Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
"Real" and Feed Pollen of Lagerstroemia indica: Ecophysiological Differences

: Lagerstroemia indica is heterantheric, its flowers bearing two kinds of stamens: six peripheral stamens with long, curved filaments and large anthers producing blue-green pollen, capable of emitting pollen tubes and fertilizing ovules; or a central tuft of 35 - 40 smaller anthers producing yellow feed pollen that does not germinate and is collected by insects, mainly bees. The two types of pollen differ in volume, number of pores, pore intine protrusion, wall structure, pollenkitt quality, hydration state, viability at anthesis, longevity and mono- and disaccharide composition. Although total sugar concentrations (glucose, fructose and sucrose) are the same in both types, relative concentrations are different, “real” pollen being sucrose-rich (S / [G + F] = 1.2) and feed pollen glucose-fructose-rich (S / [G + F] = 0.3). A lower degree of dehydration, pore intine protrusion and higher monosaccharide content could make feed pollen more digestible for pollinators. On the other hand, the cytological features of “real” pollen (high dehydration, higher sucrose content) points to longer viability and reproductive function.
Information Validates the Prior: A Theorem on Bayesian Updating and Applications

We develop a result on expected posteriors for Bayesians with heterogenous priors, dubbed information validates the prior (IVP). Under familiar ordering requirements, Anne expects a (Blackwell) more informative experiment to bring Bob’s posterior mean closer to Anne’s prior mean. We apply the result in two contexts of games of asymmetric information: voluntary testing or certification, and costly signaling or falsification. IVP can be used to determine how an agent’s behavior responds to additional exogenous or endogenous information. We discuss economic implications. (JEL C11, D82, D84)
MART: Memory-Augmented Recurrent Transformer for Coherent Video Paragraph Captioning

Generating multi-sentence descriptions for videos is one of the most challenging captioning tasks due to its high requirements for not only visual relevance but also discourse-based coherence across the sentences in the paragraph. Towards this goal, we propose a new approach called Memory-Augmented Recurrent Transformer (MART), which uses a memory module to augment the transformer architecture. The memory module generates a highly summarized memory state from the video segments and the sentence history so as to help better prediction of the next sentence (w.r.t. coreference and repetition aspects), thus encouraging coherent paragraph generation. Extensive experiments, human evaluations, and qualitative analyses on two popular datasets ActivityNet Captions and YouCookII show that MART generates more coherent and less repetitive paragraph captions than baseline methods, while maintaining relevance to the input video events.
A theoretical treatment of conditional independence testing under Model-X

For testing conditional independence (CI) of a response $Y$ and a predictor $X$ given covariates $Z$, the recently introduced model-X (MX) framework has been the subject of active methodological research, especially in the context of MX knockoffs and their successful application to genome-wide association studies. In this paper, we build a theoretical foundation for the MX CI problem, yielding quantitative explanations for empirically observed phenomena and novel insights to guide the design of MX methodology. We focus our analysis on the conditional randomization test (CRT), whose validity conditional on $Y,Z$ allows us to view it as a test of a point null hypothesis involving the conditional distribution of $X$. We use the Neyman-Pearson lemma to derive the most powerful CRT statistic against a point alternative as well as an analogous result for MX knockoffs. We define CRT-style analogs of $t$- and $F$-tests with explicit critical values, and show that they have uniform asymptotic Type-I error control under the assumption that only the first two moments of $X$ given $Z$ are known, a significant relaxation of MX. We derive expressions for the power of these tests against local semiparametric alternatives using Le Cam's local asymptotic normality theory, explicitly capturing the prediction error of the underlying learning algorithm. Finally, we pave the way for estimation in the MX setting by drawing connections to semiparametric statistics and causal inference. Thus, this work forms explicit bridges from MX to both classical statistics (testing) and modern causal inference (estimation).
A Frobenius Algebraic Analysis for Parasitic Gaps

The interpretation of parasitic gaps is an ostensible case of non-linearity in natural language composition. Existing categorial analyses, both in the typelogical and in the combinatory traditions, rely on explicit forms of syntactic copying. We identify two types of parasitic gapping where the duplication of semantic content can be confined to the lexicon. Parasitic gaps in adjuncts are analysed as forms of generalized coordination with a polymorphic type schema for the head of the adjunct phrase. For parasitic gaps affecting arguments of the same predicate, the polymorphism is associated with the lexical item that introduces the primary gap. Our analysis is formulated in terms of Lambek calculus extended with structural control modalities. A compositional translation relates syntactic types and derivations to the interpreting compact closed category of finite dimensional vector spaces and linear maps with Frobenius algebras over it. When interpreted over the necessary semantic spaces, the Frobenius algebras provide the tools to model the proposed instances of lexical polymorphism.
Biosecurity of kiwifruit plants: effects of internal microchip implants on vines for monitoring plant health status

Abstract The sanitary condition and traceability of kiwifruit cuttings can represent a key point for pest control in the production of planting material. In recent years there has been concern about the rise of bacterial canker and thus investigation of systems to improve plant biosecurity. Radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips were implanted in 1- or 2-year-old Actinidia deliciosa in order to develop a system for plant traceability able to record health status, certifications or sanitary assay. To assess the health of implanted plants, histological observations were performed, while functional vascular tissue area and mean relative growth rate were evaluated. A small calibre trunk (5–7 mm) did not allow microchip implantation. Conversely, larger trunk diameters seem to sustain microchip positioning. Data reading tests were performed to evaluate the access to sanitary data, and RFID accuracy and reliability were satisfactory. Requirement analysis for the kiwifruit plant nursery chain was performed to help develop a computer-based information system able to record and retrieve sanitary data from each plant. Requirement analysis made it possible to identify traceability objectives, materials and stakeholders involved, as well as RFID-tagging steps and methods to collect information and matching data.
Singularity resolution depends on the clock

We study the quantum cosmology of a flat Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker Universe filled with a (free) massless scalar field and a perfect fluid that represents radiation or a cosmological constant whose value is not fixed by the action, as in unimodular gravity. We study two versions of the quantum theory: the first is based on a time coordinate conjugate to the radiation/dark energy matter component, i.e., conformal time (for radiation) or unimodular time. As shown by Gryb and Thébault, this quantum theory achieves a type of singularity resolution; we illustrate this and other properties of this theory. The theory is then contrasted with a second type of quantisation in which the logarithm of the scale factor serves as time, which has been studied in the context of the ‘perfect bounce’ for quantum cosmology. Unlike the first quantum theory, the second one contains semiclassical states that follow classical trajectories and evolve into the singularity without obstruction, thus showing no singularity resolution. We discuss how a complex scale factor best describes the semiclassical dynamics. This cosmological model serves as an illustration of the problem of time in quantum cosmology.
The IOA System for Deep Noise Suppression Challenge using a Framework Combining Dynamic Attention and Recursive Learning

This technical report describes our system that is submitted to the Deep Noise Suppression Challenge and presents the results for the non-real-time track. To refine the estimation results stage by stage, we utilize recursive learning, a type of training protocol which aggravates the information through multiple stages with a memory mechanism. The attention generator network is designed to dynamically control the feature distribution of the noise reduction network. To improve the phase recovery accuracy, we take the complex spectral mapping procedure by decoding both real and imaginary spectra. For the final blind test set, the average MOS improvements of the submitted system in noreverb, reverb, and realrec categories are 0.49, 0.24, and 0.36, respectively.
Phase-space Spectral Line Deconfusion in Intensity Mapping

Line intensity mapping (LIM) is a promising tool to efficiently probe the three-dimensional large-scale structure by mapping the aggregate emission of a spectral line from all sources that trace the matter density field. Spectral lines from different redshifts can fall in the same observed frequency and be confused, however, which is a major challenge in LIM. In this work, we develop a line deconfusion technique in map space capable of reconstructing the three-dimensional spatial distribution of line-emitting sources. If multiple spectral lines of a source population are observable in multiple frequencies, using the sparse approximation, our technique iteratively extracts sources along a given line of sight by fitting the LIM data to a set of spectral templates. We demonstrate that the technique successfully extracts sources with emission lines present at a few σ above the noise level, taking into account uncertainties in the source modeling and presence of continuum foreground contamination and noise fluctuations. As an example, we consider a Tomographic Ionized-carbon Mapping Experiment/CarbON C ii line in post-rEionisation and ReionisaTiOn epoch (TIME/CONCERTO)-like survey targeting [C ii] at the epoch of reionization, and reliably reconstruct the 3D spatial distribution of the CO interlopers and their luminosity functions at 0.5 ≲ z ≲ 1.5. We also demonstrate a successful deconfusion for the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission in the near-infrared wavelengths. We discuss a formalism in which the reconstructed maps can be further cross-correlated with a (galaxy) tracer population to estimate the total interloper power. This technique is a general framework to extract the phase-space distribution of low-redshift interlopers, without the need of external information, for any line deconfusion problem.
Polynomial Equations in Subgroups and Applications

We obtain a new bound for the number of solutions to polynomial equations in cosets of multiplicative subgroups in finite fields, which generalises previous results of P. Corvaja and U. Zannier (2013). We also obtain a conditional improvement of recent results of J. Bourgain, A. Gamburd and P. Sarnak (2016) and S. V. Konyagin, S. V. Makarychev, I. E. Shparlinski and I. V. Vyugin (2019) on the structure of solutions to the reduction of the Markoff equation $x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = 3 x yz$ modulo a prime $p$.
Noisy Density Evolution With Asymmetric Deviation Models

This paper considers low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoders affected by deviations introduced by the electronic device on which the decoder is implemented. Noisy density evolution (DE) that allows to theoretically study the performance of these LDPC decoders can only consider symmetric deviation models due to the all-zero codeword assumption. A novel DE method is proposed that admits the use of asymmetric deviation models, thus widening the range of faulty implementations that can be analyzed. DE equations are provided for three noisy decoders: belief propagation, Gallager B, and quantized min-sum (MS). Simulation results confirm that the proposed DE accurately predicts the performance of LDPC decoders with asymmetric deviations. Furthermore, asymmetric versions of the Gallager B and MS decoders are proposed to compensate the effect of asymmetric deviations. The parameters of these decoders are then optimized using the proposed DE, leading to better ensemble thresholds and improved finite-length performance in the presence of asymmetric deviations.
Flowtron: an Autoregressive Flow-based Generative Network for Text-to-Speech Synthesis

In this paper we propose Flowtron: an autoregressive flow-based generative network for text-to-speech synthesis with control over speech variation and style transfer. Flowtron borrows insights from IAF and revamps Tacotron in order to provide high-quality and expressive mel-spectrogram synthesis. Flowtron is optimized by maximizing the likelihood of the training data, which makes training simple and stable. Flowtron learns an invertible mapping of data to a latent space that can be manipulated to control many aspects of speech synthesis (pitch, tone, speech rate, cadence, accent). Our mean opinion scores (MOS) show that Flowtron matches state-of-the-art TTS models in terms of speech quality. In addition, we provide results on control of speech variation, interpolation between samples and style transfer between speakers seen and unseen during training. Code and pre-trained models will be made publicly available at this https URL
Revealing motivations for and conflicts associated with recreational horseback trail riding

Despite a long history of recreational horseback trail riding on public lands, relatively little is known about riders or their recreational experiences outside of wilderness. Because horseback trail riding is projected to grow significantly in the next decade and is often experienced on multiple-use trails, information about horseback recreational rider experience is of interest. A mail questionnaire sent to recreational horseback trail riders in Minnesota revealed that motivations for riding were similar to those of other outdoor recreationists. Nearly one-half of riders experienced something that interfered with their recreation experience, and, of those, half indicated that it was stressful and responded by group discussions and following trail riding etiquette. However, nearly one-fifth left the area due to the interference. Opportunities exist to minimize these interfering occurrences identified as conflict and to continue to educate all trail users on appropriate etiquette toward safe and satisfying recreation experiences.
DeepFaceLab: A simple, flexible and extensible face swapping framework

DeepFaceLab is an open-source deepfake system created by \textbf{iperov} for face swapping with more than 3,000 forks and 13,000 stars in Github: it provides an imperative and easy-to-use pipeline for people to use with no comprehensive understanding of deep learning framework or with model implementation required, while remains a flexible and loose coupling structure for people who need to strengthen their own pipeline with other features without writing complicated boilerplate code. In this paper, we detail the principles that drive the implementation of DeepFaceLab and introduce the pipeline of it, through which every aspect of the pipeline can be modified painlessly by users to achieve their customization purpose, and it's noteworthy that DeepFaceLab could achieve results with high fidelity and indeed indiscernible by mainstream forgery detection approaches. We demonstrate the advantage of our system through comparing our approach with current prevailing systems. For more information, please visit: this https URL.
Four new species of Desmosomatidae Sars, 1897 (Crustacea: Isopoda) from the deep sea of the Angola Basin

Abstract From a total of 104 species and 1741 individuals of Isopoda, the material from DIVA-1 (DIVersity of the Atlantic benthos) contained 364 specimens belonging to Desmosomatidae Sars, 1897. They are represented by 10 genera and 27 species. Most species (93%) are new to science. Four species are described in this study (Eugerdella theodori sp. nov., Desmosoma renatae sp. nov., Torwolia tinbiene sp. nov. and Momedossa longipedis sp. nov.). A discussion of the genera Desmosoma Sars, 1864, Momedossa Hessler, 1970 and Torwolia Hessler, 1970 is presented.
Unpaired motion style transfer from video to animation

Transferring the motion style from one animation clip to another, while preserving the motion content of the latter, has been a long-standing problem in character animation. Most existing data-driven approaches are supervised and rely on paired data, where motions with the same content are performed in different styles. In addition, these approaches are limited to transfer of styles that were seen during training. In this paper, we present a novel data-driven framework for motion style transfer, which learns from an unpaired collection of motions with style labels, and enables transferring motion styles not observed during training. Furthermore, our framework is able to extract motion styles directly from videos, bypassing 3D reconstruction, and apply them to the 3D input motion. Our style transfer network encodes motions into two latent codes, for content and for style, each of which plays a different role in the decoding (synthesis) process. While the content code is decoded into the output motion by several temporal convolutional layers, the style code modifies deep features via temporally invariant adaptive instance normalization (AdaIN). Moreover, while the content code is encoded from 3D joint rotations, we learn a common embedding for style from either 3D or 2D joint positions, enabling style extraction from videos. Our results are comparable to the state-of-the-art, despite not requiring paired training data, and outperform other methods when transferring previously unseen styles. To our knowledge, we are the first to demonstrate style transfer directly from videos to 3D animations - an ability which enables one to extend the set of style examples far beyond motions captured by MoCap systems.
European post‐glacial forests: compositional changes in response to climatic change

Multivariate analysis of an extensive palyno-logical database for Europe has enabled reconstruction of broad-scale vegetation history. Whereas many major features of present vegetation patterns were established early in the Holocene, floristic composition of the forests has changed continuously up to the present day. For example, although ‘mixed deciduous forests’ had reached approximately their present extent in northwest Europe by 8000 B.P., Tilia peaked in abundance in these forests during the middle post glacial, whereas Pinus was most abundant in these forests during the early post-glacial and Fagus increased in abundance only in recent millennia. Pollen-climate response surfaces for major pollen taxa show how their distribution and abundance patterns relate to contemporary climate. Past forest-compositional changes were responses to climatic changes, the nature of which can be inferred from pollen-climate response surfaces. Post-glacial climate changes have been different in magnitude and direction in different regions of Europe. For example, in recent millennia the vegetation changes indicate decreasing summer temperatures in northern Europe but increasing summer temperatures in the Mediterranean region. The way in which vegetation responded to past climatic changes gives insight into the likely response of vegetation to future climate changes induced by the ‘greenhouse effect’.
A Report on the 2020 Sarcasm Detection Shared Task

Detecting sarcasm and verbal irony is critical for understanding people’s actual sentiments and beliefs. Thus, the field of sarcasm analysis has become a popular research problem in natural language processing. As the community working on computational approaches for sarcasm detection is growing, it is imperative to conduct benchmarking studies to analyze the current state-of-the-art, facilitating progress in this area. We report on the shared task on sarcasm detection we conducted as a part of the 2nd Workshop on Figurative Language Processing (FigLang 2020) at ACL 2020.
Constructions of complementary sequence sets and complete complementary codes by 2-level autocorrelation sequences and permutation polynomials

In this paper, a recent method to construct complementary sequence sets and complete complementary codes by Hadamard matrices is deeply studied. By taking the algebraic structure of Hadamard matrices into consideration, our main result determine the so-called $\delta$-linear terms and $\delta$-quadratic terms. As a first consequence, a powerful theory linking Golay complementary sets of $p$-ary ($p$ prime) sequences and the generalized Reed-Muller codes by Kasami et al. is developed. These codes enjoy good error-correcting capability, tightly controlled PMEPR, and significantly extend the range of coding options for applications of OFDM using $p^n$ subcarriers. As another consequence, we make a previously unrecognized connection between the sequences in CSSs and CCCs and the sequence with 2-level autocorrelation, trace function and permutation polynomial (PP) over the finite fields.
LSU Digital Commons LSU Digital Commons

Computer-based testing is an expanding use of technology offering advantages to teachers and students. We studied Calculus II classes for STEM majors using different testing modes. Three sections with 324 students employed: Paper-and-pencil testing, computer-based testing, and both. Computer tests gave immediate feedback, allowed multiple submissions, and pooling. Paper-and-pencil tests required work and explanation allowing inspection of high cognitive demand tasks. Each test mode used the strength of its method. Students were given the same lecture by the same instructor on the same day and the same homework assignments and due dates. The design is quasi-experimental, but students were not aware of the testing mode at registration. Two basic questions examined were: (1) Do paper-and-pencil and computer-based tests measure knowledge and skill in STEM Calculus II in a consistent manner? (2) How does the knowledge and skill gained by students in a fully computer-based Calculus II class compare to students in a class requiring pencil-and-paper tests and hence some paper-and-pencil work. These results indicate that computer-based tests are as consistent with paper-and-pencil tests as computer-based tests are with themselves. Results are also consistent with classes using paper-and-pencil tests having slightly better outcomes than fully computer-based classes using only computer assessments.