Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphological cues vs. number of nominals in learning verb types in Turkish: The syntactic bootstrapping mechanism revisited

The syntactic bootstrapping mechanism of verb learning was evaluated against child-directed speech in Turkish, a language with rich morphology, nominal ellipsis and free word order. Machine-learning algorithms were run on transcribed caregiver speech directed to two Turkish learners (one hour every two weeks between 0;9 to 1;10) of different socioeconomic backgrounds. We found that the number of nominals in child-directed utterances plays a small, but significant, role in classifying transitive and intransitive verbs. Further, we found that accusative morphology on the noun is a strong cue in clustering verb types. We also found that verbal morphology (past tense and bareness of verbs) is useful in distinguishing between different subtypes of intransitive verbs. These results suggest that syntactic bootstrapping mechanisms should be extended to include morphological cues to verb learning in morphologically rich languages.
Continuous monitoring of blood volume changes in humans.

The mass density of antecubital venous blood was measured continuously for 80 min/session with 0.1 g/l precision at a flow rate of 1.5 ml/min in six male subjects. Each person participated in two different sessions with the same protocol. To induce transvascular fluid shifts, the subjects changed from sitting to standing and from standing to supine positions. There was transient blood density shifts immediately after postural changes, followed by an asymptotic approach to a new steady-state blood density level. Additional deviations from a simple time course were regularly observed. Blood density increased by 3.5 +/- 1.4 (SD) g/l when standing after sitting and decreased by 5.0 +/- 1.2 g/l while supine after standing. The corresponding half time of the blood density increase was 5.6 +/- 1.4 min (standing after sitting) and 6.9 +/- 3.1 min (supine after standing) of the blood density decrease. Erythrocyte density was calculated and did not change with body position. Whole-body blood density was calculated from plasma density, hematocrit, and erythrocyte density, assuming an F-cell ratio of 0.91. Volume shifts were computed from the density data; the subject's blood volume density decreased by 6.2 +/- 1.2% from sitting to standing and increased by 8.5 +/- 2.1% from standing to supine. Additional discrete plasma density and hematocrit measurements gave linear relations (P less than 0.001) between all possible combinations of blood density, plasma density, and hematocrit. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Episodic meteorological and nutrient-load events as drivers of coastal planktonic ecosystem dynamics: a time-series analysis

In temperate coastal zones, episodic meteorological forcing can have a strong impact on the classical seasonal phytoplankton succession. Episodes of continental runoff and wind storms involve nutrient enrichment and turbulence, 2 factors that can promote primary production and alter the planktonic community species composition and size structure. We determined the joint influence of these 2 variables on the osmotrophic plankton of an oligotrophic NW Mediterranean open bay. We used an 8 yr long time series of monthly physical, chemical and biological water-column parameters, and we looked for correlations between these and several meteorological and physical high- frequency time series through cross-correlation analyses. Influence of river runoff in this particular location was found to be very important for phytoplankton dynamics, whereas no immediate response of bacterioplankton was detected. Resuspension events caused by waves had a secondary importance. Cross correlations allowed defining a sequence of responses to these types of forcing, from changes in water turbidity and salinity, to increases in phytoplankton and bacteria abundances through nutrient enrichments. The maximum response of the ecosystem in terms of chlorophyll a concentration lagged nutrient enrichment events by about 1 wk. A more detailed analysis was per- formed between June 2003 and June 2004, a period characterised by an intense drought in summer and by 6 strong meteorological events afterwards. The increase in the frequency of meteorological events during this period drove the system from heterotrophy to autotrophy. Our data stress the importance of episodic meteorological events in coastal planktonic communities.
Possible regulation of atrial natriuretic factor by neutral endopeptidase 24.11 and clearance receptors.

The effects of a clearance receptor ligand Arg-Ser-Ser-Cys-Phe-Gly-Gly-Arg-Ile-Asp-Arg-Ile-Gly-Ala-Cys-NH2 with a disulfide bridge between the two cycteines [C-ANF(4-23)] and the potent neutral endopeptidase (NEP) inhibitor SQ 28,603 on mean arterial pressure (MAP), plasma atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) concentration and renal excretion of sodium and cyclic GMP were determined in conscious deoxycorticosterone acetate/salt hypertensive rats and normotensive rats. In the hypertensive rats, i.v. infusion of C-ANF(4-23) produced depressor responses of approximately 25 mm Hg, but did not significantly affect plasma ANF concentration or stimulate cyclic GMP excretion. In contrast, SQ 28,603 (300 mumol/kg i.v.) significantly reduced MAP and increased excretion of sodium and cyclic GMP. When C-ANF(4-23) was administered in combination with SQ 28,603, the depressor activity was additive and plasma ANF concentrations were significantly increased. The excretion of cyclic GMP was slightly enhanced, but, was not significantly different from the effects of SQ 28,603 alone. Neither SQ 28,603 nor C-ANF(4-23) affected MAP or plasma ANF in the normotensive rats. Finally, the in vitro hydrolysis of C-ANF(4-23) by NEP was prevented by SQ 28,603, indicating that inhibition of NEP may protect peptides recognized by the clearance receptors as well as the biological receptors for ANF. Therefore, the additive effects of C-ANF(4-23) and SQ 28,603 may be due to blockade of separate pathways which inactivate ANF or to the inhibition of C-ANF(4-23) degradation by NEP.
A Piggyback System for Joint Entity Mention Detection and Linking in Web Queries

In this paper we study the problem of linking open-domain web-search queries towards entities drawn from the full entity inventory of Wikipedia articles. We introduce SMAPH-2, a second-order approach that, by piggybacking on a web search engine, alleviates the noise and irregularities that characterize the language of queries and puts queries in a larger context in which it is easier to make sense of them. The key algorithmic idea underlying SMAPH-2 is to first discover a candidate set of entities and then link-back those entities to their mentions occurring in the input query. This allows us to confine the possible concepts pertinent to the query to only the ones really mentioned in it. The link-back is implemented via a collective disambiguation step based upon a supervised ranking model that makes one joint prediction for the annotation of the complete query optimizing directly the F1 measure. We evaluate both known features, such as word embeddings and semantic relatedness among entities, and several novel features such as an approximate distance between mentions and entities (which can handle spelling errors). We demonstrate that SMAPH-2 achieves state-of-the-art performance on the ERD@SIGIR2014 benchmark. We also publish GERDAQ (General Entity Recognition, Disambiguation and Annotation in Queries), a novel, public dataset built specifically for web-query entity linking via a crowdsourcing effort. SMAPH-2 outperforms the benchmarks by comparable margins also on GERDAQ.
An Early Event Detection Technique with Bus GPS Data

The analysis and study of the relationship between a geo-spatial event and human mobility in an urban area is very significant for improving productivity, mobility, and safety. In particular, in order to alleviate serious road congestions, traffic jams, and stampedes, it is essential to predict and be informed about the occurrence of an event as soon as possible. When we know an event occurrence in advance, some of those who are not interested in the event might change their plans and/or might take a detour to avoid to get involved in a heavy congestion. In this context, this paper presents an early event detection technique using GPS trajectories collected from periodic-cars, which are vehicles periodically traveling on a pre-scheduled route with a pre-determined departure time, such as a transit bus, shuttle, garbage truck, or municipal patrol car. Using these trajectories, which provide the real-time and continuous traffic flow and speed, our technique detects large-scale events in advance, without incurring any privacy invasion. The behavior of periodic-cars shows a certain sign of a large-scale event before attendees gather around a venue because traffic can be slowed around the venue before the event occurrence. We evaluated our method using over 7,000-bus data from January to May in 2015 in Beijing, which we compared with the check-in data collected from a social network service.
Sample-based quantile function estimation using entropy and self-determined probability weighted moments

The method of conventional probability-weighted moments (PWMs) and the principle of minimum cross entropy were combined to derive an analytical form of quantile function (Pandey, 2001). This method is extended and improved in the present paper by utilizing the concept of self determined probability weighted moments (SD-PWMs). Minimum cross entropy principle and SD-PWMs from sample data were used to evaluate the unknown parameters of the cross entropy quantile function. The performances of the SD-PWM based quantile function were compared with those based on conventional PWMs. The algorithm directly accommodates sample outliers by assigning non-exceedance probabilities accordingly, which is extraordinarily suitable for estimating extreme events from a small sample set. The proposed method would be expected to be used in extreme value and risk analyses of engineering systems.
1‐Methyl‐4‐phenylpridinium (MPP+)‐induced functional run‐down of GABAA receptor‐mediated currents in acutely dissociated dopaminergic neurons

We have evaluated GABAA receptor function during treatment of 1‐methyl‐4‐phenylpridinium (MPP+) using patch‐clamp perforated whole‐cell recording techniques in acutely dissociated dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons from rat substantia nigra compacta (SNc). γ‐Aminobutyric acid (GABA), glutamate or glycine induced inward currents (IGABA, IGlu, IGly) at a holding potential (VH) of −45 mV. The IGABA was reversibly blocked by the GABAA receptor antagonist, bicuculline, suggesting that IGABA is mediated through the activation of GABAA receptors. During extracellular perfusion of MPP+ (1–10 μm), IGABA, but neither IGlu nor IGly, declined (termed run‐down) with repetitive agonist applications, indicating that the MPP+‐induced IGABA run‐down occurred earlier than IGly or IGlu under our experimental conditions. The MPP+‐induced IGABA run‐down can be prevented by a DA transporter inhibitor, mazindol, and can be mimicked by a metabolic inhibitor, rotenone. Using conventional whole‐cell recording with different concentrations of ATP in the pipette solution, IGABA run‐down can be induced by decreasing intracellular ATP concentrations, or prevented by supplying intracellular ATP, indicating that IGABA run‐down is dependent on intracellular ATP concentrations. A GABAA receptor positive modulator, pentobarbital (PB), potentiated the declined IGABA and eliminated IGABA run‐down. Corresponding to these patch‐clamp data, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemical staining showed that TH‐positive cell loss was protected by PB during MPP+ perfusion. It is concluded that extracellular perfusion of MPP+ induces a functional run‐down of GABAA receptors, which may cause an imbalance of excitation and inhibition of DAergic neurons.
Applications of the estimating equations theory to genetic epidemiology: a review

Unlike monogenic diseases for which considerable progress has been made in past years, the identification of susceptibility genes involved in multifactorial diseases still poses numerous challenges, including the development of new statistical methodologies. Recently, several authors have advocated the use of the estimating equations (EE) approach as an alternative to standard maximum likelihood methods for analysing correlated data. Since most genetic studies rely on family data, the EE found a natural field of application in genetic epidemiology. The objective of this review is to give a brief description of the EE principles, and to outline its applications in the main areas of genetic epidemiology, including familial aggregation analysis, segregation analysis, linkage analysis and association studies.
SOILS DEVELOPMENT ON A TOPOSEQUENCE ON LOESSIAL DEPOSIT IN NORTHERN GUINEA SAVANNA, NIGERIA

The morphological, physical and chemical properties of soils developed on loessial deposit in Funtua, Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria were examined and the influence of toposequence on their properties, pedogenesis and classification were evaluated. The study showed that landscape position, erosion and drainage significantly influenced variation in soil properties across the toposequence. Silt particle dominated particle size distribution, except on crest position (LS 1). Clay distribution significantly influenced variation in content of AWHC, exchangeable bases and CEC (r = 0.600**, 0.539** and 0.763**, respectively). Pedogenesis resulted in silt, clay, AWHC and CEC enrichment at lower slope positions (LS 4 and LS 5) and sand was highest in pedon LS 1. The soils were generally low to medium in exchangeable bases (Ca, Mg, K and Na) and low to high for CEC. All the soils were low in organic carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus. Toposequence affected variation of soil types with their classification as Kanhaplic Haplustalfs for soils on crest to lower slope and soil on bottom slope as Typic Haplustult according to USDA Soil Taxonomy. The soils were classified as Haplic Acrisols and Haplic Alisol, respectively according to World Reference Base 2006.
Survey results are an eye‐opener

www.nursingcenter. com Nursing2003, April 33 HYPERTENSION Diuretic debate heats up In December 2002, an American study published in JAMA touted inexpensive diuretics as the best first-line treatment for hypertension. (See “Drug News” in the March issue of Nursing2003.) Now c o n flicting research from Australia suggests that a n g i o t e n s i n c o n v e r t i n g enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, which are signific a n t l y more expensive than diuretics, may lead to better treatment outcomes in the elderly, especially elderly men. The Australian study followed 6,083 people with hypertension ranging in age from 65 to 84. Half took a diuretic and half took an ACE inhibitor. After about 4 years, blood pressure had decreased to a similar extent in both groups. But patients in the ACE inhibitor group experienced fewer cardiovascular events or deaths from any cause (695, or 56.1 per 1,000 patient years) than patients in the diuretic group (736, or 59.8 per 1,000 patient Nursing2003 Volume 33, Number 4
Fisher discrimination sparse learning based on graph embedding for image classification

Fisher discrimination dictionary sparse learning (FDDL) has led to interesting image recognition results where the Fisher discrimination criterion is subject to the coding coefficients. But Fisher discrimination criterion has the limitations of data distribution assumptions and does not consider the local manifold structure of the coding coefficients. In this paper, we will introduce a novel Fisher discrimination sparse learning based on graph embedding (GE-FDSL) scheme. First, we utilizes graph embedding framework to define intra-class compact matrix and inter-class separable matrix imposed on the coding coefficients of training samples to preserving the intra-class compactness and the inter-class separability for the training samples, which simultaneously consider the local manifold structure and label information of the coding coefficients. Then, a new Fisher discrimination criterion based on graph embedding is added to the object function of the sparse coding problem so that the coding coefficients have more discriminative power, where the dictionary atoms in the sparse coding model are associated with the class labels so that the reconstructed error is applied to classification. This method can learn a structured dictionary and sparse coefficients, and in the meantime, it will also keep the local manifold structure of the coding coefficients. So, they will be more discriminative. Experiments on many image databases show that the our algorithm has good classification and recognition performance.
Analysis of comparative modeling predictions for CASP2 targets 1, 3, 9, and 17

Comparative modeling targets 1, 3, 9, and 17 were predicted by alignment of multiple sequences and structures, when available, followed by minimization using the program AMMP. The minimization used improved potentials, and distance restraints for regions of common structure. New prediction procedures were evaluated. Three tested solvent corrections did not significantly improve the predictions. Target 17 had 85.3% sequence identity with the parent and no insertions or deletions. The prediction had a root‐mean‐square deviation from target 17 of 0.56 Å on Cα atoms, and 0.59 Å for the ligand atoms, which verified the accuracy of the minimization. Targets 1, 3, and 9 had 36.4%, 46.7%, and 33.3% identity with the parent sequences, and predictions resulted in root‐mean‐square deviations for 79–85% of Cα atoms of 1.49, 1.11, and 1.24 Å, respectively. Conformational differences between parent and target crystal structures were difficult to predict. The use of distance restraints and multiple structures improved the positioning of gaps in sequence alignment. Distance restraints did not overcome errors in sequence alignment or ambiguities due to conformational variation in proteins. Predictions for targets 3 and 9 successfully reduced large deviations between parent and target structures. Proteins, Suppl. 1:68–73, 1997. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Organizational interventions to promote risk management in primary care: the experience in Warwickshire, England

Primary care organizations are under-represented in research on quality improvement and risk management (RM), yet the potential for improving patient safety is possibly greater given the extent that clinical judgement is required to achieve a service tailored to the individual's personal health and lifestyle. This paper examines how a health authority in England promoted interventions to improve RM in General Practice that included the practices' own initiatives, significant event audit (SEA) and the Medical Defence Union's workshops which included SEA. All 75 practices were approached before the programmes and when they were finished, eight months later. The practice manager from each practice completed an audit of RM activities, from which a RM competence score was derived. Up to six staff per practice completed the Learning organization Culture Questionnaire (LCQ) at both times. There was evidence of improved competence in RM over the period of the study, particularly through a widening breadth of staff involved and in formal recording systems. There was little evidence that these improvements were mediated by organizational culture. It is argued that future interventions should more closely target specific competences (e.g. recording systems for adverse events, root cause analysis to understand error generation) and enable staff to see tangible personal and organizational benefits for the extra effort involved.
Influence of arachidonic acid on indices of phospholipase A2 activity in the human neutrophil.

The present studies were conducted to understand better the regulation of phospholipase A2 (PLA2)-dependent mobilization of lipid mediators by arachidonic acid (C20:4). After stimulation of human neutrophils, g.l. c. /m.s. analysis of non-esterified fatty acids indicated that the quantity of C20:4 increased as a function of time after stimulation, from undetectable quantities to > 800 pmol/10(7) cells. In contrast with C20:4, the quantities of other free fatty acids such as oleic and linoleic were high in resting cells and did not change after stimulation. Some 15% of the C20:4 released from cellular lipids remained cell-associated. To examine the effect of C20:4 on its own release, neutrophils were exposed to [2H8]C20:4, to differentiate it by g.l. c. /m.s. from naturally occurring C20:4. In A23187-stimulated neutrophils, low concentrations (5-10 microM) of [2H8]C20:4 added just before A23187 increased the quantity of C20:4 produced by the cell, whereas higher concentrations (30-50 microM) decreased the quantity of C20:4 released from phospholipids. As other measures of PLA2 activity, the effects of C20:4 on production of platelet-activity factor (PAF) and leukotriene B4 (LTB4) were assessed. C20:4 treatment just before stimulation of neutrophils blocked PAF and LTB4 production in a concentration-dependent manner (IC50 10-20 microM). The effect of C20:4 was not blocked by the cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor naproxine (10 microM), nor could it be mimicked by 1 microM LTB4, 5-hydroxyeicosa-6,8,11,14-tetraenoic acid (5HETE), 5-hydroperoxyeicosa-6,8,11,14-tetraenoic acid (5HPETE) or 15-hydroxyeicosa-5,8,11,13-tetraenoic acid (15HETE). The 5-lipoxygenase (5LO) inhibitor zileuton induced a concentration-dependent decrease in PAF, with a maximal effect of a 50% decrease at 10-50 microM. The decrease in PAF by the 5LO inhibitor could not be circumvented by addition of 1 microM 5HETE, 5HPETE and LTB4, and may be attributed to the capacity of zileuton to increase the quantity of C20:4 in A23187-treated neutrophils. The inhibitory effect of C20:4 (20-40 microM) on PAF production could be antagonized by the protein kinase C inhibitor staurosporine (30 nM), but not by inhibitors of protein kinase A, tyrosine kinase or calmodulin kinase II. Taken together, these data demonstrate that C20:4 is selectively released from membrane phospholipids of A23187-stimulated neutrophils, and this C20:4 may play an important role in regulating the mobilization of C20:4 by altering PLA2 activity.