Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variational Weakly Supervised Sentiment Analysis with Posterior Regularization

Sentiment analysis is an important task in natural language processing (NLP). Most of existing state-of-the-art methods are under the supervised learning paradigm. However, human annotations can be scarce. Thus, we should leverage more weak supervision for sentiment analysis. In this paper, we propose a posterior regularization framework for the variational approach to the weakly supervised sentiment analysis to better control the posterior distribution of the label assignment. The intuition behind the posterior regularization is that if extracted opinion words from two documents are semantically similar, the posterior distributions of two documents should be similar. Our experimental results show that the posterior regularization can improve the original variational approach to the weakly supervised sentiment analysis and the performance is more stable with smaller prediction variance.
Modelling Context Emotions using Multi-task Learning for Emotion Controlled Dialog Generation

A recent topic of research in natural language generation has been the development of automatic response generation modules that can automatically respond to a user’s utterance in an empathetic manner. Previous research has tackled this task using neural generative methods by augmenting emotion classes with the input sequences. However, the outputs by these models may be inconsistent. We employ multi-task learning to predict the emotion label and to generate a viable response for a given utterance using a common encoder with multiple decoders. Our proposed encoder-decoder model consists of a self-attention based encoder and a decoder with dot product attention mechanism to generate response with a specified emotion. We use the focal loss to handle imbalanced data distribution, and utilize the consistency loss to allow coherent decoding by the decoders. Human evaluation reveals that our model produces more emotionally pertinent responses. In addition, our model outperforms multiple strong baselines on automatic evaluation measures such as F1 and BLEU scores, thus resulting in more fluent and adequate responses.
Disfluency Correction using Unsupervised and Semi-supervised Learning

Spoken language is different from the written language in its style and structure. Disfluencies that appear in transcriptions from speech recognition systems generally hamper the performance of downstream NLP tasks. Thus, a disfluency correction system that converts disfluent to fluent text is of great value. This paper introduces a disfluency correction model that translates disfluent to fluent text by drawing inspiration from recent encoder-decoder unsupervised style-transfer models for text. We also show considerable benefits in performance when utilizing a small sample of 500 parallel disfluent-fluent sentences in a semi-supervised way. Our unsupervised approach achieves a BLEU score of 79.39 on the Switchboard corpus test set, with further improvement to a BLEU score of 85.28 with semi-supervision. Both are comparable to two competitive fully-supervised models.
How Fast can BERT Learn Simple Natural Language Inference?

This paper empirically studies whether BERT can really learn to conduct natural language inference (NLI) without utilizing hidden dataset bias; and how efficiently it can learn if it could. This is done via creating a simple entailment judgment case which involves only binary predicates in plain English. The results show that the learning process of BERT is very slow. However, the efficiency of learning can be greatly improved (data reduction by a factor of 1,500) if task-related features are added. This suggests that domain knowledge greatly helps when conducting NLI with neural networks.
Beetroot as a Potential Functional Food for Cancer Chemoprevention, a Narrative Review

Patients with cancer are prone to several debilitating side effects including fatigue, insomnia, depression and cognitive disturbances. Beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.) as a health promoting functional food may be potentially beneficial in cancer. As a source of polyphenols, flavonoids, dietary nitrates and other useful nutrients, beetroot supplementation may provide a holistic means to prevent cancer and manage undesired effects associated with chemotherapy. The main aim of this narrative review is to discuss beetroot’s nutrient composition, current studies on its potential utility in chemoprevention and cancer-related fatigue or treatment-related side effects such as cardiotoxicity. This review aims to provide the current status of knowledge and to identify the related research gaps in this area. The flavonoids and polyphenolic components present in abundance in beetroot support its significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacities. Most in vitro and in vivo studies have shown promising results; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying chemopreventive and chemoprotective effects of beetroot have not been completely elucidated. Although recent clinical trials have shown that beetroot supplementation improves human performance, translational studies on beetroot and its functional benefits in managing fatigue or other symptoms in patients with cancer are still lacking.
Licochalcone B Ameliorates Liver Cancer via Targeting of Apoptotic Genes, DNA Repair Systems, and Cell Cycle Control

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1/redox factor-1 (APE1/Ref-1) is a ubiquitous multifunctional protein required in the DNA base excision repair pathway and a noteworthy reducing-oxidizing factor that regulates the activity of various transcription factors. Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) assume a key role in directing the progression of the cell- cycle. The present study evaluated the synergistic efficacy of using licochalcone B (LCB) and fullerene C60 (FnC60) nanoparticles against diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced hepatocarcinoma in rats and relevant signaling pathways, with APE1/Ref-1 and CDK-4, as novel anti-cancer- targeting. LCB alone and in combination with FnC60 significantly decreased DNA fragmentation, oxidative DNA damage (8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine levels), APE1/Ref-1, CDK-4, retinoblastoma, B- cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), B-cell lymphoma-xL (Bcl-xL), and β-arrestin-2 mRNA expression, and APE1/Ref-1 and CDK-4 protein expression. In contrast, these treatments significantly increased the expression of protein 53 (p53), Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax), and caspase-3. These data suggest that LCB either alone or in combination with FnC60 elicited significant protective effects against DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis, which may have occurred because of the regulation of enzymes involved in DNA repair and cell-cycle control at S phase progression as well as the induction of apoptosis at the gene and protein expression levels. Furthermore, FnC60 potentiated the effect of LCB at the molecular level, possibly through targeting of cancerous cells.
Study on the chemical constituents of Populus davidiana Dode.

From the bark of Populus davidiana Dode. ,seven flavonoids have been isolated and identified as galangin,chrysin,tectochrysin,genkwanin,ombuin,pinocembrin and trans 3 acetoxy 5,7 dihydroxyflavanone,respectively.Ombuin and trans 3 acetoxy 5,7 dihydroxyflavanone were isolated from the genus for the first time.Galangin,tectochrysin and ombuin have been test for the anti inflammatory activity.
Boronic Acid Functionalized Nanosilica for Binding Guest Molecules

Dendritic fibrous nanosilica (DFNS) has very high surface area and well-defined nanochannels; therefore, it is very useful as supporting material for numerous applications including catalysis, sensing, and bioseparation. Due to the highly restricted space, addition of molecular ligands to DFNS is very challenging. This work studies how ligand conjugation in nanoscale pores in DFNS can be achieved through copper-catalyzed click reaction, using an optional, in situ synthesized, temperature-responsive polymer intermediate. A clickable boronic acid is used as a model to investigate the ligand immobilization and the molecular binding characteristics of the functionalized DFNS. The morphology, composition, nanoscale pores, and specific surface area of the boronic acid functionalized nanosilica were characterized by electron microscopy, thermogravimetric and elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements. The numbers of boronic acid molecules on the modified DFNS with and without the polymer were determined to be 0.08 and 0.68 mmol of ligand/g of DFNS, respectively. We also studied the binding of small cis-diol molecules in the nanoscale pores of DFNS. The boronic acid modified DFNS with the polymer intermediate exhibits higher binding capacity for Alizarin Red S and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide than the polymer-free DFNS. The two types of boronic acid modified DFNS can bind small cis-diol molecules in the presence of large glycoproteins, due in large part to the effect of size exclusion provided by the nanochannels in the DFNS.
Efficacy and safety of influenza vaccination during pregnancy: realizing the potential of maternal influenza immunization

ABSTRACT Introduction: Pregnant women are at higher risk of severe complications following influenza infection compared to the general population. Influenza vaccination during pregnancy can offer direct protection to pregnant women and passive immunity to infants up to 6 months of age via maternal antibodies. Pregnant women are a high priority group for influenza immunization. Areas covered: This review provides an overview of the basis for recommending influenza vaccine to pregnant women, current immunization policies, the evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of maternal vaccination, and future research needed. We conducted a search of PubMed for articles describing the safety or efficacy of influenza vaccines administered during pregnancy. Published articles from inception to 17 November 2020 were reviewed. Expert opinion: Experimental and observational evidence support the efficacy, effectiveness and safety of influenza immunization during pregnancy. These data support the continued provision of inactivated influenza vaccine to pregnant women, as recommended by global immunization policies. To achieve success with maternal influenza immunization programs, further work is needed to inform policy development in low- and middle-income settings and implementation and promotion in high-income settings.
Long term outcome of immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy: A single center experience

Introduction IgA nephropathy (IgAN) has a heterogeneous presentation and the progression to end stage renal disease (ESRD) is often influenced by demographics, ethnicity, as well as choice of treatment regimen. In this study, we investigated the long term survival of IgAN patients in our center and the factors affecting it. Methods This study included all biopsy-proven IgAN patients with ≥ 1year follow-up. Patients with diabetes mellitus at diagnosis and secondary IgAN were excluded. Medical records were reviewed for demographics, clinical presentation, blood pressure, 24-hour urine protein, serum creatinine, renal biopsy and treatment received. The primary outcome was defined as combined event of 50% estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) reduction or ESRD. Results We included 130 (74 females; 56 males) patients of mean age 38.0 ± 14.0 years and median eGFR of 75.2 (interquartile range (IQR) 49.3–101.4) ml/min/1.73m2. Eighty-four (64.6%) were hypertensive at presentation, 35 (26.9%) had nephrotic syndrome and 57 (43.8%) had nephrotic range proteinuria (NRP). Median follow-up duration was 7.5 (IQR 4.0–13.0) years. It was noted that 18 (13.8%) developed ESRD and 34 (26.2%) reached the primary outcome. Annual eGFR decline was -2.1 (IQR -5.3 to -0.1) ml/min/1.73m2/year, with median survival of 20 years. Survival rates from the combined event (50% decrease in eGFR or ESRD) at 10, 20 and 30 years were 80%, 53% and 25%, while survival from ESRD were 87%, 73% and 65%, respectively. In the univariate analysis, time-average proteinuria (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.41, 95% CI 1.77–3.30), eGFR <45ml/min/1.73m2 at biopsy (HR = 2.35, 95% CI 1.03–5.32), hypertension (HR = 2.81, 95% CI 1.16–6.80), mean arterial pressure (HR = 1.02, 95% CI 1.01–1.04), tubular atrophy/interstitial fibrosis score (HR = 3.77, 95% CI 1.84–7.73), and cellular/fibrocellular crescent score (HR = 2.44, 95% CI 1.19–5.00) were found to be significant. Whereas only time-average proteinuria (TA-proteinuria) remained as a significant predictor in the multivariate analysis (HR = 2.23, 95% CI 1.57–3.16). Conclusion In our cohort, TA-proteinuria was the most important predictor in the progression of IgAN, irrespective of degree of proteinuria at presentation.
Cone-Beam Computed Tomography: A User-Friendly, Practical Roadmap to the Planning and Execution of Every Rhinoplasty—A 5-Year Review

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: Cone-beam computed tomography has recently rapidly developed worldwide as a versatile and convenient alternative to traditional computed tomography for imaging of the maxillofacial region. However, most surgeons performing rhinoplasty are surprisingly unfamiliar with it, in both the plastic surgery and ear, nose, and throat communities. Methods: The broad clinical experience of a single center over the past 5 years is reviewed. The many applications of cone-beam computed tomography to primary and secondary rhinoplasty are analyzed regarding septum, turbinates, nasal bones, skin thickness, and other issues. The importance of a paradigm shift from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional approach in image reconstruction is demonstrated, together with the value of surface contour enhancement. Results: Cone-beam computed tomography has a multitude of practical applications highly relevant to rhinoplasty. The surface image will strengthen aesthetic analysis, and the detailed preview of bony and functional anatomy will facilitate surgical planning. Cone-beam computed tomography serves as a roadmap to plan and execute rhinoplasties more predictably and efficiently. The availability of spatial views and accurate detail, together with the possibility of easy, accurate measuring, offers a plenitude of potential applications. Conclusions: Cone-beam computed tomography is a user-friendly, quick technique with abundant advantages in planning any rhinoplasty. It causes the patient no inconvenience and has very few, if any, drawbacks, with these being limited to radiation exposure and limited cost.
Risk Factors for Failure in First-Time Hearing Screening Tests among High-Risk Neonates in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate into the risk factors for failure in the first-time screening test among high-risk neonates in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in order to further clarify the etiology of neonatal hearing impairment, thus providing insights into early prevention and intervention. Methods: We performed automated auditory brainstem response (AABR), distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE), and acoustic immittance (AI) on 2,194 high-risk neonates admitted into the NICU of Shanghai Children’s Medical Center from January 2015 to December 2019, and the risk factors, including premature birth, hyperbilirubinemia, and infant respiratory distress syndrome, were analyzed retrospectively by the univariate χ2 test and multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis. Results: The pass rates of AABR, DPOAE, and AI were 70.21, 78.44, and 93.12%, respectively, in 2,194 cases of high-risk neonates screened, which are significantly lower than those of healthy controls. The most common diagnoses included artificial feeding, preterm birth, C-section, low birth weight (LBW), neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (NHB), neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS), congenital heart disease (CHD), gestational diabetes mellitus, pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome, advanced maternal age (AMA), twins, and in vitro fertilization. Stepwise logistic regression analysis indicated that the AABR pass rate was negatively correlated with LBW (p = 0.002), NHB (p < 0.001), NRDS (p = 0.007), artificial or mixed feeding (p = 0.018), and CHD (p = 0.005). The pass rate of DPOAE was negatively correlated with artificial or mixed feeding (p = 0.041), NHB (p < 0.001), LBW (p = 0.007), very LBW (VLBW) (p = 0.008), and C-section (p < 0.001). The pass rate of AI was negatively correlated with revised AMA (≥40 year) (p < 0.001), NHB (p = 0.043), C-section (p = 0.005), and artificial/mixed feeding (p = 0.036). Conclusion: The hearing screening pass rates of high-risk neonates in the NICU were lower than those of normal neonates, among which the rate of AABR was significantly lower than that of DPOAE. NRDS, NHB, LBW, revised AMA, CHD, C-section, and artificial feeding are potential risk factors of hearing impairment. The combination of different hearing screening tests is necessary for accurate diagnosis of congenital hearing disorders.
Apple MPK4 Mediates Phosphorylation of MYB1 to Enhance Light-Induced Anthocyanin Accumulation.

Anthocyanins are plant pigments with diverse biological functions that contribute to fruit quality and are beneficial to human health. Anthocyanin accumulation can be influenced by environmental signals, such as light, and plants have developed sophisticated systems to receive and transduce these signals. However, the associated molecular mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we investigated the potential function of MAPKs (mitogen-activated protein kinases), which are members of the light signaling pathway, during light-induced anthocyanin accumulation in apple (Malus domestica) fruit peels. An antibody array and yeast two hybrid (Y2H) screen indicated that proteins encoded by two MdMPK4 genes are light-activated and interact with the transcription factor, and anthocyanin biosynthesis regulator, MdMYB1. A phosphorylation assay showed that the MdMPK4 proteins phosphorylate MdMYB1, thereby increasing its stability under light conditions. Transient transformation assays overexpress the MdMPK4 proteins and MdMYB1 further revealed that light-induced anthocyanin accumulation relies on MdMPK4 kinase activity and is required for maximum MdMYB1 activity. Based on the expression of the chromosome 6 allele, MdMPK4-06G, under light conditions and the presence of light response elements in the MdMPK4-06G promoter, we concluded that it is more responsive to light than the chromosome 14 allele, MdMPK4-14G. These results suggest a potential biotechnological strategy for increasing fruit anthocyanin content via light induction.
Perceiving threat in others: The role of body morphology

People make judgments of others based on appearance, and these inferences can affect social interactions. Although the importance of facial appearance in these judgments is well established, the impact of the body morphology remains unclear. Specifically, it is unknown whether experimentally varied body morphology has an impact on perception of threat in others. In two preregistered experiments (N = 250), participants made judgments of perceived threat of body stimuli of varying morphology, both in the absence (Experiment 1) and presence (Experiment 2) of facial information. Bodies were perceived as more threatening as they increased in mass with added musculature and portliness, and less threatening as they increased in emaciation. The impact of musculature endured even in the presence of faces, although faces contributed more to the overall threat judgment. The relative contributions of the faces and bodies seemed to be driven by discordance, such that threatening faces exerted the most influence when paired with non-threatening bodies, and vice versa. This suggests that the faces and bodies were not perceived as entirely independent and separate components. Overall, these findings suggest that body morphology plays an important role in perceived threat and may bias real-world judgments.
Mining heterogeneous clinical notes by multi-modal latent topic model

Latent knowledge can be extracted from the electronic notes that are recorded during patient encounters with the health system. Using these clinical notes to decipher a patient’s underlying comorbidites, symptom burdens, and treatment courses is an ongoing challenge. Latent topic model as an efficient Bayesian method can be used to model each patient’s clinical notes as “documents” and the words in the notes as “tokens”. However, standard latent topic models assume that all of the notes follow the same topic distribution, regardless of the type of note or the domain expertise of the author (such as doctors or nurses). We propose a novel application of latent topic modeling, using multi-note topic model (MNTM) to jointly infer distinct topic distributions of notes of different types. We applied our model to clinical notes from the MIMIC-III dataset to infer distinct topic distributions over the physician and nursing note types. Based on manual assessments made by clinicians, we observed a significant improvement in topic interpretability using MNTM modeling over the baseline single-note topic models that ignore the note types. Moreover, our MNTM model led to a significantly higher prediction accuracy for prolonged mechanical ventilation and mortality using only the first 48 hours of patient data. By correlating the patients’ topic mixture with hospital mortality and prolonged mechanical ventilation, we identified several diagnostic topics that are associated with poor outcomes. Because of its elegant and intuitive formation, we envision a broad application of our approach in mining multi-modality text-based healthcare information that goes beyond clinical notes. Code available at https://github.com/li-lab-mcgill/heterogeneous_ehr.
Critical Photoperiod and Its Potential to Predict Mosquito Distributions and Control Medically Important Pests

Abstract Diapause, a period of arrested development that allows mosquitoes to survive inhospitable conditions, is triggered by short daylengths in temperate mosquitoes. Different populations of mosquitoes initiate diapause in response to a specific photoperiod, or daylength, resulting in population-specific differences in annual cycles of abundance. The photoperiod that causes approximately 50% of a population to initiate diapause is known as the critical photoperiod (CPP). The autumn daylength corresponding to the CPP in the field likely marks the day beyond which the photoperiods would trigger and maintain 50% or more diapause incidence in a population, although temperature, diet, and other factors can impact diapause initiation. In the Northern Hemisphere, northern populations of mosquitoes experience lower temperatures earlier in the year and must be triggered into diapause by longer daylengths than southern populations. CPP is genetically based, but also adapts over time responding to the population's environment.Therefore, CPP has been shown to lengthen with increasing latitude and altitude. While the positive correlation between CPP and latitude/altitude has been established in a few mosquito species, including Aedes albopictus (Skuse, Diptera: Culicidae), Aedes triseriatus, Aedes sierrensis, and Wyeomyia smithii (Coquillett, Diptera: Culicidae), we do not know when most other species initiate their seasonal responses. As several of these species transmit important diseases, characterizing the CPP of arthropod vectors could improve existing control by ensuring that surveillance efforts align with the vector's seasonally active period. Additionally, better understanding when mosquitoes and other vectors initiate diapause can reduce the frequency of chemical applications, thereby ameliorating the negative impacts to nontarget insects.