Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comments on "Causal Inference without Counterfactuals" by A.P. Dawid

In recent years, a number of statisticians and computer scientists have suggested that casual reasoning requires that questions with hypotheses counter to fact have well-defined answers. Phil Dawid’s elegant and insightful article is the first critical examination of this suggestion. As such, it is an essential contribution to the philosophy of probability and causality. It moves the discussion of causality in statistics to a new level of sophistication. The article should prove an effective exercise in persuasion, because Dawid meets the proponents of counterfactuals on their own ground. He begins with the counterfactual variables Yt and Yc that appear in the models formulated by Neyman (1923), Rubin (1974, 1978), and Holland (1986), and he makes every effort to understand how much sense and how much use can be made of these variables. Dawid’s central theme is that counterfactuals should be held up to de Finetti’s observability criterion. This criterion says that it is legitimate to assess a probability distribution for a quantity Y only if Y is observable at least in principle. On this criterion, it is legitimate to assess probabilities for Yt(u), because we can apply the treatment t to the unit u and then observe ∗These comments benefited from research supported by NSF Grant SES-98199116. I have also benefited from discussions of causality with Phil Dawid over many years. These discussions were most recently pursued in the context of a workshop generously supported by the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, which brought together a number of students of causality, including Vanessa Didelez, Mervi Eerola, Michael Eichler, Paul Holland, Steffen Lauritzen, Wayne Oldford, James Robins, Don Rubin, Richard Scheines, and Ross Shachter, in addition to Dawid and myself. Dawid discussed his article at this workshop, and I am grateful to all the participants for their discussion of the issues it raises.
Proteomic Specificity of Soft Contact Lenses for Tear Protein Sampling

Soft contact lenses (SCLs) have recently been introduced as an alternative method for human tear protein sampling. However, SCLs are available in a variety of chemical compositions which affect protein binding specificity. Here we analyzed 8 different SCL materials to identify an optimal lens for tear protein sampling. Polymer contamination, mass spectrometry (MS) sample preparation method, total protein capture, individual protein specificity, and SCL cost were all assessed. Using a filter-aided sample prep (FASP) method with 4M guanidine for protein removal, only etafilcon A and verofilcon A did not have significant polymer contamination. Polymer was successfully removed using phosphate buffered saline (PBS) with S-Trap columns for all SCL materials, though yielding a slightly lower number of protein identifications per sample. Minor quantitative differences were observed between SCL materials. However, we also saw significant intersubject variation in protein abundance. Of all the assessed SCL materials, verofilcon A lenses yielded the most total protein while comfilcon A and senofilcon A had the least protein variability. As a newly released daily disposable modality (Precision 1, Alcon), verofilcon A has one of the longest predictable production schedules and one of the lowest costs per lens, making it beneficial for large-scale experiments and diagnostics. Furthermore, we demonstrate how protein binding bias with SCL tear sampling is useful for intra-experiment normalization. Overall, these experiments have led us to optimize our previous protocol for SCL tear protein sampling, highlighting important differences between SCL materials and identifying etafilcon A and verofilcon A as optimal materials for tear protein sampling.
Antioxidant activity and phytochemical compositions of Mucuna pruriens L. in different conditions of time and temperature extraction

Mucuna pruriens L. is a type of legume with high total phenolic and flavonoid compounds and may be a source of antioxidants. Bioactive and chemical components contained in velvet beans were obtained through maceration. Temperature and time of extraction were needed to obtain the optimal extract. The present study aims to explore temperature (30-60°C) and time (120-360 minutes) of the extraction effects on total phenol compounds (TPC), total flavonoid compounds (TFC), total tannin compounds (TTC), and the antioxidant capacity: 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical - scavenging activity (DPPH-RSA), 2,2′-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid radical - scavenging activity (ABTS+-RSA), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) of velvet beans using double factor experiments approach. All of the studies extraction conditions indicated a significant effect (p < 0.05) on yield, TPC, TFC, TTC, DPPH-RSA, ABTS+-RSA, and FRAP. These results pointed that velvet beans extract for 60°C at 360 minutes was the highest content of TPC, TFC, and TTC were obtained with values of 41.78 mg GAE/g, 309,65 mg QE/g, and 237,13 mg TAE/g. The antioxidant capacity was 38.15 mg AAEAC/g on DPPH-RSA, 6.36 mg AAEAC/g on ABTS+-RSA, and 35.06 mM FE2+ /g on FRAP.
A viable relativistic scalar theory of gravitation

We build a self-consistent relativistic scalar theory of gravitation on a flat Minkowski spacetime from a general field Lagrangian. It is shown that, for parameters that satisfy the equivalence principle, this theory predicts the same outcome as general relativity (GR) for every classical solar-system test. This theory also admits gravitational waves that propagate at the speed of light, and the gravitational radiation energy loss in a binary system is shown to be very similar to the GR prediction. We then analyze the strong gravity regime of the theory for a spherically symmetric configuration and find that there is an effective ‘singularity’ near the Schwarzschild radius. The main goal of this work is to show that, contrary to what is commonly believed, there are relativistic scalar theories of gravitation defined on a Minkowski spacetime that are not ruled out by the classical solar system tests of GR.
What’s another year? The lengthening training and career paths of scientists

Lengthening doctorate and post-doctorate training allow science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Ph.Ds. to persist in high-intensity academic research environments at the cost of significant lifetime earnings. Using the largest longitudinal survey of U.S. Ph.D. recipients, I construct career paths for 135,599 STEM research doctorate holders over six job types and two employment statuses. Examining Ph.D. cohorts in four major STEM fields from 1950 to the present, I find evidence that the increasingly prevalent postdoctoral position allow STEM Ph.Ds. to remain in high-intensity academic research positions, albeit not necessarily on the tenure-track. However, these research opportunities come with an approximately $3,700 deduction in annual earnings per postdoctoral year. Taken together, STEM Ph.Ds. must weigh the non-pecuniary costs of remaining in academic research with this earnings loss to determine if postdoctoral positions are a worthwhile investment.
Psychosocial correlates in patterns of adolescent emotional eating and dietary consumption

Unhealthy eating behaviors, such as consumption of unhealthy diet and emotional eating, are common in adolescence and tend to co-occur. However, how these behaviors are patterned may vary among adolescents. This study identified patterns of dietary consumption and emotional eating behaviors in adolescents and examined the sociodemographic and psychosocial (e.g., self-efficacy beliefs and motivation) covariates associated with these eating patterns. Data were from the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health and Eating study. Latent class analysis was used to estimate adolescent dietary patterns from dietary consumption (i.e., fruits, vegetables, sugar-sweetened beverages, junk food, etc.) and emotional eating variables (i.e., eating when feeling sad or anxious). The sample included 1,568 adolescents (Mean age = 14.48-years-old, 49% girls, 55% White). A four-class solution best fit the data (e.g., Bayesian Information Criteria [BIC] = 12263.568, three-class model BIC = 12271.622). Four unhealthy eating behavior patterns were identified: poor diet/high emotional eating, mixed diet/high emotional eating, poor diet/low emotional eating, and mixed diet/low emotional eating. Compared to the poor diet/high emotional eating group, the other groups were less likely to include older adolescents, girls, and adolescents who experienced food insecurity, and more likely to have higher self-efficacy for eating fruits and vegetables and limiting junk foods as well as motivation for consuming fruits and vegetables and limiting junk foods. Our findings highlight adolescents’ complex dietary patterns that include dietary consumption and emotional eating behaviors. Future studies should examine other potential dietary patterns that include emotional eating. Efforts to address unhealthy patterns of adolescents’ dietary consumption and emotional eating behaviors should be expanded.
A perturbed Hopf bifurcation with reflection symmetry

Synopsis We study the effects of a small symmetry breaking perturbation on a system of differential equations at a coupled Hopf bifurcation with O(2) symmetry, where the perturbation breaks the continuous rotation symmetry, but retains a reflection (Z2) symmetry. It is shown that for a large range of parameter values, the invariant manifolds of the unperturbed bifurcation persist and that for some values of normal form coefficients there are secondary bifurcations of nonsymmetric periodic standing wave solutions.
Intraseasonal behavior of clouds, temperature, and motion in the tropics

Abstract The spectral character of tropical convection is investigated in an 11-yr record of outgoing longwave radiation from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer to identify interaction with the tropical circulation. Along the equator in the eastern hemisphere, the space–time spectrum of convection possesses a broad peak at wave-numbers 1–3 and eastward periods of 35–95 days. Significantly broader than the dynamical signal of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO), this quasi-discrete convective signal is associated with a large-scale anomaly that propagates across and modulates time mean or “climatological convection” over the equatorial Indian Ocean and western Pacific. Outside that region the convective signal is small, even though, under amplified conditions, coherence can be found east of the date line and in the subtropics. Having a zonal scale of approximately wavenumber 2, anomalous convection propagates eastward at some 5 m s−1 and suppresses as well as reinforces climatological convection .
Incompressible impulsive sloshing

Abstract The incompressible impulsive time scale for inviscid liquid sloshing in open rigid containers suddenly put into motion is defined as the intermediate time scale in between the acoustic time scale and the gravitational time scale. Surge and sway boundary-value problems for incompressible impulsive sloshing in some realistic container shapes are solved analytically to the leading order in a small-time expansion. A solution is provided for two types of horizontal cylinders: a triangular cylindrical wedge and a half-filled circular cylinder. The surface velocity and the hydrodynamic force with its corresponding virtual fluid mass are calculated. The cases of constant impulsive velocity and constant impulsive acceleration are linked by transformation equations. Flows with waterline singularities are discussed, being leading-order outer flows in terms of matched asymptotic expansions.
980-nm, 15-W cw laser diodes on F-mount-type heat sinks

We have studied the key optical emission parameters of laser diodes (emission wavelength, ; stripe contact width, ) mounted directly on F- and C-mount-type copper heat sinks, without intermediate elements (submounts). When effectively cooled by a thermoelectric microcooler, the lasers on the F-mount operated stably at output powers up to . The lasers were tested for reliable operation at an output power of for , and no decrease in output power was detected to within measurement accuracy. The experimentally determined maximum total efficiency is 71.7 % and the efficiency at a nominal output power of is 61 %. We compare parameters of the laser diodes mounted on C- and F-mounts and discuss the advantages of the F-mounts.
To troll or not to troll: Young adults’ anti-social behaviour on social media

Background Online anti-social behaviour is on the rise, reducing the perceived benefits of social media in society and causing a number of negative outcomes. This research focuses on the factors associated with young adults being perpetrators of anti-social behaviour when using social media. Method Based on an online survey of university students in Canada (n = 359), we used PLS-SEM to create a model and test the associations between four factors (online disinhibition, motivations for cyber-aggression, self-esteem, and empathy) and the likelihood of being a perpetrator of online anti-social behaviour. Results The model shows positive associations between two appetitive motives for cyber-aggression (namely recreation and reward) and being a perpetrator. This finding indicates that young adults engage in online anti-social behaviour for fun and social approval. The model also shows a negative association between cognitive empathy and being a perpetrator, which indicates that perpetrators may be engaging in online anti-social behaviour because they do not understand how their targets feel.
Terahertz power dissipation spectra of electrons in bulk GaAs under high electric fields at low temperature

By using the freespace terahertz （THz） electrooptic （EO） sampling technique, the THz electromagnetic wave waveforms emitted from intrinsic bulk GaAs photoexcited by femtosecond laser pulses under strong bias electric fields up to 300 kV/cm were recorded. From the experimental data, we can clearly see the THz electromagnetic wave emission waveforms, E THz （t）, which are proportional to the acceleration/deceleration of electrons, have a bipolar feature. Power dissipation spectra of electrons for stepfunctionlike input electric fields have been obtained by calculating Fourier spectra of the measured THz traces. The cutoff frequency, ν c , for negative power dissipation （i.e., gain） due to intervalley transfer is found to gradually increase with increasing bias electric fields, F 0 , for F 0 < 50 kV/cm and saturate at 750 GHz above ～50 kV/cm at 10 K.
Can we constrain structure growth from galaxy proper motions?

Galaxy peculiar velocities can be used to trace the growth of structure on cosmological scales. In the radial direction, peculiar velocities cause redshift space distortions, an established cosmological probe, and can be measured individually in the presence of an independent distance indicator. In the transverse direction, peculiar velocities cause proper motions. In this case, however, the proper motions are too small to detect on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis for any realistic experiment in the foreseeable future, but could be detected statistically in cross-correlation with other tracers of the density fluctuations. We forecast the sensitivity for a detection of transverse peculiar velocities through the cross-correlation of a proper motion survey, modelled after existing extragalactic samples measured by Gaia, and an overlaping galaxy survey. In particular, we consider a low-redshift galaxy sample, and a higher-redshift quasar sample. We find that, while the expected cosmological signal is below the expected statistical uncertainties from current data using cross-correlations, the sensitivity can improve fast with future experiments, and the threshold for detection may not be too far away in the future. Quantitatively, we find that the signal-to-noise ratio for detection is in the range $S/N\sim0.3$, with most of the signal concentrated at low redshifts $z\lesssim0.3$. If detected, this signal is sensitive to the product of the expansion and growth rates at late times, and thus would constitute an independent observable, sensitive to both background expansion and large-scale density fluctuations.
State Complexity of Nondeterministic Finite Automata with Limited Nondeterminism

Various approaches of quantifying nondeterminism in nondeterministic finite automata (NFA) are considered. We consider nondeterministic finite automata having finite tree width (ftw-NFA) where the computation on any input string has a constant number of branches. We give effective characterizations of ftw-NFAs and a tight bound for determinizing an ftw-NFA A as a function of the tree width and the number of states of A. We introduce a lower bound technique for ftw-NFAs. We study the interrelationships between various measures of nondeterminism for finite automata. We define the trace measure which is a new approach of quantifying nondeterminism. The trace is defined in terms of the maximum product of the degrees of nondeterministic choices in any computation. We establish upper and lower bounds for the trace of an NFA in terms of its tree width. It is known that an NFA with n states and branching k can be simulated by a deterministic finite automaton with multiple initial states (MDFA) having k · n states. We give a lower bound k 1+log k · n for the size blow-up of this conversion. We also consider bounds for the number of states an MDFA needs to simulate a given NFA of finite tree width. i We consider unary NFA employing limited nondeterminism. We show that for unary regular languages, minimal ftw-NFAs can always be found in Chrobak normal form. A similar property holds with respect to other measures of nondeterminism. The latter observation is used to establish, for a given unary regular language, relationships between the sizes of minimal NFAs where the nondeterminism is limited in various ways. We study also the state complexity of language operations for unary NFAs with limited nondeterminism. We consider the operations of concatenation, Kleene star, and complement. We give upper bounds for the state complexity of these language operations and lower bounds that are fairly close to the upper bounds. Finally, we show that the branching measure (J. Goldstine, C. Kintala, D. Wotschke, Inf. and Comput vol 86, 1990, 179-194) of a unary NFA is always either bounded by a constant or has an exponential growth rate.
Coherence filtration under strictly incoherent operations

We study the task of coherence filtration under strictly incoherent operations in this paper. The aim of this task is to transform a given state $\rho$ into another one $\rho^\prime$ whose fidelity with the maximally coherent state is maximal by using stochastic strictly incoherent operations. We find that the maximal fidelity between $\rho^\prime$ and the maximally coherent state is given by a multiple of the $\Delta$ robustness of coherence $R(\rho\|\Delta\rho):=\min\{\uplambda|\rho\leq\uplambda\Delta\rho\}$, which provides $R(\rho\|\Delta\rho)$ an operational interpretation. Finally, we provide a coherence measure based on the task of coherence filtration.
Cross-Lingual Knowledge Distillation for Answer Sentence Selection in Low-Resource Languages

While impressive performance has been achieved on the task of Answer Sentence Selection (AS2) for English, the same does not hold for languages that lack large labeled datasets. In this work, we propose Cross-Lingual Knowledge Distillation (CLKD) from a strong English AS2 teacher as a method to train AS2 models for low-resource languages in the tasks without the need of labeled data for the target language. To evaluate our method, we introduce 1) Xtr-WikiQA, a translation-based WikiQA dataset for 9 additional languages, and 2) TyDi-AS2, a multilingual AS2 dataset with over 70K questions spanning 8 typologically diverse languages. We conduct extensive experiments on Xtr-WikiQA and TyDi-AS2 with multiple teachers, diverse monolingual and multilingual pretrained language models (PLMs) as students, and both monolingual and multilingual training. The results demonstrate that CLKD either outperforms or rivals even supervised fine-tuning with the same amount of labeled data and a combination of machine translation and the teacher model. Our method can potentially enable stronger AS2 models for low-resource languages, while TyDi-AS2 can serve as the largest multilingual AS2 dataset for further studies in the research community.
Attribute measure recognition approach and its applications to emitter recognition

This paper studies the emitter recognition problem. A new recognition method based on attribute measure for emitter recognition is put forward. The steps of the method are presented. The approach to determining the weight coefficient is also discussed. Moreover, considering the temporal redundancy of emitter information detected by multi-sensor system, this new recognition method is generalized to multi-sensor system. A method based on the combination of attribute measure and D-S evidence theory is proposed. The implementation of D-S reasoning is always restricted by basic probability assignment function. Constructing basic probability assignment function based on attribute measure is presented in multi-sensor recognition system. Examples of recognizing the emitter purpose and system are selected to demonstrate the method proposed. Experimental results show that the performance of this new method is accurate and effective.
Distributed model building and recursive integration for big spatial data modeling

Motivated by the need for computationally tractable spatial methods in neuroimaging studies, we develop a distributed and integrated framework for estimation and inference of Gaussian process model parameters with ultra-high-dimensional likelihoods. We propose a shift in viewpoint from whole to local data perspectives that is rooted in distributed model building and integrated estimation and inference. The framework's backbone is a computationally and statistically efficient integration procedure that simultaneously incorporates dependence within and between spatial resolutions in a recursively partitioned spatial domain. Statistical and computational properties of our distributed approach are investigated theoretically and in simulations. The proposed approach is used to extract new insights on autism spectrum disorder from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange.
PRIMP: PRobabilistically-Informed Motion Primitives for Efficient Affordance Learning from Demonstration

This paper proposes a learning-from-demonstration method using probability densities on the workspaces of robot manipulators. The method, named"PRobabilistically-Informed Motion Primitives (PRIMP)", learns the probability distribution of the end effector trajectories in the 6D workspace that includes both positions and orientations. It is able to adapt to new situations such as novel via poses with uncertainty and a change of viewing frame. The method itself is robot-agnostic, in which the learned distribution can be transferred to another robot with the adaptation to its workspace density. The learned trajectory distribution is then used to guide an optimization-based motion planning algorithm to further help the robot avoid novel obstacles that are unseen during the demonstration process. The proposed methods are evaluated by several sets of benchmark experiments. PRIMP runs more than 5 times faster while generalizing trajectories more than twice as close to both the demonstrations and novel desired poses. It is then combined with our robot imagination method that learns object affordances, illustrating the applicability of PRIMP to learn tool use through physical experiments.