Evaluation of the NLP Components of the OVIS2 Spoken Dialogue System

The NWO Priority Programme Language and Speech Technology is a 5-year research programme aiming at the development of spoken language information systems. In the Programme, two alternative natural language processing (NLP) modules are developed in parallel: a grammar-based (conventional, rule-based) module and a data-oriented (memory-based, stochastic, DOP) module. In order to compare the NLP modules, a formal evaluation has been carried out three years after the start of the Programme. This paper describes the evaluation procedure and the evaluation results. The grammar-based component performs much better than the data-oriented one in this comparison.Comment: Proceedings of CLIN 9

Inflammation, carotid intima-media thickness and atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis

Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) reflects early atherosclerosis and predicts cardiovascular events in the general population. An increased cIMT is present in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, compared with control individuals, from the early stages of the disease and is thought to indicate accelerated atherosclerosis, but direct evidence is not available. Whether cIMT is susceptible to rapid and potentially reversible change depending on the intensity of inflammation in states of high-grade systemic inflammation, such as rheumatoid arthritis, remains unknown. If this is the case, an increased cIMT in such disease states may not reflect structural vessel wall damage, and may not be a good predictor of future cardiovascular events in these particular populations. Prospective, long-term, longitudinal studies are needed to address these questions

Examining the Mediating Role of Challenge and Threat Appraisal Tendencies on the Relationships Between Mastery Imagery Ability, Perceived Stress and Proactive Coping

Given the associations between mastery imagery ability, challenge and threat appraisal tendencies, perceived stress and proactive coping, and the implications for health, this research utilised a two-study approach to assess these associations and was the first study to examine whether appraisal states had a mediating role on the relationships of mastery imagery ability with perceived stress and proactive coping. Study 1 used a sample of 148 participants (M age = 22.52, SD = 4.36 years) and Study 2 used a sample of 338 participants (M age = 19.26, SD = 1.58 years). Participants completed online questionnaires measuring mastery imagery ability, challenge and threat appraisal tendencies, perceived stress, and proactive coping. In Study 1, only threat appraisal mediated the relationship between mastery imagery ability and perceived stress. However, both challenge and threat appraisal mediated the relationship between mastery imagery ability and proactive coping. Study 2 results showed challenge appraisal also mediated these relationships, but threat appraisal played no mediating role. Both studies demonstrate the important mediatory role of stress appraisal states, and the role they can have in regulating stress, but further research is warranted to establish when one stress appraisal may mediate the relationship over the other

The added value of diagnostic and theranostic PET imaging for the treatment of CNS tumors

This review highlights the added value of PET imaging in Central Nervous System (CNS) tumors, which is a tool that has rapidly evolved from a merely diagnostic setting to multimodal molecular diagnostics and the guidance of targeted therapy. PET is the method of choice for studying target expression and target binding behind the assumedly intact blood–brain barrier. Today, a variety of diagnostic PET tracers can be used for the primary staging of CNS tumors and to determine the effect of therapy. Additionally, theranostic PET tracers are increasingly used in the context of pharmaceutical and radiopharmaceutical drug development and application. In this approach, a single targeted drug is used for PET diagnosis, upon the coupling of a PET radionuclide, as well as for targeted (nuclide) therapy. Theranostic PET tracers have the potential to serve as a non-invasive whole body navigator in the selection of the most effective drug candidates and their most optimal dose and administration route, together with the potential to serve as a predictive biomarker in the selection of patients who are most likely to benefit from treatment. PET imaging supports the transition from trial and error medicine to predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine, hopefully leading to improved quality of life for patients and more cost-effective care