A Joint Phrasal and Dependency Model for Paraphrase Alignment

Monolingual alignment is frequently required for natural language tasks that involve similar or comparable sentences. We present a new model for monolingual alignment in which the score of an alignment decomposes over both the set of aligned phrases as well as a set of aligned dependency arcs. Optimal alignments under this scoring function are decoded using integer linear programming while model parameters are learned using standard structured prediction approaches. We evaluate our joint aligner on the Edinburgh paraphrase corpus and show significant gains over a Meteor baseline and a state-of-the-art phrase-based aligner

Prefeasibility study of a space environment monitoring system /Semos/

Prefeasibility study of Space Environment Monitoring System within framework of Apollo Applications Progra

Experimental evidence on promotion of electric and improved biomass cookstoves.

Improved cookstoves (ICS) can deliver "triple wins" by improving household health, local environments, and global climate. Yet their potential is in doubt because of low and slow diffusion, likely because of constraints imposed by differences in culture, geography, institutions, and missing markets. We offer insights about this challenge based on a multiyear, multiphase study with nearly 1,000 households in the Indian Himalayas. In phase I, we combined desk reviews, simulations, and focus groups to diagnose barriers to ICS adoption. In phase II, we implemented a set of pilots to simulate a mature market and designed an intervention that upgraded the supply chain (combining marketing and home delivery), provided rebates and financing to lower income and liquidity constraints, and allowed households a choice among ICS. In phase III, we used findings from these pilots to implement a field experiment to rigorously test whether this combination of upgraded supply and demand promotion stimulates adoption. The experiment showed that, compared with zero purchase in control villages, over half of intervention households bought an ICS, although demand was highly price-sensitive. Demand was at least twice as high for electric stoves relative to biomass ICS. Even among households that received a negligible price discount, the upgraded supply chain alone induced a 28 percentage-point increase in ICS ownership. Although the bundled intervention is resource-intensive, the full costs are lower than the social benefits of ICS promotion. Our findings suggest that market analysis, robust supply chains, and price discounts are critical for ICS diffusion

Performance tests of signature extension algorithms

Comparative tests were performed on seven signature extension algorithms to evaluate their effectiveness in correcting for changes in atmospheric haze and sun angle in a LANDSAT scene. Four of the algorithms were cluster matching, and two were maximum likelihood algorithms. The seventh algorithm determined the haze level in both training and recognition segments and used a set of tables calculated from an atmospheric model to determine the affine transformation that corrects the training signatures for changes in sun angle and haze level. Three of the algorithms were tested on a simulated data set, and all of the algorithms were tested on consecutive-day data

Security Risk Assessment Process for UAS in the NAS CNPC Architecture

This informational paper discusses the risk assessment process conducted to analyze Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) architectures for integrating civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS). The assessment employs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Risk Management framework to identify threats, vulnerabilities, and risks to these architectures and recommends corresponding mitigating security controls. This process builds upon earlier work performed by RTCA Special Committee (SC) 203 and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to roadmap the risk assessment methodology and to identify categories of information security risks that pose a significant impact to aeronautical communications systems. A description of the deviations from the typical process is described in regards to this aeronautical communications system. Due to the sensitive nature of the information, data resulting from the risk assessment pertaining to threats, vulnerabilities, and risks is beyond the scope of this paper

Writing about Writing in Early Modern Writing-Books

Essay on 17th century writing manuals in the Kislak Center\u27s collection

The Impacts of Aligned Teaching on Students Perceived Engagement in Independent Learning and Satisfaction : An Empirical Investigation in Hong Kong

In response to the move towards Outcomes-based Education in Hong Kong our paper aims at investigating the impacts of the Outcomes-based Teaching and Learning approach OBTL on students satisfaction and perceived engagement in independent learning in the context of higher education Building upon the principle of constructive alignment we propose a theoretical model to examine the impacts of constructively aligned teaching and learning that is conceptualized as the constructive alignment Index in our paper An empirical study of undergraduate students n 253 found that the constructive alignment index CAI positively predicted students satisfaction and their perceived engagement in independent learning Implications for research and practice are discusse