Hasil untuk "History of Asia"

Suryanarayana Sankagiri, Jalal Etesami, Pouria Fatemi et al.

The contextual duelling bandit problem models adaptive recommender systems, where the algorithm presents a set of items to the user, and the user's choice reveals their preference. This setup is well suited for implicit choices users make when navigating a content platform, but does not capture other possible comparison queries. Motivated by the fact that users provide more reliable feedback after consuming items, we propose a new bandit model that can be described as follows. The algorithm recommends one item per time step; after consuming that item, the user is asked to compare it with another item chosen from the user's consumption history. Importantly, in our model, this comparison item can be chosen without incurring any additional regret, potentially leading to better performance. However, the regret analysis is challenging because of the temporal dependency in the user's history. To overcome this challenge, we first show that the algorithm can construct informative queries provided the history is rich, i.e., satisfies a certain diversity condition. We then show that a short initial random exploration phase is sufficient for the algorithm to accumulate a rich history with high probability. This result, proven via matrix concentration bounds, yields $O(\sqrt{T})$ regret guarantees. Additionally, our simulations show that reusing past items for comparisons can lead to significantly lower regret than only comparing between simultaneously recommended items.

Chi-Chiang Yang, Shu-Yi Chen, Chi-Hsun Lien et al.

Streptococcus suis meningitis, which is commonly transmitted via contact with infected pigs or consumption of undercooked pork, poses significant public health risks in pig-rearing regions, including Asia. This report presents a case of S. suis meningitis in Taiwan, highlighting its clinical presentation, management, and complications. A 53-year-old man with hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia history presented with fever, chills, headache, nausea, and altered consciousness. Lumbar puncture revealed bacterial meningitis and cerebrospinal fluid culture confirmed S. suis infection. Condition improved through ceftriaxone (2 g) administration every 12 h for 14 days. However, bilateral deafness, a hallmark complication of S. suis meningitis, occurred. S. suis is endemic in Taiwan’s pig-farming regions. S. suis meningitis’ clinical manifestations may overlap with those of acute bacterial meningitis, with hearing loss as a notable sequela. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment with ceftriaxone are critical for reducing morbidity and mortality. Public health strategies emphasizing prevention, particularly in high-risk populations, are essential. Currently, S. suis meningitis remains a critical zoonotic threat in pig-farming regions. Early recognition, effective management, and hearing loss awareness are essential to improve patient outcomes.

Arzu Yıldız Aydın, Beyza Aybike Deveci

Travelogues are essential for the history of religions as they are the records of travelers observing firsthand different cultures, belief systems, and religious practices. Travelers observed and recorded religious and cultural life, forms of worship, holy places, the role of clergymen, the people's perspectives on beliefs, and their customs and traditions in the regions they visited. One of them is Ibn Battuta (1304-1369), who is a world-famous Muslim traveler. In 1325, Ibn Battuta set out on a pilgrimage, which evolved into a world journey, and over the course of about thirty years, he traveled across a vast geography that extended to Africa, the Middle East, Anatolia, Central Asia, India, China, and Al-Andalus. Ibn Battuta, who came to India with the invitation of Sultan of Delhi Muhammad bin Tughluq, stayed here for about seven years, undertook important duties under him, and served the sultan. During this time, he had the opportunity to closely observe Indian culture, beliefs, and the people’s relations with one another. Later, in his work “Rihlatu Ibn Battuta”, Ibn Battuta described Hindu temples, the impact of the caste system on social life, and various Indian rituals, and provided information about the beliefs and traditions of the local people. This study aims to examine Ibn Battuta's observations about India, one of the most essential travelers of the 14th century, in his work Rihlatu Ibn Battuta from the perspective of the history of religions. Ibn Battuta’s travelogue is taken as a primary source and analyzed through content analysis.

Livia Betz

This paper investigates rate-independent systems (RIS), where the dissipation functional depends not only on the rate but also on the history of the state. The latter is expressed in terms of an integral operator. We establish an existence result for the original problem and for the control thereof, without resorting to smallness assumptions. Under a smoothness condition, we prove the uniqueness of solutions to a certain class of history-dependent RIS where the subdifferential of the dissipation potential is an unbounded operator. In this context, we derive an essential estimate that opens the door to future research on the topic of optimization.

Richard Axelby

This article uses decisions about voting, including the decision not to vote, as a prism to consider what it means to be Gaddi in 21st-century Himachal Pradesh (H.P.). While the results of polls can tell us how people voted, they say little about the background to electoral decision-making—the reasoning by which interests, identities, and ideologies are compressed into the simple choice between candidates. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research in rural Chamba district, the article tracks participation in elections for the H.P. State Legislative Assembly and a local Panchayat from 2000 to 2022. The paper concludes by presenting electoral contests as arenas in which the performance of citizenship is entangled with shifting forms of identity combining the social, administrative, and political.

Bhargav Kumar Kakumani, Suman Prabha Yadav

In this article, we consider a viscoelastic plate equation with past history, nonlinear damping, and logarithmic nonlinearity. We prove explicit and general decay rate results of the solution to the viscoelastic plate equation with past history. Convex properties, logarithmic inequalities, and generalised Young's inequality are mainly used to prove the decay estimate.

Sourav Sinha

I study the effects of US salary history bans which restrict employers from inquiring about job applicants' pay history during the hiring process, but allow candidates to voluntarily share information. Using a difference-in-differences design, I show that these policies narrowed the gender pay gap significantly by 2 p.p., driven almost entirely by an increase in female earnings. The bans were also successful in weakening the auto-correlation between current and future earnings, especially among job-changers. I provide novel evidence showing that when employers could no longer nudge candidates for information, the likelihood of voluntarily disclosing salary history decreased among job applicants and by 2 p.p. more among women. I then develop a salary negotiation model with asymmetric information, where I allow job applicants to choose whether to reveal pay history, and use this framework to explain my empirical findings on disclosure behavior and gender pay gap.

Mark Baum, Minmin Fu

Over its multibillion-year history, Earth has exhibited a wide range of climates. Its history ranges from snowball episodes where the surface was mostly or entirely covered by ice to periods much warmer than today, where the cryosphere was virtually absent. Our understanding of greenhouse gas evolution over this long history, specifically carbon dioxide, is mainly informed by deterministic models. However, the complexity of the carbon cycle and its uncertainty over time motivates the study of non-deterministic models, where key elements of the cycle are represented by inherently stochastic processes. By doing so, we can learn what models of variability are compatible with Earth's climate record instead of how exactly this variability is produced. In this study, we address why there were snowballs in the Proterozoic, but not the Phanerozoic by discussing two simple stochastic models of long-term carbon-cycle variability. The first, which is the most simple and represents CO2 concentration directly as a stochastic process, is instructive and perhaps intuitive, but is incompatible with the absence of snowballs in the Phanerozoic. The second, which separates carbon source from sink and represents CO2 outgassing as a stochastic process instead of concentration, is more flexible. When outgassing fluctuates over longer periods, as opposed to brief and rapid excursions from a mean state, this model is more compatible with the snowball record, showing only modest increases in the probability of snowball events over Earth history. The contrast between these models illustrates what kind of variability may have characterized the long-term carbon cycle.

Norberto Martinez, Michiko Hosojima

Streptococcus suis is a bacterial pathogen causing a wide range of infections including meningitis, lung infections, arthritis, sepsis and endocarditis.1 Over the years, an increasing number of cases have been reported among humans especially in countries in Southeast Asia specifically in Vietnam and Thailand where pig-rearing is common.2 One of the prominent symptoms of S. suis infection is hearing loss that may be present during the onset or a few days after.1 We report two cases of adult S. suis meningitis presenting with bilateral hearing loss. CASE REPORT Our first patient was a 57-year-old man who presented with a one day history of generalized weakness initially unaccompanied by any other symptoms. The previous day, he was still able to walk but was generally weak, and preferred to stay in bed. That evening, he developed high grade fever (40oC) that was temporarily relieved by paracetamol. There were two episodes of vomiting previously ingested food but no headache. By late evening, he was noted to have increased sleeping time, opening eyes spontaneously, responding mostly with yes or no, and following commands but drowsing back to sleep. On the day of admission, he could sustain spontaneous eye opening with no regard and groaned in response to questions without following commands. High grade fever persisted and he was rushed to the Emergency Room. On examination, he was febrile at 40.5oC, hypertensive at 160/80mmHg, tachycardic at 109 with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 9/15 (E4V1M6), and was given O2 support at 1LPM by nasal cannula. He presented with spontaneous eye opening, no regard and did not follow commands. He had meningeal signs- nuchal rigidity but no Kernig’s sign. Cranial CT scans showed no acute territorial infarct or intracranial hemorrhage, and a stable chronic lacunar infarct versus prominent perivascular space in the left lentiform nucleus. A COVID rt-PCR test was negative. Complete blood count showed leukocyte count of 5,220/mm3 with 72% neutrophils and a platelet count of 57,800/mm3. Bleeding parameters showed prothrombin time of 14.4 seconds, INR of 1.23 and an elevated PTT of 45.3. He was started on Meropenem and Vancomycin and admitted to the Neurological Critical Care Unit while awaiting clearance for lumbar puncture (being on anti-coagulants). Our second patient was his wife, a 51-year-old professional singer with no known co-morbidities who was also admitted due to fever and headache. At the time her husband was admitted, she had febrile episodes as high as 40oC associated with pressure-like headache over both occipital areas (rated PS 7/10) as well as joint pain and nape pain. There were no associated cough, colds, dysuria, otalgia or otorrhea. Paracetamol afforded temporary relief but fever intermittently recurred the next day and she was admitted for further evaluation and management even though her COVID rt-PCR test was negative. On initial examination at the ER, she was still febrile at 38.5C. She was awake, coherent and oriented to 3 spheres. Complete blood count showed leukocytosis, while C Reactive Protein and Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate were elevated. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) showed diffuse FLAIR hyperintensities along bilateral cerebral sulci and cerebellar interfoliar spaces with associated leptomeningeal enhancement. There was also enhancement along the ventral surface of the brain stem. A CNS infection was suspected and lumbar puncture was performed. Her CSF showed gram positive cocci in pairs and chains with a possible streptococcus infection, but no fungal elements or acid fast bacilli. Both CSF and blood culture and sensitivity specimens tested positive for Streptococcus suis sensitive to Penicillin. She and her husband were started on intravenous Penicillin. Both patients had improvement in headache and nape pain over the next two days. However, they both reported persistent, progressive dizziness and bilateral hearing loss, and showed signs of vestibular dysfunction. The vestibular dysfunction was so severe that both patients were bed-bound and needed assistance in ambulating throughout their hospital stay. Their hearing was described as distorted, with a sensation of being underwater. Hearing tests revealed profound sensorineural hearing loss on the right and moderate sensorineural hearing loss on the left for the husband, and severe sensorineural hearing loss on the right and moderate sensorineural hearing loss on the left, downsloping at 6000 to 8000 Hz in both ears for the wife. Both patients were started on intravenous Dexamethasone, which they completed (together with Penicillin) over the course of 16 days. They were also given Betahistine tablets for dizziness, metoclopramide for nausea and Vitamin B complex. Repeat cranial MRI showed significant interval regression in the diffuse FLAIR hyperintensities and associated leptomeningeal enhancement along bilateral cerebral sulci and cerebellar interfoliar spaces. Repeat lumbar punctures showed no growth of any pathogen and resolution of S. suis infection. Serial hearing tests showed stable hearing loss for both patients. After 2 months from the onset of infection, both patients continued to experience dizziness, vestibular dysfunction and hearing loss. Although both were now able to ambulate, they still needed assistance in daily activities including driving. They still could not tolerate sudden head movements; even nodding and turning the head from side-to- side elicited dizziness. The wife’s singing was greatly affected as the right ear had persistent severe hearing loss. Sounds were perceived as distorted, described as ‘scratches;’ her right ear would hear higher frequencies, while the left ear heard lower frequencies. The perceived imbalance in frequencies posed a challenge to singing the right tune, but she continues to perform and sing professionally despite her hearing condition. She adapted through repetition, practicing until she achieved muscle memory in getting the right tone. They were offered several options for managing the residual symptoms including rehabilitation, hearing aids and early cochlear implantation. It was subsequently determined that they both ate at a Korean barbecue restaurant days before the onset of symptoms. However, they ordered chicken barbeque and did not eat any pork dishes.

Keping Bi, Pavel Metrikov, Chunyuan Li et al.

An effective email search engine can facilitate users' search tasks and improve their communication efficiency. Users could have varied preferences on various ranking signals of an email, such as relevance and recency based on their tasks at hand and even their jobs. Thus a uniform matching pattern is not optimal for all users. Instead, an effective email ranker should conduct personalized ranking by taking users' characteristics into account. Existing studies have explored user characteristics from various angles to make email search results personalized. However, little attention has been given to users' search history for characterizing users. Although users' historical behaviors have been shown to be beneficial as context in Web search, their effect in email search has not been studied and remains unknown. Given these observations, we propose to leverage user search history as query context to characterize users and build a context-aware ranking model for email search. In contrast to previous context-dependent ranking techniques that are based on raw texts, we use ranking features in the search history. This frees us from potential privacy leakage while giving a better generalization power to unseen users. Accordingly, we propose a context-dependent neural ranking model (CNRM) that encodes the ranking features in users' search history as query context and show that it can significantly outperform the baseline neural model without using the context. We also investigate the benefit of the query context vectors obtained from CNRM on the state-of-the-art learning-to-rank model LambdaMart by clustering the vectors and incorporating the cluster information. Experimental results show that significantly better results can be achieved on LambdaMart as well, indicating that the query clusters can characterize different users and effectively turn the ranking model personalized.

Guangzhao Cheng, Siliang Tang

In many real-world games, such as traders repeatedly bargaining with customers, it is very hard for a single AI trader to make good deals with various customers in a few turns, since customers may adopt different strategies even the strategies they choose are quite simple. In this paper, we model this problem as fast adaptive learning in the finitely repeated games. We believe that past game history plays a vital role in such a learning procedure, and therefore we propose a novel framework (named, F3) to fuse the past and current game history with an Opponent Action Estimator (OAE) module that uses past game history to estimate the opponent's future behaviors. The experiments show that the agent trained by F3 can quickly defeat opponents who adopt unknown new strategies. The F3 trained agent obtains more rewards in a fixed number of turns than the agents that are trained by deep reinforcement learning. Further studies show that the OAE module in F3 contains meta-knowledge that can even be transferred across different games.

Chien-Yu Ko, Jung Chao, Pei-Yu Chen et al.

The increasing interest and demand for skin whitening products globally, particularly in Asia, have necessitated rapid advances in research on skin whitening products used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Herein, we investigated 74 skin whitening prescriptions sold in TCM pharmacies in Taiwan. Commonly used medicinal materials were defined as those with a relative frequency of citation (RFC) > 0.2 and their characteristics were evaluated. Correlation analysis of commonly used medicinal materials was carried out to identify the core component of the medicinal materials. Of the purchased 74 skin whitening prescriptions, 36 were oral prescriptions, 37 were external prescriptions, and one prescription could be used as an oral or external prescription. After analysis, 90 traditional Chinese medicinal materials were obtained. The Apiaceae (10%; 13%) and Leguminosae (9%; 11%) were the main sources of oral and external medicinal materials, respectively. Oral skin whitening prescriptions were found to be mostly warm (46%) and sweet (53%), while external skin whitening prescriptions included cold (43%) and bitter (29%) medicinal materials. Additionally, mainly tonifying and replenishing effects of the materials were noted. Pharmacological analysis indicated that these medicinal materials may promote wound healing, treat inflammatory skin diseases, or anti-hyperpigmentation. According to the Spearman correlation analysis on interactions among medicinal materials with an RFC > 0.2 in the oral skin whitening prescriptions, Paeonia lactiflora Pall. (white) and Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz. showed the highest correlation (confidence score = 0.93), followed by Ziziphus jujuba Mill. (red) and Astragalus propinquus Schischkin (confidence score = 0.91). Seven medicinal materials in external skin whitening prescriptions with an RFC > 0.2, were classified as Taiwan qī bái sàn (an herbal preparation), including Angelica dahurica (Hoffm.) Benth. & Hook. f. ex Franch. & Sav., Wolfiporia extensa (Peck) Ginns, Bletilla striata (Thunb.) Rchb. f., Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz., Ampelopsis japonica (Thunb.) Makino, Paeonia lactiflora Pall. (white), and Bombyx mori Linnaeus. Skin whitening prescriptions included multiple traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Despite the long history of use, there is a lack of studies concerning skin whitening products, possibly due to the complex composition of traditional Chinese medicine. Further studies are required to assess the efficacy and safety of these traditional Chinese medicinal materials for inclusion in effective, safe, and functional pharmacological products.

Robert Curley

S. Dube (2019). El archivo y el campo: historia, antropología, modernidad. México: El Colegio de México. 605 pp.

Andrew Arrasmith, Lukasz Cincio, Andrew T. Sornborger et al.

Although quantum computers are predicted to have many commercial applications, less attention has been given to their potential for resolving foundational issues in quantum mechanics. Here we focus on quantum computers' utility for the Consistent Histories formalism, which has previously been employed to study quantum cosmology, quantum paradoxes, and the quantum-to-classical transition. We present a variational hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for finding consistent histories, which should revitalize interest in this formalism by allowing classically impossible calculations to be performed. In our algorithm, the quantum computer evaluates the decoherence functional (with exponential speedup in both the number of qubits and the number of times in the history), and a classical optimizer adjusts the history parameters to improve consistency. We implement our algorithm on a cloud quantum computer to find consistent histories for a spin in a magnetic field, and on a simulator to observe the emergence of classicality for a chiral molecule.

Michał Zasadziński, Victor Muntés-Mulero, Marc Solé et al.

In this technical report, we show insights and results of operational data analysis from petascale supercomputer Mistral, which is ranked as 42nd most powerful in the world as of January 2018. Data sources include hardware monitoring data, job scheduler history, topology, and hardware information. We explore job state sequences, spatial distribution, and electric power patterns.

Károly Belényesy

In the framework of the research cooperation agreement between the APSARA and the Hungarian Southeast Asia Research Institute, more archaeological surveys targeted the building complex of Prasat Krachap temple and its close environment in Koh Ker (Cambodia) between 2011 and 2015. These investigations revealed new and significant information concerning the architectural character and quality of the building complex as a part of the special environmental structure of Koh Ker, the former royal center. The general conclusion of last years’ investigations is that the results from LIDAR surveys of the area basically modify the general picture about Koh Ker. The LIDAR data provide an improved framework both for the interpretation of the previous results and the planning of future research as regards the settlement history of Koh Ker. Thus, the important site must be interpreted as a specific network habitation area. The previous surveys focused on the distinctive elements of this system, such as individual temples and visible architectural structures, but the areas between the main foci (including settlements and industry) remained unknown. Accordingly, the complex web of communication channels (streets, hydraulic systems) and the structures surrounding the temples (housing, industry) were not explored. However, these aspects can provide important information when interpreting the development and function of Koh Ker. These fundamental details hopefully contribute to the understanding of the extent and character of human intervention to the natural environment, and delineate the development and occupation of the site.

Graziella Acquaviva

In  many parts of Africa, illness, health  and misfortune are considered human experiences influenced by spiritual entities, and therefore connected  to local beliefs and religion. Consequently, the concept of uganga (healing) reflects the total of knowledge, skills and practices based on theories, beliefs and experiences. The ‘conceptual reality’ can be transformed into imaginative and mnemonic reality through stories, narrations, representations and memories. In my paper, I will show the figures of three men who have been transformed into literary and/or media characters: the prophet-healer  Kinjeketile, the witchdoctor Nguvumali, and the “dreamy healer” Ambilikile Mwasapile a retired Lutheran pastor who became a public figure for his self-referential ability to cure diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Though they were different in chronology, history and destinies, they are still linked to the topic of the ‘healing’.

Louise Pichard-Bertaux

The aim of this research note is to show how Thai language is difficult to read and translate and what kind of obstacles the translator will have to deal with. First, a brief account of short story in Thailand will be down, followed by a short view on translations of Thai literature published in France. Then some texts will be taken as example specially some written by Win Lyovarin.

Dewa Kompiang Gede

Narayan Gyawali, Richard S Bradbury, Andrew W Taylor-Robinson

Dengue is the most important mosquito-borne viral infection of humans. Although outbreaks of disease which are now recognized as clinically consistent with dengue have been reported for centuries, it was not until half a century ago that laboratory identification of dengue viruses as the etiological agent of febrile illness was achieved. This debilitating and sometimes fatal disease is widely distributed in >125 countries in tropical and subtropical zones of the world. Asia, South America and the Pacific Islands are hyper-epidemic regions while currently there is less prevalence in Europe, North America and Australia. The estimated global incidence ranges between 200 and 400 million clinical cases per year. While some areas of past epidemics are now considered to be under control, recent decades have witnessed an epidemic rise in dengue worldwide. Major factors facilitating expansion include climate change and increase in urbanization and international travel. Concurrently, the non-availability of an efficacious antiviral drug or vaccine and a lack of effective vector control strategies collectively make dengue a serious public health concern. Thus, it is of paramount importance to analyze the history of the spread of infection and to gain a deeper understanding of patterns of transmission in order to anticipate epidemiological trends more accurately, thereby enabling better preparedness for future outbreaks.