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The learning of predictive models that guarantee monotonicity in the input variables has received increasing attention in machine learning in recent years. By trend, the difficulty of ensuring monotonicity increases with the flexibility or, say, nonlinearity of a model. In this paper, we advocate the so-called Choquet integral as a tool for learning monotone nonlinear models. While being widely used as a flexible aggregation operator in different fields, such as multiple criteria decision making, the Choquet integral is much less known in machine learning so far. Apart from combining monotonicity and flexibility in a mathematically sound and elegant manner, the Choquet integral has additional features making it attractive from a machine learning point of view. Notably, it offers measures for quantifying the importance of individual predictor variables and the interaction between groups of variables. Analyzing the Choquet integral from a classification perspective, we provide upper and lower bounds on its VC-dimension. Moreover, as a methodological contribution, we propose a generalization of logistic regression. The basic idea of our approach, referred to as choquistic regression, is to replace the linear function of predictor variables, which is commonly used in logistic regression to model the log odds of the positive class, by the Choquet integral. First experimental results are quite promising and suggest that the combination of monotonicity and flexibility offered by the Choquet integral facilitates strong performance in practical applications.

Exosomes (EXOs) as a targeted cell-free therapy could offer a new therapeutic strategy for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, due to their stability and ease of storage and handling. This study focused on exosomes derived from stem cells of human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED-MSC-EXOs) and their role in managing the balance of immunoregulatory macromolecules that play a role in the underlying immunoregulatory mechanisms in THP-1-derived M0/M1 macrophage cells. Flow cytometry confirmed the expression of CD14, CD68, CD80, and CD86 markers in these macrophages. Following morphological and survival assessments, culture supernatants from SHED-MSCs were used to isolate exosomes. Once the exosomes were verified, Calcein AM-labeled EXOs were introduced to the macrophage cells. The immunoregulatory macromolecules were assessed by analyzing surface markers, cytokine production, and pro- and antioxidant activity. Macrophages treated with exosomes exhibited immunomodulatory effects akin to those treated with dexamethasone. The levels of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant markers, including CD206, Arg-1, IL-10, TGF-β, TAC, CAT, and SOD, which act as immunosuppressive macromolecules, were elevated. In contrast, there was a reduction in pro-inflammatory and pro-oxidant markers, including CD80, CD81, IL-6R, IL-12, TNF-α, MDA, and NO, which act as immunostimulatory macromolecules (P < 0.05). The findings suggest that exosomes derived from SHED-MSC can skew M0/M1 macrophages to the M2 phenotype and inhibit M1 polarization. These nanovesicles, with their distinct physical properties and ability to penetrate target cells, may prove beneficial in conditions involving the depletion of M2 macrophages and M1 macrophage-induced diseases, potentially aiding in the reduction of inflammation and tissue injury.

Background Feeding milk replacer with appropriate probiotics is one possibility to improve the artificial rearing of goat kids. Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the effects of feeding milk replacer and its supplementation with bakery yeast on performance, body development, and diarrhoea incidence in Sannen goat kids. Methods Twenty‐four sucking kids, with an average BW of 5.45 ± 1.16 kg at the age of 21.8 ± 10.00 days, were distributed in a randomised design. Kids were allocated to 3 treatments (n = 8; 3 males and 5 females): (1) feeding goat milk as a control, (2) feeding a milk replacer formula (MR; 0.125 kg of DM/L), and (3) feeding the milk replacer supplemented with bakery yeast (MRY; 0.5 g/head/day). The amount of milk/milk replacer fed was similar at approximately 1 L/day. Results During the experiment, the diarrhoea incidence was greater in the MR treatment than in the control (p < 0.05). However, in the MRY group, diarrhoea incidence was higher than that in the control and MR groups during the first 2 weeks, but lower than both groups during weeks 3 and 4 (p < 0.05). The final body weight and average daily gain were significantly lower in the MR and MRY treatment groups than in the control group (p < 0.050). The morphological growth parameters were similar between the control and MR treatments but were lower in the MRY treatment than in the control and MR treatments (p < 0.05). Conclusions Overall, under the conditions of the present experiment, feeding suckling Saanen kids with milk replacer increased the incidence of diarrhoea, and feeding milk replacer and its supplementing with bakery yeast decreased body weight gain. Liquid feeding of sucking Saanen goat kids in rural areas and developing countries Goat milk, milk replacer, and milk replacer plus bakery yeast More diarrhoea and lower gain with feeding milk replacer and yeast.

The accurate prediction of reference points on the axial stress–axial strain relationship of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP)-confined concrete is vital to pre-design structures made with this system. This study uses an artificial neural network (ANN) for predicting hoop rupture strain (εh,rup) and transition zone, namely transition strain (εc1) and stress (f’c1), on axial stress–strain curves of FRP-confined concrete. These are key parameters for estimating a transition zone of stress–strain curves. In this study, accompanied with these parameters, ultimate condition parameters, including compressive strength and ultimate axial strain, were predicted using a comprehensive database. Various combinations of input data and ANN parameters were used to increase the accuracy of the predictions. A sensitivity analysis and a model validation assessment were performed to evaluate the predictability of the developed models. At the end, a comparison between the proposed models in this study and existing ANN and design-oriented models was presented. It is shown that the accuracy of the developed ANN models in this study is higher or comparable to that of existing ANN models. Additionally, the developed models in this study to predict f’c1 and εc1 exhibit a higher accuracy compared to existing design-oriented models. These results indicate that the proposed ANN models capture the lateral confinement effect on ultimate and transition zones of FRP-confined concrete with a more robust performance compared to existing models.

The material for bone scaffold replacement should be biocompatible and antibacterial to prevent scaffold-associated infection. We biofunctionalized the hydroxyapatite (HA) properties by doping it with lithium (Li). The HA and 4 Li-doped HA (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 wt.%) samples were investigated to find the most suitable Li content for both aspects. The synthesized nanoparticles, by the mechanical alloying method, were cold-pressed uniaxially and then sintered for 2 h at 1250 °C. Characterization using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) revealed particle sizes in the range of 60 to 120 nm. The XRD analysis proved the formation of HA and Li-doped HA nanoparticles with crystal sizes ranging from 59 to 89 nm. The bioactivity of samples was investigated in simulated body fluid (SBF), and the growth of apatite formed on surfaces was evaluated using SEM and EDS. Cellular behavior was estimated by MG63 osteoblast-like cells. The results of apatite growth and cell analysis showed that 1.0 wt.% Li doping was optimal to maximize the bioactivity of HA. Antibacterial characteristics against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were performed by colony-forming unit (CFU) tests. The results showed that Li in the structure of HA increases its antibacterial properties. HA biofunctionalized by Li doping can be considered a suitable option for the fabrication of bone scaffolds due to its antibacterial and unique bioactivity properties.

Many visual attention models have been presented to obtain the saliency of a scene, i.e., the visually significant parts of a scene. However, some mechanisms are still not taken into account in these models, and the models do not fit the human data accurately. These mechanisms include which visual features are informative enough to be incorporated into the model, how the conspicuity of different features and scales of an image may integrate to obtain the saliency map of the image, and how the structure of an image affects the strategy of our attention system. We integrate such mechanisms in the presented model more efficiently compared to previous models. First, besides low-level features commonly employed in state-of-the-art models, we also apply medium-level features as the combination of orientations and colors based on the visual system behavior. Second, we use a variable number of center-surround difference maps instead of the fixed number used in the other models, suggesting that human visual attention operates differently for diverse images with different structures. Third, we integrate the information of different scales and different features based on their weighted sum, defining the weights according to each component's contribution, and presenting both the local and global saliency of the image. To test the model's performance in fitting human data, we compared it to other models using the CAT2000 dataset and the Area Under Curve (AUC) metric. Our results show that the model has high performance compared to the other models (AUC = 0.79 and sAUC = 0.58) and suggest that the proposed mechanisms can be applied to the existing models to improve them.

We consider a dual notion of the famous Auslander-Reiten Conjecture in case of Noetherian algebras over commutative Noetherian rings. Firstly, in the introduction, we will examine its relevance by showing that in an standard situation, the validity of this dual implies the validity of the Auslander-Reiten Conjecture itself. Moreover, in two important cases these two notions coincide: Artin algebras, and Noetherian algebras over complete local Noetherian rings. In this regard we will prove the following theorem: Let (R,m) be d-Gorenstein, d ≥ 2, and let Λ be a Noetherian R-algebra which is Gorenstein and (maximal) Cohen-Macaulay as R-module. If M is an Artinian self-orthogonal Gorenstein injective Λ-module such that HomΛ(Λp,M) is an injective Λp -module for every nonmaximal prime ideal p of R, then M is injective. Some applications are discussed afterwards.

When reproducing a virtual acoustic environment over loudspeakers within a reverberant playback room, the acoustics of the playback space can modify the spectral and spatial properties of the virtual environment considerably. Traditionally, optimal loudspeaker rendering of such scenes requires dedicated loudspeaker setups positioned in an anechoic room, employing techniques like Vector-BaseAmplitude Panning (VBAP) to render virtual reverberant sources, or Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA) to render spherical harmonics each using a large number of loudspeakers. In this study we evaluate to what extent it is possible to reproduce virtual acoustic environments using only a limited number of loudspeakers placed within a normal echoic room. Recently, we proposed a perceptually-based method using only four loudspeakers that specifically aims to compensate the detrimental effects of reverberation of the playback room by separately reproducing optimized versions of the direct and reverberant sound fields [Fallah et al., Reproduction of simulated acoustic scenes with limited number of loudspeakers in a reverberant room (2023)]. In this study, this approach is explained in more detail, and specifically an important parameter that controls the power ratio between direct and reverb sounds is investigated in detail using objective and subjective evaluations. In listening tests, the similarity of this proposed Acoustic Room Transformation (ART) method is compared to that of a reference rendering of the virtual acoustic environment within an anechoic room. The results of listening tests show significant improvements in the timbral and spatial characteristics of reproduced sound using the ART method compared to conventional playback without room compensation and show a closer match to the reference simulated environment.

Connected and disconnected piled raft foundations have been evaluated under lateral cyclic loading in this study. Connected Piled Raft (CPR) and nonconnected piled (NPR) foundations were considered and evaluated in 1-g shaking table tests. FEM numerical modelling also was employed to evaluate the results. The responses were evaluated and compared using lateral movement of caps, moments and lateral loads along the piles and ground settlements. The results indicate that both nonconnected and connected piled raft foundations effectively reduce the ground settlements, however, connected piled rafts have much higher lateral stiffness and piles contribute to lateral load bearing mechanism more effectively; in connected piled raft, piles bear higher moments and lateral loads and reduce lateral movements more effectively. The cap weight and superstructure (central mass height) effect has been considered through supplementary numerical assessments for CPR case. Superstructure addition tends to increase the pile moment and raft inclination where the frequency effect is also critically important. Also heavier cap experiences higher rotations and associated with higher induced loads to piles.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the relationship between corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in a sample of 64 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Design/methodology/approach This study opts for a descriptive-correlational method. To measure the extent of CSR disclosure and CG variables, companies’ annual reports and websites during 2014-2015 are content analyzed by applying a 64-item checklist. Boards’ size, age, tenure and independence, CEO duality, audit committee (AC) composition and ownership concentration are considered as CG variables. To ascertain the CG–CSR disclosure relationship, multivariate linear regression analysis is incorporated. Findings Based on the results, audit committee composition, board tenure and ownership concentration positively influence CSR disclosure level with ownership concentration as the most influential variable, that is, in companies with majority shareholders ownership, managers tend to disclose more CSR information. Research limitations/implications Only annual reports and company websites are analyzed. Researchers are encouraged to apply other methods such as interview and to consider other variables, such as board diversity, proportion of female members and the extent of shareholders activities, to measure CG. Practical implications This paper provides implications at the policy level to identify governance mechanisms to increase CSR awareness of heavy-pollution industries in developing countries. Originality/value Studies rarely examined CSR reporting in Iran, particularly among heavy-pollution companies. Besides, the paper highlights the role of majority shareholders and non-executive AC members in CSR disclosure.