230 research outputs found
GePpeTto Carves Italian into a Language Model
In the last few years, pre-trained neural architectures have provided
impressive improvements across several NLP tasks. Still, generative language
models are available mainly for English. We develop GePpeTto, the first
generative language model for Italian, built using the GPT-2 architecture. We
provide a thorough analysis of GePpeTto's quality by means of both an automatic
and a human-based evaluation. The automatic assessment consists in (i)
calculating perplexity across different genres and (ii) a profiling analysis
over GePpeTto's writing characteristics. We find that GePpeTto's production is
a sort of bonsai version of human production, with shorter but yet complex
sentences. Human evaluation is performed over a sentence completion task, where
GePpeTto's output is judged as natural more often than not, and much closer to
the original human texts than to a simpler language model which we take as
baseline
GePpeTto Carves Italian into a Language Model
In the last few years, pre-trained neural architectures have provided
impressive improvements across several NLP tasks. Still, generative language
models are available mainly for English. We develop GePpeTto, the first
generative language model for Italian, built using the GPT-2 architecture. We
provide a thorough analysis of GePpeTto's quality by means of both an automatic
and a human-based evaluation. The automatic assessment consists in (i)
calculating perplexity across different genres and (ii) a profiling analysis
over GePpeTto's writing characteristics. We find that GePpeTto's production is
a sort of bonsai version of human production, with shorter but yet complex
sentences. Human evaluation is performed over a sentence completion task, where
GePpeTto's output is judged as natural more often than not, and much closer to
the original human texts than to a simpler language model which we take as
baseline
Monitoring of hadrontherapy treatments by means of charged particle detection
The interaction of the incoming beam radiation with the patient body in hadrontherapy
treatments produces secondary charged and neutral particles, whose detection can be
used for monitoring purposes and to perform an on-line check of beam particle range. In
the context of ion-therapy with active scanning, charged particles are potentially attractive
since they can be easily tracked with a high efficiency, in presence of a relatively low
background contamination. In order to verify the possibility of exploiting this approach
for in-beam monitoring in ion-therapy, and to guide the design of specific detectors, both
simulations and experimental tests are being performed with ion beams impinging on
simple homogeneous tissue-like targets (PMMA). From these studies, a resolution of the
order of few millimeters on the single track has been proven to be sufficient to exploit
charged particle tracking for monitoring purposes, preserving the precision achievable
on longitudinal shape. The results obtained so far show that the measurement of charged
particles can be successfully implemented in a technology capable of monitoring both
the dose profile and the position of the Bragg peak inside the target and finally lead to
the design of a novel profile detector. Crucial aspects to be considered are the detector
positioning, to be optimized in order to maximize the available statistics, and the capability
of accounting for the multiple scattering interactions undergone by the charged
fragments along their exit path from the patient body. The experimental results collected
up to now are also valuable for the validation of Monte Carlo simulation software tools
and their implementation in Treatment Planning Software packages
Invasive fungal infections in patients with acute myeloid leucemia and in those submitted to allogeneic hemopoieticstem cell transplant: who is at highest risk ?
Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) are a growing cause
of morbidity and mortality in patients with acute
myeloid leukemia (AMLs) and in recipients of allogeneic
hemopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCTs) (1–6).
It is widely debated if either allo-HSCTs or AMLs are to
be considered at higher risk, but no data comparing the
two categories of patients have been reported in
literature so far.
This cohort study has been conducted from January
1999 to December 2003 in hematology wards located
throughout Italy. The study was aimed at evaluating the
incidence and mortality for IFIs in adult AMLs and in
patients submitted to all types of allo-HSCT procedures;
a comparison between the two categories of patients was
carried out
Phthalate esters (PAEs) concentration pattern reflects dietary habitats (δ13C) in blood of Mediterranean loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta)
Phthalic acid esters (PAEs) are classified as endocrine disruptors, but it remains unclear if they can enter the marine food-web and result in severe health effects for organisms. Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) can be chronically exposed to PAEs by ingesting plastic debris, but no information is available about PAEs levels in blood, and how these concentrations are related to diet during different life stages. This paper investigated, for the first time, six PAEs in blood of 18 wild-caught Mediterranean loggerhead turtles throughout solid-phase extraction coupled with gas chromatography-ion trap/mass spectrometry. Stable isotope analyses of carbon and nitrogen were also performed to assess the resource use pattern of loggerhead turtles. DEHP (12-63 ng mL(-1)) and DBP (6-57 ng mL(-1)) were the most frequently represented PAEs, followed by DiBP, DMP, DEP and DOP. The total PAEs concentration was highest in three turtles (124-260 ng mL(-1)) whereas three other turtles had concentrations below the detection limit. PAEs were clustered in three groups according to concentration in all samples: DEHP in the first group, DBP, DEP, and DiBP in the second group, and DOP and DMP in the third group. The total phthalates concentration did not differ between large-sized (96.3 +/- 86.0 ng mL(-1)) and small-sized (67.1 +/- 34.2 ng mL(-1)) turtles (p < 0.001). However, DMP and DEP were found only in large-sized turtles and DiBP and DBP had higher concentrations in large-sized turtles. On the other hand, DEHP and DOP were found in both small- and large-sized turtles with similar concentrations, i.e. ~ 21.0/32.0 ng mL(-1) and ~ 7(.1)/9.9 ng mL(-1), respectively. Winsored robust models indicated that delta C-13 is a good predictor for DBP and DiBP concentrations (significant Akaike Information criterion weight, AIC(wt)). Our results indicate that blood is a good matrix to evaluate acute exposure to PAEs in marine turtles. Moreover, this approach is here suggested as a useful tool to explain the internal dose of PAEs in term of dietary habits (delta C-13), suggesting that all marine species at high trophic levels may be particularly exposed to PAEs, despite their different dietary habitats and levels of exposure
Presymptomatic geographical distribution of ALS patients suggests the involvement of environmental factors in the disease pathogenesis
BackgroundGiven that the pathogenetic process of ALS begins many years prior to its clinical onset, examining patients' residential histories may offer insights on the disease risk factors. Here, we analyzed the spatial distribution of a large ALS cohort in the 50 years preceding the disease onset.MethodsData from the PARALS register were used. A spatial cluster analysis was performed at the time of disease onset and at 1-year intervals up to 50 years prior to that.ResultsA total of 1124 patients were included. The analysis revealed a higher-incidence cluster in a large area (435,000 inhabitants) west of Turin. From 9 to 2 years before their onset, 105 cases were expected and 150 were observed, resulting in a relative risk of 1.49 (P = 0.04). We also found a surprising high number of patients pairs (51) and trios (3) who lived in the same dwelling while not being related. Noticeably, these occurrences were not observed in large dwellings as we would have expected. The probability of this occurring in smaller buildings only by chance was very low (P = 0.01 and P = 0.04 for pairs and trios, respectively).ConclusionsWe identified a higher-incidence ALS cluster in the years preceding the disease onset. The cluster area being densely populated, many exposures could have contributed to the high incidence ALS cluster, while we could not find a shared exposure among the dwellings where multiple patients had lived. However, these findings support that exogenous factors are likely involved in the ALS pathogenesis
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