Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anou Tradir: Experiences In Building Statistical Machine Translation Systems For Mauritian Languages – Creole, English, French

We present, in this paper, our experiences in developing Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) systems involving English, French and Mauritian Creole, the languages most spoken in Mauritius. We give a brief overview of the peculiarities of the language phenomena in Mauritian Creole and indicate the differences between it and English and French. We then give descriptions of the developed corpora used for the various MT systems where we also explore the possibility of using French as a bridge language when translating from English to Creole. We evaluate these systems using the standard objective evaluation measure, BLEU. We postulate and through an error analysis, indicated by examples, verify that when English to French translations are perfect, the subsequent translation of French to Creole results in better quality translations than direct English to Creole translation.
Tracking Epileptiform Activity in the Multichannel Ictal EEG using Spatially Constrained Independent Component Analysis

Blind source separation (BSS) methods such as independent component analysis (ICA) are increasingly being used in biomedical signal processing for decomposition of multivariate time-series, such as the multichannel electroencephalogram (EEG), into a set of underlying sources, some of which may reflect clinically relevant neurophysiological activity such as epileptic seizures or spikes. Tracking and detecting signals of interest fundamentally requires at least some a priori knowledge or assumptions regarding the spatial and/or temporal characteristics of the target sources. While such prior information is conventionally used during post-processing, it seems equally sensible to incorporate any available information into the data decomposition process from the outset. This work presents an alternative approach to source tracking in multichannel EEG, which exploits prior knowledge of the spatial topographies of the scalp voltage distributions associated with the target sources. The predetermined target topographies are used in conjunction with spatially constrained ICA to extract target source waveforms which are uncontaminated by contributions from coactive and spatially correlated brain and artifact sources. These signals can then be further analyzed in terms of their morphological, spectral or statistical properties. As illustrated in the context of epileptiform EEG, this method is useful for tracking seizures
A new individual‐based spatial approach for identifying genetic discontinuities in natural populations

The population concept is central in evolutionary and conservation biology, but identifying the boundaries of natural populations is often challenging. Here, we present a new approach for assessing spatial genetic structure without the a priori assumptions on the locations of populations made by adopting an individual‐centred approach. Our method is based on assignment tests applied in a moving window over an extensively sampled study area. For each individual, a spatially explicit probability surface is constructed, showing the estimated probability of finding its multilocus genotype across the landscape, and identifying putative migrants. Population boundaries are localized by estimating the mean slope of these probability surfaces over all individuals to identify areas with genetic discontinuities. The significance of the genetic discontinuities is assessed by permutation tests. This new approach has the potential to reveal cryptic population structure and to improve our ability to understand gene flow dynamics across landscapes. We illustrate our approach by simulations and by analysing two empirical datasets: microsatellite data of Ursus arctos in Scandinavia, and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) data of Rhododendron ferrugineum in the Alps.
Unmitigated Communion : An Analysis of the Negative Components of Masculinity and Femininity I

The negative components o f masculinity and femininity, conceptualized by Spence and her colleagues (1979) as unmitigated agency and unmitigated communion, were explored by examining dominant and submissive acts used in their expression. In three separate sessions, subjects (N = 129) completed scales designed to measure these constructs, a Dominance Act Report, and a Submissiveness Act Report. Dominant acts used in the expression o f unmitigated agency involved the formation o f separations (e.g., making decisions without consulting the others involved in them), narcissistic self-assertion (e.g., telling others to perform one's menial tasks), and self-protection (e.g., bluffing one's way out o f an embarrassing situation). Submissive acts used in the expression o f unmitigated communion involved failing to make normatively appropriate agentic responses (e.g., walking out o f a store knowing that one had been short-changed) and subjugating personal desires to group wishes (e.g., giving up vacation plans in deference to the preferences o f others). Discussion focuses on elaborating the concepts o f unmitigated agency and unmitigated communion.
Windows of opportunity: thresholds to mangrove seedling establishment on tidal flats

Physical processes limiting colonization of bare tidal flats by pioneer mangrove species have commonly been described but not yet quantified. Understanding thresholds to early seedling establishment is critical for successful restoration and management of mangrove forests. We determined how seedling establishment of Avicennia alba Bl. is affected by the combination of increasing hydrodynamic forces and sediment dynamics. As the buoyant propagules of A. alba are dispersed by water, early establishment on bare tidal flats requires propagules to quickly anchor to stay in place. Flume studies and field observations showed that 3 thresholds have to be passed until the seedling is successfully established: (1) stranded propagules need an inundation-free period to rapidly develop roots that are long enough to withstand displacement by flooding, (2) roots need to become long enough to withstand seedling dislodgement by hydrodynamic forces from waves and currents, with the required root length being proportional to the force that needs to be resisted, (3) even longer roots are needed to survive high energy events that cause sheet erosion and can thereby induce seedling dislodgement. This sequence of thresholds implies that establishment of the pioneer mangrove species A. alba requires a suitable window of opportunity to pass all thresholds and underlines the importance of rapid root expansion as a crucial pioneer trait for the species.
Osteochondral tissue engineering for total joint repair : critical steps towards cell-based constructs

This thesis identifies critical steps to be taken to develop osteochondral constructs. One of the most significant steps in cell-based tissue engineering (TE) is efficient and effective cell seeding. The application of multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is a major advantage for bone and cartilage generation in osteochondral TE. The major drawback lays, however, in the effective seeding and differentiation of MSCs in the chondral part of osteochondral constructs. Different copolymer compositions (poly(ethylene oxide terephthalate) (PEOT) / poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT)) could not demonstrate an improved effect on cell attachment, while different seeding strategies were more successful. The incorporation of a single cell suspension into a hydrogel and the aggregation of single cells prior to the seeding have been shown to be most effective in terms of loaded cell number and generated cartilage. To increase the quantity and quality of cartilage, crucial for clinical size defects, we released growth factors such as TGF β1 from PEOT/PBT scaffold. Our results showed a tailored release of bioactive TGF β1 in vitro from 10 to 40 days. A fast and instant release was more effective than the sustained delivery of TGF β1. Furthermore, we induced cell aggregation after 4hrs and chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs after 24hrs. Advantages of this technique include fast and efficient cell incorporation and a cost and time efficient cell differentiation. It is crucial that scaffolds in osteochondral TE provide niches for chondrogenic and osseous differentiation while at the same time withstand mechanical forces. We increased cell entrapment and differentiation by integrating electrospun microfibrillar structures within macrofibers of 3D scaffolds. To assemble osteochondral constructs, we produced osteoinductive calcium phosphate particles and integrated them into hydrophilic PEOT/PBT for the osseous part. Hydrophobic PEOT/PBT was used for the chondral part. Constructs were seeded with MSCs and analysis showed cartilage tissue generation in the chondral part and bone tissue in the osseous part after 4 weeks in vivo. In a clinical trial in humans, the safety, long-term biocompatibility and osteoconductivity of porous PEOT/PBT implants for donor site filling during osteochondral grafting have been demonstrated. In addition, the ease of arthroscopic scaffold insertion, the congruent surface tissue repair of predominantly fibrocartilagenous nature, and the absence of intra-articular adverse events indicates its suitability to prevent postoperative bleeding and donor site morbidity.
Acquisition of Desires before Beliefs: A Computional Investigation

The acquisition of Belief verbs lags behind the acquisition of Desire verbs in children. Some psycholinguistic theories attribute this lag to conceptual differences between the two classes, while others suggest that syntactic differences are responsible. Through computational experiments, we show that a probabilistic verb learning model exhibits the pattern of acquisition, even though there is no difference in the model in the difficulty of the semantic or syntactic properties of Belief vs. Desire verbs. Our results point to the distributional properties of various verb classes as a potentially important, and heretofore unexplored, factor in the observed developmental lag of Belief verbs.
[Health impact of ozone in 13 Italian cities].

OBJECTIVE to estimate the health impact of ozone in 13 Italian cities over 200,000 inhabitants and to produce basic elements to permit the reproducibility of the study in other urban locations. DESIGN the following data have been used: population data (2001), health data (2001 or from scientific literature), environmental data (2002-2004), from urban background monitoring station and concentration/response risk coefficients derived from recent metanalyses. The indicators SOMO35 and SOMO0 have been used as a proxi of the average exposure to calcolate attributable deaths (and years of life lost) and several causes of morbility for ozone concentrations over 70 microg/m3. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE acute mortality for all causes and for cardiovascular mortality, respiratory-related hospital admissions in elderly, asthma exacerbation in children and adults, minor restricted activity days, lower respiratory symptoms in children. RESULTS over 500 (1900) deaths, the 0.6% (2.1%) of total mortality, equivalent to about 6000 (22,000) years of life lost are attributable to ozone levels over 70 microg/m3 in the 13 Italian cities under study. Larger figures, in the order of thousands, are attributable to less severe morbidity outcomes. CONCLUSION The health impact of ozone in Italian towns is relevant in terms of acute mortality and morbidity, although less severe than PM10 impact. Background ozone levels are increasing. Abatement strategies for ozone concentrations should consider the whole summer and not only "peak" days and look at policies limiting the concentration of precursors produced by traffic sources. Relevant health benefits can be obtained also under levels proposed as guidelines in the present environmental regulations.
Actions of sodium and potassium ions on baroreceptors of normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats.

SUMMARY Although mechanoreceptors are known to be sensitive to extracellular Na + and K + concentrations (INa + ] 0 and [K 4 1,,), the ionic sensitivity of baroreceptors as it relates to their function has not been reported. An in vitro aortic arch-aortic nerve preparation has been used to study this problem in normotensive (NTR) and spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats. The threshold of the response to pressure is increased and the sensitivity reduced by lowering [Na + J 0 ; an increase in |K*| 0 produces changes in the opposite direction. These changes in ionic environment have no effect upon the pressure-volume relationship of the isolated aortic arch segment so that the effects are upon the baroreceptors themselves. Differences in ionic sensitivity between SHR and NTR baroreceptors were not observed, but the number of receptors compared in this way was small. A proposed model based on conventional membrane electrophysiological theory describes the ionic effects observed in SHR and NTR baroreceptors. The increased threshold and decreased sensitivity of SHR baroreceptors can be accounted for by assuming that their membrane sodium to potassium permeability ratio is reduced and the distensibility of their aortas is not significantly reduced. A mechanism such as this might be involved in acute resetting of baroreceptors. The present results predict sodium-sensitive baroreceptor reflexes, and we have already reported that reductions of as little as 5% in [Na + |u bathing baroreceptors reflexly increase arterial blood pressure and urine output.
One-Pot Reverse Transcriptional Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) for Detecting MERS-CoV

Due to the limitation of rapid development of specific antiviral drug or vaccine for novel emerging viruses, an accurate and rapid diagnosis is a key to manage the virus spread. We developed an efficient and rapid method with high specificity for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), based on one-pot reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (one-pot RT-LAMP). A set of six LAMP primers [F3, B3, FIP, BIP, LF (Loop-F), and LB (Loop-B)] were designed using the sequence of nucleocapsid (N) gene with optimized RT-LAMP enzyme conditions: 100 U M-MLV RTase and 4 U Bst polymerase, implying that the reaction was able to detect four infectious viral genome copies of MERS-CoV within a 60 min reaction time period. Significantly, EvaGreen dye has better signal read-out properties in one-pot RT-LAMP reaction and is more compatible with DNA polymerase than SYBR green I. Isothermally amplified specific N genes were further evaluated using field-deployable microchamber devices, leading to the specific identification of as few as 0.4 infectious viral genome copies, with no cross-reaction to the other acute respiratory disease viruses, including influenza type A (H1N1 and H3N2), type B, human coronavirus 229E, and human metapneumovirus. This sensitive, specific and feasible method provides a large-scale technical support in emergencies, and is also applied as a sample-to-detection module in Point of Care Testing devices.
Role of carbohydrate in central fatigue: a systematic review

Carbohydrate (CHO) depletion is linked to neuromuscular fatigue during exercise. While its role at peripheral level is relatively well understood, less is known about its impact centrally. The aim of this systematic review was to critically analyze the effects of CHO on central fatigue (CF) assessed by various neurophysiological techniques. Four databases were searched using PRISMA guidelines through February 2016. The inclusion criteria were: CHO as intervention against a placebo control, fatigue induced by prolonged exercise and assessed using neurophysiological measures [voluntary activation (VA), superimposed twitch (SIT), M‐wave, electromyography], alongside maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). Seven papers were reviewed, where exercise duration lasted between 115 and 180 min. CHO improved exercise performance in three studies, whereby two of them attributed it to CF via attenuation of VA and SIT reductions, while the other indicated peripheral involvement via attenuation of M‐wave reduction. Although a few studies suggest that CHO attenuates CF, data on its direct effects on neurophysiological outcome measures are limited and mixed. Generally, measures employed in these studies were inadequate to conclude central contribution to fatigue. Factors including the techniques used and the lack of controls render additional confounding factors to make definitive deductions. Future studies should employ consistent techniques and appropriate neurophysiological controls to distinguish CHO effect at central level. The use of pharmacological intervention should be incorporated to elucidate involvement of central mechanisms.
Too much experience: a desensitization bias in emotional perspective taking.

People often use their own feelings as a basis to predict others' feelings. For example, when trying to gauge how much someone else enjoys a television show, people might think "How much do I enjoy it? " and use this answer as basis for estimating others' reactions. Although personal experience (such as actually watching the show oneself) often improves empathic accuracy, we found that gaining too much experience can impair it. Five experiments highlight a desensitization bias in emotional perspective taking, with consequences for social prediction, social judgment, and social behavior. Participants who viewed thrilling or shocking images many times predicted first-time viewers would react less intensely (Experiments 1 and 2); participants who heard the same funny joke or annoying noise many times estimated less intense reactions of first-time listeners (Experiments 3 and 4); and further, participants were less likely to actually share good jokes and felt less bad about blasting others with annoying noise after they themselves became desensitized to those events (Experiments 3-5). These effects were mediated by participants' own attenuated reactions. Moreover, observers failed to anticipate this bias, believing that overexposed participants (i.e., repeatedly exposed participants who became desensitized) would make better decisions on their behalf (Experiment 5). Taken together, these findings reveal a novel paradox in emotional perspective taking: If people experience an evocative event many times, they may not become wiser companions but worse, unable to disentangle self-change from other-oriented thinking. Just as lacking exposure to others' experiences can create gaps in empathy and understanding, so may gaining too much.
2,3,5,4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside suppresses human colorectal cancer cell metastasis through inhibiting NF-κB activation.

2,3,5,4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside (THSG), a major component of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb (He-Shou-Wu), has been reported to exhibit antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. However, its anti-metastatic effect against colorectal cancer is still unclear. In this study, cell migration, invasion and adhesion abilities as well as metastasis-associated protein and NF-κB pathway signaling factor expression were analyzed after treating HT-29 cells with THSG. According to the results, the migration and invasiveness of HT-29 cells were reduced after treatment with 5 or 10 mM THSG (p<0.05). Additionally, the levels of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and phosphorylated VE-cadherin in HT-29 cells were reduced and the transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) of EA.hy926 endothelial cell monolayers was increased after incubation in THSG for 24 h (p<0.05). Cell adhesion ability and the E-selectin and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) protein levels were reduced when EA.hy926 endothelial cells were treated with THSG (p<0.05). In addition, the cytoplasmic phosphorylation of IκB, the nuclear p65 level and the DNA-binding activity of NF-κB were reduced after treating HT-29 or EA.hy926 cells with 5 or 10 mM THSG (p<0.05). These results suggest that THSG inhibits HT-29 cell metastasis by suppressing cell migration, invasion and adhesion. Furthermore, THSG inhibits metastasis-associated protein expression by suppressing NF-κB pathway activation.
Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States

Background The gap between the highest and lowest life expectancies for race-county combinations in the United States is over 35 y. We divided the race-county combinations of the US population into eight distinct groups, referred to as the “eight Americas,” to explore the causes of the disparities that can inform specific public health intervention policies and programs. Methods and Findings The eight Americas were defined based on race, location of the county of residence, population density, race-specific county-level per capita income, and cumulative homicide rate. Data sources for population and mortality figures were the Bureau of the Census and the National Center for Health Statistics. We estimated life expectancy, the risk of mortality from specific diseases, health insurance, and health-care utilization for the eight Americas. The life expectancy gap between the 3.4 million high-risk urban black males and the 5.6 million Asian females was 20.7 y in 2001. Within the sexes, the life expectancy gap between the best-off and the worst-off groups was 15.4 y for males (Asians versus high-risk urban blacks) and 12.8 y for females (Asians versus low-income southern rural blacks). Mortality disparities among the eight Americas were largest for young (15–44 y) and middle-aged (45–59 y) adults, especially for men. The disparities were caused primarily by a number of chronic diseases and injuries with well-established risk factors. Between 1982 and 2001, the ordering of life expectancy among the eight Americas and the absolute difference between the advantaged and disadvantaged groups remained largely unchanged. Self-reported health plan coverage was lowest for western Native Americans and low-income southern rural blacks. Crude self-reported health-care utilization, however, was slightly higher for the more disadvantaged populations. Conclusions Disparities in mortality across the eight Americas, each consisting of millions or tens of millions of Americans, are enormous by all international standards. The observed disparities in life expectancy cannot be explained by race, income, or basic health-care access and utilization alone. Because policies aimed at reducing fundamental socioeconomic inequalities are currently practically absent in the US, health disparities will have to be at least partly addressed through public health strategies that reduce risk factors for chronic diseases and injuries.