Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Treatment of Optimization Problems With L1 Penalty Terms via Multiobjective Continuation

We present a novel algorithm that allows us to gain detailed insight into the effects of sparsity in linear and nonlinear optimization. Sparsity is of great importance in many scientific areas such as image and signal processing, medical imaging, compressed sensing, and machine learning, as it ensures robustness against noisy data and yields models that are easier to interpret due to the small number of relevant terms. It is common practice to enforce sparsity by adding the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _1$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:msub><mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="bieker-ieq1-3114962.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-norm as a penalty term. In order to gain a better understanding and to allow for an informed model selection, we directly solve the corresponding multiobjective optimization problem (MOP) that arises when minimizing the main objective and the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _1$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:msub><mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="bieker-ieq2-3114962.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-norm simultaneously. As this MOP is in general non-convex for nonlinear objectives, the penalty method will fail to provide all optimal compromises. To avoid this issue, we present a continuation method specifically tailored to MOPs with two objective functions one of which is the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _1$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:msub><mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="bieker-ieq3-3114962.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-norm. Our method can be seen as a generalization of homotopy methods for linear regression problems to the nonlinear case. Several numerical examples – including neural network training – demonstrate our theoretical findings and the additional insight gained by this multiobjective approach.
Physico‐chemical properties of African star apple (Chrysophylum albidum) components

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the physico‐chemical properties of African star apple (Chrysophylum albidum) components. African star apples are among the under‐utilized fruits in Nigeria therefore, the four succulent components (peel, pulp, juice and pericarp) of the fruit were analyzed and compared with other known fruits.Design/methodology/approach – African star apples were purchased and divided into two portions. The first portion was washed and the juice was expressed manually into a bottle and covered, while in the second portion, the peel, pulp and the pericarp (mucilage on the seeds) were separated. The physico‐chemical analyses (moisture, total solid, pH, titratable acidity, total sugar, carotenoids, ascorbic acid and total soluble solids) were carried out on the four components.Findings – Moisture content ranged from 53.5 per cent in peel to 86.3 per cent in juice, while the peel had higher total solid and the least was in the juice. The pH of peel was lower than that of othe.
Effect of Ambient Gas on the Catalytic Properties of Au in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Growth

We investigated the effects of ambient gases on the catalytic properties of Au in the synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). We found that H2 could effectively activate the Au catalyst during both the pretreatment stage and the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, and increase the nucleation density of SWCNTs. When Au is used as catalyst, a H2 atmosphere is crucial for the synthesis of high-density SWCNTs. At the same time, it is also found that heating in air during pretreatment can efficiently remove contaminant carbon and improve the purity of the resulting SWCNTs. Furthermore, an air atmosphere during annealing treatment can suppress the agglomeration of Au particles, which is useful for synthesizing high-density nanotubes.
Instrument line-profile synthesis in high-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction

An accurate method for synthesizing the instrumental line profile of high-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction instruments is presented. It is shown that the instrumental profile can be modelled by the convolution of four physical aberration functions: the equatorial intensity distribution, the monochromator and analyser transfer functions, and the axial divergence aberration function. Moreover, each equatorial aberration is related to an angle-independent function by a scale transform factor. The principles of the instrument line-profile calculation are general. They are applied in the case of the angle-dispersive powder X-ray diffraction beamline BM16 at the ESRF. The effects of each optical element on the overall instrument profile are discussed and the importance of the quality of the different optical elements of the instrument is emphasized. Finally, it is shown that the high resolution combined with the precise modelling of the instrument profile shape give access to a particle size as large as 3 µm.
Promotional Effect of Ru on the Dehydrogenation and Aromatization of Methane in the Absence of Oxygen over Mo/HZSM-5 Catalysts

Abstract A reaction rate of methane conversion of 14.54 nmol−1m−2and the formation rate of aromatics of 2.22 nmol−1m−2at 973 K forthe dehydrogenation and aromatization of methane in the absenceof oxygen was attained over Mo–Ru/HZSM-5 catalysts. Bycomparison, over unpromoted Mo/HZSM-5 catalysts, the reactionrate of methane conversion was 10.17 nmol−1m−2and theformation rate of aromatics was 1.52 nmol−1m−2. The Ru-promotedMo/HZSM-5 catalysts also show better stability. The catalyst with2% Mo loading and with Mo/Ru atomic ratio ranging from 3 to 7shows much better catalytic performance. NH3-TPD shows that theaddition of Ru onto 2Mo/HZSM-5 causes a further decrease in theamount of strong acid sites and at the same time, createsnew acid sites with moderate acid strengths. TPRand DTA studies illustrate that the existence of Ru with aproper dispersion promotes the reduction of Mo species and thesplitting of the C–H bond of methane.
Application of the interface potential approach to calculate the wetting properties of a water model system

The interface potential approach is used to compute the interfacial properties of a model system consisting of SPC/E water at a structureless non-polar surface. Both the spreading and drying versions of the method, in which one focuses on the growth of a thin liquid and vapour film from the surface, respectively, are employed. We examine the substrate strength dependence of interfacial properties, including the spreading and drying coefficients, contact angle and liquid–vapour surface tension at temperatures between 300 and 500 K as well as the temperature dependence of these properties at various substrate strengths. Two schemes are used to handle electrostatic interactions. In the first, the Coulomb potential is simply truncated, and in the second, Ewald summations are used to compute long-range electrostatic interactions. We find that the two schemes provide quantitatively different, but qualitatively consistent results.
Critical appraisal of the quality of clinical practice guidelines for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Background Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) have long served as an essential tool for clinicians to rationalize their treatment in practice. However, the quality of guidelines varies greatly. The present study aimed to analyze high-quality CPGs of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and highlight the potential for further improvement. Methods Three guideline developers’ websites, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science, as well as a public search engine, Google Scholar, were searched to retrieve CPGs regarding the management of IPF. The methodology and reporting quality of retrieved CPGs were assessed using the validated Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation Instrument II (AGREE II) and Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT) checklist. Results Twelve IPF CPGs were reviewed, among which 7 (58.3%) were considered as “recommended” and 1 (8.3%) as “recommended with modifications”. Among the 6 domains of AGREE II, scope and purpose (70.99%) and clarity of presentation (68.06%) were considered to be the fields in which CPGs performed best, evidenced by the highest mean AGREE II scores. The domains in which the reviewed CPGs received the lowest mean scores were rigor of development (50.87%) and applicability (34.14%). The intraclass correlation coefficient scores were excellent in each domain. The basic information domain received the highest overall reporting rate in the 7 domains of the RIGHT checklist; the other 6 domains had a full reporting rate of <50%. Eight items had a satisfactory level of reporting, whereas 14 items had poor reporting according to the RIGHT checklist. Correlation analysis revealed a highly positive correlation between the methodology and reporting quality of CPGs for IPF (r=0.872). Conclusions The methodological quality of selected IPF CPGs fluctuated greatly, and the full reporting rate was found to be quite low in some domains. In the future, we should focus not only on improving the methodological quality in the development of guidelines, but also on the reporting quality of guidelines.
Molybdenum Carbide-Catalyzed Conversion of Renewable Oils into Diesel-like Hydrocarbons

In the paper, we report for the first time that the conversion of renewable oils into diesel-like hydrocarbon mixtures can be realized on molybdenum carbides with high activity and selectivity. The molybdenum carbide catalyst exhibited much better resistance to leaching than noble metals and could be reused consecutively for sixteen times without deactivation. Mechanism investigations indicated that molybdenum carbide and palladium showed different reaction selectivities and it was speculated that the level of difficulty in acyl-to-alkyl rearrangement of surface acyl intermediates on molybdenum carbide and palladium resulted in the different product selectivity.
A Remarkable Alteration in the Bonding Pattern: An HF and DFT Study of the Interactions between the Metal Cations and the Hoogsteen Hydrogen-Bonded G-Tetrad

The HF and DFT levels of theory were applied to study the interaction between monovalent cations and guanine tetrads. The calculations reveal that cation−guanine-tetrad complexes adopt the normal four-stranded Hoogsteen-bonded G-tetrad structure, and no bifurcated hydrogen bonds which stabilize the noninteracting G-tetrads were found. The gas-phase binding sequence between the monovalent cations and the G-tetrad complexes follows the order Li+ > Na+ > K+. After the hydration correction, the stability sequence of the monovalent cation−guanine-tetrad complexes in aqueous solutions follows the trend K+ > Na+ > Li +. The preferential binding of potassium over sodium and sodium over lithium in water solutions reproduces the experimental ion selectivity of the guanine tetraplex. In addition, the weak stabilization energy of the K+−G-tetrad in the coplanar form is consistent with the fact that the potassium cation tends to locate between two successive tetrads. The results of this study justify the conclusion of.
The Color of Money: Federal vs. Industry Funding of University Research

U.S. universities have experienced a shift in research funding away from federal and towards private industry sources. This paper evaluates whether the source of funding – federal or private industry – is relevant for commercialization of research outputs. We link person-level grant data from 22 universities to patent and career outcomes (including IRS W-2 records). To identify a causal effect, we exploit individual-level variation in exposure to narrow federal R&D programs stemming from pre-existing field specialization. We instrument for the researcher’s funding sources with aggregate supply shocks to federal funding within these narrow fields. The results show that a higher share of federal funding reduces patenting and the chances of joining an incumbent firm, while increasing the chances of high- tech entrepreneurship and of remaining employed in academia. A decline in the federal share of funding is offset by an increase in the private share of funding, which has opposite effects. We conclude that the incentives of private funders to appropriate research outputs have important implications for the trajectory of university researcher careers and intellectual property. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber. org.
Persistent heterogeneity not short-term overdispersion determines herd immunity to COVID-19

It has become increasingly clear that the COVID-19 epidemic is characterized by overdispersion whereby the majority of the transmission is driven by a minority of infected individuals. Such a strong departure from the homogeneity assumptions of traditional well-mixed compartment model is usually hypothesized to be the result of short-term super-spreader events, such as individual's extreme rate of virus shedding at the peak of infectivity while attending a large gathering without appropriate mitigation. However, heterogeneity can also arise through long-term, or persistent variations in individual susceptibility or infectivity. Here, we show how to incorporate persistent heterogeneity into a wide class of epidemiological models, and derive a non-linear dependence of the effective reproduction number R_e on the susceptible population fraction S. Persistent heterogeneity has three important consequences compared to the effects of overdispersion: (1) It results in a major modification of the early epidemic dynamics; (2) It significantly suppresses the herd immunity threshold; (3) It significantly reduces the final size of the epidemic. We estimate social and biological contributions to persistent heterogeneity using data on real-life face-to-face contact networks and age variation of the incidence rate during the COVID-19 epidemic, and show that empirical data from the COVID-19 epidemic in New York City (NYC) and Chicago and all 50 US states provide a consistent characterization of the level of persistent heterogeneity. Our estimates suggest that the hardest-hit areas, such as NYC, are close to the persistent heterogeneity herd immunity threshold following the first wave of the epidemic, thereby limiting the spread of infection to other regions during a potential second wave of the epidemic. Our work implies that general considerations of persistent heterogeneity in addition to overdispersion act to limit the scale of pandemics.
Off-centred force-free neutron star magnetospheres

Neutron star electromagnetic activity produces pairs that fill their magnetosphere represented to the zeroth order by the force-free approximation. Neither dissipation nor acceleration nor radiation from charged particles is expected from this simplified model. So far, only centred dipole magnetic fields have been studied in this limit. In this paper, we explore the consequences of a rotating off-centred dipole on the force-free magnetosphere, showing the new magnetic field geometry, its spin-down luminosity, and the electromagnetic kick and torque felt by the neutron star. Solutions are obtained by time-dependent numerical simulations of the force-free regime using our pseudo-spectral code written in spherical coordinates. Our results are also compared to known analytical expressions found for the off-centred vacuum dipole by an expansion to lowest order in the parameter ϵ = d/R, where d is the displacement of the dipole from the stellar centre and R the neutron star radius. The presence of a force-free plasma enhances the spin-down luminosity and the electromagnetic kick and torque with respect to a centred force-free dipole. The impact on isolated and binary neutron stars is revised in light of these new results.
High‐Field Diffusivity of Electrons in Silicon

The diffusivity of electrons in silicon transverse to a high electric field has been measured with precision by a beam‐spreading technique. The measurements were carried out on 306‐μm‐thick double‐Schottky‐barrier structures fabricated from nearly intrinsic Si in which the applied field depleted the Si and was uniform to within ± 250 V/cm. It was found that the transverse diffusion coefficient D⊥ decreases monotonically from the known zero‐field value of 35 cm2/sec for E 1 kV/cm to 22 cm2/sec at 11.5 V/cm, the upper field limit of the measurements. Monte Carlo calculations of the diffusivity tensor were carried out for a simplified band model and yielded D⊥ values in good agreement with the experimental results, thereby lending credence to the calculated values of the longitudinal diffusion coefficient.
A Critical Analysis of Globalization in China Daily Newspaper

This paper examines the ideological construction of globalization in two types of genres: newspaper Opinion-Editorial articles and political economic speeches in China Daily newspaper. The paper discusses how discourse and ideology are interconnected in texts on globalization, especially the global economy. As a result of the textual and sociological analysis, the paper identifies two central interrelated ideologies in the discourse of globalization: new capitalism and neoliberalism. These political economic ideologies are construed linguistically through vocabulary and socially through universalization. From a macro sociological perspective, the analysis implies that social-Darwinist survival of the fittest is inevitable in global economic affairs.
Effects of Dietary Rosemary Essential Oil on Growth Performance, Carcass Traits and Some Hematological Values of Chukar Partridge

The aim of this study was to determine effects of different dietary rosemary essential oil levels on growth performance, carcass traits and haematological values of breeder chukar partridge. Eighty (60 females and 20 males), 32-week-old breeder chukar partridge were randomly divided in five treatments, with four replicate pens with 4 birds each. Five experimental diets were formulated according to rosemary essential oil inclusion rates 0 mg/kg, 24 mg/kg, 48 mg/kg, 72 mg/kg and 96 mg/kg, respectively. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks. The chukar partridges had free access to ad libitum feed and water. At the end of the trial, 1 male and 1 female partridge were slaughtered for blood analysis. The obtained results showed that there was no significant difference in feed intake, body weight gain between the control and treatment groups. Dietary rosemary essential oil supplementation did not affect blood serum glucose, urea, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL-C and LDL-C levels in breeder Chukar partridges. It could be concluded that supplementing rosemary essential oil into Chukar partridges diet show no negative effect on growth performance.
Direct simulation of aerodynamic entrainment with inter-particle cohesions.

Aerodynamic entrainment acts as the pioneer of saltation movement and is critical for understanding the development of aeolian phenomena. Here we performed direct numerical simulations on the aerodynamic lifting of surface particles on a random arranged sediment bed using the discrete element method, and provided evidence that particles do not leave the bed vertically with speeds equal to that needed to reach a height of one grain diameter, as people widely accepted, but with much smaller angles toward the bed surface and much larger velocities. The entrainment rate does not exhibit a quadratic dependence with the shear velocity, but a nearly linear one, because the velocity of entrained particle increases linearly with shear velocity. Moreover, inter-particle cohesion increases the fluid entrainment threshold significantly, but has no effect on the entrainment rate, as well as the take-off velocity and angle distributions of entrained particles, because the collisions between entrained and bed particles destroy the inter-particle bonds. The completely entrainment scheme is given, which provides a credible approach to explore the development and evolution of aeolian transports.
Attentional Biased Stochastic Gradient for Imbalanced Classification

In this paper~\footnote{The original title is "Momentum SGD with Robust Weighting For Imbalanced Classification"}, we present a simple yet effective method (ABSGD) for addressing the data imbalance issue in deep learning. Our method is a simple modification to momentum SGD where we leverage an attentional mechanism to assign an individual importance weight to each gradient in the mini-batch. Unlike existing individual weighting methods that learn the individual weights by meta-learning on a separate balanced validation data, our weighting scheme is self-adaptive and is grounded in distributionally robust optimization. The weight of a sampled data is systematically proportional to exponential of a scaled loss value of the data, where the scaling factor is interpreted as the regularization parameter in the framework of information-regularized distributionally robust optimization. We employ a step damping strategy for the scaling factor to balance between the learning of feature extraction layers and the learning of the classifier layer. Compared with exiting meta-learning methods that require three backward propagations for computing mini-batch stochastic gradients at three different points at each iteration, our method is more efficient with only one backward propagation at each iteration as in standard deep learning methods. Compared with existing class-level weighting schemes, our method can be applied to online learning without any knowledge of class prior, while enjoying further performance boost in offline learning combined with existing class-level weighting schemes. Our empirical studies on several benchmark datasets also demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method
Age-Optimal Power Allocation in Industrial IoT: A Risk-Sensitive Federated Learning Approach

This work studies a real-time environment monitoring scenario in the industrial Internet of things, where wireless sensors proactively collect environmental data and transmit it to the controller. We adopt the notion of risk-sensitivity in financial mathematics as the objective to jointly minimize the mean, variance, and other higher-order statistics of the network energy consumption subject to the constraints on the age of information (AoI) threshold violation probability and the AoI exceedances over a pre-defined threshold. We characterize the extreme AoI staleness using results in extreme value theory and propose a distributed power allocation approach by weaving in together principles of Lyapunov optimization and federated learning (FL). Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed FL-based distributed solution is on par with the centralized baseline while consuming 28.50% less system energy and outperforms the other baselines.
High spectral purity microwave generation using a dual-frequency hybrid integrated semiconductor-dielectric waveguide laser

We present an integrated semiconductor-dielectric hybrid dual-frequency laser operating in the 1.5 $\mu$m wavelength range for microwave and terahertz (THz) generation. Generating a microwave beat frequency near 11 GHz, we observe a record-narrow intrinsic linewidth as low as about 2 kHz. This is realized by hybrid integration of a single diode amplifier based on indium phosphide (InP) with a long, low-loss silicon nitride (Si$_3$N$_4$) feedback circuit to extend the cavity photon lifetime, resulting in a cavity optical roundtrip length of about 30 cm on a chip. Simultaneous lasing at two frequencies is enabled by introducing an external control parameter for balancing the feedback from two tunable, frequency-selective Vernier mirrors on the Si$_3$N$_4$ chip. Each frequency can be tuned with a wavelength coverage of about 80 nm, potentially allowing for the generation of a broad range of frequencies in the microwave range up to the THz range.