bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conocimiento matemático de estudiantes para docentes de Educación Primaria: Análisis de variables
Authors: Segarra Jaime , Julià Carmen
Published: June 2020

En este trabajo investigativo, se estudia el conocimiento de números y geometría de estudiantes para docentes de Educación Primaria. La investigación es de tipo cuantitativo y se utilizaron técnicas de estadística descriptiva e inferencial. Para abordar el estudio, se seleccionaron 20 preguntas liberadas de las pruebas TIMSS y se aplicaron a 97 estudiantes de primer año del grado de Educación Primaria. Los resultados se presentaron en dos secciones diferentes. La primera de ellas muestra que quienes provienen de un bachillerato de Ciencias y quienes recibieron formación matemática en los dos últimos años obtuvieron puntuaciones más altas (p < 0.05). En la segunda sección, se indica que el estudiantado obtiene puntuaciones más altas en el dominio de contenidos de números y en el dominio cognitivo de conocer (p < 0.05). La indagación permitirá reforzar las debilidades que presentan los grupos de aprendices al rediseñar la asignatura Enseñanza y Aprendizaje de Matemáticas.
La infancia en el retrato español. Una mirada a la empatía en la formación del profesorado de Educación Primaria
Authors: Muñoz García Gemma , Jiménez Pablo Esther
Published: June 2020

Este trabajo pone de relieve el discurso de sectores olvidados por la historiografía y la Historia del Arte, en el marco de la formación del profesorado de Educación Primaria. Se ha seleccionado la infancia como realidad silenciada, y se ha analizado su representación en un género pictórico de gran potencial didáctico, el retrato. El estudio se ciñe especialmente a ejemplos representativos de la Edad Moderna, y más concretamente pertenecientes al ámbito español. Junto al potencial artístico del retrato, a la formación estética y metodológica, se pone en valor la empatía para trabajar y reflexionar sobre el pasado histórico.
Enseñar Ciencias Sociales entre riesgos e incertidumbres
Authors: Palma Valenzuela Andrés
Published: June 2020

Tiene por finalidad este trabajo identificar y valorar algunos de los riesgos que hoy amenazan la enseñanza de las Ciencias Sociales, tanto en el ámbito de la formación inicial del profesorado como en el de su enseñanza y aprendizaje en los diversos niveles de la enseñanza obligatoria. Sin ánimo de exhaustividad, y desde la experiencia profesional de su autor, se plantea un acercamiento a dicha cuestión junto con una propuesta de posibles retos a asumir cuyo logro puede contribuir a la mejora de la credibilidad y de la calidad de la Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales.
IMPLEMENTASI PROGRAM ADIWIYATA MANDIRI DALAM MENANAMKAN KARAKTER PEDULI LINGKUNGAN SISWA
Authors: Nuzulia Sri , Sukamto Sukamto , Purnomo Agus
Published: June 2020

AbstractAdiwiyata is an effort from the government to create a generation of people who are aware and have a sense of love and responsibility towards the environment. The adiwiyata program has become the flagship program implemented in SMP Negeri 15 Malang, as a basic curriculum in the learning and learning process based on environmental education that contains environmental care characters which are shown by respect for nature. The purpose of this study was to analyze the implementation of environmental care characters in SMP Negeri 15 Malang students. This study uses a qualitative approach to the type of descriptive research. Data collection techniques in research are interviews, observation, and documentation. The results showed that the adiwiyata program at SMP Negeri 15 Malang was implemented through extra-curricular activities and mandatory adiwiyata days, where students could care for the school environment to foster environmental attitudes and insights, while at the same time caring for the environment.Keywords : Adiwiyata, Implementation, Character Caring For The Environment                                                        Abstrak Adiwiyata merupakan upaya dari pemerintah untuk menciptakan generasi bangsa yang sadar dan memiliki rasa cinta dan tanggung-jawab terhadap lingkungan. Program adiwiyata menjadi program unggulan yang diterapkan di SMP Negeri 15 Malang, yakni sebagai kurikulum dasar dalam proses belajar dan pembelajaran berlandaskan pendidikan lingkungan hidup yang memuat karakter peduli lingkungan yang ditunjukkan dengan adanya penghargaan terhadap alam. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis implemetasi karakter peduli lingkungan pada siswa SMP Negeri 15 Malang. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan jenis penelitian deskriptif. Teknik pengumpulan data dalam penelitian adalah wawancara, observasi, dan dokumentasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa program adiwiyata di SMP Negeri 15 Malang diimplementasikan melalui kegiatan ekstra kurikuler dan hari wajib adiwiyata, di mana para siswa dapat merawat lingkungan sekolah guna menumbuhkan sikap dan wawasan lingkungan, sekaligus memiliki kepedulian terhadap lingkungan.Kata Kunci: Adiwiyata, Implementasi, dan Karakter Peduli Lingkungan.
Primary Health Care professionals’ knowledge about initial care for burn victims
Authors: Viana Fabrício de Oliveira , Eulálio Kelsen Dantas , Moura Luana Kelle Batista , Ribeiro Ivonizete Pires , Ramos Carmen Viana
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT Objectives: to assess Primary Health Care physicians and nurses’ knowledge about initial care for burn patients. Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional survey of 71 professionals between February 19 and March 30, 2018. A validated questionnaire was used to assess knowledge through the correct answers obtained in the tool; Mann-Whitney test to compare professionals’ level of knowledge; and logistic regression to investigate the association with other variables. Results: there was an overall wrong answer rate of 40.27% in a tool applied to the subject in relation to physicians and 45.59% of nurses, with no statistically significant difference among them (p=0.27). There was a positive association between level of knowledge and length of practice in Primary Health Care (p=0.043). 29.19% of physicians and 14.89% of nurses knew the Ministry of Health’s flowchart for initial care for burn victims. Conclusions: professionals had a low level of knowledge associated with their time in Primary Health Care.
Eficiência seletiva: uma perspectiva neo-Schumpeteriana evolucionária sobre questões econômicas normativas
Authors: POSSAS MARIO LUIZ
Published: June 2020

RESUMO Este trabalho pretende abordar um campo quase completamente desconsiderado na economia evolucionária neo-schumpeteriana: a teoria normativa e as questões de política de concorrência. A quantidade de modelagem e teorização apreciativa que foi produzida sob esta abordagem já é impressionante, mas falta um esforço correspondente em implicações normativas da teoria. Depois de discutir as limitações das ferramentas estáticas de eficiência de Pareto para análise e política de concorrência, especialmente em antitruste, algumas contribuições escassas para eficiência dinâmica e conceitos relacionados são brevemente revisadas. Por fim, um conceito alternativo de eficiência dinâmica denominado “eficiência seletiva”, enfocando a eficiência do mercado como um ambiente seletivo (apud Nelson & Winter), é apresentado e as linhas básicas de uma possível estrutura analítica para sua aplicação são sugeridas.
Escaping the debt constraint on growth: a suggested monetary policy for Brazil
Authors: PALLEY THOMAS I.
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT Existing interest rates imply explosive debt dynamics for Brazil. It also faces rising inflation from earlier currency depreciations, which could trigger future depreciation. These conditions impose a policy contradiction. Brazil needs lower interest rates for debt sustainability, but tight monetary policy to avoid exchange rate depreciation and inflation. The paper develops a strategy to escape this contradiction. Policy must bolster investor confidence to lower external interest rates, lower domestic interest rates to reduce debt service burdens, and implement domestic credit creation controls to control inflation.
Emerging arboviruses (dengue, chikungunya, and Zika) in Southeastern Mexico: influence of socio-environmental determinants on knowledge and practices
Authors: Causa Roberta , Ochoa-Díaz-López Héctor , Dor Ariane , Rodríguez-León Fernando , Solís-Hernández Roberto , Pacheco-Soriano Ana Laura
Published: June 2020

Abstract: The proliferation of arboviruses and their vectors is influenced by a complex interplay between vector, environment and human behaviors. The aim of this work is to analyze the influence of socio-environmental determinants on knowledge and practices regarding arboviruses transmission, among the residents of three communities on the southern border of Mexico. Between June 2017 and August 2018, a set of 149 households from three communities of Tapachula (Chiapas) and Villahermosa (Tabasco) were covered. This study consists of the application of a community prevention project. Different surveys and methodological approaches were used. Associations between socio-environmental determinants and knowledge and practices for arboviruses transmission control were estimated by odds ratio. Logistic regression and qualitative techniques were used. Although around 75% of households had an adequate knowledge about arboviruses’ origin and transmission, only 30% of them adopted adequate practices. Domestic risk practices were associated with serious deficiencies in water and sanitation services. Furthermore, a perception of greater risk and difficulty in complying with preventive measures were detected. An adequate knowledge does not necessarily lead to adequate prevention practices. Intermediate social determinants influence on the persistence of risk behaviors for arboviruses proliferation. Addressing such related aspects requires the achievement of an effective and sustainable vector management.
Vivências e Expectativas de Mulheres Solteiras Habilitadas para Adotar
Authors: Porta Daniele Dalla , Leão Flávia Elso , Antoniazzi Marina Peripolli , Siqueira Aline Cardoso
Published: June 2020

Resumo Este estudo objetivou conhecer a vivência de mulheres solteiras que estão na fila de espera para adoção. Participaram três mulheres com idades acima de 50 anos, boa escolaridade e boas condições financeiras. Foram utilizados um questionário sociodemográfico e uma entrevista. A análise de conteúdo evidenciou que as mulheres se sentiam preparadas para serem mães, afirmando que não precisavam de apoio para o cuidado do filho. As características da criança eram semelhantes às do perfil predominante dos casais adotantes e diferentes do perfil dos jovens elegíveis à adoção, favorecendo a morosidade do processo. São apresentadas propostas de aprimoramento do processo de adoção, como melhoramento no trabalho das equipes técnicas e maior debate quanto às características das crianças.
Intervenções Preventivas com Casais: O que Podemos Aprender com a Experiência Internacional?
Authors: Sardinha Aline , Féres-Carneiro Terezinha
Published: June 2020

Resumo A dissolução da unidade conjugal é um desafio familiar e para os diversos sistemas sociais a esta relacionados. O objetivo deste artigo é revisar a literatura sobre programas preventivos com casais, visando a identificar os formatos de sucesso, as lacunas existentes no que é oferecido no Brasil e o que podemos aprender com a experiência internacional. Os dados são apresentados e discutidos privilegiando os estudos que se mostraram teórica e empiricamente relevantes para o desenvolvimento de um programa adaptado à realidade brasileira. Os estudos encontrados apontam para a eficácia das intervenções preventivas na promoção de habilidades relacionadas à resiliência conjugal. Entretanto, os mecanismos de mudança implicados nesse processo e sua repercussão na qualidade conjugal ainda não foram esclarecidos.
Effect of different doses of dexamethasone on labor in Santa Inês ewes and its influence on the onset of labor and the expulsion of fetal membranes
Authors: Santos Elisiane S. , Bittencourt Rodrigo F. , Ribeiro Filho Antonio L. , Dantas Fernanda T.D. , Alves Álvaro , Carvalho João V.G.S. , Ayres Maria C.C.
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT: The induction of labor aims to concentrate births to follow up better the parturient and the first care to the neonates. However, even if the labor induction technique with dexamethasone administration has been successfully described since the late 1970s, few studies report the technique of birth development and neonatal vitality in Santa Inês sheep. This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of dexamethasone use in two doses (8 and 16mg) in labor induction of Santa Inês ewes at 145 days of gestation and to evaluate its effects on the birth characteristics. In this study, 58 ewes were used, raised in an extensive system in the experimental farms of UFBA, with confirmation pregnancy after fixed-time artificial insemination or controlled breeding. These female ewes were separated into three groups according to the dose of dexamethasone administered (G1 = 0mg, G2 = 8mg, and G3 = 16mg). From these births, 79 lambs were born. This study analyzed the period from induction of labor to birth, fetal presentation at birth, the weight of the placenta, and the period for placenta expulsion. The data were analyzed by the Statistical Analysis System (SAS v.9.1.3®, 2002), and the significance level considered for all analyzes was 5%. Births of induced groups occurred on average at 48.4±22.17 hours after induction, while the females with non-induced labor gave birth 131.96±41.9 hours on average after the placebo application (P<0.05), confirming the efficiency of both doses for induction of labor. The period from induction to birth did not differ (P>0.05) between the doses used. There were no differences in delivery about the fetal static relation, time to placental attachment, and weight. With this study, it can be concluded that the induction at 145 days of gestation with eight or 16mg of dexamethasone is a useful technique and does not alter the labor in Santa Inês sheep.
Effect of pre-anesthetic fasting on gastric emptying and plasma glucose in healthy dogs of different age groups
Authors: Lecheta Danielle R. , Silva Dheywid K.M. , Santos Guilherme A. , Cunha Marcelo S. , Gaspar Tamiris T. , Lopes Bruno A. , Deboleto Sandriele G.C. , Braz Paulo H.
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT: Gastric emptying and plasma glucose were evaluated in young and adult dogs, fed with dry and wet food, submitted to different periods of pre-anesthetic fasting (6, 8, and 12 hours). Forty healthy dogs were selected, which were segmented into four groups according to the age group and type of diet. It was evaluated the gastric emptying by ultrasound and serum glycemia. Only 17.5% presented complete gastric emptying, and no significant differences were found between the 6 and 8-hour fasting evaluations, or between the age groups and the diets, considering significance level p<0.05. Mean plasma glucose values from the groups indicated normal glycemia at all times of evaluation. A significant difference was found between the means of glycemia in young and adult dogs, with the 8-hour fasting with wet diet (p=0.03) and with 12 hours with dry diet (p=0.04). Healthy young and adult dogs, in physiological equilibrium, maintain average values of plasma glucose despite prolonged periods of pre-anesthetic fasting, which may be necessary, since 8-hour fasting for solid food is not enough to provide complete gastric emptying.
Cattle rabies: the effect of clinical evolution, viral genetic lineage, and viral load on the severity of histological lesions
Authors: Wisser Claudia S. , Thaler Neto André , Batista Helena B.C.R. , Mori Enio , Chierato Maria E.R. , Fernandes Marcélia E.S. , Traverso Sandra D.
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT: Our objective was the characterization and staging of histological lesions in different anatomical sites of the central nervous system (CNS) of rabid cattle. The severity of the lesions was compared with the clinical stages of the disease, the variants of viral isolates, and with the load of virus. Thirty-one spontaneously affected rabid cattle the state of Santa Catarina underwent clinical follow-up and were eventually necropsied. CNS tissues were sampled and submitted to direct fluorescent antibody technique (DFAT), immunohistochemistry (IHC), routine histopathology with hematoxylin and eosin stain (HE), reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and polymerase chain reaction in quantitative reverse transcriptase in real time (qRT-PCR). Affected cattle were allotted in four groups according to their clinical stage when euthanized: G1, euthanized while standing; G2, euthanized when in sternal recumbence; G3, euthanized when in lateral recumbence; and G4, affected cattle with natural death. In order to evaluate the degree of severity of the lesions and the presence of Negri bodies (NBs), the brain was sectioned at 9 sites. Additionally, spinal cord and trigeminal ganglion sections were examined. The intensity of the lesions was graded as either absent, mild, moderate, or marked, and the presence or absence of the NBs was noted. Histological lesions were characterized by lymphocytic and monocytic meningoencephalitis with NBs in 28 cases. In all analyzed groups, intensities of histological lesions ranging from mild to severe were observed. Brain regions with the highest inflammatory lesion intensity were the medulla at the level of obex, followed by the colliculus and thalamus. NBs were observed in a higher percentage in the cerebellum, followed by medulla at the obex level, striatum complex, and frontal telencephalon. The duration of the clinical course of the disease did not influence the intensity of the inflammatory lesion, but it did influence the presence of NBs, with a higher percentage of these inclusions in cattle that died naturally than in euthanized cattle. All isolated rhabdovirus included in this study were genetically compatible with samples from hematophagous bats Desmodus rotundus. The evaluation by qRT-PCR did not demonstrate a correlation between lesion intensity and the amount of virus.
Effect of refrigeration at -1°C on spermatozoa quality of domestic cats
Authors: Souza Anne K. , Trautwein Luiz Guilherme C. , Paranzini Cristiane S. , Schnitzer Josiana F. , Perencin Felipe M. , Cardoso Guilherme S. , Martins Maria Isabel M.
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to evaluate the sperm quality obtained of domestic cats by electroejaculation and recovery of the tail of the epididymis after cooling at -1°C and 4°C for 24 and 48 hours. Twenty-nine adult cats (2 to 6kg) were used. Sperm collection was performed by electroejaculation (EEJ), and after 48 hours, the cats were orchiectomized, and sperm sample was obtained from the vas deferens and epididymis tail (EPD). The samples were diluted in ACP-117® extender, and the sperm characteristics were evaluated at three different moments: when still fresh, 24 and 48 hours after cooling. In order to compare the two refrigeration temperatures, the first stage was to analyze if there was a difference between the harvesting techniques. After this, two experiments were conducted: in the first, sperm sample from 14 cats were used and the cooling was performed at -1°C; and in the second, sample from 15 cats were used and the sperm were refrigerated at 4°C. Sperm kinetics were evaluated by computerized analysis (CASA) and concentration by Neubauer chamber, spermatic morphology was evaluated by modified Karras staining, and membrane integrity was evaluated by eosin nigrosine. The results obtained were analyzed in R software, version 3.2.5 using the Mann-Whitney test for variables with abnormal distributions, considering significance at the level of 5%. In ejaculate samples, higher values of total morphological defects were observed after 24 and 48 hours of refrigeration at 4°C (P<0.022) compared to refrigeration at -1°C, using Friedman test. To quantify the decrease in sperm quality, parameter reductions were calculated among time points (F-24h/F-48h/24h-48h). In EPD samples, a greater reduction in sperm quality was detected after 24 hours of refrigeration at 4°C, both in motility and sperm kinetics and in the movement and velocity indices, compared to refrigeration at -1°C. Based on the results, it can be concluded that cooling of feline spermatozoa at -1°C for up to 48 hours was efficient in maintaining spermatic quality collected by EEJ and EPD, and it could be an alternative to spermatozoa cryopreservation in domestic felines.
Sclerotherapy as treatment of lingual hemangioma: clinical case report
Authors: OLIVEIRA Mirlany Mendes Maciel , SILVA Bruno Araújo da
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT Hemangioma is a benign neoplasm characterized by abnormal proliferation of blood vessels. It is mainly located in the head and neck region, especially in the tongue, jugal mucosa, and lips. The main complaints of patients concern esthetic and functional issues, and the diagnosis is made through clinical examination and semio-technical maneuvers. Hemangioma has a wide range of treatment options, and there should be an individual analysis of each case for a more efficient therapeutic choice. Sclerotherapy as a treatment method for hemangioma provides a noninvasive, low cost intervention with satisfactory resolution in a short period of time. The aim of this study is to present the case of a hemangioma with 20 years of evolution, located in the lingual body region in a hypertensive patient, treated with sclerotherapy using the 5% ethanolamine oleate sclerosing agent, with total regression of the lesion. The sclerotherapy in this case was an efficient treatment modality. Through a non-surgical procedure and in a short period of time there was total remission of the lesion.
Individual biosafety barrier in dentistry: an alternative in times of covid-19. Preliminary study
Authors: MONTALLI Victor Angelo Martins , GARCEZ Aguinaldo Silva , MONTALLI Gabriel Angelo Martins , FRANÇA Fabiana Mantovani Gomes , SUZUKI Selly Sayuri , MIAN Letícia Marques Tondini , MOTTA Rogério Heládio Lopes , NAPIMOGA Marcelo Henrique , JUNQUEIRA José Luiz Cintra
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT The return to dental practice in pandemic times is a new challenge due to the generation and dispersion of droplets and aerosols that may contain the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the etiological agent of covid-19. In the last months some droplet and aerosol containment strategies have been circulating on the internet, however, until now there is no evidence in the literature to prove the effectiveness of such barriers. Thus, using a microbial dispersion model with the fast handpiece, the aim of this preliminary study was to compare the dispersion caused by the the dental drill (DD) alone or in association with an individual biosafety barrier (IDBD / DD), which consisted of a layer of PVC film combined to a layer of polypropylene mounted on a frame. The dental drill was activated for one minute having had the water from the reservoir been replaced with a suspension of Lactobacillus casei Shirota. Petri dishes containing MRS agar were positioned at 50, 100 and 150 cm from the headboard of the dental chair at different angles (90 and 0 degrees). At 50 cm, the mean (standard deviation) of L. casei Shirota for DD was 13,554.59 (493.48) CFU, while for IDBD / DD was 570.67 (60.54) CFU (p <0.0001), establishing a 96% reduction. Considering these preliminary results, the individual biosafety barrier proved effective in reducing dispersion from the dental drill in this study model, which suggests that this barrier may be a viable option to optimize biosafety in the dental environment.
A new species of Knodus (Characiformes: Characidae: Stevardiinae) from the rio Aripuanã, rio Madeira basin, Brazil
Authors: Menezes Naércio A. , Ferreira Katiane M. , Netto-Ferreira André L.
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT A new species of the characid genus Knodus is described from the rio Aripuanã (rio Madeira basin). It can be distinguished from its congeners by its very low body depth, the presence of tri- to pentacuspid teeth on the outer premaxillary series, with the median cuspid larger than the lateral ones, the teeth of the inner premaxillary series pentacuspid, distinctly larger than those of the outer series, the maxillary teeth tri- to pentacuspid, with the median cusp slightly larger than the lateral ones, the four anteriormost dentary teeth pentacuspid, the smaller posterior teeth tri- to pentacuspid, a complete lateral line with 36-38 scales, 3 longitudinal scale series from pelvic fin origin to lateral line, and 11-12 circumpeduncular scales. The new species is also compared to incertae sedis species of ‘Bryconamericus’ from northern South America since phylogenetic studies suggest a closer relationship of those species with Knodus.
Reasoning on Knowledge Graphs with Debate Dynamics
Authors: Hildebrandt Marcel , Quintero Serna Jorge Andres , Ma Yunpu , Ringsquandl Martin , Joblin Mitchell , Tresp Volker
Published: June 2020

We propose a novel method for automatic reasoning on knowledge graphs based on debate dynamics. The main idea is to frame the task of triple classification as a debate game between two reinforcement learning agents which extract arguments – paths in the knowledge graph – with the goal to promote the fact being true (thesis) or the fact being false (antithesis), respectively. Based on these arguments, a binary classifier, called the judge, decides whether the fact is true or false. The two agents can be considered as sparse, adversarial feature generators that present interpretable evidence for either the thesis or the antithesis. In contrast to other black-box methods, the arguments allow users to get an understanding of the decision of the judge. Since the focus of this work is to create an explainable method that maintains a competitive predictive accuracy, we benchmark our method on the triple classification and link prediction task. Thereby, we find that our method outperforms several baselines on the benchmark datasets FB15k-237, WN18RR, and Hetionet. We also conduct a survey and find that the extracted arguments are informative for users.
A Causal Inference Method for Reducing Gender Bias in Word Embedding Relations
Authors: Yang Zekun , Feng Juan
Published: June 2020

Word embedding has become essential for natural language processing as it boosts empirical performances of various tasks. However, recent research discovers that gender bias is incorporated in neural word embeddings, and downstream tasks that rely on these biased word vectors also produce gender-biased results. While some word-embedding gender-debiasing methods have been developed, these methods mainly focus on reducing gender bias associated with gender direction and fail to reduce the gender bias presented in word embedding relations. In this paper, we design a causal and simple approach for mitigating gender bias in word vector relation by utilizing the statistical dependency between gender-definition word embeddings and gender-biased word embeddings. Our method attains state-of-the-art results on gender-debiasing tasks, lexical- and sentence-level evaluation tasks, and downstream coreference resolution tasks.
MixPoet: Diverse Poetry Generation via Learning Controllable Mixed Latent Space
Authors: Yi Xiaoyuan , Li Ruoyu , Yang Cheng , Li Wenhao , Sun Maosong
Published: June 2020

As an essential step towards computer creativity, automatic poetry generation has gained increasing attention these years. Though recent neural models make prominent progress in some criteria of poetry quality, generated poems still suffer from the problem of poor diversity. Related literature researches show that different factors, such as life experience, historical background, etc., would influence composition styles of poets, which considerably contributes to the high diversity of human-authored poetry. Inspired by this, we propose MixPoet, a novel model that absorbs multiple factors to create various styles and promote diversity. Based on a semi-supervised variational autoencoder, our model disentangles the latent space into some subspaces, with each conditioned on one influence factor by adversarial training. In this way, the model learns a controllable latent variable to capture and mix generalized factor-related properties. Different factor mixtures lead to diverse styles and hence further differentiate generated poems from each other. Experiment results on Chinese poetry demonstrate that MixPoet improves both diversity and quality against three state-of-the-art models.
Meta-CoTGAN: A Meta Cooperative Training Paradigm for Improving Adversarial Text Generation
Authors: Yin Haiyan , Li Dingcheng , Li Xu , Li Ping
Published: June 2020

Training generative models that can generate high-quality text with sufficient diversity is an important open problem for Natural Language Generation (NLG) community. Recently, generative adversarial models have been applied extensively on text generation tasks, where the adversarially trained generators alleviate the exposure bias experienced by conventional maximum likelihood approaches and result in promising generation quality. However, due to the notorious defect of mode collapse for adversarial training, the adversarially trained generators face a quality-diversity trade-off, i.e., the generator models tend to sacrifice generation diversity severely for increasing generation quality. In this paper, we propose a novel approach which aims to improve the performance of adversarial text generation via efficiently decelerating mode collapse of the adversarial training. To this end, we introduce a cooperative training paradigm, where a language model is cooperatively trained with the generator and we utilize the language model to efficiently shape the data distribution of the generator against mode collapse. Moreover, instead of engaging the cooperative update for the generator in a principled way, we formulate a meta learning mechanism, where the cooperative update to the generator serves as a high level meta task, with an intuition of ensuring the parameters of the generator after the adversarial update would stay resistant against mode collapse. In the experiment, we demonstrate our proposed approach can efficiently slow down the pace of mode collapse for the adversarial text generators. Overall, our proposed method is able to outperform the baseline approaches with significant margins in terms of both generation quality and diversity in the testified domains.
DCMN+: Dual Co-Matching Network for Multi-Choice Reading Comprehension
Authors: Zhang Shuailiang , Zhao Hai , Wu Yuwei , Zhang Zhuosheng , Zhou Xi , Zhou Xiang
Published: June 2020

Multi-choice reading comprehension is a challenging task to select an answer from a set of candidate options when given passage and question. Previous approaches usually only calculate question-aware passage representation and ignore passage-aware question representation when modeling the relationship between passage and question, which cannot effectively capture the relationship between passage and question. In this work, we propose dual co-matching network (DCMN) which models the relationship among passage, question and answer options bidirectionally. Besides, inspired by how humans solve multi-choice questions, we integrate two reading strategies into our model: (i) passage sentence selection that finds the most salient supporting sentences to answer the question, (ii) answer option interaction that encodes the comparison information between answer options. DCMN equipped with the two strategies (DCMN+) obtains state-of-the-art results on five multi-choice reading comprehension datasets from different domains: RACE, SemEval-2018 Task 11, ROCStories, COIN, MCTest.
Filling Conversation Ellipsis for Better Social Dialog Understanding
Authors: Zhang Xiyuan , Li Chengxi , Yu Dian , Davidson Samuel , Yu Zhou
Published: June 2020

The phenomenon of ellipsis is prevalent in social conversations. Ellipsis increases the difficulty of a series of downstream language understanding tasks, such as dialog act prediction and semantic role labeling. We propose to resolve ellipsis through automatic sentence completion to improve language understanding. However, automatic ellipsis completion can result in output which does not accurately reflect user intent. To address this issue, we propose a method which considers both the original utterance that has ellipsis and the automatically completed utterance in dialog act and semantic role labeling tasks. Specifically, we first complete user utterances to resolve ellipsis using an end-to-end pointer network model. We then train a prediction model using both utterances containing ellipsis and our automatically completed utterances. Finally, we combine the prediction results from these two utterances using a selection model that is guided by expert knowledge. Our approach improves dialog act prediction and semantic role labeling by 1.3% and 2.5% in F1 score respectively in social conversations. We also present an open-domain human-machine conversation dataset with manually completed user utterances and annotated semantic role labeling after manual completion.
Semantics-Aware BERT for Language Understanding
Authors: Zhang Zhuosheng , Wu Yuwei , Zhao Hai , Li Zuchao , Zhang Shuailiang , Zhou Xi , Zhou Xiang
Published: June 2020

The latest work on language representations carefully integrates contextualized features into language model training, which enables a series of success especially in various machine reading comprehension and natural language inference tasks. However, the existing language representation models including ELMo, GPT and BERT only exploit plain context-sensitive features such as character or word embeddings. They rarely consider incorporating structured semantic information which can provide rich semantics for language representation. To promote natural language understanding, we propose to incorporate explicit contextual semantics from pre-trained semantic role labeling, and introduce an improved language representation model, Semantics-aware BERT (SemBERT), which is capable of explicitly absorbing contextual semantics over a BERT backbone. SemBERT keeps the convenient usability of its BERT precursor in a light fine-tuning way without substantial task-specific modifications. Compared with BERT, semantics-aware BERT is as simple in concept but more powerful. It obtains new state-of-the-art or substantially improves results on ten reading comprehension and language inference tasks.
Semi-Supervised Text Simplification with Back-Translation and Asymmetric Denoising Autoencoders
Authors: Zhao Yanbin , Chen Lu , Chen Zhi , Yu Kai
Published: June 2020

Text simplification (TS) rephrases long sentences into simplified variants while preserving inherent semantics. Traditional sequence-to-sequence models heavily rely on the quantity and quality of parallel sentences, which limits their applicability in different languages and domains. This work investigates how to leverage large amounts of unpaired corpora in TS task. We adopt the back-translation architecture in unsupervised machine translation (NMT), including denoising autoencoders for language modeling and automatic generation of parallel data by iterative back-translation. However, it is non-trivial to generate appropriate complex-simple pair if we directly treat the set of simple and complex corpora as two different languages, since the two types of sentences are quite similar and it is hard for the model to capture the characteristics in different types of sentences. To tackle this problem, we propose asymmetric denoising methods for sentences with separate complexity. When modeling simple and complex sentences with autoencoders, we introduce different types of noise into the training process. Such a method can significantly improve the simplification performance. Our model can be trained in both unsupervised and semi-supervised manner. Automatic and human evaluations show that our unsupervised model outperforms the previous systems, and with limited supervision, our model can perform competitively with multiple state-of-the-art simplification systems.
Evaluating Commonsense in Pre-Trained Language Models
Authors: Zhou Xuhui , Zhang Yue , Cui Leyang , Huang Dandan
Published: June 2020

Contextualized representations trained over large raw text data have given remarkable improvements for NLP tasks including question answering and reading comprehension. There have been works showing that syntactic, semantic and word sense knowledge are contained in such representations, which explains why they benefit such tasks. However, relatively little work has been done investigating commonsense knowledge contained in contextualized representations, which is crucial for human question answering and reading comprehension. We study the commonsense ability of GPT, BERT, XLNet, and RoBERTa by testing them on seven challenging benchmarks, finding that language modeling and its variants are effective objectives for promoting models' commonsense ability while bi-directional context and larger training set are bonuses. We additionally find that current models do poorly on tasks require more necessary inference steps. Finally, we test the robustness of models by making dual test cases, which are correlated so that the correct prediction of one sample should lead to correct prediction of the other. Interestingly, the models show confusion on these test cases, which suggests that they learn commonsense at the surface rather than the deep level. We release a test set, named CATs publicly, for future research.
Observed behaviour of old railway embankments formed of ash and dumped clay fill
Authors: Standing Jamie R. , Vaughan Peter R. , Charles-Jones Selwyn , McGinnity Brian T.
Published: June 2020

Many old railway embankments were originally formed from loose dumped clay fill on which ash fill was subsequently placed to maintain the track level. These have required considerable maintenance, primarily because of embankment movements. They are mostly covered by trees, and tree roots are present in both fills. As part of a London Underground Limited programme of stabilisation works in the 1990s, two embankments were instrumented to investigate the mechanisms and causes of movement. Lateral deformations, settlements and pore pressures were measured. This paper describes the instrumentation and monitoring techniques that were adopted and presents the findings from the study. It was found that non-recoverable seasonal movements occur in both the ash fill and the clay fill. The former occur in dry weather, particularly in the slopes of the embankments crests, due to ash particle mobility under train loading when the ash is dry. Clay fill deformations are exacerbated by the presence of tree roots. Movements correlate well with climate, as quantified by the soil moisture deficit determined from meteorological data. Establishing the mechanisms of movement within these ash–clay fill embankments helped to guide the design of stabilising measures.
Investigation of heat-transfer and fluid dynamic of nanofluids used in heating building
Authors: Maher Dhahri , Hana Aouinet , Habib Sammouda
Published: June 2020

This paper proposes an approach to investigating numerically the behavior of pressure drop and heat transfer flowing through a pipe under constant wall heat flux for copper (II) oxide (CuO), aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanofluids. This approach consists of (a) using the industrial computational fluid dynamics code Ansys CFX 15 for all the simulations reported in this paper, (b) validating the numerical results for the flow of water by comparing the Nusselt number and friction factor in a circular tube used in heating buildings in cold regions and (c) evaluating the use of the three nanofluids in heating buildings. An excellent concordance is obtained with the water- and nanofluid-associated theoretical–empirical heat transfer and pressure drop correlations. Numerical results showed that the use of nanofluids in heating buildings is more efficient. From the thermal condition, the aluminum oxide nanofluid is more effective than the copper (II) oxide and silicon dioxide nanofluids, and the performance index of the aluminum oxide nanofluid is also higher compared with those of copper (II) oxide and silicon dioxide nanofluids. The analysis shows that using nanofluids in heat exchangers could reduce volumetric and mass flow rates. Nanofluids require smaller heating systems, which are able to distribute the same quantity of thermal energy using base fluids. This will also reduce environmental pollutants because smaller heating units use less power.
Epithelial Vasopressin Type-2 Receptors Regulate Myofibroblasts by a YAP-CCN2–Dependent Mechanism in Polycystic Kidney Disease
Authors: Dwivedi Nidhi , Tao Shixin , Jamadar Abeda , Sinha Sonali , Howard Christianna , Wallace Darren P. , Fields Timothy A. , Leask Andrew , Calvet James P. , Rao Reena
Published: June 2020

Significance Statement

In autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), progressive fibrosis contributes to renal failure, leading to ESKD. The vasopressin type-2 receptor (V2R) helps to regulate renal water homeostasis and stimulates cyst expansion in ADPKD. We discovered a novel pathogenic pathway behind V2R regulation of fibrosis in ADPKD kidneys. Epithelial V2R stimulation activates interstitial myofibroblasts, in a paracrine manner, in Pkd1 gene knockout (KO) mice. Pharmacologic inhibition and gene knockout studies indicated that V2R regulates myofibroblast activation by a yes-associated protein (YAP)– and connective tissue growth factor (CCN2)–dependent mechanism. The V2R-YAP-CCN2 molecular axis may present novel pharmacologic targets for control of fibrosis in ADPKD.

Background

Fibrosis is a major cause of loss of renal function in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). In this study, we examined whether vasopressin type-2 receptor (V2R) activity in cystic epithelial cells can stimulate interstitial myofibroblasts and fibrosis in ADPKD kidneys.

Methods

We treated Pkd1 gene knockout (Pkd1KO) mice with dDAVP, a V2R agonist, for 3 days and evaluated the effect on myofibroblast deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM). We also analyzed the effects of conditioned media from primary cultures of human ADPKD cystic epithelial cells on myofibroblast activation. Because secretion of the profibrotic connective tissue growth factor (CCN2) increased significantly in dDAVP-treated Pkd1KO mouse kidneys, we examined its role in V2R-dependent fibrosis in ADPKD as well as that of yes-associated protein (YAP).

Results

V2R stimulation using dDAVP increased the renal interstitial myofibroblast population and ECM deposition. Similarly, conditioned media from human ADPKD cystic epithelial cells increased myofibroblast activation in vitro, suggesting a paracrine mechanism. Renal collecting duct–specific gene deletion of CCN2 significantly reduced cyst growth and myofibroblasts in Pkd1KO mouse kidneys. We found that YAP regulates CCN2, and YAP inhibition or gene deletion reduces renal fibrosis in Pkd1KO mouse kidneys. Importantly, YAP inactivation blocks the dDAVP-induced increase in myofibroblasts in Pkd1KO kidneys. Further in vitro studies showed that V2R regulates YAP by an ERK1/2-dependent mechanism in human ADPKD cystic epithelial cells.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate a novel mechanism by which cystic epithelial cells stimulate myofibroblasts in the pericystic microenvironment, leading to fibrosis in ADPKD. The V2R-YAP-CCN2 cell signaling pathway may present a potential therapeutic target for fibrosis in ADPKD.
The Historical Account Of ʿabd Al-Jabbār Al-Hamadani’s Physicalist Conception Of Human Soul
Authors: Zafar Abdulbasit
Published: June 2020

This study aims to go through Muʿtazilite understandings of a man briefly and expounds on Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Hamadani’s (d. 1025) strong rejection of any non-physicalist view of man and his soul. Amongst the Mu'tazilite school prevailed three distinct views on man, hence of the soul; the non-physicalist tradition represented by Ibrāhīm b. Sayyār an-Naẓẓām (d. 836) who claimed that man is the dwelling soul in the human corpse. The dualist view as advocated by Muʿammar b. ʿAbbād (d. 830) who understood man as a combination of the material body and immaterial soul. The third view is the so-called materialist stance on the human being. Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbār as one of the advocates of this view argues that man does not possess any immaterial or immortal soul. This paper proposes that such a peculiar view of man was the natural outcome of ʿAbd al-Jabbār’s cosmological setting and his sensitivity towards legal matters (talkif). ʿAbd al-Jabbār’s image of man does not need other; a soul, to make him will or capable of certain actions, for man is this corporeal body which could be seen in its actuality, and experienced in its totality. Therefore, he defines man (šaẖs) as a living being (ḥayy), having volition (murid), capable of acting voluntarily (qādir) and consequently entitles him with the responsibility for moral and religious obligations (al-mukallaf). It could be widely observed that Qadi, though admits the presence of soul in the body for its being alive, does not consider it to be living in itself or eternal. The soul, however, is the contingent breath, by which lightweight bodies (air) are inhaled and exhaled. It is an integral part of a living human being such as his flesh, blood or body structures.
Kur’ân’ın Cem‘İ Meselesine Süyûtî Vechesinden Bir Bakış
Authors: Akaslan Yaşar
Published: June 2020

Kur’ân’ın cem‘i, Kur’ân ve kıraat tarihinin önemli mevzularından birisidir. Vahyin metinleşmesi bağlamında fikir beyan eden âlimler, üzerinde farklı değerlendirmelerin olduğu Kur’ân’ın cem‘i meselesini, muhtelif rivâyetler ışığında irdelemişlerdir. Özellikle oryantalistlerin ilgisini çeken ve istismara açık bir konu gibi duran Kur’ân’ın derlenmesi hakkındaki mevcut rivâyetler, kaynaklarda oldukça tafsilatlı ele alınmıştır. Esasen farklı tanım ve boyutları bulunan cem‘ kavramının mahiyetine dair yapılagelen tartışmalar meseleyi geniş çaplı ele almayı zorunlu kılmıştır. Gerek mevzu hakkındaki rivâyetlere gerekse şahsî değerlendirmelerine yer veren Süyûtî bu bağlamda literatürde önemli yer tutmuştur. Zira kendisinden istifade edilen bir kaynak olarak Süyûtî, gerek oryantalistler gerekse Müslümanlar için önemli referans olmuştur. Bu itibarla çalışmada birbirinden farklı rivâyetleri ele alan Süyûtî’ninKur’ân’ın cem‘i meselesine bakışı incelenecektir.
Eyyûbîler Dönemi Dımaşk’ta Mezhep Tartışmaları: Sıbt İbnü’l-Cevzî’nin “el-İntisâr ve’t-tercîh li’l-mezhebi’s-sahîh” Adlı Eseri Bağlamında Hanefi Mezhebinin Diğer Mezheplere Tercih Gerekçeleri
Authors: İnanır Ahmet
Published: June 2020

Bu çalışma, Sıbt İbnü’l-Cevzî’nin “el-İntisâr ve’t-tercîh li’l-mezhebi’s-sahîh” adlı eseri bağlamında Hanefi mezhebinin diğer mezheplere tercih gerekçelerini incelemektedir. Eserin yazılış amacı Eyyûbîler döneminde Ebû Hanîfe ve Hanefi mezhebi aleyhine ortaya atılan bazı iddialara karşı, Ebû Hanife’yi savunmak onun diğerlerinden üstün bir müçtehit olduğunu ortaya koymaktır. Sıbt İbnü’l-Cevzî eserinde Hanefî mezhebini diğer mezheplere göre kamu yararını gözeten, devlet başkanına daha geniş yetkiler veren ve halkın işlerini kolaylaştırıcı çözümler sunan, Kur’an ve sünnete en uygun hükümleri içeren bir mezhep olarak nitelendirmektedir. Eser, konu ve içerik bakımından Şâfiî mezhebini önceleyen siyasi tercihin Hanefî mezhebi lehine dönmeye başladığı bir zaman diliminde Şâfiîlerin aleyhteki iddialarına etraflı bir cevap mahiyetinde gibidir. Hanefî mezhebinin Dımaşk ve Kahire’de varlığını devam ettirmesine katkı sunan öncü ve hacimli çalışmalardan biri olduğu söylenebilir. Zira burada yer alan çeşitli delil ve örneklerin sonraki dönemlerde yazılan bazı eserlere de ilham kaynağı olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Siyasi ve sosyal şartlar gereği zaman zaman ortaya çıkan etkinlik mücadelesi dışında fıkhî çeşitliliği zenginlik olarak gören hoşgörü anlayışının bu coğrafyada belirleyici ana eksen olduğu açıktır. Ayrıca bu eser, Hanefî mezhebinin üstünlüğünü ortaya koymaya çalışanların önceki mezheplerini değiştirerek Hanefî mezhebini tercih eden yönetici ve âlimler olması dikkat çekmektedir. Bunda kamu yararını önceleyen fıkıh anlayışının etkili olduğu anlaşılmaktadır.