Approximation and Non-parametric Estimation of ResNet-type Convolutional Neural Networks

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been shown to achieve optimal approximation and estimation error rates (in minimax sense) in several function classes. However, previous analyzed optimal CNNs are unrealistically wide and difficult to obtain via optimization due to sparse constraints in important function classes, including the H\"older class. We show a ResNet-type CNN can attain the minimax optimal error rates in these classes in more plausible situations -- it can be dense, and its width, channel size, and filter size are constant with respect to sample size. The key idea is that we can replicate the learning ability of Fully-connected neural networks (FNNs) by tailored CNNs, as long as the FNNs have \textit{block-sparse} structures. Our theory is general in a sense that we can automatically translate any approximation rate achieved by block-sparse FNNs into that by CNNs. As an application, we derive approximation and estimation error rates of the aformentioned type of CNNs for the Barron and H\"older classes with the same strategy.Comment: 8 pages + References 2 pages + Supplemental material 18 page

A RESTful API for exchanging Materials Data in the AFLOWLIB.org consortium

The continued advancement of science depends on shared and reproducible data. In the field of computational materials science and rational materials design this entails the construction of large open databases of materials properties. To this end, an Application Program Interface (API) following REST principles is introduced for the AFLOWLIB.org materials data repositories consortium. AUIDs (Aflowlib Unique IDentifier) and AURLs (Aflowlib Uniform Resource locator) are assigned to the database resources according to a well-defined protocol described herein, which enables the client to access, through appropriate queries, the desired data for post-processing. This introduces a new level of openness into the AFLOWLIB repository, allowing the community to construct high-level work-flows and tools exploiting its rich data set of calculated structural, thermodynamic, and electronic properties. Furthermore, federating these tools would open the door to collaborative investigation of the data by an unprecedented extended community of users to accelerate the advancement of computational materials design and development.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

Governing Transnationalisation and the Transformation of Sovereignty

In this article, we examine transnationalism and its governance with a view on the transformation of sovereignty. Transnationalism and sovereignty are in many ways conflicting but also necessarily connected. We explore these connections, more specifically, how the states (governments) govern, regulate, and utilise contexts that have developed transnational characteristics – e.g., via migration, economic transnationalisation, and meso-level trans-border cooperation. On this basis, we develop a typology of state-driven governance of transnationalism. This typology is discussed in juxtaposition to sovereignty as a multidimensional phenomenon and related to the main aspects of sovereignty: internal, external, and popular sovereignty.We conclude that transnationalisation is governable by the states, given adequate institutional arrangements. Sovereignty, especially internal sovereignty, can also be accumulated by the governments in transnational contexts. Popular and external sovereignty become fuzzier as people move around, and so does territory, as states no longer operate confined only to their borders. Instead, the administrative state becomes more relevant as the locus of sovereignty, as transnationals are necessarily related to administrative rules and procedures governing their movement, settlement, and activities. However, to the extent popular and external sovereignty remain relevant, they act as balances to the increase in internal sovereignty.Keywords: transnationalism, governance, the state, sovereignty, migration

Finding the Imagined Motherland in China: the Italian experience in Tianjin

Nearly one hundred years ago, from 25 to 27 September, 1910 a Conference of =Orientalist-Geographers` was held to commemorate the =apostle and geographer of China`, the Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci (1552-1610). This event took place three hundred years after his death, in his native town, Macerata (Anonymous, 1911, 1). On that occasion, two of the invited speakers, Mr E. A. Perogio and Mr L. Sborlino, chose as the focus of their speeches =Italians and Government in China` (Italiani e Governo in Cina) and =The Royal Italian Concession of Tien-Tsin`, respectively. By this stage, nearly fifty years had passed since the complex and problematic creation of the newly unified Italian State, and significantly, only nine years had elapsed after the official acquisition from the Qing Government of the territory destined to become the Italian concession (yizujie), that has been re-baptised today as Italianstyle scenic neighbourhood (yishi fengqingqu)

Seeing environmental violence in deep time: perspectives from contemporary Mongolian literature and music

What does it mean to do violence in deep time? How is deep time evoked in our understanding of environmental harm? Environmental transformations have figured prominently in the recent history of Mongolia. Shifts in land use have been associated with severe pasture degradation, and the precarity of herding livelihoods has been a factor accelerating urbanization. Most recently, the intensification of mining activity has been a particular source of social and economic change. These contexts have led to a political and religious reevaluation of human relationships with the land. This article focuses on literary and musical interventions (particularly rap music in the first part of the article and the literary work of G. Mend-Ooyo in the later part) that draw attention to this changing relationship with the environment, which the article portrays as a potential rupture. We explore how these works domesticate deep time, nesting personal histories within the temporal depth of the landscape and crosshatching biographical, mythological, and geologic understandings of time. Yet we then see how this domestication comes to be threatened by developments that sever the relationship between people and land, leading to the disturbing prospect of being left stranded in the face of an inhospitable deep time

The effects of digital technology on opportunity recognition

Recognizing opportunities enabled by digital technology (DT) has become a competitive necessity in today’s digital world. However, opportunity recognition is a major challenge given the influence of DT, which not only disperses agency across various actors, but also blurs boundaries between customers, companies, products, and industries. As a result, traditional entrepreneurship knowledge needs to be rethought and the effects of DT on opportunity recognition need to be better understood. Drawing from opportunity recognition theory – as one of the central theories in the entrepreneurship domain – this study builds on a structured literature review to identify and explain three direct as well as three transitive effects of DT on opportunity recognition. These effects have been validated with real-world cases as well as interviews with academics and practitioners. In sum, this study contributes to descriptive and explanatory knowledge on the evolution from traditional to digital entrepreneurship. As a theory for explaining, the findings extend opportunity recognition theory by illuminating how and why DT influences opportunity recognition. This supports research and practice in investigating and managing opportunities more effectively. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12599-021-00733-9