Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-Task Approach to Reinforcement Learning for Factored-State Markov Decision Problems

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a flexible framework for learning a decision rule in an unknown environment. However, a large number of samples are often required for finding a useful decision rule. To mitigate this problem, the concept of transfer learning has been employed to utilize knowledge obtained from similar RL tasks. However, most approaches developed so far are useful only in low-dimensional settings. In this paper, we propose a novel transfer learning idea that targets problems with high-dimensional states. Our idea is to transfer knowledge between state factors (e.g., interacting objects) within a single RL task. This allows the agent to learn the system dynamics of the target RL task with fewer data samples. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through experiments.
Identification of kitM541L somatic mutation in chronic eosinophilic leukemia, not otherwise specified and its implication in low-dose imatinib response

Activating mutations of KIT receptor tyrosine kinase have been reported in different neoplasms. The M541L KIT substitution (KITM541L) has been described to be associated with pediatric mastocytosis, to enhance growth rate of the affected cells and to confer higher sensitivity to imatinib therapy. We investigated the presence of KITM541L in five males with chronic eosinophilic leukemia, not otherwise specified (CEL, NOS), all negative for Platelet-derived growth factor-alpha (PDGFR) or PDGFRbeta abnormalities, which responded to imatinib therapy. To assess whether the mutation was constitutive or somatic in nature, we evaluated its presence analyzing either the neoplastic or normal cell population (epidermal cells or CD3-positive T lymphocytes). KITM541L substitution was found in 4 out of 5 patients and in all it was somatic in nature. All patients were treated with low dose imatinib (100 mg daily orally), achieving complete and persistent clinical and hematological remission (median follow-up 74 months). One patient relapsed after 50 months. Our study strongly suggests to search for the KITM541L in patients with CEL, NOS, negative for PDGFRalpha and PDGFRbeta abnormalities, to identify a subgroup of cases who may benefit from low dose imatinib therapy.
A deep XMM-Newton X-ray observation of the Chamaeleon I dark cloud

Context. Low-mass stars are known to exhibit strong X-ray emission during the early stages of evolution. Nearby star forming regions are ideal targets to study the X-ray properties of pre-main sequence stars. Aims. A deep XMM-Newton exposure is used to investigate X-ray properties of the pre-main sequence population of the Chamaeleon I star forming region. Methods. The northern-eastern fringe of the Chameleon I dark cloud was observed with XMM-Newton, revisiting a region observed with ROSAT 15 years ago. Centered on the extended X-ray source CHXR 49 we are able to resolve it into three major contributing components and to analyse their spectral properties. Furthermore, the deep exposure allows not only the detection of numerous, previously unknown X-ray sources, but also the investigation of variability and the study of the X-ray properties for the brighter targets in the field. We use EPIC spectra, to determine X-ray brightness, coronal temperatures and emission measures for these sources, compare the properties of classical and weak-line T Tauri stars and make a comparison with results from the ROSAT observation. Results. X-ray properties of T Tauri stars in Cha I are presented. The XMM-Newton images resolve some previously blended X-ray sources, confirm several possible ones and detect many new X-ray targets, resulting in the most comprehensive list with 71 X-ray sources in the northern Cha I dark cloud. The analysis of medium resolution spectra shows an overlapping distribution of spectral properties for classical and weak-line T Tauri stars, with the X-ray brighter stars having hotter coronae and a higher $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol}$ ratio. X-ray luminosity correlates with bolometric luminosity, whereas the $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol}$ ratio is slightly lower for the classical T Tauri stars. Large flares as well as a low iron and a high neon abundance are found in both types of T Tauri stars. Abundance pattern, plasma temperatures and emission measure distributions during quiescent phases are attributed to a high level of magnetic activity as the dominant source of their X-ray emission.
Correction of Blurring due to a Difference in Scanning Direction of Field-Free Line in Projection-Based Magnetic Particle Imaging

In projection-based magnetic particle imaging (MPI) with a field-free-line (FFL) encoding scheme, projection data are usually acquired by moving the FFL in a zigzag and a difference in the projection data occurs depending on the scanning direction of FFL, resulting in blurring in the reconstructed images. In this study, we developed a method for correcting the blur by deconvolution using a signal-delay constant ({\xi}). The {\xi} value for correction ({\xi}c) was determined by acquiring projection data in positive and negative directions and searching for the {\xi} value which minimized the 2-norm between the deconvolved projection data in the two directions. We validated our method using a line and A-shaped phantoms for various velocities of FFL (vFFL). The {\xi}c value correlated linearly with vFFL. The full width at half maximum of the line phantom decreased significantly after correction of the blur. The effectiveness of our method was also confirmed by the MPI images of the A-shaped phantom. These results suggest that our method will be useful for enhancing the reliability of projection-based MPI.
Evolving opponents for interesting interactive computer games

In this paper we introduce experiments on neuro-evolution mechanisms applied to predator/prey multi-character computer games. Our test-bed is a modified version of the well-known Pac-Man game. By viewing the game from the predators’ (i.e. opponents’) perspective, we attempt off-line to evolve neural-controlled opponents capable of playing effectively against computer-guided fixed strategy players. However, emergent near-optimal behaviors make the game less interesting to play. We therefore discuss the criteria that make a game interesting and, furthermore, we introduce a generic measure of predator/prey computer games’ interest. Given this measure, we present an evolutionary mechanism for opponents that keep learning from a player while playing against it (i.e. on-line) and we demonstrate its efficiency and robustness in increasing and maintaining the game’s interest. Computer game opponents following this on-line learning approach show high adaptability to changing player strategies which provides evidence for the approach’s effectiveness against human players.
Eating Difficulties, Nutrition, Meal Preferences and Experiences Among Elderly A Literature Overview From a Scandinavian Context

The risk of malnutrition increases with ageing, resulting in poorer health and higher risk of disease. Eating difficulties are important risk factors for malnutrition. Moreover, independence in relation to food and meals is highly rated by the elderly and has been associated with health and well-being. The purpose of this literature overview was to provide insights into nutritional status, food choice and preferences as well as the meal situations of home-living elderly (65+) people with motoric eating difficulties focusing on Scandinavia. The overall aim is to support independence and to prevent malnutrition. Nutritional status in the elderly was found to be negatively influenced by motoric eating difficulties including problems with manipulating food on the plate and transporting food to the mouth. Motoric eating difficulties may result in practical simplifications such as use of pre-prepared meals, less advanced cooking, and omission of certain meal constituents in order to avoid e.g. mismanagement and spillage. Eating difficulties are often accompanied by feelings of guilt and shame. Choosing smaller portions, reducing the number of eating episodes and not cooking independently have been associated with a higher risk of malnutrition. The nutritional effects of eating difficulties may be exacerbated by diminished chemosensory functions. Furthermore, both past and present food preferences should be considered in order to meet nutritional needs and meal satisfaction. Development of refined and socially accepted eating aids, in combination with tasty and nutritious products, is important in order to promote healthy and independent living among home-living elderly with motoric eating difficulties.
How Does the Rivalry between Firms Explain the IT Capability Gap, Leanness, and Performance of Firms?

What is the role of IT capability in a competitive environment? Does IT capability contribute to the initiation of strategic actions within firms? To understand the relative position of IT in firms, we calculated the IT capability gap. This research has developed a research model in which the IT capability gap between two competing firms influences the leanness of a leading firm (Eroglu and Hofer, 2011). Also, we have suggested how the leanness of a firm is related to financial performance (i.e., ROS). Theoretically, this study is grounded in the competitive dynamics perspective (Ferrier et al., 1999), which emphasizes the role of rivalry between two competing firms. We empirically tested the research model using secondary data sets comprising of 322 firm-year panel data from 2002 to 2009. We have concluded that the IT capability of firms has a critical role to implement lean practices and eventually enhances firm performance.
Brg1 Loss Attenuates Aberrant Wnt-Signalling and Prevents Wnt-Dependent Tumourigenesis in the Murine Small Intestine

Tumourigenesis within the intestine is potently driven by deregulation of the Wnt pathway, a process epigenetically regulated by the chromatin remodelling factor Brg1. We aimed to investigate this interdependency in an in vivo setting and assess the viability of Brg1 as a potential therapeutic target. Using a range of transgenic approaches, we deleted Brg1 in the context of Wnt-activated murine small intestinal epithelium. Pan-epithelial loss of Brg1 using VillinCreERT2 and AhCreERT transgenes attenuated expression of Wnt target genes, including a subset of stem cell-specific genes and suppressed Wnt-driven tumourigenesis improving animal survival. A similar increase in survival was observed when Wnt activation and Brg1 loss were restricted to the Lgr5 expressing intestinal stem cell population. We propose a mechanism whereby Brg1 function is required for aberrant Wnt signalling and ultimately for the maintenance of the tumour initiating cell compartment, such that loss of Brg1 in an Apc-deficient context suppresses adenoma formation. Our results highlight potential therapeutic value of targeting Brg1 and serve as a proof of concept that targeting the cells of origin of cancer may be of therapeutic relevance.
Centering a Degree on the Periphery: Curriculum Design in Cornwall and the Politics of Place.

In most debates about teaching, learning, and research, the spatial context of education is either taken for granted or ignored. But places can be viewed as more than empty frames for social action; they can be seen as both historically constituted by social processes and, in turn, constituting those social processes. This paper aims to restore a sense of place to the discussion of the education of adults by locating the connections among space, teaching, learning, and research in one particular place: Cornwall (England). The University of Exeter's Continuing Education department developed a part-time degree in Cornwall. After setting out the theoretical context, the problems of evolving and delivering this part-time degree are located in the context of Cornwall's location as a periphery in a set of center-periphery relations. These relations help to explain both the constraints experienced in developing the degree and the teaching method and curriculum design that are being evolved. Program developers initially thought about ways to compensate for the distance from Exeter (and the supposed deprivations of being on the periphery) but later came to rethink their teaching methods to maximize local resources and help learners reflect on Cornwall's strengths. Curriculum design focused on transferable skills such as technology skills and teamwork and on promoting the explicit awareness of center-periphery relations, notably through a strong element of Cornish Studies. (Contains 29 references.) (SV) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Non-invasive Melanoma Diagnosis using Multispectral Imaging

The early analysis of pigmented skin lesions is important for clinicians in order to recognize malignant melanoma. However, it is difficult to differentiate it from benign skin lesions due to their similarity based on their appearance. Since melanoma has a tendency to grow inside the skin and the depth of penetration of light into the skin is wavelength dependent, a multispectral imaging acquisition and processing approach to classify pigmented lesions as melanoma seems appropriate. This paper presents a method to diagnose melanoma lesions over a group of 26 samples acquired with a multispectral system, where 6 of them are melanomas, and the other 20 are other types of pigmented lesions. A Leave-One-Out strategy is used to create the training/test set. The classification imbalance problem inherent to this dataset is alleviated using a SMOT E technique. The random component of the SMOT E methodology is dealt with running it 25 times and a Qualified Majority Voting (QMV ) scheme is used to do the final classification, using SV M. Results show this strategy allows to obtain competitive classification quality results.
THE quest for alpha : can artificial neural networks help?

The application of artificial neural networks (ANN) in finance is relatively new area of research. We employed ANNs that used both fundamental and technical inputs to predict future prices of widely held Australian stocks and used these predicted prices for stock portfolio selection over a 10-year period (2001-2011). We found that the ANNs generally do well in predicting the direction of stock price movements. The stock portfolios selected by the ANNs with median accuracy are able to generate positive alpha over the 10-year period. More importantly, we found that a portfolio based on randomly selected network configuration had zero chance of resulting in a significantly negative alpha but a 27% chance of yielding a significantly positive alpha. This is in stark contrast to the findings of the research on mutual fund performance where active fund managers with negative alphas outnumber those with positive alphas.
A Self-X Approach for OLSR Routing Protocol in Large-Scale Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks constitute an emerging technology that is quickly gaining popularity due to its countless advantages in terms of coverage area and low implementation cost. Wireless mesh networks are also capable of self- organization. The eminent advantage of a self-organized network is its ability to perform network control and management, which reduces both the developmental complexity and the need for maintenance of these networks. In this paper, we propose a self-organizing approach for the optimized link state routing protocol (OLSR) in wireless mesh networks, based on the agent technology. Based on the results we obtained, we argue that our architectural self-organization model increases throughput and improves the delay and packet delivery of the overall network, when compared to the original OLSR protocol.
SIMULATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SILICON NANOWIRE TRI-GATE TRANSISTOR WITH HIGH-k INSULATOR

Multigate such as double gate, tri-gate, surrounding gate and FinFET has been studied rigorously as a potential structure to replace metal-oxide-semiconductor fieldeffect transistor (MOSFET). This paper reports the performance between silicon nanowire tri-gate (SNWT), a semi-cylindrical channel shaped with tri-gate structure and square shaped tri-gate. However, highlighted part on the report is performance of SNWT with high-k insulator layer is compared with SNWT with oxide layer. The SNWTT is modeled based on ideal silicon nanowire structure model; Gate-All-Around (GAA). First, by using Sentaurus TCAD tool, three-dimensional (3D) geometrical structure is developed with channel length of 65nm as the validation. Then, the algorithm from validated model is edited according to required specifications such as channel length, radius, and dielectric layer deposition. As the length of channel goes beyond 65nm for tri-gate structure, the electrostatic potential surfaced at corner of channel (corner effect) is increasing. The performance of the circuit is affected due to channel shape of transistor. Hence, the corner effect can be reduced by replacing square shaped channel to semi-cylindrical shape (SNWT). Following that, (I-V) characteristics for tri-gate transistor, SNWTT, SNWTT with high-k (HfO2) layer and SNWTT with oxide layer are extracted from simulated model and explored. I-V curves for all performance are plotted using MATLAB for comparison purpose in terms of leakage current, drive current, DIBL and on-off ratio. In optimization of device performance, parameters such as channel length, temperature, radius, and doping concentration are varied and studied. It was found that modeled SNWTT has minimum leakage current, maximum drive current and lower DIBL compared to reported silicon nanowire tri-gate MOSFET. v
Exhaled breath condensate: methodological recommendations and unresolved questions

Collection of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a noninvasive method for obtaining samples from the lungs. EBC contains large number of mediators including adenosine, ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, isoprostanes, leukotrienes, nitrogen oxides, peptides and cytokines. Concentrations of these mediators are influenced by lung diseases and modulated by therapeutic interventions. Similarly EBC pH also changes in respiratory diseases. The aim of the American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society Task Force on EBC was to identify the important methodological issues surrounding EBC collection and assay, to provide recommendations for the measurements and to highlight areas where further research is required. Based on the currently available evidence and the consensus of the expert panel for EBC collection, the following general recommendations were put together for oral sample collection: collect during tidal breathing using a noseclip and a saliva trap; define cooling temperature and collection time (10 min is generally sufficient to obtain 1–2 mL of sample and well tolerated by patients); use inert material for condenser; do not use resistor and do not use filter between the subject and the condenser. These are only general recommendations and certain circumstances may dictate variation from them. Important areas for future research involve: ascertaining mechanisms and site of exhaled breath condensate particle formation; determination of dilution markers; improving reproducibility; employment of EBC in longitudinal studies; and determining the utility of exhaled breath condensate measures for the management of individual patients. These studies are required before recommending this technique for use in clinical practice.
Make Workers Work Harder: Decoupled Asynchronous Proximal Stochastic Gradient Descent

Asynchronous parallel optimization algorithms for solving large-scale machine learning problems have drawn significant attention from academia to industry recently. This paper proposes a novel algorithm, decoupled asynchronous proximal stochastic gradient descent (DAP-SGD), to minimize an objective function that is the composite of the average of multiple empirical losses and a regularization term. Unlike the traditional asynchronous proximal stochastic gradient descent (TAP-SGD) in which the master carries much of the computation load, the proposed algorithm off-loads the majority of computation tasks from the master to workers, and leaves the master to conduct simple addition operations. This strategy yields an easy-to-parallelize algorithm, whose performance is justified by theoretical convergence analyses. To be specific, DAP-SGD achieves an $O(\log T/T)$ rate when the step-size is diminishing and an ergodic $O(1/\sqrt{T})$ rate when the step-size is constant, where $T$ is the number of total iterations.
PERCEPTION OF MANDATORY SCHOOL UNIFORM AND PERCEIVED SOCIAL COHESION DEVELOPED AMONG STUDENTS IN MALAYSIA

The current study aimed to investigate Malaysian students’ perception of their school uniforms and the relationship it has towards perceived social cohesion. A total of N = 192 college and university students from Johor, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Penang who had undergone and completed primary and secondary education in Malaysia were randomly selected to participate in the study. Participants completed a questionnaire which included a five-point Likert-type response scale to measure students’ level of agreement with the statement of their perception of school uniform and perceived social cohesion. The results found that the aspect of tidiness in appearance attributed to students' positive perception of their school uniform followed by affordability, preferred attire to be worn in school, comfort, and attractiveness. Independent sample t-test revealed that female students have more positive perception about their school uniform compared to male students. No significant differences were found between male and female students in their overall perceived social cohesion. Pearson’s product-moment correlation found a significant positive relationship between students’ perception towards their school uniform and perceived social cohesion. Results obtained from the induction content analysis suggested the symbolic discourse of the school uniform that represents and reflects the experiences and interaction students have with their peers, stakeholders and school environment. Recommendations were provided for future research to obtain a richer understanding of school uniform and perceived social cohesion for different Malaysian student demographic categories. The current study hoped to act as a stepping stone for Malaysian educators and school policymakers to understand the perceived social cohesion amongst Malaysian students and how these experiences may contribute to the benefit of better school climate.
The Impact of Websites Characteristics and Perceived Risks on The Impact of Websites Characteristics and Perceived Risks on the Hedonics and Utilitarian Motivation that Effect Online the Hedonics and Utilitarian Motivation that Effect Online Shopping Intention Shopping Intention

Electronic commerce has become one of the essential characteristics in the Internet era. In recent year, many of the studies suggest characteristics of website (1) evoke feelings for hedonic and (2) confirm or negate beliefs of utilitarian type of consumers. Although an attitude toward website has been formed through cognitive and hedonic processes, these factors could strengthen or weaken the intention of purchase at the last minutes. The objective of this paper is to synthesize the existing literature to conducting the survey to discover how the difference perception of risk avoider and risk taker shopper whether existed or not in term of these two type of motivation and attitude toward website.