The C@merata Task at MediaEval 2015: Natural Language Queries on Classical Music Scores

This was the second year of the C@merata task [16,1] which relates natural language processing to music inform ation retrieval. Participants each build a system which takes as input a query and a music score and produces as output one or more ma tching passages in the score. This year, questions were mo re difficult and scores were more complex. Participants were the same as last year and once again CLAS was the best with a Beat F-Score of 0.620

The C@merata Task at MediaEval 2014: Natural Language Queries on Classical Music Scores

This paper summarises the C@merata task in which participants built systems to answer short natural language queries about classical music scores in MusicXML. The task thus combined natural language processing with music information retrieval. Five groups from four countries submitted eight runs. The best submission scored Beat Precision 0.713 and Beat Recall 0.904

Tumor protein Tctp regulates axon development in the embryonic visual system.

The transcript encoding translationally controlled tumor protein (Tctp), a molecule associated with aggressive breast cancers, was identified among the most abundant in genome-wide screens of axons, suggesting that Tctp is important in neurons. Here, we tested the role of Tctp in retinal axon development in Xenopus laevis We report that Tctp deficiency results in stunted and splayed retinotectal projections that fail to innervate the optic tectum at the normal developmental time owing to impaired axon extension. Tctp-deficient axons exhibit defects associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and we show that Tctp interacts in the axonal compartment with myeloid cell leukemia 1 (Mcl1), a pro-survival member of the Bcl2 family. Mcl1 knockdown gives rise to similar axon misprojection phenotypes, and we provide evidence that the anti-apoptotic activity of Tctp is necessary for the normal development of the retinotectal projection. These findings suggest that Tctp supports the development of the retinotectal projection via its regulation of pro-survival signalling and axonal mitochondrial homeostasis, and establish a novel and fundamental role for Tctp in vertebrate neural circuitry assembly.This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (C.G.R.; fellowship SFRH/BD/33891/2009), Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund, Croucher Foundation, Cambridge Commonwealth–European & International Trust (H.W.), Gates Cambridge Scholarship (J.Q.L.), and a Wellcome Trust Programme Grant (C.E.H.; grant 085314/Z/08/Z).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from The Company of Biologists via http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dev.13106

Generating multimedia presentations: from plain text to screenplay

In many Natural Language Generation (NLG) applications, the output is limited to plain text – i.e., a string of words with punctuation and paragraph breaks, but no indications for layout, or pictures, or dialogue. In several projects, we have begun to explore NLG applications in which these extra media are brought into play. This paper gives an informal account of what we have learned. For coherence, we focus on the domain of patient information leaflets, and follow an example in which the same content is expressed first in plain text, then in formatted text, then in text with pictures, and finally in a dialogue script that can be performed by two animated agents. We show how the same meaning can be mapped to realisation patterns in different media, and how the expanded options for expressing meaning are related to the perceived style and tone of the presentation. Throughout, we stress that the extra media are not simple added to plain text, but integrated with it: thus the use of formatting, or pictures, or dialogue, may require radical rewording of the text itself

A Protocol for Single-Molecule Translation Imaging in Xenopus Retinal Ganglion Cells

Single-molecule translation imaging (SMTI) is a straightforward technique for the direct quantification of local protein synthesis. The protein of interest is fused to a fast-folding and fast-bleaching fluorescent protein, allowing one to monitor the appearance of individual fluorescence events after photobleaching of pre-existing proteins in the cell under investigation. The translation of individual molecules is then indicated by photon bursts of sub-second length that appear over a dark background. The method thus shares attributes with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) microscopy. Resulting datasets are similar to those generated by localization-based super-resolution microscopy techniques and can be used both to generate density maps of local protein production and to quantify the kinetics of local synthesis. The detailed protocol described in this chapter uses a Venus-β-actin fusion construct to visualize and measure the β-actin mRNA translational activity in Xenopus retinal ganglion cell growth cones upon Netrin-1 stimulation, which can be readily adapted for detecting translation events of other mRNAs in various cell types

Cue-Polarized Transport of β-actin mRNA Depends on 3′UTR and Microtubules in Live Growth Cones

Guidance cues trigger fast responses in axonal growth cones such as directional turning and collapse that require local protein synthesis. An attractive cue-gradient, such as Netrin-1, triggers de novo synthesis of β-actin localized to the near-side compartment of the growth cone that promotes F-actin assembly and attractive steering. How this precise spatial asymmetry in mRNA translation arises across the small expanse of the growth cone is poorly understood. Pre-localized mRNAs in the vicinity of activated receptors could be selectively translated and/or new mRNAs could be trafficked into the area. Here we have performed live imaging of fluorescent-tagged β-actin mRNA to investigate mRNA trafficking dynamics in Xenopus retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons and growth cones in response to Netrin-1. A Netrin-1 gradient was found to elicit the transport of β-actin mRNA granules to the near-side of growth cones within a 4–7 min window. This polarized mRNA trafficking depended on the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) since mRNA-Δ3′UTR mutant failed to exhibit cue-induced localization. Global application of Netrin-1 significantly increased the anterograde movement of β-actin mRNA along axons and also promoted microtubule-dependent mRNA excursions from the central domain of the growth cone into the periphery (filopodia and lamellipodia). Dual channel imaging revealed β-actin mRNA riding behind the microtubule plus-end tracking protein, EB1, in movements along dynamic microtubules into filopodia. The mRNA-EB1 movements were unchanged by a Netrin-1 gradient indicating the dynamic microtubules themselves do not underlie the cue-induced polarity of RNA movement. Finally, fast-moving elongated “worm-like” trains of Cy3-RNA, distinct from mitochondria, were seen transporting RNA along axons in vitro and in vivo suggesting the existence of a novel transport organelle. Overall, the results provide evidence that the axonal trafficking of β-actin mRNA can be regulated by the guidance cue Netrin-1 to transduce the polarity of an extracellular stimulus and that the 3′UTR is essential for this cue-induced regulation

Semantically Aware Text Categorisation for Metadata Annotation

In this paper we illustrate a system aimed at solving a longstanding and challenging problem: acquiring a classifier to automatically annotate bibliographic records by starting from a huge set of unbalanced and unlabelled data. We illustrate the main features of the dataset, the learning algorithm adopted, and how it was used to discriminate philosophical documents from documents of other disciplines. One strength of our approach lies in the novel combination of a standard learning approach with a semantic one: the results of the acquired classifier are improved by accessing a semantic network containing conceptual information. We illustrate the experimentation by describing the construction rationale of training and test set, we report and discuss the obtained results and conclude by drawing future work.</p

On-Site Ribosome Remodeling by Locally Synthesized Ribosomal Proteins in Axons.

Ribosome assembly occurs mainly in the nucleolus, yet recent studies have revealed robust enrichment and translation of mRNAs encoding many ribosomal proteins (RPs) in axons, far away from neuronal cell bodies. Here, we report a physical and functional interaction between locally synthesized RPs and ribosomes in the axon. We show that axonal RP translation is regulated through a sequence motif, CUIC, that forms an RNA-loop structure in the region immediately upstream of the initiation codon. Using imaging and subcellular proteomics techniques, we show that RPs synthesized in axons join axonal ribosomes in a nucleolus-independent fashion. Inhibition of axonal CUIC-regulated RP translation decreases local translation activity and reduces axon branching in the developing brain, revealing the physiological relevance of axonal RP synthesis in vivo. These results suggest that axonal translation supplies cytoplasmic RPs to maintain/modify local ribosomal function far from the nucleolus in neurons.This work was supported by Wellcome Trust Grants (085314/Z/08/Z and 203249/Z/16/Z) to C.E.H. and (100329/Z/12/Z) to W.A.H., European Research Council Advanced Grant (322817) to C.E.H., Champalimaud Vision Award to C.E.H. and by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO Rubicon 019.161LW.033) to M.K. CFK acknowledges funding from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, EPSRC (grants EP/L015889/1 and EP/H018301/1), the Wellcome Trust (grants 3-3249/Z/16/Z and 089703/Z/09/Z) and the UK Medical Research Council, MRC (grants MR/K015850/1 and MR/K02292X/1) and Infinitus (China) Ltd

Persuasion as a form of inter-agent negotiation

Agents in a multi-agent environment must often cooperate to achieve their objectives. In this paper an agent, B, cooperates with another agent, A, if B adopts a goal that furthers A's objectives in the environment. If agents are independent and motivated by their own interests, cooperation cannot be relied upon and it may be necessary for A to persuade B to adopt a cooperative goal. This paper is concerned with the organisation and construction of persuasive argument, and examines how a rational agent comes to hold a belief, and thus, how new beliefs might be engendered and existing beliefs altered, through the process of argumentation. Argument represents an opportunity for an agent to convince a possibly sceptical or resistant audience of the veracity of its own beliefs. This ability is a vital component of rich communication, facilitating explanation, instruction, cooperation and conflict resolution. An architecture is described in which a hierarchical planner is used to develop discourse plans which can be realised in natural language using the LOLITA system. Planning is concerned with the intentional, contextual and pragmatic aspects of discourse structure as well as with the logical form of the argument and its stylistic organisation. In this paper attention is restricted to the planning of persuasive discourse, or monologue