17,510 research outputs found
Using a Logic Programming Framework to Control Database Query Dialogues in Natural Language
We present a natural language question/answering system to interface the University of Évora databases that uses clarification dialogs in order to clarify user questions. It was developed in an integrated logic programming framework, based on constraint logic programming using the GnuProlog(-cx) language [2,11] and the ISCO framework [1]. The use of this LP framework allows the integration of Prolog-like inference mechanisms with classes and inheritance, constraint solving algorithms and provides the connection with relational databases, such as PostgreSQL. This system focus on the questions’ pragmatic analysis, to handle ambiguity, and on an efficient dialogue mechanism, which is able to place relevant questions to clarify the user intentions in a straightforward manner. Proper Nouns resolution and the pp-attachment problem are also handled.
This paper briefly presents this innovative system focusing on its ability to correctly determine the user intention through its dialogue capability
The Green New Deal and Evolution of Institutional Environments for Multifunctionality: the case of Certified Organic Agriculture in Brazil and China
The Global Green New Deal (GGND) aim to green the global economy across a range of sectors including agriculture, to pursue future prosperity and job creation, while at the same time addressing social and environmental challenges. Taking its point of departure in some of the institutional changes envisioned in GGND publications, the paper proceeds to present results of the authors’ current research, within a research programme on institutional dimensions of the current globalization of certified organic agriculture. Case study results from Brazil and China are used to illustrate how institutional environments for organic agriculture differ between nations and to provide a basis for discussing the potential of organic certification to transform global agriculture towards higher overall levels of sustainability. The paper concludes linking the institutional analysis of the GGND and the findings of the presented cases to a broader analysis and discussion on the state of art of institutional environments for multifunctional agriculture
ATLAS Higgs searches
On behalf of the ATLAS Collaboration. To appear in PoSInternational audienc
A study of high frequency nonlinear combustion instability in baffled annular liquid propellant rocket motors
Computer program contains mathematical model which provides relationship between engine gas dynamics and combustion processes. Mathematically simulated explosions initiate gas disturbances. Design methods for damping disturbances can be studied to prevent future engine shutdown or destruction
Relationship between the column density distribution and evolutionary class of molecular clouds as viewed by ATLASGAL
We present the first study of the relationship between the column density
distribution of molecular clouds within nearby Galactic spiral arms and their
evolutionary status as measured from their stellar content. We analyze a sample
of 195 molecular clouds located at distances below 5.5 kpc, identified from the
ATLASGAL 870 micron data. We define three evolutionary classes within this
sample: starless clumps, star-forming clouds with associated young stellar
objects, and clouds associated with HII regions. We find that the N(H2)
probability density functions (N-PDFs) of these three classes of objects are
clearly different: the N-PDFs of starless clumps are narrowest and close to
log-normal in shape, while star-forming clouds and HII regions exhibit a
power-law shape over a wide range of column densities and log-normal-like
components only at low column densities. We use the N-PDFs to estimate the
evolutionary time-scales of the three classes of objects based on a simple
analytic model from literature. Finally, we show that the integral of the
N-PDFs, the dense gas mass fraction, depends on the total mass of the regions
as measured by ATLASGAL: more massive clouds contain greater relative amounts
of dense gas across all evolutionary classes.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (25th June 15) 23 pages, 12 figures.
Additional appendix figures will appear in the journal version of this pape
Planar Two-Loop Five-Parton Amplitudes from Numerical Unitarity
We compute a complete set of independent leading-color two-loop five-parton
amplitudes in QCD. These constitute a fundamental ingredient for the
next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections to three-jet production at hadron
colliders. We show how to consistently consider helicity amplitudes with
external fermions in dimensional regularization, allowing the application of a
numerical variant of the unitarity approach. Amplitudes are computed by
exploiting a decomposition of the integrand into master and surface terms that
is independent of the parton type. Master integral coefficients are numerically
computed in either finite-field or floating-point arithmetic and combined with
known analytic master integrals. We recompute two-loop leading-color
four-parton amplitudes as a check of our implementation. Results are presented
for all independent four- and five-parton processes including contributions
with massless closed fermion loops.Comment: v3: corrected wrong signs for five-gluon amplitudes with
vanishing tree
Efficiency of a Brownian information machine
A Brownian information machine extracts work from a heat bath through a
feedback process that exploits the information acquired in a measurement. For
the paradigmatic case of a particle trapped in a harmonic potential, we
determine how power and efficiency for two variants of such a machine operating
cyclically depend on the cycle time and the precision of the positional
measurements. Controlling only the center of the trap leads to a machine that
has zero efficiency at maximum power whereas additional optimal control of the
stiffness of the trap leads to an efficiency bounded between 1/2, which holds
for maximum power, and 1 reached even for finite cycle time in the limit of
perfect measurements.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
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