Can Authorship Attribution Models Distinguish Speakers in Speech Transcripts?

Authorship verification is the problem of determining if two distinct writing samples share the same author and is typically concerned with the attribution of written text. In this paper, we explore the attribution of transcribed speech, which poses novel challenges. The main challenge is that many stylistic features, such as punctuation and capitalization, are not available or reliable. Therefore, we expect a priori that transcribed speech is a more challenging domain for attribution. On the other hand, other stylistic features, such as speech disfluencies, may enable more successful attribution but, being specific to speech, require special purpose models. To better understand the challenges of this setting, we contribute the first systematic study of speaker attribution based solely on transcribed speech. Specifically, we propose a new benchmark for speaker attribution focused on conversational speech transcripts. To control for spurious associations of speakers with topic, we employ both conversation prompts and speakers' participating in the same conversation to construct challenging verification trials of varying difficulties. We establish the state of the art on this new benchmark by comparing a suite of neural and non-neural baselines, finding that although written text attribution models achieve surprisingly good performance in certain settings, they struggle in the hardest settings we consider

Local u'g'r'i'z' Standard Stars in the Chandra Deep Field-South

Because several observing programs are underway in various spectral regimes to explore the Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S), the value of local photometric standards is obvious. As part of an NOAO Surveys Program to establish u'g'r'i'z' standard stars in the southern hemisphere, we have observed the central region of the CDF-S to create local standards for use by other investigators using these filters. As a courtesy, we present the CDF-S standards to the public now, although the main program will not finish until mid-2005.Comment: Accepted by AJ (scheduled for October 2003 issue). 26 pages, 5 tables, 5 figures. High resolution version of Figure 7 available at http://home.fnal.gov/~dtucker/Southern_ugriz/index.htm

LP 400-22, A very low-mass and high-velocity white dwarf

We report the identification of LP 400-22 (WD 2234+222) as a very low-mass and high-velocity white dwarf. The ultraviolet GALEX and optical photometric colors and a spectral line analysis of LP 400-22 show this star to have an effective temperature of 11080+/-140 K and a surface gravity of log g = 6.32+/-0.08. Therefore, this is a helium core white dwarf with a mass of 0.17 M_solar. The tangential velocity of this white dwarf is 414+/-43 km/s, making it one of the fastest moving white dwarfs known. We discuss probable evolutionary scenarios for this remarkable object.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, made minor correction

Improved u′g′r′i′z′u'g'r'i'z' to UBVRCICUBVR_CI_C Transformation Equations for Main Sequence Stars

We report improved transformation equations between the $u'g'r'i'z'$ and $UBVR_CI_C$ photometric systems. Although the details of the transformations depend on luminosity class, we find a typical rms scatter on the order of 0.001 magnitude if the sample is limited to main sequence stars. Furthermore, we find an accurate transformation requires complex, multi-color dependencies for the bluer bandpasses. Results for giant stars will be reported in a subsequent paper.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

The Role of Socioeconomic Status, Race, and Gender in Patient-Reported Outcomes Following Total Hip Arthroplasty

Background Disparities in total joint arthroplasty are well-documented. However, much of the research regarding disparities in vulnerable populations receiving total hip arthroplasty (THA) have focused on short-term outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of race, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) on patient-reported outcomes six months following THA. Methods Electronic health record data were retrospectively analyzed for 269 individuals who underwent THA at a large urban hospital from 2013-16. Data retrieved included patient demographics, baseline health information, data regarding hospital length of stay when undergoing THA, post-operative complications, and patient-reported function, measured by the Harris Hip Score (HHS) at baseline (pre-operative) and six months post-operatively. Results Compared to White patients and male patients, non-White (p = .01) and female (p = .02) patients were lower-functioning prior to surgery. At six months post-operatively, White patients had significantly better function than non-White patients, (p = .05) and patients of higher SES had significantly better function than patients of lower SES (p = .05). Regression analyses revealed that, after controlling for race, gender, and SES, the only significant predictor of six-month improvement in HHS was the pre-operative HHS score (p \u3c .001). Conclusion These results indicate that female, non-White, and lower SES patients undergoing THA may have lower function pre-operatively and may not experience as much improvement in physical function post-operatively as their male, White, and higher SES counterparts. Further research is needed to determine if race, gender, and socioeconomic differences in pre-operative function lead to long-term disparities in function following THA, using larger sample sizes and outcomes beyond 6 months post-operatively

L’influence des présuppositions sur les témoignages sollicités par questions

Selon Loftus (1975), présupposer une information nouvelle auprès du témoin d’un événement pourrait influencer les témoignages subséquents de ce témoin. La présente étude tente de reproduire ces résultats dans une autre langue (le français) afin d’en apprendre davantage à propos des caractéristiques linguistiques favorisant ou défavorisant la désinformation. Nos soixante participant(e)s ont regardé une vidéo puis ont répondu à un questionnaire dans lequel était présupposée (a) une information vraie (b) une information fausse ou (c) aucune information. La semaine suivante, tous les participant(e)s ont reçu un second questionnaire qui ciblait l’information critique puis ont passé un test de mémoire de travail. Notre analyse (par régressions logistiques binomiales) est centrée sur la proportion de faux rapports selon la condition. Nos données montrent un effet significatif (p < 0,01) d’une présupposition vraie qui réduit le taux de faux rapports, ainsi qu’un effet non significatif (p = 0,09) des présuppositions fausses. Nous concluons que des questions posées après un événement peuvent influencer le rapport qu’en fera le témoin, mais que la supposition que cet effet serait universel ne rend pas compte des différences possibles selon la langue et la culture des participant(e)s. Finalement, nous discutons les implications de ces résultats pour les techniques d’interrogatoire actuelles à travers la francophonie qui pourraient menacer l’intégrité des témoignages judiciaires.Loftus (1975) and subsequent established that presupposing new information during witness questioning can influence subsequent eyewitness reports. We report on a study that attempts to replicate these results for another language (French) in order to better understand some of the factors that facilitate (or not) disinformation. Our sixty participants watched a video of an attempted robbery and answered questions in which the existence of an element was (a) a true presupposition, (b) a false presupposition, or (c) not presupposed. A week later, all participants received a second questionnaire where the critical information was questioned, followed by a working memory task and a demographic survey. Our analysis (by binomial logistic regression) tests the proportion of false responses to the second survey by condition. Our results show that presuppositions of true information significantly decrease the rate of false responses (p < .01) and that false presuppositions increase the rate of false responses, though not significantly (p = .09), as compared to the control condition. We conclude that while questions after an event will have an effect on witness reports, it is not valid to assume that the specific effects will be universal across languages and cultures. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results for various interview techniques used across Francophone nations that could diminish the integrity of judicial testimony

A unified analysis of the same, phrasal comparatives, and superlatives

We present a unified categorial analysis of several types of English comparative, superlative, and THE SAME/DIFFERENT (S/D) sentences, thereby accounting for parallels among these constructions first noted in Heim ms. Our analysis, couched in a linear-logic-based from of categorial grammar along the lines of Oehrle 1994, builds on the basic insights underlying Barker's (2007) `parasitic scope' analysis of internal readings of THE SAME, but is simpler and more general than Barker's. Ours is also the first unified analysis of all three kinds of phenomena. Our analysis of phrasal comparatives captures their essential similarity to associate-remnant S/D constructions such as ANNA READ THE SAME BOOK AS BILL

LP 133-373: A New Chromospherically Active Eclipsing dMe Binary with a Distant, Cool White Dwarf Companion

We report the discovery of the partially eclipsing binary LP 133-373. Nearly identical eclipses along with observed photometric colors and spectroscopy indicate that it is a pair of chromospherically active dM4 stars in a circular 1.6 day orbit. Light and velocity curve modeling to our differential photometry and velocity data show that each star has a mass and radius of 0.340+/-0.014 Msolar and 0.33+/-0.02 Rsolar. The binary is itself part of a common proper motion pair with LP 133-374, a cool DC or possible DA white dwarf with a mass of 0.49-0.82 Msolar, which would make the system at least 3 Gyr ol