Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Building Decision Trees from Large-scale Data in Applications of On-line Advertising

Decision trees have been used for several decades as simple and effective solutions to supervised learning problems. Their success extends to tasks across a variety of areas. Yet, data collected today through web-domains such as on-line advertising presents many new challenges: sheer size, the prevalence of high-arity categorical features, unknown feature-values, "cold starts", sparse training instances, and imbalance in the class labels. We argue that decision trees remain an ideal choice for applications of on-line advertising as they naturally construct higher-order conjunctive features; we then contribute two ideas to improve tree-building accordingly. First, to handle high-arity categorical features, we introduce a method to cluster feature-values based on their output responses. The result is more "data-dense" trees with relatively small branching factors. Second, we employ cross-validation as a principled approach to derive splitting and stopping criteria: thereby we identify splits that generalize well, and also curb overfitting. Evaluated on three distinct probability-estimation tasks in on-line advertising, our method, "CCDT", shows significant improvements in the accuracy of prediction.
Age and skin site related differences in steroid metabolism in male skin point to a key role of sebocytes in cutaneous hormone metabolism

Hormone concentrations decline with aging. Up to now it was not clear, whether the decrease of hormone concentrations in blood samples are also present in cutaneous suction blister fluids, and whether skin from different anatomical sites shows different hormone concentrations. Analysis of suction blister fluids and paired blood samples from young (mean 27.8 y) and old (mean 62.6 y) male subjects by UPLC-MS/MS showed that DHEA concentration in blood samples was age-dependently significantly reduced, but increased in suction blister fluids, while androstenedione behaved in an opposite manner to DHEA. Testosterone decreased age-dependently in blood samples and in suction blister fluids. Regarding skin sites, DHEA was lower in samples from upper back compared with samples from the forearm. In contrast, the concentrations of androstenedione and testosterone were higher in samples from upper back. In vitro analyses showed that SZ95 sebocytes, but neither primary fibroblasts nor keratinocytes, were able to use DHEA as precursor for testosterone biosynthesis, which was confirmed by expression analysis of 3β-hydroxysteroiddehydrogenase in skin biopsies. In conclusion, we show an inverse pattern of DHEA and androstenedione concentrations in blood vs. suction blister fluids, highlighting age-dependent changes of dermal testosterone biosynthesis, and a stronger metabolism in young skin. Furthermore, sebocytes play a central role in cutaneous androgen metabolism.
Detecting anomalous records in categorical datasets

We consider the problem of detecting anomalies in high aritycategorical datasets. In most applications, anomalies are defined as datapoints that are "abnormal". Quite often we have access to data which consists mostly of normal records, a long with a small percentage of unlabelled anomalous records. We are interested in the problem of unsupervised anomaly detection, where we use the unlabelled data for training, and detect records that do not follow the definition of normality. A standard approach is to create a model of normal data, and compare test records against it. A probabilistic approach builds a likelihood model from the training data. Records are tested for anomalies based on the complete record likelihood given the probability model. For categorical attributes, bayes nets give a standard representation of the likelihood. While this approach is good at finding outliers in the dataset, it often tends to detect records with attribute values that are rare. Sometimes, just detecting rare values of an attribute is not desired and such outliers are not considered as anomalies in that context. We present an alternative definition of anomalies, and propose an approach of comparing against marginal distribution of attribute subsets. We show that this is a more meaningful way of detecting anomalies, and has a better performance over semi-synthetic as well as real world datasets.
On Probable Fusion Mechanisms in a Mather-Type Plasma Focus

An experimental study on plasma focus fusion mechanisms is presented in this paper. Simple diagnostic techniques such as current derivative, voltage, and time-integrated neutron detectors are used. This paper allows us to obtain information and fusion mechanisms present in a medium energy plasma focus [Auto Confined Plasma (PACO), 2 kJ, 31 kV, and T=2.9 μs]. The current sheet (CS) inductance is calculated through the anode voltage and current derivative signals, for some 80 shots performed within the pressure range 0.8-2.1 mbar of deuterium. It is concluded that the CS inductance is consistent with the behavior of a unique plasma sheet moving between two coaxial electrodes. From the information collected, it is concluded that the main fusion mechanism in this device is the beam-target one.
Modeling commuter preferences for the proposed bus rapid transit in Dar-es-Salaam

The paper analyzes individual commuter preferences towards the proposed bus rapid transit (BRT) system in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The objective of the survey was to identify how commuters perceive and value the proposed BRT service quality attributes. A stated preference survey of potential users of the proposed BRT was administered to 684 commuters who traveled to the central business district (CBD) on a regular basis. To this end, a special pictorial score card was developed that was suited for the local context and needed to capture the preferences of the commuter respondents. The BRT attributes considered for study are travel time, travel fare, and comfort. The stated choice data were analyzed using a binary logit model. The findings reveal, in order of importance, that comfort is the most valued attribute compared to travel time and travel fare, respectively.
Climate Change is Likely to Worsen the Public Health Threat of Diarrheal Disease in Botswana

Diarrheal disease is an important health challenge, accounting for the majority of childhood deaths globally. Climate change is expected to increase the global burden of diarrheal disease but little is known regarding climate drivers, particularly in Africa. Using health data from Botswana spanning a 30-year period (1974–2003), we evaluated monthly reports of diarrheal disease among patients presenting to Botswana health facilities and compared this to climatic variables. Diarrheal case incidence presents with a bimodal cyclical pattern with peaks in March (ANOVA p < 0.001) and October (ANOVA p < 0.001) in the wet and dry season, respectively. There is a strong positive autocorrelation (p < 0.001) in the number of reported diarrhea cases at the one-month lag level. Climatic variables (rainfall, minimum temperature, and vapor pressure) predicted seasonal diarrheal with a one-month lag in variables (p < 0.001). Diarrheal case incidence was highest in the dry season after accounting for other variables, exhibiting on average a 20% increase over the yearly mean (p < 0.001). Our analysis suggests that forecasted climate change increases in temperature and decreases in precipitation may increase dry season diarrheal disease incidence with hot, dry conditions starting earlier and lasting longer. Diarrheal disease incidence in the wet season is likely to decline. Our results identify significant health-climate interactions, highlighting the need for an escalated public health focus on controlling diarrheal disease in Botswana. Study findings have application to other arid countries in Africa where diarrheal disease is a persistent public health problem.
BIOREACTOR LANDFILLS: COMPARISON AND KINETICS OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS

The need for more sustainable landfilling has increased interest in bioreactor landfills as a suitable tool for optimising degradation processes. Bioreactors can be categorised as follows: anaerobic, aerobic, semi aerobic and hybrid. The choice of a specific bioreactor can be strongly influenced by the desired treatment objectives (i.e., energy recovery, increased rate of waste stabilisation, washing) as well as by the specific site conditions (e.g., waste characteristics, climate and social/economic situation, regulations). However, the increased rate of waste stabilisation should be the primary driving principle in the bioreactor landfill design (Cossu, 2010). Full-scale bioreactor landfills are still uncommon and one of the reasons is the perception that the effectiveness of this technology is not well demonstrated. This paper aims to contribute to filling this knowledge gap by analysing and comparing the lab scale applications of different types of bioreactors available in the literature and providing a survey of the different methods by considering their respective advantages and disadvantages. Qualitative analysis of the main types of bioreactor landfills is provided according to a few selected characteristics (i.e. energy recovery, biochemical kinetics, technological complexity, costs). Considering landfill sustainability, the discussion is primarily focused on the quantification of the stabilisation capability of the different bioreactors which is calculated in terms of COD and ammonia removal kinetics. The results demonstrate that the optimisation of COD removal kinetics is the highest in aerated bioreactors, while ammonia removal kinetics is maximum in hybrid bioreactors (i.e., 6 and 10 times higher, respectively, compared to the anaerobic bioreactors).
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Antibody Reactors Among Camels in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2005

Summary We tested, using a low starting dilution, sequential serum samples from dromedary camels, sheep and horses collected in Dubai from February/April to October of 2005 and from dromedary camels for export/import testing between Canada and USA in 2000–2001. Using a standard Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS‐CoV) neutralization test, serial sera from three sheep and three horses were all negative while sera from 9 of 11 dromedary camels from Dubai were positive for antibodies supported by similar results in a MERS‐CoV recombinant partial spike protein antibody ELISA. The two negative Dubai camels were both dromedary calves and remained negative over the 5 months studied. The six dromedary samples from USA and Canada were negative in both tests. These results support the recent findings that infection with MERS‐CoV or a closely related virus is not a new occurrence in camels in the Middle East. Therefore, interactions of MERS‐CoV at the human–animal interface may have been ongoing for several, perhaps many, years and by inference, a widespread pandemic may be less likely unless significant evolution of the virus allow accelerated infection and spread potential in the human population.
Failure to transfer-factor therapy in chronic active type B hepatitis.

Chronic active type B hepatitis, a disorder caused by the hepatitis B virus, is characterized by progressive hepatocellular damage leading to cirrhosis, portal hypertension and, in some cases, to hepatocellular carcinoma.1 Factors that allow persistent viral replication and continuous liver-cell necrosis in these patients are poorly understood, although it has been postulated that a deranged cellular immune response to invasion by the hepatitis B virus2 or decreased interferon production3 in the host may be involved. Abnormal lymphocyte-mediated responses to HBs Ag have recently been demonstrated in patients with chronic active Type B hepatitis.4 5 6 7 8 We attempted to correct the immune .
Ixabepilone, a Novel Microtubule-Targeting Agent for Breast Cancer, Is a Substrate for P-Glycoprotein (P-gp/MDR1/ABCB1) but not Breast Cancer Resistance Protein (BCRP/ABCG2)

Ixabepilone is the first epothilone to be approved for clinical use. Current data suggest the epothilones have a role in treating taxane-resistant cancers and ixabepilone is unaffected by at least some of the mechanisms underlying chemoresistance. Here, we report a series of cytotoxicity and transport studies to assess the potential role of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) in ixabepilone resistance. A significant decrease in ixabepilone-mediated cytotoxicity was observed in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells transfected with human multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) comparative with the parental cells (IC50 > 2000 nM versus 90 nM). Overexpression of P-gp also resulted in significantly decreased cell susceptibility to docetaxel, paclitaxel, and vinblastine. Bidirectional transport of ixabepilone across monolayers of porcine kidney-derived cells expressing human MDR1 showed a significantly increased efflux ratio relative to the parental cells. A BCRP-overexpressing cell line was developed by transfecting human embryonic kidney (HEK)-293 cells with BCRP cDNA and confirmed by immunoblotting and bodipy prazosin and mitoxantrone uptake. Neither P-gp nor multidrug resistance protein 2 was detected in the cells by corresponding polyclonal antibodies. This HEK-BCRP cell line demonstrated resistance to docetaxel, paclitaxel, vinblastine, and mitoxantrone, in comparison with the parental cell line (7.3, 4.3, 2.9, and 11.9 resistance factor, respectively). Transport inhibition by BCRP inhibitor fumitremorgin C and broad efflux inhibitor N-(4-[2-(1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-6,7-dimethoxy-2-isoquinolinyl)ethyl]-phenyl)-9,10-dihydro-5-methoxy-9-oxo-4-acridine carboxamide (GF120918) restored drug sensitivity. In contrast, ixabepilone was far less susceptible to BCRP-mediated resistance, resulting in a resistance factor of only 1.2-fold. In summary, these results suggest that P-gp could cause resistance to ixabepilone in tumors and affect the disposition of the drug, but it is unlikely that BCRP mediates any drug resistance to ixabepilone.
University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics Future Temporal Reference in Hexagonal French Future Temporal Reference in Hexagonal French Future Temporal Reference in Hexagonal French

This article is the first quantitative investigation of future temporal reference in spoken Hexagonal French. The two variants under examination are the inflected future (e.g. je partirai 'I will leave') and periphrastic future (e.g. je vais partir 'I am going to leave'). The present study will determine the distribution of future verb forms in Hexagonal French and investigate whether the constraint systems reported for varieties of Canadian French also hold in a European context. By contrasting variable usage with Canadian speech communities, this paper contributes to our understanding of the linguistic factors that unite and divide la francophonie. It also adds a French perspective to the existing literature on global linguistic trends. Results suggest that the strategies of encoding future time in Hexagonal French mirror to a certain degree the findings reported in the extant Canadian literature. Chi-square and fixed/mixed-effects logistic regression models furthermore highlight the complex set of constraints governing the expression of future temporal reference in mainland France. Crucially, they indicate that the inflected form is still highly productive, with a frequency distribution comparable to the conservative Acadian French varieties. Nevertheless, the constraint hierarchy patterns like Laurentian French, with sentential polarity identified as the greatest determinant of variant choice.
Evaluating millennial to contemporary time scales of glacier change in Val Viola, Central Italian Alps

ABSTRACT To improve current understanding of ongoing deglaciation dynamics in relation to climatic forcing, it is critical to build long-term series of climate and glacier changes. This task is typically hampered by availability and resolution of Quaternary glacier paleo-reconstructions. To explore opportunities and challenges, we present a case study from Val Viola, which integrates area, volume and ELA changes across a 13k-year time window, including four Younger Dryas–Early Holocene glacier stadials and eight post-LIA periods. Results suggest that relevant shifts in climatic forcing associated with the Pleistocene–Holocene transition and post-LIA deglaciation phases are of comparable magnitude, with an atmospheric temperature increase of about 1.5–2°C. Post-LIA decline in glacierized areas (68.9 ± 6%) is comparable with retreat rates recorded in other Italian glaciers, but is greater than elsewhere in the Alps, where glaciers are comparably larger. Glacier stability in the particularly warm 2007–2015 period testifies to the decoupling attained by small glaciers from synoptic atmospheric conditions. We argue that this is caused by enhanced wind drift and avalanche accumulation, occurred in response to morphological changes on ice surfaces following progressive glacier shrinking. This positive feedback not only could delay glacier extinction in certain physiographic settings but also could introduce bias in paleo-glaciological reconstructions of climatic conditions.
Seasonality Variability and Periodicities for Ultra-Deep Earthquakes Worldwide

Our last study found that deepest-depth earthquakes with larger magnitudes (M6 or above) showed seasonality, which is dependent on the area searched. The main results indicated strong evidence that the causes for the delays in enhancements along the period investigated were due to the tectonics also, not only the season. Therefore, if the inquiry was about an area in Northern Hemisphere, the season in which the increases occurred is different than the season in the Southern Hemisphere. Also, higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere or around the Equator, displayed seasonality similarly where the tremors appear to increase during the Spring and Summer. This did not happen to the Southern Hemisphere where disturbances and anomalies occurred without showing much connection to the seasons in the analyzed period. However, some of the regions presented periodicities independent from the seasons.
Susceptibility of Nocardia asteroides to new quinolones and beta-lactams

The susceptibility of 31 strains of Nocardia asteroides to various quinolones and beta-lactams, as well as coumermycin, amikacin, and minocycline, was determined by the agar dilution technique. Ciprofloxacin was the most active fluoroquinolone tested on a weight basis, as it inhibited approximately 50% of the isolates at achievable drug levels in serum. Ceftriaxone and cefpirome were the most active cephalosporins in this system with MICs of 8 micrograms/ml for 80% of strains tested. Imipenem, amikacin, and minocycline were the most effective agents tested.
Specific MicroRNAs Modulate Embryonic Stem Cell–Derived Neurogenesis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are recently discovered small non‐coding transcripts with a broad spectrum of functions described mostly in invertebrates. As post‐transcriptional regulators of gene expression, miRNAs trigger target mRNA degradation or translational repression. Although hundreds of miRNAs have been cloned from a variety of mammalian tissues and cells and multiple mRNA targets have been predicted, little is known about their functions. So far, a role of miRNA has only been described in hematopoietic, adipocytic, and muscle differentiation; regulation of insulin secretion; and potentially regulation of cancer growth. Here, we describe miRNA expression profiling in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell– derived neurogenesis in vitro and show that a number of miRNAs are simultaneously co‐induced during differentiation of neural progenitor cells to neurons and astrocytes. There was a clear correlation between miRNA expression profiles in ES cell– derived neurogenesis in vitro and in embryonal neurogenesis in vivo. Using both gain‐of‐function and loss‐of‐function approaches, we demonstrate that brain‐specific miR‐124a and miR‐9 molecules affect neural lineage differentiation in the ES cell– derived cultures. In addition, we provide evidence that signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3, a member of the STAT family pathway, is involved in the function of these miRNAs. We conclude that distinct miRNAs play a functional role in the determination of neural fates in ES cell differentiation.
Urine lipoarabinomannan glycan in HIV-negative patients with pulmonary tuberculosis correlates with disease severity

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis–specific antigen lipoarabinomannan measured in the urine of HIV-negative, pulmonary TB-infected patients correlates with disease severity. Tuberculosis is no longer on the LAM Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) is a component of the cell wall shed by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis, an infection mainly affecting the lungs. LAM can be detected in urine samples from patients coinfected with HIV, but current LAM detection methods have failed for HIV-negative patients. Using hydrogel “nanocage” nanoparticles and a chemical bait with high affinity for LAM, Paris et al. showed that patients negative for HIV with active tuberculosis infections had detectably higher concentrations of LAM in their urine than patients without active tuberculosis infections. Nanocages could also be used to detect cytokines and other antigens present in low concentrations in urine, demonstrating the versatility of the technology as a method to detect and monitor infections. An accurate urine test for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), affecting 9.6 million patients worldwide, is critically needed for surveillance and treatment management. Past attempts failed to reliably detect the mycobacterial glycan antigen lipoarabinomannan (LAM), a marker of active TB, in HIV-negative, pulmonary TB–infected patients’ urine (85% of 9.6 million patients). We apply a copper complex dye within a hydrogel nanocage that captures LAM with very high affinity, displacing interfering urine proteins. The technology was applied to study pretreatment urine from 48 Peruvian patients, all negative for HIV, with microbiologically confirmed active pulmonary TB. LAM was quantitatively measured in the urine with a sensitivity of >95% and a specificity of >80% (n = 101) in a concentration range of 14 to 2000 picograms per milliliter, as compared to non-TB, healthy and diseased, age-matched controls (evaluated by receiver operating characteristic analysis; area under the curve, 0.95; 95% confidence interval, 0.9005 to 0.9957). Urinary LAM was elevated in patients with a higher mycobacterial burden (n = 42), a higher proportion of weight loss (n = 37), or cough (n = 50). The technology can be configured in a variety of formats to detect a panel of previously undetectable very-low-abundance TB urinary analytes. Eight of nine patients who were smear-negative and culture-positive for TB tested positive for urinary LAM. This technology has broad implications for pulmonary TB screening, transmission control, and treatment management for HIV-negative patients.
Live feedback on behavioral changes

The costs to find and fix bugs grows over time, to the point where fixing a bug after release may cost as much as 100 times more than before release. To help programmers find bugs as soon as they are introduced, we sketch a plugin for an integrated development environment that provides live feedback about behavioral changes to Java programs by continuously generating tests, running the tests on the current and previous versions of the program, and comparing the results. Such a tool would allow programmers to better understand how their changes affect the behavior of their programs. As a proof of concept, we developed a prototype that found a bug that remained undetected by pair programmers working on JHotDraw in a previous study. Had the programmers performed this change with our plugin, they would have been notified about the bug as soon as they introduced it.