Pathway-specific expression of calcitonin receptors in hypothalamic and brain stem nuclei regulating food intake and transcriptomic changes in hypothalamic orexin neurons after fasting

Pathway-specific expression of calcitonin receptors in hypothalamic and brain stem nuclei regulating food intake and transcriptomic changes in hypothalamic orexin neurons after fasting

Development of a micro-depth sensing indentation technique with constant load control

In material nano- and micro-indentation research, Young\u27s modulus can be obtained based on the initial unloading stiffness of the load-depth curve. The accurate load and displacement measurement as well as high precision position control of the indenter are needed to achieve the required measurement resolution. The application of PZT actuator is often used to perform the indentation experiment. However, conventional PZT controllers can only provide displacement control. Furthermore, each PZT actuator only serves a specific PZT controller using its unique calibration factor. Thus, it is beneficial to develop a controller, which can carry out both load and displacement control algorithm, and also applicable to different PZT actuators. Development of the load-controlled system will be the focus of this study. Valid experiment results of load-control design indentation application using microprocessor are presented in this thesis research

Examining the Historical Evolution and Contemporary Significance of Human Rights

This paper delves into the complex concept of human rights, examining its historical evolution and contemporary significance through the perspectives of Lynn Hunt\u27s Inventing Human Rights, Michelline R. Ishay\u27s The History of Human Rights, and Samuel Moyn\u27s The Last Utopia. Hunt\u27s work explores the 18th-century Enlightenment, highlighting the political foundations of natural, equal, and universal rights. Ishay provides a comprehensive account spanning ancient civilizations to modern globalization, emphasizing the dynamic nature of human rights struggles. Moyn challenges conventional views, asserting the mid-20th century emergence of contemporary human rights amidst the Cold War and failed utopian visions. While each historian offers unique insights, common themes emerge, including analyses of historical breakthroughs and pivotal social movements. The exploration encompasses key milestones, from the Enlightenment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and contemporary challenges. Examining the relationship between human rights and political ideologies like nationalism, socialism/communism, and colonialism/anti-colonialism, this paper underscores the dynamic nature of human rights amid societal shifts. Additionally, it delves into ongoing affairs, exploring the present state of human rights activism intersecting with globalization. By synthesizing these perspectives, this paper aims to offer a comprehensive narrative on the intricate dimensions of human rights, contributing to a deeper understanding of its historical roots and contemporary relevance

New Paradigms for Active Learning

In traditional active learning, learning algorithms (or learners) mainly focus on the performance of the final model built and the total number of queries needed for learning a good model. However, in many real-world applications, active learners have to focus on the learning process for achieving finer goals, such as minimizing the number of mistakes in predicting unlabeled examples. These learning goals are common and important in real-world applications. For example, in direct marketing, a sales agent (learner) has to focus on the process of selecting customers to approach, and tries to make correct predictions (i.e., fewer mistakes) on the customers who will buy the product. However, traditional active learning algorithms cannot achieve the finer learning goals due to the different focuses. In this thesis, we study how to control the learning process in active learning such that those goals can be accomplished. According to various learning tasks and goals, we address four new active paradigms as follows. The first paradigm is learning actively and conservatively. Under this paradigm, the learner actively selects and predicts the most certain example (thus, conservatively) iteratively during the learning process. The goal of this paradigm is to minimize the number of mistakes in predicting unlabeled examples during active learning. Intuitively the conservative strategy is less likely to make mistakes, i.e., more likely to achieve the learning goal. We apply this new learning strategy in an educational software, as well as direct marketing. The second paradigm is learning actively and aggressively. Under this paradigm, unlabeled examples and multiple oracles are available. The learner actively selects the best multiple oracles to label the most uncertain example (thus, aggressively) iteratively during the learning process. The learning goal is to learn a good model with guaranteed label quality. The third paradigm is learning actively with conservative-aggressive tradeoff. Under this learning paradigm, firstly, unlabeled examples are available and learners are allowed to select examples actively to learn. Secondly, to obtain the labels, two actions can be considered: querying oracles and making predictions. Lastly, cost has to be paid for querying oracles or for making wrong predictions. The tradeoff between the two actions is necessary for achieving the learning goal: minimizing the total cost for obtaining the labels. The last paradigm is learning actively with minimal/maximal effort. Under this paradigm, the labels of the examples are all provided and learners are allowed to select examples actively to learn. The learning goal is to control the learning process by selecting examples actively such that the learning can be accomplished with minimal effort or a good model can be built fast with maximal effort. For each of the four learning paradigms, we propose effective learning algorithms accordingly and demonstrate empirically that related learning problems in real applications can be solved well and the learning goals can be accomplished. In summary, this thesis focuses on controlling the learning process to achieve fine goals in active learning. According to various real application tasks, we propose four novel learning paradigms, and for each paradigm we propose efficient learning algorithms to solve the learning problems. The experimental results show that our learning algorithms outperform other state-of-the-art learning algorithms

Asymptotic Behavior of a Class of Evolution Variational Inequalities

We establish a new LaSalle's invariance principle and discuss the asymptotic behavior of a class of first-order evolution variational inequalities

Nanoparticle enhanced evaporation of liquids: A case study of silicone oil and water

Evaporation is a fundamental physical phenomenon, of which many challenging questions remain unanswered. Enhanced evaporation of liquids in some occasions is of enormous practical significance. Here we report the enhanced evaporation of the nearly permanently stable silicone oil by dispersing with nanopariticles including CaTiO3, anatase and rutile TiO2. The results can inspire the research of atomistic mechanism for nanoparticle enhanced evaporation and exploration of evaporation control techniques for treatment of oil pollution and restoration of dirty water

The Effective Spreading of Soft Power in Chinese Culture

The cultural soft power is the core of power which determines the existence of a national legality and rationality. To form the incommensurability and dialogicality between a country’s culture and other civilizations, we must strengthen the ability to spread culture effectively. The core of spreading cultural soft power is to achieve the identity of extrinsic and intrinsic collective culture. At present ,the spreading of Chinese culture still remains, to a certain degree, in a state of dislocation. In order to achieve cultural identity, certain power and value identity should be achieved first. This paper aims at exploring the above issue based on the analysis of the current situation of Chinese culture spreading and its soft power.Key words: Cultural soft power; Cultural transmission; Value identit