Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variational Inference for Data-Efficient Model Learning in POMDPs

Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) are a powerful abstraction for tasks that require decision making under uncertainty, and capture a wide range of real world tasks. Today, effective planning approaches exist that generate effective strategies given black-box models of a POMDP task. Yet, an open question is how to acquire accurate models for complex domains. In this paper we propose DELIP, an approach to model learning for POMDPs that utilizes amortized structured variational inference. We empirically show that our model leads to effective control strategies when coupled with state-of-the-art planners. Intuitively, model-based approaches should be particularly beneficial in environments with changing reward structures, or where rewards are initially unknown. Our experiments confirm that DELIP is particularly effective in this setting.
Experimental Measurements of Octanol-Water Partition Coefficients of Ionic Liquids

Interest in ionic liquids (ILs) has increased due to their promising use as “green solvents” because of their negligible vapor pressure. However, their solubility in water could lead to their dispersion into the environment through liquid effluents, generating an important toxicological effect in soils and seawater. One of the most relevant parameters related to the assessment of environmental risk is the octanol-water partition coefficient (Kow). With this parameter is possible to estimate some ecosystem risk factors such as bioaccumulation, sorption to soils and sediments and toxicity in fish by the usage of experimental correlations. Shake-flask and slow-stirring methods are the most currently used methods for determining the Kow of a chemical compound. The former has the disadvantage that equilibrium might not be reached quickly, while the slow-stirring method is not always suitable for ILs, since some of them may decompose after continuous contact with water. We have developed a combined version of both methods. Here, we present measurements of the Kow of twenty-four ILs at 30°C, using the three experimental methods. The types of anion and alkyl chain length of the cation are among the parameters studied. The Kow of ILs used in this study range between 0.0017 and 3.6567 at 30°C. The Kow of ILs studied is lower than in commonly used industrial solvents.
C5a Blockade Increases Regulatory T Cell Numbers and Protects Against Microvascular Loss and Epithelial Damage in Mouse Airway Allografts

Microvascular injury during acute rejection has been associated with massive infiltration of CD4+ T effector cells, and the formation of complement products (C3a and C5a). Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are potent immunosuppressors of the adaptive immune system and have proven sufficient to rescue microvascular impairments. Targeting C5a has been linked with improved microvascular recovery, but its effects on the Treg and T effector balance is less well known. Here, we demonstrate the impact of C5a blockade on Treg induction and microvascular restoration in rejecting mouse airway allografts. BALB/c→C57BL/6 allografts were treated with a C5a-neutralizing l-aptamer (10 mg/kg, i.p. at d0 and every second day thereafter), and allografts were serially monitored for Treg infiltration, tissue oxygenation (tpO2), microvascular blood flow, and functional microvasculature between donor and recipients during allograft rejection. We demonstrated that C5a blocking significantly leads to enhanced presence of Tregs in the allograft, reinstates donor–recipient functional microvasculature, improves tpO2, microvascular blood flow, and epithelial repair, followed by an upregulation of IL-5, TGF-β, IL-10 vascular endothelial growth factor, and ANGPT1 gene expression, while it maintained a healthy epithelium and prevented subepithelial collagen deposition at d28 posttransplantation. Together, these data indicate that inhibition of C5a signaling has potential to preserve microvasculature and rescue allograft from a sustained hypoxic/ischemic phase, limits airway tissue remodeling through the induction of Treg-mediated immune tolerance. These findings may be useful in designing anti-C5a therapy in combination with existing immunosuppressive regimens to rescue tissue/organ rejection.
representations and early literacy in Chinese

Phonological processing skills predict early reading development, but what underlies developing phonological processing skills? Phonological representations of 140 native Cantonese-speaking Chinese children (age 4 to 10) were assessed with speech gating, mispronunciation detection, and nonword repetition tasks; their nonverbal IQ, reading, and phonological processing were assessed with standard tests. Results indicated that even without explicit script-sound correspondence at the phonemic level in Chinese orthography, young Chinese speakers developed representations segmented at this level, and such representations were more fine-grained for older children. Further, the quality of kindergarteners’ phonological representations (specified by sensitivity to mispronunciation in lexical judgment) significantly predicted their emergent reading abilities, and this relation was fully mediated by phonological processing skills, with rapid naming showing the strongest mediation effect. Such mediation was no longer found with the primary-school sample, suggesting plausible developmental changes in the relations between phonological representations, phonological processing, and reading during early reading development.
Predictors and Prevalence of Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections Among Adult Patients in Critical Care Units -Kenyatta National Hospital

Most adult patients admitted in Critical Care Units (CCUs) have central venous catheters (CVCs). These catheters mostly remain in place for the entire period of hospitalization, hence the risk of developing Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI). The burden of CLABSI has remained high despite the introduction of CLABSI care bundles increasing the morbidity, mortality, hospital stay and cost. Most CLABSIs are caused by factors attributed to patient characteristics, clinical care and institutional factors. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and predictors of CLABSIs among critically ill adult patients at CCUs of Kenyatta National Hospital. The study applied a cross-sectional descriptive design with stratified sampling and simple random sampling for each stratum. 86critical care nurses were selected from a total of 110 nurses using Yamane formulae. Medical records of critically ill patients’ that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed for the year 2015. An interviewee administered questionnaire and observation checklist were used to collect data from the nurses, and a data collection sheet was used to collect data from the medical records on prevalence of CLABSIs and patient characteristics. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data and inferential statistics (Chi-square test, Pearsons’ correlation) was used to establish relationships between variables. Data analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. This study revealed that the prevalence of CLABSIs was 3.53%. Stepwise logistic regression revealed that, the patient predictors of CLABSIs in KNH CCUs were as follows; Neurological disorders as the underlying disease X 2 (52) =15.249; 95% CI -0.199-0.158; P=0.946, increased length of hospitalization with CVC in situ X 2 (52) =40.639; 95% CI 0.612-0.874; P 2 (52) =9.826; 95% CI 0.041-0.759; P=0.013. In addition, the nursing care related factors that predispose critically ill patients to CLABSIs in KNH CCUs were; Poor practices on hand hygiene before manipulation of infusion line which was observed in 81.8% of the CCNs, failure to remove unnecessary CVCs promptly, poor knowledge and practices on CVC maintenance and inadequate knowledge and outdated practices on changing intravenous administration system components.
Morphological and Physiological Plasticity of Spinal Lamina II GABA Neurons Is Induced by Sciatic Nerve Chronic Constriction Injury in Mice

Mice with transgenic insertion of code for enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) at the locus for glutamic acid decarboxylase 67 (GAD67), one of two key enzymes for the synthesis of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) were used to test whether the morphological properties of these neurons show plasticity with nerve injury. Physiological properties and the delivery of intracellular label to EGFP-expressing lamina II neurons was done using whole-cell patch-clamp in spinal cord slices from sham and chronic constriction injury (CCI) mice. As well, whole cell recordings were made of non-EGFP labeled cells to ascertain changes in overall inhibitory signaling following CCI. The EGFP labeled neurons in both sham and CCI mice exhibited islet, central and vertical cell morphological profiles but no radial cell profiles were observed. The length of cell dendrites was found to be significantly shorter in CCI mice for all cell profile types. The longest neurites averaged 155.96 ± 18.29 μm in CCI mice compared to 334.93 ± 29.48 μm in sham control mice. No change was observed in either passive or evoked membrane properties of EGFP-expressing neurons in CCI versus sham mice. Meanwhile, the frequency of miniature inhibitory post-synaptic currents of non-EGFP expressing spinal lamina II neurons was significantly reduced. These results suggest that reduced inhibitory output from GABA neurons occurs with nerve injury in part due to altered cell morphology.
Vertebral Malformations in French Bulldogs

The aim of this study was to detect vertebral malformations among French Bulldogs admitted between the years 2011 – 2016 due to the high popularity of the breed and the intentions to increase the breed welfare by reducing the occurrence of congenital anomalies. Besides, we aimed to look for gender predisposition, possible vertebral predisposition, occurrence of clinical symptoms and radiographic findings. A total of 73 French Bulldogs met the inclusion criteria (radiographs of the whole spine). In 67.12% (49) dogs we confirmed a vertebral anomaly and 32.88% (24) dogs were free of any vertebral anomaly. We identified a total of 67 abnormal vertebrae in 49 dogs, 13 cervical vertebrae (19.4%), 43 thoracic vertebrae (64.2%), and 11 abnormal lumbar vertebrae (16.4%). In this study, we found 44 hemivertebrae (65.7%) out of 67 abnormal vertebrae. We identified 64.4% (47/73) dogs with clinical signs (30 males, 17 females) and 36.6% (26/73) dogs without clinical signs (19 males, 7 females). Although the incidence of male dogs was higher in this study, the statistical evaluation did not confirm any predisposed gender, and we found no statistically significant predisposition for any particular abnormal vertebra.
PUF60-activated exons uncover altered 3′ splice-site selection by germline missense mutations in a single RRM

Abstract PUF60 is a splicing factor that binds uridine (U)-rich tracts and facilitates association of the U2 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein with primary transcripts. PUF60 deficiency (PD) causes a developmental delay coupled with intellectual disability and spinal, cardiac, ocular and renal defects, but PD pathogenesis is not understood. Using RNA-Seq, we identify human PUF60-regulated exons and show that PUF60 preferentially acts as their activator. PUF60-activated internal exons are enriched for Us upstream of their 3′ splice sites (3′ss), are preceded by longer AG dinucleotide exclusion zones and more distant branch sites, with a higher probability of unpaired interactions across a typical branch site location as compared to control exons. In contrast, PUF60-repressed exons show U-depletion with lower estimates of RNA single-strandedness. We also describe PUF60-regulated, alternatively spliced isoforms encoding other U-bound splicing factors, including PUF60 partners, suggesting that they are co-regulated in the cell, and identify PUF60-regulated exons derived from transposed elements. PD-associated amino-acid substitutions, even within a single RNA recognition motif (RRM), altered selection of competing 3′ss and branch points of a PUF60-dependent exon and the 3′ss choice was also influenced by alternative splicing of PUF60. Finally, we propose that differential distribution of RNA processing steps detected in cells lacking PUF60 and the PUF60-paralog RBM39 is due to the RBM39 RS domain interactions. Together, these results provide new insights into regulation of exon usage by the 3′ss organization and reveal that germline mutation heterogeneity in RRMs can enhance phenotypic variability at the level of splice-site and branch-site selection.
Data from 617 Healthy Participants Performing the Iowa Gambling Task: A “Many Labs” Collaboration

This data pool (N = 617) comes from 10 independent studies assessing performance of healthy participants (i.e., no known neurological impairments) on the Iowa gambling task (IGT)—a task measuring decision making under uncertainty in an experimental context. Participants completed a computerized version of the IGT consisting of 95 – 150 trials. The data consist of the choices of each participant on each trial, and the resulting rewards and losses. The data are stored as . rdata, . csv, and . txt files, and can be reused to (1) analyze IGT performance of healthy participants; (2) create a “super control group”; or (3) facilitate model-comparison efforts. A correction article relating to the authors of this publication can be found here: http://dx.doi. org/10.5334/jopd.am
A Tumor Profile in Primary Immune Deficiencies Challenges the Cancer Immune Surveillance Concept

Under the concept of cancer immune surveillance, individuals with primary immune deficiencies would be expected to develop many more malignancies and show an excess of all types of cancers, compared to people with a normal immune system. A review of the nine most frequent and best-documented human conditions with primary immune deficiency reveals a 1.6- to 2.3-fold global increase of cancer in the largest epidemiological studies. However, the spectrum of cancer types with higher frequencies is narrow, limited mainly to lymphoma, digestive tract cancers, and virus-induced cancers. Increased lymphoma is also reported in animal models of immune deficiency. Overstimulation of leukocytes, chronic inflammation, and viruses explain this tumor profile. This raises the question of cancers being foreign organisms or tissues. Organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites as well as non-compatible grafts are seen as foreign (non-self) and identified and destroyed or rejected by the body (self). As cancer cells rarely show strong (and unique) surface antibodies, their recognition and elimination by the immune system is theoretically questionable, challenging the immune surveillance concept. In the neonatal period, the immune system is weak, but spontaneous regression and good outcomes occur for some cancers, suggesting that non-immune factors are effective in controlling cancer. The idea of cancer as a group of cells that must be destroyed and eliminated appears instead as a legacy of methods and paradigms in microbiological medicine. As an alternative approach, cancer cells could be considered part of the body and could be controlled by an embryonic and neonatal environment.
Likelihood-free inference with emulator networks

Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) provides methods for Bayesian inference in simulation-based stochastic models which do not permit tractable likelihoods. We present a new ABC method which uses probabilistic neural emulator networks to learn synthetic likelihoods on simulated data -- both local emulators which approximate the likelihood for specific observed data, as well as global ones which are applicable to a range of data. Simulations are chosen adaptively using an acquisition function which takes into account uncertainty about either the posterior distribution of interest, or the parameters of the emulator. Our approach does not rely on user-defined rejection thresholds or distance functions. We illustrate inference with emulator networks on synthetic examples and on a biophysical neuron model, and show that emulators allow accurate and efficient inference even on high-dimensional problems which are challenging for conventional ABC approaches.
Boundary Feedback Stabilization of the Isothermal Euler Equations with Uncertain Boundary Data

In a gas transport system, the customer behavior is uncertain. Motivated by this situation, we consider a boundary stabilization problem for the flow through a gas pipeline, where the outflow at one end of the pipe that is governed by the customer's behavior is uncertain. The control action is located at the other end of the pipe. The feedback law is a classical Neumann velocity feedback with a feedback parameter $k>0$. We show that as long as the $H^1$-norm of the function that describes the noise in the customer's behavior decays exponentially with a rate that is sufficiently large, the velocity of the gas can be stabilized exponentially fast in the sense that a suitably chosen Lyapunov function decays exponentially. For the exponential stability it is sufficient that the feedback parameter $k$ is sufficiently large and the stationary state to which the system is stabilized is sufficiently small. The stability result is local, that is it holds for initial states that are sufficiently close to the stationary state. This result is an example for the exponential boundary feedback stabilization of a quasilinear hyperbolic system with uncertain boundary data. The analysis is based upon the choice of a suitably Lyapunov function. The decay of this Lyapunov function implies that also the $L^2$-norm of the difference of the system state and the stationary state decays exponentially.
Data-Efficient Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning

Hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) is a promising approach to extend traditional reinforcement learning (RL) methods to solve more complex tasks. Yet, the majority of current HRL methods require careful task-specific design and on-policy training, making them difficult to apply in real-world scenarios. In this paper, we study how we can develop HRL algorithms that are general, in that they do not make onerous additional assumptions beyond standard RL algorithms, and efficient, in the sense that they can be used with modest numbers of interaction samples, making them suitable for real-world problems such as robotic control. For generality, we develop a scheme where lower-level controllers are supervised with goals that are learned and proposed automatically by the higher-level controllers. To address efficiency, we propose to use off-policy experience for both higher- and lower-level training. This poses a considerable challenge, since changes to the lower-level behaviors change the action space for the higher-level policy, and we introduce an off-policy correction to remedy this challenge. This allows us to take advantage of recent advances in off-policy model-free RL to learn both higher and lower-level policies using substantially fewer environment interactions than on-policy algorithms. We find that our resulting HRL agent is generally applicable and highly sample-efficient. Our experiments show that our method can be used to learn highly complex behaviors for simulated robots, such as pushing objects and utilizing them to reach target locations, learning from only a few million samples, equivalent to a few days of real-time interaction. In comparisons with a number of prior HRL methods, we find that our approach substantially outperforms previous state-of-the-art techniques.
Transient Hypothy Graves ' Disease roidism in a Case of Untreated

We report the case of a 41-year-old female with untreated Graves' disease who developed transient hypothyroidism. The hypothyroid state was thought to be caused by silent thyroiditis, based on findings of a non-tender thyroid gland, suppressed thyroidal radioactive iodine uptake, normal white blood cell count and normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and ultrasonogram results. Silent thyroiditis may play a role in the development of Graves' hyperthyroidism. Results for TSH-binding inhibitor immunoglobulins (TBII), thyroid-stimulating antibodies (TSAb), anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb) and anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb) were positive before the development of hypothyroidism. Their levels were decreased during and after the hypothyroid phase. These results suggest that the same or similar mechanism(s) were involved in the production of these different antibodies during the course of her illness.
Inter-group variation in non-conceptive sexual activity in female Japanese macaques: could it be cultural?

We compared two non-conceptive sexual behavioral patterns (female-male mounting – FMM – and female-female mounting – FFM) across four free-ranging groups of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) living at three different field sites in Japan (Arashiyama, Minoo, and Jigokudani). We found marked inter-group differences and covariation in the frequency and form of FMM and FFM. This result supports the view that FMM and FFM in Japanese macaques are developmentally and evolutionarily linked. The customary occurrence, high prevalence, and great diversity of FMM and FFM at Arashiyama may be the result of combined favorable socio-demographic conditions, namely few resident males, most of them being old, sexually under-motivated, and less aggressive and controlling than the average male Japanese macaques. We suggest that FMM and FFM may be cultural sexual practices in the Arashiyama-E group. In most other populations, all the aforementioned favorable sociodemographic conditions are not met, and although female mounting may occasionally be expressed by several group members, it does not reach the group-level tradition status. Our cultural interpretation of female mounting in Japanese macaques is consistent with evidence of the social transmission of courtship behaviors and mating preferences in various animal taxa, including nonhuman primates and humans. Our study may have implications for the evolution of non-conceptive sexuality in humans, including sexual fluidity in women.
Groundwater and contaminant travel time distributions near permeable reactive barriers.

Permeable Reactive Barriers (PRBs) is a passive in-situ technology, which is based on the interception and remediation of a contaminant plume through installation of reactive material in an aquifer. Groundwater and contaminant travel times for a given location in the aquifer to or from the PRB are important parameters in PRB design and performance monitoring. The approach taken is two-dimensional in the horizontal plane and based on existing flow field solutions for a series of PRB configurations. Transport is considered purely advective with a possible retardation between groundwater and contamination. The aquifer is assumed homogeneous and a dimensionless travel time is introduced for arbitrary magnitudes of ambient groundwater flow, confined aquifer thickness and porosity as well as contaminant retardation. Travel time is expressed in a general form by an integral along curved stream lines in the physical plane and transformed into an integral along a straight stream line in the complex potential plane, where a simple numerical integration method is applied to generate maps of isochrones. Travel times are seen to be rather uniformly distributed within capture/release zones with minor effects of local low flow zones (stagnation points). Funnel-and-gate systems show a stronger lateral growth of capture/release zones at early times than other PRB types. Drain-andgate PRBs possess closed isochrones and are identified as transitional configurations between classic PRBs and pump-and-treat systems.