Direct Translation Research Articles

Assessing the translation capabilities of NCI-designated cancer websites with a focus on lung, breast, prostate and ovarian cancers.

e18514 Background: The world is becoming more and more dependent on the internet for garnering information. Medicine is no exception, with studies suggesting that 70% of patients will consult the internet to learn more about their health. Considering the diverse population served by the United States healthcare system, it is crucial that information can be accessed by Americans of Limited English Proficiency (LEP). This is especially true when it comes to cancer, a disease affecting hundreds of thousands of LEP Americans each year. National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer treatment centers represent the cutting-edge treatment facilities in oncology. Americans diagnosed with cancer often turn to the website of the nearest NCI-designated cancer center. Our study provides a snapshot of which NCI-designated cancer center websites provide translation capabilities for patient navigations including appointment scheduling, disease information and treatment for four of the most common types of cancer. Methods: Over the course of 2022, we performed a cross-sectional review of the language and translation services available to patients on each of the 71 NCI-designated cancer center websites with a focus on lung, breast, prostate and ovarian cancers. The primary outcomes included availability of translation services, method of translation (google translator vs. written text vs. telephonic) and number of languages offered. Results: Of the 71 NCI-designated cancer center websites, 15 (21.1%) provide information on prostate, lung, ovarian and breast cancer in languages other than English. Among these, 9 (60%) provide direct translation, 1 redirects the user to the NCI website for cancer information, and 5 offer only language lines. Furthermore, of the 9 cancer centers offering direct translation on their websites, only 6 had 2 or more languages. The most common translation language was Spanish (15/15) followed by Arabic and Chinese (11/15). The availability of translated cancer information on these websites did not correlate with the prevalence of LEP in each state. Analyzing previous NCI website interrogations shows that there has been no increase in the translation capabilities of NCI websites since 2019. Conclusions: One way to improve the quality of care in patients with Limited English Proficiency by improving access to care is to increase language concordant resources. NCI designated cancer center websites are sources of cancer related health knowledge. Our research exemplified that there are areas of opportunity to improve the reachability of these recourses to the LEP population. Increasing language concordant resources acknowledges and addresses one of the barriers to care that interferes with the quality of cancer care for LEP patients, promoting shared health care decision making for better health outcomes in a vulnerable population.

Ocean Temperature Observations in Hurricane Dorian (2019)

Abstract Upper-ocean temperatures from 72 airborne expendable bathythermographs (AXBTs) collected during U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunter flights into Hurricane Dorian (2019) over a 72-h period are examined. Three transects collected behind the storm reveal increased cross-track sea surface temperature gradient magnitudes as Dorian intensified to a category-5 hurricane and slowed while approaching the Bahamas. The cold wake, evident in vertical and horizontal cross sections from in situ and satellite sensors, appears as an expected response to tropical cyclone passage. Atypical, however, is the 2°C surface cooling observed over 36 h in a pair of transects ahead of hurricane force winds in Dorian, likely due to changes in the tropical cyclone’s translation speed and direction and/or proximity to the Gulf Stream and continental shelf. Collocated AXBT pairs document a dynamical regime shift from mixing to upwelling as Dorian slows and turns. Relationships between time-integrated wind stress and sea surface temperature indicate track-relative differences varying with storm translation speed and heading changes, paralleling the shift in cooling dynamics. Significance Statement We studied in situ and satellite ocean temperature observations beneath Hurricane Dorian (2019) as the storm moved slowly, turned north, and weakened near Grand Bahama Island. We found a distinct change in the spatial distribution of cool upper-ocean temperatures beneath the storm, which indicated a shift in the primary cooling mechanism from ocean mixing to upwelling. This mechanism shift is important because hurricanes depend on warm ocean temperatures for energy, and upwelling roughly doubles the area of cooling beneath the storm. Our results highlight the effects of large heading changes on the upper-ocean response beneath tropical cyclones, especially in tandem with slow translation speeds.

Abstract 82: The Language of Cancer Communication in Africa

Abstract Purpose: Communication is an essential aspect of cancer care and awareness but has been largely understudied in the African setting. There is no documentation, to our knowledge, of the spoken language used to communicate cancer terms in African languages. These languages are characterized by immense linguistic and ethno-cultural diversity and may not have any official term for ‘cancer’. Instead, the communicated language may have nuances and connotations which need to be understood. Methods: We conducted a survey on “The Language of Cancer Communication in Africa”. The aim was to gather information on how the medical language of cancer and its treatment is communicated to patients and by the community in African languages, and what these communication terms mean. Using an online survey administered in the English and French, a list of 16 cancer terms used in diagnosis and treatment (such as ‘cancer’, ‘biopsy’, ‘radiotherapy’, ‘chemotherapy’) were provided to participants who were asked to provide these terms in their local language (if it exists) followed by a direct translation of the meaning of the term into English (if they know). Participants were also allowed to provide any additional information or comments regarding the term to allow for documentation of nuances in the form of idioms, metaphors, or euphemisms. Analysis included descriptive and summary statistics on the variables collected as well as thematic analysis. Results: We present here examples of results from Zimbabwe and Uganda for the term ‘cancer’. The Shona (Zimbabwe) word is “gomarara” which means a parasitic plant. One of the explanations from the participants was that “This is a plant that grows on top of another plant, in a parasitic way, usually killing or disabling the plant.” In Uganda, the Luganda word for cancer is “kokolo” which means “Once it has come, no retreat, the disease will eat you until death”. Conclusion: The survey is still ongoing and will highlight the existence or nonexistence of cancer terms as well as the nature of cancer terminology in African languages and how it may contribute to fear, disparities for patients, and pose communication difficulties for Health Professionals. We envision that information collected from this survey will highlight the state of cancer communication in Africa and serve as platform for future in-depth work on the topic given the multiplicities of languages and cultures across the Continent. Citation Format: Hannah Simba, Justina Onwuka, Bernadette Chimera, Yahya Mahamat Saleh, Felix Oyinje, Grace Akinyi Odongo, Miriam Mutebi, Adamu Addissie, Efua Prah, Elom Aglago, Joachim Schuz, Valerie McCormack, Moses Galukande. The Language of Cancer Communication in Africa [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 11th Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research; Closing the Research-to-Implementation Gap; 2023 Apr 4-6. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 82.

Stroop for electronic touchscreen self‐administration (eStroop) as used in the remote iPACES neuro‐exergaming trial for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): An initial validation report

AbstractBackgroundIn collaboration with the Mobile Monitoring of Cognitive Change (M2C2; 1‐U2C‐AG060408‐01) Project, our team developed a tablet‐based electronic Stroop (eStroop) task. Initial development explored direct translation of the paper‐Stroop (pStroop) often used in clinical settings, and found that this resulted in ceiling effects. Herein we report on initial validation of the eStroop task from the iPACES v3 clinical trial.MethodInitial validation examined eStroop data (n = 59 sessions) serially collected from ten MCI and caregiver participants in the iPACES v3 clinical trial (mean age = 70.2, mean years of education = 16.9). Included in analyses were eStroop data for both traditional metrics (i.e., overall accuracy by block condition), response time, as well as typically constructed difference/ratio scores (i.e., AC ratio). After a baseline tele‐neuropsychological evaluation in which paper Stroop was administered, at predetermined study intervals (typically weekly), participants were automatically prompted to complete the eStroop on their iPACES Android tablet. In the eStroop, participants were presented with four blocks of 40 trials: (1) color words in black font, (2) congruent word and font color; (3) incongruent words with font color; (4) mixed congruent and incongruent trials.ResultThe paper Stroop AC Ratio (total seconds to complete paper A, divided by time to complete paper C), was moderately negatively correlated (r = ‐0.52, p < .001) with average response time on block three of eStroop (incongruent words with font color). The pStroop AC Ratio was also significantly negatively correlated with number of errors on block one (r = ‐0.42, p < .001), two (r = ‐0.26, p = 0.04), three (r = ‐0.39, p = 0.002), and four (r = ‐0.26, p = .049). A weak, significant positive correlation (r = 0.44, p < .001) was observed between the AC ratio from pStroop and eStroop. Very weak non‐significant correlations between paper Stroop AC Ratio and average response time on blocks one, two, and four of eStroop were observed.ConclusionThese pilot data provide preliminary evidence that the eStroop can serve as a remotely and self‐administered digital test for serial assessment of executive function and will be further evaluated in our current iPACES study.

Unlocking global opportunities: Exploring bilingual teaching in Spanish business law

This paper explores the complexities of bilingual teaching in Spanish business law, highlighting both opportunities and challenges. Teaching in English offers global recognition and collaboration, especially in areas like international trade. However, nuances in Spanish commercial law and subjects rooted in national legal traditions, like insolvency law, pose hurdles. Anisomorphism between legal systems complicates direct translations, emphasizing the need for a strategic approach. Despite harmonization through directives, elements shaped by national legislation persist. Scarcity of English teaching materials necessitates ad hoc preparation, impacting educators and student independence. A judicious approach to bilingual teaching is crucial, balancing global benefits with linguistic intricacies and resource challenges.

Abstract 89: Translation and Linguistic Validation of the Mastectomy Module of the BREAST-Q Questionnaire for Use in Nigeria

Abstract Purpose: The majority of breast cancer patients in sub-Saharan Africa are recommended to have mastectomy; The impact of mastectomy on a predominantly young African patient population requires evaluation. The BREAST-Q is a validated patient-reported outcome measure of quality-of-life following breast surgery that has been translated into 30 languages-none in Africa. This study aimed to translate and validate the mastectomy module of the BREAST-Q for use in Nigeria. Methods: The BREAST-Q mastectomy module was translated from English to Yoruba (a major Nigerian language) and linguistically validated using best practice guidelines. Translation was performed in 4 steps: forward translation (x 2), back translation, back translation review, and cognitive interviews with post-mastectomy patients. The translated BREAST-Q instrument was administered to post-mastectomy patients (n=21) alongside the EORTC-QLQ BR23 to evaluate construct validity. Results: The translation process identified phrases not amenable to direct translation, including “emotionally healthy” and descriptions of pain (“nagging,” “throbbing,” “sharp”). Translations were amended to reflect local context and question intent. Patients provided suggestions to simplify complex phrases, such as “discomfort in your breast area.”during cognitive interviews. Internal consistency within scales was over the 0.70 threshold for psychosocial wellbeing (α=0.84-0.87), sexual wellbeing (α =0.98-0.99), physical wellbeing in chest (α =0.84-0.86), and satisfaction with care (α =0.89-0.93). ICC for test-retest reliability was moderate (0.46-0.63). Conclusion: The Yoruba version of the BREAST-Q mastectomy module in Yoruba presents a conceptually equivalent version in a language that is easy to understand.. We will use this validated instrument in a pilot study of Nigerian patients to identify targets for intervention to improve the patient experience and compliance with breast cancer surgery. Citation Format: Olalekan Olasehinde, Anya Romanoff. Translation and Linguistic Validation of the Mastectomy Module of the BREAST-Q Questionnaire for Use in Nigeria [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 11th Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research; Closing the Research-to-Implementation Gap; 2023 Apr 4-6. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 89.

An In Silico Infrared Spectral Library of Molecular Ions for Metabolite Identification.

Infrared ion spectroscopy (IRIS) continues to see increasing use as an analytical tool for small-molecule identification in conjunction with mass spectrometry (MS). The IR spectrum of an m/z selected population of ions constitutes a unique fingerprint that is specific to the molecular structure. However, direct translation of an IR spectrum to a molecular structure remains challenging, as reference libraries of IR spectra of molecular ions largely do not exist. Quantum-chemically computed spectra can reliably be used as reference, but the challenge of selecting the candidate structures remains. Here, we introduce an in silico library of vibrational spectra of common MS adducts of over 4500 compounds found in the human metabolome database. In total, the library currently contains more than 75,000 spectra computed at the DFT level that can be queried with an experimental IR spectrum. Moreover, we introduce a database of 189 experimental IRIS spectra, which is employed to validate the automated spectral matching routines. This demonstrates that 75% of the metabolites in the experimental data set are correctly identified, based solely on their exact m/z and IRIS spectrum. Additionally, we demonstrate an approach for specifically identifying substructures by performing a search without m/z constraints to find structural analogues. Such an unsupervised search paves the way toward the de novo identification of unknowns that are absent in spectral libraries. We apply the in silico spectral library to identify an unknown in a plasma sample as 3-hydroxyhexanoic acid, highlighting the potential of the method.

Biases in object location estimation: The role of rotations and translation

Spatial memory studies often employ static images depicting a scene, an array of objects, or environmental features from one perspective and then following a perspective-shift-prompt memory either of the scene or objects within the scene. The current study investigated a previously reported systematic bias in spatial memory where, following a perspective shift from encoding to recall, participants indicated the location of an object farther to the direction of the shift. In Experiment 1, we aimed to replicate this bias by asking participants to encode the location of an object in a virtual room and then indicate it from memory following a perspective shift induced by camera translation and rotation. In Experiment 2, we decoupled the influence of camera translations and rotations and examined whether adding additional objects to the virtual room would reduce the bias. Overall, our results indicate that camera translations result in greater systematic bias than camera rotations. We propose that the accurate representation of camera translations requires more demanding mental computations than camera rotations, leading to greater uncertainty regarding the location of an object in memory. This uncertainty causes people to rely on an egocentric anchor, thereby giving rise to the systematic bias in the direction of camera translation.

Simulation study of active vibration control of planetary gear: Theoretical and numerical analysis using pole placement

This paper presents analytical and numerical studies on the active assignment of poles to a planetary gear system for vibration control in order to avoid resonance. This involves feeding back the displacement and velocity to add active stiffness and damping, respectively. A rotating frame of reference has been adopted in order to describe the dynamics over a broad range of rotational speed. As an illustration, the closed loop poles were assigned to the translational directions of the sun gear first and thereafter the carrier. This can be achieved by placing the actuators on the outer race of their bearings mounted onto their shafts. The controller was designed such that the closed loop poles can be assigned considering the rotational speed. In this way, it is possible to apply a robust pole-placement that is insensitive to the rotational speed. Numerical examples, where sensors and actuators were collocated, are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the method when applied to a physical system. The results shows that the active control force and power required for the system, when rotating, can be determined using a rotating frame of reference and transformed for practical implementation. In addition, the same conjugate poles were assigned to the carrier and sun gear and the optimal place to apply control forces was discovered. This depends upon the control power required to shift the poles from one location to another. The results show that more control power will be required to shift the poles of the system when poles were assigned to the sun gear, where higher active bearing stiffness was required. Therefore, the optimal place to assign poles in this case is the carrier due to lower control power required to shift the system poles.

Development of a new coordinate calibration phantom for a light-section-based optical surface monitoring system.

A calibration phantom made of Derlin requires manual translational and rotational adjustments when calibrating a light-section-based optical surface monitoring system (VOXELAN) with a phantom material that insufficiently reflects the red-slit laser of the system. This study aimed to develop a new calibration phantom using different materials and to propose a procedure that minimizes setup errors. The new phantom, primarily made of PET100, which exhibits good reflectivity without scattering or attenuating the red-slit laser at the phantom surface, was shaped in a manner similar to that of previous designs. The detection accuracy and stability were evaluated using six different regions of interest (ROIs) and compared with previous phantom designs. The coordinate coincidence between the machine and VOXELAN was compared for both phantom designs. The detection accuracy and stability of the new phantom in the reference ROI setting were found to be better than those of previous phantoms. In the lateral, longitudinal, and vertical directions, the coordinate coincidences in translational directions for the previous phantom were obtained at 1.07 ± 0.66, 1.46 ± 0.47, and 0.26 ± 0.83mm, whereas those for the new phantom were obtained at 0.28 ± 0.21, 0.18 ± 0.30, and -0.30 ± 0.29mm, respectively. The rotational errors of the two phantoms were identical. The new phantom exhibited improved detection stability because of its good reflectivity. Additionally, the new placement procedure was linked to the six-degrees-of-freedom couch. A combination of the new phantom and its new placement procedure is suitable for coordinate calibration of VOXELAN.

Spanish Cultural Adaptation and Inter-Rater Reliability of the Revised Knox Preschool Play Scale

Background: The Revised Knox Preschool Play Scale (RKPPS) is a comprehensive assessment test that observes the level of play development; however, there is no culturally adapted version available with stable psychometric values that would allow its widespread use and provide objective information during clinical evaluations. Methods: Cross-cultural adaptation included direct and retrospective translations, along with cognitive interviews with pediatric occupational therapists to analyze the comprehensibility of the translation. In addition, a final phase of linguistic revision was carried out to determine the grammatical and semantic fit of the adapted version. Finally, inter-rater reliability was analyzed in a sample of typically developing children aged four to six years old. Results: The processes of translation and back-translation, cognitive interview, and linguistic review determined an adequate grammatical and semantic equivalence to the Spanish cultural context. Almost perfect agreement, with values between 0.82 and 0.94, was obtained for items and play dimensions, indicating that the precision of the measurements between both evaluators was excellent. Conclusions: The cross-culturally adapted version of the RKPPS meets the necessary adjustments for the sociocultural context and can be used in the clinical practice of occupational therapy.

Reduction of Neural Machine Translation Failures by Incorporating Statistical Machine Translation

This paper proposes a hybrid machine translation (HMT) system that improves the quality of neural machine translation (NMT) by incorporating statistical machine translation (SMT). Therefore, two NMT systems and two SMT systems were built for the Slovenian–English language pair, each for translation in one direction. We used a multilingual language model to embed the source sentence and translations into the same vector space. From each vector, we extracted features based on the distances and similarities calculated between the source sentence and the NMT translation, and between the source sentence and the SMT translation. To select the best possible translation, we used several well-known classifiers to predict which translation system generated a better translation of the source sentence. The proposed method of combining SMT and NMT in the hybrid system is novel. Our framework is language-independent and can be applied to other languages supported by the multilingual language model. Our experiment involved empirical applications. We compared the performance of the classifiers, and the results demonstrate that our proposed HMT system achieved notable improvements in the BLEU score, with an increase of 1.5 points and 10.9 points for both translation directions, respectively.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THREE VERSIONS OF TRANSLATIONS INTO ALBANIAN OF HEINRICH HEINE’S POEM “GERMANY. A WINTER TALE”

Although the translation of Heinrich Heine’s literary works began almost a century ago and there is lack of serious analysis and evaluations of his translated works into Albanian, they have been welcomed warmly, accepted with curiosity and spread out spontaneously. Therefore, using comparative and analytical methods this paper attempts to address the existing gaps about Heine’s translated poems in Albanian by analysing three versions of translations into Albanian of 10 stanzas of Heinrich Heine’s masterpiece “Germany. A Winter Tale”, which best illustrate the similarities and differences between these three versions of translations and the quality of translations, done by three well-known Albanian literary translators: Lasgush Poradeci, Robert Shvarci and Ardian Klosi. The paper concludes that all the above-mentioned literary translators have used certain methods, ways and parameters to translate Heine’s poem “Germany. A Winter Tale” such as: oblique translation, direct translation, servitude, borrowing, claque, linear translation (or word for word translation), transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation. All three versions of translation were very well-received in Albanian literature and culture, however in the process of translation they have gained and lost and made mistakes, which range from grammatical, syntactic, semantic, stylistic, etc. Lasgush Poradeci’s translations proved to be the most comprehensible, fluent, poetic, and successful, most likely because he was an extremely experienced, talented, and distinguished poet himself.

Language Variation in the Dubbing Into English of the Netflix Series Baby (2018–2020) and Suburra: Blood on Rome (2017–2020)

Although standard Italian is taught from primary school and is widely prevalent in the media, dialects are still spoken in many households all over the country. This trend is captured by many popular video-on-demand providers such as Netflix and HBO, who are diversifying their offer by promoting their own non-English language productions via both subtitling and dubbing. This article analyses how language variation, particularly in the form of dialect and slang, is adapted for dubbing in the Italian Netflix series Baby (2018‒2020) and Suburra: Blood on Rome (2017–2020). Specifically, it examines the most common translational strategies that have been implemented in the dubbing of both series in English. In particular, dialectal elements are often translated directly or generalised, at times, with the addition of taboo words. Correspondingly, youth jargon is largely translated via direct translations or creative additions. Despite having two different age groups at the centre of the narration, similar translation strategies were used in the two series. The qualitative analysis demonstrates that dialect is used to define social disparity, since characters involved with criminality speak principally dialect whereas wealthy students, affluent characters, politicians, and churchmen draw on standard Italian primarily.

Physical model and image translation fused network for single-image dehazing

The visibility and contrast of images captured in adverse weather such as haze or fog degrade dramatically, which further hinders the accomplishment of high-level computer vision tasks such as object detection and semantic segmentation in these conditions. Many methods have been proposed to solve image dehazing problem by using image translation networks or physical model embedding in CNNs. However, the physical model cannot effectively describe the hazy generation process in complex scenes and estimating the model parameters with only a hazy image is an ill-posed problem. Image translation-based methods may lead to artefacts or colour shifts in the recovered results without the guidance or constraints of physical model information. In this paper, an end-to-end physical model and image translation fused network is proposed to generate realistic haze-free images. Since the transmission map can express the haze distribution in the scene, the proposed method adopts an encoder with a multiscale residual block to extract hazy image features, and two separate decoders to recover a clear image and to estimate the transmission map. The multiscale features of the transmission map and image translation are fused to guide the decode processes with a conditional attention feature fusion block, which is composed of sequential channelwise and spatialwise attention. Moreover, a multitask and multiscale deep supervision mechanism is adopted to enhance the feature fusion and recover more image details. The algorithm can efficiently fuse the physical model information and the hazy image translation to address the problem existent in the methods only based on physical model embedding or direct image translation. Experimental results on the visual quality enhancement of hazy images and semantic segmentation tasks in hazy scenes demonstrate that our model can efficiently recover haze-free images, while performing on par with state-of-the-art methods.

The Chinese-English Translation of Four-character Pattern from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

The four-character pattern is a unique form of Chinese language, whose definition is a word or phrase consisting of four syllables, including four-syllable simple words, compound words, idioms, fixed phrases and free phrases. These words are usually concise, expressive and rich in variations. However, there are no such corresponding expressions in English, which causes a great obstacle to the Chinese-English translation. In translation activities, the translation of idioms is often considered significant, which symbolizes the transmission and expression of culture. However, the four-character patterns in Chinese are simple in form, consisting of only four characters, but they have rich cultural connotations. Because of their complex and diverse structures and hidden meanings, English translations of these are often prone to cause problems such as unclear expressions, missing semantics, and loss of meaning. It is difficult to make simple word-for-word translations based on their literal meanings. Also, the common direct translations have long failed to meet the needs of English translations of idioms, which has become a major problem in translation activities.

Book Review: Give Me Tea, Please: Practical Ingredients for Tasteful Language by Natasha V. Broodie

“Give Me Tea, Please: Practical Ingredients for Tasteful Language” is highly recommended. It is a wonderful and powerful guidebook that demonstrates how to improve communication skills. Powerful and insightful, the book is an excellent guide for anyone who wants to uplift their communication in English to the next level by skillfully highlighting cultural differences that lead to communication breakdowns in English when direct translation from a non-native English language fails. The author shares her highly valuable cross-cultural experiences in many different countries. Broodie has studied and practiced several languages, which shows in the book. The significance of her international and multilingual experience is key to how she deconstructs English language devices against non-English language systems. By analyzing the systematic construction of the English language, the author provides valuable advice on navigating the nuances of English-speaking etiquette by non-native English speakers. The guidebook demonstrates a high level of sensitivity to how and why English communication barriers and breakdowns occur in multicultural and multilingual environments.

Optical projection tomography of fluorescent microscopic specimens using lateral translation of tube lens.

Optical projection tomography (OPT) is a three-dimensional (3D) fluorescence imaging technique, in which projection images are acquired for varying orientations of a sample using a large depth of field. OPT is typically applied to a millimeter-sized specimen, because the rotation of a microscopic specimen is challenging and not compatible with live cell imaging. In this Letter, we demonstrate fluorescence optical tomography of a microscopic specimen by laterally translating the tube lens of a wide-field optical microscope, which allows for high-resolution OPT without rotating the sample. The cost is the reduction of the field of view to about halfway along the direction of the tube lens translation. Using bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells and 0.1 µm beads, we compare the 3D imaging performance of the proposed method with that of the conventional objective-focus scan method.

Translation directionality and the Inhibitory Control Model: a machine learning approach to an eye-tracking study.

Based on such physiological data as pupillometry collected in an eye-tracking experiment, the study has further confirmed the effect of directionality on cognitive loads during L1 and L2 textual translations by novice translators, a phenomenon called "translation asymmetry" suggested by the Inhibitory Control Model, while revealing that machine learning-based approaches can be usefully applied to the field of Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies. Directionality was the only factor guiding the eye-tracking experiment where 14 novice translators with the language combination of Chinese and English were recruited to conduct L1 and L2 translations while their pupillometry were recorded. They also filled out a Language and Translation Questionnaire with which categorical data on their demographics were obtained. A nonparametric related-samples Wilcoxon signed rank test on pupillometry verified the effect of directionality, suggested by the model, during bilateral translations, verifying "translation asymmetry" at a textual level. Further, using the pupillometric data, together with the categorical information, the XGBoost machine-learning algorithm yielded a model that could reliably and effectively predict translation directions. The study has shown that translation asymmetry suggested by the model was valid at a textual level, and that machine learning-based approaches can be gainfully applied to Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies.

The process and product of translation revision: empirical data from student translators using eye tracking and screen recording

ABSTRACT As the final phase of the translation process, self-revision has traditionally been a relatively neglected component despite it being widely acknowledged as critical to achieving high-quality translation and in translator training. To identify effective educational interventions for self-revision, the current paper reports on a study that collected empirical data from student translators (n = 72) who were randomly assigned to different conditions (traditional, screen recording, and eye tracking) in highly ecologically valid bidirectional tasks. Six features of eye tracking and screen recording were identified as indicators of potential translation difficulties which could be used to direct student translator’s overt visual attention in the revision phase. We found that eye tracking was the most effective way of assisting student translators in self-revising their translations, regardless of the direction of translation. Further, average fixation duration and backward saccades in the eye tracking recording condition, and pauses and concurrent revision activity in the screen recording condition were the most useful features in helping the student translators to identify potential translation errors and thereby enhance the quality of their translation after revisions. Qualitative data showed that the student translators became more confident and had a clearer understanding of their own translation processes after watching the recordings.