DREAM: Deployment of Recombination and Ensembles in Argument Mining

Current approaches to Argument Mining (AM) tend to take a holistic or black-box view of the overall pipeline. This paper, in contrast, aims to provide a solution to achieve increased performance based on current components instead of independent all-new solutions. To that end, it presents the Deployment of Recombination and Ensemble methods for Argument Miners (DREAM) framework that allows for the (automated) combination of AM components. Using ensemble methods, DREAM combines sets of AM systems to improve accuracy for the four tasks in the AM pipeline. Furthermore, it leverages recombination by using different argument miners elements throughout the pipeline. Experiments with five systems previously included in a benchmark show that the systems combined with DREAM can outperform the previous best single systems in terms of accuracy measured by an AM benchmark

BAM: Benchmarking Argument Mining on Scientific Documents

In this paper, we present BAM, a unified Benchmark for Argument Mining (AM). We propose a method to homogenize both the evaluation process and the data to provide a common view in order to ultimately produce comparable results. Built as a four stage and end-to-end pipeline, the benchmark allows for the direct inclusion of additional argument miners to be evaluated. First, our system pre-processes a ground truth set used both for training and testing. Then, the benchmark calculates a total of four measures to assess different aspects of the mining process. To showcase an initial implementation of our approach, we apply our procedure and evaluate a set of systems on a corpus of scientific publications. With the obtained comparable results we can homogeneously assess the current state of AM in this domain

Polarization dynamics in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with optical feedback through a quarter-wave plate

Square-wave switching of the intensities of the orthogonal linearly polarized components of the output of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser(VCSEL) found previously in experiments with polarization-changing optical feedback, is not found in rate equation models incorporating only birefringence and gain anisotropy, but is found in the model for VCSELs developed by San Miguel, Feng, and Moloney [M. San Miguel, Q. Feng, and J. V. Moloney, Phys. Rev. A 52, 1729 (1995)]. The dynamics is sensitive to both the feedback strength and the relaxation rate of the magnetization in the quantum well sublevels.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Outbreak detection for temporal contact data

Epidemic spreading is a widely studied process due to its importance and possibly grave consequences for society. While the classical context of epidemic spreading refers to pathogens transmitted among humans or animals, it is straightforward to apply similar ideas to the spread of information (e.g., a rumor) or the spread of computer viruses. This paper addresses the question of how to optimally select nodes for monitoring in a network of timestamped contact events between individuals. We consider three optimization objectives: the detection likelihood, the time until detection, and the population that is affected by an outbreak. The optimization approach we use is based on a simple greedy approach and has been proposed in a seminal paper focusing on information spreading and water contamination. We extend this work to the setting of disease spreading and present its application with two example networks: a timestamped network of sexual contacts and a network of animal transports between farms. We apply the optimization procedure to a large set of outbreak scenarios that we generate with a susceptible-infectious-recovered model. We find that simple heuristic methods that select nodes with high degree or many contacts compare well in terms of outbreak detection performance with the (greedily) optimal set of nodes. Furthermore, we observe that nodes optimized on past periods may not be optimal for outbreak detection in future periods. However, seasonal effects may help in determining which past period generalizes well to some future period. Finally, we demonstrate that the detection performance depends on the simulation settings. In general, if we force the simulator to generate larger outbreaks, the detection performance will improve, as larger outbreaks tend to occur in the more connected part of the network where the top monitoring nodes are typically located. A natural progression of this work is to analyze how a representative set of outbreak scenarios can be generated, possibly taking into account more realistic propagation models

Workflow analysis of data science code in public GitHub repositories

Despite the ubiquity of data science, we are far from rigorously understanding how coding in data science is performed. Even though the scientific literature has hinted at the iterative and explorative nature of data science coding, we need further empirical evidence to understand this practice and its workflows in detail. Such understanding is critical to recognise the needs of data scientists and, for instance, inform tooling support. To obtain a deeper understanding of the iterative and explorative nature of data science coding, we analysed 470 Jupyter notebooks publicly available in GitHub repositories. We focused on the extent to which data scientists transition between different types of data science activities, or steps (such as data preprocessing and modelling), as well as the frequency and co-occurrence of such transitions. For our analysis, we developed a dataset with the help of five data science experts, who manually annotated the data science steps for each code cell within the aforementioned 470 notebooks. Using the first-order Markov chain model, we extracted the transitions and analysed the transition probabilities between the different steps. In addition to providing deeper insights into the implementation practices of data science coding, our results provide evidence that the steps in a data science workflow are indeed iterative and reveal specific patterns. We also evaluated the use of the annotated dataset to train machine-learning classifiers to predict the data science step(s) of a given code cell. We investigate the representativeness of the classification by comparing the workflow analysis applied to (a) the predicted data set and (b) the data set labelled by experts, finding an F1-score of about 71% for the 10-class data science step prediction problem

Construcción y validación del cuestionario de percepción de riesgos y beneficios de la exposición a reproductores personales de música para adolescentes

Se ha encontrado evidencia de una asociación entre la participación en conductas de riesgo y la percepción de sus riesgos y beneficios. El uso de reproductores de música personales (RPM) es una de las actividades de ruido no ocupacional más comunes, especialmente entre los jóvenes. El objetivo del estudio fue desarrollar un cuestionario para evaluar las consecuencias positivas (beneficios) percibidas por los adolescentes y las consecuencias negativas (riesgos) de escuchar música en estos dispositivos. El proceso de construcción y validación ocurrió en 3 fases: desarrollo de batería de ítems; establecimiento de validez de contenido; estimación de validez de constructo, validez de criterio y consistencia interna, en una muestra accidental de 694 adolescentes de 2 colegios de Córdoba, Argentina. Los resultados de los análisis factorial exploratorio y confirmatorio revelaron una estructura factorial de 2 dimensiones. En conjunto, ambos factores clasificaron correctamente al 64,6% y 74% de los adolescentes con alta y baja exposición a música a través de RPM. Este cuestionario puede ser utilizado para detectar adolescentes que presentan una escucha riesgosa y para desarrollar estrategias para promover conductas de protección.Evidence has been found of an association between participation in risk behaviors and the perception of their risks and benefits. The use of personal music players (PMPs) is one of the most common non-occupational noise activities, especially among the young. The aim of the study was to develop a questionnaire to assess the positive consequences (benefits) perceived by adolescents and the negative consequences (risks) of listening to music on these devices. The construction and validation process occurred in 3 phases: item pool development; establishment of content validity; and estimation of construct validity, criterion-related validity, and internal consistency, with an accidental sample of 694 adolescents from 2 schools of Cordoba, Argentina. The results of the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a 2-dimensional factorial structure. Together, both factors correctly classified 64.6% and 74% of adolescents with high and low exposure to music through PMPs. This questionnaire can be used to detect adolescents with risky listening and to develop strategies to promote protective behavior.Fil: Abraham, Mónica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Cupani, Marcos. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas; ArgentinaFil: Biassoni, Ester Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Azpilicueta, Ana Estefanía. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas; Argentin

Current state of cold atmospheric plasma and cancer-immunity cycle: therapeutic relevance and overcoming clinical limitations using hydrogels

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a partially ionized gas that gains attention as a well-tolerated cancer treatment that can enhance anti-tumor immune responses, which are important for durable therapeutic effects. This review offers a comprehensive and critical summary on the current understanding of mechanisms in which CAP can assist anti-tumor immunity: induction of immunogenic cell death, oxidative post-translational modifications of the tumor and its microenvironment, epigenetic regulation of aberrant gene expression, and enhancement of immune cell functions. This should provide a rationale for the effective and meaningful clinical implementation of CAP. As discussed here, despite its potential, CAP faces different clinical limitations associated with the current CAP treatment modalities: direct exposure of cancerous cells to plasma, and indirect treatment through injection of plasma-treated liquids in the tumor. To this end, a novel modality is proposed: plasma-treated hydrogels (PTHs) that can not only help overcome some of the clinical limitations but also offer a convenient platform for combining CAP with existing drugs to improve therapeutic responses and contribute to the clinical translation of CAP. Finally, by integrating expertise in biomaterials and plasma medicine, practical considerations and prospective for the development of PTHs are offered.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Challenges and opportunities of democracy in the digital society: report from Dagstuhl Seminar 22361

Digital technologies amplify and change societal processes. So far, society and intellectuals have painted two extremes of viewing the effects of the digital transformation on democratic life. While the early 2000s to mid-2010s declared the "liberating" aspects of digital technology, the post-Brexit events and the 2016 US elections have emphasized the "dark side" of the digital revolution. Now, explicit effort is needed to go beyond tech saviorism or doom scenarios. To this end, we organized the Dagstuhl Seminar 22361 "Challenges and Opportunities of Democracy in the Digital Society" to discuss the future of digital democracy. This report presents a summary of the seminar, which took place in Dagstuhl in September 2022. The seminar attracted scientific scholars from various disciplines, including political science, computer science, jurisprudence, and communication science, as well as civic technology practitioners

Current Social Perception of and Value Attached to Nursing Professionals’ Competences: An Integrative Review

In order to develop nurses’ identities properly, they need to publicise their professional competences and make society aware of them. For that, this study was conducted to describe the competences that society currently attributes to nursing professionals and how nursing is valued in society. This review was based on the conceptual framework by Whittemore and Knafl. The literature search was conducted using PubMed, WOS, and CINAHL databases, and the search strategy was based on a combination of natural language and standardised keywords, with limits and criteria for inclusion, exclusion, and quality. The results of the studies were classified and coded in accordance with the competence groups of the professional profile described in the Tuning Educational Structures in Europe programme. Fourteen studies were selected. The most commonly reported competence groups were as follows: nursing practice and clinical decision making; and communication and interpersonal competences. Nursing is perceived as a healthcare profession dedicated to caring for individuals. Its other areas of competence and its capacity for leadership are not well known. In order to develop a professional identity, it is essential to raise awareness of the competences that make up this professional profile