Ontology mapping by concept similarity

This paper presents an approach to the problem of mapping ontologies. The motivation for the research stems from the Diogene Project which is developing a web training environment for ICT professionals. The system includes high quality training material from registered content providers, and free web material will also be made available through the project's "Web Discovery" component. This involves using web search engines to locate relevant material, and mapping the ontology at the core of the Diogene system to other ontologies that exist on the Semantic Web. The project's approach to ontology mapping is presented, and an evaluation of this method is described

Automatically attaching web pages to an ontology

This paper describes a proposed system for automatically attaching material from the world wide web to concepts in an ontology. The motivation for this research stems from the Diogene project, which requires the project's own databases of learning objects to be augmented with additional resources from the web. Two main approaches to this problem are being taken: one using ontology mapping, and another based on the conventional text search facilities of the web, covered in this paper. By generating queries based on the concepts in the ontology, the aim is to retrieve material from the web, and then filter it to ensure its proper correspondence with a concept. The Diogene system will be briefly outlined, before the query-generation system is described. A small pilot experiment, designed to provide some initial results and insight into the problem, is then presented

Simulated testing of an adaptive multimedia information retrieval system

The Semantic Gap is considered to be a bottleneck in image and video retrieval. One way to increase the communication between user and system is to take advantage of the user's action with a system, e.g. to infer the relevance or otherwise of a video shot viewed by the user. In this paper we introduce a novel video retrieval system and propose a model of implicit information for interpreting the user's actions with the interface. The assumptions on which this model was created are then analysed in an experiment using simulated users based on relevance judgements to compare results of explicit and implicit retrieval cycles. Our model seems to enhance retrieval results. Results are presented and discussed in the final section

Metaldehyde removal from drinking water by adsorption onto filtration media: mechanisms and optimisation

Trace micropollutants should be removed during drinking water production without increasing the disinfection-by-product formation potential or energy demand of the treatment process. We demonstrate the efficacy of different filtration media to remove metaldehyde through controlled batch experiments on water augmented with metaldehyde. Equilibrium concentrations of metaldehyde and surrogate organics were successfully described by the Freundlich isotherm. Metaldehyde can be attenuated to varying degrees with activated carbon and sand with an active and inactive biofilm with kf values ranging from 0.006–0.3 (mg g−1)(L mg−1)1/n. The presence of the active biofilm improved metaldehyde adsorption by sand media, due to additional biosorption mechanisms, a greater surface area or biodegradation. Baseline levels of competing natural organic matter surrogates (NOM) reduced overall adsorption efficacy but increasing concentrations of NOM did not impact metaldehyde removal efficacy in a significant way. Biological activated carbon was identified as the most suitable adsorbent of metaldehyde (94% removal) but sand with an acclimated biofilm was capable of acting as a bio-adsorbent of metaldehyde even under environmentally relevant concentrations (41% adsorption from 0.002.5 mg L−1). Moreover, we observed that thermal hydrolysis of metaldehyde occurred at 60 °C, suggesting that thermal regeneration of GAC for this pesticide was possible at relatively low temperatures. Biological adsorption and thermal hydrolysis approaches presented herein offered a way forward to increase efficiency and cost effectiveness of existing treatments for metaldehyde

A cluster-based simulation of facet-based search

The recent increase of online video has challenged the research in the field of video information retrieval. Video search engines are becoming more and more interactive, helping the user to easily find what he or she is looking for. In this poster, we present a new approach of using an iterative clustering algorithm on text and visual features to simulate users creating new facets in a facet-based interface. Our experimental results prove the usefulness of such an approach

The Ecology of Subaerial Biofilms in Dry and Inhospitable Terrestrial Environments

The ecological relationship between minerals and microorganisms arguably represents one of the most important associations in dry terrestrial environments, since it strongly influences major biochemical cycles and regulates the productivity and stability of the Earth's food webs. Despite being inhospitable ecosystems, mineral substrata exposed to air harbor form complex and self-sustaining communities called subaerial biofilms (SABs). Using life on air-exposed minerals as a model and taking inspiration from the mechanisms of some microorganisms that have adapted to inhospitable conditions, we illustrate the ecology of SABs inhabiting natural and built environments. Finally, we advocate the need for the convergence between the experimental and theoretical approaches that might be used to characterize and simulate the development of SABs on mineral substrates and SABs' broader impacts on the dry terrestrial environment

Exploiting log files in video retrieval

While research into user-centered text retrieval is based on mature evaluation methodologies, user evaluation in multimedia retrieval is still in its infancy. User evaluations can be expensive and are also often non-repeatable. An alternative way of evaluating such systems is the use of simulations. In this poster, we present an evaluation methodology which is based on exploiting log files recorded from a user-study we conducted

Simulated evaluation of faceted browsing based on feature selection

In this paper we explore the limitations of facet based browsing which uses sub-needs of an information need for querying and organising the search process in video retrieval. The underlying assumption of this approach is that the search effectiveness will be enhanced if such an approach is employed for interactive video retrieval using textual and visual features. We explore the performance bounds of a faceted system by carrying out a simulated user evaluation on TRECVid data sets, and also on the logs of a prior user experiment with the system. We first present a methodology to reduce the dimensionality of features by selecting the most important ones. Then, we discuss the simulated evaluation strategies employed in our evaluation and the effect on the use of both textual and visual features. Facets created by users are simulated by clustering video shots using textual and visual features. The experimental results of our study demonstrate that the faceted browser can potentially improve the search effectiveness

France to Haiti to Spain to Cuba to America: Immigration Across Cultures and History

Growing up hearing stories about relatives throughout the United States, Carribbean, South America, and Europe, I was unaware of the uniqueness of my family’s journey over the last several generations. Where did my family come from, how far can I trace it back, what factors led to their convoluted multi-generational immigration and how did my grandfather, Fernando Villa, come to know Fidel Castro? In particular, what circumstances surrounded the move from Cuba to the United States and what was the transition like for a first-generation immigrant family? Research was designed to focus on historical literature and oral interviews with my 95 year old grandfather, Fernando Villa, who immigrated to the United States in 1955. I also conducted supplementary research through other media formats and interviews with family figures knowledgeable on our family’s history. Discussion focused around three major areas: direct family history, growing up in a Cuban family, and commentary on social and political issues and their effect on Fernando’s immigration to the United States with his family. The resulting conversations and research revealed many details of the complex Villa family tree, stretching across three continents and involving immigration across the ocean four times. They also exposed the professional reasons, exacerbated by the political climate in Cuba, for my grandfather’s choice to leave Cuba for America. From the research, I found the cultural history of the Villa family to be deeper and wider than previously thought. The actions of my ancestors were often driven by major world events studied in textbooks at every school, and their stories are personally intertwined with locations and people known around the world