Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Asi River’s Estimated Nutrient Load and Effects on the Eastern Mediterranean

Rivers are primary receiving environments for agricultural runoff and for domestic and industrial discharges. Rivers assimilate and treat incoming pollution load until self-purification capacity is reached. The remaining pollution load and natural nutrients are carried to and discharged into the sea causing variations in the receiving area’s nutrient concentration. This study evaluated nutrient loads and effects of the Asi River on the northeastern Mediterranean Sea. Monitoring data from 2006 to 2014 from the State of Hydraulic Works of Turkey were analyzed with an interpolation-based average-estimator model for nutrient load calculation. The nutrient load’s impact on the receiving area was determined using satellite images. Annual nitrite (NO2), nitrate (NO3), ammonium (NH4), and phosphate (o-PO4) loads were found to be 234 102 tones/year, 2 402 066 tones/year, 1 123 714 tones/year, and 603 669 tones/year, respectively, with all nutrients showing distinct seasonality. The Asi River’s load increases during winter and reaches its maximum in spring. High stream flow due to increased precipitation during spring months could explain this situation. Similar results were obtained from satellite images. Chlorophyll-a concentrations in the receiving area increase during winter due to high nutrient load. In other words, nutrient load increases the receiving area’s primary productivity.
Amsterdam Museum Linked Open Data

In this document we describe the Amsterdam Museum Linked Open Data set. The dataset is a five-star Linked Data representation and comprises the entire collection of the Amsterdam Museum consisting of more than 70,000 object descriptions. Furthermore, the institution's thesaurus and person authority files used in the object metadata are included in the Linked Data set. The data is mapped to the Europeana Data Model, utilizing Dublin Core, SKOS, RDA-group2 elements and the OAI-ORE model to represent the museum data. Vocabulary concepts are mapped to GeoNames and DBpedia. The two main contributions of this dataset are the inclusion of internal vocabularies and the fact that the complexity of the original dataset is retained.
A supervised fuzzy network analysis for risk assessment in stock markets: An ANFIS approach

In this paper we have used an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) approach to predict the risk of stocks. Previous works just predict the return of stocks and make their portfolio based on the predicted return. But for developing a portfolio both risk and return should be predicted. Our model predicts the risk without needing to experts and just with using available data in the market. To generate the membership functions, we use Fuzzy C-mean clustering algorithm. To test our neuro-fuzzy model we've used data on portfolios constituted from the Tehran Stock Exchange. The results show that the error of prediction is so small.
Can a global fund help solve the global marine plastic debris problem?

The problem of marine plastic debris impacts all of the world’s oceans and requires all nations to respond. However, developing States require funds to improve waste management infrastructure and services in order to reduce marine debris at source. Plastics manufacturers and retailers globally must be incentivised to design products for the environment as well as for the collection and end-of-life treatment facilities available within the intended markets. Given the oceans are a global common, we investigate the option of developing a global fund mechanism to progress the necessary actions to reduce plastic waste entering the world’s oceans. This requires consideration of what form a conceptual global fund could take, how contributions will be made to the fund and what the fund would pay for. In the short-term, remediation may be prioritised, but long-term preventive measures must also be considered. Both require funding. A global fund could assist in closing the disparity in available national funds for such activities. A conceptual model is proposed that would assess the discharge of solid waste into the global stock of marine plastic debris by each State to determine their contribution to the fund. Some nations will initially be large contributors to the fund, creating incentive to reduce waste entering the oceans in order to reduce these financial contributions. Such a model may be regarded as inherently unfair, presenting issues of capacity and equity. Many developing States would therefore be exempted from financial contributions and be assisted by the fund to address the mismanagement of plastic waste. Alternate methods of determining national contributions to the fund are provided from analogous mechanisms. It is suggested the model may still have merit for determining contributors to the global stock, stimulating policy development and measuring success of the proposed fund outputs. This research article is available in Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics: https://cbe.miis. edu/joce/vol5/iss1/6
Carotid Atherosclerosis Is a Stronger Predictor of Myocardial Infarction in Women Than in Men: A 6-Year Follow-Up Study of 6226 Persons: The Tromsø Study

Background and Purpose— Ultrasound of carotid arteries provides measures of intima media thickness (IMT) and plaque, both widely used as surrogate measures of cardiovascular disease. Although IMT and plaques are highly intercorrelated, the relationship between carotid plaque and IMT and cardiovascular disease has been conflicting. In this prospective, population-based study, we measured carotid IMT, total plaque area, and plaque echogenicity as predictors for first-ever myocardial infarction (MI). Methods— IMT, total plaque area, and plaque echogenicity were measured in 6226 men and women aged 25 to 84 years with no previous MI. The subjects were followed for 6 years and incident MI was registered. Results— During follow-up, MI occurred in 6.6% of men and 3.0% of women. The adjusted relative risk (RR; 95% CI) between the highest plaque area tertile versus no plaque was 1.56 (1.04 to 2.36) in men and 3.95 (2.16 to 7.19) in women. In women, there was a significant trend toward a higher MI risk with more echolucent plaque. The adjusted RR (95% CI) in the highest versus lowest IMT quartile was 1.73 (0.98 to 3.06) in men and 2.86 (1.07 to 7.65) in women. When we excluded bulb IMT from analyses, IMT did not predict MI in either sex. Conclusions— In a general population, carotid plaque area was a stronger predictor of first-ever MI than was IMT. Carotid atherosclerosis was a stronger risk factor for MI in women than in men. In women, the risk of MI increased with plaque echolucency.
VLIW-DLX simulator for educational purposes

VLIW-DLX is graphical simulator of simple VLIW processor. It is targeted to be used in undergraduate computer architecture courses. VLIW-DLX uses similar GUI to well-known WinDLX simulator and its ISA uses scalar DLX instructions as the building blocks. Simulator is implemented in Java and allows future modifications of the architecture including instruction set expansion. Paper discusses choices made in developing VLIW-DLX and its intended educational use.
Agent based Parallelized Intrusion Detection System using Ant Colony Optimization

Detecting intrusions in a network is one of the major functionalities that cannot be overlooked. Even though the intrusion detection systems in networks tend to perform their best, the other side is always ahead conjuring new attacks every time. Further, detecting an attack earlier or at least as soon as the attack has occurred is the only way to counter it. Detecting it at a later point in time proves to be useless. But the current systems available are not able to live up to the needs of the real time scenario. This paper presents an Ant Colony Optimization based intrusion detection system that uses agents to perform the process of detection, storage and monitoring. The network is not considered as a whole, instead, it is divided into clusters and detection is performed on the nodes within the cluster alone. Hence the workload of the detection system is reduced considerably, providing faster results. Another added advantage is that all the agents can run in parallel, hence parallelized detection becomes possible. Experiments were carried out using multi core CPUs and many core GPUs and the comparison shows that the CPUs shows twice the increase in performance when compared to single core machines, while GPUs show thrice the increase in performance when compared to multi core CPUs.
Silicon nanowires by self-organised reactive ion etching

Dense arrays of vertically-aligned nanowires were fabricated using a self-masking SF6/O2 dry etch process. Oxygen flow rate and etch time were varied and an argon plasma etch was employed to taper the resulting nanowire features. The surfaces exhibit very low reflectivities across a range of wavelengths and angles of incidence. Weighted average reflectances as low as 0.05% are demonstrated, showing high potential for PV applications.
Bone mineral density in patients with pancreatic insufficiency and steatorrhea.

OBJECTIVES Low bone mineral density (BMD) has been demonstrated in some patients with chronic intestinal disorders accompanied by diarrhea and malabsorption. However, very few studies have evaluated BMD in patients with pancreatic insufficiency due to cystic fibrosis. Our aim was to assess the prevalence and severity of bone loss in a cohort of patients with pancreatic insufficiency as a consequence of chronic pancreatitis. METHODS Fourteen patients with chronic pancreatitis were studied. All of them presented with severe pancreatic insufficiency (secretin test: bicarbonate < or = 40 mEq/L) and steatorrhea (fecal fat > 7 g/day) and had been abstinent from alcohol for a median of 2.5 yr (range 1-15 yr). BMD was measured with a total-body scanner for dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Results were expressed as T-score (number of SD by which a patient density differs from the mean of sex-matched 30-yr-old healthy controls) in lumbar spine (L2-L4) and femoral neck. Total serum calcium, 25-(OH)D3, alkaline phosphatase, and midmolecular parathyroid hormone were determined. RESULTS Ten patients demonstrated osteopenia (T-score -1 to -2.5) in the lumbar spine and in the femoral neck. Three patients displayed osteoporosis (T-score < -2.5) in the lumbar spine and two in the femoral neck. Mean T-scores (+/- SEM) were -1.44 +/- 0.37 in the lumbar spine and -1.79 +/- 0.27 in the femoral neck. Total and ionic serum calcium, serum parathyroid hormone, and alkaline phosphatase were in the normal range in all patients. Serum 25-(OH)D3 was below normal range in 7 of 12 patients. T-scores of patients with pancreatitis of alcoholic etiology (n = 10) were similar to those of nonalcoholic patients (n = 4). BMD did not correlate with age, bicarbonate secretion, fecal fat excretion, stool volume, parameters of mineral metabolism, duration of alcoholism, or mean alcohol intake. CONCLUSIONS Most patients with pancreatic insufficiency as a consequence of chronic pancreatitis exhibit osteopenia, and some show evidence of osteoporosis. Identifying the intimate mechanisms for low BMD are beyond the limitations of the present study. More in-depth metabolic studies are necessary to define the pathogenic mechanism of osteopenia associated with chronic pancreatic disorders.
Multimodal Prediction of Psychological Disorders: Learning Verbal and Nonverbal Commonalities in Adjacency Pairs

Semi-structured interviews are widely used in medical settings to gather information from individuals about psychological disorders, such as depression or anxiety. These interviews typically consist of a series of question and response pairs, which we refer to as adjacency pairs. We propose a computational model, the Multimodal HCRF, that considers the commonalities among adjacency pairs and information from multiple modalities to infer the psychological states of the interviewees. We collect data and perform experiments on a human to virtual human interaction data set. Our multimodal approach gives a significant advantage over conventional holistic approaches which ignore the adjacency pair context in predicting depression from semi-structured interviews.
Frail Patients Are at Increased Risk for Mortality and Prolonged Institutional Care After Cardiac Surgery

Background— Frailty is an emerging concept in medicine yet to be explored as a risk factor in cardiac surgery. Where elderly patients are increasingly referred for cardiac surgery, the prevalence of a frail group among these is also on the rise. We assessed frailty as a risk factor for adverse outcomes after cardiac surgery. Methods and Results— Functional measures of frailty and clinical data were collected prospectively for all cardiac surgery patients at a single center. Frailty was defined as any impairment in activities of daily living (Katz index), ambulation, or a documented history of dementia. Of 3826 patients, 157 (4.1%) were frail. Frail patients were older, were more likely to be female, and had risk factors for adverse surgical outcomes. By logistic regression, frailty was an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 1.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.0), as well as institutional discharge (odds ratio 6.3, 95% CI 4.2 to 9.4). Frailty was an independent predictor of reduced midterm survival (hazard ratio 1.5, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.2). Conclusions— Frailty is a risk for postoperative complications and an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality, institutional discharge, and reduced midterm survival. Frailty screening improves risk assessment in cardiac surgery patients and may identify a subgroup of patients who may benefit from innovative processes of care.
Use of Multiple Endpoints and Approval Paths Depicts a Decade of FDA Oncology Drug Approvals

This study explores the historic use of different endpoints to support regular and accelerated approval of cancer drugs between 2002 and 2012. In the past 10 years, two thirds of oncology regular approvals were based on endpoints other than overall survival. More than three quarters of accelerated approvals were based on response rates. The accelerated approval program has been heavily used over this time period, with one third of all approved oncology indications receiving accelerated approval. At times, critics have characterized the agency as rigid and unpredictable. This research describes the degree of regulatory flexibility that U.S. Food and Drug Administration and drug sponsors have used over the past decade in the development of new treatments for cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 19(14); 3722–31. ©2013 AACR.
An efficient collusion resistant security mechanism for heterogeneous sensor networks

Purpose – As large‐scale homogeneous networks suffer from high costs of communication, computation, and storage requirements, the heterogeneous sensor networks (HSN) are preferred because they provide better performance and security solutions for scalable applications in dynamic environments. Random key pre‐distribution schemes are vulnerable to collusion attacks. The purpose of this paper is to propose an efficient collusion resistant security mechanism for heterogeneous sensor networks.Design/methodology/approach – The authors consider a heterogeneous sensor network (HSN) consists of a small number of powerful high‐end H‐sensors and a large number of ordinary low‐end L‐sensors. However, homogeneous sensor network (MSN) consists of only L‐sensors. Since the collusion attack on key pre‐distribution scheme mainly takes advantage of the globally applicable keys, which are selected from the same key pool, they update the key ring after initial deployment and generate new key rings by using one‐way hash funct.
A rat monoclonal antibody that binds specifically to mouse T lymphoblasts and inhibits IL 2 receptor functions: a putative anti-IL 2 receptor antibody.

To obtain an anti-interleukin 2 (IL 2) receptor antibody, we immunized rats with phorbol myristate acetate-pulsed mouse T lymphoblasts. The spleen cells of the rats were fused with rat myeloma cells. Several stable clones of hybridoma cells were obtained that produced monoclonal antibodies (mAb) reacting specifically with mouse T lymphoblasts. One of these mAb, AMT-13, showed characteristics of a putative anti-IL 2 receptor antibody. As tested by FACS analysis, the mAb AMT-13 binds to murine T lymphoblasts or to IL 2-dependent T cell lines, but not to B lymphoblasts, thymocytes, splenocytes, lymph node cells, or bone marrow cells. The mAb AMT-13 inhibited in a species-specific and dose-dependent manner: i) the capacity of mouse T lymphoblasts to absorb IL 2 activity, and ii) the capacity of mouse T lymphoblasts to proliferate in response to IL 2. The function of T lymphoblasts of rat origin was not affected by the mAb AMT-13. The time course of the acquisition by mitogen-stimulated spleen cells of the capacity to absorb IL 2 activity was paralleled by that of their capacity to bind the mAb AMT-13. Preliminary biochemical analysis of the antigen recognized by AMT-13 revealed a major component with an apparent m.w. of 50,000 to 60,000. According to these data, the mAb AMT-13 seems to be directed against an antigenic determinant of the murine IL 2 receptor molecule.
Botulinum toxin as a biological weapon: medical and public health management.

OBJECTIVE The Working Group on Civilian Biodefense has developed consensus-based recommendations for measures to be taken by medical and public health professionals if botulinum toxin is used as a biological weapon against a civilian population. PARTICIPANTS The working group included 23 representatives from academic, government, and private institutions with expertise in public health, emergency management, and clinical medicine. EVIDENCE The primary authors (S.S.A. and R.S.) searched OLDMEDLINE and MEDLINE (1960-March 1999) and their professional collections for literature concerning use of botulinum toxin as a bioweapon. The literature was reviewed, and opinions were sought from the working group and other experts on diagnosis and management of botulism. Additional MEDLINE searches were conducted through April 2000 during the review and revisions of the consensus statement. CONSENSUS PROCESS The first draft of the working group's consensus statement was a synthesis of information obtained in the formal evidence-gathering process. The working group convened to review the first draft in May 1999. Working group members reviewed subsequent drafts and suggested additional revisions. The final statement incorporates all relevant evidence obtained in the literature search in conjunction with final consensus recommendations supported by all working group members. CONCLUSIONS An aerosolized or foodborne botulinum toxin weapon would cause acute symmetric, descending flaccid paralysis with prominent bulbar palsies such as diplopia, dysarthria, dysphonia, and dysphagia that would typically present 12 to 72 hours after exposure. Effective response to a deliberate release of botulinum toxin will depend on timely clinical diagnosis, case reporting, and epidemiological investigation. Persons potentially exposed to botulinum toxin should be closely observed, and those with signs of botulism require prompt treatment with antitoxin and supportive care that may include assisted ventilation for weeks or months. Treatment with antitoxin should not be delayed for microbiological testing.
The Application of Rainwater as Architectural Design Elements For Green Technology Solution In Low Rise Office Building

Performance of workers in terms of productivity level is determined by many related factors including a comfortable work space. Nevertheless, the discussion on the condition of work space environment namely in low rise office buildings and its related issues on thermal comfort in Malaysia are fairly new and is not well addressed. Past studies indicate that low rise offices found in many well-developed countries tend to utilize air conditioning as easiest ways to create a comfortable work space and to cool down the building interior. This factor had indirectly contributed to the increment of energy consumption namely in urban areas due to the rise of air condition consumption from 40% to 60% annually. As a result, contributed to the formation of urban heat island (UHI) which affect community’s environment and quality of life involving health and comfort. The objective of this paper therefore is to discuss and propose approaches on how to apply rainwater elements in architectural design for achieving thermal benefits through passive cooling. This is vital as Malaysia receives large amount of rainfall throughout the year in which this nature resources may provide advantages as sustainable source in cooling down the building temperature. For this purpose, case study as research strategy is adopted using mixed methodology combining qualitative and quantitative method. To conduct the data analysis, ECOTECT simulation and small field experiments are performed to investigate the cooling effect in low rise office building. Findings indicate that low rise office building which integrates rainwater elements in architectural design potentially improve the building thermal performance thus reducing building’s energy demand for space conditioning. This study is important as by adopting appropriate methods in addressing ecology issues will not only provide a comfortable living environment to the users but also established referential guideline in low rise office design.
Exploring the design space of specialized multicore neural processors

This study examines the design of several novel specialized multicore neural processors. Systems based on SRAM cores and memristor devices were examined. Detailed circuit simulations were used to ensure that the systems could be compared accurately. Two types of memristor cores were examined: digital and analog cores. Novel circuits were designed for both of these memristor systems. Additionally full system evaluation of multicore processors based on these cores and specialized routing circuits were developed. Our results show that the memristor systems yield the highest throughput and lowest power. We compared these specialized systems to more traditional HPC systems. Two commodity high performance processors were examined: a six core Intel Xeon processor, and an NVIDIA Tesla M2070 GPGPU. Care was taken to ensure the code on each platform was very efficient (multi-threaded on the Xeon processor, and a high device utilization CUDA program on the GPGPU). Our results indicate that the specialized systems can be between two to five orders more energy efficient compared to the traditional HPC systems. Additionally the specialized cores take up much less die area - allowing in some cases a reduction from 179 Xeon six-core processor chips to 1 memristor based multicore chip and a corresponding reduction in power from 17 kW down to 0.07 W.