Groundwater Flow and Thermal Modeling to Support a Preferred Conceptual Model for the Large Hydraulic Gradient North of Yucca Mountain

This task will create a two-dimensional, saturated zone, vertical cross-section model of groundwater flow and thermal transport through the large hydraulic gradient (LHG). This model is referenced herein as the thermal model. The scope of this study is limited to presenting a postulated hydrogeologic configuration of the LHG. The conceptualization will include the use of postulated hydrogeologic structures and material properties. The thermal model will be spatially limited to the area immediately upgradient and downgradient of the LHG and will not reproduce the many hydrogeologic features of the existing regional and site-scale models. The thermal model will be orientated north to south, approximately along a saturated zone streamline. The results of the thermal modeling will be compared to temperature data reported for site wells by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and in peer-reviewed journals. Most, if not all, of this reported data is non- qualified. This task will not qualify the reported data and the reported data will be used only as a basis of comparison for the model simulations

Evaluating Centering for Information Ordering Using Corpora

In this article we discuss several metrics of coherence defined using centering theory and investigate the usefulness of such metrics for information ordering in automatic text generation. We estimate empirically which is the most promising metric and how useful this metric is using a general methodology applied on several corpora. Our main result is that the simplest metric (which relies exclusively on NOCB transitions) sets a robust baseline that cannot be outperformed by other metrics which make use of additional centering-based features. This baseline can be used for the development of both text-to-text and concept-to-text generation systems. </jats:p

Contested staring: issues and the use of mutual gaze as an on-line measure of social presence

Despite many of the current social presence measures relying heavily on subjective post-test questionnaires, some researchers have identified the value of using on-line, behavioural measures. Gaze, and specifically mutual gaze, is known to be related to social perceptions of an interlocutor, as well as facilitating task performance during an interaction [1, 2, 17]. Second Life allows for the investigation of task- based interaction in a highly controllable social environment, whilst simultaneously allowing measurement of eye movements (using a head-mounted eye-tracker). A paradigm for measuring eye movements of a user during interaction with an avatar or agent is presented. The potential for using this paradigm to investigate the use of mutual gaze as an on- line measure of social presence is discussed

Taking care of the linguistic features of extraversion

We study how Extraversion or Introversion influences people&apos;s language production. A corpus of e-mail texts was gathered from individuals categorised via Eysenck&apos;s EPQ-R personality test. One experiment analysed the corpus using existing content analysis tools, and found relatively weak effects of Extraversion. A second experiment used more sensitive bigram-based techniques from statistical natural language processing to replicate earlier findings, and uncover novel patterns of behaviour

Antidepressant exposure in pregnancy and child sensorimotor and visuospatial development

Motor development underlies many aspects of education and learning. There has been uncertainty about the impact of exposure of antidepressant medication in pregnancy on child motor outcomes. This paper examines whether exposure to antidepressants in utero increases the risk of poorer motor development in two areas: sensorimotor and visuospatial processing. Data were obtained from 195 women and children across 3 groups: women with untreated depression in pregnancy, women treated with antidepressants and control women. Data were collected across pregnancy, postpartum and until 4 years for mother and child. Maternal depression was established at baseline with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Antidepressant exposure, including type, dose and timing, was measured through repeated self-report across pregnancy and the postpartum, medical records at delivery and in cord blood samples collected at delivery. Child sensorimotor and visuospatial outcomes were assessed at 4 years of age with four subtests from the NEPSY-II. Our study found for sensorimotor development, visuomotor precision completion time was associated with better performance for antidepressant exposed children compared to those with mothers with untreated depression. Yet another measure of sensorimotor development, motor manual sequences, was poorer in those exposed to antidepressants. One subtest for visuospatial processing, block construction, was associated with poorer performance in antidepressant-exposed children who had poor neonatal adaptation and those exposed to a higher dose of antidepressant. These findings suggest an inconsistent association between sensorimotor development and antidepressant use in pregnancy. However, the findings for visuospatial processing would support further exploration of antidepressant associated poor neonatal adaption and later motor development