Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overcoming data scarcity with transfer learning

Despite increasing focus on data publication and discovery in materials science and related fields, the global view of materials data is highly sparse. This sparsity encourages training models on the union of multiple datasets, but simple unions can prove problematic as (ostensibly) equivalent properties may be measured or computed differently depending on the data source. These hidden contextual differences introduce irreducible errors into analyses, fundamentally limiting their accuracy. Transfer learning, where information from one dataset is used to inform a model on another, can be an effective tool for bridging sparse data while preserving the contextual differences in the underlying measurements. Here, we describe and compare three techniques for transfer learning: multi-task, difference, and explicit latent variable architectures. We show that difference architectures are most accurate in the multi-fidelity case of mixed DFT and experimental band gaps, while multi-task most improves classification performance of color with band gaps. For activation energies of steps in NO reduction, the explicit latent variable method is not only the most accurate, but also enjoys cancellation of errors in functions that depend on multiple tasks. These results motivate the publication of high quality materials datasets that encode transferable information, independent of industrial or academic interest in the particular labels, and encourage further development and application of transfer learning methods to materials informatics problems.
Cumulative Effects of Climate Warming and Other Human Activities on Freshwaters of Arctic and Subarctic North America

Abstract Despite their generally isolated geographic locations, the freshwaters of the north are subjected to a wide spectrum of environmental stressors. High-latitude regions are especially sensitive to the effects of recent climatic warming, which have already resulted in marked regime shifts in the biological communities of many Arctic lakes and ponds. Important drivers of these limnological changes have included changes in the amount and duration of snow and ice cover, and, for rivers and lakes in their deltas, the frequency and extent of spring floods. Other important climate-related shifts include alterations in evaporation and precipitation ratios, marked changes in the quality and quantity of lake and river water inflows due to accelerated glacier and permafrost melting, and declining percentages of precipitation that falls as snow. The depletion of stratospheric ozone over the north, together with the clarity of many Arctic lakes, renders them especially susceptible to damage from ultraviolet radiation. In addition, the long-range atmospheric transport of pollutants, coupled with the focusing effects of contaminant transport from biological vectors to some local ecosystems (e.g., salmon nursery lakes, ponds draining seabird colonies) and biomagnification in long food chains, have led to elevated concentrations of many persistent organic pollutants (e.g., insecticides, which have never been used in Arctic regions) and other pollutants (e.g., mercury). Rapid development of gas and oil pipelines, mining for diamonds and metals, increases in human populations, and the development of all-season roads, seaports, and hydroelectric dams will stress northern aquatic ecosystems. The cumulative effects of these stresses will be far more serious than those caused by changing climate alone.
Adaptive threshold based impulse detection for restoration of digital images

The choice of appropriate value of threshold in median-based impulse detection method becomes difficult due to its dependence on the noise density and image characteristics. In the case of random valued noise(RVIN), if a fixed value of threshold is used then it will result into large percentage of missed and false detection. Therefore, a variable threshold governed by the local image characteristics, is required for detection of RVIN. Here, we present an impulse detector in which the value of threshold depends on window under observation. The extensive simulations exhibit the efficacy of the method in respect of both random valued as well as salt and pepper noise.
Population genetics of dinucleotide (dC-dA)n.(dG-dT)n polymorphisms in world populations.

We have characterized eight dinucleotide (dC-dA)n. (dG-dT)n repeat loci located on human chromosome 13q in eight human populations and in a sample of chimpanzees. Even though there is substantial variation in allele frequencies at each locus, at a given locus the most frequent alleles are shared by all human populations. The level of heterozygosity is reduced in isolated or small populations, such as the Pehuenche Indians of Chile, the Dogrib of Canada, and the New Guinea highlanders. On the other hand, larger average heterozygosities are observed in large and cosmopolitan populations, such as the Sokoto population from Nigeria and German Caucasians. Conformity with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is generally observed at these loci, unless (a) a population is isolated or small or (b) the repeat motif of the locus is not perfect (e.g., D13S197). Multilocus genotype probabilities at these microsatellite loci do not show departure from the independence rule, unless the loci are closely linked. The allele size distributions at these (CA)n loci do not follow a strict single-step stepwise-mutation model. However, this features does not compromise the ability to detect population affinities, when these loci are used simultaneously. The microsatellite loci examined here are present and, with the exception of the locus D13S197, are polymorphic in the chimpanzees, showing an overlapping distribution of allele sizes with those observed in human populations.
Does Central Bank Respond to Real Exchange Rate Movements

For central banks with inflation targeting regime changing the monetary policy interest rate in response to exchange rate appreciation may put at risk the compliance of the inflation target. This paper determines how important has the behavior of real exchange rate been for the Banco de la República when determining the level of interest rates. The study reveals that during the first years of implementation of the inflation targeting regime, Colombia’s central bank considered the real exchange rate when deciding the level of interest rates; however this variable has lost significance. The methodology for estimating the reaction function consists of a discrete choice model (dynamic probit) that considers discrete and sporadic changes in the interest rate.
Approches (m,k)-firm pour la gestion de la qualité de service temps réel

Cet article presente d'abord un etat de l'art sur les principaux algorithmes d'ordonnancement developpes pour la garantie temps reel (m,k)-firm, puis explique comment les approches (m,k)-firm peuvent etre utiles pour une meilleure gestion de la qualite de service avec degradation controlee (graceful degradation) dans les reseaux et systemes temps reel. Un algorithme appele (m,k)-WFQ est detaille pour illustrer l'interet de l'approche (m,k)-firm dans l'ordonnancement des paquets de flux MPEG dans des reseaux. Le probleme fondamental de la garantie deterministe de (m,k)-firm est egalement approfondi a travers l'elaboration de la condition suffisante d'ordonnancabilite de l'algorithme DBP.
UFO: A tool for unifying biomedical ontology-based semantic similarity calculation, enrichment analysis and visualization

Background Biomedical ontologies have been growing quickly and proven to be useful in many biomedical applications. Important applications of those data include estimating the functional similarity between ontology terms and between annotated biomedical entities, analyzing enrichment for a set of biomedical entities. Many semantic similarity calculation and enrichment analysis methods have been proposed for such applications. Also, a number of tools implementing the methods have been developed on different platforms. However, these tools have implemented a small number of the semantic similarity calculation and enrichment analysis methods for a certain type of biomedical ontology. Note that the methods can be applied to all types of biomedical ontologies. More importantly, each method can be dominant in different applications; thus, users have more choice with more number of methods implemented in tools. Also, more functions would facilitate their task with ontology. Results In this study, we developed a Cytoscape app, named UFO, which unifies most of the semantic similarity measures for between-term and between-entity similarity calculation for all types of biomedical ontologies in OBO format. Based on the similarity calculation, UFO can calculate the similarity between two sets of entities and weigh imported entity networks as well as generate functional similarity networks. Besides, it can perform enrichment analysis of a set of entities by different methods. Moreover, UFO can visualize structural relationships between ontology terms, annotating relationships between entities and terms, and functional similarity between entities. Finally, we demonstrated the ability of UFO through some case studies on finding the best semantic similarity measures for assessing the similarity between human disease phenotypes, constructing biomedical entity functional similarity networks for predicting disease-associated biomarkers, and performing enrichment analysis on a set of similar phenotypes. Conclusions Taken together, UFO is expected to be a tool where biomedical ontologies can be exploited for various biomedical applications. Availability UFO is distributed as a Cytoscape app, and can be downloaded freely at Cytoscape App (http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/ufo) for non-commercial use
Web-based Information System Services in a Textile Industry

This purpose of this study is to rebuild a website in a major office of textile industry and be able to build a system which can be used there. The research method used in this paper was qualitative descriptive method, which is an actual or accurate systematic description or writing about facts, as well as the relation between phenomena in detail. This research method was used since the process of scientific research conducted was interpreting and explaining the data concerned with the situation that is happening in the Central Textile. The goal is to create a new system using that major office of textile industry website. And customers will find it easier and faster to perform business processes.
Prostate cancer and chemotherapy.

Despite the increase in the number of patients presenting today with clinically localized prostate cancer who undergo definitive local therapy (either radiation therapy or radical prostatectomy), approximately 50% will experience advanced disease recurrence.1,2 In these patients or patients presenting initially with advanced disease, suppression of androgenic activity with either surgical or medical castration (with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone [LHRH] analogues) with or without antiandrogens is usually regarded as first-line treatment.3,4 Unfortunately, hormonal therapy is only palliative and successful in 70% to 80% of patients, with a median duration of response of 12 to 24 months.3,4 For patients who progress on LHRH analogues and antiandrogens, the withdrawal of antiandrogens results in a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) decline in 25% to 50% of patients.5 Other secondary hormonal options include the use of ketoconazole and hydrocortisone, the addition of an antiandrogen in patients progressing despite administration of an LHRH analogue alone, and corticosteroids.6 Although secondary hormonal manipulations can produce a subjective response in approximately 25% of patients, the response is only short lived (approximately 4 months). 7 This problem has prompted numerous studies to evaluate the potential use of chemotherapy for patients with hormone-resistant prostate cancer (HRPC). To this end, docetaxal, a member of the taxane family, has recently been shown to have marked activity against prostate cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo.8,9 The following recently published articles report on the potential use of docetaxel either as monotherapy or as a part of combination therapy in the management of HRPC.
New predictive approaches for ITI treatment

Immune tolerance induction (ITI) therapy in patients with haemophilia A and inhibitors constitutes a huge burden for affected patients and families and poses a large economic burden for a chronic disease. Concerted research efforts are attempting to optimize the therapeutic approach to the prevention and eradication of inhibitors. The Italian ITI Registry has provided data on 110 patients who completed ITI therapy as at July 2013. Analysis of independent predictors of success showed that, together with previously recognized factors – namely inhibitor titre prior to ITI, historical peak titre and peak titre on ITI – the type of causative FVIII gene mutation also contributes to the identification of patients with good prognosis and may be useful to optimize candidate selection and treatment regimens. Numerous studies have demonstrated that inhibitor reactivity against different FVIII products varies and is lower against concentrates containing von Willebrand factor (VWF). An Italian study compared inhibitor titres against a panel of FVIII concentrates in vitro and correlated titres with the capacity to inhibit maximum thrombin generation as measured by the thrombin generation assay (TGA). Observations led to the design of the PredictTGA study which aims to correlate TGA results with epitope specificity, inhibitor reactivity against different FVIII concentrates and clinical data in inhibitor patients receiving FVIII in the context of ITI or as prophylactic/on demand treatment. At the immunological level, it is known that T cells drive inhibitor development and that B cells secrete FVIII‐specific antibodies. As understanding increases about the immunological response in ITI, it is becoming apparent that modulation of T‐cell‐ and B‐cell‐mediated responses offers a range of potential new and specific approaches to prevent and eliminate inhibitors as well as individualize ITI therapy.
A curiosity model for artificial agents

Curiosity is an inherent characteristic of the animal instinct, which stimulates the need to obtain further knowledge and leads to the exploration of the surrounding environment. In this document we present a computational curiosity model, which aims at simulating that kind of behavior on artificial agents. This model is influenced by the two main curiosity theories defended by psychologists – Curiosity Drive Theory and Optimal Arousal Model. By merging both theories, as well as aspects from other sources, we concluded that curiosity can be defined in terms of the agent’s personality, its level of arousal, and the interest of the object of curiosity. The interest factor is defined in terms of the importance of the object of curiosity to the agent’s goals, its novelty, and surprise. To assess the performance of the model in practice, we designed a scenario consisting of virtual agents exploring a tile-based world, where objects may exist. The performance of the model in this scenario was evaluated in incre.
Saturation of Immunoglobulin E (IgE) Binding Sites by Polyclonal IgE Does Not Explain the Protective Effect of Helminth Infections against Atopy

ABSTRACT One hypothesis for the decreased rates of atopy observed among helminth-infected individuals is that parasite-induced polyclonal immunoglobulin E (IgE) outcompetes allergen-specific IgE for FcεRI binding on basophils and mast cells. In experiments with fresh blood drawn from filaria-infected patients, we found no association between ratios of polyclonal to Brugia malayi antigen (BmAg)-specific IgE (range, 14:1 to 388:1) and basophil responses to BmAg as measured by histamine release. Using serum samples from a filaria-infected patient who also had dust mite (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus)-specific IgE antibodies from time points with various ratios of polyclonal to D. pteronyssinus-specific IgE (16:1 to 86:1), we demonstrated that increased ratios of polyclonal to D. pteronyssinus-specific IgE did not attenuate basophil sensitization as measured by D. pteronyssinus-specific histamine release. Suppression of histamine release was likely not observed in either of these sets of experiments because polyclonal to antigen-specific IgE ratios were not sufficiently high, as concurrent passive sensitization of basophil experiments required ratios of polyclonal to antigen-specific IgE of greater than 500:1 to suppress basophil histamine release. Further, the intensity of IgE staining in basophil populations from 20 patients with active filaria infections correlated strongly with total serum IgE levels (rho = 0.698; P = 0.0024) with no plateau in intensity of IgE staining, even though some patients had total IgE levels of greater than 10,000 ng/ml. Our data therefore suggest that in helminth infections (and in filarial infections in particular), the ratios of polyclonal to allergen-specific IgE rarely reach those levels necessary to inhibit allergen-specific IgE-FcεRI binding and to suppress allergen-induced degranulation of mast cells and basophils.
A Histomorphometric, Structural, and Immunocytochemical Study of the Effects of Diet-induced Hypocalcemia on Bone in Growing Rats

Despite several studies on the effect of calcium deficiency on bone status, there is relatively little information on the ensuing histological alterations. To investigate bone changes during chronic hypocalcemia, weanling rats were kept on a calcium-free diet and deionized water for 28 days while control animals were fed normal chow. The epiphyseal–metaphyseal region of the tibiae were processed for histomorphometric, histochemical, and structural analyses. The distribution of bone sialoprotein (BSP), osteocalcin (OC), and osteopontin (OPN), three noncollagenous bone matrix proteins implicated in cell–matrix interactions and regulation of mineral deposition, was examined using postembedding colloidal gold immunocytochemistry. The experimental regimen resulted in serum calcium levels almost half those of control rats. Trabecular bone volume showed no change but osteoid exhibited a significant increase in all its variables. There were a multitude of mineralization foci in the widened osteoid seam, and intact matrix vesicles were observed in the forming bone. Many of the osteoblasts apposed to osteoid were tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)- and alkaline phosphatase-positive, whereas controls showed few such TRAP-reactive cells. Osteoclasts in hypocalcemic rats generally exhibited poorly developed ruffled borders and were inconsistently apposed to bony surfaces showing a lamina limitans. Sometimes osteoclasts were in contact with osteoid, suggesting that they may resorb uncalcified matrix. Cement lines at the bone–calcified cartilage interface in some cases were thickened but generally did not appear affected at bone–bone interfaces. As in controls, electron-dense portions of the mineralized matrix showed labeling for BSP, OC, and OPN but, in contrast, there was an abundance of immunoreactive mineralization foci in osteoid of hypocalcemic rats. These data suggest that chronic hypocalcemia affects both bone formation and resorption. (J Histochem Cytochem 48:1059–1077, 2000)
Synthesis of poly(di[methylamine]ethyl methacrylate)‐b‐poly(cyclohexyl methacrylate)‐b‐poly(di[methylamine]ethyl methacrylate) amphiphilic triblock copolymers by ATRP: Condensed‐phase and solution properties

The synthesis of amphiphilic triblock copolymers, poly(di[methylamine]ethyl methacrylate)-b-poly(cyclohexyl methacrylate)-b-poly(di[methylamine]ethyl methacrylate) PDMAE-b-PCH-b-PDMAE, has been performed by atom transfer radical polymerisation. Those have been obtained in a well-controlled manner in terms of molecular weight and polydispersity index. The triblock copolymer characterisation has been made in condensed state and in solution. The existence of microphase separation has been confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry. However, the domains of both inner and outer blocks seem not to be ordered for one another from small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements using synchrotron radiation. The micelle formation in dilute methanol solutions has been confirmed for all triblock copolymers by dynamic light scattering analyses. The size of these micelles has been demonstrated to be dependent on the molecular weight. Similar observations have been made in concentrate methanol solutions by using SAXS experiments, pointed also out that an increment of the intermicelle interactions is produced as the concentration increases. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 85–92, 2008
Strengths and weaknesses of genetic list scheduling for heterogeneous systems

List scheduling combined with genetic algorithms has already been shown to be a powerful approach (Grajcar, 1999,Yu-Kwong Kwok and Ahmad, 1996). We investigate the problems associated with using a list scheduler for a heterogeneous system. Furthermore, we present cases, for which most list schedulers fail to find the optimum. We propose and experimentally evaluate novel ideas avoiding it.
Strategies for Sustainability of Nonfranchise Casual Dining Restaurants

Strategies for Sustainability of Nonfranchise Casual Dining Restaurants by Kristin Burke Martin MS, Averett University, 1996 BS, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1991 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University October 2018 Abstract In the United States, over 50% of restaurants fail within the first 5 years of operations resulting in approximately $2.1 billion annually in lost national sales revenue. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by owners of nonfranchise, casual dining restaurants to ensure sustainability longer than 5 years. The study was grounded in Porter’s 5 forces framework as a lens for identifying effectiveIn the United States, over 50% of restaurants fail within the first 5 years of operations resulting in approximately $2.1 billion annually in lost national sales revenue. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by owners of nonfranchise, casual dining restaurants to ensure sustainability longer than 5 years. The study was grounded in Porter’s 5 forces framework as a lens for identifying effective strategies that promote restaurant sustainability. The data collection process comprised gathering data and information via semistructured interviews with 3 owners of nonfranchise, casual dining restaurants in the mid-Atlantic region who sustained their restaurants for longer than 5 years. Also, a review of archival records, including restaurant websites, newspaper advertisements, social media, and promotional documentation ensued. Member checking ensured the accuracy of participant responses in the data analysis process, and methodological triangulation was used to increase understanding and validity of data. Three themes emerged from data analysis: offering quality food and exceptional service, respecting and encouraging employees, and participating in day-to-day operations. The findings of this study promote positive social change by supporting local farmers, providing nutritious food to consumers, developing positive community relationships, and providing a safe place to socialize and meet