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Background Women's reproductive history has been recognized as a cardiovascular risk factor and risk enhancer. Purpose To compare ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics across multiple women's health conditions: parity, breastfeeding, hormonal contraceptive use and menopause status. Methods Cross-sectional data were collected from 7034 women, age 45 to 64 years, free of CVD. Using the 7 American Heart Association criteria, we defined CVH as ideal, intermediate or poor if 6–7, 3–5 or 0–2 ideal metrics were met, respectively. We calculated the CVH score, ranging from 7 (all metrics poor) to 21 (all metrics ideal). Reproductive history was self-reported. We categorized parity in four categories (0, 1–2, 3–4 and 5 or more births). We used general linear models and proportional odds regression models to adjust for covariates and to assess mediation by age, education, income and urban/rural residence. Results Women had a mean age of 55.1 years (SD 5.3). The prevalence of nulliparity was 8.4%, menopause 75.49% and ever use of oral contraceptives, 12.8%. Among non-nulliparous, 88.9% breastfed for a median cumulative duration of 10 months. The prevalence of traditional CVD risk factors was high (obesity 27.6%, uncontrolled blood pressure 39.8%, poor diet 38%). The prevalence of ideal, intermediate and poor CVH was 0.1%, 41.7% and 58.2% respectively. None of the participants had all 7 cardiovascular health metrics at ideal level. Average CVH score was 14.1 (SD 1.9). The prevalence of intermediate CVH scores was highest among nulliparous (27.6%) and decreased with parity (26.72%, 19.87% and 11.42%). There was a statistically significant gradient in mean age-adjusted CVH score across the four parity categories, increasing from multiparous of 5 or more births (13.36, 95% CI 13.13–13.60) to nulliparous (14.24, 95% CI 14.08–14.39). Nulliparous women had 2.9 times greater odds (95% CI 1.91–4.54) of higher CVH scores than multiparous of 5 or more births, after adjusting for age, menopause and use of hormonal contraceptives. Similarly, for women who gave birth 1–2 times and 3–4 times, the adjusted relative odds were 2.65 (95% CI 1.78–3.94) and 1.80 (95% CI 1.2–2.71), respectively. Further adjustment for education, rural residence, personal and/or household finance status attenuated these relations, suggesting a mediating effect. Among non-nulliparous, neither ever breastfeeding or cumulative duration of breastfeeding were associated with CVH scores. Premenopausal women had 1.56 (95% CI 1.33–1.84) times higher odds of higher CVH scores then postmenopausal ones, after full adjustment. Conclusion Women's reproductive history, particularly parity is associated with middle-age cardiovascular health, and part of the association is explained by socio-economic status. These findings suggest the need for early screening and intensification of preventive cardiology interventions in women, especially among vulnerable subgroups. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): The Polish-Norwegian Research Fund (PNRF-228-AI-1/07)

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. BACKGROUND Although endogenous sex hormones influence both left atrial (LA) and left ventricular (LV) structure in peri-menopausal women, no study has ever evaluated the interaction between sex hormones levels and the left atrioventricular coupling. PURPOSE This study aimed to assess the prognostic value of a left atrioventricular coupling index (LACI) in pre- and post-menopausal women without history of CVD at baseline. METHODS In all women participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) with baseline cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) study, LACI was measured as the ratio of the LA end-diastolic volume divided by the LV end-diastolic volume. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the association between LACI and the outcomes of atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure (HF), coronary heart disease (CHD) death, and hard CVD defined by myocardial infarction, resuscitated cardiac arrest, stroke, or CHD death. In multivariable analyses, the associations between LACI and the time-to-event were evaluated, adjusting for demographics, traditional cardiovascular risk factors, menopausal status and sex hormone levels. RESULTS Among the 2,087 women (61.2 ± 10.1 years), 485 cardiovascular events were observed during mean follow-up period of 13.2 ± 3.3 years. Greater LACI was independently associated with AF (HR 1.70; 95% CI [1.51-1.90]), HF (HR 1.62; 95% CI [1.33-1.97]), CHD death (HR 1.36; 95% CI [1.10-1.68]), and hard CVD (1.30; 95% CI [1.13-1.51], all p CONCLUSIONS In a multi-ethnic population of pre- and post-menopausal women, LACI is an independent predictor of HF, AF, CHD death and hard CVD. In both pre- and post-menopausal women, LACI has an incremental prognostic value to predict cardiovascular events over traditional risk factors and sex hormone levels. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00005487 Abstract Figure. Kaplan-Meier curves by LACI terciles Abstract Figure. Kaplan-Meier curves by LACI and Menop.

Language barriers present a major problem in the effectiveness of resource sharing and in common access to the resources of libraries. In this paper we present the TRANSLIB system, which consists of an integration of both new and existing multilingual information tools. This system takes full advantage of some AI-based methods in order to provide multilingual access to library catalogues. Its main features include functionalities for searching in multiple languages, multilingual presentation of the query results, and localization of the user interface. TRANSLIB has currently been tested in existing medium-sized bibliographic databases. Evaluation results show a remarkable improvement in the search process and report high user friendliness and easy and low-cost maintenance and upgrade of the system.

Text retrieval techniques have long focused on the topic of texts rather than the pragmatic role they play per se. In this article, we address two other aspects in text processing that could enhance text retrieval: (a) the detection of functional style in retrieved texts, and (b) the detection of writer"s attitude towards a given topic in retrieved texts. The former is justified by the fact that current text databases have become highly heterogeneous in terms of document inclusion, while the latter is dictated by the need for advanced and intelligent retrieval tools. Towards this aim, two generalised methodologies are presented in order to achieve the implementation of the findings in both aspects in text processing respectively. Particularly, the first one is fully developed and thus is analysed and evaluated in detail, while for the second one the theoretical framework is given for its subsequent computational implementation. Both approaches are as language independent as possible, empirically driven, and can be used, apart from information retrieval purposes, in various natural language processing applications. These include grammar and style checking, natural language generation, summarisation, style verification in real-world texts, recognition of style shift between adjacent portions of text, and author identification.

Operating system command languages assist the user in executing commands for a significant number of common everyday tasks. On the other hand, the introduction of textual command languages for robots has provided the opportunity to perform some important functions that leadthrough programming cannot readily accomplish. However, such command languages assume the user to be expert enough to carry out a specific task in these application domains. On the contrary, a natural language interface to such command languages, apart from being able to be integrated into a future speech interface, can facilitate and broaden the use of these command languages to a larger audience. In this paper, advanced techniques are presented for an adaptive natural language interface that can (a) be portable to a large range of command languages, (b) handle even complex commands thanks to an embedded linguistic parser, and (c) be expandable and customizable by providing the casual user with the opportunity to specify some types of new words as well as the system developer with the ability to introduce new tasks in these application domains. Finally, to demonstrate the above techniques in practice, an example of their application to a Greek natural language interface to the MS-DOS operating system is given.

This paper deals with the problems stemming from the parsing of long sentences in quasi free word order languages. Due to the word order freedom of a large category of languages including Greek and the limitations of rule-based grammar parsers in parsing unrestricted texts of such languages, we propose a flexible and effective method for parsing long sentences of such languages that combines heuristic information and pattern-matching techniques in early processing levels. This method is deeply characterized by its simplicity and robustness. Although it has been developed and tested for the Greek language, its theoretical background, implementation algorithm and results are language independent and can be of considerable value for many practical natural language processing (NLP) applications involving parsing of unrestricted texts.

The presented work is strongly motivated by the need for categorizing unrestricted text in terms of a functional style (FS) in order to attain a satisfying outcome in style processing. Towards this aim, a three level description of FS is given that comprises: (a) the basic categories of FS; (b) the main features that characterize each one of the above categories; and (c) the linguistic identifiers that act as style markers in text for the identification of the above features. Special emphasis is put on the problems that faced the computational implementation of the aforementioned findings, as well as the selection of the most appropriate stylometrics (i.e., stylistic scores) to achieve better results on text categorization. This approach is language independent, empirically driven, and can be used in various applications including grammar and style checking, natural language generation, style verification in real world text, and recognition of style shift between adjacent portions of text.

A time-based sequential dispensing on-line column preconcentration procedure for mercury determination at trace levels by cold vapour generation inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (CV-ICP-AES), by means of a unified module of a preconcentration column and a gas-liquid separator (PCGLS) is described. The complex of mercury formed on-line with ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC) is retained on the surface of the hydrophobic poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) turnings, which are packed into the lower compartment of the PCGLS. Subsequently, mercury vapour is generated directly on the PTFE turnings by reductant SnCl(2) and separated from the liquid mixture via the PCGLS by argon purge gas. The outlet of the PCGLS is connected directly to the torch adapter of the plasma without the normal spray chamber and nebulizer. With 60-s preconcentration time and 12.0 mL min(-1) sample flow rate, the sampling frequency is 30 h(-1). The calibration curve is linear over the concentration range 0.02-5.0 microg L(-1), the detection limit ( c(L)) is 0.01 microg L(-1) and the relative standard deviation ( s(r)) is 3.1% at the 1.0 microg L(-1) level. The proposed method was evaluated by analysis of BCR CRM 278 (Mytilus Edulis) reference material and applied to the determination of total mercury in digested urine, blood and hair samples.

The authors address the problem of script representation and script selection in the presence of weak semantic ambiguity and proposes some useful techniques to increase flexibility in current script-like structures. To highlight the proposed approaches, examples are given and the general outline of a prototype model, implemented in Prolog, is presented.

Free word-order languages cause problems when being analysed due to their great composing power and flexibility. The paper deals with the problems stemming from the analysis of complex sentences as well as with the adoption of suitable grammars to parse them in free word-order languages. Based on a careful study of large Greek corpora, we propose a method for parsing complex sentences in such languages that combines heuristic information and pattern matching techniques in early processing levels. Although this method has been implemented and tested in the Greek language, its theoretical background and results are language independent and can be proved useful for many practical applications. >

This paper describes a user-assisted business letter generator that meets the ever-increasing demand for more flexible and modular letter generators which draw on explicit thematic models and which are easily adaptable to specific user needs. Based on a detailed analysis of requirements and taking full advantage of end-user feedback, the presented generator not only creates a business letter according to the user's choices, it also refines it, taking into consideration stylistic aspects like written style and tone.

A hybrid model for representing knowledge in a Greek natural language interface to MS-DOS is presented. This model employs semantic knowledge of the operating system domain to develop a hybrid architecture integrating symbolic and connectionist modules for recognizing the MS-DOS command labels of related or unrelated successive natural language user messages. This approach was deeply motivated by handling ellipsis, ambiguity and flexibility of sentence structure as well as possible. A comparative experimental evaluation of this approach to a symbolic one illustrating their pros and cons is also given. Finally, ways of extending this model are proposed with the view of making the natural language interface more user friendly and functional.

Current Information Extraction (IE) systems extract, in most cases, fixed information from documents [1,2]. This information pertains only to four distinct tasks: named entity recognition, coreference identification, template elements filling, and scenario-based template elements filling. Thus, providing these systems with the capability of locating stylistic features in a text and thus detecting its genre, it would be possible to meet specific user interests. For instance, users are often looking for texts on a certain topic with particular, quite narrow generic properties, such as authoritatively written documents, opinion pieces, scientific articles, and so on.