Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Framework-agnostic Semantically-aware Global Reasoning for Segmentation

Recent advances in pixel-level tasks (e.g. segmentation) illustrate the benefit of of long-range interactions between aggregated region-based representations that can enhance local features. However, such aggregated representations, often in the form of attention, fail to model the underlying semantics of the scene (e.g. individual objects and, by extension, their interactions). In this work, we address the issue by proposing a component that learns to project image features into latent representations and reason be-tween them using a transformer encoder to generate contextualized and scene-consistent representations which are fused with original image features. Our design encourages the latent regions to represent semantic concepts by ensuring that the activated regions are spatially disjoint and the union of such regions corresponds to a connected object segment. The proposed semantic global reasoning (SGR) component is end-to-end trainable and can be easily added to a wide variety of backbones (CNN or transformer-based) and segmentation heads (per-pixel or mask classification) to consistently improve the segmentation results on different datasets. In addition, our latent tokens are semantically interpretable and diverse and provide a rich set of features that can be transferred to downstream tasks like object detection and segmentation, with improved performance. Furthermore, we also proposed metrics to quantify the semantics of latent tokens at both class & instance level.
Fake Resume Attacks: Data Poisoning on Online Job Platforms

While recent studies have exposed various vulnerabilities incurred from data poisoning attacks in many web services, little is known about the vulnerability on online professional job platforms (e.g., LinkedIn and Indeed). In this work, first time, we demonstrate the critical vulnerabilities found in the common Human Resources (HR) task of matching job seekers and companies on online job platforms. Capitalizing on the unrestricted format and contents of job seekers' resumes and easy creation of accounts on job platforms, we demonstrate three attack scenarios: (1) company promotion attack to increase the likelihood of target companies being recommended, (2) company demotion attack to decrease the likelihood of target companies being recommended, and (3) user promotion attack to increase the likelihood of certain users being matched to certain companies. To this end, we develop an end-to-end"fake resume"generation framework, titled FRANCIS, that induces systematic prediction errors via data poisoning. Our empirical evaluation on real-world datasets reveals that data poisoning attacks can markedly skew the results of matchmaking between job seekers and companies, regardless of underlying models, with vulnerability amplified in proportion to poisoning intensity. These findings suggest that the outputs of various services from job platforms can be potentially hacked by malicious users.
Distant regulatory effects of genetic variation in multiple human tissues

Understanding the genetics of gene regulation provides information on the cellular mechanisms through which genetic variation influences complex traits. Expression quantitative trait loci, or eQTLs, are enriched for polymorphisms that have been found to be associated with disease risk. While most analyses of human data has focused on regulation of expression by nearby variants (cis-eQTLs), distal or trans-eQTLs may have broader effects on the transcriptome and important phenotypic consequences, necessitating a comprehensive study of the effects of genetic variants on distal gene transcription levels. In this work, we identify trans-eQTLs in the Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) project data1, consisting of 449 individuals with RNA-sequencing data across 44 tissue types. We find 81 genes with a trans-eQTL in at least one tissue, and we demonstrate that trans-eQTLs are more likely than cis-eQTLs to have effects specific to a single tissue. We evaluate the genomic and functional properties of trans-eQTL variants, identifying strong enrichment in enhancer elements and Piwi-interacting RNA clusters. Finally, we describe three tissue-specific regulatory loci underlying relevant disease associations: 9q22 in thyroid that has a role in thyroid cancer, 5q31 in skeletal muscle, and a previously reported master regulator near KLF14 in adipose. These analyses provide a comprehensive characterization of trans-eQTLs across human tissues, which contribute to an improved understanding of the tissue-specific cellular mechanisms of regulatory genetic variation.
Expected stock returns and the conditional skewness

Motivated by the parsimonious jump-diﬀusion model of Zhang, Zhao and Chang (2010), we show that the aggregate market returns can be predicted by the conditional skewness of returns and the variance risk premium, a diﬀerence between the physical and risk-neutral variance of market returns, even though the variance is supposed to be constant only if jump exists. The magnitude of the predictability is particularly striking at the intermediate quarterly return horizon, even combing other predictor variables, like P/D ratio, the default spread and the consumption-wealth ratio (CAY). We also ﬁnd that the third central moments are signiﬁcant in explaining the variance risk premium, which further implies that the potential link between the variance risk premium and the excess market return is the third central moments, not the skewness.
The Association of Weed Species Richness and Abundance with Field Margin Type in Crop Fields

JELINEK, SUSAN THERESA. The Association of Weed Species Richness and Abundance with Field Margin Type in Crop Fields. (Under the direction of Dr. J. Paul Mueller and Dr. Nancy G. Creamer). Natural vegetation on farms such as field margins, successional fallow fields, ditch systems, and neighboring forests provide increased biodiversity, structural diversity, habitat for wildlife and beneficial insects, and can act as protective buffers against agrochemical drift. Nevertheless, farmers frequently view these areas as potential sources of weeds, insect pests, and diseases. Objectives of this study were to examine weed species richness and abundance in cropland bordered by managed versus unmanaged field margins to determine if differences in weed infestation exist. Weed abundance and richness were measured in crop fields along permanent transects that extended from the field edge to the center of the crop fields. Presence/absence data for all plant species in the field margin were also recorded. Transect data from fields with margins of natural vegetation were compared to transect data from fields with managed margins using analysis of variance. There were no differences between log total abundance of weeds in crop edges adjacent to managed and unmanaged field margins (P=0.44). For both margin types, more weeds were found near the field edge than in the center of the field (1.37±0.08 to 0.52±0.07 and 1.39±0.07 to 0.41±0.06, for managed and unmanaged field margins respectively). Species richness was slightly higher along crop edges of managed field margins (7.35±0.32) than crop edges along unmanaged field margins (6.55±0.31). Across all sampling dates, a total of 105 plant species were identified in the field margins. Of these species, 42 (40% of all species) were found somewhere in a field when all sampling dates were pooled. Managed field margins had lower species richness than unmanaged field margins less than half the mean number of species (5.8±0.28 versus 14.7±0.62 species, respectively). No association was found between plant species occurring in the field margin and in the crop field by generating 2 x 2 contingency tables via PROC FREQ and testing the association with Fisher’s exact two-sided test. Using logistic regression via PROC GENMOD, margin type and weed presence in the field margin were not effective predictors of weed occurrence in the crop field.
Joint Learning and Control in Stochastic Queueing Networks with Unknown Utilities

We study the optimal control problem in stochastic queueing networks with a set of job dispatchers connected to a set of parallel servers with queues. Jobs arrive at the dispatchers and get routed to the servers following some routing policy. The arrival processes of jobs and the service processes of servers are stochastic with unknown arrival rates and service rates. Upon the completion of each job from dispatcher un at server sm, a random utility whose mean is unknown is obtained. We seek to design a control policy that makes routing decisions at the dispatchers and scheduling decisions at the servers to maximize the total utility obtained by the end of a finite time horizon T. The performance of policies is measured by regret, which is defined as the difference in total expected utility with respect to the optimal dynamic policy that has access to arrival rates, service rates and underlying utilities. We first show that the expected utility of the optimal dynamic policy is upper bounded by T times the solution to a static linear program, where the optimization variables correspond to rates of jobs from dispatchers to servers and the feasibility region is parameterized by arrival rates and service rates. We next propose a policy for the optimal control problem that is an integration of a learning algorithm and a control policy. The learning algorithm seeks to learn the optimal extreme point solution to the static linear program based on the information available in the optimal control problem. The control policy, a mixture of priority-based and Joint-the-Shortest-Queue routing at the dispatchers and priority-based scheduling at the servers, makes decisions based on the graphical structure induced by the extreme point solutions provided by the learning algorithm. We prove that our policy achieves logarithmic regret whereas application of existing techniques to the optimal control problem would lead to Ω(√T)-regret. The theoretical analysis is further complemented with simulations to evaluate the empirical performance of our policy.
Comparison of the diets of two sympatric lagomorphs, Lepus europaeus (Pallas) and Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.) in an agroecosystem of the Ile-de-France

The diets of the European hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas) and wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus L.) in an agrosystem of Ile-de-France are compared. The results are based on analysis of faeces collected at least monthly at 4 sites over one or two annual cycles. Hares and rabbits had very similar diets. Grasses made up the base of their diet (50 to 100 % of the fragments found in the faeces) of which wheat was the preferred food item throughout the year. Their diet was more varied in summer and fall, and included maize, inflorescences of grasses, and various dicotyledons, as well as Equisetum arvense for the hare. The difference between to two species' food choices are related to the behaviour of food selection: the proximity of food resources to the warrens for the rabbits and, on a larger scale, the repartition of fields for the hare. These results show that the rabbit is a generalist compared with the hare which is more selective. Although feeding on the same plants in certain seasons, the two Lagomorphs exploit different areas, and are therefore unlikely to compete for food under these circumstances.
Simulation of the 1934 earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal

17 In this study, utilizing appropriate target spectra and a special envelope function, an artificial 18 time history is generated for the major earthquakes of 1934 and 2015 A.D. The peak ground 19 acceleration (PGA), mean time period, predominant period, significant duration, response 20 spectra, and Fourier spectra of the 2015 earthquake are obtained from the simulated time history 21 These ground motion parameters of simulated earthquake are compared to those of the recorded 22 earthquake of 2015. For the earthquake of 1934 A.D., the maximum PGA derived from the 23 simulation and the PGA derived from the damage-based MMI scale are compared. These 24 earthquakes' significant duration is also compared with other subduction zone earthquakes. 25 Compared to other subduction zone earthquakes, Nepal's earthquakes have a longer significant 26 duration. 27
VU Research Portal Differential Affinity and Catalytic Activity of CheZ in E. coli Chemotaxis

Push–pull networks, in which two antagonistic enzymes control the activity of a messenger protein, are ubiquitous in signal transduction pathways. A classical example is the chemotaxis system of the bacterium Escherichia coli , in which the kinase CheA and the phosphatase CheZ regulate the phosphorylation level of the messenger protein CheY. Recent experiments suggest that both the kinase and the phosphatase are localized at the receptor cluster, and Vaknin and Berg recently demonstrated that the spatial distribution of the phosphatase can markedly affect the dose–response curves. We argue, using mathematical modeling, that the canonical model of the chemotaxis network cannot explain the experimental observations of Vaknin and Berg. We present a new model, in which a small fraction of the phosphatase is localized at the receptor cluster, while the remainder freely diffuses in the cytoplasm; moreover, the phosphatase at the cluster has a higher binding affinity for the messenger protein and a higher catalytic activity than the phosphatase in the cytoplasm. This model is consistent with a large body of experimental data and can explain many of the experimental observations of Vaknin and Berg. More generally, the combination of differential affinity and catalytic activity provides a generic mechanism for amplifying signals that could be exploited in other two-component signaling systems. If this model is correct, then a number of recent modeling studies, which aim to explain the chemotactic gain in terms of the activity of the receptor cluster, should be reconsidered.
Sparse Source EEG Imaging with the Variational Garrote

EEG imaging, the estimation of the cortical source distribution from scalp electrode measurements, poses an extremely ill-posed inverse problem. Recent work by Delorme et al. (2012) supports the hypothesis that distributed source solutions are sparse. We show that direct search for sparse solutions as implemented by the Variational Garrote (Kappen, 2011) provides excellent estimates compared with other widely used schemes, is computationally attractive, and by its separation of 'where' and 'what' degrees of freedom paves the road for the introduction of genuine prior information.
Mycotoxic effects of entomopathogenic fungi of fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith) on poultry feed safety

This study was carried out to analyze mycotoxins of entomopathogenic fungi of fall armyworm ( Spodoptera fru-giperda J.E. Smith) and poultry feed safety. An experiment was set up to assess the types of mycotoxins produced by entomopathogenic fungal parasite of fall armyworm larvae and their subsequent effect on the safety of the larvae as a feed ingredient. Molecular characterization was done to estimate the diversity of entomopathogenic fungi on fall armyworm larvae specimens from the treatment plots. Sequenced data was analyzed and processed using Molecular Evolutionary Genetic Analysis 6.0 software. The results showed relative diversity of fall armyworm larvae with 11 species isolated belonging to Aspergillus , Penicillium , Fusarium , Trichoderma , Bipolaris and Irpex genus. Some of these are potential mycotoxin producing fungi. Although isolated fungi potentially produce Ochratoxin, Fumonisin, Zearalenone and Trichothecene mycotoxins, only aflatoxins were analyzed in this study. About 3.98 μg /kg of aflatoxin was observed using the ELISA total assay which is within the threshold toxicity levels set in Kenya for feed of about 20 μg /kg. While this is under the threshold set by Kenya, it is still enough to cause concern as the cumulative exposure of even low doses can have impacts. This study therefore concludes that, Spodoptera frugiperda can be potentially contaminated with aflatoxins and when formulating poultry diets, there is need to monitor production so that the quality is not compromised and feed safety is ensured. Further studies are recommended to determine how much produced aflatoxins are then transferred into the poultry products such as
Edinburgh Research Explorer Auxin/AID versus conventional knockouts: Distinguishing the roles of CENP-T/W in mitotic kinetochore assembly and stability

Most studies using knockout technologies to examine protein function have relied either on shutting off transcription (conventional conditional knock-outs with tetracycline-regulated gene expression or gene disruption) or destroying the mature mRNA (RNAi technology). In both cases, the target protein is lost at a rate determined by its intrinsic half-life. Thus, protein levels typically fall over at least 1–3 days, and cells continue to cycle while exposed to a decreasing concentration of the protein. Here we characterise the kinetochore proteome of mitotic chromosomes isolated from a cell line in which the essential kinetochore protein CENP-T is present as an auxin-inducible degron (AID) fusion protein that is fully functional and able to support the viability of the cells. Stripping of the protein from chromosomes in early mitosis via targeted proteasomal degradation reveals the dependency of other proteins on CENP-T for their maintenance in kine-tochores. We compare these results with the kinetochore proteome of conventional CENP-T/W knockouts. As the cell cycle is mostly formed from G1, S and G2 phases a gradual loss of CENP-T/W levels is more likely to reflect dependencies associated with kinetochore assembly pre-mitosis and upon entry into mitosis. Interestingly, a putative super-complex involving Rod-Zw10-zwilch (RZZ complex), Spindly, Mad1/Mad2 and CENP-E requires the function of CENP-T/W during kinetochore assembly for its stable association with the outer kinetochore, but once assembled remains associated with chromosomes after stripping of CENP-T during mitosis. This study highlights the different roles core kinetochore components may play in the assembly of kinetochores (upon entry into mitosis) versus the maintenance of specific components (during mitosis).
A Novel Dual-band Printed Diversity Antenna for Mobile Terminals

—A novel dual-band printed diversity antenna is proposed and studied. The antenna, which consists of two back-to-back monopoles with symmetric configuration, is printed on a printed circuit board (PCB). The effects of some important parameters of the proposed antenna are deeply studied and the design methodology is given. A prototype of the proposed antenna operating at UMTS (1920 ~ 2170 MHz) and 2.4-GHz WLAN (2400 ~ 2484 MHz) bands is provided to demonstrate the usability of the methodology in dual-band diversity antenna for mobile terminals. In the above two bands, the isolations of the prototype are larger than 13 dB and 16 dB, respectively. The measured radiation patterns of the two monopoles in general cover complementary space regions. The diversity performance is also evaluated by calculating the envelope correlation coefficient, the mean effective gains (MEGs) of the antenna elements and the diversity gain. It is proved that the proposed antenna can provide spatial and pattern diversity to combat multi-path fading.
A Novel Dual-band Printed Diversity Antenna for Mobile Terminals

A novel dual-band printed diversity antenna is proposed and studied. The antenna, which consists of two back-to-back monopoles with symmetric configuration, is printed on a printed circuit board (PCB). The effects of some important parameters of the proposed antenna are deeply studied and the design methodology is given. A prototype of the proposed antenna operating at UMTS (1920 ~ 2170 MHz) and 2.4-GHz WLAN (2400 ~ 2484 MHz) bands is provided to demonstrate the usability of the methodology in dual-band diversity antenna for mobile terminals. In the above two bands, the isolations of the prototype are larger than 13 dB and 16 dB, respectively. The measured radiation patterns of the two monopoles in general cover complementary space regions. The diversity performance is also evaluated by calculating the envelope correlation coefficient, the mean effective gains (MEGs) of the antenna elements and the diversity gain. It is proved that the proposed antenna can provide spatial and pattern diversity to combat multi-path fading.
Leveraged Borrowing and Boom-Bust Cycles ECONOMIC

Investment booms and asset "bubbles" are often the consequence of heavily leveraged borrowing and speculations of persistent growth in asset demand. We show theoretically that dynamic interactions between elastic credit supply (due to leveraged borrowing) and persistent credit demand (due to consumption habit) can generate a multiplier-accelerator mechanism that transforms a one-time productivity or (cid:133)nancial shock into large and long-lasting boom-bust cycles. The predictions are consistent with the basic features of investment booms and the consequent asset-market crashes led by excessive credit expansion.
Evaluation of Pneumococcal Load in Blood by Polymerase Chain Reaction for the Diagnosis of Pneumococcal Pneumonia in Young Children in the PERCH Study

Baggett, HC; Brooks, WA; Feikin, DR; Hammitt, LL; Howie, SRC; Kotloff, KL; Levine, OS; OBrien, KL; Thea, DM; Ahmed, D; Antonio, M; Awori, JO; Baillie, VL; Chipeta, J; Deluca, AN; Dione, M; Driscoll, AJ; Higdon, MM; Jatapai, A; Karron, RA; Mazumder, R; Moore, DP; Mwansa, J; Nyongesa, S; Prosperi, C; Seidenberg, P; Siludjai, D; Sow, SO; Tamboura, B; Zeger, SL; Murdoch, DR; Madhi, SA; OBrien, KL; Levine, OS; Knoll, MD; Feikin, DR; Deluca, AN; Driscoll, AJ; Fancourt, N; Fu, W; Hammitt, LL; Higdon, MM; Kagucia, EW; Karron, RA; LI, M; Park, DE; Prosperi, C; Wu, Z; Zeger, SL; Watson, NL; Crawley, J; Murdoch, DR; Brooks, WA; Endtz, HP; Zaman, K; Goswami, D; Hossain, L; Jahan, Y; Ashraf, H; Howie, SRC; Ebruke, BE; Antonio, M; McLellan, J; MacHuka, E; Shamsul, A; Zaman, SMA; MacKenzie, G; Scott, JAG; Awori, JO; Morpeth, SC; Kamau, A; Kazungu, S; Ominde, MS; Kotloff, KL; Tapia, MD; Sow, SO; Sylla, M; Tamboura, B; Onwuchekwa, U; Kourouma, N; Toure, A; Madhi, SA; Moore, DP; Adrian, PV; Baillie, VL; Kuwanda, L; Mudau, A; Groome, MJ; Mahomed, N; Baggett, HC; Thamthitiwat, S; Maloney, SA; Bunthi, C; Rhodes, J; Sawatwong, P; Akarasewi, P; Thea, DM; Mwananyanda, L; Chipeta, J; Seidenberg, P; Mwansa, J; Wa Somwe, S; Kwenda, G; Anderson, TP; Mitchell, J (2017) Evaluation of Pneumococcal Load in Blood by Polymerase Chain Reaction for the Diagnosis of Pneumococcal Pneumonia in Young Children in the PERCH Study. Clinical infectious diseases, 64 (suppl). S357 − S367.ISSN1058 − 4838DOI : https : //doi.org/10.1093/cid/cix149