A Model for Automatic Extraction of Slowdowns From Traffic Sensor Data

The ability to identify slowdowns from a stream of traffic sensor readings in an automatic fashion is a core building block for any application which incorporates traffic behaviour into its analysis process. The methods proposed in this paper treat slowdowns as valley-shaped data sequences that are found below a normal distribution interval. This paper proposes a model for slowdown identification and partitioning across multiple periods of time and it aims to serve as a first layer of knowledge about the traffic environment. The model can be used to extract the regularities from a set of events of interest with recurring behaviour and to assert the consistency of the extracted patterns. The proposed methods are evaluated using real data collected from highway traffic sensor

Scoring Coreference Chains with Split-Antecedent Anaphors

Anaphoric reference is an aspect of language interpretation covering a variety of types of interpretation beyond the simple case of identity reference to entities introduced via nominal expressions covered by the traditional coreference task in its most recent incarnation in ONTONOTES and similar datasets. One of these cases that go beyond simple coreference is anaphoric reference to entities that must be added to the discourse model via accommodation, and in particular split-antecedent references to entities constructed out of multiple discourse entities, as in split-antecedent plurals and in some cases of discourse deixis. Although this type of anaphoric reference is now annotated in many datasets, systems interpreting such references cannot be evaluated using the Reference coreference scorer (Pradhan et al., 2014). As part of the work towards a new scorer for anaphoric reference able to evaluate all aspects of anaphoric interpretation in the coverage of the Universal Anaphora initiative, we propose in this paper a solution to the technical problem of generalizing existing metrics for identity anaphora so that they can also be used to score cases of split-antecedents. This is the first such proposal in the literature on anaphora or coreference, and has been successfully used to score both split-antecedent plural references and discourse deixis in the recent CODI/CRAC anaphora resolution in dialogue shared tasks

Parameter Inference in the Pulmonary Circulation of Mice

This study focuses on parameter inference in a pulmonary blood cir- culation model for mice. It utilises a fluid dynamics network model that takes selected parameter values and aims to mimic features of the pulmonary haemody- namics under normal physiological and pathological conditions. This is of medical relevance as it allows monitoring of the progression of pulmonary hypertension. Constraint nonlinear optimization is successfully used to learn the parameter values

Factors Affecting Maternal Mortality in an Alert Village in South Timor Tengah, East Nusa Tenggara

Background: Maternal mortality may be attributable to direct or indirect causes, such as social, cultural, economic, and geographical factors. The purpose of this study was to determine factors affecting the risk of maternal mortality in an alert village in South Timor Tengah, East Nusa Tenggara. Subjects and Method: This was a case control study conducted at a Community Health Center, in an alert village, South Timor Tengah, East Nusa Tenggara. A sample of 167 postpartum women, consisting of 35 dead postpartum women (represented by their families) and 132 alive postpartum women, were selected for this study. The independent variables were age, antenatal care visit, unskilled birth attendant, access transportation, and social support. The dependent variable was maternal death. The data were collected from medical and obstetric record and questionnaire. The data were analysis by multiple logistic regression. Results: Risk of maternal mortality increased by birth delivery at home (OR = 18.00; 95% CI= 5.00 to 74.00; p = 0.001), unskilled birth attendant (OR = 43.50; 95% CI= 4.40 to 363.50; p=0.001), antenatal care visit <4 (OR = 50.09; 95% CI = 5.96 to 420.40; p = 0.001), maternal age <20 years or ≥35 years (OR = 3.29; 95% CI = 1.10 to 9.05; p = 0.032), poor access to transportation (OR= 4.50; 95% CI= 1.10 to 18.50; p=0.028), weak familly support (OR = 3.05, 95% CI = 1.05 to 8.84, p = 0.037), and weak emotional support (OR = 11.00; 95% CI = 3.2 to 36.70; p = 0.001). Conclusion: Risk of maternal mortality increased by birth delivery at home, unskilled birth attendant, antenatal care visit <4, maternal age <20 years or ≥35 years, poor access to transportation, weak familly support, and weak emotional support. Keywords: Maternal mortality, unskilled birth attendant, antenatal care, maternal age, transportation, familly support, emotional suppor

Health Services, Maternal Intrinsic and Socio-Cultural Factors and Perinatal Mortality

This study question was how significant the determination of health services, maternal intrinsic risk factors and socio-cultural factors on perinatal mortality. Its objective was to construct a model of perinatal mortality pattern by case-control design. The case population was all mothers with perinatal mortality. The sample-size was 35 by simple random sampling with case-control ratio of 1:1 (35:35). The data analysis applied Bivariate using Chi Square Test and Multivariate using Logistic Regression Test. The Bivariate Analysis Results found the risk-variables on Perinatal Mortality were Birth Attendant (OR=2.1; 1.63-2.7; 95%CI), Health Financing (OR=7.1; 1.82-27.8; 95% CI), Maternal Disease History (OR=8; 2.05-31.16; 95%CI), Perinatal History (OR=6.47; 2.26-18.55; 95%CI) and Custom (OR=2.17; 1.67-2.82; 95%CI). Multivariat Analysis found three consistent risk variables on Perinatal Mortality i.e.: Health Financing (p=0.016; OR=6.8; 95% CI), Maternal Disease History (p=0.006; OR=8.41; 95%CI) and Perinatal History (p=0.021; OR=4.3; 95%CI). It concluded that the most significant determinant on Perinatal Mortality was Maternal Disease History

Factors Associated with The Use of Antenatal Care in East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara

Background: Antenatal care (ANC) is very important to pregnant women as it helps prevent mother and child mortality, prevent complications, helps foster a good relationship between the husband and wife, mother and child and father. Good antenatal care includes regular screening which can detect and prevent early complications such as hypertension and pregnancy diabetes; both of which can dramatically affect the fetus. Early detection means regular monitoring and treatment. This study aimed to analyze factors associated with the use of ANC in East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara. Subjects and Method: This was an cross sectional study conducted in East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara. A sample of 254 pregnant women were selected for this study by simple random sampling. The dependent variable was use of ANC. The independent variables were being a housewife, receiving husband's support, and social support. The data were collected by questionnaire and analyzed by a multiple logistic regression. Results: The use of ANC was associated with being a housewife (b= 0.88; 95% CI= 1.30 to 4.48; p= 0.005), receiving husband's support (b= 0.72; 95% CI= 0.25 to 0.95; p= 0.035), and social support (b= 1.52; 95% CI= 0.10 to 0.51; p<0.001). Conclusion: The use of ANC is associated with being a housewife, receiving husband's support and social support. Keywords: housewife, husband's support, social support, antenatal care, utilizatio

Asynchronous spiking neural P systems

We consider here spiking neural P systems with a non-synchronized (i.e., asynchronous) use of rules: in any step, a neuron can apply or not apply its rules which are enabled by the number of spikes it contains (further spikes can come, thus changing the rules enabled in the next step). Because the time between two firings of the output neuron is now irrelevant, the result of a computation is the number of spikes sent out by the system, not the distance between certain spikes leaving the system. The additional non-determinism introduced in the functioning of the system by the non-synchronization is proved not to decrease the computing power in the case of using extended rules (several spikes can be produced by a rule). That is, we obtain again the equivalence with Turing machines (interpreted as generators of sets of (vectors of) numbers). However, this problem remains open for the case of standard spiking neural P systems, whose rules can only produce one spike. On the other hand we prove that asynchronous systems, with extended rules, and where each neuron is either bounded or unbounded, are not computationally complete. For these systems, the configuration reachability, membership (in terms of generated vectors), emptiness, infiniteness, and disjointness problems are shown to be decidable. However, containment and equivalence are undecidable. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved