Measuring Expert Performance at Manually Classifying Domain Entities under Upper Ontology Classes

Classifying entities in domain ontologies under upper ontology classes is a recommended task in ontology engineering to facilitate semantic interoperability and modelling consistency. Integrating upper ontologies this way is difficult and, despite emerging automated methods, remains a largely manual task. Little is known about how well experts perform at upper ontology integration. To develop methodological and tool support, we first need to understand how well experts do this task. We designed a study to measure the performance of human experts at manually classifying classes in a general knowledge domain ontology with entities in the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), an upper ontology used widely in the biomedical domain. We conclude that manually classifying domain entities under upper ontology classes is indeed very difficult to do correctly. Given the importance of the task and the high degree of inconsistent classifications we encountered, we further conclude that it is necessary to improve the methodological framework surrounding the manual integration of domain and upper ontologies

Target Optimisation Studies for Surface Muon Production

The current paper discusses possible designs for a stand alone muon target for MuSR studies of condensed matter science. Considering the ISIS 7 mm graphite target as a reference, Geant4 simulations have been performed in order to optimize the target parameters with respect to muon and pion yield. Previous studies suggested that the muon production can be optimized by using a thin graphite slab target with an incident proton energy significantly lower than initially considered. Surface muon production obtained by firing an 800 MeV proton beam energy onto the target is simulated and potential improvements to the target material, geometry and angle orientation with respect to the incoming proton beam as well as an estimated performance of the muon target are presented in this paper. Implications for the ISIS muon facility are also discussed. A comparison of the pion production cross section between experimental data and three theoretical models for the latest four Geant4 versions is also included in this paper

Control of Sawtoothed Grain Beetles (Coleoptera: Silvanidae) in Stored Oats by Using an Entomopathogenic Fungus in Conjunction with Seed Resistance

We tested the hypothesis that the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana would be more efficacious on oat cultivars that prolonged the immature developmental period of sawtoothed grain beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.), a storage pest. However, percentage of reduction in progeny production was similar on whole \u27Don\u27 and \u27Paul\u27 oats treated with fungus, even though immature developmental time was longer on whole \u27Don\u27 than on \u27Paul\u27 oats. In our initial test at 10 mg of conidia per kilogram of oats, the number of beetle progeny produced was reduced by 38-67% in whole oats, and there was no effect of the fungus on insects developing on cracked oats. Therefore, we conducted two dose-response studies that showed that adding 150 mg of conidia per kilogram to cracked or whole \u27Paul\u27 oats resulted in a 70 and 98% reduction, respectively, in number of progeny produced. No further reduction was obtained by adding 200 mg of conidia per kilogram of cracked or whole \u27Paul\u27 oats. Presence of the fungus did not affect developmental time in any of our tests. A previous study showed that cleaned oats should limit insect population growth to allow long-term storage of oats without insect damage. However, the current study shows that if the oats are not cleaned, and not cleaning oats is the normal storage practice, then B. bassiana could be used to help control sawtoothed grain beetles

Consumer Purchases of Biotech Sweet Corn: Results from a Market Experiment

In the increasingly consumer-driven food system, consumer preferences toward agricultural biotechnology have the potential to influence decisions about development and adoption of biotech crop varieties. Current knowledge about consumer attitudes toward biotech foods is largely based on a number of consumer surveys and a growing body of experimental auctions. This paper reports results of a market experiment designed to isolate the effect of the use of biotechnology on consumer choices between two otherwise identical products. Two related varieties of fresh-market sweet corn were grown, labeled, and sold side-by-side in nine participating grocery stores in the Philadelphia area. Sales data indicate a market share of biotech corn of about 45 percent, with store-specific shares varying between 10 and 80 percent. Over 700 surveys were collected in stores. Surprisingly, only 65 percent of respondents noticed that there were two types of corn for sale despite the labeling and merchandising, and 87 percent of the sample spent one minute or less choosing their corn. About half of the respondents had heard of biotechnology before, and 16 percent volunteered the biotechnology trait as an influence on their purchase decision. Approximately 40 percent of the sample purchased some of the biotech variety, with several respondents purchasing some of each.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Shaft mount for data coupler system

A device for mounting a data transmission apparatus to a rotating, tapered, and instrumented shaft is provided. This device permits attachment without interfering with shaft rotation or the accuracy of data output, and prevents both radial and axial slippage of the data transmission apparatus. The mounting device consists of a sleeve assembly which is attached to the shaft by means of clamps that are situated at some distance removed from the instrumented area of the shaft. The data transmission device is secured to the sleeve such that the entire assembly rotates with the shaft. Shim adjustments between sleeve sections assure that a minimum compressive load is transferred to the instrumented area of the shaft and a rubber lining is affixed to a large portion of the interior surface of the sleeve to absorb vibration

Asynchronous Discrete Event Schemes for PDEs

A new class of asynchronous discrete-event simulation schemes for advection-diffusion-reaction equations are introduced, which is based on the principle of allowing quanta of mass to pass through faces of a Cartesian finite volume grid. The timescales of these events are linked to the flux on the the face, and the schemes are self-adaptive, local in time and space. Experiments are performed on realistic physical systems related to porous media flow applications, including a large 3D advection diffusion equation and advection diffusion reaction systems. The results are compared to highly accurate results where the temporal evolution is computed with exponential integrator schemes using the same finite volume discretisation. This allows a reliable estimation of the solution error. Our results indicate a first order convergence of the error as a control parameter is decreased