Slovak comparative correlatives

Comparative Correlatives (CCs) are biclausal constructions (e.g. The harder you work, the more you earn) that have complex semantics and form. This is the first construction grammar-based corpus study to investigate Slovak CCs, based on a 500-token sample. I argue that intra-clausal word-order phenomena can be explained through processing efficiency, based on Hawkins’ principle of Early Immediate Constituents (2004), and I use covarying-collexeme analysis (Stefanowitsch & Gries 2005) to provide evidence for the existence of meso-constructions. The findings of this study contribute to construction grammar’s “aspirations toward universal applicability” (Fried 2017: 249), proving that the theory is also suitable for analysis of syntactic patterns in Slavic languages.

Granular Media Friction Pad for Robot Shoes—Hexagon Patterning Enhances Friction on Wet Surfaces

For maximizing friction forces of the robotic legs on an unknown/unpredictable substrate, we introduced the granular media friction pad, consisting of a thin elastic membrane encasing loosely filled granular material. On coming into contact with a substrate, the fluid-like granular material flows around the substrate asperities and achieves large contact areas with the substrate. Upon applying load, the granular material undergoes the jamming transition, rigidifies and becomes solid-like. High friction forces are generated by mechanical interlocking on rough substrates, internal friction of the granular media and by the enhanced contact area caused by the deformation of the membrane. This system can adapt to a large variety of dry substrate topologies. To further increase its performance on moist or wet substrates, we adapted the granular media friction pad by structuring the outside of the membrane with a 3D hexagonal pattern. This results in a significant increase in friction under lubricated conditions, thus greatly increasing the universal applicability of the granular media friction pad for a multitude of environments.

Explanations for the development of a novel universally inside pipe separator for dismantling (contaminated) pipelines

During the operation and dismantling of nuclear facilities, individual pipelines must always be removed due to leaks because of the end of their maximum service life or the dismantling of the plant. In practice, this activity, which at first glance appears simple, is associated with many challenges due to limited space or the fact that the pipelines run through walls, despite various solutions that are available on the market. Therefore, the aim of the joint research project “RoTre” (Development of a novel universally inside pipe separator for dismantling contaminated pipelines) between KIT, Siempelkamp NIS Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH and RWE Nuclear GmbH is the development of an innovative and competitive inside pipe separator for use in decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear facilities with a wide range of applications for various pipe diameters, wall strengths and materials (Fig. 1). An amendment will be the forward cleaning, whereby metal chips or other components can be captured continuously. Besides the dismantling in areas which are difficult to access, such as pipelines set in concrete or pipelines that cannot be drilled over their full length, dismantling should be possible in air and under water. After application, the system can be decontaminated. In order to separate pipes made out of different materials with various wall thicknesses, the development of a universally applicable test stand is planned in order to achieve the scientific work objectives. Among other things, it should be determined whether a sawing or an abrasive cutting process is more suitable for cutting inside pipes. Building on this, the parameters of the separation process are tested in a parameter study to achieve the smallest possible process forces with a universal applicability. Relevant parameters are the geometry parameters of the cutting unit like the saw tooth shape, the composition of the cutting wheel, as well as the process parameters in the form of infeed, cutting speed and tool speed. The cutting quality achieved by the different tools with the setting of the machine parameters is also an evaluation criterion for the selection of the cutting process.

Research on Higher Education Evaluation and Decision-Making Based on Data Mining

Educational data mining is concerned with developing methods to explore the data from educational environments which provides insights that help in understanding the learning process and improving the educational outcomes. The evaluation and decision-making methods of higher education resources ignore the number of specific basic systems of resource evaluation and decision-making, resulting in the low accuracy of evaluation and decision-making. Therefore, a research on higher education evaluation and decision-making based on data mining is proposed. We analyze the application of big data in the field of higher education and design its optimal curriculum design model. We calculate the phased teaching task objectives of higher education curriculum, form its curriculum teaching guidance according to the influence degree between learners’ learning progress and learners’ thinking limitations, and obtain the learning effect produced by the optimal selection of curriculum teaching content. Then the probability of learners completing the structured teaching goal is calculated, so as to establish the optimal curriculum design model of higher education. Finally, we obtain the quantitative values of different experiences, extract the main influencing factors of resource evaluation and decision-making, and carry out higher education resource evaluation and decision-making analysis on this basis. The experimental results show that the research method improves the flexibility and universal applicability of higher education evaluation and decision-making, achieving an evaluation accuracy of above 90% and with below 7% error rate.

BER Illusion Methodology: A Novel, Open Sourced and Scalable Approach to Troubleshooting High Radix Photonics Interconnects in a Modern Hyperscale Datacenter

Facebook Datacenter consists of a large number of servers that run diverse Facebook services aggregated to serve any given user request. To allow this aggregation, servers have to interact with each other via different traffic flows which are managed by networking fabric. The underlying connection powering this fabric consists of a large number of pluggable optical interconnects and On Board Optical (OBO) modules carrying production data. This connectivity at scale requires fast and reliable detection of the link failures to ensure resolution. In the first generation of the deployments, detection of the link failure was sequential and a slow process. The troubleshoot process was equally tedious as the available tools required characterizing one optical transceiver at a time. Further, the failure analysis also presented a majority of resolution with no failed optics as a root cause resulting in high No Trouble Found (NTF) rate. In this paper we introduce a novel link failure detection and resolution method that improves on the previous method across three dimensions: faster resolution, reliable troubleshooting and scalable implementation. We introduce BER Illusion Methodology (BIM) that is a highly scalable and resource efficient solution that significantly reduces the time taken to troubleshoot pluggable optical interconnects. This is also scalable to next-gen OBO modules at Facebook datacenters aiming to lower the NTF rate and optimally utilizing the available resources. BIM, which is based on Open Compute Platform (OCP) network switches, can be used to troubleshoot 128 QSFP28, 64 QSFP56 or 32 OBO modules simultaneously in under 30 minutes. The tool is easy to implement and capable of also reporting diagnostics on the transceiver such as Transmitter Power, Transmitter Bias Current, Receiver Power, Case Temperature, Bit Error Rate result per channel, Vendor information and Manufacturing part number. This additional test data report along with true failure indication helps optic suppliers gain confidence and build customer credibility. The open-source nature and the universal applicability of this tool offers possibility for other users to adopt and further customize it for their networking needs.

Developing Universally Applicable Service Quality Assessment Model Based on the Theory of Consumption Values, and Using Fuzzy Linguistic Preference Relations to Empirically Test Three Industries

Service quality is an important factor for a successful company. The SERVQUAL model is widely used. However, it has been controversial over the past 30 years. This research aims to develop a service quality measurement model that can be supported in conceptualization and universal applicability, and uses this model to identify the most important key factors of service quality for three industries. First, based on the theory of consumption values, this study used conceptualization and the modified Delphi method to develop a service quality assessment model—the consumption values-based service quality model (CV-SQ). The CV-SQ model was then used in conjunction with the fuzzy linguistic preference relations (Fuzzy LinPreRa) method to address MCDM problems. The findings suggested that the most important key factors of service quality comprised safety in the aviation companies, innovativeness in the travel agencies, and comfort in the hotels. The CV-SQ model can be supported by theoretical and empirical tests in conceptualization and universal applicability, and has made theoretical contributions to service quality management. The research results have provided practical contributions to the improvement of service quality in the three industries. What is more noteworthy is the weight of epistemic value ranked first and second among the three industries, but it had not been included in any service quality aspect classification schemes during the past three or four decades.

Programmable Hybridization Assemble Nicked Displacement Amplification for Detecting Ricin Toxin

Isothermal amplification, such as hybridization chain reaction (HCR), is a simple and reliable method for detecting signal amplification. However, the hairpin in HCR will not fully participate in the reaction. And after the hairpin is opened, the distance between the fluorophore and the quencher does not change much. Therefore, the signal magnification is limited. Here, we designed a new isothermal amplification method named hybridization assemble nicked displacement amplification (HANDA), combining HCR and strand displacement amplification (SDA) ingeniously. HANDA first triggers HCR through the target sequence to form long double-strand DNA (dsDNA) with gaps. Then SDA is performed from the gap to obtain a large amount of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), so as to achieve the purpose of double signal amplification. The base sequence of DNA hairpin had also been optimized. The best sequence design rule was found and had universal applicability. We have demonstrated that HANDA combined with DNA barcodes can be used for trace detection of ricin. This new isothermal amplification method provides an effective and universal platform for the trace detection of various toxic substances.

The simple regularities in the dynamics of online news impact

Online news can quickly reach and affect millions of people, yet we do not know yet whether there exist potential dynamical regularities that govern their impact on the public. We use data from two major news outlets, BBC and New York Times, where the number of user comments can be used as a proxy of news impact. We find that the impact dynamics of online news articles does not exhibit popularity patterns found in many other social and information systems. In particular, we find that a simple exponential distribution yields a better fit to the empirical news impact distributions than a power-law distribution. This observation is explained by the lack or limited influence of the otherwise omnipresent rich-get-richer mechanism in the analyzed data. The temporal dynamics of the news impact exhibits a universal exponential decay which allows us to collapse individual news trajectories into an elementary single curve. We also show how daily variations of user activity directly influence the dynamics of the article impact. Our findings challenge the universal applicability of popularity dynamics patterns found in other social contexts.

From Marginality to Possibility: Doing Transgender Studies in Japanese Studies

Area studies has been described as having lost its significance and legitimacy in the 21st century globalised world. However, research has shown that the strengths of area studies—empirical research and context-sensitive knowledge—remain relevant not only in helping us to understand our contemporary world, but also in challenging the hegemony of theories and concepts developed in Euro-American contexts that have come to dominate both academic and general writing. In this paper, I draw on my research on the transgender community in Japan—an area of study that is relegated to the margins of both Japanese studies and trans studies—to show how the tools of area studies play an important role in expanding the conceptual boundaries of trans studies, and how the lens of transgender can expand or complicate existing knowledge on the culture and society of Japan. I highlight how Japanese transgender identities and cultures are shaped not only by global processes, but also legal, medical, cultural and social conditions specific to Japan. I argue against the assumed universal applicability of Eurocentric conceptualisations of gender/sexual non-conformity, and in doing so I call attention to the ways in which the fields of transgender studies and Japanese studies can enrich each other. More than ever in these precarious times, we need to emphasise the strengths and overcome the weaknesses of our field(s), so that we may be better equipped to turn marginality into possibility.

THE UNIVERSAL MEANING OF THE SAMANYA AND VISHESHA CONCEPT IN PERSPECTIVE OF AYURVEDA

In Ayurveda, there is a central concept referred to as the principle of Samanya (likeness) and Vishesha (difference). While within the sense of yuktivyapashraya (rational medicine) in Ayurveda the concept was ultimately advocated, we might wish to argue here that it's universal applicability in Ayurveda, through systems and realms of data, including science, technology, and humanities, also as empirical, experiential and traditional systems of data. Aims: We illustrated the universal importance of the idea of Samanya and Vishesha, taking samples of a number of the foremost well-known ecological, economic and social problems. Obviously, these concerns are often of greater importance to public health, it’s the new order of thought to hold out an Ayurveda idea from its premises. So as to decipher other fundamental concepts of Ayurveda from the attitude of their broader applicability, and thus their robustness, the path-breaking insights offered have important implications. Conclusions: We've shown how forward future Ayurveda research to create a knowledge domain in contemporary society for evidence-based clinical practice. In short, as seen here by the study of three cases, the concept of Samanya and Vishesha has good applicability.Rather, some of these are so robust that they are widely applicable across structures and fields of knowledge, including science, technology and humanities, as well as science, experience and conventional knowledge systems, as applicable from Ayurveda.