Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cross-Channel Intragroup Sparsity Neural Network

Modern deep neural network models generally build upon heavy over-parameterization for their exceptional performance. Network pruning is one often employed approach to obtain less demanding models for their deployment. Fine-grained pruning, while can achieve good model compression ratio, introduces irregularity in the computing data flow, often does not give improved model inference efficiency. Coarse-grained model pruning, while allows good inference speed through removing network weights in whole groups, for example, a whole filter, can lead to significant model performance deterioration. In this study, we introduce the cross-channel intragroup (CCI) sparsity structure that can avoid the inference inefficiency of fine-grained pruning while maintaining outstanding model performance.
EFFECT OF IRRIGATION AND INTEGRATED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT ON WATER USE EFFICIENCY AND NUTRIENT UPTAKE OF CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.)

An experiment entitled “Effect of irrigation and integrated nutrient management on water use efficiency and nutrient uptake of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)” was conducted at Students’ Instructional Farm, Department of Agronomy, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture & Technology Kanpur (U.P.) in Rabi season for two consecutive years (2014-15 and 2015-16). The soil of the experimental field was sandy loam in texture, poor in available nitrogen and organic carbon and medium in available phosphorus and potassium with slightly alkaline in reaction (pH 7.70). The experiment was conducted in Split Plot Design (SPD) with three replications and fifteen treatments combination. The main plot was consisting of three irrigation levels (no irrigation, one irrigation before flowering and one irrigation at pod development) and sub plot consisting of five nutrient management treatments (RDF-Recommended dose of fertilizer, RDF + Rhizobium seed inoculation, RDF + Rhizobium + PSB seed inoculation, 75% RDF + Rhizobium seed inoculation and 75% RDF + Rhizobium + PSB seed inoculation). Chick pea variety Avrodhi was grown with the recommended agronomic practices. The maximum grain yield, total consumptive use, water use efficiency and uptake of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus & Potassium) uptake by chickpea was noticed in plots where irrigation was applied at pod development stage during both the years. Application of 100% RDF + Rhizobium + PSB inoculation resulted in maximum grain yield, total consumptive use, water use efficiency and nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus & Potassium) uptake by chickpea was noticed with the during both the years.Thus it may be concluded that application of one irrigation at pod development and 100% RDF or 75% RDF along with bio-fertilizers is good option for achieving higher yield grain yield, total consumptive use, water use efficiency and nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus & Potassium) uptake by chickpea.
Determinants of mortality among one to four years old children in Ethiopia: A study based on the 2011 EDHS data

Background: According to the UN report for the 10 years before 2011, the mortality rate for under-five children has decreased by 35% worldwide. UNICEF reported that Ethiopia reduced under-five mortality by 40% over the 15 years before 2008. From the EDHS 2011 report child mortality rate in Ethiopia went down from 50 out of 1000 deaths in 2005 to 31 out of 1000 in 2011. Despite this encouraging development the country is expected to do more to bring down child mortality rate to a lower level. Objectives: This study was done to estimate the survival of one to four years old children in Ethiopia and to identify determinants of mortality for this age group of children. Methods: The study used the 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey data. Survival analysis was employed to analyze the data on 12,710 children. Results: The results showed that the predictors mother’s education, mother’s age, marital status, birth order(s) and place of residence had significant impact on child mortality. On the other hand sex of a child, family size, wealth index, water source and toilet facility were not found to be significant. Conclusion: A lot of effort has to be made to intensify educating females so as to alleviate their level of empowerment. The concerned government and nongovernment bodies, the media and the wider community should discourage early marriage. Due to the fact that a much larger proportion of child mortality occurred in rural areas of the country, it is necessary to avail child and mothers maternal care services infrastructure outside the urban areas.
A School-Based Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Program for Canadian Elementary Students

The Everyone Jump Program raises awareness among elementary students about healthy eating, physical activity and type 2 diabetes prevention. The purpose of this research study was to examine whether the Everyone Jump Program met its program objectives. Participants ( N = 296) completed questionnaires to assess nutrition and physical activity behaviour as well as objective physical activity measures (i.e., pedometer). Assessments occurred before and after the 8-week intervention period. Focus groups and knowledge assessments were conducted with program recipients only ( n = 207). Repeated measures 2 (Program Status) x 2 (Time) MANOVAs revealed significant interaction effects for: Steps Taken and Physical Activity Time ( p < .01, eta 2 = .03); Self-reported Physical Activity ( p < .05, eta 2 = .04); and Canada's Food Guide Knowledge ( p < .05, eta 2 = .02). Focus groups and knowledge assessments indicated the Everyone Jump Program fostered health literacy; however, only physical activity program objectives were met.
Equal Protection Under Algorithms: A New Statistical and Legal Framework

In this Article, we provide a new statistical and legal framework to understand the legality and fairness of predictive algorithms under the Equal Protection Clause. We begin by reviewing the main legal concerns regarding the use of protected characteristics such as race and the correlates of protected characteristics such as criminal history. The use of race and nonrace correlates in predictive algorithms generates direct and proxy effects of race, respectively, that can lead to racial disparities that many view as unwarranted and discriminatory. These effects have led to the mainstream legal consensus that the use of race and nonrace correlates in predictive algorithms is both problematic and potentially unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. This mainstream position is also reflected in practice, with all commonly used predictive algorithms excluding race and many excluding nonrace correlates such as employment and education. Next, we challenge the mainstream legal position that the use of a protected characteristic always violates the Equal Protection Clause. We develop a statistical framework that formalizes exactly how the direct and proxy effects of race can lead to algorithmic predictions that disadvantage minorities relative to nonminorities. While an overly formalistic solution requires exclusion of race and all potential nonrace correlates, we show that this type of algorithm is unlikely to work in practice because nearly all algorithmic inputs are correlated with race. We then show that there are two simple statistical solutions that can eliminate the direct and proxy effects of race, and which are implementable even when all inputs are correlated with race. We argue that our proposed algorithms uphold the principles of the equal protection doctrine because they ensure that individuals are not treated differently on the basis of membership in a protected class, in stark contrast to commonly used algorithms that unfairly disadvantage minorities despite the exclusion of race. We conclude by empirically testing our proposed algorithms in the context of the New York City pretrial system. We show that nearly all commonly used algorithms violate certain principles underlying the Equal Protection Clause by including variables that are correlated with race, generating substantial proxy effects that unfairly disadvantage Black individuals relative to white individuals. Both of our proposed algorithms substantially reduce the number of Black defendants detained compared to commonly used algorithms by eliminating these proxy effects. These findings suggest a fundamental rethinking of the equal protection doctrine as it applies to predictive algorithms and the folly of relying on commonly used algorithms.
Myo-inositol in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome: A novel method for ovulation induction

Background: “Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is often characterized by chronic oligoor anovulation (usually manifested as oligoor amenorrhea), and hyperandrogenism”. In addition, 30–40% of PCOS women have impaired glucose tolerance, and a defect in the insulin signaling pathway (inositolcontaining phosphoglycan mediators) seems to be implicated in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. PCOS patients are subfertile as a consequence of such ovulatory disorders and often need drugs, such as clomiphene citrate or follicle-stimulating hormone, for ovulation induction, which increases the risk of multiple pregnancy and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. We hypothesized that the administration of an isoform of inositol (myo-inositol), belonging to the vitamin B complex, would improve the insulin-receptor activity, restoring normal ovulatory function. Materials and methods: Twenty-five PCOS women of childbearing age with oligoor amenorrhea were enrolled in the study. Ovulatory disorder due to PCOS was apparently the only cause of infertility; no tubal defect or deficiency of male semen parameters was found. Myo-inositol 2 g twice a day was administered continuously. During an observation period of 6 months, ovulatory activity was monitored with ultrasound scan and hormonal profile, and the numbers of spontaneous menstrual cycles and eventually pregnancies were assessed. Results: Twenty-two out of the 25 (88%) patients restored at least one spontaneous menstrual cycle during treatment, of whom 18 (72%) maintained normal ovulatory activity during the follow-up period. A total of 10 singleton pregnancies (40% of patients) were obtained. Nine clinical pregnancies were assessed with fetal heart beat at ultrasound scan. Two pregnancies evolved in spontaneous abortion. Conclusion: “Myo-inositol is a simple and safe treatment that is capable of restoring spontaneous ovarian activity and consequently fertility in most patients with PCOS”. This therapy did not cause multiple pregnancies.
I. ABBREVIATIONS EEG: Electroencephalography ESI: EEG Source Imaging MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (or Magnetic Resonance Image) fMRI: Functional MRI

The curtain of technical limitations impeding rat multichannel non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) has risen. Given the importance of this preclinical model, development and validation of EEG source imaging (ESI) is essential. We investigate the validity of well-known human ESI methodologies in rats which individual tissue geometries have been approximated by those extracted from an MRI template, leading also to imprecision in electrode localizations. With the half and fifth sensitivity volumes we determine both the theoretical minimum electrode separation for non-redundant scalp EEG measurements and the electrode sensitivity resolution, which vary over the scalp because of the head geometry. According to our results, electrodes should be at least ~3-3.5 mm apart for an optimal configuration. The sensitivity resolution is generally worse for electrodes at the boundaries of the scalp measured region, though, by analogy with human montages, concentrates the sensitivity enough to localize sources. Cramér-Rao lower bounds of source localization errors indicate it is theoretically possible to achieve ESI accuracy at the level of anatomical structures, such as the stimulus-specific somatosensory areas, using the template. More validation for this approximation is provided through the comparison between the template and the individual lead field matrices, for several rats. Finally, using well-accepted inverse methods, we demonstrate that somatosensory ESI is not only expected but also allows exploring unknown phenomena related to global sensory integration. Inheriting the advantages and pitfalls of human ESI, rat ESI will boost the understanding of brain pathophysiological mechanisms and the evaluation of ESI methodologies, new pharmacological treatments and ESI-based biomarkers.
DEVELOPMENT OF SURVEY INSTRUMENT

• a priority for child health as documented in a state or national child health policy; • meets the information needs of the NSW Department of Health, the 17 area health services, or other organisations dealing with child health; • information is not readily available from other sources; • estimated sample size in the New South Wales Child Health Survey is large enough to provide data that can be used to generalise responses to the NSW population aged 0–12 years; • the information is not highly sensitive or likely to cause failure to complete the survey. To be included in the survey, the proposed content areas needed to meet all of the listed criteria, except for the demographic section, which was already considered high priority. The content area of social capital was added to the survey further along the process, so it was also not considered against the criteria.
Determinants of Sexual Risk Behaviour Among Men and Women of Reproductive Age in South Africa

Many years after the outbreak of HIV/AIDS, public health exertions have not been able to limit the spread of the diseases. This study, therefore, seeks to widen the scope of investigation in regard to the socio-demographic factors that determine risky sexual behaviours among all persons aged 15-59 years old. The present study used the 2016 South African Health and Demographic Survey data to examine the social and demographic determinants of risky sexual behaviours among people of reproductive ages (15-59), using the binary logistic regression model. The results showed that socio-demographic variables, namely; age, race, level of education, wealth index and relationship status, generally predict sexual risk-taking behaviours among South African men and women. Young people aged 20-24years; the Black Africans as well as never married people are overrepresented among those involved in unsafe sexual practices. However, those who are ever married or cohabiting are less at risk of engaging in risky sexual behaviour whereas education provides a degree of protection, more so for females than males. The findings from the study support actions to improve sex education for all individuals that are vulnerable.
Online Stochastic Gradient Descent with Arbitrary Initialization Solves Non-smooth, Non-convex Phase Retrieval

Author(s): Tan, Yan Shuo; Vershynin, Roman | Abstract: In recent literature, a general two step procedure has been formulated for solving the problem of phase retrieval. First, a spectral technique is used to obtain a constant-error initial estimate, following which, the estimate is refined to arbitrary precision by first-order optimization of a non-convex loss function. Numerical experiments, however, seem to suggest that simply running the iterative schemes from a random initialization may also lead to convergence, albeit at the cost of slightly higher sample complexity. In this paper, we prove that, in fact, constant step size online stochastic gradient descent (SGD) converges from arbitrary initializations for the non-smooth, non-convex amplitude squared loss objective. In this setting, online SGD is also equivalent to the randomized Kaczmarz algorithm from numerical analysis. Our analysis can easily be generalized to other single index models. It also makes use of new ideas from stochastic process theory, including the notion of a summary state space, which we believe will be of use for the broader field of non-convex optimization.
Mass Media and Reproductive Behavior in Africa

This report summarizes findings from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted during the 1990s in Burkina Faso Ghana Kenya Madagascar Namibia and Zambia. The focus is on currently married women and never married women. For some countries information was available on married and unmarried men and couples. The analysis confirms that there is a strong association between exposure to mass media and reproductive behavior in Africa that leads to greater knowledge and use of contraception intention to use family size preferences for fewer children and intention to stop childbearing. The evidence suggests that mass media is associated with later age at marriage regardless of gender or marital status. Radio had the strongest influence on reproductive behavior followed by the print media and television. The most consistent reproductive behavior associated with mass media was knowledge of contraceptive methods current use intention to use and age at marriage. Reproductive intentions were not as closely associated with mass media exposure. Both men and women were most affected by radio messages. The effects of mass media exposure were the strongest in Kenya where men had more exposure than women to mass media. In Ghana exposure to radio and print media was significantly related to later marriage but this relationship did not hold in Kenya. Education in both countries was the main determinant of marriage age. In model 2 where all the types of media are included separately the effects of mass media on the desire for fewer children became insignificant. The hypothesis is that modern Western ideas about consumer values control over ones life and nonfamiliar roles of women can be communicated through the media and influence people in rural areas and people with little formal education.
Engineering Sustainability – What’s New?

In recent years sustainable systems are recognized as an important goal to be achieved and vital in a circular economy. Hence this subject is also gaining more attention on SE conferences. But what’s new? The Systems Engineering process already emphasizes systems thinking and life cycle approach, fundamental concepts for optimizing sustainability. This paper argues that on one hand (SE wise) there is nothing new with sustainability, but on the other hand there is a general lack of knowledge among systems engineers about methods to optimize sustainability in the design of systems. This paper will give an overview of these methods and areas for development for the systems engineering community.
WEATHERING STEEL AND COMPOSITE STRUCTURES : BANGLADESH PERSPECTIVE

Weathering steel is a high strength low alloy steel with corrosion resist property under normal atmospheric condition. This type of steel does not require painting or any protective coating for rust proofing as any mild steel require rust proof coating. Generally Structural steels which are exposing in weather like bridge, railing, and fencing are galvanized steel or stainless steel. Most of our baily bridges are hot rolled galvanized mild steel. Using protective coating is requiring maintenance and recoating after a sudden period as per weather condition. The painting process is depend on the weather condition like normal weather the paint is enamel type paint and for the saline weather it require epoxy type paint with thick coat, which is very costly. Weather steel rusting once in its life time and that rust prevent further rusting in the expose surface. This paper describes the technic of rusting process and the protection of further rusting of the weather steel alloy. It is also describe the cold rolled galvanize steel and composite structure and steel concrete joints. The fabrication process of structural steel is developing day by day and the use of structural steel is increasing in Bangladesh. Mostly industrial sheds, railway platform, power plants/Houses are made with mild steel of ASTM A36 category. Now the structural steel of ASTM A572 low carbon steel alloy with 40-50 grade strength is use in building system. Very recently weather steel of ASTM A588 of 50 grade steel alloy plate box girder is being used in Rampura ULOOP flyover with composite deck system, the first weather steel bridge made in Bangladesh.
Estimation of genetic Parameters for Traits of egg production patterns in Nigerian local laying hens

Heritability, genetic and phonotypic correlations were estimated on parameters of egg production patterns of two populations of Nigerian laying hens. Data were collected on five hundred and forty (540) hens from point of lay to 20th week. The hens were produced from five (5) sires and fifty (50) dams in a mating ratio of one sire (1 ) to ten (10) dams for each population. The hens were housed singly and hand mated. Daily egg production was recorded individually. Clutch number, clutch size, pause number and pause length were calculated. Age and body weight at first egg were individually obtained. The data was analyzed by SAS and heritability, genetic and phonotypic correlations estimated by Falconer and Mackay method. Heritability estimates on pause number and length was low. Clutch number and size had moderate heritability estimates. Clutch size was highly correlated with clutch number, pause number, pause length, age at first egg and body weight at first egg. Clutch size and clutch number may be used as a selection method to improve egg production of laying hens.
Relay Policy Learning: Solving Long-Horizon Tasks via Imitation and Reinforcement Learning

We present relay policy learning, a method for imitation and reinforcement learning that can solve multi-stage, long-horizon robotic tasks. This general and universally-applicable, two-phase approach consists of an imitation learning stage that produces goal-conditioned hierarchical policies, and a reinforcement learning phase that finetunes these policies for task performance. Our method, while not necessarily perfect at imitation learning, is very amenable to further improvement via environment interaction, allowing it to scale to challenging long-horizon tasks. We simplify the long-horizon policy learning problem by using a novel data-relabeling algorithm for learning goal-conditioned hierarchical policies, where the low-level only acts for a fixed number of steps, regardless of the goal achieved. While we rely on demonstration data to bootstrap policy learning, we do not assume access to demonstrations of every specific tasks that is being solved, and instead leverage unstructured and unsegmented demonstrations of semantically meaningful behaviors that are not only less burdensome to provide, but also can greatly facilitate further improvement using reinforcement learning. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on a number of multi-stage, long-horizon manipulation tasks in a challenging kitchen simulation environment. Videos are available at this https URL
A new Finite Element Method for magneto-dynamical problem two-dimensional results

A mixed Lagrange finite element technique is used to solve the Maxwell equations in the magneto-hydrodynamic limit in an hybrid domain composed of vacuum and conducting regions. The originality of the approach is that no a boundary condition is enforced at the interface between the conducting and the insulating regions and the non-co medium is not approximated by a weakly conducting medium as is frequently done in the literature. As a first evaluatio performance of the method, we study two-dimensional (2D) configurations, where the flow streamlines of the conduc are planar, i.e., invariant in one direction, and either the magnetic field (“magnetic scalar” case) or the electric field ( scalar” case) is parallel to the invariant direction. Induction heating, eddy current generation, and magnetic field stret investigated showing the usefulness of finite element methods to solve magneto-dynamical problems with complex i boundaries.  2003 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.