An automatic question answering system must find, within a corpus,short factual answers to questions posed in natural language. The process involves analyzing the question, retrieving information related to the question, and extracting answers from the retrieved information. This thesis presents a novel approach to answer extraction in an automated question answering (QA) system. The answer extraction approach is an extension of the MultiText QA system. This system employs a question analysis component to examine the question and to produce query terms for the retrieval component which extracts several document fragments from the corpus. The answer extraction component selects a few short answers from these fragments. This thesis describes the design and evaluation of the Redundant Inverse Term Frequency (RITF) answer extraction component. The RITF algorithm locates and evaluates words from the passages that are likely to be associated with the answer. Answers are selected by finding short fragments of text that contain the most likely words based on: the frequency of the words in the corpus, the number of fragments in which the word occurs, the rank of the passages as determined by the IR, the distance of the word from the centre of the fragment, and category information found through question analysis. RITF makes a substantial contribution in overall results, nearly doubling the Mean Reciprocal Rank (MRR), a standard measure for evaluating QA systems.

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Flame retardant chemicals were used to make flammable fibres or fabrics flame retardant. Flame retardants protect the flammable material from fire by delaying or preventing the ignition process. The problem with flame retardants is unreliable durability when applied physically or bonded chemically on the surface of the fibre or fabric. This thesis project investigated the implementation of inherently flame retardant fibres as a shield form flame for flammable fibres. The most widely used flammable textiles fibres (cotton and polyester) were mixed with inherently flame retardant fibres (modacrylic and Lenzing FR) pairwise at fibre level for non-woven fabric and both fibre & yarn level for knitted fabric. The vertical flame test, where the fabric hung vertically and burned from the bottom, was used to characterise their burning behaviour. With the vertical flame test, it was found that flame shielding ability of inherently flame retardant fibres towards flammable fibres improves with an increasing proportion of inherently flame retardant fibres in the fabric. Also, fabric structure influences the shielding properties of the flame retardant fibres. A comparison between fibre and yarn level mixing for knitted fabric yarn level mixing was found to have better flame shielding properties. Thesis work points out the issue with flame retardant chemical and presents an alternative approach for conventional flame retardant.

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The nature of this research is in advancing conventional structures and their methods of construction by exploring new technology. The formwork construction of the modern concrete structure involves the use of rigid materials such as steel and timber. This type of formwork often produces structures of forms with limited flexibility which would also hinder the even distribution of the induced stresses. To construct concrete structures with more organic forms; ones that responds to a more natural flow of the induced stresses, it is thought to be more logical to use flexible mould such as the fabric formwork. In such form-active shape the materials’ utilization can be maximized and the degree of material waste can be reduced. For example, when the form responds to the externally applied loads in the way that the internally incurred stresses at any point of the body closely match the capacity of the material, then the form is material-efficient and said to be in its optimal form. The use of fabric formwork, due to its permeability can also improve the quality of concrete by eliminating any air holes on the surface, and also there are reports showing the increase in concrete’s compression strength due to the reduction in water-cement ratio when cast in a fabric mould. This research concentrates on finding such material-efficient form (thus more sustainable) for reinforced concrete beam of improved material quality, through the development of the more efficient construction system of flexible fabric formwork. For this research 11 different types of beams have been built and tested in total, and their construction methods are illustrated and discussed also (Chapter 7 and Chapter 4 respectively). The designs of the beams are developed through consecutive experiment, analysis, evaluation, and modification process (Chapter 6). For the structural analysis of the beams, the most widely accepted analysis methods are reviewed and adapted (Chapter 8). Based on the evaluations of the analytical results the following variables of the beams are modified through the development of the beam designs: The effect of Compression Steel Mesh in Flange Stress Distribution Around Anchorage; Vertical and Horizontal Web Geometry Varying Depth of Flange Steel Content Also it is a part of the current research’s aim to look at the possible application of the current design methods for the design of the fabric formed beams that are discussed in this research. Thus the experimental results are compared with the results which are calculated from the standard design methods suggested by the British Standard Code of Practice (BS8110) (Chapter 9). Computational finite element (FE) analysis is carried out where more intensive analysis is required (Chapter 10). The results of the FE analysis are also compared with the theoretical and experimental results for the verification purpose. The material efficiency of the beam in its final form is assessed through the embodied energy analysis, which compares the total embodied energy consumed through the construction of the beam with a virtual beam that is designed in accordance with the BS8110 (Chapter 11). The analysis indicates that the total embodied energy of the fabric formed beam is about 20~40% less in comparison with the beam designed in accordance with the BS8110. This thesis has the purpose to illustrate and provide the practical information on the design and the construction process of the fabric formed beams, which can be used as a reference to the future research and construction.

In an industrial hallway, the pipes and garage doors are echoed with a soft, yet plastic skin.Intense filtered sunlight streams through a sheath of fuchsia--we walk beneath it and it washes our faces with color.A monochromatic corridor is transformed by unexpected passages of turquoise, red, and pink. A demure sheetrock wall becomes ethereal and gentle, luring us behind to only find ourselves.The works are celebratory and act as a landscape, tombstone rubbing, line drawing, and uberquilt--all wrapped into one.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering / Youqi Wang / Textile composites are made from textile fabric and resin. Depending on the weaving pattern, composite reinforcements can be characterized into two groups: uniform fabric and near-net shape fabric. Uniform fabric can be treated as an assembly of its smallest repeating pattern also called a unit cell; the latter is a single component with complex structure. Due to advantages of cost savings and inherent toughness, near-net shape fabric has gained great success in composite industries, for application such as turbine blades. Mechanical properties of textile composites are mainly determined by the geometry of the composite reinforcements. The study of a composite needs a computational tool to link fabric micro- and macro-geometry with the textile weaving process and composite manufacturing process. A textile fabric consists of a number of yarns or tows, and each yarn is a bundle of fibers. In this research, a fiber-level approach known as the digital element approach (DEA) is adopted to model the micro- and macro-geometry of fabric and fabric reinforced composites. This approach determines fabric geometry based on textile weaving mechanics. A solver with a dynamic explicit algorithm is employed in the DEA. In modeling a uniform fabric, the topology of the fabric unit cell is first established based on the weaving pattern, followed by yarn discretization. An explicit algorithm with a periodic boundary condition is then employed during the simulation. After its detailed geometry is obtained, the unit cell is then assembled to yield a fabric micro-geometry. Fabric micro-geometry can be expressed at both fiber- and yarn-levels. In modeling a near-net shape fabric component, all theories used in simulating the uniform fabric are kept except the periodic boundary condition. Since simulating the entire component at the fiber-level requires a large amount of time and memory, parallel program is used during the simulation. In modeling a net-shape composite, a dynamic molding process is simulated. The near-net shape fabric is modeled using the DEA. Mold surfaces are modeled by standard meshes. Long vertical elements that only take compressive forces are proposed. Finally, micro- and macro-geometry of a fabric reinforced net-shape composite component is obtained.

This master thesis provides an overview of the paper machine with focus on the forming section. The forming section is the first part in the paper machine where the paper pulp is injected through a head box. The paper pulp contains about 99.5% of water and 0.5% fiber. The water as content is reduced by vacuum and gravity. The problem to be studied in this project is related to external rewetting. This is water going back to the paper web from the forming fabric after the dewatering zone. The dewatering is based on vacuum slots under the forming fabric. The vacuum slots absorb water from the soaked paper pulp through the forming fabric. External rewetting causes problem, hence the paper will have a higher dry content when leaving the forming section. The paper should have as low dry content as possible in the end of the forming section. Three different forming fabrics from Albany International were chosen for the project. The structures of the forming fabrics were two different double layers and one plain weave. The performance of the fabrics was studied by 4 different methods. The methods used were 2 different wicking tests, a vacuum dewatering trial and one foulard test. Also micro tomography was done to understand the structure of each design. The main test was a foulard test where the aim was to see in what way the rewetting got affected by different pores sizes. The results showed higher water content for the paper that was on top of the forming fabric with the larger pores.

Thesis advisor: Marc L. Snapper / Chapter 1: The design of a novel first aid smart fabric that is linked to a biologically active molecule through an event specific cleavable linker is described. Successful functionalization of a cellulose filter paper fabric mimic and the synthesis of a linker which is potentially selectively cleavable in the presence of blood have been achieved. Chapter 2: Synthetic studies towards the total synthesis of Torilin, a sesquiterpene guaiane natural product with interesting biological activities are described. The synthesis of the hydroazulene core of Torilin is accomplished through a cyclopropanation/ Lewis acid mediated fragmentation of a highly functionalized polycyclic system which is rapidly accessed through the intramolecular cycloaddition of cyclobutadiene. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.