Universal Dependencies Parsing for Colloquial Singaporean English

Singlish can be interesting to the ACL community both linguistically as a major creole based on English, and computationally for information extraction and sentiment analysis of regional social media. We investigate dependency parsing of Singlish by constructing a dependency treebank under the Universal Dependencies scheme, and then training a neural network model by integrating English syntactic knowledge into a state-of-the-art parser trained on the Singlish treebank. Results show that English knowledge can lead to 25% relative error reduction, resulting in a parser of 84.47% accuracies. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to use neural stacking to improve cross-lingual dependency parsing on low-resource languages. We make both our annotation and parser available for further research.Comment: Accepted by ACL 201

Modeling Three-dimensional Invasive Solid Tumor Growth in Heterogeneous Microenvironment under Chemotherapy

A systematic understanding of the evolution and growth dynamics of invasive solid tumors in response to different chemotherapy strategies is crucial for the development of individually optimized oncotherapy. Here, we develop a hybrid three-dimensional (3D) computational model that integrates pharmacokinetic model, continuum diffusion-reaction model and discrete cell automaton model to investigate 3D invasive solid tumor growth in heterogeneous microenvironment under chemotherapy. Specifically, we consider the effects of heterogeneous environment on drug diffusion, tumor growth, invasion and the drug-tumor interaction on individual cell level. We employ the hybrid model to investigate the evolution and growth dynamics of avascular invasive solid tumors under different chemotherapy strategies. Our simulations reproduce the well-established observation that constant dosing is generally more effective in suppressing primary tumor growth than periodic dosing, due to the resulting continuous high drug concentration. In highly heterogeneous microenvironment, the malignancy of the tumor is significantly enhanced, leading to inefficiency of chemotherapies. The effects of geometrically-confined microenvironment and non-uniform drug dosing are also investigated. Our computational model, when supplemented with sufficient clinical data, could eventually lead to the development of efficient in silico tools for prognosis and treatment strategy optimization.Comment: 41 pages, 8 figure

An effective method of accelerating Bose gases using magnetic coils

This is the accepted manuscript. The final published version is available from IOP at http://iopscience.iop.org/1674-1056/23/9/093701.Based on the experimental device which is a non-uniform magnetic field to trap an atom, we show how to obtain a certain velocity of a Bose gas by controlling the magnetic coils. By comparing the relationship of different current supply and delay time versus the ultimate velocity of the atom,we theoretically predict the method of accelerating the gases to an expected velocity. This method is of great convenience and significance for the applications in cold atom physics and precision measurements.This work is supported by the National Fundamental Research Program of China under Grant No. 2011CB921501

Poly[[diaqua­hemi-μ4-oxalato-μ2-oxalato-praseodymium(III)] monohydrate]

In the title complex, {[Pr(C2O4)1.5(H2O)2]·H2O}n, the PrIII ion, which lies on a crystallographic inversion centre, is coordinated by seven O atoms from four oxalate ligands and two O atoms from two water ligands; further Pr—O coordination from tetra­dentate oxalate ligands forms a three-dimensional structure. The compound crystallized as a monohydrate, the water mol­ecule occupying space in small voids and being secured by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonding as an acceptor from ligand water H atoms and as a donor to oxalate O-acceptor sites

Investigation on The Hydrodynamic Properties in The External Loop of Circulating Fluidized Bed With a Loop Seal

The pressure balance and mass balance are influenced by the characteristics of different components in the loop of a circulating fluidized bed (CFB). Experiments were conducted in a 4.3 m high cold laboratory CFB test rig with a loop seal. With a fixed bed inventory and superficial gas velocity, the pressure drop of the loop seal decreased with increasing aeration, thus causing an increase in the solid circulation flux (Gs). Correspondingly, the pressure drop in the riser became higher with increasing Gs; the pressure drop of the cyclone had a non-linear relationship with Gs, and the transition point was determined in the experiment. Using the laser fiber and gas tracer method, hydrodynamic characteristics in the standpipe were directly measured. It was found that the pressure gradient, voidage, and solid height in the standpipe were affected by the pressure balance in the whole loop. By adjusting the gas flow rate and direction in the standpipe, the gas-solid slip velocity and pressure gradient changed correspondingly. Therefore, the standpipe could maintain the pressure balance and realize self-equilibrium of the loop by absorbing the pressure drop variations of other parts in the system

The prevalence of canine Leishmania infantum infection in western China detected by PCR and serological tests

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Canine leishmaniasis (CanL) is endemic in western China, resulting in important public health problem. It is essential to evaluate the prevalence of canine <it>Leishmania infantum </it>infection for designing control policy. In the present study we report for the first time prevalence of <it>Leishmania </it>infection in dogs living in Jiuzhaigou County (Sichuan Provence, China), which is not only an important endemic area of CanL but also a tourism scenic spot, detected by PCR, ELISA and dipstick test. The results could provide key information for designing control programs against canine and human leishmaniasis. In addition, the complete sequence of the <it>Leishmania </it>isolate from Sichuan Province has not been reported to date and we present the sequences of 116 base-pair (bp) fragment of the conserved region in the minicircle kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) and the results of phylogenetic analyses based on the sequence of the amplified fragment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The proportion of dogs infected with <it>Leishmania </it>in Jiuzhaigou County was 36.79%, 9.43%, and 51.88% detected by ELISA, dipstick test, and PCR, respectively. The ELISA and PCR tests were more sensitive than dipstick test. The PCR method is the most sensitive way to detect dogs infected with <it>Leishmania </it>parasites. The total positive rate for infected dogs in the area was 59.43% by the three methods. The PCR products of 116-bp fragment amplified from the kDNA conserved region of dog blood samples and laboratory maintained <it>L. infantum </it>were DNA sequenced and the variation of the sequences was observed. The phylogenetic tree based on the sequences of 116-bp fragment reveals that <it>L. infantum </it>is more genetically related to visceralizing species <it>L. donovani </it>than to the <it>Leishmania </it>species associated with cutaneous disease.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>More than half of dogs living in the endemic Jiuzhaigou County were infected by <it>L. infantum</it>. Control measures, such as treatment or eradication of infected dogs, or prohibition of maintaining dogs, must be taken against these infected dogs due to their role in the transmission of the infection to vectors. The phylogenetic tree based on the sequences of conserved region in kDNA of <it>Leishmania </it>can effectively distinguish species of <it>Leishmania</it>.</p