Contextual Understanding in Neural Dialog Systems: the Integration of External Knowledge Graphs for Generating Coherent and Knowledge-rich Conversations

The integration of external knowledge graphs has emerged as a powerful approach to enrich conversational AI systems with coherent and knowledge-rich conversations. This paper provides an overview of the integration process and highlights its benefits. Knowledge graphs serve as structured representations of information, capturing the relationships between entities through nodes and edges. They offer an organized and efficient means of representing factual knowledge. External knowledge graphs, such as DBpedia, Wikidata, Freebase, and Google's Knowledge Graph, are pre-existing repositories that encompass a wide range of information across various domains. These knowledge graphs are compiled by aggregating data from diverse sources, including online encyclopedias, databases, and structured repositories. To integrate an external knowledge graph into a conversational AI system, a connection needs to be established between the system and the knowledge graph. This can be achieved through APIs or by importing a copy of the knowledge graph into the AI system's internal storage. Once integrated, the conversational AI system can query the knowledge graph to retrieve relevant information when a user poses a question or makes a statement. When analyzing user inputs, the conversational AI system identifies entities or concepts that require additional knowledge. It then formulates queries to retrieve relevant information from the integrated knowledge graph. These queries may involve searching for specific entities, retrieving related entities, or accessing properties and attributes associated with the entities. The obtained information is used to generate coherent and knowledge-rich responses. By integrating external knowledge graphs, conversational AI systems can augment their internal knowledge base and provide more accurate and up-to-date responses. The retrieved information allows the system to extract relevant facts, provide detailed explanations, or offer additional context. This integration empowers AI systems to deliver comprehensive and insightful responses that enhance user experience. As external knowledge graphs are regularly updated with new information and improvements, conversational AI systems should ensure their integrated knowledge graphs remain current. This can be achieved through periodic updates, either by synchronizing the system's internal representation with the external knowledge graph or by querying the external knowledge graph in real-time

The transcriptional repressor Blimp1 is expressed in rare luminal progenitors and is essential for mammary gland development

Mammary gland morphogenesis depends on a tight balance between cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis, to create a defined functional hierarchy within the epithelia. The limited availability of stem cell/progenitor markers has made it challenging to decipher lineage relationships. Here, we identify a rare subset of luminal progenitors that express the zinc finger transcriptional repressor Blimp1, and demonstrate that this subset of highly clonogenic luminal progenitors is required for mammary gland development. Conditional inactivation experiments using K14-Cre and WAPi-Cre deleter strains revealed essential functions at multiple developmental stages. Thus, Blimp1 regulates proliferation, apoptosis and alveolar cell maturation during puberty and pregnancy. Loss of Blimp1 disrupts epithelial architecture and lumen formation both in vivo and in three-dimensional (3D) primary cell cultures. Collectively, these results demonstrate that Blimp1 is required to maintain a highly proliferative luminal subset necessary for mammary gland development and homeostasis

Cardiac Myxomas: A single center experience and ten-years follow up

Background: Cardiac myxoma is a benign tumor that carries the risk of embolization and obstruction of the blood flow. The ideal surgical approach is still debatable. We present our experience in the surgical treatment of cardiac myxomas and its ideal surgical approach.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data for all patients who underwent surgical excision of cardiac myxoma at our institution over 11 years starting from January 2006 to December 2016. Descriptive statistics were used to present preoperative, operative and postoperative data and Kaplan Meier curve to plot long-term survival.Results: Twenty-one patients had surgical excision of a primary, single and sporadic cardiac myxoma. Thirteen patients (62 %) were females, and the mean age at operation was 55.2 years (range: 28 – 71 years). The location of myxomas was in the left atrium in 17 patients (81%) and right atrium in 4 patients (19 %). Dyspnea was the main presenting symptom (71.4%) followed by constitutional symptoms (28%), palpitations (23.8%), syncope (14.2%) and stroke (14.2%). A right atrial trans-septal incision was used in 76.5% of left atrial myxoma cases. Five patients had concomitant operative procedures (coronary artery bypass grafting (n=2), tricuspid valve repair (n=1), mitral valve replacement (n=1) and bullectomy (n=1)). Postoperative complications were reported in six patients (28.6%) (supraventricular arrhythmia (n=2), temporary conduction deficit (n=2), pulmonary atelectasis (n=1), and postoperative bleeding (n=1)). Early postoperative mortality occurred in one patient (4.76 %), and there were no late deaths related to myxoma.Conclusion: Surgical treatment of cardiac myxoma is safe with low morbidity and mortality. The right atrial trans-septal incision is the recommended surgical approach

Functional Big-step Semantics

When doing an interactive proof about a piece of software, it is important that the underlying programming language’s semantics does not make the proof unnecessarily difficult or unwieldy. Both smallstep and big-step semantics are commonly used, and the latter is typically given by an inductively defined relation. In this paper, we consider an alternative: using a recursive function akin to an interpreter for the language. The advantages include a better induction theorem, less duplication, accessibility to ordinary functional programmers, and the ease of doing symbolic simulation in proofs via rewriting. We believe that this style of semantics is well suited for compiler verification, including proofs of divergence preservation. We do not claim the invention of this style of semantics: our contribution here is to clarify its value, and to explain how it supports several language features that might appear to require a relational or small-step approach. We illustrate the technique on a simple imperative language with C-like for-loops and a break statement, and compare it to a variety of other approaches. We also provide ML and lambda-calculus based examples to illustrate its generality

Economic factors influencing zoonotic disease dynamics: demand for poultry meat and seasonal transmission of avian influenza in Vietnam

While climate is often presented as a key factor influencing the seasonality of diseases, the importance of anthropogenic factors is less commonly evaluated. Using a combination of methods-wavelet analysis, economic analysis, statistical and disease transmission modelling-we aimed to explore the influence of climatic and economic factors on the seasonality of H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in the domestic poultry population of Vietnam. We found that while climatic variables are associated with seasonal variation in the incidence of avian influenza outbreaks in the North of the country, this is not the case in the Centre and the South. In contrast, temporal patterns of H5N1 incidence are similar across these 3 regions: periods of high H5N1 incidence coincide with Lunar New Year festival, occurring in January-February, in the 3 climatic regions for 5 out of the 8 study years. Yet, daily poultry meat consumption drastically increases during Lunar New Year festival throughout the country. To meet this rise in demand, poultry production and trade are expected to peak around the festival period, promoting viral spread, which we demonstrated using a stochastic disease transmission model. This study illustrates the way in which economic factors may influence the dynamics of livestock pathogens

Acute mesenteric ischemia and duodenal ulcer perforation: a unique double pathology

Background: Acute mesenteric ischaemia and duodenal perforation are surgical emergencies with serious consequences. Patients presenting with acute mesenteric ischaemia alone face a high mortality rate as high as 60% whereas those presenting with peptic ulcer perforation the mortality rates range from 6-14%. There are very few reported cases of patients presenting with this dual pathology. Case presentation: We report a unique case of a 53 year old Italian lady who presented with acute mesenteric ischaemia and duodenal perforation. This is the first report of massive bowel ischaemia and duodenal perforation with no apparent underlying common pathophysiology leading to this presentation. Conclusion: Early management in the intensive care unit and appropriate surgical intervention maximised the patient’s chances of survival despite the poor prognosis associated with her dual pathology. The rare pathology of the patient described can be explained by two possible hypotheses: peptic ulcer disease causing duodenal ulceration, which precipitated ischaemic infarction of the small bowel. The second hypothesis is the patient developed a stress related ulcer following ischaemic bowel infarction secondary to arterial thrombosis

Experimental and numerical study of the effect of silica filler on the tensile strength of a 3D-printed particulate nanocomposite

Polymers are commonly found to have low mechanical properties, e.g., low stiffness and low strength. To improve the mechanical properties of polymers, various types of fillers have been added. These fillers can be either micro- or nano-sized; however; nano-sized fillers are found to be more efficient in improving the mechanical properties than micro-sized fillers. In this research, we have analysed the mechanical behaviour of silica reinforced nanocomposites printed by using a new 5-axis photopolymer extrusion 3D printing technique. The printer has 3 translational axes and 2 rotational axes, which enables it to print free-standing objects. Since this is a new technique and in order to characterise the mechanical properties of the nanocomposites manufactured using this new technique, we carried out experimental and numerical analyses. We added a nano-sized silica filler to enhance the properties of a 3D printed photopolymer. Different concentrations of the filler were added and their effects on mechanical properties were studied by conducting uniaxial tensile tests. We observed an improvement in mechanical properties following the addition of the nano-sized filler. In order to observe the tensile strength, dog-bone samples using a new photopolymer extrusion printing technique were prepared. A viscoelastic model was developed and stress relaxation tests were conducted on the photopolymer in order to calibrate the viscoelastic parameters. The developed computational model of nano reinforced polymer composite takes into account the nanostructure and the dispersion of the nanoparticles. Hyper and viscoelastic phenomena was considered to validate and analyse the stress–strain relationship in the cases of filler concentrations of 8%, 9%, and 10%. In order to represent the nanostructure, a 3D representative volume element (RVE) was utilized and subsequent simulations were run in the commercial finite element package ABAQUS. The results acquired in this study could lead to a better understanding of the mechanical characteristics of the nanoparticle reinforced composite, manufactured using a new photopolymer extrusion 5-axis 3D printing technique

Evaluation de l’état hydrique chez les patients hémodialysés chroniques : une étude transversale monocentrique: Assessment of the hydration status in chronic hemodialysis patients: a single-center cross-sectional study

Context and objective. For many practitioners, blood pressure is the main indicator of the hydration status of the chronic hemodialysis patient. The objective of this study was to assess the extent to which bioimpedance analysis (BIA) can assist in determining acute changes in fluid volume during the hemodialysis session. Methods. This was a 9-week longitudinal study. The total body water (TBW) was measured with a BIA analyzer, before and after 6 successive sessions. The ΔWeight was compared to the ΔTBW by calculating the P/V ratio (ΔWeight/ΔTBW) with the assumption that the dry weight is reached when P/V = 1. Results. The measurements made in 22 patients (46.6 years, 54.5% men, 92.3 months on dialysis) were reproducible. There was no statistically significant difference between ΔTBW and ΔWeight. However, at the individual level, significant differences had been observed. Using hypertension as a marker for a state of hyperhydration, a 31.8% agreement was noted between the P/V ratio and hypertension. Conclusion. Although the loss of water predicted by the BIA did not always correspond to the weight loss, BIA is a technique that can be used to assess the variations in TBW during the hemodialysis session in patients. Contexte et objectif. La pression artérielle est pour de nombreux praticiens, l’indicateur principal du statut hydrique du patient hémodialysé chronique. L’objectif de la présente étude était d’évaluer dans quelle mesure l’analyse d’impédance bioélectrique (BIA) pourrait aider à la détermination des variations aigues du volume hydrique au cours de la séance d’hémodialyse. Méthodes. Il s’agissait d’une étude de suivi longitudinal sur 9 semaines. Le volume total d’eau (VTE) a été mesuré par BIA, avant et après 6 séances. Le ΔPoids a été comparé au ΔVTE par le calcul du ratio P/V (ΔPoids / ΔVTE) dans l’hypothèse que le poids sec est atteint lorsque P/V = 1. Résultats. Les mesures faites chez 22 patients (46,6 ans, 54,5% hommes, 92,3 mois en dialyse) étaient reproductibles. Il n’y avait pas de différence statistiquement significative entre le ΔVTE et le ΔPoids. Cependant à l’échelon individuel des différences importantes étaient observées. En utilisant l’hypertension artérielle (HTA) comme marqueur d’un état d’hyperhydratation, une concordance de 31,8% était notée entre le ratio P/V et l’HTA. Conclusion. Bien que la perte d’eau prédite par la BIA ne corresponde pas toujours à celle du poids, la BIA est une technique qui peut être utilisée pour évaluer les variations du VTE au cours de la séance d’hémodialys

The hypoactive corpora cavernosa with degenerative erectile dysfunction: a new syndrome

BACKGROUND: In a group of 22 patients with erectile dysfunction, vasculogenic, neurogenic, endocrinologic or psychogenic investigations failed to find a cause for their erectile dysfunction. The electro-cavernosograms of these patients recorded a diminished activity. We investigated the hypothesis that diminished corpus cavernosum electromyography activity was the cause of erectile dysfunction in these patients. METHODS: The study comprised the above mentioned 22 patients (study group, 43.8 ± 5.9 SD years) and 15 healthy volunteers (control group, 41.8 ± 5.1 SD years). The electro-cavernosograms were recorded in the flaccid, erectile and detumescent phases by 2 electrodes inserted into the corpus cavernosum. RESULTS: The electro-cavernosogram of the healthy volunteers registered in the flaccid phase regular slow waves and random action potentials. The wave variables declined significantly in the erectile phase (p < 0.01). In the study group, the slow wave variables in the flaccid phase exhibited a significant decrease (p < 0.05) compared to the healthy volunteers, and the rhythm was irregular. Erection did not occur with sildenafil administration or intracavernosal papaverine injection, and penile implant was performed. Biopsy examination showed degenerated muscle fibers, and fragmented collagen and elastic fibers with areas of fibrosis. CONCLUSION: A novel concept of the cause of erectile dysfunction was presented. Corpora cavernosa showed degenerative changes on histopathologic examination and exhibited diminished electromyography activity. They did not respond to sildenafil administration or intracavernosal papaverine injection. Penile implants were the only treatment. The condition is given the name 'hypoactive corpus cavernosum'. The cause of corpus cavernosum degenerative changes needs further study

General Analysis of Antideuteron Searches for Dark Matter

Low energy cosmic ray antideuterons provide a unique low background channel for indirect detection of dark matter. We compute the cosmic ray flux of antideuterons from hadronic annihilations of dark matter for various Standard Model final states and determine the mass reach of two future experiments (AMS-02 and GAPS) designed to greatly increase the sensitivity of antideuteron detection over current bounds. We consider generic models of scalar, fermion, and massive vector bosons as thermal dark matter, describe their basic features relevant to direct and indirect detection, and discuss the implications of direct detection bounds on models of dark matter as a thermal relic. We also consider specific dark matter candidates and assess their potential for detection via antideuterons from their hadronic annihilation channels. Since the dark matter mass reach of the GAPS experiment can be well above 100 GeV, we find that antideuterons can be a good indirect detection channel for a variety of thermal relic electroweak scale dark matter candidates, even when the rate for direct detection is highly suppressed.Comment: 44 pages, 15 Figure