Authorship Attribution Using a Neural Network Language Model

In practice, training language models for individual authors is often expensive because of limited data resources. In such cases, Neural Network Language Models (NNLMs), generally outperform the traditional non-parametric N-gram models. Here we investigate the performance of a feed-forward NNLM on an authorship attribution problem, with moderate author set size and relatively limited data. We also consider how the text topics impact performance. Compared with a well-constructed N-gram baseline method with Kneser-Ney smoothing, the proposed method achieves nearly 2:5% reduction in perplexity and increases author classification accuracy by 3:43% on average, given as few as 5 test sentences. The performance is very competitive with the state of the art in terms of accuracy and demand on test data. The source code, preprocessed datasets, a detailed description of the methodology and results are available at https://github.com/zge/authorship-attribution.Comment: Proceedings of the 30th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI'16

Eco-design Innovation in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.

Increasing pressure on industry from a range of interest groups has placed environmental concerns at the centre of social and political agendas. This is reflected in policies that aim to effect the ‘greening’ of industry. The focus has been on the environmental impacts of larger corporations. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have received relatively little attention, although their economic and environmental significance cannot be ignored. This research investigated a group of environmentally motivated SMEs to identify policy measures that would promote ‘green’ product and service innovation. The project draws on data from 14 case study interviews to distinguish the key factors that led to the marketing of their 'green' products and services. Interviews were also conducted with policy makers and SME support agencies in the UK and the Netherlands. This enabled a comparison of schemes available for the promotion and further development of ecologically designed products within this sector. The ‘Eco-wheel’, created as a means of introducing Dutch SMEs to environmental design issues, was adapted to identify the environmental profiles of the ‘green’ products in this study. This technique proved inappropriate for the analysis of service oriented^ firms and an alternative systems-based model was developed. The general business environmental profiles revealed that the enterprises could be categorised ‘light’ or ‘dark’ green. The analysis indicated these firms were not the stereotypical reactive SME portrayed in the literature. Legislation and industrial standards, while instrumental in improving the environmental performance of the majority of SMEs are inappropriate as drivers for innovation in the ‘green’ firms. This ‘green avant garde’ typically sought commercial advantage through their commitment to environmental and business excellence within their niche markets. The research suggests that to further stimulate these ‘green’ niche markets a radical policy framework is required. This would ensure: a) access to low-risk venture capital for Research and Development; b) the effective dissemination of reliable environmental information; c) financial rewards for consumers and producers of ‘green’ goods and services, delivered through tax incentives and subsidy programmes. These initiatives could contribute to effect technological and system level innovations that will ensure the transition to a more sustainable future

Quantifying the timescales of fluid-rock interaction on Mars using the nakhlite meteorites

Etch pits within olivine grains from the nakhlite meteorites reveal the magnitude and timescale of water-mediated alteration of the martian crust

Coated silica nanoparticles in Nakhla iddingsite veins: implications for waterrock interaction within the Martian crust

No abstract available

Developing Virus-like Particles as High-density Photoreporting Platforms using Noncanonical Amino Acids and Click Chemistry

Light-based imaging and microscopy techniques are compelling diagnostic tools that provide straightforward data. Furthermore, single-particle targeting and tracking has the potential to provide new insight on myriad phenomenon, such as small particle diffusion, particle-membrane interaction, single-particle microfluidics, and many aspects of microbiology and physiology. However, limitations exist in current technologies’ ability to achieve tracking of individual nanoparticles due to inability to sufficiently label or stain single targets with traditional probes. This work proposes a method to overcome probe density by creating individual probes based on virus-based nanoparticles densely decorated with many reporter probes. We present the steps to produce such reporters. This technology has the potential to provide insight into single particle pathways that might otherwise only be measured with bulk properties such as single-particle dynamics in microgravity

Effective risk governance for environmental policy making: a knowledge management perspective

Effective risk management within environmental policy making requires knowledge on natural, economic and social systems to be integrated; knowledge characterised by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. We describe a case study in a (UK) central government department exploring how risk governance supports and hinders this challenging integration of knowledge. Forty-five semi-structured interviews were completed over a two year period. We found that lateral knowledge transfer between teams working on different policy areas was widely viewed as a key source of knowledge. However, the process of lateral knowledge transfer was predominantly informal and unsupported by risk governance structures. We argue this made decision quality vulnerable to a loss of knowledge through staff turnover, and time and resource pressures. Our conclusion is that the predominant form of risk governance framework, with its focus on centralised decision-making and vertical knowledge transfer is insufficient to support risk-based, environmental policy making. We discuss how risk governance can better support environmental policy makers through systematic knowledge management practices

Large-scale Star Formation Triggering in the Low-mass Arp 82 System: A Nearby Example of Galaxy Downsizing Based on UV/Optical/Mid-IR Imaging

As part of our Spitzer Spirals, Bridges, and Tails project to help understand the effects of galaxy interactions on star formation, we analyze GALEX ultraviolet, SARA optical, and Spitzer infrared images of the interacting galaxy pair Arp 82 (NGC 2535/6) and compare to a numerical simulation of the interaction. We investigate the multiwavelength properties of several individual star forming complexes (clumps). Using optical and UV colors, EW(Halpha), and population synthesis models we constrain the ages of the clumps and find that the median clump age is about 12 Myr. The clumps have masses ranging from a few times 10^6 to 10^9 solar masses. In general, the clumps in the tidal features have similar ages to those in the spiral region, but are less massive. The 8 micron and 24 micron luminosities are used to estimate the far-infrared luminosities and the star formation rates of the clumps. The total clump star formation rate is 2.0+/-0.8 solar masses per year, while the entire Arp 82 system is forming stars at a rate of 4.9+/-2.0 solar masses per year. We find, for the first time, stars in the HI arc to the southeast of the NGC 2535 disk. Population synthesis models indicate that all of the observed populations have young to intermediate ages. We conclude that although the gas disks and some old stars may have formed early-on, the progenitors are late-type or low surface brightness and the evolution of these galaxies was halted until the recent encounter.Comment: Accepted for publication in the AJ, 22 Figures, 5 Table

Drawing Boundaries

In “On Drawing Lines on a Map” (1995), I suggested that the different ways we have of drawing lines on maps open up a new perspective on ontology, resting on a distinction between two sorts of boundaries: fiat and bona fide. “Fiat” means, roughly: human-demarcation-induced. “Bona fide” means, again roughly: a boundary constituted by some real physical discontinuity. I presented a general typology of boundaries based on this opposition and showed how it generates a corresponding typology of the different sorts of objects which boundaries determine or demarcate. In this paper, I describe how the theory of fiat boundaries has evolved since 1995, how it has been applied in areas such as property law and political geography, and how it is being used in contemporary work in formal and applied ontology, especially within the framework of Basic Formal Ontology