Large-scale analysis of Zipf's law in English texts

Despite being a paradigm of quantitative linguistics, Zipf's law for words suffers from three main problems: its formulation is ambiguous, its validity has not been tested rigorously from a statistical point of view, and it has not been confronted to a representatively large number of texts. So, we can summarize the current support of Zipf's law in texts as anecdotic. We try to solve these issues by studying three different versions of Zipf's law and fitting them to all available English texts in the Project Gutenberg database (consisting of more than 30000 texts). To do so we use state-of-the art tools in fitting and goodness-of-fit tests, carefully tailored to the peculiarities of text statistics. Remarkably, one of the three versions of Zipf's law, consisting of a pure power-law form in the complementary cumulative distribution function of word frequencies, is able to fit more than 40% of the texts in the database (at the 0.05 significance level), for the whole domain of frequencies (from 1 to the maximum value) and with only one free parameter (the exponent)

Computing in ST: evaluation of the present situation and plans for the future

A general overview of the current situation will help to define plans for the future in order to obtain maximum profit of the resources we have and to better plan future investments. The main computing issues for 1998 are presented and their effects evaluated: Migration of QuickMail towards the CERN central mail server, in parallel with a migration of MAC to PC when needed; -rationalization of the ST desktop inventory and analysis of needs for the near future; migration from RAPIER (the Computerized Maintenance system) to its latest version R5, and re-organization of the different databases concerned; extensive use of the WWW as common communication system. Also, a divisional strategy for computing is presented: standardization, choice of solutions considering that the convenient solution is not always the best technical one, importance of training in general organization and in specific domains in order to increase efficiency in daily work

Arquitectura de Alto Rendimiento para el Cálculo de la DCT

En este trabajo se han revisado los principales métodos de cálculo de la Transformada Discreta del Coseno y sus implementaciones. A partir de esta información se ha propuesto una arquitectura de cálculo de alto rendimiento que pone en práctica técnicas de aritmética de computadores en el desarrollo de operadores para crear una estructura compacta que calcula la transformada a partir de su formulación directa. Se ha implementado y simulado el funcionamiento de la arquitectura propuesta en tarjetas reconfigurables para el Procesamiento de señales digitales, para evaluar su rendimiento en términos de área, retardo y potencia consumida. Además, se ha calculado su rendimiento con un modelo homogéneo e independiente de la tecnología de implementación con el propósito de comparar sus prestaciones con las de otras técnicas conocidas

Computerized asset management and maintenance systems in ST

The ST division manages and therefore maintains the CERN technical installations. A maintenance database application exists for every technical domain. A total of six different databases were built during the last 10 years and are based on the RAPIER maintenance program. As the Computerized Asset Management and Maintenance Systems (CAMMS) technology has evolved, the RAPIER system has become obsolete. Therefore we are forced to migrate to its latest version, MP5, before the year 2000. The migration path must be defined, leading from the current situation to a fully operational MP5 application. The major elements of each migration path consist in determining the functionality to use, defining the operation of it, adapting and/or creating procedures, converting data and providing training. A migration is always a process of change. The migration presents a unique opportunity to evaluate the current implementations, adapt them to the requirements and exploit the new features offered. Obsolete data and inconsistencies will be removed and the errors corrected

La semiótica de Greimas, propuesta de análisis para el acto didáctico

En este artículo se pretende aplicar la teoría semiótica de A. J. Greimas como método de análisis del acto didáctico, en tanto en que profesores y alumnos se ven inmersos en un proceso de comunicación. Por lo tanto, se considera el discurso como mediador semiótico esencial que interviene decisivamente tanto en la construcción de la identidad del sujeto como en la construcción del acto educativo. Para ello, el discurso del aula es analizado como un Programa Narrativo en el que intervienen diferentes roles actanciales. Pues bien, la posibilidad de que se den diversos roles actanciales da origen a la correspondiente diversidad de diferentes modelos de docencia y de aprendizaje. La descripción y la explicación de estos modelos constituye buena parte del contenido de este artículo