Persons with Down syndrome Can Dance!

論文發表人: 陳志佳 （亞利桑那州立大學人體肌動學系博士班）

http://www.scapps.org/

Many observations and anecdotes have suggested that persons with Down syndrome (DS) love music and specifically moving to music.  The present pilot study videotaped 10 adults with Down syndrome and 10 mental age-matched participants dancing in response to five different types of music (e.g., Classical/Pop, Jazz).  Our preliminary results suggest that persons with Down syndrome didn't move rhythmically; however, they were more active and did move more to music than mental age matched participants.  While persons with DS had some characteristic movement patterns that were similar with all music types, some persons with DS did adopt specific movement patterns for specific types of music.  Furthermore, they clearly enjoyed what they were doing. We suggested music could be a media to improve their motor learning and development. Further research needs to quantify this love of moving to music.

先前研究已經指出唐氏症患者喜好音樂並熱愛隨者音樂舞動。本研究以影像錄影記錄10位唐氏症患者與10位心智年齡相符之受試者在五種不同類型音樂(例如：現代古典音樂、爵士樂)播放下之動作表現模式。我們初步研究結果發現唐氏症患者無法隨者音樂節奏表現出節奏性的律動。然而，他們比心智年齡相符之受試者更能積極隨者音樂擺動與動作展現。大部分唐氏症患者無論在任何音樂類型下均表現出某些相似性且具特徵的動作表現模式。然而某些唐氏症患者卻能針對某些特殊音樂類型表現出特殊之動作模式。因此，我們清楚發現唐氏症患者能夠享受並隨者音樂舞動。因此本研究建議音樂是能夠成為一個適當的媒介提供唐氏症患者作為改善動作學習與發展之工具。針對他們對於音樂的喜愛，我們將進一步研究能量化探討他們的動作行為模式。

 

BART: A novel laboratory-based instrument to quantify preferred limb use in patients after stroke

陳淑雅 (南加州大學/生物肌動暨物理治療研究所博士班)

 

http://www.sfn.org/am2008/

 

An objective, reliable and valid measure to capture paretic limb use post stroke is critical to investigations seeking to determine a threshold of limb performance that can be used to predict long-term use. The Motor Activity Log (MAL) is a widely used subjective interview of voluntary arm use in daily life. However, there are limitations: (1) it relies on patients' recall; (2) it takes at least 1 hour to administer; (3) most testing items are not appropriate for discordant (paretic ≠ dominant) arm use. A novel laboratory-based measure was developed to quantify limb preference during aiming in a semi-circle workspace, the Bilateral Arm Reaching Test (BART). Twofold Purpose: (1) to develop and parameterize BART; (2) to establish test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of BART in patients post-stroke. The high test-retest reliability suggested that BART is a stable measure. BART has an acceptable validity for capturing voluntary arm use in daily life as indicated by a moderate correlation between AOR and MAL AOU. BART is an objective quantification of voluntary arm use in daily life after stroke. It is easy to administer and may be appropriate for discordant post-stroke patients. Future work: quantification of learned nonuse in patients post-stroke.

 

一個客觀及兼具信效度可測量日常生活中手功能效用的評估工具，對量化中風治療劑量以決定治療效果門檻的研究來說是非常重要的。近十幾年來，主觀的動態活動日誌(Motor Activity Log; MAL)被廣泛使用來評估日常生活中手功能效用。但是這個評估工具有一些缺點：(1) MAL需要仰賴中風病人的回憶能力；(2) 完成一次MAL所需時間超過1個小時；(3) MAL問卷中大部分的問題不適用在中風後患側手非慣用手的病人身上。在這前提之下，我們發展了一個全新量化中風後日常生活中手功能效用的實驗室評估工具，稱為BART (Bilateral Arm Reaching Test)：兩側上肢伸展測試。本實驗主要目的有二：第一，發展可立即迅速調整參數的評估工具BART；第二，建立中風病人使用BART的測試再測試效度及同時效度。實驗結果發現，中風病人使用BART評估手功能效用時，測試再測試信度很高，顯示BART是一個很穩定的實驗室評估工具。此外，以MAL作為同時效度測量指標，我們建立了可接受的評估中風病人手功能效用的效度。整體來說，BART是一個可客觀量化中風病人日常生活中手功能效用的評估工具，且BART是一個簡單操作並可短時間完成測試的實驗室工具，再者BART可能更適用於中風後患側手非慣用手的病人。未來我們來繼續朝著定量中風病人手功能恢復的目標前進。

Language Change in the Taiwanese Speech Community: The myth of hoo

論文發表人: 楊惠玲 (亞利桑那州立大學英文系語言學博士班)
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/foreign_lang/lasso/

This paper aims at providing insights into linguistic connections among the speech communities in a multi-cultural society, specifically elucidating linguistic variation and language change among three dialects spoken in Taiwan. Although a strict language policy on Mandarin was formerly implemented in Taiwan, local dialects have been passed down by immigrants from China and their offspring. Some characteristics of these dialects have been maintained in spite of intensive language contact, while others have been merged and transformed.

By utilizing dialectology in conjunction with historical linguistics, researchers have been better able to interpret linguistic variation and language change in Chinese. With a theoretical base drawn from historical linguistics and typology, this study focuses on Mandarin and two Southern Chinese dialects (Southern Min and Hakka) in terms of their causative formulation, mainly from the perspective of syntax, semantics and, to a lesser degree, phonology. This paper relies on research methods such as: literature reviews, corpus analyses, and comparative methodologies, as well as interviews with native speakers of the dialects investigated.

This research differs from others in that it looks into speech variations in the Chinese causatives from a historical perspective, mainly syntactic change and primarily grammaticalization, a linguistic event in which a morpheme changes from a lexical to functional category. The other difference in scope is that of the inclusion of more than one dialect. Most previous research on Chinese causatives has dealt with a single dialect.

 A typical causative construction in Chinese is NP₁ + V₁ + NP₂ + V₂, where V₁ is the causative verb or marker. Derived from shi-yi (使役) causative verbs, the Mandarin morphemes rang 讓 and jiao 叫 can serve as V₁ in causative structures (Chang, 2005). The Mandarin morpheme gei 給 is also often used in this structure as well. These three words have been grammaticalized into causative markers in Modern Standard Chinese. The morphemes hoo in Taiwan Southern Min and bun in Hakka serve the same function in expressing causative constructions; however, hoo and bun allow other functions as well. Other constraints also vary from one language to another.

This paper's research questions are: (1) How do these two dialects differ from Mandarin in forming causative constructions? ; (2) Do they share typological characteristics? ; (3) To what extent have the two other dialects been grammaticalized, compared to Mandarin? ; (4) How do all three grammaticalization pathways compare cross-linguistically? And, (5) How does language contact account for the linguistic variation or change in the speech communities in Taiwan?

台灣多元社會中的語言變異：以閩南語中的一個多功能用字hoo為例

 

本研究旨在探討台灣多語社會的語言變化。研究標的為：國語與台灣閩南語間的差異與共同性。研究理論主要為方言學、歷史語言學與類型學。研究方法為文獻比較法與語料庫分析。具體而言，本研究的焦點放在閩南語中的特殊用語hoo。由於方言尚未有統一的符號表現方式，當本研究論及該字時均以羅馬拼音表之。此字具有多種功能，它既可用於使役句、給予句，也存在於被動結構。本研究希冀找出該字在台灣閩南語中的分歧，以進一步地證明語法化在該語言中的存在與演進。

根據過去的文獻，方言學與歷史語言學的結合為中文語言學者帶來相當重要的語言變異詮釋基礎。本研究以上述理論為出發點，就時間縱向而言盡可能採集相關語言學者之於歷史文獻的探討，包括中西方學界的相關討論與結論。就時間的橫剖面言，作者針對可取得的現存語言資料庫進行語料分析。資料主要來自台灣中央研究院語言所的漢語平衡語料庫、花蓮大漢科技大學的公開閩南語語料庫以及國立台灣清華大學語言所提供之閩南語電視劇語料。

本研究顯示台灣閩南語中的hoo逐漸失去其多元性。換言之，該字已歷經語法化的程序。具體而言，回應連金發(2008)對於khit-hoo逐漸取代單一hoo的在閩南語被動句的用法，hoo的給予用法也顯現分歧性。現存的台灣閩南語語料庫顯示，給予句採用單一的hoo與另一種新結構共存，亦即將一個動詞前綴於hoo而形成另一個複合字。此現象說明了hoo在給予句式中的弱化帶來該字一個重新方析的基礎。以上證實了歷史語言學的語法化現象。此複合字的產生為語言循環中的更新現象，在此基礎上，未來該語言的給予結構將可能產生其他新的字眼。因此，本研究預測前述hoo的原有的多功能性極可能分化為三種明顯不同的語法結構。

 

CONSTRUCTIONAL MEANING AND MENTAL SIMULATION

論文發表人:  韓文瑋（夏威夷大學語言所博士班）

 

http://artsci.case.edu/csdl9/

 

Constructional theories of grammar propose that grammatical constructions contribute meaning to a sentence beyond that of the individual words. For instance, Goldberg (1995) argues that the ditransitive encodes a transfer-of-possession meaning, while the dative encodes a caused-motion meaning. If grammatical constructions encode meaning in a psychologically real way, then there should be measurable differences in how individual language users interpret dative versus ditransitive sentences. For instance, ditransitive and dative constructions should evoke measurably different mental simulations in understanders. In particular, understanders should more intensely mentally simulate a path when processing a dative sentence than when processing a ditransitive one. Results from a behavioral study showed that participants performed significantly longer physical movements while processing dative sentences, as compared with ditransitive sentences. This suggests that dative sentences more strongly activate path representations in understanders than do ditransitive sentences, confirming the notion that grammatical constructions contribute meaning to the utterances they occur in.

 

結構語法理論提倡句構語意。人們對語句的理解不單來自對各個詞語的認識；語詞、單字的組合固然賦予語言意義，在句法層次上，不同句子結構亦衍生不同涵義。傳統結構語法分析近趨同義的不同句式，歸納其細微語意表現差異來為結構語法佐證。本研究採用心理行為實驗，探討英語使用者處理兩種可交替代換句式─雙賓式（ditransitive）及與格句式（dative）─時產生的不同行為表現。其結果提供結構語法量化實徵證據。

 

如果句構語意有其心理真實性，經由實驗分析我們應該可以測量出不同句式的心像理解差異。過往的結構語法分析歸論雙賓式引申所有物的移轉，與格句式強調致使行動路徑。據此理論，我們讓受試者聆聽兩種句型，並執行一無關乎語言理解的「打靶作業」。在每一句子結束之後，受試者移動游標並點選目標物。依變量為反應時間及游標移動距離。實驗結果顯示與格句式之後反應時間較長，由實驗中的對照組可知此反應時間差異並非來自句子字數的不同。此結果支持句構語意理論。儘管兩句式使用一模一樣的內容字，與格句式相較下突顯路徑表徵。

Optimal Stopping Problem with Offers from One of Two Possible Distributions

論文發表人: 李妍明（南加州大學工業工程系博士班）

http://meetings.informs.org/DC08/ 

 We introduce an optimal stopping problem for selling an asset when the fixed but unknown distribution of successive offers is either f₁ or f₂. The seller has to decide whether to stop or to continue after receiving an offer. A dynamic programming model and some heuristic optimal policies are presented. Using simulation, the performances of the heuristic methods are evaluated and an upper bound for the optimal expected return is derived. We then present a variant of this problem in which the seller now has to set up a reserve price before offers come in. We show that the optimal solution can be obtained by linear programming.

 

本研究主題為最適停止問題中的資產銷售問題。賣家能夠逐一觀察買家們的出價價格；當賣家拒絕某買家的出價時，必須支付一定成本才能繼續觀察下一個出價；一旦買家的出價被拒絕，賣家不能回頭再選擇將資產銷售給該買家；賣家的主要目標是尋找獲得最大利潤的最佳策略，決定何時該將資產銷售出去。於本研究中，我們假設當出價資訊不充足，僅知來自於兩個可能的機率分配之一時，賣家該如何找出最佳策略。我們應用動態規劃建構並分析數學模型，提出三個啟發式解，並運用模擬來評估啟發式解的利潤與最大利潤的關係。此外，我們亦研究此最適停止問題的變化型，將此假設應用於線上競標機制。此時賣家的決策為在觀察出價前制定銷售底價。我們運用動態規劃與線性規劃，為此問題求得最佳策略。

Constructional Meaning and Mental Simulation

論文發表人:  韓文瑋（夏威夷大學語言所博士班）

 

http://artsci.case.edu/csdl9/

 

Constructional theories of grammar propose that grammatical constructions contribute meaning to a sentence beyond that of the individual words. For instance, Goldberg (1995) argues that the ditransitive encodes a transfer-of-possession meaning, while the dative encodes a caused-motion meaning. If grammatical constructions encode meaning in a psychologically real way, then there should be measurable differences in how individual language users interpret dative versus ditransitive sentences. For instance, ditransitive and dative constructions should evoke measurably different mental simulations in understanders. In particular, understanders should more intensely mentally simulate a path when processing a dative sentence than when processing a ditransitive one. Results from a behavioral study showed that participants performed significantly longer physical movements while processing dative sentences, as compared with ditransitive sentences. This suggests that dative sentences more strongly activate path representations in understanders than do ditransitive sentences, confirming the notion that grammatical constructions contribute meaning to the utterances they occur in.

 

 

結構語法理論提倡句構語意。人們對語句的理解不單來自對各個詞語的認識；語詞、單字的組合固然賦予語言意義，在句法層次上，不同句子結構亦衍生不同涵義。傳統結構語法分析近趨同義的不同句式，歸納其細微語意表現差異來為結構語法佐證。本研究採用心理行為實驗，探討英語使用者處理兩種可交替代換句式─雙賓式（ditransitive）及與格句式（dative）─時產生的不同行為表現。其結果提供結構語法量化實徵證據。

如果句構語意有其心理真實性，經由實驗分析我們應該可以測量出不同句式的心像理解差異。過往的結構語法分析歸論雙賓式引申所有物的移轉，與格句式強調致使行動路徑。據此理論，我們讓受試者聆聽兩種句型，並執行一無關乎語言理解的「打靶作業」。在每一句子結束之後，受試者移動游標並點選目標物。依變量為反應時間及游標移動距離。實驗結果顯示與格句式之後反應時間較長，由實驗中的對照組可知此反應時間差異並非來自句子字數的不同。此結果支持句構語意理論。儘管兩句式使用一模一樣的內容字，與格句式相較下突顯路徑表徵。

Automatic Extraction of Road Intersection Position, Connectivity, and Orientations from Raster Maps

論文發表人: 蔣耀毅 （南加州大學資訊科學系博士班）

http://acmgis08.cs.umn.edu/papers.html

The road network is one of the most important types of information on raster maps. In particular, the set of road intersection templates, which consists of the road intersection positions, the road connectivities, and the road orientations, represents an abstraction of the road network and is more accurate and easier to extract than the extraction of the entire road network. To extract the road intersection templates from raster maps, the thinning operator is commonly used to find the basic structure of the road lines (i.e., to extract the skeletons of the lines). However, the thinning operator produces distorted lines near line intersections, especially at the T-shaped intersections. Therefore, the extracted position of the road intersection and the road orientations are not accurate. In this paper, we utilize our previous work on automatically extracting road intersection positions to identify the road lines that intersect at the intersections and then trace the road orientations and refine the positions of the road intersections. We compare the proposed approach with the usage of the thinning operator and show that our proposed approach extracts more accurate road intersection positions and road orientations than the previous approach.

道路網絡是地圖中一項非常重要的資訊。在整個道路網絡裡面，整組道路交叉的模版(包含道路交叉的位置、道路連接數目及道路方向)不僅足以代表著這個道路網絡的幾何圖型並且自動擷取這些模版會比擷取整個道路網絡更加的容易。在自動擷取道路交叉模版的同時，細化演算法通常會用來產生一個圖素寬的道路，但是細化演算法也同時扭曲了線條的方向而導致自動擷取的道路交叉模版不準確。在這一篇文章裡，我們提供了一個新的方法來追溯地圖上的道路並且擷取準確的道路交叉模組。

Compressed Sensing in MIMO Radar

論文發表人 : 陳俊仰( 加州理工學院電機工程學系博士班)
 
http://www.asilomarssc.org/

 

壓縮感測是一種結合壓縮及採樣的技術，對於在某些變換域有稀疏性質的信號非常有效率。最近，壓縮感測被提出用於雷達系統。當雷達目標在多普勒-距離空間中是稀疏的，壓縮感測回復技術可以有效的重建出目標物。在本文中，我們將這個想法延伸到多進出雷達。在多進出雷達，本文使用壓縮遙感技術去重建目標物於多普勒-距離-角度空間。為了有效地重建目標物，目標物的反射信號的相關性必需要足夠小。本文提出了一種波形設計的方法，以減少目標物反射信號之間的相關性。由於多進出雷達的維度較大，壓縮技術將會是影響力相當大的技術。

 

Compressed sensing is a technique for efficiently sampling signals which are sparse in some transform domain. Recently, the idea of compressed sensing has been used in the radar system. When the number of targets on the range-Doppler plane is small, the target scene can be reconstructed by employing the compressed sensing techniques. In this paper, we extend this idea to the MIMO radar. In the MIMO radar, the compressed sensing technique can be used to reconstruct the target scene when the signals are sparse in the range-Doppler-angle space. To effectively reconstruct the target scene, it is required that the correlation between the target responses be small. In this paper, a waveform design method is introduced to reduce the correlations between target responses. Because of the increased dimensionality in MIMO radars as compared to SIMO radars, the impact of compressed sensing will be very significant there.