across the striplines. We have performed an extensive characterization of the camera, the results of which we present here. The camera has an optical gate profile width (time resolution) as narrow as 150 ps and detector uniformity of better than 30% along the length of a strip, far superior than what was achieved in previous designs. The spatial resolution is on the order of 40 microns for imaging applications and a dynamic range of between ~100 and ~1000. We also present results from a Monte Carlo simulation code developed by NSTec over the last several years. Agreement between the simulation results and the experimental measurements is very good

A fast and intuitive method for calculating dynamic network reconfiguration and node flexibility

Dynamic interactions between brain regions, either during rest or performance of cognitive tasks, have been studied extensively using a wide variance of methods. Although some of these methods allow elegant mathematical interpretations of the data, they can easily become computationally expensive or difficult to interpret and compare between subjects or groups. Here, we propose an intuitive and computationally efficient method to measure dynamic reconfiguration of brain regions, also termed flexibility. Our flexibility measure is defined in relation to an a-priori set of biologically plausible brain modules (or networks) and does not rely on a stochastic data-driven module estimation, which, in turn, minimizes computational burden. The change of affiliation of brain regions over time with respect to these a-priori template modules is used as an indicator of brain network flexibility. We demonstrate that our proposed method yields highly similar patterns of whole-brain network reconfiguration (i.e., flexibility) during a working memory task as compared to a previous study that uses a data-driven, but computationally more expensive method. This result illustrates that the use of a fixed modular framework allows for valid, yet more efficient estimation of whole-brain flexibility, while the method additionally supports more fine-grained (e.g. node and group of nodes scale) flexibility analyses restricted to biologically plausible brain networks.</p