5,526 research outputs found
Learning from Analysis of Japanese EFL Texts
Japan has a long tradition of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). A common feature of EFL courses is reliance on specific textbooks as a basis for graded teaching, and periods in Japanese EFL history are marked by the introduction of different textbook series. These sets of textbooks share the common goal of taking students from beginners through to able English language users, so one would expect to find common characteristics across such series. As part of an on-going research programme in which Japanese EFL textbooks from different historical periods are compared and contrasted, we have recently focussed our efforts on using textual analysis tools to highlight distinctive characteristics of such textbooks. The present paper introduces one such analysis tool and describes some of the results from its application to three textbook series from distinct periods in Japanese EFL history. In so doing, we aim to encourage the use of textual analysis and seek to expose salient features of EFL texts which would likely remain hidden without such analytical techniques
Using machine learning techniques to automate sky survey catalog generation
We describe the application of machine classification techniques to the development of an automated tool for the reduction of a large scientific data set. The 2nd Palomar Observatory Sky Survey provides comprehensive photographic coverage of the northern celestial hemisphere. The photographic plates are being digitized into images containing on the order of 10(exp 7) galaxies and 10(exp 8) stars. Since the size of this data set precludes manual analysis and classification of objects, our approach is to develop a software system which integrates independently developed techniques for image processing and data classification. Image processing routines are applied to identify and measure features of sky objects. Selected features are used to determine the classification of each object. GID3* and O-BTree, two inductive learning techniques, are used to automatically learn classification decision trees from examples. We describe the techniques used, the details of our specific application, and the initial encouraging results which indicate that our approach is well-suited to the problem. The benefits of the approach are increased data reduction throughput, consistency of classification, and the automated derivation of classification rules that will form an objective, examinable basis for classifying sky objects. Furthermore, astronomers will be freed from the tedium of an intensely visual task to pursue more challenging analysis and interpretation problems given automatically cataloged data
Pressure-induced superconductivity in the giant Rashba system BiTeI
At ambient pressure, BiTeI is the first material found to exhibit a giant
Rashba splitting of the bulk electronic bands. At low pressures, BiTeI
undergoes a transition from trivial insulator to topological insulator. At
still higher pressures, two structural transitions are known to occur. We have
carried out a series of electrical resistivity and AC magnetic susceptibility
measurements on BiTeI at pressure up to ~40 GPa in an effort to characterize
the properties of the high-pressure phases. A previous calculation found that
the high-pressure orthorhombic P4/nmm structure BiTeI is a metal. We find that
this structure is superconducting with Tc values as high as 6 K. AC magnetic
susceptibility measurements support the bulk nature of the superconductivity.
Using electronic structure and phonon calculations, we compute Tc and find that
our data is consistent with phonon-mediated superconductivity.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
Phase Transition in Strongly Degenerate Hydrogen Plasma
Direct fermionic path-integral Monte-Carlo simulations of strongly coupled
hydrogen are presented. Our results show evidence for the hypothetical plasma
phase transition. Its most remarkable manifestation is the appearance of
metallic droplets which are predicted to be crucial for the electrical
conductivity allowing to explain the rapid increase observed in recent shock
compression measurments.Comment: 1 LaTeX file using jetpl.cls (included), 5 ps figures. Manuscript
submitted to JETP Letter
Photometric validation of a model independent procedure to extract galaxy clusters
By means of CCD photometry in three bands (Gunn g, r, i) we investigate the
existence of 12 candidate clusters extracted via a model independent peak
finding algorithm (\cite{memsait}) from DPOSS data. The derived color-magnitude
diagrams allow us to confirm the physical nature of 9 of the cluster
candidates, and to estimate their photometric redshifts. Of the other
candidates, one is a fortuitous detection of a true cluster at z~0.4, one is a
false detection and the last is undecidable on the basis of the available data.
The accuracy of the photometric redshifts is tested on an additional sample of
8 clusters with known spectroscopic redshifts. Photometric redshifts turn out
to be accurate within z~0.01 (interquartile range).Comment: A&A in pres
Grain sorghum, 1967
Cover title."The bulletin reports on Department of Agronomy research project 351, Sorghum testing ... "--P. [2]
Gliadin antibody detection in gluten enteropathy
Circulating antigliadin antibody has been described in patients with gluten enteropathy although the prevalence varies in different studies. It has been suggested that the investigation for antigliadin antibody might be useful as a screening test. The object of the present study was to evaluate two different techniques for assaying these antibodies â an indirect immunofluorescent method and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Antibodies were assayed in the sera of 102 patients in whom jejunal biopsies were also obtained. The specificity of both tests was greater than 95%, and the correlation between the presence of antibody and histology was significant (p < 0.005), though the sensitivity of each test was less than 70%
Gravitating Instantons In 3 Dimensions
We study the Einstein-Chern-Simons gravity coupled to Yang-Mills-Higgs theory
in three dimensional Euclidean space with cosmological constant. The classical
equations reduce to Bogomol'nyi type first order equations in curved space.
There are BPS type gauge theory instanton (monopole) solutions of finite action
in a gravitational instanton which itself has a finite action. We also discuss
gauge theory instantons in the vacuum (zero action) AdS space. In addition we
point out to some exact solutions which are singular.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, title has changed, gravitational instanton
actions are adde
Killing Tensors and Conformal Killing Tensors from Conformal Killing Vectors
Koutras has proposed some methods to construct reducible proper conformal
Killing tensors and Killing tensors (which are, in general, irreducible) when a
pair of orthogonal conformal Killing vectors exist in a given space. We give
the completely general result demonstrating that this severe restriction of
orthogonality is unnecessary. In addition we correct and extend some results
concerning Killing tensors constructed from a single conformal Killing vector.
A number of examples demonstrate how it is possible to construct a much larger
class of reducible proper conformal Killing tensors and Killing tensors than
permitted by the Koutras algorithms. In particular, by showing that all
conformal Killing tensors are reducible in conformally flat spaces, we have a
method of constructing all conformal Killing tensors (including all the Killing
tensors which will in general be irreducible) of conformally flat spaces using
their conformal Killing vectors.Comment: 18 pages References added. Comments and reference to 2-dim case.
Typos correcte
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