Through the Eyes of VERTa

[eng] This paper describes a practical demo of VERTa for Spanish. VERTa is an MT evaluation metric that combines linguistic features at different levels. VERTa has been developed for English and Spanish but can be easily adapted to other languages. VERTa can be used to evaluate adequacy, fluency and ranking of sentences. In this paper, VERTa's modules are described briefly, as well as its graphical interface which provides information on VERTa's performance and possible MT errors. [spa] Este artículo describe la demostración práctica de VERTa para el castellano. VERTa es una métrica de evaluación de traducción automática que combina información lingüística a diferentes niveles. VERTa ha sido desarrollada para el inglés y el castellano pero se puede adaptar fácilmente a otras lenguas. La métrica puede evaluar la adecuación, la fluidez y ranking de frases. En este artículo se describen brevemente los módulos de VERTa y su interficie gráfica, la cual proporciona información sobre el rendimiento de la métrica y posibles errores de traducción

A Través de los Ojos de VERTa

This paper describes a practical demo of VERTa for Spanish. VERTa is an MT evaluation metric that combines linguistic features at different levels. VERTa has been developed for English and Spanish but can be easily adapted to other languages. VERTa can be used to evaluate adequacy, fluency and ranking of sentences. In this paper, VERTa’s modules are described briefly, as well as its graphical interface which provides information on VERTa’s performance and possible MT errors.Este artículo describe la demostración práctica de VERTa para el castellano. VERTa es una métrica de evaluación de traducción automática que combina información lingüística a diferentes niveles. VERTa ha sido desarrollada para el inglés y el castellano pero se puede adaptar fácilmente a otras lenguas. La métrica puede evaluar la adecuación, la fluidez y ranking de frases. En este artículo se describen brevemente los módulos de VERTa y su interficie gráfica, la cual proporciona información sobre el rendimiento de la métrica y posibles errores de traducción.This work has been funded by the Spanish Government (project TUNER, TIN2015-65308-C5-1-R)

VERTa: una métrica de evaluación de la traducción automática. Aplicaciones a la investigación sobre el español y el inglés como L2

[spa] Este artículo presenta VERTa (https://github.com/jatserias/VERTa para la versión completa y http://grial.ub.edu:8080/VERTaDemo/ para la demo online en español), una métrica de evaluación de la traducción automática (TA) para el inglés y el español. VERTa es una métrica que utiliza información lingüística para evaluar frases traducidas automáticamente, a través de la comparación de dichas frases con frases traducidas por traductores humanos. A diferencia de otras métricas, VERTa proporciona no tan solo una puntuación por cada frase, sino también un análisis más cualitativo de los resultados obtenidos. El artículo analiza los pasos que se llevaron a cabo antes de diseñar e implementar la métrica: el estudio lingüístico del corpus de desarrollo para encontrar aquellas características más significativas que la métrica debía poder cubrir y las herramientas de procesamiento del texto que debían aplicarse a los segmentos comparados. Más adelante se describen los diferentes módulos que forman la métrica y la información que aportan, junto con ejemplos de la información que recibe el usuario. Aunque VERTa es una métrica de evaluación de la TA, se diferencia del resto en que durante su desarrollo se puso especial énfasis en analizar la información lingüística que debía aportar al usuario, para ir más allá de una mera puntuación del segmento traducido y poder servir como una primera guía cualitativa para detectar los errores de la traducción automática. En consecuencia, VERTa puede utilizarse en el área del aprendizaje, de la enseñanza y de la evaluación del inglés y del español como segundas lenguas y como lenguas extranjeras, así como en la investigación en este campo.[cat] Aquest article presenta VERTa (https://github.com/jatserias/VERTa per a la versió completa i http://grial.ub.edu:8080/VERTaDemo/ per a la demo online en castellà), una metrica d’avaluació de la traducció automàtica (TA) per a l’anglès i el castellà. VERTa utilitza informació lingüística per avaluar frases traduïdes automàticament, tot comparant-les amb frases traduïdes per traductors humans. A diferència d’altres mètriques, VERTa no només proporciona una puntuació per a cada frase traduïda, sinó que també fa una anàlisi més qualitativa dels resultats obtinguts. Aquest article descriu les passes que es van realitzar abans de dissenyar i implementar la mètrica: l’estudi lingüístic del corpus de desenvolupament per tal de trobar les característiques lingüístiques més rellevants que la mètrica havia de tractar i les eines de processament textual amb què s’haurien de tractar els segments comparats. A més, l’article analitza els mòduls que formen la mètrica i la informació que proporcionen, juntament amb exemples de la informació que rep l’usuari. Tot i que VERTa és una mètrica d’avaluació de la TA, es diferencia de la resta de mètriques pel fet que la informació que proporciona va més enllà d’una simple puntuació del segment avaluat i serveix com una primera guia qualitativa per detectar errors de traducció automàtica. En conseqüència, VERTa pot utilitzar-se per a l’aprenentatge, l’ensenyament i l’avaluació de l’anglès i el castellà com a segones llengües o com a llengües estrangeres, i també per a la recerca en aquesta àrea.[eng] This article presents VERTa (https://github.com/jatserias/VERTa for the full version and http://grial.ub.edu:8080/VERTaDemo/ for the Spanish online demo), a machine translation (MT) evaluation metric for English and Spanish. VERTa uses linguistic information to evaluate machine-translated sentences by comparing them with sentences translated by human translators. Unlike other metrics, VERTa provides not only a score for each sentence compared, but also a more qualitative analysis of the results obtained. This article discusses the steps carried out before designing and implementing the metric: the linguistic study of the development corpus to find the most relevant linguistic features that the metric should be able to cover, and the text processing tools to be applied to the compared segments. In addition, it details the modules included in the metric and the information they provide, together with examples of the information the user receives. Although VERTa is an MT evaluation metric, it differs from the rest in that during its development special emphasis was placed on analyzing the linguistic information it should provide to the user, thus going beyond a mere scoring of the translated segment and serving as a first qualitative guide to detect machine translation errors. Consequently, VERTa can be used for the learning, teaching and evaluation of English and Spanish as second and/or foreign languages, as well as to carry out research studies in this are

Constituency and Dependency Parsers Evaluation

This work presents the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a set of both constituency and dependency parsers which are to be used in the development of a knowledgebased automatic MT metric. Firstly, the methodology used in both types of evaluation is described; secondly, we show the results obtained, and finally we draw some conclusions

Evaluación de analizadores de constituyentes y de dependencias

El presente trabajo muestra la evaluación cuantitativa y cualitativa de un grupo de analizadores de constituyentes y de dependencias con el objetivo de ser usados en el desarrollo de una métrica automática basada en conocimiento para evaluar la salida de sistemas de traducción automática. Primero se describe la metodología seguida en ambos tipos de evaluación y a continuación se muestran los resultados obtenidos y las conclusiones alcanzadas.This work presents the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a set of both constituency and dependency parsers which are to be used in the development of a knowledge-based automatic MT metric. Firstly, the methodology used in both types of evaluation is described; secondly, we show the results obtained, and finally we draw some conclusions.This work has been funded by the Spanish Government project KNOW, TIN2009-14715-C0403

Prediction of Partition Coefficients in SDS Micelles by DFT Calculations

A computational methodology using Density-Functional Theory (DFT) calculations was developed to determine the partition coefficient of a compound in a solution of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) micelles. Different sets of DFT calculations were used to predict the free energy of a set of 63 molecules in 15 different solvents with the purpose of identifying the solvents with similar physicochemical characteristics to the studied micelles. Experimental partition coefficients were obtained from Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography (MEKC) measurements. The experimental partition coefficient of these molecules was compared with the predicted partition coefficient in heptane/water, cyclohexane/water, N-dodecane/water, pyridine/water, acetic acid/water, decan-1- ol/water, octanol/water, propan-2-ol/water, acetone/water, propan-1-ol/water, methanol/water, 1,2-ethane diol/water, dimethyl sulfoxide/water, formic acid/water, and diethyl sulphide/water systems. It is observed that the combination of pronan-1-ol/water solvent was the most appropriated to estimate the partition coefficient for SDS micelles. This approach allowed us to estimate the partition coefficient orders of magnitude faster than the classical molecular dynamics simulations. The DFT calculations were carried out with the well-known exchange correlation functional B3LYP and with the global hybrid functional M06-2X from the Minnesota functionals with 6-31++G ** basis set. The effect of solvation was considered by the continuum model based on density (SMD). The proposed workflow for the prediction rate of the participation coefficient unveiled the symmetric balance between the experimental data and the computational methods

The CPDB: a learning and teaching corpus-based methodological tool

Corpus-based methodological tools and NTICs have recently become a commonplace in the teaching-learning of SL and FL, as they allow the language learner to become aware of the complexities of real language in use. As part of a teaching innovation project, GReLiC has recently developed a database of English clause patterns. This study shows the lexico-grammatical information provided in the database as well as some of its pedagogical applications in the linguistics classroom

Joint Playback Delay and Buffer Optimization in Scalable Video Streaming

This paper addresses the problem of the transmission of scalable video streams to a set of heterogeneous clients through a common bottleneck channel. The packet scheduling policy is typically crucial in such systems that target smooth media playback at all the receivers. In particular, the playback delays and the transmission strategy for the packets of the different layers have to be chosen carefully. When the same video is sent simultaneously to multiple clients that subscribe to different parts of the stream, the playback delay cannot be jointly minimized for all the clients. We therefore propose delay optimization strategies along with low complexity solutions for a fair distribution of the delay penalty among the different receivers. Once the delays are selected, we show that there exists a unique scheduling solution that minimizes the buffer occupancy at all the receivers. We derive an algorithm for computing the optimal sending trace, and we show that optimal scheduling has to respect the order of the packets in each media layer. Interestingly enough, solving both delay and buffer optimization problems sequentially leads to a jointly optimal solution when the channel is known. We finally propose a simple rate adaptation mechanism that copes with unexpected channel bandwidth variations by controlling the sending rate and dropping layers when the bandwidth becomes insufficient. Experimental results shows that it permits to reach close to optimal performances even if the channel knowledge is reduced. Rate adaptation provides an interesting alternative to conservative scheduling strategies, providing minor and controllable quality variations, but with a higher resulting average quality

Elaboració d'un glossari sintàctico-semàntic

En projectes anteriors havíem desenvolupat una base de dades de patrons sintàctics, la Clause Pattern DB (CPDB), als quals havíem associat estructures d’arbre i de la qual hem pogut extreure àgilment informació directament relacionada amb els continguts de la matèria. Quant als beneficis pedagògics, cal destacar que aquest recurs docent està contribuint, d'una banda, a la millora i ampliació dels tipus d’exercicis dissenyats en anteriors projectes i, d'una altra, a la creació de materials didàctics, ja sigui des de la perspectiva de l'alumnat (models d’exercicis diversos com per exemple, l’ús de bases de dades, anàlisis sintàctiques amb estructures d’arbre, etc.) com des de la del professorat (eines d'avaluació d'aprenentatge i il•lustració de continguts). Arran d'aquesta innovació, detectàrem que l'alumnat de Gramàtica descriptiva I, II i III i Lexicologia i morfologia anglesa (totes quatre assignatures són obligatòries en el grau d’Estudis anglesos) mostrava certes confusions terminològiques, derivades de la manca d’homogeneïtzació terminològica en aquestes assignatures. Érem conscients que aquesta confusió terminològica incidia negativament en l'assimilació de conceptes clau, així com en les anàlisis sintàctiques que l’alumnat ha de produir a les esmentades assignatures. Ens vàrem proposar, doncs, elaborar un glossari terminològic i pilotar-lo a l’aula per determinar la seva incidència en l’aprenentatge de l’alumnat

Serological response and breakthrough infection after COVID-19 vaccination in patients with cirrhosis and post-liver transplant

BACKGROUND: Vaccine hesitancy and lack of access remain major issues in disseminating COVID-19 vaccination to liver patients globally. Factors predicting poor response to vaccination and risk of breakthrough infection are important data to target booster vaccine programs. The primary aim of the current study was to measure humoral responses to 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Secondary aims included the determination of factors predicting breakthrough infection. METHODS: COVID-19 vaccination and Biomarkers in cirrhosis And post-Liver Transplantation is a prospective, multicenter, observational case-control study. Participants were recruited at 4-10 weeks following first and second vaccine doses in cirrhosis [n = 325; 94% messenger RNA (mRNA) and 6% viral vaccine], autoimmune liver disease (AILD) (n = 120; 77% mRNA and 23% viral vaccine), post-liver transplant (LT) (n = 146; 96% mRNA and 3% viral vaccine), and healthy controls (n = 51; 72% mRNA, 24% viral and 4% heterologous combination). Serological end points were measured, and data regarding breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection were collected. RESULTS: After adjusting by age, sex, and time of sample collection, anti-Spike IgG levels were the lowest in post-LT patients compared to cirrhosis (p < 0.0001), AILD (p < 0.0001), and control (p = 0.002). Factors predicting reduced responses included older age, Child-Turcotte-Pugh B/C, and elevated IL-6 in cirrhosis; non-mRNA vaccine in AILD; and coronary artery disease, use of mycophenolate and dysregulated B-call activating factor, and lymphotoxin-α levels in LT. Incident infection occurred in 6.6%, 10.6%, 7.4%, and 15.6% of cirrhosis, AILD, post-LT, and control, respectively. The only independent factor predicting infection in cirrhosis was low albumin level. CONCLUSIONS: LT patients present the lowest response to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. In cirrhosis, the reduced response is associated with older age, stage of liver disease and systemic inflammation, and breakthrough infection with low albumin level