Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transitions in Frequent to Daily Tobacco and Nicotine Use among Youth and Young Adults

Abstract Objective: To examine use and frequency patterns across e-cigarettes, cigarettes, and little cigars, cigarillos, and cigars (LCCs) over time. Methods: Data were obtained from the Truth Longitudinal Cohort (TLC), a nationally representative longitudinal cohort of youth and young adults. Latent class analysis was conducted to classify participants (n = 5274) into subgroups based upon frequency of use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and little cigars, cigarillos, and cigars (LCCs) in the past 30 days. Latent transition analysis was used to estimate the probability of use pattern transitions across 23 months (February 2018 to December 2019), adjusted for the effects of gender, race/ethnicity, financial situation, sensation seeking, parent education, and household smoking. Findings: Findings reveal four groups of tobacco product users: (1) frequent to daily cigarette users (9%), (2) frequent to daily cigarette and LCC users (3%), (3) frequent to daily e-cigarette users (10%), and (4) former or noncurrent tobacco users (78%). Although most respondents (69–94%) retained their initial user patterns during the observation period, results also indicate shifts between user groups. Notably, 14% of frequent to daily cigarette and LCC users transitioned to frequent to daily cigarette use, while 6% of frequent to daily cigarette and LCC users, 9% of frequent to daily cigarette users, and 4% of former or noncurrent tobacco users transitioned to frequent to daily e-cigarette use. Conclusion: Although most frequent to daily tobacco users stay with their primary product, there are transitions between frequent to daily cigarette, e-cigarette, and LCC use. Transition patterns may influence risk for nicotine addiction among youth and young adults. Thus, policies focused on preventing and reducing all tobacco use are needed to curb the risk of nicotine addiction among youth and young adults.
Surmounting the Disconnect in Practical Lessons between Curriculum Expectations and Learners’ Prior Experiences

: Home Economics, Consumer Studies and other similar subjects can contribute valuable learning to the lives of learners. Efforts to globalize the contents of these subjects have, however, occasionally led to a loss of cultural inclusivity in curricula, as has been the case in South Africa. Notwithstanding the South African educational landscape needing to cater for diverse cultures, the Consumer Studies curriculum still mainly focuses on Western knowledge and skills, particularly the selection of products that learners must make in food production lessons. This leaves especially African learners feeling disconnected and unmotivated to perform well or succeed in the subject. The overarching aim of the research was to frame recommendations in the form of practical suggestions as part of efforts to surmount this disconnect in order to broaden the perceived and experienced value of food production in Consumer Studies for a wider range of culturally diverse South African learners. A qualitative case study was employed to explore if and how a Consumer Studies teacher at a school consisting of mostly African learners was attempting to overcome the disconnect between the curriculum expectations and learners’ prior experiences. Interviews and site visits were conducted to collect data, and the data were then thematically analyzed from an interpretivist perspective. The findings indicate a substantial disconnect between the expectations of the teacher (informed by curriculum requirements) and the prior experiences and learning expectations of her learners, especially as regards the qualities of successful food products. Two recommendations are made: first, the teacher should use demonstrations as a teaching method to improve learners’ familiarity with products; and second, clear visual images should be displayed to learners to aid them in understanding the expected outcomes of the products they have to make in practical lessons.
13/2 ways to count curves

In the past 20 years, compactifications of the families of curves in algebraic varieties X have been studied via stable maps, Hilbert schemes, stable pairs, unramified maps, and stable quotients. Each path leads to a different enumeration of curves. A common thread is the use of a 2-term deformation/obstruction theory to define a virtual fundamental class. The richest geometry occurs when X is a nonsingular projective variety of dimension 3. We survey here the 13/2 principal ways to count curves with special attention to the 3-fold case. The different theories are linked by a web of conjectural relationships which we highlight. Our goal is to provide a guide for graduate students looking for an elementary route into the subject.
Haematological status of common carp, Cyprinus carpio L. exposed to sublethal dose of organophosphorus pesticide, monocrotophos

The introduction of organophosphorus insecticide into the aquatic ecosystem through agricultural runoffs, rainwater seepage adversely affects many non-target organisms including fishes. The chronic effect of organophosphorus pesticide, Monocrotophos on the haematological parameters of freshwater fish, Cyprinus carpio has been investigated in the present study. Cyprinus carpio were procured and their sublethal, median lethal and lethal concentrations for 120 hrs were assessed. Two sub-lethal concentrations (T2) and (T3) were selected to which the fishes were exposed for 30 days. Control set up without monocrotophos (T1) was run simultaneously. Blood from anaesthetised fishes were collected after 30 days of exposure period. Hemoglobin (Hb), Red Blood Cells (RBCs) and hematocrit (Hct) significantly decreased with the increasing concentration of monocrotophos during the experimental periods. But White Blood Cells (WBCs) significantly increased in the treated fishes when compared to the control depicting negative effects of monocrotophos on the hematological parameters of Cyprinus carpio .
Harmonic Analysis on Free Groups

A method and apparatus for simultaneous testing of one or more hydraulic control systems, each system having a hydraulic pressure pump whose high-pressure end is connected to a first tank in which a first piston element having a relatively small surface is movable and whose low-pressure end is connected to a second tank in which a second sealing element, which has a relatively large surface and is coupled with the first piston element, is movable in such a way that under normal working conditions a constant compression ratio is maintained in the system and each individual system includes at least one working unit between the high-pressure end and the low pressure end while, for use on a test unit with a pressure pump of its own, its high-pressure end is connected to the high-pressure end of each system to be tested and the low-pressure end is connected by way of a tank to the low-pressure end of each system to be tested, at least one pressure regulator for each system being inserted between the tank to the test system and the low-pressure end to be tested; and having pressure regulator in dependence of the position of the corresponding piston elements coupled with each other to maintain the compression ratio in each individual system, which is to be tested, at the value conforming to normal working conditions.
Cytotoxicity Screening and Invitro Antioxidant Potential of NEWBOULDIA LAEVIS Leaf Extract

This study was aimed at determination of the phenolic composition of phenolic, antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity Newbouldia laevis leaf extract to brine shrimps (Artemia salina). Extracts from the leaves of the plant was subjected to phytochemical screening to determine the total phenolic contents. The methanolic extract had the highest percentage yield after extraction and phenolic content phenolic content of 22.844mg/ml, followed by chloroform, petroleum ether and ethyl acetate extracts with 0.200, 0.601, 1.803mg/ml respectively, hence, the methanolic extract was used for further investigation. The effect of the methanolic extract in scavenging free radical was measured using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-piecryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical was determined spectrophotometrically. Results revealed that the methanolic extract had IC 50 =176. 28µg/ml while the standard vitamin C had IC 50 =76. 9µg/ml. The result of brine shrimp lethality assay of the extract were relatively safe (LC 50 =2690.3µg/ml) when compared with the reference potassium dichromate (LC 50 =629.93 µg/ml). This report indicates that the leaf of the plant is relatively safe for the purposes utilized in this study, hence are potential antioxidant source that could offer protection against oxidative stress.
Diploma Thesis: Coupling Matrix based Bandpass Filter

Bandpass filters are widely deployed in modern RF communication systems. The mathematical concepts of these filters, their characteristic functions, and coupling matrices were discussed by many authors. However, when realizing an actual 3-D filter structure, little information is available in literature. This thesis presents a step-by-step guide for the design of a resonant cavity based filter. It starts from a coupling matrix, continues with the simulation of 3-D models and works its way up to manufacturing the filter. The design is optimized for in-house production, considering limits of the available machines and materials. Therefore, the designed filter is not optimal from its electrical characteristics, however critical parameters can be determined. Additionally, two common techniques for loss reduction, i.e. polishing and silver-plating, are experimentally evaluated. To do so, a simple resonant cavity is designed. To determine the influence on the losses, the unloaded quality factor was estimated. Therefore, two common quality estimation methods were applied on the cavity, utilizing different energy coupling mechanisms. However, these did not show the desired accuracy. Consequently, a new method is developed, which considers coupling mechanism imperfections. Polishing was found to give a negligible loss reduction, while silver-plating indicates a quality factor improvement of 33%. Hence, silver-plating was also applied to the filter in order to reduce the losses. With this technique, a filter was designed with a very low insertion loss, which fits the requirements of the design. Furthermore, this was achieved with minimized manufacturing effort, allowing to build it with simple machines.
A minimization principle for the description of time-dependent modes associated with transient instabilities

We introduce a minimization formulation for the determination of a ﬁnite-dimensional, time-dependent, orthonormal basis that captures directions of the phase space associated with transient instabilities. While these instabilities have ﬁnite lifetime they can play a crucial role by either altering the system dynamics through the activation of other instabilities, or by creating sudden nonlinear energy transfers that lead to extreme responses. However, their essentially transient character makes their description a particularly challenging task. We develop a minimization framework that focuses on the optimal approximation of the system dynamics in the neighborhood of the system state. This minimization formulation results in diﬀerential equations that evolve a time-dependent basis so that it optimally approximates the most unstable directions. We demonstrate the capability of the method for two families of problems: i) linear systems including the advection-diﬀusion operator in a strongly non-normal regime as well as the Orr-Sommerfeld/Squire operator, and ii) nonlinear problems including a low-dimensional system with transient instabilities and the vertical jet in crossﬂow. We demonstrate that the time-dependent subspace captures the strongly transient non-normal energy growth (in the short time regime), while for longer times the modes capture the expected asymptotic behavior. also asymptotically unstable directions of the phase space and we assess their time-dependent stability properties.
Potential Utilization of Rubber Seed Meal as Feed and Food

Feed and food crisis has been a global concern due to its increasing prices. It led researchers to consider an alternative non-conventional edible material. This paper discussed the previous studies conducted on rubber seed as feed and food. Rubber Tree (Hevea brasiliensis) is a multipurpose tree; grown primarily for the production of latex with numerous useful by-products such as rubber seed, woods and oil. The rubber seed has a promising amount of crude protein, with the existence of a major toxic compound (cyanogenic compound) which has hindered the proper utilisation of the existing nutrient. The present review finds out the nutritional composition of the rubber seed to be moisture content was 3.99%, crude protein 23, crude fat 68.5 and ash 4.3 g/100g respectively. The amino acid in rubber seed was high in Glutamic acid (16.13%) and low in Cysteine (0.78%). Since, rubber seeds contained substantial amount proximate components, therefore it could be assumed as edible food and promising feed resource for livestock. Despite its promising protein contents, rubber seed meal contains cyanogens compound but this drawback could be overcome by boiling and storage time period which could lead to increase the nutrients availability and utilisation of rubber seed as edible feed and food.
Acquisition of Modular Low Earth Orbit Satellites for Improved Intelligence Collection

The primary objective of this study is to investigate and analyze improved multi-source intelligence (multi-INT) data collection through low latency, cross-communicating, modular low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. This research examines the current acquisition process and system engineering approach to multi-INT data collection via command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) satellites, specifically focusing on time (production time and system life) and cost. The project introduces several proposed low latency, cross-communicating, modular LEO satellite systems for improved multi-INT data collection. It then provides a comparison of geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) satellite life-cycle costs versus the lifecycle costs of LEO satellites and analyzes the maintainability, upgradeability, interoperability, reliability, and safety/security (MUIRS) benefits of smaller, faster-toorbit satellites that could be launched in weeks or months.
Clustering Algorithms and Weighted Instance Based Learner for User Proﬁling

—User proﬁling has created opportunities for service providers to make available a channel for user awareness as well as to achieve high user satisfaction. Apart from traditional collaborative and content-based methods, a number of classiﬁcation and clustering algorithms have been used for user proﬁling. In our previous work, a weighted classiﬁcation method, namely Weighted Instance Based Learner (WIBL), was proposed and evaluated for user proﬁling. In this paper, we aim to compare the performance of a WIBL algorithm with well known clustering algorithms for user proﬁling. Simulations showed that a WIBL is capable of outperforming the clustering algorithms.
Measuring Gender Bias in German Language Generation

: Most existing methods to measure social bias in natural language generation are specified for English language models. In this work, we developed a German regard classifier based on a newly crowd-sourced dataset. Our model meets the test set accuracy of the original English version. With the classifier, we measured binary gender bias in two large language models. The results indicate a positive bias toward female subjects for a German version of GPT-2 and similar tendencies for GPT-3. Yet, upon qualitative analysis, we found that positive regard partly corresponds to sexist stereotypes. Our findings suggest that the regard classifier should not be used as a single measure but, instead, combined with more qualitative analyses.
CYUT at the NTCIR-16 FinNum-3 Task: Data Resampling and Data Augmentation by Generation

This paper presents a description for our submission to the NTCIR-16-FinNum-3 shared task in fine-grained claim detection for fina-cial documents. We submitted 3 runs in both the Analyst’s Report (Chinese data) and Earnings Conference call (English data) sec-tions in the final test. The CYUT-1 uses MacBERT (for Analyst’s Report) and Roberta (for Earnings Conference call) with the classical classifier BiLSTM as the baseline of this study. In CYUT-2, we change the classifier to AWD-LSTM for comparison. Further-more, considering the the problem of unbalanced training data when training the model, we use data resampling technique in both CYUT-1 and CYUT-2. And we propose an attempt to extend the data using GPT2 in CYUT-3. In the Macro-F1 validation, the 3 Runs obtained 88.80%, 86.76%, and 88.20% in the Analyst’s Report, and 85.53%, 87.49%, and 87.88% in the Earnings Conference call, respectively. Also, after the formal runs were submitted, we did several additional runs to test the validity of our original proposed methods by conducting more oriented attempts. Furthermore, we found that data augumentation has improved the prediction of Analyst’s Report in our experiment. Marco-F1 can improve about 2% in additional runs, maximum to 90.24%.
Chapter 4: How And Why Does Schematic Knowledge Affect Memory?

Beliefs have been studied across disciplines using a variety of approaches. In the human memory literature, expectations and beliefs drawn from prior knowledge are characterized and studied as schematic knowledge. In this chapter, we will discuss the role schematic knowledge plays in guiding the formation and retrieval of memories. A central focus will be placed upon understanding why retrieved memories are biased towards prior beliefs or schematic knowledge. Through a review of computational models and empirical findings, this chapter will convey that even though prior beliefs generate memory biases, these memory biases ultimately maximize the average memory accuracy – giving rise to optimal behavior. In the last section of the chapter, I will connect these modeling frameworks to more recent empirical results on the role of schematic knowledge, identifying potential future directions for updating the models and venues for conducting new experiments.
Leveraging Mental Health Forums for User-level Depression Detection on Social Media

The number of depression and suicide risk cases on social media platforms is ever-increasing, and the lack of depression detection mechanisms on these platforms is becoming increasingly apparent. A majority of work in this area has focused on leveraging linguistic features while dealing with small-scale datasets. However, one faces many obstacles when factoring into account the vastness and inherent imbalance of social media content. In this paper, we aim to optimize the performance of user-level depression classification to lessen the burden on computational resources. The resulting system executes in a quicker, more efficient manner, in turn making it suitable for deployment. To simulate a platform agnostic framework, we simultaneously replicate the size and composition of social media to identify victims of depression. We systematically design a solution that categorizes post embeddings, obtained by fine-tuning transformer models such as RoBERTa, and derives user-level representations using hierarchical attention networks. We also introduce a novel mental health dataset to enhance the performance of depression categorization. We leverage accounts of depression taken from this dataset to infuse domain-specific elements into our framework. Our proposed methods outperform numerous baselines across standard metrics for the task of depression detection in text.
On oriented $m$-semiregular representations of finite groups about valency two

Given a group $G$, an {\em $m$-Cayley digraph $\G$ over $G$} is a digraph that has a group of automorphisms isomorphic to $G$ acting semiregularly on the vertex set with $m$ orbits. We say that $G$ admits an {\em oriented $m$-semiregular representation} (O$m$SR for short), if there exists a regular $m$-Cayley digraph $\G$ over $G$ such that $\G$ is oriented and its automorphism group is isomorphic to $G$. In particular, O$1$SR is also named as ORR. Verret and Xia gave a classification of finite simple groups admitting an ORR of valency two in [Ars Math. Contemp. 22 (2022), \#P1.07]. Let $m\geq 2$ be an integer. In this paper, we show that all finite groups generated by at most two elements admit an O$m$SR of valency two except four groups of small orders. Consequently, a classification of finite simple groups admitting an O$m$SR of valency two is obtained.
From Source to Building Fragility: Post-Event Assessment of the 2013 M7.1 Bohol, Philippines, Earthquake

We use ground-motion simulations of the 2013 Bohol, Philippines, earthquake along with a new post-disaster exposure/damage database to constrain building fragility and vulnerability. The large number of damaged buildings (>70,000) and the wide spread of seismic intensities caused by this earthquake make it an ideal candidate for such a study. An extensive survey was conducted leading to a robust description of over 25,000 damaged and undamaged structures. Ground-motion fields were simulated using ground-motion prediction equations and stochastic modeling, and the estimated and observed values were compared. The finite source model used in the simulation was based on the analysis of aftershocks and SAR data. The ground motions were associated with the empirical database to derive fragility and vulnerability models. Results indicate that the pattern of damage is best captured in the stochastic simulation. Constraints were placed on seismic building fragility and vulnerability models, which can promote more effective implementation of construction regulations and practices.
Graphical tools for selecting accurate and valid conditional instrumental sets

We consider the accurate estimation of total causal effects in the presence of unmeasured con-founding using conditional instrumental sets. Speciﬁcally, we consider the two-stage least squares estimator in the setting of a linear structural equation model with correlated errors that is compatible with a known acyclic directed mixed graph. To set the stage for our results, we fully characterise the class of conditional instrumental sets that result in a consistent two-stage least squares estimator for our target total effect. We refer to members of this class as valid conditional instrumental sets. Equipped with this deﬁnition, we provide three graphical tools for selecting accurate and valid conditional instrumental sets: First, a graphical criterion that for certain pairs of valid conditional instrumental sets identiﬁes which of the two corresponding estimators has the smaller asymptotic variance. Second, a forward algorithm that greedily adds covariates that reduce the asymptotic variance to a valid conditional instrumental set. Third, a valid conditional instrumental set for which the corresponding estimator has the smallest asymptotic variance we can ensure with a graphical criterion.
Rebound of partially solidified drops

Drops impacting extremely undercooled surfaces solidify and generally adhere to them. We report the fascinating rebound of drops on dry ice in the absence of surface pinning even when they are partially solidified, and demarcate its boundary from no-bounce and fragmentation. Experiments and scaling models reveal that the extent of solidification within the drops dictate these outcomes and control spreading during rebound. Theoretical arguments which consider energy loss due to solidification and bending energy of the solidified layer in determining coefficient of restitution underscore the crucial role played by thermo-elastocapillary effects.