IdentityRank: Named entity disambiguation in the news domain

News companies produce news items that describe events that happen in the world. These news items usually contain mentions to persons, organizations, locations and other types of named entities that are involved in the events being described. These named entities may have an ambiguous meaning, which impacts the performance of free-text information retrieval systems. In this paper the IdentityRank algorithm, designed to address the problem of named entity disambiguation in news items, is described. It has been developed as part of the EU-funded project News Engine Web Services (NEWS) and is specifically designed to operate within the editorial environment of a news company. The algorithm was implemented and evaluated using several corpora of actual news items, achieving an average accuracy of around 96%.     

Computational modeling of natural ventilation in low-rise non-rectangular floor-plan buildings

Natural ventilation (NV) is a relevant passive strategy for the design of buildings in seek of energy savings and the improvement of the indoor air quality and the thermal comfort. The main aim of this work is to present a comprehensive NV modeling study of a non-rectangular floor-plan dwelling. Given the arbitrary shape of the building, recourse is made to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to determine the surface-averaged pressure coefficients (\(\overline {{C_p}} \)). The CFD model was calibrated to match experimental data from an extensive wind tunnel database for low-rise buildings. Then, \(\overline {{C_p}} \) computation via CFD is used to feed the building performance simulation software EnergyPlus, in replacement of the built-in Swami and Chandra parametric model that is only valid for estimating \(\overline {{C_p}} \) in rectangular floor-plan buildings. This computational tool is used to investigate the effect of NV on the thermal performance and the airflow rate in a social housing located in the Argentine Littoral region. Simulation results of the considered building show that NV enables to reduce even more than 65% of the cooling degree-hours. Furthermore, regarding to the \(\overline {{C_p}} \) source (either CFD or Swami and Chandra’s), it is also found that this data has a considerable effect on the airflow rates, but a little effect on the thermal performance.     

Fuzzy-UCS: A Michigan-Style Learning Fuzzy-Classifier System for Supervised Learning

This paper presents Fuzzy-UCS, a Michigan-style learning fuzzy-classifier system specifically designed for supervised learning tasks. Fuzzy-UCS is inspired by UCS, an on-line accuracy-based learning classifier system. Fuzzy-UCS introduces a linguistic representation of the rules with the aim of evolving more readable rule sets, while maintaining similar performance and generalization capabilities to those presented by UCS. The behavior of Fuzzy-UCS is analyzed in detail from several perspectives. The granularity of the linguistic fuzzy representation to define complex decision boundaries is illustrated graphically, and the test performance obtained with different inference schemes is studied. Fuzzy-UCS is also compared with a large set of other fuzzy and nonfuzzy learners, demonstrating the competitiveness of its on-line architecture in terms of performance and interpretability. Finally, the paper shows the advantages obtained when Fuzzy-UCS is applied to learn fuzzy models from large volumes of data.     

Residues of calcium hydroxide-based intracanal medication associated with different vehicles: a scanning electron microscopy evaluation

This study evaluated the presence of residues after removal of calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)(2) ] associated with different vehicles. Thirty single-rooted teeth were instrumented to a master apical file #25 using 2.5% NaOCl as main irrigant and 17% trisodium EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) as final agent irrigant. Then, the root canals were dressed with Ca(OH)(2) associated with silicone oil (Group 1), 2% chlorhexidine gluconate (Group 2), or propylene glycol (Group 3). After coronal sealing, all teeth were kept in a moist environment at room temperature. After 7 days, the teeth were reopened and medicaments were removed using 5 mL of saline solution and instrumentation with master apical file followed by new irrigation with 5 mL of 2.5% NaOCl. Subsequently, teeth were split longitudinally and assessed by scanning electron microscopy. The wall cleanliness of the cervical and apical thirds of the roots were evaluated and scored by three blinded examiners. Statistical analysis was performed using Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon tests at 5% level of significance. All roots had residues of Ca(OH)(2) on the canal walls. All experimental groups had similar results (P > 0.05) regardless of the third evaluated. There was significant difference between the apical and cervical thirds only in Group 3 (P < 0.05). Association of different vehicles to Ca(OH)(2) does not influence the persistence of residues on the root canal walls.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Paenibacillus polymyxa</Emphasis> Associated with the Stingless Bee <Emphasis Type="Italic">Melipona scutellaris</Emphasis> Produces Antimicrobial Compounds against Entomopathogens

Social insects are frequently observed in symbiotic association with bacteria that produce antimicrobial natural products as a defense mechanism. There is a lack of studies on the microbiota associated with stingless bees and their antimicrobial compounds. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report the isolation of Paenibacillus polymyxa ALLI-03-01 from the larval food of the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris. The bacterial strain was cultured under different conditions and produced (L)-(?)-3-phenyllactic acid and fusaricidins, which were active against entomopathogenic fungi and Paenibacillus larvae. Our results indicate that such natural products could be related to colony protection, suggesting a defense symbiosis between P. polymyxa ALLI-03-01 and Melipona scutellaris.     

Assessment of gas-particle flow models for pseudo-2D fluidized bed applications

The aim of this work is to provide more insight into the general modeling criteria for simulating pseudo-2D bubbling fluidized beds. For this purpose, two experimental-based problems are studied. First, a fluidized bed with a high-speed central jet problem is analyzed. A qualitative study of the first bubble indicates that the bubble shape prediction is highly sensitive to the frictional model adopted. The most accurate results in terms of bubble shape and detachment time are given by a frictional model that relates the strain-rate fluctuations with the granular temperature. Second, a uniformly fluidized bed problem in bubbling regime is considered. For this case, the drag models and boundary conditions for the particulate phase are investigated. Time-averaged solid phase velocity profiles are compared with the results of the literature where it is found that no-slip conditions (or partial slip with a high specularity coefficient) are more appropriate than slip conditions at the walls for these regimes. Regarding the drag force, although none of the models presented could match the experimental velocity predictions for low gas velocities at the lower region of the bed, the Di Felice model produces the most accurate results for the whole range of regimes considered.     

Risk based decision‐making in plant design

Accidental events that have occurred in chemical and nuclear plants show that the application of technical regulations on its own, even when extremely detailed, does not assure that adequate safety levels are reached and, above all, maintained in time. The paper illustrates, with a simple example, how a risk analysis can be considered as an essential tool for a correct plant design, above all when dealing with major risk installations. In particular the use of the Recursive Operability Analysis is shown, in the phase of accident identification, since it allows to directly draw the logic trees, both Fault and Event Trees for the quantification phase, thus assuring the congruence of the whole analysis.     

Structure of reverse microemulsion-templated metal hexacyanoferrate nanoparticles

The droplet phase of a reverse microemulsion formed by the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium ferrocyanide was used as a matrix to synthesize nanoparticles of nickel hexacyanoferrate by adding just a solution of NiCl₂ to the microemulsion media. Dynamic light scattering and small-angle neutron scattering measurements show that the reverse microemulsion droplets employed have a globular structure, with sizes that depend on water content. Transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction are used to obtain information about the structure of the synthesized nanoparticles. The results show that the size and shape of the coordination compound nanoparticles correspond with the size and shape of the droplets, suggesting that the presented system constitutes an alternative method of the synthesis of metal hexacyanoferrate nanoparticles.