text:
Outlookanywhere Error (COM) synchronizing: 0xFFFFFFFF
local and external adresses are like below.
vault1.akr.local(10.0.0.128) --> vault sever local adress
mail1.akr.local (10.0.0.127)--> exchange local adress
vault.aker.com --> vault external adress
mail.aker.com --> mail server external adress
Vault.aker.com has an external ip 195.xx.199.128
Mail.aker.com has an external ip 195.xx.199.127
On checkpoint Firewall
smtp,https request to 195.xx.199.128(mail.aker.com) direct to 10.0.0.128(mail1.akr.local)
https request to 195.xx.199.127(vault.aker.com) direct to 10.0.0.127(vault1.akr.local)
On local network everything works normal
When using outlook anywhere they can do restore and store process. (Just asking credential again at first time)
But syncronizing to virtual vault it gives error. I haven't found any solution yet.
The client log is like below. If need i will put the max tracing client log.
11/01/2013 21:06:09.175[3616][H]: User initiated 'Synchronize Vault Cache'.
11/01/2013 21:06:09.183[7144][H]: HDR:SYNC: Pre-processing. Type:MANUALLY INITIATED
11/01/2013 21:06:09.185[7144][H]: HDR: Sync status:19
11/01/2013 21:06:09.201[4076][H]: CONTENT:STORE: [Offline Config] Maximum Store Size (MB): 1024
11/01/2013 21:07:09.188[6092][H]: HaveConnection::CallBack - HttpQueryInfo failed 0x80070006 (6) : The handle is invalid.
11/01/2013 21:07:09.210[7144][H]: HDR:SYNC: Updating MDC map
11/01/2013 21:07:09.211[7144][H]: HDR:SYNC: Getting accessible archives
11/01/2013 21:07:09.212[7144][H]: HDR: Requesting page: ListArchives.aspx?x=evoutlookext&evhost=https://akrvault.akr.local/EVAnon
11/01/2013 21:07:09.245[7144][H]: HDR:SYNC: Error (COM) synchronizing: 0xFFFFFFFF
11/01/2013 21:07:09.245[7144][H]: HDR:SYNC: Failed
11/01/2013 21:07:09.246[7144][H]: HDR: Sync status:-1
Any advice?
Comments 9 Comments • Jump to latest comment
Please show the desktop information section of the client log - because you've not included any version information.
it's posted here
Andy Becker | Authorized Symantec Consultant | Trace3 | Symantec National Partner | www.trace3.com
It's not a duplicate its just an extension to the other one
I seem to remember on the previous thread it was because it was pointing to EvAnon virtual directory and not EnterpriseVaultDirectory
And the issue there is that EVanon uses anonymous access under the EvAnon account that was set up as opposed to EnterpriseVault virtual directory which uses IWA/Basic, so what's happening is its an authentication issue more likely than not
I couln't understand clearly.
Vault server uses vaultadmin system account.
Evanon directory did not create after Vault installation. so I run OWAUser.wsf
On IIS At Evanon directory at basic setting on connect as tab, I select "vaultiis" user which is created on DC .
EnterpriseVault directory--> asp.net Impersonation, Basic,Windows Authantication
Evanon directoy -->Anoymous , ASP.net Impersonation
At Desktop policy, Rpc over Http connection is direct URL:https://vault.aker.com/EnterpriseVault
Use Proxy sertting, Web Application URL: Https://akrclustervault.akr.local/EnterpriseVault
akrcluster vault is cluster ip adress of vault1 and vault2
Using Outlook anywhere I can do manually restore and store process but when i press syncronize button.
İt gives error: not connect to EVserver.
At client log it gives Could not contact the EV web server using the RPC over HTTP URL (https://vault.aker.com/EnterpriseVault)
But I can connect it via internet explorer. And I can search archive items.
ArchiveOnlyWithAttach = 0 [Desktop Setting]
13/01/2013 09:53:07.297[5960][M]: Desktop Setting: RESTRICTPOLICYLOOKUP
13/01/2013 09:53:07.277[5964][M]: Desktop Setting: RESTRICTPOLICYLOOKUP
13/01/2013 09:53:07.303[5964][M]: No Value
13/01/2013 09:53:07.305[5964][M]: Desktop Setting: RPCOVERHTTPUSEDIRECTCONNECTION
13/01/2013 09:53:07.308[5964][M]: No Value
13/01/2013 09:53:07.310[5964][M]: RPCOVERHTTPUSEDIRECTCONNECTION = 0 [default]
13/01/2013 09:53:07.312[5964][M]: HDR: Could not contact the EV web server (https://akrvault.akr.local/EnterpriseVault) directly, trying the EV RPC over HTTP URL
13/01/2013 09:53:07.317[5964][M]: Desktop Setting: RPCOVERHTTPCALCPROXYURL
13/01/2013 09:53:07.320[5964][M]: Value: https://vault.aker.com/EnterpriseVault
13/01/2013 09:53:07.323[5964][M]: HaveConnection::ExecuteTest (151681035) - Starting connection
13/01/2013 09:53:07.327[5964][M]: HaveConnection::ExecuteTest - Connection test to: vault.sarkcell.net/EnterpriseVault/clienttest.gif failed
13/01/2013 09:53:07.331[5964][M]: HaveConnection::ExecuteTest (151681035) - Ending connection
13/01/2013 09:53:07.334[5964][M]: HDR: Could not contact the EV web server using the RPC over HTTP URL (https://vault.aker.com/EnterpriseVault)
13/01/2013 09:53:07.339[5964][H]: HDR:SYNC: EnterpriseVault is inaccessible.
13/01/2013 09:53:07.342[5964][H]: HDR:SYNC: Could not connect to EV
13/01/2013 09:53:07.347[5964][H]: HDR:SYNC: Failed
13/01/2013 09:53:07.348[5964][H]: HDR: Sync status:-4
13/01/2013 09:53:07.357[5964][M]: HDR:SYNC: scheduled:1, lastSync:1678381533, schedSyncTimeNeedsMoving:0, updateLastGoodSyncTime:0, failed:1
13/01/2013 09:53:07.299[5960][M]: No Value
13/01/2013 09:53:07.368[5960][M]: Desktop Setting: UseLargeItemsSize
I'm confused as to which thread we're discussing things on.. but hey ho.
I'd do a fiddler trace if possible (or netmon) or similar when trying for :
You say 'it works' when you do it. Are you checking the response code which comes back? Have you got the full client log around the time of the synch?


text:
$17.00$0.11 / ml
Face and lips. Soap-free formula. Cleanses without drying the skin.
The Original Recipe:
Dermatologist-tested. Paraben free. Colorant free.
|Aqua/Water, Glycerin, Cetearyl Alcohol, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cetyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, Palmitic Acid, Stearic Acid, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate, Polysorbate 60, Rosa Damascena Flower Water, Rosa Moschata Seed Oil, Rosa Canina Fruit Extract, Rosa Damascena Flower Extract, Rosa Centifolia Flower Extract, Parfum/Fragrance, Ceteareth-33, Henoxyethanol, Sodium PCA, Sodium Chloride, Chlorphenesin, Butylene Glycol, Tocopherol, Xanthan Gum, Ethylhexylglycerin, Tetrasodium EDTA, Polyquaternium-10, Stearamine, Sodium Sulfate, Sodium Glycolate, Trisodium NTA, Sodium Formate, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate
Massage onto damp face and lips. Rinse thoroughly. Gently dry. Morning and evening.
REVIEW SNAPSHOT®by PowerReviews
Reviewed by 1 customer
(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)
It's okay
By SFBeautyJunkie
from San Francsico
describe yourself Beauty Expert
- Moisturizes
- Smells Great
- Softens Skin
- Greasy
- Heavy
- Not Effective
Best Uses
- Sensitive Skin
Comments about Le Couvent des Minimes Rinse-off Cleansing Cream with 3 Beneficial Roses, 5.1 fl oz:
It's not bad, but it doesn't rinse off easily, and I don't find it very effective at cleanings when wearing makeup or sunscreen. Also it's kind of greasy for me. But it is non-drying, and it smells nice. I don't think I'd buy it again, but it might work well for someone else.
- Skin Type:
- Normal
Bottom Line No, I would not recommend this to a friend
(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)
Was this review helpful? Yes / No
- You may also flag this review

subset: commoncrawl


text:
LOOK INTELLECTUAL: Carlyn White provided the following quote: "Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
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LOOK INTELLECTUAL: Carlyn White provided the following quote: "Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
TAKE A HIKE: If you would like to know more about the Senior Hikers group, call John Dutton at 530-295-9323. The hikes are scheduled for the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.
TRANSIT PUBLIC MEETING: Are you interested in public transportation in the El Dorado Hills area? Your opinion and needs are important. Transit public meetings are scheduled at the following locations: Wednesday, March 27 at El Dorado Hills Senior Center, 990 Lassen Lane, in the game room from 3:30 to 5 p.m.; and at the El Dorado Hills Community Services District, 1010 Harvard Way, in the classroom in the gym from 6 to 7 p.m.
VERBOSE MEDICAL DEFINITIONS: A review of the "365 Stupidest Things Ever Said" calendar reveals the following information: Actual definitions used in medical reports: "chronologically experienced citizens — elderly people; compensated edentia — false teeth; nutritional avoidance therapy — diet"
TASTY CAKE AUCTION: The Shenandoah High School Virtual Academy's annual cake auction is scheduled for April 6 at the school, 6540 Koki Lane, El Dorado, at 11 a.m. Bring your friends and family to bid for a delicious cake, decorated by students. When cake is available, I show up!
HOW TO BOOST ENERGY: A class titled "Functional Fitness for Seniors" is scheduled on Mondays and Thursdays, from April 1 through April 25, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., at the Cameron Park Community Center, 2502 Country Club Drive. This class will focus on flexibility, balance and strength. The fee for the series of classes is a total of $64 for non-Cameron Park residents or $59 for Cameron Park residents. The instructor is personal trainer Debora L. Parker. For more information call 530-677-2231.
HOW TO AVOID TROUBLE: Clara Neilsen provided the book "Live and Learn and Pass It On," which provided the following advice: "I've learned that it's easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble." — Age 14.
SWR REGISTRATION PROCESS: You must call Barbara Barker at 530-621-2650 or e-mail her at [email protected] to register for any of the Sierra Wildlife classes.
BRAND NEW MEMBER: The Gold Country Chapter of the American Sewing Guild extends a warm welcome to new member Edwena Basham. Welcome aboard, Edwena!
CASA FUNDRAISER NEWS: CASA's annual Box Lunch fundraiser is scheduled for Thursday, April 25. For more information about purchasing a lunch box or being a volunteer for the fundraiser, call Kathy Hurd at 530-622-9882 or email [email protected].
SENIOR TRANSPORTATION: Transportation is available for seniors. To make transportation arrangements call Dial-A-Ride at 530-642-3696.
A FOOD LOVE GIFT: Clara Neilsen provided the following "What Does Love Mean" quote: "Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." — Chrissy, Age 8
THE ART OF PAINTING: Certified art instructor Bob Ross is offering monthly classes at the Placerville Senior Center, 937 Spring St. For more information or to register for the class please call the Senior Activities Program at 530-621-6255 or e-mail [email protected]."
BRAND NEW ELKS: The Placerville Elks Club extends a warm welcome to new members Dwayne Mercer, Laura Fisher, Shauna Lea Sullivan and Vern Wiens. Welcome aboard!
HOME DELIVERED MEALS: If you are a home-bound adult, 60 years or older, and medically or physically disabled, you may qualify for home delivery of senior meals. For more information call 530-621-6160.
SENIOR DRIVER SAFETY COURSE: The AARP Driver Safety Course for Seniors will be offered on Saturdays, April 20 and April 27, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., both days, at the Placerville Senior Center, 937 Spring St. You must attend both days to receive a certificate of completion. The class fee is $12 for AARP members and $14 for non-members. Pre-registration is required. Call Star Walker at 530-621-6255 to register.
SAVING BABY BIRDS: Sierra Wildlife Rescue is offering classes on feeding and caring for orphaned baby birds at the following times: April 6, 10 a.m. – noon; April 9, 7 – 9 p.m.; April 20, 1 – 3 p.m.; and April 23, 7 – 9 p.m. You only need to attend one class in order to qualify. Volunteers are needed to learn to feed and care for the babies. To register for volunteer training call Barbara Barker at 530-621-2650. Classes are held at the SWR Center, 3030 Newtown Road, Placerville.
SENIOR BROWN BAG PROGRAM: The Food Bank of El Dorado County offers the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Senior Brown Bag Program. For distribution location and eligibility information call 530-621-9950.
A DALAI DILLY: Check out the "Insight from the Dalai Lama" calendar, and you will find the following thought: "The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts."
Send your jokes and event items for Heard Over the Back Fence column three weeks in advance to Bob Billingsley at the Mountain Democrat, PO Box 1088, Placerville 95667, or drop them off at 1360 Broadway. First and last name of contact person are required. Phone 530-344-5036. Follow @BBillingsleyMtDemo on Twitter.


text:
Following a nervous breakdown, New York carpenter Roger Greenberg (Stiller) arrives in LA to look after his brother's family home and sickly Alsatian dog. His path crosses with the family's young P. A. Florence (Gerwig), and an awkward relationship develops.
A spiky ball of New York neuroses, Roger is Woody Allen by way of Saul Bellow's Herzog, a 40 year-old man trapped in adolescent self-obsession. Like The Graduate, or the second half of Annie Hall, this is an East Coast comedy about West Coast society, but one that's harder on the New Yorker's solipsism than the sun-weathered optimism of L. A.. Fifteen years ago Roger was in a band with his West Coast pals, but walked away from a major label deal. As the band's former singer Ivan, Rhys Ifans is softly perfect, a good soul made weary by Roger's unthinking actions, living "a life I didn't plan". Delusional about the past and his ex-girlfriend (Leigh), Roger hits out at this unplanned world, striking hardest at those he needs most. As he can't drive, Florence does his shopping and takes the sickly Mahler to the vet. In a regular rom-com they'd fall in love and the dog would get better. This is not that film.
Looking physically drawn, stooped by the weight of his issues, Stiller is remarkable. His cruel treatment of Florence's friendship, and their awkward sexual encounters, make for difficult viewing, but we, like her, see something worth saving in this broken little man: "You like me so much more than you think you do," she tells him. As the tale unfolds in its strange, unexpected ways, her words hold equally true for the film.
Like a lot of human relationships Greenberg is complicated, infuriating, good-hearted, funny, often painful, and well worth the effort. A sad little movie but also a great one, lit by two astonishing central performances.
Reviewed by Andrew Male
|Related Reviews


text:
Possible PhD Topics in ILCC
This page lists possible PhD topics suggested by members of staff in ILCC. These topics are meant to give PhD applicants an idea of the scope of the work in the Institute.
As part of a PhD application, applicants have to submit a PhD proposal, which can be based on one of the topics on this page (but the proposal needs to be much more detailed). Of course applicants can also suggest their own topic. In both cases, they should contact the potential supervisor before submitting an application.
Note that there is no specific funding attached to any of the suggested topics; however, the School of Informatics offers a range of scholarships for PhD students.
A number of grant-funded PhD studentships are also available.
Concurrency in (Computational) Linguistics
Improving understanding of synchronic and diachronic aspects of phonology.
Supervisor: Julian Bradfield
In several aspects of linguistic analysis, it is natural to think of some form of concurrent processing, not least because the brain is a massively concurrent system. This is particularly true in phonology and phonetics, and descriptions such as feature analyses, and especially autosegmental phonology, go some way to recognizing this. Although there has been some work on rigorous formal models of such descriptions, there has been little if any application of the extensive body of research in theoretical computer science on concurrent processes. Such a project has the potential to give better linguistic understanding of synchronic and diachronic aspects of phonology and perhaps syntax, and even to improve speech generation and recognition, by adding formal underpinning and improvement to the existing agent-based approaches.
Spectral Learning for Natural Language Processing
Supervisors: Shay Cohen, Mirella Lapata
Latent variable modeling is a common technique for improving the expressive power of natural language processing models. The values of these latent variables are missing in the data, but we are still required to predict these values and estimate the model parameters while assuming these variables exist in the model. This project seeks to improve the expressive power of NLP models at various levels (such as morphological, syntactic and semantic) using latent variable modeling, and also to identify key techniques, based on spectral algorithms, in order to learn these models. The family of latent-variable spectral learning algorithms is a recent exciting development that was seeded in the machine learning community. It presents a principled, well-motivated approach for estimating the parameters of latent variable models using tools from linear algebra.
Analyzing lexical networks
Supervisor: Sharon Goldwater
Psycholinguists often model the phonological structure of the mental lexicon as a network or graph, with nodes representing words and edges connecting words that differ by a single phoneme. Statistics gathered from this graph, such as the number of neighbors a word has, have been shown to predict behavioral measures, such as the word's recognition time. Researchers have also suggested that lexical networks across different languages share certain important properties, such as a short average path length between any two nodes. However, many important questions remain regarding the similarities and differences between lexical networks across languages, and even between the networks of children and adults in the same language community. Answering these questions could help us understand the language-universal cognitive and linguistic pressures that determine the structure of lexicons and the path of word learning in children. PhD projects in this general area will require developing new methodologies for comparing and analyzing graph structures and applying these methodologies to lexical networks from different languages. We aim to relate properties of the lexical networks to aspects of either adult language processing or child language acquisition. Possible projects could (but need not) include behavioural experiments.
Joint learning of morphology and syntax
Supervisor: Sharon Goldwater
Develop a system for joint unsupervised learning of morphology and syntax.
Morphological analysis (segmentation) is an important part of NLP and speech technology in many morphologically rich languages. Interestingly, unsupervised morphological analysis systems sometimes yield better results for downstream applications than do supervised systems. However there is still room for improvement. This project aims to improve unsupervised morphological analysis through incorporating some form of syntactic information (e.g., POS tags or dependencies) into a joint learning model. Evaluation will be both against a gold standard but importantly also through incorporating the morphological analysis into a downstream application such as machine translation or speech recognition. One goal is to determine what properties of a morphological segmentation are useful for that application.
Uniform Information Density and multimodal interaction
Supervisor: Sharon Goldwater
Explore whether and how the Uniform Information Density hypothesis applies to gestural aspects of communication.
The Uniform Information Density (UID) hypothesis states that speakers attempt to communicate roughly equivalent amounts of information per unit time. UID predicts, for example, that if a word is more predictable based on context then the speaker will pronounce the word less clearly or with shorter duration, as this loss in information balances out the gain due to context. This and other predictions of UID have been shown to hold for speech, but in face-to-face communication, multiple channels are involved. In particular, information is communicated through gesture as well as speech, so the predictions of UID should carry over into the domain of gesture. This project aims to clarify and test these predictions. Key challenges will be in identifying and/or collecting an appropriate corpus, and in defining a measure of reduction for gesture (analogous to reduction in word pronunciation).
An Integrated Model of Human Syntactic and Semantic Processing
Supervisor: Frank Keller
Develop a model of human language processing that combines incremental syntactic parsing with LSA-based semantic construction.
Over the past years, successful broad-coverage models of human syntactic processing have been proposed, e.g., Hale's Surprisal model. At the same time, human semantic intuitions have been captured successfully using semantic space models such as Latent Semantic Analysis. These two lines of work have been pursued largely independently, even though experimental results clearly show that humans combine syntactic and semantic information during sentence comprehension. The aim of this project is to build an integrated model of syntactic and semantic processing that combines Surprisal-based incremental parsing with LSA-based semantic construction. The key challenge is to integrate semantic knowledge into the parser, while also enabling LSA to compute sentence-level, rather than word-level semantic representations. The resulting model can be evaluated against a wealth of data, including eye-tracking corpora, garden-path experiments, and semantic priming data.
Modeling Syntactic Priming with Synchronous Grammars
Supervisor: Frank Keller
Develop a model of how two languages prime each other in bilingual speakers based on synchronous grammars trained on a bilingual corpus.
Syntactic priming refers to speakers' re-use of syntactic structures, i.e., a given syntactic rule tends to occur more often if the same rule has been used recently. This phenomenon is supported by a wealth of experimental, corpus, and modeling evidence. Recently, cross-linguistic priming effects have been attested: bilingual speakers that produce a given structure in one language tend to re-use it even when they switch to the other language.
The aim of this project is to develop a computational model of crosslinguistic priming. This will involve discovering which structures can prime each other by learning a syntactic alignment between two languages from a bilingual corpus. This will result in a synchronous grammar of the two languages, which can form the basis of a model of bilingual language production. The overall model also needs to incorporate an account of code switching, i.e., of the process of switching from one language to the other.
Exploiting Gaze Information for Natural Language Processing
Supervisor: Frank Keller
Explore whether gaze information can be utilized to improve tasks such as co-reference resolution, dialog act recognition, or summarization.
Previous work has shown that gaze (information about where people look) can be useful for NLP tasks, e.g., speech recognition or co-reference resolution. However, these results were obtained in restricted, artificial domains, and it is not clear whether they generalize to naturalistic dialogue. The aim of this project is exploit the gaze annotation in the AMI meeting corpus for NLP tasks such as co-reference resolution, dialog act recognition, or summarization. This may involve an elaboration of the existing coarse gaze annotation, and the utilization of other non-linguistic information in the AMI corpus, e.g., hand gestures and head movements. This work could be complemented by eye-tracking experiments conducted to collect gaze data specifically for NLP tasks.
Exploiting Eye-tracking and Linguistic Data for Training Visual Object Detectors
Supervisors: Frank Keller, Vittorio Ferrari
Develop algorithms that can use eye-tracking data for images and associated text as training data for object detection.
Studies of human visual processing show that humans tend to fixate objects (rather than non-object regions) when viewing an image. Human fixation data can be acquired using an eye-tracker (a device that records the x/y-coordinates of fixations on the screen). Given the object-based nature of human image viewing, it should be possible to use eye-tracking data as a supervisory signal for training automatic object detection algorithms. Instead, current methods typically require large amounts of annotated training data, i.e., images where the labels and boundaries of the objects have been manually marked by humans, an expensive and cumbersome process.
The first aim of this project is to investigate whether eye-tracking data can be used to infer object boundaries, bypassing the need for manual annotation. Secondly, it may also be possible to infer object labels based on eye-tracking data of images with associated text, as humans are likely to fixate the relevant object when reading text describing it. The project will involve collecting relevant eye-tracking data, as well as developing schemes to make use of this data for weakly supervised learning of object detectors.
Gradability and Granularity
Supervisor: Ewan Klein
Develop a semantics for gradable predicates which systematically takes into account levels of granularity.
When we use propositions involving spatial proximity, we have to choose an appropriate level of granularity. For example, we evaluate the truth of "X is near to Edinburgh" at a granularity of miles, but "X is near my foot" at a granularity of inches. What kind of knowledge and reasoning does an agent require in order to choose the level of granularity when using gradable predicates such as "near" in different contexts?
Although there are formal theories of granularity, developed in various approaches to representing and reasoning with spatial and temporal categories, it is still an open question how these should be related to natural language semantics. From a cognitive perspective, it has been suggested that granularity is related to the 'approximate number system' (present in both human infants and animals) and operates logarithmically in accordance with Weber's law.
Maintaining Negative Polarity in Statistical Machine Translation
Supervisor: Bonnie Webber
Negative assertions, negative commands, and many negative questions all convey the opposite of their corresponding positives. Statistical machine translation (SMT), for all its other success, cannot be trusted to get this right: It may incorrectly render a negative clause in the source language as positive in the target; render negation of an embedded source clause as negation of the target matrix clause; render negative quantification in the source text as positive quantification in the target; and negative quantification in the source text as verbal negation in English, thereby significantly changing the meaning conveyed.
The goal of this research is a robust, language-independent method for improving accuracy in the translation of negative sentences in SMT. To assess negation-specific improvements, a bespoke evaluation metric must also be developed, to complement the standard SMT BLEU score.
Using discourse relations to inform sentence-level Statistical MT
Supervisor: Bonnie Webber
Gold standard annotation of the Penn Discourse TreeBank has enabled the development of methods for disambiguating the intended sense of an ambiguous discourse connective such as since or while, as well as for suggesting discourse relation(s) likely to hold between adjacent sentences that are not marked with a discourse connective.
Since a discourse connective and its two arguments can be viewed as in terms of constraints that hold between pairwise between the connective and each argument, or between the arguments, we should be able to use these constraints in Statistical MT, either in decoding or in re-ranking, preferring translations that are compatible with the constraints. One might start this work either by looking at rather abstract, high-frequency discourse relations such as contrast, which have rather weak pair-wise constraints, or by looking at rather specific, low-frequency relations such as chosen alternative, which have very strong constraints between the arguments.
Entity-coherence and Statistical MT
Supervisor: Bonnie Webber
Entity-based coherence has been used in both Natural Language Generation (Barzilay and Lapata, 2008) : Elsner and Charniak, 2011) and essay scoring (Miltsakaki and Kukich, 2004), reflecting the observation that texts that display the entity-coherence patterns of well-written texts from the given genre are seen as being better written than texts that don't display these patterns. Recently, Guinaudeau and Strube (2013) have shown that matrix operations can be used to compute entity-based coherence very efficiently.
This project aims to apply the same insights to Statistical MT, and assess whether sentence-level SMT can be improved by promoting translations that better match natural patterns of entity-based coherence, or by getting better translations in the first place.
Improving the translation of Modality in SMT
Supervisor: Bonnie Webber
Modal utterances are common in both argumentative (rhetorical) text and instructions. This project considers the translation of such texts (for example, TED talks as representative of argumentative text) and whether the translation of modality can be improved by considered discourse-level features of such texts. For example, there may be useful constraints between adjacent sentences or clauses, such that the appearance of a modal marker in one increases/decreases the likelihood of some kind of modal marker in the other.
Automatically Generating Comments for Source Code
Supervisors: Mirella Lapata, Charles Sutton, Shay Cohen
A number of studies have shown that good comments can help programmers quickly understand what a piece of source codes, aiding program comprehension and software maintenance. Unfortunately, few software projects adequately comment the code. One way to overcome the lack of human-written summary comments, and guard against obsolete comments, is to automatically generate them directly from the source code. In addition to providing comments for existing code, generated comments encourage developers to comment new written code.
In this project our aim is to automatically generate descriptive summary comments for source code, whilst modeling the process after natural language generation. Specifically, we will break down the problem into content selection and text generation. Content selection inovlves choosing the most important code statements to be included in the summary comment. For a selected statement, text generation determines how to express the content in natural language sentences which are grammatical, coherent and non-repetitive. In developing a suitable code-to-summary model, We will borrow insights from syntax-inspired statistical machine translation as well as data-driven text-to-text generation.
Generation of Sentences and Images using Visual Abstraction
Supervisors: Mirella Lapata, Larry Zitnick
Learning the relation of language to its visual incarnation remains a challenging and fundamental problem in computer vision. Both text and image corpora offer substantial amounts of information about our physical world. Relating the information between these domains may improve existing computer vision and natural language processing (NLP) applications and lead to new applications.
In this project we will study the problem of generating descriptions for images and novel scenes for sentence descriptions. Specifically, we will use abstract scenes over real images which provides us with two main advantages. First, the difficulites in automatically detecting or hand-labeling relevant information in real images can be avoided. By construction, we know the visual arrangement and attributes of the objects in the scene and thus can focus on the core problem of scene understanding. Secondly, one can explore subtle nuances in the interplay between visual meaning and its verbalization, since it is possible to generate different, yet semantically similar, scenes and descriptions. Our key idea is to explore synchronous context free grammars and related formalisms for both generating descriptions for images and synthesizing images for linguistic descriptions.
Improving Internet Access for Low-literacy Users with Automatic Text Simplification
Supervisor: Mirella Lapata
The ability to simplify a wide variety of documents, irrespectively of size, content, or style carries much practical import for a wide range of users. For example, it would render the internet more accessible to a broader audience as lower-literacy readers face severe challenges in reading long and dense documents, and navigating to desired information on individual sites. We propose to formalize simplification as a synchronous grammar learning problem and argue that Wikipedia constitutes a valuable resource for obtaining such a grammar. We will develop a modeling framework that is applicable to languages other than English and will evaluate it in a realistic web page simplification setting.
Modelling Non-Cooperative Conversation
Supervisor: Alex Lascarides
Develop and implement a model of conversation that can handle cases where the agents' goals conflict.
Work on adversarial strategies from game theory and signalling theory lack sophisticated models of linguistic meaning. Conversely, current models of natural language discourse typically lack models of human action and decision making that deal with situations where the agents' goals conflict. The aim of this project is to fill this gap and in doing so provide a model of implicature in non-cooperative contexts.
This project involves analysing a corpus of human dialogues of users playing the game Settlers of Catan: a well-known adversarial negotiating game. This will be used to leverage extensions to an existing state of the art dynamic semantic model of dialogue content with a logically precise model of the agents' mental states and strategies. The project will also involve implementing these ideas into a working dialogue system that extends an existing open source agent that plays Settlers, but that has no linguistic capabilities.
Interpreting Hand Gestures in Face to Face Conversation
Supervisor: Alex Lascarides
Map hand shapes and movements into a representation of their form and meaning.
The technology for mapping an acoustic signal into a sequence of words and for estimating the position of pitch accents is very well established. But estimating which hand movements are communicative and which aren't, estimating which part of a communicative hand movement is the stroke or post-stroke hold (i.e., those part of the move that conveys meaning) is much less well understood. Furthermore, to build a semantic representation of the multimodal action, one must, for depicting gestures at least (that is, gestures whose form resembles their meaning) capture qualitative properties of its shape, position and movement (e.g., that the trajectory of the hand was a circle, or a straight line moving vertically upwards). On the other hand, deictic gestures must be represented using quantitative values in 4D Euclidean space. Mapping hand movement to these symbolic and quantitative representations of form is also an unsolved problem.
The aim of this project is to create and exploit a corpus to learn mappings from the communicative multimodal signals to the representation of their form, as required by an existing online grammar of multimodal action, which in turn is designed to yield (underspecified) representations of the meaning of the multimodal action. We plan to use state of the art models of visual processing using kinect cameras to estimate hand positions and hand shapes, and design Hidden Markov Models that exploit the visual signal, language models and gesture models to estimate the qualitative (and quantitative) properties of the gesture.
Incremental Interpretation for robust NLP using CCG and Dependency Parsing
Supervisor: Mark Steedman
Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) is a computational grammar formalism that has recently been used widely in NLP applications including wide-coverage parsing, generation, and semantic parser induction. The present project seeks to apply insights from these and other sources including dependency parsing to the problem of incremental word-by-word parsing and interpretation using statistical models. Possible evaluation tasks include language modeling for automatic speech recognition, as well as standard parsing benchmarks.
Statistical NLP for Programming Languages
Supervisor: Charles Sutton
Find syntactic patterns in corpora of programming language text.
The goal of this project is to apply the advanced statistical techniques from natural language processing to a completely different and new textual domain: programming language text. Think about how you program when you are using a new library or new environment for the first time. You "program by search engine", i.e., you search for examples of people who have used the same library, and you copy chunks of code from them. I want to systemize this process, and apply it at a large scale. We have collected a corpus of 1.5 billion lines of source code from 8000 software projects, and we want to find syntactic patterns that recur across projects. These can then be presented to a programmer as she is writing code, providing an autocomplete functionality that can suggest entire function bodies. Statistical techniques involved include language modeling, data mining, and Bayesian nonparametrics. This also raises some deep and interesting questions in software engineering: i.e., Why do syntactic patterns occur in professionally written software when they could be refactored away?
Discovering hidden causes
Supervisor: Chris Lucas
In order to explain, predict, and influence events, human leaners must infer the presence of causes that cannot be directly observed. For example, we understand the behavior of other people by appealing to mental states, we can infer that a new disease is spreading when we see several individuals with novel symptoms, and we can speculate about why a device or computer program is prone to crashing. The aim of this project is to better understand how humans search for and discover hidden causes, using Bayesian models and behavioural experiments.
Approximate inference in human causal learning
Supervisor: Chris Lucas
A fundamental problem in casual learning is understanding what relationships hold among a large set of variables, and in general this problem is intractable. Nonetheless, humans are able to learn efficiently about the causal structure of the world around them, often making the same inferences that one would expect of an ideal or rational learner. How we achieve this performance is not yet well understood -- we rely on approximate inferences that deviate in certain systematic ways from what an ideal observer would do, but those deviations are still being catalogued and there are few detailed hypotheses about the underlying processes. This project is concerned with exploring these processes and developing models that reproduce human performance -- including error patterns -- in complex causal learning problems, with the aim of understanding and correcting for human errors and building systems that are of practical use
Statistical semantic models of translation
Supervisor: Adam Lopez
Statistical machine translation has been enormously successful over the last two decades, resulting in what is today a thriving industry highlighted by offerings such as Google Translate. Yet translation systems still often fail to preserve the semantics of sentences -- the "who did what to whom" relationships that they express -- because they model translation as simple substitution and permutation of words, or at best as the reordering of syntactic units, such as nouns and adjectives. To preserve semantics, they must model semantics. Computational linguists have developed formal, expressive mathematical models of language that exhibit high empirical coverage of semantically annotated linguistic data, correctly predict a variety of important linguistic phenomena in many languages, and can be processed with highly efficient algorithms. However, these models are untested as the basis of statistical translation models. The goal of projects in this area is to develop the mathematics of translation models based on these formalisms and to apply them to real translation tasks
Graph automata for statistical semantics
Supervisor: Adam Lopez
We now have large quantities of sentences annotated with their semantics, in the form of directed graphs expressing "who did what to whom" relationships. This creates the possibility to learn large-scale statistical models of semantic parsing or text generation. From a machine learning perspective, this is a structured prediction problem: the input and outputs are strings, trees, or graphs. The formal machinery of structured prediction models for strings and trees is often based on weighted automata and transducers: extensions of classical automata and transducers with real-valued weights representing probabilities. To extend these models to graph-based representations, we require automata and transducers for graphs, but these types of automata are much less well-developed than automata on strings and trees. The goal of projects in this area is to extend the mathematics of weighted graph automata and transducers and to apply them to real data.
Massive parallel algorithms for language
Supervisor: Adam Lopez
Many classical algorithms and models in NLP assume sequential computation, an assumption broken by the trend of placing many cores on the same die. There are now multiple solutions to utilizing the transistor budget: a small number of complex cores, or a large number of simple cores. The latter approach, exemplified by graphics processing units (GPUs) with thousands of parallel threads of execution, is especially tantalizing for computation-bound NLP problems. But harnessing the power of such processors requires a complete rethinking of the fundamental algorithms in the field. Projects in this area is focus on the design of new algorithms and data structures for difficult problems in NLP -- such as machine translation and syntactic parsing --with the goal of achieving vast improvements in speed, and leading to new applications.
Low-resource machine translation
Supervisor: Adam Lopez
Statistical machine translation has been enormously successful over the last two decades, resulting in what is today a thriving industry highlighted by offerings such as Google Translate. The most effective systems are based on statistical models learned from large numbers of translation examples, a classic application of machine learning on input/ output pairs. But for many language pairs and domains we have few examples. Even if we restrict ourselves to markets with many potential users by focusing only on languages with tens of millions of speakers, there are thousands of possible language pairs. At best, we have substantial quantities of data in a few hundred of these. In most of those cases, the data is government text. For the vast majority of languages and domains, there is hardly anything. But in many cases, there is side information that we can exploit: dictionaries or other knowledge sources, or text paired with weak signals, such as images, speech, or timestamps. How can we exploit such heterogeneous information in statistical translation models? The goal of this project is to develop statistical models and inference techniques that exploit such data, and apply them to real problems in translation.
Topics in unsupervised speech processing and/or modelling infant speech perception
Supervisor: Sharon Goldwater
Work in unsupervised (or 'zero-resource') speech processing (see Aren Jansen et al., ICASSP 2013) has begun to investigate methods for extracting repeated units (phones, words) from raw acoustic data as a possible way to index and summarize speech files without the need for transcription. This could be especially useful in languages where there is little data to develop supervised speech recognition systems. In addition, it raises the possibility of whether similar methods could be used to model the way that human infants begin to identify words in the speech stream of their native language. Unsupervised speech processing is a growing area of research with many interesting open questions, so a number of projects are possible. Projects could focus mainly on ASR technology or mainly on modeling language acquisition; specific research questions will depend on this choice. here are just two possibilities: (1) unsupervised learners are more sensitive to input representation than are supervised learners, and preliminary work suggests that MFCCs are not necessarily the best option. Investigate how to learn better input representations (e.g., using neural networks) that are robust to speaker differences but encode linguistically meaningful differences. (2) existing work in both speech processing and cognitive modeling suggests that trying to learn either words or phones alone may be too difficult and in fact we need to develop *joint learners* that simultaneously learn at both levels. Investigate models that can be used to do this and evaluate how joint learning can improve performance.
Deep Neural Network-based speech synthesis
Supervisor: Simon King, Steve Renals
DNNs may offer new ways to model the complex relationship between text and speech, compared to HMMs. In particular, they may enable more effective use of the highly-factorial nature of the linguistic representation derived from text, which in the HMM approach is a 'flat' sequence of phonetically- and prosodically-context-dependent labels.
We are interested in any topic concerning DNN-based speech synthesis, for example: novel text processing methods to extract new forms of linguistic representation, how to represent linguistic information at the input to the DNN, how to represent the speech signal (or vocoder parameters) at the output of the DNN, methods for control over the speaker/gender/accent/style of the output speech, combinations of supervised, semi-supervised and un-supervised learning.
Hidden Markov model-based speech synthesis
Supervisor: Simon King, Junichi Yamagishi
The HMM, which is a statistical model that can be used to both classify and generate speech, offers an exciting alternative to concatenative methods for synthesising speech. As a consequence, most research effort around the world in speech synthesis is now focussed on HMMs because of the flexibility that they offer.
There are a number of topics we are interested in within HMM-based speech synthesis, including: speaker, language and accent adaptation; cross-language speaker adaptation; improving the signal processing and vocoding aspects of the model; unsupervised and semi-supervised learning.
Personification using affective speech synthesis
Supervisors: Simon King, Matthew Aylett
New approaches to capture, share and manipulate information in sectors such as health care and the creative industries require computers to enter the arena of human social interaction. Users readily adopt a social view of computers and previous research has shown how this can be harnessed in applications such as giving health advice, tutoring, or helping children overcome bullying.
However, whilst current speech synthesis technology is highly intelligible, it has not been able to deliver voices which aid this 'personification'. The lack of naturalness makes some synthetic voices sound robotic, while the lack of expressiveness makes others sound dull and lifeless.
In many of the above applications, it is less important to be able to render arbitrary text, than it is to convey a sense of personality within a more limited domain. So, this project would investigate two key problems (1) Merging expressive pre-recorded prompts with expressive unit selection speech synthesis. (2) Dynamically altering voicing in speech to convey underlying levels of stress and excitement using source filter decomposition techniques.
Cross-lingual acoustic models
Supervisors: Simon King, Steve Renals, Junichi Yamagishi
Adapting speech recognition acoustic models from one language to another, with a focus on limited resources and unsupervised training.
Current speech technology is based on machine learning and trainable statistical models. These approaches are very powerful, but before a system can be developed for a new language considerable resources are required: transcribed speech recordings for acoustic model training; large amounts of text for language model training; and a pronunciation dictionary. Such resources are available for languages such as English, French, Arabic, and Chinese, but there are many less well-resourced languages. There is thus a need for models that can be adapted to from one language to another with limited effort and resources. To address this we are interested in two (complementary) approaches. First, the development of lightly supervised and unsupervised training algorithms: speech recordings are much easier to obtain than transcriptions. Second, the development of models which can factor language-dependent and language-independent aspects of the speech signal, perhaps exploiting invariances derived from speech production. We have a particular interest in approaches (1) building on the subspace GMM framework, or (2) using deep neural networks.
Factorised acoustic models
Supervisors: Simon King, Steve Renals, Junichi Yamagishi
Acoustic models which factor specific causes of variability, thus allowing more powerful adaptation for speech recognition, and greater control for speech synthesis.
Adaptation algorithms, such as MLLR, MAP, and VTLN, have been highly effective in acoustic modelling for speech recognition. However, current approaches only weakly factor the underlying information - for instance "speaker" adaptation will typically adapt for the acoustic environment and the task, as well as for different aspects of the speaker. It is of great interest to investigate speech recognition models which are able to factor the different sources of variability. PhD projects in this area will explore the development of factored models that enable specific aspects of a system to be adapted. For example, it is of great interest - for both speech recognition and speech synthesis - to be able to model accent in a specific way. We are interested in two modelling approaches which hold great promise for this challenge: subspace Gaussian mixture models, and deep neural networks.
Hidden Speech Production Models
Supervisor: Steve Renals
Building speech analysis and recognition models that respect the constraints of speech production.
This project is concerned with building speech analysis and recognition models that respect the constraints of speech production. Although speech production data may be available when training data is collected (if a specialised recording facility is used) it is not available in the general case. The aim of this project is to use observed articulatory data to construct a hidden space. When unseen acoustic data is presented this hidden space is inferred from the data, and can be used as a constraint for speech recognition. The advantage is that inference of the hidden space of articulation must respect the constraints learned from observed articulatory data.
Language Models for Multiparty Conversations
Supervisor: Steve Renals
Develop statistical models that integrate history
information from multiparty conversations whilst remaining
computationally feasible.
Large vocabulary speech recognition is largely based on language models in which the probability of the current word is estimated conditional on the previous words spoken (the history). However in multiparty conversations, there is not a single, linear stream of words, and it is not always obvious what the closest history is. This project aims to develop statistical models that integrate history information from both the talker in question, as well as other talkers, while remaining computationally feasible. There are two approaches in which we are interested in pursuing for this task: (1) Language models using distributed representations, such as neural network language models and deep belief network langauge models; (2) Hierarchical Bayesian models, building on non-parametric approaches such as the Hierarchical Dirichlet Process Language Model and the Hierarchical Pitman-Yor Language Model. Develop statistical models that integrate history information from multiparty conversations whilst remaining computationally feasible.
Microphone-Array Based Speech Recognition
Supervisor: Steve Renals
Investigate the use of microphone arrays attached to walls or tables, rather than users wearing microphones, for speech recognition to operate.
Rather than requiring users to wear microphones for speech recognition to operate, we are interested in using microphone arrays attached to walls or tables. Microphone array beamforming for localization and enhancement is a well studied, using microphone arrays for speech recognition, less so. We are interested in approaches in which the parameters used to combine the signals from the different microphones are treated as parameters of the speech recognition acoustic model, and optimized along with the rest of the system. Interesting research issues arise when talkers are moving, and when multiple talkers overlap.
Distributed linguistic representations for spoken language processing
Supervisor: Steve Renals
Development of language models utilising distributed representations for words.
Until recently, the dominant language models for speech recognition were based strongly on n-grams, in which probability models are built over a vocabulary of words, resulting in very high dimensions (frequently 1 million or more). In recent years there has been growing interest in models which use distributed representations of words, for example latent semantic analysis language models and neural network language models. The latter, in particular, have proven to be very attractive. In this project we plan to explore models in which the distributed representation is automatically learned, enabling words to embedded in what may be considered a semantic space. We are particularly in investigating approaches based on deep neural networks, hierarchical Bayes, and on ideas from factorised language model approaches such as Model M. We are interested in applying such language models to speech recognition and other tasks such as topic identification and summarisation.
Detecting and linking events in multiparty conversations
Supervisor: Steve Renals
In the AMI project we developed an approach called content linking, which uses realtime conversational speech recognition to automatically transcribe a meeting in progress, then constructs search queries from the recently detected words in order to retrieve relevant multimodal and text documents. Such a "search-without-query" approach may be viewed as a way to automatically provide context (in the form of relevant documents and media files) to an ongoing multiparty conversation, without requiring explicit search. This baseline application opens a number of research challenges such as improving the core models and algorithms to link content, approaches to find the most important "events" in a conversation, to which content should be linked, and ways of automatically constructing relations to link conversational events.
Enhancing spoken language processing with social dynamics
Supervisor: Steve Renals
Identifying social signals in multiparty spoken interaction to enable better recognition and interpretation of what is being communicated.
Spoken conversations are not just streams of words - there are numerous social cues relating to things such as agreement/disagreement, positivity/negativity, and social roles adopted by participants in a conversation, as well as the interaction patterns between people in a multiparty conversation. There are a number of research challenges ranging from the extraction and identification of social cues from audio or multimodal recordings of interactions, and their use as additional variables in spoken language processing models. For example, is it possible to use social features of a conversation to enhance language modelling or topic identification? Can social cues be used as a kind of prior for tasks like speaker diarization? How can social signals be used to structure in conversation in terms of things like decisions that have been made? This work would initially focus on the AMI corpus, a 100 hour corpus of multimodal meeting recorders, with many layers of annotation.
Implicit spoken dialogue systems
Supervisor: Steve Renals
Development of dialogue systems technology that does not require 100% attention from users and learns when to intervene in a conversation.
Current dialogue systems do not interact very naturally - for example, they often demand 100% of the users' attention and attempt to interpret and respond to every utterance. In the long term we would like to develop spoken language systems which learn how to interact in multiparty conversations more naturally. This project concerns monitoring the social signals of the speakers, and the social context of the conversation, as well as the content of the conversation, to decide when to interact and what to say. Such a system could be considered as an "implicit" question answering systems - answering queries which come up in a conversation, without being explicitly posed.
Natural Interactive Virtual Agents
Supervisor: Hiroshi Shimodaira
Development of a lifelike animated character that is capable of establishing natural interaction with humans in terms of non-verbal signals.
Embodied conversational agents (ECAs) aim to foster natural communication between machine and humans. State-of-the-art technology in computer graphics has made it possible to create photo-realistic animation of human faces. However, it is not the case when the interactions between ECA and human are concerned. Interactions of ECA with humans are not as natural as those between humans. Although there are many reasons for this, the present project focuses on the non-verbal aspect of communication such as gestures and gaze, and seeks to develop an ECA system that is capable of recognising user's non-verbal signals and synthesising appropriate signals of the agent.
Gesture Synthesis for Lifelike Conversational Agents
Supervisor: Hiroshi Shimodaira
Development of a mechanism for controlling the gestures of photo-realistic lifelike agents when the agents are in various modes; idling, listening, speaking and singing.
Lifelike conversational agents, behaving like humans with facial animation and gesture, and making speech conversations with humans, are one of the next-generation human-interface. Much effort has been made so far to make the agents natural, especially controlling mouth/lip movement, and eye movement. On the other hand, controlling the non-verbal movements of the head, facial expressions, and shoulders have not been studied that much, even though those motions sometimes plays a crucial role in naturalness and intelligibility. The purpose of the project is to develop a mechanism for creating such motions of photo-realistic lifelike agents when the agents are in various modes; idling, listening, speaking and singing. One of the outstanding features of the project is that it aims to give the agent virtual personality by imitating the manner of movements/gestures of an existing person with the help of machine learning techniques used for text-to-speech synthesis.
Evaluating the impact of expressive speech synthesis on embodied conversational agents
Supervisor: Hiroshi Shimodaira, Matthew Aylett
Evaluation of embodied conversational agents (ECAs) has tended to concentrate on userbility - do users like the system, does the system achieve its objectives. We are not aware of any studies of this type which have controlled for the speech synthesis used in the project where the speech synthesis used was close to the state of the art. This project will develop evaluation based on measured interaction where expressive speech synthesis is the topic of study. It will explore carefully controlled interactive environments, and measure a subjects performance as well as measuring the physiological effects of the experiment on the subject. It will explore how involved (emotionally or otherwise) our subject is with the ECA. The userbility approach described above is also important for these experiments but we also wish to determine how speech is affecting involvement over time. For example, we would expect to increase a subjects arousal by adding emotional elements to the speech, we might expect to destroy a subjects involvement by intentionally producing an error which undermines the ECAs believability.
Action and Decision Making Topics
Preference Change
Supervisor: Alex Lascarides, Subramanian Ramamoorthy
To design, implement and evaluate a model of agents whose intrinsic preferences change as they learn about unforeseen states and options in decision or game problems that they are engaged in.
Most models of rational action assume that all possible states and actions are pre-defined and that preferences change only when beliefs do. But there are many decision and game problems that lack these features: games where an agent starts playing without knowing the hypothesis space, but rather discovers unforeseen states and options as he plays. For example, an agent may start by preferring fish to meat, but when he discovers saffron for the first time, likes it enormously, but finds it goes with fish better than with meat, his preferences change to preferring fish to meat as long as saffron is available. In effect, an agent may find that the language he can use to describe his decision or game problem changes as he plays it (in this example, state descriptions are refined via the introduction of a new variable, saffron). The aim of this project is to design, implement and evaluate a model of action and decision making that supports reasoning about newly discovered possibilities and options. This involves a symbolic component, which reasons about how a game changes (both beliefs and preferences) as one adds or removes random variables or their range of values, and it involves a probabilistic component, that reasons about how the effects of these changes to the description of the game affect Bayesian calculations of optimal behaviour.


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Information is the best tool to have while making decisions that impact both breeding programs and career decisions. Today, Editor Susan Chaney informs Best In Show Daily readers that brucellosis is not just a sexually transmitted disease. This fatal affliction can also be spread via saliva, urine and most body fluids, and can live in the environment for lengthy periods. Consistent pre-breeding testing is the only way to avoid disaster. And for young adults who may just be finding their way around the dog show world, DFR blogger Kayla Bertagnolli offers the best advice available: Do your homework and then, go for it!
Dan SayersEditor in Chief
Test for this Hidden Killer Before BreedingBy Susan Chaney
Brucellosis could easily be called the AIDS of the dog world. Although not as common, it is more easily spread, is always fatal to puppies carried by an infected bitch and has no cure.
The disease starts with the bacteria Brucella canis, which a dog or bitch can spread within two to three weeks of exposure.
"The information that needs to get out more is that B. canis is not just spread by sexual contact," says Kara Kolster, D.V.M., of Springfield Veterinary Center in Glen Allen, Va. more
What It Takes To Become an Assistant
In 21 short years, I've been to hundreds – if not more – of dog shows, assisted two professional handlers and have been learning about the breeding aspect of the sport for the past 12 years. Not to mention I was born into a 'doggy life.' It's funny to look back and remember how it all happened.
For many of us dog fanciers, our parents are somehow involved in the sport. For me, it was my mom. She and I would attend dog shows every once in awhile during the school year, and we'd spend multiple weekends and circuits together in the summer. more
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NORTH SMITHFIELD — As he watched five of the world's best in-line skaters, skateboarders and BMXers show off X Games-like tricks on a half-pipe placed in a parking lot near the Dr. Paul F. Joyce Athletic Complex, North Smithfield High sophomore Paris Correia marveled at what he was witnessing.
"I personally wish I knew how to skate, and this re-enforces it," grinned Correia, a varsity football and basketball player, on Monday afternoon. "I know it takes a lot of dedication and practice to do that stuff, and those guys can't smoke or chew. If they did, they wouldn't be able to perform the way they do.
"I've never used tobacco, because I personally think it's disgusting," he added. "I don't like the smell of it, as it gives me a headache."
That's just what representatives of ASA Entertainment of Culver City, Calif. And the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids wanted to hear during this Anti-Smoking Association High School Tour. Approximately 850 high and middle school students — not to mention North Smithfield Superintendent of Schools Steve Lindberg, NSHS Principal Robert Mezzanotte, Health and Physical Education Department Head Jim Fitzgerald and other educators — stood "oohing" and "aahing" at the amazing moves occurring high above them.
"This is not your typical anti-tobacco program," stated Pam Shayer, Coordinator of both the Lincoln and North Smithfield Prevention Coalitions, who sponsored the event with the U.S. Marine Corps. "The kids are loving this because it's something completely different from the basic lectures students receive on substance abuse.
"It's the entertainment they like to see because it's something they watch, things such as the X Games. When there's an important message involved, it's a win-win situation."
Sara Kindig, the tour's manager, offered this: "What we do is use extreme sports and professional X-Games athletes as the medium to deliver the anti-tobacco message to the students. While the students are engaged and captivated in watching the athletes' performances, we then use the opportunity to speak to them about the dangers of tobacco use."
Those athletes included in-line skater Eito Yasutoko, Flatland BMX trickster Trevor Meyer, skateboarder Anthony Furlong and BMX High-Air competitors Koji Kraft and Jimmy Walker. Yasutoko and Meyer both have won multiple X Games' medals in their respective disciplines, while Kraft and Walker have both snared medals on the international level.
While they executed their amazing feats, Tour Emcee Jim Coleman spent the better part of 40 minutes preaching the deadly statistics behind smoking and chewing.
Among them: About 4.8 million people world-wide die of tobacco use each year, which adds up to one every 6.6 seconds; 400,000 perish every year in the United States alone, and 1,200 Americans per day. California led all 50 states in adult deaths last year as a result of smoking, while Rhode Island ranked 40th at approximately 1,700 persons.
He also explained that 200,000 Americans died last year; and one cigar equals 3.5 packs of cigarettes in the amount of nicotine it holds (440 milligrams). A single cigarette has 11.
"Our campaign believes in the dangers of tobacco very strongly," Coleman stated over the microphone. "We're here to reduce the amount of cigarettes or other forms of tobacco you or your friends use, and prevent you from using altogether. As you know, it's illegal to all of those under 18.
"Tobacco companies try to make their products look cool, and attract you to them," he continued. "They don't care about your health. They just want to make you a life-long customer. We're trying to fight fire with fire. I guarantee I'm not embellishing any of this. We're not talking just about smokers, but those who use smokeless tobacco, which is just as deadly."
Gabrielle Lafond, an eighth-grader at NSMS, called the show intriguing.
"It's an interesting way of teaching kids that tobacco and alcohol are very bad for you," she noted. "I've never seen this kind of thing live, and I think it's pretty cool. Those people are very talented, and it looks like they practice a lot.
"I've never smoked, or tried it, but I know kids who have," she added. "I think (Coleman) was trying to scare these people a little bit, and I hope it's working. I think it may wake some people up. I know I've asked some of my family members to stop smoking, and it worked. I'm glad, because I want them around for a long time."
Senior Jason Gormley admitted he didn't know the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' assembly was even being held until Monday morning.
"I'm really psyched; this is better than class," he grinned. "I watch this stuff on ESPN during the X Games, and it's great! These extreme sports are exciting, and here it is, in our own parking lot … I've never used tobacco before, mostly because I know it hurts the lungs. I play football, basketball and lacrosse, so I want to be able to breathe.
"There's just no point to it. You know these guys don't smoke or chew. I'd love to be able to do that stuff, but I can't. I mean, I've skateboarded before, but never on a half-pipe."
Just as Coleman announced that one person died of smoking every 6.6 seconds, sophomore Andrew Drapeau promised he'd never think of partaking, and that included chewing tobacco and snuff.
"I know it can kill you," he shrugged. "Eventually, you could lose all your money. It's just a waste
to buy cigarettes or chew. I have friends who smoke, and I tell them they're stupid to their face. I don't want to see anything happen to them. I've seen a lot of this on commercials, and I learned about in health class, but I still found all those stats astonishing when I learned them.
"There are so many other diseases out there, and tobacco kills more people than those others. My mom and dad never smoked, and I've seen people who do, so I have a good comparison of what it's like. I'd rather go without."
Shayer stated ASA Entertainment officials initially wanted the show to be conducted at Lincoln High.
"They had state testing this week, and they couldn't fit it in their schedule," she revealed. "I talked to a woman with ASA Entertainment a few months ago, and she asked if we were interested in doing this. When she told me about the athletes, I thought, 'How does that relate to anti-tobacco use?' Then she told me more, and I understood.
"When I asked her about doing this in a neighboring town, North Smithfield, she asked how many students the district had, and I told her about 850. She wanted 1,000, but then she got back to me and said it was a 'go.' I was thrilled, as I knew this was extremely important."
Yasutoko explained he never would have captured gold medals in X Games' in-line skating competitions if he had started using. He also indicated he's been involved with these athletic/educational sessions for several years.
"No, I don't smoke, and I've never chewed; it's bad for you," he said afterward. "I've been a professional in-line skater since I was nine, and I always thought it was crazy to smoke. You have to be healthy to do these things, and – if I took tobacco – I couldn't. I can't believe people use when they know what it can do to you.
"This is very important to me, to all of us," he continued. "We like doing these shows because we have to let people know how dangerous it is. At this age, they may want to experiment. Young people have a lot of possibilities in their future, so we're trying to tell them, 'Don't start. If you do, someday you're going to wish you didn't.'"
Stated Superintendent Lindberg: "We can't sing this song enough, this one about anti-tobacco. If we can get the kids to hear this message over and over again, it's worth it. They already hear it from their parents, their teachers and coaches and in their health and P.E. classes. They do a great job, but this just adds to that message.
"I guarantee those professional athletes don't smoke. When you have aspirations to be that kind of athlete, you can't. They have so much balance, stamina, strength and flexibility. With that endurance, they can't use … The message is getting out. I'm here after school, on the weekends and in the evenings, and I see fewer and fewer kids using tobacco."
At exhibition's end, Coleman conducted a quiz to discover just how many students had paid attention to his mantra – and the statistics he delivered. To those who answered correctly, he issued a prize.
This contingent, over the past five weeks, had visited numerous schools nationwide. Most recent stops included Raleigh, N.C.; Philadelphia; Long Island, N.Y.; and New Haven and Hartford.
"These kids did great!" he stated as tour representatives began breaking down the equipment for more shows in Providence and, finally, Boston. "A lot of them knew the answers, so they were above average in that department. At some schools, you'll hear some wrong answers. They only missed a couple, so I'm proud of them."


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The Seders (Söder in German) and Related
Beste, Grantham, Hartge, Keikhofer, Niemeyer, Saxer, Schaper, Stieve, Trope, Vosshagen
The Seders, an American Family and its German Roots, tells the story of a family that originated in Hesse, Germany, in the seventeenth century, emigrated to the United States in 1846, settled in Wisconsin and later lived in Minnesota and Illinois. The narrative begins with Curt Söder (died 1693), and follows with George Söder (1667-1725), Hans Söder (1713-1780), Johannes Söder (1757-1821), August Söder/Seder (1791-1864), Louis Christian Seder (1830-1863), James I. Seder (1859-1937) and concludes with Arthur Raymond Seder (1889-1969). A Table of Ancestors and a Family Tree may be accessed from the menu above. In addition, charts showing the immediate family of each ancestor may be accessed by clicking on the name of that individual in the narrative that follows.
Chapter One provides a short overview of the family
and especially its origins in Germany. It first explains the problem of German
names, both given and surnames; then outlines the family genealogy and gives a
brief background of social conditions in Germany for families like the Seders (Söder
in German), who were struggling weavers and small farmers.
Chapter Two is a short introduction to German history, designed to orient the reader to the geography and political history of Germany. It also discusses the Protestant Reformation and its effect on the many German principalities, bishoprics, etc.; the development of the German language and the Thirty Years War (1618-1648).
Chapter Three introduces the first of the Söder line, Curt Söder, identifies the village in Hesse-Kassel where he lived and names the members of his family. His son, George Söder is next considered along with his wife, Anna Christina Emmicke and their numerous children. The life of George Söder's son Hans Söder is then reviewed, including his service in the Hessian army in the Seven Years War (1756-1773) and the effects of that war on the population of Hesse-Kassel and other German principalities.
Chapter Four is devoted to an examination of life in Hesse-Kassel in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Söders' home villages are located, and the system of land ownership and the condition of the peasants is detailed. This includes the relationship of the landowning Lords and the peasants, the backwardness of the farming system and a description of peasant life.
Chapter Five takes up the family story by narrating the life of Hans Söder's son, Johannes, who was a soldier in the Hessian army sent to America in 1776 to assist the British in quelling the American Revolution. The narrative reviews the background of the "soldier trade", Johannes Söder's recruitment, the voyage to America and the experience of Hessian soldiers in America.
Chapter Six follows Johannes Söder's life after returning to German, his move from Hesse-Kassel to the neighboring kingdom of Hanover, his occupation as a linen weaver and his marriage to Katherine Elisabeth Beste. The genealogy of the Beste family is also examined. The book identifies Johannes and Katherine's children and locates on a map the villages in Hanover where they lived.
Chapter Seven takes up the life of Johann August Wilhelm Söder, who was known as August. It was he who, with his family, emigrated to America in 1848. This chapter first relates the circumstances of August's three marriages. Because the Seder line followed here descends from August Söder's second wife, Sophia Stieve, the genealogy of her Stieve, Hartge and Seumenicht ancestors is described and the circumstances of their lives are related..
Chapter Eight describes life and politics in Hanover in the early nineteenth century. It first recounts the effect of the Napoleonic wars, the beginnings of change in rural life, the linen weaving trade, in which August was involved and the reasons why August and his family emigrated to America.
Chapter Nine relates the story of the Söders' emigration to America. (In America the spelling was changed to Seder). It examinations the pre-embarkation problems faced by emigrants, describes how August Söder/Seder and his family reached the point of embarkation at Bremen, recounts the fearful circumstances faced by families crossing the ocean in steerage and refers to circumstances upon arrival in New York. The chapter next reviews the route by which the family traveled from New York to Wisconsin and August Seder's settlement in Columbia County, Wisconsin, near the town of Portage. The narrative next discusses the circumstances of life for pioneers in central Wisconsin and concludes with references to August Seder's children and his death in 1864.
Chapter Ten is about August Seder's son Louis Christian Seder and Louis' wife, Ursula Saxer. Louis, who emigrated to America with his father in 1848, was very religious and became an ordained minister of the Evangelical Association. The history of that denomination is covered, and Louis's experiences as a minister serving frontier communities in Wisconsin are detailed. The chapter then reviews the genealogy of Louis' wife, Ursula, and tells of the Saxer family's (and others') emigration from Switzerland to a Swiss community in Sauk County, Wisconsin. The final sections set out in detail the circumstances of Louis' death at the hands of Sioux Indians during the New Ulm (Minnesota) Massacre of 1862. The lives of Louis and Ursula's children are also summarized, saving their son James life and career for the next chapter.
Chapter Eleven concerns Louis Seder's son James I. Seder and his wife, Wilhelmina (Minnie) Kiekhofer. It details his early life, his success as a young businessman and his change of career. At the insistence of Minnie James entered the ministry, completing his training at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Minnie's family, the Kiekhofers, are then traced from their home in Pomeranian Germany, with an account of their travel to America. James ministerial career, including missionary work in Japan, is set forth but that career took an abrupt turn and James became an executive of the Anti-Saloon League. The history of that organization is reviewed. James Seder's death at the hands of kidnappers is reported in detail. The chapter ends with a discussion of the character of Minnie Kiekhofer Seder and details of the lives of their children, saving their son Arthur Raymond for the concluding chapter.
Chapter Twelve concludes the story of the Seders with an extended discussion of the lives of James' son Arthur Raymond Seder, his wife Mary Aline Grantham and their family. Ray Seder's early life and education are chronicled, as well as the circumstances of his meeting and marrying Aline Grantham, whose family history is set out in some detail. (For a full account of the Grantham heritage, see my book, The Granthams, Seven Generations of American Frontiersmen. Click here.)
Chapter Twelve continues with the story of Ray and Aline's married life, early career as a railroad executive and the family's life in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ray's promotion and move to Chicago, Illinois, the family's wartime experiences and Aline's illness and death in 1944 are recounted. Ray's later life and his marriage to Dorothea Zehnder are also noted, and the chapter includes an appreciation of the lives of Ray and Aline. The book ends with accounts of the lives of Ray and Aline's five children.
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Camping beds (4 products)
1 - 4 of 4 items
If you're looking for camping equipment, you're in the right place. Our range of camping and caravanning equipment and accessories has everything you need for the perfect outdoor getaway. We have a wide selection of comfortable camping beds so you can get a good night's sleep no matter where you are. You'll also find camping mats and tent carpets so you can turn your tent into a real home from home.
If you need camping chairs and tables, browse the rest of our sports and leisure section where you're sure to find the set for you. Make sure your trip goes smoothly by taking the right things with you.


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The new-season runways were filled with polka-dot prints, so Wolford's sheer black tights will make an on-trend addition to your look. Wear them to lend a playful edge to every outfit.Wear them with: Stella McCartney dress, Oscar de la Renta cuff, Yves Saint Laurent ring, Jimmy Choo shoes, Chloé bag.
Wolford Bonny tights: black sheer stretch-nylon, polka dots, elasticated waistband. Pull on. 87% nylon, 13% elastane. Hand wash.
Product code: 165420 - Need help? Contact us


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A Network of Possibilities
This is the network.
It's more than advanced technology. It's a living, breathing intelligence that is helping business rethink how to do business. It's teaching inventory to learn, allowing content to run faster and helping co-workers work better together. Explore below how companies like yours are making the network work for them.
- See How The Network Helps Papa John's Stay Fresh [PDF, 729KB]
A better network delivers a better pizza experience for the country's third-largest pizza chain.
- See How The Network Helps Forbes.com Handle Greater Demand [PDF, 651KB]
Forbes.com is consistently available, even in the face of traffic spikes due to breaking news and the publication of the famous Forbes lists, thanks to a content delivery solution.
- See How The Network Helps The United States Olympic Committee Perform [PDF, 694KB]
The USOC needed a cost-effective way to address website traffic spikes, while enabling support for multimedia content.
- See How The Network Helps DVS Shoe Run Faster [PDF, 684KB]
To satisfy a voracious appetite for video among its young audience, the company needed a better delivery system.
- See How The Network Helps Swiss Re's Employees Collaborate [PDF, 648KB]
A Web-based conferencing solution puts powerful collaboration tools at everyone's fingertips.


text:
When Moses Harvin retired from the U.S. Army at Patrick Air Force Base near Melbourne, Fla. in 1995, he joined the ranks of 1.6 million veterans who made Florida home. He found work with a local contractor who did the best thing for him.
With less than one year on the job, Harvin was fired.
"I always wanted to run a big corporation and I shared my thoughts and dreams with my boss. One Friday he called me into his office and told me I no longer had a job at the company. But he told me that I could call him anytime for advice and guidance. He was my boss but he became my mentor," Harvin recalled.
Harvin started his own business, American Services Technology, Inc. (ASTI) in 1995. Today, with the help of his wife Emma, he continues to serve both his community and clients with the same success and dedication as he did in the Army. ASTI provides a wide spectrum of services to both government and commercial businesses. The laundry list of services include facility management, operations and maintenance, food services, and logistic and procurement support. Harvin is quick to point out the benchmarks of his company are integrity and trust.
"I lost contracts because I would not go into 'gray' areas or do things that I did not think were correct," said Harvin. "I was building more than a company. I wanted to build a legacy for my children to carry on after me."
During his military career, Harvin helped deploy the Army overseas to Desert Shield/Desert Storm. It should be no surprise that Harvin started ASTI by developing a business plan and sticking with what he knew about the most: logistics. He found office space at the Florida NASA Incubation Business Center that was formed to increase the number of technology-based small companies in Brevard County. Like many business incubators, Harvin found affordable space and shared office equipment and services. More importantly, it got his business out of his house where he admittedly had too many distractions.
In addition to having a business mentor, Harvin found help from the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Florida Small Business Development Center to understand how to be successful in federal contracting.
"My mother was a hair dresser in South Carolina at the time when the business rules were changing. She found people to help her read and understand the new licensing requirements and she wasn't afraid to ask for help," Harvin said. "You can say I learned my entrepreneurial ways from her."
ASTI grew from two employees to 55 employees in eight years. Today, ASTI has grown to 230 employees. Revenues have steadily grown over the past three years from $12 million to $16 million.
Harvin offers business advice to entrepreneurs, especially military veterans, who are considering contracting.
"It's important that you take the time to certify your company as a veteran-owned, minority-owned and/or woman-owned business. Get your paperwork in check and get certified. I lost an early $3 million contract because I wasn't certified," Harvin said.
Harvin also cautions companies new to contracting to be careful when making a bid.
"If you don't do your homework and understand what it costs you to provide a service, making a low bid will sink your company."
Harvin's commitment to his business extends to his community. He was the first African-American elected Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce; serves as a trustee to Claflin University, Orangeburg, S.C. and Eastern Florida State College ; and chairman of the board for the Summit of Seven Boys/Men Conference, a non-profit geared towards exposing young boys and men to opportunities that will make them successful in life.
For Moses Harvin, the secret of a successful life or business is simple.
"Be content in every situation you find yourself in."


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i am trying to figure this out..
need some serious help here;
is a lower leverage ratio better for rear air shocks?
all things being equal, ie same rear shock, good rear suspension design, etc...
and if so, how would that apply to the ride characteristics of each design?
ie single pivot versus faux bar versus horst link versus vpp versus dw link??
and as the travel increases how is it affected?
thanks in advance
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text:
Goal Setting and Technorati 100
Do you set achievable goals both on your on-line activities and in your off-line personal life? I certainly do, though some of them I keep private, and a few I leave hints about.
A few days ago Dawud tagged me in the "Gotta get goals" meme.
Here is a quick answer that fits the meme
1. Family
2. Home
3. Security
4. Happiness
5. Sharing
6. Success
A long answer on any of those question might be repeating myself, or potentially too revealing, and I like to be subtle about longer term business goals, though I do drop quite a few hints to add a little mystique.
I think at the end of the day the meme is aimed at revealing a little about yourself that others might not know, and to be honest there is a huge amount already that I have written, but most of my readers might not have seen.
Lets delve back into the distant past…. in blogging terms over the last 3 months is pretty distant.
I took part in the 5 Things About Me meme, and that had some mention of family goals.
I also mentioned Michel Fortin's New year resolution "Earn more. Work less. Enjoy better." and suggested I would add "share more".
Hmm, I am currently working more and earning less.. but at least they are aimed at a long-term goal or earning a lot more, and not having to work because I need money.
I think I am doing fairly well on the "Share more".
Michel tagged me in the "Why Do I Blog" meme – I shared a lot of inner motivation and business goals in that post, and I doubt most of my subscribers have read it.
I wasn't too revealing in the 5 questions meme, but continued the business thread.
My about page mentions the house we are building – one of these days I will post some photos but there is a good chance we will be moving in later this year.
Short Term Blogging Goals
I did set one attainable blogging goal some time ago, to get in the Technorati Top 100 (favorited sites)
I said at the time
I was just browsing Technorati.
It would only take 67 favorites to get in their top 100 favorites
Top 50 – currently only 115 favorites
327 Favorites to get in their Top 10 !
Those are realistic targets for any blogger (not just me)
Much more realistic than the most linked to blogs. You would need links from 3000+ blogs
As is the nature of the internet, goals such as this have ever receding horizons, thus the number of Technorati favorites needed to get in the top 100 has increased somewhat.
If I doubled the number of people who joined my Technorati Favorites, I would currently be ranked 37 – a very achievable target.
If every one of my subscribers added me to their favorites, I would actually be in the Top10
I can't tell you whether being in the Top100 sends any traffic, or the Top10, or whether it helps with Technorati relevance. I do know that Technorati visit my blog and feeds a lot looking for updates, far more often than I ping them.
There is also the potential benefit (speculation) that it might help ranking in Google BlogSearch.
Technorati visiting me frequently does have some advantages. All those links to my favorites that show on the sidebar get seen as incoming links, and I have seen quite a few visits by people checking their Technorati for what I have written about them. A sneaky way to get more traffic, but also share the love.
It would be nice if a few more reciprocated.
*Originally published at AndyBeard.eu