Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Task complexity interacts with state-space uncertainty in the arbitration process between model-based and model-free reinforcement-learning at both behavioral and neural levels

A major open question concerns how the brain governs the allocation of control between two distinct strategies for learning from reinforcement: model-based and model-free reinforcement learning. While there is evidence to suggest that the reliability of the predictions of the two systems is a key variable responsible for the arbitration process, another key variable has remained relatively unexplored: the role of task complexity. By using a combination of novel task design, computational modeling, and model-based fMRI analysis, we examined the role of task complexity alongside state-space uncertainty in the arbitration process between model-based and model-free RL. We found evidence to suggest that task complexity plays a role in influencing the arbitration process alongside state-space uncertainty. Participants tended to increase model-based RL control in response to increasing task complexity. However, they resorted to model-free RL when both uncertainty and task complexity were high, suggesting that these two variables interact during the arbitration process. Computational fMRI revealed that task complexity interacts with neural representations of the reliability of the two systems in the inferior prefrontal cortex bilaterally. These findings provide insight into how the inferior prefrontal cortex negotiates the trade-off between model-based and model-free RL in the presence of uncertainty and complexity, and more generally, illustrates how the brain resolves uncertainty and complexity in dynamically changing environments. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS - Elucidated the role of state-space uncertainty and complexity in model-based and model-free RL. - Found behavioral and neural evidence for complexity-sensitive prefrontal arbitration. - High task complexity induces explorative model-based RL.
Anthropization Effects on the Filamentous Fungal Community of the Brazilian Catimbau National Park

The Caatinga biome features an exclusive endemic biodiversity, and is characterized by the presence of xerophytic, deciduous vegetation, high temperatures, and low rainfall. This important park has undergone anthropization, especially through extraction of firewood and timber and growing plants for raising goats. The objectives of this study were to compare the communities of filamentous fungi present in the preserved area and in the anthropized soil of the Catimbau National Park in Buíque, PE, Brazil, and to evaluate the impacts of anthropization on such communities. A total of 12 collections of soil samples were made, six in the preserved area and six in the anthropic area, and the physicochemical properties of the soil samples were analyzed. Fungi were isolated through suspension and serial dilution methods. After growth, the samples were purified and identified based on classical taxonomy, according to specific literature. The diversity, evenness, richness, dominance, frequency, and similarity among the species of filamentous fungi in both areas were assessed based on ecological indexes. A total of 4,488 colony-forming units of filamentous fungi were obtained, which were distributed into 65 species belonging to 15 genera. In the preserved area, higher abundance and richness of species were observed, with predominance of the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium. In both areas, diversity and equitability were high, demonstrating that the species are well distributed in these areas. In the preserved area, the dominant genera were Aspergillus, Gongronella, and Penicillium, whereas Aspergillus was the dominant genus in the anthropic area. Two distinct communities were observed in the areas analyzed. Principal component analysis showed that Penicillium simplicissimum influences the total diversity of both communities. The anthropization that occurred in the Catimbau National Park has changed the composition of the filamentous fungal communities of the site, restricting the number of species and decreasing the abundance of these important microorganisms. This results in ecosystem damage and likely causes relevant major imbalances, with serious consequences, such as possible disappearance of the aforementioned species, as well as of species yet undiscovered by the scientific community.
Lessons Us Takes From A Single Payer System In Managing Healtcare Cost: French Healthcare System

Healthcare spending in the US is characterized as being the most costly per person while health system is not delivering superior results on health outcomes. There have been many explanations that the US having the highest healthcare spending, such as prices, high prevalence of new-technology, chronic diseases and administrative cost. This study focuses on the structure of the US healthcare system and discusses the results for replacing the present public-private system with a single payer public system to restrain or reduce healthcare spending. In this context, the paper analyzes the US and France healthcare systems and then compares both systems in terms of costs. Finally the paper concludes the US payer system has not been exercising the same monopsony power that has enabled the French healthcare system keeping costs considerably lower, while proving equal, if not better care
Effect of mechanical pre-stretch on the stabilization of dielectric elastomer actuation

A dielectric elastomer is capable of giant electromechanical actuation but fails at breakdown due to instability under certain conditions with a small deformation. By applying a mechanical pre-stretch, one obtains a stabilized large actuation. In this paper, we measured the dielectric constant and critical voltage of a polyacrylic dielectric elastomer subjected to both equal and unequal biaxial stretch, and modelled its actuation by employing the Gent strain energy function with a microscopic view to characterize the nonlinear stiffening behaviour and the electrostrictive effect in the deformation. The mechanical pre-stretch contributes in several ways to the stabilization of dielectric elastomer, by eliminating the pull-in instability, by generating electrostriction, by improving the breakdown strength, as well as by reducing the membrane thickness which consequently lowers the voltages required for activation.
Urban renewal – a vehicle for spatial justice in the face of traffic safety problems?

Traffic safety consists of various actions (like education or engineering) aimed at reducing accidents. The Urban Renewal Program funds projects to transform urban neighborhoods, thereby becoming a vehicle for greater spatial justice. Are engineering activities the vector of increased spatial justice even though inequalities in term of traffic safety exist? The objectives of this article are to demonstrate the existence of socio-spatial inequalities in terms of traffic safety and to examine the reduction of inequalities in urban renewal projects. Through an analysis of laws, projects and the words of local authorities, safety issues in urban renewal programs are analyzed. While security is incorporated implicitly in urban development, the increase of spatial justice in terms of safety is not maximized. Indeed, local authorities are not aware of the combination of accidentology factors and instead target behavior and delinquency. The lack of accident analyses and the lack of awareness of authorities and communities hinder the maximization of the increase in spatial justice.
The use of oncolytic viruses in selected tumours

Introduction. Neoplastic diseases are the leading cause of death among adults. Despite significant advances in pharmacotherapy, advanced radiotherapy and high level of oncology surgery, the effects of treatment are still too low. Doctors are attempting to find new, effective methods to cure people suffering from cancer. The big hope for a breakthrough in the treatment of cancer is placed in oncolytic viruses therapy. An innovative approach to viruses, usually associated with a potential risk to health, presents a chance for a breakthrough in oncology. This article is an overview of studies that have used different oncolytic viruses. State of knowledge. Currently, a lot of research is being carried out on the use of viruses in oncology. The mechanism of action of this method is to infect the tumour cells with a virus, replicating inside them and their lysis during the release of new virions. An additional advantage is the possibility for use in many types of cancer and regardless of its clinical stage. Furthermore, virotherapy may be combined with standard methods for achieving greater results. Summary. The results of these studies demonstrate the high effectiveness of this therapy. A large force action is combined with low side-effects and the ability to connect it with other therapies.
The Pricing of Exchange Rates in Japan: The Cases of the Japanese Automobile Industry Firms after the US Lehman Shock

This paper investigates the time-series dynamics of the sensitivities of stock returns as to three Japanese representative automobile industry firms to the changes of the yen/US dollars exchange rates. Further, we also empirically examine whether the yen/US dollars exchange rates are priced in the Japanese automobile industry firms. We are particularly interested in the period after the US Lehman Shock in this study. Our formal statistical tests firstly demonstrate that recently, the sensitivities of the Japanese automobile industry stocks to the yen/US dollars exchange rates clearly increased. Moreover, the results of our traditional regressions clearly indicate that as to the representative automobile industry firms in Japan, the yen/US dollars exchange rate changes are generally priced in the Japanese equity markets, and their degrees of pricing are highest in the period after the US Lehman Shock.
Polarization-dependent photoinduced mechanical deformations in covalent chalcogenide glasses

The optomechanical effect and photoinduced anisotropic deformation induced by illumination of linearly polarized light have been comparatively studied for glassy As2S3 and Se films. The two materials show qualitatively the same behaviors in the mechanical effect and the deformation, which suggests that these photoinduced phenomena are inherent to the covalent chalcogenide glass. But, the two phenomena show different dependences upon intensity, spectrum and exposure time of excitation light, which imply different underlying mechanisms.
Microprocessor-based plantar pressure measurement system for rehabilitation of lower limb

Evaluating plantar pressure plays a crucial role in the treatment of patients undergoing rehabilitation for fractures of the lower limb. During the rehabilitation process, the repeated application of a higher than usual plantar pressure is a major factor in developing formation of callus. However, it is important that an appropriate pressure loading on the basis of the patient’s weight is applied to ensure an efficient callus recovery. Consequently, this paper develops a microprocessor-based, portable, ambulatory foot pressure measurement system. In the proposed system, five pressure sensors are placed in appropriate positions on the outsole of the patient’s shoe, i.e. under the medial of the heel, and at the metatarsal heads and the hallux, to measure the pressure acting on the foot. The measurement system has two important features: (1) an acoustic alarm which sounds when the weight-bearing exceeds the predetermined plantar pressure; (2) an embedded memory storage device to store the pressure data for subsequent clinical analysis during the rehabilitation process. The effective operation of the proposed measurement system is verified experimentally by its accuracy and dynamical response.
A comparative analysis of efficacy of Hand nets and Bowl Traps (bluish and yellowish) in collection of Hymenopteran Pollinators (Phylum: Arthropoda) from different Cash Crops of Irrigated Areas of District Bhakkar and Layyah, Punjab, Pakistan

A detailed survey was carried out during 2015-2016 in irrigated areas of District Bhakkar and Layyah. The present research purpose was to compare the efficiency of bowl traps and hand nets (aerial nets) in the collection of hymenopteran pollinators. From each respective district eight hotspots were selected and each hotspot was further divided into four replicates and bowl traps containing detergent were used in each replicate and pollinators were collected by the help of bowl traps and hand nets. Bowl traps were highly significant in sampling of hymenopteran pollinators than hand nets. Sceliphron (23, 33), Delta (5, 4) and Vespa (4, 7) were sampled by hand nets only from district Bhakkar and Layyah. Andrena had total number of 58/ samples and 98/ samples respectively while Nomia showed the total abundance of 25 and 21 respectively, and were highly attracted towards the bowls traps in District Bhakkar and Layyah. Genus Apis, caught in the aerial nets, had total abundance of 83/ sample and 57/ sample in District Bhakkar and Layyah respectively.
Environmental chemistry: a discipline standing on two shoulders

Many chemists working in the field of environmental chemistry will have experienced the feeling of being looked down on by other chemists doing ‘real science’. The roots of this attitude may lie in a profound misunderstanding of what environmental chemistry is actually about, a misunderstanding fostered by the unusual position of environmental chemistry among scientific disciplines. Some causes and effects are examined below. According to Oreskes’ perceptive analysis, scientific disciplines can be grouped in two families:
Accuracy of Wind Measurements Performed on Buoys, Ship, and Island during the TOSCANE-2 Experiment

Abstract In 1983 the project “Travaux d'Oceanographie Spatiale: Capteurs Actifs dans l'Atlantique Nord-Est” (TOSCANE) was initiated in view of calibration, validation, and use of satelliteborne scatterometer and altimeter measurements in terms of wind and wave data, with special emphasis on the ERS-1 satellite to be launched in 1991 by the European Space Agency. The wind measurements from an array of buoys and ship and land stations, deployed during the last experiment within the program, TOSCANE-2, are described, and a method is given to evaluate their accuracy. When comparing wind data from two measuring stations at sea, the averaging time has to be selected according to the separation distance between the two locations to filter out the space-induced wind variability. For buoy and ship comparisons, for distances less than 3 km, a 10-min averaging time was found to be a lower limit. For pairs of buoys separated by 25 or 35 km, the standard deviation of differences decreases with averaging time, in the s.
Artificial Neural Network – a Tool for Prediction of Monsoon Rainfall over North and South Assam in India

The possibility of predicting average summer-monsoon rainfall over North and South Assam in India has been analyzed in this paper through Ar tificial Neural Network models. In formulating the Artificial Neural Networ k based predictive model, three layered networks have been constructe d with sigmoid non-linearity. The models under study are different in the number o f input layers. After a thorough training and test procedure, neural net with tw o inputs is found to be the best predictive model both for North and South Assam. F inally, the results are compared with outputs of regression approach. After co mparison it is found that for South Assam, Neural Network completely outperf orms the regression. But in North Assam regression can be used as an altern ative approach to Neural Network. PACS number: 92.60. Ry, 92.60. Wc, 92.60. Nv
Site U1458

S.J. Gallagher, C.S. Fulthorpe, K. Bogus, G. Auer, S. Baranwal, I.S. Castañeda, B.A. Christensen, D. De Vleeschouwer, D.R. Franco, J. Groeneveld, M. Gurnis, C. Haller, Y. He, J. Henderiks, T. Himmler, T. Ishiwa, H. Iwatani, R.S. Jatiningrum, M.A. Kominz, C.A. Korpanty, E.Y. Lee, E. Levin, B.L. Mamo, H.V. McGregor, C.M. McHugh, B.F. Petrick, D.C. Potts, A. Rastegar Lari, W. Renema, L. Reuning, H. Takayanagi, and W. Zhang2
Challenges and opportunities in the implementation of electronic commerce: The case of Nigeria

This research paper examines the statistical significance of various problems in implementation of e-commerce solutions in business organizations in Nigeria. Nigeria has witnessed substantial progress in the field of ICT-related infrastructural development in the first decade of the 21st century. However, despite these positive developments and abundant resources, Nigeria has not been able to catch up with the pace of digital development as the rest of the world. This research paper attempts to identify the problems in implementing e-commerce in Nigeria. On the basis of analysis of data through hierarchical multiple regression modeling and multiple response analysis of the data, this study identifies the statistically significant problems in the implementation of e-commerce in Nigeria and outlines the key policy options that this country, can consider in formulation of policies to stimulate, support and maximize the effect e-commerce has on their economies. Key words: E-commerce, problems, Nigeria, hierarchical multiple regression.
The Volume of Hyperbolic Alternating Link Complements

If a hyperbolic link has a prime alternating diagram D, then we show that the link complement's volume can be estimated directly from D. We define a very elementary invariant of the diagram D, its twist number t(D), and show that the volume lies between v3(t(D) − 2)/2 and v3(10t(D) − 10), where v3 is the volume of a regular hyperbolic ideal 3‐simplex. As a consequence, the set of all hyperbolic alternating and augmented alternating link complements is a closed subset of the space of all complete finite‐volume hyperbolic 3‐manifolds, in the geometric topology. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification 57M25, 57N10.
Shareholder Activism by Institutional Investors: Evidence from CalPERS

This study examines firm characteristics that lead to shareholder activism and analyzes the effects of activism on target firm governance structure, shareholder wealth, and operating performance for the fifty-one firms targeted by the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) over the 1987-93 period. Firm size and level of institutional holdings are found to be positively related to the probability of being targeted, and 72 percent of firms targeted after 1988 adopt proposed changes or make changes resulting in a settlement with CalPERS. Shareholder wealth increases for firms that adopt or settle and decreases for firms that resist. No statistically significant change in operating performance is found. Copyright 1996 by American Finance Association.
Microstrip BPF using SIRs with Wide and Deep Harmonics Suppression Band

Microstrip bandpass filters are recently fashionable with various well known features, including low cost, compactness, light weight, easy fabrication, and affordability in active circuit extension. In practice, it needs to be designed with basic characteristics of low passband attenuation, high selectivity, and harmonics suppression. In particular, harmonics suppression characteristic is significantly required for wireless communication systems. Although several harmonics suppression techniques [1]-[3] were presented in recent years, wide and deep harmonics suppression band should be more enhanced with minimized step filters. In our research, 2-step and 3-step bandpass filters were designed and fabricated. The centre frequency was 1950 GHz for WCDMA-FDD up-link band with bandwidth of 60 MHz based on IMT-2000 standard. In measurement, the harmonics suppression band was greater than 30 dB from 2.3 to 9.4 GHz for a 2-step filter, and greater than 40 dB from 2.3 to 9.1 GHz for a 3-step filter. The designed folded and straight stepped impedance resonators (SIRs) used for this were designed its physical characteristic based on off-band design while passband design charts were also newly plotted based on various 3-dB bandwidths (maximally flat) [4]. Those passband design charts were used to design any step filter and any bandwidth for any Tchebycheff or maximally flat. In addition, the high selectivity of two transmission zeros on passband was obtained by two open-ended stubs [4]. The harmonics suppression technique was proposed and described in here with even-mode interruption technique for the 2-step and 3-step filters, accordingly, 3-step filter size reduction by using a conventional quarter-wavelength SIR [5]. In the content, designed resonators and filters are described in Sec. 2. The prototype filters and measurement results are shown in Sec. 3 and conclusion is given in Sec. 4.
Phytochemical determination and antibacterial activity of Punica granatum peel extracts against plant pathogenic bacteria

Plant pathogenic bacteria are recognized to be harmful microbes able to decrease the quantity and quality of crop production in the world. Punica granatum peel was screened for its potential use as biological control agent for plant pathogenic bacteria. P. granatum peel was successfully extract using n-hexane, methanol and ethyl acetate by maceration. The highest yield obtained by ethyl acetate showed that ethyl acetate extracted more compounds that readily soluble to methanol and n-hexane. For in-vitro antibacterial activity, three different species of plant pathogenic bacteria were used namely Erwinia carotovorum subsp. Carotovorum, Ralstonia solanacearum, and Xanthomonas gardneri. For all crude extracts, four different concentrations 25, 50, 100 and 200 mg/ml were used in cup-plate agar diffusion method. Streptomycin sulfate at concentration 30 μg/ml was used as positive control while each respective solvent used for peel extraction was used as negative control. The results obtained from in vitro studies showed only ethyl acetate extract possessed antibacterial activity tested on the plant pathogenic bacteria. Methanol and n-hexane did not show any antibacterial activity against plant pathogenic bacteria selected where no inhibition zones were recorded. R. solanacearum recorded the highest diameter of inhibition zones for all range of concentrations introduced followed by E. carotovorum subsp. Carotovorum and X. gardneri. For the minimum inhbitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), only the ethyl acetate extract was subjected to the assay as only ethyl acetate extract exhibited antibacterial activity. The minimum concentration of ethyl acetate extract that was able to inhibit plant pathogenic bacteria was recorded at a concentration of 3.12 mg/ml which inhibited R. solancearum and E. carotovorum subsp. Carotovorum, followed by X. gardneri at concentration 6.25 mg/ml. For the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), the results showed that at the concentration of 12.5 mg/ml, the extract was still capable of killing the pathogenic bacteria, R. solanacearum, and P. caratovora sub.sp. caratovora while for the bacteria X. gardneri, the concentration that was able to kill the bacteria was 25 mg/ml. The qualitative estimation of phytochemical constituents within P. granatum L. ethyl acetate peel extracts had revealed the presence of tannins, flavonoids, phenols alkaloid, Saponins, and terpenoids. This study has demonstrated that Ethyl Acetate peel extracts of P. granatum has significant antibacterial activity against pathogenic plant bacterial, and it could be of high agricultural value.