Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Latent Space Translation via Semantic Alignment

While different neural models often exhibit latent spaces that are alike when exposed to semantically related data, this intrinsic similarity is not always immediately discernible. Towards a better understanding of this phenomenon, our work shows how representations learned from these neural modules can be translated between different pre-trained networks via simpler transformations than previously thought. An advantage of this approach is the ability to estimate these transformations using standard, well-understood algebraic procedures that have closed-form solutions. Our method directly estimates a transformation between two given latent spaces, thereby enabling effective stitching of encoders and decoders without additional training. We extensively validate the adaptability of this translation procedure in different experimental settings: across various trainings, domains, architectures (e.g., ResNet, CNN, ViT), and in multiple downstream tasks (classification, reconstruction). Notably, we show how it is possible to zero-shot stitch text encoders and vision decoders, or vice-versa, yielding surprisingly good classification performance in this multimodal setting.
Posthoc privacy guarantees for collaborative inference with modified Propose-Test-Release

Cloud-based machine learning inference is an emerging paradigm where users 1 query by sending their data through a service provider who runs an ML model 2 on that data and returns back the answer. Due to increased concerns over data 3 privacy, recent works have proposed Collaborative Inference (CI) to learn a privacy-4 preserving encoding of sensitive user data before it is shared with an untrusted 5 service provider. Existing works so far evaluate the privacy of these encodings 6 through empirical reconstruction attacks. In this work, we develop a new framework 7 that provides formal privacy guarantees for an arbitrarily trained neural network by 8 linking its local Lipschitz constant with its local sensitivity. To guarantee privacy 9 using local sensitivity, we extend the Propose-Test-Release (PTR) framework to 10 make it tractable for neural network queries. We verify the efficacy of our frame-11 work experimentally on real-world datasets and elucidate the role of Adversarial 12 Representation Learning (ARL) in improving the privacy-utility trade-off. 13
SDF4CHD: Generative Modeling of Cardiac Anatomies with Congenital Heart Defects

Congenital heart disease (CHD) encompasses a spectrum of cardiovascular structural abnormalities, often requiring customized treatment plans for individual patients. Computational modeling and analysis of these unique cardiac anatomies can improve diagnosis and treatment planning and may ultimately lead to improved outcomes. Deep learning (DL) methods have demonstrated the potential to enable efficient treatment planning by automating cardiac segmentation and mesh construction for patients with normal cardiac anatomies. However, CHDs are often rare, making it challenging to acquire sufficiently large patient cohorts for training such DL models. Generative modeling of cardiac anatomies has the potential to fill this gap via the generation of virtual cohorts; however, prior approaches were largely designed for normal anatomies and cannot readily capture the significant topological variations seen in CHD patients. Therefore, we propose a type- and shape-disentangled generative approach suitable to capture the wide spectrum of cardiac anatomies observed in different CHD types and synthesize differently shaped cardiac anatomies that preserve the unique topology for specific CHD types. Our DL approach represents generic whole heart anatomies with CHD type-specific abnormalities implicitly using signed distance fields (SDF) based on CHD type diagnosis, which conveniently captures divergent anatomical variations across different types and represents meaningful intermediate CHD states. To capture the shape-specific variations, we then learn invertible deformations to morph the learned CHD type-specific anatomies and reconstruct patient-specific shapes. Our approach has the potential to augment the image-segmentation pairs for rarer CHD types for cardiac segmentation and generate cohorts of CHD cardiac meshes for computational simulation.
Anachronic Tertiary Studies in Software Engineering: An Exploratory Quaternary Study

Systematic literature reviews tentativelydescribe the state of the art in a given research area. However, the continuous publication of new primary and secondary studies following the release of a tertiary study can make the communication of results not integrally representative in regards to the advances achieved by that time. Consequently, using such a study as a reference within specific bodies of knowledge may introduce imprecision, both in terms of its subareas and with respect to new methodologies, languages, and tools. Thus, a review of tertiary studies (what could be understood as a quaternary study) could contribute to show the representativeness of the reported findings in comparison to the state of the art and also to compile a set of perceptions that could not be previously achieved. In that direction, the main contribution of this paper is presenting the findings from an analysis of 34 software engineering tertiary studies published between 2009 and 2021. The results indicate that over 60% of the studies demonstrate varying degrees of anachronism due to the publication of primary and secondary studies following the publication of the tertiary study or even due to a time elapse between its conduction and its publication.
Adaptive and non-adaptive minimax rates for weighted Laplacian-eigenmap based nonparametric regression

We show both adaptive and non-adaptive minimax rates of convergence for a family of weighted Laplacian-Eigenmap based nonparametric regression methods, when the true regression function belongs to a Sobolev space and the sampling density is bounded from above and below. The adaptation methodology is based on extensions of Lepski's method and is over both the smoothness parameter ($s\in\mathbb{N}_{+}$) and the norm parameter ($M>0$) determining the constraints on the Sobolev space. Our results extend the non-adaptive result in \cite{green2021minimax}, established for a specific normalized graph Laplacian, to a wide class of weighted Laplacian matrices used in practice, including the unnormalized Laplacian and random walk Laplacian.
Early–middle Holocene relative sea-level oscillation events recorded in a submerged speleothem from the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico

Geomorphological and biological archives of relative sea-level change in the western North Atlantic-Caribbean region following the Last Glacial Maximum have traditionally supported the hypothesis of a punctuated rise towards the present sea level. Such records, however, are often at insufficient resolution to discern centennial-scale changes. In caves where the water table is closely controlled by sea level, active periods of speleothem growth constraining maximum sea level, used in combination with marine overgrowths constraining minimum sea level, are a promising alternative archive recording sea-level variability at higher resolution. Here, we present a U-Th-dated early–middle Holocene speleothem record from a submerged cave on the tectonically stable Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Our record shows that polychaetes (Annelida, Polychaeta) colonised a sub-aerially deposited stalagmite during four individual submergence events. Submergence events occurred at approximately 8.9, 8.6, 8.4 and 6.0 ka, which we attribute to previously unrecognised minor sea-level oscillation events (OE1–OE4) above and below −6.12 ± 0.1 m relative to present sea level (r.s.l.). Combining these results with mangrove-derived relative sea-level constraints from another submerged cave on the Yucatán Peninsula, we are able to suggest that OE1 and OE2 did not reach as high as −5.26 m r.s. l. , but that OE3 and OE4 exceeded −5.22 m r.s. l. We conclude that subsidence of the North American ice-load bulge was the main cause of relative sea-level rise. Superimposed on the glacio-isostatic adjustment were periods of widespread northern hemisphere cooling and ice margin re-advance, resulting in a relative sea-level fall on four occasions during the early–middle Holocene.
Understory microclimate of tropical secondary forests in Panama

important filters for germination and establishment of plant species. Nevertheless, the understory environment reached stabilized values 10 years after disturbance only and was close to understory conditions in old-growth forests, which suggests that the climatic driver in succession is limited to the first 10 years after disturbance. Secondary tropical forests in Panama hence seem to recover quickly in terms of understory microclimate.
Climatic drivers of Victorian streamflow: Is ENSO the dominant influence?

Abstract This study investigates the relationship between Victorian streamflow and a number of large-scale climate drivers, including the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). It is found that identifying a “dominant” climate driver, at least in the case of Victorian streamflow, is not a clear cut exercise. Importantly, it is shown that ENSO alone explains only a very small proportion of Victorian streamflow variability, particularly in autumn (a critical time in Victoria’s hydrological and water resources management cycle). This is a crucial insight given that most seasonal forecasting schemes currently used in Australia are based primarily on ENSO relationships. The results presented here show that stratification of Victorian streamflow according to multiple large-scale climate drivers, and antecedent catchment conditions, provides significantly differing streamflow distributions. Therefore, incorporation of (a) antecedent catchment conditions into the forecasting framework and (b) improved insights into the multiple interactions between all relevant large-scale (and local) climate drivers should improve seasonal streamflow forecasting ability.
Geophysical investigations of the origins and effects of density variations in the crust and upper mantle beneath the western and central United States

To investigate the physical basis for support of topography in the western U.S., we construct a sub-continent scale, 3D density model using ~1000 estimated crustal thicknesses and S-velocity profiles to 150 km depth at each of 947 seismic stations. Seismic signatures of temperature and composition are considered in the crust, but we assume that mantle velocity variations are thermal in origin. From these densities, we calculate crustal and mantle topographic contributions. Typical 2σ uncertainty of topography is ~500 meters, and elevations in 84% of the region are reproduced within error. Remaining deviations from observed elevations are attributed to melt, variations in crustal quartz content, and dynamic topography; compositional variations in the mantle, while plausible, are not necessary to reproduce topography. Support for western U.S topography is heterogeneous, with each province having a unique combination of mechanisms. Topography due to mantle buoyancy is nearly constant (within ~250 m) across the Cordillera; relief there (>2 km) results from variations in crustal chemistry and thickness. Cold mantle provides ~1.5 km of ballast to the thick crust of the Great Plains and Wyoming craton. Crustal temperature variations and dynamic pressures have smaller magnitude and/or more localized impacts. Positive gravitational potential energy (GPE) anomalies (~2x10N/m) calculated from our model promote extension in the northern Basin and Range and near the Sierra Nevada. Negative GPE anomalies (-3x10N/m) along the western North American margin and Yakima fold and thrust belt add
Macroprudential FX Regulations: Shifting the Snowbanks of FX Vulnerability?

We define the Multidimensional Value at Risk (MVaR) as a natural generalization of VaR. This generalization makes a number of important applications possible. For example, many techniques developed for VaR can be applied to MVaR directly. As an illustration, we employ VaR forecasting and evaluation techniques. One of our forecasting models builds on the progress made in the volatility literature and decomposes MVaR into long-term trend and short-term cycle components. We compute short- and long-term MVaR forecasts for several multidimensional time series and discuss their (un)conditional accuracy.
Coupled extrusion of sub‐arc lithospheric mantle and lower crust during orogen collapse: a case study from Fiordland, New Zealand

The Anita Peridotite is a ~20 km long by 1 km wide exhumed fragment of spinel facies sub‐arc lithospheric mantle that is enclosed entirely within the ≤4 km wide ductile Anita Shear Zone, and bounded by quartzofeldspathic lower crustal gneisses in Fiordland, south‐western New Zealand. Deformation textures, grain growth calculations and thermodynamic modelling results indicate the mylonitic peridotite fabric formed during rapid cooling, and therefore likely during extrusion. However, insights into the exhumation process are gained through examination of aluminous garnet‐bearing meta‐sedimentary gneisses also enclosed within the shear zone. P–T calculations indicate that prior to mylonitization the gneisses enclosing the peridotite equilibrated at 675–746 °C in the sillimanite stability field (stage I), before being buried to near the base of thickened arc crust (stage II; ~686 ± 26 °C and 10.7 ± 0.8 kbar). From this point on, the peridotite unit and the quartzofeldspathic rocks share a deformation history involving extensive recrystallization (stage III) within the Anita Shear Zone. Coupled exhumation of these portions of lower crust and upper mantle occurred during regional thinning of over‐thickened lithosphere at c. 104 Ma (U–Pb zircon). Our favoured model for the exhumation process involves heterogeneous transpressive deformation within the translithospheric Anita Shear Zone, which provided a conduit for ductile extrusion through the crust.
Flora Grand Hotel , Dubai , UAE , ISBN : 978-1-922069-740 Multiple Disciplinarity in Business Research and Practice

This article describes the possibilities of multiple disciplinarity in business research and practice. Multiple disciplinarity and its methods i.e. blending, borrowing and combining are first depicted. A new concept of multiple modelling is introduced in this connection. The empirical studies that illustrate the utilization of multiple disciplinarity and modelling in business administration are then examined. The empirical results of the author’s four studies and three secondary studies show that there are some gaps between marketing practice and current theories, there is a significant parallel i.e. multidisciplinary use of both approaches, often some kind of use of the combinations of the approaches and a strong need to find out how to combine the approaches properly. The possibilities of borrowing and blending as methods towards multiple disciplinarity and modelling are also discussed. Then there is a discussion about the nature and reasons of multiple disciplinarity and modelling. Some generalizations and challenges are raised concerning the utilization possibilities of multiple disciplinarity and multiple modelling which extend throughout the fields of science.
CUES TO PANÃRA NASAL-ORAL STOP SEQUENCE PERCEPTION

In the Jê language Panãra, speakers produce two auditorily similar consonant sequences, both of which may be transcribed segmentally as a nasal-oral stop sequence [NT], arising from two distinct processes: prenasalization of oral stops /ṼT/ → [ṼNT], and postoralization of nasal stops /NV/→ [NTV]. Previous research on these sequences showed that, despite their segmental similarity, native speakers of Panãra produce these sequences with systematic acoustic differences, most prominently the relative durations of the nasal murmur to the stop closure, but potentially also presence and amplitude of a stop burst and the quality of the nasal murmur. This study demonstrates that the contrast between the two types of NT sequences is perceptually robust among native Panãra speakers, and that all three acoustic cues are utilized by listeners in disambiguating the underlying representation of these two [NT] sequences.
Radiative Forcing of Aerosols and Its Impact on Surface Air Temperature on Synoptic Scale in Eastern China

Using the WRF-Chem(Weather Research and Forecasting—Chemistry) model, we investigate aerosol radiative forcing and its impacts on surface air temperature in Eastern China on the synoptic scale. Simulations of five selected periods without precipitation(August 23–25, 2006; November 10–12, 2008; December 16–18, 2008; January 15–17, 2009; and April 27–29, 2009) indicate that aerosol concentrations are generally lower in the daytime and higher at night. Simulated surface–layer concentrations of PM2.5 averaged over Northern China(29.8°–42.6°N, 110.2°–120.3°E,) are 40–80 μg m-3, higher than the simulated values of 30–47 μg m-3 in Southern China(22.3°–29.9°N,109.7°–120.2°E). Aerosols exerted a large cooling effect on surface air temperature(SAT, 2 m above ground level), and the effect is the strongest at 08:00 and 17:00 with decreases in temperature by 0.2–1 K. We also find that including aerosols in simulations improves the simulation of SAT. Based on the simulation of a weather event during August 23 to 25 in 2006, we quantitatively analyze the total(direct + indirect), direct, and indirect radiative effects of aerosols on SAT. Shortwave radiative forcing at the surface induced by direct effects of aerosols is stronger in Northern China than that in Southern China, with average forcings of-11.3 W m-2 and-5.8 W m-2, respectively, and corresponding coolings of SAT by 0.074 K and 0.039 K. However, shortwave radiative forcing induced by indirect effects of aerosols is weaker in Northern China than that in Southern China, with average forcings of-12.4 W/m2 and-14.4 W m-2, respectively, and corresponding coolings of SAT by 0.035 K and 0.094 K. The direct and indirect effects of sulfate are of similar magnitude. The total effect of sulfate on shortwave radiative forcing in Northern and Southern China is-7. 0 W m-2 and-10.5 W m-2, respectively, causing a cooling of SAT by 0.062 K and 0.074 K, while the effect of nitrate is relative weak. Due to black carbon aerosols, the solar shortwave radiation reaching the surface is decreased by 6.5 W m-2 and 5.8 W m-2 and the SAT increases by 0.053 K and 0.017 K averaged over Northern and Southern China, respectively. The direct effect of black carbon on shortwave radiation is much larger than the indirect effect.
On the Stability of the 421-day Periodicity in A0538-66

In this paper we analyse 70 years of archival Harvard and Schmidt plate data of the 16.6 d Be X-ray binary A0538-66 in order to search for the presence of the long-term period of 420.82 +/- 0.79 d found in MACHO photometry (Alcock et al. 2001). We find evidence for a long-term period of 421.29 +/- 0.95 d in the archival data, and examine its stability. We also combine the archival and MACHO datasets in order to improve the accuracy of the orbital period determination, using a cycle-counting analysis to refine its value to 16.6460 +/- 0.0004 d. We also test the model proposed in our previous paper (Alcock et al. 2001) with observations documented in the literature for A0538-66 from 1980-1995, constraining the system inclination to be i>74.9 +/- 6.5 deg.
Effect of Petroleum on Haematological Parameters and Lead Level in Fuel Attendants in Port Harcourt , Nigeria

Petroleum is a thick, flammable, yellow-to-black mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbons that occur naturally beneath the earth's surface, its products are got from fractional distillation of crude. These products are normally dispensed from reservoir by fuel attendants to motorist and individuals that needs these products for domestic uses. Occupational exposure to petroleum products has been reported to have toxic effects on humans with much impact on the respiratory system. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of petroleum products on haematological parameters and lead levels. Fifty eight (58) adult human subjects aged between 19 to 52 years were recruited for the study after they gave us consent. Questionnaires were distributed to participants and it was filled with proper guidance. Eight fuel stations located in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, were used as locations for the study and they represent the test subjects, while students from Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, were recruited as control subjects. A total of eighteen (18) females were enrolled in the study, nine (9) of them for test and control subjects, while a total of 40 males were enrolled, 20 of them for test and control subjects. Graphpad Prism 5.0 statistical package was used to analyse the data obtained. From our findings, there was no statistically significant difference (p≤0.05) in most haematological parameters (haemoglobin level, packed cell volume, platelets) and levels of lead in fuel attendants and control subjects. The white blood cells indicated a highly significant difference (p = 0.0001) in fuel attendants and may be as a result of chronic exposure to lead and petroleum products.
Spatial validation of large‐scale land surface models against monthly land surface temperature patterns using innovative performance metrics

Land surface models (LSMs) are a key tool to enhance process understanding and to provide predictions of the terrestrial hydrosphere and its atmospheric coupling. Distributed LSMs predict hydrological states and fluxes, such as land surface temperature (LST) or actual evapotranspiration (aET), at each grid cell. LST observations are widely available through satellite remote sensing platforms that enable comprehensive spatial validations of LSMs. In spite of the great availability of LST data, most validation studies rely on simple cell to cell comparisons and thus do not regard true spatial pattern information. The core novelty of this study is the development and application of two innovative spatial performance metrics, namely, empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and connectivity analyses, to validate predicted LST patterns by three LSMs (Mosaic, Noah, Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC)) over the contiguous United States. The LST validation data set is derived from global High‐Resolution Infrared Radiometric Sounder retrievals for a 30 year period. The metrics are bias insensitive, which is an important feature in order to truly validate spatial patterns. The EOF analysis evaluates the spatial variability and pattern seasonality and attests better performance to VIC in the warm months and to Mosaic and Noah in the cold months. Further, more than 75% of the LST variability can be captured by a single pattern that is strongly correlated to air temperature. The connectivity analysis assesses the homogeneity and smoothness of patterns. The LSMs are most reliable at predicting cold LST patterns in the warm months and vice versa. Lastly, the coupling between aET and LST is investigated at flux tower sites and compared against LSMs to explain the identified LST shortcomings.