Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Sphere Packing Bound for DSPCs With Feedback à la Augustin

Establishing the sphere packing bound for block codes on the discrete stationary product channels with feedback—which are commonly called the discrete memoryless channels with feedback—was considered to be an open problem until recently, notwithstanding the proof sketch provided by Augustin in 1978. A complete proof following Augustin’s proof sketch is presented to demonstrate its adequacy and to draw attention to two novel ideas that it employs. These novel ideas (i.e., the Augustin’s averaging and the use of subblocks) are likely to be applicable in other communication problems for establishing impossibility results.
Knowledge convergence in European regions: Towards cohesion?

In a knowledge economy, it is interesting to see that the concept of knowledge cohesion is a fertile soil for research. Despite the ongoing interest in investigating whether economic cohesion has been achieved in Europe there is no research that looks at knowledge cohesion. Though it is difficult to investigate such an abstract concept one can look at a more concrete concept such as convergence. Using the European Union Framework Programme data from 1984 to 2016 and simple network analysis and regressions we show that there are signs of knowledge convergence within the NUTS2 regions of Europe. Despite the fact that the top performers persist over the years convergence is much stronger among the less developed regions.
est practices for catch-and-release recreational fisheries – angling ools and tactics

Catch-and-release angling is an increasingly popular conservation strategy employed by anglers voluntarily or to comply with management regulations, but associated injuries, stress and behavioural impairment can cause post-release mortality or fitness impairments. Because the fate of released fish is primarily determined by angler behaviour, employing ‘best angling practices’ is critical for sustainable recreational fisheries. While basic tenants of best practices are well established, anglers employ a diversity of tactics for a range of fish species, thus it is important to balance science-based best practices with the realities of dynamic angler behaviour. Here we describe how certain tools and tactics can be integrated into recreational fishing practices to marry best angling practices with the realities of angling. While the effects of angling practices vary considerably across contexts and conditions, we also outline
Augmenting Qualitative Text Analysis with Natural Language Processing: Methodological Study

Background Qualitative research methods are increasingly being used across disciplines because of their ability to help investigators understand the perspectives of participants in their own words. However, qualitative analysis is a laborious and resource-intensive process. To achieve depth, researchers are limited to smaller sample sizes when analyzing text data. One potential method to address this concern is natural language processing (NLP). Qualitative text analysis involves researchers reading data, assigning code labels, and iteratively developing findings; NLP has the potential to automate part of this process. Unfortunately, little methodological research has been done to compare automatic coding using NLP techniques and qualitative coding, which is critical to establish the viability of NLP as a useful, rigorous analysis procedure. Objective The purpose of this study was to compare the utility of a traditional qualitative text analysis, an NLP analysis, and an augmented approach that combines qualitative and NLP methods. Methods We conducted a 2-arm cross-over experiment to compare qualitative and NLP approaches to analyze data generated through 2 text (short message service) message survey questions, one about prescription drugs and the other about police interactions, sent to youth aged 14-24 years. We randomly assigned a question to each of the 2 experienced qualitative analysis teams for independent coding and analysis before receiving NLP results. A third team separately conducted NLP analysis of the same 2 questions. We examined the results of our analyses to compare (1) the similarity of findings derived, (2) the quality of inferences generated, and (3) the time spent in analysis. Results The qualitative-only analysis for the drug question (n=58) yielded 4 major findings, whereas the NLP analysis yielded 3 findings that missed contextual elements. The qualitative and NLP-augmented analysis was the most comprehensive. For the police question (n=68), the qualitative-only analysis yielded 4 primary findings and the NLP-only analysis yielded 4 slightly different findings. Again, the augmented qualitative and NLP analysis was the most comprehensive and produced the highest quality inferences, increasing our depth of understanding (ie, details and frequencies). In terms of time, the NLP-only approach was quicker than the qualitative-only approach for the drug (120 vs 270 minutes) and police (40 vs 270 minutes) questions. An approach beginning with qualitative analysis followed by qualitative- or NLP-augmented analysis took longer time than that beginning with NLP for both drug (450 vs 240 minutes) and police (390 vs 220 minutes) questions. Conclusions NLP provides both a foundation to code qualitatively more quickly and a method to validate qualitative findings. NLP methods were able to identify major themes found with traditional qualitative analysis but were not useful in identifying nuances. Traditional qualitative text analysis added important details and context.
Ecology of the Balkan Wall lizard, Podarcis taurica ionica (Sauria: Lacertidae) from Greece

Daily activity is bimodal during the largest part of the annual activity period. Many individuals (27.78-57.14%) show broken tails but both interpopulation and intersexual differences of injury frequencies are not significant. Hibernation usually lasts from early Nov. to late Feb. or early March. Most copulations are observed from early April to early May. Females with oviductal and/or large ovarian eggs are present mainly from mid April to mid July, but the peak of gestation occurs from mid May to mid June. Normally there are two clutches per season. The first oviposition occurs from mid May to early June and the second one from mid June to mid July. Hatching usually takes place from mid July or early Aug. to early Sept. , after an incubation period of about 8-9 weeks. Sex ratio is usually near 1:1, and observed deviations are not significant. Reproductive maturity in females is attained at an approximate snout-vent length (SVL) of 52-56 mm, which corresponds to an age of 18-20 months. Clutch size ranges from 2 to 10 eggs (usually from 3 to 5 eggs), and is significantly larger in mainland populations. There is a positive correlation between SVL and clutch size in most populations studied. Oviductal egg size and mass differ significantly among the populations examined but are not correlated to SVL. The ratio of egg to body mass differs significantly among some of the studied populations,
THE HABITABLE ZONE OF EARTH-LIKE PLANETS WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE

As a contribution to the study of the habitability of extrasolar planets, we implemented a one-dimensional energy balance model (EBM), the simplest seasonal model of planetary climate, with new prescriptions for most physical quantities. Here we apply our EBM to investigate the surface habitability of planets with an Earth-like atmospheric composition but different levels of surface pressure. The habitability, defined as the mean fraction of the planet's surface on which liquid water could exist, is estimated from the pressure-dependent liquid water temperature range, taking into account seasonal and latitudinal variations of surface temperature. By running several thousands of EBM simulations we generated a map of the habitable zone (HZ) in the plane of the orbital semi-major axis, a, and surface pressure, p, for planets in circular orbits around a Sun-like star. As pressure increases, the HZ becomes broader, with an increase of 0.25 AU in its radial extent from p = 1/3 to 3 bar. At low pressure, the habitability is low and varies with a; at high pressure, the habitability is high and relatively constant inside the HZ. We interpret these results in terms of the pressure dependence of the greenhouse effect, the efficiency of horizontal heat transport, and the extent of the liquid water temperature range. Within the limits discussed in the paper, the results can be extended to planets in eccentric orbits around non-solar-type stars. The main characteristics of the pressure-dependent HZ are modestly affected by variations of planetary properties, particularly at high pressure.
Re-emergence of the leaf clip gesture during an alpha takeover affects variation in male chimpanzee loud calls

Loud calls are used by many species as long-distance signals for group defense, mate attraction, and inter- and intragroup spacing. Chimpanzee loud calls, or pant hoots, are used in a variety of contexts including group coordination and during male contests. Here, we observed an alpha male takeover in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) during which the leaf clipping gesture re-emerged after disappearing for almost two years in this community. Leaf clipping only occurred in males and was observed almost exclusively prior to pant hoot vocalizations, as has been observed in other chimpanzee communities of the Taï forest in Côte d’Ivoire. Consequently, we hypothesized that leaf clipping may be important for male-male competition by affecting variation in the acoustic properties of male chimpanzee loud calls. We therefore investigated whether pant hoots preceded by leaf clipping differed acoustically from those without, while also testing the influence of social context on pant hoot variation, namely male dominance rank and hierarchy instability, i.e., before, during and after the alpha takeover. We found that pant hoots preceded by leaf clipping were longer, contained more call elements and drum beats, and lower fundamental and peak frequencies. Moreover, during the alpha takeover pant hoots were shorter, contained fewer drum beats and higher fundamental frequencies. Additionally, pant hoot and aggression rates were also highest during the alpha takeover with leaf clipping more likely to occur on days when pant hooting rates were high. Overall social rank had limited effects on pant hoot variation. We suggest that elevated arousal and aggression during the alpha takeover triggered the re-emergence of leaf clipping and the associated acoustic changes in pant hoots. Further research should focus on the potential mechanisms by which leaf clipping is connected to variation in pant hoots and cross-population comparisons of the behaviour.
An Efficient Dispatcher for Large Scale GraphProcessing on OpenCL-based FPGAs

High parallel framework has been proved to be very suitable for graph processing. There are various work to optimize the implementation in FPGAs, a pipeline parallel device. The key to make use of the parallel performance of FPGAs is to process graph data in pipeline model and take advantage of on-chip memory to realize necessary locality process. This paper proposes a modularize graph processing framework, which focus on the whole executing procedure with the extremely different degree of parallelism. The framework has three contributions. First, the combination of vertex-centric and edge-centric processing framework can been adjusting in the executing procedure to accommodate top-down algorithm and bottom-up algorithm. Second, owing to the pipeline parallel and finite on-chip memory accelerator, the novel edge-block, a block consist of edges vertex, achieve optimizing the way to utilize the on-chip memory to group the edges and stream the edges in a block to realize the stream pattern to pipeline parallel processing. Third, depending to the analysis of the block structure of nature graph and the executing characteristics during graph processing, we design a novel conversion dispatcher to change processing module, to match the corresponding exchange point.
Learning from graphs with structural variation

We study the effect of structural variation in graph data on the predictive performance of graph kernels. To this end, we introduce a novel, noise-robust adaptation of the GraphHopper kernel and validate it on benchmark data, obtaining modestly improved predictive performance on a range of datasets. Next, we investigate the performance of the state-of-the-art Weisfeiler-Lehman graph kernel under increasing synthetic structural errors and find that the effect of introducing errors depends strongly on the dataset.
Brain States That Encode Perceived Emotion Are Reproducible but Their Classification Accuracy Is Stimulus-Dependent

The brain state hypothesis of image-induced affect processing, which posits that a one-to-one mapping exists between each image stimulus and its induced functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-derived neural activation pattern (i.e., brain state), has recently received support from several multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) studies. Critically, however, classification accuracy differences across these studies, which largely share experimental designs and analyses, suggest that there exist one or more unaccounted sources of variance within MVPA studies of affect processing. To explore this possibility, we directly demonstrated strong inter-study correlations between image-induced affective brain states acquired 4 years apart on the same MRI scanner using near-identical methodology with studies differing only by the specific image stimuli and subjects. We subsequently developed a plausible explanation for inter-study differences in affective valence and arousal classification accuracies based on the spatial distribution of the perceived affective properties of the stimuli. Controlling for this distribution improved valence classification accuracy from 56% to 85% and arousal classification accuracy from 61% to 78%, which mirrored the full range of classification accuracy across studies within the existing literature. Finally, we validated the predictive fidelity of our image-related brain states according to an independent measurement, autonomic arousal, captured via skin conductance response (SCR). Brain states significantly but weakly (r = 0.08) predicted the SCRs that accompanied individual image stimulations. More importantly, the effect size of brain state predictions of SCR increased more than threefold (r = 0.25) when the stimulus set was restricted to those images having group-level significantly classifiable arousal properties.
Vertical distributions of aerosol optical properties during the spring 2016 ARIAs airborne campaign in the North China Plain

Abstract. Vertical distributions of aerosol optical properties derived from measurements made during 11 aircraft flights over the North China Plain (NCP) in May–June 2016 during the Air Chemistry Research In Asia (ARIAs) were analyzed. Aerosol optical data from in situ aircraft measurements show good correlation with ground-based measurements. The regional variability of aerosol optical profiles such as aerosol scattering and backscattering, absorption, extinction, single scattering albedo (SSA), and the Ångström exponent (α) are thoroughly characterized for the first time over the NCP. The SSA at 550 nm showed a regional mean value of 0.85 ± 0.02 with moderate to strong absorption and the α ranged from 0.49 to 2.53 (median 1.53), indicating both mineral dust and accumulation-mode aerosols. Most of the aerosol particles were located in the lowest 2 km of the atmosphere. We describe three typical planetary boundary layer (PBL) scenarios and associated transport pathways as well as the correlation between aerosol scattering coefficients and relative humidity (RH). Aerosol scattering coefficients decreased slowly with height in the clean PBL condition, but decreased sharply above the PBL under polluted conditions, which showed a strong correlation (R2 ≥ 0.78) with ambient RH. Back-trajectory analysis shows that clean air masses generally originated from the distant northwestern part of China, while most of the polluted air masses were from the heavily polluted interior and coastal areas near the campaign region.
Reproductive Characteristics of the Lacertid Lizard Podarcis atrata

Abstract We report reproductive characteristics (timing of sexual maturity, clutch frequency, clutch size, egg and hatchling sizes) of the Island Lizard Podarcis atrata. Reproductive performance was related to female size. The larger females initiate reproductive activities early in the season and produce two to four clutches annually, whereas the smaller individuals postpone reproduction until the season is well advanced and lay only a single clutch. Clutch size increased with female length and was slightly lower for clutches laid during June–July than for those produced during May. Among-clutch differences in egg mass were negatively correlated with clutch size, and this relationship is independent of female size. Larger clutches are also composed of less elongated (i.e., rounder) eggs than are smaller clutches, suggesting that the phenotypic trade-off between egg size and numbers is induced by limitations posed by the females' body volume, rather than by restrictions of energy availability. Comparison of reproductive traits of P. atrata to those of the closely related P. hispanica and P. bocagei indicates that the increase in body length during the evolutionary divergence of P. atrata was not associated with an increase in clutch size. This provides a clear exception to the general pattern found in lacertid lizards. En este estudio proporcionamos información sobre las características reproductoras (alcance de la madurez sexual, frecuencia de puesta, tamaño de los huevos y de los jóvenes) de la lagartija insular Podarcis atrata, en relación con el tamaño de la hembra. Las hembras de mayor tamaño iniciaron su actividad reproductora al comienzo de la temporada, y produjeron entre dos y cuatro puestas al año. Sin embargo, las hembras más pequeñas retrasaron el inicio de su actividad reproductora y sólo realizaron una puesta al año. El tamaño de puesta incrementó con la longitud corporal de la hembra, y fue ligeramente inferior en las puestas realizadas en junio y julio que en las puestas producidas en mayo. Las diferencias entre puestas en el peso del huevo estuvieron negativamente correlacionadas con el tamaño de puesta, independientemente del tamaño de la hembra. Además, en las puestas más grandes, los huevos tenían una forma menos elongada (i.e., redondeados) que en las puestas más pequeñas. Los resultados anteriores sugieren que el “trade-off” entre el tamaño del huevo y de la puesta debe estar inducido por las limitaciones impuestas por el volumen de la hembra, más que por restricciones de disponibilidad de energía. La comparación de las características reproductoras de P. atrata con las de otras especies relacionadas, P. hispanica y P. bocagei, ha indicado que el incremento en la longitud corporal durante la divergencia evolutiva de P. atrata no ha estado acompañado de un incremento en el tamaño de puesta. Esto constituye una clara excepción del patrón encontrado en lacértidos.
Changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid Caatinga

Phytophagous insects choose their feeding resources according to their own requirements, but their feeding preferences in the semiarid Caatinga have rarely been studied. Flowering trees leads to a greater diversity of flower visitors and their predators in the host plant, but little is known about why the diversity of phytophagous insects not associated with flowers is also increased. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diversity of sap-sucking, wood-boring and leaf-chewing insects associated with leaf chlorophyll content in flowering and non-flowering plants of Poincianella pyramidalis, an endemic tree of Caatinga. We used a leaf chlorophyll index (LCI) as a surrogate for resource quality, and an entomological umbrella to collect phytophagous insects. We show that trees which bloomed demonstrated higher chlorophyll content, greater abundance and a significant difference in the composition of phytophagous insect species when compared to non-flowering trees (p < 0.05). The results suggest that not only the presence of flowers themselves, but also the higher nutritional quality of leaf tissue, can explain the differences in species diversity and abundance of phytophagous insects. Exceptional flowering trees in the Caatinga area studied may thus act as spots of high quality resources, favouring changes in the diversity of insects in this environment.
Visual Question Answering : Datasets , Methods , Challenges and Oppurtunities

Recent advances in machine perception motivated the researchers to tackle more complex problems in this area. One of the most challenging and interesting tasks that recently attracted the attention of researchers from various fields of AI is the Visual Question Answering, or VQA. In this task, the input is an image and an open-ended question about the image, and the output is an open-ended answer to the question with respect to the image. In order to achieve good results in this task, the expertise in various fields such as computer vision and natural language processing is needed. Various datasets have been collected for QA task. In addition, several methods have been proposed in the literature in the past recent years. In this survey, we explain the most famous datasets, as well as the state-ofthe-art methods for VQA task. We compare the results of different methods, and identify the promising approaches for future research in this area. Identifying the shortcomings of current methods, as well as the future opportunities for VQA are also parts of this survey.
THE EFFECTS OF POPULATION DENSITY ON TIME BUDGETS OF THE IBERIAN WALL LIZARD ( PODARCIS HISPANICA )

Individual time budgets under natural conditions and under increased population density conditions were studied in a population of Podarcis hispanica in Western Spain. We examined the effects of sex, time of day, and density on daily time budgets. Artificially increasing density indicated that demographic changes do affect time budgets, and that the animals initially respond with short-term compensatory behavior. We found that: (1) basking was the predominant behavior in time budgets of all lizards; (2) thermoregulatory patterns are affected by high population density; (3) our results confirm the hypothesis that density of population, and not sex, is a primary factor affecting basking behavior, i.e., high population density leads to increased basking; (4) social interaction frequency increased and percentage of time resting decreased at high population density.