Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Probabilistic End-to-End Vehicle Navigation in Complex Dynamic Environments With Multimodal Sensor Fusion

All-day and all-weather navigation is a critical capability for autonomous driving, which requires proper reaction to varied environmental conditions and complex agent behaviors. Recently, with the rise of deep learning, end-to-end control for autonomous vehicles has been well studied. However, most works are solely based on visual information, which can be degraded by challenging illumination conditions such as dim light or total darkness. In addition, they usually generate and apply deterministic control commands without considering the uncertainties in the future. In this letter, based on imitation learning, we propose a probabilistic driving model with multi-perception capability utilizing the information from the camera, lidar and radar. We further evaluate its driving performance online on our new driving benchmark, which includes various environmental conditions (e.g., urban and rural areas, traffic densities, weather and times of the day) and dynamic obstacles (e.g., vehicles, pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists). The results suggest that our proposed model outperforms baselines and achieves excellent generalization performance in unseen environments with heavy traffic and extreme weather.
Low Complexity Iterative Rake Decision Feedback Equalizer for OTFS Modulation

This paper presents a linear complexity iterative rake detector for the recently proposed orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation scheme. The basic idea is to extract and coherently combine the received multipath components of the transmitted symbols in the delay-Doppler grid using maximal ratio combining (MRC) to improve the SNR of the combined signal. We reformulate the OTFS input-output relation in the vector form by placing guard null symbols in the delay-Doppler grid and exploiting the resulting circulant property of the blocks of the channel matrix. Using this vector input-output relation we propose a low complexity iterative decision feedback equalizer (DFE) based on MRC. The performance and complexity of the proposed detector favourably compares with the state of the art message passing detector. We further propose a Gauss-Seidel based over-relaxation parameter in the rake detector to improve the performance and the convergence speed of the iterative detection. We also show how the MRC detector can be combined with outer error-correcting codes to operate as a turbo DFE scheme to further improve the error performance. All results are compared with a baseline orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme employing a single tap minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalizer.
Chemical Composition and Some Rheological Properties of Mesona Blumes Gum

A gum was extracted from the leaves of Liangfen Cao (Mesona Blumes), the extraction yield was 29.36%. The crude gum contains 9.74% protein, 30.89% ash, 2.98% crude fibre and 42.19% total sugar (w/w). Monosaccharide components of the gum were mainly galactose, glucose, arabinose and uronic acid with mole ratios of 3.1:2.3:2.3:1.4, respectively. Minerals in the ash were mainly 40.26mg/g sodium, 10.57mg/g potassium, 1.42mg/g magnesium and 2.81mg/g calcium. Molecular weight of the two fractions of the gum were 16,264 and 7,372 Da, respectively. The intrinsic viscosity of the gum was 91.01 mL/g in distilled water at 25°C. Its rheological properties were dependent on shear rate, gum concentration, sugar, temperature, pH, and salt. The gum exhibited pseudoplastic behaviour with shear rate increment. The apparent viscosity increased with the increase of the gum concentration, also increased with the sugar addition and varied according to pH, the highest viscosity was reached at pH 10.0 and the lowest at pH 6.0. Decrease of apparent viscosity was observed with increase of temperature. The activation energy of 10% (w/w) gum was 17.58kJ/mol. The apparent viscosity decreased with Na+ addition and also with the addition of [Ca++]<1%, while it increased with the addition of [Ca++]> 1% (w/w).
Record of a black-coloured Natrix in northeastern Turkey, with comments on the validity of the Bigheaded Grass Snake, Natrix megalocephala Orlov & Tunijev, 1987

Abstract A specimen of “Natrix megalocephala” was found near Hopa in northeastern Turkey. The morphological characters are compared with other specimens of N. megalocephala and N. natrix scutata from Russia and Turkey and are discussed together with the diagnostic data from the original description of the species. The morphologically intermediate character of the investigated specimens confirms the previously published doubts about the validity of the weakly diagnosed taxon N. megalocephala.
Star Formation in Massive Galaxies at Redshift z ∼ 0.5

It is believed that massive galaxies have quenched their star formation because of active galactic nucleus feedback. However, recent studies have shown that some massive galaxies are still forming stars. We analyze the morphology of star formation regions for galaxies of stellar masses larger than 1011.3 M⊙ at around redshift zr = 0.5 using u − z color images. We find that about 20% of the massive galaxies are star-forming (SF) galaxies, and most of them (∼85%) have asymmetric structures induced by recent mergers. Moreover, for these asymmetric galaxies, we find that the asymmetry of the SF regions becomes larger for bluer galaxies. Using the Illustris simulation, we can qualitatively reproduce the observed relation between asymmetry parameter and color. Furthermore, using the merger trees in the simulation, we find a correlation between the color of the main branch galaxies at zr = 0.5 and the sum of the star formation rates of the recently accreted galaxies, which implies that star formation of the accreted galaxies has contributed to the observed star formation of the massive (host) galaxies (ex situ star formation). Furthermore, we find two blue and symmetric galaxies, candidates for massive blue disks, in our observed sample, which indicates that about ∼10% of massive SF galaxies are forming stars in the normal mode of disk star formation (in situ star formation). With the simulation, we find that the disk galaxies at zr ≈ 0.5 should have experienced few major mergers during the last 4.3 Gyr.
On the Relation between the Hard X-Ray Photon Index and Accretion Rate for Super-Eddington Accreting Quasars

We investigate whether the correlation between the hard X-ray photon index ( ) and accretion rate for super-Eddington accreting quasars is different from that for sub-Eddington accreting quasars. We construct a sample of 113 bright quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 14 quasar catalog, with 38 quasars as the super-Eddington subsample and 75 quasars as the sub-Eddington subsample. We derive black hole masses using a simple-epoch virial mass formula based on the lines, and we use the standard thin disk model to derive the dimensionless accretion rates ( ) for our sample. The X-ray data for these quasars are collected from the Chandra and XMM-Newton archives. We fit the hard X-ray spectra using a single power-law model to obtain values. We find a statistically significant ( , ) correlation between and for the super-Eddington subsample. The – correlation for the sub-Eddington subsample is also significant, but weaker ( , ). Linear regression analysis shows that and for the super- and sub-Eddington subsamples, respectively. The – correlations of the two subsamples are different, suggesting different disk–corona connections in these two types of systems. We propose one qualitative explanation of the steeper – correlation in the super-Eddington regime that involves larger seed photon fluxes received by the compact coronae from the thick disks in super-Eddington accreting quasars.
A Coupled Analysis of Atmospheric Mass Loss and Tidal Evolution in XUV Irradiated Exoplanets: The TRAPPIST-1 Case Study

Exoplanets residing close to their stars can experience evolution of both their physical structures and their orbits due to the influence of their host stars. In this work, we present a coupled analysis of dynamical tidal dissipation and atmospheric mass loss for exoplanets in X-ray and ultraviolet (XUV) irradiated environments. As our primary application, we use this model to study the TRAPPIST-1 system and place constraints on the interior structure and orbital evolution of the planets. We start by reporting on an ultraviolet continuum flux measurement (centered around ∼1900 Å) for the star TRAPPIST-1, based on 300 ks of Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory data, and which enables an estimate of the XUV-driven thermal escape arising from XUV photodissociation for each planet. We find that the X-ray flaring luminosity, measured from our X-ray detections, of TRAPPIST-1 is 5.6 × 10−4 L*, while the full flux including non-flaring periods is 6.1 × 10−5 L*, when L* is TRAPPIST-1's bolometric luminosity. We then construct a model that includes both atmospheric mass loss and tidal evolution and requires the planets to attain their present-day orbital elements during this coupled evolution. We use this model to constrain the ratio for each planet. Finally, we use additional numerical models implemented with the Virtual Planet Simulator VPLanet to study ocean retention for these planets using our derived system parameters.
Coexistence of ecologically similar colonising species. II. Population differentiation in Drosophila aldrichi and D. Buzzatii for competitive effects and responses at different temperatures and allozyme variation in D. aldrichi

Drosophila aldrichi and D. buzzatii are cactophilic species that colonised Australia about 55–60 years ago. They are sympatric only in Australia. Thus they may be in the process of adapting to new environments and to each other, and diversifying among local, possibly isolated, populations. Larval competitive effects for three populations of each species (Roma, Planet Downs, and Binjour) were measured on semi‐natural cactus rots at three temperatures, with preadult viability, developmental time and adult body weight scored for each sex and species. Populations of both species varied in their responses to the other species as competitor, and one D. buzzatii population (Roma) reduced larval performance of D. aldrichi significantly more than did other D. buzzatii populations. Geographic divergence for the three traits was similar in both species, with a relative performance index derived from these traits highest for Roma, second for Binjour, and least for the Planet Downs population of each species. The Roma D. aldrichi population was the most different from the other populations for the performance index and in terms of genetic distances derived from allozyme frequencies. Additionally, comparisons of climatic variables among the population localities showed that the Roma environment was most different from the others. Differential natural selection in different areas of the cactus distribution may be a major cause of population divergence in both species. Drosophila aldrichi is superior for some fitness components at the highest temperature. Thus temperature variation throughout the cactus distribution may contribute to the different ranges of these two species, with competitive exclusion of D. aldrichi in the southern, cooler region of the cactus distribution, but coexistence in the northern, warmer region.
Relationship Between Coefficient of Parentage and Genetic Similarity Indices in the Soybean 1

Estimates of genetic similarity or distance between populations or strains of plants are useful in planning crosses for hybrid or pureline cultivar development. We compared coefficients of parentage (r) and similarity indices (s, sz, and sM, based on 20, 13, and 7 genetic loci, respectively) for combinations of 115 soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] cultivars and ancestral introductions. Correlations between r and s were higher than those between r and sz or sM, primarily because s includes information from more loci. The correlation between r and s was higher for the group of soybean cultivars released in the 1970s than for earlier cultivar groups, primarily because of the greater importance of identity by descent relative to identity in phenotype in determining s. The most useful estimate of genetic relationship is a composite index that includes both r and s.
The Murphy Decomposition and the Calibration-Resolution Principle: A New Perspective on Forecast Evaluation

I provide a unifying perspective on forecast evaluation, characterizing accurate forecasts of all types, from simple point to complete probabilistic forecasts, in terms of two fundamental underlying properties, autocalibration and resolution, which can be interpreted as describing a lack of systematic mistakes and a high information content. This "calibration-resolution principle" gives a new insight into the nature of forecasting and generalizes the famous sharpness principle by Gneiting et al. (2007) from probabilistic to all types of forecasts. It amongst others exposes the shortcomings of several widely used forecast evaluation methods. The principle is based on a fully general version of the Murphy decomposition of loss functions, which I provide. Special cases of this decomposition are well-known and widely used in meteorology. Besides using the decomposition in this new theoretical way, after having introduced it and the underlying properties in a proper theoretical framework, accompanied by an illustrative example, I also employ it in its classical sense as a forecast evaluation method as the meteorologists do: As such, it unveils the driving forces behind forecast errors and complements classical forecast evaluation methods. I discuss estimation of the decomposition via kernel regression and then apply it to popular economic forecasts. Analysis of mean forecasts from the US Survey of Professional Forecasters and quantile forecasts derived from Bank of England fan charts indeed yield interesting new insights and highlight the potential of the method.
Consistently Simulating a Wide Range of Atmospheric Scenarios for K2-18b with a Flexible Radiative Transfer Module

The atmospheres of small, potentially rocky exoplanets are expected to cover a diverse range in composition and mass. Studying such objects therefore requires flexible and wide-ranging modeling capabilities. We present in this work the essential development steps that lead to our flexible radiative transfer module, REDFOX, and validate REDFOX for the solar system planets Earth, Venus, and Mars, as well as for steam atmospheres. REDFOX is a k-distribution model using the correlated-k approach with the random overlap method for the calculation of opacities used in the δ-two-stream approximation for radiative transfer. Opacity contributions from Rayleigh scattering, UV/visible cross sections, and continua can be added selectively. With the improved capabilities of our new model, we calculate various atmospheric scenarios for K2-18b, a super-Earth/sub-Neptune with ∼8 M⊕ orbiting in the temperate zone around an M star, with recently observed H2O spectral features in the infrared. We model Earth-like, Venus-like, and H2–He primary atmospheres of different solar metallicity and show resulting climates and spectral characteristics compared to observed data. Our results suggest that K2-18b has an H2–He atmosphere with limited amounts of H2O and CH4. Results do not support the possibility of K2-18b having a water reservoir directly exposed to the atmosphere, which would reduce atmospheric scale heights, and with it the amplitudes of spectral features, making the latter inconsistent with the observations. We also performed tests for H2–He atmospheres up to 50 times solar metallicity, all compatible with the observations.
A Space-Efficient Dynamic Dictionary for Multisets with Constant Time Operations

We consider the dynamic dictionary problem for multisets. Given an upper bound $n$ on the total cardinality of the multiset (i.e., including multiplicities) at any point in time, the goal is to design a data structure that supports multiplicity queries and allows insertions and deletions to the multiset (i.e., the dynamic setting). The data structure must be space-efficient (the space is $1+o(1)$ times the information-theoretic lower bound) and support all operations in constant time with high probability. In this paper, we present the first dynamic dictionary for multisets that achieves these performance guarantees. This answers an open problem of Arbitman, Naor and Segev (FOCS 2010). The previously best-known construction of Pagh, Pagh and Rao (SODA 2005) supports membership in constant time, multiplicity queries in $O(\log n)$ time in the worst case, and insertions and deletions in constant expected amortized time. The main technical component of our solution is a strategy for efficiently storing variable-length binary counters using weighted balls-into-bins experiments in which balls have logarithmic weights. We also obtain a counting filter that approximates multiplicity queries with a one sided error, using the reduction of Carter et al. (STOC 1978). Counting filters have received significant attention over the years due to their applicability in practice.We present the first counting filter with constant time operations.
Stealing Links from Graph Neural Networks

Graph data, such as social networks and chemical networks, contains a wealth of information that can help to build powerful applications. To fully unleash the power of graph data, a family of machine learning models, namely graph neural networks (GNNs), is introduced. Empirical results show that GNNs have achieved state-of-the-art performance in various tasks. Graph data is the key to the success of GNNs. High-quality graph is expensive to collect and often contains sensitive information, such as social relations. Various research has shown that machine learning models are vulnerable to attacks against their training data. Most of these models focus on data from the Euclidean space, such as images and texts. Meanwhile, little attention has been paid to the security and privacy risks of graph data used to train GNNs. In this paper, we aim at filling the gap by proposing the first link stealing attacks against graph neural networks. Given a black-box access to a GNN model, the goal of an adversary is to infer whether there exists a link between any pair of nodes in the graph used to train the model. We propose a threat model to systematically characterize the adversary's background knowledge along three dimensions. By combination, we obtain a comprehensive taxonomy of 8 different link stealing attacks. We propose multiple novel methods to realize these attacks. Extensive experiments over 8 real-world datasets show that our attacks are effective at inferring links, e.g., AUC (area under the ROC curve) is above 0.95 in multiple cases.
Osmotic potential and soluble solids concentration in onion (Allium cepa) bulbs

Non-structural carbohydrate composition of onion (Allium cepa L) bulbs is known to vary between varieties according to soluble solids concentration (SS), which may reduce the effect of SS on osmotic potential. This was confirmed in an experiment where osmotic potential (Ψπ) was determined psychometrically, and SS concentration refractometrically, in juice from entire, mature bulbs of 35 varieties of onion. ‘Fresh market’ varieties ranged in mean SS from 63 to 125 g kg- and in mean Ψπ from −0.97 MPa to −1.17MPa, whereas ‘dehydrating’ varieties ranged in mean SS from 167 to 227 g kg-1 and in mean Ψπ from −1.23 MPa to −1.41 MPa. Compared to sugar solutions of constant composition, with increasing SS, there was a relatively slow decline in Ψπ toward a lower limit at the SS levels of dehydrating varieties. The relationship between Ψπ and SS was explained equally well (r2 = 0.83; DF = 172) by non-linear and bent-stick regression models, the latter indicating breakpoints close to the SS level separating fresh market variety samples from those of dehydrating varieties. Variety differences in the relationship between Ψπ and SS indicated among dehydrating varieties in particular are worthy of further investigation because of their possible physiological and quality implications.
On full asymptotics of analytic torsions for compact locally symmetric orbifolds

In this paper, we consider a certain sequence of homogeneous flat vector bundles on a compact locally symmetric orbifold, and we compute explicitly the associated asymptotic Ray-Singer analytic torsion. The basic idea is converting this question via the Selberg's trace formula into computing the semisimple orbital integrals. Then the central part is to evaluate the elliptic orbital integrals which are not identity orbital integrals. For that purpose, we deduce a geometric localization formula, so that we can rewrite an elliptic orbital integral as a sum of certain identity orbital integrals associated with a smaller Lie group. The explicit geometric formula of Bismut for semisimple orbital integrals plays an essential role in these computations.
Sicily represents the Italian reservoir of chloroplast DNA diversity of Quercus ilex L. (Fagaceae)

Le polymorphisme de l'ADN chloroplastique a ete analyse chez 44 populations italiennes de chene vert. Les resultats obtenus avec differents marqueurs (PCR-RFLP et SSR) ont ete coherents, montrant clairement une structure geographique de la diversite genetique et une valeur elevee de la differentiation genetique (G ST = 0,80). En combinant PCR-RFLP et SSR, huit haplotypes ont ete identifies en Italie dont six en Sicile. La plupart des populations ont ete fixees par un haplotype. Des populations de l'extreme ouest mediterraneen (Maroc) et de l'extreme est (Crete) ont ete interpretees comme des reproductions de populations isolees parce qu'elles ont des haplotypes differents. Ces resultats supportent fortement l'hypothese d'un refuge glaciaire existant dans le Sud de l'Italie et soulignent la grande importance de la conservation des populations d'arbres en Sicile dans lesquelles une grande diversite a ete detectee.
Gravitational burst radiation from pulsars in the Galactic centre and stellar clusters

Pulsars (PSRs) orbiting intermediate or supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies and globular clusters are known as Extreme Mass Ratio Binaries (EMRBs) and have been identified as precision probes of strong-field GR. For appropriate orbital parameters, some of these systems may also emit gravitational radiation in a `burst-like' pattern. The observation of this burst radiation in conjunction with the electromagnetic radio timing signal would allow for multimessenger astronomy in strong-field gravitational regimes. In this work we investigate gravitational radiation from these PSR-EMRBs, calculating the waveforms and SNRs and explore the influence of this GW on the pulsar radio signal. We find that for typical PSR-EMRBs, gravitational burst radiation should be detectable from both the Galactic centre and the centre of stellar clusters, and that this radiation will not meaningfully affect the pulsar timing signal, allowing PSR-EMRB to remain `clean' test-beds of strong-field GR.