Nonparametric Bayesian Modeling for Automated Database Schema Matching

The problem of merging databases arises in many government and commercial applications. Schema matching, a common first step, identifies equivalent fields between databases. We introduce a schema matching framework that builds nonparametric Bayesian models for each field and compares them by computing the probability that a single model could have generated both fields. Our experiments show that our method is more accurate and faster than the existing instance-based matching algorithms in part because of the use of nonparametric Bayesian models

Between Now and Then : Tackling the Conundrum of Climate Change

To the people of coastal Louisiana, the realities of climate change namely sea level rise and its effect on hurricane storm surge and coastal land loss have arrived. At first the damage and loss were seen as a result of yet another event in the normal cycle of hurricane damage that has plagued inhabitants of the area ever since humans came to it. The new reality, however, is different. These cyclonic events are threatening the very existence of both the large metropolitan areas in coastal Louisiana as well as the small, indigenous and‘historied’ commercial and subsistence fishing communities. This is happening by virtue of the amount of destruction and the way that it is happening with storms of varying force and speed, not just the mega storms like Katrina. Every storm is affecting the area. A slow moving, stalled Category 1 can bring on as much damage as a fast moving Category 3. The area is simply subject to new risks and is vulnerable in new ways. To have both the scientists and the national media recognize this condition, is to bring the reality to a more conscious recognition both by the residents and by those concerned with climate change

Do Something

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/5000/thumbnail.jp

The Dangers of Digital Imaging

In today\u27s world, photography takes on a whole different meaning that it did 20-30 years ago. Whereas terms such as photograph and graphic used to have separate meanings that classified them from one another, these and many similar terms have been melded together to represent the same thing... a computer image. Due to the jump in technology over the past 10 years alone, digital cameras went from flashy novelties to a strong industry standard in photography, and swift computer alteration of photographs and images began with a very small amount of people to practically everyone who has a computer today. The digital revolution is now upon us, basically leaving analogue film for the die-hard nostalgic artists that once believed that film could never be replaced by digital images, but as it seems today, this swap of digital over analogue has definitely become reality. With this digital takeover at our feet, there is a very real threat of the lines between reality and trickery being blurred, and a considerable amount of information that we all need to be aware of. The dangers of digital imaging are all around us, slowly escalating in potency, and what we see now in the world today is only the beginning. (Abstract created by OPUS staff from thesis

Citizen Responders: Ordinary Men Making Extraordinary Moves Through Radio Programming

When electric power utilities have a major gr id failure due to a weather -induced crisis, earthquake or possible terrorist attack--the length of which is enhanced by a national aging infrastructure, television and social media ‘blackouts’ occur that can be detrimental to response and recovery from the crisis. Commercial radio, able to be listened to on car and portable, battery-operated radios is a communication asset inadequately considered for i ts contribution in such challenging situations. Also when the blackout is restored, TV and social media may be inadequate alone to the communication needs if the destruction is severe and widespread, thus requiring complex actions by a myriad of residents scattered out of the area. Radio can broadcast details available to a very large listening audience concurrently. And when the programming includes live talk-show hosts ’connected’ to the citizenry, radio offers a powerful form of collective community resiliency, as strong as and perhaps stronger than that offered by other media

Dimensions of resiliency: essential resiliency, exceptional recovery and scale.

Not only is resiliency a term with a myriad of definitions microscopically specified by a wide variety of social and bio/physical scientists and practitioners, it is also incredibly complicated even when treated by individual academic/government/non-profit and business practitioners who are convinced that they have the perfect definition. By then linking the concepts of infrastructure and community to resiliency, not only does additional complexity emerge but also a powerful imperative to examine the basics necessary to achieve resiliency within these interrelated concepts. The lens of the applied academic observer situated at ‘ground zero’ for not only one but two major catastrophes within a micro minute span of less than five years (Hurricane Katrina and its 2005–2007 relatives and the British Petroleum oil well blow out of 2010, layered on pervasive localized sea level rise due to delta subsidence) is the ‘data’ analysed to support the arguments of this paper about what must be considered with regard to infrastructure and community to even hope to achieve a resilience state: essential resilience, exceptional recovery and serious appreciation for the need for a greater recovery scale

Citizen Responders: Ordinary Men Making Extraordinary Moves Through Radio Programming

When electric power utilities have a major gr id failure due to a weather -induced crisis, earthquake or possible terrorist attack--the length of which is enhanced by a national aging infrastructure, television and social media ‘blackouts’ occur that can be detrimental to response and recovery from the crisis. Commercial radio, able to be listened to on car and portable, battery-operated radios is a communication asset inadequately considered for i ts contribution in such challenging situations. Also when the blackout is restored, TV and social media may be inadequate alone to the communication needs if the destruction is severe and widespread, thus requiring complex actions by a myriad of residents scattered out of the area. Radio can broadcast details available to a very large listening audience concurrently. And when the programming includes live talk-show hosts ’connected’ to the citizenry, radio offers a powerful form of collective community resiliency, as strong as and perhaps stronger than that offered by other media

I Don\u27t Like A Man With A Mustache

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/1647/thumbnail.jp