Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kernel Methods for Relation Extraction

We present an application of kernel methods to extracting relations from unstructured natural language sources. We introduce kernels defined over shallow parse representations of text, and design efficient algorithms for computing the kernels. We use the devised kernels in conjunction with Support Vector Machine and Voted Perceptron learning algorithms for the task of extracting person-affiliation and organization-location relations from text. We experimentally evaluate the proposed methods and compare them with feature-based learning algorithms, with promising results.
Menopausal Complaints Are Associated With Cardiovascular Risk Factors

It has been hypothesized that women with vasomotor symptoms differ from those without with respect to cardiovascular risk factors or responses to exogenous hormone therapy. We studied whether the presence and extent of menopausal complaints are associated with cardiovascular risk profile. Data were used from a population-based sample of 5523 women, aged 46 to 57 years, enrolled between 1994 and 1995. Data on menopausal complaints and potential confounders were collected by questionnaires. Total cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and body mass index were measured. Linear and logistic regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Night sweats were reported by 38% and flushing by 39% of women. After multivariate adjustment, women with complaints of flushing had a 0.27-mmol/L (95% CI: 0.15 to 0.39) higher cholesterol level, a 0.60-kg/m2 (95% CI: 0.35 to 0.84) higher BMI, a 1.59-mm Hg (95% CI: 0.52 to 2.67) higher systolic blood pressure, and a 1.09-mm Hg (95% CI: 0.48 to 1.69) higher diastolic blood pressure compared with asymptomatic women. Flushing was also associated with hypercholesterolemia (odds ratio: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.25 to 1.84) and hypertension (OR: 1.20; 95% CI: 1.07 to 1.34). Results were similar for complaints of night sweating. The findings support the view that menopausal complaints are associated with a less favorable cardiovascular risk profile. These findings substantiate the view that differences in the presence of menopausal symptoms as a reason for using hormone therapy could explain discrepant findings between observational research and trials.
Sources of developmental change in children's word-problem performance.

This study was designed to examine the roles of domain-specific and general information-processing skills in developmental change in children's performance on arithmetic word problems. In 2 studies, arithmetic knowledge, processing time, memory, reading skill, and word-problem performance were measured in 8- to 12-year-olds (N = 120 in Study 1 and N = 155 in Study 2). Word-problem performance was predicted by arithmetic knowledge (times and errors in solving simple addition and subtraction problems) and by general information-processing skills (reading and processing time and, to a lesser extent and less consistently, memory). Results are discussed in relation to the factors that contribute to word-problem skill.
Analysing group dynamics within the focus group

Focus groups are routinely used as a research tool in a wide variety of settings. Based on recent experience with poverty research, we argue this method needs to be problematized and further rethought. The article draws on focus group studies conducted over seven years to argue that the method routinely excludes a key area of group interaction: group dynamics. Our work underlines how these are central to shaping group participation as well as the themes, absences and forms of reporting in studies. We employ Whitaker and Lieberman’s (1964) focal conflict theory as a methodology to follow the configuration of these dynamics within a group setting. Drawing on this analytic framework, and examples from the study, we argue that an orientation to group relations is essential to expanding the method’s sensitivity as an effective research procedure.
Subnanosecond Emission Dynamics of AT DNA Oligonucleotides.

UV radiation creates excited electronic states in DNA that can decay to mutagenic photoproducts. When excited states return to the electronic ground state, photochemical injury is avoided. Understanding of the available relaxation pathways has advanced rapidly during the past decade, but there has been persistent uncertainty, and even controversy, over how to compare results from transient absorption and time-resolved emission experiments. Here, emission from single- and double-stranded AT DNA compounds excited at 265 nm was studied in aqueous solution using the time-correlated single photon counting technique. There is quantitative agreement between the emission lifetimes ranging from 50 to 200 ps and ones measured in transient absorption experiments, demonstrating that both techniques probe the same excited states. The results indicate that excitations with lifetimes of more than a few picoseconds are weakly emissive excimer and charge transfer states. Only a minute fraction of excitations persist beyond 1 ns in AT DNA strands at room temperature.
Conceptualizing word‐of‐mouth activity, triggers and conditions: an exploratory study

Purpose – Organizations continually seek new ways to achieve competitive advantage and word of mouth (WOM) represents such an opportunity because it has a powerful influence on consumers' attitudes and behaviors. However, prior research offers little insight into what WOM really means. The present study aims to investigate the complexities of the WOM concept and simultaneously examine the triggers that motivate people to offer WOM and the conditions that enhance the chance of WOM occurring.Design/methodology/approach – A series of six focus groups were undertaken with consumers, these were supplemented by more than 100 critical incident questionnaires.Findings – Two key WOM themes, termed “richness of message” and “strength of implied or explicit advocacy”, were identified, as well as various triggers and conditions that affect WOM occurrence.Research limitations/implications – The study was based on two kinds of qualitative research, but quantitative research is required to fully test the derived WOM mod.
Reopening the study of extreme social behaviors: Obedience to authority within an immersive video environment

In this study, we used a paradigm similar to the one used by Milgram in his classic obedience study, using an immersive video environment. We manipulated the victim's degree of visibility and his ethnicity. When the victim was hidden, the level of obedience we obtained was similar to Milgram's. Replicating previous findings observed in real environments, participants were more obedient when the victim was hidden than when he was visible, and the more obedient participants negated their own responsibility by projecting responsibility on both the victim and the experimenter. State-anger and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) emerged as two significant predictors of the level of obedience. Illustrating an underlying process of racial-dehumanization, participants reported less anxiety and distress when the victim was a North African than when the victim was of the same racial origin as the participant. These results underscore the usefulness of using immersive environments when studying extreme social behaviors. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The logical structure of emotions

Even though emotions sometimes lead us astray, there is mounting evidence from psychology and neurology that emotions have---on the whole---a positive effect on intelligent decision making and acting. Emotions help both overtly and covertly by focusing a person's attention to what is important and pruning unpromising directions of reasoning. Like humans, artificial agents---such as robots and virtual characters---have to act intelligently under resource constraints. A deep understanding of how human emotions function as innate and learned heuristics can help us in designing more effective artificial agents. Even if one does not want artificial agents to behave emotionally, it will still be useful to make these agents have knowledge of human emotions, so that they can take these into account when interacting or cooperating with humans. In order to incorporate emotions in artificial agents, a bridge must be built from psychological models of human emotions to computer science. This is done in this dissertation by capturing an emotion theory in a formal agent specification language. This formalization both serves as a foundation for the implementation of emotions in artificial agents, and enables us to formally analyze properties of the psychological model, leading to a more precise understanding of the workings of human emotions
Models of Noise and Robust Estimates

Given n noisy observations g i of the same quantity f, i t i s c o m m o n use to give an estimate of f by minimizing the function P n i=1 (g i ;f) 2. From a statistical point of view this corresponds to computing the Maximum Likelihood estimate, under the assumption of Gaussian noise. Howeve r , i t i s w ell known that this choice leads to results that are very sensitive to the presence of outliers in the data. For this reason it has been proposed to minimize functions of the form P n i=1 V (g i ; f), where V is a function that increases less rapidly than the square. Several choices for V have been proposed and successfully used to obtain \robust" estimates. In this paper we show that, for a class of functions V , using these robust estimators corresponds to assuming that data are corrupted by Gaussian noise whose variance uctuates according to some given probability distribution, that uniquely determines the shape of V .
Promoting healthy eating to children: a text message (SMS) feedback approach

The paper presents the design and results of a goal-setting and feedback intervention aimed at increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables. The intervention involved 256 Danish adolescents (aged 12), and consisted of a nutrition education programme and an SMS based diary and feedback procedure that involved setting and modifying consumption goals. Effects were measured by comparing consumption goals and consumption data from the SMS diaries as well as from pre- and post-intervention surveys. In addition to assessing the effects of the intervention on the consumption of fruits and vegetables, an objective of the study was to evaluate the intervention process in terms of attrition and goal accommodation behaviours. Based on the pre-intervention survey, the sample was split into two groups consisting of pupils with low vs. high intake of fruits and vegetables. The diary and feedback design resulted in low attrition for both groups of pupils. Contrary to expectations, however, pupils with a high vs. low pre-intervention intake were not less likely to reduce their intake goals during the intervention. For the pupils with low pre-intervention intake, the intervention resulted in small but significant increases in consumption frequencies, whereas the partial effect of the SMS routines was only marginally positive. Unexpectedly, the pupils with a high pre-intervention intake reduced their consumption of fruits and vegetables during the intervention.
Hermeneutics, human sciences and health: linking theory and practice

This paper considers the relationship between hermeneutic theory and qualitative empirical research in the human sciences. I suggest that the human sciences can offer a useful crucible for thinking again about some of the ideas in hermeneutics. I then provide a small piece of data from an empirical study I conducted on identity change during the transition to motherhood and show how the data and analysis can be “re-illuminated” when thought of in terms of ideas from the hermeneutic writing of Schleiermacher, Heidegger and Gadamer. Finally, I suggest a project that would go round one particular hermeneutic circle in the different direction, using empirical research in the human sciences to further extend and develop hermeneutic theory.
Gender, Gender Identity, Ethnicity, and Stereotyping Of Children's Chores:The Israeli Case

The present study examines the effect of adults' gender, gender identity, and ethnicity on their stereotyping of children's chores in Israeli society. The sample consists of 238 married and single participants (81 men and 157 women). With respect to children's chores, five main categories are examined: domestic, help with siblings, self-care, outside, and technical. The findings reveal that the impact of geder identity (according to the terms of gender schema theory) on stereotyping of children's chores was less than expected and therefore do not support the research hypotheses. Moreover, the impact of gender was greater than that of gender identity: Women tend to develop less stereotyped attitudes toward children's chores than men do. No effect is found for the participant's country of birth, but mother's country of birth does have an effect.
A Generalized Feynman-Kac Formula For One Dimensional Processes

Suppose that a real valued process X is given as a solution to a stochastic differential equation. Then, for any twice continuously differentiable function f , the Feynman-Kac formula gives a condition for f(t, X) to be a local martingale. We generalize the Feynman-Kac formula in two main ways. First, it is extended to nondifferentiable functions. Second, the process X is not required to satisfy an SDE. Instead, it is only required to be a quasimartingale satisfying an integrability condition, and the martingale condition for f(t, X) is then expressed in terms of the marginal distributions, drift measure and jumps of X . The proof involves the stochastic calculus of Dirichlet processes and a time-reversal argument. These results are then applied to show that a continuous and strong Markov martingale is uniquely determined by its marginal distributions.
Shining a Light or Fumbling in the Dark? The Effects of NCLB’s Subgroup-Specific Accountability on Student Achievement

The theory of action behind the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is that “shining a light” on subgroup performance will increase reading and math test scores for minority and disadvantaged students. Using a panel of all students in Grades 3 through 8 in North Carolina from 2000 to 2008 (N = 1.7 million students in 1,800 schools), the authors estimate double- and triple-differenced models with school fixed effects to examine whether subgroup-specific accountability threats increase high-stakes test scores. These sanctions are found to have positive effects for minority and disadvantaged students. Larger positive effects emerge for the lowest achieving schools rather than schools near the margin of passing. Some evidence of adverse effects is also found for low and high achievers in math, but not in reading, a finding attributed to the combination of increases in the rigor of state standards in math and responses to an accountability metric based on test score status rather than growth. The implications of the findings for the design of educational accountability systems are discussed.
Mechanism of Bactericidal Activity of Microcin L in Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica

ABSTRACT For the first time, the mechanism of action of microcin L (MccL) was investigated in live bacteria. MccL is a gene-encoded peptide produced by Escherichia coli LR05 that exhibits a strong antibacterial activity against related Enterobacteriaceae, including Salmonella enterica serovars Typhimurium and Enteritidis. We first subcloned the MccL genetic system to remove the sequences not involved in MccL production. We then optimized the MccL purification procedure to obtain large amounts of purified microcin to investigate its antimicrobial and membrane properties. We showed that MccL did not induce outer membrane permeabilization, which indicated that MccL did not use this way to kill the sensitive cell or to enter into it. Using a set of E. coli and Salmonella enterica mutants lacking iron-siderophore receptors, we demonstrated that the MccL uptake required the outer membrane receptor Cir. Moreover, the MccL bactericidal activity was shown to depend on the TonB protein that transduces the proton-motive force of the cytoplasmic membrane to transport iron-siderophore complexes across the outer membrane. Using carbonyl cyanide 3-chlorophenylhydrazone, which is known to fully dissipate the proton-motive force, we proved that the proton-motive force was required for the bactericidal activity of MccL on E. coli. In addition, we showed that a primary target of MccL could be the cytoplasmic membrane: a high level of MccL disrupted the inner membrane potential of E. coli cells. However, no permeabilization of the membrane was detected.
The Nature of Norms in Individual Sport Teams

It has been suggested that the salience and legitimacy of norms for performance excellence are universal in all sport teams. However, the different task structures within sport influence the nature of interactions, which in turn, may influence the development of team norms. Thus, one purpose of this study was to examine the strength of group norms in individual sport teams. A second purpose was to determine the relationship between those norms and self-reported behaviors reflective of the norms. Participants (N = 97) of university-level individual sport teams completed a questionnaire, which assessed performance norms and behaviors for practice, competition, off-season, and team social functions. The results provided support for the conclusion that normative expectations in individual sport teams exert a weak influence. Also, generally, individual perceptions of the strength of team norms were unrelated to self-reported behaviors. The results were discussed in terms of the dynamics of the group task.
Iridoid Glycosides Fraction of Folium syringae Leaves Modulates NF-κB Signal Pathway and Intestinal Epithelial Cells Apoptosis in Experimental Colitis

Background and Aims Iridoid glycosides (IG), the major active fraction of F. syringae leaves has been demonstrated to have strong anti-inflammatory properties to ulcerative colitis (UC) in our previous study. The aim of this study was to investigate whether IG modulates the inflammatory response in experimental colitis at the level of NF-κB signal pathway and epithelial cell apoptosis. Methods UC in rats was induced by administration with dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) in drinking water. The inflammatory damage was assessed by disease activity index (DAI), macroscopic findings, histology and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. The effect of IG on pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-8, COX-2 and regulatory peptide TGF-β1 was measured. Epithelial cell apoptosis and the protein and mRNA expressions of Fas/FasL, Bcl-2/Bax, caspase-3, NF-κB p65, IκBα, p-IκBα and IKKβ were detected by TUNEL method, immunohistochemistry, Western blotting and real-time quantitative PCR, respectively. Results IG significantly ameliorated macroscopic damage and histological changes, reduced the activity of MPO, and strongly inhibited epithelial cell apoptosis. Moreover, IG markedly depressed TNF-α, IL-8, COX-2 and TGF-β1 levels in the colon tissues in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, IG significantly blocked of NF-κB signaling by inhibiting IκBα phosphorylation/degradation and IKKβ activity, down-regulated the protein and mRNA expressions of Fas/FasL, Bax and caspase-3, and activated Bcl-2 in intestinal epithelial cells. Conclusions These results demonstrated for the first time that IG possessed marked protective effects on experimental colitis through inhibition of epithelial cell apoptosis and blockade of NF-κB signal pathway.
Emerging NPIs: The acquisition of Dutch hoeven ‘need’

Abstract Dutch modal verb hoeven ‘need’ is a Negative Polarity Item (NPI) because of its restricted distribution to certain negative contexts only. By investigating the distribution of this NPI in child Dutch, the paper explores a solution to a learnability problem raised by the existence of NPIs: how can a child acquire the limited distribution of an NPI in the absence of both direct and indirect negative evidence? Corpus data collected through CHILDES confirm children's employment of a conservative widening learning strategy to solve the learnability problem. This strategy entails that children start out with the strictest assumption of hoeven, exhibiting a lexical dependency with the negative marker niet ‘not’, and weaken the assumption down to a less rigid reanalysis of this NPI, associated with an abstract negation in its underlying syntactic representation. The initial learning process turns out to be distribution-based only, i.e., without presuming any innate knowledge of NPIs and their restricted occurrences. However, distributional properties alone are not sufficient for children to reanalyze the NPI. Children's linguistic knowledge of negative indefinites as exhibiting a decomposable negation plays a crucial role in the subsequent reanalyzing process. The reanalysis emerging shortly after age four signifies exactly how adult speakers analyze the NPI, also explaining hoeven's strength as a polarity item.
Reconciling economic and cultural explanations for participation in alternative consumption spaces

ABSTRACT With the cultural turn in economic geography, the emphasis on economic necessity when explaining participation in alternative consumption spaces (i.e. informal and/or second‐hand retail channels) has been contested by an agency‐orientated cultural reading that views engagement in such spaces as about the search for fun, sociality, distinction, discernment, the spectacular and so forth, and more recently by a geographically sensitive approach that ascribes agency to affluent populations and economic rationales to deprived populations. Drawing upon evidence collected during 120 face‐to‐face interviews in the English city of Leicester, however, this paper finds that people's reasons for engaging in such practices cannot be reduced simply to either economic necessity or agency. Instead, it reveals that such either/or thinking obfuscates how both co‐exist in people's explanations for engagement and combine in contrasting ways in different neighbourhood types, modes of goods acquisition and according to the type of good sought. The outcome of this paper is thus to transcend and reconcile previous reductive explanations using a both/and approach that recognises the varying ways in which economic necessity and choice are entangled in rationales for participation in alternative consumption spaces.