Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compressive Single-Photon 3D Cameras

Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are an emerging pixel technology for time-of-flight (ToF) 3D cameras that can capture the time-of-arrival of individual photons at picosecond resolution. To estimate depths, current SPAD-based 3D cameras measure the round-trip time of a laser pulse by building a per-pixel histogram of photon times-tamps. As the spatial and timestamp resolution of SPAD-based cameras increase, their output data rates far exceed the capacity of existing data transfer technologies. One major reason for SPAD's bandwidth-intensive operation is the tight coupling that exists between depth resolution and histogram resolution. To weaken this coupling, we propose compressive single-photon histograms (CSPH). CSPHs are a per-pixel compressive representation of the high-resolution histogram, that is built on-the-fly, as each photon is detected. They are based on a family of linear coding schemes that can be expressed as a simple matrix operation. We design different CSPH coding schemes for 3D imaging and evaluate them under different signal and background levels, laser waveforms, and illumination setups. Our results show that a well-designed CSPH can consistently reduce data rates by 1–2 orders of magnitude without compromising depth precision.
Graulichite-(La), LaFe 3 + 3 (AsO 4 ) 2 (OH) 6 , a new addition to the alunite supergroup from the Patte d’Oie mine, Bou Skour mining district, Morocco

The new mineral species graulichite-(La), ideally LaFe 3 + 3 (AsO 4 ) 2 (OH) 6 , has been discov-ered in the Patte d’Oie mine, Bou Skour mining district, Morocco. It occurs as yellow rhombohedral crystals, up to 0.1 mm in size, with a resinous luster, associated with malachite, agardite-(La), conichalcite, and a still undetermined REE carbonate. Crystals are chemically zoned and two homogeneous domains were identiﬁed, corresponding to the empirical chemical formulae (cal-culated on the basis of 6 cations per formula unit, assuming the occurrence of 14 O atoms)
DPA Load Balancer: Load balancing for Data Parallel Actor-based systems

In this project we explore ways to dynamically load balance actors in a streaming framework. This is used to address input data skew that might lead to stragglers. We continuously monitor actors' input queue lengths for load, and redistribute inputs among reducers using consistent hashing if we detect stragglers. To ensure consistent processing post-redistribution, we adopt an approach that uses input forwarding combined with a state merge step at the end of the processing. We show that this approach can greatly alleviate stragglers for skewed data.
Joint Entity Linking with BERT — Master's Thesis — Amund Faller Råheim

Entity Linking aims to connect mentioned names in a text to unambiguous entities in a knowledge base. State-of-the-art approaches are deep neural network models based on one or more instances of BERT. With the use of a Candidate Generation step between Mention Detection and Entity Disambiguation, these approaches tend to break the end-to-end capabilities of training deep neural networks. This thesis aims to investigate an end-to-end approach that combines Mention Detection and Entity Disambiguation in a single BERT-based model. We find that we are able to reach near state-of-the-art performance, but that we are unable to reproduce previous results with a similar approach.
Design Choices in Crowdsourcing Discourse Relation Annotations: The Effect of Worker Selection and Training

Obtaining linguistic annotation from novice crowdworkers is far from trivial. A case in point is the annotation of discourse relations, which is a complicated task. Recent methods have obtained promising results by extracting relation labels from either discourse connectives (DCs) or question-answer (QA) pairs that participants provide. The current contribution studies the effect of worker selection and training on the agreement on implicit relation labels between workers and gold labels, for both the DC and the QA method. In Study 1, workers were not specifically selected or trained, and the results show that there is much room for improvement. Study 2 shows that a combination of selection and training does lead to improved results, but the method is cost- and time-intensive. Study 3 shows that a selection-only approach is a viable alternative; it results in annotations of comparable quality compared to annotations from trained participants. The results generalized over both the DC and QA method and therefore indicate that a selection-only approach could also be effective for other crowdsourced discourse annotation tasks.
A Unified Representation and Deep Learning Architecture for Persuasive Essays in English

We develop a novel unified representation for the argumentation mining task facilitating the extracting from text and the labelling of the non-argumentative units and argumentation components—premises, claims, and major claims—and the argumentative relations—premise to claim or premise in a support or attack relation, and claim to major claim in a for or against relation— in an end-to-end machine learning pipeline. This tightly integrated representation combines the component and relation identification sub-problems and enables a unitary solution for detecting argumentation structures. This new representation together with a new deep learning architecture composed of a mixed embedding method, a multi-head attention layer, two biLSTM layers, and a final linear layer obtains state-of-the-art accuracy and F1 scores on the Persuasive Essays (PE) dataset. Furthermore, the augmentation of the PE corpus by including copies of major claims substituting the n-gram tokens that occur right before the major claim tokens with other major claim-introducing n-grams has aided in this increased performance on the PE dataset.
A highly diverse phytobenthic community along a short coastal reef gradient in northeastern Brazil

This study aimed to inventory the species of marine macroalgae and analyze the distribution and biomass patterns of their communities along a short coastal reef gradient in northeastern Brazil. Samples were collected using the technique of random squares, distributed in the three habitats: reef front region (FR), tide pools (TP), and reef plateau (RP). These three make up the reef gradient from the sea to the beach. A total of 56 taxa were identified, with Ochrophyta and Rhodophyta standing out as the phyla with the greater taxonomic richness, and the largest biomass represented by the species Sargassum vulgare (30 % of total biomass) and (16 %). The key emergening patterns along the reef gradient were the occurrence of groups of exclusive taxa in each habitat, and significant variation in biomass, greater in the TP (166.1 g m-2) and lower in the RP (70.5 g m-2). Despite being an environment under marked anthropogenic influence (i.e., tourism and development), we observed a high diversity of species, with a distribution pattern that reflects a high environmental heterogeneity and substantial ecological integrity.
Optimizing complex event forecasting

In Complex Event Recognition (CER), applications express business rules in the form of patterns and deploy them in a CER Engine which seeks the occurrence of such patterns on incoming streams. This is useful for practical applications which rely on the timely detection of patterns to support critical decisions. One step further, stakeholders want to act proactively, accurately forecasting the occurrence of patterns on raw streams well ahead of time to better schedule their decisions. This calls for making the transition from CER to Complex Event Forecasting (CEF). In CEF, stochastic models of future behavior are embedded into the event processing loop to project into the future the sequence of events that have occurred so far and to estimate the likelihood of the imminent occurrence of more complex patterns. CEF performance engages the stochastic model's training speed and forecast accuracy. In turn, these performance dimensions are affected by few parameters. However, CEF parameter tuning so that optimal CEF performance is achieved is a non-trivial task. This is due to the fact that there is an infinite number of possible parameter combinations, each affecting CEF performance in ways which are hard to predict. In this work, we introduce the first CEF Optimizer that gracefully automates CEF parameter tuning decisions, rapidly cherry picking good CEF configurations. We detail the novel internal architecture of our CEF Optimizer and present an elaborate empirical analysis on two applications that illustrates the effectiveness of our optimization approach.
Analysis of causes and mathematical description of process of manufacturing errors and local defects in mechanical system nodes

The article examines the main sources of technological deviations and local manufacturing defects in parts of mechanical systems. These flaws significantly affect the vibration characteristics of the system during its operation. The authors proposed a mathematical description of technological errors for further modeling and investigation of their influence on the vibration activity of a mechanical system. This allows one to evaluate the parameters of vibration processes along the symmetry axes of the rotating assembly of the mechanical system and to reveal the main places of concentration of disturbing effects in the form of dynamic reactions on the support elements and bearings
Future population ageing and productivity in Finland under different education and fertility scenarios

This study projects different dependency ratios under various scenarios of future fertility and tertiary education in Finland to assess how the economic consequences of population aging depend on these trends. Applying a multidimensional demographic approach through a discrete-time microsimulation model, we project the newly introduced productivity-weighted labour force dependency ratio for Finnish scenarios until 2060 and compared it with the labour force dependency ratio and the traditional age dependency ratio. Results show that population aging looks less daunting when considering labour force dependency ratios as compared to purely age-based ratios, yet all measures and scenarios show a deterioration of the dependency ratio. While the old age dependency ratio is projected to increase by 73 per cent, the labour force dependency ratio would increase by 32 per cent, and the productivity weighted labour force dependency ratio by 28 per cent. Provided a more rapid increase in educational attainment, the last indicator is expected to increase less, with 21 per cent until 2060. Should the stalled trend in educational achievement of the 2010s continue, there would be very modest future gains in the productivity-weighted ratio. In other words, the consequences of population ageing look less dramatic for economic productivity, were Finnish men to become as educated as Finnish women. Of the three fertility scenarios considered, a total fertility rate of 2.0 is most advantageous and a low fertility of 1.2 least optimal for adult dependency ratios, but only after 2050. Interestingly, a combination of recovered fertility to 1.6 with a more rapid educational expansion would be better for productivity than only raising fertility to 2.0. Boosting educational levels would hence mitigate the negative effects of a shrinking labour force more than increasing fertility within reasonable bounds. Our results suggest that implementation of the current government goals for educational expansion, combined with a not unrealistic recovery of total fertility rates to around 1.6, would both clearly alleviate the worsening dependency ratio. We conclude that although there is no quick fix to the economic effects of population ageing, these can be proactively mitigated with different and complementing policies, and taking into account multidimensional population trends.
Bidirectional active charge equaliser for series‐connected cells

In this study, a new bidirectional charge equaliser for series-connected cells is proposed to equalise the charge of N series-connected cells in static and dynamic states, i.e. while charging, discharging and when charger/load is disconnected. The proposed topology consists of three parts: a multiplexer, H-bridge and transformer. The multiplexer section connects the target cell to the transformer. The transformer acts as temporary energy storage and the H-bridge section sets the polarity of the voltage on the primary of the transformer. In charging/static mode, the energy transfers from charger/string to the low-charged cell and in discharging mode energy transfers from the cell with the highest charge to the load. In fact, energy transfer is in the same direction as the circuit operation, in this way, the speeds of charge and discharge of series cells are increased. Also due to the existence of only one small transformer and totem-pole arrangement of bidirectional switches, which halved the switch drivers, the cost and size of the circuit is reduced. A prototype of the proposed circuit to balance the charge of four series lithium–ion battery cells is designed and implemented. The experimental results confirm the correct operation of the circuit in all three states.
Organic extract of Geodia cydonium induces cell cycle block in human mesothelioma cells

The serious side effects caused by chemotherapeutics and the development of cancer chemoresistance represent the most significant limitations in the treatment of cancer. Some alternative approaches have been developed in recent years, which are based on natural compounds, and have allowed important advances in cancer therapeutics. During the last 50 years, sponges have been considered a promising source of natural products from the marine environment, representing ~30% of all marine natural products. Among sponges, the Mediterranean species Geodia cydonium represents a potential source of these type of products with considerable biotechnological interest as pharmaceutical agents. The present study demonstrated the antiproliferative effect of an organic G. cydonium extract (GEOCYDO) against three human mesothelioma cell lines, MSTO-211H (MSTO), NCI-H2452 (NCI) and Ist-Mes2 (Mes2), which differ in their sensitivity (MSTO and NCI) and resistance (Mes2) to standard combined treatment with cisplatin and piroxicam. To this aim, the activity of the extract was evaluated by analyzing its effects on cell viability, cancer properties and cell cycle progression by means of colony formation assay, cell cycle analysis and protein expression analysis. The results revealed that in mesothelioma, this extract was able to reduce self-renewal, cell migration and it could induce cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 stage, thus blocking cell proliferation. In conclusion, to the best of our knowledge, the present results indicated for the first time that GEOCYDO can contain active compounds able to affect cell proliferation in mesothelioma, suggesting that it could be considered as a potential novel drug source for cancer treatment.
Self-organization of remote employees in Lithuanian companies

The paper deals with employees’ self-organization as a modern form of organizing a company’s activities in a remote work environment, which was eventual and challenging in the pandemic, but, undoubtedly, is being further developed in companies due to perceived benefits. The aim of the paper is to analyze the self-organization of remote employees. For research methodology, in a quantitative approach, a survey of 196 working remotely employees in various Lithuanian companies by size, industry or sector was conducted using a questionnaire to analyze their self-organization activities and capabilities at the individual, group and organizational level. The survey data were statistically processed and analyzed, indicating percentages, means, medians, standard deviations, and correlations. It was found that for the vast majority of employees (79-91% in different components), self-organization is most developed at the level of individual work while working remotely. This allows employees to achieve a work-life balance and greater job satisfaction. However, the involvement of remote employees via self-organizing of group activities and decision-making as well as solution of problems important to the company in a competitive environment, is not sufficiently developed. In practice, this means that self-organization of their individual work can be delegated to employees, but more efforts are needed to involve remote employees in management processes.
Computation Offloading in Mobile Cloud Computing and Mobile Edge Computing: Survey, Taxonomy, and Open Issues

Cloud and mobile edge computing (MEC) provides a wide range of computing services for mobile applications. In particular, mobile edge computing enables a computing and storage infrastructure provisioned closely to the end-users at the edge of a cellular network. The small base stations are deployed to establish a mobile edge network that can be coined with cloud infrastructure. A large number of enterprises and individuals rely on services offered by mobile edge and clouds to meet their computational and storage demands. Based on user behavior and demand, the computational tasks are first offloaded from mobile users to the mobile edge network and then executed at one or several specific base stations in the mobile edge network. The MEC architecture has the capability to handle a large number of devices that in turn generate high volumes of traffic. In this work, we first provide a holistic overview of MCC/MEC technology that includes the background and evolution of remote computation technologies. Then, the main part of this paper surveys up-to-date research on the concepts of offloading mechanisms, offloading granularities, and computational offloading techniques. Furthermore, we discuss the offloading mechanism in the static and dynamic environment along with optimization techniques. We further discuss the challenges and potential future directions for MEC research.
Dynamique d'urbanisation et thermographies satellitaires en milieu méditerranéen : le cas du grand Casablanca (Maroc)

L’étude diachronique des températures de surface (Ts) prises pendant la saison chaude par situation anticyclonique radiative (temps clair et calme) est réalisée dans l’aire métropolitaine de Casablanca à l’aide d’une série d’images infrarouges thermiques Landsat multi-dates sur la période 1984-2019. Les thermographies obtenues sont alors analysées pour évaluer les gradients thermiques de jour comme de nuit au sein de ce territoire côtier densément peuplé. Les résultats obtenus montrent l’existence en fin de matinée, d’îlots de fraîcheur urbains au niveau du sol (IFUs) couvrant les villes de Casablanca et de Mohammedia. La nuit, ces IFUs se muent en îlots de chaleur urbains au niveau du sol (ICUs), les Ts étant alors plus faibles dans l’intérieur des terres par rapport à celles de la conurbation littorale. Par ailleurs, sur la période 1984-2019, une bonne concordance entre l’évolution spatio-temporelle des surfaces chaudes et celle des espaces urbanisés est établie en journée.
Informal Employment and Poor Mental Health in a Sample of 180,260 Workers from 13 Iberoamerican Countries

The aim of this study is to estimate the association between employment conditions and mental health status in the working population of Iberoamerica. In this cross-sectional study, we pooled individual-level data from nationally representative surveys across 13 countries. A sample of 180,260 workers was analyzed. Informality was assessed by social security, health affiliation, or contract holding. Mental health was assessed using several instruments. We used Poisson regression models to estimate the contribution of informality to poor mental health by sex and country, adjusted by sociodemographic and work-related characteristics. Then, we performed a meta-analysis pooling of aggregate data using a random-effects inverse-variance model. Workers in informal employments showed a higher adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) of poor mental health than those in formal employment in Peru (aPR men 1.5 [95% confidence intervals 1.16; 1.93]), Spain (aPR men 2.2 [1.01; 4.78]) and Mexico (aPR men 1.24 [1.04; 1.47]; women 1.39 [1.18; 1.64]). Overall estimates showed that workers in informal employment have a higher prevalence of poor mental health than formal workers, with it being 1.19 times higher (aPR 1.19 [1.02; 1.39]) among men, and 1.11 times higher prevalence among women (aPR 1.11 [1.00; 1.23]). Addressing informal employment could contribute to improving workers’ mental health.
Diversity and distribution of benthic invertebrates dwelling rivers of the Kruger National Park, South Africa

Meiobenthos (or meiofauna) are microscopic invertebrates that inhabit biofilms and interstitial spaces in rivers. They are diverse and extremely abundant, and they perform essential ecological functions by linking microbial production to higher trophic levels (e.g. macrobenthic invertebrates and fishes). However, meiobenthic communities remain poorly studied in Africa. Here, we sampled meio- and macrobenthic invertebrate communities associated with biofilms and sediments across an upstream–downstream gradient along the Olifants, Sabie and Crocodile rivers flowing through the Kruger National Park (KNP). We expected to link differences in community structure to environmental gradients as those rivers show different degrees of anthropogenic stress as they enter the park. Both meio- and macrobenthic communities differed across rivers and also structured along an upstream–downstream gradient. The upstream sites, which were the closest to the park borders, consistently showed a lower diversity in all three rivers. There, the invasive snail Tarebia granifera strongly dominated (making up 73% – 87% of the macrobenthos), crowding hard substrates, while concomitantly the abundances of biofilm-dwelling meiobenthos like nematodes and rotifers were substantially reduced. Nevertheless, the diversity and evenness of communities then tended to increase as water flowed downstream through the park, suggesting a beneficial effect of protected river reaches on benthic invertebrate diversity. However, for the Crocodile River, which makes up the southern border of the park, this trend was less conspicuous, suggesting that this river may experience the greatest threats. More generally, benthic invertebrate communities were driven by the concentrations of phosphates, sulphates, ammonium and organic matter and by substrate characteristics.Conservation implications: Meiobenthic organisms are very abundant in KNP rivers and react to environmental gradients; thus, they should be more considered for bio-monitoring or conservation of comprehensive assemblages of animals. Interestingly, protected reaches tended to show a reduced dominance of the invasive T. granifera and a higher diversity of benthic invertebrates.