The Many Sides of Melody

By day, I am a corporate and employee communicator. By night, I write and maintain two corporate news blogs for a technology firm out of Albuquerque. In my spare time, I read, cook and entertain. Spare time? What is that?

A glimpse into one of my other lives:

Access Innovations Improves Indexing Accuracy of the CDC’s Mining Safety and Health Thesaurus

Access Innovations, Inc. is pleased to announce the completion of an automatic semantic tagging rulebase for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Mining Safety and Health Thesaurus (MSHT). The new, state-of-the-art system increases indexing accuracy to 93 percent and provides greater access to the mining safety and health database, thereby aiding researchers and statisticians in improving safety for the mining industry.

“Access Innovations is glad to offer our services to such an important research outlet,” says Access Innovations president Marjorie M.K. Hlava. “The Data Harmony M.A.I. system will help immensely with term disambiguation and will make data tagged against the Mining Safety and Health Thesaurus findable and discoverable to the full depth and breadth of the thesaurus.”

The MSHT contains terms related to safety techniques and devices, workplace hazards, and miner ailments and conditions associated with different types of mining and methods. The interconnected terms and concepts required precise disambiguation by the Access Innovations team to further enable semantic search.

“The mining industry, like many other areas, is full of industry jargon, which made this project very interesting,” remarks project manager Bob Kasenchak. “Many natural language words have different context and meaning in mining terminology. For example, ‘damp’ refers to ‘gases’ or ‘fumes’ instead of ‘slightly wet.’”

Research of mining industry resources and CDC content guided the construction of the rule base. After creation of a foundation of just 300 rules, the team then utilized the Test M.A.I. function of Data Harmony’s patented MAIstro platform to identify and refine the concepts to produce accurate indexing.

“It’s important for each thesaurus to reflect the content that will be applied to it,” Kasenchak says. “The rulebases, too, should be constructed with great care to reflect the linguistic usage patterns found in mining research and data so that content can be easily found accurately and consistently.”

The Mining Safety and Health Thesaurus is maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Data Harmony’s MAIstro software platform. Access Innovations will provide ongoing software support and looks forward to a continued partnership with the CDC.

About Access Innovations – www.accessinn.com, www.dataharmony.com, www.taxodiary.comFounded in 1978, Access Innovations has extensive experience with Internet technology applications, master data management, database creation, thesaurus/taxonomy creation, and semantic integration. The Access Innovations Data Harmony software includes automatic indexing, thesaurus management, an XML Intranet System (XIS), and metadata extraction for content creation developed to meet production environment needs. Data Harmony is used by publishers, governments, and corporate clients throughout the world.

About the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research– http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/index.htmlFounded in 1910 by Congressional act as the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the mission of the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) is to eliminate fatalities, injuries, and illnesses through research and prevent. UMSHR is a division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Slacker-ville

Hello, my name is Melody and I am a slacker. I haven't blogged in like forever. Well, maybe not forever but too long.

I could blame it on National Novel Writing Month, but then I'd have no excuse come December 1st.

I could blame it on work because God knows that has been crazy and continues to be, but really, is that new news.

I could blame it on housework, but let's not be silly. Have you seen my house?

So there it is, I am just a slacker.

NaNoWriMo

It is November! Time to vomit out a novel!

I am a writer

I was parked at a shaded table by the pool today, tapping away on my laptop. It isn't the most convenient or comfortable place to write, but at some point you must leave your room so the housekeepers can come in and do their thing.

It is an absolutely gorgeous day here on Jekyll Island. Upper 70's, nice breeze, and the sun is shining.

I was alone at first, but gradually, one by one, senior citizens began to appear. It could be worse, it could be kids.

They reminded me of roaming animals. At first they remained a group and welcomed each new member with a "nice day isn't it?" and "have you been in the pool? the water is very cold." I heard these same comments over and over and over.

Then they began to branch out. One lady wanted to read and obviously the other lady didn't get the hint, i.e. the lady had her head buried in a book. So she feigned wanting more shade and moved to the clear opposite side of where the rest of the senior citizen brigade were planted. Then her husband made a show of getting ready to swim. After he removed his shoes and his shirt, repeatedly laid out his towel in the perfect place, he dove head first into this pool that he had been warned numerous times, "was very cold."

After three laps, he retreated to his chaise in the sun where I could his chest rising and lowering a very fast pace. I considered for a few moments whether I remembered any CPR, just in case.

The chatty lady wasn't about to let her prey get away. So she wandered over to the reader and chatted a one-sided conversation for a few minutes and then sought out her next target.

Oh shit. I think it's me.

I kept my head down and tapped, tapped away making no sense on the keyboard, but if she thinks I am really busy, maybe she'll pass me by.

No such luck.

This is a very dense woman.

"Honey, you shouldn't be working on vacation," my intruder stated.

I smiled, and replied that I wasn't working. I hesitated for a moment and added, "I am a writer."

I have never, ever said that before. Eeek!

Writers

The past two days I have spent an inordinate amount of time with writers. Or people calling themselves writers. And I realize I may fully be included in that latter group.

I have met the young, just out of college (or not), "I'm going to be a writer when I grow up" girls, who giggle at witty comments from male speakers of any age.

Then there are the grandmas. I assume them to be retired English schoolteachers but I could be wrong. They are a mixed group, one said "computers? I hate computers. I refuse to use them." Good luck on your writing career.

Others ask questions of the panelists just to have the opportunity to tell all about their project and elicit their admiration, or perceived admiration.

Then there are the authors. Some have been absolutely genuine, humble and helpful. Others? Well there is the one who was a broadcast journalist, and then there is the bizarre blogger who has had a nervous breakdown, suicide attempt, Katrina survivor and now cancer patient - she never smiles and her eyes dart around like she is paranoid. With that kind of luck, I'd be paranoid.

Then there is the broadcast journalist, and the memoirist, who has wrote four books. I said four, in case you didn't hear.

Then there was the writer who used to be a broadcast journalist -- that is just a fraction of the times she said it in 30 minutes.

Oh and I forgot to mention, the broadcast journalist has a book coming out this week. She didn't forget.

I know I sound snarky and more than a little bit jealous. I admit, there is some envy present, but I hope if I am ever that lucky that I will fall into the first category of humble and helpful people.

If I don't, I am counting on you my peeps, to call my ass on it. Don't fail me.