La traducció automàtica en la pràctica: aplicacions, dificultats i estratègies de desenvolupament

En aquest article es descriuen els sistemes de traducció automàtica, les seves aplicacions actuals i les principals dificultats que ha d’afrontar aquesta tecnologia lingüística. Es presenta el sistema Apertium, una plataforma de traducció automàtica de codi obert sobre la qual s’han construït diversos traductors automàtics entre diferents parells d’idiomes, en els quals està inclòs el català. Basant-se en l’experiència dels autors, es descriuen algunes tensions que es donen en el desenvolupament de les dades lingüístiques d’un traductor automàtic i les solucions de compromís a què cal arribar per a construir sistemes útils

Machine Learning Based Fall Detector with a Sensorized Tip

Fall detection has become an area of interest in recent years, as quick response to these events is critical to reduce the morbidity and mortality rate. In order to ensure proper fall detection, several technologies have been developed, including vision system, environmental detection systems, and wearable sensor based systems. However, in elderly or impaired people, it has been shown that the implementation of sensors in Assistive Devices for Walking, such as crutches or canes, can also be a promising alternative. In this work, a Support Vector Machine (SVM) based Fall Detection system is proposed, which uses the data provided by a Sensorized Tip which can be attached to different Assistive Devices for Walking (ADW). Unlike other approaches, the developed one is able to differentiate the fall of the ADW from the fall of the user. For that purpose, the developed Fall Detector uses two modules connected in series. The first one detects all falls, while the second differentiates between user and ADW falls. The proposed approach is validated in a set of experimental tests carried out by healthy volunteers that have simulated different falls. In addition, a comparative analysis is carried out by comparing the performance of the Sensorized Tip based Fall Detector and a state-of-the-art commercial accelerometer system. Results demonstrate that the proposed approach provides high Fall Detection Ratios (over 90%), similar or higher to wearable-sensor based approaches

First principles quasiparticle damping rates in bulk lead

First principles calculations of the damping rates (inverse inelastic lifetimes) of low energy quasiparticles in bulk Pb are presented. Damping rates are obtained both for excited electrons and holes with energies up to 8 eV on a set of k vectors throughout the Brillouin zone (BZ). Strong localization effects in the calculated lifetimes are found. Averaged over the BZ inelastic lifetimes versus quasiparticle energy are reported as well. In addition, the effect of the spin-orbit induced splitting in the band structure on the calculated lifetimes in Pb is investigated.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 5 table

Extra argumentality - affectees, landmarks, and voice

This article investigates sentences with additional core arguments of a special type in three languages, viz. German, English, and Mandarin. These additional arguments, called extra arguments in the article, form a crosslinguistically homogeneous class by virtue of their structural and semantic similarities, with so-called "raised possessors" forming just a sub-group among them. Structurally, extra arguments may not be the most deeply embedded arguments in a sentence. Semantically, their referents are felt to stand in a specific relation to the referent of the/a more deeply embedded argument. There are two major thematic relations that are instantiated by extra arguments, viz. affectees and landmarks. These thematic role notions are justified in the context of and partly in contrast to, Dowty's (1991) proto-role approach. An affectee combines proto-agent with proto-patient properties in eventualities that are construed as involving causation. A landmark is a ground with respect to some spatial configuration denoted by the predication at hand, but a figure at the highest level of gestalt partitioning that is relevant in a clause. Thereby, both affectees and landmarks are inherently hybrid categories. The account of extra argumentality is couched in a neo-Davidsonian event semantics in the spirit of Kratzer (1996, 2003), and voice heads are assumed to introduce affectee arguments and landmark arguments right above VP

Surface alloying and iron selenide formation in Fe/Bi2Se3(0001) observed by x-ray absorption fine structure experiments

Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY).-- et al.The atomic structure of ultrathin iron films deposited on the (0001) surface of the topological insulator Bi2Se3 is analyzed by surface x-ray absorption spectroscopy. Iron atoms deposited on a Bi2Se3 (0001) surface kept at 160 K substitute bismuth atoms within the first quintuple layer. Iron atoms are neighbored by six selenium atoms at a distance in the 2.4 Å range indicating substantial atomic relaxations. Mild annealing up to 520 K leads to the formation of α-FeSe, characterized by a local order extending up to the sixth shell (5.80 Å). Ab initio calculations predict a noncollinear magnetic ordering with a transition temperature of 3.5-10 K depending on the iron concentration and the number of the layers in which Fe is located.We acknowledge financial support from DFG through priority program SPP1666 (Topological Insulators). M.M.O. and E.V.C. thank the Tomsk State University Academic D. I. Mendeleev Fund Program (Research Grant No. 8.1.05.2015). Partial support by the Saint Petersburg State University Project No. 11.50.202.2015 is also acknowledged.Peer Reviewe

L1 transfer in the acquisition of manner and path in Spanish by native speakers of English

In this article the authors argue that L1 transfer from English is not only important in the early stages of L2 acquisition of Spanish, but remains influential in later stages if there is not enough positive evidence for the learners to progress in their development (Lefebvre, White, & Jourdan, 2006). The findings are based on analyses of path and manner of movement in stories told by British students of Spanish (N = 68) of three different proficiency levels. Verbs that conflate motion and path, on the one hand, are mastered early, possibly because the existence of Latinate path verbs, such as enter and ascend in English, facilitate their early acquisition by British learners of Spanish. Contrary to the findings of Cadierno (2004) and Cadierno and Ruiz (2006), the encoding of manner, in particular in boundary crossing contexts, seems to pose enormous difficulties, even among students who had been abroad on a placement in a Spanish-speaking country prior to the data collection. An analysis of the frequency of manner verbs in Spanish corpora shows that one of the key reasons why students struggle with manner is that manner verbs are so infrequent in Spanish. The authors claim that scarce positive evidence in the language exposed to and little or no negative evidence are responsible for the long-lasting effect of transfer on the expression of manner

The ‘Galilean Style in Science’ and the Inconsistency of Linguistic Theorising

Chomsky’s principle of epistemological tolerance says that in theoretical linguistics contradictions between the data and the hypotheses may be temporarily tolerated in order to protect the explanatory power of the theory. The paper raises the following problem: What kinds of contradictions may be tolerated between the data and the hypotheses in theoretical linguistics? First a model of paraconsistent logic is introduced which differentiates between week and strong contradiction. As a second step, a case study is carried out which exemplifies that the principle of epistemological tolerance may be interpreted as the tolerance of week contradiction. The third step of the argumentation focuses on another case study which exemplifies that the principle of epistemological tolerance must not be interpreted as the tolerance of strong contradiction. The reason for the latter insight is the unreliability and the uncertainty of introspective data. From this finding the author draws the conclusion that it is the integration of different data types that may lead to the improvement of current theoretical linguistics and that the integration of different data types requires a novel methodology which, for the time being, is not available

The ‘Galilean Style in Science’ and the Inconsistency of Linguistic Theorising

Chomsky’s principle of epistemological tolerance says that in theoretical linguistics contradictions between the data and the hypotheses may be temporarily tolerated in order to protect the explanatory power of the theory. The paper raises the following problem: What kinds of contradictions may be tolerated between the data and the hypotheses in theoretical linguistics? First a model of paraconsistent logic is introduced which differentiates between week and strong contradiction. As a second step, a case study is carried out which exemplifies that the principle of epistemological tolerance may be interpreted as the tolerance of week contradiction. The third step of the argumentation focuses on another case study which exemplifies that the principle of epistemological tolerance must not be interpreted as the tolerance of strong contradiction. The reason for the latter insight is the unreliability and the uncertainty of introspective data. From this finding the author draws the conclusion that it is the integration of different data types that may lead to the improvement of current theoretical linguistics and that the integration of different data types requires a novel methodology which, for the time being, is not available

Surface alloying and iron selenide formation in Fe/Bi2Se3(0001) observed by x-ray absorption fine structure experiments

The atomic structure of ultrathin iron films deposited on the (0001) surface of the topological insulator Bi2Se3 is analyzed by surface x-ray absorption spectroscopy. Iron atoms deposited on a Bi2Se3 (0001) surface kept at 160 K substitute bismuth atoms within the first quintuple layer. Iron atoms are neighbored by six selenium atoms at a distance in the 2.4 Å range indicating substantial atomic relaxations. Mild annealing up to 520 K leads to the formation of α-FeSe, characterized by a local order extending up to the sixth shell (5.80 Å). Ab initio calculations predict a noncollinear magnetic ordering with a transition temperature of 3.5–10 K depending on the iron concentration and the number of the layers in which Fe is located