Prosodic transcription of Glasgow English: an evaluation study of GlaToBI

GlaToBI, a version of the ToBI prosodic transcription system which can be used to transcribe the intonation patterns of western Scottish (Glasgow) English, is currently under development. An assessment of GlaToBI, similar to the evaluation studies that were undertaken for the original ToBI system [7], and for GToBI, a version developed for German [4], has been carried out to test the new system 's reliability, learnability and comprehensiveness. The results of this study show that this adaptation of the ToBI system can be applied with the expected level of reliability to the transcription of Glasgow English. 1. INTRODUCTION Very little corpus based work has been done on the prosodic features of English dialects other than Standard American and southern British (Received Pronunciation). However, with the creation of databases such as the University of Edinburgh's HCRC Map Task corpus [1], the predominant dialect of which is western Scottish (Glasgow) English, the opportunity has arisen..

Stability of switched linear differential systems

We study the stability of switched systems where the dynamic modes are described by systems of higher-order linear differential equations not necessarily sharing the same state space. Concatenability of trajectories at the switching instants is specified by gluing conditions, i.e. algebraic conditions on the trajectories and their derivatives at the switching instant. We provide sufficient conditions for stability based on LMIs for systems with general gluing conditions. We also analyse the role of positive-realness in providing sufficient polynomial-algebraic conditions for stability of two-modes switched systems with special gluing conditions

Phenalene-phosphazene complexes: effect of exocyclic charge densities on the cyclotriphosphazene ring system

The synthesis and properties of a new series of 1,9-diamino-substituted phenalene complexes of the cyclotriphosphazene ring system is described. One of the compounds is shown to be amphoteric, and this behavior allows an examination of the response of the phosphazene linkage to variations in exocyclic charge density at the spiro center in a plane perpendicular to the cyclotriphosphazene ring system. ^(31)P NMR spectroscopy indicates that substituent lone pairs with this orientation are not effective in long-range delocalization within the phosphazene linkage (in accord with our theoretical model of spiro delocalization). An X-ray crystal structure of one compound (7) identifies the presence of clathrated molecules of chloroform together with doubly hydrogen-bonded pairs of the phenalene-phosphazene complexes in the lattice. Crystal data for 7 (C_(13)H_8Cl_4N_5P_3•CHCl_3): monoclinic space group P2_1/c, a = 12.401 (4) Å, b = 28.404 (6) Å, c = 12.962 (3) Å, β = 91.76 (2)°, V = 4564 (2) Å^3, Z = 8, R = 0.050 for 4525 reflections

Hypospadias.

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Nuclear design and experiments for a space power reactor

Design and experiments with compact fast spectrum reactor for generating electric power in spac

Noncooperatively Optimized Tolerance: Decentralized Strategic Optimization in Complex Systems

We introduce noncooperatively optimized tolerance (NOT), a generalization of highly optimized tolerance (HOT) that involves strategic (game theoretic) interactions between parties in a complex system. We illustrate our model in the forest fire (percolation) framework. As the number of players increases, our model retains features of HOT, such as robustness, high yield combined with high density, and self-dissimilar landscapes, but also develops features of self-organized criticality (SOC) when the number of players is large enough. For example, the forest landscape becomes increasingly homogeneous and protection from adverse events (lightning strikes) becomes less closely correlated with the spatial distribution of these events. While HOT is a special case of our model, the resemblance to SOC is only partial; for example, the distribution of cascades, while becoming increasingly heavy-tailed as the number of players increases, also deviates more significantly from a power law in this regime. Surprisingly, the system retains considerable robustness even as it becomes fractured, due in part to emergent cooperation between neighboring players. At the same time, increasing homogeneity promotes resilience against changes in the lightning distribution, giving rise to intermediate regimes where the system is robust to a particular distribution of adverse events, yet not very fragile to changes

Scalar Deformations of Schwarzschild Holes and Their Stability

We construct two solutions of the minimally coupled Einstein-scalar field equations, representing regular deformations of Schwarzschild black holes by a self-interacting, static, scalar field. One solution features an exponentially decaying scalar field and a triple-well interaction potential; the other one is completely analytic and sprouts Coulomb-like scalar hair. Both evade the no-hair theorem by having partially negative potential, in conflict with the dominant energy condition. The linear perturbation theory around such backgrounds is developed in general, and yields stability criteria in terms of effective potentials for an analog Schr\"odinger problem. We can test for more than half of the perturbation modes, and our solutions prove to be stable against those.Comment: 24 pp, 16 figs, Latex; version published in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Evolution in the Treatment of Cancer of the Rectum.

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Spectroscopic study of unique line broadening and inversion in low-pressure microwave generated water plasmas

It was demonstrated that low pressure (~0.2 Torr) water vapor plasmas generated in a 10 mm inner diameter quartz tube with an Evenson microwave cavity show at least two features which are not explained by conventional plasma models. First, significant (> 0.25 nm) hydrogen Balmer_ line broadening, of constant width, up to 5 cm from the microwave coupler was recorded. Only hydrogen, and not oxygen, showed significant line broadening. This feature, observed previously in hydrogen-containing mixed gas plasmas generated with high voltage dc and rf discharges was explained by some researchers to result from acceleration of hydrogen ions near the cathode. This explanation cannot apply to the line broadening observed in the (electrodeless) microwave plasmas generated in this work, particularly at distances as great as 5 cm from the microwave coupler. Second, inversion of the line intensities of both the Lyman and Balmer series, again, at distances up to 5 cm from the coupler, were observed. The line inversion suggests the existence of a hitherto unknown source of pumping of the optical power in plasmas. Finally, it is notable that other aspects of the plasma including the OH* rotational temperature and low electron concentrations are quite typical of plasmas of this type.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure