Evaluation of empirical attributes for credit risk forecasting from numerical data

In this research, the authors proposed a new method to evaluate borrowers’ credit risk and quality of financial statements information provided. They use qualitative and quantitative criteria to measure the quality and the reliability of its credit customers. Under this statement, the authors evaluate 35 features that are empirically utilized for forecasting the borrowers’ credit behavior of a Greek Bank. These features are initially selected according to universally accepted criteria. A set of historical data was collected and an extensive data analysis is performed by using non parametric models. Our analysis revealed that building simplified model by using only three out of the thirty five initially selected features one can achieve the same or slightly better forecasting accuracy when compared to the one achieved by the model uses all the initial features. Also, experimentally verified claim that universally accepted criteria can’t be globally used to achieve optimal results is discussed

Self-configured Entity Resolution with pyJedAI

Entity Resolution has been an active research topic for the last three decades, with numerous algorithms proposed in the literature. However, putting them into practice is often a complex task that requires implementing, combining and configuring complementary individual algorithms into comprehensive end-to-end workflows. To facilitate this process, we are developing pyJedAI, a novel system that provides a unifying framework for any type of main works in the field (i.e., both unsupervised and learning-based ones). Our vision is to facilitate both novice and expert users to use and combine these algorithms through a series of principled approaches for automatically configuring and benchmarking end-to-end pipelines

Transparent all-oxide hybrid NiON/TiO2 heterostructure for optoelectronic applications

Nickel oxide (NiO) is a p-type oxide and nitrogen is one of the dopants used for modifying its properties. Until now, nitrogen-doped NiO has shown inferior optical and electrical properties than those of pure NiO. In this work, we present nitrogen-doped NiO (NiO:N) thin films with enhanced properties compared to those of the undoped NiO thin film. The NiO:N films were grown at room temperature by sputtering using a plasma containing 50% Ar and 50% (O2 + N2) gases. The undoped NiO film was oxygen-rich, single-phase cubic NiO, having a transmittance of less than 20%. Upon doping with nitrogen, the films became more transparent (around 65%), had a wide direct band gap (up to 3.67 eV) and showed clear evidence of indirect band gap, 2.50–2.72 eV, depending on %(O2-N2) in plasma. The changes in the properties of the films such as structural disorder, energy band gap, Urbach states and resistivity were correlated with the incorporation of nitrogen in their structure. The optimum NiO:N film was used to form a diode with spin-coated, mesoporous on top of a compact, TiO2 film. The hybrid NiO:N/TiO2 heterojunction was transparent showing good output characteristics, as deduced using both I-V and Cheung’s methods, which were further improved upon thermal treatment. Transparent NiO:N films can be realized for all-oxide flexible optoelectronic devices

An assessment of sputtered nitrogen-doped nickel oxide for all-oxide transparent optoelectronic applications: The case of hybrid NiO:N/TiO2 heterostructure

ransition metal oxides present a unique category of materials due to their versatile optical, electrical and mechanical properties. Nickel oxide (NiO) is an intrinsic p-type oxide semiconductor. P-NiO with controllable and reproducible physico-chemical properties, if combined with transparency and low temperature (low-T) fabrication processes, can be fully exploited in many transparent and/or flexible devices for applications, like energy management (production, manipulation, storage), sensing, wearable and health care electronics, etc. Reproducibility, transparency and low-T fabrication processes of p-type NiO are the motivation of this work. Nitrogen is one of the dopants used for modifying the properties of NiO. Until now, nitrogen-doped NiO, has shown inferior properties than those of pure NiO. In this work, we present nitrogen-doped NiO (NiO:N) thin films with enhanced properties compared to those of the undoped NiO. The NiO:N films were grown by sputtering on room-temperature substrates in plasma containing 50% Ar and 50% (O2+N2) gases. The undoped NiO film was oxygen-rich, single-phase cubic NiO, having transmittance less than 20%. Upon doping with nitrogen, the films became more transparent (around 65%), had a wide direct band gap (up to 3.67 eV) and showed clear evidence of indirect band gap, 2.50-2.72 eV, depending on %(O2-N2) in plasma. The changes in the properties of the films such as structural disorder, energy band gap, Urbach states and resistivity were correlated with the incorporation of nitrogen in their structure. The optimum NiO:N film was used to form a diode with spin-coated, mesoporous on top of a compact, TiO2 film. The hybrid NiO:N/TiO2 heterojunction was transparent showing good output characteristics, as deduced using both I-V and Cheung’s methods. The diode’s transparency and characteristics were further enhanced upon thermal treatment and this was attributed to improved NiO:N properties with annealing. Transparent NiO:N films can be realized for all-oxide flexible optoelectronic devices

A novel SATB1 protein isoform with different biophysical properties

Intra-thymic T cell development is coordinated by the regulatory actions of SATB1 genome organizer. In this report, we show that SATB1 is involved in the regulation of transcription and splicing, both of which displayed deregulation in Satb1 knockout murine thymocytes. More importantly, we characterized a novel SATB1 protein isoform and described its distinct biophysical behavior, implicating potential functional differences compared to the commonly studied isoform. SATB1 utilized its prion-like domains to transition through liquid-like states to aggregated structures. This behavior was dependent on protein concentration as well as phosphorylation and interaction with nuclear RNA. Notably, the long SATB1 isoform was more prone to aggregate following phase separation. Thus, the tight regulation of SATB1 isoforms expression levels alongside with protein post-translational modifications, are imperative for SATB1’s mode of action in T cell development. Our data indicate that deregulation of these processes may also be linked to disorders such as cancer

Unpublished Mediterranean and Black Sea records of marine alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species

To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020–2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).Stelios Katsanevakis, Michail Ragkousis, Maria Sini, Markos Digenis and Vasilis Gerovasileiou were supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) under the “First Call for HFRI Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and the procurement of high-cost research equipment grant” (Project ALAS – “ALiens in the Aegean – a Sea under siege” (Katsanevakis et al. 2020b); Project Number: HFRI-FM17-1597). Konstantinos Tsirintanis was co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning”, 2014-2020, in the context of the Act “Enhancing Human Resources Research Potential by undertaking a Doctoral Research” Sub-action 2: IKY Scholarship Programme for PhD candidates in the Greek Universities. Maria Zotou was supported by the project “Coastal Environment Observatory and Risk Management in Island Regions AEGIS+” (MIS 5047038), implemented within the Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (NSRF 2014-2020), co financed by the Hellenic Government (Ministry of Development and Investments) and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund). Razy Hoffman was supported by Yad-Hanadiv Foundation, through the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences and Israel Nature and Parks Authority, an integrated program for establishing biological baselines and monitoring protocols for marine reserves in the Israeli Mediterranean Sea (Grant #10669). Tatiana Begun, Adrian Teaca and Mihaela Muresan were supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 BRIDGE-BS project under grant agreement no. 101000240. Fiona Tomas was supported by the project “Invasion of the tropical alga Halimeda incrassata in the Balearic Islands: ecology and invasion dynamics (AAEE119/2017)”, funded by the Vicepresidencia y Consejería de Innovación, Investigación y Turismo del Govern de les Illes Balears, with support from the European Union and FEDER funds, and the project “Una nueva alga invasora en el Mediterráneo: invasibilidad, detección y erradicación del alga tropical Halimeda incrassata (INVHALI)”, funded by the Fundación Biodiversidad, del Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico. Simonetta Fraschetti, Laura Tamburello, Antonia Chiarore were supported by the project PO FEAMP 2014-2020 - DRD n. 35/2019, “Innovazione, sviluppo e sostenibilità nel settore della pesca e dell'acquacoltura per la Regione Campania” (ISSPA 2.51) and the EU EASME - EMFF (Sustainable Blue Econ-omy) Project AFRIMED (http://afrimed-project.eu/, grant agreement N. 789059). Carlos Jimenez, Louis Hadjioannou, Vasilis Resaikos, Valentina Fossati, Magdalene Papatheodoulou, and Antonis Petrou were supported by MedPan Small Projects, Mava, and LIFE-IP. Louis Hadjioannou, Manos L. Moraitis and Neophytos Agrotis received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program within the framework of the CMMI/MaRITeC-X project under grant agreement No. 857586. Ernesto Azzurro was supported by the project USEIt - Utilizzo di Sinergie operative per la gestione integrata specie aliene Invasive in Italia, funded by the research programme @CNR. Antonietta Rosso and Francesco Sciuto were supported by the University of Catania through “PiaCeRi-Piano Incentivi per la Ricerca di Ateneo 2020–22 linea di intervento 2.” This is the Catania Paleoecological Research Group contribution n. 484. Diego K. Kersting was supported by the Beatriu de Pinós programme funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research (Government of Catalonia) and the Horizon 2020 programme of research and innovation of the European Union under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 801370. Francesco Tiralongo was supported by the AlienFish project of Ente Fauna Marina Mediterranea (Scientific Organization for Research and Conservation of Marine Biodiversity, 96012 Avola, Italy), a citizen science project for monitoring and studying rare and non-indigenous fish in Italian waters. Adriana Vella, was supported by funds through the BioCon_Innovate Research Excellence Grant from the University of Malta awarded to her. Noel Vella was supported by REACH HIGH Scholars Programme-Post Doctoral Grant for the FINS project. Some of the records provided by Victor Surugiu were obtained during surveys carried out within the framework of the project “Adequate management of invasive species in Romania, in accordance with EU Regulation 1143/2014 on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species”, SMIS 2014+ 120008, coordinated by the Romanian Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests in partnership with the University of Bucharest (2018–2022). Alan Deidun and Alessio Marrone were supported by the “Spot The Alien” citizen science campaign for the monitoring of the Alien species in the Maltese archipelago and by the Interreg Italia-Malta Harmony project. The authors from the National Institute of Biology (Slovenia) acknowledge the financial support of the Slovenian Research Agency (Research Core Funding No. P1-0237) and of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food (project “Survey of the species richness and abundance of alien species in the Slovenian Sea”). Emanuele Mancini and Fabio Collepardo Coccia were supported by the project PO-FEAMP 2014-2020 “BIOBLITZ: research, knowledge and participation for the sustainable management of marine resources (BioBlitz Blu 2020)” coordinated by CURSA for MIPAAF, the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, Measure 1.40 - Protection and restoration of biodiversity and marine ecosystems and compensation schemes in the context of sustainable fishing activities. Daniele Grech was supported by the PO-FEAMP 2014-2020 project ECOGESTOCK “Approccio ECOsistemico per la tutela e la GEStione delle risorse biologiche e STOCK ittici nelle acque interne”, the citizen science project Progetto Fucales: chi le ha viste? and the Paralenz Every dive counts sponsor. Jamila Rizgalla was supported by the project Snowball for the monitoring of alien species in Libyan waters له اهتفش له اهتدطصا ؟) have you seen it have you fished it?). Gerasimos Kondylatos and Dimitrios Mavrouleas were supported by the project “EXPLIAS” (MIS (ΟΠΣ): 5049912), design and piloting methods of commercial exploitation of invasive alien species with a view to contributing to their population control, coordinated by the National Technical University of Athens with the collaboration of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research and the University of the Aegean and co-founded by Greece and the European Union. G. Kondylatos and Savvas Nikolidakis were supported by the project “SAMOS” (ID CODE: 32.2072004/001), a study for a submarine productive park in Marathokampos of Samos. Paraskevi K. Karachle, Aikaterini Dogrammatzi, Giorgos A. Apostolopoulos, Kassiani Konida and Melina Nalmpanti were supported by the project “4ALIEN: Biology and the potential economic exploitation of four alien species in the Hellenic Seas”, funded by NRSF 2017-2020 (MIS (ΟΠΣ): 5049511). Fabio Crocetta and Riccardo Virgili were partially funded by the project PO FEAMP Campania 2014–2020, DRD n. 35 of 15th March 2018, Innovazione, sviluppo e sostenibilità nel settore della pesca e dell’acquacoltura per la regione Campania, Misura 2.51, WP5, Task 5.5 Presenza e distribuzione di specie non indigene del macrozoobenthos e del necton in Campania. Michel Bariche was partially funded by the University Research Board of the American University of Beirut (DDF 103951/2592). Constantinos G. Georgiadis, Dimitra Lida Rammou, Paschalis Papadamakis and Sotiris Orfanidis were supported by the MSFD monitoring program. Sonia Smeraldo was supported by the MPA-Engage project, led by the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council and funded by the Interreg MED program. Evgeniia Karpova acknowledge that the publication of this article was in part carried out within the framework of the state assignment of the FRC IBSS “Patterns of Formation and Anthropogenic Transformation of Biodiversity and Bioresources of the Azov– Black Sea Basin and Other Regions of the World Ocean” (No. 121030100028-0). Elena Slynko’s work was carried out within the framework of a State Assignment no. 121051100109-1 of IBIW RAS. Manuela Falautano and Luca Castriota were supported by ISPRA citizen science campaigns for the monitoring of alien species through the dedicated institutional project ([email protected]). María Altamirano was supported by the project RUGULOPTERYX funded by Fundación Biodiversidad-Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el reto Demográfico (Spain) and the project UMA20-FEDERJA-006 with support from the European Union and FEDER funds and Junta de Andalucía. Records provided by L. Mangialajo were collected in the framework of projects funded by the Pew Charitable Trust, by the European Commission (AFRIMED, http://afrimed-project.eu/, grant agreement N. 789059) and by the Académie 3 de l’Université Côte d’Azur (projet CONVOST).Peer reviewe

Unpublished Mediterranean and Black Sea records of marine alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species

To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020–2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).peer-reviewe

Data assimilation with state alignment using high-level image structures detection

International audienceSequential and variational assimilation methods allow tracking physical states using dynamic prior together with external observation of the studied system. However, when dense image satellite observations are available, such approaches realize a correction of the amplitude of the different state values but do not incorporate the spatial errors of structure positions. In the case of the position of a vortex, for example, when there is misfit between state and observation, the processes can be long to converge and even diverge when high dimensional state spaces are treated with few iterations of the assimilation methods as it is the case in operational algorithms. In this paper, we tackle this issue by proposing an alignment method based on modern object detection methods that uses visual correspondences between the physical state model and the structural information given by a sequence of image observing the phenomena

Data assimilation with state alignment using the EnKF

International audienc

ARION: A Digital eLearning Educational Tool Library for Synchronization Composition & Orchestration of Learning Session Data

In the last decade, there has been increased use of eLearning tools. Platforms and ecosystems supporting digital learning generate a vast amount of data and information in various forms and formats. Digital repositories emerge, such as video, audio, emotional data, and data triplets of various events’ educational activities, making data management and orchestration extremely difficult. This results in evaluating learning sessions’ generated knowledge to remain unexploited. In other disciplines, such as law enforcement, various tools produce valuable data that help solve problems or improve situations by synchronizing several modalities. The data generated in educational learning sessions is an untapped treasure trove of information that can contribute to the production of essential conclusions that would be extremely difficult or impossible to produce with conventional methods and without the use of digital tools. ARION combines learning data into simple and understandable forms of information that will lead the teacher to a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of students, the lesson, the educational process, and himself by providing a critical look at available data aimed at a substantial improvement of all components of the learning path