Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RL-L: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach Intended for AR Label Placement in Dynamic Scenarios

Labels are widely used in augmented reality (AR) to display digital information. Ensuring the readability of AR labels requires placing them in an occlusion-free manner while keeping visual links legible, especially when multiple labels exist in the scene. Although existing optimization-based methods, such as force-based methods, are effective in managing AR labels in static scenarios, they often struggle in dynamic scenarios with constantly moving objects. This is due to their focus on generating layouts optimal for the current moment, neglecting future moments and leading to sub-optimal or unstable layouts over time. In this work, we present RL-Label, a deep reinforcement learning-based method intended for managing the placement of AR labels in scenarios involving moving objects. RL-Label considers both the current and predicted future states of objects and labels, such as positions and velocities, as well as the user's viewpoint, to make informed decisions about label placement. It balances the trade-offs between immediate and long-term objectives. We tested RL-Label in simulated AR scenarios on two real-world datasets, showing that it effectively learns the decision-making process for long-term optimization, outperforming two baselines (i.e., no view management and a force-based method) by minimizing label occlusions, line intersections, and label movement distance. Additionally, a user study involving 18 participants indicates that, within our simulated environment, RL-Label excels over the baselines in aiding users to identify, compare, and summarize data on labels in dynamic scenes.
QTLs for yield and adaptation to reduced water and nitrogen inputs in durum wheat

A population of 181 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from the cross Meridiano × Claudio was evaluated in five field trials varying for water and nitrogen regimes. A preliminary analysis carried out with 213 SSR and DArT markers evidenced two major QTL clusters for grain yield, yield components and several other traits on chrs. 4B and 5A. Favourable alleles were inherited from the parental cultivar Claudio at the 4B QTL region and from Meridiano at the 5A QTL. Additional markers with highly significant effects on grain yield were found on chrs. 2B, 3B, 5B and 7B, with favourable alleles contributed by both parents, thus accounting for the wide transgressive segregation observed among the RILs. Grain yield of the RILs was highly predictable based on the SSR alleles present at four key-chromosome regions.
Infrared spectroscopy in clinical chemistry, using chemometric calibration techniques

Quantitative assessment of urinary calculus (renal stone) constituents by infrared analysis (IR) is hampered by the need of expert knowledge for spectrum interpretation. Our laboratory performed a computerized search of several libraries, containing 235 reference spectra from various mixtures with different proportions was performed. Library search was followed by visual interpretation of band intensities for more precise semi-quantitative determination of the composition. We tested partial least-squares (PLS) regression for the most frequently occurring compositions of urinary calculi. Using a constrained mixture design, we prepared various samples containing whewellite, weddellite and carbonate apatite and used these as calibration set for PLS regression. The value of PLS analysis was investigated by the assay of known artificial mixtures, and selected patients' samples from which the semiquantitative compositions were determined by computerized library search followed by visual interpretation. Compared with this method, PLS analysis was superior with respect to accuracy and necessity of expert knowledge. Apart from some practical limitations in data-handling facilities, we believe that PLS regression offers a promising tool for routine quantification, not only for whewellite, weddellite and carbonate apatite, but also for other compositions of the urinary calculus.
Distribution-Free Multi-Horizon Forecasting and Vending System

We introduce a new distribution-free multi-horizon forecast. As such, it integrates product-level forecast at fixed lead times, spans, and quantiles with the ability for a user to request a forecast at any other lead time, span or quantile via piecewise linear interpolation with exponential extrapolation for the tails of the distribution. The selected algorithm leads to a reduction in weighted quantile loss over the current methodology of over 13.4% for percentiles less than 3 and 1.9% for percentiles over 97 with measured increase of no more than 0.4% elsewhere. We also implement a new override blending algorithm allowing users to override any quantiles while maintaining consistency.
Global Stratospheric Impact of Solid Rocket Motor Launchers

Abstract : We used the GISS/Harvard/UCI3-D CTM on the AER computer platform to perform a number of simulations to obtain the surface area from accumulation of A12O3 particulates from solid rocket motors (SRM), orbital debris, and meteorites. In the calculation, the initial size distribution of the particulates emitted by SRM is represented by a tn-modal distribution with bulk density of 1.7 gm/cm. It is assumed that particles do not interact with each other so that particles in each size bin will evolve independently.
An Efficient Pedestrian Attribute Recognition System under Challenging Conditions

In this work, an efficient pedestrian attribute recognition system is introduced. The system is based on a novel processing pipeline that combines the best-performing attribute extraction model with an efficient attribute filtering algorithm using keypoints of human pose. The attribute extraction models are developed based on several state-of-the-art deep networks via transfer learning techniques, including ResNet50, Swin-transformer, and ConvNeXt. Pre-trained models of these networks are fine-tuned us-ing the Ensemble Pedestrian Attribute Recognition (EPAR) dataset. Several optimization techniques, including the advanced optimizer Adam with Decoupled Weight Decay Regularization (AdamW), Random Erasing (RE), and weighted loss functions, are adopted to solve issues of data unbalancing or challenging conditions like partial and occluded bodies. Experimental evaluations are performed via EPAR that contains 26993 images of 1477 person IDs, most of which are in challenging conditions. The results show that the ConvNeXt-v2-B outperforms other networks; mean accuracy (mA) reaches 85 . 57%, and other indices are also the highest. The addition of AdamW or RE can improve accuracy by 1-2%. The use of new loss functions can solve the issue of data unbalancing, in which the accuracy of data-less attributes improves by a maximum of 14% in the best case. Significantly, when the attribute filtering algorithm is applied, the results are dramatically improved, and mA reaches an excellent value of 94.85%. Utilizing the state-of-the-art attribute extraction model with optimization techniques on the large-scale and diverse dataset and attribute filtering has shown a good approach and thus has a high potential for practical applications.
A Comparative Study of HA/DBM Compounds Derived from Bovine and Porcine for Bone Regeneration

This comparative study investigated the tissue regeneration and inflammatory response induced by xenografts comprised of hydroxyapatite (HA) and demineralized bone matrix (DBM) extracted from porcine (P) and bovine (B) sources. First, extraction of HA and DBM was independently conducted, followed by chemical and morphological characterization. Second, mixtures of HA/DBM were prepared in 50/50 and 60/40 concentrations, and the chemical, morphological, and mechanical properties were evaluated. A rat calvarial defect model was used to evaluate the tissue regeneration and inflammatory responses at 3 and 6 months. The commercial allograft DBM Puros® was used as a clinical reference. Different variables related to tissue regeneration were evaluated, including tissue thickness regeneration (%), amount of regenerated bone area (%), and amount of regenerated collagen area (%). The inflammatory response was evaluated by quantifying the blood vessel area. Overall, tissue regeneration from porcine grafts was superior to bovine. After 3 months of implantation, the tissue thickness regeneration in the 50/50P compound and the commercial DBM was significantly higher (~99%) than in the bovine materials (~23%). The 50/50P and DBM produced higher tissue regeneration than the naturally healed controls. Similar trends were observed for the regenerated bone and collagen areas. The blood vessel area was correlated with tissue regeneration in the first 3 months of evaluation. After 6 months of implantation, HA/DBM compounds showed less regenerated collagen than the DBM-only xenografts. In addition, all animal-derived xenografts improved tissue regeneration compared with the naturally healed defects. No clinical complications associated with any implanted compound were noted.
This is the title of an example SEG abstract using Microsoft Word 11-point bold type

Reservoir characterization of unconventional reservoirs is challenging and highly time-consuming due to the detail needed to identify key features when evaluating the rocks. When using conventional methods to estimate porosity, there are always limitations related to the resolution of the tools to measure these parameters. This study proposes an innovative technique to estimate porosity in thin section images from the Mississippian strata in the Anadarko basin, Oklahoma (USA). The method is developed to be applied to other unconventional reservoirs where petrophysical parameters such as porosity and permeability are important to improve definition and prediction of reservoir quality.
Writing Scientific Software: A Guide to Good Style

Part I. Numerical Software: 1. Why numerical software? 2. Scientific computation and numerical analysis 3. Priorities 4. Famous disasters 5. Exercises Part II. Developing Software: 6. Basics of computer organization 7. Software design 8. Modularity and all that 9. Data structures 10. Design for testing and debugging 11. Exercises Part III. Efficiency in Time, Efficiency in Memory: 12. Be algorithm aware 13. Computer architecture and efficiency 14. Global vs. local optimization 15. Grabbing memory when you need it 16. Memory bugs and leaks Part IV. Tools: 17. Sources of scientific software 18. Unix tools 19. Cubic spline function library 20. Multigrid algorithms Appendix A: review of vectors and matrices Appendix B: trademarks Bibliography Index.
Autophagy in normal hematopoiesis and leukemia

Here we have explored whether inhibition of autophagy can be used as treatment strategy for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Steady-state autophagy was measured in leukemic cell lines and primary human CD34 + AML cells with a large variability in basal autophagy between AMLs observed. The autophagy-flux was higher in AMLs classified as poor-risk, which are frequently associated with TP53 mutations (TP53 mut ), compared to favorable-and intermediate-risk AMLs. In addition, the higher flux was associated with a higher expression level of several autophagy genes, but was not affected by alterations in p53 expression by knocking down p53 or overexpression of wild type p53 or p53 R273H . AML CD34 + cells were more sensitive to the autophagy inhibitor hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) than normal bone marrow CD34 + cells. Similar, inhibition of autophagy by knockdown of ATG5 or ATG7 triggered apoptosis, which coincided with increased expression of p53. In contrast to wild type p53 AML (TP53 wt ), HCQ treatment did not trigger a BAX and PUMA-dependent apoptotic response in AMLs harboring TP53 mut . To further characterize autophagy in the leukemic stem cell (LSC)-enriched cell fraction AML CD34 + cells were separated into ROS low and ROS high subfractions. The immature AML-CD34 + -enriched ROS low cells maintained higher basal autophagy and showed reduced survival upon HCQ treatment compared to ROS high cells. Finally, knockdown of ATG5 inhibits in vivo maintenance of AML CD34 + cells in NSG mice. These results indicate that targeting autophagy might provide new therapeutic options for treatment of AML since it affects the immature AML subfraction.
Reliability and Validity of the Function Impairment Screening Tool in Chinese Older Adults

Background: Physical function gradually decreases with age in older adults, affecting their independence and quality of life and leaving them prone to adverse outcomes. Despite the importance of assessing function for older adults, most studies have focused on disability and paid less attention to functional impairment. Thus, given the lack of valid and practical methods for evaluating functional impairment for older adults, we developed the function impairment screening tool (FIST) using the Delphi method. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the FIST in Chinese older adults. Methods: A total of 489 participants aged 60 years or older, and who had completed the FIST were included. A subgroup of 50 participants completed the FIST a second time, 1 week after the first round, and the test–retest reliability was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha. Validity was examined using exploratory factor analysis. Criterion-related validity was assessed using correlations between the FIST and the Barthel Index activities of daily living (ADL), Lawton, and Brody instrumental activities of daily living (LB-IADL). Results: The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the FIST was 0.930 (P < 0.001). The test–retest reliability was good, with an ICC of 0.928 (95% confidence interval [0.874, 0.960]). Exploratory factor analyses revealed one factor accounting for 60.14% of the scale's variance and the load values of every item were >0.4 (0.489–0.872). The correlation coefficient was 0.572 (P < 0.001) between the FIST score and ADL, and was 0.793 (P < 0.001) between the FIST score and IADL. The FIST score was positively correlated with walking speed (r = 0.475, P < 0.001) and grip strength (r = 0.307, P < 0.001), and negatively correlated with age (r = −0.588, P < 0.001) and Fried frailty phenotype (r = −0.594, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The FIST is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing physical function impairment in older adults.
Comparative Analysis of Poverty and Inequality in Togo: A Multidimensional Approach Based on a Wealth Index

Based on a composite poverty indicator, the analysis of the level and evolution of multidimensional poverty in Togo between 1988 and 1998 reveals a downward trend using both relative and absolute poverty lines. Over the two periods studied, non-monetary poverty strongly increased in the rural households and appears to be present on a large scale in the Savanna region. Considering the composite poverty indicator’s distribution, it appears that poverty is unequally distributed throughout the country with a stronger intensity in the rural areas and the Savanna region.
Association of SFG Rickettsia massiliae and Candidatus Rickettsia shennongii with Different Hard Ticks Infesting Livestock Hosts

Ixodid ticks are responsible for the transmission of various intracellular bacteria, such as the Rickettsia species. Little Information is available about the genetic characterization and epidemiology of Rickettsia spp. The current study was designed to assess the tick species infesting various livestock hosts and the associated Rickettsia spp. in Pakistan. Ticks were collected from different livestock hosts (equids, cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, and camels); morphologically identified; and screened for the genetic characterization of Rickettsia spp. by the amplification of partial fragments of the gltA, ompA and ompB genes. Altogether, 707 ticks were collected from 373 infested hosts out of 575 observed hosts. The infested hosts comprised 105 cattle, 71 buffaloes, 70 sheep, 60 goats, 34 camels, and 33 equids. The overall occurrence of Rickettsia spp. was 7.6% (25/330) in the tested ticks. Rickettsia DNA was detected in Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides (9/50, 18.0%), followed by Rhipicephalus turanicus (13/99, 13.1%), Haemaphysalis cornupunctata (1/18, 5.5%), and Rhipicephalus microplus (2/49, 4.1%); however, no rickettsial DNA was detected in Hyalomma anatolicum (71), Hyalomma dromedarii (35), and Haemaphysalis sulcata (8). Two Rickettsia agents were identified based on partial gltA, ompA, and ompB DNA sequences. The Rickettsia species detected in Rh. haemaphysaloides, Rh. turanicus, and Rh. microplus showed 99–100% identity with Rickettsia sp. and Candidatus Rickettsia shennongii, and in the phylogenetic trees clustered with the corresponding Rickettsia spp. The Rickettsia species detected in Rh. haemaphysaloides, Rh. turanicus, Rh. microplus, and Ha. cornupunctata showed 100% identity with R. massiliae, and in the phylogenetic trees it was clustered with the same species. Candidatus R. shennongii was characterized for the first time in Rh. haemaphysaloides, Rh. turanicus, and Rh. microplus. The presence of SFG Rickettsia spp. , including the human pathogen R. massiliae, indicates a zoonotic risk in the study region, thus stressing the need for regular surveillance.
Occlusion of Uterine Arteries Using Transcatheter Embolization

I. Description Transcatheter uterine artery embolization (UAE) is a minimally invasive technique that involves the injection of small particles, gelfoam, coils, or glue into the uterine arteries to block the blood supply to the uterus and uterine fibroids. It potentially serves as an alternative to hysterectomy. UAE has also been used to treat postpartum hemorrhage, cervical ectopic pregnancy, uterine arteriovenous malformations, and adenomyosis.
Learning multi-objective robot control policies from demonstration

When demonstrating unknown robot tasks via teleoperation, a human user may leverage information, latent in their mind, that is not observable to the robot. Such information may include user preferences as to how a task should be performed, state information observable to the human but not the robot, or task structure information such as subtask objectives. Multiple, different actions may thus occur in what the robot perceives to be the same state. The observed mapping from perceived states to actions, π : ŝ → a, may then be a one-to-many multimap, instead of a one-to-one or many-to-one function. Our interactive learning from demonstration architecture [1] enables robot learning from teleoperative demonstration via direct policy approximation (regression). Functional regression algorithms, however, are not appropriate for learning multimap policies (Fig. 1). Instead, we have developed ROGER (Realtime Overlapping Gaussian Expert Regression), a multimap regression algorithm for interactive learning from demonstration (Fig 2). ROGER is based on the Infinite Mixture of Gaussian Processes model [2]. We achieve interactivity with a human user by reformulating it incrementally as a particle filter and using the Sparse Online Gaussian Process formulation [3]. Current work focuses on improving the algorithm’s sparse and realtime properties and applying it to real robot tasks. Whilst learning a multimap in this manner, the overall task is decomposed into a collection of overlapping, functional, experts, each corresponding to a subtask. Properly selecting an expert or subtask at run time is analogous to 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 −1 −0.5 0 0.5 1
Characteristics of Long-Stay Patients in a PICU and Healthcare Resource Utilization After Discharge

OBJECTIVES: To examine the characteristics of long-stay patients (LSPs) admitted to a PICU and to investigate discharge characteristics of medical complexity among discharged LSP. DESIGN: We performed a retrospective cohort study where clinical data were collected on all children admitted to our PICU between July 1, 2017, and January 1, 2020. SETTING: A single-center study based at Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital, a level III interdisciplinary PICU in The Netherlands, providing all pediatric and surgical subspecialties. PATIENTS: LSP was defined as those admitted for at least 28 consecutive days. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS: Length of PICU stay, diagnosis at admission, length of mechanical ventilation, need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, mortality, discharge location after PICU and hospital admission, medical technical support, medication use, and involvement of allied healthcare professionals after hospital discharge. MAIN RESULTS: LSP represented a small proportion of total PICU patients (108 patients; 3.2%) but consumed 33% of the total admission days, 47% of all days on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and 38% of all days on mechanical ventilation. After discharge, most LSP could be classified as children with medical complexity (CMC) (76%); all patients received discharge medications (median 5.5; range 2–19), most patients suffered from a chronic disease (89%), leaving the hospital with one or more technological devices (82%) and required allied healthcare professional involvement after discharge (93%). CONCLUSIONS: LSP consumes a considerable amount of resources in the PICU and its impact extends beyond the point of PICU discharge since the majority are CMC. This indicates complex care needs at home, high family needs, and a high burden on the healthcare system across hospital borders.
FACOLTÀ DI INGEGNERIA DELL’INFORMAZIONE, INFORMATICA E STATISTICA Corso di Laurea in INGEGNERIA ELETTRONICA IMPACT OF DEVICE DIVERSITY AND HUMAN BODY ON WIFI FINGERPRINT-BASED INDOOR POSITIONING Relatore Prof.ssa Maria-Gabriella Di Benedetto Correlatore

WiFi fingerprint-based positioning is an interesting solution for the implementation of indoor positioning systems, especially with the widespread use of WiFi-enabled mobile devices. However, some factors could affect the achievable positioning accuracy of this kind of systems. In the present work, impact of a particular factor, that is device diversity, is examined in detail. Moreover the impact of human body presence/absence on the WiFi received signal strenght is experimentally analyzed and briefly discussed. The main results show that both human body and device diversity affect the WiFi signal propagation in terms of measured RSS. On one hand, the human body presence leads to a slight decrease and higher variability of the RSS value perceived in a given measurement point, respect to the case of human body absence. On the other hand, results also show the dependence of the RSS value on the hardware/software characteristics of the used measurement device. Furthermore, when focusing on the achievable positioning accuracy of fingerprint-based system, results confirm that device diversity accordingly affects the system performance. As expected, optimal performance are obtained when the same device is used in both offline and online fingerprinting phases, while performance decrease is experienced for all device diversity cases. Finally, alternative methods coping with device diversity, taken from literature, are studied and results show that they could be viable options if supported by a previous step of optimal APs selection.
Individual differences in VOT realizations of English plosives by Palestinian pupils

Palestinian Arabic (PA) learners of English meet with two types of challenges when learning English plosives in initial position. The first challenge is that English initial /p, t, k/ are aspirated while PA /t, k/ are not, and that English /b, d, g/ have short-lag VOT while PA /b, d/ are fully voiced. The second challenge is that PA lacks /p/ and (to some extent) /g/. This paper focuses on individual differences between learners in how they cope with the two types of challenges. As could be expected, some learners have fully voiced /b, d, g/ in their English, and/or unaspirated /p, t, k/. As could also be expected, some learners pronounce /p/ and /b/ in the same way. We found no evidence of an implicational hierarchy between these challenges, e.g. whether learners who conflate /p/ and /b/ also have fully voiced /b, d, g/ in their English.