Language Acquisition in Computers

This project explores the nature of language acquisition in computers, guided by techniques similar to those used in children. While existing natural language processing methods are limited in scope and understanding, our system aims to gain an understanding of language from first principles and hence minimal initial input. The first portion of our system was implemented in Java and is focused on understanding the morphology of language using bigrams. We use frequency distributions and differences between them to define and distinguish languages. English and French texts were analyzed to determine a difference threshold of 55 before the texts are considered to be in different languages, and this threshold was verified using Spanish texts. The second portion of our system focuses on gaining an understanding of the syntax of a language using a recursive method. The program uses one of two possible methods to analyze given sentences based on either sentence patterns or surrounding words. Both methods have been implemented in C++. The program is able to understand the structure of simple sentences and learn new words. In addition, we have provided some suggestions regarding future work and potential extensions of the existing program.Comment: 39 pages, 10 figures and 6 table

On Melonic Supertensor Models

We investigate a class of supersymmetric quantum mechanical theories (with two supercharges) having tensor-valued degrees of freedom which are dominated by melon diagrams in the large $N$ limit. One motivation was to examine the interplay between supersymmetry and melonic dominance and potential implications for building toy models of holography. We find a definite tension between supersymmetry (with dynamical bosons) and melonic dominance in this class of systems. More specifically, our theories attain a low energy non-supersymmetric conformal fixed point. The origin of supersymmetry breaking lies in the need to regularize bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom independently. We investigate various aspects of the low energy spectrum and also comment on related examples with different numbers of supercharges. Along the way we also derive some technical results for $SL(2,{\mathbb R})$ wavefunctions for fermionic excitations.Comment: 37+19 pages; v2: references added. v3: typos fixed. published versio

Real-time gravitational replicas: Formalism and a variational principle

This work is the first step in a two-part investigation of real-time replica wormholes. Here we study the associated real-time gravitational path integral and construct the variational principle that will define its saddle-points. We also describe the general structure of the resulting real-time replica wormhole saddles, setting the stage for construction of explicit examples. These saddles necessarily involve complex metrics, and thus are accessed by deforming the original real contour of integration. However, the construction of these saddles need not rely on analytic continuation, and our formulation can be used even in the presence of non-analytic boundary-sources. Furthermore, at least for replica- and CPT-symmetric saddles we show that the metrics may be taken to be real in regions spacelike separated from a so-called `splitting surface'. This feature is an important hallmark of unitarity in a field theory dual.Comment: 41 pages, 10 tikz and pdf figures. v2: added references. v3: typos fixed, published versio

Adenoviral Pneumonia During Etanercept Treatment in a Patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Inhibitors of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) have been approved for treating rheumatoid arthritis. As one of the biological response modifiers, etanercept has also been used in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. While etanercept is effective, certain infectious complications, such as tuberculosis, fungus, and cytomegalovirus, have been reported. We report the first Korean case of adenoviral pneumonia in a 55-year-old female who developed disseminated adenoviral infection following etanercept treatment, which resolved after anti-TNF-α discontinuation

A Case of Tuberculous Arthritis Following the Use of Etanercept

Etanercept is a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor that has been used for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis. Because of its immunosuppressive activity, opportunistic infections have been noted in treated patients, most notably caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis may present in an extrapulmonary or disseminated form. Since TNF-α inhibitors have been used in Korea, a few cases of TNF-α inhibitor associated tuberculosis have been described. However, tuberculous arthritis has not been previously reported. We describe a case of tuberculous arthritis in a 57-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis who was treated with etanercept

Advances in rheumatology: new targeted therapeutics

Treatment of inflammatory arthritides - including rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and psoriatic arthritis - has seen much progress in recent years, partially due to increased understanding of the pathogenesis of these diseases at the cellular and molecular levels. These conditions share some common mechanisms. Biologic therapies have provided a clear advance in the treatment of rheumatological conditions. Currently available TNF-targeting biologic agents that are licensed for at east one of the above-named diseases are etanercept, infliximab, adalimumab, golimumab, and certolizumab. Biologic agents with a different mechanism of action have also been approved in rheumatoid arthritis (rituximab, abatacept, and tocilizumab). Although these biologic agents are highly effective, there is a need for improved management strategies. There is also a need for education of family physicians and other healthcare professionals in the identification of early symptoms of inflammatory arthritides and the importance of early referral to rheumatologists for diagnosis and treatment. Also, researchers are developing molecules - for example, the Janus kinase inhibitor CP-690550 (tofacitinib) and the spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor R788 (fostamatinib) - to target other aspects of the inflammatory cascade. Initial trial results with new agents are promising, and, in time, head-to-head trials will establish the best treatment options for patients. The key challenge is identifying how best to integrate these new, advanced therapies into daily practice

The Impact of Facebook on the College Experience

During my time in college, I've had many experiences with Facebook, both negative and positive. One of the most exciting moments of getting into Syracuse was getting my email address and making my first Facebook account. However, as time has gone on, Facebook has definitely had some negative effects in my life. I've been hurt by friends, received threatening messages, and overall felt pressures to look a certain way if a photo would be posted. I think there are some very positive attributes associated with this social networking tool, but I wonder about the negatives. I want to see how other students feel, in different capacities at Syracuse University. As I began my research, I found very blatant differences between the way girls and boys use Facebook. Many of the experiences I have had were similar to those of the females I spoke to, but the males' experiences with the site contrasted greatly. The females were much more emotional about their browsing, while the males used it as a leisure, no-brainer activity. This is where the meat of my research emerged from. I wanted to find out what the differences between the way boys and girls use Facebook are and why that is. What are gender communication differences that explain this contrast? In what ways are they different? Why? These questions were all answered through my research. Females are, in fact, more emotional beings, as anthropologists have found. Therefore, they translate these emotions through menial tasks, even Facebook browsing. Males, on the other hand, don't take the site as seriously or emotionally and use it as a tool for funny or interesting information, not to spur emotional activity

Supersymmetric Landau-Ginzburg tensor models

We study two dimensional N = (2, 2) Landau-Ginzburg models with tensor valued superfields with the aim of constructing large central charge superconformal field theories which are solvable using large N techniques. We demonstrate the viability of such constructions and motivate the study of anisotropic tensor models. Such theories are a novel deformation of tensor models where we break the continuous symmetries while preserving the large N solvability. Specifically, we examine theories with superpotentials involving tensor contractions chosen to pick out melonic diagrams. The anisotropy is introduced by further biasing individual terms by different coefficients, all of the same order, to retain large N scaling. We carry out a detailed analysis of the resulting low energy fixed point and comment on potential applications to holography. Along the way we also examine gauged versions of the models (with partial anisotropy) and find generically that such theories have a non-compact Higgs branch of vacua