Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed on-line reinforcement learning in a swarm of sterically interacting robots

While naturally occurring swarms thrive when crowded, physical interactions in robotic swarms are either avoided or carefully controlled, thus limiting their operational density. Designing behavioral strategies under such circumstances remains a challenge, even though it may oﬀer an opportunity for exploring morpho-functional self-organized behaviors. In this paper, we explicitly consider dense swarms of robots where physical interactions are inevitable. We demonstrate experimentally that an a priori minor diﬀerence in the mechanical design of the robots leads to important diﬀerences in their dynamical behaviors when they evolve in crowded environments. We design Morphobots, which are Kilobots augmented with a 3D-printed exoskeleton. The exoskeleton not only signiﬁcantly improves the motility and stability of the Kilobots, it also allows to encode physically two contrasting dynamical behaviors in response to an external force or a collision. This diﬀerence translates into distinct performances during self-organized aggregation when addressing a phototactic task. Having characterized the dynamical mechanism at the root of these diﬀerences, we implement a decentralized on-line evolutionary reinforcement learning algorithm in a swarm of Morphobots. We demonstrate the learning eﬃciency and show that the learning reduces the dependency on the morphology. We present a kinetic model that links the reward function to an eﬀective phototactic policy. Our results are of relevance for the deployment of robust swarms of robots in a real environment, where robots are deemed to collide, and to be exposed to external forces.
cushLEPOR: customising hLEPOR metric using Optuna for higher agreement with human judgments or pre-trained language model LaBSE

Human evaluation has always been expensive while researchers struggle to trust the automatic metrics. To address this, we propose to customise traditional metrics by taking advantages of the pre-trained language models (PLMs) and the limited available human labelled scores. We first re-introduce the hLEPOR metric factors, followed by the Python version we developed (ported) which achieved the automatic tuning of the weighting parameters in hLEPOR metric. Then we present the customised hLEPOR (cushLEPOR) which uses Optuna hyper-parameter optimisation framework to fine-tune hLEPOR weighting parameters towards better agreement to pre-trained language models (using LaBSE) regarding the exact MT language pairs that cushLEPOR is deployed to. We also optimise cushLEPOR towards professional human evaluation data based on MQM and pSQM framework on English-German and Chinese-English language pairs. The experimental investigations show cushLEPOR boosts hLEPOR performances towards better agreements to PLMs like LABSE with much lower cost, and better agreements to human evaluations including MQM and pSQM scores, and yields much better performances than BLEU. Official results show that our submissions win three language pairs including English-German and Chinese-English on News domain via cushLEPOR(LM) and English-Russian on TED domain via hLEPOR. (data available at https://github.com/poethan/cushLEPOR)
High-Quality Real Time Facial Capture Based on Single Camera

We propose a real time deep learning framework for video-based facial expression capture. Our process uses a high-end facial capture pipeline based on FACEGOOD to capture facial expression. We train a convolutional neural network to produce high-quality continuous blendshape weight output from video training. Since this facial capture is fully automated, our system can drastically reduce the amount of labor involved in the development of modern narrative-driven video games or films involving realistic digital doubles of actors and potentially hours of animated dialogue per character. We demonstrate compelling animation inference in challenging areas such as eyes and lips.
Isolated ballistic non-abelian interface channel

The topological order of a quantum Hall state is mirrored by the gapless edge modes owing to bulk-edge correspondence. The state at the filling of ν = 5/2, predicted to host non-abelian anyons, supports a variety of edge modes (integer, fractional, neutral). To ensure thermal equilibration between the edge modes and thus accurately determine the state’s nature, it is advantageous to isolate the fractional channel (1/2 and neutral modes). In this study, we gapped out the integer modes by interfacing the ν = 5/2 state with integer states ν = 2 and ν = 3 and measured the thermal conductance of the isolated-interface channel. Our measured half-quantized thermal conductance confirms the non-abelian nature of the ν = 5/2 state and its particle-hole Pfaffian topological order. Such an isolated channel may be more amenable to braiding experiments. Description Probing an exotic state The nature of some fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states can be determined by measuring the thermal conductance of the state’s edge. Such measurements have suggested that the well-known FQH state at 5/2 filling, which is thought to harbor non-Abelian quasiparticles, features the so-called particle-hole Pfaffian topological order. However, the possibility that the edge modes were not thermally equilibrated left room for alternative interpretations. To avoid this ambiguity, Dutta et al. created an isolated edge consisting only of a 1/2 charge mode and a neutral edge mode by interfacing the fractional 5/2 state with integer quantum Hall states. The measurement of the thermal conductance of this isolated state reaffirmed the particle-hole Pfaffian character of the 5/2 state. —JS Thermal conductance of an isolated fractional quantum Hall edge state at 5/2 filling reveals its topological order.
Higher Vaccination Rate Predicts Reduction in SARS-CoV-2 Transmission across the United States

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began proliferating widely throughout the world in late 2019/early 2020, creating a global pandemic and health crisis. Although vaccines became available to the public approximately one year after the onset of the pandemic, there still remains much hesitancy surrounding vaccination even two years into the pandemic. One key concern comes from reports of breakthrough infections among the vaccinated that show comparable levels of peak viral load as the unvaccinated, calling into question the ability of vaccines to slow or prevent transmission. Therefore young, healthy individuals who are at low risk of serious complications themselves have little incentive to receive a vaccine that they are not convinced will protect others around them. To address this important concern, this article analyzes COVID-19 incidence in the United States as a function of each state's vaccination rate. Results show that states with higher percentages of fully vaccinated individuals report fewer new cases among the remaining unvaccinated population. These data add to accumulating evidence that COVID-19 vaccinations can indeed slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and are an important tool in society's arsenal to put this pandemic behind us.
Inactivated virus vaccine BBV152/Covaxin elicits robust cellular immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern

The characteristics of immune memory established in response to inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines remains unclear. We determined the magnitude, quality and persistence of cellular and humoral memory responses up to 6 months after vaccination with BBV152/Covaxin. Here, we show that the quantity of vaccine-induced spike- and nucleoprotein-antibodies is comparable to that following natural infection and the antibodies are detectable up to 6 months. The RBD-specific antibodies decline in the range of 3 to 10-fold against the SARS-CoV-2 variants in the order of alpha (B.1.1.7) > delta (B.1.617.2) > beta (B.1.351), with no observed impact of gamma (P.1) and kappa (B.1.617.1) variant. We found that the vaccine induces memory B cells, similar to natural infection, which are impacted by virus variants in the same order as antibodies. The vaccine further induced antigen-specific functionally potent multi-cytokine expressing CD4+ T cells in ~85% of the subjects, targeting spike and nucleoprotein of SARS-CoV-2. Marginal ~1.3 fold-reduction was observed in vaccine-induced CD4+ T cells against the beta variant, with no significant impact of the alpha and the delta variants. The antigen-specific CD4+ T cells were populated in the central memory compartment and persisted up to 6 months of vaccination. Importantly the vaccine generated Tfh cells that are endowed with B cell help potential, similar to the Tfh cells induced after natural infection. Altogether, these findings establish that the inactivated virus vaccine BBV152 induces robust immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern, which persist for at least 6 months after vaccination. This study provides insight into the attributes of BBV152-elicited immune memory, and has implication for future vaccine development, guidance for use of inactivated virus vaccine, and booster immunization.
Should We Mitigate or Suppress the Next Pandemic? Time-Horizons and Costs Shape Optimal Social Distancing Strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic has called for swift action from local governments, which have instated Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) to curb the spread of SARS-Cov-2. The quick and decisive decision to save lives through blunt instruments has raised questions about the conditions under which decision-makers should employ mitigation or suppression strategies to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. More broadly, there are still debates over which set of strategies should be adopted to control different pandemics, and the lessons learned for SARS-Cov-2 may not apply to a new pathogen. While curbing SARS-Cov-2 required blunt instruments, it is unclear whether a less-transmissible and less-deadly emerging pathogen would justify the same response. This paper illuminates this question using a parsimonious transmission model by formulating the social distancing lives vs. livelihoods dilemma as a boundary value problem. In this setup, society balances the costs and benefits of social distancing contingent on the costs of reducing transmission relative to the burden imposed by the disease. To the best of our knowledge, our approach is distinct in the sense that strategies emerge from the problem structure rather than being imposed a priori. We find that the relative time-horizon of the pandemic (i.e., the time it takes to develop effective vaccines and treatments) and the relative cost of social distancing influence the choice of the optimal policy. Unsurprisingly, we find that the appropriate policy response depends on these two factors. We discuss the conditions under which each policy archetype (suppression vs. mitigation) appears to be the most appropriate.
Conclusion: Increases in all-cause mortality and SARS-CoV-2 test positivity among persons BID at UTH mortuary

Introduction: During March-December 2020, Zambia recorded 20,725 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with the first wave peaking between July and August. Of the 388 COVID-19-related deaths occurring nationwide, most occurred in the community. We report findings from COVID-19 mortality surveillance among community deaths brought to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) mortuary in Lusaka. Methods: In Zambia, when a person dies in the community, and is brought into a health facility mortuary, they are recorded as ‘brought in dead’ (BID). The UTH mortuary accepts persons BID for Lusaka District, the most populated district in Zambia. We analyzed data for persons BID at UTH during 2020. We analyzed two data sources: weekly SARS-CoV-2 test results for persons BID and monthly all-cause mortality numbers among persons BID. For all-cause mortality among persons BID, monthly deaths during 2020 that were above the upper bound of the 95% confidence interval for the historic mean (2017-2019) were considered significant. Spearman’s rank test was used to correlate the overall percent positivity in Zambia with all-cause mortality and SARS-CoV-2 testing among persons BID at UTH mortuary. Results: During 2020, 7,756 persons were BID at UTH (monthly range 556-810). SARS-CoV-2 testing began in April 2020, and through December 3,131 (51.9%) of 6,022 persons BID were tested. Of these, 212 (6.8%) were SARS-CoV-2 positive with weekly percent test positivity ranging from 0-32%, with the highest positivity occurring during July 2020. There were 1,139 excess persons BID from all causes at UTH mortuary in 2020 compared to the 2017-2019 mean. The monthly number of persons BID from all causes was above the upper bound of the 95% confidence interval during June-September and December. Conclusion: Increases in all-cause mortality and SARS-CoV-2 test positivity among persons BID at UTH mortuary corresponded with the first peak of the COVID-19 epidemic in June and August 2020, indicating possible increased mortality related to the COVID-19 epidemic in Zambia. Combining all-cause mortality and SARS-CoV-2 testing for persons BID provides useful information about the severity of the epidemic in Lusaka and should be implemented throughout Zambia. Word count: 319 (of 350) . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) preprint The copyright holder for this this version posted November 15, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11. 14.21266330 doi: medRxiv preprint
Seismic Design and Safety Evaluation Analysis of Reinforced Slope with Geogrid in 200m High Core Rock-Fill Dams

The reinforcement technique with strengthening geogrid has been widely used in modern seismic design of 200m high rock-fill dams. However, how to evaluate accurately the effects of reinforcement in seismic design and safety evaluation has become a key problem. As compared with the minimum safety factors which are conventionally employed as the evaluation criteria, the earthquake-induced deformation can better reflect the characteristics of rock-fill materials, input motion and the performance of reinforced dams for the earthquake loading. In the improved Newmark sliding method, the effects of reinforcement in enhancing the stability of slope in high rock-fill dams and restricting the permanent deformation of dams are investigated. Firstly, the limit tensile intensity and limit coordinating strain of reinforcement is determined based on the stress-strain relationship of reinforcement-composite and rock-fill materials. Secondly, the location of critical failure face is determined via a combination of ant colony algorithm and Holland method. The yielding acceleration of potential sliding bodies, which considers the limited stress of reinforcement layers and time-history vertical acceleration, is obtained. Finally, the transient movements are accumulated for all the overloadings. It is guaranteed that the reinforcement can reduce the permanent deformation up to 80% and improve the seismic design and safety evaluation of high rock-fill dams subjected to strong ground motion effectively.
Modification of Minimum Moment Approach in Resource Leveling

This paper proposes a modification to the minimum moment approach that is used for resource leveling as presented by Harris and based upon the critical path method. The proposed and the traditional methods were developed with the assumption of no activity splitting and a fixed project duration with unlimited availability of resources. The difference between these methods is in the criteria of selecting the activity that has to be shifted from its original position to a better position. This is judged by the change in the statistical moment of the resource histogram before and after such movement. In the proposed method, and for the activities that lie at the same sequence step, the activity that is to be shifted first is selected based upon both the value of its free float (\iS) and the value of its resource rate (\iR). In this way, the calculation of the improvement factor is needed only to determine the extent to which an activity is to be shifted. On the other hand, using the traditional method, the activity with the maximum improvement factor found for each possible day of shifting is selected first. The process is then repeated for all remaining activities using the updated histogram resulting from the shifted activity. The proposed method significantly reduces the calculations so that the number of iterations in each sequence step is equal to the number of its noncritical activities (\in) as compared to (\in! ) in the traditional method. In addition, the calculation process using the proposed method is easier—especially for manual computations—than the traditional one. The results were insignificantly different, and in many cases they were identical. In this paper, the traditional and the proposed methods will be presented along with an example problem that was solved using the two methods. It should be noted that neither of the two methods provides the true minimum moment.
Public Service Motivation as a Predictor of Corruption , Dishonesty , and Altruism Jordan

Understanding how Public Service Motivation (PSM) is tied to ethical or unethical conduct is critically important, given that civil servants and other public-sector employees throughout the world have been shown to exhibit high PSM levels. However, empirical evidence about the relationship between PSM and ethical or unethical behavior remains limited, due in part to the challenges of observing unethical conduct and overcoming social desirability bias in self-reported measures. We address these challenges by employing incentivized experimental games to study the relationships between PSM and two types of unethical behavior—corruption and dishonesty—as well as one type of ethical behavior: altruism. Based on data from approximately 1,870 university students at three research sites in Russia and Ukraine, we find evidence of a robust negative association between PSM and willingness to engage in corruption and a positive association between PSM and altruistic behavior. Results concerning dishonesty are more mixed. Our findings indicate that corruption and dishonesty are related yet fundamentally distinct concepts, particularly with respect to their compatibility with PSM. The findings additionally demonstrate that hypotheses about PSM and behavioral ethics generated in the Western context generalize well to the starkly different institutional context of the former Soviet Union.
A microvascular method for thermal activation and deactivation of shape memory polymers

The integration of material systems to include thermal activation and deactivation of shape memory polymers represents a key challenge for adaptive systems. Microvascular fluid flow with hot or cold fluid is used as an energy transport mechanism to activate and deactivate shape memory polymers, where the maximum temperature is limited by the hot fluid temperature to prevent overheating. A thin panel was constructed from the Veriflex® shape memory polymer and included an array of 10 parallel microvascular tubes. The panel is strained orthogonally to the tube direction in the activated state. An analytical steady-state surface temperature model is applied to predict the surface temperature range during activation. Thermography is used to measure the steady-state surface temperature for heating and the dynamic surface temperature for both heating and cooling. The decay constants and surface temperature range for heating and cooling are examined as a function of applied strain (0%–20%) and fluid flow rate (0–25 g min−1 of water). The decay constants depended strongly on flow rate and weakly on strain. The observed vascular cooling rate was up to six times faster than the comparable natural convection cooling rate for the flow rates tested. This faster cooling rate can significantly reduce temperature cycle times.
Single mode 1.3 μm InGaAs VCSELs for access network applications

GaAs-based VCSELs emitting near 1.3 μm are realized using highly strained InGaAs quantum wells and a large detuning of the cavity resonance with respect to the gain peak. The VCSELs have an oxide aperture for current and optical confinement and an inverted surface relief for suppression of higher-order transverse modes. The inverted surface relief structure also has the advantage of suppressing oxide modes that otherwise appear in VCSELs with a large detuning between the cavity resonance and the gain peak. Under large signal, digital modulation, clear and open eyes and error free transmission over 9 km of single mode fiber have been demonstrated at the OC-48 and 10 GbE bit rates up to 85°C. Here we review these results and present results from a complementary study of the RF modulation characteristics, including second order harmonic and third order intermodulation distortion, relative intensity noise (RIN), and spurious free dynamic range (SFDR). RIN levels comparable to those of single mode VCSELs emitting at 850 nm are demonstrated, with values from -140 to -150 dB/Hz. SFDR values of 100 and 95 dB•Hz2/3 were obtained at 2 and 5 GHz, respectively, which is in the range of those required in radio-over-fiber systems.
Comprehensive spring constant modelling of tethered micromechanical plates

A study of the spring constant of elastically suspended plates, commonly used in MEMS tunable capacitors and RF switches, is carried out in this paper. Formulae for calculating the spring constant of a plate suspended by four straight tethers incorporating residual stress and non-ideal anchor compliance are presented. The model was extracted from FEM simulation data and is validated experimentally. A measurement/modelling correlation of 13% was achieved. It is also shown that significant errors (over 100%) may result in predicting the spring constant when the combined effects of residual stress, non-ideal anchors and non-rigidity of the plate are neglected or underestimated. The model presented in this paper can be used for the design, analysis and optimization of MEMS structures based on elastically suspended plates.
Introduction: Renewable Energy

In this introductory article to the Renewable Energy volume, a brief summary of the various topics covered in the volume is given. These topics include overviews of bioenergy, solar energy, wind, geothermal energy, and tidal energy technologies. The authors of the articles have included state of the art summaries, new advances in the fields of these renewable technologies, as well some possibilities for systems yet to be developed. Keywords: biomass; biofuels; renewable energy resources; photovoltiacs; solar thermal; wind machines; off-shore wind; geothermal applications; tidal energy