Impact of the Number of Votes on the Reliability and Validity of Subjective Speech Quality Assessment in the Crowdsourcing Approach

The subjective quality of transmitted speech is traditionally assessed in a controlled laboratory environment according to ITU-T Rec. P.800. In turn, with crowdsourcing, crowdworkers participate in a subjective online experiment using their own listening device, and in their own working environment. Despite such less controllable conditions, the increased use of crowdsourcing micro-task platforms for quality assessment tasks has pushed a high demand for standardized methods, resulting in ITU-T Rec. P.808. This work investigates the impact of the number of judgments on the reliability and the validity of quality ratings collected through crowdsourcing-based speech quality assessments, as an input to ITU-T Rec. P.808 . Three crowdsourcing experiments on different platforms were conducted to evaluate the overall quality of three different speech datasets, using the Absolute Category Rating procedure. For each dataset, the Mean Opinion Scores (MOS) are calculated using differing numbers of crowdsourcing judgements. Then the results are compared to MOS values collected in a standard laboratory experiment, to assess the validity of crowdsourcing approach as a function of number of votes. In addition, the reliability of the average scores is analyzed by checking inter-rater reliability, gain in certainty, and the confidence of the MOS. The results provide a suggestion on the required number of votes per condition, and allow to model its impact on validity and reliability.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication in the 2020 Twelfth International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX

Towards speech quality assessment using a crowdsourcing approach: evaluation of standardized methods

Subjective speech quality assessment has traditionally been carried out in laboratory environments under controlled conditions. With the advent of crowdsourcing platforms tasks, which need human intelligence, can be resolved by crowd workers over the Internet. Crowdsourcing also offers a new paradigm for speech quality assessment, promising higher ecological validity of the quality judgments at the expense of potentially lower reliability. This paper compares laboratory-based and crowdsourcing-based speech quality assessments in terms of comparability of results and efficiency. For this purpose, three pairs of listening-only tests have been carried out using three different crowdsourcing platforms and following the ITU-T Recommendation P.808. In each test, listeners judge the overall quality of the speech sample following the Absolute Category Rating procedure. We compare the results of the crowdsourcing approach with the results of standard laboratory tests performed according to the ITU-T Recommendation P.800. Results show that in most cases, both paradigms lead to comparable results. Notable differences are discussed with respect to their sources, and conclusions are drawn that establish practical guidelines for crowdsourcing-based speech quality assessment

Long‐Term Health Spending Persistence among the Privately Insured in the US

There is little current information regarding the long‐term persistence of health spending in the United States, in particular among the population aged under 65 (pre‐Medicare eligibility). We describe and model the extent of persistence over a six‐year period (2003–08) using medical and pharmacy claims for over 3 million employees, retirees and dependants derived from the Truven Health MarketScan database. Overall, substantial persistence in spending exists, particularly at the extremes of the distribution and for pharmaceutical spending. Error components models are estimated to separate transient from persistent variation in spending, and dynamic probit models are estimated to assess the predictive power of demographic and co‐morbid conditions and prior high spending in determining the likelihood of future high spending. A better understanding of the persistence of health spending can inform the selection and evaluation of appropriate interventions to address high costs, and can help forecast the likelihood and severity of adverse selection in public and private programmes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134842/1/fisc12120_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134842/2/fisc12120.pd

Experimentelle Untersuchung akustischer Resonanzen in eindimensionalen Wellenträgern mit Smartphone und Tablet-PC

In der Lehre ermöglichen Smartphones/Tablet-PCs aus messtechnischer Sicht durch interne Sensoren und durch die Verfügbarkeit geeigneter Anwendungsprogramme (Apps) vielfältige Messungen ausreichender Messgenauigkeit. Eine große Anzahl sensor- bzw. computerbasierter Messungen sind mittlerweile unter geringem Materialaufwand mit diesen mobilen Endgeräten durchführbar. Speziell in der Akustik erlauben Mikrofon, Lautsprecher und adäquate Apps Schallwellen zwischen 20 Hz und 24 kHz auszusenden, zu detektieren und akustische Größen in Echtzeit grafisch darzustellen und anschließend auszuwerten.Aus physikdidaktischer Sicht sind Smartphones/Tablet-PCs intuitiv handhabbare und für den Lernenden jederzeit verfügbare Experimentiermittel mit hohem motivationalem Potenzial. Insbesondere erweitern diese mobilen Messlabore für Lernende die Möglichkeiten zum eigenständigen Experimentieren.Am Beispiel akustischer Resonanzen in eindimensionalen endlichen Luftsäulen und Metallstäben werden Experimente für die Schul- und Hochschullehre vorgestellt, die mit Smartphones/Tablet-PCs und auf Verwendbarkeit geprüften Apps durchführbar sind. Darüber hinaus wird die Temperaturabhängigkeit der Schallgeschwindigkeit in Luft qualitativ und quantitativ untersucht sowie in Edelstahl bestimmt. Abschließend werden die Experimente unter physikdidaktischen Gesichtspunkten eingeordnet und diskutiert

Experimentelle Untersuchung akustischer Resonanzen in eindimensionalen Wellenträgern mit Smartphone und Tablet-PC

In der Lehre ermöglichen Smartphones/Tablet-PCs aus messtechnischer Sicht durch interne Sensoren und durch die Verfügbarkeit geeigneter Anwendungsprogramme (Apps) vielfältige Messungen ausreichender Messgenauigkeit. Eine große Anzahl sensor- bzw. computerbasierter Messungen sind mittlerweile unter geringem Materialaufwand mit diesen mobilen Endgeräten durchführbar. Speziell in der Akustik erlauben Mikrofon, Lautsprecher und adäquate Apps Schallwellen zwischen 20 Hz und 24 kHz auszusenden, zu detektieren und akustische Größen in Echtzeit grafisch darzustellen und anschließend auszuwerten.Aus physikdidaktischer Sicht sind Smartphones/Tablet-PCs intuitiv handhabbare und für den Lernenden jederzeit verfügbare Experimentiermittel mit hohem motivationalem Potenzial. Insbesondere erweitern diese mobilen Messlabore für Lernende die Möglichkeiten zum eigenständigen Experimentieren.Am Beispiel akustischer Resonanzen in eindimensionalen endlichen Luftsäulen und Metallstäben werden Experimente für die Schul- und Hochschullehre vorgestellt, die mit Smartphones/Tablet-PCs und auf Verwendbarkeit geprüften Apps durchführbar sind. Darüber hinaus wird die Temperaturabhängigkeit der Schallgeschwindigkeit in Luft qualitativ und quantitativ untersucht sowie in Edelstahl bestimmt. Abschließend werden die Experimente unter physikdidaktischen Gesichtspunkten eingeordnet und diskutiert

Best Practices and Recommendations for Crowdsourced QoE - Lessons learned from the Qualinet Task Force Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a popular approach that outsources tasks via the Internet to a large number of users. Commercial crowdsourcing platforms provide a global pool of users employed for performing short and simple online tasks. For quality assessment of multimedia services and applications, crowdsourcing enables new possibilities by moving the subjective test into the crowd resulting in larger diversity of the test subjects, faster turnover of test campaigns, and reduced costs due to low reimbursement costs of the participants. Further, crowdsourcing allows easily addressing additional features like real-life environments. This white paper summarizes the recommendations and best practices for crowdsourced quality assessment of multimedia applications from the Qualinet Task Force on “Crowdsourcing”. The European Network on Quality of Experience in Multimedia Systems and Services Qualinet (COST Action IC 1003, see www.qualinet.eu) established this task force in 2012 which has more than 30 members. The recommendation paper resulted from the experience in designing, implementing, and conducting crowdsourcing experiments as well as the analysis of the crowdsourced user ratings and context data

STAT3 links IL-22 signaling in intestinal epithelial cells to mucosal wound healing

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3 is a pleiotropic transcription factor with important functions in cytokine signaling in a variety of tissues. However, the role of STAT3 in the intestinal epithelium is not well understood. We demonstrate that development of colonic inflammation is associated with the induction of STAT3 activity in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). Studies in genetically engineered mice showed that epithelial STAT3 activation in dextran sodium sulfate colitis is dependent on interleukin (IL)-22 rather than IL-6. IL-22 was secreted by colonic CD11c+ cells in response to Toll-like receptor stimulation. Conditional knockout mice with an IEC-specific deletion of STAT3 activity were highly susceptible to experimental colitis, indicating that epithelial STAT3 regulates gut homeostasis. STAT3IEC-KO mice, upon induction of colitis, showed a striking defect of epithelial restitution. Gene chip analysis indicated that STAT3 regulates the cellular stress response, apoptosis, and pathways associated with wound healing in IECs. Consistently, both IL-22 and epithelial STAT3 were found to be important in wound-healing experiments in vivo. In summary, our data suggest that intestinal epithelial STAT3 activation regulates immune homeostasis in the gut by promoting IL-22–dependent mucosal wound healing

Metabolic profiling identifies trehalose as an abundant and diurnally fluctuating metabolite in the microalga Ostreococcus tauri

© 2017, The Author(s).Introduction: The picoeukaryotic alga Ostreococcus tauri (Chlorophyta) belongs to the widespread group of marine prasinophytes. Despite its ecological importance, little is known about the metabolism of this alga. Objectives: In this work, changes in the metabolome were quantified when O. tauri was grown under alternating cycles of 12 h light and 12 h darkness. Methods: Algal metabolism was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Using fluorescence-activated cell sorting, the bacteria associated with O. tauri were depleted to below 0.1% of total cells at the time of metabolic profiling. Results: Of 111 metabolites quantified over light–dark cycles, 20 (18%) showed clear diurnal variations. The strongest fluctuations were found for trehalose. With an intracellular concentration of 1.6 mM in the dark, this disaccharide was six times more abundant at night than during the day. This fluctuation pattern of trehalose may be a consequence of starch degradation or of the synchronized cell cycle. On the other hand, maltose (and also sucrose) was below the detection limit (~10 μM). Accumulation of glycine in the light is in agreement with the presence of a classical glycolate pathway of photorespiration. We also provide evidence for the presence of fatty acid methyl and ethyl esters in O. tauri. Conclusions: This study shows how the metabolism of O. tauri adapts to day and night and gives new insights into the configuration of the carbon metabolism. In addition, several less common metabolites were identified

Type 1 Autoimmune Pancreatitis in Europe: Clinical Profile and Response to Treatment.

Background and aimsAutoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is an immune-mediated disease of the pancreas with distinct pathophysiology and manifestations. Our aims were to characterize type 1 AIP in a large pan-European cohort and study the effectiveness of current treatment regimens.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed adults diagnosed since 2005 with type 1 or not-otherwise-specified AIP in 42 European university hospitals. Type 1 AIP was uniformly diagnosed using specific diagnostic criteria. Patients with type 2 AIP and those who had undergone pancreatic surgery were excluded. The primary endpoint was complete remission, defined as the absence of clinical symptoms and resolution of the index radiological pancreatic abnormalities attributed to AIP.ResultsWe included 735 individuals with AIP (69% male; median age 57 years; 85% White). Steroid treatment was started in 634 patients, of whom 9 (1%) were lost to follow-up. The remaining 625 had a 79% (496/625) complete, 18% (111/625) partial, and 97% (607/625) cumulative remission rate, while 3% (18/625) did not achieve remission. No treatment was given in 95 patients, who had a 61% complete (58/95), 19% partial (18/95), and 80% cumulative (76/95) spontaneous remission rate. Higher (≥0.4 mg/kg/day) corticosteroid doses were no more effective than lower ( 2 weeks (OR 0.908; 95%CI 0.818-1.009). Elevated IgG4 levels were independently associated with a decreased chance of complete remission (OR 0.639; 95%CI 0.427-0.955). Relapse occurred in 30% of patients. Relapses within 6 months of remission induction were independent of the steroid tapering duration, induction treatment duration, and total cumulative dose.ConclusionPatients with type 1 AIP and elevated IgG4 level may need closer monitoring. For remission induction, a starting dose of 0.4 mg/kg/day for 2 weeks followed by a short taper period seems effective. This study provides no evidence to support more aggressive regimens

Entwurf eines Sicherheitskonzepts zur Authentifikation und Autorisierung von Java Enterprise Applikationen am Beispiel der A3S AdminConsole

Heutzutage kommt der IT-Sicherheit immmer größere Bedeutung zu. Unzureichende Sicherheitsvorkehrungen für Web-Applikationen können fatale Auswirkungen haben. Deshalb soll anhand eines konkreten Beispiels, der A3S AdminConsole, eine JavaEE-Anwendung zur webgestützten Konfiguration von Recommendation Services, systematisch ein Sicherheitskonzept zur Authentifikation und Autorisierung entwickelt werden, welches definierte Sicherheitsziele erfüllt. Das erarbeitete Sicherheitskonzept wird anhand von konkreten Anwendungsszenarien betrachtet. Für die Umsetzung werden vorhandene Verfahren und Modelle zur Authentifikation und Autorisierung untersucht und anhand ihrer Tauglichkeit für eine mögliche Realisierung des Konzeptes bewertet. Des Weiteren werden mögliche Bedrohungen betrachtet, welche die A3S AdminConsole gefährden könne