Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obtaining Better Image Representations by Combining Complementary Activation Features of Multiple ConvNet Layers for Transfer Learning

Convolutional Networks (ConvNets) are powerful models that learn hierarchies of visual features, which could also be used as an image representations in transfer learning. The Basic pipeline for transfer learning is to first train a ConvNet on a large dataset (source task) and then use feed-forward units activation of the trained network, at a certain layer, as a generic representation of an input image for another smaller dataset (target task). Our key contribution is to introduce a notion of better transfer learning using multiple ConvNet layer features. Idea is based on the difference of ConvNet Layer features in describing images when transfer learning. We demonstrate this idea by achieving better performance in classification against single ConvNet layer features for three standard datasets. When we combine multiple ConvNet layer features by simply concatenating them, most of the resulting features would become repetitive. We use AdaBoost.MH classifier to implicitly select distinct features from among the combined ConvNet Layer features. Our experiments intends to show this complementary nature of ConvNet layer features when doing transfer learning. We use AdaBoost.MH classifier to show that one can achieve superior results with Combined ConvNet Layer features against individual ConvNet Layer features. To emphasize the importance of careful feature selection among combined ConvNet Layer features we also train linear SVM classifier. In our experiments with AdaBoost.MH being a classifier, combined multiple ConvNet layer features always outperform Single ConvNet layer features.
Effect of page frame allocation pattern on bank conflicts in multi-core systems

Multi-core systems equip a huge size of main memory that consists of a large number memory banks. To fully utilize the capability of multi-core, memory banks can be accessed by multiple cores in parallel without bank conflicts that cause significant performance degradation. In this paper, we investigate how the page frame allocation decision of operating systems affects the bank conflicts. When an operation system decides to allocate page frames mapped into the same bank to the different cores, the accesses to these page frames by the cores incur the bank conflicts. In general, the page frame allocation schemes used by operating systems can be classified into two groups according to the allocation patterns, namely sequential and random. Using the simulation-based experiments, we analyze the effects of the two patterns on the bank conflicts under different number of cores and banks. The analysis discloses that the sequential allocation performs worse than the random allocation due to the correlated conflict and bank congestion. We also discuss several issues such as bank isolation and individual frame management that can be used effectively for implementing memory parallelism-aware page frame allocation schemes in operating systems.
Parental factors related to children ’ s reading : Evidence from comparing transnational marriage families and local families

The purpose of this study was to determine the parental factors related to children’s reading by comparing two types of families, transnational marriage families in which the mother was not born in Taiwan and local families. Data for this study came from the PIRLS 2006. There were 273 children from transnational marriage families. Children’s gender, mother’s education level and well-off condition of families were all identical. The study selected 273 children from local families who were the classmates of the children from transnational marriage families. To control the economic effect, this study further selected the “average” well-off condition of families. A total of 179 children (102 girls and 87 boys) from transnational marriage families and 214 children (112 girls and 92 goys) from local families were analyzed by using The Learning to Read Survey. Results revealed that children of transnational marriage families did not have good reading achievement when comparing to children from local families. However, the efforts of parents from two types of families on children’s reading were not different. Nevertheless, mother’s education plays an essential role on children’s reading. This phenomenon is discussed in the paper.
Molecular Characterization of Multidrug- and Extensively Drug-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains in Jiangxi, China

ABSTRACT In this study, a total of 77 multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant (MDR and XDR, respectively) isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were characterized among samples from patients living in Jiangxi province, China. The following two approaches were used: (i) genotyping all drug-resistant isolates by the 15-locus MIRU-VNTR (mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit–variable-number tandem-repeat) method and identifying the Beijing family genotype using the RD105 deletion targeted multiplex PCR and (ii) determining the mutation profiles associated with the resistance to the first-line antituberculous drugs rifampin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH) and the second-line drugs ofloxacin (OFX), kanamycin (KAN), amikacin (AMK), and capreomycin (CAP) with DNA sequencing. Six loci were examined: rpoB (for resistance to RIF), katG and mabA-inhA (INH), gyrA and gyrB (OFX), and rrs (KAN, AMK, and CAP). It is shown that the Beijing genotype was predominant (80.5%) among these strains and that the selected drug-resistant strains were genetically diverse, suggesting that they probably had independently acquired drug resistance. In comparison to the phenotypic data, the sensitivities for the detection of RIF, INH, OFX, and KAN/AMK/CAP resistance by DNA sequencing were 94.8, 80.5, 84.6, and 78.9%, respectively. The most prevalent mutations involved in RIF, INH, OFX, and KAN/AMK/CAP resistance were Ser531Leu in rpoB (44.2%), Ser315Thr in katG (55.8%) and C-15T in mabA-inhA (11.7%), Asp94Gly in gyrA (48.7%), and A1401G in rrs (73.7%), respectively. Five novel katG mutants (Trp191Stop, Thr271Pro, Trp328Phe, Leu546Pro, and Asp695Gly) and six new alleles (Ile569Val, Ile572Met, Phe584Ser, Val615Met, Asp626Glu, and Lys972Thr) in the rpoB gene were identified.
Modeling business processes to generate artifacts for software development: a methodology

When business processes are to be automated by an information system, business process knowledge is required in many ways throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC). Frequently, analysis is repeated to recapture this knowledge resulting in duplicate effort and inconsistent artifacts. We present our unified business process modeling methodology, UPROM that is used to generate various artifacts from business process models developed in conformance with its notation and approach. Together with business process models, the artifacts are user requirements document, software size estimation, process metrics list, process definition document and business glossary. These artifacts are easily maintainable as they originate from a single source and generated automatically by a tool. The methodology is applied in three case studies and summary of results is provided.
Spontaneous dissemination of DKA prevention campaign successfully launched in Nineties in Parma’s province

Aim: to investigate how much effectiveness of the historical campaign of DKA prevention at T1D diagnosis has survived in Parma’s province where this was launched in Nineties, and how much it has spontaneously spread in the neighboring provinces. Method: children aged 6-14 years with newly diagnosed TID coming from province of Parma (Group 1) and from two other nearby provinces (Group 2) were investigated. Clinical and laboratory data were retrospectively collected from medical files of each patient and included age, gender, capillary pH, serum bicarbonate, 3-beta-hydroxybutyrate (3HB), glycated hemoglobin (HbAlc) at the time of admittance from 1st January 2012 and 31 December 2016. Results: no DKA condition was globally found in 25/36 patients (69.4%): 16/17 and 9/19 patients belonged to Group 1 and 2 respectively (p=0.002). Mild or moderate DKA was reported in 5.9% patients of Group 1 and in 47.31% (p=0.005) patients from Group 2. Severe DKA was observed in only 1 child from Group 2. Normal 3-beta-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) serum levels was reported in the 25 patients without DKA at diabetes diagnosis. Duration of hyperglycemia-related symptoms before overt T1D diagnosis was shorter (4.6±2.5 days) in patients with 3HB levels <1 mmol/dl than in those with 3HB levels exceeding 1 mmol/dl (9.6±4.2 days, p<0.0001). HbA1c values were on overage lower in patients without DKA (9.9±1.2%) than in patients with DKA at diabetes diagnosis (13.60±1.3%; p<0,001). Conclusion: 1) the campaign for DKA prevention, launched in Nineties and renewed at beginning of Twenties in Parma’s province, continues to be effective in the same province after several years; 2) in the two control provinces despite no information campaign being officially promoted in loco, an unexpected decrease in severe DKA incidence as well a shorter latency before overt T1D diagnosis were observed in the same period. (www.actabiomedica.it)
Antidepressant activity of Indian Hypericum perforatum Linn in rodents.

A standardised 50% aqueous ethanolic extract of Indian Hypericum perforatum (IHp) was investigated for its antidepressant activity on various experimental paradigms of depression, viz. behavioural despair (BD), learned helplessness (LH), tail suspension (TS) and reserpine-induced hypothermia (RIH) tests in rats and mice. Pilot studies indicated that single dose administration of IHp had very little or no acute behavioural effects, hence the IHp was administered orally at two dose levels (100 and 200 mg/kg, p.o.) once daily for three consecutive days, while imipramine (15 mg/kg, i.p.), a clinically used antidepressant agent, was administered acutely to rats (CF strain, 150 +/- 10 g) and mice (Wistar strain, 23 +/- 2 g) of either sex as the standard drug. Controls animals were treated similarly with equal volume of vehicle (0.3% carboxymethyl cellulose). Indian Hypericum perforatum extract showed significant antidepressant activity on all the paradigms of depression used. Thus IHp and imipramine treatments significantly reduced the immobility time in BD and TS tests. Significant reduction in escape failures was also observed in LH test. In RIH test IHp and imipramine inhibited reserpine induced hypothermia in a dose dependent manner. The observed antidepressant activity of IHp was qualitatively comparable to that induced by imipramine.
Effectiveness of coping strategies for victims of cyberbullying

Although cyberbullying is a well-studied online risk, little is known about the effectiveness of various coping strategies for its victims. Therefore, this study on 2,092 Czech children aged 12-18 examined which coping strategies were applied most often and to what extent victims of cyber aggression judged them to be effective. Effectiveness was measured in two ways: the extent to which the coping strategy buffered negative emotions, and the extent to which it stopped the cyber aggression. The subsample of 422 respondents (68% girls) who experienced online attacks was divided into two groups: victims of cyberbullying, who experienced long-term and severe victimization, and victims of less severe online harassment. The selection of strategies was compared between these groups and the most prevalent and effective strategies were identified. Overall, respondents in both groups used more than one strategy at once, but for victims of cyberbullying, most of the strategies proved less effective. Both groups showed similar patterns in their use of technical solutions, and both quite frequently sought social support. Also, both groups showed a low tendency for retaliation. Large differences were found in how respondents employed cognitive responses, such as trying to detach mentally from bullying incidents; these strategies were less frequent among victims of cyberbullying. In terms of effectiveness, victims of harassment considered technical solutions such as blocking contacts on social websites, seeking support, or ignoring the bully on purpose the most effective in stopping victimization, as opposed to victims of cyberbullying, who found them less effective, even though they used them as frequently as victims of online harassment. Differences in the effectiveness of coping strategies are discussed with regard to the intervention and prevention of cyberbullying.
Eliminating privacy amplification in secret key generation from wireless channels

The inherent randomness of wireless radio channels can be employed to extract secrets, whenever the channel reciprocity holds. Privacy amplification is an ingredient step for removing the redundancy of key, of which, the mount of information leaked to potential eavesdroppers, is often difficult to determine. In this paper, we propose a secret-key generation scheme without privacy amplification, of which the disagreement of key is coordinated through the reconciliation of sample positions as did in the level-crossing scheme. Compared to the level-crossing scheme, the proposed approach accumulates the reliable samples and further employs multi-bit quantization for improving the rate of secret-key generation. The accumulated samples should be decorrelated for generating random keys. Through extensive simulations, we find that the Karhunen-Loève transform for decorrelation is very sensitive in implementation.
PROVERBS, VALUES AND THE DEVELOPMENT QUESTION IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF YORUBA PROVERBS

If culture is a veritable instrument of development and language, a carrier of culture, and the relationship between language and culture is like that of two sides of the same coin, then the role of proverb as a metaphorical use of language cannot be overemphasized in any development discourse. This paper examined this invaluable nexus between language and development, with particular emphasis on how the use of proverb and its teachings could help revive moral/cultural values, and thus be used as a veritable instrument of development. This is done by taking as a foil, a content analysis of some of Yoruba proverbs, particularly the proverbs whose subject matter is on the development-related themes like care for others and cooperation, leadership qualities, advice, reproach and punishment, conflict resolution and warning. Keywords: Proverbs, development, culture, language, contemporary Africa
Family satisfaction and social networking leisure

Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the bidirectional relationship between the use of social networking sites (SNS) for leisure, and family and leisure satisfaction. The sociotechnological model served as a sensitising theoretical framework for this study. Seven families (22 individuals) took part in group and individual interviews. The data obtained from interviews were analysed using constant comparative method. The results showed that influences of SNS on satisfaction with family leisure and family satisfaction varied: the use of SNS helped families to build enjoyable family leisure, stay connected with family members and increase a sense of belonging. In some cases, however, it also decreased the amount of time spent with family, lowered attention during face-to-face interactions, provided opportunity for negative comparisons and caused concerns about the development of social skills among youth. In turn, family relationships and satisfaction with family life influenced the way family members used SNS for leisure. Some participants increased the use of SNS during times of family conflict in order to seek support and as a way to distract themselves from unpleasant thoughts. Others limited their use of SNS due to lack of interest in social pursuits and to avoid sharing information about family conflicts.
High Times: An Ethnography of Young Adult Drug Use

This research explores the phenomenon of ‘legal highs’ or Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS), directing substantial focus towards the exploration of user attraction. Whilst legal high research is expanding, the topic of legal highs still remains a relatively under-researched topic. In particular, research concerning the user is in short supply, as policy makers remain detached from the importance of understanding the attraction for users (Winstock and Ramsey, 2010). Therefore, this paper attempts to capitalise in the expansion of this knowledge and discover what reasons users attribute for the use of these psychoactive substances. A comprehensive review of the current literature has attributed the rise in use to predominantly two significant factors, ‘legality’ and ‘availability’. Although existing literature identifies legality as a secondary motivating factor, this paper questions whether its impact is somewhat underplayed throughout previous research.
Alleviating Poor Context with Background Knowledge for Named Entity Disambiguation

Named Entity Disambiguation (NED) algorithms disambiguate mentions of named entities with respect to a knowledge-base, but sometimes the context might be poor or misleading. In this paper we introduce the acquisition of two kinds of background information to alleviate that problem: entity similarity and selectional preferences for syntactic positions. We show, using a generative N¨aive Bayes model for NED, that the additional sources of context are complementary, and improve results in the CoNLL 2003 and TAC KBP DEL 2014 datasets, yielding the third best and the best results, respectively. We provide examples and analysis which show the value of the acquired background information.
Norepinephrine Is Necessary for Experience-Dependent Plasticity in the Developing Mouse Auditory Cortex

Critical periods are developmental windows during which the stimuli an animal encounters can reshape response properties in the affected system to a profound degree. Despite this window's importance, the neural mechanisms that regulate it are not completely understood. Pioneering studies in visual cortex initially indicated that norepinephrine (NE) permits ocular dominance column plasticity during the critical period, but later research has suggested otherwise. More recent work implicating NE in experience-dependent plasticity in the adult auditory cortex led us to re-examine the role of NE in critical period plasticity. Here, we exposed dopamine β-hydroxylase knock-out (Dbh−/−) mice, which lack NE completely from birth, to a biased acoustic environment during the auditory cortical critical period. This manipulation led to a redistribution of best frequencies (BFs) across auditory cortex in our control mice, consistent with prior work. By contrast, Dbh−/− mice failed to exhibit the expected redistribution of BFs, even though NE-deficient and NE-competent mice showed comparable auditory cortical organization when reared in a quiet colony environment. These data suggest that while intrinsic tonotopic patterning of auditory cortical circuitry occurs independently from NE, NE is required for critical period plasticity in auditory cortex.
PSA mass screening: is there enough evidence?

Prostate cancer plays an important role in widely understood aspects of men's health, and is becoming a growing problem in terms of public life. Prostate cancer is one of the most common neoplasms among men. Male patients can live with prostate cancer for a long time so it is important to offer appropriate males adequate diagnostic tools and treatments. Prostate cancer and PSA potentially represent a “pair” of a disease and an appropriate indicator to be used in mass screening, but regardless of that there is still active debate about it. Extensive use of PSA screening has modified epidemiology of the diseases. Randomized controlled studies provided sufficient results regarding a reduction in mortality through PSA mass screening, while all agreed on risks of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. New and accurate screening tools are necessary, along with adequate counseling and risk stratification.
Chinook Salmon - Trends in Abundance and Biological Characteristics

Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, the least abundant but largest in size of the five major Pa - cific salmon species, are widely distributed throughout the North Pacific Rim. Although precise numbers spawning in many rivers are little known, many stocks have only a small percentage of their historic abundance levels, and more than 50 stocks have become extinct. Over the past decade commercial catches have fluctuated between one and two million fish annually with an additional 0.6-0.9 million fish caught in recreational, subsistence, and aboriginal fisheries. About half of all commercial catches are made in the United States, particularly in Alaska and Pacific-Northwest states, with the remainder caught, in descending order, by Canada, Russia, and Japan. Within the U. S. , nine fish populations are listed in Pacific-Northwest states as threatened or endangered, according to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). While no formal ESA-type listings occur in other areas, some populations in Canada and Russia are of special concern due to declining trends. Current trends in abundance are reviewed from different regions with a focus on stocks of concern but also including some stocks whose trends are relatively stable. While equivocal in improving the status of many depressed wild stocks, hatcheries are important in help- ing maintain fisheries and general abundance in some areas. Chinook salmon are characterized by high plasticity and life-history variability, as seen in their multiple age groups, diverse temporal migration behavior as they return to natal streams, distinct races with separate freshwater and ocean life-history behavior patterns, and red-fleshed and white-fleshed forms. Long-term declines in the average size and age of Chinook salmon appear to be con - tinuing for some stocks and fisheries. The species may be establishing new populations and expanding its range into higher latitudes, possibly due to global warming and other climatic changes.
Physical activity and sport in advanced age: is it risky? a summary of data from articles published between 2000-2009.

BACKGROUND The benefits of physical activity in old age are well documented. However, studies have shown that older adults are insufficiently active. One of the reported barriers to physical activity is fear of injuries. OBJECTIVE To review available data on the rate of injuries related to sport and purposeful physical activity in advanced aged. METHODS A systematic review of reports published in English, identified by searching four data bases and the reference lists of reviewed articles. Eligible reports were full articles in a peer-reviewed journal, and the study report had to include the injury rate of individuals aged 45 and above and the kind of activities that led to the injury. Seven reports met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS Studies on injuries in advanced age are scarce, and lack information on the rate of injuries relative to the extent of exercise. The rate of injuries occurring during physical activity in advanced age, based on existing data, is very low compared to other ages. The injury rate of men is almost twice that of women. Men tend to get injured while engaging in ball games and bicycling, while women mostly during exercise. The most frequent reported injuries in the general population including older adults are strains and sprains, followed by fractures in the lower and upper extremities. CONCLUSIONS Since older adults are being encouraged to increase their habitual physical activity even beyond the basic recommended guidelines, more studies are needed to assess the risk of injuries relative to the extent of exercise.