Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the effects of the first 2 years of industry‐led badger culling in England on the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in cattle in 2013–2015

Abstract Culling badgers to control the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (TB) between this wildlife reservoir and cattle has been widely debated. Industry‐led culling began in Somerset and Gloucestershire between August and November 2013 to reduce local badger populations. Industry‐led culling is not designed to be a randomized and controlled trial of the impact of culling on cattle incidence. Nevertheless, it is important to monitor the effects of the culling and, taking the study limitations into account, perform a cautious evaluation of the impacts. A standardized method for selecting areas matched to culling areas in factors found to affect cattle TB risk has been developed to evaluate the impact of badger culling on cattle TB incidence. The association between cattle TB incidence and badger culling in the first 2 years has been assessed. Descriptive analyses without controlling for confounding showed no association between culling and TB incidence for Somerset, or for either of the buffer areas for the first 2 years since culling began. A weak association was observed in Gloucestershire for Year 1 only. Multivariable analysis adjusting for confounding factors showed that reductions in TB incidence were associated with culling in the first 2 years in both the Somerset and Gloucestershire intervention areas when compared to areas with no culling (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 0.79, 95% CI: 0.72–0.87, p < . 001 and IRR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.34–0.51, p < . 001, respectively). An increase in incidence was associated with culling in the 2‐km buffer surrounding the Somerset intervention area (IRR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.09–1.75, p = .008), but not in Gloucestershire (IRR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.77–1.07, p = .243). As only 2 intervention areas with 2 years of data are available for analysis, and the biological cause–effect relationship behind the statistical associations is difficult to determine, it would be unwise to use these findings to develop generalizable inferences about the effectiveness of the policy at present.
Statistical analysis of honeypot data and building of Kyoto 2006+ dataset for NIDS evaluation

With the rapid evolution and proliferation of botnets, large-scale cyber attacks such as DDoS, spam emails are also becoming more and more dangerous and serious cyber threats. Because of this, network based security technologies such as Network based Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDSs), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPSs), firewalls have received remarkable attention to defend our crucial computer systems, networks and sensitive information from attackers on the Internet. In particular, there has been much effort towards high-performance NIDSs based on data mining and machine learning techniques. However, there is a fatal problem in that the existing evaluation dataset, called KDD Cup 99' dataset, cannot reflect current network situations and the latest attack trends. This is because it was generated by simulation over a virtual network more than 10 years ago. To the best of our knowledge, there is no alternative evaluation dataset. In this paper, we present a new evaluation dataset, called Kyoto 2006+, built on the 3 years of real traffic data (Nov. 2006 ~ Aug. 2009) which are obtained from diverse types of honeypots. Kyoto 2006+ dataset will greatly contribute to IDS researchers in obtaining more practical, useful and accurate evaluation results. Furthermore, we provide detailed analysis results of honeypot data and share our experiences so that security researchers are able to get insights into the trends of latest cyber attacks and the Internet situations.
Mining redescriptions with Siren

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Mining redescriptions with Siren Esther Galbrun, Pauli Miettinen
Novel anti-Sialyl-Tn monoclonal antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates demonstrate tumor specificity and anti-tumor activity

ABSTRACT Targeted therapeutics that can differentiate between normal and malignant tumor cells represent the ideal standard for the development of a successful anti-cancer strategy. The Sialyl-Thomsen-nouveau antigen (STn or Sialyl-Tn, also known as CD175s) is rarely seen in normal adult tissues, but it is abundantly expressed in many types of human epithelial cancers. We have identified novel antibodies that specifically target with high affinity the STn glycan independent of its carrier protein, affording the potential to recognize a wider array of cancer-specific sialylated proteins. A panel of murine monoclonal anti-STn therapeutic antibodies were generated and their binding specificity and efficacy were characterized in vitro and in in vivo murine cancer models. A subset of these antibodies were conjugated to monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) to generate antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). These ADCs demonstrated in vitro efficacy in STn-expressing cell lines and significant tumor growth inhibition in STn-expressing tumor xenograft cancer models with no evidence of overt toxicity.
State feedback control with disturbance estimation and compensation for discrete-time linear systems

Constructive methods are developed to design disturbance compensation controllers for stabilization of discrete-time linear systems. State feedback controllers are addressed with compensation of rate-bounded disturbances based on disturbance observer. Sufficient conditions for designing feedback laws are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Experimental Validation of a Novel Architecture Based on a Dual-Stage Converter for Off-Board Fast Battery Chargers of Electric Vehicles

The experimental validation of a novel architecture of an off-board, three-phase fast battery charger for electric vehicles (EVs) with innovative operation modes is presented in this paper. The proposed EV fast battery charger is based on a dual-stage power converter (ac-dc and dc-dc) sharing the same dc link. The ac-dc stage is used as an interface between the power grid and the dc link. It is composed of the parallel association of two full-bridge voltage-source converters, and allows control of the grid current and of the dc-link voltage. The dc-dc stage is used as an interface between the dc link and the batteries. It is constituted by a bidirectional three-level asymmetrical voltage-source converter, and controls the flux of current during the EV battery charging process. Compared with the traditional solutions used for EV fast battery chargers, the proposed architecture operates as an interleaved converter, facilitating the reduction of the passive filters size, and the grid current harmonic distortion for the same switching frequency. Throughout the paper, the ac-dc and dc-dc stages, and the digital control algorithms are described in detail. The experimental validation was performed in a laboratory using a developed EV fast battery charger prototype, operating through the grid-to-vehicle and the proposed charger-to-grid modes, exchanging active, and reactive power with the power grid.
Erbium-doped germanium-based sulphide optical waveguide amplifier for near- and mid-IR

Due to remarkable properties of the chalcogenide glasses (Chgs), especially sulphide glasses, amorphous chalcogenide films should play a motivating role in the development of integrated planar optical circuits and their components. This paper describes the fabrication and properties of optical waveguides of undoped and erbium doped sulphide films obtained by RF magnetron sputtering and laser ablation (PLD). The deposition parameters were adjusted to obtain, from sulphide glass targets with a careful control of their purity, layers with appropriate compositional, morphological, structural characteristics and optical properties. A transmission loss of 0.8 dB/cm can be obtained for rib waveguides produced by dry etching under CF4 plasma (4-300 μm wide, 5.5 μm film thickness, 1.5 μm etched thickness). The photo-luminescence of erbium doped Ge20Ga5Sb10S65 films were clearly observed in the n-IR and mid-IR spectral domain. The study of their decay lifetime with a well adapted annealing treatment controlling the roughness variation reached value of the bulk counterpart. Amplification tests were carried out leading to a complete characterisation of the Erbium doped waveguide. Gain on/off of 4.4 dB (3.4 dB/cm) were achieved for a signal at 1.54 μm in multiple modes sulphide:Er waveguides. The first demonstration of photoluminescence in mid-IR in an Er3+- doped Chg waveguide could potentially be employed to produce sources or amplifiers operating in the mid-IR.
Plasma Alkylresorcinol Metabolite, a Biomarker of Whole-Grain Wheat and Rye Intake, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes and Impaired Glucose Regulation in a Chinese Population

OBJECTIVE To examine the association of plasma alkylresorcinol metabolite 3-(3,5-dihydroxyphenyl)-1-propanoic acid (DHPPA), a biomarker of whole-grain wheat and rye intake, with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and impaired glucose regulation (IGR) in a Chinese population. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 1,060 newly diagnosed T2D patients, 736 newly diagnosed IGR patients, and 1,443 control subjects with normal glucose tolerance were recruited in the case-control study. Plasma DHPPA concentrations were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectroscopy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the independent association of plasma DHPPA concentrations with the likelihood of T2D and IGR. RESULTS After adjustment for age, sex, BMI, and family history of diabetes, the odds ratios (95% CI) of T2D and IGR were 0.57 (0.45, 0.73) and 0.66 (0.50, 0.85), respectively, comparing the lowest with the highest quartile of plasma DHPPA concentrations. Further adjustment for current smoking status, current alcohol consumption, physical activity, history of hypertension, and educational level did not change the observed association materially. Similar results were also obtained in T2D and IGR groups combined. The inverse association of plasma DHPPA with T2D persisted in stratified analyses according to age, sex, BMI, current smoking status, current alcohol consumption, physical activity, family history of diabetes, and history of hypertension. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggested that higher plasma DHPPA concentrations were associated with lower odds of T2D and IGR. Further studies are warranted to confirm these findings in prospective cohorts.
Theoretical comparison of 3C-SiC and Si nanowire FETs in ballistic and diffusive regimes

Silicon carbide (SiC) nanowires (NWs) could combine the properties of one-dimensional (1D) structures with those of a wide band gap semiconductor. For this reason, we solved self-consistently the Poisson equation with both the quantum Non-Equilibrium Green Function Formalism (NEGF) and the classical drift–diffusion model in order to model and compare 3C-SiC and Si NW Field Effect Transistors (FETs) operating in ballistic and diffusive regimes. As a general conclusion from our calculations in the ballistic regime, Si and SiC NW FETs have almost the same electrical behavior. They show the same subthreshold slope and have similar on-current (ION/IOFF (SiC) ∼81% ION/IOFF (Si) in the case of a 4 nm NW cross-section side). The drift–diffusion model predicts a better performance for SiC NW FETs. More specifically, SiC devices have a lower subthreshold slope (∼85% for a Si device with 200 nm channel length) than Si devices as the FET channel length increases (from 200 to 750 nm), and as in case of ballistic regime SiC devices have a slightly smaller on-current.
Distribution-Based Cluster Structure Selection

The objective of cluster structure ensemble is to find a unified cluster structure from multiple cluster structures obtained from different datasets. Unfortunately, not all the cluster structures contribute to the unified cluster structure. This paper investigates the problem of how to select the suitable cluster structures in the ensemble which will be summarized to a more representative cluster structure. Specifically, the cluster structure is first represented by a mixture of Gaussian distributions, the parameters of which are estimated using the expectation–maximization algorithm. Then, several distribution-based distance functions are designed to evaluate the similarity between two cluster structures. Based on the similarity comparison results, we propose a new approach, which is referred to as the distribution-based cluster structure ensemble (DCSE) framework, to find the most representative unified cluster structure. We then design a new technique, the distribution-based cluster structure selection strategy (DCSSS), to select a subset of cluster structures. Finally, we propose using a distribution-based normalized hypergraph cut algorithm to generate the final result. In our experiments, a nonparametric test is adopted to evaluate the difference between DCSE and its competitors. We adopt 20 real-world datasets obtained from the University of California, Irvine and knowledge extraction based on evolutionary learning repositories, and a number of cancer gene expression profiles to evaluate the performance of the proposed methods. The experimental results show that: 1) DCSE works well on the real-world datasets and 2) DCSE based on DCSSS can further improve the performance of the algorithm.
Sleep-Wake Profile in Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Alzheimer's Disease, and Normal Aging.

BACKGROUND Alterations of the sleep-wake cycle are common features of neurodegenerative dementia. OBJECTIVES To study differences in sleep-wake profiles in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and healthy controls. METHODS 30 DLB and 32 AD patients, and 33 healthy elderly participants were studied. Patients were evaluated for global cognitive impairment, extrapyramidal signs, fluctuations of attention, and behavioral disorders. A comprehensive sleep-wake profile was obtained including a set of questionnaires [Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Single-Question screen (RBD1Q), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS)] and 12-day sleep diaries. RESULTS Patients were matched for age, gender, and disease severity. DLB patients showed more severe daytime somnolence/dysfunction due to somnolence, and a higher proportion of RBD-like symptoms (70%) compared to AD and controls (p < 0.001), regardless of the presence of psychoactive drug treatment. As for sleep timing, DLB patients had a greater number of daytime naps and longer night sleep, with the latter being associated with use of clonazepam. The severity of fluctuations was associated with the presence of RBD (Clinician Assessment of Fluctuation score = RBD+: 5.2±3.7; RBD-: 2.1±3.2, p = 0.04). AD patients reported the best sleep-wake profile, while healthy controls declared the poorest sleep quality, although sleep timing and the quality of wakefulness were comparable between AD and controls. DISCUSSION RBD and daytime fluctuations of attention may coexist in DLB and even reciprocally potentiate each other. Self-reports of sleep quality may lead to an underestimation of sleep disturbances in AD, possibly influenced by anosognosia, compared to normal elderly individuals who complain mainly of insomnia.
Population Pharmacokinetic Properties of Sulfadoxine and Pyrimethamine: a Pooled Analysis To Inform Optimal Dosing in African Children with Uncomplicated Malaria

ABSTRACT Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine with amodiaquine is recommended by the World Health Organization as seasonal malaria chemoprevention for children aged 3 to 59 months in the sub-Sahel regions of Africa. Suboptimal dosing in children may lead to treatment failure and increased resistance. Pooled individual patient data from four previously published trials on the pharmacokinetics of sulfadoxine and pyrimethamine in 415 pediatric and 386 adult patients were analyzed using nonlinear mixed-effects modeling to evaluate the current dosing regimen and, if needed, to propose an optimized dosing regimen for children under 5 years of age. The population pharmacokinetics of sulfadoxine and pyrimethamine were both best described by a one-compartment disposition model with first-order absorption and elimination. Body weight, age, and nutritional status (measured as the weight-for-age Z-score) were found to be significant covariates. Allometric scaling with total body weight and the maturation of clearance in children by postgestational age improved the model fit. Underweight-for-age children were found to have 15.3% and 26.7% lower bioavailabilities of sulfadoxine and pyrimethamine, respectively, for each Z-score unit below −2. Under current dosing recommendations, simulation predicted that the median day 7 concentration was below the 25th percentile for a typical adult patient (50 kg) for sulfadoxine for patients in the weight bands of 8 to 9, 19 to 24, 46 to 49, and 74 to 79 kg and for pyrimethamine for patients in the weight bands of 8 to 9, 14 to 24, and 42 to 49 kg. An evidence-based dosing regimen was constructed that would achieve sulfadoxine and pyrimethamine exposures in young children and underweight-for-age young children that were similar to those currently seen in a typical adult.
Upcoding in a National Health Service: the evidence from Portugal

For many years, evidence from the USA has pointed out to the existence of upcoding in management practices. Upcoding is defined as classifying patients in diagnosis-related groups codes associated with larger payments. The incentive for upcoding is not restricted to private providers of care. Conceptually, any patient classification system that is used for payment purposes may be vulnerable to this sort of strategic behaviour by providers. We document here that upcoding occurs in a National Health Service where public hospitals have their payment (budget) tied to the classification of treatment episodes. Using diagnosis-related groups data from Portugal, we found that the practice of upcoding has been used in the hospitals in a way leading to larger budgets (age of patients plays a key role). The effect is quantitatively small. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Self‐reported waist circumference: a screening tool for classifying children with overweight/obesity and cardiometabolic risk factor clustering

The objectives of this study were twofold – (i) to assess the agreement between self‐reported waist circumference (SRWC) and assessor measured waist circumference (MWC) and (ii) to evaluate the diagnostic ability of SRWC for classifying (i) a clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs) and (ii) overweight/obese status in Hong Kong Chinese children aged 6–18 years.
Identifying Codes in Hereditary Classes of Graphs and VC-Dimension

An identifying code of a graph is a subset of its vertices such that every vertex of the graph is uniquely identified by the set of its neighbours within the code. We show a dichotomy for the size of the smallest identifying code in classes of graphs closed under induced subgraphs. Our dichotomy is derived from the VC-dimension of the considered class C, that is the maximum VC-dimension over the hypergraphs formed by the closed neighbourhoods of elements of C. We show that hereditary classes with infinite VC-dimension have infinitely many graphs with an identifying code of size logarithmic in the number of vertices while classes with finite VC-dimension have a polynomial lower bound. We then turn to approximation algorithms. We show that the problem of finding a smallest identifying code in a given graph from some class is log-APX-hard for any hereditary class of infinite VC-dimension. For hereditary classes of finite VC-dimension, the only known previous results show that we can approximate the identifying code problem within a constant factor in some particular classes, e.g. line graphs, planar graphs and unit interval graphs. We prove that it can be approximate within a factor 6 for interval graphs. In contrast, we show that on C_4-free bipartite graphs (a class of finite VC-dimension) it cannot be approximated to within a factor of c.log(|V|) for some c>0.
Minimizing Controller Response Time Through Flow Redirecting in SDNs

Software defined networking (SDN) is becoming increasingly prevalent for its programmability that enables centralized network configuration and management. With the growth of SDNs, a cluster of controllers cooperatively manages more and more switches/flows in a network to avoid the single-controller congestion/failure and improve the control-plane robustness. Under the architecture with multiple controllers, it is expected to minimize the maximum response time on these controllers to provide better QoS for users. To achieve this target, two previous methods are mainly used, the static scheme and the dynamic scheme. However, these methods may lead to an increase of the control-plane communication overhead/delay. In this paper, we propose to minimize the maximum response time on controllers through flow redirecting, which is implemented by installing wildcard rules on switches. We formulate the minimum controller response time problem, which takes the flow-table size and link capacity constraints into account, as an integer linear program, and prove its NP-Hardness. Two algorithms with bounded approximation factors are designed to solve this problem. We implement the proposed methods on our SDN testbed. The testing results and extensive simulation results show that our proposed algorithm can reduce the maximum controller response time by about 50%–80% compared with the static/dynamic methods under the same controller cost, or reduce the number of controllers by 30% compared with the dynamic method while preserving almost the same controller response time.
Simulated Low Earth Orbit Environment Interaction with Different Types of Polyethylene

The present study investigated the interactions of four different types of polyethylene (PE) surfaces with RF oxygen plasma components, simulating the low Earth orbit (LEO) environment. The samples were exposed in the plasma afterglow, with and without the plasma-generated vacuum UV (VUV) radiation. The polymers studied were low-density polyethylene (LDPE), ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and a composite of highly-oriented fibres of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (PolyEitan) having crystalline-to-amorphous phases ratio of 65, 74, 87 and 92%, respectively. Erosion of the LDPE, UHMWPE, and HDPE samples under atomic oxygen (AO) irradiation showed an etching rate dependence on the degree of crystallinity - the higher the crystallinity level the lower the erosion rate. The addition of VUV radiation to the AO flux resulted in a significant increase of the etching rate. An increase of the crystallinity level resulted in a decrease of the total oxygen uptake and an increase of the surface roughness. The composite polyethylene, although highly crystalline, revealed similar erosion rate and chemical composition changes as highly amorphous LDPE. The erosion mechanism of the different PE samples under AO or AO+VUV is discussed in terms of the initial internal structure.