SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
The Relationship Between the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and Olfaction in Patients Referred for a Dementia Evaluation

The current study examined the relationship between a standardized dementia battery (Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status [RBANS]) and a test of olfactory discrimination (University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test [UPSIT]) in a heterogeneous sample of patients referred for a dementia assessment (N = 103). Significant moderate correlations were found between the UPSIT and each of the RBANS indexes, with the strongest correlation for Total Scale score, followed by the Delayed Memory Index and the Language Index. Significant moderate correlations were also found between the UPSIT and 11 of the 12 subtests of the RBANS. While the major RBANS indexes demonstrated significant correlations with education and the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading, a measure of premorbid IQ, the UPSIT did not. This suggests the UPSIT may be sensitive to decline in dementia and largely unaffected by premorbid cognitive functioning. As a result, the UPSIT may provide neuropsychologists with an efficient, cost-effective, and sensitive supplement to a standard dementia battery.
An iono-electronic neuromorphic interface for communication with living systems

While our understanding of the brain have made huge progresses, we are still inefficient in interfacing biological systems with electronics, both in terms of energy and integration potential. Pushed by the need to use conventional computers for building complex systems dedicated to brain interface applications, we have mostly capitalized on technologies and architectures inherits from microelectronic that are intrinsically not adapted to interface living systems. The IONOS project will shift the brain interface paradigm by developing new technologies designed to interact intimately with biological cells and capitalizing heavily on bio-inspiration. To reach this goal, the IONOS project will explore how to sense, stimulate and compute biological signals from in-vitro neural cells’ assembly based on iono-electronic materials and devices. These emerging devices offer basics functionalities such as memory, ion-electron signal’s transduction, and amplification paving the way to a new field of device and circuit engineering that could efficiently reproduce key biological functions such as learning and spatio-temporal processing of information. This project will demonstrate how these concepts associated to the bio-inspired computing paradigm can unlock our fundamental limitations for communicating with living neural cells. Proof of concept will show how an artificial system can efficiently send, receive and compute information from a biological one, which constitutes the basic of communication.
Revenge of the Steamroller: ABCP as a Window on Risk Choices*

Abstract We use credit-arbitrage asset-backed commercial paper vehicles as a laboratory to empirically examine financial institutions’ motivations to take bad-tail systematic risk. By comparing the characteristics of global banks that sponsored credit-arbitrage vehicles prior to the global financial crisis to those that did not, we show that owner–manager agency problems, government safety nets, and government ownership of banks are associated with bad-tail systematic risk-taking. Although good governance is associated with less risk-taking on average, well-governed banks that also have a high ex ante expectation of being bailed out by the government take more risk. Lastly, we find mixed evidence that tougher bank capital regulation deters bad-tail risk-taking.
Discovering Magna Grecia

The fundamental study phase is followed by the ensuing operational project phase, which is inserted in the national network of I Parchi Letterari®, managed by the Ippolito Nievo Foundation under the patronage of UNESCO. “DIMA” is a cultural project that, by means of the study, protection and integrated and sustainable management of cultural, natural, landscape and economic resources, contributes to the lasting development of the territory. The scope of the project is the creation of tools for the protection of the cultural heritage and of the network of I Parchi Letterari® both local and transnational, for the development of sustainable tourist activities. A kind of “cultural district” ipso facto, consistent with the specific community and national policies, capable of offering visitors the most authentic values of the territory of Magna Graecia and the Byzantines, through that phenomenal code of interpretation that literature represents. A land of emotional inspiration, before becoming a land of literary inspiration, for many artists, who grant their posterity their name and surname to give a proposal of cultural tourism a title and titles. Main activities 1. Study and mapping of itineraries, both sea and land, of the magna graecia and byzantines 2. Laboratory for the satellite remote detection of archaeological sites 3. Building the network and products of i parchi letterari® 4. Promotion and transmission of skills and good practice of tourist services and products 5. “virtuous credit”; contribution to the start up and/or development of the activities The expected results Sustainability of the project activities; integration effects among the areas of the countries concerned by the ARCHIMED programme; reinforcing effects on the cultural identity, divulging of the cultural roots among the local populations; boosting local entrepreneurship and investments in tourist-cultural activities, valorisation of the local heritage; establishment of new enterprises and reinforcement of the existing local employment figures; improvement of the tourist offer and, in the long run, increase in the tourist flows to the areas concerned. The quantifiable results Itineraries on land and sea, maps and publications, satellite remote detection laboratory, network of I Parchi Letterari®, seminars, conventions, product tables, exchange of good practice models, tourist products, increased employment rates The direct beneficiaries Local authorities, ecclesiastical authorities, institutions with cultural ends, foundations, public and private non-profit making organisations, tourist and business operators, artists.
Type I interferons regulate eomesodermin expression and the development of unconventional memory CD8+ T cells

CD8(+) T-cell memory phenotype and function are acquired after antigen-driven activation. Memory-like cells may also arise in absence of antigenic exposure in the thymus or in the periphery. Eomesodermin (Eomes) is a key transcription factor for the development of these unconventional memory cells. Herein, we show that type I interferon signalling in CD8(+) T cells directly activates Eomes gene expression. Consistent with this observation, the phenotype, function and age-dependent expansion of 'virtual memory' CD8(+) T cells are strongly affected in absence of type I interferon signalling. In addition, type I interferons induce a sustained expansion of 'virtual memory' CD8(+) T cells in an Eomes-dependent fashion. We further show that the development of 'innate thymic' CD8(+) T cells is dependent on the same pathway. In conclusion, we demonstrate that type I interferon signalling in CD8(+) T cells drives Eomes expression and thereby regulates the function and homeostasis of memory-like CD8(+) T cells.
Feasibility study: a first-of-its-kind software-defined virtual reality camera

Virtual reality (VR) is a long awaited technology which can be named as #1 media to  influence the way how modern society will consume video content in the future. Up to 400 million consumers will become the audience for VR content until 2020.

However, there is a grass-root problem with VR content generation as there are no viable solutions for the masses to produce their own videos.
Current solutions to create VR videos are underlying some substantial barriers with regard to the current state of technology. To produce such videos is either a) very expensive, or b) requires extensive knowledge and work, and can thus only be done by professionals.

Absolute Zero (AZ) is a first-of-its-kind VR camera designed to solve exactly this substantial problem from scratch, by enabling a mass audience of private and business customers to record own VR content in a simple fashion and a highly-defined quality.

By developing a novel system architecture, we integrate cloud-based data processing as a natural extension to the actual hardware, which allows us to gain a disruptive competitive advantage with respect to the rest of the VR camera industry. Our technology leads to five key differentiating improvements:

1) Significant reduction of hardware costs of up to 60%
2) Practically unlimited processing power
3) Infinitely scalable storage space
4) Less power consumption
5) Post-sale implementation of new functionalities

In Phase 1, we will execute a feasibility study in order to identify remaining economical, legal, and operational barriers, and to develop the right strategy for a further proceeding. A subsequent goal is to address and eradicate these shortcomings within Phase 2, in order to bring the technology to maturity, and to build up a business side for an effective go-to-market.
Tackling the Problem of Construct Proliferation

Construct proliferation—the accumulation of ostensibly different but potentially identical constructs representing organizational phenomena—is a salient problem in contemporary research. While a number of construct validation procedures exist, relatively few validation studies conduct comprehensive assessments of the discriminant validity of theoretically distinct constructs. In this article, we outline the key considerations a researcher must take into account when attempting to establish the empirical distinctness of new or existing constructs and provide a step-by-step guide on how to assess the discriminant validity of constructs while accounting for three major sources of measurement error: random error, specific factor error, and transient error. Using a number of popular measures from the leadership literature, we provide an illustrative example of how to conduct a study of discriminant validity. We include several analytic strategies in our study and discuss the similarities and differences between the results they yield. We also discuss several additional issues related to this type of research and make recommendations for conducting discriminant validity analyses.
Detection of Landscape patterns in airborne LIDAR data in the Nature Reserve of Castelporziano (Rome)

During the last decades the protection of nature has become a very important aspect due to the anthropogenic interference and structural alteration of the environment, especially in the peri-urban areas. Therefore, for a sustainable forest planning it is fundamental to get information about the actual state and the variation in landscape patterns concerning the forest layers. To this aim, an airborne laser scanning (LIDAR), a type of sensor which explicitly measures canopy height, was used to detect landscape patterns of broadleaf oak forest and for detecting the monumental trees in a peri-urban Natural Reserve: the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano (Rome).
Rural tourism without borders. Cross-border cooperation in the field of rural tourism.

Over the last few years an increase in the supply of regional rural tourism has been observed, with some favourable repercussions from various points of view. For companies, this means economic development thanks to the use of raw materials produced inside the country; it means recovering and preserving the traditions and values that typify the rural civilization, rediscovering food and wine with unique flavours and the opportunity to invest in the restoration of existing buildings, thus enhancing the rural architecture typical of various regional areas. Against this background, rural tourism should be promoted as an opportunity to visit and learn about the organization and the supply of rural tourism across the border, through training courses, updating and exchanging experience. All these initiatives are directed to improving knowledge and disseminating culture, information about products and the habits of peoples living on the cross-border territory. The interventions performed envisage an activity of joint marketing: participation in trade fairs, specialized events, preparation of promotional material, updating and reprint of a multingual catalogue listing the farmhouses, both those providing food and those providing accommodation. A special volume will be published about the culture and the traditions of cross-border peoples, paying special attention to the rediscovery of typical food and the different names it takes. Common educational curricula will be developed for schools, in order to disseminate a wider knowledge about the environment and the rural civilization.
Monitoring of four dipyrone metabolites in communal wastewater by solid phase extraction liquid chromatography electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight spectrometry (LC-Q-TOF-MS), equipped with electrospray ionization (ESI), was developed for the determination of the main metabolites of dipyrone - 4-aminoantipyrine (4-AA), 4-acetylaminoantipyrine (4-AAA), 4-formylaminoantipyrine (4-FAA) and 4-methylaminoantipyrine (4-MAA) in communal wastewater after reversed-phase solid phase extraction (SPE) in the low to several μg/l concentration range. Samples originated from conventional wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) using activated sewage sludge as well as from a pilot-scale WWTP operating in mixed mode (activated sewage sludge and cascade biofilms reactors with biofilms growing on fix beds and roots of greenhouse plants). Results of the present study confirmed the outcomes of our previous report according to which, 4-FAA was the most persistent metabolite, while 4-AAA and 4-MAA could be determined in the highest and lowest concentration, respectively. Moreover, the study of intraday variation of the concentration of these metabolites revealed that the concentration of 4-AA, 4-AAA and 4-FAA registered a 46%-75% increase in the samples collected at noon compared to those collected at 6 AM. Chlorination did not affect considerably the removal efficiency (about 15%) of these metabolites in samples collected for 3 months consecutively before and after disinfection. Both wastewater treatment techniques efficiently removed 4-AAA (between 80 and 96%). However, in the summer season, the removal efficiency of conventional WWTP using open-air aerated tanks is lower by 30%, (on average) than in the cold season. The concentration of the investigated metabolites showed increased concentrations in the winter season confirming the intake habits of the population from this popular analgesic and antipyretic drug.
Oxidation of vanadium metal in oxygen plasma and their characterizations

In this report, the role of oxygen plasma on oxidation of vanadium (V) metal and the volatilization of its oxides has been studied as a function of source (V metal strip) temperature (Tss) and oxygen partial pressure (PO2). The presence of O2-plasma not only enhances the oxidation rate but also ficilitates in transport of oxide molecules from metal to substrate, as confirmed by the simultanous deposition of oxide film onto substrate. Both the oxidized metal strips and oxide films deposited on substrates are characterized separately. The structural and vibrational results evidence the presence of two different oxide phases (i.e. orthorhombic V2O5 and monocilinic V O2) in oxide layers formed on V metal strips, whereas the oxide films deposited on substrates exhibit only orthorhombic phase (i.e. V2O5). The decrease in peak intensities recorded from heated V metal strips on increasing Tss points out the increment in the rate of oxide volatilization, which also confirms by the oxide layer thickness measurement...
The impact of imitative versus emulative learning mechanisms on artifactual variation: implications for the evolution of material culture

Abstract Cultural evolutionary approaches highlight that different social learning processes may be involved in the maintenance of cultural traditions. Inevitably, for traditions to be maintained, they must be transmitted with reasonably fidelity. It has been proposed that ‘imitation' (i.e., the direct copying of actions of others displayed in tasks such as toolmaking) generates relatively low rates of copying error. As such, imitation has often been ascribed an important role in the maintenance of traditions and in the ‘ratcheting' of technological complexity over time. Conversely, ‘emulation' (i.e., the copying of a result but not the behaviors that have led to that result) is allegedly associated with the production of relatively higher rates of copying error. However, to what extent these different social learning mechanisms generate distinct patterns of variation during the manufacture of material traditions remains largely unexplored empirically. Here, a controlled experiment was implemented using 60 participants who copied the shape of a 3D ‘target handaxe form' from a standardized foam block. In an ‘imitation condition', 30 participants were shown manufacturing techniques employed in the production of the target form and the target form itself. Conversely, in an ‘emulation condition', 30 participants were shown only the (target) form. Copying error rates were statistically different, being significantly lower in the ‘imitation' condition compared to the ‘emulation' condition. Moreover, participants in the imitation condition matched the demonstrated behaviors with significantly higher copying fidelity than the alternative condition. These results illustrate that imitation may be imperative for the long-term perpetuation of visibly distinct archaeological traditions, especially in the case of lithic (reductive) traditions, where copying error rates can be expected to be relatively high. These findings, therefore, provide evidence that imitation may be required to explain the prolonged continuity of broad shape fidelity such as that seen in traditions of ‘handaxe' manufacture during the Pleistocene.
Respiratory disease screening with dark-field computed tomography

The grand goal of this proposal is to translate a recently explored and fundamentally different x-ray contrast mechanism, namely x-ray dark-field imaging, from present in-vivo small-animal proof-of-principle studies to a first clinical dark-field computed tomography (CT) prototype for future human diagnostics. Complementing this main technological development goal, we will explore the potential future clinical diagnostic application range of this technology by systematically screening multiple small-animal disease models. 
As one of the potentially most beneficial applications, we will particularly focus on one rapidly growing challenge in the healthcare sector, namely the early detection and screening of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). For Europe, COPD has been estimated to affect 5-10% of adults over 40 years of age. This translates to 12-25 million individuals affected by COPD in the European Union. If dark-field CT imaging can substantially improve early diagnosis and thus prompt appropriate therapeutic treatment in these patients, this project has the potential to prolong and improve the lives of millions of Europeans. Further, the cost of COPD to society in Europe could be decreased by billions each year, if COPD – with emphysema as one of its main components – could be accurately detected, effectively treated, and stabilized at early stages of the disease.
Besides COPD, we will explore the potential clinical benefit of dark-field CT for better diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer, asthma, pneumothorax, acute lung injury, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, inflammation, and radiation-induced lung injury as a consequence of radiation therapy after lung cancer.
The ambition to deliver more than just an academic proof-of-principle development, but a clinically usable new imaging device for a broad medical community is underlined by a firm commitment of an industrial partner (Philips) to support this project, should the proposal receive funding.
Malware Detection Systems Based on API Log Data Mining

As information technology improves, the Internet is involved in every area in our daily life. When the mobile devices and cloud computing technology start to play important parts of our life, they have become more susceptible to attacks. In recent years, phishing and malicious websites have increasingly become serious problems in the field of network security. Attackers use many approaches to implant malware into target hosts in order to steal significant data and cause substantial damage. The growth of malware has been very rapid, and the purpose has changed from destruction to penetration. The signatures of malware have become more difficult to detect. In addition to static signatures, malware also tries to conceal dynamic signatures from anti-virus inspection. In this research, we use hooking techniques to trace the dynamic signatures that malware tries to hide. We then compare the behavioural differences between malware and benign programs by using data mining techniques in order to identify the malware. The experimental results show that our detection rate reaches 95% with only 80 attributes. This means that our method can achieve a high detection rate with low complexity.
Control device for hydraulically driven cooling fan of vehicle engine having relief passage for cold start

In a device for controlling the flow rate of a hydraulic operating fluid from a pump to a hydraulic motor for driving an engine cooling fan in a vehicle by modifying either the cross sectional opening area of a variable flow constriction means in the fluid conducting passage while maintaining a constant pressure difference across the flow constriction means by a pressure control valve responsive to the pressure difference across the flow constriction means or the pressure difference by selectively partly leaking the pressure transmitted from the downstream side of the flow constriction means to a rear side of the pressure control valve, a cold state relief means is provided to temporarily relieve the rear side of the pressure control valve at cold start of the engine to avoid abnormally high fluid pressure being supplied to the motor due to delayed response of the pressure control valve under high viscosity of the operating fluid at low temperature.
Interesse dello screening del cancro della prostata

Il cancro della prostata (CaP) è il tumore solido più frequente negli uomini; è stimato a 50 400 il numero di nuovi casi diagnosticati nella Francia metropolitana nel 2018. La prognosi di CaP ha continuato a migliorare dalla fine degli anni ’90, legata all’effetto combinato della rilevazione precoce, che consente la diagnosi dei tumori nella loro finestra di curabilità, e del miglioramento della gestione terapeutica. L’età, l’etnia afrocaraibica e la storia familiare sono i principali fattori di rischio. Lo screening sistematico e organizzato della popolazione generale non è raccomandato perché è stato associato a un rischio di sovradiagnosi di forme indolenti e a un trattamento eccessivo. La strategia di diagnosi precoce, basata sulla valutazione del prostate specific antigen e su un esame digitorettale, è rivolta agli uomini a partire dai 50 anni con un’aspettativa di vita superiore a 10 anni. Questa strategia, in accordo con le raccomandazioni dell’Association française d’urologie, è stata associata a una riduzione della mortalità specifica. Il principale progresso nella diagnosi di CaP è legato al contributo della risonanza magnetica, oggi raccomandata prima di qualsiasi prima serie di biopsie prostatiche, cosa che permette di migliorare la rilevazione dei CaP significativi.