1,707 research outputs found
Eyebrow movements as signals of communicative problems in human face-to-face interaction
Repair is a core building block of human communication, allowing us to address problems of understanding in conversation. Past research has uncovered the basic mechanisms by which interactants signal and solve such problems. However, the focus has been on verbal interaction, neglecting the fact that human communication is inherently multimodal. Here, we focus on a visual signal particularly prevalent in signaling problems of understanding: eyebrow frowns and raises. We present a corpus study showing that verbal repair initiations with eyebrow furrows are more likely to be responded to with clarifications as repair solutions, repair initiations that were preceded by eyebrow actions as preliminaries get repaired faster (around 230 ms), and eyebrow furrows alone can be sufficient to occasion clarification. We also present an experiment based on virtual reality technology, revealing that addresseesâ eyebrow frowns have a striking effect on speakersâ speech, leading them to produce answers to questions several seconds longer than when not perceiving addressee eyebrow furrows. Together, the findings demonstrate that eyebrow movements play a communicative role in initiating repair in spoken language rather than being merely epiphenomenal. Thus, they should be considered as core coordination devices in human conversational interaction
The Inverse Shapley Value Problem
For a weighted voting scheme used by voters to choose between two
candidates, the \emph{Shapley-Shubik Indices} (or {\em Shapley values}) of
provide a measure of how much control each voter can exert over the overall
outcome of the vote. Shapley-Shubik indices were introduced by Lloyd Shapley
and Martin Shubik in 1954 \cite{SS54} and are widely studied in social choice
theory as a measure of the "influence" of voters. The \emph{Inverse Shapley
Value Problem} is the problem of designing a weighted voting scheme which
(approximately) achieves a desired input vector of values for the
Shapley-Shubik indices. Despite much interest in this problem no provably
correct and efficient algorithm was known prior to our work.
We give the first efficient algorithm with provable performance guarantees
for the Inverse Shapley Value Problem. For any constant \eps > 0 our
algorithm runs in fixed poly time (the degree of the polynomial is
independent of \eps) and has the following performance guarantee: given as
input a vector of desired Shapley values, if any "reasonable" weighted voting
scheme (roughly, one in which the threshold is not too skewed) approximately
matches the desired vector of values to within some small error, then our
algorithm explicitly outputs a weighted voting scheme that achieves this vector
of Shapley values to within error \eps. If there is a "reasonable" voting
scheme in which all voting weights are integers at most \poly(n) that
approximately achieves the desired Shapley values, then our algorithm runs in
time \poly(n) and outputs a weighted voting scheme that achieves the target
vector of Shapley values to within error $\eps=n^{-1/8}.
The Role of Hypothyroidism in the Etiology and Progression of Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Doberman Pinschers
Background: Hypothyroidism and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) are both common diseases in Doberman Pinschers. A possible influence of hypothyroidism on the etiology and progression of DCM is controversial.
Objectives: Evaluation of the role of hypothyroidism in etiology and progression of DCM.
Animals: A total of 175 Doberman Pinschers.
Methods: In this longitudinal prospective study, echocardiography and 24-hour ambulatory ECG recordings were performed in all dogs as screening tests for DCM. Total thyroxine (TT4) and thyroid ultrasonography served as initial screening tests for hypothyroidism and low TT4 values were followed up by a thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) test or free total thyroxine (fT4)/cTSH measurements. Additionally, a follow-up study of dogs affected by both DCM and hypothyroidism under optimal treatment for hypothyroidism was conducted.
Results: A total of 107 dogs were healthy, 45 dogs had DCM, 11 hypothyroidism, and 12 dogs had both DCM and hypothyroidism. TT4 values as well as the thyroid volumes were equivalent in the healthy dogs and in those with DCM. Neither ventricular premature complexes nor echocardiographic parameters differed between healthy and hypothyroid dogs. Dogs with DCM had a 2.26-fold (CI0.95 = 1.1â4.8) higher risk of also being affected by hypothyroidism. Despite optimal thyroid treatment of dogs with hypothyroidism and DCM, there was a progression of the heart disease.
Conclusions and Clinical Importance: This study did not confirm a role of hypothyroidism in the etiology or progression of DCM. Treatment of hypothyroidism did not improve the clinical outcome
The Role of Hypothyroidism in the Etiology and Progression of Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Doberman Pinschers
Background: Hypothyroidism and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) are both common diseases in Doberman Pinschers. A possible influence of hypothyroidism on the etiology and progression of DCM is controversial.
Objectives: Evaluation of the role of hypothyroidism in etiology and progression of DCM.
Animals: A total of 175 Doberman Pinschers.
Methods: In this longitudinal prospective study, echocardiography and 24-hour ambulatory ECG recordings were performed in all dogs as screening tests for DCM. Total thyroxine (TT4) and thyroid ultrasonography served as initial screening tests for hypothyroidism and low TT4 values were followed up by a thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) test or free total thyroxine (fT4)/cTSH measurements. Additionally, a follow-up study of dogs affected by both DCM and hypothyroidism under optimal treatment for hypothyroidism was conducted.
Results: A total of 107 dogs were healthy, 45 dogs had DCM, 11 hypothyroidism, and 12 dogs had both DCM and hypothyroidism. TT4 values as well as the thyroid volumes were equivalent in the healthy dogs and in those with DCM. Neither ventricular premature complexes nor echocardiographic parameters differed between healthy and hypothyroid dogs. Dogs with DCM had a 2.26-fold (CI0.95 = 1.1â4.8) higher risk of also being affected by hypothyroidism. Despite optimal thyroid treatment of dogs with hypothyroidism and DCM, there was a progression of the heart disease.
Conclusions and Clinical Importance: This study did not confirm a role of hypothyroidism in the etiology or progression of DCM. Treatment of hypothyroidism did not improve the clinical outcome
The influence of gaze direction on the comprehension of speech and gesture in triadic communication
Human face-to-face communication is a multi-modal activity. Recent research has shown that, during comprehension, recipients integrate information from speech with that contained in co-speech gestures (e.g., Kelly et al., 2010). The current studies take this research one step further by investigating the influence of another modality, namely eye gaze, on speech and gesture comprehension, to advance our understanding of language processing in more situated contexts. In spite of the large body of literature on processing of eye gaze, very few studies have investigated its processing in the context of communication (but see, e.g., Staudte & Crocker, 2011 for an exception). In two studies we simulated a triadic communication context in which a speaker alternated their gaze between our participant and another (alleged) participant. Participants thus viewed speech-only or speech + gesture utterances either in the role of addressee (direct gaze) or in the role of unaddressed recipient (averted gaze). In Study 1, participants (N = 32) viewed video-clips of a speaker producing speech-only (e.g. âshe trained the horseâ) or speech+gesture utterances conveying complementary information (e.g. âshe trained the horseâ+WHIPPING gesture). Participants were asked to judge whether a word displayed on screen after each video-clip matched what the speaker said or not. In half of the cases, the word matched a previously uttered word, requiring a âyesâ answer. In all other cases, the word matched the meaning of the gesture the actor had performed, thus requiring a ânoâ answer
Spectral signature of short attosecond pulse trains
We report experimental measurements of high-order harmonic spectra generated
in Ar using a carrier-envelope-offset (CEO) stabilized 12 fs, 800nm laser field
and a fraction (less than 10%) of its second harmonic. Additional spectral
peaks are observed between the harmonic peaks, which are due to interferences
between multiple pulses in the train. The position of these peaks varies with
the CEO and their number is directly related to the number of pulses in the
train. An analytical model, as well as numerical simulations, support our
interpretation
Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S. Phase II
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) phase I instrument was an
array of four mirror area Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov
Telescopes (IACTs) that has very successfully mapped the sky at photon energies
above GeV. Recently, a telescope was added to
the centre of the existing array, which can be operated either in standalone
mode or jointly with the four smaller telescopes. The large telescope lowers
the energy threshold for gamma-ray observations to several tens of GeV, making
the array sensitive at energies where the Fermi-LAT instrument runs out of
statistics. At the same time, the new telescope makes the H.E.S.S. phase II
instrument. This is the first hybrid IACT array, as it operates telescopes of
different size (and hence different trigger rates) and different field of view.
In this contribution we present results of H.E.S.S. phase II observations of
the Crab Nebula, compare them to earlier observations, and evaluate the
performance of the new instrument with Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference
(ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherland
Synthesizing Program Input Grammars
We present an algorithm for synthesizing a context-free grammar encoding the
language of valid program inputs from a set of input examples and blackbox
access to the program. Our algorithm addresses shortcomings of existing grammar
inference algorithms, which both severely overgeneralize and are prohibitively
slow. Our implementation, GLADE, leverages the grammar synthesized by our
algorithm to fuzz test programs with structured inputs. We show that GLADE
substantially increases the incremental coverage on valid inputs compared to
two baseline fuzzers
Dynamic Many-Body Theory. II. Dynamics of Strongly Correlated Fermi Fluids
We develop a systematic theory of multi-particle excitations in strongly
interacting Fermi systems. Our work is the generalization of the time-honored
work by Jackson, Feenberg, and Campbell for bosons, that provides, in its most
advanced implementation, quantitative predictions for the dynamic structure
function in the whole experimentally accessible energy/momentum regime. Our
view is that the same physical effects -- namely fluctuations of the wave
function at an atomic length scale -- are responsible for the correct
energetics of the excitations in both Bose and Fermi fluids. Besides a
comprehensive derivation of the fermion version of the theory and discussion of
the approximations made, we present results for homogeneous He-3 and electrons
in three dimensions. We find indeed a significant lowering of the zero sound
mode in He-3 and a broadening of the collective mode due to the coupling to
particle-hole excitations in good agreement with experiments. The most visible
effect in electronic systems is the appearance of a ``double-plasmon''
excitation.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.
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