Local and global query expansion for hierarchical complex topics

In this work we study local and global methods for query expansion for multifaceted complex topics. We study word-based and entity-based expansion methods and extend these approaches to complex topics using fine-grained expansion on different elements of the hierarchical query structure. For a source of hierarchical complex topics we use the TREC Complex Answer Retrieval (CAR) benchmark data collection. We find that leveraging the hierarchical topic structure is needed for both local and global expansion methods to be effective. Further, the results demonstrate that entity-based expansion methods show significant gains over word-based models alone, with local feedback providing the largest improvement. The results on the CAR paragraph retrieval task demonstrate that expansion models that incorporate both the hierarchical query structure and entity-based expansion result in a greater than 20% improvement over word-based expansion approaches

Effects of diesel fuel combustion-modifier additives on In-cylinder soot formation in a heavy-duty Dl diesel engine.

Based on a phenomenological model of diesel combustion and pollutant-formation processes, a number of fuel additives that could potentially reduce in-cylinder soot formation by altering combustion chemistry have been identified. These fuel additives, or ''combustion modifiers'', included ethanol and ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, polyethylene glycol dinitrate (a cetane improver), succinimide (a dispersant), as well as nitromethane and another nitro-compound mixture. To better understand the chemical and physical mechanisms by which these combustion modifiers may affect soot formation in diesel engines, in-cylinder soot and diffusion flame lift-off were measured, using an optically-accessible, heavy-duty, direct-injection diesel engine. A line-of-sight laser extinction diagnostic was employed to measure the relative soot concentration within the diesel jets (''jetsoot'') as well as the rates of deposition of soot on the piston bowl-rim (''wall-soot''). An OH chemiluminescence imaging technique was utilized to measure the lift-off lengths of the diesel diffusion flames so that fresh oxygen entrainment rates could be compared among the fuels. Measurements were obtained at two operating conditions, using blends of a base commercial diesel fuel with various combinations of the fuel additives. The ethanol additive, at 10% by mass, reduced jet-soot by up to 15%, and reduced wall-soot by 30-40%. The other fuel additives also affected in-cylinder soot, but unlike the ethanol blends, changes in in-cylinder soot could be attributed solely to differences in the ignition delay. No statistically-significant differences in the diesel flame lift-off lengths were observed among any of the fuel additive formulations at the operating conditions examined in this study. Accordingly, the observed differences in in-cylinder soot among the fuel formulations cannot be attributed to differences in fresh oxygen entrainment upstream of the soot-formation zones after ignition

First Images from HERO: A Hard-X-Ray Focusing Telescope

We are developing a balloon-borne hard-x-ray telescope that utilizes grazing incidence optics. Termed HERO, for High-Energy Replicated Optics, the instrument will provide unprecented sensitivity in the hard-x-ray region and will achieve milliCrab-level sensitivity in a typical 3-hour balloon-flight observation and 50 microCrab sensitivity on ultra-long-duration flights. A recent proof-of-concept flight, featuring a small number of mirror shells captured the first focused hard-x-ray images of galactic x-ray sources. Full details of the payload, its expected future performance and its recent measurements are provided

High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun: Hard X-Ray Balloon-Borne Telescope

Set to fly in the Fall of 2013 from Ft. Sumner, NM, the High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun (HEROES) mission is a collaborative effort between the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the Goddard Space Flight Center to upgrade an existing payload, the High Energy Replicated Optics (HERO) balloon-borne telescope, to make unique scientific measurements of the Sun and astrophysical targets during the same flight. The HEROES science payload consists of 8 mirror modules, housing a total of 109 grazing-incidence optics. These modules are mounted on a carbon-fiber - and Aluminum optical bench 6 m from a matching array of high pressure xenon gas scintillation proportional counters, which serve as the focal-plane detectors. The HERO gondola utilizes a differential GPS system (backed by a magnetometer) for coarse pointing in the azimuth and a shaft angle encoder plus inclinometer provides the coarse elevation. The HEROES payload will incorporate a new solar aspect system to supplement the existing star camera, for fine pointing during both the day and night. A mechanical shutter will be added to the star camera to protect it during solar observations. HEROES will also implement two novel alignment monitoring system that will measure the alignment between the optical bench and the star camera and between the optics and detectors for improved pointing and post-flight data reconstruction. The overall payload will also be discussed. This mission is funded by the NASA HOPE (Hands On Project Experience) Training Opportunity awarded by the NASA Academy of Program/Project and Engineering Leadership, in partnership with NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Office of the Chief Engineer and Office of the Chief Technologis

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE): Technical Overview

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) will expand the information space for study of cosmic sources, by adding linear polarization to the properties (time, energy, and position) observed in x-ray astronomy. Selected in 2017 January as a NASA Astrophysics Small Explorer (SMEX) mission, IXPE will be launched into an equatorial orbit in 2021. The IXPE mission will provide scientifically meaningful measurements of the x-ray polarization of a few dozen sources in the 2-8 keV band, including polarization maps of several x-ray-bright extended sources and phase-resolved polarimetry of many bright pulsating x-ray sources

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass