LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
A self-reconfigurable platform for general purpose image processing systems on low-cost spartan-6 FPGAs

There is still no partial reconfiguration tool support on low-cost Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) such as old-fashioned Spartan-3 and state-of-the-art Spartan-6 FPGA families by Xilinx. This forces the designers and engineers, who are using the partial reconfiguration capability of FPGAs, to use expensive families such as Virtex-4, Virtex-5 and Virtex-6 which are officially supported by partial reconfiguration (PR) software. Moreover, Xilinx still does not offer a portable, dedicated self-reconfiguration engine for all of the FPGAs. Self-reconfiguration is achieved with general-purpose processors such as MicroBlaze and PowerPC which are too overqualified for this purpose. In this study, we propose a new self-reconfiguration mechanism for Spartan-6 FPGAs. This mechanism can be used to implement large and complex designs on small FPGAs as chip area can be dramatically reduced by exploiting the dynamic partial reconfiguration feature for on-demand functionality loading and maximal utilization of the hardware. This approach is highly attractive for designing low-cost compute-intensive applications such as high performance image processing systems. For Spartan-6 FPGAs, we have developed hard-macros and exploited the self-reconfiguration engine, compressed Parallel Configuration Access Port (cPCAP) [1], that we designed for Spartan-3. The modified cPCAP core with block RAM controller, bitstream decompressor unit and Internal Configuration Access Port (ICAP) Finite State Machine (FSM) occupies only about 82 of 6,822 slices (1.2% of whole device) on a Spartan-XC6SLX45 FPGA and it achieves the maximum theoretical reconfiguration speed of 200MB/s (ICAP, 16-bit at 100MHz) proposed by Xilinx. We have also implemented a Reconfigurable Processing Element (RPE) whose arithmetic unit can be reconfigured on-the-fly. Multiple RPEs can be utilized to design a General Purpose Image Processing System (GPIPS) that can implement a number of different algorithms during runtime. As an illustrative example, we programmed the GPIPS on Spartan-6 for switching between two applications on-demand such as two-dimensional filtering and block-matching.
Recommending Multimedia Objects in Cultural Heritage Applications

Italy’s Cultural Heritage is the world’s most diverse and rich patrimony and attracts millions of visitors every year to monuments, archaeological sites and museums. The valorization of cultural heritage represents nowadays one of the most important research challenges in the Italian scenario. In this paper, we present a general multimedia recommender system able to uniformly manage heterogeneous multimedia data and to provide context-aware recommendation techniques supporting intelligent multimedia services for the users. A specific application of our system within the cultural heritage domain is proposed by means of a real case study in the mobile environment related to an outdoor scenario, together with preliminary results on user’s satisfaction.
Stability of delayed neural networks with time-varying impulses

This paper addresses the stability problem of a class of delayed neural networks with time-varying impulses. One important feature of the time-varying impulses is that both the stabilizing and destabilizing impulses are considered simultaneously. Based on the comparison principle, the stability of delayed neural networks with time-varying impulses is investigated. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the results.
Accessing CAD Geometry for Mesh Generation

One of the major issues of mesh generation today is access to CAD geometry in an accurate and efficient manner. This paper will provide an overview the process of accessing CAD geometry for mesh generation and will review several of the issues associated with accessing CAD geometry for mesh generation. This paper will also evaluate alternative techniques for accessing CAD geometry and review how these techniques address or do not address the issues related to CAD geometry access for mesh generation. The techniques for CAD geometry access to be reviewed include: Translation & Healing, Discrete Representations, Direct Geometry Access, and Unified Topology Accessing Geometry Directly. The intent of this paper is to provide an overview to the alternative approaches and how they address the specific issues related to accessing CAD geometry for mesh generation. It is not the intent of this paper to provide detailed algorithms related to accessing or repairing CAD data.
End-To-End Face Detection and Recognition

Plenty of face detection and recognition methods have been proposed and got delightful results in decades. Common face recognition pipeline consists of: 1) face detection, 2) face alignment, 3) feature extraction, 4) similarity calculation, which are separated and independent from each other. The separated face analyzing stages lead the model redundant calculation and are hard for end-to-end training. In this paper, we proposed a novel end-to-end trainable convolutional network framework for face detection and recognition, in which a geometric transformation matrix was directly learned to align the faces, instead of predicting the facial landmarks. In training stage, our single CNN model is supervised only by face bounding boxes and personal identities, which are publicly available from WIDER FACE [36] dataset and CASIA-WebFace [37] dataset. Tested on Face Detection Dataset and Benchmark (FDDB) [11] dataset and Labeled Face in the Wild (LFW) [9] dataset, we have achieved 89.24% recall for face detection task and 98.63% verification accuracy for face recognition task simultaneously, which are comparable to state-of-the-art results.
Assessment of the structure of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in musculoskeletal patients

BACKGROUND
Research suggests there is a high prevalence of anxiety and depression amongst patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, which can influence the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs. It is therefore important for clinicians involved in musculoskeletal rehabilitation programs to consider screening patients for elevated levels of anxiety and depression and to provide appropriate counselling or treatment where necessary. The HADS has been used as a screening tool for assessment of anxiety and depression in a wide variety of clinical groups. Recent research however has questioned its suitability for use with some patient groups due to problems with dimensionality and the behaviour of individual items. The aim of this study is to assess the underlying structure and psychometric properties of the HADS among patients attending musculoskeletal rehabilitation.


METHODS
Data was obtained from 296 patients attending an outpatient musculoskeletal pain clinic. The total sample was used to identify the proportion of patients with elevated levels of anxiety and depression. Half the sample (n = 142) was used for exploratory factor analysis (EFA), with the holdout sample (n = 154) used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to explore the underlying structure of the scale.


RESULTS
A substantial proportion of patients were classified as probable cases on the HADS Anxiety subscale (38.2%) and HADS Depression subscale (30.1%), with the sample recording higher mean HADS subscales scores than many other patient groups (breast cancer, end-stage renal disease, heart disease) reported in the literature. EFA supported a two factor structure (representing anxiety and depression) as proposed by the scale's authors, however item 7 (an anxiety item) failed to load appropriately. Removing Item 7 resulted in a clear two factor solution in both EFA and CFA.


CONCLUSION
The high levels of anxiety and depression detected in this sample suggests that screening for psychological comorbidity is important in musculoskeletal rehabilitation settings. It is necessary for clinicians who are considering using the HADS as a screening tool to first assess its suitability with their particular patient group. Although EFA and CFA supported the presence of two subscales representing anxiety and depression, the results with this musculoskeletal sample suggest that item 7 should be removed from the anxiety subscale.
A Survey of Augmented Reality Navigation

Navigation has been a popular area of research in both academia and industry. Combined with maps, and different localization technologies, navigation systems have become robust and more usable. By combining navigation with augmented reality, it can be improved further to become realistic and user friendly. This paper surveys existing researches carried out in this area, describes existing techniques for building augmented reality navigation systems, and the problems faced.
Workforce optimization: Identification and assignment of professional workers using constraint programming

Matching highly skilled people to available positions is a high-stakes task that requires careful consideration by experienced resource managers. A wrong decision may result in significant loss of value due to understaffing, underqualification or overqualification of assigned personnel, and high turnover of poorly matched workers. While the importance of quality matching is clear, dealing with pools of hundreds of jobs and resources in a dynamic market generates a significant amount of pressure to make decisions rapidly. We present a novel solution designed to bridge the gap between the need for high-quality matches and the need for timeliness. By applying constraint programming, a subfield of artificial intelligence, we are able to deal successfully with the complex constraints encountered in the field and reach near-optimal assignments that take into account all resources and positions in the pool. The considerations include constraints on job role, skill level, geographical location, language, potential retraining, and many more. Constraints are applied at both the individual and team levels. This paper introduces the technology and then describes its use by IBM Global Services, where large numbers of service and consulting employees are considered when forming teams assigned to customer projects.
What's wrong with consumer capitalism : The joyless economy after twenty years

Abstract The Joyless Economy seeks to explain the paradox of rising consumption and pervasive dissatifaction, and is thus often cited as a critique of consumer society. Yet it is rather ambivalent as critique. A less ambivalent critique would be predicated on the existence of biases toward private consumption as against public consumption, savings, free time, and the environment. These biases result from two sources: the importance of social comparison and the non‐existence of a market in working hours. Because positional competitions occur far more readily around visible private consumer goods, these take a privileged place in expenditures. This process is compounded by the fact that employers systematically deny opportunities to trade income for leisure.
Reforming Physics Instruction Via RTOP

THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 40, November 2002 P rofessional associations of scientists, mathematicians, and educators have called for extensive reform in the teaching of science and mathematics.1,2 Their reports critique U.S. science and mathematics curricula as largely incoherent, excessively repetitive and unfocused — “a mile wide and an inch deep.” 2 In 1995, the National Science Foundation funded a large five-year collaborative project called the Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT) at Arizona State University (ASU).3,4 Recognizing that most teachers teach as they were taught, ACEPT decided to “break the cycle” by reforming the freshman science and mathematics classes taken by preservice teachers. Freshman science and mathematics courses would be reformed — that is, taught via the kinds of constructivist, inquiry-based methods advocated by professional organizations and researchers so that these future teachers would be taught as they were expected to teach. To assess whether reformed teaching was occurring in classes, the ACEPT evaluation team developed a classroom observation instrument called the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP), which both measures and operationally defines reformed teaching. In its present form, the RTOP is a highly reliable instrument with strong predictive validity.5,6 To date, RTOP has been used in more than 400 K–20 science and mathematics classrooms to provide a precise quantitative reading of the degree to which teaching is reformed. RTOP both operationally defines and assesses reformed teaching in the classroom — we henceforth explicitly reserve and define the term reformed teaching to mean those classroom practices that result in a high RTOP score. In the evaluation of ACEPT, RTOP scores were found to strongly correlate with student conceptual gains (Fig. 1), showing that reformed teaching is also effective teaching. Because the correlation coefficients between RTOP and student achievement gains were so high (correlation coefficients in the 0.70–0.95 range Reforming Physics Instruction Via RTOP
Investigation on cored-eutectic structure in Ni60/WC composite coatings fabricated by wide-band laser cladding

Abstract Ni60 composite coatings reinforced with WC particles were fabricated on the surface of Q550 steel using LDF4000-100 fiber laser device. The wide-band laser and circular beam laser used in laser cladding were obtained by optical lens. Microstructure, elemental distribution, phase constitution and wear properties of different composite coatings were investigated. The results showed that WC particles were partly dissolved under the effect of wide-band fiber laser irradiation. A special cored-eutectic structure was synthesized due to dissolution of WC particles. According to EDS and XRD results, the inside cores were confirmed as carbides of M 23 C 6 enriched in Cr, W and Fe. These complex carbides were primarily separated out in the molten metal when solidification started. Eutectic structure composed of M 23 C 6 carbides and γ-Ni(Fe) grew around carbides when cooling. Element content of Cr and W is lower at the bottom of cladding layer. In consequence, the eutectic structure formed in this region did not have inside carbides. The coatings made by circular laser beam were composed of dendritic matrix and interdendritic eutectic carbides, lacking of block carbides. Compared to coatings made by circular laser spot, the cored-eutectic structure formed in wide-band coatings had advantages of well-distribution and tight binding with matrix. The uniform power density and energy distribution and the weak liquid convection in molten pool lead to the unique microstructure evolution in composite coatings made by wide-band laser. Experiment results indicated the wear resistance and microhardness of composite coatings were both significantly improved.
Optimization and Reproducibility of Aortic Valve 18F-Fluoride Positron Emission Tomography in Patients With Aortic Stenosis

BACKGROUND
18F-Fluoride positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) can measure disease activity and progression in aortic stenosis. Our objectives were to optimize the methodology, analysis, and scan-rescan reproducibility of aortic valve 18F-fluoride PET-CT imaging.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Fifteen patients with aortic stenosis underwent repeated 18F-fluoride PET-CT. We compared nongated PET and noncontrast CT, with a modified approach that incorporated contrast CT and ECG-gated PET. We explored a range of image analysis techniques, including estimation of blood-pool activity at differing vascular sites and a most diseased segment approach. Contrast-enhanced ECG-gated PET-CT permitted localization of 18F-fluoride uptake to individual valve leaflets. Uptake was most commonly observed at sites of maximal mechanical stress: the leaflet tips and the commissures. Scan-rescan reproducibility was markedly improved using enhanced analysis techniques leading to a reduction in percentage error from ±63% to ±10% (tissue to background ratio MDS mean of 1.55, bias -0.05, limits of agreement -0·20 to +0·11).


CONCLUSIONS
Optimized 18F-fluoride PET-CT allows reproducible localization of calcification activity to different regions of the aortic valve leaflet and commonly to areas of increased mechanical stress. This technique holds major promise in improving our understanding of the pathophysiology of aortic stenosis and as a biomarker end point in clinical trials of novel therapies.


CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION
URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT02132026.
Axiomatizations of t-norm based logics – A survey

Abstract In fuzzy logic in wider sense, i.e. in the field of fuzzy sets applications, t-norms got a prominent rôle in recent times. In many-valued logic, the ŁUKASIEWICZ systems, the GÖDEL sytems, and also the product logic all are t-norm based systems. The present paper discusses the more general problem of the adequate axiomatizability for such t-norm based logical systems in general, surveying results of the last years. The main emphasis in the present paper is on propositional logic.
Pre-treatment with Irbesartan attenuates left atrial stunning after electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation.

AIMS
Left atrial (LA) stunning, the transient impairment of LA function, is responsible for an increased thrombo-embolic risk after cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (AF). Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) attenuate atrial remodelling in AF and could theoretically influence LA stunning. We studied the effect of Irbesartan on LA stunning.


METHODS AND RESULTS
We prospectively assigned 50 patients from the outpatient clinic undergoing electrical cardioversion for AF with duration of >4 weeks, into two matched groups: 25 patients were treated with Irbesartan (228+/-93 mg/day) for at least 2 weeks prior to cardioversion (Irbesartan group); 25 patients did not receive ARBs (control group). The groups did not differ concerning age (64+/-13 vs. 63+/-13 years, respectively), AF duration (20+/-18 vs. 20+/-19 weeks), underlying disease, LA diameter (46+/-7 vs. 47+/-9 mm), left ventricular dimensions, and ejection fraction (47.7+/-11.6 vs. 49.7+/-14.5%). We assessed LA appendage emptying velocities (LAAEV) and LA spontaneous echo contrast (LASEC) by transoesophageal echocardiography before and after cardioversion and at 2 weeks, and the A-wave by transthoracic echocardiography after cardioversion, at 2 and at 4 weeks. LA stunning was significantly attenuated in the Irbesartan group. The reduction of LAAEV immediately after cardioversion was significantly less in the Irbesartan group (LAAEV reduction of 9+/-49% from 28+/-9 cm/s before cardioversion to 25+/-13 cm/s immediately afterwards) than in the control group (reduction of 48+/-20% from 34+/-15 cm/s before cardioversion to 16+/-6 cm/s afterwards) (P = 0.048). New or increased LASEC occurred in eight patients (32%) in the Irbesartan vs. 16 patients (64%) in the control group (P = 0.046).


CONCLUSION
Irbesartan significantly attenuates LA stunning after electrical cardioversion of AF. Therefore, ARBs may represent an important pharmacological supplementation in patients being prepared for cardioversion.
Understanding agile project management methods using Scrum

Purpose – This paper seeks to define and describe agile project management using the Scrum methodology as a method for more effectively managing and completing projects. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a general overview and introduction to the concepts of agile project management and the Scrum methodology in particular. Findings – Agile project management using the Scrum methodology allows project teams to manage digital library projects more effectively by decreasing the amount of overhead dedicated to managing the project. Using an iterative process of continuous review and short-design time frames, the project team is better able to quickly adapt projects to rapidly evolving environments in which systems will be used. Originality/value – This paper fills a gap in the digital library project management literature by providing an overview of agile project management methods.
High-titer lactic acid production from NaOH-pretreated corn stover by Bacillus coagulans LA204 using fed-batch simultaneous saccharification and fermentation under non-sterile condition.

Lactic acid (LA) is an important chemical with various industrial applications. Non-food feedstock is commercially attractive for use in LA production; however, efficient LA fermentation from lignocellulosic biomass resulting in both high yield and titer faces technical obstacles. In this study, the thermophilic bacterium Bacillus coagulans LA204 demonstrated considerable ability to ferment glucose, xylose, and cellobiose to LA. Importantly, LA204 produces LA from several NaOH-pretreated agro stovers, with remarkably high yields through simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF). A fed-batch SSF process conducted at 50°C and pH 6.0, using a cellulase concentration of 30 FPU (filter paper unit)/g stover and 10 g/L yeast extract in a 5-L bioreactor, was developed to produce LA from 14.4% (w/w) NaOH-pretreated non-sterile corn stover. LA titer, yield, and average productivity reached 97.59 g/L, 0.68 g/g stover, and 1.63 g/L/h, respectively. This study presents a feasible process for lignocellulosic LA production from abundant agro stovers.
Pregnancies conceived using assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have low levels of pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) leading to a high rate of false-positive results in first trimester screening for Down syndrome.

BACKGROUND
First trimester screening (FTS) for Down syndrome combines measurement of nuchal translucency, free beta-human chorionic gonadotrophin and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A). The aim of this study was to undertake a detailed analysis of FTS results in singleton pregnancies conceived using assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and non-ART pregnancies.


METHODS
A record linkage study compared outcomes in 1739 ART-conceived and 50 253 naturally conceived pregnancies.


RESULTS
Overall, significantly lower PAPP-A levels were detected in ART pregnancies (0.83 multiples of median, MoM) than in controls (1.00 MoM) (t-test P < 0.001). This difference remained after excluding complicated pregnancies. Analysis of factors affecting PAPP-A levels suggested fresh compared with frozen embryo transfers and use of artificial cycles compared with natural cycles for frozen transfers were associated with lower values. The adjusted odds ratio (AdjOR) for receiving a false-positive result was 1.71 (95% CI 1.44-2.04; P < 0.001) for ART pregnancies compared with non-ART pregnancies, and this leads to a higher AdjOR (1.24, 95% CI 1.03-1.49; P = 0.02) for having a chorionic villous sampling (CVS) or amniocentesis.


CONCLUSIONS
ART pregnancies have reduced FTS PAPP-A levels leading to an increased likelihood of receiving a false-positive result and having a CVS/amniocentesis. Lower PAPP-A may reflect impairment of early implantation with some forms of ART.