Design, development and field evaluation of a Spanish into sign language translation system

This paper describes the design, development and field evaluation of a machine translation system from Spanish to Spanish Sign Language (LSE: Lengua de Signos Española). The developed system focuses on helping Deaf people when they want to renew their Driver’s License. The system is made up of a speech recognizer (for decoding the spoken utterance into a word sequence), a natural language translator (for converting a word sequence into a sequence of signs belonging to the sign language), and a 3D avatar animation module (for playing back the signs). For the natural language translator, three technological approaches have been implemented and evaluated: an example-based strategy, a rule-based translation method and a statistical translator. For the final version, the implemented language translator combines all the alternatives into a hierarchical structure. This paper includes a detailed description of the field evaluation. This evaluation was carried out in the Local Traffic Office in Toledo involving real government employees and Deaf people. The evaluation includes objective measurements from the system and subjective information from questionnaires. The paper details the main problems found and a discussion on how to solve them (some of them specific for LSE)

AMIC: Affective multimedia analytics with inclusive and natural communication

Traditionally, textual content has been the main source of information extraction and indexing, and other technologies that are capable of extracting information from the audio and video of multimedia documents have joined later. Other major axis of analysis is the emotional and affective aspect intrinsic in human communication. This information of emotions, stances, preferences, figurative language, irony, sarcasm, etc. is fundamental and irreplaceable for a complete understanding of the content in conversations, speeches, debates, discussions, etc. The objective of this project is focused on advancing, developing and improving speech and language technologies as well as image and video technologies in the analysis of multimedia content adding to this analysis the extraction of affective-emotional information. As additional steps forward, we will advance in the methodologies and ways for presenting the information to the user, working on technologies for language simplification, automatic reports and summary generation, emotional speech synthesis and natural and inclusive interaction

Treatment with interferon-alpha delays disease in swine infected with a highly virulent CSFV strain

AbstractInterferon-alpha (IFNα) can effectively inhibit or abort a viral infection within the host. It has been reported that IFN induction and production is hindered during classical swine fever virus (CSFV) infection. Most of those studies have been performed in vitro, making it difficult to elucidate the actual role of IFNs during CSFV infection in swine. Here, we report the effect of IFNα treatment (delivered by a replication defective recombinant human adenovirus type 5, Ad5) in swine experimentally infected with highly virulent CSFV strain Brescia. Treatment with two different subtypes of IFNα delayed the appearance of CSF-related clinical signs and virus replication although it did not prevent lethal disease. This is the first report describing the effect of IFNα treatment during CSFV infection in swine

Detection of antibodies to denatured human leucocyte antigen molecules by single antigen Luminex

The anti-HLA antibody detection has been improved in sensitivity and specificity with solid-phase antigen bead (SAB) assays based on Luminex. However, false positive results due to denatured HLA (dHLA) may arise after single antigen test. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the two Luminex technology-based anti-HLA detection kits available in the market in showing undesired anti-HLA antibody results. A prospective cohort was assessed for anti-HLA antibodies with single antigen A manufacturer (AM) kit and a comparison cohort with single antigen B manufacturer (BM) kit. A total of 11 out of 90 patients in a prospective cohort presented monospecific HLA-I antibodies with AM, and 5 out of 11 confirmed monospecific reaction with BM. Despite the confirmation of monospecific reaction with both manufacturers, 80% were assigned as dHLA reaction by specific crossmatch. Further comparative cohorts detected four out of six monospecific reactions with BM that were confirmed as possible dHLA reactions. A positive SAB test should rule out a reaction against a dHLA molecule, thus avoidance of prolonged waitlist periods or misattribution of anti-HLA reactions after transplantation

LEARNING OF THE OBJECT ORIENTED PARADIGM THROUGH INTERACTIVE VIDEO-GAMES DEVELOPMENT

Abstract The Object Orientation Paradigm (OOP) is more than Object Oriented languages. Learning the syntax of a language as C++ or Java is a relatively easy task compared with the understanding of the principles of OO Modeling and Design (OOD), which require a high ability of abstract reasoning. Moreover, it is not enough to teach the artifacts of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) as the Unified Modeling Language (UML) if those principles are not properly understood. We wanted to engage the students in a motivating framework, so both the principles of OOD are properly acquired and put in practice with CASE and programming tools. We found the ideal framework in the development of videogames. Most students are familiar with (even attracted by) them. The existence of powerful yet simple 3D graphical libraries as OpenGL and the portable Window Manager (GLUT), makes very easy the development of quite attractive 3D applications, so the real effort can be done in the OOP. There are two types of games: those with physical simulations (first person shooters, car race, arcade games) and those with logical or reasoning (chess, 4 on a line, etc). Though the second type is interesting, physical systems can be more easily understood and modeled under OOP, because the software and design objects have an equivalent counterpart in the real world. Furthermore physical systems have the added benefit of involving kinematics, dynamics, math, and other disciplines very interesting for the engineering student. At Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, we teach Industrial Informatics which covers both the topics of C++ programming and OOP, starting from a basic knowledge of C language. The subject is taught with 3 hours of C++ theory, 2 hours of OOP theory and 2 hours of practice per week, along a semester, plus a compulsory assignment to be accomplished by the students. We decided to propose the development of a video-game to be carried out along the semester, by groups consisting of two students. Taking into account the required effort, we also decide to restructure the subject around this idea. The practical lessons have been completely modified, leading the student from one practical lesson to the next one in an incremental development of a typical arcade videogame: Pang, in which a player shoots to balls bouncing around the screen. Our focus is the OOP: the application is iteratively built following OOP principles: object creation and destruction, object interaction, relations between classes, GRASP and GOF software patterns, etc. CASE tools and UML are constantly used in this process, in order to support the ideas that motivate our final implementation. The theory and tutorial hours have been also affected: The tutorial time has highly increased, basically overwhelming our capacity. This fact also contributes to the actual understanding of the subject. The theory lessons find the support on the video-games development and practical lessons, making easier for the students to understand the abstract ideas explained in class. We are convinced about the effectiveness of our approach. The motivation of the students has become clearly visible, both in the tutorial lessons and in the high quality of the developed games. The students' grades have clearly improved, not only because of the contribution of the good grades of the game assignment, but also because the understanding of the concepts and the increase of hours dedicated to practical developments

Certifying Solvers for Clique and Maximum Common (Connected) Subgraph Problems

An algorithm is said to be certifying if it outputs, together with a solution to the problem it solves, a proof that this solution is correct. We explain how state of the art maximum clique, maximum weighted clique, maximal clique enumeration and maximum common (connected) induced subgraph algorithms can be turned into certifying solvers by using pseudo-Boolean models and cutting planes proofs, and demonstrate that this approach can also handle reductions between problems. The generality of our results suggests that this method is ready for widespread adoption in solvers for combinatorial graph problems

Fireballs recorded between May and July 2021 by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network

This work focuses on the analysis of the most remarkable bolides recorded over the Iberian Peninsula and neighboring areas in the framework of the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) and the SMART project. These events were spotted from May to July 2021.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project PID2019-105797GB-I00).State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709).Spanish grant AYA - RTI2018 – 098657 -J - I00 “LEO – SBNAF” (MCIU / AEI / FEDER, UE)

An Algebraic Analysis of Conchoids to Algebraic Curves

We study the conchoid to an algebraic affine plane curve C from the perspective of algebraic geometry, analyzing their main algebraic properties. Beside C, the notion of conchoid involves a point A in the affine plane (the focus) and a nonzero field element d (the distance).We introduce the formal definition of conchoid by means of incidence diagrams.We prove that the conchoid is a 1-dimensional algebraic set having atmost two irreducible components. Moreover, with the exception of circles centered at the focus A and taking d as its radius, all components of the corresponding conchoid have dimension 1. In addition, we introduce the notions of special and simple components of a conchoid. Furthermore we state that, with the exception of lines passing through A, the conchoid always has at least one simple component and that, for almost every distance, all the components of the conchoid are simple. We state that, in the reducible case, simple conchoid components are birationally equivalent to C, and we show how special components can be used to decide whether a given algebraic curve is the conchoid of another curve

Remarkable bolides recorded along August 2021 in the framework of the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network

The most remarkable fireballs observed along August 2021 in the framework of the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) and the SMART project are presented in this work. These fireballs overflew the Iberian Peninsula and neighboring areas, and reached an absolute peak luminosity ranging between mag. –8 and –12. The emission spectra of some of these bright meteors are also discussed.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project PID2019-105797GB-I00). State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709)”. Spanish grant AYARTI2018 – 098657 – J - I00 ``LEO - SBNAF'' (MCIU / AEI / FEDER, UE)