Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Web as Corpus

The web is immense, free and available by mouse-click. It contains hundreds of billions of words of text and can be used for all manner of language research. The simplest language use is spell checking. Is it speculater or speculator? Google gives 67 for the former (usefully suggesting the latter might have been intended) and 82,000 for the latter. Question answered. Language scientists and technologists are increasingly turning to it as a source of language data, because it is so big, because it is the only available source for the type of language they are interested in, or simply because it is free and instantly available. The mode of work has increased dramatically from a standing start seven years ago with the web being used as a data source in a wide range of research activities: the papers in the Special Issue form a sample of the best of it. This introduction aims to survey the activities and explore recurring themes. We first consider whether the web is indeed a corpus; then present a history of the theme in which we view it as a development of the empiricist turn which has brought corpora center-stage in the course of the 1990s. We briefly survey the range of web-based NLP research, then present estimates of the size of the web, for English and for other languages, and a simple method for translating phrases. Next we open the Pandora’s Box of representativeness (concluding that the web is not representative of anything other than itself, but then nor are other corpora, and that more work needs doing on text types). We then introduce the papers in the Special Issue, and conclude with some thoughts on how the web could be put at the linguist’s disposal rather more usefully than current search engines allow.
Discriminação simples e comportamento conceitual de posição : Influência de diferentes tipos de treino

Conceptual behavior encompasses formation of stimulus classes with discrimination between classes and generalization within class. This research verified the relationship between the type of stimulus modification during discrimination training and the acquisition of position discrimination and related conceptual behavior. Fifteen 4-6 year-old children were exposed to simple position discrimination tasks. Three experimental conditions (gradual change – MG; multiple exemplars – ME; and no change - SM, of S+ and S- stimuli) were programmed for all participants. Participants should select in one condition the stimulus which had a relational element placed inside , over or ontheleft ofareferenceelement.Trainingofadifferentpositionwasinterspersedwithtestsof conceptual behavior which presented for selection trained and new stimuli which differed only in respect to the critical dimension. In general, the percentage of correct responses during the training was high for all conditions with fewer errors in MG. During conceptual behavior tests, however, percentages of correct responses were above chance level only after the SM discriminative training. Procedures MG and ME reduced errors and facilitated the establishment of discriminations between training stimuli which differed in more than one dimension. SM procedure, with several trials presenting stimuli with critical difference, produced conceptual behavior. Results suggest that the combination of varying stimulus along the training and repeated trials with stimuli differing only in the relevant dimension are necessary to speed the acquisition of discriminations, to prevent by-products of errors and to produce stimulus control by critical dimension. Key words : errorless learning, stimulus control shaping, multiple exemplars, trial-and-error, position discrimination, kindergarten.
Multistress Regulation in Escherichia coli: Expression of osmB Involves Two Independent Promoters Responding either to σS or to the RcsCDB His-Asp Phosphorelay

ABSTRACT Transcription of the Escherichia coli osmB gene is induced by several stress conditions. osmB is expressed from two promoters, osmBp1 and osmBp2. The downstream promoter, osmBp2, is induced after osmotic shock or upon entry into stationary phase in a σS-dependent manner. The upstream promoter, osmBp1, is independent of σS and is activated by RcsB, the response regulator of the His-Asp phosphorelay signal transduction system RcsCDB. RcsB is responsible for the induction of osmBp1 following treatment with chlorpromazine. Activation of osmBp1 by RcsB requires a sequence upstream of its −35 element similar to the RcsB binding site consensus, suggesting a direct regulatory role. osmB appears as another example of a multistress-responsive gene whose transcription involves both a σS-dependent promoter and a second one independent of σS but controlled by stress-specific transcription factors.
An update of preimplantation genetic diagnosis in gene diseases, chromosomal translocation, and aneuploidy screening

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is gradually widely used in prevention of gene diseases and chromosomal abnormalities. Much improvement has been achieved in biopsy technique and molecular diagnosis. Blastocyst biopsy can increase diagnostic accuracy and reduce allele dropout. It is cost-effective and currently plays an important role. Whole genome amplification permits subsequent individual detection of multiple gene loci and screening all 23 pairs of chromosomes. For PGD of chromosomal translocation, fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) is traditionally used, but with technical difficulty. Array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) can detect translocation and 23 pairs of chromosomes that may replace FISH. Single nucleotide polymorphisms array with haplotyping can further distinguish between normal chromosomes and balanced translocation. PGD may shorten time to conceive and reduce miscarriage for patients with chromosomal translocation. PGD has a potential value for mitochondrial diseases. Preimplantation genetic haplotyping has been applied for unknown mutation sites of single gene disease. Preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) using limited FISH probes in the cleavage-stage embryo did not increase live birth rates for patients with advanced maternal age, unexplained recurrent abortions, and repeated implantation failure. Polar body and blastocyst biopsy may circumvent the problem of mosaicism. PGS using blastocyst biopsy and array CGH is encouraging and merit further studies. Cryopreservation of biopsied blastocysts instead of fresh transfer permits sufficient time for transportation and genetic analysis. Cryopreservation of embryos may avoid ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome and possible suboptimal endometrium.
La evaluación basada en la teoría y su aplicación a la política regional: algunas reflexiones teóricas

Since 1990, governments have put more emphasis on evaluation of regional and local policies, programmes and plans. However, evaluations results have been scarcely used and only limited lessons can be drawn from them. As a consequence, their capacity to produce and facilitate the accumulation of knowledge and learning has been restricted. The objective of this article is to summarise the problems and limitations of the current approach to evaluating these policies (mainly value for money studies) and to explore the potential of new approaches, such as theory-based evaluation. Theory-based approach provide us with a framework that allow the estimation of policy effects, but at the same time, it will help us comprehend how, when and why this policy leads to the observed effects being produced, identifying the cause and effects mechanisms that are behind policy implementation. This information is essential to increase the utility of the evaluation and improve the effectiveness of the regional policies.
Gittin' to Know Y'all : Improvised Music, Interculturalism and the Racial Imagination

Among the vanishingly small number of texts that explicitly address constructions of race in experimental music, those produced by improvisors stand out, including work by Malcolm Goldstein (1988) and Wadada Leo Smith (1973), and Anthony Braxton's massive three-volume Tri-Axium Writings (1985), an effort which, while in dialogue with such texts as LeRoi Jones’ Blues People (1963), John Cage’s Silence (1961) and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Texte (1971), extends considerably beyond these texts, both in length and in range of inquiry. This general erasure of race seems at variance with experimental music’s presumed openness, its emphasis upon resistance, and its excavations of subaltern and marginalized histories of sound. The primary direction of my analysis, then, concerns the ways in which not only music scholars, but also musicians themselves, have either confronted or avoided engagement with issues of race in experimental music. I seek to identify some uninterrogated tropes concerning process, history and methodology that, when brought to light, do seem to embody coded assumptions about race, ethnicity, class, and about the possibilities for artists to move across, transgress and possibly erase borders. As critical tools in advancing my theorizing, I wish to return to the terms “Eurological” and “Afrological,” which I used in a previous essay (“Improvised Music”) to historicize the particularity of perspectives developed in culturally divergent environments. These terms refer metaphorically to musical belief systems and behavior that, in my view, exemplify particular kinds of musical “logic. ” The terms refer to social and cultural location, rather than phenotype (skin color); they are theorized here as historically emergent, and must not be used to essentialize musical direction in terms of ethnicity or race.
Investigating the Plasma-Assisted and Thermal Catalytic Dry Methane Reforming for Syngas Production: Process Design, Simulation and Evaluation

The growing surplus of green electricity generated by renewable energy technologies has fueled research towards chemical industry electrification. By adapting power-to-chemical concepts, such as plasma-assisted processes, cheap resources could be converted into fuels and base chemicals. However, the feasibility of those electrified processes at large scale has not been investigated yet. Thus, the current work strives to compare, for first time in the literature, plasma-assisted production of syngas, from CH4 and CO2 (dry methane reforming), with thermal catalytic dry methane reforming. Specifically, both processes are conceptually designed to deliver syngas suitable for methanol synthesis (H2/CO ≥ 2 in mole). The processes are simulated in the Aspen Plus process simulator where different process steps are investigated. Heat integration and equipment cost estimation are performed for the most promising process flow diagrams. Collectively, plasma-assisted dry methane reforming integrated with combined steam/CO2 methane reforming is an effective way to deliver syngas for methanol production. It is more sustainable than combined thermal catalytic dry methane reforming with steam methane reforming, which has also been proposed for syngas production of H2/CO ≥ 2; in the former process, 40% more CO2 is captured, while 38% less H2O is consumed per mol of syngas. Furthermore, the plasma-assisted process is less complex than the thermal catalytic one; it requires higher amount of utilities, but comparable capital investment.
High-performance timing simulation of embedded software

This paper presents an approach for cycle-accurate simulation of embedded software by integration in an abstract SystemC model. Compared to existing simulation-based approaches, we present a hybrid method that resolves performance issues by combining the advantages of simulation-based and analytical approaches. In a first step, cycle-accurate static execution time analysis is applied at each basic block of a cross-compiled binary program using static processor models. After that, the determined timing information is back-annotated into SystemC for fast simulation of all effects that can not be resolved statically. This allows the consideration of data dependencies during run-time and the incorporation of branch prediction and cache models by efficient source code instrumentation. The major benefit of our approach is that the generated code can be executed very efficiently on the simulation host with approximately 90% of the speed of the untimed software without any code instrumentation.
Dose and time relationships for tumor induction in the liver and esophagus of 4080 inbred rats by chronic ingestion of N-nitrosodiethylamine or N-nitrosodimethylamine.

A Weibull analysis is presented of the dose and time relationships for the effects on 4080 inbred rats of chronic ingestion in the drinking water of 16 different doses of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) or N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA). The sites chiefly affected were the liver (by both agents) and the esophagus (by NDEA only). Since the experiment continued on into extreme old age, effects became measurable at doses of only 0.01 to 0.02 mg/kg/day, which is an order of magnitude lower than previously achieved. (After only 2 years of treatment, however, the TD50 doses needed to halve the proportion of tumorless survivors would have been about 0.06 mg/kg/day of NDEA, or about 0.12 mg/kg/day of NDMA.) The general pattern of response was that the natural logarithm of the probability of remaining tumorless was given by the product of two terms, the first (the "Weibull b value") depending on the dose rate but not on the duration of exposure and the second depending not on dose at all but only on duration. For all types of tumor the dependence on duration was fairly similar (and for each the second term was taken to be -t7, where t = years of treatment), but for different types of tumor the dependence on dose rate was quite different. For esophageal tumors, the "Weibull b value" was approximately proportional to the cube of the dose rate of NDEA (males 21 d3, females 11 d3, where d = dose rate in mg/kg adult body weight/day), and the background incidence was unmeasurably low. For liver tumors induced by NDEA, the b value was approximately proportional to the fourth power of dose rate + 0.04 mg/kg/day [males, 19 (d + 0.04)4; females, 32 (d + 0.04)4], although the relationships were somewhat different for the different cell types of liver tumor. This one formula implies both approximate linearity at low doses and an approximately cubic relationship within the higher range of doses that was studied. For liver tumors induced by NDMA, the Weibull b value was approximately proportional to the sixth power of dose rate + 0.1 mg/kg/day [males, 37 (d + 0.1)6; females, 51 (d + 0.1)6], again with some variation between liver cell types, and again implying approximate linearity at low doses. These algebraic formulae should, of course, be trusted only in the range of doses where they were derived, and particularly not above it. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Development and evaluation of a telehealth videoconferenced support group for rural spouses of individuals diagnosed with atypical early-onset dementias

Atypical and early-onset dementias can be particularly problematic for family caregivers, and support groups aimed at memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease are not always helpful. Unfortunately, little has been developed specifically for caregivers of individuals with atypical dementias such as the frontotemporal dementias. Compounding the lack of access to interventions targeted specifically at caregivers of individuals with atypical and early-onset dementias are the unique needs of rural caregivers. Due to the relative infrequency of these particular dementias and the large geographical distances between rural caregivers, technology-facilitation is required for any group-based intervention. This paper describes the development of a secure telehealth videoconferenced support group for rural spouses of individuals with atypical and early-onset dementias. In addition, we provide preliminary evidence of effectiveness and describe a template for future groups based on the key therapeutic aspects of this novel technology-facilitated intervention.
Kernel least mean square with tracking

Based on the Gaussian process (GP) regression, the relationship between the input-output pair can be modeled by the sum of the Gaussian noise and an unknown latent function evaluated on an input (LFEI). The acquisition of LFEI is thus essentially required. In this paper, a novel algorithm called kernel least mean square with tracking (KLMS-T) is proposed to estimate LFEI. Based on the existing kernel least mean square (KLMS) that is a simple and efficient kernel adaptive filtering algorithm, the proposed KLMS-T utilizes the framework of Bayesian inference to estimate LFEI from the function-space view. Simulations show that compared with LMS and KLMS, KLMS-T achieves better filtering performance in terms of the convergence rate and the steady state mean square error.
Balancing Strategy using the Principle of Energy conservation for a Hopping humanoid robot

Even though many humanoid robots have been developed and they have locomotion ability, their balancing ability is not sufficient. In the future, humanoid robots will work and act within the human environment. At that time, the humanoid robot will be exposed to various disturbances. This paper proposes a balancing strategy for hopping humanoid robots against various magnitude of disturbance. The proposed balancing strategy for a hopping humanoid robot consists of two controllers, the posture balance controller and the landing position controller. The posture balance controller is used for small disturbances, and its role is to maintain stability by controlling the ankle torque of the robot. On the other hand, if disturbance is large, the landing position controller, which changes the landing position of the swing foot, works with the posture balance controller simultaneously. In this way, the landing position controller reduces large disturbances, and the posture balance controller controls the remaining disturbances. The landing position controller is derived by the principle of energy conservation. An experiment conducted with a real humanoid robot, HUBO2, verifies the proposed method. HUBO2 made a stable and continuous hopping action with the proposed balancing strategy overcoming various disturbances placed in the way of the robot.
Superoxide Anion Generation in Human Milk Macrophages: Opsonin-Dependent Versus Opsonin-Independent Stimulation Compared with Blood Monocytes

Macrophages are believed to play an important role within the immunoprotective effects of human breast milk. It was the purpose of this study to evaluate the capability of human milk macrophages (MMΦ) to generate superoxide anions (O2-) in comparison with peripheral blood monocytes (BMo) after stimulation with opsonized and unopsonized zymosan. Potential inhibitors of attachment and phagocytosis such as mannose and cytochalasin B were used. Expression of the mannose receptor on MMΦ was demonstrated by staining with MAb. BMo generated more O2- than MMΦ (417 ± 79 versus 216 ± 15 nmol O2-/mg protein, p < 0.05) after stimulation with opsonized zymosan. When unopsonized zymosan was used as a serum-independent stimulus, BMo generated slightly less O2- in comparison with MMΦ (150 ± 34 versus 176 ± 18 nmol O2-/mg protein, p < 0.05). These findings imply a higher proportion of opsonin-independent phagocytosis in MMΦ than in BMo (82 versus 36%). Preincubation with mannose resulted in a significantly higher reduction of O2- generation in MMΦ compared with BMo stimulated with opsonized zymosan, whereas no difference was found when unopsonized zymosan was used. After addition of cytochalasin B, equal inhibition of O2- generation was observed regardless of the cell type or stimulus used. Thus, MMΦ are stimulated to a greater extent by serum-independent mechanisms than BMo. As opsonins like complement or IgG are rare in the colostrum and the neonatal intestinal environment, such a differentiation toward serum-independent phagocytic abilities could play an important role for protective functions of human MMΦ. Possible involvement of the mannose receptor and the β-glucan receptor in this specialization are discussed.
Work values of researchers in a Brazilian organization

The objective of this paper was to analyze values related to researcher work at a Brazilian R&D company, defining their axiological work priorities. Studies have evidenced gaps in researcher management at innovative organizations, with this human resource directly involved in innovation. Through an understanding of researchers’ personal work values at an R&D company, it becomes possible to evaluate what these professionals consider important subsidizing knowledge to managers of knowledge workers and enabling organizational improvements in their work environment. By using a valid questionnaire, 208 researchers at a Brazilian R&D firm participated in this study. The results made it possible for the organization to understand the researchers’ work values, as well as their axiological work priorities defined according to the following sequence: social relations, professional realization, stability and prestige. Study implications and limitations were raised and discussed.
Literary Brains: Neuroscience, Criticism, and Theory

The “neurohumanities” are largely traditional fields of humanistic study – prominently including literature and related arts, such as film – that have taken up findings or methods of neuroscience to advance their research. Despite some (perhaps premature) media attention (see, for example, Quart), the body of work in neurohumanities is limited. It is therefore probably too early to undertake a survey of research in neuroscientific literary criticism and theory. However, there is considerable interest among literary scholars in the possibilities for such criticism and theory, and there are many areas of neuroscientific research that have begun to be incorporated into literary study or are likely to do so in the near future. The following essay first overviews some basic principles of neuroscience, selecting aspects of neuroscientific research that are particularly germane to literary study. It then considers the main tasks of literary criticism and theory and some of the ways in which neuroscience bears on those tasks. The essay ends with a brief comment on the relation between literary study that draws on neuroscience and neuroscience that takes literature as its object.