title: Annotate-Sample-Average (ASA): A New Distant Supervision Approach for Twitter Sentiment Analysis

authors: Bravo-Marquez, Felipe

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: The classification of tweets into polarity classes is a popular task in sentiment analysis. State-of-the-art solutions to this problem are based on supervised machine learning models trained from manually annotated examples. A drawback of these approaches is the high cost involved in data annotation. Two freely available resources that can be exploited to solve the problem are: 1) large amounts of unlabelled tweets obtained from the Twitter API and 2) prior lexical knowledge in the form of opinion lexicons. In this paper, we propose Annotate-Sample-Average (ASA), a distant supervision method that uses these two resources to generate synthetic training data for Twitter polarity classification. Positive and negative training instances are generated by sampling and averaging unlabelled tweets containing words with the corresponding polarity. Polarity of words is determined from a given polarity lexicon. Our experimental results show that the training data generated by ASA (after tuning its parameters) produces a classifier that performs significantly better than a classifier trained from tweets annotated with emoticons and a classifier trained, without any sampling and averaging, from tweets annotated according to the polarity of their words.

text: Annotate-Sample-Average (ASA): A New Distant Supervision Approach for Twitter Sentiment Analysis The classification of tweets into polarity classes is a popular task in sentiment analysis. State-of-the-art solutions to this problem are based on supervised machine learning models trained from manually annotated examples. A drawback of these approaches is the high cost involved in data annotation. Two freely available resources that can be exploited to solve the problem are: 1) large amounts of unlabelled tweets obtained from the Twitter API and 2) prior lexical knowledge in the form of opinion lexicons. In this paper, we propose Annotate-Sample-Average (ASA), a distant supervision method that uses these two resources to generate synthetic training data for Twitter polarity classification. Positive and negative training instances are generated by sampling and averaging unlabelled tweets containing words with the corresponding polarity. Polarity of words is determined from a given polarity lexicon. Our experimental results show that the training data generated by ASA (after tuning its parameters) produces a classifier that performs significantly better than a classifier trained from tweets annotated with emoticons and a classifier trained, without any sampling and averaging, from tweets annotated according to the polarity of their words.

year: 2016-01-01

title: The effect of tissue flossing on ankle range of motion, jump and sprint performance in elite rugby ‎union athletes

authors: Mills, Blair Stephen

abstract: Context:
Given the relatively novel technique of tissue flossing is currently lacking in the research literature despite some positive findings in preliminary studies, the modality clearly requires further research. Current evidence suggests that band flossing results in performance improvements and may also be an effective method in injury prevention.

Objective:
Previous research has shown that tissue flossing may result in increased ankle ROM, jump and sprinting performance in recreational athletes. The present study aims to extend on this research, within an elite athlete sample.

Design:
counter-balanced, crossover design with experimental and control trials, separated by one week.

Setting:
University laboratory.

Participants:
14 professional male rugby union athletes (mean ± SD: age; 23.9 ± 2.7).

Intervention:
Application of a floss band to both ankles (FLOSS) for two minutes or without flossing of the ankle joints (CON) on two separate occasions.

Main Outcome Measures:
A weight-bearing lunge test (WBLT), a countermovement (CMJ) jump test and a 20m sprint (SPRINT) test pre and at 5 and 30 minutes post application of the floss band or control.

Results:
There were no statistically significant interactions between treatment (FLOSS/CON) and time for any of the measured variables (p > 0.05). Effect size analysis revealed small benefits for FLOSS in comparison to CON for CMJ performance 5 mins post (d = 0.28) and for 10m (d = -0.45) and 15m (d = -0.24) sprint time 30 mins post.

Conclusion:
Findings from the current study suggest minimal benefits of tissue flossing when applied to the ankle joint in elite athletes for up to 30 minutes following their application.

text: The effect of tissue flossing on ankle range of motion, jump and sprint performance in elite rugby ‎union athletes Context:
Given the relatively novel technique of tissue flossing is currently lacking in the research literature despite some positive findings in preliminary studies, the modality clearly requires further research. Current evidence suggests that band flossing results in performance improvements and may also be an effective method in injury prevention.

Objective:
Previous research has shown that tissue flossing may result in increased ankle ROM, jump and sprinting performance in recreational athletes. The present study aims to extend on this research, within an elite athlete sample.

Design:
counter-balanced, crossover design with experimental and control trials, separated by one week.

Setting:
University laboratory.

Participants:
14 professional male rugby union athletes (mean ± SD: age; 23.9 ± 2.7).

Intervention:
Application of a floss band to both ankles (FLOSS) for two minutes or without flossing of the ankle joints (CON) on two separate occasions.

Main Outcome Measures:
A weight-bearing lunge test (WBLT), a countermovement (CMJ) jump test and a 20m sprint (SPRINT) test pre and at 5 and 30 minutes post application of the floss band or control.

Results:
There were no statistically significant interactions between treatment (FLOSS/CON) and time for any of the measured variables (p > 0.05). Effect size analysis revealed small benefits for FLOSS in comparison to CON for CMJ performance 5 mins post (d = 0.28) and for 10m (d = -0.45) and 15m (d = -0.24) sprint time 30 mins post.

Conclusion:
Findings from the current study suggest minimal benefits of tissue flossing when applied to the ankle joint in elite athletes for up to 30 minutes following their application.

year: 2019

title: Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae: Rangatahi perspectives of leadership within Ngāti Maniapoto

authors: Moss, Luke

subjects: Rangatahi

abstract: Research on youth leadership development is often saturated by adult perceptions and thus the literature often lacks youth voice and youth perspective on what integral areas are needed for successful youth leadership development. This research focuses on the rangatahi of Ngāti Maniapoto and their perspectives of leadership within the iwi to aid the gap in academic literature relating to youth perception of leadership development.

Maniapoto has an abundance of leadership examples from the plethora of tūpuna that have developed the iwi to the leaders of contemporary Maniapoto pushing the iwi forward. The purpose of this research is to delve into the perspectives of rangatahi Maniapoto that pertain to good leadership qualities, their perception of leadership, unique leadership styles within Maniapoto, rangatahi leadership skills and perspectives of youth development within the iwi. By interviewing rangatahi with strong connection to Maniapoto this information of their perspectives revealed four integral areas of rangatahi leadership development were collated into a model for dissemination and use within the iwi for youth development practices. This model is named Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae and has four areas, education, collective, communication and vision. Education was identified by rangatahi as they found that learning Maniapoto reo and tikanga was integral for a Maniapoto leader, in addition they saw an opportunity to establish a wānanga to future proof our Maniapototanga. A collective approach to leadership was highlighted as the rangatahi perceive that Maniapoto leaders need to be well known in the community and have good relationships with iwi members to be successful. Rangatahi reported that communication was an important attribute for leaders to have, not just speech but communicating by doing was essential for a Maniapoto leader. Finally, rangatahi explained that leaders need to have a vision for the taiao and a vision for our people to be a successful leader, and be able to take the iwi to a place they have not been to before.

This study adds to the scarce literature on youth perceptions on youth leadership development and definitively answers the question on how rangatahi of Maniapoto perceive leadership and how rangatahi of Maniapoto would develop leadership within Te Nehenehenui. The key findings presented in this thesis indicate that rangatahi from Maniapoto engage and identify leadership in many ways, however they do agree that leadership development is necessary for Maniapoto to flourish in the future. Applying this model and research within the iwi will create new foundations for leadership to grow within Maniapoto, and fill the gap of leadership for the iwi that rangatahi have identified.

text: Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae: Rangatahi perspectives of leadership within Ngāti Maniapoto Research on youth leadership development is often saturated by adult perceptions and thus the literature often lacks youth voice and youth perspective on what integral areas are needed for successful youth leadership development. This research focuses on the rangatahi of Ngāti Maniapoto and their perspectives of leadership within the iwi to aid the gap in academic literature relating to youth perception of leadership development.

Maniapoto has an abundance of leadership examples from the plethora of tūpuna that have developed the iwi to the leaders of contemporary Maniapoto pushing the iwi forward. The purpose of this research is to delve into the perspectives of rangatahi Maniapoto that pertain to good leadership qualities, their perception of leadership, unique leadership styles within Maniapoto, rangatahi leadership skills and perspectives of youth development within the iwi. By interviewing rangatahi with strong connection to Maniapoto this information of their perspectives revealed four integral areas of rangatahi leadership development were collated into a model for dissemination and use within the iwi for youth development practices. This model is named Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae and has four areas, education, collective, communication and vision. Education was identified by rangatahi as they found that learning Maniapoto reo and tikanga was integral for a Maniapoto leader, in addition they saw an opportunity to establish a wānanga to future proof our Maniapototanga. A collective approach to leadership was highlighted as the rangatahi perceive that Maniapoto leaders need to be well known in the community and have good relationships with iwi members to be successful. Rangatahi reported that communication was an important attribute for leaders to have, not just speech but communicating by doing was essential for a Maniapoto leader. Finally, rangatahi explained that leaders need to have a vision for the taiao and a vision for our people to be a successful leader, and be able to take the iwi to a place they have not been to before.

This study adds to the scarce literature on youth perceptions on youth leadership development and definitively answers the question on how rangatahi of Maniapoto perceive leadership and how rangatahi of Maniapoto would develop leadership within Te Nehenehenui. The key findings presented in this thesis indicate that rangatahi from Maniapoto engage and identify leadership in many ways, however they do agree that leadership development is necessary for Maniapoto to flourish in the future. Applying this model and research within the iwi will create new foundations for leadership to grow within Maniapoto, and fill the gap of leadership for the iwi that rangatahi have identified.

year: 2021