Syntactic Analysis Of Natural Language Using Linguistic Rules And Corpus-based Patterns

We are concerned with the syntactic annotation of unrestricted text. We combine a rule-based analysis with subsequent exploitation of empirical data. The rule-based surface syntactic analyser leaves some amount of ambiguity in the output that is resolved using empirical patterns. We have implemented a system for generating and applying corpus-based patterns. Some patterns describe the main constituents in the sentence and some the local context of the each syntactic function. There are several (partly) reduntant patterns, and the ``pattern'' parser selects analysis of the sentence that matches the strictest possible pattern(s). The system is applied to an experimental corpus. We present the results and discuss possible refinements of the method from a linguistic point of view.Comment: in Proc Coling-94, Vol I, pp. 629-634, Kyoto. Postscrip

Inducing Constraint Grammars

Constraint Grammar rules are induced from corpora. A simple scheme based on local information, i.e., on lexical biases and next-neighbour contexts, extended through the use of barriers, reached 87.3 percent precision (1.12 tags/word) at 98.2 percent recall. The results compare favourably with other methods that are used for similar tasks although they are by no means as good as the results achieved using the original hand-written rules developed over several years time.Comment: 10 pages, uuencoded, gzipped PostScrip

Towards an implementable dependency grammar

The aim of this paper is to define a dependency grammar framework which is both linguistically motivated and computationally parsable. See the demo at http://www.conexor.fi/analysers.html#testingComment: 10 page

Vedenlaskutusmittauksen selvitys varuskunta-alueella

Tämän insinöörityön tavoitteena oli määritellä erään varuskunta-alueen vesimittareiden tarkoituksenmukaiset koot. Vesilaitos laskuttaa vedestä käytetyn tilavuuden lisäksi perusmaksuja, jotka on sidottu asennettuun vesimittarikokoon. Työssä on haettu teknistaloudellista optimiratkaisua vesimittarin koolle. Varuskunta-alueen vedenjakeluverkosto siirtyi 2011 paikallisen vesilaitoksen omaisuudeksi. Tätä ennen verkosto kuului puolustusvoimille, ja vesimittarin koolla ei ollut taloudellista merkitystä. Työssä selvitettiin alueen kaikkien rakennuksien vesipisteiden lukumäärät ja laskettiin näiden perusteella rakennuksien vesimittarin mitoitusvirtaamat Suomen rakentamismääräyskokoelman osan D1 ohjeilla. Lisäksi selvitettiin, millä muilla tavoilla mitoitusvirtaama voidaan määrittää. Mitoitusvirtaaman perusteella valittiin virtaamaltaan ja painehäviöltään sopiva vesimittari. Työssä päädyttiin kahteen mahdolliseen ratkaisumalliin. Toisessa ratkaisumallissa noudatetaan kirjaimellisesti aiheesta annettuja ohjeita ja suosituksia. Toisessa ratkaisumallissa on pidemmälle optimoitu mittarivalintaa. Työn tuloksena on puolustushallinnolla mahdollista saavuttaa säästöjä. Mittarit voidaan vaihtaa perustellusti pienempiin. Vastaavasti joissakin tapauksissa voidaan välttää ongelmat, jotka mahdollisesti syntyisivät mittarin vaihtamisesta ja sen aiheuttamasta liian suuresta painehäviöstä. Työssä huomattiin, ettei alueen paloposteille käytettävissä olevaa virtauspainetta ole laajemmin tarkasteltu. Muutamissa rakennuksissa paloposteille ei saada määräysten vaatimaa käyttöpainetta.The purpose of the final year project was to determinate right water meter size for buildings in a garrison area. Water rates depend strongly on the size of the water meter. Therefore, it is important that the water meter is correctly sized. First, the number of water taps was calculated and then the sizing flow was defined. The sizing flow was calculated according to the rules given in the Finnish building regulations. The fire hose cabinet has a significant effect on sizing flow, and that was taken into consideration. If a water meter is replaced by a smaller one, the flow pressure is increased. Therefore it was important to calculate if the flow pressure was adequate. The water meter size was selected according to the sizing flow and the flow pressure. Then it was checked whether the original water meter was bigger or smaller than the selected size. Finally a calculation of the possible savings was made. The result showed that the client can have some savings in the water rates. Also, the client should research the flow pressure of the fire cabinets further

Compiling and Using Finite-State Syntactic Rules

Proceeding volume: 1A language-independent framework for syntactic finlte-state parsing is discussed. The article presents a framework, a formalism, a compiler and a parser for grammars written in this forrealism. As a substantial example, fragments from a nontrivial finite-state grammar of English are discussed. The linguistic framework of the present approach is based on a surface syntactic tagging scheme by F. Karlsson. This representation is slightly less powerful than phrase structure tree notation, letUng some ambiguous constructions be described more concisely. The finite-state rule compiler implements what was briefly sketched by Koskenniemi (1990). It is based on the calculus of finite-state machines. The compiler transforms rules into rule-automata. The run-time parser exploits one of certain alternative strategies in performing the effective intersection of the rule automata and the sentence automaton. Fragments of a fairly comprehensive finite-state granmmr of English are presented here, including samples from non-finite constructions as a demonstration of the capacity of the present formalism, which goes far beyond plain disamblguation or part of speech tagging. The grammar itself is directly related to a parser and tagging system for English created as a part of project SIMPR I using Karlsson's CG (Constraint Grammar) formalism.Peer reviewe

Determination of biological activity of gonadotropins hCG and FSH by Forster resonance energy transfer based biosensors

Determination of biological activity of gonadotropin hormones is essential in reproductive medicine and pharmaceutical manufacturing of the hormonal preparations. The aim of the study was to adopt a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR)-mediated signal transduction pathway based assay for quantification of biological activity of gonadotropins. We focussed on studying human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), as these hormones are widely used in clinical practice. Receptor-specific changes in cellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP, second messenger in GPCR signalling) were monitored by a Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) biosensor protein (T)Epac(VV) in living cells upon activation of the relevant gonadotropin receptor. The BacMam gene delivery system was used for biosensor protein expression in target cells. In the developed assay only biologically active hormones initiated GPCR-mediated cellular signalling. High assay sensitivities were achieved for detection of hCG (limit of detection, LOD: 5 pM) and FSH (LOD: 100 pM). Even the smallscale conformational changes caused by thermal inactivation and reducing the biological activity of the hormones were registered. In conclusion, the proposed assay is suitable for quantification of biological activity of gonadotropins and is a good alternative to antibody- and animal-testing-based assays used in pharmaceutical industry and clinical research.Peer reviewe

Information Technology (IT) managers’ contribution to IT agility in organizations – views from the field

siirretty Doriast

Non-invasive predictors of mortality after acute myocardial infarction

AbstractThere is a need to identify patients with an increased risk of dying after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), because sudden cardiac death (SCD) and potentially fatal ventricular tachyarrhythmias can be prevented by an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or in some cases, with aggressively optimized drug or revascularization therapy. The present study was designed to study the predictive power of non-invasive risk markers and all-cause, cardiac and arrhythmic mortality in 700 consecutive post-AMI patients discharged alive with optimal medication according to contemporary guidelines.Detrended fluctuation analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) predicted all-cause mortality beyond clinical variables as well as left ventricular function in post-AMI patients. The predictive power of the short-term scaling exponent α₁ was higher than that of the traditional indexes of HRV (for α₁ The presence of sustained T-wave alternans during a predischarge exercise test after AMI was not a marker of mortality. However, the inability to perform an exercise test or to reach the heart rate of 105 beats/min predicted independently all-cause (RR 9.3, 95% CI 2.0–43.3, p SCDs occurred mainly more than 18 months after AMI, and the proportion of SCD was less than 40% of all cardiac deaths. Common arrhythmia markers such as the presence of ventricular premature beats or episodes of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia during ambulatory recordings, the time domain parameters of HRV, baroreflex sensitivity, QT dispersion and QRS complex duration provided only limited predictive power on the risk of SCD or arrhythmic events in patients with optimized beta-blocking therapy. Many risk variables previously considered to predict SCD were better predictors of non-SCD than SCD.Conclusions: 1. The epidemiological pattern of SCD was different from that reported previously. 2. Many arrhythmia risk markers provided only limited information on the risk of SCD. 3. Short-term fractal scaling exponent α₁ provided potentially useful information on the risk for all-cause mortality, and BNP was useful in predicting the risk of SCD in a post-AMI population with optimized therapy.Academic Dissertation to be presented with the assent of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, for public discussion in the Auditorium 10 of the University Hospital of Oulu, on May 3rd, 2003, at 12 noon.Abstract There is a need to identify patients with an increased risk of dying after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), because sudden cardiac death (SCD) and potentially fatal ventricular tachyarrhythmias can be prevented by an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or in some cases, with aggressively optimized drug or revascularization therapy. The present study was designed to study the predictive power of non-invasive risk markers and all-cause, cardiac and arrhythmic mortality in 700 consecutive post-AMI patients discharged alive with optimal medication according to contemporary guidelines. Detrended fluctuation analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) predicted all-cause mortality beyond clinical variables as well as left ventricular function in post-AMI patients. The predictive power of the short-term scaling exponent α₁ was higher than that of the traditional indexes of HRV (for α₁ < 0.65, the risk ratio (RR) in multivariate analysis was 5.1, with 95% confidence intervals (CI) 2.9–8.9; p < 0.001). HRV results from a conventional 24-hour electrocardiographic (ECG) recording system differed significantly when compared to a system with a higher sampling frequency. The difference was generally more pronounced in post-AMI patients than in healthy subjects. The presence of sustained T-wave alternans during a predischarge exercise test after AMI was not a marker of mortality. However, the inability to perform an exercise test or to reach the heart rate of 105 beats/min predicted independently all-cause (RR 9.3, 95% CI 2.0–43.3, p < 0.01) and cardiac mortality (RR 11.1, 95% CI 2.4–50.8, p < 0.01). High levels of natriuretic peptides were associated with both sudden and non-sudden cardiac mortality. B-type natriuretic peptide provided more specific independent information on the risk for subsequent SCD (RR 3.9, 95% CI 1.2–12.3, p < 0.05) than non-SCD. SCDs occurred mainly more than 18 months after AMI, and the proportion of SCD was less than 40% of all cardiac deaths. Common arrhythmia markers such as the presence of ventricular premature beats or episodes of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia during ambulatory recordings, the time domain parameters of HRV, baroreflex sensitivity, QT dispersion and QRS complex duration provided only limited predictive power on the risk of SCD or arrhythmic events in patients with optimized beta-blocking therapy. Many risk variables previously considered to predict SCD were better predictors of non-SCD than SCD. Conclusions: 1. The epidemiological pattern of SCD was different from that reported previously. 2. Many arrhythmia risk markers provided only limited information on the risk of SCD. 3. Short-term fractal scaling exponent α₁ provided potentially useful information on the risk for all-cause mortality, and BNP was useful in predicting the risk of SCD in a post-AMI population with optimized therapy