This study seeks to determine whether grammatical and presentational features of authentic non-fiction French texts are in any way related to the level of difficulty of texts as perceived by students who have taken Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS). The notions of text and genre are examined, as are the processes of reading in the first language (L1) and in the foreign language (L2). The question of ‘readability, and that of ‘authenticity’ in L2 are also examined. In order to ascertain students’ reactions to different text-types, 150 texts from French sources were gathered and classified. 100-word samples of each text were analysed for various linguistic features. Statistical tests on these were carried out, as well as statistical tests on the visual elements and layout of the whole texts. Further linguistic analysis was carried out within the text-type groups in order to ascertain their grammatical features. 31 students from local tertiary institutions were interviewed, and their perceptions on a sample of the texts were sought. This included the grading of texts for difficulty on a 1-5 Likert scale. The results of the interviews were triangulated with the statistical and linguistic analyses. A relationship was found between text-type and level of perceived difficulty. In the light of these results, the distinction between genre and text-type was examined, and a way was found of linking these into a textual taxonomy, which has close relations with the grammatical and presentational features which characterise the various text-types. In the light of these results, the question of the ‘topic approach’ to the teaching of French is examined, and a way found by which text-types that are perceived to be simpler are studied before those which are perceived to be more difficult. This approach advocates a more logical continuum of grammatical presentation than has hitherto been witnessed in course books for French at this level, while retaining the semantic integrity inherent in the ‘topic approach’.

Ingeniero Civil Industrial / Durante los últimos años en Chile ha aumentado el uso de Internet, de smartphones y de las redes sociales. Entre todas las redes sociales cabe destacar Twitter, dada la visibilidad que tiene al ser una red más abierta que otras. En Chile, el uso de Twitter se concentra en dos tipos: informarse y opinar. La cantidad de opiniones que se registran en Twitter es de gran interés para distintos actores del país, entre los cuales se encuentran empresas que utilizan Twitter como una herramienta de comunicación con sus clientes, para resolver quejas y dudas y hasta para realizar campañas de marketing viral en la red. Dada la masificación de Twitter y la gran cantidad de usuarios, existe la necesidad de poder saber el nivel de influencia de los usuarios y así poder priorizarlos en la resolución de sus necesidad como también poder hacer más efectivas diversas campañas de marketing. Hoy en día, existen diversos servicios que realizan este tipo de tareas, como Klout o BrandMetric. Sin embargo, estos modelos miden la influencia de los usuarios de diversas formas, pero ninguno intenta vaticinar a los usuarios que se volverán influyentes en un futuro próximo. El presente trabajo consiste en definir una influencia en Twitter para luego ver se proyectaría en el tiempo, tomando como hipótesis que es posible medir la influencia de un usuario a partir de su generación de contenido interesante, para lograrlo se definió la influencia en la red de Twitter como la capacidad de generar contenido interesante que repercute en la red social. Viendo los modelos existentes se escogió uno y se modificó levemente para poder obtener un puntaje de lo interesante del contenido generado por un perfil. Dado este modelo se generaron rankings sobre la influencia de un usuario en Twitter, además de rankings en agrupaciones de tópicos asociadas a política y deportes. No se pudo segregar en una mayor cantidad de tópicos por diversos motivos, por lo cual no se consideró que el modelo haya cumplido su objetivo de generar rankings de influencia para distintos grupos de tópicos. Luego, se realizaron los análisis de la predictibilidad para la influencia modelada, llegando a la conclusión que el periodo de datos es muy corto para poder predecir las series temporales. Aunque los resultados pueden parecer desalentadores, el trabajo realizado deja un camino abierto para realizar otros enfoques y trabajos que son explicados en el capítulo final de la memoria. Así, se espera que una buena segmentación y priorización de perfiles puede servir para mejorar la resolución de problemas, encontrar perfiles que serán influyentes en determinados tópicos y focalizar campañas de marketing utilizando perfiles que no sean de un alto costo.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Because of the unique features of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and Hazardous Electromagnetic Effects on Ordnance (HERO), much research and money has gone into protecting weapon systems and ordnance against it. The EMP and HERO phenomena do have a variety of differences and require differences of hardening technique to protect against it. However, they both involve radiation effects and can prematurely initiate ordnance via the electroexplosive device (EED). Protection of weapon systems and ordnance against electronic damage and upset plus EED initiation takes on more of an art form rather than science once basic principles are applied. Nevertheless by relating these two programs via the initiating temperature of the EED. they can be accurately compared with each other. Because of this observation, the two programs can be effectively combined to work jointly on ordnance hardening and protection including all forms of radiation type hazards, present and future. / http://archive.org/details/comparisonofemph00boga / Lieutenant. United States Navy

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / A computer model of the Coanda Refraction Jet Engine Test Cell facility was developed using the PHOENICS computer code. The PIIOENICS code was utilized to determine the steady state aerothermal characteristics of the test cell during the testing of an E404 gas turbine engine with afterburner in operation. Computer generated aerothermodynamic field variables of pressure, velocity and temperature parameters were compared to operational field test data. Observations regarding compared results as well as system behavior are presented. Additionally, recommendations of the applications of PHOENICS to future modeling projects are made. / http://archive.org/details/aerothermodynami00mara / Lieutenant, United States Navy

R has recently gained explicit text mining support with the "tm" package enabling statisticians to answer many interesting research questions via statistical analysis or modeling of (text) corpora. However, we typically face two challenges when analyzing large corpora: (1) the amount of data to be processed in a single machine is usually limited by the available main memory (i.e., RAM), and (2) an increase of the amount of data to be analyzed leads to increasing computational workload. Fortunately, adequate parallel programming models like MapReduce and the corresponding open source implementation called Hadoop allow for processing data sets beyond what would fit into memory. In this paper we present the package "tm.plugin.dc" offering a seamless integration between "tm" and Hadoop. We show on the basis of an application in culturomics that we can efficiently handle data sets of significant size. / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics

R has gained explicit text mining support with the tm package enabling statisticians to answer many interesting research questions via statistical analysis or modeling of (text) corpora. However, we typically face two challenges when analyzing large corpora: (1) the amount of data to be processed in a single machine is usually limited by the available main memory (i.e., RAM), and (2) the more data to be analyzed the higher the need for efficient procedures for calculating valuable results. Fortunately, adequate programming models like MapReduce facilitate parallelization of text mining tasks and allow for processing data sets beyond what would fit into memory by using a distributed file system possibly spanning over several machines, e.g., in a cluster of workstations. In this paper we present a plug-in package to tm called tm.plugin.dc implementing a distributed corpus class which can take advantage of the Hadoop MapReduce library for large scale text mining tasks. We show on the basis of an application in culturomics that we can efficiently handle data sets of signifficant size. (authors' abstract)

No description available.

Translation quality assessment is a fast growing sub-field of Translation Studies. It focuses on the inter-relationships between the text translated from (ST) and the text translated into (TT). These inter-relationships involve the lexis, grammar, syntax, and semantics of both texts. Unlike sentences in isolation, texts are context-bound. Distinctions between text and sentence are made. Text-bound translation can only be conducted and assessed within the domain of text-linguistics. Assessment of translation quality should be based on a definable, applicable, and testable model which, in turn, should be based on a sound, comprehensive theory of translation. Current models for translation emphasite one aspect against other aspects. For instance, the grammatical model focuses on the linguistic aspect of translation. The cultural model, on the other hand, highlights the communicative aspect whereas the interpretive model concentrates on the pragmatic aspect of translation. Such artificial compartmentalization is alien to the nature of translation. As a process translation, in fact, involves the integrated synthesis of the above aspects. This theris presents a model for translation quality assessment based on a sound theory of translation which comprehends the philosophical (pragmatic), communicative (cross-cultural), and semiotic (linguistic) aspects of langauge. Since translation is a semantic entity, our model - which we label 'rhetorical' - focuses on the concept of 'meaning shifts' according to which the meaning of a text is classifiable into obligatory, extended, and accessory meanings. This does not suggest that the semantic structures of a text exist in a state of utter un-relatedness. On the contrary, they survive in the form of inter-related layers within the macro-structure of the text. The relative dominance of any of the three meaning categories determines the type of text. According to this model, texts are broadly classified into literary, non-literary, and hybrid texts. In a literary text, extended and accessory meanings abound leaving a tiny room for obligatory meaning. In non-literary texts, on the other hand, extended and accessory meanings recede to the background leaving the obligatory meaning in the foreground. In hybrid or fuzzy texts, semantic structures are disproportionately distributed with no dominance of any specific category. The topic and scope of a hybrid text determine the volume of extended and accessory meaning in relation to obligatory meaning. The model is not intended for translation quality assessment only. It has pedagogical implications as well. Translation students and trainees can implement this model in textual analysis before they embark on the process of translation. Phonological, grammatical, syntactic, semantic, and lexical correspondences between SL and TL texts are identified before assessment of translation quality is established.

This thesis is about people with mental health problems who happen to be older, rather than older people with mental health problems. Health policy that has focused on older people as a category has maintained a narrow focus on recognising depression and dementia, with older people being excluded from mental health policy aimed at adults of working age. This has resulted in age discriminatory practices, but in addition, the unique needs of people who have lived long term with mental ill health into later life have been ignored. Older people have been often conceptualised as consumers of care rather than citizens with aspirations and research about long term experience of mental ill health and recovery commonly excludes older people. This study aimed to redress this marginalisation and lack of knowledge by exploring the experience of long term mental ill health to older age from a strengths perspective congruent with recovery principles. The study is based on a social constructionist epistemology and narrative inquiry methodology. The research questions were: 1) How does living with long term mental ill health affect achievement and 2) How does long term mental ill health affect life in the present? People who were aged over 50 and who had at least 20 years duration of mental ill health that started before the age of 45 were included. Seven people were recruited though posters placed in GP surgeries, leisure centres and libraries and contacts through mental health services. Four women and three men between the ages of 52 and 76 participated. The study develops the curriculum vitae as a research tool, a method unique in mental health research, in order to root the enquiry within participant relevancies and perspectives to ensure that this previously unheard voice is captured. This tool is congruent with a biographical method that informs the development of two personalised interviews and enables the implementation of this method within a recovery (strengths) frame of reference. The resulting individual narratives were interpreted with reference to the principles of over reading and life course theory. A collective text was also developed which discusses the key findings. The novel approach taken in this research study resulted in an original contribution to current knowledge which provides evidence that can be used to challenge beliefs about people who have lived a lifetime with mental ill health. The study revealed a lifelong process where participants returned to their early life in making sense of their experiences. Long term mental ill health appeared to create an environment whereby participants maximised their chances of success by avoiding stress which has a myriad of personally relevant causes. This appeared to be achieved by keeping silent, which, whilst self-protective, nevertheless potentially exacerbated their stress further and resulted in further stressful consequences. In later life the changed sociocultural and personal environment became part of an autobiographical reasoning that sustained self-theory. This created a situation whereby the participants felt better but also worse at the same time, where personal growth co-existed alongside stress burnout but was coupled with a renewed sense of hope in later life. The implications for health and social care are discussed in relation to policy, practice, research and education in the context of age equality, recovery and long term conditions. Recommendations include: to focus on extensive durations of mental ill health as a special characteristic, to review the of use stress assessments and trauma histories in practice and research, for practitioners to establish the hopes and aspirations of older people who come into contact with services and for researchers to examine the presence of hope in older people with long term mental health problems.

Entitlement to drive is now viewed by many people as an essential component in the maintenance of independence (Box et al, 2010). Private motor vehicles are considered a key component in many aspects of contemporary life and are particularly important for people with a limitation in personal mobility. The driving task involves the smooth integration and coordination of a number of cognitive, perceptual and physical elements (Hoffman and Snyder, 2005). Testing tools designed to evaluate the effect of cognitive impairment upon driving are available but many perform poorly when evaluating both older individuals and people with a diagnosis of dementia (Molnar et al, 2006). This research project aimed to give voice to the experience of people with dementia, carers and health professionals in the construction of an effective and clinically useful prototype screening tool, specifically for use in predicting the safety of drivers with a diagnosis of dementia. A participatory action research approach was taken with two separate groups formed from a dementia volunteer support group and a health professional dementia special interest group. The key findings of the research identified characteristic driving behaviours associated with a decline in driving safety and these were used to develop a dementia and driving screening tool. Additionally, a comprehensive information guide for the monitoring and management of driving with dementia was constructed through the action of group meetings. The experiences of both research groups strongly suggested that early consideration and planning is essential in the successful management of driving and eventual driving cessation for people with dementia.