Structural Descriptions in Human-Assisted Robot Visual Learning

The paper presents an approach to using structural descriptions, obtained through a human-robot tutoring dialogue, as labels for the visual object models a robot learns. The paper shows how structural descriptions enable relating models for different aspects of one and the same object, and how being able to relate descriptions for visual models and discourse referents enables incremental updating of model descriptions through dialogue (either robot- or human-initiated). The approach has been implemented in an integrated architecture for human-assisted robot visual learning

A Context-Dependent Model of Proximity in Physically Situated Environments

The paper presents a computational model for a context-dependent analysis of a physical environment in terms of spatial proximity. The model provides a basis for grounding linguistic analyses of spatial expressions in visual perception. The model uses potential fields to model spatial proximity. It has been implemented, and when combined with a handcrafted grammar, is used to enable a conversational robot to carry out a situated dialogue with a human. The key concept in our approach is defining the region that is proximal to a landmark based on the spatial configuration of other objects in the scene. The model extends existing approaches to proximity by including object salience (visual, discourse) and interference effects between multiple objects that could act as landmarks. Theoretically, the model can help motivate the choice between topological and projective prepositions, and provides a basis for defining regions with vague spatial extent

To appear, AAAI-07, Integrated Intelligence Track 1 An Integrated Robotic System for Spatial Understanding and Situated Interaction in Indoor Environments

A major challenge in robotics and artificial intelligence lies in creating robots that are to cooperate with people in human-populated environments, e.g. for domestic assistance or elderly care. Such robots need skills that allow them to interact with the world and the humans living and working therein. In this paper we investigate the question of spatial understanding of human-made environments. The functionalities of our system comprise perception of the world, natural language, learning, and reasoning. For this purpose we integrate state-of-the-art components from different disciplines in AI, robotics and cognitive systems into a mobile robot system. The work focuses on the description of the principles we used for the integration, including cross-modal integration, ontology-based mediation, and multiple levels of abstraction of perception. Finally, we present experiments with the integrated “CoSy Explorer ” 1 system and list some of the major lessons that were learned from its design, implementation, and evaluation

Robot George: interactive continuous learning of visual concepts

The video presents the robot George learning visual concepts in dialogue with a tuto

Circulating tumor cell enumeration and characterization in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients treated with cabazitaxel

(1) Background: Markers identifying which patients with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) will benefit from cabazitaxel therapy are currently lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify markers associated with outcome to cabazitaxel therapy based on counts and gene expression profiles of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). (2) Methods: From 120 mCRPC patients, CellSearch enriched CTCs were obtained at baseline and after 6 weeks of cabazitaxel therapy. Furthermore, 91 genes associated with prostate cancer were measured in mRNA of these CTCs. (3) Results: In 114 mCRPC patients with an evaluable CTC count, the CTC count was independently associated with poor progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in multivariable analysis with other commonly used variables associated with outcome in mCRPC (age, prostate specific antigen (PSA), alkaline phosphatase, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), albumin, hemoglobin), together with alkaline phosphatase and hemoglobin. A five-gene expression profile was generated to predict for outcome to cabazitaxel therapy. However, even though this signature was associated with OS in univariate analysis, this was not the case in the multivariate analysis for OS nor for PFS. (4) Conclusion: The established five-gene expression profile in CTCs was not independently associated with PFS nor OS. However, along with alkaline phosphatase and hemoglobin, CTC-count is independently associated with PFS and OS in mCRPC patients who are treated with cabazitaxel

Contextually Appropriate Ordering of Nominal Expressions

algorithm for word order Given: a list G of ordering constraints imposed by the grammar, a list L1 of constituents that need to be ordered, a list Delta giving ordering of CB constituents, create empty lists LC and LN % LC for CB items, LN for NB items repeat for each element E in L1 if E is CB, then add E into LC, else add E into LN. if the verb is CB, then Order the verb at the end of LC Order the remainder according to D else Order all elements in LC according to D % thus, if e precedes f in D, then e precedes f in LC except for the verb. if G is not empty then Order elements in L1 using ordering constraints in G The proposed ordering algorithm as such is the same for all the three languages under consideration. What may di#er is first of all the systemic ordering, and therefore the default ordering of non-bound elements. Further di#erences between the languages are encountered in the constraints on which elements can be ordered rather freely and which elements are subject to order..

DiscourseLevel Annotation for Investigating Information Structure

We present discourse-level annotation of newspaper texts in German and English, as part of an ongoing project aimed at investigating information structure from a cross-linguistic perspective. Rather than annotating some specific notion of information structure, we propose a theory-neutral annotation of basic features at the levels of syntax, prosody and discourse, using treebank data as a starting point. Our discourse-level annotation scheme covers properties of discourse referents (e.g., semantic sort, delimitation, quantification, familiarity status) and anaphoric links (coreference and bridging). We illustrate what investigations this data serves and discuss some integration issues involved in combining different levels of stand-off annotations, created by using different tools.