Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capsulenet-Based Spatial–Spectral Classifier for Hyperspectral Images

In this paper, a Capsulenet-based framework is proposed for extracting spectral and spatial features for improving hyperspectral image classification. Unlike conventional strategies, the proposed framework simultaneously optimizes both feature extraction and classification. The spectral features/patterns derived at different levels of hierarchies are remodeled as spectral-feature capsules. Consequently, unlike conventional convolutional neural network-based approaches, the relative locations as well as other properties such as depth, width, and position of the spectral patterns are taken into consideration. In addition to learning spectral features/patterns, a convolutional long short-term memory (conv-LSTM) is employed for sequentially integrating the spatial features learned from each band. The integrated spatial-feature representation, thus obtained from the final hidden state of conv-LSTM, forms spatial-feature capsules. The capsule-level integration of spatial and spectral features/patterns yields better convergence and accuracy as compared to both ensemble-based and kernel-level integrations. Along with the margin loss, a spectral-angle-based reconstruction loss is also minimized to regularize the learning of network weights. Experiments over different standard datasets indicate that the proposed approach performs better than other prominent hyperspectral classifiers. Furthermore, in comparison with the recent deep learning models, our approach is found to be less sensitive to the network parameters and achieves better accuracy even with lesser network depth.
Distributed Non-Convex Input-Constrained Consensus Problem for High-Order Discrete-Time Multi-Agent Systems Subject to Switching Topologies, and Time Delays

In this paper, a distributed consensus problem is considered for high-order discrete-time multi-agent systems subject to non-convex input constraints and switching topologies. A constrained control algorithm is provided to drive all agents to reach consensus on their position states. It proves that this algorithm is robust to the arbitrarily bounded time delays as long as the communication topologies jointly have spanning trees. Finally, we show the effectiveness of the proposed distributed algorithm by a numerical example.
Diversity, interconnectivity and sustainability.

Over recent years, studies in complex systems and their structural evolution have shown that diversity is a key aspect in explaining their functioning and their cooperative and competitive interactions. However, what has been only poorly understood has been the importance of the diversity corresponding to different levels of description of a system. The species diversity that is present in an ecosystem is actually its functional structure – with different species filling different roles in the food webs – but this is the result of the differential amplification and suppression of lower level, individual micro-diversity, generated by all kinds of genetic, developmental and environmental factors. The other important point is that an ecosystem does not really have a ‘functional’ structure because it does not have a ‘function’. Selection is purely on the basis of individual survival and not ecosystem performance. This implies that ‘diversity’ is an important feature of complex, evolutionary systems. It is both the ‘driver’ of evolution and also the outcome [1]. This involves both the ‘selective’ effects of interactions between species and the simultaneous mechanisms underlying micro-diversity that discover new ‘strategies’ or ‘niches’. In biological thinking the micro-diversity that occurs is generally considered to be ‘random’ and independent of the selection processes that follow, whereas in human innovation we like to think that there is rational intention, calculation and belief that may ‘channel’ diversity into some narrower range. But in reality, rational intention can only drive ideas that are well understood already, and so characterise the development and exploitation of existing ideas, but new ideas and radical innovations are generally emergent and unexpected, leading into new areas and concerns, changing the goals, aims and values of people and changing their view of reality. The session that took place at the Liverpool conference had a wide variety of speakers who contributed to a discussion of the role and importance of diversity within complex systems. These covered a wide variety of domains from the biological to the problems of business and industry, including organic food, shop building and a wide range of contexts where these ideas are important. The presentations involved philosophy, discourse, biology and ecology, human systems, organic farming, economics, business systems and urban development. This breadth demonstrates the fundamental importance of the concept of diversity and its role in evolutionary processes. Rather than select just two or three of the papers, we decided to provide a mixture of brief summaries of different presentations and contributions.
Preventing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections.

To the Editor: We were surprised by the results reported by Saint et al. (June 2 issue)1 regarding the lack of success of the Comprehensive Unitbased Safety Program (CUSP) in reducing urinarycatheter use and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (UTIs) in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. During a similar period, from January 2012 to December 2014, and using strategies very similar to those that the authors detail in Table 1 of their article, we were able to reduce the use of urinary catheters in our medical ICU from 92% to 20%. 2 We have been able to maintain this practice, and our catheter utilization rate remains at approximately 25%. We have had only one documented catheter-associated UTI since January 2015. Our institution is a large urban teaching hospital, and our medical ICU has 20 beds. The key component to our success is the enthusiastic collaboration by our physicians and nurses in implementing and maintaining this strategy. Culture change is difficult. We believe that more can be done to reduce catheter-associated UTIs in ICU patients.
Common Ownership and the Secular Stagnation Hypothesis

We extend the model in Azar and Vives (2018) to allow for investment and show that higher effective market concentration (augmented by common ownership) leads to lower equilibrium wages, real interest rates, lower output, lower labor share, and lower capital share as well (under a mild condition). We calibrate a multisector sector model of the US economy and find that the rise in common ownership may account for the broad evolution of labor and capital shares in the period 1985-2015 while measured increases in concentration cannot (under plausible values for elasticity parameters).
Multi-Objective Optimization of Loading Paths for Double-Layered Tube Hydroforming using Finite Element Analysis

One of the most important studies in tube hydroforming process is optimization of loading paths. The primary purpose of this research is to maximize formability by detecting the optimal forming parameters. The most significant settings in the prosperity of tube hydroforming process, are internal pressure and end axial feed (i.e., load path). In this paper, a finite element analysis was performed for a double-layered tube hydroforming process using the ABAQUS/Explicit software. Then, the finite element model has been verified with published experimental data. Using design of experiments (DOE) working with the Taguchi method, 32 loading paths are designed for optimization. All 32 loading paths are modelled using the finite element method in ABAQUS/Explicit and the magnitudes of bulge height and the total thickness of tubes at the branch tip are obtained in each loading path. The regression analysis is carried out to estimate the tubes formability and obtain objective functions that are bulge height and the total thickness of tubes at the protrusion peak as functions of loading parameters (internal pressure and axial feed). For solving the multi-objective optimization problem, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) is utilized and the optimum results were obtained from the Pareto optimal front. Finally, the optimized loading path was applied to the finite element model and better formability (3.4% increase in the bulge height) has been achieved in the results.
Effects of L1 Writing Experiences on L2 Writing Perceptions: Evidence From an English as a Foreign Language Context

Abstract The current study explored Iranian learners’ prior L1 (i.e., Farsi) experiences, their L2 (i.e., English as a foreign language) writing-related perceptions, and the effects of these writing-related L1 experiences on L2 writing-related perceptions. The data were gleaned from 15 students in a wide range of proficiencies using qualitative interviews. Analysis of data subsequently revealed that the participants negatively evaluated their L1 writing experiences, that the learners attached low importance to the skill of writing in English, and that the learners drew on their L1 experiences in forming their L2 writing perceptions. In particular, the participants believed that their L1 writing experiences were not “useful,” a perception often transferred to L2 writing contexts as well. The findings of the study highlight the importance of incorporating awareness-raising strategies (e.g., needs analysis) which can help students to grow more informed about the status of L1 and L2 writing in various contexts (e.g., academic and professional).
Methods of Extending a Generalized Sidelobe Canceller With External Microphones

While substantial noise reduction and speech enhancement can be achieved with multiple microphones organized in an array, in some cases, such as when the microphone spacings are quite close, it can also be quite limited. This degradation can, however, be resolved by the introduction of one or more external microphones (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{XM}$</tex-math></inline-formula>s) into the same physical space as the local microphone array (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{LMA}$</tex-math></inline-formula>). In this paper, three methods of extending an <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{LMA}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-based generalized sidelobe canceller (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{GSC-LMA}$</tex-math></inline-formula>) with multiple <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{XM}$</tex-math></inline-formula>s are proposed in such a manner that the relative transfer function pertaining to the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{LMA}$</tex-math></inline-formula> is treated as <italic>a priori</italic> knowledge. Two of these methods involve a procedure for completing an extended blocking matrix, whereas the third uses the speech estimate from the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{GSC-LMA}$</tex-math></inline-formula> directly with an orthogonalized version of the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{XM}$</tex-math></inline-formula> signals to obtain an improved speech estimate via a rank-1 generalized eigenvalue decomposition. All three methods were evaluated with recorded data from an office room and it was found that the third method could offer the most improvement. It was also shown that in using this method, the speech estimate from the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{GSC-LMA}$</tex-math></inline-formula> was not compromised and would be available to the listener if so desired, along with the improved speech estimate that uses both the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{LMA}$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{XM}$</tex-math></inline-formula>s.
Panel data analysis of multi-factor capital asset pricing models

ABSTRACT In this article, we propose MFCAPM panel models with fixed effects and test theories associated with risk exposures and anomalies postulated by Fama and French, and we assess their out-of-sample predictive performances. Based on the portfolios formed by French, we construct 10 panel models, each consisting of 10 portfolios grouped by size deciles, and another 10 panels by value deciles. In the presence of cross-section dependence, the MFCAPM panel model is estimated by the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) method for the sample period 1963(1)-2018(9). The results show that the market, firm-size and value risk exposures are significant and robust across three-, five- and six-factor panel models. Significant time-fixed effects indicate that there are several portfolios resilient to dot.com bubble peak in 2000, while some others resilient to GFC in 2007. We estimate the models for the in-sample period 1963(1)–1999(12) and generate the out-of-sample portfolio returns for the period 2000(1)–2018(9). We find that portfolio returns forecasts generated by the six-factor panel model are superior to other MFCAPM panel models, mostly due to the momentum factor (investor behaviour) explaining large return variations and volatility exposures. The findings have implications for investors, security traders and portfolio risk managers.
Bactericidal Activity of Skin Disinfectants on Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

We studied bactericidal activity of 10% povidone-iodine, 0.5% chlorhexidine gluconate, and 0.5% chlorhexidine in 80% ethanol on four strains of methicillin-resistant and two strains of methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus. The pathogen was exposed to each of the disinfectants for 15,30,60,120, and 240 s at room temperature. The inocula from these suspensions were cultured 72 h at 37 degrees C after the antimicrobial activity of the disinfectants in the suspensions was inactivated by 1:1000 dilution with neutralizer. No organism grew in any of the strains after exposure to 0.5% chlorhexidine in 80% ethanol. The 15-, 30-, and 60-s exposure to 10% povidone-iodine reduced the mean colony count by 55.2%, 91.2%, and 96.7%, respectively, and the exposures to 0.5% chlorhexidine gluconate reduced the mean colony count by 37.2%, 77.1%, and 93.3%, respectively. The difference in colony count between disinfectants was significant at 15- and 30-s exposures (P < 0.01 and 0.05, respectively). The results suggest that bactericidal activity of 0.5% chlorhexidine in 80% ethanol is more potent and more rapid against methicillin-susceptible and methicillin-resistant strains of S. aureus. (Anesth Analg 1995;81:555-8)
Scalable Graph-Based Clustering With Nonnegative Relaxation for Large Hyperspectral Image

Hyperspectral image (HSI) clustering is very important in remote sensing applications. However, most graph-based clustering models are not suitable for dealing with large HSI due to their computational bottlenecks: the construction of the similarity matrix <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\boldsymbol {W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, the eigenvalue decomposition of the graph Laplacian matrix <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\boldsymbol {L}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-means or other discretization procedures. To solve this problem, we propose a novel approach, scalable graph-based clustering with nonnegative relaxation (SGCNR), to cluster the large HSI. The proposed SGCNR algorithm first constructs an anchor graph and then adds the nonnegative relaxation term. With this, the computational complexity can be reduced to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(nd\log m+nK^{2}+nKc+K^{3})$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, compared with traditional graph-based clustering algorithms that need at least <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(n^{2}d+n^{2}K)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> or <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(n^{2}d+n^{3})$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$m$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$c$ </tex-math></inline-formula> are, respectively, the number of samples, features, anchors, classes, and nearest neighbors. In addition, the SGCNR algorithm can directly obtain the clustering indicators, without resort to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-means or other discretization procedures as traditional graph-based clustering algorithms have to do. Experimental results on several HSI data sets have demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed SGCNR algorithm.
Method of fineness adjustment of shredded particles of stem fodder in open-type machines

As a result of theoretical studies, analytical expressions were obtained for determining the average length of shredded particles of stem fodder, depending on the distance between the faces of adjacent hammers, and also to determine the mass fraction of shredded particles with the required size depending on the number of encounters of rows of hammers with circulating mass in the grinding chamber, and depending on the number of rows of counter-hammers installed in the grinding chamber. The results of calculation showed that the average length of shredded particles corresponds to the distance between the faces of adjacent hammers. In order to verify the reliability of theoretical studies, experimental studies have been carried out at various rows of counter-hammers. The change in the mass part of fraction with a particle length of 30 mm, depending on the number of counter-hammer series, with sufficient accuracy (1.3-3.1%) coincided with a theoretical dependence, which confirms the reliability of the obtained analytical expressions. During the experiment, the required power was determined for the process of hay chopping (grasses with a moisture content of 17%). Nature of the change in the required power in the shredding process and values of the mass part of the required fraction are same, i.e. with an increase in the number of rows of counter-hammers to 2 rows, more intensive change occurs, and with a further increase in the number of rows of counter-hammers, the change in the above factors equally decreases, i.e. they have the same functional dependency. All of this speaks of sufficient reliability of theoretical research, and it can be argued that a method has been developed for adjusting the fineness of shredded stem fodder in open-type machines.
Long-term safety, tolerability and efficacy of combination therapy with aliskiren and amlodipine in patients with hypertension

ABSTRACT Objective: Most patients with hypertension require antihypertensive combination therapy to achieve BP control. This study investigated the safety and efficacy of the direct renin inhibitor aliskiren combined with the calcium channel blocker amlodipine. Methods: Overall, 556 patients with hypertension (msDBP ≥95−<110 mmHg) received open-label aliskiren/amlodipine 150/5 mg for 2 weeks, followed by forced titration to aliskiren/amlodipine 300/10 mg for 52 weeks. Add-on hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) was permitted from week 10 to achieve BP control (<140/90 mmHg). The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the long-term safety and tolerability of aliskiren/amlodipine combination therapy; the BP-lowering efficacy of the combination was also assessed (week 54 endpoint; last observation carried forward). Results: In total, 452 patients completed 54 weeks’ treatment with aliskiren/amlodipine 300/10 mg, with or without add-on HCT. The most frequently reported adverse events (AEs) were peripheral edema, upper respiratory tract infection, headache and bronchitis. Peripheral edema (the most common AE), occurred in 22.7% of treated patients, and was generally mild or moderate in intensity and transient in nature. Few patients exhibited laboratory abnormalities. Aliskiren/amlodipine combination therapy provided a mean BP reduction from baseline to week 54 of 24.2/15.5 mmHg; 74.3% of patients achieved BP control. In the subgroup of patients with stage 2 hypertension (baseline msSBP ≥160 mmHg and/or msDBP ≥100 mmHg), the mean BP reduction at week 54 was 29.1/17.1 mmHg, and 67.0% of patients achieved BP control. Conclusion: In this open-label study, aliskiren/amlodipine 300/10 mg combination therapy, with or without add-on HCT, effectively reduced BP, particularly in patients with stage 2 hypertension. The most common AE was peripheral edema, consistent with the known AE profile of high-dose (10 mg) amlodipine. Further studies comparing the aliskiren/amlodipine combination with the component monotherapies and other antihypertensive combinations are warranted. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00402103.
The Effect of Background Music on the Level of Independence in Students with Autism

The premise of this study was to investigate the effect of music being played, on the level of independence children with Autism demonstrate as they work in the classroom. The participants in the study were a group of ten students in third through fifth grades in a public school, who are all diagnosed with Autism and receiving special education services. The data was collected on a daily basis by indicating the level of prompt each student needed as they completed daily work at their desks, while listening to classical music. Over a period of one school month results showed that there was no significant difference between the level of independence of students with Autism during their designated work time, and music played in the background. Playing classical music did not have an impact on helping students with Autism work independently.
Effect of Gas Atmosphere on the Phase Chemistry in the CaO–FeO–Fe2O3–SiO2 System Related to Iron Ore Sinter-making

Experimental phase equilibria studies have been carried out to investigate the phase chemistry in the CaO "Fe2O3"-SiO2 system related to the iron ore sinter making in 1 atm CO2 at 1 200-1 230 degrees C. The measurements have been performed using a modified experimental technique involving high temperature equilibration and rapid quenching followed by electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPMA). In contrast to the equilibria in air, the experimental results show that no silico-ferrite of calcium (SFC solid solution) is formed in 1 atm CO2 within the temperature range investigated; that is, the SFC phase is not stable at liquidus temperatures. The liquidus for the iron -rich corner of the CaO "Fe2O3"-SiO2 system in CO2 atmosphere for the spinel (magnetite Fe3O4) and dicalcium silicate (C2S = Ca2SiO4) primary phase fields has been proposed.
Corporate cash hoarding and corporate governance mechanisms: evidence from Borsa Istanbul

ABSTRACT Hoarding cash can create conflicts of interest between managers and shareholders that lead to an agency conflict. Corporate governance is a mechanism to overcome agency conflicts. Thus, this study aims to examine the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on the corporate decision to hoard cash. The study focuses on the BIST100 nonfinancial firms listed on the Borsa Istanbul during the period from 2010 to 2014. It finds that firms with smaller boards of directors and larger audit committees are likely to hoard less cash. However, firms with a large percentage of independent directors are likely to hoard more cash. This study also finds that when the CEO of a firm acts as the chairman of the board, the firm tends to hoard more cash. Further, the study finds that firms audited by a big auditor are more likely to hoard less cash than firms audited by a non-big auditor. These results suggest that firms with good corporate governance mechanisms (except for the percentage of independent directors) are likely to hoard less cash to reduce agency conflicts.