Towards Better Understanding Researcher Strategies in Cross-Lingual Event Analytics

With an increasing amount of information on globally important events, there is a growing demand for efficient analytics of multilingual event-centric information. Such analytics is particularly challenging due to the large amount of content, the event dynamics and the language barrier. Although memory institutions increasingly collect event-centric Web content in different languages, very little is known about the strategies of researchers who conduct analytics of such content. In this paper we present researchers' strategies for the content, method and feature selection in the context of cross-lingual event-centric analytics observed in two case studies on multilingual Wikipedia. We discuss the influence factors for these strategies, the findings enabled by the adopted methods along with the current limitations and provide recommendations for services supporting researchers in cross-lingual event-centric analytics.Comment: In Proceedings of the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries 201

L'equity crowdfunding, una possibile soluzione al credit crunch. Analisi della piattaforma inglese Seedrs.

Il crowdfunding è una nuova forma di finanziamento, nata per combattere il fenomeno del credit crunch, consistente in un processo di raccolta fondi di tipo collettivo realizzato tramite portali online, per sostenere una serie di progetti o iniziative. Il crowdfunding, che può essere tradotto letteralmente in italiano come “finanziamento della folla” consente ai singoli soggetti di richiedere finanziamenti ad un pubblico indistinto di persone (“crowd=folla”). Il fenomeno è divenuto oggetto di discussione a seguito dell’emanazione del Decreto Legge 18 ottobre 2012 n.179 (Decreto Crescita bis) convertito in Legge n.221 del 17 dicembre 2012, e successivamente con il Regolamento Consob di cui alla delibera n.18592 del 26 giugno 2013, che hanno consentito all’Italia di essere il primo Paese in Europa a regolamentare il modello equity-crowdfunding. Nella prima parte dell’elaborato si procederà innanzitutto ad una descrizione generale del fenomeno, della sua nascita e dei diversi modelli che si sono affermati: donation-based, reward-based, lending-based e equity-based; inoltre si cercherà di individuare e descrivere sia i benefici e i rischi di cui devono essere a conoscenza gli investitori e le imprese che fanno ricorso alle piattaforme di crowdfunding, sia i numeri raccolti fino ad oggi dall’industria mondiale del crowdfunding. Il secondo capitolo rappresenta il focus centrale dell’elaborato dove la disciplina viene scomposta in primaria (Decreto Crescita bis) e secondaria (Regolamento Consob), per poi procedere ad una analisi da un punto di vista legislativo, mettendo in evidenza le critiche alla normativa e le possibili soluzioni o modifiche che potrebbero migliorare o rendere più semplici le procedure necessarie. Infine è risultato interessante condurre un’analisi comparativa con le normative di altri stati europei e degli Stati Uniti, paese con il quale si è deciso di procedere ad un confronto più approfondito per il suo primato nel numero di transazioni di crowdfunding. Nel terzo capitolo l’obiettivo è quello di comprendere, da un punto di vista quantitativo, lo sviluppo del crowdfunding in Italia; partendo da un’analisi delle principali tappe che lo hanno portato a guadagnarsi un così grande successo, si arriverà a capire nel dettaglio quella che è, ad oggi, la composizione del mercato italiano del crowdfunding. Il capitolo terminerà con una breve descrizione delle principali campagne di crowdfunding di successo che sono state condotte in questi ultimi anni e con un’elencazione delle piattaforme di crowdfunding, raggruppate per modello, attualmente presenti sul web italiano. Ai fini di una corretta comprensione dell’equity crowdfunding non si può prescindere dallo studio di un caso specifico, ed è per questo l’elaborato terminerà con un capitolo interamente dedicato all’analisi sul funzionamento del portale inglese Seedrs. Partendo da una descrizione generale della campagna intercontinentale Skins, ci si propone di analizzare le peculiarità e le modalità operative di Seedrs, con particolare attenzione all’iter che le imprese devono seguire per la pubblicazione di un progetto e alle fasi che invece caratterizzano il percorso dell’investitore per aderire ad un’offerta pubblicata sul portale. Seedrs infatti, oltre ad essere uno dei maggiori portali equity-based presenti nel Regno Unito, vanta un primato a livello mondiale; infatti è il primo e unico portale che, assieme alla piattaforma neo-zelandese Equitise, ospita la prima campagna intercontinentale di equity crowdfunding in Europa e Oceania, la campagna Skins. Il capitolo termina con una panoramica delle principali campagne di crowdfunding che sono state finanziate con successo attraverso Seedrs

Hourly and seasonal variation in photosynthesis and stomatal conductance of soybean grown at future CO2 and ozone concentrations for three years under fully open air conditions.

published or submitted for publicatio

Terrestrial Ecosystems in a Changing Environment: A Dominant Role for Water

Transpiration—the movement of water from the soil, through plants, and into the atmosphere—is the dominant water flux from the earth\u27s terrestrial surface. The evolution of vascular plants, while increasing terrestrial primary productivity, led to higher transpiration rates and widespread alterations in the global climate system. Similarly, anthropogenic influences on transpiration rates are already influencing terrestrial hydrologic cycles, with an even greater potential for changes lying ahead. Intricate linkages among anthropogenic activities, terrestrial productivity, the hydrologic cycle, and global demand for ecosystem services will lead to increased pressures on ecosystem water demands. Here, we focus on identifying the key drivers of ecosystem water use as they relate to plant physiological function, the role of predicted global changes in ecosystem water uses, trade-offs between ecosystem water use and carbon uptake, and knowledge gaps

Will photosynthesis of maize (Zea mays) in the US corn belt increase in future [CO2] rich atmospheres? An analysis of diurnal courses of [CO2] uptake under Free-Air Concentration Enrichmnent (FACE).

published or submitted for publicatio

Photosynthetic Adaptation to Length of Day Is Dependent on S-Sulfocysteine Synthase Activity in the Thylakoid Lumen

Abstract Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) chloroplasts contain two O-acetyl-serine(thiol)lyase (OASTL) homologs, OAS-B, which is an authentic OASTL, and CS26, which has S-sulfocysteine synthase activity. In contrast with OAS-B, the loss of CS26 function resulted in dramatic phenotypic changes, which were dependent on the light treatment. We have performed a detailed characterization of the photosynthetic and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters in cs26 plants compared with those of wild-type plants under short-day growth conditions (SD) and long-day growth conditions (LD). Under LD, the photosynthetic characterization, which was based on substomatal CO2 concentrations and CO2 concentration in the chloroplast curves, revealed significant reductions in most of the photosynthetic parameters for cs26, which were unchanged under SD. These parameters included net CO2 assimilation rate, mesophyll conductance, and mitochondrial respiration at darkness. The analysis also showed that cs26 under LD required more absorbed quanta per driven electron flux and fixed CO2. The nonphotochemical quenching values suggested that in cs26 plants, the excess electrons that are not used in photochemical reactions may form reactive oxygen species. A photoinhibitory effect was confirmed by the background fluorescence signal values under LD and SD, which were higher in young leaves compared with mature ones under SD. To hypothesize the role of CS26 in relation to the photosynthetic machinery, we addressed its location inside of the chloroplast. The activity determination and localization analyses that were performed using immunoblotting indicated the presence of an active CS26 enzyme exclusively in the thylakoid lumen. This finding was reinforced by the observation of marked alterations in many lumenal proteins in the cs26 mutant compared with the wild type.</jats:p

Incorporation of crop phenology in Simple Biosphere Model (SiBcrop) to improve land-atmosphere carbon exchanges from croplands

Croplands are man-made ecosystems that have high net primary productivity during the growing season of crops, thus impacting carbon and other exchanges with the atmosphere. These exchanges play a major role in nutrient cycling and climate change related issues. An accurate representation of crop phenology and physiology is important in land-atmosphere carbon models being used to predict these exchanges. To better estimate time-varying exchanges of carbon, water, and energy of croplands using the Simple Biosphere (SiB) model, we developed crop-specific phenology models and coupled them to SiB. The coupled SiB-phenology model (SiBcrop) replaces remotely-sensed NDVI information, on which SiB originally relied for deriving Leaf Area Index (LAI) and the fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fPAR) for estimating carbon dynamics. The use of the new phenology scheme within SiB substantially improved the prediction of LAI and carbon fluxes for maize, soybean, and wheat crops, as compared with the observed data at several AmeriFlux eddy covariance flux tower sites in the US mid continent region. SiBcrop better predicted the onset and end of the growing season, harvest, interannual variability associated with crop rotation, day time carbon uptake (especially for maize) and day to day variability in carbon exchange. Biomass predicted by SiBcrop had good agreement with the observed biomass at field sites. In the future, we will predict fine resolution regional scale carbon and other exchanges by coupling SiBcrop with RAMS (the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System)

Intercultural Feminist Practices in Italy: Challenging Stereotyped and Othering Images of Migrant Women

Feminist postcolonial authors criticised the tendency of mainstream western feminism to represent 'third world' women as necessarily less emancipated than western women and to describe their cultural practices in an othering way, without holding their own culture up to the same scrutiny. From this idea stems a paternalistic and patronising attitude that locates western women in a “position to liberate their less fortunate sisters, especially those in the 'Third World'”. (hooks, 2000: 45). In light of these reflections, this article investigates to what extent selected women’s intercultural associations in Italy have been able to counter dominant discourses that see migrant women as necessarily needy and deprived or as a sign of cultural difference. The research confronts the associations' mission statements with the practices and relationships that emerged from the interviews. It focuses first on power sharing within the associations and the relevance of patronizing attitudes on the part of Italian-born women. Secondly the article explores how associations addressed the notion of cultural difference by focusing on the specific issues of Islamic veiling practices and female genital mutilations. Finally it investigates the possible value of cross-cultural comparisons on practices detrimental to women in the promotion of intercultural feminist practices

Contracting in the Computer Industry

It is the responsibility of the lawyer to upgrade contracting procedures in order to meet the needs of the computer user. Simply incorporating by reference the proposals, correspondence, and communications between the parties would do much to improve the legal position of the purchaser. Moreover, by establishing firm standards that would govern delivery dates, warranties, and software performance, satisfaction of the parties’ reasonable expectations would be aided greatly. The key is to draft a contract that views the procurement process from the user’s perspective. In this Article, Richard L. Bernacchi discusses the special problems of computer contracts. Although data processing systems have assumed an integral role in an increasing number of businesses, lawyers have only recently begun to confront the problems created by this new technology. Bernacchi acknowledges that the technological complexity of data processing and the absence of agreed upon definitions for the technological terms within the industry have thus far overwhelmed lawyers. These problems are surmountable, however, and Bernacchi outlines several steps that will enable lawyers to control and direct computer contracting. Beginning with the premise that a computer hardware or software system purchaser expects to receive a complete system designed to meet his needs, the lawyer should incorporate into the contract by reference all proposals and correspondence concerning the purposes for which the computer system is being purchased. He should also establish standards to govern delivery dates, and specify individual steps in the delivery process, tying compensation to the performance of each step. In addition, the lawyer should provide for remedies in case of breach to ensure that the nonbreaching party can meet his immediate needs without resort to the courts