Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vertical Production Networks : Evidence from France April 2007

This paper investigates the determinants of intra-firm trade of multinational firms located in France, using data on French companies. Results on the vertical pattern of production networks differ according to the affiliates’ location. Lower wage and transportation costs in the developing countries increase, as expected, the vertical segmentation of production. In the developed countries, lower trade and unit wage costs, and hence, a strong and positive labour productivity matter a lot in explaining French MNCs’ preferences. Among the other variables of interest, partnership and market potential have been given special attention. The results substantiate a mix of vertical and horizontal FDI, mainly when we separate out capital intensive from labour intensive intermediate products.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Feedforward and recurrent processing in scene segmentation : Electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging

& In texture segregation, an example of scene segmentation, we can discern two different processes: texture boundary detection and subsequent surface segregation [Lamme, V. A. F. , Rodriguez-Rodriguez, V. , & Spekreijse, H. Separate processing dynamics for texture elements, boundaries and surfaces in primary visual cortex of the macaque monkey. Cerebral Cortex, 9, 406–413, 1999]. Neural correlates of texture boundary detection have been found in monkey V1 [Sillito, A. M. , Grieve, K. L. , Jones, H. E. , Cudeiro, J., & Davis, J. Visual cortical mechanisms detecting focal orientation discontinuities. Nature, 378, 492–496, 1995; Grosof, D. H. , Shapley, R. M. , & Hawken, M. J. Macaque-V1 neurons can signal illusory contours. Nature, 365, 550–552, 1993], but whether surface segregation occurs in monkey V1 [Rossi, A. F. , Desimone, R. , & Ungerleider, L. G. Contextual modulation in primary visual cortex of macaques. Journal of Neuroscience, 21, 1698–1709, 2001; Lamme, V. A. F. The neurophysiology of figure ground segregation in primary visual-cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 15, 1605–1615, 1995], and whether boundary detection or surface segregation signals can also be measured in human V1, is more controversial [Kastner, S. , De Weerd, P., & Ungerleider, L. G. Texture segregation in the human visual cortex: A functional MRI study. Journal of Neurophysiology, 83, 2453–2457, 2000]. Here we present electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging data that have been recorded with a paradigm that makes it possible to differentiate between boundary detection and scene segmentation in humans. In this way, we were able to show with EEG that neural correlates of texture boundary detection are first present in the early visual cortex around 92 msec and then spread toward the parietal and temporal lobes. Correlates of surface segregation first appear in temporal areas (around 112 msec) and from there appear to spread to parietal, and back to occipital areas. After 208 msec, correlates of surface segregation and boundary detection also appear in more frontal areas. Blood oxygenation level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging results show correlates of boundary detection and surface segregation in all early visual areas including V1. We conclude that texture boundaries are detected in a feedforward fashion and are represented at increasing latencies in higher visual areas. Surface segregation, on the other hand, is represented in ‘‘reverse hierarchical’’ fashion and seems to arise from feedback signals toward early visual areas such as V1. &
An Ethical Highlighter for People-Centric Dataset Creation

Important ethical concerns arising from computer vision datasets of people have been receiving significant attention, and a number of datasets have been withdrawn as a result. To meet the academic need for people-centric datasets, we propose an analytical framework to guide ethical evaluation of existing datasets and to serve future dataset creators in avoiding missteps. Our work is informed by a review and analysis of prior works and highlights where such ethical challenges arise.
Characteristics of atmospheric transport into the Arctic troposphere

[1] The Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART was used to construct a global data set of 1.4 million continuous trajectories. At the model start, particles were distributed homogeneously in the atmosphere and were then transported for 5.5 years using both resolved winds from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts analyses and parameterized turbulent and convective transport. On the basis of this data set, a climatology of transport in and to the Arctic was developed. It was found that the time air resides continuously north of 70°N, called its Arctic age, is highest near the surface in the North American sector of the Arctic. North of 80°N and near the surface, the mean Arctic age of air is about 1 week in winter and 2 weeks in summer. It decreases rapidly with altitude to about 3 days in the upper troposphere. In the most isolated regions of the Arctic, air is exposed to continuous darkness for, on average, 10–14 days in December. Transport from the stratosphere to the lower troposphere is much slower in the Arctic than in the middle latitudes. In the central Arctic, for instance, the probability that air near the surface was transported from the stratosphere within 10 days is only about 1% in winter and 0.3% in summer. Air pollution can be transported into the Arctic along three different pathways: low-level transport followed by ascent in the Arctic, low-level transport alone, and uplift outside the Arctic, followed by descent in the Arctic. Only this last pathway is frequent for pollution originating from North America and Asia, whereas European pollution can follow all three pathways in winter, and pathways one and three in summer. Sensitivities of Arctic air masses to emissions of air pollutants, based on transport alone, were calculated for times of up to 30 days before the air masses reached the Arctic. They were highest over Siberia and Europe in winter and over the oceans in summer. Using an inventory for anthropogenic black carbon (BC) emissions, it was found that near the surface and for transport timescales of 5 and 10 days, BC source contributions from south Asia are only 1.6% and 10%, respectively, of the corresponding European values, despite much higher emissions in south Asia. Using an inventory for BC emissions from forest fires, BC source contributions to the Arctic, particularly from fires in Siberia, were larger than anthropogenic BC source contributions in summer in years of average burning.
In vitro positive selection of αβ TCR transgenic thymocytes by a conditionally immortalized cortical epithelial clone

Development of mature CD4 and CD8 single-positive T cells requires a process known as positive selection, which depends on the specific recognition of self-peptide–MHC complexes on thymic stromal cells by immature CD4 FCD8F thymocytes. We have used an in vitro reaggregate system to study the positive selection of thymocytes by conditionally immortalized thymic epithelial clones. Thymocytes from mice transgenic for the F5 αβ TCR, specific for a peptide from the influenza nucleoprotein in the context of H-2D b, are positively selected in the H-2 b MHC background, but fail to mature in mice expressing the H-2 q haplotype. Development of embryonic day 15 F5 H-2 q transgenic thymocytes was followed in reaggregate cultures supplemented with H-2 b-expressing epithelial clones. A conditionally immortalized cortical epithelial clone, derived from H-2K b-tsA58 transgenic mice, was found to be as efficient as freshly isolated thymic stromal cells in positively selecting CD8 transgenic thymocytes. In contrast, an H-2 b-expressing kidney epithelial clone did not augment positive selection above background levels, implying that the effect of the thymic epithelial clone was not merely the presentation of selecting MHC molecules. Mature transgenic thymocytes generated in reaggregate cultures were able to differentiate into functionally competent cytotoxic T cells. This model provides an important in vitro system for the detailed study of the specific molecular interactions leading to positive selection of developing thymocytes.
Temporal-Channel Transformer for 3D Lidar-Based Video Object Detection for Autonomous Driving

The strong demand of autonomous driving in the industry has led to vigorous interest in 3D object detection and resulted in many excellent 3D object detection algorithms. However, the vast majority of algorithms only model single-frame data, ignoring the temporal clue in video sequence. In this work, we propose a new transformer, called Temporal-Channel Transformer (TCTR), to model the temporal-channel domain and spatial-wise relationships for video object detecting from Lidar data. As the special design of this transformer, the information encoded in the encoder is different from that in the decoder. The encoder encodes temporal-channel information of multiple frames while the decoder decodes the spatial-wise information for the current frame in a voxel-wise manner. Specifically, the temporal-channel encoder of the transformer is designed to encode the information of different channels and frames by utilizing the correlation among features from different channels and frames. On the other hand, the spatial decoder of the transformer decodes the information for each location of the current frame. Before conducting the object detection with detection head, a gate mechanism is further deployed for re-calibrating the features of current frame, which filters out the object-irrelevant information by repetitively refining the representation of target frame along with the up-sampling process. Experimental results reveal that TCTR achieves the state-of-the-art performance in grid voxel-based 3D object detection on the nuScenes benchmark.
Saliency-based segmentation of dermoscopic images using colour information

ABSTRACT Skin lesion segmentation is one of the crucial steps for an efficient non-invasive computer-aided early diagnosis of melanoma. This paper investigates how to use colour information, besides saliency, for determining the pigmented lesion region automatically. Unlike most existing segmentation methods using only the saliency to discriminate against the skin lesion from the surrounding regions, we propose a novel method employing a binarization process coupled with new perceptual criteria, inspired by the human visual perception, related to the properties of saliency and colour of the input image data distribution. As a means of refining the accuracy of the proposed method, the segmentation step is preceded by a pre-processing aimed at reducing the computation burden, removing artefacts, and improving contrast. We have assessed the method on two public databases, including 1497 dermoscopic images. We have also compared its performance with classical and recent saliency-based methods designed explicitly for dermoscopic images. The qualitative and quantitative evaluation indicates that the proposed method is promising since it produces an accurate skin lesion segmentation and performs satisfactorily compared to other existing saliency-based segmentation methods.
Identification and Drug Resistance Pattern of Mycobacterium Species among Patients Attending DOTS Microscopy Center

DOI: 10.21276/sjams.2017. 5.10. 13 Abstract: Tuberculosis is a chronic infection, potentially of lifelong duration, caused by two species of mycobacteria M. tuberculosis and rarely, M. bovis. Today one third of the world’s population is infected with this disease. Emergence of drug resistant tuberculosis is another public health quandary. Our study aims to detect drug resistance cases by using combination of automated culture system and molecular method for rapid and accurate diagnosis. The study was conducted over a period of 16 months from January 2016 to June 2017, among 210 clinically suspected patients having infection with Mycobacterium species. Sputum and BAL fluid from all clinically suspected cases of Tuberculosis among all age groups and both sexes attending DOTS microscopy center and TB chest department were collected for further identification. Total 210 suspected cases for pulmonary tuberculosis were included. Among 210 patients 38.5% were AFB smear positive, 77.1% clinical samples were culture positive and 15 sample were found to be MDR. In our study we concluded that, liquid culture methods and Line Probe assay are costly but the test is rapid and more accurate, which helps in rapid detection of drug resistant strains of Mtb.
Study Protocol for Two-Steps Parallel Randomized Controlled Trial: Pre-Clinical Usability Tests for a New Double-Chamber Syringe

A new double-chamber syringe (DUO Syringe) was developed for intravenous drug administration and catheter flushing. This study presents a protocol for pre-clinical usability tests to validate the golden prototype of this new device, performed in a high-fidelity simulation lab by nurses. A two-steps parallel randomized controlled trial with two arms was designed (with standard syringes currently used in clinical practice and with the DUO Syringe). After randomization, eligible and consented participants will be requested to perform, individually, intravenous drug administration and flushing, following the arm that has been allocated. The procedure will be video-recorded for posterior analyses. After the completion of the tasks, nurses will be asked to answer a demographic survey, as well as an interview about their qualitative assessment of the device. A final focus group with all participants will also be conducted. Primary outcomes will concern the DUO Syringe’s effectiveness, efficiency, and safety, while secondary outcomes will focus on nurses’ satisfaction and intention of use. The pre-clinical protocol was defined according to the legal requirements and ISO norms and was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing of the Nursing School of Coimbra.
Genetic divergence without spatial isolation in polecat Mustela putorius populations

How habitat preference leads to divergence and discrete polymorphism within or among populations is a fundamental issue in evolutionary ecology. Nonetheless, genetically based differentiation of phenotypes has rarely been proven to be adaptive in animals (Garland & Adolph, 1991; Endler & TheÂry, 1996; Blondel et al., 1999). Although intraspeci®c variability is the rough matter of evolution, population divergence requires breeding isolation. According to Mayr's allopatric theory (1963), restriction in gene ̄ow often results from geographical barriers or long distance separating populations. Nevertheless, numerous nonisolated populations can display a wide polymorphism with distinct morphs coexisting in sympatry. In natural populations, some variations were so subtle that their adaptive signi®cance may be debated (Abrams, 1990; Robinson & Wilson, 1994). But from discrete phenotypic differences, there is growing evidence of a trend towards population differentiation regarded as potential sympatric speciation (Rice & Hostert, 1993). For instance, differentiated morphs could subsist in some bluegill and pumpkinseed sun®sh, brown trout, arctic and brook charr and African cichlid
Fuzzy control of a variable-speed wind power generating system

energize August 2008 Page 41 With the rising cost and limited availability of fossil fuels, much attention has been focused on the use of renewable energy sources for electrical power generation. Being a widely available resource in many areas, wind energy represents a viable alternative for reducing the dependence on fossil fuels. In recent years, there has been significant development of wind power generation systems worldwide. Typically, wind energy is used to propel a wind turbine, which in turn drives a generator to provide electrical power.
Can cosmological simulations capture the diverse satellite populations of observed Milky Way analogues?

The recent advent of deep observational surveys of local Milky Way ‘analogues’ and their satellite populations allows us to place the Milky Way in a broader cosmological context and to test models of galaxy formation on small scales. In this study, we use the Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM)-based ARTEMIS suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations containing 45 Milky Way analogue host haloes to make comparisons to the observed satellite luminosity functions, radial distribution functions, and abundance scaling relations from the recent Local Volume and SAGA observational surveys, in addition to the Milky Way and M31. We find that, contrary to some previous claims, ΛCDM-based simulations can successfully and simultaneously capture the mean trends and the diversity in both the observed luminosity and radial distribution functions of Milky Way analogues once important observational selection criteria are factored in. Furthermore, we show that, at fixed halo mass, the concentration of the simulated satellite radial distribution is partly set by that of the underlying smooth dark matter halo, although stochasticity due to the finite number of satellites is the dominant driver of scatter in the radial distribution of satellites at fixed halo mass.
Finitary affine oriented matroids.

We initiate the axiomatic study of affine oriented matroids (AOMs) on arbitrary ground sets, obtaining fundamental notions such as minors, reorientations and a natural embedding into the frame work of Complexes of Oriented Matroids. The restriction to the finitary case (FAOMs) allows us to study tope graphs and covector posets, as well as to view FAOMs as oriented finitary semimatroids. We show shellability of FAOMs and single out the FAOMs that are affinely homeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^n$. Finally, we study group actions on AOMs, whose quotients in the case of FAOMs are a stepping stone towards a general theory of affine and toric pseudoarrangements. Our results include applications of the multiplicity Tutte polynomial of group actions of semimatroids, generalizing properties of arithmetic Tutte polynomials of toric arrangements.
Corruption Environment and Investment in Private Firms

Using a panel data set of 148,286 firm-year observations related to 41,497 privately owned firms in thirteen European countries between 2001 to 2013, we provide the first large-scale study of the effect of uncertainty about corruption (need to make unofficial payments to public officials) on corporate investments. With a dataset of manager interviews and a dataset of firms’ financial and accounting statements, we find that higher corruption uncertainty is associated with lower corporate investments in medium-size and large domestically-owned firms, but not in foreign-owned firms or very small domestic firms. The level of corruption has no effect on investment when corruption uncertainty is included in estimation, a finding that contradicts earlier corruption studies that did not include corruption uncertainty. Our results hold in fixed effects, instrumental variable, and matching analyses. They are robust to model specifications and suggest that policy should aim at reducing corruption uncertainty (e.g., by having all permits issued by one office).
[Genetic Analyses of Salivary Gland Tumors] DISSERTATION

The translocation t(11;19)(q21;p13) has been described in mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) and rarely in Warthin tumors (WT), both tumors of the salivary gland. The translocation creates a fusion gene in which exon 1 of CRTC1 is linked to exons 2e5 of MAML2. To verify the translocation in WT, we performed nested reverse transcriptaseepolymerase chain reaction using RNA from 48 WTs. This revealed the t(11;19)(q21;p13) translocation and expression of the chimeric gene in two metaplastic WT samples, but in none of the remaining ordinary 46 WTs. On review, the two positive cases were classified as tumors highly suspect for MEC. Indeed, our experience and published observations of the t(11;19)(q21;p13) translocation in WT reveal that only a small subset of WTs are positive, and that these tumors are often classified as infarcted or metaplastic WT, known to overlap considerably with MEC on purely morphological grounds. We therefore conclude that the presence of the t(11;19)(q21;p13) rearrangement favors a diagnosis of MEC. 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Alignment of Regulatory Sites Using Neural Networks to Maximrze Specificity

Sequence-specific binding of proteins to nucleic acids is a central feature of gene regulation. Neural networks provide an expressive framework for modeling these interactions. We have developed an unsupervised learning algorithm combining Gibb's sampling and steepest ascent to maximize specificity of the resulting interaction. This method has been successfully applied to locate protein binding sites in unaligned DNA fragments. Variants have also been used to locate motifs in related proteins, and to locate sites in RNA fragments while simultaneously predicting secondary structure.
ANTI-CONCENTRATION INEQUALITIES

1. About the lectures 2 2. A matter of scale 2 3. Lévy’s concentration function 3 4. Anti-concentration inequalities 3 5. Littlewood-Offord-Erdős 4 6. What did Littlewood and Offord do? 5 7. Sperner’s lemma: a simple and a not so simple proof 6 8. Extensions of Littlewood-Offord 7 9. Stanley’s theorem 8 10. Further extensions: Halász’s theorem 9 11. The most important identity in analysis 10 12. Fourier analysis to the rescue: A proof of Halász’s theorem 11 13. Singularity probability of the Bernoulli matrix 12 14. Generalization of the basic Littlewood-Offord inequality 13 15. Inverse Littlewood-Offord theorems 14 16. Characteristic functions and concentration 15 17. Some questions in anti-concentration 16
Mantle convection as a boundary layer phenomenon

Summary. The boundary layer nature of vigorous thermal convection is explored using high resolution numerical solutions to the governing hydrodynamic equations. These solutions are obtained for a series of idealized models of the Earth’s mantle in which the viscosity is assumed to be constant. A detailed analysis of the local energy balance within the horizontal and vertical thermal boundary layers is presented in terms of which a test of the fundamental assumptions of boundary layer theory is provided. The results of this test have important geophysical consequences since the asymptotic predictions of boundary layer theory have been employed extensively in the context of thermal history modelling. Although boundary layer theory closely predicts the correct power-law behaviour of various quantities it does not determine their absolute values accurately. Vertical advection is shown to play an important role in the energy balance within horizontal boundary layers at all Rayleigh numbers. Horizontal and vertical advection dominate the energy balance within vertical plumes while horizontal diffusion plays a very minor role. When heating is partially from within the fluid, vertical advection into the upper thermal boundary layer can produce significant departures in the thermal structure from that found when heating is entirely from below. For a free upper boundary this results in a relative flattening of the variations of surface topography and heat flow across the convection cells. For a constant velocity upper boundary (similar to plate motion) the bathymetry flattens but the heat flow does not; this result agrees with marine observations. Rigidity of the thermal boundary layer below the upper surface is not included explicitly in the model, and it is not known whether the inclusion of this feature in future models would significantly alter the topographic expression. If not, the observed departure of the oceanic bathymetry from a 6 dependence at old ocean floor ages could be attributed to a small amount of internal heating in a mantle-wide convective circulation.