Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multilingual Topic Models for Bilingual Dictionary Extraction

A machine-readable bilingual dictionary plays a crucial role in many natural language processing tasks, such as statistical machine translation and cross-language information retrieval. In this article, we propose a framework for extracting a bilingual dictionary from comparable corpora by exploiting a novel combination of topic modeling and word aligners such as the IBM models. Using a multilingual topic model, we first convert a comparable document-aligned corpus into a parallel topic-aligned corpus. This novel topic-aligned corpus is similar in structure to the sentence-aligned corpus frequently employed in statistical machine translation and allows us to extract a bilingual dictionary using a word alignment model. The main advantages of our framework is that (1) no seed dictionary is necessary for bootstrapping the process, and (2) multilingual comparable corpora in more than two languages can also be exploited. In our experiments on a large-scale Wikipedia dataset, we demonstrate that our approach can extract higher precision dictionaries compared to previous approaches and that our method improves further as we add more languages to the dataset.
Combined estrogen receptor alpha and estrogen receptor beta genotypes influence the age of menarche.

BACKGROUND Age at menarche has a strong genetic influence. We reported recently an association between the XbaI (351A-->C)and PvuII (397T-->C) polymorphisms of the estrogen receptor (ER)alpha gene with the age of menarche in Greek adolescents. In the present study, we examined whether ERbeta genotypes alone, or in combination with ERalpha genotypes, may also influence onset of menarche. METHODS We performed genotyping for the single nucleotide polymorphisms 1730A-->G and 1082G-->A of the ERbeta gene and examined their association with the age of menarche in the same cohort of 145 Greek girls. We then looked for a possible effect of combined ERalpha and beta genotypes on the age of menarche. RESULTS Menarche occurred 7 months later in girls with the AA genotype of the 1730A-->G polymorphism than in girls with the AG genotype (mean +/- SD: 13.23 +/- 1.24 versus 12.66 +/- 1.26 years, respectively; P = 0.005). The 1082G-->A polymorphism was not detected in any of the girls examined. A significant effect of combined ERalpha and beta genotypes was also apparent. Menarche occurred 11 months later in girls bearing the AA/TT,AA (ERalpha, ERbeta) genotypes compared with girls with the CC/CC,AG genotype (13.30 +/- 1.27 nersus 12.41 +/- 1.28 years; P = 0.042). The difference remained significant after adjusting for body mass index (P = 0.034). CONCLUSION Combined ERalpha and ERbeta polymorphisms may influence the age of menarche.
Assistive Technology Use and Stigma

Issues related to stigma and its impact on assistive technology (AT) use with persons having developmental disabilities are addressed. While stigma has been known to be associated with presence of disability for many years, relationship between stigma and AT usage, particularly when working with families across cultures, has only just begun to be examined. Issues confronted by AT decision-making teams related to stigma include family expectations of AT, visibility resulting from use of AT in public settings, and perceptions that children will not attain important developmental skills if they become reliant on devices. While numerous approaches for AT decision-making have been implemented in the field, absence of validity and reliability data related to such approaches emphasizes importance of understanding potential influences of stigma associated with AT use. Specific areas that can contribute to stigmatization include (a) device aesthetics/cosmesis, (b) gender and age appropriateness, (c) social acceptability, (d) sublimation and professional deference, (e) teachers and acceptance of disability, and (f) universal design principles. Importance of future research that explores stigma and government policy and impact on AT decision-making is noted.
Mechanisms That Limit the In Vitro Proliferative Potential of Human CD8+ T Lymphocytes1

Human T lymphocytes can be numerically expanded in vitro only to a limited extent. The cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p16INK4a is essential in the control of cellular proliferation, and its expression, in epithelial cells, is associated with irreversible growth arrest. Using long-term cultured CD8+ T lymphocytes, we have investigated the role of the p16/pRb pathway in the regulation of T cell proliferation and senescence. In this study, we describe at least two mechanisms that cause replicative growth arrest in cultured lymphocytes. The first one depends on the expression of p16INK4a and is directly responsible for the exit of a significant proportion of CD8+ T cells from the proliferative population. This induced p16 expression pattern is observed during each round of mitogen stimulation and is not related to activation-induced cell death. Importantly, knocking down p16INK4a expression allows increased proliferation of T cells. The second one is a phenomenon that resembles human fibroblast senescence, but is independent of p16INK4a and of telomere attrition. Interestingly, virtually all pRb proteins in the senescent population are found in the active form. Our data indicate that newly synthesized p16INK4a limits the proliferation of T lymphocytes that respond to mitogen, but is not required for the loss of mitogen responsiveness called senescence.
Professional Development of Secondary EFL Teachers: Lessons from China

Since China initiated its modernization program in the late 1970s, professional development of secondary teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) has been given much prominence because of the perceived important role that English can play in the modernization drive. This article provides a critical overview of secondary EFL teacher education in China with the intent of offering useful lessons to foreign language teacher education in other parts of the world. The critique is made within a framework that draws on theoretical and empirical research on teacher education in four areas: (a) the knowledge base for teaching, (b) pedagogical effectiveness in fostering knowledge acquisition and intellectual qualities that support continuing professional development, (c) professional development in the community of practice, and (d) the coherence of professional development work. Through the analytical lenses provided by the framework, the article scrutinizes two curriculums for secondary EFL teacher preparation programs and the instructional practices prevalent in these programs. It also examines secondary EFL teachers’ continuing professional development in the workplace and through formally organized in-service programs. Based on the critical examination, suggestions are made for addressing identified problems and improving the effectiveness and relevance of the EFL teacher education system.
A family study of major depressive disorder in a community sample of adolescents.

BACKGROUND Family studies provide a useful approach to exploring the continuities and discontinuities between major depressive disorder (MDD) in children and adolescents and MDD in adults. We report a family study of MDD in a large community sample of adolescents. METHODS Probands included 268 adolescents with a history of MDD, 110 adolescents with a history of nonmood disorders but no history of MDD through age 18 years, and 291 adolescents with no history of psychopathology through age 18 years. Psychopathology in their 2202 first-degree relatives was assessed with semistructured direct and family history interviews, and best-estimate diagnoses were derived with the use of all available data. RESULTS The relatives of adolescents with MDD exhibited significantly elevated rates of MDD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.46-2.31), dysthymia (HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1. 11-2.87), and alcohol abuse or dependence (HR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.05-1. 53), but not anxiety disorders, drug abuse or dependence, or antisocial and borderline personality disorder. In contrast, anxiety, substance use, and disruptive behavior disorders in adolescents were not associated with elevated rates of MDD in relatives. However, the relatives of probands with anxiety and substance use disorders exhibited elevated rates of anxiety and substance use disorders, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The results provide evidence of the familial aggregation of adolescent MDD, and also indicate that there is a considerable specificity in the pattern of familial transmission. In addition, we found preliminary evidence of the familial aggregation of adolescent anxiety and substance use disorders.
Bridging a gap in Kalman filtering output estimation with correlated noises or with direct feed-through from process noise into measurements

Traditional statements of the celebrated Kalman filter algorithm focus on the estimation of state, but not the output. For any outputs, measured or auxiliary, it is usually assumed that the posterior state estimates and known inputs are enough to generate the minimum variance output estimate, given by yn|n = Cxn|n + Dun. Same equation is implemented in most popular control design toolboxes. It will be shown that when measurement and process noises are correlated, or when the process noise directly feeds into measurements, this equation is no longer optimal, and a correcting term is needed in above output estimation. This natural extension can allow designer to simplify noise modeling, reduce estimator order, improve robustness to unknown noise models as well as estimate unknown input, when expressed as an auxiliary output. This is directly applicable in motion control applications which exhibits such feed-through, such as estimating disturbance thrust affecting the accelerometer measurements. Based on a proof of suboptimality [1], this correction has been accepted and implemented in Matlab 2016 [2].
Epidemiology of Dengue among Children Aged < 18 Months—Puerto Rico, 1999–2011

Dengue, a mosquito-borne viral illness caused by dengue virus types (DENV)-1 to DENV-4, is endemic in Puerto Rico. Severe dengue usually occurs in individuals previously infected with DENV or among infants born to previously infected mothers. To describe clinical features of dengue in infants, we retrospectively characterized dengue patients aged < 18 months reported to the Passive Dengue Surveillance System (PDSS) during 1999–2011. To determine frequency of signs, symptoms, and disease severity, case report forms and medical records were evaluated for patients who tested positive for dengue by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction or anti-DENV immunoglobulin Menzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Of 4,178 reported patients aged < 18 months, 813 (19%) were laboratory positive. Of these, most had fever (92%), rash (53%), bleeding manifestations (52%), and thrombocytopenia (52%). Medical records were available for 145 (31%) of 472 hospitalized patients, of which 40% had dengue, 23% had dengue with warning signs, and 33% had severe dengue. Mean age of patients with severe dengue was 8 months. Anti-DENV immunoglobulin G (IgG) titers were not statistically different in patients with (50%) and without (59%) severe dengue. In this study, one-third of DENV-infected infants met the severe dengue case definition. The role of maternal anti-DENV IgG in development of severe disease warrants further study in prospective cohorts of mother-infant pairs.
Experimental Comparison of the Effect of Order in Recurrent Neural Networks

There has been much interest in increasing the computational power of neural networks. In addition there has been much interest in “designing” neural networks better suited to particular problems. Increasing the “order” of the connectivity of a neural network permits both. Though order has played a significant role in feedforward neural networks, its role in dynamically driven recurrent networks is still being understood. This work explores the effect of order in learning grammars. We present an experimental comparison of first order and second order recurrent neural networks, as applied to the task of grammatical inference. We show that for the small grammars studied these two neural net architectures have comparable learning and generalization power, and that both are reasonably capable of extracting the correct finite state automata for the language in question. However, for a larger randomly-generated ten-state grammar, second order networks significantly outperformed the first order networks, both in convergence time and generalization capability. We show that these networks learn faster the more neurons they have (our experiments used up to 10 hidden neurons), but that the solutions found by smaller networks are usually of better quality (in terms of generalization performance after training). Second order nets have the advantage that they converge more quickly to a solution and can find it more reliably than first order nets, but that the second order solutions tend to be of poorer quality than those of the first order if both architectures are trained to the same error tolerance. Despite this, second order nets can more successfully extract finite state machines using heuristic clustering techniques applied to the internal state representations. We speculate that this may be due to restrictions on the ability of first order architecture to fully make use of its internal state representation power and that this may have implications for the performance of the two architectures when scaled up to larger problems.
Multi-Subset Selection for Keyword Extraction and Other Prototype Search Tasks Using Feature Selection Algorithms

We present a framework that enables the use of traditional feature selection algorithms in a new context - for building a set of subsets of specified properties. During the course of search individual items are added/removed to/from one of the subsets in the subset system one at a time to maximize an overall criterion. Different tasks of prototype search type can be solved in this alternative way depending on suitable criterion definition. The usability of the concept is shown on keyword extraction example. Further possible applications are suggested
Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Wavelength-Tunable Optical Parametric Amplifier and Picosecond Pulse Generation

We report a fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA) based on a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with optimized dispersion and nonlinear properties pumped by a mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser. Wavelength-tunable parametric gain bands can be obtained by adjusting the pump wavelength from the anomalous to the normal dispersion regime. By utilizing the PCF-based FOPA, weak signals located in the parametric gain bands can be amplified. Wavelength-tunable picosecond pulses can be generated at the signal and idler wavelengths. A 58-dB maximum gain and a wide gain bandwidth from 999 to 1139 nm have been achieved by pumping near the zero-dispersion wavelength. When the FOPA is pumped at 1062.5 nm in the normal dispersion regime of the PCF, the 974-nm weak continuous-wave signal is significantly amplified, and the idler pulse is generated at 1168 nm.
Kernel Models for Affective Lexicon Creation

Emotion recognition algorithms for spoken dialogue applications typically employ lexical models that are trained on labeled in-domain data. In this paper, we propose a domainindependent approach to affective text modeling that is based on the creation of an affective lexicon. Starting from a small set of manually annotated seed words, continuous valence ratings for new words are estimated using semantic similarity scores and a kernel model. The parameters of the model are trained using least mean squares estimation. Word level scores are combined to produce sentence-level scores via simple linear and non-linear fusion. The proposed method is evaluated on the SemEval news headline polarity task and on the ChIMP politeness and frustration detection dialogue task, achieving state-of-theart results on both. For politeness detection, best results are obtained when the affective model is adapted using in domain data. For frustration detection, the domain-independent model and non-linear fusion achieve the best performance. Index Terms: language understanding, emotion, affect, affective lexicon
Effect of Vitamin D treatment on Interleukin-2 and Interleukin-4 Genes Expression in Multiple Sclerosis

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of central nervous system. The etiology of MS is slightly known, but genetic and environmental factors are reported. Vitamin D regulates gene expression and affects target cell functions. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression variation of IL-2 and IL-4 genes under vitamin D supplementation in patients with multiple sclerosis. Materials and Methods: In this study, blood samples were drawn from 32 patients before and after treatment with vitamin D. Quantitative real time PCR was used to measure IL -2 and IL-4 gene expression levels. Correlation analysis between the expression levels of genes and serum vitamin D, the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) as well as other clinical features of patients with MS was performed. Results: No significant difference of IL-2 and IL-4 genes expression level was observed with vitamin D supplementation. We did not find significant correlation between IL-2 and IL-4 mRNA levels and EDSS score in multiple sclerosis patients. Conclusion: We did not find any difference between the expression of IL-2 and IL-4 genes
Management's Tone Change, Post Earnings Announcement Drift and Accruals

This study explores whether the management discussion and analysis (MD&A) section of Forms 10-Q and 10-K has incremental information content beyond financial measures such as earnings surprises and accruals. It uses a classification scheme of words into positive and negative categories to measure the tone change in the MD&A section relative to prior periodic SEC filings. Our results indicate that short window market reactions around the SEC filing are significantly associated with the tone change of the MD&A section, even after controlling for accruals and earnings surprises. We show that management’s tone change adds significantly to portfolio drift returns in the window of 2 days after the SEC filing date through 1 day after the subsequent quarter’s preliminary earnings announcement, beyond financial information conveyed by accruals and earnings surprises. The drift returns are affected by the ability of the tone change signals to help predict the subsequent quarter’s earnings surprise but cannot be completely attributed to this ability. We also find that the incremental information of management’s tone change depends on the strength of the firm’s information environment.
Impact of the Genome on the Epigenome Is Manifested in DNA Methylation Patterns of Imprinted Regions in Monozygotic and Dizygotic Twins

One of the best studied read-outs of epigenetic change is the differential expression of imprinted genes, controlled by differential methylation of imprinted control regions (ICRs). To address the impact of genotype on the epigenome, we performed a detailed study in 128 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) and 128 pairs of dizygotic (DZ) twins, interrogating the DNA methylation status of the ICRs of IGF2, H19, KCNQ1, GNAS and the non-imprinted gene RUNX1. While we found a similar overall pattern of methylation between MZ and DZ twins, we also observed a high degree of variability in individual CpG methylation levels, notably at the H19/IGF2 loci. A degree of methylation plasticity independent of the genome sequence was observed, with both local and regional CpG methylation changes, discordant between MZ and DZ individual pairs. However, concordant gains or losses of methylation, within individual twin pairs were more common in MZ than DZ twin pairs, indicating that de novo and/or maintenance methylation is influenced by the underlying DNA sequence. Specifically, for the first time we showed that the rs10732516 [A] polymorphism, located in a critical CTCF binding site in the H19 ICR locus, is strongly associated with increased hypermethylation of specific CpG sites in the maternal H19 allele. Together, our results highlight the impact of the genome on the epigenome and demonstrate that while DNA methylation states are tightly maintained between genetically identical and related individuals, there remains considerable epigenetic variation that may contribute to disease susceptibility.
Tuberculosis series 2019

1. Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS – Porto Alegre (RS) Brasil. 2. Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Tradate, Italia. 3. Instituto de Doenças do Tórax – IDT – Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ – Rio de Janeiro (RJ) Brasil. a. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0230-2734; b. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2597-574X; c. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3250-6738 The World Health Organization (WHO) End TB Strategy aims to end the global tuberculosis epidemic by 2030. Targets include a 90% reduction in tuberculosis mortality and an 80% reduction in tuberculosis incidence. Despite remarkable progress, with advances in disease detection and improvement in treatment success rates, tuberculosis is still common in several countries. Although the rates of tuberculosis incidence and tuberculosis-related mortality are declining worldwide, the disease continues to be an important public health issue. (1) In Latin America, the incidence rate has fallen by 1.7% per year since 2000, considerably less than the 5.3% annual decline needed in order to achieve the targets proposed in the WHO End TB Strategy. (2,3) In celebration of World TB Day, on March 24th, this issue of the JBP features several articles focusing on tuberculosis, to offer an overview of the various aspects of tuberculosis control.
Phrase-Based Evaluation for Machine Translation

This paper presents the utilization of chunk phrases to facilitate evaluation of machine translation. Since most of current researches on evaluation take great effects to evaluate translation quality on content relevance and readability, we further introduce high-level abstract information such as semantic similarity and topic model into this phrase-based evaluation metric. The proposed metric mainly involves three parts: calculating phrase similarity, determining weight to each phrase, and finding maximum similarity map. Experiments on MTC Part 2 (LDC2003T17) show our metric, compared with other popular metrics such as BLEU, MAXSIM and METEOR, achieves comparable correlation with human judgements at segment-level and significant higher correlation at document-level. TITLE AND ABSTRACT IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE (CHINESE)
Spatial fading correlation function of circular antenna arrays with Laplacian energy distribution

We derive an analytical formula for the fading correlation function of a uniform circular array (UCA) when the angular energy follows a Laplacian distribution. The fading correlation for a UCA is a function of antenna spacing, array geometry, as well as the distribution of the received energy in terms of the angle-of-arrival (AOA). Computer simulations are carried out to verify the analytical results.