Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Named Entity Recognition for Linguistic Rapid Response in Low-Resource Languages: Sorani Kurdish and Tajik

This paper describes our construction of named-entity recognition (NER) systems in two Western Iranian languages, Sorani Kurdish and Tajik, as a part of a pilot study of “Linguistic Rapid Response” to potential emergency humanitarian relief situations. In the absence of large annotated corpora, parallel corpora, treebanks, bilingual lexica, etc., we found the following to be effective: exploiting distributional regularities in monolingual data, projecting information across closely related languages, and utilizing human linguist judgments. We show promising results on both a four-month exercise in Sorani and a two-day exercise in Tajik, achieved with minimal annotation costs.
A Longitudinal Study of Learning to Use Children's Thinking in Mathematics Instruction

This study examined changes in the beliefs and instruction of 21 primary grade teachers over a 4-year period in which the teachers participated in a CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction) teacher development program that focused on helping the teachers understand the development of children's mathematical thinking by interacting with a specific research-based model. Over the 4 years, there were fundamental changes in the beliefs and instruction of 18 teachers such that the teachers' role evolved from demonstrating procedures to helping children build on their mathematical thinking by engaging them in a variety of problem-solving situations and encouraging them to talk about their mathematical thinking. Changes in the instruction of individual teachers were directly related to changes in their students' achievement. For every teacher, class achievement in concepts and problem solving was higher at the end of the study than at the beginning. In spite of the shift in emphasis from skills to concepts and problem solving, there was no overall change in computational performance. The findings suggest that developing an understanding of children's mathematical thinking can be a productive basis for helping teachers to make the fundamental changes called for in current reform recommendations.
A bio-inspired condylar hinge joint for mobile robots

This paper presents a bio-inspired design of hinge joint for mobile robots based on the human knee joint. The joint mimics the curved profiles of the femur and tibia bones and also mimics the four-bar motion of the cruciate ligaments. The bio-inspired design has the same desirable features of a natural knee joint including compactness, a moving centre of rotation, high strength, high stiffness and locking in the upright position. These characteristics are important for mobile robots where there are often tight space and mass limitations. Numerical analysis and experimental tests have shown that the new hinge joint has superior performance to a pin jointed hinge in terms of stiffness and mechanical advantage.
Accidentally Informed: Incidental News Exposure on the World Wide Web

An important element of news delivery on the World Wide Web today is the near ubiquity of breaking news headlines. What used to be called search engines (e.g., Yahoo! and Lycos) are now “portals” or “hubs,” popular services that use news, weather, and other content features to extend the time users spend on the sites. Traditional models of news dissemination in the mass media often assume some level of intention behind most news exposure. The prevalence of news on the disparate corners of the Web provides opportunities for people to encounter current affairs information in an incidental fashion, a byproduct of their other online activities. This study uses survey data from 1996 and 1998 to test whether accidental exposure to news on the Web is positively associated with awareness of current affairs information. The results indicate that incidental online news exposure was unrelated to knowledge in 1996 but acted as a positive predictor in 1998.
Bisphenol A Exposure Is Associated with in Vivo Estrogenic Gene Expression in Adults

Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic estrogen commonly used in polycarbonate plastic and resin-lined food and beverage containers. Exposure of animal and cell models to doses of BPA below the recommended tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 50 μg/kg/day have been shown to alter specific estrogen-responsive gene expression, but this has not previously been shown in humans. Objective: We investigated associations between BPA exposure and in vivo estrogenic gene expression in humans. Methods: We studied 96 adult men from the InCHIANTI population study and examined in vivo expression of six estrogen receptor, estrogen-related receptor, and androgen receptor genes in peripheral blood leukocytes. Results: The geometric mean urinary BPA concentration was 3.65 ng/mL [95% confidence interval (CI): 3.13, 4.28], giving an estimated mean excretion of 5.84 μg/day (95% CI: 5.00, 6.85), significantly below the current TDI. In age-adjusted models, there were positive associations between higher BPA concentrations and higher ESR2 [estrogen receptor 2 (ER beta)] expression (unstandardized linear regression coefficient = 0.1804; 95% CI: 0.0388, 0.3221; p = 0.013) and ESRRA (estrogen related receptor alpha) expression (coefficient = 0.1718; 95% CI: 0.0213, 0.3223; p = 0.026): These associations were little changed after adjusting for potential confounders, including obesity, serum lipid concentrations, and white cell subtype percentages. Upper-tertile BPA excretors (urinary BPA > 4.6 ng/mL) had 65% higher mean ESR2 expression than did lower-tertile BPA excretors (0–2.4 ng/mL). Conclusions: Because activation of nuclear-receptor–mediated pathways by BPA is consistently found in laboratory studies, such activation in humans provides evidence that BPA is likely to function as a xenoestrogen in this sample of adults.
Identification of KIF5B-RET and GOPC-ROS1 Fusions in Lung Adenocarcinomas through a Comprehensive mRNA-Based Screen for Tyrosine Kinase Fusions

Background: The mutually exclusive pattern of the major driver oncogenes in lung cancer suggests that other mutually exclusive oncogenes exist. We conducted a systematic search for tyrosine kinase fusions by screening all tyrosine kinases for aberrantly high RNA expression levels of the 3′ kinase domain (KD) exons relative to more 5′ exons. Methods: We studied 69 patients (including five never smokers and 64 current or former smokers) with lung adenocarcinoma negative for all major mutations in KRAS, EGFR, BRAF, MEK1, HER2, and for ALK fusions (termed “pan-negative”). A NanoString-based assay was designed to query the transcripts of 90 tyrosine kinases at two points: 5′ to the KD and within the KD or 3′ to it. Tumor RNAs were hybridized to the NanoString probes and analyzed for outlier 3′ to 5′ expression ratios. Presumed novel fusion events were studied by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and confirmatory reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) and FISH. Results: We identified one case each of aberrant 3′ to 5′ ratios in ROS1 and RET. RACE isolated a GOPC-ROS1 (FIG-ROS1) fusion in the former and a KIF5B-RET fusion in the latter, both confirmed by RT-PCR. The RET rearrangement was also confirmed by FISH. The KIF5B-RET patient was one of only five never smokers in this cohort. Conclusion: The KIF5B-RET fusion defines an additional subset of lung cancer with a potentially targetable driver oncogene enriched in never smokers with “pan-negative” lung adenocarcinomas. We also report in lung cancer the GOPC-ROS1 fusion originally discovered and characterized in a glioma cell line. Clin Cancer Res; 18(24); 6599–608. ©2012 AACR.
Fuzzy multicriteria decision support for solid waste disposal method and site selection

This paper presents a fuzzy multicriteria decision making approach for evaluating and selecting the most suitable solid waste disposal method and disposal site respectively. Case-based reasoning and fuzzy IF-THEN rules are adopted for evaluating and determining the most suitable solid waste disposal method based on past experiences. An efficient algorithm is developed for producing a performance index for every disposal site alternative across all selection criteria. As a result, the decision on the most suitable site can be made. A multicriteria decision support system is proposed to facilitate the evaluation and selection process. An example is presented for demonstrating the applicability of the approach.
Adipose tissue content of saturated fatty acids and atrial fibrillation: A case‐cohort study

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between adipose tissue content of total saturated fatty acids including myristic (C14:0), palmitic (C16:0) and stearic (C18:0) acid, as a measure of exposure to saturated fatty acids and the risk of incident atrial fibrillation.
Aortoenteric Fistula as a Complication of Open Reconstruction and Endovascular Repair of Abdominal Aorta

The paper intends to present a review of imaging characteristics of secondary aortoenteric fistula (AEF). Mechanical injury, infection, and adherence of a bowel segment to the aorta or aortic graft are major etiologic factors of AEF after open aortic repair. The pathogenesis of AEF formation after endovascular abdominal aortic repair is related to mechanical failure of the stent-graft, to stent graft infection, and to persistent pressurization of the aneurysmal sac. The major clinical manifestations of AEF comprise haematemesis, melaena, abdominal pain, sepsis, and fever. CT is the initial diagnostic modality of choice in a stable patient. However, the majority of reported CT appearances are not specific. In case of equivocal CT scans and clinical suspicion of AEF, scintigraphy, 67Ga citrate scans or 18F-FDG PET/CT is useful. Diagnostic accuracy of endoscopy in evaluation of AEF is low; nevertheless it allows to evaluate other than AEF etiologies of gastrointestinal bleeding. Without adequate therapy, AEF is lethal. Conventional surgical treatment is associated with high morbidity and mortality. The endovascular repair may be an option in hemodynamically unstable and high-risk surgical patients. We also illustrate an example of a secondary AEF with highly specific albeit rare radiologic picture from our institution.
Repeated Exposure to Video Game Play Results in Decreased Blood Pressure Responding

Repeated exposure to violent media is related to negative outcomes, including aggression, hostility, and cognitive and social deficits. We examined if cardiovascular and emotional responding to video game play changed across 3 weekly sessions. Participants were 41 adolescents (M age = 14.8; male = 29; female = 12) from rural Appalachia. Participants attended 3 weekly sessions and played 1 of 3 video games (basketball, fighting, or horror) each time. Measures included heart rate (HR); systolic blood pressure (SBP); diastolic blood pressure (DBP); self-reported aggression, anger, and reactions to game play; and history of video game play. Resting and posttest cardiovascular measures did not differ from session to session. Adolescents displayed HR and SBP reactivity to game play within each session. They also demonstrated decreased SBP and DBP responding to video game play across the 3-week period, regardless of game content. Affective responses did not change significantly across the course of the experiment. Adolescents who played the violent games reported more frustration and arousal than those who played the sports game. The implications of these findings are discussed.
WHAT DOES TELEWORK REALLY DO TO US

In this paper the results of surveys of about 400 telecommuters in the USA, including transportation impacts, are presented, and whether telecommuting is actually related to any net reduction in travel in general and in car-use in particular is discussed. Findings from trip logs completed by driving age household members for an entire week are given. Teleworking is also shown to have no severe negative socio-psychological effects on either teleworkers or telemanagers, at least short term, provided all parties are properly selected and trained and do not telework full time. Brief mention is made of the differences between teleworkers in the USA and elsewhere.
Classification of fundus autofluorescence patterns in early age-related macular disease.

PURPOSE To describe and classify patterns of abnormal fundus autofluorescence (FAF) in eyes with early nonexudative age-related macular disease (AMD). METHODS FAF images were recorded in eyes with early AMD by confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (cSLO) with excitation at 488 nm (argon or OPSL laser) and emission above 500 or 521 nm (barrier filter). A standardized protocol for image acquisition and generation of mean images after automated alignment was applied, and routine fundus photographs were obtained. FAF images were classified by two independent observers. The kappa statistic was applied to assess intra- and interobserver variability. RESULTS Alterations in FAF were classified into eight phenotypic patterns including normal, minimal change, focal increased, patchy, linear, lacelike, reticular, and speckled. Areas with abnormal increased or decreased FAF signals may or may not have corresponded to funduscopically visible alterations. For intraobserver variability, kappa of observer I was 0.80 (95% confidence interval [CI]0.71-0.89) and of observer II, 0.74. (95% CI, 0.64-0.84). For interobserver variability, kappa was 0.77 (95% CI, 0.67-0.87). CONCLUSIONS Various phenotypic patterns of abnormal FAF can be identified with cSLO imaging. Distinct patterns may reflect heterogeneity at a cellular and molecular level in contrast to a nonspecific aging process. The results indicate that the classification system yields a relatively high degree of intra- and interobserver agreement. It may be applicable for determination of novel prognostic determinants in longitudinal natural history studies, for identification of genetic risk factors, and for monitoring of future therapeutic interventions to slow the progression of early AMD.
DCU at CLEF 2006: Robust Cross Language Track

The main focus of the DCU group’s participation in the CLEF 2006 Robust Track in CLEF 2006 was not to identify and handle difficult topics in the topic set per se, but rather to explore a new method of re-ranking a retrieved document set. The initial query is used to re-rank documents retrieved using a query expansion method. The intention is to ensure that the query drift that might occur as a result of the addition of expansion terms chosen from irrelevant documents in pseudo relevance feedback (PRF) is minimised. By re-ranking using the initial query, the relevant set is forced to mimic the initial query more closely while not removing the benefits of PRF. Our results show that although our PRF is consistently effective for this task, the application of our re-ranking method generally has little effect on the ranked output.
Population genetic analyses of susceptibility to developing alcohol dependence

Acting on the assumption that susceptibility to alcohol dependence is genetically controlled, we have developed a hypothesis that a generally increased homozygosity level, as well as a changed variability in the group of alcoholics, could be a population genetic parameter for predicting this dependence. A morphophysiological test was used to identify the proportion of homozygously recessive characteristics (HRC test), so that the comparison of presence and distribution of the 25 selected homorecessive traits was carried out between the group of 100 cured alcoholics (the A group), and a control group consisting of 100 non-alcoholics (the C group). This population genetic study revealed not only a statistically significant difference in the mean values of genetic homozygosity (A: 9.3 ± 0.2, C: 8.2 ± 0.2), but also the differences in the distribution type, as well as in the variances of presence of certain specific combinations of such traits. In 18 of the 25 observed characteristics, recessive homozygosity was expressed to a greater degree among the group of alcoholics, while for 10 of the traits this level of difference was statistically significant. The fact that the genes controlling such qualitative recessive traits are distributed in different human chromosomes as their visible markers, could indicate that the genetic homozygosity degrees are visibly higher in the sample of alcohol dependents when compared to the group of individuals free from such dependence. Further application of the HRC testing as an easy procedure may have its practical use in identifying the presence of such indicators in young individuals in order to detect a possible future inclination to alcoholism.
Application of the Principal Stratification Approach to the Faenza Randomized Experiment on Breast Self‐Examination

Summary In this article we present an extended framework based on the principal stratification approach (Frangakis and Rubin, 2002, Biometrics58, 21–29), for the analysis of data from randomized experiments which suffer from treatment noncompliance, missing outcomes following treatment noncompliance, and “truncation by death. ” We are not aware of any previous work that addresses all these complications jointly. This framework is illustrated in the context of a randomized trial of breast self‐examination.
Information flow security of multi-threaded distributed programs

We study noninterference in the setting of multi-threaded distributed programs in which threads share local memories and multi-threaded processes communicate over an insecure network using encryption primitives to secure messages. We extend a simple imperative language with cryptographic operations which are modelled as special expressions respecting the Dolev-Yao assumptions. Then, we adapt to our setting the notion of patterns proposed by Abadi and Rogaway for modelling the equivalence of cryptographic expressions. Based on this notion, we naturally obtain a definition of strongly secure programs corresponding to the one proposed by Sabelfeld and Sands for programs without cryptography. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first definition of noninterference in a multi-threaded distributed setting, with insecure channels and cryptography. We prove compositionality of secure programs and we adapt the type system of Sabelfeld and Sands to our setting, proving its correctness.
Measuring Investment in Human Capital Formation: An Experimental Analysis of Early Life Outcomes

The literature on skill formation and human capital development clearly demonstrates that early investment in children is an equitable and efficient policy with large returns in adulthood. Yet little is known about the mechanisms involved in producing these long-term effects. This paper presents early evidence on the nature of skill formation based on an experimentally designed, five-year home visiting program in Ireland targeting disadvantaged families - Preparing for Life (PFL). We examine the impact of investment between utero to 18 months of age on a range of parental and child outcomes. Using the methodology of Heckman et al. (2010a), permutation testing methods and a stepdown procedure are applied to account for the small sample size and the increased likelihood of false discoveries when examining multiple outcomes. The results show that the program impact is concentrated on parental behaviors and the home environment, with little impact on child development at this early stage. This indicates that home visiting programs can be effective at offsetting deficits in parenting skills within a relatively short timeframe, yet continued investment may be required to observe direct effects on child development. While correcting for attrition bias leads to some changes in the precision of estimates, overall the results are quite similar.
Integrating Particle Swarm Optimization with Learning Automata to solve optimization problems in noisy environment

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a brilliant evolutionary algorithm adaptable to various kinds of optimization problems in distinct fields. However, when facing noisy environments, its performance suffers from unexpected noise. To address this issue, one of the widely-used mechanisms is the resampling method that is based on the fact that the true objective value can be achieved by re-evaluations. Such method allocates a fixed number of re-evaluations before running but cannot change allocations according to the current environment adaptively. It may result in the waste of re-evaluations allocated to unpromising candidate particles. This paper proposes a novel hybrid approach by integrating PSO with Learning Automata (LAs) in noisy environments. LAs are well-known for their self-adaption, automatic learning capability as well as low computational complexity. They are able to converge in different situations. The proposed hybrid approach achieves much faster convergence than the existing ones by performing fewer re-evaluations in simple environments than in complex one automatically. This mechanism enables it to find the best particle efficiently. With its self-adaption and automatic learning capability, it leads to a more accurate and faster algorithm. Besides, its distinct selection mechanism helps it achieve a significantly lower computational complexity than that of the-state-of-the-art resampling methods. Through experiments on 20 large-scale benchmark functions subject to different levels of noise, it is validated that, the proposed approach is able to achieve much better performance results in terms of accuracy and convergence rate than the existing ones.
Application of Learner's Autonomy to College English Learning

During the process of college English teaching and learning, the enthusiasm and initiative of the students should be fully mobilized in order to maximize the teaching and learning effects. After introducing the relative theory, an article suggests the roles and necessary steps to cultivate one’s autonomous learning ability in order to improve the language proficiency to meet the demands of the changing world of internationalization.
Assessing Iron Overload: Are We There Yet?

Iron overload occurs in many hematologic disorders and causes significant morbidity. The advantages of MRI in quantifying liver iron concentration continue to mount, and the association between iron overload and increased mortality after allogeneic stem cell transplant needs further attention. Clin Cancer Res; 18(23); 6395–7. ©2012 AACR.
The relationship between high‐commitment HRM and knowledge‐sharing behavior and its mediators

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between high-commitment human resource management and individual knowledge-sharing behavior. Furthermore, the mediating factors that link the relationship are examined. Design/methodology/approach - The structural equation model was applied to test eight hypotheses by means of a survey of 198 practitioners. Findings - High-commitment human resource management was positively related to perceived organizational support. Perceived organizational support was positively associated with organizational trust and organizational commitment. Organizational commitment was positively related with knowledge-sharing behavior. Perceived organizational support and organizational commitment mediated the relationship between high-commitment human resource management and knowledge-sharing behavior. Research implications - First, enterprises can foster knowledge-sharing behavior by adopting high-commitment HRM. Second, when employees perceive organizational support, they generate organizational commitment and then perform knowledge-sharing behavior, benefiting the organization. Originality/value - From the perspectives of social exchange and social identity, this study demonstrated how high-commitment HRM practices dominate knowledge-sharing behavior via perceived organizational support and organizational commitment.