Evaluating Gender Bias in Speech Translation

The scientific community is increasingly aware of the necessity to embrace pluralism and consistently represent major and minor social groups. Currently, there are no standard evaluation techniques for different types of biases. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to provide evaluation sets and protocols to measure existing biases in our automatic systems. Evaluating the biases should be an essential step towards mitigating them in the systems. This paper introduces WinoST, a new freely available challenge set for evaluating gender bias in speech translation. WinoST is the speech version of WinoMT which is a MT challenge set and both follow an evaluation protocol to measure gender accuracy. Using a state-of-the-art end-to-end speech translation system, we report the gender bias evaluation on four language pairs and we show that gender accuracy in speech translation is more than 23% lower than in MT.Comment: Preprin

Time-dependent reduction of structural complexity of the buccal epithelial cell nuclei after treatment with silver nanoparticles

Recent studies have suggested that silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) may affect cell DNA structure in in vitro conditions. In this paper, we present the results indicating that AgNPs change nuclear complexity properties in isolated human epithelial buccal cells in a time-dependent manner. Epithelial buccal cells were plated in special tissue culture chamber / slides and were kept at 37°C in an RPMI 1640 cell culture medium supplemented with L-glutamine. The cells were treated with colloidal silver nanoparticles suspended in RPMI 1640 medium at the concentration 15 mg L−1. Digital micrographs of the cell nuclei in a sample of 30 cells were created at five different time steps: before the treatment (controls), immediately after the treatment, as well as 15 , 30 and 60 min after the treatment with AgNPs. For each nuclear structure, values of fractal dimension, lacunarity, circularity, as well as parameters of grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) texture, were determined. The results indicate time-dependent reduction of structural complexity in the cell nuclei after the contact with AgNPs. These findings further suggest that AgNPs, at concentrations present in today's over-the-counter drug products, might have significant effects on the cell genetic material

Experts react: Catalan elections

Catalonia held elections on 27 September, with the poll being framed by several parties as a de facto vote on Catalan independence. The final result produced a majority of seats in the Catalan Parliament for pro-independence parties, with these parties securing 47.8 per cent of the votes cast. We asked some of EUROPP’s contributors for their reaction to the result and what it means for Catalonia and Spain going forward. Jonathan Hopkin: “The elections have produced a very complex outcome” Luis Moreno: “The Spanish elections in December will be crucial in determining what happens next” Alejandro Quiroga: “Artur Mas might have more pressing issues than the declaration of independence in the short term” Jose Javier Olivas: “Unilateral solutions, even when they seek to impose the ‘will of the majority’, are unlikely to deliver satisfactory results in the long run” Karlo Basta: “All sides have at least some leverage, and the true commitments of none are fully known, confounding any reliable predictions” Joan Costa Font: “The independence cause has attained an exceptional result, now it is time to either negotiate a referendum or, failing this, prepare for an orderly break up“ Mireia Borrell Porta: “A referendum has now become unavoidable

Nutrition Anemia and Physical Endurance Among Civil Construction Workers

Penyelidikan ini adalah untuk membuktikan suatu hypothesa bahwa ada pengaruh dari keadaan gizi dan kesehatan terhadap kemampuan bekerja para pekerja. Sejumlah 571 pekerja laki-laki telah dipilih dari tiga daerah tempat bekerja yaitu : Rentang, Seladarma (pembuatan canalj Halim Perdanakusuma (pembuatan lapangan terbang) Didapatkan bahwa seluruh pekerja mempunyai nilai gizi yang borderline dan tidak ada perbedaan didalam keadaan fisik mereka, namun masih terdapat rata-rata 30 percent menderita anemia. Anemia banyak disertai dengan rendahnya kadar Iron darah pada pekerja di Rentang dan Seladarma hal ini tidak terdapat pada pekerja di Halim. (Table 4). Mengenai infeksi cacing terutama cacing tambang maka diseluruh pekerja menderita infeksi cacing tersebut tingkat pertama yaitu infeksi ringan yang tidak akan mempengaruhi keadaan fisik kecuali hanya kekurangan Iron didalam darah. Untuk mengetahui kemampuan bekerja maka telah dipakai Harvard Step Test Scores selama 5 menit. Dan ternyata bila pekerja-pekerja tersebut dibagi dua group yaitu yang diatas dan yang dibawah nilai Hb. 11 Gm/100 ml maka terdapat perbedaan yang menyolok sekali atas kemampuan pekerja tersebut didalam melakukan test fisik. Hal ini sesuai dengan penyelidikan Veteri. Perlu juga disini diketahui bahwa pekerja berasal dari Rentang dan Seladarma lebih banyak menggunakan tenaga kaki oleh karena selalu naik dan turun canal. Kesimpulan penyelidikan ini adalah adanya pengaruh yang positip antara faktor makanan dan infeksi cacing dengan kemampuan bekerja yang dewasa ini amat diperlukan didalam pembangunan negara

Bayesian Best-Arm Identification for Selecting Influenza Mitigation Strategies

Pandemic influenza has the epidemic potential to kill millions of people. While various preventive measures exist (i.a., vaccination and school closures), deciding on strategies that lead to their most effective and efficient use remains challenging. To this end, individual-based epidemiological models are essential to assist decision makers in determining the best strategy to curb epidemic spread. However, individual-based models are computationally intensive and it is therefore pivotal to identify the optimal strategy using a minimal amount of model evaluations. Additionally, as epidemiological modeling experiments need to be planned, a computational budget needs to be specified a priori. Consequently, we present a new sampling technique to optimize the evaluation of preventive strategies using fixed budget best-arm identification algorithms. We use epidemiological modeling theory to derive knowledge about the reward distribution which we exploit using Bayesian best-arm identification algorithms (i.e., Top-two Thompson sampling and BayesGap). We evaluate these algorithms in a realistic experimental setting and demonstrate that it is possible to identify the optimal strategy using only a limited number of model evaluations, i.e., 2-to-3 times faster compared to the uniform sampling method, the predominant technique used for epidemiological decision making in the literature. Finally, we contribute and evaluate a statistic for Top-two Thompson sampling to inform the decision makers about the confidence of an arm recommendation

Polycystic kidney disease--autopsy review from the period 1987-2007

INTRODUCTION: Polycystic kidney disease is an inherited kidney disease that affects both kidneys and it is characterized by diffuse replacement of renal parenchyma by thousands of microcysts. In time, renal insufficiency develops. There are two forms of PKD: ADPKD, which is detected in adults (children are rarely affected), and ARPK, which is detected in neonates (later presentations do occur, but rarely). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyse frequency of polycystic kidney disease, clinical data and morphological characteristics. METHOD: At the Institute of Pathology, School of Medicine, Belgrade, there were detected 33 cases of ADPKD and 20 cases of ARPKD between 1987 and 2007. RESULTS: There were no differences between incidence of ADPKD in males and females. Average age of patients with ADPKD was 52 years. In 20 (66.7%) cases of ADPKD there were neither extrarenal cysts nor extrarenal manifestations detected. In other 13 cases, we detected extrarenal cysts: hepatic cysts in 8 cases, pancreatic cysts in 5 cases. In two cases, hepatic cysts were associated with intracranial (arachnoid cysts) and extracranial aneurysms. The most frequent cause of death in patients with ADPKD was end-stage disease. ARPKD affects more often male children compared to female. 70% of children with ARPKD were male. The mean age of patients with ARPKD was 1 month. 5 patients (40%) had hepatic fibrosis. The most frequent cause of death was respiratory insufficiency (75%). In 25% of patients, the cause of death was sepsis and renal insufficiency. CONCLUSION: Morphological and clinical manifestations of the analysed cases of both types of PKD are fairly consistent with literature data. Better knowing of aethiopathogenesis of PKD will facilitate early diagnosis, based on clinical and morphological characteristics and better management of the disease

Dementia as a source of social disadvantage and exclusion

Objective To explore perceptions of the impacts of dementia on people living with the condition and those close to them and examine the relationship between dementia, disadvantage and social exclusion. Methods Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 111 participants: people with dementia (n = 19), carers (n = 28), health-care professionals (n = 21), social workers (n = 23) and service professionals (n = 20). NVivo 11 was used to code descriptions and identify impact areas. Results Participants described social, psychological, carer, material, service-based and disparity impacts associated with the experience of dementia. Some of these impacts correspond to social exclusion associated with age, but some are distinctive to dementia. Discussion It is argued that dementia generates its own forms of social disadvantage and exclusion. This is in addition to being subject to structural risk factors. The implications of the active effects of dementia as a social phenomenon should give rise to new policy and practice priorities.Peer reviewe