Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An alternative constraint handling method for evolution strategies

Most real-world search and optimization problems are faced with constraints, which must be satisfied by any acceptable solution. Although a plethora of research is spent on handling constraints in genetic algorithms (GAs), the same is not the case in evolution strategies (ESs). However, this does not say that ESs have not been applied to real-world problems. In fact, in the absence of an efficient constraint-handling technique, ES practitioners have mostly made sure that their ESs started from feasible solutions, a matter which allowed them to apply the commonly-used rejection scheme. In this paper, we borrow a constraint-handling scheme from the GA literature and implement it with standard ES paradigm. The resulting algorithm does not require initial feasible solutions and is found to yield a faster progress in the cylindrical corridor model and be efficient in solving a couple of complicated test problems. The results are interesting and suggest further use of the proposed technique in real-world search and optimization problems.
Consumer Search and Seller Reliability on Airbnb

We study the consequences for sellers from being perceived as unreliable. We use a theoretical model to generate predictions about how information about reliability impacts sellers, and show that the e↵ect depends on the search process that consumers endogenously follow: purchasing after finding information that qualifies a product, versus purchasing after not finding information that disqualifies a product. We then test our predictions against data from Airbnb listings in Manhattan. We find evidence suggesting that consumers tend to use the former approach, and demonstrate significant costs sellers may incur from negative information about their reliability.
The time-course of EEG alpha power changes in creative ideation

Increases in EEG alpha power during creative ideation are among the most consistent findings in the neuroscientific study of creativity, but existing studies did not focus on time-related changes of EEG alpha activity patterns during the process of creative ideation so far. Since several cognitive processes are involved in the generation of creative ideas, different EEG correlates may result as a function of time. In this study we addressed this crucial point. Forty-five participants worked on the “Alternative Uses Task” while the EEG was recorded and changes in task-related power (relative to rest) in the upper-frequency band (10–12 Hz) for three isochronous time intervals of the idea generation period were determined. Alpha power changes during idea generation followed a characteristic time course: we found a general increase of alpha power at the beginning of idea generation that was followed by a decrease and finally by a re-increase of alpha prior to responding that was most pronounced at parietal and temporal sites of the right hemisphere. Additionally, the production of more original ideas was accompanied by increasing hemispheric asymmetry (more alpha in the right than left hemisphere) with increasing duration of the idea generation period. The observed time course of brain activity may reflect the progression of different but well-known stages in the idea generation process: that is the initial retrieval of common and old ideas followed by the actual generation of novel and more creative ideas by overcoming typical responses through processes of mental simulation and imagination.
Hemolysis During Open-Heart Surgery With Vacuum-Assisted Venous Drainage at Different Negative Pressures in Pediatric Patients Weighing Less Than 10 kilograms

Background: This study examined the degree of hemolysis during vacuum-assisted venous drainage at different negative pressures to identify an adequate negative pressure that provides effective venous drainage without significant hemolysis in open-heart surgery in children weighing less than 10 kg. Methods: Patients weighing less than 10 kg who underwent surgery for ventricular septal defect or atrial septal defect from 2011 to 2014 were enrolled. We used one of four negative pressures (20, 30, 40, or 60 mm Hg) for each patient. We measured haptoglobin, plasma hemoglobin, aspartate aminotransferase, and lactate dehydrogenase levels in the patients’ blood three times perioperatively and determined the potential correlation between the change in each parameter with the level of negative pressure. Results: Forty-six patients were enrolled in this study (mean age: 7.1 ± 7.0 months, mean body weight: 6.1 ± 1.8 kg). There were no significant differences according to the degree of negative pressure with respect to patient age, body weight, cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) time, aorta cross-clamping time, blood flow during CPB, or lowest body temperature. All parameters that we measured reflected progression of hemolysis during CPB; however, the degree of change in the parameters did not correlate with negative pressure. Conclusion: In pediatric patients weighing less than 10 kg, the change in the degree of hemolysis did not differ with the amount of negative pressure. We may apply negative pressures up to 60 mm Hg without increasing the risk of hemolysis, with almost same the level of hemolysis using negative pressures of 20, 30, and 40 mm Hg for effective venous drainage and an ideal operative field during open-heart surgery.
The Need to Enhance Women's Health Training Opportunities in Internal Medicine Residency Programs.

Numerous professional medical societies have noted that women’s health has historically been underrepresented in medical training, education, and research, and they have recommended increased incorporation of women’s health into resident education. Despite some limited growth in women’s health training opportunities in internal medicine (IM) residency programs, women’s health training varies widely among IM programs and resident participationfocused women’s health training still has not extended much beyond the 60% range. The Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) adopted a competency-based education and evaluation framework for IM residency programs in 2007, offering opportunities for curricular restructuring. Studies from other specialties demonstrate that volume of exposure, as well as faculty competence and role modeling, figures significantly into residents’ skill development in specific training areas, especially those with a history of lower exposure. The extent to which changing educational, medical, and cultural climates have impacted IM resident training in women’s health remains unclear, and very few studies have been undertaken to access adoption of recommendations of residency programs for women’s health education.
Representative Deliberations and Representative Decisions: Proportional Representation and the Borda Rule

The development of social choice theory over the past three decades has brought many new insights into democratic theory. Surprisingly, the theory of representation has gone almost untouched by social choice theorists. This article redresses this neglect and provides an axiomatic study of one means of implementing proportional representation. The distinguishing feature of proportional representation is its concern for the representativeness of deliberations as well as decisions. We define a representative in a way that is particularly attentive to this feature and then define a method of selecting representatives (a variant of the Borda rule) which selects a maximally representative body. We also prove that this method of selection meets four social choice axioms that are met by a number of other important social choice functions (including pairwise majority decision and the Borda rule).
SCIENTIFIC HIGHLIGHT OF THE MONTH : ” Ab Initio Modeling of Biological Systems ” Ab Initio Modeling of Biological Systems

Biological systems are particularly challenging for ab initio quantum mechanical methods, yet first principles calculations can now tackle problems of great current biological interest, that cannot be solved by a different approaches. Here we outline the state-of-the art of ab initio biological modeling by presenting a brief survey of new trends in the development of algorithms as well as few representative applications.
Phylogenetic Relationships, Evolution, and Systematic Revision of the Septate Gregarines (Apicomplexa: Eugregarinorida: Septatorina)

Abstract A phylogenetic hypothesis was constructed with the use of ssu rDNA sequence data from 27 eugregarine species parasitizing a variety of arthropod hosts and habitats. The data were used to address higher-level character transitions, identify clades, recognize supraspecific taxonomic groups, assess the existing gregarine classification, and assess the effects of host metabolic pattern and habitat transitions on the radiation of the septatorinid gregarines. Suprageneric character transitions for association form, association timing, syzygy, gametocyst dehiscence, and oocyst liberation are defined. New character search based on the proposed phylogeny produced a morphological character set that correlates strongly with the sequence data. These morphological character sets are mapped to the new septatorinid phylogeny. Existing superfamily groups within Septatorina were recovered and a new superfamily recognized. At the family level, the monophyly of Actinocephalidae and Stylocephalidae is confirmed and the polyphyly of Gregarinidae is partially resolved with the recognition of Blabericolidae. At the generic level, the monophyly of Protomagalhaensia and Xiphocephalus is confirmed, the polyphyly of Leidyana is partially resolved with the recognition of Blabericola, and the polyphyly of Gregarina is revealed but cannot be resolved without additional taxonomic data. High-level diversification of Septatorina resulted from adaptations of the gametocyst, allowing colonization of both terrestrial and sweet-water habitats. Major radiations within the group correlate with host metamorphic pattern, suggesting that evolutionarily, gregarine species track niche resources along lines of transmission; they do not necessarily track host species in evolutionary time. Gregarine assemblages within a single host species may be either vicariant assemblages, (i.e., products of coevolutionary, phylogenetic effects), or ecotypic assemblages, (i.e., products of ecological fitting and host switching). The following systematic or nomenclatural acts are committed. Stenophoroidea and Gregarinoidea are emended. Diagnoses of Stenophoroidea, Gregarinoidea, and Sphaerocystidae are revised. Stylocephaloidea n. supfam. , Blabericolidae n. fam. , and Blabericola n. gen. are recognized and erected. Blabericola princisi n. comb. , Blabericola cubensis n. comb. , Blabericola haasi n. comb. , and Blabericola migrator n. comb. are recognized. Schneideria, Neoschneideria, and Paraschneideria are removed from Sphaerocystidae and placed in Actinocephalidae. Protomagalhaensia is removed from Hirmocystidae and placed in Blabericolidae. Pyxinia is removed from Stylocephaloidea: Actinocephalidae and placed in Stenophoroidea: Monoductidae.
Microparticulated and nanoparticulated zirconium oxide added to calcium silicate cement: Evaluation of physicochemical and biological properties.

The physicochemical and biological properties of calcium silicate-based cement (CS) associated to microparticulated (micro) or nanoparticulated (nano) zirconium oxide (ZrO2 ) were compared with CS and bismuth oxide (BO) with CS. The pH, release of calcium ions, radiopacity, setting time, and compression strength of the materials were evaluated. The tissue reaction promoted by these materials in the subcutaneous was also investigated by morphological, immunohistochemical, and quantitative analyses. For this purpose, polyethylene tubes filled with materials were implanted into rat subcutaneous. After 7, 15, 30, and 60 days, the tubes surrounded by capsules were fixed and embedded in paraffin. In the H&E-stained sections, the number of inflammatory cells (ICs) in the capsule was obtained. Moreover, detection of interleukin-6 (IL-6) by immunohistochemistry and number of IL-6 immunolabeled cells were carried out. von Kossa method was also performed. The differences among the groups were subjected to Tukey test (p ≤ 0.05). The solutions containing the materials presented an alkaline pH and released calcium ions. The addition of radiopacifiers increased setting time and radiopacity of CS. A higher compressive strength in the CS + ZrO2 (micro and nano) was found compared with CS + BO. The number of IC and IL-6 positive cells in the materials with ZrO2 was significantly reduced in comparison with CS + BO. von Kossa-positive structures were observed adjacent to implanted materials. The ZrO2 associated to the CS provides satisfactory physicochemical properties and better biological response than BO. Thus, ZrO2 may be a good alternative for use as radiopacifying agent in substitution to BO.
EigenSkin: real time large deformation character skinning in hardware

We present a technique which allows subtle nonlinear quasi-static deformations of articulated characters to be compactly approximated by data-dependent eigenbases which are optimized for real time rendering on commodity graphics hardware. The method extends the common Skeletal-Subspace Deformation (SSD) technique to provide efficient approximations of the complex deformation behaviours exhibited in simulated, measured, and artist-drawn characters. Instead of storing displacements for key poses (which may be numerous), we precompute principal components of the deformation influences for individual kinematic joints, and so construct error-optimal eigenbases describing each joint's deformation subspace. Pose-dependent deformations are then expressed in terms of these reduced eigenbases, allowing precomputed coefficients of the eigenbasis to be interpolated at run time. Vertex program hardware can then efficiently render nonlinear skin deformations using a small number of eigendisplacements stored in graphics hardware. We refer to the final resulting character skinning construct as the model's EigenSkin. Animation results are presented for a very large nonlinear finite element model of a human hand rendered in real time at minimal cost to the main CPU.
Experimental slip estimation for exact kinematics modeling and control of a Tracked Mobile Robot

Tracked mobile robots (TMRs) can be considered as the most important type of mobile robots. Large contact area of tracks with the ground provides superior advantages for TMRs such as better mobility in unstructured environments, though it may cause a higher risk of slippage. In this paper, an experimental slip model is proposed for exact kinematics modeling, and the parameters of this model will be determined based on experimental analysis of ResQuake. This is a tele-operative rescue mobile robot with great capabilities in climbing obstacles in destructed areas, and its performance was demonstrated in Rescue robot league of RoboCup 2005 in Osaka (Japan), achieving the 2nd best design award, and RoboCup 2006 in Bremen (Germany) achieving the best operator interface award. Therefore, ResQuake is used here as an experimental platform to study the relationship between slippage of tracks and two main physically meaningful factors, i.e. radius of the tracking path and speed of the robot. The slip coefficients will be obtained as an exponential function of radius of curvature of the path. To validate the obtained results, the proposed model will be used along with two path tracking controllers, and it is empirically demonstrated that the developed model drastically improves the system performance in terms of lower path tracking errors.
Network Configuration Management via Model Finding

Complex, end-to-end network services are set up via the configuration method: each component has a finite number of configuration parameters each of which is set to a definite value. End-to-end network service requirements can be on connectivity, security, performance and fault-tolerance. However, there is a large conceptual gap between end-to-end requirements and detailed component configurations. To bridge this gap, a number of subsidiary requirements are created that constrain, for example, the protocols to be used, and the logical structures and associated policies to be set up at different protocol layers. By performing different types of reasoning with these requirements, different configuration tasks are accomplished. These include configuration synthesis, configuration error diagnosis, configuration error fixing, reconfiguration as requirements or components are added and deleted, and requirement verification. However, such reasoning is currently ad hoc. Network requirements are not even precisely specified hence automation of reasoning is impossible. This is a major reason for the high cost of network management and total cost of ownership. This paper shows how to formalize and automate such reasoning using a new logical system called Alloy. Alloy is based on the concept of model finding. Given a first-order logic formula and a domain of interpretation, Alloy tries to find whether the formula is satisfiable in that domain, i.e., whether it has a model. Alloy is used to build a Requirement Solver that takes as input a set of network components and requirements upon their configurations and determines component configurations satisfying those requirements. This Solver is used in different ways to accomplish the above reasoning tasks. The Solver is illustrated in depth by carrying out a variety of these tasks in the context of a realistic fault-tolerant virtual private network with remote access. Alloy uses modern satisfiability solvers that solve millions of constraints in millions of variables in seconds. However, poor requirements can easily nullify such speeds. The paper outlines approaches for writing efficient requirements. Finally, it outlines directions for future research.
The Pharmacological Potential of Non-ribosomal Peptides from Marine Sponge and Tunicates

Marine biodiversity is recognized by a wide and unique array of fascinating structures. The complex associations of marine microorganisms, especially with sponges, bryozoans, and tunicates, make it extremely difficult to define the biosynthetic source of marine natural products or to deduce their ecological significance. Marine sponges and tunicates are important source of novel compounds for drug discovery and development. Majority of these compounds are nitrogen containing and belong to non-ribosomal peptide (NRPs) or mixed polyketide–NRP natural products. Several of these peptides are currently under trial for developing new drugs against various disease areas, including inflammatory, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and infectious disease. This review features pharmacologically active NRPs from marine sponge and tunicates based on their biological activities.
Calculating the terminal region of NMPC for Lure systems via LMIs

One way to guarantee stability in nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) is to calculate a suitable stabilizing terminal penalty term and terminal region. This is in general a difficult task. In this paper a structured approach to overcome this problem for the class of Lure systems subject to state and input constraints is provided. In particular, the terminal penalty term and the terminal region are computed by solving a set of LMIs. The example of a flexible joint robotic arm illustrates the results of this paper.
Wireless Health Care Service System for Elderly With Dementia

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the technologies of radio frequency identification, global positioning system, global system for mobile communications, and geographic information system (GIS) to construct a stray prevention system for elderly persons suffering from dementia without interfering with their activities of daily livings. We also aim to improve the passive and manpowered way of searching the missing patient with the help of the information technology. Our system provides four monitoring schemes, including indoor residence monitoring, outdoor activity area monitoring, emergency rescue, and remote monitoring modes, and we have developed a service platform to implement these monitoring schemes. The platform consists of a web service server, a database server, a message controller server, and a health-GIS (H-GIS) server. Family members or volunteer workers can identify the real-time positions of missing elderly using mobile phone, PDA, Notebook PC, and various mobile devices through the service platform. System performance and reliability is analyzed. Experiments performed on four different time slots, from three locations, through three mobile telecommunication companies show that the overall transaction time is 34 s and the average deviation of the geographical location is about 8 m. A questionnaire surveyed by 11 users show that eight users are satisfied with the system stability and 10 users would like to carry the locating device themselves, or recommend it to their family members
Generalized Conditioning in Neighbourhood Models

Sets of probability measures which form neighbourhoods of classical probability measures are studied. An application of Jeffrey’s rule of conditioning to forming neighbourhoods of probability measures is proposed. Neighbourhoods that are closed for generalized conditioning according to this rule are characterized. They are shown to be exactly convex and bi-elastic neighbourhoods.
Exploring the Link Between Topic Initiation and Chinese Learner Involvement in NS-NNS Casual Conversations

This paper reports on a case study which explored Chinese L2 learners’ conversational involvement in NS-NNS interaction in a study-abroad context. In particular, the study investigated the possible link between topic initiation and conversational involvement examined under the commonly identified topic genres in casual conversations, including “observation”, “opinion seeking/providing”, “story-telling”, “chat” topics and “gossip”. The findings show differences in the choices of topic initiation between the NS English group and the NNS Chinese group. Further analysis found that the participants’ topic initiations did not necessarily lead to their active conversational involvement and suggests that the mere fact of getting involved in a topic does not always produce a sense of shared common ground between/among the conversationalists. The positive link between topic initiation and conversational involvement (such as in “observation”), and its impact upon L2 learners are also discussed in this study, confirming the social constructionist view that social roles and interpersonal relations are created and recreated at a micro-level in everyday discourse.
JFETIDG: A Compact Model for Independent Dual-Gate JFETs With Junction or MOS Gates

This paper presents the details of JFETIDG, a compact model for independent dual-gate junction field-effect transistors with any combination of p-n junction or MOS gates. JFETIDG accounts for nonlinearity from depletion pinching, velocity saturation, and self-heating, and includes extensive modeling of geometry and temperature dependences, parasitics, noise, and statistical variations. We also demonstrate that it accurately models long channel junctionless MOS transistors. The model is verified by comparison with TCAD simulations and experimental data. Verilog-A code for JFETIDG is available in the public domain.