Is Argument Structure of Learner Chinese Understandable: A Corpus-Based Analysis

This paper presents a corpus-based analysis of argument structure errors in learner Chinese. The data for analysis includes sentences produced by language learners as well as their corrections by native speakers. We couple the data with semantic role labeling annotations that are manually created by two senior students whose majors are both Applied Linguistics. The annotation procedure is guided by the Chinese PropBank specification, which is originally developed to cover first language phenomena. Nevertheless, we find that it is quite comprehensive for handling second language phenomena. The inter-annotator agreement is rather high, suggesting the understandability of learner texts to native speakers. Based on our annotations, we present a preliminary analysis of competence errors related to argument structure. In particular, speech errors related to word order, word selection, lack of proposition, and argument-adjunct confounding are discussed.Comment: Proceedings of the 2018 International Conference on Bilingual Learning and Teaching (ICBLT-2018

Research progress of axillary de-escalation management after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for clinical lymph node positive patients

In the era of effective systemic therapy and precise radiotherapy, neoadjuvant treatment (NAT) for breast cancer can de-escalate breast cancer treatment to conserve breast and spare axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). At present, high axillary nodal pathologic complete response (apCR) is achieved in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and it is hopeful to realize the axillary de-escalation management. It is recommended that sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy (SLNB) is a feasible alternative to ALND in primary clinical lymph node negative (cN0) patients, and the presence of lower residual tumor burden in SLN after NAT may be considered as a replacement for ALND with radiotherapy. The feasibility of the patients with initial clinical lymph node positive (cN+) turning to conventional SLNB after NAT is still being questioned. The main obstacle is the high false negative rate of SLNB after NAT, residual tumor cells in the axilla cannot be accurately predicted, and the risk of postoperative axillary recurrence and metastasis cannot be determined. The false negative rate of SLNB may meet the clinical requirement under the condition of combined tracing, more than 3 SLNs detected, and lower clinical axillary metastatic tumor burden. However, the quality of SLNB after NAT cannot be effectively improved due to tumor cells blocking lymphatic vessels and affecting the drainage of blue dye or radionuclide. Therefore, optimization of SLNB technology needs to be implemented after NAT. Targeted axillary lymph node dissection (TAD) is a precise surgical procedure for the detection of metastatic axillary lymph nodes, and clips were placed on the metastatic lymph nodes before NAT and targeted to detect the lymph nodes after NAT. It can further reduce the false negative rate of SLNB after NAT and improve the accurate assessment of residual tumor burden in axillary lymph nodes after NAT. TAD is expected to be a safe and reliable axillary staging technique for breast cancer patients after NAT. This article reviewed the de-escalation treatment of NAT in initial cN+ patients and the research progress of TAD

Internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy for breast cancer: a long-term follow-up research for assessment of prognosis and guiding individualized internal mammary lymph node irradiation

Background and purpose: Internal mammary lymph node irradiation (IMNI) improves survival in patients with internal mammary lymph node (IMLN) high-risk metastatic breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to study the advantages of internal mammary sentinel lymph node (IMLN) biopsy (IM-SLNB) for assessing prognosis and directing individualized IMNI. Methods: This study evaluated patients recruited in three prospective clinical trials (NCT01642511, NCT03541278, and NCT03024463) from November 2011 to December 2021, assessed for prognostic risk variables based on IMSLN metastatic status and prognosis between subgroups. In patients who received regional lymph node irradiation, the implementation status, survival benefit, and influence of IMNI on radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) were studied. The primary endpoint was disease-free survival (DFS), with overall survival (OS) and RILI as secondary endpoints. Results: The study enrolled 537 patients and had a 60-month median follow-up. Patients with IMSLN metastasis had a significantly worse 5-year DFS and OS (DFS: 95.1% vs 71.4%, OS: 99.1% vs 90.1%, both P<0.05), and IMSLN metastatic status was an independent risk factor for DFS and OS (both P<0.05). Adding IMNI did not improve DFS (P = 0.099) or OS (P = 0.486) in patients with negative IMSLN, while it did increase the risk of RILI (OR = 3.678, P<0.05). However, adding IMNI improved 5-year DFS (87.3% vs 52.5%, P = 0.040) for patients with positive IMSLN but had no effect on OS (P = 0.603). Conclusion: This study discovered that IMSLN metastatic status has significant prognostic importance. Patients with IMSLN metastasis who receive IMNI have significantly improved prognosis, and patients without IMSLN metastasis have a much lower risk of RILI by being exempt from IMNI without worse prognosis

Radiotracer technique optimization for breast cancer internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy

Background and purpose: The modified injection technique developed in Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Shandong First Medical University and Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences has significantly improved the visualization rate of internal mammary sentinel lymph nodes (IMSLN), however there is still a gap between the visualization rate of IMSLN obtained by this technique and that of axillary sentinel lymph nodes (ASLN). The study aimed to further improve the IMSLN visualization rate and promote the widespread use of internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy (IM-SLNB) by optimizing the modified injection technique. Methods: A total of 159 patients with primary breast cancer were enrolled in a prospective group and divided into the optimized radiotracer technique group (group A, n=81) and the modified injection technique group (group B, n=78). In group A, 99mTc-sulfur colloid was injected averagely into parenchyma in the gland's three most abundant regions under ultrasound guidance (total radioactive intensity 1.0-1.3 mCi; 0.8-1.0 mL/point). In group B, 99mTc-sulfur colloid was injected averagely into the parenchyma of the breast at 6 and 12 points under ultrasound guidance (total radioactive intensity 1.0-1.3 mCi; 0.8-1.0 mL/point). Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) lymphoscintigraphy was performed preoperatively, and the sentinel lymph nodes were detected intraoperatively by γ probe. In this study, we evaluated the differences in IMSLN and ASLN visualization rates between the groups, and also analyzed the factors that may affect the IMSLN visualization rate. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in visualization rate of IM-SLN measured by preoperative SPECT/CT between the two groups (P=0.806). The intraoperative visualization rate of IM-SLN was significantly higher in group A than in group B (87.65% vs 70.51%, P=0.008). Analysis of subgroups showed that the intraoperative visualization rate of IMSLN was 92.31% and 83.33% (P=0.315) in group A patients aged ≤50 years and >50 years, respectively, and the intraoperative visualization rate of IMSLN was significantly higher in group B patients aged ≤50 years than in patients aged >50 years (81.58% vs 60.00%, P=0.037). The median in vitro radioactivity count of IMSLN was significantly higher in group A than in group B (160.50 vs 59.00, P=0.005). Conclusion: The optimized radiotracer technique can effectively increase the lymphatic drainage and uptake in the internal mammary region of the radiotracer, which can significantly improve the visualization rate of IM-SLN without affecting the visualization rate of ASLN, and is conducive to the promotion and application of IM-SLNB

Dynamically-Driven Inactivation of the Catalytic Machinery of the SARS 3C-Like Protease by the N214A Mutation on the Extra Domain

Despite utilizing the same chymotrypsin fold to host the catalytic machinery, coronavirus 3C-like proteases (3CLpro) noticeably differ from picornavirus 3C proteases in acquiring an extra helical domain in evolution. Previously, the extra domain was demonstrated to regulate the catalysis of the SARS-CoV 3CLpro by controlling its dimerization. Here, we studied N214A, another mutant with only a doubled dissociation constant but significantly abolished activity. Unexpectedly, N214A still adopts the dimeric structure almost identical to that of the wild-type (WT) enzyme. Thus, we conducted 30-ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for N214A, WT, and R298A which we previously characterized to be a monomer with the collapsed catalytic machinery. Remarkably, three proteases display distinctive dynamical behaviors. While in WT, the catalytic machinery stably retains in the activated state; in R298A it remains largely collapsed in the inactivated state, thus implying that two states are not only structurally very distinguishable but also dynamically well separated. Surprisingly, in N214A the catalytic dyad becomes dynamically unstable and many residues constituting the catalytic machinery jump to sample the conformations highly resembling those of R298A. Therefore, the N214A mutation appears to trigger the dramatic change of the enzyme dynamics in the context of the dimeric form which ultimately inactivates the catalytic machinery. The present MD simulations represent the longest reported so far for the SARS-CoV 3CLpro, unveiling that its catalysis is critically dependent on the dynamics, which can be amazingly modulated by the extra domain. Consequently, mediating the dynamics may offer a potential avenue to inhibit the SARS-CoV 3CLpro

Divergence in Word Meanings and its Consequence for Communication

How similar are people's meanings of common words? Do differences in word meanings lead to miscommunication? We examined divergence between word meanings using similarity ratings such as "Is a penguin more similar to a chicken or a dolphin". We found that given the identical instructions some people prioritized taxonomic relationships more than other people. Moreover, this taxonomic bias generalized from animals to artifacts suggesting a more general difference in semantic organization. When people with different biases are paired in a matcher-director type task, they were less likely to achieve communicative success

Does surprisal affect word learning? Evidence from seven languages

What makes a word easy to learn? We know that early-learned words tend to be frequent and name concrete referents. Here we investigate a novel predictor--a word's surprisal -- the ease of predicting it given a context. We computed surprisal for words in child-directed speech and used it to predict age of acquisition (AoA) while controlling for known predictors such as concreteness, frequency, and the mean length of the utterances in which the word appeared. Predicates with greater surprisal (i.e., those less predictable from context) were learned later. Noun learning was not dependent on surprisal. Surprisal was a powerful mediator of both frequency and concreteness, reducing the ordinarily strong effect of frequency and concreteness on AoA. Differences in surprisal across languages also proved to be moderately predictive of differences in AoA across languages: translation equivalents that had higher surprisal had later AoAs

Does surprisal affect word learning? Evidence from seven languages

What makes a word easy to learn? We know that early-learned words tend to be frequent and name concrete referents. Here we investigate a novel predictor--a word's surprisal -- the ease of predicting it given a context. We computed surprisal for words in child-directed speech and used it to predict age of acquisition (AoA) while controlling for known predictors such as concreteness, frequency, and the mean length of the utterances in which the word appeared. Predicates with greater surprisal (i.e., those less predictable from context) were learned later. Noun learning was not dependent on surprisal. Surprisal was a powerful mediator of both frequency and concreteness, reducing the ordinarily strong effect of frequency and concreteness on AoA. Differences in surprisal across languages also proved to be moderately predictive of differences in AoA across languages: translation equivalents that had higher surprisal had later AoAs

Optimization of Gantry Cranes’ Operation Path for Transshipment Based on Improved TSP

In order to improve the transshipment efficiency of transit containers in the port or the port-type railway network container freight station (PRNCS) with the condition that each transit container matches a railway flat-car, this paper studied the optimization of operation path of the rail mounted gantry crane (RMG) in the loading and unloading track for containers transshipped directly from highway to railway. Based on the basic model of TSP, the paper constructed the optimization model for the operation path of RMG, and designed the Ant Colony Algorithm (ACA) to solve it, and then obtained the operation scheme of RMG having the highest efficiency. Finally, the validity and correctness of the model and algorithm were verified by a case