The grammar instinct

Previously, D. Leonard and J. Gilsdorf (1990) presented 45 instances of questionable usage, in full-paragraph contexts, to both academics and working business executives. These usage elements included sentence fragments, assorted punctuation problems, pronoun-antecedent (dis)agreement, and various examples of questionable word choice. Their intent was to assess the "botheration level" of each usage "error"; their conclusions were that: 1) academics are (nearly) always bothered by usage "errors" more than executives; and 2) usage elements that bothered survey respondents the least were evolving over time into acceptable English usage. Setting aside for now the problem of ongoing language change and its causes, the article focuses on the problem of predicting what will remain unchanged in language-usage rules and proposes an explanation for why certain rules will remain unchanged. This problem is critically important for anyone who is mentoring the writing of younger people, people whose primary audience will not follow our rules, but rather the rules of the next generation of readers     

The smallest transistor-based nonautonomous chaotic circuit

A nonautonomous chaotic circuit based on one transistor, two capacitors, and two resistors is described. The mechanism behind the chaotic performance is based on "disturbance of integration". The forward part and the reverse part of the bipolar transistor are "fighting" about the charging of a capacitor. Measurements and PSpice experiments are presented.     

The smallest list for the arbitrarily varying channel

The capacity of the discrete memoryless arbitrarily varying channel (AVC) is investigated for deterministic list codes with fixed list size L. For every AVC with positive random code capacity C_r , a nonnegative integer M called the symmetrizability is defined. For the average probability of error criterion, it is shown that the list capacity is given by C(L)=C_r for L>M and C(L)=0 otherwise. Bounds are given which relate C_r and M. Also, explicit formulas for C(L) are given for a family of noiseless, additive AVCs     

The vocabulary and grammar of color patterns

We determine the basic categories and the hierarchy of rules used by humans in judging similarity and matching of color patterns. The categories are: (1) overall color; (2) directionality and orientation; (3) regularity and placement; (4) color purity; (5) complexity and heaviness. These categories form the pattern vocabulary which is governed by the grammar rules. Both the vocabulary and the grammar were obtained as a result of a subjective experiment. Experimental data were interpreted using multidimensional scaling techniques yielding the vocabulary and the hierarchical clustering analysis, yielding the grammar rules. Finally, we give a short overview of the existing techniques that can be used to extract and measure the elements of the vocabulary.     

业界最小体积HDD的容量将提高三倍

位于美国加州圣何塞的HitachiGlobal Storage Technologies公司计划运用小型化工艺的最新技术成果使其1英寸微型驱动器Microdrive(业界最小的硬盘驱动器)的最大容量增加了3倍。这种4GB驱动器将采用一个读写头——基于一项被该公司称为“飞滑动头”(femto slider head)的技术——其外形只有上一代产品的一半,并导致高度下降50%,磁头可在圆形磁盘的上方行进。该驱动器的磁头非常小,与食盐颗粒的大小相当。其磁道数目/英寸也有所增加,以适应超过60Gb/平方英寸的数据面积密度要求。这种密度是通过采用该公司的PixieDust技术(参见《Electron…     

The smallest possible whispering-gallery-like mode in the square lattice photonic-crystal slab single-defect cavity

The smallest possible whispering-gallery-like mode (WGM) formed in a free-standing square-lattice photonic-crystal slab single-defect cavity is studied by using the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. The WGM is nondegenerate and the only existing resonant mode in the transverse electric mode bandgap of the square lattice. High-quality factors are achieved from this mode by suppressing both the in-plane and the out-of-plane optical losses. By optimizing the structural parameters, a total quality factor of 18 000 and a vertical quality factor of 40 000 are obtained from the WGM. The quality factor does not decrease significantly in the presence of a current flow path at the center of the cavity due to the of electromagnetic energy at the cavity center, which means this mode is advantageous to achieve electrically pumped photonic-crystal lasers. In addition, by combining the high-quality factor with wavelength-size small-mode volume, very high Purcell factors >8000 are achieved, the largest value ever reported. The WGM of the square-lattice single-defect cavity is promising for both cavity quantum electrodynamics research and the low-threshold microcavity laser.     

基于语义文法的属性知识获取

概念的属性和属性值获取是文本知识获取领域的一个重要的研究方向。提出一种基于语义文法获取属性知识的方法。首先,构造出一种描述属性知识的属性文法,该文法可以匹配包含属性知识的语句;然后,利用解析器EKEL和属性文法对文本进行匹配,获得谓词表达形式的属性知识。通过对互联网文本中属性知识的抽取,平均准确率达到71%。     

A grammar compiler for connected speech recognition

A compiler for constructing optimized syntactic digraphs from easily written grammar specifications is described. These are written in a language called grammar specification language (GSL). The compiler has a preprocessing (macroexpansion) phase, a parse phase, graph code generation and compilation phases, and three optimization phases. Digraphs can also be linked together by a graph linker to form larger digraphs. Language complexity is analyzed in a statistics phase. It is demonstrated that the optimization phase yields graphs with even greater efficiency than previously achieved by hand. Some preliminary speech recognition results of applying these techniques to intermediate and large graphs are discussed. With the introduction of these tools it is now possible to provide a speech recognition user with the ability to define new task grammars in the field. GSL has been used by several untutored users with good results. Experience with GSL indicates that it is a viable medium for quickly and accurately defining grammars for use in connected speech recognition systems     

爱国者智慧棒,全球最小的新一代U盘

现代社会快节奏的工作与生活,对随身数据中心的便携性要求越来越高,不管是手机、数码相机,还是笔记本、移动存储,轻薄都成为目前发展的一大潮流。作为行事果断、作风干练的现代商务精英,在利用现代科技提高工作效率的同时,全球最小的新一代U盘—爱国者智慧棒绝对是一个绝佳的选择。与传统U盘相比,爱国者智慧棒的最大特点在于体积的极大精简,它采用超轻超薄的卡式设计,仅有2.8毫米的厚度与3克的重量,加之简约的长方体造型,使其看上去更像是一张展现使用者个人魅力与品味的“时尚名片”,时尚却不失稳重,个性而又富有内涵。作为目前全球体积最…     

Evaluation of largest or smallest zero of a polynomial

The theory of an algorithm is presented for the evaluation of the largest or the smallest zero of an algebraic polynomial when no prior knowledge of an approximate location of the zero is available. The theory is developed from a partial-fraction expansion, and yields, as one special case, the classical Bernoulli scheme.     

The constellation design problem

We introduce here a new approach for designing constellations (signal sets) at high signal-to-noise ratio. It is based on a geometric formulation of the design problem. The sphere packing formulation for the Gaussian case stems as an example and the results that this approach gives on fading channels are surveyed.     

The phase retrieval problem

The phase retrieval problem arises in applications of electromagnetic theory in which wave phase is apparently lost or impractical to measure and only intensity data are available. The mathematics of the problem provides unusual insights into the nature of electromagnetic fields. The theory is reviewed and illustrated. The basic issue of the phase retrieval problem, stated for a one-dimensional field, is that although a unique Fourier transform relation exists between the fieldF(x)in the Fraunhofer plane and the fieldu(x')in the object plane, the infinite fold phase ambiguity which appears as the result of the possibilities of conjugating the zeros ofF(z), z = x + jyimplies that additional information or processing of the object wave must be available to obtain the phase. Among the possible solutions which are described are reference beam addition, apodization and the use of multiple intensity distributions, permitting the use of iterative computational procedures in some applications.