nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Log-Euclidean bag of words for human action recognition

Representing videos by densely extracted local space-time features has recently become a popular approach for analysing actions. In this paper, we tackle the problem of categorising human actions by devising Bag of Words (BoW) models based on covariance matrices of spatio-temporal features, with the features formed from histograms of optical flow. Since covariance matrices form a special type of Riemannian manifold, the space of Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) matrices, non-Euclidean geometry should be taken into account while discriminating between covariance matrices. To this end, we propose to embed SPD manifolds to Euclidean spaces via a diffeomorphism and extend the BoW approach to its Riemannian version. The proposed BoW approach takes into account the manifold geometry of SPD matrices during the generation of the codebook and histograms. Experiments on challenging human action datasets show that the proposed method obtains notable improvements in discrimination accuracy, in comparison to several state-of-the-art methods.

Field of study: Computer science
The Work of Play: Anger and the Expropriated Athletes of Alan Sillitoe and David Storey

"At the same time that factory work exhausts the nervous system to the uttermost," Karl Marx observed in Das Kapital, "it does away with the many-sided play of the muscles, and confiscates every atom of freedom, both in bodily and intellectual activity" (422). Nowhere has this observation been better exemplified than in the English novels of workingclass life since the late 1950s. Whether toiling at lathes like Arthur Seaton in Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Arthur Machin in David Storey's This Sporting Life or at a milling-machine like Smith's in The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, the protagonists of such fiction typically find that their actions soon became automatic, reducing them as workers (and, more importantly, as human beings) to mere operative extensions of the factory's machinery in exactly the way that Marx described. For virtually all of these working-class protagonists, the body and its pleasures provide refuge from the workaday monotony, fragmentation, and dreariness of factory-bound life in a class-ridden world. At the end of the week, having received their pay packets, they leave behind the factory with its noise and smells, eager to have "the effect of a week's monotonous graft in the factory . . . swilled out of [their] systemfs]" in the "cosy world of pubs and noisy tarts" (Sillitoe, Saturday Night 7, 33) for which such novels are renowned. For many, however, sports provide

Field of study: Art
Defining the timing and duration of the Kačák Interval within the Eifelian/Givetian boundary GSSP, Mech Irdane, Morocco, using geochemical and magnetic susceptibility patterns

Here we present new geochemical and magnetic susceptibility (MS) data from the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Middle Devonian Eifelian–Givetian (E–G) boundary at Mech Irdane in the Anti-Atlas Mountains of eastern Morocco. These data come from 395 samples collected over a stratigraphic interval of ~ 20 m, beginning ~ 4.5 m below the boundary and extending to the Upper pumilio marker bed ~ 14.5 m above the boundary. MS data show long-term transgressive–regressive (T/R) eustatic cyclicity upon which is superimposed shorter-term climate cyclicity. Fourier analysis of these data yield high power at four frequencies that are consistent with Milankovitch–band orbital forcing: eccentricity (E1 and E2) at ~ 400 and ~ 100 kyr, obliquity (O1) at ~ 32 kyr, and precession (P2) at ~ 20 kyr, the latter two corrected for secular changes in Earth's orbit since the Middle Devonian. A floating-point time scale (FPTS) for the boundary interval has been developed using a P2 cyclicity that allows temporal resolution to ~ 10 kyr within the section. Based on the stratigraphic ranges of geochemical and MS anomalies, as well as previously reported biostratigraphic extinctions from the boundary interval, we estimate the Kacak Interval to extend from ~ 1.0 m below the E–G boundary to ~ 1.0 m above it, with a duration of.~200 ± 10 kyr. Geochemical proxies demonstrate that the Kacak Interval was characterized by more reducing conditions, greater organic carbon burial, and an increase in the flux of detrital materials (especially clays), reflecting an increase in subaerial weathering rates. The pumilio beds, located ~ 12–15 m above the E–G boundary, were deposited during successive maximum highstands under conditions of elevated primary productivity and reduced detrital influx.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
The English Bible in the Early Modern World. Robert Armstrong and Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin, eds. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Leiden: Brill, 2018. x + 218 pp. €109.

language used by the Catholic and Protestant factions to vilify each other are innovative examinations of conceptual hierarchies relating New World populations to European colonizers and the gendering of heresy. The most interesting and original essays in the collection, however, are found in the third section, “L’au-delà des langues: Décloisonner le langage” (Beyond languages: Breaking down the barriers of language). Sadly, this is also the shortest of the three sections, containing only four essays. Nonetheless, the essays included here greatly expand the concept of language that has informed the collection to this point. The authors of these studies examine iconoclasm and the visual language of polemics, critiques of music as an impediment to the intelligibility of the liturgy, theatrical body language as a representation of the inner state of the soul, and the language of mysticism and prophecy. These broader perspectives on symbolizing and communication give a much fuller shape to our understanding of the time. If this collection leaves anything to be desired, it would be a greater focus on these less traditional aspects and concepts of language. Though at times straining to live up to the grand, European scale announced in the title, this is a generally strong collection of competent analyses and interesting perspectives on a topic that can sometimes feel overstudied—that is, the importance of language in the Reformation. By thinking beyond the traditional limits of linguistic study, the editors have made it a richer field of inquiry and, perhaps unconsciously, illustrated the truth of their starting premise: that any real change will require a renewal of language.

Field of study: History
THE Gaia-ESO Survey : Metal-rich bananas in the bulge

We analyze the kinematics of ∼2000 giant stars in the direction of the Galactic bulge, extracted from the Gaia-ESO survey in the region -10° ≲ l≲ 10° and -11° ≲ b ≲ -3°. We find distinct kinematic trends in the metal-rich ([M H] > 0) and metal-poor ([M H] <0) stars in the data. The velocity dispersion of the metal-rich stars drops steeply with latitude, compared to a flat profile in the metal-poor stars, as has been seen previously. We argue that the metal-rich stars in this region are mostly on orbits that support the boxy-peanut shape of the bulge, which naturally explains the drop in their velocity dispersion profile with latitude. The metal-rich stars also exhibit peaky features in their line of sight velocity histograms, particularly along the minor axis of the bulge. We propose that these features are due to stars on resonant orbits supporting the boxy-peanut bulge. This conjecture is strengthened through the comparison of the minor axis data with the velocity histograms of resonant orbits generated in simulations of buckled bars. The "banana" or 2:1:2 orbits provide strongly bimodal histograms with narrow velocity peaks that resemble the Gaia-ESO metal-rich data.

Field of study: Physics
Going south: Latitudinal change in mammalian biodiversity in Miocene Eurasia

For palaeontologists, the challenge is to reconstruct biodiversity patterns of the past. Mammal richness in grids is used to assess the stability of biodiversity hotspots and document changes over time in Europe for Mammal Neogene units 3 to 11 (19.5 to 7.6 Ma), early to late Miocene. The maps clearly show the patchiness of the fossil record. As the Miocene was an eventful epoch with severe environmental changes, Europe slowly became drier, and more seasonal, both in temperature and precipitation. From the early to middle Miocene an area of high biodiversity moved from higher to lower latitudes, culminating in one of the most remarkable hotspots in the history of mammals: the early late Miocene (Vallesian mammal stage) faunas from the Valles-Penedes (Catalonia, Spain). Remarkably, the surrounding areas did not exhibit similar richness. During the subsequent Vallesian turnover event (~ 9.7 Ma), the large and small mammal distribution became more equitable and the hotspots less prominent. The richest area was found in the periphery of the humid Miocene ecosystem, which experienced species influx from the drier south. The southward shift was a result of the expansion of the humid area with subsequent closed environments and related mixing of ecosystems, coming to a halt in the late Miocene, when all of Europe became equally open.

Field of study: Environmental science, Geography
Admission into Public Secondary Schools in Kenya: Understanding Parental Preferential Limitations

This article reports on the findings of a study that set out to investigate parents’ preference of secondary schools that their children joined for form one in 2015. The study adopted a quantitative survey approach involving parents whose children had joined form one (first year in secondary school) this year. Parents were purposively sampled for the study. A questionnaire (both closed and open-ended) was used to collect data. The response rate was 83.3%. The data obtained from the survey and especially closed-ended section of the questionnaire was analysed using the SPSS (Statistical package for social sciences) while data from open-ended section of was used to clarify or reinforce certain aspects of the survey findings. The result reveals that: over 60% of the students obtained 301- 400 marks; over 70% (n=150) of the parents claimed that their children joined secondary schools that were not of their choice; majority of the students joined district and county schools. Some parents describe the schools that their children joined as poor; without appropriate facilities; lacks academic competition or challenges; lacks of motivation for learners and that some of the teachers were lazy. Parents expected or preferred their children to join better schools with track record in academic excellence; schools with better teaching and learning facilities and also that challenges and motivates students academically. They preferred good schools that would enable their children to obtain good grades and join university. The conclusion is that parents in this study prefer their children to join schools that excelled academically. They are however limited in terms of exercising their preferences.  10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n3p91

Field of study: Education, Sociology
The folk theorem for irreducible stochastic games with imperfect public monitoring

In an irreducible stochastic game, no single player can prevent the stochastic process on states from being irreducible, so the other players can ensure that the current state has little effect on events in the distant future. This paper introduces stochastic games with imperfect public signals, and provides a sufficient condition for the folk theorem when the game is irreducible, thus generalizing the folk theorems of Dutta (1995) and Fudenberg, Levine, and Maskin (1994). To prove this theorem, the paper extends the concept of self-generation (Abreu, Pearce, and Stachetti (1990)) to “return generation,” which explicitly tracks actions and incentives until the next time the state returns to its current value, and asks that players not wish to deviate given the way their continuation payoffs from the time of this return depend on the public signals that have been observed.

Field of study: Economics
Psychology of Computer Use: VII. Measuring Technostress: Computer-Related Stress

The Computer Technology Hassles Scale was developed to measure technostress or computer-related stress. The Computer Technology Hassles Scale was based on the idea that certain interactions with computer technology are perceived by people to be stressful or a “hassle.” Subjects rated a list of 65 “hassles” as to severity, using a graded response. To ascertain the relation of the Computer Technology Hassles Scale to other measures, the subjects were given the Perceived Stress Scale, a measure of global stress. Subjects were also given a measure of computer attitudes, the Computer Attitude Scale. Demographic data on each subject were also collected. The correlational analyses showed that scores on the Computer Technology Hassles Scale were significantly correlated with scores on the Perceived Stress Scale and the number of hours of computer use but not with attitudes toward computers. These results suggest that the Computer Technology Hassles Scale taps a dimension of psychological stress and that increased computer use for some people leads to increased computer-related stress.

Field of study: Psychology
The Maintenance Treatment of Chronic Psychotics by Electrically Induced Convulsions

Chronic psychotics whose behaviour endangered their health, constituted a serious nursing problem, or whose mental state was one of misery were treated with electrically induced convulsions repeated at intervals, with the object of maintaining the improvement achieved after an initial course of treatment or of cutting short a particular phase of illness.

The patients included 37 chronic schizophrenics, 8 involutional and senile melancholias, 6 manic-depressives, 3 periodic catatonics and 2 mental defectives. All cases responded favourably except 11 of the schizophrenic group.

In some cases treatment has been in progress for over two years.

Clinical observation shows no appreciable deterioration in personality or intelligence as a result of continued therapy.

The results are discussed and an attempt made to correlate them with theories of convulsion therapy.

Field of study: Medicine, Psychology
Interfacial reactions in the Sn-(Ag)/(Ni,V) couples and phase equilibria of the Sn-Ni-V system at the Sn-Rich corner

Ni-7wt.%V is commonly used as the barrier layer material in the under-bump metallurgy in the microelectronic industry. Although interfacial reactions between various solders with the nickel substrate have been investigated intensively, the effects of vanadium addition upon the solder/(Ni,V) interfacial reactions have not been studied. Sn/(Ni,V) and Sn-Ag/(Ni,V) interfacial reactions at 250°C were investigated in this study using the reaction couple technique. The vanadium contents of the (Ni,V) substrates examined in this study are 3 wt.%, 5 wt.%, 7 wt.%, and 12 wt.% and the reaction time is 12 h. The results indicate that when the vanadium contents in the (Ni,V) substrate are 5 wt.% and higher, the Sn/(Ni,V) and Sn-Ag/(Ni,V) interfacial reactions are different from those in the solder/Ni couples. Besides the Ni3Sn4 phase as commonly formed in the reaction with Ni substrate, a new ternary T phase has been found, and the reaction path is L/Ni3Sn4/T/(Ni,V). A 250°C Sn-Ni-V isothermal section is proposed based on the three constituent binary systems and limited experimental results obtained in this study. The reaction path is illustrated with the proposed Sn-Ni-V isothermal section. No stable ternary Sn-Ni-V phase is found from the phase equilibria study, and the new T phase is likely a metastable phase.

Field of study: Materials science
Terrorism versus liberal democracy: Canadian democracy and the campaign against global terrorism

Modern terrorism presents a tremendous threat to states around the world, both authoritarian and democratic. However, states differ as to how they respond to terrorist threat. This article explores the effects of counter‐terrorism on the Canadian domestic arena. The democratic and multicultural nature of Canadian society has raised a number of questions about the capacity of individual rights and group identities to prosper within the confines of counter‐terrorist legislation and actions. During counter‐terrorism campaigns, states impinge more heavily on their citizens and require individuals and groups to cede a degree of their freedoms in order to provide leverage in combating terrorists. The dilemma for democratic states is to respond to terrorism within the domestic framework of constitutional regulations and the rule of law. This dilemma is something that all liberal democratic countries will face as terrorist networks spread internationally and seek to destabilize cherished civic institutions and societies.

Field of study: Political science
Precursory singularities in spherical gravitational collapse.

General conditions are developed for the formation of naked precursory (``shell-focusing'') singularities in spherical gravitational collapse. These singularities owe their nakedness to the fact that the gravitational potential fails to be single valued prior to the onset of a true gravitational singularity. It is argued that they do not violate the spirit of cosmic censorship. Rather, they may well be an essentially generic feature of relativistic gravitational collapse.

Field of study: Physics
Arabidopsis HSP70-16 is required for flower opening under normal or mild heat stress temperatures.

Sepals play important roles in protecting inner floral organs from various stresses and in guaranteeing timely flower opening. However, the exact role of sepals in coordinating interior and exterior signals remains elusive. In this study, we functionally characterized a heat shock protein gene, Arabidopsis HSP70-16, in flower opening and mild heat stress response, using combined genetics with anatomic, physiological, chemical, and molecular analyses. We showed that HSP70-16 is required for flower opening and mild heat response. Mutation of HSP70-16 led to a significant reduction in seed setting rate under 22°C, which was more severe at 27°C. Mutation of HSP70-16 also caused postgenital fusion at overlapping tips of two lateral sepals, leading to failed flower opening, abnormal floral organ formation, and impaired fertilization and seed setting. Chemical and anatomic analyses confirmed specific chemical and morphological changes of cuticle property in mutant lateral sepals, and qRT-PCR data indicated that expression levels of different sets of cuticle regulatory and biosynthetic genes were altered in mutants grown at both 22°C and 27°C temperatures. This study provides a link between thermal and developmental perception signals and expands the understanding of the roles of sepal in plant development and heat response.

Field of study: Environmental science
A new method for fractional Brownian motion interpolation

This article presents a new method for interpolating long fractional Brownian motion (fBm) sequences called incremental Fourier interpolation (IFI). Instead of computing the interpolated samples directly, as is the case with existing algorithms, IFI computes the first-order increments between the original and interpolated samples. For long sequences, these increments can be computed using the computationally efficient fast Fourier transform. Estimators for the fBm parameters are also incorporated into the algorithm. Simulations are presented for both known and unknown parameter cases that demonstrate the accuracy of IFI even for relatively short length sequences.

Field of study: Engineering
The Political Economy of Paraguay and the Impoverishment of the Missions

Located at the extreme periphery of the Spanish Empire, Paraguay suffered from its political role as a buffer state against the rival Portuguese colony of Brazil and the hostile Indian nations. Accordingly, during the late colonial period, extended tours of military duty contributed to the province's severe labor shortage. But of even greater consequence were the combined effects of Paraguay's monocrop economy and its economic dependency within the Imperial commercial capitalist system. Best described as a chain-like structure officially beginning in Spain and extending to the remote province via Panama, Lima, and Buenos Aires, this system served to depress Paraguay's economy and appropriate a great portion of its wealth, leaving the majority of the people in dire poverty.

Field of study: History
Submarine-fan characteristics and dual sediment provenance, Lower Carboniferous Bragdon Formation, eastern Klamath terrane, California

The Carboniferous Bragdon Formation comprises sandstone, argillite, and conglomerate, which were deposited in a hybrid submarine-fan setting. The Bragdon Formation contains a crudely progradational succession of sand-rich turbidites and intercalated channel fill and debris flows. Apparent paucity of fine-grained rocks and relatively high sedimentation rates may suggest deposition within a small, rapidly subsiding, ponded basin. Three end-member petrologic sandstone types include (i) quartz-rich, chert-rich, and sedimentary-lithic-rich sandstone, (ii) volcanic-lithic- and feldspar-rich sandstone, and (iii) crystal-rich sandstone and tuffaceous argillite. The compositions reflect basement uplift, arc dissection, and the persistence of volcanism, respectively. Interbedded strata of differing provenance, together with little or no provenance mixing within beds, indicate multicomponent source terranes, line-source sediment dispersal pattern, and limited transport distances.Facies associations and provenance to...

Field of study: Environmental science
Conjugate Lateral Eye Movement and Interpersonal Arousal: Effects of Interviewer Sex and Topic Intimacy

An experiment was conducted to examine the generalizability of the interpersonal arousal effect on conjugate lateral eye movement. Sixty male subjects were interviewed twice, once by a male and once by a female experimenter, in counter-balanced order. Neutral and mildly intimate questions were included in both interviews. Subjects were classified as either right-movers, left-movers, or bidirectionals on the basis of their responses in the male interviewer, neutral question condition. A statistically significant interaction between dominant direction and interviewer sex was found on direction of subjects' eye movements, with differential eye movement tendencies of subjects increasing under the female interviewer, compared to the male interviewer, condition. This effect was statistically significant for right-movers only. An expected interaction between dominant direction and topic intimacy did not occur.

Field of study: Psychology
Combined blockade of serotonergic and muscarinic transmission disrupts the anterior thalamic head direction signal.

Head direction (HD) cells have been speculated to be part of a network mediating navigational behavior. Previous work has shown that combined administration of serotonergic and muscarinic antagonists eliminates hippocampal theta activity and produces navigational deficits more severe than blockade of either neurotransmitter system alone. The authors sought to assess this effect on the directional characteristics of HD cells. HD cells were recorded from the anterior dorsal thalamus of Long-Evans rats before and after administration of the serotonergic antagonist methiothepin, the muscarinic antagonist scopolamine, both drugs, or saline. Combined drug administration produced HD cells with preferred directions that drifted within recording sessions. In addition, cells showed shifts in the preferred directions at the start of a session relative to the position of the major landmarks, suggesting that combined drug administration led to deficits in landmark control of the HD system. Single drug exposures to methiothepin or scopolamine did not noticeably affect the directional characteristics of HD cells. This finding that navigation-impairing drugs can disrupt the HD signal provides further evidence that this network plays an important role in navigational behavior.

Field of study: Biology, Psychology