Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic Treebank Conversion via Informed Decoding - A Case Study on Chinese Treebanks

Treebanks are valuable resources for syntactic parsing. For some languages such as Chinese, we can obtain multiple constituency treebanks which are developed by different organizations. However, due to discrepancies of underlying annotation standards, such treebanks in general cannot be used together through direct data combination. To enlarge training data for syntactic parsing, we focus in this article on the challenge of unifying standards of disparate treebanks by automatically converting one treebank (source treebank) to fit a different standard which is exhibited by another treebank (target treebank). We propose to convert a treebank in two sequential steps which correspond to the part-of-speech level and syntactic structure level (including tree structures and grammar labels), respectively. Approaches used in both levels can be unified as an informed decoding procedure, where information derived from original annotation in a source treebank is used to guide the conversion conducted by a POS tagger (or a parser in the syntactic structure level) trained on a target treebank. We take two Chinese treebanks as a case study, and experiments on these two treebanks show significant improvements in conversion accuracy over baseline systems, especially in situations where a target treebank is small in size.
Design Considerations for Autocalibrations of Wide-Band ΔΣ Fractional-N PLL Synthesizers

Autocalibration of VCO frequency and loop gain is an essential process in PLL frequency synthesizers. In a wide tuningrange fractional-N PLL frequency synthesizer, high-speed and high-precision automatic calibration is especially important for shortening the lock time and improving the phase noise. This paper reviews the design issues of the PLL auto-calibration and discusses on the limitations of the previous techniques. A very simple and efficient auto-calibration method based on a high-speed frequency-to-digital converter (FDC) is proposed and verified through simulations. The proposed method is highly suited for a very wide-band δσ fractional-N PLL.
Doing Q-methodological research: theory, method and interpretation

While the mixed method approach has attracted much attention over the past few years in the field of educational research, including educational technology, Q-methodology, which encapsulates the advantages of both the quantitative and qualitative methods, has not yet entered the mainstream of scholarly educational technology research into human subjectivity and remains unfamiliar to most researchers. Based on more than 16 years of applying Q-methodology in a diverse range of studies, Watts and Stenner’s Doing Q Methodological Research is a step-by-step procedure that covers both the theory and pragmatism of gathering, analysing, interpreting, and publishing a Q-study.
Absolute hydration free energy scale for alkali and halide ions established from simulations with a polarizable force field.

A polarizable potential function for the hydration of alkali and halide ions is developed on the basis of the recent SWM4-DP water model [Lamoureux, G. ; MacKerell, A. D. , Jr.; Roux, B. J. Chem. Phys. 2003, 119, 5185]. Induced polarization is incorporated using classical Drude oscillators that are treated as auxiliary dynamical degrees of freedom. The ions are represented as polarizable Lennard-Jones centers, whose parameters are optimized to reproduce the binding energies of gas-phase monohydrates and the hydration free energies in the bulk liquid. Systematic exploration of the parameters shows that the monohydrate binding energies can be consistent with a unique hydration free energy scale if the computed hydration free energies incorporate the contribution from the air/water interfacial electrostatic potential (-540 mV for SWM4-DP). The final model, which can satisfyingly reproduce both gas and bulk-phase properties, corresponds to an absolute scale in which the intrinsic hydration free energy of the proton is -247 kcal/mol.
Definition of a series of stages in the association of two herpesviral proteins with the cell nucleus

We examined the kinetics and the nature of the association of two herpes simplex virus proteins, the major DNA-binding protein (ICP8) and the major capsid protein (ICP5), with the nuclei of infected cells. We defined a series of stages in the association of the ICP8 protein with the cell nucleus. (i) Immediately after synthesis, the protein was found in the cytoplasmic fraction but associated rapidly with the crude nuclear fraction. (ii) The initial association of ICP8 with the crude nuclear fraction was detergent sensitive but DNase resistant, and, thus, the protein was either bound to structures attached to the outside of the nucleus and had not penetrated the nuclear envelope or was loosely bound in the nucleus, (iii) At intermediate times, a low level of an intermediate form was observed in which the association of ICP8 with the nuclear fraction was resistant to both detergent and DNase treatment. The protein may be bound to the nuclear matrix at this stage. Inhibition of viral DNA synthesis caused the DNA-binding protein to accumulate in this form. (iv) At late times during the chase period, the association of ICP8 with the cell nucleus was resistant to detergent treatment but sensitive to DNase treatment. our results argue that at this stage ICP8 was bound to viral DNA. Thus, nuclear association of the DNA-binding protein did not require viral DNA replication. More important is the observation that there is a series of stages in the nuclear association of this protein, and, thus, there may be a succession of binding sites for this protein in the cell during its movement to its final site of action in the nucleus. The major capsid protein showed some similar stages of association with the cell nucleus but the initial association with the nucleus followed a lag period. Its early association with the crude nuclear fraction was also detergent sensitive but was resistant to detergent treatment at later times. Its association with the cell nucleus was almost completely resistant to DNase treatment at all times. Inhibition of viral DNA replication blocked the nuclear transport of this protein. Thus, these two viral proteins share some stages in nuclear transport, although their requirements for nuclear association are different.
Utilization of Exogenous and Endogenous Ornithine by Neurospora crassa

Through the use of a mutant deficient in ornithine-δ-transaminase (OTA), it is shown that this enzyme normally has no obligate or even major biosynthetic role in Neurospora. The pathways of ornithine and proline synthesis proceed wholly independently of each other in OTA-less strains. It is probable that OTA functions as an enzyme of arginine catabolism. With mutants affected in OTA, ornithine transcarbamylase, and the synthesis of ornithine, it was demonstrated that exogenous and endogenous ornithine are utilized in different ways. Exogenous ornithine is destined mainly for catabolism, whereas endogenous ornithine is destined mainly for biosynthesis. It is suggested that this distinction depends upon differences in the intracellular location or origin of the two sources of ornithine.
[METHODS OF EVALUATION OF MUSCLE MASS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS].

INTRODUCTION in recent years, research about muscle mass has gained popularity for their relationship to health. Thus precise measurement of muscle mass may have clinical application once may interfere with the diagnosis and prescription drug or drug treatment. OBJECTIVE to conduct a systematic review of the methods most used for evaluation of muscle mass in randomized controlled trials, with its advantages and disadvantages. METHODS we conducted a search of the data bases Pub- Med, Web of Science and Scopus, with words "muscle mass", "measurement", "assessment" and "evaluation", combined in this way: "muscle mass" AND (assessment OR measurement OR evaluation). RESULTS 23 studies were recovered and analyzed, all in English. 69.56% only used a method for quantification of muscle mass; 69.57% used dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA); in 45.46% the type of measure used was the body lean mass; and 51.61% chose the whole body as a site of measurement. CONCLUSIONS in the randomized controlled trials analyzed the majority used just one method of assessment, with the DXA being the method most used, the body lean mass the measurement type most used and total body the most common site of measure.
Hand Off Problem Analysis In Personal Communication System Using Splitted-Rating Channel Technique

In this paper, we study the hand-off performance in personal communication system using splitted rating channel technique. As the number of mobile users in cellular systems increases, the user mobility becomes the dominating factor for guaranteeing quality of service. In order to support quality of service for mobile users, The rapid increase in mobile users, handoff become a major issue in mobile network. Handoff is an action of switching a call in progress in order to maintain continuity and the required quality of service of the cell when a mobile user moves from one cell coverage to another cell coverage. Here the arrival of calls in personal communication services network are modeled according to a Markov Arrival Process (MAP). Each cell of the network consists of a finite number of channels and a buffer with finite size of handoff calls. Channel exist in each cell can be used by splitting the original rate if necessary into two channels with different rates when a handoff call arrives and find all the channels busy. We construct three tractable models (1) loss model ( 2) finite capacity model (3) finite population model with integrated traffic using fixed channel assignment scheme. The purpose of our study is to improve the performance of the cellular mobile system by using directed retry scheme with splitted-rating channel technique & cut-off priority scheme. The balking and reneging behaviors of the calls have also been taken into consideration. The expression for various performance indices viz. blocking probabilities for different traffic, overall blocking probability, offered carried load etc. are determined.
Gene variants associated with deep vein thrombosis.

CONTEXT The genetic causes of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) are not fully understood. OBJECTIVE To identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with DVT. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS We used 3 case-control studies of first DVT. A total of 19 682 gene-centric SNPs were genotyped in 443 cases and 453 controls from the Leiden Thrombophilia Study (LETS, 1988-1992). Twelve hundred six SNPs associated with DVT were reinvestigated in the Multiple Environmental and Genetic Assessment of Risk Factors for Venous Thrombosis study (MEGA-1, 1999-2004) in a subset of 1398 cases and 1757 controls. Nine SNPs associated with DVT in both LETS and MEGA-1 were investigated a third time in 1314 cases and 2877 controls from MEGA-2, a second subset of MEGA. Additional SNPs close to one SNP in CYP4V2 were genotyped in LETS and MEGA-1. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Odds ratios (ORs) for DVT were estimated by logistic regression. False discovery rates served to investigate the effect of multiple hypothesis testing. RESULTS Of 9 SNPs genotyped in MEGA-2, 3 were strongly associated with DVT (P < .05; false discovery rate < or =.10): rs13146272 in CYP4V2 (risk allele frequency, 0.64), rs2227589 in SERPINC1 (risk allele frequency, 0.10), and rs1613662 in GP6 (risk allele frequency, 0.84). The OR for DVT per risk allele was 1.24 (95% confidence interval [95%CI], 1.11-1.37) for rs13146272, 1.29 (95% CI, 1.10-1.49) for rs2227589, and 1.15 (95% CI, 1.01-1.30) for rs1613662. In the region of CYP4V2, we identified 4 additional SNPs (in CYP4V2, KLKB1, and F11) that were also associated with both DVT (highest OR per risk allele, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.11-1.74) and coagulation factor XI level (highest increase per risk allele, 8%; 95% CI, 5%-11%). CONCLUSIONS We identified SNPs in several genes that were associated with DVT. We also found SNPs in the region around the SNP in CYP4V2 (rs13146272) that were associated with both DVT and factor XI levels. These results show that common genetic variation plays an important role in determining thrombotic risk.
Engagement in Daily Occupations and Life Satisfaction among People with Spinal Cord Injuries

Fifteen community-based subjects with spinal cord injury were compared with 12 age- and sex-matched cohorts on demographic characteristics, pattern of engagement in daily occupations, levels of satisfaction in performance of home-management and social/community problem-solving skills, overall life satisfaction, and locus of control. Significant differences were found in employment, annual income, and use of time for work and activities other than sleep, rest, self-maintenance, and play. Subjects with spinal cord injury had lower levels of satisfaction than nondisabled counterparts with performance of home-management and social/community problem-solving skills. A significant relationship between satisfaction with performance and overall life satisfaction was found for the total sample (N= 27). No significant differences were found in overall life satisfaction or locus of control between the disabled and nondisabled subsamples.
Spectrum labeling for cognitive radio systems: candidate spectral estimation

A key challenge of the air interface of the cognitive radio is an accurate detection of weak signals of licensed users over a wide spectrum range. This paper describes a method for first detecting and next locating in frequency a given primary user, even when a non-candidate interference is located at the same frequency. The range of SNR that is covered proves that the estimate is efficient for realistic scenarios. In addition, the good performance is kept even for very short data records (50 symbols of the candidate signal). The proposed technique shows much better performance than energy detectors and less complexity than cyclo-stationary based ones.
Exploring the use of peer assessment as a vehicle for closing the gap between feedback given and feedback used

The literature is increasingly drawing attention to the gap between feedback given to students and feedback used by students. This paper reflects on the beginnings of an evaluation into the potential of peer assessment to act as a vehicle to enable students to make use of the feedback they receive. A case study is presented within an action research paradigm outlining the introduction of a peer formative assessment process. Current findings highlight the importance of appreciating the emotional as well as the cognitive aspects of peer learning and suggest that cultural shifts at programme level may be required for peer assessment to be most effective.
Discovery of biomarkers in human urine and cerebrospinal fluid by capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry: Towards new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches

We report on our results using capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry (CE‐MS) to examine human bodyfluids. To demonstrate the versatility of this approach, data on two different bodyfluids, urine and cerebrospinal fluid, are shown. CE‐MS analysis of human urine enables the identification of a series of polypeptides which serve as biomarkers for a variety of different renal diseases. The polypeptides are utilized to generate disease‐specific polypeptide patterns. Diagnosis of these diseases is possible based on these polypeptide patters. Further, due to the high mass accuracy, polypeptides of interest can subsequently be identified using tandem MS (MS/MS) analysis. The patterns, which are based on distinct polypeptides, allow differentiation of even similar diseases like focal‐segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and minimal change disease (MCD). We present preliminary data suggesting that the indicative polypeptides also enable to evaluate therapy success. Initial data obtained on human cerebrospinal fluid strongly suggest that CE‐MS analysis of low‐molecular‐weight proteins and peptides reveals several potential biomarkers for schizophrenia as well as Alzheimer's disease. In conclusion, the data presented here indicate that CE‐MS analysis, applied towards different human bodyfluids, holds the promise to allow diagnosis, staging, and evaluation of therapy success of a large number of diseases, due to its ability to display ca. 1000 individual native polypeptides within ca. 60 min.
White noise analysis of pace‐maker‐response interactions and non‐linearities in slowly adapting crayfish stretch receptor.

Input‐output relations were investigated in the slowly adapting stretch receptor organ of crayfish using a Gaussian white noise length input with a 0.03‐12.5 Hz band width and the resulting action potential output. The noise input was presented to the de‐efferented receptor in situ, at three mean elongations and at four different amplitudes. The three mean elongations were set within the normal range in vivo, two at the extremes close to the minimum and maximum physiological lengths and the other in the mid‐range. With white noise inputs there is a finite probability that the system will be tested in all possible conditions within the chosen band width because white noise has the advantage that it contains, with a finite probability, all possible stimulus wave forms at random. The analysis indicated similarities between the effects of the input variables, namely white noise amplitude and mean elongation. With low input variables the activity was periodic. With larger inputs, impulse rates were higher and irregular. The average length trajectories leading to a spike (i.e. the average stimulus) were either biphasic with high inputs or multiphasic and periodic with lower input variables. The frequency of periodicity increased with mean elongation. Although for a given length and noise amplitude a variety of individual length trajectories preceded spikes, the final biphasic shortening‐lengthening average stimulus sequence before a spike was similar in all cases irrespective of the input variables. The number of possible trajectories decreased with increments in the input variables. The standard deviation of length values for each average stimulus was computed and displayed as a function of time relative to the spike. It was first constant, and decreased gradually to a minimum value at the spike reference. Standard deviation values were lower for higher white noise amplitudes and mean elongation. Simple, short‐lasting stimulus wave forms in the white noise were isolated and the corresponding responses were computed. Responses were periodic at low input variables and aperiodic with larger inputs and also asymmetric, being larger and briefer for lengthenings than for shortenings. Asymmetries augmented with input increments. Investigation of the interactions between the pace‐maker and the white noise effects showed that lengthenings were more effective when they occurred just after a spike while the effectiveness of shortenings was greater just before a spike. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
GeoBioScience: Red Wood Ants as Bioindicators for Active Tectonic Fault Systems in the West Eifel (Germany)

Simple Summary In a 1.140 km² study area of the volcanic West Eifel, approx. 3,000 Red Wood Ant (RWA; Formica rufa-group) mounds had been identified and correlated with tectonically active gas-permeable faults, mostly strike-slip faults. Linear alignment of RWA mounds and soil gas anomalies distinctly indicate the course of these faults, while clusters of mounds indicate crosscut zones of fault systems, which can be correlated with voids caused by crustal block rotation. This demonstrates that RWA are bioindicators for identifying active fault systems and useful where information on the active regime is incomplete or the resolution by technical means is insufficient. Abstract In a 1.140 km² study area of the volcanic West Eifel, a comprehensive investigation established the correlation between red wood ant mound (RWA; Formica rufa-group) sites and active tectonic faults. The current stress field with a NW-SE-trending main stress direction opens pathways for geogenic gases and potential magmas following the same orientation. At the same time, Variscan and Mesozoic fault zones are reactivated. The results showed linear alignments and clusters of approx. 3,000 RWA mounds. While linear mound distribution correlate with strike-slip fault systems documented by quartz and ore veins and fault planes with slickensides, the clusters represent crosscut zones of dominant fault systems. Latter can be correlated with voids caused by crustal block rotation. Gas analyses from soil air, mineral springs and mofettes (CO2, Helium, Radon and H2S) reveal limiting concentrations for the spatial distribution of mounds and colonization. Striking is further the almost complete absence of RWA mounds in the core area of the Quaternary volcanic field. A possible cause can be found in occasionally occurring H2S in the fault systems, which is toxic at miniscule concentrations to the ants. Viewed overall, there is a strong relationship between RWA mounds and active tectonics in the West Eifel.
A memory-based architecture for FPGA implementations of low-density parity-check convolutional decoders

Low-density parity-check convolutional codes complement their popular block-oriented counterparts and may be more suitable in certain communication applications. These include streaming voice and video and packet switching networks. In this paper we introduce these codes and propose a memory-based decoder architecture that is well suited for implementation on field-programmable gate arrays. We present an overview of the architecture and demonstrate its efficiency over register-based architectures. We then discuss a realization of this architecture that can trade performance for throughput and can achieve up to 120 Mb/s of information throughput and a BER as low as 2 /spl times/ 10/sup -6/ at an Eb/Nq of 3 dB on an Altera Stratix FPGA. For a first-generation implementation this compares favorable with current block-oriented decoder implementations.
The inner membrane complex through development of Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium

Plasmodium spp. and Toxoplasma gondii are important human and veterinary pathogens. These parasites possess an unusual double membrane structure located directly below the plasma membrane named the inner membrane complex (IMC). First identified in early electron micrograph studies, huge advances in genetic manipulation of the Apicomplexa have allowed the visualization of a dynamic, highly structured cellular compartment with important roles in maintaining the structure and motility of these parasites. This review summarizes recent advances in the field and highlights the changes the IMC undergoes during the complex life cycles of the Apicomplexa.