Many uses, many annotations for large speech corpora: Switchboard and TDT as case studies

This paper discusses the challenges that arise when large speech corpora receive an ever-broadening range of diverse and distinct annotations. Two case studies of this process are presented: the Switchboard Corpus of telephone conversations and the TDT2 corpus of broadcast news. Switchboard has undergone two independent transcriptions and various types of additional annotation, all carried out as separate projects that were dispersed both geographically and chronologically. The TDT2 corpus has also received a variety of annotations, but all directly created or managed by a core group. In both cases, issues arise involving the propagation of repairs, consistency of references, and the ability to integrate annotations having different formats and levels of detail. We describe a general framework whereby these issues can be addressed successfully.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Mixed Media and Metaphor: An Analysis of the Performance Technologies Utilized in Drop and Decoder

This research examines two pieces composed by me: Drop, for string octet, strobe lights, and electronic sounds (2015), and Decoder, for MIDI drums, holographic projections, and electronic sounds (2017). Both works interrogate a particular manifestation of digital technology: in the case of Drop, strobe lights, and in Decoder, digital screens. This process involves unpacking the character, language, and associations of a particular technology, and exploring how human performance complements, opposes, and negotiates with these elements. My analysis highlights the influence of Post-Digitalism in my work and aims to show how mixed-media performance technologies function metaphorically, and how their influence can be traced from their physical presence on stage to notated gestures in performance

Stabilization of Existing Sheet Pile Cell in the Ohio River

An existing 40 foot diameter sheet pile cell (cell) was used to support a dry fly ash loading platform at an electrical power generating facility on the Ohio River. The cell was designed and constructed in 1986 for support of a coal barge unloading crane but was never put into service. The cell has leaned riverward several inches in the years after construction. Stability analysis indicated a less than adequate overturning factor of safety without any additional loads. The addition of the loading platform could result in an overturning failure. A stabilizing system which provided a horizontal stabilizing force of 750,000 lbs. was developed, designed and subsequently installed. The system included a tension belt steel channel bent about the cell circumference connected to two-1¾inch diameter high strength tension bars at each end. The tension bars extended 100 feet landward and were anchored to two pile caps. The pile caps were supported on a tripod of three-120 ton working load HP14x117 piles driven on a 4:1 batter. The horizontal stabilizing force for the cell originates from four-200 foot long rock anchors (20 foot long bonded length) installed in each pile cap at a nominal angle of 45- degrees from the horizontal. The tension belt channel elongated 3 inches during anchor proof testing while the strand anchors elongated approximately 18 inches. It was necessary to test the anchors in pairs to maintain a balanced loading condition on the tension belt channel, requiring adjusting and balancing the load in the anchors and tension bars continuously to maintain the pile caps in a neutral position. Each anchor proof-test required six hydraulic cylinders and four power packs operated simultaneously at different pressures. After each pair of anchors was proof-tested, the anchors were de-stressed until all pairs had been proof-tested. Then the anchors were reloaded in pairs and locked off at 50% of the 120 ton design load

The biology and conservation of the fish assemblage of the Severn Estuary (cSAC)

The Severn Estuary is the second largest estuary in the UK and has been designated a cSAC because it contains habitat types and species that are rare or threatened in Europe, including the anadromous river and sea lampreys and the twaite and allis shads. Extensive intertidal mud and sandflats support vast numbers of benthic invertebrates, fish and internationally important populations of wading birds. More than a hundred species of fish have been identified from the Severn Estuary and its seaward extension, the Bristol Channel. Most of our knowledge of the estuary’s fish community comes from individuals entrained on the cooling water-intake screens used at power stations sited along the English and Welsh shores. Fish abundance at Hinkley Point power station situated at the seaward margin of the estuary in Bridgewater Bay, has been monitored for more than 25 years and similar records are available from Oldbury power station from the 1970s and 1990s. These data have been used to describe the biology and ecology of the more abundant species of fish and crustaceans in the estuary.Power station samples have enabled factors that affect seasonal and annual variations in the abundance of individual species to be elucidated. The pattern of fish abundance that emerges is one in which sequential waves of different species enter the estuary at specific times of year. These seasonal changes in the fish assemblage are remarkably consistent, but the abundance of individual species can fluctuate markedly from year to year depending on breeding success, juvenile recruitment, changing temperatures, salinity and freshwater discharge. The most abundant species of fish consist primarily of the juveniles of marine species that utilise the estuary as a nursery that are termed marine estuarine-opportunists. Other life-cycle categories include marine stragglers and freshwater species that occasionally stray into estuarine waters, and anadromous and catadromous species that use the estuary as a migratory corridor. The report reviews the biology and ecology of 27 species that are dependant on the estuary for at least some part of their life-cycle and considers factors affecting their seasonal abundance, growth, behaviour and conservation status.Possible reasons for the marked increase in fish abundance that has occurred gradually since the 1970s and more rapidly since 2002 are discussed. The fact that sediment and water quality in the estuary has improved, particularly with regard to heavy metal contamination, may partly explain the increase in fish numbers, but increases in water temperature linked to climate change are likely to be very significant. Other factors that may adversely affect the fish community and threaten its stability include the proposal to construct a barrage across the estuary that will affect the distribution of sediment and interfere with the migratory activity of protected species. Of particular concern is the potential for turbine-induced mortality that is likely to be very significant for some migratory species and also for those marine estuarine-opportunists that show seasonal movements in and out of the estuary. The report concludes by summarising the health of the estuarine fish assemblage and makes recommendations for its future management and conservation

ATLAS: A flexible and extensible architecture for linguistic annotation

We describe a formal model for annotating linguistic artifacts, from which we derive an application programming interface (API) to a suite of tools for manipulating these annotations. The abstract logical model provides for a range of storage formats and promotes the reuse of tools that interact through this API. We focus first on ``Annotation Graphs,'' a graph model for annotations on linear signals (such as text and speech) indexed by intervals, for which efficient database storage and querying techniques are applicable. We note how a wide range of existing annotated corpora can be mapped to this annotation graph model. This model is then generalized to encompass a wider variety of linguistic ``signals,'' including both naturally occuring phenomena (as recorded in images, video, multi-modal interactions, etc.), as well as the derived resources that are increasingly important to the engineering of natural language processing systems (such as word lists, dictionaries, aligned bilingual corpora, etc.). We conclude with a review of the current efforts towards implementing key pieces of this architecture.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

MUSCLE ACTIVATION COMPARISON OF LEG PRESS AND BACK SQUAT BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

The purpose of this study was to examine gender differences in relative muscle activation and strength for the leg press and back squat. Experienced lifters (10 women, 9 men) completed a wide and narrow variation of each lift at their 10RM. EMG for 10 muscles (relative to maximum isometric activation) was compared. There was a significant difference in absolute strength between genders, but no difference in relative strength. No differences in muscle activation were found between wide and narrow stances, although some muscles had greater activity in the squat than the leg press. The only gender difference was women having significantly higher vastus lateralis relative activation regardless of lift. Overall, men and women seem to be similar in both relative strength and muscle activation