Learning unification-based grammars using the Spoken English Corpus

This paper describes a grammar learning system that combines model-based and data-driven learning within a single framework. Our results from learning grammars using the Spoken English Corpus (SEC) suggest that combined model-based and data-driven learning can produce a more plausible grammar than is the case when using either learning style isolation.Comment: 10 page

“In the Eye of the Storm”: A Recollection of Three Days in the Falaise Gap, 19–21 August 1944

These are the memoirs of a Canadian infantryman who was involved in, and survived, the battle of the Falaise Gap, the final phase of the Normandy Campaign, in August 1944. He was a rifleman of 14 Platoon, “C” Company, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada. In the author’s own words this account, “is not intended to represent me as being heroic. Far from it. I was terrified most of the time in battle, and eventually ended up a couple of months after St. Lambert as a battle exhaustion casualty. There’s nothing heroic about that. It just happened that I was in St. Lambert at that time, not realizing the importance of the situation until reading about it much later. We low rankers seldom knew what was going on, where we were, where we were going, or what to expect when we got there. It has only been since the war, and with the help of history books, that I have been able to retrace my steps through the campaign and to put names to the places that had no particular meaning at the time -just another place to run in, dig in and prepare for the counterattack.” The Argylls were part of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division, which went to Normandy in July 1944 and relieved the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division just south of Caen. In the battles of early August the Argylls slowly pushed south through the wheat fields, and a determined enemy, suffering heavy casualties in the process. It was obvious that the Normandy campaign was nearing completion, with the American Army running wild further south and west. But the Germans were not giving up easily. As the situation developed, the Americans were advancing northward, and the Canadians were heading south trying to link up and trap the enemy in a massive pocket. The enemy was trying to escape through the few miles that separated the Americans and Canadians, the so-called Falaise Gap. In the centre of the Gap was the small village of St. Lambert-sur-Dives, squarely astride the Germans’ main escape route. It was within this context that the events recalled below took place

Evaluating the effectiveness of the Disability Discrimination (NI) Order (2006) duties

This report evaluates the effectiveness of the Disability Discrimination (NI) Order (2006) duties. These duties require public authorities in Northern Ireland to promote positive attitudes towards disabled people and to encourage the participation of disabled people in public life. The duties also require public authorities to produce disability action plans and to report annually on progress towards disability equality. The report provides a framework for evaluation of progress and applies this to provide an assessment of the implementation of these duties up to 2009 and makes recommendations to improve the effectiveness and implementation of the duties

Caring for the carer: home design and modification for carers of young people with disability

This HMinfo Occasional Research Paper focuses on carers, that is those who deliver informal (unpaid) care to young people with disability, and particularly those carers who share their home with the person they are caring for, as well as the housing design considerations that may support carers in their caring role. In this report, paid carers are referred to as support workers, and their role is clearly differentiated from that of carers, who are unpaid. It should also be noted that many people with disability are themselves the carer for a partner or family member. Both carers, who are usually family members or partners, and support workers, who are paid to provide care to a person with disability, need supportive and safe environments in which to care for people with disability. The definition of a carer is: “A person of any age who provides any informal assistance, in terms of help or supervision, to persons with disabilities or long-term conditions, or older persons (i.e. aged 60 years and over). This assistance has to be ongoing, or likely to be ongoing, for at least six months.”. This research adopts a definition of disability that understands it as the product of interaction between an individual and their environment. Whether or not a particular physical condition is experienced as disabling depends on the natural and built environment, social, political and cultural structures, and interpersonal processes of the individual concerned. In addition, Eley et al highlight that both people with intellectual disability and their carers are ageing, and the concurrent ageing of these groups poses specific challenges in providing suitable housing. For the purpose of this research, the concept of ‘care’ is defined as the provision of assistance to a person with disability or chronic health condition or frail older person, to ensure their health, safety and wellbeing. Care is generally triaged into: • formal care delivered by waged staff or trained volunteers • informal care delivered by unpaid carers, usually family members; or • self-care, a newly evolving conceptual category that will be referenced in this report insofar as it impacts on the degree of care provided by carers. The ABS describes self-care as the capacity to undertake tasks associated with: showering or bathing; dressing; eating; toileting; and bladder or bowel control. This HMinfo Occasional Research Paper will focus on the unpaid (informal) carers of young people with disability (<65 years) only, and from the following perspectives: 1. What tensions, if any, may exist between a carer’s needs and the needs of the person with disability in home design? 2. What design features of the physical home environment would enable carers t

The CFHTLS Deep Catalog of Interacting Galaxies I. Merger Rate Evolution to z=1.2

We present the rest-frame optical galaxy merger fraction between 0.2<z<1.2, as a function of stellar mass and optical luminosity, as observed by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Deep Survey (CFHTLS-Deep). We developed a new classification scheme to identify major galaxy-galaxy mergers based on the presence of tidal tails and bridges. These morphological features are signposts of recent and ongoing merger activity. Through the visual classification of all galaxies, down to i_vega<22.2 (~27,000 galaxies) over 2 square degrees, we have compiled the CFHTLS Deep Catalog of Interacting Galaxies, with ~1600 merging galaxies. We find the merger fraction to be 4.3% +/-0.3% at z~0.3 and 19.0% +/-2.5% at z~1, implying evolution of the merger fraction going as (1+z)^m, with m=2.25 +/-0.24. This result is inconsistent with a mild or non-evolving (m4sigma level of confidence. A mild trend, where massive galaxies with M>10^10.7 M_sun are undergoing fewer mergers than less massive systems M~10^10 M_sun), consistent with the expectations of galaxy assembly downsizing is observed. Our results also show that interacting galaxies have on average SFRs double that found in non-interacting field galaxies. We conclude that (1) the optical galaxy merger fraction does evolve with redshift, (2) the merger fraction depends mildly on stellar mass, with lower mass galaxies having higher merger fractions at z<1, and (3) star formation is triggered at all phases of a merger, with larger enhancements at later stages, consistent with N-body simulations.Comment: e.g.: 17 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Ap