Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
OTO459636 64..89

Objective. The objective is to perform a comprehensive review of the literature from January 2007 through June 2011 on the virology, bacteriology, and immunology related to otitis media. Data Sources. PubMed database of the National Library of Medicine. Review Methods. Three subpanels with co-chairs comprising experts in the virology, bacteriology, and immunology of otitis media were formed. Each of the panels reviewed the literature in their respective fields and wrote draft reviews. The reviews were shared with all panel members, and a second draft was created. The entire panel met at the 10th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Otitis Media in June 2011 and discussed the review and refined the content further. A final draft was created, circulated, and approved by the panel. Conclusion. Excellent progress has been made in the past 4 years in advancing an understanding of the microbiology and immunology of otitis media. Advances include laboratorybased basic studies, cell-based assays, work in animal models, and clinical studies. Implications for Practice. The advances of the past 4 years formed the basis of a series of short-term and long-term research goals in an effort to guide the field. Accomplishing these goals will provide opportunities for the development of novel interventions, including new ways to better treat and prevent otitis media.
Biovolatilization and bioaccumulation of pentavalent arsenic by fungal strains isolated from intensively cultivated soil.

Arsenic has been recognized as an environmental toxicant and public health hazardous element in several countries throughout the world. Inorganic arsenic of geological origin is found in groundwater used for drinking purposes in several parts of the world such as Bangladesh and West Bengal, India (Ademola et al. 2009). Chronic exposure to high levels of arsenic and its compounds, especially in drinking water can have several carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic implications (WHO. 2001). The accumulation of arsenic in agricultural soils occurs from continuous addition of contaminated irrigation water and consequently in food chain results in deteoriation in the quality of agricultural products and eventually damage of human health. It ultimately spreads among humans and animals in the form of a deadly disease namely arsenocosis. Bioaccumulation is a mechanism of immobilisation of the metal(loid)s by biomass, while biovolatilisation majorly occurs by biomethylation (Paez-Espino et al. 2009). Over a century ago, arsenic biovolatilisation by a fungal strain Scopulariopsis brevicaulis was first obtained (Gosio et al. 1892). The fungus S. brevicaulis could produce trimethylarsine (TMA) from arsenite (Chalenger et al. 1935). Recently, more microorganisms capable of conducting these processes have also been found. Carrasco et al. 2005 suggested that Sinorhizobium meliloti, which is resistant to arsenic, was able to bioaccumulate up to 3 times the amount of arsenic levels as non-resistant strains. Phaeolus schweinitzii, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, Neosartorya fischeri have all been shown to be capable of arsenic bioaccumulation and biovolatilization (Cernansky et al 2007). However, very little information is available about fungi that are highly capable of arsenic bioaccumulation and biovolatilization. The intracellular uptake of metal ions from a substrate into living cells, otherwise known as bioaccumulation may lead to the biological removal of metals by fungi (Paez-Espino et al. 2009). Such accumulation of heavy metals by fungal biomass may be particularly relevant because of its potential low cost application in bioremediation and recovery of metals. Although bioremediation of heavy metal using fungi is widely examined (Aksu et al. 1999, Gadd et al. 2000, Lo et al. 1999, Ramsay et al. 1999) much less is known
Are hydroethidine-based probes reliable for ROS detection ?

Th is pa pe r h as b ee n pe er -re vi ew ed a nd a cc ep te d fo r p ub lic at io n, b ut h as y et to u nd er go co py ed iti ng a nd p ro of co rr ec tio n. T he fi na l p ub lis he d ve rs io n m ay d iff er fr om th is pr oo f. News & Views Are hydroethidine-based probes reliable for ROS detection? Yi Xiao 2 and David Meierhofer* Author Affiliations Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Ihnestraße 63-73, 14195 Berlin, Germany Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Biologie, Chemie, Pharmazie, Takustraße 3, 14195 Berlin, Germany
A scalable direct formulation for multi-class boosting

We present a scalable and effective classification model for multi-class boosting classification. In [1], a direct formulation for multiclass boosting was introduced. Unlike many existing multi-class boosting algorithms, which rely on output coding matrices, the approach in [1] directly maximizes the multi-class margin. The major problem of [1] is its extremely high computational complexity, which hampers its application on real-world problems. In this work, we propose a scalable and simple stage-wise boosting method, which also directly maximizes the multiclass margin. Our approach has several advantages: (1) it is simple and computationally efficient to train. The approach can speed up the training time by more than two orders of magnitude without sacrificing the classification accuracy. (2) Like traditional AdaBoost, it is parameter free and empirically demonstrates excellent generalization performance. In contrast, one has to tune the regularization parameter for the multi-class boosting of [1]. Experimental results on challenging multiclass machine learning and vision tasks demonstrate that the proposed approach substantially improves the convergence rate and accuracy of the final visual detector at no additional computational cost. Our new formulation opens up a new way of incorporating prior knowledge into multi-class problems, e.g., feature sharing, hierarchical features, etc.
Investigating the generation of hydrogen sulfide from the phosphonamidodithioate slow-release donor GYY4137

A combination of NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and chemical synthesis was used to elucidate the two-step hydrolytic decomposition pathway of the slow-release hydrogen sulfide (H2S) donor GYY4137 and the key decomposition product was also prepared by an independent synthetic route. The (dichloromethane-free) sodium salt of the phosphonamidodithioate GYY4137 was also produced as a pharmaceutically more acceptable salt. In contrast with GYY4137 and its sodium salt, the decomposition product did not generate H2S or exert cytoprotective or anti-inflammatory effects in oxidatively stressed human Jurkat T-cells and LPS-treated murine RAW264.7 macrophages. The decomposition product represents a useful control compound for determining the biological and pharmacological effects of H2S generated from GYY4137.
Reprogramming the hand: Bridging the craft skills gap in 3D/digital fashion knitwear design

Designer-makers have integrated a wide range of digital media and tools into their practices, many taking ownership of a specific technology or application and learning how to use it for themselves, often drawing on their experiential knowledge of established practices to do so. To date, there has been little discussion on how digital knitting practice has evolved within this context, possibly due to the complexity of the software, limited access to industrial machinery and the fact that it seems divorced from the idea of 'craft'. Despite the machine manufacturers' efforts to make knitting technology and software more user-friendly, the digital interface remains a significant barrier to knitwear designer-makers, generally only accessed via experienced technicians.
Protein metabolism, feed energy partitioning, behavior patterns and plasma cortisol in Nellore steers with high and low residual feed intake.

The objective was to evaluate protein turnover, nitrogen balance, feed energy partitioning, behavior patterns and plasma cortisol in Nellore (B. indicus) cattle with high and low residual feed intake (RFI = actual minus expected dry matter intake). Seventy-two Nellore steers (16 to 21 months-old, 334±19 kg initial body weight) were fed a feedlot diet for 70 days ad libitum. Daily dry matter intake (DMI) and average daily gain (ADG) were recorded individually and RFI was calculated. The 12 steers of lowest (Low-RFI, most efficient) RFI and the 12 ones of highest RFI (High-RFI, least efficient) were evaluated with respect to their behavior patterns and plasma cortisol concentration. Urine was collected for determination of daily 3-methylhistidine excretion (3MH) and myofibrillar protein breakdown rates. Urinary, gaseous and fecal energy losses were determined as well as the N retention and excretion. High-RFI steers tended to have shorter lying and idle periods and greater feeding time and plasma cortisol levels than low-RFI cattle. No RFI effects were seen for urine 3MH excretion and for rates of protein degradation and synthesis. No effects of efficiency class were observed for N excretion or N retention. No RFI effects were observed for dry matter digestibility, digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) content and DE/ME ratio. Methane energy losses were lower for low- compared with high-RFI steers. Protein turnover seems not to affect feed efficiency in Nellore steers. Improved RFI in Nellore steers is probably associated with lower degrees of activity and responsiveness to stress and lower losses of dietary energy as methane.
Guest Editorial Scalability Issues and Solutions for Software Defined Networks

Software Defined Networking (in short SDN, which is also an acronym for Software Defined Network), has emerged as a response to the limitations and complexities of traditional network architectures. At the heart of SDN lies the idea to consolidate the control over network devices into a logically centralized (software) controller separated from the data plane. The separation of the control plane and the data plane is realized via an open programming interface between the data plane switches and the SDN controller. The decoupling allows the control plane to evolve independently of the data plane, which enables faster innovation since software often exceeds hardware in innovation speed. Furthermore, logical centralization has the potential to simplify network operation and management by providing a single focal point where the consequences of management actions can be assessed, and possibly rejected if they would lead to some violation of operational constraints. OpenFlow, the standard SDN protocol today, is based on a simple match-action paradigm which results in great flexibilities, e.g., in terms of traffic engineering, definition of flows, as well as in-band network control functionalities.
The Political Economy of Reforms in Central Bank Design: Evidence from a New Dataset

What explains the worldwide changes in central bank design over the past five decades? Using a new dataset on central bank institutional design, this paper investigates the timing, pace and magnitude of reforms in a sample of 154 countries over the period 1972-2017. I construct a new dynamic index of central bank independence and show that past levels of independence, as well as regional convergence, represent important drivers of changes in central bank design. An external pressure, such as obtaining an IMF loan, or political events, such as democratic reforms and the election of nationalistic governments, also impact the reform process. Reforms also follow periods of high inflation rates suggesting an endogeneous evolution of central bank independence. The results also reveal important heterogeneities in the reform process depending on the level of development, the size and direction of reforms, as well as the different dimensions along which central bank legislation can be amended.
Atomic-resolution STM of a system with strongly correlated electrons:NiO(001) surface structure and defect sites

Elevated-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy has been used to obtain atomic resolution images of ~001! surfaces of NiO single crystals. Empty-state images of the ~131! surface show the nickel-atom sites and filled-state images show the oxygen ions in agreement with recent theoretical studies of the electronic structure of NiO. Empty-state and filled-state images of point defects and patterning effects observed on the upper terraces of̂ 100& step edges are explained by directional 2 p-3d covalent bonding between the oxygen and nickel sublattices. @S0163-1829 ~97! 02311-4#
AN IMPROVED APPROACH ON CLASS IMBALANCE DATA USING WITHIN-CLASS MINORITY OVERSAMPLING TECHNIQUE

Knowledge discovery from traditional or balance datasets can be done in an efficient way using the existing classification algorithms. The benchmark classification algorithms performance degrades when they are applied to the imbalance datasets. The reason is due to improper building of the predictive model using the imbalance datasets. In this paper, we propose a novel decision tree algorithm WithIn class Minority Oversampling TEchnique (WIMOTE) for efficient handling of imbalance data. The proposed WIMOTE approach uses the oversampling technique with unique statistical oversample strategy for removing misclassified and noisy instances in both majority and minority subset and oversamples the minority subset instances for data improvement. The experimental observation suggests that the proposed approach improves in terms of accuracy, AUC, Precision, Recall and F-measure with the benchmark SMOTE on 15 imbalance datasets from UCI repository.
Learning Air Pollution with Bidirectional LSTM RNN

Abstract An accurate understanding of air pollutants in a continuous space-time domain by spatiotemporal interpolation is critical for meaningful assessment of the quantitative relationship between the public health and perennial environmental exposures. Existing spatiotemporal interpolation algorithms are usually based on unrealistic assumptions by restricting the interpolation models to the ones with explicit and simple mathematical descriptions, thus neglecting plenty of hidden yet critical influence factors. We developed an efficient deep-learning-based spatiotemporal interpolation algorithm which can generate more accurate estimation for air pollution on a large geographic scale and over a long time period. The experimental results demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of our novel algorithm.
Near real-time monitoring of buried oil pipeline right-of-way for third-party incursion

Many security systems employing different methods have been proposed to protect buried oil pipelines transporting petroleum products from the well-head via the refinery to: depots and other receiving stations. Currently there is a security gap in monitoring these buried pipelines in real time and in keeping them protected from third party interference. This paper addresses the problem of monitoring these systems by developing an automated image analysis system using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with sensors for monitoring buried pipeline-right-ofway (ROW). Video frame sequences captured by the UAV platform were ortho-rectified and mosaicked to form a seamless Digital Surface Model (DSM), which was then compared with an existing map for geo-referencing. This was achieved using the Direct Linear Transform (DLT) model and the Speed-up Robust Feature (SURF) algorithm. An OT-MACH correlation filter was applied to the geo-registered mosaicked video frames to detect third party interference with the ROW.
Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment of Cytochromes P450 mRNA in Human : Studies in the Liver, Blood and Gastrointestinal Mucosa

Background. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of inflammation on the gene expression of three cytochrome P450's (CYP) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) in the rectal and colonic mucosa in patients with proctitis. Methods. Biopsies were obtained from inflamed and normal mucosa in association with routine sigmoidoscopy in patients with proctitis. The biopsies were snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen. Real time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) was used for quantitative analyses of mRNA specific for the CYP2E1, CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 gene and the MDR1 genes. Values were normalised based on gene expression of beta-actin to enable comparisons between samples. Results. The gene expression of CYP2E1 and CYP3A4 was lower in mucosa with severe inflammation vs normal mucosa (p<0.05). For CYP3A5 and P-gp there was no significant difference when comparing normal and inflammatory changed mucosa. Conclusion. Our study suggests that at least for some of the CYP enzymes the expression decreases in response to the inflammatory process in the gastrointestinal tract.
Process improvement and ICTs in Australian SMEs: a selection and implementation framework

This article describes the development, modification and testing of a tool designed to assist small firms in making more appropriate decisions regarding information and communication technology (ICT) selection and implementation. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, a number of possible tools were initially developed to support firm-based self-diagnostic exercises. Research outcomes from a joint European–Australian research project were regionalised for Australian conditions through collaborative product development with a number of Australian SME manufacturing firms. This article reports on the pilot implementations and the outcomes achieved with these Australian SMEs. These implementations have shown successful outcomes for the trial SME participants and have led to the creation of an online self-assessment tool to allow wider access by interested SMEs.
Household Credit Uncertainty and the Real Interest Rate

I introduce aggregate uncertainty about the debt limits faced by heterogeneous households in a Bewley-Huggett economy with a financial sector and government bonds in exogenous supply. Uncertainty about households’ debt contracts results from aggregate shocks to the balance sheets of financial intermediaries supplying credit to households, which sometimes give rise to credit crises. In the rational expectations equilibrium, agents internalize the existence of (endogenous) stochastic credit regimes, which creates an additional precautionary savings motive. When the economy transits from a regime of easy credit to a regime of tight credit, the interest rate drops because of the combined effects of i) deleveraging and ii) the precautionary savings motive created by the uncertainty about future debt limits. A low and persistent interest rate environment arises, with households holding more assets and less debt. Consumption is smoother over the cycle than in a model in which the transition to a tight credit regime is unexpected. Thus an extended period of low interest rates is not necessarily associated with a massive drop in aggregate consumption, which is a feature of the post-financial crisis US data that classical models of the liquidity trap fail to generate.
A Survey on Privacy Preserving Data Mining Techniques

Many kinds of anonymization techniques have been in the subject of research. This paper will present a detailed review of several anonymization techniques particularly in the area called “Privacy Preserved Data Mining”. Recent experiments shown that some of the anonymization techniques like generalization, bucketization doesn’t ensure the privacy preservation. And it is experimentally shown that slicing provides significant level of utility and also prevents membership disclosure. Thus, detailed analysis is done on the Post anonymization techniques and the necessity for privacy preservation is also reviewed in detail.
Culture and the gender gap in major choice: An analysis using sibling comparisons

In this paper we study the role of culture on gender roles – preferences and beliefs about the appropriate role of women in society – for the gender gap in choice of major, using the epidemiological approach. We focus on second-generation immigrants in Sweden and compare the major choices at high school and college of opposite-sex siblings. Controlling for sibling fixed effects allows us to more convincingly than in previous literature control for factors apart from culture on gender roles that may affect educational choices. We use the female relative share in traditionally male fields to proxy for culture on gendered beliefs about educational choices in the source country. We find a negative gender gap in the probability of having majored in a STEM or male-dominated field, and that this gender gap varies with the proxy for culture on gender roles. We observe the same pattern when we study the probability to have majored in a female-dominated field. Our results clearly indicate that policies aimed at changing stereotypical gendered beliefs about educational choices have the potential to decrease the gender gap in major.
A Survey of Internet of Things Services Provision by Telecom Operators

Telecom industry will play a vital role in delivering Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and services. Researchers trust that IoT services deployment by Telecom is inevitable during the next few years. Nowadays, digital development overgrows, thus Telecom operators should consider IoT as the next evolution in their business plans. If an operator’s services confined to traditional services such as calling, they will lose a lot of added values and opportunities. In the end, they will find themselves out of the competition. Recently, the research community has addressed this topic and enriched it by highlighting related issues to help operators and researchers to move forward in this field. This paper presents a sound review for this topic covering the most significant related issues such as success elements, strategies and Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) standards provided by Telecom operators for IoT provision.
The Rise of Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Global Finance

As the United States has retreated from its lead role in globalization â€“ i¬ rst because of the 2008 i¬ nancial crisis, and now under President Donald Trumpâ€™s leadership â€“ China has become a major global i¬ nancial player. China, as the worldâ€™s largest saver, has rapidly expanded its cross-border lending since the crisis, more than doubling its overseas banking presence. What are the implications? I contend that Chinaâ€™s state-led capitalism is an important form of patient capital, characterized by a longerterm horizon. While technically classii¬ ed as mobile capital, its higher risk tolerance and geopolitical shrewdness make state-owned capital less likely to swiftly exit debtor countries. Compared to traditional mobile capital, debtor governments thus gain more policy freedom, particularly during hard times when Western creditors might otherwise impose austerity and other onerous policy conditions. Employing an originally constructed dataset, the China Global Financial Index, I conduct an econometric test across 15 Latin American countries from 1990-2015. I i¬ nd that left governments are more likely to borrow from China. However, notwithstanding this initial creditor choice, Chinese state-to-state lending then uniformly leads to higher budget dei¬ cits. It endows governments with more i¬ scal space to intervene in their economies by reducing their reliance on conditionality-linked Western i¬ nancing. These results suggest that Chinese i¬ nancing could be a development opportunity, but only if governments invest wisely. Otherwise, by lending without policy conditions, China may be encouraging developing country governments to spend without bounds, sowing the seeds for future debt problems.