Connectionist perspectives on language learning, representation and processing.

The field of formal linguistics was founded on the premise that language is mentally represented as a deterministic symbolic grammar. While this approach has captured many important characteristics of the world\u27s languages, it has also led to a tendency to focus theoretical questions on the correct formalization of grammatical rules while also de-emphasizing the role of learning and statistics in language development and processing. In this review we present a different approach to language research that has emerged from the parallel distributed processing or \u27connectionist\u27 enterprise. In the connectionist framework, mental operations are studied by simulating learning and processing within networks of artificial neurons. With that in mind, we discuss recent progress in connectionist models of auditory word recognition, reading, morphology, and syntactic processing. We argue that connectionist models can capture many important characteristics of how language is learned, represented, and processed, as well as providing new insights about the source of these behavioral patterns. Just as importantly, the networks naturally capture irregular (non-rule-like) patterns that are common within languages, something that has been difficult to reconcile with rule-based accounts of language without positing separate mechanisms for rules and exceptions

Revisiting Acceptability Judgements

In this work, we revisit linguistic acceptability in the context of large language models. We introduce CoLAC - Corpus of Linguistic Acceptability in Chinese, the first large-scale acceptability dataset for a non-Indo-European language. It is verified by native speakers and is the first acceptability dataset that comes with two sets of labels: a linguist label and a crowd label. Our experiments show that even the largest InstructGPT model performs only at chance level on CoLAC, while ChatGPT's performance (48.30 MCC) is also much below supervised models (59.03 MCC) and human (65.11 MCC). Through cross-lingual transfer experiments and fine-grained linguistic analysis, we provide detailed analysis of the model predictions and demonstrate for the first time that knowledge of linguistic acceptability can be transferred across typologically distinct languages, as well as be traced back to pre-training. Our dataset is publicly available at \url{https://github.com/huhailinguist/CoLAC}

Diagnosing Small Hepatic Cysts on Multidetector CT: an Additional Merit of Thinner Coronal Reformations

OBJECTIVE: We wanted to validate the additional merit of the thinner coronal reformation images from multidetector CT (MDCT) for making the diagnosis of hepatic cysts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For the 90 benign hepatic cysts confirmed on MRI, the transverse (5-mm thickness) and additional coronal (2-mm thickness) reformation images from MDCT were compared with each other in terms of the Hounsfield units (HUs) and the size of each hepatic cyst. RESULTS: THE ATTENUATIONS (MEAN: 17.2 HUs, standard deviation: ± 14.4) on the thinner coronal images were significantly lower than those (mean: 40.7 HUs; standard deviation: ± 20.6) on the thicker transverse images for the small hepatic cysts (≤ 10 mm on the transverse image, p < 0.01). Twenty-three (79%) of the 29 cysts between 5 mm and 10 mm and 21 (51%) of 41 lesions up to 5 mm showed a mean HU value of 20 or less on the coronal reformation images. CONCLUSION: By reducing the partial volume effect, routine coronal reformation of MDCT with a thinner section thickness can provide another merit for making a confidential diagnosis of many small sub-centimeter hepatic cysts, and these small cysts are not easily characterized on the conventional transverse images.ope

Flare hypercalcemia after letrozole in a patient with liver metastasis from breast cancer: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Tamoxifen may occasionally precipitate serious and potentially life-threatening hypercalcemia. However, to date, this has not been documented with aromatase inhibitors.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 65-year-old Japanese woman with liver metastasis from breast cancer was admitted to our hospital with vomiting, anorexia, fatigue, arthralgia, muscle pain and dehydration. She had started a course of letrozole five weeks earlier. Our patient's calcium level was 11.6 mg/dL. She was rehydrated and elcatonin was administered. Our patient's parathyroid hormone and parathyroid hormone-related protein levels were not increased and a bone scintigram revealed no evidence of skeletal metastasis. After our patient's serum calcium level returned to within the normal range, letrozole was restarted at one-half of the previous dose (1.25 mg). There were no episodes of hypercalcemia. However, 84 days after restarting letrozole, our patient again complained of arthralgia and treatment was changed to toremifene. During these periods, repeated ultrasonograms revealed no progression of liver metastasis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of flare hypercalcemia after treatment with letrozole in a patient with metastatic breast cancer.</p

Do Electronic Health Records Help or Hinder Medical Education?

Many countries worldwide are digitizing patients' medical records. What impact will these electronic health records have upon medical education? This debate examines the threats and opportunities

Neonatal anthropometry: a tool to evaluate the nutritional status and predict early and late risks

Neonatal anthropometry is an inexpensive, noninvasive and convenient tool for bedside evaluation, especially in sick and fragile neonates. Anthropometry can be used in neonates as a tool for several purposes: diagnosis of foetal malnutrition and prediction of early postnatal complications; postnatal assessment of growth, body composition and nutritional status; prediction of long-term complications including metabolic syndrome; assessment of dysmorphology; and estimation of body surface. However, in this age group anthropometry has been notorious for its inaccuracy and the main concern is to make validated indices available. Direct measurements, such as body weight, length and body circumferences are the most commonly used measurements for nutritional assessment in clinical practice and in field studies. Body weight is the most reliable anthropometric measurement and therefore is often used alone in the assessment of the nutritional status, despite not reflecting body composition. Derived indices from direct measurements have been proposed to improve the accuracy of anthropometry. Equations based on body weight and length, mid-arm circumference/head circumference ratio, and upper-arm cross-sectional areas are among the most used derived indices to assess nutritional status and body proportionality, even though these indices require further validation for the estimation of body composition in neonates

The impact of early postnatal environmental enrichment on maternal care and offspring behaviour following weaning

The early postnatal period is a sensitive period in rodents as behavioural systems are developing and maturing during this time. However, relatively little information is available about the impact of environmental enrichment on offspring behaviour if enrichment is implemented only during this period. Here, environmental enrichment was provided from postnatal day 1 until weaning. On post-natal day 9, maternal behaviour and nonmaternal behaviour of the dam was observed. Nursing time in the enriched group was reduced but dams showed more non-maternal appetitive behaviours. Offspring were exposed to either the open field or the elevated plus maze (EPM) after weaning. In the open field, rats from the enriched group approached the more aversive inner zone of the open field later than control rats. Offspring from the enriched group made fewer entries into the inner zone and spent less time in this part of the arena. Enrichment had no impact on behaviour in the EPM. The present study provides evidence that postnatal enrichment can interfere with maternal behaviour in rats and can possibly lead to increased anxiety in the offspring. The findings suggest that enrichment procedures can have potentially unintended effects, interfering with the development of emotional behaviours in rats

Metabolic phenotype-microRNA data fusion analysis of the systemic consequences of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Bariatric surgery offers sustained marked weight loss and often remission of type 2 diabetes, yet the mechanisms of establishment of these health benefits are not clear. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We mapped the coordinated systemic responses of gut hormones, the circulating miRNAome and the metabolome in a rat model of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery. RESULTS: The response of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) to RYGB was striking and selective. Analysis of 14 significantly altered circulating miRNAs within a pathway context was suggestive of modulation of signaling pathways including G protein signaling, neurodegeneration, inflammation, and growth and apoptosis responses. Concomitant alterations in the metabolome indicated increased glucose transport, accelerated glycolysis and inhibited gluconeogenesis in the liver. Of particular significance, we show significantly decreased circulating miRNA-122 levels and a more modest decline in hepatic levels, following surgery. In mechanistic studies, manipulation of miRNA-122 levels in a cell model induced changes in the activity of key enzymes involved in hepatic energy metabolism, glucose transport, glycolysis, tricarboxylic acid cycle, pentose phosphate shunt, fatty-acid oxidation and gluconeogenesis, consistent with the findings of the in vivo surgery-mediated responses, indicating the powerful homeostatic activity of the miRNAs. CONCLUSIONS: The close association between energy metabolism, neuronal signaling and gut microbial metabolites derived from the circulating miRNA, plasma, urine and liver metabolite and gut hormone correlations further supports an enhanced gut-brain signaling, which we suggest is hormonally mediated by both traditional gut hormones and miRNAs. This transomic approach to map the crosstalk between the circulating miRNAome and metabolome offers opportunities to understand complex systems biology within a disease and interventional treatment setting

Characterization of a Human Cell Line Stably Over-Expressing the Candidate Oncogene, Dual Specificity Phosphatase 12

Analysis of chromosomal rearrangements within primary tumors has been influential in the identification of novel oncogenes. Identification of the "driver" gene(s) within cancer-derived amplicons is, however, hampered by the fact that most amplicons contain many gene products. Amplification of 1q21-1q23 is strongly associated with liposarcomas and microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization narrowed down the likely candidate oncogenes to two: the activating transcription factor 6 (atf6) and the dual specificity phosphatase 12 (dusp12). While atf6 is an established transcriptional regulator of the unfolded protein response, the potential role of dusp12 in cancer remains uncharacterized.To evaluate the oncogenic potential of dusp12, we established stable cell lines that ectopically over-express dusp12 in isolation and determined whether this cell line acquired properties frequently associated with transformed cells. Here, we demonstrate that cells over-expressing dusp12 display increased cell motility and resistance to apoptosis. Additionally, over-expression of dusp12 promoted increased expression of the c-met proto-oncogene and the collagen and laminin receptor intergrin alpha 1 (itga1) which is implicated in metastasis.Collectively, these results suggest that dusp12 is oncologically relevant and exposes a potential association between dusp12 and established oncogenes that could be therapeutically targeted