Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DATA MINING ON LOAN APPROVED DATSET FOR PREDICTING DEFAULTERS By Ashish Pandit

In today’s world, taking loans from financial institutions has become a very common phenomenon. Everyday a large number of people make application for loans, for a variety of purposes. But all these applicants are not reliable and everyone cannot be approved. Every year, we read about a number of cases where people do not repay bulk of the loan amount to the banks due to which they suffers huge losses. The risk associated with making a decision on loan approval is immense. So the idea of this project is to gather loan data from multiple data sources and use data mining algorithms on this data to extract important information and predict if a customer would be able to repay his loan or not. In other words predict if the customer would be a defaulter or not.
Tiling Path Genomic Profiling of Grade 3 Invasive Ductal Breast Cancers

Purpose: To characterize the molecular genetic profiles of grade 3 invasive ductal carcinomas of no special type using high-resolution microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) and to identify recurrent amplicons harboring putative therapeutic targets associated with luminal, HER-2, and basal-like tumor phenotypes. Experimental Design: Ninety-five grade 3 invasive ductal carcinomas of no special type were classified into luminal, HER-2, and basal-like subgroups using a previously validated immunohistochemical panel. Tumor samples were microdissected and subjected to aCGH using a tiling path 32K BAC array platform. Selected regions of recurrent amplification were validated by means of in situ hybridization. Expression of genes pertaining to selected amplicons was investigated using quantitative real-time PCR and gene silencing was done using previously validated short hairpin RNA constructs. Results: We show that basal-like and HER-2 tumors are characterized by “sawtooth” and “firestorm” genetic patterns, respectively, whereas luminal cancers were more heterogeneous. Apart from confirming known amplifications associated with basal-like (1q21, 10p, and 12p), luminal (8p12, 11q13, and 11q14), and HER-2 (17q12) cancers, we identified previously unreported recurrent amplifications associated with each molecular subgroup: 19q12 in basal-like, 1q32.1 in luminal, and 14q12 in HER-2 cancers. PPM1D gene amplification (17q23.2) was found in 20% and 8% of HER-2 and luminal cancers, respectively. Silencing of PPM1D by short hairpin RNA resulted in selective loss of viability in tumor cell lines harboring the 17q23.2 amplification. Conclusions: Our results show the power of aCGH analysis in unraveling the genetic profiles of specific subgroups of cancer and for the identification of novel therapeutic targets.
Automated Quantitative Analysis of Capnogram Shape for COPD–Normal and COPD–CHF Classification

We develop an approach to quantitative analysis of carbon dioxide concentration in exhaled breath, recorded as a function of time by capnography. The generated waveform-or capnogram-is currently used in clinical practice to establish the presence of respiration as well as determine respiratory rate and end-tidal CO2 concentration. The capnogram shape also has diagnostic value, but is presently assessed qualitatively, by visual inspection. Prior approaches to quantitatively characterizing the capnogram shape have explored the correlation of various geometric parameters with pulmonary function tests. These studies attempted to characterize the capnogram in normal subjects and patients with cardiopulmonary disease, but no consistent progress was made, and no translation into clinical practice was achieved. We apply automated quantitative analysis to discriminate between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure (CHF), and between COPD and normal. Capnograms were collected from 30 normal subjects, 56 COPD patients, and 53 CHF patients. We computationally extract four physiologically based capnogram features. Classification on a hold-out test set was performed by an ensemble of classifiers employing quadratic discriminant analysis, designed through cross validation on a labeled training set. Using 80 exhalations of each capnogram record in the test set, performance analysis with bootstrapping yields areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.89 (95% CI: 0.72-0.96) for COPD/CHF classification, and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.82-1.0) for COPD/normal classification. This classification performance is obtained with a run time sufficiently fast for realtime monitoring.
HF radar technology in the Sea of Okhotsk

In order to monitor variations in the Soya Warm Current (SWC), three high frequency (HF) radar stations were installed around the Soya Strait in August 2003. The radar covers a range of approximately 70 km from the coast. Comparisons of the observed current velocity with drifting buoy and shipboard ADCP data showed good agreement with root-mean-square differences of 20 cm/s. It is shown that the HF radars clearly capture seasonal variations of the SWC. The velocity of the SWC reaches its maximum, approximately 1 m/s, in summer, and weakens in winter. The velocity core is located 20 to 30 km from the coast, and its width is approximately 50 km. The almost same seasonal cycle was repeated in each of these five years from 2003 to 2008. Surface transport by the SWC shows a significant correlation with the sea level difference along the strait, as derived from coastal tide gauge records. The cross-current sea level difference, which is estimated from the sea level anomalies observed by the Jason-1 altimeter and a coastal tide gauge, also exhibits variation in concert with the surface transport and along-current sea level difference. In addition to the annual variation, the SWC exhibits subinertial variations with a period of 5–20 days.
An integrated-spreading-based macro-refining algorithm for large-scale mixed-size circuit designs

With the increasing use of pre-designed macros in a modern chip and its induced high design complexity, macro placement has become a challenging problem in today's design houses. Most popular macro placement algorithms adopt a three-stage approach: placement prototyping, macro placement, and standard-cell placement, where cell positions after macro placement are assumed the same as those at the prototyping stage, possibly misguiding succeeding standard-cell placement. To close the gap between macro and standard-cell placement, we propose a macro-refining algorithm that adopts an integrated spreading technique considering the spreading of both macros and cells and the dynamic information of cell positions to improve macro placement. We further propose a new force-modulation technique to refine macro placement and a congestion-aware macro shifter to preserve more space for better routability. Extensive experiments based on various macro placements show that our proposed techniques are effective and our macro-refining algorithm can find significantly better placement solutions for large-scale mixed-size circuit designs.
The Use of Endophytes to Obtain Bioactive Compounds and Their Application in Biotransformation Process

Endophytes are microorganisms that reside asymptomatically in the tissues of higher plants and are a promising source of novel organic natural metabolites exhibiting a variety of biological activities. The laboratory of Bioaromas (Unicamp, Brazil) develops research in biotransformation processes and functional evaluation of natural products. With the intent to provide subsidies for studies on endophytic microbes related to areas cited before, this paper focuses particularly on the role of endophytes on the production of anticancer, antimicrobial, and antioxidant compounds and includes examples that illustrate their potential for human use. It also describes biotransformation as an auspicious method to obtain novel bioactive compounds from microbes. Biotransformation allows the production of regio- and stereoselective compounds under mild conditions that can be labeled as “natural,” as discussed in this paper.
Understanding Video Events: A Survey of Methods for Automatic Interpretation of Semantic Occurrences in Video

Understanding video events, i.e., the translation of low-level content in video sequences into high-level semantic concepts, is a research topic that has received much interest in recent years. Important applications of this paper include smart surveillance systems, semantic video database indexing, and interactive systems. This technology can be applied to several video domains including airport terminal, parking lot, traffic, subway stations, aerial surveillance, and sign language data. In this paper, we identify the two main components of the event understanding process: abstraction and event modeling. Abstraction is the process of molding the data into informative units to be used as input to the event model. Due to space restrictions, we will limit the discussion on the topic of abstraction. See the study by Lavee et al. (Understanding video events: A survey of methods for automatic interpretation of semantic occurrences in video, Technion-Israel Inst. Technol., Haifa, Israel, Tech. Rep. CIS-2009-06, 2009) for a more complete discussion. Event modeling is devoted to describing events of interest formally and enabling recognition of these events as they occur in the video sequence. Event modeling can be further decomposed in the categories of pattern-recognition methods, state event models, and semantic event models. In this survey, we discuss this proposed taxonomy of the literature, offer a unifying terminology, and discuss popular event modeling formalisms (e.g., hidden Markov model) and their use in video event understanding using extensive examples from the literature. Finally, we consider the application domain of video event understanding in light of the proposed taxonomy, and propose future directions for research in this field.
Clinical, Radiographic, and Audiometric Predictors in Conservative Management of Vestibular Schwannoma

Objective: Vestibular schwannomas (VS) can be managed by observation. The goals were to examine clinical, radiographic, and audiometric variables at presentation and during observation that may predict which patients fail conservative management. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed of 202 patients who elected observation primarily. Data collection included presenting symptoms, symptom progression, tumor size, audiologic measures, and global clinical outcomes. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Results: Follow-up ranged from 1 month to 16 years (mean, 2.48 yr). Nineteen patients (9.4%) in the study group failed. Disequilibrium as a presenting symptom appeared more often in patients who failed observation (58% versus 32%; p = 0.039), as did new-onset disequilibrium. Presenting tumor size differed for patients who failed conservative management, with a mean of 14.0 versus 8.4 mm (p = 0.0006). Neurotologic complications compared favorably to those treated with primary surgery or radiotherapy. Conclusion: Patients with subjective disequilibrium at presentation and subjective disequilibrium developed during observation may be more likely to fail conservative management. Increased tumor size at presentation also may indicate the same, although no threshold could be achieved.
Foxn1 Regulates Lineage Progression in Cortical and Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cells But Is Dispensable for Medullary Sublineage Divergence

The forkhead transcription factor Foxn1 is indispensable for thymus development, but the mechanisms by which it mediates thymic epithelial cell (TEC) development are poorly understood. To examine the cellular and molecular basis of Foxn1 function, we generated a novel and revertible hypomorphic allele of Foxn1. By varying levels of its expression, we identified a number of features of the Foxn1 system. Here we show that Foxn1 is a powerful regulator of TEC differentiation that is required at multiple intermediate stages of TE lineage development in the fetal and adult thymus. We find no evidence for a role for Foxn1 in TEC fate-choice. Rather, we show it is required for stable entry into both the cortical and medullary TEC differentiation programmes and subsequently is needed at increasing dosage for progression through successive differentiation states in both cortical and medullary TEC. We further demonstrate regulation by Foxn1 of a suite of genes with diverse roles in thymus development and/or function, suggesting it acts as a master regulator of the core thymic epithelial programme rather than regulating a particular aspect of TEC biology. Overall, our data establish a genetics-based model of cellular hierarchies in the TE lineage and provide mechanistic insight relating titration of a single transcription factor to control of lineage progression. Our novel revertible hypomorph system may be similarly applied to analyzing other regulators of development.
Synchronous Online Discussions: Participation in a Group Audio Conferencing and Textual Chat as Affected by Communicator's Personality Characteristics and Discussion Topics

The development of instructional technology increases the use of synchronous e-learning procedures which enable real-time interactions. The study explores whether the willingness to participate as well as actual participation in synchronous group discussions is affected by participant personality (extroversionintroversion), medium characteristics and discussion topic sensitivity. The research is composed of two sequenced sub-studies. The first one investigates the willingness to participate while the second study explores the degree of actual participation in discussions. An online self-report questionnaire was completed by 405 adult Internet users. Following that, 120 volunteers extracted from this sample were randomly assigned to face-to-face, audio conferencing, or textual chat gender-mixed experimental conditions and conducted two short discussions (having low and high degrees of topic sensitivity). The relation between estimated and actual participation was explored, as well as the equalization effect of online interactions. The first study findings show that, in general, participants prefer conventional over sensitive discussion topic; they also prefer face-to-face discussion rather than online communication. As hypothesized, participant personality affects the willingness to partake in discussions: extroverts prefer taking part via a more revealing communication medium; introverts express greater readiness for discussion via textual chat. The results of the study expand the understanding of student behaviour in synchronous e-
Expression and Purification of Active Recombinant Cathepsin C (Dipeptidyl Aminopeptidase I) of Kuruma Prawn Marsupenaeus japonicus in Insect Cells

Cathepsin C (CTSC) is a lysosomal cysteine protease belonging to the papain superfamily. Our previous study showed that CTSC precursor (zymogen) is localized exclusively in cortical rods (CRs) of mature oocyte in the kuruma prawn Marsupenaeus japonicus, suggesting that CTSC might have roles on regulating release and/or formation of a jelly layer. In this study, enzymically active CTSC of the kuruma prawn was prepared by recombinant expression in the High Five insect cell line. The recombinant enzyme with a polyhistidine tag at its C-terminus was considered to be initially secreted into the culture medium as an inactive form of zymogen, because Western blot with anti-CTSC antibody detected a 51 kDa protein corresponding to CTSC precursor. After purification by affinity chromatography on nickel-iminodiacetic acid resin, the enzyme displayed three forms of 51, 31, and 30 kDa polypeptides. All of the forms can be recognized by antiserum raised against C-terminal polyhistidine tag, indicating that the 31 and 30 kDa forms were generated from 51 kDa polypeptide by removal of a portion of the N-terminus of propeptide. Following activation at pH 5.5 and 37°C for 40 hours under native conditions, the recombinant CTSC (rCTSC) exhibited increased activity against the synthetic substrate Gly-Phe-β-naphthylamide and optimal pH at around 5. The purified rCTSC will be useful for further characterization of its exact physiological role on CRs release and/or formation of a jelly layer in kuruma prawn.
Comparison of Moment-Curvature Models for Fiber- Reinforced Polymer Plate-End Debonding Studies Using Global Energy Balance Approach

This paper compares a number of different moment-curvature models for cracked concrete sections that contain both steel and external fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcement. The question of whether to use a whole-section analysis or one that considers the FRP separately is discussed. Five existing and three new models are compared with test data for moment-curvature or load deflection behavior, and five models are compared with test results for plate-end debonding using a global energy balance approach (GEBA). A proposal is made for the use of one of the simplified models. The availability of a simplified model opens the way to the production of design aids so that the GEBA can be made available to practicing engineers through design guides and parametric studies.
Enhancement and Distortion in the Temporal Representation of Sounds in the Ventral Cochlear Nucleus of Chinchillas and Cats

A subset of neurons in the cochlear nucleus (CN) of the auditory brainstem has the ability to enhance the auditory nerve's temporal representation of stimulating sounds. These neurons reside in the ventral region of the CN (VCN) and are usually known as highly synchronized, or high-sync, neurons. Most published reports about the existence and properties of high-sync neurons are based on recordings performed on a VCN output tract—not the VCN itself—of cats. In other species, comprehensive studies detailing the properties of high-sync neurons, or even acknowledging their existence, are missing. Examination of the responses of a population of VCN neurons in chinchillas revealed that a subset of those neurons have temporal properties similar to high-sync neurons in the cat. Phase locking and entrainment—the ability of a neuron to fire action potentials at a certain stimulus phase and at almost every stimulus period, respectively—have similar maximum values in cats and chinchillas. Ranges of characteristic frequencies for high-sync neurons in chinchillas and cats extend up to 600 and 1000 Hz, respectively. Enhancement of temporal processing relative to auditory nerve fibers (ANFs), which has been shown previously in cats using tonal and white-noise stimuli, is also demonstrated here in the responses of VCN neurons to synthetic and spoken vowel sounds. Along with the large amount of phase locking displayed by some VCN neurons there occurs a deterioration in the spectral representation of the stimuli (tones or vowels). High-sync neurons exhibit a greater distortion in their responses to tones or vowels than do other types of VCN neurons and auditory nerve fibers. Standard deviations of first-spike latency measured in responses of high-sync neurons are lower than similar values measured in ANFs' responses. This might indicate a role of high-sync neurons in other tasks beyond sound localization.
Curcumin Nanoparticles Ameliorate ICAM-1 Expression in TNF-α-Treated Lung Epithelial Cells through p47 phox and MAPKs/AP-1 Pathways

Upregulation of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) involves adhesions between both circulating and resident leukocytes and the human lung epithelial cells during lung inflammatory reactions. We have previously demonstrated that curcumin-loaded polyvinylpyrrolidone nanoparticles (CURN) improve the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties of curcumin in hepatocytes. In this study, we focused on the effects of CURN on the expression of ICAM-1 in TNF-α-treated lung epithelial cells and compared these to the effects of curcumin water preparation (CURH). TNF-αinduced ICAM-1 expression, ROS production, and cell-cell adhesion were significantly attenuated by the pretreatment with antioxidants (DPI, APO, or NAC) and CURN, but not by CURH, as revealed by western blot analysis, RT-PCR, promoter assay, and ROS detection and adhesion assay. In addition, treatment of TNF-α-treated cells with CURN and antioxidants also resulted in an inhibition of activation of p47 phox and phosphorylation of MAPKs, as compared to that using CURH. Our findings also suggest that phosphorylation of MAPKs may eventually lead to the activation of transcription factors. We also observed that the effects of TNF-α treatment for 30 min, which includes a significant increase in the binding activity of AP-1 and phosphorylation of c-jun and c-fos genes, were reduced by CURN treatment. In vivo studies have revealed that CURN improved the anti-inflammation activities of CURH in the lung epithelial cells of TNF-α-treated mice. Our results indicate that curcumin-loaded polyvinylpyrrolidone nanoparticles may potentially serve as an anti-inflammatory drug for the treatment of respiratory diseases.
Differential Interactions of Specific Nuclear Factor I Isoforms with the Glucocorticoid Receptor and STAT5 in the Cooperative Regulation of WAP Gene Transcription

ABSTRACT The distal region (−830 to −720 bp) of the rat whey acidic protein (WAP) gene contains a composite response element (CoRE), which has been demonstrated previously to confer mammary gland-specific and hormonally regulated WAP gene expression. Point mutations in the binding sites for specific transcription factors present within this CoRE have demonstrated the importance of both nuclear factor I (NFI) and STAT5 as well as cooperative interactions with the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in the regulation of WAP gene expression in the mammary gland of transgenic mice. This study reports the characterization of NFI gene expression during mammary gland development and the identification and cloning of specific NFI isoforms (NFI-A4, NFI-B2, and NFI-X1) from the mouse mammary gland during lactation. Some but not all of these NFI isoforms synergistically activate WAP gene transcription in cooperation with GR and STAT5, as determined using transient cotransfection assays in JEG-3 cells. On both the WAP CoRE and the mouse mammary tumor virus long terminal repeat promoter, the NFI-B isoform preferentially activated gene transcription in cooperation with STAT5A and GR. In contrast, the NFI-A isoform suppressed GR and STAT cooperativity at the WAP CoRE. Finally, unlike their interaction with the NFI consensus binding site in the adenovirus promoter, the DNA-binding specificities of the three NFI isoforms to the palindromic NFI site in the WAP CoRE were not identical, which may partially explain the failure of the NFI-A isoform to cooperate with GR and STAT5A.
Toward Automatic 3D Generic Object Modeling from One Single Image

We present a novel method for solving the challenging problem of generating 3D models of generic object categories from just one single un-calibrated image. Our method leverages the algorithm proposed in [1] which enables a partial reconstruction of the object from a single view. A full reconstruction is achieved in a subsequent object completion stage where modified or state-of-the-art 3D shape and texture completion techniques are used to recover the complete 3D model. We present results of our method on a number of images containing objects from five generic categories (mice, staplers, mugs, cars, and bicycles). We demonstrate (numerically and qualitatively) that our method produces convincing 3D models from a single image using minimal or no human intervention. Our technique is targeted to applications where users are interested in building virtual collections of 3D models of objects, and sharing such models in virtual environments such as Google 3D Warehouse or Second Life (secondlife.com).