A Challenge Set Approach to Evaluating Machine Translation

Neural machine translation represents an exciting leap forward in translation quality. But what longstanding weaknesses does it resolve, and which remain? We address these questions with a challenge set approach to translation evaluation and error analysis. A challenge set consists of a small set of sentences, each hand-designed to probe a system's capacity to bridge a particular structural divergence between languages. To exemplify this approach, we present an English-French challenge set, and use it to analyze phrase-based and neural systems. The resulting analysis provides not only a more fine-grained picture of the strengths of neural systems, but also insight into which linguistic phenomena remain out of reach.Comment: EMNLP 2017. 28 pages, including appendix. Machine readable data included in a separate file. This version corrects typos in the challenge se

Towards an Automatic Dictation System for Translators: the TransTalk Project

Professional translators often dictate their translations orally and have them typed afterwards. The TransTalk project aims at automating the second part of this process. Its originality as a dictation system lies in the fact that both the acoustic signal produced by the translator and the source text under translation are made available to the system. Probable translations of the source text can be predicted and these predictions used to help the speech recognition system in its lexical choices. We present the results of the first prototype, which show a marked improvement in the performance of the speech recognition task when translation predictions are taken into account.Comment: Published in proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP) 94. 4 pages, uuencoded compressed latex source with 4 postscript figure

Rehabilitation for improving automobile driving after stroke

Publisher version made available in accordance with the publisher's policy. This item is under embargo for a period of 12 months from the date of publication, in accordance with the publisher's policy. 'This review is published as a Cochrane Review in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, Issue 2. Cochrane Reviews are regularly updated as new evidence emerges and in response to comments and criticisms, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews should be consulted for the most recent version of the Review.’Background Interventions to improve driving ability after stroke, incl uding driving simulation and retraining visual skills, hav e limited evaluation of their effectiveness to guide policy and practice. Objectives To determine whether any intervention, with the specific aim o f maximising driving skills, improves the driving performa nce of people after stroke. Search methods WesearchedtheCochrane Stroke GroupTrialsregister(August 2 013), theCochrane Central Registerof ControlledTrials( The Cochrane Library 2012, Issue 3), MEDLINE (1950 to October 2013), EMBASE (1980 to Octo ber 2013), and six additional databases. To identify further published, unpublished and ongoing trial s, we handsearched relevant journals and conference proceeding s, searched trials and research registers, checked reference lists and conta cted key researchers in the area. Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-randomised trials and cluster studies of rehabilitation interventions, with t he specific aim of maximising driving skills or with an outcome of assessing d riving skills in adults after stroke. The primary outcome of i nterest was the performance in an on-road assessment after training. Secon dary outcomes included assessments of vision, cognition and dr iving behaviour. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently selected trials based on pr e-defined inclusion criteria, extracted the data and assessed ri sk of bias. A third review author moderated disagreements as required. T he review authors contacted all investigators to obtain missi ng information. Main results We included four trials involving 245 participants in the revi ew. Study sample sizes were generally small, and interventi ons, controls and outcome measures varied, and thus it was inappropriate to pool studies. Included studies were at a low risk of bias for th e majority of domains, with a high/unclear risk of bias identified in the a reas of: performance (participants not blinded to allocation), a nd attrition (incomplete outcome data due to withdrawal) bias. Interventio n approaches included the contextual approach of driving simula tion and underlying skill development approach, including the ret raining of speed of visual processing and visual motor skills . The studies were conducted with people who were relatively young and the ti ming after stroke was varied. Primary outcome: there was no cle ar evidence of improved on-road scores immediately after trainin g in any of the four studies, or at six months (mean difference 15 points on the Test Ride for Investigating Practical Fitness to Drive - Belgian version, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 4.56 to 34.56, P v alue = 0.15, one study, 83 participants). Secondary outcomes: road sig n recognition was better in people who underwent training comp ared with control (mean difference 1.69 points on the Road Sign Recogn ition Task of the Stroke Driver Screening Assessment, 95% CI 0 .51 to 2.87, P value = 0.007, one study, 73 participants). Significan t findings were in favour of a simulator-based driving rehabil itation programme (based on one study with 73 participants) but these r esults should be interpreted with caution as they were based o n a single study. Adverse effects were not reported. There was insufficie nt evidence to draw conclusions on the effects on vision, other me asures of cognition, motor and functional activities, and driving beh aviour with the intervention. Authors’ conclusions There was insufficient evidence to reach conclusions about the use of rehabilitation to improve on-road driving skills after st roke. We found limited evidence that the use of a driving simulator m ay be beneficial in improving visuocognitive abilities, such as road sign recognition that are related to driving. Moreover, we we re unable to find any RCTs that evaluated on-road driving lesso ns as an intervention. At present, it is unclear which impairments tha t influence driving ability after stroke are amenable to rehab ilitation, and whether the contextual or remedial approaches, or a combinatio n of both, are more efficacious

Auditory-visual virtual reality as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool for cynophobia

International audienceTraditionally, virtual reality exposure-based treatment concentrates primarily on the presentation of a high fidelity visual experience. However, adequately combining the visual and the auditory experience provides a powerful tool to enhance sensory processing and modulate attention. We present the design and usability testing of an auditory-visual interactive environment for investigating virtual reality exposurebased treatment for cynophobia. The specificity of our application is that it involves 3D sound, allowing the presentations and spatial manipulation of a fearful stimulus in the auditory modality, in the visual modality, and both. We conducted an evaluation test with 10 dog fearful participants in order to assess the capacity of our auditory-visual virtual environment to generate fear reactions. The specific perceptual characteristics of the dog model that were implemented in the virtual environment were highly arousing, suggesting that virtual reality is a promising tool to treat cynophobia

Complex taxonomy and global phylogeography of the well-known tropical earthworm Pontoscolex corethrurus

Few earthworm species are peregrine and among them, Pontoscolex corethrurus is the most well-known. Probably native from the Guyana shield, this earthworm is nowadays distributed worldwide, in the tropical and sub-tropical zones. It is found in a wide range of habitats, from apparently pristine to any kind of human-disturbed environments. P. corethrurus presents several characteristics of a successful invader: r-strategy, parthenogenesis reproduction and ecological and reproductive plasticity. Although its ecological interactions with the environment were well documented, the taxonomic status of this earthworm was unclear. We investigated the phylogenetic relationships within the genus Pontoscolex at a global scale (25 countries), focusing on morphologically indistinguishable lineages using the mitochondrial COI and 16S markers, the nuclear ITS 2 and 28S markers and a large-scale multilocus sequence data matrix obtained using the Anchored Hybrid Enrichment (AHE) phylogenomic method. Four cryptic species were discovered within the P. corethrurus species complex and one of them, P. corethrurus L1 was particularly widespread. Although sympatry between L1, L3 and L4 was observed, no case of hybridization was detected between L1 and the two other cryptic species, confirming the status of species of P. corethrurus L1. A population genetics study of this species using COI sequences and AFLP data revealed a low mitochondrial genetic diversity and a high proportion of clones in some populations, in accordance with the principal mode of reproduction of the species (i.e., parthenogenesis). However, variable levels of genetic diversity among populations and results of gametic disequilibrium analysis suggesting recombination in several populations, confirmed a mixed-mating strategy (sexual reproduction and parthenogenesis)

Efficacy of a mosaic long-lasting insecticide net, PermaNet 3.0, against wild populations of Culex quinquefasciatus in experimental huts in Togo

PermaNet 3.0 was evaluated against Culex quinquefasciatus in experimental huts in Lomé. Endpoints were deterrence, exophily, blood feeding inhibition, and mortality. Insecticide susceptibility of Culex quinquefasciatus was assessed with permethrin (1%), DDT (4%), bendiocarb (0.1%), deltamethrin (0.5%, 0.05%), carbosulfan (0.4%), and chlorpyrifos methyl (0.4%). Total of 1,223 Cx. quinquefasciatus females were collected. PermaNet 3.0 unwashed deterred 16.84% Culex mosquitoes. After 20 washes, it deterred 5.79% mosquitoes compared to 6.84% deterrence by unwashed PermaNet 2.0. PermaNet 3.0 induced mosquitoes to exit huts 50.48% and inhibited blood feeding 70.97% in unwashed state. After 20 washes, the net induced 42.91% mosquitoes to exit and inhibited 67.06% mosquitoes from blood feeding. PermaNet 3.0 gave 76% personal protection at zero wash and 69% protection after 20 washes. The net retained 7.1% insecticidal effect in the unwashed state and after 20 washes 6.5%. Cx. quinquefasciatus was resistant to tested insecticides (6%-50% mortality). PermaNet 3.0 is a good control tool against mosquitoes. However, Cx. quinquefasciatus is less affected by PermaNet 3.0. The evaluation depicts the success of vector control innovations using pyrethroids and nonpyrethroids in combination on nets. Additional studies with Culex species are recommended to know whether the difference in blood feeding is interspecific (difference in vector behaviour) and not due to intertrial variability. (Résumé d'auteur

Prospects for Pulsar Studies at MeV Energies

Enabled by the Fermi Large Area Telescope, we now know young and recycled pulsars fill the gamma-ray sky, and we are beginning to understand their emission mechanism and their distribution throughout the Galaxy. However, key questions remain: Is there a large population of pulsars near the Galactic center? Why do the most energetic pulsars shine so brightly in MeV gamma rays but not always at GeV energies? What is the source and nature of the pair plasma in pulsar magnetospheres, and what role does the polar cap accelerator play? Addressing these questions calls for a sensitive, wide-field MeV telescope, which can detect the population of MeV-peaked pulsars hinted at by Fermi and hard X-ray telescopes and characterize their spectral shape and polarization.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Astro2020 Science White Paper submitted to the National Academies of Science

Fast Modal Sounds with Scalable Frequency-Domain Synthesis

International audienceAudio rendering of impact sounds, such as those caused by falling objects or explosion debris, adds realism to interactive 3D audiovisual applications, and can be convincingly achieved using modal sound synthesis. Unfortunately, mode-based computations can become prohibitively expensive when many objects, each with many modes, are impacted simultaneously. We introduce a fast sound synthesis approach, based on short-time Fourier Tranforms, that exploits the inherent sparsity of modal sounds in the frequency domain. For our test scenes, this "fast mode summation" can give speedups of 5-8 times compared to a time-domain solution, with slight degradation in quality. We discuss different reconstruction windows, affecting the quality of impact sound "attacks". Our Fourier-domain processing method allows us to introduce a scalable, real-time, audio processing pipeline for both recorded and modal sounds, with auditory masking and sound source clustering. To avoid abrupt computation peaks, such as during the simultaneous impacts of an explosion, we use crossmodal perception results on audiovisual synchrony to effect temporal scheduling. We also conducted a pilot perceptual user evaluation of our method. Our implementation results show that we can treat complex audiovisual scenes in real time with high quality

Model evaluation and ensemble modelling of surface-level ozone in Europe and North America in the context of AQMEII

More than ten state-of-the-art regional air quality models have been applied as part of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII). These models were run by twenty independent groups in Europe and North America. Standardised modelling outputs over a full year (2006) from each group have been shared on the web-distributed ENSEMBLE system, which allows for statistical and ensemble analyses to be performed by each group. The estimated ground-level ozone mixing ratios from the models are collectively examined in an ensemble fashion and evaluated against a large set of observations from both continents. The scale of the exercise is unprecedented and offers a unique opportunity to investigate methodologies for generating skilful ensembles of regional air quality models outputs. Despite the remarkable progress of ensemble air quality modelling over the past decade, there are still outstanding questions regarding this technique. Among them, what is the best and most beneficial way to build an ensemble of members? And how should the optimum size of the ensemble be determined in order to capture data variability as well as keeping the error low? These questions are addressed here by looking at optimal ensemble size and quality of the members. The analysis carried out is based on systematic minimization of the model error and is important for performing diagnostic/probabilistic model evaluation. It is shown that the most commonly used multi-model approach, namely the average over all available members, can be outperformed by subsets of members optimally selected in terms of bias, error, and correlation. More importantly, this result does not strictly depend on the skill of the individual members, but may require the inclusion of low-ranking skill-score members. A clustering methodology is applied to discern among members and to build a skilful ensemble based on model association and data clustering, which makes no use of priori knowledge of model skill. Results show that, while the methodology needs further refinement, by optimally selecting the cluster distance and association criteria, this approach can be useful for model applications beyond those strictly related to model evaluation, such as air quality forecasting. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

A key to the species of Keetia (Rubiaceae: Vanguerieae) in West Africa, with three new, threatened species from Guinea and Ivory Coast

Keetia susu Cheek and K. futa Cheek from the Republic of Guinea, and K. abouabou Cheek from Ivory Coast are described here. Each species is assessed using the IUCN standard as, respectively, Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered. Each species is illustrated and mapped. A key to the 16 species of Keetia in West Africa (Senegal to Benin) is provided. The number of species of Keetia currently accepted is now known to total 35