How clicks on a job platform can reveal gender, ethnic, and racial bias

Education and skills should be the key determinants of whether a candidate gets a job or not, but in reality, gender, origin or race/ethnicity end up influencing hiring decisions. By leveraging big data from recruitment platforms and machine learning to study hiring discrimination, Dominik Hangartner, Daniel Kopp, and Michael Siegenthaler show that discrimination against immigrants depends, among other things, on their origin and time of day; and that both men and women face discrimination

Simultaneous Clutter Detection and Semantic Segmentation of Moving Objects for Automotive Radar Data

The unique properties of radar sensors, such as their robustness to adverse weather conditions, make them an important part of the environment perception system of autonomous vehicles. One of the first steps during the processing of radar point clouds is often the detection of clutter, i.e. erroneous points that do not correspond to real objects. Another common objective is the semantic segmentation of moving road users. These two problems are handled strictly separate from each other in literature. The employed neural networks are always focused entirely on only one of the tasks. In contrast to this, we examine ways to solve both tasks at the same time with a single jointly used model. In addition to a new augmented multi-head architecture, we also devise a method to represent a network's predictions for the two tasks with only one output value. This novel approach allows us to solve the tasks simultaneously with the same inference time as a conventional task-specific model. In an extensive evaluation, we show that our setup is highly effective and outperforms every existing network for semantic segmentation on the RadarScenes dataset.Comment: Published at IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), Bilbao, ESP, 202

Synthetic biocatalytic modules for enhanced transformation of biological waste products

Many insoluble materials can be used as carriers for the immobilisation of enzymes. Solid-binding peptides (SBPs) are short amino acid sequences that can act as molecular linkers to direct the orientated immobilisation of proteins onto solid materials without impeding their biological activity [1]. Silica-based materials like silica and zeolite have been found to be suitable matrices for enzyme immobilisation in industrial processes. They are inexpensive, offer high mechanical strength and stability, are chemically inert and can be deployed over a wide range of operating conditions. We have constructed biocatalytic modules that are based on the incorporation of a silica-binding SBP (‘linker’) sequence into several genes for thermostable enzymes to facilitate the immobilisation of the proteins onto silica-based matrices, enabling the hydrolysis of both simple and complex polysaccharides. We have shown also that the procedure is suitable for the construction of complex enzymological pathways. In proof of concept experiments, the linker (L) sequence was attached to the N- or C-terminus of three thermostable hemicellulases isolated from thermophilic bacteria using genetic engineering techniques [2]. The resulting L-enzymes remained active after fusion and displayed the same pH and temperature optima but differing thermostabilities in comparison to their corresponding enzymes without linker. The linker facilitated the rapid and simple immobilisation of each L-enzyme onto zeolite, resulting in the construction of ‘single enzyme biocatalytic modules’. All three L-enzymes co-immobilised onto the same zeolite matrix resulted in the formation of ‘multiple enzyme biocatalytic modules’, which were shown to degrade various hemicellulosic substrates effectively in a ‘one-pot’ reaction. Cell-free synthetic biology circumvents many of the limitations encountered by in vivo synthetic biology by operating without the constraints of a cell. It offers higher substrate and enzyme loading and the facile optimisation of enzyme ratios. Some of the challenges of this approach include costly enzyme preparation, biocatalyst stability, and the need for constant supplementation with co-factors. To overcome these challenges, we have developed a molecular toolbox that facilitates the construction of biocatalytic modules with predefined functions and catalytic properties. It consists of three interchangeable building blocks: (a) low-cost inorganic matrices (e.g., silica, zeolite), (b) matrix-specific SBPs and (c) thermostable enzymes. The rational combination of these building blocks allows for flexibility and a ‘pick, mix’ and re-use’ approach with multiple biocatalytic modules available for the assembly of natural and non-natural pathways. Individual immobilised enzymes can be combined rationally to assemble recyclable and product-specific reactions. We present preliminary results relating to the construction of two synthetic pathways for the conversion of organic wastes such as coffee and plant biomass. The pathway assembly process allows for rapid evaluation for proof of concept and for assessing the parameters for a synthetic pathway, which are very labour- and time-intensive by the in vivo approach. [1] Care, A, Bergquist, PL, Sunna, A. (2015) Trends Biotech. 33: 259-268 [2] Care, A, Petroll, K, Gibson, ESY, Bergquist, PL, Sunna, A. (2017) Biotech. Biofuels. 10: 2

Interobserver agreement in interpretation of chest radiographs for pediatric community acquired pneumonia: Findings of the pedCAPNETZ-cohort.

Although chest radiograph (CXR) is commonly used in diagnosing pediatric community acquired pneumonia (pCAP), limited data on interobserver agreement among radiologists exist. PedCAPNETZ is a prospective, observational, and multicenter study on pCAP. N = 233 CXR from patients with clinical diagnosis of pCAP were retrieved and n = 12 CXR without pathological findings were added. All CXR were interpreted by a radiologist at the site of recruitment and by two external, blinded pediatric radiologists. To evaluate interobserver agreement, the reporting of presence or absence of pCAP in CXR was analyzed, and prevalence and bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK) statistical testing was applied. Overall, n = 190 (82%) of CXR were confirmed as pCAP by two external pediatric radiologists. Compared with patients with pCAP negative CXR, patients with CXR-confirmed pCAP displayed higher C-reactive protein levels and a longer duration of symptoms before enrollment (p < .007). Further parameters, that is, age, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation showed no significant difference. The interobserver agreement between the onsite radiologists and each of the two independent pediatric radiologists for the presence of pCAP was poor to fair (69%; PABAK = 0.39% and 76%; PABAK = 0.53, respectively). The concordance between the external radiologists was fair (81%; PABAK = 0.62). With regard to typical CXR findings for pCAP, chance corrected interrater agreement was highest for pleural effusions, infiltrates, and consolidations and lowest for interstitial patterns and peribronchial thickening. Our data show a poor interobserver agreement in the CXR-based diagnosis of pCAP and emphasized the need for harmonized interpretation standards

Increased breath naphthalene in children with asthma and wheeze of the All Age Asthma Cohort (ALLIANCE).

Background&#xD;Exhaled breath contains numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) known to be related to lung disease like asthma. Its collection is non-invasive, simple to perform and therefore an attractive method for the use even in young children. We analysed breath in children of the multicenter All Age Asthma Cohort (ALLIANCE) to evaluate if "breathomics" have the potential to phenotype patients with asthma and wheeze, and to identify extrinsic risk factors for underlying disease mechanisms.&#xD;Methods&#xD;A breath sample was collected from 142 children (asthma: 51, pre-school wheezers: 55, healthy controls: 36) and analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Children were diagnosed according to GINA guidelines and comprehensively examined each year over up to seven years. Forty children repeated the breath collection after 24 or 48 months. &#xD;Results&#xD;Most breath VOCs differing between groups reflect the exposome of the children. We observed lower levels of lifestyle-related VOCs and higher levels of the environmental pollutants, especially naphthalene, in children with asthma or wheeze. Naphthalene was also higher in symptomatic patients and in wheezers with recent inhaled corticosteroid use. No relationships with lung function or TH2 inflammation were detected.&#xD;Conclusion&#xD;Increased levels of naphthalene in asthmatics and wheezers and the relationship to disease severity could indicate a role of environmental or indoor air pollution for the development or progress of asthma. Breath VOCs might help to elucidate the role of the exposome for the development of asthma.&#xD;The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02496468).&#xD;&#xD

Las ruinas del Imperio

Primer Accésit Categoría Junior del Certame

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements