Learning OT constraint rankings using a maximum entropy model

Abstract. A weakness of standard Optimality Theory is its inability to account for grammar

The Limits of U.S. Governmental Power in Times of Crisis

Government’s Emergency Power Throughout the History of the United States This paper reviews the use of power by the United States government during times of crisis. This paper analyzes both the arguments from Thomas Hobbes and John Locke regarding how limited both believe government should be. Throughout this debate John Locke believes that in leaving a state of nature we must enter into civil society through a social contract with each other. Hobbes’ view of the state of nature is such that he believes that there should be virtually no limitations on the power of government in eliminating citizens from the state of nature conditions. These debates are important today in answering how much power should be given to our government in times of crisis and what protections need to be put in place to ensure government does not abuse its power. The following essay analyzes 1) President Abraham Lincoln’s use of martial law and suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War, 2) Hawaii’s use of martial law after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and 3) 2001 Patriot Act and the future of such emergency powers within the United States. In analyzing these cases the focus remained on whether within these emergency powers the government ever: suspended the writ of habeas corpus, seized private property, set up military courts to try civilians, or advanced other restrictions of citizen’s civil rights. In evaluating these elements one can look at whether government has given back these powers when the threat subsided or has been used to extend government’s power or merely as a tool in bringing us out of the state of nature and back into civil society. The findings of this paper suggest that in each case the government gives power back to its citizens, doing such in manner that is timely and respectful of citizens’ rights/liberties

Corpus-based measures discriminate inflection and derivation cross-linguistically

Japanese passives are traditionally considered to have two types: direct and indirect passives. However, more recent studies, such as Ishizuka (2012), suggest the two types can be unified un- der the same syntactic movement analysis. Uti- lizing the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ; Maekawa, 2008; Maekawa et al., 2014), this study aims to in- vestigate how likely different types of passives appear in the naturally occurring texts, espe- cially in relation to markedness-based hierar- chy called Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierar- chy (NPAH; Keenan and Comrie, 1977), and to investigate if true indirect passives occur in contemporary written Japanese

A full field simulation of the in Salah gas production and CO2 storage project using a coupled geo-mechanical and thermal fluid flow simulator

AbstractWe report results from a full field simulation model of the combined production and injection reservoirs, extending from a depth of 3.5 km to ground level, and with a lateral, x and y, extent of approximately 50 km. The model couples geomechanical calculations to fluid flow with an energy transport equation. It simulates two-phase immiscible flow with four components (CH4, CO2, NaCl and H2O) in the gas and aqueous phases. CO2 may dissolve into the aqueous phase. Fractures are modelled explicitly in the grid

Pseudoscientific health beliefs and the perceived frequency of causal relationships

Beliefs about cause and effect, including health beliefs, are thought to be related to the frequency of the target outcome (e.g., health recovery) occurring when the putative cause is present and when it is absent (treatment administered vs. no treatment); this is known as contingency learning. However, it is unclear whether unvalidated health beliefs, where there is no evidence of cause– effect contingency, are also influenced by the subjective perception of a meaningful contingency between events. In a survey, respondents were asked to judge a range of health beliefs and estimate the probability of the target outcome occurring with and without the putative cause present. Over-all, we found evidence that causal beliefs are related to perceived cause–effect contingency. Interestingly, beliefs that were not predicted by perceived contingency were meaningfully related to scores on the paranormal belief scale. These findings suggest heterogeneity in pseudoscientific health beliefs and the need to tailor intervention strategies according to underlying causes

A Conserved DNA Repeat Promotes Selection of a Diverse Repertoire of Trypanosoma brucei Surface Antigens from the Genomic Archive.

African trypanosomes are mammalian pathogens that must regularly change their protein coat to survive in the host bloodstream. Chronic trypanosome infections are potentiated by their ability to access a deep genomic repertoire of Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) genes and switch from the expression of one VSG to another. Switching VSG expression is largely based in DNA recombination events that result in chromosome translocations between an acceptor site, which houses the actively transcribed VSG, and a donor gene, drawn from an archive of more than 2,000 silent VSGs. One element implicated in these duplicative gene conversion events is a DNA repeat of approximately 70 bp that is found in long regions within each BES and short iterations proximal to VSGs within the silent archive. Early observations showing that 70-bp repeats can be recombination boundaries during VSG switching led to the prediction that VSG-proximal 70-bp repeats provide recombinatorial homology. Yet, this long held assumption had not been tested and no specific function for the conserved 70-bp repeats had been demonstrated. In the present study, the 70-bp repeats were genetically manipulated under conditions that induce gene conversion. In this manner, we demonstrated that 70-bp repeats promote access to archival VSGs. Synthetic repeat DNA sequences were then employed to identify the length, sequence, and directionality of repeat regions required for this activity. In addition, manipulation of the 70-bp repeats allowed us to observe a link between VSG switching and the cell cycle that had not been appreciated. Together these data provide definitive support for the long-standing hypothesis that 70-bp repeats provide recombinatorial homology during switching. Yet, the fact that silent archival VSGs are selected under these conditions suggests the 70-bp repeats also direct DNA pairing and recombination machinery away from the closest homologs (silent BESs) and toward the rest of the archive

Landcover change in mangroves of Fiji: implications for climate change mitigation and adaptation in the Pacific

Mangrove coverage in Fiji is among the highest of all Pacific island nations. These ecosystems store disproportionate amounts of carbon, provide critically important resources for communities, and protect coastal communities against the impacts of tropical cyclones. They are therefore vital in mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change. An improved understanding of both the scale and drivers of mangrove loss in Fiji can underpin sustainable management strategies and achieve climate change mitigation and adaptation goals. In this study we assessed mangrove cover, landcover change, and drivers of landcover change for Fiji between 2001 and 2018,as well as the impacts of landcover change on the structural characteristics of mangroves at selected sites on the Fijian island of Viti Levu. Results were then framed within the context of developing management responses, including the potential to develop forest carbon projects. We found Fiji’s mangrove estate to be 65,243 ha, with a loss of 1135 ha between 2001 and 2018 and an annual rate of loss of 0.11%. Tropical cyclones accounted for 77% of loss (~870 ha), with highest losses along the northern coastlines of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Mangrove structural characteristics showed high variability in the level of damage incurred, with taller riverine and hinterland vegetation sustaining greater levels of damage than coastal fringing or scrub mangroves. There was no tropical cyclone damage evident along the southern coastline of Viti Levu, with small-scale harvesting the predominate driver of loss in this region. Because of the large effect of cyclone damage on mangroves in the region, small to medium scale restoration projects may be appropriate interventions to increase mangrove cover and carbon stocks. Where harvesting of mangroves occurs, improved management to avoid deforestation could also provide opportunities to maintain mangrove cover and carbon stocks

Genetic and clinical contributions to cerebral palsy: A multi-variable analysis

All authors are contributors to the Australian Collaborative Cerebral Palsy Research Group The definitive version is available at www.wileyonlinelibrary.comAimThis study aims to examine single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations with cerebral palsy in a multi-variable analysis adjusting for potential clinical confounders and to assess SNP-SNP and SNP-maternal infection interactions as contributors to cerebral palsy.MethodsA case control study including 587 children with cerebral palsy and 1154 control children without cerebral palsy. Thirty-nine candidate SNPs were genotyped in both mother and child. Data linkage to perinatal notes and cerebral palsy registers was performed with a supplementary maternal pregnancy questionnaire. History of known maternal infection during pregnancy was extracted from perinatal databases.ResultsBoth maternal and fetal carriage of inducible nitric oxide synthase SNP rs1137933 were significantly negatively associated with cerebral palsy in infants born at less than 32 weeks gestation after adjustment for potential clinical confounders and correction for multiple testing (odds ratio 0.55, 95% confidence interval 0.38-0.79; odds ratio 0.57, 95% confidence interval 0.4-0.82, respectively). Analysis did not show any statistically significant SNP-SNP or SNP-maternal infection interactions after correction for multiple testing.ConclusionsMaternal and child inducible nitric oxide synthase SNPs are associated with reduced risk of cerebral palsy in infants born very preterm. There was no evidence for statistically significant SNP-SNP or SNP-maternal infection interactions as modulators of cerebral palsy risk.Michael E O’Callaghan, Alastair H MacLennan, Catherine S Gibson, Gai L McMichael, Eric A Haan, Jessica L Broadbent, Peter A Baghurst, Paul N Goldwater, Gustaaf A Dekker and for the Australian Collaborative Cerebral Palsy Research Grou