Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DeepAssist: Deep Knowledge Grounding for Factual and Conversational Natural Language Interfaces

Author(s): Yavuz, Semih | Advisor(s): Yan, Xifeng | Abstract: Enabling humans to use natural language to interact with computers towards achieving certain goals such accessing factual information, finding restaurants, holding engaging conversations with an AI agent has been one of the central goals of Artificial Intelligence. Many people use natural language interfaces (NLIs) such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa in their daily life. Furthermore, there are several more equally promising, but less explored domains such as health, law, customer service, etc. Hence, developing more reliable, capable, and extendible NLIs has the potential to lead to the next generation human computer interaction technologies. Although several promising results have been achieved in both academia and industry, there are still several challenges to tackle towards realizing such NLIs in full fledge. This thesis tackles the problem of building reliable NLIs by addressing the central challenges confronted with.The contributions of this thesis are presented in three main parts. The first part is covered by the first three chapters and focuses on factual (single-turn) NLIs that aim to generate a concise answer for factual user queries such as "Who is the president of Canada? ". We discuss how our proposed approaches for answer type inference and query revision of factual queries over a large knowledge base can help improve the performance of the state-of-the-art NLIs for factoid question answering task. In the third chapter, we present an in-depth analysis towards better understanding the kinds of language understanding capabilities required to solve current benchmarks.In the second part, we investigate conversational NLIs that can generate responses to user queries in a multi-turn fashion. With the goal of making these responses more informative and engaging for users, the main contribution of this study is to introduce principled neural architecture that can generate responses grounded on a relevant external knowledge by hierarchical attention and copy mechanisms.Learning to generate coherent and engaging natural language from data is one of the most crucial capabilities for the next generation NLIs that can speak with users. In the last part of this thesis, we focus on a more foundational line of research where we propose and discuss a novel training objective for conditional language generation models.
Therapeutic Interpersonal Skills for Facilitating the Working Alliance

The authors focus on the interpersonal skills that can be cultivated to promote a productive working alliance between therapist and client/patient. Specifically, they identify pan-theoretical, pragmatic methods of improving therapist interpersonal skills with the goal of establishing and maintaining working alliances. The authors review the eight facilitative interpersonal skills (FIS) and discuss the role of therapist responsiveness—the ability to detect and modify in-session processes based on subtle, interpersonal shifts in the client’s expression and communication. Therapist responsiveness and the use of FIS is of particular importance during challenging, emotionally charged incidents during therapy, known as “critical relational markers. ” Finally, they discuss how therapists can foster these relational capacities through deliberate practice. Clinical examples are utilized to facilitate understanding of the application of these skills.
High Expression of RING Finger Protein 126 Predicts Unfavorable Prognosis of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Background Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The clinical outcome of EOC remains unsatisfactory with current therapeutic approaches such as surgery and platinum/taxane-based chemotherapy. Therefore, novel prognostic markers and personalized therapies targeting specific molecules are urgently needed. Here, we explored whether RNF126, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, is a potential biomarker for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Material/Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of 122 EOC patients. The chi-square test was used to assess correlations between RNF126 level and clinical characteristics of enrolled patients. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to monitor the prognosis of enrolled patients. In addition, proliferation and invasion assays were conducted to assess the cellular effects of RNF126 on SKOV3 cell progression. Results Immunohistochemistry analysis (IHC) revealed that RNF126 was upregulated in EOC tissues compared to adjacent ovarian tissues. In addition, RNF126 expression was remarkably associated with LN metastasis, pathological differentiation, and FIGO stage. RNF126 protein level was found to be an independent biomarker for predication of prognosis in ovarian cancer patients. Cellular results showed that RNF126 enhanced the proliferation and invasion abilities of SKOV3 cells. Conclusions Upregulated protein level of RNF126 in EOC tissues is a biomarker predicting poor outcomes of EOC patients.
Comparison of Three Radio-Frequency Discharge Modes on the Treatment of Breast Cancer Cells in Vitro

Nonthermal plasmas (NTPs) are known for their ability to induce thermal-free cytotoxic effects on cancer cells. However, as the variety of NTP devices increases, the comparison of their cytotoxic effect becomes increasingly essential. In this article, we compare the cytotoxicity of three different radio-frequency (RF) NTPs. MDA-MB-231 triple-negative breast cancer cells are treated in suspension in DMEM culture medium by the effluents of a single RF discharge device operating in three modes, namely the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\gamma $ </tex-math></inline-formula> modes of the capacitively coupled RF (CCRF) discharge and an RF plasma jet mode. All three discharge modes reduce the proliferative capacity of MDA-MB-231 cells, but the treatment time required to reach the same efficacy is more than ten times longer using the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> and the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\gamma $ </tex-math></inline-formula> modes than using the jet mode. In all cases, using the appropriate treatment time, cells exhibit an impaired proliferation and eventually start to show signs of cell death (about 48 h after treatment). The three discharge modes also induce nuclear DNA damages. Plasma-produced H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> was not found to contribute to the cytotoxicity of the treatment. Furthermore, short-lived reactive species (liquid phase species with a lifetime below 1 s) are expected to play an important role in the anti-cancer effect of all three discharge modes.
PERBANDINGAN DATA ANTROPOMETRI BERDASARKAN SUKU DI INDONESIA

Anthropometry is defined as the science of measurement and art in applying human physicalproperties, which is one of the most important factors to consider in designing a product. Productsthat meet ergonomic rules are products that are designed according to the dimensions of the user'sbody. Various factors affect anthropometric data, one of which is ethnicity. Ethnicity is defined as agroup of people identified through ancestral heritage, certain languages and certain cultures.Indonesia has more than 300 different ethnic groups, so it is important to represent anthropometricdata based on ethnicity. Batam City has a heterogeneous community consisting of various tribes andgroups. The dominant tribes include Batak, Javanese, Malay, Minang and Chinese. With the variationin anthropometric size, it is not possible for a design system to adjust to all types of sizes, thereforethere is a need for a database of anthropometric sizes in Indonesia. From the comparative testconducted by Anova testing, all 36 anthropometric with Sig. <α (0.05) which means that there aredifferences in Anthropometric between the five terms. Whereas for differences in AnthropometricBatak and Javanese are 19 same and 17 different, Batak and Malay are 14 same and 22 different,Batak and Minang are 12 same and 24 different, Batak and Chinese are 14 same and 22 different,Java and Malay are 12 same and 24 different, Java and Minang are 12 same and 24 different, Javaand Chinese are 12 same and 24 different, Malay and Minang are 9 same and 27 different, Malay andChinese are 14 same and 22 different, Minang and Chinese are 14 same and 22 different. The resultsof anthropometry obtained based on this research are expected to be a recommendation in thedevelopment of more ergonomic tools for users, especially the people of Indonesia.
Investigating the quality of Spiess-like and SPSA approaches for dynamic OD matrix estimation

Since OD matrices are not directly observable, indirect procedures have been developed to estimate OD matrices from traffic data. Traffic management must move toward dynamic traffic assignment models because they capture congestion propagation effects. In this context, dynamic OD matrices are needed. This paper first explores the extension of a conventional bilevel analytical static method to the dynamic context, then analyses the solutions obtained regarding both convergence to measured traffic data and structural similarity to an a priori OD matrix. A simulation optimization technique, SPSA, is then proposed because its flexibility allows inclusion of traffic counts (as in Spiess method) and emerging ICT traffic measurements. The performances of these two types of algorithms are analyzed in detail, focussing on faults of classical convergence measures to obtain an estimated dynamic OD matrix structurally similarity to the a priori OD matrix and pros and cons of variants of selected methods.
Study of dynamic lung function parameters in normal, overweight, and thin school boys

Background: In India, childhood undernutrition and obesity both are major health concerns. Lung functions are affected in both thin and obese children. Body mass index (BMI)-for-age is a simple tool suggested by the World Health Organization for categorizing children and adolescents below 19 years. Aim: The aim of the study was to compare dynamic lung function parameters of overweight and thin boys with normal boys. Materials and Methods: One hundred and fifty school boys of age group 12–16 years were included as a convenience sample after screening 234 students. BMI-for-age chart developed by the World Health Organization was used to categorize participants into normal (n = 50), overweight (n = 50), and thinness (n = 50) group. Forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), FEV3, peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), and forced expiratory flow (FEF) at the midportion of FVC (FEF25-75) were measured by MEDSPIROR. Unpaired t-test and Pearson correlation (r) were used according to the necessity. Results: Thin boys had lower FVC (P = 0.019), FEV1 (P = 0.048), FEV3 (P = 0.007), PEFR (P = 0.0002), and FEF25-75 (P = 0.003) compared to normal boys. Overweight boys showed significantly increased FVC (P = 0.019), FEV1 (P < 0.0001), and FEV3 (P = 0.0005) compared to normal boys. BMI of thin boys showed positive correlation with FVC (r = 0.49, P = 0.0003), FEV1(r = 0.40, P = 0.003), and FEV3 (r = 0.53, P < 0.0001). Correlation coefficients were not significant for BMI and dynamic lung function test parameters in normal and overweight boys. Conclusions: Thin boys have lower dynamic lung functions than normal boys. Increase in body weight may help in increasing their lung function status.
EWS-FLI1 regulates and cooperates with core regulatory circuitry in Ewing sarcoma

Core regulatory circuitry (CRC)-dependent transcriptional network is critical for developmental tumors in children and young adults carrying few gene mutations. However, whether and how CRC contributes to transcription regulation in Ewing sarcoma is unknown. Here, we identify and functionally validate a CRC “trio” constituted by three transcription factors (TFs): KLF15, TCF4 and NKX2-2, in Ewing sarcoma cells. Epigenomic analyses demonstrate that EWS-FLI1, the primary fusion driver for this cancer, directly establishes super-enhancers of each of these three TFs to activate their transcription. In turn, KLF15, TCF4 and NKX2-2 co-bind to their own and each other’s super-enhancers and promoters, forming an inter-connected auto-regulatory loop. Functionally, CRC factors contribute significantly to cell proliferation of Ewing sarcoma both in vitro and in vivo, and are all overexpressed in this cancer. Mechanistically, CRC factors exhibit prominent capacity of co-regulating the epigenome in cooperation with EWS-FLI1, occupying 77.2% of promoters and 55.6% of enhancers genome-wide. Downstream, CRC TFs coordinately regulate gene expression networks in Ewing sarcoma, directly controlling important signaling pathways for cancer, such as lipid metabolism pathway, PI3K/AKT and MAPK signaling pathways. Together, molecular characterization of the oncogenic CRC model advances our understanding of the biology of Ewing sarcoma. Moreover, this study identifies CRC-downstream genes and signaling pathways, which may contain potential targets for therapeutic intervention for this malignancy.
Exposure to Tomographic Scans and Cancer Risks

Abstract Background Worldwide use of computed tomography (CT) scans has increased. However, the ionizing radiation from CT scans may increase the risk of cancer. This study examined the association between medical radiation from CT scans and the risk of thyroid cancer, lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in adults. Methods We conducted a nested case-control study in a cohort constructed from a population-based universal health insurance dataset in Taiwan in 2000–2013. In total, 22 853 thyroid cancer, 13 040 leukemia, and 20 157 NHL cases with their matched controls were included. Median follow-up times were 9.29–9.90 years for the three case-control groups. Medical radiation from CT scans was identified through physician order codes in medical insurance data from the index date to 3 years before a cancer diagnosis. Conditional logistic regression modeling was used for the overall and subsets of the population defined by sex and age groups to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of the cancer risk associated with medical radiation. Results Exposure to medical radiation from CT scans was associated with elevated risk of thyroid cancer (OR = 2.55, 95% CI = 2.36 to 2.75) and leukemia (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.42 to 1.68). The elevated risk of thyroid cancer and leukemia in association with medical CT was stronger in women than in men. No statistically significant association between the risk of cancer and CT scans was observed in overall patients with NHL (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.98 to 1.12); however, increased risks were found in patients aged 45 years or younger. A clear dose-response relationship was observed in patients 45 years or younger for all three cancers. Conclusions CT scans may be associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer and leukemia in adults and in those diagnosed with NHL at a younger age.
The Trivariate Causality among Education, Health, and Economic Growth in Zimbabwe

This study investigated the causality among education, health, and economic growth in Zimbabwe. Causality effects are a thinly explored area in literature, with most studies focusing on bidirectional relationships. Granger causality tests were employed in a Vector autoregressive (VAR) model. Results showed that education Granger causes health improvements, with health improvements in turn fairly associating to Granger cause economic growth in Zimbabwe. Thus, the effect of education on economic growth is not direct, but works through improved health, pointing to the conclusion that health is a transmission mechanism through which education drives economic growth. No feedback effect was established from health to education and from economic growth to education and health. Thus, results suggest the need for a holistic policy approach which integrates education and health policies in a bid to drive economic growth, since education has no effect on economic growth in its own domain, but through health.
Research on Rotordynamic Characteristics of Pump Annular Seals Based on a New Transient CFD Method

Pump annular seals can cause fluid reaction forces that have great effects on the vibration characteristic and stability of a pump system. For this reason, it is important to study rotordynamic characteristics of annular seals. In this paper, a new transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method with dynamic mesh is proposed to investigate rotordynamic characteristics of the pump annular seal. The reliability of the transient CFD method is validated by comparison with the results from the experiment and the bulk-flow method, and the relationship between the seal length and rotordynamic characteristics is investigated by the transient CFD method. The results indicate that direct stiffness decreases sharply even turns to negative as the seal length increases, this phenomenon may change the direction of fluid force on the rotor surface and affect supporting condition of the pump rotor. With the increasing seal length, the whirl frequency ratio gradually increases, which would weaken the stability of the pump rotor system.
Evaluation and Result of Reduction Labioplasty

Introduction: Hypertrophy and variation in the size of labia minora has long been recognized as a problem that can be bothersome for aesthetic, functional and psychosocial reasons. In the past labia minora reduction was usually performed by simple and straight resection of the protuberant segment and oversewing the edge. This paper presents a comparison of our results with each procedure. Materials and Methods: From March 1997 to February 2005, 100 women from 17 to 45 years old underwent reduction labioplasty. We performed w-shaped resections with interdigitated suturing in 50 cases and de-epithelialized reduction labioplasty in 50 cases. Results: Patients in both groups had minimal discomfort postoperatively and at 6 months reported improvement of their original problems with chronic irritation, inadequate hygiene, and sexual intercourse. Twenty-three patients underwent treatment of hypertrophic labia minora with excellent results and minimal postoperative discomfort. Three patients suffered from postoperative infection but were successfully treated with antibiotics. In group A, 5 patients were not satisfied with the appearance of the edge of the labia minora, and in 8 patients, it took up to 2 years for sensation to be restored to the labia minor. Conclusion: The deepithelialized reduction labioplasty gives the patient more satisfaction both in the appearance of the edge of the labia minora and the neurovascular preservations of the labia.
Combination of Modified Alvarado Score and Ultrasonography to Improve the Diagnostic Accuracy in Acute Appendicitis

Background: Acute appendicitis, the most common cause of pain abdomen in emergency settings. The diagnosis of acute appendicitis can most often pose a difficulty. Methods: Hundred consecutive patients who presented with symptoms consistent with the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and were admitted in the department of surgery, NRI Academy of Sciences, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, have been taken into this study. The patients were evaluated prospectively with the modified Alvarado scoring (MAS), and the possibility of acute appendicitis is determined. The Modified Alvarado scores were correlated with Ultrasound and histopathological findings after surgery. Results: There were 75 true positives and 16 false-negative cases with modified Alvarado scoring. There were 84 true positives and 7 false-negative cases with ultrasound abdomen. Conclusions: The Modified Alvarado score should be combined with Ultrasound abdomen for a better diagnosis of acute appendicitis. However, these only act as an adjunct to clinical evaluation and the surgeon’s experience.
Can biophysical parameters derived from Sentinel-2 space-borne sensor improve land cover characterisation in semi-arid regions?

Abstract We explore the potential contribution of Sentinel-2 (S2) wavebands and biophysical parameters, i.e. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Chlorophyll content (Cab), Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR), Fraction of Vegetation Cover (FVC) and Canopy Water Content (CWC) in mapping land use and land cover (LULC) in Zimbabwe. Random forest (RF) and naïve Bayes (NB) were used to classify S2 imagery. S2 biophysical variables resulted in LULC overall accuracy (OA) of 96% and 86% for RF and NB respectively, whereas S2 wavebands produced slightly higher accuracies of 97% and 88% for RF and NB respectively. Combining wavebands and biophysical variables enhanced classification results (OA = 98%: RF and 91%: NB). Variable importance analysis showed that FAPAR, red-edge 2, green, red-edge 3, FVC and band 8a, are the most relevant in the classification. Our work shows the strength and capability of biophysical variables in discerning different LULC attributes in semi-arid environments.
Transcriptional and Cellular Diversity of the Human Heart

Introduction The human heart requires a complex ensemble of specialized cell types to perform its essential function. A greater knowledge of the intricate cellular milieu of the heart is critical to increase our understanding of cardiac homeostasis and pathology. As recent advances in low input RNA-sequencing have allowed definitions of cellular transcriptomes at single cell resolution at scale, here we have applied these approaches to assess the cellular and transcriptional diversity of the non-failing human heart. Methods Microfluidic encapsulation and barcoding was used to perform single nuclear RNA sequencing with samples from seven human donors, selected for their absence of overt cardiac disease. Individual nuclear transcriptomes were then clustered based upon transcriptional profiles of highly variable genes. These clusters were used as the basis for between-chamber and between-sex differential gene expression analyses and intersection with genetic and pharmacologic data Results We sequenced the transcriptomes of 287,269 single cardiac nuclei, revealing a total of 9 major cell types and 20 subclusters of cell types within the human heart. Cellular subclasses include two distinct groups of resident macrophages, four endothelial subtypes, and two fibroblasts subsets. Comparisons of cellular transcriptomes by cardiac chamber or sex reveal diversity not only in cardiomyocyte transcriptional programs, but also in subtypes involved in extracellular matrix remodeling and vascularization. Using genetic association data, we identified strong enrichment for the role of cell subtypes in cardiac traits and diseases. Finally, intersection of our dataset with genes on cardiac clinical testing panels and the druggable genome reveals striking patterns of cellular specificity. Conclusions Using large-scale single nuclei RNA sequencing, we have defined the transcriptional and cellular diversity in the normal human heart. Our identification of discrete cell subtypes and differentially expressed genes within the heart will ultimately facilitate the development of new therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases.