Fluctuation relations and rare realizations of transport observables

Fluctuation relations establish rigorous identities for the nonequilibrium averages of observables. Starting from a general transport master equation with time-dependent rates, we employ the stochastic path integral approach to study statistical fluctuations around such averages. We show how under nonequilibrium conditions, rare realizations of transport observables are crucial and imply massive fluctuations that may completely mask such identities. Quantitative estimates for these fluctuations are provided. We illustrate our results on the paradigmatic example of a mesoscopic RC circuit.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor changes, published versio

Crowdsourcing Fungal Biodiversity : Revision of Inaturalist Observations in Northwestern Siberia

The paper presents the first analysis of crowdsourcing data of all observations of fungi (including lichens) and myxomycetes in Northwestern Siberia uploaded to iNaturalist.org to date (24.02.2022). The Introduction presents an analysis of fungal diversity crowdsourcing globally, in Russia, and in the region of interest. Materials and methods describe the protocol of uploading data to iNaturalist.org, the structure of the crowdsourcing community. initiative to revise the accumulated data. procedures of data analysis, and compilation of a dataset of revised crowdsourced data. The Results present the analysis of accumulated data by several parameters: temporal, geographical and taxonomical scope, observation and identification efforts, identifiability of various taxa, species novelty and Red Data Book categories and the protection status of registered observations. The Discussion provides data on usability of crowdsourcing data for biodiversity research and conservation of fungi, including pros and contras. The Electronic Supplements to the paper include an annotated checklist of observations of protected species with information on Red Data Book categories and the protection status, and an annotated checklist of regional records of new taxa. The paper is supplemented with a dataset of about 15 000 revised and annotated records available through Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The tradition of crowdsourcing is rooted in mycological societies around the world, including Russia. In Northwestern Siberia, a regional mycological club was established in 2018, encouraging its members to contribute observations of fungi on iNaturalist.org. A total of about 15 000 observations of fungi and myxomycetes were uploaded so far, by about 200 observers, from three administrative regions (Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Okrug, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and Tyumen Region). The geographical coverage of crowdsourcing observations remains low. However. the observation activity has increased in the last four years. The goal of this study consisted of a collaborative effort of professional mycologists invited to help with the identification of these observations and analysis of the accumulated data. As a result, all observations were reviewed by at least one expert. About half of all the observations have been identified reliably to the species level and received Research Grade status. Of those, 90 species (195 records) represented records of taxa new to their respective regions: 876 records of 53 species of protected species provide important data for conservation programmes. The other half of the observations consists of records still under-identified for various reasons: poor quality photographs, complex taxa (impossible to identify without microscopic or molecular study). or lack of experts in a particular taxonomic group. The Discussion section summarises the pros and cons of the use of crowdsourcing for the study and conservation of regional fungal diversity, and summarises the dispute on this subject among mycologists. Further research initiatives involving crowdsourcing data must focus on an increase in the quality of observations and strive to introduce the habit of collecting voucher specimens among the community of amateurs. The timely feedback from experts is also important to provide quality and the increase of personal involvement.Peer reviewe

Preface to the Special Issue on Probability and Stochastic Processes with Applications to Communications, Systems and Networks

This Special Issue is devoted to probability, statistics, stochastic processes, and their different applications in systems and networks analysis [...

Preface to the Special Issue on Probability and Stochastic Processes with Applications to Communications, Systems and Networks

This Special Issue is devoted to probability, statistics, stochastic processes, and their different applications in systems and networks analysis [...

Introducing a Novel Method for Smart Expansive Systems’ Operation Risk Synthesis

In different areas of human activity, the need to choose optimal (rational) options for actions from the proposed alternatives inevitably arises. In the case of retrospective statistical data, risk analysis is a convenient tool for solving the problem of choice. However, when planning the growth and development of complex systems, a new approach to decision-making is needed. This article discusses the concept of risk synthesis when comparing alternative options for the development of a special class of complex systems, called smart expansive systems, by the authors. “Smart” in this case implies a system capable of ensuring a balance between its growth and development, considering possible external and internal risks and limitations. Smart expansive systems are considered in a quasi-linear approximation and in stationary conditions of problem-solving. In general, when the alternative to comparison is not the object itself, but some scalar way of determining risks, the task of selecting the objects most at risk is reduced to assessing the weights of factors affecting the integral risk. As a result, there is a complex task of analyzing the risks of objects, solved through the amount by which the integral risk can be minimized. Risks are considered as anti-potentials of the system development, being retarders of the reproduction rate of the system. The authors give a brief description of a smart expansive system and propose approaches to modeling the type of functional dependence of the integral risk of functioning of such a system on many risks, measured, as a rule, in synthetic scales of pairwise comparisons. The solution to the problem of reducing the dimension of influencing factors (private risks) using the vector compression method (in group and inter-scale formulations) is described. This article presents an original method for processing matrices of incomplete pairwise comparisons with indistinctly specified information, based on the idea of constructing reference-consistent solutions. Examples are provided of how the vector compression method can be applied to solve practical problems

Introducing a Novel Method for Smart Expansive Systems’ Operation Risk Synthesis

In different areas of human activity, the need to choose optimal (rational) options for actions from the proposed alternatives inevitably arises. In the case of retrospective statistical data, risk analysis is a convenient tool for solving the problem of choice. However, when planning the growth and development of complex systems, a new approach to decision-making is needed. This article discusses the concept of risk synthesis when comparing alternative options for the development of a special class of complex systems, called smart expansive systems, by the authors. “Smart” in this case implies a system capable of ensuring a balance between its growth and development, considering possible external and internal risks and limitations. Smart expansive systems are considered in a quasi-linear approximation and in stationary conditions of problem-solving. In general, when the alternative to comparison is not the object itself, but some scalar way of determining risks, the task of selecting the objects most at risk is reduced to assessing the weights of factors affecting the integral risk. As a result, there is a complex task of analyzing the risks of objects, solved through the amount by which the integral risk can be minimized. Risks are considered as anti-potentials of the system development, being retarders of the reproduction rate of the system. The authors give a brief description of a smart expansive system and propose approaches to modeling the type of functional dependence of the integral risk of functioning of such a system on many risks, measured, as a rule, in synthetic scales of pairwise comparisons. The solution to the problem of reducing the dimension of influencing factors (private risks) using the vector compression method (in group and inter-scale formulations) is described. This article presents an original method for processing matrices of incomplete pairwise comparisons with indistinctly specified information, based on the idea of constructing reference-consistent solutions. Examples are provided of how the vector compression method can be applied to solve practical problems