896 research outputs found
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Bang! The bat hit the ball and Walter raced to first base. The outfielder picked up the ball and threw it to Richie who was pitching
Representations of Gender-Diverse Characters in Adventure Time and Steven Universe
Television is a strong educational and socializing agent for children. Watching television can teach children appropriate language and vocabulary to use, as well as the social norms about gender behaviors or activities. Previous research on gender representations in childrenâs television has been limited to studying male and female characters because childrenâs programming has historically presented audiences with cisgender characters (e.g., boy and girls). Recently, television shows aimed at children have provided audiences with nonbinary and gender-diverse characters. This study is the first exploratory content analysis, to my knowledge, to examine the portrayal and representation of nonbinary and gender-diverse characters in childrenâs television. The current study examined the gender-neutral pronoun and gendered language use toward nonbinary and gender-diverse characters, as well as the portrayal of these characters as leaders, and with special skills in Adventure Time and Steven Universe. Overall, nonbinary and gender-diverse characters were portrayed as strong, positive, characters, and were represented similarly to their cisgender counterparts. This represents a promising shift toward more inclusive and equitable television representation, which may lead to the acceptance and appropriate use of gender-neutral pronouns toward peers by cisgender children, and the feeling of visibility and validation by nonbinary children. Future research should examine the impacts of these characters on viewers.
RELEVANCE STATEMENT: As childrenâs television becomes more diverse it has the potential to positively impact the lives of cisgender (e.g., boys and girls) and nonbinary children. Because television has the potential to influence young children, gender-diverse representations in childrenâs television may lead to children developing more accepting attitudes and behaviors toward nonbinary peers
Edition 1.1 of the PARSEME shared task on automatic identification of verbal multiword expressions
This paper describes the PARSEME Shared Task 1.1 on automatic identification of verbal multiword expressions. We present the annotation methodology, focusing on changes from last yearâs
shared task. Novel aspects include enhanced annotation guidelines, additional annotated data for
most languages, corpora for some new languages, and new evaluation settings. Corpora were
created for 20 languages, which are also briefly discussed. We report organizational principles
behind the shared task and the evaluation metrics employed for ranking. The 17 participating
systems, their methods and obtained results are also presented and analysed
The automatic processing of multiword expressions in Irish
It is well-documented that Multiword Expressions (MWEs) pose a unique challenge
to a variety of NLP tasks such as machine translation, parsing, information retrieval,
and more. For low-resource languages such as Irish, these challenges can be exacerbated by the scarcity of data, and a lack of research in this topic. In order to
improve handling of MWEs in various NLP tasks for Irish, this thesis will address
both the lack of resources specifically targeting MWEs in Irish, and examine how
these resources can be applied to said NLP tasks.
We report on the creation and analysis of a number of lexical resources as part
of this PhD research. Ilfhocail, a lexicon of Irish MWEs, is created through extract-
ing MWEs from other lexical resources such as dictionaries. A corpus annotated
with verbal MWEs in Irish is created for the inclusion of Irish in the PARSEME
Shared Task 1.2. Additionally, MWEs were tagged in a bilingual EN-GA corpus
for inclusion in experiments in machine translation. For the purposes of annotation, a categorisation scheme for nine categories of MWEs in Irish is created, based
on combining linguistic analysis on these types of constructions and cross-lingual
frameworks for defining MWEs.
A case study in applying MWEs to NLP tasks is undertaken, with the exploration of incorporating MWE information while training Neural Machine Translation
systems. Finally, the topic of automatic identification of Irish MWEs is explored,
documenting the training of a system capable of automatically identifying Irish
MWEs from a variety of categories, and the challenges associated with developing
such a system.
This research contributes towards a greater understanding of Irish MWEs and
their applications in NLP, and provides a foundation for future work in exploring
other methods for the automatic discovery and identification of Irish MWEs, and
further developing the MWE resources described above
CT Imaging In The Anatomy Lab
Abstract:
Competency in basic radiology is an essential skill for graduating physicians. In preclinical courses at Larner College of Medicine, imaging instruction is delivered via asynchronous modules and on still images. Student feedback indicated a need for improved exposure to radiology at an earlier stage of training. This project was developed to improve first-year medical studentsâ ability to interpret cross-sectional imaging and aid studentsâ learning of anatomy by introducing CT scans into the gross anatomy lab. To guide future directions of this curricular development and the potential development of best practices for other schools interested in using similar techniques, this study was designed to assess if there is an advantage or perceived benefit to learning on CT scans of cadavers versus scans of living individuals. Students were placed in three CT groups: CT Group 1 learned from images of the cadaver they were dissecting; CT Group 2 learned from images of a cadaver they were not dissecting; CT Group 3 learned from non-contrast images of a normal living individual.
CT scans were uploaded to Pacsbin, a web-based DICOM viewer, and were accessible to students on iPads in anatomy lab and outside of lab on personal devices. Students learned how to utilize common DICOM features as well as how to identify and label anatomical structures through instructor-led e-modules. During lab dissection, students were assisted in the use of Pacsbin and identification of anatomical structures on CT scans by Radiology residents. Student knowledge was assessed on laboratory practical exams and CT image questions were administered via iPads, allowing students to view labeled structures in sagittal, coronal, or axial planes. This intervention was implemented only for the thorax and abdomen portions of the anatomy curriculum. Students were assessed specifically on their overall anatomy practical performance, the ability to correctly identify structures on cross-sectional images, and the ability to correctly identify spatial anatomical relationships. Surveys were administered before and after the intervention to evaluate studentsâ perceptions of their anatomical, pathological, and cross-sectional imaging knowledge, as well as student satisfaction with the intervention.
Results did not reveal a statistically significant difference between the three study groups in practical examination scores, ability to correctly identify anatomical structures on CT images, or spatial anatomical knowledge. When compared with the performance of the previous class, there were no significant differences in practical exam scores for the thorax and abdomen. Survey data showed that students received the intervention positively. Students indicated improved anatomical and imaging knowledge after the course and most students reported feeling better prepared to use imaging software and interpret diagnostic imaging.
Conclusions
There was no academic advantage observed on practical exams between groups learning cross-sectional imaging from CT scans of cadavers versus living individuals. Positive outcomes were observed as a result of the intervention, as students reported improvements in anatomical knowledge, ability to interpret CT images, and utilize DICOM viewers similar to those seen in the clinical environment. While others have used post-mortem CT imaging in anatomy, none to our knowledge have compared it with scans from living individuals or made DICOM viewers available at each student table.
IRB: Study0000213
Annotating verbal MWEs in Irish for the PARSEME Shared Task 1.2
This paper describes the creation of two Irish corpora (labelled and unlabelled) for verbal MWEs
for inclusion in the PARSEME Shared Task 1.2 on automatic identification of verbal MWEs, and
the process of developing verbal MWE categories for Irish. A qualitative analysis on the two
corpora is presented, along with discussion of Irish verbal MWEs
A BERT's eye view: identification of Irish multiword expressions using pre-trained language models
This paper reports on the investigation of using pre-trained language models for the identification of Irish verbal multiword expressions (vMWEs), comparing the results with the systems submitted for the PARSEME shared task edition 1.2. We compare the use of a monolingual BERT model for Irish (gaBERT) with multilingual BERT (mBERT), fine-tuned to perform MWE identification, presenting a series of experiments to explore the impact of hyperparameter tuning and dataset optimisation steps on these models. We compare the results of our optimised systems to those achieved by other systems submitted to the shared task, and present some best practices for minority languages addressing this task
Star Formation in the Northern Cloud Complex of NGC 2264
We have made continuum and spectral line observations of several outflow
sources in the Mon OB1 dark cloud (NGC 2264) using the Heinrich Hertz Telescope
(HHT) and ARO 12m millimeter-wave telescope. This study explores the kinematics
and outflow energetics of the young stellar systems observed and assesses the
impact star formation is having on the surrounding cloud environment. Our data
set incorporates 12CO(3-2), 13CO(3-2), and 12CO(1-0) observations of outflows
associated with the sources IRAS 06382+1017 and IRAS 06381+1039, known as IRAS
25 and 27, respectively, in the northern cloud complex. Complementary 870
micron continuum maps were made with the HHT 19 channel bolometer array. Our
results indicate that there is a weak (approximately less than 0.5%) coupling
between outflow kinetic energy and turbulent energy of the cloud. An analysis
of the energy balance in the IRAS 25 and 27 cores suggests they are maintaining
their dynamical integrity except where outflowing material directly interacts
with the core, such as along the outflow axes.Comment: 28 pages including 6 figures, to be published in ApJ 01 July 2006,
v645, 1 issu
Membrane integrity contributes to resistance of Cryptococcus neoformans to the cell wall inhibitor caspofungin
The fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans causes up to 278 000 infections each year globally, resulting in up to 180,000 deaths annually, mostly impacting immunocompromised people. Therapeutic options for C. neoformans infections are very limited. Caspofungin, a member of the echinocandin class of antifungals, is generally well tolerated but clinically ineffective against C. neoformans. We sought to identify biological processes that can be targeted to render the cell more susceptible to echinocandins by screening the available libraries of gene deletion mutants made in the KN99α background for caspofungin sensitivity. We adapted a Candida albicans fungal biofilm assay for the growth characteristics of C. neoformans and systematically screened 4,030 individual gene deletion mutants in triplicate plate assays. We identified 25 strains that showed caspofungin sensitivity. We followed up with a dose dependence assay, and 17 of the 25 were confirmed sensitive, 5 of which were also sensitive in an agar plate assay. We made new deletion mutant strains for four of these genes
Identification of a Homology-Independent Linchpin Domain Controlling Mouse and Bank Vole Prion Protein Conversion
Prions are unorthodox pathogens that cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases in humans and other mammals. Prion propagation occurs through the self-templating of the pathogenic conformer PrPSc, onto the cell-expressed conformer, PrPC. Here we study the conversion of PrPC to PrPSc using a recombinant mouse PrPSc conformer (mouse protein-only recPrPSc) as a unique tool that can convert bank vole but not mouse PrPC substrates in vitro. Thus, its templating ability is not dependent on sequence homology with the substrate. In the present study, we used chimeric bank vole/mouse PrPC substrates to systematically determine the domain that allows for conversion by Mo protein-only recPrPSc. Our results show that that either the presence of the bank vole amino acid residues E227 and S230 or the absence of the second N-linked glycan are sufficient to allow PrPC substrates to be converted by Mo protein-only recPrPSc and several native infectious prion strains. We propose that residues 227 and 230 and the second glycan are part of a C-terminal domain that acts as a linchpin for bank vole and mouse prion conversion
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