54,988 research outputs found
Persuasive discourse and language planning in Ireland
Colonial language discourse typically consists of evaluations concerning the respective merits of two or more languages, and the cultures they represent. This can serve as a warrant for imposing a āsuperiorā language. Although such discourse tends to be associated with the conquest of the New World and subsequent European expansion, there is evidence that in the case of Ireland ā Englandās first overseas colony ā an adversarial relation between English and Irish languages existed even before the Elizabethan period. Referring to English legislation, chronicles and other documents, this paper examines the norms, arguments and rhetorical strategies that were used to exert the dominance of English language in Ireland during late-medieval and early-modern times. In the latter half of the paper, the focus will shift to attempts to create, especially from the seventeenth-century onwards, a āpro-Irish reversalā that used similar arguments and rhetoric to reclaim this denigrated language. Our suggestion is that these pro- and anti-colonial language discourses anticipate those that were used later on in colonial and postcolonial environments
A Journal for the Astronomical Computing Community?
One of the Birds of a Feather (BoF) discussion sessions at ADASS XX
considered whether a new journal is needed to serve the astronomical computing
community. In this paper we discuss the nature and requirements of that
community, outline the analysis that led us to propose this as a topic for a
BoF, and review the discussion from the BoF session itself. We also present the
results from a survey designed to assess the suitability of astronomical
computing papers of different kinds for publication in a range of existing
astronomical and scientific computing journals. The discussion in the BoF
session was somewhat inconclusive, and it seems likely that this topic will be
debated again at a future ADASS or in a similar forum.Comment: 4 pages, no figures; to appear in proceedings of ADASS X
Maximum Inner-Product Search using Tree Data-structures
The problem of {\em efficiently} finding the best match for a query in a
given set with respect to the Euclidean distance or the cosine similarity has
been extensively studied in literature. However, a closely related problem of
efficiently finding the best match with respect to the inner product has never
been explored in the general setting to the best of our knowledge. In this
paper we consider this general problem and contrast it with the existing
best-match algorithms. First, we propose a general branch-and-bound algorithm
using a tree data structure. Subsequently, we present a dual-tree algorithm for
the case where there are multiple queries. Finally we present a new data
structure for increasing the efficiency of the dual-tree algorithm. These
branch-and-bound algorithms involve novel bounds suited for the purpose of
best-matching with inner products. We evaluate our proposed algorithms on a
variety of data sets from various applications, and exhibit up to five orders
of magnitude improvement in query time over the naive search technique.Comment: Under submission in KDD 201
On the Sample Complexity of Predictive Sparse Coding
The goal of predictive sparse coding is to learn a representation of examples
as sparse linear combinations of elements from a dictionary, such that a
learned hypothesis linear in the new representation performs well on a
predictive task. Predictive sparse coding algorithms recently have demonstrated
impressive performance on a variety of supervised tasks, but their
generalization properties have not been studied. We establish the first
generalization error bounds for predictive sparse coding, covering two
settings: 1) the overcomplete setting, where the number of features k exceeds
the original dimensionality d; and 2) the high or infinite-dimensional setting,
where only dimension-free bounds are useful. Both learning bounds intimately
depend on stability properties of the learned sparse encoder, as measured on
the training sample. Consequently, we first present a fundamental stability
result for the LASSO, a result characterizing the stability of the sparse codes
with respect to perturbations to the dictionary. In the overcomplete setting,
we present an estimation error bound that decays as \tilde{O}(sqrt(d k/m)) with
respect to d and k. In the high or infinite-dimensional setting, we show a
dimension-free bound that is \tilde{O}(sqrt(k^2 s / m)) with respect to k and
s, where s is an upper bound on the number of non-zeros in the sparse code for
any training data point.Comment: Sparse Coding Stability Theorem from version 1 has been relaxed
considerably using a new notion of coding margin. Old Sparse Coding Stability
Theorem still in new version, now as Theorem 2. Presentation of all proofs
simplified/improved considerably. Paper reorganized. Empirical analysis
showing new coding margin is non-trivial on real dataset
Managing Research Data: Gravitational Waves
The project which led to this report was funded by JISC in 2010ā2011 as part of its
āManaging Research Dataā programme, to examine the way in which Big Science data
is managed, and produce any recommendations which may be appropriate.
Big science data is different: it comes in large volumes, and it is shared and
exploited in ways which may differ from other disciplines. This project has explored
these differences using as a case-study Gravitational Wave data generated by the LSC,
and has produced recommendations intended to be useful variously to JISC, the funding
council (STFC) and the LSC community.
In Sect. 1 we deļ¬ne what we mean by ābig scienceā, describe the overall data
culture there, laying stress on how it necessarily or contingently differs from other
disciplines.
In Sect. 2 we discuss the beneļ¬ts of a formal data-preservation strategy, and the
cases for open data and for well-preserved data that follow from that. This leads to our
recommendations that, in essence, funders should adopt rather light-touch prescriptions
regarding data preservation planning: normal data management practice, in the areas
under study, corresponds to notably good practice in most other areas, so that the only
change we suggest is to make this planning more formal, which makes it more easily
auditable, and more amenable to constructive criticism.
In Sect. 3 we brieļ¬y discuss the LIGO data management plan, and pull together
whatever information is available on the estimation of digital preservation costs.
The report is informed, throughout, by the OAIS reference model for an open
archive. Some of the reportās ļ¬ndings and conclusions were summarised in [1].
See the document history on page 37
A solar water heater for remote communities
The RADG has been developing a solar water heater suitable for use in remote areas. The original inspiration for this project was to provide hot water for remote Aboriginal communities. It was felt that a regular and plentiful supply of hot water would encourage showering and laundering and hence improve personal hygiene.
Electric, fuel burning and solar water heaters are currently used in some communities. Solar water heaters are attractive for remote areas because they stand alone i.e. they require no external fuel source. Wood has traditionally been used as a fuel by Aboriginal people, but in permanent communities the demand on this resource may have a large impact on the environment. Solar water heaters can help to reduce this demand
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