Computational support for early elicitation and classification of tone

Investigating a tone language involves careful transcription of tone on words and phrases. This is challenging when the phonological categories – the tones or melodies – have not been identified. Effects such as coarticulation, sandhi, and phrase-level prosody appear as obstacles to early elicitation and classification of tone. This article presents open source software that can assist with solving this problem. Users listen to words and phrases of interest, before grouping them into clusters having the same tonal properties. In this manner, it is possible to quickly annotate words of interest in extended recordings, and compare items that may be widely separated in the source audio to obtain consistent labelling. Users have reported that it is possible to train one’s ear to pick up on the linguistically salient distinctions. The approach is illustrated with data from Eastern Chatino (Mexico) and Alekano (Papua New Guinea). *This paper is in the series How to Study a Tone Language, edited by Steven Bird and Larry HymanNational Foreign Language Resource Cente

Extending xpath to support linguistic queries

Linguistic research and language technology development employ large repositories of ordered trees. XML, a standard ordered tree model, and XPath, its associated language, are natural choices for linguistic data storage and queries. However, several important expressive features required for linguistic queries are missing in XPath. In this paper, we motivate and illustrate these features with a variety of linguistic queries. Then we define extensions to XPath which support linguistic tree queries, and describe an efficient query engine based on a novel labeling scheme. Experiments demonstrate that our language is not only sufficiently expressive for linguistic trees but also efficient for practical usage. 1

Graphical query for linguistic treebanks

Databases of hierarchically annotated text occupy a central place in linguistic research and language technology development. We describe a new approach to tree query which we call "Query by Annotation". Users express a query by annotating a tree, and the annotation is compiled into an expression in a path language. The result trees are overlaid with the original query, permitting the user to see why they match. Since queries and results are annotated trees, users can easily refine and resubmit their queries. The approach to Query by Annotation is motivated and exemplified using databases of linguistic trees, or treebanks.September 200

Designing and evaluating an XPath dialect for linguistic queries

Linguistic research and natural language processing employ large repositories of ordered trees. XML, a standard ordered tree model, and XPath, its associated language, are natural choices for linguistic data and queries. However, several important expressive features required for linguistic queries are missing or hard to express in XPath. In this paper, we motivate and illustrate these features with a variety of linguistic queries. Then we propose extensions to XPath to support linguistic queries, and design an efficient query engine based on a novel labeling scheme. Experiments demonstrate that our language is not only sufficiently expressive for linguistic trees but also efficient for practical usage.

Potential Therapeutic Applications of Bee Venom on Skin Disease and Its Mechanisms: A Literature Review

Skin is larger than any other organ in humans. Like other organs, various bacterial, viral, and inflammatory diseases, as well as cancer, affect the skin. Skin diseases like acne, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis often reduce the quality of life seriously. Therefore, effective treatment of skin disorders is important despite them not being life-threatening. Conventional medicines for skin diseases include corticosteroids and antimicrobial drugs, which are effective in treating many inflammatory and infectious skin diseases; however, there are growing concerns about the side effects of these therapies, especially during long-term use in relapsing or intractable diseases. Hence, many researchers are trying to develop alternative treatments, especially from natural sources, to resolve these limitations. Bee venom (BV) is an attractive candidate because many experimental and clinical reports show that BV exhibits anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, anti-fibrotic, antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and anticancer effects. Here, we review the therapeutic applications of BV in skin diseases, including acne, alopecia, atopic dermatitis, melanoma, morphea, photoaging, psoriasis, wounds, wrinkles, and vitiligo. Moreover, we explore the therapeutic mechanisms of BV in the treatment of skin diseases and killing effects of BV on skin disease-causing pathogens, including bacteria, fungi and viruses

Collaborative language documentation with networked smartphones

Aikuma is an Android app for collecting and sharing recordings and phrase-aligned commentaries, including respeakings and translations. Recordings are automatically synchronised between phones. A new web-based transcriber app permits a user to keyboard a transcription and a translation while listening to the source audio along with any available commentaries. These transcriptions are saved back to the phone and automatically synchronised to the other phones, for time-aligned playback. We will demonstrate the software and report on recent field experience