SCREWS: A Modular Framework for Reasoning with Revisions

Large language models (LLMs) can improve their accuracy on various tasks through iteratively refining and revising their output based on feedback. We observe that these revisions can introduce errors, in which case it is better to roll back to a previous result. Further, revisions are typically homogeneous: they use the same reasoning method that produced the initial answer, which may not correct errors. To enable exploration in this space, we present SCREWS, a modular framework for reasoning with revisions. It is comprised of three main modules: Sampling, Conditional Resampling, and Selection, each consisting of sub-modules that can be hand-selected per task. We show that SCREWS not only unifies several previous approaches under a common framework, but also reveals several novel strategies for identifying improved reasoning chains. We evaluate our framework with state-of-the-art LLMs (ChatGPT and GPT-4) on a diverse set of reasoning tasks and uncover useful new reasoning strategies for each: arithmetic word problems, multi-hop question answering, and code debugging. Heterogeneous revision strategies prove to be important, as does selection between original and revised candidates

Maurice Ravel: Trois Chansons and World War I

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) began writing "Trois Chansons" in November of 1914 and completed it in February of the following year. Durand Musical Editions published the composition in 1916. The Bathori-Engel Chorus, conducted by Louis Aubert, gave the premiere in October 1917. The compositional time frame coincides with Ravel's numerous attempts to volunteer for military service at the onset of World War I (WWI) and his eventual enlistment in March of 1916. By all accounts, "Trois Chansons" is a unique addition to Ravel's compositional oeuvre. Except for this work, Ravel wrote almost exclusively for instrumental genres; this composition is his only a cappella choral contribution. Additionally, the texts of each chanson are by the composer. The purpose of this document is to demonstrate that "Trois Chansons" represents a level of involvement in WWI through composition and contains Ravel's both explicit and implicit commentary on WWI. This research encompasses general information about "Trois Chansons" and commentary on Ravel's attempts to enlist in the Armée de Terre. Also included are summaries of Ravel's compositional components including text, genre, and personal dedications. Furthermore, this document outlines specific compositional devices utilized in "Trois Chansons" and includes representative musical analysis. Finally, through both compositional components and devices, this study suggests aspects of Ravel's personal commentary on WWI. This document concludes with suggestions for further research on "Trois Chansons." In addition to a compiled bibliography, appendices containing Ravel's original poetry for "Trois Chansons" and conductor's analysis pertaining to each chanson accompany the main body of research

An improved Plasmodium cynomolgi genome assembly reveals an unexpected methyltransferase gene expansion.

Background: Plasmodium cynomolgi, a non-human primate malaria parasite species, has been an important model parasite since its discovery in 1907. Similarities in the biology of P. cynomolgi to the closely related, but less tractable, human malaria parasite P. vivax make it the model parasite of choice for liver biology and vaccine studies pertinent to P. vivax malaria. Molecular and genome-scale studies of P. cynomolgi have relied on the current reference genome sequence, which remains highly fragmented with 1,649 unassigned scaffolds and little representation of the subtelomeres. Methods: Using long-read sequence data (Pacific Biosciences SMRT technology), we assembled and annotated a new reference genome sequence, PcyM, sourced from an Indian rhesus monkey. We compare the newly assembled genome sequence with those of several other Plasmodium species, including a re-annotated P. coatneyi assembly. Results: The new PcyM genome assembly is of significantly higher quality than the existing reference, comprising only 56 pieces, no gaps and an improved average gene length. Detailed manual curation has ensured a comprehensive annotation of the genome with 6,632 genes, nearly 1,000 more than previously attributed to P. cynomolgi. The new assembly also has an improved representation of the subtelomeric regions, which account for nearly 40% of the sequence. Within the subtelomeres, we identified more than 1300 Plasmodium interspersed repeat (pir) genes, as well as a striking expansion of 36 methyltransferase pseudogenes that originated from a single copy on chromosome 9. Conclusions: The manually curated PcyM reference genome sequence is an important new resource for the malaria research community. The high quality and contiguity of the data have enabled the discovery of a novel expansion of methyltransferase in the subtelomeres, and illustrates the new comparative genomics capabilities that are being unlocked by complete reference genomes

Alfred Jewel and the Old English "Solomon and Saturn" dialogues : wisdom and chaos in the Old English gnomes

Celem rozważań zawartych w artykule są kwestie związane z mądrością przynoszącą władzę nad dyskursem, pojawiające się w niezwykle hermetycznych staroangielskich dialogach poetyckich, znanych jako „Rozmowy Salomona z Saturnem” i zachowanych w rękopisie Cambridge Corpus Christi. Oba teksty, skomponowane w popularnej we wczesnym średniowieczu formie dysputy pomiędzy królem Salomonem i wątpiącym w jego słowa Saturnem, wydają się celowo chaotyczne i niejasne. Niejasność i chaotyczność owej dysputy może stanowić jednak specyficzną strategię poetycką, która przejawia się również w innych staroangielskich tekstach gnomicznych. Zasadą nie jest tu jasność wywodu, ale właśnie jego zagadkowość, zgodnie z jedną z gnomicznych sentencji zawartych w anglosaskich „Maksymach”: sod bid switolost, „prawda jest złudna”. Dychotomia pomiędzy wiedzą i niewiedzą jest w nich przedstawiona na podstawie chrześcijańskiej filozofii poczucia doniosłości tego, co nieokreślone. Staroangielskie teksty gnomiczne przedstawiają zatem prawdziwą wartość mądrości jako istniejącą dzięki jej przeciwieństwom, czyli niewiedzy i tajemnicy. Analiza wczesnośredniowiecznych dialogów poetyckich, podjęta w artykule, zawiera również odniesienia do innych staroangielskich tekstów gnomicznych, a jej punkt wyjścia to pochodzący z IX wieku przedmiot, tzw. klejnot króla Alfreda. Postać, którą on przedstawia, jest odczytana w artykule jako symboliczny wizerunek wzajemnego przenikania się chaosu i porządku w staroangjelskiej poezji gnomicznej

Meteorological factors controlling the emergence of the eastern spadefoot toad, scaphiopus holbrooki holbrookii harlan

Scaphiopus holbrooki holbrookii, the Eastern Spadefoot, can exist in an area for many years before it is detected. Its apparent scarcity can be explained by its secretive, fossorial habitat, protective coloration, and nocturnal behavior. Spadefoots are present at the surface locally in small numbers on any one night. They emerge only when conditions are optimum. One authority has suggested that temperature, moisture, and barometric pressure exert control over emergence. It was the purpose of this research to discover the most important meterorological parameters and investigate how they control the behavior of Scaphiopus. Initially the response, emergence to breed was distinguished from emergence to feed. Breeding is controlled by temperature and initiated by rainfall. Because of the close relation of the two emergence responses it is hereby hypothesized that moisture and temperature exert an active control over emergence to feed

Nurturing The Aesthetic: Learning to Care for the Environment in a Waldorf School

The purpose of the study was to explore the aesthetic foundation of the Waldorf pedagogy in order to understand how art and aesthetic experiences may develop care toward the environment. A form of humanistic education developed by Rudolf Steiner in the early twentieth century, Waldorf education is a learning model envisioned as a framework for moral education. Waldorf education is known for its intentional use of art and aesthetic experience as well as its focus on developmentally appropriate curriculum and teaching methods. As in other forms of holistic education, Waldorf educators focus on the head, heart and hand of every child, which they call the thinking, feeling and willing realms. However, it is the feeling realm which makes Waldorf unique. In Waldorf, the feeling life of the child – the affective domain – is included in all aspects of the educational process. Waldorf educators believe that it is the feeling realm where care is nurtured, and that for a child to fully learn – to move over the threshold from knowledge into action – a child needs to care about what is being learned. With this in mind, it is through art and aesthetic experience where Waldorf teachers touch the affective realm of their students – infusing feeling in order to connect them emotionally, experientially, and imaginatively to the content being presented. Through art and aesthetic experiences in Waldorf classes, are students indeed developing care and does that care extend to the environment? How are the students affected by the teacher’s methods? What is the students’ concept of care? Is there a connection between the students’ concept of care and how they learn? In order to explore these questions in depth, I conducted a qualitative case study with an Early Childhood Center (ECC)-12th grade Waldorf School. Throughout the study, I conducted classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students collecting data that helped depict students’ concept of care, as well as explored possible linkages to students’ learning of care through the teacher’s use of art and aesthetics. When analyzing this data, I found that Waldorf Education has the capacity to promote care for the environment through morality, empathy, and appreciation. These three related and overlapping categories work together through aesthetic experience to form the foundation of such care. My specific interest in conducting this study was how it may relate both theoretically and practically to the field of environmental education (EE). The intersection of John Dewey’s aesthetic experience and Nel Noddings’ ethic of care formed the basis for the study’s theoretical framework. Theoretical contributions include further understanding the development of care in educational settings, and specifically how art and aesthetic experiences may be included in the field of EE. Practical contributions include new ways to present and integrate EE in both formal and non-formal settings to the child participant, as well as considering the importance of developmentally appropriate curriculum. In addition, the study may help develop the environmental educator’s role in nurturing care toward the environment. Furthermore, I hope that this research will act as a bridge of communication between the cultures of Waldorf education and EE, and possibly with other educational settings

Efficient industrial policy for innovation: standing on the shoulders of hidden giants

Research and development is underprovided whenever it creates knowledge spillovers that drive a wedge between its total and private economic returns. Heterogeneity in the intensity of this market failure across technological areas provides an argument to vertically target public support for R&D. This paper examines potential welfare gains of such vertical industrial policy for innovation. It develops measures of private and spillover value of patented innovations using global data on patents and their citations. Our new method identifies a large number 'Hidden Giants' - i.e. innovations scoring higher on our new spillover measure than on the traditional forward citation count measure - which are shown to be particularly prevalent among patents applied for by universities. The estimated distributions of private values by technology area are then used to parameterize a structural model of innovation. The model permits estimation of the marginal returns to technology-area-specific subsidies that reduce innovators' R&D costs. Marginal returns are high when knowledge spillovers in the technology area are valuable, when private innovation costs are low, and when private values in a technology sector are densely distributed around the private cost. The results show large variation in the marginal returns to subsidy and suggest that targeted industrial policy would have helped mitigate underprovision of R&D over the time period studied. Variation in the extent to which knowledge spillovers are internalized within countries also makes a compelling case for supranational policy coordination, especially among smaller countries

Jahiliyyah Arabic Verse: The Dichotomy in Its Poetry

This study is actuated with three notions of vital importance to the understanding of Jahiliyyah verse; firstly, that the concept of the ritualistic function of the sha‘ir is in danger of causing the personal and inward aspects of pre-Islamic poetry to be neglected, by providing a convenient explanation of the apparently stereotypical conventionality of Jahiliyyah poetry; secondly, that the poetic force and importance of the dhikr al-atlal and nasib movements,[1] had not been properly understood, the translation of the term nasib as “amatory prelude” being representative of this deficiency in understanding; thirdly, that, although I considered that scholars who discerned  a connection between Jahiliyyah poetry and the concept of muruwwah were on the right path, nevertheless, I did not think that they had fully realized the extent of that connection. The purpose of this study, then, is to rectify what I consider to be serious shortcomings in our knowledge and understanding of the poetry of this period. Keywords: Jahiliyyah; Versification; Poetry; Dichotomy. [1] Movement: the analogy with the musical terminology is intentional, because it captures the essence of the qasidah and how it was composed in a way in which the words ‘section’ or passage’ do not. This will become evidence if the following explanation of the term ‘movement’ is used as a working base: a movement can be a self-contained section, or part, of a larger composition, such as a concerto or symphony in orchestral music, or a sonata, or string-quartet, solo or chamber music. Its self- containment and potential independence capture the peculiar nature of any movement of a pre-Islamic qasidah, which is both integral to, and independence of the qasidah when considered as a holistic phenomenon. The term is applied to such ‘building blocks’ of the qasidah as the nasib and the rihlah

Voices from the Anglo-Saxon world: Accents and dialects across film genres

In this paper we mean to focus on the representation of sociolinguistic variation across social classes in two radically different film genres, i.e. mystery and animated comedy, by analysing Gosford Park (Altman 2001), an ensemble murder mystery which takes place during a hunting party of aristocratic people and their friends; and Gnomeo & Juliet (Asbury 2011), a 3D computer-animated film, loosely based on Shakespeare’ s tragedy, whose protagonists are garden gnomes