Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thompson Sampling for Multi-Objective Multi-Armed Bandits Problem

The multi-objective multi-armed bandit (MOMAB) problem is a se- quential decision process with stochastic rewards. Each arm generates a vector of rewards instead of a single scalar reward. Moreover, these multiple rewards might be conflicting. The MOMAB-problem has a set of Pareto optimal arms and an agent's goal is not only to find that set but also to play evenly or fairly the arms in that set. To find the Pareto optimal arms, linear scalarized function or Pareto dominance relations can be used. The linear scalarized function converts the multi- objective optimization problem into a single objective one and is a very popular ap- proach because of its simplicity. The Pareto dominance relations optimizes directly the multi-objective problem. In this paper, we extend the Thompson Sampling pol- icy to be used in theMOMAB problem. We propose Pareto Thompson Sampling and linear scalarized Thompson Sampling approaches. We compare empirically between Pareto Thompson Sampling and linear scalarized Thompson Sampling on a test suite ofMOMAB problems with Bernoulli distributions. Pareto Thompson Sampling is the approach with the best empirical performance.
Photosensitisers – the progression from photodynamic therapy to anti-infective surfaces

Introduction: The application of light as a stimulus in pharmaceutical systems and the associated ability to provide precise spatiotemporal control over location, wavelength and intensity, allowing ease of external control independent of environmental conditionals, has led to its increased use. Of particular note is the use of light with photosensitisers. Areas covered: Photosensitisers are widely used in photodynamic therapy to cause a cidal effect towards cells on irradiation due to the generation of reactive oxygen species. These cidal effects have also been used to treat infectious diseases. The effects and benefits of photosensitisers in the treatment of such conditions are still being developed and further realised, with the design of novel delivery strategies. This review provides an overview of the realisation of the pharmaceutically relevant uses of photosensitisers, both in the context of current research and in terms of current clinical application, and looks to the future direction of research. Expert opinion: Substantial advances have been and are being made in the use of photosensitisers. Of particular note are their antimicrobial applications, due to absence of resistance that is so frequently associated with conventional treatments. Their potency of action and the ability to immobilise to polymeric supports is opening a wide range of possibilities with great potential for use in healthcare infection prevention strategies.
Robust Reservation-Based Multi-Agent Routing

In a multi-agent routing problem, agents must find the shortest-time path from source to destination while avoiding deadlocks and collisions with other agents. Agents travel over an infrastructure of resources (such as intersections and road segments between intersections), and each resource r has (i) a capacity C(r), which is the maximum number of agents that may occupy the resource at the same time, and (ii) a minimum travel time D(r). Example 1 illustrates this multi-agent routing problem.
Additivity of semantic and phonological effects: Evidence from speech production in Mandarin

A number of previous studies using picture–word interference (PWI) tasks conducted with speakers of Western languages have demonstrated non-additive effects of semantic and form overlap between pictures and words, which may indicate underlying non-discrete processing stages in lexical retrieval. The present study used Mandarin speakers and presented Chinese characters as distractors. In two experiments, we crossed semantic relatedness with “pure” phonological (i.e., orthographically unrelated) relatedness and found statistically additive effects. In a third experiment, semantic relatedness was crossed with orthographic overlap (phonological overlap was avoided), and once again we found an additive pattern. The results are discussed with regard to possible cross-linguistic differences between Western and non-Western languages in terms of phonological encoding, as well as concerning the locus of relatedness effects in PWI tasks.
A European perspective on animal cloning and government regulation

The present situation in Europe can be described as the acceptance of the "precautionary" principle, by which any new biotech application is considered hazardous until proven safe beyond any possible doubt. This attitude is now so well established in the public opinion that it is very difficult for people to accept products (food in particular) that have been developed through biotech. People prefer traditional products, not because they are safer but because they were always there. For the reasons mentioned above, de facto there is no one significant European regulation on cloning, rather, every country has its own approach or variations.
Neuromuscular fatigue during sustained contractions performed in short-term hypoxia.

PURPOSE Hypoxia is known to change neuronal activity in vitro and to impair performance in vivo. The present study was designed to study neuromuscular fatigue in acute hypoxia, and we hypothesized that hypoxia results in additional fatigue during sustained contractions, presumably because of increased central fatigue. METHODS Twelve healthy subjects participated in a normoxic (NX) and hypoxic (HX) experiment performed on separate days. Hypoxia was induced by breathing an HX air mixture containing 12% oxygen. Before, during, and after a 90-s sustained voluntary maximal contraction (MVC) of the first dorsal interosseus muscle, we measured force, voluntary activation (VA), and parameters of motor cortical excitability (motor-evoked potentials (MEP) and silent periods (SP)). Measures of peripheral nerve and muscle function, compound motor action potential (M-wave), and muscle twitch forces were also taken. RESULTS During the MVC, force declined similarly during both HX and NX. VA decreased throughout the contraction in HX, but, surprisingly, this decrease in VA in HX did not exceed that observed in NX. Also, motor cortical excitability changed to a similar degree in HX and NX; that is, MEP amplitude and SP duration increased. M-wave amplitude decreased significantly during the sustained MVC in NX and HX. The only difference observed between NX and HX was the quicker recovery of the muscle twitch in HX, which was even potentiated after 5 min of recovery. CONCLUSION The present results show that peripheral and central neuromuscular adaptations during a sustained fatiguing contraction are similar in NX and HX. The quicker recovery and potentiation of twitch forces in HX suggest alterations in myosin phosphorylation, which may enhance contractile force.
GLP-1 Receptor Agonists

Purpose Type 2 diabetes (T2D) imparts an increased risk of adverse health outcomes in patients unable to achieve glycemic control. Patient education and individualization of treatment are important for effective management of T2D. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) are a class of injectable glucose-lowering agents that lower A1C with added benefits of weight loss and improved cardiovascular risk markers. This review discusses the role of GLP-1RAs currently approved in the United States (exenatide, liraglutide, albiglutide, dulaglutide) for T2D management and characterizes the efficacy and safety profiles of individual GLP-1RAs. Conclusions GLP-1RAs are recommended as a preferred add-on agent to existing metformin monotherapy, as first-line therapy if metformin is contraindicated or poorly tolerated, and for use in combination with other oral glucose-lowering agents or basal insulin. Shorter-acting GLP-1RAs (exenatide and liraglutide) offer improved coverage of postprandial hyperglycemia, while longer-acting GLP-1RA formulations (exenatide extended-release, dulaglutide, and albiglutide) further improve fasting plasma glucose, which can result in additional A1C lowering. Reductions in body weight and blood pressure appear similar among individual agents, and small increases in heart rate are of unknown clinical relevance. Gastrointestinal adverse events abate over time with continued treatment and are less frequent with longer-acting GLP-1RAs. Hypoglycemia incidence is low but increased when GLP-1RAs are used with insulin secretagogues or insulin. GLP-1RAs target multiple pathophysiologic mechanisms in patients with T2D and improve glycemic control, although there are some differences within this drug class that may be relevant in clinical practice. Therefore, selection of the most appropriate treatment for individual patients is important.
The utopian promise of government

Le debat academique et le discours public sur le Pacifique est souvent centre aujourd'hui sur l'effondrement des gouvernements - sur l'echec des Etats-nations. Pourtant, depuis l'autonomie puis l'independance, les Melanesiens ont experimente d'autres formes de gouvernement local, souvent calquees sur les schemas, structures et pratiques de gouvernement officiels mais aussi deviees de ceux-ci. A partir de l'exemple du mouvement Pomio Kivung dans l'est de la Nouvelle-Bretagne, l'auteur etudie la maniere dont le gouvernement, avec ses projets et ses promesses de souverainete, de civilisation et de developpement, est deplace et re-medie par le biais du monde des morts. Les univers chamaniques traditionnels, ceux des songes et de la possession, sont redeployes et meles aux pratiques pastorales et aux schemas disciplinaires des projets de civilisation qui etaient initialement portes par les Eglises et les gouvernements occidentaux.
Serum Beta-2 Microglobulin: a Possible Marker for Disease Progression in Egyptian Patients with Chronic HCV Related Liver Diseases.

BACKGROUND Egypt has the highest prevalence of HCV infection in the world (~14.7%). Around 10-15% of HCV-infected persons will advance to cirrhosis within the first 20 years. The incidence of HCC is expected to grow in the next two decades, largely due to HCV related cirrhosis, and detection of HCC at an early stage is critical for a favorable clinical outcome. No simple reliable non-invasive marker has been available till now. B2M, a non-glycosylated polypeptide composed of 99 amino acids, is one of the components of HLA class I molecules on the surfaces of all nucleated cells. It has been reported that the level of serum B2M is elevated in patients with chronic hepatitis C and HCV-related HCC when compared to HCV-negative patients or healthy donors. Determining the clinical utility of serum β2M as a marker for disease progression in Egyptian patients with HCV related chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma was the aim of the present study. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this analytical cross sectional study 92 participants were included in 4 equal groups: Group (1) non cirrhotic chronic HCV; Group (2) HCV related liver cirrhosis; Group (3) HCC on top of HCV,; and Group (4) healthy controls. History taking, clinical examination, routine labs and abdominal ultrasound were conducted for all patients, PCR and Metavir scores for group (1) patients, and triphasic CT abdomen and AFP for Group (3) patients. β2M levels were measured in serum with a fully-automated IMX system. RESULTS The mean serum B2M level of Group (1) was 4.25 ± 1.48 μg/ml. , Group (2) was 7.48 ± 3.04, Group (3) was 6.62 ± 2.49 and Group (4) was 1.62 ± 0.63. Serum B2M levels were significantly higher in diseased than control group (p<0.01) being significantly higher in cirrhosis (7.48 ± 3.04) and HCC groups (6.62 ± 2.49) than the HCV group (4.25 ± 1.48) (p<0.01). There was a significant correlation between B2M Level and ALK, total and direct bilirubin and INR (p<0.05), and a significant inverse correlation between B2M level and albumin, total proteins, HB and WBCS values (p<0.05). There was no significant correlation between B2M level and viral load or Metavir score, largest tumour size or AFP (p>0.05). The best B2M cut-off for HCV diagnosis was 2.6 with a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 92%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 97% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 100%. The best B2M cut-off for HCC diagnosis was 4.55 which yielded sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive values of 74%, 62%, 39.5, 87.8% respectively (p-value <0.01) while best cut-off for cirrhosis was 4.9, with sensitivity 74 % and specificity 74%. The sensitivity for HCC diagnosis increased upon B2M and AFP combined estimation to 91%, specificity to 79%, NPV to 95% and accuracy to 83%. CONCLUSIONS Serum B2M level is elevated in HCV related chronic liver diseases and may be used as a marker for HCV disease progression towards cirrhosis and carcinoma.
Comparison of Western immunoblotting and microimmunofluorescence for diagnosis of Mediterranean spotted fever

One-hundred serum samples from 41 patients suffering from Mediterranean spotted fever (MSF) were tested by microimmunofluorescence (MIF) and Western blot (WB; immunoblot). Immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgM, and IgA antibody-specific responses to the high-molecular-mass species-specific protein antigens (115 kDa and 135 kDa) of Rickettsia conorii, as well as to cross-reactive lipopolysaccharide (LPS) antigens, were observed. The WB assay detected IgM-type antibodies earlier than did the MIF assay. These antibodies were often directed against nonspecific LPS and may have a questionable positive predictive value. In addition, an IgG reaction to a 60-kDa protein was observed in four cases of malignant forms of MSF but was never observed in cases of mild forms. This reaction could be correlated with a marker of the severity of the development of MSF. From a previous MIF survey of blood donors, 9 negative, 11 IgG-positive, and 6 IgM-positive serum samples were selected for comparison by WB. Sera negative by MIF were also negative by WB. MIF IgG-positive sera showed a specific response to R. conorii in the WB assay, but the six serum samples from this seroepidemiological study positive for IgM by MIF were almost all negative by the WB assay. One was positive for IgM against the LPS but was considered a false positive. The WB is shown to provide a new tool for serodiagnosis.
Phospholipid-Binding Protein Cts1 Controls Septation and Functions Coordinately with Calcineurin in Cryptococcus neoformans

ABSTRACT Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised patients. The Ca2+-calmodulin-activated protein phosphatase calcineurin is necessary for virulence of C. neoformans. Mutants lacking the calcineurin catalytic (Cna1) or regulatory (Cnb1) subunit fail to grow at elevated temperature and are defective in virulence and hyphal elongation. Here we isolated a multicopy suppressor gene, CTS1, which restores growth of a calcineurin mutant strain at 37°C. The CTS1 gene (for calcineurin temperature suppressor 1) encodes a protein containing a C2 domain and a leucine zipper motif that may function as an effector of calcineurin. The CTS1 gene was disrupted by homologous recombination, and cts1 mutants were viable but exhibited defects in cell separation, growth, mating, and haploid fruiting. In addition, cts1 mutants were inviable when calcineurin was mutated or inhibited. Taken together, these findings suggest that calcineurin and Cts1 function in parallel pathways that regulate growth, cell separation, and hyphal elongation.
StarCraft II: A New Challenge for Reinforcement Learning

This paper introduces SC2LE (StarCraft II Learning Environment), a reinforcement learning environment based on the StarCraft II game. This domain poses a new grand challenge for reinforcement learning, representing a more difficult class of problems than considered in most prior work. It is a multi-agent problem with multiple players interacting; there is imperfect information due to a partially observed map; it has a large action space involving the selection and control of hundreds of units; it has a large state space that must be observed solely from raw input feature planes; and it has delayed credit assignment requiring long-term strategies over thousands of steps. We describe the observation, action, and reward specification for the StarCraft II domain and provide an open source Python-based interface for communicating with the game engine. In addition to the main game maps, we provide a suite of mini-games focusing on different elements of StarCraft II gameplay. For the main game maps, we also provide an accompanying dataset of game replay data from human expert players. We give initial baseline results for neural networks trained from this data to predict game outcomes and player actions. Finally, we present initial baseline results for canonical deep reinforcement learning agents applied to the StarCraft II domain. On the mini-games, these agents learn to achieve a level of play that is comparable to a novice player. However, when trained on the main game, these agents are unable to make significant progress. Thus, SC2LE offers a new and challenging environment for exploring deep reinforcement learning algorithms and architectures.
Swedish word accent production by L2-speakers with different tonal L1S

This study addresses the question of whether L1-speakers of Vietnamese – a tone language – and L1-speakers of Somali – a language with tonal accents – differ in degree of accuracy when producing words that carry either of the two tonal accents in L2-Swedish. Some previous studies suggest that it is an advantage when discriminating between different tones in another tone language, if a speaker’s L1 is also a tone language; while others show that this may not necessarily be the case. Accuracy was studied with the help of identification tests, and the results for the L2-speakers were matched with the results for L1-speakers. It is revealed that no adequate distinction is made between the tone accents by either of the two groups of L2-speakers. The two tonal patterns are equally often obscured by L1-speakers of Somali, whereas speakers of L1-Vietamese produced patterns that were more frequently identified as one of the Swedish word accents, but not the other one.
Health-care seeking behaviour for TB symptoms in two provinces of Uzbekistan

SUMMARY In Uzbekistan, mass X-ray screening for TB is still used. The groups targeted are broad and include at least 50% of the population. Of all pulmonary TB cases, 73% are reported to be detected by this method. However, in this study of 85 randomly selected pulmonary TB patients, only 16% confirmed were been detected through this method. Having known risk factors for TB did not increase the likelihood of its being detected, which highlights the need to revise the current screening policy.
Caveolae: Stable Membrane Domains with a Potential for Internalization

The role of caveolae in endocytosis is hotly debated. Here, we argue that most caveolae are stable microdomains at the cell surface. Only a small fraction of caveolae is constitutively internalized, leading to a quantitatively minor uptake of ligands and receptors. In addition, we suggest that a more pronounced downregulation of caveolae from the plasma membrane can occur, presumably stimulated by receptor cross‐linking and clustering in caveolae. Finally, we propose that future studies dealing with internalization of caveolae should actually document such internalization and include kinetic data.
Excessive Time on Social Networking Sites and Disordered Eating Behaviors Among Undergraduate Students: Appearance and Weight Esteem as Mediating Pathways

Social networking sites (SNS) are a popular form of communication among undergraduate students. Body image concerns and disordered eating behaviors are also quite prevalent among this population. Maladaptive use of SNS has been associated with disordered eating behaviors; however, the mechanisms remain unclear. The present study examined if body image concerns (e.g., appearance and weight esteem) mediate the relationship between excessive time spent on SNS and disordered eating behaviors (restrained and emotional eating). The sample included 383 (70.2 percent female) undergraduate students (mean age = 23.08 years, standard deviation = 3.09) who completed self-report questionnaires related to SNS engagement, body image, disordered eating behaviors, and demographics. Parallel multiple mediation and moderated mediation analyses revealed that lower weight and appearance esteem mediated the relationship between excessive time on SNS and restrained eating for males and females, whereas appearance esteem mediated the relationship between excessive time on SNS and emotional eating for females only. The study adds to the literature by highlighting mediational pathways and gender differences. Intervention research is needed to determine if teaching undergraduate students more adaptive ways of using SNS or reducing exposure to SNS reduces body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in this high-risk population.
Modeling of Spatial Dependence in Wind Power Forecast Uncertainty

It is recognized today that short-term (up to 2-3 days ahead) probabilistic forecasts of wind power provide forecast users with a paramount information on the uncertainty of expected wind generation. When considering different areas covering a region, they are produced independently, and thus neglect the interdependence structure of prediction errors, induced by movement of meteorological fronts, or more generally by inertia of meteorological systems. This issue is addressed here by describing a method that permits to generate interdependent scenarios of wind generation for spatially distributed wind power production for specific look-ahead times. The approach is applied to the case of western Denmark split in 5 zones, for a total capacity of more than 2.1 GW. The interest of the methodology for improving the resolution of probabilistic forecasts, for a range of decision-making problems, or simply for better understanding the characteristics of forecast uncertainty, is discussed.
Foncier débridé/foncier bloqué : enjeu récent de la décentralisation ou alternance centrale dans l'histoire longue des communes urbaines maliennes ?

L’approche institutionnelle qui prevaut dans les reformes de decentralisation en cours en Afrique sub-saharienne, et plus generalement l’idee de « bonne gouvernance » qui les inspire du point de vue de leurs bailleurs de fonds internationaux, insistent sur la dynamique de rupture qu’impulserait la reorganisation des competences locales au regard d’un passe de centralisme inhibiteur. Au Mali, comme plus generalement dans les pays heritiers du modele administratif francais, l’accent est mis sur le maillon communal et sur la creation ou le renforcement de pouvoirs democratiquement elus. Les plus grandes villes du pays heritent de cadres municipaux deja anciens, mis en place pour la plupart de la fin de la colonisation a la premiere decennie de l’independance par une transition du statut de commune mixte a celui de commune de plein exercice. Cette anciennete relative justifie la distinction etablie par les recentes lois (93/008 et 95/034) de decentralisation du Mali entre les cas de 13 villes et de la capitale, deja organisees en 19 communes, et les 682 nouvelles communes creees sur le demembrement des arrondissements, dans la refonte globale du monde rural (loi 95/059 de novembre 1996).