Overview of VideoCLEF 2009: New perspectives on speech-based multimedia content enrichment

VideoCLEF 2009 offered three tasks related to enriching video content for improved multimedia access in a multilingual environment. For each task, video data (Dutch-language television, predominantly documentaries) accompanied by speech recognition transcripts were provided. The Subject Classification Task involved automatic tagging of videos with subject theme labels. The best performance was achieved by approaching subject tagging as an information retrieval task and using both speech recognition transcripts and archival metadata. Alternatively, classifiers were trained using either the training data provided or data collected from Wikipedia or via general Web search. The Affect Task involved detecting narrative peaks, defined as points where viewers perceive heightened dramatic tension. The task was carried out on the “Beeldenstorm” collection containing 45 short-form documentaries on the visual arts. The best runs exploited affective vocabulary and audience directed speech. Other approaches included using topic changes, elevated speaking pitch, increased speaking intensity and radical visual changes. The Linking Task, also called “Finding Related Resources Across Languages,” involved linking video to material on the same subject in a different language. Participants were provided with a list of multimedia anchors (short video segments) in the Dutch-language “Beeldenstorm” collection and were expected to return target pages drawn from English-language Wikipedia. The best performing methods used the transcript of the speech spoken during the multimedia anchor to build a query to search an index of the Dutch language Wikipedia. The Dutch Wikipedia pages returned were used to identify related English pages. Participants also experimented with pseudo-relevance feedback, query translation and methods that targeted proper names

Field-Weighted XML Retrieval Based on BM25.

This is the first year for the Centre for Interactive Systems Research participation of INEX. Based on a newly developed XML indexing and retrieval system on Okapi, we extend Robertson’s field-weighted BM25F for document retrieval to element level retrieval function BM25E. In this paper, we introduce this new function and our experimental method in detail, and then show how we tuned weights for our selected fields by using INEX 2004 topics and assessments. Based on the tuned models we submitted our runs for CO.Thorough, CO.FetchBrowse, the methods we propose show real promise. Existing problems and future work are also discussed

Using Multiple Choice Questions to Assist Learning for Information Retrieval

A key issue in teaching and learning in information retrieval – particularly for library and information science students – is the gap in prior knowledge compared with the need for mathematics to conduct and evaluate searches. In this chapter, we examine the use of online Multiple Choice Questions to support these type of students, and narrow this gap between experience and knowledge. We provide some background in terms of related work and the use of MCQ’s for assessment. The key areas of search which can be supported by this form of assessment are defined, and these are used to outline a proposed strategy for defining a series of questions to support learning

Context Matters: An Analysis of assessments of XML Documents

The paper analyses searchers’ assessments of usefulness and specificity on different levels of granularity in XML-coded documents. Documents are assessed on 10 usefulness/specificity combinations and on the granularity levels of article, section, and subsection. Overlapping judgements show a remarkable lack of consistency between searchers. There is an inverse relationship between articles and sections both in the assessment of specificity and of usefulness, indicating that retrieval on different granularity levels are a useful feature of a retrieval system. Searchers find the full article more useful when they assess the same document both on the article and section level indicating that there is a need to provide context to the sections and subsections when presenting result list of XML-documents

Evaluation of commercial and automated SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgA ELISAs using coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient samples

Antibody-screening methods to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) need to be validated. We evaluated SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgA ELISAs in conjunction with the EUROLabworkstation (Euroimmun, Lubeck, Germany). Overall specificities were 91.9% and 73.0% for IgG and IgA ELISAs, respectively. Of 39 coronavirus disease patients, 13 were IgG and IgA positive and 11 IgA alone at sampling. IgGs and IgAs were respectively detected at a median of 12 and 11 days after symptom onset.Peer reviewe

Heterologous boosting of nonrelated toxoid immunity during acute Puumala hantavirus infection

Persistence of immune memory in humans is a crucial yet poorly understood aspect of immunology. Here we have studied the effect of Puumala hantavirus infection on unrelated, pre-existing immune memory by studying T cell- and antibody responses against toxoid vaccine antigens of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in a cohort of 45 patients. We found that tetanus- and pertussis-specific IgG concentrations elevate during acute Puumala virus infection. Increase in vaccine IgG was associated with proliferation of heterologous T cells. Interestingly, increases in tetanus-specific IgG persisted a year after the infection while pertussis-specific IgG declined rapidly; a difference in IgG kinetics resembling the difference seen after vaccination against tetanus and pertussis. These results suggest that persistence of immune memory is facilitated by heterologous boosting of old memory during memory formation against newly encountered antigens. They also show that different toxoid antigens may be treated differently. Our study gives new insight into how immune memory formation may alter pre-existing immune memory, and also shows that heterologous immunity may have an impact on vaccination outcomes. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Using Proximity and Tag Weights for Focused Retrieval in Structured Documents

International audienceFocused information retrieval is concerned with the retrieval of small units of information. In this context, the structure of the documents as well as the proximity among query terms have been found useful for improving retrieval effectiveness. In this article, we propose an approach combining the proximity of the terms and the tags which mark these terms. Our approach is based on a Fetch and Browse method where the fetch step is performed with BM25 and the browse step with a structure enhanced proximity model. In this way, the ranking of a document depends not only upon the existence of the query terms within the document but also upon the tags which mark these terms. Thus, the document tends to be highly relevant when query terms are close together and are emphasized by tags. The evaluation of this model on a large XML structured collection provided by the INEX 2010 XML IR evaluation campaign shows that the use of term proximity and structure improves the retrieval effectiveness of BM25 in the context of focused information retrieval

Laboratory-based surveillance of COVID-19 in the Greater Helsinki area, Finland, February-June 2020

Objectives: The aim was to characterise age-and sex-specific severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus disease-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RT-PCR sampling frequency and positivity rate in Greater Helsinki area in Finland during February & ndash;June 2020. We also describe the laboratory capacity building for these diagnostics. Methods: Laboratory registry data for altogether 80,791 specimens from 70,517 individuals was analysed. The data included the date of sampling, sex, age and the SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test result on specimens collected between 1 February and 15 June 2020. Results: Altogether, 4057/80,791 (5.0%) of the specimens were positive and 3915/70,517 (5.6%) of the individuals were found positive. In all, 37% of specimens were from male and 67% from female subjects. While the number of positive cases was similar in male and female subjects, the positivity rate was significantly higher in male subjects: 7.5% of male and 4.4% of female subjects tested positive. The highest incidence/100,000 was observed in those aged >80 years. The proportion of young adults in positive cases increased in late May 2020. Large dips in testing frequency were observed during every weekend and also during public holidays. Conclusions: Our data suggest that men pursue SARS-CoV-2 testing less frequently than women. Consequently, a subset of coronavirus disease-2019 infections in men may have gone undetected. People sought testing less frequently on weekends and public holidays, and this may also lead to missing of positive cases. The proportion of young adults in positive cases increased towards the end of the study period, which may suggest their returning back to social behaviour with an increased risk of infection. (c) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Real-life clinical sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test in symptomatic patients

Background Understanding the false negative rates of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing is pivotal for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and it has implications for patient management. Our aim was to determine the real-life clinical sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR. Methods This population-based retrospective study was conducted in March-April 2020 in the Helsinki Capital Region, Finland. Adults who were clinically suspected of SARS-CoV-2 infection and underwent SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing, with sufficient data in their medical records for grading of clinical suspicion were eligible. In addition to examining the first RT-PCR test of repeat-tested individuals, we also used high clinical suspicion for COVID-19 as the reference standard for calculating the sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR. Results All 1,194 inpatients (mean [SD] age, 63.2 [18.3] years; 45.2% women) admitted to COVID-19 cohort wards during the study period were included. The outpatient cohort of 1,814 individuals (mean [SD] age, 45.4 [17.2] years; 69.1% women) was sampled from epidemiological line lists by systematic quasi-random sampling. The sensitivity (95% CI) for laboratory confirmed cases (repeat-tested patients) was 85.7% (81.5-89.1%) inpatients; 95.5% (92.2-97.5%) outpatients, 89.9% (88.2-92.1%) all. When also patients that were graded as high suspicion but never tested positive were included in the denominator, the sensitivity (95% CI) was: 67.5% (62.9-71.9%) inpatients; 34.9% (31.4-38.5%) outpatients; 47.3% (44.4-50.3%) all. Conclusions The clinical sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing was only moderate at best. The relatively high false negative rates of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing need to be accounted for in clinical decision making, epidemiological interpretations, and when using RT-PCR as a reference for other tests.Peer reviewe