Combination Strategies for Semantic Role Labeling

This paper introduces and analyzes a battery of inference models for the problem of semantic role labeling: one based on constraint satisfaction, and several strategies that model the inference as a meta-learning problem using discriminative classifiers. These classifiers are developed with a rich set of novel features that encode proposition and sentence-level information. To our knowledge, this is the first work that: (a) performs a thorough analysis of learning-based inference models for semantic role labeling, and (b) compares several inference strategies in this context. We evaluate the proposed inference strategies in the framework of the CoNLL-2005 shared task using only automatically-generated syntactic information. The extensive experimental evaluation and analysis indicates that all the proposed inference strategies are successful -they all outperform the current best results reported in the CoNLL-2005 evaluation exercise- but each of the proposed approaches has its advantages and disadvantages. Several important traits of a state-of-the-art SRL combination strategy emerge from this analysis: (i) individual models should be combined at the granularity of candidate arguments rather than at the granularity of complete solutions; (ii) the best combination strategy uses an inference model based in learning; and (iii) the learning-based inference benefits from max-margin classifiers and global feedback

Financing Long-Term Care for Elderly People

Last year’s report of the Royal Commission on Long Term Care (1) and the expected Government response have prompted fresh interest in the debate on how to fund long-term care. To inform this debate the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) has conducted a study, funded by the Department of Health, of long-term care demand and finance. This has involved the construction of a computer model to make projections of likely demand and expenditures to 2031. This article describes the model of long-term care demand and expenditure developed by the PSSRU. It then presents some of the results obtained and sensitivity analysis around them

SISAL: bringing added value to Speleothem research

Isotopic records from speleothems are an important source of information about past climates and, given the increase in the number of isotope-enabled climate models, are likely to become an important tool for climate model evaluation. SISAL (Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis) have created a global database of isotopic records from speleothems in order to facilitate regional analyses and data-model comparison. The papers in this Special Issue showcase the use of the database for regional analyses. In this paper, we discuss some of the important issues underpinning the use of speleothems and how the existence of this database assists palaeoclimate research. We also highlight some of the lessons learned in the creation of the SISAL database and outline potential research going forward

Dissipative failure of adiabatic quantum transport as a dynamical phase transition

Entanglement is the central resource in adiabatic quantum transport. Dephasing affects the availability of that resource by biasing trajectories, driving transitions between success and failure. This depletion of entanglement is important for the practical implementation of quantum technologies. We present an alternative perspective on the failure of adiabatic computation by understanding the failure of adiabatic transport as a dynamical phase transition. These ideas are demonstrated in a toy model of adiabatic quantum transport in a two-spin system

Sobre el Jurásico del Mencal y su relación con otras series sub-béticas de la transversal de Granada

Se describen nuevos términos pertenecientes a la serie jurásica del Mencal (Morrón de la Meseta), junto con otros de un corte próximo a Iznalloz (Granada). Ambas series se correlacionan entre si y con otras series que constituyen un umbral en la cuenca sedimentaria subbética

Strain in Silica-Supported Ga(III) Sites : Neither Too Much nor Too Little for Propane Dehydrogenation Catalytic Activity

Altres ajuts: Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICWell-defined Ga(III) sites on SiO are highly active, selective, and stable catalysts in the propane dehydrogenation (PDH) reaction. In this contribution, we evaluate the catalytic activity toward PDH of tricoordinated and tetracoordinated Ga(III) sites on SiO by means of first-principles calculations using realistic amorphous periodic SiO models. We evaluated the three reaction steps in PDH, namely, the C-H activation of propane to form propyl, the β-hydride (β-H) transfer to form propene and a gallium hydride, and the H-H coupling to release H, regenerating the initial Ga-O bond and closing the catalytic cycle. Our work shows how Brønsted-Evans-Polanyi relationships are followed to a certain extent for these three reaction steps on Ga(III) sites on SiO and highlights the role of the strain of the reactive Ga-O pairs on such sites of realistic amorphous SiO models. It also shows how transition-state scaling holds very well for the β-H transfer step. While highly strained sites are very reactive sites for the initial C-H activation, they are more difficult to regenerate. The corresponding less strained sites are not reactive enough, pointing to the need for the right balance in strain to be an effective site for PDH. Overall, our work provides an understanding of the intrinsic activity of acidic Ga single sites toward the PDH reaction and paves the way toward the design and prediction of better single-site catalysts on SiO for the PDH reaction. We performed computational calculations of Ga(III) single sites on realistic amorphous models of SiO to evaluate their catalytic activity toward the propane dehydrogenation reaction. Our results show that a balance in strain is key, in which neither too stiff nor too loose Ga−O bonding is needed to obtain the highest catalytic activity

Efficiently combining water reuse and desalination through Forward Osmosis-Reverse Osmosis (FO-RO) hybrids: a critical review

Forward osmosis (FO) is a promising membrane technology to combine seawater desalination and water reuse. More specifically, in a FO-reverse osmosis (RO) hybrid process, high quality water recovered from the wastewater stream is used to dilute seawater before RO treatment. As such, lower desalination energy needs and/or water augmentation can be obtained while delivering safe water for direct potable reuse thanks to the double dense membrane barrier protection. Typically, FO-RO hybrid can be a credible alternative to new desalination facilities or to implementation of stand-alone water reuse schemes. However, apart from the societal (public perception of water reuse for potable application) and water management challenges (proximity of wastewater and desalination plants), FO-RO hybrid has to overcome technical limitation such as low FO permeation flux to become economically attractive. Recent developments (i.e., improved FO membranes, use of pressure assisted osmosis, PAO) demonstrated significant improvement in water flux. However, flux improvement is associated with drawbacks, such as increased fouling behaviour, lower rejection of trace organic compounds (TrOCs) in PAO operation, and limitation in FO membrane mechanical resistance, which need to be better considered. To support successful implementation of FO-RO hybrid in the industry, further work is required regarding up-scaling to apprehend full-scale challenges in term of mass transfer limitation, pressure drop, fouling and cleaning strategies on a module scale. In addition, refined economics assessment is expected to integrate fouling and other maintenance costs/savings of the FO/PAO-RO hybrid systems, as well as cost savings from any treatment step avoided in the water recycling