Ein Generator mit Anfragesystem für strukturierte Wörterbücher zur Unterstützung von Texterkennung und Textanalyse

Die vorliegende Arbeit befaßt sich mit der Konzeption eines strukturierten Lexikons, welches den Zugriff auf Wörter und deren Information auf zwei grundsätzlich verschiedene Weisen erlaubt. Zum einen erfolgt der Zugriff über ein 3-faches Hashing, das in Abhängigkeit vom Grad der Erkennung der einzelnen Zeichen automatisch eine der drei verfügbaren Hashfunktionen wählt. Dabei kann der Benutzer zusätzliches Wissen in Form sogenannter Sichten zur Beschleunigung der Anfrage bzw. zur Einschränkung der zurückgelieferten Wortmenge einfließen lassen. Zum anderen ist die Benennung einer Sicht möglich. Diese Art des Zugriffs liefert alle Einträge zurück, die unter dem entsprechenden Sichtnamen zusammengefaßt worden sind. Die Realisierung solcher Sichten ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des Systems, da das somit implizierte Wissen von den Benutzern auf vielfältige Art genutzt werden kann: einerseits kann die Mitgliedschaft eines Eintrages zu einer Sicht in Erfahrung gebracht werden, andererseits hat man die Möglichkeit, Sichten und deren logische Verknüpfung zur direkten Abfrage bzw. zur Einschränkung des Suchraumes zu verwenden. Zum Aufbau der dafür benötigten komplexen Struktur des virtuell partitionierten Lexikons wird eine aufwendige Generierungsphase notwendig. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt das zugrundegelegte Konzept und seine Vorteile gegenüber anderen Lösungsansätzen sowie den benötigten Generator und ein Laufzeitsystem, das umfangreiche Zugriffe auf dem virtuell partitionierten Lexikon erlaubt

Human cytomegalovirus major immediate early 1 protein targets host chromosomes by docking to the acidic pocket on the nucleosome surface

The 72-kDa immediate early 1 (IE1) protein encoded by human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) is a nuclearly localized promiscuous regulator of viral and cellular transcription. IE1 has long been known to associate with host mitotic chromatin, yet the mechanisms underlying this interaction have not been specified. In this study, we identify the cellular chromosome receptor for IE1. We demonstrate that the viral protein targets human nucleosomes by directly binding to core histones in a nucleic acid-independent manner. IE1 exhibits two separable histone-interacting regions with differential binding specificities for H2A-H2B and H3-H4. The H2A-H2B binding region was mapped to an evolutionarily conserved 10-amino-acid motif within the chromatin-tethering domain (CTD) of IE1. Results from experimental approaches combined with molecular modeling indicate that the IE1 CTD adopts a β-hairpin structure, docking with the acidic pocket formed by H2A-H2B on the nucleosome surface. IE1 binds to the acidic pocket in a way similar to that of the latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) of the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus. Consequently, the IE1 and LANA CTDs compete for binding to nucleosome cores and chromatin. Our work elucidates in detail how a key viral regulator is anchored to human chromosomes and identifies the nucleosomal acidic pocket as a joint target of proteins from distantly related viruses. Based on the striking similarities between the IE1 and LANA CTDs and the fact that nucleosome targeting by IE1 is dispensable for productive replication even in "clinical" strains of hCMV, we speculate that the two viral proteins may serve analogous functions during latency of their respective viruses.PostprintPeer reviewe

Cross-cultural adaptation and construct validity of the German version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for service users (German ASCOT)

Background: There has been considerable interest in using the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT), developed in England, to measure quality-of-life outcomes of long-term care (LTC-QoL) service provision in national and cross-national studies. Objectives: The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the original ASCOT service user measure into German and to evaluate its content and construct validity in Austrian home care service users. Methods: The translation and cultural adaptation process followed the ISPOR TCA guidelines. We used qualitative data from six cognitive debriefing interviews with Austrian recipients of home care services to assess linguistic and content validity. In addition, cross-sectional survey data (n = 633) were used to evaluate construct validity by testing hypothesized associations established in a previous study for the original English ASCOT service user instrument. Results: Cognitive debriefing interviews confirmed that the German adaptation of the ASCOT service user instrument was understood as intended, although two domains (‘Control over daily life’ and ‘Dignity’) and selected phrases of the response options were challenging to translate into German. All ASCOT domains were statistically significantly associated with related constructs and sensitive to service user sub-group differences. Conclusions: We found good evidence for a valid cross-cultural adaptation of the German version of ASCOT for service users. The analysis also supports the construct validity of the translated instrument and its use in evaluations of QoL-effects of LTC service provision in German-speaking countries. Further research on the reliability and feasibility in different care settings is encouraged

Document Structure Analysis Based on Layout and Textual Features

. Document image processing is a crucial process in the office automation and begins from the 'OCR' phase with difficulty of the document 'analysis' and 'understanding'. This paper presents a hybrid and comprehensive approach to document structure analysis. Hybrid in the sense, that it makes use of layout (geometrical) as well as textual features of a given document. These features are the base for potential conditions which in turn are used to express fuzzy matched rules of an underlying rule base. 1 Introduction In the office automation context processing, filing and retrieving of documents are the essential functionalities that help to increase the productivity of our work. Within this application domain, document analysis and understanding are the crucial activities for integrated office automation systems. However, despite major advances in computer technology, the degree of automation in acquiring and inquiring data from documents is still very limited. Most of the existi..