Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SMiRL: Surprise Minimizing Reinforcement Learning in Dynamic Environments

All living organisms struggle against the forces of nature to carve out a maintainable niche. We propose that such a search for order amidst chaos might offer a unifying principle for the emergence of useful behaviors in artificial agents. We formalize this idea into an unsupervised reinforcement learning method called surprise minimizing reinforcement learning (SMiRL). SMiRL alternates between learning a density model to evaluate the surprise of a stimulus, and improving the policy to seek more predictable stimuli. This process maximizes a lower-bound on the negative entropy of the states, which can be seen as maximizing the agent's ability to maintain order in the environment. The policy seeks out stable and repeatable situations that counteract the environment's prevailing sources of entropy. This might include avoiding other hostile agents, or finding a stable, balanced pose for a bipedal robot in the face of disturbance forces. We demonstrate that our surprise minimizing agents can successfully play Tetris, Doom, control a humanoid to avoid falls, and navigate to escape enemies in a maze without any task-specific reward supervision. We further show that SMiRL can be used together with standard task rewards to accelerate reward-driven learning.
Real-time Stereo Vision FPGA Chip with Low Error Rate

As a step towards real-time stereo, we will present a fast and efficient VLSI architecture and implementation of a stereo matching algorithm which has a low error rate. The architecture has the form of linear systolic array using simple processing element (PE)s that are connected with neighboring PEs. Due to this simple full parallel structure, it is smaller in the time complexity load than other methods. Thus our structure is more adequate for high resolution and real-time applications like the 3D video conference, the Z- keying,and the virtual reality. Our chip can process 320 by 240 images of 128 levels at 30 frames/s.
Discovery of a Small Molecule Activator of the Human Ether-a-go-go-Related Gene (HERG) Cardiac K+ Channel

Many drugs inhibit the human ether-a-go-go-related gene (HERG) cardiac K+ channel. This leads to action potential prolongation on the cellular level, a prolongation of the QT interval on the electrocardiogram, and sometimes cardiac arrhythmia. To date, no activators of this channel have been reported. Here, we describe the in vitro electrophysiological effects of (3R,4R)-4-[3-(6-methoxyquinolin-4-yl)-3-oxo-propyl]-1-[3-(2,3,5-trifluoro-phenyl)-prop-2-ynyl]-piperidine-3-carboxylic acid (RPR260243), a novel activator of HERG. Using patch-clamp electrophysiology, we found that RPR260243 dramatically slowed current deactivation when applied to cells stably expressing HERG. The effects of RPR260243 on HERG channel deactivation were temperature- and voltage-dependent and occurred over the concentration range of 1 to 30 μM. RPR260243-modified HERG currents were inhibited by dofetilide (IC50 = 58 nM). RPR260243 had little effect on HERG current amplitude and no significant effects on steady-state activation parameters or on channel inactivation processes. RPR260243 displayed no activator-like effects on other voltage-dependent ion channels, including the closely related erg3 K+ channel. RPR260243 enhanced the delayed rectifier current in guinea pig myocytes but, when administered alone, had little effect on action potential parameters in these cells. However, RPR260243 completely reversed the action potential-prolonging effects of dofetilide in this preparation. Using the Langendorff heart method, we found that 5 μM RPR260243 increased T-wave amplitude, prolonged the PR interval, and shortened the QT interval. We believe RPR260243 represents the first known HERG channel activator and that the drug works primarily by inhibiting channel closure, leading to a persistent HERG channel current upon repolarization. Compounds like RPR260243 will be useful for studying the physiological role of HERG and may one day find use in treating cardiac disease.
SaADB: A Self-attention Guided ADB Network for Person Re-identification

Recently, Batch DropBlock network (BDB) has demonstrated its effectiveness on person image representation and re-ID task via feature erasing. However, BDB drops the features randomly which may lead to sub-optimal results. In this paper, we propose a novel Self-attention guided Adaptive DropBlock network (SaADB) for person re-ID which can adaptively erase the most discriminative regions. Specifically, SaADB first obtains a self-attention map by channel-wise pooling and returns a drop mask by thresholding the self-attention map. Then, the input features and self-attention guided drop mask are multiplied to generate the dropped feature maps. Meanwhile, we utilize the spatial and channel attention to learn a better feature map and iteratively train with the feature dropping module for person re-ID. Experiments on several benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed SaADB significantly beats the prevalent competitors in person re-ID.
Price Caps versus Reimbursement Limits: Pharmaceutical Regulation under Market Integration through Parallel Trade

In this paper, I study the effect of parallel trade (cross border resale of goods without the authorization of the manufacturer) on pharmaceutical regulation in a North-South framework with a firm's endogenous decision to export to the South. Governments in both countries may limit prices directly via price caps or restrict third-party payer reimbursement for the drug via reimbursement limits. Parallel trade may relax regulation in the source country of parallel imports (South) and intensify regulation in the destination country (North): In the source country, parallel trade may relax regulation both under a price cap and a reimbursement limit under certain conditions. In the destination country, parallel trade has no effect on the level of regulation under a price cap, and it intensifies regulation under a reimbursement limit. Parallel trade may change regulatory preferences: Under no parallel trade, both the source and destination country set prices caps. Under parallel trade, the source country sets a price cap, but the destination country sets a reimbursement, thereby enforcing a higher price cap in the South. This implies higher drug prices under parallel trade in both source and destination country.
The Relationship between Environmental Reporting and Corporate Governance: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

The main purpose of the present research is to empirically scrutinize the relationship between corporate governance (CG) characteristics and environmental reporting (ER) (a component of corporate social responsibility) of firms in Pakistan, through the lens of stakeholder and agency theory. The annual reports of 50 non-financial companies listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the years 2014–2015 are content analyzed to compute the companies’ environmental reporting practices. A multifactor model comprising of six elements of CG, i.e. board size, board independence, CEO duality, audit committee independence, proportion of female directors on board and institutional investors is used to assess the impact of CG elements on companies’ environmental reporting ini - tiatives. The results revealed that larger board size, higher proportion of independent non-executive directors on the board, partition of the dual role of chairman and CEO and institutional ownership is associated with greater environmental reporting. The results are valuable to both academics and policy makers in Pakistan.
Understanding Enterprise System Customization: An Exploration of Implementation Realities and the Key Influence Factors

Abstract From a strategic alignment standpoint, a clear link is desirable between strategic business goals and the specialization of business assets. The customization of an Enterprise System can be viewed as a specialization of an IT related business asset. Its customization should be driven by these strategic business goals. However, the implementation realities frequently tell a different story. Customizations are often not linked to strategic business goals and at times even run counter to these goals. Experiences have shown that these gaps can be costly and have severe business implications. Thus, it is important to understand how these discrepancies can occur, and subsequently, how to develop approaches to avoid unnecessary customizations. This qualitative study explores key influences on customizations in five major Enterprise System implementations. The analysis of the qualitative data collected in this study reveals key influence factors with their direct, as well as their indirect impacts on customization. The article further discusses how some of these influences can be leveraged by IT managers to guide customizations in a desirable direction.
Rapid detection of exon 1 NRAS gene mutations using universal heteroduplex generator technology

Specific NRAS oncogene missense mutations have been frequently found in some tumors and several hematological diseases, especially in those of myeloid origin. There is a wide range of PCR‐based methods for screening and detection of NRAS exon 1 single‐base substitutions. However, there are disadvantages and ambiguities associated with these techniques because all of them require either separate probes, separate PCR amplifications, or complicated post‐PCR manipulations. This report describes a new approach for detection of NRAS gene mutations at codon 12 and 13 based on the DNA heteroduplex analysis method. The strategy relies upon differential electrophoretic behavior of induced heteroduplex molecules formed by cross‐hybridization of two PCR‐amplified species, the sample under analysis and the synthetic universal heteroduplex generator (UHG). The screening of a panel of all codon 12 and 13 NRAS mutant DNA variants indicated that this approach discriminates all 12 relevant mutations. The sensitivity of the method was estimated by a competitive assay where mutant alleles could be detected at a dilution level of 1 to 16 wild‐type alleles. This UHG technology was tested on some clinical samples previously studied by PCR‐ASO. This methodology is highly specific, sensitive, and achieves an appreciable reduction in workload and time because it requires one PCR amplification followed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in standard conditions. We propose that this new approach may be applied as an alternative strategy for codon 12‐13 NRAS mutations and it could be easily incorporated into the range of routine assays performed in oncology laboratories. Hum Mutat 21:132–137, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure in Malaysian Business

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is considered as one of the most emphasized issues among the academics, employers, researchers, communities and the governments all over the world. Although, corporate social responsibility involvement over different economies and cultures vary, but the CSR reporting of the involvement, both voluntary and mandatory, gets importance in each part of the world due to the pressures from different stakeholders, especially government, international organization and community. Malaysian companies corporate social reporting increases over the years and happened to be the best in ASEAN countries. Corporate social responsibility in Malaysia was formally instituted by several companies in the 1970s. At the turn of the century, it expanded along lines similar to the CSR movements in other Asian countries (Ismail, Alias and Rasdi, 2015). These reports are important to other users (such as employees, consumers, community, government and NGOs), other than solely for financial analysts and fund managers (Zakimi and Atan, 2011). Still, the requirement of sustainability reporting by the BURSA listed companies being met poorly as the number of companies’ publishing sustainability reports through web site is insignificant. The purpose of this research is to examine the sustainability report of the Malaysian business to know its quality of disclosure according to the internationally accepted guidelines. The result of this evaluation shows that very few of the excellent companies, according to a rewarding authority named Frost and Sullivan, publish sustainability reports and majority of the reports disclose their strategic philanthropy practices. The companies investigated in the research were awarded as the Malaysian best in the year 2015 as their delivery in the respective industries. And, the sustainability reports examined here were of the years 2012-2015 of the companies awarded by this Frost and Sullivan in 2015. This research result can be used as benchmarking for other BURSA listed companies in CSR reporting practice and it will to be useful in CSR disclosure to both the regulator and the society.
The Effect of Oil Prices on the Investments of Turkish Manufacturing Firms

Nowadays oil is the leading energy source in the world. Oil has got a critical importance on manufacturing, specially, in industrial areas. Whilst oil, directly or indirectly, composes the raw material of various products, it is also used as an energy source in running machinery in the manufacturing process. In the scope of this study it is researched that the effects of oil prices on business investments from the view point of manufacturing firms, operating in Turkey. In this study, international crude oil price data and some balance sheet and income statement data about the firms within the scope of work, are analyzed using the panel data analysis. The results of the study show that oil prices have an avoidant and statistically significant effect for the businesses operating in the manufacturing sectors in Turkey.
Localisation and significance of in vivo near-infrared autofluorescent signal in retinal imaging

Aim To evaluate near-infrared (NIR) autofluorescence (AF) in patients with geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration and to investigate the origin of the signal by in vivo and histological analysis in rats and in a human donor eye. Methods Confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy in vivo imaging, including blue (excitation: 488 nm, emission 500–700 nm) and NIR (excitation: 790 nm, emission >810 nm) AF was performed in 21 eyes of 18 GA patients. Pigmented and albino rats underwent with the same device both in vivo and post-mortem imaging. For the latter, cryostat prepared retinal cross-sections were imaged using an additional customised magnification lens. Finally, cross-sections of a 49-year old human donor eye were recorded. Results Atrophic areas in GA were characterised by low NIR AF intensities. In the junctional zone of atrophy, focal areas of increased intensity were seen which appeared to seldom correlate to blue AF findings. Confocal live scanning in pigmented rats identified the maximum of the NIR AF signal in the outer retina, with histological confirmation of the signal origin localised to the retinal pigment epithelium and sclera in both animals and human donor eye. No NIR AF was found in the retina of young non-pigmented rats. Discussion This study further underscores the assumption that melanin is the main source of NIR AF in the healthy retina. Increased NIR AF intensities in the junctional zone in GA may represent accumulation of melanolipofuscin, which may reflect disease activity and thus may allow for early identification of patients at high-risk of GA enlargement.
Adjuvant Effect of Silica (Tridymite) on Antibody Production.∗

Summary Crystalline silica particles (1-3 μ in diameter) were injected intravenously into rabbits and rats. At various intervals from 0 to 90 days the animals were immunized with ovalbumin or horse serum. Antibody production was greatly enhanced in silicatreated animals. The antibody titer was higher when the interval between silica and antigen injection was longer. Many more antibody-containing cells were observed in silica-treated animals. It is suggested that the adjuvant effect of silica is related to the proliferation of immunologically competent cells in the R.E. S. This might play a role in the pathogenesis of silicosis.
Low Serum Levels of MicroRNA-19 Are Associated with a Stricturing Crohn's Disease Phenotype

Background:Development of fibrosis and subsequent stricture formation in Crohn's disease (CD) increases morbidity and rates of surgery and reduces patients' quality of life. There are currently no biomarkers of intestinal fibrosis that might allow earlier identification and better management of patients at increased risk of stricture formation. Methods:MicroRNA profiling of serum from CD patients was used to identify microRNAs associated with stricture formation. Differential expression of miR-19a-3p and miR-19b-3p was validated by quantitative PCR in independent CD cohort of stricturing and nonstricturing patients (n = 46 and n = 62, respectively). Levels of miR-19a-3p and miR-19b-3p were also quantified in baseline serum samples, and expression compared between CD patients who subsequently developed stricture and those who did not (n = 11 and n = 44, respectively). Results:Serum levels of miR-19a-3p and miR-19b-3p in the array were lower in CD patients with a stricturing phenotype than in control CD patients (P = 0.007 and 0.008, respectively). The reduction in miR-19a-3p and 19b-3p was verified in a second cohort (P = 0.002). The association of miR-19-3p with stricturing CD was independent of potential confounding clinical variables, including disease duration, disease activity, site, gender, and age. Serum analyses in patients with 4 years of follow-up support the hypothesis that reduced miR-19a-3p and miR-19b-3p predate stricture development with a trend toward significance (P = 0.077 and P = 0.060, respectively). Conclusions:These data identify miR-19-3p as a potential circulating marker of stricturing CD. Our data show that microRNAs have utility as noninvasive biomarkers of stricturing CD. Further longitudinal studies are required to determine the prognostic value of miR-19-3p at diagnosis.
The emergence and preservation of sick building syndrome : research challenges of a modern age disease

Since the 1970ies, the sick building syndrome (SBS) has become a common health problem. It is usually defined as a state of ill health consisting of subjective symptoms from mucous membranes and skin, as well as of general symptoms such as e.g. fatigue and headache. At the same time, demonstrable pathological alterations should be absent. Its occurrence is associated to a wide variety of factors related to the building, its indoor environment, work and work organisation, as well as to personal, individual characteristics of its inhabitants. The accumulated scientific knowledge on SBS is, however, vague and general, and the aim of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the development and maintenance of the syndrome. Applying a multi-case study design, the thesis consists of six cases. Four focus on the buildings inclusive of their populations, while the remaining two put their centre on individuals. Information was retrieved from a wide range of historical documents. Data were also collected by questionnairebased surveys as well as by semi-structured, open-ended interviews. The case buildings had varying histories of proven or hypothesised water damage, ventilation defects and chemical emissions. Such conditions might have initiated the building-related health problems, which in turn seemed to generate protracted and complicated processes. These involved conflicting agendas between different parties within the buildings, and between the buildings and the surrounding society. This, together with structural conditions, such as e.g. economic and gender perspectives, seemed to influence the long-term outcome of SBS. Therefore, it was suggested that evolving sick building syndromes should be approached and analysed using integrated bio-psycho-social models. This seemed particularly important from an intervention aspect as there were indications that symptoms might persist in spite of rational corrective measures, taken from strictly biomedical perspectives. The thesis examined the concept of SBS and compared it with other building-related diagnoses. As a diagnostic concept, the construction of the SBS definition was shown to be inadequate. In spite of that, it was found to be used in legal contexts. This conveyed the ambiguous notion of a formal, individual diagnosis, which could have a normative and prescriptive force, which was one reason, why it was suggested that the term SBS should be abandoned. Finally, methodological research aspects were examined. It was concluded that qualitative methods are well suited in the study of environmentally related, non-specific syndromes such as SBS.
An algebraic description of orthogonal designs and the uniqueness of the Alamouti code

An n /spl times/ l (l /spl ges/ n) space time block code (STBC) C consists of a finite number |C| of n /spl times/ l matrices with entries from the complex field. If the entries of the codeword matrices are from a complex signal set S or complex linear combinations of elements of S then the code is said to be over S. For quasi-static, flat fading channels a primary performance index of C is the minimum of the rank of the difference of any two codeword matrices, called the rank of the code. C is of full-rank if its rank is n and is of minimal-delay if l = n. The rate of the code R in symbols per channel use is given by 1/l log/sub |S|/(|C|). It is well known that orthogonal designs provide rate 1, mimial-delay, full-rank STBCs with linear decodability, but exist only for n = 2 (Alamouti code) for complex constellations and for n = 2, 4 and 8 only for real constellations. In this paper, we present some general techniques for constructing rate 1, full-rank, minimal-delay STBCs over S using non-commutative division algebras of the rational field /spl Qopf/ embedded in matrix rings. Using two ways of embedding non-commutative division algebras into matrices, namely, the left regular representation and representation over maximal cyclic subfields, we observe that (i) the Alamouti's (1998) code and real orthogonal designs for n = 2 and 4 are just special cases of our construction and (ii) algebraically, the uniqueness of the Alamouti code is due to the fact: Hamilton's quaternions H is the only non-commutative division algebra which has /spl Copf/ as a maximal subfield.
Nonlinear stability of viscous shock wave to one-dimensional compressible isentropic Navier–Stokes equations with density dependent viscous coefficient

We prove nonlinear stability of viscous shock wave of arbitrary amplitudes to a one-dimensional compressible isentropic Navier-Stokes equations with density dependent viscosity. Under the assumption that the viscous coefficient is given as a power function of density, any viscous shock wave is shown to be nonlinear stable for small initial perturbations with integral zero. In contrast to previous related results [20, 22], there is no restrictions on the power index of the viscous coefficient and the amplitudes of the viscous shock wave in our result.