Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparing Direct and Indirect Temporal-Difference Methods for Estimating the Variance of the Return

Temporal-difference (TD) learning methods are widely used in reinforcement learning to estimate the expected return for each state, without a model, because of their significant advantages in computational and data efficiency. For many applications involving risk mitigation, it would also be useful to estimate the variance of the return by TD methods. In this paper, we describe a way of doing this that is substantially simpler than those proposed by Tamar, Di Castro, and Mannor in 2012, or those proposed by White and White in 2016. We show that two TD learners operating in series can learn expectation and variance estimates. The trick is to use the square of the TD error of the expectation learner as the reward of the variance learner, and the square of the expectation learner’s discount rate as the discount rate of the variance learner. With these two modifications, the variance learning problem becomes a conventional TD learning problem to which standard theoretical results can be applied. Our formal results are limited to the table lookup case, for which our method is still novel, but the extension to function approximation is immediate, and we provide some empirical results for the linear function approximation case. Our experimental results show that our direct method behaves just as well as a comparable indirect method, but is generally more robust.
Antioxidant activity, total phenolics, flavonoids and antinutritional characteristics of germinated foxtail millet (Setaria italica)

Abstract A central composite rotatable design was applied to analyse the effects of independent variables [soaking time (ST), germination time (Gt) and temperature (GT)] on responses [antioxidant activity (AoxA), total phenolic contents (TPC) and flavonoid contents (TFC)]. The results indicated that with increase in ST, Gt and GT, AoxA, TPC (free/bound) and TFC (free/bound) of foxtail millet increased significantly. The best combination of germination bioprocess variables for producing optimized germinated foxtail millet flour with the highest AoxA (90.5%), TPC (45.67 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/100 g sample) and TFC (30.52–43.96 mg RU/g sample) were found with soaking time of 15.84 min having germination temperature of 25°C. The optimized germinated foxtail millet flour was nutritionally rich as it produced higher protein (14.32 g/100 g), dietary fibre (27.42 g/100 g), calcium (25.62 mg/kg), iron (54.23 mg/kg), magnesium (107.16 mg/kg) and sodium (69.45 mg/kg) per kg as compared to un-germinated foxtail millet flour.
Design of Alternate Route Discovery Based on Congestion in Vehicular Network

Vehicular Ad-hoc Network communication is needed to implement in an efficient way so that congestion can be avoided and alternative paths for congestion avoidance can be consider. In this paper, we have presented an efficient mechanism based on geo-cast region based protocol for providing efficient alternative path to destination which successfully avoids congestion and message from one vehicle to other is transferred easily and accurately. The aggregate throughput of the propose scheme is increased around 19% more as compared to normal communication. The proposed scheme provided 19% more throughput, 6% more packet delivery, 10% less drop when compared to already existing techniques. We have elaborated the complete results and basic experimentation of proposed schemes.
Spatial analysis shows that fishing enhances the climatic sensitivity of marine fishes

We compare the changes in geographic distribution of exploited fish species versus unexploited ones living in the same environment. For this comparative study, we use the 50-year larval fish time series from the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations, which allows us to view fishing as a treatment effect in a long-term eco - logical experiment. Our results indicate that exploited species show a clearer distributional shift in response to environ - mental change than unexploited species, even after accounting for life history and ecological traits and phylogeny. The enhanced response (improved signal-noise ratio) to environmental change in exploited species may be a consequence of reduced spatial heterogeneity caused by fishery-induced age (size) truncation and the constriction of geographic dis - tribution that accompanies fishing pressure. We suggest that reduced spatial heterogeneity can cause exploited popula - tions to be more vulnerable to climate variability, an effect that could have considerable importance in the management of fish stocks. This is the first study to compare the geographic distributions of a large suite of exploited and unex - ploited fish species from the northeastern Pacific in response to climate variability.
Prediction of biopore- and matrix-dominated flow from X-ray CT-derived macropore network characteristics.

Abstract. Prediction and modeling of localized flow processes in macropores is of crucial importance for sustaining both soil and water quality. However, currently there are no reliable means to predict preferential flow due to its inherently large spatial variability. The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive performance of previously developed empirical models for both water and air flow and to explore the potential applicability of X-ray computed tomography (CT)-derived macropore network characteristics. For this purpose, 65 cylindrical soil columns (6 cm diameter and 3.5 cm height) were extracted from the topsoil (5 cm to 8.5 cm depth) in a 15 m × 15 m grid from an agricultural field located in Silstrup, Denmark. All soil columns were scanned with an industrial X-ray CT scanner (129 µm resolution) and later employed for measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity, air permeability at −30 and −100 cm matric potential, and gas diffusivity at −30 and −100 cm matric potential. Distribution maps for saturated hydraulic conductivity, air permeability, and gas diffusivity reflected no autocorrelation irrespective of soil texture and organic matter content. Existing empirical predictive models for saturated hydraulic conductivity and air permeability showed poor performance, as they were not able to realistically capture macropore flow. The tested empirical model for gas diffusivity predicted measurements at −100 cm matric potential reasonably well, but failed at −30 cm matric potential, particularly for soil columns with biopore-dominated flow. X-ray CT-derived macroporosity matched the measured air-filled porosity at −30 cm matric potential well. Many of the CT-derived macropore network characteristics were strongly interrelated. Most of the macropore network characteristics were also significantly correlated with saturated hydraulic conductivity, air permeability, and gas diffusivity. The predictive Ahuja et al. (1984) model for saturated hydraulic conductivity, air permeability, and gas diffusivity performed reasonably well when parameterized with novel, X-ray CT-derived parameters such as effective percolating macroporosity for biopore-dominated flow and total macroporosity for matrix-dominated flow. The obtained results further indicate that it is crucially important to discern between matrix-dominated and biopore-dominated flow for accurate prediction of macropore flow from X-ray CT-derived macropore network characteristics.
Relationships between Human Resource Manager-related Factors and Practice of Strategic Human Resource Management in Sri Lankan Listed Firms

The objectives of this research paper were to investigate whether competency, education, experience, age and hierarchical level of human resource manager of the listed firms relate to the practice of SHRM of those firms; and to investigate whether these factors have a significant joint impact on the practice of SHRM of listed companies in Sri Lanka. A research framework consisting of five independent variables and one dependent variable was developed and six hypotheses were formulated using deductive approach. The study was conducted relating to all Sri Lankan listed firms numbering 242. Purpose of the study, type of investigation, extent of researcher interference with the study, study setting, unit of analysis and time horizon were hypotheses testing, noncausal, minimal, noncontrived, individual and cross-sectional respectively. Measures of the study had possessed sufficient validity and reliability. The structured questionnaire was administered to cover all the firms and head of human resource department worked as the respondents on behalf of the firms. 161 human resource heads responded making a response rate of 66.52 per cent. Data exploration ensured the normality and linearity assumptions being not violated. The results of the study showed significant and positive relationships between the independent variables, i.e., competence, education, experience, and hierarchical level of human resource managers and the dependent variable, i.e., practice of SHRM. However, no significant relationship was found between age of human resource manager and practice of SHRM. Multivariate analysis revealed that combined influence of competency, education, experience, age, and hierarchical level of human resource manager on the perceived practice of SHRM within a firm was significant. Findings of the study will be important on practical grounds. Important implications of the findings of the study are that a firm should hire and retain a person as the Head of HRM who should possess a high competence of HRM, higher formal education of HRM, and more experience in HRM in order to establish a serious practice of SHRM, and also the Head of HRM is to be appointed as a member of the Top Management of the firm. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.4038/sljhrm.v1i1. 5112 Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management Vol.1(1) 2007 pp.71-87
A Novel Framework for Remote Photoplethysmography Pulse Extraction on Compressed Videos

Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) has recently attracted much attention due to its non-contact measurement convenience and great potential in health care and computer vision applications. However, almost all the existing rPPG methods are based on uncompressed video data, which greatly limits its application to the scenarios that require long-distance video transmission. This paper proposes a novel framework as a first attempt to address the rPPG pulse extraction in presence of video compression artifacts. Based on the analysis of the impact of various compression methods on rPPG measurements, the problem is cast as single-channel signal separation. The framework consists of three major steps to extract the pulse waveform and heart rate by exploiting frequency structure of the rPPG signal. A benchmark dataset which contains stationary and motion videos has been built. The results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the SNR and heart rate precision of state-of-the-art rPPG algorithms on stationary videos and has a positive effect on motion videos at low bitrates.
Evaluation of Logistic Performance Index of India in the Indian Postal Services

The importance of efficient logistics for postal growth is widely acknowledged. Literature has shown that better logistics performance is strongly associated with postal expansion, export diversification, ability to attract foreign direct investments, and economic growth. On the other hand, Indian postal services represents a challenge to logistic operations in transporting and storing products. High logistic costs and low quality of services may be considered obstacles to Indian postal services. This research aims to assess India’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) in relation to its major competitors in Indian postal services. The inter-national postal data was collected from various post offices in few districts like Salem, Namakkal, Erode.Statistical techniques such as cluster analysis and multiple comparison tests of means have been applied to analyze the data. The competitiveness of Indian domestic firms depends crucially on a dynamic and competitive internal logistic environment in order to stand up to other countries. The results also indicate the bureaucracy as a major obstacle to the logistic performance of the country. The dimension Timeliness of India is very close to the High Logistics Performance Group (HLPG) while Customs is very close to the Low Logistics Performance Group (LLPG). Although India has failed in its customs operations, there seems to be more credibility in Indian dealings. The main contribution of this paper is to reveal logistical aspects in which India has shown large inefficiencies. The difference among the logistic performance index also appears to be relevant to governments to address their new public policies and also to highlight the logistic obstacles of the Indian Indian postal services.
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON HYBRID FIBER SELF COMPACTING CONCRETE

: Self-Compacting Concrete is a recently developed concept in which the ingredients of the concrete mix are proportioned in such a way that it can flow under its own weight to completely fill the formwork and passes through the congested reinforcement without segregation and self-consolidate without any mechanical vibration. Several studies in the past have revealed the usefulness of fibres to improve the structural properties of concrete like ductility, post crack resistance, energy absorption capacity etc. Fiber reinforced self-compacting concreting combines the benefits of self-compacting concrete in fresh state and shows an improved performance in the hardened state due to the addition of fibers. In this project, glass fibres and polyester fibres were added to self-compacting concrete and Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Self Compacting Concrete was developed. An attempt has been made to study mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete and glass fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete with addition of mild steel reinforcement. A strength based mix proportion of self-compacting concrete was arrived based on Nan-Su method of mix design and the proportion was fine-tuned by using Okamura’s guidelines. Self-compacting concrete mixes with partial replacement of cement by mineral admixture like fly ash were taken for investigation with and without incorporating glass fibres and polyester fibres. The glass fibres and Polyester fibres are added to various combinations to normal self-compacting concrete to improve the compressive, split tensile strength of the concrete. Based on the performance of concrete casted at various fibre combinations under compressive and tensile loads the mix combination which shows the better behviour among all the other is finalized. The beam is casted for the finalized mix proportion and tested and tested under the two point bending load. By comparing the test results the following conclusions are made. All the SCC and HFRSCC mixes developed satisfied the requirements of self-compacting concrete specified by EFNARC. From above discussion of test results, it can be observed that addition of the glass fibers and polyester fibres tested improves the compressive strength, tensile strength, load carrying capacity of ordinary reinforced cement concrete in flexure even with small dosage levels of 0.8%. With the above discussion we found out that the compressive strength obtained in 0.6% and 0.2% polyester fibres is more i,e 42% when compared to 0.5% glass fibres and 0.3% polyester fibres and 0.4% glass fibres and 0.4% polyester fibres. With the above discussion we found out that the tensile strength obtained in 0.6% and 0.2% polyester fibres is more i,e 5.55% when compared to 0.5% glass fibres and 0.3% polyester fibres and 0.4% glass fibres and 0.4% polyester fibres With the above discussion we found out that the flexural strength obtained in 0.6% and 0.2% polyester fibres is 8.471N/mm2
Financial Development, Openness and Institutions: Evidence from Panel Data

Utilising four annual panel datasets and dynamic panel data estimation procedures we find that trade and financial openness, as well as economic institutions are statistically important determinants of the variation in financial development across countries and over time since the 1980s. However, we find mixed support for the hypothesis that the simultaneous opening of both trade and capital accounts is necessary to promote financial development in a contemporary setting.
BLOCKADE OF P-SELECTIN REDUCES NEUTROPHIL INFILTRATION INTO THE ISCHEMIA-REPERFUSION INDUCED MURINE TESTIS

Germ cell apoptosis after ischemia-reperfusion (IR) of the testis is dependent on neutrophil recruitment to the testis. Intravascular adhesion molecules like the P- and E- selectins play an important role in this recruitment. The purpose of this study was to inhibit neutrophil recruitment to the IR- induced testis by using a function-blocking monoclonal anti-mouse P-selectin antibody. Adult mice were subjected t oa2h period of testicular torsion (ischemia) followed by detorsion (reperfusion). Ten minutes after the onset of reperfusion mice received either the function-blocking monoclonal P-selectin antibody (FBMAB group) or the isotype-matched control antibody (IMCA group). Separate groups of mice underwent a sham operation (SO group) or received 500 ng of TNF (IF group) to induce inflammation. Mice were sacrificed 24 hr after reperfusion and testiscular interstitial cells were isolated and analyzed for the presence of neutrophils by means of flow cytometry. The function-blocking monoclonal P-selectin antibody reduced neutrophil recruitment to the IR-induced testis significantly. Therefore, blocking P-selectin may be therapeutically beneficial to protect postischemic testis.
Introducing a Sugar Tax, Morally Justifiable? A Debate on the Introduction of the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy

Obesity is increasing throughout the world's population and has been associated with a number of diseases, from cardiovascular disease, diabetes and stroke to cancer and respiratory diseases [1, 2]. In the United Kingdom, an astonishing 62% of the population was classified as obese or overweight in 2015 [3]. Complications of obesity have resulted in high rates of morbidity and mortality. The announcement last year that the UK government is to impose a tax on sugar is an attempt to tackle this problem; therefore, it is a timely moment to discuss the justifications and ramifications of this, from a moral point of view. This essay will analyse whether obesity can be considered a public health matter and discuss the ethical challenges and criticisms that paternalistic interventions, designed to combat this epidemic may encounter, focusing on the sugar tax.
The Braincase Anatomy of the Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Alioramus (Theropoda: Tyrannosauroidea)

ABSTRACT The late Cretaceous tyrannosaurid Alioramus altai is known from a single specimen whose articulated braincase exhibits a nearly unique combination of preservational quality, subadult stage of growth, and morphological complexity. We use a detailed physical preparation combined with high-resolution computed tomography to provide an expanded description of this braincase that includes details of the neurocranium and its dermal roof, pneumatic recesses and sinuses, cranial endocast, and inner ear cavities. A few notable features include a highly developed rostral tympanic recess marked by three pneumatic fenestrae, a highly pneumatic paroccipital process with both rostral and caudal pneumatic foramina, a prootic fossa housing external foramina for the trigeminal and facial nerves, a well-developed superficial lamina of the prootic, an expanded vestibular cavity, and an osseous labyrinth that is plesiomorphic in appearance. These observations, set within the currently available comparative context, elucidate numerous neuroanatomical transformations within Tyrannosauroidea and clarify where more data and work are needed. We expand the discussion for the 21 characters from the neurocranium utilized in a recent revision of tyrannosauroid phylogeny, including a listing of which tyrannosauroid taxa can be scored for the primitive and derived states of each character.
EFFECT OF SURFACE TREATMENT ON ARRAY MICROPHONE SELF-NOISE

A method for reducing the flow-induced self-noise of acoustic array microphones was demonstrated in a wind tunnel. Unsteady boundary-layer flow in the wind tunnel induces large pressure fluctuations on exposed, flushmounted microphone diaphragms, reducing the signal-tonoise capability of microphone arrays. Two important steps were taken to reduce this background noise. First, the microphones were recessed to separate the microphones from the unsteady flow. Second, a porous surface material was placed above the microphones to act as an aerodynamic surface while allowing acoustic signals to pass through to the microphones. Previous attempts at this approach used perforated plates as the surface material, which tended to fatigue in the unsteady flow. The increased acoustic impedance of thicker materials caused reverberation between the surface and the microphone mounting plate. This latest attempt used a stretched sheet of Kevlar ® as the surface. The extreme strength and durability of the Kevlar ® withstood flow-induced fatigue while providing very low acoustic impedance with little attenuation of sound for most frequencies. Data is presented for two wind tunnel tests that demonstrate the capabilities of the recessed Kevlar ® array.
DNA barcode of Chaetognatha from Indian waters

Vijayalakshmi R Nair, Francis X Kidangan, Rajesh G Prabhu, Ann Bucklin &, Shanta Nair* 1 Retired scientist, NIO, Consultant, Marine Biology & Marine Pollution, HB/50,Panampilly Nagar, Kochi 682036, Kerala, India Department of Microbiology, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (Regional Centre), Cochin 682018, Kerala, India. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, 1080 Shennecossett Road, Groton, CT 06340, USA Biological Oceanography Division, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa 403004, India
Magnatune : Variable Pricing for Music 1

The paper analyses the behaviour of customers of the online music label Magnatune. They are allowed to pay what they want for music albums, as long as the payment is within a given price range ($5-$18). We develop a model that is based on reciprocal theories of social preferences pioneered by Rabin (1993) and extended by Dufwenberg and Kirchsteiger (2004). We study the relationship between artists/labels and customers and use a moral hazard model for our analysis. It takes social preferences into account and it also considers the importance of free sampling of experience goods. The predictions of our model are empirically tested with the field data we obtained. Comprehensive pre-purchase access at Magnatune supports music discovery and sets it apart from conventional online music stores. We conclude that this open contracts design encourages people to make a voluntary payment. The results of our empirical analysis validate this, as the average payment is $8.20, far more than the minimum of $5 and even higher than the recommended price of $8. 1 This work was partially supported by the EU-funded projects TIRAMISU (IST-2003-506983) and DANAE (IST-2004-507113). We are grateful to Maija Halonen-Akatwijuka and Osiris Parcero for valuable comments.