Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meta-Embeddings in Taxonomy Enrichment Task

In this paper we consider the taxonomy enrichment task based on a recently appeared dataset, called Diachronic wordnets, created on the basis of English and Russian wordnets. We study meta-embeddings approaches, which combine several source embeddings, to the hypernym prediction of novel words and show that meta-embedding approaches obtain the best results for this task if compared to other methods based on different principles. When combining with automatically extracted features from the Wiktionary online dictionary, the joint approach improves the results.
Pyrite geochemistry and its implications on Au-Cu skarn metallogeny: An example from the Jiguanzui deposit, Eastern China

Abstract Trace element geochemistry of pyrite is widely used to monitor ore-forming processes of various types of deposits, but its application to skarn mineral systems is not well constrained due to the multi-stage nature and complex associated mineral assemblages for skarn-type pyrite. The Jiguanzui skarn Au-Cu deposit in the Middle-Lower Yangtze River Valley Metallogenic Belt (Eastern China) is characterized by abundant pyrite that formed in the main-ore (Py1), late-ore (Py2), and post-ore (Py3) stages, which makes it ideal for unraveling skarn ore-fluid evolution. Specifically, Py1 is composed of quartz–pyrite (Py1a), quartz–calcite–pyrite (Py1b), quartz–sericite–pyrite (Py1c), quartz–chlorite±epidote–pyrite (Py1d), and quartz–K-feldspar–pyrite (Py1e), among which Py1a is the most widespread. Py2 comprises calcite–pyrite (Py2a) and calcite–K-feldspar–pyrite (Py2b), and Py3 comprise bird’s-eye pyrite (Py3a) and fingerprint-like pyrite (Py3b). The varying Co/Ni ratios (mostly >2) and coexistence with hydrothermal minerals (quartz, calcite, K-feldspar, chlorite, and epidote) reveal the hydrothermal origin of Py1 and Py2. The Co/Ni (0.97–7.30), Cu/Ni (8.94–186), and As/Ni (0.80–11.7) ratios, and the high trace-element contents indicate that Py3a may have been genetically linked to the waning magmatic-hydrothermal system and increasing meteoric fluid influx. Py1 generally has higher Co-Ni-Se but lower Zn-As-Mo contents than Py2. Py1 in the orebodies also has higher Cu-Au contents than Py2, consistent with the formation of Py1 during the main Au-Cu ore stage. During the ore-fluid evolution, meteoric water input and abundant galena formation in the late-ore calcite-sulfide stage may have controlled the decreasing Se-Co-Ni contents from Py1 to Py2, while the fluid cooling and pH rise (caused by acidic fluid-carbonate rock reactions) may have increased the As-Zn-Mo contents from Py1 to Py2. Py1a in the orebodies has higher As-Ag-Te, but lower Co-Ni-Se contents than Py1a in the wallrocks. The decompression and phase separation (fluid boiling) by extensive hydraulic fracturing may have caused the higher temperature, pH, and fO2 for the Py1a-forming fluids in the orebodies (than those in the wallrocks). Such fluid physicochemical differences may have been the main controlling factor on trace element spatial variations of Py1a. More importantly, the spatial variation of these trace elements in Py1a provides insights for using pyrite trace element geochemistry in skarn mineral exploration.
Stochastic L (cid:92) -convex Function Minimization

We study an extension of the stochastic submodular minimization problem, namely, the stochastic L (cid:92) -convex minimization problem. We develop the ﬁrst polynomial-time algorithms that return a near-optimal solution with high probability. We design a novel truncation operation to further reduce the computational complexity of the proposed algorithms. When applied to a stochastic submodular function, the computational complexity of the proposed algorithms is lower than that of the existing stochastic submodular minimization algorithms. In addition, we provide a strongly polynomial approximate algorithm. The algorithm execution also does not require any prior knowledge about the objective function except the L (cid:92) -convexity. A lower bound on the computational complexity that is required to achieve a high probability error bound is also derived. Numerical experiments are implemented to demonstrate the efﬁciency of our theoretical ﬁndings.
How do People Train a Machine?

Machine learning systems became pervasive in modern interactive technology but provide users with little, if any, agency with respect to how their models are trained from data. In this paper, we are interested in the way novices handle learning algorithms, what they understand from their behavior and what strategy they may use to "make it work". We developed a web-based sketch recognition algorithm based on Deep Neural Network (DNN), called Marcelle-Sketch, that end-users can train incrementally. We present an experimental study that investigate people's strategies and (mis)understandings in a realistic algorithm-teaching task. Our study involved 12 participants who performed individual teaching sessions using a think-aloud protocol. Our results show that participants adopted heterogeneous strategies in which variability affected the model performances. We highlighted the importance of sketch sequencing, particularly at the early stage of the teaching task. We also found that users' understanding is facilitated by simple operations on drawings, while confusions are caused by certain inherent properties of DNN. From these findings, we propose implications for design of IML systems dedicated to novices and discuss the socio-cultural aspect of this research.
Effects of Homework on Student Academic Achievement: A Descriptive Study

Homework is defined as a work allocated by the teacher to be accomplished by the student outside of the regular school day. The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of homework on the student academic achievement by conducting a descriptive study of selected and related existing literature the year 2000 to date. The gathered data failed to demonstrate that homework is an effective way to enhance the student academic achievement, in most cases.
EFFECT OF FAMILY MANAGEMENT IN EVALUATION THE COMPANY’S PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM BRAZIL

This research aims to verify the effect of family management in performance evaluation of Brazilian publicly traded companies belonging to the cyclical consumer sector listed in Brazil, Bolsa, Balcão (B3). For that, a descriptive, documentary research was conducted with a quantitative approach through the use of Multiple Linear Regression. The period of analysis comprised the years from 2012 to 2016. The study sample consisted of 34 Brazilian family companies and 66 non-family companies, totaling the 100 companies classified in the cyclical consumption sector. The results revealed differences between the family and unfamiliar companies regarding the accounting performance, since this variable was related in a significant and positive way with the performance measured by the ROA proxy. This result suggests that family companies seek over the years to improve the value of assets, since the higher the book performance, the more investors will be interested in family firms with expectations of long-term returns. Other evidence worth mentioning is the relationship between the size of the company and the market and accounting performance of family and non-family companies. In family firms, this finding indicates that the size of the company is related to these companies in the cyclical consumption sector, since they tend to be more efficient in the use of their assets, presenting a positive relation with performance. It is concluded that the market performance, as measured by the Tobin Q proxy, was one of the main measures of performance that lead companies to a high organizational performance.
Effect of sanitizing disinfectants on onion puree chemical and microbial properties

There is a growing demand for fresh cut, value-added and ready-to-use food in households, as well as for widespread use in retail, food services and the various food industries. Amongst vegetables, onions have many medicinal properties and can lead to health. This study evaluated the effect of disinfection methods including; T1: Nisin (50μg mL) + Citric Acid (1%), T2: Sodium Hypochlorite (100 mg/L) + Citric Acids (0.25 M) + Sulphuric Acid (eq/L), T3: Calcium Chloride (0.5%) + Ascorbic Acid(1%)+ Citric Acid(1%) +hot water 50°C, T4: Control (without disinfectant) during 21 days storage at 4°C on onion pure. Each week, pH, soluble solids, acidity, weight loss, total phenolic compounds antioxidant activity and microbial tests (total microbial count, total molds and yeasts) were performed on the samples. Statistical analysis of the data by way of a completely randomized factorial design, demonstrated that in all treatments pH was not significant (p > 0.05) while pH increased with increasing of storage days. The lowest TSS (6.44 °Brix) was recorded in T3 (CC+AS+CA) followed by T1 and T4 (control). The lowest weight loss (3.51%) was recorded in T1 followed by (3.77%) in T3, while the highest weight loss (5.89%) was observed for untreated (controlled). The highest TPC (54.01 mg GAE/100 g), lowest total count 0.95 log CFU g and total molds and yeasts 1.40 log CFU g was recorded in T3.
Rethinking Distributed Caching Systems Design and Implementation

Distributed caching systems based on in-memory key-value stores have become a crucial aspect of fast and efficient content delivery in modern web-applications. However, due to the dynamic and skewed environments, to which they are typically subject to, several problems arise in the form of load imbalance. This thesis addresses the sources of load imbalance in caching systems, which we classify as three principal source vectors: i) data placement, which relates to distribution of data items across servers; ii) data item access frequency, which affects the number of requests each server has to process; and iii) data item size, which impacts memory management. Furthermore, we also provide several strategies to overcome the sources of imbalance in isolation. As a use case, we analyse Memcached, its variants, and propose a novel solution for distributed caching systems.
Cross-speaker covariation across six vocalic changes in New York City English

This article examines differences in the way that innovative variants for six vocalic changes in New York City English—too-fronting, raising of price and face and lowering of bad, thought and dress—co-occur across speakers, and explores social correlates of these patterns of covariation. We report on an analysis of a recently developed corpus of conversational speech from 140 speakers. The analysis suggests that patterns of covariation across speakers are conditioned by the local social embedding of the changes. Changes affecting highly localized realizations for raised bad and thought are distributed differently from supra-local changes affecting too and dress.
Implementation of an Educational “Boot Camp” to Increase Nurses’ Confidence, Knowledge and Use of Evidence-based Practice in a Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Evidence-based practice (EBP) can be used to promote quality patient care, improve population health, decrease healthcare costs, improve work-life balance of health care professionals, increase job satisfaction, and decrease staff turnover. Barriers to implementing EBP include perceived lack of autonomy and authority to change patient care processes; and knowledge deficits related to EBP implementation. Limited access to research materials and inadequate leadership support also stifles implementation of EBP. The purpose of this project was to increase confidence, knowledge, and use of EBP by nurses through implementation of an intense, structured educational “Boot Camp”. A convenience sample of 27 nurses participated in an intense, five-day, face-to-face EBP Boot Camp, which included didactic, small group discussion and computer lab exercises. A preand post-test design was used. Paired t-tests were calculated to compare mean scores measuring nurses’ confidence and knowledge in the use of EBP. A statistically significant increase in confidence (p = .000) and knowledge (p = .001) in the use of EBP was noted with an eta squared statistic indicating a large effect size for both, 0.75 and 0.34, respectively. Findings suggest an intense, structured EBP educational offering will increase confidence and knowledge in the use of EBP.
Membership Service for Large-Scale Edge Systems

Distributed systems are increasing in scale and complexity. Cloud-based applications need more resources to be able to continue satisfying the user requirements. There are more users and devices with internet access and therefore, more data to process and store. There is now the need of having additional systems closer to clients (and potentially outside of the data center), in the edge. Many distributed systems would be able to benefit from this new Edge Computing paradigm, where some of the computations that are done in data centers, are now done in edge nodes or edge devices. In order to keep managing and building these services, there is the need of a membership service, which is a fundamental component in distributed systems. A membership service must be able to track all the correct processes in a system, as to avoid routing requests to unreachable nodes, to balance the workload in the system, etc. In this thesis, we aim at designing a novel, scalable and efficient membership service that is able to support large-scale applications which include components in the edge of the network, closer to the users. For that reason, we will study existing membership protocols to be used as baselines. Some issues, such as dealing with NATs and firewalls, come along with the introduction of the new Edge Computing paradigm. Our membership service should be able to deal with those issues in a efficient way. Additionally, we will leverage such membership service to support the operation of Cassandra, as a distributed storage system. Later, we will study how to leverage the membership service to move some of the aspects of the storage system to the edge of the network.
Firm-bank “Odd Couples” and trade credit: Evidence from Italian SMEs

We analyze the use of trade credit as a substitute for relationship lending credit when firms cannot otherwise obtain such credit. Using a sample of SMEs from the Survey of Italian Manufacturing Firms, we show that when opaque firms seeking relationship credit encounter transactional banks, they use a greater portion of trade credit. This findings suggest that opaque firms substitute their missing relationship credit with trade credit, because trade creditors are more able to evaluate soft information. The results depend on firm characteristics, the nature of the bank, and the size of the firms’ banking pool.
Anatomical variations of caecal appendix on tomography, a retrospective study

Introduction: the most common surgical cause of abdominal pain is appendicitis; its diagnosis is affected by anatomical variations of the vermiform appendix, because this is the most variable abdominal organ in terms of position and organ relations. Objective: to determine the characteristics of the normal appendix in computed tomography scans, including length, diameter, wall thickness, and the location of the base and the appendicular tip. Methods: abdominal computed tomography scans with UroCT scan protocol images were studied to measure length, width, and diameter of the appendix, and to identify the locations of its base and tip. The appendicular tip location was categorized as anterior or posterior and subdivided into: pelvic, retrocaecal/retrocolic, postileal, paracolic, subcaecal, subhepatic or midline. The appendicular base location was defined in three planes in relation to the ileocaecal valve: anterior-posterior, medial-lateral, or superior-inferior. Results: were included the abdominal tomography images of 83 patients in which general characteristics of the appendix were determined: a mean length of 78 mm (SD = ±23.41) and a mean diameter of 6.55 mm (SD =± 1.77) were observed. The bases were more frequently located inferior posterior, lateral and medial, to the ileocaecal valve, and the tips were more frequently located in the pelvic cavity, followed by the retrocaecal and paracaecal location. Conclusions: the locations of the base of the appendix were correlated with overall reports. There was no correlation between the tip location and the length of the appendix, this means that, even if the appendix is long, it is not associated with a tip location further from the ileocaecal valve.
Understanding Technology Adoption within the Service-Dominant Logic Paradigm

Purpose Information and communication technologies (ICT) have revolutionised the marketplace though gaps exist in relation to marketers‟ ability to understand the distinctive behavioural processes behind consumers‟ adoption of technology-based services. Traditional consumer behaviour models focus on the “goods-centered” dominant logic (Sheth and Sisodia, 2006). A more appropriate model for understanding today‟s consumer is one which takes a service-dominant view where the consumer is a co-creator (Lusch et al ., 2007). Design/methodology/approach This research suggests a new model for understanding consumers‟ technology acceptance of technology-based services. It integrates Parasuraman‟s (2000) taxonomy of technology readiness (TRI) and a modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003) by hypothesising that TRI‟s personality traits are antecedents to technology acceptance. This study will measure the relationship between the dimensions of the TRI and levels of UTAUT while taking into account moderating variables such as age. Findings Based on the research to date, hypotheses have been developed which will be verified with the support of a major mobile phone network operator by measuring technology readiness aligned to acceptance and use during longitudinal research of technology-based service beta-trials with actual consumers.
COVID-19 Patients Symptoms: Gastrointestinal Presentations, Comorbidities and Outcome in a Canadian Hospital setting

Background: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant global impact and Canada has seen significant morbidity and mortality nationwide. While public health interventions and provincially regulated health insurance coverage have been credited with minimizing transmission rates in Canada relative to neighboring countries, disease presentation has been presumed to be the same. Aim: We sought to determine factors associated with differences in gastrointestinal outcomes in COVID-19 patients at a Canadian hospital. Methods: We collected data from 192 hospital records of COVID-19 patients across seven Hamilton Health Sciences hospitals, a network of academic health centers located in Hamilton, Ontario serving one of the largest metropolitan areas in Canada. Statistical and correlative analysis of symptoms, comorbidities, and mortality were performed. Results: There were 192 patients. The mean age was 57.6 years (SD=21.0). For patients who died (n=27, 14%), mean age was 79.2 years old (SD=10.6) versus 54 years for survivors (SD=20.1). There was a higher mortality among patients with older age (p=0.000), long hospital stay (p=0.004), male patients (p=0.032), and patients in nursing homes (p=0.000). Patients with dyspnea (p=0.028) and hypertension (p=0.004) were more likely to have a poor outcome. Laboratory test values that were significant in determining outcomes were an elevated INR (p=0.007) and elevated creatinine (p=0.000). Cough and hypertension were the most common symptom and comorbidity, respectively. Diarrhea was the most prevalent (14.5%) gastrointestinal symptom. Impaired liver function was related to negative outcome (LR 5.6; p=0.018). Conclusion: In a Canadian cohort, elevated liver enzymes, prolonged INR and elevated creatinine were associated with poor prognosis. Hypertension was also linked to a higher likelihood of negative outcome.
Revision 2 1 2 A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO PHASE EQUILIBRIA MODELING TOOLS : 3 MORB EQUILIBRIUM STATES AT VARIABLE PRESSURE AND H 2 O 4 CONCENTRATIONS 5 6 Word count : 9504 7 8

18 Phase equilibria modeling is a powerful petrological tool to address both forward and inverse 19 geological problems over a broad range of crustal and upper mantle conditions of pressure (P), 20 temperature (T), composition (X) and redox (fO2). The development of thermodynamic databases, 21 relatively realistic activitycomposition (aX) relations for solids, melts and fluids, pressure22 volume-temperature (PVT) equations of state (EOS), and efficient numerical algorithms 23
Associations of Physical Activity, Sleep Quality and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in University Students

Physical activity is associated with enhanced sleep quality and optimal body composition, as well as a reduction in cardiovascular risk factors in the general population. Although earlier research has established a link between physical exercise and excellent sleep quality as well as an optimum BMI in adults, little is known about the relationship in the young adult populations. The purpose of this study is to discover if there is a relationship between sleep quality, blood pressure, waist circumference, socio-demographic variables with physical activity among young adult in Kuala Lumpur. A cross-sectional sample of 120 university students was recruited for this study. Physical activity and sleep quality were assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, respectively. Blood pressure, Body mass index, and waist circumference were also measured. Approximately 36% of university students engage in moderate to vigorous physical exercise. The average physical activity was 2430.37 ± 2509.16 MET-minutes each week, which meets the minimal need. The median difference in MET-minutes per week between gender was not significant, with males having greater MET than females (p > 0.05). However, there was no statistically significant variation in MET-minutes each week between study year and mode of transportation. (p > 0.05). Approximately 40.3% of university students were classified as having good sleep quality. The average sleep quality is 5.37 ± 2.38, indicating that the students have slightly a poor sleep quality. There was no statistically significant variation in sleep score between gender, year of study, and mode of transportation (p > 0.05). The waist circumference (WC) has a significant relationship with body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). According to multinomial logistic regression, there was a significant association between level of physical activity (PA) and BMI and year of study when comparing moderate and low PA. Physical activity is essential because it may alter a young adult’s lifestyle, encouraging active commuting to work or other short-distance destinations. Attention must be given to this particular population to encourage regular and sustainable participation in physical activity to achieve lifelong health benefits. Other variables, such as body fat, energy intake, stress level and muscle mass, can also be examined for future research.