Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pruning the Search Space of a Hand-Crafted Parsing System with a Probabilistic Parser

The demand for deep linguistic analysis for huge volumes of data means that it is increasingly important that the time taken to parse such data is minimized. In the XLE parsing model which is a hand-crafted, unification-based parsing system, most of the time is spent on unification, searching for valid f-structures (dependency attribute-value matrices) within the space of the many valid c-structures (phrase structure trees). We carried out an experiment to determine whether pruning the search space at an earlier stage of the parsing process results in an improvement in the overall time taken to parse, while maintaining the quality of the f-structures produced. We retrained a state-of-the-art probabilistic parser and used it to pre-bracket input to the XLE, constraining the valid c-structure space for each sentence. We evaluated against the PARC 700 Dependency Bank and show that it is possible to decrease the time taken to parse by ~18% while maintaining accuracy.
Catching‐up but telomere loss: half‐opening the black box of growth and ageing trade‐off in wild king penguin chicks

One of the reasons for animals not to grow as fast as they potentially could is that fast growth has been shown to be associated with reduced lifespan. However, we are still lacking a clear description of the reality of growth‐dependent modulation of ageing mechanisms in wild animals. Using the particular growth trajectory of small king penguin chicks naturally exhibiting higher‐than‐normal growth rate to compensate for the winter break, we tested whether oxidative stress and telomere shortening are related to growth trajectories. Plasma antioxidant defences, oxidative damage levels and telomere length were measured at the beginning and at the end of the post‐winter growth period in three groups of chicks (small chicks, which either passed away or survived the growth period, and large chicks). Small chicks that died early during the growth period had the highest level of oxidative damage and the shortest telomere lengths prior to death. Here, we show that small chicks that grew faster did it at the detriment of body maintenance mechanisms as shown by (i) higher oxidative damage and (ii) accelerated telomere loss. Our study provides the first evidence for a mechanistic link between growth and ageing rates under natural conditions.
Gesture registration, relaxation, and reuse for multi-point direct-touch surfaces

Freehand gestural interaction with direct-touch computation surfaces has been the focus of significant research activity. While many interesting gestural interaction techniques have been proposed, their design has been mostly ad-hoc and has not been presented within a constructive design framework. In this paper, we develop and articulate a set of design principles for constructing - in a systematic and extensible manner - multi-hand gestures on touch surfaces that can sense multiple points and shapes, and can also accommodate conventional point-based input. To illustrate the generality of these design principles, a set of bimanual continuous gestures that embody these principles are developed and explored within a prototype tabletop publishing application. We carried out a user evaluation to assess the usability of these gestures and use the results and observations to suggest future design guidelines.
Systemic sensitivity to corticosteroids in smokers with asthma

Cigarette smokers with asthma are insensitive to the therapeutic effects of corticosteroids. It is not known whether this insensitivity to corticosteroids in smokers affects tissue sites beyond the airways. A total of 75 asthmatic subjects (39 smokers) and 78 healthy controls (30 smokers) were recruited to an observational study. The cutaneous and peripheral blood lymphocyte responses to corticosteroids were measured. The cutaneous vasoconstrictor response to topical beclometasone was measured by applying different concentrations of beclometasone solutions to the skin in a random double-blind manner. The degree of blanching at each concentration was graded after 18 h. The sensitivity of peripheral blood lymphocytes to corticosteroids was assessed by measuring the suppressive effect of dexamethasone on lymphocyte proliferation stimulated by phytohaemagglutinin (PHA). Total mean±sd cutaneous vasoconstrictor response score to beclometasone was reduced in smokers with asthma to 5.39±3.58 versus 7.26±3.05 in never-smokers with asthma; and in all smokers to 6.47±3.33 versus 7.86±2.81 in all never-smokers. The sensitivity to corticosteroids of lymphocytes stimulated by PHA was similar between groups. In conclusion, smokers with asthma have an impaired cutaneous vasoconstrictor response to topical corticosteroids compared with never-smokers with asthma. This finding suggests that the insensitivity to corticosteroids in smokers with asthma affects tissue sites other than the airways.
Multiple Imputation for Missing Data

Two algorithms for producing multiple imputations for missing data are evaluated with simulated data. Software using a propensity score classifier with the approximate Bayesian bootstrap produces badly biased estimates of regression coefficients when data on predictor variables are missing at random or missing completely at random. On the other hand, a regression-based method employing the data augmentation algorithm produces estimates with little or no bias.
Under Consideration for Publication in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming towards an Asp-based Architecture for Autonomous Uavs in Dynamic Environments (extended Abstract)

Traditional AI reasoning techniques have been used successfully in many domains, including logistics, scheduling and game playing. This paper is part of a project aimed at investigating how such techniques can be extended to coordinate teams of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in dynamic environments. Specifically challenging are real-world environments where UAVs and other network-enabled devices must communicate to coordinate – and communication actions are neither reliable nor free. Such network-centric environments are common in military, public safety and commercial applications, yet most research (even multi-agent planning) usually takes communications among distributed agents as a given. We address this challenge by developing an agent architecture and reasoning algorithms based on Answer Set Programming (ASP). Although ASP has been used successfully in a number of applications, to the best of our knowledge this is the first practical application of a complete ASP-based agent architecture. It is also the first practical application of ASP involving a combination of centralized reasoning, decentralized reasoning, execution monitoring, and reasoning about network communications.
Differences in Asthma Prevalence between Samples of American Indian and Alaska Native Children

Objectives. To better understand the prevalence of asthma among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children and to explore the contribution of locale to asthma symptoms and diagnostic assignment, the authors surveyed AI/AN middle school students, comparing responses from metropolitan Tacoma, Washington (metro WA) and a non-metropolitan area of Alaska (non-metro AK). Methods. Students in grades 6–9 completed an asthma screening survey. The authors compared self-reported rates of asthma symptoms, asthma diagnoses, and health care utilization for 147 children ages 11–16 self-reporting as AI/AN in metro WA and 365 in non-metro AK. Results. The prevalences of self-reported asthma symptoms were similar for the metro WA and non-metro AK populations, but a significantly higher percentage of metro WA than of non-metro AK respondents reported having received a physician diagnosis of asthma (OR 2.33; 95% CI 1.23, 4.39). The percentages of respondents who reported having visited a medical provider for asthma-like symptoms in the previous year did not differ. Conclusions. The difference in rates of asthma diagnosis despite similar rates of asthma symptoms and respiratory-related medical visits may reflect differences in respiratory disease patterns, diagnostic labeling practices, or environmental factors. Future attempts to describe asthma prevalence should consider the potential contribution of non-biologic factors such as diagnostic practices.
Detection of Antigens Reactive to IgE and IgA during Wheat Seed Maturation and in Different Wheat Cultivars

Background: Dietary intake of wheat causes hypersensitivity reactions in patients suffering from IgE-mediated food allergy and coeliac disease. Aim: To study the expression of IgE- and IgA-reactive antigens during wheat seed maturation and in different wheat cultivars. Methods: Summer wheat was grown in a glasshouse and seeds were harvested at defined maturation stages. Mature seeds were obtained from 13 different defined cultivars. Protein extracts were prepared from different maturation stages and cultivars with a standardized procedure based on seed weight and analysed by IgE and IgA immunoblotting using sera from clinically defined patients suffering from wheat allergy or coeliac disease. Results: With a few exceptions the expression of IgE- and IgA-reactive wheat antigens increased during wheat seed maturation. Wheat cultivars could be identified in which the expression of certain IgE- and IgA-reactive components was strongly reduced or not detectable. Conclusions: The expression of IgE- and IgA-reactive antigens depends on wheat seed maturation and varies in different wheat cultivars.
Would You Displace? It Depends! A Multivariate Visual Approach to Intended Displacement from an Urban Forest Trail

A dichotomous choice survey was applied to explore the contributions of various social conditions to intended displacement from the main trail of a recreation area in Vienna, Austria. The trail scenarios were depicted as digitally calibrated images which systematically displayed combinations of levels of crowding with different mixes of user types, group sizes, compliance behavior, direction of movement, and placement within the image. Intended displacement was measured by interviewing 237 visitors on-site. The resulting model documents that the intention to displace is influenced by all six systematically controlled social factors as well as the interactions between crowding and several other design variables. High visitor numbers, unleashed dogs, small group sizes, more face to face encounters, a mix of user types moving at different speeds and several combinations between them increased intentions to displace.
Locality-sensitive hashing and biological network alignment

Large biological networks contain much information about the functionality of protein-protein interactions and other macromolecular relationships. There are certain small subsets of these graphs which display similar characteristics that appear more frequently than others; these motifs can be used to uncover key information about the structure of the networks. Existing algorithms use exact identity to determine motifs. Here we instead use locality-sensitive hashing to detect networks which have similar but not necessarily identical topologies, and present results for several higher-order motifs. See http://pages.cs. wisc.edu/∼legault for source code.
How to Determine a Good Multi-Programming Level for External Scheduling

Scheduling/prioritization of DBMS transactions is important for many applications that rely on database backends. A convenient way to achieve scheduling is to limit the number of transactions within the database, maintaining most of the transactions in an external queue, which can be ordered as desired by the application. While external scheduling has many advantages in that it doesn’t require changes to internal resources, it is also difficult to get right in that its performance depends critically on the particular multiprogramming limit used (the MPL), i.e. the number of transactions allowed into the database. If the MPL is too low, throughput will suffer, since not all DBMS resources will be utilized. On the other hand, if the MPL is too high, there is insufficient control on scheduling. The question of how to adjust theMPL to achieve both goals simultaneously is an open problem, not just for databases but in system design in general. Herein we study this problem in the context of transactional workloads, both via extensive experimentation and queueing theoretic analysis. We find that the two most critical factors in adjusting the MPL are the number of resources that the workload utilizes and the variability of the transactions’ service demands. We develop a feedback based controller, augmented by queueing theoretic models for automatically adjusting the MPL. Finally, we apply our methods to the specific problem of external prioritization of transactions. We find that external prioritization can be nearly as effective as internal prioritization, without any negative consequences, when the MPL is set appropriately.
Detection of HIV-1 p24 Gag in plasma by a nanoparticle-based bio-barcode-amplification method.

BACKGROUND Detection of HIV-1 in patients is limited by the sensitivity and selectivity of available tests. The nanotechnology-based bio-barcode-amplification method offers an innovative approach to detect specific HIV-1 antigens from diverse HIV-1 subtypes. We evaluated the efficacy of this protein-detection method in detecting HIV-1 in men enrolled in the Chicago component of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). METHODS The method relies on magnetic microparticles with antibodies that specifically bind the HIV-1 p24 Gag protein and nanoparticles that are encoded with DNA and antibodies that can sandwich the target protein captured by the microparticle-bound antibodies. The aggregate sandwich structures are magnetically separated from solution, and treated to remove the conjugated barcode DNA. The DNA barcodes (hundreds per target) were identified by a nanoparticle-based detection method that does not rely on PCR. RESULTS Of 112 plasma samples from HIV-1-infected subjects, 111 were positive for HIV-1 p24 Gag protein (range: 0.11-71.5 ng/ml of plasma) by the bio-barcode-amplification method. HIV-1 p24 Gag protein was detected in only 23 out of 112 men by the conventional ELISA. A total of 34 uninfected subjects were negative by both tests. Thus, the specificity of the bio-barcode-amplification method was 100% and the sensitivity 99%. The bio-barcode-amplification method detected HIV-1 p24 Gag protein in plasma from all study subjects with less than 200 CD4(+) T cells/microl of plasma (100%) and 19 out of 20 (95%) HIV-1-infected men who had less than 50 copies/ml of plasma of HIV-1 RNA. In a separate group of 60 diverse international isolates, representative of clades A, B, C and D and circulating recombinant forms CRF01_AE and CRF02_AG, the bio-barcode-amplification method identified the presence of virus correctly. CONCLUSIONS The bio-barcode-amplification method was superior to the conventional ELISA assay for the detection of HIV-1 p24 Gag protein in plasma with a breadth of coverage for diverse HIV-1 subtypes. Because the bio-barcode-amplification method does not require enzymatic amplification, this method could be translated into a robust point-of-care test.
Fair allocation of sensor measurements using Shapley value

In this paper, we consider the problem of measurement allocation in a spatially correlated sensor field. Our objective is to determine the probability of each sensor's being measured for improved observability; the sensor located at less correlated area should be assigned more probability. To this end, we quantify the level of correlation of each sensor through the mutual information criterion reflecting the level of uncertainty about unattended locations. Then we deploy the Shapley value, a representative single-valued solution concept in cooperative game theory. The Shapley value expresses the average marginal contribution of each sensor to the observation of a spatially correlated sensor field, and can be used to allocate the probability of each sensor's being measured in proportion to its contribution. Against the intractability in computing the true Shapley value, we deploy a randomized methods based on sampling, which can compute the approximate Shapley value with linear time complexity. Through numerical experiments, we evaluate the approximate Shapley value achieved by the randomized method by comparing it to the exact Shapley value, and estimate how the measurement allocation based on the Shapley value contributes to the overall observability and coverage.
Regulation of RPE intercellular junction integrity and function by hepatocyte growth factor.

PURPOSE To evaluate the effect of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) on the integrity and function of tight junctions and adherens junctions in the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) monolayer. METHODS Fresh bovine eyes were dissected to obtain 2- to 3-mm(2) explants of intact RPE with underlying choroid and sclera. Explants were cultured with or without HGF (20 ng/mL) for various periods (20 minutes to 72 hours). Junction integrity was assessed by transmission and scanning electron microscopy; localization, expression, and phosphorylation of junction proteins; and measurement of transepithelial resistance (TER), diffusion of fluorescent labeling in the plasma membrane, and the migration of RPE cells from the monolayer. RESULTS Untreated explants consisted of polarized cells with apical microvilli and well-developed tight and adherens junctions. After HGF treatment, the explants showed loss of tight and adherens junctions ultrastructurally, diffusion of fluorescent label from apical to lateral membrane domains, and increased chemotactic migration of RPE cells from the monolayer. Primary cultures of confluent RPE cells showed a progressive decrease in TER. Western blot analysis showed rapid tyrosine phosphorylation of ZO-1, occludin, and beta-catenin within 20 minutes of stimulation. There was a marked loss of ZO-1 protein within 1 hour of HGF treatment. After 6 hours of treatment with HGF, occludin, claudin-1, and beta-catenin were redistributed from the membrane to the cytoplasm. CONCLUSIONS Treatment of RPE explants with HGF results in rapid disassembly of tight and adherens junctions associated with loss or redistribution of junctional proteins, decreased TER, and increased migration of RPE cells from the monolayer.
Contact-dependent inhibition of EGFR signaling by Nf2/Merlin

The neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) tumor suppressor, Merlin, is a membrane/cytoskeleton-associated protein that mediates contact-dependent inhibition of proliferation. Here we show that upon cell–cell contact Merlin coordinates the processes of adherens junction stabilization and negative regulation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling by restraining the EGFR into a membrane compartment from which it can neither signal nor be internalized. In confluent Nf2 −/− cells, EGFR activation persists, driving continued proliferation that is halted by specific EGFR inhibitors. These studies define a new mechanism of tumor suppression, provide mechanistic insight into the poorly understood phenomenon of contact-dependent inhibition of proliferation, and suggest a therapeutic strategy for NF2-mutant tumors.
A Weighted Robust Parsing Approach to Semantic Annotation

This paper proposes a grammar-based approach to semantic annotation which combines the notions of robust parsing and fuzzy grammars. We present an overview of a preliminary research aimed to generalize some results from a recent project on interaction through speech with information systems where techniques based on the above notions have been successfully applied. The goal of the article is to give a development environment to linguists.
Automatic GUI test generation for smartphone applications - an evaluation

We present the results of an evaluation where we studied the effectiveness of automatic test generation for graphical user interface (GUI) testing of smartphone applications. To describe the context of our evaluation, the tools and the test model library we have developed for the evaluation are also presented. The library contains test models for basic S60 applications, such as camera, contacts, etc. The tools include an on-line test generator that produces sequences of so called keywords to be executed on the test targets. In our evaluation, we managed to find over 20 defects from applications that had been on the market for several months. We also describe the problems we faced during the evaluation.
Performance of climate envelope models in retrodicting recent changes in bird population size from observed climatic change

Twenty-five-year population trends of 42 bird species rare as breeders in the UK were examined in relation to changes in climatic suitability simulated using climatic envelope models. The effects of a series of potential ‘nuisance’ variables were also assessed. A statistically significant positive correlation was found across species between population trend and climate suitability trend. The demonstration that climate envelope models are able to retrodict species' population trends provides a valuable validation of their use in studies of the potential impacts of future climatic changes.
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AUDIOMETRY SYSTEM CAPABLE OF MONITORING NEURONAL ACTIVITY RELATED TO THE PATIENT'S HEARING

The project developed a design for and use of a software controlled audiometry system. The system is able to check the neuronal changes that have relationships with the user audition. It has an audiometer to produce stimuli, an electroencephalograph to track neuronal changes, and a Labview 2012 interface that controls hardware and processes nerve signals. This system uses an Atmel microcontroller (ATXMEGA128A4U); a device that scans the signals recorded by the electroencephalograph, synthesizes tones used by the audiometer, and is equipped with a USB port that allows for connection to a computer.
The Application of Predictive Technology to Big Data 1 Turning Back Time : The Application of Predictive Technology to Big Data

This paper examines new and conventional applications of predictive technologies in the electronic discovery process. The conventional use case applies ‘predictive coding’ during document review – near the end of the process. This paper proposes a model, technology-assisted linguistic analytics, that is applied earlier in the discovery process to address the rapidly growing size of data collections. The methodology combines predictive coding with expert knowledge and complementary analytical techniques to address big data and reduce the volume of irrelevant data ahead of the document review phase.
Sequential Inter-relay Games in Wireless Physical Layer Network Coding Based Networks

In this paper we assume a two relay network that serves to support sources to destinations communication. The network is assumed to be distributed (without centralised control) and based on a Wireless Physical Layer Network Coding (WPLNC) technique. For this scenario we provide a game theoretic solution for sequential (one relay has an observation of the actions taken by the other) selection of the individual WPLNC mappings by the relays. We assume that the first relay on the turn may suffer from low battery level and that the second relay can deduce the battery state from observed actions and alter its behaviour to correctly cope with the situation. For this scenario we evaluate and discuss an existence of sensible game equilibria.