An Effective Hybrid Approach Based on Machine Learning Techniques for Auto-Translation: Japanese to English

In recent years machine learning techniques have been able to perform tasks previously thought impossible or impractical such as image classification and natural language translation, as such this allows for the automation of tasks previously thought only possible by humans. This research work aims to test a naïve post processing grammar correction method using a Long Short Term Memory neural network to rearrange translated sentences from Subject Object Verb to Subject Verb Object. Here machine learning based techniques are used to successfully translate works in an automated fashion rather than manually and post processing translations to increase sentiment and grammar accuracy. The implementation of the proposed methodology uses a bounding box object detection model, optical character recognition model and a natural language processing model to fully translate manga without human intervention. The grammar correction experimentation tries to fix a common problem when machines translate between two natural languages that use different ordering, in this case from Japanese Subject Object Verb to English Subject Verb Object. For this experimentation 2 sequence to sequence Long Short Term Memory neural networks were developed, a character level and a word level model using word embedding to reorder English sentences from Subject Object Verb to Subject Verb Object. The results showed that the methodology works in practice and can automate the translation process successfully

EUV Sunspot Plumes Observed with SOHO

Bright EUV sunspot plumes have been observed in five out of nine sunspot regions with the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer -- CDS on SOHO. In the other four regions the brightest line emissions may appear inside the sunspot but are mainly concentrated in small regions outside the sunspot areas. These results are in contrast to those obtained during the Solar Maximum Mission, but are compatible with the Skylab mission results. The present observations show that sunspot plumes are formed in the upper part of the transition region, occur both in magnetic unipolar-- and bipolar regions, and may extend from the umbra into the penumbra.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in ApJ Letter

A Frequency Bin Analysis of Distinctive Ranges Between Human and Deepfake Generated Voices

Deepfake technology has advanced rapidly in recent years. The widespread availability of deepfake audio technology has raised concerns about its potential misuse for malicious purposes, and a need for more robust countermeasure systems is becoming ever more important. Here we analyse the differences between human and deepfake audio and introduce a novel audio pre-processing approach. Our analysis aims to show the specific locations in the frequency spectrum where these artefacts and distinctions between human and deepfake audio can be found. Our approach emphasises specific frequency ranges that we show are transferable across synthetic speech datasets. In doing so, we explore the use of a bespoke filter bank derived from our analysis of the WaveFake dataset to exploit commonalities across algorithms. Our filter bank was constructed based on a frequency bin analysis of the WaveFake dataset, we apply this filter bank to adjust gain/attenuation to improve the effective signal-to-noise ratio, doing so we reduce the similarities while accentuating differences. We then take a baseline performing model and experiment with improving the performance using these frequency ranges to show where these artefacts lie and if this knowledge is transferable across mel-spectrum algorithms. We show that there exist exploitable commonalities between deepfake voice generation methods that generate audio in the mel-spectrum and that artefacts are left behind in similar frequency regions. Our approach is evaluated on the ASVSpoof 2019 Logical Access dataset of which the test set contains unseen generative methods to test the efficacy of our filter bank approach and transferability. Our experiments show that there is enhanced classification performance to be gained from utilizing these transferable frequency bands where there are more artefacts and distinctions. Our highest-performing model provided a 14.75% improvement in Equal Error Rate against our baseline model

Exploring the structural relationship between interviewer and self-rated affective symptoms in Huntington’s disease

This study explores the structural relationship between self-report and interview measures of affect in Huntington’s disease. The findings suggest continued use of both to recognize the multidimensionality within a single common consideration of distress

The environmental dependence of the stellar mass-size relation in STAGES galaxies

We present the stellar mass-size relations for elliptical, lenticular, and spiral galaxies in the field and cluster environments using HST/ACS imaging and data from the Space Telescope A901/2 Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES). We use a large sample of ~1200 field and cluster galaxies, and a sub-sample of cluster core galaxies, and quantify the significance of any putative environmental dependence on the stellar mass-size relation. For elliptical, lenticular, and high-mass (log M*/M_sun > 10) spiral galaxies we find no evidence to suggest any such environmental dependence, implying that internal drivers are governing their size evolution. For intermediate/low-mass spirals (log M*/M_sun < 10) we find evidence, significant at the 2-sigma level, for a possible environmental dependence on galaxy sizes: the mean effective radius a_e for lower-mass spirals is ~15-20 per cent larger in the field than in the cluster. This is due to a population of low-mass large-a_e field spirals that are largely absent from the cluster environments. These large-a_e field spirals contain extended stellar discs not present in their cluster counterparts. This suggests the fragile extended stellar discs of these spiral galaxies may not survive the environmental conditions in the cluster. Our results suggest that internal physical processes are the main drivers governing the size evolution of galaxies, with the environment possibly playing a role affecting only the discs of intermediate/low-mass spirals.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, accepted to MNRA

Short Utterance Dialogue Act Classification Using a Transformer Ensemble

An influx of digital assistant adoption and reliance is demonstrating the significance of reliable and robust dialogue act classification techniques. In the literature, there is an over-representation of purely lexical-based dialogue act classification methods. A weakness of this approach is the lack of context when classifying short utterances. We improve upon a purely lexical approach by incorporating a state-of-the-art acoustic model in a lexical-acoustic transformer ensemble, with improved results, when classifying dialogue acts in the MRDA corpus. Additionally, we further investigate the performance on an utterance word-count basis, showing classification accuracy increases with utterance word count. Furthermore, the performance of the lexical model increases with utterance word length and the acoustic model performance decreases with utterance word count, showing the models complement each other for different utterance lengths

Refining Anger: Summarizing the Self-Report Measurement of Anger

The current paper presents a five-factor measurement model of anger summarizing scores on public-domain self-report measures of anger. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of self-report measures of anger (UK, n = 500; USA, n = 625) suggest five replicable latent anger factors: anger-arousal, anger-rumination, frustration-discomfort, anger-regulation, and socially constituted anger. Findings suggested a 5-factor interpretation provided the best fit of the data. We also report evidence of measurement invariance for this 5-factor model of anger across gender, age, and ethnicity. The findings suggest a useful and parsimonious account of anger, summarizing over 50 years of research around the self-report measurement of anger

Broadcasting graphic war violence: the moral face of Channel 4

Drawing on empirical data from Channel 4 (C4) regarding the broadcasting of violent war imagery, and positioned within Goffman’s notion of the interaction ritual (1959, 1967), this article investigates how C4 negotiate potentially competing commercial, regulatory and moral requirements through processes of discretionary decision-making. Throughout, the article considers the extent to which these negotiations are presented through a series of ‘imaginings’ – of C4 and its audience – which serve to simultaneously guide and legitimate the decisions made. This manifestation of imaginings moves us beyond more blanket explanations of ‘branding’ and instead allows us to see the final programmes as the end product of a series of complex negotiations and interactions between C4 and those multiple external parties significant to the workings of their organization. The insights gleaned from this case study are important beyond the workings of C4 because they help elucidate how all institutions and organizations may view, organize and justify their practices (to both themselves and others) within the perceived constraints in which they operate

Dispersal and Disease Gradients of Anther-Smut Infection of Silene Alba at Different Life Stages

Given the increased recognition of the importance of spatial aggregation of infected individuals on disease spread, we used a field experiment to examine spore dispersal and disease transmission at increasing distances from an inoculum source in a well-studied system, the herbaceous plant Silene alba, infected by the anther-smut fungus Ustilago violacea. Two different life stages (vegetative and floral) were examined. We measured spore deposition on flowers and, as an analog of dispersal to vegetative plants, in small vials on the ground. Spore and disease gradients (number of spores or proportion of plants infected as a function of distance) were best fit with the classic power law, Y = aD-b. The slope parameter, b, was similar for spore dispersal gradients of vegetative (b = -2.38) and flowering plants (b = -1.91). However, at every distance measured, the proportion of flowers with spores was higher than the proportion of ground vials with spores, indicating overall higher relative spore dispersal to flowering plants. We also determined that disease gradients for flowering plants were more shallow (b-0.07) than spore dispersal gradients, and vegetative infection was more spatially restricted than floral infection (no infection beyond 3.2 m for vegetative plants while floral infection was detected up to 11.2 m). The relationship between spore dispersal and disease incidence was linear for vegetative plants and curvilinear for flowering plants, with limiting returns on disease after a low threshold number of spores deposited. Overall, our study suggests that the limited dispersal of spores is likely to be important in the aggregation of diseased plants in nature ; such aggregation of inoculum in turn can increase or decrease disease spread depending on how much inoculum is needed to cause infection