Good Stuff to Read This Year

(Excerpt) Reading: the very word is like a bell/that tolls me back from thee to my sole self. Actually, Keats wrote Forlorn, but where I wrote Reading on the first line of this clean yellow sheet, the rest of Keats\u27 line came unbidden, and since I\u27m not by nature one to ignore the unbidden, I thought I\u27d better write it down. Now, why did it come? Well, I\u27ll go with \u27\u27words like bells -and I can think of all kinds of bells: reading\u27s a school hell-as in I\u27ve got to get the reading done or in That was a great book we read in class ; it\u27s an alarm, a wake-up call; it\u27s a telephone bell, a door bell, some guest come calling, invited or not; it\u27s a chapel bell, something holy happening, something that engages us full-length, then pulls us beyond supposition. For Keats, forlorn was a funeral bell, tolling to him; for me reading\u27s something I need to do to keep from some kinds of dying. I suspect that\u27s so for you, too

Building a Generation Knowledge Source using Internet-Accessible Newswire

In this paper, we describe a method for automatic creation of a knowledge source for text generation using information extraction over the Internet. We present a prototype system called PROFILE which uses a client-server architecture to extract noun-phrase descriptions of entities such as people, places, and organizations. The system serves two purposes: as an information extraction tool, it allows users to search for textual descriptions of entities; as a utility to generate functional descriptions (FD), it is used in a functional-unification based generation system. We present an evaluation of the approach and its applications to natural language generation and summarization.Comment: 8 pages, uses eps

Gathering Statistics to Aspectually Classify Sentences with a Genetic Algorithm

This paper presents a method for large corpus analysis to semantically classify an entire clause. In particular, we use cooccurrence statistics among similar clauses to determine the aspectual class of an input clause. The process examines linguistic features of clauses that are relevant to aspectual classification. A genetic algorithm determines what combinations of linguistic features to use for this task.Comment: postscript, 9 pages, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on New Methods in Language Processing, Oflazer and Somers ed

Familicide: Risk Factors, Characteristics of the Offender, Characteristics of the Crime of Familicide, and the Prevalence of Suicide Following Familicide

This study will be examining the risk factors to familicide, the characteristics of the offenders of familicide, the characteristics of the crime, and the prevalence of suicide following familicide. Of the literature reviewed it has been found that there are risk factors to familicide, there are known characteristics of the crime of familicide, and suicide is prevalent following familicide (Wilson et at., 1995; Brewer & Paulsen, 1999; Harper &Voigt, 2007). Findings are expected to suggest that there will be a higher proportion of cases in which the offender felt as though they were under immense stress due to the stresses and expectations of society, there will be a higher proportion of male offenders that commit suicide following familicide, that a larger proportion of familicide cases occurred in homes in which stepchildren did reside, and that indicate pre-existing drug and alcohol use is prevalent in the offenders of familicide

Cartography of irregularly shaped satellites

Irregularly shaped satellites, such as Phobos and Amalthea, do not lend themselves to mapping by conventional methods because mathematical projections of their surfaces fail to convey an accurate visual impression of the landforms, and because large and irregular scale changes make their features difficult to measure on maps. A digital mapping technique has therefore been developed by which maps are compiled from digital topographic and spacecraft image files. The digital file is geometrically transformed as desired for human viewing, either on video screens or on hard copy. Digital files of this kind consist of digital images superimposed on another digital file representing the three-dimensional form of a body

The long-run impacts of adult deaths on older household members in Tanzania

HIV/AIDS is drastically changing the demographic landscape in high-prevalence countries in Africa. The prime-age adult population bears the majority of the mortality burden. These “missing” prime-age adults have implications for the socioeconomic well-being of surviving family members. This study uses a 13-year panel from Tanzania to examine the impacts of prime-age mortality on the time use and health outcomes of older adults, with a focus on long-run impacts and gender dimensions. Prime-age deaths are weakly associated with increases in working hours of older women when the deceased adult was co-resident in the household. The association is strongest when the deceased adult was living with the elderly individual at the time of death and for deaths in the distant past, suggesting that shorter-run studies may not capture the full extent of the consequences of adult mortality for survivors. Holding more assets seems to buffer older adults from having to work more after these shocks. Most health indicators are not worse for older adults when a prime-age household member died, although more distant adult deaths are associated with an increased probability of acute illness for the surviving elderly. For deaths of children who were not residing with their parents at baseline, the findings show no impact on hours worked or health outcomes.Population Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Gender and Health,Demographics,Gender and Social Development

Growth and the Environment in Canada: An Empirical Analysis

Standard reduced form models are estimated for Canada to examine the relationships between real per capita GDP and four measures of environmental degradation. Of the four chosen measures of environmental degradation, only concentrations of carbon monoxide appear to decline in the long run with increases in real per capita income. The data used in the reduced form models are also tested for the presence of unit roots and for the existence of cointegration between each of the measures of environmental degradation and per capita income. Unit root tests indicate nonstationarity in logs of the measures of environmental degradation and per capita income. The Engle-Granger test and the maximum eigenvalue test suggest that per capita income and the measures of environmental degradation are not cointegrated, or that a long-term relationship between the variables does not exist. Causality tests also indicate a bi-directional causality, rather than a uni-directional causality, from income to the environment. The results suggest that Canada does not have the luxury of being able to grow out of its environmental problems. The implication is that to prevent further environmental degradation, Canada requires concerted policies and incentives to reduce pollution intensity per unit of output across sectors, to shift from more to less pollution-producing-outputs and to lower the environmental damage associated with aggregate consumption.environment, economic growth, Canada