Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Guidelines for Annotating Temporal Information

This paper introduces a set of guidelines for annotating time expressions with a canonicalized representation of the times they refer to. Applications that can benefit from such an annotated corpus include information extraction (e.g., normalizing temporal references for database entry), question answering (answering "when" questions), summarization (temporally ordering information), machine translation (translating and normalizing temporal references), and information visualization (viewing event chronologies).
Release of Alkaline Phosphatase from Cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by Manipulation of Cation Concentration and of pH

Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027 contains an inducible alkaline phosphatase. The enzyme is readily removed from 14-hr cells by washes in 0.2 m MgCl(2), pH 8.4. Similar washes in tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane buffer, 20% sucrose, monovalent ions, or water partially release enzyme from the cells. The release of alkaline phosphatase is correlated with an increased release of protein and retention of internal enzymes. The effect of 0.2 m MgCl(2) washing upon the cells is minimal since both viability and growth rates remain unchanged as compared to water washing. Although cells are plasmolyzed in both 0.2 m MgCl(2) and 20% sucrose, it is evident that plasmolysis alone is unable to account for total enzyme release and that a divalent metal, i.e. Mg(2+), augments the release pattern. Growing cells in the presence of increasing concentrations of MgCl(2) or at increased pH values results in an almost total secretion of the enzyme to the culture filtrate. The findings suggest that P. aeruginosa alkaline phosphatase is linked to the exocytoplasmic region through divalent metal ion, presumably Mg(2+), bridges.
SQuAD Reading Comprehension with Coattention

Reading comprehension is an important task in NLP, which involves teaching a machine to understand text enough to answer questions. The Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SQuAD) is a dataset consisting of 100,000 question-context-answer datapoints. Here, deep learning methods are used to answer questions based on context data. A model based on the Attentive Reader [1,2] model is used as a baseline, with elements of a Dynamic Coattention Network [3] applied. Co-dependent attention representations that combine the individual representations of the question and context paragraph are implemented. The model is evaluated using F1 and exact match (EM) scores.
Measuring Tax Compliance Attitudes: What Surveys Can Tell Us about Tax Compliance Behaviour

This brief paper discusses the relevance of conducting surveys that measure individuals’ attitudes for understanding fiscal behaviour. While many surveys assess individuals’ attitudes towards paying taxes (e.g. by asking them to what extent they believe tax evasion is ever justified), it is less clear whether individuals’ responses to such survey questions are indicative of the way they would behave in reality. The paper presents a discussion of the way attitudes have been assessed in tax surveys and assesses existing evidence to support a link between these attitude measures and actual compliance behaviour. The paper suggests several avenues to improve the predictive value of attitude measures, such as increasing the specificity of measures, using evaluation scales or mitigating social desirability biases. A series of recommendations are made for measuring attitudes and interpreting attitude surveys for the use of researchers planning to conduct survey work, as well as for the use of findings from taxpayer surveys in the design of tax policy and administration.
Sequential design for response surface model fit in computer experiments using derivative information

ABSTRACT This article considers the problem of response surface model fit in computer experiment. We propose a new sequential adaptive design through the “maximum expected improvement” approach. The new method defines the improvement by the first order approximation from the known design points using derivative information and sequentially seeks point in area with large curvature and variance. A version with distance penalty is also considered. We demonstrate their superiority over some existing methods by simulation.
Relationship between initial prostate specific antigen level and subsequent prostate cancer detection in a longitudinal screening study

They did find extrapelvic nodal disease, but in all cases these pN2 patients. Most of us agree with the authors’ conclusion that these are not the patients which can be cured surgically. For reconstructive purposes it is important that we can limit our lymphadenctomy in certain patients to a level where we do not have to dissect the sympathetic autonomic nerve supply to the hypogastric plexus and pelvic floor. Thereby functional results of an orthotopic neobladder and vagina can be improved without compromising oncological results.
Combining Perceptual Features With Diffusion Distance for Face Recognition

Face recognition and identification is a very active research area nowadays due to its importance in both human computer and social interaction. Psychological studies suggest that face recognition by human beings can be featural, configurational, and holistic. In this paper, by incorporating spatially structured features into a histogram-based face-recognition framework, we intend to pursue consistent performance of face recognition. In our proposed approach, while diffusion distance is computed over a pair of human face images, the shape descriptions of these images are built using Gabor filters that consist of a number of scales and levels. It demonstrates that the use of perceptual features by Gabor filtering in combination with diffusion distance enables the system performance to be significantly improved, compared to several classical algorithms. The oriented Gabor filters lead to discriminative image representations that are then used to classify human faces in the database.
Influence of referential coding in a choice task performed in a simulated driving cockpit

Xiong, Aiping. M.S.I.E., Purdue University, August 2014. Influence of Referential Coding in a Choice Task Performed in a Simulated Driving Cockpit. Major Professors: Robert W. Proctor and Vincent Duffy. Driving and other tasks performed by the driver of a vehicle are spatial. Thus, it is important to understand how the driver represents the spatial environment. In laboratory studies, the Simon task is used to study spatial coding. Participants are to make a left or right response to a nonspatial stimulus feature, but the stimulus can occur in a left or right position. The Simon effect is that responses are faster when the stimulus location corresponds with the response location. That effect is not usually found for a go/no-go task in which only one response is made to one of the relevant stimulus values, but it is when another person or referent object is placed beside the performer. This thesis tested whether an “infotainment display” in a driving cockpit produces a similar referential coding effect when responses are presses of a left or right button on the steering wheel. Experiment 1 showed that the Simon effect was obtained for the left button but not the right button with a natural hand position, when a simulated infotainment display was located on the right of the steering wheel, simulating a right-hand vehicle cockpit. In Experiment 2, participants performed the same task, but with the display position on the left of the steering wheel, simulating a left-hand vehicle cockpit. The Simon effect in Experiment 2 tended to be smaller for left-hand responses than right-hand responses, but
Dental pulp stem cells and the management of neurological diseases: An update

Medical research in regenerative medicine has brought promising perspectives for the use of stem cells in clinical trials. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells capable of multilineage differentiation and available in numerous sources in the human body. Dental pulp constitutes an attractive source of these cells since collecting mesenchymal stem cells from this site is a noninvasive practice that can be performed after a common surgical extraction of supernumerary or wisdom teeth. Thus, tissue sacrifice is very low and several cytotypes can be obtained owing to these cells' multipotency, in addition to the fact that they can be cryopreserved and stored for long periods. Mesenchymal stem cells have high proliferation rates, making them favorable for clinical application. These multipotent cells, present in biological waste, constitute an appropriate resource in the treatment of many neurological diseases.
Identification of a Protein with Homology to hsp90 That Binds the Type 1 Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor (*)

The yeast-based two hybrid has been used to identify a novel protein that binds to the intracellular domain of the type 1 receptor for tumor necrosis factor (TNFR-1IC). The TNF receptor-associated protein, TRAP-1, shows strong homology to members of the 90-kDa family of heat shock proteins. After in vitro transcription/translation and S labeling, TRAP-1 was precipitated using a fusion protein consisting of glutathione S-transferase and TNFR-1IC, showing that the two proteins directly interact. The ability of deletion mutants of TNFR-1 to interact with TRAP-1 was tested using the two hybrid system. This showed that the amino acid sequences that mediate binding are diffusely distributed outside of the domain in the C terminus of TNFR-1IC that signals cytotoxicity. The 2.4-kilobase TRAP-1 mRNA was variably expressed in skeletal muscle, liver, heart, brain, kidney, pancreas, lung, and placenta. TRAP-1 mRNA was also detected in each of eight different transformed cell lines. Identification of TRAP-1 may be an important step toward defining how TNFR-1, which does not contain protein tyrosine kinase activity, transmits its message to signal transduction pathways.
Factors affecting unsafe behavior in construction projects: development and validation of a new questionnaire

Introduction. Occupational safety in general, and construction safety in particular, is a complex phenomenon. This study was designed to develop a new valid measure to evaluate factors affecting unsafe behavior in the construction industry. Methods. A new questionnaire was generated from qualitative research according to the principles of grounded theory. Key measurement properties (face validity, content validity, construct validity, reliability and discriminative validity) were examined using qualitative and quantitative approaches. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to estimate the discriminating power and the optimal cutoff score. Results. Construct validity revealed an interpretable 12-factor structure which explained 61.87% of variance. Good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.94) and stability (intra-class correlation coefficient = 0.93) were found for the new instrument. The area under the curve, sensitivity and specificity were 0.80, 0.80 and 0.75, respectively. The new instrument also discriminated safety performance among the construction sites with different workers' accident histories (F = 6.40, p < 0.05). Conclusion. The new instrument appears to be a valid, reliable and sensitive instrument that will contribute to investigating the root causes of workers’ unsafe behaviors, thus promoting safety performance in the construction industry.
Spatial constraint identification of parts in SE3 for action optimization

In this paper we present a method to structure contextual knowledge in spatial regions/manifolds that may be used in action selection for industrial robotic systems. The contextual knowledge is build on relatively few prior task executions and it may be derived from either teleoperation or previous action executions. We argue that our contextual representation is able to improve the execution speed of individual actions and demonstrate this on a specific time-consuming action of object detection and pose estimation. Our contextual knowledge representation is especially suited for industrial environments where repetitive tasks such as bin-and belt picking are plentiful. We present how we classify and detect the contextual information from prior task executions and demonstrate the performance gain on a real industrial pick-and-place problem.
Outcomes for whites and blacks at hospitals that disproportionately care for black Medicare beneficiaries.

OBJECTIVE Hospital care for blacks is concentrated among a small number of hospitals and whether they have worse outcomes across common medical conditions is unknown. DATA SOURCE We used the 2007 100% Medicare file to calculate 30- and 90-day mortality rates for white and black patients admitted for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), congestive heart failure (CHF), or pneumonia. STUDY DESIGN We ranked all hospitals in the country by their proportion of discharged black patients and identified the top 10 percent of these hospitals as black serving. We examined race-specific adjusted mortality rates and adjusted for differences in hospital characteristics. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS At 30 days, black-serving hospitals had, compared with nonblack-serving hospitals, similar mortality for AMI, lower mortality for CHF, and higher mortality for pneumonia. At 90 days, mortality was higher at black-serving hospitals for both AMI and pneumonia and comparable for CHF compared with nonblack-serving hospitals. White patients had worse outcomes at black-serving hospitals for two conditions at 30 days and all three conditions at 90 days. Blacks also had worse outcomes at black-serving hospitals. CONCLUSIONS Hospitals with a high proportion of black patients had worse outcomes than other hospitals for both their white and black elderly patients.
A Tale of Two Majors: Explaining the Gender Gap in STEM Employment among Computer Science and Engineering Degree Holders

We examine factors contributing to the gender gap in employment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) among men and women with bachelor’s degrees in computer science and engineering, the two largest and most male-dominated STEM fields. Data come from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT) from 1995 to 2008. Different factors are associated with persistence in STEM jobs among computer science and engineering degree holders. Conditional on receiving a degree in computer science, women are 14 percentage points less likely to work in STEM than their male counterparts. Controlling for demographic and family characteristics did little to change this gender gap. Women with degrees in engineering are approximately 8 percentage points less likely to work in STEM than men, although about half of this gap is explained by observed differences between men and women. We document a widening gender gap in STEM employment in computer science, but this gender gap narrows across college cohorts among those with degrees in engineering. Among recent computer science graduates, the gender gap in STEM employment for white, Hispanic, and black women relative to white men is even larger than for older graduates. Gender and race gaps in STEM employment for recent cohorts of engineering graduates are generally small, though younger Asian women and men no longer have an employment advantage relative to white men. Our results suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to increasing women’s representation in the most male-dominated STEM fields may not work.
Influence of CT-measured Appendiceal Diameter on Operation Time of Laparoscopic Appendectomy

Laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) is considered as an uncomplicated procedure, so residents are frequently chosen as LA operators. The aim of this study was to identify preoperative factors influencing operation time in LA. We proposed patient selection criteria to help choose an adequately skilled resident for performing LA. The medical records of 117 patients who underwent LA between April 2008 and August 2009 were retrospectively reviewed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify factors influencing operation time. Accordingly multivariate analysis indicated that operation time was significantly influenced by C-reactive protein and computed tomography-measured appendiceal diameter. Appendiceal diameter was a better predicting factor for differentiating the longer and shorter operation time groups. The cut-off value for appendiceal diameter was 12 mm. We concluded that preoperative computed tomography findings of appendiceal diameter of more than 12 mm in patients suggested that LA would be technically challenging for the less experienced resident.
Effects of Vibration Training on Muscle Power: A Meta-Analysis

Marín, PJ and Rhea, MR. Effects of vibration training on muscle power: a meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res 24(3): 871-878, 2010-The purpose of this meta-analysis was to attempt to gain a clear picture of the magnitude of adaptations in muscular power expected after acute and chronic training, as well as identify specific factors that influence the treatment effects. Studies using a power training intervention and containing data necessary to calculate effect size (ES) were included in the analysis a total of 30 studies. Effect size demonstrated that the type of vibration platform used is a moderator of the treatment effect of vibration on power development is the type of vibration platform employed. Differences were noted in both acute and chronic changes in power when vertical vibration platforms were compared with oscillating platforms. Vertical platforms elicit a significantly larger treatment effect for chronic adaptations (ES = 0.99) as compared with oscillating platforms (ES = 0.36). The data also show that age is a moderator of the response to vibration exercise for power. On the basis of the overall analysis, it is apparent that vibration exercise can be effective at eliciting chronic power adaptations. Exercise professionals can include vibration exercise as a means of fostering power improvements.
Modification of wheat straw in a high‐shear mixer

Wheat straw (Ws)was treated in a pilot‐scale continuous mixer to disrupt the lignin–hemicellulose–cellulose (LHC) complex. An efficient and practical method was desired to remove lignin and hemicellulose (pentosans)rapidly and efficiently from the lignocellulose complex and to make the cellulose accessible to enzymatic hydrolysis. Milled WS in the presence of various chemicals in aqueous solutions was extruded from the mixer under several processing conditions. Chemicals used were sodium hydroxide (NaOH) sodium sulfide (Na2S), anthraquinone (AQ), anthrahydroquinone (AHQ), hexamethylenediamine (HMDA), hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and ferrous ammonium sulfate (FAS), which were used alone and in selected combinations. Concomitantly, WS was treated in laboratory batches using similar reaction conditions, except for mixing and shearing. In extrusion treatments of WS at 20% concentration at 97°C for 5.5 min with NaOH (15.7%, dry WS basis), NaOH (15.7%) + AHQ (0.3%), and NaOH (12.7%) + Na2S (5.0%), 64–72% of the WS lignin and 36–43% of the pentosans were removed from aqueously washed extrudates (residues). This compares with 46–56% and 23–27%, respectively, for batch treatments. AHQ and Na2S enhanced delignification. Cellulase treatment of the residues, which contained about 99%of the WS cellulose, converted 90–92%of the cellulose to glucose compared with 61–69%for the batch pretreatments. Treatments of WS with amines and H2O2 (alone or combined with NaOH)were less effective for LHC disruption. In all instances the relatively high‐shear extrusion treatments were superior to the laboratory‐batch treatments.
Within and Cross-Country Differences in the Value Relevance of Fair Values

This study investigates whether board characteristics affect the value relevance of fair value estimates in financial firms under International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 13. Specifically, the study will focus on whether a better and more efficient monitoring of managers, after the adoption of this new regulation, has an effect on the information quality of fair values. IFRS 13 requires firms to disclose a fair value hierarchy containing three levels: Level 1 (quoted prices in active markets), Level 2 (inputs other than quoted prices that are observable either directly or indirectly) and Level 3 (unobservable inputs generated by entities). The results indicate that, in a post IFRS 13 era, board independence and gender diversity have a positive effect on the value relevance of fair value estimates (Level 3). In addition, firms with larger boards have lower information quality of firm-generated fair value estimates. Moreover, initial analysis shows that all fair values are value relevant to investors and the adoption of IFRS 13 has blurred the lines between the three levels in the fair value hierarchy. Hence, IFRS 13 has successfully reduced the information asymmetry related to fair
Server-Aided Verification Signature with Privacy for Mobile Computing

With the development of wireless technology, much data communication and processing has been conducted in mobile devices with wireless connection. As we know that the mobile devices will always be resource-poor relative to static ones though they will improve in absolute ability, therefore, they cannot process some expensive computational tasks due to the constrained computational resources. According to this problem, server-aided computing has been studied in which the power-constrained mobile devices can outsource some expensive computation to a server with powerful resources in order to reduce their computational load. However, in existing server-aided verification signature schemes, the server can learn some information about the message-signature pair to be verified, which is undesirable especially when the message includes some secret information. In this paper, we mainly study the server-aided verification signatures with privacy in which the message-signature pair to be verified can be protected from the server. Two definitions of privacy for server-aided verification signatures are presented under collusion attacks between the server and the signer. Then based on existing signatures, two concrete server-aided verification signature schemes with privacy are proposed which are both proved secure.
Linkages between Aquatic Sediment Biota and Life Above Sediments as Potential Drivers of Biodiversity and Ecological Processes

A deal of attention has been given to declining species diversity in terrestrial systems, and certainly the rate of species loss in tropical forests is staggering. Recently, increasing attention has been focused on the loss of species in aquatic ecosystems. Indeed, Ricciardi and Rasmussen (1999) report that freshwater extinctions in North America far exceed extinctions in terrestrial environments. For example, an increasing number of freshwater fish and bivalves are being added to endangered species lists (Angermeier and Schlosser 1995, Strayer et al. 1996). In contrast to our knowledge of fish and bivalves, information on species extinctions or even inventory lists are lacking for most inhabitants of the bottom sediments of lakes, streams, ground waters and wetlands, even though these “invisible”habitats harbor diverse and abundant biota (e.g., estimated at more than 100,000 species of sediment invertebrates globally, 10,000 species of algae, and more than 20,000 species of protozoans and bacteria; Palmer et al. 1997). Although the local and global environmental