Determining Semantic Similarity of Behaviour Using Natural Semantic Metalanguage to Match User Objectives to Available Web Services

Natural Semantic Metalanguage specifies a set of semantic primitives identified by linguists since the 1970s as being present in all analysed languages and not capable of further reduction. In this article, the 63 semantic primitives are used to define the semantics of user objectives and web services in the form of semantic explications, which are then compared to determine whether the web services are likely to be helpful in meeting the user objective. The comparison of the user objectives and web services is a two stage process. Firstly, the content is compared by classifying the semantic primitives from the candidate web service and user objective on the basis of whether the primitives are common or similar. On the basis of these classifications, the percentage match and semantic relationship (subset, superset, overlaps, disjoint, identical) are determined. Secondly, the order of the semantic primitives is compared and the edit distance determined as a measure of semantic similarity. The method is tested using two examples: a comparison of spatial relations and a comparison of a user objective and three geospatial web services. The results show that the method is able to determine which concepts are broadly semantically similar and which are not.     

Comparison of Multimission Altimetric Sea-Surface Heights with Tide Gauge Observations in the Southern Baltic Sea

One possible technique to validate the observations of altimeter missions is the comparison with sea-surface heights measured by tide gauges. In our investigation, we compared observations of the two tide gauge stations, Sassnitz and Warnemünde, which are located at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, with sea-surface heights obtained from the altimeter missions Geosat, ERS-1, ERS-2, and TOPEX/Poseidon. For this purpose, the compared sea-surface heights were related to a common reference system and extrapolated to a common location. GPS observations, leveling data, regional geoid information, sea-surface topography, and postglacial rebound were included in the analysis. Considering the uncertainties of all model components, a more reliable estimation of the error budget (source, type, and magnitude of the errors) was performed. The obtained absolute altimeter biases are (-243 - 32) mm for Geosat, (467 - 19) mm for ERS-1, (76 - 19) mm for ERS-2, and (13 - 18) mm for TOPEX.     

The dilemma of decontamination: A Gramscian analysis of the Mexican transgenic maize dispute

An intense environmental dispute surrounds the maize-fields of Mexico. Mexican maize traditional varieties (or ‘landraces’) constitute a global genetic resource that may well be critical to future agricultural development and corn breeding. Many environmentalists, farmers, and consumers in Mexico are therefore concerned that their maize landraces may have been ‘contaminated’ by imported transgenic maize, grown in the USA. The criticisms of this transgenic technology are complex and call into question the nature of the boundary between political and ecological (i.e. scientific) disputes. Our paper surveys these criticisms, and this political-scientific boundary, in a three-part analysis. First, we turn to Gramsci’s notes on science from his eleventh prison notebook to rethink the political ecology of transgenic maize, i.e., the way the ecological analysis of transgenic introgression is treated as politics. Second, we present the multiple criticisms of transgenic maize as scalar phenomena. Third, we review the recent scientific literature on transgene introgression to evaluate recent calls for the ‘decontamination’ of Mexican maize. Our reading illustrates two dilemmas facing the group that occupies the hegemonic subject-position in this dispute, ecological scientists. First, the popular desire to ‘decontaminate’ Mexican maize exceeds their capacities (due to complications involved with sampling). Second, although the political debate surrounding ‘contaminated’ Mexican maize exceeds science, the boundary between the dispute’s scientific and parascientific elements cannot be adjudicated scientifically. In other words, the boundary between science and politics is porous. Thus in two respects the dispute is ecological, yet beyond the capacity of this science to resolve. Yet, following Gramsci, these findings should not lead us to see science as mere ideology, or apolitical, or encourage a retreat into metaphysics. Rather it points to the need for a social transformation that sees science as “humanity forging its methods of research … in other words, culture, the conception of the world.” By exploring the dilemmas of decontamination, the dispute over transgene introgression in Mexican maize-fields provides an opportunity to elaborate upon Gramsci’s neglected insights into the politics of science.     

The 6dF Galaxy Survey: final redshift release (DR3) and southern large-scale structures

We report the final redshift release of the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS), a combined redshift and peculiar velocity survey over the southern sky  (| b | > 10°)  . Its 136 304 spectra have yielded 110 256 new extragalactic redshifts and a new catalogue of 125 071 galaxies making near-complete samples with  ( K , H , J , r _F, b _J) ≤ (12.65, 12.95, 13.75, 15.60, 16.75)  . The median redshift of the survey is 0.053. Survey data, including images, spectra, photometry and redshifts, are available through an online data base. We describe changes to the information in the data base since earlier interim data releases. Future releases will include velocity dispersions, distances and peculiar velocities for the brightest early-type galaxies, comprising about 10 per cent of the sample. Here we provide redshift maps of the southern local Universe with   z ≤ 0.1  , showing nearby large-scale structures in hitherto unseen detail. A number of regions known previously to have a paucity of galaxies are confirmed as significantly underdense regions. The URL of the 6dFGS data base is http://www-wfau.roe.ac.uk/6dFGS .     

Domestic Environmental Benefits of China's Energy-Related CDM Potential

We estimate the domestic environmental and health benefits of exploiting China's energy-related CDM potential. Exploiting the CDM potential may save between 3,000 and 40,000 lives annually. Additional gains are estimated to reach upwards from 1 billion RMB annually. The key to these gains is the fact that actions and measures to reduce CO₂ emissions also reduce emissions of TSP and SO₂. In our estimate, exploiting the CDM-potential will cut SO₂-emissions by between one-half and three million tons annually. To arrive at these conclusions we synthesize a significant body of recent research on co-benefits of climate abatement in China.     

Large-Scale Avalanche Braking Mound and Catching Dam Experiments with Snow: A Study of the Airborne Jet

We report a series of ongoing large-scale experiments to studythe interaction of a snow avalanche with a dam and a row of mounds which are of a comparable height to the flow depth.The experimental results indicate that the behaviour of thesupercritical flow around the obstacles is governed by the large-scale properties of the flowing avalanche rather than micro-scaleproperties of the granular current.The experiments show that, similarly to smaller-scale experimentswith glass particles, the avalanche detaches from the top of the dam or mound and forms a coherentairborne jet, which can be modelled as a two dimensional ballistic projectile with negligible air resistance.We study the two parameters that define the trajectory of thejet, namely the speed at which the jet is launched from the top of the obstacle and the deflection of the jet by the obstacle, and compare the resultswith a theory for the deflection of a jet of an ideal fluid.     

Experimental determination of corundum solubilities in pure water between 400–700°C and 1–3 kbar

Experimentally reversed corundum solubilities in pure water at 400° to 700°C and 0.7 to 3 kbar yield values of dissolved aluminum that range from 1–4 ppm Al. At constant pressure the solubility shows a sigmoidal behavior with a slight maximum at 500°C and minimum at 600°C. Corundum solubility increases with increasing pressure at constant temperature. The dissolved aluminum appears to form an uncharged, but polar species under these conditions probably of the form Al(OH)₃⁰.