Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reptile: a Scalable Metalearning Algorithm

This paper considers metalearning problems, where there is a distribution of tasks, and we would like to obtain an agent that performs well (i.e., learns quickly) when presented with a previously unseen task sampled from this distribution. We present a remarkably simple metalearning algorithm called Reptile, which learns a parameter initialization that can be fine-tuned quickly on a new task. Reptile works by repeatedly sampling a task, training on it, and moving the initialization towards the trained weights on that task. Unlike MAML, which also learns an initialization, Reptile doesn't require differentiating through the optimization process, making it more suitable for optimization problems where many update steps are required. We show that Reptile performs well on some well-established benchmarks for few-shot classification. We provide some theoretical analysis aimed at understanding why Reptile works.
Introduction and overview

It is not evident how the role of headquarters (HQ) should be conceptualized in the contemporary multinational corporation (MNC). During the past decades, research has added more complexity to the attributes of the MNC, a complexity with implications for the role of HQ. However, we are all aware that researchers are scattered in their use of diff erent theories and how they deal with various issues. As an example, among many others, Forsgren (2008a) consolidated the various concepts in the literature to classify MNCs into six core dimensions depending on their theoretical foundation.1 These conceptualizations contain diff erences that are evident when scrutinizing how attributes of the MNC are described: for example, the MNC organization, the roles of HQ and subsidiaries and the MNC environment are often conceptualized in diff erent ways. Thus, there is no single conceptualization of the MNC, and one can conclude that, evidently, it is diffi cult to defi ne what the ‘contemporary MNC’ is. We could, of course, scrutinize received research and evaluate the volume of research output within the diff erent conceptualizations of the MNC, markingup the relative popularity of certain approaches. Another way to reason is to identify which research issues have been addressed with frequency over the past ten years or so. In this respect, the expression ‘contemporary’ would refl ect research issues that have been of interest relatively recently and studied within one or several conceptualizations of the MNC. For example, the issue of knowledge development and transfer increased in popularity during the 1990s and, to date, has been extensively studied and related to various problems, such as strategic fi t, value creation and cost effi ciency, and thus associated to diff erent theories of the MNC. We recognize that an extensive amount of research on MNCs could be described as contemporary. Without intentionally disregarding possible research areas, we will summarize some observations that have become apparent in the literature on the MNC during the past 20 years or so. These observations indicate that knowledge of the internal organization and the business environment in which the MNC is based has become increasingly crucial, but also problematic. This complicates our understanding of the role of HQ as a valuecreating function. With this research in mind, we
Optical beam transport to a remote location for low jitter pump-probe experiments with a free electron laser

Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste, SS 14 - km 163.5, 34149, Basovizza Trieste, Italy(Received 14 January 2014; published 7 April 2014)In this paper we propose a scheme that allows a strong reduction of the timing jitter between thepulses of a free electron laser (FEL) and external laser pulses delivered simultaneously at the FELexperimental stations for pump-probe–type experiments. The technique, applicable to all seeding-basedFEL schemes, relies on the free-space optical transport of a portion of the seed laser pulse from itsoptical table to the experimental stations. The results presented here demonstrate that a carefullydesigned laser beam transport, incorporating also a transverse beam position stabilization, allows one tokeep the timing fluctuations, added by as much as 150 m of free space propagation and a number ofbeam folding mirrors, to less than 4 femtoseconds rms. By its nature our scheme removes the majorcommon timing jitter sources, so the overall jitter in pump-probe measurements done in this way willbe below 10 fs (with a margin to be lowered to below 5 fs), much better than the best results reportedpreviously in the literature amounting to 33 fs rms.
HOFSTEDE'S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS AND HSE CULTURE BEHAVIOR

This study has done to surveying the relationship between Hofstede's cultural dimensions and HSE culture behavior. Populations were 25 people of cultural management and planning elites. For a sampling it was used of simple sampling method. For gathering data in theoretic section we used library and also interview with scholars and specialists of the organization and in data gathering section we used questionnaire method. In this research, In order to determine the validity of data collection we used Cronbach's alpha to test the validity of the formal symbol or reliability. To analyze hypotheses, we have used descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Findings show that there is not relationship between Hofstede's cultural dimensions (Power distance, Individualism–collectivism, Masculinity–femininity, Uncertainty avoidance, Long-term orientation) and HSE culture behavior.
Teacher Discourse Moves that Support Dialogic Interactions in Engineering in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms

Teacher Discourse Moves that Support Dialogic Interactions in Engineering in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms Dr. Amy Wilson-Lopez, Utah State University, Teacher Education and Leadership Amy Wilson-Lopez is an associate professor at Utah State University who studies culturally responsive engineering and literacy-infused engineering with linguistically diverse students. Jared W. Garlick, Utah State University Jared Garlick is a Graduate Student in the Secondary Education Master’s of Education (MEd) program through the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. Research interests include argumentation in science and engineering and the benefit they play in developing literacy in specific content areas.
Aalborg Universitet System-Level Lifetime-Oriented Power Sharing Control of Paralleled DC / DC Converters

Thermal cycling is a critical stressor on semiconductor elements as they are the main functional components of power electronic converters. Load variation of a converter causes temperature swing, which intensively affects the lifetime of semiconductor switches. In this paper, an active thermal controlling method is proposed in order to enhance the overall system reliability. The proposed strategy applies power sharing among the converters by taking into account the lifetime of the power switches in the paralleled converters under different loading conditions. Hence, the lifetime of the converters is equally consumed in terms of load variations, and the overall system reliability is improved. Simulations and experimental case studies on two parallel-connected power converters have demonstrated that the power sharing control is an effective solution in terms of enhancing the overall power system reliability. Keywords—lifetime; reliability; dc power system; power sharing; system-level reliability
The Effects of Teaching and Learning Methods on Performance of Learners in Public and Private ECDE Centres in Kenya

The Kenya 2010 Constitution placed management and financing of Early Years’ Education (EYE) under custody of county governments. Management and efficiency of early childhood education is therefore expected to be more effective than it was before 2010. Public early education centres suffered quality because of budgetary constraints, this is expected to have changed over the period that ECDE has been devolved. There is need for research evidence on the quality of ECDE in the context of county government management. This study emerges from the theoretical perspective that increased inputs should lead to increased outputs. The Education Production Function (EPF) theory was employed. Has increased expenditure after devolution and budgeting from close changed the quality of ECDE in counties? The purpose of this comparative study was to identify, compare and discuss effect of teaching and learning methods on performance of learners in public and private ECDE centres after one term of instruction and how this factor interact to influence, learning and achievement in public and private ECDE centres in the context of increased funding to public sectors schools by county government. The study site selected for this study was Kericho County. The population of interest in this study was all the 750 public ECDE centres with 1066 teachers and 18405 pupils, and all the 258 private ECDE centres comprising of 628 teachers and 4180 pupils in Kericho County. Sampling was done through stratified, purposive and simple random sampling methods. The sample size was determined by adopting the Krejcie and Morgan formula. Tools for data collection included questionnaires, observation schedules and interview guides. Data collected was bot qualitative and quantitative. Analysis involved qualitative techniques and quantitative techniques. The quantitative techniques involved descriptive and inferential statistics in order to answer the questions posed for study. The results obtained showed that despite the increased funding to public ECDE centres, learners in private ECDE centres had high academic achievement. The findings were used to develop a model for county government to establish uniform qualification of ECDE staff, common methodology to improve teaching and learning facilities hence universal instructions leading to improved achievement among pre-primary school learners.
Electro-quasistatic field simulation of an endosteal cochlea implant

Cochlea implants can help deef patients to regain hearing. The implants consist of a microphone, a speech processor and an electrode array implanted in the inner ear in order to directly excite the auditory nervs. Recently, an electrode array has been designed to be implanted without inner ear trauma aiming at combining rest hearing with the electrical stimulation. In order to study the field distribution of this new electrode array, field computations using the Finite Integration Technique have been carried out. The electro-quasistatic approximation has been used.
How Institutions Affect Outcomes in Laboratory Tradable Fishing Allowance Systems

The objective of this paper is to illustrate that economic institutions matter, i.e., that different rules of trade present different incentives for bidding, asking, and trading in new markets, and that these different incentives lead to different price discovery patterns, which yield materially different outcomes. In a laboratory tradable fishing allowance system, when trade takes place through a double auction, which parallels an institution common in extant tradable allowance systems, markets are characterized by high volatility, and equilibrium does not obtain. However, when only leases, and not permanent trades, are permitted in the early periods, volatility is significantly reduced and equilibrium obtains. This dependence of equilibration and outcomes on institutions implies policy-oriented economists must consider institutions in designing new market-based management systems.
Selection and Precise Application of Operating Parameters of Nd: YAG and Other Laser Sources for Material Processing

Nd: YAG laser has been a versatile tool for variety of material processing in the modern manufacturing industries. Apart from the easy manipulation and robustness of Nd: YAG laser beam, its wavelength absorbed by wide range of materials. Therefore, the possibility of controlling and precised values for prominent operating parameters such as average peak power, average peak power density (APPD), mean power, pulse duration, pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, interaction, pulse overlap theory and its mathematical relationships were discussed for pulsed and continuous wave. Hence, the selection of satisfactory combinations of associated parameters to produce efficient and effective material processing with reduced defects.
WSRC-MS-2001-00672 Rev . 1 Characterization of Confined Pinch Welds in Type 304 L Stainless Steel

Efforts have been undertaken to characterize the stresses induced in resistance pinch welds used to seal vessels which contain high pressure radioactive gasses. Subsequent to the weld a costly and time consuming process, known as hot air decontamination (HAD) is used to remove the radioactive gasses that are entrained in the weld and surrounding metal. A process to replace HAD is under development. To qualify this new process it must be shown that the mechanical and physical properties of the weld are substantially the same as those using HAD. These properties include the weld microstructure and the residual stresses in the vicinity of the weld. The method of making pinch welds is first described as well as one cutting method. The methods of characterizing the weld and a comparison between cut and uncut specimens by several characterization methods are presented.
Analysis of the BFGS Method with Errors

The classical convergence analysis of quasi-Newton methods assumes that the function and gradients employed at each iteration are exact. In this paper, we consider the case when there are (bounded) errors in both computations and establish conditions under which a slight modification of the BFGS algorithm with an Armijo-Wolfe line search converges to a neighborhood of the solution that is determined by the size of the errors. One of our results is an extension of the analysis presented in Byrd, R. H. , & Nocedal, J. (1989), which establishes that, for strongly convex functions, a fraction of the BFGS iterates are good iterates. We present numerical results illustrating the performance of the new BFGS method in the presence of noise.
Research and Simulation of SCR Soft-Start Asynchronous Motor

Direct starting method of asynchronous motor does a lot harm such as current surge and mechanical shock, etc . In order to reduce the harmful influence of direct starting method and improve the starting performance of asynchronous motor, a scheme of asynchronous motor soft starting system based on antiparallel SCR is designed in this paper. Firstly, it analyzes the starting performance of asynchronous motor. Secondly, based on the performance results above, the scheme of three-phase asynchronous motor soft starting system is established. It regulates stator voltage of the motor by SCR regulating system, transformers the synchronous phase voltage to wide pulse wave by trigger module and obtains thyristor gate signal by integrator, so as to achieve the soft-start of asynchronous motor. Finally, by comparing and analyzing the simulation results of direct starting system and soft starting system, it shows that the feasibility and advantages of the SCR type's asynchronous motor soft starting system.
Near-UV and optical spectroscopy of comets using the ISIS spectrograph on theWHT

We present an analysis of long-slit cometary spectroscopy using the dual-arm ISIS spectrograph on the 4.2 m WHT. Eleven comets were observed over two nights in 2016 March and we detected the OH (0-0) emission band at 3085 A in the spectra of five of these comets. Emission bands of the species NH, CN, C3, C2, NH2 and [OI] were also detected. We used Haser modelling to determine molecular production rates and abundance ratios for the observed species. We found that our average abundances relative to OH and CN were generally consistent with those measured in previous studies.
In-Space Manufacturing at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: A Portfolio of Fabrication and Recycling Technology Development for the International Space Station

The in-space manufacturing project at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center seeks to mature the manufacturing capabilities which will be needed on long duration, long endurance human spaceflight missions. The ability to manufacture materials and parts in space rather than launching them from earth has the potential to reduce logistics requirements and enhance crew safety. The International Space Station serves as a unique orbiting test bed for in-space manufacturing technology development for NASA and its commercial partners. This paper provides an overview of the projects currently in the in-space manufacturing technology portfolio and key technology development efforts in the past year.
Nowcast Guidance of Afternoon Convection Initiation for Taiwan

Focusing on afternoon thunderstorms in Taiwan during the warm season (May–October) under weak synoptic forcing, this study applied theTaiwanAuto-NowCaster (TANC) to produce 1-h likelihoodnowcasts of afternoon convection initiation (ACI) using a fuzzy logic approach. The primary objective is to design more useful forecast products with uncertainty regions of predicted thunderstorms to provide nowcast guidance of ACI for forecasters. Four sensitivity tests on forecast performance were conducted to improve the usefulness of nowcasts for forecasters. The optimal likelihood threshold (Lt) forACIs, which is the likelihood value that best corresponds to the observed ACIs, was determined to be 0.6. Because of the high uncertainty on the exact location or timing of ACIs in nowcasts, location displacement and temporal shifting of ACIs should be considered in operational applications. When a spatial window of 5 km and a temporal window of 18min are applied, the TANC displays moderate accuracy and satisfactory discrimination with an acceptable degree of overforecasting. The nonparametric Mann–Whitney test indicated that the performance of the TANC substantially surpasses the competing Space and TimeMultiscaleAnalysis System–Weather Research and ForecastingModel, which serves as a pertinent reference for short-range (0–6 h) forecasts at the Central Weather Bureau in Taiwan.
Argümantasyon Tabanlı Öğrenme Yaklaşımında Kullanılan Argümantasyon Tekniklerinin Ortaokul Sekizinci Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Bilim İnsanı İmajları Üzerine Etkisi

Bu calismanin amaci ortaokul sekizinci sinif ogrencilerinin bilim insani imajlari uzerine argumantasyon tabanli ogrenme yaklasiminda kullanilan argumantasyon tekniklerinin etkisini arastirmaktir. Bu calisma 2018-2019 egitim-ogretim yili guz doneminde Duzce ilindeki bir devlet okulunda fen bilimleri dersi kapsaminda 40 kisiden olusan sekizinci sinif ogrencileri ile yurutulmustur. Calisma haftada bir ders saati olmak uzere sekiz haftada tamamlanmistir. Calismada ogrencilere bilim insani imajlarina yonelik argumantasyon teknikleri iceren etkinlikler uygulanmistir. Argumantasyon teknikleri etkinliklerinin uygulanmasindan once, uygulamasindan sonra, ogrencilerin bilim insani hakkindaki imajlarini belirleyebilmek amaciyla, Chambers (1983) tarafindan gelistirilen Bilim Insani Ciz (DAST) testi kullanilmis, ogrencilerden bilim insaninin nasil calistigini, bu bilim insaninin neler yaptigini dusunerek, bu dusuncelerini mumkun oldugunca detaylandirarak cizmeleri istenmistir. Ogrencilerin argumantasyon tabanli ogretme yaklasimi argumantasyon tekniklerinden olusan etkinliklerin uygulanma oncesi ve uygulanma sonrasi yaptiklari cizimlerin analizinde ise Ruiz-Mallen ve Escales (2012) tarafindan gelistirilen Bilim Insani Cizim Kontrol Listesi (RME-C) kullanilmistir. Arastirmada ontest-sontest kontrol grupsuz deneysel desen kullanilmistir. Ogrencilerin cizimlerinde yer almayan ancak cizimlerinin aciklamalarindan elde edilen nitel verilerin cozumlenmesi icerik analizi yoluyla yapilmistir. Verilerin analizi sonucu ogrencilerin bilim insani imajlari uzerine argumantasyon tabanli ogrenme yaklasiminda kullanilan argumantasyon tekniklerinin istatistiksel olarak anlamli etkisinin oldugu ve ogrencilerin geleneksel bilim insani anlayisindan uzaklastiklari sonucuna ulasilmistir.
Processing and Properties of PCL/Cotton Linter Compounds

Biodegradable compounds of poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL)/ cotton linter were melting mixed with filling content ranging from 1% to 5% w/w. Cotton linter is an important byproduct of textile industry; in this work it was used in raw state and after acid hydrolysis. According to the results of torque rheometry no decaying of viscosity took place during compounding, evidencing absence of breaking down in molecular weight. The thermal stability increased by 20% as observed in HDT for PCL/cotton nanolinter compounds. Adding cotton linter to PCL didn’t change its crystalline character as showed by XRD; however an increase in degree of crystallinity was observed by means of DSC. From mechanical tests in tension was observed an increase in ductility of PCL, and from mechanical tests in flexion an increase in elastic modulus upon addition of cotton linter, whereas impact strength presented lower values for PCL/cotton linter and PCL/cotton nanolinter compounds. SEM images showed that PCL presents plastic fracture and cotton linter has an interlacing fibril structure with high L/D ratio, which are in agreement with matrix/fibril morphology observed for PCL/cotton linter compounds. PCL/cotton linter compounds made in this work cost less than neat PCL matrix and presented improved properties making feasible its commercial use.
HIV infection and hepatic enzymes abnormalities: A hospital based study among the HIV infected women of India

Introduction: Globally HIV infection has become a serious public health problems as it is responsible for millions of deaths every year and the women are the most vulnerable to HIV infection in the developing and underdeveloped countries. The liver enzymes alteration is a useful indicator of the HIV severity of the body. This study was designed to find the effect of CD4 count and nutritional status on liver enzymes among HIV and HIV women living in West Bengal. Materials and Methods: This hospital based cross sectional study was performed among 97 women at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital, Midnapore, India. Blood samples were collected from the participants to determine CD4 count, Serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), and alkaline phosphates (ALP). Anthropometric measurements were taken using the standard techniques Results: HIV women (20.42±1.763 kg/m) were significantly heavier (t=4.172; P<0.001) than the HIV one (18.52±2.63 kg/m). Similarly the HIV women (995.92±100.24 cells/μl) had higher level of CD4 than the HIV women (374.22±185.66 cells/μl) at significant level (t=20.459; P<0.001). The Odd ratio indicated that the elevated SGPT, SGOT and ALP were 1.250, 1.520 and 14.400 times higher among the HIV than HIV women. Discussion: HIV-infected women are at a greater risk of abnormal liver function and this abnormality increases with the severity of the disease condition.
BANKING CRISES AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE: DO CREDIT CONSTRAINTS MATTER?

This paper estimates the effect of banking crises on international trade by means of gravity equations using a sample of 151 countries over the period 1975-2010. Banking crises may impact trade through two ways: demand shocks and credit constrains. Given that gravity models are a natural way to account for output fluctuations, our results rely on the financial constraints channel. We obtain that global systemic banking crises have, in general, a robust negative impact on trade flows among the countries involved whereas a small or no impact is found for individual crisis. It appears that financial constraints in the present subprime crisis have lower relevance than in some other global crises.