Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deep Reinforcement Learning and Mean-Variance Strategies for Responsible Portfolio Optimization

Portfolio optimization involves determining the optimal allocation of portfolio assets in order to maximize a given investment objective. Traditionally, some form of mean-variance optimization is used with the aim of maximizing returns while minimizing risk, however, more recently, deep reinforcement learning formulations have been explored. Increasingly, investors have demonstrated an interest in incorporating ESG objectives when making investment decisions, and modifications to the classical mean-variance optimization framework have been developed. In this work, we study the use of deep reinforcement learning for responsible portfolio optimization, by incorporating ESG states and objectives, and provide comparisons against modified mean-variance approaches. Our results show that deep reinforcement learning policies can provide competitive performance against mean-variance approaches for responsible portfolio allocation across additive and multiplicative utility functions of financial and ESG responsibility objectives.
Down-regulation of GPx1 mRNA and the loss of GPx1 activity causes cellular damage in the liver of selenium-deficient rabbits.

The effects of 10 weeks of dietary selenium and/or vitamin E deficiency (< 0.03 mg Se and 1.5 mg vitamin E per kg diet) on body Se and vitamin E stores and on the down-regulation of liver cellular glutathione peroxidase (GPx1) and plasma glutathione peroxidase (GPx3) were examined in growing female New Zealand White rabbits in comparison to Se (+ 0.40 mg Se/kg diet) and/or vitamin E (+ 150 I.U./kg diet) supplemented controls. Additionally plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, liver thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBA-RS) and liver protein carbonyls were measured to assess the development of oxidative stress during an alimentary Se and/or vitamin E deficiency. Significantly decreased concentrations of Se and vitamin E in plasma (Se: - 70%; vitamin E: - 87%) and liver (Se: - 90%; vitamin E: - 95%) indicated an efficacious Se and vitamin E depletion of the rabbits within 10 weeks. GPx1 messenger RNA levels (GPx1 mRNA) in the livers of Se-depleted rabbits were down-regulated to 1/3-1/8 of the Se supplemented controls. GPx1 enzyme activity in the livers of Se-deficient rabbits declined to 10% of the Se-supplied control rabbits. A significantly elevated LDH activity in the blood plasma of Se- and vitamin E-deficient rabbits indicated a general impairment of tissues. Markedly increased TBA-RS concentrations and protein carbonyl contents in the livers of Se- and vitamin E-deficient rabbits gave further evidence for severe oxidative damage of cellular lipids and proteins during an alimentary Se and/or vitamin E deficiency. Both a full expresssion of GPx1 attained by dietary Se supplementation and dietary vitamin E supply effected an almost complete protection against oxidative cellular damage of the liver.
Active by Design: Promoting Physical Activity through School Ground Greening

Abstract Green school grounds exhibit a greater diversity of landscaping and design features than conventional school grounds, thus enhancing the quantity and quality of physical activity among elementary school children. Through greening, school grounds diversify the play repertoire, creating opportunities for boys and girls of all ages, interests and abilities to be more physically active. This paper builds on a 2006 study (Bell and Dyment, 2006, Grounds for Action: Promoting Physical Activity through School Ground Greening in Canada, Toronto, Ontario: Evergreen) and explores factors related to school ground design and culture that both limit and enable opportunities for physical activity. Questionnaires (N = 105) were completed by teachers, parents, and administrators associated with 59 schools across Canada. Results indicate that in order to stimulate active play, school grounds should be designed to provide adequate space, diverse play opportunities and interaction with natural elements. Safety, comfort and maintenance issues also need to be taken into consideration at the design stage. With respect to school ground culture, children are more active when rules, policies and supervision allow for non-competitive, open-ended play, as well as opportunities to care for the garden or green space. The implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations are offered for policy makers.
Studying the relationship between BKT fitting error and the skill difficulty index

Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT) is one of the most popular knowledge inference models due to its interpretability and ability to infer student knowledge. A proper student modeling can help guide the behavior of a cognitive tutor system and provide insight to researchers on understanding how students learn. Using four different datasets we study the relationship between the error coming from fitting the parameters and the difficulty index of the skills and the effect of the size of the dataset in this relationship. The relationship between the fitting error and the difficulty index can be very easy modeled and might be indicating some problems with BKTs performance. However, large datasets are required to clearly see this connection as there is an important sample size effect.
Beyond the United States and Japan: Testing Yamagishi's Emancipation Theory of Trust across 31 Nations

We examined the relationship between Individualism/Collectivism and generalized social trust across 31 European nations participating in the European Social Survey. Using multilevel regression analyses, the current study provides the first empirical investigation of the effects of cultural norms of Individualism/Collectivism on generalized social trust while accounting for individuals' own cultural orientations within the same analysis. The results provide clear support for Yamagishi and Yamagishi's (1994) emancipation theory of trust, showing a significant and positive relationship between Individualism/Collectivism and generalized social trust, over and above the effect of a country's political history of communism and ethnic heterogeneity. Having controlled for individual effects of Individualism/Collectivism it is clear that the results of the current analysis cannot be reduced to an individual-level explanation, but must be interpreted within the context of macrosocial processes. We conclude by discussing potential mechanisms that could explain why national individualism is more likely to foster trust among people than collectivism.
A Study on How Attention Scores in the BERT Model are Aware of Lexical Categories in Syntactic and Semantic Tasks on the GLUE Benchmark

This study examines whether the attention scores between tokens in the BERT model significantly vary based on lexical categories during the fine-tuning process for downstream tasks. Drawing inspiration from the notion that in human language processing, syntactic and semantic information is parsed differently, we categorize tokens in sentences according to their lexical categories and focus on changes in attention scores among these categories. Our hypothesis posits that in downstream tasks that prioritize semantic information, attention scores centered on content words are enhanced, while in cases emphasizing syntactic information, attention scores centered on function words are intensified. Through experimentation conducted on six tasks from the GLUE benchmark dataset, we substantiate our hypothesis regarding the fine-tuning process. Furthermore, our additional investigations reveal the presence of BERT layers that consistently assign more bias to specific lexical categories, irrespective of the task, highlighting the existence of task-agnostic lexical category preferences.
Health Care Systems and the Problem of Classification

Abstract Classification is integral to comparison. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the nature, purpose and limits of classification in comparative health policy. We begin by describing the role of classification in comparative research design, discussing Weber's concept of the “ideal type” and drawing on the sociology of scientific knowledge to reflect on classification as an essentially social and uncertain process. In the sections which follow, we present an outline history of the classification of health systems, identifying a “normal science” of comparative studies of health policy and exploring a number of theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues which arise from it.
Emergence of Pathogenicity in Lagoviruses: Evolution from Pre-existing Nonpathogenic Strains or through a Species Jump?

1 InBIO—Research Network in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal, 2 Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal, 3 CESPU, Instituto de Investigação e Formação Avançada em Ciências e Tecnologias da Saúde, Gandra, Portugal, 4 UMR 1225, INRA, Toulouse, France, 5 INP-ENVT, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France, 6 Proteomic Unit, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna “Bruno Ubertini”, Brescia, Italy, 7 Department of Pathology andWildlife Diseases, National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, 8 Department of Studies and Research, National Hunting andWildlife Agency (ONCFS), Nantes, France, 9 Virology Unit, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna “Bruno Ubertini”, Brescia, Italy, 10 Avian and Rabbit Virology Immunology Parasitology Unit, Ploufragan-Plouzané Laboratory, French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses), Ploufragan, France, 11 European University of Brittany, Rennes, France, 12 Inserm U892; CNRS, UMR 6299University of Nantes, Nantes France
NLP-driven IR: Evaluating Performances over a Text Classification task

Although several attempts have been made to introduce Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques in Information Retrieval, most ones failed to prove their effectiveness in increasing performances. In this paper Text Classification (TC) has been taken as the IR task and the effect of linguistic capabilities of the underlying system have been studied. A novel model for TC, extending a well know statistical model (i.e. Rocchio's formula [Ittner et al., 1995]) and applied to linguistic features has been defined and experimented. The proposed model represents an effective feature selection methodology. All the experiments result in a significant improvement with respect to other purely statistical methods (e.g. [Yang, 1999]), thus stressing the relevance of the available linguistic information. Moreover, the derived classifier reachs the performance (about 85%) of the best known models (i.e. Support Vector Machines (SVM) and K -Nearest Neighbour (KNN)) characterized by an higher computational complexity for training and processing.
Pharmacokinetics of novel erythropoiesis stimulating protein (NESP) in cancer patients: preliminary report

Anaemia is a common occurrence in patients with cancer, and currently can be treated in several ways. Novel erythropoiesis stimulating protein (NESP, darbepoetin alfa) was created using site-directed mutagenesis to have 8 more sialic acid side chains than recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO). The additional sialic acid content has resulted in an approximately 3-fold greater half-life relative to rHuEPO in patients with chronic renal failure. This study evaluates the pharmacokinetic profile of NESP in patients receiving multiple cycles of chemotherapy. Anaemic patients (haemoglobin ≤ 11.0 g dl–1) who had non-myeloid malignancies received NESP weekly (2.25 mcg kg–1 wk–1) under the supervision of a physician, starting on day 1 of chemotherapy for 3 chemotherapy cycles given at 3-week intervals. Blood samples were collected during chemotherapy cycles 1 and 3 for pharmacokinetic analysis. All patients were followed for 4 weeks after treatment. NESP was well tolerated by all patients. After a single dose during chemotherapy cycle 1, pharmacokinetic parameters (mean (SD), n) for the first 15 patients were: Tmax86.1 (22.8) h (n = 14); Cmax9.0 (5.1) ng ml–1(n = 14); t1/2,z32.6 (11.8) h (n = 7); CL/F 3.7 (1.0) ml h–1 kg–1(n = 7). The subjects for whom all parameters could be calculated may represent a sub-group of the entire population. Similar results were obtained in cycle 3. In addition, haemoglobin response data suggests that, in this patient population, dosing less frequently than the 3 times weekly doses used for rHuEPO may be possible while improving anaemia. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign
Loss of function of the Drosophila Ninein-related centrosomal protein Bsg25D causes mitotic defects and impairs embryonic development

ABSTRACT The centrosome-associated proteins Ninein (Nin) and Ninein-like protein (Nlp) play significant roles in microtubule stability, nucleation and anchoring at the centrosome in mammalian cells. Here, we investigate Blastoderm specific gene 25D (Bsg25D), which encodes the only Drosophila protein that is closely related to Nin and Nlp. In early embryos, we find that Bsg25D mRNA and Bsg25D protein are closely associated with centrosomes and astral microtubules. We show that sequences within the coding region and 3′UTR of Bsg25D mRNAs are important for proper localization of this transcript in oogenesis and embryogenesis. Ectopic expression of eGFP-Bsg25D from an unlocalized mRNA disrupts microtubule polarity in mid-oogenesis and compromises the distribution of the axis polarity determinant Gurken. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, we show that an N-terminal fragment of Bsg25D can bind microtubules in vitro and can move along them, predominantly toward minus-ends. While flies homozygous for a Bsg25D null mutation are viable and fertile, 70% of embryos lacking maternal and zygotic Bsg25D do not hatch and exhibit chromosome segregation defects, as well as detachment of centrosomes from mitotic spindles. We conclude that Bsg25D is a centrosomal protein that, while dispensable for viability, nevertheless helps ensure the integrity of mitotic divisions in Drosophila. Summary: In humans, mutations in Ninein or Ninein-like protein result in microcephaly and other severe diseases. We show that while flies lacking the Ninein orthologue can survive, many die as embryos with defects in mitosis.
“I Don’t feel like melting butter”: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of ‘inorgasmia’

Inorgasmia is under-studied in the domain of sexual health psychology. This study explores women's experiences of inorgasmia and the meanings giving to this experience. Interviews with six inorgasmic women were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The analysis showed that the absence of orgasm was experienced as problematic and disturbing. A search for reasons for their condition, and its effects on self-image and self-confidence underpinned the experience of inorgasmia as a problem. The spectrum of meanings surrounding female orgasm demonstrates that, far from being perceived as a merely physical experience, the moment of orgasm takes on relational significance and it has implications for the women's identities. The paper identifies areas for future research and theorising.
Patterns of variation in DNA segments upstream of transcription start sites

It is likely that evolutionary differences among species are driven by sequence changes in regulatory regions. Likewise, polymorphisms in the promoter regions may be responsible for interindividual differences at the level of populations. We present an unbiased survey of genetic variation in 2‐kb segments upstream of the transcription start sites of 28 protein‐coding genes, characterized in five population groups of different geographic origin. On average, we found 9.1 polymorphisms and 8.8 haplotypes per segment with corresponding nucleotide and haplotype diversities of 0.082% and 58%, respectively. We characterized these segments through different summary statistics, Hardy‐Weinberg equilibria fixation index (Fst) estimates, and neutrality tests, as well as by analyzing the distributions of haplotype allelic classes, introduced here to assess the departure from neutrality and examined by coalescent simulations under a simple population model, assuming recombinations or different demography. Our results suggest that genetic diversity in some of these regions could have been shaped by purifying selection and driven by adaptive changes in the other, thus explaining the relatively large variance in the corresponding genetic diversity indices loci. However, some of these effects could be also due to linkage with surrounding sequences, and the neutralists' explanations cannot be ruled out given uncertainty in the underlying demographic histories and the possibility of random effects due to the small size of the studied segments. Hum Mutat 28(5), 441–450, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A further test of the golden section hypothesis

This research examines further the hypothesis that subjects tend to allot figures to the negative poles of constructs approximately 38 per cent of the time (Benjafield & Adams-Webber, 1976). Sixty Canadian undergraduates (30 women and 30 men) judged 20 nonsense words (e.g. JOHZAN) as if these were the names of people on 20 bipolar constructs. Ten of these constructs contained positive poles which were E+ and negative poles which were E- (e.g. kind-not kind) and the other ten constructs had positive poles which were E- and negative poles which were E+ (e.g. sad-not sad). These procedures were developed by Eiser & Mower White (1973). The results of this experiment, and a reanalysis of those of Eiser & Mower White, clearly supported the hypothesis.
Role-Taking and Interaction

This research utilizes longitudinal data from newly married couples to investigate change in perceptions of role-taking accuracy over time. It is suggested that when individuals feel they can understand their spouse's perspective, they will be more likely to be aware of how their behavior will affect the spouse; as a result, they will be more likely to behave supportively with the spouse and less likely to behave disruptively. Individuals' sense that they can understand their spouse's perspective is likely to change over time, however, in response to interaction with the spouse. Supportive behaviors encourage disclosure; disruptive behaviors disrupt communication. Therefore individuals with a spouse who behaves more positively and less negatively over time should be better able to role-take with the spouse. Results support these ideas, but suggest the existence of an important temporal dimension to the relationship between role-taking and interaction.
Pay-off-biased social learning underlies the diffusion of novel extractive foraging traditions in a wild primate

The type and variety of learning strategies used by individuals to acquire behaviours in the wild are poorly understood, despite the taxonomic prevalence of behavioural traditions. Social learning strategies such as conformity can be broadly adaptive, but may also retard the spread of adaptive innovations. Strategies like payoff-biased social learning, in contrast, are effective at diffusing new behaviour but may perform poorly when adaptive behaviour is common. We present a field experiment in a wild primate, Cebus capucinus, that introduced a novel food item and documented the innovation and diffusion of successful extraction techniques. We develop a multilevel, Bayesian statistical analysis that allows us to quantify individual-level evidence for different social and individual learning strategies. We find that payoff-biased social learning and age-biased social learning are primarily responsible for the diffusion of the new techniques. We find no evidence of conformity; instead rare techniques receive slightly increased attention. We also find substantial and important variation in individual learning strategies that is patterned by age, with younger individuals being more influenced by both social information and their own individual experience. The aggregate cultural dynamics in turn depend upon the variation in learning strategies and the age structure of the wild population.
An Optimized Three-Phase Multilevel Inverter Topology With Separate Level and Phase Sequence Generation Part

This paper presents an optimized, 3-φ, multilevel inverter (MLI) topology. The proposed system is derived by cascading the level generation part with the phase sequence generation part. Further, it can be operated at any required level depending upon the configuration of the level generation part. Thus, for higher level operation extra components are required at the level generation part only. Therefore, number of components required for the proposed MLI is lower than the conventional 3-φ MLI topologies for higher level operation. Further, the level generation part is shared by the three phases equally. This eliminates the possibility of phase unbalance. The working principle and the operation of the proposed MLI are supported with the simulation and experimental validations. Further, the proposed optimized MLI is also compared with the conventional 3-φ MLIs to prove its advantage.
The effect of alkaline pretreatment methods on cellulose structure and accessibility.

The effects of different alkaline pretreatments on cellulose structural features and accessibility are compared and correlated with the enzymatic hydrolysis of Populus. The pretreatments are shown to modify polysaccharides and lignin content to enhance the accessibility for cellulase enzymes. The highest increase in the cellulose accessibility was observed in dilute sodium hydroxide, followed by methods using ammonia soaking and lime (Ca(OH)2 ). The biggest increase of cellulose accessibility occurs during the first 10 min of pretreatment, with further increases at a slower rate as severity increases. Low temperature ammonia soaking at longer residence times dissolved a major portion of hemicellulose and exhibited higher cellulose accessibility than high temperature soaking. Moreover, the most significant reduction of degree of polymerization (DP) occurred for dilute sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and ammonia pretreated Populus samples. The study thus identifies important cellulose structural features and relevant parameters related to biomass recalcitrance.