Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maximising Mexico's Gains from Integration in the World Economy

This paper discusses Mexico’s foreign trade and investment policies and provides specific recommendations to enhance the benefits of a closer integration in the world economy. Over the past two decades, Mexico has made significant progress in reducing barriers to trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), and this has boosted GDP per capita growth. Nevertheless, Mexico needs to make further progress in reforming its trade policy by further reducing MFN tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers so as to promote efficiency in the economy. Barriers to FDI remain high, particularly in some services and infrastructure sectors, such as telecommunications and domestic land transport. Restrictions to foreign ownership should be eased to attract higher inflows and thereby improve productivity. To broaden the benefits from FDI, supplier linkages between FDI investors and other firms in Mexico should be enhanced. Tirer profit au maximum de l'integration du Mexique dans l'economie mondiale Le present papier examine les politiques menees par le Mexique dans le domaine des echanges et investissements internationaux, et formule des recommandations specifiques visant a lui permettre de tirer le meilleur parti possible d’une integration plus etroite au sein de l’economie mondiale. Au cours des deux dernieres decennies, le Mexique a sensiblement progresse dans la reduction des obstacles aux echanges et a l’investissement direct etranger (IDE), ce qui a favorise l’augmentation du PIB par habitant. Cela etant, des progres restent a faire sur le plan de la reforme de la politique commerciale, en reduisant encore les obstacles tarifaires et non tarifaires sur une base NPF, de maniere a accroitre l’efficience de l’economie. Les entraves a l’IDE demeurent nombreuses, notamment dans certains secteurs de services et infrastructures comme les telecommunications et les transports terrestres interieurs. Il conviendrait d’assouplir les restrictions touchant les interets etrangers de maniere a attirer davantage d’investissements et a ameliorer ainsi la productivite. Pour tirer un plus large profit de l’IDE, il conviendrait de renforcer les liens logistiques entre les investisseurs etrangers et les autres entreprises presentes au Mexique.
Peces del alto Magdalena, cuenca del río Magdalena,Colombia

l río Magdalena nace cerca de la laguna de La Magdalena a 3,685 m (1o55 ́40 ́ ́N – 76o 35 ́8 ́ ́W), en el macizo colombiano de la cordillera de los Andes, en el extremo suroccidental de una pequeña planicie del páramo de Las Papas (departamento del Huila), y desemboca en el mar Caribe después de recorrer 1,540 km, atraviesa de sur a norte los departamentos de Huila y Tolima, donde a partir de la ciudad de Honda se inicia el Medio Magdalena. Su cuenca hidrográfica abarca una extensión de 257,000 km, que corresponde a cerca del 23% de Colombia, y se encuentra enmarcada entre el Macizo Colombiano, el flanco oriental de la cordillera Central al occidente, el flanco occidental de la cordillera Oriental al oriente y por la planicie costera del Caribe al norte.
STARC: A General Framework For Quantifying Differences Between Reward Functions

In order to solve a task using reinforcement learning, it is necessary to first formalise the goal of that task as a reward function. However, for many real-world tasks, it is very difficult to manually specify a reward function that never incentivises undesirable behaviour. As a result, it is increasingly popular to use \emph{reward learning algorithms}, which attempt to \emph{learn} a reward function from data. However, the theoretical foundations of reward learning are not yet well-developed. In particular, it is typically not known when a given reward learning algorithm with high probability will learn a reward function that is safe to optimise. This means that reward learning algorithms generally must be evaluated empirically, which is expensive, and that their failure modes are difficult to anticipate in advance. One of the roadblocks to deriving better theoretical guarantees is the lack of good methods for quantifying the difference between reward functions. In this paper we provide a solution to this problem, in the form of a class of pseudometrics on the space of all reward functions that we call STARC (STAndardised Reward Comparison) metrics. We show that STARC metrics induce both an upper and a lower bound on worst-case regret, which implies that our metrics are tight, and that any metric with the same properties must be bilipschitz equivalent to ours. Moreover, we also identify a number of issues with reward metrics proposed by earlier works. Finally, we evaluate our metrics empirically, to demonstrate their practical efficacy. STARC metrics can be used to make both theoretical and empirical analysis of reward learning algorithms both easier and more principled.
Human water consumption intensifies hydrological drought worldwide

Over the past 50 years, human water use has more than doubled and affected streamflow over various regions of the world. However, it remains unclear to what degree human water consumption intensifies hydrological drought (the occurrence of anomalously low streamflow). Here, we quantify over the period 1960–2010 the impact of human water consumption on the intensity and frequency of hydrological drought worldwide. The results show that human water consumption substantially reduced local and downstream streamflow over Europe, North America and Asia, and subsequently intensified the magnitude of hydrological droughts by 10–500%, occurring during nation- and continent-wide drought events. Also, human water consumption alone increased global drought frequency by 27 (±6)%. The intensification of drought frequency is most severe over Asia (35 ± 7%), but also substantial over North America (25 ± 6%) and Europe (20 ± 5%). Importantly, the severe drought conditions are driven primarily by human water consumption over many parts of these regions. Irrigation is responsible for the intensification of hydrological droughts over the western and central US, southern Europe and Asia, whereas the impact of industrial and households’ consumption on the intensification is considerably larger over the eastern US and western and central Europe. Our findings reveal that human water consumption is one of the more important mechanisms intensifying hydrological drought, and is likely to remain as a major factor affecting drought intensity and frequency in the coming decades.
Habitat Preferences of Male Corn Buntings Emberiza calandra in North-Eastern Germany

Abstract. Agricultural ecosystems have faced dramatic changes during past decades, resulting in a dramatic loss of farmland biodiversity. The Corn Bunting Emberiza calandra is considered a suitable indicator for the conservation value of farmland habitats, and has recently suffered strong declines throughout much of its European range. As a basis for targeted conservation measures, we investigated the habitat preferences of this species in north-eastern Germany by comparing the composition of male territories with randomly chosen control sites. A territory was defined as the area within a radius of 150 meters around the assumed centre of the territory, as the majority of nests is found within this radius. To assess food availability for nestlings, arthropod abundance within the most abundant land use types i.e. crop fields, fallows, grassland as well as within unploughed strips was investigated. In total we found 102 male Corn Bunting territories, which were mainly composed of crop fields (50%), grassland (28%), and fallows (12%). Territories compared with control sites were characterized by a lower proportion of crop fields, a higher proportion of fallows, more diverse land use types, more abundant field boundaries, unploughed strips, and tracks, and a higher availability of song posts. However, neither the number of larger (≥ 1 cm), smaller (< 1 cm) or all arthropods differed significantly among analysed land use types i.e. crop fields, fallows, grassland, unploughed strips. Our study confirms the significance of habitat heterogeneity and especially of sites with sparse vegetation (fallows > 10%) and song posts (> 70 m ‘linear song posts’ or > 1 solitary post per ha) for the habitat selection of male Corn Buntings. We conclude that measures to halt population declines of Corn Buntings seem to be relatively easy to implement, provided that farmers are granted a fair compensation.
A Study on Tiny YOLO for Resource Constrained Xray Threat Detection

This paper implements and analyses multiple nets to determine their suitability for edge devices to solve the problem of detecting Threat Objects from X-ray security imaging data. There has been ongoing research on applying Deep Learning techniques to solve this problem automatedly. We utilize an alternative activation function calculated to have zero expected conversion error with the activation of a spiking activation function, in the our tiny YOLOv7 model. This QCFS version of the tiny YOLO replicates the activation of ultra-low latency and high-efficiency SNN architecture and achieves state-of-the-art performance on CLCXray which is another open-source XRay Threat Detection dataset, hence making improvements in the field of using spiking for object detection. We also analyze the performance of a Spiking YOLO network by converting our QCFS network into a Spiking Network.
Multi-unit soft sensing permits few-shot learning

Recent literature has explored various ways to improve soft sensors using learning algorithms with transferability. Broadly put, the performance of a soft sensor may be strengthened when it is learned by solving multiple tasks. The usefulness of transferability depends on how strongly related the devised learning tasks are. A particularly relevant case for transferability, is when a soft sensor is to be developed for a process of which there are many realizations, e.g. system or device with many implementations from which data is available. Then, each realization presents a soft sensor learning task, and it is reasonable to expect that the different tasks are strongly related. Applying transferability in this setting leads to what we call multi-unit soft sensing, where a soft sensor models a process by learning from data from all of its realizations. This paper explores the learning abilities of a multi-unit soft sensor, which is formulated as a hierarchical model and implemented using a deep neural network. In particular, we investigate how well the soft sensor generalizes as the number of units increase. Using a large industrial dataset, we demonstrate that, when the soft sensor is learned from a sufficient number of tasks, it permits few-shot learning on data from new units. Surprisingly, regarding the difficulty of the task, few-shot learning on 1-3 data points often leads to a high performance on new units.
An Approximation Scheme for Solution to the Optimal Investment Problem in Incomplete Markets

We provide an approximation scheme for the maximal expected utility and optimal investment policies for the portfolio choice problem in an incomplete market. Incompleteness stems from the presence of a stochastic factor which affects the dynamics of the correlated stock price. The scheme is built on the Trotter--Kato approximation and is based on an intuitively pleasing splitting of the Hamilton--Jacobi--Bellman (HJB) equation in two subequations. The first is the HJB equation of a portfolio choice problem with a stochastic factor but in a complete market, while the other is a linear equation corresponding to the evolution of the orthogonal (nontraded) part of the stochastic factor. We establish convergence of the scheme to the unique viscosity solution of the marginal HJB equation, and, in turn, derive a computationally tractable representation of the maximal expected utility and construct an $\varepsilon$-optimal portfolio in a feedback form.
Three‐dimensional visualization of a near‐vertical slab tear beneath the southern Mariana arc

The use of a three‐dimensional ray‐tracing inversion algorithm has greatly enhanced the resolution of gradients and strong variations in wave speeds to create improved P wave tomographic images of the Mariana arc region. The images obtained from the Mariana arc region show relatively low amplitudes of heterogeneity due to the limited number of seismic stations in the area. Despite these limitations, detailed interpretations of the three‐dimensional geometry and morphology of the Pacific Plate subducting beneath the Philippine Sea Plate have provided a three‐dimensional model of the steep dip of the Pacific plate and the curvature of the slab beneath the Mariana arc in unprecedented detail. The new P wave tomography and seismicity depict a previously unidentified E‐W trending near‐vertical tear in the subducting plate at the southern end of the Mariana arc that divides the arc into two distinct segments: a steeply dipping curved slab penetrating the lower mantle and a short (∼250 km depth) slab along the Challenger Deep segment of the arc. The slab tear is likely to be the result of the need to accommodate the reduced volume the slab must occupy as it is subducted beneath the Philippine Sea plate along a curved arc.
Net ecosystem production in clear‐water and brown‐water lakes

We studied 15 lakes in northern Sweden with respect to primary production and respiration in benthic and pelagic habitats. The lakes were characterized by different concentrations of colored dissolved organic carbon (DOC) of terrestrial origin, forming a gradient ranging from clear‐water to brown‐water lakes. Primary production decreased and respiration increased on a whole‐lake scale along the gradient of increasing DOC. Thus, the lakes became more net heterotrophic, i.e., had lower net ecosystem production (NEP = gross primary production – community respiration), with increasing terrestrial DOC and this change coincided with increasing partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) in the surface waters. The single most important process for the increasing net heterotrophy along the DOC gradient was pelagic respiration of terrestrial organic carbon. In spite of high metabolic activity in the benthic habitat, benthic primary production and benthic respiration decreased simultaneously with increasing DOC, showing that the benthic habitat was in metabolic balance throughout the gradient. Therefore, the net heterotrophic states of the lakes depended on the terrestrial DOC export to lakes and the concomitant respiration of terrestrial organic carbon in the pelagic habitat.
Deep sea records from the southeast Labrador Sea: Ocean circulation changes and ice-rafting events during the last 160,000 years

[1] Results from two deep sea cores from northeast of Newfoundland at 1251 and 2527 m water depth, respectively, indicate that during the time period from 160,000 to 10,000 years BP, ice rafting events in the Labrador Sea were accompanied by rapid variations in deep and surface water circulation. Twelve ice-rafting events occurred, each coinciding with high concentrations of detrital carbonate and oxygen isotopic depletion of both surface and bottom waters. Eleven of these can be correlated with the North Atlantic Heinrich events H1-H11. The remaining very conspicuous ice-rafting event took place early in MIS substage 5e, at a time when the planktic faunal assemblage suggests marked warming of the sea surface. In the shallower core, benthic delta(13)C values rise from a minimum during the deglaciation to peak substage 5e values following the last ice-rafting event, indicating that the ventilation of intermediate depths was renewed after the deglaciation was complete and continued throughout substage 5e. The benthic foraminifera suggest that this well-ventilated water mass was comparable to the modern Labrador Sea Water (LSW). The benthic faunas suggest that a relatively warm intermediate water mass entered the SE Labrador Sea during Heinrich events. Generally low benthic delta(13)C values indicate that this water mass was poorly ventilated and rich in inorganic nutrients. Isotope data and benthic faunal distributions indicate that North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formed in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea reached the SE Labrador Sea between the Heinrich events.
Recent global dust trend and connections to climate forcing

Dust is an important indicator of climate change. In paleoclimate research, sediments bearing signals of dust deposition offer a rich archive for climate change history. However, the dust‐climate link is very complex due to the various direct and indirect feedbacks in the Earth system. In this study, we examine two issues: (1) given the recent global warming, what are the dust variations, both globally and in key dust regions, and (2) what are the climate drivers behind the variations? Using synoptic data for the period 1974–2012, we analyzed the global trend of dust frequency and visibility‐derived dust concentrations and their characteristics in key dust regions, including North Africa, the Middle East, Southwest Asia, Northeast Asia, South America, and Australia. We also examined the likely climate drivers for dust variations in the different regions by computing the correlations between the time series of dust and of major climate indices—the Multivariate El Niño/Southern Oscillation Index, North Atlantic Oscillation, and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). It was found that over the period 1984–2012, the global mean (excluding North America and Europe) near‐surface dust concentration decreased at 1.2% yr−1. This decrease is mainly due to reduced dust activities in North Africa, accompanied by reduced activities in Northeast Asia, South America, and South Africa. A significant negative correlation between Saharan dust and AMO was detected, and it seems reasonable to suggest that under present climate, the global dust trend is determined by the climate systems governing the Atlantic and North African regimes.
Demand for Sovereign Bonds in the Periphery: A Regime-Switching Approach

The rise in sovereign bond holdings in stress countries could deepen a recession by allocating resources away from the private sector. Our paper investigates whether the demand function for sovereign bonds changed in the crisis period and the causes of such a change. We show that it did, and that bond holdings rose more than they would have in normal times given a set of fundamentals. However, we find this happened only for a short span of time, and similar behavior by OFIs suggests that the 0 risk weight on sovereign bond holdings was not the cause. Instead, sovereign stress is the likely driver: policies aimed at lowering the sovereign-bank nexus should target sovereign stress.
Pulse Transmission through Frozen Silt

Abstract : An important objective of geophysical exploration in permafrost regions is the delineation of subsurface ground ice. Recent studies have reported on the use of ground-penetrating radar to detect massive ground ice. VHF-band radiowave short pulses were transmitted within the permafrost tunnel at Fox, Alaska, over distances between 2.2 and 10.5 m. The propagation medium was a frozen silt containing both disseminated and massive ice with temperatures varying from -7 C near the transmitter to probably -2 C near the center of the tunnel overburden. The short pulses underwent practically no dispersion in the coldest zones but did disperse and refract through the warmer overburden, as suggested by calculations of the effectiive dielectric constant. Most significantly the measured frequency content decreased as the effective dielectric constant increased. The results indicate that deep, cross-borehole pulse transmissions over distances greater than 10 m might be possible, especially when the ground is no warmer than -4 C. The information thus gained could be used for identifying major subsurface variations, including ground ice features.
Global biofuel use, 1850–2000

This paper presents annual, country‐level estimates of biofuel use for the period 1850–2000. We estimate that global biofuel consumption rose from about 1000 Tg in 1850 to 2460 Tg in 2000, an increase of 140%. In the late 19th century, biofuel consumption in North America was very high, ∼220–250 Tg/yr, because widespread land clearing supplied plentiful fuelwood. At that time biofuel use in Western Europe was lower, ∼180–200 Tg/yr. As fossil fuels became available, biofuel use in the developed world fell. Compensating changes in other parts of the world, however, caused global consumption to remain remarkably stable between 1850 and 1950 at ∼1200 ± 200 Tg/yr. It was only after World War II that biofuel use began to increase more rapidly in response to population growth in the developing world. Between 1950 and 2000, biofuel use in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia grew by 170%, 160%, and 130%, respectively.
Methods for realistic landscape imaging

There are five fundamental concerns in the synthesis of realistic imagery of fractal landscapes: (1) convincing geometric models of terrain; (2) efficient algorithms for rendering those potentially-large terrain models; (3) atmospheric effects, or aerial perspective, to provide a sense of scale; (4) surface textures as models of natural phenomena such as clouds, water, rock strata, and so forth, to enhance visual detail in the image beyond what can be modelled geometrically; and (5) a global context in which to situate the scenes. Results in these five areas are presented, and some aspects of the development of computer graphics as a new process and medium for the fine arts are discussed. Heterogeneous terrain models are introduced, and preliminary experiments in simulating fluvial erosion are presented to provide fractal drainage network features. For imaging detailed terrain models we describe grid tracing, a time- and memory-efficient algorithm for ray tracing height fields. To obtain aerial perspective we develop geometric models of aerosol density distributions with efficient integration schemes for determining scattering and extinction, and an efficient Rayleigh scattering approximation. We also describe physically-based models of the rainbow and mirage. Proceduralism is an underlying theme of this work; this is the practice of abstracting models of complex form and behaviors into relatively terse algorithms, which are evaluated in a lazy fashion. Procedural textures are developed as models of natural phenomena such as mountains and clouds, culminating a procedural model of an Earth-like planet which in the future may be explored interactively in a virtual reality setting.
Entanglement entropy from non-equilibrium lattice simulations

Entanglement entropy encodes important features of strongly interacting quantum many-body systems and gauge theories, but its analytical study is still limited to systems with high level of symmetry. This motivates the search for efficient techniques to investigate this quantity numerically, through Monte Carlo calculations on the lattice. In this contribution, we discuss the computation of the entropic c-function by means of an algorithm based on Jarzynski's equality, which is an exact theorem from non equilibrium statistical mechanics. After presenting benchmark results for the Ising model in two dimensions, where our algorithm successfully reproduces the analytical predictions from conformal field theory, we discuss its generalization to the three-dimensional Ising model, for which we were able to extract universal terms beyond the area law. Finally we point out some future generalizations of this calculation.