Comparing rule-based and data-driven approaches to Spanish-to-Basque machine translation

In this paper, we compare the rule-based and data-driven approaches in the context of Spanish-to-Basque Machine Translation. The rule-based system we consider has been developed specifically for Spanish-to-Basque machine translation, and is tuned to this language pair. On the contrary, the data-driven system we use is generic, and has not been specifically designed to deal with Basque. Spanish-to-Basque Machine Translation is a challenge for data-driven approaches for at least two reasons. First, there is lack of bilingual data on which a data-driven MT system can be trained. Second, Basque is a morphologically-rich agglutinative language and translating to Basque requires a huge generation of morphological information, a difficult task for a generic system not specifically tuned to Basque. We present the results of a series of experiments, obtained on two different corpora, one being “in-domain” and the other one “out-of-domain” with respect to the data-driven system. We show that n-gram based automatic evaluation and edit-distance-based human evaluation yield two different sets of results. According to BLEU, the data-driven system outperforms the rule-based system on the in-domain data, while according to the human evaluation, the rule-based approach achieves higher scores for both corpora

Hormigón Ligero

Peer Reviewe

Content and end-state-based alteration in the practice of political violence since the end of cold war: the difference between the terrorism of the cold war and the terrorism of al Qaeda: the rise of the "transcendental terrorist"

For more than two generations the world was defined in international political terms by the label, the Cold War. This phrase was shorthand for many phenomena, including the division of the East and West into two blocs and the ideologicallybased definition of said blocs. Whilst we cannot state that the whole of the world was divided in an iron-clad fashion into two separate camps – the neutral and nonaligned nations representing a sizeable constituency – the fact remains that for North America, Western Europe, the USSR and the Soviet controlled satellite nations, the bipolarity of the Cold War geostrategic environment had an overarching impact upon several areas of policy, including national security, foreign affairs, defence and attitudes to the use of force. The influence of the bipolar stand-off had a significant shaping effect with regard to how government was organised on both sides of the Iron Curtain and on the ways in which threat perceptions were managed and influenced national policies concerning security. Fundamentally, the effect can be summarised as follows: Internally: National governments secured the law and order and domestic stability of their state system primarily through the agency of the police (or militia). These authorities were mandated to fight common crime and, in the West, to assist in the fight against terrorism. Additionally a threat was posed by the intelligence agents and subversives of the other bloc. As a result the domestic element of this threat was responded to with counter-intelligence agencies. Externally: The threat of a conventional war (World War III) meant that the armed forces of each bloc had to prepare for a possible bloc on bloc conflict in which classic concepts of territorial defence against an outside aggressor were central. The external threat was dealt with fundamentally by means of intelligence. It was not adequate to simply prepare domestically for a war with the other bloc. To be able to deter and to prepare against the opposition it was necessary to gather pertinent information (intelligence) on the enemy. This intelligence could be either technical and military in nature – for example the nature and capabilities of a new piece of military equipment fielded by the opposing army – or political and economic, such as the inner workings and intentions of the enemy’s political elite, or government and the state given industrial sectors. This distinction led to the fact that each type of information was gathered by a separate authority, the former being military intelligence and the latter being civilian intelligence

The Spanish intonation of speakers of a Basque pitch-accent dialect

In this paper the main aspects of the intonation of broad focus declaratives in Lekeitio Spanish are described and analyzed. In this variety, accents are realized as pitch rises rather than falls, similarly to Standard Peninsular Spanish and unlike in Lekeitio Basque, the other native language of these speakers. Accentual valleys are aligned before the onset of the stressed syllable, except in final position in the utterance. Accentual peaks are aligned before the offset of the accented syllable, with an earlier alignment in accents in the object phrase. At the end of the subject phrase, peaks display later alignment. The number of unstressed syllables intervening between accents seems to affect F0 valley and peak alignment for certain positions. For non-object positions, F0 valleys align earlier as more unstressed syllables intervene between accents, and for the final position in the subject, F0 peaks align later as more unstressed syllables intervene between accents.Aquest article descriu i analitza els principals aspectes de l'entonació de les oracions declaratives de l'espanyol parlat a Lekeitio. En aquesta varietat, els accents tonals es realitzen com a moviments ascendents en lloc de descendents: en això s'apropen a la varietat estàndard d'espanyol peninsular i es distingeixen de l'altra seva llengua nativa, el basc parlat a Biscaia. Les valls s'alineen abans del començament de la síl·laba accentuada, llevat dels accents que es troben en posició final de frase. Els pics s'alineen abans del final de la síl·laba accentuada (fins i tot abans en posició d'objecte directe). Al final dels subjectes, els pics mostren més desplaçament cap a la síl·laba següent. El nombre de síl·labes àtones entre accents tonals també sembla afectar la posició de les valls i dels pics en algunes posicions. En posicions que no són d'objecte, les valls d'F0 s'alineen abans quan hi ha més síl·labes àtones intermèdies, i en posició final de subjecte, els pics se situen més tard quan hi ha més síl·labes àtones

Kvaliteta života u odnosu na socijalnu podršku i sliku o tijelu kod žena s rakom dojke nakon mastektomije

For many years, cancer have been the 2nd leading cause of death, both men and women, in Croatia, and breast cancer is among first three cause of death from cancer in women. Disease, especially cancer, has negative and multidimensional impact on quality of life. The aim of this research was to examine the relation between perceived social support and body image with quality of life in women with breast cancer who undergone surgical treatment mastectomy. Results showed that quality of life after the mastectomy in women with breast cancer was 53.58 %SM which was below the normative range, and indicating decreased QoL. Social support proves to be strongest protective factor for the quality of life in women with breast cancer who undergone mastectomy, and longer time from diagnosis was also associated with higher quality of life. Neither women’s age, level of body image disturbance nor type of additional treatment were shown to be significant predictors of the overall QoL Assessment of quality of life and perceived social support could become a valuable indicator of the success of multidisciplinary treatment and indicate areas where the woman needs additional help and support in order to achieve better quality of life.Tumori su već dugi niz godina 2. vodeći uzrok smrti, i muškaraca i žena, u Hrvatskoj, a karcinom dojke je među prva tri uzroka smrti od raka kod žena. Bolesti, posebice rak, imaju negativan i višedimenzionalan utjecaj na kvalitetu života. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati povezanost percipirane socijalne podrške i slike o tijelu s kvalitetom života u žena s karcinomom dojke koje su podvrgnute mastektomiji. Rezultati su pokazali da je ukupna kvaliteta života iznosila 53,58 % od skalnog maksimuma, što je ispod normativnog raspona i ukazuje na smanjenu kvalitetu života. Socijalna podrška se pokazala najjačim zaštitnim čimbenikom za kvalitetu života, a dulje vrijeme od postavljanja dijagnoze bilo je povezano s višom kvalitetom života. Ni dob, slika o tijelu, niti vrsta dodatnog liječenja nisu se pokazali značajnim prediktorima ukupne kvalitete života. Procjena kvalitete života i percipirane socijalne podrške mogu biti vrijedan pokazatelj uspješnosti multidisciplinarnog liječenja te ukazati na područja u kojima je pacijenticama potrebna dodatna pomoć i podrška kako bi se postigla bolja kvaliteta života

Behavioral ecology of coral reef fishes at spawning aggregation sites

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution April 1998Coral reef fishes aggregate to spawn on certain locations of reefs. This thesis is an extensive investigation of the behavioral and ecological relations between spawning reef fishes, predators and their environment at a spawning aggregation site. Many hypotheses have been proposed regarding the adaptive nature of different diel reproductive cycles observed in coral reef fishes. This study quantified the spawning patterns of eleven different reef fish species at one location (Johnston Atoll, Central Pacific), while making simultaneous measurements of the environmental factors likely to affect the spawning behavior of reef fishes. The environmental variables measured included time of day, tides, current velocity, current speed and abundance of piscivorous predators, and were correlated with observed spawning outputs through multifactorial analyses. High interspecific variability in spawning patterns was found among the eleven monitored species. The majority of species spawned at a specific time of the day, in agreement with the timing of spawning described at other locations, indicative of a fixed general response by fishes across distribution areas. Spawning of most fishes with daytime spawning peaks was correlated with local changes in current direction and predatory risks, showing responses designed to reduce the mortality of propagules and adults. Dusk-spawning species generally did not respond to changes in flow direction and predator abundance, most likely due to their short spawning periods and the reduced predatory pressures that occurred at dusk. Tides did not seem to be used exclusively as synchronizing cues to adult fishes for spawning. The influence of current speed in determining diel timing of spawning varied among species, with some species showing responses to current speed while others showed no response. Predation is a selective force hypothesized to influence the spawning behavior of coral reef fishes. This study describes and quantifies the predatory activities of two piscivorous and three planktivorous species at a coral reef fish spawning aggregation site in Johnston Atoll (Central Pacific). To characterize predator-prey relations, the spawning behavior of prey species was quantified simultaneously with measurements of predatory activity, current speed and substrate topography. Diel activity patterns and predator-prey relations varied among the predatory species analyzed. The activity patterns of piscivores, measured both as abundance and attack rates, were high during the daytime, decreased during the late afternoon hours and reached a minimum at dusk. The abundance of piscivores was significantly correlated with the abundance of prey for only one (Caranx melampygus) of the two piscivorous species, while the other species (Aphareus furca) did not respond to prey abundance. The selection of certain prey species by piscivores was consistent with two different hypotheses: the satiation of predators and the differences in spawning behaviors among prey species. Two of the three planktivorous species fed most actively at dusk, and selected as prey those species of reef fishes that produced eggs of large size. The third planktivorous species fed at all times of the day. Spawning prey fishes were more abundant over substrates with complex topography where refuges from piscivores were abundant than over smooth substrates. Overall attack rates by piscivores on adult spawning fishes were higher than by planktivores feeding on recently released eggs. The diel spawning patterns displayed by reef fishes at the study site seem to be influenced by the diel activity and prey selection patterns of piscivores previously described. The highest diversity of prey species occurred at dusk, when piscivores were least abundant and overall abundance of prey fishes was lowest. The behavioral strategies used by the piscivore Caranx melampygus (Carangidae) while feeding on spawning aggregations of coral reef fishes were studied for two years at Johnston Atoll (Central Pacific). Visual behavioral observations revealed the existence of two different hunting behaviors employed by this predator. A 'midwater' hunting behavior, which consisted of midwater high speed attacks on spawning fishes, is typical of large sized transient predators and yielded a low capture success rate (2%). An 'ambush' hunting behavior consisted of attacks on spawning fishes from hiding locations in the substrate, and yielded a much higher capture success rate (17%). While ambushing their prey, C. melampygus displayed territorial aggressive behaviors toward other intruding conspecifics, defending a specific section of the reef. This specialized ambushing behavior is atypical of fast swimming carangids, but illustrates the behavioral flexibility of this predator. I suggest that the use of these two hunting behaviors by C. melampygus can potentially cause density-dependent mortality rates in prey communities, a demographic consequence previously attributed to the simultaneous action of various guilds of predatory species. Two species of trunkfishes (Ostraciidae) were observed spawning above a coral reef at Johnston Atoll (Central Pacific). This study analyzed the potential causes determining the difference in spawning ascent height in Ostracion meleagris (3.3 m average) and 0. whitleyi (1.5 m average). One hypothesis proposes that the risk of predation by piscivores influences how far each species can swim from the substrate, and that predation risk is greater for 0. whitleyi than 0. meleagris. Trunkfishes have an armoured exoskeleton and secrete an ichthyotoxic mucous under stress conditions, two defenses against predation. Because the two species used the same spawning grounds and spawned at approximately the same time, their size and toxicity levels were analyzed to assess their susceptibility to predation. Toxins were extracted from wild fishes and tested using a mosquitofish assay. Ostracion whitleyi was more toxic than 0. meleagris, refuting the predation-risk hypothesis. A second hypothesis proposes that long ascents are a way for spawning pairs to avoid disturbances by other male conspecifics. Observations of the spawning behaviours of the two species showed that male 0. meleagris were frequently involved in fighting episodes and showed high rates of male streaking (intruding nonpaired males attempting to fertilize eggs from spawning paired females), while none of these behaviours were observed in 0. whitleyi. The larger spawning height from the substrate may be an attempt by pairs of 0. meleagris to reduce the possibility of interference by other male conspecifics. Thus, the height of spawning ascents corresponds to the expectation from the male disturbance hypothesis, but not to the expectation of the predatory risk hypothesis.A fellowship form La Fundacion "La Caixa" allowed me to come to the WHOIJMIT Joint Program and generously funded me for two years. Travel to Johnston Atoll, part of my salary and many oceanographical toys were funded by the following grants to P.S. Lobel: U.S. Army Chemical Material Destruction Agency (via NOAA Sea Grant NA90-AA-D-SG535 and the Office of Naval Research N00014-91-J-1591 and N00014-92-J-1969) and the U.S. Army Legacy Resource Management Program (DAMD 17-93-J-3052). Finally the WHOI education office covered my tuition for a few years and paid for my attendance to scientific meetings. Funds were also received from the Thomas F. Westcott Fund for WHOI I MIT Joint Program Students, WHOI. Sea Grant project R/B- 134-PD, Coastal Research Center and Copeland Family Foundation