Statistical Models for Monolingual and Bilingual Information Retrieval

This work reviews information retrieval systems developed at ITC-irst which were evaluated through several tracks of CLEF, during the last three years. The presentation tries to follow the progress made over time in developing new statistical models first for monolingual information retrieval, then for cross-language information retrieval. Besides describing the underlying theory, performance of monolingual and bilingual information retrieval models are reported, respectively, on Italian monolingual tracks and Italian-English bilingual tracks of CLEF. Monolingual systems by ITC-irst performed consistently well in all the official evaluations, while the bilingual system ranked in CLEF 2002 just behind competitors using commercial machine translation engines. However, by experimentally comparing our statistical topic translation model against a state-of-the-art commercial system, no statistically significant difference in retrieval performance could be measured on a larger set of queries.     

A theoretical framework for productive education

having held various posts specializing in educational administration in different private institutions in California. Author of several articles dealing with the issue of productive work combined with academic study.     

How knowledge brokers emerge and evolve: The role of actors’ behaviour

This article investigates how actors positioned in a network can evolve as knowledge brokers, as well as how they act to develop new brokerage roles. Our focus is on actor's behaviour while previous studies concentrate more on the structural and positional determinants of brokerage roles. This research combines brokerage roles with a broker's functions in an exploratory study of a small Italian comics publishing house. Over 20 years, the firm played different brokerage roles involving different actors at national and international levels. We find that if all brokerage roles involve transcoding functions, the ability to overcome transcoding obstacles, through the use of shared imprinting with receiving partners, could be useful for developing any brokerage role. Moreover, heterogeneity in the competences and industry experience of hired members of the management team could support the development of new brokerage roles, with differentiated effects on various brokers’ functions. If a brokerage role involves new actors with no previous allegiance, the status of the broker, signalled through network relations, can have significant impacts by indirectly communicating its superior knowledge. The proposed, emerging theoretical framework has direct implications for studies of knowledge brokers and innovation in social networks, as well as for entrepreneurship research.     

Young refugees’ and asylum seekers’ career choices: a qualitative investigation

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - A major challenge for refugees and asylum seekers is social and professional integration. Using constructivist and capability...     

Neuromuscular control during stepping down in continuous gait in individuals with and without ankle instability

Abstract

Ankle sprains are a common injury and those affected are at a risk of developing chronic ankle instability (CAI). Complications of an acute sprain include increased risk of re-injury and persistent disability; however, the exact link between ankle sprains and chronic instability has yet to be elucidated. The purpose of this study was to investigate neuromuscular control (including kinematics, kinetics and EMG) during stepping down from a curb, a common yet challenging daily activity, in persons with ankle instability (n = 11), those with a history of ankle sprain without persistent instability, called ankle sprain “copers” (CPRs) (n = 9) and uninjured controls (CTLs) (n = 13). A significant group difference was noted as the CPR group demonstrated increased tibialis anterior activity in both the preparatory (pre-touchdown) and reactive (post-touchdown) phases when compared to healthy and unstable groups (P < 0.05). It follows that the CPR group also demonstrated a significantly less plantar-flexed position at touchdown than the other two groups (P < 0.05). This is a more stable position to load the ankle and this strategy differed from that used by participants with CAI and uninjured CTLs. These findings provide insight into the neuromuscular control strategies of CPRs, which may allow them to more appropriately control ankle stability following sprains.     

Identification of critical intensity from a single lactate measure during a 3-min,submaximal cycle-ergometer test

We tested the hypothesis that critical intensity in cycling can be determined from a single delta blood lactate in the third minute of a submaximal cycle ergometer trial. Fourteen healthy young men performed four to six constant-power-output trials on a cycle ergometer to the limit of tolerance. Critical intensity was calculated via a linear model and subsequently validated. Lactate was measured at baseline and at 3 min from exercise onset. Delta lactate was the difference between these measures. Based on individual trials, we obtained the delta lactate–% validated critical intensity relationship and thereafter an estimate of critical intensity was computed. Validated and estimated critical intensity were compared by effects sizes, paired-sample t-test and Bland–Altman analysis. Delta lactate was a linear function of the intensity of exercise, expressed as % validated critical intensity (R² = 0.89). Estimated critical intensity was not different from (d = 0.03, P = 0.98) and highly correlated with (R² = 0.88) validated critical intensity. The bias between measures was 0.03 W (≠0) with a precision of 7 W. The results suggest that critical intensity in cycling can be accurately and precisely determined from delta lactate during a sub-maximal trial and so provides a practical and valid alternative to direct determination.     

Quantification of energy expenditure of recreational football

ABSTRACT

There is a strong relationship between low physical activity level and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The popularity of football may be used to promote physical activity and previous evidence has shown it is effective to decrease the risk of CVD. However, the energy expenditure (EE) of recreational football is not well known but it is crucial to develop preventive health programmes.

Fifteen sedentary middle-aged male participants were involved (mean ± SDs; age 43.9 ± 3.1 years, weight 83.0 ± 13.6 kg, height 174.9 ± 6.8 cm). EE was estimated from the heart rate (HR)-VO₂ relation during 1-h 5-a-side matches (futsal). Participants covered 3412 ± 381 m in 52 ± 2 min, at an average HR of 85 ± 2% of maximum HR. Estimated EE during a recreational futsal match was 634 ± 92 kcal. One futsal recreational match corresponds to about 50% of American College of Sport Medicine recommended physical activity quantity per week. Based on this estimation: once, twice and 3 sessions per week are equivalent to 50% (634 kcal), 100% (1268 kcal) and 150% (1902 kcal), respectively, of EE suggested in international guidelines. This EE estimation may have important implications for designing recreational football training protocols in health programmes and dose response studies.     

Classification and Subject Indexing Issues at a Mexican Library Specializing in Law Research

Abstract

Subject indexing and classification of law resources is a complex issue due to several factors: specialized meanings of legal terms, meanings across different branches of law, terms in legal systems from diverse countries, and terms in different languages. These issues led to the development of a classification and subject indexing system which will help answer the major challenges of indexing and classifying law resources in the Research Institute Library at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Adopting its own classification required interdisciplinary work between law and information organization specialists, constant updating by legal specialists and others beyond the Legal Research Institute; and the sharing of this classification system with other institutions. Now, this classification system is used by important institutions that specialize in law, such as the network of Libraries of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation of Mexico. The purpose of this article is to show why and how this law classification and subject system was developed and is continuously being updated by libarians and law scholars in order for it to meet their specific needs.