142 research outputs found
HCI for the deaf community: developing human-like avatars for sign language synthesis
With ever increasing computing power and advances in 3D
animation technologies it is no surprise that 3D avatars for sign language (SL) generation are advancing too. Traditionally these avatars have been driven by somewhat expensive and inflexible motion capture technologies and perhaps this is the reason avatars do not feature in all but a few user interfaces (UIs). SL synthesis is a competing technology that is less costly, more versatile and
may prove to be the answer to the current lack of access for the Deaf in HCI. This paper outlines the current state of the art in SL synthesis for HCI and how we propose to advance this by improving avatar quality and realism with a view to ameliorating communication and computer interaction for the Deaf community as part of a wider localisation project
Mitigating problems in analogy-based EBMT with SMT and vice versa: a case study with named entity transliteration
Five years ago, a number of papers reported an experimental implementation of an Example Based Machine Translation (EBMT) system using proportional analogy. This approach, a type of analogical learning, was attractive because of its simplicity; and the paper reported considerable success with the method using various language pairs. In this paper, we describe our attempt to use this approach for tackling EnglishâHindi Named Entity (NE) Transliteration. We have implemented our own EBMT system using proportional analogy and have found that the analogy-based system on its own has low precision but a high recall due to the fact that a large number of names are untransliterated with the approach. However, mitigating problems in analogy-based EBMT with SMT and vice-versa have shown considerable improvement over the individual approach
Statistically motivated example-based machine translation using translation memory
In this paper we present a novel way of integrating Translation Memory into an Example-based Machine translation System (EBMT) to deal with the issue of low
resources. We have used a dialogue of 380 sentences as the example-base for our system. The translation units in the
Translation Memories are automatically extracted based on the aligned phrases (words) of a statistical machine translation (SMT) system. We attempt to use the approach to improve translation from English to Bangla as many statistical machine translation systems have difficulty
with such small amounts of training data. We have found the approach shows improvement over a baseline SMT system
Building a sign language corpus for use in machine translation
In recent years data-driven methods of machine translation (MT) have overtaken rule-based approaches as the predominant means of automatically translating between languages. A pre-requisite for such an approach is a parallel corpus of the source and target languages. Technological developments in sign language (SL) capturing, analysis and processing tools now mean that SL corpora are
becoming increasingly available. With transcription and language analysis tools being mainly designed and used for linguistic purposes, we describe the process of creating a multimedia parallel corpus specifically for the purposes of English to Irish Sign Language (ISL) MT. As part of our larger project on localisation, our research is focussed on developing assistive technology for patients with limited English in the domain of healthcare. Focussing on the first point of contact a patient has with a GPâs office, the
medical secretary, we sought to develop a corpus from the dialogue between the two parties when scheduling an appointment. Throughout the development process we have created one parallel corpus in six different modalities from this initial dialogue. In this paper we discuss the multi-stage process of the development of this parallel corpus as individual and interdependent entities, both for
our own MT purposes and their usefulness in the wider MT and SL research domains
Mitigating Problems in Analogy-based EBMT with SMT and vice versa: a Case Study with Named Entity Transliteration
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No abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58017/1/23350_ftp.pd
Brief of Amici Curiae National Health Law Program and National Network of Abortion Funds Supporting Petitioners-Cross-Respondents
Autoimmune diseases co-occurring within individuals and within families: a systematic review
BACKGROUND: Autoimmune diseases have been observed to coexist both within individuals and within families. It is unclear whether clinical reports of comorbid autoimmune diseases represent chance findings or true associations. This systematic review evaluates the current level of evidence on the coexistence of selected autoimmune diseases within individuals and families. We reviewed the associations among 4 TH1-associated autoimmune diseases: insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, autoimmune (Hashimoto) thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. METHODS: Studies quantifying the coexistence between the selected diseases, published through March 2004, were identified from Medline and Embase searches. Study eligibility was determined on the basis of preestablished criteria, and relevant data were extracted according to a fixed protocol. We determined the prevalence of comorbid autoimmune disease according to index disease and then compiled summary statistics. Heterogeneity among studies was assessed by exact likelihood ratio tests and Monte Carlo inference. RESULTS: We found 54 studies that met the eligibility criteria. Of these, 52 studies examined the coexistence of disease within individuals and 9 studies examined within-family associations. The majority of studies were uncontrolled and did not account for confounding factors. There was substantial evidence for heterogeneity among studies. Although inconclusive, the data appear to support an increased prevalence of autoimmune thyroiditis among patients with rheumatoid arthritis and those with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and an inverse association between rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. CONCLUSION: Although the available evidence does not permit firm conclusions regarding comorbidities among the selected autoimmune diseases, results are sufficiently suggestive to warrant further study.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60328/1/somers_autoimmune.pd
Incidence of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in the United Kingdom, 1990-1999
Objective. To estimate the annual incidence of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) over a 10-year period in the UK, and to examine age-, sex-, and region-specific rates. Methods. The study was based on the UK General Practice Research Database (GPRD), which covers 5% of the UK population. We estimated SLE incidence rates, during the period 1990â1999, among persons registered with practices contributing to the GPRD, representing >33 million person-years of observation. Results. A total of 1,638 patients with incident SLE (1,374 females, 264 males) were identified. The age-standardized SLE incidence in the UK during the 1990s was 7.89 per 100,000 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 7.46, 8.31) for females and 1.53 per 100,000 (95% CI 1.34, 1.71) for males (overall female-to-male ratio 5.2:1). Peak incidence occurred at age 50â54 years for females and 70â74 years for males. There was a small but insignificant increase of SLE incidence over the 10 years among females but not males. No clear association between latitude and SLE incidence was found, but regional variations existed, with age-standardized rates ranging from 3.56 per 100,000 (95% CI 3.00, 4.13) for the West Midlands to 7.62 per 100,000 (95% CI 5.59, 9.65) for Northern Ireland. Conclusion. This study provides updated estimates of SLE incidence in the UK. Standard methodology throughout the study period and target population allowed for comparison of rates over time and across regions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60248/1/1_ftp.pd
âIâm not your motherâ: British social realism, neoliberalism and the maternal subject in Sally Wainwrightâs Happy Valley (BBC1 2014-2016)
This article examines Sally Wainwright's Happy Valley (BBC1, 2014â2016) in the context of recent feminist attempts to theorise the idea of a maternal subject. Happy Valley, a police series set in an economically disadvantaged community in West Yorkshire, has been seen as expanding the genre of British social realism, in its focus on strong Northern women, by giving it âa female voiceâ (Gorton, 2016: 73). I argue that its challenge is more substantial. Both the tradition of British social realism on which the series draws, and the neoliberal narratives of the family which formed the discursive context of its production, I argue, are founded on a social imaginary in which the mother is seen as responsible for the production of the selves of others, but cannot herself be a subject. The series itself, however, places at its centre an active, articulate, mobile and angry maternal subject. In so doing, it radically contests both a tradition of British social realism rooted in male nostalgia and more recent neoliberal narratives of maternal guilt and lifestyle choice. It does this through a more fundamental contestation: of the wider cultural narratives about selfhood and the maternal that underpin both. Its reflective maternal subject, whose narrative journey involves acceptance of an irrecoverable loss, anger and guilt as a crucial aspect of subjectivity, and who embodies an ethics of relationality, is a figure impossible in conventional accounts of subject and nation. She can be understood, however, in terms of recent feminist theories of the maternal
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