Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the Effect of an Aqueous Extract of Azadirachta indica (Neem) Leaves and Twigs on Glycemic Control, Endothelial Dysfunction and Systemic Inflammation in Subjects with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus – A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Study

Purpose Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) offers different bioactives ranging from pesticides to therapeutic molecules, depending on which part of the plant is used and the extraction methodology and the solvent used. This study was aimed at evaluating the safety and efficacy of a standardized aqueous extract of Azadirachta indica leaves and twigs (NEEM) on glycemic control, endothelial dysfunction, and systemic inflammation in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study (RCT), 80 T2DM subjects, who have already been on standard metformin therapy, received either 125 mg, 250 mg, 500 mg of NEEM or placebo twice daily for 12 weeks. Postprandial blood sugar level (PPBS), fasting blood sugar level (FBS), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), insulin resistance (IR), endothelial function, oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, IL-6 and TNF-α, platelet aggregation and lipid profile were assessed. Adverse drug reactions, if any, were noted. GraphPad Prism 8 was used to perform statistical analysis. Results NEEM at the doses of 125, 250, and 500 mg BID significantly reduced PPBS (from 194.4±14 to 173.1±12.8mg/dL, 192.3±17.1 to 161.8±9.7mg/dL, and 205.9±7.2 to 159.3±7.1mg/dL, respectively), FBS (from 119.2±5.0 to 109.2±5.7mg/dL, 115.5±4.4 to 103.7±4.2mg/dL, and 120.7±4.2 to 97.3±3.7mg/dL, respectively), HbA1c (from 6.87 ± 0.4% to 6.64 ± 0.4%, 7.52 ± 0.4% to 6.86 ± 0.3%, and 7.78 ± 0.2% to 6.26 ± 0.4%, respectively), and IR (from 4.5 ± 1.2 to 3.4 ± 0.9, 3.8 ± 1.1 to 2.5 ± 0.6, and 4.6 ± 1.3 to 2.0 ± 0.6, respectively) compared to placebo. Also, NEEM significantly improved endothelial function, decreased oxidative stress and systemic inflammation compared to placebo. The efficacy was significant with all the doses, but no effect on platelet aggregation or lipid profile was observed. Conclusion NEEM may significantly ameliorate hyperglycemia, endothelial dysfunction, and systemic inflammation, on top of what metformin could do, in subjects with T2DM.
SurFree: a fast surrogate-free black-box attack

Machine learning classifiers are critically prone to evasion attacks. Adversarial examples are slightly modified inputs that are then misclassified, while remaining perceptively close to their originals. Last couple of years have witnessed a striking decrease in the amount of queries a black box attack submits to the target classifier, in order to forge adversarials. This particularly concerns the black box score-based setup, where the attacker has access to top predicted probabilites: the amount of queries went from to millions of to less than a thousand.This paper presents SurFree, a geometrical approach that achieves a drastic reduction in the amount of queries in the hardest setup: black box decision-based attacks (only the top-1 label is available). We first highlight that the most recent attacks in that setup, HSJA [3], QEBA [14] and GeoDA [23] all perform costly gradient surrogate estimations. SurFree proposes to bypass these, by instead focusing on careful trials along diverse directions, guided by precise indications of geometrical properties of the classifier decision boundaries. We motivate this geometric approach before performing a head-to-head comparison with previous attacks with the amount of queries as a first class citizen. We exhibit a faster distortion decay under low query amounts (few hundreds to a thousand), while remaining competitive at higher query budgets.1
On the Global Well-Posedness for the Periodic Quintic Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation

In this paper, we consider the initial value problem for the quintic, defocusing nonlinear Schrodinger equation on $\Bbb T^2$ with general data in the critical Sobolev space $H^{\frac{1}{2}} (\Bbb T^2)$. We show that if a solution remains bounded in $H^{\frac{1}{2}} (\Bbb T^2)$ in its maximal interval of existence, then the solution is globally well-posed in $\Bbb T^2$.
Reference-Based Video Colorization with Spatiotemporal Correspondence

We propose a novel reference-based video colorization framework with spatiotemporal correspondence. Reference-based methods colorize grayscale frames referencing a user input color frame. Existing methods suffer from the color leakage between objects and the emergence of average colors, derived from non-local semantic correspondence in space. To address this issue, we warp colors only from the regions on the reference frame restricted by correspondence in time. We propagate masks as temporal correspondences, using two complementary tracking approaches: off-the-shelf instance tracking for high performance segmentation, and newly proposed dense tracking to track various types of objects. By restricting temporally-related regions for referencing colors, our approach propagates faithful colors throughout the video. Experiments demonstrate that our method outperforms state-of-the-art methods quantitatively and qualitatively.
Role of shape on the forces on an intruder moving through a dense granular medium

Abstract We use numerical simulation to investigate the effect an intruder’s shape has on the drag and lift forces that it experiences while moving through a granular medium composed of polydisperse disks of mean diameter d. The intruder velocity, v, was varied from 0.1 to 20 For frictionless particles ( ), there is a gradual increase in drag force with increasing v, whereas, for frictional systems ( ), a constant drag regime appears at low velocities. The drag force depends weakly on the object’s shape provided that its cross-section is constant. The drag force depends linearly on the immersion depth, while the lift force varies weakly with depth for certain shapes. The lift experienced by the object is a strong function of its shape at a given velocity. The shape has an effect on the distribution of contacts around the surface of the intruder, which may result in a strong lift for certain shapes. We also present and discuss the force profiles around the intruder surface.
TLeague: A Framework for Competitive Self-Play based Distributed Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Competitive Self-Play (CSP) based Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) has shown phenomenal breakthroughs recently. Strong AIs are achieved for several benchmarks, including Dota 2, Glory of Kings, Quake III, StarCraft II, to name a few. Despite the success, the MARL training is extremely data thirsty, requiring typically billions of (if not trillions of) frames be seen from the environment during training in order for learning a high performance agent. This poses non-trivial difficulties for researchers or engineers and prevents the application of MARL to a broader range of real-world problems. To address this issue, in this manuscript we describe a framework, referred to as TLeague, that aims at large-scale training and implements several main-stream CSP-MARL algorithms. The training can be deployed in either a single machine or a cluster of hybrid machines (CPUs and GPUs), where the standard Kubernetes is supported in a cloud native manner. TLeague achieves a high throughput and a reasonable scale-up when performing distributed training. Thanks to the modular design, it is also easy to extend for solving other multi-agent problems or implementing and verifying MARL algorithms. We present experiments over StarCraft II, ViZDoom and Pommerman to show the efficiency and effectiveness of TLeague. The code is open-sourced and available at https://github.com/tencent-ailab/tleague_projpage
Perceived Illness and Treatment Adherence to Hypertension Among Patients Attending a Tertiary Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal

Introduction Hypertension (HTN) is a silent killer, accountable for life-threatening complications. An individual’s illness perception may affect adherence to treatment which is crucial to prevent complications of HTN. The objective of this study was to identify illness perception and treatment adherence among patients with HTN in a tertiary hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Methods Descriptive correlational study was conducted in the out-patient department of Manmohan Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Center, Kathmandu Nepal. Non-probability purposive sampling was used. A face-to-face interview was conducted from September to December 2018, using a structured questionnaire that included socio-demographic variables, illness perception questionnaire (revised) and Hill bone compliance to high blood pressure therapy scale. Data analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics (chi-square test, Spearman rank correlation). Results Among 204 participants, 51% were male, 77% were literate, mean ± S.D. age was 60±12. About 72% experienced headache and 88% said that headache is related to HTN. Behavioural factors and psychological factors were regarded as the leading cause of HTN. Almost 63% participants believed HTN as highly threatening illness. Higher scores in timeline (acute/chronic), personal control, and treatment control revealed that patients believed HTN as a chronic disease with a higher rate of personal and treatment control. Regarding treatment adherence, the mean score was 16.58 (SD = 2.08), and only 14.7% had perfect adherence. Participants were more adherent to medication and appointment keeping rather than reduce salt intake. Duration of HTN diagnosis (p=0.027) and duration under HTN medication (p= 0.021) were found to be significantly associated with treatment adherence. There was a significant positive correlation between illness perception and treatment adherence (ρ = 0.282, p<0.01). Conclusion Illness perception and treatment adherence are correlated. Hence, it is beneficial to improve illness perception to achieve perfect treatment adherence. Reinforcement is essential to maintain adherence to both medications and behaviour therapy.
A Continuous-Time Random Walk Extension of the Gillis Model

We consider a continuous-time random walk which is the generalization, by means of the introduction of waiting periods on sites, of the one-dimensional non-homogeneous random walk with a position-dependent drift known in the mathematical literature as Gillis random walk. This modified stochastic process allows to significantly change local, non-local and transport properties in the presence of heavy-tailed waiting-time distributions lacking the first moment: we provide here exact results concerning hitting times, first-time events, survival probabilities, occupation times, the moments spectrum and the statistics of records. Specifically, normal diffusion gives way to subdiffusion and we are witnessing the breaking of ergodicity. Furthermore we also test our theoretical predictions with numerical simulations.
Sambucus Ebulus L. (Şahmelik) bitkisinden ekstrakte edilmiş doğal boyarmadde ile ipekli materyallerin boyanması

In this investigation, dyestuff extracted from Sambucus Ebulus L. was used to dye silk materials via conventional and ultrasonic methods. Firstly, the silk materials were mordanted with four different mordant agents which are copper sulphate, alum, citric acid and cationic fixer. The ultrasonic energy made contribution to the improvement of colour values. Compared to the ultrasonic process and the conventional process, the results are similar in terms of washing fastness. The washing fastness values are acceptable for industry.
Off-shell ADT conserved quantities in Palatini gravity

In this paper we generalize the off-shell Abbott–Deser–Tekin (ADT) conserved charge formalism to Palatini theory of gravity with torsion and non-metricity. Our construction is based on the coordinate formalism and the independent dynamic fields are the metric and the affine connection. For a general Palatini theory of gravity, which is diffeomorphism invariant up to a boundary term, we obtain the most general expression for off-shell ADT potential. As explicit examples, we derive the off-shell ADT potentials for Einstein–Hilbert action, the most general L(gμν,Rλναμ,Tλαβ,Qαμν) theories and the teleparallel Palatini gravity.
UNIPoint: Universally Approximating Point Processes Intensities

Point processes are a useful mathematical tool for describing events over time, and so there are many recent approaches for representing and learning them. One notable open question is how to precisely describe the flexibility of point process models and whether there exists a general model that can represent all point processes. Our work bridges this gap. Focusing on the widely used event intensity function representation of point processes, we provide a proof that a class of learnable functions can universally approximate any valid intensity function. The proof connects the well known Stone-Weierstrass Theorem for function approximation, the uniform density of non-negative continuous functions using a transfer functions, the formulation of the parameters of a piece-wise continuous functions as a dynamic system, and a recurrent neural network implementation for capturing the dynamics. Using these insights, we design and implement UNIPoint, a novel neural point process model, using recurrent neural networks to parameterise sums of basis function upon each event. Evaluations on synthetic and real world datasets show that this simpler representation performs better than Hawkes process variants and more complex neural network-based approaches. We expect this result will provide a practical basis for selecting and tuning models, as well as furthering theoretical work on representational complexity and learnability.
Gradient penalty from a maximum margin perspective.

A popular heuristic for improved performance in Generative adversarial networks (GANs) is to use some form of gradient penalty on the discriminator. This gradient penalty was originally motivated by a Wasserstein distance formulation. However, the use of gradient penalty in other GAN formulations is not well motivated. We present a unifying framework of expected margin maximization and show that a wide range of gradient-penalized GANs (e.g., Wasserstein, Standard, Least-Squares, and Hinge GANs) can be derived from this framework. Our results imply that employing gradient penalties induces a large-margin classifier (thus, a large-margin discriminator in GANs). We describe how expected margin maximization helps reduce vanishing gradients at fake (generated) samples, a known problem in GANs. From this framework, we derive a new $L^\infty$ gradient norm penalty with Hinge loss which generally produces equally good (or better) generated output in GANs than $L^2$-norm penalties (based on the Fr\'echet Inception Distance).
The search for extratidal star candidates around Galactic globular clusters NGC 2808, NGC 6266, and NGC 6397 with Gaia DR2 astrometry

Context. Extratidal stars are stellar bodies that end up outside the tidal radius of a cluster as a result of internal processes or external forces acting upon it. The presence and spatial distribution of these stars can give us insights into the past evolution of a cluster inside our Galaxy. Aims. Previous works suggest that globular clusters, when explored in detail, show evidence of extratidal stars. We aim to search for possible extratidal stars in the Galactic globular clusters NGC 6397, NGC 2808, and NGC 6266 using the photometry and proper motion measurements from Gaia DR2 database. Methods. The extratidal stars for the clusters were selected on the basis of: their distance from the cluster center, similarity in their proper motions to the cluster population, and their position on the color-magnitude diagram of the clusters. Each cluster was explored in an annulus disk from the tidal radius up to five times the tidal radii. The significance level of the number of selected extratidal stars was determined on the basis of the distribution of Milky Way stars according to the Besançon Galaxy model and Gaia data. To understand the observed extratidal features, the orbits of the clusters were also determined using GravPot16. Results. Finally, 120, 126, and 107 extratidal candidate stars were found lying outside the tidal radius of the globular clusters NGC 6397, NGC 2808, and NGC 6266, respectively. 70%, 25.4%, and 72.9% of the extratidal stars found are located outside the Jacobi radius of NGC 6397, NGC 2808, and NGC 6266, respectively. The spatial distribution of the extratidal stars belonging to NGC 6397 appears S-like, extending along the curved leading and trailing arms. NGC 2808 has an overdensity of stars in the trailing part of the cluster and NGC 6266 seems to have overdensities of extratidal stars in its eastern and northern sides. Conclusions. Proper motions and color-magnitude diagrams can be used to identify extratidal candidate stars around GCs. Nonetheless, depending on how different the kinematics and stellar populations of a cluster are compared to the Milky Way field, the fraction of contamination can be larger. All three clusters are found to have extratidal stars outside their tidal radii. For NGC 6397 and NGC 2808, these stars may be the result of a combined effect of the disc shocks and tidal disruptions. For NGC 6266, the distribution of extratidal stars is symmetrical around it, most likely indicating that the cluster has an extended stellar envelope.
Unsupervised many-to-many image-to-image translation across multiple domains

Unsupervised multi-domain image-to-image translation aims to synthesis images among multiple domains without labeled data, which is more general and complicated than one-to-one image mapping. However, existing methods mainly focus on reducing the large costs of modeling and do not pay enough attention to the quality of generated images. In some target domains, their translation results may not be expected or even it has model collapse. To improve the image quality, we propose an effective many-to-many mapping framework for unsupervised multi-domain image-to-image translation. There are two key aspects in our method. The first is a proposed many-to-many architecture with only one domain-shared encoder and several domain-specialized decoders to effectively and simultaneously translate images across multiple domains. The second is two proposed constraints extended from one-to-one mappings to further help improve the generation. All the evaluations demonstrate our framework is superior to existing methods and provides an effective solution for multi-domain image-to-image translation.
COVID-19 in Korea: Success Based on Past Failure*

Abstract This paper analyzes how the Republic of Korea (Korea) halted the massive transmission of COVID-19 in just two months. The quarantine was achieved successfully without any need for a national lockdown because, simply, Korean citizens actively followed quarantine guidelines. During the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, the country recognized the importance of an early response in the form of a systematic approach and adopted the necessary procedures. Comparing the spread of COVID-19 among different countries, Korea demonstrated several distinct characteristics. First, the duration of the coronavirus crisis was relatively short, and Korea was able to flatten the coronavirus curve in a brief period. Second, Korea blocked expanded transmission of the virus without implementing a national lockdown. Third, the coronavirus pandemic did not lead to economic panic. Korea, which had developed an institutional response to infectious diseases prior to COVID-19, used a strategy of balancing quarantine measures with economic policies. The paper summarizes the specific measures Korea implemented to overcome COVID-19, and discusses the sustainability of the economy after overcoming the virus.
Levels of domain-specific physical activity at work, in the household, for travel and for leisure among 327 789 adults from 104 countries

Objective To compare the country-level absolute and relative contributions of physical activity at work and in the household, for travel, and during leisure-time to total moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Methods We used data collected between 2002 and 2019 from 327 789 participants across 104 countries and territories (n=24 low, n=34 lower-middle, n=30 upper-middle, n=16 high-income) from all six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. We calculated mean min/week of work/household, travel and leisure MVPA and compared their relative contributions to total MVPA using Global Physical Activity Questionnaire data. We compared patterns by country, sex and age group (25–44 and 45–64 years). Results Mean MVPA in work/household, travel and leisure domains across the 104 countries was 950 (IQR 618–1198), 327 (190–405) and 104 (51–131) min/week, respectively. Corresponding relative contributions to total MVPA were 52% (IQR 44%–63%), 36% (25%–45%) and 12% (4%–15%), respectively. Work/household was the highest contributor in 80 countries; travel in 23; leisure in just one. In both absolute and relative terms, low-income countries tended to show higher work/household (1233 min/week, 57%) and lower leisure MVPA levels (72 min/week, 4%). Travel MVPA duration was higher in low-income countries but there was no obvious pattern in the relative contributions. Women tended to have relatively less work/household and more travel MVPA; age groups were generally similar. Conclusion In the largest domain-specific physical activity study to date, we found considerable country-level variation in how MVPA is accumulated. Such information is essential to inform national and global policy and future investments to provide opportunities to be active, accounting for country context.
Transhierarchy: A stable tree view with transclusion for hypertext navigation

Transhierarchy is a method of navigating hypertext within a stable, hierarchical user interface. In a transhierarchy, a standard tree view is generated by traversing outbound links from a given node. Inbound links and their descendants are transcluded into the hierarchy, allowing continuous navigation to cross-referenced nodes. Transhierarchy is a practical solution to the problem of how to represent a directed graph in a strict hierarchy. It preserves connectivity, provides context during navigation, and is visually compact, making it a viable method for navigating hypertext on mobile devices. It does not require additional semantics, such as typed links. We explore the history of navigating hypertext via hierarchical views, present an implementation of transhierarchy in the first author's hypertext system, em, and survey its use in several pieces of commercial outliner software today.
Characterization and Analysis of Open Brazilian Judiciary Data

Govern transparency is widely accepted as an effective democratic process in many countries. In Brazil, the information-access law contributes to public administration transparency, as public data is available on the Web. However, such data are in different formats and not standardized, which makes it difficult to obtain information, mainly in an automated way. Hence, this work presents an enrichment methodology for an existing open Brazilian judiciary database, a characterization of the available data, and an analysis of the data about judiciary professionals and their earns. The results reveal a lack of linear correlations between the high salaries and their personal benefits. Also, there is a discrepancy between Judiciary salaries and advantages through Brazilian regions, which may be explained by the higher living costs in some regions. Finally, our study reveals the administrative Brazilian Judiciary data do not conform to all Open Government Data principles, and the enriched database helps to solve such problems.