Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards Fast and Light-Weight Restoration of Dark Images

The ability to capture good quality images in the dark and near-zero lux conditions has been a long-standing pursuit of the computer vision community. The seminal work by Chen et al. [5] has especially caused renewed interest in this area, resulting in methods that build on top of their work in a bid to improve the reconstruction. However, for practical utility and deployment of low-light enhancement algorithms on edge devices such as embedded systems, surveillance cameras, autonomous robots and smartphones, the solution must respect additional constraints such as limited GPU memory and processing power. With this in mind, we propose a deep neural network architecture that aims to strike a balance between the network latency, memory utilization, model parameters, and reconstruction quality. The key idea is to forbid computations in the High-Resolution (HR) space and limit them to a Low-Resolution (LR) space. However, doing the bulk of computations in the LR space causes artifacts in the restored image. We thus propose Pack and UnPack operations, which allow us to effectively transit between the HR and LR spaces without incurring much artifacts in the restored image. We show that we can enhance a full resolution, 2848 x 4256, extremely dark single-image in the ballpark of 3 seconds even on a CPU. We achieve this with 2 - 7x fewer model parameters, 2 - 3x lower memory utilization, 5 - 20x speed up and yet maintain a competitive image reconstruction quality compared to the state-of-the-art algorithms.
The Good News About Disappearing Jobs: U.S. High School Dropout Rates and Import Exposure∗

We exploit regional variation in exposure to Chinese import competition to identify the e ect of trade-induced changes in labor market conditions on U.S. high school dropout rates. Employing the methodology of Autor et al. (2013), who examine the e ect of increased Chinese import competition on U.S. employment and wages, we argue that increasing import competition increases the relative returns to education and leads to a reduction in dropout rates. For the region with the median dropout rate in 2000, a movement from the 25th to the 75th percentile of change in import exposure per worker corresponds to a reduction in the 2007 dropout rate by 0.456 percentage points, which corresponds to a reduction in the number of dropouts by over 68,000 annually. Using available estimates of the present value of the lifetime net public bene t of each additional high school graduate and extrapolating such an annual reduction in dropouts to the entire country implies a net public bene t between $4.4 billion and $10.2 billion. Results are robust to controls for changes in school quality, demographic composition, and initial labor market conditions.
Vancomycin Resistance in Clinical Isolates of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus from a Tertiary Care Hospital

DOI: 10.21276/sjpm.2018. 3.10. 16 Abstract: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common causes of Blood Stream infections (BSI), skin and wound infections, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, and nosocomial infections, especially pneumonia, surgical site infections (SSI), and continue to be a major cause of community-acquired infections. Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important cause of community and hospital acquired infections. MRSA are mainly nosocomial and are increasingly reported from many countries worldwide. The purpose of present study was to determine the sensitivity of S. aureus isolated from infected patients to methicillin and to evaluate the possible presence of VRSA in our tertiary care hospital. Staphylococci were isolated and identified by standard microbiological procedures. Methicillin resistance was detected by using cefoxitin (30 μgm) by disc diffusion method. MRSA strains detected were then subjected to vancomycin agar screen test and E test to detect vancomycin resistance. Out of the total 500 S.aureus isolates, methicillin resistance was observed in 47.4% of isolates. By E-test, 24.1 % MRSA isolates had Vancomycin MIC value of 0.75 and 21.9% of MRSA had Vancomycin MIC value of 0.5. Only one isolate had MIC value of 2.
Radiographical Study of Success and Failure with Evaluation the Cause of That Failure of Endodontically Treated Teeth

DOI: 10.21276/sjodr.2018. 3.10. 5 Abstract: The present study is planned to analyze radiographically examined success and failure of endodontically treated teeth among the patients who came at Taibah dental clinics, Saudi Arabia. One hundred (N=100) endodontically treated teeth were clinically examined by using dental mirror, dental explorer and periodontal probe. The periapical radiographs of these teeth were radiographically examined. Several reasons including defective restoration, periodontal disease, recurrent caries, under filling, poor density obturation, over filling and many others of each root filled canal were recorded in the patient data sheets. Chi square test was applied to determine statistical significance if any. Our study demonstrates 20% success rate of endodontic treatment while failure was recorded in 65% and potential failure in 15% of cases. Clinical data revealed defective restoration in 84% followed by periodontal disease (62%), recurrent caries (52%). When endodontic treatment was radiographically evaluated, periodontal lesion was observed in 74% followed by recurrent caries (73%), under obturation (50%), poor density obturation in (48%) of the cases. Defective restoration, poor density obturation, under obturation and periodontal diseases were significantly (p=0.001) associated with endodontic failure while periodontal disease is posing significantly higher risk of potential failure in this study. The success rate of endodontic treatment was found only in 20% and the most common cause of its failure was defective restoration followed by periodontal lesion, recurrent caries, under filling, poor density obturation etc.
Numerical simulation of fluid flow and oxygen transport in a full scale model of the AMC bioartificial liver with an in vitro determined hepatocyte distribution

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The role and value of distributed precipitation data in hydrological models

Abstract. This study investigates the role and value of distributed rainfall for the runoff generation of a mesoscale catchment (20 km2). We compare four hydrological model setups and show that a distributed model setup driven by distributed rainfall only improves the model performances during certain periods. These periods are dominated by convective summer storms that are typically characterized by higher spatiotemporal variabilities compared to stratiform precipitation events that dominate rainfall generation in winter. Motivated by these findings, we develop a spatially adaptive model that is capable of dynamically adjusting its spatial structure during model execution. This spatially adaptive model allows the varying relevance of distributed rainfall to be represented within a hydrological model without losing predictive performance compared to a fully distributed model. Our results highlight that spatially adaptive modeling has the potential to reduce computational times as well as improve our understanding of the varying role and value of distributed precipitation data for hydrological models.
Relations of rationality for special values of
Rankin–Selberg L-functions of GLn×GLm over CM-fields

In this paper we present a bridge between automorphic forms of general reductive groups and motives over number elds, hinting a translation of Deligne's conjecture for motivic L-functions into a precise automorphic context. The bulk of this article provides evidence for such an automorphic translation by considering the case of Rankin Selberg L-functions L(s,Π× Π′) of GLn × GLm over CMelds F . Our main results are of two di erent kinds: Firstly, for arbitrary integers 1 ≤ m ≤ n, and suitable pairs (Π,Π′) of cohomological automorphic representations, we relate critical values of L(s,Π × Π′) with a product of Whittaker periods attached to Π and Π′, Blasius's CM-periods of Hecke-characters and certain non-zero values of standard L-functions. These relations lead, on the other hand, consequently to quite broad generalizations of fundamental rationality-results of Waldspurger, Harder Raghuram and others.
A productivity analysis of the Vietnamese banking sector using non-performing loans as a bad output

Using non-performing loans as a bad output, this study will measure and analyse the productivity of Vietnam’s banks during the period from 2007−2014. The Malmquist-Luenberger index is utilised to measure the productivity of Vietnamese banking system. The results show an outperformance of publicly owned banks over their private counterparts and a deterioration of bank productivity due to technical regress.
Preliminary Draft The role of Financial Access and Financial Development on Firm’s Exportability: Empirical Evidence from Asia-Pacific

This study attempts to examine how access to finance and financial development affects firm’s ability to export in Asia–Pacific countries. Using firm level data from World Bank Enterprises Survey, we found that access to finance plays an important role in promoting the firm’s ability to export. In addition, development in financial sector translates into a higher likelihood of firm entering into export market. The effect of financial development is more prominent in terms of reach of the banking sector. We also found that interplay between access to finance, financial development and location reduces the negative effect of location on firm’s ability to export. The study suggests that improvement in access to finance and financial development (increase in reach of banking sector), firms operating away from capital or main cities would find export market entry easier. The study supports that strengthening financial development would encourage firm’s exportability, and also emphasises the need of access to finance to facilitate the firm’s exporting activities for remotely located places.
Historic archives are critical for reconstructing the nature and distribution of lowland temperate grasslands in south–eastern Australia

The functional relationships between woody vegetation, climate, soils and disturbances like fire are complex and vary greatly between continents due to historical and environmental differences. In the temperate grasslands of lowland south–eastern Australia, it is hypothesised that the extent of treelessness was influenced by Aboriginal burning practices, although this remains highly contested. This study reconstructed a multi–bioregional–scale grass/ tree boundary map across a large portion of central and northern Victoria from hundreds of historic plans, overlayed with the georeferenced observations of the earliest European accounts to test whether these grasslands were (a) more extensive than previously assumed, and (b) if there is evidence of the targeted, purposeful and frequent use of fire by Aborigines. The archival coverage was well–corroborated and identified extensive treeless ‘plains’ in unexpected areas compared with reconstructions based on climate–edaphic relationships alone. The historic accounts also served to shed light on the original nature of these treeless ‘plains’ as diverse and dynamic, and frequently dominated by Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra), implying a distinct influence of both frequent fire and people. However, while there is evidence of broad–acre Aboriginal fires in the collective historic accounts (including resistance to European intrusion), there remains a need for more in–depth and reliable historic case studies to clearly describe the use of fire by Aborigines that is inferred in the historic accounts studied here and commonly assumed by historians. The results lend support to treelessness driven by the dynamic interaction of ‘bottom–up’ and ‘top–down’ processes and that lowland temperate grassland distribution reconstructions across this region should be extensively corroborated or even derived exclusively from historic sources.
Relationship between mast cells and nerve fibers in the intestinal mucosa in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

Objective To elucidate the relationship of mast cells and intestinal nerves and the possible role of mast cells in the pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Methods In 56 patients with IBS who fulfilled the Rome Ⅱ criteria and in 12 non-IBS control subjects, biopsy specimens taken from the mucosae of terminal ileum and recto-sigmoid junction at colonoscopy were further examined using emission electron microscopy and double staining of mast cells with Alcian blue and immunohistochemical staining of the neuropeptide containing cells or nerve fibers with the monoclonal antibodies of the peptides. Results (1) As seen in electron microscopy, mast cells in the mucosa were distributed closely around the nerve endings. (2) In terminal ileum and distal colon of patients with IBS, the expression of mucosal neuron-specific enolase (NSE), SP(P-substance) and 5-serotonin(5-HT) were significantly higher than that of control group (P0.05), and more intensive expressions of NSE, SP, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and 5-HT were found around the mast cells. (3)The number of mast cells (mean±SE/per high power microscopy) in the mucosa with expressions of NSE(6.73±1.02 vs. 4.25±0.50), SP(6.84±0.85 vs. 4.28±0.40), CGRP(6.73±0.82 vs. 4.33±0.54) or 5-HT(6.72±0.81 vs. 4.00±0.63) positive nerve fibers in the surroundings increased significantly in terminal ileum in patients with IBS as compared with non-IBS controls (P0.01). Conclusion An active pathway may exist between ENS and mast cells through certain mediators and neuropeptides. The mucosal immune response to an antigen, such as bacterial infection, will be transferred to the nervous system through this pathway and vise versa. Activation of the pathway may be part of the pathophysiological basis of IBS.
Parton theory of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy spectra in antiferromagnetic Mott insulators

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) has revealed peculiar properties of mobile dopants in correlated anti-ferromagnets (AFMs). But describing them theoretically, even in simplified toy models, remains a challenge. Here we study ARPES spectra of a single mobile hole in the $t-J$ model. Recent progress in the microscopic description of mobile dopants allows us to use a geometric decoupling of spin and charge fluctuations at strong couplings, from which we conjecture a one-to-one relation of the one-dopant spectral function and the spectrum of a constituting spinon in the \emph{undoped} parent AFM. We thoroughly test this hypothesis for a single hole doped into a 2D Heisenberg AFM by comparing our semi-analytical predictions to previous quantum Monte Carlo results and our large-scale time-dependent matrix product state (td-MPS) calculations of the spectral function. Our conclusion is supported by a microscopic trial wavefuntion describing spinon-chargon bound states, which captures the momentum and $t/J$ dependence of the quasiparticle residue. Our conjecture suggests that ARPES measurements in the pseudogap phase of cuprates can directly reveal the Dirac-fermion nature of the constituting spinons. Specifically, we demonstrate that our trial wavefunction provides a microscopic explanation for the sudden drop of spectral weight around the nodal point associated with the formation of Fermi arcs, assuming that additional frustration suppresses long-range AFM ordering. We benchmark our results by studying the cross-over from two to one dimension, where spinons and chargons are confined and deconfined respectively.
When teachers experience burnout : does a multi-ethnic student population put out or spark teachers’ fire?

This study researches the association between schools' ethnic diversity and the three dimensions of teacher burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced sense of personal accomplishment. Two possible explanations, teachers’ ethnic prejudice and teachability perceptions of the students, are examined. The first hypothesis states that teachers who work in schools with a high ethnically diverse student population will perceive these students as less teachable, leading towards less positive relationships and therefore are more likely to develop a burnout. The second hypothesis is that teachers are less prejudiced towards ethnic minorities when teaching in high ethnically diverse schools, develop more positive relationships with their students, and as a consequence are less likely to develop a burnout. Through a multilevel analysis, we investigated data (2014- 2015), which was gathered from 635 secondary school teachers in 45 urban schools. The findings indicate that only teachers’ emotional exhaustion is dependent on the school context. The students’ ethnic diversity contributes to emotional exhaustion via the lower level of teachability that teachers attribute to the students in these schools. This study indicates the importance of positive teachability perceptions of students for teachers to remain engaged within their schools and to teach in a culturally responsive way.
Polarization of American Workers: The Big Squeeze from Occupational Exposure to Value-added Imports

We link U.S. industry-level value-added trade data with U.S. worker-level data from the Current Population Surveys from 1995 to 2009. We find that U.S. occupational exposure to value-added imports has a negative effect on the wages earned by intermediate-routine workers, which leads to wage polarization among American workers. In particular, the polarization of wages is primarily driven by occupational exposure to value-added imports of final goods from middle-income countries, while exposure to final goods imported from high-income countries has a negative, albeit more fairly distributed, effect across U.S. workers’ wages. On the other hand, occupational exposure to value-added imports of intermediate goods from middle-income countries is associated with a positive wage effect for least-routine workers, signaling to the presence of strong complementarities between the group of least-routine workers and imports of intermediate goods from this group of countries.
All You Need Is LOD : Levels of Detail in Visual Augmentations for the Audience

Because they break the physical link between gestures and sound, Digital Musical Instruments offer countless opportunities for musical expression. For the same reason however, they may hinder the audience experience, making the musician contribution and expressiveness difficult to perceive. In order to cope with this issue without altering the instruments , researchers and artists have designed techniques to augment their performances with additional information, through audio, haptic or visual modalities. These techniques have however only been designed to offer a fixed level of information, without taking into account the variety of spectators expertise and preferences. In this paper, we investigate the design, implementation and effect on audience experience of visual augmentations with controllable level of detail (LOD). We conduct a controlled experiment with 18 participants, including novices and experts. Our results show contrasts in the impact of LOD on experience and comprehension for experts and novices, and highlight the diversity of usage of visual augmentations by spectators.
Determinants of Sharia Banks' Return on Asset in ASEAN

Original Research Article This research aims to examine the factors that influence Return on Assets by using three indicators, Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility (ICSR), and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This study uses the Fixed Effect Panel Data Regression as the data analysis method. CAR and ICSR have a positive and significant effect on Return on Assets. However, GDP shows a negative and significant effect on Return on Assets. This means that the increase in GDP is inversely proportional to the amount of ROA obtained by Sharia Banks in ASEAN; when GDP increases, the ROA of a Sharia Bank decreases, and vice versa. Together, CAR, ICSR, and GDP have a positive and significant effect on ROA.
Judicial quality, input customisation, and trade margins: the role of product quality

We study how the contracting environment affects the quality of trade. A better contracting environment not only induces specialisations in industries intensively using customised inputs, but also causes quality upgrading of domestic varieties and tougher competition in these industries. We incorporate these effects into a Ricardian model with customised input and product quality. Our model predicts that better judicial quality raises a country’s import prices and quality more in contract-intensive products, but has no impacts on its export prices or quality. We empirically confirm these predictions, and find that rising judicial quality is associated with increasing specialisations in contract-intensive industries.
Isotope dependence of the type I ELMy H-mode pedestal in JET-ILW hydrogen and deuterium plasmas

The pedestal structure, edge transport and linear MHD stability have been analyzed in a series of JET with the ITER-like wall hydrogen (H) and deuterium (D) type I ELMy H-mode plasmas. The pedestal pressure is typically higher in D than in H at the same input power and gas rate, with the difference mainly due to lower density in H than in D (Maggi et al (JET Contributors) 2018 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 60 014045). A power balance analysis of the pedestal has shown that higher inter-ELM separatrix loss power is required in H than in D to maintain a similar pedestal top pressure. This is qualitatively consistent with a set of interpretative EDGE2D-EIRENE simulations for H and D plasmas, showing that higher edge particle and heat transport coefficients are needed in H than in D to match the experimental profiles. It has also been concluded that the difference in neutral penetration between H and D leads only to minor changes in the upstream density profiles and with trends opposite to experimental observations. This implies that neutral penetration has a minor role in setting the difference between H and D pedestals, but higher ELM and/or inter-ELM transport are likely to be the main players. The interpretative EDGE2D-EIRENE simulations, with simultaneous upstream and outer divertor target profile constraints, have indicated higher separatrix electron temperature in H than in D for a pair of discharges at low fueling gas rate and similar stored energy (which required higher input power in H than in D at the same gas rate). The isotope dependence of linear MHD pedestal stability has been found to be small, but if a higher separatrix temperature is considered in H than in D, this could lead to destabilization of peeling-ballooning modes and shrinking of the stability boundary, qualitatively consistent with the reduced pedestal confinement in H.