Interpreting Language in Context in CommandTalk

This paper will focus on how two representations of context are used in CommandTalk to correctly interpret the user's spoken utterances: situational context represents the current state of the simulation, and linguistic context represents the history of the user's linguistic acts

Social Learning and Course Choice

We use a broad sample of students to examine the course selection process and find evidence of social learning from peers. We also find that as the number of times students solve the course selection problem increases, they rely less on social learning and more on their own experience, limiting the potential for herd behaviour. Our results give insight to instructors about the reasons why students may be in their classes and suggest that information about courses and help in evaluating this information is especially important for students early in their college careers.

Growth hormone co-treatment in superovulation programmes

The role of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in modulating the granulosa cell response to gonadotrophins is now well established and recent work has suggested that growth hormone (GH) administration increases intraovarian IGF-I production. Following the successful use of GH administration in patients who had previously had a poor response to clomiphene citrate and human menopausal gonadotrophins (hMG) prior to in-vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer, twenty women were recruited into a prospective, double blind, placebo controlled trial of GH co-treatment. Women with PCO developed more follicles and had more oocytes collected but the women with normal ovaries showed no response. Circulating IGF-I concentrations rose during GH treatment but follicular fluid concentrations were significantly lower than serum. IGF-II concentrations did not alter with GH treatment. Gonadotrophin releasing-hormone analogues are associated with increased requirements for hMG and twenty eight women were subsequently recruited into a randomised, placebo controlled study using GH in combination with buserelin and hMG. Women who received GH and who had ultrasound diagnosed PCO had an improved outcome, however there was a substantial placebo effect. Women with normal ovaries did not demonstrate any effect of GH treatment. IGF-I concentrations rose with GH administration but not with hMG alone. Follicular fluid concentrations of IGF-I were lower than serum concentrations, suggesting that IGF-I is not synthesised in the ovary. As women with PCO formed the responsive group we wished to establish a biochemical marker for the condition. 11[beta]-hydroxyandrostenedione (11[beta]-OH-A4) concentrations had been suggested to be abnormal in PCO. We therefore developed an in-house method for determining the concentrations of 11[beta]-OH-A4 in serum and follicular fluid. We were, however, unable to define differences in concentrations between women with normal and polycystic ovaries and concluded that 11[beta]-OH-A4 was not a suitable marker for PCO

Geomorphic analysis of the Middle Rio Grande - Elephant Butte Reach, New Mexico

2012 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.The Elephant Butte Reach spans about 30 miles, beginning from the South Boundary of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge (River Mile 73.9) to the "narrows" of the Elephant Butte Reservoir (River Mile 44.65), in central New Mexico. Sediment plugs occasionally form along the Middle Rio Grande, completely blocking the main channel of the river. In 1991, 1995, and 2005, the Tiffany Plug was initiated at the upstream end of the Elephant Butte Reach. In 2008, the Bosque del Apache Plug formed just upstream of the Elephant Butte Reach. Sediment plugs occur at the location of a constriction or channel aggradation (Burroughs 2011). As aggradation within the Elephant Butte Reach is known to contribute to a decrease in channel capacity (Reclamation 2007), it is important to understand the influences of Elephant Butte Reservoir levels on channel aggradation/degradation in order to decrease the potential for future sediment plug formation. Further understanding of the historical and spatial changes within Elephant Butte Reach, along with a better understanding of the influences of Elephant Butte Reservoir levels on channel aggradation/degradation, are essential for improvement in future river management practices along the Middle Rio Grande. Using aerial photographs, survey data, reservoir water surface elevation data, and bed material data, the following objectives are addressed in this study: 1. Quantify temporal changes in channel widths and sinuosity from 1935 to 2010. 2. Quantify change in channel slope temporally. 3. Quantify rate of aggradation/degradation in response to a change in base-level (i.e., change in reservoir water surface elevation). 4. Quantify aggradation/degradation wave propagation upstream. 5. Quantify spatial and temporal trends in bed material grain size. From 1935 to 2010, channel widths and sinuosity decrease over time. The majority of the Reach's channel slope decreases from 1935 to 2010; the downstream-most stretch of the channel, closest to Elephant Butte Reservoir, alternates between increasing and decreasing channel slopes. As the Elephant Butte Reservoir level (base-level) increases, the channel aggrades in response. As the base-level decreases, the channel degrades. The rates of aggradation and degradation vary between different periods of base-level changes, and are quantified within the report. When the base-level changes a wave of aggradation/degradation travels upstream. The rate of wave propagation upstream varies relative to the rate of base-level change, and is quantified within the report for four sets of aggradation/degradation waves. Bed material samples obtained from cross-section surveys and at the San Acacia and San Marcial gauges showed a coarsening at a rate of about 0.03 mm/year. In the downstream direction, bed material became slightly finer. The median bed material grain size ranged from 0.11 mm to 0.26 mm

Building a robust dialogue system with limited data

We describe robustness techniques used in the CommandTalk system at the recognition level, the parsing level, and th dia6ue level, and how these were influenced by the lack of domain data. We used interviews with subject matter experts (SME's) to develop a single grammar for recognition, understanding, and generation, thus eliminating the need for a robust parser. We broadened the coverage of the recognition grammar by allowing word insertions and deletions, and we implemented clarification and correction subdialogues to increase robustness at tte dialogue level. We discuss the applicability of these techniques to other domains

Book Reviews

Reviews of: Death, Belief and Politics in Central African History. By Walima T. Kalusa and Megan Vaughan Looking For Mrs Livingstone. By Julie Davidso

Dracula’s Inky Shadows: The Vampire Gothic of Writing

Always a story about a story, the vampire tale is forever in dialogue with the past, conscious of its own status as a rewrite. This makes the vampire a figure onto which readers and authors can project ambivalence about writing – the gothic of living with texts. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) vividly illustrates this connection. The novel presents textual interactions as both dangerous and pleasurable. What is more, Dracula has accumulated significance through criticism and adaptation. These retellings tie the novel even more closely to the processes of writing and rewriting. This thesis will begin by examining Dracula’s gothic of reading and writing. After this follows a consideration of the vampire fiction preceding Stoker’s novel, beginning with the figure of the embodied author in early nineteenth-century works like John William Polidori’s The Vampyre’ (1819), and James Malcolm Rymer’s Varney, the Vampyre (1845-47). The thesis will then address the gothic of scientific and institutional language in the vampire fiction of the mid nineteenth-century, including Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Carmilla’ (1872). A return to the fin de siècle follows, with a consideration of degeneracy and art vampirism outside Dracula, and discussion of works including Florence Marryat’s The Blood of the Vampire (1897) and George Sylvester Viereck’s The House of the Vampire (1907). The thesis will proceed to the twentieth century, studying the gothic interplay of film and literature in works like F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922). It will then trace the resemblance between Victorians and their modern adapters, suggesting that re-imaginings of Dracula, like Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), betray an affinity between Victorians and the ‘enlightened’ twentieth century. The thesis will conclude by examining the vampire as a figure of intertextuality, and considering the way in which postmodern vampires like those of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) acknowledge that their world is comprised of other texts. Buffy offers the possibility that the world shaped by narratives may also be rewritten, with results that can be either terrifying or liberating

Book Reviews

Reviews of: Death, Belief and Politics in Central African History. By Walima T. Kalusa and Megan Vaughan Looking For Mrs Livingstone. By Julie Davidso