Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A NEW OPERATOR FOR EFFICIENT EVOLUTIONARY SOLUTIONS TO THE TRAVELLING SALESMAN PROBLEM

In this paper we present two sets of empirical data evaluating the performance of a new Cleanup operator for evolutionary approaches to the travelling salesman problem (TSP). For raw data we have used standard road mileage c harts of the USA, Great Britain and Ireland, which enable us to generate a reference table with appropriate c ity to city distances. A w ide variety of standard genetic parameters (population size, epochs, mutation rate and selection type) is explored, and results allow the c omparison of performance both with and without our cleanup op erator. The c leanup op erator improves the c onvergence speed b y reducing the number of epochs required to identify a near-optimal tour; in each instance a significant reduction is convergence time was observed. Our empirical observations show that assisting the evolutionary operators through the use of cleanup gives better performance on this evolutionary encoding. The implication of these findings run contrary to the a pparent consensus towards a reduction in the number of genetic operators required [1] by a genetic system for the TSP [2,3]. In these works Fogel concluded that mutation alone was sufficient for this encoding o f the TSP problem, rejecting the crossover operator because of its tendency to introduce invalid tours into the population. We have shown that by using the c leanup op erator in conjunction with crossover we can effect a more efficient search than a solely mutation-driven approach.
An Efficient Solar Pumping System for Rural Areas of Bangladesh

This research deals with the design and simulation of a simple but efficient photovoltaic water pumping system for rural areas of Bangladesh. The main objectives were to get a cost effective and efficient system employing MPPT. To keep the cost minimized some design consideration are presented. Presently used Buck converter based MPPT is compared with more efficient Buck boost and Cuk converter topologies. The simulations perform comparative tests using actual irradiance data for Bangladesh. The results showed a very compact and efficient result can be obtained the proposed topology including Cuk converter based MPPT.
Anthropomorphized Helpers Undermine Autonomy and Enjoyment in Computer Games

Although digital assistants with humanlike features have become prevalent in computer games, few marketing studies have demonstrated the psychological mechanisms underlying consumers’ reactions to digital assistants and their subsequent influence on consumers’ game enjoyment. To fill this gap, the current study examined the effect of anthropomorphic representations of computerized helpers in computer games on game enjoyment. In the current research, consumers enjoyed a computer game less when they received assistance from a computerized helper imbued with humanlike features than from a helper construed as a mindless entity. We offer a novel mechanism that the presence of an anthropomorphized helper can undermine individuals’ perceived autonomy during a computer game. Across six experiments, we show that the presence of an anthropomorphized helper reduced game enjoyment across three different games. By measuring participants’ perceived autonomy (study 1) and employing moderators such as importance of autonomy (studies 2, 3, and 4), we also provide evidence that the reduced feeling of autonomy serves as the mechanism underlying the backfiring effect. Finally, we demonstrate that the effect of anthropomorphism on game enjoyment can be extended to other game-related outcomes, such as individuals’ motivation to persist in the game (studies 4 and 5).
Toxicity of Sublethal Concentrations of Glyphosate and Paraquat Herbicide in the African Catfish Clarias gariepinus

The effects of exposing juveniles of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) to two commonly used herbicides were studied over 8 weeks. Some fish biochemical parameters were evaluated over the period of the experiment. Fractionated concentrations of glyphosate (0.0265, 0.053 and 0.106 mg L-l) and paraquat (0.0035, 0.007 and 0.014 mg L-l) were administered to fish juveniles for eight weeks. These concentrations represent fractions of the 96 h LC50 which was determined in an earlier study. Antioxidant enzymes were analysed in the liver of the fish every fortnight. Comparing with the control, significant increases (p<0.05) in enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), lipid peroxidation (LPO) and in glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were observed. These parameters were however not all concentration and time dependent. The result revealed that the two herbicides caused changes in fish antioxidant enzymes, as such could be useful in forestalling the ecotoxic effects of similar chemicals in the environmental xenobiotics. © 2018 Friends Science Publishers
Attachment and Affective Temperament: Study of a Sample of Portuguese Higher Education Students

This study aimed to study the relationship between attachment patterns (parental and loving) and affective temperaments (depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic irritable and anxious), conceptualized as either stable (depressive and hyperthymic) or unstable (cyclothymic, irritable and anxious). We collected data that allowed us to understand whether secure patterns of attachment correlate positively with stable temperaments. A correlational and exploratory study design was carried out with quantitative data from a sample consisting of 760 students of the nursing courses from four Portuguese polytechnic schools of higher education. The data were collected by selfreport questionnaire, consisting of several measures: socio-demographic variables, the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego (TEMPS-A), validation for the Portuguese population, the Father/Mother Attachment Questionnaire QVPM, Version IV and the Love Attachment Questionnaire QVA, Version III. Participants are mostly female (83.3%) with an average age of 21.3 years, mostly living in a household with both parents; 81.7% have siblings and 60.3% have a dating relationship. Attachment patterns (secure, preoccupied, dismissing and fearful) were built from parental and loving attachment data. The results show significant associations between unstable temperaments (cyclothymic, irritable and anxious) and the dismissing pattern of parental attachment (father and mother).
Inhibition of Immune Complex-Induced Inflammation by A small Molecular Weight Selectin Antagonist

The anti-inflammatory effect of a small molecular weight antagonist of P- and E-selectin-dependent cell adhesion was examined. The glycolipid sulphatide was shown to block the adherence of thrombin-activated rat platelets to HL-60 cells. This interaction is known to be dependent on P-selectin. The rat dermal reverse passive Arthus reaction was used to assess the effect of sulphatide on a neutrophil dependent inflammatory response. Sulphatide dosedependently blocked both the vascular permeability increase and cell infiltration after intraperitoneal administration. These results show that a small molecular weight compound which blocks P- and E-selectin dependent adhesion in vitro can effectively block the inflammation due to immune complex deposition. A compound with this type of profile may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of immune complex mediated diseases.
A Highly Effective Protocol for the Rapid and Consistent Induction of Digital Dermatitis in Holstein Calves

Bovine Digital Dermatitis (DD) is a leading cause of lameness in dairy cattle. DD is reportedly increasing in prevalence in beef cattle feedlots of the US. The exact etiologic agent(s) responsible for the disease have yet to be determined. Multiple studies have demonstrated the presence of a variety of Treponema spp. within lesions. Attempts to reproduce clinically relevant disease using pure cultures of these organisms has failed to result in lesions that mirror the morphology and severity of naturally occurring lesions. This manuscript details the systematic development of an experimental protocol that reliably induces digital dermatitis lesions on a large enough scale to allow experimental evaluation of treatment and prevention measures. In total, 21 protocols from five experiments were evaluated on their effectiveness in inducing DD lesions in 126 Holstein calves (504 feet). The protocols varied in the type and concentration of inoculum, frequency of inoculation, duration the feet were wrapped, and type of experimental controls need to validate a successful induction. Knowledge gained in the first four experiments resulted in a final protocol capable of inducing DD lesions in 42 of 44 (95%) feet over a 28 day period. All induced lesions were macroscopically and microscopically identified as clinical DD lesions by individuals blinded to protocols. Lesions were also located at the site of inoculation in the palmer aspect of the interdigital space, and induced clinically measurable lameness in a significant portion of the calves. Collectively these results validate the model and provide a rapid and reliable means of inducing DD in large groups of calves.
Still being ‘Mother’? Consumption and identity practices for women in later life

Studies of mothering and consumption have primarily focussed on mothers to be and mothers of young children with little known about the intersection between consumption and mothering beyond the years of childhood dependence. This article argues that performances of mothering enacted through consumption do not end with children leaving home. Many women were consciously ‘Still being mother’, with consumption choices significant in the ways in which mothering identities were performed. The analysis of interviews from three studies of family life, living standards and consumption in older age identified three constructs of the ‘good’ mothering of adult children. Aspects of the ‘provisioning mother’ were evident in providing for children through gifts, material and financial support. Appropriate consumption practices by adult children demonstrated the ‘role model mother’ who has taught her children well. Mothers also framed themselves as ‘independent mothers’ who had sufficient social and financial resources to not burden children, hinting not only at their own ‘controlled’ consumption practices but also at future changes in mothering and consumption that might need to be managed as they aged. These mothering identities were not static and were exhibited differently across a range of living standards. ‘Still being mother’ mattered, but the resources available to women to shape these identities through consumption practices differed according to their material circumstances, expectations and familial relations, which had implications for their identity as independent mothers and children.
Enhancement in Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Polypropylene Using Graphene Oxide Grafted with End-Functionalized Polypropylene

Terminally hydroxylated polypropylene (PP) synthesized by a chain transfer method was grafted to graphene oxide (GO) at the chain end. Thus obtained PP-modified GO (PP-GO) was melt mixed with PP without the use of a compatibilizer to prepare PP/GO nanocomposites. Mechanical and electrical properties of the resultant nanocomposites and reference samples that contained graphite nanoplatelets, partially reduced GO, or fully reduced GO were examined. The best improvement in the tensile strength was obtained using PP-GO at 1.0 wt %. The inclusion of PP-GO also led to the highest electrical conductivity, in spite of the incomplete reduction. These observations pointed out that terminally hydroxylated PP covalently grafted to GO prevented GO layers from re-stacking and agglomeration during melt mixing, affording improved dispersion as well as stronger interfacial bonding between the matrix and GO.
Nan Jiang- Research Statement

My research is on the theory of reinforcement learning (RL) under realistic assumptions. RL is a subfield of machine learning that studies how an agent can learn to make sequential decisions in environments with unknown dynamics. It provides a general and unified framework that captures many important AI applications, including dialog systems, self-driving cars, robots for daily life, and adaptive medical treatments. Despite the generality of the framework, most theory and practice in RL are yet to directly address these real-life scenarios, due to two major reasons:
The Implementation of Image Enhancement Algorithm Method for SoC

In the world security market, the size of the biometric industry is gradually increasing, of which the fingerprint verification is recognized of its superiority and marketability in terms of relatively low cost, light weight and uneasiness to input bio-information, compared to other biometric method. Fingerprint Recognition Technologies become popular to be used as a representative of biometrics. As all electronics devices are tending to smaller and smaller, people paid more attention to “linear sensor” method. The most important factor for securing the reliable Fingerprint Recognition Technology is pursuing upgrading the enhancement of the captured fingerprint image from sensors.
Critical band masking in optic flow

Visual processing has been widely investigated with narrow band stimuli at low contrasts. We used a masking paradigm to examine how visual sensitivity under these conditions compares with the perception of the direction of heading in real scenes (i.e., with dynamic natural images at high contrasts). We first confirmed and extended previous studies showing biases in the amplitude distribution for spatial frequency, temporal frequency, speed and direction in dynamic natural movies. We then measured contrast thresholds for identification of the direction of motion for an observer traveling at various speeds. In spite of differences in contrast sensitivity and large non-uniformities in the amplitude content of the stimuli, contrast thresholds were relatively invariant of spatial frequency and completely invariant of temporal frequency, speed and direction. Our results suggest that visual processing normalises responses to supra-threshold structure at different spatial and temporal frequencies within natural stimuli and so equates their effective visibility.
The dose makes the poison — Leveraging uncertainty for effective malware detection

Malware has become sophisticated and organizations don't have a Plan B when standard lines of defense fail. These failures have devastating consequences for organizations, such as sensitive information being exfiltrated. A promising avenue for improving the effectiveness of behavioral-based malware detectors is to combine fast (usually not highly accurate) traditional machine learning (ML) detectors with high-accuracy, but time-consuming, deep learning (DL) models. The main idea is to place software receiving borderline classifications by traditional ML methods in an environment where uncertainty is added, while software is analyzed by time-consuming DL models. The goal of uncertainty is to rate-limit actions of potential malware during deep analysis. In this paper, we describe Chameleon, a Linux-based framework that implements this uncertain environment. Chameleon offers two environments for its OS processes: standard — for software identified as benign by traditional ML detectors — and uncertain — for software that received borderline classifications analyzed by ML methods. The uncertain environment will bring obstacles to software execution through random perturbations applied probabilistically on selected system calls. We evaluated Chameleon with 113 applications from common benchmarks and 100 malware samples for Linux. Our results show that at threshold 10%, intrusive and non-intrusive strategies caused approximately 65% of malware to fail accomplishing their tasks, while approximately 30% of the analyzed benign software to meet with various levels of disruption (crashed or hampered). We also found that I/O-bound software was three times more affected by uncertainty than CPU-bound software.
Snow cover dynamics in and around the Shangri-La County, southeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau, 1974–2012: the influence of climate change and local tourism activities

The Shangri-La County and its surrounding areas lie within the Hengduan Mountains system at the southwestern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, and belong to the core zone of Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas. There are numerous snow mountains of special ecological and cultural significance. The investigation of snow cover dynamics is important for understanding how snow cover responds in the context of climate change. In this study, the spatial and temporal dynamics of snow cover in the entire area were analysed using 28-scene Landsat images from 1974–2012. Snow cover variability of different altitudinal zones and orientations was also discussed. Then, we explored the relationship between snow cover dynamics and both climate change and local tourism activities. The results show that snow cover area in the Shangri-La region continued a clear decreasing trend in the last 40 years, declining from 4188 km2 in 1974 to 901 km2 in 2012. The decrease of snow cover generally occurred from low to high altitude and was most pronounced at altitudes of 4000–5000 metres, with a reduction of 2800 km2 since 1974. Snow cover decreased more significantly in the northwest part of the area than in the southeast. The primary driving force for this decrease was attributed to the increase in air temperature (+0.22°C per decade in the area). Compared with a similar decreasing trend in the Meili Snow Mountains, a dramatic reduction of snow cover in the southeastern Yulong Snow Mountains is attributed partially to local tourism activities.
Cyber youth work in Hong Kong: Specific and yet the same

Social media does not just lead to new ways of social participation; it creates new opportunities for serving difficult-to-reach groups in the community. This study examined the experiences and processes of a pioneering cyber youth work project working with young people involved in drug use and the sex trade in Hong Kong. A thematic analysis of online communication records and interviews of social workers and clients was conducted to determine the relating factors concerned, namely, ‘social presence’, ‘autonomy and ‘privacy’, ‘use of text and media’, and ‘time dimension’. The results suggest practice insights for youth workers.
Clinical lessons from the first applications of BNCT on unresectable liver metastases.

After a long series of studies on the effects of neutron irradiation of 10 B loaded neoplastic cells both in culture and in animal experiments, we started the clinical application of BNCT on humans affected by liver metastases of a radically resected colon adenocarcinoma. The procedure we adopted includes a first surgical phase, with hepatectomy; a radiotherapeutic phase, in which the isolated liver, washed and chilled, is extracorporeally irradiated with thermal neutrons; and then a second surgical phase for the reconnection of the liver to the patient. Until now two patients have been subjected to the BNCT treatment. The first one survived 44 months with a good quality of life, and died because of diffuse recurrences of his intestinal tumour. The second patient had the same early perioperative course, but after 33 days a worsening of a dilatative cardiomyopaty, from which he was suffering, determined a cardiac failure and eventually death. This clinical experience, although limited, has shown that extracorporeal neutron irradiation of the liver is a feasible procedure, able to ensure the complete destruction of liver metastases and a possible long lasting survival. In our patients neutron irradiation caused massive cellular necrosis highly specific to tumour cells, whereas normal cells were mostly spared. Nevertheless, the impact of such a traumatic operation on the patient's organism must be taken into account. Finally, we have to be aware that the fight against tumour rarely leads to a complete victory. We now have an innovative weapon which is both powerful and partly unsettled: it must be refined and above all used.
Empirical Tools in Contemporary Violin Making: Part II. Psychoacoustic Analysis and Use of Acoustical Tools

A method for measuring and interpreting the sound radiation of bowed stringed instruments is introduced. The aim is to extract psychoacoustical information from “technical” data in an instrument‘s resonance profiles. Measured transfer functions (L p =p/F; with p=sound pressure and F=exciting force) provide the input data for calculating specific loudness and overall loudness as a function of playing frequency. Examples are given for violins made by Antonio Stradivari and Joseph Guarneri del Gesu. Although similar in their overall loudness (a quantity relevant to their dynamical potential) and their tone-to-tone fluctuations of loudness (a quantity relevant to their dynamic balance), they clearly differ in their specific loudness patterns, which seem to be useful to describe their tonal color (timbre). Practical benefits of such acoustical tools in violin making include the following: a) Understanding correlations (Example: Resonance profile and the effectiveness of the player’s vibrato) b) Parameter studies (Example: Acoustics of the fingerboard) c) Controlling the process of constructing new instruments (Example: making tonal copies) PSYCHOACOUSTIC ANALYSIS OF THE RADIATED SOUND
Impact of food pantry donations on diet of a low-income population

Abstract Objective: This cross-sectional study assessed the effect of food donations on total nutrient intake of clients of a food pantry in Central Texas. Methods: Nutrient intakes of total, base and food donation diets were estimated for 112 food pantry recipients using specific questionnaires; and then compared to the dietary reference intakes (DRI) and 2015–2020 US Dietary Guidelines. Results: Food donations accounted for more than half of the client’s daily intake of energy, carbohydrates, vitamin B6, phosphorus, copper and selenium. Yet, daily total intake remained less than their DRIs for carbohydrates, poly-unsaturated fats, dietary fiber, fat soluble vitamins and vitamin C, and was even lower for calcium, magnesium and potassium. Total food intake of clients almost met the US Dietary Guidelines for refined grains, fruits, vegetables, and meat; however, the amount of whole grains and dairy was inadequate. Conclusions: Supplemental foods offered at food pantries are an important resource for improving nutrient intake of low-income populations.
The clitoral activation paradox — Claimed outcomes from different methods of its stimulation

This article reviews clitoral structures, their functions and how they are activated during the stages of female life. The paradox that occurs is that different procedures of activation are claimed by some to favor ‘noxious outcomes’ to the physical and psychic health of women who use it to achieve sexual arousal/orgasm with or without penile vaginal intercourse. A number of the difficulties and inconsistencies in relation to these claims are explored. The proposed justification for the ‘noxious outcomes’ is that ‘evolution’ punishes sexual arousals other than by coitus because it is the only one that leads to gene propagation. In this context, however, the new, evolutionary interpretation of clitoral function in the fertile years as a fundamental proximate mechanism for facilitating female reproductive fitness makes such a justification improbable. The role of coital alignment technique (CAT) in the treatment of female orgasmic disorder is discussed in relation to its features of introital, clitoral and periurethral glans stimulation. Attempts to control female sexuality through various ‘clitoridectomies’ are examined, and unanswered questions about clitoral stimulation are listed. Clin. Anat. 31:650–660, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.