Language-Independent Tokenisation Rivals Language-Specific Tokenisation for Word Similarity Prediction.

Language-independent tokenisation (LIT) methods that do not require labelled language resources or lexicons have recently gained popularity because of their applicability in resource-poor languages. Moreover, they compactly represent a language using a fixed size vocabulary and can efficiently handle unseen or rare words. On the other hand, language-specific tokenisation (LST) methods have a long and established history, and are developed using carefully created lexicons and training resources. Unlike subtokens produced by LIT methods, LST methods produce valid morphological subwords. Despite the contrasting trade-offs between LIT vs. LST methods, their performance on downstream NLP tasks remain unclear. In this paper, we empirically compare the two approaches using semantic similarity measurement as an evaluation task across a diverse set of languages. Our experimental results covering eight languages show that LST consistently outperforms LIT when the vocabulary size is large, but LIT can produce comparable or better results than LST in many languages with comparatively smaller (i.e. less than 100K words) vocabulary sizes, encouraging the use of LIT when language-specific resources are unavailable, incomplete or a smaller model is required. Moreover, we find that smoothed inverse frequency (SIF) to be an accurate method to create word embeddings from subword embeddings for multilingual semantic similarity prediction tasks. Further analysis of the nearest neighbours of tokens show that semantically and syntactically related tokens are closely embedded in subword embedding spacesComment: To appear in the 12th Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2020) Conferenc

Defect of Adaptation to Hypoxia in Patients With COPD Due to Reduction of Histone Deacetylase 7

BackgroundHypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1 plays an important role in cellular adaptation to hypoxia by activating oxygen-regulated genes such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and erythropoietin. Sputum VEGF levels are reported to be decreased in COPD, despite hypoxia. Here we show that patients with COPD fail to induce HIF-1α and VEGF under hypoxic condition because of a reduction in histone deacetylase (HDAC) 7.MethodsPeripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were obtained from patients with moderate to severe COPD (n = 21), smokers without COPD (n = 12), and nonsmokers (n = 15). PBMCs were exposed to hypoxia (1% oxygen, 5% CO2, and 94% N2) for 24 h, and HIF-1α and HDAC7 protein expression in nuclear extracts were determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate poly acrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE)/Western blotting.ResultsHIF-1α was significantly induced by hypoxia in each group when compared with the normoxic condition (12-fold induction in nonsmokers, 24-fold induction in smokers without COPD, fourfold induction in COPD), but induction of HIF-1α under hypoxia was significantly lower in patients with COPD than in nonsmokers and smokers without COPD (P < .05 and P < .01, respectively). VEGF messenger RNA detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was correlated with HIF-1α protein in nuclei (r = 0.79, P < .05), and HDAC7 protein expression was correlated with HIF-1α protein in nuclei (r = 0.46, P < .05). HDAC7 knockdown inhibited hypoxia-induced HIF-1α activity in U937 cells, and HIF-1α nuclear translocation and HIF-1α binding to the VEGF promoter in A549 cells.ConclusionsHDAC7 reduction in COPD causes a defect of HIF-1α induction response to hypoxia with impaired VEGF gene expression. This poor cellular adaptation might play a role in the pathogenesis of COPD

Genome-wide association study of semen volume, sperm concentration, testis size, and plasma inhibin B levels

Semen quality is affected by environmental factors, endocrine function abnormalities, and genetic factors. A GWAS recently identified ERBB4 at 2q34 as a genetic locus associated with sperm motility. However, GWASs for human semen volume and sperm concentration have not been conducted. In addition, testis size also reportedly correlates with semen quality, and it is important to identify genes that affect testis size. Reproductive hormones also play an important role in spermatogenesis. To date, genetic loci associated with plasma testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels have been identified using GWASs. However, GWASs have not identified any relevant loci for plasma inhibin B levels. We conducted a two-stage GWAS using 811 Japanese men in a discovery stage followed by a replication stage using an additional 721 Japanese men. The results of the discovery and replication stages were combined into a meta-analysis. After setting a suggestive significance threshold for P values < 5 × 10-6　in the discovery stage, we identified ten regions with SNPs (semen volume: one, sperm concentration: three, testes size: two, and inhibin B: four). We selected only the most significant SNP in each region for replication genotyping. Combined discovery and replication results in the meta-analysis showed that the locus 12q21.31 associated with plasma inhibin B levels (rs11116724) had the most significant association (P = 5.7 × 10-8). The LRRIQ1 and TSPAN19 genes are located in the 12q21.31 region. This study provides new susceptibility variants that contribute to plasma inhibin B levels

The Sulfur Microbial Diet and Risk of Colorectal Cancer by Molecular Subtypes and Intratumoral Microbial Species in Adult Men

INTRODUCTION: We recently described the sulfur microbial diet, a pattern of intake associated with increased gut sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and incidence of distal colorectal cancer (CRC). We assessed whether this risk differed by CRC molecular subtypes or presence of intratumoral microbes involved in CRC pathogenesis (Fusobacterium nucleatum and Bifidobacterium spp.). METHODS: We performed Cox proportional hazards modeling to examine the association between the sulfur microbial diet and incidence of overall and distal CRC by molecular and microbial subtype in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986-2012). RESULTS: We documented 1,264 incident CRC cases among 48,246 men, approximately 40% of whom had available tissue data. After accounting for multiple hypothesis testing, the relationship between the sulfur microbial diet and CRC incidence did not differ by subtype. However, there was a suggestion of an association by prostaglandin synthase 2 (PTGS2) status with a multivariable adjusted hazard ratio for highest vs lowest tertile of sulfur microbial diet scores of 1.31 (95% confidence interval: 0.99-1.74, Ptrend = 0.07, Pheterogeneity = 0.04) for PTGS2-high CRC. The association of the sulfur microbial diet with distal CRC seemed to differ by the presence of intratumoral Bifidobacterium spp. with an adjusted hazard ratio for highest vs lowest tertile of sulfur microbial diet scores of 1.65 (95% confidence interval: 1.14-2.39, Ptrend = 0.01, Pheterogeneity = 0.03) for Bifidobacterium-negative distal CRC. We observed no apparent heterogeneity by other tested molecular markers. DISCUSSION: Greater long-term adherence to the sulfur microbial diet could be associated with PTGS2-high and Bifidobacterium-negative distal CRC in men. Additional studies are needed to further characterize the role of gut microbial sulfur metabolism and CRC

Solar System Exploration Sciences by EQUULEUS on SLS EM-1 and Science Instruments Development Status

EQUULEUS is a spacecraft to explore the cislunar region including the Earth-Moon Lagrange point L2 (EML2) and will be launched by NASA’s SLS EM-1 rocket. Although the size of EQUULEUS is only 6U, the spacecraft carries three different science instruments. By using these instruments, the spacecraft will demonstrate three missions for solar system exploration science during and after the flight to EML2; imaging of the plasmasphere around the earth, observation of space dust flux in the cislunar region, and observation of lunar impact flashes at the far side of the moon. The developments and verifications of the flight models of these science instruments were completed by the end of 2018, and we started flight model integration and testing. This paper introduces the details of the scientific objectives, design results and development statuses of the instruments. In addition, results of the integration and pre-flight tests are also described

Review Article : Feudalism or Absolute Monarchism?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68809/2/10.1177_009770049001600304.pd

イリョウ ケア カンレン ハイエン ニ カンスル マエムキ エキガク チョウサ

医療ケア関連肺炎(HCAP)は,ATS/IDSAの肺炎のガイドライン(2005年)にて提唱された概念である.当院におけるHCAPの特徴を明らかにする目的で前向き研究を行った.2010年1～12月に獨協医科大学越谷病院呼吸器内科に市中肺炎で入院した患者を対象とした.HCAPと市中肺炎(CAP)の判断にあたっては, HCAP疑い因子の有無をアンケートにより調査した.それ以外の介入は行わず,背景因子,肺炎重症度,肺炎の再燃の有無について調査した.年齢はHCAP 73±10歳,CAP 65±9歳(p<0.05)と両群間で有意差を認め,HCAP群では悪性腫瘍の合併が多く(p<0.05),自立度が低かった(p<0.05).入院時検査所見,胸部X線点数は,両群間に有意差を認めなかった.肺炎重症度は,A-DROPでは,HCAP群が,軽症30%,中等症63%,重症7%,CAP群が,軽症75%,中等症12%,重症13%で,有意差がみられた(p<0.05)が,PSIスコアでは,重症度に有意差を認めなかった.30日以内の肺炎再燃はHCAP群で21%,CAP群では0%であった.本研究より,HCAPでは,入院時の重症度に関らず,より慎重な経過観察が必要であることが示唆された.詳細にHCAP危険因子に関する病歴を聴取し,HCAPをCAPと誤認しないようにすることが重要である.Backgrounds:Healthcare associated pneumonia(HCAP) is a new concept proposed in guidelines for themanagement of adults with hospital-acquired, ventilatorassociated,and healthcare-associated pneumonia by ATS/IDSA. Several retrospective studies investigating the characteristicof HCAP in Japan have been performed. However,at present, a cohort study exploring the characteristic ofHCAP in Japan has not been published.Patients and Methods:This study was a prospectiveobservational study. Patients with pneumonia who admittedto Dokkyo Medical University Koshigaya Hospital betweenJanuary and December in 2010 were enrolled in this study.After giving informed consent, the patients were requestedto fill out a questionnaire designed to obtain informationabout risk factors of HCAP and divided into groups, HCAPor CAP, and their clinical characteristics were observed.Results:Mean age of enrolled patients were 73±10 yr inHCAP and 65±9 yr in CAP (p<0.05). The percentage ofpatients with malignant diseases were higher in HCAPgroup (p<0.05). There were no statistically significant differencesin WBC, CRP or chest X ray score on admissionbetween the groups. A-DROP score showed statistically asignificant difference between the groups while PSI scoredid not. The recurrence of pneumonia within 30 days afterdischarge of hospital was 21 % in HCAP groups but 0 % inCAP group.Conclusion:This study showed that patients withHCAP need to receive more careful care and observation toprevent recurrence even though the severity of pneumoniaon admission was not very high. It is crucial to take patients\u27history carefully to identify correctly whether a patientis with HCAP or CAP