Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anomaly detection in non-stationary data: Ensemble based self-adaptive OCSVM

With the emergence of data streaming applications that produce large data in motion, anomaly detection in non-stationary environments has become a major research focus. Unknown and unstable behaviour of data over time, limits the application of traditional anomaly detection methods that have been designed for stationary data. Moreover, basic assumptions of many existing works in the adaptive anomaly detection domain, such as the availability of labelled data over time or dealing with a known type of change in the data, are not valid for real-life applications. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised ensemble based anomaly detection method using One Class Support Vector Machines (OCSVMs). The proposed method is able to detect potential changes in the distribution of the normal data and adapts itself accordingly, without requiring any external feedback, e.g., ground truth labels. Moreover, it is able to automatically select an appropriate set of recent instances during learning phases, and an appropriate set of models during prediction phases by identifying active concepts. We evaluate our proposed method against state-of-the-art adaptive anomaly detection methods that can be applied in an unsupervised manner, on both real and synthetic non-stationary data. The results show that with considerably lower computational cost, our method outperforms the other methods.
Effect of antibiotic prescribing in primary care on antimicrobial resistance in individual patients: systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective To systematically review the literature and, where appropriate, meta-analyse studies investigating subsequent antibiotic resistance in individuals prescribed antibiotics in primary care. Design Systematic review with meta-analysis. Data sources Observational and experimental studies identified through Medline, Embase, and Cochrane searches. Review methods Electronic searches using MeSH terms and text words identified 4373 papers. Two independent reviewers assessed quality of eligible studies and extracted data. Meta-analyses were conducted for studies presenting similar outcomes. Results The review included 24 studies; 22 involved patients with symptomatic infection and two involved healthy volunteers; 19 were observational studies (of which two were prospective) and five were randomised trials. In five studies of urinary tract bacteria (14 348 participants), the pooled odds ratio (OR) for resistance was 2.5 (95% confidence interval 2.1 to 2.9) within 2 months of antibiotic treatment and 1.33 (1.2 to 1.5) within 12 months. In seven studies of respiratory tract bacteria (2605 participants), pooled ORs were 2.4 (1.4 to 3.9) and 2.4 (1.3 to 4.5) for the same periods, respectively. Studies reporting the quantity of antibiotic prescribed found that longer duration and multiple courses were associated with higher rates of resistance. Studies comparing the potential for different antibiotics to induce resistance showed no consistent effects. Only one prospective study reported changes in resistance over a long period; pooled ORs fell from 12.2 (6.8 to 22.1) at 1 week to 6.1 (2.8 to 13.4) at 1 month, 3.6 (2.2 to 6.0) at 2 months, and 2.2 (1.3 to 3.6) at 6 months. Conclusions Individuals prescribed an antibiotic in primary care for a respiratory or urinary infection develop bacterial resistance to that antibiotic. The effect is greatest in the month immediately after treatment but may persist for up to 12 months. This effect not only increases the population carriage of organisms resistant to first line antibiotics, but also creates the conditions for increased use of second line antibiotics in the community.
The Effect of Employee Stock Options on the Evolution of Compensation in the 1990s

Between 1995 and 1998, actual growth in nominal compensation per hour (CPH) accelerated from approximately 2 percent to 5 percent. Yet as labor markets continued to tighten in 1999, the growth in CPH paradoxically slowed. In this article, we attempt to solve this aggregate wage puzzle by exploring whether changes in pay structure - specifically, the increased use of employee stock options - can account for the behavior of CPH in the late 1990s. CPH reflects employee stock options on the date they are realized rather than on the date they are granted. When we recalculate CPH growth to reflect the value of current stock options when they are granted - rather than their value when they are realized - we find that our adjusted CPH measure accelerated in each year from 1995 to 1999.
Mjölnir: collecting trash in a demanding new world

As flash devices become ubiquitous in data centers and cost per gigabyte drops, flash systems need to provide data services similar to those of traditional storage. We present Mjölnir, a powerful and scalable engine that addresses the core problems that make efficient flash based data services challenging: multi-reference management and garbage collection. Additionally, by providing powerful primitives for address remapping, Mjölnir enables redesign of the I/O stack for greater efficiency and performance with flash. Mjölnir uses techniques from language runtimes for reference management and garbage collection; we show via prototype and experimental evaluation that this design can deliver predictable performance even with varied user workloads across a range of capacity and reference-count scales.
The joint effect of apolipoprotein E epsilon4 and MRI findings on lower-extremity function and decline in cognitive function.

BACKGROUND Cognitive decline and poor physical function are risk factors for disability in old age and may occur more often in subjects with the apolipoprotein E epsilon4 (ApoE-epsilon4) allele. The objective of this study was to investigate the joint effect of ApoE-epsilon4 and structural changes detected on MRI brain scans on cognitive decline and lower-extremity function. METHODS Brain MRI (1.5 T), neuropsychological tests, and lower-extremity physical function tests were administered to World War II male veteran twins ages 69 to 80. Quantification of MRI scans used a previously published algorithm to segment brain images into total cerebral brain (TCB), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and white-matter hyperintensity (WMH) volumes. A short battery of physical performance tests was used to assess lower-extremity function. Ten-year changes in performance on the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT), and the Digit Symbol Substitution (DSS) test were used to assess cognitive decline. RESULTS For the sample as a whole, the comparison of subjects by median split of total cerebral brain volume found that those with brain volumes below the median performed worse on tests of gait and balance (p < .01) and experienced greater cognitive decline on the MMSE and BVRT cognitive test batteries (both p < .01). In addition, subjects with WMH volumes above the median had poor performance on the standing balance tasks and experienced greater decline on the DSS test (p < .01). Stratified analyses revealed that the joint effect of radiological findings and the ApoE-epsilon4 allele on cognitive decline and lower-extremity function was often greater than that expected from the separate effects combined. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that radiological findings in conjunction with ApoE-epsilon4 may single out a group at higher risk for dementia. We speculate that the observed interaction effect may be due to increased susceptibility to brain injury or impaired repair mechanisms in subjects with ApoE-epsilon4.
An RFID-Based System for Pilgrim Management in King Abdul Aziz International Airport

Millions of pilgrims arrive every year to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform the fifth pillar of Islam, Hajj. Managing this large number of pilgrims from different nations and various cultures in a short period of time is not easy. Officials in the pilgrim terminal in King AbdulAziz International Airport (KAIA), which is the main portal to the holy city of Makkah, need to utilize new technological solutions to increase the efficiency of the process of receiving, guiding, and managing pilgrims. In this work, we propose a system to manage pilgrims in KAIA using the RFID technology. In this system, each pilgrim is given an ID card with a unique number. This card is used to identify the pilgrim in different stages of the arrival process. The proposed system helps pilgrims finding their ways to the designated waiting area for their nationalities and helps officials registering pilgrims, editing their information, and searching for them.
Reduction of 1/f noise in graphene after electron-beam irradiation

We investigated experimentally the effect of the electron-beam irradiation on the level of the low-frequency 1/f noise in graphene devices. It was found that 1/f noise in graphene reduces with increasing concentration of defects induced by irradiation. The increased amount of structural disorder in graphene under irradiation was verified with micro-Raman spectroscopy. The bombardment of graphene devices with 20-keV electrons reduced the noise spectral density, SI/I2 (I is the source-drain current) by an order-of magnitude at the radiation dose of 104 μC/cm2. We analyzed the observed noise reduction in the limiting cases of the mobility and carrier number fluctuation mechanisms. The obtained results are important for the proposed graphene applications in analog, mixed-signal, and radio-frequency systems, integrated circuits and sensors.
Evaluation of multiple choice questions by item analysis in a medical college at Pondicherry, India -

Background: Medical students are evaluated and assessed by different methods. One of the methods for evaluation is by using multiple choice questions (MCQs). MCQs are difficult to frame but easy to administer and check. MCQs can be evaluated for the quality by item and test analysis. The objective of the study was to evaluate the MCQs among seventh semester MBBS students. Methods: Total 30 MCQs were constructed in community medicine. These MCQs were administered to a small group of MBBS students. All MCQs had single stem with three wrong and one correct answer. The data were entered in Microsoft excel 2010 software and analysed. Mean, SD, Proportions were used. Difficulty index (DIF I), discrimination index (DI) and distractor efficiency (DE) were the parameters used to evaluate the items. Results: Total 90 distractors (3x30 MCQs) were analysed. Mean for difficulty index, discrimination index and distractor efficiency were 38.3%, 0.27 and 82.8% respectively. Of 30 items, 11 items were of higher difficulty level (DIF I 60%). Total 15 items were having very good DI. Of the 90 distractors, there were 16 (17.8%) non-functional distractors (NFDs) present in 13 (43.3%) items. Conclusions: In present study, there were only three MCQs out of the total 30 MCQs which satisfied all the criteria for an ideal MCQ.
Do Local Governments Engage in Strategic Property-Tax Competition?

This paper uses spatial econometric methods to investigate property-tax competition among local governments. The theoretical model is drawn from the literature on tax competition, in which local jurisdictions choose property-tax rates taking into account the migration of mobile capital in response to tax differentials. Using a "spatial lag" econometric model, the paper estimates the reaction function of the representative community, which relates the community's property-tax rate to its own characteristics and to the tax rates in competing communities. A nonzero reaction-function slope indicates the presence of strategic interaction in the choice of tax rates. The estimation uses cross-section data on property taxes and other socio-economic variables for cities in the Boston metropolitan area. The results, which are presented for two periods before and after imposition of Proposition 2 1/2 (a tax limitation measure), indicate the presence of strategic interaction.
MEF2C regulates cortical inhibitory and excitatory synapses and behaviors relevant to neurodevelopmental disorders

Numerous genetic variants associated with MEF2C are linked to autism, intellectual disability (ID) and schizophrenia (SCZ) – a heterogeneous collection of neurodevelopmental disorders with unclear pathophysiology. MEF2C is highly expressed in developing cortical excitatory neurons, but its role in their development remains unclear. We show here that conditional embryonic deletion of Mef2c in cortical and hippocampal excitatory neurons (Emx1-lineage) produces a dramatic reduction in cortical network activity in vivo, due in part to a dramatic increase in inhibitory and a decrease in excitatory synaptic transmission. In addition, we find that MEF2C regulates E/I synapse density predominantly as a cell-autonomous, transcriptional repressor. Analysis of differential gene expression in Mef2c mutant cortex identified a significant overlap with numerous synapse- and autism-linked genes, and the Mef2c mutant mice displayed numerous behaviors reminiscent of autism, ID and SCZ, suggesting that perturbing MEF2C function in neocortex can produce autistic- and ID-like behaviors in mice. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.20059. 001
Clearing the Dust from Globular Clusters

Recent Spitzer observations of the globular cluster M15 detected dust associated with its intracluster medium. Surprisingly, these observations imply that the dust must be very short-lived compared to the time since the last Galactic plane crossing of the cluster. Here we propose a simple mechanism to explain this short lifetime. We argue that the kinetic energy of the material ejected during a stellar collision may be sufficient to remove the gas and dust entirely from a cluster, or to remove the gas as a wind, in addition to partially destroying the dust. By calculating the rate of stellar collisions using an N-body model for the cluster, we find remarkable agreement between the average time between collisions and the inferred dust lifetime in this cluster, suggesting a possible close relation between the two phenomena. Furthermore, we also obtain the birthrate of blue stragglers formed through collisions in M15. By comparing with the observed number of blue stragglers, we derive an upper limit for their average lifetime that turns out to be consistent with recent model calculations, thereby lending further support to our model.
Grid-based Data Analysis of Air Pollution Data

In this paper, we discuss the main informatics challenges that arise when a high throughput sensor network is constructed with view to addressing real environmental challenges, such as real-time urban air pollution monitoring and mapping. We present a distributed infrastructure based on grid technology and data integration and mining tools, and describe our experience in developing such components for the analysis of air pollution data.
Enhancing Reliability in Storage-Centric Sensor Networks

In this paper we address the reliability problem in storage-centric sensor networks deployed in hazardous environments. We use the nodes’ extra flash memory to save distributed encoded blocks of data. We employ erasure coding to substantially improve the trade-off between storage reliability and required disk capacity. Moreover, efficient mechanisms are designed for spreading the encoded pieces over the network. Mathematical and experimental results show that erasure coding preserves the data from both crashes and memory overflow, substantially outperforming traditional schemes.
A DC-link capacitor minimization method through direct capacitor current control

If the converter side dc-link current is made equal to the inverter side dc-link current in a pulsewidth modulation (PWM) converter-inverter system, no current will flow through the dc-link capacitor. As a result, no dc-link voltage variation occurs. This leads to the possibility of making a large reduction in the size of dc-link capacitors, which are expensive, bulky, and have a lifetime limit. However, a converter current control loop inherently involves a delay in supplying the required current. In this paper, a capacitor current is nullified with a feedforward compensation term. To minimize the response delay, the authors calculate the compensation amount in terms of voltage and inject it at the voltage node. In calculating the compensation term, a differentiator is incorporated with a one-step predictor developed from converter and inverter dynamics. Simulation and experiments are performed with only 40 /spl mu/F of dc-link capacitance for a 9-kW motor, and the results support the validity of the proposed scheme.
Effects of Multiday Exposure to Ozone on Airway Inflammation as Determined Using Sputum Induction

Single short-term exposures to ozone are known to cause acute changes in pulmonary function and neutrophilic airway inflammation. The respiratory health effects of repeated exposures are not as well studied. Pulmonary function decrements are known to attenuate, but it is less clear how injury and inflammation are affected. Using sputum induction (SI) to sample respiratory tract lining fluid after single- and multiday exposures, we designed a study to test the hypothesis that neutrophils would increase after multiday exposure compared with single-day exposure. In a randomized, crossover design, 15 normal healthy subjects were exposed to O3 (0.2 ppm) under two conditions: for 4 hr for 1 day (1D) and for 4 hr for 4 consecutive days (4D). Pulmonary function testing was performed immediately before and after each 4-hr exposure. The SI was performed 18 hr after the end of the 1D and 4D conditions. The symptom and pulmonary function data followed a pattern seen in other multiday O3 exposure studies, with the greatest changes occurring on the second day. In contrast to previous studies using bronchoalveolar lavage, however, there was a significant increase in the percentage of neutrophils and a significant decrease in the percentage of macrophages after the 4D condition compared with the 1D condition. Given that SI likely samples proximal airways better than distal lung, these results add to the body of evidence that differential airway compartmental responses to O3 occur in humans and other species.
Constraints on rotational mixing from surface evolution of light elements in massive stars

Context. Light elements and nitrogen surface abundances together can constrain the mixing e ciencies in massive stars on the main sequence, because moderate mixing in the surface layers leads to depletion of light elements but only later to enrichment in nitrogen. Aims. We want to test the rotational mixing prescriptions included in the Geneva stellar evolution code (GENEC) by following the evolution of surface abundances of light isotopes in massive stars. Methods. The GENEC is a 1D code containing sophisticated prescriptions for rotational mixing. We implemented an extended reaction network into this code including the light elements Li, Be, and B, which allowed us to perform calculations testing the rotation-induced mixing. Results. We followed 9, 12, and 15 M models with rotation from the zero age main sequence up to the end of He burning. The calculations show the expected behaviour with faster depletion of light isotopes for faster rotating stars and more massive stars. Conclusions. We find that the mixing prescriptions used in the present rotating models for massive single stars can account for most of the observations; however, the uncertainties are quite large, making it hard to draw a firm conclusion on the mixing scenario.
PASSIVE APPROACH FOR VIDEO FORGERY DETECTION AND LOCALIZATION

In this paper, we present a passive approach for effective detection and localization of forgery from video sequences. Our approach analyzes spatiotemporal slices from 3-D video volumes to detect and localize regions tampered by temporal copy-and-paste and texture synthesis. Experiment shows that the proposed approach outperforms previous approaches, and can effectively detect and localize tampered regions.
IAS Course : Hybrid Dynamical Systems Lecture Note One : Introduction to Hybrid Systems Lecturer

• Safe and high autonomous but low cost operations of large scale systems, such as Air traffic management system, communication networks, power distribution. • Rapid advances in computer and networking technology in recent years. Motivation: To provide a systematic framework for strict analysis and synthesis of complicated systems in order to increase large scale system reliability and efficiency, as well as reducing the cost of system development[4].
Analysis of gene expression profiles of Lactobacillus paracasei induced by direct contact with Saccharomyces cerevisiae through recognition of yeast mannan

Co-culture of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast induces specific responses that are not observed in pure culture. Gene expression profiles of Lactobacillus paracasei ATCC 334 co-cultured with Saccharomyces cerevisiae IFO 0216 were analyzed by DNA microarray, and the responses induced by direct contact with the yeast cells were investigated. Coating the LAB cells with recombinant DnaK, which acts as an adhesive protein between LAB and yeast cells, enhanced the ratio of adhesion of the LAB cells to the yeast cells. The signals induced by direct contact were clarified by removal of the LAB cells unbound to the yeast cells. The genes induced by direct contact with heat-inactivated yeast cells were very similar to both those induced by the intact yeast cells and those induced by a soluble mannan. The top 20 genes upregulated by direct contact with the heat-inactivated yeast cells mainly encoded proteins related to exopolysaccharide synthesis, modification of surface proteins, and transport systems. In the case of the most upregulated gene, LSEI_0669, encoding a protein that has a region homologous to polyprenyl glycosylphosphotransferase, the expression level was upregulated 7.6-, 11.0-, and 8.8-fold by the heat-inactivated yeast cells, the intact yeast cells, and the soluble mannan, respectively, whereas it was only upregulated 1.8-fold when the non-adherent LAB cells were not removed before RNA extraction. Our results indicated that the LAB responded to direct contact with the yeast cells through recognition of mannan on the surface of the yeast.
AAA: a survey and a policy-based architecture and framework

The commercialization of the Internet has led to a large variety of business models based on Internet technology. Therefore, the demand for standardized and efficient solutions in support of reliable, secure, open, and flexible remote and mobile service accesses has increased. Existing authentication, authorization, and accounting systems still consider dedicated cases, but lack a generic approach. More general AAA services can be built by extending existing mechanisms and protocols for access scenarios other than dialup or PPP connections. While this work is performed mainly by the IETF AAA Working Group, another approach proposed by the IRTF AAAArch Research Group is termed AAA Architecture. This article surveys the state of the art in AAA and develops a new generic policy-based approach, A/sup x/, for AAA services and beyond, considering flexible levels of various services in an Internet service model, ranging from connectivity to content services.
The Sodium/Proton Exchanger NHE8 Regulates Late Endosomal Morphology and Function

The pH and lumenal environment of intracellular organelles is considered essential for protein sorting and trafficking through the cell. We provide the first evidence that a mammalian sodium (potassium)/proton exchanger, NHE8, plays a key role in the control of protein trafficking and endosome morphology.