Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pharmacological analysis of 50 kHz vocalizations in the male rat

The production of 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations in rats has been associated with both positive social interactions and appetitive behavioural situations. Furthermore, there is significant evidence showing that these vocalizations are controlled by the meso-limbic dopamine system. The purpose of this study was to perform a pharmacological analysis of 50 kHz calls by using dopamine and two dopamine agonists amphetamine and apomorphine, to induce calls. The acoustic parameters of the different call types were compared across each agonist. All three agonists were able to significantly induce more 50 kHz vocalizations compared to the vehicle control. Furthermore, calls elicited by apomorphine had a significantly higher bandwidth compared to those elicited by dopamine and amphetamine. All three agonists also had significantly different pharmacokinetic properties. These observations suggest that the D2 receptor sub-type is involved in the length of call bandwidths. PHARMACOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF 50 KHZ CALLS iii
A Distribution-Index-Based Discretizer for Decision-Making with Symbolic AI Approaches

When symbolic AI approaches are applied to handle continuous valued attributes, there is a requirement to transform the continuous attribute values to symbolic data. In this paper, a novel distribution-index-based discretizer is proposed for such a transformation. Based on definitions of dichotomic entropy and a compound distributional index, a simple criterion is applied to discretize continuous attributes adaptively. The dichotomic entropy indicates the homogeneity degree of the decision value distribution, and is applied to determine the best splitting point. The compound distributional index combines both the homogeneity degrees of attribute value distributions and the decision value distribution, and is applied to determine which interval should be split further; thus, a potentially improved solution of the discretization problem can be found efficiently. Based on multiple reducts in rough set theory, a multiknowledge approach can attain high decision accuracy for information systems with a large number of attributes and missing values. In this paper, our discretizer is combined with the multiknowledge approach to further improve decision accuracy for information systems with continuous attributes. Experimental results on benchmark data sets show that the new discretizer can improve not only the multiknowledge approach, but also the naive Bayes classifier and the C5.0 tree
Comment on `Cosmological Topological Massive Gravitons and Photons'

In a recent paper (arXiv: 0801.4566) it was shown that all global energy eigenstates of asymptotically $AdS_3$ chiral gravity have non-negative energy at the linearized level. This result was questioned (arXiv: 0803.3998) by Carlip, Deser, Waldron and Wise (CDWW), who work on the Poincare patch. They exhibit a linearized solution of chiral gravity and claim that it has negative energy and is smooth at the boundary. We show that the solution of CDWW is smooth only on that part of the boundary of $AdS_3$ included in the Poincare patch. Extended to global $AdS_3$, it is divergent at the boundary point not included in the Poincare patch. Hence it is consistent with the results of (arXiv: 0801.4566).
Model Compression by Entropy Penalized Reparameterization

We describe an end-to-end neural network weight compression approach that draws inspiration from recent latent-variable data compression methods. The network parameters (weights and biases) are represented in a "latent" space, amounting to a reparameterization. This space is equipped with a learned probability model, which is used to impose an entropy penalty on the parameter representation during training, and to compress the representation using arithmetic coding after training. We are thus maximizing accuracy and model compressibility jointly, in an end-to-end fashion, with the rate--error trade-off specified by a hyperparameter. We evaluate our method by compressing six distinct model architectures on the MNIST, CIFAR-10 and ImageNet classification benchmarks. Our method achieves state-of-the-art compression on VGG-16, LeNet300-100 and several ResNet architectures, and is competitive on LeNet-5.
Ouabain Contributes to Kidney Damage in a Rat Model of Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Warm renal ischemia performed during partial nephrectomy has been found to be associated with kidney disease. Since endogenous ouabain (EO) is a neuro-endocrine hormone involved in renal damage, we evaluated the role of EO in renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). We measured plasma and renal EO variations and markers of glomerular and tubular damage (nephrin, KIM-1, Kidney-Injury-Molecule-1, α1 Na-K ATPase) and the protective effect of the ouabain inhibitor, rostafuroxin. We studied five groups of rats: (1) normal; (2) infused for eight weeks with ouabain (30 µg/kg/day, OHR) or (3) saline; (4) ouabain; or (5) saline-infused rats orally treated with 100 µg/kg/day rostafuroxin for four weeks. In group 1, 2–3 h after IRI, EO increased in ischemic kidneys while decreased in plasma. Nephrin progressively decreased and KIM-1 mRNA increased starting from 24 h. Ouabain infusion (group 2) increased blood pressure (from 111.7 to 153.4 mmHg) and ouabain levels in plasma and kidneys. In OHR ischemic kidneys at 120 h from IRI, nephrin, and KIM-1 changes were greater than those detected in the controls infused with saline (group 3). All these changes were blunted by rostafuroxin treatment (groups 4 and 5). These findings support the role of EO in IRI and suggest that rostafuroxin pre-treatment of patients before partial nephrectomy with warm ischemia may reduce IRI, particularly in those with high EO.
Experimental evaluation of 40 Gb/s NRZ-DQPSK data amplification using a semiconductor optical amplifier

DQPSK modulation has become particularly attractive in high-speed optical communications because of its resistance to fiber nonlinearities and its more efficient use of fiber bandwidth. We experimentally study the amplification of 40 Gbit/s (20 Gbaud) NRZ-DQPSK data by a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The Q factors before and after amplification are measured. A bulk SOA with 21 dB gain and 10 dBm output saturation power is used. The Q factor of the demodulated data after amplification ranges from 5 to 7 with a maximum penalty of 0.7 dB compared to the back-to-back measurements.
Age Differences in Processes Underlying Hindsight Bias: A Life-Span Study

ABSTRACT Hindsight bias is the tendency to overestimate one’s prior knowledge of a fact or event after learning the actual fact. Recent research has suggested that age-related differences in hindsight bias may be based on age-related differences in inhibitory control. We tested whether this explanation held for 3 cognitive processes assumed to underlie hindsight bias: recollection bias, reconstruction bias, and the tendency to adopt newly acquired knowledge as old. We performed a typical hindsight-bias study with 9-year-olds, 12-year-olds, young adults, and older adults. Participants first gave numerical judgments to difficult almanac questions. They later received the correct judgments for some of the questions while trying to recall their own earlier judgments. To experimentally test the impact of inhibitory control, the correct judgment was presented either in a weak or in a strong manner that was difficult to ignore. Hindsight bias was larger in the strong condition than in the weak condition and followed a U-shaped life-span pattern with young adults showing the least hindsight bias in line with an inhibitory-control explanation. Yet, the mixture of underlying processes differed considerably between age groups, so inhibitory control did not suffice as a sole explanation of age differences.
Improved Chinese--English SMT with Chinese “DE” Construction Classification and Reordering

Syntactic reordering on the source side has been demonstrated to be helpful and effective for handling different word orders between source and target languages in SMT. In this article, we focus on the Chinese (DE) construction which is flexible and ubiquitous in Chinese and has many different ways to be translated into English so that it is a major source of word order differences in terms of translation quality. This article carries out the Chinese “DE” construction study for Chinese--English SMT in which we propose a new classifier model---discriminative latent variable model (DPLVM)---with new features to improve the classification accuracy and indirectly improve the translation quality compared to a log-linear classifier. The DE classifier is used to recognize DE structures in both training and test sentences of Chinese, and then perform word reordering to make the Chinese sentences better match the word order of English. In order to investigate the impact of the DE classification and reordering in the source side on different types of SMT systems (namely PB-SMT, hierarchical PB-SMT (HPB-SMT) as well as the syntax-based SMT (SAMT)), we conduct a series of experiments on NIST 2005 and 2008 test sets to verify the effectiveness of our proposed model. The experimental results show that the MT systems using the data reordered by our proposed model outperform the baseline systems by 3.01% and 4.03% relative points on the NIST 2005 test set, 4.64% and 4.62% relative points on the NIST 2008 test set in terms of BLEU score for PB-SMT and HPB-SMT respectively. However, the DE classification method does not perform significantly well for SAMT. Additionally, we also conducted some experiments to evaluate our DE classification and reordering approach on the word alignment and phrase table in terms of these three types of SMT systems.
A Long-term Follow-up Study on the Engraftment of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Sheep

Xenograft models of human hematopoiesis are essential to the study of the engraftment and proliferative potential of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in vivo. Immunodeficient mice and fetal sheep are often used as xenogeneic recipients because they are immunologically naive. In this study, we transplanted human HSCs into fetal sheep and assessed the long-term engraftment of transplanted human HSCs after birth. Fourteen sheep were used in this study. In 4 fetal sheep, HSCs were transduced with homeo-box B4 (HOXB4) gene before transplantation, which promoted the expansion of HSCs. Another 4 fetal sheep were subjected to non-myeloablative conditioning with busulfan. Seven of these 8 sheep showed successful engraftment of human HSCs (1–3% of colony-forming units) as assessed after the birth of fetal sheep (5 months post-transplantation), although HOXB4-transduced HSCs showed sustained engraftment for up to 40 months. Intact HSCs were transplanted into six non-conditioned fetal sheep, and human colony-forming units were not detected in the sheep after birth. These results suggest that, as compared with mouse models, where the short lifespan of mice limits long-term follow-up of HSC engraftment, the fetal sheep model provides a unique perspective for evaluating long-term engraftment and proliferation of human HSCs.
Immunization with vaccinia virus induces polyfunctional and phenotypically distinctive CD8+ T cell responses

Vaccinia virus immunization provides lifelong protection against smallpox, but the mechanisms of this exquisite protection are unknown. We used polychromatic flow cytometry to characterize the functional and phenotypic profile of CD8+ T cells induced by vaccinia virus immunization in a comparative vaccine trial of modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) versus Dryvax immunization in which protection was assessed against subsequent Dryvax challenge. Vaccinia virus–specific CD8+ T cells induced by both MVA and Dryvax were highly polyfunctional; they degranulated and produced interferon γ, interleukin 2, macrophage inflammatory protein 1β, and tumor necrosis factor α after antigenic stimulation. Responding CD8+ T cells exhibited an unusual phenotype (CD45RO−CD27intermediate). The unique phenotype and high degree of polyfunctionality induced by vaccinia virus also extended to inserted HIV gene products of recombinant NYVAC. This quality of the CD8+ T cell response may be at least partially responsible for the profound efficacy of these vaccines in protection against smallpox and serves as a benchmark against which other vaccines can be evaluated.
Overlapping Communities Detection via Measure Space Embedding

We present a new algorithm for community detection. The algorithm uses random walks to embed the graph in a space of measures, after which a modification of $k$-means in that space is applied. The algorithm is therefore fast and easily parallelizable. We evaluate the algorithm on standard random graph benchmarks, including some overlapping community benchmarks, and find its performance to be better or at least as good as previously known algorithms. We also prove a linear time (in number of edges) guarantee for the algorithm on a $p,q$-stochastic block model with $p \geq c\cdot N^{-\frac{1}{2} + \epsilon}$ and $p-q \geq c' \sqrt{p N^{-\frac{1}{2} + \epsilon} \log N}$.
Membrane biofilm development improves COD removal in anaerobic membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment

Membrane biofilm development was evaluated to improve psychrophilic (15°C) anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) treatment of domestic wastewater. An AnMBR containing three replicate submerged membrane housings with separate permeate collection was operated at three levels of membrane fouling by independently controlling biogas sparging for each membrane unit. High membrane fouling significantly improved permeate quality, but resulted in dissolved methane in the permeate at a concentration two to three times the equilibrium concentration predicted by Henry's law. Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA targeting Bacteria and Archaea and reverse transcription‐quantitative polymerase chain reaction targeting the methyl coenzyme‐M reductase (mcrA) gene in methanogens indicated that the membrane biofilm was enriched in highly active methanogens and syntrophic bacteria. Restoring fouled membranes to a transmembrane pressure (TMP) near zero by increasing biogas sparging did not disrupt the biofilm's treatment performance, suggesting that microbes in the foulant layer were tightly adhered and did not significantly contribute to TMP. Dissolved methane oversaturation persisted without high TMP, implying that methanogenesis in the biofilm, rather than high TMP, was the primary driving force in methane oversaturation. The results describe an attractive operational strategy to improve treatment performance in low‐temperature AnMBR by supporting syntrophy and methanogenesis in the membrane biofilm through controlled membrane fouling.
On Q-conic bundles, III

A Q-conic bundle germ is a proper morphism from a threefold with only terminal singularities to the germ $(Z \ni o)$ of a normal surface such that fibers are connected and the anti-canonical divisor is relatively ample. Building upon our previous paper [math/0603736], we prove the existence of a Du Val anti-canonical member under the assumption that the central fiber is irreducible.
Early Childhood Educators’ Perception of Their Role in Children’s Physical Activity: Do We Need to Clarify Expectations?

ABSTRACT Early childhood educators are key players in shaping young children’s active behavior. However, their involvement in children’s physical activity (PA) may vary along a continuum, ranging from active participation to distant supervision. This qualitative study sought to explore how childcare directors and early childhood educators (ECEs) perceive early childhood educators’ role in children’s PA. Data collection included 12 semistructured interviews (nine ECEs and three directors) that focused on three aspects defining the role: the expected role, the role played, and the desired role. The thematic analysis revealed that ECEs value PA but understand their role as professionals in varying ways due to unknown expectations. They identified their planning and motivation as solutions to promote PA; yet professional freedom hinders change in practices. Overall, discrepancies exist between the expected, played, and desired roles. Results are discussed from an ecological perspective and suggest improving communication between ECEs, parents, and directors to increase children’s PA levels and strengthen ties between the homes and childcare centers.
A novel LMI approach to global impulsive exponential synchronization of chaotic delayed neural networks

In this paper, the exponential synchronization problem of a class of chaotic delayed neural networks (DNNs) via impulsive control method is studied. Based on the theory of impulsive functional differential equations (FDEs), some new synchronization criteria expressed in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are derived. The designed impulsive controller not only can globally exponentially stabilize the error dynamics, but also can control the exponential synchronization rate of the error dynamics. Furthermore, to estimate the stable region, a novel optimization control algorithm is developed, which can deal with the minimum problem with two nonlinear terms coexisting in LMIs effectively. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Class imbalances versus small disjuncts

It is often assumed that class imbalances are responsible for significant losses of performance in standard classifiers. The purpose of this paper is to the question whether class imbalances are truly responsible for this degradation or whether it can be explained in some other way. Our experiments suggest that the problem is not directly caused by class imbalances, but rather, that class imbalances may yield small disjuncts which, in turn, will cause degradation. We argue that, in order to improve classifier performance, it may, then, be more useful to focus on the small disjuncts problem than it is to focus on the class imbalance problem. We experiment with a method that takes the small disjunct problem into consideration, and show that, indeed, it yields a performance superior to the performance obtained using standard or advanced solutions to the class imbalance problem.
Clusters of Internally Primed Transcripts Reveal Novel Long Noncoding RNAs

Non-protein-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are increasingly being recognized as having important regulatory roles. Although much recent attention has focused on tiny 22- to 25-nucleotide microRNAs, several functional ncRNAs are orders of magnitude larger in size. Examples of such macro ncRNAs include Xist and Air, which in mouse are 18 and 108 kilobases (Kb), respectively. We surveyed the 102,801 FANTOM3 mouse cDNA clones and found that Air and Xist were present not as single, full-length transcripts but as a cluster of multiple, shorter cDNAs, which were unspliced, had little coding potential, and were most likely primed from internal adenine-rich regions within longer parental transcripts. We therefore conducted a genome-wide search for regional clusters of such cDNAs to find novel macro ncRNA candidates. Sixty-six regions were identified, each of which mapped outside known protein-coding loci and which had a mean length of 92 Kb. We detected several known long ncRNAs within these regions, supporting the basic rationale of our approach. In silico analysis showed that many regions had evidence of imprinting and/or antisense transcription. These regions were significantly associated with microRNAs and transcripts from the central nervous system. We selected eight novel regions for experimental validation by northern blot and RT-PCR and found that the majority represent previously unrecognized noncoding transcripts that are at least 10 Kb in size and predominantly localized in the nucleus. Taken together, the data not only identify multiple new ncRNAs but also suggest the existence of many more macro ncRNAs like Xist and Air.
Four Decades of Obesity Trends among Non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks in the United States: Analyzing the Influences of Educational Inequalities in Obesity and Population Improvements in Education

Both obesity (body mass index ≥ 30) and educational attainment have increased dramatically in the United States since the 1970s. This study analyzed the influences of educational inequalities in obesity and population improvements in education on national obesity trends between 1970 and 2010. For non-Hispanic white and black males and females aged 25–74 years, educational differences in the probability of being obese were estimated from the 1971–2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, and population distributions of age and educational groups, from the 1970 Census and 2010 American Community Survey. In the total population, obesity increased from 15.7% to 38.8%, and there were increases in the greater obese probabilities of non-college graduates relative to four-year college graduates. The increase in obesity would have been lower by 10% (2.2 percentage points) if educational inequalities in obesity had stayed at their 1970 values and lower by one third (7.9 points) if obesity inequalities had been eliminated. Obesity inequalities were larger for females than males and for whites than blacks, and obesity did not differ by education among black males. As a result, the impact of obesity inequalities on the obesity trend was largest among white females (a 47% reduction in the obesity increase if obesity inequalities had been eliminated), and virtually zero among black males. On the other hand, without educational improvements, the obesity increase would have been 9% more in the total population, 23% more among white females and not different in the other three subpopulations. Results indicate that obesity inequalities made sizable contributions to the obesity trends, and the obesity reductions associated with educational improvements were more limited.
One Epoch Is All You Need

In unsupervised learning, collecting more data is not always a costly process unlike the training. For example, it is not hard to enlarge the 40GB WebText used for training GPT-2 by modifying its sampling methodology considering how many webpages there are in the Internet. On the other hand, given that training on this dataset already costs tens of thousands of dollars, training on a larger dataset naively is not cost-wise feasible. In this paper, we suggest to train on a larger dataset for only one epoch unlike the current practice, in which the unsupervised models are trained for from tens to hundreds of epochs. Furthermore, we suggest to adjust the model size and the number of iterations to be performed appropriately. We show that the performance of Transformer language model becomes dramatically improved in this way, especially if the original number of epochs is greater. For example, by replacing the training for 10 epochs with the one epoch training, this translates to 1.9-3.3x speedup in wall-clock time in our settings and more if the original number of epochs is greater. Under one epoch training, no overfitting occurs, and regularization method does nothing but slows down the training. Also, the curve of test loss over iterations follows power-law extensively. We compare the wall-clock time of the training of models with different parameter budget under one epoch training, and we show that size/iteration adjustment based on our proposed heuristics leads to 1-2.7x speedup in our cases. With the two methods combined, we achieve 3.3-5.1x speedup. Finally, we speculate various implications of one epoch training and size/iteration adjustment. In particular, based on our analysis we believe that we can reduce the cost to train the state-of-the-art models as BERT and GPT-2 dramatically, maybe even by the factor of 10.