Different Languages, Different Questions: Language Versioning in Q&A

Question and Answering (Q&A) communities have become effective forums for humans to collaborate and build accurate domain-specific archives of information. Stack Overflow is a prime example of a system which has effectively leveraged Q&A to build a strong archive of computer programming information. However, English is the dominant language in size and scope. To reach a wider audience, Stack Overflow has started language-specific sites. In this paper, we seek to understand how these language version sites are used, and whether they form unique Q&A structures or mirror the English version. The results indicate that each site is structured differently, and that users of different languages have different question asking patterns. The contributions from this work are useful in informing designers of systems attempting to conduct language versioning and provide an argument for developing sites within languages, rather than only providing translated versions

Relationship between subjective effort and kinematics/kinetics in the 50 m sprint

Purpose. This study investigated the relationship between subjective effort (SE) and kinematics/kinetics throughout an entire 50 m sprint. Methods. Fifteen male sprinters performed the 50 m sprint at 3 different levels of SE (100 %SE; maximal-effort, 90 %SE and 80 %SE, sub-maximal efforts). Kinematic and kinetic data were obtained with a digital high speed camera and 50 ground reaction force (GRF) plates placed every 1 m in the running lane. Variables recorded were sprint time, running speed, step frequency, step length, aerial time, contact time, GRF, and ground reaction impulse (GRI). Results & Discussion. Sprint times decreased with increases in SE. However, some subjects ran their fastest 50m at a sub-maximal SE. Thus, the optimal combination of step length & frequency necessary for obtaining maximum speed does not necessarily occur at maximal SE. Indeed, while step frequency significantly increased with an increase in SE, step length was usually the longest at a sub-maximal SE. The vertical GRI in the first half of the ground contact period was significantly greater at sub-maximal SEs. Vertical GRIs and horizontal GRIs in the second half of the ground contact period did not significantly differ among different SEs. Our results suggest that those runners who increase SF too much at maximal SE do so at the cost of decreasing step length (SL). Thus, applying a large force against the ground in the first half of the ground contact period would be effective for improving step length

Two distinct prions in fatal familial insomnia and its sporadic form

Abstract Fatal familial insomnia is a genetic prion disease, which is associated with the aspartic acid to asparagine substitution at codon 178 of the prion protein gene. Although the hallmark pathological feature is thalamic and olivary degeneration, there is a patient with an atypical fatal familial insomnia without the hallmark feature. The cause of the pathological variability is unclear. We analysed a Japanese fatal familial insomnia kindred and compared one atypical clinicopathological fatal familial insomnia phenotype case and typical fatal familial insomnia phenotype cases with transmission studies using multiple lines of knock-in mice and with protein misfolding cyclic amplification. We also analysed the transmissibility and the amplification properties of sporadic fatal insomnia. Transmission studies revealed that the typical fatal familial insomnia with thalamic and olivary degeneration showed successful transmission only using knock-in mice expressing human–mouse chimeric prion protein gene. The atypical fatal familial insomnia with spongiform changes showed successful transmission only using knock-in mice expressing bank vole prion protein gene. Two sporadic fatal insomnia cases with thalamic and olivary degeneration showed the same transmissibility as the typical fatal familial insomnia phenotype. Interestingly, one sporadic fatal insomnia case with thalamic/olivary degeneration and spongiform changes showed transmissibility of both the typical and atypical fatal familial insomnia phenotypes. Protein misfolding cyclic amplification could amplify both typical fatal familial insomnia cases and sporadic fatal insomnia cases but not the atypical fatal familial insomnia phenotype or other sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease subtypes. In addition to clinical findings and neuropathological features, the transmission properties and the amplification properties were different between the typical and atypical fatal familial insomnia phenotypes. It is suggested that two distinct prions were associated with the diversity in the fatal familial insomnia phenotype, and these two prions could also be detected in sporadic fatal insomnia

Open-source Software for Developing Anthropomorphic Spoken Dialog Agents

An architecture for highly-interactive human-like spoken-dialog agent is discussed in this paper. In order to easily integrate the modules of different characteristics including speech recognizer, speech synthesizer, facial-image synthesizer and dialog controller, each module is modeled as a virtual machine that has a simple common interface and is connected to each other through a broker (communication manager). The agent system under development is supported by the IPA and it will be publicly available as a software toolkit this year

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近年, 癌の光力学療法(PDT)が注目され, 精力的な研究が広範に進められている。現在, PDTの臨床試験に用いられている光増感剤としては, ヘマトポルフィリン誘導体(Hpd)が挙げられる。しかしながら, このHpdは, 高い組織透過性を有する600nm以上の可視光に対して弱い吸収を示すにとどまり, さらにHpd中の活性成分が腫瘍組織に取り込まれる割合は, 正常組織に比べてけた外れに大きいわけではない。したがって, より効果的なPDTを実施するにあたり, 適用される光増感剤としては, 組織透過性の高い赤色光領域に強い吸収を持ち, 腫瘍組織に対して高い選択性および親和性を具備するものが望まれる。このような理由で, 最近, 多種多様な新しい光増感剤が登場してきた。なかでも, メソ置換ポルフィリン, クロリン誘導体, バクテリオクロリンおよびフタロシアニンが, PDTにおける第二世代光増感剤として注目を集めている。There is currently worldwide activity in the development of a photodynamic therapy (PDT) for cancer. The sensitizer currently used in clinical trials of PDT for cancer consists of a mixture of hematoporphyrin derivatives (Hpd). Hpd, however, absorbs only weakly above 600nm where light exhibits the deepest penetration into tissues. Furthermore, the uptake by the tumour of the active component in Hpd is only marginally higher than that by most normal tissues. Thus it has been evident for some time that the effectiveness of PDT could be enhanced by the use of photosensitizers that absorb more strongly towards the red end of the light spectrum and are more selectively retained by neoplastic tissues. For these reasons, several new classes of photosensitizers for PDT have been suggested over the past few years. Among them, substituted porphyrins, chlorin analogs, bacteriochlorins, and phtalocyanines have received increasing attention as a second- gereration photosensitizer in PDT