Domain Adaptation for POS Tagging with Contrastive Monotonic Chunk-wise Attention

Neural Processing Letters - Part of Speech (POS) tagging is a sequential labelling task and one of the core applications of Natural Language Processing. It has been a challenging problem for the...     

Investigating the effect of silver nanorods embedded in polydimethylsiloxane matrix using nanoindentation and its use for flexible electronics

The stretchable electrodes with excellent flexibility, electrical conductivity, and mechanical durability are the most fundamental components in the emerging and exciting field of flexible electronics. This article proposes a method for fabrication of such a stretchable electrode by embedding silver nanorods (AgNRs) into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix that is grown by a unique glancing angle deposition technique. The surface, mechanical, and electrical properties of PDMS are significantly changed after embedding the AgNRs in it. The results show that surface roughness and polarity increase after AgNRs are embedded in the PDMS matrix. Elastic modulus (E) and hardness (H) decrease with an increase in the indentation load as a result of the indentation depth effect. Due to strong interfacial adhesion of AgNRs embedded in the PDMS matrix, the E and H of nanocomposite are increased by 167.6 and 93.3% compared with PDMS film, respectively. Furthermore, the AgNRs-PDMS film has an electrical resistivity value in the order of 10⁻⁷ Ωm. It remains conductive during various mechanical strains such as bending, twisting, and stretching, which is demonstrated using a light-emitting diode circuit. Simultaneously, the antimicrobial activity of silver could make it a promising candidate for wearable electronics.     

Pull-Down of Metalloproteins in Their Native States by Using Desthiobiotin-Based Probes

One-third of all proteins are estimated to require metals for structural stability and/or catalytic activity. Desthiobiotin probes containing metal binding groups can be used to capture metalloproteins with exposed active-site metals under mild conditions so as to prevent changes in metallation state. The proof-of-concept was demonstrated with carbonic anhydrase (CA), an open active site, Zn²⁺-containing protein. CA was targeted by using sulfonamide derivatives. Linkers of various lengths and structures were screened to determine the optimal structure for capture of the native protein. The optimized probes could selectively pull down CA from red blood cell lysate and other protein mixtures. Pull-down of differently metallated CAs was also investigated.     

A Bluetooth Based Sensor Network for Civil Infrastructure Health Monitoring

Communicating with sensors has long been limited either to wired connections or to proprietary wireless communication protocols. Using a ubiquitous and inexpensive wireless communication technology to create Sensor Area Networks (SANs) will accelerate the extensive deployment of sensor technology. Bluetooth, an emerging, worldwide standard for inexpensive, local wireless communication is a viable choice for SANs because of its inherent support for some of the important requirements – low power, small form factor, low cost and sufficient communication range. In this paper we outline an approach, centered on the Bluetooth technology, to support a sensor network composed of fixed wireless sensors for health monitoring of highways, bridges and other civil infrastructures. We present a topology formation scheme that not only takes into account the traffic generated by different sensors but also the associated link strengths, buffer capacities and energy availability. The algorithm makes no particular assumptions as to the placement of nodes, and not all nodes need to be in radio proximity of each other. The output is a tree shaped scatternet rooted at the sensor hub (data logger) that is balanced in terms of traffic carried on each of the links. We also analyze the scheduling, routing and healing aspects of the resulting sensor-net topology.     

Biofeedback improves functional outcome after sphincteroplasty

Pax genes are expressed in specific patterns in the nervous system during development and in the adult. Recent findings suggest a link between the expression of Pax-2 and axonal guidance. Mice with a targeted deletion of Pax-2 are an excellent tool for studying axonal pathfinding at the molecular level, especially with respect to the optic chiasm. The date reviewed here suggest that Pax-2 regulates the expression of surface molecules involved in contact attraction and that the mutual regulation of the expression of Pax-2 and the Sonic hedgehog gene is of importance in the formation of the chiasm region.     

Relationship between haemodynamics and morphology in pulmonary hypertension. A quantitative intravascular ultrasound study

BACKGROUND: Intravascular ultrasound imaging of the pulmonary arteries has been demonstrated to be a reliable method of quantifying vessel diameter, luminal area and pulsatility. Simultaneous measurement of flow velocity and its response to vasodilators allows the relationship between morphology and functional compromise to be studied, especially endothelial dysfunction. METHODS: In 51 patients (mean age = 49.8 +/- 12.6 years, 17 female) we performed right heart catheterization and simultaneous intravascular ultrasound of pulmonary artery branches. The patients were divided in two groups: group 1 with normal pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance, and group 2 with pulmonary hypertension (peak pulmonary artery pressure > 30 mmHg and/or mean pulmonary artery pressure > 20 mmHg). Vessel wall and lumen were studied using a 2.9 F intravascular ultrasound catheter with a 30 MHz phased array transducer. Measurement of blood flow velocity was accomplished by a Doppler flow wire (0.018 inch). The maximal flow change during acetylcholine infusion (adjusted to 10(-6); 10(-5), and 10(-4) M concentration in the blood vessel) was measured. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between groups 1 and 2 with respect to age (48.5 +/- 14.3 years vs 50.3 +/- 12.3 years; P = ns), gender (4 female/8 male vs 13 female/26 male; P = ns), luminal area of the vessel segment in which the intravascular ultrasound measurements were obtained (11.8 +/- 6.1 mm2 vs 16.7 +/- 14.3 mm2; P = ns), internal diameter (3.9 +/- 1.2 mm vs 4.2 +/- 1.7 mm; P = ns), and external diameter (6.1 +/- 1.3 mm vs 6.9 +/- 2.1 mm; P = ns). Cross-sectional images of the pulmonary artery wall demonstrated a single ring with high echodensity with a thin inner layer regarded as intima in group 1. In contrast, the majority of patients (n = 35/39) in group 2 demonstrated a thickening of the intimal layer and/or a disturbance of layering of the echogenic arterial wall. The relative wall thickness was higher in group 2 than in group 1 (22.5 +/- 10.4% vs 15.3 +/- 6.5%; P < 0.05). There were no significant correlations between pulmonary artery pressure and wall thickness pulmonary artery pressure and area change in the cardiac cycle, acetylcholine-dependent increase in pulmonary flow and morphological changes in the vessel wall. CONCLUSION: We conclude that intravascular ultrasound is capable of detecting morphological changes in the pulmonary vessel wall in pulmonary hypertension and that vessel wall hypertrophy of small pulmonary segment arteries, as detected by intravascular ultrasound, is not predictive of functional vasodilatory response of resistance vessels of the same vessel area.     

Hormonal regulation of the estrogen receptor in primary cultures of hepatocytes from female rats

Estrogen treatment affects the hepatic synthesis and/or secretion of several proteins involved in clinically important pathological processes such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, and thrombosis. The endocrine regulation of the estrogen receptor (ER) concentration in primary cultures of rat hepatocytes was studied. Human growth hormone (hGH) and dexamethasone (DEX) in combination increased ER concentration 6-fold and ER mRNA levels 2.5-fold. These effects were not significantly different from those observed after treatment with the purely somatogenic bovine growth hormone (GH) in combination with DEX. Treatment with the lactogen ovine prolactin in the presence or absence of DEX did not significantly affect ER or ER mRNA concentrations. Triiodothyronine treatment at the most effective concentration (50 nM) increased ER and ER mRNA levels twofold. Medium supplementation with estradiol (0.1 nM) throughout the experiment did not affect the response to treatment with hGH and DEX. Treatment with high concentrations of ethinylestradiol in combination with hGH and DEX, however, increased the ER level twice as much as hGH and DEX without addition of estradiol or ethinylestradiol, whereas the ER mRNA concentration was the same in both the GH+DEX group and GH+ DEX+ (estradiol or ethinylestradiol) groups. These data indicate the importance of GH in combination with glucocorticoids for the maintenance of ER concentrations in the rat liver. Thyroid hormones may be of some, although minor importance, whereas the data suggest that prolactin is not directly involved in hepatic ER regulation.