Requirements for Information Extraction for Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management (KM) systems inherently suffer from the knowledge acquisition bottleneck - the difficulty of modeling and formalizing knowledge relevant for specific domains. A potential solution to this problem is Information Extraction (IE) technology. However, IE was originally developed for database population and there is a mismatch between what is required to successfully perform KM and what current IE technology provides. In this paper we begin to address this issue by outlining requirements for IE based KM

QAKiS @ QALD-2

International audienceWe present QAKiS, a system for Question Answering over linked data (in particular, DBpedia). The problem of question interpretation is addressed as the automatic identification of the set of relevant relations between entities in the natural language input question, matched against a repository of automatically collected relational patterns (i.e. the WikiFramework repository). Such patterns represent possible lexical-izations of ontological relations, and are associated to a SPARQL query derived from the linked data relational patterns. Wikipedia is used as the source of free text for the automatic extraction of the relational patterns, and DBpedia as the linked data resource to provide relational patterns and to be queried using a natural language interface

Parental engagement and early interactions with preterm infants during the stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: protocol of a mixed-method and longitudinal study

Introduction: The preterm infants\u2019 developmental outcomes depend on both biological and environmental risk factors. The environmental factors include prolonged parental separation, less exposure to early mother/father-infant interactions and the parents\u2019 ability to respond to the trauma of premature birth. In the case of premature birth, the father\u2019s ability to take an active part in the care of the infant from the start is essential. The parents\u2019 emotional closeness to the preterm infant hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) \u2013through touch, affectionate talk, visual contact and facial affect\u2013may be crucial to the well-being of the newborn, the development of mutual regulation, the establishment of a functioning parent-infant affective relationship, and the parents\u2019 confidence in their ability to provide care for their baby. Methods and analysis: This is a mixed-method, observational and longitudinal study. The methodological strategy will include: (1) ethnographic observation in a level III NICU located in Northern Italy for a duration of 18 months; (2) 3+3 min video recordings of mother-infant and father-infant interaction in the NICU; (3) a semi-structured interview with fathers during the infants\u2019 hospital stay; (4) 3+3 min video recordings of mother-infant and father-infant face-to-face interaction in the laboratory at 4 months of corrected age; (5) a self-report questionnaire for parents on depression and a questionnaire on the quality of the couple relationship at the approximate times of the video recording sessions. Ethics and dissemination: The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Committee for Clinical Trials of the Verona and Rovigo Provinces. Results aim to be published in international peer-reviewed journals, and presented at relevant national and international conferences. This research project will develop research relevant to (A) the quality and modalities of maternal and paternal communication with the preterm infant in the NICU; (B) the influence of maternal/paternal social stimulation on the infant behavioral states; (C) the quality and modalities of paternal support to the partner, and possible influences on the mother-infant relationship. Strengths and limitations of this study: - This is one of a small number of studies focused on maternal/paternal communicative behaviors addressed spontaneously to the preterm infant hospitalized in the NICU, and their effects on the infant\u2019s behavioral states. - Results from this project will increase the very scant knowledge about the presence of early interactive contingencies between mother/father and the preterm infant in the NICU, and their possible predictive role of positive outcomes in mother-infant and father-infant relationship. - Findings will be limited to the experiences of Italian parents

The effect of UV irradiation on vitamin D2 content and antioxidant and antiglycation activities of mushrooms

Mushroom irradiation has been considered a sustainable process to generate high amounts of vitamin D2 due to the role of this vitamin for human health and of the global concerns regarding its deficient or inadequate intake. Mushrooms are also receiving increasing interest due to their nutritional and medicinal properties. However, there is still a knowledge gap regarding the effect of UV irradiation on mushroom bioactive compounds. In this study, two of the most cultivated mushroom species worldwide, Agaricus bisporus and Pleurotus ostreatus, were irradiated with UV-B, and the effect of processing was investigated on the contents of vitamin D2 as well as on antioxidant and antiglycation activities. UV irradiation increased vitamin D2 up to 57 \ub5g/g d.w, which is an adequate level for the fortification of a number of target foods. UV irradiation decreased the antioxidant activity when measured by the Folin\u2013Ciocalteu reagent, the 2,2-diphenyl-1-(2,4,6 trinitrophenyl) hydrazyl radical assay and the ferric ion-reducing antioxidant power assay, but did not decrease the mushroom\u2019s ability to inhibit glycation of a target protein. These results open up a new area of investigation aimed at selecting mushroom species with high nutraceutical benefits for irradiation in order to maintain their potential properties to inhibit oxidative and glycation processes responsible for human diseases

Hydration and Fortification of Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) with Grape Skin Phenolics—Effects of Ultrasound Application and Heating

Ultrasound (US)-assisted soaking combined with fortification with red grape skin (GS) phenolics was applied on two Phaseolus varieties, namely White Kidney Bean (WKB) and Cranberry Bean (CB), before heat treatment. The aims were to investigate: (a) the effect of US application on the kinetic of hydration; (b) the extent of absorption of different phenolic classes of GS into the beans and the resulting effect on antioxidant activity; (c) the effects of heat treatment on the phenolic fraction and antioxidant activity of GS extract- and water-soaked beans. US fastened the soaking step of both WKBandCBbeans, which showed the sigmoidal and the downward concave shape hydration curves, respectively. Anthocyanins, flavonols, flavanol and phenolic acids levels increased with GS soaking, but US application was effective only for increasing the level of flavonols, while it favored the loss of endogenous phenolic acids and it did not affect the uptake of anthocyanins and flavanols. Heat treatment decreased the levels of most of phenolic compounds, but increased the levels of monomeric flavanols. Overall, the antioxidant activity was 40% higher in WKB and 53% higher in CBuponGS-fortification than in the control beans, despite the effects of heating. This fortification strategy could be applied for value addition of varieties low in phenolics or as a pre-treatment before intensive processing

Annotation Schema Oriented Validation for Dependency Parsing Evaluation

Proceedings of the Ninth International Workshop on Treebanks and Linguistic Theories. Editors: Markus Dickinson, Kaili Müürisep and Marco Passarotti. NEALT Proceedings Series, Vol. 9 (2010), 19-30. © 2010 The editors and contributors. Published by Northern European Association for Language Technology (NEALT) http://omilia.uio.no/nealt . Electronically published at Tartu University Library (Estonia) http://hdl.handle.net/10062/15891

Cheese whey recycling in the perspective of the circular economy : Modeling processes and the supply chain to design the involvement of the small and medium enterprises

Rationale: Cheese whey has relevant nutritional, health and functional properties that could address the dietary needs of a growing world population. Nevertheless, around 50% of whey produced globally is not reused in the food system. A significant role in cheese production is played by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that process typical products labelled with a protected designation of origin (PDO), representing both the cultural heritage and the major economical resource of specific geographical regions. Scope and Approach : This study is aimed at identifying the potential involvement of SMEs in the recycling of whey for food uses. Techno-economic analyses of whey recycling processes were reviewed to define efficient configurations and plant size. Safety and quality specifications for whey were then examined as well as traceability systems designed for improving transparency among the actors and stakeholders of the dairy supply chain. Key Findings and Conclusion : The study led to conclude that a whey value chain could be built by various cheese SMEs and a stand-alone industrial unit for the downstream processing of whey into value-added foods. In this scenario, advantages could derive from the involvement of SMEs that belong to the same PDO cheese consortium, in terms of standardization of whey, third party certification and possible use of smart traceability tools. Hence, the SMEs producing PDO products could advance the application of the bioeconomy principles in the food system. Research challenges to promote the implementation of the conceived whey value chain are finally outlined