Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experiments on Belief Formation in Networks

We study belief formation in social networks using a laboratory experiment. Participants in our experiment observe an imperfect private signal on the state of the world and then simultaneously and repeatedly guess the state, observing the guesses of their network neighbors in each period. Across treatments we vary the network structure and the amount of information participants have about the network. Our first result shows that information about the network structure matters and in particular affects the share of correct guesses in the network. This is inconsistent with the widely used naive (deGroot) model. The naive model is, however, consistent with a larger share of individual decisions than the competing Bayesian model, whereas both models correctly predict only about 25%–30% of consensus beliefs. We then estimate a larger class of models and find that participants do indeed take network structure into account when updating beliefs. In particular they discount information from neighbors if it is correlated, but in a more rudimentary way than a Bayesian learner would.
Analytic Eigensystems for Isotropic Distortion Energies

Many strategies exist for optimizing non-linear distortion energies in geometry and physics applications, but devising an approach that achieves the convergence promised by Newton-type methods remains challenging. In order to guarantee the positive semi-definiteness required by these methods, a numerical eigendecomposition or approximate regularization is usually needed. In this article, we present analytic expressions for the eigensystems at each quadrature point of a wide range of isotropic distortion energies. These systems can then be used to project energy Hessians to positive semi-definiteness analytically. Unlike previous attempts, our formulation provides compact expressions that are valid both in 2D and 3D, and does not introduce spurious degeneracies. At its core, our approach utilizes the invariants of the stretch tensor that arises from the polar decomposition of the deformation gradient. We provide closed-form expressions for the eigensystems for all these invariants, and use them to systematically derive the eigensystems of any isotropic energy. Our results are suitable for geometry optimization over flat surfaces or volumes, and agnostic to both the choice of discretization and basis function. To demonstrate the efficiency of our approach, we include comparisons against existing methods on common graphics tasks such as surface parameterization and volume deformation.
Dispersal of the Suwannee River plume over the West Florida shelf: Simulation and observation of the optical and biochemical consequences of a flushing event

We have combined a circulation model with one of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) photolysis to describe the fate of terrestrial CDOM on the West Florida shelf (WFS). Our results for summer 1998 suggest that a near shore plume of CDOM became entrained in a coastal jet extending south from the Suwannee River (Big Bend) region of the WFS towards the Florida Keys—a feature also evident in satellite ocean color imagery. The coupled models suggest that photochemical losses of CDOM were significant, but provided only a minimal nitrogen source for phytoplankton growth on the WFS.
The impact of neurological disorders on hospital admissions for children and young people: a routine health data study

Abstract Introduction Neurological conditions are a major and increasing cause of hospitalisation among children and young people, but little is known about the impact of neurological conditions on hospital services in England, nor the factors that influence length of stay and bed days per year. Objectives To quantify the hospital usage in children and young people related to neurological conditions, trends over time and variation by ethnicity and deprivation status. Methods An ICD10 coding framework identified a cohort of individuals aged 0-19 years with neurological conditions from linked routinely collected healthcare data from England (The Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care dataset), from 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2015. Linked outpatient and accident and emergency data were used to supplement missing demographic data. Length of stay and bed days per year per person were calculated. These were separately modelled using random intercept multivariable negative binomial regressions with gender, age, ethnic group, diagnostic group, region of residence and deprivation category as predictors. Results 524,442 individuals were identified over the study period, increasing from 49,928 in 2003/04 to 102,840 in 2014/15. Neurological conditions account for 8.8% of inpatient bed days in the 0-14 year old age group. Length of stay and bed days per year vary primarily by age group – e.g. Under 1 year olds had 1.85 times (95%CI 1.83-1.86%) longer stays and over double (2.36 times, 95%CI 2.34-2.37 times) the number of bed days per person per year compared to 5 to 9 year olds – and main diagnostic group, with smaller variations by ethnic group, deprivation and region. Conclusions Neurological conditions in children and young people have a significant and increasing impact on the NHS in England. Falls in length of stay and bed days per person are more than offset by increasing numbers of children and young people with neurological diagnoses. Variations in length of stay and bed days per year by diagnostic group, ethnic group, age group, deprivation category and region should be taken into account in resource planning
A volume-based hydrodynamic approach to sound wave propagation in a monatomic gas

We investigate sound wave propagation in a monatomic gas using a volume-based hydrodynamic model. In Dadzie et al. [Physica A 387, 6079 (2008)], a microscopic volume-based kinetic approach was proposed by analyzing molecular spatial distributions; this led to a set of hydrodynamic equations incorporating a mass-density diffusion component. Here we find that these new mass-density diffusive flux and volume terms mean that our hydrodynamic model, uniquely, reproduces sound wave phase speed and damping measurements with excellent agreement over the full range of Knudsen number. In the high Knudsen number (high frequency) regime, our volume-based model predictions agree with the plane standing waves observed in the experiments, which existing kinetic and continuum models have great difficulty in capturing. In that regime, our results indicate that the “sound waves” presumed in the experiments may be better thought of as “mass-density waves,” rather than pressure waves.
The Incisive Canal: A Comprehensive Review

The incisive canal, also known as the nasopalatine canal, is an interosseous conduit through the anterior maxilla connecting the oral and nasal cavities. Within this canal lies the nasopalatine nerve and the vascular anastomosis between the greater palatine and sphenopalatine arteries. The embryology of the canal has led to interesting theories explaining its function. Efforts have been made to describe the morphometrics of the incisive canal by radiologic evaluation across sex and ethnicities. This paper aims to review the current literature on the embryology, anatomy, and clinical relevance of the incisive canal.
Caribou distribution during the post-calving period in relation to infrastructure in the Prudhoe Bay oil field, Alaska

There is concern that caribou ( Rangifer tarandus ) may avoid roads and facilities (i.e. infrastructure) in the Prudhoe Bay oil field (PBOF) in northern Alaska, and that this avoidance can have negative effects on the animals. We quantified the relationship between caribou distribution and PBOF infrastructure during the post-calving period (mid-June to mid-August) with aerial surveys from 1990 to 1995. We conducted four to eight surveys per year with complete coverage of the PBOF. We identified active oil field infrastructure and used a geographic information system (GIS) to construct ten 1 km wide concentric intervals surrounding the infrastructure. We tested whether caribou distribution is related to distance from infrastructure with a chi-squared habitat utilization-availability analysis and log-linear regression. We considered bull, calves, and total caribou of all sex/age classes separately. The habitat utilization-availability analysis indicated there was no consistent trend of attraction to or avoidance of infrastructure. Caribou frequently were more abundant than expected in the intervals close to infrastructure, and this trend was more pronounced for bulls and for total caribou of all sex/age classes than for calves. Log-linear regression (with Poisson error structure) of numbers of caribou and distance from infrastructure were also done, with and without combining data into the 1 km distance intervals. The analysis without intervals revealed no relationship between caribou distribution and distance from oil field infrastructure, or between caribou distribution and Julian date, year, or distance from the Beaufort Sea coast. The log-linear regression with caribou combined into distance intervals showed the density of bulls and total caribou of all sex/age classes declined with distance from infrastructure. Our results indicate that during the post-calving period: 1) caribou distribution is largely unrelated to distance from infrastructure; 2) caribou regularly use habitats in the PBOF; 3) caribou often occur close to infrastructure; and 4) caribou do not appear to avoid oil field infrastructure. Key words: caribou, Rangifer tarandus , caribou distribution, oil field infrastructure, petroleum development
First service influencing factors for pregnancy rate in dairy cows of Bangladesh

The study was carried out to investigate the pregnancy rate of dairy cattle at first artificial insemination (AI). In this study, we considered breed, age parity, body condition, cow in milk or dry, feeding category and open period as a probable influencing factor for pregnancy. Depending on the relative quantitative contribution of these factors on fertility, some suggestions regarding fertility improvement of cow in the AI services were implied. The fertility data on a total of 450 cows were exploited in the experiment to investigate the effect of breed, age parity, body condition, cow in milk or dry, feeding category and open period. Statistical analysis of the results indicated that pregnancy rate was greatly affected by (P<0.05) age significantly (P<0.01) affected by feeding parity, body weight and milking. However, no other factors exerted significant effect on cow pregnancy rate. The results of the present study suggested that among factors, feeding sufficient amount of green grass, age, body weight to be manipulated in order to achieve desired pregnancy rate. Moreover, farmers alertness regarding the insemination of heifer (parity-0) must well be taken care of in order to realize desired pregnancy rate.
Gerotranscendence, personality, and social support among unmarried older adults

Unmarried older adults, or those identifying as widowed, divorced, or never married, may experience developmental challenges related to singlehood as they grow older. A developmental outcome of increasing importance is Tornstam’s gerotranscendence, which is related to psychological well-being. However, there have been challenges in investigating gerotranscendence due to psychometric inconsistencies across cultures using the gerotranscendence scale, which has made it difficult to understand how gerotranscendence relates to individual and social resources, particularly within unmarried older adults. Thus, the purpose of the present study is first, to establish a valid and reliable gerotranscendence factor structure, and second, to investigate the role of individual and social resources on gerotranscendence in unmarried older adults. Data from 227 participants in the Iowa Unmarried Survivors Study were utilized, consisting of widowed (n = 93), divorced (n = 69), and never married (n = 65) older adults. The sample was 71% female, 92% Caucasian, and nearly 88% had at least a high school degree. First, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were completed to establish a valid and reliable 7-item factor structure. Second, structural equation models were used to understand the role of marital status, personality, and social provisions in gerotranscendence. Findings demonstrated that neuroticism was connected to lower gerotranscendence, openness and conscientiousness were associated with greater gerotranscendence, and social provisions mediated the relationship between neuroticism and gerotranscendence, as well as extraversion and gerotranscendence. Agreeableness was not associated with gerotranscendence and there were no marital, gender, or age mean group differences gerotranscendence. Taken together, the modified gerotranscendence scale is a valid and reliable assessment for unmarried older adults. Personality and social provisions were related
Statistical Analysis of Factors Affecting Poverty Status of Rural Residence

Poverty is one of the serious problem affect the life of peoples in third world countries. Identifying major factors affecting poverty status of a society is important to decide what action should be taken to alleviate the poverty. The aim of this paper is to assess the factors that affect the poverty status of rural Residence in the study area. A cross-sectional study was conducted in five districts of Gamo Gofa zone, Southern Regional State of Ethiopia. From a total of households in these areas, 4092 were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Data were collected with a well designed questionnaire. If the welfare of a household is below the poverty line, the household is categorized as under poverty and if it is above poverty line, then the household is above poverty. Binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the data using the SPSS software. Several risk factors were found to be significant at the level of 5%. Saving culture, access to credit, resource base, land fertility, use of agricultural inputs, use of improved tools, availability of rain, land topography, labor availability and dependency attitude have significant association with the poverty status of a households. Governments and Non-Governmental organization should be aware of the consequences of these factors which can influence the household income and future poverty status.
Observations on the Utility of the Semi-directive Interview for Documenting Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) offers ecological information and insight relevant to ecological management and research that cannot be obtained from other sources. Its use is hindered by difficulties of access, in that TEK is typically not available to a wide audience. Documentation can overcome this obstacle, allowing TEK to be considered with other forms of easily disseminated information. This paper describes the author's experience using the semi-directive interview to document TEK about beluga whales in Alaska. This method allows the participants as well as the researcher to guide the interview, so that associations made by the participant, and not just those anticipated by the researcher, are discussed. Using maps as the starting point for discussions with individuals or groups, the interviews covered expected topics, such as migration and feeding behavior, as well as unanticipated topics, such as the possible influence of beavers on beluga distribution. The primary research session was followed a year later by a review session to verify the accuracy of the draft report, add missing information, or remove information the publication of which might harm community interests. The author found the semi-directive interview to be an effective and powerful method for accurate and comprehensive documentation of TEK. It worked especially well in group interviews, which allowed participants to stimulate and validate each other.
Contra: A Programmable System for Performance-aware Routing

We present Contra, a system for performance-aware routing that can adapt to traffic changes at hardware speeds. While existing work has developed point solutions for performance-aware routing on a fixed topology (e.g., a Fattree) with a fixed routing policy (e.g., use least utilized paths), Contra can be configured to operate seamlessly over any network topology and a wide variety of sophisticated routing policies. Users of Contra write network-wide policies that rank network paths given their current performance. A compiler then analyzes such policies in conjunction with the network topology and decomposes them into switch-local P4 programs, which collectively implement a new, specialized distance-vector protocol. This protocol generates compact probes that traverse the network, gathering path metrics to optimize for the user policy dynamically. Switches respond to changing network conditions at hardware speeds by routing flowlets along the best policy-compliant paths. Our experiments show that Contra scales to large networks, and that in terms of flow completion times, it is competitive with hand-crafted systems that have been customized for specific topologies and policies.
CNVs Associated with Susceptibility to Cancers: A Mini-Review

Copy number variations (CNVs) that are frequent in genome influence on susceptibility of various diseases including cancers. The present mini-review focuses on CNVs associated with susceptibility to the cancers. Since CNVs are different between cancer types, the analysis of the specific CNV makes it possible to estimate the susceptibility to the cancers of interest in individuals. Although it is true that available data on CNVs associated with cancer susceptibility are limited at present, accumulation of the data is accelerated with the research progression of CNVs in near future. Information on CNVs associated with cancer susceptibility is useful for not only cancer research but also personalized healthcare including cancer prevention.
Comparison of Different Loop Bioreactors Based on Hydrodynamic Characteristics, Mass Transfer, Energy Consumption and Biomass Production from Natural Gas

The performance of a forced-liquid Vertical Tubular Loop Bioreactor (VTLB), a forced-liquid Horizontal Tubular Loop Bioreactor (HTLB) and a gas-induced External Airlift Loop Bioreactor (EALB) were compared for production of biomass from natural gas. Hydrodynamic characteristics and mass transfer coefficients were determined as functions of design parameters, physical properties of gases as well as operational parameters. Moreover, energy consumption for different gas and liquid flow rates was studied. In the EALB, kinematic viscosity (υg) showed its significant role on mixing time, gas hold-up and kLa and the diffusion coefficient of gas in water (Dg) had a remarkable effect on kLa. It was observed from experimental results that the performance of the VTLB was the best for biomass production. Furthermore, the volumetric mass transfer coefficients for air and methane were determined at different geometrical and operational factors. New correlations for mixing time, gas hold-up and kLa were obtained and expressed separately. Also, the different ratios of methane and air were measured and compared for optimum growth in the VTLB, HTLB and EALB.
Cigarette smoking patterns in relation to religiosity and familial support among Iranian university students: A Latent Class Analysis

INTRODUCTION Entering University is an important developmental milestone that might be associated with cigarette smoking. The aim of this study was to identify the subgroups of university students on the basis of cigarette smoking patterns, and to assess the role of familial support and religious beliefs on membership in specific subgroups. METHODS This cross-sectional study was performed in 2016 using multistage random sampling among students of Bushehr University (n=977). Anonymous, structured questionnaires were distributed to the students in each selected class. Cigarette smoking prevalence was assessed in three time intervals: lifetime, last year, and last month. All of the analyses were performed using PROC LCA in the SAS software. RESULTS The lifetime, last-year and last-month prevalence of cigarette smoking was 13.7%, 10.0% and 7.0%, respectively. In this study, the prevalence of passive smoking was relatively high (15.3%) among students. Four latent classes were identified: 1) non-smoker 58.2%, 2) passive smoker 31.3%, 3) moderate smoker 3.4%, and 4) heavy smoker 7.1%. The prevalence of cigarette smoking of close friends was: 73% among passive smokers, 81% for heavy smokers and 63% for moderate smokers. Being male (OR=4.42, 95% CI; 2.90–6.74) and a higher score of religious beliefs (OR=0.97, p<0.001 95% CI; 0.96–0.98) were associated with the heavy smoker class. CONCLUSIONS Among students at Bushehr University in Iran, 10.5% were either moderate or heavy smokers in 2016. These results point out the critical importance of designing specific preventive interventional programs for university students. Higher level of religiosity may serve as a preventive factor in engaging in cigarette smoking.
Mixture of Convolutional Neural Networks for Image Classification

Two of the main issues that need to be considered when dealing with Mixture of Experts (ME) are how to partition the training data between the experts (partitioning method) and how to combine their output together (gating method). In a comprehensive series of experiments, we compared between many gating methods for mixture of convolutional neural networks to improve image classification. The methods we compared are known gating methods, and to a few of them we added some modifications. The results were mostly inconclusive, but they gave us insights on the complexity of ME. The following chapter introduces innovative approach for the partitioning phase. Specifically, it presents novel partitioning methods, where the labels are being partitioned instead of the images, in order to improve generalization of the experts. Finally, we explore the difficulties in creating a good partition for ME, such as balance-accuracy trade-off. The suggested architectures are inspiring and should be further investigated for other clustering purposes.