Unsupervised Discovery of Phonological Categories through Supervised Learning of Morphological Rules

We describe a case study in the application of {\em symbolic machine learning} techniques for the discovery of linguistic rules and categories. A supervised rule induction algorithm is used to learn to predict the correct diminutive suffix given the phonological representation of Dutch nouns. The system produces rules which are comparable to rules proposed by linguists. Furthermore, in the process of learning this morphological task, the phonemes used are grouped into phonologically relevant categories. We discuss the relevance of our method for linguistics and language technology

Growth Management Policies for Exurban and Suburban Development: Theory and an Application to Sonoma County, California

This study examines the effectiveness of growth management policies on influencing future patterns of exurban and suburban development. We initially estimate a spatially explicit model of residential development with parcel data in Sonoma County, California. This estimated model is then used to simulate the effect of urban growth boundaries (UGBs) versus allowing municipal sewer service expansion. The UGB policy decreases the amount of suburban development but is less effective in managing exurban development. The downzoning policy in agricultural and resource areas reduces the amount of exurban development, but only partially due to the prevalence of grandfathered lots in rural areas.exurban development, urban growth boundaries, sprawl, spatial modeling, urban fringe, Land Economics/Use,

Minimality of totally geodesic submanifolds in Finsler geometry

Using the symplectic definition of the Holmes-Thompson volume we prove that totally geodesic submanifolds of a Finsler manifold are minimal for this volume. Thanks to well suited technics the minimality of totally geodesic hypersurfaces (see Álvarez Paiva and Berck in Adv Math 204(2):647-663, 2006) and 2-dimensional totally geodesic surfaces (see Álvarez Paiva and Berck in Adv Math 204(2):647-663, 2006, Ivanov in Algebra i Analiz 13(1)26-38, 2001) had already been proved. However the corresponding statement for the Hausdorff measure is known to be wrong even in the simplest case of totally geodesic 2-dimensional surfaces in a 3-dimensional Finsler manifold (see Álvarez Paiva and Berck in Adv Math 204(2):647-663, 2006

An Analysis of the World’s Environment and Population Dynamics with Varying Carrying Capacity, Concerns and Skepticism

Due to the open-access nature of the environment we consider an ad hoc adjustment of people’s footprints to the quality of the environment. The adjustment is due to concerns, but hindered by skepticism about announced changes in the state of the environment. Changes in the quality of the environment affect Earth’s carrying capacity. By expanding the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model to include these features we show that despite skepticism the environment-population system does not collapse. We also show that in the ideal case of no skepticism, the interplay between the non-optimally changing environmental concerns and carrying capacity sends the world’s environment and human population on an oscillating course that leads to a unique interior steady state. These results require no further technological, social or international progress.Environment; Population; Carrying Capacity; Concerns; Skepticism

SPATIAL TARGETING STRATEGIES FOR LAND CONSERVATION

Purchasing development rights is a major mechanism for the protection of environmental quality and landscape amenities. This paper provides a targeting strategy for protecting multiple environmental benefits that takes into account land costs and probability of land use conversion. We compare two strategies. Subject to a budget constraint on parcel purchases, the standard strategy is to target parcels with the highest ratio of environmental benefits to land costs. The standard strategy selects parcels even if there is little probability that the parcel would otherwise be converted. Our new strategy targets parcels to minimize the benefit loss from land conversion, which weights parcel based on initial benefit endowment and expected probability of land use conversion. The empirical analysis focuses on targeting conservation easements in the exurban region of Sonoma County, CA, in which extensively-managed, developable parcels (i.e. pasture and forest areas) with environmental benefits are being converted to residential use and vineyards. Spatially-explicit modeling approaches are employed to estimate land values and likelihood of land use conversion, according to heterogeneous parcel site characteristics, for all developable parcels. Our results indicate that benefit-cost targeting is biased toward low cost parcels, since it ignores the variation in likelihood of future land use conversion. This inefficiency for benefit-cost targeting arises from the positive relationship that typically exists between likelihood of land use change and value of development rights. Hence, some parcels with poor land quality or remote accessibility to urban centers would have de facto conservation, and therefore do not warrant targeting of conservation funds, despite the low cost of protection. Our new targeting strategy balances the countervailing factors of land values and likelihood of land use conversion.Land Economics/Use,

Habitat and open space at risk and the prioritization of conservation easements

Funds available to purchase land and easements for conservation purposes are limited. This article provides a targeting strategy for protecting multiple environmental benefits that includes heterogeneity in land costs and probability of land-use conversion, by incorporating spatially explicit land-use change and hedonic price models. This strategy is compared to two alternative strategies that omit either land cost or conversion threat. Based on dynamic programming and Monte Carlo simulations with alternating periods of conservation and development, we demonstrate that the positive correlation between land costs and probability of land-use conversion affects targeting efficiency using parcel data from Sonoma County, California.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Young Children’s TV Show Preferences and Perceptions of Women in STEM

Women are joining STEM fields at higher rates, yet the stereotype of math and science being for men is still reinforced to children by their parents, their teachers, and especially what they watch. Children tend to trust characters of their same gender and are more likely to retain the lessons from the characters they trust. Since most of the shows children watch tend to display gender stereotypes, especially the stereotype of men being good in STEM, children are likely to enforce these stereotypes. The increase of women in STEM has increased interest in STEM for girls, but boys still tend to hold more rigid gender bias. In this study, we were interested in the potential association between children’s preference for masculine or feminine television shows and their perceptions of women in STEM. We recruited 22 children and their parents and gave them a packet with questions measuring stereotype awareness, stereotype flexibility, and stereotype endorsement; questions measuring television preference; and a worksheet to draw a scientist and a teacher. The results showed a clear association between the type of television preferred (masculine or feminine) and the gender of the scientist in their drawings (p \u3c .05). A comparison of the equitable, male-bias, and female-bias scores for the stereotype measures also demonstrated a significant difference between television preference groups (p \u3c .05); specifically, those children who preferred feminine television scored higher on female-bias for stereotype endorsement (women “should be good” at STEM) than those who preferred masculine television. This study overall supports the correlation between television preference and STEM as a gendered field