José Manuel Pardo Muñoz

Increasing adaptability of a speech into sign language translation system

This paper describes a new version of a speech into sign language translation system with new tools and characteristics for increasing its adaptability to a new task or a new semantic domain. This system is made up of a speech recognizer (for decoding the spoken utterance into a word sequence), a natural language translator (for converting a word sequence into a sequence of signs belonging to the sign language), and a 3D avatar animation module (for playing back the signs). In order to increase the system adaptability, this paper presents new improvements in all the three main modules for generating automatically the task dependent information from a parallel corpus: automatic generation of Spanish variants when generating the vocabulary and language model for the speech recogniser, an acoustic adaptation module for the speech recogniser, data-oriented language and translation models for the machine translator and a list of signs to design. The avatar animation module includes a new editor for rapidly design of the required signs. These developments have been necessary to reduce the effort when adapting a Spanish into Spanish sign language (LSE: Lengua de Signos Espanola) translation system to a new domain. The whole translation presents a SER (Sign Error Rate) lower than 10% and a BLEU higher than 90% while the effort for adapting the system to a new domain has been reduced more than 50%.

Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis does not prevent the development of dialysis-associated amyloidosis.

Dr. J.L. Miguel Alonso, Servicio de Nefrología, Hospital La Paz, Castellana 261, E-28046 Madrid (Spain) Table 1. Clinical data Group HD CAPD Dear Sir, We have read with interest the letter by Sethi et al. [1]. Since the first report by Ballardie et al. in 1986 [2] the question has not been answered. Until now, few studies have been published showing evidence of dialysis-associated amyloidosis (DAA) in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients. Even though descriptions on the presence of beta-2-microglobulin (B2M) in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) are scanty, cases with bone lesions similar to those found in hemodialysis (HD) patients with amyloid arthropathy (AA) have been published [3]. We carried out a comparative study in 51 patients, 14 on CAPD and 39 on HD (mainly with cuprophan membranes), who were selected for a treatment period longer than 4.5 years (table 1). Rheumathological, radiological, and electromyographical evaluations as well as biochemical determinations of hemoglobin, Ca, Ca2+, P, Mg, alkaline phosphatase, parathyroid hormone, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, uric acid, iron, ferritin, B2M, sedimentation rate, and Creactive protein were performed. Radiological examination was carried out by 3 different observers who analyzed the existence of lytic lesions, destructive spondyloarthropathy (discitis), and the degree of secondary hyperparathyroidism. The results are summarized in table 2. The incidence of CTS was similar in both HD and CAPD groups, with a mean duration of 107 ± 47.5 and 40.5 ± 16.07 months, respectively, the intensity of symptoms being lesser in the CAPD group. Bone cysts were found mainly in the carpus, although in 61.5% of the cases there were associations with other localizations. Evaluating the existence of either CTS, lytic lesions, or discitis, 36% of the HD and 50% of the CAPD patients failed to show any of them.

Ring inversion in tetrahydrothiophen-3-one. A microwave study

The microwave spectrum of tetrahydrothiophen-3-one has been observed in the frequency region 26.5–50.0 GHz. Rotational transitions have been assigned for the ground state, four excited states of the lowest-frequency ring-puckering mode (ca. 70 cm–1) and two excited states of the highest-frequency ring-puckering mode (ca. 200 cm–1). From the ground-state rotational constants and the magnitude of µc, the electric dipole moment component [µa= 1.36(2) D, µb= 1.31(2) D and µc= 0.56(4) D] a non-planar ring equilibrium configuration has been found. The µc rotation inversion transitions have been found to be unsplit for the ground and excited states of the vibration at ca. 70 cm–1. For the first excited state of the vibration at ca. 200 cm–1 an inversion splitting of 0.3 MHz has been measured directly from these transitions. The high-J, Q-branch transitions of the second excited state of this vibration appear as well resolved inversion doublets. These splittings, as well as the variations in the rotational constants, indicate that the vibration at ca. 70 cm–1 is associated with a single-minimum potential function and that at ca. 200 cm–1 with a double-minimum potential function. A one-dimensional reduced potential function has been derived for this vibration and gives a barrier to ring inversion of 1050 ± 230 cm–1.