Testing of Support Tools for Plagiarism Detection

There is a general belief that software must be able to easily do things that humans find difficult. Since finding sources for plagiarism in a text is not an easy task, there is a wide-spread expectation that it must be simple for software to determine if a text is plagiarized or not. Software cannot determine plagiarism, but it can work as a support tool for identifying some text similarity that may constitute plagiarism. But how well do the various systems work? This paper reports on a collaborative test of 15 web-based text-matching systems that can be used when plagiarism is suspected. It was conducted by researchers from seven countries using test material in eight different languages, evaluating the effectiveness of the systems on single-source and multi-source documents. A usability examination was also performed. The sobering results show that although some systems can indeed help identify some plagiarized content, they clearly do not find all plagiarism and at times also identify non-plagiarized material as problematic

Translation at inter-governmental organizations the set of skills and knowledge required and the implications for recruitment testing

Se investiga la importancia relativa de cada uno de 40 habilidades y de conocimientos que necesitan los traductores que trabajan en las organizaciones intergubernamentales, con enfoque en los exámenes de selección de nuevos traductores. En base de una encuesta de traductores y correctores en diferentes organizaciones, se producen jerarquías de habilidades-conocimientos específicas para cada organización. Los actuales exámenes de selección se analizan a la luz de dichas jerarquías con el fin de identificar las modificaciones que podrían permitir que las organizaciones reclutan los candidatos más adecuados para perfiles necesitados. Para examinar más en profundidad las implicaciones de estos resultados, se escribe un examen nuevo, más adecuado a las jerarquías identificadas, y se comparan el modelo de los exámenes actuales. Se demuestra empíricamente que tanto estudiantes de Máster y como profesionales de las organizaciones reciben notas significativamente diferentes en los dos exámenes. De ahí las implicaciones importantes para la formación de traductoresThis study investigates the relative importance of 40 skills and knowledge required by translators at inter-governmental organizations from the perspective of recruitment testing. On the basis of a survey conducted of translators and revisers at various organizations, specific skills-knowledge hierarchies required at individual organizations are drawn up. Current testing practice is examined in the light of the hierarchies to identify adjustments that could be made to help organizations select the candidates with the profile they need. To examine the implications of the findings further, the performance of a group of translators on a traditional recruitment test is compared with their performance on a “profile-adapted” test that is designed on the basis of measurement theory. The findings also have implications for translator training

FM 34-54, Technical Intelligence, 30 January 1998

This manual defines and describes the technical intelligence mission. It names the key technical intelligence organizations involved at the national level and their interrelationships and responsibilities. The manual describes in detail the technical intelligence organizations and operations in a US command in the field. It discusses at length the responsibilities on the key staff sections in the command. It has extensive appendices explaining forms and procedures used by forces in the field. It has an excellent list of acronyms and glossary. Comment by the depositor A clear understanding of the evolution of technical intelligence may not be needed by the intended audience of this manual, and as far as I know, no comprehensive history exists. However, supposed historical facts included in an official manual ought to be true. This manual fails in that respect. For example, this paragraph on Page 1-5 is utter nonsense: Following the Korean War, the United States did not disband its TECHINT capability completely, as had been done at the conclusion of all previous hostilities. But neither did we maintain it at its wartime level. Three small TECHINT detachments remained in place at the Army\u27s research and development centers. By 1962 two of the detachments merged to form the Army\u27s Foreign Science and Technology Center. The third detachment established the Missile Intelligence Agency at Redstone Arsenal. The Surgeon General also operated a Medical Intelligence Center at Fort Detrick, MD. At the end of World War II, technical intelligence staffs remained in the offices of the heads of the seven Army Technical Services. Between then and the creation of the Army Foreign Science and Technical Center, many of those staffs were converted into special purpose intelligence agencies as is documented by DA General Orders. The first such agency, the Signal Corps Intelligence Agency was established at Washington, DC, according to Sec. IV, DA GO 39, 18 Aug 49, before the beginning of the Korean War. Paragraph VIII of DA GO 57, 1962, established the Army Foreign Science and Technology Center and transferred the functions, personnel, records, and equipment of the Chemical Corps, Ordnance Corps, Signal Corps, Transportation Corps, and Quartermaster intelligence agencies to it. In addition Corps of Engineer technical intelligence activities which had been housed in the Army Map Service were transferred to it. The intelligence section in the office of the commanding general of the Army Missile Command was not recognized as an official intelligence production agency until much later in the 1960s. The Medical Information and Intelligence Agency, which was not at Ft Detrick, was not affected by the reorganization of the Army intelligence activities outlined in Department of the Army Reorganization Planning Directive 381-2, 18 May 1962, which is available in the UNL Digital Commons at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usarmyresearch/169/ In fact, the intelligence organization which was formed in the Office of the Surgeon General went through a complicated series of reorganizations before it became the National Center for Medical Intelligence at Ft Detrick. Robert L Bolin, Associate Professor Emeritus, UNL Librarie

IRISS (Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Societies) FP7 European Research Project, Deliverable 3.2: Surveillance Impact Report

External research report produced for the European Commission as part of the FP7 IRISS project: Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Socieities, containing European case studies on the varying formats of neighbourhood watch, including the cultural and historical factors which may influence the creation of neighbourhood watch groups in the first instance. Overview of neighbourhood watch in the United Kingdom and analysis of the changing role of the police in relation to community policing and the impact which this has had on the primary purpose of neighbourhood watch organisations.This deliverable was written as part of the IRISS project which received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under Grant Agreement No. 285593. Additional co-authors: Alessia Ceresa, Chiara Fonio, Walter Peissl, Robert Rothman, Jaro Sterbik Lamina, Ivan Szekely, Beatrix Vissy, Wolfgang Bonß, Daniel Fischer, Gemma Galdon Clavell, Reinhard Kreissl, Alexander Neumann, Nils Zurawsk

The Nation Should Come First

By the second half of the 1940s, newly conquered nations of Central and Eastern Europe were expected to adjust multiple professions, including those related to the historical sciences, to the Soviet model. However, Marxism, soon to become the only acceptable methodology, was no longer understood in the same way as in Bolshevik Russia. Its Soviet variation borrowed heavily from the tradition of Russian historiography and the Russian national tradition. The variations formulated in the satellite countries were also less likely to break away from existing traditions than to revise and re-evaluate them, along with the perspectives on Russia’s role in the history of Central and Eastern Europe