College of Science and Engineering
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10877/17053
Browse
Browsing College of Science and Engineering by Type "Report"
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Automated Natural Language Evaluators - (ANLE)(1993-12) Kaikhah, KhosrowBy the turn of the century, it is expected that most computer applications will include a natural language processing component. Both developers and consumers of NLP systems have expressed a genuine need for standard natural language system evaluators. Automated natural language evaluators appear to be the only logical solution lo the overwhelming number of NLP systems that have been produced, are being produced, and will be produced. The system developed here is based on the Benchmark Evaluation Tool [7] and is the first attempt to fully automate the evaluation process. This effort was accomplished in two phases. In phase one, we identified a subset of the Benchmark Evaluation Tool for each class of NLP systems. And in phase two, we designed and implemented a natural language generation system to generate non-causal semantically meaningful test sentences. The generation system can be queued for each class of NLP systems. We followed an Object-Oriented Design (OOD) strategy. In this approach all concepts, including semantic and syntactic rules, are defined as objects. Each test sentence is generated as a chain of words satisfying a number of semantic, syntactic, pragmatic, and contextual constraints. The constraints imposed on the generation process increase dynamically while the sentence is being generated. This strategy guarantees semantic cohesiveness while maintaining syntactic integrity. In this approach, syntactic and semantic knowledge were utilized concurrently in word-objects. Each word-object is an independent knowledge source with local knowledge that can decide whether it can be a part of the sentence being generated, when called upon by the sentence-generator to join the chain.Item Cenomanian Angiosperm Leaf Megafossils, Dakota Formation, Rose Creek Locality, Jefferson County, Southeastern Nebraska(Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 1990-01) Upchurch, Garland R.; Dilcher, David L.The leaves described in this report comprise the first assemblage of early flowering plant leaf megafossils to be accorded formal systematic treatment using modern methods of foliar architecture and cuticular anatomy. The 20 species of dicotyledonous leaves are described from a new locality in the Dakota Formation of Nebraska, near Rose Creek (Rose Creek locality). Seventy percent of the species represent either subclass Magnoliidae or forms with a similar grade of foliar architecture. Among Magnoliidae, species are assignable to the orders Magnoliales and Laurales, and one species shows resemblance to Illiciales. Although three species have strong similarities to one extant family (Lauraceae, or the laurel family), most species of Magnoliidae or magnoliid-grade foliage possess generalized features or combine the characteristics of two or more extant families. One species possesses unique features of foliar architecture that represent an unsuccessful 'experimental" design. Two species of Rosidae are present in the flora, and these combine features of foliar architecture that today are restricted to either compound-leaved or simple-leaved families. The leaves examined in this study show little evidence for fragmentation prior to burial and are preserved in a sequence of rooted mudstones containing brackishwater bivalves (including one specimen in life position); thus, the leaves represent predominantly local, brackish-water vegetation. This indicates that flowering plants evolved the ability to tolerate greater-than-freshwater salinities by the Cenomanian. The vegetation represented by the Rose Creek leaf remains shows few similarities to modern mangrove swamps but instead is most analogous to brackish-water swamps that occur inland from mangrove swamps.Item Drone Surveys Do Not Increase Colony-wide Flight Behaviour at Waterbird Nesting Sites, But Sensitivity Varies Among Species(Nature Research, 2020-01) Barr, Jared R.; Green, M. Clay; DeMaso, Stephen J.; Hardy, Thomas B.The popularity of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to survey colonial waterbirds has increased in the past decade, but disturbance associated with this bourgeoning technology requires further study. Disturbance was investigated by conducting aerial surveys with a consumer-grade quadcopter (DJI Phantom 3), while concurrently recording behavioural reactions on video. Surveys of mixed-species waterbird colonies (1-6 species per colony) were flown in horizontal transects at heights of 122, 91, 61, and 46 m, which is a typical range for collecting aerial imagery and producing high-resolution mosaicked orthophotos of nesting bird sites. An upper limit of 122 m was used due to local regulations prohibiting higher-altitude flights without federal authorization. Behavioural reactions were tallied every minute and a disturbance score was calculated for each sampling period. When compared to control periods, we found no evidence that colony-wide escape (i.e., flight) behaviour increased during drone flights, at any altitude flown. However, disturbance score increased significantly by 53% for surveys at 46 m. Some species were more sensitive to surveys than others. Laughing Gulls, in particular, exhibited a significant (125%) increase in escape behaviour for surveys at 91 m. Our results indicate when used in a capacity to gather high-resolution imagery for estimating breeding pairs, UAV surveys affected some species more than others, but severe reactions did not appear to increase for mixed-species colonies as a whole. Further study on safe operating thresholds is essential, especially at local and regional scales.