| 1. |
- Lind, Lars, et al.
(author)
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Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)
- 2021
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In: eLife. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions.
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| 2. |
- Bixby, H., et al.
(author)
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Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults
- 2019
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 569:7755, s. 260-4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Mishra, A, et al.
(author)
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Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents' growth and development
- 2023
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 615:7954, s. 874-883
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Pantazis, N, et al.
(author)
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Determining the likely place of HIV acquisition for migrants in Europe combining subject-specific information and biomarkers data
- 2019
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In: Statistical methods in medical research. - : SAGE Publications. - 1477-0334 .- 0962-2802. ; 28:7, s. 1979-1997
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In most HIV-positive individuals, infection time is only known to lie between the time an individual started being at risk for HIV and diagnosis time. However, a more accurate estimate of infection time is very important in certain cases. For example, one of the objectives of the Advancing Migrant Access to Health Services in Europe (aMASE) study was to determine if HIV-positive migrants, diagnosed in Europe, were infected pre- or post-migration. We propose a method to derive subject-specific estimates of unknown infection times using information from HIV biomarkers’ measurements, demographic, clinical, and behavioral data. We assume that CD4 cell count (CD4) and HIV-RNA viral load trends after HIV infection follow a bivariate linear mixed model. Using post-diagnosis CD4 and viral load measurements and applying the Bayes’ rule, we derived the posterior distribution of the HIV infection time, whereas the prior distribution was informed by AIDS status at diagnosis and behavioral data. Parameters of the CD4–viral load and time-to-AIDS models were estimated using data from a large study of individuals with known HIV infection times (CASCADE). Simulations showed substantial predictive ability (e.g. 84% of the infections were correctly classified as pre- or post-migration). Application to the aMASE study ( n = 2009) showed that 47% of African migrants and 67% to 72% of migrants from other regions were most likely infected post-migration. Applying a Bayesian method based on bivariate modeling of CD4 and viral load, and subject-specific information, we found that the majority of HIV-positive migrants in aMASE were most likely infected after their migration to Europe.
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| 10. |
- Tuskan, G A, et al.
(author)
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The genome of black cottonwood, Populus trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray).
- 2006
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In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 1095-9203 .- 0036-8075. ; 313:5793, s. 1596-604
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the draft genome of the black cottonwood tree, Populus trichocarpa. Integration of shotgun sequence assembly with genetic mapping enabled chromosome-scale reconstruction of the genome. More than 45,000 putative protein-coding genes were identified. Analysis of the assembled genome revealed a whole-genome duplication event; about 8000 pairs of duplicated genes from that event survived in the Populus genome. A second, older duplication event is indistinguishably coincident with the divergence of the Populus and Arabidopsis lineages. Nucleotide substitution, tandem gene duplication, and gross chromosomal rearrangement appear to proceed substantially more slowly in Populus than in Arabidopsis. Populus has more protein-coding genes than Arabidopsis, ranging on average from 1.4 to 1.6 putative Populus homologs for each Arabidopsis gene. However, the relative frequency of protein domains in the two genomes is similar. Overrepresented exceptions in Populus include genes associated with lignocellulosic wall biosynthesis, meristem development, disease resistance, and metabolite transport.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
- Lundgren, Jens D, et al.
(author)
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Long-Term Benefits from Early Antiretroviral Therapy Initiation in HIV Infection.
- 2023
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In: NEJM evidence. - : Massachusetts Medical Society. - 2766-5526. ; 2:3
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- For people with HIV and CD4+ counts >500 cells/mm3, early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces serious AIDS and serious non-AIDS (SNA) risk compared with deferral of treatment until CD4+ counts are <350 cells/mm3. Whether excess risk of AIDS and SNA persists once ART is initiated for those who defer treatment is uncertain.The Strategic Timing of AntiRetroviral Treatment (START) trial, as previously reported, randomly assigned 4684 ART-naive HIV-positive adults with CD4+ counts .500 cells/mm3 to immediate treatment initiation after random assignment (n = 2325) or deferred treatment (n= 2359). In 2015, a 57% lower risk of the primary end point (AIDS, SNA, or death) for the immediate group was reported, and the deferred group was offered ART. This article reports the follow-up that continued to December 31, 2021. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to compare hazard ratios for the primary end point from randomization through December 31, 2015, versus January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2021.Through December 31, 2015, approximately 7 months after the cutoff date from the previous report, the median CD4+ count was 648 and 460 cells/mm3 in the immediate and deferred groups, respectively, at treatment initiation. The percentage of follow-up time spent taking ART was 95% and 36% for the immediate and deferred groups, respectively, and the time-averaged CD4+ difference was 199 cells/mm3. After January 1, 2016, the percentage of follow-up time on treatment was 97.2% and 94.1% for the immediate and deferred groups, respectively, and the CD4+ count difference was 155 cells/mm3. After January 1, 2016, a total of 89 immediate and 113 deferred group participants experienced a primary end point (hazard ratio of 0.79 [95% confidence interval, 0.60 to 1.04] versus hazard ratio of 0.47 [95% confidence interval, 0.34 to 0.65; P<0.001]) before 2016 (P=0.02 for hazard ratio difference).Among adults with CD4+ counts >500 cells/mm3, excess risk of AIDS and SNA associated with delaying treatment initiation was diminished after ART initiation, but persistent excess risk remained. (Funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and others.).
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| 19. |
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| 20. |
- Basra, R., et al.
(author)
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Design and Validation of a New Screening Instrument for Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction: The Bladder Control Self-Assessment Questionnaire (B-SAQ)
- 2006
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In: Eur Urol. - 0302-2838.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate a short patient self-assessment screening questionnaire: bladder control self-assessment questionnaire (B-SAQ) for the evaluation of lower urinary tract symptoms. This first validation study was undertaken amongst women. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Three hundred twenty-nine women attending general gynaecology and urogynaecology clinics completed both the B-SAQ and Kings Health questionnaire prior to medical consultation, and independent physician assessment of the presence of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and need for treatment. The psychometric properties of the B-SAQ were subsequently analysed. RESULTS: The B-SAQ was quick and easy to complete, with 89% of respondents completing all items correctly in less than 5min. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha score 0.90-0.91), criterion validity (Pearson's correlation values of 0.79 and 0.81, p<0.0001 with the incontinence impact domain of the Kings Health questionnaire), and test-retest reliability of the questionnaire were good. The sensitivity and specificity of the questionnaire to identify patients with bothersome LUTS was 98% and 79%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: LUTS are commonly underreported. Empowering patients to self-assess their bladder symptoms and the need for treatment will improve treatment-seeking behaviour. The B-SAQ is a psychometrically robust, short screening questionnaire that offers patients the ability to assess their bladder symptoms and the bother they cause, and the potential benefit of seeking medical help.
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| 21. |
- Dalmas, T., et al.
(author)
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Introduction
- 2014
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In: Proceedings 2014 Workshop on Dialogue in Motion, DM 2014. - : Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)
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| 22. |
- Harding, D., et al.
(author)
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Refining the risk of HTLV-1-associated myelopathy in people living with HTLV-1: identification of a HAM-like phenotype in a proportion of asymptomatic carriers
- 2022
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In: Journal of Neurovirology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1355-0284 .- 1538-2443. ; 28:4-6, s. 473-482
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Up to 3.8% of human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1)-infected asymptomatic carriers (AC) eventually develop HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (HAM). HAM occurs in patients with high (> 1%) HTLV proviral load (PVL). However, this cut-off includes more than 50% of ACs and therefore the risk needs to be refined. As HAM is additionally characterised by an inflammatory response to HTLV-1, markers of T cell activation (TCA), beta(2)-microglobulin (beta M-2) and neuronal damage were accessed for the identification of ACs at high risk of HAM. Retrospective analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal routine clinical data examining differences in TCA (CD4/CD25, CD4/HLA-DR, CD8/CD25 & CD8/HLA-DR), beta M-2 and neurofilament light (NfL) in plasma in ACs with high or low PVL and patients with HAM. Comparison between 74 low PVL ACs, 84 high PVL ACs and 58 patients with HAM revealed a significant, stepwise, increase in TCA and beta M-2. Construction of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for each of these blood tests generated a profile that correctly identifies 88% of patients with HAM along with 6% of ACs. The 10 ACs with this 'HAM-like' profile had increased levels of NfL in plasma and two developed myelopathy during follow-up, compared to none of the 148 without this viral-immune-phenotype. A viral-immuno-phenotype resembling that seen in patients with HAM identifies asymptomatic carriers who are at increased risk of developing HAM and have markers of subclinical neuronal damage.
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
- Kirby, M., et al.
(author)
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Overactive bladder: The importance of new guidance
- 2006
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In: Int J Clin Pract. - : Hindawi Limited. - 1368-5031. ; 60:10, s. 1263-71
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Overactive bladder (OAB) affects an estimated 49 million people in Europe, but only a minority receive appropriate treatment. Others are bothered by unacceptable levels of symptoms that severely impair their quality of life and represent a significant financial burden to themselves and to their healthcare providers. Recently updated guidelines from the International Consultation on Incontinence (ICI) and the European Association of Urology (EAU) take account of important new developments in the management of bladder problems in both primary and secondary care. However, local implementation of previous guidance has been variable, with many patients with OAB and other bladder problems failing to gain full benefit from current clinical and scientific understanding of these conditions. The recent expansion of the range of treatments available for OAB and stress urinary incontinence makes it especially important that physicians become aware of the differential diagnosis of these conditions - the questions they need to ask, and the investigations which will help determine the most appropriate course of action.
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| 25. |
- Melani, Rafael D., et al.
(author)
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The Blood Proteoform Atlas : A reference map of proteoforms in human hematopoietic cells
- 2022
-
In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 375:6579, s. 411-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Human biology is tightly linked to proteins, yet most measurements do not precisely determine alternatively spliced sequences or posttranslational modifications. Here, we present the primary structures of similar to 30,000 unique proteoforms, nearly 10 times more than in previous studies, expressed from 1690 human genes across 21 cell types and plasma from human blood and bone marrow. The results, compiled in the Blood Proteoform Atlas (BPA), indicate that proteoforms better describe protein-level biology and are more specific indicators of differentiation than their corresponding proteins, which are more broadly expressed across cell types. We demonstrate the potential for clinical application, by interrogating the BPA in the context of liver transplantation and identifying cell and proteoform signatures that distinguish normal graft function from acute rejection and other causes of graft dysfunction.
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| 26. |
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| 27. |
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| 28. |
- Schmidtke, A, et al.
(author)
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Suicide rates in the world:: Update
- 1999
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In: ARCHIVES OF SUICIDE RESEARCH. - 1381-1118. ; 5:1, s. 81-89
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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| 29. |
- Sheils, T. K., et al.
(author)
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TCRD and Pharos 2021: mining the human proteome for disease biology
- 2021
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In: Nucleic Acids Research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0305-1048 .- 1362-4962. ; 49:D1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In 2014, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiated the Illuminating the Druggable Genome (IDG) program to identify and improve our understanding of poorly characterized proteins that can potentially be modulated using small molecules or biologics. Two resources produced from these efforts are: The Target Central Resource Database (TCRD) (http://juniper.health.unm.edu/tcrd/) and Pharos (https://pharos.nih.gov/), a web interface to browse the TCRD. The ultimate goal of these resources is to highlight and facilitate research into currently understudied proteins, by aggregating a multitude of data sources, and ranking targets based on the amount of data available, and presenting data in machine learning ready format. Since the 2017 release, both TCRD and Pharos have produced two major releases, which have incorporated or expanded an additional 25 data sources. Recently incorporated data types include human and viral-human protein-protein interactions, protein-disease and protein-phenotype associations, and drug-induced gene signatures, among others. These aggregated data have enabled us to generate new visualizations and content sections in Pharos, in order to empower users to find new areas of study in the druggable genome.
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| 30. |
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| 31. |
- Su, Zhan, et al.
(author)
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Common variants at the MHC locus and at chromosome 16q24.1 predispose to Barrett's esophagus.
- 2012
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In: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 44:10
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Barrett's esophagus is an increasingly common disease that is strongly associated with reflux of stomach acid and usually a hiatus hernia, and it strongly predisposes to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), a tumor with a very poor prognosis. We report the first genome-wide association study on Barrett's esophagus, comprising 1,852 UK cases and 5,172 UK controls in the discovery stage and 5,986 cases and 12,825 controls in the replication stage. Variants at two loci were associated with disease risk: chromosome 6p21, rs9257809 (Pcombined=4.09×10(-9); odds ratio (OR)=1.21, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.13-1.28), within the major histocompatibility complex locus, and chromosome 16q24, rs9936833 (Pcombined=2.74×10(-10); OR=1.14, 95% CI=1.10-1.19), for which the closest protein-coding gene is FOXF1, which is implicated in esophageal development and structure. We found evidence that many common variants of small effect contribute to genetic susceptibility to Barrett's esophagus and that SNP alleles predisposing to obesity also increase risk for Barrett's esophagus.
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| 32. |
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| 33. |
- Wagg, A., et al.
(author)
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Overactive Bladder and Continence Guidelines: implementation, inaction or frustration?
- 2008
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In: International Journal of Clinical Practice. - : Hindawi Limited. - 1742-1241 .- 1368-5031. ; 62:10, s. 1588-93
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Guidelines for the management of continence and overactive bladder are generally available across Europe. For a majority of countries, these have been adopted by professional societies in either urology or gynaecology for local use. There has, however, been little monitoring of formal implementation of these guidelines and seldom any attempt to audit their operation. The state of continence care therefore remains largely unknown. This article reviews current guidelines and their status across Europe and examines what might be relevant from other disease areas to promote successful implementation.
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| 34. |
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| 35. |
- Alagaratnam, Jasmini, et al.
(author)
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Impact of interrupting antiretroviral therapy started during primary HIV-1 infection on plasma neurofilament light chain protein, a marker of neuronal injury: The SPARTAC trial
- 2024
-
In: Journal of Virus Eradication. - 2055-6640 .- 2055-6659. ; 10:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objective: Antiretroviral therapy (ART)-conferred suppression of HIV replication limits neuronal injury and inflammation. ART interruption tests efficacy in HIV cure trials and viral rebound after ART interruption may induce neuronal injury. We investigated the impact of protocol-defined ART interruption, commenced during primary HIV-1 infection (PHI) on a biomarker of neuro-axonal injury (neurofilament light protein (NfL)), and its associations with inflammation (D-dimer and interleukin-6 (IL-6)) and HIV-1 reservoir size (total HIV-1 DNA). Design: Retrospective study measuring plasma NfL in 83 participants enrolled in SPARTAC randomised to receive 48-weeks ART initiated during PHI, followed by ART interruption. Methods: NfL (Simoa immunoassay, Quanterix™) was measured before ART, after 48 weeks on ART, and 12 weeks after stopping ART. Plasma D-dimer and IL-6, and total HIV-1 DNA in peripheral CD4+ T-cells results were available in a subset of participants. Longitudinal NfL changes were assessed using mixed models, and associations with clinical and laboratory parameters using linear regression. Results: NfL decreased following 48-weeks ART (geometric mean 6.9 to 5.8 pg/mL, p = 0.006) with no further significant change up to 12-weeks post-stopping ART despite viral rebound in the majority of participants (median 1.7 to 3.9 plasma HIV-1 RNA log10 copies/mL). Higher baseline NfL was independently associated with higher plasma HIV-1 RNA (p = 0.020) and older age (p = 0.002). While NfL was positively associated with D-dimer (n = 48; p = 0.002), there was no significant association with IL-6 (n = 48) or total HIV-1 DNA (n = 51). Conclusions: Using plasma NfL as a surrogate marker, a decrease in neuro-axonal injury was observed in a cohort of participants following ART initiation during PHI, with no evidence of neuro-axonal injury rebound following ART interruption for up to 12 weeks, despite viral rebound in the majority of participants.
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| 36. |
- Athanasopoulos, Stefanos D., et al.
(author)
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Mapping Grain Strains in Sand Under Load Using Neutron Diffraction Scanning
- 2018
-
In: Micro to MACRO Mathematical Modelling in Soil Mechanics. - Cham : Springer International Publishing. - 2297-0215 .- 2297-024X. - 9783319994734 - 9783319994741 ; , s. 23-33
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Towards the improvement of the understanding of force/stress distribution in granular media under load, a new experimental approach is suggested. Neutron diffraction, a non-conventional experimental technique, has been successfully used to map the evolution of intragranular strains in sand specimens loaded in a novel plane-strain apparatus. Representative preliminary results from recent experiments are presented, focusing on the correlation between the macro- and micro-scale response of the material, to highlight the potential of the experimental approach.
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| 37. |
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| 38. |
- Burnum-Johnson, Kristin E., et al.
(author)
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New Views of Old Proteins : Clarifying the Enigmatic Proteome
- 2022
-
In: Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. - : Elsevier BV. - 1535-9476 .- 1535-9484. ; 21:7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- All human diseases involve proteins, yet our current tools to characterize and quantify them are limited. To better elucidate proteins across space, time, and molecular composition, we provide a >10 years of projection for technologies to meet the challenges that protein biology presents. With a broad perspective, we discuss grand opportunities to transition the science of proteomics into a more propulsive enterprise. Extrapolating recent trends, we describe a next generation of approaches to define, quantify, and visualize the multiple dimensions of the proteome, thereby transforming our understanding and interactions with human disease in the coming decade.
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| 39. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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A Model for Attention-Driven Judgements in Type Theory with Records
- 2016
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In: JerSem: The 20th Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue. J. Hunter, M. Simons, and M. Stone (eds.). New Brunswick, NJ USA, July 16–18 2016.. - 2308-2275.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper makes three contributions to the discussion on the applicability of Type Theory with Records (TTR) to embodied dialogue agents. First, it highlights the problem of type assignment or judgements in practical implementations which is re- source intensive. Second, it presents a judgement control mechanism, which con- sists of grouping of types into clusters or states by their thematic relations and selec- tion of types following two mechanisms inspired by the Load Theory of selective attention and cognitive control (Lavie et al., 2004), that addresses this problem. Third, it presents a computational frame- work, based on Bayesian inference, that offers a basis for future practical exper- imentation on the feasibility of the pro- posed approach.
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| 40. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Atention-driven Perceptual Classification and Reasoning
- 2016
-
In: The Sixth Swedish language technology conference (SLTC), Umeå University, 17-18 November, 2016, (ed. Björklund, Johanna and Stymne, Sara). - Umeå : Umeå University.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- One of the central challenges for embodied and situated agents with limited memory and processing resources is how to process and react to a large amount of information that they receive continuously through their sensors. Secondly, a model of infor- mation fusion is also required: how perceptual and linguistic/conceptual information interact and drive their reasoning. We present a computational model for perceptual classification in probabilistic Type Theory with Records (TTR), a formal meaning representation layer for such agents. The model is based on the cognitive notion of attention.
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| 41. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Back to the Future: Logic and Machine Learning
- 2017
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In: Conference on Logic and Machine Learning in Natural Language (LaML).
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this paper we argue that since the beginning of the natural language processing or computational linguistics there has been a strong connection between logic and machine learning. First of all, there is something logical about language or linguistic about logic. Secondly, we argue that rather than distinguishing between logic and machine learning, a more useful distinction is between top-down approaches and data-driven approaches. Examining some recent approaches in deep learning we argue that they incorporate both properties and this is the reason for their very successful adoption to solve several problems within language technology.
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| 42. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Changing perspective: Local alignment of reference frames in dialogue
- 2015
-
In: Proceedings of SemDial 2015 (goDIAL): The 19th Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue. Christine Howes and Staffan Larsson (eds.). Gothenburg, 24–26 August 2015. - 2308-2275. ; , s. 24-32
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)
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| 43. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
-
Changing perspective: Local alignment of reference frames in dialogue
- 2015
-
In: The 6th annual CLT workshop. Tollered, 20-22 October, 2015.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this paper we examine how people negotiate, interpret and repair the frame of reference (FoR) in free dialogues discussing spatial scenes. We describe a pilot study in which participants are given different perspectives of the same scene and asked to locate several objects that are only shown on one of their pictures. This task requires participants to coordinate on FoR in order to identify the missing objects. Preliminary results indicate that conversational participants align locally on FoR but do not converge on a global frame of reference. Misunderstandings lead to clarification sequences in which participants shift the FoR. These findings have implications for situated dialogue systems.
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| 44. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Exploration of functional semantics of prepositions from corpora of descriptions of visual scenes
- 2014
-
In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Vision and Language 2014 (VL'14), 25th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING 2014), Dublin, 23rd August 2014. ; , s. 33-37
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present a method of extracting functional semantic knowledge from corpora of descriptions of visual scenes. Such knowledge is required for interpretation and generation of spatial descriptions in tasks such as visual search. We identify semantic classes of target and landmark objects related by each preposition by abstracting over WordNet taxonomy. The inclusion of such knowledge in visual search should equip robots with a better, more human-like spatial cognition.
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| 45. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Exploring the Functional and Geometric Bias of Spatial Relations Using Neural Language Models
- 2018
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In: Proceedings of SpLU 2018 at NAACL-HLT 2018, June 6, 2018 New Orleans, Louisiana / Parisa Kordjamshidi, Archna Bhatia, James Pustejovsky, Marie-Francine Moens (eds.). - New Orleans, Louisiana, USA : Association of Computational Linguistics (ACL). - 9781948087216
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The challenge for computational models of spatial descriptions for situated dialogue systems is the integration of information from different modalities. The semantics of spatial descriptions are grounded in at least two sources of information: (i) a geometric representation of space and (ii) the functional interaction of related objects that. We train several neural language models on descriptions of scenes from a dataset of image captions and examine whether the functional or geometric bias of spatial descriptions reported in the literature is reflected in the estimated perplexity of these models. The results of these experiments have implications for the creation of models of spatial lexical semantics for human-robot dialogue systems. Furthermore, they also provide an insight into the kinds of the semantic knowledge captured by neural language models trained on spatial descriptions, which has implications for image captioning systems.
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| 46. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Investigating the role of priming and alignment of perspective in dialogue
- 2013
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In: Proceedings of the 17th Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue, Amsterdam, 16–18 December 2013, Amsterdam. - 2308-2275. ; 17, s. 182-184
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- We examine the alignment of the primed frame of reference (FoR) for spatial descriptions over several utterances of a situated dialogue. We confirm the tendency of FoR alignment and that the intrinsic FoR is the most popular one independent of the priming.
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| 47. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Language, Action and Perception (APL-ESSLLI): Lecture Notes of a Course in Language and Computation
- 2019
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In: ESSLLI 2019, 31 European Summer School on Logic, Language and Information, 5 -6 August 2019, Riga, Latvia. - Riga, Latvia : University of Latvia.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The course gives a survey of theory and practical computational implementations of how natural language interacts with the physical world through action and perception. We will look at topics such as semantic theories and computational approaches to modelling natural language, action and perception (grounding), situated dialogue systems, integrated robotic systems, grounding of language in action and perception, generation and interpretation of scene descriptions from images and videos, spatial cognition, and others.
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| 48. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Local alignment of frame of reference assignment in English and Swedish dialogue
- 2020
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In: Spatial Cognition XII, 12th International Conference, Spatial Cognition 2020, Riga, Latvia, August 26–28, 2020, Proceedings / Jurǵis Šķilters, Nora S. Newcombe, David Uttal (eds.). - Cham : Springer Nature Switzerland AG. - 0302-9743 .- 1611-3349. - 9783030579821
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper we examine how people assign, interpret, negotiate and repair the frame of reference (FoR) in online text-based dialogues discussing spatial scenes in English and Swedish. We describe our corpus and data collection which involves a coordination experiment in which dyadic dialogue participants have to identify differences in their picture of a visual scene. As their perspectives of the scene are different, they must coordinate their FoRs in order to complete the task. Results show that participants do not align on a global FoR, but tend to align locally, for sub-portions (or particular conversational games) in the dialogue. This has implications for how dialogue systems should approach problems of FoR assignment - and what strategies for clarification they should implement.
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| 49. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Modular Mechanistic Networks for Computational Modelling of Spatial Descriptions
- 2018
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In: Abstracts of the Seventh Swedish Language Technology Conference (SLTC-2018), 7-9 November 2018, Stockholm. - Stockholm, Sweden.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- We argue current deep learning approaches to modelling of spatial language in generating image captions have shortcomings and that the multiplicity of factors that influence spatial language invites a modular approach where the solution can be built in a piece-wise manner and then integrated. We call this approach where deep learning is assisted with domain knowledge expressed as modules that are trained on data a top-down or mechanistic approach to otherwise a bottom-up phenomenological approach.
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| 50. |
- Dobnik, Simon, 1977, et al.
(author)
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Modular mechanistic networks: On bridging mechanistic and phenomenological models with deep neural networks in natural language processing
- 2017
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In: CLASP Papers in Computational Linguistics: Proceedings of the Conference on Logic and Machine Learning in Natural Language (LaML 2017), Gothenburg, 12–13 June 2017 (ISSN application pending). - Gothenburg, Sweden : CLASP: Centre for Language and Studies in Probability, FLOV, University of Gothenburg. - 2002-9764.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Natural language processing (NLP) can be done using either top-down (theory driven) and bottom-up (data driven) approaches, which we call mechanistic and phenomenological respectively. The approaches are frequently considered to stand in opposition to each other. Examining some recent approaches in deep learning we argue that deep neural networks incorporate both perspectives and, furthermore, that leveraging this aspect of deep learning may help in solving complex problems within language technology, such as modelling language and perception in the domain of spatial cognition.
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