Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Appearance-related teasing and substance use during early adolescence.

Appearance-related teasing is a pervasive form of bullying during adolescence. Yet, the impact of appearance-related teasing on risk for alcohol and marijuana use is unknown. This study, therefore, examined the relationship between appearance-related teasing and the use of alcohol and marijuana in a sample of 1,344 students (52% female; 51% non-Hispanic White; ages 11-14 years, M = 13.20, SD = 0.65) from 5 public middle schools. Participants completed a survey that assessed demographic characteristics, weight status, depressive symptoms, general peer victimization, experiences of appearance-related teasing perpetrated by family and peers, and substance use in the fall of 2016 (Time 1 [T1]) and spring of 2017 (T2). Findings at baseline (T1) indicated that more frequent appearance-related teasing was associated with higher concurrent levels of total alcohol consumption, binge drinking, and marijuana use (ps < .001). Longitudinally, more frequent appearance-related teasing at T1 predicted greater increases in total alcohol consumption (p < .01) and binge drinking frequency (p < .05) by T2 but was unrelated to changes in marijuana use (p > .05), adjusting for age, gender, race and ethnicity, perceived socioeconomic status, body mass index z scores, depressive symptoms, general peer victimization frequency, and substance use at T1. Moderation analyses generally suggested that the positive associations between appearance-related teasing and alcohol use measures were stronger among adolescents who were girls (vs. boys) and who were overweight or obese (vs. nonoverweight). These findings suggest that appearance-related teasing may play a role in the origins of alcohol use during early adolescence and emphasize the need to mitigate the effects of appearance-related teasing and prevent early substance use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Gene expression in peripheral blood in treatment-free major depression

Abstract Background: Peripheral gene expression of several molecular pathways has been studied in major depressive disorder (MDD) with promising results. We sought to investigate some of these genes in a treatment-free Latino sample of Mexican descent. Material and Methods: The sample consisted of 50 MDD treatment-free cases and 50 sex and age-matched controls. Gene expression of candidate genes of neuroplasticity (BDNF, p11, and VGF), inflammation (IL1A, IL1B, IL4, IL6, IL7, IL8, IL10, MIF, and TNFA), the canonical Wnt signaling pathway (TCF7L2, APC, and GSK3B), and mTOR, was compared in cases and controls. RNA was obtained from blood samples. We used bivariate analyses to compare subjects versus control mean mRNA quantification of target genes and lineal regression modelling to test for effects of age and body mass index on gene expression. Results: Most subjects were female (66%) with a mean age of 26.7 (SD 7.9) years. Only GSK3B was differentially expressed between cases and controls at a statistically significant level (p = 0.048). TCF7L-2 showed the highest number of correlations with MDD-related traits, yet these were modest in size. Discussion: GSK3B encodes a moderator of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. It has a role in neuroplasticity, neuroprotection, depression, and other psychiatric phenotypes. We found that adding population diversity has the potential to elicit distinct peripheral gene expression markers in MDD and MDD-related traits. However, our results should only be considered as hypothesis-generating research that merits further replication in larger cohorts of similar ancestry.
ReLU and sigmoidal activation functions

The generalization capabilities of deep neural networks are not well understood, and in particular, the influence of activation functions on generalization has received little theoretical attention. Phenomena such as vanishing gradients, node saturation and network sparsity have been identified as possible factors when comparing different activation functions [1]. We investigate these factors using fully connected feedforward networks on two standard benchmark problems, and find that the most salient differences between networks with sigmoidal and ReLU activations relate to the way that class-distinctive information is propagated through a network.
Directed curiosity-driven exploration in hard exploration, sparse reward environments

Training agents in hard exploration, sparse reward environments is a diﬃcult task since the reward feedback is insuﬃcient for meaningful learning. In this work, we propose a new technique, called Directed Curiosity, that is a hybrid of Curiosity-Driven Exploration and distance-based reward shaping. The technique is evaluated in a custom navigation task where an agent tries to learn the shortest path to a distant target, in environments of varying diﬃculty. The technique is compared to agents trained with only a shaped reward signal, a curiosity signal as well as a sparse reward signal. It is shown that directed curiosity is the most successful in hard exploration environments, with the beneﬁts of the approach being highlighted in environments with numerous obstacles and decision points. The limitations of the shaped reward function are also discussed.
On Implicit Regularization in β-VAEs

While the impact of variational inference (VI) on posterior inference in a fixed generative model is well-characterized, its role in regularizing a learned generative model when used in variational autoencoders (VAEs) is poorly understood. We study the regularizing effects of variational distributions on learning in generative models from two perspectives. First, we analyze the role that the choice of variational family plays in imparting uniqueness to the learned model by restricting the set of optimal generative models. Second, we study the regularization effect of the variational family on the local geometry of the decoding model. This analysis uncovers the regularizer implicit in the $\beta$-VAE objective, and leads to an approximation consisting of a deterministic autoencoding objective plus analytic regularizers that depend on the Hessian or Jacobian of the decoding model, unifying VAEs with recent heuristics proposed for training regularized autoencoders. We empirically verify these findings, observing that the proposed deterministic objective exhibits similar behavior to the $\beta$-VAE in terms of objective value and sample quality.
BPM and change management

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the implementation of an ambidexterity strategy in a large Italian Company that works in the energy field. The aim of the study is to understand how contextual ambidexterity has been achieved during a business process management (BPM) approach by describing the main variables that interacted during the project implementation. ,The authors based their study both on primary (direct observation and interviews) and secondary (company manuals, books and procedures) qualitative investigations of BPM approach based on three business process re-engineering (BPR) projects and nine total quality management (TQM) projects, focused on change team behaviors, dynamics and dialogues. ,The authors observed that the implementation of simultaneously radical and incremental change projects has been influenced by the exploration and exploitation activities related to every single TQM and BPR project considered. The findings suggest that the overall project has been influenced by four main underlying variables, which are task specialization and systems interoperability (knowledge transfer), identity and leadership (knowledge conversion) and two output variables (ambiguity and feedback to change), that, by interacting, enable ambidexterity. ,BPM is an important option to consider within the ambidexterity theory, being conceptually conceived as an approach in which TQM and BPR actually complement each other. Moreover, the results contextualize the importance of the change management team (CMT) to manage the connections between knowledge creation and refinement, and vice versa, depending particularly on the knowledge conversion process enabled by a flexible team culture. The focus of the study is mainly at the BPR and TQM project level. The authors consider structural ambidexterity and its enabling mechanisms as the framework in which BPM is implemented. Moreover, research limitations are related both to the specificity of the context, a large, highly specialized and mechanistic company and to the qualitative approach that may reduce the generalization of the empirical results. ,Managers need to be cognizant and aware both of the BPM techniques, in order to sustain ambidexterity, and of ambiguity and change feedback as variables that enable the effective connection of the different steps of innovation or refinement strategy and, therefore, of ambidexterity. Moreover, the contextual factors such as leadership and people identity should be considered and managed as important variables related to change. ,The originality of this paper is related to improving the understanding of how to implement the theoretical concept of ambidexterity in a real world organization, by providing new evidence that highlights the importance of contextual ambidexterity within a structural ambidexterity strategy during a BPM project.
Factors and their relationships in measuring the progress of open government

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the main factors influencing government openness, develop a global government openness index (GGOI) for assessing the progress of government openness and investigate how the factors contribute to the advancement of open government by individual countries and country groups by income. Design/methodology/approach This study identifies the four factors and adopts them into four variables for making GGOI: accountability (ACC), citizen participation and freedom (CPF), transparency (TRA) and information and communication technology (ICT). To calculate GGOI, panel data for 134 countries from 2006 to 2015 were used. Findings GGOI scores constantly improved with an annual growth rate of 2.09 percent. Countries with high ACC values tend to have high TRA scores, resulting in high GGOI scores. While the differences in ACC and TRA were steady over the period, ICT increased the most in all groups. To boost ICT performance as a channel to support other variables, middle-income countries should make further effort for citizens to use ICT capabilities toward enhancing the levels of CPF and TRA. Research limitations/implications This study presents a global picture of the advancement of open government and provides insights into specific areas that can be diagonalized. Practical implications The GGOI could be used as a useful assessment tool to measure the progress of government openness in countries and implement policies and action plans for improving government openness. Originality/value The GGOI covers the areas related to legal, administrative, participatory and technological factors and provides the factors’ inter-relationships for the composition of GGOI.
Pollen morphology and variability of Sambucus nigra L. – Adoxaceae

The objective of this study was to investigate the pollen morphology and the ranges of intraspecific and interindividual variability of Sambucus nigra L. S. nigra inflorescences were collected randomly from 66 natural elderberry sites in Poland, Germany and Lithuania. Each individual (shrub) was represented by 30 pollen grains. In total, 1980 pollen grains were measured. Nine quantitative and three qualitative features of the pollen grains were analysed. The diagnostic features of the pollen grains for the studied species were: exine ornamentation (microreticulate-heterobrochate), the length of the polar axis (small pollen) and the pollen shape (ca. 80% prolate-spheroidal and spheroidal pollen grains). These features should be treated as auxiliary because they fail to differentiate individual samples, although they can be helpful in distinguishing groups of samples. For the first time, the intraspecific and interindividual variability of the pollen grains of S. nigra were investigated. Statistically significant differences were found among particular individuals (shrubs) in all pollen grain features, although the most different were the pollen grains from samples (individuals) 7, 8 and 9 collected in Łubiana. There were significant relationships observed between the pollen grain traits and the geographical location of the collection sites.
ATRIAL NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE BINDING SITES ON HOG CILIARY BODIES AND CHOROID

Binding studies revealed the presence of two classes of binding sites for atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) on hog ciliary bodies and choroid membranes. The curvilinear Scatchard plots were evaluated by nonlinear regression analysis using a twosite model which identified a high affinity site Kd1=73i12 pM and Bm,,,1=77i7 fmol/mg protein, and a low affinity site Kd2=0.748i0. 199 nM and B,,,,,,,2= 44i11 fmol/mg protein in ciliary bodies, and a high affinity site Kdl=45i3 pM and Bm,,,l= 44i2 fmol/mg protein, and a low affinity site Kd2=1.18li0. 356 nM and B,,,,,2=l58i44 fmol/mg protein in choroid. Affinity labeling with disuccinimidyl suberate followed by electrophoresis under nonreducing condition and autoradiography show that the peptide binds predominantly to 66,000 dalton species on membrane of ciliary bodies. However, on membrane of choroid, the high molecular size protein (l30,000 dalton species) is intensely labeled. The results suggest that a polypeptide of 66,000 dalton represents a component of the high affinity ANP receptor. Atrial natriuretic peptides (ANPs), recently discovered cardiac hormone, have been shown to elicit diuresis, natriuresis, vasorelaxant activities and to inhibit secretion of aldosterone (1, 4, 5, 13). Specific binding sites for ANPs have been identified in the kidney (10, 21), adrenal gland (6, 15), brain (12), placenta (16), ovary (S.-J. Kim, M. Shinjo, S. Usuki, H. Miyazaki, M. Tada and K. Murakami, Binding sites for atrial natriuretic peptide in high concentrations in human ovary; in preparation), lung (1 1), liver (20), and vascular system (10, 15). However, there is little information about the molecular properties of the ANP receptors in these tissues. Previous reports have demonstrated that epithelial cells in ciliary bodies have binding sites for ml-ANP, indicating that this peptide is involved in the regulation of water and/or electrolyte transport in this tissue (2). The choroid, which is a highly vascular tissue between the retina and the sclera may be involved in the regulation of aqueous humor flow and intraocular pressure. In this communication, we examined the specific binding sites for ANP in hog ciliary bodies and choroid in an attempt to provide information about the presence and distribution of ANP binding sites in the eye. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Hidden in Plain Sight: Obfuscated Strings Threatening Your Privacy

String obfuscation is an established technique used by proprietary, closed-source applications to protect intellectual property. Furthermore, it is also frequently used to hide spyware or malware in applications. In both cases, the techniques range from bit-manipulation over XOR operations to AES encryption. However, string obfuscation techniques/tools suffer from one shared weakness: They generally have to embed the necessary logic to deobfuscate strings into the app code. In this paper, we show that most of the string obfuscation techniques found in malicious and benign applications for Android can easily be broken in an automated fashion. We developed StringHound, an open-source tool that uses novel techniques that identify obfuscated strings and reconstruct the originals using slicing. We evaluated StringHound on both benign and malicious Android apps. In summary, we deobfuscate almost 30 times more obfuscated strings than other string deobfuscation tools. Additionally, we analyzed 100,000 Google Play Store apps and found multiple obfuscated strings that hide vulnerable cryptographic usages, insecure internet accesses, API keys, hard-coded passwords, and exploitation of privileges without the awareness of the developer. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that not only malware uses string obfuscation but also benign apps make extensive use of string obfuscation.
Diversity-Achieving Slow-DropBlock Network for Person Re-Identification

A big challenge of person re-identification (Re-ID) using a multi-branch network architecture is to learn diverse features from the ID-labeled dataset. The 2-branch Batch DropBlock (BDB) network was recently proposed for achieving diversity between the global branch and the feature-dropping branch. In this paper, we propose to move the dropping operation from the intermediate feature layer towards the input (image dropping). Since it may drop a large portion of input images, this makes the training hard to converge. Hence, we propose a novel double-batch-split co-training approach for remedying this problem. In particular, we show that the feature diversity can be well achieved with the use of multiple dropping branches by setting individual dropping ratio for each branch. Empirical evidence demonstrates that the proposed method performs superior to BDB on popular person Re-ID datasets, including Market-1501, DukeMTMC-reID and CUHK03 and the use of more dropping branches can further boost the performance.
Joint XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of the reflection spectrum of III Zw 2

Detecting and modeling the reprocessed hard X-ray emission component in the accretion flow, the so-called reflection spectrum, is a main tool used to estimate black hole spins in a wide range of astrophysical black holes, regardless of their mass or distance. In this work, we study the X-ray spectra of the Seyfert I galaxy III Zw 2 by using multiepoch XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Suzaku observations. The X-ray spectra exhibit a soft-excess below 1 keV and a prominent excess at the location of the broad Fe Kα line at 6.4 keV. To account for these spectral features, we fit the spectra with multiple models including an ionized partially covering absorber and an accretion disk reflection model. To fully resolve the reflection component, we analyzed jointly the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations taken in 2017 and archival XMM-Newton data from 2000. Assuming the reflection scenario, the resulting model fits support for a rapidly spinning black hole (a ≥ 0.98) in this radio-intermediate source. The X-ray spectra in 2000 and 2017 are remarkably similar; the only difference pertains to the reflection fraction, which is possibly due to a change in the geometry of the accretion flow. However, the Suzaku observation is markedly different, and we suggest this could be an effect of a jet contribution in the X-ray band, which is supported by the elevated radio flux during this observation.
Time-domain Study of the Young Massive Cluster Westerlund 2 with the Hubble Space Telescope. I

Time-domain studies of pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars have long been used to investigate star properties during their early evolutionary phases and to trace the evolution of circumstellar environments. Historically these studies have been confined to the nearest, low-density, star-forming regions. We used the Wide Field Camera 3 on board the Hubble Space Telescope to extend, for the first time, the study of PMS variability to one of the few young massive clusters in the Milky Way, Westerlund 2. Our analysis reveals that at least one-third of the intermediate- and low-mass PMS stars in Westerlund 2 are variable. Based on the characteristics of their light curves, we classified ∼11% of the variable stars as weak-line T Tauri candidates, ∼52% as classical T Tauri candidates, ∼5% as dippers, and ∼26% as bursters. In addition, we found that 2% of the stars below 6 M⊙ (∼6% of the variables) are eclipsing binaries, with orbital periods shorter than 80 days. The spatial distribution of the different populations of variable PMS stars suggests that stellar feedback and UV radiation from massive stars play an important role in the evolution of circumstellar and planetary disks.
Beyond Purity and Mixtures in Categorical Quantum Mechanics

In a recent paper [12], we discussed the serious inconsistency present within the operational and mathematical definition(s) of the notion of pure state. Continuing this analysis, in this work we attempt to address the role of ‘purity’ and ‘mixtures’ within two different categorical approaches to QM, namely, the topos approach originally presented by Chris Isham and Jeremy Butterfield [27, 28, 29] and the more recent logos categorical approach presented by the authors of this article [10, 11, 13]. While the first approach exposes the difficulties to produce a consistent understanding of pure states and mixtures, the latter approach presents a new scheme in which their reference is erased right from the start in favor of an intensive understanding of projection operators and quantum superpositions. This new account of the theory, grounded on an intensive interpretation of the Born rule, allows us not only to avoid the orthodox interpretation of projection operators —either as referring to definite valued properties or measurement outcomes— but also to consider all matrices (of any rank) on equal footing. It is from this latter standpoint that we conclude that instead of distinguishing between pure and mixed states it would be recommendable —for a proper understanding of the theory of quanta— to return to the original matrix formulation of quantum mechanics presented by Werner Heisenberg in 1925.
Electronic 
g
 factor and magnetotransport in InSb quantum wells

High mobility InSb quantum wells with tunable carrier densities are investigated by transport experiments in magnetic fields tilted with respect to the sample normal. We employ the coincidence method and the temperature dependence of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and find a value for the effective g-factor of $\mid g^{\ast}\mid $ =35$\pm$4 and a value for the effective mass of $m^*\approx0.017 m_0$, where $m_0$ is the electron mass in vacuum. Our measurements are performed in a magnetic field and a density range where the enhancement mechanism of the effective g-factor can be neglected. Accordingly, the obtained effective g-factor and the effective mass can be quantitatively explained in a single particle picture. Additionally, we explore the magneto-transport up to magnetic fields of 35 T and do not find features related to the fractional quantum Hall effect.
Extended equipartition in a mechanical system subject to a heat flow: the case of localised dissipation

Statistical physics in equilibrium grants us one of its most powerful tools: the equipartition principle. It states that the degrees of freedom of a mechanical system act as a thermometer: temperature is equal to the mean variance of their oscillations divided by their stiffness. However, when a non-equilibrium state is considered, this principle is no longer valid. In our experiment, we study the fluctuations of a micro-cantilever subject to a strong heat flow, which creates a highly non-uniform local temperature. We measure independently the temperature profile of the object and the temperature yielded from the mechanical thermometers, thus testing the validity of the equipartition principle out of equilibrium. We demonstrate how the fluctuations of the most energetic degrees of freedom are equivalent to the temperature at the base of the cantilever, even when the average temperature is several hundreds of degrees higher. We then present a model based on the localised mechanical dissipation in the system to account for our results, which correspond to mechanical losses localised at the clamping position.