Text Analytic System: Document Similarity

Knowledge discovery is a critical function of infrastructure protection in the U.S. By analyzing key text documents, we can gain insight into the interwoven and interdependent infrastructure system of the U.S., and better understand the security aspects of the system as a whole. Massive amounts of relevant data resides in text documents, which must be gathered and parsed to be analyzed on a large scale. Our algorithm collects web-based text embedded in HTML pages and analyzes it in various ways to decipher similarities. It will be a needed component of the larger system being developed by the Idaho National Laboratory, which will seek to accomplish what was described above. By analyzing the similarity of these HTML documents, we are helping the Idaho National Laboratory to keep redundant data out of the database. Without proper parsing of similar data, repetitive entries may clog the system with unneeded information. We attack this problem by providing a series of interfaces, each culminating into the same comparison algorithm. The interface can accept a raw String, a text file, or a web URL. The BoilerPipe library is used to extract useful text from the HTML document, by stripping the document of its tags, and using a series of filters to acquire desired text. A simple Java scanner is used to parse the text file. This text is then lemmatized, stripped of punctuation, converted to lowercase, stemmed, and put into a term-document matrix. Finally, we use cosine similarity to generate a proper percentage point representing how similar or dissimilar the two provided text documents are.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1025/thumbnail.jp

The corticotrophin-releasing factor/urocortin system regulates white fat browning in mice through paracrine mechanisms

Objectives: The corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF)/urocortin system is expressed in the adipose tissue of mammals, but its functional role in this tissue remains unknown. Methods: Pharmacological manipulation of the activity of CRF receptors, CRF1 and CRF2, was performed in 3T3L1 white pre-adipocytes and T37i brown pre-adipocytes during in vitro differentiation. The expression of genes of the CRF/urocortin system and of markers of white and brown adipocytes was evaluated along with mitochondrial biogenesis and cellular oxygen consumption. Metabolic evaluation of corticosterone-deficient or supplemented Crhr1-null (Crhr1−/−) mice and their wild-type controls was performed along with gene expression analysis carried out in white (WAT) and brown (BAT) adipose tissues. Results: Peptides of the CRF/urocortin system and their cognate receptors were expressed in both pre-adipocyte cell lines. In vitro pharmacological studies showed an inhibition of the expression of the CRF2 pathway by the constitutive activity of the CRF1 pathway. Pharmacological activation of CRF2 and, to a lesser extent, inhibition of CRF1 signaling induced molecular and functional changes indicating transdifferentiation of white pre-adipocytes and differentiation of brown pre-adipocytes. Crhr1−/− mice showed increased expression of CRF2 and its agonist Urocortin 2 in adipocytes that was associated to brown conversion of WAT and activation of BAT. Crhr1−/− mice were resistant to diet-induced obesity and glucose intolerance. Restoring physiological circulating corticosterone levels abrogated molecular changes in adipocytes and the favorable phenotype of Crhr1−/− mice. Conclusions: Our findings suggest the importance of the CRF2 pathway in the control of adipocyte plasticity. Increased CRF2 activity in adipocytes induces browning of WAT, differentiation of BAT and is associated with a favorable metabolic phenotype in mice lacking CRF1. Circulating corticosterone represses CRF2 activity in adipocytes and may thus regulate adipocyte physiology through the modulation of the local CRF/urocortin system. Targeting CRF receptor signaling specifically in the adipose tissue may represent a novel approach to tackle obesity

Evolution of an eruptive flare loop system

<p><b>Context:</b> Flares, eruptive prominences and coronal mass ejections are phenomena where magnetic reconnection plays an important role. However, the location and the rate of the reconnection, as well as the mechanisms of particle interaction with ambient and chromospheric plasma are still unclear.</p> <p><b>Aims:</b> In order to contribute to the comprehension of the above mentioned processes we studied the evolution of the eruptive flare loop system in an active region where a flare, a prominence eruption and a CME occurred on August 24, 2002.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> We measured the rate of expansion of the flare loop arcade using TRACE 195 Å images and determined the rising velocity and the evolution of the low and high energy hard X-ray sources using RHESSI data. We also fitted HXR spectra and considered the radio emission at 17 and 34 GHZ.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> We observed that the top of the eruptive flare loop system initially rises with a linear behavior and then, after 120 mn from the start of the event registered by GOES at 1–8 Å, it slows down. We also observed that the heating source (low energy X-ray) rises faster than the top of the loops at 195 Å and that the high energy X-ray emission (30–40 keV) changes in time, changing from footpoint emission at the very onset of the flare to being coincident during the flare peak with the whole flare loop arcade.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> The evolution of the loop system and of the X-ray sources allowed us to interpret this event in the framework of the Lin & Forbes model (2000), where the absolute rate of reconnection decreases when the current sheet is located at an altitude where the Alfvén speed decreases with height. We estimated that the lower limit for the altitude of the current sheet is km. Moreover, we interpreted the unusual variation of the high energy HXR emission as a manifestation of the non thermal coronal thick-target process which appears during the flare in a manner consistent with the inferred increase in coronal column density.</p&gt

Distribution and coexistence of myoclonus and dystonia as clinical predictors of SGCE mutation status: a pilot study

Introduction: Myoclonus-dystonia (M-D) is a young onset movement disorder typically involving myoclonus and dystonia of the upper body. A proportion of the cases are caused by mutations to the autosomal dominantly inherited, maternally imprinted, epsilon-sarcoglycan gene (SGCE). Despite several sets of diagnostic criteria, identification of patients most likely to have an SGCE mutation remains difficult. Methods: Forty consecutive patients meeting pre-existing diagnostic clinical criteria for M-D underwent a standardized clinical examination (20 SGCE mutation positive and 20 negative). Each video was reviewed and systematically scored by two assessors blinded to mutation status. In addition, the presence and coexistence of myoclonus and dystonia was recorded in four body regions (neck, arms, legs, and trunk) at rest and with action. Results: Thirty-nine patients were included in the study (one case was excluded owing to insufficient video footage). Based on previously proposed diagnostic criteria, patients were subdivided into 24 "definite," 5 "probable," and 10 "possible" M-D. Motor symptom severity was higher in the SGCE mutation-negative group. Myoclonus and dystonia were most commonly observed in the neck and upper limbs of both groups. Truncal dystonia with action was significantly seen more in the mutation-negative group (p <0.05). Coexistence of myoclonus and dystonia in the same body part with action was more commonly seen in the mutation-negative cohort (p <0.05). Conclusion: Truncal action dystonia and coexistence of myoclonus and dystonia in the same body part with action might suggest the presence of an alternative mutation in patients with M-D

Constructing Prediction Intervals with Neural Networks: An Empirical Evaluation of Bootstrapping and Conformal Inference Methods

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are popular tools for accomplishing many machine learning tasks, including predicting continuous outcomes. However, the general lack of confidence measures provided with ANN predictions limit their applicability, especially in military settings where accuracy is paramount. Supplementing point predictions with prediction intervals (PIs) is common for other learning algorithms, but the complex structure and training of ANNs renders constructing PIs difficult. This work provides the network design choices and inferential methods for creating better performing PIs with ANNs to enable their adaptation for military use. A two-step experiment is executed across 11 datasets, including an imaged-based dataset. Two non-parametric methods for constructing PIs, bootstrapping and conformal inference, are considered. The results of the first experimental step reveal that the choices inherent to building an ANN affect PI performance. Guidance is provided for optimizing PI performance with respect to each network feature and PI method. In the second step, 20 algorithms for constructing PIs—each using the principles of bootstrapping or conformal inference—are implemented to determine which provides the best performance while maintaining reasonable computational burden. In general, this trade-off is optimized when implementing the cross-conformal method, which maintained interval coverage and efficiency with decreased computational burden

Prediction of the Levodopa Challenge Test in Parkinson's Disease Using Data from a Wrist-Worn Sensor.

The response to levodopa (LR) is important for managing Parkinson's Disease and is measured with clinical scales prior to (OFF) and after (ON) levodopa. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether an ambulatory wearable device could predict the LR from the response to the first morning dose. The ON and OFF scores were sorted into six categories of severity so that separating Parkinson's Kinetigraph (PKG) features corresponding to the ON and OFF scores became a multi-class classification problem according to whether they fell below or above the threshold for each class. Candidate features were extracted from the PKG data and matched to the class labels. Several linear and non-linear candidate statistical models were examined and compared to classify the six categories of severity. The resulting model predicted a clinically significant LR with an area under the receiver operator curve of 0.92. This study shows that ambulatory data could be used to identify a clinically significant response to levodopa. This study has also identified practical steps that would enhance the reliability of this test in future studies

Sub-Saharan early migrations as a means of african peoples’ initiative against colonial oppression: the Cape Verdean case

Even before the beginning of liberation struggle, spontaneous migrations outside Sub- Saharan African lands can be described as an early initiative of resistance against material and ideological colonial oppression. The extended dispersion around the world of people of African roots has been usually associated to the European slave trade of pre-colonial times and to the renewed displacements that developed during the independent period -especially since the last decades of 20th centuryin order to evade economic crisis, wars and authoritarian governments. Nevertheless, we can also speak about an overseas dispersion as a result of spontaneous migrations that took place in colonial times as a deliberate initiative of Sub-Saharan Africans. These population movements transcended the simple action of escaping from oppressing conditions of foreign domination; they have been conscious strategies of labour and ideological insertion. There is no doubt: economic constraints and political limitations drove to the decision of migrating that led to decades of population displacements from the main departure point of Cape Verde archipelago, located in a privileged Atlantic position. Anyway, it also implied the construction of early collective identity definitions inside and beyond colonial boundaries, with the purpose of inserting in an occidental world where sophisticated laws had begun to classify people as “desirable” and “undesirable” appealing to the racialized principles that supported imperialist expansion. Our objective is to recover these initiatives and to analyse them as means of colonial resistance and as a main frame of the liberation struggle