Oyster – Sharing and Re-using Ontologies in a Peer-to-Peer Community

In this paper, we present Oyster, a Peer-to-Peer system for exchanging ontology metadata among communities in the Semantic Web. Oyster exploits semantic web techniques in data representation, query formulation and query result presentation to provide an online solution for sharing ontologies, thus assisting researchers in re-using existing ontologies

Actors and factors - bridging social science findings and urban land use change modeling

Recent uneven land use dynamics in urban areas resulting from demographic change, economic pressure and the cities’ mutual competition in a globalising world challenge both scientists and practitioners, among them social scientists, modellers and spatial planners. Processes of growth and decline specifically affect the urban environment, the requirements of the residents on social and natural resources. Social and environmental research is interested in a better understanding and ways of explaining the interactions between society and landscape in urban areas. And it is also needed for making life in cities attractive, secure and affordable within or despite of uneven dynamics.\ud The position paper upon “Actors and factors – bridging social science findings and urban land use change modeling” presents approaches and ideas on how social science findings on the interaction of the social system (actors) and the land use (factors) are taken up and formalised using modelling and gaming techniques. It should be understood as a first sketch compiling major challenges and proposing exemplary solutions in the field of interest

Synthetic routes toward MOF nanomorphologies.

As metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are coming of age, their structural diversity, exceptional porosity and inherent functionality need to be transferred into useful applications. Fashioning MOFs into various shapes and at the same time controlling their size constitute an essential step toward MOF-based devices. Moreover, downsizing MOFs to the nanoscale triggers a whole new set of properties distinguishing nanoMOFs from their bulk counterparts. Therefore, dimensionality-controlled miniaturization of MOFs enables the customised use of nanoMOFs for specific applications where suitable size and shape are key prerequisites. In this feature article we survey the burgeoning field of nanoscale MOF synthesis, ranging from classical protocols such as microemulsion synthesis all the way to microfluidic-based techniques and template-directed epitaxial growth schemes. Along these lines, we will fathom the feasibility of rationally designing specific MOF nanomorphologies—zero-, one- and two-dimensional nanostructures—and we will explore more complex “second-generation” nanostructures typically evolving from a high level of interfacial control. As a recurring theme, we will review recent advances made toward the understanding of nucleation and growth processes at the nanoscale, as such insights are expected to further push the borders of nanoMOF science

School Regulation of Exotic Body Piercing

I. Introduction II. Body Piercing: The Latest Craze (and You Thought Pet Rocks Were Weird) III. First Amendment Protection of Body Piercing (or How Can You Exercise Free Speech with That Thing in Your Mouth?) … A. Student First Amendment Rights … B. Body Piercings as “Speech” IV. Fourteenth Amendment Protection of Body Piercing (or How Can You Even Mention “Rational” and “Body Piercing” in the Same Breath?) V. Crafting a Constitutionally Acceptable Regulation … A. Health and Hygiene … B. Disruption … C. Discipline VI. Conclusio

An Editorial Workflow Approach For Collaborative Ontology Development

The widespread use of ontologies in the last years has raised new challenges for their development and maintenance. Ontology development has transformed from a process normally performed by one ontology engineer into a process performed collaboratively by a team of ontology engineers, who may be geographically distributed and play different roles. For example, editors may propose changes, while authoritative users approve or reject them following a well defined process. This process, however, has only been partially addressed by existing ontology development methods, methodologies, and tool support. Furthermore, in a distributed environment where ontology editors may be working on local copies of the same ontology, strategies should be in place to ensure that changes in one copy are reflected in all of them. In this paper, we propose a workflow-based model for the collaborative development of ontologies in distributed environments and describe the components required to support them. We illustrate our model with a test case in the fishery domain from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

Interactions and magnetic moments near vacancies and resonant impurities in graphene

The effect of electronic interactions in graphene with vacancies or resonant scatterers is investigated. We apply dynamical mean-field theory in combination with quantum Monte Carlo simulations, which allow us to treat non-perturbatively quantum fluctuations beyond Hartree-Fock approximations. The interactions narrow the width of the resonance and induce a Curie magnetic susceptibility, signaling the formation of local moments. The absence of saturation of the susceptibility at low temperatures suggests that the coupling between the local moment and the conduction electrons is ferromagnetic

Design Considerations for Double-Skin Facades in Hot and Humid Climates

Thermal building simulations (TRNSYS) were linked to nodal airflow network simulations (COMIS) for a ventilated double-skin facade performance calculation and overall energy consumption for office building facades. Simulation results show good agreement with measured data. Especially interesting was the attempt to reduce the high peak cooling loads during the summer period by controlling the exhaust airflow using a climate sensitive regulator. It is shown that up to 26% reduction of annual cooling load can be achieved. This results in significant energy conservation and a reduction in system cooling size

The importance of communication in concept design simulation

The European Union has taken a strong leadership role in promoting energy efficiency in buildings. This is among other things highlighted by the Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings, which is designed to promote the improvement of energy performance of buildings in member states. One of the benefits of this directive is that it provides an integrated approach to different aspects of buildings energy use, which until now only a few member states were doing, and that all aspects are expressed in simple energy performance indicators. In order to achieve such reductions of the energy use in new buildings it will require development of new construction solutions, new types of building envelopes, and development of new building materials. It will also require the development of more holistic building concepts, sustainable buildings where an integrated design approach is needed to ensure a system optimization and to enable the designer(s) to control the many design parameters that must be considered and integrated. It is therefore important to understand how this design process works and how the architect can be enabled to integrate sustainable design solutions. Computer-based modeling and simulation is becoming more and more significant for the prediction of future energy and environmental performance of buildings and the systems that service them. Modeling and simulation can and should play a vital role in building and systems design, commissioning, management and operation. Although most practitioners will be aware of the emerging building simulation technologies, yet few are able to claim expertise in its application. In the design of sustainable buildings it is therefore necessary to identify the most important design parameters in order to develop more efficiently alternative design proposals and/or reach optimized design solutions. This can be achieved by applying sensitivity analysis early in the design process. Previously, environmental simulation of building performance was only done by engineers at the end of the design process. Any weak points in the performance of the design could then be ‘fixed' by adding heating, cooling, shades, vents, fans, panels, etc ... However, at the end of the design process it is too late. The decisions made early on in the design process have the largest impact. In addition, environmental issues are becoming more important, the complexity of the building design is increasing, and simulation tools are becoming more architects friendly. Therefore, in the design of sustainable buildings it will be very beneficial to be able identify the most important design parameters in order to develop more efficiently alternative design proposals and/or reach optimized design solutions. Communication between architects and engineers paper will become more common but also more important. Digital architecture has to take these challenges into account and develop a common language for architects that enable integrated design in order to tackle the problems stated above

Winnowing ontologies based on application use

The requirements of specific applications and services are often over estimated when ontologies are reused or built. This sometimes results in many ontologies being too large for their intended purposes. It is not uncommon that when applications and services are deployed over an ontology, only a few parts of the ontology are queried and used. Identifying which parts of an ontology are being used could be helpful to winnow the ontology, i.e., simplify or shrink the ontology to smaller, more fit for purpose size. Some approaches to handle this problem have already been suggested in the literature. However, none of that work showed how ontology-based applications can be used in the ontology-resizing process, or how they might be affected by it. This paper presents a study on the use of the AKT Reference Ontology by a number of applications and services,and investigates the possibility of relying on this usage information to winnow that ontology