scholarly journals Literature Mining and Mechanistic Graphical Modelling to Improve mRNA Vaccine Platforms

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Leonardelli ◽  
Giuseppe Lofano ◽  
Gianluca Selvaggio ◽  
Silvia Parolo ◽  
Stefano Giampiccolo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Graphical Model ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Literature Mining ◽  
Clinical Settings ◽  
Graphical Modelling ◽  
History Of ◽  
Automated Knowledge ◽  
Favorable Safety ◽  
Traditional Approaches

RNA vaccines represent a milestone in the history of vaccinology. They provide several advantages over more traditional approaches to vaccine development, showing strong immunogenicity and an overall favorable safety profile. While preclinical testing has provided some key insights on how RNA vaccines interact with the innate immune system, their mechanism of action appears to be fragmented amid the literature, making it difficult to formulate new hypotheses to be tested in clinical settings and ultimately improve this technology platform. Here, we propose a systems biology approach, based on the combination of literature mining and mechanistic graphical modeling, to consolidate existing knowledge around mRNA vaccines mode of action and enhance the translatability of preclinical hypotheses into clinical evidence. A Natural Language Processing (NLP) pipeline for automated knowledge extraction retrieved key biological evidences that were joined into an interactive mechanistic graphical model representing the chain of immune events induced by mRNA vaccines administration. The achieved mechanistic graphical model will help the design of future experiments, foster the generation of new hypotheses and set the basis for the development of mathematical models capable of simulating and predicting the immune response to mRNA vaccines.

A dynamic perspective on language processing and development

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kees de Bot ◽  
HuiPing Chan ◽  
Wander Lowie ◽  
Rika Plat ◽  
Marjolijn Verspoor
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Logistic Model ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Language Analysis ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
History Of ◽  
Traditional Approaches

If language processing and development is viewed as a dynamic process in which all subsystems interact over time, then some basic assumptions behind more traditional approaches to language analysis are problematic: new methods of analysis and modeling are needed to supplement and partly replace existing paradigms. This argument is illustrated with two examples from recent studies. After a brief history of the reasons for a paradigm shift and an explanation of the role of variability in development, the first example study presents a variability-based approach to reaction time measurements in which spectral analyses of variability found during repeated measures of the same experiment may indicate moments of behavioral change. Then the principles of dynamic modeling are explained, illustrated with vocabulary developmental data. The second recent study shows how the vocabulary development of three learners is may be dynamically modeled using a logistic model.

Corticosteroids in Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients: a practical guide for physicians.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Carla Di Paolo ◽  
Cristiano Pagnini ◽  
Maria Giovanna Graziani
Keyword(s):  
Severe Disease ◽  
Unknown Etiology ◽  
History Of Disease ◽  
Bowel Diseases ◽  
Literature Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Inflammatory Bowel ◽  
Favorable Safety ◽  
Pass Metabolism

: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic conditions characterized by unknown etiology and pathogenesis with deregulation of mucosal immunity. Among possible treatments, corticosteroids, already available from the 50’, are still the mainstay of treatment for moderate-severe disease. Nonetheless, the use of steroids is still largely empirical and solid evidence about therapeutic schemes are lacking. Moreover, due to the important side-effects and for the unsatisfactory impact on long-term natural history of disease, the steroid sparing has become an important therapeutic goal in IBD management. Besides conventional steroids, the so called “low bioavailability” steroids, which are steroids with high affinity for peripheral receptors and elevated hepatic first-pass metabolism, have demonstrated efficacy and more favorable safety profile. In the present review of the literature evidence of efficacy and safety of conventional and low bioavailability steroids in IBD patients are evaluated, and practical suggestions for a correct use in clinical practice are presented according to the current clinical guidelines.

scholarly journals International agricultural trade forecasting using machine learning

Data & Policy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Munisamy Gopinath ◽  
Feras A. Batarseh ◽  
Jayson Beckman ◽  
Ajay Kulkarni ◽  
Sei Jeong
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Agricultural Trade ◽  
Supervised Machine Learning ◽  
Trade Patterns ◽  
Subjective Assessments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Network Approaches ◽  
Traditional Approaches

Abstract Focusing on seven major agricultural commodities with a long history of trade, this study employs data-driven analytics to decipher patterns of trade, namely using supervised machine learning (ML), as well as neural networks. The supervised ML and neural network techniques are trained on data until 2010 and 2014, respectively. Results show the high relevance of ML models to forecasting trade patterns in near- and long-term relative to traditional approaches, which are often subjective assessments or time-series projections. While supervised ML techniques quantified key economic factors underlying agricultural trade flows, neural network approaches provide better fits over the long term.

Astrid

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-484
Author(s):  
Suraj Shetiya ◽  
Saravanan Thirumuruganathan ◽  
Nick Koudas ◽  
Gautam Das
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Objective Function ◽  
Pattern Matching ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Model ◽  
Language Models ◽  
Selectivity Estimation ◽  
Statistical Correlations ◽  
Benchmark Datasets ◽  
Traditional Approaches

Accurate selectivity estimation for string predicates is a long-standing research challenge in databases. Supporting pattern matching on strings (such as prefix, substring, and suffix) makes this problem much more challenging, thereby necessitating a dedicated study. Traditional approaches often build pruned summary data structures such as tries followed by selectivity estimation using statistical correlations. However, this produces insufficiently accurate cardinality estimates resulting in the selection of sub-optimal plans by the query optimizer. Recently proposed deep learning based approaches leverage techniques from natural language processing such as embeddings to encode the strings and use it to train a model. While this is an improvement over traditional approaches, there is a large scope for improvement. We propose Astrid, a framework for string selectivity estimation that synthesizes ideas from traditional and deep learning based approaches. We make two complementary contributions. First, we propose an embedding algorithm that is query-type (prefix, substring, and suffix) and selectivity aware. Consider three strings 'ab', 'abc' and 'abd' whose prefix frequencies are 1000, 800 and 100 respectively. Our approach would ensure that the embedding for 'ab' is closer to 'abc' than 'abd'. Second, we describe how neural language models could be used for selectivity estimation. While they work well for prefix queries, their performance for substring queries is sub-optimal. We modify the objective function of the neural language model so that it could be used for estimating selectivities of pattern matching queries. We also propose a novel and efficient algorithm for optimizing the new objective function. We conduct extensive experiments over benchmark datasets and show that our proposed approaches achieve state-of-the-art results.

Gender and International Security

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Security ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Gender Analysis ◽  
Civilizing Mission ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Security Discourse ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
History Of ◽  
Traditional Approaches

Thinking about security as a feminist international lawyer is necessarily complex and invites multiple layers of inquiry. Gender analysis commences with seeing the gendered consequences of security discourse and practice. That is, understanding women’s different experiences of insecurity in conflict, peace, and post-conflict spaces as well as different women’s experiences of those same spaces. Simultaneously, gender analysis questions the prevalence of military masculinities, the dynamics of hegemonic masculinity in the perpetuation of insecurity, and the continuum of gendered insecurity from the local to the international. Gender is thus an important conceptual and analytical tool for understanding traditional (state-centric) forms of international security, including collective security, the law of armed conflict, and post-conflict structures. However, feminist understandings of international security extend beyond traditional approaches to security, engaging everyday insecurity as a means to understand gendered insecurities from the local to the international, while centering the relationship between law and violence, challenging military masculinities, identifying the perpetuation of power and intersection of gender with race and colonialism, and asserting the value of knowledge production from transnational feminist networks. Contemporary feminist approaches have placed significant emphasis on the hypervisibility of conflict-related sexual violence and women’s access to political participation, however contemporary cutting-edge contributions call for deeper engagement with issues, including the recognition of intersectional, critical race, and transnational feminist interventions, the role of technology in international security, the need for a feminist, queer-antiracist politics within international security discourse, and the gendered and embodied reality of disability as a consequence of security threats. Much of the international legal scholarship, and the wider field of international relations where many of the pivotal texts emerge, centers the women, peace, and security agenda developed by the United Nations Security Council that was drafted after the shift toward human security in the 1990s. Yet this ignores the complex theorizations of gender from non-mainstream feminist contexts and risks the reproduction of modes of agents and victims that are aligned with the history of international law’s civilizing mission. International security, when viewed from a gender lens, thus offers the scholar a series of mechanisms for understanding the deep structures of international law while simultaneously challenging the mainstream production of gender as shorthand for women. The article includes a section on health that reflects the fact that it was prepared during the COVID-19 pandemic and the extended attention to the gendered elements of health insecurity that emerged at this time.

scholarly journals HISTORY OF INDIAN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE: A MEDICAL INHERITANCE.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Partha Pradip Adhikari ◽  
Satya Bhusan Paul
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Medicine ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Health Care Service ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Traditional Medicines ◽  
Regional Effects ◽  
Practice Of Medicine ◽  
History Of ◽  
Traditional Approaches

 Objective: Indian Traditional Medicine, the foundation of age-old practice of medicine in the world, has played an essential role in human health care service and welfare from its inception. Likewise, all traditional medicines are of its own regional effects and dominant in the West Asian nations; India, Pakistan, Tibet, and so forth, East Asian nations; China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and so forth, Africa, South and Central America. This article is an attempt to illuminate Indian traditional medical service and its importance, based on recent methodical reviews.Methods: Web search engines for example; Google, Science Direct and Google Scholar were employed for reviews as well as for meta-analysis.Results: There is a long running debate between individuals, who utilize Indian Traditional Medicines for different ailments and disorders, and the individuals who depend on the present day; modern medicine for cure. The civil argument between modern medicine and traditional medicines comes down to a basic truth; each person, regardless of education or sickness, ought to be educated about the actualities concerning their illness and the associated side effects of medicines. Therapeutic knowledge of Indian traditional medicine has propelled various traditional approaches with similar or different theories and methodologies, which are of regional significance.Conclusion: To extend research exercises on Indian Traditional Medicine, in near future, and to explore the phytochemicals; the current review will help the investigators involved in traditional medicinal pursuit.

scholarly journals Volunteers for clinical trials: from the history of abuses and exploitation to the inclusion movement, and to an income resource

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Christiane Druml
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Medical Research ◽  
Healthy Volunteers ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Scientific Curiosity ◽  
Consent Procedure ◽  
International Regulations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Results ◽  
Ethics Guidelines

Medical research is essential to develop new and better therapies, increase social standards and a better life for all of us. Scientific curiosity has helped to achieve many successful innovations, but history also demonstrates that research can lead to abuses of individuals neglecting autonomy and integrity of the human being. Since the 1960ies we have witnessed a continuous development of international regulations and ethics guidelines (soft law) in medical research, leading to a higher quality of scientific results. An important focus lies on recognizing human vulnerability and a therefore adapted informed consent procedure. Our modern clinical trials structure requires the inclusion of healthy volunteers in the first phases of the development of a new medicinal product, leading to new ethical questions and challenges. The Corona-Pandemic has accelerated vaccine development in a successful way also leading to a new importance of healthy volunteers in the medical research landscape.

Constraints on ellipsis alternation: A view from the history of English

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Nykiel
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Form Processing ◽  
Argument Ellipsis ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
History Of ◽  
Construction Type ◽  
Semantic Dependencies ◽  
Late Modern

AbstractI offer a diachronic perspective on English ellipsis alternation, or the alternation between inclusion and omission of prepositions from remnants under sluicing and bare argument ellipsis. The relative freedom to omit prepositions from remnants has not been stable in English; this freedom is connected to the strength of semantic dependencies between prepositions and verbs. Remnants without prepositions are first attested, but remain less frequent than remnants with prepositions, as late as Early Modern English and gain in frequency following this period. I demonstrate that three constraints—correlate informativity, structural persistence, and construction type—predict ellipsis alternation in Early and Late Modern English. However, predicting ellipsis alternation in present-day English requires semantic dependencies in addition to the three constraints. The constraints can be subsumed under principles of language processing and production (considerations of accessibility, a tendency to reuse structure, and a conventionalized performance preference for efficiently accessing constituents that form processing domains), permitting a unified processing account of ellipsis alternation with cross-linguistic coverage.

scholarly journals What Are Predictors for Persistence in Childhood Stuttering?

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (04) ◽  
pp. 299-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Usler ◽  
Anna Bostian ◽  
Ranjini Mohan ◽  
Katelyn Gerwin ◽  
Barbara Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Sensorimotor Processes ◽  
Speech Motor

AbstractOver the past 10 years, we (the Purdue Stuttering Project) have implemented longitudinal studies to examine factors related to persistence and recovery in early childhood stuttering. Stuttering develops essentially as an impairment in speech sensorimotor processes that is strongly influenced by dynamic interactions among motor, language, and emotional domains. Our work has assessed physiological, behavioral, and clinical features of stuttering within the motor, linguistic, and emotional domains. We describe the results of studies in which measures collected when the child was 4 to 5 years old are related to eventual stuttering status. We provide supplemental evidence of the role of known predictive factors (e.g., sex and family history of persistent stuttering). In addition, we present new evidence that early delays in basic speech motor processes (especially in boys), poor performance on a nonword repetition test, stuttering severity at the age of 4 to 5 years, and delayed or atypical functioning in central nervous system language processing networks are predictive of persistent stuttering.

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