Beyond Transmitting Bits: Context, Semantics, and Task-Oriented Communications

Communication systems to date primarily aim at reliably communicating bit sequences. Such an approach provides efficient engineering designs that are agnostic to the meanings of the messages or to the goal that the message exchange aims to achieve. Next generation systems, however, can be potentially enriched by folding message semantics and goals of communication into their design. Further, these systems can be made cognizant of the context in which communication exchange takes place, providing avenues for novel design insights. This tutorial summarizes the efforts to date, starting from its early adaptations, semantic-aware and task-oriented communications, covering the foundations, algorithms and potential implementations. The focus is on approaches that utilize information theory to provide the foundations, as well as the significant role of learning in semantics and task-aware communications.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figure

Pseudogenization of Mc1r gene associated with transcriptional changes related to melanogensis explains leucistic phenotypes in Oreonectes cavefish (Cypriniformes, Nemacheilidae)

Organisms that have colonized underground caves encounter vastly different selective pressures than their relatives in above‐ground habitats. While disruption of certain pigmentation genes has been documented in various cave‐dwelling taxa, little is known about wider impacts across pigmentation and other gene pathways. We here study the timeframe and transcriptional landscape of a leucistic and blind cypriniform fish (Oreonectes daqikongensis, Nemacheilidae) that inhabits karst caves in Guizhou, China. Based on data from the mitochondrial ND4, ND5, and Cytb genes, we show that the divergence between O. daqikongensis and its most closely related pigmented species occurred ca. 6.82 million years ago (95% HPD, 5.12–9.01), providing ample time for widespread phenotypic change. Indeed, we found that the DNA sequence of Mc1r (melanocortin‐1 receptor), a key gene regulating the biosynthesis of melanin in most vertebrates, is pseudogenized in O. daqikongensis, caused by a 29 bp deletion in the protein‐coding region. Furthermore, 99,305 unigenes were annotated based on the transcriptome of skin tissue of Oreonectes fish. Among the differentially expressed unigenes, 7,326 (7.4% of the total unigenes) had decreased expression and 2,530 (2.5% of the total unigenes) had increased expression in O. daqikongensis skin. As predicted, the expression of Mc1r and 18 additional genes associated with melanin biosynthesis was significantly downregulated in the skin tissue of O. daqikongensis, but not in its congener. Our results, integrating with other studies on cavefishes, suggest that loss of pigmentation was caused by coding region loss‐of‐function mutations along with widespread transcriptional changes, resulting from extended evolutionary time as a cave‐dwelling form

First record of Pampus minor (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Stromateidae) from the coastal waters of Wenzhou, China

Pampus fishes (Perciformes: Stromateidae) are important commercial species and include six valid species in China. The southern lesser pomfret (Pampus minor Liu and Li, 1998) is a species of Pampus for which knowledge is incomplete. This report confirms the occurrence of P. minor in the coastal waters of Wenzhou, China, by analyzing five specimens of P. minor obtained in Wenzhou in March 2019. Morphometric measurements and meristic counts were performed. The diagnostic morphological features of these species were consistent with those of the neotype specimen of P. minor and sufficient for separating the examined specimens from other Pampus species. This study was based on the Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit 1 (CO1) gene, which was sequenced for the purpose of identification. The genetic distances between P. minor and other Pampus species ranged from 13.4% to 15.5%, and the mean genetic distance within the P. minor group was 0.2%. Given that P. minor has not been reported in this region, our findings represent the first record from the coastal waters of Wenzhou and extend the distribution range of this species to the central and northern East China Sea. The reason for the observed northward migration of some P. minor individuals from their northernmost recorded habitat (Taiwan Strait) might be global warming. The collection of additional specimens is needed to further study the geographic limits of P. minor and its presumed northern expansion

Modeling Study of the Air Quality Impact of Record-Breaking Southern California Wildfires in December 2017

We investigate the air quality impact of record‐breaking wildfires in Southern California during 5–18 December 2017 using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry in combination with satellite and surface observations. This wildfire event was driven by dry and strong offshore Santa Ana winds, which played a critical role in fire formation and air pollutant transport. By utilizing fire emissions derived from the high‐resolution (375 × 375 m²) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite active fire detections, the simulated magnitude and temporal evolution of fine particulate matter (PM_(2.5)) concentrations agree reasonably well with surface observations (normalized mean bias = 4.0%). Meanwhile, the model could generally capture the spatial pattern of aerosol optical depth from satellite observations. Sensitivity tests reveal that using a high spatial resolution for fire emissions and a reasonable treatment of plume rise (a fair split between emissions injected at surface and those lifted to upper levels) is important for achieving decent PM_(2.5) simulation results. Biases in PM_(2.5) simulation are relatively large (about 50%) during the period with the strongest Santa Ana wind, due to a possible underestimation of burning area and uncertainty in wind field variation. The 2017 December fire event increases the 14‐day averaged PM_(2.5) concentrations by up to 231.2 μg/m³ over the downwind regions, which substantially exceeds the U.S. air quality standards, potentially leading to adverse health impacts. The human exposure to fire‐induced PM_(2.5) accounts for 14–42% of the annual total PM_(2.5) exposure in areas impacted by the fire plumes

Expression profiles of microRNAs in skeletal muscle of sheep by deep sequencing

Objective MicroRNAs are a class of endogenous small regulatory RNAs that regulate cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Recent studies on miRNAs are mainly focused on mice, human and pig. However, the studies on miRNAs in skeletal muscle of sheep are not comprehensive. Methods RNA-seq technology was used to perform genomic analysis of miRNAs in prenatal and postnatal skeletal muscle of sheep. Targeted genes were predicted using miRanda software and miRNA-mRNA interactions were verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. To further investigate the function of miRNAs, candidate targeted genes were enriched for analysis using gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) enrichment. Results The results showed total of 1,086 known miRNAs and 40 new candidate miRNAs were detected in prenatal and postnatal skeletal muscle of sheep. In addition, 345 miRNAs (151 up-regulated, 94 down-regulated) were differentially expressed. Moreover, miRanda software was performed to predict targeted genes of miRNAs, resulting in a total of 2,833 predicted targets, especially miR-381 which targeted multiple muscle-related mRNAs. Furthermore, GO and KEGG pathway analysis confirmed that targeted genes of miRNAs were involved in development of skeletal muscles. Conclusion This study supplements the miRNA database of sheep, which provides valuable information for further study of the biological function of miRNAs in sheep skeletal muscle

LLMs as Workers in Human-Computational Algorithms? Replicating Crowdsourcing Pipelines with LLMs

LLMs have shown promise in replicating human-like behavior in crowdsourcing tasks that were previously thought to be exclusive to human abilities. However, current efforts focus mainly on simple atomic tasks. We explore whether LLMs can replicate more complex crowdsourcing pipelines. We find that modern LLMs can simulate some of crowdworkers' abilities in these "human computation algorithms," but the level of success is variable and influenced by requesters' understanding of LLM capabilities, the specific skills required for sub-tasks, and the optimal interaction modality for performing these sub-tasks. We reflect on human and LLMs' different sensitivities to instructions, stress the importance of enabling human-facing safeguards for LLMs, and discuss the potential of training humans and LLMs with complementary skill sets. Crucially, we show that replicating crowdsourcing pipelines offers a valuable platform to investigate (1) the relative strengths of LLMs on different tasks (by cross-comparing their performances on sub-tasks) and (2) LLMs' potential in complex tasks, where they can complete part of the tasks while leaving others to humans