Towards predicting post-editing productivity

Machine translation (MT) quality is generally measured via automatic metrics, producing scores that have no meaning for translators who are required to post-edit MT output or for project managers who have to plan and budget for transla- tion projects. This paper investigates correlations between two such automatic metrics (general text matcher and translation edit rate) and post-editing productivity. For the purposes of this paper, productivity is measured via processing speed and cognitive measures of effort using eye tracking as a tool. Processing speed, average fixation time and count are found to correlate well with the scores for groups of segments. Segments with high GTM and TER scores require substantially less time and cognitive effort than medium or low-scoring segments. Future research involving score thresholds and confidence estimation is suggested

Irritating CAT tool features that matter to translators

CAT tools have become a fixture of professional translation over the last two decades yet are still treated with suspicion or disinterest by many freelancers. Acknowledged to contribute to consistency and speed, they can constrain and otherwise negatively affect the translation process in various ways. Surveys of professional translators and observations at the workplace suggest that there is a degree of frustration associated with the use of CAT tools and room for improvement in their usability. A recent large-scale survey of professional translators included specific items for CAT tool users about whether any features of their tools were irritating or missing. Many reported that there were and also availed themselves of the opportunity to provide detailed comments about them. More than half of the CAT tool users said that they found some features irritating, and a quantitative and qualitative analysis of their comments revealed that the most common issues concerned the complexity of the user interface and segmentation. There were some differences in the responses between freelance, institutional and commercial translators but almost none across age groups. The comments about missing features also tended to be about making the tools easier to use. The focus in the survey reported here was on identifying negative aspects of tools with a view to mitigating them and tailoring the tools more to translators’ needs. However, there is also room for research exploring the positive aspects of tools in the interests of optimising their usability and reducing cognitive friction

Quelle ergonomie pour la pratique postéditrice des textes traduits ?

Peu importe ce que l’étiquette postédition a désigné depuis 30 ans, cette pratique traductive n’a jamais fait l’objet d’études à caractère ergonomique. À ce jour, seule a importé l’efficacité mesurable de l’opération. On peut se risquer à dire que c’est là d’ailleurs l’histoire de toute l’informatisation de la traduction, qui s’est faite sans consultation des traducteurs, à de rares exceptions près. Dans l’optique de l’intégration des postéditeurs dans la chaîne de production des logiciels ou des interfaces de postédition, des études sont menées de part et d’autre de l’Atlantique pour tenter de mettre à plat l’acte réel de postédition. Nous voulons démontrer combien les recherches universitaires complètent les observations des praticiens et devraient mener à une description exhaustive des détails de l’opération.Les résultats de telles recherches, auxquelles on adjoindra l’industrie, devraient conduire à dégager une théorie de même que des pratiques exemplaires de la postédition qui, à leur tour, serviront de base à l’enseignement universitaire.Whatever the meaning of post-editing has been over the last 30 years, it has never been looked at from an ergonomic viewpoint. Up to now those who implemented it just wanted to keep translation costs as low as possible and the delays as short as they can. As it has been the case with translation automation as a whole, managers and developers very rarely spoke to translators or post-editors while working on methodology or software.With a view to integrating translators and post-editors in the development of best practices or computer aided post-editing, research projects are conducted in North America and Europe as well. This article illustrates how academic research in collaboration with software experts and practitioners could help map the act of post-editing. From there, it would be easier to draft best practices as well as university course content

Efficacy of oral appliance therapy in patients following uvulopalatopharyngoplasty failure

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149311/1/lio2256.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149311/2/lio2256_am.pd

MT Literacy : a cognitive view

This article is under copyright and the publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use or reprint the material in any form.MT literacy means knowing how MT works, how the technology can be useful in a particular context, and what the implications are of using it for various purposes. As MT usage grows, the necessity for MT literacy also grows. This knowledge forms part of the greater need for digital literacies. In this contribution, we relate MT literacy to the concept of cognitive load in professional translation production and in translator training scenarios. We then move beyond the sphere of translation studies to examine other use-case settings—crisis communication, academic writing and patent publishing—to consider how MT can offer solutions and how MT literacy can impact cognitively in those settings. We discuss how training in MT literacy can empower language professionals and present two proposals for course content designed for MT users in other sectors

Eye Tracking as an Automatic MT Evaluation Technique

Eye tracking has been used successfully as a technique for measuring cognitive load in reading, psycholinguistics, writing, language acquisition etc for some time now. Its application as a technique for automatically measuring the reading ease of MT output has not yet, to our knowledge, been tested. We report here on a preliminary study testing the use and validity of an eye tracking methodology as a means of semi- and/or automatically evaluating machine translation output. 50 French machine translated sentences, 25 rated as excellent and 25 rated as poor in an earlier human evaluation, were selected. 10 native speakers of French were instructed to read the MT sentences for comprehensibility. Their eye gaze data were recorded non-invasively using a Tobii 1750 eye tracker. The average gaze time and fixation count were found to be higher for the “bad” sentences, while average fixation duration and pupil dilations were not found to be substantially different between output rated as good or bad. Comparisons between BLEU scores and eye gaze data were also made and found to correlate well with gaze time and fixation count, and to a lesser extent with pupil dilation and fixation duration. We conclude that the eye tracking data, in particular gaze time and fixation count, correlate reasonably well with human evaluation of MT output but fixation duration and pupil dilation may be less reliable indicators of reading difficulty for MT output. We also conclude that eye tracking has promise as an automatic MT Evaluation technique

Language diversity and inclusion in humanitarian organisations: mapping an NGO’s language capacity and identifying linguistic challenges and solutions

This article examines whether language diversity among staff in humanitarian organisations may affect inclusion and, if so, in what ways it does. We draw on the findings of a survey on staff’s language skills in the international NGO GOAL. We also draw parallels with practices noted in other international NGOs in previous research. Prior to the survey, data were lacking on the languages GOAL works in, which staff work multilingually, and whether gaps existed in language capacity and translation provision. The data provide evidence of the rich multilingual landscape in GOAL and reveal some patterns in the language use and multilingualism of staff. The survey investigates the notion that inclusion also has a linguistic dimension: staff and local communities speak a variety of languages, yet the main working language of the international humanitarian sector is English and, by extension, a handful of other major former colonial languages such as French and Spanish. Data-gathering such as that done in this study is important for two main reasons: without such data, INGOs cannot fully understand the level of exclusion that some of their staff may be facing because of language differences; and they are unable to grasp the extent to which they rely on the multilingual skills of their staff to provide ad hoc translation solutions that ensure effective communication and successful humanitarian assistance. The article aims to advance the debate on language challenges in the NGO sector by offering concrete data on informal translation and interpreting practices in one example that is representative of language practices in the international humanitarian sector. This contribution will hopefully encourage other international NGOs to collect similar data on language use and barriers that will help organisations to deal positively with the linguistic dimension of inclusiveness

Friedman tongue position and cone beam computed tomography in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139112/1/lio292.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139112/2/lio292_am.pd

Factors influencing health professionals' use of high-flow nasal cannula therapy for infants with bronchiolitis – A qualitative study

Aim: To explore the factors influencing the use of high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy for infants with bronchiolitis. Design: Qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. Methods: The semi-structured interviews (face-to-face or virtual) were conducted between September 2020 and February 2021. Deductive content analysis was used to map key influencing factors for use of HFNC therapy to the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). Results: Nineteen interviews were undertaken before reaching thematic saturation (7 nurses, 12 doctors) in emergency departments and paediatric wards from four purposively selected hospitals in Australia and New Zealand. Influencing factors were mapped to eight domains in the TDF with 21 themes identified. Main findings included: (1) Health professionals' expectations of HFNC therapy on patient deterioration, work of breathing and oxygenation; (2) Staff emotions relating to concern and anxiety about deterioration and “need to do something”; (3) Social influences from other health professionals and parents and (4) Environmental factors relating to logistics of care and patient transfer considerations. These factors, combined with the ready availability of HFNC equipment and health professionals having the required skills to administer the therapy, contributed to its initiation. Conclusion: Individual/personal and contextual/environmental factors contribute to the use of HFNC therapy for infants with bronchiolitis. It is evident these influences contribute substantially to increased use, despite evidence-based guidelines recommending a more nuanced approach to this therapy. These findings will inform a targeted implementation intervention to promote evidence-based use of HFNC therapy in infants with bronchiolitis

Eye tracking as an MT evaluation technique

Eye tracking has been used successfully as a technique for measuring cognitive load in reading, psycholinguistics, writing, language acquisition etc. for some time now. Its application as a technique for measuring the reading ease of MT output has not yet, to our knowledge, been tested. We report here on a preliminary study testing the use and validity of an eye tracking methodology as a means of semi-automatically evaluating machine translation output. 50 French machine translated sentences, 25 rated as excellent and 25 rated as poor in an earlier human evaluation, were selected. Ten native speakers of French were instructed to read the MT sentences for comprehensibility. Their eye gaze data were recorded non-invasively using a Tobii 1750 eye tracker. The average gaze time and fixation count were found to be higher for the “bad” sentences, while average fixation duration and pupil dilations were not found to be substantially different for output rated as good and output rated as bad. Comparisons between HTER scores and eye gaze data were also found to correlate well with gaze time and fixation count, but not with pupil dilation and fixation duration. We conclude that the eye tracking data, in particular gaze time and fixation count, correlate reasonably well with human evaluation of MT output but fixation duration and pupil dilation may be less reliable indicators of reading difficulty for MT output. We also conclude that eye tracking has promise as a semi-automatic MT evaluation technique, which does not require bi-lingual knowledge, and which can potentially tap into the end users’ experience of machine translation output