Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parser Accuracy in Quality Estimation of Machine Translation: A Tree Kernel Approach

We report on experiments designed to investigate the role of syntactic features in the task of quality estimation for machine translation, focusing on the effect of parser accuracy. Tree kernels are used to predict the segment-level BLEU score of EnglishFrench translations. In order to examine the effect of the accuracy of the parse tree on the accuracy of the quality estimation system, we experiment with various parsing systems which differ substantially with respect to their Parseval f-scores. We find that it makes very little difference which system we choose to use in the quality estimation task ‐ this effect is particularly apparent for source-side English parse trees.
Development of a custom OMI NO 2 data product for evaluating biases in a regional chemistry transport model

Abstract. In this paper, we present the custom Hong Kong NO2 retrieval (HKOMI) for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the Aura satellite which was used to evaluate a high-resolution chemistry transport model (CTM) (3 km × 3 km spatial resolution). The atmospheric chemistry transport was modelled in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in southern China by the Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modelling system from October 2006 to January 2007. In the HKOMI NO2 retrieval, tropospheric air mass factors (AMFs) were recalculated using high-resolution ancillary parameters of surface reflectance, a priori NO2 and aerosol profiles, of which the latter two were taken from the CMAQ simulation. We tested the influence of the ancillary parameters on the data product using four different aerosol parametrizations. Ground-level measurements by the PRD Regional Air Quality Monitoring (RAQM) network were used as additional independent measurements. The HKOMI retrieval increases estimated tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities (VCD) by (+31 ± 38)%, when compared to NASA's standard product (OMNO2-SP), and improves the normalized mean bias (NMB) between satellite and ground observations by 26 percentage points from −41 to −15%. The individual influences of the parameters are (+11.4 ± 13.4)% for NO2 profiles, (+11.0 ± 20.9)% for surface reflectance and (+6.0 ± 8.4)% for the best aerosol parametrization. The correlation coefficient r is low between ground and satellite observations (r = 0.35). The low r and the remaining NMB can be explained by the low model performance and the expected differences when comparing point measurements with area-averaged satellite observations. The correlation between CMAQ and the RAQM network is low (r ≈ 0.3) and the model underestimates the NO2 concentrations in the northwestern model domain (Foshan and Guangzhou). We compared the CMAQ NO2 time series of the two main plumes with our best OMI NO2 data set (HKOMI-4). The model overestimates the NO2 VCDs by about 15% in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, while the correlation coefficient is satisfactory (r = 0.56). In Foshan and Guangzhou, the correlation is low (r = 0.37) and the model underestimates the VCDs strongly (NMB = −40%). In addition, we estimated that the OMI VCDs are also underestimated by about 10 to 20% in Foshan and Guangzhou because of the influence of the model parameters on the AMFs. In this study, we demonstrate that the HKOMI NO2 retrieval reduces the bias of the satellite observations and how the data set can be used to study the magnitude of NO2 concentrations in a regional model at high spatial resolution of 3 × 3 km2. The low bias was achieved with recalculated AMFs using updated surface reflectance, aerosol profiles and NO2 profiles. Since unbiased concentrations are important, for example, in air pollution studies, the results of this paper can be very helpful in future model evaluation studies.
Anti-Tumor Activity of a Novel Protein Obtained from Tartary Buckwheat

TBWSP31 is a novel antitumor protein that was isolated from tartary buckwheat water-soluble extracts. The objective of this paper was to investigate the anti-proliferative effects of TBWSP31 on breast cancer Bcap37cells and to explore its possible mechanism. After treatment of Bcap37 cells with TBWSP31, typical apoptotic morphological changes were observed by inverted microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), such as detachment from the culture plate, change to a round shape, cell shrinkage, the absence of obvious microvilli, plasma membrane blebbing, and formation of apoptotic bodies. Cell-cycle analysis revealed that treatment with TBWSP31 resulted in a G0/G1 arrest and prevented the cells from growing from G0/G1 phase to S phase, which was most prominent at 48 h. The expression of bcl-2 and Fas were detected quantitatively by FCM, which showed that TBWSP31 induced-apoptosis may be involved with the participation of Fas and bcl-2. These results suggest that TBWSP31 is a potential antitumor compound and that apoptosis induced by TBWSP31 is a key antitumor mechanism.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure

Purpose of reviewDespite improvements in outcome due to lung protective ventilation strategies using low tidal volumes, the mortality rate from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remains unacceptably high, ranging from 34 to 64%. The predominant cause of death in ARDS is not severe hypoxemia, which is one of the defining criteria of ARDS, but multiple organ failure (MOF). Recent findingsIn view of the relationship between ARDS and MOF, two different but complementary pathophysiological perspectives will be developed in this article: ARDS as a consequence of MOF, and ARDS as the cause of MOF. This framework may be useful in guiding the development of novel therapeutic strategies that ultimately improve the outcome of ARDS and sepsis patients. SummaryARDS is a severe lung disease characterized by a very complex pathophysiology, involving not only the respiratory system but also nonpulmonary distal organs. Elucidation of the pathophysiological mechanisms bi-directionally linking MOF to ARDS appears to be a promising area of research that hopefully will lead to improved outcomes for these devastating conditions.
Technologies of the Childhood Imagination: Yugioh, Media Mixes, and Everyday Cultural Production

Many of the essays in this volume bear witness to the powerful alchemy of personal cultural production and communication combined with large-scale networks of digital distribution and archiving. While the implications of peer-to-peer exchange for the media industries have attracted considerable public attention, there has been much less consideration of how these exchanges operate in the everyday practices of individuals. In a world of networked and viral cultural exchange—of cultural life captured in distributed archives, indexed by search engines, and aggregated into microcontent feeds for personal information portals—areas of practice once considered inconsequential dumping grounds of cultural production become irrepressibly consequential, even productive. The despised category of “mass consumption” fractured by several generations of poststructuralists, and corroded by ongoing research in fan and reception studies, may find a still greater foe in the undisciplined practices of teenage music sharing, game hacking, and personal journal blogs. These emergent digital culture forms signal the active participation of previously marginal and invisible groups in what we must now recognize as cultural production, not simply as derivative acts of active consumption or ephemeral personal communication. What does it mean for those previously constructed as “consumers”—non-generative, passive audiences for professionally produced culture—are handed the means not only to distribute media through alternative peer-to-peer networks, but to remix, repackage, re-value, and produce media through amateur cultural production? Shifting structures of participation in the production/consumption matrix are a theme common to many of the essays in this volume (Manovich, Sundaram, Taylor, Nideffer). I approach this question through ethnographic research on children’s new media—media targeted at a demographic group most often characterized as uniquely passive, uncritical, vulnerable, and receptive. One focus of my work was Yugioh, the craze among elementary age boys in Japan in the years from 2000-2002. Yugioh is an example of a “media mix” of the type pioneered by Pokemon, integrating different media forms through licensed character content. The Yugioh animation was released in the US in 2001, and now the card game has overtaken Pokemon here in popularity. Pokemon broke new media ground in its repackaging of strategies and narrative forms of video games as content for serialized, non-interactive forms of media (TV, manga). It innovated further in relying on portable and intimate
Prospective study of dietary acrylamide and risk of colorectal cancer among women

There has been considerable discourse about whether exposure to acrylamide in foods could increase the risk of human cancer. Acrylamide is classified as a probable human carcinogen, and animal studies have demonstrated an increased incidence of tumors in rats exposed to very high levels. Still, epidemiologic data of the effect of dietary acrylamide remain scant. We have undertaken the first prospective study of acrylamide in food and risk of colon and rectal cancers using prospective data from the Swedish Mammography Cohort. The cohort comprised 61,467 women at baseline between 1987 and 1990. Through 2003, the cohort contributed 823,072 person‐years, and 504 cases of colon and 237 of rectal cancer occurred. Mean intake of acrylamide through diet was 24.6 μg/day (Q25–70 = 18.7–29.9). Coffee (44%), fried potato products (16%), crisp bread (15%) and other breads (12%) were the greatest contributors. After adjusting for potential confounders, there was no association between estimated acrylamide intake and colorectal cancer. Comparing extreme quintiles, the adjusted relative risks (95% CI; p for trend) were for colorectal cancer 0.9 (0.7–1.3; p = 0.80), colon cancer 0.9 (0.6–1.4; p = 0.83) and rectal cancer 1.0 (0.6–1.8; p = 0.77). Furthermore, intake of specific food items with elevated acrylamide (e.g., coffee, crisp bread and fried potato products) was not associated with cancer risk. In this large prospective study, we found no evidence that dietary intake of acrylamide is associated with cancers of the colon or rectum. Epidemiologic studies play an important role in assessing the possible health effects of acrylamide intake through food. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A STUDY ON SOME OPERATIONS OF FUZZY SOFT SETS

The purpose of this paper is to study some operations and results available in the literature of fuzzy soft sets. Instead of taking the notion of complement of a fuzzy soft set put forward by Maji, throughout our work, we have taken the notion of complement of a fuzzy soft set put forward by Neog and Sut.
Multilevel μTESLA: Broadcast authentication for distributed sensor networks

Broadcast authentication is a fundamental security service in distributed sensor networks. This paper presents the development of a scalable broadcast authentication scheme named <i>multilevel μTESLA</i> based on μTESLA, a broadcast authentication protocol whose scalability is limited by its unicast-based initial parameter distribution. Multilevel μTESLA satisfies several nice properties, including low overhead, tolerance of message loss, scalability to large networks, and resistance to replay attacks as well as denial-of-service attacks. This paper also presents the experimental results obtained through simulation, which demonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme under severe denial-of-service attacks and poor channel quality.
Law, Stock Markets, and Innovation

We study a broad sample of firms across 32 countries and find that strong shareholder protections and better access to stock market financing lead to substantially higher long-run rates of R&D investment, particularly in small firms, but are unimportant for fixed capital investment. Credit market development has a modest impact on fixed investment but no impact on R&D. These findings connect law and stock markets with innovative activities key to economic growth, and show that legal rules and financial developments affecting the availability of external equity financing are particularly important for risky, intangible investments not easily financed with debt.
Chronic Achilles Tendon Rupture

Background: The Achilles tendon, the largest and strongest tendon in the human body, is nevertheless one of the tendons which most commonly undergoes a complete subcutaneous tear. Achilles tendon ruptures are especially common in middle aged men who occasionally participate in sport. Even though Achilles tendon ruptures are frequent, up to 25% of acute injuries are misdiagnosed, and present as chronic injuries. Methods: This is a review article about diagnosis and management of chronic Achilles tendon ruptures. Minimally invasive Achilles tendon reconstruction is discussed. Results: The optimal surgical procedure is still debated, however, less invasive peroneus brevis reconstruction technique and free hamstring autograft provide good functional results. Conclusion: The management of chronic ruptures is more demanding than acute tears, because of the retraction of the tendon ends, and the gap makes primary repair impossible. Wound complications and infections are frequent after open procedures. Minimally invasive treatments provide good functional results and lower complications rate.
Implicit attitudes towards people with visible difference: findings from an Implicit Association Test

Abstract Research on implicit and explicit attitudes towards those with a visible difference has provided contradictory findings. While studies suggest explicit attitudes towards those with a visible difference are positive, implicit attitudes are likely to be negative. An Implicit Association Test measured attitudes towards visible differences in 129 adults finding no evidence of negative implicit attitudes. This contrasts with previous findings and accounts of those with a visible difference who report perceiving negative behaviours by the general public. Results are discussed in terms of what is known about perceiving faces that are different, as well as socio-cultural changes. These findings provide preliminary evidence that implicit attitudes towards visible difference are not negative, and that behaviour may be a result of uncertainty regarding how to behave.
Sex Differences in Delayed Onset Muscle Pain

Objective: In contrast to the research using typical experimental pain stimuli, there is no consensus that women are more sensitive to delayed onset muscle pain than men. The purpose of this study was to examine sex differences in delayed onset muscle pain with use of a quantified stimulus intensity and multidimensional and valid pain measures. Methods: Ninety-five participants (49.5% women) completed eccentric exercise and then returned to the laboratory at 24 and 48 hours postexercise. The same relative intensity of the eccentric exercise was administered to women and men based on their eccentric strength. Results: The occurrence of muscle pain was confirmed by increases in intensity, F2, 182 = 162.28, P<0.01, η2 = 0.64, and unpleasantness, F2, 182 = 204.03, P < 0.01, η2 = 0.69, and standardized pain ratings, F2, 180 = 67.44, P < 0.01, η2 = 0.43. The affective ratios indicated that the muscle pain was more unpleasant than intense. No sex differences were detected except that men reported higher affective ratios than women, F1, 92 = 4.06, P < 0.05, η2 = 0.04. Discussion: The absence of higher muscle pain ratings in women than men in this investigation resembles a review of the delayed onset muscle soreness and pain literature. However, the findings contradict a few other acute muscle pain investigations, in which actual muscle tissue damage was not induced by eccentric contractions. Additional research is required to identify the parameters that influence the detection of sex differences.
Effect of Heart Rate and Body Mass Index on the Interscan and Interobserver Variability of Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring at Prospective ECG-Triggered 64-Slice CT

Objective To test the effects of heart rate, body mass index (BMI) and noise level on interscan and interobserver variability of coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring on a prospective electrocardiogram (ECG)-triggered 64-slice CT. Materials and Methods One hundred and ten patients (76 patients with CAC) were scanned twice on prospective ECG-triggered scans. The scan parameters included 120 kV, 82 mAs, a 2.5 mm thickness, and an acquisition center at 45% of the RR interval. The interscan and interobserver variability on the CAC scores (Agatston, volume, and mass) was calculated. The factors affecting the variability were determined by plotting it against heart rate, BMI, and noise level (defined as the standard deviation: SD). Results The estimated effective dose was 1.5 ± 0.2 mSv. The mean heart rate was 63 ± 12 bpm (range, 44-101 bpm). The patient BMIs were 24.5 ± 4.5 kg/m2 (range, 15.5-42.3 kg/m2). The mean and median interscan variabilities were 11% and 6%, respectively by volume, and 11% and 6%, respectively, by mass. Moreover, the mean and median of the algorithms were lower than the Agatston algorithm (16% and 9%, respectively). The mean and median interobserver variability was 10% and 4%, respectively (average of algorithms). The mean noise levels were 15 ± 4 Hounsfield unit (HU) (range, 8-25 HU). The interscan and interobserver variability was not correlated with heart rate, BMI, or noise level. Conclusion The interscan and interobserver variability of CAC on a prospective ECG-triggered 64-slice CT with high image quality and 45% of RR acquisition is not significantly affected by heart rate, BMI, or noise level. The volume or mass algorithms show reduced interscan variability compared to the Agatston scoring (p < 0.05).
HEALTH ASSESSMENT OF THE CHRISTMAS ISLAND FLYING FOX (PTEROPUS MELANOTUS NATALIS)

Abstract During July–August 2010, 28 Christmas Island flying foxes (Pteropus melanotus natalis) were captured and anesthetized for examination, sample collection, and release to determine the potential role of disease in recent population declines. Measurements and samples were taken for morphologic, hematologic, biochemical, and parasitologic analysis. These are the first blood reference ranges reported for this species. These data are being used to inform investigations into conservation status and population management strategies for the Christmas Island flying fox.
REAL-TIME PREDICTION FOR FLOOD WARNING AND MANAGEMENT

Within the context of predicting and mitigating flood hazards, this paper motivates the development of innovative ideas in three engineering research areas: (a) spatially-distributed quantitative rainfall prediction, (b) spatially-distributed flow prediction, and (c) long-term flow prediction for water resources management. Design, operational implementation, real-time testing, and training of field personnel should be the cornerstone of such development for realizing the potential benefits in these fields.
Expression of naturally ionic liquid-tolerant thermophilic cellulases in Aspergillus niger

Efficient deconstruction of plant biomass is a major barrier to the development of viable lignocellulosic biofuels. Pretreatment with ionic liquids reduces lignocellulose recalcitrance to enzymatic hydrolysis, increasing yields of sugars for conversion into biofuels. However, commercial cellulases are not compatible with many ionic liquids, necessitating extensive water washing of pretreated biomass prior to hydrolysis. To circumvent this issue, previous research has demonstrated that several thermophilic bacterial cellulases can efficiently deconstruct lignocellulose in the presence of the ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimadizolium acetate. As promising as these enzymes are, they would need to be produced at high titer in an industrial enzyme production host before they could be considered a viable alternative to current commercial cellulases. Aspergillus niger has been used to produce high titers of secreted enzymes in industry and therefore, we assessed the potential of this organism to be used as an expression host for these ionic liquid-tolerant cellulases. We demonstrated that 29 of these cellulases were expressed at detectable levels in a wild-type strain of A. niger, indicating a basic level of compatibility and potential to be produced at high levels in a host engineered to produce high titers of enzymes. We then profiled one of these enzymes in detail, the β-glucosidase A5IL97, and compared versions expressed in both A. niger and Escherichia coli. This comparison revealed the enzymatic activity of A5IL97 purified from E. coli and A. niger is equivalent, suggesting that A. niger could be an excellent enzyme production host for enzymes originally characterized in E. coli, facilitating the transition from the laboratory to industry.
Send Orders of Reprints at Reprints@benthamscience.org Quality of Life in Adult Hypopituitary Patients Treated for Growth Hormone Deficiency §

Growth hormone (GH) affects all organ systems and several studies have also indicated an influence on health related quality of life (QoL). Assessment of QoL is therefore considered as one of several valid indicators of whether or not treatment with GH is beneficial. Two main types of QoL measures are generally used: disease-specific and generic. A combination of the two is generally advocated as they seem to be complementary. Methodologically, questionnaires must be correctly validated in the relevant context of language and a sufficient population based reference group. In this review, the previously published studies on the effects of GH replacement therapy on QoL in adults will be scrutinized. Although many of the studies on the influence of GH replacement on QoL assessment are either having a too short follow-up period, are uncontrolled, or using supra-physiological GH doses or inappropriate QoL instruments, there is a growing body of evidence for impaired QoL in GH deficient patients with improvement or normalisation after GH replacement.
Impairment of Tetanus-Specific Cellular and Humoral Responses following Tetanus Vaccination in Human Lymphatic Filariasis

ABSTRACT To investigate the consequences of the impaired parasite-specific immune response in lymphatic filariasis, the effect of concurrent Wuchereria bancrofti infection on the immune response to tetanus toxoid (TT) following tetanus vaccination was studied in 20 asymptomatic microfilaremic (MF) patients, 20 patients with chronic lymphatic obstruction/elephantiasis (chronic pathology [CP]), and 10 endemic normal (EN) control individuals at baseline and at 3 and 6 months after TT vaccination. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferative responses to TT before vaccination were not significantly different between the EN control and CP groups, but the MF group showed significantly lower baseline proliferative responses to TT compared with either the EN or CP group. Six months following vaccination, the change in proliferative response to TT was significantly greater in the EN and CP groups than in the MF group. This difference in proliferative response was reiterated in the gamma interferon (IFN-γ) response in the EN group, in that they increased IFN-γ production by 400% at 6 months, in contrast to that seen in the filaria-infected groups. In contrast to the IFN-γ responses, PBMCs from the MF group produced significantly increased levels of TT-specific IL-10 compared with PBMCs from the EN group. Although there was significantly greater TT-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) production at baseline between the EN and MF groups, postvaccination IgG (and IgG1 isotype) responses did not differ among the groups, whereas TT-specific IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4 were all increased in the EN group compared with the filaria-infected groups. These studies indicate that concurrent infection with W. bancrofti can diminish the immune response to an unrelated antigen by a mechanism that is likely to involve IL-10.