Fundamental aspects of phase separation microfabrication

In the research featured in this PhD thesis, the fundamental aspects of Phase Separation MicroFabrication (PSµF) were studied. PSµF is a technique through which polymeric porous films with defined structures on their surfaces can be created. This is achieved by phase separation of polymer solutions that are in contact with microstructured molds. Diverse topics were covered, including the study of shrinkage during phase separation and its effect on feature replication, gas entrapment during casting of polymer solutions on molds, release of films perforated by pillars on molds (microsieves) and the development of permeable molds to yield membranes with structures on both sides. The results obtained in this research help in facilitating the successful use of PSµM in future applications

Intricacies of Collins\u27 Parsing Model

This paper documents a large set of heretofore unpublished details Collins used in his parser, such that, along with Collins\u27 thesis (Collins, 1999), this paper contains all information necessary to duplicate Collins\u27 benchmark results. Indeed, these as-yet-unpublished details account for an 11% relative increase in error from an implementation including all details to a clean-room implementation of Collins\u27 model. We also show a cleaner and equally-well-performing method for the handling of punctuation and conjunction, and reveal certain other probabilistic oddities about Collins\u27 parser. We analyze not only the effect of the unpublished details, but also reanalyze the effect of certain well-known details, revealing that bilexical dependencies are barely used by the model and that head choice is not nearly as important to overall parsing performance as once thought. Finally, we perform experiments that show that the true discriminative power of lexicalization appears to lie in the fact that unlexicalized syntactic structures are generated conditioning on the head word and its part of speech

Step by Step to Fairness: Attributing Societal Bias in Task-oriented Dialogue Systems

Recent works have shown considerable improvements in task-oriented dialogue (TOD) systems by utilizing pretrained large language models (LLMs) in an end-to-end manner. However, the biased behavior of each component in a TOD system and the error propagation issue in the end-to-end framework can lead to seriously biased TOD responses. Existing works of fairness only focus on the total bias of a system. In this paper, we propose a diagnosis method to attribute bias to each component of a TOD system. With the proposed attribution method, we can gain a deeper understanding of the sources of bias. Additionally, researchers can mitigate biased model behavior at a more granular level. We conduct experiments to attribute the TOD system's bias toward three demographic axes: gender, age, and race. Experimental results show that the bias of a TOD system usually comes from the response generation model

Propuesta de reducción de mudas en las áreas de mantenimiento, producción y logística para incrementar la rentabilidad de una planta de harina de soya

La presente tesis tiene como objetivo incrementar la rentabilidad a través de la reducción de mudas en el área de operaciones de una planta de harina de soya. El diagnóstico de la problemática de la empresa se llevó a cabo a través de herramientas como la observación directa. Las pérdidas totales el año pasado a causa de los problemas hallados ascendieron a S/ 313,216. Se determinó que las causas con mayor incidencia en la baja rentabilidad fueron: planeamiento deficiente, bajo índice de rotación, deficiente mantenimiento preventivo de enfriador y deficiente operación del molino. Las herramientas de la ingeniería propuestas fueron el pronóstico de producción, el balance de línea, el MRP y el método Muther para distribución de planta. En ellas se invirtió un total de S/ 46,915. Se determinó la viabilidad de la propuesta a través del cálculo del VAN y el TIR. El primer indicador resultó ser S/ 15,989, mientras que la tasa fue de 75.176%. Además, se logra corroborar la hipótesis, ya que tras la propuesta de mejora se logra incrementar la rentabilidad en 0.22%

O estágio curricular supervisionado em Educação Física na perspectiva dos planos de ensino e relatórios finais

This work aimed to analyze the teaching plans (TP) and final reports (FR) produced within the scope of the supervised school placement (SCP) in Physical Education in High School and to explore what arises to think about this internship and the training of physical education teachers. This is qualitative documental research that explored the TP, FR and used the content analysis technique for data analysis. The results and discussions made it possible to understand general aspects of the SCP and the pre-service teachers planning, highlighting the choices, the possible interpretations and the reflection provided by the SCP, a valid resource to map knowledge in relation to pedagogical practice and to think about referrals within the scope of training. As final considerations, it portrays that studies on documents are important and significant and suggest the connection with future studies that seek to analyze the different instances present in the context of the SCP, to better understand the implications and relationships between the production of documents and their implications in the teaching exercise.Este trabajo tuvo como objetivos analizar los planes de enseñanza (PEs) y los informes finales (IFs) producidos en el ámbito de las prácticas curriculares supervisadas (PCSs) en Educación Física en la educación secundaria y explorar lo que se suscita pensar sobre esta práctica y la formación de profesores de Educación Física. Se trata de una investigación cualitativa documental que exploró los PEs, los IFs y utilizó la técnica de análisis de contenido para la evaluación de los datos. Los resultados y las discusiones permitieron comprender aspectos generales de las PCSs y de la planificación de los becantes, destacándose las opciones, las posibles interpretaciones y la reflexión proporcionada por la PCSs, un recurso válido para mapear los saberes en cuanto a la práctica pedagógica y pensar encaminamientos en el ámbito de la formación. Como consideraciones finales, retrata que los estudios sobre documentos son importantes y significativos y se sugiere la conexión con futuros estudios que busquen analizar las diferentes instancias presentes en el contexto de los PCSs, con el fin de mejor comprender las relaciones entre la producción de documentos y sus implicaciones en el ejercicio docente.Este trabalho teve como objetivos analisar os planos de ensino (PEs) e os relatórios finais (RFs) produzidos no âmbito do estágio curricular supervisionado (ECS) em Educação Física no ensino médio e explorar o que se suscita pensar sobre esse estágio e a formação de professores de Educação Física. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa do tipo documental que explorou os PEs e os RFs e se valeu da técnica de análise de conteúdo para a avaliação dos dados. Os resultados e discussões possibilitaram compreender aspectos gerais do ECS e do planejamento dos estagiários, destacando-se as escolhas, as possíveis interpretações e a reflexão possibilitada pelo ECS, um recurso válido para mapear os saberes em relação à prática pedagógica e pensar encaminhamentos no âmbito da formação. Como considerações finais retrata-se que estudos sobre documentos são importantes e significativos e se sugere a conexão com futuros estudos que busquem analisar as diferentes instâncias presentes no contexto dos ECSs a fim de melhor compreender as relações entre a produção de documentos e suas implicações no exercício docente

Combining metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and viromics to explore novel microbial interactions: towards a systems-level understanding of human microbiome

AbstractThe advances in experimental methods and the development of high performance bioinformatic tools have substantially improved our understanding of microbial communities associated with human niches. Many studies have documented that changes in microbial abundance and composition of the human microbiome is associated with human health and diseased state. The majority of research on human microbiome is typically focused in the analysis of one level of biological information, i.e., metagenomics or metatranscriptomics. In this review, we describe some of the different experimental and bioinformatic strategies applied to analyze the 16S rRNA gene profiling and shotgun sequencing data of the human microbiome. We also discuss how some of the recent insights in the combination of metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and viromics can provide more detailed description on the interactions between microorganisms and viruses in oral and gut microbiomes. Recent studies on viromics have begun to gain importance due to the potential involvement of viruses in microbial dysbiosis. In addition, metatranscriptomic combined with metagenomic analysis have shown that a substantial fraction of microbial transcripts can be differentially regulated relative to their microbial genomic abundances. Thus, understanding the molecular interactions in the microbiome using the combination of metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and viromics is one of the main challenges towards a system level understanding of human microbiome