ODESWS, A Semantic Web Service Development

ODE SWS is a development environment to design Semantic Web Services (SWS) at the knowledge level. ODE SWS describe the service following a problem-solving approach in which the SWS are modeled using tasks, to represent the SWS functional features, and methods, to describe the SWS internal structure. In this paper, we describe the ODE SWS architecture and the capabilities of its graphical interface, which enables users to design SWS independently of the semantic markup language used to represent them

SWSDesigner: The Graphical Interface of ODESWS

ODESWS is a development environment to design Semantic Web Services (SWS) at the knowledge level. ODESWS describe the service following a problem-solving approach in which the SWS are modelled using tasks, to represent the SWS functional features, and methods, to describe the SWS internal structure. In this paper, we describe the ODESWS graphical interface (called SWSDesinger). This interface enables users to design SWS independently of the semantic markup language in which the service will be implemented, and once the design has been export the service to an SWS implementation languag

A Framework for Design and Composition of Semantic Web Services

Semantic Web Services (SWS) are Web Services (WS) whose description is semantically enhanced with markup languages (e.g., OWL-S). This semantic description will enable external agents and programs to discover, compose and invoke SWSs. However, as a previous step to the specification of SWSs in a language, it must be designed at a conceptual level to guarantee its correctness and avoid inconsistencies among its internal components. In this paper, we present a framework for design and (semi) automatic composition of SWSs at a language-independent and knowledge level. This framework is based on a stack of ontologies that (1) describe the different parts of a SWS; and (2) contain a set of axioms that are really design rules to be verified by the ontology instances. Based on these ontologies, design and composition of SWSs can be viewed as the correct instantiation of the ontologies themselves. Once these instances have been created they will be exported to SWS languages such as OWL-S

Challenging gender myths: Promoting inclusive wheat and maize research for development in Nepal

This technical note provides research evidence debunking four gender myths: 1) men are the main decision makers; 2) women don’t do much in wheat and maize; 3) women don’t innovate; and 4) women lack resources for innovation. Data is drawn from six GENNOVATE Nepal case studies in the Myagdi, Chitwan, Rupandehi, and Jajarkot Districts. The resource posits that understanding and working with women in wheat- or maize-related innovation processes will help to improve the design and relevance of innovations

Van Kampen's expansion approach in an opinion formation model

We analyze a simple opinion formation model consisting of two parties, A and B, and a group I, of undecided agents. We assume that the supporters of parties A and B do not interact among them, but only interact through the group I, and that there is a nonzero probability of a spontaneous change of opinion (A->I, B->I). From the master equation, and via van Kampen's Omega-expansion approach, we have obtained the "macroscopic" evolution equation, as well as the Fokker-Planck equation governing the fluctuations around the deterministic behavior. Within the same approach, we have also obtained information about the typical relaxation behavior of small perturbations.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, submited to Europ.Phys.J.

Akvo FLOW in Nepal: real time monitoring of WASH services

Service delivery in sanitation has been accelerated with the formulation of National Sanitation and Hygiene Master Plan, 2011 by Government of Nepal that aims to achieve universal coverage by 2017. Functionality and sustainability are prime issues that emerge with a question mark in the sanitation promotion and also sprout issues of behaviour change of communities that have already been declared as Open Defecation Free (ODF) areas. The conventional paper based monitoring is sure to fail in coming up with real time data collection, hence leaving flaws for actual analysis and plans for ways forward. In such situation, mobile based data collection has come up as better option, which gives real time monitoring with Global Positioning System (GPS) reference, provides visualisation of collected data (see Photograph 1 on page 4). This helps in making real time decisions through intelligent analysis of data, which can be also viewed in the maps plotted through use of internet

Effects of intermixing and oxygen vacancies on a two-dimensional electron gas at the polar (TbScO\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e/KTaO) (001) interface

3d-5d perovskite oxides, ABO3 (where A and B are 3d or 5d elements), form polar surfaces in the (001)- stacked thin films. As a result, the polar-polar (001) interface between two ABO3 insulators could create polar discontinuity potentially producing a two-dimensional electron gas of higher density and stronger spatial localization compared to the widely studied polar-nonpolar oxide interfaces, such as (001) LaAlO3/SrTiO3. Here, as a model system, we explore the interface between polar (001) TbScO3 and polar (001) KTaO3 using first-principles density functional theory.We find that the intermixed interface Ta0.75Sc0.25O2/Tb0.75K0.25O maintaining the bulk perovskite charge stacking (e.g., . . . + 1/ − 1/ + 1 . . .) is insulating and has a lower energy than the metallic interface TbO/TaO2 breaking such stacking. This intermixed interface is, however, prone to the formation of oxygen vacancies which make it conducting. We emphasize that the driving force for the formation of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) here is not a built-in electric field stemming from the polar discontinuity but the interface stoichiometry. We find that the ratio of oxygen vacancy concentration is a factor of 30 times larger at the interface than in bulk KTO at room temperature. The oxygen vacancy-induced 2DEG resides on the Ta-5d electronic orbitals with dxy and dxz/yz occupation dominating overall charge density near and far away from the interface

Discretization-related issues in the KPZ equation: Consistency, Galilean-invariance violation, and fluctuation--dissipation relation

In order to perform numerical simulations of the KPZ equation, in any dimensionality, a spatial discretization scheme must be prescribed. The known fact that the KPZ equation can be obtained as a result of a Hopf--Cole transformation applied to a diffusion equation (with \emph{multiplicative} noise) is shown here to strongly restrict the arbitrariness in the choice of spatial discretization schemes. On one hand, the discretization prescriptions for the Laplacian and the nonlinear (KPZ) term cannot be independently chosen. On the other hand, since the discretization is an operation performed on \emph{space} and the Hopf--Cole transformation is \emph{local} both in space and time, the former should be the same regardless of the field to which it is applied. It is shown that whereas some discretization schemes pass both consistency tests, known examples in the literature do not. The requirement of consistency for the discretization of Lyapunov functionals is argued to be a natural and safe starting point in choosing spatial discretization schemes. We also analyze the relation between real-space and pseudo-spectral discrete representations. In addition we discuss the relevance of the Galilean invariance violation in these consistent discretization schemes, and the alleged conflict of standard discretization with the fluctuation--dissipation theorem, peculiar of 1D.Comment: RevTex, 23pgs, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Enhanced Understanding of Infectious Diseases by Fusing Multiple Datasets: A Case Study on Malaria in the Western Brazilian Amazon Region

BACKGROUND: A common challenge to the study of several infectious diseases consists in combining limited cross-sectional survey data, collected with a more sensitive detection method, with a more extensive (but biased) syndromic sentinel surveillance data, collected with a less sensitive method. Our article describes a novel modeling framework that overcomes this challenge, resulting in enhanced understanding of malaria in the Western Brazilian Amazon. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A cohort of 486 individuals was monitored using four cross-sectional surveys, where all participants were sampled regardless of symptoms (aggressive-active case detection), resulting in 1,383 microscopy and 1,400 polymerase chain reaction tests. Data on the same individuals were also obtained from the local surveillance facility (i.e., passive and active case detection), totaling 1,694 microscopy tests. Our model accommodates these multiple pathogen and case detection methods. This model is shown to outperform logistic regression in terms of interpretability of its parameters, ability to recover the true parameter values, and predictive performance. We reveal that the main infection determinant was the extent of forest, particularly during the rainy season and in close proximity to water bodies, and participation on forest activities. We find that time residing in Acrelandia (as a proxy for past malaria exposure) decreases infection risk but surprisingly increases the likelihood of reporting symptoms once infected, possibly because non-naïve settlers are only susceptible to more virulent Plasmodium strains. We suggest that the search for asymptomatic carriers should focus on those at greater risk of being infected but lower risk of reporting symptoms once infected. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The modeling framework presented here combines cross-sectional survey data and syndromic sentinel surveillance data to shed light on several aspects of malaria that are critical for public health policy. This framework can be adapted to enhance inference on infectious diseases whenever asymptomatic carriers are important and multiple datasets are available