Semantic email: theory and applications

This paper investigates how the vision of the Semantic Web can be carried over to the realm of email. We introduce a general notion of semantic email, in which an email message consists of a structured query or update coupled with corresponding explanatory text. Semantic email opens the door to a wide range of automated, email-mediated applications with formally guaranteed properties. In particular, this paper introduces a broad class of semantic email processes. For example, consider the process of sending an email to a program committee, asking who will attend the PC dinner, automatically collecting the responses, and tallying them up. We define both logical and decision-theoretic models where an email process is modeled as a set of updates to a data set on which we specify goals via certain constraints or utilities. We then describe a set of inference problems that arise while trying to satisfy these goals and analyze their computational tractability. In particular, we show that for the logical model it is possible to automatically infer which email responses are acceptable w.r.t. a set of constraints in polynomial time, and for the decision-theoretic model it is possible to compute the optimal message-handling policy in polynomial time. In addition, we show how to automatically generate explanations for a process's actions, and identify cases where such explanations can be generated in polynomial time. Finally, we discuss our publicly available implementation of semantic email and outline research challenges in this realm.¹     

Multi-hazard loss analysis of tall buildings under wind and seismic loads

This paper presents a framework for life-cycle loss estimation for non-structural damage in tall buildings under wind and seismic loads. Life-cycle cost analysis is a useful design tool for decision- makers, aimed at predicting monetary losses over the lifetime of a structure, accounting for uncertainties involved in the problem definition. For tall buildings, sensitive to dynamic excitations like earthquake and wind, it can be particularly suitable to base design decisions not only on initial cost and performance but also on future repair expenses. The proposed approach harmonises the procedures for intervention costs evaluation of structures subjected to multiple-hazards, taking into account the peculiar differences of wind and earthquake, in terms of load characterisation, type and evolution of damage. Relative effect of the two hazards on damage to drift- and acceleration-sensitive non-structural elements are examined. The influence of uncertainty in structural damping is also taken into account. It is shown that, although it is commonly believed that the design of a given structure is usually dominated by either winds or earthquakes, when LCC-based design is performed, both winds and earthquakes may be important.     

Regional Planning and Economic Development in the South West Region,Western Australia

Abstract

The paper examines the influence of a regional planning and development authority (the South West Development Authority) on economic growth in the South West Region of Western Australia. Employment and population changes are analysed along sectoral and spatial criteria. The findings show that between 1983 and 1989, the Authority's influence on the creation of employment opportunities was limited, being confined mostly to some gains in the public sector and to the promotion of the region and the city of Bunbury as tourist destinations. This ineffectiveness is associated with a lack of power to attract private and direct public investment to the region.     

Pilot studies on high recovery BWRO-EDR for near zero liquid discharge approach

A hybrid process combining reverse osmosis and electrodialysis has been shown to be effective in recovering 97-98% of brackish water as product water with chloride levels of 200 mg/L or less. Potential for scaling on the brine side of the electrodialysis unit was prevented by acidification, operating the electrodialysis in a reversal mode (EDR), and a side loop crystallizer which prevented buildup of scaling components. Settlers, inline microfiltration, and side-loop ultrafiltration kept suspended solids from returning to the EDR unit. This process was demonstrated in a series of more than eighty batch experiments of 1.5 to 1.8 m³ of RO concentrate of raw brackish groundwater from the Negev Highland, Israel. Each batch could be processed within a single day. The feed-water was concentrated from 0.3% to over 10% TDS super-concentrate while producing the water that could be recycled to the RO permeate. This super-concentrate from the EDR unit was further concentrated in a wind powered WAIV unit that brought final brine TDS to > 30%, and showed promise as a method to recover mineral byproducts such as magnesium salt. Initial economic estimates show that this hybrid process is competitive with conventional RO and other enhanced recovery processes for inland desalination requiring use of evaporation ponds.     

Mesoscopic nonequilibrium thermodynamics treatment of the grain boundary thermal grooving induced by the anisotropic surface drift diffusion

A systematic study based on the self-consistent dynamical simulations is presented for the grain boundary thermal grooving problem by strictly following the irreversible thermodynamic theory of surfaces and interfaces with singularities [T. O. Ogurtani, J. Chem. Phys. 124, 144706 (2006)]. This approach furnishes us to have auto-control on the otherwise free-motion of the grain boundary triple junction without presuming any equilibrium dihedral (wetting) angles at the edges. The effects of physicochemical properties and the anisotropic surface diffusivity on the transient grooving behavior, which takes place at the early stage of the scenario, were considered. We analyzed the experimental thermal grooving data reported for tungsten in the literature, and compared them with the carried simulation results. This investigation showed that the observed changes in the dihedral angles are strictly connected to the transient behavior of the simulated global system, and manifest themselves at the early stage of the thermal grooving phenomenon.