Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reinforcement learning with multi-fidelity simulators

We present a framework for reinforcement learning (RL) in a scenario where multiple simulators are available with decreasing amounts of fidelity to the real-world learning scenario. Our framework is designed to limit the number of samples used in each successively higher-fidelity/cost simulator by allowing the agent to choose to run trajectories at the lowest level that will still provide it with information. The approach transfers state-action Q-values from lower-fidelity models as heuristics for the “Knows What It Knows” family of RL algorithms, which is applicable over a wide range of possible dynamics and reward representations. Theoretical proofs of the framework's sample complexity are given and empirical results are demonstrated on a remote controlled car with multiple simulators. The approach allows RL algorithms to find near-optimal policies for the real world with fewer expensive real-world samples than previous transfer approaches or learning without simulators.
Enemies and Friends in Hedonic Games: Individual Deviations, Stability and Manipulation

We consider hedonic games with separable preferences, and explore the existence of stable coalition structures if only individual deviations are allowed.For two natural subdomains of separable preferences, namely preference domains based on (1) aversion to enemies and (2) appreciation of friends, we show that an individually stable coalition structure always exist, and a Nash stable coalition structure exists when mutuality is imposed.Moreover, we show that on the domain of separable preferences a contractual individually stable coalition structure can be obtained in polynomial time.Finally, we prove that, on each of the two subdomains, the corresponding algorithm that we use for finding Nash stable and individually stable coalition structures turns out to be strategy-proof.
Mineral and bone disorders and survival in hemodialysis patients with and without polycystic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND Maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD) have better survival than non-PKD patients. Mineral and bone disorders (MBD) are associated with accelerated atherosclerosis and cardiovascular death in MHD patients. It is unknown whether the different MBD mortality association between MHD populations with and without PKD can explain the survival differential. METHODS Survival models were examined to assess the association between different laboratory markers of MBD [such as serum phosphorous, parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcium and alkaline phosphatase] and mortality in a 6-year cohort of 60,089 non-PKD and 1501 PKD MHD patients. RESULTS PKD and non-PKD patients were 57±13 and 62±15 years old and included 46 and 45% women and 14 and 32% Blacks, respectively. Whereas PKD individuals with PTH 150 to <300 pg/mL (reference) had the lowest risk for mortality, the death risk was higher in patients with PTH<150 [hazard ratio (HR): 2.16 (95% confidence interval 1.53-3.06)], 300 to <600 [HR: 1.30 (0.97-1.74)] and ≥600 pg/mL [HR: 1.46 (1.02-2.08)], respectively. Similar patterns were found in non-PKD patients. Fully adjusted death HRs of time-averaged serum phosphorous increments<3.5, 5.5 to <7.5 and ≥7.5 mg/dL (reference: 3.5 to <5.5 mg/dL) for PKD patients were 2.82 (1.50-5.29), 1.40 (1.12-1.75) and 2.25 (1.57-3.22). The associations of alkaline phosphatase and calcium with mortality were similar in PKD and non-PKD patients. CONCLUSION Bone-mineral disorder markers exhibit similar mortality trends between PKD and non-PKD MHD patients, although some differences are observed in particular in low PTH and phosphorus ranges.
General physical properties of bright Fermi blazars

We studied all blazars of known redshift detected by the Fermi satellite during its first 3-month survey. For the majority of them, pointed Swift observations ensure a good multiwavelength coverage, enabling us to reliably construct their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). We model the SEDs using a one-zone leptonic model and study the distributions of the derived interesting physical parameters as a function of the observed γ-ray luminosity. We confirm previous findings concerning the relation of the physical parameters with source luminosity which are at the origin of the blazar sequence. The SEDs allow to estimate the luminosity of the accretion disc for the majority of broad emitting line blazars, while for the lineless BL Lac objects in the sample upper limits can be derived. We find a positive correlation between the jet power and the luminosity of the accretion disc in broad-line blazars. In these objects, we argue that the jet must be proton dominated, and that the total jet power is of the same order of (or slightly larger than) the disc luminosity. We discuss two alternative scenarios to explain this result.
Transient power management through high level synthesis

The use of nanometer technologies is making it increasingly important to consider transient characteristics of a circuit's power dissipation (e.g., peak power, and power gradient or differential) in addition to its average power consumption. Current transient power analysis and reduction approaches are mostly at the transistor- and logic-levels. We argue that, as was the case with average power minimization, architectural solutions to transient power problems can complement and significantly extend the scope of lower-level techniques. In this work, we present a high-level synthesis approach to transient power management. We demonstrate how high-level synthesis can impact the cycle-by-cycle peak power and peak power differential for the synthesized implementation. Further, we demonstrate that it is necessary to consider transient power metrics judiciously in order to minimize or avoid area and performance overheads. In order to alleviate the limits on parallelism imposed by peak power constraints, we propose a novel technique based on the selective insertion of data monitor operations in the behavioral description. We present enhanced scheduling algorithms that can accept constraints on transient power characteristics (in addition to the conventional resource and performance constraints). Experimental results on several example designs obtained using a state-of-the-art commercial design flow and technology library indicate that high-level synthesis with transient power management results in significant benefits-peak power reductions of up to 32% (average of 25%), and peak power differential reductions of up to 59% (average of 42%)-with minimal performance overheads.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: An Overview with Emphasis on Changes in Brain and Behavior

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders constitute a major public health problem. This article presents an overview of important issues that surround these disorders and emphasizes the structural and neurobehavioral consequences associated with prenatal exposure to alcohol. Diagnostic criteria are discussed, and possible moderating factors for the range of outcomes are mentioned. In addition, the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders is described, and estimates of the financial impact of these disorders are given. Heavy prenatal alcohol exposure can severely affect the physical and neurobehavioral development of a child. Autopsy and brain imaging studies indicate reductions and abnormalities in overall brain size and shape, specifically in structures such as the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and corpus callosum. A wide range of neuropsychological deficits have been found in children prenatally exposed to alcohol, including deficits in visuospatial functioning, verbal and nonverbal learning, attention, and executive functioning. These children also exhibit a variety of behavioral problems that can further affect their daily functioning. Children exposed to alcohol prenatally, with and without the physical features of fetal alcohol syndrome, display qualitatively similar deficits. Determining the behavioral phenotypes that result from heavy prenatal alcohol exposure is critical, because the identification of these children is crucial for early interventions. In addition, knowing which brain areas are involved might enable the development of better intervention strategies. However, intervention needs to go beyond the affected individual to prevent future cases. As evidenced by the staggering financial impact these disorders have on society, prevention efforts need to be aimed at high-risk groups, and this issue needs to be made a high priority in terms of public health.
Emotional Intelligence and Psychological Distress: Testing the Mediatory Role of Affectivity

The study tested the extent to which positive and negative affect at work mediate emotional intelligence effects on psychological distress. Participants were 200 middle-level managers who completed the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, 20-item affectivity scale, and a measure of psychological distress. Results using covariance based structural equation modeling indicated that only negative affect fully mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological distress. Furthermore, the direct effect of emotional intelligence was stronger for positive affect as compared to its influence on negative affect. Finally, negative affect had a significant direct influence on psychological distress, whereas the relationship between positive affect and psychological distress was insignificant.
Peripheral Autonomic Signals as Access Pathways for Individuals with Severe Disabilities: A Literature Appraisal

Many individuals with severe and multiple disabilities do not have an access pathway that enables them to interface with their environment because they are not afforded a binary switch that they can reliably control. While recent research has focused on the self-regulation of central signals of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) to create brain- computer interfaces (BCIs) for these individuals, there has been less focus on the peripheral signals of the ANS as an access pathway. An appraisal of the literature in the areas of biofeedback, polygraphy and mental exercises uncovered considerable evidence that peripheral ANS signals can be voluntarily controlled and thus have the potential to be used as an access pathway by the target population. However, the issues of speed, metabolic noise and pathological change must be addressed before peripheral ANS signals can be used as either a complementary or alternative access pathway to existing brain-computer interfaces.
Adaptación de dos cuestionarios de motivación: Autorregulación del Aprendizaje y Clima de Aprendizaje

Esta investigacion psicometrica tuvo como objetivo adaptar y validar dos cuestionarios: Autorregulacion del Aprendizaje y Clima de Aprendizaje. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 369 estudiantes universitarios de una universidad privada de Lima con una edad promedio de 19.30 anos (DE = 2.49). En ambos casos, se analizo la validez de constructo a traves de analisis factoriales exploratorios con extraccion de componentes principales, analisis factoriales confirmatorios y mediante la validez convergente y divergente de ambos cuestionarios. La validez de contenido se investigo a traves del criterio de jueces expertos, mientras que la validez predictiva se llevo a cabo a traves de correlaciones y regresiones entre las variables estudiadas (clima y regulacion del aprendizaje) y el rendimiento academico de los alumnos. La confiabilidad se verifico a traves del metodo de consistencia interna (Alfa de Cronbach).
A PSYCHO-SOCIAL THERAPEUTIC GROUP WORK PROGRAMME PREVENTING THE ONSET OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AMONG POLICE OFFICIALS ATTACHED TO THE SPECIALISED UNITS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE

This article focuses on the development of a psycho-social therapeutic programme (PTP) for police officials attached to the specialised units in the North West province. The objective is to prevent the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder and the development of trauma-related stress symptoms soon after exposure to a traumatic event. The main focus of this article is on the themes and contents of the designed PTP. The themes of the programme are schematically presented, after which it is discussed in detail according to the subject, aim and content
Warping-based video retargeting for stereoscopic video

In this paper, a novel warping-based retargeting approach for stereoscopic video is proposed. It considers the three conflicting goals: preserving salient image content, avoiding flickering and maintaining consistency between the two views. The first step of the approach focuses on content-aware image resizing and considers image saliency, motion saliency, and depth saliency. In the second step, temporal coherence is preserved by tracking and optimizing deformed pathlines. The proposed algorithm maps the mesh from the left to the right view to guarantee consistency between the deformation of objects between the views. Users rated the quality of the adapted videos as good. In particular, distortions in the perceived depth are not noticeable, and the temporal stability is significantly higher compared to seam carving approaches.
Coordination of Locomotion with Voluntary Movements in Humans

Muscle activity occurring during human locomotion can be accounted for by five basic temporal activation patterns in a variety of locomotion conditions. Here, we examined how these activation patterns interact with muscle activity required for a voluntary movement. Subjects produced a voluntary movement during locomotion, and we examined the resulting kinematics, kinetics, and EMG activity in 16-31 ipsilateral limb and trunk muscles during the tasks. There were four voluntary tasks added to overground walking (∼5 km/h) in which subjects kicked a ball, stepped over an obstacle, or reached down and grasped an object on the floor (weight support on either the right or the left foot). Statistical analyses of EMG waveforms showed that the five basic locomotion patterns were invariantly present in each task, although they could be differently weighted across muscles, suggesting a characteristic locomotion timing of muscle activations. We also observed a separate activation that was timed to the voluntary task. The coordination of locomotion with the voluntary task was accomplished by combining activation timings that were associated separately with the voluntary task and locomotion. Activation associated with the voluntary tasks was either synchronous with the timing for locomotion or had additional activations not represented in the basic locomotion timing. We propose that this superposition of an invariant locomotion timing pattern with a voluntary activation timing may be consistent with the proposal suggesting that compound movements are produced through a superposition of motor programs.
News Shocks and In‡ation: Lessons for New Keynesians

News about future increases in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) lead to a large and persistent drop in both in‡ation and the Federal funds rate. We show that a DSGE model with nominal rigidities and a standard parametrization along the lines of Smets and Wouters (2007) is unable to replicate these responses. We then analyze through a sequence of four ’lessons’why the model fails and how to make progress in improving the model’s …t. The …rst lesson is that standard interest rate policy rules are not the cause of the failure. The second lesson is that even if the parameters are reestimated so as to match as closely as possible the impulse responses of macro aggregates to TFP news, the model fails in delivering reasonable dynamics. The third lesson is that augmenting the model with features designed to reduce the sensitivity of wage and price markups to TFP news leads to a substantial improvement in …t. The fourth and …nal lesson is a caveat to the partial success of lesson three: while we can modify the parametrization to improve the model’s …t to TFP news shocks, this comes at the cost of severely deteriorating the model’s performance with respect to monetary policy shocks. TFP news shocks therefore represent an important empirical challenge for the New Keynesian business cycle literature.
Activity of Bdellovibrio Hit Locus Proteins, Bd0108 and Bd0109, Links Type IVa Pilus Extrusion/Retraction Status to Prey-Independent Growth Signalling

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus are facultatively predatory bacteria that grow within gram-negative prey, using pili to invade their periplasmic niche. They also grow prey-independently on organic nutrients after undergoing a reversible switch. The nature of the growth switching mechanism has been elusive, but several independent reports suggested mutations in the hit (host-interaction) locus on the Bdellovibrio genome were associated with the transition to prey-independent growth. Pili are essential for prey entry by Bdellovibrio and sequence analysis of the hit locus predicted that it was part of a cluster of Type IVb pilus-associated genes, containing bd0108 and bd0109. In this study we have deleted the whole bd0108 gene, which is unique to Bdellovibrio, and compared its phenotype to strains containing spontaneous mutations in bd0108 and the common natural 42 bp deletion variant of bd0108. We find that deletion of the whole bd0108 gene greatly reduced the extrusion of pili, whereas the 42 bp deletion caused greater pilus extrusion than wild-type. The pili isolated from these strains were comprised of the Type IVa pilin protein; PilA. Attempts to similarly delete gene bd0109, which like bd0108 encodes a periplasmic/secreted protein, were not successful, suggesting that it is likely to be essential for Bdellovibrio viability in any growth mode. Bd0109 has a sugar binding YD- repeat motif and an N-terminus with a putative pilin-like fold and was found to interact directly with Bd0108. These results lead us to propose that the Bd0109/Bd0108 interaction regulates pilus production in Bdellovibrio (possibly by interaction with the pilus fibre at the cell wall), and that the presence (and possibly retraction state) of the pilus feeds back to alter the growth state of the Bdellovibrio cell. We further identify a novel small RNA encoded by the hit locus, the transcription of which is altered in different bd0108 mutation backgrounds.
Positioning children with special educational needs in early childhood education and care documents

Abstract The article critically discusses the practice of describing children’s special educational needs (SEN) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) pedagogical documents. Documentation is understood as a form of governance. In current practice, documentation is extensively used in educational institutions. Even when the focus of documentation should be pedagogical, the descriptions of children’s SEN commonly describe a child’s individual deficits as a source of educational problems. In this study, we used discourse analysis to investigate how professionals position children and construct their SEN in pedagogical documents. The research data consisted of 143 documents on 29 Finnish children. Three ways of positioning children with SEN were identified in the documents: as a problematic child through definitive descriptions, as a multifaceted child through contextual descriptions, and as a learning child through dynamic descriptions. The results highlight the importance of a pedagogical focus and dynamic conceptualisation of SEN in ECEC documentation.
Conveniently Pre-Tagged and Pre-Packaged: Extended Molecular Identification and Metagenomics Using Complete Metazoan Mitochondrial Genomes

Background Researchers sorely need markers and approaches for biodiversity exploration (both specimen linked and metagenomics) using the full potential of next generation sequencing technologies (NGST). Currently, most studies rely on expensive multiple tagging, PCR primer universality and/or the use of few markers, sometimes with insufficient variability. Methodology/Principal Findings We propose a novel approach for the isolation and sequencing of a universal, useful and popular marker across distant, non-model metazoans: the complete mitochondrial genome. It relies on the properties of metazoan mitogenomes for enrichment, on careful choice of the organisms to multiplex, as well as on the wide collection of accumulated mitochondrial reference datasets for post-sequencing sorting and identification instead of individual tagging. Multiple divergent organisms can be sequenced simultaneously, and their complete mitogenome obtained at a very low cost. We provide in silico testing of dataset assembly for a selected set of example datasets. Conclusions/Significance This approach generates large mitogenome datasets. These sequences are useful for phylogenetics, molecular identification and molecular ecology studies, and are compatible with all existing projects or available datasets based on mitochondrial sequences, such as the Barcode of Life project. Our method can yield sequences both from identified samples and metagenomic samples. The use of the same datasets for both kinds of studies makes for a powerful approach, especially since the datasets have a high variability even at species level, and would be a useful complement to the less variable 18S rDNA currently prevailing in metagenomic studies.
[Family environment and child's cognitive development: an epidemiological approach].

OBJECTIVE To assess the association between quality of stimulation in the family environment and child's cognitive development considering the impact of mother's schooling on the quality of stimulation. METHODS A cross-sectional study comprising 350 children aged 17-42 months was carried out in central and peripheral areas of Salvador, Northeastern Brazil, in 1999. A socio-economic questionnaire was used, along with the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Scale (HOME Inventory), and the Bayley Scale for Infant Development. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out through linear regression at 5% level of significance. RESULTS There was a positive (beta=0.66) and statistically significant association between quality of stimulation in the family environment and child's cognitive development. Part of the effect was mediated by the mother's working circumstances and educational level. It was verified that a better quality of stimulation is provided for those who come early in the birth order in family, and live with only a few others under five years of age. This pattern of stimulation is better among children who live with their parents and whose mothers have better education, have a job and a partner involved in the family environment. CONCLUSIONS Quality of stimulation in the family environment is crucial for child's cognitive development, besides the significant role of the available resources and family dynamics. The study findings show the pertinence to cognitive development of interventions which improve the quality of the environment and the child-caregiver relationship.