Segmenting broadcast news streams using lexical chains

In this paper we propose a course-grained NLP approach to text segmentation based on the analysis of lexical cohesion within text. Most work in this area has focused on the discovery of textual units that discuss subtopic structure within documents. In contrast our segmentation task requires the discovery of topical units of text i.e. distinct news stories from broadcast news programmes. Our system SeLeCT first builds a set of lexical chains, in order to model the discourse structure of the text. A boundary detector is then used to search for breaking points in this structure indicated by patterns of cohesive strength and weakness within the text. We evaluate this technique on a test set of concatenated CNN news story transcripts and compare it with an established statistical approach to segmentation called TextTiling

SeLeCT: a lexical cohesion based news story segmentation system

In this paper we compare the performance of three distinct approaches to lexical cohesion based text segmentation. Most work in this area has focused on the discovery of textual units that discuss subtopic structure within documents. In contrast our segmentation task requires the discovery of topical units of text i.e., distinct news stories from broadcast news programmes. Our approach to news story segmentation (the SeLeCT system) is based on an analysis of lexical cohesive strength between textual units using a linguistic technique called lexical chaining. We evaluate the relative performance of SeLeCT with respect to two other cohesion based segmenters: TextTiling and C99. Using a recently introduced evaluation metric WindowDiff, we contrast the segmentation accuracy of each system on both "spoken" (CNN news transcripts) and "written" (Reuters newswire) news story test sets extracted from the TDT1 corpus

Studies in readability: An examination of relationships between readibility measures, patterns of difficulty in selected school history texts, and associated responses of twelve to fourteen year olds

A readability survey was carried out on a wide selection of history books, using a computer program, ASTRA 3, developed for the study. The results showed that although the mean readability levels of textbooks provided for 12-14 year olds were appropriate to their readership, there were very large and seemingly random internal fluctuations. This, coupled with an observed lack of scalar correspondence between formulae, has implications for current practices in readability assessment. The responses of readers to readability fluctuations were next investigated, using one subjective measure and three behavioural measures, namely, children's subjective ratings, cloze procedure, reading rate, and stress reaction (Skin Conductance Response). Relatively low cost microcomputer based apparatus was developed for studying the latter two measures. It was found that average 12-14 year old readers were able to perceive variation in difficulty in adjacent passages and these subjective ratings proved to be relatively good predictors of fluctuations in cloze procedure scores. A measure of redundancy based on cloze responses was also shown to be strongly related to children's subjective ratings of contextualised passages. No statistical relationship was found, however, between textual cohesion and either the subjective or the objective indices. These findings raise a number of questions of concern to writers and publishers of school text books. According to the cloze test, all the passages were at frustration level, although this is contrary to what would have been expected from the range of readability indices. Reading rate tended to increase, rather than decrease with difficulty, though in absolute terms the variation was slight. SCR responses tended to be labile and snowed substantial individual. differences. This part of the study opens up a number of questions about the appropriateness of different ways of examining the response of readers to specific 'text features that contribute to readability. In general, the findings in this interrelated series of studies show that a great deal of readability assessment is based on assumptions of dubious validity concerning the distribution of difficulty within texts, the nature of relationships between different readability measures, and the ways in which readers actually respond to hypothesized difficulties

Differential inequalities and the matrix Riccati equation

The matrix Riccati equation has attracted attention recently because of its occurrence in a number of different situations. Its solutions determine solutions of the optimal linear regulator problem; the existence of solutions on an interval is related to disconjugacy of a linear Hamiltonian system on an interval has demonstrated an equivalence between solutions of matrix Riccati equations and Fredholm resolvents. Most recently, Fair has written about continued fraction solutions of a Riccati equation in a Banach algebra

Ketone monoester ingestion alters metabolism and simulated rugby performance in professional players:Ketones, metabolism and elite rugby performance

Ketone ingestion can alter metabolism but effects on exercise performance are unclear, particularly with regard to the impact on intermittent-intensity exercise and team-sport performance. Nine professional male rugby union players each completed two trials in a double-blind, randomized, crossover design. Participants ingested either 90 ± 9 g carbohydrate (CHO; 9% solution) or an energy matched solution containing 20 ± 2 g CHO (3% solution) and 590 mg/kg body mass β-hydroxybutyrate monoester (CHO + BHB-ME) before and during a simulated rugby union-specific match-play protocol, including repeated high-intensity, sprint and power-based performance tests. Mean time to complete the sustained high-intensity performance tests was reduced by 0.33 ± 0.41 s (2.1%) with CHO + BHB-ME (15.53 ± 0.52 s) compared with CHO (15.86 ± 0.80 s) placebo (p = .04). Mean time to complete the sprint and power-based performance tests were not different between trials. CHO + BHB-ME resulted in blood BHB concentrations that remained &gt;2 mmol/L during exercise (p &lt; .001). Serum lactate and glycerol concentrations were lower after CHO + BHB-ME than CHO (p &lt; .05). Coingestion of a BHB-ME with CHO can alter fuel metabolism (attenuate circulating lactate and glycerol concentrations) and may improve high-intensity running performance during a simulated rugby match-play protocol, without improving shorter duration sprint and power-based efforts.</p

Ketone monoester ingestion alters metabolism and simulated rugby performance in professional players:Ketones, metabolism and elite rugby performance

Ketone ingestion can alter metabolism but effects on exercise performance are unclear, particularly with regard to the impact on intermittent-intensity exercise and team-sport performance. Nine professional male rugby union players each completed two trials in a double-blind, randomized, crossover design. Participants ingested either 90 ± 9 g carbohydrate (CHO; 9% solution) or an energy matched solution containing 20 ± 2 g CHO (3% solution) and 590 mg/kg body mass β-hydroxybutyrate monoester (CHO + BHB-ME) before and during a simulated rugby union-specific match-play protocol, including repeated high-intensity, sprint and power-based performance tests. Mean time to complete the sustained high-intensity performance tests was reduced by 0.33 ± 0.41 s (2.1%) with CHO + BHB-ME (15.53 ± 0.52 s) compared with CHO (15.86 ± 0.80 s) placebo (p = .04). Mean time to complete the sprint and power-based performance tests were not different between trials. CHO + BHB-ME resulted in blood BHB concentrations that remained &gt;2 mmol/L during exercise (p &lt; .001). Serum lactate and glycerol concentrations were lower after CHO + BHB-ME than CHO (p &lt; .05). Coingestion of a BHB-ME with CHO can alter fuel metabolism (attenuate circulating lactate and glycerol concentrations) and may improve high-intensity running performance during a simulated rugby match-play protocol, without improving shorter duration sprint and power-based efforts.</p

Cost-efficiency of specialist inpatient rehabilitation for working-aged adults with complex neurological disabilities: A multicentre cohort analysis of a national clinical dataset

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate functional outcomes, care needs and cost-efficiency of specialist rehabilitation for a multicentre cohort of inpatients with complex neurological disability, comparing different diagnostic groups across 3 levels of dependency. DESIGN: A multicentre cohort analysis of prospectively collected clinical data from the UK Rehabilitation Outcomes Collaborative (UKROC) national clinical database, 2010–2015. SETTING: All 62 specialist (levels 1 and 2) rehabilitation services in England. PARTICIPANTS: Working-aged adults (16–65 years) with complex neurological disability. Inclusion criteria: all episodes with length of stay (LOS) 8–400 days and complete outcome measures recorded on admission and discharge. Total N=5739: acquired brain injury n=4182 (73%); spinal cord injury n=506 (9%); peripheral neurological conditions n=282 (5%); progressive conditions n=769 (13%). INTERVENTION: Specialist inpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation. OUTCOME MEASURES: Dependency and care costs: Northwick Park Dependency Scale/Care Needs Assessment (NPDS/NPCNA). Functional independence: UK Functional Assessment Measure (UK Functional Independence Measure (FIM)+FAM). Cost-efficiency: (1) time taken to offset rehabilitation costs by savings in NPCNA-estimated costs of ongoing care, (2) FIM efficiency (FIM gain/LOS days), (3) FIM+FAM efficiency (FIM+FAM gain/LOS days). Patients were analysed in 3 groups of dependency. RESULTS: Mean LOS 90.1 (SD 66) days. All groups showed significant reduction in dependency between admission and discharge on all measures (paired t tests: p<0.001). Mean reduction in ‘weekly care costs’ was greatest in the high-dependency group at £760/week (95% CI 726 to 794)), compared with the medium-dependency (£408/week (95% CI 370 to 445)), and low-dependency (£130/week (95% CI 82 to 178)), groups. Despite longer LOS, time taken to offset the cost of rehabilitation was 14.2 (95% CI 9.9 to 18.8) months in the high-dependency group, compared with 22.3 (95% CI 16.9 to 29.2) months (medium dependency), and 27.7 (95% CI 15.9 to 39.7) months (low dependency). FIM efficiency appeared greatest in medium-dependency patients (0.54), compared with the low-dependency (0.37) and high-dependency (0.38) groups. Broadly similar patterns were seen across all 4 diagnostic groups. CONCLUSIONS: Specialist rehabilitation can be highly cost-efficient for all neurological conditions, producing substantial savings in ongoing care costs, especially in high-dependency patients

Effect of diet or diet plus physical activity versus usual care on inflammatory markers in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: The Early ACTivity in Diabetes (ACTID) randomized, controlled trial

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordBACKGROUND: Inflammation plays a major role in diabetes-associated cardiovascular disease (CVD). There is uncertainty whether diet and physical activity interventions can be successfully integrated into healthcare settings and reduce markers of inflammation and risk of CVD in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). METHODS AND RESULTS: Systemic markers of inflammation were determined in a 12-month, real-world, multicenter, randomized, controlled trial that investigated the effect of diet, diet plus physical activity, and usual care in 593 individuals with newly diagnosed T2D. During the first 6 months, serum C-reactive protein (CRP) improved by -21 (-36 to -1.4)% and -22 (-38 to -3.1)% in diet and diet plus physical activity arms versus usual care. There were also improvements in adiponectin and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1). Though medication-adjusted CRP was improved between 6 and 12 months for usual care, both interventions were more successful in reducing the relative risk of a high-risk CRP level of >3 mg/L (risk ratios of 0.72 [0.55 to 0.95] for diet versus usual care and 0.67 [0.50 to 0.90] for diet plus activity versus usual care). Furthermore, sICAM-1 (a marker of vascular risk), remained substantially lower than usual care in both intervention arms at 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: Motivational, unsupervised diet and/or diet plus physical activity interventions given soon after diagnosis in real-world healthcare settings improve markers of inflammation and cardiovascular risk in patients with T2D, even after accounting for the effect of adjustments to medication to try and control blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin, and lipids. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION URL: http://www.controlled-trials.com/. Unique identifier: ISRCTN92162869.British Heart FoundationDiabetes UKUK Department of Healt