Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks: Resurrecting Multilingual Retrieval Using Zero-shot Learning

While billions of non-English speaking users rely on search engines every day, the problem of ad-hoc information retrieval is rarely studied for non-English languages. This is primarily due to a lack of data set that are suitable to train ranking algorithms. In this paper, we tackle the lack of data by leveraging pre-trained multilingual language models to transfer a retrieval system trained on English collections to non-English queries and documents. Our model is evaluated in a zero-shot setting, meaning that we use them to predict relevance scores for query-document pairs in languages never seen during training. Our results show that the proposed approach can significantly outperform unsupervised retrieval techniques for Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, and Spanish. We also show that augmenting the English training collection with some examples from the target language can sometimes improve performance.Comment: ECIR 2020 (short

Treatment results and prognostic factors in primary thyroid lymphoma patients: a Rare Cancer Network study

Background: This study analyzed prognostic factors and treatment outcomes of primary thyroid lymphoma. Patients and Methods: Data were retrospectively collected for 87 patients (53 stage I and 34 stage II) with median age 65 years. Fifty-two patients were treated with single modality (31 with chemotherapy alone and 21 with radiotherapy alone) and 35 with combined modality treatment. Median follow-up was 51 months. Results: Sixty patients had aggressive lymphoma and 27 had indolent lymphoma. The 5- and 10-year overall survival (OS) rates were 74% and 71%, respectively, and the disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 68% and 64%. Univariate analysis revealed that age, tumor size, stage, lymph node involvement, B symptoms, and treatment modality were prognostic factors for OS, DFS, and local control (LC). Patients with thyroiditis had significantly better LC rates. In multivariate analysis, OS was influenced by age, B symptoms, lymph node involvement, and tumor size, whereas DFS and LC were influenced by B symptoms and tumor size. Compared with single modality treatment, patients treated with combined modality had better 5-year OS, DFS, and LC. Conclusions: Combined modality leads to an excellent prognosis for patients with aggressive lymphoma but does not improve OS and LC in patients with indolent lymphom

The prevalence and consequences of burnout on a group of preclinical dental students

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of burnout among a group of Turkish preclinical dental students, to compare the level of burnout and to determine the consequences in structural equation model. Materials and Methods: Preclinical dental students (n = 329, 50.5% of females and 49.5% of males) aged between 18 and 24 took part in the study. Maslach burnout inventory student version, academic satisfaction scale, and personal information sheet were used to gather data. Pearson correlation analyses, t-test, and one-way ANOVA were used for statistical analysis. The proposed theoretical model was tested via observed variable path analysis using maximum likelihood parameter estimation with AMOS 7.0. Results: About 22.3% of students had high level of emotional exhaustion, 16.7% of students had high level of cynicism, and 17.9% of students suffered from high level of reduced academic efficacy. While the students attending the first grade reported higher level of reduced academic efficacy, the students in the third grade reported higher level of emotional exhaustion. Academic workload played an important role in the development of burnout. As consequences of burnout, students with high levels of burnout intended to change their current major and did not to plan to continue to postgraduate education. Students with high level of burnout reported less level of academic satisfaction and academic achievement. Conclusions: Creating awareness on the burnout of dental students from the preclinical period may be useful for prevention and more compatible dental education environment. © 2015 European Journal of Dentistry

Variant‐specific effects of GBA1 mutations on dopaminergic neuron proteostasis

Glucocerebrosidase 1 (GBA1) mutations are the most important genetic risk factors for Parkinson's disease (PD). Clinically, mild (e.g., p.N370S) and severe (e.g., p.L444P and p.D409H) GBA1 mutations have different PD phenotypes, with differences in age at disease onset, progression, and the severity of motor and non‐motor symptoms. We hypothesize that GBA1 mutations cause the accumulation of α‐synuclein by affecting the cross‐talk between cellular protein degradation mechanisms, leading to neurodegeneration. Accordingly, we tested whether mild and severe GBA1 mutations differentially affect the degradation of α‐synuclein via the ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS), chaperone‐mediated autophagy (CMA), and macroautophagy and differentially cause accumulation and/or release of α‐synuclein. Our results demonstrate that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and total ubiquitination rates were significantly increased in cells with severe GBA1 mutations. CMA was found to be defective in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)‐derived dopaminergic neurons with mild GBA1 mutations, but not in those with severe GBA1 mutations. When examining macroautophagy, we observed reduced formation of autophagosomes in cells with the N370S and D409H GBA1 mutations and impairments in autophagosome–lysosome fusion in cells with the L444P GBA1 mutation. Accordingly, severe GBA1 mutations were found to trigger the accumulation and release of oligomeric α‐synuclein in iPSC‐derived dopaminergic neurons, primarily as a result of increased ER stress and defective macroautophagy, while mild GBA1 mutations affected CMA, which is mainly responsible for the degradation of the monomeric form of α‐synuclein. Overall, our findings provide new insight into the molecular basis of the clinical variability in PD associated with different GBA1 mutations

Design, fabrication and control of soft robots

Conventionally, engineers have employed rigid materials to fabricate precise, predictable robotic systems, which are easily modelled as rigid members connected at discrete joints. Natural systems, however, often match or exceed the performance of robotic systems with deformable bodies. Cephalopods, for example, achieve amazing feats of manipulation and locomotion without a skeleton; even vertebrates such as humans achieve dynamic gaits by storing elastic energy in their compliant bones and soft tissues. Inspired by nature, engineers have begun to explore the design and control of soft-bodied robots composed of compliant materials. This Review discusses recent developments in the emerging field of soft robotics.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant IIS-1226883

New Mediterranean biodiversity records (March 2016)

In this Collective Article on “New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records”, we present additional records of species found in the Mediterranean Sea. These records refer to eight different countries mainly throughout the northern part of the basin, and include 28 species, belonging to five Phyla. The findings per country include the following species: Spain: Callinectes sapidus and Chelidonura fulvipunctata; Monaco: Aplysia dactylomela; Italy: Charybdis (Charybdis) feriata, Carcharodon carcharias, Seriola fasciata, and Siganus rivulatus; Malta: Pomacanthus asfur; Croatia: Lagocephalus sceleratus and Pomadasys incisus; Montenegro: Lagocephalus sceleratus; Greece: Amathia (Zoobotryon) verticillata, Atys macandrewii, Cerithium scabridum, Chama pacifica, Dendostrea cf. folium, Ergalatax junionae, Septifer cumingii, Syphonota geographica, Syrnola fasciata, Oxyu- richthys petersi, Scarus ghobban, Scorpaena maderensis, Solea aegyptiaca and Upeneus pori; Turkey: Lobotes surinamensis, Ruvettus pretiosus and Ophiocten abyssicolum. In the current article, the presence of Taractes rubescens (Jordan & Evermann, 1887) is recorded for the first time in the Mediterranean from Italy. The great contribution of citizen scientists in monitoring biodiversity records is reflected herein, as 10% of the authors are citizen scientists, and contributed 37.5% of the new findings.peer-reviewe

Comparison of conventional and CT-based planning for intracavitary brachytherapy for cervical cancer: target volume coverage and organs at risk doses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To compare intracavitary brachytherapy (ICBT) planning methods for cervical cancer, based on either orthogonal radiographs (conventional plan) or CT sections (CT plan); the comparison focused on target volume coverage and dose volume analysis of organs at risk (OARs), by representing point doses defined by the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurement (ICRU) and dose volume histograms (DVHs) from 3D planning.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed the dosimetric data for 62 conventional and CT-based ICBT plans. The gross tumor volume (GTV), clinical target volume (CTV) and organs at risk (OAR)s were contoured on the CT-plan. Point A and ICRU 38 rectal and bladder points were defined on reconstructed CT images.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Patients were categorized on the basis of whether the >95% isodose line of the point-A prescription dose encompassed the CTV (group 1, n = 24) or not (group 2, n = 38). The mean GTV and CTV (8.1 cc and 20.6 cc) were smaller in group 1 than in group 2 (24.7 cc and 48.4 cc) (<it>P <</it>0.001). The mean percentage of GTV and CTV coverage with the 7 Gy isodose was 93.1% and 88.2% for all patients, and decreased with increasing tumor size and stage. The mean D2 and D5 rectum doses were 1.66 and 1.42 times higher than the corresponding ICRU point doses and the mean D2 and D5 bladder doses were 1.51 and 1.28 times higher. The differences between the ICRU dose and the D2 and D5 doses were significantly higher in group 2 than in group 1 for the bladder, but not for the rectum.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The CT-plan is superior to the conventional plan in target volume coverage and appropriate evaluation of OARs, as the conventional plan overestimates tumor doses and underestimates OAR doses.</p