Unsupervised Induction of Modern Standard Arabic Verb Classes

We exploit the resources in the Arabic Treebank (ATB) for the novel task of automatically creating lexical semantic verb classes for Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Verbs are clustered into groups that share semantic elements of meaning as they exhibit similar syntactic behavior. The results of the clustering experiments are compared with a gold standard set of classes, which is approximated by using the noisy English translations provided in the ATB to create Levin-like classes for MSA. The quality of the clusters is found to be sensitive to the inclusion of information about lexical heads of the constituents in the syntactic frames, as well as parameters of the clustering algorithm. The best set of parameters yields an Fβ=1 score of 0.501, compared to a random baseline with an Fβ=1 score of 0.37

Namaste in the USA: The Growing Pains that Traditional Yoga Faces in America – An International Marketing Case Study

Yoga is a mind, body, and spiritual practice that originated nearly 5,000 years in India. It is known to relieve stress, enhance athletic performance, increase strength and flexibility as well as assist in achieving inner peace, focus, and improving mental wellness. In recent years, the practice of yoga has grown exponentially in the United States with about 37 million practitioners in 2016. However, the future growth of yoga in the U.S faces some critical challenges. American innovations in yoga techniques and the rise of the yoga accessories industry with deep linkages with consumerism, is drawing the practice away from its philosophical roots which emphasizes mental and spiritual benefits. A shortage of qualified instructors is exacerbating this problem. Further, the practice of yoga in the U.S seems to be mainly by females and concentrated largely in urban areas and East/West coast, thus, precluding its mass adoption. Also, although yoga has many health benefits across ages, and many schools have started adopting it, there has been some backlash due to its roots in Hinudism. Anti-immigrant rhetoric is also on the rise, in the U.S. which could have adverse impact on yoga which is clearly linked to India and Hinduism. This case study examines the practice and background of yoga and its rising popularity in the United States. It delves into the many challenges that yoga faces in becoming a part of mainstream health/wellness and fitness industry. Additionally, the case study poses critical marketing questions related to the scalability of its adoption in the United States…a challenge that the Brahmans, Rishis, and Yogis who created this practice thousands of years ago in India could never have foreseen

Dialogue home groups : optimizing technology transfer for social programming = Grupos de diálogo en casa : optimización de la transferencia de tecnología para la programación social

Para los profesionales del servicio social y trabajadores sociales relacionados, viajar internacionalmente para asistir a congresos profesionales se convierte en una oportunidad excelente para aprender acerca del desarrollo social y programas sociales de otras regiones del mundo. Las conferencias multinacionales, al propiciar el encuentro de participantes de diversos países, ofrecen una gran oportunidad para animar a los participantes a pensar más allá de sus propios límites contextuales y culturales. Para los autores de este ensayo, el uso del acercamiento del "grupo de diálogo en casa" es una estrategia que intenta dar respuesta a esta necesidad de optimizar el aprendizaje. Los autores definirán este acercamiento grupal, identificarán los pasos para establecer este tipo de grupos y proporcionarán una estrategia para evaluar su efectividad, tocando aspectos relacioados con retos culturales y linguísticos. Se usarán varios ejemplos de diálogo grupal en casa para ilustrar cómo se afrontaron tales retos para optimizar el aprendizaje y la estructura de redes.____________________For social service professionals and related human services workers, traveling interna -tionaly to profesional conferences becomes an exciting oportunity to learn about social development and social programming in other regions of the world. Multinational conferences, which bring conferees together from a host of countries, offer a great opportunity to push participants to think beyond their own contextual and cultural frames. For the authors of this paper, the use of the "dialogue home group" approach is a strategy that attempts to respond to this need for learning optimization. The authors will define this group approach, identify steps in establishing these types of groups, and provide a strategy to evaluate its effectiveness, addressing issues of cultural and linguistic challenges. Several home group dialogue examples will be used to illustrate how these challenges were addressed in order to optimize learning and networking

Momentum average approximation for models with electron-phonon coupling dependent on the phonon momentum

We generalize the momentum average (MA) approximation to study the properties of models with momentum-dependent electron-phonon coupling. As in the case of the application of the original MA to the Holstein model, the results are analytical, numerically trivial to evaluate, exact for both zero bandwidth and for zero electron-phonon coupling, and are accurate everywhere in parameter space. Comparison with available numerical data confirms this accuracy. We then show that further improvements can be obtained based on variational considerations, using the one-dimensional breathing-mode Hamiltonian as a specific example. For example, by using this variational MA, we obtain ground state energies within at most 0.3% error of the numerical data.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

Spin Waves in Disordered III-V Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors

We propose a new scheme for numerically computing collective-mode spectra for large-size systems, using a reformulation of the Random Phase Approximation. In this study, we apply this method to investigate the spectrum and nature of the spin-waves of a (III,Mn)V Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor. We use an impurity band picture to describe the interaction of the charge carriers with the local Mn spins. The spin-wave spectrum is shown to depend sensitively on the positional disorder of the Mn atoms inside the host semiconductor. Both localized and extended spin-wave modes are found. Unusual spin and charge transport is implied.Comment: 14 pages, including 11 figure

Epidemiology of brain tumors in the United Arab Emirates: A National Registry Cross-sectional Study

© 2020 The Author(s). Background: Cancer is the third leading cause of death in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); brain cancer ranks 10th among the cancers, with 2.9% of the primary cancers originating from the nervous system. The epidemiology of brain cancers has not been explored. The unique population dynamics of UAE make it a fertile ground for analyzing the epidemiology of brain cancer. In this study, we aim to look at the frequency patterns and distribution of malignant primary brain tumors in the UAE. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out using data obtained from the Tawam Hospital Cancer Registry for the years 1984-2017. The sample size included 756 diagnosed cases of malignant primary brain tumors in the UAE. Using SPSS and Excel software, frequencies, mean ages, histological type frequencies, average annual crude incidence rates and average annual age adjusted incidence rates were analyzed. Results: The expatriate population had higher percentage of brain tumors (72%) than the locals. The mean age at diagnosis was 33.48 years (± 21.14 years) with a male to female ratio of 1.69. Diffuse astrocytic and oligodendroglial tumors were the most commonly diagnosed tumors overall. Older adults had more cases of lymphoma while embryonal and ependymal tumors were most commonly seen in younger age groups. The overall average annual crude incidence rate for 2013-2016 for all primary brain tumors was 0.56 per 100,000 population. Conclusion: This is the first cancer registry study in the UAE that describes histological types of primary brain tumors based on the WHO 2016 classification of brain tumors and highlights their incidence rates. Through this study, several patterns of incidence trends for brain tumors in the UAE, according to histological types, sex and age groups have been recognized. Comparative studies would help identify the influence of potential changes in lifestyle, environmental or occupational risk factors on primary brain tumors