The Needles-in-Haystack Problem

Aligning Needles in a Haystack: Paraphrase Acquisition Across the Web

This paper presents a lightweight method for unsupervised extraction of paraphrases from arbitrary textual Web documents. The method differs from previous approaches to paraphrase acquisition in that 1) it removes the assumptions on the quality of the input data, by using inherently noisy, unreliable Web documents rather than clean, trustworthy, properly formatted documents; and 2) it does not ...

On “discovering and Proving That Π Is Irrational”

We discuss the logical fallacies in an article appeared in The American Mathematical Monthly [6], and present the historical origin and motivation of the simple proofs of the irrationality of π. 1. A needle and a haystack Once upon a time, there was a village with a huge haystack. Some villagers found the challenge of retrieving needles from the haystack rewarding, but also frustrating at times...

Neurofascin antibodies in inflammatory neuropathy: how many needles make a haystack?

The haystack is made of needles.

Developing genetic tests that have clinical utility and validated biomarkers presents many challenges. Much has been written about these challenges for the development of genetic test evidence (Khoury et al., 2010; Horn and Terry, 2012) and biomarker validation (Lesko and Atkinson, 2001; Surh, 2009). One consistent thread through these challenges is the lack of well-characterized cohorts. This ...

Atypical chest pain: Needles in a haystack.

A 20-year-old man presented with a 6-month history of intermittent chest pain. Initial imaging demonstrated approximately 15 sewing needles lodged in his myocardium, predominantly in the left ventricle. The patient has been referred to cardiothoracic surgery for further management. His progress will be monitored closely.