Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Less is more in language production: an information-theoretic analysis of agrammatism in primary progressive aphasia

Abstract Agrammatism is a disorder of language production characterized by short, simplified sentences, the omission of function words, an increased use of nouns over verbs and a higher use of heavy verbs. Despite observing these phenomena for decades, the accounts of agrammatism have not converged. Here, we propose and test the hypothesis that the lexical profile of agrammatism results from a process that opts for words with a lower frequency of occurrence to increase lexical information. Furthermore, we hypothesize that this process is a compensatory response to patients’ core deficit in producing long, complex sentences. In this cross-sectional study, we analysed speech samples of patients with primary progressive aphasia (n = 100) and healthy speakers (n = 65) as they described a picture. The patient cohort included 34 individuals with the non-fluent variant, 41 with the logopenic variant and 25 with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia. We first analysed a large corpus of spoken language and found that the word types preferred by patients with agrammatism tend to have lower frequencies of occurrence than less preferred words. We then conducted a computational simulation to examine the impact of word frequency on lexical information as measured by entropy. We found that strings of words that exclude highly frequent words have a more uniform word distribution, thereby increasing lexical entropy. To test whether the lexical profile of agrammatism results from their inability to produce long sentences, we asked healthy speakers to produce short sentences during the picture description task. We found that, under this constrained condition, a similar lexical profile of agrammatism emerged in the short sentences of healthy individuals, including fewer function words, more nouns than verbs and more heavy verbs than light verbs. This lexical profile of short sentences resulted in their lower average word frequency than unconstrained sentences. We extended this finding by showing that, in general, shorter sentences get packaged with lower-frequency words as a basic property of efficient language production, evident in the language of healthy speakers and all primary progressive aphasia variants.
Second Language Students' Revision During Translating Medical and Literary Texts: A Psycholinguistics Perspective

Introduction. Cognitive processes have been extensively examined in the literature of translation studies to identify what goes on in students’ minds when they translate from one language into another. Such investigations targeted translators’ pauses over different texts from their native language into a foreign language. However, identifying translators’ revisions of different types of text remains sufficiently unexplored in the translation studies literature. Goals. This paper attempts to examine Arab students’ translation behaviors (self-revision or self-correction in particular) during the translation of a text from their second language (English) into their first language (Arabic) and vice versa. It also aims to reveal how revising a translated text is moderated by the variety of directionality and text type. To this end, 27 Arab native students were asked to translate two types of texts: literary and medical texts from English into Arabic and from Arabic into English over a keystroke logging program (Inputlog). Their behaviors were video-recorded using a video screenshot program. After translation, four students were invited to take a stimulated recall interview by viewing their behaviors in the video and were requested to verbalize what they were thinking of when they deleted and/or inserted text during translation assignments. Results. The results from the quantitative analysis showed that text type and L1-L2 directionality have significant effects on students’ cognitive processes. In addition, qualitative analyses obtained from MAXQDA revealed that students' translators encountered difficulties in many areas such as creativity-demanding problems, lexical problems, comprehensibility problems, spelling problems (for only Arabic-English directionality), and syntactic problems. Conclusion. Many cognitive process difficulties were identified which were related to psycholinguistics issues that need to be tackled in the translation studies.
GSPE Pre-Treatment Exerts Long-Lasting Preventive Effects against Aging-Induced Changes in the Colonic Enterohormone Profile of Female Rats

The impact that healthy aging can have on society has raised great interest in understanding aging mechanisms. However, the effects this biological process may have on the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) have not yet been fully described. Results in relation to changes observed in the enteroendocrine system along the GIT are controversial. Grape seed proanthocyanidin extracts (GSPE) have been shown to protect against several pathologies associated with aging. Based on previous results, we hypothesized that a GSPE pre-treatment could prevent the aging processes that affect the enteroendocrine system. To test this hypothesis, we treated 21-month-old female rats with GSPE for 10 days. Eleven weeks after the treatment, we analyzed the effects of GSPE by comparing these aged animals with young animals. Aging induced a greater endocrine response to stimulation in the upper GIT segments (cholecystokinin (CCK) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)), a decrease in the mRNA abundance of GLP-1, peptide YY (PYY) and chromogranin A (ChgA) in the colon, and an increase in colonic butyrate. GSPE-treated rats were protected against a decrease in enterohormone expression in the colon. This effect is not directly related to the abundance of microbiome or short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) at this location. GSPE may therefore be effective in preventing a decrease in the colonic abundance of enterohormone expression induced by aging.
Epitope-Specific Anti-SerpinB3 Antibodies for SerpinB3 Recognition and Biological Activity Inhibition

SerpinB3 is a serine protease inhibitor that plays a relevant role in disease progression and cancer by increasing fibrosis, cell proliferation, and invasion, besides conferring resistance to apoptosis. The mechanisms underlying these biological activities are not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to generate antibodies directed against different SerpinB3 epitopes to better investigate their biological role. Five exposed epitopes were identified using the software DNASTAR Lasergene and the corresponding synthetic peptides were used for NZW rabbit immunization. Anti-P#2 and anti-P#4 antibodies were able to recognize both SerpinB3 and SerpinB4 by ELISA. Anti-P#5 antibody, produced against the reactive site loop of SerpinB3, showed the greatest specific reactivity for human SerpinB3. This antibody was able to recognize SerpinB3 at nuclear level, while anti-P#3 antibody recognized SerpinB3 only at cytoplasmic level, both by immunofluorescence and by immunohistochemistry. The biological activity of each antibody preparation was assessed in HepG2 cells overexpressing SerpinB3 and anti-P#5 antibody reduced proliferation by 12% cell and cell invasion by 75%, while trivial results were obtained with the other antibody preparations. These findings indicate that the reactive site loop of SerpinB3 is essential for the invasiveness features induced by this serpin and it could become a novel druggable target.
FATFA-based DRN: Feedback Artificial Tree Firefly Algorithm-Enabled Deep Residual Network for Pathological Speech Enhancement

: The voice is a most important tool for the communication among the people in their day-to-day life. However, any slight change in the voice production system may affect the quality of the voice. For the past years, researchers worked to develop an effective automatic system for the clinicians to perform a preventive diagnosis for detecting the voice pathologies in an early stage. In this paper, the Feedback Artificial Tree Firefly Algorithm (FATFA)-based Deep Residual Network (DRN) is developed for the pathological speech enhancement. Here, the Hanning window is employed for extracting the frames from the speech signals. The multiband spectral subtraction technique is utilized for improving the extracted frames from the speech signals. Additionally, the DRN classifier is used for enhancing the pathological speech signals where the employed classifier is trained by the proposed optimization algorithm, called FATFA. Here, the developed FATFA-based DRN is the integration of Feedback Artificial Tree (FAT) and Firefly Algorithm (FA). However, the developed pathological speech enhancement method achieved efficient performance in terms of Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) with a higher PESQ of 3.907, and lesser RMSE of 30.64, respectively.
Serum YKL-40 as a Potential Biomarker for Sepsis in Term Neonates—A Pilot Study

Although YKL-40 is a promising diagnostic biomarker of sepsis in adults, its value in neonatal sepsis is not known. The study objectives included assessing the levels and diagnostic value of serum YKL-40 in term neonates with sepsis and comparing YKL-40 with other commonly used inflammatory biomarkers. In this pilot case–control study, 45 term neonates (30 septic and 15 non-septic, as controls), 4 to 28 days old, were prospectively studied. The International Pediatric Sepsis Consensus Conference criteria were applied to diagnose sepsis. During the acute phase (admission) and remission of sepsis, blood samples were collected from cases (while from controls they were only collected once) for routine laboratory tests, cultures, and the measurement of serum YKL-40 levels via Elisa. In the acute phase of sepsis, YKL-40 levels were significantly elevated in comparison with remission (p = 0.004) and controls (p = 0.003). YKL-40 levels did not differ significantly between patients in remission and controls (p = 0.431). Upon admission, YKL-40 levels correlated positively with white blood count, absolute neutrophil count, and CRP levels. Via ROC analysis, it was shown that YKL-40 levels upon admission were a significant indicator of sepsis (AUC = 0.771; 95% CI 0.632–0.911; p = 0.003). Serum YKL-40 might be considered as an adjuvant biomarker of sepsis in term neonates.
Predicting the Users’ Level of Engagement with a Smartphone Application for Smoking Cessation: Randomized Trial and Machine Learning Analysis

Introduction: Studies of the users’ engagement with smoking cessation application (apps) can help understand how these apps are used by smokers, in order to improve their reach and efficacy. Objective: The present study aimed at identifying the best predictors of the users’ level of engagement with a smartphone app for smoking cessation and at examining the relationships between predictors and outcomes related to the users’ level of engagement with the app. Methods: A secondary analysis of data from a randomized trial testing the efficacy of the Stop-Tabac smartphone app was used. The experimental group used the “full” app and the control group used a “dressed down” app. The study included a baseline and 1-month and 6-month follow-up questionnaires. A total of 5,293 participants answered at least the baseline questionnaires; however, in the current study, only the 1,861 participants who answered at least the baseline and the 1-month follow-up questionnaire were included. Predictors were measured at baseline and after 1 month and outcomes after 6 months. Data were analyzed using machine learning algorithms. Results: The best predictors of the outcomes were, in decreasing order of importance, intention to stop smoking, dependence level, perceived helpfulness of the app, having quit smoking after 1 month, self-reported usage of the app after 1 month, belonging to the experimental group (vs. control group), age, and years of smoking. Most of these predictors were also significantly associated with the participants’ level of engagement with the app. Conclusions: This information can be used to further target the app to specific groups of users, to develop strategies to enroll more smokers, and to better adapt the app’s content to the users’ needs.
Gene Expression Profiling in Coeliac Disease Confirmed the Key Role of the Immune System and Revealed a Molecular Overlap with Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

Coeliac disease (CeD) is an immune-mediated disorder triggered by the ingestion of gluten and an as yet unidentified environmental factor in genetically predisposed individuals. The disease involves a major autoimmune component that primarily damages the intestinal mucosa; although, it also has systemic involvement. The Th1 inflammatory response is one of the main events leading to mucosal damage; although, enterocytes and the innate immune response also participate in the pathological mechanism. In this study, we performed an analysis of the gene expression profile of the intestinal mucosa of patients with active disease and compared it with that of patients who do not suffer from gluten-related disorders but report dyspeptic symptoms. This analysis identified 1781 differentially expressed (DE) genes, of which 872 were downregulated and 909 upregulated. Gene Ontology and pathway analysis indicated that the innate and adaptive immune response, in particular the Th1 pathway, are important pathogenetic mechanisms of CeD, while the key cytokines are IL27, IL21, IL2, IL1b, TNF, CSF2 and IL7, as well as type I (IFNA1, IFNA2) and type II (IFNG) interferons. Finally, the comparison between the DE genes identified in this study and those identified in our previous study in the intestinal mucosa of patients with non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) revealed a high degree of molecular overlap. About 30% of the genes dysregulated in NCGS, most of which are long non-coding RNAs, are also altered in CeD suggesting that these diseases may have a common root (dysregulated long non-coding RNAs) from which they develop towards an inflammatory phenotype of variable degree in the case of CeD and NCGS respectively.
Cenozoic Uplift and Volcanism of Hangai Dome, Central Mongolia Triggered by Lower Mantle Upwellings

The mechanisms of surface uplift of Hangai Dome (>2 km) and formation of Cenozoic intraplate volcanism in central Mongolia remain vigorously debated. Here we directly investigate the mantle transition zone (MTZ) structure beneath central Mongolia to explore whether the deep mantle geodynamical processes have played a role. Our results reveal significant MTZ thinning of 8–13 km in three subareas mainly caused by the uplifted 660‐km discontinuity (∼10 km). In addition, the 410‐km discontinuity is depressed beneath the Hangai Dome (∼6 km) and the northern portion of the study area (10–15 km). These observations provide direct evidences for intracontinental mantle upwellings from the lower to the upper mantle, causing the Cenozoic uplift and basaltic volcanism of central Mongolia. Furthermore, these mantle upwellings are relatively sluggish compared to canonical mantle plumes based on the small magnitude of MTZ thinning and thus relatively moderate thermal anomaly within the MTZ (62–100 K).
Highlighting Shooting Opportunities in Football

The purpose of the present study was to create a two-dimensional model which illustrates a landscape of shooting opportunities at goal during a competitive football match. For that purpose, we analysed exemplar attacking subphases of each team when the ball was in the last 30 m of the field. The player’s positional data (x and y coordinates) and the ball were captured at 25 fps and processed to create heatmaps that illustrated the shooting opportunities that were available in the first and second half in different field areas. Moreover, the time that the shooting opportunities were available was estimated. Results show that in the observed match, most of the shooting opportunities lasted between 1 and 2 s, with only a few opportunities lasting more than 2 s. The shooting opportunities did not display a homogenous distribution over the field. The obtained heatmaps provide valuable and specific information about each team’s shooting opportunities, allowing the identification of the most vulnerable areas. Additionally, the amount, duration, and location of the shooting opportunities have shown significant differences between teams. This customizable model is sensitive to the features of shooting opportunities and can be used in real-time video analysis for individual and collective performance analysis.
Advancing integrability for strings in AdS3/CFT2

In this thesis we develop techniques of integrability in the study of dualities between two-dimensional conformal field theories and theories of closed strings on three-dimensional Anti-de Sitter background geometries. For several years after integrability was first applied to the 3d/2d dualities, it was an unanswered question how to incorporate the so-called \massless modes" of these theories into the integrability machinery. Here we tackle this problem in several contexts. We show that in the classical integrable description of closed strings the implementation of the string Virasoro constraints needs to be modified for geometries with multiple factors where massless modes are present. We show further that with the correct implementation of the Virasoro constraints, massless modes can be included in integrability techniques for obtaining quantum corrections to physical quantities such as the energies of string solutions. Lastly, we consider the scattering of fundamental string excitations and derive all-loop expressions for the scattering matrix that includes both massless and massive excitations.
Circular RNA MAT2B Promotes Glycolysis and Malignancy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Through the miR‐338‐3p/PKM2 Axis Under Hypoxic Stress

Glucose metabolism reprogramming, which is a well‐established characteristic of multiple cancers, demands a higher rate of glycolysis to meet the increasing demands for macromolecular synthesis and to maintain rapid proliferation in a hypoxic environment. However, the mechanism underlying this switch remains to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the function of circular RNA MAT2B (circMAT2B) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) glucose metabolism reprogramming and malignancy. CircMAT2B was identified by bioinformatics analysis of Gene Expression Omnibus data sets. CircMAT2B expression was up‐regulated in HCC tissues and cell lines. HCC patients with high circMAT2B expression had shortened overall survival. We analyzed the positive correlation between glycolysis and circMAT2B expression in HCC using a maximum standardized uptake value determined by preoperative positron emission tomography/computed tomography scanning combined with high‐performance liquid chromatography assessment of the metabolites of glycolysis and the citric acid cycle. The effect of circMAT2B on glycolysis was validated in vitro and in vivo under hypoxic (1% O2) conditions. Functional assays were performed in HCC cells, HCC organoids, and nude mice to explore the tumor‐promoting roles of circMAT2B in HCC. Biotin‐coupled probe pull‐down assays, biotin‐coupled microRNA capture, luciferase reporter assays, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and RNA immunoprecipitation assays were performed to confirm the interaction among different RNAs. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that circMAT2B up‐regulated expression levels of the microRNA (miR)‐338‐3p target gene PKM2, which encodes a key enzyme in the process of glycolysis, through “sponging” miR‐338‐3p; thus, glycolysis and HCC progression are promoted through this mechanism. Conclusion: CircMAT2B promoted HCC progression by enhanced glycolysis by activating the circMAT2B/miR‐338‐3p/PKM2 axis under hypoxia, which may provide a therapeutic target for HCC.
Extended regime of metastable metallic and insulating phases in a two-orbital electronic system

We investigate the metal-to-insulator phase transition driven by the density-density electronic interaction in the quarter-filled model on a cubic lattice with two orbitals split by a crystal field. We show that a systematic consideration of the non-local collective electronic fluctuations strongly affects the picture of the phase transition provided by the dynamical mean field theory. Our calculations reveal the appearance of metallic and Mott insulating states characterised by the same density but different values of the chemical potential, which is missing in the local approximation to electronic correlations. We find that the region of concomitant metastability of these two solutions is remarkably broad in terms of the interaction strength. It starts at a critical value of the interaction slightly larger than the bandwidth and extends to more than twice the bandwidth, where the two solutions merge into a Mott insulating phase. Our results illustrate that non-local correlations can have crucial consequences on the electronic properties in the strongly correlated regime of the simplest multi-orbital systems.
Compactification conforme des variétés asymptotiquement plates

Le theme de cet article est la recherche de compactifications conformes compactes et suffisamment regulieres de varietes riemanniennes asymptotiquement plates: une telle compactification existe si les tenseurs de Weyl et de Cotton-York decroissent a l'infini plus vite que r -4 et r -5 . Nous etudions egalement le cas critique ou ces tenseurs ont exactement la decroissance citee.
Impact of Brand Equity on Intention to Use Instant Coffee

Today, brand equity is acknowledged as a key component of a company’s business strategy, a tactical issue for achieving a competitive edge, a key component of brand building, and a tool for gauging the long-term effects of actions in marketing. Research of brand equity on purchase intentions for goods like food, smartphones, and green products is frequently available empirically, whereas instant coffee studies are less prevalent. Thus, to close this gap in the literature, the aim’s research is to empirically evaluate the impact of brand equity on consumers’ intent to use instant coffee. The conceptual model of brand equity components is built on Aaker’s model. Using a Google form and a convenience sampling technique, this study examined a sample of 296 consumers who bought instant coffee. A 5-point Likert scale was used in the measurement. The research model was suggested based on earlier investigations. Data from 296 clients was obtained, and SmartPLS software was utilized to evaluate it. Analyze the scales’ validity and reliability concerning the measurement model. The reliability of the scales was assessed using composite reliability and Cronbach’s alpha. Discriminant validity was also assessed using the Fornell-Larcker index. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the effects of the research’s hypotheses. The results demonstrated that brand equity dimensions favorably influence consumers’ purchasing intentions for instant coffee. Specifically, brand awareness has a favorable correlation with consumers’ purchasing intent. Perceived quality and purchase intention are related positively. Additionally, brand associations and buyers’ purchase intentions have been positively impacted. Brand loyalty has also positively impacted consumers’ intentions to buy. Brand awareness is the most crucial factor that impacts the intention to buy instant coffee. The empirical research on the impact of brand equity components on the intention to purchase instant coffee is a gap in the literature that this study is aimed to fill. Moreover, the managers of instant coffee will also benefit from knowing how brand equity dimensions affect consumers’ intentions to buy instant coffee as they develop marketing strategies to increase those intentions.