Iterative reordering and word alignment for statistical MT

Proceedings of the 18th Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics NODALIDA 2011. Editors: Bolette Sandford Pedersen, Gunta Nešpore and Inguna Skadiņa. NEALT Proceedings Series, Vol. 11 (2011), 315-318. © 2011 The editors and contributors. Published by Northern European Association for Language Technology (NEALT) http://omilia.uio.no/nealt . Electronically published at Tartu University Library (Estonia) http://hdl.handle.net/10062/1695

Dutch compound splitting for bilingual terminology extraction

Compounds pose a problem for applications that rely on precise word alignments such as bilingual terminology extraction. We therefore developed a state-of-the-art hybrid compound splitter for Dutch that makes use of corpus frequency information and linguistic knowledge. Domain-adaptation techniques are used to combine large out-of-domain and dynamically compiled in-domain frequency lists. We perform an extensive intrinsic evaluation on a Gold Standard set of 50,000 Dutch compounds and a set of 5,000 Dutch compounds belonging to the automotive domain. We also propose a novel methodology for word alignment that makes use of the compound splitter. As compounds are not always translated compositionally, we train the word alignment models twice: a first time on the original data set and a second time on the data set in which the compounds are split into their component parts. The obtained word alignment points are then combined

Measuring Air Change Rates using the PFT Technique in Residential Buildings in Northern Portugal

Portugal has technical recommendations and standards regarding ventilation rates in natural ventilation systems. However these ventilation rates have not been fulfilled in most residential buildings recently erected in Portugal. We believe that natural ventilation systems alone are unlikely to guarantee the recommended ventilation, and so we characterized the performance of a mixed ventilation system consisting of an air inlet through self-adjustable inlets in bedrooms and living rooms, natural exhaust in bathrooms and fan exhaust systems in kitchens. We measured ventilation conditions in a residential complex of 94 apartments in the Porto area using the passive tracer gas method, more precisely the PFT technique. The study evaluates the façade’s permeability and the respective air exchange rates per compartment using the PFT technique. Seven flats were analyzed, six of which have a mixed ventilation system (continuous exhaust system in the kitchen and natural exhaust in the bathroom). The seventh flat has a natural ventilation system, enabling the performance of the two systems to be compared. The experimental results allow, namely, the evaluation of the influence of insulation, a grid with low head loss and a static ventilator in the duct of the bathroom and the continuous exhaust ventilation in the kitchen

Air Change Rates in Multi-Family Residential Buildings in Northern Portugal

Existing technical recommendations and standards regarding natural ventilation in Portugal establish one air change rate, ACH, in main rooms (bedrooms and living rooms) and four ACH in service rooms (kitchens and bathrooms). Admittedly these rates are not being observed in most residential buildings recently erected in Portugal. Two trials (May 2002 and January 2003, lasting approximately 2 weeks each) were carried out for the purpose of estimating the implementation of the rates in a two-bedroom flat which is inhabited and equipped with a ‘mixed’ ventilation system: intake via self-adjusting ventilation inlets in the living room and bedrooms, natural exhaust in the bathroom assisted by discontinuous mechanical extraction in the kitchen. Some conclusions can be drawn regarding the efficiency of the ventilation system used, namely the results of the study shows that the measured ventilation rate was irregular and lower than the Portuguese recommendations during both seasons

Phosphatidylcholine:diacylglycerol cholinephosphotransferase's unique regulation of castor bean oil quality

The enzyme phosphatidylcholine:diacylglycerol cholinephosphotransferase facilitates accumulation of seed oil with three hydroxylated acyl groups in Ricinus communis.Castor bean (Ricinus communis) seed oil (triacylglycerol [TAG]) is composed of similar to 90% of the industrially important ricinoleoyl (12-hydroxy-9-octadecenoyl) groups. Here, phosphatidylcholine (PC):diacylglycerol (DAG) cholinephosphotransferase (PDCT) from castor bean was biochemically characterized and compared with camelina (Camelina sativa) PDCT. DAGs with ricinoleoyl groups were poorly used by Camelina PDCT, and their presence inhibited the utilization of DAG with "common" acyl groups. In contrast, castor PDCT utilized DAG with ricinoleoyl groups similarly to DAG with common acyl groups and showed a 10-fold selectivity for DAG with one ricinoleoyl group over DAG with two ricinoleoyl groups. Castor DAG acyltransferase2 specificities and selectivities toward different DAG and acyl-CoA species were assessed and shown to not acylate DAG without ricinoleoyl groups in the presence of ricinoleoyl-containing DAG. Eighty-five percent of the DAG species in microsomal membranes prepared from developing castor endosperm lacked ricinoleoyl groups. Most of these species were predicted to be derived from PC, which had been formed by PDCT in exchange with DAG with one ricinoleoyl group. A scheme of the function of PDCT in castor endosperm is proposed where one ricinoleoyl group from de novo-synthesized DAG is selectivity transferred to PC. Nonricinoleate DAG is formed and ricinoleoyl groups entering PC are re-used either in de novo synthesis of DAG with two ricinoleoyl groups or in direct synthesis of triricinoleoyl TAG by PDAT. The PC-derived DAG is not used in TAG synthesis but is proposed to serve as a substrate in membrane lipid biosynthesis during oil deposition