Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolution Strategies as a Scalable Alternative to Reinforcement Learning

We explore the use of Evolution Strategies (ES), a class of black box optimization algorithms, as an alternative to popular MDP-based RL techniques such as Q-learning and Policy Gradients. Experiments on MuJoCo and Atari show that ES is a viable solution strategy that scales extremely well with the number of CPUs available: By using a novel communication strategy based on common random numbers, our ES implementation only needs to communicate scalars, making it possible to scale to over a thousand parallel workers. This allows us to solve 3D humanoid walking in 10 minutes and obtain competitive results on most Atari games after one hour of training. In addition, we highlight several advantages of ES as a black box optimization technique: it is invariant to action frequency and delayed rewards, tolerant of extremely long horizons, and does not need temporal discounting or value function approximation.
Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass, and the Politics of Representative Identity

The differences between Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany have historically been reduced to a simple binary pronouncement: assimilationist versus separatist. Now Robert S. Levine restores the relationship of these two important nineteenth-century African American writers to its original complexity. He explores their debates over issues like abolitionism, emigration, and nationalism, illuminating each man's influence on the other's political vision. He also examines Delany and Douglass's debates in relation to their own writings and to the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Though each saw himself as the single best representative of his race, Douglass has been accorded that role by history--while Delany, according to Levine, has suffered a fate typical of the black separatist: marginalization. In restoring Delany to his place in literary and cultural history, Levine makes possible a fuller understanding of the politics of antebellum African American leadership.
Repartnering and the Management of Risk

Social theorists working with concept of 'risk society' have addressed the issue of family change, suggesting that processes of individualization mean that family relationships have become 'elective', which has in turn raised questions about the nature of trust and commitment in intimate relationships. The position of those who are repartnering is particularly sensitive in these respects. Their awareness of risks may render them more likely to make only contingent commitments, or may make them more anxious to achieve a relationship founded on trust and commitment. We draw on in-depth interviews with a representative sample of people in England who have repartnered from a variety of types of intimate relationship into different statuses in order to explore the management of perceived risks. We find that for most respondents repartnering is a process involving different kinds of relationships, although living-apart-together is understood as something rather different. There is little support for the risk society thesis in respect of intimate relationships in respect of rejection of commitment and absence of trust. Rather, changes in relationship status often seem to be part of the process of building trust and of achieving the goal of a rather traditional relationship. This poses challenges for policymakers as they seek to regulate different statuses in different ways.
Metrics-based detection of micro patterns

Micro patterns are class-level patterns which aim to identify and formalize common programming techniques. A type (either a class or an interface) is an instance of a micro pattern if and only if all of its methods and/or attributes satisfy the constraints specified by the micro pattern. We suggest a novel approach to the detection of micro patterns which is aimed to identify types that are very close and similar to a correct micro pattern implementation, even if some of the methods and/or attributes of the type do not comply with the constraints defined by the micro pattern. The new interpretation is based on the number of attributes (NOA) and the number of methods (NOM) of a type. The identification of types similar to micro patterns allows the analysis of software systems along various releases, as well as the identification of possible critical classes that can't be detected with a precise matching approach.
Bilingual word recognition in English and Greek

ABSTRACT The word recognition processes of proficient bilinguals were examined in their mother tongue (Greek) and in English in relation to the linguistic and syntactic characteristics along which the two languages differ. Their processes were then compared with those of monolingual readers.The following issues were addressed: the nature of bilingual functioning, whether it is language specific, and the factors that affect second language reading development. These issues were examined within the context of a letter cancellation paradigm. The results indicated that bilingual readers performed differently in each of their two languages, conforming more the monolingual patterns in their mother tongue than to those in their second language. This discrepancy was interpreted as a lack of coordination of different word recognition skills in the second language.
Are female supervisors good for employee job experiences, health, and wellbeing?

Purpose – Aims to investigate managers’ reports of their job experiences, wellbeing, and health outcomes as a function of whether they had either a male or a female supervisor.Design/methodology/approach – Self‐report survey data were collected from male (n =328) and female (n =222) managers; these managers, in turn, had either a male or a female supervisor.Findings – Consistent with the hypothesis, two (gender of participant) by two (gender of supervisor) analyses of covariance revealed that all managers with female supervisors reported significantly higher levels of mastery and social support at work, and lower levels of work to family conflict and depression. Women with female supervisors also reported significantly higher levels of job autonomy and work absences than did women with male supervisors or men with either male or female supervisors. In an effort to explain these outcomes, the mediational role of work‐based social support was explored as well as the gender ratio of the subordinate's work en.
Human Reinforcement Learning of Sequential Action

Learning sequential actions is an essential ability, for most daily activities are sequential. We modify the trajectory serial reaction time (SRT) task, used to teach people a consistent sequence of mouse movements by cueing them with the next target response. We introduce a reinforcement learning (RL) version of the paradigm in which no cue appears. Instead, learners must explore response alternatives, receiving penalties when incorrect and rewards when correct. Learners are not told that they will learn a single deterministic sequence of responses, nor that it will repeat (nor how often), nor how long it is. Performance was bimodal: half performed poorly, and yet half performed remarkably well, acquiring the full 10-item sequence within 10 repetitions. We compare these groups’ detailed results in this RL task with a cued trajectory SRT task, finding both similarities and discrepancies. Human learners outperform three standard RL models and have different patterns of errors.
Teenagers and Public Space

Teenagers have no obvious right to spaces of their own. They often have nowhere else to go except outdoor public places, where they often come into conflict with other groups. This article explores this dilemma. Based on empirical studies in Sweden, the article describes how teenagers use public spaces in their local environments to create meaning and context in their existence. It indicates which places they use, what characterizes these places, and how teenagers use them. Variation and variety in the structures and environments of places mean that the local field of activity cannot always be encompassed by traditional generalizing theories. Knowledge of the significance of local variations in the identity construction and action strategies of youth thus becomes an important link in understanding and interpreting the postmodern society.
Immediacy and Certainty in Intertemporal Choice

Time delay and uncertainty are deeply interrelated though the nature of the interaction between these two constructs remains equivocal. The immediacy and the certainty effects provide an easy access to study the relationship between time delay and uncertainty. Three experiments are described which examine the effect of uncertainty on the immediacy effect and the effect of time delay on the certainty effect. We also present analytical arguments that lead to the tentative conclusion that immediacy is more likely to be a derivative of certainty than the reverse. It is further proposed that laboratory experiments may undermine the importance of uncertainty underlying time delays as demonstrated in experiment 4. Theoretical and methodological intricacies associated with separating uncertainty and time delay are discussed.
Informal employment in high-income countries for a health inequalities research: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND Informal employment (IE) is one of the least studied employment conditions in public health research, mainly due to the difficulty of its conceptualization and its measurement, producing a lack of a unique concept and a common method of measurement. OBJECTIVE The aim of this review is to identify literature on IE in order to improve its definition and methods of measurement, with special attention given to high-income countries, to be able to study the possible impact on health inequalities within and between countries. METHODS A scoping review of definitions and methods of measurement of IE was conducted reviewing relevant databases and grey literature and analyzing selected articles. RESULTS We found a wide spectrum of terms for describing IE as well as definitions and methods of measurement. We provide a definition of IE to be used in health inequalities research in high-income countries. Direct methods such as surveys can capture more information about workers and firms in order to estimate IE. CONCLUSIONS These results can be used in further investigations about the impacts of this IE on health inequalities. Public health research must improve monitoring and analysis of IE in order to know the impacts of this employment condition on health inequalities.
Correlation of oesophageal acid exposure with Barrett's oesophagus length

BACKGROUND Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) plays a major role in the development of Barrett's oesophagus. However, it has yet to be elucidated what factors determine the length of Barrett's mucosa in each individual patient. AIMS To determine if there is a correlation between oesophageal acid exposure and the length of Barrett's mucosa. We also compared the extent of oesophageal acid exposure between patients with short segment (SSBE) and long segment (LSBE) Barrett's oesophagus. METHODS Twenty seven patients with Barrett's oesophagus were recruited prospectively into the study from the outpatient gastroenterology clinic at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System. Diagnosis of Barrett's oesophagus and its anatomical characteristics were determined during upper endoscopy. Ambulatory 24 hour oesophageal pH monitoring assessed the extent of oesophageal acid exposure. RESULTS There was a significant correlation between per cent total time pH less than 4 and length of Barrett's mucosa (r=0.6234, p=0.0005). In addition, there was a significant correlation between per cent upright and supine time pH less than 4 and length of Barrett's mucosa (r=0.5847, p=0.0014 andr=0.6265 p=0.0006, respectively). Patients with SSBE had significantly less oesophageal acid exposure than patients with LSBE, in terms of both per cent total time and per cent supine time pH less than 4 (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS The length of Barrett's mucosa correlated with the duration of oesophageal acid exposure. Patients with LSBE experienced significantly more oesophageal acid exposure than patients with SSBE. Duration of oesophageal acid exposure appears to be an important contributing factor in determining the length of Barrett's mucosa.
Factors that influence the association between adult attachment and marital satisfaction

iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . v LIST OF TABLES . vii LIST OF FIGURES . viii CHAPTER
Fatal Head Trauma from Tree Related Injuries

Two cases of death following tree related injuries are presented. Two females, an elderly woman and a child, suffered severe head trauma from falling objects from trees — a falling coconut and a falling branch respectively. Although this mode of injury has been previously documented, there have been no prior reports of in-hospital deaths in such patients. This uncommon cause of death is reviewed and recommendations made concerning its prevention.
Treatment with all-trans retinoic acid plus tamoxifen and vitamin E in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND Low serum retinol and hepatic tocopherol levels correlate with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk. Antiestrogen tamoxifen seems useful in HCC patients. A pilot study was performed to evaluate the effect of all-trans retinoic acid associated with tamoxifen and vitamin E on patients with advanced HCC. PATIENTS AND METHODS Fifteen consecutive patients with advanced HCC were included in the study. Patients were evaluated for survival, quality of life, liver function, tumor mass, toxicity related to the treatment and retinoid receptors in liver biopsies. RESULTS The median survival of our patients was 22 months. Pain and asthenia were improved in the majority of patients. Every patient with baseline elevated liver enzymes showed an improvement in liver function. RAR-alpha, RXR-alpha, RAR-beta and RAR-gamma receptors were demonstrated in 100%, 73%, 47% and 40%, respectively. CONCLUSION A combination therapy of all-trans retinoic acid, tamoxifen and vitamin E increases the survival rate and ameliorates the clinical outcome in patients with inoperable HCC.
Ambulatory Versus Home Versus Clinic Blood Pressure: The Association With Subclinical Cerebrovascular Diseases: The Ohasama Study

The usefulness of ambulatory, home, and casual/clinic blood pressure measurements to predict subclinical cerebrovascular diseases (silent cerebrovascular lesions and carotid atherosclerosis) was compared in a general population. Data on ambulatory, home, and casual/clinic blood pressures and brain MRI to detect silent cerebrovascular lesions were obtained in 1007 subjects aged ≥55 years in a general population of Ohasama, Japan. Of the 1007 subjects, 583 underwent evaluation of the extent of carotid atherosclerosis. Twenty-four–hour, daytime, and nighttime ambulatory and home blood pressure levels were closely associated with the risk of silent cerebrovascular lesions and carotid atherosclerosis (all P<0.05). When home and one of the ambulatory blood pressure values were simultaneously included in the same regression model, each of the ambulatory blood pressure values remained a significant predictor of silent cerebrovascular lesions, whereas home blood pressure lost its predictive value. Of the ambulatory blood pressure values, nighttime blood pressure was the strongest predictor of silent cerebrovascular lesions. The home blood pressure value was more closely associated with the risk of carotid atherosclerosis than any of the ambulatory blood pressure values when home and one of the ambulatory blood pressure values were simultaneously included in the same regression model. The casual/clinic blood pressure value had no significant association with the risk of subclinical cerebrovascular diseases. Although the clinical indications for ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and home blood pressure measurements may overlap, the clinical significance of each method for predicting target organ damage may differ for different target organs.
Institutions, Intergroup Competition, and the Evolution of Hotel Populations around Niagara Falls

Earlier versions of this paper benefited from the comments of Joel Baum, Margaret Brindle, Mark Fichman, John Freeman, Paul Goodman, Amie Yael Inman, David Loree, Victor Nee, Jerry Salancik, and Tal Simons, as well as Christine Oliver, Linda Johanson, and the anonymous ASO reviewers. Earlier versions of the paper were presented at Cornell University and the University of Toronto. This paper examines institution building and the problems of collective action that must be overcome so that institutions can regulate the self-interested activity of organizations and facilitate the production or protection of resources that collectively benefit organizations. We show that the presence of competing groups of organizations is key to institution building because it may allow cooperating organizations to gain relative competitive advantage over other organizations and because the presence of salient rivals facilitates collective action. We use the history of tourism institutions at Niagara Falls to illuminate the collective action problems, and their solutions, associated with building institutions. We propose that (1) institution building in this context was the result of collective action among competitors to solve a common problem, (2) rivalry and competition between hotels on either side of the falls enhanced collective action among locally competing hotels, and (3) the regulation provided by the institutions lowered the failure rates and increased the founding rates of hotels on both sides of the falls. We examined these propositions first through historical analysis to show the motivation and process of building institutions and then through analysis of hotel failure and founding rates to show the presence of interpopulation competition and the influence over time of the institutions on organizational populations. Our analysis of failure and founding rates indicates that Niagara Falls hotels did benefit from the institutions they helped create and that there were two competing groups of organizations, but, surprisingly, institutions helped all Niagara Falls hotels, regardless of which group created them. '
Effects of Reading Health and Appearance Exercise Magazine Articles on Perceptions of Attractiveness and Reasons for Exercise

Objective To examine the effects of reading exercise-related magazine articles (health, appearance, or control) and the moderating effects of exercise self-identity on reasons for exercise and perceptions of attractiveness, among women in first year university. An additional purpose was to use a thought listing technique, the results of which were examined for evidence of internalization of the exercise-related messages. Participants Female students in their first year of studies between September 2010 and April 2011 (N = 173; mean age = 19.31 years, mean body mass index = 22.01). Methods Participants read a health, appearance, or control article, listed thoughts, and completed questionnaires measuring reasons for exercising, physical self-perception, and exercise self-identity. Results Participants in the health condition rated exercise for health significantly higher than control condition participants. Participants with high exercise self-identity rated attractiveness as a reason for exercising significantly higher than low exercise self-identity participants in both the health and appearance conditions. Participants with higher internalization scores (i.e., accepted societal norms of appearance) reported exercising for attractiveness reasons more so than participants with lower internalization scores. Conclusions The good news is that health messages may be influential and result in wanting to exercise for health purposes. However, exercising for attractiveness was rated highly by participants with high exercise identity who read either the health or appearance articles. Health and appearance are not necessarily distinct concepts for female undergraduate students and the media may influence cited reasons for exercise.
Father–Child Relationships and Nonresident Fathers’ Psychological Distress

Nonresident fathers have been shown to have much higher psychological distress than married parents with rates similar to or higher than those of single mothers. This study explores how aspects of the father–child relationship influence nonresident fathers’ psychological distress using the 1997 Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Using a structural equation model, this study finds that, other than being married, only father–child relationship quality has a direct influence on nonresident fathers’ psychological distress. Conflict with the mother, talking to the child, and the salience of the fatherhood role all influence psychological distress indirectly through father–child relationship quality.
Contextualized Chemistry Education: The American experience

This paper is a survey of context‐based chemistry education in the United States. It begins with a very brief overview of twentieth‐century chemistry texts and teaching methods, followed by a short description of a pioneering secondary school text. The major emphasis is on post‐secondary instruction and the central case study is provided by Chemistry in Context, a university text intended for students who are not specializing in science. The paper is more concerned with strategies for curriculum reform than with educational research, and the emphasis is more pragmatic than theoretical. A chronological sequence is used to trace the creation of Chemistry in Context. This developmental account is overlaid with the curricular representations of Goodlad and Van den Akker. The Ideal Curriculum was the goal, but the Formal Curriculum was created and revised as a consequence of iteration involving perceptions of the users, the implementation of the curriculum, the experience of students and teachers, and formal and informal assessment of what was attained. The paper also includes descriptions of other, more recent, context‐based college chemistry curricula. It concludes with a list of problems and unanswered questions relating to this pedagogical approach.
My Family through the Lens. Photo Interviews with Children and Sensitive Aspects of Family Life

We elaborate on an aspect of photo interviews with children that has so far not been considered sufficiently: Photographs may encourage children to talk about sensitive aspects of family life. The potential and limitations of this aspect are discussed along the lines of visibility and invisibility. Visualisations support children in verbalising their thoughts, but also stimulate narrations on issues that are not displayed. Data are drawn from interviews with fifty 10-year-old children who took photographs in their families, and their parents (n = 71). We conclude that visual methods and their combination with a multiple perspectives approach may generate substantial benefits in childhood and family research. © 2012 The Author(s). Children & Society © 2012 National Children’s Bureau and Blackwell Publishing Limited.
Risk Factors for Alcohol Use in the United States, 1947–2005

ABSTRACT National public opinion polls that were conducted from 1947 to 2005 found that Americans' reported alcohol consumption remained fairly constant. Although alcohol use has remained consistent, the findings reveal that consumption levels vary by age, gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The results also show an increase in the number of reported problems within families that are due to excessive alcohol consumption. This article examines the differences in alcohol consumption levels related to these various demographic factors and explores the impact of alcohol use among families and implications for social work practice.