Customs Import Declaration Datasets

Given the huge volume of cross-border flows, effective and efficient control of trade becomes more crucial in protecting people and society from illicit trade. However, limited accessibility of the transaction-level trade datasets hinders the progress of open research, and lots of customs administrations have not benefited from the recent progress in data-based risk management. In this paper, we introduce an import declaration dataset to facilitate the collaboration between domain experts in customs administrations and researchers from diverse domains, such as data science and machine learning. The dataset contains 54,000 artificially generated trades with 22 key attributes, and it is synthesized with conditional tabular GAN while maintaining correlated features. Synthetic data has several advantages. First, releasing the dataset is free from restrictions that do not allow disclosing the original import data. The fabrication step minimizes the possible identity risk which may exist in trade statistics. Second, the published data follow a similar distribution to the source data so that it can be used in various downstream tasks. Hence, our dataset can be used as a benchmark for testing the performance of any classification algorithm. With the provision of data and its generation process, we open baseline codes for fraud detection tasks, as we empirically show that more advanced algorithms can better detect fraud.Comment: Datasets: https://github.com/Seondong/Customs-Declaration-Dataset

Extracting the inherent ideality factor of a diode from electrical current–voltage characteristics

Abstract The ideality factor of a diode gives the information on the current conduction or recombination processes occurring inside the device. The ideality factor obtained from the electrical current–voltage (I–V) characteristics by the conventional method is typically masked by the effect of the series resistance at high currents. In this study, from a careful analysis of the I–V characteristics, a new formula that can extract the inherent ideality factor without the effect of the series resistance is presented and experimentally tested with a blue light‐emitting diode. The new ideality factor thus obtained is compared with the one by the photovoltaic measurement

Light-absorption enhancement of black carbon in the Asian outflow inferred from airborne SP2 and in-situ measurements during KORUS- AQ

We investigated the changes in the size distribution, coating thickness, and mass absorption cross-section (MAC) of black carbon (BC) with aging and estimated the light absorption enhancement (Eabs) in the Asian outflow from airborne in-situ measurements during 2016 KORUS-AQ campaign. The BC number concentration decreased, but mass mean diameter increased with increasing altitude in the West Coast (WC) and Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA), reflecting the contrast between freshly emitted BC-containing particles at the surface and more aged aerosol associated with aggregation during vertical mixing and transport. Contradistinctively, BC number and mass size distributions were relatively invariant with altitude over the Yellow Sea (YS) because sufficiently aged BC from eastern China were horizontally transported to all altitudes over the YS, and there are no significant sources at the surface. The averaged inferred MAC of refractory BC in three regions reflecting differences in their size distributions increased to 9.8 +/- 1.0 m(2) g(-1) (YS), 9.3 +/- 0.9 m(2) g(-1) (WC), and 8.2 +/- 0.9 m(2) g(-1) (SMA) as BC coating thickness increased from 20 nm to 120 nm. The absorption coefficient of BC calculated from the coating thickness and MAC were highly correlated with the filter-based absorption measurements with the slope of 1.16 and R-2 of 0.96 at 550 nm, revealing that the thickly coated BC had a large MAC and absorption coefficient. The Eabs due to the inferred coatings was estimated as 1.0-1.6, which was about 30% lower than those from climate models and laboratory experiments, suggesting that the increase in the BC absorption by the coatings in the Asian outflow is not as large as calculated in the previous studies. Organics contributed to the largest Eabs accounting for 69% (YS), 61% (WC), and 64% (SMA). This implies that organics are largely responsible for the lensing effect of BC rather than sulfates in the Asian outflow. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Predicting progression to dementia with "comprehensive visual rating scale" and machine learning algorithms

Background and ObjectiveIdentifying biomarkers for predicting progression to dementia in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is crucial. To this end, the comprehensive visual rating scale (CVRS), which is based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), was developed for the assessment of structural changes in the brains of patients with MCI. This study aimed to investigate the use of the CVRS score for predicting dementia in patients with MCI over a 2-year follow-up period using various machine learning (ML) algorithms. MethodsWe included 197 patients with MCI who were followed up more than once. The data used for this study were obtained from the Japanese-Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative study. We assessed all the patients using their CVRS scores, cortical thickness data, and clinical data to determine their progression to dementia during a follow-up period of over 2 years. ML algorithms, such as logistic regression, random forest (RF), XGBoost, and LightGBM, were applied to the combination of the dataset. Further, feature importance that contributed to the progression from MCI to dementia was analyzed to confirm the risk predictors among the various variables evaluated. ResultsOf the 197 patients, 108 (54.8%) showed progression from MCI to dementia. Tree-based classifiers, such as XGBoost, LightGBM, and RF, achieved relatively high performance. In addition, the prediction models showed better performance when clinical data and CVRS score (accuracy 0.701-0.711) were used than when clinical data and cortical thickness (accuracy 0.650-0.685) were used. The features related to CVRS helped predict progression to dementia using the tree-based models compared to logistic regression. ConclusionsTree-based ML algorithms can predict progression from MCI to dementia using baseline CVRS scores combined with clinical data.N

Genomic characterization of malonate positive Cronobacter sakazakii serotype O:2, sequence type 64 strains, isolated from clinical, food, and environment samples

Abstract Background Malonate utilization, an important differential trait, well recognized as being possessed by six of the seven Cronobacter species is thought to be largely absent in Cronobacter sakazakii (Csak). The current study provides experimental evidence that confirms the presence of a malonate utilization operon in 24 strains of sequence type (ST) 64, obtained from Europe, Middle East, China, and USA; it offers explanations regarding the genomic diversity and phylogenetic relatedness among these strains, and that of other C. sakazakii strains. Results In this study, the presence of a malonate utilization operon in these strains was initially identified by DNA microarray analysis (MA) out of a pool of 347 strains obtained from various surveillance studies involving clinical, spices, milk powder sources and powdered infant formula production facilities in Ireland and Germany, and dried dairy powder manufacturing facilities in the USA. All ST64 C. sakazakii strains tested could utilize malonate. Zebrafish embryo infection studies showed that C. sakazakii ST64 strains are as virulent as other Cronobacter species. Parallel whole genome sequencing (WGS) and MA showed that the strains phylogenetically grouped as a separate clade among the Csak species cluster. Additionally, these strains possessed the Csak O:2 serotype. The nine-gene, ~ 7.7 kbp malonate utilization operon was located in these strains between two conserved flanking genes, gyrB and katG. Plasmidotyping results showed that these strains possessed the virulence plasmid pESA3, but in contrast to the USA ST64 Csak strains, ST64 Csak strains isolated from sources in Europe and the Middle East, did not possess the type six secretion system effector vgrG gene. Conclusions Until this investigation, the presence of malonate-positive Csak strains, which are associated with foods and clinical cases, was under appreciated. If this trait was used solely to identify Cronobacter strains, many strains would likely be misidentified. Parallel WGS and MA were useful in characterizing the total genome content of these Csak O:2, ST64, malonate-positive strains and further provides an understanding of their phylogenetic relatedness among other virulent C. sakazakii strains

Carta exortatoria, en que el Obispo de Segovia pone delante de los ojos de todos sus Eclesiasticos un espejo, en que registren la Dignidad que gozan, y dispongan sus acciones segun el estado altissimo en que se hallan.

Sig. A-K4Signat al final "Diego, Obispo de Segovia". - Es Diego García de MedranoPort. orlada. - Text amb notes marginals. - Reclams. - Capital grav. i vinyeta amb l'anagrama de jesucrist al començament del tex

MOESM2 of Genomic characterization of malonate positive Cronobacter sakazakii serotype O:2, sequence type 64 strains, isolated from clinical, food, and environment samples

Additional file 2: Table S2. Gene difference analysis of malonate-positive C. sakazakii strains compared to other Cronobacter and non Cronobacter strains

Enhanced antibody responses in fully vaccinated individuals against pan-SARS-CoV-2 variants following Omicron breakthrough infection

© 2022 The Author(s)Omicron has become the globally dominant severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant, creating additional challenges due to its ability to evade neutralization. Here, we report that neutralizing antibodies against Omicron variants are undetected following COVID-19 infection with ancestral or past SARS-CoV-2 variant viruses or after two-dose mRNA vaccination. Compared with two-dose vaccination, a three-dose vaccination course induces broad neutralizing antibody responses with improved durability against different SARS-CoV-2 variants, although neutralizing antibody titers against Omicron remain low. Intriguingly, among individuals with three-dose vaccination, Omicron breakthrough infection substantially augments serum neutralizing activity against a broad spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron variants BA.1, BA.2, and BA.5. Additionally, after Omicron breakthrough infection, memory T cells respond to the spike proteins of both ancestral and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 by producing cytokines with polyfunctionality. These results suggest that Omicron breakthrough infection following three-dose mRNA vaccination induces pan-SARS-CoV-2 immunity that may protect against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.11Nsciescopu

MOESM6 of Genomic characterization of malonate positive Cronobacter sakazakii serotype O:2, sequence type 64 strains, isolated from clinical, food, and environment samples

Additional file 6: Figure S2. Clustal analysis of mdcB protein from ST64 and non-C. sakazakii strains. Proteins sequences were retrieved from the annotations found in NCBI or RAST/SEED server originally carried out as part of this study. The sequences were subjected Clustal Omega multiple alignment. Amino acid substitutions in different species are noted in the illustration reflecting the nucleotide diversity discussed elsewhere