Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DeepSurfels: Learning Online Appearance Fusion

We present DeepSurfels, a novel hybrid scene representation for geometry and appearance information. DeepSurfels combines explicit and neural building blocks to jointly encode geometry and appearance information. In contrast to established representations, DeepSurfels better represents high-frequency textures, is well-suited for online updates of appearance information, and can be easily combined with machine learning methods. We further present an end-to-end trainable online appearance fusion pipeline that fuses information from RGB images into the proposed scene representation and is trained using self-supervision imposed by the reprojection error with respect to the input images. Our method compares favorably to classical texture mapping approaches as well as recent learning-based techniques. Moreover, we demonstrate lower runtime, improved generalization capabilities, and better scalability to larger scenes compared to existing methods.
Coexistence in discrete time multi-type competing frog models

We study coexistence in discrete time multi-type frog models. We first show that for two types of particles on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, for $d\geq2$, for any jumping parameters $p_1, p_2 \in (0,1)$, coexistence occurs with positive probability for sufficiently rich deterministic initial configuration. We extend this to the case of random distribution of initial particles. We study the question of coexistence for multiple types and show positive probability coexistence of $2^d$ types on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ for rich enough initial configuration. We also show an instance of infinite coexistence on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ for $d \geq 3$ provided we have sufficiently rich initial configuration.
Adsorption Behavior of Albumin and other Proteins on Carbon Nanotubes Studied by Chromatography

For application of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as biomaterials, it is important to clarify the interaction between CNTs and proteins, which may affect on cell proliferation and differentiation. In this study, the adsorption behavior was investigated for representative proteins, bovine serum albumin, lysozyme and fetal bovine serum by using chromatography system. It was also aimed whether the different treatment conditions of CNTs affected the adsorption of proteins. CNTs used for this study had a straight shape and about 70nm in a diameter from SEM observation. There was not much difference between untreated and treated CNTs from SEM images. In chromatography experiments, all the proteins of albumin, lysozyme and serum were eluted immediately after injected to the column of untreated CNTs. Second elution appeared after buffer was changed from phosphate saline buffer to 25mM sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The same tendency was confirmed for CNTs with only acid treatment. However the eluted peaks became remarkably smaller after the column was changed to CNTs with thermal and twice acid treatments. These results indicated that treatment conditions for CNTs affected the adsorption behavior of proteins.
Deep-Learning-Based Intelligent Intervehicle Distance Control for 6G-Enabled Cooperative Autonomous Driving

Research on the sixth-generation cellular networks (6G) is gaining huge momentum to achieve ubiquitous wireless connectivity. Connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) is a critical vertical application for 6G, holding great potentials of improving road safety, road and energy efficiency. However, the stringent service requirements of CAV applications on reliability, latency, and high speed communications will present big challenges to 6G networks. New channel access algorithms and intelligent control schemes for connected vehicles are needed for 6G-supported CAV. In this article, we investigated 6G-supported cooperative driving, which is an advanced driving mode through information sharing and driving coordination. First, we quantify the delay upper bounds of 6G vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications with hybrid communication and channel access technologies. A deep learning neural network is developed and trained for the fast computation of the delay bounds in real-time operations. Then, an intelligent strategy is designed to control the intervehicle distance for cooperative autonomous driving. Furthermore, we propose a Markov chain-based algorithm to predict the parameters of the system states, and also a safe distance mapping method to enable smooth vehicular speed changes. The proposed algorithms are implemented in the AirSim autonomous driving platform. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms are effective and robust with safe and stable cooperative autonomous driving, which greatly improve the road safety, capacity, and efficiency.
Panarchy: ripples of a boundary concept

How do social-ecological systems change over time? In 2002 Holling and colleagues proposed the concept of Panarchy, which presented social-ecological systems as an interacting set of adaptive cycles, each of which is produced by the dynamic tensions between novelty and efficiency at multiple scales. Initially introduced as a conceptual framework and set of metaphors, panarchy has gained the attention of scholars across many disciplines and its ideas continue to inspire further conceptual developments. Almost twenty years after this concept was introduced we review how it has been used, tested, extended and revised. We do this by combining qualitative methods and machine learning. Document analysis was used to code panarchy features that are commonly used in the scientific literature (N = 42), a qualitative analysis that was complemented with topic modeling of 2177 documents. We find that the adaptive cycle is the feature of panarchy that has attracted the most attention. Challenges remain in empirically grounding the metaphor, but recent theoretical and empirical work offers some avenues for future research.
Catastrophic Fisher Explosion: Early Phase Fisher Matrix Impacts Generalization

The early phase of training a deep neural network has a dramatic effect on the local curvature of the loss function. For instance, using a small learning rate does not guarantee stable optimization because the optimization trajectory has a tendency to steer towards regions of the loss surface with increasing local curvature. We ask whether this tendency is connected to the widely observed phenomenon that the choice of the learning rate strongly influences generalization. We first show that stochastic gradient descent (SGD) implicitly penalizes the trace of the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM), a measure of the local curvature, from the start of training. We argue it is an implicit regularizer in SGD by showing that explicitly penalizing the trace of the FIM can significantly improve generalization. We highlight that poor final generalization coincides with the trace of the FIM attaining a large value early in training, to which we refer as catastrophic Fisher explosion. Finally, to gain insight into the regularization effect of penalizing the trace of the FIM, we show that it limits memorization by reducing the learning speed of examples with noisy labels more than that of the examples with clean labels.
Multi-Channel Multi-Frame ADL-MVDR for Target Speech Separation

Many purely neural network based speech separation approaches have been proposed to improve objective assessment scores, but they often introduce nonlinear distortions that are harmful to modern automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. Minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) filters are often adopted to remove nonlinear distortions, however, conventional neural mask-based MVDR systems still result in relatively high levels of residual noise. Moreover, the matrix inverse involved in the MVDR solution is sometimes numerically unstable during joint training with neural networks. In this study, we propose a multi-channel multi-frame (MCMF) all deep learning (ADL)-MVDR approach for target speech separation, which extends our preliminary multi-channel ADL-MVDR approach. The proposed MCMF ADL-MVDR system addresses linear and nonlinear distortions. Spatio-temporal cross correlations are also fully utilized in the proposed approach. The proposed systems are evaluated using a Mandarin audio-visual corpus and are compared with several state-of-the-art approaches. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed systems under different scenarios and across several objective evaluation metrics, including ASR performance.
Lidar and Camera Self-Calibration using CostVolume Network

In this paper, we propose a novel online self-calibration approach for Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and camera sensors. Compared to the previous CNN-based methods that concatenate the feature maps of the RGB image and decalibrated depth image, we exploit the cost volume inspired by the PWC-Net for feature matching. Besides the smooth L1-Loss of the predicted extrinsic calibration parameters, an additional point cloud loss is applied. Instead of regress the extrinsic parameters between LiDAR and camera directly, we predict the decalibrated deviation from initial calibration to the ground truth. During inference, the calibration error decreases further with the usage of iterative refinement and the temporal filtering approach. The evaluation results on the KITTI dataset illustrate that our approach outperforms CNN-based state-of-the-art methods in terms of a mean absolute calibration error of 0.297cm in translation and 0.017{\deg} in rotation with miscalibration magnitudes of up to 1.5m and 20{\deg}.
Excitation profiles of resonant coherent Raman scattering by impurity molecules

The amplitudes and the excitation profiles of coherent resonant Raman scattering (coherent anti-Stokes and Stokes Raman scattering (CARS and CSRS)) by impurity centers in crystals and/or molecules in solutions are studied, taking into account the coherence of the excited mode and the inhomogeneity of the environment. The CARS and CSRS excitation profiles can directly be related to one-photon absorption when using the transform theory known from spontaneous resonant Raman scattering. The enlargement of the amplitude of the active mode reveals itself in an enhancement of the vibrational overtones. At large amplitudes, a splitting in the profiles caused by the contribution of two turning points of a strong coherent vibration is observed. The inhomogeneous broadening is different in the excitation profiles of CARS and CSRS. The overlapping contributions to spectrally narrow and broad transitions lead to Fano peculiarities. The effects are illustrated by model calculations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Identification of selenium species in selenium-enriched garlic, onion and broccoli using high-performance ion chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry detection

Six standard selenium species including selenocystine, methyl selenocysteine, selenite, selenomethionine, allyl selenocysteine and selenate have been separated by high-performance ion chromatography on a Hamilton PRPX-100 column and detected by ICP-MS. Selenium enriched vegetables were analysed. Five selenium species and several unknown peaks were detected.
STUDIES ON COMBINING ABILITY AND HETEROSIS FOR YIELD AND ITS COMPONENT TRAITS IN FLUE CURED VIRGINIA (FCV) TOBACCO (NICOTIANA TABACCUM L.)

Flue Cured Virginia tobacco (FCV) is an export oriented important commercial crop grown in India. In Karnataka, due to unexpected climate changes and ever increasing cost of cultivation, there is constant reduction in the profitability of tobacco cultivation. Estimating combining ability and heterosis of the parental lines is very important in the development of cultivars with high yield with desirable qualities. Seven advanced breeding lines/ varieties were used to synthesize twenty one half diallel crosses, which were evaluated in a replicated trial for two seasons (kharif of 2016 and 2017). The diallel analysis of variance of two seasons revealed significance of both gca and sca for plant height, green leaf yield and cured leaf yield indicating preponderance of both additive and non additive gene actions. Variety, FCH 222 recorded highest positive gca effect for plant height, cured leaf and bright leaf yield. With respect to specific combining ability (sca), very few cross combinations recorded significant positive sca effect for yield and yield related characters. Only two crosses, JL-32#2 × FCH 249 and Kanchan × JL-32#2 recorded positive sca values for cured leaf yield. Mid parent heterosis was not significant in desirable direction for plant height, number of leaves, bright leaf yield and TGE, however, the cross, JL 53#2 × FCH 249 recorded significant positive mid parent heterosis for green leaf yield and cured leaf yield. The better general and specific combiners identified in the study can be utilised in the future breeding programs.
Synthesis and Characterization of Highly Refractive Polyimides Derived from Thiophene-Containing Aromatic Diamines and Aromatic Dianhydrides

Aromatic thiophene-containing diamines, 2,5-bis(4-aminophenylsulfanyl)thiophene (APST) and 2,5-bis{2′-[5′-(4′′-aminophenyl)sulfanyl]thienyl}thiophene (APSTT), were synthesized and polymerized with a sulfur-containing dianhydride, 4,4′-[p-thiobis(phenylenesulfanyl)]diphthalic anhydride (3SDEA) and 4,4′-oxydiphthalic anhydride (ODPA), respectively, to afford four poly(amic acid)s (PAAs) with inherent viscosities of 0.41 to 1.68 dL/g. Flexible and tough polyimide (PI) films obtained from the PAA precursors showed good thermal, mechanical, and optical properties. The glass-transition temperatures (Tg) of the PIs were in the range of 157−220 °C, determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and 160−216 °C by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), depending on the dianhydride used. The 10% weight loss temperatures were in the range of 354−456 °C, showing relatively high thermally resistant characteristics of the PI films. The PI films also showed good optical transparency above 500 nm, which agreed well wi.
Phosphorimetric Detection of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons on Solid-Phase Extraction Membranes

Solid-surface room-temperature phosphorimetry (SS-RTP) has been employed for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) adsorbed on solid-phase extraction (SPE) membranes. Three types of membranes commercially available were tested as solid substrates for phosphorescence emission. The effects of humidity and oxygen quenching were studied on SPEC® membranes. Calibration curves with linear dynamic ranges varying from two to three orders of magnitude were obtained in the presence of 0.05 M sodium dodecyl sulfate and 0.1 M TlNO3. The relative standard deviations of measurements varied between 5 and 10%. The absolute limits of detection were estimated at the ng to sub-ng level. On the basis of the performance of SPE membranes as solid substrates, the potential application of SPE-RTP for the analysis of PAHs is discussed.
Comparison of matrix methods applied to the radial Schrödinger eigenvalue equation: The Morse potential

This paper demonstrates the application of matrix methods based on finite differences and on variational (Rayleigh‐Ritz‐Galerkin) procedures to solution of the radial Schrodinger equation for bound states of the Morse potential. It demonstrates sources of numerical inaccuracy: truncation, termination, tolerance, and quadrature. Cubic splines, harmonic oscillators, floating Gaussians, and sines are used as basis functions.
In vitro degradation and release profiles of poly-DL-lactide-poly(ethylene glycol) microspheres with entrapped proteins

Poly-DL-lactide (PLA) and poly-DL-lactide-poly(ethylene glycol) (PELA) were produced by bulk ring-opening polymerization using stannous chloride as initiator. PLA, PELA microspheres, and PELA microspheres containing the outer membrane protein (OMP) of Leptospira interrogans with the size of 1.5–2 μm were prepared by a solvent evaporation process. In vitro degradation and release tests of PLA, PELA, and OMP-loaded PELA microspheres were performed in pH 7.4 buffer solution at 37°C. Quantitatively, the degree of degradation was monitored by detecting the molecular weight reduction, by evaluating the mass loss and the apparent degradation rate constant, and by determining the intrinsic viscosity and poly(ethylene glycol) content of retrieved polymer, while the release profile was assessed by measuring the amount of protein presented in the release medium at various intervals. Qualitatively, the morphological changes of microspheres were observed with scanning electron micrography. The observed relative rates of mass loss versus molecular weight reduction are consistent with a bulk erosion process rather than surface erosion for PELA microspheres. The introduction of hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) domains in copolymer PELA and the presence of OMP within microspheres show critical influences on the degradation profile. The OMP-loaded PELA microspheres present triphasic release profile and a close correlation is observed between the polymer degradation and the OMP release profiles. It is suggested that the polymer degradation rate, protein diffusion coefficient, and the water-swollen structure of microspheres matrix commonly contribute to the OMP release from PELA microspheres. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 78: 140–148, 2000
Numerical Studies of the Response of Flamelets to Unsteadiness in the Near-Field of Jets Under Diesel Conditions

Turbulent time records of scalar dissipation rates are numerically generated in the near-field of a high Reynolds number turbulent jet. The response of one-dimensional unsteady diffusion flamelets to these records were studied under pressure and temperature conditions representative of those in diesel engines. n-Heptane was chosen as the diesel fuel surrogate, its oxidation chemistry modeled by a 1,540-step mechanism comprising 159 species. Unsteadiness in the scalar dissipation rates was observed to impact autoignition, extinction, and reignition in the near-field. Possible linkages between these observations and flame liftoff, as well as its prediction, in diesel engines are discussed. Steady flamelet models were shown to not capture unsteady extinction–reignition events and associated chemical phase-lag effects. Unsteady flamelet–progress variable (UFPV) models in which the progress variable uniquely identifies all the flame states corresponding to a given value of χ are more suitable for representing the physics.
Influence of surface modifiers on the structure of precipitated calcium carbonate

A calcium carbonate (CaCO3) sorbent synthesized in the presence of surface modifiers has recently been developed in this laboratory for the purpose of enhancing the reactivity toward SO2 at high temperatures (800−1150 °C). The calcium carbonate particles are produced by precipitation from an aqueous suspension of calcium hydroxide by bubbling pure CO2. The operating parameters such as suspension concentration, gas flow rate, and concentration of surface modifiers are varied to study their influence on the particle size, surface area, and pore volume. The synthesized CaCO3 particles exhibit dramatically high SO2 reactivity and sorbent utilization. The increased reactivity is primarily due to the development of an open initial pore structure of the sorbent brought about by the action of surface-active agents, compared to the conventional calcium-based sorbents. ζ-potential measurements indicate that addition and subsequent adsorption of anionic surfactants neutralize the high positive surface charge (30 mV).
Australian Consumers Are Willing to Pay for the Health Star Rating Front-of-Pack Nutrition Label

The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has supported the recommendations set out in the 2019 Health Star Rating System Five Year Review Report. Specifically, the forum supported, in principle, Recommendation 9, to mandate the Health Star Rating if clear uptake targets were not achieved while the system is voluntary. Given that mandatory labelling is being considered, it is important to investigate how much consumers value the Health Star Rating in order to understand potential consumer uptake and inform industry. The aim of this study was to assess consumers’ valuation of the Health Star Rating system by analysing their willingness to pay for a packaged food product with the Health Star Rating label, utilising a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation approach. The results indicate that almost two-thirds of Australian household grocery shoppers were willing to pay more for a product with the Health Star Rating, on average up to an additional 3.7% of the price of the product. However, public health nutrition benefits associated with consumers’ willingness to pay more for products with the Health Star Rating is currently limited by the lack of guarantee of the systems’ accuracy. Given consumer support, a well validated and comprehensive Health Star Rating labelling system can potentially improve health outcomes, cost effectiveness and reduce environmental impacts.
Difference in Pain and Discomfort of Comparable Wrist Movements Induced by Magnetic or Electrical Stimulation for Peripheral Nerves in the Dorsal Forearm

Purpose Both repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation (rPMS) and transcutaneous electrical current stimulation (TES) could elicit the limb movements; it is still unclear how subjective sensation is changed according to the amount of limb movements. We investigated the pain and discomfort induced by newly developed rPMS and TES of peripheral nerves in the dorsal forearm. Methods The subjects were 12 healthy adults. The stimulus site was the right dorsal forearm; thus, when stimulated, wrist dorsiflexion was induced. The rPMS was delivered by the new stimulator, Pathleader at 10 stimulus intensity levels, and TES intensity was in 1-mA increments. The duration of each stimulation was 2 s. The analysis parameters were subjective pain and discomfort, measured by a numerical rating scale. The rating scale at corresponding levels of integrated range of movement (iROM) induced by rPMS or TES was compared. The subjective values were analyzed by two-way repeated measures ANOVA with the stimulus conditions (rPMS, TES) and the seven levels of iROM (20–140 ºs). Results In the rPMS experiments, stimuli were administered to all subjects at all stimulus intensities. In the TES experiments, none of the subjects dropped out between 1 and 16 mA, but there were dropouts at each of the intensities as follows: 1 subject at 17 mA, 20 mA, 22 mA, 23 mA, 27 mA, 29 mA and 2 subjects at 21 mA, 24 mA, 26 mA. The main effects of the stimulus conditions and iROM were significant for pain and discomfort. Post hoc analysis demonstrated that pain and discomfort in rPMS were significantly lower compared to TES when the iROM was above 60 ºs and 80 ºs, respectively. Conclusion New rPMS stimulator, Pathleader, caused less pain and discomfort than TES, but this was only evident when comparatively large joint movements occurred.
Abscisic Acid and Flowering Regulation: Many Targets, Different Places

Plants can react to drought stress by anticipating flowering, an adaptive strategy for plant survival in dry climates known as drought escape (DE). In Arabidopsis, the study of DE brought to surface the involvement of abscisic acid (ABA) in controlling the floral transition. A central question concerns how and in what spatial context can ABA signals affect the floral network. In the leaf, ABA signaling affects flowering genes responsible for the production of the main florigen FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). At the shoot apex, FD and FD-like transcription factors interact with FT and FT-like proteins to regulate ABA responses. This knowledge will help separate general and specific roles of ABA signaling with potential benefits to both biology and agriculture.