SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
Removing the interview for medical school selection is associated with gender bias among enrolled students

To report, and determine reasons for, a change in the gender ratio observed among enrolled medical students after removal of the interview from the selection process.Cross-sectional study of 4051 students admitted to the medical program at the University of Queensland between 2004 and 2012. Students are enrolled either directly as graduates or via a school-leaver pathway.Change in proportions of male and female students over time, and gender-specific scores in the three sections of the GAMSAT (Graduate Medical School Admissions Test).Between 2004 and 2008 (when an interview was part of the selection process), 891 enrolled students (51.4%) were male, whereas between 2009 and 2012 (no interview), 1134 (57.7%; P < 0.001) were male. This change in gender ratio was limited to domestic direct graduate-entry students, and the male proportion in this group rose from 50.9% (705 students) before the interview was removed to 64.0% (514 students; P < 0.001) after removal of the interview (reaching 73.8% in 2012). Between 2004 and 2012, male students consistently performed better than female students on GAMSAT section III (mean score, 71.5 v 68.5; P < 0.001).The proportion of males enrolled in the medical program at this university increased markedly after removal of the interview from the selection process. This change is limited to domestic direct graduate-entry students, and seems to be due to higher scores by male students in section III of the GAMSAT. The interview may play an important role in ensuring gender equity in selection, and medical schools should carefully monitor the consequences of changes to selection policy.
PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLE FIBER SUSPENSIONS. II: EFFECT OF VARIATIONS IN HEAT TREATMENT

The pectin content in the soluble and insoluble fractions of fiber suspensions from carrot, potato pulp and apple heat treated in four different ways was determined together with the particle size distribution, water-holding capacity (WHC), morphology and rheological properties of the fiber suspensions. In the carrot and apple suspensions, where beta-elimination was favored, the soluble pectin increased, whereas a significant but small decrease of the mean particle size of the insoluble material was obtained together with a significant decrease in WHC. For the potato pulp suspensions, however, only minor pectin solubilization was observed by heat treatment. Instead remaining starch in the cell matrix swelled on prolonged heating, leading to a different particle size distribution and a significant increase in WHC However, only minor effects on heating were seen on the elastic modulus for all fiber sources studied. But the source of fiber seems to be more important for the elastic modulus of the suspension, where the order of firmness in heated tissues (not the suspensions) seems to be the determining factor, being in the order of apple > potato > carrot. (Less)
NON-AQUEOUS ENERGY CURABLE POLYMERIC DISPERSION

Disclosed is an energy curable ink composition containing: a first polymer not compatible with energy curable systems; a second polymer more compatible than the first polymer with energy curable systems; a compound with an energy curable functional group; and a solvent used in energy curable systems.
Thermal decomposition of mercerized linter cellulose and its acetates obtained from a homogeneous reaction

Cellulose acetates with different degrees of substitution (DS, from 0.6 to 1.9) were prepared from previously mercerized linter cellulose, in a homogeneous medium, using N,N-dimethylacetamide/lithium chloride as a solvent system. The influence of different degrees of substitution on the properties of cellulose acetates was investigated using thermogravimetric analyses (TGA). Quantitative methods were applied to the thermogravimetric curves in order to determine the apparent activation energy (Ea) related to the thermal decomposition of untreated and mercerized celluloses and cellulose acetates. Ea values were calculated using Broido's method and considering dynamic conditions. Ea values of 158 and 187 kJ mol-1 were obtained for untreated and mercerized cellulose, respectively. A previous study showed that C6OH is the most reactive site for acetylation, probably due to the steric hindrance of C2 and C3. The C6OH takes part in the first step of cellulose decomposition, leading to the formation of levoglucosan and, when it is changed to C6OCOCH3, the results indicate that the mechanism of thermal decomposition changes to one with a lower Ea. A linear correlation between Ea and the DS of the acetates prepared in the present work was identified.
Augmented EPR effect by photo-triggered tumor vascular treatment improved therapeutic efficacy of liposomal paclitaxel in mice bearing tumors with low permeable vasculature

The effects of photo-triggered tumor vascular treatment (PVT) on the structural and functional properties of tumor vasculature were assessed in Colon-26 (C26) and B16/BL6 (B16) tumor-bearing mice. Furthermore, anti-tumor efficacy of subsequently injected PEG liposomal paclitaxel (PL-PTX) was also evaluated. As a photosensitizer, a hydrophobic porphyrin derivative was used and formulated in polymeric nanoparticle composed of polyethylene glycol-block-polylactic acid to avoid its non-specific in vivo disposition. In the mice bearing C26 with high permeable vasculature, the prominent anti-tumor activity was confirmed by PVT alone, but the subsequently injected PL-PTX did not show any additive effect. PVT itself initially induced apoptotic cell death of tumor vascular endothelial cells and platelet aggregation, which would have subsequently induced apoptosis of C26 tumor cells surrounding the vasculature. On the other hand, in the mice bearing B16 with low permeable vasculature, PVT enhanced the anti-tumor activity of subsequently injected PL-PTX, which would be attributed to the tumor disposition amount and area of PEG liposomes enhanced by PVT. These results clearly indicated that the treatment would have made it possible to provide more efficient extravasation of PL-PTX, leading to its more potent anti-tumor effect.
Updating and augmenting weather data for pavement mechanistic-empirical design using ASOS/AWOS database in Michigan

AbstractClimatic files are an important input in the recently released pavement design software Pavement ME Design (PMED). Currently there are 24 climatic files embedded in the PMED for various locations within the state of Michigan, USA. However, the distribution of existing weather stations is not geographically uniform, with noticeable gap regions among these stations. The existing climatic files have only 5 to 9 years of hourly data and have not been updated since 2006. This study aims to add new weather stations to fill the gap regions and to update existing climatic files to the end of the year 2014 using historical climatic data from the Automated Surface/Weather Observation System (ASOS/AWOS). To achieve this goal, the climatic files from other locations in ASOS/AWOS were edited to meet the requirements of the PMED. The new climatic data were compared with existing data in detail to verify the data source consistency. A quantity and quality check was conducted for the new climatic files. Procedure...
Study the Adsorption of Mold/Bentonite Composite Adsorbent on Acid Purplish Red in Wastewater

This study intends to explore the application of treating Acid Purplish Red dyeing wastewater with an inexpensive adsorbent compounded with Mold/Bentonite. It discussed the adsorption conditions and mechanism of Acid Purplish Red through single factor experiments (including dosage, initial concentration, and pH, stirring time and standing time). It also studied the adsorption kinetics and adsorption thermodynamics of this system. The results showed that the removing rate was above 94%, when the dosage of composite absorbent was 10 g/L, pH was nature (5.8), stirring time was 20min and standing time was 1h.The Acid Purplish Red system accorded with Langmuir and Freundlich absorption model, and it fitted Langmuir thermostatic adsorption equation better. And the saturated adsorption capacity can be obtained as 17.63mg/g. The sorption parameters showed that the adsorption of composite absorbent on Acid Purplish Red was easy, the system was monolayer adsorption. While the adsorption kinetic of Acid Purplish Red system fitted second-order kinetics with 78.15mg/g saturated adsorption capacity of Acid Purplish Red, and the adsorption was chemic-sorption.
Raising awarenESs of MaritIme Spatial planning imporTANCE

The guiding idea of our project is that joint solutions can be effectively developed only if the international cooperation of different organizations is encouraged. This project is example of cooperation of various experts, members of representatives of local, regional authorities, educational institutions, international environmental organizations, who will jointly evaluate their already developed good practices for a sustainable use of marine and coastal resources. To ensure such sustainability, it is necessary to establish a smart coastal management system to assist the Maritime Spatial Planning. All involved PPs will work together to establish guidelines for preserving the wealth of the Adriatic Sea in order to reap maximum economic benefits while protecting the marine ecosystem. In accordance to the EUSAIR Pillar 3 and the relevant Flagship the so far achieved experiences from the projects SOUNDSCAPE, ECOSS, ECOMAP, NET4MPLASTIC, DORY, ML-REPAIR, SASPAS will be amalgamated to develop sustainable growth, to decrease pollution and contamination, and protect the unique biodiversity of the Adriatic Sea.
Nano-Mechanical quantum photonic circuits

Photons are essential for transmitting quantum information and for building entangled system on a global scale. Recent developments in photonic quantum technologies provide the fundamental tools for generating and manipulating photons within a chip. Yet, performing large-scale experiments, involving many quantum bits (or qubits), remains a major challenge due to the lack of a method to incorporate and control many sources of identical photons in the same chip. With an efficient strategy to control quantum photonic circuits, single-photon sources, and multi-photon entanglement, a fully-integrated platform for quantum information processing with many qubits and logical gates, can be built.
In this project, I intend to merge two flourishing fields of research, opto-mechanics and deterministic photon-emitter interfaces, in order to achieve active control of quantum circuits and to realize large-scale nano-mechanical quantum photonic circuits. Unparalleled by other methods, nano-mechanical systems enable full control over light propagation in optical circuits with exceedingly low loss and noise, which makes them fully compatible with single-photon emitters.  
The main highlights of NANOMEQ are to:
1.            Build the world’s smallest and most efficient photonic quantum gate.
2.            Control light-matter interaction to efficiently extract, in a scalable fashion, many high-fidelity photonic qubits from a deterministic single-photon source.
3.            Perform on-chip frequency conversion to telecom wavelengths for long-distance communication.
These achievements will be milestones in quantum photonics and, by addressing outstanding challenges in the field, will pave the way for scaling-up deterministic photon-emitter interfaces for advanced quantum-information processing and beyond.
Semiconductor laser device including a light shield plate, semiconductor laser device package, and methods of manufacturing the same

Provided is a semiconductor laser device, a semiconductor laser device package including the semiconductor laser device and methods of manufacturing the same. A semiconductor laser device may include a light emission structure including a first clad layer, an active layer and a second clad layer sequentially deposited on a substrate, a submount to which the light emission structure bonded, and a light shield plate in the submount, wherein the light shield plate blocks an end of the substrate on a light emission face of the light emission structure and blocks light leaked through the end of the substrate.
A reliability estimation tool for reducing infant mortality in Cubesat missions

For many years, traditional satellite design philosophy was dominated by highly reliable components, conservative designs and extensive performance testing at subsystem and integrated system levels to achieve long lifetimes in the harsh space environment. CubeSats attempted to choose a different philosophy, utilizing suitable state-of the art, commercial-off-the shelf products, yielding, if successful, an increased performance per mass figure of merit for those small vessels at potentially higher risk but lower cost. CubeSats seemed to promise universities and companies to be faster, better and cheaper — once more in history. Unfortunately, many CubeSat missions, especially university-built ones, never achieved a detectable functional state or failed shortly after the satellites were ejected from their deployer. Data based on our developed CubeSat Failure Database (CFD) and research carried out by others suggest, that a great percentage of those early failure cases could have been detected and avoided by more careful and adequate system-level functional testing on the ground. However, many university teams still fail to plan with adequate resources for system level functional testing or are confronted with hard deadlines, thus unable to complete appropriate integrated system testing on a sufficient level, and launching a satellite that never was adequately functional. Ongoing work on a novel reliability estimation tool using Bayesian methods is introduced to fill this gap and to provide meaningful data for all developers on the achievable reliability and required functional testing time of their CubeSats. Using test data and reliability goals for their actual mission, merging that data with statistical data from past missions and a database of subjective developer's beliefs, CubeSat developers should now be able to estimate their required functional testing time on subsystem and system level at an early project stage, as a function of the targeted reliability goal for their CubeSat. Alternatively, if the required resources (testing time, money, knowledge) are not available, CubeSat developers and program managers can still use the tool to now quantify a resulting realistic lower boundary for the expected system reliability of the mission, and decide, if their mission goals can be fulfilled or not with a certain probability. To evolve CubeSats into more reliable and accepted platforms for scientific payloads and commercial applications, it is utmost important to avoid or reduce the many infant mortality cases, where no or little useful data is produced by the satellite. To guide developers towards higher success rates without losing the spirit of using novel, state of the art technology in fast mission timelines, the reliability estimation tool should ensure higher reliability of CubeSat missions without drawing too much resources nor imposing too many burdens on the CubeSat teams.
Metropolitan Research: Methodes and Approaches. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag,

quel impact sur la transformation et la valorisation territoriales?
Quantum information transduction with acoustic resonators

Modern telecommunications networks make use of light in optical fibers to connect devices where information is processed in electronic circuits. Such an architecture can also be used to communicate and process quantum information. Local quantum processors based on superconducting (SC) microwave circuits are now capable of performing sophisticated tasks ranging from quantum simulation to quantum error correction. At the same time, low-loss quantum channels based on infrared (IR) light can transfer quantum information over long distances.  However, the crucial link between these two systems that would allow for the realization of a quantum network is still missing. Since quantum states are much more fragile than classical signals, quantum transduction between the electrical and optical domains must be highly efficient without introducing new sources of decoherence that interfere with the operation of the local processors or long-distance channels. 

The goal of this project is to create a quantum transducer between SC circuits and IR light using a third quantum system: sound waves in an acoustic resonator. My recent work showed that these mechanical resonators possess properties that make them highly promising for implementing a quantum transducer. They couple efficiently to both SC circuits and IR light, and can be used to store and manipulate quantum states of sound. The project will combine electromechanical and optomechanical transduction, which so far has only been implemented separately, in a single system. By developing techniques for integrating optics, acoustics, and microwave circuits at cryogenic temperatures, I will demonstrate the conversion of complex quantum states between the microwave and IR domains and use this capability to entangle remote SC quantum nodes. Reaching this goal will be the crucial first step toward using SC circuits to implement a quantum network for long-distance communications or to build a large-scale, modular quantum computer.
Incidence and Impact of Travelers' Diarrhea Among Foreign Backpackers in Southeast Asia: A Result From Khao San Road, Bangkok

Travelers' diarrhea is the most common disease reported among travelers visiting developing countries, including Southeast Asia, a region visited by large numbers of backpackers each year. Currently, the knowledge of travelers' diarrhea among this group is limited. This study aimed to determine the incidence and impact of travelers' diarrhea in this group.Foreign backpackers in Khao San road, Bangkok, Thailand, were invited to fill out a study questionnaire, in which they were queried about their demographic background, travel characteristics, pretravel preparations and actual practices related to the risk of travelers' diarrhea. For backpackers who had experienced diarrhea, the details and impact of each diarrheal episode were also assessed.In the period April to May 2009, 404 completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Sixty percent of participants were male; overall, the median age was 26 years. Nearly all backpackers (96.8%) came from developed countries. Their main reason for travel was tourism (88%). The median stay was 30 days. More than half of the backpackers (56%) carried some antidiarrheal medication. Antimotility drugs were the most common medications carried by backpackers, followed by oral rehydration salts (ORS), and antibiotics. Their practices were far from ideal; 93.9% had bought food from street vendors, 92.5% had drunk beverages with ice-cubes, and 33.8% had eaten leftover food from a previous meal. In this study, 30.7% (124/404) of backpackers had experienced diarrhea during their trip. Most diarrhea cases (88%) were mild and recovered spontaneously. However, 8.8% of cases required a visit to a doctor, and 3.2% needed hospitalization. Longer duration of stay and drinking beverages with ice-cubes were associated with higher risk of diarrhea.About one third of the foreign backpackers in Southeast Asia had experienced diarrhea during their trip. Their current practices related to the risk of travelers' diarrhea were inadequate and should be improved.
A new, evolutive api and transport-layer architecture for the internet

At the 2011 OECD High-Level Meeting “The Internet Economy: Generating Innovation and Growth”, Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, said that one of the biggest issues with the Internet is “keeping the network as open as possible to invite as much innovation as we can with as little barrier to that innovation as possible, so that new Googles and Amazons and PayPals and Skypes can happen all around the world.”

A significant barrier to innovation by SMEs is the ossification of the Internet transport architecture. New groundbreaking services often require different transport protocols, better signalling between application and network, or a more flexible choice of links. A few large enterprises have the resources to support their innovations by developing their own transport systems—Adobe, Google and Microsoft have done so. Open sophisticated transport protocols exist now, but are difficult for SMEs to use owing to their lack of support across the Internet.

NEAT addresses two obstacles to Internet innovation: 1) It lowers the barrier to service innovation by developing a free open-source transport system that will allow SMEs to leverage the rich set of available transport protocols. 2) It paves the way for an architectural change of the Internet where new transport layer services can seamlessly be integrated and quickly made available, minimising deployment difficulties, and allowing Internet innovators to take advantage of them wherever possible.

By optionally signalling between applications and the network, NEAT demonstrates new avenues for in-network support of application services. By decoupling the services offered to applications from the underlying network technologies, NEAT enables seamless integration with different computing environments and generalised mobility. The NEAT transport system will provide built-in security and privacy, allowing the implementation of these functions more efficiently and making them more attractive to use.
Qrowd - because big data integration is humanly possible

Big Data integration in European cities is of utmost importance for municipalities and companies to offer effective information services, enable efficient data-driven transportation and mobility, reduce CO2 emissions, assess the efficiency of infrastructure, as well as enhance the quality of life of citizens. At present this integration is substantially limited due to the following factors: 1) Urban Big Data is locked in isolated industrial and public sectors, and 2) The actual Big Data integration is an extremely hard technical problem due to the heterogeneity of data sources, variety of formats, sizes, quality as well as update rates, such that the integration requires significant human intervention. 

QROWD addresses these challenges by offering methods to perform cross-sectoral streaming Big Data integration including geographic, transport, meteorological, cross domain and news data, while capitalizing on human feedback channels. The main objectives of QROWD are: (1) Facilitating cross-sectoral Big Data stream integration for urban mobility including real-time data on individual and public transportation combined with further available sources, such as weather conditions and infrastructure information to create a comprehensive overview of the city traffic; (2) Supporting participation and feedback of various stakeholder groups to foster data-driven innovation in cities; and (3) Building a platform providing hybrid computational methods relying on efficient algorithms complemented with human computation and feedback. 

The main outcomes of QROWD are: (1) Two data value chains in the sectors of urban mobility and public transportation using a mix of large scale heterogeneous multilingual datasets; and (2) Cross-sectoral and cross-lingual technology, including algorithms and tools covering all phases of the cross-sectoral Big Data Value Chain building on W3C standards and capitalizing on a flexible and efficient combination of human and machine-based computation.