Characterisation of business documents: an approach to the automation of quality assessment

This thesis explores a new approach to automatic characterisation of business documents of different levels of document effectiveness. Supervised text categorisation techniques are used to derive text features that characterise a specific type of business document in accordance with pre-assigned levels of document utility. The documents in question are the executive summary sections of a representative sample of sales proposal documents. The executive summaries are first rated by domain experts against a quality framework comprising pre-selected dimensions of document quality. An automatic analysis of the texts shows that certain words, word sequences, and patterns of words have the capacity to discriminate between executive summaries of varying levels of document effectiveness. Function words, which are frequently ignored in many text classification tasks, are retained and are shown to provide an important element of the word patterns. Automatic text classifiers that utilise these features are shown to categorise previously unseen executive summaries at an acceptable level of classification performance. The outcomes of the research are applied to the development of a new computer application. The application identifies, in the text of a new executive summary, word patterns that discriminate between sets of summaries previously categorised into different levels of document utility. The action of highlighting the respective categories of discriminating word patterns directs authors to areas of text that may need further attention. A trial of a prototype of the application suggests that it provides an effective way to help sales professionals improve the content and quality of the text of this type of business document. Moreover, as the approach is suitably generic, it could be applied to different types of document in different domains

D8.4.1 Results of user tests and completed use case studies

WP8 Usability and Business BenchmarkingThe procedures and results of the user tests and validation of the SEKT case study applications are described. Tests with representatives of the future user population of the BT digital library application, and of the IURISERVICE application were conducted. The results show that users are highly positive about the expected benefit of the SEKT enabled applications, as compared to their traditional tools available to them now. We see decisive performance increases as well as improvements in the quality of the information obtained in the search process. On the basis of these results we can state with confidence that the addition of SEKT functionality will be welcomed by users and will produce significant benefits

D4.6.1.1 Report on ontology mediation for case studies v.1

WP4 Ontology Mediation ReportThe aim of this deliverable is to identify the requirements for mediation for the SEKT casestudies. The data sources from each case study are investigated together with the relationships between them and with the scenarios in which two or more of these data sources are used in conjunction, i.e. where data integration is needed. The requirements for mediation are identified based on these scenarios. We should note that as a result of our analysis we identified the opportunity of some architectural changes for two of the casestudies. The new data source landscapes proposed together with guidelines about different mediation approaches should serve as a pillar for the further development of thecase studies. Also the identified requirements show that the main mediation functionality on which the tools developed by the WP4 should focus on is ontology alignment

Myanmar’s agrifood system structure and drivers of transformation

Myanmar initiated economic and political reforms in 2011, ushering in a period of rapid economic transformation. The country experienced strong annual average economic growth of close to 7 percent between 2011 and 2019. The rural economy and the agriculture sector were also transforming, characterized by accelerated rural out-migration from the sector, which was facilitated by favorable policy changes, increased trade, and improved road infrastructure (Filipski et. al. 2021). Rural wages rose (Belton et. al. 2021), and labor shortages, along with increased access to financing, led to a massive expansion of mechanization services (Win et al. 2018) and other rural nonfarm enterprises. However, the economic transformation was disrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the political crisis caused by the military coup d’état in 2021. During this recent period, Myanmar’s agrifood system was impacted by numerous shocks, including disruptions to the banking and local transportation systems, changes to international trade policies, rapidly depreciating currency, foreign exchange controls, increasing global commodity prices, and massive declines in income and access to credit, among others. In this brief, we focus on Myanmar’s agrifood system between 2011 and 2019 and evaluate the potential contributions of different value chains to driving agricultural transformation and welfare gains in the future

Canada-Africa Relations in Changing Core-Periphery Dynamics: A Chance to "Come Back" Differently

The Department of Foreign Affairs Canada sees the dynamism at play across the African continent as calling out for Canadian engagement. Africa in the twenty-first century is no longer the continent emerging from colonial rule; it seeks new forms of relationships with international partners. The African Development Bank, for instance, has identified five priorities for inclusive growth on the continent. The challenges are huge, as is the potential for transformative change. But the conditions for international collaboration in achieving these goals have changed; African leaders are seeking new forms of associations and teamwork. Canada has an opportunity to "come back" differently if it can look beyond its narrow mining interests and become an active partner working with public authorities in need of new and bold international partnerships. Unfortunately, Trudeau's "Canada is back" campaign does not look set to change the status quo. And, in a world where the political economic power is moving east, African countries do not have much reason to listen to Canada

Enterococcus faecalis Gelatinase Mediates Intestinal Permeability via Protease-Activated Receptor 2

Microbial protease-mediated disruption of the intestinal epithelium is a potential mechanism whereby a dysbiotic enteric microbiota can lead to disease. This mechanism was investigated using the colitogenic, protease-secreting enteric microbe Enterococcus faecalis . Caco-2 and T-84 epithelial cell monolayers and the mouse colonic epithelium were exposed to concentrated conditioned media (CCM) from E. faecalis V583 and E. faecalis lacking the gelatinase gene ( gelE ). The flux of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled dextran across monolayers or the mouse epithelium following exposure to CCM from parental or mutant E. faecalis strains indicated paracellular permeability. A protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) antagonist and PAR2-deficient (PAR2 −/− ) mice were used to investigate the role of this receptor in E. faecalis -induced permeability. Gelatinase (GelE) purified from E. faecalis V583 was used to confirm the ability of this protease to induce epithelial cell permeability and activate PAR2. The protease-mediated permeability of colonic epithelia from wild-type (WT) and PAR2 −/− mice by fecal supernatants from ulcerative colitis patients was assessed. Secreted E. faecalis proteins induced permeability in epithelial cell monolayers, which was reduced in the absence of gelE or by blocking PAR2 activity. Secreted E. faecalis proteins induced permeability in the colonic epithelia of WT mice that was absent in tissues from PAR2 −/− mice. Purified GelE confirmed the ability of this protease to induce epithelial cell permeability via PAR2 activation. Fecal supernatants from ulcerative colitis patients induced permeability in the colonic epithelia of WT mice that was reduced in tissues from PAR2 −/− mice. Our investigations demonstrate that GelE from E. faecalis can regulate enteric epithelial permeability via PAR2