I3rab: A New Arabic Dependency Treebank Based on Arabic Grammatical Theory

Treebanks are valuable linguistic resources that include the syntactic structure of a language sentence in addition to part-of-speech tags and morphological features. They are mainly utilized in modeling statistical parsers. Although the statistical natural language parser has recently become more accurate for languages such as English, those for the Arabic language still have low accuracy. The purpose of this article is to construct a new Arabic dependency treebank based on the traditional Arabic grammatical theory and the characteristics of the Arabic language, to investigate their effects on the accuracy of statistical parsers. The proposed Arabic dependency treebank, called I3rab, contrasts with existing Arabic dependency treebanks in two main concepts. The first concept is the approach of determining the main word of the sentence, and the second concept is the representation of the joined and covert pronouns. To evaluate I3rab, we compared its performance against a subset of Prague Arabic Dependency Treebank that shares a comparable level of details. The conducted experiments show that the percentage improvement reached up to 10.24% in UAS and 18.42% in LAS.

An Area Partitioning Approach to the Conflation of Road Networks with Highly Different Level of Details

A road network represents road objects in a given geographic area and their interconnections, and is an essential component of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) enabling emerging new applications such as dynamic route guidance, driving assistance systems, and autonomous driving. As the digitization of geospatial information becomes prevalent, a number of road networks with a wide variety of characteristics coexist. In this paper, we present an area partitioning approach to the conflation of two road networks with a large difference in level of details. Our approach first partitions the geographic area by the Network Voronoi Area Diagram (NVAD) of low-detailed road network. Next, a subgraph of high-detailed road network corresponding to a complex intersection is extracted and then aggregated into a supernode so that a high matching precision can be achieved via 1:1 node matching. To improve the matching recall, we also present a few schemes that address the problem of missing corresponding object and representation dissimilarity between these road networks. Numerical results at Yeouido, Korea's autonomous vehicle testing site, show that our area partitioning approach can significantly improve the performance of road network matching.

A Semantics-Based Approach for Simplifying IFC Building Models to Facilitate the Use of BIM Models in GIS

Using solid building models, instead of the surface models in City Geography Markup Language (CityGML), can facilitate data integration between Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS). The use of solid models, however, introduces a problem of model simplification on the GIS side. The aim of this study is to solve this problem by developing a framework for generating simplified solid building models from BIM. In this framework, a set of Level of Details (LoDs) were first defined to suit solid building models—referred to as s-LoD, ranging from s-LoD1 to s-LoD4—and three unique problems in implementing s-LoDs were identified and solved by using a semantics-based approach, including identifying external objects for s-LoD2 and s-LoD3, distinguishing various slabs, and generating valid external walls for s-LoD2 and s-LoD3. The feasibility of the framework was validated by using BIM models, and the result shows that using semantics from BIM can make it easier to convert and simplify building models, which in turn makes BIM information more practical in GIS.

USING HISTORICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR MONITORING OF ENVIRONMENT CHANGES: A CASE STUDY OF BOVAN LAKE, EASTERN SERBIA

Useful and important information for the spatial, ecological, and many other changes in the living environment may be obtained using the analysis of historical aerial photography, with comparison to contemporary imagery. This method provides the ability to determine the state of elements of the space over a long period, encompassing the time when it was not possible to acquire the data from satellite imagery or some other contemporary sources. Aerial images are suitable for mapping spatial phenomena with relatively limited spatial distribution because they possess a high level of details and low spatial coverage. With a comparative analysis of aerial imagery from the past, contemporary aerial imagery, and other sources of aerial imagery, we can obtain information about the nature and trends of the observed phenomena as well as directions of future actions, considering changes detected in the environment, whether they are preventive or corrective in nature. This paper gives the methodological framework for the appliance of the existing knowledge from various fields, intending to use historical aerial photography for monitoring of environmental changes of the Bovan Lake in Eastern Serbia.

A FIRST ATTEMPT TO DEFINE LEVEL OF DETAILS BASED ON DECISION-MAKING TASKS: APPLICATION TO UNDERGROUND UTILITY NETWORK

Level of detail (LoD) is a key concept for 3D city modeling to optimise visualisation. The LoDs of CityGML shows this trend. This paper explores the relevance of having LoD for visualising 3D model of Underground Utility Networks (UUN). A new approach is proposed for designing multiple LoDs modeling in creating an explicit link between the content of the 3D model and the decision-making process (or operational tasks) to be performed by a user. This Multiple Level of detail Approach (MLA) is divided into four steps. The first step requires defining the visualisation needs in terms of five variables (geometry, topology, semantic, contextual information, and semiology). Next, tasks to be performed are analyzed and categorized. Finally, a matrix of possible LoDs is created for all tasks and the minimum LoD required is proposed. In this paper, we applied this approach for the use case of granting connection permits to water and sewer networks. Learning aspects are proposed in the discussion.

Release of Civil Registry Causes of Death Data in Iran (2015 to 2019) - Expectations and Doubts!

Background: The National Organization for Civil Registration (NOCR) of Iran has reported causes of death data by ICD-10 chapters for the first time in 2020. Methods: We used this report to review the share of ICD chapters among all deaths in each province and compare them with the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Results: There are major changes in the distribution of causes of death between 2017 and 2018, especially in D50-D89 (Diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs and certain disorders involving the immune mechanism) from 0.76% to 38.94%, and I00-I99 (Diseases of the circulatory system) from 39.27% to 7.09%. Such dramatic changes are probably the results of changes in coding practices or definitions or issues in analysis. Conclusion: Causes of death reports should be timely, clear, and robust on methods. They should contain a minimum level of details, at least 3-digit ICD codes to be useful for public health and medical professionals.

Ocena zakresu treści baz danych oraz map średnioskalowych wybranych agencji kartograficznych

Topographic databases and general geographic maps are essential components of geographic information systems and the primary and rich spatial information source at general scales. The article presents qualitative and quantitative analyses based on the content of general geographic maps and topographic databases carried out on the example of products of selected national mapping agencies (NMAs). This research aims to verify whether the data contained in the analyzed databases and the information presented on general maps constitute the rich source of geographical and spatial information, as well as to examine how the analyzed General Geographic Objects Database (BDOO) developed in Poland differs from the selected databases of similar level of details. The results of qualitative and quantitative analyses are presented in comprehensive charts and tables, which show the obtained results in a synthetic and complex manner.

Micro-mechanical modeling of the paper compaction process

Double-roll compaction is a process to create extensible paper and paperboard suitable for replacing plastic in 3D forming applications. Understanding the macro- and micro-mechanisms governing the compaction process allows increasing the stretch potential while maintaining sufficient strength and bending stiffness. In this work, we approach the compaction process of paperboard with micro-mechanical methods featuring the unprecedented level of details otherwise inaccessible with currently available experimental tools. The loading scheme is based on experiments and continuum level simulations. The different levels of compaction and their continuous impact on the fibers’ geometry, void closures, and irreversible deformation of the fibers are thoroughly characterized. We find that the structural changes are concentrated in the fibers oriented within 30 degrees of the direction of compaction. The deformation accumulates primarily in the wall of the fibers in the form of irreversible strains. The spring-back effect beyond the compaction is negligible. For the first time, the role of normal and frictional fiber-to-fiber interactions in the compaction process is investigated and quantified. The frictional interaction between the fibers has a surprisingly low impact on the outcome of the compaction process, and the normal interaction between the fibers has a dominant response. The consequence of this finding is potentially limited impact of the surface modifications targeting the friction.

K4D’s Work on the Indirect Impacts of COVID-19 in Low- and Middle- Income Countries

This report is not an in-depth nor exhaustive analysis of the many indirect impacts of the pandemic on LMICs. The content is purely based on the requests from FCDO to the K4D services on this topic, and as such can only give an illustrative overview of the findings from these requests. Furthermore, insights are also taken from the data that K4D collects for each request based on the information provided by advisers and FCDO (e.g. purpose of the request, adviser’s cadre), hence, the data is limited to the information available to the K4D team at the time of the request and the level of details available may vary from one request to the other. The selection of relevant K4D outputs on the pandemic’s indirect impacts was based on an extensive search in the K4D repository on titles and research questions. The Annex shows all K4D outputs included in this report. The purpose of this report is to inform FCDO about some of the specifics of their requests on the indirect impacts of COVID-19, in general. This report will also be used as input for a K4D-FCDO learning event that takes place on the 6th of July 2021. During the event learning and evidence, trends will be discussed and how evidence and learning informed decision-making on policy and programming.

Evaluating distance perception for architecture design alternatives in immersive virtual environment: a comparative study

Purpose Immersive virtual environments (IVEs) aid in perceiving spaces by providing a platform for all stakeholders to make better decisions at early design stages. Nevertheless, they are not widely used in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. This paper aims to illustrate the impact of level of details (LODs) in participants’ perception for architecture design alternatives in IVEs. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an approach to estimate how distance perception varies between real and virtual environments when different design alternatives are implemented. First, a fully three-dimensional (3D) model for a replica meeting room was created and the level of details (LODs) inside the IVE was gradually modified. Second, a questionnaire was designed to collect responses about how the perceived experience of an IVE is compared to that of the physical environment, where the two environments have the same dimensions. Twenty-six participants were recruited in this study to estimate eight distances in the IVEs while putting on a head-mounted display. Findings Obtained results show that decreasing LOD has negative effect on users’ perception. Thus, when all of the available LODs were added to the IVE, the perceived perception was significantly enhanced. These findings emphasize the relation between the physical details and distance perception in IVEs and shed light on how to design virtual reality architectural models in an efficient manner. Originality/value Different experiments were conducted to analyze perception differences associated with factors such as LODs, gender and whether participants are wearing glasses.