Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
COVID-19 lockdown improves air quality in Morocco

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, almost all non-essential activities in Morocco have been halted since March 15, 2020. In this sense, several measures have been taken to mitigate the effects of this pandemic. Morocco has been on lockdown since March 20, 2020. The main objective of this paper is to study the effects of the lockdown measures on air quality, by presenting the spatio-temporal evolution of PM2,5 and NO2 pollutants, based on satellite data from Sentinel 5P and MERRA. Then, these results are compared to the data predicted by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Results show that, on one hand, Morocco has experienced an improvement in air quality by a significant reduction in NO2 and a relative reduction in PM2,5. On the other hand, we demonstrate that the particulate pollution in Morocco is partly due to synoptic weather patterns, and that a significant part of NO2 emissions is incoming mainly from the outside northern borders of Morocco. Finally we show that PM2,5 CAMS global forecasts underestimate the observed MERRA data.
Dietary interpretation and paleoecology of herbivores from Pikermi and Samos (late Miocene of Greece)

Abstract A large sample of the Pikermi and Samos ungulates was examined by microwear analysis using a light stereomicroscope (561 extinct and 809 extant comparative specimens). The results were used to infer the dietary adaptations of individual species and to evaluate the Pikermian Biome ungulate fauna. Many of the bovids have wear consistent with mixed feeding, although a few mesodont taxa apparently enjoyed an exclusive browsing and or grazing diet. The giraffids spanned the entire dietary spectrum of browsing, mixed feeding, and grazing, but most of the three-toed horses (Hippotherium) were hypsodont grazers. The colobine monkey Mesopithecus pentelici displays microwear consistent with a mixed fruit and leaf diet most likely including some hard objects. Similar results were obtained from prior scanning electron microscopy microwear studies at 500 times magnification and from the light microscope method at 35 times magnification for the same species. Results show that diet can differ between species that have very similar gross tooth morphology. Our results also suggest that the Pikermian Biome was most likely a woodland mosaic that provided a diversity of opportunities for species that depended on browsing as well as species that ate grass. The grasses were most likely C3 grasses that would grow in shaded areas of the woodland, glades, and margins of water. The ungulate component of the Pikermi and Samos fauna was more species-rich and more diverse in diet than the ungulates observed in modern African forests, woodlands, or savannas, yet dietarily most similar to the ungulates found in woodland elements of India and to some extent of Africa. It is unlikely that the Pikermi and Samos ungulates inhabited dense forests because we find no evidence for heavy fruit browsing. Conversely, a pure savanna is unlikely because many mixed feeders are present as well as browsers. Extant woodland African species are morphologically and trophically very similar to the African savanna species. Therefore the evolution of grazing and of hypsodont morphology for Africa may have evolved within the Plio-Pleistocene woodlands of Africa. Our results show that major dietary and morphologic ungulate evolution may take place within woodlands rather than as a consequence of species moving into savannas both during the late Miocene of Pikermi and Samos and during the Pleistocene–Recent of Central Africa.
Investigating the Relationship Between Stress and Psychological Well-Being among Foundation Students of UiTM

The period of transition between high school and tertiary education can be overwhelming to preuniversity college students. It involves phases of adaptation as well as overcoming discomfort and challenges. In the process of adaptation, stress can be inevitable. Stress is known to influence one’s psychological well-being and if not well managed, it can be detrimental to an individual’s life and the individual may not be able to fully execute important daily tasks. College students may encounter stress in the dimensions of academic, financial, family, peers, and college surroundings with having to hold different roles and responsibilities as students. This situation may inevitably cause stress among students themselves. The stress experienced by these students can potentially affect their psychological well-being. Therefore, investigating students’ level of stress and examining how stress can affect their psychological well-being is necessary. The current study sought to investigate the relationship of stress and psychological well-being of TESL Foundation students in UiTM. The survey questionnaires were randomly distributed to 222 participants. Student Stress inventory and Psychological Well-Being (PWB) scales were utilized to gather the data. Findings revealed an inversed moderate significant relationship between stress and psychological well-being among TESL foundation students. Implications and recommendations were suggested and discussed.
Pre-trained Word Embeddings for Goal-conditional Transfer Learning in Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms typically start tabula rasa, without any prior knowledge of the environment, and without any prior skills. This however often leads to low sample efficiency, requiring a large amount of interaction with the environment. This is especially true in a lifelong learning setting, in which the agent needs to continually extend its capabilities. In this paper, we examine how a pre-trained task-independent language model can make a goal-conditional RL agent more sample efficient. We do this by facilitating transfer learning between different related tasks. We experimentally demonstrate our approach on a set of object navigation tasks.
Comparing Classification Systems for Ponderosa Pine Snags in Northern Arizona

The degree to which snag classification systems predict actual snag “age” (time since tree death) is rarely known. We used dendrochronology to determine the death dates of 79 large (more than 40 cm dbh, more tha n3mi nheight) ponderosa pine snags in northern Arizona and compared the snag ages to those predicted by a commonly used simulation model and to five classification systems. The methods are limited to trees for which intact tree-ring samples could be extracted, but the data provided evidence of some snags standing for long periods (to 141 years) and correlation of snag traits with age. The simulation model underestimated snag age in the first three categories. Mean ages of snags in the last category were estimated accurately but with low precision. Comparison of snag ages to their classification in five systems showed that bole breakage was unrelated to snag age, that limb loss occurs at divergent rates between individual trees, and that wood decay does not necessarily proceed sequentially. A system based on the attrition of bark from snag boles proved useful for distinguishing snags by physical traits, but different classification systems may be needed to meet specific needs for assessing past forest structure and wildlife habitat.
Variational Inference with Continuously-Indexed Normalizing Flows

Continuously-indexed flows (CIFs) have recently achieved improvements over baseline normalizing flows in a variety of density estimation tasks. In this paper, we adapt CIFs to the task of variational inference (VI) through the framework of auxiliary VI, and demonstrate that the advantages of CIFs over baseline flows can also translate to the VI setting for both sampling from posteriors with complicated topology and performing maximum likelihood estimation in latent-variable models.
Quantum transport in flat bands and supermetallicity

Quantum physics in flat-band (FB) systems embodies a variety of exotic phenomenon and even counter intuitive features. The quantum transport in several graphene based compounds that exhibit a flat band and a tunable gap is investigated. Despite the localized nature of the FB states and a zero group velocity, a super-metallic (SM) phase at the FB energy is revealed. The SM phase is robust against the inelastic scattering strength and controlled only by the inter-band transitions between the FB and the dispersive bands. The SM phase appears insensitive and quasi independent of the gap amplitude and nature of the lattice (disordered or nano-patterned). The universal nature of the unconventional FB transport is illustrated with the case of electrons in the Lieb lattice.
Conditioned Time-Dilated Convolutions for Sound Event Detection

Sound event detection (SED) is the task of identifying sound events along with their onset and offset times. A recent, convolutional neural networks based SED method, proposed the usage of depthwise separable (DWS) and time-dilated convolutions. DWS and time-dilated convolutions yielded state-of-the-art results for SED, with considerable small amount of parameters. In this work we propose the expansion of the time-dilated convolutions, by conditioning them with jointly learned embeddings of the SED predictions by the SED classifier. We present a novel algorithm for the conditioning of the time-dilated convolutions which functions similarly to language modelling, and enhances the performance of the these convolutions. We employ the freely available TUT-SED Synthetic dataset, and we assess the performance of our method using the average per-frame $\text{F}_{1}$ score and average per-frame error rate, over the 10 experiments. We achieve an increase of 2\% (from 0.63 to 0.65) at the average $\text{F}_{1}$ score (the higher the better) and a decrease of 3\% (from 0.50 to 0.47) at the error rate (the lower the better).
ROSE: A Retinal OCT-Angiography Vessel Segmentation Dataset and New Model

Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) is a non-invasive imaging technique that has been increasingly used to image the retinal vasculature at capillary level resolution. However, automated segmentation of retinal vessels in OCTA has been under-studied due to various challenges such as low capillary visibility and high vessel complexity, despite its significance in understanding many vision-related diseases. In addition, there is no publicly available OCTA dataset with manually graded vessels for training and validation of segmentation algorithms. To address these issues, for the first time in the field of retinal image analysis we construct a dedicated Retinal OCTA SEgmentation dataset (ROSE), which consists of 229 OCTA images with vessel annotations at either centerline-level or pixel level. This dataset with the source code has been released for public access to assist researchers in the community in undertaking research in related topics. Secondly, we introduce a novel split-based coarse-to-fine vessel segmentation network for OCTA images (OCTA-Net), with the ability to detect thick and thin vessels separately. In the OCTA-Net, a split-based coarse segmentation module is first utilized to produce a preliminary confidence map of vessels, and a split-based refined segmentation module is then used to optimize the shape/contour of the retinal microvasculature. We perform a thorough evaluation of the state-of-the-art vessel segmentation models and our OCTA-Net on the constructed ROSE dataset. The experimental results demonstrate that our OCTA-Net yields better vessel segmentation performance in OCTA than both traditional and other deep learning methods. In addition, we provide a fractal dimension analysis on the segmented microvasculature, and the statistical analysis demonstrates significant differences between the healthy control and Alzheimer’s Disease group. This consolidates that the analysis of retinal microvasculature may offer a new scheme to study various neurodegenerative diseases.
TOXICOLOGICAL HIGHLIGHT Choline Deficiency Associated with Diethanolamine Carcinogenicity

In order to place choline in proper perspective with regard to hepatocellular carcinogenesis, some sense of the history of the early events in the discovery and development of knowledge about this important methyl donor may be helpful. Choline (trimethylhydroxyethylammonium), a vitamin-like molecule, was discovered and synthesized in the mid-1860s, but its significance as a nutrient was not identified for another halfcentury, during studies related to the discovery of insulin by Banting and Best at the University of Toronto in 1921‐1922 (Newberne, 1993). These investigators were able to maintain depancreatized dogs on insulin for several months, but the animals eventually developed fatty liver and died (Hershey and Soskin, 1931). Raw pancreas prevented the fatty liver and spared the life of the dogs, as did lecithin, an important component of pancreatic tissue. Best and Huntsman (1932) confirmed that the factor that prevented the fatty liver and demise of the dogs was choline. Intermingling of choline and its metabolites in the maintenance of methylation and methyl group metabolism, along with the difficulties in defining the input of individual members of the lipotrope family into onecarbon metabolism (choline, methionine, vitamin B12, folate), so called because they prevent the deposition of fat in the liver, slowed progress between 1932 and 1950. Following the disclosure by Best and Huntsman (1932) that choline was a nutrient, a publication by du Vigneaud et al. (1941) described the pathway for synthesis of choline and served to energize the field of transmethylation and one-carbon metabolism. Two additional seminal articles were published, the second of which (Salmon and Copeland, 1954) raised choline deficiency to a level of interest that resulted in a number of laboratories initiating research in this area of carcinogenesis. This was a new research area in which something was taken out of, rather than added to, the diet (choline vs. a chemical carcinogen) in order to study neoplasia. Choline deficiency carcinogenesis helped to expand the then-growing interest in chemical carcinogenesis, and a number of investigators evaluated the promoting influence of the deficiency on traditional chemical carcinogenesis. Among many significant discoveries was the critical observation that the promoting effect was associated with rapid death and repeated waves of hepatocyte proliferation (Lombardi and Shinozuka, 1979), an association reported by several investigators (Newberne et al., 1982).
Damped Ly α absorbers and atomic hydrogen in galaxies: the view of the GAEA model

Using the GAEA semi-analytic model, we analyse the connection between Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems (DLAs) and HI in galaxies. Our state-of-the-art semi-analytic model is tuned to reproduce the local galaxy HI mass function, and that also reproduces other important galaxy properties, including the galaxy mass - gas metallicity relation. To produce catalogs of simulated DLAs we throw $10^5$ random lines of sight in a composite simulated volume: dark matter haloes with log$(\frac{M_{200}}{ M_{\odot}}) \geq 11.5$ are extracted from the Millennium Simulation, while for $9.2 \leq \log(\frac{M_{200}}{ M_{\odot}})<11.5$ we use the Millennium II, and for $8 \leq \log(\frac{M_{200}}{M_{\odot}}) < 9.2$ a halo occupation distribution model. At $2 < z < 3$, where observational data are more accurate, our fiducial model predicts the correct shape of the column density distribution function, but its normalization falls short of the observations, with the discrepancy increasing at higher redshift. The agreement with observations is significantly improved increasing both the HI masses and the disk radii of model galaxies by a factor 2, as implemented 'a posteriori' in our $2M-2R$ model. In the redshift range of interest, haloes with $M_{200} \geq {10}^{11} M_{\odot}$ give the major contribution to $\Omega_{\rm DLA}$, and the typical DLA host halo mass is $\sim {10}^{11} M _{\odot}$. The simulated DLA metallicity distribution is in relatively good agreement with observations, but our model predicts an excess of DLAs at low metallicities. Our results suggest possible improvements for the adopted modelling of the filtering mass and metal ejection in low-mass haloes.
GASP XXX. The Spatially Resolved SFR–Mass Relation in Stripping Galaxies in the Local Universe

The study of the spatially resolved star formation rate–mass ( – ) relation gives important insights on how galaxies assemble at different spatial scales. Here, we present an analysis of the – of 40 local cluster galaxies undergoing ram-pressure stripping drawn from the GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies (GASP) sample. Considering their integrated properties, these galaxies show an SFR enhancement with respect to undisturbed galaxies of similar stellar mass; we now exploit spatially resolved data to investigate the origin and location of the excess. Even on ∼1kpc scales, stripping galaxies present a systematic enhancement of (∼0.35 dex at = ) at any given compared to their undisturbed counterparts. The excess is independent of the degree of stripping and of the amount of star formation in the tails, and it is visible at all galactocentric distances within the disks, suggesting that the star formation is most likely induced by compression waves from ram pressure. Such excess is larger for less massive galaxies and decreases with increasing mass. As stripping galaxies are characterized by ionized gas beyond the stellar disk, we also investigate the properties of 411 star-forming clumps found in the galaxy tails. At any given stellar mass density, these clumps are systematically forming stars at a higher rate than in the disk, but differences are reconciled when we just consider the mass formed in the last few 108 yr ago, suggesting that on these timescales, the local mode of star formation is similar in the tails and in the disks.
Effects of Algivorous Minnows on Production of Grazing Stream Invertebrates

The algivorous minnow, Campostoma anomalum, strongly influences the distribution and standing crop of periphyton in north temperate streams. We conducted a 5 wk experiment in large, recirculating artificial streams to examine the effects of Campostoma on secondary production of two invertebrate grazers, the crayfish Orconectes virilis and the pulmonate snail Physella virgata. Treatments included experimental streams with snails alone, crayfish alone, snails and fish together, crayfish and fish together, and a non-grazed control
Power Minimization for Age of Information Constrained Dynamic Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

We consider a status update system where multiple sensors communicate timely information about various random processes to a sink. The sensors share orthogonal sub-channels to transmit such information in the form of status update packets. A central controller can control the sampling actions of the sensors to trade-off between the transmit power consumption and information freshness which is quantified by the Age of Information (AoI). We jointly optimize the sampling action of each sensor, the transmit power allocation, and the sub-channel assignment to minimize the average total transmit power of all sensors, subject to a maximum average AoI constraint for each sensor. To solve the problem, we develop a dynamic control algorithm using the Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty method and provide optimality analysis of the algorithm. According to the Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty method, to solve the main problem, we need to solve an optimization problem in each time slot which is a mixed integer non-convex optimization problem. We propose a low-complexity sub-optimal solution for this per-slot optimization problem that provides near-optimal performance and we evaluate the computational complexity of the solution. Numerical results illustrate the performance of the proposed dynamic control algorithm and the performance of the sub-optimal solution for the per-slot optimization problem versus the different parameters of the system. The results show that the proposed dynamic control algorithm achieves more than $60~\%$ saving in the average total transmit power compared to a baseline policy.
Molecular Identification Of Trichoderma Strains Collected To Develop Plant Growth-Promoting And Biocontrol Agents

Abstract Trichoderma strains that are beneficial to both the growth and health of plants can be used as plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF) or biological control agents (BCA) in agricultural and horticultural practices. In order to select PGPF or BCA strains, their biological properties and taxonomy must be carefully studied. In this study, 104 strains of Trichoderma collected at geographically different locations in Poland for selection as PGPF or BCA were identified by DNA barcoding, based on the sequences of internal transcribed spacers 1 and 2 (ITS1 and 2) of the ribosomal RNA gene cluster and on the sequences of translation elongation factor 1 alpha (tef1), chitinase 18-5 (chi18-5), and RNA polymerase II subunit (rpb2) gene fragments. Most of the strains were classified as: T. atroviride (38%), T. harzianum (21%), T. lentiforme (9%), T. virens (9%), and T. simmonsii (6%). Single strains belonging to T. atrobrunneum, T. citrinoviride, T. crassum, T. gamsii, T. hamatum, T. spirale, T. tomentosum, and T. viridescens were identified. Three strains that are potentially pathogenic to cultivated mushrooms belonging to T. pleuroticola and T. aggressivum f. europaeum were also identified. Four strains: TRS4, TRS29, TRS33, and TRS73 were classified to Trichoderma spp. and molecular identification was inconclusive at the species level. Phylogeny analysis showed that three of these strains TRS4, TRS29, and TRS33 belong to Trichoderma species that is not yet taxonomically established and strain TRS73 belongs to the T. harzianum complex, however, the species could not be identified with certainty.
Strategy Complexity of Parity Objectives in Countable MDPs

We study countably infinite MDPs with parity objectives. Unlike in finite MDPs, optimal strategies need not exist, and may require infinite memory if they do. We provide a complete picture of the exact strategy complexity of $\varepsilon$-optimal strategies (and optimal strategies, where they exist) for all subclasses of parity objectives in the Mostowski hierarchy. Either MD-strategies, Markov strategies, or 1-bit Markov strategies are necessary and sufficient, depending on the number of colors, the branching degree of the MDP, and whether one considers $\varepsilon$-optimal or optimal strategies. In particular, 1-bit Markov strategies are necessary and sufficient for $\varepsilon$-optimal (resp. optimal) strategies for general parity objectives.
McKay matrices for finite-dimensional Hopf algebras

Abstract For a finite-dimensional Hopf algebra $\mathsf {A}$ , the McKay matrix $\mathsf {M}_{\mathsf {V}}$ of an $\mathsf {A}$ -module $\mathsf {V}$ encodes the relations for tensoring the simple $\mathsf {A}$ -modules with $\mathsf {V}$ . We prove results about the eigenvalues and the right and left (generalized) eigenvectors of $\mathsf {M}_{\mathsf {V}}$ by relating them to characters. We show how the projective McKay matrix $\mathsf {Q}_{\mathsf {V}}$ obtained by tensoring the projective indecomposable modules of $\mathsf {A}$ with $\mathsf {V}$ is related to the McKay matrix of the dual module of $\mathsf {V}$ . We illustrate these results for the Drinfeld double $\mathsf {D}_n$ of the Taft algebra by deriving expressions for the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of $\mathsf {M}_{\mathsf {V}}$ and $\mathsf {Q}_{\mathsf {V}}$ in terms of several kinds of Chebyshev polynomials. For the matrix $\mathsf {N}_{\mathsf {V}}$ that encodes the fusion rules for tensoring $\mathsf {V}$ with a basis of projective indecomposable $\mathsf {D}_n$ -modules for the image of the Cartan map, we show that the eigenvalues and eigenvectors also have such Chebyshev expressions.