Ontology-driven document enrichment: principles, tools and applications

In this paper, we present an approach to document enrichment, which consists of developing and integrating formal knowledge models with archives of documents, to provide intelligent knowledge retrieval and (possibly) additional knowledge-intensive services, beyond what is currently available using “standard” information retrieval and search facilities. Our approach is ontology-driven, in the sense that the construction of the knowledge model is carried out in a top-down fashion, by populating a given ontology, rather than in a bottom-up fashion, by annotating a particular document. In this paper, we give an overview of the approach and we examine the various types of issues (e.g. modelling, organizational and user interface issues) which need to be tackled to effectively deploy our approach in the workplace. In addition, we also discuss a number of technologies we have developed to support ontology-driven document enrichment and we illustrate our ideas in the domains of electronic news publishing, scholarly discourse and medical guidelines.     

Role of serum viscosity and of pulp content in the vacuum belt drying of pure fruit juices

Vacuum Belt Drying of fruit juice concentrates may be a satisfactory alternative to freeze drying where cost is a limiting factor, and to spray drying where the addition of large amounts of 'carriers', e.g. maltodextrin or glucose syrups, are required to avoid collapse and sticking of the product.
The rheological and structural properties and the drying behaviour of some juice concentrates have been studied in relation to the collapse phenomenon, which is a structure transition associated with the mechanical properties of the system.
Collapse during drying has proved to be mainly related to the viscosity (consistency) of the soluble fraction of the concentrate, i.e. the 'serum', while there is no evidence of an effect of the suspended phase (pulp).
By properly adjusting the serum consistency of the juice with selected pectolytic enzymes and by appropriate mixing of the mash derivatives, apple, pear, apricot, and peach concentrates have been successfully dehydrated by vacuum belt drying, without any addition of 'carrier'-supporting materials. The consistency index of the concentrate serum may be used to assess the suitability of the juice for drying.     

TOTAL QUALITY INDEXES FOR EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OILS

ABSTRACT

In this article, we propose a new and functional mathematical index, able to describe and compare the nutritional, safety and process quality in extra‐virgin olive oil, introducing a definition of “optimal” oil, through the use of appropriate distances in a N‐dimensional parameter space. Our index does not pretend to be the unique answer to the need of a “quality index,” but it presents a way through which we can establish if an extra‐virgin olive oil can be considered of high, medium or low quality. The main goal of our index is to link oil chemical quality to its commercial price; furthermore, it can be, in perspective, useful to detect the critical points (such as harvest time, drupe storage, processes and finally oil storage) during all the production chain, and to show how to increase nutritional, safety and technological quality.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The index could be mainly helpful for consumers because the only indication that they can use today, in order to operate a choice, is in general the price of the oil, which is not necessarily related to its quality. In fact, it is possible to relate our index to the oil price. This tool can also be addressed to producers, to help them to detect the critical points along the whole food production chain and eventually operate the needed corrections to obtain a high‐quality extra‐virgin olive oil, as stated in the Discussion.

     

Cholesterol Oxidation in Baked Foods Containing Fresh and Powdered Eggs

The degree of cholesterol oxidation in commercial sweet baked foods (biscuits and snacks) and in laboratory baked biscuits, all containing fresh or powdered eggs, was determined. 7-Ketocholesterol was used as index of cholesterol oxidation and detected by two analytical methods. The analysis of the biscuits showed higher levels of 7-ketocholesterol and a more marked oxidative instability of cholesterol when prepared with powdered eggs. The significant amounts of 7-ketocholesterol found in some samples of commercial biscuits were attributed to the use of powdered eggs. These data are of importance to industries using eggs in sweet baked products which are mainly consumed by children.     

ALPHA-LINOLENIC ACID AND LINOLEIC ACID IN SERUM AND TISSUES AFTER FLAXSEED (Linum usitatissimum) OIL IN VIVO ADMINISTRATION

Essential fatty acids can be helpful in the prevention of several pathologies. The bioavailability of acute supplementation of different doses of flaxseed oil was studied by analyzing the level of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid (LA) in serum and tissues (adipose, liver) of rats tested at 2, 4, 8 and 16 h after the administration. The amount of flaxseed oil administered at increasing doses corresponded to 1, 2.5 and 5 g ALA/kg of body weight. The corresponding fatty acid methyl esters obtained via direct methylation were quantified using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Serum ALA level increased after 1 or 2.5 g/kg. ALA was increased in both adipose and liver tissue 4 h after the administration of 1 g/kg of flaxseed oil. There was no further increase by using a higher oil dosage. LA did not change in serum at the doses used.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The bioavailability of acute supplementation of increasing doses of flaxseed oil was examined by analyzing the level of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) (ω3) and linoleic acid (ω6) in serum and tissues (adipose, liver).These data suggest that there is a limiting step in the absorption of these fatty acids and that there is no advantage to take more than 1 g/kg of ALA supplementation. The daily use of flaxseed oil could be a good alternative in some cases to fish oil in the prevention of several pathologies.     

CHANGES OF SOME THERMAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES IN MODEL SYSTEMS SIMULATING AN ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION

Highly simplified model systems, simulating the fermentation of 25.00% sugar-water mixture into a 12.78% ethanol-water mixture, were considered in order to study their thermo-physical properties. Calorimetric data, viscosity and water activity determinations showed that important thermal and physical changes are associated with the steps of a fermentation process. Besides the increase in ethanol content, other concomitant changes are a strong increase in ethanol vapor pressure and a decrease in water activity and viscosity. DSC measurements of the models during scanning from -140C to 25C showed three peaks: peak 1 (exotherm) covered a temperature range from -110C to -80C and was attributed to the recrystallization of the ethanol monohydrate; peak 2 (endotherm), with peak temperature around -70C, was attributed to the melting of the alcoholic monohydrate; peak 3 (endotherm) in the higher temperature range from -30C to OC, was due to ice melting. The alcoholic monohydrate appeared only in the final simulated step of the fermentation, where only ethanol and water were present. The inhibitory effect of even small amounts of sugars on the formation of the monohydrate might be related to the increase in viscosity. This would confirm the formation of the ethanol hydrate as kinetically hindered, as it is reported in the literature.     

Combining Contactless Inductive Flow Tomography and Mutual Inductance Tomography for Two-Phase Flow Measurements at a Continuous Casting Model

The flow structure in the mould of a continuous caster is of key importance for the quality of the final product.The use of most conventional flow measurement techniques is prevented by the high temperature of the liquid steel.For a downscaled physical model of the continuous casting process,we present combined measurements of the flow in the mould by Contacfless Inductive Flow Tomography(CIFT),and of the conductivity distribution in the submerged entry nozzle by Mutual Inductance Tomograpliy(MIT).In addition,we summarize an experiment with a magnetic stirrer around the submerged entry nozzle and its effects on the flow in the mould.Some new developments towards a robust implementation of CIFT at a real caster,including the use of pickup coils and gradiometric probes,are also discussed.     

Engineering the Usability of a Visual Formalism for Real-time Temporal Logic

Visual formalisms merge the rigor of mathematical notations with the naturality of graphic representation. This increases usability of formal methods, and may also improve their verification power through a richer involvement of the user. To achieve this goal, development of the visual representation must fulfill a twofold requirement: on the one hand, the design must capture the inherent rigor of the underlying formalism; on the other, it must meet the final user intuition.In this paper, we introduce, motivate and evaluate a visual formalism for a real-time logic. The visual formalism supporting presentation of the logic was designed by joining heuristic design and user-based evaluation. Heuristic principles were applied to define a limited set of visualization metaphors supporting consistent representation of basic semantic constructs. Alternative representations were defined where multiple choices were possible with no obvious expected preference. Heuristic assumptions were then refined and alternative representations were selected by resorting to the judgment of a representative sample of target end-users. The resulting notation was implemented within an interactive syntax-directed editor, which was then used to carry out a competitive user-based evaluation of the usability of textual and visual representations.     

Graph models for PLA folding problems

This paper considers combinatorial optimization models for the problem of reducing the chip area of programmable logic arrays (PLAs) by folding. In particular, we focus on the variable and block folding problems, and we present theoretical optimization models based on the compatibility graph, on the incompatibility graph and on the representative hyper-graph of a PLA.     

Ultrafast photon counting applied to resonant scanning STED microscopy

To take full advantage of fast resonant scanning in super‐resolution stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, we have developed an ultrafast photon counting system based on a multigiga sample per second analogue‐to‐digital conversion chip that delivers an unprecedented 450 MHz pixel clock (2.2 ns pixel dwell time in each scan). The system achieves a large field of view (～50 × 50 μm) with fast scanning that reduces photobleaching, and advances the time‐gated continuous wave STED technology to the usage of resonant scanning with hardware‐based time‐gating. The assembled system provides superb signal‐to‐noise ratio and highly linear quantification of light that result in superior image quality. Also, the system design allows great flexibility in processing photon signals to further improve the dynamic range. In conclusion, we have constructed a frontier photon counting image acquisition system with ultrafast readout rate, excellent counting linearity, and with the capacity of realizing resonant‐scanning continuous wave STED microscopy with online time‐gated detection.