We address the problem of learning semantic representation of questions to measure similarity between pairs as a continuous distance metric. Our work naturally extends Word Mover's Distance (WMD) [1] by representing text documents as normal distributions instead of bags of embedded words. Our learned metric measures the dissimilarity between two questions as the minimum amount of distance the intent (hidden representation) of one question needs to "travel" to match the intent of another question. We first learn to repeat, reformulate questions to infer intents as normal distributions with a deep generative model [2] (variational auto encoder). Semantic similarity between pairs is then learned discriminatively as an optimal transport distance metric (Wasserstein 2) with our novel variational siamese framework. Among known models that can read sentences individually, our proposed framework achieves competitive results on Quora duplicate questions dataset. Our work sheds light on how deep generative models can approximate distributions (semantic representations) to effectively measure semantic similarity with meaningful distance metrics from Information Theory.


The bovine intercaruncular uterine wall expresses steroid hormone receptors throughout pregnancy. Concentrations of specific hormones undergo massive changes during the peripartal period and modulate the synthesis of their own receptors. This is well documented for the placentome, but respective data concerning the intercaruncular uterine wall are completely lacking. Thus, intercaruncular uterine wall segments from cows (I) being 8 and 9 months pregnant (slaughtered cows) and (II) cows undergoing a premature caesarean section 269-282 days after artificial insemination (AI) with (IIa, b) or without (IIc) induction of birth with PGF(2alpha) agonist or (III) receiving a caesarean section during severe dystocia (n=6, 5, 5, 5, 6 and 4 animals, respectively) were studied. In four naturally calving cows (IV) endometrial biopsies were obtained within 30 min after the expulsion of the calf. All tissue probes were fixed for 24h in 4% formaldehyde, routinely embedded in paraffin, and cut at 4 microm. Progesterone receptors (PR), estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and glucocorticoid receptors (GR) were assessed using specific antibodies and staining intensities were documented employing an immunoreactive score (IRS). PR, ERalpha and GR exhibited cell typeand location-specific distribution patterns. IRS for PR and ERalpha did not differ between groups. GR-IRS of endometrial stromal cells, however, were higher in animals undergoing premature caesarean section after induction of birth compared to animals slaughtered during month 8 or 9 of pregnancy or animals receiving caesarean section following dystocia. Results of the present study indicate that steroid hormone receptor amounts within the intercaruncular uterine wall do not (PR, ERalpha) or in a tissue-specific manner (GR) only change during the peripartal period, although respective hormones undergo massive changes during this period. This is in strict contrast to the placentome. Comparatively lower local tissue estrogen concentrations around term may be one cause for this difference.


Background & Objectives: Breast cancer is nowadays one of the most harmful threats to women's health. However, exercise training plays an adjuvant role in breast cancer (Adjuvant also means preventive. So, no need to repeat preventing.). Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of 6-week endurance training on the levels of interleukin-8 in the tumor and Interleukin-17 in the serum of mice suffering from breast cancer. Materials & Methods: In this study, 20 female Balb/C mice were randomly divided into exercise-tumor (RET) and rest-tumor (RRT) groups. The mice were oriented in the environment, and one million estrogen-dependent breast cancer cells (MC4L2) were injected into the top of the right thigh of each mouse. Subsequently, the RET group performed the endurance exercise 5 days per week for 6 weeks. The tumor volume was measured by a digital caliper each week. Finally, the mice were sacrificed, and the tumor tissue was removed and kept in -70°C. Then, ELISA method was performed and the data were collected. Results: After 6 weeks of training, a significant decrease was observed in the RTE group in the serum level of IL-17 and IL-8 protein in tumor (P< 0.05). These results were consistent with the tumor growth rate. Conclusion: The findings of the present study indicate that endurance training can reduce IL-8 and IL-17 proteins in the tumor and serum of mice ill with breast cancer. Therefore, the physical activity is utilized as an important factor in the improvement of adjutant therapy along with other therapeutic methods to treat breast cancer.


Abstract— Understanding the nature and composition of larger extraterrestrial bodies that may collide with the Earth is important. One source of information lies in the record of ancient impact craters, some of which have yielded chemical information as to the impacting body. Many deeply eroded craters have no remaining melt sheet or ejecta yet may contain impactor residue within basement fractures. The emplacement mechanism for fractionated siderophile residues is likely to be gaseous, although, melt droplets and some solid materials may survive. For breccia‐ and melt‐filled fractures to contain extraterrestrial material, they must form very early in the impact process. Most current numerical models do not dwell on the formation and location of early major fractures, although, fractures in and around small craters on brittle glass exposed to hypervelocity impact in low Earth orbit have been successfully simulated. Modelling of fracture development associated with larger craters may help locate impact residues and test the models themselves.


ABSTRACT The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) identifies and disposes of misfolded secretory pathway proteins through the actions of ER-associated degradation (ERAD) pathways. It is becoming evident that a substantial fraction of the secretome transiently resides in the cytosol before translocating into the ER, both in yeast and in higher eukaryotes. To uncover factors that monitor this transient cytosolic protein pool, we carried out a genetic screen in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our findings highlighted a pre-insertional degradation mechanism at the cytosolic leaflet of the ER, which we term prERAD. prERAD relies on the concurrent action of the ER-localized ubiquitylation and deubiquitylation machineries Doa10 and Ubp1. By recognizing C-terminal hydrophobic motifs, prERAD tags for degradation pre-inserted proteins that have remained on the cytosolic leaflet of the ER for too long. Our discoveries delineate a new cellular safeguard, which ensures that every stage of secretory pathway protein biogenesis is scrutinized and regulated.


Study of an N qubit mixed symmetric separable states is a long standing challenging problem as there exist no unique separability criterion. In this regard, we take up the N-qubit mixed symmetric separable states for a detailed study as these states are of experimental importance and offer elegant mathematical analysis since the dimension of the Hilbert space reduces from 2N to N + 1. Since there exists a one to one correspondence between spin-j system and an N-qubit symmetric state, we employ Fano statistical tensor parameters for the parametrization of spin density matrix. Further, we use geometric multiaxial representation (MAR) of density matrix to characterize the mixed symmetric separable states. Since separability problem is NP hard, we choose to study it in the continuum limit where mixed symmetric separable states are characterized by the P-distribution function λ (ᶿ, Φ) We show that the N-qubit mixed symmetric separable state can be visualized as a uniaxial system if the distribution function is independent of ᶿ, and Φ. We further choose distribution function to be the most general positive function on a sphere and observe that the statistical tensor parameters characterizing the N-qubit symmetric system are the expansion coefficients of the distribution function. As an example for the discrete case, we investigate the MAR of a uniformly weighted two qubit mixed symmetric separable state. We also observe that there exists a correspondence between separability and classicality of states.


This research furthers our understanding of romantic love and coupledom: it flags taken-for-granted assumptions in the psychological literature; and provides insights into the sense-making of romantic experience for those in established relationships.

This dual focus study integrates two separate inquiries with working-class participants in committed relationships: interviews with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to capture their lived experience of romance; and focus groups with Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) to identify discursive resources. Embracing IPA within social constructionism, this enlivens the FDA and sheds light on the process whereby individuals in established relationships position themselves within available discourses and thus experience their relationships as romantic (or otherwise).

The research suggests that what is experienced as romantic — whether heartfelt conversations, expensive gifts or sexual intimacy — is a product of discursive location. The thesis demonstrates that moving discourses can significantly impact how people experience and make sense of romance. For example, small daily acts of thoughtfulness are experienced as romantic by those who are located in the 'intimacy' discourse, while gifts, special occasions and grand chivalric gestures are felt to be romantic to those located in the 'romantic love' discourse.

Furthermore, the thesis presents the enlivening of the FDA with IPA as a theoretical offering called Discursive Emotional Dynamics. It theorises a relationship between discourses, subject positions and the emotional meaning making constructed by that experience which then implicates future positioning. The thesis therefore offers insights into why and how we mobilise some positions and not others, how we position — and are positioned.

The results reinforce that romantic love is important to the psychology of relationships. By attending to discourses and positioning in an enlivened discursive terrain, this gives us a handle on a range of relationship dilemmas — from casting light on scholarly debates to reigniting a dimming romantic spark.


The field of Artificial Intelligence AI has undergone many transformations, most recently the emergence of data-driven approaches centred on machine learning technology. The present article examines that paradigm shift by using the conceptual tools developed by Thomas Kuhn, and by analysing the contents of the longest running conference series in the field. A paradigm shift occurs when a new set of assumptions and values replaces the previous one within a given scientific community. These are often conveyed implicitly, by the choice of success stories that exemplify and define what a given field of research is about, demonstrating what kind of questions and answers are appropriate. The replacement of these exemplar stories corresponds to a shift in goals, methods, and expectations. We discuss the most recent such transition in the field of Artificial Intelligence, as well as commenting on some earlier ones.


ABSTRACT As in other European countries, the formal planning task of Dutch governments is subjected to devolution and austerity measures. Not only did these developments lead to outsourcing planning tasks to lower-level governments, also citizens are increasingly 'invited' to take responsibility for providing public facilities and services. In De Achterhoek, a Dutch region, these shifts are amplified due to population change and traditional active citizenship, and led to institutional change. Since a decade local governments stimulate citizen initiatives, under the umbrella of participatory governance. This process of institutional change did not alter formal institutions, but was the result of an informal and dialectic process between local governments and citizen organizations. In this paper, we will demonstrate the process of change and how it affected planning practices in De Achterhoek, building on theories of informal institutional change and its driving forces. The empirical part of this paper draws on the results of three focus group meetings, in which a diverse set of local stakeholders discussed the effects of change they observed and how it shaped planning practices. In the final section, we reflect on the degree of institutionalization, by examining the robustness and resilience of the observed change.


Consumer online shopping behaviors are well attended in the IS and marketing literature. Yet, there is another group of individuals who spend a lot of time online but do not purchase anything. This online window shopping phenomenon is intriguing to both scholars and marketers yet it is less studied and little understood. Questions such as what the online window shopping consumers do during their visits, how to differentiate their activities and how to design marketing strategies to stimulate them to buy are all essential and beg for investigation. To address this gap, we propose a typology of online window shopping consumers based on the Consumer Information Processing Model, then empirically validate and refine the typology using a set of clickstream data. The final typology contains four main types of online window shopper consumers: 1) promotion finders, 2) social & hedonic experience seekers, 3) information gatherers, and 4) learners & novices. This study extends consumer online behavior research in both e-commerce and social commerce by focusing on the specific group of consumers who only do online window shopping. Besides theoretical contributions, the findings also provide marketers and businesses with valuable references for designing targeted marketing strategies or promotional activities for online window shopping consumers.


Prospective Health Technology Assessment allows early decision making for innovative health care technologies. The main idea is to combine available domain knowledge with advanced simulation techniques in order to predict the effects of medical products and to find bottlenecks and weaknesses within the health system. In our recent publications a hybrid simulation approach with System Dynamics and Agent-Based Modeling has been presented. Hospital workflows have been modeled by state charts within agent behavioral models and have to be instantiated each time an agent is entering a hospital. This paper presents a mechanism to generate agents dynamically from SD models and extends the previously presented hybrid approach by process-oriented Discrete Event Simulation for hospital modeling. It connects processes to health care institutions and not to persons traversing them. Two extended example case studies show potentials for medical decision making using the three simulation paradigms in a common environment.


Introduction: self-efficacy is referred to individual's beliefs about their abilities to learn and doing significant tasks in life. This study aims to determine the relationship between self-efficacy and academic motivation in a group of medical sciences' students. Methods: In this cross-sectional study 275 students of Golestan University of Medical Sciences (GOUMS) were selected using stratified random sampling method. A questionnaire consists of questions regarding demographic, academic motivation, and self-efficacy beliefs were used to collect data. Pearson correlation coefficients, independent T-Test and one way ANOVA were applied on the data. Results: The average of students' academic motivation was 30.3±4.0. 50.2 percent of students had self-efficacy higher than average. Self-efficacy had significant correlation with intrinsic motivation sub-scale (r=0.196, P=0.001) and total score of academic motivation scale (r=0.155, P=0.01). There were no significant correlations between self-efficacy and extrinsic motivation (r=0.054, P=0.376) and motivation sub-scale (r=0.104, P=0.08). There was no significant difference between two genders in self-efficacy. Conclusion: Improvement in self-efficacy of medical sciences' students could improve their motivation.


Summary The beekeepers of Luxembourg were asked for: 1. the honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony losses they experienced over winter; and 2. aspects of their beekeeping practice in May 2011 and 2012. Results on the magnitude of the winter losses in the managed bee colonies of Luxembourg are reported for the first time, and some factors potentially related to the losses such as varroa control methods, agricultural land use at the level of municipalities and the hive types employed were investigated. The number of managed honey bee colonies lost in Luxembourg was 938 out of 5,580 in winter 2010/11 and 1,172 out of 5,382 in winter 2011/12, corresponding to national loss rates of 16.8% and 21.8%, respectively. Elevated loss rates were observed in the Northern municipalities in both years. The losses reported from apiaries employing the hive types Dadant 10 or Dadant 12 were significantly lower compared to apiaries employing the hive type Deutsch Normal and losses with Dadant 12 were lower compared to hive type Alberti. Varroa control methods were grouped according to similarity concerning timing and treatment combinations. Differences of colony losses (%) between the four largest groups of similar treatment combinations were nonsignificant at P = 0.72, indicating that none of the most common varroa control method combinations reduced colony losses significantly below the average percentage of colonies lost per apiary. Evidence for an effect of the interaction between varroa control methods and hive type as well as for agricultural land use on colony losses is presented and discussed.


Open-air rock-art forms one of the most widely distributed categories of prehistoric culture with examples recognized across the Old and New Worlds. It is also one of the most threatened features of human heritage and is susceptible to accelerated decay as a result of natural processes. Considering the specific case of the Coa Valley rock-art complex in Portugal, but also analysing case studies originating from other countries (Norway, Brazil, Southern USA and South Korea), this richly illustrated book addresses open-air rock-art natural degradation causes, suitable methods to assess current condition and the creation of urgency scales for conservation interventions.


The principle characteristic of the new technology we model is that customers get access to their own design.This can be achieved e.g. by additive manufacturing (3d printer) or other mass customization technologies. We consider different model variants like a one firm model where the firm needs to determine the optimal time to switch to this new technology, and an incumbententrant model where the incumbent produces in an old fashioned way, while the entrant has access to this new technology.


A series of multifunctional phosphors Y2WO6: Ln3+ (Ln = Eu, Sm, Dy) were prepared by solid state reaction. The phase purity, luminescent properties and energy transfer from WO66- to Ln3+ are investigated by the X-ray diffractometer, photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence spectra, as well as decay lifetimes, respectively. The band gap of Y2WO6 is calculated to be about 3.139 eV, in agreement with the value of 3.184 eV obtained from the reflection spectrum. When excited by vacuum ultra violet light at 147 nm, the emission intensity of Y2WO6: Eu3+ can reach 66% of that of commercial (Y,Gd)BO3: Eu3+ (KX-504A), and Y2WO6: Dy3+ and Y2WO6: Sm3+ show white light emission. The white light emission can also be obtained under ultraviolet excitation at 319 nm. Under the electron beam excitation, the Y2WO6: Sm3+, Y2WO6: Dy3+ and Y2WO6: Eu3+ show tunable white, blue and red emissions with excellent degradation properties, respectively. These results reveal that the Y2WO6: Eu3+, Y2WO6: Sm3+ and Y2WO6: Dy3+ may have potential applications in three-dimensional plasma display panels, light-emitting diodes and field emission displays.


This thesis describes a system that allows users to to perform full three-dimensional manipulations to objects in photographs. Cameras and photo-editing tools have contributed to the explosion in creative content by democratizing the process of creating visual realizations of users' imaginations. However, shooting photographs using a camera is constrained by real-world physics, while existing photo-editing software is largely restricted to the 2D plane of the image. 3D object edits, intuitive to humans, are simply not possible in photo-editing software. The fundamental challenge in providing 3D object manipulation is that estimating the 3D structure of the object, including the geometry and appearance of object parts hidden from the viewpoint of the camera is ill-posed. 3D object manipulations reveal hidden parts of objects that were not previously seen from the viewpoint of the camera. The key contributions of this thesis are algorithms that leverage 3D models from public repositories to obtain a three-dimensional representation of objects in photographs for 3D manipulation with seamless transition in appearance of the object from the original photograph. 3D models of objects in online repositories cannot be directly used to manipulate photographed objects, as they show mismatches in geometry and appearance, and do not contain three-dimensional illumination representing the scene where the photograph was captured. The work in this thesis provides a system that align the 3D model geometry, estimates three-dimensional illumination, and completes the appearance over the object in three dimensions to provide full 3D manipulation. To correct the mismatch between the geometry of the 3D model and the photographed object, the thesis presents an automatic model alignment technique that performs an exhaustive search in the space of viewpoint, object location, scale, and non-rigid deformation. We also provide a manual geometry adjustment tool that allows users to perform final corrections while imposing smoothness and symmetry constraints. Given the matched geometry, we present an illumination estimation approach that uses the visible pixels to obtain three-dimensional environment illumination that produces plausible effects such as cast shadows and smooth surface shading. Our appearance completion approach relates visible parts of the object to hidden parts using symmetries over the publicly available 3D model. Our interactive system for editing photographs re-imagines typical photo-editing operations such as rotation, translation, copy-paste, scaling, and deformation as 3D manipulations to objects. Using our system, users have created a variety of manipulations to photographs, such as flipping cars, making dynamic compositions of multiple objects suspended in the air, performing animations, and altering the stories of historical images and personal photographs.


The generation of deuteron beam from a 3 kJ Mather type plasma focus is studied. Two simple ion collectors made of copper plates are employed and are placed at the axis of the electrodes to detect the ion beam. The deuteron beam intensity at various deuterium gas pressures is determined together with ion beam energy using the time of flight method. For a series of discharges of the present plasma focus system operated at 15 kV discharge voltage, ion beams of energies ranging from 50 to 200 keV have been measured. The suitable deuterium filling pressure for ion beam production for electrodes lengths of 16 cm, 22 cm and 27 cm are 1 mbar, 0.7 mbar and 0.5 mbar respectively.


Background: Intraoperative neurophysiology, high magnification microscopes, and ultrasonic aspirators are considered essential aid for the safe resection of intramedullary spinal cord tumors (IMSCTs). Most centers in developing countries such as Pakistan still lack these facilities. The purpose of this study was to review the management of IMSCTs at our hospital and to determine factors associated with the outcomes of surgery. Methods: This was a retrospective review of medical records of adult patients undergoing surgery for IMSCT over 12 years. The institutional ethical review committee approved this study. Data were collected regarding demographics, clinical and radiological features, and surgical details. Modified McCormick Scale was used to grade patients' neurological status at admission, discharge, and follow-up. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22. Results: Forty three cases were reviewed. Mean age was 33.8 ± 15.1 years whereas median follow-up was 5 months (range: 0.25–96 months). Most patients had ependymoma (n = 16; 73%). Cervical region was the most commonly involved (n = 15; 34.9%). Gross total resection (GTR) was achieved in 30 cases (69.8%). The preoperative McCormick grade was significantly associated with follow-up McCormick grade (P value = 0.002). Eight patients (18.6%) underwent intraoperative electrophysiological monitoring, out of which GTR was achieved in all cases, and none had disease progression or recurrence. Ten patients received postoperative radiotherapy. Thirty five patients (81.4%) had progression free survival at last follow-up. Conclusions: We achieved a GTR rate of 68.9% for IMSCTs with limited resources. In few cases, where intraoperative electrophysiology was used, the rate of GTR was 100%. Preoperative neurological status was associated with better postoperative McCormick score.