Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient Hyperparameter Optimization for Convolution Neural Networks in Deep Learning: A Distributed Particle Swarm Optimization Approach

Abstract Convolution neural network (CNN) is a kind of powerful and efficient deep learning approach that has obtained great success in many real-world applications. However, due to its complex network structure, the intertwining of hyperparameters, and the time-consuming procedure for network training, finding an efficient network configuration for CNN is a challenging yet tough work. To efficiently solve the hyperparameters setting problem, this paper proposes a distributed particle swarm optimization (DPSO) approach, which can optimize the hyperparameters to find high-performing CNNs. Compared to tedious, historical-experience-based, and personal-preference-based manual designs, the proposed DPSO approach can evolve the hyperparameters automatically and globally to obtain promising CNNs, which provides a new idea and approach for finding the global optimal hyperparameter combination. Moreover, by cooperating with the distributed computing techniques, the DPSO approach can have a considerable speedup when compared with the traditional particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Extensive experiments on widely-used image classification benchmarks have verified that the proposed DPSO approach can effectively find the CNN model with promising performance, and at the same time, has greatly reduced the computational time when compared with traditional PSO.
SST Warming in Recent Decades in the Gulf Stream Extension Region and Its Impact on Atmospheric Rivers

The sea surface temperature (SST) front in the Gulf Stream (GS) extension region is important to synoptic variations in atmosphere. In winter, large amounts of heat and moisture are released from the SST front, modulating the baroclinicity and humidity of the atmosphere, which is important for extratropical cyclones and atmospheric rivers (ARs). In this study, the variation of SST in the North Atlantic in winters since 1981 is investigated using satellite and reanalysis datasets, and a 23-year (1997 to 2019) warming trend of SST in the GS extension region is detected. The increase of SST is mainly distributed along the SST front, with more than 2 °C warming and a northward shift of the SST gradient from 1997 to 2019. Connected with the SST warming, significant increases in turbulent heat flux and moisture release into the atmosphere were found along the ocean front. As a result, baroclinic instability, upward water vapor flux and AR occurrence frequency increased in recent decades. Meanwhile, there was an increase in extreme rainfall along with the increase in AR landfalling on continental Western Europe (especially in the Iberian Peninsula and on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea).
Semiconvergence analysis of the randomized row iterative method and its extended variants

The row iterative method is popular in solving the large‐scale ill‐posed problems due to its simplicity and efficiency. In this work we consider the randomized row iterative (RRI) method to tackle this issue. First, we present the semiconvergence analysis of RRI method for the overdetermined and inconsistent system, and derive upper bounds for the noise error propagation in the iteration vectors. To achieve a least squares solution, we then propose an extended version of the RRI (ERRI) method, which in fact can converge in expectation to the solution of the overdetermined or underdetermined, consistent or inconsistent systems. Finally, some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the convergence behaviors of the RRI and ERRI methods for these types of linear system.
Sharp exponential decay for solutions of the stationary perturbed Dirac equation

We determine the largest rate of exponential decay at infinity for non-trivial solutions to the Dirac equation 𝒟nψ + 𝕍ψ = 0in ℝn, being 𝒟n the massless Dirac operator in dimension n ≥ 2 and 𝕍 a (po.
High-moisture extrusion with insect and soy protein concentrates: cutting properties of meat analogues under insect content and barrel temperature variations

Insect biomass production is recognised as one of the potential solutions for the problem of a lack of traditional protein sources (most feed protein sources are imported in Europe). It is perceived to be utilised as a more suitable source of proteins for food and feed in Western countries within the next decades. High-moisture extrusion of protein concentrate and water mixtures results in the development of fibrous intermediates, suitable for the development of meat analogues. Hardness and protein composition of such intermediates were comparable to meat. Inclusion of 15-40% of insect protein concentrates (both Alphitobius diaperinus and Tenebrio molitor) could imitate the meat texture and resulted in a similar hardness compared to a standard sample composed of 100% soy protein concentrate (dry matter basis). Extruder barrel temperature and soy-insect ratio were found to affect the physical properties of the extrudates: an increase in temperature (alternatively decrease in water input) improved the hardness of the intermediates from 6.5-8 N (barrel temperature 160 °C) to 8-11 N (barrel temperature 170 °C). An optimal meat-like texture with the highest inclusion of insect biomass (40% dry matter basis) was achieved when using a maximal temperature of barrel extruder of 170 °C. The results demonstrated the potential of insect protein incorporation in a mixed (‘invisible’) form to generate high-protein texturized intermediates, presenting a viable alternative to the fresh meat products.
Reducing the Bias of the Smoothed Log Periodogram Regression for Financial High-Frequency Data

For typical sample sizes occurring in economic and financial applications, the squared bias of estimators for the memory parameter is small relative to the variance. Smoothing is therefore a suitable way to improve the performance in terms of the mean squared error. However, in an analysis of financial high-frequency data, where the estimates are obtained separately for each day and then combined by averaging, the variance decreases with the sample size but the bias remains fixed. This paper proposes a method of smoothing that does not entail an increase in the bias. This method is based on the simultaneous examination of different partitions of the data. An extensive simulation study is carried out to compare it with conventional estimation methods. In this study, the new method outperforms its unsmoothed competitors with respect to the variance and its smoothed competitors with respect to the bias. Using the results of the simulation study for the proper interpretation of the empirical results obtained from a financial high-frequency dataset, we conclude that significant long-range dependencies are present only in the intraday volatility but not in the intraday returns. Finally, the robustness of these findings against daily and weekly periodic patterns is established.
Comparing particle transport in JET and DIII-D plasmas: gyrokinetic and gyrofluid modelling

Transport modelling, for two dimensionless collisionality scaling experiments at the Joint European Torus (JET) and DIII-D with three discharges each, is presented. Experimental data from JET (Tala et al 2019 Nucl. Fusion 59 126030) and DIII-D (Mordijck et al 2020 Nucl. Fusion 60 066019) show a dissimilar dependence in the density peaking from the source and turbulent transport. The discharges from the JET collisionality scan show that the source is dominant for the density peaking, which is contrary to DIII-D where the transport is the main cause for the peaking. In this article, the different dependency on the source is studied by investigating the zero flux density gradient (peaking factor) at radial position ρ t = 0.6 and by calculating the averaged perturbed diffusion and pinch between ρ t = 0.5 and ρ t = 0.8. Results show that the difference of the normalized temperature gradients have the largest and considerable impact on the peaking factor. The calculated diffusion and pinch showed good match with the experimental measured perturbed values. The calculated ratio of the particle balance pinch and diffusion explained the difference in peaking from turbulent transport, a high ratio for DIII-D yielding high peaking and a low ratio for JET yielding low peaking. However the particle balance diffusion, which suppresses the peaking from the source, was high for DIII-D and low for JET. Thusly, explaining the particle source much larger impact on the peaking at JET.
Integration-In-Totality: The 7th System Safety Principle Based on Systems Thinking in Aerospace Safety

Safety is of paramount concern in aerospace and aviation. Safety has evolved over the years, from the technical era to the human-factors era and organizational era, and finally to the present era of systems-thinking. Building upon three foundational concepts of systems-thinking, a new safety concept called “integration-in-totality principle” is propounded in this article as part of a “seven-principles-framework of system safety”, to act as an integrated framework to visualize and model system safety. The integration-in-totality principle concept addresses the need to have a holistic ‘vertical and horizontal integration’, which is a key tenet of systems thinking. The integration-in-totality principle is illustrated and elucidated with the help of a simple “Rubik’s cube model of integration-in-totality principle” with three orthogonal axes, the ‘axis of perspective’ of vertical integration, and the two ‘axes of perception and performance’ of horizontal integration. Safety analysis along the three axes with a ‘bidirectional synthesis’ and ‘continuum approach’ is further elaborated with relevant case studies, one among them related to the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft twin disasters. Safety is directly linked to quality, reliability and risk, through a self-reinforcing reflexive paradigm, and airworthiness assurance is the process through which safety concepts are embedded in a multidisciplinary aviation environment where the system of systems is seamlessly operating. The article explains how the system safety principle of integration-in-totality is related to reliability and airworthiness of an aerospace system with the help of the ‘V-model of systems engineering’. The article also establishes the linkage between integration-in-totality principle and strategic quality management, thus bridging the gap between two parallel fields of knowledge.
DIFFERENCE IN PERCEPTION OF URBAN GREEN SPACES BETWEEN DANCHI AND APARTMENT RESIDENTS IN TOKIWADAIRA, MATSUDO CITY, JAPAN (Perbedaan dalam Persepsi Ruang Hijau Perkotaan di antara Penghuni Kompleks Rumah Susun dan Apartemen di Tokiwadaira, Kota Matsudo, Jepang)

In Japan, where most of the population now comprises elderly people, various social problems have emerged, including lack of workers, inadequate care for elderly people, lower birthrate, the abandonment of local areas, and lack of community. In highly populated urban areas, city planners propose sustainable landscape planning but sometimes ignore the public, eliminating their sense of place. This study aimed to clarify the differences in green space perception between residents of danchi and apartments in Tokiwadaira, Matsudo, to learn what residents’ attributes may influence their perceptions, and to formulate factors of recognition and awareness of urban green spaces. The research was conducted in three stages: a recognition and awareness survey, analysis, and interpretation. A Mann-Whitney U test and Welch’s t test were applied to examine significant differences in perception level; a Chi-square test was applied to examine the relationship between residents’ attributes and volunteering activity; finally, factor analysis was applied to characterize residents’ recognition and awareness of nature and green spaces. The results demonstrated three significant differences regarding the benefits of green spaces between danchi and apartment residents, and five significant differences in their interest in green spaces. The attributes influencing danchi residents’ perceptions were gender and age, while those influencing apartment residents were age, existence of children, employment status, length of stay, and existence of green spaces. The three factors accounting for residents’ interest in green spaces and nature were: high recognition and awareness, moderate recognition and awareness, and low recognition and awareness. The results may prove useful as guidance for specific local governments in relation to urban green space planning and design. Kata kunci: recognition, awareness, landscape perception, public participation, urban green space.
A Comparative Performance Assessment of Ensemble Learning for Credit Scoring

Extensive research has been performed by organizations and academics on models for credit scoring, an important financial management activity. With novel machine learning models continue to be proposed, ensemble learning has been introduced into the application of credit scoring, several researches have addressed the supremacy of ensemble learning. In this research, we provide a comparative performance evaluation of ensemble algorithms, i.e., random forest, AdaBoost, XGBoost, LightGBM and Stacking, in terms of accuracy (ACC), area under the curve (AUC), Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic (KS), Brier score (BS), and model operating time in terms of credit scoring. Moreover, five popular baseline classifiers, i.e., neural network (NN), decision tree (DT), logistic regression (LR), Naïve Bayes (NB), and support vector machine (SVM) are considered to be benchmarks. Experimental findings reveal that the performance of ensemble learning is better than individual learners, except for AdaBoost. In addition, random forest has the best performance in terms of five metrics, XGBoost and LightGBM are close challengers. Among five baseline classifiers, logistic regression outperforms the other classifiers over the most of evaluation metrics. Finally, this study also analyzes reasons for the poor performance of some algorithms and give some suggestions on the choice of credit scoring models for financial institutions.
Studies on Hydration Swelling and Bound Water Type of Sodium- and Polymer-Modified Calcium Bentonite

Modified calcium bentonite (Ca-bentonite) is extensively used in engineered barrier systems (EBSs) for municipal and industrial disposal sites due to its high swelling potential and low hydraulic conductivity. However, few studies have focused on the micromechanism of hydration and swelling under the effect of inorganic chemical solution. In this study, free swell index (FSI) and the type and content of modified Ca-bentonite bound water under the inorganic chemical solution were quantitatively studied by using the free swell test and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). According to the results, modification of sodium and polymer significantly increases the FSI of Ca-bentonite, bringing it close to that of natural sodium bentonite. In addition, the chemical stability of polymer-modified bentonite is significantly higher than that of sodium-modified bentonite but less than that of natural Na-bentonite. The FSI of modified Ca-bentonite decreases with the increase of cation valence and ionic strength. distribution curves of the two types of modified bentonite are three-peak curves. With the increase of ionic strength, the content of total water and permeated hydrated water (accounting for 69%–95%) in bentonite decreases gradually, whereas the surface hydration water (accounting for 2%–31%) and free water content (accounting for 0–15%) increase. A uniform linear relationship exists between the FSI and corresponding total peak area of NMR (independent of ion valence, concentration, and bentonite type). Furthermore, a linear relationship exists between the FSI of the same type of bentonite and the relaxation time. Research results can provide data and theoretical basis for quantitative analysis and mechanism of the hydration swelling of bentonite.
Effects of Artemisia dracunculus Aqueous Extract on Blood Sugar, Serum Insulin, Triglyceride and Liver Enzymes in Fructose Drinking Water Male Rats

Background: Artemisia are various groups of plants which are used as an herbal medicine in all countries; the present study was designedtoevaluatetheeﬀectsof Artemisiadracunculus (AD)leavesaqueousextractonbloodsugar,seruminsulin,andtriglyceride and liver enzymes in Fructose Drinking water (FDW) male rats. Methods: At the beginning of experiment, 48 Wistar-albino male rats, weighing 200 - 250g were divided into control (C) and FDW groups(n=24). FDWgroupreceivedFDW(10%,w/v)foramonthbutcontrolgroupdidnotreceiveanyagentsduringthetrialperiod. Ahalf of controlandFDWgroupsreceivedADLaqueousextractdailyduringtrialperiod. Attheend,animalswereanesthetized,sac-riﬁced and blood samples were collected from cervical vessels. Serum insulin, Blood glucose, insulin resistance index, triglyceride and liver enzymes were measured by ordinary methods. Obtained data were analyzed using SPSS-17 via one way ANOVA and Tukey tests. Results: Our results showed that serum insulin, blood sugar, insulin resistance index, triglyceride, Aspartate amino transferase (AST) and Alanine amino transferase (ALT) values in FDW group signiﬁcantly increased compared to C and C + E groups but these values in group FDW + E were signiﬁcantly decreases compared to group FDW (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Our ﬁndings demonstrated that AD L aqueous extract improves blood sugar, serum insulin, insulin resistance index and liver enzymes in rat model.
Escaping Height in a Tree Represents a Potential Indicator of Fearfulness in Arboreal Squirrels

Abstract. The distance at which animals start to flee from approaching threats should reflects the degree of fearfulness, and thus, provides a useful measurement to evaluate animal personality and tolerance to human disturbance. Such metrics measurements, however, are mostly limited to open, high visible habitats, such as grasslands and urban parks. Alternative measurements are required for other types of habitats, such as typical forests. For arboreal species, we expect that a vertical escape distance (VED), the height at which animals stop climbing in a tree toward approaching threats, would reflect animal fearfulness. We compared VED and two commonly used metrics, alert distance (AD) and flight initiation distance (FID) in the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) towards human approach. We found that VED was significantly related with FID, but not AD. Data collection rate in VED was two to three times higher than that in the two previous metrics in vegetated areas. In natural environments, VED would also reflect the degree of fearfulness in arboreal species.
Association of Leptin Promoter 2548G/A variant with Serum Leptin, Lipid Profile and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background: A common 2548G/A promoter variant of the human leptin gene has been implicated in circulating leptin levels variations and pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus but available data are still conflicting. Objective: To explore potential associations between LEP 2548G/A of leptin with T2DM and the effect of this variation on serum leptin levels. Patients and Methods: Sixty two patients with T2DM and fifty non-diabetic controls were included in the study. Blood samples were collected from subjects for biochemical analysis and Genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Results: The genotype frequencies for LEP 2548G/G, LEP 2548G/A LEP 2548A/A were 46%, 32% and 22% in control group, and 19.4%, 33.9% and 46.7% in diabetic group, respectively. The A allele and GA/AA genotype of LEP 2548G/A was found to be more frequent than the G allele and GG genotype in T2DM patients compares to the controls. Subjects with the GA + AA genotype of LEP 2548G/A were at increased risk for T2DM (P=0.0001, OR = 1.78; 95% CI: 1.19–2.38). The serum leptin concentration of GA + AA genotype carriers was significantly higher from that of the GG genotype in the diabetic group. Conclusion: A allele carrier who have higher serum concentrations of leptin may have an association with the risk of T2DM development in the Erbi population.
Digital Tools and Personal Learning Environments: An Analysis in Higher Education

The effective use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the discussion surrounding its educational contributions in formal settings are key elements in the analysis of personal learning environments (PLE). The aim of this study was to analyze the tools that students use to access information, create content, and share and interact in the framework of higher education. The study took a quantitative approach, using an ex post facto, transactional design. Data collection was via the application of a questionnaire to a stratified probabilistic sample (n = 1187) of university students on different courses at the National University (Costa Rica). Analysis of the data showed moderate use of tools in students’ PLEs. Students made more frequent use of resources aimed at accessing information, followed by applications for sharing and interacting, and, to a lesser extent, content creation. We also found significant differences in the use of tools depending on sex, previous education in technology, and academic performance. We recommend the inclusion of open, flexible learning strategies in university education which incorporate the various technological resources available in the digital era to ensure the development of PLEs and lifelong learning.
Life Cycle Assessment of Beverage Packaging

Global plastic production has been increasing annually since World War II and is currently 380 million tonnes. Global concern about pollution from plastics in the seas and the environmental costs of plastics manufacture is rising. This study aimed to: i) review the costs, benefits, advantages / disadvantages of plastics as packaging materials and ii) use life cycle assessment to determine if there is less environmentally impactful beverage packaging than plastic bottles. As different beverages have different packaging needs, three categories were used: commonly used containers for milk, fruit juice and pressurised ‘fizzy’ drinks. The packaging types included in the assessment were glass bottles, aluminium cans, milk cartons, Tetra Pak, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and high-density polythene (HDPE) bottles. The ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006 standards for life cycle assessment formed the basis of the methodology. The open source software openLCA was used to conduct the assessments. Data was assembled from LCA databases such as the European reference Life Cycle Database of the Joint Research Center (ELCD), existing life cycle assessments, scientific reports and peer reviewed literature. The functional unit was set at a container that held one litre of fluid. The results found that in each category there was a less impactful beverage packaging than plastic bottles. In the Pressurised Beverage Category, 100% recycled aluminium cans would be the least impactful option, in the Fruit Juice Beverage Category Tetra Pak would be the least impactful option and in the Milk Beverage Category milk cartons would be the least impactful option.