Location-Aware Visual Question Generation with Lightweight Models

This work introduces a novel task, location-aware visual question generation (LocaVQG), which aims to generate engaging questions from data relevant to a particular geographical location. Specifically, we represent such location-aware information with surrounding images and a GPS coordinate. To tackle this task, we present a dataset generation pipeline that leverages GPT-4 to produce diverse and sophisticated questions. Then, we aim to learn a lightweight model that can address the LocaVQG task and fit on an edge device, such as a mobile phone. To this end, we propose a method which can reliably generate engaging questions from location-aware information. Our proposed method outperforms baselines regarding human evaluation (e.g., engagement, grounding, coherence) and automatic evaluation metrics (e.g., BERTScore, ROUGE-2). Moreover, we conduct extensive ablation studies to justify our proposed techniques for both generating the dataset and solving the task.Comment: EMNLP 202

Modernização e ressignificação: as contradições na formação do espaço urbano oeirense (1900-1945).

A presente dissertação visa a analisar a produção do espaço urbano oeirense e suas eventuais contradições compreendendo o período de 1900 a 1945, atentando para a ideia de crise atribuída à perda do status de capital e à introdução de alguns signos do moderno, tomados pelas elites como forma de ressignificação da cidade. Portanto, neste propósito, constitui-se um projeto de modernização urbana ilusória e de exclusão, pois apenas o núcleo central urbano foi merecedor dessa ação. Enquanto isso, o subúrbio estava fora de qualquer tentativa de melhoramento, embora fantasmagoricamente o discurso de modernização para todos fosse divulgado de modo homogêneo entre o grupo político e os letrados locais. Buscamos ainda identificar o ressentimento presente no imaginário local e suas formas reativas, como também as relações do cotidiano dos citadinos. No entanto, esta política de reforma urbana, além de ser destinadas a obras que priorizavam a cultura moderna e o embelezamento urbano, imprimiu um conjunto de normas e condutas, inclusive higiênicas aos moradores da área central. Muitas das quais pretendiam afastar sujeiras e doenças epidêmicas, mas, nesse meio tempo, as zonas suburbana e rural eram consumidas por doenças como a febre tifoide e a malária, sem nenhuma intervenção pública no sentido de preveni-las. Por fim, nesta pesquisa, apoiamo-nos em diversas fontes, sendo elas documentais, fotográficas, orais e bibliográficas. Buscamos encontrar nelas as evidências do passado local, que nos possibilitaram compreender o cotidiano da sociedade oeirense.This dissertation aims to examine the first attempts to modernize in Oeiras-PI, the time frame of 1900-1945, including the idea of seeking crisis attributed to this city by the intellectuals and the local political elite after the transfer of capital to these featuring the "decadent", generalizing the effect of the political crisis and some material loss. Which in turn, not elapsed in its entirety by the loss of capital status, but by their own economic conditions of the state and the municipality, however, not noted by this group insisted that the tirade of "crisis." It also aims to understand the transformations in everyday life oeirense from some achievements, such as theater, traveling cinema, newspaper production, and strengthening the local economy caused by the extraction of latex maniçoba in the early years of the twentieth century. Only after 1930 the political and intellectual discourse points to the advent of local progress, which now has the following material and symbolic transformations: a) urban sanitation; b) construction of the town hall, with modern architecture to the city standards; c) Installation of electric light; d) construction of the airfield with weekly landing; e) film and square. The arrival of these elements of modernity in a society characterized by parochial habits causes changes in sociability and sensitivities both within the elite and among the popular. The sources used in this work are based on surveys of official documents, oral, pictures, newspapers and local literature

Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA) and Comparative Molecular Similarity Indices Analysis (CoMSIA) Studies on α1A-Adrenergic Receptor Antagonists Based on Pharmacophore Molecular Alignment

The α1A-adrenergic receptor (α1A-AR) antagonist is useful in treating benign prostatic hyperplasia, lower urinary tract symptoms, and cardiac arrhythmia. Three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) studies were performed on a set of α1A-AR antagonists of N-aryl and N-nitrogen class. Statistically significant models constructed from comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) were established based on a training set of 32 ligands using pharmacophore-based molecular alignment. The leave-oneout cross-validation correlation coefficients were q2 CoMFA = 0.840 and q2 CoMSIA = 0.840. The high correlation between the cross-validated/predicted and experimental activities of a test set of 12 ligands revealed that the CoMFA and CoMSIA models were robust (r2 pred/CoMFA = 0.694; r2 pred/CoMSIA = 0.671). The generated models suggested that electrostatic, hydrophobic, and hydrogen bonding interactions play important roles between ligands and receptors in the active site. Our study serves as a guide for further experimental investigations on the synthesis of new compounds. Structural modifications based on the present 3D-QSAR results may lead to the discovery of other α1A-AR antagonists

Preoperative Proteinuria Is Associated with Long-Term Progression to Chronic Dialysis and Mortality after Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery

AIMS: Preoperative proteinuria is associated with post-operative acute kidney injury (AKI), but whether it is also associated with increased long-term mortality and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied 925 consecutive patients undergoing CABG. Demographic and clinical data were collected prospectively, and patients were followed for a median of 4.71 years after surgery. Proteinuria, according to dipstick tests, was defined as mild (trace to 1+) or heavy (2+ to 4+) according to the results of the dipstick test. A total of 276 (29.8%) patients had mild proteinuria before surgery and 119 (12.9%) patients had heavy proteinuria. During the follow-up, the Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated that heavy proteinuria (hazard ratio [HR], 27.17) was an independent predictor of long-term ESRD. There was a progressive increased risk for mild proteinuria ([HR], 1.88) and heavy proteinuria ([HR], 2.28) to predict all-cause mortality compared to no proteinuria. Mild ([HR], 2.57) and heavy proteinuria ([HR], 2.70) exhibited a stepwise increased ratio compared to patients without proteinuria for long-term composite catastrophic outcomes (mortality and ESRD), which were independent of the baseline GFR and postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that proteinuria is a powerful independent risk factor of long-term all-cause mortality and ESRD after CABG in addition to preoperative GFR and postoperative AKI. Our study demonstrated that proteinuria should be integrated into clinical risk prediction models for long-term outcomes after CABG. These results provide a high priority for future renal protective strategies and methods for post-operative CABG patients

Immunoprotectivity of HLA-A2 CTL Peptides Derived from Respiratory Syncytial Virus Fusion Protein in HLA-A2 Transgenic Mouse

Identification of HLA-restricted CD8+ T cell epitopes is important to study RSV-induced immunity and illness. We algorithmically analyzed the sequence of the fusion protein (F) of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and generated synthetic peptides that can potentially bind to HLA-A*0201. Four out of the twenty-five 9-mer peptides tested: peptides 3 (F33–41), 13 (F214–222), 14 (F273–281), and 23 (F559–567), were found to bind to HLA-A*0201 with moderate to high affinity and were capable of inducing IFN-γ and IL-2 secretion in lymphocytes from HLA-A*0201 transgenic (HLA-Tg) mice pre-immunized with RSV or recombinant adenovirus expressing RSV F. HLA-Tg mice were immunized with these four peptides and were found to induce both Th1 and CD8+ T cell responses in in vitro secondary recall. Effector responses induced by these peptides were observed to confer differential protection against live RSV challenge. These peptides also caused better recovery of body weight loss induced by RSV. A significant reduction of lung viral load was observed in mice immunized with peptide 23, which appeared to enhance the levels of inflammatory chemokines (CCL17, CCL22, and IL-18) but did not increase eosinophil infiltration in the lungs. Whereas, significant reduction of infiltrated eosinophils induced by RSV infection was found in mice pre-immunized with peptide 13. Our results suggest that HLA-A2-restricted epitopes of RSV F protein could be useful for the development of epitope-based RSV vaccine

The IPIN 2019 Indoor Localisation Competition—Description and Results

IPIN 2019 Competition, sixth in a series of IPIN competitions, was held at the CNR Research Area of Pisa (IT), integrated into the program of the IPIN 2019 Conference. It included two on-site real-time Tracks and three off-site Tracks. The four Tracks presented in this paper were set in the same environment, made of two buildings close together for a total usable area of 1000 m 2 outdoors and and 6000 m 2 indoors over three floors, with a total path length exceeding 500 m. IPIN competitions, based on the EvAAL framework, have aimed at comparing the accuracy performance of personal positioning systems in fair and realistic conditions: past editions of the competition were carried in big conference settings, university campuses and a shopping mall. Positioning accuracy is computed while the person carrying the system under test walks at normal walking speed, uses lifts and goes up and down stairs or briefly stops at given points. Results presented here are a showcase of state-of-the-art systems tested side by side in real-world settings as part of the on-site real-time competition Tracks. Results for off-site Tracks allow a detailed and reproducible comparison of the most recent positioning and tracking algorithms in the same environment as the on-site Tracks