Gaming and multimedia applications for environmental crisis management training

Abstract Environmental crisis management training has been mainly focused on the individual task and responsibilities of the team members, rather than on the team aspects. This paper will discuss the possibilities of using computer support and collaborative training to improve the staff training in crisis situations. The paper is based on the description and the results of GAMMA-EC Project (GAMMA-EC was developed within the Fourth Framework Programme's sector Educational Multimedia of the Telematics Applications Programme. The project started in July 1998 and was finished in December 2000. www.tno.nl/instit/fel/gamma_ec.) that was developed with the aim of improving the training of the environmental emergency staff in decision-making and in communication.

Peripheral facial nerve palsy: how effective is rehabilitation?

OBJECTIVE: To review the current literature to assess the effectiveness of rehabilitation treatment for peripheral facial nerve palsy. DATA SOURCES: A review of the literature was conducted using the following database: PubMed, EMBASE, PEDro, and Scopus. All randomized or quasi randomized controlled trials, case control, cohort studies and case series greater than 6 published between 1990 and 2010 in the English language were included. STUDY SELECTION: All types of peripheral facial nerve palsy were included. We considered all the exercises or rehabilitation programs provided by a physiotherapy in outpatient or home setting and excluded trials in which a drug therapy or surgical intervention was investigated. Three reviewers independently selected the articles. DATA EXTRACTION: To rate the methodological quality of the studies the American Academy of Neurology classification of evidence for therapeutic intervention (Classes I-IV) was applied. CONCLUSION: Peripheral injury of the VIIth cranial nerve can have serious repercussions on the patient's functioning and quality of life. The recovery rate is related to the preservation of the nerve and to the cause of palsy. We obtained a third level of recommendation (level C); mime therapy could be effective to improve functional outcome in these patients. Evidence of specific treatment addressed to specific cause is lacking; likewise, no evidence is available on timing of intervention with respect to time of onset. Well-designed randomized controlled trials are required to evaluate the effect of rehabilitation in patients with facial pals

Ontology mapping to support multilingual ontology-based question answering

In this paper we report results obtained by using the XeOML mapping language to harmonize two ontologies developed as a support for a multilingual, distributed question answering system for two university domains. The test bed has allowed us to test the various possibilities offered by the language to express simple and complex mappings that reflect different levels of similarities between classes and properties of the two ontologies. Inference rules were also created to expand the coverage of the initial manually defined mapping document. The non-trivial nature of the study is backed up by overall quantitative information on the nature of the mapping resource produced