Content enrichment through dynamic annotation

This paper describes a technique for interceding between users and the information that they browse. This facility, that we term 'dynamic annotation', affords a means of editing Web page content 'on-the-fly' between the source Web server and the requesting client. Thereby, we have a generic way of modifying the content displayed to local users by addition, removal or reorganising any information sourced from the World-Wide Web, whether this derives from local or remote pages. For some time, we have been exploring the scope for this device and we believe that it affords many potential worthwhile applications. Here, we describe two varieties of use. The first variety focuses on support for individual users in two contexts (second-language support and second language learning). The second variety of use focuses on support for groups of users. These differing applications have a common goal which is content enrichment of the materials placed before the user. Dynamic annotation provides a potent and flexible means to this end

Case studies of job access and reverse commute program: 2009-2010

This report presents perceptual, mobility and employment outcomes self-reported by 573 users of 26 transportation services funded by the Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) program. The respondents were predominantly low income with 42 percent reporting 2008 personal incomes less than $10,000 and two-thirds of the respondents earning$20,000 or less for the same year. Nearly half the respondents have no household vehicles. Nearly three in five respondents reported that their travel has become reliable and convenient after using the services. Workers using the services have benefitted from overall reductions in the cost of commuting to work. Close to 94 percent rated the service as being important or very important in keeping their jobs. Respondents also self-reported that the services allowed them to access a job with better pay or better working conditions, and to improve their skills. Both median hourly wages and median weekly earnings are reported to have increased since using the service for those workers who use the service to commute to work and were employed in the one-month period prior to starting use of the service. Alternative reasons may exist for these wage changes, including overall changes in the economic conditions of the locations where the services operate, as well as changes in the personal conditions of the workers that are unrelated to the JARC program in the period between starting use of the service and the time of the survey, such as graduation from job-training or school, residential relocation and so on. Because of the lack of a probability sample of services, the results cannot be generalized to the entire JARC program. Detailed case studies of the 26 services yield insights into the types of benefits that are being provided overall in these cases and the planning and programmatic environment within which they operate

Serum and Urine α — Amylase Isoenzymes levels After Operative Cholangiogram

Serum and urine total α-amylase isoenzymes values were estimated in two groups of patients, who underwent either elective cholecystectomy and operative cholangiogram (group A — 59 patients) or cholecystectomy without operative cholangiogram (group B — 68 patients). Serum and urine total α-amylase and pancreatic isoamylase (p-type) values were statistically significantly increased within the first 24 postoperative hours as compared to the preoperative levels only in group A (p < 0.05). No clinical signs of pancreatitis were observed. Serum lipase alterations did not reach any statistically significant difference in either group. It is concluded that transient hyperamylasaemia after peroperative cholangiogram may be due to a reversible chemical pancreatitis caused by the infused opacifying agent into the common bile duct

Hydatid Disease of the Liver. Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment

A series of 155 cases of hepatic hydatid disease, occurring in 121 patients, were operated on at the Naval and Veterans Hospital of Athens. Ultrasonography and computerized axial tomography provided the preoperative diagnosis in 89 and 93 percent of the cases respectively in recent years. Thirty one percent of the cases presented with complications, the commonest of these being infection of the cyst (10 percent) and rupture of the cyst into the bile ducts (17 percent). Total cystectomy was performed in three cases and removal of the endocyst with its content in the remaining 152. The remaining cavity was either externally drained (57 cases), or filled with omentum (omentoplasty — 95 cases). External fistula and infection of the residual cavity occurred in 32 and 56 percent after simple drainage and in 4 and 2 percent respectively after omentoplasty. Differences are statistically significant (p < 0.001). Hospitalization was also significantly longer after drainage than after omentoplasty (p < 0.01). Obstructive jaundice after intrabiliary rupture of the cyst was more successfully managed after additional choledochoduodenostomy than after simple drainage of the common bile duct. Intrapericoneal recurrence of hydatid disease occurred in two cases. The conclusion of the present study is, that ultrasonography and computerized axial tomography provide an acceptable rate in the diagnosis and that omentoplasty offers a very low complication rate in the management of hydatid cystic disease of the liver

Case studies of job access and reverse commute program: 2009-2010

This report presents perceptual, mobility and employment outcomes self-reported by 573 users of 26 transportation services funded by the Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) program. The respondents were predominantly low income with 42 percent reporting 2008 personal incomes less than $10,000 and two-thirds of the respondents earning$20,000 or less for the same year. Nearly half the respondents have no household vehicles. Nearly three in five respondents reported that their travel has become reliable and convenient after using the services. Workers using the services have benefitted from overall reductions in the cost of commuting to work. Close to 94 percent rated the service as being important or very important in keeping their jobs. Respondents also self-reported that the services allowed them to access a job with better pay or better working conditions, and to improve their skills. Both median hourly wages and median weekly earnings are reported to have increased since using the service for those workers who use the service to commute to work and were employed in the one-month period prior to starting use of the service. Alternative reasons may exist for these wage changes, including overall changes in the economic conditions of the locations where the services operate, as well as changes in the personal conditions of the workers that are unrelated to the JARC program in the period between starting use of the service and the time of the survey, such as graduation from job-training or school, residential relocation and so on. Because of the lack of a probability sample of services, the results cannot be generalized to the entire JARC program. Detailed case studies of the 26 services yield insights into the types of benefits that are being provided overall in these cases and the planning and programmatic environment within which they operate

The Timbre Perception Test (TPT): A new interactive musical assessment tool to measure timbre perception ability

To date, tests that measure individual differences in the ability to perceive musical timbre are scarce in the published literature.The lack of such tool limits research on how timbre, a primary attribute of sound, is perceived and processed among individuals.The current paper describes the development of the Timbre Perception Test (TPT), in which participants use a slider to reproduce heard auditory stimuli that vary along three important dimensions of timbre: envelope, spectral flux, and spectral centroid. With a sample of 95 participants, the TPT was calibrated and validated against measures of related abilities and examined for its reliability. The results indicate that a short-version (8 minutes) of the TPT has good explanatory support from a factor analysis model, acceptable internal reliability (α=.69,ωt = .70), good test–retest reliability (r= .79) and substantial correlations with self-reported general musical sophistication (ρ= .63) and pitch discrimination (ρ= .56), as well as somewhat lower correlations with duration discrimination (ρ= .27), and musical instrument discrimination abilities (ρ= .33). Overall, the TPT represents a robust tool to measure an individual’s timbre perception ability. Furthermore, the use of sliders to perform a reproductive task has shown to be an effective approach in threshold testing. The current version of the TPT is openly available for research purposes

Perception of isolated chords: Examining frequency of occurrence, instrumental timbre, acoustic descriptors and musical training

This study investigated the perception of isolated chords using a combination of experimental manipulation and exploratory analysis. Twelve types of chord (five triads and seven tetrads) were presented in two instrumental timbres (piano and organ) to listeners who rated the chords for consonance, pleasantness, stability and relaxation. Listener ratings varied by chord, by timbre, and according to musical expertise, and revealed that musicians distinguished consonance from the other variables in a way that other listeners did not. To further explain the data, a principal component analysis and linear regression examined three potential predictors of the listener ratings. First, each chord’s frequency of occurrence was obtained by counting its appearances in selected works of music. Second, listeners rated their familiarity with the instrumental timbre in which the chord was played. Third, chords were described using a set of acoustic features derived using the Timbre Toolbox and MIR Toolbox. Results of the study indicated that listeners’ ratings of both consonance and stability were influenced by the degree of musical training and knowledge of tonal hierarchy. Listeners’ ratings of pleasantness and relaxation, on the other hand, depended more on the instrumental timbre and other acoustic descriptions of the chord

Lensing in the Blue II: Estimating the Sensitivity of Stratospheric Balloons to Weak Gravitational Lensing

The Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) is a diffraction-limited, wide-field, 0.5 m, near-infrared to near-ultraviolet observatory designed to exploit the stratosphere's space-like conditions. SuperBIT's 2023 science flight will deliver deep, blue imaging of galaxy clusters for gravitational lensing analysis. In preparation, we have developed a weak lensing measurement pipeline with modern algorithms for PSF characterization, shape measurement, and shear calibration. We validate our pipeline and forecast SuperBIT survey properties with simulated galaxy cluster observations in SuperBIT's near-UV and blue bandpasses. We predict imaging depth, galaxy number (source) density, and redshift distribution for observations in SuperBIT's three bluest filters; the effect of lensing sample selections is also considered. We find that in three hours of on-sky integration, SuperBIT can attain a depth of b = 26 mag and a total source density exceeding 40 galaxies per square arcminute. Even with the application of lensing-analysis catalog selections, we find b-band source densities between 25 and 30 galaxies per square arcminute with a median redshift of z = 1.1. Our analysis confirms SuperBIT's capability for weak gravitational lensing measurements in the blue.Comment: Submitted to Astronomical Journa

Lensing in the Blue. II. Estimating the Sensitivity of Stratospheric Balloons to Weak Gravitational Lensing

The Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) is a diffraction-limited, wide-field, 0.5 m, near-infrared to near-ultraviolet observatory designed to exploit the stratosphere's space-like conditions. SuperBIT's 2023 science flight will deliver deep, blue imaging of galaxy clusters for gravitational lensing analysis. In preparation, we have developed a weak-lensing measurement pipeline with modern algorithms for PSF characterization, shape measurement, and shear calibration. We validate our pipeline and forecast SuperBIT survey properties with simulated galaxy cluster observations in SuperBIT's near-UV and blue bandpasses. We predict imaging depth, galaxy number (source) density, and redshift distribution for observations in SuperBIT's three bluest filters; the effect of lensing sample selections is also considered. We find that, in three hours of on-sky integration, SuperBIT can attain a depth of b = 26 mag and a total source density exceeding 40 galaxies per square arcminute. Even with the application of lensing-analysis catalog selections, we find b-band source densities between 25 and 30 galaxies per square arcminute with a median redshift of z = 1.1. Our analysis confirms SuperBIT's capability for weak gravitational lensing measurements in the blue

H. N. Werkman

A piece commissioned for COLDFRONT – Singular Vispo :: First Encounters. Artists were asked to talk about their introduction to Visual Poetry and the piece of work that changed the way they saw language