Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semantic User Behaviour Prediction in Online News

In recent years, predicting user behaviour has become increasingly important within the news recommendation area. Knowledge of behavioural patterns offers valuable insight for developing efficient and user friendly services, ensuring good user experiences for users and increased revenues for companies. Though very useful, these user recommendations can be difficult to make and the news domain poses its own, unique challenges for the task. Challenges such as short life span for item recommendations, sparse connections to large item vocabularies, and volatile networks and user behaviours are prominent in news recommendation. This creates performance difficulties for traditional recommendation methods, especially due to the need to recommend unseen items. By employing topic modeling on the rich text objects provided by the news domain, new articles introduced in the system can be compared to old articles in a meaningful way. Organizing these articles in clusters based on topic proportions, useful topic combinations can be elicited. Using these clusters to create user models based on composite interests, newly introduced articles can be recommended to users. While a key finding is the conflict between optimizing goals for subtasks and optimal performance in the prediction task, implementing these technologies does lead to improvements of user prediction results. Different combinations of parameters provides prediction results with very different qualitative characteristics, but comparing to predictions using original labels and random recommendations, the models obtain better Mean Average Precision (MAP) and Ranking Accuracy (RA) than both. With models using both topic modeling and clustering, RA shows improvements on random, ranged from 34%-64%, for models which performed well. Other models gains improvements ranging from 18%-278 % on top 3, 5, 10 and 30 positions for MAP, but declines in performance on RA by 18% − 28%. Considering the characteristics of each prediction evaluation metric, RA appears to better capture the quality of recommendations.
Concurrent data representation synthesis Citation

We describe an approach for synthesizing data representations for concurrent programs. Our compiler takes as input a program written using concurrent relations and synthesizes a representation of the relations as sets of cooperating data structures as well as the placement and acquisition of locks to synchronize concurrent access to those data structures. The resulting code is correct by construction: individual relational operations are implemented correctly and the aggregate set of operations is serializable and deadlock free. The relational specification also permits a high-level optimizer to choose the best performing of many possible legal data representations and locking strategies, which we demonstrate with an experiment autotuning a graph benchmark.
Selective Endothelin ETB Receptor Antagonist Improves Left Ventricular Function but Exaggerates Degeneration of Cardiomyocytes in J 2 Nk Hamsters

ET-1 may act as a potent growth factor inducing cardiac hypertrophy, 3 and exert positive inotropic and chronotropic effects on the heart. 4,5 Moreover, extremely elevated concentrations of ET-1 might be toxic and cause local myocyte damage, leading to cardiac dysfunction. 6 Although both ETA receptor-selective antagonist and nonselective ETA/ETB receptor antagonist have been reported to improve cardiac function in CHF, it is still controversial whether selective ETA receptor blockade or nonselective ETA/ETB receptor blockade is preferable for the treatment of patients with CHF, because the pathophysiological role of ETB receptors in CHF has not been fully elucidated.7–10 Furthermore, little is known about the effect of long-term treatment with ETB receptor blockade on cardiac function and structure in CHF.
A MULTI-LEVEL SOLVER FOR GAUSSIAN CONSTRAINED COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND REALIZATIONS

We present a multi-level solver for drawing constrained Gaussian realizations or finding the maximum likelihood estimate of the cosmic microwave background sky, given noisy sky maps with partial sky coverage. The method converges substantially faster than existing Conjugate Gradient (CG) methods for the same problem. For instance, for the 143 GHz Planck frequency channel, only three multi-level W-cycles result in an absolute error smaller than 1 μK in any pixel. Using 16 CPU cores, this translates to a computational expense of 6 minutes wall time per realization, plus 8 minutes wall time for a power-spectrum-dependent precomputation. Each additional W-cycle reduces the error by more than an order of magnitude, at an additional computational cost of 2 minutes. For comparison, we have never been able to achieve similar absolute convergence with conventional CG methods for this high signal-to-noise data set, even after thousands of CG iterations and employing expensive preconditioners. The solver is part of the Commander 2 code, which is available with an open source license at http://commander.bitbucket. org/.
Colorimetric Amine Detection by Vanillin-Hydrazone Derivatives during Chicken Meat Spoilage

Two vanillin-hydrazone compounds as the colorimetric amine detection during chicken meat spoilage are described. Two hydrazone compounds (1 and 2) have been synthesized from the condensation reaction of vanillin with phenylhydrazine and 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine. Their properties for colorimetric recognition of amine were determined by the naked eye and UV-vis spectra. Their properties as amine indicators were investigated toward primary amine: butylamine (BA); secondary amine: dimethylamine (DMA), diethylamine (DEA); tertiary amine: triethylamine (TEA), and also ammonia (Amm). The hydrazone 1 in DMSO showed no significant color changes (colorless) after the addition of amines solution. Hydrazone 2 (5×10-5 M in DMSO) showed color changes from yellow to violet in the presence of ammonia, DEA and BA, to reddish-violet for DMA, and light brown after addition of TEA solutions. The colorimetric amine detection by vanillin-hydrazone 2 could recognize the real amine during chicken meat spoilage from yellow to light brown after 24 h storage at room temperature.
2 The Hydrologic Cycles and Global Circulation

The role of hydrological cycles in earth system, the amount of water on the Earth’s surface and its distribution in various reserves are first introduced together with the water cycles on the Earth. The concept of mean residence time, water stored in various parts over the Earth surface as various phases, such as glacier, soil moisture, water vapor, and water flux among these reserves, such as precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, and runoff, are briefly explained with their role in global climate system, and their quantitative estimates are presented. Detailed annual water balances over land estimated by land surface models are introduced, as well. Water balance requirements over land, atmosphere, and their coupled system are explained with some application of the concept, and the role of rivers in the global hydrological cycle is quantitatively shown. Finally, the impact of increasing magnitude of anthropogenic activities on global water system and its relationships with global changes are briefly discussed. EARTH SYSTEM AND WATER The Earth system is unique in that water exists in all three phases, that is, water vapor, liquid water, and solid ice, compared to the situations in other planets. The transport of water vapor is regarded as the energy transport because of its large amount of latent heat exchange during phase change to liquid water (approximately 2.5 × 10 6 Jk g −1 ); therefore, water cycle is closely linked to energy cycle. Even though the energy cycle on the Earth is an “Open System” driven by solar radiation, the amount of water on the Earth does not change on shorter than geological timescales (Oki, 1999), and the water cycle itself is a “Closed System. ” On global scale, hydrologic cycles are associated with atmospheric circulation, which is driven by the unequal heating of the earth’s surface and atmosphere in latitude (Peixu
Foreign Direct Investment & Petty Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Empirical Analysis at the Local Level

Abstract Inspired by a recent and ongoing debate about whether foreign direct investment (FDI) represents a blessing for or an impediment to economic, social, and political development in FDI host countries this paper addresses two issues: Does the presence of foreign investors impact the occurrence of petty corruption? If so, what are the main underlying mechanisms? Geocoding an original firm-level dataset and combining it with georeferenced household survey data, this is a first attempt to analyse whether the presence of foreign investors is associated with changes in local corruption around foreign-owned production facilities in 19 Sub-Saharan African countries. Applying an estimation strategy that explores the spatial and temporal variation in the data, we find strong and consistent evidence that the presence of foreign firms increases bribery among people living nearby. When examining two potential channels, we find no clear support that FDI-induced economic activity leads to more corruption. In contrast, the results provide evidence that FDI affects corruption via norm transmission.
Measures of Edge-Uncolorability of Cubic Graphs

There are many hard conjectures in graph theory, like Tutte's 5-flow conjecture, and the $5$-cycle double cover conjecture, which would be true in general if they would be true for cubic graphs. Since most of them are trivially true for $3$-edge-colorable cubic graphs, cubic graphs which are not $3$-edge-colorable, often called snarks, play a key role in this context. Here, we survey parameters measuring how far apart a non $3$-edge-colorable graph is from being $3$-edge-colorable. We study their interrelation and prove some new results. Besides getting new insight into the structure of snarks, we show that such measures give partial results with respect to these important conjectures. The paper closes with a list of open problems and conjectures.
Staff Paper MODELING OF AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

Modeling of Agricultural Systems The authors present an overview of agricultural systems models. Beginning with why systems are modeled and for what purposes, the paper examines types of agricultural systems and associated model types. The broad categories range from pictorial (iconic) models to descriptive analogue models to symbolic (usually mathematical) models. The uses of optimization versus non-optimizing mechanistic models are reviewed, as are the scale and aggregation challenges associated with scaling up from the plant cell to the landscape or from a farm enterprise to a world market supply-demand equilibrium Recent modeling developments include the integration of formerly stand-alone biophysical simulation models, increasingly with a unifying spatial database and often for the purpose of supporting management decisions. Current modeling innovations are estimating and incorporating environmental values and other system interactions. At the community and regional scale, sociological and economic models of rural community structure are being developed to evaluate long-term community viability. The information revolution is bringing new challenges in delivering agricultural systems models over the internet, as well as integrating decision support systems with the new precision agriculture technologies.
Evaluation of several different planetary boundary layer schemes within a single model , a unified model and a multimodel superensemble

This paper addresses the forecasts of latent heat fluxes from five different formulations of the planetary boundary layer (PBL). Different formulations are deployed within the Florida State University global spectral model. Hundreds of short range forecast experiments are carried out using daily data sets for summer 2002 with each model. The primary goal of this study is to compare the performance of the diverse family of PBL algorithms for the latent heat fluxes within the PBL. Benchmark fluxes are calculated from the vertical integrals of Yanai’s formulation of the apparent moisture sink and a precipitation using Physical Initialization. This provides indirectly observed estimates of the vertical fluxes of latent heat in the PBL. This comparison reveals that no single scheme shows a global spread of improvement over other models for forecasts of latent heat fluxes in the PBL. Among these diverse models the turbulent kinetic energy based closure provides somewhat better results. The construction of a multimodel superensemble provides a synthesis of these different PBL formulations and shows improved forecasts of the surface fluxes. A single unified model utilizing weighted PBL algorithms where all the five schemes are retained within a single model shows some promise for improving a single model.
Effects of a 12-week-long program of vigorous-intensity physical activity on the body composition of 10-and 11-year-old children

The purpose was to study the effects of a program of vigorous-intensity physical activity (PA) on the body composition of children. This investigation involved 108 school children from 10 to 11 years old (60 males 10.47 ± 0.50 yr, and 48 females 10.67 ± 0.48 yr). The variables measured were: body weight, fat-free mass (FFM), fat mass (FM), total body water (TBW), basal metabolic rate (BMR), body mass index (BMI), fat-free mass index (FFMI) and fat mass index (FMI). The design was experimental with two groups, experimental group EG (vigorous-intensity PA) and control group CG. Males of EG achieved higher improvements than CG in all the variables, apart from body weight, BMI and FFMI. Females of EG achieved more improvements than CG, especially in FFM(%), FM(kg), FM(%), FMI(kg/m2) and TBW(%). The program of vigorous-intensity PA used is effective in improving the body composition of 10-and 11-year-old children.
Information and e-learning services for the efficient management of allergy and asthma, employing an integrated environment monitoring network

In this paper we present a distributed telematic platform which is implemented to support health information management and innovative services to people suffering from allergies, asthma and rhinitis. The developed system establishes a trans-European information network offering specialized services to health professionals, patients and the public, by collecting, processing and distributing specialized data and informational content. An integrated monitoring and reporting system of aero-allergens is used to collect Pan-European environmental data and produce allergy maps, forecasting and danger level alerts. Informational content and e-learning resources are also consolidated and combined with personalized health management services. Through the created network, health information is supplied to sufferers via WWW and SMS technologies, and informational and learning resources are offered to health professionals. Sets of services were implemented in pilot form and offered to real users for testing purposes. The results were encouraging towards expansion to fully blown service at a Pan-European level. Keywords— telematic services, environment monitoring, health information, teleeducation.
Specificity of Psychosomatization of Psychologist-Leaders with Professional Deformations (Burnout)

The understanding of the phenomena "Psychosomatization" and "Professional Deformations" is deepened. The comparative analysis of professional deformations (burnout) of two groups of psychologists with and without a leadership position, namely, the relationship of individual-specific and functionally-role influence and finding in situations of hidden stress on the components of professional deformations (burnout) is carried out: emotional and/or physical exhaustion, depersonalization and reduction of personal achievements. A comparative analysis of the symptoms of psychosomatization of two groups of psychologists with and without a leadership position, and violations of the respiratory, digestive and cardiovascular systems, musculoskeletal and skin reactions. Specificity of psychosomatization of psychologists-leaders with professional deformations (burnout) is determined: disturbance of the "Sleep-wake" cycle features of social interaction, reduction of motivation to activity, somatovegetative disorders, deterioration of well-being (emotional shifts, peculiarities of individual mental processes, decrease in overall activity, fatigue). The influence of professional deformations (burnout) on the psychosomatization of leading psychologists has been established. Attention is focused on the need for psycho- prophylaxis and psychocorrection of emotional and/or physical exhaustion, professional disadaptation and symptomatology of psychosomatization of leading psychologists.
An improved protocol for Energy efficient communication in Wireless Sensor Network

The popularity of Wireless Sensor Networks has increased extremely due to the huge potential of the sensor networks to join the physical world with the virtual world. Since these devices depend on battery power and may be placed in hostile environments replacing them becomes a tedious task. Thus, increasing the energy of these networks becomes important. Our paper provides methods for clustering and cluster head selection to WSN to improve energy efficiency. It provides a comparative study of the different methods on the basis of the network lifetime. It provides a modified approach for cluster head selection with good performance and less computational complexity. In addition it also proposes modified communication protocol as an algorithm for clustering of WSN which would result in improved performance with faster convergence.
RAL-TR-2009-024 A second-derivative trust-region SQP method with a “ trust-region-free ” predictor step 1

In (NAR 08/18 and 08/21, Oxford University Computing Laboratory, 2008) we introduced a second-derivative SQP method (S2QP) for solving nonlinear nonconvex optimization problems. We proved that the method is globally convergent and locally superlinearly convergent under standard assumptions. A critical component of the algorithm is the so-called predictor step, which is computed from a strictly convex quadratic program with a trust-region constraint. This step is essential for proving global convergence, but its propensity to identify the optimal active set is paramount for recovering fast local convergence. Thus the global and local efficiency of the method is intimately coupled with the quality of the predictor step. In this paper we study the effects of removing the trust-region constraint from the computation of the predictor step; this is reasonable since the resulting problem is still strictly convex and thus well-defined. Although this is an interesting theoretical question, our motivation is based on practicality. Our preliminary numerical experience with S2QP indicates that the trust-region constraint occasionally degrades the quality of the predictor step and diminishes its ability to correctly identify the optimal active set. Moreover, removal of the trust-region constraint allows for re-use of the predictor step over a sequence of failed iterations thus reducing computation. We show that the modified algorithm remains globally convergent and preserves local superlinear convergence provided a nonmonotone strategy is incorporated. 1 This work was supported by the EPSRC grants EP/E053351/1 and EP/F005369/1. 2 Computational Science and Engineering Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, England, EU. Email: nick.gould@stfc.ac.uk . Current reports available from “http://www.numerical. rl.ac.uk/reports/reports.shtml”. 3 Mathematical Institute 24–29 St Giles’, Oxford, OX1 3LB, England, EU. Email: robinson@maths.ox. ac.uk Computational Science and Engineering Department Atlas Centre Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Oxfordshire OX11 0QX November 2, 2009 2 N. I. M. Gould and D. P. Robinson
Probabilistic models for dissolution of ethylcellulose coated microspheres

In the last few decades, a number of probabilistic models for drug delivery have been developed. Of particular interest are those that model controlled release systems to provide targeted dose delivery. Controlled release is achieved by using polymers with dierent dissolution characteristics. We present here a model based on Monte Carlo and Cellular Automata approaches, for simulating drug release from coated microspheres in the gastro-intestinal tract. Controlled release is obtained using ethylcellulose as the coating polymer. Modelling features, such as the drug and coating dissolution are nontrivial, since material is non-homogenously dispersed and the dissolution exhibits complex behaviour. Important underlying mechanisms of the process, such as erosion, are described here.
Investigating the Performance of the SFP Graduates in Their 1st Year of the Degree Programmes at UNAM from 2005 to 2016

This descriptive quantitative study investigated the performance of the Science Foundation Programme (SFP) graduates in their 1st year of the degree programmes at the University of Namibia (UNAM) from 2005 to 2016. The population of the study consisted of 1298 all the former students who went through the SFP from 2005 to 2016 at the Oshakati campus and a sample of 100 (n = 100) students was randomly selected from the population (N = 1298). The researchers analysed the University Integrated Tertiary System (ITS) database to extract students’ records to find out how many former SFP students had registered for degree courses; and also to find out the performance of these students in their courses of study at UNAM. The findings of the study showed that since the establishment of the SFP in 2005 at the Oshakati campus in 2005, the SFP has been growing and attracting more students within Namibia. The findings also indicated that the SFP was meeting its mandate and achieving its goal and objectives of preparing students for the first year of their studies at tertiary institutions because each year, more students have passed their 1st year and have progressed into their second year of studies at UNAM. The study recommended that a longitudinal study should be carried out to shed light on the performance of SFP graduates throughout their studies: from first year to their final year of studies.
THE PERFORMANCE OF SERIAL CORRELATION PRELIMINARY TEST ESTIMATORS UNDER ASYMMETRY LOSS

Department of Statistics, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria,Pretoria, South Africa.Key words: Serial correlation, preliminary test estimation, LINEX loss, BLINEX loss, risk func-tion.Summary: The risk performances, under the symmetric squared error loss function, of the esti-mators of the regression coefﬁcients after a preliminary test for serial correlation have been widelyinvestigated in the literature. However, it is well known that the use of the symmetric loss functionsis inappropriate in estimation problems where underestimation and overestimation have differentconsequences. We consider the Linear Exponential and Bounded Linear Exponential loss functionswhich allows for asymmetry. The risks of the estimators are derived and numerically evaluated byusing simulations.