The Ticker, February 22, 2016

The Ticker is the student newspaper of Baruch College. It has been published continuously since 1932, when the Baruch College campus was the School of Business and Civic Administration of the City College of New York

Learning discrete word embeddings to achieve better interpretability and processing efficiency

L’omniprésente utilisation des plongements de mot dans le traitement des langues naturellesest la preuve de leur utilité et de leur capacité d’adaptation a une multitude de tâches. Ce-pendant, leur nature continue est une importante limite en terme de calculs, de stockage enmémoire et d’interprétation. Dans ce travail de recherche, nous proposons une méthode pourapprendre directement des plongements de mot discrets. Notre modèle est une adaptationd’une nouvelle méthode de recherche pour base de données avec des techniques dernier crien traitement des langues naturelles comme les Transformers et les LSTM. En plus d’obtenirdes plongements nécessitant une fraction des ressources informatiques nécéssaire à leur sto-ckage et leur traitement, nos expérimentations suggèrent fortement que nos représentationsapprennent des unités de bases pour le sens dans l’espace latent qui sont analogues à desmorphèmes. Nous appelons ces unités dessememes, qui, de l’anglaissemantic morphemes,veut dire morphèmes sémantiques. Nous montrons que notre modèle a un grand potentielde généralisation et qu’il produit des représentations latentes montrant de fortes relationssémantiques et conceptuelles entre les mots apparentés.The ubiquitous use of word embeddings in Natural Language Processing is proof of theirusefulness and adaptivity to a multitude of tasks. However, their continuous nature is pro-hibitive in terms of computation, storage and interpretation. In this work, we propose amethod of learning discrete word embeddings directly. The model is an adaptation of anovel database searching method using state of the art natural language processing tech-niques like Transformers and LSTM. On top of obtaining embeddings requiring a fractionof the resources to store and process, our experiments strongly suggest that our representa-tions learn basic units of meaning in latent space akin to lexical morphemes. We call theseunitssememes, i.e., semantic morphemes. We demonstrate that our model has a greatgeneralization potential and outputs representation showing strong semantic and conceptualrelations between related words

Mapping Global Theatre Histories

Tanks to all at Palgrave Macmillan who encouraged and shaped this project, especially Nicola Cattini, Tomas Rene, Vicky Bates, and the anonymous readers of the proposal. Tanks to the colleagues who gave me insights, including Dean Adams, Allison Amidei, Bruce Auerbach, Hala Baki, Tomas Burch, Carlos Cruz, Kaja Dunn, David Fillmore, Andrew Hartley, Jorge Huerta, Rick Kemp, Chuyun Oh, Kaustavi Sarkar, Dylan Savage, Joanne Tompkins, Robin Witt, Amanda Zhou, and members of the “Pedagogy of Extraordinary Bodies” working group at the American Society for Teatre Research conference in fall 2017. Tanks also to Chuyun Oh and Kaustavi Sarkar for help with illustrations here. And thanks to the authors and editors of Wikipedia, who have made many details of theatre history quickly accessible online, with further references given as well. Tanks to the colleagues who responded to my e-mail query in summer 2017 about a potential theatre history textbook, especially Sarah Bay-Cheng, Cheryl Black, Sara Ellen Brady, David Carlyon, Teresa DurbinAmes, Susan Kattwinkel, Maiya Murphy, John O’Connor, Felicia Ruf, Shannon Blake Skelton, and Nathan Tomas. Tanks to the artists I have met, who gave me insights about their work. Tese included Kazimierz Braun (who directed me in Te Card Index at the University of Notre Dame in 1982, welcomed my visit to his theatre in Poland, and co-wrote a play with me that he staged at Swarthmore College in 1986), Herbert Blau (my dissertation mentor, 1988–1992), Ola Rotimi (who lectured in one of my classes), William Sun (who discussed playwriting with me and introduced me to others), Richard Schechne

Play Among Books

How does coding change the way we think about architecture? Miro Roman and his AI Alice_ch3n81 develop a playful scenario in which they propose coding as the new literacy of information. They convey knowledge in the form of a project model that links the fields of architecture and information through two interwoven narrative strands in an “infinite flow” of real books

Towards an Asian Space Agency? The whence and whither of Asian interstate relations in the space sector in the 21st century

Despite the known benefits offered by intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) to governments, the inception of the intergovernmental Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization in 2006, as well as various academic proposals for the creation of other space-specific IGOs in Asia in the 21st century, recent years have still not seen a real engagement amongst Asian governments with dedicated space programmes towards establishing a broad regional space-specific IGO. Within this context, this study has decided to ask whether there is a reasonable potential amongst Asian governments to commence negotiations towards establishing an Asian Space Agency (ASA) – perceived within certain stipulations as a broad IGO-based regional space cooperation mechanism – based on the general political and legal status quo of their space programmes as of 2017. In particular, this study focusses on whether the governments with the most ambitious space programmes and domestic access to leading space technology (development) capabilities in Asia, identified as China, India, Iran, Japan, North Korea and South Korea, currently display such a potential. After all, they might be likely at the centre of an ASA. For that, this study develops and employs a methodological approach based on Moravcsik’s well established International Relations theory ‘Liberalism’ and a plausible determination of basic political and legal ASA characteristics. At the analytical core is a government-by-government assessment and subsequent specialised comparison of the state preferences (somewhat constituting national interests) underlying the current space programmes of the six selected governments, their major domestic and cooperative space-related measures promoted in the pursuit of these state preferences, as well as their respective basic political and legal framework concerning IGO-based regional space cooperation. In contrast to its confident hypothesis, this study concludes in the end that the present space-related state preference situation amongst the six selected governments is such that there is currently no reasonable potential amongst them to commence negotiations towards establishing an ASA. The most problematic factor for the establishment of an ASA is each government’s respective current second space-related autonomy-oriented state preference. Notably, to finish on a more positive and practical note, this study’s final sections further discuss generally the closest IGO-based regional space agency variant to a fully-fledged ASA about which the six selected governments might reasonably negotiate in the context of their current space-related state preferences. Also, the final sections put forward some general policy and regulatory recommendations that might help to broaden these governments’ (IGO-based) intergovernmental space cooperation in the future

Program and Proceedings: The Nebraska Academy of Sciences 1880-2023. 142th Anniversary Year. One Hundred-Thirty-Third Annual Meeting April 21, 2023. Hybrid Meeting: Nebraska Wesleyan University & Online, Lincoln, Nebraska

AERONAUTICS & SPACE SCIENCE Chairperson(s): Dr. Scott Tarry & Michaela Lucas HUMANS PAST AND PRESENT Chairperson(s): Phil R. Geib & Allegra Ward APPLIED SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SECTION Chairperson(s): Mary Ettel BIOLOGY Chairpersons: Lauren Gillespie, Steve Heinisch, and Paul Davis BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Chairperson(s): Annemarie Shibata, Kimberly Carlson, Joseph Dolence, Alexis Hobbs, James Fletcher, Paul Denton CHEM Section Chairperson(s): Nathanael Fackler EARTH SCIENCES Chairpersons: Irina Filina, Jon Schueth, Ross Dixon, Michael Leite ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Chairperson: Mark Hammer PHYSICS Chairperson(s): Dr. Adam Davis SCIENCE EDUCATION Chairperson: Christine Gustafson 2023 Maiben Lecturer: Jason Bartz 2023 FRIEND OF SCIENCE AWARD TO: Ray Ward and Jim Lewi

Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop : February 27–28 and March 1, 2017, Washington, DC

This workshop is meant to provide NASA’s Planetary Science Division with a very long-range vision of what planetary science may look like in the future.Organizer, Lunar and Planetary Institute ; Conveners, James Green, NASA Planetary Science Division, Doris Daou, NASA Planetary Science Division ; Science Organizing Committee, Stephen Mackwell, Universities Space Research Association [and 14 others]PARTIAL CONTENTS: Exploration Missions to the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud--Future Mercury Exploration: Unique Science Opportunities from Our Solar System’s Innermost Planet--A Vision for Ice Giant Exploration--BAOBAB (Big and Outrageously Bold Asteroid Belt) Project--Asteroid Studies: A 35-Year Forecast--Sampling the Solar System: The Next Level of Understanding--A Ground Truth-Based Approach to Future Solar System Origins Research--Isotope Geochemistry for Comparative Planetology of Exoplanets--The Moon as a Laboratory for Biological Contamination Research--“Be Careful What You Wish For:” The Scientific, Practical, and Cultural Implications of Discovering Life in Our Solar System--The Importance of Particle Induced X-Ray Emission (PIXE) Analysis and Imaging to the Search for Life on the Ocean Worlds--Follow the (Outer Solar System) Water: Program Options to Explore Ocean Worlds--Analogies Among Current and Future Life Detection Missions and the Pharmaceutical/ Biomedical Industries--On Neuromorphic Architectures for Efficient, Robust, and Adaptable Autonomy in Life Detection and Other Deep Space Missions

A Corpus-driven Approach toward Teaching Vocabulary and Reading to English Language Learners in U.S.-based K-12 Context through a Mobile App

In order to decrease teachers’ decisions of which vocabulary the focus of the instruction should be upon, a recent line of research argues that pedagogically-prepared word lists may offer the most efficient order of learning vocabulary with an optimized context for instruction in each of four K-12 content areas (math, science, social studies, and language arts) through providing English Language Learners (ELLs) with the most frequent words in each area. Educators and school experts have acknowledged the need for developing new materials, including computerized enhanced texts and effective strategies aimed at improving ELLs’ mastery of academic and STEM-related lexicon. Not all words in a language are equal in their role in comprehending the language and expressing ideas or thoughts. For this study, I used a corpus-driven approach which is operationalized by applying a text analysis method. For the purpose of this research study, I made two corpora, Teacher’s U.S. Corpus (TUSC) and Science and Math Academic Corpus for Kids (SMACK) with a focus on word lemma rather than inflectional and derivational variants of word families. To create the corpora, I collected and analyzed a total of 122 textbooks used commonly in the states of Florida and California. Recruiting, scanning and converting of textbooks had been carried out over a period of more than two years from October 2014 to March 2017. In total, this school corpus contains 10,519,639 running words and 16,344 lemmas saved in 16,315 word document pages. From the corpora, I developed six word lists, namely three frequency-based word lists (high-, mid-, and low-frequency), academic and STEM-related word lists, and essential word list (EWL). I then applied the word lists as the database and developed a mobile app, Vocabulary in Reading Study – VIRS, (available on App Store, Android and Google Play) alongside a website (www.myvirs.com). Also, I developed a new K-12 dictionary which targets the vocabulary needs of ELLs in K-12 context. This is a frequency-based dictionary which categorizes words into three groups of high, medium and low frequency words as well as two separate sections for academic and STEM words. The dictionary has 16,500 lemmas with derivational and inflectional forms

The Chinese Space Programme in the Public Conversation About Space

This study is the product of a long view of space exploration and the conversations about space in China. It locates the multiple conversations about space exploration and utilisation as they are in the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC), within other conversations about space culture in the world. China is viewed by Western researchers though many lenses which are examined here critically. In previous studies, writers explain away China‘s space programme with the easy answers of a “Space Race” and a “China Threat”, in which the space programme is seen as merely an example of global competition, or threat, but this thesis challenges those barriers to Western understanding of the Chinese public conversation of space culture. In this study, critical theory and an underlying epistemology within a post-Enlightenment cultural frame are applied to official, archival and ephemeral texts and images. The manner of the critical application is distinguished from derivate techniques operationalised as Open Source Intelligence. The concept of Place, and within that, Foucault’s linguistic concept of “Heterotopia”, is significant both in understanding the Chinese overseas space bases on Earth and the temporal and spatial dislocations experienced in space missions. In acknowledging the interpretative approach, an empirical study, a “Q-sort” has been carried out, which demonstrates that the key factor in the Chinese conversation is Science, within the context of modernisation, tempered by Chinese cultural affirmation and international co-operation. The thesis concludes by providing general principles in future work for successful research into the popular culture of space exploration