Transfer Topic Labeling with Domain-Specific Knowledge Base: An Analysis of UK House of Commons Speeches 1935-2014

Topic models are widely used in natural language processing, allowing researchers to estimate the underlying themes in a collection of documents. Most topic models use unsupervised methods and hence require the additional step of attaching meaningful labels to estimated topics. This process of manual labeling is not scalable and suffers from human bias. We present a semi-automatic transfer topic labeling method that seeks to remedy these problems. Domain-specific codebooks form the knowledge-base for automated topic labeling. We demonstrate our approach with a dynamic topic model analysis of the complete corpus of UK House of Commons speeches 1935-2014, using the coding instructions of the Comparative Agendas Project to label topics. We show that our method works well for a majority of the topics we estimate; but we also find that institution-specific topics, in particular on subnational governance, require manual input. We validate our results using human expert coding

The European Community and the Recycling of Petrodollars

The author discusses the ways and means how surplus funds from oil producing countries can be channeled into Western Europe

Balancing experiments on a torque-controlled humanoid with hierarchical inverse dynamics

Recently several hierarchical inverse dynamics controllers based on cascades of quadratic programs have been proposed for application on torque controlled robots. They have important theoretical benefits but have never been implemented on a torque controlled robot where model inaccuracies and real-time computation requirements can be problematic. In this contribution we present an experimental evaluation of these algorithms in the context of balance control for a humanoid robot. The presented experiments demonstrate the applicability of the approach under real robot conditions (i.e. model uncertainty, estimation errors, etc). We propose a simplification of the optimization problem that allows us to decrease computation time enough to implement it in a fast torque control loop. We implement a momentum-based balance controller which shows robust performance in face of unknown disturbances, even when the robot is standing on only one foot. In a second experiment, a tracking task is evaluated to demonstrate the performance of the controller with more complicated hierarchies. Our results show that hierarchical inverse dynamics controllers can be used for feedback control of humanoid robots and that momentum-based balance control can be efficiently implemented on a real robot.Comment: appears in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 201

International Law, National Tribunals and the Rights of Aliens: The West European Experience

The local remedies rule is usually considered a device to accommodate the legitimate desire of states to preserve their own sovereignty with the equally legitimate desire of states to protect their nationals who have suffered injury abroad. It is obvious that the adequacy of the rule in serving the second of these ends will depend on the nature and quality of the local remedies available. In turn, the effectiveness of local remedies in protecting the rights of aliens will depend on a variety of factors. Most importantly, there is the adequacy of the substantive legal rights in the fields of public and private law. Another consideration is the practice and custom of courts in areas in which there are no hard and fast rules of law. Thus, it is a well-known fact that even in situations in which damage awards are not limited by law, European courts are much less generous in granting awards for pain and suffering than courts in the United States. Finally, since rights which cannot be enforced are no rights at all, the nature of judicial and administrative remedies, the fairness and speed of procedures, and the general integrity of the judicial and administrative processes are of great importance. It is obvious, however, that such broad topics cannot be covered well as part of one research project, especially in the case of an area having as large a mass of legal materials as does Western Europe.For this reason, the present inquiry is limited to one topic only: the extent to which the fact of alien age creates procedural obstacles for the enforcement of rights-in particular, through the requirement of security for costs, denial of the right to sue in forma pauper is, non-recognition of foreign judgments, and denial of the right to sue the government. Furthermore, this study has been restricted to three countries, Austria, France, and Germany. In view of the numerous treaties which affect the rights of aliens in these countries, there is a final limitation upon the scope of this paper: generally speaking, the rights of United States nationals, rather than those of aliens in general, will be considered

An Existentialist Approach to Teaching Writing: Anguish, Bad Faith, and Seriousness in Composition

This dissertation aims at developing a model concept for the teaching of ethics in the composition classroom through the use of existentialism in the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre. Overall, the gap I am trying to fill with my dissertation is a lack of awareness of how much Sartre actually fits rhetorical theory and composition. Ultimately, this dissertation is the attempt to develop an ethic that is universally applicable in the teaching of composition, without the need for a service learning environment or additional resources outside the university itself. To provide an overview of the project, the approach will be illustrated with three case studies that focus on different ethical issues in writing that are central to first-year composition courses. The first case study looks at a conflict between a professor and a graduate student that involved the discussion of heated topics and power relationships in the classroom. The second case study looks at cases of plagiarism on the highest level, in dissertations. Several German politicians had to resign from their offices because their dissertations contained plagiarized passages, and their reactions sparked controversial responses from both the general public, the media, and academic institutions. The third case study looks at service learning and the encounter with marginalized groups – what could be called the encounter with the Other. Students do not always show an authentic ethical reaction to what they experience. The project will conclude with a discussion of how these cases and Sartre\u27s work might be deployed in the context of a first-year composition syllabus with three main thematic units

The Procedure Before the Court of Justice of the European Communities

The Court of Justice of the European Communities has inspired much legal writing, including many books and articles in English. Particular attention has been paid to its jurisdiction and general organization, much less to its procedure. But Professor Sereni has pointed out that differences in the domestic procedural laws of states appearing before an international court may cause difficulties in the work of the international tribunal itself. It therefore may be of interest to review briefly some aspects of the procedure of a court which is perhaps not an international tribunal in the strict sense of the word, but in which sovereign states, supranational organizations and private individuals appear and plead far more frequently than in the International Court of Justice. The brief discussion of the Court\u27s organization and jurisdiction which will preface the discussion of procedure in the narrow sense is intended mainly as background