Integration of speech with natural language understanding.

The integration of speech recognition with natural language understanding raises issues of how to adapt natural language processing to the characteristics of spoken language; how to cope with errorful recognition output, including the use of natural language information to reduce recognition errors; and how to use information from the speech signal, beyond just the sequence of words, as an aid to understanding. This paper reviews current research addressing these questions in the Spoken Language Program sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). I begin by reviewing some of the ways that spontaneous spoken language differs from standard written language and discuss methods of coping with the difficulties of spontaneous speech. I then look at how systems cope with errors in speech recognition and at attempts to use natural language information to reduce recognition errors. Finally, I discuss how prosodic information in the speech signal might be used to improve understanding.

Functional activation of the human ventrolateral frontal cortex during mnemonic retrieval of verbal information.

Regional cerebral blood flow was measured with positron emission tomography during the performance of a verbal free recall task, a verbal paired associate task, and tasks that required the production of verbal responses either by speaking or writing. Examination of the differences in regional cerebral blood flow between these conditions demonstrated that the left ventrolateral frontal cortical area 45 is involved in the recall of verbal information from long-term memory, in addition to its contribution to speech. The act of writing activated a network of areas involving posterior parietal cortex and sensorimotor areas but not ventrolateral frontal cortex.

Mechanisms underlying the sensitivity of songbird forebrain neurons to temporal order.

Neurons in the songbird forebrain area HVc (hyperstriatum ventrale pars caudale or high vocal center) are sensitive to the temporal structure of the bird's own song and are capable of integrating auditory information over a period of several hundred milliseconds. Extracellular studies have shown that the responses of some HVc neurons depend on the combination and temporal order of syllables from the bird's own song, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying these response properties. To investigate these mechanisms, we recorded intracellular responses to a set of auditory stimuli designed to assess the degree of dependence of the responses on temporal context. This report provides evidence that HVc neurons encode information about temporal structure by using a variety of mechanisms including syllable-specific inhibition, excitatory postsynaptic potentials with a range of different time courses, and burst-firing nonlinearity. The data suggest that the sensitivity of HVc neurons to temporal combinations of syllables results from the interactions of several cells and does not arise in a single step from afferent inputs alone.

Alterações dos estados de ânimo presentes de jovens atletas de futebol em função do decurso temporal durante um período competitivo

São escassos os estudos que analisam o contínuo temporal dos estados de ânimo ao longo de um período competitivo esportivo. Embora os estados de ânimo pareçam estáveis ao longo do tempo, diferentes estímulos e contextos presentes modificam a intensidade e a valência desses estados. Além disso, há fenômenos psicológicos como decaimento, em que traços de informação perdem sua ativação devido, principalmente, à passagem do tempo e a expectativa, que é a espera pela ocorrência de um evento em um determinado tempo. O objetivo desse estudo foi examinar as alterações dos estados de ânimo em jovens atletas de futebol, separados por posição e função, que ocorreram num período competitivo, em função do decurso temporal. Assim, processos como decaimento dos estados de ânimo e a influência da expectativa pela ocorrência jogo foram analisados, bem como a influência do contexto nas variações dos estados de ânimo dos atletas. Participaram deste estudo 18 jovens atletas (média de 15,4 anos ± 0,266) de um clube de futebol que estava disputando um campeonato estadual. Para o acesso aos estados de ânimo, foi utilizada a versão reduzida da Lista de Estados de Ânimo Presentes (LEAP), juntamente com um formulário de instruções de preenchimento, aplicada minutos antes de alguns treinamentos e jogos. Foram calculados os valores de presença de cada Fator da LEAP em cada evento para cada participante. Os dados foram coletados em três tipos de Eventos: antes do último treino antecedente ao jogo (Treino-Pré), antes do jogo (Pré-jogo) e antes do primeiro treino subsequente ao jogo (Treino-Pós). Os 18 jogadores foram divididos em dois grupos: Ações Defensivas (AD) e Ações Ofensivas (AO). Foram encontrados padrões de alteração dos estados de ânimo, representados pelos Fatores II (Fadiga), VII (Interesse) e XII (Serenidade) da LEAP, em função do decurso temporal, permitindo a análise dos processos de decaimento desses estados de ânimo e a influência da expectativa nessas alterações. Também foi encontrado que alguns estados de ânimo diferiram seus padrões de alteração de acordo com um intervalo temporal (Fatores IV Limerência/Empatia e; VII Interesse), bem como tiveram valores de presença diferentes na comparação entre esses intervalos. Além disso, os Fatores III (Esperança), V (Fisiológico) e XI (Receptividade) apresentaram padrões de alteração em função do decurso temporal em diferentes intervalos temporais. Variáveis contextuais, como o resultado das partidas e a competição esportiva em si, também foram influentes nessas alterações. Fadiga, esperança, empatia, estados ligados à propriocepção, interesse, receptividade e serenidade foram os estados de ânimo presentes durante todo o estudo. Ressalta-se a importância de incluir a temporalidade como variável influente nos modelos de variação de processos neurobiológicos, sobretudo nas investigações acerca de aspectos subjetivos como os estados de ânimo.

O efeito da estimulação top-down e bottom-up no potencial evocado auditivo de tronco encefálico com estímulo complexo

Introdução: Crianças com transtorno fonológico (TF) apresentam dificuldade na percepção de fala, em processar estímulos acústicos quando apresentados de forma rápida e em sequência. A percepção dos sons complexos da fala, dependem da integridade no processo de codificação analisado pelo Sistema Nervoso Auditivo. Por meio do Potencial Evocado Auditivo de Tronco Encefálico com estímulo complexo (PEATEc) é possível investigar a representação neural dos sons em níveis corticais e obter informações diretas sobre como a estrutura do som da sílaba falada é codificada no sistema auditivo. Porém, acredita-se que esse potencial sofre interferências tanto de processos bottom-up quanto top-down, o que não se sabe é quanto e como cada um desses processos modifica as respostas do PEATEc. Uma das formas de investigar a real influência dos aspectos top-down e bottom-up nos resultados do PEATEc é estimulando separadamente esses dois processos por meio do treinamento auditivo e da terapia fonoaudiológica. Objetivo: Verificar o impacto da estimulação sensorial (processamento bottom-up) e cognitiva (processamento top-down), separadamente, nos diferentes domínios da resposta eletrofisiológica do PEATEc. Método: Participaram deste estudo 11 crianças diagnosticadas com TF, com idades entre 7 e 10:11, submetidas a avaliação comportamental e eletrofisiológica e então dividas nos grupos Bottom-up (B-U) (N=6) e Top-down T-D (N=5). A estimulação bottom-up foi voltada ao treinamento das habilidades sensoriais, através de softwares de computador. A estimulação top-down foi realizada por meio de tarefas para estimular as habilidades cognitiva por meio do Programa de Estimulação Fonoaudiológica (PEF). Ambas as estimulações foram aplicadas uma vez por semana, num período de aproximadamente 45 minutos por 12 semanas. Resultados: O grupo B-U apresentou melhoras em relação aos domínios onset e harmônicos e no valor da pontuação do escore após ser submetido à estimulação bottom-up. Por sua vez, após serem submetidos à estimulação top-down, o grupo T-D apresentou melhoras em relação aos domínios onset, espectro-temporal, fronteiras do envelope e harmônicos e para os valores da pontuação do escore. Conclusão: Diante dos resultados obtidos neste estudo, foi possível observar que a estimulação sensorial (processamento bottom-up) e a estimulação cognitiva (processamento top-down) mostraram impactar de forma diferente a resposta eletrofisiológica do PEATEc

An Independent Art Movement: The Independent Artist, Community Television, and the Age of Information

The history of community television shows that it has been a home to activist and non-profit organizations that have created programs focused on freedom of speech. This project proposes that community television is also a place where artists can have freedom of artistic expression. The reflective paper reviews the creation of my film designed to inform and attract artists to community television. In it I critically reflect on the artistic, technical, artistic/technical, and production changes made throughout my journey from being a visual artist to becoming a video-artist. The reflective paper, along with the film, act as a wake-up call to artists who are unaware of community television and the advantages it has to offer them.

Recognizing and tagging temporal expressions in Spanish

This paper shows a system about the recognition of temporal expressions in Spanish and the resolution of their temporal reference. For the identification and recognition of temporal expressions we have based on a temporal expression grammar and for the resolution on an inference engine, where we have the information necessary to do the date operation based on the recognized expressions. For further information treatment, the output is proposed by means of XML tags in order to add standard information of the resolution obtained. Different kinds of annotation of temporal expressions are explained in another articles [WILSON2001][KATZ2001]. In the evaluation of our proposal we have obtained successful results.

Enhancing QA systems with complex temporal question processing capabilities

This paper presents a multilayered architecture that enhances the capabilities of current QA systems and allows different types of complex questions or queries to be processed. The answers to these questions need to be gathered from factual information scattered throughout different documents. Specifically, we designed a specialized layer to process the different types of temporal questions. Complex temporal questions are first decomposed into simple questions, according to the temporal relations expressed in the original question. In the same way, the answers to the resulting simple questions are recomposed, fulfilling the temporal restrictions of the original complex question. A novel aspect of this approach resides in the decomposition which uses a minimal quantity of resources, with the final aim of obtaining a portable platform that is easily extensible to other languages. In this paper we also present a methodology for evaluation of the decomposition of the questions as well as the ability of the implemented temporal layer to perform at a multilingual level. The temporal layer was first performed for English, then evaluated and compared with: a) a general purpose QA system (F-measure 65.47% for QA plus English temporal layer vs. 38.01% for the general QA system), and b) a well-known QA system. Much better results were obtained for temporal questions with the multilayered system. This system was therefore extended to Spanish and very good results were again obtained in the evaluation (F-measure 40.36% for QA plus Spanish temporal layer vs. 22.94% for the general QA system).

Splitting complex temporal questions for question answering systems

This paper presents a multi-layered Question Answering (Q.A.) architecture suitable for enhancing current Q.A. capabilities with the possibility of processing complex questions. That is, questions whose answer needs to be gathered from pieces of factual information scattered in different documents. Specifically, we have designed a layer oriented to process the different types of temporal questions. Complex temporal questions are first decomposed into simpler ones, according to the temporal relationships expressed in the original question. In the same way, the answers of each simple question are re-composed, fulfilling the temporal restrictions of the original complex question. Using this architecture, a Temporal Q.A. system has been developed. In this paper, we focus on explaining the first part of the process: the decomposition of the complex questions. Furthermore, it has been evaluated with the TERQAS question corpus of 112 temporal questions. For the task of question splitting our system has performed, in terms of precision and recall, 85% and 71%, respectively.

Grammar specification for the recognition of temporal expressions

This paper tells about the recognition of temporal expressions and the resolution of their temporal reference. A proposal of the units we have used to face up this tasks over a restricted domain is shown. We work with newspapers' articles in Spanish, that is why every reference we use is in Spanish. For the identification and recognition of temporal expressions we base on a temporal expression grammar and for the resolution on a dictionary, where we have the information necessary to do the date operation based on the recognized expressions. In the evaluation of our proposal we have obtained successful results for the examples studied.

Event ordering through temporal expression resolution

In this paper a multilingual method for event ordering based on temporal expression resolution is presented. This method has been implemented through the TERSEO system which consists of three main units: temporal expression recognizing, resolution of the coreference introduced by these expressions, and event ordering. By means of this system, chronological information related to events can be extracted from documental databases. This information is automatically added to the documental database in order to allow its use by question answering systems in those cases referring to temporality. The system has been evaluated obtaining results of 91 % precision and 71 % recall. For this, a blind evaluation process has been developed guaranteing a reliable annotation process that was measured through the kappa factor.

Applying semantic knowledge to the automatic processing of temporal expressions and events in natural language

This paper addresses the problem of the automatic recognition and classification of temporal expressions and events in human language. Efficacy in these tasks is crucial if the broader task of temporal information processing is to be successfully performed. We analyze whether the application of semantic knowledge to these tasks improves the performance of current approaches. We therefore present and evaluate a data-driven approach as part of a system: TIPSem. Our approach uses lexical semantics and semantic roles as additional information to extend classical approaches which are principally based on morphosyntax. The results obtained for English show that semantic knowledge aids in temporal expression and event recognition, achieving an error reduction of 59% and 21%, while in classification the contribution is limited. From the analysis of the results it may be concluded that the application of semantic knowledge leads to more general models and aids in the recognition of temporal entities that are ambiguous at shallower language analysis levels. We also discovered that lexical semantics and semantic roles have complementary advantages, and that it is useful to combine them. Finally, we carried out the same analysis for Spanish. The results obtained show comparable advantages. This supports the hypothesis that applying the proposed semantic knowledge may be useful for different languages.

RetinaStudio: A bioinspired framework to encode visual information

The retina is a very complex neural structure, which performs spatial, temporal, and chromatic processing on visual information and converts it into a compact ‘digital’ format composed of neural impulses. This paper presents a new compiler-based framework able to describe, simulate and validate custom retina models. The framework is compatible with the most usual neural recording and analysis tools, taking advantage of the interoperability with these kinds of applications. Furthermore it is possible to compile the code to generate accelerated versions of the visual processing models compatible with COTS microprocessors, FPGAs or GPUs. The whole system represents an ongoing work to design and develop a functional visual neuroprosthesis. Several case studies are described to assess the effectiveness and usefulness of the framework.

O tempo e o direito na sociedade de informação : o limite temporal para a manutenção de informações pessoais como corolário de um direito da personalidade

O tempo sempre desempenhou relevante função de estabilização das relações jurídicas e decantação da memória individual, fazendo com que a divulgação de fatos desagradáveis ou sacrificantes aos direitos da personalidade tivessem, salvo em eventos excepcionais de ordem histórica, por força de um processo natural de erosão da sua relevância e atualidade, como destino o esquecimento. Esse mecanismo natural, capaz de assegurar o exercício de novas escolhas e o livre desenvolvimento da personalidade, restou substancialmente mitigado pelo surgimento da sociedade de informação, com a expansão dos veículos de comunicação de massa e a rede mundial de computadores, com sua memória infalível, a permitir a divulgação e o amplo acesso, com idêntica facilidade, a informações atuais e do passado. Releva, portanto, discutir a existência de um direito ao esquecimento, como forma de estabelecer, salvo em situações de inequívoco interesse público, uma limitação temporal para a manutenção e para a divulgação de fatos passados e referências pessoais, fora de um contexto de atualidade, capazes de macular a honra, o bom nome, a privacidade e a integridade psicológica das pessoas, bem como a possibilidade de que a ofensa injustificada a um direito da personalidade protegido pelo esquecimento, praticada com abuso do direito de informar, seja considerada ilícita.

Selfmapping : o mapa colaborativo como medium de visualização espácio-temporal

THE MAP AS A COLLABORATIVE MEDIUM FOR SPATIO-TEMPORAL VISUALIZATION This dissertation focuses on the relationship between maps and spatio-temporal data visualization. It is divided into two components: theoretical framework and practical approach. The study begins by questioning the role of the map in today’s digital society and particularly its role in visualization, and finishes with the conceptualization and development of an interactive dot map that visualizes data from Instagram and Twitter. Nowadays, geographic information is no longer produced just by experts, but also by ordinary people that are able to participate in data creation and exchange. The Web 2.0 lies in the heart of this change, where social media represent a significant tool for producing geotagged content, allowing its users to share their location and to spatially reference their publications. Furthermore, amateur mapmaking and neogeography have benefited from the emergence of several new devices that enable the creation of digital maps that are interactive, adaptable and easily shared on the Web. This study adopts a descriptive approach calling upon the diverse aspects of the map and its evolution as a medium for visualizing geotagged data, highlighting collaborative mapping as an emerging subject area that is of mandatory future research. Relevant projects are also analyzed in order to identify trends and different approaches for visualizing social media data in its spatial context, intended to support the project’s conceptualization, development and evaluation. The created map demonstrates how spatial knowledge and perception of place are now redefined by the contributions of individuals; it also shows how that activity produces new sources of geographic information, forcing the development of new techniques and approaches that allow an adequate exploration of content and visualization methods of the contemporary map