Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An atlas of cell types in the mammalian epididymis and vas deferens

Following spermatogenesis in the testis, mammalian sperm continue to mature over the course of approximately 10 days as they transit a long epithelial tube known as the epididymis. The epididymis is comprised of multiple segments/compartments that, in addition to concentrating sperm and preventing their premature activation, play key roles in remodeling the protein, lipid, and RNA composition of maturing sperm. In order to understand the complex roles for the epididymis in reproductive biology, we generated a single cell atlas of gene expression from the murine epididymis and vas deferens. We recovered all the key cell types of the epididymal epithelium, including principal cells, clear cells, and basal cells, along with associated support cells that include fibroblasts, smooth muscle, macrophages and other immune cells. Moreover, our data illuminate extensive regional specialization of principal cell populations across the length of the epididymis, with a substantial fraction of segment-specific genes localized in genomic clusters of functionally-related genes. In addition to the extensive region-specific specialization of principal cells, we find evidence for functionally-specialized subpopulations of stromal cells, and, most notably, two distinct populations of clear cells. Analysis of ligand/receptor expression reveals a network of potential cellular signaling connections, with several predicted interactions between cell types that may play roles in immune cell recruitment and other aspects of epididymal function. Our dataset extends on existing knowledge of epididymal biology, and provides a wealth of information on potential regulatory and signaling factors that bear future investigation.
Impact of Motivation on Employee Performance in Kenya, A Case of Prisons Service in Trans-Nzoia County

Purpose The study is aimed at investigating the impact of motivation in staff performance of organization in Kitale Prison in Trans-nzoia County. It sought to evaluate the sources of information, where staff members preferably obtained information about motivation. Where the major motivator to most people was thought to be; rewards, incentives, intrinsic and recognition are auxiliary and supporting motivation. Low motivation of staff members has contributed to many factors that include the whole family, motivation should be included if any ; good performance, clean environment, challenging work, job enrichment, participation in decision making, recognition, responsibility and power, opportunity for personal growth. The researcher used descriptive research design to express the subject’s habits, attitudes, norms and social issues.
WEB Platform for Modeling Network Activity Based on Docker Container Virtualization Technology

The paper proposes an approach to creating a system for modeling network activity. To demonstrate the proposed approach, a web-based modeling platform for network activity was developed based on the container virtualization technology. Docker containers were used as virtual machines. Demonstration and testing of the developed system was carried out. The results of the temporal characteristics of modeling the behavior of network activity in the following scenarios: ping, syn-ﬂood and WinFreeze.
Apprendre à jouer aux jeux à deux joueurs à information parfaite sans connaissance

Dans cet article, plusieurs techniques pour l'apprentissage par renforcement de fonctions d'evaluation d'etats de jeu sont proposees. La premiere consiste a apprendre les va-leurs de l'arbre de jeu au lieu de se restreindre a la va-leur de la racine. La seconde consiste a remplacer le gain classique d'un jeu (+1 / −1) par une heuristique favo-risant les victoires rapides et les defaites lentes. La troi-sieme permet de corriger certaines fonctions d'evaluation en tenant compte de la resolution des etats. La quatrieme est une nouvelle distribution de selection d'actions. Enfin, la cinquieme est une modification du minimax a profon-deur non bornee etendant les meilleures sequences d'ac-tions jusqu'aux etats terminaux. En outre, nous proposons une autre variante du minimax non borne, qui joue l'ac-tion la plus sure au lieu de jouer la meilleure action. Les experiences menees suggerent que cela ameliore le niveau de jeux lors des confrontations. Enfin, nous appliquons ces differentes techniques pour concevoir un programme-joueur au jeu de Hex (taille 11) atteignant le niveau de Mohex 2.0 a la suite d'un apprentissage par renforcement contre soi-meme sans utilisation de connaissance.
Running Head: ANTICIPATIORY INFORMATION SHAPES REGULATION How Anticipatory Information Shapes Subsequent Emotion Regulation

Individuals often receive preceding information concerning future unpleasant events that will require regulating emotions. However, conceptual accounts explaining how the presence of anticipatory information, as well as biases in the content of anticipatory information, influence subsequent emotion regulation, are lacking. We propose a novel account that explains how the cognitive processing of anticipatory information influences subsequent cognitive regulatory strategies. Specifically, the presence (versus absence) of anticipatory information, which primarily influences attention towards upcoming unpleasant events, largely impacts subsequent attention-modulation regulatory strategies. By contrast, biased (versus unbiased) contents of anticipatory information, that primarily influence the meaning of upcoming unpleasant events, largely impact meaning-modulation regulatory strategies. Our account further argues that the fit between the direction of influence of anticipatory information on cognition and the underlying mechanisms of cognitive down-regulation strategies, determines regulatory challenge (i.e., effort and effectiveness of regulation). When anticipatory information decreases attention to, or negative meaning of, upcoming unpleasant stimuli, it fits a subsequent downregulation goal to decrease attention or negative meaning, resulting in low regulatory challenge. However, when anticipatory information enhances attention to, or negative meaning of, upcoming unpleasant stimuli, it conflicts with a counter down-regulation goal to decrease attention or negative meaning (i.e., no fit), resulting in high regulatory challenge. Broad implications and future directions are discussed.
lightweight autonomous bayesian optimization of Echo-State Networks

Echo State Networks (ESN) represent a good option to tackle non-linear, time-dependent problems without the training complexity of standard Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), thanks to intrinsic dynamics that arise from untrained sparse networks. However, performance and stability of ESN are determined by their hyper-parameters, e.g. Reser-voir dimension and sparsity, and the characteristics of the input, whose optimal values required time consuming procedures to be found. Here we propose an eﬃcient automatic optimization framework for ESN based on the Bayesian Optimization given user-deﬁned objectives, and bounded ranges on hyper-parameters. Results shown performance comparable with exhaustive grid-search optimization algorithms.
Dependence of Judgments in Analytic Hierarchy Process: A Statistical Aspect

In Analytic Hierarchy Process, the judgment on a pair of treatments or objects may affect the judgment on other pair of treatments especially when these two pairs have a treatment in common. This dependence could be established by using a model developed by Bahadur [1]. In this model, we test the presence of order effect of presentation within a pair of objects. Any two pairs of alternatives are tested for the correlation between them. It is also tested whether a certain number of pairs have the same degree of correlations. Priority vector, defined in terms of the order effect parameters, is estimated and the hypothesis of equal priority of objects is tested.
The change allows you to plan treatment based on symptoms and then refine treatment once you have spirometry results , Dr . Criner noted

A dding echocardiography and cardiopulmonary exercise testing to baseline right heart catheterization improves prognostic accuracy in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, according to a prospective Italian study of 102 newly diagnosed patients. A combination of low right ventricular fractional area change (RVFAC) on echocardiography and low oxygen pulse on cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) “identifies patients at a particularly high risk of clinical deterioration. ” Both are markers of right ventricular (RV) function, which is a major determinant of outcome in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension [iPAH], said investigators led by Roberto Badagliacca, MD, of the Sapienza University of Rome (Chest. 2016 Aug 20. pii: S0012-3692(16)56052-8. doi: 10.1016/j.chest. 2016.07. 036). PAH diagnosis requires right heart catheterization, and findings have long been known to predict PAH outcome. However, catheterization allows only “an indirect description of RV function,” the investigators said. Recent studies have shown that RV echocardiography and CPET improve the accuracy of heart failure prognosis, so the investigaGOLD uncouples spirometry from ABCD algorithm
Reactive Soft Prototype Computing for frequent reoccurring Concept Drift

Todays datasets, especially in streaming context, are more and more non-static and require algorithms to detect and adapt to change. Recent work shows vital research in the ﬁeld, but mainly lack stable performance during model adaptation. In this work, a concept drift detection strategy followed by a prototype based insertion strategy is proposed. Val-idated through experimental results on a variety of typical non-static data, our solution provides stable and quick adjustments in times of change.
Dishing the Deets: How Dark-Web Users Teach each other about International Drug Shipments

International trafficking of drugs enabled by the dark-web is still a problem despite the increase in takedown actions. Even though the transaction takes place digitally, the national postal systems are the ones being exploited and used for delivery. Users of the dark-web readily share information on forums, cryptomarkets, and feedback pages to maximize their safety and success while conducting these drug transactions. Using data collected from forums, vendor profiles, and feedback pages, this study provides an evidence that the knowledge being shared on the dark-web is rich data law enforcement and governments need to use as intelligence. Users discuss all aspect of the delivery process, including proper addressing, stealth packaging, and risks associated with taking delivery of the package. Based on these findings, policy recommendations are made to guide the implementation of techniques to counter the rise of dark-web-enabled drug shipments in the fight against drugs and
Accreditation is not a stand-alone solution PDF version Invited commentary

The politics and purpose of health care accreditation programmes around the world have changed radically from the original models of North America 50 years ago. Then they were hospital-focused, profession-driven, voluntary, self-financing and essentially non-governmental. The 1990s saw a rapid growth of programmes with an increasing emphasis on primary care, networks, health systems and regulation – driven largely by national governments and international donor agencies (1). The traditional collegial model of accreditation is moving towards a semi-regulatory model of external assessment; many newer programmes, for political, economic or technical reasons, have failed to meet initial expectations but others have flourished.
Well-beINg IN chINa: a caSe

The emerging group of migrant older parents (“mOP”, which refers to older people who leave their homes for other cities where their adult children work or reside in) in china is increasing in population, and they are making irreplaceable contribution to families as well as to our society. however, little was known about their well-being and how urban park could promote their social engagement. Therefore, this article takes the People’s Park of Shanghai for a study case, trying to identify the relationship between mOP and urban park, and what their needs and related issues are. findings show that mOP in china could promote their social engagement by participating in a variety of cultural activities, and familial obligations might influence mOP’s use of park but could also provide opportunities of socialization, in particular, taking care of grandchildren. In addition, for mOP, the space of park plays a more important role in their outdoor lives than that of community. In short, urban park serves as an irreplaceable role in mOP’s social engagement. but, nonetheless, in the context of today’s china, the needs of older people, in particular, mOP, for sufficient and more age-friendly outdoor activity places are often ignored. furthermore, mOP tend to be more concerned with living cost, thus, an age-friendly city list for them would also need to include low cost or even free outdoor activity places and public transport.
Empowering Conversational Agents with Situated Natural Language Communication Skills by Exploiting Deep Reinforcement Learning Techniques

Since the early days of Arti(cid:12)cial Intelligence, designing an agent able to interact with humans was considered a remarkable goal, aiming to replicate human cognitive capabilities in computer. In this work, we outline the main topics of a prospective PhD project whose aim is to exploit Deep Reinforcement Learning techniques to learn to interact with users in Natural Language conversations.
Comparison of abbreviation recognition algorithms

Motivation: Abbreviations and acronyms are frequently used in scientific journals, especially biomedical publications. While used to simplify text, abbreviations can be confusing to readers and are a problem for data and text mining. The purpose of this study is to compare algorithms that employ different techniques to solve abbreviation recognition. Method: This study evaluated these three publicly available abbreviation recognition systems: i) Schwartz and Hearst’s simple algorithm that employs an alignment-based approach, ii) Ao and Takagi’s algorithm that uses handcrafted templates and rules, and iii) a machine learning approach by Kuo et al. These systems were tested on three corpora and their performance was measured using a simple program. Results: Despite using different approaches to the problem of abbreviation recognition, all three algorithms performed well, with F-scores around 90%. The strongest algorithm was ALICE, which scored the highest precision and had a strong recall. Contact: michal.gawlik@mu.edu
Know Your Customer - Decentralized Secure Sharing Protocol on Quorum

—The advent of blockchains ushered in a new paradigm of secure interoperability between different organizations in a given industry or even across industries. Several start-ups are working diligently to discover and implement new use-cases in various sectors. One of the challenges faced by the implementers in this nascent and fast-evolving ﬁeld is the absence of standard protocols for common use-cases. In this paper, we propose a protocol to manage multiple KYC related functionalities on Quorum blockchain. The protocol is abstracted from any speciﬁc industry so that it can be utilized in any company where KYC sharing is carried out. We have developed a prototype of the system for shipping industry and it is being experimented with industry in real-time.
Tag Cloud Query Builder for Semantic Web Knowledge Bases

As the number of available Semantic Web triples continues to grow, the need for effective tools to browse large Semantic Web Knowledge Bases (SWKBs) becomes more and more evident. In this paper, we present the novel Tag Cloud Query Builder (TCQB), which allows users to visually browse ontologies and then generate queries by connecting browsing chains to a query graph. TCQB utilizes font size and text color in the tag cloud to convey the contextual data frequency and click frequency of each concept, and enables users to quickly grasp the usage pattern of unfamiliar ontologies and the domain of the SWKB. To build a query, the user can store historical browsing chains in a query cart, which is visualized by a query graph, and then link different chains by specifying the instance nodes in these chains are equivalent or adding ﬁlters that involves two literal nodes.
Inverse problems and rigidity questions in billiard dynamics

Abstract A Birkhoff billiard is a system describing the inertial motion of a point mass inside a strictly convex planar domain, with elastic reflections at the boundary. The study of the associated dynamics is profoundly intertwined with the geometric properties of the domain: while it is evident how the shape determines the dynamics, a more subtle and difficult question is the extent to which the knowledge of the dynamics allows one to reconstruct the shape of the domain. This translates into many intriguing inverse problems and unanswered rigidity questions, which have been the focus of very active research in recent decades. In this paper we describe some of these questions, along with their connection to other problems in analysis and geometry, with particular emphasis on recent results obtained by the authors and their collaborators.
An Exploratory Study Into the Prevalence of Botched Code Integrations

Integrating code from diﬀerent sources can be an error-prone and eﬀort-intensive process. While an integration may appear statically sound, unexpected errors may still surface at run time. The industry practice of continuous delivery aims to detect these and other run-time errors through an extensive pipeline of successive tests. Travis CI is a continuous delivery system that is free to use for open-source projects on GitHub. Of interest to researchers is the fact that Travis CI makes the outcome of each stage in the continuous delivery pipeline available through its API. At the seminar, we will present the initial results of an exploratory study on the prevalence of integration errors. We have linked GitHub’s information about integration eﬀorts with Travis CI’s information about the integration outcome to this end.
SOUTHEASTERN FORESTS AND THE PROBLEM OF NON-POINT SOURCES OF WATER POLLUTION

The 1972 Amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act require that non-point source pollution from forestry activities be controlled. Erosion is the most serious pollutant originating from forestry activities. Activities which destroy the forest floor and reduce the infiltration rate of soil, such as mechanically preparing sites for tree planting, roads, skid trails, and logging decks, cause most accelerated erosion. Elevation of water temperature, changing the chemical composition of water by cutting or fertilizing stands, and introduction of pesticides and herbicides into streams are other common forms of pollution. Pollution from forestry operations can be minimized by utilizing existing information. However, there is need for additional quantification of pollution levels associated with alternative forestry practices, and for screening of known or development of new techniques for minimizing non-point source pollution.
Novel Perception Algorithmic Framework For Object Identification and Tracking In Autonomous Navigation

This paper introduces a novel perception framework that has the ability to identify and track objects in autonomous vehicle's field of view. The proposed algorithms don't require any training for achieving this goal. The framework makes use of ego-vehicle's pose estimation and a KD-Tree-based segmentation algorithm to generate object clusters. In turn, using a VFH technique, the geometry of each identified object cluster is translated into a multi-modal PDF and a motion model is initiated with every new object cluster for the purpose of robust spatio-temporal tracking. The methodology further uses statistical properties of high-dimensional probability density functions and Bayesian motion model estimates to identify and track objects from frame to frame. The effectiveness of the methodology is tested on a KITTI dataset. The results show that the median tracking accuracy is around 91% with an end-to-end computational time of 153 milliseconds
VIA SHOOT CULTURE PROVIDES VALUABLE UNIFORM PLANT MATERIAL WITH ENHANCED CONTENT OF PHENOLIC ACIDS

An efficient micropropagation protocol for production of genetically uniform clones of Eryngium campestre L. was developed. To determine the effect of nutritional and hormonal factors on shoot and root development and bioactive compounds production, three variants of media differing in the content of macroand micronutrients, as well as plant growth regulators of various types and concentrations were tested. The highest regeneration (100%), with over 13 shoots per explant, was induced on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 1.0 mg l-1 benzyladenine (BA) and 0.1 mg l-1 indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). The in vitro derived shoots multiplied through axillary bud formation were rooted and transferred to an experimental plot with 78% frequency of survival. Flow cytometry showed no variation in nuclear DNA between the seedlings and micropropagated plants. Preliminary thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis indicated that phenolic acids, saponins, flavonoids and acetylenes were present in plant biomass. Ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) analysis revealed that shoots and roots from in vitro derived plants and root cultures maintained the ability to produce rosmarinic acid (RA), rosmarinic acid hexoside (RA-HEX) and chlorogenic acid (CGA). The highest phenolic acid content was detected in roots of in vitro regenerated plants. The extract from those roots expressed the highest inhibitory effect against bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, as well as dermatophytes Trichophyton mentagrophytes and T. rubrum.
Source attribution of Arctic aerosols and associated Arctic warming trend during 1980–2018

Abstract. Observations show that the concentrations of Arctic sulfate and black carbon (BC) aerosols have declined since the early 1980s, which potentially contributed to the recent rapid Arctic warming. In this study, a global aerosol-climate model equipped with an Explicit Aerosol Source Tagging (CAM5-EAST) is applied to quantify the source apportionment of aerosols in the Arctic from sixteen source regions and the role of aerosol variations in the Arctic surface temperature change over the past four decades (1980–2018). The CAM5-EAST simulated surface concentrations of sulfate and BC in the Arctic had a decrease of 43 % and 23 %, respectively, in 2014–2018 relative to 1980–1984, mainly due to the reduction of emissions from Europe, Russia and Arctic local sources. Increases in emissions from South and East Asia led to positive trends of Arctic sulfate and BC in the upper troposphere. Changes in radiative forcing of sulfate and BC through aerosol-radiation interactions are found to exert a +0.145 K Arctic surface warming during 2014–2018 with respect to 1980–1984, with the largest contribution (61 %) by sulfate decrease, especially originating from the mid-latitude regions. The changes in atmospheric BC outside the Arctic produced an Arctic warming of +0.062 K, partially offset by −0.005 K of cooling due to atmospheric BC within the Arctic and −0.041 K related to the weakened snow/ice albedo effect of BC. Through aerosol-cloud interactions, the sulfate reduction gave an Arctic warming of +0.193 K between the first and last five years of 1980–2018, the majority of which is due to the mid-latitude emission change. Our results suggest that changes in aerosols over the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere have a larger impact on Arctic temperature than other regions associated with enhanced poleward heat transport from the aerosol-induced stronger meridional temperature gradient. The combined aerosol effects of sulfate and BC together produce an Arctic surface warming of +0.297 K during 1980–2018, explaining approximately 20 % of the observed Arctic warming during the same time period.