ENWalk: Learning Network Features for Spam Detection in Twitter

Social medias are increasing their influence with the vast public information leading to their active use for marketing by the companies and organizations. Such marketing promotions are difficult to identify unlike the traditional medias like TV and newspaper. So, it is very much important to identify the promoters in the social media. Although, there are active ongoing researches, existing approaches are far from solving the problem. To identify such imposters, it is very much important to understand their strategies of social circle creation and dynamics of content posting. Are there any specific spammer types? How successful are each types? We analyze these questions in the light of social relationships in Twitter. Our analyses discover two types of spammers and their relationships with the dynamics of content posts. Our results discover novel dynamics of spamming which are intuitive and arguable. We propose ENWalk, a framework to detect the spammers by learning the feature representations of the users in the social media. We learn the feature representations using the random walks biased on the spam dynamics. Experimental results on large-scale twitter network and the corresponding tweets show the effectiveness of our approach that outperforms the existing approache

Polyaniline-Based Nanocomposites for Environmental Remediation

With growth in civilisation and industrialisation, there is an increase in the release of toxic heavy metal ions and dyes into water system, which is of public concern. As a result, appropriate treatment methods have to be implemented in order to mitigate and prevent water pollution. The discovery of nanotechnology has led to the development and utilisation of various nanoadsorbent for the removal of pollutants from water. PANI nanostructures and nanocomposites are noble adsorbents that have gained popularity in addressing water pollution issues and have been reported in literature. In this chapter, the main focus is on the synthesis of PANI nanocomposites and nanostructures and their application as efficient adsorbents for water treatment. Detailed discussions on different synthetic routes and characterisation have been dedicated to applications of these materials and are compared for the adsorptive removal of heavy metal ions and dyes from water

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibition Modulates the Microenvironment by Vascular Normalization to Improve Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy Efficacy

Background: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors have shown only modest clinical activity when used as single agents to treat cancers. They decrease tumor cell expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1-a (HIF-1a) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Hypothesizing that this might normalize tumor vasculature, we examined the effects of the EGFR inhibitor erlotinib on tumor vascular function, tumor microenvironment (TME) and chemotherapy and radiotherapy sensitivity. Methodology/Principal Findings: Erlotinib treatment of human tumor cells in vitro and mice bearing xenografts in vivo led to decreased HIF-1a and VEGF expression. Treatment altered xenograft vessel morphology assessed by confocal microscopy (following tomato lectin injection) and decreased vessel permeability (measured by Evan’s blue extravasation), suggesting vascular normalization. Erlotinib increased tumor blood flow measured by Power Doppler ultrasound and decreased hypoxia measured by EF5 immunohistochemistry and tumor O2 saturation measured by optical spectroscopy. Predictin

Development of thermoresponsive poly(propylene-g-N-isopropylacrylamide) non-woven 3D scaffold for smart cell culture using oxyfluorination-assisted graft polymerisation

Growing cells on 3D scaffolds is far superior to the conventional 2D monolayer culture method. In this study, a novel 3D thermoresponsive poly(propylene-g-N-isopropylacrylamide) (PP-g-PNIPAAm) nonwoven fabric (gNWF) was developed for cell culture using oxyfluorination-assisted graft polymerisation (OAGP). New polar functional groups were detected on the oxyfluorinated NWF (oNWF), and PNIPAAm was confirmed in the gNWF by attentuated total-reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and scanning X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (S-XPS). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a rough surface morphology and confinement of the PNIPAAm graft layer to the surface of the fibres in the gNWF. The OAGP method did not affect the crystalline phase of bulk PP, however, twin-melting thermal peaks were detected for the oNWF and gNWF indicating crystal defects. Contact angle studies showed that the surface of the gNWF exhibited a thermoresponsive behaviour. Hepatocyte cells attached onto gNWF disks in a bioreactor at 37 ◦C and remained viable for 10 days in culture. Upon cooling the cell culture media to 20 ◦C, cells were spontaneously released as 3D multi-cellular constructs without requiring destructive enzymes. The development of 3D thermoresponsive scaffolds capable of non-invasive 3D cell culture could provide a more reliable in vitro model for cells.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/colsurfahb201

Degradation of insecticides used for indoor spraying in malaria control and possible solutions

BACKGROUND: The insecticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) is widely used in indoor residual spraying (IRS) for malaria control owing to its longer residual efficacy in the field compared to other World Health Organization (WHO) alternatives. Suitable stabilization to render these alternative insecticides longer lasting could provide a less controversial and more acceptable and effective alternative insecticide formulations than DDT. METHODS: This study sought to investigate the reasons behind the often reported longer lasting behaviour of DDT by exposing all the WHO approved insecticides to high temperature, high humidity and ultra-violet light. Interactions between the insecticides and some mineral powders in the presence of an aqueous medium were also tested. Simple insecticidal paints were made using slurries of these mineral powders whilst some insecticides were dispersed into a conventional acrylic paint binder. These formulations were then spray painted on neat and manure coated mud plaques, representative of the material typically used in rural mud houses, at twice the upper limit of the WHO recommended dosage range. DDT was applied directly onto mud plaques at four times the WHO recommended concentration and on manure plaques at twice WHO recommended concentration. All plaques were subjected to accelerated ageing conditions of 40°C and a relative humidity of 90%. RESULTS: The pyrethroids insecticides outperformed the carbamates and DDT in the accelerated ageing tests. Thus UV exposure, high temperature oxidation and high humidity per se were ruled out as the main causes of failure of the alternative insecticides. Gas chromatography (GC) spectrograms showed that phosphogypsum stabilised the insecticides the most against alkaline degradation (i.e., hydrolysis). Bioassay testing showed that the period of efficacy of some of these formulations was comparable to that of DDT when sprayed on mud surfaces or cattle manure coated surfaces. CONCLUSIONS: Bioassay experiments indicated that incorporating insecticides into a conventional paint binder or adsorbing them onto phosphogypsum can provide for extended effective life spans that compare favourably with DDT’s performance under accelerated ageing conditions. Best results were obtained with propoxur in standard acrylic emulsion paint. Similarly, insecticides adsorbed on phosphogypsum and sprayed on cattle manure coated surfaces provided superior lifespans compared with DDT sprayed directly on a similar surface.The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the Grand Challenges Exploration Initiative.http://www.malariajournal.com

Degradation of insecticides used for indoor spraying in malaria control and possible solutions

BACKGROUND: The insecticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) is widely used in indoor residual spraying (IRS) for malaria control owing to its longer residual efficacy in the field compared to other World Health Organization (WHO) alternatives. Suitable stabilization to render these alternative insecticides longer lasting could provide a less controversial and more acceptable and effective alternative insecticide formulations than DDT. METHODS: This study sought to investigate the reasons behind the often reported longer lasting behaviour of DDT by exposing all the WHO approved insecticides to high temperature, high humidity and ultra-violet light. Interactions between the insecticides and some mineral powders in the presence of an aqueous medium were also tested. Simple insecticidal paints were made using slurries of these mineral powders whilst some insecticides were dispersed into a conventional acrylic paint binder. These formulations were then spray painted on neat and manure coated mud plaques, representative of the material typically used in rural mud houses, at twice the upper limit of the WHO recommended dosage range. DDT was applied directly onto mud plaques at four times the WHO recommended concentration and on manure plaques at twice WHO recommended concentration. All plaques were subjected to accelerated ageing conditions of 40°C and a relative humidity of 90%. RESULTS: The pyrethroids insecticides outperformed the carbamates and DDT in the accelerated ageing tests. Thus UV exposure, high temperature oxidation and high humidity per se were ruled out as the main causes of failure of the alternative insecticides. Gas chromatography (GC) spectrograms showed that phosphogypsum stabilised the insecticides the most against alkaline degradation (i.e., hydrolysis). Bioassay testing showed that the period of efficacy of some of these formulations was comparable to that of DDT when sprayed on mud surfaces or cattle manure coated surfaces. CONCLUSIONS: Bioassay experiments indicated that incorporating insecticides into a conventional paint binder or adsorbing them onto phosphogypsum can provide for extended effective life spans that compare favourably with DDT’s performance under accelerated ageing conditions. Best results were obtained with propoxur in standard acrylic emulsion paint. Similarly, insecticides adsorbed on phosphogypsum and sprayed on cattle manure coated surfaces provided superior lifespans compared with DDT sprayed directly on a similar surface.The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the Grand Challenges Exploration Initiative.http://www.malariajournal.com

Observation of γγ → ττ in proton-proton collisions and limits on the anomalous electromagnetic moments of the τ lepton

The production of a pair of τ leptons via photon–photon fusion, γγ → ττ, is observed for the f irst time in proton–proton collisions, with a significance of 5.3 standard deviations. This observation is based on a data set recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. Events with a pair of τ leptons produced via photon–photon fusion are selected by requiring them to be back-to-back in the azimuthal direction and to have a minimum number of charged hadrons associated with their production vertex. The τ leptons are reconstructed in their leptonic and hadronic decay modes. The measured fiducial cross section of γγ → ττ is σfid obs = 12.4+3.8 −3.1 fb. Constraints are set on the contributions to the anomalous magnetic moment (aτ) and electric dipole moments (dτ) of the τ lepton originating from potential effects of new physics on the γττ vertex: aτ = 0.0009+0.0032 −0.0031 and |dτ| < 2.9×10−17ecm (95% confidence level), consistent with the standard model

Synthesis, nanostructure evaluation and tunable anomalous 3D hopping transport of manganese ferrite encapsulated poly[3,4-(ethylenedioxy)thiophene] decorated graphene layer

A straightforward novel synthetic approach of manganese ferrite encapsulated poly[3,4-(ethylenedioxy)thiophene] nanocomposite decorated on a graphene layer (NIPG) is engineered assisted by dodecyl benzene sulphonic acid as surfactant.</p

Preparation and Properties of Poly(<i>N</i>-vinylcarbazole) and MWCNT Nanocomposites

N-vinylcarbazole (NVC) was polymerized in bulk through the interaction of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) without any extraneous catalyst. A PNVC-MWCNT composite was isolated by MeOH precipitation of a polymerization system containing NVC and MWCNT at melting temperature of the monomer. The inclusion of PNVC in the composite was endorsed by the FTIR study. TG analysis revealed the thermal stability trend as MWCNT &gt; PNVC-MWCNT composite &gt; PNVC. DTA showed two exothermic peaks at 427 °C and 607 °C in the PNVC-MWCNT composite. Transmission electron microscopic analyses of MWCNT revealed presence of tubular MWCNT particles with diameters in nm range while the corresponding analysis for the composite showed the formation of spherical dark polymer particles encapsulating cylindrical MWCNT moieties with some ends of uncoated MWCNT tubes (light shades) protruding out of the dark spherical particles. Scanning electron microscopic analysis revealed presence of tubular CNT particles entangled with the composite particles of irregular shapes and sizes. XRD analysis revealed no additional crystalline peaks for PNVC in the composite. In contrast to PNVC homopolymer (10–12–10–16 S/cm), the dc conductivity values of the composite varied form 1.3 to 33 S/cm depending upon the weight ratio of MWCNT and PNVC in the composite. Current–voltage characteristics of the composite showed a linear variation and conductivity–temperature studies revealed an increase in conductivity by 35% in the temperature range 150–220 °C.</jats:p