Automatic Taxonomy Generation - A Use-Case in the Legal Domain

A key challenge in the legal domain is the adaptation and representation of the legal knowledge expressed through texts, in order for legal practitioners and researchers to access this information easier and faster to help with compliance related issues. One way to approach this goal is in the form of a taxonomy of legal concepts. While this task usually requires a manual construction of terms and their relations by domain experts, this paper describes a methodology to automatically generate a taxonomy of legal noun concepts. We apply and compare two approaches on a corpus consisting of statutory instruments for UK, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland laws.Comment: 9 page

Variation and change in stop consonants in the spanish spoken in Andalucía

Este estudio explora cuáles son las pistas fonéticas de las que se sirven los hablantes del español de Andalucía para distinguir las palabras de tipo pasta ~ pata, pisto ~ pito, casco ~ caco, es decir, las palabras que contienen las grafías Vocal + Sibilante + Oclusiva sorda + Vocal (VSOV) de las palabras en las que el elemento sibilante no está presente: las secuencias Vocal + Oclusiva sorda + Vocal (VOV). También explora las diferencias fonéticas entre éstas últimas secuencias y las secuencias Vocal + Aproximante Espirante + Vocal (VAV); pares mínimos como pipa ~ piba, pito ~ pido, caco ~ cago. Nuestros resultados demuestran que la diferencia entre las secuencias VSOV y VOV no se basa principalmente en la presencia de algún tipo de aspiración antes de la oclusiva puesto que en un tercio de los casos no hay ningún indicio fonético de aspiración en esta posición. La pista fonética más fiable parece residir en la pronunciación de las oclusivas. Las de las secuencias VSOV son siempre sordas y significativamente más aspiradas y en el oriente de Andalucía más largas. Las de las secuencias VOV, en cambio, no son aspiradas y son sordas solamente en un 13% de los casos mientras presentan una sonorización en un 69% y se pronuncian como aproximantes en un 19%. Estas últimas pronunciaciones de las secuencias VOV podrían, pues, confundirse fonéticamente con las de las secuencias VAV puesto que éstas se pronuncian como aproximantes un 66% mientras en un 34% de los casos no hay ninguna pronunciación consonántica. Los resultados también señalan que son los hombres que demuestran más tendencia a tanto perder las aproximantes espirantes como sonorizar las oclusivas sordas.This article investigates the phonetic cues which speakers of Andalusian Spanish use to distinguish words of the type pasta ~ pata, pisto ~ pito, casco ~ caco; words which contain the graphemes Vowel + Sibilante + voiceless Occlusive + Vowel (VSOV) from those in which the sibilant consonant is not present: the sequences Vowel + voiceless Occlusive + Vowel (VOV). The article also investigates the phonetic differences between these latter sequences and the sequences Vowel + spirant Aproximant + Vowel (VAV); minimal pairs such as pipa ~ piba, pito ~ pido, caco ~ cago. The results show that in the first set of sequences (VSOV vs VOV) the most reliable phonetic cue is not the presence of some type of aspiration of the /s/ before the occlusive, since this is not present in a third of the cases, rather the most reliable phonetic cue is to be found in the pronunciation of the occlusive consonants. In the VSOV sequences these are always voiceless and are also statistically more aspirated (and in the East of Andalucía longer) than those of the VOV sequences. Moreover, the occlusives of the VOV sequences are only voiceless 13% of the time whilst they are voiced 69% and are pronounced as approximants 19%. This latter type of pronunciations could lead to a phonetic neutralisation between the sequences VOV and VAV on account of the fact that in the latter sequences the consonant is pronounced as an approximant 66% whilst no consonant is pronounced 34%. It must also be noted that men have more of a tendency to not pronounce the approximants in the sequences VAV and voice the supposedly voiceless occlusives in the VOV sequences

The solubility of rhenium in silicate melts: Implications for the geochemical properties of rhenium at high temperatures

The solubility of rhenium (Re) in a haplobasaltic melt (anorthite-diopside eutectic composition) has been experimentally determined using the mechanically assisted equilibration technique at 1400°C as a function of oxygen fugacity (10−12 < fO2 ≤ 10−7 bar), imposed by CO-CO2 gas mixtures. Samples were analysed by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). This is a true microanalytical technique, which allows small-scale sample heterogeneity to be detected, while providing a limit of detection of 2 ppb Re. Time-resolved LA-ICP-MS spectra revealed the presence of suboptically sized micronuggets of Re in all samples, which, because they are present at the 0.5 to 10 ppm level, dominate the true solubilities of Re (<1 ppm at the conditions of the experiment) in bulk analyses of the samples. Nevertheless, the micronuggets could be filtered out from the time-resolved spectra to reveal accurate values of the true Re solubility. A number of time series of samples were taken at constant fO2 to demonstrate that the solubilities converge to a constant value. In addition, solubilities were measured after increasing and decreasing the imposed fO2. The results show that Re dissolves in the silicate melt as ReO2 (Re4+) and ReO3 (Re6+) species, with the latter predominating at typical terrestrial upper-mantle oxygen fugacities. The total solubility of Re is described by the following expression (fO2 in bars): [Re/ppb] = 9.7(±1.9) × 109 (fO2) + 4.2 (±0.3) × 1014 (fO2)1.5Assuming an activity coefficient for Re in Fe-rich metal of 1, this gives a value of DRemet/sil of 5 × 1010 at log fO2 = IW-2, appropriate for metal-silicate partitioning in an homogenously accreting Earth. Thus, Re is indeed very highly siderophile, and the mantle’s abundance cannot be explained by homogenous accretion

On the relativistic iron line and soft excess in the Seyfert 1 galaxy Markarian 335

We report on a 133 ks XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Markarian 335. The 0.4-12 keV spectrum contains an underlying power law continuum, a soft excess below 2 keV, and a double-peaked iron emission feature in the 6-7 keV range. We investigate the possibility that the double-peaked emission might represent the characteristic signature of the accretion disc. Detailed investigations show that a moderately broad, accretion disc line is most likely present, but that the peaks may be owing to narrower components from more distant material. The peaks at 6.4 and 7 keV can be identified, respectively, with the molecular torus in active galactic nucleus unification schemes, and very highly ionized, optically thin gas filling the torus. The X-ray variability spectra on both long (~100 ks) and short (~1 ks) timescales disfavour the recent suggestion that the soft excess is an artifact of variable, moderately ionized absorption.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Recurrent ~24 h Periods in RXTE ASM Data

Analysis of data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite's All Sky Monitor instrument for several X-ray binary sources has identified a recurrent \~24 h period. This period is sometimes highly significant, giving rise to the possibility of it being identified as an orbital or super-orbital period. Further analysis has revealed the same period in a number of other X-ray sources. As a result this period has been discounted as spurious, described variously as arising from daily variations in background levels and beating between the sampling period and long-term secular trends in the light curves. We present here an analysis of the spurious periods and show that the dominant mechanism is in fact spectral leakage of low-frequency power present in the light curves.Comment: 9 Pages, 10 figures, 1 table, submitted to PASA 20th December 2004. Added 1 page of text and 3 figures to clarify results and discussion. Resubmitted 16th May 2005. Accepted 25th June 200

A tetraoxane-based antimalarial drug candidate that overcomes PfK13-C580Y dependent artemisinin resistance

Documento escrito por un elevado número de autores/as, solo se referencia el/la que aparece en primer lugar y los/as autores/as pertenecientes a la UC3M.K13 gene mutations are a primary marker of artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum malaria that threatens the long-term clinical utility of artemisinin-based combination therapies, the cornerstone of modern day malaria treatment. Here we describe a multinational drug discovery programme that has delivered a synthetic tetraoxane-based molecule, E209, which meets key requirements of the Medicines for Malaria Venture drug candidate profiles. E209 has potent nanomolar inhibitory activity against multiple strains of P. falciparum and P. vivax in vitro, is efficacious against P. falciparum in in vivo rodent models, produces parasite reduction ratios equivalent to dihydroartemisinin and has pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics compatible with a single-dose cure. In vitro studies with transgenic parasites expressing variant forms of K13 show no cross-resistance with the C580Y mutation, the primary variant observed in Southeast Asia. E209 is a superior next generation endoperoxide with combined pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic features that overcome the liabilities of artemisinin derivatives.This work was supported by grants from the European Union (Antimal, FP6, S.A.W., P.M.O’N.), the Medicines for Malaria Venture (S.A.W., P.M.O’N., G.A.B., G.L.N., R.K.A.), the NIH (R01 AI109023 to D.A.F.), the Global Health and Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund (G2015-120, S.A.W., P.M.O’N., G.A.B, G.L.N.) and Medical Research Council, United Kingdom (G0700654, M.H.-L.W., A.E.M., I.M.C.)

Platform protocol place: a practice-based study of critical media art practice (2007-2020)

This practice-based research project focuses on critical media art practices in contemporary digital culture. The theoretical framework employed in this inquiry draws from the work of the Frankfurt School, in particular Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. Using Adorno & Horkheimer’s thesis as a theoretical guide, this research project formulates the concept of the digital culture industry - a concept that refers to the contemporary era of networked capitalism, an era defined by the unprecedented extraction, accumulation and manipulation of data and the material and digital infrastructures that facilitate it. This concept is used as a framing mechanism that articulates certain techno-political concerns within networked capitalism and responds to them through practice. The second concept formulated within this research project is Platform Protocol Place. The function of this second concept is to frame and outline the body of practice-based work developed in this study. It is also used to make complex technological issues accessible and to communicate these issues through public exhibition and within this written thesis. The final concept developed in this research project is tactical media archaeology. This concept describes the techniques and approaches employed in the development of the body of practice-based work that are the central focus of this research project. This approach is a synthesis of two subfields of media art practice and theory, tactical media and media archaeology. Through practice, tactical media archaeology critiques the geopolitical machinations and systems beneath the networked devices and interfaces of the digital culture industry