Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Paraphrase Identification with Lexico-Syntactic Graph Subsumption

The paper presents a new approach to the problem of paraphrase identification. The new approach extends a previously proposed method for the task of textual entailment. The relationship between paraphrases and entailment is discussed to theoretically justify the new approach. The proposed approach is useful because it uses relatively few resources compared to similar systems yet it produces results similar or better than other approaches to paraphrase identification. The approach also offers significantly better results than two baselines. We report results on a standard data set as well as on a new, balanced data set.
A finite dimensional filter with exponential conditional density

In this paper we consider the continuous-time nonlinear filtering problem, which has an infinite-dimensional solution in general, as proved by Chaleyat-Maurel and Michel (1984). There are few examples of nonlinear systems for which the optimal filter is finite dimensional, in particular the Kalman, Benes, and Daum filters. In the present paper, we construct new classes of scalar nonlinear systems admitting finite-dimensional filters. We consider a given (nonlinear) diffusion coefficient for the state equation, a given (nonlinear) observation function, and a given finite-dimensional exponential family of probability densities. We construct a drift for the state equation such that the resulting nonlinear system admits a finite-dimensional filter evolving in the prescribed exponential family, provided the coefficients of the exponential family include the observation function and its square.
3D structure from video streams with partially overlapping images

The majority of methods available to recover 3D structure from video assume that a set of feature points are tracked across a large number of frames. This is not always possible in real videos because the images overlap only partially, due to occlusion and limited field of view. The paper describes a new method to recover 3D structures from videos with partially overlapping views. The well known factorization method recovers 3D rigid structures by factoring an observation matrix that collects the trajectories of feature points (see Tomasi, C. and Kanade, T., Int. J. of Computer Vision, vol.9, no.2, 1992). We extend this method to the more challenging scenario of observing incomplete trajectories. In this way, we accommodate not only features that disappear, but also features that, although not visible in the first image, become available later. Under this scenario, the observation matrix has missing entries. We develop three new algorithms to factor out matrices with missing data. Experiments with synthetic data and real video images demonstrate the viability of our approach to recover 3D structure.
Unsupervised Aggregation for Classification Problems with Large Numbers of Categories

Classication problems with a very large or unbounded set of output categories are common in many areas such as natural language and image processing. In order to improve accuracy on these tasks, it is natural for a decision-maker to combine predictions from various sources. However, supervised data needed to t an aggregation model is often dicult to obtain, especially if needed for multiple domains. Therefore, we propose a generative model for unsupervised aggregation which exploits the agreement signal to estimate the expertise of individual judges. Due to the large output space size, this aggregation model cannot encode expertise of constituent judges with respect to every category for all problems. Consequently, we extend it by incorporating the notion of category types to account for variability of the judge expertise depending on the type. The viability of our approach is demonstrated both on synthetic experiments and on a practical task of syntactic parser aggregation.
HIV-1 Phenotypic Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor Drug Resistance Test Interpretation Is Not Dependent on the Subtype of the Virus Backbone

To date, the majority of HIV-1 phenotypic resistance testing has been performed with subtype B virus backbones (e.g. HXB2). However, the relevance of using this backbone to determine resistance in non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses still needs to be assessed. From 114 HIV-1 subtype C clinical samples (36 ARV-naïve, 78 ARV-exposed), pol amplicons were produced and analyzed for phenotypic resistance using both a subtype B- and C-backbone in which the pol fragment was deleted. Phenotypic resistance was assessed in resulting recombinant virus stocks (RVS) for a series of antiretroviral drugs (ARV's) and expressed as fold change (FC), yielding 1660 FC comparisons. These Antivirogram® derived FC values were categorized as having resistant or sensitive susceptibility based on biological cut-off values (BCOs). The concordance between resistance calls obtained for the same clinical sample but derived from two different backbones (i.e. B and C) accounted for 86.1% (1429/1660) of the FC comparisons. However, when taking the assay variability into account, 95.8% (1590/1660) of the phenotypic data could be considered as being concordant with respect to their resistance call. No difference in the capacity to detect resistance associated with M184V, K103N and V106M mutations was noted between the two backbones. The following was concluded: (i) A high level of concordance was shown between the two backbone phenotypic resistance profiles; (ii) Assay variability is largely responsible for discordant results (i.e. for FC values close to BCO); (iii) Confidence intervals should be given around the BCO's, when assessing resistance in HIV-1 subtype C; (iv) No systematic resistance under- or overcalling of subtype C amplicons in the B-backbone was observed; (v) Virus backbone subtype sequence variability outside the pol region does not contribute to phenotypic FC values. In conclusion the HXB2 virus backbone remains an acceptable vector for phenotyping HIV-1 subtype C pol amplicons.
Mineral Content and Biochemical Variables of Aloe vera L. under Salt Stress

Despite the proven economic importance of Aloe vera, studies of saline stress and its effects on the biochemistry and mineral content in tissues of this plant are scarce. The objective of this study was to grow Aloe under NaCl stress of 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 mM and compare: (1) proline, total protein, and enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEP-case) in chlorenchyma and parenchyma tissues, and (2) ion content (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl, Fe, P. N, Zn, B, Mn, and Cu) in roots, stems, leaves and sprouts. Proline and PEP-case increased as salinity increased in both parenchyma and chlorenchyma, while total protein increased in parenchyma and decreased in chlorenchyma, although at similar salt concentrations total protein was always higher in chlorenchyma. As salinity increased Na and Cl ions increased in roots, stems, leaves, while K decreased only significantly in sprouts. Salinity increases typically caused mineral content in tissue to decrease, or not change significantly. In roots, as salinity increased Mg decreased, while all other minerals failed to show a specific trend. In stems, the mineral concentrations that changed were Fe and P which increased with salinity while Cu decreased. In leaves, Mg, Mn, N, and B decreased with salinity, while Cu increased. In sprouts, the minerals that decreased with increasing salinity were Mg, Mn, and Cu. Zinc did not exhibit a trend in any of the tissues. The increase in protein, proline and PEP-case activity, as well as the absorption and accumulation of cations under moderate NaCl stress caused osmotic adjustment which kept the plant healthy. These results suggest that Aloe may be a viable crop for soil irrigated with hard water or affected by salinity at least at concentrations used in the present study.
Loose tweets: an analysis of privacy leaks on twitter

Twitter has become one of the most popular microblogging sites for people to broadcast (or "tweet") their thoughts to the world in 140 characters or less. Since these messages are available for public consumption, one may expect these tweets not to contain private or incriminating information. Nevertheless we observe a large number of users who unwittingly post sensitive information about themselves and other people for whom there may be negative consequences. While some awareness exists of such privacy issues on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, there has been no quantitative, scientific study addressing this problem. In this paper we make three major contributions. First, we characterize the nature of privacy leaks on Twitter to gain an understanding of what types of private information people are revealing on it. We specifically analyze three types of leaks: divulging vacation plans, tweeting under the influence of alcohol, and revealing medical conditions. Second, using this characterization we build automatic classifiers to detect incriminating tweets for these three topics in real time in order to demonstrate the real threat posed to users by, e.g., burglars and law enforcement. Third, we characterize who leaks information and how. We study both self- incriminating primary leaks and secondary leaks that reveal sensitive information about others, as well as the prevalence of leaks in status updates and conversation tweets. We also conduct a cross-cultural study to investigate the prevalence of leaks in tweets originating from the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore. Finally, we discuss how our classification system can be used as a defense mechanism to alert users of potential privacy leaks.
Dialysis modality selection: physician guided or patient led?*

The process of choosing dialysis modality for patients is complex and requires input from the expert renal team. Although it is commonplace for nephrologists to recommend dialysis modalities to patients, this might not always lead to the patient receiving treatment which they regard as most suitable. Nephrologists should consider whether it is appropriate for pre-dialysis education to be directive, or whether the choice between treatment options should be led by the patient.
MicroRNA-195 Inhibits the Proliferation of Human Glioma Cells by Directly Targeting Cyclin D1 and Cyclin E1

Glioma proliferation is a multistep process during which a sequence of genetic and epigenetic alterations randomly occur to affect the genes controlling cell proliferation, cell death and genetic stability. microRNAs are emerging as important epigenetic modulators of multiple target genes, leading to abnormal cellular signaling involving cellular proliferation in cancers.In the present study, we found that expression of miR-195 was markedly downregulated in glioma cell lines and human primary glioma tissues, compared to normal human astrocytes and matched non-tumor associated tissues. Upregulation of miR-195 dramatically reduced the proliferation of glioma cells. Flow cytometry analysis showed that ectopic expression of miR-195 significantly decreased the percentage of S phase cells and increased the percentage of G1/G0 phase cells. Overexpression of miR-195 dramatically reduced the anchorage-independent growth ability of glioma cells. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-195 downregulated the levels of phosphorylated retinoblastoma (pRb) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in glioma cells. Conversely, inhibition of miR-195 promoted cell proliferation, increased the percentage of S phase cells, reduced the percentage of G1/G0 phase cells, enhanced anchorage-independent growth ability, upregulated the phosphorylation of pRb and PCNA in glioma cells. Moreover, we show that miR-195 inhibited glioma cell proliferation by downregulating expression of cyclin D1 and cyclin E1, via directly targeting the 3′-untranslated regions (3′-UTR) of cyclin D1 and cyclin E1 mRNA. Taken together, our results suggest that miR-195 plays an important role to inhibit the proliferation of glioma cells, and present a novel mechanism for direct miRNA-mediated suppression of cyclin D1 and cyclin E1 in glioma.
Analysis of mixed lubrication mechanism in metal-on-metal hip joint replacements

Abstract A simple mixed lubrication model has been developed to predict the asperity contact and wear for the metal-on-metal bearing couple for total hip joint replacements. It has been shown that the femoral head radius has a large effect on the predicted asperity contact and wear depending on the lubrication regime. An increase in the femoral head radius can lead to an increase in wear under a predominantly boundary lubrication regime, but this trend can be reversed under a mixed lubrication regime towards fluid film lubrication. These observations are consistent with the recent experimental findings from hip simulator studies by Smith and co-workers.
Training Connectionist Models for the Structured Language Model

We investigate the performance of the Structured Language Model (SLM) in terms of perplexity (PPL) when its components are modeled by connectionist models. The connectionist models use a distributed representation of the items in the history and make much better use of contexts than currently used interpolated or back-off models, not only because of the inherent capability of the connectionist model in fighting the data sparseness problem, but also because of the sublinear growth in the model size when the context length is increased. The connectionist models can be further trained by an EM procedure, similar to the previously used procedure for training the SLM. Our experiments show that the connectionist models can significantly improve the PPL over the interpolated and back-off models on the UPENN Treebank corpora, after interpolating with a baseline trigram language model. The EM training procedure can improve the connectionist models further, by using hidden events obtained by the SLM parser.
Harmful Effect of Preformed Anti-MICA Antibodies on Renal Allograft Evolution in Early Posttransplantation Period

Background Pretransplantation anti–major histocompatibility complex class I chain–related molecule A (MICA) sensitization is an uncommon event and its role on kidney graft evolution is not completely defined. Methods A retrospective study of patients transplanted between 2005 and 2011 in our center (n=727) was performed. Recipients were classified in four groups, according either to multiplexed flow cytometry–recorded anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) and anti-MICA antibodies or to percent panel-reactive antibody (PRA; by complement-dependent cytotoxicity) and anti-MICA antibodies. Results In the total cohort, 52 (7.15%) patients had preformed anti-MICA antibodies, and these were not related with anti-HLA, previous transplantations, or recipient female sex (potential pregnancies). Kaplan–Meier curves showed global allograft survival differences (P=0.042) mostly due to pronounced decrease in PRA+MICA+ group early after transplantation. Biopsy-proven allograft rejection rate increased after month 12 in PRA+MICA- group and was higher early after transplantation in PRA+MICA+ group (P=0.033). In paired comparisons, rejection incidence was superior in PRA+MICA- versus PRA-MICA- patients (17% vs. 7%; P=0.007) at 24 months, confirming the widely reported deleterious effect of PRA+ status, but at 3 months rejection was higher in PRA+MICA+ versus PRA-MICA- patients (14% vs. 2%; P=0.009). Among patients categorized according anti-HLA and anti-MICA antibodies, the most striking difference in rejection was observed at 3 months (8% in HLA-MICA+ vs. 2% in HLA-MICA- patients; P=0.032). In the multivariate analysis, HLA-MICA+ status at 3 months independently conferred the highest risk for rejection (odds ratio, 5.07; P=0.049). Conclusions Pretransplantation sensitization against MICA and HLA are independent events. Preformed anti-MICA antibodies independently increase risk for kidney rejection and enhance the deleterious effect of PRA+ status early after transplantation.
Usefulness of a Guiding Sheath for Fluoroscopic Stent Placement in Patients with Malignant Gastroduodenal Obstruction

Background Self-expandable metallic stent placement is widely used to manage malignant gastroduodenal obstructions. However, there are difficulties in negotiating a guidewire (GW) and a stent delivery system (SDS). Purpose To investigate feasibility, usefulness, and safety of a guiding sheath for fluoroscopic stent placement in patients with malignant gastroduodenal obstructions. Material and Methods In July 2001 to August 2011, 726 patients with malignant gastroduodenal obstructions underwent stent placement. Guiding sheath was used in patients in whom a GW could not be passed through the obstruction and a SDS failed to reach the obstruction. Sheath usefulness was evaluated based on the ability of the sheath to successfully assist. The technical success rate and the most frequent reasons for the use of a sheath were evaluated. Results The guiding sheath was needed in 148 of 726 patients (20%). The overall technical success rate was 98% with the guiding sheath. In two of 148 patients, stent placement failed because, the GW could not be passed through the obstruction, in the other, the SDS could not be passed. A minority of patients reported mild discomfort. Patients with pancreatic cancer and duodenal obstruction were significantly more likely to require the use of guiding sheaths (P = 0.002, P < 0.001, respectively). Conclusion Using a guiding sheath for fluoroscopic stent placement appears to be feasible, useful and safe in patients with malignant gastroduodenal obstructions.
Sulfurovum riftiae sp. nov., a mesophilic, thiosulfate-oxidizing, nitrate-reducing chemolithoautotrophic epsilonproteobacterium isolated from the tube of the deep-sea hydrothermal vent polychaete Riftia pachyptila.

An anaerobic, nitrate-reducing, sulfur- and thiosulfate-oxidizing bacterium, designated strain 1812ET, was isolated from the vent polychaete Riftia pachyptila, which was collected from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent on the East Pacific Rise. Cells were Gram-stain-negative rods, measuring approximately 1.05±0.11 µm by 0.40±0.05 µm. Strain 1812ET grew at 25 - -45 °C (optimum 35 °C), with 1.5-4.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 3.0 %) and at pH 5.0-8.0 (optimum pH 6.0). The generation time under optimal conditions was 3 h. Strain 1812ET was an anaerobic chemolithotroph that grew with either sulfur or thiosulfate as the energy source and carbon dioxide as the sole carbon source. Nitrate was used as a sole terminal electron acceptor. The predominant fatty acids were C16 : 1ω7c, C18 : 1ω7c and C16 : 0. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol. The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone MK-6 and the G+C content of the genomic DNA was 47.4 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene of strain 1812ET showed that the isolate belonged to the Epsilonproteobacteria, and its closest relatives were Sulfurovum lithotrophicum 42BKTT and Sulfurovum aggregans Monchim 33T (98.3 and 95.7 % sequence similarity, respectively). DNA-DNA relatedness between strain 1812ET and the type strain of S. lithotrophicum was 29.7 %, demonstrating that the two strains are not members of the same species. Based on the phylogenetic, molecular, chemotaxonomic and physiological evidence, strain 1812ET represents a novel species within the genus Sulfurovum, for which the name Sulfurovum riftiae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 1812ET (=DSM 101780T=JCM 30810T).
Postural Control in Young and Elderly Adults When Stance is Challenged: Clinical versus Laboratory Measurements

The use of dynamic posturography (EquiTest) for the characterization of postural control biomechanics would be aided by specific knowledge of what the measured data imply about body segment movements. To investigate this issue, the biomechanics of a group of 15 healthy elderly subjects were compared to those of healthy young subjects by using both dynamic posturography and a laboratory movement and force measuring system. The results from EquiTest were analyzed by 1) routine clinical interpretation of data and 2) a clinical research interpretation by subjecting the EquiTest parameters to additional statistical comparison of mean performance of the young and elderly groups. The young-elderly differences from the 2 EquiTest analyses were then compared to the young-elderly differences derived from the laboratory protocol. The routine clinical interpretation of EquiTest data identified the same increases in sway shown by the laboratory study, but did not reveal the more subtle differences indicated by the laboratory study. When the EquiTest data were subjected to additional statistical analysis, the characterization of difference between young and elderly subjects was the same as that of the laboratory study, with the exception of issues of head versus trunk movement, a measure not made by EquiTest. This essential similarity in the characterization of elderly compared to young subjects by both systems suggests 1) that EquiTest is able to detect subtle differences in biomechanics of postural control between young and elderly healthy adult groups and 2) that implied movements of center of gravity, trunk versus lower limbs, and strength of reaction measures are consistently detected by both EquiTest and the laboratory kinematics and dynamics measurement systems.
Neuro-Muscular Biopsy in Churg-Strauss Syndrome: 24 Cases

Abstract Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) is a distinctive clinical entity in which systemic vasculitis, associated with eosinophilia, occurs almost exclusively in individuals with adult-onset asthma. The major complications of the condition result from damage to the lungs, heart, and peripheral nerves. Necrotizing vasculitis with eosinophils in the cellular infiltrate, vascular or perivascular infiltration by eosinophils in absence of vessel wall necrosis, extra-vascular eosinophil infiltrates, and vascular or extra-vascular granuloma are histopathological features supportive of CSS. As the peripheral nerve disease often dominates the clinical picture, the peripheral nerve biopsy may be decisive in establishing the diagnosis. In this retrospective study of neuro-muscular biopsies in 24 CSS cases, the authors give an extensive description of neuropathological lesions associated with this disorder. Fifteen patients (62.5%) exhibited eosinophils either in extra-vascular infiltrates or in vessel walls, and 6 of them (25%) had an associated necrotizing vasculitis. Granulomas were found in only 3 cases (12.5%). The clinical diagnosis of CSS was supported in 15 out of the 24 patients (62.5%), in the nerve in 2 cases (8.3%), in the muscle in 8 cases (33.3%), and in both nerve and muscle in 5 others (20.8%).