nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
CLODD based band group selection
Venue: 2016 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)

Herein, we explore both a new supervised and unsupervised technique for dimensionality reduction or multispectral sensor design via band group selection in hyperspectral imaging. Specifically, we investigate two algorithms, one based on the improved visual assessment of clustering tendency (iVAT) and the other based on the automatic extraction of "blocklike" structure in a dissimilarity matrix (CLODD algorithm) In particular, the iVAT algorithm allows for identification of non contiguous band groups. Experiments are conducted on a benchmark data set and results are compared to existing algorithms based on hierarchical and c means clustering. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Foreskin Morbidity in Uncircumcised Males
Venue: Pediatrics

As a consequence of the discussion on whether the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and the discrepancies in reported figures of complications, we evaluated the incidence and morbidity of foreskin surgery due to medical indications in boys from the Capital Region of Denmark in 2014.  Medical records from all boys operated on the foreskin due to medical reasons in the Capital Region in 2014 were reviewed. Patients with hypospadias, ritual circumcision, and redo surgery because of complications to nontherapeutic circumcision were excluded.  A total of 181 patients were included. The cumulative risk of undergoing foreskin operation before 18 years of age was 1.7% Forty patients had histologic verified balanitis xerotica obliterans (BXO) corresponding to a total risk of 0.37% of developing BXO. Mean age at surgery was 10.1 years (range 1 17) Phimosis was the most frequently reported indication (95.0% The remaining 5.0% underwent surgery because of frenulum breve causing problems during erection. Before surgery, 27.1% had foreskin related voiding problems and 17.1% had at least 1 episode of balanitis. Circumcision was initially performed in 44 cases. The remaining 137 patients had a foreskin preserving operation performed. Nine boys had secondary circumcision after initially having foreskin preserving operation. Fifty patients initially had preputial histology performed. BXO was verified in 37 patients. Of the 9 patients with redo surgery due to recurrent phimosis, a further 3 had histologically verified BXO.  Childhood foreskin related problems in a region with no tradition of newborn male circumcision should not be neglected.
Mesenchymal stromal cells from the foreskin: Tissue isolation, cell characterization and immunobiological properties.
Venue: Cytotherapy

Because of their self renewal capacity, multilineage potential and immunomodulatory properties, MSCs are an attractive tool for cell based immunotherapy strategies. Foreskin, considered as a biological waste material, has been shown to be a reservoir of therapeutic cells.  MSCs were isolated from different foreskin samples, maintained under in vitro culture and defined according to the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) criteria. We subsequently determined their main cell characteristics as well as their immunobiological properties. The following parameters were determined: (i) morphology and phenotype, (ii) proliferative and clonogenic potentials, (iii) tri lineage differentiation ability, (iv) immunological profile, (v) immunomodulatory properties and (vi) protein and messenger RNA expression/secretion profile of immunoregulatory cytokines/factors as well as the pattern of toll like receptors (TLRs) By using a pro inflammatory cytokine cocktail, we also evaluated the influence of an inflammatory environment on their biology.  With a typical fibroblast like morphology and an ISCT compliant phenotype, foreskin MSCs (FSK MSCs) were highly proliferative and had a great clonogenic potential. They displayed multilineage capacities and interesting immunomodulatory properties. Of importance, FSK MSCs were not immunogenetic and were further able to inhibit T cell proliferation. We showed that several immunoregulatory cytokines and factors might be potentially involved in FSK MSC immunomodulation with particular attention to hepatocyte growth factor and interleukin 11. Moreover, FSK MSCs expressed several TLRs and were sensitive to the inflammatory environment by properly adjusting their profile and fate.  Foreskin represents a new alternative source for MSCs that is compliant with ISCT criteria. Their unique immunobiological properties allow consideration of FSK MSCs as a valuable tolerogenic product for cell based immunotherapy.
Foreskin isolated keratinocytes provide successful extemporaneous autologous paediatric skin grafts
Venue: Journal of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Severe burns in children are conventionally treated with split thickness skin autografts or epidermal sheets. However, neither early complete healing nor quality of epithelialization is satisfactory. An alternative approach is to graft isolated keratinocytes. We evaluated paediatric foreskin and auricular skin as donor sources, autologous keratinocyte transplantation, and compared the graft efficiency to the in vitro capacities of isolated keratinocytes to divide and reconstitute epidermal tissue. Keratinocytes were isolated from surgical samples by enzymatic digestion. Living cell recovery, in vitro proliferation and epidermal reconstruction capacities were evaluated. Differentiation status was analysed, using qRT PCR and immunolabelling. Eleven children were grafted with foreskin derived (boys) or auricular (girls) keratinocyte suspensions dripped onto deep severe burns. The aesthetic and functional quality of epithelialization was monitored in a standardized way. Foreskin keratinocyte graft in male children provides for the re epithelialization of partial deep severe burns and accelerates wound healing, thus allowing successful wound closure, and improves the quality of scars. In accordance, in vitro studies have revealed a high yield of living keratinocyte recovery from foreskin and their potential in terms of regeneration and differentiation. We report a successful method for grafting paediatric males presenting large severe burns through direct spreading of autologous foreskin keratinocytes. This alternative method is easy to implement, improves the quality of skin and minimizes associated donor site morbidity. In vitro studies have highlighted the potential of foreskin tissue for graft applications and could help in tissue selection with the prospect of grafting burns for girls.
'Two months of marriage were sufficient to turn my life upside down' early marriage as a form of gender based violence

In Morocco, as elsewhere, early marriage of young women and girls below the age of 18 exposes them to different forms of social, sexual, physical, psychological, and financial violence. This article focuses on the experience of Moroccan women married under the age of 18 and proposes an analytical framework to support better understanding of the relationship between early marriage and gender based violence against women and girls. The article draws on first hand research, including focus groups, to gain insights into the attitudes and perceptions of young women themselves regarding the impact of early marriage on their lives.
Sparse Coding for Alpha Matting
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Image Processing

Existing color sampling based alpha matting methods use the compositing equation to estimate alpha at a pixel from the pairs of foreground (F) and background (B) samples. The quality of the matte depends on the selected (F,B) pairs. In this paper, the matting problem is reinterpreted as a sparse coding of pixel features, wherein the sum of the codes gives the estimate of the alpha matte from a set of unpaired F and B samples. A non parametric probabilistic segmentation provides a certainty measure on the pixel belonging to foreground or background, based on which a dictionary is formed for use in sparse coding. By removing the restriction to conform to (F,B) pairs, this method allows for better alpha estimation from multiple F and B samples. The same framework is extended to videos, where the requirement of temporal coherence is handled effectively. Here, the dictionary is formed by samples from multiple frames. A multi frame graph model, as opposed to a single image as for image matting, is proposed that can be solved efficiently in closed form. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations on a benchmark dataset are provided to show that the proposed method outperforms the current stateoftheart in image and video matting.
Sparse Coding for Alpha Matting.
Venue: IEEE transactions on image processing a publication of the IEEE Signal Processing Society

Existing color sampling based alpha matting methods use the compositing equation to estimate alpha at a pixel from the pairs of foreground F and background B samples. The quality of the matte depends on the selected F,B pairs. In this paper, the matting problem is reinterpreted as a sparse coding of pixel features, wherein the sum of the codes gives the estimate of the alpha matte from a set of unpaired F and B samples. A non parametric probabilistic segmentation provides a certainty measure on the pixel belonging to foreground or background, based on which a dictionary is formed for use in sparse coding. By removing the restriction to conform to F,B pairs, this method allows for better alpha estimation from multiple F and B samples. The same framework is extended to videos, where the requirement of temporal coherence is handled effectively. Here, the dictionary is formed by samples from multiple frames. A multi frame graph model, as opposed to a single image as for image matting, is proposed that can be solved efficiently in closed form. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations on a benchmark dataset are provided to show that the proposed method outperforms the current stateoftheart in image and video matting.
At The Bedside: Clinical review of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy for B cell malignancies
Venue: Journal of leukocyte biology

T cells kill microbial infected and malignant cells by detection of nonself antigens with the TCR. Tumor reactivity can be encoded genetically by introducing a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) into T cells. CARs are composed of an antigen binding domain and an intracellular T cell activation domain. Early human trials evaluating CD19 targeted CAR T cells for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) showed limited responses until CARs included a costimulation domain, and conditioning chemotherapy was given before T cell infusion. Clinical trials evaluating CD19 targeted CAR T cells for B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B ALL) are demonstrating response rates up to 90% However, these clinical outcomes are associated with a cytokine release syndrome (CRS) which is caused by T cell activation and manifests as high grade fever, hypotension, and other cardiovascular complications. It is currently managed conservatively but can be treated with cytokine directed therapy or with high dose steroids. Current efforts are dedicated to confirming the clinical efficacy and managing toxicities in multicenter Phase II trials. We present a thorough overview of the preclinical and clinical development of CAR T cell therapy that will highlight important areas for the basic researcher to investigate in the laboratory and contribute to this exciting field.
The most accurate heuristic based algorithms for estimating the oil formation volume factor

There are various types of oils in distinct situations, and it is essential to discover a model for estimating their oil formation volume factors which are necessary for studying and simulating the reservoirs. There are different correlations for estimating this, but most of them have large errors (at least in some points) and cannot be tuned for a specific oil. In this paper, using a wide range of experimental data points, an artificial neural network model (ANN) has been created. In which its internal parameters (number of hidden layers, number of neurons of each layer and forward or backward propagation) are optimized by a genetic algorithm to improve the accuracy of the model. In addition, four genetic programming (GP) based models have been represented to predict the oil formation volume factor In these models, the accuracy and the simplicity of each equation are surveyed. As well as, the effect of modifying of the internal parameters of the genetic programming (by using some other values for its nodes or changing the tree depth) on the created model. Finally, the ANN and GP models are compared with fifteen other models of the most common previously introduced ones. Results show that the optimized artificial neural network is the most accurate and genetic programming is the most flexible model, which lets the user set its accuracy and simplicity. Results also recommend not adding another operator to the basic operators of the genetic programming.
Improved oil formation volume factor (Bo) correlation for volatile oil reservoirs: An integrated non linear regression and genetic programming approach

In this paper, two correlations for oil formation volume factor B o for volatile oil reservoirs are developed using non linear regression technique and genetic programming using commercial software. More than 1200 measured values obtained from PVT laboratory analyses of five representative volatile oil samples are selected under a wide range of reservoir conditions (temperature and pressure) and compositions. Matching of PVT experimental data with an equation of state (EOS) model using a commercial simulator (Eclipse Simulator) was achieved to generate the oil formation volume factor B o The obtained results of the B o as compared with the most common published correlations indicate that the new generated model has improved significantly the average absolute error for volatile oil fluids. The hit rate R 2 of the new non linear regression correlation is 98.99% and the average absolute error (AAE) is 1.534% with standard deviation (SD) of 0.000372. Meanwhile, correlation generated by genetic programming gave R 2 of 99.96% and an AAE of 0.3252% with a SD of 0.00001584. The importance of the new correlation stems from the fact that it depends mainly on experimental field production data, besides having a wide range of applications especially when actual PVT laboratory data are scarce or incomplete.
TOWARD PREDICTIVE MODELS FOR ESTIMATION OF BUBBLE POINT PRESSURE AND FORMATION VOLUME FACTOR OF CRUDE OIL USING AN INTELLIGENT APPROACH

Accurate estimation of reservoirs fluid properties, as vital tools of reservoir behavior simulation and reservoir economic investigations, seems to be necessary. In this study, two important properties of crude oil, bubble point pressure (Pb) and formation volume factor (Bob) were modelled on the basis of a number of basic oil properties: temperature, gas solubility, oil API gravity and gas specific gravity. Genetic programming, as a powerful method, was implemented on a set of 137 crude oil data and acceptable correlations were achieved. In order to evaluate models, two test datasets (17 data for Pb and 12 data for Bob) were used. The squared correlation coefficient (R2) and average absolute relative deviation (AARD over the total dataset (training test) are 0.9675 and 8.22% for Pb and 0.9436 and 2.004% for Bob, respectively. Simplicity and high accuracy are the advantages of the obtained models.
Safety Awareness Online Detection System of Driving Behavior Based on Software and Hardware Co design
Venue: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security Companion (QRS C)

The safety awareness online detection of driving behavior means that a kind of detection of the ongoing unsafe driving behavior as it starts but before it ends. This type of detection is significant important for achieving safe driving assistant because it is able to recognize the unsafe or aggressive driving behavior in advance and then give a buffer time to issue the vital alert. In order to achieve online detection, it is critical to reduce the processing time spent on the whole behavior recognition procedure, which usually is complex and involves a lot of computation loads. This paper proposes an approach to address the challenge by adopting a methodology of software and hardware co design. We implement the most computation intensive stages of preprocessing and feature extraction as the hardware cores. A prototype safety awareness online behavior detection system is implemented on the programmable chip (SoPC) by using software and hardware co design, and the experiment shows its effectiveness.
A Flexible UV Vis NIR Photodetector based on a Perovskite/Conjugated Polymer Composite.
Venue: Advanced materials

A lateral photodetector based on the bilayer composite film of a perovskite and a conjugated polymer is reported. It exhibits significantly enhanced responsivity in the UV vis region and sensitive photoresponse in the near IR (NIR) region at a low applied voltage. This broadband photodetector also shows excellent mechanical flexibility and improved environmental stability.
Corporation tax as a problem of MNC organisational circuits: The case for unitary taxation

Research Highlights and Abstract Contextualises and clarifies the case for unitary taxation In so doing sets out the structural and institutional constraints of the current system of taxation for multinational corporations (separate entity status and the arms length principle) Explores the limits and potentials of current policy initiatives that are shaping the ongoing response to issues of taxation for multinational corporations (from the Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development (OECD) within the UK and the EC) The tax practices of multinational corporations have become a matter of significant public and political concern. The underlying issues are rooted in the capacity of multinational corporations (MNCs) to construct organisational circuits that shift where sales, revenue and profit are reported. This capacity in turn becomes a focus because of the way MNCs are treated as a series of separate entities, subject to the arm's length principle. This has become a classic example of a system whose current form and consequences were not foreseen when the original principles were set out. The continued existence of that system owes more to specific interests and inertia than it does to the absence of a viable alternative. Unitary taxation based on formula apportionment clearly resolves the underlying issues and unitary taxation may well ultimately emerge as a new generalised basis for corporate taxation. However, for it to do so, the problems of the current system and the advantages of the alternative need to be more clearly understood within academia, business and on a societal basis. This paper is a contribution to such an understanding.
Limits to private internal investigations of white collar crime suspicions: The case of Scandinavian bank Nordea in tax havens

This article provides insight on private investigations in the corporate sector using the case study of Scandinavian bank Nordea in tax havens based on leakage of Panama papers in 2016. The article shows insight on how the private sector approaches such cases, which is rare in the broader literature. Organizations that may be subject to some form of fraud or other white collar crime call in investigators to examine any concerns that they may have and make a report as to whether or not there is evidence to substantiate such concerns. Whilst the value of some internal investigations may be compromised by a failure to apportion blame, and a lack of integrity and objectivity, this is not always the case. Given potential limits to private investigations, it is important that decision making is based on other sources as well when it comes to conclusions about past negative events in terms of misconduct and potential crime. As discussed in this article, the limitations around private investigations have affected their ability to investigate the allegations leveled by bank Nordea.
A STAMP Based Causal Analysis of the Korean Sewol Ferry Accident

The increased complexity of socio technical systems has revealed the limited contributions of existing event based accident analysis methods on sustainable safety improvements. Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) constructed upon Systems Theory deploys a holistic approach to safety and provides broad insights into accident causality via the integration of the analysis from both direct and indirect factors involved. A dedicated STAMP based analysis is conducted in this paper by taking the recent Sewol ferry tragedy as an example, to illustrate the utility of applying the STAMP Model to the maritime transportation domain and to stimulate a broader view of accident mechanisms that expands casual analysis beyond immediate physical failures to a systemic view. Some recommendations are developed for continuous improvements and corrective actions to prevent such catastrophic accident from future occurrences.
Uncertainty treatment in risk analysis of complex systems: The cases of STAMP and FRAM
Venue: Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf.

Several approaches to systems thinking have been proposed to understand and model complex socio technical systems and potential accidents, including the System Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) with the associated hazard analysis method System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) It is argued that these approaches are suitable for the risk analysis of complex socio technical systems. The purpose of this paper is to look more closely into this thesis, with a special focus on the treatment of uncertainty and potential surprises linked to the operation of such systems. A key finding is that these approaches may, indeed, reduce the potential for surprises by increasing the system and risk understanding but need to be supplemented with other approaches to adequately support the decision making on risk issues.