Automated Storytelling via Causal, Commonsense Plot Ordering

Automated story plot generation is the task of generating a coherent sequence of plot events. Causal relations between plot events are believed to increase the perception of story and plot coherence. In this work, we introduce the concept of soft causal relations as causal relations inferred from commonsense reasoning. We demonstrate C2PO, an approach to narrative generation that operationalizes this concept through Causal, Commonsense Plot Ordering. Using human-participant protocols, we evaluate our system against baseline systems with different commonsense reasoning reasoning and inductive biases to determine the role of soft causal relations in perceived story quality. Through these studies we also probe the interplay of how changes in commonsense norms across storytelling genres affect perceptions of story quality.Comment: AAAI-21 Camera Ready Versio

Bringing Stories Alive: Generating Interactive Fiction Worlds

World building forms the foundation of any task that requires narrative intelligence. In this work, we focus on procedurally generating interactive fiction worlds---text-based worlds that players "see" and "talk to" using natural language. Generating these worlds requires referencing everyday and thematic commonsense priors in addition to being semantically consistent, interesting, and coherent throughout. Using existing story plots as inspiration, we present a method that first extracts a partial knowledge graph encoding basic information regarding world structure such as locations and objects. This knowledge graph is then automatically completed utilizing thematic knowledge and used to guide a neural language generation model that fleshes out the rest of the world. We perform human participant-based evaluations, testing our neural model's ability to extract and fill-in a knowledge graph and to generate language conditioned on it against rule-based and human-made baselines. Our code is available at https://github.com/rajammanabrolu/WorldGeneration

VME-DWT : an efficient algorithm for detection and elimination of eye blink from short segments of single EEG channel

Objective: Recent advances in development of low-cost single-channel electroencephalography (EEG) headbands have opened new possibilities for applications in health monitoring and brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. These recorded EEG signals, however, are often contaminated by eye blink artifacts that can yield the fallacious interpretation of the brain activity. This paper proposes an efficient algorithm, VME-DWT, to remove eye blinks in a short segment of the single EEG channel. Method: The proposed algorithm: (a) locates eye blink intervals using Variational Mode Extraction (VME) and (b) filters only contaminated EEG interval using an automatic Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) algorithm. The performance of VME-DWT is compared with an automatic Variational Mode Decomposition (AVMD) and a DWT-based algorithms, proposed for suppressing eye blinks in a short segment of the single EEG channel. Results: The VME-DWT detects and filters 95% of the eye blinks from the contaminated EEG signals with SNR ranging from −8 to +3 dB. The VME-DWT shows superiority to the AVMD and DWT with the higher mean value of correlation coefficient (0.92 vs. 0.83, 0.58) and lower mean value of RRMSE (0.42 vs. 0.59, 0.87). Significance: The VME-DWT can be a suitable algorithm for removal of eye blinks in low-cost single-channel EEG systems as it is: (a) computationally-efficient, the contaminated EEG signal is filtered in millisecond time resolution, (b) automatic, no human intervention is required, (c) low-invasive, EEG intervals without contamination remained unaltered, and (d) low-complexity, without need to the artifact reference

In thrombin stimulated human platelets Citalopram, Promethazine, Risperidone, and Ziprasidone, but not Diazepam, may exert their pharmacological effects also through intercalation in membrane phospholipids in a receptor-independent manner

Intercalation of drugs in the platelet membrane affects phospholipid-requiring enzymatic processes according to the drugs’ intercalation capability. We investigated effects of Promethazine, Citalopram, Ziprasidone, Risperidone, and Diazepam on phospholipase A2 (PLA2) and polyphosphoinositide (PPI) metabolism in thrombin-stimulated human platelets. We also examined effects of the drugs on monolayers of glycerophospholipids using the Langmuir technique. Diazepam did not influence PLA2 activity, had no effects on PPI cycle, and caused no change in mean molecular area of phospholipid monolayers. The remaining psychotropic drugs affected these parameters in different ways and levels of potency suggesting that they act by being intercalated between the molecules of adjacent membrane phospholipids, thus causing changes in substrate availability for phospholipid-hydrolyzing enzymes (PLA2 and Phospholipase C). We show that several psychotropic drugs can also have other cellular effects than receptor antagonism. These effects may be implicated in the psychotropic effects of the drugs and/or their side effects

Flute concertos by Ligeti, Serocki and Szalonek in the context of the concertato style

This thesis deals with the three flute concerti, Double concerto for flute, oboe and orchestra by Györgya Ligetiego, Concerto alla cadenza per flauto becco e orchestra Kazimierza Serockiego and Concertino for flute and chamber orchestra Witolda Szalonka, that were composed between 1962 and 1975 and are representative for the flute concerto genre in the modernism period. Aim of this study is to show different approaches of the three composers to the problem of the concerto form and sound quality, in the context of concertato style in contemporary music. The whole picture is presented in the context of the history of the flute concerto from the Baroque period till now. In the first chapter I present the genesis of the selected works, with the great emphasis on the reception and their presentation at the International Festival of Contemporary Music “Warsaw Autumn”. The next chapter centers on the influence of the instrumentation on the composition proces, with the emphasis on the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra. The third chapter centers on the characteristic of the sound quality, the compositional techniques used in the composition process and the concertato style itself. In the ending of my thesis I refer to the political and cultural contexts that affected the three composers and I make a summary of the different approaches to the concertato style in the modernism period and after 1975.Niniejsza praca traktuje o trzech koncertach na flet i orkiestrę — Koncercie podwójnym na flet, obój i orkiestrę Györgya Ligetiego, Concerto alla cadenza per flauto becco e orchestra Kazimierza Serockiego i Concertino na flet i orkiestrę kameralną Witolda Szalonka — które powstały w latach 1962–1975 i są reprezentatywne dla kierunków rozwoju koncertu fletowego w okresie modernizmu. Celem pracy jest przedstawienie sposobów kształtowania formy i jakości brzmieniowych przez poszczególnych kompozytorów w kontekście różnorodnych idei koncertowania, funkcjonujących w muzyce współczesnej. Całość została przedstawiona na tle historii koncertu fletowego od baroku do XXI wieku. W pierwszym rozdziale pracy przytaczam genezę utworów i porównuję okoliczności ich powstania, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem recepcji dzieł oraz prezentacji dzieł na Festiwalu Muzyki Współczesnej „Warszawska Jesień”. Następnie omawiam wpływ środków wykonawczych na kształtowanie formy poszczególnych utworów, szczególną uwagę na relację solisty w stosunku do zespołu instrumentalnego. Rozdział trzeci poświęcony jest charakterystyce jakości brzmieniowych utworów, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem stosowanych technik kompozytorskich i stylu koncertującego. Na koniec odnoszę się do kontekstu polityczno-kulturalnego w jakim powstały omówione koncerty, podsumowuję sposoby interpretacji idei koncertowania w modernizmie i po 1975 roku

The application of neural network based on the parameters of EEG-signal spectrum characteristics for classification of movement, intention of movement and personal affiliation of the signal

Badanie zmian zachodzących w sygnale elektroencefalograficznym (EEG) pod wpływem zadanego bodźca wymaga założenia, że ta reakcja ma własną i powtarzalną charakterystykę, w przeciwieństwie do ciągłej, spontanicznej aktywności mózgu, która w tym kontekście może być traktowana jako addytywny szum. Na podstawie powyższego założenia podzielono otrzymane w eksperymencie próbki sygnału EEG na grupy danych, związanych z odpowiedzią mózgu na zadane bodźce. Artykuł przedstawia wyniki otrzymane po zastosowaniu prostej sieci neuronowej LVQ (learning vector quantization) do rozróżnienia otrzymanych w eksperymencie danych. Porównano dane związane z ruchem palca i z wyobrażeniem ruchu palcem oraz przeprowadzono rozróżnienie danych otrzymanych od różnych osób. Zastosowanie sieci neuronowej samoorganizującej LVQ, opartej na parametrach charakterystyki widma EEG, pozwoliło na rozróżnienie przynależności personalnej sygnału EEG pomiędzy dwiema osobami ze średnią skutecznością 87,31% oraz pomiędzy czterema osobami ze średnią skutecznością 77,39%.The evaluation of changes within electroencephalography signal (EEG) occurred in response to stimuli, requires the assumption that this reaction has its own, repeatable characteristics compare to the continuous spontaneous brain activity, which can be treated in this context as the additive noise. Therefore, the recorded EEG signal samples, were divided into data groups connected with brain response to the stimuli. The simple neural network LVQ (learning vector quantization) was applied to evaluate recorded data. Movement of finger and voluntary intention of movement were examined. The application of simple neural network LVQ based on parameters of EEG-signal spectrum characteristics allowed for differentiation of EEG signal between two persons with the average efficiency of 87.31% and between four persons with the 77.39% accuracy