Information retrieval evaluation in knowledge acquisition tasks

The Cranfield Paradigm is a widely adopted and the de-facto standard approach to the evaluation of IR systems. However, this approach does not inherently support situations in which the user is acquiring knowledge (is learning) during an information seeking session consisting of the submission of a sequence of queries into an information retrieval system. More specifically, during a situation in which the retrieval of a particular document at the beginning of a session can be considered not relevant (due to the user's lack of knowledge), while it can be considered relevant at a later point in the session (once the user acquired all required prerequisite knowledge). In this position paper, we reflect on the limitations of the Cranfield Paradigm in the context of knowledge acquisition tasks and propose several alternatives. These alternatives are based on the notion of evaluating a session consisting of a sequence of individual queries created to address a specific information need as part of a knowledge acquisition task

Economic assessment of nature-based solutions as enablers of circularity in water systems

The transition from the current linear model of abstraction, use and discharge of water into recycle-reuse under the circular economy (CE) principles is momentous. An analysis of recent literature about the economic impact of linear to circular (L2C) transition is made. The review investigates the economic implications (i.e. cost-benefit) of deployment of enabling technologies, tools and methodologies within the circular water systems. The study is enhanced by presenting the results of our investigation into the policy impact (push-barriers) of L2C transition. As the vehicle for the L2C transition, nature-based solutions (NBS) and its economic and policy implications is discussed. A framework is proposed for the monetary assessment of the costs of investment in NBS technologies, infrastructure and education against the environmental and socio-economic benefits within the policy frameworks. This framework may build the early foundation for bridging the gap that exists for a systematic and objective economic impact (cost-benefit) analysis of L2C transition in the Water sector. This framework will lead to a generic multi-parametric cost model of NBS for Circularity Water Systems.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); Horizon 2020 research and innovation program HYDROUS

Predicting volume of distribution with decision tree-based regression methods using predicted tissue:plasma partition coefficients

Background: Volume of distribution is an important pharmacokinetic property that indicates the extent of a drug's distribution in the body tissues. This paper addresses the problem of how to estimate the apparent volume of distribution at steady state (Vss) of chemical compounds in the human body using decision tree-based regression methods from the area of data mining (or machine learning). Hence, the pros and cons of several different types of decision tree-based regression methods have been discussed. The regression methods predict Vss using, as predictive features, both the compounds' molecular descriptors and the compounds' tissue:plasma partition coefficients (Kt:p) - often used in physiologically-based pharmacokinetics. Therefore, this work has assessed whether the data mining-based prediction of Vss can be made more accurate by using as input not only the compounds' molecular descriptors but also (a subset of) their predicted Kt:p values. Results: Comparison of the models that used only molecular descriptors, in particular, the Bagging decision tree (mean fold error of 2.33), with those employing predicted Kt:p values in addition to the molecular descriptors, such as the Bagging decision tree using adipose Kt:p (mean fold error of 2.29), indicated that the use of predicted Kt:p values as descriptors may be beneficial for accurate prediction of Vss using decision trees if prior feature selection is applied. Conclusions: Decision tree based models presented in this work have an accuracy that is reasonable and similar to the accuracy of reported Vss inter-species extrapolations in the literature. The estimation of Vss for new compounds in drug discovery will benefit from methods that are able to integrate large and varied sources of data and flexible non-linear data mining methods such as decision trees, which can produce interpretable models. Figure not available: see fulltext. © 2015 Freitas et al.; licensee Springer

Investigation of water vapour sorption mechanism of starch-based pharmaceutical excipients

Starch-based excipients are commonly used in oral solid dosage forms. The effect of particle size and pregelatinisation level of starch-based excipients on their water absorption behaviour have been evaluated. The results showed that starch-based excipients have type ii isotherms, indicating that the principal mechanism of sorption is the formation of monolayer coverage and multilayer water molecules (10–80 RH %). It was found that the particle size of starch-based excipients did not have any influence on the rate of water sorption, whereas the level of pregelatinisation changed the kinetics of water sorption-desorption. Results showed that the higher the degree of pregelatinisation, the higher the rate of water absorption, which is irrespective of particle size. SEM images showed that a partially gelatinised starch had a firm granular structure with small pores and channels on the surface while a fully gelatinised starch had more irregular and spongy like surface with a degree of fractured particles

Prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in Pregnant Women in Khoram Abad, Iran

Listeria monocytogenes is the bacterium that causes the infection listeriosis. Symptomatic infection most commonly occurs in pregnant women, infants, elderly and the immunosuppressed. The aims of current study is to determine the prevalence of listeriosis in pregnant women referred to khoram abad hospital in Iran. for this propuse, 100 vagina swap from pregnant women were subjected for PCR. The results showed negative reaction in all samples. The difference reported among the studies can be due to differences in the population under study include race, culture, geographical region, nutrition and laboratorial diagnosis methods