Evaluation of an expert system for the generation of speech and language therapy plans

Background: Speech and language pathologists (SLPs) deal with a wide spectrum of disorders, arising from many different conditions, that affect voice, speech, language, and swallowing capabilities in different ways. Therefore, the outcomes of Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) are highly dependent on the accurate, consistent, and complete design of personalized therapy plans. However, SLPs often have very limited time to work with their patients and to browse the large (and growing) catalogue of activities and specific exercises that can be put into therapy plans. As a consequence, many plans are suboptimal and fail to address the specific needs of each patient. Objective: We aimed to evaluate an expert system that automatically generates plans for speech and language therapy, containing semiannual activities in the five areas of hearing, oral structure and function, linguistic formulation, expressive language and articulation, and receptive language. The goal was to assess whether the expert system speeds up the SLPs’ work and leads to more accurate, consistent, and complete therapy plans for their patients. Methods: We examined the evaluation results of the SPELTA expert system in supporting the decision making of 4 SLPs treating children in three special education institutions in Ecuador. The expert system was first trained with data from 117 cases, including medical data; diagnosis for voice, speech, language and swallowing capabilities; and therapy plans created manually by the SLPs. It was then used to automatically generate new therapy plans for 13 new patients. The SLPs were finally asked to evaluate the accuracy, consistency, and completeness of those plans. A four-fold cross-validation experiment was also run on the original corpus of 117 cases in order to assess the significance of the results. Results: The evaluation showed that 87% of the outputs provided by the SPELTA expert system were considered valid therapy plans for the different areas. The SLPs rated the overall accuracy, consistency, and completeness of the proposed activities with 4.65, 4.6, and 4.6 points (to a maximum of 5), respectively. The ratings for the subplans generated for the areas of hearing, oral structure and function, and linguistic formulation were nearly perfect, whereas the subplans for expressive language and articulation and for receptive language failed to deal properly with some of the subject cases. Overall, the SLPs indicated that over 90% of the subplans generated automatically were “better than” or “as good as” what the SLPs would have created manually if given the average time they can devote to the task. The cross-validation experiment yielded very similar results. Conclusions: The results show that the SPELTA expert system provides valuable input for SLPs to design proper therapy plans for their patients, in a shorter time and considering a larger set of activities than proceeding manually. The algorithms worked well even in the presence of a sparse corpus, and the evidence suggests that the system will become more reliable as it is trained with more subjects.Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo RegionalXunta de GaliciaMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. TIN2013-42774-

5to. Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad. Memoria académica

El V Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad, CITIS 2019, realizado del 6 al 8 de febrero de 2019 y organizado por la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, ofreció a la comunidad académica nacional e internacional una plataforma de comunicación unificada, dirigida a cubrir los problemas teóricos y prácticos de mayor impacto en la sociedad moderna desde la ingeniería. En esta edición, dedicada a los 25 años de vida de la UPS, los ejes temáticos estuvieron relacionados con la aplicación de la ciencia, el desarrollo tecnológico y la innovación en cinco pilares fundamentales de nuestra sociedad: la industria, la movilidad, la sostenibilidad ambiental, la información y las telecomunicaciones. El comité científico estuvo conformado formado por 48 investigadores procedentes de diez países: España, Reino Unido, Italia, Bélgica, México, Venezuela, Colombia, Brasil, Estados Unidos y Ecuador. Fueron recibidas un centenar de contribuciones, de las cuales 39 fueron aprobadas en forma de ponencias y 15 en formato poster. Estas contribuciones fueron presentadas de forma oral ante toda la comunidad académica que se dio cita en el Congreso, quienes desde el aula magna, el auditorio y la sala de usos múltiples de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, cumplieron respetuosamente la responsabilidad de representar a toda la sociedad en la revisión, aceptación y validación del conocimiento nuevo que fue presentado en cada exposición por los investigadores. Paralelo a las sesiones técnicas, el Congreso contó con espacios de presentación de posters científicos y cinco workshops en temáticas de vanguardia que cautivaron la atención de nuestros docentes y estudiantes. También en el marco del evento se impartieron un total de ocho conferencias magistrales en temas tan actuales como la gestión del conocimiento en la universidad-ecosistema, los retos y oportunidades de la industria 4.0, los avances de la investigación básica y aplicada en mecatrónica para el estudio de robots de nueva generación, la optimización en ingeniería con técnicas multi-objetivo, el desarrollo de las redes avanzadas en Latinoamérica y los mundos, la contaminación del aire debido al tránsito vehicular, el radón y los riesgos que representa este gas radiactivo para la salud humana, entre otros

Estudio y aplicación de la Gestión Electrónica de Documentos en la U.P.S.

Hoy en día, en la mayoría de países que cuentan con una estructura tecnológica eficiente, está presente un fuerte proceso de transición que busca cambiar la forma como se lleva y mantiene la información en las diversas oficinas que conforman las organizaciones. Si retrocedemos un poco en el tiempo, veremos que hace algunos años parecía un sueño que todos los trámites y operaciones que debía realizar un departamento, se pudieran realizar de forma digital (a través del computador y con soporte en firmas digitales). Pero esto ha cambiado, ya que en la actualidad podemos contar con potentes herramientas que nos permiten compartir archivos, enviar y recibir correo electrónico, realizar video conferencias, chats, foros de soporte, agendas de trabajo en línea y muchos otros servicios de gran interés. Es por esto que consideramos que las instituciones de nuestro país, y con mayor razón nuestra querida universidad, no pueden quedarse rezagadas en el manejo de este tipo de metodologías y herramientas informáticas. La razón de esta tesis es por lo tanto conocer estas herramientas (pero partiendo de su metodología) para gestionar un sistema que permita convertir a nuestras antiguas oficinas en modernos centros de gestión de información. Así los departamentos de nuestra universidad y de otras organizaciones (si en un futuro se comercializa y desarrollan ciertos aspectos de esta metodología), tendrán la posibilidad de obtener notorios beneficios en la eficiencia de ejecución de operaciones, recursos invertidos para realizar dichas operaciones, lo que repercutirá en la calidad de la organización en general y los aspectos económicos que tienen que ver con el mantenimiento de los departamentos mencionados. En el Capítulo I del presente trabajo, se estudiarán las herramientas metodológicas que nos permiten modelar un Sistema de Gestión Documental (S. G. D.). Al final de este capítulo se estudiarán de forma concreta las firmas digitales, ya que esto nos dará la proyección necesaria para conocer de forma breve cual es el soporte legal que deben manejar los documentos dentro de una organización. Una vez que nos hemos familiarizado con la herramienta que nos va a permitir crear los modelos de gestión documental, en el Capítulo II entramos a analizar cuáles son las normativas para desarrollar estos modelos y que modelos tenemos que construir para poder establecer nuestro S. G. D. específico. Finalizamos este capítulo con un breve estudio sobre los servicios de búsqueda documental. En el Capítulo III entramos a analizar los procesos de gestión de documentos con los que cuenta nuestra universidad, a fin de escoger un área de enfoque para el desarrollo de un proyecto piloto y la selección de un conjunto de procesos que serán implementados en dicho proyecto. Al entrar al Capítulo IV, se realizará un estudio comparativo entre las 3 principales herramientas de gestión documental que existen en la actualidad, a fin de establecer cuál de ellas se adapta de mejor manera a la realidad de los departamentos de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (para ello se deberá analizar la situación de la universidad, así como su realidad). En el desarrollo del Capítulo V se estudiará con más detalle la herramienta de gestión documental que se eligió en el capítulo anterior, con el fin de tener una base teórica sólida para poder llevar a cabo el proyecto piloto. Finalmente en el Capítulo VI se aplicarán todos los elementos metodológicos y científicos estudiados en los capítulos anteriores para poder implementar un proyecto piloto que nos permita observar de forma práctica los beneficios y capacidades que poseen las herramientas de gestión documental

Sensorised low-cost pencils for developing countries: a quantitative analysis of handwriting learning rogress in children with/without disabilities from a sustainable perspective

Learning to write is a demanding endeavour that requires a combination of linguistic, motor and cognitive skills. Some children suffer from delay or inability to acquire those skills, which often hampers their performance at school and brings about serious consequences for self-esteem, personal expectations and social relationships. The situation worsens in developing countries, due to the lack of resources and specialised personnel. With this background, this paper describes an experiment with a newly-developed sensorised pencil with triangular prism shape, which is shown to yield substantial improvements in children with/without special education needs. A team of experts in the areas of speech therapy, occupational therapy, educational psychology, physiotherapy and pedagogy have expressed very positive opinions about the sensorised pencil and the accompanying software for the acquisition and analysis of quantitative data about handwriting. Furthermore, the device stands out for its low cost in comparison with similar developments, which is a key factor to aid children from low-income families. This fact is explained with a success story of manufacturing and delivering sensorised pencils in the Ecuadorian province of Azuay, framed in a multi-layer sustainable development perspective based on collaboration of several institutions and individuals.European Regional Development Fund | Ref. TIN2017-87604-REuropean programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe (ERASMUS+) | Ref. 609785-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

Data repository of mobile applications for people with disabilities in the area of communication and language using data mining techniques

According to National Council of Disabilities (CONADIS) currently 425877 persons live in Ecuador with some form of disability. From this group, approximately 1.32% (5,621) people present language difficulties. However, although exist several technological developments, several Ecuadorian centers of special education/rehabilitation there is a lack of adequate support tools based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and intelligent systems. This situation becomes more complicated in the area of speech-language therapy due this area was historically overlooked. For these reasons, in this paper we propose a system to generate a new repository of mobile applications for people with disabilities and language and communication disorders. To achieve this a process that allows mobile applications to automatically collect and through the natural language processing and vector space models generated a degree of belonging to issue search and generate the first mobile application repository will be generated. Our proposal relies on data mining techniques and allows educators as well therapists determining the best apps to support the intervention process of patients with disabilities. To this aim we have developed metrics to compare mobile apps from Google Play Store and IOS. Our proposal was validated with an analysis performed on 6700 mobile apps and the results are encouraging.According to National Council of Disabilities (CONADIS) currently 425877 persons live in Ecuador with some form of disability. From this group, approximately 1.32% (5,621) people present language difficulties. However, although exist several technological developments, several Ecuadorian centers of special education/rehabilitation there is a lack of adequate support tools based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and intelligent systems. This situation becomes more complicated in the area of speech-language therapy due this area was historically overlooked. For these reasons, in this paper we propose a system to generate a new repository of mobile applications for people with disabilities and language and communication disorders. To achieve this a process that allows mobile applications to automatically collect and through the natural language processing and vector space models generated a degree of belonging to issue search and generate the first mobile application repository will be generated. Our proposal relies on data mining techniques and allows educators as well therapists determining the best apps to support the intervention process of patients with disabilities. To this aim we have developed metrics to compare mobile apps from Google Play Store and IOS. Our proposal was validated with an analysis performed on 6700 mobile apps and the results are encouraging.Cholul

Design, implementation and evaluation of a support system for educators and therapists to rate the acquisition of pre-writing skills

Assessing the acquisition of pre-writing skills in children with and without special educational needs is a time-consuming task for educators and therapists. It also involves a level of subjectivity, because the same set of strokes may receive different scores from different professionals. We present a system that automates the task by rating the execution of elementary figures (circle, square and triangle) according to the criteria of the Battelle guide for fine motor skills rating. The system uses a neural network trained with a collection of images drawn by 300 children and optimized through a systematic scan of hyperparameters, which revealed that shape signatures are better descriptors than Hu moments. Experiments carried out in collaboration with educators and therapists in Cuenca (Ecuador) provide evidence that the proposed system facilitates their work, automatically providing reliable assessments and in much shorter time than they would need for manual assessment, thus freeing their valuable time for education and therapy tasks.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431B 2020/34Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. TIN2017-87604-

A bespoke social network for deaf women in Ecuador to access information on sexual and reproductive health

Many deaf women face the lack of numerous resources related to their personal development. The unavailability of proper information on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), in particular, causes problems of sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancy in adolescence, sexual violence, complications during pregnancy, etc. In response to this, we have created a social network that delivers SRH content (verified and validated by experts) to women with different degrees of hearing loss. The site features a recommender system that selects the most relevant pieces of content to deliver to each woman, driven by her individual preferences, needs and levels of knowledge on the different subjects. We report experiments conducted in Cuenca, Ecuador, between 2017 and 2018 with 98 volunteers from low- and middle-income settings, aiming to evaluate the quality and appeal of the contents, the coherence of the methodology followed to create them, and the effectiveness of the content recommendations. The positive results encourage the frequent creation of new content and the refinement of the recommendation logic as the cohort of users expands over time.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (España) | Ref. TIN2017-87604-RXunta de GaliciaEuropean Commissio

Design of an intelligent system for prediction and simulation of writing in children with spasticity

Spasticity is considered a wide spectrum disease that affects all age groups. However, the spasticity in children can have diverse causes, and commonly is present in those patients that have been diagnosed with Infantile Cerebral Palsy. Approximately two thirds of children with ICP present spasticity. On the other hand, traditional writing is a process related with children's cognitive development, and allows creating new neural connections between hands, elbows and shoulders. For those reasons, in this paper we present a proposal that aims predicting writing in children with spasticity, with the objective of supporting the traditional writing learning process.Spasticity is considered a wide spectrum disease that affects all age groups. However, the spasticity in children can have diverse causes, and commonly is present in those patients that have been diagnosed with Infantile Cerebral Palsy. Approximately two thirds of children with ICP present spasticity. On the other hand, traditional writing is a process related with children's cognitive development, and allows creating new neural connections between hands, elbows and shoulders. For those reasons, in this paper we present a proposal that aims predicting writing in children with spasticity, with the objective of supporting the traditional writing learning process.Los Angele

On Data Protection Regulations, Big Data and Sledgehammers in Higher Education

Universities in Latin America commonly gather much more information about their students than allowed by data protection regulations in other parts of the world. We have tackled the question of whether abundant socio-economic data can be harnessed for the purpose of predicting academic outcomes and, thereby, taking proactive actions in student attention, course planning and resource management. A study was conducted to analyze the data gathered by a private university in Ecuador over more than 20 years, to normalize them and to parameterize a Multi-Layer Perceptron neural network, whose best-performing configuration would be used as a benchmark for the comparison of more recent and sophisticated Artificial Intelligence techniques. However, an extensive scan of hyperparameters for the perceptron—exploring more than 12,000 configurations—revealed no significant relationships between the input variables and the chosen metrics, suggesting that there is no gain from processing the extensive socio-economic data. This finding contradicts the expectations raised by previous works in the related literature and in some cases highlights important methodological flaws