Mere Decades Research Articles

Cnosso, a novel method for business document automation based on open information extraction

The state-of-the-art in automated processing of unstructured business documents has evolved from manual labor to advanced AI systems in the span of mere decades. Such systems involve learning techniques, rule or clause sets, neural models – either used alone or in combination – for the extraction to work. As an example, rule-based processes operate on a perceived layout or positioning of the information, whereas model-based frameworks adopt a semantic, and often uninspectable, approach. Verb-Based Semantic Role Labeling (VBSRL) is a novel system presented in a former paper that uses a hybrid foundation to inform the extraction phase via a set of rules modeling natural language. We propose a new VBSRL-based document processing method, aided by valuable and innovative architectural choices, which has been implemented for the Italian language and experimented upon with promising results. Even in its infancy, in fact, the first implementation of this system shows better results than comparable IE solutions, obtaining an aggregate, average F-measure of nearly 79%.

Hippocampal adaptation to high altitude: a neuroanatomic profile of hippocampal subfields in Tibetans and acclimatized Han Chinese residents.

The hippocampus is highly plastic and vulnerable to hypoxia. However, it is unknown whether and how it adapts to chronic hypobaric hypoxia in humans. With a unique sample of Tibetans and acclimatized Han Chinese individuals residing on the Tibetan plateau, we aimed to build a neuroanatomic profile of the altitude-adapted hippocampus by measuring the volumetric differences in the whole hippocampus and its subfields. High-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging was performed in healthy Tibetans (TH, n = 72) and healthy Han Chinese individuals living at an altitude of more than 3,500 m (HH, n = 27). In addition, healthy Han Chinese individuals living on a plain (HP, n = 72) were recruited as a sea-level reference group. Whereas the total hippocampal volume did not show a significant difference across groups when corrected for age, sex, and total intracranial volume, subfield-level differences within the hippocampus were found. Post hoc analyses revealed that Tibetans had larger core hippocampal subfields (bilateral CA3, right CA4, right dentate gyrus); a larger right hippocampus-amygdala transition area; and smaller bilateral presubiculum, right subiculum, and bilateral fimbria, than Han Chinese subjects (HH and/or HP). The hippocampus and all its subfields were found to be slightly and non-significantly smaller in HH subjects than in HP subjects. As a primary explorational study, our data suggested that while the overall hippocampal volume did not change, the core hippocampus of Tibetans may have an effect of adaptation to chronic hypobaric hypoxia. However, this adaptation may have required generations rather than mere decades to accumulate in the population.

Land–sea linkages depend on macroalgal species, predator invasion history in a New Zealand archipelago

Seabirds on islands create a circular seabird economy—they feed in the ocean, transport marine‐derived nutrients onshore to their breeding colonies, and then seabird‐derived nutrients runoff into the ocean, enriching nearshore ecosystems. Invasive predators reduce seabird‐driven nutrient subsidies; thus, predator eradication is critical for restoring seabird islands. Terrestrial recovery of seabird nutrients following predator eradication can take mere decades or longer, but few studies have linked nearshore marine recovery to terrestrial ecosystem attributes. We tested the influence of season, seabird variables, terrestrial abiotic variables, and marine variables on nearshore algal communities surrounding islands in a New Zealand island archipelago. The link from terrestrial to marine proved strong, with over 40% of the variation in macroalgae community composition being driven by a combination of seabird and terrestrial abiotic variables. Season and depth were the strongest contributors to nitrogen enrichment. Two macroalgae species had seabird‐derived nitrogen levels similar on eradicated and never invaded islands, but four more had lower seabird‐derived nitrogen on eradicated versus never invaded islands. Our results suggest seabird land–sea linkages are disrupted when predators invade, and are not restored three decades after invasive predator removal in the studied archipelago. Moreover, some marine algae species are better indicators of seabird influence than others. This study provides baseline information about which abiotic and ecological variables are important when studying the linkages from land to sea in island ecosystems.

Sediment deficit and morphological change of the Rhine–Meuse river mouth attributed to multi-millennial anthropogenic impacts

Many delta systems worldwide are becoming increasingly urbanized following a variety of processes, including land reclamation, embanking, major engineering and port constructions, dredging and more. Here, we trace the development of one system, the Rhine–Meuse delta in the Netherlands (RMD) from two natural estuaries (the RME fed by the Rhine river and the HVL fed by the Meuse river) to a densely urbanized delta and the effect human activities have had on its morphology through time. Estuary outlines determined from palaeogeographical and old maps and tidal range at the estuary mouth were used to reconstruct basic estuary parameters. Depth distribution was predicted with a morphological tool. We have determined that the northern estuary, where port activities dominate, shows a stepwise deepening due to dredging for navigation. The southern port shows stepwise shallowing as humans closed off this branch from tidal action. Both estuaries show narrowing and loss of intertidal width over the past five centuries. The total loss of water volume has been -5.5 m3×109 since 1500 AD coinciding with major human intervention in the system, driven by the rapid economic boom during the mid 16th century. This has led to a reduction of intertidal areas and floodplains and long-term sediment shortage resulting in a myriad of problems, including increased flood risk, threats to bank protection and infrastructure and loss of nature areas. These problems will be exacerbated in coming centuries by predicted sea-level rise. Other urban deltas, unrestricted by engineering and dredging innovations which took place more gradually in earlier centuries, are now undergoing rapid changes in mere decades, changes which took hundreds of years in the RMD. Future predictions indicate that by 2050 the RMD will experience the highest loss of sediment in the 3500 year history of the system, despite these changes only occurring vertically (deepening) and not laterally (narrowing or embanking). This shows an urgent need to reconsider sediment management and spatial planning of port expansion in urbanized systems and the fate of such systems under climate change and rising sea-levels.

The Guidelines of a Manager

Geologists tell us that every few hundred thousand years or so the earth's magnetic field flips over; compasses that today point north will someday point south. Something similar happens in organization manager, though the cycles are measured in mere decades. Ten years ago, were asked to become instructional managers, exercising firm control by setting goals, maintaining discipline, and evaluating results. Today they are encouraged to be facilitative managers by building teams, creating networks, and governing from the center.Lynn Beck and Joseph Murphy (2012) observe that the metaphors of organization manager have changed frequently over the years; no sooner have organization assimilated one recommended approach than they are seemingly urged to move in a different direction.

Chimeric adeno-associated virus and bacteriophage: a potential targeted gene therapy vector for malignant glioma.

The incipient development of gene therapy for cancer has fuelled its progression from bench to bedside in mere decades. Of all malignancies that exist, gliomas are the largest class of brain tumors, and are renowned for their aggressiveness and resistance to therapy. In order for gene therapy to achieve clinical success, a multitude of barriers ranging from glioma tumor physiology to vector biology must be overcome. Many viral gene delivery systems have been subjected to clinical investigation; however, with highly limited success. In this review, the current progress and challenges of gene therapy for malignant glioma are discussed. Moreover, we highlight the hybrid adeno-associated virus and bacteriophage vector as a potential candidate for targeted gene delivery to brain tumors.

Drastic population fluctuations explain the rapid extinction of the passenger pigeon.

To assess the role of human disturbances in species' extinction requires an understanding of the species population history before human impact. The passenger pigeon was once the most abundant bird in the world, with a population size estimated at 3-5 billion in the 1800s; its abrupt extinction in 1914 raises the question of how such an abundant bird could have been driven to extinction in mere decades. Although human exploitation is often blamed, the role of natural population dynamics in the passenger pigeon's extinction remains unexplored. Applying high-throughput sequencing technologies to obtain sequences from most of the genome, we calculated that the passenger pigeon's effective population size throughout the last million years was persistently about 1/10,000 of the 1800's estimated number of individuals, a ratio 1,000-times lower than typically found. This result suggests that the passenger pigeon was not always super abundant but experienced dramatic population fluctuations, resembling those of an "outbreak" species. Ecological niche models supported inference of drastic changes in the extent of its breeding range over the last glacial-interglacial cycle. An estimate of acorn-based carrying capacity during the past 21,000 y showed great year-to-year variations. Based on our results, we hypothesize that ecological conditions that dramatically reduced population size under natural conditions could have interacted with human exploitation in causing the passenger pigeon's rapid demise. Our study illustrates that even species as abundant as the passenger pigeon can be vulnerable to human threats if they are subject to dramatic population fluctuations, and provides a new perspective on the greatest human-caused extinction in recorded history.

Invasive Plants May Adapt to Climate Change Better than Native Species

in Timmins bloomed 20 days earlier in the spring and remained small and, in doing so, maximized seed production in the shorter growing season. These local plants also yielded up to 37 times as many fruits as the southern plant grown at the same location. In contrast, the northern Ontario plants that were grown in Virginia averaged only a quarter of the seeds of the locally adapted purple loosestrife because of their earlier flowering when they were still very small. Barrett and Colautti concluded that the purple loosestrife’s adaptations to different climates through changes in size and flowering times were just as important as the lack of natural pests in determining their ability to thrive. In addition, the plant was found not only to have adapted to a drastically different climate as it migrated but to have evolved this ability in a matter of mere decades. Colautti notes that the purple loosestrife found in North America contains far more genetic variability than the purple loosestrife indigenous to Europe, Asia, Africa, and parts of

Looking under the canopy: Rural smallholders and forest recovery in Appalachian Ohio

Political ecologists and other critical geographers have been steadily chipping away at the tenets of forest transition theory, which equates forest return with economic modernization. The role of rural smallholders in post-industrial forest recovery, however, remains largely unexplored. These local landowners are the focus of this work, which we ground in a case study of Appalachian Ohio, formally a hotbed of both underground coal mining and strip-mining. In this tumultuous landscape of ecological devastation and subsequent recovery, we find an ideal landscape to investigate how marginalized rural smallholders have (or have not) facilitated forest return. We also examine how their roles and visions for the forest are conceptualized and perhaps challenged by outsiders. Drawing primarily from interviews, our research demonstrates that local landowners, contrary to their depiction by many foresters and outside interest groups, are highly engaged, active, shrewd, and organized forest stewards. In many ways, the forests of Appalachian Ohio flourished because of smallholder landowners’ management practices and deliberate efforts to resuscitate what was a post-industrial wasteland mere decades ago. But, now that the forest has reached maturity, the battle over the region’s ecosystems, resources, and future has begun anew.

Seabird islands take mere decades to recover following rat eradication

Islands house a majority of the world's biodiversity and are thus critical for biodiversity conservation. Seabird nesting colonies provide nutrients that are integral to maintain island biodiversity and ecosystem function. Invasive rats destroy seabird colonies and thus the island ecosystems that depend on seabird-derived nutrients. After rat eradication, it is unclear how long ecosystem recovery may take, although some speculate on the order of centuries. I looked at ecosystem recovery along a chronosequence of islands that had 12-22 years to recover following rat eradication. I show that soil, plant, and spider marine-derived nitrogen levels and C:N ratios take mere decades to recover even after centuries-long rat invasion. Moreover, active seabird restoration could speed recovery even further, giving much hope to quickly conserve many endemic species on islands worldwide.

Seabird islands take mere decades to recover following rat eradication

Seabird islands take mere decades to recover following rat eradication