Time series are widely used as signals in many classification/regression tasks. It is ubiquitous that time series contains many missing values. Given multiple correlated time series data, how to fill in missing values and to predict their class labels? Existing imputation methods often impose strong assumptions of the underlying data generating process, such as linear dynamics in the state space. In this paper, we propose BRITS, a novel method based on recurrent neural networks for missing value imputation in time series data. Our proposed method directly learns the missing values in a bidirectional recurrent dynamical system, without any specific assumption. The imputed values are treated as variables of RNN graph and can be effectively updated during the backpropagation.BRITS has three advantages: (a) it can handle multiple correlated missing values in time series; (b) it generalizes to time series with nonlinear dynamics underlying; (c) it provides a data-driven imputation procedure and applies to general settings with missing data.We evaluate our model on three real-world datasets, including an air quality dataset, a health-care data, and a localization data for human activity. Experiments show that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in both imputation and classification/regression accuracies.
Business Requirements on IT Security (BRITS) is a framework that can assist IT dependent companies to hedge losses due to IT-perils financially. Using BRITS can help these companies to hedge IT perils in the same professional way as consequences of traditional perils like fire, flood, robbery are hedged and thereby secure shareholders' investments. In the framework, the need for financial hedges and technical countermeasures against IT perils depends solely on the effect IT perils may have on the market value of the company; there are no other reasons for a commercial company to spend any of its resources on financial protection and IT security measures. BRITS has utilized and developed existing financial hedge instruments to provide cover against financial consequences of IT perils. To be able to use these instruments, I have developed a tool that can interpret and convert financial loss exposures into IT security measures, and vice versa; it is a knowledge gateway between financial and security terminology. The framework can, at least to some extent, make it possible to estimate the security awareness in existing IT-platforms. Based on that information, existing security measures can be priced as they may reduce the estimated maximum loss figures - and thereby the costs for the financial hedges. Moreover, more cost-effective decisions can be made on additional IT-security measures. In addition, the IT systems and the IT security's importance in the business processes can be understood more easily. Finally, the costs for the damage exposure inherent in companies' business services or products can be estimated in a better way, and thereby be incorporated in the products' price.
INTRODUCTION: Immunohistochemistry of primary breast cancer is routinely used to guide changes in therapy at the time of relapse. Retrospective reviews suggest that the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2) receptor may differ between the primary and loco-regional recurrence or distant metastases. The Breast Recurrence In Tissues Study (BRITS) was a large, multicentre, prospective study to examine changes in ER, PR and HER2. METHODS: Matched primary and recurrent breast cancer tissue samples were prospectively collected from 205 women attending 20 institutions. Central laboratory immunohistochemical analysis of core biopsies and tissue microarrays of ER and PR using the Allred and Quickscore methods and HER2 (confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) for HER2 2+) were performed. RESULTS: From 205 consenting women, 18 (8.8%) did not have recurrent disease on biopsy, 35 were ineligible, 13 had insufficient paired tissue and 2 were excluded for safety reasons. Paired samples from 137 women, mean age 62.6 years (range 27-87 years), 83/137 (60.6%) postmenopausal with a median 92.2 months (range 5-327 months) from primary to recurrence and 88 (64.2%) as locoregional recurrence were successfully analysed. A switch in receptor status, in either direction, by Allred score, was identified for ER in 14 patients (10.2%; P = 0.983 Wilcoxon sign rank test), PR in 34 (24.8%; P = 0.003 Wilcoxon sign rank test) and HER2 in 4 (2.9%; P = 0.074 Wilcoxon sign rank test). There was no difference between locoregional or distant recurrence in the proportion who switched. The switch in receptor status led to a change in the subsequent treatment plan for 24 patients (17.5%). CONCLUSIONS: This prospective study confirms retrospective evidence that the management of relapsed breast cancer should include confirmatory tissue sampling and identify switches of ER, PR or HER2 which change therapeutic management for one in six patients.
Abstract Consumer preferences regarding food in general, livestock meat and cultured meat among Muslim populations remains largely unknown, especially in a United Kingdom context. This is a significant gap in our understanding since foods that meet halal requirements have a major economical share of both the British and the global food market. The aim of this study is threefold: (1) gain insight into the perceptions of the broader British community and the Muslim demographic within it regarding food choice determinants, livestock meat, and cultured meat; (2) investigating similarities and differences within and between the two groups; and (3) model the willingness to purchase (WTPu) cultured meat for both populations. The British Muslim and the British non‐Muslim population are very similar in their considerations about food in general, livestock meat and cultured meat. With regard to the willingness to purchase cultured meat, further product development and marketing strategies should focus on the same factor for both populations: the healthiness, safety, and nutritional characteristics of cultured meat.
This article focuses on the dynamic relationship between media-sport and national identity in the context of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Specifically, attention is given to the construction and representation of members of ‘Team GB’ in the English press in the build-up to and during London 2012, against the backdrop of contemporary British identity politics. Sporting passions can reflect prevailing moods of the wider geo-political climate and often may even reinforce or engender these social currents. A qualitative content analysis is used to examine the ways in which the narrative of ‘plastic Brits’ was (re)constructed and represented through images and texts within the English press during London 2012. A cross section of 6 daily English newspapers was subject to this interpretive analysis from 3 August 2012 (the day of the opening ceremony) through to 19 August 2012 (one week after the closing ceremony). We offer three main emergent findings from our analysis of the press coverage: (1) while present in advance of the Olympic Games, the ‘plastic Brit’ narrative was largely absent during the Games themselves; (2) performances by ‘plastic’ members of ‘Team GB’ were de-amplified in covert discourses pertaining to established-outsider relations: ‘plastic Brit’ successes were celebrated, though not as much as those by ‘true Brits’, whereas ‘plastic Brit’ ‘failures’ were generally relegated to the sidelines; (3) hosting the Games and show-casing the country to the watching world encouraged journalists and politicians alike to (re)interpret and attempt to make sense of modern Britain.
“England and America are two nations divided by a common language.”(George Bernard Shaw) Adopting a construction-based view of language (Goldberg 1995), we demonstrate that it is possible to uncover differences between British and American English at the lexicosyntactic level, showing that the collexemes, i.e. the words significantly associated with a construction, are variety-dependent. To this end, we compare more than 5,000 verb pair types as they occur in the two varieties in the so-called into- causative construction (as in He tricked me into employing him ) and submit them to the scrutiny of a statistical test called distinctive collexeme analysis, which identifies those verbs that distinguish best between the two varieties. Interesting contrasts emerge, such as the predominance of verbal persuasion verbs in the cause predicate slot of the American English data as opposed to the predominance of physical force verbs in the cause predicate slot of the British English data. We discuss how these and other results create a picture of subtle, yet systematic, differences in meaning construction, and we offer an explanation of these differences as reflecting differently entrenched semantic frames.
The diamond drillhole SF-7, situated on the farm Sandfontein in the vicinity of Brits, intersected the lower part of the cumulate succession of the Critical Zone (CZ) of the Rustenburg Layered Suite. The Upper Group 1 chromitite, all of the Middle Group chromitite layers, and the lower/upper CZ boundary, were identified and correlated along strike with the sequence further west. Lower Group (LG) chromitites are much attenuated and geochemically distinct from the well-developed LG chromitites further west
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This study explores the ways in which public debates about the sexual, drinking and risk taking behaviour of young British travellers, who participate in trips organised to Greek summer resorts exclusively by Club 18-30, have been interpreted, and framed, within print media (British newspapers). Using a template analysis approach four themes emerged, namely binge drinking, sexual behaviour, risk taking and host reactions. These themes are discussed in relation to the methodology adopted, and the findings of previous research, and policies for risk-taking decrease, and solutions to reduce the problems posed by young tourists' antisocial behaviour in summer Greek resorts, are provided.
Depuis la publication de La mosaïque verticale de John Porter en 1965, la vision préominante du Canada est celie d'un pays caractérisé par une forte stratification ethnique, surtout au niveau des élites, qui seraient elles‐mêmes dominées de façn érasante par des personnes d'origine britannique. Or, des recherches ultérieures sur l'ensemble de la population canadienne démontrent que la stratification ethnique est moins marquée qu'on le croyait; au contraire, elle est plutôt faible et tend même à s'estomper. D'où l'intérêt de reprendre l'analyse des élites canadiennes. L'auteur de cette communication présente les données originales de Porter, fait la synthèse des résultats d'autres recherches pertinentes et décrit les données les plus récentes sur l'évolution des origines ethniques des élites au Canada. The conventional wisdom concerning ethnicity in Canada has been dominated by the imagery of The Vertical Mosaic published in 1965 by John Porter. This conventional wisdom maintains that Canada is characterized by pronounced ethnic stratification especially at the level of elites which are thought to be dominated overwhelmingly by those of British origin. Suhequent research at the level of the general population has shown that ethnic stratification was not aa great as originally thought, is minimal, and is in decline. Consequently it is of interest to re‐examine the situation regarding Canadian elites. The original data of Porter are presented. The findings of other relevant research are outlined. New data on trends in the ethnic origins of Canadian elites are reported.
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In the context of international growth in higher education exchanges and recent expansion in U.K. mobility rates after a period of some decline, this article examines the perspectives of U.K. students who have decided to spend part of their degree at universities abroad. Based on an analysis of data generated by a cross-institutional survey of “credit-mobile” U.K. students, the article explores their views, evaluations, and priorities with regard to one particular aspect of the study abroad experience—student support. The findings reveal a blend of academic, practical, and socioemotional needs, alongside a predominant reliance on self-direction and proactive social participation as strategies for addressing them. Finally, a number of recommendations for home and host institutional practice and student preparation—in the United Kingdom and other (English-speaking) countries—are considered.
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I T is an ironic fact of history that of the Europeans to visit Japan in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the English stayed the shortest time (a mere ten years), but left an immense amount of documents recording their experience. Both the English and the Dutch have bequeathed us richly informative records that help to deepen our understanding of Japan at that time. In contrast, the Portuguese merchants traded in Japan for practically a century, but left little first-hand material about their enterprise. The Iberian missionaries, it is true, recorded a great deal about Japan, but for the most part their writings deal with religious matters, political affairs, and cultural concerns. For an account of everyday life of the lower classes, we turn to the English records, which describe less savory aspects of Japanese life in the early seventeenth century-thefts, fights, executions, bawdy-houses and women dancers, petty trading, and the like. Few of the Portuguese merchants resided in Japan for any length of time, and so there was little point in sending letters back to Europe that would probably not arrive (if they arrived at all) before the merchants themselves returned. And as most of the Iberian merchants stayed in Nagasaki, they would presumably have met quite often and would not have needed to send each other letters. Further, the Portuguese jealously guarded their monopoly in the importation of Chinese silk, and might well have exercised caution in committing to writing details of their lucrative trading. The case of the English merchants is somewhat different. They set up the English House in Hirado in 1613 and several, including Richard Cocks, the manager, stayed in Japan throughout the entire period of the English factory, or trading post. In addition, they made expeditions to Edo to visit the shogun and business trips elsewhere; some were stationed away from Hirado. This necessitated a constant exchange of letters, many of which have fortunately been preserved. Another reason for the wealth of English and Dutch documents may be because the merchants belonged to established companies -the English East India Company and the Dutch Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie, or VOC. And these companies understandably wanted to receive updated information on their considerable investments in the Japanese enterprise, thus necessitating further correspondence. The command of the annual Portuguese voyage, by contrast, was a gift of the crown and was awarded
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Abstract This paper forms part of research that is investigating the migration of young Bajan‐Brits to Barbados. Specifically, it explores the role of quality of life issues in the decision‐making processes of young Bajan‐Brits as they negotiate their ‘return’ to Barbados. The research, based on 51 in‐depth qualitative interviews conducted with an under‐researched cohort of young Bajan‐Brits living in Barbados, argues from a ‘lure of home’ conceptualisation that the return of young Bajan‐Brits to Barbados can best be understood from the context of a search for a better quality of life in the face of social and economic disenfranchisement in the UK context. Subsequently, the paper examines the extent to which the quality of life factors which formed the basis of return to Barbados have in fact been realised on the part of young Bajan‐Brits in their adjustment to life in Barbados. The paper ultimately argues that despite problems of adjustment, young Bajan‐Brits have generally been successful in actualising a better quality of life in Barbados. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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The research presented in this article centres on an under-researched demographic group of young return migrants, namely, second-generation Barbadians, or ‘Bajan-Brits’, who have decided to ‘return’ to the birthplace of their parents. Based on 51 in-depth interviews, the essay examines the experiences of second-generation return migrants from an interpretative perspective framed within post-colonial discourse. The article first considers the Bajan-Brits and issues of race in the UK before their decision to migrate. It is then demonstrated that on ‘return’, in certain respects, these young, black English migrants occupy a liminal position of cultural, racial and economic privilege, based on their ‘symbolic’ or ‘token’ whiteness within the post-colonial context of Barbados. But this very hybridity and inbetweeness means that they also face difficulties and associated feelings of social alienation and discrimination. The ambivalent status of this transnational group of migrants serves to challenge traditional notions of Barbadian racial identity.
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