Legal information retrieval for understanding statutory terms

In this work we study, design, and evaluate computational methods to support interpretation of statutory terms. We propose a novel task of discovering sentences for argumentation about the meaning of statutory terms. The task models the analysis of past treatment of statutory terms, an exercise lawyers routinely perform using a combination of manual and computational approaches. We treat the discovery of sentences as a special case of ad hoc document retrieval. The specifics include retrieval of short texts (sentences), specialized document types (legal case texts), and, above all, the unique definition of document relevance provided in detailed annotation guidelines. To support our experiments we assembled a data set comprising 42 queries (26,959 sentences) which we plan to release to the public in the near future in order to support further research. Most importantly, we investigate the feasibility of developing a system that responds to a query with a list of sentences that mention the term in a way that is useful for understanding and elaborating its meaning. This is accomplished by a systematic assessment of different features that model the sentences’ usefulness for interpretation. We combine features into a compound measure that accounts for multiple aspects. The definition of the task, the assembly of the data set, and the detailed task analysis provide a solid foundation for employing a learning-to-rank approach.

     

A temperature-dependent Mössbauer study of mechanically activated and non-activated zinc ferrite

The changes of ZnFe₂O₄ caused by mechanical activation as well as the structural evolution of nonactivated and mechanically activated zinc ferrite occurring during heating, have been investigated by in situ Mössbauer spectroscopy. Attention is directed to mechanically induced changes in magnetic properties of zinc ferrite, the variation of nuclear quadrupolar interactions, the thermally induced changes of the Mössbauer shift, and also to the structural response of mechanically activated zinc ferrite to changes in temperature.     

A Multidirectional Occlusion Shading Model for Direct Volume Rendering

In this paper, we present a novel technique which simulates directional light scattering for more realistic interactive visualization of volume data. Our method extends the recent directional occlusion shading model by enabling light source positioning with practically no performance penalty. Light transport is approximated using a tilted cone‐shaped function which leaves elliptic footprints in the opacity buffer during slice‐based volume rendering. We perform an incremental blurring operation on the opacity buffer for each slice in front‐to‐back order. This buffer is then used to define the degree of occlusion for the subsequent slice. Our method is capable of generating high‐quality soft shadowing effects, allows interactive modification of all illumination and rendering parameters, and requires no pre‐computation.     

Predictive functional control based on an adaptive fuzzy model of a hybrid semi-batch reactor

In this paper a new approach to the control of a nonlinear, time-varying process is proposed. It is based on a recursive version of the fuzzy identification method and predictive functional control. First, the recursive fuzzy identification method is derived, after which it is used in connection with fuzzy predictive functional control to construct an adaptive fuzzy predictive functional controller. The adaptive FPFC is then tested on a nonlinear, time-varying, semi-batch reactor process and compared with the standard FPFC, which uses non-adaptive fuzzy model. The simulation results are promising; they indicate that the control of time-varying, nonlinear processes with the FPFC can be improved with the use of an adaptive fuzzy model. An improvement in reference tracking and disturbance rejection can be observed, but the main advantage is the reduced number of switchings between hot and cold water. This is an important improvement in the case of real applications.     

Aerodynamic optimization via multi-objective micro-genetic algorithm with range adaptation,knowledge-based reinitialization,crowding and ε-dominance

In this study, an optimization of the airfoil of a sailplane is carried out by a recently developed multi-objective genetic algorithm based on microevolution, containing crowding, range adaptation, knowledge-based reinitialization and ε-dominance. Its efficiency was tested on a set of test problems. The results are encouraging, suggesting that very small populations can be used effectively to solve real-world multi-objective optimization problems in many cases of interest.     

Convergence with a fixed regulator in lattice ordered groups and applications to MV-algebras

A convergence with a fixed regulator v in lattice ordered groups is applied to MV-algebras. For each Archimedean MV-algebra A there exists a v-Cauchy completion A ^* and it is uniquely determined up to isomorphisms over A. The relation between the Dedekind completion A ^∧ of A and A ^* is established. There is solved a question of the existence of the greatest v-Cauchy complete ideal of A.