State of the Union: A Data Consumer's Perspective on Wikidata and Its Properties for the Classification and Resolution of Entities

Wikipedia is one of the most popular sources of free data on the Internet and subject to extensive use in numerous areas of research. Wikidata on the other hand, the knowledge base behind Wikipedia, is less popular as a source of data, despite having the "data" already in its name, and despite the fact that many applications in Natural Language Processing in general and Information Extraction in particular benefit immensely from the integration of knowledge bases. In part, this imbalance is owed to the younger age of Wikidata, which launched over a decade after Wikipedia. However, this is also owed to challenges posed by the still evolving properties of Wikidata that make its content more difficult to consume for third parties than is desirable. In this article, we analzye the causes of these challenges from the viewpoint of a data consumer and discuss possible avenues of research and advancement that both the scientific and the Wikidata community can collaborate on to turn the knowledge base into the invaluable asset that it is uniquely positioned to become

Exchanging Bandwidth With Aperture Size in Wireless Indoor Localization - Or Why 5G/6G Systems With Antenna Arrays Can Outperform UWB Solutions

The localization of wireless devices in indoor scenarios presents a major challenge because of multipath propagation. Hence, the majority of the research community has focused on increasing the available bandwidth of localization systems, leading to the emergence of the ultra wide band (UWB) radar. However, the hardware implementation of UWB transceivers is challenging itself and, hence, their utilization in commercial low-cost wireless devices is not to be expected in the near future. Hence, instead of evaluating frequency dependent phases via UWB, the measurement of spatially distributed phases represents a valuable alternative. Therefore, this article presents a comparison of phase-difference-of-arrival (PDOA) and time-of-arrival (TOA) systems. For this purpose, we compare the measurement sensitivity, the effects of multipath propagation, and the hardware complexity. Based on the results, the applicability of typical position estimators is discussed. Thereby, we argue that PDOA-based localization with large receiver arrays appears to be the better choice to localize wireless devices, because it enables highly accurate positioning using narrow band signals without elaborated transmitter–receiver synchronization. To validate this, indoor localization measurements are presented and compared with UWB results in extant literature

Severe pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza disease due to pathogenic immune complexes

Pandemic influenza viruses often cause severe disease in middle-aged adults without preexistent co-morbidities. The mechanism of illness associated with severe disease in this age group is not well understood1–10. Here, we demonstrate preexisting serum antibody that cross-reacts with, but does not protect against 2009 H1N1 influenza virus in middle-aged adults. Non-protective antibody is associated with immune complex(IC)-mediated disease after infection. High titers of serum antibody of low avidity for H1-2009 antigen, and low avidity pulmonary ICs against the same protein were detected in severely ill patients. Moreover, C4d deposition - a sensitive marker of complement activation mediated by ICs- was present in lung sections of fatal cases. Archived lung sections from adults with confirmed fatal influenza 1957 H2N2 infection revealed a similar mechanism of illness. These observations provide a novel biological mechanism for the unusual age distribution of severe cases during influenza pandemics

TNF-α–induced protein 3 is a key player in childhood asthma development and environment-mediated protection

Background: Childhood asthma prevalence is significantly greater in urban areas compared with rural/farm environments. Murine studies have shown that TNF-alpha-induced protein 3 (TNFAIP3; A20), an anti-inflammatory regulator of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kappa B) signaling, mediates environmentally induced asthma protection. Objective: We aimed to determine the role of TNFAIP3 for asthma development in childhood and the immunomodulatory effects of environmental factors. Methods: In a representative selection of 250 of 2168 children from 2 prospective birth cohorts and 2 cross-sectional studies, we analyzed blood cells of healthy and asthmatic children from urban and rural/farm environments from Europe and China. PBMCs were stimulated ex vivo with dust from "asthma-protective'' farms or LPS. NF-kappa B signaling-related gene and protein expression was assessed in PBMCs and multiplex gene expression assays (NanoString Technologies) in isolated dendritic cells of schoolchildren and in cord blood mononuclear cells from newborns. Results: Anti-inflammatory TNFAIP3 gene and protein expression was consistently decreased, whereas proinflammatory Toll-like receptor 4 expression was increased in urban asthmatic patients (P <.05), reflecting their increased inflammatory status. Ex vivo farm dust or LPS stimulation restored TNFAIP3 expression to healthy levels in asthmatic patients and shifted NF-kappa B signaling-associated gene expression toward an anti-inflammatory state (P <.001). Farm/rural children had lower expression, indicating tolerance induction by continuous environmental exposure. Newborns with asthma at school age had reduced TNFAIP3 expression at birth, suggesting TNFAIP3 as a possible biomarker predicting subsequent asthma. Conclusion: Our data indicate TNFAIP3 as a key regulator during childhood asthma development and its environmentally mediated protection. Because environmental dust exposure conferred the anti-inflammatory effects, it might represent a promising future agent for asthma prevention and treatment.Peer reviewe