Contextual information and assessor characteristics in complex question answering

The ciqa track investigates the role of interaction in answering complex questions: questions that relate two or more entities by some specified relationship. In our submission to the first ciqa track we were interested in the interplay between groups of variables: variables describing the question creators, the questions asked and the presentation of answers to the questions. We used two interaction forms - html questionnaires completed before answer assessment - to gain contextual information from the answer assessors to better understand what factors influence assessors when judging retrieved answers to complex questions. Our results indicate the importance of understanding the assessor's personal relationship to the question - their existing topical knowledge for example - and also the presentation of the answers - contextual information about the answer to aid in the assessment of the answer

Topic based language models for ad hoc information retrieval

We propose a topic based approach lo language modelling for ad-hoc Information Retrieval (IR). Many smoothed estimators used for the multinomial query model in IR rely upon the estimated background collection probabilities. In this paper, we propose a topic based language modelling approach, that uses a more informative prior based on the topical content of a document. In our experiments, the proposed model provides comparable IR performance to the standard models, but when combined in a two stage language model, it outperforms all other estimated models

Shedding light on a living lab: the CLEF NEWSREEL open recommendation platform

In the CLEF NEWSREEL lab, participants are invited to evaluate news recommendation techniques in real-time by providing news recommendations to actual users that visit commercial news portals to satisfy their information needs. A central role within this lab is the communication between participants and the users. This is enabled by The Open Recommendation Platform (ORP), a web-based platform which distributes users' impressions of news articles to the participants and returns their recommendations to the readers. In this demo, we illustrate the platform and show how requests are handled to provide relevant news articles in real-time

Detection of curved lines with B-COSFIRE filters: A case study on crack delineation

The detection of curvilinear structures is an important step for various computer vision applications, ranging from medical image analysis for segmentation of blood vessels, to remote sensing for the identification of roads and rivers, and to biometrics and robotics, among others. %The visual system of the brain has remarkable abilities to detect curvilinear structures in noisy images. This is a nontrivial task especially for the detection of thin or incomplete curvilinear structures surrounded with noise. We propose a general purpose curvilinear structure detector that uses the brain-inspired trainable B-COSFIRE filters. It consists of four main steps, namely nonlinear filtering with B-COSFIRE, thinning with non-maximum suppression, hysteresis thresholding and morphological closing. We demonstrate its effectiveness on a data set of noisy images with cracked pavements, where we achieve state-of-the-art results (F-measure=0.865). The proposed method can be employed in any computer vision methodology that requires the delineation of curvilinear and elongated structures.Comment: Accepted at Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns (CAIP) 201

Hymn to the heroes of Malta

Ġabra ta’ poeżiji u proża li tinkludi: Alla fil-ħolqien ta’ Ġużè Agius Bonello – Is-sena u l-bniedem ta’ Ġużè Ellul-Mercer – Li tiżra’ taħsad ta’ Vic. Apap – Huwa ta’ Gino Muscat-Azzopardi – Żewġ friefet ta’ Vincent Caruana – Iċ-ċagħka ta’ Ġużè Borg – Warda midbiela ta’ C. Gauci – It-tfajla tas-sulfarini ta’ Albert M. Cassola – L-aħħar traduzzjoni ta’ May Butcher qabel ma mietet – Hymn to the heroes of Malta.N/

Investigating the anti-oestrogenic effect of p-Synephrine and de novo design of oestrogen receptor modulating molecules

p-synephrine is the active ingredient in Citrus aurantium which is a major component of weight loss preparations. A uterotrophic assay carried out by Arbo et al. on immature female mice demonstrated that p-synephrine could act as an antagonist at the oestrogen receptor. This warrants consideration because these formulations are used indiscriminately by young women. 17βoestradiol has a high affinity for the oestrogen receptor; consequently it was used as a benchmark against which the affinity of p-synephrine and the de novo designed non-steroidal molecules could be compared. Binding affinities of the psynephrine molecules were relatively low (pKd= 4.5-5.0) compared to that of 17β-oestradiol (pKd 7.23). However, the de novo generated molecules had affinities ranging between 5.6-8.48. This gives a good indication that these molecules could potentiallydisplace 17β-oestradiol from the oestrogen receptor ligand binding pocket and that they could be further developed for the treatment of breast cancer and osteoporosis.peer-reviewe

Terminal velocities of luminous, early-type SMC stars

Ultraviolet spectra from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) are used to determine terminal velocities for 11 O and B-type giants and supergiants in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) from the Si IV and C IV resonance lines. Using archival data from observations with the Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph and the International Ultraviolet Explorer telescope, terminal velocities are obtained for a further five B-type supergiants. We discuss the metallicity dependence of stellar terminal velocities, finding no evidence for a significant scaling between Galactic and SMC metallicities for Teff < 30,000 K, consistent with the predictions of radiation driven wind theory for supergiant stars. A comparison of the $v_\infty / v_{esc}$ ratio between the SMC and Galactic samples, while consistent with the above statement, emphasizes that the uncertainties in the distances to galactic O-stars are a serious obstacle to a detailed comparison with theory. For the SMC sample there is considerable scatter in this ratio at a given effective temperature, perhaps indicative of uncertainties in stellar masses.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ApJ; minor revisions prior to acceptanc

Optimisation of Tyrosine-based lead molecules capable of Modulation of the Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) agonist rosiglitazone has recently been withdrawn from the European market and its use has been restricted in the US due to its undesirable effects which were considered to outweigh its benefits. Literature indicates that there are two agonist bound conformations of the PPARγ as exemplified by its binding to rosiglitazone (PDB ID; 1FM6) and to farglitazar (PDB ID; 1FM9). This study aims to explore these two conformations, and to evaluate whether they should be targeted separately in the context of drug design studies. Furthermore, it was aimed to design a series of molecules with the potential to act as leads in a drug design process and the capability of agonist activity at the PPARγ with an acceptable side effect profile. In silico ligand binding affinities (pKd) of rosiglitazone and farglitazar within their cognate receptors were 6.62 and 9.70 respectively. The farglitazar conformer that bound optimally within the rosiglitazone bound PPARγ ligand binding pocket was identified and its binding affinity (pKd) re-determined. An analogous conformational analysis of rosiglitazone within the farglitazar bound PPARγ ligand binding pocket was carried out. The binding affinities (pKd) for these optimum conformations were 8.12 and 6.16 respectively. De novo novel structures were generated in silico based on the tyrosine-agonist farglitazar and its cognate ligand binding pocket. Moreover, analysis of the binding modality of farglitazar indicates that this molecule accesses the PPARγ ligand binding pocket more completely than does rosiglitazone. Binding affinity studies have shown that the PPARγ ligand binding pocket adopts diverse ligand driven conformations.peer-reviewe

Decoding of the light changes in eclipsing Wolf-Rayet binaries I. A non-classical approach to the solution of light curves

We present a technique to determine the orbital and physical parameters of eclipsing eccentric Wolf-Rayet + O-star binaries, where one eclipse is produced by the absorption of the O-star light by the stellar wind of the W-R star. Our method is based on the use of the empirical moments of the light curve that are integral transforms evaluated from the observed light curves. The optical depth along the line of sight and the limb darkening of the W-R star are modelled by simple mathematical functions, and we derive analytical expressions for the moments of the light curve as a function of the orbital parameters and the key parameters of the transparency and limb-darkening functions. These analytical expressions are then inverted in order to derive the values of the orbital inclination, the stellar radii, the fractional luminosities, and the parameters of the wind transparency and limb-darkening laws. The method is applied to the SMC W-R eclipsing binary HD 5980, a remarkable object that underwent an LBV-like event in August 1994. The analysis refers to the pre-outburst observational data. A synthetic light curve based on the elements derived for the system allows a quality assessment of the results obtained.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic