nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Sensitivity analysis for missing data in regulatory submissions.
Venue: Statistics in medicine

The National Research Council Panel on Handling Missing Data in Clinical Trials recommended that sensitivity analyses have to be part of the primary reporting of findings from clinical trials. Their specific recommendations, however, seem not to have been taken up rapidly by sponsors of regulatory submissions. The NRC report's detailed suggestions are along rather different lines than what has been called sensitivity analysis in the regulatory setting up to now. Furthermore, the role of sensitivity analysis in regulatory decision making, although discussed briefly in the NRC report, remains unclear. This paper will examine previous ideas of sensitivity analysis with a view to explaining how the NRC panel's recommendations are different and possibly better suited to coping with present problems of missing data in the regulatory setting. It will also discuss, in more detail than the NRC report, the relevance of sensitivity analysis to decision making, both for applicants and for regulators.  This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Cross Modal Retrieval via Deep and Bidirectional Representation Learning
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Multimedia

Cross modal retrieval emphasizes understanding inter modality semantic correlations, which is often achieved by designing a similarity function. Generally, one of the most important things considered by the similarity function is how to make the cross modal similarity computable. In this paper, a deep and bidirectional representation learning model is proposed to address the issue of image text cross modal retrieval. Owing to the solid progress of deep learning in computer vision and natural language processing, it is reliable to extract semantic representations from both raw image and text data by using deep neural networks. Therefore, in the proposed model, two convolution based networks are adopted to accomplish representation learning for images and texts. By passing the networks, images and texts are mapped to a common space, in which the cross modal similarity is measured by cosine distance. Subsequently, a bidirectional network architecture is designed to capture the property of the cross modal retrieval the bidirectional search. Such architecture is characterized by simultaneously involving the matched and unmatched image text pairs for training. Accordingly, a learning framework with maximum likelihood criterion is finally developed. The network parameters are optimized via backpropagation and stochastic gradient descent. A great deal of experiments are conducted to sufficiently evaluate the proposed method on three publicly released datasets: IAPRTC 12, Flickr30k, and Flickr8k. The overall results definitely show that the proposed architecture is effective and the learned representations have good semantics to achieve superior cross modal retrieval performance.
Developing Usability Heuristics: A Formal or Informal Process?
Venue: IEEE Latin America Transactions

There are many methods to assess the usability of interactive software systems. The Heuristic evaluation is one of the methods that allow finding many usability issues, based on a set of usability principles (heuristics) However, sets of generic usability heuristics may miss domain related usability aspects. Particularly, transactional web sites have specific features which could potentially not be considered when using generic heuristics. We developed a set of usability heuristics for transactional websites, using the methodology proposed by Rusu et al. (2011) The set of heuristics was designed, validated and refined during three iterations; experimental validation indicates that it is an effective and efficient evaluation instrument. The methodology facilitated the heuristics' design and specification. However, certain deficiencies were detected when applying it, so further improvements are necessary.
Sexual Orientation: Categories or Continuum? Commentary on Bailey et al. (2016)
Venue: Psychological science in the public interest a journal of the American Psychological Society

Bailey et al. (2016) have provided an excellent, state of the art overview that is a major contribution to our understanding of sexual orientation. However, whereas Bailey and his coauthors have examined the physiological, behavioral, and self report data of sexual orientation and see categories, I see a sexual and romantic continuum. After noting several objections concerning the limitations of the review and methodological shortcomings characteristic of sexual orientation research in general, I present evidence from research investigating in between sexualities to support an alternative, continuum based perspective regarding the nature of sexual orientation for both women and men. A continuum conceptualization has potential implications for investigating the prevalence of nonheterosexuals, sexual orientation differences in gender nonconformity, causes of sexual orientation, and political issues.
On xylem hydraulic efficiencies, wood space use and the safety efficiency tradeoff: Comment on Gleason et al. (2016) 'Weak tradeoff between xylem safety and xylem specific hydraulic efficiency across the world's woody plant species'
Venue: The New phytologist

In a recent issue ofNew Phytologist, Gleason et al. (2016) compiled a remarkable data set of wood traits to investigate the tradeoffs between xylem hydraulic safety and xylem hydraulic efficiency, measured as xylem specific hydraulic conductivity (Ks; molH20 mlength s 1 mtranversal 2 Pa This tradeoff is expected and somewhat studied at the conduit level, but how this should propagate to other plant levels is not known. In their paper,Gleason et al. (2016) compared the relationship between two tissue level traits emerging from conduit level traits, hydraulic safety, andKs, to test for this tradeoff. The authors show conclusively that it is not possible to have high efficiency and high safety in plant hydraulic systems. Nevertheless, many species present low efficiency and low safety, which suggests the existence of other axes of variation affecting hydraulic efficiency and safety. In a commentary in the same issue of New Phytologist, Brodersen (2016) highlights the complexity of traits and contexts thatmay be affecting the hydraulic and safety tradeoff. Brodersen (2016) also proposes that there may actually be other traits that can better represent hydraulic safety. Here, we look at other xylem hydraulic efficiencies that may help explain Gleason et al.'s (2016) results and propose new questions. Efficiency may be defined as achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense (Oxford Dictionaries, 2015) What kind of efficiency is measured by Ks? What 'waste' is reduced by increasing this efficiency? Here Ks is flow per unit area and unit pressure gradient. Unit pressure gradient can be considered as longitudinal xylem efficiency, as higher longitudinal efficiency leads to smaller pressure gradients and higherKs. ThenKs integrates transversal and longitudinal water supply efficiency. This can be clearly seen in the following sentence ofGleason et al. (2016, p. 132) 'efficient xylem can transport the same volume of water as inefficient xylem, but does so with a smaller cross section of living wood' or, we add, can transport the same volume of water as inefficient xylem through longer wood section, or, yet, can supply a greater leaf areawith the samewooddiameter and height. ThusKs is a measure of space use efficiency and possible tradeoffs or relations should be analyzed from the viewpoint of wood space use. Many other xylem hydraulic efficiencies could be considered:
Nearby farms are a source of lice for wild salmonids: a reply to Jansen et al. (2016)

Jansen et al. (2016; ) question the regression analysis presented in Serra Llinares et al. (2014;  which corre lates lice abundances on farmed and wild fish. Jansen et al. (2016) argue that the correlation might not reflect a cause effect relationship but be instead a mere artifact of the spatio temporal covari ance in lice abundance on farmed and wild fish driven by temperature. In this Reply Comment we revisit the analysis presented in Serra Llinares et al. (2014) and further re analyze our data follow ing the statistical approach used by Helland et al. (2015; ) to rule out the potential confounding effect of temperature. We conclude that Jansen et al. (2016) were correct in conveying part of the observed correlation to the effect of temperature; however, there is solid evidence of a significant influence of lice originating from nearby farms on the observed lice abundances on wild fish, even after the effect of temperature is accounted for.
Coherence, disorganization, and fragmentation in traumatic memory reconsidered: A response to Rubin et al. (2016)
Venue: Journal of abnormal psychology

Although clinical theories of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) claim that in this condition trauma memories tend to be disorganized and fragmented, this has been disputed by some autobiographical memory researchers, such as Rubin, Berntsen, and their colleagues (e.g. Rubin et al. 2016) In this article I review the evidence for and against the fragmentation hypothesis and identify important sources of methodological variability between the studies. This analysis suggests that fragmentation and disorganization are associated with differences in the type of narrative (specifically, with detailed rather than general narratives) and in the focus of the analysis (specifically, with a local focus on sections of text concerned with the worst moments of the trauma rather than with a global focus on the text as a whole) The implication is that apparently discrepant data and discrepant views can be accommodated within a more comprehensive formulation of memory impairment in PTSD.
Psychology, not educational neuroscience, is the way forward for improving educational outcomes for all children: Reply to Gabrieli (2016) and Howard Jones et al. (2016)
Venue: Psychological review

In Bowers (2016) I argued that there are (a) practical problems with educational neuroscience (EN) that explain why there are no examples of EN improving teaching and (b) principled problems with the logic motivating EN that explain why it is likely that there never will be. In the following article, I consider the main responses raised by both Gabrieli (2016) and Howard Jones et al. (2016) and find them all unconvincing. Following this exchange, there are still no examples of EN providing new insights to teaching in the classroom, there are still no examples of EN providing new insights to remedial instructions for individuals, and, as I detail in this article, there is no evidence that EN is useful for the diagnosis of learning difficulties. The authors have also failed to address the reasons why EN is unlikely to benefit educational outcomes in the future. Psychology, by contrast, can (and has) made important discoveries that can (and should) be used to improve teaching and diagnostic tests for learning difficulties. This is not a debate about whether science is relevant to education, rather it is about what sort of science is relevant.
Word choice matters: Comment on Stoutenborough et al. 2016, 'Is "fracking" a new dirty word?

Stoutenborough et al. (2016) recently published an article in Energy Research and Social Science with data to show that use of the term 'fracking' versus 'hydraulic fracturing' matters little with regards to the level of concern elicited by this form of energy development. The authors conclude that word choice (or 'framing' of this form of unconventional fossil fuel development is 'much ado about nothing' and that 'survey research into fracking need not overly worry about the choice of [word] strategy' (p. 56) These inferences are problematic. First, despite the authors' repeated claims that prior research has not explored differences in public attitudes on this issue when 'fracking' versus other language is used, prior research has examined this topic via a very similar methodological approach and generated opposite findings. One difference is that Stoutenborough et al. used 'hydraulic fracturing' as the alternative term, whereas the previous, similar study used 'shale gas development' I discuss why the different comparisons likely yielded divergent results. I further argue that the authors' conclusions are unjustified and ill advised based on the data from the two surveys in concert. Word choice does matter when discussing this issue; the word 'fracking' should be avoided.
Comment on Younger Dryas sea level and meltwater pulse 1B recorded in Barbados reef crest coral Acropora palmata by Abdul et al. (2016 Paleoceanography)

Based on new U Th ages of corals drilled offshore Barbados, Abdul et al. (2016) have confirmed the existence of the abrupt stratigraphic feature called meltwater pulse 1B (MWP 1B) which they interpret as being due to a very large and global sea level step change dated at about 11.3 kyr before present (approximately 15 m and equivalent to twice the amount of water stored in the present Greenland ice sheet) This contrasts with the Tahiti record, in which MWP 1B is essentially absent or very small, as Carlson and Clark (2012) and Lambeck et al. (2014) also conclude in their recent reviews of deglacial sea levels at the global scale. However, the evidence provided by Abdul et al. and their main conclusions are not convincing as they are affected by the following three main problems, which may explain the apparent discrepancies: Problem #1/Barbados is located in a subduction zone, which was also active throughout the Late Glacial period. Furthermore, the Barbados cores studied by Abdul et al. were drilled on both sides of the extension of a tectonic feature identified at the southern tip of Barbados (South Point) as underlined by several studies of the Barbados stratigraphy.  This may in part explain why the living depth of A. palmata at Barbados was significantly greater than 5 m during some periods of the last deglaciation, notably between 14.5 and 14 kyr B.P. and possibly between 14 and 11.5 kyr B.P. Problem #3/The slow glacio isostatic adjustment and the rapid responses due to gravitational changes of ice and water masses complicate the interpretation of individual relative sea level (RSL) records at specific locations. Therefore, the Barbados and Tahiti record cannot be compared directly in terms of absolute sea level values as done by Abdul et al. In addition, different glaciohydroisostatic adjustments at the two sites may also have contributed to the observed discrepancy between their deglacial RSL records.
Methodological choices have predictable consequences in replicating studies on motivation to think: Commentary on Ebersole et al. (2016)

Ebersole et al. (2016) aimed to conduct a direct replication of Cacioppo, Petty, and Morris (1983, Study 1) looking for a Need for Cognition X Argument Quality interaction on attitudes in response to a persuasive message. Although this effect has been replicated in the literature a good number of times, Ebersole et al. did not obtain it. We attribute their failure to the fact that in their replication effort they used neither of the original independent variables and indeed changed them substantially. Furthermore, they made some other methodological changes to the procedure used in the original study that subsequent research has plausibly suggested would reduce the likelihood of finding the effect. We conclude that because of all of these methodological changes as well as their failure to pretest the impact of these modifications, the replication effort is uninformative.
The importance of the unit of analysis: Commentary on Beugels et al. (2016) Complications in unilateral versus bilateral deep inferior epigastric artery perforator flap breast reconstructions: A multicentre study.
Venue: Journal of plastic, reconstructive aesthetic surgery JPRAS

Wade, RG orcid.org/0000 0001 8365 6547, Bland, JM, Wormald, JCR et al. (1 more author) (2016) The importance of the unit of analysis: Commentary on Beugels et al. (2016) Complications in unilateral versus bilateral deep inferior epigastric artery perforator flap breast reconstructions: A multicentre study. Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, 69 (9) pp. 1299 1300. ISSN 1748 6815
Origin of J V Hysteresis in Perovskite Solar Cells.
Venue: The journal of physical chemistry letters

High performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs) based on organometal halide perovskite have emerged in the past five years as excellent devices for harvesting solar energy. Some remaining challenges should be resolved to continue the momentum in their development. The photocurrent density voltage (J V) responses of the PSCs demonstrate anomalous dependence on the voltage scan direction/rate/range, voltage conditioning history, and device configuration. The hysteretic J V behavior presents a challenge for determining the accurate power conversion efficiency of the PSCs. Here, we review the recent progress on the investigation of the origin(s) of J V hysteresis behavior in PSCs. We discuss the impact of slow transient capacitive current, trapping and detrapping process, ion migrations, and ferroelectric polarization on the hysteresis behavior. The remaining issues and future research required toward the understanding of J V hysteresis in PSCs will also be discussed.
Continuous Deep Q Learning with Model based Acceleration
Venue: ICML

Model free reinforcement learning has been successfully applied to a range of challenging problems, and has recently been extended to handle large neural network policies and value functions. However, the sample complexity of modelfree algorithms, particularly when using high dimensional function approximators, tends to limit their applicability to physical systems. In this paper, we explore algorithms and representations to reduce the sample complexity of deep reinforcement learning for continuous control tasks. We propose two complementary techniques for improving the efficiency of such algorithms. First, we derive a continuous variant of the Q learning algorithm, which we call normalized advantage functions (NAF) as an alternative to the more commonly used policy gradient and actor critic methods. NAF representation allows us to apply Q learning with experience replay to continuous tasks, and substantially improves performance on a set of simulated robotic control tasks. To further improve the efficiency of our approach, we explore the use of learned models for accelerating model free reinforcement learning. We show that iteratively refitted local linear models are especially effective for this, and demonstrate substantially faster learning on domains where such models are applicable.
Ignition of Wood Fencing Assemblies Exposed to Continuous Wind Driven Firebrand Showers

Post fire studies conducted by NIST on the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado (2012) determined that wood fencing assemblies are believed to be vulnerable to ignition from firebrand showers in Wildland Urban Interface fires, but again there has never been any experimental verification of this ignition mechanism. As a result, a series of experiments were conducted to examine ignition of wood fencing assemblies subjected to continuous, wind driven firebrand showers. Western Red Cedar and Redwood fencing assemblies were exposed to continuous, wind driven firebrands generated by the NIST full scale Continuous Feed Firebrand Generator installed in the Fire Research Wind Tunnel Facility at the Building Research Institute in Japan. To simulate fine fuels that may be present near fencing assemblies, dried shredded hardwood mulch beds were placed adjacent to the fencing assemblies. The fencing assemblies were varied in length and in orientation to the applied wind field to simulate a range of configurations that may be encountered in realistic situations. Both flat and corner sections of fencing assemblies were used in these experiments. The dimensions of the flat wood fencing assemblies sections were varied from 0.91 m wide, 1.83 m in height to 1.83 m wide, 1.83 m in height. With respect to the corner sections, the dimensions used were 0.91 m by 0.91 m by 1.83 m in height. All configurations considered resulted in flaming ignition (FI) of the mulch beds, and subsequent FI of the wood fencing assemblies. Finally, experiments were also completed to determine if wind driven firebrand showers could produce FI of fencing assemblies without the presence of fine fuels adjacent to the fence sections. Firebrands produced smoldering ignition (SI) of the fencing assemblies without fine fuels present, and SI transitioned to FI under the applied wind field. These experiments have demonstrated that wood fencing assemblies are vulnerable to ignition by wind driven firebrand showers.
Simulating wind driven rain on building facades using Eulerian multiphase with rain phase turbulence model

Wind driven rain (WDR) is responsible for many types of damage to building facades and contributes to storm water management problems in urban environments. Consequently there is significant interest in accurately predicting WDR using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. In this paper an Eulerian multiphase (EM) method is proposed which includes applying a turbulence model for solving the rain phase equation closure rather than a response coefficient to approximate turbulent behaviour. The simulations are conducted using AVL FIRE(tm) with standard k e model and are validated against experimental data for two cases. The results produce an error ranging from 5% to 39% in the first case and from 9% to 72% in the second case. The discrepancies are attributed largely to the unsuitability of the standard k e in predicting the flow accurately as well as the limited number of raindrop phases. While the results are not as accurate as other research has shown, the method described in this paper allows for greater flexibility when working with transient rainfall conditions and gives an alternative to the previously proposed response coefficient for modelling turbulent dispersion. The method is viable for calculating general WDR distribution patterns on a facade and can be improved to offer more accurate results.
Effective root depth and water uptake ability of winter wheat by using water stable isotopes in the Loess Plateau of China

A field experiment using PVC growth tubes was conducted in the Loess Plateau of China to determine the effective root depth (ERD) of winter wheat and its relationship with root distributions and soil water conditions. The water stable isotopes technique was used to estimate the water uptake contributions of different root depths during the growth stages. On the basis of IsoSource and the Romero Saltos model, the ERD was 0 40 cm in the majority of the growth stage. However, in the heading and filling stages, the ERD could reach 60% 75% of the maximum root depth. Furthermore, the contributions to water uptake of different root depths were correlated with variations in soil water and root length density (r=0.395 and 0.368, respectively; p0.05) However, by path analysis, the low decisive coefficient indicated that root distribution and soil water content did not always follow the same trend as water uptake. The conclusions of this study can help with understanding winter wheat water uptake mechanisms in arid and semi arid regions and increasing water use efficiency.  effective root depth, water stable isotopes, water uptake, root distribution, soil water content DOI: 10.3965/j.ijabe.20160906.2450   2016; 9(6) 27 35.