Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A boosting approach to remove class label noise

Ensemble methods have been known to improve prediction accuracy over the base learning algorithm. AdaBoost is well-recognized for that in its class. However, it is susceptible to overfitting the training instances corrupted by class label noise. This paper proposes a modification to AdaBoost that is more tolerant to class label noise, which further enhances its ability to boost prediction accuracy. In particular, we observe that in Adaboost, the weight-hike of noisy examples can be constrained by careful application of a cut-off in their weights. Effectiveness of our algorithm is demonstrated empirically using some artificially generated data. We also corroborate this on a number of data sets from UCI repository (Blake and Mertz, 1998). In both experimental settings, the results obtained affirm the efficacy of our approach. Finally, some of the significant characteristics of our technique related to noisy environments have been investigated.
IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESSORS ON FACULTY STRESS & BURNOUT (An exploratory analysis of a public sector university of Pakistan)

Many studies on stress point out that the role stressors may vary in different environments and lead to stress & burnout. The recent growth in higher education institutions in developing countries has lead to higher competition and organizational change in most of the public and private sector universities (Rajarajeswari 2010) and faculty members increasingly suffer from pressures leading to stress and burnout. Based on Pareek's (2002) Organizational Role Stressors questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson, 1986), this exploratory research investigates the contribution of various role stressors to stress and burnout in a public sector university of Pakistan. A sample of 80 faculty members from a university in Pakistan completed a structured questionnaire. Results show that role ambiguity is one of the organizational role stressors having the biggest impact on two dimensions of stress and one dimension of burnout among the faculty. The other significant organizational role stressors include role stagnation, inter-role distance, self role distance, resource inadequacy, role conflict and role overload. Demographic factors such as gender, marital status and experience had little or no impact on the results. The results confirm the link between stress and some dimensions of burnout, but lack of personal accomplishment among faculty members was not related significantly to any dimension of stress.
Cardiovascular responses to weight management and sibutramine in high-risk subjects: an analysis from the SCOUT trial.

AIMS The Sibutramine Cardiovascular OUTcomes (SCOUT) trial is a randomized, double-blind comparison of sibutramine vs. placebo, in addition to standard care for weight management, in overweight/obese subjects with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The study had an initial single-blind, 6-week lead-in period with sibutramine plus weight management. We report the cardiovascular responses and weight loss during this period. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 10,742 subjects received treatment in the lead-in period; 97% had cardiovascular disease, 88% hypertension and 84% type 2 diabetes. Body weight decreased (median 2.2 kg [5th, 95th percentile changes -6.2, 0.5]); waist circumference was reduced by 2.0 cm (men: -8.5, 2.9; women: -9.0, 3.0), systolic blood pressure fell by 3.0 mmHg (-23.5, 12.5) and diastolic by 1.0 mmHg (-13.5, 10.0). Pulse rate increased by 1.5 b.p.m. (-11.0, 13.5). All changes were statistically significant (P < 0.001). Two consecutive increases in blood pressure or pulse rate of >10 mmHg/b.p.m. were observed in 4.7 and 3.5% of subjects, respectively. Fifteen subjects (0.1%) died; 10 deaths were attributed to a cardiovascular cause, equivalent to 1.2 and 0.8 deaths per 100 years of exposure, respectively. CONCLUSION Six-week treatment with sibutramine appears to be efficacious, tolerable and safe in this high-risk population for whom sibutramine is usually contraindicated.
Politics and Administration at the Top: Lessons from down Under

A key problem in all democratic governments is eliciting appropriate responsiveness to democratically based policy preferences from the inevitably powerful bureaucracy. What is the most effective relationship between elected officials and the bureaucracy? How can the strengths that each brings to policy making and implementation be combined to reach the best results for the citizenry? Delmer Dunn takes a comparative and institutional approach to examine these questions. He focuses on the two levers of power within modern democracies, the elected party politician and the professional state bureaucrat, using Australia as his example. Dunn uses interviews with Cabinet ministers, members of their staffs, and department heads of two recent governments in Australia to see how ministers seek to provide political direction to the bureaucracy. He examines the extent to which they succeed and how their direction is both influenced by and acted on by the departments. Dunn's analysis provides a look at high-level relationships between politicians and executive departments in one democratic government and offers insights into issues of accountability and responsibility in democratic governments. His findings, based on his in-depth look at a government that blends many features of both US and British governments, reveal the fundamentals that are necessary to make this key relationship work well and are thus pertinent to public administration in all democracies.
Comorbidities of sleep disorders in childhood and adolescence: focus on migraine

The correlation and/or comorbidity between sleep disorders and headache has been reported in numerous studies, but the exact nature of the association between headache, disordered sleep, and underlying mechanisms remains poorly understood. The bidirectional association between sleep and headache is mediated by a temporal link (headache occurs during sleep, after sleep, and in relationship with sleep stages), by a quantitative relationship (excess, lack, bad quality, short duration of sleep may trigger headache), and by a reciprocal connection (headache may cause sleep disruption and may be associated with several sleep disturbances). This association is most evident for primary headache disorders, especially in childhood. A congenital alteration of neurotransmitter pathways (serotoninergic and dopaminergic) might predispose individuals to both disorders, presenting as sleep–wake rhythm disorder in infancy or as headache disorder later in childhood, as result of this neurotransmitter imbalance. Clinicians should be aware that a complete clinical evaluation of childhood headache includes a careful sleep history, taking into account that the treatment of sleep disturbances could lead to an improvement of headache symptoms and vice versa.
Application of Oceanic Heat Content Estimation to Operational Forecasting of Recent Atlantic Category 5 Hurricanes

Research investigating the importance of the subsurface ocean structure on tropical cyclone intensity change has been ongoing for several decades. While the emergence of altimetry-derived sea height observations from satellites dates back to the 1980s, it was difficult and uncertain as to how to utilize these measurements in operations as a result of the limited coverage. As the in situ measurement coverage expanded, it became possible to estimate the upper oceanic heat content (OHC) over most ocean regions. Beginning in 2002, daily OHC analyses have been generated at the National Hurricane Center (NHC). These analyses are used qualitatively for the official NHC intensity forecast, and quantitatively to adjust the Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme (SHIPS) forecasts. The primary purpose of this paper is to describe how upper-ocean structure information was transitioned from research to operations, and how it is being used to generate NHC’s hurricane intensity forecasts. Examples of the utility of this information for recent category 5 hurricanes (Isabel, Ivan, Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma from the 2003–05 hurricane seasons) are also presented. Results show that for a large sample of Atlantic storms, the OHC variations have a small but positive impact on the intensity forecasts. However, for intense storms, the effect of the OHC is much more significant, suggestive of its importance on rapid intensification. The OHC input improved the average intensity errors of the SHIPS forecasts by up to 5% for all cases from the category 5 storms, and up to 20% for individual storms, with the maximum improvement for the 72–96-h forecasts. The qualitative use of the OHC information on the NHC intensity forecasts is also described. These results show that knowledge of the upper-ocean thermal structure is fundamental to accurately forecasting intensity changes of tropical cyclones, and that this knowledge is making its way into operations. The statistical results obtained here indicate that the OHC only becomes important when it has values much larger than that required to support a tropical cyclone. This result suggests that the OHC is providing a measure of the upper ocean’s influence on the storm and improving the forecast.
Implementation of a Message Passing Interface into a Cloud-Resolving Model for Massively Parallel Computing

The capability for massively parallel programming (MPP) using a message passing interface (MPI) has been implemented into a three-dimensional version of the Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) model. The design for the MPP with MPI uses the concept of maintaining similar code structure between the whole domain as well as the portions after decomposition. Hence the model follows the same integration for single and multiple tasks (CPUs). Also, it provides for minimal changes to the original code, so it is easily modified and/or managed by the model developers and users who have little knowledge of MPP. The entire model domain could be sliced into one- or two-dimensional decomposition with a halo regime, which is overlaid on partial domains. The halo regime requires that no data be fetched across tasks during the computational stage, but it must be updated before the next computational stage through data exchange via MPI. For reproducible purposes, transposing data among tasks is required for spectral transform (Fast Fourier Transform, FFT), which is used in the anelastic version of the model for solving the pressure equation. The performance of the MPI-implemented codes (i.e., the compressible and anelastic versions) was tested on three different computing platforms. The major results are: 1) both versions have speedups of about 99% up to 256 tasks but not for 512 tasks; 2) the anelastic version has better speedup and efficiency because it requires more computations than that of the compressible version; 3) equal or approximately-equal numbers of slices between the x- and y- directions provide the fastest integration due to fewer data exchanges; and 4) one-dimensional slices in the x-direction result in the slowest integration due to the need for more memory relocation for computation.
Using quaternions to calculate RMSD

A widely used way to compare the structures of biomolecules or solid bodies is to translate and rotate one structure with respect to the other to minimize the root‐mean‐square deviation (RMSD). We present a simple derivation, based on quaternions, for the optimal solid body transformation (rotation‐translation) that minimizes the RMSD between two sets of vectors. We prove that the quaternion method is equivalent to the well‐known formula due to Kabsch. We analyze the various cases that may arise, and give a complete enumeration of the special cases in terms of the arrangement of the eigenvalues of a traceless, 4 × 4 symmetric matrix. A key result here is an expression for the gradient of the RMSD as a function of model parameters. This can be useful, for example, in finding the minimum energy path of a reaction using the elastic band methods or in optimizing model parameters to best fit a target structure. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 25: 1849–1857, 2004
Making Sense of Dissents: A History of FOMC Dissents

This article presents a record of dissents on Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) monetary policy votes from the Committee’s inception in its modern form in 1936 through 2013. Dissents were rare during the Committee’s first 20 years but began to increase in the late 1950s. The number of dissents increased sharply during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when both inflation and unemployment were unusually high. However, at other times, the number of dissents was not correlated with either inflation or the unemployment rate. A review of FOMC records and published statements indicates that dissents often reflect fundamental disagreement about (i) how to achieve the Committee’s macroeconomic objectives and (ii) the current stance of policy. The number of dissents also appears to have been influenced by the language used by the FOMC to communicate instructions to the manager of the System Open Market Account.
SAR image segmentation via non-local active contours

This paper presents a method for SAR image segmentation by relying on active contour model with the non-local processing principle [1]. The idea is to partition a SAR image via computing the patch similarity in the SAR image non-locally, and formulize the segmentation problem with an active contour model. More precisely, after computing the statistical features of SAR images, non-local comparisons between feature patches are used to calculate the active contour energy, which is defined by integrating the interactions between pairs of patches inside and outside the segmented region. A level set method is finally used to minimize the non-local energy. Compared with existing approaches for SAR image segmentation, the only requirement of this method is a local similarity between patches, and it is less sensitive to initial segmentation. The experimental results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.
Nonparametric Methods for Evaluating of Winter Wheat Genotypes in Multi-environment Trials

2 Abstract: The objective of this study was to compare nonparametric stability procedures and apply different nonparametric tests for genotype×environment interaction (G×E) on grain yield data of 20 winter wheat genotypes selected from Iran/ICARDA joint project grown in 18 rainfed environments during 2003-05 in Iran. Results of nonparametric tests of G×E and a combined ANOVA across environments indicated the presence of both crossover and usual crossover interactions and genotypes varied significantly for grain yield. In this study, low values of sum of ranks of mean yield and Shukla's stability variance (rank-sum) were associated with high mean yield, but the other nonparametric stability methods were not positively correlated with mean yield but they characterized a static concept of stability. The results of Principal Component (PC) analysis and correlation analysis of nonparametric stability statistics and yield indicated that only rank-sum methods would be useful for simultaneous selection for high yield and stability. According to the rank-sum statistic, G18 (Fengkang15/Sefid), G17 (Anza/3/Pi//Nar/Hys/4/Sefid), G1 (Unknown-1), G10 ('Sardari'//Ska/Aurifen) and G4 (Unknown-1) had the minimum value for rank-sum and therefore were stable genotypes with high yield.
Reuniting Poussin ’ s Bacchanals Painted for Cardinal Richelieu through uantitative Canvas Weave Analysis

Art historical debate has percolated for more than half a century over the identity of the three Bacchanals (-) commissioned from Nicolas Poussin by Cardinal Richelieu for his chateau in Poitou, France. The subjects have been identified as the Triumphs of Pan, Bacchus, and Silenus, respectively. The success of this commission led to demand for the production of copies close in date to the originals, some of which are represented in major collections. There has been general consensus that Triumph of Pan (National Gallery of London, NG) was an original part of that commission. However, the status of Triumph of Bacchus (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, -) as the original commissioned version has at various times been doubted, in spite of sharing a common provenance with Pan until . An incomplete early provenance and apparent stylistic discrepancies, particularly in relation to Pan, have caused serious doubts about the inclusion of Silenus (National Gallery of London, NG) among Richelieu’s original commission. It is today classified by the National Gallery as a painting “after Poussin”. In preparation for the Nelson-Atkins’ catalog of its French painting collection we sought to employ recent innovations in computerized “thread counting” for automated analysis of canvas weave variations to resolve the status of Bacchus. This approach has proven particularly powerful in demonstrating commonalities and distinctions between canvases of nominally identical average thread counts with art historical implications, as among the paintings of Vincent van Gogh (The BurlingtonMagazine, February ), court portraits by Velazquez (The BurlingtonMagazine, September ), and paintings by Johannes Vermeer (Metropolitan Museum Journal, ). Automated weave comparison held the potential to settle the questions surrounding Bacchus in the event that the artist had employed part of the same bolt of canvas for Pan. Existing National Gallery radiographs of Panwere digitized and made available for our comparison with Bacchus *Corresponding author. erdmann@arizona.edu
Age-Related Effects on Future Mental Time Travel

Mental time travel (MTT), the ability to travel mentally back and forward in time in order to reexperience past events and preexperience future events, is crucial in human cognition. As we move along life, MTT may be changed accordingly. However, the relation between re- and preexperiencing along the lifespan is still not clear. Here, young and older adults underwent a psychophysical paradigm assessing two different components of MTT: self-projection, which is the ability to project the self towards a past or a future location of the mental time line, and self-reference, which is the ability to determine whether events are located in the past or future in reference to that given self-location. Aged individuals performed worse in both self-projection to the future and self-reference to future events compared to young individuals. In addition, aging decreased older adults' preference for personal compared to nonpersonal events. These results demonstrate the impact of MTT and self-processing on subjective time processing in healthy aging. Changes in memory functions in aged people may therefore be related not only to memory per se, but also to the relations of memory and self.
Queer Visibility in Post-Socialist Cultures

This book explores the paradigm of visibility politics in postsocialist cultures. It encompasses gender and sexuality studies, Eastern European studies, media and film studies, sociology, and cultural anthropology. "Queer Visibility in Post-Socialist Cultures" explores the public constructions of gay, lesbian, and queer identities, as well as ways of thinking about sexuality and gender, in post-socialist cultures across the European region formerly known as the Eastern bloc. Featuring eleven essays by scholars and activist researchers focusing on Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, and Russia, the collection encompasses a wide range of fields, including gender and sexuality studies, Eastern European studies, media and film studies, sociology, and cultural anthropology. Together, the essays reveal a paradigm of visibility politics centered on the vexed interaction between the post-socialist notions of queerness in activist strategies and the nationalist, mainstream representations of nonnormative sexualities.
Distinct Distances from Three Points

Let p 1, p 2, p 3 be three noncollinear points in the plane, and let P be a set of n other points in the plane. We show that the number of distinct distances between p 1, p 2, p 3 and the points of P is Ω(n 6/11), improving the lower bound Ω(n 0.502) of Elekes and Szabó [4] (and considerably simplifying the analysis).
Effect of atorvastatin on spatial memory, neuronal survival, and vascular density in female rats after traumatic brain injury.

OBJECT Atorvastatin administered after traumatic brain injury (TBI) induced by controlled cortical impact promotes functional improvement in male rats. Note, however, that parallel studies have not been performed in female rats. Therefore, the authors tested the effect of atorvastatin on TBI in female rats. METHODS Atorvastatin (1 mg/kg/day) was orally administered for 7 consecutive days in female Wistar rats starting I day after TBI; control animals received saline. Modified neurological severity scores, the corner turn test, and the Morris water maze test were used to evaluate functional response to treatment. Rats were killed on Day 15 post-TBI, and brain tissue samples were processed for immunohistochemical staining. Atorvastatin administration after brain injury significantly promoted the restoration of spatial memory but did not reduce sensorimotor functional deficits. Treatment of TBI with atorvastatin increased neuronal survival in the CA3 region and the lesion boundary zone and prevented the loss of neuronal processes of damaged neurons in the hippocampal CA3 region but not in the lesion boundary zone on Day 15 after TBI. The protective effect of atorvastatin on the injured neurons perhaps is mediated by increasing the density of vessels in the lesion boundary zone and the hippocampus after TBI. CONCLUSIONS . These data indicate that atorvastatin is beneficial in the treatment of TBI in female rats, although the effect may differ between sexes.
Long-term multicentre randomised controlled study of high frequency chest wall oscillation versus positive expiratory pressure mask in cystic fibrosis

Background Positive expiratory pressure (PEP) is the most commonly used method of airway clearance (AC) in Canada for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) whereas, in some countries, high frequency chest wall oscillation (HFCWO) is the preferred form of AC. There have been no long-term studies comparing the efficacy of HFCWO and PEP in the CF population. Objectives To determine the long-term efficacy of HFCWO compared with PEP mask therapy in the treatment of CF as measured by the number of pulmonary exacerbations (PEs). Methods A randomised controlled study was performed in 12 CF centres in Canada. After a 2-month washout period, subjects were randomised to perform either HFCWO or PEP mask therapy for 1 year. Results 107 subjects were enrolled in the study; 51 were randomised to PEP and 56 to HFCWO. There were 19 dropouts within the study period, of which 16 occurred prior to or at the time of randomisation. There were significant differences between the groups in the mean number of PEs (1.14 for PEP vs 2.0 for HFCWO) and time to first PE (220 days for PEP vs 115 days for HFCWO, p=0.02). There was no significant difference in lung function, health-related quality of life scores or patient satisfaction scores between the two groups. PEP mask therapy required a shorter treatment time. Conclusions The results of this study favour PEP and do not support the use of HFCWO as the primary form of AC in patients with CF. Clinical Trial Registration number NCT00817180.