Unsupervised Lexical Substitution with Decontextualised Embeddings

We propose a new unsupervised method for lexical substitution using pre-trained language models. Compared to previous approaches that use the generative capability of language models to predict substitutes, our method retrieves substitutes based on the similarity of contextualised and decontextualised word embeddings, i.e. the average contextual representation of a word in multiple contexts. We conduct experiments in English and Italian, and show that our method substantially outperforms strong baselines and establishes a new state-of-the-art without any explicit supervision or fine-tuning. We further show that our method performs particularly well at predicting low-frequency substitutes, and also generates a diverse list of substitute candidates, reducing morphophonetic or morphosyntactic biases induced by article-noun agreement.Comment: 14 pages, accepted for COLING 202

Unsupervised Paraphrasing of Multiword Expressions

We propose an unsupervised approach to paraphrasing multiword expressions (MWEs) in context. Our model employs only monolingual corpus data and pre-trained language models (without fine-tuning), and does not make use of any external resources such as dictionaries. We evaluate our method on the SemEval 2022 idiomatic semantic text similarity task, and show that it outperforms all unsupervised systems and rivals supervised systems.Comment: 13 pages; accepted for Findings of ACL 202

てんかんの神経機構: キンドリングによる実験的研究

金沢大学医学部・附属病院てんかんの神経機構を明らかにする目的で、側頭葉てんかんの実験モデルである海馬キンドリングモデルを用いて、脳内セロトニン(5-HT)系に関する神経薬理学的研究を行った。平成5年度は5-HT1A作動薬(8-OH-DPAT)の局所微量注入を行い、海馬キンドリング発作の発現に対して5-HT1A受容体が抑制的に関与することを明らかにした。さらに選択的5-HT再取り込み阻害作用を有する抗うつ薬(フルオキセチン、パロキセチン)の全身投与実験を行い、けいれん発作持続時間の有意な短縮が認められた。またフルオキセチンの脳内微量注入により発作誘発閾値が用量依存的に上昇し、本剤のもつ抗けいれん効果を示した。平成6年度は、フルオキセチンの慢性投与時の効果を検討した。その結果、フルオキセチンの21日間反復投与後に海馬発作の後発射閾値が有意に上昇し、本剤の抑制効果が反復投与後に強化されることが明らかとなった。同様に、5-HT1A作動薬gepironeの21日間反復投与後に行ったフルオキセチン単回投与により、後発射閾値の有意な上昇を認めた。以上の研究から、海馬発作活動に5-HT1A受容体を含む脳内5-HT系が抑制的に関与していることが示された。またフルオキセチンの慢性投与に伴う抑制効果の神経機序として、5-HT自己受容体の脱感作を介した5-HT伝達増強作用の重要性が推測された。さらに選択的5-HT再取り込み阻害薬がてんかん患者の抑うつ症状に有用であり、てんかんの新しい治療薬となりうる可能性が示唆された。In order to clarify the neuronal mechanisms of epilepsy, we conducted neuropharmacological research on brain serotonin (5-HT) using hippocampal kindling, an experimental model of temporal lobe epilepsy.In 1993, we examined the effects of intra-hippocampal microinjection of a 5-HTIA receptor agonist (8-OH-DPAT) on hippocampal kindled seizures and suggested that the 5-HTIA receptor subtype has an inhibitory action against the generation of hippocampal seizure activity. We also examined the effects of selective 5-HT reuptake inhibitors with antideperssant properties (fluoxetine and paroxetine) , and found that the systemic administration of these compounds shortened the duration of generalized convulsion. In addition, the microinjection study of fluoxetine showed the antiepileptic action of fluoxetine against hippocampal seizure generation.In 1994, we examined acute and chronic effects of fluoxetine upon hippocampal seizures. Its single administration did not affect hippocampal seizure activity, whereas fluoxetine at a dose of 10 mg/kg significantly elevated the hippocampal afterdischarge threshold when administered 1 week after its daily treatment for 21 days. The inhibitory effect of acute fluoxetine was also observed in rats receiving a 21-day treatment of gepirone, a 5-HTIA receptor agonist.Based on these experiment, the 5-HT system is suggested to play an inhibitory role in hippocampal seizure activity. Our results indicate that the effect of long-term fluoxetine administration relate to the well-demonstrated evidence that fluoxetine, upon its long-term administration, can facilitate net 5-HT neurotransmission through desensitization of presynaptic 5-HT autoreceptors. It is also auggested that slective 5-HT reuptake inhibitors prossess clinical efficacy on depressive symptoms in patients with seizure disorder.研究課題/領域番号:05670802, 研究期間(年度):1993 – 1994出典：研究課題「てんかんの神経機構: キンドリングによる実験的研究」課題番号05670802（KAKEN：科学研究費助成事業データベース（国立情報学研究所）） （https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/report/KAKENHI-PROJECT-05670802/056708021994kenkyu_seika_hokoku_gaiyo/）を加工して作

The Audiovisual Tau Effect in Infancy

Perceived spatial intervals between successive flashes can be distorted by varying the temporal intervals between them (the “tau effect”). A previous study showed that a tau effect for visual flashes could be induced when they were accompanied by auditory beeps with varied temporal intervals (an audiovisual tau effect).We conducted two experiments to investigate whether the audiovisual tau effect occurs in infancy. Forty-eight infants aged 5–8 months took part in this study. In Experiment 1, infants were familiarized with audiovisual stimuli consisting of three pairs of two flashes and three beeps. The onsets of the first and third pairs of flashes were respectively matched to those of the first and third beeps. The onset of the second pair of flashes was separated from that of the second beep by 150 ms. Following the familiarization phase, infants were exposed to a test stimulus composed of two vertical arrays of three static flashes with different spatial intervals. We hypothesized that if the audiovisual tau effect occurred in infancy then infants would preferentially look at the flash array with spatial intervals that would be expected to be different from the perceived spatial intervals between flashes they were exposed to in the familiarization phase. The results of Experiment 1 supported this hypothesis. In Experiment 2, the first and third beeps were removed from the familiarization stimuli, resulting in the disappearance of the audiovisual tau effect. This indicates that the modulation of temporal intervals among flashes by beeps was essential for the audiovisual tau effect to occur (Experiment 2).These results suggest that the cross-modal processing that underlies the audiovisual tau effect occurs even in early infancy. In particular, the results indicate that audiovisual modulation of temporal intervals emerges by 5–8 months of age

Major liver resection reduces nonprotein respiratory quotient and increases nonesterified fatty acid at postoperative day 14 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Background & aims: We reported decreased nonprotein respiratory quotient (npRQ) after liver resection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, whether liver resection volume affects energy metabolism in these patients is unclear. We aimed to examine the relationship between liver resection and energy metabolism indices. Methods: NpRQ was measured in 53 patients with HCC and seven with at the pre- and postoperative days. Patients were classified into four groups: Minor-lowICG group (n = 17): minor (subsegment or less) resection and low indocyanine green retention rate at 15 min (ICGR15) (<15%); Minor-highICG group (n = 18): minor resection and high ICGR15 (≥15%) and Major-lowICG group (n = 18): major (lobe) resection and low ICGR15 (<15%). We investigated dietary intake and blood biochemistry at energy measurement. The difference in npRQ and nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) pre- and post-hepatectomy was shown as ΔnpRQ and ΔNEFA, respectively. Results: Compared with the preoperative values, npRQ significantly decreased in the Minor-highICG and Major-lowICG groups and NEFA significantly increased in the Major-lowICG group at postoperative day 14. In single regression analysis, ΔnpRQ significantly correlated with HCV infection and ΔNEFA with resection volume, HCV infection, and ICGR15. In multiple regression analysis, ΔNEFA significantly correlated with resection volume after adjusting for age, etiology, and ICGR15. Conclusions: These results suggest that postoperative nutritional recovery is slower in major resection than in minor resection patients. Hence, nutritional care to prevent starvation is needed in major resection patients

脂肪由来間葉系幹細胞からインスリン産生細胞への分化誘導に際しての皮下および腹腔内脂肪の特性の差異に関する研究

The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of insulin producing cells (IPCs) differentiated from adipose-tissue derived stem cells (ADSCs) isolated from human subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues and identify ADSCs suitable for differentiation into efficient and functional IPCs. Subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues collected from four (4) patients who underwent digestive surgeries at The Tokushima University (000035546) were included in this study. The insulin secretion of the generated IPCs was investigated using surface markers by: fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis; cytokine release; proliferation ability of ADSCs; in vitro (glucose-stimulated insulin secretion: (GSIS) test/in vivo (transplantation into streptozotocin-induced diabetic nude mice). The less fat-related inflammatory cytokines secretions were observed (P < 0.05), and the proliferation ability was higher in the subcutaneous ADSCs (P < 0.05). Insulin expression and GISI were higher in the subcutaneous IPCs (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). The hyperglycaemic state of all mice that received IPCs from subcutaneous fat tissue converted into normo-glycaemia in thirty (30) days post-transplantation (4/4,100%). Transplanted IPCs were stained using anti-insulin and anti-human leukocyte antigen antibodies. The IPCs generated from the ADSCs freshly isolated from the human fat tissue had sufficient insulin secreting ability in vitro and in vivo