Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards Cost-Effective and Performance-Aware Vision Algorithms

Computer vision has leaped forward during the last decade, and now is able to recognize objects of thousands of categories and reconstruct 3D scenes at city-or world-scale. However, the ﬁeld still has to ﬁnd means to keep up with the exploration of the massive amounts of data being captured on a daily basis. This is mainly due to the lack of sufﬁ-cient training annotations and the lack of computational resources. The thesis is dedicated to mitigate the problem. Firstly, we elaborate two strategies to reduce the annotation costs in order to train vision algorithms: (1) developing smart annotation approaches for efﬁcient, large-scale annotations; and (2) learning better feature representations using unlabeled data; We develop algorithms for the strategies and show - in the context of recognition tasks - that they are able to considerably reduce the annotation costs for the training of recognition algorithms. Secondly, in addition to reducing annotation cost, we also examine how to reduce the computational cost associated with the training and testing of recognition algorithms. This research has lead to two contributions: (1) two efﬁcient solvers for linear and kernel SVM+, signiﬁcant speeding up the training process of SVM+ to explore privileged information; and (2) a method to allow computationally cheap features to imitate alternative features that perform better but are computationally more expensive. The imitation sig-niﬁcantly improves the performance of the cheap features while retaining their efﬁciency. Thirdly, as images keep growing in size, vision algorithms need to be more intelligent and self-aware of their performance. To this aim, we have developed approaches to predict and evaluate the performance of vision algorithms at two levels of granularity: Failure Prediction and Failure Diagnosis . The two methods are evaluated on texture synthesis and image segmentation respectively, and their potentials in reducing computational time are examined as well.
Serum biomarkers of physiological defense against reactive oxygen species during environmental stress in Indian dromedaries.

Objective: an investigation was carried out in Indian dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius) (Linnaeus 1758) in order to find out the defence against reactive oxygen species during environmental stress. Material and Methods: serum levels of reactive oxygen species scavengers like vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, glutathione, catalase, superoxide dismutase, monoamine oxidase, glutathione reductase, xanthine oxidase, oxidase and peroxidase were determined. Environmental stress included hot and cold environmental temperature periods. These findings were compared with those obtained during moderate environmental temperature period serving as control. Results: vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E and glutathione activity decreased significantly during hot and cold environmental temperature periods. Serum catalase, superoxide dismutase, monoamine oxidase, glutathione reductase, xanthine oxidase, oxidase and peroxidase activities increased significantly during hot and cold environmental temperature periods. Conclusion: environmental stress induced marked changes in the levels of reactive oxygen species scavengers in the serum of Indian dromedaries.
The Genetic Architecture of Southern Leaf Blight Resistance Revealed by Nested Association Mapping.

Introduction. Southern leaf blight (SLB) is a fungal foliar pathogen of maize that occurs worldwide, but is more prevalent and destructive in warm temperate and tropical regions. SLB is caused by Cochliobolus heterostrophus, a necrotrophic member of the phylum Ascomycota. Crop rotation and tilling under of debris can provide a moderate level of control through truncation of the infection cycle, but deployment of genetic resistance is the favored control method. Fortunately, many inbreds of tropical and warm temperate origin possess moderate to high levels of SLB resistance as severe infection can cause yield losses of 40%. Several SLB resistance QTL have been mapped at low resolution (~2 – 15 cM) in various genomic regions in several segregating populations. In order to fine-map the resistance genes and to elucidate the genetic architecture of this quantitative disease resistance, we evaluated the nested association mapping (NAM) population, developed as part of the NSF-funded Maize Diversity Project, for resistance to SLB. Exploiting advantages inherent in the NAM design, notably large population size, abundant marker data, and a broad sampling of maize germplasm, we hope to attain a high resolution, global QTL analysis of SLB resistance in maize.
The sensory quality of lamb meet produced in different rearing systems of autochthonous Jezersko-Solcava sheep breed.

The sensory quality of Longissimus dorsi (LD) of 32 Jezersko- Solcava lambs was compared between rearing systems (pasture vs. stable) and weaning system (suckling vs. weaned). The sex effect and interaction between rearing system and weaning was also determined. Sixteen lambs (8 males, 8 females) were grazing on mountain pasture (A) and received no food supplementation. The other half (8 males, 8 females) were fattening in stable with hay and cereals ad libitum (B). Eight pasture lambs and eight stable lambs stayed with their dams until slaughter and named suckling lambs (1). The other 8 lambs from the pasture and 8 lambs from the stable formed weaned group (2). Pasture and stable lambs were slaughtered at the same live weight (34 kg). Suckling lambs were slaughtered on weaning day at average 30 kg of live weight. Weaned lambs were slaughtered at average 38 kg of live weight. The rearing system affected only meat tenderness with better tenderness in pasture lambs. Meat from weaned lambs was tendered and redder than suckling lambs. The LD of females was reder than male meat. Interaction between rearing system and weaning was statistical significant for meat tenderness, flavour, sheep flavour and odour. Panellists considered meat from weaned lambs on the pasture to have the stronger flavour and odour and the tenderest meat with no sheep meat flavour. Meat from suckling lambs on the pasture had the most pronounced sheep meat flavour. Weaned lambs on pasture had stronger odour but tendered meat than weaned lambs in stable.
Bacteriological and Cytokine Profiles for Women Using Hormonal Contraceptive Drugs

Background: Hormonal contraceptives that contain estrogen and that contained only progesterone, while 30 women were healthy women never use contraception as a control. Samples taken from all women were high vaginal swab for Bacterial isolation and blood for measurement of serum interferon –gamma (IFN- γ ), interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. Results: Lactobacillus spp were the predominant among the control group (93.3%), while only (5%) in both contraceptive groups. Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria were isolated (68.39%, and 31.56%) respectively from women with contraceptive drugs. Immunological assay showed a significant decrease in serum concentration of both IFN- γ and IL- 8 in both contraceptive group compared to control group (p value less than 0.05). While, there is no significant difference in serum level of IL-2 among study groups. Conclusions: Both types of hormonal contraceptives lead to inhibition of vaginal Lactobacilli and decrease serum level of both IFN- ɣ and IL-8.
Symptoms and Response to Treatment with Diminazene Aceturate and Mebendazole in Dogs Infected with Single Trypanosoma congolense, Ancylostoma caninum and Combination of Trypanosoma congolense and Ancylostoma caninum

The economic losses associated with diseases caused by Trypanosoma congolense and the devastating effect of Ancylostoma caninum ( A. caninum ) in dogs’ necessitated the present study. Sixteen dogs grouped into 4 of 4 members each were used in the study. GROUP I was uninfected dogs (control), GROUP II was infected with Trypanosoma congolense ( T. congolense ) infection, GROUP III was mixed infections of Trypanosoma congolense and Ancylostoma caninum ( T. congolense / A. caninum ) and GPIV was infected with Ancylostoma caninum. At first Ancylostoma caninum infection was done on GPIII and GPIV. Two weeks later T. congolense infections was done on GPII and superimposed on GPIII. Three weeks post trypanosome infection; GPII and GPIII were treated with diminazene aceturate. Mebendazole was used on GPIII and GPIV and treatment repeated 2 weeks later. The prepatent period of T. congolense infection was 14.00±1.40 days in single infection and 9.00±1.10 days in conjunct infection of T. congolense and A. caninum. Persistent parasitaemia resulted in repeated treatment with diminazene aceturate at 7 mg/kg and mebendazole at 100 mg twice daily for 3 days . The predominant signs revealed include; lethargy, vomition, enlargement of popliteal lymphnodes, pyrexia, oedema of fore and hind limbs and ocular discharges, anaemia, and slight emaciation. The symptoms were more severe in GPIII compared to GPII and GPIV. The egg per gram of faeces (EPG) in (GPIV) was significantly higher than the conjunct infection (GPIII). Treatment only slightly improved clinical manifestations. In conclusion, conjunct infections of T. congolense / A. caninum would result to more severe disease condition than in single infection of either disease in dogs. The severity of symptoms of the diseases were more in conjunct T. congolense / A. caninum as evidenced by high mortality compared with the single infections. Therefore symptoms of the diseases could serve as a surrogate diagnostic tool in diagnosis and vigorous treatment of infected dogs.
Impact of External Audit Quality on Earnings Management by Banking Firms: Evidence from Jordan

Purpose: The aim of this exploratory research is to test the prediction that external audit quality is positively associated with earnings management. Whilst the main significance it can help stakeholders predict earning management based on some proxies that are not publicly available in annual reports. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study investigates the informative of audit quality for estimate in earning management (EM) during the period of (2006-2010) of Jordanian Banking Firms listed in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). Originality/Value: This research examines earning management forecast based on audit quality leading indicators (AT, AFEE, and INT) in addition to the company size. These groups; whether commercial banks, or audit quality indicators, have not been well researched in the past literature, especially in the Jordanian Banking Sector.
Interest of tranexamic acid in total hip arthroplasty

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most frequent interventions in orthopedics. This is a surgical procedure at high risk of bleeding. Tranexamic acid (ATX), a synthetic antifibrinolytic, is an option of choice in the blood economy. It is therefore felt necessary to initiate the study on the interest of the ATX in the prevention of bleeding during the implantation of primary THA. A retrospective study subjects exposed and unexposed single-center, comparative between January 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014. All patients who had undergone primary total hip arthroplasty were enrolled and divided into 2 groups of 30:Group ATX + patients received the administration of tranexamic acid in perioperative Group ATX patients didn’t receive tranexamic acid as the control group. Sixty patients had received primary THA, divided into two groups of 30. The mean age of patients was comparable in both groups. The sex ratio was 1.1 with no significant gap between the two groups (p = 0.2). The average BMI was 23.60 ± 3.5 kg / m2 in ATX + Group and 24.2 ± 3.5 kg / m2 in ATX – group (P = 0.6). The average hemoglobin was 12.9 ± 1.1 g / dL in all patients. The surgical indications were identical in the two groups. Both anesthetic methods were practiced, spinal anesthesia and general anesthesia with no significant difference in both groups (P = 0.9). The mini-invasive incision was made more than 70% in both groups (P = 0.9). The average Blood loss was 459.6 ± 102 ml in the ATX + group and 750.8 ± 247.34 ml in the ATXgroup. The overall transfusion rate was 30%, including 8.3% in the ATX+ group and 21.7% in the ATXgroup. We noticed a reduction in the postoperative bleeding in the ATX + group in the D0-D1 interval with a difference significant (P = 0.0002). This work confirms the Eficacy of tranexamic acid in the transfusional saving strategy in major orthopedic surgery such as total hip arthroplasty and should be used systematically in the management of anesthesia in high-risk patient’s Haemorrhagic fever.
Zone-based Energy Efficient Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a novel zone or grid-based network deployment framework for energy efficient selection and reselection process of Zone-Head (ZH) in the WSNs. The proposed zone head reselection process ensures energy efficiency, load balancing, and stability which further prolongs the network lifetime. Instead of carrying out periodic reselection of Zone-Head (ZH) that leads to extra energy consumption and network overhead, the protocol dynamically initiates the process of reselection based on residual energy level of ZH. In the proposed approach the process is segregated into four phases; deployment phase, the zone formation phase, zone head selection phase, data transmission phase and reselection phase. We implemented the proposed algorithm in MATLAB and its result outcomes reveal that the proposed method outperforms the competitive algorithms for parameters such as load balancing, total energy consumption and network lifetime.
Working Papers in Economics : 1924 FIRMS AND FARMS : THE LOCAL EFFECTS OF FARM INCOME ON FIRMS ’

How do changes in agricultural productivity affect firms? Using the predictions of a simple multi-sector general equilibrium model of the local economy and exploiting weather-induced agricultural volatility across India, I estimate the response of manufacturing firms to changes in agricultural productivity. I show that negative agricultural productivity shocks lower the cost of labor but that this does not cause firms to hire more. Firms’ production and employment in fact decrease because the shocks also reduce local income and hence the demand that firms face. My estimates provide evidence for a significant local demand effect. I then use my framework to show that this has key policy implications. I examine the introduction of a rural workfare program and assess how it affects firms. I show that the program attenuates the impact of negative agricultural shocks on firms because of its counter-cyclical effects on local wage and demand for manufacturing goods. The results highlight how policies that target households and increase their income can affect local market size and therefore the industrial sector through their general equilibrium effects. ⇤University of Cambridge, Faculty of Economics, Austin Robinson Building, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DD, United Kingdom. Email: gabriella.santangelo@econ.cam. ac.uk. This paper is based on my PhD dissertation at Yale University. I am extremely grateful to my advisors, Mark Rosenzweig, Chris Udry and Nancy Qian, for their guidance and support. I would also like to thank Shameel Amhad, Muneeza Alam, David Atkin, Alex Cohen, Sabysachi Das, Gabriele Foa’, Doug Gollin, Tim Guinnane, Clement Imbert, Dean Karlan, Daniel Keniston, Kaivan Munshi, Barbara Petrongolo, Tommaso Porzio, Camilla Roncoroni, Nick Ryan, Meredith Startz, Paul Schultz, John Strauss, Russell Toth, Jeff Weaver, Eric Weese and seminar/conference participants at CEPR/IGC Conference on Labor Markets in Developing Countries, Barcelona GSE Summer Forum, USC, Warwick, Zurich, Bocconi, Toulouse, Stockholm, Oxford, UC Davis, EIEF, Queen Mary, Yale, Carlo Alberto, Cambridge, KU Leuven, EEA-ESEM Lisbon, 18th IEA World Congress and Bank of Italy for helpful comments and discussions at various stages of this project. This research was supported by grants from the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF). All errors are mine.
Snapshot Semantics for Temporal Multiset Relations

Snapshot semantics is widely used for evaluating queries over temporal data: temporal relations are seen as sequences of snapshot relations, and queries are evaluated at each snapshot. In this work, we demonstrate that current approaches for snapshot semantics over interval-timestamped multiset relations are subject to two bugs regarding snapshot aggregation and bag difference. We introduce a novel temporal data model based on K -relations that overcomes these bugs and prove it to correctly encode snapshot semantics. Furthermore, we present an efficient implementation of our model as a database middleware and demonstrate experimentally that our approach is competitive with native implementations.
2 2 O ct 2 01 0 Topologically biased random walk with application for community finding in networks

Vinko Zlatić, Andrea Gabrielli, Guido Caldarelli Istituto Sistemi Complessi CNR, UOS “Sapienza”, Dipartimento di Fisica, Università “Sapienza”, Piazzale A. Moro 2, 00185-Rome, Italy Theoretical Physics Division, Rudjer Bošković Institute, P.O. Box 180, HR-10002 Zagreb, Croatia Istituto Sistemi Complessi CNR, Via dei Taurini 19, 00185-Rome, Italy LINKALAB, Via San Benedetto 88, 09129 Cagliari, Italy and London Institute for Mathematical Sciences 22 South Audley St Mayfair London W1K 2NY, UK
A Genetic Algorithm Approach to Predictive Modeling of Medicare Payments to Physical Therapists

We examine the ability of a genetic algorithm to learn a pre- dictive model that can estimate the likelihood that a physical therapist will receive annual Medicare payments above or below the industry median based on the physical therapist’s practice parameters. We compare the performance of a canon- ical genetic algorithm and a self adaptive genetic algorithm with the performance of traditional logistic regression. Re- sults show that both genetic algorithm approaches are competitive with logistic regression with the canonical genetic al- gorithm consistently outperforming logistic regression.
Title Aggregation Latency-Energy Tradeoff in Wireless SensorNetworks with Successive Interference Cancellation

Minimizing latency and energy consumption is the prime objective of the design of data aggregation in battery-powered wireless networks. A tradeoff exists between the aggregation latency and the energy consumption, which has been widely studied under the protocol interference model. There has been, however, no investigation of the tradeoff under the physical interference model that is known to capture more accurately the characteristics of wireless interferences. When coupled with the technique of successive interference cancellation, by which a receiver may recover signals from multiple simultaneous senders, the model can lead to much reduced latency but increased energy usage. In this paper, we investigate the latency-energy tradeoff for data aggregation in wireless sensor networks under the physical interference model and using successive interference cancellation. We present theoretical lower bounds on both latency and energy as well as their tradeoff, and give an efficient approximation algorithm that can achieve the asymptotical optimum in both aggregation latency and latency-energy tradeoff. We show that our algorithm can significantly reduce the aggregation latency, for which the energy consumption is kept at its lowest possible level.
Do Expectations Meet Aspirations? The Relation of Public Managers’ Job Choice Motives to Job Satisfaction

We investigate how public managers’ job choice motives shape their job satisfaction by using a representative sample of public managers from Georgia and Illinois in the United States. Factor analysis presents five main motives driving public managers to pursue a public position. By incorporating these primary job choice motives, the regression indicates that public managers’ job satisfaction level is largely affected by their professed motivations and organizational context. Those managers with higher levels of motivation for the factors Career Advancement or Public Value demonstrate a higher level of satisfaction with their jobs; while other motives such as Job Security, Salary and Smooth Working Environment seem to have no impact on public managers’ job satisfaction. Public managers working in Georgia are more satisfied with their job, regardless of the leading role Georgia played in dismantling traditional civil service reform. The study suggests that expectancy theory does not provide a strong explanation of public managers’ job satisfaction and ends with the discussion of future research directions.
A Survey of Assistive Technologies for Assessment and Rehabilitation of Motor Impairments in Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that affects the central nervous system, which consists of the brain and spinal cord. Although this condition cannot be cured, proper treatment of persons with MS (PwMS) can help control and manage the relapses of several symptoms. In this survey article, we focus on the different technologies used for the assessment and rehabilitation of motor impairments for PwMS. We discuss sensor-based and robot-based solutions for monitoring, assessment and rehabilitation. Among MS symptoms, fatigue is one of the most disabling features, since PwMS may need to put significantly more intense effort toward achieving simple everyday tasks. While fatigue is a common symptom across several neurological chronic diseases, it remains poorly understood for various reasons, including subjectivity and variability among individuals. To this end, we also investigate recent methods for fatigue detection and monitoring. The result of this survey will provide both clinicians and researchers with valuable information on assessment and rehabilitation technologies for PwMS, as well as providing insights regarding fatigue and its effect on performance in daily activities for PwMS.
Explorer Mechanisms and Materials for NTE

10 Negative thermal expansion (NTE) upon heating is an unusual property but is observed in many 11 materials over varying ranges of temperature. A brief review of mechanisms for NTE and prominent 12 materials will be presented here. Broadly there are two basic mechanisms for intrinsic NTE within a 13 homogenous solid; structural and electronic. Structural NTE is driven by transverse vibrational 14 motion in insulating framework–type materials e.g. ZrW2O8 and ScF3. Electronic NTE results from 15 thermal changes in electronic structure or magnetism and is often associated with phase transitions. A 16 classic example is the Invar alloy, Fe0.64Ni0. 36, but many exotic mechanisms have been discovered 17 more recently such as colossal NTE driven by Bi–Ni charge transfer in the perovskite BiNiO3. In 18 addition there are several types of NTE that result from specific sample morphologies. Several simple 19 materials, e.g. Au, CuO, are reported to show NTE as nanoparticles but not in the bulk. 20 Microstructural enhancements of NTE can be achieved in ceramics of materials with anisotropic 21 thermal expansion such as beta–eucryptite and Ca2RuO4, and artificial NTE metamaterials can be 22 fabricated from engineered structures of normal (positive) thermal expansion substances. 23
APPROACHES TO MANAGEMENT AND FARM BUSINESS SUCCESS

Exploratory factor analysis was used to analyze responses to management questions asked a sample of U.S. cash grain farmers. Results indicate that 3 factors described farm management approaches, price negotiation, long-term cost control, and input adjustment. Price negotiation was positively associated with farm business success, but the input adjustment approach had a negative impact on farm performance.