Multilingual modeling of cross-lingual spelling variants

Technical term translations are important for cross-lingual information retrieval. In many languages, new technical terms have a common origin rendered with different spelling of the underlying sounds, also known as cross-lingual spelling variants (CLSV). To find the best CLSV in a text database index, we contribute a formulation of the problem in a probabilistic framework, and implement this with an instance of the general edit distance using weighted finite-state transducers. Some training data is required when estimating the costs for the general edit distance. We demonstrate that after some basic training our new multilingual model is robust and requires little or no adaptation for covering additional languages, as the model takes advantage of language independent transliteration patterns. We train the model with medical terms in seven languages and test it with terms from varied domains in six languages. Two test languages are not in the training data. Against a large text database index, we achieve 64–78 % precision at the point of 100% recall. This is a relative improvement of 22% on the simple edit distance.     

Parents' views of the efficacy of conductive education in Sweden

Parents of children who have participated in a conductive education programme in Sweden were asked questions about their reasons for choosing the programme, the expectations they had of it and how they were fulfilled. The results showed that the parents were satisfied with the development of their child, and wanted to continue to take part in further courses with their child. They appreciated the intensive training and found it motivating and enjoyable for the child. They wanted an intensive training for their child because they believed that active training could help the child to develop. The parents learned more about cerebral palsy at the courses and now understood why and how they could train their child. Most of the parents continued the training at home with the child. They experienced financial difficulties in participating in further courses, and found it difficult to stay away from work and family for a long period of time.     

Using students’ feedback for teacher education: measurement invariance across pre-service teacher-rated and student-rated aspects of quality of teaching

Comparing self-perceived quality of teaching to students’ perception can be used in higher education to improve the quality of teaching of pre-service teachers in teacher education. However, comparing these measurements from different perspectives is only meaningful if the same constructs are being measured. To shed light on this comparison’s meaningfulness, we scrutinised whether aspects of quality of teaching are measured in the same way across pre-service teachers and their students by means of measurement invariance analyses. To do so, 272 pre-service teachers in teacher education rated aspects of their quality of teaching, and were rated by their 4851 students. Measurement invariance across these perspectives was tested in multilevel structural equation models. Strong measurement invariance held for two aspects of quality of teaching; for the third, one item lacked weak measurement invariance. Pre-service teachers perceived their quality of teaching lower than their students. In conclusion, aspects of quality of teaching can be compared across perspectives, and teacher education should encourage pre-service teachers to use students’ feedback as a valuable resource for improving their quality of teaching.     

Models in Physics: Some Pedagogical Reflections based on The History of Science

This study aimed to assess the influence of a philosophy of science (POS) course on science teachers’ views of nature of science (NOS), perceptions of teaching about NOS, and instructional planning related to NOS. Participants were 56 undergraduate and graduate preservice secondary science teachers enrolled in a two science‐methods course sequence, in which participants received explicit, reflective NOS instruction. Ten of these participants were also enrolled in a graduate survey POS course. The Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire — Form C coupled with individual interviews was used to assess participants’ NOS views at the beginning and conclusion of the study. Participants’ lesson plans and NOS‐specific reflection papers were analysed to assess the impact of the POS course on their instructional planning related to, and perceptions of teaching about, NOS. Results indicated that, compared with participants enrolled in the methods courses, the POS course participants developed deeper, more coherent understandings of NOS. Substantially more of these latter participants planned explicit instructional sequences to teach about NOS. Additionally, the POS course participants’ discourse regarding NOS progressed from a preoccupation with the technical, to a concern with the practical, and, finally, to a focus on the emancipatory. Their views of teaching about NOS in their future classrooms went beyond the customary discourse of whether pre‐college students should or could be taught about NOS, to contemplating changes they needed to bring about in their own teaching behaviour and language to achieve consistency with their newly acquired NOS understandings.     

Increased plasma vaspin concentration in patients with sepsis: an exploratory examination

Introduction

Vaspin (visceral adipose tissue-derived serpin) was first described as an insulin-sensitizing adipose tissue hormone. Recently its anti-inflammatory function has been demonstrated. Since no appropriate data is available yet, we sought to investigate the plasma concentrations of vaspin in sepsis.

Materials and methods

57 patients in intensive care, fulfilling the ACCP/SCCM criteria for sepsis, were prospectively included in our exploratory study. The control group consisted of 48 critically ill patients, receiving intensive care after trauma or major surgery. Patients were matched by age, sex, weight and existence of diabetes before statistical analysis. Blood samples were collected on the day of diagnosis. Vaspin plasma concentrations were measured using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results

Vaspin concentrations were significantly higher in septic patients compared to the control group (0.3 (0.1-0.4) ng/mL vs. 0.1 (0.0-0.3) ng/mL, respectively; P < 0.001). Vaspin concentration showed weak positive correlation with concentration of C-reactive protein (CRP) (r = 0.31, P = 0.002) as well as with SAPS II (r = 0.34, P = 0.002) and maximum of SOFA (r = 0.39, P < 0.001) scoring systems, as tested for the overall study population.

Conclusion

In the sepsis group, vaspin plasma concentration was about three-fold as high as in the median surgical control group. We demonstrated a weak positive correlation between vaspin and CRP concentration, as well as with two scoring systems commonly used in intensive care settings. Although there seems to be some connection between vaspin and inflammation, its role in human sepsis needs to be evaluated further.Key words: adipocytokine, inflammation, vaspin, CRP, intensive care     

Stabilization of positive constrained T–S fuzzy systems: Application to a Buck converter

This paper deals with the problem of constrained stability and tracking of Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy positive systems. Linear programming (LP) is used to insert the constraints in the design phase while imposing positivity in closed-loop. The theoretical results are applied to the buck DC–DC converter which is widely used in the photovoltaic generators. Based on the simulation results success of the method is shown for this application.     

BISp Informationen

BISp-Informationen

BISp Informationen     

Informationen des Bundesinstituts für Sportwissenschaft (BISp)

BISp-Informationen

Informationen des Bundesinstituts für Sportwissenschaft (BISp)