Automated Hate Speech Detection and the Problem of Offensive Language

A key challenge for automatic hate-speech detection on social media is the separation of hate speech from other instances of offensive language. Lexical detection methods tend to have low precision because they classify all messages containing particular terms as hate speech and previous work using supervised learning has failed to distinguish between the two categories. We used a crowd-sourced hate speech lexicon to collect tweets containing hate speech keywords. We use crowd-sourcing to label a sample of these tweets into three categories: those containing hate speech, only offensive language, and those with neither. We train a multi-class classifier to distinguish between these different categories. Close analysis of the predictions and the errors shows when we can reliably separate hate speech from other offensive language and when this differentiation is more difficult. We find that racist and homophobic tweets are more likely to be classified as hate speech but that sexist tweets are generally classified as offensive. Tweets without explicit hate keywords are also more difficult to classify.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of ICWSM 2017. Please cite that versio

A METHODOLOGICAL INQUIRY INTO THE DETERMINATION OF THE RURAL-URBAN INTERFACE

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

An examination of the grants of land made to the Scottish Church in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with special reference to secular services

The subject to be discussed in the following pages is in nature so comprehensive that some definition of the scope and content of this essay is required.The term 'secular service' has been viewed in its widest sense as covering all the various duties owing to a secular superior, whether Crown or subject. The exact significance of the well -known term 'forinsecum servitium' and the relation of ecclesiastical fiefs to this burden, especially in its military aspect, have been discussed at some length, for they seemed to be questions fundamental to the whole inquiry.The method followed was to draw up a list of all the different burdens, important and insignificant alike, and to work through all accessible charters for illustrations of their relation to Church tenure. For this part of the work, which was naturally protracted the printed Chartularies of the various Scottish bishoprics and religious houses were by far the most important sources, though such miscellaneous documents as are contained in the Register House Transcripts, the Fraser family -books, and the Historical MSS. Commission Reports were not ignored. Any conclusions which may have been tentatively reached below are based solely upon charter evidence. The chief secondary authorities were consulted, but their reading of the facts was not always accepted, if it seemed that a different interpretation was more probable on the strength of primary evidence. Indeed, the whole purpose of this investigation would have been defeated, if the opinion of previous workers in the field had everywhere been deferred to.It has been thought advisable to supplement this general review of the Chartularies from the angle of the individual services by an analysis of the conditions attaching to the charters of donation in one or two of the Registers. For this purpose, Melrose, Dunfermline, Glasgow, and Arbroath have been selected, geographical location determining the choice. The same degree of detail was not considered necessary for each, and so the analysis of the Melrose grants is more exhaustive than that of the other three.In any examination of early land grants, a knowledge of local topography is a desideratum. In supplying this need, the two publications by the Scottish History Society of the chartularies of Inchaffray and Lindores are of much greater help to the student than the Registers issued by the various Clubs, valuable though the latter certainly are. There is a need for a re- editing of the majority of these Club publications on the lines adopted by Lawrie in his 'Early Scottish Charters', or by Dowden in his volumes for the Scottish History Society. Their discarding of the abbreviations of the old clerical scribes and their topographical notes to each charter are steps in the right direction.Finally, though no claim is advanced to anything like infallibility of judgment, it may be stated that the following pages represent an honest and conscientious attempt to throw some light upon a subject which has never before been comprehensively treated. It is hoped that what is written here will not be without its interest or utility to students of later Church history, for whom this essay may be said to represent a quarrying amongst the foundations

Primary Market Research: Its Role In Feaslblllty Studies

Primary market research and sound marketing analysis based on this research can make a significant contribution to the accuracy and usefulness of feasibility studies in planning for travel, leisure, tourism, recreation/entertainment, and hospitality development. The author contends that changes in the marketplace will increase the need for primary marketing research in the future

The Virginia Earthenwares Project: Characterizing 17th-Century Earthenwares by Electronic Image Analysis

This study employs electronic image analysis to characterize and identify 17th-century, Virginia-made earthenware ceramics. Digitized microscopic images of pottery from five different archaeologically discovered 17th-century production sites are examined, and the grain-size characteristics of the wares are reported. The potential of electronic image analysis as a tool for the study of archaeological ceramics is discussed

Synthesis of Natural Products by the Oxidation of Phenols

Introduction - The oxidative coupling of phenols, as a biogenetic route to many natural products is discussed and an account of the recent evidence in support of the theory is given. Part I - The synthesis of the depside dihydropicrolichenic acid from olivetol aldehyde is described. Several reagents were tried with a view to causing the oxidative coupling to picrolichenic acid. The vital coupling reaction was finally achieved by using manganese dioxide suspended in benzene. A partial resolution of picrolichenic acid was obtained via the quinine methohydroxide salt. Part II - The total syntheses of the mould metabolites, geodin and erdin, were attempted. Two routes to the intermediate benzo-phenones, dihydrogeodin and dihydroerdin, were unsuccessful. The first route required the condensation of a dichloro-p-orsellinic acid with a suitable derivative of methyl 3-hydroxy-5-methoxy-benzoate by a Friedel and Craft's reaction. The second route reversed the roles of the reactants by using the anhydrides of 5-benzyloxy- and 5-hydroxy-3-methoxyphthalic acid and attempting to condense them with 2,6-dichloroorcinol. Partial syntheses of geodin and erdin were achieved by oxidative coupling of the dihydro compounds, obtained from natural geodin and erdin, with alkaline potassium ferricyanide. Part III - The synthesis of colchicine by oxidative coupling of a phenolic precursor, 1-(3',4'-dimethoxy-5'-hydroxyphenyl)-3-(beta-tropolonyl)-propane, was attempted. The precursor was obtained by condensation of a suitably substituted phenylacetaldehyde with the anhydride of 2-carboxy-4-hydroxy-3-oxocycloheptatrienyl-acetie acid with subsequent pyrolysis, reduction and hydrolysis. All attempts to induce ring closure to the tricyclic system of desaoetylamidocolchiceine by a variety of oxidants were unsuccessful