K-vec: A New Approach for Aligning Parallel Texts

Various methods have been proposed for aligning texts in two or more languages such as the Canadian Parliamentary Debates(Hansards). Some of these methods generate a bilingual lexicon as a by-product. We present an alternative alignment strategy which we call K-vec, that starts by estimating the lexicon. For example, it discovers that the English word "fisheries" is similar to the French "pe^ches" by noting that the distribution of "fisheries" in the English text is similar to the distribution of "pe^ches" in the French. K-vec does not depend on sentence boundaries.Comment: 7 pages, uuencoded, compressed PostScript; Proc. COLING-9

Comparing post-editing difficulty of different machine translation errors in Spanish and German translations from English

Post-editing (PE) of Machine Translation (MT) is an increasingly popular way to integrate MT in the professional translation workflow, as it increases productivity and income. However, the quality of MT is not always good enough to blindly choose PE over translation from scratch. This article studies the PE of different error types and compares indicators of PE difficulty in English-to-Spanish and English-to-German translations. The results show that the indicators in question 1) do not correlate between each other for all error types, and 2) differ between languages

Associations between selected demographic, biological, school environmental and physical education based correlates, and adolescent physical activity

The study investigated associations between selected physical activity correlates among 299 adolescents (90 boys, age 12-14 years) from 3 English schools. Physical activity was assessed by self-report and accelerometry. Correlates represented biological, predisposing, and demographic factors as described in the Youth Physical Activity Promotion Model. Boys engaged in more self-reported (p < .01) and accelerometer assessed physical activity than girls (p = .02). Positive associations between sex (male), BMI, Perceived PE Ability, Perceived PE Worth, number of enrolled students, and physical activity outcomes were evident (p < .05). Schoolbased physical activity promotion should emphasize sex-specific enhancement of students' perceived PE competence and enjoyment

MT Post-editing into the mother tongue or into a foreign language? : Spanish-to-English MT translation output post-edited by translation trainees

The aim of this study is to analyse whether translation trainees who are not native speakers of the target language are able to perform as well as those who are native speakers, and whether they achieve the expected quality in a "good enough" post-editing (PE) job. In particular the study focuses on the performance of two groups of students doing PE from Spanish into English: native English speakers and native Spanish speakers. A pilot study was set up to collect evidence to compare and contrast the two groups' performances. Trainees from both groups had been given the same training in PE and were asked to post-edit 30 sentences translated from Spanish to English. The PE output was analyzed taking into account accuracy errors (mistranslations and omissions) as well as language errors (grammatical errors and syntax errors). The results show that some native Spanish speakers corrected just as many errors as the native English speakers. Furthermore, the Spanish-speaking trainees outperformed their English-speaking counterparts when identifying mistranslations and omissions. Moreover, the performances of the best English-speaking and Spanish-speaking trainees at identifying grammar and syntax errors were very similar

Measuring post-editing time and effort for different types of machine translation errors

Post-editing (PE) of machine translation (MT) is becoming more and more common in the professional translation setting. However, many users refuse to employ MT due to bad quality of the output it provides and even reject post-editing job offers. This can change by improving MT quality from the point of view of the PE process. This article investigates different types of MT errors and the difficulties they pose for PE in terms of post-editing time and technical effort. For the experiment we used English to German translations performed by MT engines. The errors were previously annotated using the MQM scheme for error annotation. The sentences were post-edited by students in translation. The experiment allowed us to make observations about the relation between technical and temporal PE effort, as well as to discover the types of errors that are more challenging for PE

Run, Jump, Throw and Catch: How proficient are children attending English schools at the Fundamental Motor Skills identified as key within the school curriculum?

This study examined proficiency levels in fundamental motor skills (FMS) in children within Key Stage 1 and 2 of the English school system. Four hundred and ninety-two children aged 6–9 Years old (245 boys, 247 girls) from school Years Two (n = 130), Three (n = 154) and Four (n = 208) participated in this study. FMS for the run, jump, throw and catch were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development – 2. The proportion of children who achieved mastery or near mastery of the skills was determined. For the whole sample, 18.5% (n = 91) did not achieve mastery in any of the four skills. A similar proportion (18.7%, n = 92) achieved mastery in all four of the FMS examined in this study. The proportion of children achieving mastery of all four skills was lower for Year Two children (0%) compared to children in years Three (24%) and Four (25%). More boys (25.7%) achieved mastery in all four of the FMS compared to girls (11.7%). Individual behavioural components in skill performance were also examined. The results of the present study highlight that less than one-fifth of children aged 6–9 years old have mastered the four key FMS identified by the physical education (PE) curriculum despite having the developmental potential to become fundamentally competent by six years of age. Fostering positive trajectories of FMS development presents a challenge for PE specialists given the association between FMS mastery in childhood and physical activity, weight status and health.N/

Quality of life after pulmonary embolism, validation of the French version of the PEmb-QoL questionnaire

Background: The PEmb-QoL is a validated 40-item questionnaire to quantify health-related quality of life in patients having experienced pulmonary embolism (PE). It covers six health dimensions: frequency of complaints, activities of daily living limitations, work-related problems, social limitations, intensity of complaints, and emotional complaints. Originally developed in Dutch and English, we sought to prospectively validate the psychometric properties of a French version of the PEmb-QoL. Methods: We performed a forward and backward translation of the English version of the PEmb-QoL into French. French-speaking consecutive adult patients with an acute, objectively confirmed PE admitted to the emergency department of a Swiss university hospital between 08/2009 and 09/2011 were recruited telephonically. We used standard psychometric tests and criteria to evaluate the acceptability, reliability, and validity of the French version of the PEmb-QoL. We also performed an exploratory factor analysis. Results: Overall, 102 patients were enrolled in the study. The French version of the PEmb-QoL showed good reliability (internal consistency, item-total and inter-item correlations), reproducibility (test-retest reliability), and validity (convergent, discriminant) in French-speaking patients with PE. The exploratory factor analysis suggested three underlying dimensions: limitations in daily activity (items 4b-m, 5a-d), symptoms (items 1a-h and 7), and emotional complaints (items 9a-f and j). Conclusion: We successfully validated the French version of the PEmb-QoL questionnaire in patients with PE. Our results show that the PEmb-QoL is a valuable tool for assessing health-related quality of life after PE in French-speaking patients

Innovación pedagógica en educación física: una propuesta de orientación basada en AICLE

In today's society, languages, especially English language, have acquired great relevance due to the unstoppable process of globalization. Schools must adapt to these kind of social demands. Because of this fact, methodologies such as Content Led Integrated Language Learning (CLIL) are being used more and more often. Here a didactic unit for working orienteering by using CLIL is proposed in order to demonstrate that Physical Education (PE) provides a suitable context in which the use of the language is significant and relevant. Through this proposal, it is shown the great potential of PE to enhance language learning

Contraction in Old English Beowulf

This paper discusses contracted forms or what Zwicky (1977) terms `simple clitics\u27 that are found in the Old English alliterative verse Beowulf. The most frequent is cliticization of the negative particle to the following verb, e.g. naes `not-was\u27 (< ne naes), nis `not-is\u27 (< ne is), nolde `not-would\u27 (< ne wolde). Other examples include the verb-pronoun sequence wen\u27ic `think-I\u27(< wene ic), and the conjunction-particle sequence patte `that-which\u27(<paet pe) (cf. Klaeber 1950, Campbell 1959, Brunner 1965). The elements that may become simple clitics, i.e. the negative particle ne, the subject pronoun ic, and the relative particle pe, consistently occur in a metrically unstressed position. This fact indicates that lack of stress is a necessary condition for cliticization. In parallel with clitic phenomena in Present-day English, contraction in Beowulf tends to be observed with high frequency collocations and is subject to phonotactic factors (cf. Zwicky 1970, 1977, Selkirk 1984, Kaisse 1985, Bybee 2001). For example, the negative particle ne is cliticized to auxiliaries and auxiliary-like verbs that begin with a vowel, h, or w. Although there is some indication that full forms are more often stressed than the corresponding contracted forms (cf. Jack 1999), the factors which distinguish between the two are not entirely clear