Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Portrait of a Russian Province: Economy, Society, and Civilization in Nineteenth-Century Nizhnii Novgorod

Several stark premises have long prevailed in our approach to Russian history. It was commonly assumed that Russia had always labored under a highly centralized and autocratic imperial state. The responsibility for this lamentable state of affairs was ultimately assigned to the profoundly agrarian character of Russian society. The countryside, home to the overwhelming majority of the nation s population, was considered a harsh world of cruel landowners and ignorant peasants, and a strong hand was required for such a crude society. A number of significant conclusions flowed from this understanding. Deep and abiding social divisions obstructed the evolution of modernity, as experienced naturally in other parts of Europe, so there was no Renaissance or Reformation; merely a derivative Enlightenment; and only a distorted capitalism. And since only despotism could contain these volatile social forces, it followed that the 1917 Revolution was an inevitable explosion resulting from these intolerable contradictions and so too were the blood-soaked realities of the Soviet regime that came after. In short, the sheer immensity of its provincial backwardness could explain almost everything negative about the course of Russian history. This book undermines these preconceptions. Through her close study of the province of Nizhnii Novgorod in the nineteenth century, Catherine Evtuhov demonstrates how nearly everything we thought we knew about the dynamics of Russiansociety was wrong. Instead of peasants ground down by poverty and ignorance, we find skilled farmers, talented artisans and craftsmen, and enterprising tradespeople. Instead of an exclusively centrally administered state, we discover effective and participatory local government. Instead of pervasive ignorance, we are shown a lively cultural scene and an active middle class. Instead of a defining Russian exceptionalism, we find a world recognizable to any historian of nineteenth-century Europe. Drawing on a wide range of Russian social, environmental, economic, cultural, and intellectual history, and synthesizing it with deep archival research of the Nizhnii Novgorod province, Evtuhov overturns a simplistic view of the Russian past. Rooted in, but going well beyond, provincial affairs, her book challenges us with an entirely new perspective on Russia s historical trajectory. "
Comparing predictions of nitrogen and green house gas fluxes in response to changes in live stock, land cover and land management using models at a national, European and global scale

In this study we compared three relatively simple process based models, developed for the national scale (INITIATOR2), European scale (MITERRA) and global scale (IMAGE). A comparison was made of NH3 , N2O, NOx and CH4 emissions, while making a distinction between housing systems, grazing and manure/fertilizer application and N leaching to ground water and N runoff to surface water, while making a distinction between grass land and arable land. The objective of the comparison was to get experience in linking the models across scales and to evaluate scale effects, in terms of aggregating input data, and modeling approach on the model outcomes.
CAEP 2016 Academic Symposium on Education Scholarship: Training our Future Clinician Educators in Emergency Medicine.

OBJECTIVE To develop consensus recommendations for training future clinician educators (CEs) in emergency medicine (EM). METHODS A panel of EM education leaders was assembled from across Canada and met regularly by teleconference over the course of 1 year. Recommendations for CE training were drafted based on the panel's experience, a literature review, and a survey of current and past EM education leaders in Canada. Feedback was sought from attendees at the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) annual academic symposium. Recommendations were distributed to the society's Academic Section for further feedback and updated by a consensus of the expert panel. RESULTS Recommendations were categorized for one of three audiences: 1) Future CEs; 2) Academic departments and divisions (AD&D) that support training to fulfill their education leadership goals; and 3) The CAEP Academic Section. Advanced medical education training is recommended for any emergency physician or resident who pursues an education leadership role. Individuals should seek out mentorship in making decisions about career opportunities and training options. AD&D should regularly perform a needs assessment of their future CE needs and identify and encourage potential individuals who fulfill education leadership roles. AD&D should develop training opportunities at their institution, provide support to complete this training, and advocate for the recognition of education scholarship in their institutional promotions process. The CAEP Academic Section should support mentorship of future CEs on a national scale. CONCLUSION These recommendations serve as a framework for training and supporting the next generation of Canadian EM medical educators.
Trilateral development cooperation between the European Union, China and Africa : what prospects for South Africa?

CCS discussion papers should contribute to the academic debate on China’s global rise and the consequences thereof for African development. We do therefore explicitly invite scholars from Africa, China, or elsewhere, to use this format for advanced papers that are ready for an initial publication, not least to obtain input from other colleagues in the field. Discussion papers should thus be seen as work in progress, exposed to (and ideally stimulating) policy-relevant discussion based on academic standards. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author. The original publication is available at http://www.sun.ac.za/ccs
Renormalization schemes and the double expansion in the field theory of forced turbulence

In the field theory of forced turbulence in arbitrary space dimension the correlation and response functions of the velocity field contain divergences at two dimensions in addition to those brought about by the power-law correlation function of the random force at the critical value of its exponent. Renormalization of the model with an account of both sets of divergences gives rise to expansion of critical exponents and amplitudes in regulators. The structure of renormalization-group equations as well as numerical results heavily depend on the renormalization scheme adopted. Consequences of this ambiguity are analyzed on the basis of results of calculations available in several different renormalization schemes
Ground Validation of Surface Snowfall Algorithm in GPM Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar

Extensive evaluations have been performed on the dual-frequency classification module in the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) level-2 algorithm. Both rain type classification and melting-layer detection continue to show promising results in the validations. Surface snowfall identification is a feature newly added in the classification module to the recently released version to provide a surface snowfall flag for each qualified vertical profile. This algorithm is developed upon vertical features of Ku- and Ka-band reflectivity and dual-frequency ratio from DPR. In this paper, we validate this surface snowfall identification algorithm with ground radars including NEXRAD, NASA Polarimetric Radar (NPOL), and CSU–CHILL radar during concurrent precipitation events and GPM validation campaign Olympic Mountain Experiment (OLYMPEX). Other ground truth such as Precipitation Imaging Package (PIP) and ground report is also included in the validation. Based on 16 validation cases in the years 2014–18, the average match ratio between surface snowfall flag from space radar and ground radar is around 87.8%. Promising agreements are achieved with different validation sources. Algorithm limitation and potential improvement are discussed.
Protein arginine methyltransferase 6 regulates multiple aspects of gene expression

It is well established that transcription and alternative splicing events are functionally coupled during gene expression. Here, we report that protein arginine N-methyltransferase 6 (PRMT6) may play a key role in this coupling process by functioning as a transcriptional coactivator that can also regulate alternative splicing. PRMT6 coactivates the progesterone, glucocorticoid and oestrogen receptors in luciferase reporter assays in a hormone-dependent manner. In addition, small interfering RNA (siRNA) oligonucleotide duplex knockdown of PRMT6 disrupts oestrogen-stimulated transcription of endogenous GREB1 and progesterone receptor in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, demonstrating the importance of PRMT6 in hormone-dependent transcription. In contrast, the regulation of alternative splicing by PRMT6 is hormone independent. siRNA knockdown of PRMT6 increases the exon inclusion:skipping ratio of alternatively spliced exons in endogenous vascular endothelial growth factor and spleen tyrosine kinase RNA transcripts in both the presence and absence of oestrogen. These results demonstrate that PRMT6 has a dual role in regulating gene expression and that these two functions can occur independently of each other.
High precision measurement of the $^{99}$Tc $\beta$ spectrum

Highly precise measurements of the $^{99}$Tc beta spectrum were performed in two laboratories using metallic magnetic calorimeters. Independent sample preparations, evaluation methods and analyses yield consistent results and the spectrum could be measured down to less than 1 keV. Consistent beta spectra were also obtained via cross-evaluations of the experimental data sets. An additional independent measurement with silicon detectors in a $4\pi$ configuration confirms the spectrum shape above 25 keV. Detailed theoretical calculations were performed including nuclear structure and atomic effects. The spectrum shape was found to be sensitive to the effective value of the axial-vector coupling constant. Combining measurements and predictions, we extracted $Q_{\beta}=$295.82(16) keV and $g_A^{\text{eff}} = 1.530 (83)$. Furthermore, we derived the mean energy of the beta spectrum $\overline{E}_{\beta}$=98.45(20) keV, $\log f = -0.47660 (22)$ and $\log ft = 12.3478 (23)$.
Guaranteed Privacy-Preserving H∞-Optimal Interval Observer Design for Bounded-Error LTI Systems

This paper furthers current research into the notion of guaranteed privacy, which provides a deterministic characterization of the privacy of output signals of a dynamical system or mechanism. Unlike stochastic differential privacy, guaranteed privacy offers strict bounds on the proximity between the ranges of two sets of estimated data. Our approach relies on synthesizing an interval observer for linear time-invariant (LTI) bounded-error systems. The design procedure incorporates a bounded noise perturbation factor computation and an observer gain synthesis. The observer simultaneously provides guaranteed private and stable interval-valued estimates for the desired variable. We demonstrate the optimality of our design by minimizing the $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ norm of the observer error system. Lastly, we assess the accuracy of our proposed mechanism by quantifying the loss incurred when considering guaranteed privacy specifications, and illustrate our approach outperformance to differential privacy through simulations.
CA-PCA: Manifold Dimension Estimation, Adapted for Curvature

The success of algorithms in the analysis of high-dimensional data is often attributed to the manifold hypothesis, which supposes that this data lie on or near a manifold of much lower dimension. It is often useful to determine or estimate the dimension of this manifold before performing dimension reduction, for instance. Existing methods for dimension estimation are calibrated using a flat unit ball. In this paper, we develop CA-PCA, a version of local PCA based instead on a calibration of a quadratic embedding, acknowledging the curvature of the underlying manifold. Numerous careful experiments show that this adaptation improves the estimator in a wide range of settings.
Building a quantum superposition of conscious states with integrated information theory

Could there be a quantum superposition of consciousness, as in the Wigner's friend thought experiment? The integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness has turned this into a well-defined question. According to IIT, consciousness is a measurable physical quantity given by integrated information ($\Phi$), such that the amount of consciousness in a system corresponds to its amount of $\Phi$. We use the most recent IIT formalism (IIT4.0) to analyze the simplest non-zero $\Phi$ system known as a feedback dyad. We then propose a circuit that puts the dyad into a superposition of states which, according to IIT, would correspond to a superposition of conscious states. We refer to this as"Schr\"odinger's dyad". We therefore show that either IIT is false or the simple dyad is conscious and can easily be put into a superposition of conscious states. We then identify the simplest possible consciousness-collapse model, which predicts that this superposition is unstable and collapses at a rate determined by a measure of difference between the superposed conscious states. Our analysis will enable us to make a number of key observations about the general structure of integrated information theory (IIT2.0, IIT3.0, IIT4.0, and QIIT) and the general structure of consciousness-collapse models.
Vulnerabilities in Video Quality Assessment Models: The Challenge of Adversarial Attacks

No-Reference Video Quality Assessment (NR-VQA) plays an essential role in improving the viewing experience of end-users. Driven by deep learning, recent NR-VQA models based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Transformers have achieved outstanding performance. To build a reliable and practical assessment system, it is of great necessity to evaluate their robustness. However, such issue has received little attention in the academic community. In this paper, we make the first attempt to evaluate the robustness of NR-VQA models against adversarial attacks, and propose a patch-based random search method for black-box attack. Specifically, considering both the attack effect on quality score and the visual quality of adversarial video, the attack problem is formulated as misleading the estimated quality score under the constraint of just-noticeable difference (JND). Built upon such formulation, a novel loss function called Score-Reversed Boundary Loss is designed to push the adversarial video's estimated quality score far away from its ground-truth score towards a specific boundary, and the JND constraint is modeled as a strict $L_2$ and $L_\infty$ norm restriction. By this means, both white-box and black-box attacks can be launched in an effective and imperceptible manner. The source code is available at https://github.com/GZHU-DVL/AttackVQA.
MM-NeRF: Multimodal-Guided 3D Multi-Style Transfer of Neural Radiance Field

3D style transfer aims to generate stylized views of 3D scenes with specified styles, which requires high-quality generating and keeping multi-view consistency. Existing methods still suffer the challenges of high-quality stylization with texture details and stylization with multimodal guidance. In this paper, we reveal that the common training method of stylization with NeRF, which generates stylized multi-view supervision by 2D style transfer models, causes the same object in supervision to show various states (color tone, details, etc.) in different views, leading NeRF to tend to smooth the texture details, further resulting in low-quality rendering for 3D multi-style transfer. To tackle these problems, we propose a novel Multimodal-guided 3D Multi-style transfer of NeRF, termed MM-NeRF. First, MM-NeRF projects multimodal guidance into a unified space to keep the multimodal styles consistency and extracts multimodal features to guide the 3D stylization. Second, a novel multi-head learning scheme is proposed to relieve the difficulty of learning multi-style transfer, and a multi-view style consistent loss is proposed to track the inconsistency of multi-view supervision data. Finally, a novel incremental learning mechanism to generalize MM-NeRF to any new style with small costs. Extensive experiments on several real-world datasets show that MM-NeRF achieves high-quality 3D multi-style stylization with multimodal guidance, and keeps multi-view consistency and style consistency between multimodal guidance. Codes will be released.
Neogene paleontology of the Manonga Valley, Tanzania : a window into the evolutionary history of East Africa

Introduction: Paleontological and Geological Research in the Manonga Valley, Tanzania T. Harrison, M.L. Mbago. Detailed Stratigraphy of the Neogene Sediments at Tinde and Other Localities in the Central Manonga Basin J. Verniers. Mineralogy of the Wembere-Manonga Formation, Manonga Valley, Tanzania, and the Possible Provenance of the Sediments M. Mutakyahwa. Fossil Suids from the Manonga Valley, Tanzania L.C. Bishop. Later Neogene Hipparions from the Manonga Valley, Tanzania R.L. Bernor, M. Armour-Chelu. Fossil Proboscidea from the Wembere-Manonga Formation, Manonga Valley, Tanzania W.J. Sanders. Systematics, Paleobiogeography, and Paleoenvironmental Significance of Rodents from the Ibole Member, Manonga Valley, Tanzania A.J. Winkler. Fossil Fish from the Manonga Valley, Tanzania: Description, Paleoecology and Biogeographic Relationships K.M. Stewart. Late Genozoic Freshwater Mollusks of the Wemberre-Manonga Formation, Manonga Valley, Tanzania D. Van Damme, A. Gautier. Paleontology and Biochronology of Fossil Localities in the Manonga Valley, Tanzania T. Harrison, E. Baker. Hominid Origins: A View from the Manonga Valley T. Harrison. Index.
Peer leader perspectives from a PLTL implementation in a Hispanic-serving institution

ABSTRACT Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is a pedagogical approach that has been shown to benefit all students, especially underrepresented minority students and peer leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In this work, we present results from our study of the impact of PLTL on our peer leaders from a controlled implementation in general biology, general chemistry, and statistics courses at a Hispanic-serving, minority-serving institution. More specifically, we have measured our PLTL program’s impact on our peer leaders' skill development, engagement with the subject material, and sense of belonging as peer leaders. Weekly peer leader reflections analyzed using the Dreyfus model exhibited a consistent set of skills, while those analyzed using the Pazos model revealed a consistent type of student-peer leader interactions, allowing for peer leaders to be assigned to specific levels in the hierarchy of each of the models. Analysis of eight skill-based Likert-scale questions on the SALG survey showed an overall positive shift at the highest level. Independent of the skill or interaction level of the peer leader, we observed several instances of peer leaders acknowledging development in their communication skills, sincere attempts at creating an engaging classroom, and a deep investment in their student’s success. Peer leaders also reported improvements in understanding of the subjects they were teaching, wanting to persevere and solve problems independently, and feeling passionate about helping other students.
Quantum Gromov-Hausdorff convergence of spectral truncations for groups with polynomial growth

For a unital spectral triple $(\mathcal{A}, H,D)$, we study when its truncation converges to itself. The spectral truncation is obtained by using the spectral projection $P_{\Lambda}$ of $D$ onto $[-\Lambda,\Lambda]$ to deal with the case where only a finite range of energy levels of a physical system is available. By restricting operators in $\mathcal{A}$ and $D$ to $P_{\Lambda}H$, we obtain a sequence of operator system spectral triples $\{(P_{\Lambda}\mathcal{A}P_{\Lambda},P_{\Lambda}H,P_{\Lambda}DP_{\Lambda})\}_{\Lambda}$. We prove that if the spectral triple is the one constructed using a discrete group with polynomial growth, then the sequence of operator systems $\{P_{\Lambda}\mathcal{A}P_{\Lambda}\}_{\Lambda}$ converges to $\mathcal{A}$ in the sense of quantum Gromov-Hausdorff convergence with respect to the Lip-norm coming from high order derivatives.
"Always Nice and Confident, Sometimes wrong": Developer's Experiences Engaging Generative AI Chatbots Versus Human-Powered Q&A Platforms

Software engineers have historically relied on human-powered Q&A platforms, like Stack Overflow (SO), as coding aids. With the rise of generative AI, developers have adopted AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, in their software development process. Recognizing the potential parallels between human-powered Q&A platforms and AI-powered question-based chatbots, we investigate and compare how developers integrate this assistance into their real-world coding experiences by conducting thematic analysis of Reddit posts. Through a comparative study of SO and ChatGPT, we identified each platform's strengths, use cases, and barriers. Our findings suggest that ChatGPT offers fast, clear, comprehensive responses and fosters a more respectful environment than SO. However, concerns about ChatGPT's reliability stem from its overly confident tone and the absence of validation mechanisms like SO's voting system. Based on these findings, we recommend leveraging each platform's unique features to improve developer experiences in the future.
Time Space Domain Decomposition Methods for Reactive Transport --- Application to CO2 Geological Storage

Reactive transport modelling is a basic tool to model chemical reactions and flow processes in porous media. A totally reduced multi-species reactive transport model including kinetic and equilibrium reactions is presented. A structured numerical formulation is developed and different numerical approaches are proposed. Domain decomposition methods offer the possibility to split large problems into smaller subproblems that can be treated in parallel. The class of Schwarz-type domain decomposition methods that have proved to be high-performing algorithms in many fields of applications is presented with a special emphasis on the geometrical viewpoint. Numerical issues for the realisation of geometrical domain decomposition methods and transmission conditions in the context of finite volumes are discussed. We propose and validate numerically a hybrid finite volume scheme for advection-diffusion processes that is particularly well-suited for the use in a domain decomposition context. Optimised Schwarz waveform relaxation methods are studied in detail on a theoretical and numerical level for a two species coupled reactive transport system with linear and nonlinear coupling terms. Wellposedness and convergence results are developed and the influence of the coupling term on the convergence behaviour of the Schwarz algorithm is studied. Finally, we apply a Schwarz waveform relaxation method on the presented multi-species reactive transport system.
Evaluating the Usability of Differential Privacy Tools with Data Practitioners

Differential privacy (DP) has become the gold standard in privacy-preserving data analytics, but implementing it in real-world datasets and systems remains challenging. Recently developed DP tools aim to make DP implementation easier, but limited research has investigated these DP tools' usability. Through a usability study with 24 US data practitioners with varying prior DP knowledge, we evaluated the usability of four Python-based open-source DP tools: DiffPrivLib, Tumult Analytics, PipelineDP, and OpenDP. Our results suggest that using DP tools in this study may help DP novices better understand DP; that Application Programming Interface (API) design and documentation are vital for successful DP implementation; and that user satisfaction correlates with how well participants completed study tasks with these DP tools. We provide evidence-based recommendations to improve DP tools' usability to broaden DP adoption.