Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Existence of free boundary disks with constant mean curvature in $\mathbb{R}^3$

Given a surface Σ in R 3 diﬀeomorphic to S 2 , Struwe [38] proved that for almost every H below the mean curvature of the smallest sphere enclosing Σ, there exists a branched immersed disk which has constant mean curvature H and boundary meeting Σ orthogonally. We reproduce this result using a diﬀerent approach and improve it under additional convexity assumptions on Σ. Speciﬁcally, when Σ itself is convex and has mean curvature bounded below by H 0 , we obtain existence for all H ∈ (0 , H 0 ). Instead of the heat ﬂow in [38], we use a Sacks-Uhlenbeck type perturbation. As in previous joint work with Zhou [6], a key ingredient for extending existence across the measure zero set of H ’s is a Morse index upper bound.
Investigating Data Variance in Evaluations of Automatic Machine Translation Metrics

Current practices in metric evaluation focus on one single dataset, e.g., Newstest dataset in each year’s WMT Metrics Shared Task. However, in this paper, we qualitatively and quantitatively show that the performances of metrics are sensitive to data. The ranking of metrics varies when the evaluation is conducted on different datasets. Then this paper further investigates two potential hypotheses, i.e., insignificant data points and the deviation of i.i. d assumption, which may take responsibility for the issue of data variance. In conclusion, our findings suggest that when evaluating automatic translation metrics, researchers should take data variance into account and be cautious to report the results on unreliable datasets, because it may leads to inconsistent results with most of the other datasets.
Multi-Target Filter and Detector for Speaker Diarization

A good representation of a target speaker usually helps to extract important information about the speaker and detect the corresponding temporal regions in a multi-speaker conversation. In this paper, we propose a neural architecture that simultaneously extracts speaker embeddings consistent with the speaker diarization objective and detects the presence of each speaker frame by frame, regardless of the number of speakers in the conversation. To this end, a residual network (ResNet) and a dual-path recurrent neural network (DPRNN) are integrated into a uniﬁed structure. When tested on the 2-speaker CALL-HOME corpus, our proposed model outperforms most methods published so far. Evaluated in a more challenging case of concurrent speakers ranging from two to seven, our system also achieves relative diarization error rate reductions of 26.35% and 6.4% over two typical baselines, namely the traditional x-vector clustering system and the attention-based system.
A Simple Suboptimal Moving Horizon Estimation Scheme With Guaranteed Robust Stability

We propose a suboptimal moving horizon estimation (MHE) scheme for a general class of nonlinear systems. To this end, we consider an MHE formulation that optimizes over the trajectory of a robustly stable observer. Assuming that the observer admits a Lyapunov function, we show that this function is an $\boldsymbol {M}$ -step Lyapunov function for suboptimal MHE. The presented sufficient conditions can be easily verified in practice. We illustrate the practicability of the proposed suboptimal MHE scheme with a standard nonlinear benchmark example. Here, performing a single iteration is sufficient to significantly improve the observer’s estimation results under valid theoretical guarantees.
TRACE: A Fast Transformer-based General-Purpose Lossless Compressor

Deep-learning-based compressor has received interests recently due to much improved compression ratio. However, modern approaches suffer from long execution time. To ease this problem, this paper targets on cutting down the execution time of deep-learning-based compressors. Building history-dependencies sequentially (e.g., recurrent neural networks) is responsible for long inference latency. Instead, we introduce transformer into deep learning compressors to build history-dependencies in parallel. However, existing transformer is too heavy in computation and incompatible to compression tasks. This paper proposes a fast general-purpose lossless compressor, TRACE, by designing a compression-friendly structure based on a single-layer transformer. We first design a new metric to advise the selection part of compression model structures. Byte-grouping and Shared-ffn schemes are further proposed to fully utilize the capacity of the single-layer transformer. These features allow TRACE to achieve competitive compression ratio and a much faster speed. In addition, we further accelerate the compression procedure by designing a controller to reduce the parameter updating overhead. Experiments show that TRACE achieves an overall ∼ 3x speedup while keeps a comparable compression ratio to the state-of-the-art compressors. The source code for TRACE and links to the datasets are available at https://github.com/mynotwo/A-Fast-Transformer-based-General-Purpose-LosslessCompressor.
Multiple phonon modes in Feynman path-integral variational polaron mobility

The Feynman path-integral variational approach to the polaron problem\cite{Feynman1955}, along with the associated FHIP linear-response mobility theory\cite{Feynman1962}, provides a computationally amenable method to predict the frequency-resolved temperature-dependent charge-carrier mobility, and other experimental observables in polar semiconductors. We show that the FHIP mobility theory predicts non-Drude transport behaviour, and shows remarkably good agreement with the recent diagrammatic Monte-Carlo mobility simulations of Mishchenko et al.\cite{Mishchenko2019} for the abstract Fr\"ohlich Hamiltonian. We extend this method to multiple phonon modes in the Fr\"ohlich model action. This enables a slightly better variational solution, as inferred from the resulting energy. We carry forward this extra complexity into the mobility theory, where it shows richer structure in the frequency and temperature dependent mobility, due to the different phonon modes activating at different energies. The method provides a computationally efficient and fully quantitative method of predicting polaron mobility and response in real materials.
Split Conformal Prediction for Dependent Data

Split conformal prediction is a popular tool to obtain predictive intervals from general statistical algorithms, with few assumptions beyond data exchangeability. We show that coverage guarantees from split CP can be extended to dependent processes, such as the class of stationary β -mixing processes, by adding a small coverage penalty. In particular, we show that the empirical coverage bounds for some β -mixing processes match the order of the bounds under exchangeability. The framework introduced also extends to non-stationary processes and to other CP methods, and experiments corroborate our split CP’s coverage guarantees under dependent data.
Information criteria for detecting change‐points in the Cox proportional hazards model

The Cox proportional hazards model, commonly used in clinical trials, assumes proportional hazards. However, it does not hold when, for example, there is a delayed onset of the treatment effect. In such a situation, an acute change in the hazard ratio function is expected to exist. This paper considers the Cox model with change‐points and derives Akaike information criterion (AIC)‐type information criteria for detecting those change‐points. The change‐point model does not allow for conventional statistical asymptotics due to its irregularity, thus a formal AIC that penalizes twice the number of parameters would not be analytically derived, and using it would clearly give overfitting analysis results. Therefore, we will construct specific asymptotics using the partial likelihood estimation method in the Cox model with change‐points, and propose information criteria based on the original derivation method for AIC. If the partial likelihood is used in the estimation, information criteria with penalties much larger than twice the number of parameters could be obtained in an explicit form. Numerical experiments confirm that the proposed criteria are clearly superior in terms of the original purpose of AIC, which are to provide an estimate that is close to the true structure. We also apply the proposed criterion to actual clinical trial data to indicate that it will easily lead to different results from the formal AIC.
Comment on"Scalings of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability at Large Viscosity Contrasts in Porous Media"

In a recent Letter, Sabet et al. [1] presented new numerical results on a development of Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability in porous media. Two miscible fluids are assumed to be of different viscosity. The main finding is that a symmetry of gravity-driven convection is broken at large viscosity ratios M = μ∗2/μ ∗ 1 > 20 and convective fingers extend preferably in the fluid of lower viscosity. If the upper fluid is much more viscous, as considered in the Letter, upward fingers extend at a much smaller rate than downward fingers. The authors try to explain the effect revealed by analyzing the vorticity field. The purpose of this Comment is to show that (1) analyzing the vorticity field does not allow to explain this effect, (2) it can be explained by analyzing the velocity in the equation of motion. (1) Sabet et al. [1] decompose the vorticity field into density and viscosity counter-parts ω and ω, respectively, and analyze their contributions. The authors treat the vorticity field as the driving force of convection that is not correct. They wrote, ”The density component of vorticity ω, which is the main driving force behind the growth of the fingers, is inversely proportional to the local value of viscosity. In other words, as the viscosity of the mixing layer increases, the driving force for buoyancydriven convection is weakened. ” Actually, the fingers grow driven by the gravitational and buoyant forces. If the vorticity were able to cause the fingering asymmetry (according to the statement of Authors), it would influence the vertical translation of fluid. In this case, the vorticity has to change the vertical velocity of finger tips, which are the leading points of motion, and, particularly, to generate an additional negative vertical velocity of tips of upward fingers mitigating their motion. However, as clearly seen in Figure 1(b) in [1], red and blue colors disappear at tips of both upward and downward fingers indicating that the value of vorticity is zero here. We see that the vorticity is absent at tips of both upward and downward fingers and therefore does not affect the vertical fluid velocity. One could assume that the additional vertical velocity of tip motion is generated by the vorticity near this tip. However, we do not find any explanation, why and in what way local rotations of fluid near the tip are transformed into an additional vertical translation of this tip. (2) In [1], fluid motions are described by the dimensionless Darcy equation [see Eq. (2)]. We transform
Massive Compact Dust Disk with a Gap around CW Tau Revealed by ALMA Multiband Observations

Compact protoplanetary disks with a radius of ≲50 au are common around young low-mass stars. We report high-resolution ALMA dust continuum observations toward a compact disk around CW Tau at Bands 4 (λ = 2.2 mm), 6 (1.3 mm), 7 (0.89 mm), and 8 (0.75 mm). The spectral energy distribution shows the spectral slope of 2.0 ± 0.24 between 0.75 and 1.3 mm, while it is 3.7 ± 0.29 between 2.17 and 3.56 mm. The steep slope between 2.17 and 3.56 mm is consistent with that of optically thin emission from small grains (≲350 μm). We perform parametric fitting of the ALMA data to characterize the dust disk. Interestingly, if the dust-to-gas mass ratio is 0.01, the Toomre Q parameter reaches ∼1–3, suggesting that the CW Tau disk might be marginally gravitationally unstable. The total dust mass is estimated as ∼250 M ⊕ for the maximum dust size of 140 μm that is inferred from the previous Band 7 polarimetric observation and at least 80 M ⊕ even for larger grain sizes. This result shows that the CW Tau disk is quite massive in spite of its smallness. Furthermore, we clearly identify a gap structure located at ∼20 au, which might be induced by a giant planet. In spite of these interesting characteristics, the CW Tau disk has normal disk luminosity, size, and spectral index at ALMA Band 6, which could be a clue to the mass budget problem in Class II disks.
Sketch-based Facial Synthesis: A New Challenge

This paper aims to conduct a comprehensive study on the facial sketch synthesis (FSS) problem. However, due to the high costs in obtaining hand-drawn sketch datasets, there lacks a complete benchmark for assessing the development of FSS algorithms over the last decade. As such, we ﬁrst introduce a high-quality dataset for FSS, named FS2K , which consists of 2,104 image-sketch pairs spanning three types of sketch styles, image backgrounds, lighting conditions, skin colors, and facial attributes. FS2K diﬀers from previous FSS datasets in diﬃculty, diversity, and scalability and should thus facilitate the progress of FSS research. Second, we present the largest-scale FSS study by reviewing 139 classical methods, including 24 handcrafted feature-based facial sketch synthesis approaches, 37 general neural-style transfer methods, 43 deep image-to-image translation methods, and 35 image-to-sketch approaches. Besides, we elaborate comprehensive experiments on the existing 19 cutting-edge models. Third, we present a simple baseline for FSS, named FSGAN . With only two straightforward components, i.e. , facial-aware masking and style-vector expansion, FSGAN surpasses the performance of all previous state-of-the-art models on the proposed FS2K dataset by a large margin. Finally, we conclude with lessons learned over the past years and point out several unsolved challenges. Our open-source code is available at https://github.com/DengPingFan/FSGAN.
Language-Level Semantics Conditioned 3D Point Cloud Segmentation

In this work, a language-level Semantics Conditioned framework for 3D Point cloud segmentation, called SeCondPoint, is proposed, where language-level semantics are introduced to condition the modeling of point feature distribution as well as the pseudo-feature generation, and a feature-geometry-based mixup approach is further proposed to facilitate the distribution learning. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt in literature to introduce language-level semantics to the 3D point cloud segmentation task. Since a large number of point features could be generated from the learned distribution thanks to the semantics conditioned modeling, any existing segmentation network could be embedded into the proposed framework to boost its performance. In addition, the proposed framework has the inherent advantage of dealing with novel classes, which seems an impossible feat for the current segmentation networks. Extensive experimental results on two public datasets demonstrate that three typical segmentation networks could achieve significant improvements over their original performances after enhancement by the proposed framework in the conventional 3D segmentation task. Two benchmarks are also introduced for a newly introduced zero-shot 3D segmentation task, and the results also validate the proposed framework.
Carving Start-up Character: Effects of Symmetrical Communication on Start-up Corporate Character, Customer-Start-up Identification, and Customer Advocacy

ABSTRACT This study took a personification approach and examined how strategic communication influences the development of startup corporate character and associated outcomes in China. Specifically, it examined the relationships among startups’ symmetrical communication model, startup characters of agreeableness, enterprise, competence, and ruthlessness, customer identification with the startup, and eventually, customer advocacy. Results from an online survey with 641 startup customers in China revealed the importance of practicing symmetrical communication at startups, which effectively helps shape startup character. In turn, startup corporate character would affect customer identification with the startup, which eventually contributes to customer advocacy. This study provides valuable theoretical grounds to advance the growing literature on corporate character, stakeholders-organization identification, and symmetrical communication, emphasizing a unique startup context in the culturally distinctive market of China. It also provides practical insights for startup leaders, communication practitioners, and entrepreneurs on how to build a favorable corporate character, strengthen connections with customers, and win support from customers.
Research on electrostatic shielding characteristics of electrostatic precipitator

ABSTRACT Air pollution control is a worldwide problem of common concern to all mankind. Electrostatic precipitator (ESP) plays an important role in the purification of flue gas and dust. At present, in a multi-electrode ESP, the middle discharge electrode is often inhibited by the outer discharge electrode, commonly known as electrostatic shielding, which seriously affects the electric field distribution and dust removal effect of ESP. In order to explore this characteristic, this research established a mathematical model of ESP and simulated the electrostatic shielding phenomenon of wire-plate ESP, which quantified the influence of various factors on the degree of electrostatic shielding and analyzed the potential impact of electrostatic shielding on particle charging and dust removal efficiency. The results of the study show that the wire-to-plate distance has the greatest impact on electrostatic shielding, followed by the discharge electrode radius, voltage, and the wire-to-wire distance. When the degree of electrostatic shielding increases, the dust removal efficiency of ESP decreases. In addition, increasing the number of discharge electrodes to increase the dust removal efficiency of ESP is only feasible within a certain range. When the number of discharge electrodes exceeds a certain threshold, the dust removal efficiency of ESP decreases due to the effect of electrostatic shielding. The results of the research provide guidance for the determination of the geometric parameters of ESP and can make theoretical predictions for the occurrence of electrostatic shielding, thereby effectively avoiding the occurrence of electrostatic shielding. Implications: Electrostatic precipitator plays an important role in the purification of flue gas and dust. Electrostatic shielding seriously affects the electric field distribution and dust removal effect of ESP. The research quantified the influence of various factors on the degree of electrostatic shielding and analyzed the potential impact of electrostatic shielding on particle charging and dust removal efficiency. It is expected that through the research, some guidance will be provided for the determination of the geometric parameters of ESP and can make theoretical predictions for the occurrence of electrostatic shielding, thereby effectively avoiding the occurrence of electrostatic shielding.
Promoting a geography of opportunity in Accra, Ghana: Applying lessons from mixed-income development successes and shortcomings

ABSTRACT Urban poverty in both the developed and developing world is often spatially organized with deprivation highly concentrated in segregated areas of cities. With the rapid urbanization and lack of effective urban planning in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, segregation, economic deprivation and social exclusion are particularly severe challenges. In the United States, almost 30 years of poverty deconcentration policy has had mixed results and offers cautions to other countries looking to confront urban segregation. Accra, the capital city of Ghana, offers an intriguing example of a city with substantial clusters of poverty and slum areas, but also some neighborhoods with high existing levels of economic integration. Drawing on the theoretical and empirical context of poverty deconcentration efforts in the United States, this paper presents a conceptual framework with two alternative pathways for urban development: an inclusionary pathway and an exclusionary pathway. We use this framework to review and critique Ghana’s existing urban policy and offer implications for inclusionary urban policy in Accra and other similar cities in developing countries.
Contextual Ghosts in the Nursery: Systemic Influences on Sensitive Maternal Responsiveness in a Low to Middle Income Country

Abstract The influence of trauma on parenting behavior and “sensitive responsiveness” is well documented. However, these trauma experiences are often conceptualized on an individual, historical and intergenerational level, rather than a systemic level. In this study, eight South African mothers, who were residing in a Johannesburg Township and raising at least one child under the age of six, were interviewed about their parenting practices. The interviews were analyzed using a combination of a psychoanalytically informed interpretive analysis and a social constructionist analysis. Using this approach, the author attempted to develop a contextually-based understanding of current parenting practices within this setting. Across the interviews, three prominent contextual factors were seen to consciously and unconsciously impact parenting practices, namely threats to safety, poverty, and loss or absent parents. These contextual factors were found to play a role in hypervigilance, maternal control and intrusiveness, and dismissiveness in parent-infant interactions. On the back of these findings, the importance of considering contextual trauma when engaging in infant mental health theory, research, and interventions with similar populations, is briefly discussed.
Relations of Financial Literacy and Decision-Making Skills to Teacher’s Financial Well-Being and Professional Qualities

This study determined the relations of financial literacy and decision-making skills in the financial wellbeing and professional qualities of select public school teachers. The study used descriptive-correlational design through a survey data gathering strategy. There were 177 teacher-respondents from fifteen schools in Candelaria East District, Division of Quezon in the Philippines. The participants on the survey conducted on April 2021 were majority 31 to 40 years old, female, married, bachelor’s degree holder, teacher 1 employment status, with salary range of P15,000 to P 24,000 from their 1 to 10 years of service. The results of the self-assessment showed that the t eachers’ financial literacy and the decision -making skills were proven to be practiced. Furthermore, the financial well-being and professional qualities were also being practiced. This study recommends on the continuous education of the teachers with regards to the financial literacy. On personal level, being cautious in engaging with loans and disengagement with debt-trap are basic but powerful practices.