Assessing relevance using automatically translated documents for cross-language information retrieval

This thesis focuses on the Relevance Feedback (RF) process, and the scenario considered is that of a Portuguese-English Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CUR) system. CUR deals with the retrieval of documents in one natural language in response to a query expressed in another language. RF is an automatic process for query reformulation. The idea behind it is that users are unlikely to produce perfect queries, especially if given just one attempt.The process aims at improving the queryspecification, which will lead to more relevant documents being retrieved. The method consists of asking the user to analyse an initial sample of documents retrieved in response to a query and judge them for relevance. In that context, two main questions were posed. The first one relates to the user's ability in assessing the relevance of texts in a foreign language, texts hand translated into their language and texts automatically translated into their language. The second question concerns the relationship between the accuracy of the participant's judgements and the improvement achieved through the RF process. In order to answer those questions, this work performed an experiment in which Portuguese speakers were asked to judge the relevance of English documents, documents hand-translated to Portuguese, and documents automatically translated to Portuguese. The results show that machine translation is as effective as hand translation in aiding users to assess relevance. In addition, the impact of misjudged documents on the performance of RF is overall just moderate, and varies greatly for different query topics. This work advances the existing research on RF by considering a CUR scenario and carrying out user experiments, which analyse aspects of RF and CUR that remained unexplored until now. The contributions of this work also include: the investigation of CUR using a new language pair; the design and implementation of a stemming algorithm for Portuguese; and the carrying out of several experiments using Latent Semantic Indexing which contribute data points to the CUR theory

Predicting protein function with hierarchical phylogenetic profiles: The Gene3D phylo-tuner method applied to eukaryotic Genomes

"Phylogenetic profiling'' is based on the hypothesis that during evolution functionally or physically interacting genes are likely to be inherited or eliminated in a codependent manner. Creating presence-absence profiles of orthologous genes is now a common and powerful way of identifying functionally associated genes. In this approach, correctly determining orthology, as a means of identifying functional equivalence between two genes, is a critical and nontrivial step and largely explains why previous work in this area has mainly focused on using presence-absence profiles in prokaryotic species. Here, we demonstrate that eukaryotic genomes have a high proportion of multigene families whose phylogenetic profile distributions are poor in presence-absence information content. This feature makes them prone to orthology mis-assignment and unsuited to standard profile-based prediction methods. Using CATH structural domain assignments from the Gene3D database for 13 complete eukaryotic genomes, we have developed a novel modification of the phylogenetic profiling method that uses genome copy number of each domain superfamily to predict functional relationships. In our approach, superfamilies are subclustered at ten levels of sequence identity from 30% to 100% - and phylogenetic profiles built at each level. All the profiles are compared using normalised Euclidean distances to identify those with correlated changes in their domain copy number. We demonstrate that two protein families will "auto-tune'' with strong co-evolutionary signals when their profiles are compared at the similarity levels that capture their functional relationship. Our method finds functional relationships that are not detectable by the conventional presence - absence profile comparisons, and it does not require a priori any fixed criteria to define orthologous genes

Combining terrestrial stereophotogrammetry, DGPS and GIS-based 3D voxel modelling in the volumetric recording of archaeological features

Archaeological recording of structures and excavations in high mountain areas is greatly hindered by the scarce availability of both space, to transport material, and time. The Madriu-Perafita-Claror, InterAmbAr and PCR Mont Lozère high mountain projects have documented hundreds of archaeological structures and carried out many archaeological excavations. These projects required the development of a technique which could record both structures and the process of an archaeological excavation in a fast and reliable manner.The combination of DGPS, close-range terrestrial stereophotogrammetry and voxel based GIS modelling offered a perfect solution since it helped in developing a strategy which would obtain all the required data on-site fast and with a high degree of precision. These data are treated off-site to obtain georeferenced orthoimages covering both the structures and the excavation process from which site and excavation plans can be created. The proposed workflow outputs also include digital surface models and volumetric models of the excavated areas from which topography and archaeological profiles were obtained by voxel-based GIS procedures. In this way, all the graphic recording required by standard archaeological practices was met. © 2012 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS)

Assessing functional novelty of PSI structures via structure-function analysis of large and diverse superfamilies

The structural genomics initiatives have had as one of their aims to improve our understanding of protein function by providing representative structures for many structurally uncharacterised protein families. As suggested by the recent assessment of the Protein Structure Initiative (Structural Genomics Initiative, funded by the NIH), doubts have arisen as to whether Structural Genomics as initially planned were really beneficial to our understanding of biological issues, and in particular of protein function.
A few protein domain superfamilies have been shown to account for unexpectedly large numbers of proteins encoded in fully sequenced genomes. These large superfamilies are generally very diverse, spanning a wide range of functions, both in terms of molecular activities and biological processes. Some of these superfamilies, such as the Rossmann-fold P-loop nucleotide hydrolases or the TIM-barrel glycosidases, have been the subject of extensive structural studies which in turn have shed light on how evolution of the sequence and structure properties produce functional diversity amongst homologues. Recently, the Structure-Function Linkage Database (SFLD) has been setup with the aim of helping the study of structure-function correlations in such superfamilies. Since the evolutionary success of these large superfamilies suggests biological importance, several Structural Genomics Centers have focused on providing full structural coverage for representatives of all sequence families in these superfamilies.
In this work we evaluate structure/function diversity in a set of these large superfamilies and attempt to assess the quality and quantity of biological information gained from Structural Genomics.
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60. The documentation of Armenian

1. Introduction 2. The early period (5th-11th centuries) 3. The middle period (12th-16th centuries) 4. The modern period (17th-21th centuries) 5. Reference

Yeast cytochrome c oxidase: a model system to study mitochondrial forms of the haem-copper oxidase superfamily.

The known subunits of yeast mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase are reviewed. The structures of all eleven of its subunits are explored by building homology models based on the published structures of the homologous bovine subunits and similarities and differences are highlighted, particularly of the core functional subunit I. Yeast genetic techniques to enable introduction of mutations into the three core mitochondrially-encoded subunits are reviewed

Eznik of Kołb as a translator of Methodius of Olympus

As is well known, the de Autexusio by Methodius is one of the most relevant sources used by Eznik of Kołb in composing his treatise, conventionally known as Ełc Ałandoc‘ (Refutation of the Sects). The latter included an almost integral translation or reworking of the former, divided into two parts. This was highlighted for the first time by Father Grigoris Galēmk‘earean, who devoted to the subject the greater part of his study on Eznik’s sources, published as a monograph in 1919. In 1924–1925, Louis Mariès addressed the same topic in his work on Eznik’s text. However, in later years, the subject seems to have ceased to draw the attention of Armenologists. In this contribution, after a short summary of the contents of the works both of Methodius and Eznik, we address Eznik’s manner of selecting the sects that are the object of his criticism. We then highlight how Eznik more or less freely translates Methodius’ Greek text, providing some relevant examples

Neural-Based Nonlinear Device Models for Intermodulation Analysis

A new procedure to learn a nonlinear model together with its derivative parameters using a composite neural network is presented.So far neural networks have never been used to extract large-signal device model accounting for distortion parameters.Applying this method to FET devices leads to nonlinear models for current- voltage functions which allow improved prediction of weak and mildly device nonlinearities in the whole bias region. The resulting models have demonstrated to be suitable for both small-signal and large-signal analyses,including intermodulation distortion prediction

Internacionalización y orientación empresarial. Una perspectiva de redes: cuatro casos de pymes puertorriqueñas

This paper examines the dynamic that is generated between the main traits of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) –autonomy, innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness– and network relationships for the international expansion of a business. The current study uses a qualitative case studies approach. The main form of data collection was personal interviews with predominantly managing directors, chief executive officers, export managers, and marketing managers. Our findings suggest that some components of the EO construct reflected by all of the cases are tools to exploit, maintain, and reach foreign markets. The network relationships become a vital component of the entrepreneurial traits reflected by each case.Este artículo examina la dinámica que se desarrolla entre las principales características del constructo Orientación Empresarial (OE) –autonomía, innovación, propensión al riesgo y agresividad competitiva– y las relaciones de redes en el proceso de expansión internacional de un negocio. Este estudio emplea el enfoque cualitativo de estudio de casos como metodología. La principal fuente de recopilación de datos fue la entrevista personal con gerentes, directores, gerentes de mercadeo y de exportaciones. Nuestros hallazgos sugieren que algunos componentes del constructo OE reflejados por todos los casos constituyen herramientas para desarrollar, mantener y alcanzar mercados foráneos. Las relaciones de redes se convierten en un componente vital de las características emprendedoras reflejadas por cada caso