Towards a query language for annotation graphs

The multidimensional, heterogeneous, and temporal nature of speech databases raises interesting challenges for representation and query. Recently, annotation graphs have been proposed as a general-purpose representational framework for speech databases. Typical queries on annotation graphs require path expressions similar to those used in semistructured query languages. However, the underlying model is rather different from the customary graph models for semistructured data: the graph is acyclic and unrooted, and both temporal and inclusion relationships are important. We develop a query language and describe optimization techniques for an underlying relational representation.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure

Biomechanical comparison of a notched head locking t-plate and a straight locking compression plate in a juxta-articular fracture model

Objective: To investigate the biomechanical properties of a 2.0 mm notched head T-plate (NHTP) and 8-hole 2.0 mm straight locking compression plate (LCP), in a simple transverse model with a short distal fragment, applied with various screw configurations that alter the working length of the plate. Methods: Two different screw configurations were compared for the NHTP and LCP, modelling short (configuration 1) and long working length (configuration 2) across two different distal fragments lengths (13 mm and 9 mm). Constructs were tested in three planes of non-destructive four point bending and torsion. Construct stiffness and plate strain was compared between screw configurations within and between each plate. Results: In the first investigation (13 mm fragment), the LCP was stiffer than the NHTP in all three planes of bending and in torsion (P<0.05). The NHTP had greater strain during compression bending and torsion at all ROI (P<0.0005). In the second investigation (9 mm fragment), the LCP was significantly stiffer than the NHTP in all three planes of bending (P<0.05) for both screw configurations. The NHTP was stiffer than the LCP in torsion (P<0.05) for both screw configurations. The NHTP had greater strain than the LCP during compression bending at three ROI (P<0.0005). The LCP had greater strain than the NHTP during torsion at three ROI (P<0.0005). In both investigations the short working length was stiffer in all three planes of bending and in torsion (P<0.05) than the longer working length for both plates. The long working length produced greater plate strain than the short working length at most ROI. Conclusions: The LCP with two screws in a short fragment, was significantly stiffer and had lower plate strain, in most planes of testing, than NHTP with three locking screws in the short fragment. Extending the working length of each construct by omitting locking screws in the long fragment adjacent to the fracture line significantly reduced construct stiffness and increased plate strain

Management education and the ethical mindset: Responsibility to whom and for what?

Paper presented at the European Business Ethics Network (UK) Conference, Ethics in Crisis: a call for alternatives, April 7-9, 2010 at Queen Mary, University of London. Final version published by Springer in Journal of Business Ethics. Original title: Management education and the ethical mindset: Responsibility to whom and for what? Available online at http://www.springer.com/This paper offers an analysis of leadership responsibility associated with differing models of the firm. Following a critique of the classical economic and conventional stakeholder theories of the firm, we proposes an interactive stakeholder theory that better facilitates the kind of ethical responsibility demanded by twenty-first century challenges. Our analysis also leads us to conclude that leadership education and development is in need of urgent reform. The first part of the paper focuses on what it means to lead responsibly, and argues that leading is essentially the practice of responsibility. The second part of the paper challenges standard assumptions about the ‘business of business’, while the third section examines in more depth how leadership education might be configured as a preparation for the enactment of responsible leadership. KEYWORDS: responsible leadership, ethics, leadership education, mindsets, stakeholder theor

Neotectonics of Asia: Thin-shell finite-element models with faults

As India pushed into and beneath the south margin of Asia in Cenozoic time, it added a great volume of crust, which may have been (1) emplaced locally beneath Tibet, (2) distributed as regional crustal thickening of Asia, (3) converted to mantle eclogite by high-pressure metamorphism, or (4) extruded eastward to increase the area of Asia. The amount of eastward extrusion is especially controversial: plane-stress computer models of finite strain in a continuum lithosphere show minimal escape, while laboratory and theoretical plane-strain models of finite strain in a faulted lithosphere show escape as the dominant mode. We suggest computing the present (or neo)tectonics by use of the known fault network and available data on fault activity, geodesy, and stress to select the best model. We apply a new thin-shell method which can represent a faulted lithosphere of realistic rheology on a sphere, and provided predictions of present velocities, fault slip rates, and stresses for various trial rheologies and boundary conditions. To minimize artificial boundaries, the models include all of Asia east of 40 deg E and span 100 deg on the globe. The primary unknowns are the friction coefficient of faults within Asia and the amounts of shear traction applied to Asia in the Himalayan and oceanic subduction zones at its margins. Data on Quaternary fault activity prove to be most useful in rating the models. Best results are obtained with a very low fault friction of 0.085. This major heterogeneity shows that unfaulted continum models cannot be expected to give accurate simulations of the orogeny. But, even with such weak faults, only a fraction of the internal deformation is expressed as fault slip; this means that rigid microplate models cannot represent the kinematics either. A universal feature of the better models is that eastern China and southeast Asia flow rapidly eastward with respect to Siberia. The rate of escape is very sensitive to the level of shear traction in the Pacific subduction zones, which is below 6 MPa. Because this flow occurs across a wide range of latitudes, the net eastward escape is greater than the rate of crustal addition in the Himalaya. The crustal budget is balanced by extension and thinning, primarily within the Tibetan plateau and the Baikal rift. The low level of deviation stresses in the best models suggests that topographic stress plays a major role in the orogeny; thus, we have to expect that different topography in the past may have been linked with fundamentally different modes of continental collision

Networks Underpinning Symbiosis Revealed Through Cross-Species eQTL Mapping.

Organisms engage in extensive cross-species molecular dialog, yet the underlying molecular actors are known for only a few interactions. Many techniques have been designed to uncover genes involved in signaling between organisms. Typically, these focus on only one of the partners. We developed an expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) mapping-based approach to identify cause-and-effect relationships between genes from two partners engaged in an interspecific interaction. We demonstrated the approach by assaying expression of 98 isogenic plants (Medicago truncatula), each inoculated with a genetically distinct line of the diploid parasitic nematode Meloidogyne hapla With this design, systematic differences in gene expression across host plants could be mapped to genetic polymorphisms of their infecting parasites. The effects of parasite genotypes on plant gene expression were often substantial, with up to 90-fold (P = 3.2 × 10-52) changes in expression levels caused by individual parasite loci. Mapped loci included a number of pleiotropic sites, including one 87-kb parasite locus that modulated expression of &gt;60 host genes. The 213 host genes identified were substantially enriched for transcription factors. We distilled higher-order connections between polymorphisms and genes from both species via network inference. To replicate our results and test whether effects were conserved across a broader host range, we performed a confirmatory experiment using M. hapla-infected tomato. This revealed that homologous genes were similarly affected. Finally, to validate the broader utility of cross-species eQTL mapping, we applied the strategy to data from a Salmonella infection study, successfully identifying polymorphisms in the human genome affecting bacterial expression

Experimental Demonstration of Focal Plane Array Beamforming in a Prototype Radiotelescope

Focal plane arrays are being developed to provide dishes with a wide field of view for both the next generation of radiotelescopes and to retrofit existing large radiotelescopes. We describe a prototype radiotelescope, comprising a two dish interferometer with real-time digital beamformer that was built to study focal plane array systems. Two beamformer weightings were applied to the system: A normalized conjugate match and the maximum sensitivity (G/T). Both incorporate the uncorrelated noise from the receiver chains and the latter includes correlated noise from spillover and coupling in the array. A black box approach is taken where the assembled system is considered and the only accessible data is that typically available from an operational radiotelescope. This approach is particularly suitable for complex active antennas where there is insufficient knowledge of the system for beamformer weights to be set a priori. It also allows adaptation to changes such as electronic gain drift, partial failures and alterations in the environment