Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
To appear in an IEEE VGTC sponsored conference proceedings Visionaray : A Cross-Platform Ray Tracing Template Library

We present the software architecture of the C++ ray tracing template library Visionaray, which provides generic algorithms and data structures as building blocks for applications that traverse rays through 3-D space. While many state of the art ray tracing libraries are vendor specific and focus only on acceleration data structure traversal, Visionaray is cross platform compatible and implements several ray tracing-related tasks such as parallel ray generation, shading, Monte Carlo integration, or texture sampling. Visionaray was developed with a strong focus on real-time and interactive rendering on high performance computing platforms. The generic programming approach allows for loose coupling of algorithms and efficient binary code that is optimized for data and instruction cache utilization. We discuss implementation details and software architecture considerations to achieve real-time performance on hardware platforms ranging from single-board mini computers to GPGPUs. We prove the effectiveness of our approach by evaluating and discussing four case studies that focus on real-time rendering, scientific visualization, and virtual reality.
Characterization of Carbon Nanomaterials Dispersions: Can Metal Decoration of MWCNTs Improve Their Physicochemical Properties?

A suitable dispersion of carbon materials (e.g., carbon nanotubes (CNTs)) in an appropriate dispersant media, is a prerequisite for many technological applications (e.g., additive purposes, functionalization, mechanical reinforced materials for electrolytes and electrodes for energy storage applications, etc.). Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have been considered as a promising “green” alternative, providing a versatile replacement to volatile organic solvents due to their unique physical-chemical properties, being recognized as low-volatility fluids with great dispersant ability. The present work aims to contribute to appraise the effect of the presence of MWCNTs and Ag-functionalized MWCNTs on the physicochemical properties (viscosity, density, conductivity, surface tension and refractive index) of glyceline (choline chloride and glycerol, 1:2), a Type III DES. To benefit from possible synergetic effects, AgMWCNTs were prepared through pulse reverse electrodeposition of Ag nanoparticles into MWCNTs. Pristine MWCNTs were used as reference material and water as reference dispersant media for comparison purposes. The effect of temperature (20 to 60 °C) and concentration on the physicochemical properties of the carbon dispersions (0.2–1.0 mg cm−3) were assessed. In all assessed physicochemical properties, AgMWCNTs outperformed pristine MWCNTs dispersions. A paradoxical effect was found in the viscosity trend in glyceline media, in which a marked decrease in the viscosity was found for the MWCNTs and AgMWCNTs materials at lower temperatures. All physicochemical parameters were statistically analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), at a 5% level of significance.
High resolution bolt pre-load looseness monitoring using coda wave interferometry

This paper proposes a new concept, named the Detectable Resolution of Bolt Pre-load (DRBP), by using the coda wave interferometry (CWI) to quantitatively measure the pre-load looseness at a high resolution. Due to its characteristics of roughness, irregularity, and randomly distributed asperities, the contact surface of the bolted components can function as a natural interferometer to scatter the propagation waves. The multiply-scattered coda waves can amplify the slight changes in the travel path and show the visible perturbation in the time domain. By calculating the time-shifted correlation coefficient of coda waves before and after the slight pre-load looseness, the tiny pre-load changes can be clearly revealed. To evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method, a theoretical model considering the time shifts of coda waves and the variations of pre-load is established. Based on the acoustoelastic effect and the wave path summation theory of coda wave interferometry, the model shows that the time shifts of coda waves change linearly with the variations of pre-load. Verification experiments are conducted, and the results show that the R-square values of the fitting curves are larger than 0.9216. In addition, the proposed approach has the feature of high resolution. The ultimate pre-load resolution of the proposed approach is 0.331%, that is, when the variation of pre-load is larger than 0.331%, it can be detected. Therefore, theoretical analysis and experimental results prove that the CWI-based pre-load detection approach holds great potential for the detection of bolt pre-load looseness, especially during the initial stage.
An Investigation into the Feasibility of S-Parameter Measurements at X-Band Frequencies with Gaussian Beam Techniques

Theoretical design and analysis of Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS) often attracts the attention of the electromagnetics community as FSS are complex but also instructive passive electronic devices for filtering applications. Unlike conventional RF filters FSS usually do not operate on guided waves but on freely propagating waves. This makes the design even more challenging as frequency, polarization, incident angle, and possible onset of grating lobes have to be considered carefully during the design process. In the past years a lot of work has been published on different theoretical design methods whereas contributions on suitable measurement methods of FSS are still quite rare. This contribution therefore aims to fill up this gap by the investigation of the feasibility of an FSS measurement setup at X-band frequencies using low-cost Components-Of-The-Shelf (COTS) materials. In contrast to other publications the whole measurement process including necessary calibration procedures will be studied completely by means of numerical simulation techniques.
Recent progress of deep reinforcement learning : from AlphaGo to AlphaGo Zero

In the early 2016, the defeat of Lee Sedol by AlphaGo became the milestone of artificial intelligence. Since then, deep reinforcement learning (DRL), which is the core technique of AlphaGo, has received widespread attention, and has gained fruitful results in both theory and applications. In the sequel, AlphaGo Zero, a simplified version of AlphaGo, masters the game of Go by self-play without human knowledge. As a result, AlphaGo Zero completely surpasses AlphaGo, and enriches humans’ understanding of DRL. DRL combines the advantages of deep learning and reinforcement learning, so it is able to perform well in high-dimensional state-action space, with an end-to-end structure combining perception and decision together. In this paper, we present a survey on the remarkable process made by DRL from AlphaGo to AlphaGo Zero. We first review the main algorithms that contribute to the great success of DRL, including DQN, A3C, policy-gradient, and other algorithms and their extensions. Then, detailed introduction and discussion on AlphaGo Zero are given and its great promotion on artificial intelligence is also analyze. The progress of applications with DRL in such areas as games, robotics, natural language processing, smart driving, intelligent health care, and related resources are also presented. In the end, we discuss the future development of DRL, and the inspiration on other potential areas related to artificial intelligence.
The Origin of Cosmic Ray Electrons and Positrons

We use direct measurements of electrons and positrons corrected for solar modulation in the force-field approximation to obtain estimations of the local interstellar spectra. The resulting overall electron spectrum fits well with a single power law above a few GeV with spectral index γ- = 3.44 ± 0.03, consistent with the spectral index obtained for the positron spectrum γ+ = 3.43 ± 0.05, therefore suggesting a common acceleration process for both species. We propose that the acceleration engine was a nearby and recent shock wave originating from the last supernova explosion among those that formed the local bubble. This shock wave had to be quite soft, because no effect is seen on the proton spectrum. However, the large spread between different experiments clearly suggests the need for new, accurate measurements over a large energy range.
Title Altered Positive Affect in Clinically Anxious Youth : the Role of Social Context and Anxiety Subtype Permalink

Anxious youth may experience altered positive affect (PA) relative to healthy youth, perhaps because of greater sensitivity to social experiences. Altered PAmay be especially evident during the transition to adolescence, a period in which positive social events increase in salience and value. The current study evaluated whether anxious youth show differences in baseline PA, rate of return to baseline, and variability around baseline PA and tested whether these differences would depend on social context and anxiety subtype. Participants were 176 9to 14-year-old youth, including 130 clinically anxious (with Social Anxiety Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and/or Separation Anxiety Disorder) and 46 healthy youth. Youth reported their current PA, peak PA in the past hour, and social context in natural settings using ecological momentary assessment. Hierarchical linear models showed that both socially anxious and other anxious youth showed greater variability of PA relative to healthy youth. Youth with other anxiety disorders showed higher peak PA to a positive event relative to healthy youth. Feeling close to a friend was associated with higher peak PA, especially for socially anxious youth. Socially anxious youth showed significantly lower peak PA relative to both healthy and other anxious youth when interacting with a less close peer, but similar levels to these youth when interacting with a close friend. These findings suggest that clinically anxious youthmaymore sensitive to positive events and social interactions than healthy youth. Findings provide potential treatment targets for anxious youth, including applying regulatory strategies to positive events.
Thermal analysis of a serpentine flat plate collector and investigation of the flow and convection regime

A special kind of flat plate collectors was examined in detail through CFD analysis. The distinctiveness of the current model has to do with the piping system was applied which is a serpentine flow conduit. The operation of the collector was examined at four different inclination angles (0? , 15? , 30? , and 45? ) and several values of the inlet water temperature (10-80? C per 10? C) by providing the same heat perpendicular to the cover in each case. The thermal efficiency as well as the temperature fields of the collector was determined first. Furthermore, the overall heat losses were calculated and compared to these arisen from the Cooper-Dunkle assumption while the mean divergence between these two solutions was around 5%. Moreover, the natural convection inside the gap as well as the tube to water convection was examined and the heat transfer coefficients were validated from theoretical models in horizontal position. In particular, the simulation results found to diverge from the theoretical ones about 12.5% and 7% as regards the pipe flow and the air-gap, respectively. In addition, a remarkable flow phenomenon was observed at the bends of the pipe and the nature of it was explained in detail. Last but not least, the inclination angle seems that affects significantly the collector? s performance since the higher the slope the lower the convection losses. Solidworks and its simulation program Flow Simulation were used to design and simulate the whole collector.
Fractionation of Pinus radiata wood by combination of steam explosion and organosolv delignification

This work proposes a sequential combination of steam explosion and organosolv delignification for Pinus radiata fractionation. An efficient pretreatment to fully optimize the use of lignocellulosic materials is the key to make a biorefinery profitable, especially for softwoods, known to be more recalcitrant than other lignocellulosic raw materials. Steam explosion has a dual effect on biomass as morphological and chemicalchanges are introduced. A delignifying stage has been stated to be necessary in order to ease hydrolytic enzymes accessibility to cellulose while avoiding non-productive bonds with the lignin present. Three steam explosion conditions were tested (170°C, 5 min; 180°C, 10 min; 170°C, 5+5 min) followed by an organosolv delignification stage, carried out at two different conditions (170°C, 60 min; 170°C, 90 min). All treatmentyields, delignification extent, and hydrolysis yields were determined to evaluate each stage. The steam explosion treatment did not produce high delignification extent. Maximum global delignification (50,4%) was achieved when combining the two-cycle steam explosion with the most severe post-treatment condition tested. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the cellulosic residue improved after organosolv delignification; however, hydrolysisyields did not exceed 35%. The chemical changes undergone by softwood lignins are presumably responsible for the low digestibility.
SPARSITY-AWARE DECODING IN COMPRESSIVE VIDEO STREAMING

We consider a video transmission system where the transmitter performs merely direct compressive sensing with no other forms of encoding/processing and the burden of quality video sequence reconstruction falls solely on the receiver side. We show that effective implicit motion compensation can be carried out at the receiver/decoder via iterative sparsity-aware recovery on adaptively forward-backward estimated KarhunenLoève bases. Experiments illustrate these developments.
Uncertainty Analysis of ROSA/LSTF Test on Pressurized Water Reactor Cold Leg Small-Break Loss-of-Coolant Accident without Scram

Abstract—The author conducted post-test analysis with the RELAP5/MOD3.3 code for an experiment using the ROSA/LSTF (rig of safety assessment/large-scale test facility) that simulated a 1% cold leg small-break loss-of-coolant accident under the failure of scram in a pressurized water reactor. The LSTF test assumed total failure of high-pressure injection system of emergency core cooling system. In the LSTF test, natural circulation contributed to maintain core cooling effect for a relatively long time until core uncovery occurred. The post-test analysis result confirmed inadequate prediction of the primary coolant distribution. The author created the phenomena identification and ranking table (PIRT) for each component. The author investigated the influences of uncertain parameters determined by the PIRT on the cladding surface temperature at a certain time during core uncovery within the defined uncertain ranges.
Electrothermal Model of Coupled Inductors with Nanocrystalline Cores

The paper proposes a new electrothermal model of a coupled inductor containing a nanocrystalline core dedicated to the analysis of electrical energy conversion systems. The formulated model has a form of a subcircuit for SPICE. The model takes into account the influence of direct current, frequency, skin effect, temperature, self-heating, and mutual thermal couplings on the parameters and characteristics of the coupled inductors. The form of the developed model and the method of model parameter estimation are presented. The applied measuring system is presented. The results of measurements and calculations made with the use of the proposed model are presented and commented on.
ligation of random RNA oligomers The dawn of the RNA World : Toward functional complexity through

A main unsolved problem in the RNA World scenario for the origin of life is how a template-dependent RNA polymerase ribozyme emerged from short RNA oligomers obtained by random polymerization on mineral surfaces. A number of computational studies have shown that the structural repertoire yielded by that process is dominated by topologically simple structures, notably hairpin-like ones. A fraction of these could display RNA ligase activity and catalyze the assembly of larger, eventually functional RNA molecules retaining their previous modular structure: molecular complexity increases but template replication is absent. This allows us to build up a stepwise model of ligation-based, modular evolution that could pave the way to the emergence of a ribozyme with RNA replicase activity, step at which information-driven Darwinian evolution would be
Three-dimensional imaging interferometric synthetic aperture ladar

A monostatic strip-map mode interferometric synthetic aperture ladar (SAL) is reported. Using a chirped laser of about 5 mW at 1550 nm wavelength as the illumination source and two cross-track receiving apertures with a baseline of 1.6 mm, the ladar can generate both well-focused two-dimensional SAL images without adopting phase error removing techniques and three-dimensional images by interferometric SAL techniques. Detailed results are illustrated for retro-reflective or diffusive targets at a distance of 2.4 m.
Prolactin Action Is Necessary for Parental Behavior in Male Mice

Parental care is critical for successful reproduction in mammals. Recent work has implicated the hormone prolactin in regulating male parental behavior, similar to its established role in females. Male laboratory mice show a mating-induced suppression of infanticide (normally observed in virgins) and onset of paternal behavior 2 weeks after mating. Using this model, we sought to investigate how prolactin acts in the forebrain to regulate paternal behavior. First, using c-fos immunoreactivity in prolactin receptor (Prlr) Prlr-IRES-Cre-tdtomato reporter mouse sires, we show that the circuitry activated during paternal interactions contains prolactin-responsive neurons in multiple sites, including the medial preoptic nucleus, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and medial amygdala. Next, we deleted Prlr from three prominent cell types found in these regions: glutamatergic, GABAergic, and CaMKIIα. Prlr deletion from CaMKIIα, but not glutamatergic or GABAergic cells, had a profound effect on paternal behavior as none of these KO males completed the pup-retrieval task. Prolactin was increased during mating, but not in response to pups, suggesting that the mating-induced secretion of prolactin is important for establishing the switch from infanticidal to paternal behavior. Pharmacological blockade of prolactin secretion at mating, however, had no effect on paternal behavior. In contrast, suppressing prolactin secretion at the time of pup exposure resulted in failure to retrieve pups, with exogenous prolactin administration rescuing this behavior. Together, our data show that paternal behavior in sires is dependent on basal levels of circulating prolactin acting at the time of interaction with pups, mediated through Prlr on CaMKIIα-expressing neurons. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Parental care is critical for offspring survival. Compared with maternal care, however, the neurobiology of paternal care is less well understood. Here we show that the hormone prolactin, which is most well known for its female-specific role in lactation, has a role in the male brain to promote paternal behavior. In the absence of prolactin signaling specifically during interactions with pups, father mice fail to show normal retrieval behavior of pups. These data demonstrate that prolactin has a similar action in both males and females to promote parental care.
When should we give up on expectant management for patients with proximal ureteral stones?

Abstract Background: Proximal ureteral stones (PUS) have relatively low rates of spontaneous expulsion. However, some patients do well on expectant management. Our aim was to compare risk factors for surgical intervention in patients with PUS who underwent primary intervention to those subjected to expectant management. Materials and methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical charts of patients presented to the emergency room with symptoms of renal colic and underwent computerized tomography between August 2016 and August 2017. A total of 97 consecutive patients were identified with up to 10mm PUS. We collected patient demographics, clinical, and imaging data, and performed binary regression analysis for risk of intervention. Results: The average age was 49years (range 17-97) and average stone size was 7.1mm (range 3-10). Forty-one patients underwent immediate intervention while the remaining 56 patients were treated conservatively. Of the 56 patients treated conservatively, 26 underwent delayed intervention while 30 reported spontaneous stone expulsion. On univariate analysis of all 97 patients, statistically significant risk factors for intervention were found based on stone size, age, serum lymphocyte, platelet counts, and stone density. Of these risk factors, stone size ≥ 7mm (p = 0.012, odds ratio = 5.4) and platelet count ≤ 230K/μL (p = 0.027, odds ratio = 4.9) remained statistically significant on multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Stone size and platelet count were found to be risk factors for surgical intervention in patients with up to 10mm PUS. These findings may assist in identifying patients who are more suitable for conservative approach.
Screening and Evaluation of a Potential Bacteriocin Producing Lactobacillus in Milk and Dairy Products Collected from Puducherry

In an array of identifying safe antimicrobial compounds, bacteriocin producing Lactobacillus strain have been investigated in this study from the daily consuming food resources of humans. Till now, the best studied bacteriocins are nisin A produced by Lactobacillus lactis and pedocin PA-1 synthesized by Pediococcus acidilactici which have been accredited as a preservative in the food industries by the World Health Organization (WHO). For this study, four different milk and dairy products viz., curd, cheese, yoghurt and butter were collected from the local markets of Karaikal region, Puducherry, India and were used for the isolation of Lactobacillus species using MRS agar. Totally, five morphologically distinct strains were collected and were initially named as MPD 1 to MPD 5. During the screening process of bacteriocin production, the strain MPD 5 showed maximum antimicrobial activity against Vibrio cholerae MTCC 3906 with 900AU/ml. This strain was molecular identified as Lactiplantibacillus plantarum MDP 5 based on 16S rRNA partial sequence method. This 16S rRNA partial sequence was submitted to the NCBI nucleotide GenBank and provided with the accession number, MW301154.1. Further, this strain revealed an enhanced production of bacteriocin using the standardized physicochemical factors such as pH 7, 35°C, 2% fructose and 1% peptone. Furthermore, these optimal conditions revealed more than 2-fold increase in the bacteriocin production. All the above information suggesting the possibilities of bacteriocin for the bioindustrial production using the L. plantarum MDP 5 of this study and its future prospects for the investigation of biocidal activities against many highly infectious pathogens of human and veterinary.