Self-correcting generalization

A system is described which creates and generalizes rules from examples. The system can recover from an initially misleading input sequence by keeping evidence which supports (or doesn't support) a given generalization. By undoing over-generalizations, the system maintains a minimal set of rules for a given set of inputs

Reactions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon radical cations with model biological nucleophiles

The determination of gas-phase reactivity of a series of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with nucleophiles is directed at achieving isomer differentiation through ion-molecule reactions and collisionally activated decomposition spectra. A series of PAH isomers form gas-phase [adduci — H]+ ions with the reagent nucleophiles pyridine and N-methylimidazole. Collisionally activated decomposition spectra of the [adduct — H]+ ions of the pyridine/PAH systems are dominated by products formed by losses of C5H4N, C5H5N (presumably neutral pyridine), and C5H6N. Collisional activation of PAH/N-methylimidazole [adduct — H]+ ions causes analogous losses of C4H5N2, C4H6N2 (presumably neutral N-methylimidazole), and C4H7N2. The relative abundances of the ions that result from these losses are highly isomer specific for N-methylimidazole but less so for pyridine. Furthermore, PAH/N-methylimidazole [adduct — H]+ ions undergo a series of metastableion decompositions that also provide highly isomer-specific information. The C4H7N2 (from PAH/N-methylimidazole product ions) and C5H6N (from PAH/pyridine product ions) losses tend to increase with the ΔHf of the PAH radical cation. In addition, it is shown that the fragmentation patterns of these gas-phase PAH/nucleophile adducts are similar to fragmentation patterns of PAH/nucleoside adducts generated in solution, which suggests that the structures of products formed in gas-phase reactions are similar to those produced in solution

Globally Optimal Crowdsourcing Quality Management

We study crowdsourcing quality management, that is, given worker responses to a set of tasks, our goal is to jointly estimate the true answers for the tasks, as well as the quality of the workers. Prior work on this problem relies primarily on applying Expectation-Maximization (EM) on the underlying maximum likelihood problem to estimate true answers as well as worker quality. Unfortunately, EM only provides a locally optimal solution rather than a globally optimal one. Other solutions to the problem (that do not leverage EM) fail to provide global optimality guarantees as well. In this paper, we focus on filtering, where tasks require the evaluation of a yes/no predicate, and rating, where tasks elicit integer scores from a finite domain. We design algorithms for finding the global optimal estimates of correct task answers and worker quality for the underlying maximum likelihood problem, and characterize the complexity of these algorithms. Our algorithms conceptually consider all mappings from tasks to true answers (typically a very large number), leveraging two key ideas to reduce, by several orders of magnitude, the number of mappings under consideration, while preserving optimality. We also demonstrate that these algorithms often find more accurate estimates than EM-based algorithms. This paper makes an important contribution towards understanding the inherent complexity of globally optimal crowdsourcing quality management

Exploration of the Genetic Epidemiology of Asthma: A Review, With a Focus on Prevalence in Children and Adolescents in the Caribbean

Asthma is a chronic disease caused by the inflammation of the main air passages of the lungs. This paper outlines a review of the published literature on asthma. While a few studies show a trend of rising asthma cases in the Caribbean region, even fewer have explored the genetic epidemiological factors of asthma. This is a literature review that seeks to sum the body of knowledge on the epidemiology of asthma. Specifically, the major objective of the literature review is to provide a unified information base on the current state of factors involved in the genetic epidemiology of asthma. The review is a simple, yet detailed summary of the literature sources and their methodology and findings on the genetic epidemiology of asthma. Further, it seeks to direct this effort to the Caribbean region. The paper then reviews a summarized and synthesized collection of the body of previous research. Of specific interest are peer-reviewed sources that have been published in recent times. The paper provides more recent insight and recapitulates on the previous research, while tracing the intellectual progress on the debate. Where possible, reviewing and discussing the results of the previous literature, this review singles out the gaps and potential future research directions for studying the genetic epidemiology of asthma. Overall, we hope to contribute to a more synthesized knowledge and improved understanding of the previous literature and future potential direction of genetic and epidemiological asthma research

Mapping the beach beneath the street:digital cartography for the playable city

Maps are an important component within many of the playful and gameful experiences designed to turn cities into a playable infrastructures. They take advantage of the fact that the technology used for obtaining accurate spatial information, such as GPS receivers and magnetometers (digital compasses), are now so wide-spread that they are considered as ‘standard’ sensors on mobile phones, which are themselves ubiquitous. Interactive digital maps, therefore, are are widely used by the general public for a variety of purposes. However, despite the rich design history of cartography digital maps typically exhibit a dominant aesthetic that has been de-signed to serve the usability and utility requirements of turn-by-turn urban navigation, which is itself driven by the proliferation of in-car and personal navigation services. The navigation aesthetic is now widespread across almost all spatial applications, even where a be-spoke cartographic product would be better suited. In this chapter we seek to challenge this by exploring novel neo-cartographic ap-proaches to making maps for use within playful and gameful experi-ences designed for the cities. We will examine the potential of de-sign approaches that can producte not only more aesthetically pleasing maps, but also offer the potential for influencing user be-haviour, which can be used to promote emotional engagement and exploration in playable city experiences

Affective Man-Machine Interface: Unveiling human emotions through biosignals

As is known for centuries, humans exhibit an electrical profile. This profile is altered through various psychological and physiological processes, which can be measured through biosignals; e.g., electromyography (EMG) and electrodermal activity (EDA). These biosignals can reveal our emotions and, as such, can serve as an advanced man-machine interface (MMI) for empathic consumer products. However, such a MMI requires the correct classification of biosignals to emotion classes. This chapter starts with an introduction on biosignals for emotion detection. Next, a state-of-the-art review is presented on automatic emotion classification. Moreover, guidelines are presented for affective MMI. Subsequently, a research is presented that explores the use of EDA and three facial EMG signals to determine neutral, positive, negative, and mixed emotions, using recordings of 21 people. A range of techniques is tested, which resulted in a generic framework for automated emotion classification with up to 61.31% correct classification of the four emotion classes, without the need of personal profiles. Among various other directives for future research, the results emphasize the need for parallel processing of multiple biosignals

Effect of intonation on Cantonese lexical tones

In tonal languages, there are potential conflicts between the F0-based changes due to the coexistence of intonation and lexical tones. In the present study, the interaction of tone and intonation in Cantonese was examined using acoustic and perceptual analyses. The acoustic patterns of tones at the initial, medial, and final positions of questions and statements were measured. Results showed that intonation affects both the F0 level and contour, while the duration of the six tones varied as a function of positions within intonation contexts. All six tones at the final position of questions showed rising F0 contour, regardless of their canonical form. Listeners were overall more accurate in the identification of tones presented within the original carrier than of the same tones in isolation. However, a large proportion of tones 33, 21, 23, and 22 at the final position of questions were misperceived as tone 25 both within the original carrier and as isolated words. These results suggest that although the intonation context provided cues for correct tone identification, the intonation-induced changes in F0 contour cannot always be perceptually compensated for, resulting in some erroneous perception of the identity of Cantonese tone. © 2006 Acoustical Society of America.published_or_final_versio