GenERRate: generating errors for use in grammatical error detection

This paper explores the issue of automatically generated ungrammatical data and its use in error detection, with a focus on the task of classifying a sentence as grammatical or ungrammatical. We present an error generation tool called GenERRate and show how GenERRate can be used to improve the performance of a classifier on learner data. We describe initial attempts to replicate Cambridge Learner Corpus errors using GenERRate

All-Order Corrections and Multi-Jet Rates

We discuss results from a recently proposed all-order description of hard, radiative corrections to certain multi-jet processes at hadron colliders. The description is based on obtaining an all-order estimate of the t-channel singularities of scattering amplitudes. As a simple example, we illustrate the similarities between qQ and qg-scattering. In particular, we discuss how at tree-level, all non-suppressed helicity-amplitudes for these processes consist of a pure t-channel pole. This structure is used in the construction of all-order approximations.Comment: 6 pages. Talk given at RADCOR 2009 - 9th International Symposium on Radiative Corrections (Applications of Quantum Field Theory to Phenomenology), October 25 - 30 2009, Ascona, Switzerlan

Anti-Puritanism, Anti-Popery, and Gallows Rhetoric in Thomas Nashe\u27s The Unfortunate Traveller

This article explores links between the anti-Marprelate polemics and Thomas Nashe\u27s satire of Puritans and Catholics in The Unfortunate Traveller. In public confrontations with the late Elizabethan church, activist minority religions were co-opting powerful rhetorics of holiness. Analysis is made of episodes in The Unfortunate Traveller where Nashe deconstructs Puritan and Catholic appropriations of the rhetoric of martyrdom and seeks to educate the reader in interpreting or seeing through what he believes are pretended forms of holiness. Making readers aware of false appropriations and performances of holiness involves educating them in the narrative and dramatic conventions that are used to manipulate their opinions and emotions

Rewriting a Murder Pamphlet: the Perspective of Deviance in The Changeling” Appositions

This article focuses on the relationship between murder pamphlets and early modern drama. I first provide a brief overview of typical features of murder pamphlets. In the rest of the article, I examine a specific example of a play based on a murder pamphlet, Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling. Exploring the play in contrast to its pamphlet source reveals some of the key differences between the two genres: namely, the pamphlet stories typically follow a moralizing narrative that ensures that providence will bring murderers to a just punishment and repentance, whereas the play invites the audience to experience a subjective world of morally ambivalent motives and ambiguous signs. The two genres thus take dramatically different perspectives on the experience of moral choice and deviance

English 2180 skeleton syllabus and sample assignment

Approaches that I consider to teaching English 2180: the Function of Stories, include: 1) Legal Argumentation as Story-telling: the role of stories in jurisprudence 2) Philosophical explorations into cognitive and affective benefits from fiction 3) Socio-historical arguments about the rise of the novel 4) Fiction as cautionary tales for maturing adolescents 5) Psychological benefits: storytelling as a source of analogues for subjective experienc

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and a ‘‘Death With Dignity’’

The Oregon ‘‘Death With Dignity’’ Act (DWD Act) allows a terminally ill patient with 6 months to live to ask a physician for medication to end their life. To receive the medication, the DWD Act requires the patient to verbally request the prescription twice 2 weeks apart as well as in writing. Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis have three main barriers to using DWD: (a) the ability to communicate their informed consent as the disease progresses further, (b) the possibility of dementia which may affect their decisional capacity, and (c) given the nature and speed of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, limited time is available for patients to self-administer the prescription and may rush the time line for the death. This article reviews the current knowledge and addresses the need for adjustments to existing law and recommendations for states considering a DWD law

How Does the Social World Shape the Experience of a Rare Disease? Social Position and the Development, Progression, and Medical Care for People With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

This dissertation focuses on the implications of social position and life course on the experience of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Using a sociology in medicine frame, I test three theoretical perspectives (fundamental cause theory, social determinants of health, and life course theory) to determine the influence of social conditions on the development and progression of, and medical care for, people with ALS (pALS). Further, I use ALS as an exemplar of the need for a sociology of disease. Using the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis National Registry, I first assess the association of social position with the reported onset location at the time of diagnosis of ALS. Second, I assess the influence of social position on the time between reported date of symptom development and diagnosis. The final study evaluates the odds of reporting several types of medical care dependent on the position in the life course. Results indicate that social position (race/ethnicity, gender, and education) influence the experience of the onset of ALS. Further, position in the life course is associated with the reporting of onset location, with those at older ages being more likely to report bulbar or global onset in contrast to limb onset. Position in the life course is also associated with symptoms of ALS, with older persons with ALS (pALS) experiencing symptoms earlier, often prior to diagnosis. Social position and position in the life course also influenced the adoption of life-extending medical care for pALS, with younger pALS adopting more of these interventions. Overall, the results indicate that even in a rare disease with an unknown cause, fundamental cause theory, the social determinants of health, and life course theory provide a valuable framework for understanding the experience of ALS. These theories, however, need refinement when used in the sociology of disease. Additionally, the results are evidence of a need for a sociology of disease. Finally, the results highlight the need for more inclusive research designs, as well as additional qualitative and quantitative work in understanding how social position shapes the lived experience of ALS. Advisor: Julia McQuilla

Development of Future Habitat Suitability Models for the Swift fox (Vulpes velox) in the American Southwest

The Swift fox (Vupes velox) is a habitat specialist species of short or mixed grass prairie. We used bioclimatic envelope models and habitat suitability models under three future climate scenarios (based on CO2 emission rates) from "www.climatewizard.org":http://www.climatewizard.org to fit species distribution models, using the maximum entropy method. Current suitable habitat for the swift fox covers an area of 161,984 km2. Under the future climate scenarios the habitat decreases by 27% in the low emission scenario, 63% for medium emissions, and 53% in the high emissions scenario. This decrease in suitable habitat corresponded to an overall decrease in total grassland landcover. The current total area of grassland is 423,440 km2. Under the future climate scenarios the grassland decreased by 12% in the low emissions scenario, 24% for medium emissions, and 16% in the high emissions scenario

Structural Changes in U.S. Agricultural Production and Productivity

Livestock Production/Industries,