Ambiguity In Interpretation Research Articles

Improving severity classification of Hebrew PET-CT pathology reports using test-time augmentation

Classifying medical reports written in Hebrew is challenging due to the ambiguity and complexity of the language. This study proposes Text Test Time Augmentation (TTTA), a novel method to improve the classification accuracy of cancer severity levels from PET-CT diagnostic reports in Hebrew. Hebrew, being a morphologically rich language, often leads to each word having multiple ambiguous interpretations. TTTA leverages test-time augmentation to enhance text information retrieval and model robustness. During training and testing phases, this method generates and evaluates sets of augmentations to enhance the semantics extracted from each report. Experiments utilize a large institutional report repository from Ziv hospital, Israel, where physicians manually labeled the reports. The results demonstrate that the proposed TTTA approach achieves superior performance over baseline models without TTA, improving PR-AUC by 15.18% on classifying cancer severity levels. The study highlights the efficacy of TTTA in extracting essential medical concepts from free text reports and accurately classifying the severity of cancer. The approach addresses the limitations of prior methods and contributes towards improved automated analysis of Hebrew medical reports. TTTA has the potential to assist physicians in cancer diagnosis and treatment planning.

Поговорим о пермеатах

The article focuses on the ambiguous interpretation of the term «permeate». The dominant directions of membrane fractionation with the production of various permeates are analyzed.

Abstract A135: Are survival benefits of new drugs in combinations due to modest benefits in most patients or large benefits in few patients?

Abstract INTRODUCTION Combination therapy is a cornerstone in cancer treatment, often developed by adding new therapies to a standard-of-care treatment. However, clinical trials of adding a drug to a combination (A versus A+B) face an ambiguity in interpretation, because a higher Kaplan-Meier survival curve can result from modest benefits to overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) in most patients, or from larger benefits in a few patients. This ambiguity exists even with complete patient data because no individual patient is simultaneous enrolled in control and test arms. Thus, clinical trials of drug combinations do not reveal the percentage of patients who benefit from an added drug and the extent of that benefit. METHODS We developed a deconvolution algorithm to estimate the distributions of survival benefits of new drugs in combination regimens. Among FDA approvals of combination therapies for advanced cancer between 1995 and 2020, we identified and analyzed 92 trials which compared a ‘standard-of-care’ control arm with ‘standard-of-care plus a new therapy’. We used deconvolution to infer all possible distributions of benefits of the new therapy. These possibilities differ by cross-resistance between drugs, and we therefore leveraged cross-resistance data from large-scale pre-clinical drug response encyclopedias to estimate the most likely distribution of survival benefits of new drugs. Our methods were further validated using patient-derived xenograft (PDX) studies and clinical monotherapy data. RESULTS Clinical trials with seemingly modest PFS or OS benefits from combination therapy were commonly explained by longer survival benefits in a minority of patients. Across many trials, on average 50% of patients experience a PFS or OS benefit of at least 1 month from new drugs, and median duration of benefit in such patients was on average 3 months longer than median benefit reported in the clinical trial. Data from the Novartis PDX encyclopedia (in which single tumors’ responses to both control and test treatments can be measured) confirmed that our deconvolution algorithm was successful at resolving the contributions of individual drugs in combinations. CONCLUSION We developed a broadly applicable method to estimate the proportion of patients that benefit from additional drugs and the durations of those benefits, thus resolving an ambiguity in the interpretation of drug combination trials. Most approved drug combinations had a proportion of patients who experienced much longer survival benefits than was visually apparent in Kaplan-Meier curves. These findings reconcile conflicting interpretations of drug trials in oncology, where health economists often see modest benefits, whereas clinicians observe long-lasting and worthwhile benefits in (some of) their patients. Seemingly modest survival benefits of new drugs in combinations may often be attributed to a lack of patient stratification rather than a lack of drug efficacy, which calls for greater use of biomarkers and precision strategies in the development of combination therapies. Citation Format: Haeun Hwangbo, Adam C Palmer. Are survival benefits of new drugs in combinations due to modest benefits in most patients or large benefits in few patients? [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC Virtual International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2023 Oct 11-15; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2023;22(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A135.

REGARDING THE METHODOLOGICAL PARADIGM OF UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF JUSTICE

The author of the article, having analyzed the definition of the concept of “justice“ in the literature, states that its interpretation is ambiguous. In his opinion, this indicates the lack of a unified methodology in the knowledge of the phenomenon of justice and in the development of its concept. Because of this, it is proposed to choose either one of the already existing approaches, or to define an independent methodological paradigm that will help define the general concept of justice. The last solution to the problem is considered more appropriate, given that most authors either do not consider the question of defining the general concept of justice, but are limited to searching for related or similar concepts of “fairness“, “justice“, “jurisdiction“, etc.; or avoid the definition of this concept at all. The article notes that the definitions of justice proposed by some authors either do not distinguish a common generic feature at all, which would be evidence of a certain unity of their ideas about the general concept of justice as such, or the signs of justice indicated by them do not belong to generic features for justice. In addition, identifying such concepts as “fairness“, “justice“, “jurisdiction“, the authors ignore the question: what is common to all these concepts, what unites them in one row? Instead, when analyzing the ratio of these concepts, as a rule, they try to distinguish only between them without establishing which features are common to them, which leads to their identification or mixing. Thus, the ambiguous interpretation of the terms “fairness“, “justice“ and “jurisdiction“, their confusion in the literature requires a clearer understanding of the concepts denoted by them in terms of what is common to them, their generic feature, in relation to which special species characteristics of each of these phenomena are distinguished, thus forming specific concepts of the latter. According to the author, such a common point which unites the concepts of “jurisdiction“, “justice“ with justice is the concept of “legal activity“. It follows that the concept of legal activity should be considered as a generic concept in relation to the concept of justice, and it should be used to formulate a general definition of justice as such.

Temperature dependence of soil-structure interface behaviour in the context of thermally-activated piles: A review

Thermally-activated (TA) piles are cost-effective technologies with the dual role of transferring structural loads to the ground while exchanging heat with the surrounding soil as part of shallow geothermal energy systems. As TA piles are subjected to both thermal and mechanical loads, the behaviour on the soil-structure interface is particularly complex and is key for the analysis and design of these structures. The present paper aims to review the current state of knowledge regarding the thermal dependency of soil-structure interface behaviour and provide an overview of experimental results obtained from non-isothermal tests investigating soil and soil-structure interface behaviour. This overview includes comparison of the different experimental equipment and procedures, soil types, initial soil state overconsolidation ratio (degree of consolidation or relative density) and thermal loadings. It was found that it is not straightforward to reach a unique interpretation regarding possible variation of the soil-structure interface behaviour at different temperatures: the framework of the experimental evidence is very complex due to the wide variation in testing conditions. Therefore, it was not possible to compare the studies like-for-like, leading to an apparently ambiguous interpretation of the results. Overall, the consensus across this and other studies is that the potential variation of interface resistance with temperature typically appears to be limited and not very significant.

The syntax of individuating and measuring pseudo-partitives in Alasha Mongolian

Pseudo-partitive constructions give rise to multiple interpretive ambiguities including a container interpretation (i.e. individuating) and a contents (i.e. measuring) one. There are two competing analyses: one based on structural ambiguities (Landman in Indefinites and the types of sets, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004; Rothstein in Brill’s J Afroasiat Lang Ling 1:106–145, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1163/187666309X12491131130783, a.o.) and one based on a uniform syntax (Lehrer in Lingua 68:109–148, 1986; Matushansky and Zwarts in Lamont and Tetzloff (eds) North East Linguistic Society (NELS) 47, Volume 2, pp 261–274, GLSA, Amherst, 2016, a.o.). I contribute to this debate with data from Alasha Mongolian (Mongolic), which differentiates each interpretation via case marking on the quantizing noun: glass-comitative = individuating vs. glass-genitive/Ø = measuring. I argue that there is no large-scale structural ambiguity: the numeral and the quantizing noun always form a constituent introduced in the specifier position of a null functional head (Schwarzschild in Syntax 9(1):67–110, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9612.2006.00083.x; Svenonius in McNally and Kennedy (eds) Adjectives and adverbs: syntax, semantics and discourse, Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics, pp 16–42, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008; Ott in J Comp Ger Ling 4:1–46, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10828-010-9040-x). I propose that (i) case differences on the quantizing constituent boil down to the presence or absence of a case probe on a higher Agr head; (ii) and, the interpretive differences between the individuating and measuring pseudo-partitives are the result of a more subtle syntactic distinction in the feature content of the quantizing noun, i.e. an interpretable [±Container] feature.

Uncertainty of the conceptual and categorical apparatus in the field of integrity of judges

This scientific article presents a study of the problem of indeterminacy of the conceptual and categorical apparatus in the field of the judge's integrity in the modern legal system.
 It is noted that in the modern legal understanding, the integrity of judges is a fundamental ethical and normative aspect that determines the high standard of professional behavior of judges in the context of the exercise of judicial power. This principle includes not only the dispassion (impartiality) and objectivity of the judge in the decisions made, but also his ability for self-reflection, ethical awareness and independence from the influence of external factors.
 The conceptual-categorical apparatus is the main component of the legal technique, which contributes to the precise and clear expression of legal norms and ensures their effective implementation in society. In the praxeological aspect, questions of integrity of judges arose in many cases when competent authorities did not confirm the appropriate level of integrity of a judge or a candidate for this position. This is due to the essential problems of the imperfection of the legislation, since the concept of «honesty» in the legislation is not clear. The legal system and the legislation system must possess and operate in clear and unambiguous terms to avoid misunderstandings and ambiguous interpretations or recommendations regarding the interpretation of norms.
 The main signs (characteristics) of the integrity of judges include, in our opinion, the following: impartiality and objectivity, the independence of a judge, which is a fundamental principle of judicial activity, which ensures his dedication to the use of the law and the result of the influence of external factors that can reveal objective consideration affairs; honesty and integrity; high level of knowledge and competence; appropriate level of professional ethics; the opportunity to bear public, legal and moral responsibility.

Problems of establishing the content of socially dangerous consequences as a mandatory feature of the objective side of domestic violence

The article is devoted to the analysis of socially dangerous consequences as a mandatory feature of the objective side of domestic violence (Article 126-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The author establishes that the legislative approach to the formulation of socially dangerous consequences of domestic violence as evaluative features may lead to their arbitrary interpretation and, as a result, to the misapplication of the law on criminal liability. The imperfection of the legislative description of the consequences of this crime indicates the need to improve the disposition of the provision set out in Article 126-1 of the CC of Ukraine.
 In particular, attention is drawn to the difficulties in establishing the content of such features as «health disorder» and «disability». In order to avoid mistakes in the qualification of domestic violence, including its distinction with related crimes, it is proposed to supplement Article 126-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with a note which would clearly define the guidelines for understanding these signs.
 The author considers the issue of qualification of actions of a person who systematically commits physical violence manifested in infliction of light bodily harm. Infliction of light bodily harm under Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 125 of the CC of Ukraine is fully covered by Article 126-1 of the CC of Ukraine, both on the basis of the act (physical violence) and on the basis of the consequence (physical suffering). Accordingly, there are no grounds for qualifying such actions as a set of criminal offences.
 It is established that the legislator does not provide clear guidelines for establishing the content of such consequences as «emotional dependence» and «deterioration of the quality of life». This legislative approach is questionable in the science of criminal law. These features are evaluative, and unlike other evaluative features often provided for in the articles of the CC of Ukraine, they are too vague and broad in scope and content, which gives rise to ambiguous interpretation and, consequently, arbitrary law enforcement. Given the specificity of determining the content of «emotional dependence» and «deterioration of the quality of life», these signs cannot be formalised, and therefore they should be removed from the disposition of Article 126-1 of the CC of Ukraine.

Archaeology in 2022: Counter‐myths for hopeful futures

AbstractArchaeology in 2022 features more calls than ever for a socially and politically engaged, progressive discipline. Archaeologists increasingly respect and integrate decolonizing and Indigenous knowledge in theory and practice. They acknowledge and embrace the fluidity and diversity of sexes and genders, past and present. They document patterns of migration, ancient as well as contemporary, to combat retrograde and racist narratives that remain pervasive in the public sphere. At the same time, the field has a deep‐seated conservative bastion toward which many scholars retreat, arguing for an “objective” past that is free of political implications or interpretive ambiguity. As anarchist archaeologists, we see the myth of the objective past as one of many interconnected myths that have provided the basis for an archaeology that reifies and proliferates the current social order. We deconstruct myths relating to capitalist and colonialist ideologies of “human nature,” the assumed inevitability of the current order, and fatalistic commitment to dystopian or utopian futures. As alternatives, we present counter‐myths that emphasize the contingent and political nature of archaeological praxis, the creative and collaborative foundation of communities, the alternative orders that archaeology uncovers, and the role of a hopeful past for constructing the possibilities of different futures.

Analysis of discordant PET and CT findings in 18F-FDG PET-CT scans in the management of oncology patients

Abstract Background: Discordant findings are often noted between PET-CT and CT images of 18F-FDG PET-CT scans and cause ambiguity in image interpretation.This study aimed at determining the significance of these findings in the management of oncology patients. Context: Discordant findings are often noted between PET-CT and CT images of 18F-FDG PET-CT scans and cause ambiguity in image interpretation. Aim: This study aimed at determining the significance of these findings in the management of oncology patients. Methods: This was an observational, descriptive study. Hence, retrospective analysis of all discordant findings in oncology patients undergoing a PETCT imaging between Jan 2013 and Jan 2016 was done. Those patients who had a follow-up period of minimum 1 year in either of the following forms – repeat PETCT imaging, other radiological imaging, clinical, or histopathological evidence were included. From all the discordant lesions, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, negative predictive value, and accuracy of both PET-CT and CT modalities were determined. Results: Of 348 discordant lesions, 16.7% was noted in soft tissues, 25% in viscera, 28.7% in lungs, 14.1% in lymph nodes, and 15.5% in bones. At the end of follow-up, 15.2% lesions were PET true positive, 57.5% PET true negative, 10.1% CT true positive lesions, 13.8% CT true negative, and 3.4% were inconclusive. Conclusion: 18F-FDG PET-CT is superior to CT imaging and should be considered as the first-line imaging modality in oncology patients.

Inducement, Recruitment, Involvement as a Means of Constructing a Crime

The paper examines the terms “inducement”, “recruitment”, “involvement”, and determines their relationship. Taking into account the fact that the legislator considers in various ways the content of a criminal offense in the form of inducement, ambiguous interpretation and difficulties arise in the application of those norms that do not define this term. In addition, there is a confusion between the concepts of “inducement” and “assistance”. Because “inducement” is similar to the activity of an instigator, and “assistance” is similar to the activity of an accomplice, these concepts cannot be considered as similar, including from the point of view of social danger. An analysis of the norms of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation showed that the legislator recognizes assistance as a higher degree of public danger. The construction of special bodies of crime in the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, where instigators, accomplices, and organizers become perpetrators of crimes, is determined primarily by the desire of the legislator to deviate from the traditional rules of the institution of complicity. It seems that when regulating special types of abetting, the choice of the wording “inducement, recruitment or other involvement”, “inducement or other involvement” or only “inducement” should be based on the different volume and content of the actions that constitute one or another form of involvement.

НЕЙРОМАРКЕТИНГ И ЕГО ВОЗДЕЙСТВИЕ НА ПОТРЕБИТЕЛЯ: ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ И ОГРАНИЧЕНИЯ

The article deals with perspectives and limitations of neuromarketing, which employs neuroscientific tools to understand consumer behavior. The concept of neuromarketing is strongly related to brain activities, understanding the consumers' subconscious mind, explaining consumers' preferences, motivations, and expectations, and predicting consumers' behavior. The purpose of neuromarketing is to provide unique information that cannot be obtained because of traditional marketing research. It is shown that despite the obvious practical usefulness of neuromarketing, there are serious limitations: complexity and ambiguity of interpretation of the results of using neuroscience tools for analysis of the consumer’s brain, that requires its complementary use with traditional marketing research. And ethical concerns that need to answer, first how to protect the privacy of consumers and provide them from manipulations.

APPROACHES TO THE DESCRIPTION OF EXCEPTIVE AND ADDITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN RUSSIAN STUDIES

This article presents a review of papers describing exceptive (e.g. All my classmates came to the birthday party, except for Ivan) and additive (e.g. Besides Ivan, all my classmates came to the birthday party) constructions. The main aims of this work are to compare different points of view, as well as identify some features of functioning of these constructions in the Russian language that were not mentioned before. Section 1 discusses the markers of addition or exclusion. Section 2 is devoted to the constituents of the constructions. Section 3 deals with the issue of monosemy and polysemy of krome ‘except; besides’, as well as examples of ambiguous interpretation of krome. Section 4 raises the question what part of speech krome belongs to and the possibility to include krome into the functional class of connectors.

Modelling decision-making biases.

Biases are a fundamental aspect of everyday life decision-making. A variety of modelling approaches have been suggested to capture decision-making biases. Statistical models are a means to describe the data, but the results are usually interpreted according to a verbal theory. This can lead to an ambiguous interpretation of the data. Mathematical cognitive models of decision-making outline the structure of the decision process with formal assumptions, providing advantages in terms of prediction, simulation, and interpretability compared to statistical models. We compare studies that used both signal detection theory and evidence accumulation models as models of decision-making biases, concluding that the latter provides a more comprehensive account of the decision-making phenomena by including response time behavior. We conclude by reviewing recent studies investigating attention and expectation biases with evidence accumulation models. Previous findings, reporting an exclusive influence of attention on the speed of evidence accumulation and prior probability on starting point, are challenged by novel results suggesting an additional effect of attention on non-decision time and prior probability on drift rate.

Historical review of the Russian market economy formation and development based on the works of Doctor of Economics, Prof. L.S. Shakhovskaya

Research focuses on the problem of incompleteness and unreliability of the existing scientific vision of the formation and development of a market economy in Russia. In the current vision, the boundaries of the stages of formation and development of a market economy in Russia are blurred, the transition to a market path of economic development has an ambiguous interpretation in the scientific literature and is mainly associated with the 1990s. The lack of a clear understanding of the essence, sequence and continuity of the stages of formation and development of a market economy in Russia causes the uncertainty of the current stage of this process. The purpose of this research is to develop a systematic scientific vision of the process of evolution of a market economy in Russia. The study provides a historical review of the formation and development of a market economy in Russia based on the works of Doctor of Economics, prof. L.S. Shakhovskaya, who stood at the origins of the formation of the scientific concept of the market economy of Russia and in her works reflected in detail the essence and features of each stage of its evolution. This article is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Professor L.S. Shakhovskaya, was written by her students who are developing the scientific school founded by her. The proposed new scientific vision of the process of evolution of the market economy in Russia, which clearly determined the three stages of its evolution. The first stage (1991-1999) was associated with the transition from a planned to an open industrial market economy through privatization and deregulation. The second stage: (2000-2013) was the integration of Russia into the world economic system to form an open post-industrial market economy. The third (modern) stage (2014-2031) involves the strengthening of strategic academic and technological leadership for the transition to a neo-industrial market economy 4.0 through ensuring technological sovereignty. Research contributes to the development of scientific and economic thought through the formation of a systematic scientific vision of the process of evolution of the market economy in Russia, which rethought and clarified the history of the market economy in Russia, and also clarified the meaning of its current stage by reflecting its continuity and patterns of occurrence. The scientific novelty of the system vision is that it proved for the first time that the transition period is a whole set of periods involving the transformation of market relations with various targets and management measures.

Первичный билиарный холангит с нормальным уровнем щелочной фосфатазы: клинический случай и обзор литературы

Antimitochondrial autoantibodies of the M2 subclass (AMA-M2) in primary biliary cholangitis (PBCh) under conditions of cholestasis are considered as one of the main criteria for diagnosis that does not require morphological confirmation. However, the detection of AMA-M2 in asymptomatic patients causes ambiguity of interpretation. Along with the assumption that such patients may have preclinical stage of PBCh, there is an opinion about the "healthy carrier" of AMA-M2. The article presents the clinical observation of a patient with the high AMA-M2 titer without significant clinical manifestations, the normal level of alkaline phosphatase, with changes in liver tissue characteristic of PBCh, revealed by the results of histological examination. Clinical observation demonstrates the need for liver biopsy for early detection of PBCh in AMA-M2-positive patients belonging to the risk group

Нравственный императив судьи: к проблеме доминантных этических дефиниций в процессе профессиональной подготовки специалиста

The article addresses the importance of understanding and observing moral principles for the judge’s effective work. The author investigates the place, role, and significance of such concepts as honesty, impartiality, justice, duty, and conscience in shaping the moral imperative of a judge’s professional personality. In addition, the arti-cle points out the ambiguity of interpretations and the lack of a common understanding of these categories both in society and among the professional community of judges and scholars, which can lead to different interpre-tations and problems in the application of moral principles in practice. The author ascertain the necessity of taking into account ethical categories in the professional training of judges, as well as clarification of terminolo-gy and development of metrics to control and supervise the observance of moral principles. The article is in-tended to raise the problem, defining the field for theoretical and practical research, recommendations in the field of professional ethics and training of judges in the Russian Federation.

Тerminology of rectal cancer: consensus agreement of the expert working group

Unified terminology is a necessary condition for successful interdisciplinary communication within the field of oncology. The variety of anatomical, pathomorphological, and clinical terms used in rectal cancer is often accompanied by their ambiguous interpretation both in domestic and foreign scientific literature. This not only complicates the interaction between specialists, but also complicates the comparison of the results of rectal cancer treatment obtained in different medical institutions.
 Based on the analysis of recent domestic and international scientific and methodological literature on rectal cancer, the key terms used in the diagnosis and treatment planning of rectal cancer were selected, followed by a two-time online discussion of their interpretations by experts from the Russian Society of Radiologists and Therapeutic Radiation Oncologists, the Association of Oncologists of Russia, and the Russian Association of Therapeutic Radiation Oncologists until reaching consensus (80%) of experts on all items. Terms that fail to attain consensus were excluded in the final list.
 A list of anatomical, pathomorphological, and clinical terms used in the diagnosis, staging, and treatment planning of rectal cancer has been compiled and, based on expert consensus, their interpretation has been determined.
 A lexicon recommended in the description and formulation of the conclusion of diagnostic studies in patients with rectal cancer is proposed.

Characteristics and associated factors of self-reported sexual aggression in the Belgian population aged 16–69

Sexual violence is a major public health, societal, and judicial problem worldwide. Studies investigating the characteristics of its perpetrators often rely on samples of convicted offenders, which are biased by low reporting and conviction rates. Based on a self-report study in the Belgian general population aged 16 to 69 (n = 4687), we provide lifetime and past-year prevalence rates of sexual aggression and report the characteristics of the events, including type, target, and the applied coercion strategies. Future research should use behaviourally specific questions that take the perpetrator’s perspective into account to limit interpretation ambiguity which could reduce unintentional non-disclosure of sexual aggression.

Using Artificial Intelligence for Retail Value Chain

The present study aims to prove hypotheses regarding artificial intelligence integration in retail value chains in the post-Soviet economic space. Hypotheses were proven within a comprehensive research project based on the use of quantitative research methods (questionnaires), which allowed studying the opinions of 512 retail managers in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. A specially designed questionnaire eliminated ambiguity in results interpretation by including both simple closed questions with a single choice and questions using a Likert scale. All the formulated hypotheses were proven, leading to the conclusion that the retail market of the post-Soviet economic space is not ready for the introduction of robotization and full automation of retail stores. The study results can be used by retail managers in the post-Soviet economic space as they choose the direction of artificial intelligence integration.