The Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian Adnominal Possessive Dative at the Syntax-Pragmatics Interface

In Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian, the adnominal possessive dative (APD) construction is used alongside the nominal adjectival construction to express possession. APD usage is double-edged – i.e., there are both issues of sociolinguistics/ perceptual dialectology involved as well as more formal syntacticpragmatic ones. My respondents consistently labeled APD usage as “archaic,” “old-fashioned,” “characteristic of the uneducated,” or “country-talk”. However, judging by very similar acceptance levels of APDs in particular contexts in all dialects, it appears that semantic role of the possessor and the level of contextual effects and processing load involved in interpreting possessive constructions weigh heavily on their acceptance. Therefore, I offer a model that attempts to capture APD usage in terms of a set of hierarchical relationships between the “possessor” and the “possessed”

Easy over Hard: A Case Study on Deep Learning

While deep learning is an exciting new technique, the benefits of this method need to be assessed with respect to its computational cost. This is particularly important for deep learning since these learners need hours (to weeks) to train the model. Such long training time limits the ability of (a)~a researcher to test the stability of their conclusion via repeated runs with different random seeds; and (b)~other researchers to repeat, improve, or even refute that original work. For example, recently, deep learning was used to find which questions in the Stack Overflow programmer discussion forum can be linked together. That deep learning system took 14 hours to execute. We show here that applying a very simple optimizer called DE to fine tune SVM, it can achieve similar (and sometimes better) results. The DE approach terminated in 10 minutes; i.e. 84 times faster hours than deep learning method. We offer these results as a cautionary tale to the software analytics community and suggest that not every new innovation should be applied without critical analysis. If researchers deploy some new and expensive process, that work should be baselined against some simpler and faster alternatives.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, accepted at FSE201

Bootstrapping six-gluon scattering in planar N=4{\cal N}=4 super-Yang-Mills theory

We describe the hexagon function bootstrap for solving for six-gluon scattering amplitudes in the large $N_c$ limit of ${\cal N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory. In this method, an ansatz for the finite part of these amplitudes is constrained at the level of amplitudes, not integrands, using boundary information. In the near-collinear limit, the dual picture of the amplitudes as Wilson loops leads to an operator product expansion which has been solved using integrability by Basso, Sever and Vieira. Factorization of the amplitudes in the multi-Regge limit provides additional boundary data. This bootstrap has been applied successfully through four loops for the maximally helicity violating (MHV) configuration of gluon helicities, and through three loops for the non-MHV case.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; contribution to the proceedings of Loops and Legs in Quantum Field Theory, 27 April - 2 May 2014, Weimar, Germany; v2, reference adde

Autonomous Search and Rescue with Modeling and Simulation and Metrics

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) provide rapid exploration capabilities in search and rescue missions while accepting more risks than human operations. One limitation in that current UAVs are heavily manpower intensive and such manpower demands limit abilities to expand UAV use. In operation, manpower demands in UAVs range from determining tasks, selecting waypoints, manually controlling platforms and sensors, and tasks in between. Often, even a high level of autonomy is possible with human generated objectives and then autonomous resource allocation, routing, and planning. However, manually generating tasks and scenarios is still manpower intensive. To reduce manpower demands and move towards more autonomous operations, the authors develop an adaptive planning system that takes high level goals from a human operator and translates them into situationally relevant tasking. For expository simulation, the authors further describe constructing a scenario around the 2018 Hawaii Puna lava natural disaster

The four-loop remainder function and multi-Regge behavior at NNLLA in planar N \mathcal{N} = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory

We present the four-loop remainder function for six-gluon scattering with maximal helicity violation in planar N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory, as an analytic function of three dual-conformal cross ratios. The function is constructed entirely from its analytic properties, without ever inspecting any multi-loop integrand. We employ the same approach used at three loops, writing an ansatz in terms of hexagon functions, and fixing coefficients in the ansatz using the multi-Regge limit and the operator product expansion in the near-collinear limit. We express the result in terms of multiple polylogarithms, and in terms of the coproduct for the associated Hopf algebra. From the remainder function, we extract the BFKL eigenvalue at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy (NNLLA), and the impact factor at N3LLA. We plot the remainder function along various lines and on one surface, studying ratios of successive loop orders. As seen previously through three loops, these ratios are surprisingly constant over large regions in the space of cross ratios, and they are not far from the value expected at asymptotically large orders of perturbation theory

TAMU: A New Space Mission Operations Paradigm

The Transferable, Adaptable, Modular and Upgradeable (TAMU) Flight Production Process (FPP) is a model-centric System of System (SoS) framework which cuts across multiple organizations and their associated facilities, that are, in the most general case, in geographically diverse locations, to develop the architecture and associated workflow processes for a broad range of mission operations. Further, TAMU FPP envisions the simulation, automatic execution and re-planning of orchestrated workflow processes as they become operational. This paper provides the vision for the TAMU FPP paradigm. This includes a complete, coherent technique, process and tool set that result in an infrastructure that can be used for full lifecycle design and decision making during any flight production process. A flight production process is the process of developing all products that are necessary for flight

Pronunciation acquisition patterns of learners with different starting levels

This study described the results of an investigation into the effect of an intensive 12-week pronunciation course in British English which 30 Dutch female 1st-year university students of English took. They read out the same text before and after the course. Each student’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ tests were recorded. Before analysis of their results, students were split up into three groups on the basis of their general starting level: high, intermediate and low. The analysis involved a before- and after comparison of the pronunciation of eleven different phonemes: /æ, ɒ, ɔː, ʌ, ʊ, d, θ/, medial /t/, coda /r/, and syllable-final /d, v/. The analysis was done by means of both auditory and acoustic analysis. Four degrees of success (or lack thereof) were defined. The results show that the consonants required the least effort, as they were already relatively acceptable before the course started. This was true of students in general, regardless of initial starting level. The three levels of students are most distinguishable on the basis of the development of the consonants during the course. The weaker students’ consonants in particular benefitted from the course. The research revealed that initial level can be used to predict the trajectory of improvement. A general conclusion is that teachers may recognise types of students before the course starts and subject them to different types of teaching