Reading Wikipedia to Answer Open-Domain Questions

This paper proposes to tackle open- domain question answering using Wikipedia as the unique knowledge source: the answer to any factoid question is a text span in a Wikipedia article. This task of machine reading at scale combines the challenges of document retrieval (finding the relevant articles) with that of machine comprehension of text (identifying the answer spans from those articles). Our approach combines a search component based on bigram hashing and TF-IDF matching with a multi-layer recurrent neural network model trained to detect answers in Wikipedia paragraphs. Our experiments on multiple existing QA datasets indicate that (1) both modules are highly competitive with respect to existing counterparts and (2) multitask learning using distant supervision on their combination is an effective complete system on this challenging task.Comment: ACL2017, 10 page

Dataset for Temporal Analysis of English-French Cognates

Languages change over time and, thanks to the abundance of digital corpora, their evolutionary analysis using computational techniques has recently gained much research attention. In this paper, we focus on creating a dataset to support investigating the similarity in evolution between different languages. We look in particular into the similarities and differences between the use of corresponding words across time in English and French, two languages from different linguistic families yet with shared syntax and close contact. For this we select a set of cognates in both languages and study their frequency changes and correlations over time. We propose a new dataset for computational approaches of synchronized diachronic investigation of language pairs, and subsequently show novel findings stemming from the cognate-focused diachronic comparison of the two chosen languages. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first in the literature to use computational approaches and large data to make a cross-language diachronic analysis.Peer reviewe

Development of emergency medicine in Rwanda

AbstractRwanda, known as the “Land of a Thousand Hills,” is a small, East African country that was the site of the devastating 1994 genocide. In the past 18years, this post-conflict country has made tremendous progress in rebuilding itself and its health infrastructure. The country has recovered or surpassed many of its pre-1994 health levels, including reduction in HIV/AIDS prevalence, under-five mortality and road traffic accidents. Nevertheless, Rwanda continues to face a high burden of disease. The leading causes of mortality in Rwanda include complications of HIV/AIDS and related opportunistic infections, severe malaria, pulmonary infections, and trauma, and are best managed with emergency and acute care services. However, health care personal resources remain significantly lacking, and there is currently no emergency medicine-trained workforce.The Rwandan government, partnering with international organizations, has launched a campaign to improve human resources for health, and as a part of that effort the creation of training programs in emergency medicine is now underway. The Rwandan Human Resources for Health program can serve as a guide to the development of similar programs within other African countries. The emergency medicine component of this program includes two tracks: a 2-year postgraduate diploma course, followed by a 3-year Masters of Medicine in Emergency Medicine. The program is slated to graduate its first cohort of trained Emergency Physicians in 2017

Structure of superoxide reductase bound to ferrocyanide and active site expansion upon X-ray-induced photo-reduction.

International audienceSome sulfate-reducing and microaerophilic bacteria rely on the enzyme superoxide reductase (SOR) to eliminate the toxic superoxide anion radical (O2*-). SOR catalyses the one-electron reduction of O2*- to hydrogen peroxide at a nonheme ferrous iron center. The structures of Desulfoarculus baarsii SOR (mutant E47A) alone and in complex with ferrocyanide were solved to 1.15 and 1.7 A resolution, respectively. The latter structure, the first ever reported of a complex between ferrocyanide and a protein, reveals that this organo-metallic compound entirely plugs the SOR active site, coordinating the active iron through a bent cyano bridge. The subtle structural differences between the mixed-valence and the fully reduced SOR-ferrocyanide adducts were investigated by taking advantage of the photoelectrons induced by X-rays. The results reveal that photo-reduction from Fe(III) to Fe(II) of the iron center, a very rapid process under a powerful synchrotron beam, induces an expansion of the SOR active site

1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase from <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> and <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> reveals conformational changes upon cofactor binding

The ESKAPE bacteria are the six highly virulent and antibiotic-resistant pathogens that require the most urgent attention for the development of novel antibiotics. Detailed knowledge of target proteins specific to bacteria is essential to develop novel treatment options. The methylerythritol-phosphate (MEP) pathway, which is absent in humans, represents a potentially valuable target for the development of novel antibiotics. Within the MEP pathway, the enzyme 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase (DXPS) catalyzes a crucial, rate-limiting first step and a branch point in the biosynthesis of the vitamins B1 and B6. We report the high-resolution crystal structures of DXPS from the important ESKAPE pathogens Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae in both the co-factor-bound and the apo forms. We demonstrate that the absence of the cofactor thiamine diphosphate results in conformational changes that lead to disordered loops close to the active site that might be important for the design of potent DXPS inhibitors. Collectively, our results provide important structural details that aid in the assessment of DXPS as a potential target in the ongoing efforts to combat antibiotic resistance.</p

Design space and manufacturing of programmable 4D printed continuous flax fibre polylactic acid composite hygromorphs

The work describes the exploration of the design space by fabrication, modelling and testing of bio-based and humidity-triggered 4D printed shape-changing biocomposites. The aim is to broaden the understanding of the control actuation via printing path tailoring and unlock new potential applications for biomaterials and autonomous actuator design. The composites are made with continuous flax yarns and polylactic acid matrix filaments and exhibit moisture-induced actuation. The actuation capability is first demonstrated by printing a calla lily flower-inspired configuration subjected to 98% relative humidity. This structure did not however achieve the anticlastic double curvature and large actuation targeted. To resolve these issues, cross-ply composite architectures with bent filaments deposited in one layer have then been developed. The amplitude for curvature control ranges obtained were 1.9*10−3mm−1 and 7.9*10−3mm−1 depending on the position on the specimen. Other cross-ply hygromorphs solutions are also proposed, with the orientation of their passive layers ([0°]2) tilted by α degrees (stacking sequence: [-α,α, 90°]). The largest actuation curvature was obtained when α=40°, which increased by 0.0072 mm−1 when compared to α = 0°. The hygromorphs presented in this work are modelled using in an in–house filament scale finite element model able to capture the complexity of the printed hygromorphs architectures