Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visual-hint Boundary to Segment Algorithm for Image Segmentation

Image segmentation has been a very active research topic in image analysis area. Currently, most of the image segmentation algorithms are designed based on the idea that images are partitioned into a set of regions preserving homogeneous intra-regions and inhomogeneous inter-regions. However, human visual intuition does not always follow this pattern. A new image segmentation method named Visual-Hint Boundary to Segment (VHBS) is introduced, which is more consistent with human perceptions. VHBS abides by two visual hint rules based on human perceptions: (i) the global scale boundaries tend to be the real boundaries of the objects; (ii) two adjacent regions with quite different colors or textures tend to result in the real boundaries between them. It has been demonstrated by experiments that, compared with traditional image segmentation method, VHBS has better performance and also preserves higher computational efficiency.
Welfare Measurement in Imperfect Markets: A Growth Theoretical Approach

Preface 1. Introduction 2. Our Work-Horse: The Brock Model 3. A Money Metrics Version of Weitzman's Welfare Theorem 4. An Almost Practical Step Towards Green Accounting 5. Green Accounting and Distortionary Taxation 6. Green Accounting and Green Taxes in the Global Economy 7. Numerical Applications: Global Economy Models 8. Briefly on Three Emerging Issues in Social Accounting 9. Welfare Measurement under Uncertainty Appendices References Index
Effects of coumestrol on estrogen receptor function and uterine growth in ovariectomized rats.

Isoflavonoids and related compounds such as coumestrol have classically been categorized as phytoestrogens because these environmentally derived substances bind to the estrogen receptor (ER) and increase uterine wet weight in immature rats and mice. Assessment of the binding affinities of isoflavonoids for ER and subsequent effects on uterine growth suggest these compounds are less active estrogens than estradiol and therefore may reduce the risk of developing breast or prostate cancer in humans by preventing estradiol binding to ER. With the renewed interest in the relationships between environmental estrogens and cancer cause and prevention, we assessed the effects of the phytoestrogen coumestrol on uterotropic response in the immature, ovariectomized rat. Our studies demonstrated that in this animal model, coumestrol is an atypical estrogen that does not stimulate uterine cellular hyperplasia. Although acute (subcutaneous injection) or chronic (multiple injection or orally via drinking water) administration of coumestrol significantly increased uterine wet and dry weights, the phytoestrogen failed to increase uterine DNA content. The lack of true estrogenic activity was characterized by the inability of this phytoestrogen to cause cytosolic ER depletion, nuclear ER accumulation, or the stimulation of nuclear type II sites which characteristically precede estrogenic stimulation of cellular DNA synthesis and proliferation. In fact, subcutaneous or oral coumestrol treatment caused an atypical threefold induction of cytosolic ER without corresponding cytosolic depletion and nuclear accumulation of this receptor, and this increased the sensitivity of the uterus to subsequent stimulation by estradiol. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) Imagesp574-aFigure 1.Figure 2.Figure 3.Figure 4.Figure 5.Figure 6.Figure 7.Figure 8.Figure 9.Figure 10.
Reciprocal Regulation of Axonal Filopodia and Outgrowth during Neuromuscular Junction Development

Background The assembly of the vertebrate neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is initiated when nerve and muscle first contact each other by filopodial processes which are thought to enable close interactions between the synaptic partners and facilitate synaptogenesis. We recently reported that embryonic Xenopus spinal neurons preferentially extended filopodia towards cocultured muscle cells and that basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) produced by muscle activated neuronal FGF receptor 1 (FGFR1) to induce filopodia and favor synaptogenesis. Intriguingly, in an earlier study we found that neurotrophins (NTs), a different set of target-derived factors that act through Trk receptor tyrosine kinases, promoted neuronal growth but hindered presynaptic differentiation and NMJ formation. Thus, here we investigated how bFGF- and NT-signals in neurons jointly elicit presynaptic changes during the earliest stages of NMJ development. Methodology/Principal Findings Whereas forced expression of wild-type TrkB in neurons reduced filopodial extension and triggered axonal outgrowth, expression of a mutant TrkB lacking the intracellular kinase domain enhanced filopodial growth and slowed axonal advance. Neurons overexpressing wild-type FGFR1 also displayed more filopodia than control neurons, in accord with our previous findings, and, notably, this elevation in filopodial density was suppressed when neurons were chronically treated from the beginning of the culture period with BDNF, the NT that specifically activates TrkB. Conversely, inhibition by BDNF of NMJ formation in nerve-muscle cocultures was partly reversed by the overexpression of bFGF in muscle. Conclusions Our results suggest that the balance between neuronal FGFR1- and TrkB-dependent filopodial assembly and axonal outgrowth regulates the establishment of incipient NMJs.
Benchmarking farm financial performance: Stability and management implications

BENCHMARKING FARM FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: STABILITY AND MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS By Carolyn Marie Braun The primary research question of this study was, “how many years are of data are needed to be reasonably sure that farms are ranked correctly? ” The data were obtained from the Michigan Dairy and Crop Farm Business Summaries. First, the stability across farms was examined to determine if farms consistently rank in the top or bottom third. Asset driven measures (ATO, DTA, CR) were less variable than income and profitability measures (NFI, ROA, OPMR). Then, farms were ranked according to their five-year average for each financial measure to test if there was a significant difference between the top and bottom third. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the top and bottom thirds for every financial measure for both the dairy and crop farms. The farms were then organized into thirds using their five-year average ROA and the differences between the most profitable and least profitable farms were examined. Farms in the top third tended to have a significantly higher ATO, OPMR, and NFI than the farms in the bottom third for ROA. Next, the number of years of data needed to rank farms into thirds with a high degree of accuracy was estimated. This was accomplished by estimating the farm’s true, long-run performance and calculating how many years it took to be reasonably confident that the farm was ranked in the correct third. The number of years that were ideal to use depended on which variable the farmer is looking at and the level of accuracy they desire.
Focused-coverage by mobile sensor networks

We pinpoint a new sensor self-deployment problem, constructing focused coverage around a Point of Interest (POI), and introduce an evaluation metric, coverage radius. We propose two solutions, Greedy Advance (GA) and Greedy-Rotation-Greedy (GRG), which are to our knowledge the first sensor self-deployment algorithms that operate in a purely localized manner and yet provide coverage guarantee. The two algorithms drive sensors to move along a locally-computed equilateral triangle tessellation (TT) to surround POI. In GA, nodes greedily proceed as close to POI as they can; in GRG, when their greedy advance is blocked, nodes rotate around POI to a TT vertex where greedy advance can resume. They both yield a connected network of TT layout with hole-free coverage; GRG furthermore assures a hexagon coverage shape centered at POI. We prove their correctness and analyze their coverage radius property. Our study shows that GRG guarantees optimal hexagonal coverage radius and near optimal circular coverage radius. Through extensive simulation we as well evaluate their performance on convergence time, energy consumption, and node collision.
The extended hard X-ray emission from the Vela Plerion

We present the results of a broad band (3-200 keV) spectral analysis of BeppoSAX and XMM-Newton observations oftheVelaplerion. The hard X-ray (>15 keV) emission is found to be extended over a region of 12'-15' radius, corresponding to a size of about 1.0-1.3 pc for a source distance of 290 pc. A single power law does not give an acceptable fit while a broken power law or a log-parabolic law nicely fit the data. The former spectral model has the photon index Γ 1 = 1.66 ± 0.01 for energies lower than the break value equal to 12.5 keV and the index Γ 2 = 2.01 ± 0.05 up to about 200 keV. The total X-ray luminosity oftheVelaplerion is L X = 5.5 x 10 33 erg s -1 , which implies a conversion factor of the spin-down power of ∼10 -3 .
Novel Method for Comparing RADseq Linkage Maps Reveals Chromosome Evolution in Salmonids

Genome duplication can provide material for evolutionary innovation, and much remains unknown about its functional effects. Assembly of large, outbred eukaryotic genomes is difficult, but structural rearrangements within such taxa can be investigated using linkage maps. RAD sequencing provides unprecedented ability to generate high-density linkage maps for non-model species. However, these methods often result in a low number of homologous markers between species due to phylogenetic distance or technical differences in library preparation. Family Salmonidae is ideal for studying the effects of whole genome duplication. The ancestral salmonid underwent whole genome duplication around 65 million years ago and the tetraploid genome has undergone rediploidization during the salmonid diversification. In the salmonids, synteny occurs between orthologous chromosomes, but each species exhibits conserved and unique chromosome arm fusions and fissions. In this study, we identify orthologous chromosome arms within the salmonids using available RADseq salmonid linkage maps along with a new high-density linkage map (3826 markers) constructed for the Salvelinus genera (Brook Charr S. fontinalis ). We developed MapComp, a program that identifies identical and proximal markers between linkage maps using a reference genome of a related species as an intermediate (e.g. Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss ). We greatly increased the number of comparable markers between linkage maps relative to that obtained using only identical markers. This enabled a characterization of the most likely history of retained chromosomal rearrangements post-whole genome duplication in five species of Oncorhynchus , and one species of each of Salvelinus , Salmo , and Coregonus , representing all of the main salmonid genera. Additionally, integration with the genetic map of the pre-duplicated sister species Northern Pike Esox lucius permitted the identification of homeologous chromosomes in all species. Putative conserved inversions within chromosome arms were also identified among species. Analyses of RADseq-based linkage maps from other taxa are likely to benefit from MapComp, available at: https://github.com/enormandeau/mapcomp/.
An empirical study on the effects of different types of noise in image classification tasks

Image classification is one of the main research problems in computer vision and machine learning. Since in most real-world image classification applications there is no control over how the images are captured, it is necessary to consider the possibility that these images might be affected by noise (e.g. sensor noise in a low-quality surveillance camera). In this paper we analyse the impact of three different types of noise on descriptors extracted by two widely used feature extraction methods (LBP and HOG) and how denoising the images can help to mitigate this problem. We carry out experiments on two different datasets and consider several types of noise, noise levels, and denoising methods. Our results show that noise can hinder classification performance considerably and make classes harder to separate. Although denoising methods were not able to reach the same performance of the noise-free scenario, they improved classification results for noisy data.
Raids, Rewards, and Reputations in the Market for CEO Talent

We examine the basic hypothesis that the market for managerial talent rewards managers from firms with superior stock price performance. We identify a set of outside CEO hires in a set of large publicly traded firms and investigate the stock price performance of the prior employers of these executives. Using 5-year buy-and-hold returns as our basic performance measure, we find that the prior employers of our sample executives did, on average, exhibit superior performance compared to a variety of benchmarks. A conditional logit analysis confirms that superior firm performance increases the likelihood that an executive will get an outside CEO job. Our results are most pronounced for executives who jump immediately from their prior employer to the new employer (raids) and for executives who were more highly ranked at their prior employer. We also examine compensation contracts and find that executives are typically awarded large initial hiring grants composed of stock options, restricted stock, and cash signing bonuses. These grants are highly correlated with the value of the unvested option and restricted stock position the executive leaves behind at his old employer. The evidence also suggests that these grants are positively related to prior firm performance, even after controlling for the forfeited position at the prior employer. We interpret our findings as providing substantial support for the basic hypothesis that superior stock price performance enhances an executive's external labor market opportunities. In our view this is an interesting and important finding, as it supports the basic assumption underlying a large class of models concerning executive decision making and contracting in the presence of career concerns.
Chunks, Schemata, and Retrieval Structures: Past and Current Computational Models

Copyright © 2015 Gobet, Lane and Lloyd-Kelly. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
WEIGHTED GRAPH LAPLACIAN AND IMAGE INPAINTING

Abstract. Inspired by the graph Laplacian and the point integral method, we introduce a novel weighted graph Laplacian method to compute a smooth interpolation function on a point cloud in high dimensional space. The numerical results in semi-supervised learning and image inpainting show that the weighted graph Laplacian is a reliable and efficient interpolation method. In addition, it is easy to implement and faster than graph Laplacian.
Location-aware key management scheme for wireless sensor networks

Sensor networks are composed of a large number of low power sensor devices. For secure communication among sensors, secret keys must be established between them. Recently, several pairwise key schemes have been proposed for large distributed sensor networks. These schemes randomly select a set of keys from a key pool and install the keys in the memory of each sensor. After deployment, the sensors can set up keys by using the preinstalled keys. Due to lack of tamper-resistant hardware, the sensor networks are vulnerable to node capture attacks. The information gained from captured nodes can be used to compromise communication among uncompromised sensors. Du et al. [1], Liu and Ning [2] proposed to use the known deployment information to reduce the memory requirements and mitigate the consequences of node capture attack. Our analysis shows that the assumption of random capture of sensors is too <i>weak</i>. An <i>intelligent</i> attacker can selectively capture sensors to get more information with less efforts. In addition to selective node capture attack, all recent proposals are vulnerable to node fabrication attack, in which an attacker can fabricate new sensors by manipulating the compromised secret keys and then deploy the fabricated sensors into the sensor system. To counter these attacks, we propose a grid-group scheme which uses known deployment information. Unlike the pairwise key scheme using deployment information proposed by Du et al., we uniformly deploy sensors in a large area; instead of randomly distributing keys from a large key pool to each sensor, we systematically distribute secret keys to each sensor from a structured key pool. Our performance analysis shows that our scheme requires less number of keys preinstalled for each sensor and is resilient to selective node capture attack and node fabrication attack.
On weighted clique graphs

Let K(G) be the clique graph of a graph G. A m-weighting of K(G) consists on giving to each m-size subset of its vertices a weight equal to the size of the intersection of the m corresponding cliques of G. The 2weighted clique graph was previously considered by McKee. In this work we obtain a characterization of weighted clique graphs similar to Roberts and Spencer’s characterization for clique graphs. Some graph classes can be naturally defined in terms of their weighted clique graphs, for example clique-Helly graphs and their generalizations, and diamond-free graphs. The main contribution of this work is to characterize several graph classes by means of their weighted clique graph: hereditary clique-Helly graphs, split graphs, chordal graphs, UV graphs, interval graphs, proper interval graphs, trees, and block graphs.
Bond Fund Disappearance: What’s Return Got to Do with it?

In their seminal paper on bond fund performance, Blake, Elton and Gruber (1993) state that survivorship bias is unimportant for this market segment. Many bond fund studies have since been published without treating survivorship bias despite the dramatic changes in the market over the last 20 years. We fill this gap by analyzing survivorship bias and disappearance of bond funds comprehensively. As key determinants we identify fund size and flows. Compared to equity funds, returns have minor influence on disappearance. However, we find statistically significant and economically relevant survivorship bias, in particular for certain asset classes like corporate bond funds.
Ultrafast consensus via predictive mechanisms

An important natural phenomenon surfaces that ultrafast consensus can be achieved by introducing predictive mechanisms. By predicting the dynamics of a network several steps ahead and using this information in the consensus protocol, it is shown that, without changing the topology of the network, drastic improvements can be achieved in terms of the speed of convergence towards consensus and of the feasible range of sampling periods, compared with the routine consensus protocol. In natural science, this study provides an evidence for the idea that some predictive mechanisms exist in widely-spread biological swarms, flocks, and schools. From the industrial engineering point of view, inclusion of an efficient predictive mechanism allows for a significant increase in the consensus speed and a reduction of the required communication energy.
PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Are Individuals ’ Reputations Related to Their History of Behavior ?

Functional theories of reputation imply that individuals’ reputations are tied to their history of behavior. However, indirect evidence suggests that the relation between reputation and behavior might be tenuous at best. In 3 studies, the authors tracked the development of reputations among individuals who engaged in multiple negotiation tasks across several weeks. The authors found that on average, individuals’ reputations were only mildly related to their history of behavior. However, the link between reputation and behavior was stronger for some individuals than others––specifically, for individuals who were more well-known and received more social attention in the community. In contrast, for less well-known individuals, their behavior had little impact on their reputation. The findings have implications for psychologists’ understanding of reputations, person perceptions in larger groups, and the costs and benefits of social visibility.
Information Transfer Between Rhythmically Coupled Networks: Reading the Hippocampal Phase Code

There are numerous reports on rhythmic coupling between separate brain networks. It has been proposed that this rhythmic coupling indicates exchange of information. So far, few computational models have been proposed that explore this principle and its potential computational benefits. Recent results on hippocampal place cells of the rat provide new insight; it has been shown that information about space is encoded by the firing of place cells with respect to the phase of the ongoing theta rhythm. This principle is termed phase coding and suggests that upcoming locations (predicted by the hippocampus) are encoded by cells firing late in the theta cycle, whereas current location is encoded by early firing in the theta cycle. A network reading the hippocampal output must inevitably also receive an oscillatory theta input in order to decipher the phase-coded firing patterns. In this article, I propose a simple physiologically plausible mechanism implemented as an oscillatory network that can decode the hippocampal output. By changing only the phase of the theta input to the decoder, qualitatively different information is transferred: the theta phase determines whether representations of current or upcoming locations are read by the decoder. The proposed mechanism provides a computational principle for information transfer between oscillatory networks and might generalize to brain networks beyond the hippocampal region.
Things we know and don't know about the wider benefits of higher education: a review of the recent literature

This literature review looks at the evidence on the wider non-economic benefits of higher education for students. It also looks at the impact, through graduates and knowledge transfer, on society as a whole. The evidence shows that higher levels of education are linked to a range of positive social, well-being and cultural benefits for the individual, their families and society. The review recommends further research to better understand how the impact of higher education occurs. This study was commissioned through LSE Consulting, a trademark of LSE Enterprise, the subsidiary of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Ekonometryczna analiza efektywności technicznej farm mlecznych w Polsce na podstawie danych z lat 2004-2011

Celem artykulu byla ekonometryczna analiza efektywności technicznej gospodarstw rolnych zajmujących sie produkcją mleka w Polsce. Przede wszystkim zaprezentowano konstrukcje i zalozenia stochastycznej granicznej funkcji produkcji w przypadku danych panelowych. Nastepnie omowiono szczegolową specyfikacje mikroekonomicznej funkcji produkcji na podstawie danych panelowych, pochodzących z polskiego FADN (ang. Farm Accountancy Data Network). Glowne rezultaty badan uzyskano w ramach funkcji translogarytmicznej. Wyniki te wskazaly na rosnące korzyści skali w probie, a średni poziom efektywności polskich farm wyniosl 69%. Dokonano rowniez identyfikacji zmiennych egzogenicznych (tj. specjalizacji i wielkości gospodarstw), ktore okazaly sie źrodlem istotnych roznic w poziomach efektywności badanych producentow mleka