Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image Hashing by Minimizing Discrete Component-wise Wasserstein Distance

Image hashing is one of the fundamental problems that demand both efficient and effective solutions for various practical scenarios. Adversarial autoencoders are shown to be able to implicitly learn a robust, locality-preserving hash function that generates balanced and high-quality hash codes. However, the existing adversarial hashing methods are inefficient to be employed for large-scale image retrieval applications. Specifically, they require an exponential number of samples to be able to generate optimal hash codes and a significantly high computational cost to train. In this paper, we show that the high sample-complexity requirement often results in sub-optimal retrieval performance of the adversarial hashing methods. To address this challenge, we propose a new adversarial-autoencoder hashing approach that has a much lower sample requirement and computational cost. Specifically, by exploiting the desired properties of the hash function in the low-dimensional, discrete space, our method efficiently estimates a better variant of Wasserstein distance by averaging a set of easy-to-compute one-dimensional Wasserstein distances. The resulting hashing approach has an order-of-magnitude better sample complexity, thus better generalization property, compared to the other adversarial hashing methods. In addition, the computational cost is significantly reduced using our approach. We conduct experiments on several real-world datasets and show that the proposed method outperforms the competing hashing methods, achieving up to 10% improvement over the current state-of-the-art image hashing methods. The code accompanying this paper is available on Github (this https URL).
Critical behavior of an impurity at the boson superfluid–Mott-insulator transition

We present a universal theory for the critical behavior of an impurity at the two-dimensional superfluid-Mott insulator transition. Our analysis is motivated by a numerical study of the Bose-Hubbard model with an impurity site by Huang et al. (Phys. Rev. B 94, 220502 (2016)), who found an impurity phase transition as a function of the trapping potential. The bulk theory is described by the $O(2)$ symmetric Wilson-Fisher conformal field theory, and we model the impurity by a localized spin-1/2 degree of freedom. We also consider a generalized model by considering an $O(N)$ symmetric bulk theory coupled to a spin-$S$ degree of freedom. We study this field theory using the $\epsilon = 3 - d$ expansion, where the impurity-bulk interaction flows to an infrared stable fixed point at the critical trapping potential. We determine the scaling dimensions of the impurity degree of freedom and the associated critical exponents near the critical point. We also determine the universal contribution of the impurity to the finite temperature compressibility of the system at criticality. Our results are compared with recent numerical simulations.
Assessing occupancy of freshwater fishes in urban boat slips of Toronto Harbour

Hardening of natural shorelines in urban aquatic ecosystems can result in a loss of fish habitat and productivity. The north shore of Toronto Harbour (Lake Ontario) has been converted to hardened boat slips for commercial, industrial and recreational purposes, but its potential utility as fish habitat has not been evaluated. The objective of this study was to determine whether fish frequented and utilized four slips in the Inner Harbour of Toronto. Two western boat slips are adjacent to some natural features and have undergone some rehabilitation to increase the complexity of aquatic habitat (i.e. addition of large substrate, overhead cover, and in-water structure). In contrast, the two eastern slips are deeper and more influenced by the turbid Don River. We assessed the timing and duration of occupancy within all four slips for seven fish species using acoustic telemetry. In just under a year, tagged fishes spent a limited amount of time in any one slip. However, there was evidence for increased use at the two western slips by Northern Pike (Esox lucius) in spring, which is likely linked to the proximity of these slips to a known spawning area. Overall, there was no reliable evidence that the majority of the seven adult fish species evaluated frequented either the western or eastern slips. Despite efforts to track and tag a variety of species, insufficient detections prevented a detailed assessment of habitat selection for the majority of species of interest. A more detailed study of the spatial ecology of these fishes is therefore needed to understand the scale of their habitat use and inform the design of habitat rehabilitation projects for hardened shorelines.
Numerical Investigation of Heat and Mass Transport and Surface Condensation due to Food Respiration and Transpiration in a Refrigerated Space

Food load and air-flow area within a refrigerated space having one air inlet and one air outlet have been taken as two separate control volumes interacting with each other at their boundaries. In the lower control volume, stored vegetable products have been located and heat and mass transfer due to respiration and transpiration of these products have been modeled for determining boundary conditions of the upper control volume, in which heat and mass transport within the air circulation above the products have been modeled and numerically investigated. Upper surface temperature of the said upper control volume has been compared with the dew point temperature, and condensation heat and mass fluxes through the surface have been calculated at the upper boundary. Time-dependent heat and mass transport equations of the control volume have been simultaneously solved together. An implicit finite difference approach has been applied for the numerical solution of transport equations. Fortran programming language has been used to develop the numerical model. As a result, temperature and humidity ratio distribution, the amount of vapor transpiration from food products, and the amount of condensation on the underside of the upper surface due to heat-and-mass transport and transpiration characteristics of the products have been time-dependently calculated for two different dimensions of the air inlet.
Bayesian Estimation of the Discrepancy with Misspecified Parametric Models

We study a Bayesian model where we have made specific requests about the parameter values to be estimated. The aim is to find the parameter of a parametric family which minimizes a distance to the data generating density and then to estimate the discrepancy using nonparametric methods. We illustrate how coherent updating can proceed given that the standard Bayesian posterior from an unidentifiable model is inappropriate. Our updating is performed using Monte Carlo Markov Chain methods and in particular a novel method for dealing with intractable normalizing constants is required. Illustrations using synthetic data are provided.
How Inflation Affects the Management Earnings Forecasts

I use 2005-2017 Shenzhen and Shanghai’s A-share listed company’s quarterly earnings forecasts data as sample to perform multiple regression analysis. I find that when inflation rate rises, not only management’s possibility of making earnings forecasts but also the precision and accuracy of management forecasts declines, ceteris paribus. Furthermore, I also find that when inflation rate rises, the state-owned nature of enterprises will aggravate the decline in the precision and accuracy of listed companies’ earnings forecasts. In the unique context of semi-mandatory disclosure rules in China, if companies voluntarily disclose more performance-related information, it usually means that the managers are more capable, more confident. Therefore, this voluntary behavior can alleviate the decline in the precision and accuracy of the earnings forecast brought by inflation. Finally, I find that the precision and accuracy of the earnings forecasts will further decline for companies with higher debt ratios, indicating that liabilities may be one of the paths of inflation affecting voluntary information disclosure.
Evaluating the validity of subspecies classifications: a case study of intraspecific genetic variation in the prairie vole ( Microtus ochrogaster )

EVALUATING THE VALIDITY OF SUBSPECIES CLASSIFICATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF INTRASPECIFIC GENETIC VARIATION IN THE PRAIRIE VOLE (MICROTUS OCHROGASTER) by Nicole Elizabeth Adams The biological importance of the unit of subspecies has been long debated. Much of the dispute revolves around criteria used to identify subspecies. Historically, taxonomic classifications were constructed using morphological traits. However, established phylogenies based on morphological data may not resemble those constructed using molecular data. Early work divided the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) into 7 subspecies using morphological characteristics, but a morphometric analysis of three subspecies showed no consistent differences among them. I tested the hypothesis that M. ochrogaster subspecies delimitation based on molecular data will be congruent with the current subspecies classification based on morphology. Microsatellite data from the 7 subspecies suggested ~90% of molecular variation was within subspecies. A cluster analysis indicated there were two genetic groups, which do not correspond to existing subspecies or geography. My molecular data failed to support the current subspecific classifications and suggest they may need to be reevaluated using integrative taxonomy. EVALUATING THE VALIDITY OF SUBSPECIES CLASSIFICATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF INTRASPECIFIC GENETIC VARIATION IN THE PRAIRIE VOLE (MICROTUS OCHROGASTER)
Psychometric Properties of the Book Readings for An Affective Classroom Education (BRACE) Coding System

Abstract In the present study, the relation between children’s emotion knowledge and preschool teachers’ book reading behaviors during shared book reading in the classroom was examined. A new coding system, the Book Readings for an Affective Classroom Education (BRACE), was developed to capture teachers’ macro-level book reading behaviors (i.e., dialogic reading) and micro-level use of emotion language (i.e., emotion coaching) during shared book reading. Results showed good reliability and validity of the BRACE. Further, teachers’ dialogic reading and emotion coaching behaviors during shared book reading positively predicted child emotion knowledge in Spring (T2), after controlling for children’s initial level of emotion knowledge in Fall (T1). In addition, a significant interaction between teachers’ book reading style and child emotion knowledge at T1 on emotion knowledge at T2 indicated that teachers’ effective book reading style was especially beneficial to children who had lower emotion knowledge at the beginning of the school year.
Movement and evolution of macromolecules in a grooved micro-channel

This paper presented an investigation of macromolecular suspension in a grooved channel by using the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) with finitely extensible non-linear elastic (FENE) bead spring chains model. Before studying the movement and evolution of macromolecules, the DPD method was first validated by modeling the simple fluid flow in the grooved channel. For both simple fluid flow and macromolecular suspension, the flow fields were analyzed in detail. It is found that the structure of the grooved channel with sudden contraction and expansion strongly affects the velocity distribution. As the width of the channel reduces, the horizontal velocity increases simultaneously. Vortices can also be found at the top and bottom corners behind the contraction section. For macromolecular suspension, the macromolecular chains influence velocity and density distribution rather than the temperature and pressure. Macromolecules tend to drag simple fluid particles, reducing the velocity with density and velocity fluctuations. Particle trajectories and evolution of macromolecular conformation were investigated. The structure of the grooved channel with sudden contraction and expansion significantly influence the evolution of macromolecular conformation, while macromolecules display adaptivity to adjust their own conformation and angle to suit the structure so as to pass the channel smoothly.
A novel study of structural reliability analysis and optimization for super parametric convex model

Owing to the severe technological competition and high demand for safety estimation in complex physic and engineering systems, reliability analysis has drawn more and more attention. The regular non‐probabilistic reliability analysis assumes that experimental data are enclosed by ellipse and rectangle; however, this appears inconsistent with various types of uncertain sources. In this article, a novel definition for non‐probabilistic reliability is provided for structures based on super parameteric convex model, which is formulated as the ratio of the multidimensional volume located in the safety domain to that of the total super parametric volume. Subsequently, a sampling method is proposed based on Monte Carlo simulation as a reference algorithm. To improve the efficiency, a first‐order calculation method is developed to solve the reliability model using a linear approximation of the limit state function. Furthermore, a second‐order calculation method is constructed to improve the reliability calculation precision with high nonlinearity, and a new non‐probabilistic reliability‐based design optimization method is established accordingly. Six numerical examples are tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Waterflood Management Using Hybrid Approach of Streamline-Based Interwell Flux Information and Finite Volume Reservoir Simulation

In this work, we implement new software for improved waterflood management by combining classical finite volume reservoir simulation together with streamline tracing and corresponding interwell flux evaluations to optimize waterflood performance. We have introduced two basic modules here: a commercial reservoir simulator and our own streamline tracing and waterflood management program. Waterflood simulation is performed for a certain time span until simulation is paused, and the streamline tracing program is called to calculate interwell fluxes and adjust new well rates for better waterflood performance. The simulation continues afterwards until the next tracing and adjustment point is reached. The two modules work iteratively. The streamline tracing program is designed to trace streamlines on a compressible velocity field and a general corner point grid system with nonneighboring connections. The new injection rates are adjusted according to each well's injection efficiency calculated from interwell multi-phase fluxes. Streamline tracing is performed successfully not only on simple geometry corner point grid cases, but also on heavily faulted realistic reservoirs under waterflood. After readjusting injection rates multiple times during the simulation, we typically observe a reduction in field water cut of up to 5% and an increase in oil recovery in our test cases. Interwell flux information serves as effective diagnostic tools to identify injector-producer pairs with large amount of water cycling. All simulations conducted here are rigorously finite volume based, which takes into account the full physics of nonadvective processes such as gravity and capillary effects. In conclusion, we have implemented a streamline‐based waterflood management program which works iteratively and cooperatively with a commercial reservoir simulator, without switching to streamline simulation. It provides an effective solution for improving oil recovery in brown fields by combining the rigorous mathematical nature of finite volume simulation and the power of streamline-based flood management.
Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles and Clonal Relatedness of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strains Recovered from Wounds Infections of Outpatient Population Presenting in a Rural Hospital in Kenya

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of hospital infections and is intrinsically resistant to most antibiotics. Emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) strains has been reported in the world and poses a great challenge in the management of infections associated with this species. While a substantial amount of research has been done on strains from most of other infection caused by this species in developed countries, little is known about the susceptibility profiles of strains recovered from African countries in general and Kenya in particular. Furthermore, there is paucity of data regarding strain, phenotype and genetic diversity of strains recoverable from wounds among patients in Kenya. The possible risk factors for acquisition of MDR strains and possible factors that could fuel clonal expansion in hospital and community settings remain undetermined. This cross-sectional study conducted in Tigoni Hospital, a rural area in Central Kenya sought to determine risk factors associated with carriage of MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa in wounds among rural population. We also analyzed antimicrobial resistance profiles among these isolates. Prevalence of P. aeruginosa in wounds was 28% with 85 isolates recovered from wounds of 299 participants. Most antimicrobial resistance prevalence was recorded towards Ceftazidime (64%) and Cefepime (52%) while Piperacillin-tazobactam was the most effective antimicrobial agent with a resistance prevalence rate of 20%. Resistance towards new classes of aminoglycosides such as Gentamicin was at 45% while that towards Amikacin was at 40%. Compared to other related studies, relatively lower resistance towards Ciprofloxacin (25%) and Meropenem (40%) were recorded. Some of the risk factors identified for carriages of MDR strains were self-medication (p: 0.001, C.I: 3.01 - 8.86, O.R: 5.17) and non-completion of dosage (p: 0.12, C.I: 0.9 - 2.5, O.R: 1.5).
Does Internal Immigration Always Lead to Urban Unemployment in Emerging Economies? : A Structural Approach Based on Data from China

Immigration restrictions usually arise from the idea that immigrants compete with original residents for jobs. Their effects on urban job creation are often ignored. In this study, we develop an inner-city dual labor market model that incorporates both of those effects, and apply it to empirical studies on China. We find that rural-urban immigration does not contribute to urban unemployment in China. Migrants take away some jobs from residents, but at the same time, they lower equilibrium wages and increase output, which expand the demand for resident workers. This latter positive impact is larger than the former substitution effect in China.
DPPH FREE RADICAL SCAVENGING ACTIVITY OF PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS IN ARGEMONE MEXICANA LINN.

The present study was aimed to evaluate the total phenolic contents (TPC), total flavonoid contents (TFC) and the antioxidant efficacy of methanolic extracts of different plant parts (leaves, stems, roots, flowers and fruits) of Argemone mexicana. The results showed significant variation in the total phenolic and flavonoid content and antioxidant potential among the different plant parts. The highest total phenolic (23.5mg GAE/gdw) and flavonoidal content (34.5mg QE/gdw) was recorded in flowers. Antioxidant evaluation of A.mexicana was carried out using 1, 1-diphenyl-2picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay and exhibited considerable antioxidant potential and showed good correlation with the total phenolic and total flavonoidal content. The highest radical scavenging effect was observed in flowers of A. mexicana with IC50 = 23. 75µg/ml. The results of the study showed that A.mexicana possess significant antioxidant activity. Owning to these results, the plant has the potential to be used as a medicine against the diseases caused by free radicals.
Mixed-Initiative tool to speed Up content creation in physics-based games

In this paper we introduce a mixed-initiative tool to speed up the process of content generation in physics-based games. Our system allows the game designer to focus on the creative process of content creation by alleviating the burden of manually constructing game structures. We use a clone of Angry Birds called Science Birds as the object of our research. A user study shows the advantages of employing our mixed-initiative tool for creating Angry Birds levels. Namely, our study shows that people are able to create Angry Birds levels much more quickly with our mixed-initiative tool than with a baseline system we developed. Moreover, the levels created with our mixed-initiative tool are comparable in terms of quality with those created with the baseline system.
Sacrifice, Session and Intercession:The End of Christ’s Offering in Hebrews

A growing number of scholars have argued that Christ’s offering in Hebrews is not limited to the cross but extends into heaven; in recent work David Moffitt contends that Christ’s heavenly, atoning offering is perpetual and coextensive with his intercession. This article calls this further step into question, by examining the function of Christ’s heavenly session in Hebrews’ construal of sacrificial process, and by exploring the nature of his heavenly intercession and its relation to his offering and enthronement. It argues that Christ’s session is a hinge, marking an emphatic close to his sacrificial work for the forgiveness of sins, and inaugurating his royal reign and priestly prayer.
Exploring the correlation between new function attributes mined from different product domains and market sales

ABSTRACT In order to satisfy various market needs and remain competitive in the marketplace, high-technology industries create cross-domain products that are differentiated from current product designs by integrating new function attributes from multiple product domains. However, given the vast number of candidate function attributes to select from, there is a fundamental challenge when searching for the appropriate function attributes to include in next-generation products. This work quantifies the semantic similarities between descriptive design requirements and function attributes in order to identify new function attributes that have the highest similarity to each requirement. This work hypothesizes that there is a correlation between these new function attributes and increased product sales. The case study presented in this work tests this hypothesis in the mechanical transmission systems domain. This work analyzes the impacts of products that contain different function attributes on actual product sales in the market. Transmission system function attributes and product sales data, including new electronic gear shifting systems from Shimano's bicycle division, are introduced in the case study. This case study reveals that the function attributes predicted by the method increase the market sales of next-generation products.
Women on Board of Directors and Firm Perfomance: The Moderating Role of Female Ownership. Empirical Evidence from the Italian Wine Industry

Many studies have investigated the impact of female directors on firm performance, but the results are still largely inconclusive. This paper aims to analyse the direct relationship between these variables and to explore the moderating role of female owners on the relationship between females on board of directors and firm performance. The main hypotheses are tested, through a panel regression model with cross section random effects, on a sample of 380 firms over the period 2008-2012. Our main findings show that the presence of women on company board does not affect firm performance. However, this relationship becomes significant when we consider the moderating role of the female presence in ownership. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.