Corpus tools for parallel corpora of theatre plays: an introduction to TAligner and ACM-theatre

Software tools are of vital importance in corpus-based research, but they can also lead to restrictions on the type of supported corpora and the range of analyses that can be performed. For example, corpus analysis tools, as general purpose software, do not include specific features to process corpora of theatre plays. This situation is even worse for parallel corpora of theatrical texts, in that there is currently a lack of software that allows for both the alignment and analysis of parallel corpora here. In this contribution, we will first outline the peculiarities of theatre texts and suggest three software features to address them: annotation of the structural units of plays, alignment at the utterance level, and concordances and statistics using the annotated units. Second, we will present the specific functionalities of TAligner and ACM to build and analyse parallel corpora of play texts, showing how new avenues of research are opening up with the development of these tools.

     

A multi-level approach to investigate the control of an input device: application to a realistic pointing task

This study investigates the subjects' performance during realistic conditions of control of a joystick. An adapted reciprocal aiming task consisting in driving a virtual vehicle along a slalom course as fast as possible was performed while accuracy constraints were manipulated. Realistic dynamical Interface Screen Relationship between the joystick displacements and the displacements of the vehicle was simulated. Vehicle displacements and motor activity (muscle activity and joint kinematics) were recorded. The results highlighted the applicability of the Fitts' law to more realistic conditions where the use of an input device is performed in an intensive control situation. Besides, biomechanical results suggested that neuromuscular responses were different regarding the direction of movement, whereas the performance at a behavioural level were not affected. Thus, this study demonstrates the interest in considering two different aspects of the user's performance (behavioural and biomechanical ones) to make a better agreement between the device design and users' needs.     

Heuristic methods for the fleet size and mix vehicle routing problem with time windows and split deliveries

This paper proposes a scatter-search (SS) approach to solve the Fleet Size and Mixed Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Split Deliveries (FSMVRPTWSD). In the Vehicle Routing Problem with Split Deliveries (VRPSD), each customer can be served by more than one vehicle, as opposed to the classical VRP in which each customer is served only once. In the FSMVRPTW, the customers must be serviced within their time windows with minimal costs using a heterogeneous fleet. Experimental testing and benchmark examples are used to assess the merit of our proposed procedure. The results show that the proposed heuristics are competitive with the best results found in the literature.     

Approximate Controllabilty of Semilinear Dynamic Equations on Time Scale

In this paper we study the approximate controllability of semilinear systems on time scale. In order to do so, we first give a complete characterization for the controllability of linear systems on time scale in terms of surjective linear operators in Hilbert spaces. Then we will prove that, under certain conditions on the nonlinear term, if the corresponding linear system is exactly controllable on , for any , then semilinear system on time scale is approximately controllable on .     

Mesh adaptive finite element formulation for moisture transfer in materials with a critical moisture content

Wetting or drying of most open porous building materials is characterized by a sharp moving waterfront. Due to the high moisture gradients at the waterfront, an accurate finite element simulation requires a very fine mesh. To reduce computational costs a mesh adaptive method based on the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) technique is proposed. To continuously relocate the nodes on the computational domain a remesh‐indicator is equally distributed. In problems of water imbibition or drying of open porous building materials specific attention has been paid to the zone of critical moisture content. To this extent the traditional jump‐based indicator, quantifying the jump of a selected state variable, has been modified into an area‐based remesh‐indicator. An error analysis of an academic example shows that the area‐based indicator is superior to the jump‐based one. To illustrate the capabilities of the remeshing method based on an area‐based indicator, one and two‐dimensional examples of water imbibition of ceramic brick and drying of cellulose fibre cement are included. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Blue‐phase liquid‐crystal mixtures and their induced stabilization by photopolymerization

Abstract— Experiments on mixtures of different nematic‐liquid‐crystal hosts with a chiral dopant to induce the appearance of blue phases (BPs) is reported. The phase behavior and transition temperatures of the mixtures were studied by temperature‐dependent polarized optical microscopy, variable temperature X‐ray diffraction, and reflectance measurements. After completely characterized, a selected LC mixture presenting BPs was submitted to polymer‐stabilization using UV‐curable monomers. By using a specific combination of a pro‐mesogenic (B11) and a branched‐chain acrylate (EHA) monomer, a uniform porous microstructure is formed providing a stable BP.     

Mapping environmental variation in lowland Amazonian rainforests using remote sensing and floristic data

This article describes a method for detailed mapping of ecological variation in a tropical rainforest based on field inventory of pteridophytes (ferns and lycophytes) and remote sensing using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) imagery. Previously known soil cation optima of the pteridophyte species were first used in calibration, i.e. to infer soil cation concentrations for sites on the basis of their pteridophyte species composition. Multiple linear regression based on spectral reflectance values in the Landsat image was then used to derive an equation that allowed the prediction of these calibrated soil values for unvisited sites in the study area. The predictive accuracy turned out to be high: the mean absolute error, as estimated by leave-one-out cross-validation, was just 7% of the total range of calibrated soil values. This method for detailed mapping of natural environmental variability in lowland tropical rainforest has applications for land-use planning, such as wildlife management, forestry, biodiversity conservation, and payments for carbon sequestration.     

Understanding the law: improving legal knowledge dissemination by translating the contents of formal sources of law

Considerable attention has been given to the accessibility of legal documents, such as legislation and case law, both in legal information retrieval (query formulation, search algorithms), in legal information dissemination practice (numerous examples of on-line access to formal sources of law), and in legal knowledge-based systems (by translating the contents of those documents to ready-to-use rule and case-based systems). However, within AI & law, it has hardly ever been tried to make the contents of sources of law, and the relations among them, more accessible to those without a legal education. This article presents a theory about translating sources of law into information accessible to persons without a legal education. It illustrates the theory by providing two elaborated examples of such translation ventures. In the first example, formal sources of law in the domain of exchanging police information are translated into rules of thumb useful for policemen. In the second example, the goal of providing non-legal professionals with insight into legislative procedures is translated into a framework for making available sources of law through an integrated legislative calendar. Although the theory itself does not support automating the several stages described, in this article some hints are given as to what such automation would have to look like.