Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Taxonomy generation for text segments: A practical web-based approach

It is crucial in many information systems to organize short text segments, such as keywords in documents and queries from users, into a well-formed taxonomy. In this article, we address the problem of taxonomy generation for diverse text segments with a general and practical approach that uses the Web as an additional knowledge source. Unlike long documents, short text segments typically do not contain enough information to extract reliable features. This work investigates the possibilities of using highly ranked search-result snippets to enrich the representation of text segments. A hierarchical clustering algorithm is then designed for creating the hierarchical topic structure of text segments. Text segments with close concepts can be grouped together in a cluster, and relevant clusters linked at the same or near levels. Different from traditional clustering algorithms, which tend to produce cluster hierarchies with a very unnatural shape, the algorithm tries to produce a more natural and comprehensive tree hierarchy. Extensive experiments were conducted on different domains of text segments, including subject terms, people names, paper titles, and natural language questions. The obtained experimental results have shown the potential of the proposed approach, which provides a basis for the in-depth analysis of text segments on a larger scale and is believed able to benefit many information systems.
Age and knowledge of morphosyntax in english as an additional language: grammatical judgment and error correction

Abstract Research on age and second language acquisition (L2A) is vast, but inconclusive. Such research has mainly been motivated by the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), which postulates that language acquisition becomes extremely difficult after the onset of puberty. Also, there is a lack of research on age and third/additional language (L3/Ln) learning. To fill this gap, this article examines differences in morphosyntactic knowledge between early and late learners of English as a L3/Ln. In this study, ‘early’ and ‘late’ learners are those participants first exposed to English as a medium of instruction (MOI) in 1st and 11th grades, respectively. Participants’ morphosyntactic knowledge was assessed based on two tasks: (a) a Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT) and (b) an editing task. Three hundred and thirty five undergraduate and graduate students from two universities in Pakistan voluntarily participated in the research. Results of the group comparisons showed no statistically significant differences between early and late learners on the GJT; however, on the editing task, a modest but significant difference was observed between the two groups, with late learners scoring higher. This finding contradicts the predictions of the CPH.
Impacts of Re-Vegetation on Surface Soil Moisture over the Chinese Loess Plateau Based on Remote Sensing Datasets

A large-scale re-vegetation supported by the Grain for Green Project (GGP) has greatly changed local eco-hydrological systems, with an impact on soil moisture conditions for the Chinese Loess Plateau. It is important to know how, exactly, re-vegetation influences soil moisture conditions, which not only crucially constrain growth and distribution of vegetation, and hence, further re-vegetation, but also determine the degree of soil desiccation and, thus, erosion risk in the region. In this study, three eco-environmental factors, which are Soil Water Index (SWI), the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and precipitation, were used to investigate the response of soil moisture in the one-meter layer of top soil to the re-vegetation during the GGP. SWI was estimated based on the backscatter coefficient produced by the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1/2) and Meteorological Operational satellite program (MetOp), while NDVI was derived from SPOT imageries. Two separate periods, which are 1998–2000 and 2008–2010, were selected to examine the spatiotemporal pattern of the chosen eco-environmental factors. It has been shown that the amount of precipitation in 1998–2000 was close to that of 2008–2010 (the difference being 13.10 mm). From 1998–2000 to 2008–2010, the average annual NDVI increased for 80.99%, while the SWI decreased for 72.64% of the area on the Loess Plateau. The average NDVI over the Loess Plateau increased rapidly by 17.76% after the 10-year GGP project. However, the average SWI decreased by 4.37% for two-thirds of the area. More specifically, 57.65% of the area on the Loess Plateau experienced an increased NDVI and decreased SWI, 23.34% of the area had an increased NDVI and SWI. NDVI and SWI decreased simultaneously for 14.99% of the area, and the decreased NDVI and increased SWI occurred at the same time for 4.02% of the area. These results indicate that re-vegetation, human activities, and climate change have impacts on soil moisture. However, re-vegetation, which consumes a large quantity of soil water, may be the major factor for soil moisture change in most areas of the Loess Plateau. It is, therefore, suggested that Soil Moisture Content (SMC) should be kept in mind when carrying out re-vegetation in China’s arid and semi-arid regions.
Neural Interaction between Logical Reasoning and Pragmatic Processing in Narrative Discourse

Logical connectives (e.g., or, if, and not) are central to everyday conversation, and the inferences they generate are made with little effort in pragmatically sound situations. In contrast, the neural substrates of logical inference-making have been studied exclusively in abstract tasks where pragmatic concerns are minimal. Here, we used fMRI in an innovative design that employed narratives to investigate the interaction between logical reasoning and pragmatic processing in natural discourse. Each narrative contained three premises followed by a statement. In Fully-deductive stories, the statement confirmed a conclusion that followed from two steps of disjunction–elimination (e.g., Xavier considers Thursday, Friday, or Saturday for inviting his girlfriend out; he removes Thursday before he rejects Saturday and declares “I will invite her out for Friday”). In Implicated-premise stories, an otherwise identical narrative included three premises that twice removed a single option from consideration (i.e., Xavier rejects Thursday for two different reasons). The conclusion therefore necessarily prompts an implication (i.e., Xavier must have removed Saturday from consideration as well). We report two main findings. First, conclusions of Implicated-premise stories are associated with more activity than conclusions of Fully-deductive stories in a bilateral frontoparietal system, suggesting that these regions play a role in inferring an implicated premise. Second, brain connectivity between these regions increases with pragmatic abilities when reading conclusions in Implicated-premise stories. These findings suggest that pragmatic processing interacts with logical inference-making when understanding arguments in narrative discourse.
Pathways for the Anaerobic Microbial Debromination of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers

K R I S T I N R . R O B R O C K , † P E T E R K O R Y T Á R , ‡ A N D L I S A A L V A R E Z C O H E N * , † , § Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California, Wageningen IMARES-Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem Studies, IJmuiden, The Netherlands, and Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California
Chemoprevention of skin cancer by grape constituent resveratrol: relevance to human disease?

According to the World Cancer Report, skin cancer constitutes ∼30% of all newly diagnosed cancers in the world, and solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation (particularly, its UVB component; 290–320 nm) is an established cause of ∼90% of skin cancers. The available options have proven to be inadequate for the management of skin cancers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop mechanism‐based novel approaches for prevention/therapy of skin cancer. In this study, we evaluated the chemopreventive effects of resveratrol against UVB radiation‐mediated skin tumorigenesis in the SKH‐1 hairless mouse model. For our studies, we used a UVB initiation‐promotion protocol in which the control mice were subjected to chronic UVB exposure (180 mJ/cm2, twice weekly, for 28 weeks). The experimental animals received either a pretreatment (30 min before each UVB) or post‐treatment (5 min after UVB) of resveratrol (25 or 50 micro mole/0.2 ml acetone/mouse). The mice were followed for skin tumorigenesis and were killed at 24 h after the last UVB exposure, for further studies. The topical application of skin with resveratrol (both pre‐ and post‐ treatment) resulted in a highly significant 1) inhibition in tumor incidence, and 2) delay in the onset of tumorigenesis. Interestingly, the post‐treatment of resveratrol was found to impart equal protection than the pretreatment; suggesting that resveratrol‐mediated responses may not be sunscreen effects. Because Survivin is a critical regulator of survival/death of cells, and its overexpression has been implicated in several cancers, we evaluated its involvement in chemoprevention of UVB‐mediated skin carcinogenesis by resveratrol. Our data demonstrated a significant 1) up‐regulation of Survivin (both at protein‐and mRNA‐ levels), 2) up‐regulation of phospho‐Survivin protein, and 3) down‐regulation of proapoptotic Smac/DIABLO protein in skin tumors; whereas treatment with resveratrol resulted in the attenuation of these responses. Our study also suggests that resveratrol enhanced apoptosis in UVB‐exposure‐mediated skin tumors. Our study, for the first time, demonstrated that 1) resveratrol imparts strong chemopreventive effects against UVB exposure‐mediated skin carcinogenesis (relevant to human skin cancers), and 2) the chemopreventive effects of resveratrol may, at least in part, be mediated via modulations in Survivin and other associated events. On the basis of our work, it is conceivable to design resveratrol‐containing emollient or patch, as well as sunscreen and skin‐care products for prevention of skin cancer and other conditions, which are believed to be caused by UV radiation.
The Censored Newsvendor and the Optimal Acquisition of Information

This paper investigates the effect of demand censoring on the optimal policy in newsvendor inventory models with general parametric demand distributions and unknown parameter values. We show that the newsvendor problem withobservable lost sales reduces to a sequence of single-period problems, while the newsvendor problem withunobservable lost sales requires a dynamic analysis. Using a Bayesian Markov decision process approach we show that the optimalin ventory level in the presence of censored demand ishigher than would be determined using a Bayesian myopic policy. We explore the economic rationality for this observation and illustrate it with numerical examples.
The Axillary Nodal Harvest in Breast Cancer Surgery Is Unchanged by Sentinel Node Biopsy or the Timing of Surgery

Introduction. Patients with a positive sentinel lymph node biopsy may undergo delayed completion axillary dissection. Where intraoperative analysis is available, immediate completion axillary dissection can be performed. Alternatively, patients may undergo primary axillary dissection for breast cancer, historically or when preoperative assessment suggests axillary metastases. This study aims to determine if there is a difference in the total number of lymph nodes or the number of metastatic nodes harvested between the 3 possible approaches. Methods. Three consecutive comparable groups of 50 consecutive patients who underwent axillary dissection in each of the above contexts were identified from the Portsmouth Breast Unit Database. Patient demographics, clinicopathological variables, and surgical treatment were recorded. The total pathological nodal count and the number of metastatic nodes were compared between the groups. Results. There were no differences in clinico-pathological features between the three groups for all features studied with the exception of breast surgical procedure (P < 0.001). There were no differences in total nodal harvest (P = 0.822) or in the number of positive nodes harvested (P = 0.157) between the three groups. Conclusion. The three approaches to axillary clearance yield equivalent nodal harvests, suggesting oncological equivalence and robustness of surgical technique.
Prevention of Experimental Autoimmune Vitiligo by Oral Administration of Mushroom Tyrosinase

Experimental autoimmune vitiligo was induced by the intradermal injection of the purified mushroom tyrosinase emulsified in Complete Freunds Adjuvant (CFA) in female C57BL/6 mice. The onset of vitiligo was characterized by hair hypopigmentation and total melanocyte depletion in the basal layer of the epidermis. Oral administration of semipurified mushroom tyrosinase prevented experimental autoimmune vitiligo (EAV). Suppression of clinical and histological disease was observed when animals received mushroom tyrosinase. A decrease in lymphocyte proliferation, delayed type hypersensitivity responses, increase in humoral immunity of the mice may all suggest that the suppression of the disease is correlated with cellular immune responses suppression. Based on our data, it may be concluded that the oral administration of the mushroom tyrosinase may have practical implications in vitiligo. Iran. Biomed. J. 4: 31-36, 2000
Evaluation of Texture Segmentation Algorithms

This paper presents a method of evaluating unsupervised texture segmentation algorithms. The control scheme of texture segmentation has been conceptualized as two modular processes: (1) feature computation and (2) segmentation of homogeneous regions based on the feature values. Three feature extraction methods are considered: gray level co-occurrence matrix, Laws' texture energy and Gabor multi-channel filtering. Three segmentation algorithms are considered: fuzzy c-means clustering, square-error clustering and split-and-merge. A set of 35 real scene images with manually-specified ground truth was compiled. Performance is measured against ground truth on real images using region-based and pixel-based performance metrics.
Diagnostic Imaging Utilization in Cases of Acute Appendicitis: Multi-Center Experience

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to measure imaging utilization rates and the negative appendectomy rate (NAR) in metropolitan Seoul, Korea. The study included 2321 adolescents and adults (≥15 yr; median [interquartile range] age, 37 [27-50] yr; 46.7% female) undergoing appendectomy in 2011 at eight tertiary and three secondary hospitals. Imaging utilization rate was 99.7% (95% confidence interval, 99.4%-99.9%). CT and ultrasonography utilization rates as an initial imaging modality were 93.1% (92.0%-94.1%), and 6.5% (5.6%-7.6%), respectively. The NAR in patients undergoing CT only, complementary ultrasonography following CT, ultrasonography only, and complementary CT following ultrasonography were 3.3% (2.6%-4.1%), 27% (14%-44%), 9% (4%-16%), and 8% (2%-20%), respectively. The use of ultrasonography instead of CT as the initial imaging modality was significantly associated with higher NAR (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 2.28 [1.22-4.27]; risk difference, 4.4 [0-8.8] percentage points), however, the population attributable risk was 0.3 [0-0.6] percentage points. We observed a very high CT utilization rate and a low NAR in metropolitan Seoul. Although the use of CT was significantly associated with the lower NAR, CT utilization rate already has reached the level that increase in CT utilization from the status quo would hardly decrease the NAR further. Graphical Abstract
Dual-Polarization Spectral Analysis for Retrieval of Effective Raindrop Shapes

Abstract Dual-polarization radar observations of precipitation depend on size–shape relations of raindrops. There are several studies presented in literature dedicated to the investigation of this relation. In this work a new approach of investigating raindrop size–shape relation on short time and spatial scales from radar observations is presented. The presented method is based on the use of dual-polarization Doppler power spectral analysis. By measuring complete Doppler spectra at a sufficiently high elevation angle at two polarization settings, namely, horizontal and vertical, it is possible to retrieve drop size distribution (DSD) parameters, ambient air velocity, spectral broadening, and the slope of the assumed linear dependence of raindrop size–shape relation. This paper is mainly focused on the development of the retrieval algorithm and analysis of its performance. As a part of the proposed method an efficient algorithm for DSD parameter retrieval was developed. It is shown that the DSD parameter .
The Music Self-Perception Inventory: Development of parallel forms A and B

Music self-concept integrates perceptions, beliefs, and self-schemas about a person’s musical abilities and potential. Like other self-concept dimensions, it is multifaceted, hierarchically organized and has implications for motivation toward musical practice. The Music Self-Perception Inventory (MUSPI) is a theoretically-based instrument assessing six specific music self-concept dimensions, as well as global music self-concept. Nonetheless, its applicability is limited by its length (84 items) and by the fact that it does not provide a way to control for consistency biases in the context of repeated measurement. In this study, we developed and validated two parallel versions (A and B) of the MUSPI, and showed that both yielded equivalent psychometric properties to the original, and were fully equivalent to one another. We also tested whether the MUSPI-A and MUSPI-B psychometric properties generalized (were invariant) across gender and grade-differentiated subgroups. Finally, we examined the convergent validity of the MUSPI-A and MUSPI-B. Results highlighted the psychometric soundness, and equivalence, of the various MUSPI versions on all criteria, and showed that they presented patterns of associations with other constructs equivalent to that observed with the original MUSPI.
Topical and Systemic Cannabidiol Improves Trinitrobenzene Sulfonic Acid Colitis in Mice

Background/Aims: Compounds of Cannabis sativa are known to exert anti-inflammatory properties, some of them without inducing psychotropic side effects. Cannabidiol (CBD) is such a side effect-free phytocannabinoid that improves chemically induced colitis in rodents when given intraperitoneally. Here, we tested the possibility whether rectal and oral application of CBD would also ameliorate colonic inflammation, as these routes of application may represent a more appropriate way for delivering drugs in human colitis. Methods: Colitis was induced in CD1 mice by trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid. Individual groups were either treated with CBD intraperitoneally (10 mg/kg), orally (20 mg/kg) or intrarectally (20 mg/kg). Colitis was evaluated by macroscopic scoring, histopathology and the myeloperoxidase (MPO) assay. Results: Intraperitoneal treatment of mice with CBD led to improvement of colonic inflammation. Intrarectal treatment with CBD also led to a significant improvement of disease parameters and to a decrease in MPO activity while oral treatment, using the same dose as per rectum, had no ameliorating effect on colitis. Conclusion: The data of this study indicate that in addition to intraperitoneal application, intrarectal delivery of cannabinoids may represent a useful therapeutic administration route for the treatment of colonic inflammation.
Role of co-administration of antioxidants in prevention of oxidative injury following sub-chronic exposure to arsenic in rats

In this experiment thirty rats were exposed to 0 (Gr. I, healthy controls) or 10 ppm arsenic (sodium arsenite) through drinking water ad lib for eight weeks after dividing them into five groups of six rats each. Rats in Gr. III, IV and V were administered a daily oral dose of cysteine, methionine or ascorbic acid 25 mg/kg body mass respectively, while those in Gr. II served as the treated control. At the end of the experimental period oxidative stress indices viz. lipid peroxides level (LPO), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities were estimated in blood, liver and kidneys from sacrificed rats. Arsenic exposure resulted in a significant (P 0.05) effects on the body mass of rats of different groups over time. It is concluded from the present study that prophylactic co-administration of cysteine, methionine and ascorbic acid could provide tissue specific protection from oxidative injury during sub-chronic exposure to arsenic.
STATISTICS OF NATURAL TIME-VARYING IMAGES

Natural time-varying images possess substantial spatiotemporal correlations. We measure these correlations-or equivalently the power spectrum-for an ensemble of more than a thousand segments of motion pictures and we find significant regularities. More precisely, our measurements show that the dependence of the power spectrum on the spatial frequency, f, and temporal frequency, w, is in general non-separable and is given by f−m−1F(w/f), where F(w/f) is a non-trivial function of the ratio w/f. We give a theoretical derivation of this scaling behaviour and show that it emerges from objects with a static power spectrum ∼f−m, appearing at a wide range of depths and moving with a distribution of velocities relative to the observer. We show that in the regime of relatively high temporal and low spatial frequencies the power spectrum becomes independent of the details of the velocity distribution and that it is separable into the product of spatial and temporal power spectra with the temporal part given by the u.
Knowledge of Obstetric Fistula Prevention amongst Young Women in Urban and Rural Burkina Faso: A Cross-Sectional Study

Obstetric fistula is a sequela of complicated labour, which, if untreated, leaves women handicapped and socially excluded. In Burkina Faso, incidence of obstetric fistula is 6/10,000 cases amongst gynaecological patients, with more patients affected in rural areas. This study aims to evaluate knowledge on obstetric fistula among young women in a health district of Burkina Faso, comparing rural and urban communities. This cross-sectional study employed multi-stage sampling to include 121 women aged 18-20 years residing in urban and rural communities of Boromo health district. Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to compare differences between the groups and to identify predictors of observed knowledge levels. Rural women were more likely to be married (p<0.000) and had higher propensity to teenage pregnancy (p=0.006). The survey showed overall poor obstetric fistula awareness (36%). Rural residents were less likely to have adequate preventive knowledge than urban residents [OR=0.35 (95%-CI, 0.16–0.79)]. This effect was only slightly explained by lack of education [OR=0.41 (95%-CI, 0.18–0.93)] and only slightly underestimated due to previous pregnancy [OR=0.27 (95%-CI, 0.09–0.79)]. Media were the most popular source of awareness amongst urban young women in contrast to their rural counterparts (68% vs. 23%). Most rural young women became ‘aware’ through word-of-mouth (68% vs. 14%). All participants agreed that the hospital was safer for emergency obstetric care, but only 11.0% believed they could face pregnancy complications that would require emergency treatment. There is urgent need to increase emphasis on neglected health messages such as the risks of obstetric fistula. In this respect, obstetric fistula prevention programs need to be adapted to local contexts, whether urban or rural, and multi-sectoral efforts need to be exerted to maximise use of other sectoral resources and platforms, including existing routine health services and schools, to ensure sustainability of health literacy efforts.