Learning Language from a Large (Unannotated) Corpus

A novel approach to the fully automated, unsupervised extraction of dependency grammars and associated syntax-to-semantic-relationship mappings from large text corpora is described. The suggested approach builds on the authors' prior work with the Link Grammar, RelEx and OpenCog systems, as well as on a number of prior papers and approaches from the statistical language learning literature. If successful, this approach would enable the mining of all the information needed to power a natural language comprehension and generation system, directly from a large, unannotated corpus.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, research proposa

Diagnóstico del maguey pulquero como estrategia de desarrollo en dos comunidades de Temoaya, Estado de México

Tesis de Maestría en Agroindustria Rural, Desarrollo Territorial y Turismo AgroalimentarioLos pueblos indígenas son propietarios de complejas estructuras de conocimientos, prácticas y procedimientos vinculadas a sus sistemas de producción. Esta particularidad determina las actividades productivas de las comunidades Colonia Centro Ceremonial y Sexta Sección, localizadas en la zona noreste del municipio de Temoaya. Estas comunidades basan sus actividades agrícolas en el sistema de milpa, un sistema agrícola tradicional de gestión y aprovechamiento de los recursos naturales y productivos que, articulado a labores pecuarias, forestales y de otros sectores económicos, provee de los recursos materiales necesarios para la reproducción de la unidad de producción familiar (UPF) de estas sociedades otomís. En este marco de reflexión, es importante señalar que estas comunidades indígenas poseen un legado de saberes y procesos, recreados y adaptados a las condiciones productivas del espacio que habitan. El cultivo de maguey pulquero es ejemplo de ello, su aprovechamiento responde al principio de diversidad característico de las sociedades campesinas tradicionales. La valorización y aprovechamiento de los productos locales son una pieza clave de iniciativas turísticas y gastronómicas que han incidido favorablemente sobre las variables económicas, socioculturales y ambientales de las sociedades rurales. No obstante, antes de establecer un producto local como elemento de desarrollo es necesario determinar si existen las condiciones que puedan otorgarle este protagonismo. Este documento presenta los resultados de un ejercicio de evaluación y análisis que tuvo como objetivo identificar los factores que posibilitan o impiden el aprovechamiento del maguey pulquero como una estrategia de desarrollo

Evaluation of leadership competencies of executives in Lithuanian public health institutions.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE. Lithuanian and international public health experts emphasize the importance of leadership in public health. The aim of this study was to explore the self-assessed level of leadership competencies of executives in Lithuanian public health institutions. MATERIAL AND METHODS. Data were collected in a cross-sectional survey of executives of Lithuanian public health institutions in 2010. The total number of returned questionnaires was 55 (response rate, 58.5%). Respondents were asked about their competencies in leadership, teamwork, communication, and conflict management. The evaluation was carried out by analyzing the answers provided in the survey, which used a 5-point rating scale. In addition, the Belbin Team-Role Self-Perception Inventory and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument were used. RESULTS. The results showed that respondents were reserved or limited in their individual capacities through this evaluation of their leadership competencies. The mean score was 3.47 (SD, 0.71). Skills in competency areas of communication, teamwork, and conflict management were scored higher (3.73 [SD, 0.67], 3.73 [SD, 0.62], and 3.53 [SD, 0.63], respectively). Most of executives preferred to choose action-oriented roles (76.2%). The most common role was "implementer" (69.1%). "Avoiding" (52.7%) was the most common conflict solving strategy. The results showed that 89.1% of executives wanted to improve teamwork; 83.6%, leadership competencies; 81.8%, communication; and 80.0%, conflict management. CONCLUSIONS. The study results suggest that the executives of Lithuanian public health institutions evaluate their leadership competencies moderately. These results indicate the value of leadership training for public health executives