Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
R-FCN: Object Detection via Region-based Fully Convolutional Networks

We present region-based, fully convolutional networks for accurate and efficient object detection. In contrast to previous region-based detectors such as Fast/Faster R-CNN that apply a costly per-region subnetwork hundreds of times, our region-based detector is fully convolutional with almost all computation shared on the entire image. To achieve this goal, we propose position-sensitive score maps to address a dilemma between translation-invariance in image classification and translation-variance in object detection. Our method can thus naturally adopt fully convolutional image classifier backbones, such as the latest Residual Networks (ResNets), for object detection. We show competitive results on the PASCAL VOC datasets (e.g., 83.6% mAP on the 2007 set) with the 101-layer ResNet. Meanwhile, our result is achieved at a test-time speed of 170ms per image, 2.5-20 times faster than the Faster R-CNN counterpart. Code is made publicly available at: https://github.com/daijifeng001/r-fcn.
Titanium: a review on exposure, release, penetration, allergy, epidemiology, and clinical reactivity

Exposure to titanium (Ti) from implants and from personal care products as nanoparticles (NPs) is common. This article reviews exposure sources, ion release, skin penetration, allergenic effects, and diagnostic possibilities. We conclude that human exposure to Ti mainly derives from dental and medical implants, personal care products, and foods. Despite being considered to be highly biocompatible relative to other metals, Ti is released in the presence of biological fluids and tissue, especially under certain circumstances, which seem to be more likely with regard to dental implants. Although most of the studies reviewed have important limitations, Ti seems not to penetrate a competent skin barrier, either as pure Ti, alloy, or as Ti oxide NPs. However, there are some indications of Ti penetration through the oral mucosa. We conclude that patch testing with the available Ti preparations for detection of type IV hypersensitivity is currently inadequate for Ti. Although several other methods for contact allergy detection have been suggested, including lymphocyte stimulation tests, none has yet been generally accepted, and the diagnosis of Ti allergy is therefore still based primarily on clinical evaluation. Reports on clinical allergy and adverse events have rarely been published. Whether this is because of unawareness of possible adverse reactions to this specific metal, difficulties in detection methods, or the metal actually being relatively safe to use, is still unresolved.
Refugees, Transnationalism and the State

One of the most significant unresolved debates around the concept of transnationalism concerns the extent to which state power is being challenged or even undermined by transnational processes. Drawing on recent research that has established interactions between refugees and transnational processes, this paper considers the implications of these interactions for the relationship between refugees and the state. Are they empowering refugees to move and enter destination countries, or are they reinforcing state control over their movement? Three case studies form the empirical focus for the article—the ‘temporary protection’ of Bosnians in Europe during the 1990s, the smuggling of asylum-seekers into Europe, and the contribution of Eritrean transnational communities to post-conflict reconstruction at home. The paper concludes that in most cases transnationalism has reinforced state control rather than empowered refugees. It then considers a number of transnational solutions that might help move beyond the cu.
Purchasing Over-the-counter medicines from Australian pharmacy: What do the pharmacy customers value and expect?

Background: Over-the-counter medicines (OTC) are widely available and can be purchased without a prescription. Their availability means that a customer may choose to purchase them without the involvement of a pharmacy/pharmacist. It is important to understand customer OTC purchasing perceptions and behaviour from a pharmacy to better understand the needs and opportunities in this space. Objective: This study aimed to examine customers’ key expectations and what they value when purchasing OTC and how the effect of health status/stress and perceived risks/benefits of purchasing OTCs from a pharmacy may influence their OTC shopping behaviour. Methods: Customers from two metropolitan pharmacies across two different suburbs in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia completed a self-administered questionnaire. Data collection was conducted over a six-week period. The questionnaire examined demographics, current level of health and stress, as well as a range of questions (seven-point Likert-scale) examining perceived benefits and risks, what they value, trust and expect when purchasing OTC. Results: A total of 86 customers from a broad range of demographics were captured in this study. When asked about their current health state, 41% and 23% respectively indicated that they were stressed and tense when they arrived at the pharmacy but many were feeling well (38%). Most customers strongly agreed/agreed that trust in the advice from a pharmacy (96%), trust in the products (73%), and the altruistic approach of a pharmacy (95%) were critical to them. Further, 82% and 78% respectively disagreed that time pressures or costs were concerns, despite many feeling tense and stressed when they came in. When asked where they intend to buy their future OTC, 89% indicated pharmacy instead of a supermarket. Conclusions: High levels of trust, confidence and sense of altruism and care were key factors for customers buying OTC from a pharmacy, regardless of time pressures, costs or existing levels of stress and health.
Comparison of DC and AC NBTI kinetics in RMG Si and SiGe p-FinFETs

An ultrafast characterization method is used to study DC and AC NBTI in Si and SiGe channel core RMG p-FinFETs. The time evolution of degradation during and after stress, and the impact of stress bias, temperature, frequency and duty cycle are characterized. A physics-based model is used to qualitatively explain measured data. The similarities and differences of DC and AC NBTI in Si and SiGe channel devices are highlighted.
An unsupervised approach based on the generalized Gaussian model to automatic change detection in multitemporal SAR images

We present a novel automatic and unsupervised change-detection approach specifically oriented to the analysis of multitemporal single-channel single-polarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. This approach is based on a closed-loop process made up of three main steps: (1) a novel preprocessing based on a controlled adaptive iterative filtering; (2) a comparison between multitemporal images carried out according to a standard log-ratio operator; and (3) a novel approach to the automatic analysis of the log-ratio image for generating the change-detection map. The first step aims at reducing the speckle noise in a controlled way in order to maximize the discrimination capability between changed and unchanged classes. In the second step, the two filtered multitemporal images are compared to generate a log-ratio image that contains explicit information on changed areas. The third step produces the change-detection map according to a thresholding procedure based on a reformulation of the Kittler-Illingworth (KI) threshold selection criterion. In particular, the modified KI criterion is derived under the generalized Gaussian assumption for modeling the distributions of changed and unchanged classes. This parametric model was chosen because it is capable of better fitting the conditional densities of classes in the log-ratio image. In order to control the filtering step and, accordingly, the effects of the filtering process on change-detection accuracy, we propose to identify automatically the optimal number of despeckling filter iterations [Step 1] by analyzing the behavior of the modified KI criterion. This results in a completely automatic and self-consistent change-detection approach that avoids the use of empirical methods for the selection of the best number of filtering iterations. Experiments carried out on two sets of multitemporal images (characterized by different levels of speckle noise) acquired by the European Remote Sensing 2 satellite SAR sensor confirm the effectiveness of the proposed unsupervised approach, which results in change-detection accuracies very similar to those that can be achieved by a manual supervised thresholding.
Rare K and B Decays in a warped extra dimension with custodial protection

We present a complete study of rare K and B meson decays in a warped extra dimensional model with a custodial protection of (both diagonal and non-diagonal) ZdLiLj couplings, including K+ ? +? , KL ? 0? , KL ? 0? +? , KL ? +? , Bs,d ? +? , B ? K? , B ? K*? and B ? Xs,d? In this model in addition to Standard Model one loop contributions these processes receive tree level contributions from the Z boson and the new heavy electroweak gauge bosons. We analyse all these contributions that turn out to be dominated by tree level Z boson exchanges governed by right-handed couplings to down-type quarks. Imposing all existing constraints from ? F = 2 transitions analysed by us recently and fitting all quark masses and CKM mixing parameters we find that a number of branching ratios for rare K decays can differ significantly from the SM predictions, while the corresponding effects in rare B decays are modest, dominantly due to the custodial protection being more effective in B decays than in K decays. In order to reduce the parameter dependence we study correlations between various observables within the K system, within the B system and in particular between K and B systems, and also between ? F = 2 and ? F = 1 observables. These correlations allow for a clear distinction between this new physics scenario and models with minimal flavour violation or the Littlest Higgs Model with T-parity, and could give an opportunity to future experiments to confirm or rule out the model. We show how our results would change if the custodial protection of ZdLijL couplings was absent. In the case of rare B decays the modifications are spectacular.
Effects of Roflumilast, a Phosphodiesterase-4 Inhibitor, on Hypoxia- and Monocrotaline-Induced Pulmonary Hypertension in Rats

Phosphodiesterase type 4 (PDE4) is involved in the hydrolysis of cAMP in pulmonary vascular smooth muscle (PA-SMC) and immune inflammatory cells. Given that intracellular cAMP accumulation inhibits contraction and growth of PA-SMCs as well as inflammatory cell functions, we investigated the effects of the PDE4 inhibitor 3-cyclopropylmethoxy-4-difluoromethoxy-N-[3,5-di-chloropyrid-4-yl]-benzamide (roflumilast), on pulmonary hypertension (PH) in rats. Treatment with roflumilast (0.5 or 1.5 mg · kg-1 day-1) from day 1 to day 21 after monocrotaline (MCT) injection (60 mg · kg-1 s.c.) attenuated PH development: pulmonary artery pressure, right ventricular hypertrophy, and muscularization of distal vessels on day 21 were decreased compared to control MCT-treated rats. Roflumilast (1.5 mg · kg-1 day-1) also reduced the increases in interleukin-6 and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 mRNAs observed in lung tissue on day 21 without affecting the rise in interleukin-1β mRNA on days 1 and 21. Roflumilast (1.5 mg · kg-1 day-1) from day 21 to day 42 after MCT reversed established PH, almost normalizing pulmonary artery pressure and structure, and suppressing proliferating cell nuclear antigen-positive cells in pulmonary vascular walls. Treatment with roflumilast similarly attenuated PH development due to chronic hypoxia. Treatment of human PA-SMCs with roflumilast N-oxide, the active metabolite of roflumilast, at concentrations up to 10-6 M, potentiated PA-SMC growth inhibition induced by prostacyclin (10-6 M) or interleukin-1β (10 ng · ml-1) but was inactive on its own. In conclusion, the PDE4 inhibitor roflumilast significantly attenuates pulmonary vascular remodeling and hypertension induced by chronic hypoxia or MCT and reverses established PH after MCT administration.
Income and psychological distress: the role of the social environment.

BACKGROUND This article examines the relationship between lower income and the risk of experiencing high psychological distress over twelve years. DATA AND METHODS Data from the first 12 years of the longitudinal National Population Health Survey (1994/1995 through 2006/2007) were analysed. Proportional hazards modelling was conducted to determine whether lower household income was associated with a greater risk of experiencing high distress, when adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and baseline health status. It was also used to examine the relationship between reporting a stressor and experiencing a subsequent episode of distress. RESULTS Overall, 11% of the initial sample experienced at least one episode of high distress during the 12 years of the study. Low-income respondents were at a significantly higher risk of becoming psychologically distressed, and many of the stressors were associated with a significantly higher risk of becoming distressed. Stressors accounted for 22% of the relationship between low income and distress for men, and more than a third of this relationship for women. INTERPRETATION Low income is an important risk factor for becoming psychologically distressed, and stressors account for part of this increased risk.
Value or Growth? Pricing of Idiosyncratic Cash-Flow Risk with Heterogeneous Beliefs

We study a continuous-time pure exchange economy where idiosyncratic cash flow risks are priced via investors' heterogeneous beliefs. Investors perceive idiosyncratic cash flow risks differently through heterogeneous subjective mean growth rates on a firm's cash flow. This impacts equilibrium quantities. Our model shows that idiosyncratic cash flow shocks priced through belief differences can explain cross-sectional variations in stock returns and cash flows. Quantitative results show that a value premium arises, as value stocks have higher idiosyncratic cash-flow volatilities, lower average cash flows, and higher belief differences, which is empirically supported. A growth premium prevails without belief differences.
Epigenetic robotics : modelling cognitive development in robotic systems Action editor :

According to Zlatev and Balkenius (2001), the goal of Epigenetic robotics is to understand, and model, the role of development in the emergence of increasingly complex cognitive structures from physical and social interaction. As such, Epigenetic Robotics is an interdisciplinary effort, combining developmental psychology, neuroscience, and robotics. This still recent field is being driven by two main, somewhat parallel, motivations: (a) to understand the brain by constructing embodied systems – the so-called synthetic approach, and (b) to build better systems by learning from human studies. While this two-pronged approach has led to promising results (see (Lungarella, Metta, Pfeifer, & Sandini, 2003) for a comprehensive review), these editors believe that the field will benefit from amore rigorous coupling between both components. Pro-
Fast Brain Plasticity during Word Learning in Musically-Trained Children

Children learn new words every day and this ability requires auditory perception, phoneme discrimination, attention, associative learning and semantic memory. Based on previous results showing that some of these functions are enhanced by music training, we investigated learning of novel words through picture-word associations in musically-trained and control children (8–12 year-old) to determine whether music training would positively influence word learning. Results showed that musically-trained children outperformed controls in a learning paradigm that included picture-sound matching and semantic associations. Moreover, the differences between unexpected and expected learned words, as reflected by the N200 and N400 effects, were larger in children with music training compared to controls after only 3 min of learning the meaning of novel words. In line with previous results in adults, these findings clearly demonstrate a correlation between music training and better word learning. It is argued that these benefits reflect both bottom-up and top-down influences. The present learning paradigm might provide a useful dynamic diagnostic tool to determine which perceptive and cognitive functions are impaired in children with learning difficulties.
Self-reported likelihood of speeding: the effects of attitudes, personality, and perceived legitimacy of enforcement

The positive relationship between speed and crash risk and severity is robust and well-established. While excessive speeding is typically regarded by the public as a common contributing factor in road crashes, speeding remains a common traffic infringement and an arguably socially acceptable behaviour, particularly at low levels over the speed limit. This suggests that other factors potentially contribute to this disparity between crash perceptions and actual behaviours. Previous work has described associations between perceptions of the legitimacy of speed enforcement, attitudes, and how they relate to the likelihood of speeding. This study sought to more closely examine the nature of the relationships between these variables. In total, 293 Queensland drivers participated in a study that examined how demographics, personality variables, attitudes, and perceptions of the legitimacy of enforcement contributed to drivers’ self-reported likelihood of speeding. Results suggested that positive attitudes towards speeding had the greatest impact on likelihood of speeding behaviours. Being younger and higher levels of the personality trait of extraversion were also associated with greater levels of self-reported likelihood of speeding. Attitudes were found to mediate the relationship between perceived legitimacy of speed enforcement and self-reported likelihood of speeding. A subgroup analysis of participants with positive and negative attitudes towards speeding revealed that a differential set of variables were predictive of self-reported likelihood of speeding for the two subgroups. This highlights the potential importance of attitudes in understanding the influence of perceptions of legitimacy of speed enforcement on speeding behaviour, and the need for targeted rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach to changing attitudes and ultimately behaviour. The findings of the current study help to further understand why some drivers continue to speed.
Strongyloides stercoralis: The Most Prevalent Parasitic Cause of Eosinophilia in Gilan Province, Northern Iran

Background Eosinophilia occurs in a wide variety of situations such as parasitic infections, allergic disorders, and malignancies. Most cases of eosinophilia of parasitic origin, especially those with a tissue migration life cycles consists of human infections by helminth parasites. The aim of present study was to determine the parasitic causes of eosinophilia in patients in a major endemic area of human fascioliasis in Gilan Province, northern part of Iran. Methods One hundred and fifty patients presenting with an elevated eosinophilia attending infectious disease clinics with or without clinical symptoms, were examined. After clinical history evaluation and physical examination, coprological examinations were performed using the formalin-ether and the Kato-Katz techniques for detection of Fasciola sp. and intestinal parasites. Results Forty two percent of patients were infected with S. stercoralis, nine (6%) were found to be infected with Fasciola sp. while only a single patient (0.7%) were infected by Ttrichostrongylus sp. Conclusion Local clinicians in Gilan may consider eosinophilia as a suggestive indication for diagnosis of human fascioliasis, especially when microscopic stool and/or serological tests are negative. Based on the results, local physicians should consider S. stercoralis as the potential causes of eosinophilia in patients with elevated eosinophilia.
Selecting Feature Frames for Automatic Speaker Recognition Using Mutual Information

In this paper, an information theoretic approach to selecting feature frames for speaker recognition systems is proposed. A conventional approach in which the frame shift is fixed to around half of the frame length may not be the best choice, because the characteristics of the speech signal may rapidly change, especially at phonetic boundaries. Experimental results show that the recognition accuracy increases if the frame interval is directly controlled using phonetic information. By applying these results to the well-known fact that the recognition accuracy is directly correlated with the amount of mutual information, this paper suggests a novel feature frame selection method for speaker recognition. Specifically, feature frames are chosen to have minimum-redundancy within selected feature frames, but maximum-relevancy to speaker models. It is verified by experiments that the proposed method produces consistent improvement, especially in a speaker verification system. It is also robust against variations in acoustic environment.
Expression of the Longest RGS4 Splice Variant in the Prefrontal Cortex Is Associated with Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Schizophrenia Patients

The Regulator of G protein signaling 4 (RGS4) gene is a candidate susceptibility gene for schizophrenia (SCZ). Previous studies showed that the mRNA level of the longest splice variant RGS4-1 was decreased in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of SCZ patients compared with healthy controls. In this pilot study, we examined the possible mechanisms of RGS4-1 mRNA reduction in SCZ. We genotyped SNP1 (rs10917670), rs2661347, SNP4 (rs951436), SNP7 (rs951439), SNP18 (rs2661319), and rs10799897 (SNP9897) and tested the methylation status of CpG islands of the RGS4 gene in the postmortem DLPFC samples obtained from subjects with SCZ and bipolar disorder as well as healthy controls. RGS4-1 mRNA level was associated with five SNPs (SNP1, rs2661347, SNP4, SNP7, and SNP18) and their haplotypes but not with SNP9897. In addition, this study revealed that RGS4-1 mRNA was low in subjects with specific genotypes of SNP1, rs2661347, SNP4, SNP7, and SNP18. Lower RGS4-1 mRNA expression in the DLPFC of SCZ is associated with SNPs in the 5′ regulatory region of the RGS4 gene but not with the methylation status of its CpG islands.