We present an implemented system for processing definite descriptions in arbitrary domains. The design of the system is based on the results of a corpus analysis previously reported, which highlighted the prevalence of discourse-new descriptions in newspaper corpora. The annotated corpus was used to extensively evaluate the proposed techniques for matching definite descriptions with their antecedents, discourse segmentation, recognizing discourse-new descriptions, and suggesting anchors for bridging descriptions.

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Objective To assess and compare subregional and whole T1rho values (median ± interquartile range) of femorotibial cartilage and menisci in patients with doubtful (Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grade 1) to severe (KL4) osteoarthritis (OA) at 3T. Materials and Methods 30 subjects with varying degrees of OA (KL1–4, 13 females, 17 males, mean age ± SD = 63.9 ± 13.1 years) were evaluated on a 3T MR scanner using a spin-lock-based 3D GRE sequence for T1rho mapping. Clinical proton density (PD)-weighted fast spin echo (FSE) images in sagittal (without fat saturation), axial, and coronal (fat-saturated) planes were acquired for cartilage and meniscus Whole-Organ MR Imaging Score (WORMS) grading. Wilcoxon rank sum test was performed to determine whether there were any statistically significant differences between subregional and whole T1rho values of femorotibial cartilage and menisci in subjects with doubtful to severe OA. Results Lateral (72±10 milliseconds, median ± interquartile range) and medial (65±10 milliseconds) femoral anterior cartilage subregions in moderate-severe OA subjects had significantly higher T1rho values (P < 0.05) than cartilage subregions and whole femorotibial cartilage in doubtful-minimal OA subjects. There were statistically significant differences in meniscus T1rho values of the medial posterior subregion of subjects with moderate-severe OA and T1rho values of all subregions and the whole meniscus in subjects with doubtful-minimal OA. When evaluated based on WORMS, statistically significant differences were identified in T1rho values between the lateral femoral anterior cartilage subregion in patients with WORMS5–6 (advanced degeneration) and whole femorotibial cartilage and all cartilage subregions in patients with WORMS0–1 (normal). Conclusion T1rho values are higher in specific meniscus and femorotibial cartilage subregions. These findings suggest that regional damage of both femorotibial hyaline cartilage and menisci may be associated with osteoarthritis.

Research on agent communication languages has typically taken the speech acts paradigm as its starting point. Despite their manifest attractions, speech-act models of communication have several serious disadvantages as a foundation for communication in artificial agent systems. In particular, it has proved to be extremely difficult to give a satisfactory semantics to speech-act based agent communication languages. In part, the problem is that speech-act semantics typically make reference to the "mental states" of agents (their beliefs, desires, and intentions), and there is in general no way to attribute such attitudes to arbitrary computational agents. In addition, agent programming languages have only had their semantics formalised for abstract, stand-alone versions, neglecting aspects such as communication primitives. With respect to communication, implemented agent programming languages have tended to be rather ad hoc. This paper addresses both of these problems, by giving semantics to speech-act based messages received by an AgentSpeak agent. AgentSpeak is a logic-based agent programming language which incorporates the main features of the PRS model of reactive planning systems. The paper builds upon a structural operational semantics to AgentSpeak that we developed in previous work. The main contributions of this paper are as follows: an extension of our earlier work on the theoretical foundations of AgentSpeak interpreters; a computationally grounded semantics for (the core) performatives used in speech-act based agent communication languages; and a well-defined extension of AgentSpeak that supports agent communication.

Percutaneous thermal ablation can be used to manage spinal osteoid osteomas close to the neural elements. Special thermal protection techniques may add a margin of safety.

Our goal is to develop a system capable of treating the largest possible subset of definite descriptions in unrestricted written texts. A previous prototype resolved anaphoric uses of definite descriptions and identified some types of first-mention uses, achieving a recall of 56%. In this paper we present the latest version of our system, which handles some types of bridging references, uses WordNet as a source of lexical knowledge, and achieves a recall of 65%.

Resumo Com o objetivo de descrever a percepção das gestantes adolescentes em relação ao apoio recebido durante a fase gestacional, realizou-se este estudo exploratório-descritivo de abordagem qualitativa. Participaram 12 adolescentes primigestas, frequentadoras dos serviços ambulatórios de saúde de Passo Fundo (RS). Por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas, genogramas e ecomapas, obtiveram-se os dados analisados pela modalidade temática. Evidenciou-se a percepção da necessidade de apoio para superar o medo e o desafio da maternidade. Mães e parceiros foram percebidos como as principais fontes de apoio, provendo as dimensões afetiva e material. O saber do senso comum preencheu a dimensão de informação, e a dimensão emocional revelou a gravidez como mediadora na reconciliação com o pai. A percepção da dimensão de interação social positiva foi ofuscada pelo isolamento autoimposto. Assim, a percepção da adolescente sobre o apoio social recebido é nítida em relação ao núcleo familiar e circunscreve-se às pessoas com maior apego. A rede de cuidados extrafamiliar, incluindo os serviços de saúde, é frágil e gera a percepção das dificuldades psicossociais, sugerindo a necessidade de maior investimento dos profissionais da atenção bá-sica de saúde na inserção das adolescentes primigestas em grupos de cuidado social, que influenciam no desenvolvimento saudável da gestação. Palavras-chave Adolescência, Gestação, Apoio social Abstract This descriptive-exploratory study using a qualitative approach was undertaken to describe the perceptions of pregnant adolescents in relation to social support provided during pregnancy. Twelve adolescents in their first pregnancy who frequented the outpatient health service in Passo Fundo in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) participated in the study. The data was obtained by semi-structured interviews, genograms and ecomaps and was assessed by thematic analysis. It highlighted the need for support to overcome the fears and challenges of motherhood. The mothers and partners were perceived as the main sources of support in affective and material terms. Common sense knowledge prevailed in the information dimension and pregnancy as a mediator in the reconciliation with the father fulfilled the emotional dimension. The perception of the dimension of positive social interaction was blurred by self-imposed isolation. Thus the adolescent's perception of the social support received is clear in relation to the family nucleus and includes the people in the family circle. The network of care outside the family, including the healthcare services, is tenuous and generated the perception of psychosocial difficulties. This reveals the need for greater investment of primary healthcare professionals in the inclusion of first-time-pregnancy adolescents in social care groups, which ensure the healthy progress of the pregnancy.

Purpose: To determine the feasibility of performing MRI of the wrist at 7 Tesla (T) with parallel imaging and to evaluate how acceleration factors (AF) affect signal-tonoise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and image quality. Materials and Methods:This study had institutional review board approval. A four-transmit eight-receive channel array coil was constructed in-house. Nine healthy subjects were scanned on a 7T whole-body MR scanner. Coronal and axial images of cartilage and trabecular bone micro-architecture (3D-Fast Low Angle Shot (FLASH) with and without fat suppression, repetition time/echo time ¼ 20 ms/4.5 ms, flip angle ¼ 10 , 0.169-0.195 Â 0.169-0.195 mm, 0.5-1 mm slice thickness) were obtained with AF 1, 2, 3, 4. T1-weighted fast spin-echo (FSE), proton density-weighted FSE, and multiple-echo data image combination (MEDIC) sequences were also performed. SNR and CNR were measured. Three musculoskeletal radiologists rated image quality. Linear correlation analysis and paired t-tests were performed.Results: At higher AF, SNR and CNR decreased linearly for cartilage, muscle, and trabecular bone (r < À0.98). At AF 4, reductions in SNR/CNR were:52%/60% (cartilage), 72%/63% (muscle), 45%/50% (trabecular bone). Radiologists scored images with AF 1 and 2 as near-excellent, AF 3 as good-to-excellent (P ¼ 0.075), and AF 4 as average-to-good (P ¼ 0.11). Conclusion:It is feasible to perform high resolution 7T MRI of the wrist with parallel imaging. SNR and CNR decrease with higher AF, but image quality remains above-average. MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING has been shown to be a useful technique to detect wrist derangements, including tears of the triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC) (1,2), tears of the scapholunate and lunotriquetral ligaments (3), cartilage erosions (4), abnormalities in tendons (5) and peripheral nerves (6), and alterations in trabecular bone micro-architecture (7).There is increasing evidence that high field (HF, 3.0 Tesla [T]) and ultra high field (UHF, 7-9.4T) MRI can provide improved diagnostic capabilities compared with MRI performed at standard clinical field strength (8,9). The main advantage of HF/UHF MRI is the increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which can be translated into increases in spatial resolution or imaging speed, improved spectral resolution, and the ability to perform multi-nuclear imaging. Challenges of performing UHF MRI include: changes in T1 and T2 relaxation rates (increase in T1 and decrease in T2), maintenance of B 0 and B 1 field homogeneity, increased chemical shift artifact, increased acoustic noise, and greater RF energy deposition. Nevertheless, the potential for increased SNR and higher spatial resolution could prove useful in imaging of the wrist, where small structures composing this anatomically complex joint can pose diagnostic imaging challenges.Parallel acceleration techniques and HF/UHF scanners can act in synergy to boost the performance of MRI (10). The additional SNR provided by HF/UHF MRI can compensate for the SNR penalty incurred by im...