Development and Pedagogical Applications of an Audio-Textual English-Spanish Parallel Literary Corpus for the Study of English Phonology

The field of Data-Driven Learning (DDL) an approach to second language learning in which the student interacts directly with corpus data has made much progress in only the matter of a few decades. However, there are still certain frontiers that have thus far remained underexplored, mostly the result of limited technological capabilities for a good portion of the fields existence. Until now, DDL has mainly centered on text corpora, leaving aside such aspects of language learning as oral comprehension and speech production. This doctoral dissertation presents the LITTERA corpus, and examines in depth how this English-Spanish parallel literary speech corpus can be applied to language learning within the framework of DDL. The dissertation begins with a general overview of the current state of DDL, followed by a detailed description of the creation and design of the LITTERA crorpus. Then a series of potential pedagogical exercises are presented, aimed at showing how LITTERA can be applied to the learning of English phonology by Spanish-speaking students. The exercises set out to examine how the different features of English prosodyco-articulatory phenomena such as linking, blending, assimilation, elision, resyllabfication, palatization, as well as vowel reductioncan be studied in the data to improve students oral comprehension and speech production. Furthermore, possible DDL question prompts are proposed to explore the different features in the classroom

The Role of Tax Treaties in Facilitating Development and Protecting the Tax Base

The amount of taxes paid by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in host and home countries continues to make headline news. Corporate tax regimes, particularly those in many OECD countries, have never been more complex and the competition to attract and retain foreign direct investment (FDI) has perhaps never been so great. All of these political, legal, economic and competitive realities face countries at a time when they need additional budget revenues. At the June 2012 G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, leaders identified base erosion and profit shifting as key fiscal issue to be addressed. Many are expecting this to translate into a new approach to applying existing international tax standards, an increased pressure to eliminate "corporate tax breaks", enact tougher anti-abuse provisions, and less tolerance of aggressive tax planning. There has been an increased critical focus on transfer pricing, corporate restructuring and double tax treaties. Some have suggested that double tax treaties are eroding the domestic tax bases of developing countries, while others conclude that double tax treaties promote development and FDI and thereby expand the tax base. Dividing up a "revenue pie" has never been easy and the implementation of international tax rules to transparently and predictably allocate revenue to avoid double taxation and double non taxation has never been more adversarial between taxpayers and tax authorities and between tax jurisdictions. It was for these reasons that the Global Tax Policy Center of the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law (Vienna University of Economics and Business) and the International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC) decided to undertake this study. The objective of our study was to look at the development impact of double taxation treaties and, more broadly, how tax policy can help generate economic growth and prosperity. Legally domestic tax laws are normally subordinate to international double taxation treaties, but in reality a double tax treaty only serves a country as well as its domestic tax regime. We've concluded that the problems affecting developing countries lie not with double tax treaties but rather in weak domestic tax legislation. Our study reviews empirical data from 20 developing countries, including LDCs, middle-to-high income developing countries, resource-rich countries, and BRIICS[1] countries. We hope that the empirical analysis and the conclusions that can be drawn from it can help guide policymakers to refocus their policy objectives to boost capital formation, expanding exports, and protect their domestic tax bases. We believe that a country with strong domestic tax legislation can advance their pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals by affectively utilizing double tax treaties and the related international tax rules to more transparently share and grow their tax base. (authors' abstract)Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Serie

Touch-at-a-Distance: Pressure Microsensor Arrays for AUV Navigation

Inspired by the lateral-line organ in fish, the ultimate objective of this project continues to be the development of a passive system for AUVs that can detect, classify and locate underwater objects. The lateral line sensory organ in fish enables some species to form three-dimensional maps of their surroundings. The canal subsystem of that organ acts as an array of pressure sensors. Interpreting spatial pressure gradients allows fish to perform a variety of actions from schooling, to tracking prey, to recognizing nearby objects. Similarly, by measuring pressure variations on a vehicle surface, an engineered dense pressure-sensor array could enable the identification and location of obstacles during navigation. Our navigation system is based upon two key technologies: (1) large arrays of very small pressure sensors that can be mounted on the surface of an AUV, and (2) the pressure signal processing algorithms through which object detection, classification and location is implemented. Correspondingly, this project is organized during its early years around the development of these two key technologies

Development and application of distributed MEMS pressure sensor array for AUV object avoidance

A novel sensory system is being developed for AUVs to augment current sensory systems for navigation and operation in difficult environments. These environments are frequently cluttered and murky with substantial flow from currents or waves, frustrating sonar and vision systems while posing an increased risk to AUVs. In order to manage such situations, a better ability to locate and identify physical objects is needed. This gap could be filled by small low frequency pressure sensors distributed over the surface of the AUV in dense arrays.United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Grant NA06OAR4170019 Project R/RT-2/RCM-17

Lateral-Line Inspired MEMS-Array Pressure Sensing for Passive Underwater Navigation

This paper presents work toward the development of a novel MEMS sensing technology for AUVs. The proposed lateral line-inspired sensor system is a high-density array of pressure sensors for measuring hydrodynamic disturbances. By measuring pressure variations on a vehicle surface, a dense pressure sensor array will allow the AUV to detect, classify, and locate nearby obstacles and optimize its motion in unsteady environments. This approach is very similar to the canal lateral line system found in all fish, which allow them to function in dark or clouded environments. In order to lay the groundwork for developing the MEMS sensor and interpreting the pressure distributions, the paper also presents experiments demonstrating the discrimination between cylindrical obstacles of round and square cross sections with an array of off-the-shelf pressure sensors. Test objects with 5.1 cm and 7.6 cm diameters passed stationary sensors at 0.5 m/s and 0.75 m/s and with 1.3 and 5.1 mm separation. Hand chosen features and features chosen through a Principal Component Analysis are used to discriminate between object shapes under a variety of conditions. A classification error rate of under 2% is achieved across all velocities, sizes, and separations. These results lead to requirements for the density, sensitivity, and frequency response of the MEMS sensors, which fall well in the MEMS domain. The pressure sensor array proposed here consists of hundreds of MEMS pressure sensors with diameters near 1 mm spaced a few millimeters apart fabricated on etched silicon and Pyrex wafers; a fabrication process for producing the array is described. A strain-gauge pressure sensor is analyzed and shown to satisfy specifications as required by the results from the afore-mentioned experiments. The sensing element is a strain gauge mounted on a flexible diaphragm, which is a thin (20 µm) layer of silicon attached at the edges to a square silicon cavity 2000 µm wide on a side. A source voltage of 10 V produces a sensor with a sensitivity on the order of 1µV/Pa. Since the thermal noise voltage is near 0.7 µV, the pressure resolution of the sensors is on the order of 1 Pa.United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Grant NA06OAR4170019 Project R/RT-2/RMC-17

The importance of early immunotherapy in patients with faciobrachial dystonic seizures.

Faciobrachial dystonic seizures and limbic encephalitis closely associate with antibodies to leucine-rich glioma-inactivated 1 (LGI1). Here, we describe 103 consecutive patients with faciobrachial dystonic seizures and LGI1 antibodies to understand clinical, therapeutic and serological differences between those with and without cognitive impairment, and to determine whether cessation of faciobrachial dystonic seizures can prevent cognitive impairment. The 22/103 patients without cognitive impairment typically had normal brain MRI, EEGs and serum sodium levels (P < 0.0001). Overall, cessation of faciobrachial dystonic seizures with antiepileptic drugs alone occurred in only 9/89 (10%) patients. By contrast, 51% showed cessation of faciobrachial dystonic seizures 30 days after addition of immunotherapy (P < 0.0001), with earlier cessation in cognitively normal patients (P = 0.038). Indeed, expedited immunotherapy (P = 0.031) and normal cognition (P = 0.0014) also predicted reduced disability at 24 months. Furthermore, of 80 patients with faciobrachial dystonic seizures as their initial feature, 56% developed cognitive impairment after 90 days of active faciobrachial dystonic seizures. Whereas only one patient developed cognitive impairment after cessation of faciobrachial dystonic seizures (P < 0.0001). All patients had IgG4-LGI1 antibodies, but those with cognitive impairment had higher proportions of complement-fixing IgG1 antibodies (P = 0.03). Both subclasses caused LGI1-ADAM22 complex internalization, a potential non-inflammatory epileptogenic mechanism. In summary, faciobrachial dystonic seizures show striking time-sensitive responses to immunotherapy, and their cessation can prevent the development of cognitive impairment.awx323media15681705685001

Fit for Genomic and Proteomic Purposes: Sampling the Fitness of Nucleic Acid and Protein Derivatives From Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Tissue.

The demand for nucleic acid and protein derivatives from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue has greatly increased due to advances in extraction and purification methods, making these derivatives available for numerous genomic and proteomic platforms. Previously, DNA, RNA, microRNA (miRNA), or protein derived from FFPE tissue blocks were considered “unfit” for such platforms, as the process of tissue immobilization by FFPE resulted in cross-linked, fragmented, and chemically modified macromolecules. We conducted a systematic examination of nucleic acids and proteins co-extracted from 118 FFPE blocks sampled from the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR) at The George Washington University after stratification by storage duration and the three most common tumor tissue types at the ACSR (adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and papillary carcinoma). DNA, RNA, miRNA, and protein could be co-extracted from 98% of the FFPE blocks sampled, with DNA and miRNA “fit” for diverse genomic purposes including sequencing. While RNA was the most labile of the FFPE derivatives, especially when assessed by RNA integrity number (RIN), it was still “fit” for genomic methods that use smaller sequence lengths, e.g., quantitative PCR. While more than half of the protein derivatives were fit for proteomic purposes, our analyses indicated a significant interaction effect on the absorbance values for proteins derived from FFPE, implying that storage duration may affect protein derivatives differently by tumor tissue type. The mean absorbance value for proteins derived from more recently stored FFPE was greater than protein derived from older FFPE, with the exception of adenocarcinoma tissue. Finally, the fitness of one type of derivative was weakly associated with the fitness of derivatives co-extracted from the same FFPE block. The current study used several novel quality assurance approaches and metrics to show that archival FFPE tissue blocks are a valuable resource for contemporary genomic and proteomic platforms

Conservative When Crowded: Social Crowding and Consumer Choice

This is the published version. Copyright 2013 by American Marketing Association.Does the mere crowdedness of the environment affect people's choices and preferences? In six studies, the authors show that social crowdedness not only leads to greater accessibility of safety-related constructs but also results in greater preference for safety-oriented options (e.g., preferring to visit a pharmacy to a convenience store), being more receptive to prevention- (rather than promotion-) framed messages, and being more risk averse with real money gambles. In support of the authors' underlying avoidance motivation perspective, these effects are mediated by participants' net prevention focus and are attenuated when the crowd in question consists of in-group members. The authors close by discussing the practical and theoretical implications of the results

Radio Astronomy

Contains reports on research objectives and eight research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant AST79-25075)National Science Foundation (Grant AST79-20984)National Science Foundation (Grant AST79-19553)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-80-C-0348)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAG2-50)M.I.T. Sloan Fund for Basic ResearchJoint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAG29-78-C-0020)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAG29-80-C-0104)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAG5-10)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NAS5-25091)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NAS5-22929)U.S. Department of Commerce - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Grant 04-8-MOl-1