Modeling German Verb Argument Structures: LSTMs vs. Humans

LSTMs have proven very successful at language modeling. However, it remains unclear to what extent they are able to capture complex morphosyntactic structures. In this paper, we examine whether LSTMs are sensitive to verb argument structures. We introduce a German grammaticality dataset in which ungrammatical sentences are constructed by manipulating case assignments (eg substituting nominative by accusative or dative). We find that LSTMs are better than chance in detecting incorrect argument structures and slightly worse than humans tested on the same dataset. Surprisingly, LSTMs are contaminated by heuristics not found in humans like a preference toward nominative noun phrases. In other respects they show human-similar results like biases for particular orders of case assignments

Job loss from poor health, smoking and obesity: a national prospective survey in France

Background and objectives: Health selection into unemployment may be either direct or operate by reference to health-related behaviours rather than health per se (indirect selection). Panel data are desirable to investigate selection effects, and the two types of selection processes may be concurrent. We examine jointly the roles of health and health-related behaviours as precursors of unemployment, in order to disentangle direct from indirect selection processes. Design: The data of a multi-round nationally representative health survey in France were analysed longitudinally, based on three data collection rounds: 1992–5, 1996–8 and 2000–2. Following employees salaried in the private sector and aged 30–54 years at baseline, we explored through logistic regression the influence of non-optimal self-rated health, smoking and obesity on the risk of being found unemployed 4 years later. Results: After adjustment for self-rated health, obesity was found to be a significant precursor of unemployment in women, and heavy smoking had that role in men. After adjustment for smoking and obesity, poor health at baseline was found to be a significant precursor of unemployment in both genders. Conclusion: Those findings confirm the intrinsic role of poor health and of health-related behaviours as precursors of unemployment, with gender-specific patterns for the latter. Public policy prescriptions regarding employees’ protection from job insecurities should integrate appropriate accommodations of health limitations, and the personal factors underlying unfavourable work and health behaviours should be investigated, in order to thwart indirect selection phenomena.ou

Modeling German Verb Argument Structures: LSTMs vs. Humans

LSTMs have proven very successful at language modeling. However, it remains unclear to what extent they are able to capture complex morphosyntactic structures. In this paper, we examine whether LSTMs are sensitive to verb argument structures. We introduce a German grammaticality dataset in which ungrammatical sentences are constructed by manipulating case assignments (eg substituting nominative by accusative or dative). We find that LSTMs are better than chance in detecting incorrect argument structures and slightly worse than humans tested on the same dataset. Surprisingly, LSTMs are contaminated by heuristics not found in humans like a preference toward nominative noun phrases. In other respects they show human-similar results like biases for particular orders of case assignments

An analysis of reading workbooks for grades four, five, and six

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Neonate Intestinal Immune Response to CpG Oligodeoxynucleotide Stimulation

Background: The development of mucosal vaccines is crucial to efficiently control infectious agents for which mucosae are the primary site of entry. Major drawbacks of these protective strategies are the lack of effective mucosal adjuvant. Synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides that contain several unmethylated cytosine-guanine dinucleotide (CpG-ODN) motifs are now recognized as promising adjuvants displaying mucosal adjuvant activity through direct activation of TLR9-expressing cells. However, little is known about the efficacy of these molecules in stimulating the intestinal immune system in neonates. Methodology/Principal Findings: First, newborn mice received CpG-ODN orally, and the intestinal cytokine and chemokine response was measured. We observed that oral administration of CpG-ODN induces CXC and CC chemokine responses and a cellular infiltration in the intestine of neonates as detected by immunohistochemistry. We next compared the efficiency of the oral route to intraperitoneal administration in stimulating the intestinal immune responses of both adults and neonates. Neonates were more responsive to TLR9-stimulation than adults whatever the CpG-ODN administration route. Their intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) indirectly responded to TLR9 stimulation and contributed to the CXC chemokine response, whereas other TLR9-bearing cells of the lamina-propria produced CC chemokines and Th1-type cytokines. Moreover, we showed that the intestine of adult exhibited a significantly higher level of IL10 at homeostasis than neonates, which might be responsible for the unresponsiveness to TLR9-stimulation, as confirmed by our findings in IL10-deficient mice. Conclusions/Significance: This is the first report that deciphers the role played by CpG-ODN in the intestine of neonates. This work clearly demonstrates that an intraperitoneal administration of CpG-ODN is more efficient in neonates than in adults to stimulate an intestinal chemokine response due to their lower IL-10 intestinal level. In addition we report the efficiency of the oral route at inducing intestinal chemokine responses in neonate that might be taken into consideration for further vaccine development against neonatal diseases

HIV infection and severe malnutrition: a clinical and epidemiological study in Burkina Faso.

OBJECTIVE: To define a clinical profile indicative of HIV infection in a population of severely malnourished children in Burkina Faso. A total of 433 children (average age, 19 months) were recruited at the Sanou Souro National Hospital, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. RESULTS: Sixty-three per cent presented with marasmus, 13% with kwashiorkor and 24% with both forms of malnutrition. The prevalence of HIV infection in children aged over 12 months was 13.8%, with a marked predominance of HIV-1 (95.8%). Mother-to-child transmission was proven in 77% of the cases; in 10% of the observed paediatric AIDS cases, transmission may have occurred through multi-injections with contaminated equipment. Marasmus was the form of malnutrition most frequently associated with HIV (P < 0.001); its severity was exacerbated by HIV infection. Adenopathy (P < 0.0001), oral candidiasis (P < 0.0006), skin disorders (P < 0.01) and hepatomegaly (P = 0.01) appeared to be significantly related to HIV infection. Discriminant analysis revealed that the presence of adenopathies was the strongest indicator symptom of HIV infection. Multivariate analysis revealed that a clinical profile of marasmus, adenopathies and oral candidiasis (specificity, 82%) was indicative of HIV infection in this population. The short-term clinical prognosis was poor and usually led to the death of the child when seropositive (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Among children exhibiting severe malnutrition, HIV-positive children are distinguished by a high horizontal transmission rate, a high specific clinical profile and a very poor prognosis

Siglec-F is a novel intestinal M cell marker

Intestinal microfold (M) cells are epithelial cells primarily present on Peyer's patches (PPs) in the small intestine. The ability of M cells to shuttle antigens into the PP for appropriate immune responses makes M cells a target for next-generation oral vaccine delivery. In this regard, discovery of M cell specific receptors are of great interest, which could act as molecular tags for targeted delivery of cargo to M cells. Here, using a monoclonal antibody we generated to the Sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-like lectin F (Siglec-F), we show that Siglec-F is expressed on mouse M cells in the small intestine. Immunohistochemical analysis of the PP tissue sections shows that Siglec-F is expressed on the surface of the M cell membrane exposed to the intestinal lumen. Anti-Siglec-F antibody injected into the mouse small intestine bound to M-cells, demonstrating the potential to target M cells via Siglec-F