Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deep Hashing with Category Mask for Fast Video Retrieval

This paper proposes an end-to-end deep hashing framework with category mask for fast video retrieval. We train our network in a supervised way by fully exploiting inter-class diversity and intra-class identity. Classification loss is optimized to maximize inter-class diversity, while intra-pair is introduced to learn representative intra-class identity. We investigate the binary bits distribution related to categories and find out that the effectiveness of binary bits is highly related to categories, and certain bits may degrade classification performance of some categories. We then design hash code generation scheme with category mask to filter out bits with negative contribution. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-arts under various evaluation metrics on public datasets. We are making our code and models public online.
Surrogate end-point biomarkers as measures of colon cancer risk and their use in cancer chemoprevention trials.

Surrogate end-point biomarkers (SEBs) have become widely used in short-term cancer chemoprevention trials in place of cancer end points. This paper discusses criteria relevant to the selection and validation of SEBs for colon cancer risk and the use of SEBs in colon cancer chemoprevention trials. As with a number of other cancers, colon carcinogenesis is the result of a multistep process in which an increasing number of alterations, including specific gene mutations, occur as cells progress from normal to precancerous states of increasing size and dysplasia to cancer and finally to metastatic disease. Ideally, a SEB would show differential expression between the various phases of colon carcinogenesis (i.e., normal, premalignant, and malignant tissues) and be associated with risk of colon cancer. Some SEBs that do not meet these criteria may still be useful for demonstrating the effect of a particular agent. It is also necessary that a SEB be measured in tissues (or other sample material) accessible for multiple and sequential sampling and allow for development of appropriate quality control procedures. Some SEBs must have the potential for modulation by chemopreventive agents. Validation of SEBs for use in chemoprevention studies requires that a relationship between the marker and subsequent risk of cancer be established. Also, the assay reliability and accuracy for each SEB must be determined adequately in well-designed prospective studies.
Analysis and modeling of recent business failures in Greece

This paper provides an analysis of recent business failures in Greece and presents models for detecting financially distressed firms. Logit, probit, linear probability model, and linear discriminant analysis are used for developing these models. Potential users of the models include the banking system, corporate creditors, regulatory agencies, and investors in Greece, the European Economic Community, the USA, and other countries. These models expand the tools used by international and domestic investors to measure Greek firms' risk of insolvency.
Lossless and high-resolution RF photonic notch filter.

A novel technique to create a lossless and tunable RF photonic bandstop filter with an ultra-high suppression is demonstrated using the combination of an overcoupled optical ring resonator and tailored stimulated Brillouin scattering gain. The filter bandwidth narrowing is counterintuitively synthesized from two broad optical resonance responses. Through a precise amplitude and phase tailoring in the optical domain, the RF filter achieves a minimum insertion loss (<0 dB), a high isolation (>50 dB), and a tunable 3 dB bandwidth (60-220 MHz) simultaneously with wide frequency tunability (1-11 GHz). This ultra-low loss RF filter paves the way toward broadband advanced spectrum management with low loss, high selectivity, and improved signal-to-noise ratio.
Activation of Adenosine Triphosphate–regulated Potassium Channels during Reperfusion Restores Isoflurane Postconditioning-induced Cardiac Protection in Acutely Hyperglycemic Rabbits

Background:Hyperglycemia is known to inhibit myocardial anesthetic postconditioning. The authors tested whether activation of adenosine triphosphate–regulated potassium (KATP) channels would restore anesthetic postconditioning during acute hyperglycemia. Methods:Rabbits subjected to 40-min myocardial ischemia and 3-h reperfusion (ischemia–reperfusion [I/R]) were assigned to groups (n = 10 in each group) with or without isoflurane postconditioning (2.1% for 5 min) in the presence or absence of hyperglycemia and/or the KATP channel agonist diazoxide. Creatine kinase MB fraction and infarct size were measured. Phosphorylated protein kinase B (Akt) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) were assessed. Oxidative stress was evaluated by measuring malondialdehyde, and apoptosis was assessed by dUTP nick-end labeling and activated caspase-3. Results:Postconditioning significantly reduced myocardial infarct size (26 ± 4% in the isoflurane [ISO] group vs. 53 ± 2% in the I/R group; P = 0.007); whereas, hyperglycemia inhibited this effect (infarct size: 47 ± 2%, P = 0.02 vs. the ISO group). Phosphorylated and eNOS levels increased, whereas malondialdehyde and myocardial apoptosis were significantly lower after isoflurane postconditioning compared with I/R. These effects were inhibited by acute hyperglycemia. Diazoxide restored the protective effect of isoflurane in the hyperglycemic animals (infarct size: 29 ± 2%; P = 0.01 vs. the I/R group), reduced malondialdehyde levels and myocardial apoptosis, but did not affect the expression of phosphorylated Akt or eNOS. Conclusions:KATP channel activation restored anesthetic postconditioning-induced myocardial protection under acute hyperglycemia. This effect occurred without increasing Akt or eNOS phosphorylation, suggesting that KATP channels are located downstream to Akt and eNOS in the pathway of isoflurane-induced myocardial postconditioning.
A Tale of Two Index Futures: The Intraday Price Discovery and Volatility Transmission Processes Between the China Financial Futures Exchange and the Singapore Exchange

This is the first study to examine the intraday price discovery and volatility transmission processes between the Singapore Exchange and the China Financial Futures Exchange. Using one- and five-minute high-frequency data from May to November 2011, the authors find that the Chinese Securities Index 300 index futures dominate Singapore's A50 index futures in both intraday price discovery and intraday volatility transmission. However, A50 futures contracts also make a substantial contribution (26-37 percent) to the price discovery process. These results have important implications for both traders and policymakers.
The Relational Organization of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Entrepreneurial ecosystems have emerged as a popular concept to explain the persistence of high–growth entrepreneurship within regions. However, as a theoretical concept ecosystems remain underdeveloped, making it difficult to understand their structure and influence on the entrepreneurship process. The article argues that ecosystems are composed of 10 cultural, social, and material attributes that provide benefits and resources to entrepreneurs and that the relationships between these attributes reproduce the ecosystem. This model is illustrated with case studies of Waterloo, Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The cases demonstrate the variety of different configurations that ecosystems can take.
Psychological Risk Factors and Outcomes of Dance Injury

Historically, dance medicine and science has focused on the physical aspects rather than the psychological aspects of dance injury. Psychological variables, however, have been shown to influence the occurrence of injury and post-injury outcomes. The purpose of this review was to examine the dance psychology literature and determine the specific psychological factors reported to be associated with the incidence, frequency, and outcome of dance injuries. A systematic literature search was conducted using SPORTDiscus, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. All retrieved articles were screened based on criteria developed a priori, and selected articles were subsequently assessed for quality. Thirteen studies met the inclusion and quality assessment criteria. Psychological factors associated with both risk and outcome of dance injury included the following: stress, psychological distress, disordered eating, and coping. Factors associated only with risk of injury were sleep, personality, and social support. The results suggest that psychological variables can affect both the incidence and outcome of dance injury among dancers. Therefore, it is critical to gain a well-rounded, thorough understanding of all the factors, including psychological, that have a negative impact on dancers with respect to dance injury. The findings are discussed in terms of the utility of including psychological assessment and intervention, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, when implementing preventative and treatment measures in dance schools and companies.
Utilization of surgical treatment for local and locoregional esophageal cancer: Analysis of the National Cancer Data Base

Previous studies have suggested that esophagectomy is severely underused for patients with resectable esophageal cancer. The recent expansion of endoscopic local therapies, advances in surgical techniques, and improved postoperative outcomes have changed the therapeutic landscape. The impact of these developments and evolving treatment guidelines on national practice patterns is unknown.
Weighing weight : effect of below-knee prosthetic inertial properties on gait

textabstractIn this thesis, the influence of prosthetic inertial properties (mass, mass distribution and moment of inertia) on the gait of transtibial amputation (TTA) subjects is studied. Chapter 1 introduces the present ideas on prosthetic mass. It describes that the general design effort has always been, and still is, to reduce prosthetic mass. However, as far as we know, lightweight design has never been advocated in the present literature. The Chapter introduces the opposite view, found in a relatively large body of literature, that lightweight design might not be beneficial for prosthetic gait. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to determine the optimal inertial properties of the prosthetic leg.
Trade and Labor Standards in the European Union: A Gravity Model Approach

Using a gravity model, we examine whether labor standards are important determinants of bilateral export performance for EU-15 countries over the period 1988–2001. We assess the conventional wisdom that countries with low labor standards and less stringent regulations have performed better in terms of trade performance, and we use a panel data set in a triple-indexed gravity model to conduct our empirical investigation. We find several instances where improvements in labor standards are related to improvements in export performance, suggesting that productivity improvements as a result of better standards outweigh the costs of these standards themselves. These results are robust to the choice of dependent variable, specification tests, and robustness checks. The standard variables used in gravity equations conform to theoretical expectations and are highly significant.
Three challenges for the science of ri 7 er conser 7 ation

Millennial perspectives, like the one prompted by this Special Issue of Aquatic Conser6ation, are challenging. If we look back, we realize the degree of change in culture, technology, science and environmental quality that can occur over such time scales. Consider, for example, that by the turn of the last millennium, our global population was somewhere between 200 and 500 million (Ehrlich et al., 1977; Goode, 1993). Homo sapiens had only just colonized Madagascar (ca 500 AD) and New Zealand (ca 700–800 AD). Forest clearance was already under way in some areas, including Britain (Birks, 1988), but large areas of the rest of the world were still largely under semi-natural vegetation (Goode, 1993). Emerging from the dark ages, major new technologies were the compass (ca 1100 AD)—among the first of all hand-held instruments—but also features that from here on would hasten the worldwide modification of wetlands and their catchments: the horse collar, the stirrup, the heavy plough, the windmill, and the water wheel. Now, 1000 years later, technology pervades most of our activities. We approach our 6th billion (population), and large areas of the world are dominated by human activity or management: 65% of Europe, 29% of Asia, 25% of North America, and 36% of the exploitable global surface in total (Hannah et al., 1994). Global extinctions have accelerated from a background rate of just 2–3 species per year to 100–1000 times this value, with the prospect of increase in the coming decades by a further order of magnitude (Lawton, 1996). All this has occurred in the equivalent of about 13 human lifetimes. Looking forward, therefore, there are bound to be difficulties in making straightforward predictions about the shape of things to come. Yet, there is one certainty of both our past and future: we are fundamentally dependent on the need to exploit water resources, and to protect their quality for the services, resources and intrinsic ecosystem value they contain. It was no coincidence that human civilizations grew along the fertile and richly irrigated floodplains of the Nile, the Indus, the Euphrates and the Tigris. Already by 2500 BC human settlements were characterized by wells, reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, piped distribution systems and sanitary drainage. Intimately bound with water as we have been, archaeological artefacts provide evidence that exploitation of aquatic resources is ancient: pots, boats, fish-traps, the use of Papyrus or Salix spp. Now, however, there are indications that this fundamental bond with water is under strain. Current global trends in population mean that demands on surface water and groundwater resources must
The Generalized Gravity Equation, Monopolistic Competition, and the Factor-Proportions Theory in International Trade

A general equilibrium model of world trade with two differentiated-product industries and two factors is developed to illustrate how the gravity equation, including exporter and importer populations, as well as incomes, "fits in" with the Heckscher-Ohlin model of interindustry trade and the Helpman-Krugman-Markusen models of intraindustry trade. The study extends the microeconomic foundations for a generalized gravity equation in Bergstrand (1985) to incorporate relative factor-endowment differences and nonhomothetic tastes. Empirical estimates of this generalized gravity equation for single-digit Standard Industrial Trade Classification industry groups yield plausible inferences of their capital-labor intensities. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.
Soil moisture as a factor affecting the microbiological and biochemical activity of soil

The purpose of this research has been to identify relationships between soil moisture and the growth and development of microorganisms, their diversity and the activity of soil enzymes. Four soils with different texture were analysed. Air-dry soils were watered up to the moisture content corresponding to 20, 40 and 60% of the maximum water capacity (MWC) and subsequently were submitted to determinations of the counts of soil microorganisms, colony development index and ecophysiological diversity index for bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi. In addition, the response of seven soil enzymes to soil humidity was examined. It was found that the most optimum soil moisture for the development of organotrophic bacteria was the one at the level of 20% of MWC. For Azotobacter spp. bacteria and actinomycetes, the 40% MWC soil moisture level was optimum, while fungi developed the best at the soil moisture level of 60% of MWC. In turn, the activity of soil dehydrogenases, catalase, urease, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, β-glucosidase and arylsulfatase was the highest in soil with 20% of MWC. The principal component analysis showed that the soil moisture determined the microbial and biochemical soil activity to a much lesser degree than did the soil type.
From safety analysis to experimental validation by fault injection - Case of automotive embedded systems. (Des analyses de sécurité à la validation expérimentale par injection de fautes ? Le cas des systèmes embarqués automobiles)

Due to the rising complexity of automotive Electric/Electronic embedded systems, Functional Safety becomes a main issue in the automotive industry. This issue has been formalized by the introduction of the ISO 26262 standard for functional safety in 2011. The challenges are, on the one hand to design safe systems based on a systematic verification and validation approach, and on the other hand, the fulfilment of the requirements of the ISO 26262 standard. Following ISO 26262 recommendations, our approach, based on fault injection, aims at verifying fault tolerance mechanisms and non-functional requirements at all steps of the development cycle, from early design phases down to implementation. Fault injection is a verification technique that has been investigated for a long time. However, the role of fault injection during design phase and its complementarities with the experimental validation of the target have not been explored. In this work, we investigate a fault injection continuum, from system design validation to experiments on implemented targets. The proposed approach considers the safety analyses as a starting point, with the identification of safety mechanisms and safety requirements, and goes down to the validation of the implementation of safety mechanisms through fault injection experiments. The whole approach is based on a key fault injection framework, called FARM (Fault, Activation, Readouts and Measures). We show that this approach can be integrated in the development process of the automotive embedded systems described in the ISO 26262 standard. Our approach is illustrated on an automotive case study: a Front-Light system.
Proxy Assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life in African American and White Respondents With Prostate Cancer: Perspective Matters

Objectives:An emerging issue in the proxy literature is whether specifying different proxy viewpoints contributes to different health-related quality of life (HRQL) assessments, and if so, how might each perspective be informative in medical decision making. The aims of this study were to determine if informal caregiver assessments of patients with prostate cancer differed when prompted from both the patient perspective (proxy-patient) and their own viewpoint (proxy-proxy), and to identify factors associated with differences in proxy perspectives (ie, the intraproxy gap). Research Design and Methods:Using a cross-sectional design, prostate cancer patients and their informal caregivers were recruited from urology clinics in the Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in Chicago. Dyads assessed HRQL using the EQ-5D visual analog scale (VAS) and EORTC QLQ-C30. Results:Of 87 dyads, most caregivers were female (83%) and were spouses/partners (58%). Mean difference scores between proxy-patient and proxy-proxy perspectives were statistically significant for QLQ-C30 physical and emotional functioning, and VAS (all P < 0.05), with the proxy-patient perspective closer to patient self-report. Emotional functioning had the largest difference, mean 6.0 (SD 12.8), an effect size = 0.47. Factors weakly correlated with the intraproxy gap included relationship (spouse) and proxy gender for role functioning, and health literacy (limited/functional) for physical functioning (all P < 0.05, 0.20 < r < 0.35). Conclusions:Meaningful differences between proxy-patient and proxy-proxy perspectives on mental health were consistent with a conceptual framework for understanding proxy perspectives. Prompting different proxy viewpoints on patient health could help clinicians identify patients who may benefit from clinical intervention.
Creep behavior of joint-scale Sn1.0Ag0.5Cu solder shear samples

This study investigates the creep behavior of joint-scale Sn1.0Ag0. 5Cu (SAC105) solder samples under shear loading. The objective of the work is to determine the Anand viscoplastic constitutive model parameters for this low silver content ternary SAC solder alloy. A series of monotonic constant shear stress (5-15MPa) and constant shear strain rate (1E-6-1E-2 (1/s)) tests was conducted at temperatures of 20°C, 50°C, 75°C and 100°C in order to provide data to extract the constitutive model parameters. The predictions of the Anand model are compared graphically with the experimental data in order to illustrate goodness-of-fit. SAC105 was found to be more creep resistant at higher strain rates than at lower strain rates for all temperatures and test conditions. The derived Anand parameters are shown to capture the creep performance of the SAC105 solder under shear loading very well, with the experimental data being tightly bound to the Anand predictions. In addition to the quantification of mechanical characteristics, a preliminary Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) investigation was conducted to investigate the effect of preconditioning on the grain structure of SAC105 solder joints. Results indicate that the misorientaion of the solder grains increased during preconditioning, signaling grain coarsening due to ageing.
Reductions in cerebral blood flow during passive heat stress in humans: partitioning the mechanisms

Non‐technical summary Heat stress reduces brain blood flow and impairs orthostatic tolerance. Brain blood flow is largely controlled by the partial pressure of arterial . Indeed, hyperthermia‐induced over‐breathing and related reductions in arterial account for ∼50% of the reduction in brain blood flow. This investigation tested the unique hypothesis that the distribution of cardiac output during heat stress (challenged by thermoregulatory increases in skin blood flow and sweat loss) contributes to the remaining 50%. We show that cardiac output is not related to brain blood flow, but rather arterial plays a much larger role than previously suggested. These findings help us understand the mechanisms relating heat stress with an increased likelihood of fainting, and are also relevant to pathological conditions that are accompanied by elevations in body temperature.
The Analysis of Stochastic Volatility in the Presence of Daily Realised Measures

We develop a systematic framework for the joint modeling of returns and multiple daily realized measures. We assume a linear state space representation for the log realized measures, which are noisy and biased estimates of the log daily integrated variance, at least due to Jensen's inequality. We incorporate filtering methods for the estimation of the latent log-volatility process. The dependence between daily returns and realized measurement errors leads us to develop a two-step estimation method for all parameters in our model specification. The estimation method is computationally straightforward even when the stochastic volatility model has non-Gaussian return innovations and leverage effects. Our extensive empirical study for nine Dow Jones stock return series reveals that measurement errors become significantly smaller after filtering and that the forecasts from our model outperforms those from a set of recently developed alternatives. Copyright The Author, 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.