Independent Sources Of Information Research Articles

Informed Graph Convolution Networks for Multilingual Short Text Understanding

In the open domain environment, the state-of-the-art models cannot process analyze insufficient training data correctly. We propose an adaptive graph convolution network with informed machine learning for multilingual short text understanding to tackle these problems. Specifically, The prior knowledge to guide the graph neural network to extract sentence topics. We construct category anchor words as prior category keywords, prior category keywords and training data as independent information sources, and prior knowledge participates in the training of graph neural network. Moreover, we integrate the attention mechanism in the training process, so that the model can pay attention to task-related information adaptively. We explain the build blocks and present the integrated knowledge representation. The experimental results on the Multilingual Short Text (MST), THUCNews and AGNews datasets show that our method outperforms most of the existing methods.

Verification of the image processing system in real conditions

Autonomous Vessel with an Air Look, is a research project that aims to develop autonomous navigation of ships. The system uses three independent sources of information i.e. radar, AIS ? Automatic Identification System and cameras, which can be located on a drone or ship?s superstructure. The article presents the results of testing of an image processing system in real conditions on m/f Wolin.

Animal Welfare Risks in Live Cattle Export from Australia to China by Sea.

Simple SummaryThere are ongoing concerns about the welfare of animals in the Australian live export trade by sea. However, information about the welfare of animals during voyages is difficult to obtain. In early 2018, the Australian government installed Independent Observers on some live export voyages. Summaries of Independent Observer (IO) reports provide a new source of information about management of animals in the live export trade. Cattle voyages from Australia to China have concerned animal welfare advocates due to their duration and lack of consistent veterinary oversight. We reviewed IO summaries on live cattle export voyages to China for the period July 2018 to December 2019 (n = 37). Key animal welfare risk factors identified in the IO summaries included: hunger, thirst, exposure to extreme temperatures, poor pen conditions, health issues, absence of veterinarians, rough seas, poor ship infrastructure, mechanical breakdown and mismanagement at discharge.There are long-standing and ongoing concerns about the welfare of animals in the Australian live export trade by sea. However, scrutiny of animal welfare on board vessels is generally hindered by a lack of independent reporting. Cattle voyages from Australia to China have concerned animal welfare advocates due to their long duration and lack of consistent veterinary oversight. In April 2018, following a media exposé of animal cruelty and declining public trust, the Australian government installed Independent Observers on some live export voyages. Summaries of Independent Observer (IO) reports by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) provided a new and independent source of information about management of animals in the live export trade. The IO summaries on live cattle export voyages to China for the period July 2018 to December 2019 (n = 37) were reviewed. The IO summaries detailed voyages that carried 147,262 slaughter, feeder or breeder cattle which included both dairy and beef breeds. The long-haul voyages averaged 20 days in duration, generally departing the ports of Fremantle and Portland and discharging at ports in northern China. Key animal welfare risk factors identified in the IO summaries included: hunger, thirst, exposure to extreme temperatures, poor pen conditions, health issues, absence of veterinarians, rough seas, poor ship infrastructure, mechanical breakdown and mismanagement at discharge.

Achievable Rate Volume of Three-User CIS NOMA

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) enables 5G mobile networks to transmit correlated information sources (CISs) simultaneously, in contrast to orthogonal multiple access. Recently, the achievable data rates were derived for NOMA with CIS. However, only the achievable rate region was investigated for two-user CIS NOMA. Therefore, in this study, we address the achievable rate volume of three-user CIS NOMA. First, the closed-form expression for the achievable rate volume of three-user CIS NOMA is derived. Second, the exact power allocation ranges of the rate volume of three-user independent information source (IIS) NOMA to be achieved by three-user CIS NOMA are derived. Then, it is shown that only a portion of the rate volume of the three-user IIS NOMA scheme can be achieved by the three-user CIS NOMA scheme.

Outlier detection in animal multivariate trajectories

Outlier trajectory detection systems have received growing attention over the last decades. These systems have highly improved their efficiency through the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the emergence of affordable wireless sensor networks. IoT-based technologies adoption have led to a faster capture of data from several independent information sources with higher quality and greater volume. Besides, data mining and machine learning techniques allow the combination of these data sources in order to boost decision-making processes. In this paper, Outlier Detection in Animal Multivariate Trajectories (ODAMT) is proposed as a new method that combines spatial information with additional independent data sources for detection of anomalies in animal multivariate trajectories. ODAMT has been applied for the detection of cattle reproductive events in a real study achieving promising results.

Cross-Species and Human Inter-Tissue Network Analysis of Genes Implicated in Longevity and Aging Reveal Strong Support for Nutrient Sensing.

Intensive research efforts have been undertaken to slow human aging and therefore potentially delay the onset of age-related diseases. These efforts have generated an enormous amount of high-throughput data covering different levels in the physiologic hierarchy, e.g., genetic, epigenetic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic, etc. We gathered 15 independent sources of information about genes potentially involved in human longevity and lifespan (N = 5836) and subjected them to various integrated analyses. Many of these genes were initially identified in non-human species, and we investigated their orthologs in three non-human species [i.e., mice (N = 967), fruit fly (N = 449), and worm (N = 411)] for further analysis. We characterized experimentally determined protein-protein interaction networks (PPIN) involving each species’ genes from 9 known protein databases and studied the enriched biological pathways among the individually constructed PPINs. We observed three important signaling pathways: FoxO signaling, mTOR signaling, and autophagy to be common and highly enriched in all four species (p-value ≤ 0.001). Our study implies that the interaction of proteins involved in the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is somewhat limited to each species or that a “rewiring” of specific networks has taken place over time. To corroborate our findings, we repeated our analysis in 43 different human tissues. We investigated conserved modules in various tissue-specific PPINs of the longevity-associated genes based upon their protein expression. This analysis also revealed mTOR signaling as shared biological processes across four different human tissue-specific PPINs for liver, heart, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue. Further, we explored our results’ translational potential by assessing the protein interactions with all the reported drugs and compounds that have been experimentally verified to promote longevity in the three-comparator species. We observed that the target proteins of the FDA-approved drug rapamycin (a known inhibitor of mTOR) were conserved across all four species. Drugs like melatonin and metformin exhibited shared targets with rapamycin in the human PPIN. The detailed information about the curated gene list, cross-species orthologs, PPIN, and pathways was assembled in an interactive data visualization portal using RStudio’s Shiny framework (https://agingnetwork.shinyapps.io/frontiers/).

Tracking the Origin and Early Evolution of Reptiles

The origin of Reptilia and the biostratigraphic and palaeobiogeographic distribution of its early representatives are still poorly understood. An independent source of information may come from the extensive Carboniferous footprint record of reptiles, which is arguably richer and more complete than the skeletal record. Nevertheless, previous studies often failed to provide useful information because they were based on poorly preserved material and/or characters non-exclusive of reptile tracks. In fact, a large part of the supposed early reptile tracks can be assigned to the anamniote ichnotaxon Hylopus hardingi. Here, we revise the ichnotaxon Hylopus hardingi based on anatomy-consistent material, attribute it to anamniote reptiliomorphs, and distinguish it from Notalacerta missouriensis, the earliest ichnotaxon that can be attributed to reptiles, and the somewhat younger Varanopus microdactylus (attributed to parareptiles, such as bolosaurians) and Dromopus lacertoides (attributed to araeoscelid reptiles and non-varanodontine varanopids). These attributions are based on correlating morphofunctional features of tracks and skeletons. Multivariate analysis of trackway parameters indicates that the late Bashkirian Notalacerta missouriensis and Hylopus hardingi differ markedly in their trackway patterns from Late Mississippian Hylopus hardingi and Late Pennsylvanian reptile tracks, which appear to share a derived amniote-like type of gait. While the first occurrence/appearance of reptile tracks in the tetrapod footprint record during the late Bashkirian corresponds to the first occurrence/appearance of reptiles in the skeletal record, footprints significantly enlarge the paleobiogeographic distribution of the group, suggesting an earlier radiation of reptiles during the Bashkirian throughout North America and possibly North Africa. Dromopus appeared in the Kasimovian together with the diapsid group Araeoscelidia, but footprints from Western-European occurrences enlarge the paleobiogeographic distribution of diapsids and varanopids. Varanopus and bolosaurian parareptiles appear in the Gzhelian of North America. Older parareptiles are, however, known from the late Moscovian. In all, the footprint record of early reptiles supplements the skeletal record, suggesting possible future lines of research.

Morphological and compositional analyses of coprolites from the Upper Cretaceous Bauru Group reveal dietary habits of notosuchian fauna

The fluvial deposits of the Adamantina Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Bauru Group) have produced a rich fossil vertebrate record of fishes, amphibians, lizards, snakes, turtles, dinosaurs and mammals. However, the record of notosuchians (Crocodylomorpha) is remarkable in terms of both diversity and number of findings. Here, we report a large number of new coprolites found in association with skeletons of crocodylomorphs from the Adamantina Formation in the cities of Jales and Fernandópolis, São Paulo State, Brazil, and discuss their meaning for the understanding of feeding habits of their producers. The coprolites from Jales were found mostly together with adult skeletons of baurusuchids and crocodylomorph egg clutches, while the coprolites from Fernandópolis are associated with adult sphagesaurids and juvenile and adult baurusuchid skeletons, and rare crocodylomorph egg clutches. Forty-one coprolites were analysed encompassing different degrees of preservation. The X-ray diffraction showed the coprolites are comprised mainly of fluorapatite. The presence of bone fragments in some coprolites, together with their typical crocodylomorph cylindrical shape with rounded ends, strongly indicates that Baurusuchidae not only are carnivores, but that also ingested large bone fragments. On the other hand, the coprolites assigned to Sphagesauridae generally show a more complex chemical composition and present plant remains within which indicate this group, at least in part, fed on plants. Our results reinforce the importance of these ichnofossils as an independent source of information on the feeding habits of their producers and add new evidence these two groups of crocodylomorphs fed on different food sources.

The effectiveness of mediation and peacekeeping for ending conflict

Mediation and peacekeeping are commonly used tools to manage conflict. To what extent are they complementary and effective instruments for ending violent conflicts? Generally, they are seen as distinct tools: mediation aims to facilitate negotiated settlements, while the goal of peacekeeping is to prevent agreements from collapsing. However, peacekeeping and mediation regularly occur simultaneously. Arguably, peacekeeping operations rely on continuing political processes, while peacekeepers create a context favorable for mediation and provide a valuable source of independent information. Using a variety of model specifications, including selection models, empirical evidence supports that (a) mediation rather than peacekeeping is key to halting hostilities, (b) mediation and peacekeeping are largely complementary, but (c) this complementarity is conditional: in the post-Cold War period, transformative peacekeeping boosted the effectiveness of mediation to halt civil wars. There is no evidence that peacekeeping on its own matters for ending conflict. Finally, counterfactual analysis shows the substantial impact of mediation and peacekeeping on the frequency of conflict.

Does the COVID-19 war metaphor influence reasoning?

In recent times, many alarm bells have begun to sound: the metaphorical presentation of the COVID-19 emergency as a war might be dangerous, because it could affect the way people conceptualize the pandemic and react to it, leading citizens to endorse authoritarianism and limitations to civil liberties. The idea that conceptual metaphors actually influence reasoning has been corroborated by Thibodeau and Boroditsky, who showed that, when crime is metaphorically presented as a beast, readers become more enforcement-oriented than when crime is metaphorically framed as a virus. Recently, Steen, Reijnierse and Burgers replied that this metaphorical framing effect does not seem to occur and suggested that the question should be rephrased about the conditions under which metaphors do or do not influence reasoning. In this paper, we investigate whether presenting the COVID-19 pandemic as a war affects people’s reasoning about the pandemic. Data collected suggest that the metaphorical framing effect does not occur by default. Rather, socio-political individual variables such as speakers’ political orientation and source of information favor the acceptance of metaphor congruent entailments: right-wing participants and participants relying on independent sources of information are those more conditioned by the COVID-19 war metaphor, thus more inclined to prefer bellicose options.

Uncovering Statistical Links Between Gene Expression and Structural Connectivity Patterns in the Mouse Brain

Finding links between genes and structural connectivity is of the utmost importance for unravelling the underlying mechanism of the brain connectome. In this study we identify links between the gene expression and the axonal projection density in the mouse brain, by applying a modified version of the Linked ICA method to volumetric data from the Allen Institute for Brain Science for identifying independent sources of information that link both modalities at the voxel level. We performed separate analyses on sets of projections from the visual cortex, the caudoputamen and the midbrain reticular nucleus, and we determined those brain areas, injections and genes that were most involved in independent components that link both gene expression and projection density data, while we validated their biological context through enrichment analysis. We identified representative and literature-validated cortico-midbrain and cortico-striatal projections, whose gene subsets were enriched with annotations for neuronal and synaptic function and related developmental and metabolic processes. The results were highly reproducible when including all available projections, as well as consistent with factorisations obtained using the Dictionary Learning and Sparse Coding technique. Hence, Linked ICA yielded reproducible independent components that were preserved under increasing data variance. Taken together, we have developed and validated a novel paradigm for linking gene expression and structural projection patterns in the mouse mesoconnectome, which can power future studies aiming to relate genes to brain function.

ANALYTICAL MODEL OF CONVECTIVE TEMPERATURE RECOVERY IN SHUT-IN WELL

Thermometry is the most informative method in the complex of field geophysical research. The method is applied at all stages of the well’s life. Modern technologies for recording the temperature in the well, for example, using a distributed fiber-optic sensor, allow continuous research, and in particular, to carry out temperature probing of the developed formations. Temperature sensing data can be used as an additional (alternative to pressure) independent source of information on reservoir properties. To assess the parametric sensitivity of the temperature field in the well and to solve inverse problems of thermometry, mathematical models are needed to describe the thermohydrodynamic processes both in the reservoir and in the well. This article is devoted to the development of an analytical model describing the change in temperature and pressure in the reservoir after a well shut-in, taking into account some approximations: zero compressibility of the reservoir, fluid and thermal conductivity. The pressure distribution in the reservoir is found from the solution of the piezoconductivity equation. And the temperature distribution from the heat flow equation. The method of characteristics was used for the solution. The results of comparison of analytical and numerical solutions for temperature changes in a shut-in well are presented. It follows from the results obtained that the temperature after well shut-in is sensitive to the size of the near-wellbore zone with altered permeability and to the distribution of permeability in the formation. The proposed analytical solution can be used in thermosimulators to solve inverse problems in order to estimate the parameters of the near-wellbore formation zone based on actual measurements of unsteady temperature in the wellbore of production wells, as well as for planning production geophysical studies using the thermometry method.

Afrikanskoe nasledie v mifologii

Our analytical catalogue contains information on many thousands of folklore and mythological texts. The systemic approach to this material argues in favor of an African origin of episodes and images that were recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, the Indo-Pacific border of Asia and in America but are absent in continental Eurasia. Such a pattern corresponds to genetic and archaeological data concerning the early spread of the modern human from Africa in two directions, i.e. to the East along the coast of the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia and Australia, and to the North into Europe, Central Asia and Siberia. The natural conditions of humankind in the Indo-Pacific Tropics and in the African homeland are essentially similar; conversely, in the Eurasian North, deep cultural changes and a loss of the African heritage are to be expected. Though there are no cultures in Asia that could be considered to be related to the ancestors of the earliest migrants into the New World still being identified by archaeologists, similar sets of motifs in South America and in the Indo-Pacific part of the Old World provide evidence in favor of the East Asian homeland of the first Americans. Later groups of migrants brought those motifs typical for continental Eurasia to North America. Though we take into account conclusions reached by specialists in other historical disciplines, big data on mythology and folklore is argued to be an independent source of information on the human past.

What is in a Price? Evidence on Quality Signaling for Experience Goods

Lack of quality information is an ubiquitous problem for consumers. Consumer associations in many countries address information asymmetry by conducting quality tests. We exploit the timing of product testing and information release in a RD-approach to estimate the effects on prices and product exit. Results show a price increase after quality disclosure for high quality durables, and a price decrease for high quality non-durables. Product exit is faster for products of low quality. Our results show a strong effect of consumer association testing, giving evidence on their role as a source of independent quality information that complements market-based and regulatory mechanisms.

Key audit matters in the auditor's reports on the example of European mining companies

Implementation of changes to the scope of statutory auditor’s reporting has become a starting point to take the issue into consideration in the international literature on possibilities to limit an audit expectation gap i.e. an information expectation gap with regard to an audit. Its partial limitation has become possible owing to a new audit reporting which should be a valuable source of independent information for stakeholders with Key Audit Matters (KAMs). They are the issues most significant while auditing a financial statement of a given company for a current period. The higher number of KAMs revealed by a statutory auditor may suggest a higher number of problem areas in an audited company's activity. This paper aims to determine the factors that influence the number of KAMs that auditors disclose in their audit reports on the financial statements of European mining companies. Sixty-two companies from the mining industry, listed on European stock exchanges and taken into consideration on the ORBIS basis, were taken for the research sample. The content analysis included financial statements and statutory auditors’ reports for the year 2019. The authors formulated the main hypotheses, according to which: The number of KAMs reported in the auditor's reports from auditing the financial statements of mining companies is positively associated with the size of the audited company (H1) and the amount of the audit fee (H2). The research on the practice of KAM reporting allowed to identify the most problematic areas existing in the companies of the mining branch, which include: investments in related entities, property and tangible assets, provisions and contingencies. The verification of the suggested research hypotheses allowed to state that in the case of the companies of the mining sector, the higher number of reported KAMs is not connected with the number of these companies' assets, but the scale of their activity, expressed with the number of incomes. The relationship between the number of KAMs and an amount of an audit fee was also confirmed. The added value of the conducted research of KAM reporting practice is a possibility to use the results in the practice of the activity of mining companies. The review of the most frequent KAMs provides a general opinion on specific problems existing, according to the authors, in companies operating businesses in this branch. The authors notice limitations of the research resulting from the adopted research sample and a need to conduct next studies, which will be connected with the in-depth analysis of the scope and the type of disclosed KAMs as well as their changes in the next reporting periods.

A data fusion-based framework to integrate multi-source VGI in an authoritative land use database

ABSTRACT Updating an authoritative Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) database requires many resources. Volunteered geographic information (VGI) involves citizens in the collection of data about their spatial environment. There is a growing interest in using existing VGI to update authoritative databases. This paper presents a framework aimed at integrating multi-source VGI based on a data fusion technique, in order to update an authoritative land use database. Each VGI data source is considered to be an independent source of information, which is fused together using Dempster-Shafer Theory (DST). The framework is tested in the updating of the authoritative land use data produced by the French National Mapping Agency. Four data sets were collected from several in-situ and remote campaigns run between 2018 and 2020 by contributors with varying profiles. The data fusion approach achieved an overall accuracy of 85.6% for the 144 features having at least two contributions when the confidence threshold was set to 0.05. Despite the heterogeneity and limited amount of VGI used, the results are promising, with 99% of the LU polygons updated or enriched. These results show the potential of using multi-source VGI to update or enrich authoritative LU data and potentially LULC data more generally.

The wisdom of stalemates: consensus and clustering as filtering mechanisms for improving collective accuracy.

Groups of organisms, from bacteria to fish schools to human societies, depend on their ability to make accurate decisions in an uncertain world. Most models of collective decision-making assume that groups reach a consensus during a decision-making bout, often through simple majority rule. In many natural and sociological systems, however, groups may fail to reach consensus, resulting in stalemates. Here, we build on opinion dynamics and collective wisdom models to examine how stalemates may affect the wisdom of crowds. For simple environments, where individuals have access to independent sources of information, we find that stalemates improve collective accuracy by selectively filtering out incorrect decisions (an effect we call stalemate filtering). In complex environments, where individuals have access to both shared and independent information, this effect is even more pronounced, restoring the wisdom of crowds in regions of parameter space where large groups perform poorly when making decisions using majority rule. We identify network properties that tune the system between consensus and accuracy, providing mechanisms by which animals, or evolution, could dynamically adjust the collective decision-making process in response to the reward structure of the possible outcomes. Overall, these results highlight the adaptive potential of stalemate filtering for improving the decision-making abilities of group-living animals.

QUALIFICATION-BASED SELECTION OF CONSULTANTS AND CONTRACTORS: BREAKING THE LOWEST TENDER PRICE CULTURE

Qualification-Based Selection (QBS) is designed to focus on the abilities of consultants and contractors that will undertake an infrastructure project and, more importantly, on their past performance working with and for the client on previous projects. This paper presents a review of QBS procurement in the US and in New Zealand and details the advantages and disadvantages from the client’s perspective on major public infrastructure projects. The study involved a survey of 26 public agencies, seven case studies, and a content analysis of 81 QBS project procurement documents. The study then triangulated the three independent sources of information to draw conclusions. The paper finds that QBS awards have been used successfully in a variety of procurement methods, and clients expect to increase the likelihood of project success by decreasing the chance that a marginally qualified contractor would win a major project. Additionally, respondents received tangible benefits associated with selecting contractors that were well-qualified and had a record of satisfactory performance. The paper’s primary contribution is to demonstrate the value for money to the client when changing focus from lowest tendering cost to contractor qualifications and past performance.

Governance and Electoral Integrity: Evidence from Subnational India

This article presents the findings of perceptions of electoral integrity survey for subnational elections in India between 2015 and 2017. The perceptions of electoral integrity survey is an attempt to provide a comprehensive, impartial and independent source of information derived from experts about elections conforming to internationally recognized principles and standards. The article then evaluates the factors that account for differences in the perceptions of electoral integrity in India. We show that higher-income states in India tend to have higher levels of electoral integrity. However, we argue that differences in the quality of governance best explain subnational variation in the perceptions of electoral integrity in India.

Herpetological phylogeographic analyses support a Miocene focal point of Himalayan uplift and biological diversification.

The Himalaya are among the youngest and highest mountains in the world, but the exact timing of their uplift and origins of their biodiversity are still in debate. The Himalayan region is a relatively small area but with exceptional diversity and endemism. One common hypothesis to explain the rich montane diversity is uplift-driven diversification—that orogeny creates conditions favoring rapid in situ speciation of resident lineages. We test this hypothesis in the Himalayan region using amphibians and reptiles, two environmentally sensitive vertebrate groups. In addition, analysis of diversification of the herpetofauna provides an independent source of information to test competing geological hypotheses of Himalayan orogenesis. We conclude that the origins of the Himalayan herpetofauna date to the early Paleocene, but that diversification of most groups was concentrated in the Miocene. There was an increase in both rates and modes of diversification during the early to middle Miocene, together with regional interchange (dispersal) between the Himalaya and adjacent regions. Our analyses support a recently proposed stepwise geological model of Himalayan uplift beginning in the Paleocene, with a subsequent rapid increase of uplifting during the Miocene, finally giving rise to the intensification of the modern South Asian Monsoon.