688 research outputs found
Gold Standard Online Debates Summaries and First Experiments Towards Automatic Summarization of Online Debate Data
Usage of online textual media is steadily increasing. Daily, more and more
news stories, blog posts and scientific articles are added to the online
volumes. These are all freely accessible and have been employed extensively in
multiple research areas, e.g. automatic text summarization, information
retrieval, information extraction, etc. Meanwhile, online debate forums have
recently become popular, but have remained largely unexplored. For this reason,
there are no sufficient resources of annotated debate data available for
conducting research in this genre. In this paper, we collected and annotated
debate data for an automatic summarization task. Similar to extractive gold
standard summary generation our data contains sentences worthy to include into
a summary. Five human annotators performed this task. Inter-annotator
agreement, based on semantic similarity, is 36% for Cohen's kappa and 48% for
Krippendorff's alpha. Moreover, we also implement an extractive summarization
system for online debates and discuss prominent features for the task of
summarizing online debate data automatically.Comment: accepted and presented at the CICLING 2017 - 18th International
Conference on Intelligent Text Processing and Computational Linguistic
PLAN OF ORTHOPEDIC AND TRAUMATOLOGY SPECIALIST HOSPITAL
Along with the times, the quality and quantity of hospitals in Indonesia also continue to grow. According to Statistics in Indonesia, the number of births in Indonesia is still high, as well as the mortality rate shown by the 2012 medical survey which is also still high. So that improving the quantity and quality of maternal and child is still needed. Based on data from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, pregnant women do not have access to go to midwives or doctors in the regions. Suburban communities, especially in the Medan Sunggal area, do not get adequate services and facilities in terms of health, especially maternal and child health. So with that, the Mother and Child Hospital will be established in the Medan Sunggal area is expected to fullfill the necessities of the community in the suburbs of Medan. The Mother and Child Hospital was designed with the theme of Green Architecture so that the resulting building design is comfortable with an environmentally friendly atmosphere so that it can be considered to be the main destination for everyone who is pregnant and giving birth
An investigation into reinforced and functionally graded lattice structures
Lattice structures are regarded as excellent candidates for use in lightweight energy absorbing applications, such as crash protection. In this paper we investigate the crushing behaviour, mechanical properties and energy absorption of lattices made by an additive manufacturing (AM) process. Two types of lattice were examined; body-centred-cubic (BCC) and a reinforced variant called BCCz. The lattices were subject to compressive loads in two orthogonal directions, allowing an assessment of their mechanical anisotropy to be made. We also examined functionally graded versions of these lattices, which featured a density gradient along one direction. The graded structures exhibited distinct crushing behaviour, with a sequential collapse of cellular layers preceding full densification. For the BCCz lattice, the graded structures were able to absorb around 114% more energy per unit volume than their non-graded counterparts before full densification, 1371 +or- 9 kJ/m3 vs. 640 +or- 10 kJ/m3. This highlights the strong potential for functionally graded lattices to be used in energy absorbing applications. Finally, we determined several of the Gibson-Ashby coefficients relating the mechanical properties of lattice structures to their density; these are crucial in establishing the constitutive models required for effective lattice design. These results improve the current understanding of AM lattices, and will enable the design of sophisticated, functional, lightweight components in the future
Discrete and fuzzy dynamical genetic programming in the XCSF learning classifier system
A number of representation schemes have been presented for use within
learning classifier systems, ranging from binary encodings to neural networks.
This paper presents results from an investigation into using discrete and fuzzy
dynamical system representations within the XCSF learning classifier system. In
particular, asynchronous random Boolean networks are used to represent the
traditional condition-action production system rules in the discrete case and
asynchronous fuzzy logic networks in the continuous-valued case. It is shown
possible to use self-adaptive, open-ended evolution to design an ensemble of
such dynamical systems within XCSF to solve a number of well-known test
problems
Re-organisation of oesophago-gastric cancer care in England: progress and remaining challenges
RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Background Oesophago-gastric cancer services in England have been extensively reorganised since 2001 to deliver a centralised, specialist-led service. Our aim was to assess how well the National Health Service (NHS) in England met organisational standards for oesophago-gastric cancer care. Methods Questionnaires that asked about the provision of staging investigations, curative and palliative treatments and key personnel were sent in September 2007 to the lead clinician for oesophago-gastric cancer at all 30 cancer networks and 156 NHS acute trusts in England. Results Responses were received from all networks and 81% of NHS trusts. All networks provided essential staging investigations and a range of endoscopic palliative therapies. Only 16 of the 30 cancer networks discussed all patients at the specialist multi-disciplinary team meeting and 11 networks had not fully centralised curative surgery. There was also variation between NHS trusts in the integration of the palliative care team, the availability of nurse specialists and the use of dieticians to provide nutritional support. Conclusion There has been considerable progress in reforming oesophago-gastric cancer services but the process of reorganisation is still incomplete and regional differences in service provision exist that may lead to variation in patient outcomes.Published versio
Seasonality and stochastic trends in German consumption and income, 1960.1- 1987.4
The quarterly time series of German consumption and income are analyzed with respect to seasonality and stochastic trends. It emerges that both variables can be appropriately described by a periodically integrated autoregression. An implication is that the stochastic trend and the seasonal fluctuations are not independent for each of the univariate series. In order to test for cointegration across the two series, we propose several methods which take account of the relationship between seasons and trends in the univariate series. Some of these methods boil down to extracting the stochastic trend from the univariate series in a first step and to relating these trends using cointegration techniques in a second step. Another method is an extension of the Johansen cointegration testing approach to periodic vector autoregressions. Monte Carlo simulations are used to evaluate the empirical performance of the various methods. The main empirical result is that only in the first quarter there seems to be cointegration between German consumption and income
Common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) alters its feeding niche in response to changing food resources: direct observations in simulated ponds
We used customized fish tanks as model fish ponds to observe grazing, swimming, and conspecific social behavior of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) under variable food-resource conditions to assess alterations in feeding niche. Different food and feeding situations were created by using only pond water or pond water plus pond bottom sediment or pond water plus pond bottom sediment and artificial feeding. All tanks were fertilized twice, prior to stocking and 2 weeks later after starting the experiment to stimulate natural food production. Common carp preferred artificial feed over benthic macroinvertebrates, followed by zooplankton. Common carp did not prefer any group of phytoplankton in any treatment. Common carp was mainly benthic in habitat choice, feeding on benthic macroinvertebrates when only plankton and benthic macroinvertebrates were available in the system. In the absence of benthic macroinvertebrates, their feeding niche shifted from near the bottom of the tanks to the water column where they spent 85% of the total time and fed principally on zooplankton. Common carp readily switched to artificial feed when available, which led to better growth. Common carp preferred to graze individually. Behavioral observations of common carp in tanks yielded new information that assists our understanding of their ecological niche. This knowledge could be potentially used to further the development of common carp aquaculture
Riverbed sediments buffer phosphorus concentrations downstream of sewage treatment works across the River Wensum catchment, UK
Purpose: Wastewater effluent discharged into rivers from sewage treatment works (STWs) represents one of the most important point sources of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) pollution and is a major driver of freshwater eutrophication. In this study, we assess the ability of riverbed sediments to act as a self-regulating buffering system to reduce SRP dissolved in the water column downstream of STW outflows. Materials and methods: River water and riverbed sediment samples were collected from 10 tributary outlets across the River Wensum catchment, Norfolk, UK, at monthly intervals between July and October 2016, such that 40 sediment and 40 water samples were collected in total. Of these locations, five were located downstream of STWs and five were on tributaries without STWs. Dissolved SRP concentrations were analysed and the Equilibrium Phosphorus Concentration (EPC0) of each sediment sample was measured to determine whether riverbed sediments were acting as net sources or sinks of SRP. Results and discussion: The mean SRP concentration downstream of STWs (382 µg P L-1) was double that of sites without a STW (185 µg P L-1), whilst the mean EPC0 for effluent impacted sites (105 µg P L-1) was 70% higher than that recorded at unaffected sites (62 µg P L-1). Regardless of STW influence, riverbed sediments across all 10 sites almost always acted as net sinks for SRP from the overlying water column. This was particularly true at sites downstream of STWs which displayed enhanced potential to buffer the river against increases in SRP released in sewage effluent. Conclusions: Despite EPC0 values revealing riverbed sediments were consistently acting as sinks for SRP, elevated SRP concentrations downstream of STWs clearly demonstrate the sediments have insufficient SRP sorption capacity to completely buffer the river against effluent discharge. Consequently, SRP concentrations across the catchment continue to exceed recommended standards for good chemical status, thus emphasising the need for enhanced mitigation efforts at STWs to minimise riverine phosphorus loading
Engagement and Disengagement with Sustainable Development: Further conceptualization and evidence of validity for the Engagement/Disengagement in Sustainable Development Inventory (EDiSDI)
Engagement is a multidimensional construct with emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components that captures how subjective experiences result from interactions between perceptions, information-processing and ecological influences in a way that activates internal states to maintain behavior. This process underlies the way people relate to different contexts, topics or issues. Engagement is highly responsive to contextual
factors and a good predictor of desirable outcomes. Therefore, engagement with sustainable development has strong potential as a locus for intervention and research addressing sustainable development issues. However, research on engagement (and disengagement) with sustainable development is nascent and there is a need to bolster evidence on the psychometric adequacy of its associated measure. In this
study, we analyzed data from four independent samples, all of which completed the Engagement/Disengagement with Sustainable Development Inventory (EDiSDI). The study has five major findings: (1) A bifactor model was replicated in multiple samples, thus confirming structural validity. (2) EDiSDI scores correlated with related constructs in a theoretically consistent manner, thus confirming convergent validity. (3) EDiSDI scores predicted variance in pro-sustainability behavior, hence demonstrating predictive validity. (4) The EDiSDI had measurement invariance across age, society, and gender. (5) A general factor reflecting engagement accounted for the majority of variance in items designed to measure various constructs that capture the way humans relate to sustainable development issues. A major contribution of this study is
that it supports an integrative framework for conceptualizing two major expressions of how people relate to sustainable development: engagement and disengagement. Future research can use the EDiSDI to build knowledge on how engagement and disengagement can explain sustainable and unsustainable (e.g. negationist) behavioral patterns. This will be important for helping inform policies and practices for promoting sustainable behavioral patterns in citizens of different societies
Metabolomics to unveil and understand phenotypic diversity between pathogen populations
Visceral leishmaniasis is caused by a parasite called Leishmania donovani, which every year infects about half a million people and claims several thousand lives. Existing treatments are now becoming less effective due to the emergence of drug resistance. Improving our understanding of the mechanisms used by the parasite to adapt to drugs and achieve resistance is crucial for developing future treatment strategies. Unfortunately, the biological mechanism whereby Leishmania acquires drug resistance is poorly understood. Recent years have brought new technologies with the potential to increase greatly our understanding of drug resistance mechanisms. The latest mass spectrometry techniques allow the metabolome of parasites to be studied rapidly and in great detail. We have applied this approach to determine the metabolome of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant parasites isolated from patients with leishmaniasis. The data show that there are wholesale differences between the isolates and that the membrane composition has been drastically modified in drug-resistant parasites compared with drug-sensitive parasites. Our findings demonstrate that untargeted metabolomics has great potential to identify major metabolic differences between closely related parasite strains and thus should find many applications in distinguishing parasite phenotypes of clinical relevance
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