Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Penalty Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers for Decentralized Composite Optimization

This paper proposes a penalty alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to minimize the summation of convex composite functions over a decentralized network. Each agent in the network holds a private function consisting of a smooth part and a nonsmooth part, and can only exchange information with its neighbors during the optimization process. We consider a penalized approximation of the decentralized optimization problem; but unlike the existing penalty methods, here the penalty parameter can be very small such that the approximation error is negligible. On the other hand, the small penalty parameter makes the penalized objective ill-conditioned, such that the popular proximal gradient descent method has to use a small step size, and is hence slow. To address this issue, we propose to solve the penalized formulation with ADMM. We further utilize the composite structures of the private functions through linearizing the smooth parts so as to reduce computational costs, and handling the nonsmooth parts with proximal operators. The proposed penalty ADMM (abbreviated as PAD) is provably convergent when the private functions are convex, and linearly convergent when the smooth parts are further strongly convex. Numerical experiments corroborate the theoretical analyses, and demonstrate the advantages of PAD over existing state-of-the-art algorithms, such as DL-ADMM, PG-EXTRA and NIDS.
Fifteen Years of Gene Set Analysis for High-Throughput Genomic Data: A Review of Statistical Approaches and Future Challenges

Over the last decade, gene set analysis has become the first choice for gaining insights into underlying complex biology of diseases through gene expression and gene association studies. It also reduces the complexity of statistical analysis and enhances the explanatory power of the obtained results. Although gene set analysis approaches are extensively used in gene expression and genome wide association data analysis, the statistical structure and steps common to these approaches have not yet been comprehensively discussed, which limits their utility. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview, statistical structure and steps of gene set analysis approaches used for microarrays, RNA-sequencing and genome wide association data analysis. Further, we also classify the gene set analysis approaches and tools by the type of genomic study, null hypothesis, sampling model and nature of the test statistic, etc. Rather than reviewing the gene set analysis approaches individually, we provide the generation-wise evolution of such approaches for microarrays, RNA-sequencing and genome wide association studies and discuss their relative merits and limitations. Here, we identify the key biological and statistical challenges in current gene set analysis, which will be addressed by statisticians and biologists collectively in order to develop the next generation of gene set analysis approaches. Further, this study will serve as a catalog and provide guidelines to genome researchers and experimental biologists for choosing the proper gene set analysis approach based on several factors.
School Happiness: A Grounded Theory

Bu calismada, ogretmenlerin, okul yoneticilerinin, velilerin ve ogrencilerin goruslerine dayali bir okul mutlulugu teorisi gelistirilmesi amaclanmistir. Bu calisma nitel temelli bir teori modelinde tasarlanmistir. Calisma gruplari 18 ogretmen, 14 okul yoneticisi, 13 ebeveyn ve 20 ogrenci idi. Calisma gruplarini belirlemek icin kartopu ornekleme yontemi kullanilmistir. Okulun mutlulugu ile ilgili on iki ana nitelik belirlenmistir. Bu temel nitelikler fiziksel donanim, okul ortami, ogrenme ortami, iletisim ve isbirligi, egitim politikasi, sosyal etkinlikler, okul yonetimi, ogretmen nitelikleri, okulda farkli, ogrenci merkezli olma, ogrenme etkinlikleri ve ogrenci nitelikleriydi. Sonuclar, ana niteliklerin oncelik seviyesinin bir katilimci gruptan digerine degistigini gostermistir. Ogretmenler oncelikli okul ortami, okul yonetimi ve fiziksel ekipman verir. Ote yandan okul yoneticileri okul ortamina, fiziksel ekipmana ve okul mutlulugu icin egitim politikasina oncelik vermektedir. Ebeveynler okul mutlulugu icin fiziksel donanima, okul ortamina, isbirligine ve iletisime oncelik verir. Ek olarak, ogrenciler ogrenme ortamina, okul ortamina ve fiziksel donanima daha fazla oncelik verirler. Bu sonuclara gore, okul toplumunun etkili okul ortami icin isbirligi ve iletisim icinde olmasi, yetenek egitimi icin fiziksel ekipmanin koordine edilmesi, okul mutlulugunu artirmak icin ogrencilerin cok yonlu gelisimi goz onunde bulundurularak ogrenme ortaminin duzenlenmesi gerektigi onerilebilir.
Governance reform in context: Welfare sector professionals’ working and employment conditions

This article addresses the relationship between profession, organisation and spatial (geographical) setting, more specifically the relationship between welfare sector professionals’ conditions for work amidst governance change. In previous research, the conditions for welfare sector professionals’ work have largely been studied without taking the employing organisations or the local and regional situation into consideration. In this article, the authors question and seek to counteract this de-contextualised approach. They do so by showing that the circumstances of the specific workplace context are essential in understanding welfare sector professionals’ working conditions, especially so in current governance contexts characterised to varying degrees by marketisation, via processes and structures which facilitate choice, competition, privatisation and devolution. This line of argument is illustrated in relation to how upper secondary teachers in Sweden experience their conditions for work and employment in eight schools across three different ‘market types’. The authors contend that whilst different conditions in different workplaces can to some extent always be expected, current governance agendas in the welfare sector seem to exacerbate these differences. The article’s theoretical contribution, therefore, is in the privileging of local contextual dynamics. The authors suggest a stronger emphasis on spatially-informed frames of reference in future studies of conditions for welfare sector professionals.
Evaluating Pre-Service Teaching Practice for Online and Distance Education Students in Pakistan

In addition to conventional modes, teacher education programs in Pakistan are also offered through online and distance education. Teaching practice is a significant component of pre-service teacher education programs. Assessing the quality of teaching practice for pre-service student teachers is important, as these modules train the prospective teachers for their professional teaching careers. Virtual University of Pakistan (VU), an online university, offers pre-service teacher education programs. This research is an investigation into the learning opportunities and practices of VU student teachers in their teaching practice modules. Students enrolled in different teacher education programs served as the population of this study. Those in the fall 2018 semester who were enrolled in teaching practice modules were selected as a sample. Data sources included lesson plans prepared, lessons delivered, administrative and co-curricular duties performed by the students, as well as evaluation reports by supervisors, cooperating teachers, and school principals. There were improvements in the student teachers’ lesson plan formation and their overall learning. Data obtained through personal visits by VU faculty was used to verify and assess actual classroom teaching. Lack of regular attendance and punctuality by student teachers was observed as a result. Internal review of the VU system as it relates to the teaching practice modules was conducted to address any shortcomings in the course(s), its procedures, and its controls. Recommendations for improving the system, such as grading the modules, peer-assessment, and orientation workshops for student teachers are provided, as well as suggestions for developments in the teaching practice modules themselves.
Image super resolution via nonlocal and second-order feature fusion network

Abstract. Recently, deep neural networks have made remarkable performance in the image super-resolution (SR) field. However, they mainly focus on wider or deeper architectural design, neglecting to capture the inherent property of natural images, hence hindering the representational ability of convolutional neural networks. To address this issue, we propose a deep network based on nonlocal (NL) and second-order (SO) feature fusion for image SR. In particular, we draw the observation that a SO attention mechanism could achieve more powerful feature expression and feature correlation learning. On the other hand, NL module is proved to be an effective prior to explore spatial contextual information. Thus, we introduce an SR network architecture by embedding NL operations and SO feature to capture intrinsic statistical characteristics of images. Furthermore, long skip connection is applied in the network to pass more abundant low-frequency information from low-resolution images and ease the network training. Experimental results on a variety of images demonstrate that our proposed method can achieve more desirable performance over several state-of-the-art methods in terms of quantitative metrics and visual quality.
Two-allele heterothallism in Tapesia yallundae, the teleomorph of the cereal eyespot pathogen Pseudocercosporella herpotrichoides

Abstract A technique is described which permits in vitro sexual reproduction between compatible isolates of Tapesia yallundae . It involves the inoculation of isolates onto either barley straw nodal segments or a compost malt medium, followed by incubation for 12 weeks under white light at 10°C. Mating studies were made in which tester strains were crossed against a range of isolates of the W-pathotype of Pseudocercosporella herpotrichoides and pairwise crosses were made between a series of ascospore offspring from the same apothecium. These revealed that T. yallundae exhibits two-allele heterothallism, with the two mating types designated MAT1 -1 and MAT1 -2. Increased phenotypic variation was observed as a result of recombination during the sexual cycle with the appearance of novel phenotypes, differing from those of the parental strains, amongst the progeny of a defined cross. Recombination was detected between mating type, resistance to the fungicide benomyl and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers.
Customer Loyalty Improves the Effectiveness of Recommender Systems Based on Complex Network

Inferring customers’ preferences and recommending suitable products is a challenging task for companies, although recommender systems are constantly evolving. Loyalty is an indicator that measures the preference relationship between customers and products in the field of marketing. To this end, the aim of this study is to explore whether customer loyalty can improve the accuracy of the recommender system. Two algorithms based on complex networks are proposed: a recommendation algorithm based on bipartite graph and PersonalRank (BGPR), and a recommendation algorithm based on single vertex set network and DeepWalk (SVDW). In both algorithms, loyalty is taken as an attribute of the customer, and the relationship between customers and products is abstracted into the network topology. During the random walk among nodes in the network, product recommendations for customers are completed. Taking a real estate group in Malaysia as an example, the experimental results verify that customer loyalty can indeed improve the accuracy of the recommender system. We can also conclude that companies are more effective at recommending customers with moderate loyalty levels.
Variation in Endophytic Bacterial Communities Associated with the Rhizomes of Tropical Bamboos

ABSTRACT To explore the diversity of bacterial endophytes of rhizomes of bamboo growing in the central part of India; five Bamboo species were collected and investigated. The culturable endophytic bacteria were isolated by serial dilution and culture-dependant method and their diversity was studied with a 16S rDNA sequence analysis. Consequently, a total of 31 endophytic bacteria isolated from these bamboo species, and the isolates were affiliated to 17 different genera. Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum with the highest diversity containing 11 genera and Staphylococcus, Herbaspirillum, Pseudomonas and Stenotrophomonas being the most frequently observed genera. The Microbacterium, Chryseobacterium, and Chitinophaga were the solitary representative of classes Actinobacteria, Flavobacteria, and Sphingobacteria, respectively. The diversity of bacteria was greater in Dendrocalamus species than in Bambusa species. Based on the putative identity of isolates and their functional roles as reported in the literature, the isolated bacterial endophytes seems to be the promising sustainable bioresource for bioaugmentation of plant growth particularly bamboos in tropical areas including forest.
Eplet-Based HLA Class II Matching for Transplantation: Design of a Repertoire of Interlocus Eplets Shared between HLA-DR, -DQ and -DP Alleles

Many studies have demonstrated that HLA-DR, HLA-DQ and HLA-DP matching at the eplet level reduces allograft rejection and improves transplant outcome. Such studies have examined the eplet effect for the individual class II loci, but until now little attention has been given to so-called interlocus class II eplets shared between HLA-DR, HLA-DQ and/or HLA-DP alleles. This report summarizes current information about antibody-verified interlocus class II eplets. It describes a structural modeling method to determine potentially immunogenic interlocus class II eplets and to identify non-immunogenic eplets because they are monomorphic at another class II locus. We propose that the inclusion of interlocus class II eplets will enhance the efficiency of eplet-based HLA-DR, -DQ, -DP matching in organ transplantation.
A Hierarchical Model for Dialog Act Recognition Considering Acoustic and Lexical Context Information

Dialog act recognition (DAR) is important to capture speakers’ intention in a dialog system. Traditional methods commonly use the lexical information from transcripts, acoustic information from speech, and dialog context information to do DAR. However, in these methods, textual context information may be considered, whereas acoustic context information is ignored, which leads to ambiguity in certain DAs especially in Mandarin. To solve the problem, we propose a hierarchical model for DAR considering context information of both lexical and acoustic prosody. The experimental results on a Mandarin dialog corpus demonstrate that the contextual-acoustic information is helpful for recognizing DAs. The contextually specific prosodies involved in the utterances such as the echo question and open-end question are beneficial to identify the users’ intention. We also investigate the effect of the context length on the DAR. The proper context length is approximately equal to the length of the entire subtopics.
Defective Interfering HIV-1 Pseudotypes Carrying Chimeric CD4 Protein

Chimeric CD4 proteins were assembled. They contained the entire CD4 ectodomain that is linked to different membrane anchors. Membrane anchors consisted of either glucosyl phosphatidyl inositol (gpi), the transmembrane and cytoplasmic regions of HIV-1 Env protein, or the vesicular stomatitis virus G glycoprotein, respectively. The HIV-1 co-receptor CXCR4 and CD4 were independently inserted into viral envelopes. We compared the insertion of six different CD4/CXCR4 constructs into HIV-1 envelopes, as well as their functionality in targeting and specific infection of cells that constitutively express the HIV-1 Env protein. All of the six different HIV-1 (CD4/CXCR4) pseudotypes were able to transduce Env (+) cells at similar efficiency. In addition, stable transduction of the Env (+) recipient cells demonstrated that all chimeric proteins were functional as receptors for Env when inserted into HIV-1 envelopes. In fact, these results demonstrate for the first time a stable transduction by a targeted HIV-1 pseudotype virus.
Ciphertext-Policy Hierarchical Attribute-Based Encryption Against Key-Delegation Abuse for IoT-Connected Healthcare System

With the maturity of technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing, more and more medical institutions share patient’s medical data in the IoT-connected healthcare system, whereas it also brings hidden dangers to data security and privacy protection. The application of Hierarchical Attribute-Based Encryption (HABE) in IoT-connected healthcare system helps to solve the problem of data sharing with a large number of users. Delegation is a function of HABE, which can realize the transfer of hierarchical user access rights, effectively reducing the workload of the trusted authority. However, when “delegation” is used to generate decryption keys for users who do not comply with the access structure, the “key-delegation abuse” problem arises, which can seriously damage the privacy of patient’s data. Nevertheless, it has not attracted much attention in previous research. This paper proposes the problem of key-delegation abuse in Ciphertext-Policy Hierarchical Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-HABE). After the cryptanalysis of typical schemes, we conclude two reasons for key-delegation abuse in CP-HABE, which are randomizing the original key elements or keeping parts of them in a new decryption key. This paper proposes a new mechanism specifically by using directed graph and construct a CP-HABE scheme against key-delegation abuse (CP-HABE-AKDA). Aiming at the scenario of key leaking, we further present the traceable CP-HABE-AKDA solution for the IoT-connected healthcare system, which has the additional function of tracking and verifying the identity of key leaker.
Transformational Mimicry in a Myrmecomorphic Spider

Species that are Batesian mimics during postembryonic development shift between mimetic models as they grow in size. However, it has not yet been tested whether these successive mimetic phenotypes are similarly protected from predators. Early-instar phenotypes could represent an inaccurate phenotype or an accurate phenotype because of selection from different predators. Here, we tested the hypotheses of transformational Batesian mimicry in the ant-mimicking jumping spider Leptochestes berolinensis. We quantified the mimetic accuracy of different ontogenetic stages to potential ant models by using a multitrait approach. We measured movement, body profile, body size, and coloration. Analysis revealed adults to be more accurate mimics than juveniles. Adults were similar to smaller morphs of Camponotus or Lasius ants, whereas juveniles were more similar to Lasius and Colobopsis ants. We tested whether predators, mantises, and Pisaura spiders were deceived by mimics after having experience with ant models. These predators never captured any ant or a mimic but always captured the nonmyrmecomorphic spider. We conclude that L. berolinensis is a Batesian mimic of ants undergoing transformational mimicry, with all stages being accurate mimics.
Short-term responses to sheep grazing in a Patagonian steppe

Grazing modifies ecosystem function through direct effects on plants, but also through indirect effects mediated by floristic changes induced by grazing. Although both types of effects occur in the long term, only the direct effects are evident in the short term. We evaluated the short-term direct effects of sheep (Ovis aries) grazing on a Patagonian steppe during one growing season. We measured plant aerial cover in permanent transects located at increasing distances from a watering point in three paddocks with different stocking rates through the growing season. We also measured frequency of defoliation for vegetative and reproductive phases of different plant species located along these transects. Sheep grazing directly (a) reduced aerial cover and/or increased frequency of defoliation of certain preferred grasses and perennial forbs, (b) did not increase the aerial cover of any life form, but only the proportion of bare soil, (c) did not change the litter aerial cover, and (d) defoliated the flowers of even the least preferred shrub. Result a) was coincident with previous plant aerial cover long-term studies; but results (b) and (c) were contrary to long-term studies, probably because they resulted from indirect rather than direct grazing effects. Result (d) was not detected by long-term studies, probably because flower defoliation through grazing is undetectable when measuring shrub plant aerial cover. Our study showed that grazing has short-term direct effects mainly on the most preferred species. This could be useful for rangeland management and conservation of Patagonian steppes because short-term effects may be more easily reversible than long-term ones, and may provide early warning of rangeland condition deterioration.
Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on the Life Expectancy, Resilience and Death Anxiety in Women with Cancer

Introduction: An annual record of 90,000 new cases of cancer in Iran and a mortality rate of 55,000 affected cases is indicative of alarming outbreak of cancer in the country to the extent that an average of 100 people die each day due to this disease. The purpose of the present research is to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on the life expectancy, resilience and death anxiety in women with cancer. Methods: The present research is a semi-experimental research with pretest-posttest control group design. The research population consisted of all women with cancer who referred to the Cancer Institute of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran in 2017. Thirty women who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into two groups: experimental and control. Life expectancy, resilience and death anxiety scales were used and multivariate covariance analysis was applied for data analysis. Results: The results showed that life expectancy increased in the experimental group in compare with the control group (p<0.05) and the death anxiety of the experimental group decreased in compare to the control group (p<0.05) after acceptance and commitment training. Conclusion: Acceptance and commitment therapy is effective in increasing the life expectancy and resilience and also in decreasing death Anxiety in women patient with cancer. These findings can be used in designing of psychological treatment interventions in the field of cancer. Declaration of Interest: None
Fast Switch-Based Load Balancer Considering Application Server States

Large-scale services are generally hosted on multiple application servers to scale out in today’s data centers. Load balancers distribute users’ requests across these servers. Software load balancer and switch-based load balancer are two typical classes of load balancers. However, most of the existing mechanisms either exhibit high processing latency at load balancers or likely lead to unbalanced requests distribution without considering the disparity of the application servers. In this paper, we study how the disparity of application servers significantly impacts the response time of requests. A fast switch-based Load Balancer considering Application Server states (LBAS) then is proposed to minimize the processing latency at both load balancers and application servers. The data plane of LBAS is well designed to store millions of connections in limited storage capacity without violating per-connection consistency. Besides, a partial dynamic weighting algorithm based on the Ridge Regression theory is designed and implemented to decrease the processing latency at application servers. We implement LBAS using the P4 programming language and conduct a series of extensive experiments to evaluate the performance. The results demonstrate that the proposed LBAS mechanism significantly reduces the response time of requests compared with Uniform random, Static weight, and Spotlight in various scenarios.