Classifying Crises-Information Relevancy with Semantics

Social media platforms have become key portals for sharing and consuming information during crisis situations. However, humanitarian organisations and affected communities often struggle to sieve through the large volumes of data that are typically shared on such platforms during crises to determine which posts are truly relevant to the crisis, and which are not. Previous work on automatically classifying crisis information was mostly focused on using statistical features. However, such approaches tend to be inappropriate when processing data on a type of crisis that the model was not trained on, such as processing information about a train crash, whereas the classifier was trained on floods, earthquakes, and typhoons. In such cases, the model will need to be retrained, which is costly and time-consuming. In this paper, we explore the impact of semantics in classifying Twitter posts across same, and different, types of crises. We experiment with 26 crisis events, using a hybrid system that combines statistical features with various semantic features extracted from external knowledge bases. We show that adding semantic features has no noticeable benefit over statistical features when classifying same-type crises, whereas it enhances the classifier performance by up to 7.2% when classifying information about a new type of crisis

C++ Compilers & ISO Conformance

Conformance to Standards is becoming recognized as one of the most important assurances compiler vendors can provide to programmers. Conformance enables code portability and wider use of a language and its libraries. However, establishing the conformance of a compiler is difficult—especially for C++, which was slow to develop (with acceptance of a Standard occurring years after the language was introduced)

A Review of the Fishery and the Investigations of Roughhead Grenadier (Macrourus berglax) in Flemish Cap and Flemish Pass

We review the fishery and biological investigations carried out in the Flemish Cap and Flemish Pass area during the 25 years of NAFO history. In particular, we examine the information available on the biology and population structure of roughhead grenadier recorded in the following 7 research surveys carried out in the Flemish Cap and Flemish Pass area (NAFO Div. 3LMN): Russian bottom trawl research survey (1974–86), Russian longline research survey (1982), Canadian deepwater bottom trawl research survey (1991, 1994 and 1995), European Union longline research survey (1996), European Union Flemish Cap bottom trawl research survey (1988–2004), Canadian autumn bottom trawl research survey (1978–2004) and Spanish 3NO bottom trawl research survey (1995–2004). In addition, biological data collected aboard Spanish commercial fishery vessels were analysed from 1997 to 2004. Indices of biomass from various surveys suggest stability during recent years. Most surveys indicated catch rates as well as average fish size increased with depth. Growth studies by sex demonstrated both sexes grew similarly up to 9–10 years, but the male growth was slower thereafter. Estimates of size and age at 50% maturity and fecundity were very similar for the different data sets studied, showing a late maturity and low fecundity. All the studies examined found that the roughhead grenadier show a very wide feeding spectrum

Derivation of the Planck Spectrum for Relativistic Classical Scalar Radiation from Thermal Equilibrium in an Accelerating Frame

The Planck spectrum of thermal scalar radiation is derived suggestively within classical physics by the use of an accelerating coordinate frame. The derivation has an analogue in Boltzmann's derivation of the Maxwell velocity distribution for thermal particle velocities by considering the thermal equilibrium of noninteracting particles in a uniform gravitational field. For the case of radiation, the gravitational field is provided by the acceleration of a Rindler frame through Minkowski spacetime. Classical zero-point radiation and relativistic physics enter in an essential way in the derivation which is based upon the behavior of free radiation fields and the assumption that the field correlation functions contain but a single correlation time in thermal equilibrium. The work has connections with the thermal effects of acceleration found in relativistic quantum field theory.Comment: 23 page

Study of fuel cells using storable rocket propellants Final report, 28 Jan. 1964 - 29 Jan. 1965

Fuel cells using storable rocket propellants for reactant

Temperature dependence of the magnetic Casimir-Polder interaction

We analyze the magnetic dipole contribution to atom-surface dispersion forces. Unlike its electrical counterpart, it involves small transition frequencies that are comparable to thermal energy scales. A significant temperature dependence is found near surfaces with a nonzero DC conductivity, leading to a strong suppression of the dispersion force at T > 0. We use thermal response theory for the surface material and discuss both normal metals and superconductors. The asymptotes of the free energy of interaction and of the entropy are calculated analytically over a large range of distances. Near a superconductor, the onset of dissipation at the phase transition strongly changes the interaction, including a discontinuous entropy. We discuss the similarities with the Casimir interaction beween two surfaces and suggest that precision measurements of the atom-surface interaction may shed new light upon open questions around the temperature dependence of dispersion forces between lossy media.Comment: 11 figure

PADTUN - using semantic technologies in tunnel diagnosis and maintenance domain

YesA Decision Support System (DSS) in tunnelling domain deals with identifying pathologies based on disorders present in various tunnel portions and contextual factors affecting a tunnel. Another key area in diagnosing pathologies is to identify regions of interest (ROI). In practice, tunnel experts intuitively abstract regions of interest by selecting tunnel portions that are susceptible to the same types of pathologies with some distance approximation. This complex diagnosis process is often subjective and poorly scales across cases and transport structures. In this paper, we introduce PADTUN system, a working prototype of a DSS in tunnelling domain using semantic technologies. Ontologies are developed and used to capture tacit knowledge from tunnel experts. Tunnel inspection data are annotated with ontologies to take advantage of inferring capabilities offered by semantic technologies. In addition, an intelligent mechanism is developed to exploit abstraction and inference capabilities to identify ROI. PADTUN is developed in real-world settings offered by the NeTTUN EU Project and is applied in a tunnel diagnosis use case with Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF), France. We show how the use of semantic technologies allows addressing the complex issues of pathology and ROI inferencing and matching experts’ expectations of decision support

The Dipole Coupling of Atoms and Light in Gravitational Fields

The dipole coupling term between a system of N particles with total charge zero and the electromagnetic field is derived in the presence of a weak gravitational field. It is shown that the form of the coupling remains the same as in flat space-time if it is written with respect to the proper time of the observer and to the measurable field components. Some remarks concerning the connection between the minimal and the dipole coupling are given.Comment: 10 pages, LaTe