Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Near-optimal Regret Bounds for Reinforcement Learning

For undiscounted reinforcement learning in Markov decision processes (MDPs) we consider the total regret of a learning algorithm with respect to an optimal policy. In order to describe the transition structure of an MDP we propose a new parameter: An MDP has diameter D if for any pair of states s,s' there is a policy which moves from s to s' in at most D steps (on average). We present a reinforcement learning algorithm with total regret O(DS√AT) after T steps for any unknown MDP with S states, A actions per state, and diameter D. A corresponding lower bound of Ω(√DSAT) on the total regret of any learning algorithm is given as well. These results are complemented by a sample complexity bound on the number of suboptimal steps taken by our algorithm. This bound can be used to achieve a (gap-dependent) regret bound that is logarithmic in T. Finally, we also consider a setting where the MDP is allowed to change a fixed number of l times. We present a modification of our algorithm that is able to deal with this setting and show a regret bound of O(l1/3T2/3DS√A).
Isolation of Halotolerant, Thermotolerant, Facultative Polymer-Producing Bacteria and Characterization of the Exopolymer

Over 200 bacterial strains were selected for anaerobic growth at 50°C and extracellular polysaccharide production in a sucrose-mineral salts medium with NaNO3 and up to 10% NaCl. The predominant cell type was an encapsulated gram-positive, motile, facultative sporeforming rod similar to Bacillus species. Strain SP018 grew and produced the polysaccharide on a variety of substrates at salinities up to 12% NaCl. Good polymer production only occurred anaerobically and was optimal between 4 and 10% NaCl. The ethanol-precipitated SP018 polymer was a charged heteropolysaccharide that contained glucose, mannose, arabinose, ribose, and low levels of allose and glucosamine. The SP018 polymer showed pseudoplastic behavior, was resistant to shearing, and had a higher viscosity at dilute concentrations and at elevated temperatures than xanthan gum. High-ionic-strength solutions reversibly decreased the viscosity of SP018 polymer solutions. The bacterium and the associated polymer have many properties that make them potentially useful for in situ microbially enhanced oil recovery processes.
Conclusions and recommendations

New York City faces significant risks from climate change and must begin taking action immediately to protect its citizens. Climate change adaptation demands a reexamination of the everyday assumptions about managing the city’s critical infrastructure. Climate impacts will occur over a number of timescales. Some are already being felt today and should be addressed in the near-term, while others will occur later in the century and should be addressed as part of a long-term risk-based approach to climate change. Climate change adaptation plans should be developed as part of a risk management process, an approach that has governed the work of the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC). The use of a risk management approach to adaptation was pioneered by the Thames Estuary Project. The approach involves a process through which cutting-edge data and information on climate risks and critical infrastructure can be monitored and assessed, and decisions evaluated and reevaluated as climate change progresses. To aid in this process, the NPCC has produced New York City–specific climate change projections and a clearly defined adaptation assessment process to assist stakeholders in the identification and prioritization of potential risks that should be taken into account when making investment and planning decisions. Mitigation actions are undertaken to reduce the long-term risks of climate change through reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, while adaptation is needed to respond to the short-term risks that are unavoidable as well as to long-term risks, such as sea level rise. Climate change mitigation and adaptation are both important elements in PlaNYC, and both contribute to the long-term sustainability of the city. The results and findings of the NPCC’s work, while broad in scope, can be distilled to a set of primary conclusions, recommendations for action, and additional areas for study.
Prospective comparison of outcomes of percutaneous nephrolithotomy in elderly patients versus younger patients.

PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to prospectively compare operative and postoperative characteristics and outcomes in elderly patients undergoing percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) compared with younger patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS Prospectively collected data from the Clinical Research Office of the Endourological Society (CROES) Global PCNL Study database were used. Elderly patients were defined as those aged 70 years and above, while younger patients were those between 18 and 70 years of age. Matched and unmatched group comparisons were performed based on imaging modality used for assessing stone-free status. Patient characteristics, operative data, and postoperative outcomes were compared. RESULTS The median age of the elderly group vs the young group was 74 years (range 70-93 years) vs 49 years. In the unmatched analysis, staghorn stones were seen at higher rates in the elderly group (27.8% vs 21.8%, P=0.014); however, the mean stone size was not significantly different (465.0 vs 422.8, P=0.063). The length of hospitalization was significantly longer in the elderly group compared with the young group in the unmatched analysis (5 days vs 4.1 days, P<0.001). The same difference was not apparent in the matched analysis (5.0 days vs 4.4 days, P=0.288). Overall complication rates were not significantly different in the unmatched analysis. In the matched analysis, however, a statistically significant higher rate of overall complications was seen. Stone-free rates were similar among all groups. CONCLUSION PCNL in elderly patients over the age of 70 years produces results comparable to those seen in younger patients. With only a slightly higher-be it statistically significant-complication rate, the stone-free rate in older patients was the same as in the younger group.
Dynamic Stochastic Inventory Management with Reference Price Effects

We analyze the joint inventory and pricing decisions of a firm when demand depends on not only the current selling price but also a memory-based reference price and customers are loss averse. The presence of reference price effect leads to a nonconcave one-period expected revenue in price and reference price. We introduce a transformation technique that allows us to prove under some mild assumptions the optimality of a reference-price-dependent base-stock list-price policy, which is characterized by a base-stock level and a target reference price. In addition, we show that the target reference price is increasing in the reference price, but except in the loss-neutral case, the base-stock level is not monotone in the reference price. We also show that in the steady state of the model with the reference price effect, the optimal price is lower while the optimal base-stock level is higher than their counterparts in the model without the reference price effect.
A Systematic Review of the Peer-Reviewed Literature on Self-Blame, Guilt, and Shame

This is the first systematic review of the evidence on the prevalence of self-blame, guilt, and shame in bereaved parents. A search of PsychINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PubMed, and Science Direct resulted in 18 studies for the period 1975 to 2013 which the authors have appraised. Self-blame, guilt, and shame are common in bereaved parents, albeit to varying degrees, with differential relationships to sex, and diminishing over time. There is some evidence that guilt and shame predict more intense grief reactions and that self-blame predicts posttraumatic symptomology, anxiety, and depression in bereaved parents. Heterogeneity of the studies and numerous methodological concerns limit the synthesis and strength of the evidence and the generalizability of the findings. Self-blame, guilt, and shame are commonly experienced by bereaved parents. Awareness of these affective states may assist clinicians in the identification of bereaved parents who are at a higher risk of developing adverse psychological outcomes. Overall, self-blame, guilt, and shame have received very little attention in the bereavement research, leaving many unanswered questions. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.
‘Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation’: Using a Mixed-Methods Approach to Explore Changes in Adolescent Well-Being across Several European Countries

The promotion of positive mental health is a becoming priority worldwide. Despite all the efforts invested in preventive and curative work, it is estimated that one in four persons will experience a mental health condition at some point in their lives. Even more worrying is the fact that up to a half of all mental health problems have their onset before the age of 14. Recent statistics (national and international surveys, meta-analyses, international reports) point out to the fact that child and adolescent mental health problems are on the rise. The present study will try to corroborate these results and further explore their meaning, by employing a sequential mixed methods research design (quantitative–qualitative). The quantitative part will analyze time trends using Health Behaviors in School-aged Children data (four survey cycles: 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014) on mental well-being from four European countries (the Czechia, Germany, Italy, and United Kingdom). The qualitative part will rely on focus groups to explore the perspectives of 13- and 15-year-old boys and girls on gender differences and on the changes in adolescent mental well-being over time, as well as measures through which these issues could be addressed. Thematic analysis will be employed to analyze qualitative data. The results of this study could make a major contribution to our understanding of the current trends in adolescent mental well-being, as well as the ways in which existing data could be linked to international and national health policies.
Components of Visual Orienting in Early Infancy: Contingency Learning, Anticipatory Looking, and Disengaging

Three aspects of the development of visual orienting in infants of 2, 3, and 4 months of age are examined in this paper. These are the age of onset and sequence of development of (1) the ability to readily disengage gaze from a stimulus, (2) the ability to consistently show anticipatory eye movements, and (3) the ability to use a central cue to predict the spatial location of a target. Results indicated that only the 4--month-old group was easily able to disengage from an attractive central stimulus to orient toward a simultaneously presented target. The 4--month-old group also showed more than double the percentage of anticipatory looks than did the other age groups. Finally, only the 4--month-old group showed significant evidence of being able to acquire the contingent relationship between a central cue and the spatial location (to the right or to the left) of a target. Measures of anticipatory looking and contingency learning were not correlated. These findings are, in general terms, consistent with the predictions of matura-tional accounts of the development of visual orienting.
Activation of cAMP Signaling Facilitates the Morphological Maturation of Newborn Neurons in Adult Hippocampus

Previous studies have demonstrated that activation of the cAMP cascade, including the cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB), increases the proliferation and survival of newborn neurons in adult mouse hippocampus. In the present study, we determined whether the cAMP-CREB cascade also influences the morphological maturation of newborn neurons in the subgranular zone of the hippocampus. Rolipram, a selective inhibitor of the cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase type 4, was administered to activate the cAMP cascade, and neuronal morphology was determined by analysis of Golgi-impregnated neurons in the subgranular zone of hippocampus. Rolipram administration significantly increased the number of branch points and length of dendrites relative to vehicle treatment. Increased branch number and length were accompanied by increased levels of phosphorylated CREB, the active form of this transcription factor, in immature neurons. In contrast, the morphology of Golgi-impregnated neurons was not significantly influenced by rolipram treatment in inducible transgenic mice expressing a dominant-negative mutant of CREB in hippocampus. We also tested the influence of cAMP analogs in primary hippocampal cultures and found that activation of the cAMP pathway increased and inhibition of the cAMP cascade decreased the number of branches and length of processes as observed in vivo. These findings indicate that the cAMP-CREB cascade plays an important role in the differentiation and maturation of newborn neurons in hippocampus.
Classification of Renewable Energy Trends by Utilizing the Novel Entropy Measures under the Environment of q-rung Orthopair Fuzzy Soft Sets

Energy generated from naturally replenishing sources such as the sun and wind, is said to be renewable energy (RE). The production of electricity water heating and cooling can all be done with renewable energy. Some recent trends in renewable energy are (1) Advanced photovoltaic (2) Distributed energy storage systems (3) Hydro Power (4) Bioenergy. The utilization of fuzzy set theory is very important for the classification of renewable energy trends. q-rung orthopair fuzzy soft set (q-ROFSS) is a parameterization tool and a more efficient apparatus to resolve unclear and vague data in general. As entropy is a quantitated measure of disordered or randomness in a system it can handle the uncertainty of data in fuzzy set theory for a disordered system. So, in this article, based on q-ROFSS, we have initiated some novel entropy measures under the environment of q-ROFSS to relate more complex data and to give more room to decision-makers for handling many decision-making problems. So, the entropy of q-ROFSS is the measure of ambiguity related to q-ROFSS. To show the authenticity of the established work further, we have established an algorithm for the introduced work along with a descriptive example to substantiate the reliability of the initiated work. We have also initiated a comparative study of the introduced notion with some existing theories to demonstrate the usefulness and consistency of the given idea.
Time to tighten the belts? Exploring the relationship between savings and obesity

Background Literature suggests that the higher the rate of time preference people have, the less likely they are to save for the future. Likewise, it has been hypothesised that rising rates of being overweight/obesity are associated with an increase in peoples’ marginal rate of time preference. Aim To investigate the relationship between being overweight/ obese and the rate of time preference in an older English population, using savings as a proxy for time preference. Methods Three different econometric methods—Random-effects Probit Estimation, Fixed-effects Estimation, and Generalised Method of Moments Estimation—were used to explore the link between being overweight/ obese and rate of time preference in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing dataset. Six waves of panel data spanning eleven years provided the data to test whether savings variables are related to being overweight/ obese. Results The decision to save was shown to hold a statistically significant negative relationship with body mass index but only in the Generalised Method of Moments model. Placing savings in safe, low risk investments was significantly related to a lower probability of being obese but only in the random-effects Probit model. The proportion that people saved relative to their income was not found to be significantly associated with the probability of being overweight/ obese in any of the models. Conclusion There is an unclear relationship between saving behaviour and being overweight/ obese in an older English population. A financial variable such as savings is a potentially appropriate but imperfect proxy for the rate of time preference of the population. Further research is required to clarify the relationship in order to help develop strategies for obesity prevention. The inconsistency in the results between methods highlights the importance of using a wide range of alternative techniques before implementing important policy decisions.
Improved Relation Extraction with Feature-Rich Compositional Embedding Models

Compositional embedding models build a representation (or embedding) for a linguistic structure based on its component word embeddings. We propose a Feature-rich Compositional Embedding Model (FCM) for relation extraction that is expressive, generalizes to new domains, and is easy-to-implement. The key idea is to combine both (unlexicalized) hand-crafted features with learned word embeddings. The model is able to directly tackle the difficulties met by traditional compositional embeddings models, such as handling arbitrary types of sentence annotations and utilizing global information for composition. We test the proposed model on two relation extraction tasks, and demonstrate that our model outperforms both previous compositional models and traditional feature rich models on the ACE 2005 relation extraction task, and the SemEval 2010 relation classification task. The combination of our model and a log-linear classifier with hand-crafted features gives state-of-the-art results.
Use of a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Rev mutant without nucleolar dysfunction as a candidate for potential AIDS therapy

Applications of transdominant mutants of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) regulatory proteins, especially Rev mutant, have been attempted for gene therapy against AIDS, because the Rev protein is essential for viral replication. We have previously reported that a mutant Rev protein (dRev) lacking its nucleolar targeting signal remained out of nuclei in expressed cells and strongly inhibited the function of Rev. To investigate the effects of dRev on HIV-1 replication, we established several dRev-expressing human cell lines with two different vector systems and examined virus production in these cells. An HIV-1-derived vector containing drev cDNA was constructed and introduced into CD4-positive HeLa cells and cells of the human T-cell line CCRF-CEM (CEM). In dRev-expressing HeLa cells, virus replication, syncytium formation, and cell death caused by HIV-1 infection were remarkably suppressed, and the same vector also conferred a resistant phenotype on CEM cells. The production was also suppressed in CEM cells containing the drev gene driven by a cytomegalovirus promoter. In addition, we found that dRev did not cause nucleolar dysfunction in a transient assay, in contrast to other transdominant mutants and wild-type Rev. Since dRev cannot migrate into the nuclei, it is expected not to interfere with nuclear/nucleolar functions of the host cell. We conclude that dRev is one promising candidate as an antiviral molecule for gene therapy against AIDS.
Influence of different concentrations of disodium fumarate on methane production and fermentation of concentrate feeds by rumen micro-organisms in vitro

Batch cultures of mixed rumen micro-organisms were used to study the effects of different concentrations of disodium fumarate on the fermentation of five concentrate feeds (maize, barley, wheat, sorghum and cassava meal). Rumen contents were collected from four Merino sheep fed lucerne hay ad libitum and supplemented with 300 g concentrate/d. Disodium fumarate was added to the incubation bottles to achieve final concentrations of 0, 4, 7 and 10 mm-fumarate. In 17 h incubations, the final pH and total volatile fatty acid production increased (P<0·001) linearly for all substrates as fumarate concentration increased from 0 to 10 mm. Propionate and acetate production increased (P<0·05), while the value of the acetate:propionate ratio decreased (P<0·05) linearly with increasing doses of fumarate. In contrast, l-lactate and NH3-N concentrations in the cultures were not affected (P>0·05) by the addition of fumarate. For all substrates, fumarate treatment decreased (P<0·05) CH4 production, the mean values of the decrease being 2·3, 3·8 and 4·8 % for concentrations of 4, 7 and 10 mm-fumarate respectively. Addition of fumarate did not affect (P>0·05) the total gas production. If the results of the present experiment are confirmed in vivo, fumarate could be used as a feed additive for ruminant animals fed high proportions of cereal grains, because it increased pH, acetate and propionate production and it decreased CH4 production.
Monitoring for intolerance to gastric tube feedings: a national survey.

BACKGROUND Confusion about how to assess for intolerance to feedings often results in unnecessary feeding interruptions. OBJECTIVES To report findings from a national survey of methods used by critical care nurses to assess tolerance to gastric tube feedings and to discuss the findings in light of current enteral nutrition guidelines. METHODS A paper-and-pencil survey was mailed to 1909 members of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. In addition, the same survey was posted online in a newsletter circulated to association members. Results from both surveys were pooled for data analysis. RESULTS A total of 2298 responses were obtained; most respondents reported using a combination of methods to assess tolerance to gastric tube feedings (listening for bowel sounds, measuring gastric residual volumes, observing for abdominal distention/discomfort and for nausea and vomiting). More than 97% of the nurses reported measuring gastric residual volumes; the most frequently cited threshold levels for interrupting feedings were 200 mL and 250 mL. About 25% of the nurses reported interrupting feedings for gastric residual volumes of 150 mL or less; only 12.6% of the respondents reported allowing gastric residual volumes of up to 500 mL before interrupting feedings. CONCLUSIONS Practice among the 2298 critical care nurses varied widely. Many of the survey respondents are practicing in ways that can unnecessarily diminish the delivery of calories to patients. Protocols based on current enteral nutrition guidelines must be developed and implemented in practice settings.
Emotion, Social Function, and Psychopathology

The studies of emotion function and emotional disorders complement one another. In this article, the authors outline relations between the social functions of emotion and four psychological disorders. The authors first present a social-functional account of emotion and argue that emotions help coordinate social interactions through their informative, evocative, and incentive functions. They then review evidence concerning the emotional and social problems related to depression, schizophrenia, social anxiety, and borderline personality disorder and consider how the emotional disturbances related to these disorders disrupt interactions and relationships, thus contributing further to the maintenance of the disorder. They conclude by discussing research strategies relevant to the study of emotion, social interaction, and psychopathology.