Alien Registration- Allen, Stuart E. (Mexico, Oxford County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/17822/thumbnail.jp

Adapting Sequence Models for Sentence Correction

In a controlled experiment of sequence-to-sequence approaches for the task of sentence correction, we find that character-based models are generally more effective than word-based models and models that encode subword information via convolutions, and that modeling the output data as a series of diffs improves effectiveness over standard approaches. Our strongest sequence-to-sequence model improves over our strongest phrase-based statistical machine translation model, with access to the same data, by 6 M2 (0.5 GLEU) points. Additionally, in the data environment of the standard CoNLL-2014 setup, we demonstrate that modeling (and tuning against) diffs yields similar or better M2 scores with simpler models and/or significantly less data than previous sequence-to-sequence approaches.Comment: EMNLP 201

The anxiety behind gynocriticism : contemporary application of Gilbert & Gubar\u27s The madwoman in the attic

Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar\u27s 1979 critical study The Madwoman in the Attic, with its gynocritical approach to the fictions of nineteenth-century women writers and the anxieties those writers faced, has garnered much critical attention since its publication—both positive and negative. As feminist criticism has expanded and branched off into several new disciplines, the idea that women writers formed a kind of literary community through the way in which they incorporated their anxieties into the fictions they created has been challenged by subsequent critics. This study examines that critical disapproval and seeks to demonstrate why Gilbert & Gubar\u27s approach is still worthy of study as a system of interpretation and how their approach can be adapted and applied to literature written after the nineteenth century. This project explores the relevance of Gilbert & Gubar\u27s critical study through an examination of three novels published since 1979: Margaret Atwood\u27s The Handmaid\u27s Tale (1986), Jeanette Winterson\u27s The Passion (1987), and Zadie Smith\u27s White Teeth (2000). The Handmaid\u27s Tale is an example of how a novel written by a contemporary literary woman can be influenced by the works of previous male authors--but in a positive manner. The Passion, through the presence of agoraphobic tendencies and reactions in the text and its characters, leads to the conclusion that anyone who struggles against patriarchal tradition will suffer at the hands of that tradition. Lastly, White Teeth demonstrates how the kind of anxiety that infects the writing of women has changed at the beginning of the twenty-first century from a more patriarchy/society based anxiety to one based on issues of religion, ethnicity, and race

Design and Synthesis of Lipid Probes Used for Membrane Derivatization and Fusion

Lipids control a variety of complex biological processes. Bulk lipids such as phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylserine (PS), and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) represent the major components of cellular membranes. In addition, unilamellar vesicles composed of lipids (liposomes) are valuable for delivery applications since they can encapsulate and transport drugs and other agents. In order to maximize delivery efficiency and target specific membranes, the ability to trigger and control vesicle-vesicle fusion is desirable. Such approaches generally seek to mimic the membrane fusion machinery present in nature while imparting specificity in the membranes that undergo fusion. The goal of this work is selective drug delivery to diseased cells. We have explored the copper-free click reaction as a bioorthogonal means to drive fusion between membranes containing cyclooctyne-tagged and azido-tagged lipids. We synthesized three novel lipids containing either the cyclooctyne or azide functional group at the headgroup. In chapter one, we describe the synthesis of Oxy-dibenzocyclooctyne (ODIBO) lipids 1 and 15 and azido-lipid 18, which contain reactive partners for copper-free click chemistry. In these compounds, the phosphate headgroup typically seen in phospholipids is substituted for a triazole ring. In chapter two, we describe the analysis of these compounds for membrane derivatization and fusion. We first set out to confirm the successful derivatization of liposomes containing ODIBO lipids 1 and 15 using a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay. Next, we investigated membrane fusion by mixing complementary reactive liposomes including ODIBO 1 and azido-lipids, which was again studied through FRET. We studied the effects of liposome composition on fusion, including the PC / PE ratio and the structures of the cyclooctyne-lipids (1- 4) and azido-lipids (5, 36). Through these studies, we identified that ODIBO-lipid 1 and azido-lipid 5 yielded the greatest amount of fusion when incorporated into opposing liposomes containing a 45% / 45% PC/PE ratio. We also attempted to facilitate fusion by the addition of oppositely charged lipids and cholesterol into liposomes, although we were unsuccessful in seeing anything meaningful. This provides, to our knowledge, the first example of exploiting copper-free click chemistry to drive membrane fusion

Asymptotic behaviour of random Markov chains with tridiagonal generators

Continuous-time discrete-state random Markov chains generated by a random linear differential equation with a random tridiagonal matrix are shown to have a random attractor consisting of singleton subsets, essentially a random path, in the simplex of probability vectors. The proof uses comparison theorems for Carath\'eodory random differential equations and the fact that the linear cocycle generated by the Markov chain is a uniformly contractive mapping of the positive cone into itself with respect to the the Hilbert projective metric. It does not involve probabilistic properties of the sample path and is thus equally valid in the nonautonomous deterministic context of Markov chains with, say, periodically varying transitions probabilities, in which case the attractor is a periodic path.Comment: 11 pages, 15 bibliography references, added bibliography, minor change

Faculty perspectives on the inclusion of spirituality topics in nonsectarian leadership and management education programs

The purpose of this study was to explore faculty views on the inclusion of spiritual topics in graduate leadership and management programs, focusing on faculty experiences, perceived benefits and challenges, and teaching methods and principles in use. We interviewed twelve faculty members in leadership or management programs from eleven nonsectarian universities. Participants discussed eight benefits including the opportunity for whole person growth and skill development that would benefit leaders in a global workplace. Eight barriers to such inclusion were identified such as proselytizing and the misuse of power. The sampled instructors also made some suggestions for how to include spirituality topics, such as using respected resources and linking classroom discussions to practice. Overall, instructors’ preference for including spiritual topics also varied in terms of explicit versus implicit and organic-emergent versus preplanned-structured approaches