Enhancing scarce-resource language translation through pivot combinations

Chinese and Spanish are the most spoken languages in the world. However, there is not much research done in machine translation for this language pair. We experiment with the parallel Chinese-Spanish corpus (United Nations) to explore alternatives of SMT strategies which consist on using a pivot language. Particularly, two well-known alternatives are shown for pivoting: the cascade system and the pseudo-corpus. As Pivot language we use English, Arabic and French. Results show that English is the best pivot language between Chinese and Spanish. As a new strategy, we propose to perform a combination of the pivot strategies which is capable to highly outperform the direct translation strategy.Postprint (published version

Some nonlinear mechanical problems solved with analytical solutions

In this paper the analytical solution of nonlinear ordinary differential systems is addressed. Some of the problems are classical in the related literature and exhibit chaotic behavior in certain ranges of the involved parameters despite being simple-looking deterministic systems. The solutions are approached by means of the old technique of power series to solve ordinary differential equations. The independent variable is time in all the illustrations and elementary recurrence algorithms are obtained. This is an alternative to the standard numerical techniques and ensures the theoretical exactness of the response. Several examples are included and trajectories diagrams, phase plots, etc. are shown. The desired numerical precision is attained using time steps several times larger than the usual ones. The availability of an analytical solution may be an additional tool within a standard qualitative analysis. The solution of higher order problems and governed by partial differential equations is under study.Fil: Filipich, Carlos Pedro. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Rosales, Marta Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Unidad de Direccion; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería. Área Estabilidad; ArgentinaFil: Buezas, Fernando Salvador. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Unidad de Direccion; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física; Argentin

A single serine residue determines selectivity to monovalent metal ions in metalloregulators of the MerR family

MerR metalloregulators alleviate toxicity caused by an excess of metal ions, such as copper, zinc, mercury, lead, cadmium, silver, or gold, by triggering the expression of specific efflux or detoxification systems upon metal detection. The sensor protein binds the inducer metal ion by using two conserved cysteine residues at the C-terminal metal-binding loop (MBL). Divalent metal ion sensors, such as MerR and ZntR, require a third cysteine residue, located at the beginning of the dimerization (α5) helix, for metal coordination, while monovalent metal ion sensors, such as CueR and GolS, have a serine residue at this position. This serine residue was proposed to provide hydrophobic and steric restrictions to privilege the binding of monovalent metal ions. Here we show that the presence of alanine at this position does not modify the activation pattern of monovalent metal sensors. In contrast, GolS or CueR mutant sensors with a substitution of cysteine for the serine residue respond to monovalent metal ions or Hg(II) with high sensitivities. Furthermore, in a mutant deleted of the Zn(II) exporter ZntA, they also trigger the expression of their target genes in response to either Zn(II), Cd(II), Pb(II), or Co(II).Fil: Ibáñez, María Marta. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Checa, Susana Karina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Soncini, Fernando Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; Argentin