TimeBank evolution as a community resource for TimeML parsing

TimeBank is the only reference corpus for TimeML, an expressive language for annotating complex temporal information. It is a rich resource for a broad range of research into various aspects of the expression of time and temporally related events. This paper traces the development of TimeBank from its initial—and somewhat noisy—version (1.1) to a substantially revised release (1.2), now available via the Linguistic Data Consortium. The development path is motivated by the encouraging empirical results of TimeML-compliant annotators developed on the basis of TimeBank 1.1, and is informed by a detailed study of the characteristics of that initial release, which guides a clean-up process turning TimeBank 1.2 into a consistent and robust community resource.

Representation theorem for probabilities on IFS-events

Rie?an gave in Rie?an (2004) [9] an axiomatic characterization of a probability on IFS-events and proved in Rie?an (2006) [10] a representation theorem for it. In Ren?ová [9], Ren?ová introduced the notions of additive φ-probability and strongly additive φ-probability and gave a representation theorem for strongly additive φ-probabilities.In this paper we give a generalization of the axiomatic characterization given by Rie?an in Rie?an (2006) [10]; from this, the representation theorem for strongly additive φ-probabilities will follow.     

Comparing apples with apples: performance analysis of lattice-based authenticated key exchange protocols

In view of the expected cryptanalysis (of both classical and quantum adversaries), it is important to find alternatives for currently used cryptographic primitives. In the past years, several authenticated key exchange protocols (AKE) that base their security on presumably quantum hard problems, such as lattice-based AKEs, were proposed. Since very different proposals for generic AKEs as well as direct AKEs, i.e., protocols directly based on lattice-based problems without additional authentication, exist, the performance of lattice-based AKEs is not evaluated and compared thoroughly. In particular, it is an open question whether the direct constructions are more efficient than generic approaches as it is often the case for other primitives. In this paper, we fill this gap. We compare existing lattice-based authenticated key exchange protocols, generic and direct. Therefore, we first find the most efficient suitable primitives to instantiate the generic protocols. Afterward, we choose parameters for each AKE yielding approximately 100 or 192 bits of security. We implement all protocols using the same libraries and compare the resulting performance. We find that our instantiation of the AKE by Peikert (PQCrypto, 2014) is the most efficient lattice-based AKE. Particularly, it is faster than the direct AKE by Zhang et al. (EUROCRYPT, 2015).     

A multiplexed immunoassay system based upon reciprocating centrifugal microfluidics

A novel, centrifugal disk-based micro-total analysis system (μTAS) for low cost and high throughput semi-automated immunoassay processing was developed. A key innovation in the disposable immunoassay disk design is in a fluidic structure that enables very efficient micro-mixing based on a reciprocating mechanism in which centrifugal acceleration acting upon a liquid element first generates and stores pneumatic energy that is then released by a reduction of the centrifugal acceleration, resulting in a reversal of direction of flow of the liquid. Through an alternating sequence of high and low centrifugal acceleration, the system reciprocates the flow of liquid within the disk to maximize incubation/hybridization efficiency between antibodies and antigen macromolecules during the incubation/hybridization stage of the assay. The described reciprocating mechanism results in a reduction in processing time and reagent consumption by one order of magnitude.     

Nutritional knowledge,food habits and health attitude of Chinese university students –a cross sectional study–

Background  

We have previously shown that irregular lifestyle of young Japanese female students are significantly related to their desire to be thinner. In the present study, we examined the nutritional knowledge and food habits of Chinese university students and compared them with those of other Asian populations.     

Horseradish peroxidase degrades lipid hydroperoxides and suppresses lipid peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the presence of phenolic antioxidants

Linoleic acid hydroperoxide (LAOOH) was effectively degraded by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in the presence of quercetin. Several natural phenolic antioxidants, such as quercetin, capsaicin, and alpha-tocopherol, acted as good hydrogen donors in the peroxidase reaction that occurs during lipid hydroperoxide degradation. However, glutathione, which is a non-phenolic antioxidant that acts as a hydrogen donor for glutathione peroxidase, could not suppress lipid peroxidation in the presence of HRP. Lipid hydroperoxides generated from eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were also degraded with HRP in the presence of quercetin, and oxidative decomposition of DHA was suppressed by this reaction.     

Enzyme-catalyzed peptide syntheses in aqueous polymer two-phase systems

Peptide synthesis in the aqueous polymer two-phase system was examined. Water soluble polymers adopted were dextran and polyethyleneglycol (PEG). By the modification of a proteolytic enzyme, trypsin, with dextran carrying a very small number of carboxyl groups, a separation of the enzyme from its peptide product, N-benzoyl-L-arginine glycinamide, which is relatively more soluble in a PEG phase could be realized. This separation drastically reduced a so-called "mass-law" effect, and increased the yield of the reaction product. The aqueous polymer two-phase system would be useful to enhance the usefulness of biocatalysts in organic syntheses. Received: 26 July 1996/Accepted: 18 September 1996     

Renal cell carcinoma sharply captured by imaging technology at an early stage in a hemodialysis patient: Usefulness of noninvasive monochrome superb microvascular imaging

It has been drawing much attention that type 2 diabetes mellitus is closely associated with increased incidence of numerous cancers and their poor prognosis. Consequently, malignancy has been recently recognized as one of diabetic complications in addition to various conventional complications. Furthermore, it is well known that the prevalence of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is drastically increased in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Therefore, screening of RCCs in HD patients is a very important and urgent issue as there are no highly sensitive tumor markers for RCCs. Monochrome superb microvascular imaging (mSMI) is a relatively new Doppler ultrasound technique and is useful especially when evaluating very slow blood flow state, because this allows for imaging microvessels with low velocity in the absence of a contrast agent. Thus, mSMI might be also useful when contrast enhancement is not obvious on CT and/or contrast-enhanced ultrasonography using perflubutane or contrast agents are contraindicated. Moreover, it has been reported that mSMI could effectively detect vascularity of renal malignant tumor than benign renal mass in nondialysis patients. We propose that mSMI of ultrasonography could become one of the very useful methods for detecting RCCs at an early stage with high sensitivity in HD patients.     

Cellulose-Nanofiber-Reinforced Rubber Composites with Resorcinol Resin Prepared by Elastic Kneading

A resorcinol resin/water dispersion and a rubber latex are added to 1% 2,2,6,6,-tetramethylpyperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO)-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (TEMPO-CNFs) dispersed in water, followed by oven drying at 40 °C for 20 h to prepare a dried TEMPO-CNF/resorcinol resin/latex rubber (DTRL) mixture with a weight ratio of 1/0.5/3. DTRL is then added to a nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) or a carboxy group-containing NBR (X-NBR) sheet, and the mixture is kneaded by a two-roll mill at 20–30 °C with high shear forces. The tensile strength and Young's modulus of the crosslinked DTRL/rubber composite sheets remarkably increased from 10 and 12 MPa, respectively, for the reference sheet to 24 and 82 MPa, respectively, for the DTRL/rubber composite sheets containing ≈10 vol% TEMPO-CNFs. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that no TEMPO-CNF agglomerates are present in the DTRL/rubber composite sheets. The tensile properties of the composite sheets are the best when a X-NBR sheet and NBR latex are used as the matrix rubber and latex in DTRL preparation, respectively. When water-extracted DTRL (WDTRL, mass recovery ratio ≈94%) is used in place of DTRL, the WDTRL/rubber composite sheets show sufficient water resistance, while the tensile properties are almost the same as those of the DTRL/rubber composite sheets.     

Lipid distribution on textiles in relation to washing with lipases

Effectiveness of lipase in detergency was studied using three test soils (lard, artificial sebum, and olive oil) on a woven cotton fabric. Distribution of oily soil on fabrics was determined for three different treatments (unwashed, washed with detergent without lipase, and washed with detergent plus lipase). Osmium tetroxide was used to label lipid soil for analysis in the scanning electron microscope. Both longitudinal and cross-sectional backscattered electron images for unwashed samples showed that soil was present on surfaces of the cotton fibers and in interfiber spaces of the yarn bundle. Lard soiled samples had large deposits on the fabric surfaces, while artificial sebum and olive oil appeared more uniformly distributed throughout the textile. Oil was deposited in the interfiber capillaries of the yarn bundle and in the crenulation, secondary walls, and lumen of the fibers. Energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis was used to determine relative concentrations of oil at selected morphological locations within the fiber structure and at the fiber surface. Soil distributions within the fibrous structures differed with type of soil and laundry treatment. Backscattered electron images dramatically demonstrated the effect of lipase on cleaning. After washing with detergent plus lipase, yarn surfaces had much less residual soil; residual soil that remained was in the irregularities of the cotton fiber surfaces. Concentrations of oil in the secondary walls, crenulations, lumen, and the fiber surfaces were lower after lipase treatment for all three soils. While washing with detergent removed soil from the yarn and fiber surfaces and the crenulation of the cotton fiber, only the samples washed with detergent plus lipase had lower concentrations of soils within the secondary wall and lumen of the cotton fibers. Fabrics soiled with olive oil and washed with detergent plus lipase had the lowest concentrations of residual soil across the textile structure; the residual soil observed was mainly in the irregularities on the fiber surfaces.