Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Hybrid Approach to Question-answering for a Banking Chatbot on Turkish: Extending Keywords with Embedding Vectors

: In this paper, we have proposed a hybrid keyword-word embedding based question answering method for a Turkish chatbot in banking domain. This hyrid model is supported with the keywords that we have determined by clustering customer messages of Facebook Messenger bot of the bank. Word embedding models are utilized in order to represent words in a better way such that similarity between words can be meaningful. Keyword based similarity calculation between two questions enhanced our chatbot system. In order to evaluate performance of the proposed system, we have created a test data which contains questions with their corresponding answers. Questions in the test are paraphrased versions of ones in our dataset.
Understanding sources of ineffciency in general-purpose chips

Scaling the performance of a power limited processor requires decreasing the energy expended per instruction executed, since energy/op * op/second is power. To better understand what improvement in processor efficiency is possible, and what must be done to capture it, we quantify the sources of the performance and energy overheads of a 720p HD H.264 encoder running on a general-purpose four-processor CMP system. The initial overheads are large: the CMP was 500 x less energy efficient than an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) doing the same job. We explore methods to eliminate these overheads by transforming the CPU into a specialized system for H.264 encoding. Broadly applicable optimizations like single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) units improve CMP performance by 14 x and energy by 10x, which is still 50x worse than an ASIC. The problem is that the basic operation costs in H.264 are so small that even with a SIMD unit doing over 10 ops per cycle, 90% of the energy is still overhead. Achieving ASIC-like performance and effciency requires algorithm-specifc optimizations. For each subalgorithm of H.264, we create a large, specialized functional/storage unit capable of executing hundreds of operations per instruction. This improves energy effciency by 160x (instead of 10x), and the final customized CMP reaches the same performance and within 3x of an ASIC solution's energy in comparable area.
Development of an Oral Compound Pickering Emulsion Composed of Nanocrystals of Poorly Soluble Ingredient and Volatile Oils from Traditional Chinese Medicine

In this study, an oral drug nanocrystals self-stabilized Pickering emulsion (NSSPE), which used nanocrystals of a poorly soluble ingredient from Puerariae Radix called puerarin as solid particle stabilizers and Ligusticum chuanxiong essential oil since the main oil phase had been developed to improve the oral bioavailability of puerarin. The appearance of emulsions, size and zeta potential of droplets, and content of puerarin in emulsified layer during a storage of six months at 4, 25, and 40 °C were investigated. The centrifugation stability at 4000× g was also studied. The micro-structure of emulsion droplets was characterized by a scanning electron micrograph (SEM), confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), a fluorescence microscope (FM), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The in vivo oral bioavailability of puerarin NSSPE was investigated in rats. Results showed that appearances of puerarin NSSPE kept stable after centrifugation at 4000× g for 15 min or storage for six months at 4, 25, and 40 °C. SEM, CLSM, FM, and DSC showed that the puerarin NSSPE had a stable core-shell structure of emulsion droplets formed by the adsorption of puerarin nanocrystals on the surface of oil droplets of mixed oil of Ligusticum chuanxiong essential oil and Labrafil M 1944 CS (9:1, v/v). The relative bioavailability of puerarin NSSPE to puerarin coarse powder suspension, nanocrystal suspension, and surfactant emulsion were 262.43%, 155.92%, and 223.65%, respectively. All these results indicated that puerarin nanocrystals could stabilize Pickering emulsion of Ligusticum chuanxiong essential oil without any other stabilizers and Pickering emulsion could improve the oral bioavailability of puerarin, which suggests that the drug nanocrystal self-stabilized Pickering emulsion as a promising oral drug delivery system for Traditional Chinese Medicine containing poorly soluble ingredients and volatile oils.
A Performance Per Power Efficient Object Detector on an FPGA for Robot Operating System (ROS)

In recent years, interest in service robots that human support in living spaces such as homes and hospitals is increasing. Service robots demands for an intelligent processing of images and sounds for smooth communication between a robot and a human working. These processes are computationally intensive, and real-time processing is often difficult in software processing by the CPU. Since it is necessary to integrate various hardware and software into the robot to operate it, to make development more efficient, utilization of open source construction of a rapid prototyping environment is indispensable. In the paper, to accelerate the intelligent processing, we use an FPGA as a hardware accelerator on a robot. Also, in order to improve development efficiency, we use a robot operating system (ROS). We implemented YOLOv2 (You Only Look Once version 2) which is one type of object recognition. Compared with a CPU and a GPU, an FPGA based accelerator was superior in power performance efficiency.
A Study on the Effect of Ultrasonic Treatment on the Microstructure of Sn-30 wt.% Bi Alloy

The effect of ultrasonic treatment on the microstructure of Sn-30 wt. % Bi alloy was studied at different temperatures. Results showed that the ultrasonic treatment could effectively refine the microstructure of Sn-30 wt. % Bi alloy at a temperature range between the liquidus and solidus. Application of the ultrasound could fragment the primary Sn dendrites during solidification due to a mixed effect of ultrasonic cavitation and acoustic streaming. The divorced eutectic formed when the ultrasonic treatment was applied for the whole duration of the solidification. The eutectic phase grew and surrounded the primary Sn dendrite, and pure Bi phase grew in between the Sn dendritic fragments. The mechanism of the fragmentation of dendrites and the divorced eutectic structure by ultrasonic treatment was discussed.
Robotic Nipple-sparing Mastectomy and Immediate Breast Reconstruction with Gel Implant

Background: The experience of application of robotic surgery platform in the management of breast cancer was limited. The preliminary experience and results of robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy (R-NSM) and immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) with Gel implant was reported. Methods: The medical records of patients who underwent R-NSM and IBR with Gel implant for breast cancer during the period March 2017 to October 2017 were collected from single institution. Data on clinicopathologic characteristics, type of surgery, method of breast reconstruction, complications, and recurrence were analyzed to determine the effectiveness and oncologic safety of R-NSM. Patients’ oriented cosmetic outcome report was also obtained. Results: A total of 15 patients was analyzed, and the mean age of them was 46.5 ± 10.0 years. The pathologic stage was 30.8% ductal carcinoma in situ, 30.8% stage I, 30.8% stage II, and 7.7% stage III. The mean operation time was 282.8 ± 70.4 minutes, and mean hospital stay was 6.7 ± 1.2 days. The positive surgical margin rate was 0%. One patient suffered from delayed axillary wound healing. Two patients (13.3%) with transit nipple ischemia change, but no total nipple areolar complex necrosis case was observed. No local recurrence, distant metastasis, or case mortality was found during mean 6.3 ± 2.1 months follow-up. All 15 patients were satisfied with the postoperative aesthetic outcome. Conclusion: From our preliminary experience, R-NSM and IBR with Gel implant is a safe procedure, with good cosmetic results, and could be a promising new technique for breast cancer patients indicated for mastectomy.
The long non-coding RNA MALAT1 is increased in renal ischemia-reperfusion injury and inhibits hypoxia-induced inflammation

Abstract Background: To investigate the expression of long non-coding RNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) in renal ischemia-reperfusion injury and explore its role in acute kidney injury. Methods: 18 mice were randomly divided into a sham operation group (Sham) and an ischemia-reperfusion group (IR) in which animals were sacrificed at 6 h or 12 h after surgery. The kidneys were harvested to measure the expression of MALAT1 mRNA. HK2 cells were treated with cobalt chloride (CoCl2) to mimic hypoxia or transfected with siRNA to knockdown MALAT1 before CoCl2 treatment. After that, MALAT1 was analyzed by RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction). HIF-1ɑ (hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha) and NF-κB (nuclear factor-kappa B) was measured by Western blot. The concentrations of IL-6 (interleukin-6) and TNF-ɑ (tumor necrosis factor-alpha) in the media were detected by ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). Results: The expression of MALAT1 in the IR (6 h/12 h) group was significantly higher than that in the sham group. In HK2 cells, MALAT1 was significantly increased at 1 h, 3 h, and 6 h after CoCl2 treatment but had reduced to the basal level at 12 h and 24 h. Knockdown of MALAT1 by siRNA significantly up-regulated the expression of HIF-1ɑ and NF-κB proteins in CoCl2-treated HK2 cells. In addition, the concentrations of IL-6 and TNF-ɑ were increased by MALAT1 siRNA transfection in CoCl2-treated HK2 cells. Conclusion: The expression of MALAT1 is increased in renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. It is likely that MALAT1 inhibits the hypoxia-induced inflammatory response through the NF-κB pathway.
The Association between Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and CT-Measured Skeletal Muscle Mass

A relationship between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and sarcopenia has been suggested. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between NAFLD and skeletal muscle mass measured by computed tomography (CT). The clinical records of individuals visiting our center for a routine health check-up who underwent abdominal ultrasonography and abdominal CT scanning were retrospectively reviewed. Sarcopenia was diagnosed according to body mass index (BMI)-adjusted skeletal muscle mass, which was measured by CT (CT-measured skeletal muscle index (SMICT)). Of the 1828 subjects (1121 males; mean age 54.9 ± 9.5 years), 487 (26.6%) were obese (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2), and 454 (24.8%) had low muscle mass. Sarcopenic subjects had a significantly higher prevalence of NAFLD than nonsarcopenic subjects, regardless of obesity (35.9% vs. 26.8%, p = 0.004 in the nonobese group; 76.6% vs. 63.0%, p = 0.003 in the obese group). Sarcopenia was significantly associated with the risk of NAFLD (adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval (CI)), 1.51 (1.15–1.99)), and the risk of NAFLD increased with increasing severity of sarcopenia (adjusted OR (95% CI), 1.45 (1.09–1.92) vs. 2.51 (1.16–5.56), mild vs. severe sarcopenia, respectively). When the risk of NAFLD was analyzed according to the SMICT quartiles, the adjusted OR and 95% CI for the lowest muscle mass quartile compared to the highest were 1.78 (1.17–2.72) in males and 2.39 (1.13–5.37) in females. Low skeletal muscle mass, which was precisely measured by CT, is independently associated with NAFLD, suggesting that sarcopenia is a risk factor for NAFLD.
Suppression of LOX activity enhanced seed vigour and longevity of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) seeds during storage

Abstract The preservation of seed viability and quality in storage is an important trait both for commercial and germplasm usage. To better explore potential mechanisms of tobacco seed deterioration, seed packed in cloth bag (C) and vacuum bag (V) were stored under room temperature (RT) and low temperature (LT, 18°C), and sampled periodically for laboratory testing. Seed stored in low temperature with vacuum bag (LT/V) owned the highest seed vigour after 25 months of storage and in room temperature with cloth bag (RT/C) lost seed vigour and germination ability after 20-month storage. Meanwhile, seed in RT/C notably increased about 5-fold endogenous hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), 4-fold malondialdehyde (MDA) contents, 12-fold Lipoxygenases (LOX) activity and 2-fold the expression of NtLOX3 comparing with LT/V at the end of 15-month storage. In addition, regression analysis indicated that LOX activity was strongly negatively correlated with seed vigour as the R2 value reached 0.970 in RT/C. Furthermore, caffeic acid and catechin, the inhibitors of LOX activity, were applied to tobacco seeds pre-treatment and followed with artificial accelerated aging. Seeds pretreated with inhibitors, especially caffeic acid, reduced LOX activity by 50%, MDA and H2O2 contents by 40% and 20%, respectively, and increased more than 1.2-fold seed vigour and seedling quality comparing with seeds pretreated with H2O after 6-day artificial aging, indicating a better seed storability after artificial accelerated aging. These results suggest that LOX accelerated seed aging, and suppression of LOX activity enhanced seed vigour and viability in accelerated aging tobacco seed, opening new opportunities for effective management of seed germplasm under long-term storage and conservation.
The 3PAs: An Update on the Association of Pheochromocytomas, Paragangliomas, and Pituitary Tumors

Abstract Pituitary adenomas (PA) and pheochromocytomas/paragangliomas (PHEO/PGL) are rare tumors. Although they may co-exist by coincidence, there is mounting evidence that genes predisposing in PHEO/PGL development, may play a role in pituitary tumorigenesis. In 2012, we described a GH-secreting PA caused by an SDHD mutation in a patient with familial PGLs and found loss of heterozygosity at the SDHD locus in the pituitary tumor, along with increased hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) levels. Additional patients with PAs and SDHx defects have since been reported. Overall, prevalence of SDHx mutations in PA is very rare (0.3–1.8% in unselected cases) but we and others have identified several cases of PAs with PHEOs/PGLs, like our original report, a condition which we termed the 3 P association (3PAs). Interestingly, when 3PAs is found in the sporadic setting, no SDHx defects were identified, whereas in familial PGLs, SDHx mutations were identified in 62.5–75% of the reported cases. Hence, pituitary surveillance is recommended among patients with SDHx defects. It is possible that the SDHx germline mutation-negative 3PAs cases may be due to another gene, epigenetic changes, mutations in modifier genes, mosaicism, somatic mutations, pituitary hyperplasia due to ectopic hypothalamic hormone secretion or a coincidence. PA in 3PAs are mainly macroadenomas, more aggressive, more resistant to somatostatin analogues, and often require surgery. Using the Sdhb +/− mouse model, we showed that hyperplasia may be the first abnormality in tumorigenesis as initial response to pseudohypoxia. We also propose surveillance and follow-up approach of patients presenting with this association.
Sorbitol as a Chain Extender of Polyurethane Prepolymers to Prepare Self-Healable and Robust Polyhydroxyurethane Elastomers

A self-healable polyhydroxyurethane (S-PU) was synthesized from sorbitol, a biomass of polyhydric alcohol, by a simple process that is suitable for practical applications. In the synthesis, only two primary hydroxyl groups of sorbitol were considered for the chain extension of the polyurethane (PU) prepolymers to introduce free hydroxyl groups in PU. As a control, conventional PU was synthesized by hexane diol mediated chain extension. Relative to the control, S-PU showed excellent intrinsic self-healing property via exchange reaction, which was facilitated by the nucleophilic addition of the secondary hydroxyl groups without any catalytic assistance and improved tensile strength due to the enhanced hydrogen bonding. We also investigated the effect of the exchange reaction on the topological, mechanical, and rheological properties of S-PU. The suggested synthetic framework for S-PU is a promising alternative to the conventional poly hydroxyurethane, in which cyclic carbonates are frequently reacted with amines. As such, it is a facile and environmentally friendly material for use in coatings, adhesives, and elastomers.
Fenofibrate Interferes with the Diapedesis of Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells through the Interference with Cx43/EGF-Dependent Intercellular Signaling

Extravasation of circulating cancer cells is regulated by the intercellular/intracellular signaling pathways that locally impair the endothelial barrier function. Co-cultures of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) with lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells enabled us to identify these pathways and to quantify the effect of fenofibrate (FF) on their activity. A549 cells induced the disruption and local activation of endothelial continuum. These events were accompanied by epidermal growth factor (EGF) up-regulation in endothelial cells. Impaired A549 diapedesis and HUVEC activation were seen upon the chemical inhibition of connexin(Cx)43 functions, EGF/ERK1/2-dependent signaling, and RhoA/Rac1 activity. A total of 25 μM FF exerted corresponding effects on Cx43-mediated gap junctional coupling, EGF production, and ERK1/2 activation in HUVEC/A549 co-cultures. It also directly augmented endothelial barrier function via the interference with focal adhesion kinase (FAK)/RhoA/Rac1-regulated endothelial cell adhesion/contractility/motility and prompted the selective transmigration of epithelioid A549 cells. N-acetyl-L-cysteine abrogated FF effects on HUVEC activation, suggesting the involvement of PPARα-independent mechanism(s) in its action. Our data identify a novel Cx43/EGF/ERK1/2/FAK/RhoA/Rac1-dependent signaling axis, which determines the efficiency of lung cancer cell diapedesis. FF interferes with its activity and reduces the susceptibility of endothelial cells to A549 stimuli. These findings provide the rationale for the implementation of FF in the therapy of malignant lung cancers.
Newton-MR: Newton's Method Without Smoothness or Convexity

Establishing global convergence of Newton-CG has long been limited to making strong convexity assumptions. Hence, many Newton-type variants have been proposed which aim at extending Newton-CG beyond strongly convex problems. However, the analysis of almost all these non-convex methods commonly relies on the Lipschitz continuity assumptions of the gradient and Hessian. Furthermore, the sub-problems of many of these methods are themselves non-trivial optimization problems. Here, we show that two simple modifications of Newton-CG result in an algorithm, called Newton-MR, which offers a diverse range of algorithmic and theoretical advantages. Newton-MR can be applied, beyond the traditional convex settings, to invex problems. Sub-problems of Newton-MR are simple ordinary least squares. Furthermore, by introducing a weaker notion of joint regularity of Hessian and gradient, we establish the global convergence of Newton-MR even in the absence of the usual smoothness assumptions. We also obtain Newton-MR's local convergence guarantee that generalizes that of Newton-CG. Specifically, unlike the local convergence analysis of Newton-CG, which relies on the notion of isolated minimum, our analysis amounts to local convergence to the set of minima.
An Efficient Character Segmentation Approach for Handwritten Hindi Text

OCR remains a challenging area of research for past few years. Accuracy of OCR primarily depends on how correctly characters are segmented. This makes segmentation a crucial step. This work describes the novel technique for character segmentation of handwritten Hindi text using basic structural properties. The proposed method first uses the polygonal approximation to get the digitally straight line segment of the word. On these segments, we apply traversing algorithm which results into segmentation of characters. The success rate is 95.70%, which is satisfactory comparing with other existing methods.
cytometree: a binary tree algorithm for automatic gating in cytometry analysis

Motivation Flow cytometry is a powerful technology that allows the high-throughput quantification of dozens of surface and intracellular proteins at the single-cell level. It has become the most widely used technology for immunophenotyping of cells over the past three decades. Due to the increasing complexity of cytometry experiments (more cells and more markers), traditional manual flow cytometry data analysis has become untenable due to its subjectivity and time-consuming nature. Results We present a new unsupervised algorithm called “cytometree” to perform automated population discovery (aka gating) in flow cytometry. cytometree is based on the construction of a binary tree, the nodes of which are subpopulations of cells. At each node, the marker distributions are modeled by mixtures of normal distribution. Node splitting is done according to a normalized difference of Akaike information criteria (AIC) between the two models. Post-processing of the tree structure and derived populations allows us to complete the annotation of the derived populations. The algorithm is shown to perform better than the state-of-the-art unsupervised algorithms previously proposed on panels introduced by the Flow Cytometry: Critical Assessment of Population Identification Methods (FlowCAP I) project. The algorithm is also applied to a T-cell panel proposed by the Human Immunology Project Consortium (HIPC) program; it also outperforms the best unsupervised open-source available algorithm while requiring the shortest computation time. Availability An R package named “cytometree” is available on the CRAN repository. Contact daniel.commenges@u-bordeaux.fr; rodolphe.thiebaut@u-bordeaux.fr Supplementary information Supplementary data are available.
Geometric Constellation Shaping for Fiber Optic Communication Systems via End-to-end Learning

In this paper, an unsupervised machine learning method for geometric constellation shaping is investigated. By embedding a differentiable fiber channel model within two neural networks, the learning algorithm is optimizing for a geometric constellation shape. The learned constellations yield improved performance to state-of-the-art geometrically shaped constellations, and include an implicit trade-off between amplification noise and nonlinear effects. Further, the method allows joint optimization of system parameters, such as the optimal launch power, simultaneously with the constellation shape. An experimental demonstration validates the findings. Improved performances are reported, up to 0.13 bit/4D in simulation and experimentally up to 0.12 bit/4D.