Finding the right answer: an information retrieval approach supporting knowledge sharing

Knowledge Management can be defined as the effective strategies to get the right piece of knowledge to the right person in the right time. Having the main purpose of providing users with information items of their interest, recommender systems seem to be quite valuable for organizational knowledge management environments. Here we present KARe (Knowledgeable Agent for Recommendations), a multiagent recommender system that supports users sharing knowledge in a peer-to-peer environment. Central to this work is the assumption that social interaction is essential for the creation and dissemination of new knowledge. Supporting social interaction, KARe allows users to share knowledge through questions and answers. This paper describes KARe�s agent-oriented architecture and presents its recommendation algorithm

Using ontologies for modeling context-aware services platforms

This paper discusses the suitability of using ontologies for modeling context-aware services platforms. It addresses the directions of research we are following in the WASP (Web Architectures for Services Platforms) project. For this purpose a simple scenario is considered

Residents’ perceptions of environmental certification, environmental impacts and support for the world expo 2015: the moderating effect of place attachment

Purpose: Based on social exchange theory (SET) and signaling theory (ST), this study aims to evaluate how an event’s perceived environmental certification (PEC) by residents, affect their evaluations of environmental impacts and subsequent event support (ES). The moderating role of place attachment (PA) on some of these relationships is also evaluated. Design/methodology/approach: Using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), a theoretical model is tested on a sample of 450 residents who attended the 2015 Milan World Expo. Findings: PEC positively affects evaluations of positive environmental impacts (PEI) but negatively affects evaluations of negative environmental impacts (NEI). PEC positively affects ES while the relationship between PEC and NEI is moderated by PA. Research limitations/implications: Items used to measure PEC, PEI and NEI are not exhaustive. SET has its own limitations in explaining residents’ ES, which the authors have attempted to attenuate by using ST. Practical implications: Using environmental certification as a communication tool must demonstrate to residents how it reduces negative externalities, rather than focusing only on its positive community benefits. Less well-educated residents had the lowest ES, suggesting the need to use social media to increase ES. Originality/value: This study contributes to understandings of the perceptions of the benefits of event certification by residents, and how this affects their ES. PA moderates the relationship between PEC and NEI

Analysis of the performance of driver MOX fuel in the MYRRHA reactor under Beam Power Jump transient irradiation conditions

This work focuses on the performance analysis of driver fuel pins under transient irradiation conditions in the MYRRHA reactor, which must be considered besides the normal operation towards the design optimization and licensing of the facility. The considered transient scenario is a Beam Power Jump (BPJ) caused by a trip of the MYRRHA accelerator coupled to the sub-critical reactor core. Based on the outcomes of the analysis of the nominal MYRRHA irradiation - NED 386 (2022) 111581, the impact of this over-power scenario on the pin response is investigated both at the beginning and at the end of irradiation as the most critical moments for the fuel maximum temperature and for the potential fuel-cladding mechanical interaction, respectively. The simu- lation results are achieved with the TRANSURANUS fuel performance code equipped with advanced models for thermal–mechanical properties of U-Pu mixed-oxide (MOX) fuels, for inert gas behaviour and for the specific mechanical response of DIN 1.4970 cladding. The comparison with design limit criteria adopted highlights the safety of the MYRRHA fuel pins under irradiation, complying with satisfactory margins even considering the occurrence of BPJ transients

Towards an Ontological Modelling of Preference Relations

Preference relations are intensively studied in Economics, but they are also approached in AI, Knowledge Representation, and Conceptual Modelling, as they provide a key concept in a variety of domains of application. In this paper, we propose an ontological foundation of preference relations to formalise their essential aspects across domains. Firstly, we shall discuss what is the ontological status of the relata of a preference relation. Secondly, we investigate the place of preference relations within a rich taxonomy of relations (e.g. we ask whether they are internal or external, essential or contingent, descriptive or nondescriptive relations). Finally, we provide an ontological modelling of preference relation as a module of a foundational (or upper) ontology (viz. OntoUML). The aim of this paper is to provide a sharable foundational theory of preference relation that foster interoperability across the heterogeneous domains of application of preference relations

Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing Indicates a Frequent Oligogenic Involvement in Primary Ovarian Insufficiency Onset

Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) is one of the major causes of female infertility associated with the premature loss of ovarian function in about 3.7% of women before the age of 40. This disorder is highly heterogeneous and can manifest with a wide range of clinical phenotypes, ranging from ovarian dysgenesis and primary amenorrhea to post-pubertal secondary amenorrhea, with elevated serum gonadotropins and hypoestrogenism. The ovarian defect still remains idiopathic in some cases; however, a strong genetic component has been demonstrated by the next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach of familiar and sporadic POI cases. As recent evidence suggested an oligogenic architecture for POI, we developed a target NGS panel with 295 genes including known candidates and novel genetic determinants potentially involved in POI pathogenesis. Sixty-four patients with early onset POI (range: 10–25 years) of our cohort have been screened with 90% of target coverage at 50×. Here, we report 48 analyzed patients with at least one genetic variant (75%) in the selected candidate genes. In particular, we found the following: 11/64 patients (17%) with two variants, 9/64 (14%) with three variants, 9/64 (14%) with four variants, 3/64 (5%) with five variants, and 2/64 (3%) with six variants. The most severe phenotypes were associated with either the major number of variations or a worse prediction in pathogenicity of variants. Bioinformatic gene ontology analysis identified the following major pathways likely affected by gene variants: 1) cell cycle, meiosis, and DNA repair; 2) extracellular matrix remodeling; 3) reproduction; 4) cell metabolism; 5) cell proliferation; 6) calcium homeostasis; 7) NOTCH signaling; 8) signal transduction; 9) WNT signaling; 10) cell death; and 11) ubiquitin modifications. Consistently, the identified pathways have been described in other studies dissecting the mechanisms of folliculogenesis in animal models of altered fertility. In conclusion, our results contribute to define POI as an oligogenic disease and suggest novel candidates to be investigated in patients with POI

pi-Extended Pyrene-Fused Double [7]Carbohelicene as a Chiral Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon

A π-extended double [7]carbohelicene 2 with fused pyrene units was synthesized, revealing considerable intra- and intermolecular π-πinteractions as confirmed with X-ray crystallography. As compared to the previous double [7]carbohelicene 1, the π-extended homologue 2 demonstrated considerably red-shifted absorption with an onset at 645 nm (1: 550 nm) corresponding to a smaller optical gap of 1.90 eV (1: 2.25 eV). A broad near-infrared emission from 600 to 900 nm with a large Stokes shift of ∼100 nm (2.3 × 103 cm-1) was recorded for 2, implying formation of an intramolecular excimer upon excitation, which was corroborated with femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. Moreover, 2 revealed remarkable chiral stability with a fairly high isomerization barrier of 46 kcal mol-1, according to density functional theory calculations, which allowed optical resolution by chiral HPLC and suggests potential applications in chiroptical devices

What’s in a Relationship: An Ontological Analysis

Abstract. In a series of publications, we have proposed a foundational system of ontological categories which has been successfully used to evaluate and im-prove the quality of conceptual modeling grammars and models. In this article, we continue this work by using this foundational ontology to provide real-world semantics and sound modeling guidelines for one of the most fundamental (and yet one of the most problematic) constructs in conceptual modeling, namely, the relationship type. In addition, we systematically compare our approach with a classical ontological treatment of this construct in the literature, provided by the BWW framework.