Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tetris : a training image generator for SGeMS

The recent developments of training image-based geostatistics have allowed the creation of stochastic models with greater realism than before. These algorithms aim at reproducing spatial patterns, such as connectivity, that are depicted in a training image. A training image contains the possible spatial configurations for any given geological object and relationships between objects. However, algorithms for generating training images are still incomplete and unsatisfactory. The proposed design overcomes a major hurdle of rigidity of pre-defined geological objects in the current training image generators. This paper presents a plugin to the SGeMS software that allows modelers to generate geological objects with complex geometries and the relevant interactions between these objects. First, a geological object is built either from pre-coded shapes, such as ellipsoid, cuboid, kernels, or user defined. These basic shapes are then assembled with geometrical operations (difference, union and intersection) to create new complex shapes. For added flexibility, any shape can be translated, rotated and sheared. A second set of parameters control the interactions between the geological objects. Each parameter used in the training image construction (e.g. size, the rotation angles, number of stacks) can vary in space. This locally varying parametrization allows the representation of trends in geological body geometry, interactions, and locations. ∗The auhors would like to thanks Marco Pontiggia, Sergio Nardon and Giuseppe Serafini at Eni for their support and valuable suggestions.
tert-Butyl 3-[2,2-bis(ethoxycarbonyl)vinyl]-2-methyl-1H-indole-1-carboxylate

In the title compound, C22H27NO6, the indole ring system is planar and the ethoxycarbonyl chains adopt extended conformations. In the crystal, inversion dimers linked by pairs of C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds occur, resulting in R 2 2(16) dimers, which are interlinked into a chain propagating along the a axis by π–π stacking interactions [centroid–centroid distance 3.5916 (9) Å].
A Novel Use of Statistical Parsing to Extract Information from Text

Since 1995, a few statistical parsing algorithms have demonstrated a breakthrough in parsing accuracy, as measured against the UPenn TREEBANK as a gold standard. In this paper we report adapting a lexicalized, probabilistic context-free parser to information extraction and evaluate this new technique on MUC-7 template elements and template relations.
Integration of simulation and neural network in forecasting the throughput for TFT-LCD colour filter fabs

In manufacturing industry, the strategy of operations management influences the performance of production. The work in process control and order release policy are two important factors that would affect a decision-making of strategy. To evaluate the performance of these factors, simulation has been widely applied in recent years. Since running simulation always takes time, it is difficult to provide information promptly for production planners to respond to practical situation in industry. To solve this issue, a simulation assisted neural network forecasting system of throughput for thin film transistor liquid crystal display colour filter fabs is developed. This system enables planners to conduct what-if analysis for the production control policies without disturbing operations in a real plant. The obtained results show the forecasting system has the same capacity to estimate the throughput of production as a simulation model, but the response time is much faster.
An adaptive approach to the characters size for text detection in images

Since texts which are added to the images contain important information, extraction of these texts is an important issue. In the proposed approach, first some preprocessing operations are performed to transform original image to an image with a few number of gray levels, in which computational costs is reduced for extracting texts. Then a number is assigned to each connected component, and some corrections with consideration to the text and character properties are performed. With these operations texts are extracted somedeal. In the next stage some proper processing are used to eliminate noises. Then with this knowledge that in the texts, characters lay in a direction regularly, some of wrongly text detected areas are eliminated and finally with a proper technique this approach is adapted to the size of texts and characters.
Inertial Zeroing Neural Network for Robot Manipulator Control Described by Different-Level Dynamic Linear System

Enhancing the stability and precision of robot manipulator control represents a pivotal focus in engineering. In this paper, we focus on studying how to optimize the stability and accuracy of robot manipulator control. The proposed approach merges an inertial neural network with a discrete zeroing neural network, resulting in a remarkable reduction of shaking and error. The discrete zeroing neural network model is proposed in the basis of the different-level dynamic linear system. However, this model has the disadvantage of significant oscillations in solving different-level dynamic linear systems with great joint angle jitter and derivative of the change in joint values, which may result in hardware damage and control errors. In order to solve this problem, we put forward an inertial zeroing neural network. The tracking error of the inertial zeroing neural network is smaller than the tracking error of the general zeroing neural network. In addition, the joint angle jitter of the inertial zeroing neural network is smaller and the robot manipulator changes more smoothly at the initial phase. The results of the simulation confirm the superiority of the initial zeroing neural network.
Automatic Nonzero Structure Analysis

The efficiency of sparse codes heavily depends on the size and structure of the input data. Peculiarities of the nonzero structure of each sparse matrix must be accounted for to avoid unsatisfying performance. Therefore, it is important to have an efficient analyzer that automatically determines characteristics of nonzero structures. In this paper, some efficient algorithms are presented that automatically detect particular nonzero structures.
Imagining the Addict: Evaluating Social and Legal Responses to Addiction

Conventional legal scholarship largely underappreciates the sociolegal construction of the addict. Addiction is, of course, a medically defined term, but in these responses, the addict represents much more than the set of physiological responses to a psychotropic drug. And while not all users of addictive substances become addicts, it is the portrait of the addict that forms the symbolic focus of public campaigns against their use. Using the examples of tobacco and illegal drugs - specifically, methamphetamine - this essay asks what insights might be found in comparing the characterization of the addict and his addiction in these different settings. Of course, there are enormous differences between tobacco and methamphetamine that resist an exact comparison between the two. And the discussion of these two examples cannot claim to offer definitive causal proof that policy failure or success turns upon the social construction of the addict. Rather, the modest goal of this essay is to depart from the question of how law can regulate behavior, and ask a question of a different sort: how do legal and social responses imagine the addict, and how might this knowledge help further our thinking about the problem of controlling addiction?
Confronting the challenges: epidemiological study of female sexual dysfunction and the menopause.

INTRODUCTION Despite rapid current and anticipated growth in the number of women who will spend a substantial portion of their life span in the postmenopausal period, the nature, incidence, and prevalence of changes in sexual function during and after the menopausal transition remain poorly characterized. AIM Challenges inherent in studying the menopausal transition and proposed additions and changes that have emerged from recent consensus conferences on female sexual dysfunction are reviewed. METHODS Specific topics related to female sexual dysfunction were presented in a Postmenopausal FSD Roundtable in which multidisciplinary international experts participated. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Expert opinion was based on a review of evidence-based medical literature, presentation, and internal discussion. RESULTS Knowledge concerning sexual function in the menopause is limited, in part, due to the difficulty in designing and conducting studies that adequately address these changes over time, and which also permit the effects of menopause to be distinguished from more general changes associated with aging. Moreover, the study of female sexual function and dysfunction is in the midst of significant transition: a tentative definition of the stages of reproductive aging and menopause has recently been advanced, and a set of comprehensive changes to the diagnostic framework that defines female sexual dysfunction is under review. CONCLUSIONS In spite of fast-moving changes in this field of study, it is possible to reach some tentative conclusions about how women's sexual function changes after menopause: postmenopausal women report a relatively high rate of sexual dysfunction (higher than men). There is a marked decline in sexual interest and frequency of sexual activity. This decline can be ameliorated by a number of psychosocial factors, although vaginal dryness and dyspareunia seem to be driven primarily by declining estradiol. The effects of menopause appear to be incremental and additional to those characteristic of aging.
Transcriptional Regulation of Sorghum Defense Determinants against a Phloem-Feeding Aphid1

When attacked by a phloem-feeding greenbug aphid (Schizaphis graminum), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) activates jasmonic acid (JA)- and salicylic acid (SA)-regulated genes, as well as genes outside known wounding and SA signaling pathways. A collection of 672 cDNAs was obtained by differential subtraction with cDNAs prepared from sorghum seedlings infested by greenbug aphids and those from uninfested seedlings. Subsequent expression profiling using DNA microarray and northern-blot analyses identified 82 transcript types from this collection responsive to greenbug feeding, methyl jasmonate (MeJA), or SA application. DNA sequencing analyses indicated that these encoded proteins functioning in direct defense, defense signaling, oxidative burst, secondary metabolism, abiotic stress, cell maintenance, and photosynthesis, as well as proteins of unknown function. In response to insect feeding, sorghum increased transcript abundance of numerous defense genes, with some SA-dependent pathogenesis-related genes responding to greenbug more strongly than to SA. In contrast, only weak induction of MeJA-regulated defense genes was observed after greenbug treatment. However, infestation tests confirmed that JA-regulated pathways were effective in plant defense against greenbugs. Activation of certain transcripts exclusively by greenbug infestation was observed, and may represent unique signal transduction events independent of JA- and SA-regulated pathways. Results indicate that plants coordinately regulate defense gene expression when attacked by phloem-feeding aphids, but also suggest that aphids are able to avoid triggering activation of some otherwise potentially effective plant defensive machinery, possibly through their particular mode of feeding.
A Bipartite Graph Based Method for Traffic Continuous Data Imputation

Traffic information missing conditions are common in Intelligent Transportation System and would cause huge challenges for sequential traffic tasks, such as traffic speed prediction. Rare models are designed to tackle the long-range continuous data missing problems. Thus, in this paper, we propose a Bipartite Graph-based message passing Imputation Network (BGIN) to reconstruct traffic features data of nodes. In BGIN, the nodes are divided into two types: known nodes that contain traffic information and imputed nodes without data. First, a known information depth extraction module is given to achieve the messages passing among known nodes. Then, we construct a bipartite graph to represent the correlations between known and imputed nodes. Bipartite graph propagation module propagates the known information to imputed nodes. Finally, a imputation output module aggregates the messages to complete the imputation task. To evaluate the performance of our method, extensive experiments are conducted on a newly traffic imputation dataset called PeMS-impute. Experiment results demonstrate that BGIN achieves the best imputation effects than some graph based traffic prediction models and imputation models.
Effects of silver nanoparticles on nitrification and associated nitrous oxide production in aquatic environments

Silver nanoparticles inhibit nitrification but enhance nitrous oxide production by nitrifying organisms. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are the most common materials in nanotechnology-based consumer products globally. Because of the wide application of AgNPs, their potential environmental impact is currently a highly topical focus of concern. Nitrification is one of the processes in the nitrogen cycle most susceptible to AgNPs but the specific effects of AgNPs on nitrification in aquatic environments are not well understood. We report the influence of AgNPs on nitrification and associated nitrous oxide (N2O) production in estuarine sediments. AgNPs inhibited nitrification rates, which decreased exponentially with increasing AgNP concentrations. The response of nitrifier N2O production to AgNPs exhibited low-dose stimulation (<534, 1476, and 2473 μg liter−1 for 10-, 30-, and 100-nm AgNPs, respectively) and high-dose inhibition (hormesis effect). Compared with controls, N2O production could be enhanced by >100% at low doses of AgNPs. This result was confirmed by metatranscriptome studies showing up-regulation of nitric oxide reductase (norQ) gene expression in the low-dose treatment. Isotopomer analysis revealed that hydroxylamine oxidation was the main N2O production pathway, and its contribution to N2O emission was enhanced when exposed to low-dose AgNPs. This study highlights the molecular underpinnings of the effects of AgNPs on nitrification activity and demonstrates that the release of AgNPs into the environment should be controlled because they interfere with nitrifying communities and stimulate N2O emission.
A comparison of global questions versus health status questionnaires as measures of the severity and impact of asthma.

This study compared estimates of the severity and impact of asthma recorded using global questions of the type used in diary cards with health status measurements obtained using comprehensive questionnaires. Seventy-four outpatients with asthma, aged 17-76 yrs (mean 48 yrs) participated. Mean+/-SD forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was 72+/-26% predicted. Patients recorded morning and evening peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and scaled their responses to the questions: "How has your asthma been today? " (asthma severity) and "How much effect has your asthma had on your life today? " (asthma impact) for 2 weeks. They then completed Juniper's Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) and the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). Diary card scores for asthma impact were less severe than for asthma severity (p<0.0001). Both correlated with AQLQ and SGRQ total scores (r>0.7; p<0.0001). Some patients responded 'none' for asthma severity (n=10) or asthma impact (n=13) on all 14 days of recording. For these patients, FEV1 was <80% predicted, morning PEFR was <90% predicted and their AQLQ and SGRQ scores indicated significant health impairment. Diary card scores for asthma severity and impact were correlated with health status, but these global questions were insensitive in mild disease. Responses to these questions were influenced by their wording, so the number of symptom-free days calculated from diary cards will depend on the questions used. Standardization is required before symptom-free days can be used as a reliable measure of treatment efficacy.
Synthesis of breathy and rough voices with a view to validating perceptual and automatic glottal cycle pattern recognition

The framework of the presentation is the assessment of the ability of human raters or speechprocessing software to detect glottal cycles in speech sounds and measure their lengths in synthetic breathy and rough voices. The synthesis of hoarse voices designates the generation of speech sounds the timbre of which simulates the voice quality of dysphonic speakers. The added value of synthetically generated test stimuli is that the user may fix and know their properties exactly. The corpus comprises synthetic vowels [a] combining seven levels of frequency jitter and three levels of additive noise. The presentation is focused on the simulation of rough and breathy voices via frequency modulation of the glottal excitation model and addition of pulsatile noise at the glottis. Furthermore, the genuine glottal cycle lengths and glottal source to noise ratios are obtained to which lengths and ratios inferred via signal processing may be compared. The glottal cycle lengths are acquired by tracking the phase of the harmonic driving functions of the speech sound synthesizer. Actual glottal signal-to-noise ratios are measured by summing separately over the sound stimuli the squared clean volume velocity and pulsatile noise samples.
Environment for problem solving in engineering higher education

Industry demands engineers who are in possession of high level theoretical knowledge and at the same time skill in problem solving. This demand recently comes from virtual engineering system where theoretically and methodologically grounded environment provides effective tools for problem solving centered engineering process. In this paper, new approach is introduced to analyze possibilities for the application of virtual engineering systems as environment for higher education courses in engineering. After an outline of the recent problem solving in virtual environments, related work of academicals and professionals is compared. Following this, new education aspects in engineering systems are revealed. As main contribution of this paper, new methodological elements are provided for higher education courses which are organized in virtual environments. Finally, a possible way of definition for teaching program elements is explained.
Colosseum3D: authoring framework for virtual environments

This paper describes an authoring environment for real time 3D environments, Colosseum3D. The framework makes it possible to easily create rich virtual environments with rigid-body dynamics, advanced rendering using OpenGL Shaders, 3D sound and human avatars. The creative process of building complex simulators is supported by allowing several authoring paths such as a low level C++ API, an expressive high level file format and a scripting layer.
Discrimination Constrained and Justified: Variable Effects of Group Variability and In-Group Identification ☆ ☆☆

In two studies we investigated how group variability influences the degree to which in-group bias is expressed by high and low group identifiers. Group members were provided with group variability and group status feedback in a minimal (Study 1) and in a natural group setting (Study 2). Results show that in low-status groups high identifiers displayed increased in-group bias under conditions of in-group heterogeneity (Study 1) or both in-group and out-group heterogeneity (Study 2). We argued that these conditions undermined clear-cut status differences between the groups on the central comparison dimension, helping to justify in-group bias for those committed to the group. Support was also found for the prediction that high-status groups would display in-group bias when groups were homogeneous and that this effect would be more pronounced for high identifiers (Study 2). Study 2 provided evidence that these effects were mediated by the perceived legitimacy to discriminate the in-group from the out-group.
High-speed ultrasound volumetric imaging system. II. Parallel processing and image display

For pt.I see ibid., vol.38, no.2, p.100-8 (1991). The authors describe the design, application, and evaluation of parallel processing to the high-speed volumetric ultrasound imaging system. The scanner produces images analogous to an optical camera or the human eye and supplies more information than conventional sonograms. Potential medical applications include improved anatomic visualization, tumor localization, and better assessment of cardiac function. The system uses pulse-echo phased array principles to steer a 2-D array transducer of 289 elements in a pyramidal scan format. Parallel processing in the receive mode produces 4992 scan lines at a rate of approximately 8 frames/s. Echo data for the scanned volume is presented online as projection images with depth perspective, stereoscopic pairs, or multiple tomographic images. The authors also describe the techniques developed for the online display of volumetric images on a conventional CRT oscilloscope and show preliminary volumetric images for each display mode. <<ETX>>
Acute Cardiovascular Responses to Various Forms of Resistance Exercise

Several forms of resistance are available for exercise. The present study evaluated the acute cardiovascular responses to fatiguing resistance exercises with accommodating (Acc), variable (Var), and fixed (Fix) resistances as well as with a graded exercise test (GXT). Heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and rate-pressure product (RPP) were directly and continuously recorded during all exercises. Peak heart rates and blood pressures were highest and lowest, respectively, during the GXT. For the resistance exercises, peak cardiovascular values were highest with Acc, followed by Fix and then Var resistance. There were significant differences (p < 0.05) between GXT and the resistance exercises for HR, SBP, and DBP, but not for RPP. There were also significant differences (p < 0.05) between Acc versus Fix and Var resistance for SBP and RPP These data show that cardiovascular stress is increased during resistance exercises and that responses may differ between the various forms of resistance.
Fast method applied to the measurement of microwave power standards

An isothermal method was developed in order to reduce the efficiency measurement time of microwave power standards, using microcalorimeters. Results given from 8.2 GHz to 26.5 GHz in two waveguide standards show good agreement between classical and isothermal methods. The measurement time has been reduce by a factor of more than three, while keeping the same uncertainties.