A Differentiable Generative Adversarial Network for Open Domain Dialogue

Paper presented at the IWSDS 2019: International Workshop on Spoken Dialogue Systems Technology, Siracusa, Italy, April 24-26, 2019This work presents a novel methodology to train open domain neural dialogue systems within the framework of Generative Adversarial Networks with gradient-based optimization methods. We avoid the non-differentiability related to text-generating networks approximating the word vector corresponding to each generated token via a top-k softmax. We show that a weighted average of the word vectors of the most probable tokens computed from the probabilities resulting of the top-k softmax leads to a good approximation of the word vector of the generated token. Finally we demonstrate through a human evaluation process that training a neural dialogue system via adversarial learning with this method successfully discourages it from producing generic responses. Instead it tends to produce more informative and variate ones.This work has been partially funded by the Basque Government under grant PRE_2017_1_0357, by the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU under grant PIF17/310, and by the H2020 RIA EMPATHIC (Grant N: 769872)

Neurobehavioral changes in people with post-stroke aphasia

At present, research on neurobehavioral disorders in people with post-stroke aphasia is scarce, especially in Spanish. The objective of this study is to design a new scale on neurobehavioral change, the Scale of Neurobehavioral Affectation in Aphasia (EANA, in Spanish) and to evaluate 14 people affected by chronic post-stroke aphasia (mean age: 51/ DT: 7.2) together with their main informants. At the same time, psychiatric (Neuropsychiatric Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Stroke Aphasic Depression Questionnaire), cognitive (Mini Mental State examination, Informer Test) and functional instruments (Stroke and Aphaisa Quality of Life Scale and Barthel Index) have been used to provide a multidimensional description of the affected persons. The results show statistically significant neurobehavioral changes in multiple domains. According to the EANA, those affected with post-stroke aphasia communicate with less frequently, show more introversion, shyness, dependence and apathy, behave in a more infantile manner ("makes me grimaces"), in addition to showing heightened anxiety and impulsivity. Finally, the informants report more aggressive acts, both verbal (insults) and physical (throwing objects, hitting both objects as persons), that did not occur before the stroke. According to the psychiatric instruments, many of the affected cope with anxiety, agitation and apathy, as well as mild depression. At a cognitive level, affected individuals show mild to moderate deficits, especially in working memory and temporal orientation. Functionally most individuals maintain a medium-high level of functional independence in daily activities. These findings support the inclusion of recommendations for the routine assessment and management of neurobehavioral changes to help optimize long-term recovery in people with stroke and aphasia.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

“Need to know” and the right temporal lobe: Impaired access to semantic knowledge in acquired obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Introduction : Idiopathic obsessive-compulsive disorder (I-OCD) has been linked to abnormalities in corticostriatal circuits. Few studies have examined if the same structures are also responsible of acquired OCD (A-OCD) or if damage to anatomically-connected brain regions (e.g., temporal lobes) are also implicated in its pathogenesis. Additionally, there are some discrete obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms that by virtue of their presumed low occurrence and difficultly of categorization have received less attention. Amongst these, one intriguing and potentially severe type of obsessive thinking is the so-called “need to know” (NtK), a strong drive to know and obtain given information. In some patients this specific symptom, presumably resulting from impaired access to conceptual knowledge for specific verbal information (proper names, names of places), may be the principal or major feature of OCD symptomatology. We here report the cases of two male patients who developed “NtK” as the only OC symptomatology in association with malignant neoplasms involving the right temporal lobe and connected corticostriatal circuits. Methods : We used Tractotron and Disconnectome map softwares in order to identify the regions of white matter damage overlap across both patients and the proportion of damage (lesion load) of each tract of interest for each patient. We quantified the severity of the disconnection by measuring the proportion of each tract of interest to be affected by each patient´s lesion by using Tractotron software. Additionally, Positron Emission Tomography was used in order to study metabolic abnormalities. The tracts of interest were: the uncinate fasciculus, the anterior commissure, the anterior thalamic radiations, the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus. Results : There was a high overlap across brain lesions in patients 1 and 2. There was also a high overlap between areas that were affected (disconnected) due to the lesion. As expected, all the a priori selected pathways in the right hemisphere were affected since they cross the anterior part of the temporal lobe. Disconnection maps and metabolic changes in our patients suggest that the expression of OC symptoms underpinned by a semantic deficit due to right temporal damage is secondary to involvement of the uncinate fasciculus linking the temporal pole with the orbitofrontal cortex. Discussion : Data from the present study concur with previous research on A-OCD and current findings in I-OCD which suggest that the temporal lobes participate in the phenomenological expression of OCD. Also, patients with lesions in the anterior temporal lobe are prone to show a specific “Need to Know” symptoms phenomenologically similar to patients with semantic dementia in later stages. The expression of OC symptoms underpinned by a semantic deficit because of anterior right temporal lobe lesion, are due to a disconnection of the uncinate fasciculus and the orbitofrontal cortex. Further research about the neurological underpinnings of specific OCD subtypes, its evaluation and treatment, are essential. References : Berthier ML et al. Neurology. (1996) 47: 353–61. Huey E et al. J Neuropsych Clin Neurosci (2008). 20(4):390-408 Keywords : Emotions & Social Cognition; patients; single case study; adults; psychiatric; lesion mapping, behavioural.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Aphasia with anatomical isolation of the language area: A reanalysis on the light of modern neuroimaging techniques

Introduction : Goldstein (1948) and Geschwind (1968), based in data derived from anatomical post-mortem studies, postulated that the disconnection of the perisylvian language areas (PSLA) from other cortical areas was responsible for impairments in spontaneous speech and language comprehension with preservation of verbal repetition and echolalia (isolation of speech area). Nevertheless, other mechanisms (right hemisphere or bilateral hypotheses) underlying echolalic repetition have been proposed. Herein, we examined the structure and function of the PSLAs in two cases of aphasia with echolalic repetition and isolation of the left PSLA. Methods : Two patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia associated to isolation of the left PSLA were studied. Both patients underwent cognitive-language assessment and multimodal imaging. In patient 1 (p1), structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), functional MRI (fMRI) during repetition of words and non-words, resting state fMRI (rsfMRI) were acquired, whereas only structural MRI was performed in patient 2 (p2). The Tractotron software was used to examine the severity of disconnection in each language-related white matter tract in both patients. We quantified the severity of the disconnection by measuring the proportion of each tract that was affected. 18FDG-PET was also acquired in both patients. Results : P1 had a mixed transcortical aphasia and p2 had a transcortical sensory/anomic aphasia. In both, the MRI showed separate left anterior and posterior lesions with relative preservation of the PSLA. In both, 18FDG-PET revealed significant decrements of metabolic activity in areas of the left PSLA, although some parts showed normal metabolic activity. In p1 the left arcuate fasciculus (AF) and the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculi (IFOF) could not be reconstructed. fMRI showed perilesional activity in the left hemisphere and increased activity in the right during word repetition. rsfMRI showed compensatory activity in both hemispheres (right greater than left). Analysis with the Tractotron software revealed disconnection of both the AF and the IFOF in the left hemisphere of both patients. Discussion : Although some parts of the left PSLA had preserved metabolic activity in both patients, our neuroimaging data revealed that preserved repetition ability did not rely exclusively on the residual activity of the left PSLA. In support, the connectivity between different components of the left PSLA was severely affected. This coupled with the increased metabolic activity of the right PSLA supports the bilateral hypothesis of residual repetition in transcortical aphasias. References : Goldstein, K. (1948). Language and Language Disturbances. Geschwind, et al. (1968). Neuropsychologia 6, 327–340.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

A multilingual neural coaching model with enhanced long-term dialogue structure

In this work we develop a fully data-driven conversational agent capable of carrying out motivational coach- ing sessions in Spanish, French, Norwegian, and English. Unlike the majority of coaching, and in general well-being related conversational agents that can be found in the literature, ours is not designed by hand- crafted rules. Instead, we directly model the coaching strategy of professionals with end users. To this end, we gather a set of virtual coaching sessions through a Wizard of Oz platform, and apply state of the art Natural Language Processing techniques. We employ a transfer learning approach, pretraining GPT2 neural language models and fine-tuning them on our corpus. However, since these only take as input a local dialogue history, a simple fine-tuning procedure is not capable of modeling the long-term dialogue strategies that appear in coaching sessions. To alleviate this issue, we first propose to learn dialogue phase and scenario embeddings in the fine-tuning stage. These indicate to the model at which part of the dialogue it is and which kind of coaching session it is carrying out. Second, we develop a global deep learning system which controls the long-term structure of the dialogue. We also show that this global module can be used to visualize and interpret the decisions taken by the the conversational agent, and that the learnt representations are comparable to dialogue acts. Automatic and human evaluation show that our proposals serve to improve the baseline models. Finally, interaction experiments with coaching experts indicate that the system is usable and gives rise to positive emotions in Spanish, French and English, while the results in Norwegian point out that there is still work to be done in fully data driven approaches with very low resource languages.This work has been partially funded by the Basque Government under grant PRE_2017_1_0357 and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 769872

Metal Accumulation by Jatropha curcas L. Adult Plants Grown on Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soil

Jatropha curcas has the ability to phytoextract high amounts of heavy metals during its first months just after seeding. Notwithstanding, there is scarce information about metal uptake by adult J. curcas plants. To shed light on this issue, 4-year-old J. curcas L. plants were planted in a soil mixture of peat moss and mining soil (high metals content), and the biomass growth and metal absorption during 90 days were compared with those of plants growing in peat moss. The main metal found in the mining soil was Fe (31985 mg kg-1) along with high amounts of As (23717 mg kg-1). After the 90-day phytoremediation, the plant removed 29% of Fe and 44% of As from the soil mixture. Results revealed that J. curcas L. translocated high amounts of metals to its aerial parts, so that translocation factors were much higher than 1. Because of the high translocation and bioaccumulation factors obtained, J. curcas L. can be regarded as a hyperaccumulator plant. Despite the great capacity of J. curcas L. to phytoremediate heavy-metal-contaminated soils, the main drawback is the subsequent handling of the metal-contaminated biomass, although some potential applications have been recently highlighted for this biomass.University of Seville (VIPPIT-2019-I.5

Murales de las bóvedas de la Basílica de la Purísima de Yecla

The projet that is shown below is about the performing of a study about a mural painting done by Manuel Muñoz Barberán in 1954 on the domes of the Basílica de la Purísima in the city of Yecla. It have been done a historical study of the building where are located the muals painting, attending to the iconography represented, the author on his historical context and the thechniques used. All of this whit a direct and organoleptic study, have allowed to evaluate the conditions of the ensemble paintings. The projet have been ended quoting the conclusions of which have been reached trough a study of the whole work, which will help in a future restoration.El trabajo que a continuación se presenta ha consistido en la realización de un estudio del mural realizado por Manuel Muñoz Barberán en 1954, situadas en las bóvedas de la Basílica Arcipestral de la Purísima Concepción, en la ciudad de Yecla. Se ha realizado un estudio histórico del inmueble en el que se encuentran los murales, y de la obra en sí misma, atendiendo a la iconografía representada, al autor y su contexto artístico y la posible técnica utilizada en su realización. Todo esto unido a un estudio organoléptico directo de la obra ha permitido evaluar el estado de conservación en el que se encuentra el conjunto mural. Se ha terminado el trabajo citando las conclusiones llevadas tras un estudio de todo el conjunto, las cuales ayudarán a la realización de una posible restauración.López Torres, M. (2014). Murales de las bóvedas de la Basílica de la Purísima de Yecla. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/49222.Archivo delegad

Turning the spotlight to cholinergic pharmacotherapy of the human language system

Even though language is essential in human communication, research on pharmacological therapies for language deficits in highly prevalent neurodegenerative and vascular brain diseases has received little attention. Emerging scientific evidence suggests that disruption of the cholinergic system may play an essential role in language deficits associated with Alzheimer's disease and vascular cognitive impairment, including post-stroke aphasia. Therefore, current models of cognitive processing are beginning to appraise the implications of the brain modulator acetylcholine in human language functions. Future work should be directed further to analyze the interplay between the cholinergic system and language, focusing on identifying brain regions receiving cholinergic innervation susceptible to modulation with pharmacotherapy to improve affected language domains. The evaluation of language deficits in pharmacological cholinergic trials for Alzheimer's disease and vascular cognitive impairment has thus far been limited to coarse-grained methods. More precise, fine-grained language testing is needed to refine patient selection for pharmacotherapy to detect subtle deficits in the initial phases of cognitive decline. Additionally, noninvasive biomarkers can help identify cholinergic depletion. However, despite the investigation of cholinergic treatment for language deficits in Alzheimer's disease and vascular cognitive impairment, data on its effectiveness are insufficient and controversial. In the case of post-stroke aphasia, cholinergic agents are showing promise, particularly when combined with speech-language therapy to promote trained-dependent neural plasticity. Future research should explore the potential benefits of cholinergic pharmacotherapy in language deficits and investigate optimal strategies for combining these agents with other therapeutic approaches.Funding for open access publishing: Universidad Málaga/CBUA. Guadalupe Dávila was supported by the Junta de Andalucía, Spain (Grant: P20_00501). Marcelo L. Berthier has been supportedby the European Social Fund (FEDER: EQC2018-004803-P). María José Torres-Prioris was supported by a Margarita Salas postdoctoral fellowship by the University of Malaga, funded by the European Union, NextGenerationEU, and the Spanish Ministerio de Universidades. Diana López-Barroso was supported by the Ayuda RYC2020-029495-I Ramón y Cajal funded by the MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by El FSE invierte en tu futuro; and by the Grant PID2021-127617NAI00 Proyecto de Generación de Conocimiento 2021 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FEDER Una manera de hacerEuropa. Funding for the open access charge: Universidad de Málaga/CBU