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Massive amounts of information about news events are published on the Internet every day in online newspapers, blogs, and social network messages. While search engines like Google help retrieve information using keywords, the large volumes of unstructured search results returned by search engines make it hard to track the evolution of an event. A story chain is composed of a set of news articles that reveal hidden relationships among different events. Traditional keyword-based search engines provide limited support for finding story chains. In this paper, we propose a random walk based algorithm to find story chains. When breaking news happens, many media outlets report the same event. We have two pruning mechanisms in the algorithm to automatically exclude redundant articles from the story chain and to ensure efficiency of the algorithm. We further explore how named entities and word relevance can help find relevant news articles and improve algorithm efficiency by creating a co-clustering based correlation graph. Experimental results show that our proposed algorithm can generate coherent story chains without redundancy. The efficiency of the algorithm is significantly improved on the correlation graph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the rationale for the 2011-2013 review of the National Curriculum in England, a rationale informed by the work of an Expert Panel chaired by the author. The focus is on the fundamental principles that determine the nature and content of the curriculum. The approach adopted by the review is contrasted with that adopted when the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority revised the curriculum in 2007. The article discusses the question of who can legitimately drive change in curriculum content and what the implications are for the cycle of curriculum change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author focuses on the establishment of a Royal College of Teaching and rules and regulations which will govern it. He talks about a paper published in 2007 by Mary James, professor at the University of Cambridge, and Pauline Perry of Southwark, England. The author informs that the idea gained momentum when he proposed the royal college at a conference of the Prince's Teaching Institute (PTI) in 2010.

Information about the topics discussed during the 2009 Spring Symposium Series by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University in California on March 23-25, 2009 is presented. It states that the event aims to initiate the development of a problem repository in the field of qualitative spatial and temporal reasoning. Moreover, presenters of the event identified the challenges for the future midterm and long-term research.

Background: In this article we address some of the challenges posed by the development of national assessment systems and discuss the need for high quality information on trends in attainment; support for school improvement processes and ways in which learning should be enhanced through valid assessment. Purpose: Key elements are explored, including the need to: monitor national standards; provide accountability data; give feedback to learners, teachers and parents. The dangers of multi-purpose testing are outlined in the context of political and educational objectives and the need to separate out the functions in an educationally valid way are considered. Evidence: Experiences in England are used to illustrate some of the key issues and problems that need to be taken into account when designing effective national assessment models. We refer to the national debate and policy reviews on assessment issues. We also draw on a body of literature related to this field of knowledge. Main argument: A range of possible models of assessment are outlined and their advantages and disadvantages discussed. The aim is to offer potential systems for consideration in an attempt to promote the design and development of assessment processes that will generate valid and reliable data on attainment for individuals, schools and at a national level. Conclusion: The challenge is to find ways of achieving these objectives within a framework of educational quality through the enhancement of teaching, learning and assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses efforts in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) to develop metacognitive loops that give automated devices the ability to detect, evaluate, and remedy flaws in their operation. Central to their function is the ability to discern a gap between actual and intended results. The author dilates upon both metacognitive-enhanced reinforcement learning and metacognitive-enhanced human-computer dialogue, and notes progress that has been made towards creating a domain-independent application.

The analysis presented in this paper offers different examples of how timing issues have adversely affected a series of innovations in education and training. The term 'temporal discontinuity' is used since the problems cannot simply be characterised as 'undue rushing' or 'impatience on the part of policy makers'. Whilst over-hasty scheduling of innovation and a general shortage of time plays a part in the problems on which the paper focuses, it is suggested that the sequencing of design, piloting, evaluation and implementation can break down, falling out of adequate synchronisation. This is more complex than simple shortage of time; remedying this requires more than just an (often-called-for) slower pace in evaluating and implementing innovations. The paper uses three carefully-selected case studies from the English education system to illustrate significant variants of temporal discontinuity: the history of the Assessment of Performance Unit; the implementation of system-level reforms in academic and vocational qualifications for 18 year olds in 2000; and the history of General National Vocational Qualifications. The paper suggests that genuine reform and innovation are seriously impeded by problems resulting from temporal discontinuity. It also suggests that the problems are in part rooted in the timing of political cycles, and calls for a radical examination of the management of large-scale innovation in education and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Airway wall remodelling and inflammation are features of chronic asthma. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) has been implicated in these processes.Aim: To determine the effect of allergen challenge on airway inflammation and remodelling and whether TGF-beta isoforms and the Smad signalling pathways are involved.Methods: Thirteen patients with atopic asthma underwent inhalational challenge with 0.9% saline, followed by allergen 3-4 weeks later. After both challenges, fibreoptic bronchoscopy was undertaken to obtain bronchial biopsies and tissue samples were processed for immunohistochemistry and examined by microscopy.Results: Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) fell after allergen challenge (mean (SE) -28.1 (0.9)% at 30 min with a late response at 7 hours (-23.0 (1.2)%). Allergen challenge caused an increase in neutrophils and eosinophils in the bronchial mucosa compared with saline. Sub-basement membrane (SBM) thickness did not change after allergen, but tenascin deposition in SBM was increased. Intranuclear (activated) Smad 2/3 and Smad 4 detected by immunohistochemistry were increased after allergen challenge in epithelial and subepithelial cells of bronchial biopsies. No inhibitory Smad (Smad 7) protein was detected. TGF-beta isoforms 1, 2 and 3 were expressed predominantly in bronchial epithelium after saline and allergen challenges, but only TGF-beta(2) expression was increased after allergen. Double immunostaining showed an increase in TGF-beta(2) positive eosinophils and neutrophils but not in TGF-beta(1) positive eosinophils and neutrophils after allergen challenge.Conclusions: TGF-beta(2) may contribute to the remodelling changes in allergic asthma following single allergen exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Airway wall remodelling and inflammation are features of chronic asthma. Transforming growth factor 13 (TGF-13) has been implicated in these processes. Aim: To determine the effect of allergen challenge on airway inflammation and remodelling and whether TGF-β isoforms and the Smad signalling pathways are involved. Methods: Thirteen patients with atopic asthma underwent inhalational challenge with 0.9% saline, followed by allergen 3–4 weeks later. After both challenges, fibreoptic bronchoscopy was undertaken to obtain bronchial biopsies and tissue samples were processed for immunohistochemistry and examined by microscopy. Results: Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) fell after allergen challenge (mean (SE) -28.1 (0.9)% at 30 min with a late response at 7 hours (-23.0 (1.2)%). Allergen challenge caused an increase in neutrophils and eosinophils in the bronchial mucosa compared with saline. Sub-basement membrane (SBM) thickness did not change after allergen, but tenascin deposition in SBM was increased. Intranuclear (activated) Smad 2/3 and Smad 4 detected by immunohistochemistry were increased after allergen challenge in epithelial and subepithelial cells of bronchial biopsies. No inhibitory Smad (Smad 7) protein was detected. TGF-β isoforms 1, 2 and 3 were expressed predominantly in bronchial epithelium after saline and allergen challenges, but only TGF-β2 expression was increased after allergen. Double immunostaining showed an increase in TGF-β2 positive eosinophils and neutrophils but not in TGF-β1 positive eosinophils and neutrophils after allergen challenge. Conclusions: TGF-β2 may contribute to the remodelling changes in allergic asthma following single allergen exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in the use of metacognition in intelligent systems. This article is part of a small section meant to give interested researchers an overview and sampling of the kinds of work currently being pursued in this broad area. The current article offers a review of recent research in two main topic areas: the monitoring and control of reasoning (metareasoning) and the monitoring and control of learning (metalearning). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic cough may be a result of asthma and nonasthma causes, but it is unclear whether there are specific inflammatory or remodeling changes. Objective: We determined airway mucosal changes in patients presenting with asthmatic cough and cough associated with nonasthmatic causes. Methods: Patients with chronic cough of nonasthmatic (n=33; postnasal drip/rhinitis in 6, gastroesophageal reflux in 5, bronchiectasis in 3, and idiopathic in 19) and asthmatic (n=14) causes and 15 healthy controls underwent fiberoptic bronchoscopy. Morphometry of bronchial biopsies and capsaicin cough sensitivity were assessed. Results: Compared with controls, submucosal eosinophils and neutrophils were increased in patients with asthmatic cough (P < .005) and submucosal mast cells in patients with nonasthmatic cough (P =.01). Subbasement membrane thickness, goblet cell area, vascularity, and vessel size were also increased in both groups. Smooth muscle area was higher only in patients with nonasthmatic cough (P =.0007 vs control and P =.019 vs asthmatic cough). None of the pathologic changes were related to the duration of coughing. Cough sensitivity was heightened in patients with nonasthmatic cough compared with controls and patients with asthmatic cough. The degree of goblet cell hyperplasia and epithelial shedding positively correlated with cough sensitivity in patients with nonasthmatic cough (r =0.43; P =.01; and r =0.40; P =.02, respectively). Conclusion: Features of airway wall remodeling are prominent in the airways with nonasthmatic as well as asthmatic cough. These are linked to chronic cough rather than to asthma. Mast cell hyperplasia rather than eosinophilia is distinctive for nonasthmatic cough. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The American Association for Artificial Intelligence, in cooperation with Stanford University's Department of Computer Science, presented the 2004 Spring Symposium Series, Monday through Wednesday, March 22-24, at Stanford University. The titles of the eight symposia were (1) Accessible Hands-on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Education; (2) Architectures for Modeling Emotion: Cross-Disciplinary Foundations; (3) Bridging the Multiagent and Multirobotic Research Gap; (4) Exploring Attitude and Affect in Text: Theories and Applications; (5) Interaction between Humans and Autonomous Systems over Extended Operation; (6) Knowledge Representation and Ontologies for Autonomous Systems; (7) Language Learning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective; and (8) Semantic Web Services. Each symposium had limited attendance. Most symposia chairs elected to create AAAI technical reports of their symposium, which are available as pa- perbound reports or (for AAAI members) are downloadable on the AAAI members-only Web site. This report includes summaries of the eight symposia, written by the symposia chairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common problem faced when gathering information from the web is the use of different names to refer to the same entity. For example, the city in India referred to as Bombay in some documents may be referred to as Mumbai in others because its name officially changed from the former to the latter in 1995. Multiplicity of names can cause relevant documents to be missed by search engines. Our goal is to develop an automated system that discovers additional names for an entity given just one of its names. Latent semantic analysis (LSA) is generally thought to be well-suited for this task [Numerical linear algebra with applications 3(4) (1996) 301]. We demonstrate empirically that under a broad range of circumstances LSA performs poorly, and describe a two-stage algorithm based on LSA that performs significantly better. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Focusing particularly on the definition of ‘skill transfer’, this paper examines the relationship between research work on transfer and various curriculum initiatives designed to promote it. Competing theories and explanations of transfer are explored, and the paper suggests that many of the practical initiatives on core/transferable skills are under‐theorised and require more thorough evaluation. The conclusion to the paper summarises the key components of evaluation work dedicated to this. An outline of the current development work on the NCVQ Core Skills Units is offered, alongside explorations of two important initiatives on the shape of learning programmes designed to enhance transfer (the Chelsea ’Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education’ project, and innovations in medical education and training). It is argued that these initiatives provide an unusually coherent approach to structuring learning programmes devoted to the enhancement of transfer, and provide an important complement to assessment and certification of core skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a field, Grammatical Inference addresses both theoretical and empirical learning problems, and the collection of papers within this special issue attests both to the diversity of these problems as well as the advances and insights that are being made by the researchers working within it. Thus we hope this special issue is of interest to the readership of Machine Learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented which discusses a study on the activation of NF-κB transcription factor among patients who died of asthma.

This debate is not as evident in academic writing as might be expected. In journal articles, there is a clear tendency to examine and advocate ‘new skills' or explore areas such as ‘multiple intelligence' without situating these in a wider debate about the aims of the school curriculum. Articles land on either side of the debate without acknowledging that the debate is occurring. There are exceptions. Coincident with the work laying down theprinciples for the new National Curriculum.

The article reports on the symposium titled "Computational Approaches to Representation Change during Learning and Development." the symposium is developed by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). It aims to understand how representation change can be transferred to artificial intelligence systems. It also intends to turn representation change processes into automation algorithms. The symposium also includes the issues of hierarchical Bayes method, feature learning, machine learning and robotics.

The article focuses on the significance of metacognition in computation. A component that could measure and monitor the value of ongoing deliberation/computation, stopping it and forcing action when it ceases to have positive value, could help an agent become more rational to more effectively marshal and deploy its resources for maximal benefit. Similar benefits would be expected in the case of an agent that could monitor and control its learning components. Among the fascinating topics that emerged during the symposium were the relation between metacognition and emotion. To help frame these questions and explore these topics, the symposium featured two tutorial-style keynotes in addition to the opening address, and a guided brainstorming session.