Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A YOLO-based Separation of Touching-Pigs for Smart Pig Farm Applications

For specific livestock such as pigs in a pigsty, many surveillance applications have been reported to consider their health for efficient livestock management. For pig surveillance applications, separating touching-pigs in real-time is an important issue for a final goal of 24-hour tracking of individual pigs. Although convolutional neural network (CNN)-based instance segmentation techniques can be applied to this separation problem, their collective performance of accuracy-time may not satisfy the required performance. In this study, we improve the collective performance of accuracy-time by combining the fastest CNN-based object detection technique (i.e., You Only Look Once, YOLO) with image processing techniques. We first apply image processing techniques to detect touching-pigs by using both infrared and depth information acquired from an Intel RealSense camera, then apply YOLO to separate the touching-pigs. Especially, in using YOLO as an object detector, we consider the target object as the boundary region of the touching-pigs, rather than the individual pigs of the touching-pigs. Finally, we apply image processing techniques to determine the final boundary line from the YOLO output. Our experimental results show that this method is effective to separate touching-pigs in terms of the collective performance of accuracy-time, compared to the recently reported CNN-based instance segmentation technique.
Increasing Reading Skills in Rural Areas: An Analysis of Three School Districts

Reviews of research on rural education suggest that identifying ways to help rural schools improve teachers’ pedagogical skills should be a high priority. This article addresses this issue by examining changes in reading skills through the primary grades of students in three rural, Midwestern districts that occurred after the implementation of a highly structured and explicit reading curriculum (Reading Mastery) with implementation-associated support and guidance. Using a cohort control group design, reading skills of students who had the curriculum from the beginning of kindergarten (full exposure cohorts) were compared with those of students who began the curriculum in later years. By the middle of kindergarten, those in the full exposure cohorts had significantly higher DIBELS scores than students in the other cohorts and scores that were equal to or higher than a national sample. Differences remained strong and significant through grade 3, and effect sizes generally surpassed usual standards of educational significance. Data were available on scores on state reading examinations for fourth graders in one of the districts, and similar results were found. The findings illustrate how rural districts in a sparsely populated state can support teachers’ pedagogical development and how this support can translate into higher student achievement. Citation: Stockard, J. (2011). Increasing reading skills in rural areas: An analysis of three school districts. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 26(8), 1-19. Retrieved from http://jrre.psu. edu/ articles/26-8.pdf
Nonlinear 
I−V
 characteristics of two-dimensional superconductors: Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics versus inhomogeneity

One of the hallmarks of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in two-dimensional superconductors is the universal jump of the superfluid density that can be indirectly probed via the nonlinear exponent of the current-voltage $I\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ characteristics. Here, we compare the experimental measurements of $I\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ characteristics in two cases, namely NbN thin films and ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_{3}$-based interfaces. While the former display a paradigmatic example of BKT-like nonlinear effects, the latter do not seem to justify a BKT analysis. Rather, the observed $I\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ characteristics can be well reproduced theoretically by modeling the effect of mesoscopic inhomogeneity of the superconducting state. Our results offer an alternative perspective on the spontaneous fragmentation of the superconducting background in confined two-dimensional systems.
Psychophysiological candidates for biocybernetic control of adaptive automation

Biocybernetic control is defined as the use of psychophysiology as a real-time input to a computerised system. This paper is concerned with the biocybernetic control of adaptive automation, e.g. the use of psychophysiology to regulate provision of system automation. The goal of the current study was to identify measures of psychophysiology which were sensitive to task characteristics, specifically task demand and time-on-task. Thirty participants performed the Multi Attribute Task Battery (MATB) under conditions of high and low task demand over a period of sixty-four minutes. Several channels of psychophysiological activity were recorded during performance of the MATB, e.g. EEG, ECG, EOG, respiration rate. The results indicated that power in the theta and alpha bandwidths, heart rate, vagal tone and eyeblink duration were sensitive to task demand, whereas alpha power, 0.1 Hz sinus arrhythmia and eyeblink duration were sensitive to time-on-task. The consequences of these findings for the selection of candidates for biocybernetic control are discussed.
Development and validation of a risk score for predicting death in Chagas' heart disease.

BACKGROUND Chagas' disease is an important health problem in Latin America, and cardiac involvement is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. We developed a model to predict the risk of death in patients with Chagas' heart disease. METHODS We retrospectively evaluated 424 outpatients from a regional Brazilian cohort. The association of potential risk factors with death was tested by Cox proportional-hazards analysis, and a risk score was created. The model was validated in 153 patients from a separate community hospital. RESULTS During a mean follow-up of 7.9 years, 130 patients in the development cohort died. Six independent prognostic factors were identified, and each was assigned a number of points proportional to its regression coefficient: New York Heart Association class III or IV (5 points), evidence of cardiomegaly on radiography (5 points), left ventricular systolic dysfunction on echocardiography (3 points), nonsustained ventricular tachycardia on 24-hour Holter monitoring (3 points), low QRS voltage on electrocardiography (2 points), and male sex (2 points). We calculated risk scores for each patient and defined three risk groups: low risk (0 to 6 points), intermediate risk (7 to 11 points), and high risk (12 to 20 points). In the development cohort, the 10-year mortality rates for these three groups were 10 percent, 44 percent, and 84 percent, respectively. In the validation cohort, the corresponding mortality rates were 9 percent, 37 percent, and 85 percent. The C statistic for the point system was 0.84 in the development cohort and 0.81 in the validation cohort. CONCLUSIONS A simple risk score was developed to predict death in Chagas' heart disease and was validated in an independent cohort.
The discourse and attitudes of English language teachers in Hong Kong

This paper suggests that Hong Kong English, insofar as it varies from Standard English, has not achieved wide acceptance in the community. The paper approaches this by investigating the attitudes of Hong Kong's English language teachers. Over a thousand messages on language issues to a computer network for English teachers were analysed, in terms of their discourse and the sources of authority the teachers referred to in support of their views on correctness or acceptability. 1 The sources regarded as most authoritative were dictionaries and grammar or usage books from native speaking countries such as Britain. Hong Kong sources such as textbooks and the media were treated with more caution, and sometimes criticised. The model of English the teachers adopted was clearly exonormative. The term Hong Kong English did not occur anywhere in the 1,234 messages, and no deviations from a native speaker norm were referred to favourably. The paper concludes that these attitudes, similar to those in the business community, will constrain the use of Hong Kong English for formal communication.
Within the triangle of healthcare legacies: comparing the performance of South-Eastern European health systems

Abstract Objective: Inter-regional comparison of health-reform outcomes in south-eastern Europe (SEE). Methods: Macro-indicators were obtained from the WHO Health for All Database. Inter-regional comparison among post-Semashko, former Yugoslavia, and prior-1989-free-market SEE economies was conducted. Results: United Nations Development Program Human Development Index growth was strongest among prior-free-market SEE, followed by former Yugoslavia and post-Semashko. Policy cuts to hospital beds and nursing-staff capacities were highest in post-Semashko. Physician density increased the most in prior-free-market SEE. Length of hospital stay was reduced in most countries; frequency of outpatient visits and inpatient discharges doubled in prior-free-market SEE. Fertility rates fell for one third in Post-Semashko and prior-free-market SEE. Crude death rates slightly decreased in prior-free-market-SEE and post-Semashko, while growing in the former Yugoslavia region. Life expectancy increased by 4 years on average in all regions; prior-free-market SEE achieving the highest longevity. Childhood and maternal mortality rates decreased throughout SEE, while post-Semashko countries recorded the most progress. Conclusions: Significant differences in healthcare resources and outcomes were observed among three historical health-policy legacies in south-eastern Europe. These different routes towards common goals created a golden opportunity for these economies to learn from each other.
Locally Differentially Private Naive Bayes Classification

In machine learning, classification models need to be trained in order to predict class labels. When the training data contains personal information about individuals, collecting training data becomes difficult due to privacy concerns. Local differential privacy is a definition to measure the individual privacy when there is no trusted data curator. Individuals interact with an untrusted data aggregator who obtains statistical information about the population without learning personal data. In order to train a Naive Bayes classifier in an untrusted setting, we propose to use methods satisfying local differential privacy. Individuals send their perturbed inputs that keep the relationship between the feature values and class labels. The data aggregator estimates all probabilities needed by the Naive Bayes classifier. Then, new instances can be classified based on the estimated probabilities. We propose solutions for both discrete and continuous data. In order to eliminate high amount of noise and decrease communication cost in multi-dimensional data, we propose utilizing dimensionality reduction techniques which can be applied by individuals before perturbing their inputs. Our experimental results show that the accuracy of the Naive Bayes classifier is maintained even when the individual privacy is guaranteed under local differential privacy, and that using dimensionality reduction enhances the accuracy.
A comparative study of the effects of insulin and growth hormone on hexose metabolism in adipose tissue.

Epididymal adipose tissue segments from hypophysectomized rats were incubated in vitro in the presence of growth hormone or insulin and various concentrations of glucose, mannose, fructose or galactose, uniformly labeled with 14C. Both hormones significantly increased the uptake of all 4 sugars and their oxidation to 14CO2. Both hormones also increased the incorporation into fatty acids of 14C from glucose, mannose and fructose, but not galactose. Increasing the concentration of the sugars in the incubation medium brought about similar increases in hexose uptake and utilization. Insulin, but not growth hormone, increased the incorporation of 14C from glucose into glycogen, even when both hormones produced identical increases in glucose uptake, oxidation and conversion to fatty acids. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that both growth hormone and insulin accelerate the entrance of hexoses into adipose tissue. The additional action of insulin, but not growth hormone, on glycogen synthesi.
A Couple’s Activity for Understanding Birth Order Effects: Introducing the Birth Order Research-Based Questionnaire (BORQ)

In an effort to explore the role of family of origin (or equivalent) issues as they affect a couple’s relationship, the authors introduce the Birth Order Research-Based Questionnaire (BORQ). Couples will also be asked to participate in other interview questions to assess each individual’s birth order effects and family of origin. A brief review of the birth order literature is included as well as an appendix documenting the birth order traits for oldest, only, middle, and youngest. The article concludes with the implications of the couple’s activity.
An examination of tourists' attitudinal and behavioral loyalty: Comparison between domestic and international tourists

The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents of tourists' loyalty (both attitudinal and behavioral) towards Chiangmai (a major tourist destination in Thailand). Multiple regression analysis indicated that attitudinal loyalty was mainly driven by attachment, familiarity and perceived value, whereas behavioral loyalty is driven by familiarity. Only one dimension of pull motivation (history, heritage and knowledge) influenced attitudinal loyalty, whereas none of pull motivation's dimensions had an effect on behavioral loyalty. Regarding push motivation, tourists' desire for novelty negatively influenced behavioral loyalty. Finally, male tourists tended to be more attitudinally and behaviorally loyal, while tourists who had children living with them showed less attitudinal loyalty.
STIS UV spectroscopy of early B supergiants in M31

We analyze STIS spectra in the 1150-1700 ˚A wavelength range obtained for six early B supergiants in the neighboring galaxy M31. Because of their likely high (nearly solar) abundance, these stars were originally chosen to be directly comparable to their Galactic counterparts, and represent a much-needed addition to our current sample of B-type supergiants, in our eﬀorts to study the dependence of the Wind Momentum-Luminosity Relationship on spectral type and metallicity. As a ﬁrst step to determine wind momenta we ﬁt the P-Cygni proﬁles of the resonance lines of N v , Si iv and C iv with standard methods, and derive terminal velocities for all of the STIS targets. From these lines we also derive ionic stellar wind column densities. Our results are compared with those obtained previously in Galactic supergiants, and conﬁrm earlier claims of ‘nor-mal’ wind line intensities and terminal velocities in M31. For half of the sample we ﬁnd evidence for an enhanced maximum turbulent velocity when compared to Galactic counterparts.
Modeling the Building Blocks of Biodiversity

Background Networks of single interaction types, such as plant-pollinator mutualisms, are biodiversity’s “building blocks”. Yet, the structure of mutualistic and antagonistic networks differs, leaving no unified modeling framework across biodiversity’s component pieces. Methods/Principal Findings We use a one-dimensional “niche model” to predict antagonistic and mutualistic species interactions, finding that accuracy decreases with the size of the network. We show that properties of the modeled network structure closely approximate empirical properties even where individual interactions are poorly predicted. Further, some aspects of the structure of the niche space were consistently different between network classes. Conclusions/Significance These novel results reveal fundamental differences between the ability to predict ecologically important features of the overall structure of a network and the ability to predict pair-wise species interactions.
Hypoxic preconditioning increases survival of cardiac progenitor cells via the pim-1 kinase-mediated anti-apoptotic effect.

BACKGROUND Stem cells transplanted to the ischemic myocardium usually encounter massive cell death within a few days after transplantation, and hypoxic preconditioning (HPC) is currently used as a strategy to prepare stem cells for increased survival and engraftment in the heart. The purpose of this study is to determine whether Pim-1 kinase mediates any beneficial effects of HPC for human cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs). METHODS AND RESULTS Human CPCs were isolated from an adult heart auricle and were purified by magnetic-activated cell sorting using c-kit magnetic beads; they were hypoxic preconditioned for 6h. Both Pim-1 and p-Akt were determined. CPCs were assigned to one of the following groups: (1) control (without HPC); (2) HPC; or (3) HPC+I (Pim-1 inhibitor). HPC can promote the survival of CPCs. HPC enhances the expression of Pim-1 kinase in a time-dependent manner, which causes a reduction of proapoptotic elements (cytochrome c and cleaved caspase-3) and the preservation/modulation of important components of the mitochondria (Bcl-2, Bcl-XL and p-Bad), and attenuates mitochondrial damages. All of these protective effects were blocked by a Pim-1 inhibitor. CONCLUSIONS Pim-1 plays a pivotal role in the protective effect of HPC for CPCs, and the promotion of the expression of Pim-1 in CPCs can as serve part of molecular therapeutic interventional strategies in the treatment of cardiomyopathy damage by blunting CPC death.
Dynamics and GA-Based Stable Control for a Class of Underactuated Mechanical Systems

The control of underactuated mechanical system is very complex for the loss of its control inputs. The model of underactuated mechanical systems in a potential field is built with Lagrangian method and its structural properties are analyzed in detail. A genetic algorithm (GA)-based stable control approach is proposed for the class of underactuated mechanical systems. The Lyapunov stability theory and system properties are utilized to guarantee the system stability to its equilibrium. The real-valued GA is used to adjust the controller parameters to improve the system performance. This approach is applied to the underactuated double-pendulum-type overhead crane and the simulation results illustrate the complex system dynamics and the validity of the proposed control algorithm.
Comments on 'Contingency and Choice in Organization Theory' (Georg Schreyögg, OS 1/4: 305-326)

In Organization Studies 1/4, Schreyögg has argued that the contingency-design approach to the study of organizations has a number of shortcomings. These are related to the neglect of the analysis of political processes and of historically specific institution al settings. The present reply points out that a number of the supposed inadequacies of the contigency-design framework are based on a mischaracterization. Further, many of the issues addressed in a political action analysis are different from those examined in design research. Only the pursuit of contigency-design enquiries can provide the answers sought on the consequences of structural arrangements.
Dynamic Information Retrieval Modeling

In Dynamic Information Retrieval modeling we model dynamic systems which change or adapt over time or a sequence of events using a range of techniques from artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning. Many of the open problems in current IR research can be described as dynamic systems, for instance, session search or computational advertising. State of the art research provides solutions to these problems that are responsive to a changing environment, learn from past interactions and predict future utility. Advances in IR interface, personalization and ad display demand models that can react to users in real time and in an intelligent, contextual way. The objective of this half-day tutorial is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to Dynamic Information Retrieval Modeling. We motivate a conceptual model linking static, interactive and dynamic retrieval and use this to define dynamics within the context of IR. We then cover a number of algorithms and techniques from the artificial intelligence (AI) and online learning literature such as Markov Decision Processes (MDP), their partially observable variation (POMDP) and multi-armed bandits. Following this we describe how to identify dynamics in an IR problem and demonstrate how to model them using the described techniques. The remainder of the tutorial will then cover an array of state-of-the-art research on dynamic systems in IR and how they can be modeled using using dynamic IR. We use research on session search, multi-page search and online advertising as in-depth examples of such work. This tutorial is of relevance to IR practitioners and researchers, where we will present the merits of dynamic information retrieval modeling and introduce the relevant techniques. The content will be of particular interest to researchers working in the areas of statistical modeling, personalization and recommendation, and is also relevant to practitioners in Web search, online advertising and anyone who works with big data. After this tutorial, attendees will: Be able to identify the dynamics in an IR system; Be able to model these dynamics using techniques from AI and reinforcement learning; Have knowledge of the state-of-the-art research in dynamic information retrieval modeling.
Efficient Evaluation of EM Radiation Associated With Information Leakage From Cryptographic Devices

This paper presents an efficient map generation technique for evaluating the intensity of electromagnetic (EM) radiation associated with information leakage for cryptographic devices at the printed circuit board level. First, we investigate the relation between the intensity of the overall EM radiation and the intensity of EM information leakage on a cryptographic device. For this purpose, we prepare a map of the magnetic field on the device by using an EM scanning system, after which we perform correlation electromagnetic analysis (CEMA) at all measurement points on the device, including points above the cryptographic module. The examined device is a standard evaluation board for cryptographic modules (side-channel attack standard evaluation board), where a cryptographic circuit is implemented on one of the field-programmable gate arrays on the board. With this experiment, we demonstrate that both an EM radiation map and an information leakage map can be generated simultaneously by scanning the board only once. We also confirm that the generated map is in good agreement with the corresponding map obtained from exhaustive CEMAs.
Clinical management of multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica with therapeutic monoclonal antibodies: approved therapies and emerging candidates

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are a relatively novel class of drugs that has substantially advanced immunotherapy for patients with multiple sclerosis. The advantage of these agents is that they bind specifically and exclusively to predetermined proteins or cells. Natalizumab was the first mAb in neurology to obtain approval. It is also considered one of the most potent options for annualized relapse rate reduction among available therapeutic options. Alemtuzumab is currently also approved in several countries. Several mAbs have been tested in clinical studies in multiple sclerosis. Here, we review the history of drug development of therapeutic mAbs and their classification. Furthermore, we outline the putative mechanisms of action, clinical evidence and safety of approved mAbs and those in different stages of clinical development in multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica.