A high-performance Cantonese keyword search system

We present a system for keyword search on Cantonese conversational telephony audio, collected for the IARPA Babel program, that achieves good performance by combining postings lists produced by diverse speech recognition systems from three different research groups. We describe the keyword search task, the data on which the work was done, four different speech recognition systems, and our approach to system combination for keyword search. We show that the combination of four systems outperforms the best single system by 7%, achieving an actual term-weighted value of 0.517. © 2013 IEEE.

A Survey of Search Methodologies and Automated System Development for Examination Timetabling

Exam timetabling is one of the most important administrative activities that takes place in academic institutions. In this paper we present a critical discussion of the research on exam timetabling in the last decade or so. This last ten years has seen an increased level of attention on this important topic. There has been a range of significant contributions to the scientific literature both in terms of theoretical andpractical aspects. The main aim of this survey is to highlight the new trends and key research achievements that have been carried out in the last decade.We also aim to outline a range of relevant important research issues and challenges that have been generated by this body of work.

We first define the problem and review previous survey papers. Algorithmic approaches are then classified and discussed. These include early techniques (e.g. graph heuristics) and state-of-the-art approaches including meta-heuristics, constraint based methods, multi-criteria techniques, hybridisations, and recent new trends concerning neighbourhood structures, which are motivated by raising the generality of the approaches. Summarising tables are presented to provide an overall view of these techniques. We discuss some issues on decomposition techniques, system tools and languages, models and complexity. We also present and discuss some important issues which have come to light concerning the public benchmark exam timetabling data. Different versions of problem datasetswith the same name have been circulating in the scientific community in the last ten years which has generated a significant amount of confusion. We clarify the situation and present a re-naming of the widely studied datasets to avoid future confusion. We also highlight which research papershave dealt with which dataset. Finally, we draw upon our discussion of the literature to present a (non-exhaustive) range of potential future research directions and open issues in exam timetabling research.

A charged-particle microbeam .2. A single-particle micro-collimation and detection system.

The use of a charged-particle microbeam provides a unique opportunity to control precisely, the number of particles traversing individual cells and the localization of dose within the cell. The accuracy of 'aiming' and of delivering a precise number of particles crucially depends on the design and implementation of the collimation and detection system. This report describes the methods available for collimating and detecting energetic particles in the context of a radiobiological microbeam. The arrangement developed at the Gray Laboratory uses either a 'V'-groove or a thick-walled glass capillary to achieve 2-5 mu m spatial resolution. The particle detection system uses an 18 mu m thick transmission scintillator and photomultiplier tube to detect particles with >99% efficiency.

A charged-particle microbeam .1. Development of an experimental system for targeting cells individually with counted particles

Charged-particle microbeams provide a unique opportunity to control precisely, the dose to individual cells and the localization of dose within the cell. The Gray Laboratory is now routinely operating a charged-particle microbeam capable of delivering targeted and counted particles to individual cells, at a dose-rate sufficient to permit a number of single-cell assays of radiation damage to be implemented. By this means, it is possible to study a number of important radiobiological processes in ways that cannot be achieved using conventional methods. This report describes the rationale, development and current capabilities of the Gray Laboratory microbeam.

VQ tree search system based on bit level systolic arrays

A bit-level systolic array system for performing a binary tree vector quantization (VQ) codebook search is described. This is based on a highly regular VLSI building block circuit. The system in question exhibits a very high data rate suitable for a range of real-time applications. A technique is described which reduces the storage requirements of such a system by 50%, with a corresponding decrease in hardware complexity.

Search for a New International System

The crisis in Ukraine has three separate but closely linked causes, which must be understood before any long-term solution is found. The three causes are unstable post-Soviet borders, Ukrainian difficulties in state- and nation- building, and Russia’s frustration with the post-Cold War status quo, believes Dr Alexander Titov, who insists that the search for a new international system is taking shape through this current crisis in Europe

A search for star-planet interactions in the υ Andromedae system at X-ray and optical wavelengths

Context. Close-in, giant planets are expected to influence their host stars via tidal or magnetic interaction. But are these effects in X-rays strong enough in suitable targets known so far to be observed with today's instrumentation? Aims: The υ And system, an F8V star with a Hot Jupiter, was observed to undergo cyclic changes in chromospheric activity indicators with its innermost planet's period. We aim to investigate the stellar chromospheric and coronal activity over several months. Methods: We therefore monitored the star in X-rays as well as at optical wavelengths to test coronal and chromospheric activity indicators for planet-induced variability, making use of the Chandra X-ray Observatory as well as the echelle spectrographs FOCES and HRS at Calar Alto (Spain) and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (Texas, US). Results: The stellar activity level is low, as seen both in X-rays as in Ca ii line fluxes; the chromospheric data show variability with the stellar rotation period. We do not find activity variations in X-rays or in the optical that can be traced back to the planet. Conclusions: Gaining observational evidence of star-planet interactions in X-rays remains challenging.

Natural deduction system in paraconsistent setting: proof search for PCont

This paper continues a systematic approach to build natural deduction calculi and corresponding proof procedures for non-classical logics. Our attention is now paid to the framework of paraconsistent logics. These logics are used, in particular, for reasoning about systems where paradoxes do not lead to the `deductive explosion', i.e., where formulae of the type `A follows from false', for any A, are not valid. We formulate the natural deduction system for the logic PCont, explain its main concepts, define a proof searching technique and illustrate it by examples. The presentation is accompanied by demonstrating the correctness of these developments.

Genetic programming for the RoboCup Rescue Simulation System

The Robocup Rescue Simulation System (RCRSS) is a dynamic system of multi-agent interaction, simulating a large-scale urban disaster scenario. Teams of rescue agents are charged with the tasks of minimizing civilian casualties and infrastructure damage while competing against limitations on time, communication, and awareness. This thesis provides the first known attempt of applying Genetic Programming (GP) to the development of behaviours necessary to perform well in the RCRSS. Specifically, this thesis studies the suitability of GP to evolve the operational behaviours required of each type of rescue agent in the RCRSS. The system developed is evaluated in terms of the consistency with which expected solutions are the target of convergence as well as by comparison to previous competition results. The results indicate that GP is capable of converging to some forms of expected behaviour, but that additional evolution in strategizing behaviours must be performed in order to become competitive. An enhancement to the standard GP algorithm is proposed which is shown to simplify the initial search space allowing evolution to occur much quicker. In addition, two forms of population are employed and compared in terms of their apparent effects on the evolution of control structures for intelligent rescue agents. The first is a single population in which each individual is comprised of three distinct trees for the respective control of three types of agents, the second is a set of three co-evolving subpopulations one for each type of agent. Multiple populations of cooperating individuals appear to achieve higher proficiencies in training, but testing on unseen instances raises the issue of overfitting.