Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bootstrapping for Numerical Open IE

We design and release BONIE, the first open numerical relation extractor, for extracting Open IE tuples where one of the arguments is a number or a quantity-unit phrase. BONIE uses bootstrapping to learn the specific dependency patterns that express numerical relations in a sentence. BONIE’s novelty lies in task-specific customizations, such as inferring implicit relations, which are clear due to context such as units (for e.g., ‘square kilometers’ suggests area, even if the word ‘area’ is missing in the sentence). BONIE obtains 1.5x yield and 15 point precision gain on numerical facts over a state-of-the-art Open IE system.
Short‐term acclimation to warmer temperatures accelerates leaf carbon exchange processes across plant types

While temperature responses of photosynthesis and plant respiration are known to acclimate over time in many species, few studies have been designed to directly compare process‐level differences in acclimation capacity among plant types. We assessed short‐term (7 day) temperature acclimation of the maximum rate of Rubisco carboxylation (Vcmax), the maximum rate of electron transport (Jmax), the maximum rate of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase carboxylation (Vpmax), and foliar dark respiration (Rd) in 22 plant species that varied in lifespan (annual and perennial), photosynthetic pathway (C3 and C4), and climate of origin (tropical and nontropical) grown under fertilized, well‐watered conditions. In general, acclimation to warmer temperatures increased the rate of each process. The relative increase in different photosynthetic processes varied by plant type, with C3 species tending to preferentially accelerate CO2‐limited photosynthetic processes and respiration and C4 species tending to preferentially accelerate light‐limited photosynthetic processes under warmer conditions. Rd acclimation to warmer temperatures caused a reduction in temperature sensitivity that resulted in slower rates at high leaf temperatures. Rd acclimation was similar across plant types. These results suggest that temperature acclimation of the biochemical processes that underlie plant carbon exchange is common across different plant types, but that acclimation to warmer temperatures tends to have a relatively greater positive effect on the processes most limiting to carbon assimilation, which differ by plant type. The acclimation responses observed here suggest that warmer conditions should lead to increased rates of carbon assimilation when water and nutrients are not limiting.
Wounds in advanced illness: a prevalence and incidence study based on a prospective case series

A prospective observational sequential case series was studied in order to ascertain an accurate inventory of the various wound types, their point prevalence and incidence rates and their anatomic locations in patients with advanced illness. Five hundred and ninety‐three patients were serially assessed until their deaths. Forty‐three individual wound types were identified and grouped into nine distinct classes. Data were stratified between patients suffering from malignant and non malignant disorders. One thousand and thirty‐six individual wounds (average 1·8 wounds per patient) were identified at baseline. Eight hundred and ninety‐one individual wounds (average 1·5 wounds per patient) were identified between baseline and their date of death. Pressure ulcers constituted the most commonly occurring wound class affecting more than 50% of all patients. Malignant wounds were observed only in cancer patients. Baseline point prevalence for pressure ulcers, traumatic wounds, venous ulcers and arterial ulcers in non cancer patients exceeded that in cancer patients. At baseline, iatrogenic wounds were more prevalent in cancer patients than in non cancer patients. Incidence rates for pressure ulcers, traumatic wounds, diabetic ulcers, arterial ulcers and ostomies in non cancer patients exceeded those in cancer patients. The broad range of wounds along with high rates of prevalence and incidence, identified in this study, reflects that wounds represent a significant management issue for patients with advanced illness. Therefore, there exists a need for advancement in modalities and measures aimed at risk assessment, prevention and appropriate goal‐oriented management.
Asociación entre alteraciones psicológicas y la presencia de Liquen plano oral, Síndrome boca urente y Estomatitis aftosa recividante

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the existing relation between the Oral Lichen Planus (OLP), Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (RAS), Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) and psychological alterations of the patient, such as stress, anxiety and depression. DESIGN OF THE STUDY: 18 patients with RAS, 9 patients with OLP and 7 patients with BMS, that presented the condition at the moment of the examination, were studied, as well as a control group of 20 healthy patients. Both groups were extracted of hospitals and universitary centers, where the clinical diagnosis was made by a team of oral pathologists. Two measuring instruments were applied to them about their psychological condition: the Test of Recent Experience, to measure the stress level and scale H.A.D., to determine the level of anxiety and depression; the score given by them were statistically analyzed through T-test and the Anova Tukey test. RESULTS: Our results suggested a statistically significant association between these psychological disorders and the diseases of the oral mucosa in study. It was observed that the stress level is greater in patients with RAS and OLP, depression is particularly high in patients with BMS, and levels of anxiety are rised in the three groups, in comparison with the group control. CONCLUSIONS: A positive relationship can be established between psychological alterations and RAS, OLP and BMS. The RAS and the OLP stress and anxiety levels were considered as high, whereas the BMS was more related to important levels of anxiety and depression. According to these findings it is possible to assume that psychological factors should be taking into account when oral health wants to be maintain as normal.
Support for Smoking Cessation Interventions in Physician Organizations: Results From a National Study

Objectives.To document the extent to which physician organizations, defined as medical groups and independent practice associations, are providing support for smoking cessation interventions and to identify external incentives and organizational characteristics associated with this support. Methods.This research uses data from the National Study of Physician Organizations and the Management of Chronic Illness, conducted by the University of California at Berkeley, to document the extent to which physician organizations provide support for smoking cessation interventions. Of 1587 physician organizations nationally with 20 or more physicians, 1104 participated, for a response rate of 70%. Results.Overall, 70% of physician organizations offered some support for smoking cessation interventions. Specifically, 17% require physicians to provide interventions, 15% evaluate interventions, 39% of physician organizations offer smoking health promotion programs, 25% provide nicotine replacement therapy starter kits, and materials are provided on pharmacotherapy (39%), counseling (37%), and self-help (58%). Factors positively associated with organizational support include income or public recognition for quality measures, financial incentives to promote smoking cessation interventions, requirements to report HEDIS (Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set) scores, awareness of the 1996 Clinical Practice Guideline on Smoking Cessation, being a medical group, organizational size, percentage of primary care physicians, and hospital/HMO ownership of the organization. Conclusion. Physician organizations are providing support for smoking cessation interventions, yet the level of support might be improved with more extensive use of external incentives. Financial incentives targeted specifically at promoting smoking cessation interventions need to be explored further. Additionally, emphasis on quality measures should continue, including an expansion of HEDIS smoking cessation measures.
Preservation of Audio-Visual Records at the National Archives of Namibia

The study investigated the preservation strategies of audio - visual (AV) records at the National Archives of Namibia (NAN). Data for the study was collected through questionnaires, interviews, observation and a review of documentary sources. The study also found that the legal deposit for AV records has been ineffective because officials responsible for transferring AV records to the National Archives were not aware of the requirement of the Archives and the Namibia Film Commission Acts to transfer records immediately. The study found out that there is no awareness on depositing AV records from the accountable institution, the National Archives of Namibia NAN. The study also found out that the Namibia Film Commission Act, No. 6 of 2000 has not been implemented at all, as there are no audio - visual records from the National Film Commission deposited at the National Archives. The findings also established that there is no single trained AV archivist at NAN, which critically hinders the collection, preservation of records. The study found out that the current legislative arrangements are not relevant to the contemporary needs of audio - visual records preservation and it needs revision. The recommendations arising from the study are that there is a need to amend the Archives Act, No. 12 of 1992, to accommodate the current trends and international standards; develop a national policy and guidelines on audio - visual records; The study recommends for the implementation of training for AV archivists in Namibia; recruitment of staff with expertise in preserving audio - visual archives held at the National Archives.
A Cloud-Based Car Parking Middleware for IoT-Based Smart Cities: Design and Implementation

This paper presents the generic concept of using cloud-based intelligent car parking services in smart cities as an important application of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. This type of services will become an integral part of a generic IoT operational platform for smart cities due to its pure business-oriented features. A high-level view of the proposed middleware is outlined and the corresponding operational platform is illustrated. To demonstrate the provision of car parking services, based on the proposed middleware, a cloud-based intelligent car parking system for use within a university campus is described along with details of its design, implementation, and operation. A number of software solutions, including Kafka/Storm/Hbase clusters, OSGi web applications with distributed NoSQL, a rule engine, and mobile applications, are proposed to provide ‘best’ car parking service experience to mobile users, following the Always Best Connected and best Served (ABC&S) paradigm.
Metabolism as a key to histone deacetylase inhibition

There is growing interest in the epigenetic mechanisms that are dysregulated in cancer and other human pathologies. Under this broad umbrella, modulators of histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity have gained interest as both cancer chemopreventive and therapeutic agents. Of the first generation, FDA-approved HDAC inhibitors to have progressed to clinical trials, vorinostat represents a “direct acting” compound with structural features suitable for docking into the HDAC pocket, whereas romidepsin can be considered a prodrug that undergoes reductive metabolism to generate the active intermediate (a zinc-binding thiol). It is now evident that other agents, including those in the human diet, can be converted by metabolism to intermediates that affect HDAC activity. Examples are cited of short-chain fatty acids, seleno-α-keto acids, small molecule thiols, mercapturic acid metabolites, indoles, and polyphenols. The findings are discussed in the context of putative endogenous HDAC inhibitors generated by intermediary metabolism (e.g. pyruvate), the yin–yang of HDAC inhibition versus HDAC activation, and the screening assays that might be most appropriate for discovery of novel HDAC inhibitors in the future.
Working capital management and financial performance of listed conglomerate companies in Nigeria

a Department of Entrepreneurship and Business Studies, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State – Nigeria, d.Abdulazeez@futminna.edu. ng b Department of Accountancy, Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State – Nigeria, nalhajibaba@yahoo.com c Department of Entrepreneurship and Business Studies, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State – Nigeria, ruth.kolo@futminna.edu. ng d Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State – Nigeria, aspitaa@futminna.edu. ng
Epithelial stem cell repertoire in the gut: clues to the origin of cell lineages, proliferative units and cancer

Gastrointestinal stem cells are shown to be pluripotential and to give rise to all cell lineages in the epithelium. After damage, gut stem cells produce reparative cell lineages that produce a wide range of peptides with important actions on cell proliferation and migration, and promote regeneration and healing. Increase in stem cell number is considered to induce crypt fission, and lead to increases in the number of crypts, even in the adult; it is also the mode of spread of mutated clones in the colorectal mucosa. Stem cell repertoire is defined by both intrinsic programming of the stem cell itself, but signalling from the mesenchyme is also vitally important for defining both stem cell progeny and proliferation. Carcinogenesis in the colon occurs through sequential mutations, possibly occurring in a single cell. A case is made for this being the stem cell, but recent studies indicate that several stem cells may need to be so involved, since early lesions appear to be polyclonal in derivation.
The final cut

To generate functional tRNA molecules, precursor RNAs must undergo several processing steps. While the enzyme that generates the mature tRNA 5′‐end, RNase P, has been thoroughly investigated, the 3′‐processing activity is, despite its importance, less understood. While nothing is known about tRNA 3′‐processing in archaea, the phenomenon has been analysed in detail in bacteria and is known to be a multistep process involving several enzymes, including both exo‐ and endonucleases. tRNA 3′‐end processing in the eukaryotic nucleus seems to be either exonucleolytic or endonucleolytic, depending on the organism analysed, whereas in organelles, 3′‐end maturation occurs via a single endonucleolytic cut. An interesting feature of organellar tRNA 3′‐processing is the occurrence of overlapping tRNA genes in metazoan mitochondria, which presents a unique challenge for the mitochondrial tRNA maturation enzymes, since it requires not only the removal but also the addition of nucleotides by an editing reaction.
Scaling-up reinforcement learning using parallelization and symbolic planning

Reinforcement learning (RL) methods are a family of techniques which allow an agent to improve its performance of a given task by learning from direct interaction with the environment it is situated in. Key to this approach is the notion of a reward signal, a numerical value observed by the agent which gives immediate feedback on the quality of its action choices. Using this signal, the agent can learn a policy which maximizes the total reward accumulated over time. While many RL algorithms have theoretical convergence guarantees, achieving fast convergence to the optimum can be problematic in practice. There are particular problems with large-scale domains. As' the learning environment becomes more complex and difficult to describe, theAime required for an RL agent to learn an optimal policy grows very rapidly. This effect is known as the curse of dimensionality. In this thesis, two different approaches to scaling-up RL are investigated. The first approach exploits parallel hardware to generate high-quality policies for simulated RL environments. An agent learns from simulated experience on each node of a parallel cluster. The agents periodically exchange weights from their approximate value functions. This allows a group of agents to converge more quickly than a single learner without compromising the final quality of the learned policy. The second approach is a hybrid method combining symbolic planning and RL. A high-level knowledge base is used to generate a symbolic plan which provides structure for the learned policy. Abstract symbolic operators are implemented in terms of low-level actions using RL. This approach is shown to scale to much larger RL problems than is feasible with either standard or hierarchical RL algorithms.
The Design of Computer Based Support for Task Communication within Organizations

Task communication plays an important role within organizations, facilitating the conversion of inputs to outputs and the coordination and control of internal activities. An important function of several computer based information technologies is to support task communication. However, information systems designers do not have a framework that can help them select information technology that will provide efficient and effective communication support. This paper integrates the organization and information systems literatures in order to develop guidelines for the selection of appropriate communication support technology.
(-)-Epicatechin and related procyanidins modulate intracellular calcium and prevent oxidation in Jurkat T cells

This study investigated the effects of (-)-epicatechin (EC), its oligomers, dimer B2 (B2) and trimer C1 (C1), on calcium-dependent cell oxidation. Jurkat T cells were subjected to a Ca2+ mobilization challenge by replacing Na+ with K+ in the incubation media. A 249±38% increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) was observed and that effect was prevented by the presence of inhibitors of Ca2+ mobilization and entrance. The pre-incubation of the cells in the presence of EC, B2 or C1 prevented K+-mediated increase in [Ca2+]i. IC50 were 10, 24 and 196 nm for EC, B2 and C1, respectively. Cell membrane depolarization was affected by K+, but neither inhibitors of Ca2+ mobilization nor EC, B2 or C1 modified the increase in membrane potential. An 84±7% increase in cell oxidants was observed after cell exposure to K+. This increase was prevented by the inhibition of Ca2+ mobilization, NADPH oxidase and protein kinase C, as well as by 10 nm EC, 10 nm B2 or 100 nm C1. In addition, EC and B2 (100 nm) significantly inhibited the activation of the [Ca2+]i-regulated transcription factor NFAT. These results indicate that EC and related oligomers, assayed at physiologically achievable concentrations, can modulate [Ca2+]i and then prevent cell oxidation and other Ca2+-regulated events.
Factors affecting plant location decisions of U.S. broiler executives

ii Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to the successful completion of this thesis. First of all, I would like to thank my major professor, Dr. Wes Harrison, for his invaluable advice, support, guidance and patience throughout my program. I for their hours of review and recommendations for this study. My special thanks to Dr. James Farr for his technical help during the development of survey questionnaire. Also to Dr. Gail Cramer, Head, Department of Agricultural Economics, the faculty, staff, and fellow graduate students for their help and friendship throughout my course of study. Furthermore, I would like to thank my friends for being there with their support during the times I needed the most. Lastly, I am very grateful to my parents Anitha and Indrasena Reddy, and to all my other family members, whose patience, love, support, and encouragement I could not have done without.
Concurrent sponsorship: implications for sponsoring brands and sponsored property

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interesting dynamics of image transfer when multiple brands get together to sponsor a property, referred to as concurrent sponsorship, and its effects on the consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) of the sponsor or the sponsored property, in the context of Indian Premier League of cricket. ,Two pre-tests, for identifying the sponsored property and sponsors, were followed by the main experiment, involving 500 respondents. A general linear model was used for data analysis. ,The findings reveal that for brands with high CBBE, investment in concurrent sponsorship leads to larger benefits, especially if they have similar associations to the sponsored property. This study also shows that image of the sponsored property is strongly dependent on combined CBBE of the sponsors. Finally, it is found that brands with high (low) CBBE are benefited more in concurrent (solo) sponsorship conditions. ,This paper is an original contribution in this field, with limited works studying the impact of concurrent sponsorship on the brand equity of sponsors or the sponsored property.
The Effect of Board Structure on Firm Performance - New Evidence from Product Market Conditions

We study the effect of corporate board structure on firm performance under different product market conditions. Using customer-supplier links to identify exogenous downstream demand shocks, we find that board independence has a more significant effect on firm performance when the firm-specific product demand drops, compared to other demand conditions. The results are more pronounced when a firm is smaller, experiences higher growth, or has higher stock price volatility. We further show that our documented effect of board independence only prevails if the firm faces medium level of product market competition, or if the negative shock is at a medium level. We provide suggestive evidence supporting the view that it is the board’s monitoring function that drives the effectiveness of board independence in bad times, rather than its advisory function.
Smart Specialization as a Tool to Foster Innovation in Emerging Economies: Lessons from Brazil

This paper is about the policy concept of smart specialization (RIS3) and its potential for application in emerging economies. This is an important issue as emerging economies continue to struggle against the forces of globalization and targeted investments through RIS3 strategies that may help them boost their (regional) innovation economies. Thus far, RIS3 has mostly been implemented by industrialized EU economies. Due to the structural differences, success in emerging economies may require more extensive groundwork prior to the implementation of an RIS3 strategy. This is specifically noted in the Brazilian example: smart specialization requires careful planning, the country needs to address some of its general issues with lagging innovation before it can focus on successfully implementing an RIS3 strategy. We believe that such an approach would be appropriate for other countries at similar stages of economic development.