Turkish text generation with systemic-functional grammar

Ankara : Department of Computer Engineering and Information Science and Institute of Engineeering and Sciences, Bilkent University, 1996.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1996.Includes bibliographical refences.Natural Language Generation (NLG) is roughly decomposed into two stages: text planning, and text generation. In the text planning stage, the semantic description of the text is produced from the conceptual inputs. Then, the text generation system transforms this semantic description into an actual text. This thesis focuses on the design and implementation of a Turkish text generation system rather than text planning. To develop a text generator, we need a linguistic theory that describes the resources of the desired natural language, and also a software tool that represents and performs these linguistic resources in a computational environment. In this thesis, in order to carry out the mentioned requirements, we have used a functional linguistic theory called Systemic-Functional Grammar (SFG), and the FUF text generation system as a software tool. The ultimate text generation system takes the semantic description of the text sentence by sentence, and then produces a morphological description for each lexical constituent of the sentence. The morphological descriptions are worded by a Turkish morphological generator. Because of our concentration on the text generation, we have not considered the details of the text planning. Hence, we assume that the semantic description of the text is produced and lexicalized by an application (currently given by hand).Korkmaz, TurgayM.S

Analyzing response time of batch signing

Abstract Digital signatures are mainly used to make the receiver believe that a document is actually sent by the claimed sender. However, since generating digital signatures requires intensive computations, researchers proposed batch signing systems to sign multiple documents at once while having almost the same cost of signing one document. In this paper, we analyze how the batch formation strategies and batch sizes impact the response time. Using simulations, we verify our analytical results obtained under the assumption of non-bursty arrivals. We also consider bursty arrivals in our simulations. In general, we observe that using appropriate batch sizes and strategies minimizes the response time in all cases. The improvements are specifically significant when the arrival rate is bursty and dynamic bach sizes are used

DEMOGRAPHICS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF PATIENTS WITH TRAUMATIC BONE CYSTS: A RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW

Objectives:  The aim of this study was to evaluate the demographics and characteristics of the patients treated for traumatic bone cyst (TBC). Materials and Methods: A retrospective review was conducted to determine the radiological, clinical and demographic characteristics of patients with TBC who were surgically treated over a 2-year period using data retrieved from computerized databases. Results: The study sample consisted of 22 patients (24 lesions in total) with mean age of 22.9 years. All lesions were located in the mandible (16 in anterior mandible, 8 in posterior mandible) and diagnosed incidentally during routine dental examinations. There was no statistically significant difference between male and female patients in demographic characteristics. All patients were followed up for 6-18 months with uneventful healing. Conclusions: TBCs should be kept in mind during examination of radiolucent lesions of the mandible particularly in younger patients. Along with the histopathological examination, clinical and radiological findings, symptoms of the patients, and surgeon’s experience should be considered for a definitive diagnosis

Mesenchymal stem cell transfusion: Possible beneficial effects in COVID-19 patients

SARS-CoV-2 attaches to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) receptor on human cells. The virus causes hypercytokinemia, capillary leak, pulmonary edema, acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute cardiac injury, and leads to death. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are ACE-2 negative cells; therefore, can escape from SARSCoV-2. MSCs prevent hypercytokinemia and help the resolution of the pulmonary edema and other damages occurred during the course of COVID-19. In addition, MSCs enhance the regeneration of the lung and other tissues affected by SARS-CoV-2. The case series reported beneficial effect of MSCs in COVID-19 treatment. However, there are some concerns about the safety of MSCs, particularly referring to the increased risk of disseminated intravascular coagulation, and thromboembolism due to the expression of TF/CD142. Prospective, randomized, large scale studies are needed to reveal the optimum dose, administration way, time, efficacy, and safety of MSCs in the COVID-19 treatment

Increased mean platelet volume associated with extent of slow coronary flow

Background: Slow coronary flow (SCF) is characterized by delayed opacification of epicardial coronary vessels. SCF can cause ischemia and sudden cardiac death. We investigated the association between presence and extent of SCF, and cardiovascular risk factors and hematologic indices. Methods: In this study, 2467 patients who received coronary angiography for suspected or known ischemic heart disease were retrospectively evaluated between April 2009 and November 2010. Following the application of exclusion criteria, our study population consisted of 57 SCF patients (experimental group) and 90 patients with age- and gender-matched subjects who proved to have normal coronary angiograms (control group). Baseline hematologic indices were measured by the automated complete blood count (CBC) analysis. The groups were evaluated for cardiovascular risk factors and medications. Patients were categorized based on the angiographic findings of vessels with or without SCF. Moreover, patients with SCF were divided into subgroups relative to the extent of SCF. Results: Among the 147 patients (mean age 52.7 ± 10.0, 53.7% male), mean platelet volume (MPV) ranged from 6.5 fL to 11.7 fL (median 7.9 fL, mean 8.1 ± 0.8 fL). Diabetes (OR = 3.64, 95% CI 1.15–10.43, p = 0.03), hypercholesterolemia (OR = 4.94, 95% CI 1.99–12.21, p = 0.001), smoking (OR = 3.54, 95% CI 1.43–8.72, p = 0.006), hemoglobin (OR = 1.69, 95% CI 1.22–2.36, p = 0.002), and MPV (OR = 2.52, 95% CI 1.43–4.44, p = 0.001) were found to be the independent correlates of SCF presence. Only MPV (OR = 2.13, 95% CI 1.05–4.33, p = 0.03) was identified as an independent correlate of extent of SCF. Conclusions: Elevated baseline MPV value was found to be an independent predictor of the presence and extent of SCF

A Real-Life Turkish Experience of Ruxolitinib in Polycythemia Vera

Introduction:Ruxolitinib is a small -molecule inhibitor of the JAK1/2 pathway. This study aimed to reveal the results and side-effect profile of the use of ruxolitinib as a treatment option in polycythemia vera (PV).Methods:A total of 34 patients with PV from 18 different centers were included in the study. The evaluation of the response under treatment with ruxolitinib was determined as a reduction in spleen volume (splenomegaly size: ≥35%) by imaging and control of hematocrit levels (≤45%) compared to baseline.Results:While the number of patients in which a reduction in spleen volume and hematocrit control was achieved was 19 (55.9%) at 3 months of treatment, it was 21 (61.8%) at 6 months. Additionally, while the number of side effects was negatively correlated with the reduction in spleen volume (Spearman’s rho: -0.365, p=0.034), a decrease in the hematocrit level was positively correlated (Spearman’s rho: 0.75, p=0.029). Those without a reduction in spleen volume experienced more constipation (chi-square: 5.988, Fisher’s exact test: p=0.033).Conclusion:This study shed light on the use of ruxolitinib in PV and the importance of splenomegaly on studies planned with larger patient groups

QoS routing in packet networks

The current best-effort service of the Internet is not sufficient to meet the demands of emerging real-time network applications (e.g., video conferencing, Internet telephony). This has motivated the development of new networking technologies (e.g., Intserv, Diffserv, MPLS) that are geared towards providing quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees (e.g., bandwidth, delay, fitter, reliability) to prospective flows. Various aspects of these technologies are being extensively investigated in the research community. In this dissertation, we focus on the routing aspect, with the objective of providing scalable and computationally efficient solutions. The QoS routing problem involves two tasks: (a) capturing and disseminating the state information of the underlying network; and (b) using this information to compute resource-efficient constrained paths. In the presence of multiple constraints (QoS link parameters), these two tasks become notoriously challenging. We investigate several key issues in QoS routing and discuss how to integrate the provided solutions into evolving state-dependent and hierarchical routing protocols (e.g., PNNI and QoS-extended OSPF). First, we develop a hybrid mechanism based on both flooding and tree-based broadcasting for reliable and efficient dissemination of dynamic link-state parameters, such as bandwidth. Second, we present a scalable, source oriented state aggregation methodology for hierarchical networks. Third, we introduce several heuristics and approximation algorithms for path selection under multiple QoS constraints. Fourth, we consider the path selection problem under inaccurate (probabilistically modeled) state information, and provide a heuristic for a special yet important case of this problem, namely, routing under bandwidth and delay constraints. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the proposed methods through simulations