STEC: See-Through Transformer-based Encoder for CTR Prediction

Click-Through Rate (CTR) prediction holds a pivotal place in online advertising and recommender systems since CTR prediction performance directly influences the overall satisfaction of the users and the revenue generated by companies. Even so, CTR prediction is still an active area of research since it involves accurately modelling the preferences of users based on sparse and high-dimensional features where the higher-order interactions of multiple features can lead to different outcomes. Most CTR prediction models have relied on a single fusion and interaction learning strategy. The few CTR prediction models that have utilized multiple interaction modelling strategies have treated each interaction to be self-contained. In this paper, we propose a novel model named STEC that reaps the benefits of multiple interaction learning approaches in a single unified architecture. Additionally, our model introduces residual connections from different orders of interactions which boosts the performance by allowing lower level interactions to directly affect the predictions. Through extensive experiments on four real-world datasets, we demonstrate that STEC outperforms existing state-of-the-art approaches for CTR prediction thanks to its greater expressive capabilities

A democracia no Iraque: é uma falsa promessa para “massas de pessoas”?

A falta de uma democracia estável e presença de conflitos constantes no Iraque ocupam o país desde quase início do século, desestabilizando não apenas seu contexto interno, mas também sua região de um modo profundo. Esses problemas se baseiam em diversos fatores que fazem parte da atualidade no país e formam o cenário sócio-político profundamente. Neste sentido, com objetivo de entender melhor esse cenário, este trabalho traz uma abordagem baseada em democracia e democratização no país e seus efeitos sobre questão de identidade e como esses conceitos foram influenciados em frente dessa questão através de um olhar construtivista. Em torno dessa abordagem o trabalho busca, em específico, como que a falta de democracia e fracasso dos processos de democratização influenciaram as identidades nacional e subnacional, em um primeiro momento construindo a relação entre conceitos de democracia e democratização com identidade, e em seguida, a fim de construir a realidade levando em consideração diferentes pontos de vista, trazendo opiniões do elite político, do povo e do mundo acadêmico iraquiano e estadunidense como um olhar ocidental que interferiu diretamente nos processos de democratização e construção de identidade no país. Desse modo, o trabalho descreve e analisa os discursos e práticas políticos, opiniões públicas em frente desses atos e problemas enfrentados e análises acadêmicas estabelecidas sobre o contexto e traz uma conclusão baseada nesse conjunto de realidades

Determination of volatile compounds of the first rose oil and the first rose water by HS-SPME/GC/MS techniques

Background: Rose water and rose oil are used in the perfume, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industries. The determination of volatile compounds in rose oil and rose water obtained from oil-bearing rose is highly important in terms of availability in the industry and in human health.Materials and Methods: Twenty four and twenty six volatile compounds were determined in the first rose oil and in the first rose water. Thus, in this study, volatile compounds in the first rose oil and first rose water have been determined by HS-SPME/GC/MS (Headspace-Solid Phase Micro Extraction/Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry) techniques which were not published previously for determining volatile compounds in rose oil and rose water.Results: Twenty four and twenty six volatile compounds were found in the first rose oil and in the first rose water, respectively. It was further discovered that both first rose oil and first rose water are rich in oxygenated monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, with a third group of volatile compounds known as aliphatic hydrocarbons being found only in first rose oil. Citronellol contents of the first rose oil and rose water were found to be 43.40% and 40.13% respectively, whereas geraniol contents were 11.81% and 15.97%, respectively.Conclusion: These findings suggest that HS-SPME/GC/MS is a suitable technique for the determination of volatile compounds of rose oil and rose water.Keywords: Oil-bearing rose, Rosa damascena, HS-SPME/GC/MS, volatile compounds

Infection by agnoprotein-negative mutants of polyomavirus JC and SV40 results in the release of virions that are mostly deficient in DNA content

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human polyomavirus JC (JCV) is the etiologic agent of a brain disease, known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). The JCV genome encodes a small multifunctional phospho-protein, agnoprotein, from the late coding region of the virus, whose regulatory functions in viral replication cycle remain elusive. In this work, the functional role of JCV and SV40 agnoproteins in virion release was investigated using a point mutant (Pt) of each virus, where the ATG codon of agnoprotein was mutated to abrogate its expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analysis of both viral protein expression and replication using Pt mutant of each virus revealed that both processes were substantially down-regulated in the absence of agnoprotein compared to wild-type (WT) virus. Complementation studies in cells, which are constitutively expressing JCV agnoprotein and transfected with the JCV Pt mutant genome, showed an elevation in the level of viral DNA replication near to that observed for WT. Constitutive expression of large T antigen was found to be not sufficient to compensate the loss of agnoprotein for efficient replication of neither JCV nor SV40 in vivo. Examination of the viral release process for both JCV and SV40 Pt mutants showed that viral particles are efficiently released from the infected cells in the absence of agnoprotein but were found to be mostly deficient in viral DNA content.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results of this study provide evidence that agnoprotein plays an important role in the polyomavirus JC and SV40 life cycle. Infection by agnoprotein-negative mutants of both viruses results in the release of virions that are mostly deficient in DNA content.</p

Zooming in on scientific practices and evidence-based explanations during teaching NOS: A study in pre-service teacher education program

Investigating pre-service science teachers’ tendency for emphasizing nature of science in their lesson plans is crucial. Students should construct scientific explanations based on data-based evidence gathered from the activities they actively engage in a discourse environment. Focusing on evidence-based explanations and evaluation experiences in teacher education and professional development is also crucial as it is practiced and experienced in the real world. In this study, we investigate how pre-service science teachers incorporated nature of science aspects and used evidence-based explanation in their lesson plans. The findings of this study suggest that enabling pre-service teachers to design lesson plans for the use of competing theories may guide them to enable their students to engage in arguments from evidence and evaluate the trustworthiness of these evidences in a discourse environment. The results also indicate the necessity of explicit teaching of nature of science through instructional scaffolds that promote evaluation of evidence-based explanations

Genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates in two cities of Turkey: Description of a new family of genotypes that is phylogeographically specific for Asia Minor

BACKGROUND: Population-based bacterial genetics using repeated DNA loci is an efficient approach to study the biodiversity and phylogeographical structure of human pathogens, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the agent of tuberculosis. Indeed large genetic diversity databases are available for this pathogen and are regularly updated. No population-based polymorphism data were yet available for M. tuberculosis in Turkey, at the crossroads of Eurasia. RESULTS: A total of 245 DNAs from Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates from tuberculosis patients residing in Turkey (Malatya n = 147 or Ankara n = 98) were genotyped by spoligotyping, a high-throughput genotyping method based on the polymorphism of the Direct Repeat locus. Thirty-three spoligotyping-defined clusters including 206 patients and 39 unique patterns were found. The ST41 cluster, as designated according to the international SpolDB3 database project, represented one fourth and when gathered to three genotypes, ST53, ST50 and ST284, one half of all the isolates. Out of 34 clinical isolates harboring ST41 which were further genotyped by IS6110 and by MIRU-VNTR typing, a typical 2-copy IS6110-RFLP pattern and a "215125113322" MIRU-VNTR pattern were observed among 21 clinical isolates. Further search in various databases confirms the likely Turkish-phylogeographical specificity of this clonal complex. CONCLUSION: We described a new phylogeographically-specific clone of M. tuberculosis, designated LAM7-TUR. Further investigations to assess its frequency within all regions of Turkey and its phylogeographical origin and phylogenetic position within the global M. tuberculosis phylogenetic tree will shed new light on its endemicity in Asia Minor

Serum Neopterin and Procalcitonin Levels in Relationship with Pediatric Burn Wound Infections

Infection and septic complications in burn patients can be monitored by procalcitonin (PCT) and neopterin plasma values. The aim of the study was to investigate serum neopterin and PCT levels with WBC (white blood cell) and CRP (C-reactive protein) levels in patient group (PG) and healthy control group (HCG) and to investigate the relationship of these markers with burn wound infections (BWI). As the PG, 23 patients between 0–12 ages and up to 30% Total Body Surface Area (TBSA) burned and 15 HCG were included. PCT, neopterin, WBC, and CRP results on the first, the seventh, the fourteenth and the 21st day have been compared. During the follow-up period, 11 patients with BWI and 12 patients without BWI were classified as infected and non-infected patients, respectively. PCT and neopterin levels were detected higher in patients with BWI but no significant difference were present. Also, PCT and neopterin levels within the first 24 hours following the burn were detected higher in PG than HCG. CRP and WBC levels were detected high due to burn trauma. PCT and neopterin levels were increased in patients with BWI. PCT levels were increased during the pre-infectious period, while neopterin levels increased during the post-infectious period