Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ADMM-DIPTV: combining Total Variation and Deep Image Prior for image restoration

In the last decades, unsupervised deep learning based methods have caught researchers attention, since in many applications collecting a great amount of training examples is not always feasible. Moreover, the construction of a good training set is time consuming and hard because the selected data have to be enough representative for the task. In this paper, we mainly focus on the Deep Image Prior (DIP) framework powered by adding the Total Variation regularizer which promotes gradient-sparsity of the solution. Differently from other existing approaches, we solve the arising minimization problem by using the well known Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) framework, decoupling the contribution of the DIP $L_{2}$-norm and Total Variation terms. The promising performances of the proposed approach, in terms of PSNR and SSIM values, are addressed by means of experiments for different image restoration tasks on synthetic as well as on real data.
Visual acuity of two tunas, Katsuwonus pelamis and Euthynnus affinis

Two tunas, Katsuwonus pelamis and Euthynnus affinis, were trained to discriminate between vertically and horizontally striped images. The striped images were projected on a plate of opal glass which rested against a window of the experimental tank. Visual acuity depended upon the width of the stripes and the distance between the fish and the window at the instant the projector was turned off. The fishes were adapted to an illumination of 170 luxes. At lower luminances of the white stripes, the visual acuities of the two species were similar. At higher luminances of the white stripes, K. pelamis had a greater visual acuity. Maximum visual acuity for K. pelamis was about 0.180 and for E. affinis about 0.135.
ConvAI3: Generating Clarifying Questions for Open-Domain Dialogue Systems (ClariQ)

This document presents a detailed description of the challenge on clarifying questions for dialogue systems (ClariQ). The challenge is organized as part of the Conversational AI challenge series (ConvAI3) at Search Oriented Conversational AI (SCAI) EMNLP workshop in 2020. The main aim of the conversational systems is to return an appropriate answer in response to the user requests. However, some user requests might be ambiguous. In IR settings such a situation is handled mainly thought the diversification of the search result page. It is however much more challenging in dialogue settings with limited bandwidth. Therefore, in this challenge, we provide a common evaluation framework to evaluate mixed-initiative conversations. Participants are asked to rank clarifying questions in an information-seeking conversations. The challenge is organized in two stages where in Stage 1 we evaluate the submissions in an offline setting and single-turn conversations. Top participants of Stage 1 get the chance to have their model tested by human annotators.
Relationship between ontogenetic changes in foraging ecology and muscle lactate dehydrogenase activity in wild smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu)

The activity of muscle glycolytic enzymes scales positively with body size in active fish, a phenomenon thought to counter the increased costs of burst swimming faced by larger individuals. Recent work argued that changes in these enzymes during ontogeny additionally reflect changes in foraging ecology. Here, we evaluated the relationship between muscle anaerobic metabolism and foraging ecology in a population of wild smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) by relating activity of muscle lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) to estimates of trophic position and habitat use obtained from stable isotope signatures. As expected, LDH activity increased with body size. However, further analysis showed associations between foraging ecology and LDH activity. Specifically, a shift to higher trophic position, indicating a change in diet, was paralleled by a shift to increased LDH activity. However, a steady mass-specific decrease in LDH activity was observed as the fish grew above the size associated with this diet shift. Fu.
Transition between chaotic and stochastic universality classes of kinetic roughening

The dynamics of non-equilibrium spatially extended systems are often dominated by fluctuations, due to e.g.\ deterministic chaos or to intrinsic stochasticity. This reflects into generic scale invariant or kinetic roughening behavior that can be classified into universality classes defined by critical exponent values and by the probability distribution function (PDF) of field fluctuations. Suitable geometrical constraints are known to change secondary features of the PDF while keeping the values of the exponents unchanged, inducing universality subclasses. Working on the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation as a paradigm of spatiotemporal chaos, we show that the physical nature of the prevailing fluctuations (chaotic or stochastic) can also change the universality class while respecting the exponent values, as the PDF is substantially altered. This transition takes place at a non-zero value of the stochastic noise amplitude and may be suitable for experimental verification.
Understanding the Use of Fauxtography on Social Media

Despite the influence that image-based communication has on online discourse, the role played by images in disinformation is still not well understood. In this paper, we present the first large-scale study of fauxtography, analyzing the use of manipulated or misleading images in news discussion on online communities. First, we develop a computational pipeline geared to detect fauxtography, and identify over 61k instances of fauxtography discussed on Twitter, 4chan, and Reddit. Then, we study how posting fauxtography affects engagement of posts on social media, finding that posts containing it receive more interactions in the form of re-shares, likes, and comments. Finally, we show that fauxtography images are often turned into memes by Web communities. Our findings show that effective mitigation against disinformation need to take images into account, and highlight a number of challenges in dealing with image-based disinformation.
Generating Commonsense Explanation by Extracting Bridge Concepts from Reasoning Paths

Commonsense explanation generation aims to empower the machine’s sense-making capability by generating plausible explanations to statements against commonsense. While this task is easy to human, the machine still struggles to generate reasonable and informative explanations. In this work, we propose a method that first extracts the underlying concepts which are served as bridges in the reasoning chain and then integrates these concepts to generate the final explanation. To facilitate the reasoning process, we utilize external commonsense knowledge to build the connection between a statement and the bridge concepts by extracting and pruning multi-hop paths to build a subgraph. We design a bridge concept extraction model that first scores the triples, routes the paths in the subgraph, and further selects bridge concepts with weak supervision at both the triple level and the concept level. We conduct experiments on the commonsense explanation generation task and our model outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines in both automatic and human evaluation.
Neurocoder: Learning General-Purpose Computation Using Stored Neural Programs

Artificial Neural Networks are uniquely adroit at machine learning by processing data through a network of artificial neurons. The inter-neuronal connection weights represent the learnt Neural Program that instructs the network on how to compute the data. However, without an external memory to store Neural Programs, they are restricted to only one, overwriting learnt programs when trained on new data. This is functionally equivalent to a special-purpose computer. Here we design Neurocoder, an entirely new class of general-purpose conditional computational machines in which the neural network "codes" itself in a data-responsive way by composing relevant programs from a set of shareable, modular programs. This can be considered analogous to building Lego structures from simple Lego bricks. Notably, our bricks change their shape through learning. External memory is used to create, store and retrieve modular programs. Like today's stored-program computers, Neurocoder can now access diverse programs to process different data. Unlike manually crafted computer programs, Neurocoder creates programs through training. Integrating Neurocoder into current neural architectures, we demonstrate new capacity to learn modular programs, handle severe pattern shifts and remember old programs as new ones are learnt, and show substantial performance improvement in solving object recognition, playing video games and continual learning tasks. Such integration with Neurocoder increases the computation capability of any current neural network and endows it with entirely new capacity to reuse simple programs to build complex ones. For the first time a Neural Program is treated as a datum in memory, paving the ways for modular, recursive and procedural neural programming.
BLURtooth: Exploiting Cross-Transport Key Derivation in Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth Low Energy

Bluetooth is a pervasive wireless technology specified in an open standard. The standard defines Bluetooth Classic (BT) for high-throughput wireless services and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) very low-power ones. The standard also specifies security mechanisms, such as pairing, session establishment, and cross-transport key derivation (CTKD). CTKD enables devices to establish BT and BLE security keys by pairing just once. CTKD was introduced in 2014 with Bluetooth 4.2 to improve usability. However, the security implications of CTKD were not studied carefully. This work demonstrates that CTKD is a valuable and novel Bluetooth attack surface. It enables, among others, to exploit BT and BLE just by targeting one of the two (i.e., Bluetooth cross-transport exploitation). We present the design of the first cross-transport attacks on Bluetooth. Our attacks exploit issues that we identified in the specification of CTKD. For example, we find that CTKD enables an adversary to overwrite pairing keys across transports. We leverage these vulnerabilities to impersonate, machine-in-the-middle, and establish unintended sessions with any Bluetooth device supporting CTKD. Since the presented attacks blur the security boundary between BT and BLE, we name them BLUR attacks. We provide a low-cost implementation of the attacks and test it on a broad set of devices. In particular, we successfully attack 16 devices with 14 unique Bluetooth chips from popular vendors (e.g., Cypress, Intel, Qualcomm, CSR, Google, and Samsung), with Bluetooth standard versions of up to 5.2. We discuss why the countermeasures in the Bluetooth are not effective against our attacks, and we develop and evaluate practical and effective alternatives.
The modified logarithmic Sobolev inequality for quantum spin systems: classical and commuting nearest neighbour interactions

Given a uniform, frustration-free family of local Lindbladians defined on a quantum lattice spin system in any spatial dimension, we prove a strong exponential convergence in relative entropy of the system to equilibrium under a condition of spatial mixing of the stationary Gibbs states and the rapid decay of the relative entropy on finite-size blocks. Our result leads to the first examples of the positivity of the modified logarithmic Sobolev inequality for quantum lattice spin systems independently of the system size. Moreover, we show that our notion of spatial mixing is a consequence of the recent quantum generalization of Dobrushin and Shlosman's complete analyticity of the free-energy at equilibrium. The latter typically holds above a critical temperature. Our results have wide applications in quantum information processing. As an illustration, we discuss three of them: first, using techniques of quantum optimal transport, we show that a quantum annealer subject to a finite range classical noise will output an energy close to that of the fixed point after constant annealing time. Second, we prove a finite blocklength refinement of the quantum Stein lemma for the task of asymmetric discrimination of two Gibbs states of commuting Hamiltonians satisfying our conditions. In the same setting, our results imply the existence of a local quantum circuit of logarithmic depth to prepare Gibbs states of a class of commuting Hamiltonians.
The genus Buellia s.l. and some additional genera of Physciaceae in the Canary Islands

The Buellia s. lat. species that occur in the Canary Islands are described including the related genera Amandinea, Diplotomma and Tetramelas. Species of the genera Coscinocladium, Dimelaena and Diploicia are also included. Forty-one species have been identified. Nine species are new records for the archipelago. The study of the type specimens and additional material of Buellia caloplacivora, B. sequax and B. leptina demonstrated that the two former are not conspecific and that the third is a valid taxon. The new combinations Buellia gomerana and Buellia alisioae are proposed. A short description, including the chemistry, ecology and distribution of all taxa is provided. A key to the species known to occur in the study area is also included.
CS289ML: Notes on convergence of gradient descent

• A smooth function f : Rd → R is L-Lipschitz if for all x, y ∈ Rd, ‖∇f(x)−∇f(y)‖2 ≤ L‖x− y‖2. Examples x2, ex are all convex. So is the loss function from least squares regression LSR f(x) = (1/n) ∑n j=1(〈aj , x〉− bj). For what L is this loss Lipschitz? Let A be the n× d matrix whose rows are the vectors aj and let b be the n-dimensional vector consisting of the bj ’s. Then, we can also write f(x) = (1/n)‖Ax− b‖2. So that ∇f(x) = (2/n)AT (Ax− b). Therefore, for x, y ∈ Rd, ‖∇f(x)−∇f(y)‖ = (2/n)‖A (Ax−b)−A (Ay−b)‖ = (2/n)‖AA(x−y)‖ ≤ (2/n)‖AA‖2 ·‖x−y‖,
Sparse nonlinear models of chaotic electroconvection

Convection is a fundamental fluid transport phenomenon, where the large-scale motion of a fluid is driven, for example, by a thermal gradient or an electric potential. Modelling convection has given rise to the development of chaos theory and the reduced-order modelling of multiphysics systems; however, these models have been limited to relatively simple thermal convection phenomena. In this work, we develop a reduced-order model for chaotic electroconvection at high electric Rayleigh number. The chaos in this system is related to the standard Lorenz model obtained from Rayleigh–Benard convection, although our system is driven by a more complex three-way coupling between the fluid, the charge density, and the electric field. Coherent structures are extracted from temporally and spatially resolved charge density fields via proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). A nonlinear model is then developed for the chaotic time evolution of these coherent structures using the sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDy) algorithm, constrained to preserve the symmetries observed in the original system. The resulting model exhibits the dominant chaotic dynamics of the original high-dimensional system, capturing the essential nonlinear interactions with a simple reduced-order model.
Stability of Barrier Model Predictive Control

In the last decades, industrial problems have tried to take into account constraints explicitly in the design of the control law. Model Predictive Control is one way to do so and has been extensively studied. However, most papers related to constrained Model Predictive Control often omit to consider nondifferentiable constraints and stability is not ensured when constraints are not satisfied. The aim of this paper is to propose a formulation of the cost function of a Model Predictive Control to ensure stability in face with input and state nondifferentiable constraints. For this purpose, a set where all constraints are satisfied is defined by means of the invariant set theory. Once this set is defined, the system is enforced to reach it and stay in, while guaranteeing stability thanks to the choice of a well suited Lyapunov function based on the cost function.
Do Instructors Practice Full Disclosure When Teaching the CAPM?

We survey finance instructors to find the extent of the detail they provide to undergraduate students about the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). Results show that most instructors believe the CAPM to be a valuable tool for their students, which demonstrates the tradeoff between risk and reward. Most respondents prefer to inform students about the CAPM’s mixed empirical performance and the existence of more general models, without exposing them to mathematical derivations. Students are aware of the literature debate over modeling returns, but like their instructors, they hold diverse opinions about which model is preferable. The course text detailing CAPM shortcomings relates directly to classroom emphasis on problems with the CAPM and the use of other models. However, regardless of the public or private status of a school, or whether it offers a graduate program, there are negligible response differences.
Anuran Diversity and Ecology from Forest Fragments in Cavite Province, Luzon Island, Philippines

The earliest comprehensive work on Cavite Province’s anurans started in 1998 in Mount Palay-Palay/Mataas-na-Gulod Protected Landscape. Annual anuran assessments have been done in this protected area since then, but not for the entire province. The anuran assemblages are also experiencing numerous anthropogenic threats that could affect their diversity. The aim of the study was to determine anuran diversity, richness, and abundance in six secondary lowland forest fragments in Cavite and further contribute to existing knowledge on Philippine anurans. Anuran surveys were conducted from February to September 2010 by employing a combination of strip transect sampling, time-constrained searches, visual encounter survey (VES), and acoustic encounter survey (AES). Utilizing EstimateS v.8. 2, species diversity was represented by Shannon’s Diversity Index (H’), species richness by the non-parametric Jackknife1 and sampling efficiency by MaoTau. Twenty-one (21) microhabitats were identified, and species diversity and richness were highest in riparian forests during both dry and wet seasons. A total of 17 anuran taxa, including five representing new records for Cavite, were recorded. Species diversity (H ́) values slightly varied and a comparison of the MaoTau and the Jackknife1 results indicated that ca. 80-100% of the anuran species were detected from the different forest fragments. The anuran assemblage has a high degree of endemism (70.6%) with two yet-to-be described species, Platymantis sp. and Kaloula sp. , also known to occur in Cavite. Rubie M. Causaren, Arvin C. Diesmos and Neil Aldrin D. Mallari
Usability of digitized citizens' services

Germany's public administrations must go digital by law till 2022. The German Online Access Act (our translation for “Onlinezugangsgesetz”, OZG) forces most services offered by public administration on federal, federal state and municipal level to become digitized. For most of these services still being paper-based and Germany not being one of the leaders in e- government according to many sources, the question of user acceptance arises. For answering the question whether the approach used in the digitalization labs leads to the development of digital public services that are accepted by future users, we conducted a heuristic evaluation of a prototype that was developed within the implementation of the OZG. The paper describes the setting, the test undertaken and the outcome and concludes with an estimate, whether the huge paradigm change towards the development of digital public services that are accepted by future users will be successful or not.
The city of Yakutsk: a case of study for human brown adipose tissue in extremely cold conditions

The discovery of the presence of functional brown adipose tissue (BAT) also in healthy humans [1-3] has focused the attention of the scientific community on the possibility to expand body BAT content as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment and prevention of obesity and the associated metabolic disorders. Indeed, white-to- brown adipocyte transdifferentiation, leading to “browning” of the adipose organ, has been shown to reduce body weight and improve metabolic parameters in obese and insulin-resistant animal models. BAT from subject exposed daily to extremely cold outdoor temperatures has never been studied through morphological techniques. In this context, an exciting case of study are the citizens of Yakutsk, an East- ern Siberian population exposed to the annual average temperature of -10 °C, that peaks up to -50°C during winter. In autoptic fat biopsies from a 54-year-old patient living in Yakutsk BAT is present in the perirenal and para-aortic fat specimens. Importantly, the mean adipocyte area of the subcutaneous fat from this patient is significantly lower than the mean area of subcutaneous adipocytes obtained from age- and sex-matched Italian patients. Statistical analysis of data obtained from the Territorial Organ of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Yakut Republican Medical Information and Analytical Center of the Ministry of Health of Yakutia showed a correlation between home heating and type-2 diabetes incidence during the years from 1994 to 2013, a period in which the indoor temperature increased significantly. The nutritional values of food consumed during these years also changed in parallel with the worsening of inhabitants metabolic health conditions. Taken together these data suggest a possible link between the metabolic condi- tions of inhabitants of Yakutia and the living temperature experienced.
Technical Directors in the Process of Green Development in China: Distribution Characteristics and Enlightenment

As the concept of green development becomes more and more popular, the role of technical directors in promoting green technology innovation has gradually attracted the attention of many enterprises. In order to comprehensively understand the development trend and distribution characteristics of technical directors in the process of green development in China, this paper uses descriptive statistics to analyze the technical director data collected from 437 companies from 2006 to 2018. The main conclusions are as follows: in the process of green development in China, the participation of technical directors in the board of directors has shown a downward trend overall; technical directors have higher participation in Mining and Washing of Coal, Mining and Processing of Ferrous Metal Ores, Processing of Petroleum, Coking, Processing of Nuclear Fuel, Smelting and Pressing of Non-ferrous Metals, Manufacture of Rubber and Plastic, and have relatively low participation in Manufacture of Textile, Gas production and supply, Utilization of Waste Resources, Manufacture of Textile Wearing and Apparel, Manufacture of Railway, Shipbuilding, Aerospace and Other Transportation Equipment; the participation of technical directors in the eastern and western regions is significantly lower than that in the central region. During the sample period, the participation of technical directors in the eastern and western regions showed a downward trend, and the central region remained basically