Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computational peeling art design

Some artists peel citrus fruits into a variety of elegant 2D shapes, depicting animals, plants, and cartoons. It is a creative art form, called Citrus Peeling Art. This art form follows the conservation principle, i.e., each shape must be created using one entire peel. Central to this art is finding optimal cut lines so that the citruses can be cut and unfolded into the desired shapes. However, it is extremely difficult for users to imagine and generate cuts for their desired shapes. To this end, we present a computational method for citrus peeling art designs. Our key insight is that instead of solving the difficult cut generation problem, we map a designed input shape onto a citrus in an attempt to cover the entire citrus and use the mapped boundary to generate the cut paths. Sometimes, a mapped shape is unable to completely cover a citrus. Consequently, we have developed five customized ways of interaction that are used to rectify the input shape so that it is suitable for citrus peeling art. The mapping process and user interactions are iteratively conducted to satisfy a user's design intentions. A large number of experiments, including a formative user study, demonstrate the capability and practicability of our method for peeling art design and construction.
A High Performance/Price Ratio Cluster Computing Platform for Simulation Design

Based on our Fibre-Channel Token-Routing Switch-Network, a high performance/price ratio cluster computing platform is put forward and developed for simulation design which needs large-scale parallel computation. According to the feature of our cluster computing platform, the cluster computing software platform is proposed and implemented. The cluster computing software platform has two parts: the cluster management scheduling sub-platform and the cluster tasks running sub-platform. The cluster management scheduling sub-platform is composed of the cluster management system and the task scheduling system, and the cluster tasks running sub-platform includes the FC-TR communication software and the FC-TR parallel programming environment. The FC-TR communication software provides high-bandwidth, low-latency communication services for the parallel programming environment on the upper layer, while the parallel programming environment makes a number of large-scale-computation simulation design applications run on our network seamlessly. The experiment results show that our cluster computing platform has achieved better performance than the Scali cluster computing platform.
Visual smoothness of polyhedral surfaces

Representing smooth geometric shapes by polyhedral meshes can be quite difficult in situations where the variation of edges and face normals is prominently visible. Especially problematic are saddle-shaped areas of the mesh, where typical vertices with six incident edges are ill suited to emulate the more symmetric smooth situation. The importance of a faithful discrete representation is apparent for certain special applications like freeform architecture, but is also relevant for simulation and geometric computing. In this paper we discuss what exactly is meant by a good representation of saddle points, and how this requirement is stronger than a good approximation of a surface plus its normals. We characterize good saddles in terms of the normal pyramid in a vertex. We show several ways to design meshes whose normals enjoy small variation (implying good saddle points). For this purpose we define a discrete energy of polyhedral surfaces, which is related to a certain total absolute curvature of smooth surfaces. We discuss the minimizers of both functionals and in particular show that the discrete energy is minimal not for triangle meshes, but for principal quad meshes. We demonstrate our procedures for optimization and interactive design by means of meshes intended for architectural design.
Mixing sauces

The materials around us usually exist as mixtures of constituents, each constituent with possibly a different elasto-viscoplastic property. How can we describe the material property of such a mixture is the core question of this paper. We propose a nonlinear blending model that can capture intriguing flowing behaviors that can differ from that of the individual constituents (Fig. 1). We used a laboratory device, rheometer, to measure the flowing properties of various fluid-like foods, and found that an elastic Herschel-Bulkley model has nice agreements with the measured data even for the mixtures of these foods. We then constructed a blending model such that it qualitatively agrees with the measurements and is closed in the parameter space of the elastic Herschel-Bulkley model. We provide validations through comparisons between the measured and estimated properties using our model, and comparisons between simulated examples and captured footages. We show the utility of our model for producing interesting behaviors of various mixtures.
New Insights to Hydrogen Bonds to Provide Stability in the EGFR Related to Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, but it is one of the most preventable. Non-small cell lung cancer accounts for approximately 85% of all lung cancers. Epidermal growth factor receptor or EGFR is the class of high-affinity cell surface receptors which are essential in regulating biological processes including cell differentiation, cell survival or death, and cellular metabolism. An amino acid substitution at the 858th position of EGFR, from a Leucine(L) to an Arginine(R) causes L858R mutation within exon 21, which encodes part of the kinase domain and drives to NSCLC. For over 60% of EGFR-muted NSCLC, another mutation T790M can cause drug resistance to erlotinib or gefitinib. In our research work, we considered three structures of EGFR, wild-type, with L858R mutation and with L858R/T790M drug-resistance mutation. The number of hydrogen bond decreases when the EGFR becomes mutated and it reduces even more in its drug-resistance structure. We perform 200 frames of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to analyze the behavioral changes in hydrogen bonds for all three structures. Since the hydrogen bonds contribute to the conformational stability of the protein and molecular recognition, the knowledge, and results achieved from this study lead to useful insight into the mechanism of NSCLC drug resistance.
Design of an Autonomous Sentry Gun System for the Detection of People in Restricted Zones

A proper mechatronic system capable of neutralizing people entering unauthorized areas by firing a paintball gun is presented in this paper. The effective shooting range is 25 meters limited only by the range of the marker. The implemented system is capable of operating in different light conditions, at a maximum distance of 70 meters. The mechanism, together with the artificial vision system move in two axes: turn and tilt. Processing includes identification, tracking, pan tilt zooms control and automatic trigger activation control. The tests were carried out in a stadium, following the safety rules to avoid damage to the test subject. The shooting effectiveness is 80%.
MRC for compression of Blake Archive images

The William Blake Archive is part of an emerging class of electronic projects in the humanities that may be described as hypermedia archives. It provides structured access to high-quality electronic reproductions of rare and often unique primary source materials, in this case the work of poet and painter William Blake. Due to the extensive high frequency content of Blake's paintings (namely, colored engravings), they are not suitable for very efficient compression that meets both rate and distortion criteria at the same time. Resolving that problem, the authors utilized modified Mixed Raster Content (MRC) compression scheme -- originally developed for compression of compound documents -- for the compression of colored engravings. In this paper, for the first time, we have been able to demonstrate the successful use of the MRC compression approach for the compression of colored, engraved images. Additional, but not less important benefits of the MRC image representation for Blake scholars are presented: because the applied segmentation method can essentially lift the color overlay of an impression, it provides the student of Blake the unique opportunity to recreate the underlying copperplate image, model the artist's coloring process, and study them separately.
Multi-robot collaborative dense scene reconstruction

We present an autonomous scanning approach which allows multiple robots to perform collaborative scanning for dense 3D reconstruction of unknown indoor scenes. Our method plans scanning paths for several robots, allowing them to efficiently coordinate with each other such that the collective scanning coverage and reconstruction quality is maximized while the overall scanning effort is minimized. To this end, we define the problem as a dynamic task assignment and introduce a novel formulation based on Optimal Mass Transport (OMT). Given the currently scanned scene, a set of task views are extracted to cover scene regions which are either unknown or uncertain. These task views are assigned to the robots based on the OMT optimization. We then compute for each robot a smooth path over its assigned tasks by solving an approximate traveling salesman problem. In order to showcase our algorithm, we implement a multi-robot auto-scanning system. Since our method is computationally efficient, we can easily run it in real time on commodity hardware, and combine it with online RGB-D reconstruction approaches. In our results, we show several real-world examples of large indoor environments; in addition, we build a benchmark with a series of carefully designed metrics for quantitatively evaluating multi-robot autoscanning. Overall, we are able to demonstrate high-quality scanning results with respect to reconstruction quality and scanning efficiency, which significantly outperforms existing multi-robot exploration systems.
Adding video into the (real)time domain

The use of video as a performance medium, concentrating on interactive digital video used synchronously with realtime interactive audio, is outlined. Specifically, the author's experiments with realtime video in Macromind Director and in Opcode's Max are explored, working with motion-sensing systems in performance environments. A number of experimental pieces using sonic and visual environments driven by realtime motion-sensing performance systems are described, using Max to re-map incoming sensing data and using Macromind Director to control MIDI sequences, digital sound files, and digital video in realtime. Some of the compositional challenges presented by realtime systems are also explored, particularly the compositional issues arising from the addition of video into the (real)time domain. The author's current work in the development of a CD-ROM published in 1996 is also explored. The CD-ROM attempts to provide a genuine degree of interaction significantly more sophisticated than the usual point-and-click navigation, allowing the viewer a degree of creativity in his or her interaction with the material.
X-Shells

We present X-shells, a new class of deployable structures formed by an ensemble of elastically deforming beams coupled through rotational joints. An X-shell can be assembled conveniently in a flat configuration from standard elastic beam elements and then deployed through force actuation into the desired 3D target state. During deployment, the coupling imposed by the joints will force the beams to twist and buckle out of plane to maintain a state of static equilibrium. This complex interaction of discrete joints and continuously deforming beams allows interesting 3D forms to emerge. Simulating X-shells is challenging, however, due to unstable equilibria at the onset of beam buckling. We propose an optimization-based simulation framework building on a discrete rod model that robustly handles such difficult scenarios by analyzing and appropriately modifying the elastic energy Hessian. This real-time simulation method forms the basis of a computational design tool for X-shells that enables interactive design space exploration by varying and optimizing design parameters to achieve a specific design intent. We jointly optimize the assembly state and the deployed configuration to ensure the geometric and structural integrity of the deployable X-shell. Once a design is finalized, we also optimize for a sparse distribution of actuation forces to efficiently deploy it from its flat assembly state to its 3D target state. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our design approach with a number of design studies that highlight the richness of the X-shell design space, enabling new forms not possible with existing approaches. We validate our computational model with several physical prototypes that show excellent agreement with the optimized digital models.
CD-MPM

We present two new approaches for animating dynamic fracture involving large elastoplastic deformation. In contrast to traditional mesh-based techniques, where sharp discontinuity is introduced to split the continuum at crack surfaces, our methods are based on Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM) with a variational energy-based formulation for crack evolution. Our first approach formulates the resulting dynamic material damage evolution with a Ginzburg-Landau type phase-field equation and discretizes it with the Material Point Method (MPM), resulting in a coupled momentum/damage solver rooted in phase field fracture: PFF-MPM. Although our PFF-MPM approach achieves convincing fracture with or without plasticity, we also introduce a return mapping algorithm that can be analytically solved for a wide range of general non-associated plasticity models, achieving more than two times speedup over traditional iterative approaches. To demonstrate the efficacy of the algorithm, we also develop a Non-Associated Cam-Clay (NACC) plasticity model with a novel fracture-friendly hardening scheme. Our NACC plasticity paired with traditional MPM composes a second approach to dynamic fracture, as it produces a breadth of organic, brittle material fracture effects on its own. Though NACC and PFF can be combined, we focus on exploring their material effects separately. Both methods can be easily integrated into any existing MPM solver, enabling the simulation of various fracturing materials with extremely high visual fidelity while requiring little additional computational overhead.
Summarization Exercises in E-Interpreting Training

Summarization is widely used as an exercise both in traditional interpreting training and in distance or e-interpreting training to promote trainees' efficiency in comprehension and recall of the source language information. So far, however, how student interpreters' performance in summarization exercises relates to their interpreting performance remains unclear, let alone how the relationship may differ at different interpreting training stages. The current study thus invited 62 beginner student interpreters (Group 1) and 19 intermediate student interpreters (Group 2), examining and comparing how they performed in a task of consecutive interpreting from L2 (in this case English) to L1 (in this case Chinese) and how they performed in a post-interpreting summarization task. With quantitative analyses three major findings were obtained: (1) Group 2 had significantly better performance in interpreting than Group 1, while the two groups were not significantly different in their performance in summarization; (2) Either group's summarization performance was significantly and positively correlated with their overall score in interpreting and with the target language grammaticality and appropriateness (one of the two interpreting sub-scores) as well; however, a significant correlation between summarization performance and information accuracy and completeness (the other interpreting sub-score) was only found in Group 1 but not in Group 2; (3) Group 1's summarization performance significantly explained more than 20% variance in either the overall interpreting performance or the sub-score information accuracy and completeness, and either group's summarization performance significantly explained no less than 20% variance in the target language grammaticality and appropriateness. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
Coupled-Mode Theory Revisited

Coupled mode theory for power orthogonal modes is briefly reviewed. When the modes are not power orthogonal, modifications are necessary in the evaluation of the coupling coeffi cients and in the interpretation of power delivered to the output of a coupler, as pointed out by Hardy and Streiferl. In practical terms, these modifications lead to the presence of crosstalk in optical switches that may impair their operation. Two realizations of an optical switch are investigated and the amount of crosstalk as predicted by the "refined" coupled-mode theory is determined.
Thai License Plate Recognition Algorithm with Service Routine Procedure for Automatic Barrier Gate

This paper presents a development of a Thai license plate recognition algorithm for an automatic barrier gate. The designed algorithm is developed base on MVTec Halcon image processing library. The algorithm is robust and practical for different environment. Also, this algorithm is developed for a barrier gate at faculty of engineering Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, to authorize the registered cars for entering the faculty. The barrier gate system gives convenience and safety to the drivers and saves cost for the faculty. Base on experiments, the accuracy of license plate segmentation is 100% and the accuracy rate from multilayer perceptron method of the Thai license plate recognition algorithm is 100% due to the number of samples which might not support every type of variation. However, the error could be fixed by service routine procedure. Also, the service routine procedure improves the Thai license plate recognition algorithm by updating training data.
Genetic-based adaptive fuzzy controller for robot path planning

In this paper, we propose a new methodology to solve the robot path planning problem. This methodology uses a genetic-based adaptive fuzzy controller to navigate the robot from the starting location to the goal location safely and smoothly. For generating the fuzzy rule sets automatically and tuning the parameters of the membership functions adaptively, an encoded knowledge structure of the fuzzy genetic map (FGM) is presented. To prevent the condition that causes too many binary digits for encoding the membership chromosome, we develop a ring structure to reduce the size of the chromosome. In the selection procedure of the genetic algorithm, we develop fitness functions such as safety factor, smoothness factor and minimum-length factor for different criteria. Two types of environmental maps are tested to verify the robustness of the methodology, where the obstacles of the maps are surrounded with the artificial potential field. Compared with other traditional heuristic methods for robot path planning, the proposed methodology shows robust learning capability and better performance.
Fundamental solutions for water wave animation

This paper investigates the use of fundamental solutions for animating detailed linear water surface waves. We first propose an analytical solution for efficiently animating circular ripples in closed form. We then show how to adapt the method of fundamental solutions (MFS) to create ambient waves interacting with complex obstacles. Subsequently, we present a novel wavelet-based discretization which outperforms the state of the art MFS approach for simulating time-varying water surface waves with moving obstacles. Our results feature high-resolution spatial details, interactions with complex boundaries, and large open ocean domains. Our method compares favorably with previous work as well as known analytical solutions. We also present comparisons between our method and real world examples.
Genetic-algorithm-based reliability optimization for computer network expansion

This paper explains the development and implementation of a new methodology for expanding existing computer networks. Expansion is achieved by adding new communication links and computer nodes such that reliability measures of the network are optimized within specified constraints. A genetic algorithm-based computer network expansion methodology (GANE) is developed to optimize a specified objective function (reliability measure) under a given set of network constraints. This technique is very powerful because the same approach can be extended to solve different types of problems; the only modification required is the objective function evaluation module. The versatility of the genetic algorithm is illustrated by applying it to solve various network expansion problems (optimize diameter, average distance and computer network reliability for network expansion). The results are compared with the optimal solutions computed using an exhaustive search of complete solution space. The results demonstrate that GANE is very effective (in both accuracy and computation time) and applies to a wide range of problems, but it does not guarantee the optimal results for every problem. >
Bis(μ-quinoline-2-carboxylato)-κ3 N,O:O;κ3 O:N,O-bis[(acetato-κ2 O,O′)(methanol-κO)lead(II)]

The dinuclear title compound, [Pb2(C10H6NO2)2(CH3COO)2(CH3OH)2], lies across an inversion center. The methanol-coordinated PbII atom is chelated by the acetate anion as well as by the quinoline-2-carboxylate anion. One O atom of the quinoline-2-carboxylate anion bridges two symmetry-related PbII atoms, forming the dinuclear compound. Aside from the six atoms connected to the PbII atom by regular coordination bonds, the structure features a long Pb⋯O interaction [3.145 (3) Å] that gives rise to a distorted Ψ-square-antiprismatic geometry at the metal center. The H atom of the methanol is hydrogen bonded to an O atom of the acetate.
Power system transmission network expansion planning using AC model

An optimisation technique to solve transmission network expansion planning problem, using the AC model, is presented. This is a very complex mixed integer nonlinear programming problem. A constructive heuristic algorithm aimed at obtaining an excellent quality solution for this problem is presented. An interior point method is employed to solve nonlinear programming problems during the solution steps of the algorithm. Results of the tests, carried out with three electrical energy systems, show the capabilities of the method and also the viability of using the AC model to solve the problem.
Parallel individual-based modeling of Everglades deer ecology

Individual-based models of animal ecology can take into account spatio-temporal details of a natural environment that are overly simplified in models based on averaged variables. Parallelizing a model that simulates long-term populations of deer and panthers in the Everglades region of south Florida allows faster computation of complex scenarios and better exploration of hydrologic management alternatives.
Alternative to NASA's concatenated coding system for the Galileo mission

Because of delays in the Galileo mission an enhanced coding gain was required, compared to the gain achieved by the concatenated system recommended by CCSDS. NASA has met the requirement by exchanging the inner convolutional memory, rate 1/2 code with a memory 14, rate 1/4 code, whereby an enhanced coding gain of 1.6 dB can be obtained if infinite interleaving is assumed. To obtain this enhanced coding gain the complexity for the inner decoder is increased by at least 256 times. The author proposes an alternative system with a slightly larger enhanced coding gain obtained at interleaving degree 16, i.e. by a system which can be implemented in practice. The overall complexity is, however, at least 25 times smaller than the complexity for the system implemented by NASA.