Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-resolution hierarchical point cloud segmenting

Segmentation is a fundamental issue in point cloud geometry process. It has encountered two difficulties. From one side, those efficient mesh based segmentation algorithms could not be applied to cloud, as point cloud doesn't have topology information; the other difficulty is that the existing point cloud segmentation algorithm could not process large scale models directly. In this paper, we introduce a technique to directly segment a large-scale point cloud into distinct parts . We first construct a simplified approximate geometry model for point cloud based on point cloud's boundary volume hierarchy. This new geometry model is a simplified point model enhanced with topology information. We implement a segmentation algorithm to decompose the simplified model into several parts, and then a new simplified model with better approximation is constructed for each of the segmented parts. Next hierarchy segmentation can be done on these simplified models with better resolution. Our experiment results show that the algorithm is robust and efficient.
Finding information nebula over large networks

Social and information networks have been extensively studied over years. In this paper, we concentrate ourselves on a large information network that is composed of entities and relationships, where entities are associated with sets of keyword terms (kterms) to specify what they are, and relationships describe the link structure among entities which can be very complex. Our work is motivated but is different from the existing works that find a best subgraph to describe how user-specified entities are connected. We compute information nebula (cloud) which is a set of top-K kterms P that are most correlated to a set of user-specified kterms Q, over a large information network. Our goal is to find how kterms are correlated given the complex information network among entities. The information nebula computing requests us to take all possible kterms into consideration for the top-K kterms selection, and needs to measure the similarity between kterms by considering all possible subgraphs that connect them instead of the best single one. In this work, we compute information nebula using a global structural-context similarity, and our similarity measure is independent of connection subgraphs. To the best of our knowledge, among the link-based similarity methods, none of the existing work considers similarity between two sets of nodes or two kterms. We propose new algorithms to find top-K kterms P for a given set of kterms Q based on the global structural-context similarity, without computing all the similarity scores of kterms in the large information network. We performed extensive performance studies using large real datasets, and confirmed the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.
Discrete-time Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy finite impulse response filter

In this research article, a new finite impulse response (FIR) filter for discrete time Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy system is proposed to estimate the state of non-linear system. Compared with conventional T-S fuzzy filters which are known to have infinite impulse response (IIR) and require whole data from initial time to the current time to operate, the proposed filter is a FIR filter which guarantees to have robustness to unknown initial data. In addition, the proposed FIR filter satisfies the unbiased condition with the minimum variance error. Simulation result demonstrates that the proposed FIR filter is more robust and fast in convergence under the incorrect initial data than the existing non-linear filters with the same condition by using tunnel diode model.
Regenerating nodes for real-time transmissions in multi-hop wireless networks

The paper extends the analysis of a novel data link layer mechanism introduced in our previous work for real-time service provisioning in multi-hop wireless networks. To combat packet loss along unreliable paths connecting the source with the destination, (i) packet transmissions are distributed along the multiple paths connecting joint nodes and (ii) the redundancy packets are utilized to recover the lost packets on these intermediate connections. The regenerating nodes (RNs), where the actual packet loss recovery is performed in the network, minimize the accumulated number of lost packets at the destination. This joint application of packet level forward error control (FEC) and multiple path routing allows the requirements of real-time transmissions, such as fixed delays and guaranteed packet loss rate (PLR), to be met. The proposed scheme achieves load balancing along the multiple paths which are chosen for packet forwarding based on their PLR. The scheme is sufficiently flexible to accommodate various constraints for delay and reliability that can be tailored to the specific applications. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate the robust performance of the proposed scheme in different topology and PLR scenarios, with special attention given to the choice of the RN positions in the network.
Cooperative Diversity in a Spectrum Sharing Environment Tea

515 Abstract— In this paper, we investigate cooperative diversity in a spectrum sharing environment where secondary users utilize primary users' spectrum only if the interference power received at the primary users is maintained below a predetermined level. The outage probability of a selective decode-and-forward (DF) based cooperative diversity scheme in the secondary network is derived to analyze the effects of spectrum sharing on cooperative diversity. Our analytical and simulation results show that the outage probability is saturated at a certain level of transmit power of secondary users due to interference regulation, and, hence, cooperative diversity gains are lost. Through asymptotic analysis, we also identify the critical value of transmit SNR beyond which the outage probability is saturated.
LIQUID HOT WATER AND STEAM EXPLOSION PRETREATMENT OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE FOR ENZYME PRODUCTION BY A SEQUENTIAL SOLID-STATE AND SUBMERGED METHOD

RESUMO – The use of sugarcane bagasse on enzyme production is a promising alternative for reducing the costs of second generation ethanol. However, a pretreatment step is required to increase cellulose and hemicellulose accessibility. Here, the influence of Liquid Hot Water (LHW) and steam explosion (SE) pretreatments in cultivations with three Aspergillus strains were investigated. A new sequential method was carried out with a first step in solid-state for 24h, followed by the transition to submerged cultivation and enzyme production in the presence of 1% (w/v) of sugarcane for 72h. For both A. niger strains, the endoglucanase production was 20 to 50% higher in cultivations with steam exploded sugarcane bagasse. The xylanase and β-glucosidase production, however, were higher in LHW pretreated sugarcane bagasse, with xylanase production around 23% higher and β-glucosidase up to 4-fold higher. The A. niger A12 strain produced the higher titers of all enzymes evaluated, resulting in 1.26; 26.25; 3.70 and 0.58 IU.mL of endoglucanase, xylanase, β-glucosidase and βxylosidase, respectively, in LHW bagasse. Pretreated bagasse is not suitable for enzyme production by A. oryzae P27C3, indicating that this strain may be more sensitive to possible inhibitory products released from both pretreatments.
Synthesizing two criteria for redundancy resolution of human arm in point tasks

The human arm may be considered to be a redundant mechanism given a pointing task. As a result, multiple arm configurations can be used to complete a pointing task in which the tip of the index finger is brought to a preselected point in space. A kinematic model of the human arm with four degrees of freedom (DOF) and the synthesis of two criteria were developed as an analytical tool for studying position tasks. The two criteria were: (1) minimizing angular joint displacement (Minimal Angular Displacement (MAD)) and (2) averaging limits of the shoulder joint range (Joint Range Availability (JRA)). Joint angles predicted by a weighted model synthesizing the MAD and JRA models was linearly correlated (slope=0.97; r2=0.81) with experimental data compared to individual criteria (MAD slope=0.76; r2=0.67 or JRA slope=1; r2=0.56). The partial contributions to the synthesized criterion were 70% MAD and 30% JRA. Solving the inverse kinematics problem of articulated redundant serials mechanism such as the human or robotic arm has applications in fields of human-robot interaction and wearable robotics, ergonomics, and computer graphics animation.
Equidecomposability (scissors congruence) of polyhedra in R^3 and R^4 is algorithmically decidable: Hilbert's 3rd Problem revisited

Hilbert's third problem: brief reminder. It is known that in a plane, every two polygons P and P ′ of equal area A(P ) = A(P ′) are scissors congruent (equidecomposable)  i.e., they can be both decomposed into the same nite number of pair-wise congruent polygonal pieces: P = P1 ∪ . ∪ Pp, P ′ = P ′ 1 ∪ . ∪ P ′ p, and Pi ∼ P ′ i . In one of the 23 problems that D. Hilbert formulated in 1900 as a challenge to the 20 century mathematics, namely, in Problem No. 3, Hilbert asked whether every two polyhedra P and P ′ with the same volume V (P ) = V (P ′) are equidecomposable (Hilbert 1900). This problem was the rst to be solved: already in 1900, Dehn proved (Dehn 1900, Dehn 1901) that there exist a tetrahedron of volume 1 which is not scissors congruent with a unit cube. He proved it by showing that for every additive function f : R → R from real numbers to real numbers for which f(2π) = 0, the expression
Rift Valley Fever Virus NSs Protein Promotes Post-Transcriptional Downregulation of Protein Kinase PKR and Inhibits eIF2α Phosphorylation

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) (genus Phlebovirus, family Bunyaviridae) is a negative-stranded RNA virus with a tripartite genome. RVFV is transmitted by mosquitoes and causes fever and severe hemorrhagic illness among humans, and fever and high rates of abortions in livestock. A nonstructural RVFV NSs protein inhibits the transcription of host mRNAs, including interferon-β mRNA, and is a major virulence factor. The present study explored a novel function of the RVFV NSs protein by testing the replication of RVFV lacking the NSs gene in the presence of actinomycin D (ActD) or α-amanitin, both of which served as a surrogate of the host mRNA synthesis suppression function of the NSs. In the presence of the host-transcriptional inhibitors, the replication of RVFV lacking the NSs protein, but not that carrying NSs, induced double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR)–mediated eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF)2α phosphorylation, leading to the suppression of host and viral protein translation. RVFV NSs promoted post-transcriptional downregulation of PKR early in the course of the infection and suppressed the phosphorylated eIF2α accumulation. These data suggested that a combination of RVFV replication and NSs-induced host transcriptional suppression induces PKR-mediated eIF2α phosphorylation, while the NSs facilitates efficient viral translation by downregulating PKR and inhibiting PKR-mediated eIF2α phosphorylation. Thus, the two distinct functions of the NSs, i.e., the suppression of host transcription, including that of type I interferon mRNAs, and the downregulation of PKR, work together to prevent host innate antiviral functions, allowing efficient replication and survival of RVFV in infected mammalian hosts.
A Comparison of the Epidemiology and Clinical Presentation of Seasonal Influenza A and 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) in Guatemala

Background A new influenza A (H1N1) virus was first found in April 2009 and proceeded to cause a global pandemic. We compare the epidemiology and clinical presentation of seasonal influenza A (H1N1 and H3N2) and 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) (pH1N1) using a prospective surveillance system for acute respiratory disease in Guatemala. Methodology/Findings Patients admitted to two public hospitals in Guatemala in 2008–2009 who met a pneumonia case definition, and ambulatory patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) at 10 ambulatory clinics were invited to participate. Data were collected through patient interview, chart abstraction and standardized physical and radiological exams. Nasopharyngeal swabs were taken from all enrolled patients for laboratory diagnosis of influenza A virus infection with real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. We identified 1,744 eligible, hospitalized pneumonia patients, enrolled 1,666 (96%) and tested samples from 1,601 (96%); 138 (9%) had influenza A virus infection. Surveillance for ILI found 899 eligible patients, enrolled 801 (89%) and tested samples from 793 (99%); influenza A virus infection was identified in 246 (31%). The age distribution of hospitalized pneumonia patients was similar between seasonal H1N1 and pH1N1 (P = 0.21); the proportion of pneumonia patients <1 year old with seasonal H1N1 (39%) and pH1N1 (37%) were similar (P = 0.42). The clinical presentation of pH1N1 and seasonal influenza A was similar for both hospitalized pneumonia and ILI patients. Although signs of severity (admission to an intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation and death) were higher among cases of pH1N1 than seasonal H1N1, none of the differences was statistically significant. Conclusions/Significance Small sample sizes may limit the power of this study to find significant differences between seasonal influenza A and pH1N1. In Guatemala, influenza, whether seasonal or pH1N1, appears to cause severe disease mainly in infants; targeted vaccination of children should be considered.
Wavelet domain features for texture description, classification and replicability analysis

In this paper we present a new wavelet domain technique for texture analysis and test of pattern replicability. The main property of the proposed features is that they measure texture quality along the most important perceptual dimensions. In other words, we quantify and classify textures according to their directionality, symmetry regularity and type of regularity. After the feature extraction, texture classification is performed by traversing a tree. The algorithm is tested on a database with 340 images demonstrating an excellent classification accuracy.
Classical Discrete-Time Fourier TransformBased Channel Estimation for MIMO-OFDM Systems in Vehicular Communications Technology

In this document, we look at various time domain channel estimation methods with this constraint of null carriers at spectrumborders.We showin detail howto gauge the importance of the “border effect” depending on the number of null carriers, which may vary from one system to another. Thereby we assess the limit of the technique discussed when the number of null carriers is large. Finally the DFT with the truncated singular value decomposition (SVD) technique is proposed to completely eliminate the impact of the null subcarriers whatever their number. A technique for the determination of the truncation threshold for any MIMO-OFDM system is also proposed.
Speech-recognition Outcomes in Older Adults with Cochlear Implants: A Systematic Review

iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.iv INTRODUCTION.1 METHODS.4 RESULTS.5 COMPARISON OF OLDER AND YOUNGER ADULT SPEECH-RECOGNITION OUTCOMES.15 OLDER ADULT PREAND POST-IMPLANTATION SCORES OVER TIME.23 DISCUSSION.28 CONCLUSION.31
Exploring Waste and Value in a Lean Context

The purpose of this paper is to take a critical, analytical approach to the concepts of waste and value in the lean literature and how the concepts are applied in organisations’ lean efforts and the ambiguity surrounding the concept of value. A review of the literature of lean was undertaken with a specific focus of the definitions of waste and value. In addition, it is illustrated how four case companies work with waste and value within a lean context. The literature review revealed that there have been significantly more frequent and exhaustive discussions of waste than of value. Waste is often related to the seven wastes, but value is rarely clearly defined. The cases show an exclusive focus on waste reduction, which we argue can result in a loss of value. This paper provides a critical review of the relationship between waste and value and some of the consequences caused by the actions taken by companies regarding solely focusing on waste. This paper demonstrates the order winner and order qualifier dimensions should be regarded in the analysis of waste and value, and incorporated in the lean toolbox. In the lean research literature there is lack of discussion of the actual value for the customer. We argue that finding a special concept of value in the lean literature would be desirable, and elaborating on value as a specific tool in the lean toolbox, since the concept of ‘waste’ cannot replace the concept of ‘value’.
Putting Gestalt Laws at Work

The inherent complexity and ambiguity of scene properties renders vision extremely difficult without taking advantage of the statistical regularities of natural images. The most basic forms of these image regularities are captured by the Gestalt laws of perceptual organization [5, 15, 21]. This paper reports two versions of a multiscale and multiorientation artificial recognition system in which some of these Gestalt laws: good continuation, cocurvilinearity, proximity, and constancy of curvature (smoothness) are explicitly implemented. The recognition performance of these two ‘Gestalt enhanced’ models, of humans and of a baseline model where no Gestalt principles were implemented are compared on several sets of line-drawn images. It was found that the performance of the two ‘Gestalt enhanced’ recognition systems not only increased significantly compared with the baseline model, but their performance also became qualitatively much closer to that of humans. There was no significant difference found between the performance of the two enhanced models with slightly different Gestalt law implementations.
Discrete Derivatives of Vector Fields on Surfaces -- An Operator Approach

Vector fields on surfaces are fundamental in various applications in computer graphics and geometry processing. In many cases, in addition to representing vector fields, the need arises to compute their derivatives, for example, for solving partial differential equations on surfaces or for designing vector fields with prescribed smoothness properties. In this work, we consider the problem of computing the Levi-Civita covariant derivative, that is, the tangential component of the standard directional derivative, on triangle meshes. This problem is challenging since, formally, tangent vector fields on polygonal meshes are often viewed as being discontinuous, hence it is not obvious what a good derivative formulation would be. We leverage the relationship between the Levi-Civita covariant derivative of a vector field and the directional derivative of its component functions to provide a simple, easy-to-implement discretization for which we demonstrate experimental convergence. In addition, we introduce two linear which provide access to additional constructs in Riemannian geometry that are not easy to discretize otherwise, including the parallel transport operator which can be seen simply as a certain matrix exponential. Finally, we show the applicability of our operator to various tasks, such as fluid simulation on curved surfaces and vector field design, by posing algebraic constraints on the covariant derivative operator.
Which Bisphosphonate? It's the Compliance!: Decision Analysis

Background The best options of several bisphosphonates for prevention of osteoporotic fractures in postmenopausal women remain controversial. We determined which bisphosphonate provides better efficacy in prevention of osteoporotic fractures using a decision analysis tool, in terms of quality of life. Methods A decision analysis model was constructed containing final outcome score and the probability of vertebral and hip fracture within 1 year. Final outcome was defined as health-related quality of life, and was used as an utility in the decision tree. Probabilities were obtained by literature review, and health-related quality of life was evaluated by consensus committee. A roll back tool was used to determine the best bisphosphonate, and sensitivity analysis was performed to compensate for decision model uncertainty. Results The decision model favored bisphosphonate with higher compliance in terms of quality of life. In one-way sensitivity analysis, ibandronate was more beneficial than the others, when probability of compliance on ibandronate was above 0.589. Conclusions In terms of quality of life, the decision analysis model showed that compliance was most important for patients in real world, regardless of type of bisphosphonate.
An Efficient Synchronous Static Memory design for Embedded System

Custom memory organization are challenging task in the area of VLSI design. This study aims to design high speed and low power consumption memory for embedded system. Synchronous SRAM has been proposed and analyzed using various simulators. Xilinx simulator simulates the Synchronous SRAM memories which can perform efficient read/write capability for embedded systems. Xinix tool also provide the access time that required selecting a word and reading it. Synchronous Static RAM which has easily read /writes capability and performs scheduled read /writes operation in efficient manner.
Myocardial Perfusion and Function Are Distinctly Altered by Sevoflurane Anesthesia in Diet-Induced Prediabetic Rats

Preservation of myocardial perfusion during surgery is particularly important in patients with increased risk for perioperative complications, such as diabetes. Volatile anesthetics, like sevoflurane, have cardiodepressive effects and may aggravate cardiovascular complications. We investigated the effect of sevoflurane on myocardial perfusion and function in prediabetic rats. Rats were fed a western diet (WD; n = 18) or control diet (CD; n = 18) for 8 weeks and underwent (contrast) echocardiography to determine perfusion and function during baseline and sevoflurane exposure. Myocardial perfusion was estimated based on the product of microvascular filling velocity and blood volume. WD-feeding resulted in a prediabetic phenotype characterized by obesity, hyperinsulinemia, hyperlipidemia, glucose intolerance, and hyperglycemia. At baseline, WD-feeding impaired myocardial perfusion and systolic function compared to CD-feeding. Exposure of healthy rats to sevoflurane increased the microvascular filling velocity without altering myocardial perfusion but impaired systolic function. In prediabetic rats, sevoflurane did also not affect myocardial perfusion; however, it further impaired systolic function. Diet-induced prediabetes is associated with impaired myocardial perfusion and function in rats. While sevoflurane further impaired systolic function, it did not affect myocardial perfusion in prediabetic rats. Our findings suggest that sevoflurane anesthesia leads to uncoupling of myocardial perfusion and function, irrespective of the metabolic state.