RFRP3 influences basal lamina degradation, cellular death, and progesterone secretion in cultured preantral ovarian follicles from the domestic cat.

The hypothalamic neuropeptide RFRP3 can suppress hypothalamic GnRH neuron activation and inhibit gonadotropin release from the anterior pituitary. RFRP3 is also produced locally in the ovary and can inhibit steroidogenesis and follicle development in many vertebrates. However, almost nothing is known about the presence and regulatory action of RFRP3 in gonads of any carnivore species. Such knowledge is important for developing captive breeding programs for endangered carnivores and for inhibiting reproduction in feral species. Using the domestic cat as a model, our objectives were to (1) demonstrate the expression of feline RFRP3 (fRFRP3) and its receptor in the cat ovary and (2) assess the influence of fRFRP3 on ovarian follicle integrity, survival, and steroidogenesis in vitro. We first confirmed that fRFRP3 and its receptors (NPFFR1 and NPFFR2) were expressed in cat ovaries by sequencing PCR products from ovarian RNA. We then isolated and cultured preantral ovarian follicles in the presence of 10 or 1 µM fRFRP3 + FSH (1 µg/mL). We recorded the percentage of morphologically viable follicles (basal lamina integrity) over 8 days and calculated percentage survival of follicles on Day 8 (using fluorescent markers for cell survival and death). Last, we quantified progesterone accumulation in media. 10 µM fRFRP3 had no observable effect on viability, survival, or steroid production compared to follicles exposed to only FSH. However, 1 µM fRFRP3 decreased the percentage of morphologically viable follicles and the percentage of surviving follicles on Day 8. At the same time, 1 µM fRFRP3 increased the accumulation of progesterone in media. Our study shows, for the first time, direct action of RFRP3 on the follicle as a functional unit, and it is the first in a carnivore species. More broadly, our results support a conserved, inhibitory action of RFRP3 on ovarian follicle development and underscore the importance of comparative functional studies

A Challenge Set Approach to Evaluating Machine Translation

Neural machine translation represents an exciting leap forward in translation quality. But what longstanding weaknesses does it resolve, and which remain? We address these questions with a challenge set approach to translation evaluation and error analysis. A challenge set consists of a small set of sentences, each hand-designed to probe a system's capacity to bridge a particular structural divergence between languages. To exemplify this approach, we present an English-French challenge set, and use it to analyze phrase-based and neural systems. The resulting analysis provides not only a more fine-grained picture of the strengths of neural systems, but also insight into which linguistic phenomena remain out of reach.Comment: EMNLP 2017. 28 pages, including appendix. Machine readable data included in a separate file. This version corrects typos in the challenge se

Computational and Robotic Models of Early Language Development: A Review

We review computational and robotics models of early language learning and development. We first explain why and how these models are used to understand better how children learn language. We argue that they provide concrete theories of language learning as a complex dynamic system, complementing traditional methods in psychology and linguistics. We review different modeling formalisms, grounded in techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence such as Bayesian and neural network approaches. We then discuss their role in understanding several key mechanisms of language development: cross-situational statistical learning, embodiment, situated social interaction, intrinsically motivated learning, and cultural evolution. We conclude by discussing future challenges for research, including modeling of large-scale empirical data about language acquisition in real-world environments. Keywords: Early language learning, Computational and robotic models, machine learning, development, embodiment, social interaction, intrinsic motivation, self-organization, dynamical systems, complexity.Comment: to appear in International Handbook on Language Development, ed. J. Horst and J. von Koss Torkildsen, Routledg

Towards an Automatic Dictation System for Translators: the TransTalk Project

Professional translators often dictate their translations orally and have them typed afterwards. The TransTalk project aims at automating the second part of this process. Its originality as a dictation system lies in the fact that both the acoustic signal produced by the translator and the source text under translation are made available to the system. Probable translations of the source text can be predicted and these predictions used to help the speech recognition system in its lexical choices. We present the results of the first prototype, which show a marked improvement in the performance of the speech recognition task when translation predictions are taken into account.Comment: Published in proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP) 94. 4 pages, uuencoded compressed latex source with 4 postscript figure

Inflation and Unemployment in the U.S. and Canada: A Common Framework

This paper summarizes the results of our efforts to broaden the theory of the Phillips curve and to explain the joint evolution of inflation and unemployment in the United States and Canada since 1930.Phillips curve, unemployment, inflation

Locally normal subgroups of totally disconnected groups. Part II: Compactly generated simple groups

We use the structure lattice, introduced in Part I, to undertake a systematic study of the class $\mathscr S$ consisting of compactly generated, topologically simple, totally disconnected locally compact groups that are non-discrete. Given $G \in \mathscr S$, we show that compact open subgroups of $G$ involve finitely many isomorphism types of composition factors, and do not have any soluble normal subgroup other than the trivial one. By results of Part I, this implies that the centraliser lattice and local decomposition lattice of $G$ are Boolean algebras. We show that the $G$-action on the Stone space of those Boolean algebras is minimal, strongly proximal, and micro-supported. Building upon those results, we obtain partial answers to the following key problems: Are all groups in $\mathscr S$ abstractly simple? Can a group in $\mathscr S$ be amenable? Can a group in $\mathscr S$ be such that the contraction groups of all of its elements are trivial?Comment: 82 page

Limits of contraction groups and the Tits core

The Tits core G^+ of a totally disconnected locally compact group G is defined as the abstract subgroup generated by the closures of the contraction groups of all its elements. We show that a dense subgroup is normalised by the Tits core if and only if it contains it. It follows that every dense subnormal subgroup contains the Tits core. In particular, if G is topologically simple, then the Tits core is abstractly simple, and if G^+ is non-trivial then it is the unique minimal dense normal subgroup. The proofs are based on the fact, of independent interest, that the map which associates to an element the closure of its contraction group is continuous.Comment: 11 page

Le temps géographique

Le temps géographique perçu et vécu, peut être actif ou ressenti. Actif puisqu'il impose les rythmes de la vie rurale, agricole ou artisanale, par des saisons à caractères variables selon les types de climats. Ce temps, au rythme cosmique, est différent du temps vécu, conventionnel et « monnayable ». Il aiguille l'activité urbaine et industrielle, presque indifférente aux rythmes saisonniers. La semaine n'a plus que cinq jours, tandis que l'année active est amputée de périodes d'inactivités improductives.Enfin, le temps maître de la vie : temps de formation, temps d'activité, temps de retraite.Ainsi le temps géographique révèle ses différentes facettes, selon l'angle sous lequel nous le considérons.Geographic time imposes its own rhythms on rural, agricultural and artisanal life by the varying climatic conditions of its seasons. Such « cosmic » time differs from conventional and commercial time, which rules urban and industrial activities and which depends almost not at all on seasonal variations. The work week is now only five days long, and the year is broken by many periods of unproductive inactivity. Finally, time, with its stages of training, activity and retirement, is the master of life