Extracting Hierarchies of Search Tasks & Subtasks via a Bayesian Nonparametric Approach

A significant amount of search queries originate from some real world information need or tasks. In order to improve the search experience of the end users, it is important to have accurate representations of tasks. As a result, significant amount of research has been devoted to extracting proper representations of tasks in order to enable search systems to help users complete their tasks, as well as providing the end user with better query suggestions, for better recommendations, for satisfaction prediction, and for improved personalization in terms of tasks. Most existing task extraction methodologies focus on representing tasks as flat structures. However, tasks often tend to have multiple subtasks associated with them and a more naturalistic representation of tasks would be in terms of a hierarchy, where each task can be composed of multiple (sub)tasks. To this end, we propose an efficient Bayesian nonparametric model for extracting hierarchies of such tasks \& subtasks. We evaluate our method based on real world query log data both through quantitative and crowdsourced experiments and highlight the importance of considering task/subtask hierarchies.Comment: 10 pages. Accepted at SIGIR 2017 as a full pape

Meritocracy and Marketization of Education: Taiwanese Middle-Class Strategies in a Private Secondary School

In the 20th century, economic growth in Taiwan has brought social prosperity and fundamentally altered Taiwanese social structure. While successive generations of young people have climbed the social ladder and experienced upward mobility, being successful is still narrowly defined through academic achievement. This study argues that, despite constant education reform, a solution to class inequality in education has yet to be found. The mandate of the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum in 2019 was an answer to local, global, and international transformations. While citizens celebrate the neoliberal concepts of autonomy and deregulation embedded in the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum, coercion is approaching. The deeply rooted belief of credentialism and the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum is an apparatus of class reassurance that continues to bring worries and stress to parents and students from different social classes. Utilizing Bourdieu’s concepts of social and cultural reproduction with neoliberalism as a theoretical framework, a case study was performed at a private secondary school in central Taiwan to gain insights into Taiwanese middle-class cultural reproduction along with the responses of teachers and school stakeholders to education marketization. Data collection methods included interviews with 20 informants, observations, and school-generated as well as state-generated documentations. Applying Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Thematic Analysis (TA), the findings indicated that regardless of education reforms, these middle-class families appropriated their economic, cultural, and social capital to maintain their status through elite schooling. The middle-class parents adopted aggressive educational strategies and made clear blueprints for their offspring at a young age. From the school side, the neoliberal education reform allows this private secondary school to add more characteristics to acquire the title as a “good” school and distinguish itself in the fiercely competitive education market. This study concluded by examining the impact of the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum on meritocracy and marketization of education in Taiwan. It is a consideration of, as well as an addition to, scholarship on social and cultural reproduction through education, and a continuation of the conversation on inequality and social exclusion through neoliberal education reforms

Prevalence and correlates of psychopathic traits in the household population of Great Britain

There are no previous surveys of psychopathy and psychopathic traits in representative general population samples using standardized instruments. This study aimed to measure prevalence and correlates of psychopathic traits, based on a two-phase survey using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV) in 638 individuals, 16-74 years, in households in England, Wales and Scotland. The weighted prevalence of psychopathy was 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2-1.6) at a cut score of 13, similar to the noncriminal/nonpsychiatric sample described in the manual of the PCL: SV. Psychopathy scores correlated with: younger age, male gender; suicide attempts, violent behaviour, imprisonment and homelessness; drug dependence; histrionic, borderline and adult antisocial personality disorders; panic and obsessive-compulsive disorders. This survey demonstrated that, as measured by the PCL: SV, psychopathy is rare, affecting less than 1% of the household population, although it is prevalent among prisoners, homeless persons, and psychiatric admissions. There is a half-normal distribution of psychopathic traits in the general population, with the majority having no traits, a significant proportion with non-zero values, and a severe subgroup of persons with multiple associated social and behavioral problems. This distribution has implications for research into the etiology of psychopathy and its implications for society

Daybreak Community Landscape Performance Benefits Assessment

Daybreak is a 4,127-acre model mixed-use community for comprehensive sustainable design. The project was planned on surplus mining land and will accommodate over 20,000 residential units, approximately 9.1 million sf of commercial space, and 20,000 jobs at build-out. The extensive parks and open space integrates stormwater management, merges with natural systems, and is enlivened by social and recreational programming. The full range of sustainable features includes walkable streets, an extensive trail system, native and drought-tolerant plants, habitat conservation, recycled materials, and a vibrant mix of amenities and services. Landscape Performance Benefits • Retains 100% of storm water that falls on the site for up to a 100-year storm with no impacts on or connections to the municipal storm sewer system. • Saves approximately 1.5 million gallons of potable water each year by using an innovative drip irrigation design. Projected annual savings at build-out are 18.7 million gallons, saving approximately $54,000 annually. • Promotes species diversity with nearly 2.5 times the national average for comparable wetland bird populations present in man-made Oquirrh Lake and the surrounding wetlands. • Reduces auto trips with 88$1.6 million in concrete and transportation costs by reusing materials onsite and recycling construction waste

Online Control Barrier Functions for Decentralized Multi-Agent Navigation

Control barrier functions (CBFs) enable guaranteed safe multi-agent navigation in the continuous domain. The resulting navigation performance, however, is highly sensitive to the underlying hyperparameters. Traditional approaches consider fixed CBFs (where parameters are tuned apriori), and hence, typically do not perform well in cluttered and highly dynamic environments: conservative parameter values can lead to inefficient agent trajectories, or even failure to reach goal positions, whereas aggressive parameter values can lead to infeasible controls. To overcome these issues, in this paper, we propose online CBFs, whereby hyperparameters are tuned in real-time, as a function of what agents perceive in their immediate neighborhood. Since the explicit relationship between CBFs and navigation performance is hard to model, we leverage reinforcement learning to learn CBF-tuning policies in a model-free manner. Because we parameterize the policies with graph neural networks (GNNs), we are able to synthesize decentralized agent controllers that adjust parameter values locally, varying the degree of conservative and aggressive behaviors across agents. Simulations as well as real-world experiments show that (i) online CBFs are capable of solving navigation scenarios that are infeasible for fixed CBFs, and (ii), that they improve navigation performance by adapting to other agents and changes in the environment

THE BRAZILIAN CRISIS AND THE STRUCTURAL REFORMS, THE TURN OF THE LABOR REFORM

ABSTRACT The world has changed the practices and laws that govern labor relations. Emerging countries that do not keep up with these changes will not be likely to receive direct foreign investments from foreign investors. Brazil has tried to implement some reforms in the labor area, this is a dilemma that its legislators have to face according to society. Economy and work have always been linked. Since the Industrial Revolution, with the replacement of man by machine, the labor market is undergoing profound changes. The competitiveness in the international market, increasingly fierce, requires countries an attitude change regarding its legislation to adapt to these changes and can develop themselves economically and socially, ensuring quality of life for its citizens. The Brazilian State é neoliberal and, welfare policies need to review its labor laws, created in the era Vargas and fascist bias, extremely patronizing, so that it is an obstacle to the economic development of the country, before the new reality imposed by globalization. KEYWORDS: Human rights; International Labor Law; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic development. RESUMOO mundo mudou as práticas e leis que regem as relações de trabalho. Os países emergentes que não acompanham essas mudanças provavelmente não receberão investimentos estrangeiros diretos de investidores estrangeiros. O Brasil tentou implementar algumas reformas na área do trabalho, este é um dilema que seus legisladores devem enfrentar de acordo com a sociedade. Economia e trabalho sempre foram ligados. Desde a Revolução Industrial, com a substituição do homem pela máquina, o mercado de trabalho está passando por mudanças profundas. A competitividade no mercado internacional, cada vez mais feroz, exige aos países uma mudança de atitude em relação à sua legislação para se adaptar a essas mudanças e se desenvolver economicamente e socialmente, garantindo qualidade de vida para seus cidadãos. O Estado brasileiro é neoliberal e as políticas de bem-estar precisam rever suas leis trabalhistas, criadas na era Vargas e tendência fascista, extremamente condescendentes, de modo que é um obstáculo para o desenvolvimento econômico do país, diante da nova realidade imposta pela globalização.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Direitos Humanos; Direito Internacional do Trabalho; Investimento Externo Direito; Desenvolvimento Econômico

High Levels of Oxidative Stress and Skin Microbiome are Critical for Initiation and Development of Chronic Wounds in Diabetic Mice.

A balanced redox state is critical for proper healing. Although human chronic wounds are characterized by high levels of oxidative stress (OS), whether OS levels are critical for chronic wound development is not known. For these studies, we used our chronic wound model in diabetic mice that has similar characteristics as human chronic wounds, including naturally developed biofilm. We hypothesize that OS levels in wound tissues are critical for chronic wound initiation and development. We show that increased OS levels in the wound correlate with increased chronicity. Moreover, without increased OS levels, biofilm taken from chronic wounds and placed in new excision wounds do not create chronic wounds. Similarly, high OS levels in the wound tissue in the absence of the skin microbiome do not lead to chronic wounds. These findings show that both high OS levels and bacteria are needed for chronic wound initiation and development. In conclusion, OS levels in the wound at time of injury are critical for biofilm formation and chronic wound development and may be a good predictor of the degree of wound chronicity. Treating such wounds might be accomplished by managing OS levels with antioxidants combined with manipulation of the skin microbiome after debridement

Levo-Tetrahydropalmatine Attenuates Cocaine Self-Administration under a Progressive-Ratio Schedule and Cocaine Discrimination in Rats

Levo-tetrahydropalmatine (l-THP) is an alkaloid found in many traditional Chinese herbal preparations and has a unique pharmacological profile that includes dopamine receptor antagonism. Previously we demonstrated that l-THP attenuates fixed-ratio (FR) cocaine self-administration (SA) and cocaine-induced reinstatement in rats at doses that do not alter food-reinforced responding. This study examined the effects of l-THP on cocaine and food SA under progressive-ratio (PR) schedules of reinforcement and the discriminative stimulus effects of cocaine. In adult male Sprague–Dawley rats self-administering cocaine (0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg/inf), l-THP significantly reduced breaking points at the 1.875, 3.75 and 7.5 mg/kg doses. l-THP also reduced the breaking point and response rate for PR SA of sucrose-sweetened food pellets, although the decrease was significant only at the 7.5 mg/kg l-THP dose. In rats trained to discriminate cocaine (10 mg/kg, ip) from saline, l-THP (1.875, 3.75 and 7.5 mg/kg) produced a rightward shift in the dose–response curve for cocaine generalization. During generalization testing, l-THP reduced response rate, but only at the 7.5 mg/kg dose. l-THP also prevented substitution of the dopamine D2/D3 receptor agonist, (±) 7-OH-DPAT, for cocaine suggesting a potential role for antagonism of D2 and/or D3 receptors in the effects of l-THP. These data further demonstrate that l-THP attenuates the reinforcing and subjective effects of cocaine at doses that do not produce marked motor effects and provide additional evidence that l-THP may have utility for the management of cocaine addiction

Evaluating and Securing Text-Based Java Code through Static Code Analysis

As the cyber security landscape dynamically evolves and security professionals work to keep apace, modern-day educators face the issue of equipping a new generation for this dynamic landscape. With cyber-attacks and vulnerabilities substantially increased over the past years in frequency and severity, it is important to design and build secure software applications from the group up. Therefore, defensive secure coding techniques covering security concepts must be taught from beginning computer science programming courses to exercise building secure applications. Using static analysis, this study thoroughly analyzed Java source code in two textbooks used at a collegiate level, with the goal of guiding educators to make a reference of the resources in teaching programming concepts from a security perspective. The resources include the methods of source code analysis and relevant tools, categorized bugs detected in the code, and compliant code examples with fixing the bugs. Overall, the first text revealed a relatively moderate bug rate of approximately 44% of files analyzed contained either regular or security bugs. About 13% of the total bugs found were security bugs and the most common security bug was related to the Pseudo Random security vulnerability. The second text produced a slightly larger bug rate of 53.80% with approximately 8% of security bugs. After combining the texts for an average rate, the total number of security bugs that were likely to appear was roughly 10% percent. This encompasses security bugs such as malicious code vulnerabilities and security vulnerabilities related to exposing or manipulating data in these programs