Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
POLYNOMIALS WITH ZEROS ON THE UNIT CIRCLE: REGULARITY OF LEJA SEQUENCES

Let $z_1, \dots, z_m$ be $m$ distinct complex numbers, normalized to $|z_k| = 1$, and consider the polynomial $$ p_{m}(z) = \prod_{k=1}^{m}{(z-z_k)}. $$ We define a sequence of polynomials in a greedy fashion, $$ p_{N+1}(z) = p_{N}(z) \left(z - z^*\right)\qquad \mbox{where}~z^* = \arg\max_{|z|=1} |p_{N}(z)|,$$ and prove that, independently of the initial polynomial $p_m$, the roots of $p_{N}$ equidistribute in angle at rate at most $(\log{N})^2/N$. This even persists when sometimes adding `adversarial' points by hand. We rephrase the main result in terms of a dynamical system involving the inverse fractional Laplacian $(-\Delta)^{-1/2}$ and conjecture that, when phrased in this language, the underlying regularity phenomenon might appear in a very general setting.
Self-supervised Learning on Graphs: Deep Insights and New Direction

The success of deep learning notoriously requires larger amounts of costly annotated data. This has led to the development of self-supervised learning (SSL) that aims to alleviate this limitation by creating domain specific pretext tasks on unlabeled data. Simultaneously, there are increasing interests in generalizing deep learning to the graph domain in the form of graph neural networks (GNNs). GNNs can naturally utilize unlabeled nodes through the simple neighborhood aggregation that is unable to thoroughly make use of unlabeled nodes. Thus, we seek to harness SSL for GNNs to fully exploit the unlabeled data. Different from data instances in the image and text domains, nodes in graphs present unique structure information and they are inherently linked indicating not independent and identically distributed (or i.i.d.). Such complexity is a double-edged sword for SSL on graphs. On the one hand, it determines that it is challenging to adopt solutions from the image and text domains to graphs and dedicated efforts are desired. On the other hand, it provides rich information that enables us to build SSL from a variety of perspectives. Thus, in this paper, we first deepen our understandings on when, why, and which strategies of SSL work with GNNs by empirically studying numerous basic SSL pretext tasks on graphs. Inspired by deep insights from the empirical studies, we propose a new direction SelfTask to build advanced pretext tasks that are able to achieve state-of-the-art performance on various real-world datasets. The specific experimental settings to reproduce our results can be found in \url{this https URL}.
Adversarially Trained Multi-Singer Sequence-To-Sequence Singing Synthesizer

This paper presents a high quality singing synthesizer that is able to model a voice with limited available recordings. Based on the sequence-to-sequence singing model, we design a multi-singer framework to leverage all the existing singing data of different singers. To attenuate the issue of musical score unbalance among singers, we incorporate an adversarial task of singer classification to make encoder output less singer dependent. Furthermore, we apply multiple random window discriminators (MRWDs) on the generated acoustic features to make the network be a GAN. Both objective and subjective evaluations indicate that the proposed synthesizer can generate higher quality singing voice than baseline (4.12 vs 3.53 in MOS). Especially, the articulation of high-pitched vowels is significantly enhanced.
Ocurrence and independent evolution of bilateral ear asymmetry in owls and implications on owl taxonomy

On the basis of the literature and my own examination of living and/or dead but fresh owls of 16 species, bilateral asymmetry of external ears in owls is surveyed and ear structure briefly described. Consideration of the probability of origin of various structural similarities and dissimilarities in the ear leads to the conclusion that ear asymmetry has evolved independently in at least five lines, represented by the respective genera (1) Tyto , (2) Phodilus , (3) Bubo , Ciccaba , Strix , (4) Rhinoptynx , Asio , Pseudoscops , and (5) Aegolius . Bubo , Ciccaba , and Strix probably represent more than one line of origin of ear asymmetry. Available evidence suggests that bilateral ear asymmetry in owls serves to make the vertical directional sensitivity patterns different between the two ears for high frequencies, thus making possible vertical localization based on binaural comparison of intensity and spectral composition of sound. When an owl localizes prey by hearing, the direction of the source usually forms a shallow angle with the ground. Therefore, a certain angle of error usually converts into a longer distance along the ground for a vertical error than for a horizontal error. This is a crucial factor that calls for good vertical localization ability of owls which rely on hearing for localization of food. Selection pressure for improvement of the ability of vertical localization of sound is believed to lie behind the evolution of all types of bilateral ear asymmetry in owls. On the basis of comparative ear structure the current subdivision of family Strigidae into subfamily Buboninae and Striginae is rejected. The external ears of Rhinoptynx and Pseudoscops are described for the first time and shown to be very similar to those of Asio otus , demonstrating affinity between these three genera.
What Do Neural Networks Learn When Trained With Random Labels?

We study deep neural networks (DNNs) trained on natural image data with entirely random labels. Despite its popularity in the literature, where it is often used to study memorization, generalization, and other phenomena, little is known about what DNNs learn in this setting. In this paper, we show analytically for convolutional and fully connected networks that an alignment between the principal components of network parameters and data takes place when training with random labels. We study this alignment effect by investigating neural networks pre-trained on randomly labelled image data and subsequently fine-tuned on disjoint datasets with random or real labels. We show how this alignment produces a positive transfer: networks pre-trained with random labels train faster downstream compared to training from scratch even after accounting for simple effects, such as weight scaling. We analyze how competing effects, such as specialization at later layers, may hide the positive transfer. These effects are studied in several network architectures, including VGG16 and ResNet18, on CIFAR10 and ImageNet.
Restricted Boltzmann Machine Flows and The Critical Temperature of Ising models

We explore alternative experimental setups for the iterative sampling (flow) from Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBM) mapped on the temperature space of square lattice Ising models by a neural network thermometer. This framework has been introduced to explore connections between RBM-based deep neural networks and the Renormalization Group (RG). It has been found that, under certain conditions, the flow of an RBM trained with Ising spin configurations approaches in the temperature space a value around the critical one: $ k_B T_c / J \approx 2.269$. In this paper we consider datasets with no information about model topology to argue that a neural network thermometer is not an accurate way to detect whether the RBM has learned scale invariance or not.
A Fast Binary Splitting Approach to Non-Adaptive Group Testing

In this paper, we consider the problem of noiseless non-adaptive group testing under the for-each recovery guarantee, also known as probabilistic group testing. In the case of $n$ items and $k$ defectives, we provide an algorithm attaining high-probability recovery with $O(k \log n)$ scaling in both the number of tests and runtime, improving on the best known $O(k^2 \log k \cdot \log n)$ runtime previously available for any algorithm that only uses $O(k \log n)$ tests. Our algorithm bears resemblance to Hwang's adaptive generalized binary splitting algorithm (Hwang, 1972); we recursively work with groups of items of geometrically vanishing sizes, while maintaining a list of "possibly defective" groups and circumventing the need for adaptivity. While the most basic form of our algorithm requires $\Omega(n)$ storage, we also provide a low-storage variant based on hashing, with similar recovery guarantees.
On the P\'olya conjecture for the Neumann problem in tiling sets

In 1954, G. P\'olya conjectured that the counting function of the eigenvalues of the Laplace operator of Dirichlet (resp. Neumann) boundary value problem in a bounded set $\Omega\subset{\mathbb R}^d$ is lesser (resp. greater) than $C_W |\Omega| \lambda^{d/2}$. Here $\lambda$ is the spectral parameter, and $C_W$ is the constant in the Weyl asymptotics. In 1961, P\'olya proved this conjecture for tiling sets in the Dirichlet case, and for tiling sets under some additional restrictions for the Neumann case. We prove the P\'olya conjecture in the Neumann case for all tiling sets.
Gene Regulation in Streptococcus pneumoniae: interplay between nutrition and virulence

textabstractStreptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is a Gram-positive bacterium, which belongs to the species of streptococci. Other pathogenic bacteria belonging to this class include Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus suis, Streptococcus uberis, Streptococcus bovis and Streptococcus mutans. In addition, the pneumococcus is closely related to Lactococcus lactis, a non-pathogenic bacterium used for the production of dairy products. S. pneumoniae, formerly known as Diplococcus pneumoniae, was described for the first time in 1881, simultaneously by Louis Pasteur and George Sternberg. Since then, it has been under extensive study, and this research has significantly contributed to many fields in biology. The most well known example consists of the pioneering experiments of Griffith, who showed that non-virulent pneumococcal types could be transformed into virulent types using heat-killed virulent types (15), suggesting that transfer of hereditary features had occurred. This seminal observation was the basis that led to the discovery of DNA as the hereditary material.
A Shooting Formulation of Deep Learning

Continuous-depth neural networks can be viewed as deep limits of discrete neural networks whose dynamics resemble a discretization of an ordinary differential equation (ODE). Although important steps have been taken to realize the advantages of such continuous formulations, most current techniques are not truly continuous-depth as they assume identical layers. Indeed, existing works throw into relief the myriad difficulties presented by an infinite-dimensional parameter space in learning a continuous-depth neural ODE. To this end, we introduce a shooting formulation which shifts the perspective from parameterizing a network layer-by-layer to parameterizing over optimal networks described only by a set of initial conditions. For scalability, we propose a novel particle-ensemble parametrization which fully specifies the optimal weight trajectory of the continuous-depth neural network. Our experiments show that our particle-ensemble shooting formulation can achieve competitive performance, especially on long-range forecasting tasks. Finally, though the current work is inspired by continuous-depth neural networks, the particle-ensemble shooting formulation also applies to discrete-time networks and may lead to a new fertile area of research in deep learning parametrization.
Stochastic bandits with arm-dependent delays

Significant work has been recently dedicated to the stochastic delayed bandit setting because of its relevance in applications. The applicability of existing algorithms is however restricted by the fact that strong assumptions are often made on the delay distributions, such as full observability, restrictive shape constraints, or uniformity over arms. In this work, we weaken them significantly and only assume that there is a bound on the tail of the delay. In particular, we cover the important case where the delay distributions vary across arms, and the case where the delays are heavy-tailed. Addressing these difficulties, we propose a simple but efficient UCB-based algorithm called the PatientBandits. We provide both problems-dependent and problems-independent bounds on the regret as well as performance lower bounds.
Carbon Isotope Discrimination during C 4 Photosynthesis: Insights from Transgenic Plants

We have measured the discrimination against 13 C during CO 2 assimilation in Flaveria bidentis wild type plants and in transgenic Flaveria bidentis plants transformed (1) with an antisense RNA construct targeted to the nuclear encoded gene for the small subunit of RubiscoNthese plants had reduced amounts of Rubisco, decreased CO 2 assimilation rates and increased carbon isotope discrimination, which was also evident in the carbon isotope discrimination of leaf dry matter; and (2) transformed with the mature coding region of carbonic anhydrase, CA, from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) in the sense direction under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoterNthese plants had slightly increased CA activity in the mesophyll as well as a 2Ð4-fold increase in CA activity in the bundle-sheath cells. The introduction of tobacco CA manifested itself by a reduction in CO 2 assimilation rate and an increase in carbon isotope discrimination. We suggest that the increased carbon isotope discrimination is a result of increased bicarbonate leakage out of the bundle sheath.
The Effect of Adrenaline on Oviduct Motility and Egg Production in the Fowl

Abstract IN THEIR study of the motility of the fowl’s oviduct in vitro McKenney, Essex and Mann (1932) used preparations of the magnum, the isthmus and “the whole of the uterus including a small portion of the vagina. ” This latter preparation did not allow any distinction to be made between the uterine and vaginal components and it is the object of the present paper to investigate the motility of each of these parts separately as well as to distinguish between their circular and longitudinal muscle layers. In addition to the experiments on the activity and reactivity of the oviduct in vitro some observations were made on the effects of adrenaline on ovulation and oviposition in the intact bird. Adrenaline inhibits uterine motility in the hen and it was to be expected therefore that oviposition would be more difficult or be inhibited completely after the administration of this hormone. METHODS The hens …
Apparatus for the separate collection of faeces and urine from cows

The cost of conducting digestibility trials with cows is high, due to the need for either elaborate equipment for separating faeces and urine or a considerable number of assistants to remain constantly behind the cows catching the excreta as they are voided. Manual collection of excreta was used extensively by earlier workers, and, in a recent report of the most suitable arrangements for experiments using this method, Eheart, Holdaway & Pratt (1945) found that one attendant was necessary for every cow on test with a trained chemist also present in the shed at all times.
Propagation of Measles Virus in Suspensions of Human and Monkey Leucocytes.∗

Summary Multiplication of measles virus has been demonstrated in suspensions of human and simian blood leucocytes. Under the experimental conditions employed the virus failed to multiply in canine, rabbit, guinea pig, mouse and chicken blood leucocytes. Evidence is presented which indicates that multiplication takes place in mononuclear cells.
Single nucleotide polymorphism analysis of MT-SHSP gene of Gossypium arboreum and its relationship with other diploid cotton genomes, G. hirsutum and Arabidopsis thaliana.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most popular DNA markers because of their abundance and consistency in the genomes. House keeping genes are conserved in nature across the genomes of different organisms. Study of variations in these conserved genes can reveal the hidden facts of evolution which can not be excavated with conventional DNA marker systems. In the present study, mitochondrial small heat shock protein gene (MT-sHSP) has been explored to find nucleotide variations within Gossypium arboreum, with the other diploid Gossypium genomes, G. hirsutum and also with Arabidopsis thaliana. A conserved region spanning 300bp was amplified and sequenced from two G. arboreum (A2) genotypes, species of other diploid genomes belonging to A1, C1, E1, D4, D6, D9 genomes and tetraploid species G. hirsutum (AD). Sequence of the gene of A. thaliana was retrieved from Genbank. These sequences were aligned. Within G. arboreum genome one Indel was found while, ‘C’ genome showed the least nucleotide variations with the ‘A’ genome species (G. arboreum) as compared to other genomes. D genome species and G. hirsutum were closely related with each other. A. thaliana was most distantly related with other genomes. The present studies reveal that SNP markers could be identified in conserved regions where conventional markers are of little or no use. This study will lead to the better understanding of G. arboreum evolution and understanding how these variations can be utilized for the improvement of cotton genome.
UVB Shielding Role of FeCI3 and Certain Cyanobacterial Pigments

The shielding role of ferric iron (FeCl3) and certain cyanobacterial pigments (a brown‐colored pigment from Scytonema hofmanii culture filtrate and a pink extract from Nostoc spongiaeforme) against UVB‐induced damage in the filamentous, nitrogen‐fixing cyanobacterium Nostoc muscorum has been demonstrated. Addition of these colored compounds to agarose gels (1–3 mm thick) resulted in a considerable decrease in UVB transmittance through the gels. The lowest UVB transmittance (15%) occurred through a 3 mm gel containing 0.01% FeCl3 followed by S. hofmanii culture filtrate (40%) and N. spongiaeforme extract (50%). These substances appear to act as very efficient UVB‐absorbing screens. Percent survival and 14CO2 uptake of N. muscorum increased significantly if UVB exposure was given on gels containing FeCl3 or other UVB‐shielding substances. The highest protection of N. muscorum was recorded with FeCl3, followed by S. hofmanii culture filtrate and N. spongiaeforme extract. Such UV‐shielding substances if present in required concentration range may enhance the survival of cyanobacteria exposed to high levels of UVB.
Combining Ability and Heterosis in Diallel Analysis of Maize (Zea mays L.) Lines

Combining Ability and Heterosis in Diallel Analysis of Maize (Zea mays L.) Lines Francis Chukwuma Onejeme *, Emmanuel Ogbonna Okporie, Chinedu Emmanuel Eze 1 Department of Crop Science and Horticulture, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, P. M. B. 5025, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. 2 Department of Crop Production and Landscape Management, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, P. M. B. 053, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. 3 Department of Agronomy, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, P. M. B. 7267, Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria.
Modeling perennial groundcover effects on annual maize grain crop growth with the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator

The inclusion of perennial groundcover (PGC) in maize production offers a tenable solution to natural resources-related concerns associated with conventional maize; however, insight into system management and key information gaps is needed to guide future research. We therefore extended the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) to an annual and perennial intercrop by integrating annual and perennial APSIM modules. These were parameterized for
ABIOTIC FACTORS AND THE CONDITIONAL OUTCOME OF AN ANT–PLANT MUTUALISM

Mutualisms are inserted in a network of direct and indirect biotic interactions built within the framework imposed by the abiotic setting. We carried out an experiment to test how the availability of light and nutrients modulates the interaction strength between Inga vera (Mimosoideae), a Neotropical extrafloral-nectary-bearing plant, and its associated ants. From July 2001 to July 2003, 48 plants were grown in an old-field site following a three-factor randomized blocked design where treatments were: ant (ants present and absent), nutrient (without and with nutrient addition), and light (sun and shade). During the experiment, in the absence of ants, plants growing in sunlight were shorter, developed fewer leaves and leaflets, were more damaged by herbivores, had half the total dry biomass, and died more frequently than plants visited by ants. In contrast, ants had no effect on the growth, survival, and total biomass of shaded plants. Therefore small-scale heterogeneity in the light environment turned mutualism (+,+) into commensalism (+,0). This study demonstrates experimentally that the outcome of mutualistic interactions can be conditional upon the abiotic setting.
PRODUÇÃO ENZIMÁTICA DE LÍPIDOS ESTRUTURADOS, RICOS EM ÁCIDOS GORDOS POLINSATURADOS ÓMEGA-3, EM REACTOR DE ALTA PRESSÃO

Juri: Presidente: Doutora Margarida Gomes Moldao Martins, Professora Auxiliar do Instituto Superior de Agronomia da Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa. Vogais: Doutora Maria Henriques Lourenco Ribeiro, Professora Associada da Faculdade de Farmacia da Universidade de Lisboa; Doutora Maria Suzana Leitao Ferreira Dias Vicente, Professora Auxiliar do Instituto Superior de Agronomia da Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa; Doutora Natalia Maria Ferreira Rebelo de Melo Osorio, Professora Auxiliar Convidada do Instituto Superior de Agronomia da Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa.
A novel strain of Fusarium oxysporum from Germany and its potential for biocontrol of Orobanche ramosa

Muller-stover D, Kohlschmid E & Sauerborn J (2009). A novel strain of Fusarium oxysporum from Germany and its potential for biocontrol of Orobanche ramosa. Weed Research.49, 175–182. Summary A newly isolated Fusarium oxysporum strain was investigated for its biocontrol potential against the root parasitic weed Orobanche ramosa (branched broomrape). The fungus was found to affect all developmental stages of the parasite. Orobanche seed germination was reduced by 40% in the presence of fungal conidia in vitro. The number of underground tubercles and shoots of the weed was reduced by the fungus by 55% compared with the control and 92% of tubercles were recorded as diseased in root chambers. In pot experiments, soil application of a granular formulation of the fungus resulted in a reduction of number and dry matter of Orobanche shoots by more than 90%. Spraying of a conidial suspension on aboveground Orobanche shoots caused the death of 75% of them within 2 weeks. Data from initial host-range experiments indicate that the isolate is very host-specific, not even attacking shoots of other Orobanche species. Because of these promising results, we conclude that the fungal isolate should be investigated under field conditions and be compared with other Fusarium isolates proposed for biocontrol of O. ramosa.
Effects of the inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus of the genus Glomus on growth and leaf mineral concentrations of grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon).

The effects of root inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi (genus Glomus) on growth and leaf mineral concentrations of grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon) were studied under the growth conditions of Central Chile. Inoculation enhanced the uptake of N and K and vegetative growth but decreased the foliar concentration, but not necessarily the uptake of P.