Atomic: an open-source software platform for multi-level corpus annotation

This paper presents Atomic, an open-source platform-independent desktop application for multi-level corpus annotation. Atomic aims at providing the linguistic community with a user-friendly annotation tool and sustainable platform through its focus on extensibility, a generic data model, and compatibility with existing linguistic formats. It is implemented on top of the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, a pluggable Java-based framework for creating client applications. Atomic - as a set of plug-ins for this framework - integrates with the platform and allows other researchers to develop and integrate further extensions to the software as needed. The generic graph-based meta model Salt serves as Atomic’s domain model and allows for unlimited annotation levels and types. Salt is also used as an intermediate model in the Pepper framework for conversion of linguistic data, which is fully integrated into Atomic, making the latter compatible with a wide range of linguistic formats. Atomic provides tools for both less experienced and expert annotators: graphical, mouse-driven editors and a command-line data manipulation language for rapid annotation

Entwicklung eines Konverterframeworks für linguistisch annotierte Daten auf Basis eines gemeinsamen (Meta-)modells

In this diploma thesis I present a framework to convert linguistic data coming from a specific linguistic format to other linguistic formats. This approach is based on a common meta-model, which is used as an intermediate step to decrease the number of necessary mappings.In the field of linguistic research recent years have seen an increasing usage of linguistically annotated textual data referred to as corpora. As corpora become increasingly large the need for computational support increases as well. A variety of tools and formats for the creation of corpora have therefore been developed to investigate and store information about a wide range of linguistic phenomena. Unfortunately, most tools can only process their own proprietary formats and are often unable to import and export data in other desirable formats. To handle the consequent jungle of formats, I develop a framework to convert data coming from several formats into other formats. The framework contains the universal converter Pepper based on a common meta-model for linguistic annotated data called Salt. I present the two framework components and describe how the mappings from and to each of the investigated formats is achieved through the Salt meta-model

A model oriented approach to the mapping of annotation formats using standards.

International audienceIn this paper, we present, SALT, a framework for mapping heterogeneous linguistic formats from one another based on a model-based approach, i.e. independently of the actual formats in which the corresponding linguistic data is being expressed. While we describe the underlying concept of this framework, we identify how it echoes past ongoing standardisation activities within ISO committee TC 37/SC 4, and in particular, the possible conceptual equivalences with ISO CD 24612 (LAF) combined with ISO 24610-1 (FSR), as well as the possible role of the central data category registry (ISOCat), currently under deployment. We thus show the adequacy of our methodology and its capacity to integrate a wide range of possible linguistic annotation models

PAULA XML Documentation

PAULA XML or PAULA for short (Potsdamer AUstauschformat Linguistischer Annotationen, 'Potsdam Exchange Format for Linguistic Annotations') is a standoff XML format designed to represent a wide range of linguistically annotated textual and multi-modal corpora. The format was created at Potsdam University and developed within SFB 632, the collaborative research centre "Information Structure", subproject D1, "Linguistic Database" at Potsdam University and Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin. The description below represents the normative documentation for PAULA version 1.1, with some notes on previous versions of PAULA. For the latest documentation always check the PAULA Website which also contains an online HTML version of this documentation

<tiger2/> - Serialising the ISO SynAF Syntactic Object Model

International audienceThis paper introduces , an XML format developed to serialise the object model defined by the ISO Syntactic Annotation Framework SynAF. Based on widespread best practices we adapt a popular XML format for syntactic annotation, TigerXML, with additional features to support a variety of syntactic phenomena including constituent and dependency structures, binding, and different node types such as compounds or empty elements. We also define interfaces to other formats and standards including the Morpho-syntactic Annotation Framework MAF and the ISOCat Data Category Registry. Finally a case study of the German Treebank TueBa-D/Z is presented, showcasing the handling of constituent structures, topological fields and coreference annotation in tandem

[Tiger2/] Documentation

This report presents the main components of the Tiger2 format for the representation of syntactic annotations for linguistic data. Derived from the existing Tiger format and in compliance with ISO standard 24615 (SynAF), it offers mechanisms covering the wide range of constituency and dependency annotations

Collaborative machine translation service for scientific texts

© 2012 The Authors. Published by ACL. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/E12-2003French researchers are required to frequently translate into French the description of their work published in English. At the same time, the need for French people to access articles in English, or to international researchers to access theses or papers in French, is incorrectly resolved via the use of generic translation tools. We propose the demonstration of an end-to-end tool integrated in the HAL open archive for enabling efficient translation for scientific texts. This tool can give translation suggestions adapted to the scientific domain, improving by more than 10 points the BLEU score of a generic system. It also provides a post-edition service which captures user post-editing data that can be used to incrementally improve the translations engines. Thus it is helpful for users which need to translate or to access scientific texts

Predisposing and precipitating risk factors for delirium in gastroenterology and hepatology: Subgroup analysis of 718 patients from a hospital-wide prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Delirium is the most common acute neuropsychiatric syndrome in hospitalized patients. Higher age and cognitive impairment are known predisposing risk factors in general hospital populations. However, the interrelation with precipitating gastrointestinal (GI) and hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) diseases remains to be determined. PATIENTS AND METHODS Prospective 1-year hospital-wide cohort study in 29'278 adults, subgroup analysis in 718 patients hospitalized with GI/HPB disease. Delirium based on routine admission screening and a DSM-5 based construct. Regression analyses used to evaluate clinical characteristics of delirious patients. RESULTS Delirium was detected in 24.8% (178/718). Age in delirious patients (median 62 years [IQR 21]) was not different to non-delirious (median 60 years [IQR 22]), p = 0.45). Dementia was the strongest predisposing factor for delirium (OR 66.16 [6.31-693.83], p < 0.001). Functional impairment, and at most, immobility increased odds for delirium (OR 7.78 [3.84-15.77], p < 0.001). Patients with delirium had higher in-hospital mortality rates (18%; OR 39.23 [11.85-129.93], p < 0.001). From GI and HPB conditions, cirrhosis predisposed to delirium (OR 2.11 [1.11-4.03], p = 0.023), while acute renal failure (OR 4.45 [1.61-12.26], p = 0.004) and liver disease (OR 2.22 [1.12-4.42], p = 0.023) were precipitators. Total costs were higher in patients with delirium (USD 30003 vs. 10977; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION Delirium in GI- and HPB-disease was not associated with higher age per se, but with cognitive and functional impairment. Delirium needs to be considered in younger adults with acute renal failure and/or liver disease. Clinicians should be aware about individual risk profiles, apply preventive and supportive strategies early, which may improve outcomes and lower costs

TMS- EEG Signatures of GABAergic Neurotransmission in the Human Cortex

Combining transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalography (EEG) constitutes a powerful tool to directly assess human cortical excitability and connectivity. TMS of the primary motor cortex elicits a sequence of TMS-evoked EEG potentials (TEPs). It is thought that inhibitory neurotransmission through GABA-A receptors (GABAAR) modulates early TEPs (<50 ms after TMS), whereas GABA-B receptors (GABABR) play a role for later TEPs (at ∼100 ms after TMS). However, the physiological underpinnings of TEPs have not been clearly elucidated yet. Here, we studied the role of GABAA/B-ergic neurotransmission for TEPs in healthy subjects using a pharmaco-TMS-EEG approach. In Experiment 1, we tested the effects of a single oral dose of alprazolam (a classical benzodiazepine acting as allosteric-positive modulator at α1, α2, α3, and α5 subunit-containing GABAARs) and zolpidem (a positive modulator mainly at the α1 GABAAR) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. In Experiment 2, we tested the influence of baclofen (a GABABR agonist) and diazepam (a classical benzodiazepine) versus placebo on TEPs. Alprazolam and diazepam increased the amplitude of the negative potential at 45 ms after stimulation (N45) and decreased the negative component at 100 ms (N100), whereas zolpidem increased the N45 only. In contrast, baclofen specifically increased the N100 amplitude. These results provide strong evidence that the N45 represents activity of α1-subunit-containing GABAARs, whereas the N100 represents activity of GABABRs. Findings open a novel window of opportunity to study alteration of GABAA-/GABAB-related inhibition in disorders, such as epilepsy or schizophrenia