Archive for December, 2004

04-12-30

Tags: Original URL:
for a friend in Canada.

Surgical Solution To Migraines
Dec. 30, 2004
Patients undergoing the plastic surgery technique, which involves
cutting muscle in the forehead, reported that their migraine headaches
disappeared, writes researcher Bahman Guyuron, MD, professor of plastic
surgery with Case Western Reserve University and the American Migraine
Center.
Based on that pattern, Guyuron and colleagues designed two surgical
techniques […]

">Surgical Solution To Migraines

»»» (Odds'n'Ends) | 0

No Tags

04-12-30

Tags: Original URL:

This popular book is supposed to show you how biased we humans are against randomness.

Fooled by Randomness:
The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

Author: 
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas

[…]

">Fooled by Randomness

»»» (Paperville) | 0

No Tags

04-12-30

Tags: Original URL:
This study (based on the abstract) did not make much sense to me, except
for the last sentence. It seems
clear to me that it was the authors who "misunderstood" randomness, particularly
its implications to human evolution.
Nothing in this world — other than imaginations
of mathematicians — is random. No, not even the algorithm
that generated the "random" […]

">Searching for Patterns in Random Sequences
»»» (Odds'n'Ends) | 0

No Tags

04-12-30

Tags: Original URL:

Very cool research. Sometimes you wonder why they got the easist questions to work on.

Genome Research 14:2412-2423, 2004
Full Text (PDF)

Reconstructing large regions of an ancestral mammalian genome in silico

Mathieu Blanchette1,4,5,
Eric D. Green2,
Webb Miller3 and
David Haussler1,5

Figure 4.
Example of reconstruction of an ancestral Boreoeutherian sequence based
on actual orthologous sequences derived from a MER20 retrotransposon.
Arrows […]

">Reconstructing the genes of the first mamal

»»» (Odds'n'Ends) | 1

No Tags

04-12-30

Tags: Original URL:

A LanguageLog story, in which Mark Liberman wondered whether the
transcript was counted in words or characters. I am almost certain it
was in characters, otherwise there would have been a fourth piece to
the corpus — a word-parsing dictionary, which apparently is to be
built from this corpus.

CASS corpus
According to a recent wire story […]

">Spoken Chinese corpus

»»» (Research) | 0

No Tags

04-12-30

Tags:  picasa for (or from) Goggle is pretty good. 

Picasa Photo Organizer

">Picasa Google

»»» (Watch List) | 1

No Tags

04-12-30

Tags: Original URL:
by  Dr Paul C. Knoxat Univ of Liverpool Department of Allied Health Professions

Saccade Parameters
Amplitude - the size of the saccade, usually measured in
degrees or mins. of arc. The amplitude determines the saccade accuracy. This is sometimes
denoted using "gain". The gain is the ratio of the actual saccade amplitude
[…]

">Saccade Parameters

»»» (Research) | 0

No Tags

04-12-29

Tags: Drop-box-based archive selection implemented at this site, based on scripts from this site.
<FORM>
<SELECT NAME="selectArchive" onChange="goto_URL(this.form.selectArchive)">
<OPTION VALUE="">
<MTArchiveList archive_type="Monthly">
<OPTION VALUE="<$MTArchiveLink$>"><$MTArchiveTitle$>
</MTArchiveList>
</SELECT>
</FORM>

">MT template change: Select-an-archive
»»» (Computing) | 0

No Tags

04-12-29

Tags: Original URL:
Someone special passed me this tip. It’s special
because normally it’s me who tells her about this kind of geek tricks.
But it worked for me.

Date Posted:
Dec/29/2004 1:12 AMMessage Rating:
Takem from http://www.hackaday.com/
It works well
forevergeek.com
has a useful guide on speeding up firefox for broadband users.
basically after getting to the hidden config settings you set the
browser […]

">FireFox speed hack

»»» (Computing) | 0

No Tags

04-12-28

Tags: FingerSystem has been over a year behind schedule, but

with i-Pen Mouse, RF, and Bluetooth on sale, the i-Pen Memory will come July 2005.

 

">FingerSystem i-Pen Bluetooth on sale

»»» (Watch List) | 1

No Tags

04-12-28

Tags: Original URL:

I am not particularly interested in the art of translation or travelogues from 80 years ago. But this one is different.
沈有乾 (Eugene Shen) was among the first psychology students studying in
America, and he and his advisor published the first paper on eye
movements during Chinese reading in 1925. They found that Chinese
students at […]

">沈有乾: 西游记

»»» (Odds'n'Ends) | 0

No Tags

04-12-28

Tags: Original URL:

Charles Ferguson’s recent article about the future of Google and the
search market on MIT Techonology Review is illuminating. He did
everything he could to advise Google to prepare for a War on API.
What’s intriguing, other than his analysis of Microsoft’s likely moves
and Google’s potential defense strategies, is the end of the article:

What’s […]

">What’s Next for Google (and Microsoft)

»»» (Odds'n'Ends) | 0

No Tags

04-12-28

Tags: Original URL:

More on goats and sheeps. We had 小肥羊  hotpot
this summer when we visited Beijing. Apparently, it was sheep meat, or
mutton, not goat meat, as suggested by CJVLang.com. 
2004年12月28日 14:58:07    
      金华新闻网

内蒙古“小肥羊”被准予注册
 欲诉侵权假冒者
  
记者昨天从内蒙古“小肥羊”餐饮公司了解到,国家商标评审委员会已于日前就小肥羊商标作出复审裁定,认定“小肥羊LITTLE
SHEEP及图”具备商标应有的显著特征,准予核准注册。
   
 内蒙古“小肥羊”表示,针对目前遍地“小肥羊”,不知哪家是正宗的现象,他们“拿到商标许可证后,将不惜代价通过法律手段维权,肃清侵权假冒
者”。但业内人士指出,如果其他小肥羊法院起诉商评委,要求撤销“小肥羊”商标,那么小肥羊维权还将存变数。 (记者 杜娟)
  
来源:北京晨报

">小肥羊 = Little Sheep, not goat

»»» (Odds'n'Ends) | 0

No Tags

04-12-28

Tags: Original URL:

Continuing on the theme of sheep versus goats, according to this
version of the history, goats are domesticated way before sheep. In
case you wonder about the genetic relations between them, read on.

10000 B. C.:Domestication
of the Goat. Those wild
and crazy Near-Eastern huntsmen have done it again! This time (2,000 years
after they tamed the wild […]

">Goats and sheep: history and genetics

»»» (Odds'n'Ends) | 0

No Tags

04-12-28

Tags: Original URL:

当チームでは日本語のプロソディの獲得を、大きく分けて二つのテーマに注目して研究しています。
第一は日本人の乳幼児のプロソディの獲得の研究、第二は日本語の文理解におけるプロソディの役割の研究です。 
プロソディーの獲得過程の研究
 
日本語は、モーラリズムの言語と言われています。モーラというのは言葉を話すときの長さの単位で、日本語では俳句や短歌で数える拍、『かな』でいうと一文
字に相当します。日本語の話者は、個々のモーラが同じ長さになるように話すといわれ、それが日本語特有のモーラリズムを形成すると言われています。英語や
フランス語などの欧米の言語の獲得では、言語のリズムは言語獲得の初期に大変重要な役割を果たすと言われていますが、モーラリズムがどのように獲得される
か、またモーラリズムを獲得することが日本語の語彙や文法など他の側面の獲得にどのような役割を果たしているのかは良くわかっていません。当チームでは様
々な研究方法を用いて、日本人の乳幼児が「モーラ」という単位をどのように認知しているのか、大人と子供では認知の仕方は違うのか等を調べています。
 
研究には、乳児や幼児にいろいろな音声刺激を聞いてもらい、その反応を調べる音声知覚実験、乳児や幼児にいろいろな言葉や文を言ってもらい、その発音が大
人とどのように違うかを調べる発話の研究、大人が子供に話かけるときどのような話かたや言葉を使うかを調べるマザリーズの解析などの方法を用います。
 
近年では、fMRI,脳波測定、近赤外線分光法などのように、人が何かを見たり、聞いたり、考えたりしている時に脳がどのような活動をしているかを脳の外
から測定できる技術が発達して来ました。特に脳波測定や近赤外線分光法は、乳児や幼児に適した測定方法が開発され、様々な研究成果が報告されています。当
チームでは、脳科学総合研究センター内の他の研究室と共同して、これらの技術を言語発達の研究に活用しています。
 

文理解の研究
 
私たちは、普段何の意識もせずに文を話したり、人の話す文を理解したりしていますが、文の理解するためには大変複雑な情報処理が必要です。連続した音声
を、音節や単語として切り出し、単語の意味を抽出し、単語の連続を句に文節し、句の統語構造を解析する等々。文を理解するのには、どういう情報をどういう
順番で処理しているのか、様々な情報が異なる情報を与えるときにはどのようにしてその矛盾を解決しているのか等を調べるのが文理解の研究です。
 
当チームでは、文理解にプロソディが及ぼす影響に注目して研究しています。日常に聞く文には、普段気づかない曖昧さが多く含まれています。例えば、「赤い
リボンと箱」は「赤いリボン」と「箱」と言えば赤いのはリボンだけの意味になりますが、「赤い」「リボンと箱」と言えばリボンと箱の両方が赤いという意味
になります。近年の研究で、幼児は5、6歳になるまでこのようなプロソディで意味のかわる文の理解の仕方が大人とは少し異なるということが分かってきまし
た。当チームでは、様々の曖昧文を幼児に聞いてもらい、プロソディや、他の情報で意味の変わる文を幼児がどのように理解しているかを調べる研究を行ってい
ます。研究には、いろいろの絵から正しい絵を選んでもらう選択実験、絵本をみながら質問に答えてもらう実験などの方法を用います。文を聞いている途中に絵
のどこを見ているかが測定できる眼球運動測定装置を用いることもあります。

">Reiko’s group at RIKEN BrainScience

»»» (Research) | 0

No Tags

04-12-28

Tags: Original URL:
The MS Command-line A-Z is particularly helpful.

Command-line reference
You
can use Command-line reference to familiarize yourself with new and
enhanced command-line tools, to configure your command prompt, to learn
about the command shell, and to automate command-line tasks by using
batch files or scripting tools such as CScript and WMIC.

For information about functionality that has been […]

">WinNT/XP Command-line A-Z

»»» (Computing) | 0

No Tags

04-12-28

Tags: Incidentally, the question came up a couple of days ago in a
Christmas party, as an example of the impreciseness of Chinese.
Ontology, biology, and (word) morphology aside, it is a superfluous
problem begging some serious answer.
The answer, according to CJVLang.com, depends on whether you speak Chinese, Japanese, or Vietnamese.

‘Year of the Sheep’
[…]

">The Year of Sheep or Year of Goat

»»» (Odds'n'Ends) | 0

No Tags

04-12-28

Tags: Got to this page by a comment by  bathrobe today on LanguageHat. I am yet to find out about bathrobe, but the site is dedicated to Chinese-Japanese-Vietamese (CJV) and HanNan. There is an intereting set of pages on the three writing systems. 

The Writing Systems of Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese
(A Thumbnail Sketch)

A more interesting trick […]

">The CJV writing systems

»»» (Research) | 0

No Tags

04-12-27

Tags: Original URL:

Thanks again to LanguageLog.
Sounds like a perfect framework for analyzing academic publications.
Too good to be true? Mark Liberman says the download provides only a
"framework" without any text analysis or semantic analysis. Plus, it’s
Java.

Related terms: text analysis, semantic, information retrieval, natural language processing
What is the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) […]

">Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA)

»»» (Computing) | 0

No Tags

04-12-26

Tags: Original URL:
Speaking of the CamelCase, one idea is to use JavaScript to replace CamelCase-ed words to wiki-links and vise-versa. Here is an interesting trick, although I am not sure if it works across-platform:

function noRegexToSel(str) { // converts to selector-case var outstr=""; for(i=0;i<str.length;i++){ (str.charAt(i)==str.charAt(i).toUpperCase())?outstr=outstr+’-’+str.charAt(i).toLowerCase():outstr=outstr+str.charAt(i); }return outstr;}

">CamelCase finder

»»» (Computing) | 0

No Tags