Distinguishing Word Senses in Untagged Text

This paper describes an experimental comparison of three unsupervised learning algorithms that distinguish the sense of an ambiguous word in untagged text. The methods described in this paper, McQuitty's similarity analysis, Ward's minimum-variance method, and the EM algorithm, assign each instance of an ambiguous word to a known sense definition based solely on the values of automatically identifiable features in text. These methods and feature sets are found to be more successful in disambiguating nouns rather than adjectives or verbs. Overall, the most accurate of these procedures is McQuitty's similarity analysis in combination with a high dimensional feature set.Comment: 11 pages, latex, uses aclap.st

May Federal Prosecutors Take Direction From the President?

Suppose the president sought to serve as prosecutor-in-chief, telling prosecutors when to initiate or dismiss criminal charges in individual cases and making other discretionary decisions that are normally reserved to trained professionals familiar with the facts, law, and traditions of the U.S. Department of Justice. To what extent may prosecutors follow the president’s direction? In recent presidential administrations, the president has respected prosecutorial independence; while making policy decisions, the president deferred to the Attorney General and subordinate federal prosecutors to conduct individual criminal cases. In a recent article, we argued that this is as it should be because the president has no constitutional or statutory authority to control federal criminal prosecutions. But suppose one comes to the contrary conclusion—that the president, as chief executive, has authority to decide how individual criminal prosecutions should be conducted. In this Article, we explore the consequences for prosecutors who receive the president’s orders. We argue here that federal prosecutors cannot invariably and unquestioningly follow the president’s direction because doing so would violate ethical rules and professional norms. Further, because prosecutors’ professional obligations are created by courts and endorsed by federal statute, presidential control over prosecutorial decision-making would lead to serious separation-of-powers concerns. Particularly, the integrity of the judicial system depends on the ethical rules at issue. By exploring these separation-of-powers concerns, this Article contributes to a growing debate about the power of the executive over prosecution and further supports the independence of the DOJ and federal prosecutors

The Measure of a Model

This paper describes measures for evaluating the three determinants of how well a probabilistic classifier performs on a given test set. These determinants are the appropriateness, for the test set, of the results of (1) feature selection, (2) formulation of the parametric form of the model, and (3) parameter estimation. These are part of any model formulation procedure, even if not broken out as separate steps, so the tradeoffs explored in this paper are relevant to a wide variety of methods. The measures are demonstrated in a large experiment, in which they are used to analyze the results of roughly 300 classifiers that perform word-sense disambiguation.Comment: 12 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript fil

100% local and organic: closing the protein gap for poultry in the ICOPP Project

A key challenge in improving the sustainability of organic poultry production is meeting the required levels of nutrients from locally sourced organic feeds. 100% organic diets for monogastrics will become compulsory in the EU from 1st January 2015. The ICOPP project brings together knowledge, from 10 EU countries, of local feeds for monogastrics and their wider impact on growth, health and welfare and the environment to identify feeding strategies which comply with organic principles. This poster will report on feeding trials carried out with broilers in the UK by FAI and ORC to investigate the impact of algae, peas and lupins on broiler performance and welfare

What's love got to do with it? Homogamy and dyadic approaches to understanding marital instability

The determinants of marital instability is an important area of research for demography, sociology and economics, with a host of public policy outcomes being significantly affected by family breakdown. This paper improves our understanding of the issue through the use of rich longitudinal data and the application of advanced research approaches. In both method and data terms our approach represents a significant advance in this research area. Using data from waves 1–7 of HILDA, 2,482 married couples—where both partners are respondents in the first wave—are traced over six years to identify factors associated with marital instability. The data are analysed dyadically; that is, the characteristics of both partners in each couple are considered in tandem. This allows assessment of whether marriages between partners with similar characteristics (homogamy) are more likely to last than are marriages between dissimilar partners, or whether particular characteristics of wives or husbands—independent of their partners’—are more strongly associated with marital stability. A Cox proportional hazards model with time-varying covariates is used to assess the association of characteristics with marital separation. We find the following factors are associated with higher risk of marital separation: spousal differences in age, education, preference for a(nother) child, and drinking and smoking behaviours; dissatisfaction with the relationship; low household income; husband’s unemployment and perceived financial stress; young age at marriage; separation of parents; second-plus marriage; and resident children born before marriage.marriage, marital separation, divorce, Australia, dyadic, homogamy

Barren River District Health Department Health Education/Risk Reduction Demonstration Projects

In July 1980, the Barren River District Health Department (BRDHD), serving eight counties (combined population approximately 204,000) in Southcentral Kentucky, was selected as a demonstration site under the auspices of the federal Health Education Risk Reduction (HERR) Program. With continued HERR funding for eight years, the BRDHD developed several successful health promotion projects. Major components of these projects include: 1) community health promotion, which serves to identify high -risk groups in the community and provide them with health education-health promotion services, 2) school health education which included the development of a preschool health education curriculum, 3) teacher education workshop, which instructs primary and secondary public school teachers in health education methods, 4) smoking cessation. and 5) a large industrial wellness program. This study reports on an eight year program evaluation of the HERR demonstration. Overall, the program evaluation suggests an increase in health knowledge and some attitude and behavior change for many of the participants ii BRDHD programs

Environmental effects of the Manganui ski field, Mt Taranaki/Egmont

During May 2012, the environmental effects of the Manganui ski field were examined. Permanent quadrats first established in 1974 to monitor vegetation changes were re-measured, vegetation mapping was conducted, modifications to ground form and drainage were identified, soil compaction was examined, and stream water from the ski field catchment was tested for nutrient enrichment. This report focusses primarily on the lower Manganui ski field, as the upper Manganui ski field consists mostly of unmodified herbfield or gravelfield, protected by a sufficient snow base over the winter months. The lower Manganui ski field has a long history of modification spanning from the early 1900s. Vegetation types mapped on the lower field included unmown tussockfield, mown tussock-herbfield, shrubland and exotics. The re-measurement of vegetation in permanent quadrats on the lower field suggests that since the last re-measurement in 1994, several exotic species have increased in cover, including Carex ovalis, Poa annua, and Agrostis capillaris (percentage cover increases of up to 46.6%, 42.0% and 20.7% respectively). Vegetation mapping and historic photographs indicate that the lower ski field sits within the elevational belt of shrubland vegetation, little of which remains due to regular mowing conducted on the field since 1947. Shrubs which have been largely excluded from the field through mowing include Brachyglottis elaeagnifolius, Hebe odora, Ozothamnus vauvilliersii, Dracophyllum filifolium, Pseudopanax colensoi, Raukaua simplex and Hebe stricta var. egmontiana. Areas of the ski field dominated by exotic vegetation were predominantly associated with historic culvert construction and rock dynamiting. Compaction by machinery was confined to the sensitive mossfield area at the base of the lower field

Impacts of Size Fractionation and Processing on Functional Characteristics of Broken Rice Kernels

Rice flour generated from broken rice (brokens) has inconsistencies in functional properties. This may be due to differences in size and composition of brokens used for the flour. It is postulated that size classification of brokens can improve flour functionality. This study sought to investigate the effect of size fractionation of brokens on the functional or pasting properties of resulting rice flour. Broken rice was generated from six cultivars of freshly harvested rough rice that were dried at 25◦C in the laboratory. The brokens were classified into large, medium and small, using US sieve size 10, 12 and 20 respectively. Comingling of the brokens based on size was done. Pasting properties of broken rice flour were analyzed. Results indicate that, larger brokens had better pasting properties than smaller brokens. Size and cultivar of brokens had significant impacts on protein content, peak viscosity, trough viscosity, breakdown viscosity, final viscosity, setback viscosity and peak time of brokens. Rice aging influences pasting property. The moisture content (MC) of rice before parboiling affects the pasting property of the parboiled broken rice flour, thus rice parboiled at 12.5% MC (aged rice) had higher peak viscosity and final viscosity than rice parboiled at 18% MC (fresh rice). Size fractionation of brokens is essential in understanding the functionality of brokens to produce premium and high-quality products

Application of Microwave-Assisted Technology for Single-Pass Drying of Rough Rice

The 915 MHz industrial microwave is a novel technology that has the potential to achieve one-pass drying of rice within a short drying duration and reduce rice drying losses. However, processing recommendations for the commercialization of this technology for rice drying is lacking. The goal of this research is to provide processing conditions that are useful for the commercialization of the 915 MHz industrial microwave technology for rice drying. This was achieved by studying the impact of microwave specific energy and processing conditions such as harvest moisture content, milling duration, and aging on the physicochemical properties of a 915 MHz microwave-dried rice. Two rice cultivars, a medium grain cultivar Titan and long grain hybrid cultivar XL753 with harvest moisture contents of 16%, 18% and 20% (wet basis) were used for the study. The rice samples were treated with two different drying methods, natural air drying as control and microwave heating at 915 MHz frequency (specific energies ranging from 360-720 kJ/kg-grain) followed by tempering and natural air cooling. The rice samples were dehulled and milled for 30 s, 45 s, and 60 s. Physicochemical and functional properties of the head rice samples were analyzed. Furthermore, some head rice samples were stored for 6 months at 4°C and 25°C representing non-aged and aged samples respectively. Physicochemical properties of the aged and non-aged rice samples were determined. Results indicate that microwave specific energy had a significant effect (p-value \u3c0.0001) on moisture removal and head rice yield. The most desirable specific energy for moisture removal that maintains rice quality characteristics (relative to control samples) was 525 kJ/kg-grain. Statistical models predicted harvest moisture content of 20% and milling durations of 45 s and 42 s for processing microwave-dried rice cultivars Titan and XL753 respectively, to obtain rice with good quality characteristics. Furthermore, aging/storage significantly increased the setback viscosity, cooked rice hardness and gumminess, and significantly decreased the peak viscosity and solid loss of microwave-dried rice. Aged microwave dried rice that was treated at 360 and 525 kJ/kg-grain were practically equivalent in terms of hardness and solid loss. Therefore, microwave specific energy of 525 kJ/kg-grain is recommended for rice drying because it produces rice with desirable drying, physicochemical properties and functional properties. This research provides science-based information that is vital for optimizing processing conditions of rice dried using the 915 MHz industrial microwave and for selecting microwave parameters that will achieve desirable physicochemical characteristics required for different rice products