METIS-II: low resource machine translation

METIS-II was an EU-FET MT project running from October 2004 to September 2007, which aimed at translating free text input without resorting to parallel corpora. The idea was to use “basic” linguistic tools and representations and to link them with patterns and statistics from the monolingual target-language corpus. The METIS-II project has four partners, translating from their “home” languages Greek, Dutch, German, and Spanish into English. The paper outlines the basic ideas of the project, their implementation, the resources used, and the results obtained. It also gives examples of how METIS-II has continued beyond its lifetime and the original scope of the project. On the basis of the results and experiences obtained, we believe that the approach is promising and offers the potential for development in various directions.     

SEMPA – Ein Ansatz des Semantischen Prozessmanagements zur Planung von Prozessmodellen

Currently process modeling is mostly done manually. Therefore, the initial design of process models as well as changes to process models which are frequently necessary to react to new market developments or new regulations are time-consuming tasks. In this paper we introduce SEMPA, an approach for the partly automatic planning of process models. Using ontologies to semantically describe actions – as envisioned in Semantic Business Process Management –, a process model for a specified problem setting can be created automatically. In comparison to existing planning algorithms our approach creates process models including control structures and is able to cope with complex and numerical input and output parameters of actions. The prototypical implementation as well as an example taken from the financial services domain illustrate the practical benefit of our approach.     

Zur personellen Verankerung der IT-Funktion im Vorstand börsennotierter Unternehmen: Ergebnisse einer inhaltsanalytischen Betrachtung

On the Rate of Board Members with IT Responsibilities in Firms Listed on the Stock Exchange: Results of a Content Analysis: This article reports on a content analysis that investigates the rate of board members with IT responsibilities in firms listed on the stock exchange in the German speaking countries. Furthermore, the study ascertains the correlation of six factors – which become evident through content analysis – with the rate of board members with IT responsibilities. A total of 679 annual reports of German, Austrian, and Swiss corporations have been analyzed. The results show that in Germany and Switzerland 26 percent of the firms investigated have a board member with IT responsibilities, in Austria the rate is 23 percent. Additionally, the results show that turnover and number of employees are highly positively correlated with the rate of board members with IT responsibilities. Furthermore, the data show a correlation between industry and the rate of board members with IT responsibilities.     

Entwicklung Serviceorientierter Architekturen zur Integration von Produktion und Dienstleistung – Eine Konzeptionsmethode und ihre Anwendung am Beispiel des Recyclings elektronischer Geräte

Offering product-service bundles (consisting of products and services) is becoming more important for companies. Modifying the organizational structure of the cooperation as well as adapting to changing customer demands requires versatile information systems. Implementing Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) is one attempt to provide this flexibility. Currently, there is little methodical guidance for the identification, specification and implementation of services as building blocks of Service Oriented Architectures. Accounting for this need, a conceptual approach is designed, which adapts approaches of customer integration, and combines a business and IT analysis. The applicability of the method is demonstrated by designing a Service Oriented Architecture for the recycling of electronic equipment. Implementing services for other product-service bundles will support additional integration scenarios. By standardizing services, a sound integration of products and services can be backed by providing a reference architecture.     

An integral system‐ergonomic approach for IT‐based process management in complex work environments by example of manufacturing and health care

Recent trends in manufacturing and health care move these two work systems closer together from a system ergonomics point of view. Individual treatment of products, especially patients, by specialists in a distributed environment demand information technology (IT)‐based support suitable for complex systems. IT‐based support of processes in complex systems is difficult due to the lack of standard processes. IT support also means to rethink processes to use efficiency potentials. Close cooperation of users and software developers is needed to increase the ergonomic quality of the system. Therefore, suitable tools are needed: UML is available as the standard industry modeling language, Zope/Plone as the quasi‐standard for content management systems, SimPy as an object‐oriented simulation tool for event‐triggered processes, and ACT‐R as a powerful cognitive architecture for simulation of human information processes. The integration of these tools enables system‐ergonomic support of processes in the complex work system as well as of the development and deployment process. It is the base of an integral system‐ergonomic approach for IT‐based process management. Knowledge gained during process analysis either enters models or leads to the extension and adaptation of the tool chain. The models serve as basis for discussion among system ergonomists, programmers, and specialists from the work system. Further, they are understood by simulation and process support tools. Transcoding efforts between humans with different professional backgrounds and machines are reduced, and the flexibility demanded by complex systems is met. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Directed model checking with distance-preserving abstractions

In directed model checking, the traversal of the state space is guided by an estimate of the distance from the current state to the nearest error state. This paper presents a distance-preserving abstraction for concurrent systems that allows one to compute an interesting estimate of the error distance without hitting the state explosion problem. Our experiments show a dramatic reduction both in the number of states explored by the model checker and in the total runtime.     

On finite dynamic equations for fluid-saturated porous media

Summary The paper concerns the relations between two principally different approaches to the formulation of momentum balance equations in porous media theories, namely, the dynamic approach similar to Biot's theory and the modern approach as a result of mixture theories extended by the concept of volume fractions. In particular, it is shown that both approaches necessarily lead to the same type of momentum balance equations and furthermore contain, in a certain sense, within the geometrically linear case, the well-known classical equations of Biot's theory.     

Verified inclusion for eigenvalues of the first order PLL equation with general phase detector characteristics

We present a method depending on matrix continued fractions and Sturm's comparison theorem to obtain verified inclusions for eigenvalues of the underlying boundary value problem of the first-order phase locked loop equation $pu'' + (\lambda + \tilde g)u = 0$ ,p = 1/SNR with general phase detector characteristic $\tilde g(\phi )$ .     

Electromagnetic field diffusion, θ-functions,and image solutions

Contents We discuss some initial and boundary value problems of one-dimensional electromagnetic field diffusion. The solutions can be given by infinite series in two essentially different (however equivalent) forms, one being the usual Fourier-expansion and the other one being an infinite series of Gaussian exponentials or related functions (as for instance error-functions). The second form can be obtained by using infinitely many images to fulfill initial and boundary conditions. Finally the mathematical relations between the two equivalent types of solutions are discussed in terms of -functions and their transformation properties. The existence of the solutions in these two different forms is very interesting from a numerical point of view also.

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Die Diffusion elektromagnetischer Felder, -Funktionen und Spiegelungsmethoden

Übersicht Es werden einige Anfangs- und Randwertprobleme eindimensionaler elektromagnetischer Felddiffusion erörtert. Die Lösungen können in zwei wesentlich verschiedenen (jedoch gleichwertigen) Formen angegeben werden, erstens in Form üblicher Fourier-Reihen und zweitens in Form unendlicher Reihen von Gaußschen Exponentialfunktionen oder damit verwandter Funktionen (z.B. Fehlerfunktionen). Diese zweite Form der Lösungen läßt sich durch die Anwendung unendlich oft wiederholter Spiegelung zur Erfüllung der Rand- und Anfangsbedingung anschaulich interpretieren. Abschließend werden die beiden Lösungstypen mit Hilfe von -Funktionen und deren Transformationseigenschaften erläutert. Die Verfügbarkeit der Lösungen in beiden Formen ist auch numerisch sehr interessant.

     

Performance Analysis of Breast Cancer Detection Method Using ANFIS Classification Approach

Breast cancer is one of the deadly diseases prevailing in women. Earlier detection and diagnosis might prevent the death rate. Effective diagnosis of breast cancer remains a significant challenge, and early diagnosis is essential to avoid the most severe manifestations of the disease. The existing systems have computational complexity and classification accuracy problems over various breast cancer databases. In order to overcome the above-mentioned issues, this work introduces an efficient classification and segmentation process. Hence, there is a requirement for developing a fully automatic methodology for screening the cancer regions. This paper develops a fully automated method for breast cancer detection and segmentation utilizing Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) classification technique. This proposed technique comprises preprocessing, feature extraction, classifications, and segmentation stages. Here, the wavelet-based enhancement method has been employed as the preprocessing method. The texture and statistical features have been extracted from the enhanced image. Then, the ANFIS classification algorithm is used to classify the mammogram image into normal, benign, and malignant cases. Then, morphological processing is performed on malignant mammogram images to segment cancer regions. Performance analysis and comparisons are made with conventional methods. The experimental result proves that the proposed ANFIS algorithm provides better classification performance in terms of higher accuracy than the existing algorithms.