University of Sheffield TREC-8 Q & A System

The system entered by the University of Sheffield in the question answering track of TREC-8 is the result of coupling two existing technologies - information retrieval (IR) and information extraction (IE). In essence the approach is this: the IR system treats the question as a query and returns a set of top ranked documents or passages; the IE system uses NLP techniques to parse the question, analyse the top ranked documents or passages returned by the IR system, and instantiate a query variable in the semantic representation of the question against the semantic representation of the analysed documents or passages. Thus, while the IE system by no means attempts “full text understanding", this approach is a relatively deep approach which attempts to work with meaning representations. Since the information retrieval systems we used were not our own (AT&T and UMass) and were used more or less “off the shelf", this paper concentrates on describing the modifications made to our existing information extraction system to allow it to participate in the Q & A task

Low energy proton bidirectional anisotropies and their relation to transient interplanetary magnetic structures: ISEE-3 observations

It is known that the interplanetary medium in the period approaching solar maximum is characterized by an enhancement in the occurrence of transient solar wind streams and shocks and that such systems are often associated with looplike magnetic structures or clouds. There is observational evidence that bidirectional, field aligned flows of low energy particles could be a signature of such looplike structures, although detailed models for the magnetic field configuration and injection mechanisms do not exist at the current time. Preliminary results of a survey of low energy proton bidirectional anisotropies measured on ISEE-3 in the interplanetary medium between August 1978 and May 1982, together with magnetic field data from the same spacecraft are presented

2MASS J06164006-6407194: The First Outer Halo L Subdwarf

We present the serendipitous discovery of an L subdwarf, 2MASS J06164006-6407194, in a search of the Two Micron All Sky Survey for T dwarfs. Its spectrum exhibits features indicative of both a cool and metal poor atmosphere including a heavily pressured-broadened K I resonant doublet, Cs I and Rb I lines, molecular bands of CaH, TiO, CrH, FeH, and H2O, and enhanced collision induced absorption of H2. We assign 2MASS 0616-6407 a spectral type of sdL5 based on a comparison of its red optical spectrum to that of near solar-metallicity L dwarfs. Its high proper motion (mu =1.405+-0.008 arcsec yr-1), large radial velocity (Vrad = 454+-15 km s-1), estimated uvw velocities (94, -573, 125) km s-1 and Galactic orbit with an apogalacticon at ~29 kpc are indicative of membership in the outer halo making 2MASS 0616-6407 the first ultracool member of this population.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

GeoCLEF 2006: the CLEF 2006 Ccross-language geographic information retrieval track overview

After being a pilot track in 2005, GeoCLEF advanced to be a regular track within CLEF 2006. The purpose of GeoCLEF is to test and evaluate cross-language geographic information retrieval (GIR): retrieval for topics with a geographic specification. For GeoCLEF 2006, twenty-five search topics were defined by the organizing groups for searching English, German, Portuguese and Spanish document collections. Topics were translated into English, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese. Several topics in 2006 were significantly more geographically challenging than in 2005. Seventeen groups submitted 149 runs (up from eleven groups and 117 runs in GeoCLEF 2005). The groups used a variety of approaches, including geographic bounding boxes, named entity extraction and external knowledge bases (geographic thesauri and ontologies and gazetteers)

Challenges to evaluation of multilingual geographic information retrieval in GeoCLEF

This is the third year of the evaluation of geographic information retrieval (GeoCLEF) within the Cross-Language Evaluation Forum (CLEF). GeoCLEF 2006 presented topics and documents in four languages (English, German, Portuguese and Spanish). After two years of evaluation we are beginning to understand the challenges to both Geographic Information Retrieval from text and of evaluation of the results of geographic information retrieval. This poster enumerates some of these challenges to evaluation and comments on the limitations encountered in the first two evaluations

A review of peer‐reviewed published research on corruption and disasters in the built environment

This paper presents the findings of a review of academic literature concerning the degree to which corruption worsens naturally-triggered disasters in the built environment. The research employed a 'systematic literature review' methodology to analyse leading academic databases, resulting in a detailed analysis of 59 peer-reviewed, published papers. It was found that while much of the literature focuses on earthquakes (relating to building and infrastructure collapse), the quality of governance and the drivers of corruption, there is presently limited scholarship concerning the general scope, reach and scale of how disasters are worsened by corruption. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Optimizing DNA Extraction Methods for Nanopore Sequencing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae Directly from Urine Samples

Empirical gonorrhea treatment at initial diagnosis reduces onward transmission. However, increasing resistance to multiple antibiotics may necessitate waiting for culture-based diagnostics to select an effective treatment. There is a need for same-day culture-free diagnostics that identify infection and detect antimicrobial resistance. We investigated if Nanopore sequencing can detect sufficient Neisseria gonorrhoeae DNA to reconstruct whole genomes directly from urine samples. We used N. gonorrhoeae-spiked urine samples and samples from gonorrhea infections to determine optimal DNA extraction methods that maximize the amount of N. gonorrhoeae DNA sequenced while minimizing contaminating host DNA. In simulated infections, the Qiagen UCP pathogen mini kit provided the highest ratio of N. gonorrhoeae to human DNA and the most consistent results. Depletion of human DNA with saponin increased N. gonorrhoeae yields in simulated infections but decreased yields in clinical samples. In 10 urine samples from men with symptomatic urethral gonorrhea, ≥92.8% coverage of an N. gonorrhoeae reference genome was achieved in all samples, with ≥93.8% coverage breath at ≥10-fold depth in 7 (70%) samples. In simulated infections, if ≥104 CFU/ml of N. gonorrhoeae was present, sequencing of the large majority of the genome was frequently achieved. N. gonorrhoeae could also be detected from urine in cobas PCR medium tubes and from urethral swabs and in the presence of simulated Chlamydia coinfection. Using Nanopore sequencing of urine samples from men with urethral gonorrhea, sufficient data can be obtained to reconstruct whole genomes in the majority of samples without the need for culture

Cut-lengths of perennial ryegrass leaf-blades influences in vitro fermentation by the anaerobic fungus neocallimastix frontalis

Anaerobic fungi in the gut of domesticated and wild mammalian herbivores play a key role in the host’s ability to utilize plant biomass. Due to their highly effective ability to enzymatically degrade lignocellulose, anaerobic fungi are biotechnologically interesting. Numerous factors have been shown to affect the ability of anaerobic fungi to break down plant biomass. However, methods to reduce the non-productive lag time in batch cultures and the effect of leaf-blade cut-length and condition on the fungal fermentation are not known. Therefore, experimentation using a novel gas production approach with pre-grown, axenic cultures of Neocallimastix frontalis was performed using both fresh and air-dried perennial ryegrass leaf-blades of different cut-lengths. The methodology adopted removed the lag-phase and demonstrated the digestion of un-autoclaved leaf-blades. Fermentation of leaf-blades of 4.0 cm cut-length produced 18.4% more gas yet retained 11.2% more apparent DM relative to 0.5 cm cut-length leaf-blades. Drying did not affect fermentation by N. frontalis, although an interaction between drying and leaf-blade cut-length was noted. Removal of the lag phase and the use of un-autoclaved substrates are important when considering the biotechnological potential of anaerobic fungi. A hypothesis based upon sporulation at cut surfaces is proposed to describe the experimental results

Use of Guided Wave Inspections to Monitor the Integrity of Nuclear Power Station Boilers

This paper describes a ground-breaking application of guided wave testing for the nuclear power industry. Hartlepool and Heysham 1 power stations in the UK contain boilers of a unique ‘pod’ design in which the spiral boiler tubes are supported from above by a central vertical ‘spine’, which is a tubular component approximately 520mm in diameter and 21m long with complex changes in cross-section and attachments along its length. There are 32 boilers in the two stations. The gas which has passed through the reactor core flows down over the boiler tubes, heating the water inside. Only the top 2m of each spine is accessible above the top of the boiler pod. Plant Integrity Ltd was engaged by to inspect these ‘spine’ supports in 2003 using its Teletest guided wave system at statutory outages, which occur on a 3-year interval for each reactor. The Teletest tool was positioned in the only accessible place, just below the inlet header which protrudes approximately 2m from the top of the boiler. A procedure was developed to enable the full 21m length of the spine inside the boiler pod itself to be examined. During one of the regular Teletest inspections, at Heysham 1 power station in September 2013, a significant change in response was detected from the central part of one of the boiler spines. As a result, two of the eight boilers at Heysham 1 Reactor 1 were shut down pending further investigations. The indication was confirmed to be a structurally significant crack in the spine concerned. The crack detected was at the exact position and of the approximate extent reported by Teletest, which had detected the flaw from some 10m away. All four reactors at Hartlepool and Heysham 1 power stations were shut down in the latter part of 2014 while a new safety case for return to service of the remaining boilers was made. There is currently no viable alternative to guided wave inspection for monitoring the integrity of these boiler spines and a significant programme of work has been carried out to demonstrate the performance of Teletest for detection of flaws in these components under a variety of circumstances in order to support the safety case for operation. This has involved theoretical modelling, review of information contained in historical inspection data, practical tests on a full scale mock-up component, development of high temperature Teletest tooling to allow in- service tests and production of automated Teletest data collection equipment to allow real time in-service monitoring of the spines. TWI’s and Plant Integrity’s support enabled all four reactors to be returned to service before the end of 2014