Automating Coreference: The Role of Annotated Training Data

We report here on a study of interannotator agreement in the coreference task as defined by the Message Understanding Conference (MUC-6 and MUC-7). Based on feedback from annotators, we clarified and simplified the annotation specification. We then performed an analysis of disagreement among several annotators, concluding that only 16% of the disagreements represented genuine disagreement about coreference; the remainder of the cases were mostly typographical errors or omissions, easily reconciled. Initially, we measured interannotator agreement in the low 80s for precision and recall. To try to improve upon this, we ran several experiments. In our final experiment, we separated the tagging of candidate noun phrases from the linking of actual coreferring expressions. This method shows promise - interannotator agreement climbed to the low 90s - but it needs more extensive validation. These results position the research community to broaden the coreference task to multiple languages, and possibly to different kinds of coreference.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. To appear in the AAAI Spring Symposium on Applying Machine Learning to Discourse Processing. The Alembic Workbench annotation tool described in this paper is available at http://www.mitre.org/resources/centers/advanced_info/g04h/workbench.htm

Modeling consumer choices between domestic and foreign automobiles

This paper analyzes survey data to determine the factors that impact the probability of purchasing a domestic versus foreign brand of automobile. It includes dynamic variables reflecting purchase history and thus the effect past choices may have on current behavior. Some of these factors are shown to be statistically significant. The paper also looks at key subpopulations. We see that preferences in the luxury segment are far better explained by economic, demographic, and dynamic variables than are preferences in the non-luxury market. The paper also looks at switching behavior---domestic owners who switch to foreign brands. The key finding is that loyalty to domestic brands is more a product of economic variables such as price and income, and of car attributes such as size, than it is a product of habit persistence or structural state dependence

Risk for Obesity: Contribution of Socioeconomic Status Factors and Potential Mediators

Current estimates indicate that nearly 67 percent of all U.S. adults are overweight or obese. To assist public health efforts aimed at reducing obesity, this study examines the independent relationships between adult obesity and three primary indicators of SES (education, occupation, income). This study also investigates potential mediators in the relationship between SES and obesity, and whether the SES – obesity relationship varies by physical disability status. Logistic regressions are employed; results indicate that contrary to those with a physical disability, education and income are each independently associated with overweight/obesity for those without a physical disability, while occupational prestige is not independently associated with overweight/obesity for those without a physical disability. Among those with a physical disability, the relationship between occupational prestige and overweight/obesity is partially explained by race-ethnicity and smoker status. Among those without a physical disability, results underscore the importance of education and income for overweight/obesity risk

Implications of Transitional Care Interventions on Hospital Readmissions in Patients With Destination Therapy Left Ventricular Assist Devices

Background: The rising number of patients with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) require care management to successfully transition home after implantation. These patients and their families need to manage their heart failure, and the complexities of an LVAD and the associated lifestyle modifications. Translating knowledge of transitional care interventions in patients with chronic diseases to those with an LVAD may provide valuable insight. To help inform the furthering of care transitions in the LVAD patient population, an integrative review was conducted. Aim: The aim of this review was to explore the transitions of care interventions of care in patients and its potential for application in the destination therapy LVAD. Methods: This integrative review was guided by the Whittemore and Knafl's methodology. Results: A total of 12 articles from 264 retrieved articles met inclusion criteria and were included in the literature review. Discussion: This review identified that evidence-based transitional care interventions have been shown to decrease avoidable rehospitalization, the associated costs, and improve quality of life when compared to usual care. Implications for Practice: A common feature of transitional care interventions is the inclusion of nurse leadership. Nurses should be prepared to participate in transitional care interventions to optimally improve outcomes for patients with heart failure and potentially those with an LVAD. Additionally, to make transitional care interventions more effective they should be implemented with moderate intensity or greater. Conclusion: This review provided information supporting the trialing of transitional care interventions in patients with an LVAD and suggests pilot research to optimize interventions for this population

Design of an optimality-based decomposition procedure for an air freight scheduled planning

M.S.Ronald L. Rardi

The Impact of Submicron 10x Reticle Defects on Images Printed with a 0.28 NA G-Line Stepper

A lOX reticle was produced with programmed defects of both polarities varying size, proximity to adjacent features, and feature sizes. The defects were imaged in various resist materials over silicon, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, polysilicon, aluminum, and a 1X chrome mask using a GCA/Mann 4800 stepper. Results obtained using optical and scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that reticle defects as small as 1.0 micron, when in proximity to a feature, will cause linewidth variation in the printed image. The resist film and underlying substrate did affect the linewidth variation. Defocus and over/under exposure also influenced the severity of damage created by reticle defects. A two—dimensional aerial image simulator SPLAT, which is a version of SAMPLE, was used to simulate the optical interactions of defects with adjacent features

Multimedia and motivation: The design and development of hypercard stack on dinosaurs

For this project the program Walk with Dinosaurs was developed using Keller\u27s Theory of Motivation. Walk with Dinosaurs is a interactive multimedia tool for presenting an integrated thematic unit. As a HyperCard stack, it intoduces students to factual information on dinosaurs in an appealing and motivating way