Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning with Noise: Enhance Distantly Supervised Relation Extraction with Dynamic Transition Matrix

Distant supervision significantly reduces human efforts in building training data for many classification tasks. While promising, this technique often introduces noise to the generated training data, which can severely affect the model performance. In this paper, we take a deep look at the application of distant supervision in relation extraction. We show that the dynamic transition matrix can effectively characterize the noise in the training data built by distant supervision. The transition matrix can be effectively trained using a novel curriculum learning based method without any direct supervision about the noise. We thoroughly evaluate our approach under a wide range of extraction scenarios. Experimental results show that our approach consistently improves the extraction results and outperforms the state-of-the-art in various evaluation scenarios.
[Intraneural ganglion cyst of the deep peroneal nerve].

Intraneural ganglion cysts are a relatively uncommon cause of peroneal nerve palsy. Patient’s typically present with weakness or absent ankle dorsiflexion, knee or leg pain, and paresethesia. Surgical decompression is widely accepted as the first line treatment for intraneural ganglion cysts of the peroneal nerve, with earlier intervention associated with better functional outcomes. Here, we describe the case of a 57-year-old male found to have a intraneural ganglion cyst of the peroneal nerve, three months after the onset of symptoms, including eventual complete foot drop. He underwent surgical decompression of the cyst. The intraneural ganglion cyst was found to be intricately involved with the nerve fibers, and the patient still does not have the ability to dorsiflex the affected ankle one month post-operation.
Generating and Evaluating Musical Harmonizations That Emulate Style

In this article we present a hybrid approach to the design of an automatic, style-specific accompaniment system that combines statistical learning with a music-theoretic framework, and we propose quantitative methods for evaluating the results of machine-generated accompaniment. The system is capable of learning accompaniment style from sparse input information, and of capturing style over a variety of musical genres. Generating accompaniments involves several aspects, including choosing chords, determining the bass line, arranging chords for voicing, instrumentation, etc. In this article we focus on harmonization: selecting chords for melodies, with an emphasis on style. Given exemplar songs as MIDI melodies with corresponding chords labeled as text, the system uses decision trees to learn the melody–chord relations shared among the songs. Markov chains on the neo-Riemannian framework are applied to model the likelihood of chord patterns. Harmonization is generated in a divide-and-conquer manner: Melody fragments that strongly imply certain triads are designated as checkpoints that are in turn connected by chord progressions generated using the Markov model. Chord subsequences are then refined and combined to form the final sequence. We propose two types of measures to quantify the degree to which a machine-generated accompaniment achieves its style emulation goal: one based on chord distance, and the other based on the statistical metrics entropy and perplexity. Using these measures, we conduct two sets of experiments using Western popular songs. Two albums by each of three artists (Green Day, Keane, and Radiohead), for a total of six albums, are used to evaluate the
Subjective quality assessment of video conferences and telemeetings

Videoconferencing has become more popular in recent years. The conference situation can be very complex with several participants using different types of equipment. To ensure a good quality, agreed methods to quantify the subjective quality of telemeetings are needed. The development of such assessment methods is ongoing in ITU-T Study Group 12. This paper describes several subjective tests performed at Ericsson, both one-way and conversational tests. The purpose of these tests was to increase the knowledge on the perceived quality of different telemeeting scenarios and to develop test methodologies for quality evaluation of multiparty conversations.
Prolyl hydroxyl Binding Protein (PHD) and its Linkage to Changes in MyD88/p65 Pathway in Renal Injury Induced by Nitric Oxide Deficiency and High Salt Diet

Chronic inflammation is an important path physiological condition impacting various diseases including but not limited to hypertension, kidney disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancer, etc. Reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability, a feature of these conditions, plays a causal role in endothelial cell dysfunction and inflammation. NO is a key regulatory molecule of paramount importance for endothelial function including its anti-inflammatory and other protective cellular effects. Thus, reduced NO bioavailability is associated with various diseases that involve activation of NF-kB [1,2] and subsequent gene transcription of cytokines (TNFa, IL-1, IL-6) that mediate inflammatory responses [3].
The transmission of language: models of biological and cultural evolution

Theories of language evolution typically attribute its unique structure to pressures acting on the genetic transmission of a language faculty and on the cultural transmission of language itself. In strongly biological accounts, natural selection acting on the genetic transmission of the language faculty is seen as the key determinant of linguistic structure, with culture relegated to a relatively minor role. Strongly cultural accounts place greater emphasis on the role of learning in shaping language, with little or no biological adaptation. Formal modelling of the transmission of language, using mathematical or computational techniques, allows rigorous study of the impact of these two modes of transmission on the structure of language. In this thesis, computational models are used to investigate the evolution of symbolic vocabulary and compositional structure. To what extent can these aspects of language be explained in terms of purely biological or cultural evolution? Should we expect to see a fruitful interaction between these two adaptive processes in a dual transmission model? As a first step towards addressing these questions, models which focus on the cultural transmission of language are developed. These models suggest that the conventionalised symbolic vocabulary and compositional structure of language can emerge through the adaptation of language itself in response to pressure to be learnable. This pressure arises during cultural transmission as a result of 1) the inductive bias of learners and 2) the poverty of the stimulus available to learners. Language-like systems emerge only when learners acquire their linguistic competence on the basis of sparse input and do so using learning procedures which are biased in favour of one-to-one mappings between meanings and signals. Children acquire language under precisely such circumstances. As the second stage of inquiry, dual transmission models are developed to ascertain whether this cultural evolution of language interacts with the biological evolution of the
A novel twist between Gap Waveguides for compact slot-array antennas

A compact twist connecting a Ridge-Gap Waveguide and a Groove-Gap Waveguide at 38 GHz is presented. This twist is intended for feeding an array antenna. Simulations show a return loss better than 20 dB between 37.3 GHz and 38.3 GHz. The insertion loss is below 0.4 dB within the same frequency band. This bandwidth may be enough for many applications.
Ice sheet motion and topography from radar interferometry

Both topography and motion information are present in repeat pass ERS-1 interferograms over ice sheets. The authors demonstrate that the topography is separable from the surface displacement field when a sequence of radar images are available. If the velocity field is constant over the time span of observation, the topography can be derived from differential interferograms formed from sequential observations. With this measurement, a pure displacement field can then be obtained by removal of the topographic contribution to the interferometric phase at each pixel. Further, they discuss how the vertical and horizontal components of displacement affect the interferometrically-derived motion field. They illustrate their approach with four successive (3-day repeat) ERS-1 images of a flow feature in northeastern Greenland.
Postprocedure Administration of Insulin in Canine Autologous Vein Grafting: A Potential Strategy to Attenuate Intimal Hyperplasia

Intimal hyperplasia (IH) exerts a critical role in vein graft failure after arterial bypassing. Insulin has been demonstrated to remarkably decrease IH in the rat carotid injury model. We hypothesized that postoperative insulin medication prevents the autologous vein graft from IH. Dogs were subjected to jugular-carotid interposition bypass grafting and intravenously infused with vehicle, glucose-insulin-potassium, glucose-potassium, or glucose-insulin-potassium plus Wortmannin 5 minutes before and 4 hours after reperfusion. Then vein grafts were harvested for caspase-3 activation, cell apoptosis, phosphorylated Akt, and endothelial nitric oxide synthase level assays. Other dogs undergoing the same operation were administered with subcutaneous injection of 4 U insulin or 0.5 mL saline two times per day for 1 month postoperatively. Vein grafts were sampled to assess cell proliferation, intimal/medial thickness, and expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and α-smooth muscle actin. Glucose-potassium aggravated apoptosis and caspase-3 activation and decreased Akt and endothelial nitric oxide synthase phosphorylation; however, glucose-insulin-potassium significantly inhibited cell apoptosis and caspase-3 activation and increased phosphorylated Akt and pendothelial nitric oxide synthase levels in canine vein grafts. Wortmannin largely abolished the glucose-insulin-potassium-elicited effects. Moreover, postoperative insulin use greatly inhibited cell proliferation, reduced intimal/medial thickness, upregulated endothelial nitric oxide synthase, and α-smooth muscle actin expression. Insulin protects autologous vein grafts possibly through the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase/Akt signaling pathway and prevents IH in autologous vein grafts.
RAPD identification of microsatellites in Daphnia

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs, or microsatellites) have been constantly gaining importance as single‐locus DNA markers in population genetics and behavioural ecology. We tested a PCR‐based strategy for finding microsatellite loci in anonymous genomes, which avoids genomic library construction and screening, and the need for larger amounts of DNA. In the first step, parts of a genome are randomly amplified with arbitrary 10mer primers using RAPD fingerprinting. Labelled SSR‐oligonucleotides serve as probes to detect complementary sequences in RAPD products by means of Southern analyses. Subsequently, positive RAPD fragments of suitable size are cloned and sequenced. Using GA and GT probes, we applied this approach to waterfleas (Daphnia) and revealed 37 hybridization signals in 20 RAPD profiles. Thirteen positive RAPD fragments from three Daphnia species and two hybrid ‘species’ were cloned and sequenced. In all cases simple sequence repeats were detected. We characterized seven perfect repeat loci, which were found to be polymorphic within and between species.
Shadows of the past

Ralf Sander investigates the impact of public art, in this case the impact of missing or removed monuments. The absent, removed monument and the collective memory has become a focus of this investigation. The projects were each realized in different countries, Northern Ireland, Poland, Germany and USA. “Shadows of the Past,” created by artist Ralf Sander — a water and gel painting recreating the shadow of a removed or destroyed monument, oftentimes removed because of a change in political powers. The concept is to reconstruct their shadows and apply them to the ground with ephemeral materials that the shadow itself also disappears after some time. The context is Para-Sites , a distributed exhibition project where given modes of production, circulation, and consumption are “hijacked” or re-appropriated for creative purposes. It is a network of distributed practices that operate in the same time frame with a common theoretical and tactical approach. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of impact was discussed in the 2015 Para Site International Conference happened in Hong Kong and New York.
Unaltered prion protein cleavage in plasminogen-deficient mice

In normal brains and cultured cells, cellular prion protein (PrPC) is partially found as N-terminally truncated fragments, designated C1 and C2. The cleavage of recombinant PrP to a fragment corresponding to C1 can be mediated by the protease plasmin (Pln) in vitro, suggesting that plasmin might be responsible for the generation of the C1 fragment in vivo as well. The cleavage pattern of PrPC found in both brain lysates and other tissues of plasminogen knock-out mice, however, is unaltered. The presence of C1 fragment in homogenates from plasminogen-deficient mice in a comparable ratio with full-length PrPC as can be found in wild-type animals indicates that other proteases in addition to plasmin are responsible for PrPC cleavage in vivo.
A Model for the Optimization of Beacon Message Age-of-Information in a VANET

Beaconing is a basic communication process taking place in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) to achieve cooperative awareness among vehicles on the road. It is actually a paradigm of information spreading among peer-agents, where each node of a networks sends periodically broadcast messages containing information collected by the node itself. A trade-off arises between the update frequency of the broadcast information and the congestion induced in the wireless shared channel used to send the messages, which is based on the IEEE 802.11p standard in case of a VANET. For periodic updates, the primary metric is the Age-of-Information (AoI), i.e., the age of the latest update received by neighboring nodes. We define an analytical model to evaluate the AoI of a VANET, given the connectivity graph of the vehicles. Analytical results are compared to simulation to assess the accuracy of the model. The model provides a handy tool to optimize the AoI trade-off.
Erosive Tooth Wear and Related Risk Factors in 8- and 14-Year-Old Greek Children

The aim of the present study was to investigate the erosive tooth wear of primary and permanent teeth and its association with related risk factors. Two groups of Greek children aged 8 (n = 329) and 14 years (n = 263) were examined in the classroom using the Basic Erosive Wear Examination (BEWE) index. Data concerning risk factors were collected using questionnaires. Dental caries (DMFS/dmfs) was also recorded. The data were analyzed using the t test, one-way ANOVA, multiple regression analysis, Fisher's exact test, and the χ2 test. In the 8-year-olds, the primary teeth showed a predominantly medium level of wear and the permanent teeth no wear. A majority of the 14-year-olds exhibited low risk levels of wear. The most frequently affected dental surface in both age groups was the occlusal surface of the mandibular posterior teeth. In the 8-year-olds, BEWE scores and the prevalence of wear in the primary teeth was influenced by gender (p = 0.020). In their permanent teeth, soft drink consumption (p < 0.0001) and preference for lemon/vinegar (p = 0.041) significantly affected wear prevalence and BEWE scores, while habitually retaining soft drinks in the mouth influenced wear prevalence (p = 0.008), risk (p = 0.004), and BEWE scores (p = 0.022). In the 14-year-olds, wear prevalence was significantly affected by the consumption of lemon-flavored candies (p = 0.016) and soft drinks (p = 0.050). BEWE scores were significantly affected by gender (p = 0.022) and soft drink consumption (p = 0.030). Gender influenced tooth wear risk in both age groups (p = 0.010 and p = 0.021, respectively). The results of this study indicate that erosive tooth wear differed between primary and permanent teeth and was influenced by gender and dietary factors.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF MASTECTOMY ON A WOMAN'S FEMININE SELF‐CONCEPT

Previous literature on mastectomy indicates that the operation may be perceived by the patient as a threat to her femininity. Accordingly, the present study attempted to measure changes in body image, self-concept, and total self-image in mastectomy patients and two control groups (biopsy and surgical controls). Patients were given a questionnaire measuring the concepts in question three times. 1 day before surgery: 6 days after surgery; and 6 to 11 months later. There were distinctly different patterns of results for the three groups. Mastectomy patients did indeed evince a decline in body image and total self-image, but not until months after surgery. This was not unexpected in light of previous findings of massive denial in mastectomy patients. Immediately after surgery, this denial would be at its strongest, and it is feasible that it would take some months of reality testing until the denial is no longer a necessary defense. Biopsy patients showed a decline in body image and total self-image immediately after surgery, when their denial was no longer needed. Surgical control patients showed little overall change Thus, mastectomy patients do appear to react to the operation with a decline in self-image, although this does not appear until some time after the operation.
Effects of Dietary L-carnitine Supplementation on Growth, Muscle Fatty acid Composition and Economic Profit of Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

In this study, the effect of dietary L-carnitine on growth, proximate and muscle fatty acid compositions of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were investigated. The fish were fed with diets containing 300 mg kg -1 L-carnitine (LC300), other group was fed with diets containing 600 mg kg -1 L-carnitine (LC600) and control group was not supplementary L-carnitine for 63 days. The weight gain of LC600 fed with L-carnitine supplemented was found to be 7.73% higher than in control group. Feed conversion ratio in LC600 (1.66) and LC300 (1.60) is better than in control group (2.00). L-carnitine supplemented groups would be lower cost of production than control. Economic conversion ratio (ECR) of LC300 (2.71 US.$ kg -1 ) would represent a saving of 0.44 US. $ kg -1 compared to the control. L-carnitine administration did not affect proximate composition of muscle except for protein percent. Protein content of L-carnitine supplemented groups was higher than control group. Total saturated monounsaturated and polyunsaturated muscle fatty acid content increased by L-carnitine supplementation in rainbow trout. The results indicate that supplementation of 600 mg L-carnitine/kg diet is more effective on growth than the other L-carnitine supplementation level 300 mg kg -1 and control diet in commercial cage conditions.
Evidence for Energy Failure following Irreversible Traumatic Brain Injury

Recent findings from our laboratory have indicated that a traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces an immediate increase in cerebral glucose utilization lasting up to several hours postinjury.1 This acute period of intense metabolic activity is accompanied by a marked increase in lactate production, which is indicative of hyperglycolysis.2 This study assessed the ATP content within injured tissue acutely following two models of experimental brain injury: (1) fluid percussion (FP), which induces a reversible cellular injury,1 and (2) controlled cortical impact (CCI), which results in irreversible cellular damage.3
Hand and Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremity (HABIT-ILE) in Children With Unilateral Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Background. Intensive bimanual training results in more improvement in hand function in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (USCP) than lower intensity conventional interventions. However, it is not known whether combined upper and lower extremity training in an intensive protocol is more efficacious for upper and lower functional abilities than conventional therapies provided in usual customary care. Objective. To determine the efficacy of Hand and Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremity (HABIT-ILE) for children with USCP. Methods. Twenty-four children with USCP were randomized into 2 groups: an immediate HABIT-ILE group (IHG, initially receiving HABIT-ILE, 10 days = 90 hours), and a delayed HABIT-ILE group (DHG), which continued their conventional/ongoing treatment for an intended total duration of 90 hours. In phase 2, children in the DHG were crossed over to receive HABIT-ILE and children of the IHG were followed in their ongoing conventional therapy. Children were assessed using the Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA, primary outcome), the ABILHAND-Kids, and the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory. Dexterity (Box and Blocks Test [BBT]) and pinch strength were also measured. Locomotor abilities were assessed with Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT, primary outcome) and ABILOCO-kids. Social participation was measured with the Assessment of Life-HABITs. Results. A 2 (groups) × 3 (test sessions) analysis of variance indicated significant improvements for primary outcomes (AHA, P < .001; 6MWT, P = .002) and all secondary assessments except BBT, step length and bodyweight distribution following HABIT-ILE, but not conventional therapy. Conclusion. The findings suggest that combined upper and lower extremity in an intensive training protocol may be efficacious for improving both upper and lower extremity function in children with USCP.
Escherichia Coli and Ulcerative Colitis

The clinical features of acute ulcerative colitis in relapse closely resemble those of infectious colitis. Moreover, the disease remains localized to the mucosa of the colon, which is intimately associated with the faecal stream and its abundant microbial flora. Not surprisingly, therefore, much effort has gone into identifying microbial agents that might be an aetiological factor. To review an infective theory in the Diamond Jubilee year of the British Society of Gastroenterology is fitting, since one of the Society's founders, Sir Arthur Hurst, suggested in 1921 that ulcerative colitis might be caused by an infection closely related to Shigella dysenteriae, then known as Bacillus dysenteriae.
VSC-HVDC Control under Unbalanced Supply Conditions

The voltage source converter based high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) technology has attracted much attention in recent years for its beneficial characteristics. The VSC-HVDC system is sensitive to voltage unbalance. However, voltage unbalance may occur in the three-phase power system frequently, due to unbalanced power supply, unbalanced loads and faults in AC system. It may require that the VSC-HVDC system continues to function even under unbalanced conditions. Without dedicately designed controllers, the second harmonic voltage will appear on the DC bus. It increases the losses and may result in system instability. In the paper, a simple and effective control scheme is presented to improve the dynamic performances of VSC-HVDC system under unbalanced conditions. The controllers are implemented in two synchronous reference frames (SRFs), namely the positive and negative SRFs, which rotate counterclockwise and clockwise. In addition, a new fast sequence components separation technique is also proposed. The simulation results show that the proposed control scheme performs well under both balanced and unbalanced conditions.