Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceptual salience affects the contents of working memory during free-recollection of objects from natural scenes

One of the most important issues in the study of cognition is to understand which are the factors determining internal representation of the external world. Previous literature has started to highlight the impact of low-level sensory features (indexed by saliency-maps) in driving attention selection, hence increasing the probability for objects presented in complex and natural scenes to be successfully encoded into working memory (WM) and then correctly remembered. Here we asked whether the probability of retrieving high-saliency objects modulates the overall contents of WM, by decreasing the probability of retrieving other, lower-saliency objects. We presented pictures of natural scenes for 4 s. After a retention period of 8 s, we asked participants to verbally report as many objects/details as possible of the previous scenes. We then computed how many times the objects located at either the peak of maximal or minimal saliency in the scene (as indexed by a saliency-map; Itti et al., 1998) were recollected by participants. Results showed that maximal-saliency objects were recollected more often and earlier in the stream of successfully reported items than minimal-saliency objects. This indicates that bottom-up sensory salience increases the recollection probability and facilitates the access to memory representation at retrieval, respectively. Moreover, recollection of the maximal- (but not the minimal-) saliency objects predicted the overall amount of successfully recollected objects: The higher the probability of having successfully reported the most-salient object in the scene, the lower the amount of recollected objects. These findings highlight that bottom-up sensory saliency modulates the current contents of WM during recollection of objects from natural scenes, most likely by reducing available resources to encode and then retrieve other (lower saliency) objects.
Poster: Securing the internet of things with DTLS

Usecases for wireless sensor networks, such as building automation or patient care, often collect and transmit sensitive information. Yet, many deployments currently do not protect this data through suitable security schemes. We propose an end-to-end security scheme build upon existing internet standards, specifically the Datagram Transport Layer Security protocol (DTLS). By relying on an established standard existing implementations, engineering techniques and security infrastructure can be reused which enables easy security uptake. We present a system architecture for this scheme and show its feasibility through the evaluation of our implementation.
No Free Lunch Theorems for Search

We show that all algorithms that search for an extremum of a cost function perform exactly the same, when averaged over all possible cost functions. In particular, if algorithm A outperforms algorithm B on some cost functions, then loosely speaking there must exist exactly as many other functions where B outperforms A. Starting from this we analyze a number of the other a priori characteristics of the search problem, like its geometry and its information-theoretic aspects. This analysis allows us to derive mathematical benchmarks for assessing a particular search algorithm's performance. We also investigate minimax aspects of the search problem, the validity of using characteristics of a partial search over a cost function to predict future behavior of the search algorithm on that cost function, and time-varying cost functions. We conclude with some discussion of the justifiablility of biologically-inspired search methods.
Semantic-Aware Data Protection in Web Services

This paper presents a method to remove the dependency of XML access control models on the syntactic representation of the XML trees. We propose a semantics-based approach, expressing XML access control on ontologies that describe the XML documents. The semanticsbased model is transformed to the syntactic representation on the actual XML instance. Our method supports the uniform enforcement of an authentication model on syntactically different but semantically equivalent XML documents. Contact Author: Csilla Farkas, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. Telephone: 803-576-5762, Fax: 803-777-3767, email:farkas@cse.sc. edu
Violent and Nonviolent Misconduct Among Female Inmates: An Exploration of Competing Theories

Abstract Extant literature on prison misconduct focuses primarily on male inmates or pooled samples of male and female inmates. Moreover, this research typically combines several types of misconduct into one global measure. To add to the literature, the current study gathered self-report data from over 300 female inmates to explore the impact of variables from three different theoretical perspectives upon four types of misconduct (i.e., physical assaults, nonviolent sexual activity, drug/alcohol, and property). Results show that importation and social control variables predict all types of misconduct, whereas deprivation variables provided some modest support for sexual misconduct and property misconduct.
Reconsolidation of fresh, remote, and extinguished fear memory in medaka: old fears don't die

Long‐term fear memory in the medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) regains transient sensitivity to a consolidation blocker immediately after memory reactivation in retrieval (‘reconsolidation’). Here we show that reconsolidation occurs in fresh long‐term memories but not in remote memories, and that the apparent amnesia induced by blockade of reconsolidation can be reinstated by an unpaired reinforcer, a procedure that has no effect on amnesia induced by blockade of consolidation. Extinction memory also undergoes post‐reactivation reconsolidation, the blockade of which exposes the previously acquired fear. Hence in medaka, the process manifested in reconsolidation seems itself to consolidate; moreover, even when the post‐reactivation application of the consolidation blocker is still able to disrupt the memory, the conditioned fear does not seem to go away permanently.
TAIWANESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TO NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS ENGLISH TEACHERS

Numerous studies have been conducted to explore issues surrounding non-native speakers (NNS) English teachers and native speaker (NS) teachers which concern, among others, the comparison between the two, the self-perceptions of NNS English teachers and the effectiveness of their teaching, and the students’ opinions on and attitudes towards them. Most of these studies have been conducted in ESL contexts in which the teachers are NNS English teachers, while most NNS English teachers actually work in EFL contexts. It is important that we understand issues on NNS English teachers in EFL contexts. Hence, this article aims to investigate university students’ attitudes towards their NNS English teachers in Taiwan. The data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. The findings indicated that Taiwanese students’ attitudes towards their NNS English teachers are positive and favorable and NNS English teachers are generally perceived as capable of delivering efficient instruction though some shortcomings of NNS English teachers were pointed out by participants. Discus- sion on these shortcomings and implications on Taiwan educational system and the qualifications of NNS English teachers is provided.
Selecting test and maintenance strategies to achieve availability target with lowest life-cycle cost

Operators of complex systems, such as are found in aerospace, electric power networks, automated manufacturing, or the railways industry, impose ever more stringent availability performance constraints. At the same time, increasing attention is being paid to life-cycle cost (LCC). ALSTOM Transport Information Solutions' URBALIS automated mass transit system is confronted with this situation. This has led the RAM Department to investigating some key factors which impact availability and LCC, in order to provide designers and maintainers with guidelines for reaching availability targets at lowest cost. Redundancy needs to be managed: in particular it is crucial to be able to detect a partial loss of redundancy before the function is completely lost. This is where testability and maintenance policy come into play. In a first model, constant failure rate and perfect maintenance are assumed and Markov modelling is used. In order to contemplate the non-constant failure rate case, as well as the deterministic aspect of scheduled maintenance inspections, simulations are then run with Petri nets. Imperfect maintenance models (based on Kijima's virtual age) are also considered so that the impact of maintenance-related ageing can be taken into account. Recommendations are thus formulated depending on relative unit costs of investment, corrective and preventive maintenance, and sensitivity analyses of system availability are performed with respect to failure rate, test coverage rate as well as percentage of perfect maintenance.
Toward an empirical foundation for evolutionary psychology

Darwin, Sex and Status argues that a human sociobiology that mistakes evolutionary theory for theories of psychology and culture is wrong, as are psychologies that could never have evolved or social sciences that posit impossible psychologies. Status develops theories of human self-awareness, cognition, and cultural capacity that are compatible with evolutionary theory. Recurring themes include: the importance of sexual selection in human evolution; our species' preoccupation with self-esteem and relative standing; the individual as an active strategist, regularly revising culturally provided information; and awareness as an impressionmanagement device. Culture is a somewhat structured information pool that itself evolves, often in ways that reduce the genetic fitness of its participants.
Gravitational Instanton for Black Hole Radiation

Hawking radiation is derived from the existence of a euclidean instanton which lives in the euclidean black hole geometry. Upon taking into account the gravitational field of the instanton itself, its action is exactly equal to one quarter the change in the horizon area. This result also applies to the Schwinger process, the Unruh process, and particle creation in deSitter space. The implications for horizon thermodynamics are discussed.
Violence perpetration among urban american Indian youth: can protection offset risk?

OBJECTIVE To predict the likelihood of violence perpetration given various combinations of the most statistically salient risk and protective factors related to violence perpetration. DESIGN Urban Indian Youth Health Survey, conducted from October 9, 1995, to March 30, 1998, consisting of 200 forced-choice items exploring values, cultural identity, relationships, decision-making skills, and health and well-being. SETTING Urban schools and an after-school youth development program at an urban American Indian center. PARTICIPANTS Five hundred sixty-nine urban American Indian youth enrolled in grades 3 through 12. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Violence perpetration dichotomized in 2 ways: (1) level of violence perpetration (ie, hitting someone 1-2 times in the past year vs picking fights, hitting repeatedly, participating in group fights, or shooting or stabbing someone in the past year) and (2) having shot and/or stabbed someone during the past year. RESULTS In the final multivariate models with age as a covariate, most protective against violence perpetration were connections to school (odds ratio [OR], 0.17), positive affect (OR, 0.29), and peer prosocial behavior norms against violence (OR, 0.35). School connectedness (OR, 0.01) and positive affect (OR, 0.46) were also protective against shooting and/or stabbing someone, as was parental prosocial behavior norms against violence (OR, 0.23). The strongest risk factors for violence perpetration were substance use (OR, 2.60) and suicidal thoughts/behaviors (OR, 2.71); for shooting and/or stabbing, it was substance use (OR, 5.26). The likelihood of violence perpetration increased markedly (from 10% to 85%) as the exposure to risk factors increased and protective factors decreased. For shooting or stabbing someone, the probabilities ranged from 3% (0 risks and 3 protective factors) to 64% (1 risk and 0 protective factors). CONCLUSION The dramatic reduction in the likelihood of violence involvement when risk was offset with protective factors in the probability profiles suggests the utility of a dual strategy of reducing risk while boosting protection.
Estimating the Annual Incidence of Abortions in Iran Applying a Network Scale-up Approach

Background: Abortions are of major public health concern in developing countries. In settings in which abortion is highly prohibited, the direct interview is not a reliable method to estimate the abortion rate. The indirect estimation methods to measure the rate of abortion might overcome this dilemma; They are practical methods to estimate the size of the hidden group who do not agree to participate in a direct interview. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the practicality of an indirect method for estimating the abortion rate , Known as Network Scale-up, and to provide an estimate about the episode of abortion with and without medical indications (AWMI+ and AWMI-) in Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 31 provinces of Iran in 2012. A random sample between 200 and 1000 was selected in each province by the multistage sampling method that 75% of the data were collected from the capital and 25% from one main city. We selected samples from urban people more than 18 years old (12960) and we asked them about the number of abortion in women they knew who had experienced the medical and non-medical abortions in the past year. A range for the transparency factor was estimated based on the expert opinion. Results: The range of the transparency factors for AWMI+ and AWOMI- were 0.43-0.75 and 0.2-0.34, respectively. Regarding the AWMI+, our minimum and maximum estimations (per 1000 pregnancies) were 70.54 and 116.9, respectively. The corresponding figures for AWMI- were 93.18, and 148.7. Conclusions: The frequency rates for AWMI+ and AWMI- were relatively high. Therefore, the system has to address to this hidden problem using the appropriate preventive policies.
One Teacher, Two Instructional Contexts. Same Teaching Gestures?

Despite the increasing interest in gesture studies for teachers' gestures, it seems that almost no research has been carried out to analyze the impact of the instructional context on a teacher's gestures. This study provides the opportunity to add to our understanding of teachers' non verbal pedagogical repertoire by observing a French teacher in two different contexts : FL1 (French for native speakers) and FL2 (French for NNS).
Accumulated CA–CFAR Process in 2-D for Online Object Detection From Sidescan Sonar Data

This paper describes a novel approach to object detection from sidescan sonar (SSS) acoustical images. The current techniques of acoustical images processing consume a great deal of time and computational resources with many parameters to tune in order to obtain good quality images. This is due to the handling of the large data volume generated by these kinds of devices. The technique proposed in this work does not make any a priori assumption about the nature of the SSS image to be processed. However, it is able to make a segmentation of the image into two types of regions: acoustical highlight and seafloor reverberation areas, and based on this, it makes detection. The developed algorithm to achieve this consists of a migration and adaptation of a technique widely used in radar technology for detecting moving objects. This radar technique is known as the cell average-constant false alarm rate (CA-CFAR). This paper presents a drastic improvement of such approach by making an extension into 2-D analysis of the SSS image, in a way similar to integral image used in CA-CFAR detection for pulse Doppler radar. In this form, optimization of the computational effort is achieved. This new technique was called the accumulated cell average-constant false alarm rate in 2-D (ACA-CFAR 2-D). It was applied to pipeline detection and tracking with a very interesting degree of success. In addition, this technique provides similar results to image segmentation with respect to other frequently used approaches, but with much less computational resources and parameters to set. Its simplicity is a strong support of its robustness and accuracy. This feature makes it particularly attractive for using it in real-time applications, such as underwater robotics perception systems. This proposal was tested experimentally with acoustical data from SSS and the results detecting pipelines, and other shapes like sunken vessels or airplanes, are presented in this paper. Likewise, an experimental comparison with the results obtained with inverse undecimated discrete wavelet transform (UDWT) and active contours techniques is also presented.
Relationship of functional health literacy to patients' knowledge of their chronic disease. A study of patients with hypertension and diabetes.

BACKGROUND Inadequate functional health literacy is common, but its impact on patients with chronic diseases is not well described. OBJECTIVE To examine among patients with hypertension or diabetes the relationship between their functional health literacy level and their knowledge of their chronic disease and treatment. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional survey of patients with hypertension and diabetes presenting to the general medicine clinics at 2 urban public hospitals. Literacy was measured by the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. Knowledge of their illness was assessed in patients with diabetes or hypertension using 21 hypertension and 10 diabetes questions based on key elements in educational materials used in our clinics. RESULTS A total of 402 patients with hypertension and 114 patients with diabetes were enrolled. Mean (+/- SD) knowledge scores for patients with hypertension with inadequate (n = 189), marginal (n = 49), or adequate (n = 155) literacy were 13.2 +/- 3.1, 15.3 +/- 2.2, and 16.5 +/- 2.3, respectively (range, 4-20; P < .001). A total of 92% of patients with hypertension and adequate literacy levels knew that a blood pressure reading of 160/100 mm Hg was high compared with 55% of those in the lowest reading level (P < .001). Mean (+/- SD) knowledge scores for patients with diabetes with inadequate (n = 50), marginal (n = 13), or adequate (n = 51) literacy were 5.8 +/- 2.1, 6.8 +/- 1.9, and 8.1 +/- 1.6, respectively (range, 1-10; P < .001). A total of 94% of patients with diabetes and adequate functional health literacy knew the symptoms of hypoglycemia compared with 50% of those with inadequate literacy (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS Inadequate functional health literacy poses a major barrier to educating patients with chronic diseases, and current efforts to overcome this appear unsuccessful.
Parameterized Tractability of Edge-Disjoint Paths on Directed Acyclic Graphs

Given a graph and pairs s i t i of terminals, the edge-disjoint paths problem is to determine whether there exist s i t i paths that do not share any edges. We consider this problem on acyclic digraphs. It is known to be NP-complete and solvable in time n O(k) where k is the number of paths. It has been a long-standing open question whether it is fixed-parameter tractable in k. We resolve this question in the negative: we show that the problem is W[1]-hard. In fact it remains W[1]-hard even if the demand graph consists of two sets of parallel edges.
Gα Minigenes Expressing C-terminal Peptides Serve as Specific Inhibitors of Thrombin-mediated Endothelial Activation*

The C termini of G protein α subunits are critical for binding to their cognate receptors, and peptides corresponding to the C terminus can serve as competitive inhibitors of G protein-coupled receptor-G protein interactions. This interface is quite specific as a single amino acid difference annuls the ability of a Gαi peptide to bind the A1 adenosine receptor (Gilchrist, A., Mazzoni, M., Dineen, B., Dice, A., Linden, J., Dunwiddie, T., and Hamm, H. E. (1998 ) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 14912–14919). Recently, we demonstrated that a plasmid minigene vector encoding the C-terminal sequence of Gαi could specifically inhibit downstream responses to agonist stimulation of the muscarinic M2 receptor (Gilchrist, A., Bunemann, M., Li, A., Hosey, M. M., and H. E. Hamm (1999) J. Biol. Chem. 274, 6610–6616). To selectively antagonize G protein signal transduction events and determine which G protein underlies a given thrombin-induced response, we generated minigene vectors that encode the C-terminal sequence for each family of Gα subunits. Minigene vectors expressing Gα C-terminal peptides (Gαi, Gαq, Gα12, and Gα13) or the control minigene vector, which expresses the Gαi peptide in random order (GiR), were systematically introduced into a human microvascular endothelial cell line. The C-terminal peptides serve as competitive inhibitors presumably by blocking the site on the G protein-coupled receptor that normally binds the G protein. Our results not only confirm that each G protein can control certain signaling events, they emphasize the specificity of the G protein-coupled receptor-G protein interface. In addition, the C-terminal Gα minigenes appear to be a powerful tool for dissecting out the G protein that mediates a given physiological function following thrombin activation.
Visual-inertial direct SLAM

The so-called direct visual SLAM methods have shown a great potential in estimating a semidense or fully dense reconstruction of the scene, in contrast to the sparse reconstructions of the traditional feature-based algorithms. In this paper, we propose for the first time a direct, tightly-coupled formulation for the combination of visual and inertial data. Our algorithm runs in real-time on a standard CPU. The processing is split in three threads. The first thread runs at frame rate and estimates the camera motion by a joint non-linear optimization from visual and inertial data given a semidense map. The second one creates a semidense map of high-gradient areas only for camera tracking purposes. Finally, the third thread estimates a fully dense reconstruction of the scene at a lower frame rate. We have evaluated our algorithm in several real sequences with ground truth trajectory data, showing a state-of-the-art performance.
Gender Earnings Gap in German Firms: The Impact of Firm Characteristics and Institutions

Most existing analyses on the gender wage gap (GWG) have neglected the establishment as a place where inequality between male and female employees arises and is maintained. The use of linked employee-employer data permits us to move beyond the individual and consider the importance of the workplace to explain gender pay differentials. That is, we first provide a comprehensive study on the effects of various firm characteristics and the institutional framework on the GWG in Germany. The innovation of our research is that we do not just compare average male and female wages (of specific groups of employees), but look at within-firm gender wage differentials. Our results indicate that the mean GWG within firms is smaller than the average overall GWG. Furthermore, we can show that firms with formalized co-determination (works council) and those covered by collective wage agreements are more likely to have smaller GWG. It is also interesting to note that the wage differential between men and women decreases with firm size and increases with the wage level.