Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving Chunking by Means of Lexical-Contextual Information in Statistical Language Models

In this work, we present a stochastic approach to shallow parsing. Most of the current approaches to shallow parsing have a common characteristic: they take the sequence of lexical tags proposed by a POS tagger as input for the chunking process. Our system produces tagging and chunking in a single process using an Integrated Language Model (ILM) formalized as Markov Models. This model integrates several knowledge sources: lexical probabilities, a contextual Language Model (LM) for every chunk, and a contextual LM for the sentences. We have extended the ILM by adding lexical information to the contextual LMs. We have applied this approach to the CoNLL-2000 shared task improving the performance of the chunker.
Connection methodology for two ubiquitous robot spaces - connection of RT-Middleware and CAMUS

This paper presents a connection method for two ubiquitous robot spaces. The ubiquitous robotics is recently proposed and many methods are suggested to implement this concept. In many cases, software modularization and middleware technology are adopted. However, different middlewares are used for each case since there is no standard for such a technology. Thus, the implemented robotic space keeps a ubiquitous concept only under its own standard. To remedy this problem, the method of connection for two middlewares is proposed. In the proposed method, the target middlewares are RT-Middleware of Japan and CAMUS of Korea. By making a bridge between two middlewares, the service provided by RT-Middleware side can be available to CAMUS side and also the service provided by CAMUS side can be used by RT-Middleware side. Experimental results are included to verify the performance of the proposed method.
Clinical evaluation of Rho(D) immune globulin (human) in Canada.

-During 1966, clinical trials were conducted in three Canadian centres to determine the safety and efficacy of Rh(0)(D) immune globulin (human) in preventing isoimmunization by the Rh(0)(D) antigen in Rh-negative women delivering ABO-compatible Rh-positive infants.The candidates were randomly divided into control and treated groups; the treated mothers received an intramuscular injection of 300 mug. of anti-Rh(0)(D) within 72 hours of delivery. Follow-up antibody screening tests were conducted on the sera of all patients six to nine months post partum.Of the 175 control patients, 11 or 6.2% became actively immunized to the Rh antigen, whereas complete protection against maternal Rh immunization was observed in the 191 treated patients.
Effects of combined linear and nonlinear periodic training on physical fitness and competition times in finswimmers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of combined linear and nonlinear periodic training on physical fitness and competition times in finswimmers. The linear resistance training model (6 days/week) and nonlinear underwater training (4 days/week) were applied to 12 finswimmers (age, 16.08± 1.44 yr; career, 3.78± 1.90 yr) for 12 weeks. Body composition measures included weight, body mass index (BMI), percent fat, and fat-free mass. Physical fitness measures included trunk flexion forward, trunk extension backward, sargent jump, 1-repetition-maximum (1 RM) squat, 1 RM dead lift, knee extension, knee flexion, trunk extension, trunk flexion, and competition times. Body composition and physical fitness were improved after the 12-week periodic training program. Weight, BMI, and percent fat were significantly decreased, and trunk flexion forward, trunk extension backward, sargent jump, 1 RM squat, 1 RM dead lift, and knee extension (right) were significantly increased. The 50- and 100-m times significantly decreased in all 12 athletes. After 12 weeks of training, all finswimmers who participated in this study improved their times in a public competition. These data indicate that combined linear and nonlinear periodic training enhanced the physical fitness and competition times in finswimmers.
Sensitive detection of human cytomegalovirus peptide-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses by interferon-gamma-enzyme-linked immunospot assay and flow cytometry in healthy individuals and in patients after allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

Reconstitution of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), predominantly directed against pp65, provides protective immunity for the development of HCMV disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). To define pp65-derived CTL epitopes that would allow sensitive detection of HCMV-specific immune reconstitution, a computer-based epitope prediction was performed. Peptide-specific CTL responses were assessed by interferon-gamma release. With this approach, pp65-derived epitopes presented by the HLA alleles A*0101, A*0201, A*1101, and B*0702 were identified. The frequency of CTLs in healthy HCMV-seropositive individuals ranged from about 0.1% to 3.3% of all CD8(+) T cells. In patients at risk of HCMV infection after allogeneic SCT, HCMV-peptide-specific CTLs were found in 14 of 19 patients at a median of 90 days after SCT (range, 35-234 days) and HCMV-antigen-specific CD4(+) T lymphocytes in 11 of 18 patients at a median of 90 days after SCT (range, 35->180 days). Peak counts of peptide-specific CD8(+) T cells ranged from 0.14 to 60.6 cells/microL; those of protein-specific CD4(+) T cells ranged from 0.64 to 18.97 cells/microL. Reconstitution of HCMV-peptide-specific CD8(+) T cells and protein-specific CD4(+) T cells was associated with clearance of HCMV infection (r(2) = 0.89, P <. 0001 and r(2) = 0.61, P =. 0045, respectively). HCMV infection recurred after documentation of HCMV-specific T-cell reconstitution (n = 4) when immunosuppression was intensified. Patients in whom late-onset HCMV disease developed lacked HCMV-protein-specific T cells at 3 months after SCT. In conclusion, prospective monitoring of HCMV-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell reconstitution can be performed rapidly by using flow cytometry after specific stimulation with HCMV peptides and proteins and might help to further improve clinical management of HCMV infection after allogeneic SCT.
Efficient Processing of Preference Queries in Distributed and Spatial Databases

Traditional SQL queries are recognized for producing an exact and complete result set. However, for an increasing number of applications that manage massive amounts of data, the large result set produced by traditional SQL queries has become difficult to handle. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in queries that produce a more concise result set.Preference queries capture the wishes of the users to produce a result set containing only the most important objects. A naive way of processing a preference query is first evaluating all objects, and then selecting the best ones. This approach is prohibitively costly and does not scale for large datasets. In this thesis, we focus on efficient processing of preference queries in spatial and distributed databases. We propose novel techniques that improve the performance of preference queries avoiding evaluating all objects. The main contributions are in the efficient processing of the following types of preference queries:• Skyline queries in distributed systems. • Spatial preference queries. • Top-k spatial keyword queries. • Top-k spatial keyword queries on road networks.The approaches we propose have been validated through extensive experiments employing real and synthetic datasets. The results we obtained are promising and show the efficiency of our approaches in improving the performance of preference queries in distributed and spatial databases.
RECURSIVE VS. NONRECURSIVE SYSTEMS: AN ATTEMPT AT SYNTHESIS (PART I OF A TRIPTYCH ON CAUSAL CHAIN SYSTEMS)

This paper, which in part serves as a common introduction to the two papers following in this issue, attempts to define the meaning of the "causal interpretability of a parameter" in a system of simultaneous linear relationships. It attempts, moreover, to expound a basis for interpreting the parameters of a nonrecursive or interdependent system causally. This is done in terms of an underlying causal chain system to which the interdependent system is either an approximation or a description of the equilibrium state. OVER THE PAST fifteen years there has been an extended discussion of the meaning and applicability of nonrecursive as distinct from recursive systems in econometrics, and throughout this discussion there has been a marked divergence of views as to the merits of the two types of models. It is not the purpose of this note to extend that controversy further, but rather to attempt a constructive statement of the relationship betweenthe two approaches and the circumstances under which each is applicable. We assume that the reader is generally familiar with the past discussion' and that it will suffice here simply to recall that a recursive, or causalchain, system has the formal property that the coefficient matrix of the non-lagged endogenous variables is triangular (upon suitable ordering of rows and columns) whereas a nonrecursive, or interdependent, system is one for which this is not the case. While the triangularity of the coefficient matrix is a formal property of recursive models, the essential property is that each relation is provided a causal interpretation in the sense of a stimulus-response relationship. The question of whether and in what sense nonrecursive systems allow a causal interpretation is the main theme of this paper.
Interactive educational tool for teaching a simple cipher

In this paper, a practical educational tool based on Java programming is described. The approach is based on using a fully interactive graphical user interface for teaching cipher algorithms. As an example, a transposition cipher is covered, where students can try different keys and observe the effect of parameters such as key length, choice of letters for the key on the ciphertext. At the same time, the process of breaking the cipher algorithm (cryptanalysis) is rendered possible by students injecting known plaintext. The developed program offers an option where it tries systematically all keys (brute force) to break the cipher. Being extendable, the platform is thought to be able to play a very positive role in the assimilation of abstract concepts encountered during cryptography.
Criticality-Based Model for Rehabilitating Subway Stations

According to the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA), 140 Billion CAD is required to maintain, rehabilitate, and replace subway infrastr ucture between 2010 and 2014. The current practice adopted by transit authorities for prioritizing sub way stations for rehabilitation is based on the sta tion structural needs. While this classification is refl ective of station condition, other factors, such as station size, location and passenger capacity, play an impo rtant role. The criticality of a station is an inde x that represents the functional importance of a station d epending upon a set of identified factors. The syst em criticality is based on several attributes, such as st tion location, size, and nature of use. This pa per presents a novel method of clustering subway statio ns f r rehabilitation priority based on their criti cality level. The different stations in a subway network a re rated according to their relative importance aga inst predefined attributes. The weights and scores of th e a tributes are computed with the help of experts and current subway network data. The analysis is done u sing the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) to accommodate the subjectivity of human judgment as b eing expressed in natural language which entails ‘fuzziness’ in real-life problems and account for t he interdependency between the selected attributes. Th output of the model is a criticality based clusteri ng of subway stations. The proposed framework helps authorities prioritize stations for rehabilitation and highlight stations with more criticality for a more robust asset analysis.
Expediting Exploration by Attribute-to-Feature Mapping for Cold-Start Recommendations

The item cold-start problem is inherent to collaborative filtering (CF) recommenders where items and users are represented by vectors in a latent space. It emerges since CF recommenders rely solely on historical user interactions to characterize their item inventory. As a result, an effective serving of new and trendy items to users may be delayed until enough user feedback is received, thus, reducing both users' and content suppliers' satisfaction. To mitigate this problem, many commercial recommenders apply random exploration and devote a small portion of their traffic to explore new items and gather interactions from random users. Alternatively, content or context information is combined into the CF recommender, resulting in a hybrid system. Another hybrid approach is to learn a mapping between the item attribute space and the CF latent feature space, and use it to characterize the new items providing initial estimates for their latent vectors. In this paper, we adopt the attribute-to-feature mapping approach to expedite random exploration of new items and present LearnAROMA - an advanced algorithm for learning the mapping, previously proposed in the context of classification. In particular, LearnAROMA learns a Gaussian distribution over the mapping matrix. Numerical evaluation demonstrates that this learning technique achieves more accurate initial estimates than logistic regression methods. We then consider a random exploration setting, in which new items are further explored as user interactions arrive. To leverage the initial latent vector estimates with the incoming interactions, we propose DynamicBPR - an algorithm for updating the new item latent vectors without retraining the CF model. Numerical evaluation reveals that DynamicBPR achieves similar accuracy as a CF model trained on all the ratings, using 71% less exploring users than conventional random exploration.
Endoglin modulates cellular responses to TGF-beta 1

Endoglin is a homodimeric membrane glycoprotein which can bind the beta 1 and beta 3 isoforms of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta). We reported previously that endoglin is upregulated during monocyte differentiation. We have now observed that TGF-beta itself can stimulate the expression of endoglin in cultured human monocytes and in the U-937 monocytic line. To study the functional role of endoglin, stable transfectants of U-937 cells were generated which overexpress L- or S- endoglin isoforms, differing in their cytoplasmic domain. Inhibition of cellular proliferation and downregulation of c-myc mRNA which are normally induced by TGF-beta 1 in U-937 cells were totally abrogated in L-endoglin transfectants and much reduced in the S- endoglin transfectants. Inhibition of proliferation by TGF-beta 2 was not altered in the transfectants, in agreement with the isoform specificity of endoglin. Additional responses of U-937 cells to TGF- beta 1, including stimulation of fibronectin synthesis, cellular adhesion, platelet/endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 (PECAM-1) phosphorylation, and homotypic aggregation were also inhibited in the endoglin transfectants. However, modulation of integrin and PECAM-1 levels and stimulation of mRNA levels for TGF-beta 1 and its receptors R-I, R-II, and betaglycan occurred normally in the endoglin transfectants. No changes in total ligand binding were observed in L- endoglin transfectants relative to mock, while a 1.5-fold increase was seen in S-endoglin transfectants. The degradation rate of the ligand was the same in all transfectants. Elucidating the mechanism by which endoglin modulates several cellular responses to TGF-beta 1 without interfering with ligand binding or degradation should increase our understanding of the complex pathways which mediate the effects of this factor.
Emotor control: computations underlying bodily resource allocation, emotions, and confidence

Emotional processes are central to behavior, yet their deeply subjective nature has been a challenge for neuroscientific study as well as for psychiatric diagnosis. Here we explore the relationships between subjective feelings and their underlying brain circuits from a computational perspective. We apply recent insights from systems neuroscience—approaching subjective behavior as the result of mental computations instantiated in the brain—to the study of emotions. We develop the hypothesis that emotions are the product of neural computations whose motor role is to reallocate bodily resources mostly gated by smooth muscles. This “emotor” control system is analagous to the more familiar motor control computations that coordinate skeletal muscle movements. To illustrate this framework, we review recent research on “confidence. ” Although familiar as a feeling, confidence is also an objective statistical quantity: an estimate of the probability that a hypothesis is correct. This model-based approach helped reveal the neural basis of decision confidence in mammals and provides a bridge to the subjective feeling of confidence in humans. These results have important implications for psychiatry, since disorders of confidence computations appear to contribute to a number of psychopathologies. More broadly, this computational approach to emotions resonates with the emerging view that psychiatric nosology may be best parameterized in terms of disorders of the cognitive computations underlying complex behavior.
Accuracy-Based Scoring for Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation

Although the scoring features of state-of-the-art Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation (PB-SMT) models are weighted so as to optimise an objective function measuring translation quality, the estimation of the features themselves does not have any relation to such quality metrics. In this paper, we introduce a translation quality-based feature to PB-SMT in a bid to improve the translation quality of the system. Our feature is estimated by averaging the edit-distance between phrase pairs involved in the translation of oracle sentences, chosen by automatic evaluation metrics from the N-best outputs of a baseline system, and phrase pairs occurring in the N-best list. Using our method, we report a statistically significant 2.11% relative improvement in BLEU score for the WMT 2009 Spanish-to-English translation task. We also report that using our method we can achieve statistically significant improvements over the baseline using many other MT evaluation metrics, and a substantial increase in speed and reduction in memory use (due to a reduction in phrase-table size of 87%) while maintaining significant gains in translation quality.
Sexual and gender-based violence in the European asylum and reception sector: a perpetuum mobile?

BACKGROUND Refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and subsequent ill-health in Europe; yet, European minimum reception standards do not address SGBV. Hence, this paper explores the nature of SGBV occurring in this sector and discusses determinants for 'Desirable Prevention'. METHODS Applying community-based participatory research, we conducted an SGBV knowledge, attitude and practice survey with residents and professionals in eight European countries. We conducted logistic regression using mixed models to analyse the data in R. RESULTS Of the 562 respondents, 58.3% reported cases of direct (23.3%) or peer (76.6%) victimization. Our results indicate that when men were involved, it most likely concerned sexual perpetration (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 4.09, confidence interval [CI]: 1.2; 13.89) and physical victimization (aOR: 2.57, CI: 1.65; 4), compared with females, who then rather perpetrated emotional violence (aOR: 1.85, CI: 1.08; 3.13) and underwent sexual victimization (aOR: 7.14, CI: 3.33; 16.67). Compared with others, asylum seekers appeared more likely to perpetrate physical (aOR 7.14, CI: 4; 12.5) and endure socio-economic violence (aOR: 10, CI: 1.37; 100), whereas professionals rather bore emotional (aOR: 2.01, CI: 0.98; 4.12) and perpetrated socio-economic violence (aOR: 25.91, CI: 13.41; 50.07). When group perpetration (aOR: 2.13, CI: 1.27; 3.58) or victimization (aOR: 1.84, CI: 1.1; 3.06) occurred, it most likely concerned socio-economic violence. CONCLUSION Within the European asylum reception sector, residents and professionals of both sexes experience SGBV victimization and perpetration. Given the lack of prevention policies, our findings call for urgent Desirable Prevention programmes addressing determinants socio-ecologically.
Modeling the effect of distortion on the phase noise in electrical oscillators

In this article, a novel model of phase noise in electrical oscillators is presented. This model is based on frequency modulation (FM). The proposed model shows physically and mathematically the effect of oscillator waveform, oscillation frequency and the swing voltage of output waveform on the phase noise. This model also explains why ring oscillators have larger phase noise in compare to sinusoidal oscillators, which the previous models could not model it completely. Using this model enables us to define some rules to design a low phase noise oscillator
Standardization of the Flow Cytometric Determination of HLA Class I Antigens, ‘Platelet‐Specific’ Glycoproteins and Activation Markers

Flow cytometry (FC) provides a reproducible investigation of cell surface antigens on platelets. The aim of this study was to elaborate appropriate protocols and to compare them with other techniques that have already been published. (1) Venipuncture with tubes containing citrate was better for the preservation of the antigenicity than using ACD tubes. The isolated platelets could not be completely distinguished from detritus and protein aggregates. Therefore a platelet concentration between 107 and 108/ml measurement buffer was necessary to obtain a sufficient resolution by FC. (2) Isolation methods using either differential centrifugation or diluted Ficoll‐Hypaque as a flotation medium provided platelets of equal purity. The method with Ficoll‐Hypaque resulted in a higher number of isolated platelets than differential centrifugation. The demonstration of platelets and their antigens in whole blood without isolation gave good results provided the platelets were not activated. Activation of platelets with 1 NIH‐U thrombin/1 resulted in the loss of a part of the highly activated platelets because of their aggregation. (3) Comparing different concentrations of paraformaldehyde in PBS, fixation with 1% for 15 min provided the best antigen preservation for most of the antigens investigated. Isolation induced platelet activation. In order to avoid this effect, the whole anticoagulated blood was fixed with 1% paraformaldehyde for 15 min immediately after venipuncture. Then the platelets were isolated using diluted Ficoll‐Hypaque. In this way, systemic activation of platelets can be detected with antibodies against glycoproteins which are translocated from the α‐granules or lysosomes to the cell membrane. These activation markers can be determined on immediately fixed platelets (already in the whole blood) without any interference due to unspecific activation caused by the isolation procedure. (4) Platelet treatment with citric acid at pH 3, in order to remove the antigenicity of HLA‐class I molecules, was sensitive to immediate fixation with paraformaldehyde in the whole blood. Fixation after isolating the platelets made it possible to demonstrate antigen stripping, and the free heavy chain, devoid of the β2‐microglobulin, could be clearly demonstrated. (5) Using standardization beads, the average number of antigenic sites per platelet could be determined for the investigated specificities. It was shown that antibodies which have been directly conjugated or biotinylated and combined with streptavidin‐phycoerythrin yielded similar results in terms of the number of antigenic binding sites while unconjugated antibodies in combination with FITC‐conjugated anti‐mouse‐IgG led to overestimation of antigenic binding sites.