nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Unsupervised Neural Machine Translation Initialized by Unsupervised Statistical Machine Translation
Venue: ArXiv
Year: 2018

Recent work achieved remarkable results in training neural machine translation (NMT) systems in a fully unsupervised way, with new and dedicated architectures that rely on monolingual corpora only. In this work, we propose to define unsupervised NMT (UNMT) as NMT trained with the supervision of synthetic bilingual data. Our approach straightforwardly enables the use of state of the art architectures proposed for supervised NMT by replacing human made bilingual data with synthetic bilingual data for training. We propose to initialize the training of UNMT with synthetic bilingual data generated by unsupervised statistical machine translation (USMT) The UNMT system is then incrementally improved using back translation. Our preliminary experiments show that our approach achieves a new state of the art for unsupervised machine translation on the WMT16 German English news translation task, for both translation directions.
Reiterated Concerns and Further Challenges for Mindfulness and Meditation Research: A Reply to Davidson and Dahl
Venue: Perspectives on psychological science a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
Year: 2018

In response to our article, Davidson and Dahl offer commentary and advice regarding additional topics crucial to a comprehensive prescriptive agenda for future research on mindfulness and meditation. Their commentary raises further challenges and provides an important complement to our article. More consideration of these issues is especially welcome because limited space precluded us from addressing all relevant topics. While we agree with many of Davidson and Dahl's suggestions, the present reply (a) highlights reasons why the concerns we expressed are still especially germane to mindfulness and meditation research (even though those concerns may not be entirely unique) and (b) gives more context to other issues posed by them. We discuss special characteristics of individuals who participate in mindfulness and meditation research and focus on the vulnerability of this field inherent in its relative youthfulness compared to other more mature scientific disciplines. Moreover, our reply highlights the serious consequences of adverse experiences suffered by a significant subset of individuals during mindfulness and other contemplative practices. We also scrutinize common contemporary applications of mindfulness and meditation to illness, and some caveats are introduced regarding mobile technologies for guidance of contemplative practices.
A research on reading comprehension and morphological awareness levels of middle school students and the relationship between these concepts
Venue: Dil ve Dilbilimi Calismalari Dergisi
Year: 2019

This study aims to determine the levels of reading comprehension and morphological awareness in middle school students and to examine the dimensions of these two concepts by illustrating the existence of a relationship between them. The study group of the research conducted with the relational screening model consists of 1561 students in the 5 th 6 th 7 th and 8 th grades from the cities located in six different regions of Turkey. Morphological awareness test and the reading comprehension tests developed separately for each grade were used in the collection of data obtained between the years of 2016 2018. According to the results, it was seen that the reading comprehension levels of the middle school students were moderate that there was a significant difference between the grades in terms of the success in the reading comprehension in favor of the upper grades, and that the female students had better reading comprehension skills compared to the male students. According to the other results obtained from the research, it was observed that the students in the 5 th and 6 th grades were at a low level in terms of morphological awareness, that the levels of the students in the 7 th and 8 th grades were moderate and that there was a significant difference among the grades and between the genders in terms of the success. Lastly, it was understood that there was a high level relationship between the reading comprehension and morphological awareness. Accordingly, it was determined that the success in morphological awareness was at a higher level in the students having a high rate of success in terms of reading comprehension, and that the students having lower morphological awareness got lower scores in reading comprehension tests.
Static network analysis of a pork supply chain in Northern Germany Characterisation of the potential spread of infectious diseases via animal movements.
Venue: Preventive veterinary medicine
Year: 2013

Transport of live animals is a major risk factor in the spread of infectious diseases between holdings. The present study analysed the pork supply chain of a producer community in Northern Germany. The structure of trade networks can be characterised by carrying out a network analysis. To identify holdings with a central position in this directed network of pig production, several parameters describing these properties were measured (in degree, out degree, ingoing and outgoing infection chain, betweenness centrality and ingoing and outgoing closeness centrality) To obtain the importance of the different holding types (multiplier, farrowing farms, finishing farms and farrow to finishing farms) within the pyramidal structure of the pork supply chain, centrality parameters were calculated for the entire network as well as for the individual holding types. Using these centrality parameters, two types of holdings could be identified. In the network studied, finishing and farrow to finishing farms were more likely to be infected due to the high number of ingoing trade contacts. Due to the high number of outgoing trade contacts multipliers and farrowing farms had an increased risk to spread a disease to other holdings. However, the results of the centrality parameters degree and infection chain were not always consistent, such that the indirect trade contacts should be taken into consideration to understand the real importance of a holding in spreading or contracting an infection. Furthermore, all calculated parameters showed a highly right skewed distribution. Networks with such a degree distribution are considered to be highly resistant concerning the random removal of nodes. But by strategic removal of the most central holdings, e.g. by trade restrictions or selective vaccination or culling, the network structure can be changed efficiently and thus decompose into fragments. Such a fragmentation of the trade networks is of particular importance from an epidemiological perspective.
Designing pneumatically actuated deformable mirrors: control of circular plates with varying thickness
Venue: 2019 American Control Conference (ACC)
Year: 2019

This contribution focuses on the optimal design and pneumatic deformation control of thin circular plates with spatially varying thickness. The work is motivated by pneumatically actuated deformable mirrors, which are used to compensate for wavefront disturbances in adaptive optics. To achieve the required deformation profiles with high precision, the equilibrium deformation is optimized with respect to the plate's thickness. For designing an asymptotic tracking control, the finite relative degree of the distributed parameter system is exploited. Since the nonlinear pressure dynamics actuate the governing partial differential equation (PDE) in a distributed way, finite order feedback linearization can be applied. In addition, static nonlinear effects in the pneumatic valve and infinite dimensional internal dynamics have to be taken into account. Finally, we demonstrate the controller's performance by means of simulations.
Association between in hospital frailty and health related quality of life after stroke: the Nor COAST study
Venue: BMC Neurology
Year: 2021

Stroke survivors are known to have poorer health related quality of life (HRQoL) than the general population, but less is known about characteristics associated with HRQoL decreasing through time following a stroke. This study aims to examine how in hospital frailty is related to HRQoL from 3 to 18 months post stroke.  Six hundred twenty five participants hospitalised with stroke were included and followed up at 3 and/or 18 months post stroke. Stroke severity was assessed the day after admission with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) A modified Fried phenotype was used to assess in hospital frailty; measures of exhaustion, physical activity, and weight loss were based on pre stroke status, while gait speed and grip strength were measured during hospital stay. HRQoL at 3 and 18 months follow up were assessed using the five level version of the EuroQol five dimensional descriptive system (EQ 5D 5L) and the EuroQol visual analogue scale (EQ 5D VAS) We conducted linear mixed effect regression analyses unadjusted and adjusted for sex, age, and stroke severity to investigate the association between in hospital frailty and post stroke HRQoL.  Mean (SD) age was 71.7 years (11.6) mean NIHSS score was 2.8 (4.0) and 263 (42.1% were female. Frailty prevalence was 10.4% while 58.6% were pre frail. The robust group had EQ 5D 5L index and EQ 5D VAS scores at 3 and 18 months comparable to the general population. Also at 3 and 18 months, the pre frail and frail groups had significantly lower EQ 5D 5L indices than the robust group p 0.001) and the frail group showed a larger decrease from 3 to 18 months in the EQ 5D 5L index score compared to the robust group 0.056; 95% CI 0.104 to 0.009; p 0.021) There were no significant differences in change in EQ 5D VAS scores between the groups.  This study on participants mainly diagnosed with mild strokes suggests that robust stroke patients have fairly good and stable post stroke HRQoL, while post stroke HRQoL is impaired and continues to deteriorate among patients with in hospital frailty. This emphasises the importance of a greater focus on frailty in stroke units.
Ride Blending Control for AWD Electric Vehicle with In Wheel Motors and Electromagnetic Suspension
Venue: 2020 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC)
Year: 2020

This paper presents a controller for enhancing the ride comfort of electric vehicles with in wheel motors (IWM) and electromagnetic suspensions (AS) The combined use of IWMs and AS to increase the ride comfort is referred to as Ride Blending (RB) The purpose of this integrated control, its general idea and concept are discussed. The Ride Blending controller is based on a multi layer hierarchical control architecture. To continuously allocate the demand between the actuators, the control makes use of a cost function optimisation where the ideal control parameters for the current time step are defined. The goal of each component of this function is explained and the structure of each one is described. The use of the ride blending control is then demonstrated on various driving manoeuvres to show the functionality and the ride quality improvement.
Predicting Predictable about Natural Catastrophic Extremes
Year: 2015

By definition, an extreme event is rare one in a series of kindred phenomena. Usually (e.g. in Geophysics) it implies investigating a small sample of case histories with a help of delicate statistical methods and data of different quality, collected in various conditions. Many extreme events are clustered (far from independent) and follow fractal or some other "strange" distribution (far from uniform) Evidently, such an "unusual" situation complicates search and definition of reliable precursory behaviors to be used for forecast/prediction purposes. Making forecast/prediction claims reliable and quantitatively probabilistic in the frames of the most popular objectivists' viewpoint on probability requires a long series of "yes/no" forecast/prediction outcomes, which cannot be obtained without an extended rigorous test of the candidate method. The set of errors "success/failure" scores and space time measure of alarms) and other information obtained in such a control test supplies us with data necessary to judge the candidate's potential as a forecast/prediction tool and, eventually, to find its improvements. This is to be done first in comparison against random guessing, which results confidence (measured in terms of statistical significance) Note that an application of the forecast/prediction tools could be very different in cases of different natural hazards, costs and benefits that determine risks, and, therefore, requires determination of different optimal strategies minimizing reliable estimates of realistic levels of accepted losses. In their turn case specific costs and benefits may suggest a modification of the forecast/prediction tools for a more adequate "optimal" application. Fortunately, the situation is not hopeless due to the state of the art understanding of the complexity and non linear dynamics of the Earth as a Physical System and pattern recognition approaches applied to available geophysical evidences, specifically, when intending to predict predictable, but not the exact size, site, date, and probability of an extreme catastrophe. This, apparently natural concept, is illustrated by application to seismic extremes that show how understanding by modeling the complexity of non linear dynamics of hierarchically organized systems of blocks and faults has led to reliable methodologies of neo deterministic seismic hazard analysis and intermediate term middle to narrow range earthquake prediction algorithms tested in real time applications over the last decades.
EBSCO information services usability study on accessibility
Year: 2018

Last spring, EBSCO Information Services conducted a usability study with several students with visual impairments. The goal was to understand how these students conduct research and identify areas for improvement of EBSCO Discovery Service(tm) such that it would meet the needs of all potential users. EBSCO Discovery Service(tm) provides users with means of accessing all of an institution's internal (library) and external (database vendors) information resources through a single search. The purpose of this paper is to outline the findings of this research and the applicability to the design of any online resource.  Using the Bentley University's user experience lab to facilitate the study and the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Massachusetts, for recruitment of college students, EBSCO solicited feedback on how students conduct research on the Web in general, as well as their experience using EBSCO's discovery service. The study involved a structured interview with eight visually impaired students from the Boston area, who had recently been enrolled in a college course. The students were also asked to complete certain tasks using the discovery service and report out as they completed each activity.  The findings demonstrated that for the most part, students with visual impairments engaged in research on the Web and within the discovery service in a similar manner to sighted students. They used the same standard search sites, expected the same layout conventions for results' lists and filters and wanted easily savable full text documents. Main differences involved their ability to navigate in a similar way to sighted users. Elements that one could skip over quickly as a sighted user were more of a hindrance to those relying on a screen reader. Additionally, improved descriptions for graphics, functions and form fields were noted as opportunities for improvement. For those with low vision, using screen magnifiers, modal boxes and hover features or other unexpected changes on the site proved to be challenging.  This study focused only on students with visual disabilities. There are many other print disabilities that were not explored such as color blindness, cognitive disabilities or learning disabilities. All the students were in their 20s and had experience conducting research and using library or research related search sites. Many of the findings highlighted areas of improvement that would benefit all students.  A study on students with visual disabilities using assistive technologies as they completed research tasks on a discovery system has not been studied before. Guidelines and audits do not provide a complete picture as to whether a website is fully accessible. It is only by working with actual users that insight into what it means to create a truly accessible experience can be gained.
Strong Coresets for Hard and Soft Bregman Clustering with Applications to Exponential Family Mixtures
Venue: AISTATS
Year: 2016

Coresets are efficient representations of data sets such that models trained on the coreset are provably competitive with models trained on the original data set. As such, they have been successfully used to scale up clustering models such as K Means and Gaussian mixture models to massive data sets. However, until now, the algorithms and the corresponding theory were usually specific to each clustering problem. We propose a single, practical algorithm to construct strong coresets for a large class of hard and soft clustering problems based on Bregman divergences. This class includes hard clustering with popular distortion measures such as the Squared Euclidean distance, the Mahalanobis distance, KL divergence and Itakura Saito distance. The corresponding soft clustering problems are directly related to popular mixture models due to a dual relationship between Bregman divergences and Exponential family distributions. Our theoretical results further imply a randomized polynomial time approximation scheme for hard clustering. We demonstrate the practicality of the proposed algorithm in an empirical evaluation.
Sonic hedgehog signaling pathway induces cell migration and invasion through focal adhesion kinase/AKT signaling mediated activation of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2 and MMP 9 in liver cancer.
Venue: Carcinogenesis
Year: 2013

The aberrant activation of sonic hedgehog (SHH) pathway contributes to initiation and progression of various malignancies. However, the roles and underlying mechanisms of SHH signaling pathway in invasion and metastasis of liver cancer have not been well understood. In this study, we found that SHH signaling was activated and correlated with invasion and metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) Enhanced SHH signaling by recombinant human SHH N terminal peptide (rSHH N) promoted hepatoma cell adhesion, migration and invasion, whereas blockade of SHH signaling with SHH neutralizing antibody or cyclopamine suppressed hepatoma cell adhesion, migration and invasion. Furthermore, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2 and MMP 9 expressions and activities were upregulated and downregulated by rSHH N and SHH signaling inhibitor, respectively. The rSHH N mediated hepatoma cell migration and invasion was blocked by MMP specific inhibitors or neutralizing antibodies to MMP 2 and MMP 9. In addition, phosphorylations of AKT and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) were increased and decreased by rSHH N and SHH signaling inhibitor, respectively. Further investigations showed that activation of AKT and FAK were required for rSHH N mediated upregulation of MMP 2 and MMP 9, cell migration and invasion. Finally, we found that SHH protein expression was positively correlated with phosphorylatd FAK Tyr397, phosphorylatd AKT Ser473, MMP 2 and MMP 9 protein expressions in HCC samples. Taken together, our findings suggest that SHH pathway induces cell migration and invasion through FAK/AKT signaling mediated MMP 2 and MMP 9 production and activation in liver cancer.
Technology Implementation in Elderly Care: Subject Positioning in Times of Transformation
Venue: Journal of Language and Social Psychology
Year: 2019

Innovation is often celebrated as a solution to various challenges in care work. Thus, a growing number of care workers are likely to experience innovations in their daily work. This article examines how care workers and project workers in elderly care are affected by contemporary transformations by exploring: (1) how they construct meanings around innovation implementation and (2) are subject positioned in relation to these meanings. Drawing on discourse analysis, we conduct a case study and analyze semistructured interviews, observations, and organizational documents. We illustrate how innovation is constructed in terms of optimism, and also as a source for struggle, with specific effects on care workers' subject positioning. The findings thus contribute to new insights into the contemporary dominating discourse of innovation and its implications at the level of practice and subjectivity.
Embodied Learning in a Digital World: A Systematic Review of Empirical Research in K 12 Education
Venue: Learning in a Digital World
Year: 2019

There is a widespread assumption that technology enhanced embodied learning environments, which are grounded on the notion of embodied cognition, can promote learning. The current study reviews the empirical basis of this assumption by examining literature published from 2008 to 2017 which employed technology enhanced embodied learning environments in K 12 education. Overall, 41 journal articles were included in the review study; these were indexed in four databases (Education Research Complete [via EBSCO] ERIC, JSTOR, and Scopus) as well as in Google Scholar, or were identified via the ancestry method. As part of our analysis, we focused on the type of technology enhanced embodied environments utilized for educational purposes, the research methods adopted for their evaluation, and the educational contexts in which they were implemented. At the core of this review study, we investigated students' learning outcomes across the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains, while we examined the learning effectiveness of technology enhanced embodied environments, as compared to other interfaces and forms of instruction. In general, the review revealed positive outcomes about the use of technology enhanced embodied learning environments in K 12. Most of the reviewed studies were contextualized in STEM education, adopted gesture based technologies, and evaluated students' learning using retrospective measures grounded on pre post testing. Cognitive outcomes were dominant in the reviewed studies, while the evaluation of affective and psychomotor outcomes received less attention. Most of the reviewed comparative studies reported that students in the embodied learning condition had increased learning gains, when compared to their counterparts in the control or comparison groups. However, these findings should be treated with caution due to a set of methodological concerns that this review identified. We conclude this chapter with a synthesis of our findings in the form of emerged implications and we provide a set of guidelines for future research and practice in the field of technology enhanced embodied learning environments.