Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Passage Retrieval for Question Answering using Sliding Windows

The information retrieval (IR) community has investigated many different techniques to retrieve passages from large collections of documents for question answering (QA). In this paper, we specifically examine and quantitatively compare the impact of passage retrieval for QA using sliding windows and disjoint windows. We consider two different data sets, the TREC 2002--2003 QA data set, and 93 why-questions against INEX Wikipedia. We discovered that, compared to disjoint windows, using sliding windows results in improved performance of TREC-QA in terms of TDRR, and in improved performance of why-QA in terms of [email protected] and MRR.
Educating European citizenship: Elucidating assumptions about teaching civic competence

In recent years, the idea of the contribution of education to citizenship has been reinitiated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate constructions of citizenship as they are articulated in European policy documents on teacher education. It is indicated that the normative form of active citizenship is put into play through the individual and her or his actions, which is centred on learning. Drawing on Foucault’s analytic approach to problematization and Foucauldian methods of analysing policy problematizations of a certain problem, this study draws attention to the discourse of active citizenship and technologies of accountability that are utilized to shape teaching civic learning. It is suggested that citizenship is constructed as a learning problem, which motivates young people in school to reflect on their skills and competences. It is also from these capacities that their attitudes towards cultural diversity are assumed to be developed. Thus, in the formation of citizenship, emphasis is laid on the individual’s capacity for learning, which is also mobilized in narratives of the construction of Europe.
The Study of Business as a Liberal Art? Toward an Aristotelian Reconstruction

The prevailing model of teaching business administration at Catholic universities is an extension of standard curricula complemented by business ethics or Catholic social thought. This model does not sufficiently differentiate Catholic institutions; it does not live up to the expectations of the Church; and it underplays the potential of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition to elucidate the sphere of business. Attempting to integrate business administration into the “liberal arts” is a misguided approach, for barring an implementation of the historical liberal arts curriculum, there is no non-arbitrary way of defining what the term denotes. From an Aristotelian perspective as carried on in the Thomistic tradition, reality is continuous, and all social and behavioral sciences are unified in their material object while studying persons under different formal aspects. Business is a region of human behavior, and its study naturally coheres with other disciplines. The practice of business is ontologically integrated into a reality that unifies man, his actions, and their results, and the study of business is integrated into the academic edifice through the use of the Catholic style of thought.
Bacterial Diversity and Sulfur Cycling in a Mesophilic Sulfide-Rich Spring

ABSTRACT An artesian sulfide- and sulfur-rich spring in southwestern Oklahoma is shown to sustain an extremely rich and diverse microbial community. Laboratory incubations and autoradiography studies indicated that active sulfur cycling is occurring in the abundant microbial mats at Zodletone spring. Anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria oxidize sulfide to sulfate, which is reduced by sulfate-reducing bacterial populations. The microbial community at Zodletone spring was analyzed by cloning and sequencing 16S rRNA genes. A large fraction (83%) of the microbial mat clones belong to sulfur- and sulfate-reducing lineages within δ-Proteobacteria, purple sulfur γ-Proteobacteria, ε-Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, and filamentous Cyanobacteria of the order Oscillatoria as well as a novel group within γ-Proteobacteria. The 16S clone library constructed from hydrocarbon-exposed sediments at the source of the spring had a higher diversity than the mat clone library (Shannon-Weiner index of 3.84 compared to 2.95 for the mat), with a higher percentage of clones belonging to nonphototrophic lineages (e.g., Cytophaga, Spirochaetes, Planctomycetes, Firmicutes, and Verrucomicrobiae). Many of these clones were closely related to clones retrieved from hydrocarbon-contaminated environments and anaerobic hydrocarbon-degrading enrichments. In addition, 18 of the source clones did not cluster with any of the previously described microbial divisions. These 18 clones, together with previously published or database-deposited related sequences retrieved from a wide variety of environments, could be clustered into at least four novel candidate divisions. The sulfate-reducing community at Zodletone spring was characterized by cloning and sequencing a 1.9-kb fragment of the dissimilatory sulfite reductase (DSR) gene. DSR clones belonged to the Desulfococcus-Desulfosarcina-Desulfonema group, Desulfobacter group, and Desulfovibrio group as well as to a deeply branched group in the DSR tree with no representatives from cultures. Overall, this work expands the division-level diversity of the bacterial domain and highlights the complexity of microbial communities involved in sulfur cycling in mesophilic microbial mats.
The Role of Tourism Impacts on Cultural Ecosystem Services

Parks and protected areas are recognized for the important ecosystem services, or benefits, they provide society. One emerging but understudied component is the cultural ecosystem services that parks and protected areas provide. These cultural ecosystem services include a variety of benefits, such as cultural heritage, spiritual value, recreation opportunities, and human health and well-being. However, many of these services can only be provided if people visit these parks and protected areas through tourism opportunities. However, with this tourism use comes a variety of inevitable resource impacts. This current research connects potential impacts from tourism in parks and protected areas to the health and well-being aspect of cultural ecosystem services. We used an MTurk sample to record affective responses across a range of resource conditions. Results demonstrate that as tourism-related ecological impacts increased, positive affect decreased. Decreases in positive affect were more severe for park and protected area scenes featuring informal and/or undesignated social trails when compared to scenes with increasing levels of trampling/vegetation loss. Collectively, the results show that managing tourism in parks and protected areas in a manner that reduces impact is essential to providing beneficial cultural ecosystem services related to human health and well-being.
Functional Mapping of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases in Myxoid Liposarcoma

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) and their downstream signaling activation profile in myxoid liposarcomas (MLS) by investigating 14 molecularly profiled tumors: 7 naive and 7 treated with conventional chemotherapy/radiotherapy or the new drug trabectedin. Experimental Design: Frozen and matched formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded material from surgical specimens were analyzed using biochemical, molecular, and molecular/cytogenetic approaches, complemented by immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy. Results: In the absence of any RTK and downstream effector deregulation, the naive cases revealed epidermal growth factor receptor, platelet-derived growth factor receptor B, RET, and MET activation sustained by autocrine/paracrine loops, and RTK cross-talk as a result of heterodimerization. Interestingly, RET and MET activation seems to play a major role in the pathogenesis of MLS by involving different targets through different mechanisms. RET activation (which may activate MET) involves the tumoral vascular component by means of RET/MET cross-talk and VEGFA (vascular endothelial growth factor A)/GFRα3 (glial cell–derived neurotrophic factor family receptor α3)/artemin–mediated signaling as revealed by VEGF receptor 2/RET coimmunoprecipitation. MET activation involves the cellular tumor component by means of a direct ligand-dependent loop and indirect GFRα3 (RET coreceptor)/artemin–mediated signaling. About downstream signaling, the association of AKT activation with the round cell variant is interesting. No relevant changes in the original RTK activation profiles were observed in the posttreatment cases, a finding that is in keeping with the nontargeted treatments used. Conclusions: These findings highlight the particular cell-specific activation profile of RET/GFRα3 and MET in MLS, and the close correlation between AKT activation and the round cell variant, thus opening up new therapeutic perspectives for MET/AKT inhibitors and antagonistic small molecules binding GFRα3. Clin Cancer Res; 16(14); 3581–93. ©2010 AACR.
Diet Quality Indices and Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Survival

Research on diet in breast cancer survival has been focused on single nutrients or foods, particularly dietary fat, fruits, vegetables, fiber, and alcohol. We hypothesized that diet quality indices decrease the risk of total and non-breast-cancer-related deaths in women diagnosed with breast cancer. We evaluated 4 dietary quality scores: Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), Diet Quality Index—Revised (DQIR), Recommended Food Score (RFS), and the alternate Mediterranean Diet Score (aMED), among 2,729 women from the Nurses’ Health Study with invasive Stage 1–3 breast cancer diagnosed between 1978 and 1998 with follow-up through 2004. In multivariate adjusted analyses, no association was found between diet quality indices and either total or non-breast-cancer-related deaths. However, a higher aMED score was associated with a lower risk of non-breast-cancer death in women with low physical activity; the RR comparing the highest to lowest tertile was 0.39 (95% CI, 0.20–0.75, P trend = 0.0004). Our results suggest that a higher-quality diet after breast cancer diagnosis does not considerably change the risk of death from breast cancer. However, healthy dietary choices may be important because women are at risk of death from non-breast-cancer-related causes affected by diet.
Identification of differentially regulated proteins in response to a compatible interaction between the pathogen Fusarium graminearum and its host, Triticum aestivum

Using proteomic analyses, a study was carried out aimed at understanding the molecular mechanism of interaction between Fusarium graminearum and Triticum aestivum. Wheat spikelets were inoculated with H2O and conidia spores of F. graminearum. Proteins were extracted from spikelets harvested at three time points: 1, 2 and 3 days post inoculation. About 1380 protein spots were displayed on 2‐D gels stained with Sypro Ruby. In total, 41 proteins were detected to be differentially regulated due to F. graminearum infection, and were analyzed with LC‐MS/MS for their identification. The proteins involved in the antioxidant and jasmonic acid signaling pathways, pathogenesis‐related response, amino acid synthesis and nitrogen metabolism were up‐regulated, while those related to photosynthesis were less abundant following F. graminearum infection. The DNA‐damage inducible protein was found to be induced and glycosylated in F. graminearum‐infected spikelets. Using TargetP program, seven of the identified wheat proteins were predicted to be located in the chloroplast, implying that the chloroplast is the organelle mostly affected by F. graminearum infection. Eight identified fungal proteins possess possible functions such as antioxidant and acquiring carbon from wheat through glycolysis in a compatible interaction between F. graminearum and wheat.
A Historical Perspective on Digital Hearing Aids: How Digital Technology Has Changed Modern Hearing Aids

This article provides the author's perspective on the development of digital hearing aids and how digital signal processing approaches have led to changes in hearing aid design. Major landmarks in the evolution of digital technology are identified, and their impact on the development of digital hearing aids is discussed. Differences between analog and digital approaches to signal processing in hearing aids are identified.
Vcast on facebook: bridging social and similarity networks

Focusing on Personal Video Recorder, the paper presents an environment to support users in choosing which TV programs register through recommendations based on user-to-user similarity. Recommendations are presented to users in a Facebook application which is double aimed: on the one hand, it allows to collect user's feedback on the recommended items; on the other hand, it allows to define a social network-based users similarity which is exploited to optimize the recommendation process.
Clinical and Immunohistochemical Features Associated with a Response to Bortezomib in Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Purpose: Multiple myeloma is an incurable disease with heterogeneous clinical behavior. Bortezomib has offered some patients with relapsed and refractory disease an opportunity for prolonged survival. However, there remains a paucity of data in patients treated with bortezomib that accurately delineates and identifies such patients. This information is crucial to guide management. Experimental Design: In this study, we aimed to identify the patients most likely to respond to bortezomib salvage therapy. We analyzed the baseline clinical variables and profiled the baseline expression of a broad range of immunohistochemical markers of cell cycle activity, apoptosis, and angiogenesis in a large cohort of multiply relapsed myeloma patients recruited to one of two prospective multicentre trials assessing the efficacy of bortezomib salvage therapy. Results: Using the European Group for Bone Marrow Transplantation criteria, response (complete or partial) to bortezomib salvage therapy was associated with a previous history of complete response to alternative antimyeloma treatment. Patients who expressed cyclin D1 were more likely to achieve a response. In contrast, patients who expressed p16INK4A, cytoplasmic p53, and the highest intensity of Bcl-2 staining had a poor response. Patients who achieved a response to bortezomib and those patients who expressed cyclin D1 at baseline showed a significant survival advantage. Patients who expressed FGFR3, a poor prognostic marker, responded equally well and had similar outcomes with bortezomib compared with FGFR3-negative patients. Conclusions: Baseline clinical variables and selective immunohistochemical markers expressed by patients may be used effectively to identify patients that are most likely to achieve a meaningful clinical response to bortezomib salvage therapy.
Rich gesture, reduced control: the influence of constrained mappings on performance technique

This paper presents an observational study of the interaction of professional percussionists with a simplified hand percussion instrument. We reflect on how the sound-producing gestural language of the percussionists developed over the course of an hour session, focusing on the elements of their gestural vocabulary that remained in place at the end of the session, and on those that ceased to be used. From these observations we propose a model of movement-based digital musical instruments as a projection downwards from a multidimensional body language to a reduced set of sonic features or behaviours. Many factors of an instrument's design, above and beyond the mapping of sensor degrees of freedom to dimensions of control, condition the way this projection downwards happens. We argue that there exists a world of richness of gesture beyond that which the sensors capture, but which can be implicitly captured by the design of the instrument through its physicality, constituent materials and form. We provide a case study of this model in action.
Power Management and Control for Grid-Connected DGs With Intentional Islanding Operation of Inverter

This paper describes a power management method in a feeder with distributed generations (DGs) and energy storage devices. To ensure stability, reliability, and safety of the system, the proposed power management method deals with the DGs in two groups, which are utility and independent power producer (IPP). When the feeder is islanded from grid, the utility-owned DG receives fault signal from the protection relay. Thereafter, it is allowed to operate itself when the feeder is islanded because it is directly controlled by the utility. In contrast, the IPP-owned DG should be stopped to avoid several problems, which can be caused by the islanding operation. Then, the proposed power management method operates the above DGs to maximize the efficiency with no serious impact to grid. To do so, the inverter controller of DG is designed to implement it in a part of practical distribution system, which is located at the Do-gok area in Seoul, Korea. Several case studies are carried out to verify the effectiveness of proposed method.
Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.

Despite considerable progress in the management of chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting, these symptoms remain among the most feared by patients beginning cytotoxic chemotherapy. 5-HT3 antagonists have decreased the frequency of postchemotherapy vomiting. However, emesis remains a problem for a significant minority of patients. In addition, nausea continues to be a formidable challenge despite the better control of vomiting with current treatment options [1]. The relative likelihood of significant emesis in a given individual is dependent upon both patient- and treatment-related factors. Patient factors with predictive value for decreased emesis include heavy alcohol consumption and male sex [2]. A number of other factors including younger age [3], poor performance status [3], severe emesis during pregnancy [4], and susceptibility to motion sickness [5] have all been noted to be predictive of increased emesis with chemotherapy. Treatment-related factors include the intrinsic emetogenicity of the cytotoxic agent(s), the dose and schedule, treatment setting, as well as additive effects of combinations [6].
The Human Factors and Ergonomics of P300-Based Brain-Computer Interfaces

Individuals with severe neuromuscular impairments face many challenges in communication and manipulation of the environment. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) show promise in presenting real-world applications that can provide such individuals with the means to interact with the world using only brain waves. Although there has been a growing body of research in recent years, much relates only to technology, and not to technology in use—i.e., real-world assistive technology employed by users. This review examined the literature to highlight studies that implicate the human factors and ergonomics (HFE) of P300-based BCIs. We assessed 21 studies on three topics to speak directly to improving the HFE of these systems: (1) alternative signal evocation methods within the oddball paradigm; (2) environmental interventions to improve user performance and satisfaction within the constraints of current BCI systems; and (3) measures and methods of measuring user acceptance. We found that HFE is central to the performance of P300-based BCI systems, although researchers do not often make explicit this connection. Incorporation of measures of user acceptance and rigorous usability evaluations, increased engagement of disabled users as test participants, and greater realism in testing will help progress the advancement of P300-based BCI systems in assistive applications.
Automatic pronunciation grading for Dutch

various aspects of pronunciation quality and with their The aim of the research reported on here is to develop a system for automatic assessment of foreign speakers’ pronunciation of Dutch. In this paper, special attention is paid to expert ratings of pronunciation, because they are used as a reference to validate the pronunciation scores obtained automatically. It is shown that the ratings can differ between raters and rater groups and it is concluded that these differences should be taken into consideration before going on to develop an automatic system for pronunciation grading.
Convergence of iterates with errors of uniformly quasi-Lipschitzian mappings in cone metric spaces

The aim of this paper is to consider an Ishikawa type iteration process with errors to approximate the fixed point of two uniformly quasi-Lipschitzian mappings in cone metric spaces. We also extend some fixed point results of these mappings from complete generalized convex metric spaces to cone metric spaces. Our results extend and generalize many known results.
Functional improvement and correlations with symptomatic improvement in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder receiving long-acting methylphenidate

Background Data on the relationship between core symptoms and daily functioning in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are limited. Daily functioning was assessed as part of an open-label extension, and associations with symptom scores were evaluated. Method After a 5-week double-blind study with adults with ADHD receiving osmotic-controlled release oral delivery system (OROS) methylphenidate (MPH) 18, 36 or 72 mg/day, or placebo, participants were eligible for a 7-week open-label extension in which all patients received OROS MPH. Data for the Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scale – Observer: Screening Version (CAARS-O:SV) (primary endpoint) have been presented previously. Secondary endpoints included the observer self-reported short version of the CAARS (CAARS-S:S) and the Clinical Global Impressions – Severity Scale (CGI-S). Daily functioning and quality of life were assessed using the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) and the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q) respectively. In post-hoc analyses, changes in CAARS-O:SV were evaluated in subgroups. Relationships between symptom and functional outcomes were evaluated in a multivariate regression analysis. Results A total of 370 patients entered the open-label extension. Significant improvements from baseline in CAARS-O:SV were similar regardless of sex, ADHD subtype, prior treatment or psychiatric co-morbidity. Significant improvements from double-blind baseline were also seen for the CAARS-S:S, CGI-S, SDS and Q-LES-Q. Improvements in the CAARS-O:SV Hyperactivity/Impulsivity subscale were associated with improvements in SDS total and subscale scores, and in the Q-LES-Q score at open-label endpoint. Improvements in CAARS-O:SV Inattention subscale and CGI-S scores were not significantly associated with functional changes. Conclusions Improvements in ADHD symptoms relating to hyperactivity and impulsivity in adults receiving OROS MPH are associated with improvements in daily functioning and quality of life.
Sulfated polysaccharides are potent and selective inhibitors of various enveloped viruses, including herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus, and human immunodeficiency virus

Several sulfated polysaccharides (dextran sulfate, pentosan polysulfate, fucoidan, and carrageenans) proved to be potent inhibitors for herpes simplex virus, human cytomegalovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus, Sindbis virus, and human immunodeficiency virus. They were moderately inhibitory to vaccinia virus but not inhibitory to adenovirus, coxsackievirus, poliovirus, parainfluenza virus, and reovirus. These results indicate that, with the exception of parainfluenza virus, enveloped viruses are specifically susceptible to the inhibitory activity of sulfated polysaccharides.