Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
D3.5 Simulated annealing and tabu search

Improved draft tube mixing apparatus having one or more of the following features: (a) controlled circulation at the inlet of the tube which allows operation at reduced submergence by preventing formation of a vortex; (b) an additional passage for controlled flow into the draft tube along its length to allow operation without the tube being entirely submerged; (c) the recovery of dynamic energy from the flow at the outlet of the tube by wide area diffusion without separation from the walls of the tube in the diffusing region thereof; (d) improved guidance of radially directed to axially directed flow at the inlet of the draft tube for efficient axial pumping by the impeller by maintaining generally uniform axial flow velocity radially of the impeller; and (e) separation of coarse and fine particles in suspension in the tank to allow selective draw-off of the coarse and/or fine particles thereby increasing efficiency of mixing.
Correlation of Intravascular Ultrasound Findings With Histopathological Analysis of Thrombus Aspirates in Patients With Very Late Drug-Eluting Stent Thrombosis

Background— Intravascular ultrasound of drug-eluting stent (DES) thrombosis (ST) reveals a high incidence of incomplete stent apposition (ISA) and vessel remodeling. Autopsy specimens of DES ST show delayed healing and hypersensitivity reactions. The present study sought to correlate histopathology of thrombus aspirates with intravascular ultrasound findings in patients with very late DES ST. Methods and Results— The study population consisted of 54 patients (28 patients with very late DES ST and 26 controls). Of 28 patients with very late DES ST, 10 patients (1020±283 days after implantation) with 11 ST segments (5 sirolimus-eluting stents, 5 paclitaxel-eluting stents, 1 zotarolimus-eluting stent) underwent both thrombus aspiration and intravascular ultrasound investigation. ISA was present in 73% of cases with an ISA cross-sectional area of 6.2±2.4 mm2 and evidence of vessel remodeling (index, 1.6±0.3). Histopathological analysis showed pieces of fresh thrombus with inflammatory cell infiltrates (DES, 263±149 white blood cells per high-power field) and eosinophils (DES, 20±24 eosinophils per high-power field; sirolimus-eluting stents, 34±28; paclitaxel-eluting stents, 6±6; P for sirolimus-eluting stents versus paclitaxel-eluting stents=0.09). The mean number of eosinophils per high-power field was higher in specimens from very late DES ST (20±24) than in those from spontaneous acute myocardial infarction (7±10), early bare-metal stent ST (1±1), early DES ST (1±2), and late bare-metal stent ST (2±3; P from ANOVA=0.038). Eosinophil count correlated with ISA cross-sectional area, with an average increase of 5.4 eosinophils per high-power field per 1-mm2 increase in ISA cross-sectional area. Conclusions— Very late DES thrombosis is associated with histopathological signs of inflammation and intravascular ultrasound evidence of vessel remodeling. Compared with other causes of myocardial infarction, eosinophilic infiltrates are more common in thrombi harvested from very late DES thrombosis, particularly in sirolimus-eluting stents, and correlate with the extent of stent malapposition.
Designing for Others, and the Trap of HCI Methods & Practices

HCI research often (cl)aims to do good for others, but does it actually? We discuss two cases that exemplify how designing for others can in fact be harmful: the Games Against Health paper by Linehan et al. and the Uninvited Guests video by Superflux. We feel that user-centered methods are often considered as a safe-conduct, simply because the end-user is involved one cannot do wrong. We plead for explicit transparency about the origin of research projects and technology designs to put a critical reflection about underlying values of the work into practice.
Medical Image Fusion and Denoising with Alternating Sequential Filter and Adaptive Fractional Order Total Variation

Medical image fusion aims at integrating information from multimodality medical images to obtain a more complete and accurate description of the same object, which provides an easy access for image-guided medical diagnostic and treatment. Unfortunately, medical images are often corrupted by noise in acquisition or transmission, and the noise signal is easily mistaken for a useful characterization of the image, making the fusion effect drop significantly. Thus, the existence of noise presents a great challenge for most of traditional image fusion methods. To address this problem, an effective variation model for multimodality medical image fusion and denoising is proposed. First, a multiscale alternating sequential filter is exploited to extract the useful characterizations (e.g., details and edges) from noisy input medical images. Then, a recursive filtering-based weight map is constructed to guide the fusion of main features of input images. Additionally, total variation (TV) constraint is developed by constructing an adaptive fractional order $p$ based on the local contrast of fused image, further effectively suppressing noise while avoiding the staircase effect of the TV. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method performs well with both noisy and normal medical images, outperforming conventional methods in terms of fusion quality and noise reduction.
Triphenylmethyl benzoate

The title compound, C26H20O2, has long been known, but was not structurally characterized until now. It adopts the Z conformation and the atoms comprising the ester linkage are essentially coplanar (r.m.s. deviation of 0.0234 Å). The acyl C—O bond length of 1.470 (2) Å falls within the normal range seen for esters of tertiary alcohols and is below the value of 1.496 Å found in tri-tert-butylmethyl 4-nitrobenzoate.
Continuous‐cropping tobacco caused variance of chemical properties and structure of bacterial network in soils

Continuous cropping of the same crop leads to land degradation. This is also called the continuous‐cropping obstacle. Here, we investigated how long‐term continuous cropping of tobacco influences soil biochemical properties and bacterial networks in the mountain lands of China. Two different fields were sampled: one with 25 years of continuous cropping tobacco and one with noncontinuous cropping tobacco. Soil chemical and biological properties were measured including available phosphorus and potassium, soil organic matter, pH, alkali‐hydrolysable nitrogen, micronutrients contents, and activity of urease, catalase, invertase, and phosphatase as well as tobacco agronomic characteristics. Bacterial communities of the two different soils were sequenced by metabarcoding of the 16S ribosomal RNA, and, with these data, network analysis was done. Soil chemical properties and tobacco agronomical properties were negatively affected by the continuous‐cropping obstacle, and this treatment has a less complex network (less modules, nodes, and connectivity) than the soil with noncontinuous cropping treatment. For continuous cropping, there were less generalists, which were key species that connect network, than noncontinuous cropping. Moreover, the taxonomic composition of bacterial network was different in the two different treatments. In the continuous‐cropping network, 40% nodes had negative interactions, suggesting that more competition or antagonism existed among bacterial species. It concluded that continuous cropping has a detrimental effect on soil chemical and that the bacterial network properties under continuous cropping are more sensitive to soil variables (so more unstable and inefficient) because there are less bacterial species that interact each other and this is due to limited nutrients or excessive toxic nutrient.
Efficient Minimum Error Bounded Particle Resampling L1 Tracker With Occlusion Detection

Recently, sparse representation has been applied to visual tracking to find the target with the minimum reconstruction error from a target template subspace. Though effective, these L1 trackers require high computational costs due to numerous calculations for l1 minimization. In addition, the inherent occlusion insensitivity of the l1 minimization has not been fully characterized. In this paper, we propose an efficient L1 tracker, named bounded particle resampling (BPR)-L1 tracker, with a minimum error bound and occlusion detection. First, the minimum error bound is calculated from a linear least squares equation and serves as a guide for particle resampling in a particle filter (PF) framework. Most of the insignificant samples are removed before solving the computationally expensive l1 minimization in a two-step testing. The first step, named τ testing, compares the sample observation likelihood to an ordered set of thresholds to remove insignificant samples without loss of resampling precision. The second step, named max testing, identifies the largest sample probability relative to the target to further remove insignificant samples without altering the tracking result of the current frame. Though sacrificing minimal precision during resampling, max testing achieves significant speed up on top of τ testing. The BPR-L1 technique can also be beneficial to other trackers that have minimum error bounds in a PF framework, especially for trackers based on sparse representations. After the error-bound calculation, BPR-L1 performs occlusion detection by investigating the trivial coefficients in the l1 minimization. These coefficients, by design, contain rich information about image corruptions, including occlusion. Detected occlusions are then used to enhance the template updating. For evaluation, we conduct experiments on three video applications: biometrics (head movement, hand holding object, singers on stage), pedestrians (urban travel, hallway monitoring), and cars in traffic (wide area motion imagery, ground-mounted perspectives). The proposed BPR-L1 method demonstrates an excellent performance as compared with nine state-of-the-art trackers on eleven challenging benchmark sequences.
Adaptive output tracking control for a class of uncertain discrete-time systems via sliding mode theory

This paper is concerned with an adaptive output tracking control (AOTC) for a class of uncertain discrete-time systems via sliding mode theory. It is assumed that the uncertain discrete-time systems are described by a state equation with mismatched uncertainties found in unmodelled dynamics and external disturbances, and the uncertainties are expressed in a parameterised form. The estimates for the uncertainties are taken by using the proposed weighted least squares estimator (WLSE), and then the proposed AOTC is designed on the basis of the output from the estimator via sliding mode theory. It is verified by using the Lyapunov method that the estimation error equation is asymptotically stable and the uncertain discrete-time systems under the action of the proposed AOTC are ultimately stable. The effectiveness of the proposed method is indicated by the simulation experiment in a simple numerical example.
Are search and decision programs computationally equivalent?

From the point of view of sequential polynomial time computation, the answer to the question in the title is 'yes'. The process of self-reducibility is a linear time Turing (oracle) reduction from a given combinatorial search problem to an appropriately defined decision problem. However, from the point of view of fast parallel computation, the answer is not so clear. Many of the sequential algorithms that were 'marked off' as being “inherently sequential” embed within them the self-reducibility process. Can this inherently sequential process be parallelized? To study this problem, we define an abstract setting (namely that of an independence system) in which one, universal search problem captures all combinatorial search problems. We consider several natural decision and function oracles to which this search problem may be reduced. On the positive side, we give efficient probabilistic parallel reductions to these oracles. These reductions constitute a scheme for parallelizing search problems in case the oracles for these problems are themselves efficiently computable in parallel. We give examples of problems that did not yield to parallelism before, but can be parallelized using this scheme. On the negative side, we prove lower bounds on any determininistic parallel reductions to the same oracles. If p processors are used, the sequential (linear) running time cannot be enhanced by more than a factor of &Ogr;(log p) and hence for any polynomial number of processors the problem remains inherently sequential. This proves that randomization can be exponentially more powerful than determinism in our model, and suggests that NC ≠ Random NC. Finally, we state some intriguing conjectures and suggest new directions of research in complexity theory that arise from this work.
A system architecture for a context - aware blended mobile learning environment

Mobility offers new possibilities for interaction and communication in education. Pervasive nature of mobile devices makes learning on the move and across time a reality. Their characteristics fit into the blended use of technology in education since they posses socializing powers, re-conceptualize learning by making it more informal, ambient, collaborative and personal. Nevertheless, the problem of creation and coordination of a learning environment based on mobile devices still exists. This article presents a system called MILE and its extensible context-aware architecture to support the use of mobile devices in blended learning environments. In the end, some experience and lessons learned during the development of the system are described.
Phase Noise Model of Single Loop Frequency Synthesizer

The phase noise spectrum of a single loop frequency synthesizer for S-band, which can be utilized in broadcasting terminals, was predicted based on the analyses for phase noise contributions of noise sources. The proposed phase noise model in this paper more accurately predicts the phase noise spectrum of a frequency synthesizer. To accurately model the phase noise contributions of noise sources in the frequency synthesizer, the phase noise sources were analyzed via modeling of the frequency divider and phase noise components using Leeson model for the reference signal source and VCO. The phase noise transfer functions to VCO from noise sources were analyzed by superposition theory and linear operation of the phase-locked loop. The frequency synthesizers were fabricated and the phase noise prediction model was evaluated by measured data and prediction data.
Effects of the Pollution by Heavy Metals in a Soil with Agricultural Use

The scientific community recognizes the importance of soil as an essential resource and the need to establish indicators that improve their productivity by protecting them, and, at the same time, the environment, human health and food safety. Trace elements that can be present in high concentrations in these soils are food toxics and their negative effects on health are manifested in the long term. The increase in cancer cases, nervous system injuries and genetic diseases is reported, because of the consumption of water and food contaminated with toxic elements. Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence is an analytical method that has demonstrated high efficiency and adequate detection limits. That non-destructive nuclear technique allows multi-element analysis of large volumes of samples at a low cost. Therefore, the scientific group FITOPLANT of UNAH studies agro ecosystems affected by environmental pollution in the municipality of San Jose de las Lajas. It proposes to evaluate pollution conditionality in agricultural land that receives industrial waste. The analysis revealed that the soil is classified as moderately contaminated in Cr, Co, Zn and Pb and it needs urgent remediation due to the content of Ni and Cu.
Automatic building extraction from oblique aerial images

In this paper we propose an automatic urban building extraction method for oblique aerial images. Five steps are included in this method: point cloud generation, grid partition, feature extraction, building detection and building reconstruction. Taking advantages of recent progress in large-scale Structure from Motion (SfM) and Multiple View Stereo (MVS), dense point cloud is generated first. Then, we project the point cloud into a regularly spaced grid in XY plan, and convert the building extraction problem into an image segmentation problem. By combining the strength of the geometric attribute and spectral attribute, three complementary features are extracted and a MRF based graph model along with an energy function is created. Points belonging to buildings are recognized by minimizing this function, and prismatic 3D building models are reconstructed accordingly.
Neocortical Development

The material contained in this volume was submitted as previously unpublished material, except in the instances in which credit has been given to the source from which some of the illustrative material was derived. Great care has been taken to maintain the accuracy of the information contained in the volume. However, neither Raven Press nor the authors can be held responsible for errors or for any consequences arising from the use of the information contained herein. AUTHORS' NOTE: This book is out of print. Raven Press no longer exists. The copyright to this book is being transferred to us. We want to make this information available to all who are interested in neocortical development. In the files available for download, we add a few pages that review some of the relevant literature that has been published since 1991. Our observations in 1991 are relevant to the multitude of gene expression studies done since the mid-90s and up to the present day. Many of the hypotheses that we proposed in this book have been confirmed by these studies. We also reexamine cell migration in the neocortex; the labeling patterns in our autoradiograms are consistent with studies showing tangential migration of GABA-ergic cells from germinal zones in the basal ganglia into the developing neocortex. We invite your comments on our work, and would like to answer any questions that you want to ask about how your research correlates with our findings.
Measurement Error in General Equilibrium: The Aggregate Effects of Noisy Economic Indicators

I analyze the business cycle implications of noisy economic indicators in the context of a dynamic general equilibrium model. Two main results emerge. First, measurement error in preliminary data releases can have a quantitatively important effect on economic fluctuations. For instance, under efficient signal-extraction, the introduction of accurate economic indicators would make aggregate output 10 to 30 percent more volatile than suggested by the post-war experience of the U.S. economy. Second, the sign -- but not the magnitude -- of the measurement error effect depends crucially on the signal processing capabilities of agents. In particular, if agents take the noisy data at face value, significant improvements in the quality of key economic indicators would lead to considerably less cyclical volatility.
Accelerator Memory Reuse in the Dark Silicon Era

Accelerators integrated on-die with General-Purpose CPUs (GP-CPUs) can yield significant performance and power improvements. Their extensive use, however, is ultimately limited by their area overhead; due to their high degree of specialization, the opportunity cost of investing die real estate on accelerators can become prohibitive, especially for general-purpose architectures. In this paper we present a novel technique aimed at mitigating this opportunity cost by allowing GP-CPU cores to reuse accelerator memory as a non-uniform cache architecture (NUCA) substrate. On a system with a last level-2 cache of 128kB, our technique achieves on average a 25% performance improvement when reusing four 512 kB accelerator memory blocks to form a level-3 cache. Making these blocks reusable as NUCA slices incurs on average in a 1.89% area overhead with respect to equally-sized ad hoc cache slices.
A rule-based mixed mobility model for cars and scooters (poster)

To evaluate the feasibility of vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) applications, it is crucial to have an accurate estimation for the quality of the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) radio links and recently it has been shown that the link quality is highly dependent on the location and the velocity of the transmitting vehicle, the receiving vehicle, and their neighbor vehicles. To this end, in this paper we propose a rule-based model to simulate the mobility of both cars and scooters, which are one of the most important transportation means in lots of Asian and European countries. Our proposed model considers various details: different aspects of the road structure - multiple lanes and the traffic lights, the driver's lane-changing behaviors, and, most importantly, the difference in the driving behaviors between cars and scooters. We also present several design guidelines for the VANET systems which are derived from the simulation results.
Impact Behavior of Three Notched All-Ceramic Restorations after Soaking in Artificial Saliva

Biomechanics play a critical role in influencing the clinical applications of all-ceramic dental restorations. The restorative biomaterials have to demonstrate mechanical durability in the oral environment because they are always exposed to a variety of oral environments. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of soaking time, notch and saliva pH values on the impact energy of three commonly used all-ceramic materials for CAD/CAM. The leucite-reinforced glass ceramic (ProCAD), lithium disilicate glass ceramic (IPS e.max CAD) and zirconia-based ceramic materials (IPS e.max ZirCAD) were used. The experimental results indicated that the impact energy of ProCAD decreased with an increase in soaking time, but not for IPS e.max CAD and IPS e.max ZirCAD. The impact energy of the zirconia system was higher than leucite-reinforced and lithium disilicate-based ceramic systems. When subjected to preformed 0.5 mm U-shape notch on the bar specimen of 3 mm thick, the impact energy of the all-ceramic restorations revealed a markedly reduction of about 80%–90%, almost irrespective of dental compositions, which indicated the effect of flaw to a great degree. No statistically significant influence (p > 0.05) of pH values (4, 7 and 9) on impact energy was found for each group. It is concluded that the no matter which all-ceramic materials were used, it was appreciably sensitive to the presence of notches. The ceramic composition and microstructure have been shown to affect mechanical durability.
Using the Aesop's Fable Paradigm to Investigate Causal Understanding of Water Displacement by New Caledonian Crows

Understanding causal regularities in the world is a key feature of human cognition. However, the extent to which non-human animals are capable of causal understanding is not well understood. Here, we used the Aesop's fable paradigm – in which subjects drop stones into water to raise the water level and obtain an out of reach reward – to assess New Caledonian crows' causal understanding of water displacement. We found that crows preferentially dropped stones into a water-filled tube instead of a sand-filled tube; they dropped sinking objects rather than floating objects; solid objects rather than hollow objects, and they dropped objects into a tube with a high water level rather than a low one. However, they failed two more challenging tasks which required them to attend to the width of the tube, and to counter-intuitive causal cues in a U-shaped apparatus. Our results indicate that New Caledonian crows possess a sophisticated, but incomplete, understanding of the causal properties of displacement, rivalling that of 5–7 year old children.