Many online services access a large number of autonomous data sources and at the same time need to meet different user requirements. It is essential for these services to achieve semantic interoperability among these information exchange entities. In the presence of an increasing number of proprietary business processes, heterogeneous data standards, and diverse user requirements, it is critical that the services are implemented using adaptable, extensible, and scalable technology. The COntext INterchange (COIN) approach, inspired by similar goals of the Semantic Web, provides a robust solution. In this paper, we describe how COIN can be used to implement dynamic online services where semantic differences are reconciled on the fly. We show that COIN is flexible and scalable by comparing it with several conventional approaches. With a given ontology, the number of conversions in COIN is quadratic to the semantic aspect that has the largest number of distinctions. These semantic aspects are modeled as modifiers in a conceptual ontology; in most cases the number of conversions is linear with the number of modifiers, which is significantly smaller than traditional hard-wiring middleware approach where the number of conversion programs is quadratic to the number of sources and data receivers. In the example scenario in the paper, the COIN approach needs only 5 conversions to be defined while traditional approaches require 20,000 to 100 million. COIN achieves this scalability by automatically composing all the comprehensive conversions from a small number of declaratively defined sub-conversions. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: John Byrne, School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy. Includes bibliographical references.

This study examined coverage of the December 2003 bovine spongiform encephalopathy event to discover reporters’ sources for breaking agricultural news, the impact of reporter specialization on source choices, and the impact of newspaper differences, including location, circulation, and ownership, on coverage. Quantitative content analysis was performed on 62 stories selected through a keyword search for the period December 23, 2003 through October 31, 2004 from U.S. newspapers included in the LexisNexis database. These stories were divided into two equal groups based on reporter work-role identity and were analyzed by length, number of sources, and source variety, and by location, circulation, and ownership of the newspapers in which they appeared. ANOVA, bivariate correlation, and forced entry regression were statistical techniques used. Results indicated numbers of stories, story length, and numbers of sources per story appear related to newspaper location, and use of scientists and agricultural scientists as sources to be correlated with type of newspaper. Newspaper circulation and ownership type were found to explain a statistically significant amount of variance in number of sources used. No statistically significant differences between mean length or mean number of sources used were found between stories written by science-specialty beat reporters and those written by reporters not assigned to such beats, contradicting previous research. However, while mean overall source variety did not differ between the two reporters groups, work-role identity was found to be correlated with use of scientists and agricultural scientists as sources. Extrapolation from this study suggests it is open to question whether (a) reporters would be well-advised to pursue courses of study or to seek additional training to build defined areas of expertise, better equipping themselves to cover more complex issues; (b) editors should seek candidates with such special training and structure their newsroom routines to accommodate specialty reporters when considering adding employees to their reporting staffs; and (c) universities should offer journalism curricula that facilitate both acquisition of basic reporting skills and registration for substantive electives which build subject-matter knowledge. Answers to these questions should be actively pursued, since they may shape the future of journalism education and practice.

In this study we have investigated the news interview both from the perspective of the journalists and of the subjects of the interview. We have made interviews with 50 persons who participated as sources in the news and with 21 journalist who wrote the articles in the local newspapers Östran and Barometern in Kalmar, the 21 of November 2008. The journalists were asked to tell their story of how the articles where produced, how they prepared before the interviews, if they had an image of the articles in advance and if they were satisfied with the outcome of the article. The persons who had been interviewed were asked to tell us how they felt about the interviews, if they were satisfied with the outcome of the article, if they could consider being in the newspaper again and to give their opinion of local journalism. Most of the persons who had been quoted in the articles said that at least one or two things went wrong in the articles. Despite this they would not hesitate to be interviewed the newspaper again. Surprising for us was to see how often the journalists get “served” with both the news and the subjects of the interview. It was for an example often that the Journalists visited press conferences and wrote articles from press releases. When the journalists produced news in this way, they simply interviewed those present at the press conference or the contact person in the press release

Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) is a difficult air pollutant to characterize spatially since it is primarily emitted from a few point sources typically having tall stacks. A better comprehension of the behavior and advection of ambient SO2 in metro Atlanta will help in the interpretation of epidemiologic analyses as well as establish an understanding of the source contributions to ambient SO2 in Atlanta. The operation and SO2 emission characteristics of four coal-fired power plants and a coal-fired cement kiln, all of which lie in the vicinity of Atlanta, were examined. Data retrieved from three downtown Atlanta monitoring stations that record ambient SO2 concentrations were also examined. Trends from ambient SO2 data agree with emission trends from the four coal-fired power plants, suggesting that one or more of the power plants are contributing to the ambient SO2 in Atlanta. SO2 rose plots using concentration and wind direction data from downtown monitoring stations were developed to identify from which direction the elevated levels of ambient SO2 were originating. A strong peak in the northwest direction of Atlanta suggests that Plant Bowen, Plant McDonough, or Lafarge Building Materials may be contributing to high concentrations of ambient SO2 in Atlanta. Further analysis concluded that Lafarge was not a likely contributor to the northwest peak. The plumes of Plant Bowen and Plant McDonough were modeled using air parcel trajectories and the Gaussian dispersion model. The results suggest that, when the wind is blowing from the northwest direction, Plant McDonoughs plume is the primary contributor to the elevated levels of SO2 recorded by downtown Atlanta monitoring stations.

Renewable sources of energy such as wind turbine generators and solar panels have attracted much attention because they are environmentally friendly, do not consume fossil fuels, and can enhance a nation’s energy security. As a result, recently more significant amounts of renewable energy are being integrated into conventional power grids. The research reported in this dissertation primarily investigates the reliability-constrained planning and operations of electric power systems including renewable sources of energy by accounting for uncertainty. The major sources of uncertainty in these systems include equipment failures and stochastic variations in time-dependent power sources. Different energy sources have different characteristics in terms of cost, power dispatchability, and environmental impact. For instance, the intermittency of some renewable energy sources may compromise the system reliability when they are integrated into the traditional power grids. Thus, multiple issues should be considered in grid interconnection, including system cost, reliability, and pollutant emissions. Furthermore, due to the high complexity and high nonlinearity of such non-traditional power systems with multiple energy sources, computational intelligence based optimization methods are used to resolve several important and challenging problems in their operations and planning. Meanwhile, probabilistic methods are used for reliability evaluation in these reliability-constrained planning and design. The major problems studied in the dissertation include reliability evaluation of power systems with time-dependent energy sources, multi-objective design of hybrid generation systems, risk and cost tradeoff in economic dispatch with wind power penetration, optimal placement of distributed generators and protective devices in power distribution systems, and reliability-based estimation of wind power capacity credit. These case studies have demonstrated the viability and effectiveness of computational intelligence based methods in dealing with a set of important problems in this research arena.

This study examined coverage of the December 2003 bovine spongiform encephalopathy event to discover reporters’ sources for breaking agricultural news, the impact of reporter specialization on source choices, and the impact of newspaper differences, including location, circulation, and ownership, on coverage. Quantitative content analysis was performed on 62 stories selected through a keyword search for the period December 23, 2003 through October 31, 2004 from U.S. newspapers included in the LexisNexis database. These stories were divided into two equal groups based on reporter work-role identity and were analyzed by length, number of sources, and source variety, and by location, circulation, and ownership of the newspapers in which they appeared. ANOVA, bivariate correlation, and forced entry regression were statistical techniques used. Results indicated numbers of stories, story length, and numbers of sources per story appear related to newspaper location, and use of scientists and agricultural scientists as sources to be correlated with type of newspaper. Newspaper circulation and ownership type were found to explain a statistically significant amount of variance in number of sources used. No statistically significant differences between mean length or mean number of sources used were found between stories written by science-specialty beat reporters and those written by reporters not assigned to such beats, contradicting previous research. However, while mean overall source variety did not differ between the two reporters groups, work-role identity was found to be correlated with use of scientists and agricultural scientists as sources. Extrapolation from this study suggests it is open to question whether (a) reporters would be well-advised to pursue courses of study or to seek additional training to build defined areas of expertise, better equipping themselves to cover more complex issues; (b) editors should seek candidates with such special training and structure their newsroom routines to accommodate specialty reporters when considering adding employees to their reporting staffs; and (c) universities should offer journalism curricula that facilitate both acquisition of basic reporting skills and registration for substantive electives which build subject-matter knowledge. Answers to these questions should be actively pursued, since they may shape the future of journalism education and practice.

Ambient noise generated by surface random processes is the primary contribution to the noise-field energy in the intermediate frequency band, and thus is important in many applications of underwater sound. In this study, the noise field is analyzed with respect to the effects of random source spectrum, waveguide structure of the water column, and seabed stratification upon the noise-field intensity as well as spatial correlation. Based upon a noise-generation model due to continuous random sources, incorporating several analytical models for seabed stratification, a formulation may then be derived to facilitate the numerical implementation. Many results shall be generated and analyzed. In this study considers the noise field generated by surface random processes in an oceanic environment with a sediment layer possessing a continuously varying density and sound-speed profile. This model closely resembles the oceanic waveguide environment and therefore enables the simulation of surface noise generation. Many results of the noise field were generated, including the noise intensity distribution, vertical and horizontal correlations. It is demonstrated that the noise intensity may be affected by the stratification mainly through the continuous spectrum, in that the continuous spectrum is equally important as the normal modes in the present analysis. Moreover, the results for the correlations show that the noise field in the horizontal direction becomes more coherent when the noise sources are more correlated, while in the vertical direction, the results tend to reverse. The horizontal correlations of the noise field due to surface random sources with non-isotropic power spectrum, such as nonisotropic Gaussian and Pierson-Moskowitz, were generated and analyzed.

Abstract Human resource is the most valuable and prominent property to a company. No matter in what aspect, human resource is fundamental to the development and implementation of programs and plans to support the overall growth of the company. Hence, how to find the most competent employees through proper sources is what the business entity needs to consider about. The sources to find qualified employees include human resource website, newspapers, schools, governmental agencies for employment services, employment exhibition, referral, and transition. Reviewing the past researchs of human resource, most of them focus on recruitment and staffing, but few to deal with referral employment. However, in Taiwan where interpersonal relationship is highly valued and recommended, the recruitment of employees through referral is very common. Therefore, this research aimed at the referral. Furthermore, the research also aimed to find out in what kind of relationship between the referral and introducer, the referral would have a preferable and better performance. Would the same working experience with the present job that referrals had serve as a critical variable affecting the performance? The results reveal that the turnover rate of referral is much lower than those hired personnel through other sources. Referrals generally have better performances at work when they were co-workers with the introducers in their former jobs. The finding also shows that referrals also have better performance when they came from the related industries related to the present jobs. Key words : performance , recruiting sources, referral, turnover rate

Ambient noise generated by surface random processes is the primary contribution to the noise-field energy in the intermediate frequency band, and thus is important in many applications of underwater sound. In this study, the noise field is analyzed with respect to the effects of random source spectrum, waveguide structure of the water column, and seabed stratifica¬tion upon the noise-field intensity as well as spatial correlation. Based upon a noise-generation model due to continuous random sources, incorporating several analytical models for seabed stratification, a formulation may then be derived to facilitate the numerical implementation. Many results shall be generated and analyzed. In this study considers the noise field generated by wave in an oceanic environment with a sediment layer possessing a constant density and sound-speed profile. This model closely resembles the oceanic waveguide environment and therefore enables the simulation of surface noise generation. Many results of the noise field were generated, in¬cluding the noise intensity distribution, vertical and horizontal correlations. It is demonstrated that the noise intensity may be affected by the strat¬ification mainly through the continuous spectrum, in that the continuous spectrum is equally important as the normal modes in the present analysis. Moreover, the results for the correlations show that the noise field in the horizontal direction becomes more coherent when the noise sources are more correlated, while in the vertical direction, the results tend to reverse. The horizontal correlations of the noise field due to surface random sources with non-isotropic power spectrum, such as non-isotropic Gaussian and, were generated and analyzed.