Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Twin-Pyramids for Saliency Computation and the Application to Object Proposal Detection

Saliency Computation with VOCUS2: We introduced in [1] the new saliency system VOCUS21, which follows the traditional, biologically-inspired saliency architecture iNVT that was introduced 17 years ago by Itti and colleagues [3]. We have shown that this seminal concept, that follows findings from human perception, is still capable to obtain state-of-the-art performance on current benchmarks for salient object segmentation, if adapted appropriately. Especially important is the scale space structure: we introduce a new twin pyramid that enables a flexible centersurround ratio to compute feature contrasts. Instead of computing Difference-of-Gaussians by subtracting layers of the same pyramid, we compute a center and a surround pyramid separately and compute Difference-of-Gaussian contrasts based on these maps. Fig. 1 shows example saliency maps, and Fig. 2 shows the overview over the system, details in [1]. Additionally, Fig. 3 shows how each of our changes with respect to the iNVT improve the performance on the MSRA-1000 dataset. In [1], we show additional results on the MSRA-10k, ECSSD, SED1, SED2, and PASCALS dataset and show that our fast and elegant method is competitive with state-of-the-art methods. Since the system does not rely on center or background priors (although they can be integrated if desired), it is especially well suited to be applied to complex scenes as obtained from mobile devices such as Google Glass or autonomous robots (cf. Fig. 1, bottom). In the following section, we will present an example for such applications.
Soil degradation under sugarcane cultivation in Northern Kwazulu-Natal

In many crop producing areas of the world there are reports of yield decline and loss of productive potential in soils. Little is known about the long term effects of sugarcane monocropping on changes in physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. The aim of this study was to quantify the physical and chemical condition of soils under sugarcane production in northern Kwazulu-Natal, as industrial sugarcane yields have failed to break through the 'productivity plateau' during the past 15 years. Soil samples from 29 virgin and adjoining cul­ tivated fields were examined with 15 originating from dryland and 14 from irrigated areas. The most prominent soil chemical properties contributing to soil degradation under sugarcane cultivation were increased acidity in dryland areas and increased salinity and sodicity levels in irrigated areas. The common thread linking results from the dryland and irrigated areas was the reduced organic matter of the cultivated relative to the virgin sites.
Water pricing in irrigation: the lifetime of an idea

Providing irrigation always entails a measure of human labour and capital investment. In traditional small-scale systems investments were made by the communities themselves and the initial commitment generally defined rights to access water (Coward 1980). Such undertakings were often limited (e.g. tapping a spring or a run-of-the-river diversion using a few stones or logs laid across a small stream) but could also be quite costly (as in the case of qanats, underground drainage galleries commonly dug over several kilometres). Larger-scale ventures were financed directly by rulers (e.g., river diversions in Mesopotamia or large tanks in South Asia) who derived economic surpluses from the increased production.
Spatial heterogeneity of soil properties in Jianfengling Nature Reserve.

In this paper, horizontal and vertical strips including ten types of ecosystems in Jianfengling Nature Reserve of Hainan Island were chosen to study the spatial heterogeneity of soil properties in this region. The results showed that on horizontal strip, the organic carbon, total nitrogen and available nitrogen contents in 0-20 cm soil layer ranked in the order of tropical mountain rain forestnatural secondary forestCaribbean pine, Chinese fir and tea-oil camellia plantations. On vertical strip, the contents of organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus in 0-20 cm soil layer were the highest in tropical mountain rain forest, and had a decreasing trend towards higher and lower altitudes, with significant difference between test ecosystems. Soil available nitrogen, available phosphorus, and cation exchange capacity had different variation sequences with other soil properties, but significantly correlated with soil pH. The tropical mountain rain forest located at mid-high altitude with slight anthropogenic disturbance had the highest soil nutrient-holding capacity and integrated soil quality index. Among the disturbed forest types, natural secondary forest had the best integrated soil quality index. At altitude gradient, tropical evergreen monsoon forest was the most vulnerable and sensitive forest type. Soil quality maintenance would be of significance in protecting tropical original forest and promoting its natural restoration after destroyed.
Quantifying Uncertainties in Land-Surface Microwave Emissivity Retrievals

Uncertainties in the retrievals of microwave land-surface emissivities are quantified over two types of land surfaces: desert and tropical rainforest. Retrievals from satellite-based microwave imagers, including the Special Sensor Microwave Imager, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager, and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System, are studied. Our results show that there are considerable differences between the retrievals from different sensors and from different groups over these two land-surface types. In addition, the mean emissivity values show different spectral behavior across the frequencies. With the true emissivity assumed largely constant over both of the two sites throughout the study period, the differences are largely attributed to the systematic and random errors in the retrievals. Generally, these retrievals tend to agree better at lower frequencies than at higher ones, with systematic differences ranging 1%-4% (3-12 K) over desert and 1%-7% (3-20 K) over rainforest. The random errors within each retrieval dataset are in the range of 0.5%-2% (2-6 K). In particular, at 85.5/89.0 GHz, there are very large differences between the different retrieval datasets, and within each retrieval dataset itself. Further investigation reveals that these differences are most likely caused by rain/cloud contamination, which can lead to random errors up to 10-17 K under the most severe conditions.
Quantifying Uncertainties in Land Surface Microwave Emissivity Retrievals

Uncertainties in the retrievals of microwave land surface emissivities were quantified over two types of land surfaces: desert and tropical rainforest. Retrievals from satellite-based microwave imagers, including SSM/I, TMI and AMSR-E, were studied. Our results show that there are considerable differences between the retrievals from different sensors and from different groups over these two land surface types. In addition, the mean emissivity values show different spectral behavior across the frequencies. With the true emissivity assumed largely constant over both of the two sites throughout the study period, the differences are largely attributed to the systematic and random errors in the retrievals. Generally these retrievals tend to agree better at lower frequencies than at higher ones, with systematic differences ranging 1~4% (3~12 K) over desert and 1~7% (3~20 K) over rainforest. The random errors within each retrieval dataset are in the range of 0.5~2% (2~6 K). In particular, at 85.0/89.0 GHz, there are very large differences between the different retrieval datasets, and within each retrieval dataset itself. Further investigation reveals that these differences are mostly likely caused by rain/cloud contamination, which can lead to random errors up to 10~17 K under the most severe conditions.
ESTROUS CYCLE AND SEX AS REGULATING FACTORS OF BASELINE BRAIN OXIDATIVE METABOLISM AND BEHAVIOR

La existencia de diferencias sexuales en la funcion cerebral es actualmente un tema controvertido y existen resultados contradictorios en la literatura cientifica. Parte de esta controversia seria resuelta teniendo en consideracion los cambios ritmicos en los niveles de esteroides gonadales circulantes durante el ciclo menstrual o estral en hembras en comparacion con machos. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar los cambios en el metabolismo oxidativo de regiones limbicas cerebrales en ratas macho y hembra en dos etapas diferentes del ciclo estral (estro y diestro). La actividad citocromo oxidasa fue usada como un marcador fiable del metabolismo oxidativo neuronal. Encontramos los mayores niveles de metabolismo oxidativo durante la fase de diestro en algunas regiones cerebrales, cuando los niveles de estrogenos son elevados. Los machos mostraron una actividad citocromo oxidasa similar en comparacion con las hembras en estro. Nuestros resultados apoyan los trabajos conductuales y neurobiologicos que muestran diferencias sexuales en roedores y seres humanos.
Defect states in hexagonal boron nitride: Assignments of observed properties and prediction of properties relevant to quantum computation

Key properties of nine possible defect sites in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), ${V}_{\mathrm{N}},{{V}_{\mathrm{N}}}^{\ensuremath{-}1},{\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{N}},{V}_{\mathrm{N}}{\mathrm{O}}_{2\mathrm{B}},{V}_{\mathrm{N}}{\mathrm{N}}_{\mathrm{B}},{V}_{\mathrm{N}}{\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{B}},{V}_{\mathrm{B}}{C}_{\mathrm{N}},{V}_{\mathrm{B}}{\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{N}}\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{i}}_{\mathrm{N}}$, and ${V}_{\mathrm{N}}{\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{B}}\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{i}}_{\mathrm{B}}$, are predicted using density-functional theory and are corrected by applying results from high-level ab initio calculations. Observed h-BN electron-paramagnetic resonance signals at 22.4, 20.83, and 352.70 MHz are assigned to ${V}_{\mathrm{N}},{\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{N}}$, and ${V}_{\mathrm{N}}{\mathrm{O}}_{2\mathrm{B}}$, respectively, while the observed photoemission at 1.95 eV is assigned to ${V}_{\mathrm{N}}{\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{B}}$. Detailed consideration of the available excited states, allowed spin-orbit couplings, zero-field splitting, and optical transitions is made for the two related defects ${V}_{\mathrm{N}}{\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{B}}$ and ${V}_{\mathrm{B}}{C}_{\mathrm{N}}$. ${V}_{\mathrm{N}}{\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{B}}$ is proposed for realizing long-lived quantum memory in h-BN. ${V}_{\mathrm{B}}{C}_{\mathrm{N}}$ is predicted to have a triplet ground state, implying that spin initialization by optical means is feasible and suitable optical excitations are identified, making this defect of interest for possible quantum-qubit operations.
Labour Taxation and Employment in Trade Union Models: A Partial Survey

This paper uses a union bargaining framework, where the wage rate is negotiated between the representatives of employees and employers and firms unilaterally determine employment, to discuss the relationship between labour taxation and employment.In imperfectly competitive labour markets higher labour taxes income and payroll taxes will increase labour costs and have negative effects on employment.Tax progression tends to moderate wages and boost employment.Moreover, if labour tax bases are unequal due to tax exemptions, the structure of labour taxation matters so that the tax wedge may not be a sufficient statistic to describe the channel of influence of labour taxation.Finally, distortionary effects of labour taxes in more corporatist economies should be smaller than in economies with more decentralised wage bargaining. Empirical evidence though not always very strong supports these notions. Keywords: union bargaining, labour taxation, tax progression
A Corporate Social Entrepreneurship Approach to Market-Based Poverty Reduction

ABSTRACT In this article, we aim to conceptualize a market-based approach to poverty reduction from a corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE) perspective. Specifically, we describe some market-based initiatives at the base of the economic pyramid and relate them to the social entrepreneurship literature. We refer to the entrepreneurial activities of multinational corporations that create social value as CSE. We then conceptualize CSE according to the corporate entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship domains and shed light on how corporations can implement CSE. Finally, by reviewing relevant literature, we propose some of the factors that can stimulate CSE in organizations and some of the benefits companies can gain by implementing CSE.
www.econstor.eu Altruism and Climate

Recognizing that individualism, or weak family ties, may be favorable to economic development, we ask how family ties interact with climate to determine individual behavior and whether there is reason to believe that the strength of family ties evolves differently in different climates. For this purpose, we develop a simple model of the interaction between two individuals who are more or less altruistic towards each other. Each individual exerts effort to produce a consumption good under uncertainty. Outputs are observed and each individual chooses how much, if any, of his or her output to share with the other. We analyze how the equilibrium outcome depends on altruism and climate for ex ante identical individuals. We also consider (a) “coerced altruism,” that is, situations where a social norm dictates how output be shared, (b) the effects of insurance markets ,and (c) the role of institutional quality. The evolutionary robustness of altruism is analyzed and we study how this depends on climate.
Laboratory measurements of natural radioactivity in selected igneous rocks of the Opava Mountains region

The paper presents results of laboratory gamma–ray measurements of six igneous rocks from the Opava Mountains. The Opava Mountains are located in the Eastern Sudetes and represent their furthest eastern range. They run almost latitudinally along the Polish border with the Czech Republic. The Opava Mountains are situated mostly in the Czech Republic. Only a small fragment between Glucholazy in the west and Prudnik in the east is situated in Poland (Janeczek et al. 1991) . The study area is built of rocks of different ages and lithologies. The Opava Mountains belong to the western part of the Upper Silesia Block, which together with the Brno Block form a structure that is called the Brunovistulicum. The mountains consist of five structural stages: the Žulova Massif, the Desna Series, the Vbrna Series, the Andělska-Hora Formation and the Horn-Benesov Formation, which run longitudinally (Żaba et al. 2005). The activities of naturally occurring radionuclides were measured using a portable GX3020 gamma-ray workstation. The system is based on a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector with 32% relative efficiency and energy resolutions of 0.8 keV at 122 keV and 1.7 keV at 1330 keV. ). The activity concentrations of 40 K varied from 519 Bqkg -1 (paragneiss, Glucholazy/Mikulice) to 1559 Bqkg -1 (weathered granite, Slawniowice), while those of 228 Ac ( 232 Th series) from 7.2 Bqkg -1 (weathered granite, Slawniowice) to 70.6 Bqkg -1 (migmatitic gneiss, Nadziejow). The activities associated with 226 Ra ( 238 U series) ranged from 5.5 Bqkg -1 (weathered granite, Slawniowice) to 52.2 Bqkg -1 (gneiss, Kamienna Gora). Measured activity concentrations were compared with the average activity concentration of 40 K, 228 Ac ( 232 Th) and 226 Ra ( 238 U) for similar types of rocks. For the authors’ knowledge, this paper presents the first experimental data concerning activity concentrations of primordial radionuclides in the igneous rocks in the Opava Mountains.
The Macroeconomic Effects of Social Security Contributions and Benefits – Evidence from Germany

We construct a novel narrative dataset of legislated social security shocks for Germany. The dataset covers major changes in benefits and social security contributions for pensions, health care, long-term care and unemployment insurance on the German federal level over 1974q1 to 2013q4. We estimate the multiplier effects of the narratively identified shocks in a proxy SVAR framework and compare them with estimates found via traditional top-down identification. We find social security multipliers for Germany between 0.5 and 1.5. The GDP response to changes in contributions fades relatively quickly, while expenditures imply somewhat more persistent and slightly stronger effects.
Integração lavoura-pecuária e integração lavoura-pecuária-floresta: estratégias para intensificação sustentável do uso do solo.

Atualmente, a humanidade enfrenta desafios cada vez maiores para produzir alimentos, fibras, energia, produtos madeireiros e nao madeireiros de forma compativel com a disponibilidade de recursos naturais, em especial solo e agua. Nesse contexto, sao intensos os apelos para que seja difundida, em todo o mundo, a concepcao da agricultura sustentavel. Os sistemas de producao em integracao com e sem componente florestal propiciam diversos beneficios agronomicos, economicos, sociais e ambientais. O presente trabalho tem objetivo de apresentar os sistemas de integracao lavoura-pecuaria (ILP) e de integracao lavoura-pecuaria-floresta (ILPF) e relatar a contribuicao dessas estrategias de producao para a intensificacao sustentavel do uso do solo, levando em conta o efeito poupa-terra, os impactos tecnicos e economicos, e a melhoria da atividade biologica e da qualidade do solo. Termos para indexacao: agricultura sustentavel, diversificacao de cultivos, manejo de solos, sistemas integrados de producao. INTEGRATED CROP-LIVESTOCK AND INTEGRATED CROP-LIVESTOCK-FOREST SYSTEMS: STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION OF SOIL USE ABSTRACT Currently, humanity faces increasing challenges to produce food, fiber, energy, and timber and non-timber forest products in a consistent way with the availability of natural resources, especially soil and water. In this context, there are intense appeals to spread the concept of sustainable agriculture throughout the world. Integrated production systems with and without forest component provide many agronomic, economic, social and environmental benefits. This study aimed to present the integrated crop-livestock and integrated crop-livestock-forest systems and to report the contribution of these production strategies to the sustainable intensification of soil use, taking into account the land-saving effect, technical and economic impacts, and improvement of soil biological activity and soil quality. Index terms: sustainable agriculture, crop diversification, soil management, integrated production systems.
Trends in opioid use in commercially insured and Medicare Advantage populations in 2007-16: retrospective cohort study

Abstract Objective To describe trends in the rate and daily dose of opioids used among commercial and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries from 2007 to 2016. Design Retrospective cohort study of administrative claims data. Setting National database of medical and pharmacy claims for commercially insured and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in the United States. Participants 48 million individuals with any period of insurance coverage between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2016, including commercial beneficiaries, Medicare Advantage beneficiaries aged 65 years and over, and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries under age 65 years (eligible owing to permanent disability). Main endpoints Proportion of beneficiaries with any opioid prescription per quarter, average daily dose in milligram morphine equivalents (MME), and proportion of opioid use episodes that represented long term use. Results Across all years of the study, annual opioid use prevalence was 14% for commercial beneficiaries, 26% for aged Medicare beneficiaries, and 52% for disabled Medicare beneficiaries. In the commercial beneficiary group, quarterly prevalence of opioid use changed little, starting and ending the study period at 6%; the average daily dose of 17 MME remained unchanged since 2011. For aged Medicare beneficiaries, quarterly use prevalence was also relatively stable, ranging from 11% at the beginning of the study period to 14% at the end. Disabled Medicare beneficiaries had the highest rates of opioid use, the highest rate of long term use, and the largest average daily doses. In this group, both quarterly use rates (39%) and average daily dose (56 MME) were higher at the end of 2016 than the low points observed in 2007 for each endpoint (26% prevalence and 53 MME). Conclusions Opioid use rates were high during the study period of 2007-16, with the highest rates in disabled Medicare beneficiaries versus aged Medicare beneficiaries and commercial beneficiaries. Opioid use and average daily dose have not substantially declined from their peaks, despite increased attention to opioid abuse and awareness of their risks.
Taylor Rules in the Quarterly Projection Model

In recent years, there has been a lot of interest in Taylor-type rules. Evidence in the literature suggests that Taylor-type rules are optimal in a number of models and are fairly robust across different models. The reaction function in the Bank of Canada's Quarterly Projection Model (QPM) is an inflation-forecast-based (IFB) rule. A number of studies have suggested, however, that the optimality of IFB rules is very model-specific. Given this and concerns about model uncertainty, it seems logical to assess the performance of Taylor-type reaction functions in QPM. Therefore, we compare QPM's IFB rule with a simple Taylor rule as well as with two rules that include open-economy elements. Overall, our results suggest that Taylor-type rules do not perform well in QPM compared with the base-case IFB rule, since they are associated with significantly higher variabilities of inflation, output, and interest rates. However, of the Taylor-type rules considered, we find that a simple rule with a coefficient of 2 on the contemporaneous inflation gap (versus 0.5 in Taylor's original rule) and a coefficient of 0.5 on the output gap is the most appropriate. Furthermore, the gains from using open-economy rules seem to be limited.
Selection of the Truncation Lag in Structural VARs (or VECMs) with Long-Run Restrictions

The authors examine the issue of lag-length selection in the context of a structural vector autoregression (VAR) and a vector error-correction model with long-run restrictions. First, they show that imposing long- run restrictions implies, in general, a moving-average (MA) component in the stationary multivariate representation. Then they examine the sensitivity of estimates of the permanent and transitory components to the selection of the lag length required in a VAR system to approximate this MA component. In summary, they find that using a lag structure that is too short can lead to a significant estimation bias of the permanent and transitory components. In addition, in comparing four different lag- selection criteria, they find that the Schwarz information criterion systematically underperforms relative to the other tests. More generally, as the order of the VAR that best approximates the data- generating process increases, the sequence-based tests (Wald, likelihood ratio) tend to provide more reliable results than the information-based tests (Akaike, Schwarz).