Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimising learning with transferable prior information

This thesis addresses the problem of how to incorporate user knowledge about an environment, or information acquired during previous learning in that environment or a similar one, to make future learning more effective. The problem is tackled within the framework of learning from rewards while acting in a Markov Decision Process (MDP). Appropriately incorporating user knowledge and prior experience into learning should lead to better performance during learning (the exploitation-exploration trade-off), and offer a better solution at the end of the learning period. We work in a Bayesian setting and consider two main types of transferable information namely historical data and constraints involving absolute and relative restrictions on process dynamics. We present new algorithms for reasoning with transition constraints and show how to revise beliefs about the MDP transition matrix using constraints and prior knowledge. We also show how to use the resulting beliefs to control exploration. Finally we demonstrate benefits of historical information via power priors and by using process templates to transfer information from one environment to a second with related local process dynamics. We present results showing that incorporating historical data and constraints on state transitions in uncertain environments, either separately or collectively, can improve learning performance.
Connected word recognition using a cascaded neuro-computational model

ABSTRACT We propose a novel framework for processing a continuous speech stream that contains a varying number of words, as well as non-speech periods. Speech samples are segmented into word-tokens and non-speech periods. An augmented version of an earlier-proposed, cascaded neuro-computational model is used for recognising individual words within the stream. Simulation studies using both a multi-speaker-dependent and speaker-independent digit string database show that the proposed method yields a recognition performance comparable to that obtained by a benchmark approach using hidden Markov models with embedded training.
A prototype for a standard arabic sentiment analysis corpus

: The researchers in the field of Arabic sentiment analysis (SA) need a relatively big standard Arabic sentiment analysis corpus to conduct their studies. There are a number of existing Arabic datasets; however they suffer from certain limitations such as the small number of reviews or topics they contain, the restriction to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), or not being publicly available. Therefore, this study aims to establish a flexible and relatively big standard Arabic sentiment analysis corpus that can be considered as a pillar and cornerstone to build larger Arabic corpora. In addition to MSA, this corpus contains reviews written in the five main Arabic dialects (Egyptian, Levantine, Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamian, and Maghrebi group). Furthermore, this corpus has other five types of reviews (English, mixed MSA & English, French, mixed MSA & Emoticons, and mixed Egyptian & Emoticons). This corpus is released for free to be used by researchers in this field, where it is characterized by its flexibility in allowing the users to add, remove, and revise its contents. The total number of topics and reviews of this initial copy is 250 and 1,442, respectively. The collected topics are distributed equally among five domains (classes): Economy, Food-Life style, Religion, Sport, and Technology, where each domain has 50 topics. This corpus is built manually to ensure the highest quality to the researchers in this field.
Receptor-binding properties of a purified fragment of the 4070A amphotropic murine leukemia virus envelope glycoprotein

A 208-amino-acid amino-terminal fragment of the 4070A amphotropic murine leukemia virus envelope glycoprotein contains all of the determinants required to recognize cell surface amphotropic receptors. This fragment was fused with a streptavidin-binding tag, expressed in Sf9 insect cells by using a baculovirus vector, and purified to homogeneity. The (125)I-labeled purified fragment (AS208) specifically bound various cell lines susceptible to amphotropic murine leukemia virus infection. The number of AS208-binding sites was in the range of 7 X 10(4) to 17 X 10(4) per cell. Quantitative analysis of binding revealed that AS208-binding sites are heterogeneous with regard to ligand binding affinity or that cooperativity exists between receptors. Competition experiments showed that the concentration of AS208 required to inhibit virus entry was lower than that required to inhibit the binding of virus particles at the cell surface. Taken together, these data suggested that amphotropic envelope-binding sites present at the cell surface do not act independently and do not participate equally in virus infection.
Cooperative global optimal preview tracking control of linear multi-agent systems: an internal model approach

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the cooperative global optimal preview tracking problem of linear multi-agent systems under the assumption that the output of a leader is a previewable periodic signal and the topology graph contains a directed spanning tree. First, a type of distributed internal model is introduced, and the cooperative preview tracking problem is converted to a global optimal regulation problem of an augmented system. Second, an optimal controller, which can guarantee the asymptotic stability of the augmented system, is obtained by means of the standard linear quadratic optimal preview control theory. Third, on the basis of proving the existence conditions of the controller, sufficient conditions are given for the original problem to be solvable, meanwhile a cooperative global optimal controller with error integral and preview compensation is derived. Finally, the validity of theoretical results is demonstrated by a numerical simulation.
Maternal shoe size and infant birth weight: correlation or fiction?

OBJECTIVE To determine whether maternal prepregnancy shoe size can be used to reliably predict infant birth weight. METHOD This is a cross-sectional study of 111 consecutive patients admitted to the maternity care unit of a small community hospital. Data collected included prepregnancy height, maternal weight, maternal shoe size, maternal age, gravidity, parity, ethnicity, and method of delivery. Infant birth weight was recorded within the first 2 hours of life. RESULTS There was no correlation between maternal shoe size and birth weight (r = 0.01; P = NS). There was no correlation between shoe size and birth weight when corrected for parity and ethnicity. CONCLUSION There is no correlation between maternal shoe and infant birth weight. This anthropometric measure should not be used to estimate infant birth weight.
Plasticity in the superior collicular auditory space map of adult guinea‐pigs

In the guinea‐pig the development and maintenance of the superior collicular (SC) auditory space map requires both auditory and visual experience. This paper reports the results of experiments in which adult animals (of different ages) were dark‐reared for 4 weeks to define the extent of the period of susceptibility to visual deprivation of the SC auditory map. Dark‐rearing for 4 weeks from 100, 150 or 200 days after birth caused degradation of spatial tuning and topography of multi‐unit auditory responses in the SC. In contrast, animals reared in the dark from 250 days after birth showed spatially tuned auditory responses similar to those seen in normal animals. These data suggest that the SC auditory space map in the adult guinea‐pig remains susceptible to visual deprivation up to 200 days after birth.
Fault Ride-Through Capability of Cascaded Current-Source Converter-Based Offshore Wind Farm

This paper presents a novel fault ride-through (FRT) strategy for the permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG)-based offshore wind farm, where cascaded current- source converters (CSCs) are employed on both the generator- and grid-side. The inherent short-circuit operating capability of the CSC is used to develop the FRT strategy, and at the same time, the grid-side converters fulfill the demanding reactive power requirement imposed by recent grid codes. Intensive simulation results are provided to ensure the validity and feasibility of the proposed FRT method. Moreover, the inherent short-circuit operating capability of the CSC contributes to a great operating flexibility for the proposed wind farm. Specifically, the faulty turbine-generator unit can be easily isolated from the cascaded system without affecting the operation of other series interconnected wind turbines. Both simulation and experimental verifications are provided for the operating flexibility of the cascaded CSC-based wind farm by isolating one wind generator from the system.
Bisphosphonates in the management of prostate carcinoma metastatic to the skeleton

Prostate carcinoma metastasizes frequently to the skeleton, causing significant morbidity, particularly severe bone pain. Metastatic lesions typically are osteosclerotic, but there is experimental, histologic, and biochemical evidence of increased bone resorption. Furthermore, bone resorption rates appear to correlate with bone pain. These observations provide the rationale for the use of bisphosphonates in the management of patients with prostate carcinoma and skeletal metastases.
Heat shock treatment of macrophages causes increased release of superoxide anion

Heat shock treatment of murine macrophages and the J774 cell line resulted in an enhanced capacity to release superoxide anion (O2-) upon stimulation. There was no concomitant increase in hydrogen peroxide production, and the macrophage microbicidal activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium complex, and Staphylococcus aureus was not altered.
The hormonal response to stress is not modified by the dramatic decrease in prolactin plasma concentration during surgery for microprolactinoma

OBJECTIIVES To determine the endocrine response to surgical stress in a homogeneous population of 36 women with microprolactinomas, particularly to evaluate the effect of the sharp decrease in plasma prolactin on stress induced hormonal secretion. In addition, the effects of exogenous opiates on prolactin secretion were studied. METHODS The plasma kinetics of cortisol, prolactin, ACTH, GH, and β-endorphin like immunoreactivity (β-ELI) were analysed by including patients operated on with strict anaesthetic and surgical protocols, and by sampling blood every 10 minutes, starting at premedication up to 3 hours after induction. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS (a) Surgical stress or opiate administration did not induce prolactin release in patients with microprolactinoma. (b) The dramatic decrease in prolactin concentrations have apparently no effect on the release of other hormones involved in stress. (c) The existence of an early GH peak, independently of any surgical procedure, strongly suggests that GH is released by surgical stress whereas β-endorphin is secreted in response to pain. Thus GH may be a useful marker of surgical stress.
Demobilization and Reintegration

Since 1989, international efforts to end protracted conflicts have included sustained investments in the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of combatants. Yet while policy analysts have debated the factors that contribute to successful DDR programs and scholars have reasoned about the macro conditions that facilitate successful peace building, little is known about the factors that account for successful reintegration at the micro level. Using a new dataset of ex-combatants in Sierra Leone, this article analyzes the individual-level determinants of demobilization and reintegration. Past participation in an abusive military faction is the strongest predictor of difficulty in achieving social reintegration. On economic and political reintegration, we find that wealthier and more educated combatants face greater difficulties. Ideologues, men, and younger fighters are the most likely to retain strong ties to their factions. Most important, we find little evidence at the micro level that internationally funded programs facilitate demobilization and reintegration.
A Low-Cost UWB Radar System for Sensing Applications

A new low-cost pulse based ultra-wideband radar system working up to 6.4 GHz has been developed. The main focus was on the use of cheap off the shelf components. Pulse generation in the transmitter was solved with a simple transistor circuitry. The down conversion in the receiver is realized with a sampling phase detector combined with a direct digital synthesizer. To control the radar system and for transmitting the digitized data to the PC a USB-controller is used
Predictors of Postoperative Pain and Analgesic Consumption: A Qualitative Systematic Review

Pain is a subjective and multidimensional experience that is often inadequately managed in clinical practice. Effective control of postoperative pain is important after anesthesia and surgery. A systematic review was conducted to identify the independent predictive factors for postoperative pain and analgesic consumption. The authors identified 48 eligible studies with 23,037 patients included in the final analysis. Preoperative pain, anxiety, age, and type of surgery were four significant predictors for postoperative pain. Type of surgery, age, and psychological distress were the significant predictors for analgesic consumption. Gender was not found to be a consistent predictor as traditionally believed. Early identification of the predictors in patients at risk of postoperative pain will allow more effective intervention and better management. The coefficient of determination of the predictive models was less than 54%. More vigorous studies with robust statistics and validated designs are needed to investigate this field of interest.
Improved Particle Swarm Optimization with Controllable Velocity-Updating Mode

At the late evolution stage of the basic particle swarm optimization (BPSO), convergence process starts to slow down and the best fitness particle fluctuates around the globally-optimal solution, which may give rise to decrease on convergence precision of the BPSO. Therefore, an improved algorithm for particle swarm optimization was proposed. The modified version of PSO uses a controllable velocity-updating mode to control velocity of evolved particles, which is expected to be useful for tuning the search for the globally-optimal solution. Optimization examples showed that the improved PSO is superior to the BPSO, on not only convergence precision but also computation expense.
Preparation and Property Research of Strain Sensor Based on PDMS and Silver Nanomaterials

Based on the advantages and broad applications of stretchable strain sensors, this study reports a simple method to fabricate a highly sensitive strain sensor with Ag nanomaterials-polydimethylsiloxane (AgNMs-PDMS) to create a synergic conductive network and a sandwich-structure. Three Ag nanomaterial samples were synthesized by controlling the concentrations of the FeCl3 solution and reaction time via the heat polyols thermal method. The AgNMs network’s elastomer nanocomposite-based strain sensors show strong piezoresistivity with a high gauge factor of 547.8 and stretchability from 0.81% to 7.26%. The application of our high-performance strain sensors was demonstrated by the inducting finger of the motion detection. These highly sensitive sensors conform to the current trends of flexible electronics and have prospects for broad application.
Brownian refrigeration by hybrid tunnel junctions

Voltage fluctuations generated in a hot resistor can cause extraction of heat from a colder normal metal electrode of a hybrid tunnel junction between a normal metal and a superconductor. We extend the analysis presented in Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 210604 (2007) of this heat rectifying system, bearing resemblance to a Maxwell's demon. Explicit analytic calculations show that the entropy of the total system is always increasing. We then consider a single-electron transistor configuration with two hybrid junctions in series, and show how the cooling is influenced by charging effects. We analyze also the cooling effect from nonequilibrium fluctuations instead of thermal noise, focusing on the shot noise generated in another tunnel junction. We conclude by discussing limitations for an experimental observation of the effect.
Remaining Private in the World of Great Data Exchange

With an ever increasing number of databases that people access on a daily basis, user privacy becomes an increasing issue. In order to ensure that not even the owners of the database can determine the records that a particular user is trying to access, plenty of research has been devoted to developing Private Information Retrieval schemes capable of masking a user’s queries. Such schemes can be broken into two categories: the information-theoretic and the computationally-bounded approaches. Both styles will be examined, along with a quick look at how they can be combined to improve performance.
Gene expression in a rarely studied intraabdominal adipose depot, the round ligament, in severely obese women: A pilot study

ABSTRACT Gene expression (qPCR) was compared in round ligament (RL), omental (OME) and mesenteric (MES) ATs from 48 severely obese women (BMI, 54±11 kg/m2; 38±9 yrs). The mRNA levels of enzymes of lipid metabolism (LPL, HSL, and PDE-3B), cortisol production (11βHSD-1), adipogenesis (PPAR-γ1/2), thrombosis and inflammation (PAI-1, IL-6, TNF-α and adiponectin) were determined. AT-LPL mRNA was highest in RL. The highest PDE-3B and lowest PAI-1 mRNA levels were observed in RL and MES. The lowest IL-6 and TNF-α and the highest adiponectin and PPAR-g1/2 mRNA levels were found in RL AT. 11βHSD-1 was highest in RL and OME. A higher lipogenic and adipogenic, and lower pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic profiles of the RL suggest a lesser deleterious impact on obesity-related complications.
How We Read Emotions from Faces

The ability to read emotions from faces is a very important skill. One might even call it a superpower. People around the world use this skill when they communicate with each other. But do people from different cultural backgrounds recognize and interpret facial expressions the same way? The answer, according to scientists, is both yes and no. Yes, because the brain system specializing in understanding faces is similar across cultures, so we all can recognize basic emotions, such as happiness or sadness, when looking at other faces. No, because culture influences how we behave and how we think, which means it also influences the rules we learn as children that tell us when and how to show our emotions. In this article, we discuss how we are able to read emotions from faces and how we might be reading emotions differently, depending on where we are from.
Impact of Maternal Obesity on Fetal Health

The obesity epidemic is a problem of global importance with a profound impact on maternal-fetal health. Maternal overweight and obesity causes pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes, hypertension and preeclampsia and affects fetal growth. Maternal obesity offers an altered genetic, hormonal and biochemical environment for the developing fetus/embryo and influences fetal growth and organ development. Offspring of obese mothers are subject to an increased risk of fetal demise, congenital anomalies and disrupted growth patterns, causing an increase in perinatal mortality. The impact of maternal obesity extends beyond intrauterine and neonatal life to childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
Antivaccinia Activities of Acyclic Nucleoside Phosphonate Derivatives in Epithelial Cells and Organotypic Cultures

ABSTRACT Organotypic “raft” cultures of epithelial cells allow the reconstitution of a skin equivalent that is easily infectible with different viruses with cutaneous tropism. Among these, poxvirus and particularly vaccinia virus (VV) are good candidates for use in antiviral tests, giving histological pictures comparable to those observed in humans infected with smallpox. Therefore, we decided to evaluate a series of phosphonate derivatives for their ability to inhibit VV growth in epithelial cell monolayers, and the most powerful derivatives were tested in the organotypic cultures. The most active compound was 9-(S)-[3-hydroxy-2-(phosphonomethoxy)propyl]adenine [(S)-HPMPA], followed by 9-(S)-[3-hydroxy-2-(phosphonomethoxy)propyl]-2,6-diaminopurine, cyclic (S)-HPMPA, 9-(S)-[3-hydroxy-2-(phosphonomethoxy)propyl]cytosine [(S)-HPMPC; cidofovir, Vistide], and cyclic (S)-HPMPC. Cidofovir, which is on the market for the treatment of human cytomegalovirus retinitis in immunocompromised patients, is potentially a good candidate for the treatment of a poxvirus outbreak, in the absence of any vaccination.
Métodos para determinar el poder de la lente intraocular después de cirugía refractiva corneal

El implante de la lente intraocular supuso un gran avance en la cirugia de la catarata puesto que permite optimizar los resultados refractivos del paciente. Durante los ultimos anos ha mejorado de manera impresionante el calculo del poder de la lente intraocular. Sin embargo, lograr la emetropia en algunas situaciones se ha convertido en un verdadero reto para los cirujanos, debido a que cada dia es mayor el numero de pacientes con catarata que acuden a consulta sometidos previamente a cirugia refractiva corneal. El calculo del poder de la lente intraocular en ojos que han experimentado cirugia refractiva corneal sera un asunto discutido de forma permanente hasta que se pueda confiar en un metodo que mida directamente el poder corneal despues de una queratotomia radial o de procedimientos fotoablativos. Como alternativa en estos pacientes diferentes autores han incorporado multiples algoritmos para evitar la sorpresa refractiva. Se realizo una revision bibliografica con el objetivo de describir los principales metodos para calcular el poder de la lente intraocular poscirugia refractiva corneal dependiendo de los datos disponibles.
Plasmids with E2 epitope tags: tagging modules for N‐ and C‐terminal PCR‐based gene targeting in both budding and fission yeast, and inducible expression vectors for fission yeast

A single‐step PCR‐based epitope tagging enables fast and efficient gene targeting with various epitope tags. This report presents a series of plasmids for the E2 epitope tagging of proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. E2Tags are 10‐amino acids (epitope E2a: SSTSSDFRDR)‐ and 12 amino acids (epitope E2b: GVSSTSSDFRDR)‐long peptides derived from the E2 protein of bovine papillomavirus type 1. The modules for C‐terminal tagging with E2a and E2b epitopes were constructed by the modification of the pYM‐series plasmid. The N‐terminal E2a and E2b tagging modules were based on pOM‐series plasmid. The pOM‐series plasmids were selected for this study because of their use of the Cre–loxP recombination system. The latter enables a marker cassette to be removed after integration into the loci of interest and, thereafter, the tagged protein is expressed under its endogenous promoter. Specifically for fission yeast, high copy pREP plasmids containing the E2a epitope tag as an N‐terminal or C‐terminal tag were constructed. The properties of E2a and E2b epitopes and the sensitivity of two anti‐E2 monoclonal antibodies (5E11 and 3F12) were tested using several S. cerevisiae and Sz. pombe E2‐tagged strains. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.