Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geomagnetic orientation in subterranean mole crickets during burrowing

While many terrestrial animals use celestial and terrestrial cues for orientation, subterranean animals lack access to these cues. The geomagnetic field serves as a reliable alternative cue for underground navigation. Subterranean mammals use the geomagnetic field to burrow and navigate within their nests; however, whether subterranean insects possess magnetoreception remains unclear. Here, we investigated the influence of magnetic fields on burrowing directions in subterranean mole crickets (Gryllotalpa orientalis). Under an intact magnetic field, mole crickets predominantly burrow in the north-south direction. However, when the magnetic field was rotated by 90°, the preferred burrowing direction shifted to the east-west axis. Notably, when the horizontal component of the geomagnetic field was reduced to near 0 µT, no preferred direction was observed. These results suggest that mole crickets have a magnetic sense and they align the direction at the beginning of burrowing. The study enhances our comprehension of underground orientation mechanisms in subterranean insects and reveals convergent evolution between insects and mammals in utilizing the geomagnetic field as a navigational cue.
Paranannizziopsis spp. associated with skin lesions in wild snakes in North America and development of a real-time PCR assay for rapid detection of the fungus in clinical samples

The emergence of ophidiomycosis (or snake fungal disease) in snakes has prompted increased awareness of the potential effects of fungal infections on wild reptile populations. Yet, aside from Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, little is known about other mycoses affecting wild reptiles. The closely related genus Paranannizziopsis has been associated with dermatomycosis in snakes and tuataras in captive collections, and P. australasiensis was recently identified as the cause of skin infections in non-native wild panther chameleons (Furcifer pardalis) in Florida, USA. Here we describe five cases of Paranannizziopsis spp. associated with skin lesions in wild snakes in North America and one additional case from a captive snake from Connecticut, USA. In addition to demonstrating that wild Nearctic snakes can serve as a host for these fungi, we also provide evidence that the genus Paranannizziopsis is widespread in wild snakes, with cases being identified in Louisiana (USA), Minnesota (USA), Virginia (USA), and British Columbia (Canada). Phylogenetic analyses conducted on multiple loci of the fungal strains we isolated identified P. australasiensis in Louisiana and Virginia; the remaining strains from Minnesota and British Columbia did not cluster with any of the described species of Paranannizziopsis, although the strains from British Columbia appear to represent a single lineage. Finally, we designed a pan-Paranannizziopsis real-time PCR assay targeting the internal transcribed spacer region 2. This assay successfully detected DNA of all described species of Paranannizziopsis and the two potentially novel taxa isolated in this study and did not cross-react with closely related fungi or other fungi commonly found on the skin of snakes. The assay was 100% sensitive and specific when screening clinical (skin tissue or skin swab) samples, although full determination of the assay’s performance will require additional follow up due to the small number of clinical samples (n=14 from 11 snakes) available for testing in our study. Nonetheless, the PCR assay can provide an important tool in further investigating the prevalence, distribution, and host range of Paranannizziopsis spp. and facilitate more rapid diagnosis of Paranannizziopsis spp. infections that are otherwise difficult to differentiate from other dermatomycoses.
Observing the economy

In "The (unfortunate) complexity of the economy" (April pp28–32) Jean-Philippe Bouchaud presents clear evidence that traditional assumptions of rational markets have to be abandoned. The old investor slogan "buy on promise, sell on rumour" quickly magnifies a downturn into a crisis, which triggers two questions. If physics-based models are applied (beyond understanding and prediction) to actual market decisions, does this make the economy more or less stable? And, is this cause for stronger regulation?
High and Low Applicatives of Unaccusatives: Dependent Case and the Phase

Abstract:The principal objective of this article is to establish a direct relationship between the structural height of the base position of the applied argument and the case and promotion-to-subject patterns observed in applicative constructions, with particular reference to applicatives of unaccusatives. The article achieves this through an approach exploiting dependent case, with the domains relevant for dependent case assignment being identified as phases, defined as (a) complete predicate-argument structures and (b) propositions. By making argument structure a defining ingredient of the delineation of phases, the article distills precise and accurate predictions about the interaction between the base-generation site of the applied object and the case patterns of unaccusative constructions featuring such an object, improving on the efficacy of previous accounts. In the process, the article reexamines the syntactic status of constituents located on the edge of a phase.
Black Student Leaders on Campus: Stories of Race and Racism during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract:Black student leaders often experience issues of race and racism. The prevalence of COVID-19 has further complicated these narratives and exposed additional areas of microaggressions and mistreatment. This study uses critical race theory in education and critical race methodology to understand what 13 Black student leaders’ stories of race and racism reveal about higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants demonstrated their intense experiences with racism, disclosed the inequitable university policies and practices, and described the influence of social media on issues of race and racism. As a result of these stories, we offer implications for practice and policy on how higher education leaders can address systemic racism and critical issues affecting Black student leaders in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Ca ii TRIPLET SPECTROSCOPY OF SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD RED GIANTS. IV. ABUNDANCES FOR A LARGE SAMPLE OF FIELD STARS AND COMPARISON WITH THE CLUSTER SAMPLE

This paper represents a major step forward in the systematic and homogeneous study of Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) star clusters and field stars carried out by applying the calcium triplet technique. We present in this work the radial velocity and metallicity of approximately 400 red giant stars in 15 SMC fields, with typical errors of about 7 km s−1 and 0.16 dex, respectively. We added to this information our previously determined metallicity values for 29 clusters and approximately 350 field stars using the identical techniques. Using this enlarged sample, we analyze the metallicity distribution and gradient in this galaxy. We also compare the chemical properties of the clusters and of their surrounding fields. We find a number of surprising results. While the clusters, taken as a whole, show no strong evidence for a metallicity gradient (MG), the field stars exhibit a clear negative gradient in the inner region of the SMC, consistent with the recent results of Dobbie et al. For distances to the center of the galaxy less than 4°, field stars show a considerably smaller metallicity dispersion than that of the clusters. However, in the external SMC regions, clusters and field stars exhibit similar metallicity dispersions. Moreover, in the inner region of the SMC, clusters appear to be concentrated in two groups: one more metal-poor and another more metal-rich than field stars. Individually considered, neither cluster group presents an MG. Most surprisingly, the MG for both stellar populations (clusters and field stars) appears to reverse sign in the outer regions of the SMC. The difference between the cluster metallicity and the mean metallicity of the surrounding field stars turns out to be a strong function of the cluster metallicity. These results could be indicating different chemical evolution histories for these two SMC stellar populations. They could also indicate variations in the chemical behavior of the SMC in its internal and external regions.
Risk and Harm: Unpacking Ideologies in the AI Discourse

We examine the ideological differences in the debate surrounding large language models (LLMs) and AI regulation, focusing on the contrasting positions of the Future of Life Institute (FLI) and the Distributed AI Research (DAIR) institute. The study employs a humanistic HCI methodology, applying narrative theory to HCI-related topics and analyzing the political differences between FLI and DAIR, as they are brought to bear on research on LLMs. Two conceptual lenses, “existential risk” and “ongoing harm,” are applied to reveal differing perspectives on AI's societal and cultural significance. Adopting a longtermist perspective, FLI prioritizes preventing existential risks, whereas DAIR emphasizes addressing ongoing harm and human rights violations. The analysis further discusses these organizations’ stances on risk priorities, AI regulation, and attribution of responsibility, ultimately revealing the diverse ideological underpinnings of the AI and LLMs debate. Our analysis highlights the need for more studies of longtermism's impact on vulnerable populations, and we urge HCI researchers to consider the subtle yet significant differences in the discourse on LLMs.
Exploring Audio Icons for Content-Based Navigation in Voice User Interfaces

Voice interaction is an increasingly popular technology, allowing users to control devices and applications without the need for physical interaction or ocular attention. Augmented voice playback control features, such as audio icons, have the potential to significantly improve voice navigation for instructional videos. This study evaluates audio icons for improving how-to video navigation in a Wizard-of-Oz-controlled setup with 24 participants assembling a wooden robot using a voice-controlled laptop. Results showed that audio icons helped participants complete the task faster, with fewer voice commands, and higher satisfaction. However, some usability challenges were observed. Significant differences in perceived usability were found between audio icons placed with visual points-of-action and the baseline, but not between the baseline and audio icons at 30-second intervals. These findings provide valuable insights for VUI system researchers and designers to advance the use of audio icons for improving voice interface navigation.
Opinion convergence in the Krasnoshchekov model

ABSTRACT In this paper, a rigorous mathematical analysis of the Krasnoshchekov model is presented. We have shown that in case a community does not contain any group of people having zero resistance to interpersonal influence, which are moreover isolated from the pressure of the rest of community, the Krasnoshchekov opinion readjustment procedure can be reduced to the Friedkin–Johnsen dynamics. In turn, if one repeats the Krasnoshchekov opinion updating rule, the corresponding dynamics forces individuals’ opinions to converge eventually to some terminal opinions, which are a consensus under the same conditions as in the French–Harary–DeGroot dynamics. Otherwise, the Krasnoshchekov dynamics exhibits patterns, which are much closer to the behavior of electrons in the superconductivity state.
Exploring Usability Issues in Instruction-Based and Schema-Based Authoring of Task-Oriented Dialogue Agents

Platforms such as Google DialogFlow and Amazon Lex have enabled easier development of conversational agents. The standard approach to training these agents involve collecting and annotating in-domain data in the form of labelled utterances. However, obtaining in-domain data for training machine learning models remains a bottleneck. Schema-based dialogue, which involves laying out a structured representation of the flow of a “typical” dialogue, and prompt-based methods, which involve writing instructions in natural language to large language models such as GPT-3, are promising ways to tackle this problem. However, usability issues when translating these methods into practice are less explored. Our study takes a first step towards addressing this gap by having 23 students who had finished a graduate-level course on spoken dialogue systems report their experiences as they defined structured schemas and composed instruction-based prompts for two task-oriented dialogue scenarios. Through inductive coding and subsequent thematic analysis of the survey data, we explored users’ authoring experiences with schema and prompt-based methods. The findings provide insights for future data collection and authoring tool design for dialogue systems.
Organizing the Unorganized: A Novel Approach for Transferring a Taxonomy of Labels into Flat-Labeled Document Collections

This paper presents a novel pipeline for transforming flat-labeled text collections into a hierarchical structure, which involves leveraging simple yet effective similarity methods that account for both lexical and semantic criteria to associate labels from disparate sources. Our approach employs a custom similarity measure, the Reinforced Edit Similarity, to identify probable correspondences based on lexical similarities. A subsequent semantic alignment and validation phase is then performed using an automatic classification mechanism. Preliminary results attest to the effectiveness of our proposal. These results are obtained from the research group of the University of Torino in the NGUPP project.
Estimates for Solutions of Differential Equations in a Banach Space via Commutators

Abstract In a Banach space we consider the equation dx(t)/dt = (A + B(t))×(t) (t ≥ 0), where A is a constant bounded operator, and B(t) is a bounded variable operator.Norm estimates for the solutions of the considered equation are derived in terms of the commutator AB(t) − B(t)A. These estimates give us sharp stability conditions. Our results are new even in the finite dimensional case.We also discuss applications of the obtained results to a class of integro-differential equations.
Applying NLP to Support Legal Decision-making in Administrative Appeal Boards in the EU

While Natural Language Processing (NLP) is being applied in an increasing number of contexts, including law, it remains a difficult task to leverage NLP for the purpose of real-life support of legal decision-making. This is because 1) legal-decision making must be made in a way that is sensitive not only to legislation but also to evolving case practice (prior decision-making that functions as precedent), 2) legal-decision making is sensitive to open-ended legislative language and shifting factual contexts, 3) traditional methods of NLP are capable of processing long texts, but they are suboptimal compared to novel methods, i.e., transformer-based models, e.g., BERT [1], etc. 4) however the transformer-based models are limited by maximum input lengths, which makes it difficult to apply in real-life scenarios, where legal documents exceed the maximum input length. In this paper, we show how we tackle the problem of providing NLP-based intelligence support to legal decision-makers in a real-world setting using transformer-based NLP.
A submillimetre survey of Lyman α haloes in the SA 22 protocluster at z= 3.1: A submm survey of LABs in the SA 22 protocluster

We present the results from a submillimetre (submm) survey of a sample of 23 giant Lyman α (Lyα) emitting nebulae in the overdensity at z = 3.09 in the SA 22 field. These objects, which have become known as Lyα Blobs (LABs), have a diverse range of morphology and surface brightness, but the nature of their power source remains unclear, with both cooling flows or starburst/active galactic nucleus (AGN) ionized winds being possibilities. Using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) submm camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), we measure the 850-μm flux of a sample of LABs. We present detections of submm emission from four LABs at >3. 5σ individually, and obtain a modest statistical detection of the full sample at an average flux of 3.0 ± 0.9 mJy. These detections indicate significant activity within the LAB haloes, with bolometric luminosities in the ultraluminous regime (>1012 L ), equivalent to a star formation rate (SFR) of ∼103 M yr−1. By comparisons to LAB-like objects in other regions, we show that there is an apparent trend (although weak) between observed Lyα emission and bolometric luminosity. Combined with our detection of ultraluminous activity in this population and the lack of any strong morphological correlations in our sample, this provides evidence that the interaction of an ambient halo of gas with a Galactic-scale ‘superwind’ is most likely to be responsible for the extended Lyα emission in the majority of LABs. Assuming the extent of the LABs reflects outflows from a superwind, we estimate the age of starbursts in the submm LABs to be in the range 10–100 Myr. Using the average submm flux of the LABs, we determine an SFR density in the SA 22 structure of >3 M yr−1 Mpc−3, greater than the field at this epoch. The submm detection of these four LABs means there are now seven luminous submm galaxies in the z = 3.09 structure in SA 22, making this the largest known association of these intensely active galaxies. This clustering further strengthens the proposed evolutionary link between these galaxies and local cluster ellipticals. Finally, we suggest that the highly extended Lyα haloes (which define the LAB class) may be a common feature of the submm galaxy population in general, underlining their role as potentially important sources of metal enrichment and heating of the intergalactic
Enhanced Deep Video Summarization Network

Video summarization is understanding video which aims to get an abstract view of the original video sequence by the concatenation of keyframes representing the highlights of the video. In this work, we propose an enhanced deep summarization network (EDSN) to summarize videos. We implement a reinforcement learning based framework to train our EDSN, where we design a novel reward function which considers the spatial and temporal features of the original video to be included in the summary. The reward function is formulated using the spatial and temporal scores obtained for each frame of the video using the temporal segment networks. During training, the reward function seeks to generate a summary by including the frames with high temporal and spatial scores, while the EDSN strives for earning higher rewards by learning to produce more diverse summaries. The method is completely unsupervised since no labels are required during training. Extensive experiments on two benchmark datasets show that the proposed approach achieves state-of-the-art performance.
A new branch-and-bound method for global optimization

The Interval Branch-and-Bound Method for global optimization over a compact right parallelepiped, parallel to the coordinate axes, forms the basis of a new stochastic method which can be applied even when function values are only known as black boxes. The stochastic method is described and convergence to the set of global minimizers is proved under the assumption that the number of stationary points is nite. The method has been implemented in C++, and numerical experiments with some well known test problems in up to 10 variables are described. Comparisons are made with the interval method.
Posner-Schlossman Syndrome ( Glaucomatocyclitic Crisis )

History of Present Illness (HPI) A 63-year-old male was evaluated on an urgent basis for pain, redness, and "elevated eye pressure" in the le eye (OS). He described a history of three similar episodes OS, in which he had the same symptoms and his eye pressure was elevated. His first episode occurred approximately 20 years ago (1980s), and at that time, he was diagnosed with acute angle-closure glaucoma (AACG) and treated with a large surgical iridectomy by an outside provider. Review of previous intraocular pressure (IOP) measurements showed an IOP spike to 54 mmHg in 2004 and 54 mmHg again in 2014. IOP ranged from 11 to 15 OS in between the episodes of high IOP. He has not required IOP-lowering medications in between episodes. He denied any history of cold sores, shingles, or other rash. The episodes of pain and high pressure have not been preceded by or accompanied by systemic symptoms or illness.
Functional Central Limit Theorems for Rough Volatility

We extend Donsker's approximation of Brownian motion to fractional Brownian motion with Hurst exponent $H \in (0,1)$ and to Volterra-like processes. Some of the most relevant consequences of our `rough Donsker (rDonsker) Theorem' are convergence results for discrete approximations of a large class of rough models. This justifies the validity of simple and easy-to-implement Monte-Carlo methods, for which we provide detailed numerical recipes. We test these against the current benchmark Hybrid scheme \cite{BLP15} and find remarkable agreement (for a large range of values of~$H$). This rDonsker Theorem further provides a weak convergence proof for the Hybrid scheme itself, and allows to construct binomial trees for rough volatility models, the first available scheme (in the rough volatility context) for early exercise options such as American or Bermudan.
A method to estimate savings of led lighting instalation in public buildings: The case study of secondary schools in Serbia

This paper examines the potentials of saving electric energy in school lighting by replacing the existent systems of lighting with more adequate ones which are based on light-emitting diode technology. Our primary goal is to present the methodology used in this analysis since it can be used to determine potential savings in lighting systems of any public building. We have performed the detailed analysis of nine high schools located in Kragujevac, Serbia. The first step was to collect the data about the numbers and types of systems utilized, as well as about the habits of their users. This has revealed the share of electricity consumption for lighting in total electricity consumption. The replacements for each existent light source have been proposed taking into consideration the projected value of light flux depending on the purpose of each room. The calculations of potential savings through the replacement of lighting systems have been conducted taking into consideration not only the savings in electric energy but also the savings made through the maintenance cost reduction. Based on the results, the potential savings range from 53-62% while the payback period for the analysed schools is about four years in average.
Dynamics around the double resonance

In this paper, we study time-periodic perturbation of classical systems with two degrees of freedom. A transition chain is established, by passing through small neighborhood of double resonant point, to connect any two cohomology classes corresponding to resonant frequencies. Applying the result to nearly integrable Hamiltonian systems with three degrees of freedom, one obtains a transition chain along which one is able to construct diffusion orbits suggested by Arnold in [A66].
Discussion on "Asymptotic Theory of Outlier Detection Algorithms for Linear Time Series Regression Problems" by Søren Johansen and Bent Nielsen

Søren Johansen and Bent Nielsen are to be congratulated for the valuable and deep asymptotic analysis of the intimate connection between outlier detection algorithms and robust statistics based on down-weighting the outlying observations. The paper is a very nice review of the authors’ recent asymptotic results for linear regression models where also the regressors are allowed to be generated by a stationary process. In the following, I have a couple of general remarks for further discussion and possible extensions of the theory.