nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Curiosity driven Exploration in Deep Reinforcement Learning via Bayesian Neural Networks
Venue: ArXiv

Scalable and effective exploration remains a key challenge in reinforcement learning (RL) While there are methods with optimality guarantees in the setting of discrete state and action spaces, these methods cannot be applied in high dimensional deep RL scenarios. As such, most contemporary RL relies on simple heuristics such as epsilon greedy exploration or adding Gaussian noise to the controls. This paper introduces Variational Information Maximizing Exploration (VIME) an exploration strategy based on maximization of information gain about the agent's belief of environment dynamics. We propose a practical implementation, using variational inference in Bayesian neural networks which efficiently handles continuous state and action spaces. VIME modifies the MDP reward function, and can be applied with several different underlying RL algorithms. We demonstrate that VIME achieves significantly better performance compared to heuristic exploration methods across a variety of continuous control tasks and algorithms, including tasks with very sparse rewards.
Mutations, associated with early onset Alzheimer's disease, discovered in Asian countries
Venue: Clinical interventions in aging

Alzheimer's disease (AD) the most common form of senile dementia, is a genetically complex disorder. In most Asian countries, the population and the number of AD patients are growing rapidly, and the genetics of AD has been extensively studied, except in Japan. However, recent studies have been started to investigate the genes and mutations associated with AD in Korea, the People's Republic of China, and Malaysia. This review describes all of the known mutations in three early onset AD (EOAD) causative genes (APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2) that were discovered in Asian countries. Most of the EOAD associated mutations have been detected in PSEN1, and several novel PSEN1 mutations were recently identified in patients from various parts of the world, including Asia. Until 2014, no PSEN2 mutations were found in Asian patients; however, emerging studies from Korea and the People's Republic of China discovered probably pathogenic PSEN2 mutations. Since several novel mutations were discovered in these three genes, we also discuss the predictions on their pathogenic nature. This review briefly summarizes genome wide association studies of late onset AD and the genes that might be associated with AD in Asian countries. Standard sequencing is a widely used method, but it has limitations in terms of time, cost, and efficacy. Next generation sequencing strategies could facilitate genetic analysis and association studies. Genetic testing is important for the accurate diagnosis and for understanding disease associated pathways and might also improve disease therapy and prevention.
Continuous improvement concepts as a link between quality assurance and implementation of cleaner production: Case study in the generic pharmaceutical industry

The subject and the research objective presented in this article is establishing of the relationship between quality assurance and implementation of cleaner production in the generic pharmaceutical industry through the comprehensive concept of continuous improvement. This is mostly related to application of Lean and Six Sigma tools and techniques for process improvement and their link to other known concepts used in the industrial environment, especially manufacturing of generic pharmaceutical products from which two representative case studies were selected for comparative analysis, also considering relevant regulatory requirements in the field of quality management, as well as appropriate quality standards. Although the methodology discussed in this conceptual and practice oriented article is strongly related to chemical engineering, the focus is mainly on process industry, i.e. production systems, rather than any specific technological process itself. The scope of this research is an engineering approach to evaluation of the production systems in terms of continuous improvement concepts application, considering both quality aspects and efficiency of such systems.
A retrospective critic Re Debate on Stakeholders' resistance checklist in software project management within multi cultural, multi ethnical and cosmopolitan society context: The Malaysian experience

Risks stemming from software projects were extensively studied. However, software project risk management has rarely researched organizational risks within multi cultural and multi ethnical atmospheres. The fact of the matter is that problems occur when the stakeholders' cultural and ethnical aspects are not addressed, especially in multi cultural, multi ethnical, and cosmopolitan society such as Malaysia. To avoid analyzing something that has already been studied in detail, this study conducted based on in depth literature review considering key word search in subject specific databases. Journal articles published in reputed journals were reviewed. By employing Rumelt's resistance to change checklist and culture gap tool source, this paper develops an organizational risk framework considering cross cultural and cross ethnical critical factors in order to show how can risks be better comprehended and managed. The significance of bio cultural dimensions was scrutinized as vital criteria which should be considered in international project sphere, so that, not only the odds of project success would be increased but also the risks can be mitigated significantly. A review of the risk management process, Rumelt's Checklist, cultural issues in international project environment allows a better understanding of the importance of cultural dimensions in project spheres.
Overcoming the digital divide: Computer access and use among the differently abled elderly in Mainland China

While the advancement of computer technology displays has the potential to change the life of the differently abled persons, also called persons with restrictions. These persons do not enjoy equal access to the benefits of equitably inclusive computing.  This study uses the 2014 China Differently Abled Persons' Survey data to explore the disparities in computer access and use among the differently abled senior citizens in mainland China.  The findings show that access and use of computers differs by age and type of restriction. Households with differently abled people aged 60 years and over are less likely to be equipped with computers than the younger households; people with a physical handicap are more likely to live in households with computers, while people who have intelligence related restrictions have less access to computers in the home. When controlled for socioeconomic and other demographic factors, people of older age, people living with intelligence or mental restrictions are less likely to be computer users, while people with speech problems have a higher likelihood to use a computer. The digital gap among the generations is particularly striking. Additionally, male, higher educational level, living in urban areas, employed full or part time, and having self care ability are also important predictors of being digitally empowered computer users.
Smartphone use and internet literacy of senior citizens

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of smartphone use on the internet literacy and use by senior citizens.  Empirical study.  The results indicate that the use of smartphones does significantly impact the internet literacy and use of older individuals. Educational background and the duration of smartphone use enhance the ability of seniors to use the internet.  A similar study can be conducted in other different countries and see the effect (if any) of national cultures and the type/purpose of usage of the internet; an expansion of this research, with a larger sample size, and more variables would shed greater insight on this important topic.  Study provide suggestions to governments, in cooperation with the private sectors, on how to diminish the digital divide for senior citizens not only to improve their well being, but also because seniors are an important resource that contribut.
Using Semidirect Product of (Semi)groups in Public Key Cryptography
Venue: CiE

In this survey, we describe a general key exchange protocol based on semidirect product of (semi)groups (more specifically, on extensions of (semi)groups by automorphisms) and then focus on practical instances of this general idea. This protocol can be based on any group or semigroup, in particular on any non commutative group. One of its special cases is the standard Diffie Hellman protocol, which is based on a cyclic group. However, when this protocol is used with a non commutative (semi)group, it acquires several useful features that make it compare favorably to the Diffie Hellman protocol. The focus then shifts to selecting an optimal platform (semi)group, in terms of security and efficiency. We show, in particular, that one can get a variety of new security assumptions by varying an automorphism used for a (semi)group extension.
Surface oxides on metal powders: An overview of the effect of alloy composition and manufacturing method

The quality and usefulness of powder are strongly determined by the surface composition of the powder. Amount of oxides, their composition and spatial distribution on the powder surface and within a particle determine the requirements for the subsequent consolidation process. This paper summarizes possibilities of qualitative and quantitative analysis of powder surface chemistry by a variety of methods, starting from surface sensitive chemical analyses by XPS, AES, HR SEM coupled with EDX and FIB, and modern thermoanalytical techniques. Effect of the different powder manufacturing methods (water and gas atomisation, EIGA, etc. alloy composition (low alloyed steels, stainless steels, Ni based super alloys, Ti alloys, etc. and powder handling on the surface composition of the powder is summarized. A generic model of the oxide distribution depending on the alloy composition and manufacturing method is developed. Typically powder particles are covered by homogeneous oxide layer of the main alloying elements and particulate features, formed by stable high temperature oxides.
Modeling corrosion inhibition efficacy of small organic molecules as non toxic chromate alternatives using comparative molecular surface analysis (CoMSA)
Venue: Chemosphere

Traditionally many structural alloys are protected by primer coatings loaded with corrosion inhibiting additives. Strontium Chromate (or other chromates) have been shown to be extremely effectively inhibitors, and find extensive use in protective primer formulations. Unfortunately, hexavalent chromium which imbues these coatings with their corrosion inhibiting properties is also highly toxic, and their use is being increasingly restricted by legislation. In this work we explore a novel tridimensional Quantitative Structure Property Relationship (3D QSPR) approach, comparative molecular surface analysis (CoMSA) which was developed to recognize "high performing" corrosion inhibitor candidates from the distributions of electronegativity, polarizability and van der Waals volume on the molecular surfaces of 28 small organic molecules. Multivariate statistical analysis identified five prototypes molecules, which are capable of explaining 71% of the variance within the inhibitor data set; whilst a further five molecules were also identified as archetypes, describing 75% of data variance. All active corrosion inhibitors, at a 80% threshold, were successfully recognized by the CoMSA model with adequate specificity and precision higher than 70% and 60% respectively. The model was also capable of identifying structural patterns, that revealed reasonable starting points for where structural changes may augment corrosion inhibition efficacy. The presented methodology can be applied to other functional molecules and extended to cover structure activity studies in a diverse range of areas such as drug design and novel material discovery.
Subjective evaluation of the frequency of coffee intake and relationship to osteoporosis in Chinese men
Venue: Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition

BackgroundThe main purpose of this study was to evaluate the associations between frequency of coffee intake and osteoporosis (OP) in a general Chinese male sample.MethodsWe conducted a large scale, community based, cross sectional study to investigate the associations by using a self report questionnaire to estimate the frequency of coffee intake. A total of 992 men were available for data analysis in this study. Multiple regression models controlling for confounding factors to include frequency of coffee intake variable were performed to investigate the relationships for OP.ResultsPositive correlations between frequency of coffee intake and T score were reported (b 0.211, P 0.024) Multiple regression analysis indicated that the frequency of coffee intake was significantly associated with OP (P 0.05 for model 1 and model 2) The men with moderate frequency of coffee intake had a lower prevalence of OP.ConclusionsThe findings indicated that consumption of coffee was independently and significantly associated with OP. The prevalence of OP was less frequent in Chinese men with moderate coffee intake.
Osteoporosis and Bone Mass Disorders: From Gene Pathways to Treatments
Venue: Trends in Endocrinology Metabolism

Genomic technologies have evolved rapidly contributing to the understanding of diseases. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) and whole exome sequencing have aided the identification of the genetic determinants of monogenic and complex conditions including osteoporosis and bone mass disorders. Overlap exists between the genes implicated in monogenic and complex forms of bone mass disorders, largely explained by the clustering of genes encoding factors in signaling pathways crucial for mesenchymal cell differentiation, skeletal development, and bone remodeling and metabolism. Numerous of the remaining discovered genes merit functional follow up studies to elucidate their role in bone biology. The insight provided by genetic studies is serving the identification of biomarkers predictive of disease, redefining disease, response to treatment, and discovery of novel drug targets for skeletal disorders.
MARS: A Video Benchmark for Large Scale Person Re Identification
Venue: ECCV

This paper considers person re identification (re id) in videos. We introduce a new video re id dataset, named Motion Analysis and Re identification Set (MARS) a video extension of the Market 1501 dataset. To our knowledge, MARS is the largest video re id dataset to date. Containing 1,261 IDs and around 20,000 tracklets, it provides rich visual information compared to image based datasets. Meanwhile, MARS reaches a step closer to practice. The tracklets are automatically generated by the Deformable Part Model (DPM) as pedestrian detector and the GMMCP tracker. A number of false detection/tracking results are also included as distractors which would exist predominantly in practical video databases. Extensive evaluation of the state of the art methods including the space time descriptors and CNN is presented. We show that CNN in classification mode can be trained from scratch using the consecutive bounding boxes of each identity. The learned CNN embedding outperforms other competing methods considerably and has good generalization ability on other video re id datasets upon fine tuning.
Limited differences in fish and benthic communities and possible cascading effects inside and outside a protected marine area in Sagres (SW Portugal)
Venue: Marine environmental research

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a relatively recent fisheries management and conservation tool for conservation of marine ecosystems and serve as experimental grounds to assess trophic cascade effects in areas were fishing is restricted to some extent. A series of descriptive field studies were performed to assess fish and benthic communities between two areas within a newly established MPA in SW Portugal. We characterized benthic macroalgal composition and determined the size, density and biomass of the main benthic predatory and herbivorous fish species as well as the main benthic herbivorous invertebrates to assess indications of top down control on the phytobenthic assemblages. Fish species were identical inside and outside the MPA, in both cases Sarpa salpa was the most abundant fish herbivore and Diplodus spp. accounted for the great majority of the benthic predators. However, size and biomass of D. spp. were higher inside than outside the MPA. The main herbivorous invertebrate was the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, which was smaller and predominantly showing a crevice dwelling behaviour in the MPA. In addition, P. lividus size frequency distribution showed a unimodal pattern outside and a bimodal pattern inside the MPA. We found significant differences in the algal assemblages between inside and outside the MPA, with higher abundance of turf and foliose algae inside, and articulated calcareous and corticated macrophytes outside the MPA, but no differences in the invasive Asparagopsis spp. The obtained results show differences in predatory fish and benthic community structure, but not in species richness, inside and outside the MPA. We hypothesize these differences lead to variation in species interactions: directly through predation and indirectly via affecting sea urchins behavioural patterns, predators might drive changes in macroalgal assemblages via trophic cascade in the study area. However due to non biological differences between the two areas it is difficult to suggest that the MPA causes increased biological parameters of targeted species and to assess predatory control and trophic cascade effects in areas where fishing pressure is reduced. It is therefor advisable to design MPAs so that their impacts can be scientifically evaluated in a proper fashion.
Reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research
Venue: Systematic Reviews

BackgroundOverviews of methods are potentially useful means to increase clarity and enhance collective understanding of specific methods topics that may be characterized by ambiguity, inconsistency, or a lack of comprehensiveness. This type of review represents a distinct literature synthesis method, although to date, its methodology remains relatively undeveloped despite several aspects that demand unique review procedures. The purpose of this paper is to initiate discussion about what a rigorous systematic approach to reviews of methods, referred to here as systematic methods overviews, might look like by providing tentative suggestions for approaching specific challenges likely to be encountered. The guidance offered here was derived from experience conducting a systematic methods overview on the topic of sampling in qualitative research.ResultsThe guidance is organized into several principles that highlight specific objectives for this type of review given the common challenges that must be overcome to achieve them. Optional strategies for achieving each principle are also proposed, along with discussion of how they were successfully implemented in the overview on sampling. We describe seven paired principles and strategies that address the following aspects: delimiting the initial set of publications to consider, searching beyond standard bibliographic databases, searching without the availability of relevant metadata, selecting publications on purposeful conceptual grounds, defining concepts and other information to abstract iteratively, accounting for inconsistent terminology used to describe specific methods topics, and generating rigorous verifiable analytic interpretations. Since a broad aim in systematic methods overviews is to describe and interpret the relevant literature in qualitative terms, we suggest that iterative decision making at various stages of the review process, and a rigorous qualitative approach to analysis are necessary features of this review type.ConclusionsWe believe that the principles and strategies provided here will be useful to anyone choosing to undertake a systematic methods overview. This paper represents an initial effort to promote high quality critical evaluations of the literature regarding problematic methods topics, which have the potential to promote clearer, shared understandings, and accelerate advances in research methods. Further work is warranted to develop more definitive guidance.
EVALUATION ET MODELISATION GEOCHIMIQUES DE LA QUALITE DES EAUX SOUTERRAINES UTILISEES POUR L'IRRIGATION DES TERRES AGRICOLES DANS UNE ZONE ARIDE CAS DE LA REGION DE SIDI OKBA

Ce travail traite de la qualite physico chimique des eaux souterraines destinees a l'irrigation des terres agricoles dans la plaine de Sidi Okba au SE de Biskra. La qualite de ces eaux est evaluee par l'etude des parametres physico chimiques de 30 echantillons d'eau de forages ainsi que par l'evaluation de leur aptitude a l'irrigation des terres agricoles dans la zone d'etude. Les compositions chimiques de ces eaux font apparaitre une salinite elevee avec un faible a fort risque de sodicite. Deux grandes familles d'eau se manifestent, la premiere a facies chlorure sodique et magnesien en aval de la zone d'etude et la deuxieme a facies sulfate sodique et calcique en amont, suivant le sens d'ecoulement. Le modele thermodynamique, Phreeqc (version Interactive 3.1.4 8929) indique que la calcite est le premier mineral qui se precipite, en relation avec un taux eleve du calcaire total present dans le sol (moyenne de 30 alors que le gypse se dissout dans la solution du sol. De cette etude, il resulte que la qualite des eaux d'irrigation a un impact non negligeable sur la salinisation des sols irriguees; ceci en fonction de leur contexte naturel et fort probablement du type de cultures utilisees.
Race, Industry, and the Aesthetic of a Changing Community in World War II Portland

the most fascinating aspects of the history of the American home front in World War II is the speed with which communities, institutions, industries, and individuals completely transformed themselves to meet the demands of the emergency. Portland is one of many cities whose wartime transformations permanently changed the community. The quiet, provincial city became the center of a shipbuilding boom in 1942, when the Kaiser Shipbuilding Corporation received generous government contracts to build two gigantic shipyards and to expand an existing Portland facility. The U.S. War Manpower Commission was quick to realize that Portland had nowhere near the labor force required to operate the yards on a 24 hour schedule. The commission designated Portland a zone of immediate need and worked with Kaiser to quickly recruit 10,000 workers from across the United States. By the end of the war, industry and government had brought 160,000 newcomers to a city whose prewar population had hovered at about 406,00o.1