Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy Data Analytics for Improved residential Service Quality and Energy Efficiency

Utility companies generally have an extensive customer base, yet their knowledge about individual households is small. This adversely affects both the development of innovative, household specific services and the utilities’ key performance indicators such as customer loyalty and profitability. With the goal to overcome this knowledge deficit, persuasive systems in the form of customer self-service applications and efficiency coaching portals are becoming the getaway of data exchange between utility and user. While improved customer interaction and the collection of customer data within respective information systems is an important step towards a service-oriented company, the immediate value generated from the collected data is still limited, mostly due to the small fraction of customers actually using such systems. We show how to utilize the knowledge gained from the sparse number of active web users in order to provide low-cost and large-scale insights to potentially all residential utility customers. We do so using machine-learning-based Green IT artifacts that allow for improving decision-making, effectiveness of energy audits, and conservation campaigns, thus ultimately increasing the customer value and adoption of related services. Moreover, we show that data from the publically available geographic information systems can considerably improve the decision quality.
Completeness, Compactness, Effective Dimensions

We investigate a directed metric on the space of infinite binary sequences defined by \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty} $$ d(Y\rightarrow X)=\limsup _n\frac{C(X{\upharpoonright }n\Vert Y{\upharpoonright }n)}{n}, $$ \end{document} where C(X↾n‖Y↾n) is the Kolmogorov complexity of X↾n given Y↾n. In particular we focus on the topological aspects of the associated metric space—proving that it is complete though very far from being compact. This is a continuation of earlier work investigating other geometrical and toplogical aspects of this metric.
A one-year study of campylobacter carriage by individual Danish broiler chickens as the basis for selection of Campylobacter spp. strains for a chicken infection model

From February 1999 to February 2000, 1250 individual broiler chickens representing 125 broiler flocks originating from 62 broiler farms in Denmark were screened for campylobacter carriage. Every month, 10 flocks were tested for campylobacter carriage. The swabs were tested individually and as a pooled sample representing the flocks. Campylobacter spp. carriage was detected from 512 (40·9%) broiler chickens originating from 63 (50·4%) positive flocks. Campylobacter carriage by both individual chickens and flocks showed seasonal variation. Campylobacter jejuni was the dominant species (95·5%). Campylobacter isolates were typed using Penner heat-stable serotyping and flaA-typing methods. Data of campylobacter carriage by individual chickens and data generated by the use of different typing methods contributed to a better understanding of the dynamics of campylobacter infection within the broiler flocks. C. jejuni Penner heat-stable serotype HS2, flaA-type 1 was the most common type found in Danish broiler chickens.
Assessing the Reliability of Dose Coefficients for Ingestion and Inhalation of Radionuclides by Members of the Public

Consideration of uncertainties on doses can provide numerical estimates of the reliability of the protection quantities (dose coefficients) used in radiation protection to assess exposures to radionuclides that enter the body by ingestion or inhalation (“Internal Emitters”). The ICRP system of radiological protection is reviewed and the meaning of reliability is clarified. It is argued that the reliability of an effective dose coefficient as a protection device can best be determined by comparing the nominal detriment adjusted cancer risk associated with the dose coefficient, with a best estimate of risk for the exposure pathway and exposed population group, taking into account uncertainties in biokinetic, dosimetric and risk parameters. The present work describes the application of parameter uncertainty analysis to quantify uncertainties resulting from internal exposures to U, Ra, Pu, Am, Cs, Sr, I, I, and H by members of the UK public, confining consideration to uncertainties in biokinetic models and parameter values. The report does not consider uncertainties in risk directly, but derives uncertainties in the biokinetic models that are used to calculate the retention and excretion of radionuclides in the body, in order to calculate distributions of effective dose per unit intake. The central values and ranges of the distributions are used to inform the derivation of uncertainty factors (UF) for the different dose coefficients. A UF indicates a 95% probability of the risk coefficient being within a factor, UF, of the nominal risk associated with the appropriate ICRP dose coefficient, E50, with respect to uncertainties in the biokinetic model and parameter values. The inferred UF values are around 2-3 for ingestion and 2-6 for inhalation for all age groups. It is instructive to consider these ranges alongside the likely levels of exposure that are expected from the radionuclides considered (micro-sievert range) and the dose limit for planned exposures for members of the public (1000 micro-sieverts). This study was funded by the Environment Agency under contract No. 25472.
BopB is a type III secreted protein in Bordetella bronchiseptica and is required for cytotoxicity against cultured mammalian cells

The cytotoxicity of Bordetella bronchiseptica to infected cells is known to be dependent on a B. bronchiseptica type III secretion system. Although the precise mechanism of the type III secretion system is unknown, BopN, BopD and Bsp22 have been identified as type III secreted proteins. In order to identify other proteins secreted via the type III secretion machinery in Bordetella, a type III mutant was generated, and its secretion profile was compared with that of the wild‐type strain. The results showed that the wild‐type strain, but not the type III mutant, secreted a 40‐kDa protein into the culture supernatant. This protein was identified as BopB by the analysis of its N‐terminal amino acid sequence. Severe cytotoxicity such as necrosis was induced in L2 cells by infection with the wild‐type B. bronchiseptica. In contrast, this effect was not observed by the BopB mutant infection. The haemolytic activity of the BopB mutant was greatly impaired compared with that of the wild‐type strain. The results of a digitonin assay strongly suggested that BopB was translocated into HeLa cells infected with the wild‐type strain. Taken together, our results demonstrate that Bordetella secretes BopB via a type III secretion system during infection. BopB may play a role in the formation of pores in the host plasma membrane which serve as a conduit for the translocation of effector proteins into host cells.
Post‐endocytic fates of δ‐opioid receptor are regulated by GRK2‐mediated receptor phosphorylation and distinct β‐arrestin isoforms

Once internalized, some G protein‐coupled receptors (GPCRs) can recycle back to the cell surface, while some of them are delivered to lysosomes for degradation. Because recycling and degradation represent two opposing receptor fates, understanding the mechanisms that determine post‐endocytic fate of GPCRs is of great importance. Our recent work has verified that agonist‐induced internalization of δ‐opioid receptor (DOR) employs both phosphorylation‐dependent and ‐independent mechanisms in HEK293 cells. To investigate whether these two internalization mechanisms work differently in receptor regulation, we monitored receptor post‐endocytic fates using flow cytometry, surface receptor biotinylation and radioligand binding assays. Results showed that the internalized wild type DOR could either recycle to the cell surface or be degraded. Mutant DOR M4/5/6, which lacks all three G protein‐coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) phosphorylation sites, could also internalize upon agonist challenge although in a reduced level as compared with the wild type counterpart. However, the internalized mutant DOR could not recycle back to the cell surface and all mutant DOR was degraded after internalization. Inhibition of GRK2 expression by GRK2 RNAi also strongly attenuated recycling of DOR. Furthermore, overexpression of GRK2, which significantly increased receptor phosphorylation and internalization, also targeted more internalized receptors to the recycling pathway. These data suggest that GRK2‐catalyzed receptor phosphorylation is critically involved in DOR internalization and recycling, and the phosphorylation‐independent internalization leads to receptor degradation. Data obtained from β‐arrestin1 and β‐arrestin2 RNAi experiments indicated that both β‐arrestin1 and β‐arrestin2 participate in phosphorylation‐dependent internalization and the subsequent recycling of DOR. However, phosphorylation‐independent internalization and degradation of DOR were strongly blocked by β‐arrestin2 RNAi, but not β‐arrestin1 RNAi. Taken together, these data demonstrate for the first time that GRK2 phosphorylation‐dependent internalization mediated by both β‐arrestin1 and β‐arrestin2 leads DOR to recycle, whereas GRK2‐independent internalization mediated by β‐arrestin2 alone leads to receptor degradation. Thus, the post‐endocytic fate of internalized DOR can be regulated by GRK2‐catalyzed receptor phosphorylation as well as distinct β‐arrestin isoforms.
One-Year Treatment Patterns and Change Trajectories for Adolescents Participating in Outpatient Treatment for the First Time

Abstract The American Society on Addiction Medicine's Patient Placement criteria are commonly used in adolescent treatment. However, the use of these criteria and how they affect the course of treatment and interact with adolescent change has not been examined. Twelve-month treatment patterns were examined for 176 adolescents who entered their first ever episode in a treatment system using these criteria. Forty-one percent of the adolescents received additional treatment after their initial outpatient episode with over 30 unique treatment sequences (i.e., various combinations of outpatient, intensive outpatient, and residential treatment). Significant differences in treatment patterns were found between the change trajectory groups. For example, adolescents who participated in only one outpatient treatment episode were more likely to be in the low alcohol and drug use (AOD) group and less likely to have high rates of time in a controlled environment or to report moderate AOD use. Over one-third of the adolescents participated in additional treatment and almost one-quarter of those who only participated in outpatient treatment had problematic use. These findings suggest the need for clinical monitoring protocols that can be used to identify adolescents needing additional treatment or recovery services.
Patient Registry of Spasticity Care World

Objective The aim of the study was to report physician experience–based “real-world” treatment patterns with botulinum toxin type A in patients with stroke and traumatic brain injury. Design A prospective, multicenter, international observational registry design was used. Results Six hundred twenty-seven participants with stroke and 132 participants with traumatic brain injury were assessed and treated by 17 more experienced physicians and 12 less experienced physicians. Due to the limited usage of abobotulinumtoxinA Dysport and incobotulinumtoxinA Xeomin, data were reported on onabotulinumtoxinA BOTOX only. Based on physician experience, onabotulinumtoxinA doses were statistically different with larger mean doses injected by more experienced physicians in the upper limb (59.9 [39.0], P = 0.001) and in the lower limb (101.8 [69.2], P < 0.001). Treated deformities significantly differed for both upper limb and lower limb (P < 0.001). More experienced physicians showed a larger mean change in Ashworth Scale scores from baseline for the equinovarus/equinus foot and stiff knee (P = 0.001 and 0.03). Less experienced physicians showed a larger mean change in Ashworth Scale scores from baseline for the adducted thigh (P = 0.05). Less experienced physicians had statistically significant larger change in hand pain scores for clenched fist deformity treatment at follow-up compared with more experienced physicians (P = 0.01). Physician experience demonstrated a significant difference on patients reported satisfaction toward their secondary goal with higher scores for more experienced physician (P = 0.04). Conclusions This international registry provides clinical nuances of treatment based on physician clinical experience in a robust sample size.
HIV infection perturbs DNA content of lymphoid cells: partial correction after 'suppression' of virus replication.

OBJECTIVE To examine the DNA content of circulating lymphocytes obtained from HIV-1-infected persons and to explore the effects of antiretroviral therapy on these indices. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis and 48-week open label treatment trial (AIDS Clinical Trials Group Protocol 315) of zidovudine, lamivudine and ritonavir. METHODS Peripheral blood lymphocytes were obtained from HIV-1-infected patients and healthy controls and after 48 h of in vitro cultivation were stained with propidium iodide and analyzed for DNA content by flow cytometry. RESULTS HIV-1-infected patients had more hypodiploid cells (19%), fewer G0-G1 phase cells (70%) and more S phase cells (10%) than did healthy controls (8%, 85% and 5% respectively; P = 0.002). Patients with sustained suppression of plasma HIV-1 RNA levels after antiretroviral therapy had only modest improvements in these indices. In contrast, patients who failed to suppress plasma HIV-1 RNA levels had decreases in G0-G1 cells to 54% (P = 0.032) and increases in S phase cells to 24% (P = 0.055). Plasma HIV-1 RNA levels and the percentage of S phase cells were correlated (r, 0.23; P = 0.047). In patients failing antiretroviral therapy, there was an inverse correlation between the percentage of G0-G1 cells and expression of the activation antigens CD38 and HLA-DR on CD4 cells (r, -0.409; P = 0.016) and CD8 cells (r, -0.363; P = 0.035). CONCLUSIONS Lymphocytes obtained from HIV-1-infected patients display perturbations in DNA content after brief cultivation in vitro reflective of immune activation in vivo. The marginal improvement in these indices after 'successful' suppression of HIV-1 replication suggests that even low levels of HIV-1 replication are sufficient to induce immune activation and perturbations in DNA content.
A context-free grammar-driven, one-pass HMM-based continuous speech recognition method

This paper describes a frame synchronous continuous speech recognition algorithm using a context-free grammar and its evaluation. A frame-synchronous parsing algorithm for context-free grammar based on the top-down strategy is used for the prediction of successive words. The parsing process is incorporated into the one-pass search algorithm with the dynamical expansion of a finite-state automaton. Of course, since the number of the states becomes large, the beam search method should be used in the prediction and in pruning unreliable candidate branches from the search space. By using the proposed algorithm, a sentence recognition rate of 90 percent in a speaker adaptation mode is obtained while the conventional system based on word spotting and lattice parsing algorithm obtained 80.7 percent for the task of perplexity 10.
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

Sentiment analysis has been widely researched in the domain of online review sites with the aim of generating summarized opinions of users about di ﬀ erent aspects of products. However, there has been little work focusing on identifying the polarity of sentiments expressed by users during disaster events. Identifying such sentiments from online social networking sites can help emergency responders understand the dynamics of the network, e.g., the main users' concerns, panics, and the emotional impacts of interactions among members. In this paper, we perform a sentiment analysis of tweets posted on Twitter during the disastrous Hurricane Sandy and visualize online users' sentiments on a geographical map centered around the hurricane. We show how users' sentiments change according not only to their locations, but also based on the distance from the disaster. In addition, we study how the divergence of sentiments in a tweet posted during the hurricane a ﬀ ects the tweet retweetability. We ﬁ nd that extracting sentiments during a disaster may help emergency responders develop stronger situational awareness of the disaster zone itself.
Enhancement of Latent Fingerprints using Morphological Filters

With science being capable of quantifying many geometrical aspects of a structure which more or less goes hand in hand with human intuition and perception, Morphological Image Processing gets its inception as a most important tool in the field of Digital Image Processing which emphasizes on studying geometric structure of an image. The field of mathematical morphology contributes a wide range of operators to Digital Image Processing with all of them based on a few simple mathematical set theory concepts. Some common usages include detection of edges in a binary image, removal of noise from that image, enhancement of the image which also includes segmentation. The structural relationship between each part of an image could be well found and comprehended while processing with morphological theory. Morphological techniques typically probe an image with a small shape or template known as a structuring element which is positioned at all possible locations in the image and is compared to the pixels in the corresponding neighborhood. The way these comparisons are carried out is the difference in Morphological Operations. A noisy and cluttered image can be processed morphologically and editing can be done based on the size and shape of the objects of interest so that the noise and clutter will be removed. Morphological Image Processing, where the information of the image is not lost, can be substituted for a Linear Image Processing as it sometimes distorts the underlying geometric form of an image Morphological Image Processing is used to reconstruct the original image through Dilation, Erosion, Opening and Closing techniques for a finite no of times. This technique can we well adapted to a wider range of problems which includes Tumor detection and measurement of size and shape of internal organs in the field of Medical Image Analysis, etc. and Recognition and interpretation of objects in a scene, control of movements (motion control) and visual feedback that provides execution in the rapidly evolving field of Robotics. This paper throws light on one of the most important practical aspect of Morphological Image Processing and it successfully performs the Fundamental and Compound operations of Morphological Image processing on Binary images in FORENSIC Fingerprint Enhancement and reduction of noise in finger print images.
Reverse transcription-competitive multiplex PCR improves quantification of mRNA in clinical samples--application to the low abundance CFTR mRNA.

BACKGROUND To monitor gene therapy, we wished to quantify cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) mRNA. We developed a PCR-based method to measure CFTR mRNA in clinical samples. METHODS Expression was determined by reverse transcription-competitive multiplex PCR (RCMP) for CFTR and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) transcripts, and for serial dilutions of two internal cDNA standards consisting of CFTR and GAPDH mutants containing short deletions. The RCMP used simultaneous amplification of the gene of interest with a reporter gene in one reaction tube. The expression of CFTR was calculated with reference to the amount of GAPDH to correct for variations in initial RNA loading. RESULTS Amplification of cDNAs derived from different amounts of RNA (1-4 microgram) gave similar GAPDH/CFTR ratios, with a coefficient of variation (CV) below 7.5%. RCMP was applied on nasal and bronchial brushings and shows a high variability of CFTR expression in non-cystic fibrosis donors. CONCLUSION This method is precise and reproducible and advantageous for use with limited amounts of tissue, such as from biopsies or from nasal or bronchial brushings.
Revisiting Group-Based Technology Adoption as a Dynamic Process: The Role of Changing Attitude-Rationale Configurations

In this study, we set out to better understand the dynamics behind group-based technology adoption by investigating the underlying mechanisms of changes in collective adoption decisions over time. Using a longitudinal multi-case study of production teams in the British oil and gas industry, we outline how internally or externally triggered modifications to the constellation of adoption rationales and attitudes toward a focal technology between subgroups caused changes to adoption decisions within a team. The constellations further seemed to impact usage patterns including conflicts about ICT use and the stability of adoption. Based on these observations, we suggest that group-based adoption can be differentiated in qualitatively different technology adoption states (TAS), which emerge as the result of disparate attitude-rationale configurations across subgroups in a user collective. With this reconceptualization of collective adoption as technology adoption states, our study extends current group-based models by providing a new, qualitative lens to view the creation and stability of adoption patterns in complex user groups. With this, our study offers a process view on the (dis)continuance of information systems and provides a basis for practical guidelines on how to deal with problematic adoption situations when actors from multiple (sub)groups are involved.
Phosphorus speciation and availability in intertidal sediments of a temperate estuary : relation to eutrophication and annual P-fluxes

For a better understanding of the phosphorus dynamics and bioavailability in temperate climates, sequential chemical extraction techniques were used to study sediment P-pools distribution and relative importance in a eutrophicated estuary. Results indicate a shift in importance from the iron-bound P fraction to the CaCO3-bound P fraction with increasing salinity, which suggests a decrease in bioavailable P from the most inner part of the estuary seaward, as the CaCO3 associated P is believed to be less available for organisms. Salt marsh plants also influence sediment P speciation, through higher organic P fractions (mainly humic acid associated P) when compared to non-vegetated sediments. The ratio of iron-bound P to iron-oxyhydroxides may be used as an indicator of P availability, since it reflects the number of available P sorption sites in the metal oxides. This ratio was lowest in the intermediate zone of the estuary (13.7) when compared to the outer site (29.6) and the upper site (26.1), suggesting saturation of sorption sites. Co-incident with this, the intermediate site is characterized by the occurrence of macroalgal blooms during summer. In the present case, superficial sediments in the Mondego estuary do not show a clear seasonal trend, either in total amounts of exchangeable P or P speciation. Pools of exchangeable P in the surface sediment were w30 times higher than the annual net-export of P (14 ton year ) from the estuary. The annual P release from the sediment appears diminutive in comparison with the pool-size. Management measures to reduce nutrient input into coastal water systems should therefore consider that phosphorus availability may persist as a result of sediment supply, even after reducing the external point sources. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.