Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Domain-specific knowledge acquisition for conceptual sentence analysis

The availability of on-line corpora is rapidly changing the field of natural language processing (NLP) from one dominated by theoretical models of often very specific linguistic phenomena to one guided by computational models that simultaneously account for a wide variety of phenomena that occur in real-world text. Thus far, among the best-performing and most robust systems for reading and summarizing large amounts of real-world text are knowledge-based natural language systems. These systems rely heavily on domain-specific, handcrafted knowledge to handle the myriad syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic ambiguities that pervade virtually all aspects of sentence analysis. Not surprisingly, however, generating this knowledge for new domains is time-consuming, difficult, and error-prone, and requires the expertise of computational linguists familiar with the underlying NLP system. This thesis presents Kenmore, a general framework for domain-specific knowledge acquisition for conceptual sentence analysis. To ease the acquisition of knowledge in new domains, Kenmore exploits an on-line corpus using symbolic machine learning techniques and robust sentence analysis while requiring only minimal human intervention. Unlike most approaches to knowledge acquisition for natural language systems, the framework uniformly addresses a range of subproblems in sentence analysis, each of which traditionally had required a separate computational mechanism. The thesis presents the results of using Kenmore with corpora from two real-world domains (1) to perform part-of-speech tagging, semantic feature tagging, and concept tagging of all open-class words in the corpus; (2) to acquire heuristics for part-of-speech disambiguation, semantic feature disambiguation, and concept activation; and (3) to find the antecedents of relative pronouns.
Variants of the Greville Formula with Applications to Exact Recursive Least Squares

In this paper, we present an order-recursive formula for the pseudoinverse of a matrix. It is a variant of the well-known Greville [SIAM Rev., 2 (1960), pp. 578--619] formula. Three forms of the proposed formula are presented for three different matrix structures. Compared with the original Greville formula, the proposed formulas have certain merits. For example, they reduce the storage requirements at each recursion by almost half; they are more convenient for deriving recursive solutions for optimization problems involving pseudoinverses. Regarding applications, using the new formulas, we derive recursive least squares (RLS) procedures which coincide exactly with the batch LS solutions to the problems of the unconstrained LS, weighted LS, and LS with linear equality constraints, respectively, including their simple and exact initializations. Compared with previous results, e.g., Albert and Sittler [J. Soc. Indust. Appl. Math. Ser. A Control, 3 (1965), pp. 384--417], our derivation of the explicit recursive formulas is much easier, and the recursions take a much simpler form. New findings include that the linear equality constrained LS and the unconstrained LS can have an identical recursion---their only difference is the initial conditions. In addition, some robustness issues, in particular, during the exact initialization of the RLS are studied.
Credit, Asset Prices, and Financial Stress in Canada

Historical narratives typically associate financial crises with credit expansions and asset price misalignments. The question is whether some combination of measures of credit and asset prices can be used to predict these events. Borio and Lowe (2002) answer this question in the affirmative for a sample of 34 countries, but the question is surprisingly difficult to answer for individual developed countries that have faced very few, if any, financial crises in the past. To circumvent this problem, we focus on financial stress and ask whether credit and asset price movements can help predict it. To measure financial stress, we use the Financial Stress Index (FSI) developed by Illing and Liu (2006). Other innovations include the estimation and forecasting using both linear and endogenous threshold models, and a wide range of asset prices (stock and housing prices, for example). The exercise is performed for Canada, but the methodology is suitable for any country that fits the above description.
Mechanical Insufflation-Exsufflation as Bronchial Hygiene Technique in Critical Care Patients: Systematic Review

The bronchial hygiene of intubated patients, there is no closure of the glottis, but the increased expiratory flow is determinant to the passive expulsion of secretions in the presence of endotracheal tubes. Methods aimed at improving the effectiveness of cough are important because they facilitate weaning from mechanical ventilation and improve functional outcomes for patients. This study aimed to systematically review the outcomes enabled by the respiratory therapy using the mechanical insufflation-exsufflation in critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Trials were included from 1993 to 2015, through a systematic literature review. The databases involved were LILACS, SciELO and PubMed using the keywords “mechanical ventilation”, “physiotherapy”, “cough”, “secretion” “mechanical insufflation-exsufflation” and “device”. Two independent researchers carried out the screening of articles and included studies using the mechanical insufflation-exsufflation in critically ill patients. Initially 52 potentially relevant articles were found, only 3 (5.7%) contemplated the inclusion criteria and addressed the mechanical insufflation-exsufflation in critically ill patients. The articles analyzed, all showed significant benefits in the use of mechanical insufflation-exsufflation regarding the improvement of peripheral oxygen saturation, increased of peak expiratory flow and a decrease in the rate of re-intubation. The studies demonstrated if the mechanical insufflation-exsufflation improves bronchial hygiene when used in critically ill patients, proving to be effective equipment. The level of evidence about the theme addressed is still considered low, making necessary new studies.
Multirelational organization of large-scale social networks in an online world

The capacity to collect fingerprints of individuals in online media has revolutionized the way researchers explore human society. Social systems can be seen as a nonlinear superposition of a multitude of complex social networks, where nodes represent individuals and links capture a variety of different social relations. Much emphasis has been put on the network topology of social interactions, however, the multidimensional nature of these interactions has largely been ignored, mostly because of lack of data. Here, for the first time, we analyze a complete, multirelational, large social network of a society consisting of the 300,000 odd players of a massive multiplayer online game. We extract networks of six different types of one-to-one interactions between the players. Three of them carry a positive connotation (friendship, communication, trade), three a negative (enmity, armed aggression, punishment). We first analyze these types of networks as separate entities and find that negative interactions differ from positive interactions by their lower reciprocity, weaker clustering, and fatter-tail degree distribution. We then explore how the interdependence of different network types determines the organization of the social system. In particular, we study correlations and overlap between different types of links and demonstrate the tendency of individuals to play different roles in different networks. As a demonstration of the power of the approach, we present the first empirical large-scale verification of the long-standing structural balance theory, by focusing on the specific multiplex network of friendship and enmity relations.
Parallel volume rendering using binary-swap compositing

We describe a parallel volume-rendering algorithm, which consists of two parts: parallel ray tracing and parallel compositing. In the most recent implementation on Connection Machine's CM-5 and networked workstations, the parallel volume renderer evenly distributes data to the computing resources available. Without the need to communicate with other processing units, each subvolume is ray traced locally and generates a partial image. The parallel compositing process then merges all resulting partial images in depth order to produce the complete image. The compositing algorithm is particularly effective for massively parallel processing, as it always uses all processing units by repeatedly subdividing the partial images and distributing them to the appropriate processing units. Test results on both the CM-5 and the workstations are promising. They do, however, expose different performance issues for each platform. <<ETX>>
Attentional Priming Effects on Creativity

The authors tested the hypothesis that a broad or narrow scope of perceptual attention engenders an analogously broad or narrow focus of conceptual attention, which in turn bolsters or undermines creative generation. In the first two experiments, participants completed visual tasks that forced them to focus perceptual attention on a comparatively broad or narrow visual area. As predicted, broad, compared to narrow initial focusing of perceptual attention subsequently led to generation of more original uses for a brick (Experiment 1) and generation of more unusual category exemplars (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, participants were merely asked to contract their frontalis versus corrugator muscles, producing rudimentary peripheral feedback associated with broad versus narrow perceptual focus. As predicted, frontalis contraction, relative to corrugator contraction, led to the production of more original uses for a pair of scissors. Together, these three experiments provided converging initial support for our attentional priming hypothesis, suggesting that situationally induced variations in the scope of perceptual attention (and simple cues associated with such variations) may correspondingly expand or constrict the focus of conceptual attention within the semantic network, thereby improving or diminishing creativity.
Supplementary Note 1: Comparison of SF with Conventional Sequential Imaging Approaches

(1) Better dyes for the second color channel. Many of the best-performing dyes for SMS, including AF647, are clustered in the far-red range1. As sequential imaging requires the dyes to be well-separated in spectrum, one cannot select a second dye in the far-red range in that imaging modality. As has been reported recently2, while Cy3B has been a preferred red dye in the past, CF568 shows better image quality in AF647-compatible imaging buffers. Based on this information as well as its use in other studies3, we therefore selected CF568 as a reference for sequential imaging in combination with AF647. For ratiometric imaging, as discussed in the main text, we used two dyes, CF660C and CF680. CF680 has been used in classical ratiometric imaging4 in combination with AF647. CF660C, while showing the best performance among the three dyes (CF568, CF660C and CF680), has been used much less widely in classical ratiometric imaging because it is spectrally very close to AF647. Our salvaged fluorescence approach, in contrast, allows us to image CF660C together with AF647 to achieve similar resolutions in both channels (Supplementary Fig. 4). Below we show additional data to prove that CF660C performs better than CF568. All samples were imaged at 100 fps with 7.5 kW/cm2 excitation intensity (642 nm or 560 nm) on the 4Pi-SMS microscope.
2005-014 Are Eastern European Countries Catching Up ? Time Series Evidence for Czech Republic , Hungary , and Poland

The catching up process in Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland is analyzed by investigating the integration properties of log-differences in per-capita GDP versus the EU15 and a Mediterranean country group. We account for structural changes by using unit root tests that allow for two endogenous breaks in the level and the trend. We find that Czech Republic and Hungary are stochastically converging towards the Mediterranean group, while only Czech Republic is stochastically converging towards EU15. Remaining per capita GDP differences are only reduced by deterministic trends. Extrapolating these trends we find that catching up will take about 20 years.
Piper betle-mediated synthesis, characterization, antibacterial and rat splenocyte cytotoxic effects of copper oxide nanoparticles

The study reports a simple, inexpensive, and eco-friendly synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuONPs) using Piper betle leaf extract. Formation of CuONPs was confirmed by UV–visible spectroscopy at 280 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showed that the CuONPs were spherical, with an average size of 50–100 nm. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM)–energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) peak was observed approximately at 1 and 8 keV. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies indicated that the particles were crystalline in nature. CuONPs effectively inhibited the growth of phytopathogens Ralstonia solanacearum and Xanthomonas axonopodis. The cytotoxic effect of the synthesized CuONPs was analyzed using rat splenocytes. The cell viability was decreased to 94% at 300 μg/mL.
Exosite interactions contribute to tension-induced cleavage of von Willebrand factor by the antithrombotic ADAMTS13 metalloprotease

Von Willebrand factor (VWF) is a multimeric protein that mediates platelet adhesion at sites of vascular injury, and ADAMTS13 (a disintegrin and metalloprotease with thrombospondin)is a multidomain metalloprotease that limits platelet adhesion by a feedback mechanism in which fluid shear stress induces proteolysis of VWF and prevents disseminated microvascular thrombosis. Cleavage of the Tyr1605–Met1606 scissile bond in the VWF A2 domain depends on a Glu1660–Arg1668 segment in the same domain and on the noncatalytic spacer domain of ADAMTS13, suggesting that extensive enzyme–substrate interactions facilitate substrate recognition. Based on mutagenesis and kinetic analysis, we find that the ADAMTS13 spacer domain binds to an exosite near the C terminus of the VWF A2 domain. Deleting the spacer domain from ADAMTS13 or deleting the exosite from the VWF substrate reduced the rate of cleavage ≈20-fold. A cleavage product containing the exosite was a hyperbolic mixed-type inhibitor of ADAMTS13 proteolysis of either VWF multimers or model peptide substrates but only if the ADAMTS13 enzyme contained the spacer domain. The specificity of this unique mechanism depends on tension-induced unfolding of the VWF A2 domain, which exposes the scissile bond and exosite for interaction with complementary sites on ADAMTS13.
Iron-mediated deep-time preservation of osteocytes in a Middle Triassic reptile bone

ABSTRACT Fossil bone cells (osteocytes) are known mainly from the shape-casting vacuities they leave behind after cell decay; however, they may occasionally be preserved as three-dimensionally fossilized soft parts. Here we present brownish to rust-coloured microbodies, extracted from a Middle Triassic (ca. 245 Ma) bone of the reptile Nothosaurus, which are morphologically consistent with bone cells of present-day vertebrates. In situ imaging shows that these structures, which are reminiscent of bone cells, are harboured in lacunae framed by the bone matrix. Chemical characterization using energy-dispersive X-ray, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed the presence of various phases of iron oxide mineralization. The predominant mineral phases are hematite and goethite; magnetite and maghemite appear to occur sporadically. It is not clear how these nanograined mineral phases were formed. Most likely mineralization proceeded very early and was triggered by local microenvironmental conditions favouring the precipitation of iron phases. The absence of a distinct signal indicating organic molecules suggests that the original bone cells underwent autolysis or other degradative processes before or during mineralization.
Model-Based Control of Observer Bias for the Analysis of Presence-Only Data in Ecology

Presence-only data, where information is available concerning species presence but not species absence, are subject to bias due to observers being more likely to visit and record sightings at some locations than others (hereafter “observer bias”). In this paper, we describe and evaluate a model-based approach to accounting for observer bias directly – by modelling presence locations as a function of known observer bias variables (such as accessibility variables) in addition to environmental variables, then conditioning on a common level of bias to make predictions of species occurrence free of such observer bias. We implement this idea using point process models with a LASSO penalty, a new presence-only method related to maximum entropy modelling, that implicitly addresses the “pseudo-absence problem” of where to locate pseudo-absences (and how many). The proposed method of bias-correction is evaluated using systematically collected presence/absence data for 62 plant species endemic to the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia. It is shown that modelling and controlling for observer bias significantly improves the accuracy of predictions made using presence-only data, and usually improves predictions as compared to pseudo-absence or “inventory” methods of bias correction based on absences from non-target species. Future research will consider the potential for improving the proposed bias-correction approach by estimating the observer bias simultaneously across multiple species.
Message Passing in C-RAN: Joint User Activity and Signal Detection

In cloud radio access network (C-RAN), remote radio heads (RRHs) and users are uniformly distributed in a large area such that the channel matrix can be considered as sparse. Based on this phenomenon, RRHs only need to detect the relatively strong signals from nearby users and ignore the weak signals from far users, which is helpful to develop low-complexity detection algorithms without causing much performance loss. However, before detection, RRHs require to obtain the realtime user activity information by the dynamic grant procedure, which causes the enormous latency. To address this issue, in this paper, we consider a grant-free C-RAN system and propose a low- complexity Bernoulli-Gaussian message passing (BGMP) algorithm based on the sparsified channel, which jointly detects the user activity and signal. Since active users are assumed to transmit Gaussian signals at any time, the user activity can be regarded as a Bernoulli variable and the signals from all users obey a Bernoulli-Gaussian distribution. In the BGMP, the detection functions for signals are designed with respect to the Bernoulli-Gaussian variable. Numerical results demonstrate the robustness and effectivity of the BGMP. That is, for different sparsified channels, the BGMP can approach the mean-square error (MSE) of the genie-aided sparse minimum mean-square error (GA- SMMSE) which exactly knows the user activity information. Meanwhile, the fast convergence and strong recovery capability for user activity of the BGMP are also verified.
Pancreatic leakage and acute postoperative pancreatitis after proximal pancreatoduodenectomy.

INTRODUCTION Acute postoperative pancreatitis (APP) after proximal pancreatoduodenectomy (PDE) is a major and serious complication. The purpose of the the study is early diagnosis of APP, differentiation from pancreatic stump leak and possibilities of surgical treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS Of all patients who underwent PDE for ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head complicated by type C pancreatic leak, who died during primary hospitalization, we used autopsy findings to find patients with histologically confirmed APP. We compared this group to patients with only a pancreatic leak and patients with an uncomplicated clinical course. We retrospectively evaluated the postoperative clinical course, and radiological and laboratory data of all patients. These parameters were statistically compared between the individual groups using Fisher LSD test. We considered p = 0.05 to be statistically significant. Data were analysed using software STATISTICA 10.0 (StatSoft CR s.r.o.). RESULTS One hundred sixty patients underwent PDE for ductal adenocarcinoma at our institution between 20072011 and were retrospectivaly reviewed. APP with postoperative type C pancreatic leak was observed in 4 (2.5%) patients; none of these patients survived. We found significantly higher levels of serum pancreatic amylase (AMS) on the 1. postoperative day in 3 of these patients compared to the other groups. Significantly increasing levels of CRP during the the first 5 postoperative days were observed in 75% of these patients. Retrospectively analysed contrast CT scans up to the 5th POD did not show APP. Only 1 patient had findings of APP type E according to Balthazar on CT scan performed on the 9th POD. CONCLUSION The most significant factor in early diagnosis of APP after PDE is an abrupt change in clinical status. We also observed significantly higher levels of serum concentrations of CRP and AMS. Based on our findings, CT scan is not beneficial in the early diagnosis of APP. In cases of early diagnosed APP after PDE, the question of performing a completion pancreatectomy and its timing remains.
Benefits of Sleep in Motor Learning – Prospects and Limitations

Benefits of Sleep in Motor Learning – Prospects and Limitations During the recent years it has been shown repeatedly that, after initial learning, elapse of time preserves, but sleep enhances performance in procedural motor skills. To date, however, the majority of experimental studies in this area employed some sort of a sequential finger tapping skill as a criterion task. Thus it is unclear yet, if any (and which) other types of motor skills do indeed benefit from sleep. In order to answer this question, and to provide theoretical statements about the memory system regarding benefits of sleep in motor learning, we carried out a series of studies following a "multi-task research strategy". Although we successfully replicated sleep-related improvements in the production of newly acquired sequential finger skills (FT-Task) under different learning conditions (i.e., guided or unguided), we did not find any such effect of sleep in discrete motor tasks requiring precise production of (a) a specific relative timing pattern (Diamond Tapping-Task), or (b) a sub-maximal force impulse (vertical Counter Movement Jump), and we also failed to find any specifically sleep-related effects on subsequent performance in (c) a continuous visuo-motor pursuit-tracking task. These results are considered in relation to other work, and the respective theoretical implications are discussed.
Physiology and Ultrastructure of the Blood Platelet following Exposure to Hydrogen Peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide in micromolar concentrations can induce shape change in human blood platelets, and can modify the aggregation and release reaction of these cells as induced by ADP or thrombin. In larger (millimolar) concentrations, H2O2 produces fusion of platelets with distortions in platelet morphology unlike those normally caused by aggregating agents. The production of H2O2in vivo by granulocytes or other cells could influence the processes of haemostasis or thrombosis.