Selective crossover in genetic algorithms

This paper proposes a recombination operator, “selective crossover” for use in genetic algorithm

Aminosalicylic Acid (Paser)

This is a poster presented at the Natural Sciences Poster Session at Parkland College, which provides the chemical makeup, dosage, and the body\u27s response to Aminosalicylic Acid (Paser), a drug used with other medications for the treatment of tuberculosis

Family Resources Survey: United Kingdom 2010/11

The Family Resources Survey collects information on the incomes and circumstances of private households in the United Kingdom. It has been running since October 1992. This report summarises the results for the 2010/11 full survey year in which approximately 25,000 households were interviewed. The report is divided into sections covering: Income and State Support Receipt; Tenure; Savings and Investments; Disability; Carers; Occupation and Employment; and Pension Participation

Genetic Programming with Gene Dominance

This paper proposes the use of haploid gene dominance in genetic programming

Approach to childhood interstitial lung disease in resource limited setting

Childhood interstitial lung disease (ChILD) is a rare disease and sensitization is needed in the recognition, diagnosis and treatment approaches. There is no formal approach to diagnosis or therapy in resource limited regions. We present a case of a 4-month infant who presented with all the criteria for diagnosis of ChILD. Lung biopsy being the gold standard is a challenge in our setting and diagnosis was based on clinical signs and imaging after ruling out of other similar respiratory conditions by way of individual trials of therapy. Monotherapy with prednisone showed clinical improvement within days of initiation

The Inventory is Dark and Full of Misinformation: Understanding the Abuse of Ad Inventory Pooling in the Ad-Tech Supply Chain

Ad-tech enables publishers to programmatically sell their ad inventory to millions of demand partners through a complex supply chain. Bogus or low quality publishers can exploit the opaque nature of the ad-tech to deceptively monetize their ad inventory. In this paper, we investigate for the first time how misinformation sites subvert the ad-tech transparency standards and pool their ad inventory with unrelated sites to circumvent brand safety protections. We find that a few major ad exchanges are disproportionately responsible for the dark pools that are exploited by misinformation websites. We further find evidence that dark pooling allows misinformation sites to deceptively sell their ad inventory to reputable brands. We conclude with a discussion of potential countermeasures such as better vetting of ad exchange partners, adoption of new ad-tech transparency standards that enable end-to-end validation of the ad-tech supply chain, as well as widespread deployment of independent audits like ours.Comment: To appear at IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy (Oakland) 202

Before Blue Birds Became X-tinct: Understanding the Effect of Regime Change on Twitter's Advertising and Compliance of Advertising Policies

Social media platforms, including Twitter (now X), have policies in place to maintain a safe and trustworthy advertising environment. However, the extent to which these policies are adhered to and enforced remains a subject of interest and concern. We present the first large-scale audit of advertising on Twitter focusing on compliance with the platform's advertising policies, particularly those related to political and adult content. We investigate the compliance of advertisements on Twitter with the platform's stated policies and the impact of recent acquisition on the advertising activity of the platform. By analyzing 34K advertisements from ~6M tweets, collected over six months, we find evidence of widespread noncompliance with Twitter's political and adult content advertising policies suggesting a lack of effective ad content moderation. We also find that Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter had a noticeable impact on the advertising landscape, with most existing advertisers either completely stopping their advertising activity or reducing it. Major brands decreased their advertising on Twitter, suggesting a negative immediate effect on the platform's advertising revenue. Our findings underscore the importance of external audits to monitor compliance and improve transparency in online advertising

The functional role of extracellular nucleotides in the renal tubule

There is increasing evidence that extracellular nucleotides (such as ATP, ADP, UTP and UDP), as well as the nucleoside adenosine, behave as autocrine or paracrine agents in most tissues including the kidney, acting on a group of receptors known as purinoceptors. Previous studies have shown that activation of these receptors by exogenous nucleotides can influence a variety of renal vascular and tubular functions. Purinoceptors of various subtypes are present on basolateral and apical membranes of renal tubules. However, the extent to which apical receptors are stimulated by endogenous nucleotides is unknown. Using micropuncture, the first part of this study quantified endogenous ATP in the lumen of proximal and distal tubules of the rat in vivo, both under control conditions and during pathophysiological manoeuvres. The results showed that ATP levels were sufficiently high to activate some purinoceptor subtypes. To assess whether the intraluminal ATP was being secreted or merely filtered at the glomerulus, the ATP content of fluid from Bowman's space (in Munich-Wistar rats) was compared with that in proximal tubules. The conclusion was that tubular epithelial cells secrete ATP. Using a proximal tubular epithelial cell line, the mechanism of ATP release was examined. Intracellular stores of ATP were visualised using a marker compound (quinacrine), and the fate of these stores was monitored following hypotonic stimulation of ATP release. The findings suggested that ATP is stored within the cytoplasm, possibly in vesicles, and is released by exocytosis. In the final part of the investigation, using immunohistochemistry, the distribution of five nucleotide-hydrolysing ectonucleotidases, namely NTPDases 1-3, NPP3 and ecto-5'- nucleotidase, was examined along the rat nephron. These enzymes (which differ in their hydrolysis pathways) were found to be differentially expressed along the major segments of the nephron, suggesting that they may be strategically located to influence the activity of the different purinoceptor subtypes