Evaluating Variable-Length Multiple-Option Lists in Chatbots and Mobile Search

In recent years, the proliferation of smart mobile devices has lead to the gradual integration of search functionality within mobile platforms. This has created an incentive to move away from the "ten blue links'' metaphor, as mobile users are less likely to click on them, expecting to get the answer directly from the snippets. In turn, this has revived the interest in Question Answering. Then, along came chatbots, conversational systems, and messaging platforms, where the user needs could be better served with the system asking follow-up questions in order to better understand the user's intent. While typically a user would expect a single response at any utterance, a system could also return multiple options for the user to select from, based on different system understandings of the user's intent. However, this possibility should not be overused, as this practice could confuse and/or annoy the user. How to produce good variable-length lists, given the conflicting objectives of staying short while maximizing the likelihood of having a correct answer included in the list, is an underexplored problem. It is also unclear how to evaluate a system that tries to do that. Here we aim to bridge this gap. In particular, we define some necessary and some optional properties that an evaluation measure fit for this purpose should have. We further show that existing evaluation measures from the IR tradition are not entirely suitable for this setup, and we propose novel evaluation measures that address it satisfactorily.Comment: 4 pages, in Proceeding of SIGIR 201

Análisis corológico y novedades florísticas de la Sierra de los Filabres (Andalucía Oriental, España)

El conocimiento básico sobre la diversidad vegetal a escala local o regional es primordial para afrontar la conservación de la diversidad genética a mayor escala. En Andalucía oriental, la sierra de Los Filabres había quedado al margen de estudios intensivos sobre su flora. Abordamos la notificación de los taxones que resultan novedosos para la provincia de Almería y los que son interesantes ampliaciones de área de distribución. Analizamos la corología de los taxa que emanan del catálogo florístico, considerada una forma de medir la gamma diversidad del territorio. La flora de Los Filabres es primordialmente mediterránea, pero destaca un alto porcentaje de especies de área restringida, entre ellos los que también se presentan en el norte de África, y especialmente los endemismos. Por otro lado, en un área tan conspicua del sur ibérico que constituye una interesante encrucijada biogeográfica, resalta destacable el número de especies no citadas hasta el momento. En el caso de muchas especies que se encuentran en listados de protección, esta información corológica debe ser incorporada en los estudios de evaluación de su grado de amenaza. Muchos taxones son raros en esta sierra, por ser límite de área de distribución o por tener pocas poblaciones o por presentar pocos efectivos poblacionales. Por ello, la conservación a escala local resulta esencial para abordar la planificación y las estrategias de preservación de la biodiversidad global.Basic knowledge on plant diversity at local or regional scale is necessary to face the genetic diversity conservation at widest scale. In eastern Andalusia, Los Filabres Mountain had been to margin of intensive studies on its flora. We approached the notification of new taxa records in Almería province and those that are interesting enlargement of their distribution area. We analyzed the taxa chorology that emanates of the floristic catalogue, considered a gamma diversity measure of the territory. The flora from Los Filabres is fundamentally mediterranean, but restricted area distribution species emphasizes with high percentages, among them, those that also inhabit in North Africa, those that are endemics. On the other hand, in a so conspicuous area of the Iberian south that constitutes an interesting biogeography crossroads, the number of species no referenced until the moment stands out remarkable. In the case of many species that are in “red lists”, this chorological information should be incorporated in the studies of threat evaluation. Many taxa are rare in this mountain range, because of being limit of distribution area or because of have few populations or because of display few population individuals. For this reason, the local scale conservation is essential to approach the planning and the strategies of preservation of the global biodiversity

Referred pain from myofascial trigger points in head and neck–shoulder muscles reproduces head pain features in children with chronic tension type headache

Our aim was to describe the referred pain pattern and areas from trigger points (TrPs) in head, neck, and shoulder muscles in children with chronic tension type headache (CTTH). Fifty children (14 boys, 36 girls, mean age: 8 ± 2) with CTTH and 50 age- and sex- matched children participated. Bilateral temporalis, masseter, superior oblique, upper trapezius, sternocleidomastoid, suboccipital, and levator scapula muscles were examined for TrPs by an assessor blinded to the children’s condition. TrPs were identified with palpation and considered active when local and referred pains reproduce headache pain attacks. The referred pain areas were drawn on anatomical maps, digitalized, and also measured. The total number of TrPs was significantly greater in children with CTTH as compared to healthy children (P < 0.001). Active TrPs were only present in children with CTTH (P < 0.001). Within children with CTTH, a significant positive association between the number of active TrPs and headache duration (rs = 0.315; P = 0.026) was observed: the greater the number of active TrPs, the longer the duration of headache attack. Significant differences in referred pain areas between groups (P < 0.001) and muscles (P < 0.001) were found: the referred pain areas were larger in CTTH children (P < 0.001), and the referred pain area elicited by suboccipital TrPs was larger than the referred pain from the remaining TrPs (P < 0.001). Significant positive correlations between some headache clinical parameters and the size of the referred pain area were found. Our results showed that the local and referred pains elicited from active TrPs in head, neck and shoulder shared similar pain pattern as spontaneous CTTH in children, supporting a relevant role of active TrPs in CTTH in children

SEOM guidelines on hydroelectrolytic disorders

Hydroelectrolytic disorders are one of the most common metabolic complications in cancer patients. Although often metabolic alterations affecting various ions are part of the manifestations of the oncological disease, even in the form of paraneoplastic syndrome, we must not forget that very often, these disorders could be caused by various drugs, including some of the antineoplastic agents most frequently used, such as platin derivatives or some biologics. These guidelines review major management of diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of the most common alterations of sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium in cancer patients. Aside from life-sustaining treatments, we have reviewed the role of specific drug treatments aimed at correcting some of these disorders, such as intravenous bisphosphonates for hypercalcemia or V2 receptor antagonists in the management of syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion-related hyponatremia

Anticancer applications of nanostructured silica-based materials functionalized with titanocene derivatives: Induction of cell death mechanism through TNFR1 modulation

This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterials for Biomedical ApplicationsA series of cytotoxic titanocene derivatives have been immobilized onto nanostructured silica-based materials using two different synthetic routes, namely, (i) a simple grafting protocol via protonolysis of the Ti-Cl bond; and (ii) a tethering method by elimination of ethanol using triethoxysilyl moieties of thiolato ligands attached to titanium. The resulting nanostructured systems have been characterized by different techniques such as XRD, XRF, DR-UV, BET, SEM, and TEM, observing the incorporation of the titanocene derivatives onto the nanostructured silica and slight changes in the textural features of the materials after functionalization with the metallodrugs. A complete biological study has been carried out using the synthesized materials exhibiting moderate cytotoxicity in vitro against three human hepatic carcinoma (HepG2, SK-Hep-1, Hep3B) and three human colon carcinomas (DLD-1, HT-29, COLO320) and very low cytotoxicity against normal cell lines. In addition, the cells&#39; metabolic activity was modified by a 24-h exposure in a dose-dependent manner. Despite not having a significant effect on TNFalfa or the proinflammatory interleukin 1alfa secretion, the materials strongly modulated tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling, even at sub-cytotoxic concentrations. This is achieved mainly by upregulation of the TNFR1 receptor production, something which has not previously been observed for these systems.We gratefully acknowledge financial support from FEDER and the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain (grant no. CTQ2015-66164-R) and the Romanian UEFISCDI Exploratory Research Project PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0870, IMPRESS. We would also like to thank Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and Banco de Santander for supporting our Research Group of Excellence QUINANOAP. Finally, we thank D. Pérez for valuable discussion and S. Carralero and C. Forcé for their assistance with solid-state NMR experiments