bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Woodification: User‐Controlled Cambial Growth Modeling
Authors: Kratt J. , Spicker M. , Guayaquil A. , Fiser M. , Pirk S. , Deussen O. , Hart J. C. , Benes B. 
Published: June 2015

AbstractWe present a botanical simulation of secondary (cambial) tree growth coupled to a physical cracking simulation of its bark. Whereas level set growth would use a fixed resolution voxel grid, our system extends the deformable simplicial complex (DSC), supporting new biological growth functions robustly on any surface polygonal mesh with adaptive subdivision, collision detection and topological control. We extend the DSC with temporally coherent texturing, and surface cracking with a user‐controllable biological model coupled to the stresses introduced by the cambial growth model.
Color Sequence Preserving Decolorization
Authors: Yoo M.‐J. , Lee I.‐K. , Lee S. 
Published: June 2015

AbstractMany visualization techniques use images containing meaningful color sequences. If such images are converted to grayscale, the sequence is often distorted, compromising the information in the image. We preserve the significance of a color sequence during decolorization by mapping the colors from a source image to a grid in the CIELAB color space. We then identify the most significant hues, and thin the corresponding cells of the grid to approximate a curve in the color space, eliminating outliers using a weighted Laplacian eigenmap. This curve is then mapped to a monotonic sequence of gray levels. The saturation values of the resulting image are combined with the original intensity channels to restore details such as text. Our approach can also be used to recolor images containing color sequences, for instance for viewers with color‐deficient vision, or to interpolate between two images that use the same geometry and color sequence to present different data.
Paint and Click: Unified Interactions for Image Boundaries
Authors: Summa B. , Gooch A. A. , Scorzelli G. , Pascucci V. 
Published: June 2015

AbstractImage boundaries are a fundamental component of many interactive digital photography techniques, enabling applications such as segmentation, panoramas, and seamless image composition. Interactions for image boundaries often rely on two complementary but separate approaches: editing via painting or clicking constraints. In this work, we provide a novel, unified approach for interactive editing of pairwise image boundaries that combines the ease of painting with the direct control of constraints. Rather than a sequential coupling, this new formulation allows full use of both interactions simultaneously, giving users unprecedented flexibility for fast boundary editing. To enable this new approach, we provide technical advancements. In particular, we detail a reformulation of image boundaries as a problem of finding cycles, expanding and correcting limitations of the previous work. Our new formulation provides boundary solutions for painted regions with performance on par with state‐of‐the‐art specialized, paint‐only techniques. In addition, we provide instantaneous exploration of the boundary solution space with user constraints. Finally, we provide examples of common graphics applications impacted by our new approach.
Biologically‐Inspired Visual Simulation of Insect Swarms
Authors: Li Weizi , Wolinski David , Pettré Julien , C. Lin Ming 
Published: June 2015

AbstractRepresenting the majority of living animals, insects are the most ubiquitous biological organisms on Earth. Being able to simulate insect swarms could enhance visual realism of various graphical applications. However, the very complex nature of insect behaviors makes its simulation a challenging computational problem. To address this, we present a general biologically‐inspired framework for visual simulation of insect swarms. Our approach is inspired by the observation that insects exhibit emergent behaviors at various scales in nature. At the low level, our framework automatically selects and configures the most suitable steering algorithm for the local collision avoidance task. At the intermediate level, it processes insect trajectories into piecewise‐linear segments and constructs probability distribution functions for sampling waypoints. These waypoints are then evaluated by the Metropolis‐Hastings algorithm to preserve global structures of insect swarms at the high level. With this biologically inspired, data‐driven approach, we are able to simulate insect behaviors at different scales and we evaluate our simulation using both qualitative and quantitative metrics. Furthermore, as insect data could be difficult to acquire, our framework can be adopted as a computer‐assisted animation tool to interpret sketch‐like input as user control and generate simulations of complex insect swarming phenomena.
Adaptable Anatomical Models for Realistic Bone Motion Reconstruction
Authors: Zhu Lifeng , Hu Xiaoyan , Kavan Ladislav 
Published: June 2015

AbstractWe present a system to reconstruct subject‐specific anatomy models while relying only on exterior measurements represented by point clouds. Our model combines geometry, kinematics, and skin deformations (skinning). This joint model can be adapted to different individuals without breaking its functionality, i.e., the bones and the skin remain well‐articulated after the adaptation. We propose an optimization algorithm which learns the subject‐specific (anthropometric) parameters from input point clouds captured using commodity depth cameras. The resulting personalized models can be used to reconstruct motion of human subjects. We validate our approach for upper and lower limbs, using both synthetic data and recordings of three different human subjects. Our reconstructed bone motion is comparable to results obtained by optical motion capture (Vicon) combined with anatomically‐based inverse kinematics (OpenSIM). We demonstrate that our adapted models better preserve the joint structure than previous methods such as OpenSIM or Anatomy Transfer.
Generating Design Suggestions under Tight Constraints with Gradient‐based Probabilistic Programming
Authors: Ritchie Daniel , Lin Sharon , Goodman Noah D. , Hanrahan Pat 
Published: June 2015

AbstractWe present a system for generating suggestions from highly‐constrained, continuous design spaces. We formulate suggestion as sampling from a probability distribution; constraints are represented as factors that concentrate probability mass around sub‐manifolds of the design space. These sampling problems are intractable using typical random walk MCMC techniques, so we adopt Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC), a gradient‐based MCMC method. We implement HMC in a high‐performance probabilistic programming language, and we evaluate its ability to efficiently generate suggestions for two different, highly‐constrained example applications: vector art coloring and designing stable stacking structures.
CHC+RT: Coherent Hierarchical Culling for Ray Tracing
Authors: Mattausch O. , Bittner J. , Jaspe A. , Gobbetti E. , Wimmer M. , Pajarola R. 
Published: June 2015

AbstractWe propose a new technique for in‐core and out‐of‐core GPU ray tracing using a generalization of hierarchical occlusion culling in the style of the CHC++ method. Our method exploits the rasterization pipeline and hardware occlusion queries in order to create coherent batches of work for localized shader‐based ray tracing kernels. By combining hierarchies in both ray space and object space, the method is able to share intermediate traversal results among multiple rays. We exploit temporal coherence among similar ray sets between frames and also within the given frame. A suitable management of the current visibility state makes it possible to benefit from occlusion culling for less coherent ray types like diffuse reflections. Since large scenes are still a challenge for modern GPU ray tracers, our method is most useful for scenes with medium to high complexity, especially since our method inherently supports ray tracing highly complex scenes that do not fit in GPU memory. For in‐core scenes our method is comparable to CUDA ray tracing and performs up to 5.94 × better than pure shader‐based ray tracing.
IlluminationCut
Authors: Bus N. , Mustafa N. H. , Biri V. 
Published: June 2015

AbstractWe present a novel algorithm, IlluminationCut, for rendering images using the many‐lights framework. It handles any light source that can be approximated with virtual point lights (VPLs) as well as highly glossy materials. The algorithm extends the Multidimensional Lightcuts technique by effectively creating an illumination‐aware clustering of the product‐space of the set of points to be shaded and the set of VPLs. Additionally, the number of visibility queries for each product‐space cluster is reduced by using an adaptive sampling technique. Our framework is flexible and achieves around 3 – 6 times speedup over previous state‐of‐the‐art methods.
The State of the Art in HDR Deghosting: A Survey and Evaluation
Authors: Tursun Okan Tarhan , Akyüz Ahmet Oğuz , Erdem Aykut , Erdem Erkut 
Published: June 2015

AbstractObtaining a high quality high dynamic range (HDR) image in the presence of camera and object movement has been a long‐standing challenge. Many methods, known as HDR deghosting algorithms, have been developed over the past ten years to undertake this challenge. Each of these algorithms approaches the deghosting problem from a different perspective, providing solutions with different degrees of complexity, solutions that range from rudimentary heuristics to advanced computer vision techniques. The proposed solutions generally differ in two ways: (1) how to detect ghost regions and (2) what to do to eliminate ghosts. Some algorithms choose to completely discard moving objects giving rise to HDR images which only contain the static regions. Some other algorithms try to find the best image to use for each dynamic region. Yet others try to register moving objects from different images in the spirit of maximizing dynamic range in dynamic regions. Furthermore, each algorithm may introduce different types of artifacts as they aim to eliminate ghosts. These artifacts may come in the form of noise, broken objects, under‐ and over‐exposed regions, and residual ghosting. Given the high volume of studies conducted in this field over the recent years, a comprehensive survey of the state of the art is required. Thus, the first goal of this paper is to provide this survey. Secondly, the large number of algorithms brings about the need to classify them. Thus the second goal of this paper is to propose a taxonomy of deghosting algorithms which can be used to group existing and future algorithms into meaningful classes. Thirdly, the existence of a large number of algorithms brings about the need to evaluate their effectiveness, as each new algorithm claims to outperform its precedents. Therefore, the last goal of this paper is to share the results of a subjective experiment which aims to evaluate various state‐of‐the‐art deghosting algorithms.
State of the Art in Hand and Finger Modeling and Animation
Authors: Wheatland Nkenge , Wang Yingying , Song Huaguang , Neff Michael , Zordan Victor , Jörg Sophie 
Published: June 2015

AbstractThe human hand is a complex biological system able to perform numerous tasks with impressive accuracy and dexterity. Gestures furthermore play an important role in our daily interactions, and humans are particularly skilled at perceiving and interpreting detailed signals in communications. Creating believable hand motions for virtual characters is an important and challenging task. Many new methods have been proposed in the Computer Graphics community within the last years, and significant progress has been made towards creating convincing, detailed hand and finger motions. This state of the art report presents a review of the research in the area of hand and finger modeling and animation. Starting with the biological structure of the hand and its implications for how the hand moves, we discuss current methods in motion capturing hands, data‐driven and physics‐based algorithms to synthesize their motions, and techniques to make the appearance of the hand model surface more realistic. We then focus on areas in which detailed hand motions are crucial such as manipulation and communication. Our report concludes by describing emerging trends and applications for virtual hand animation.
Morse complexes for shape segmentation and homological analysis: discrete models and algorithms
Authors: De Floriani Leila , Fugacci Ulderico , Iuricich Federico , Magillo Paola 
Published: June 2015

AbstractMorse theory offers a natural and mathematically‐sound tool for shape analysis and understanding. It allows studying the behavior of a scalar function defined on a manifold. Starting from a Morse function, we can decompose the domain of the function into meaningful regions associated with the critical points of the function. Such decompositions, called Morse complexes, provide a segmentation of a shape and are extensively used in terrain modeling and in scientific visualization. Discrete Morse theory, a combinatorial counterpart of smooth Morse theory defined over cell complexes, provides an excellent basis for computing Morse complexes in a robust and efficient way. Moreover, since a discrete Morse complex computed over a given complex has the same homology as the original one, but fewer cells, discrete Morse theory is a fundamental tool for efficiently detecting holes in shapes through homology and persistent homology. In this survey, we review, classify and analyze algorithms for computing and simplifying Morse complexes in the context of such applications with an emphasis on discrete Morse theory and on algorithms based on it.
10‐year prospective cohort follow‐up of immediately restored XiVE implants
Authors: Degidi Marco , Nardi Diego , Piattelli Adriano 
Published: June 2015

AbstractObjectiveThe aim of this prospective cohort study was to assess the ten‐year performance of the condensing thread, self‐tapping apex and internal hexagonal connection XiVE implant supporting partial fixed prostheses placed with an immediate restoration approach.Material and methodsAll patients received a fixed two‐ to four‐unit partial provisional restoration supported by immediately loaded implants. The final gold alloy/ceramic restorations were cemented approximately 28 weeks after implant insertion. Marginal bone level, pocket probing depth and percentage of bleeding on probing, biological or technical complications and any other adverse events were measured annually up to ten years after surgery. The overall success and survival rates at implant level were evaluated following the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (ICOI) Pisa Consensus Conference criteria. Implant placement in post‐extractive or healed sites, smoking and a history of periodontal treatment were evaluated to assess whether they had an influence on bone resorption or on implant survival.ResultsOf 114 patients, for a total of 284 implants, fulfilled all the inclusion criteria and were enrolled in the study. 78 (27.5%) implants placed in 30 (26.3%) patients were lost to follow‐up. Eight of 284 (2.8%) implants failed in 8 of 114 (7.0%) patients: one (12.5% of losses) due to failure to achieve osseointegration and seven (87.5% of losses) due to peri‐implantitis. No cluster implant failures were assessed. The failure of the implant caused the failure of the prosthesis due to the strategic position of the implant in four patients. At the final ten‐year follow‐up, 121 (61.4%) implants exhibited a “full success” status with an optimal health condition, 21 (10.9%) implants scored a “satisfactory survival” condition, while 49 (25.49%) of the implants were classified as “compromised survival” status (Misch et al. 2008). Smoking was found to be statistically associated with “implant failure” (P = 0.010), while no association was found for patients treated for periodontal disease (P = 0.679) and post‐extractive surgical sites (P = 0.664). Statistically significant more marginal bone loss was found in patients treated for periodontal disease (P < 0.0001). An increased bone loss was also observed in smokers, but the difference with the non‐smokers was not statistically significant (P = 0.06).ConclusionsThe XiVE implants can be successfully used to support immediate prosthesis. Patients with a history of periodontitis show increased bone loss and risk to develop peri‐implant disease. Smoking seems to jeopardize the long‐term implant survival.
Enjoyment of high‐intensity interval training in an overweight/obese cohort: a short report
Authors: Smith‐Ryan Abbie E. 
Published: June 2015

SummaryExercise enjoyment has been shown to be important for adherence. Minimal data exist on enjoyment of intense exercise, especially in clinical populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate enjoyment levels of overweight and obese subjects undergoing 3 weeks of high‐intensity interval training. Forty‐two generally healthy overweight and obese men and women (body mass index = 30·8 ± 4·8 kg × m−2) volunteered for this study. Exercise enjoyment was quantified using the Exercise Enjoyment Scale before and after each of nine total interval training sessions, over a three‐week period. Heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured at the end of each interval and training session. There were no significant differences in enjoyment between training groups (P > 0·05). Exercise enjoyment improved significantly over the three‐week training phase (P < 0·05). Enjoyment levels were relatively high to begin training: mean ± SD: 4·2 ± 1·0 out of a 7 point scale. Heart rate and RPE were significantly reduced (P < 0·05) from pre‐ (day 1) to post‐training (day 9). High‐intensity interval training may be an enjoyable form of exercise for overweight and obese men and women. Enjoyment levels may continue to increase following initial introduction to this type of training. Due to the small time demand and high enjoyment, interval training may be an effective exercise approach in a sedentary population.
Alterations of the neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio during the period of stable and acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients
Authors: Taylan Mahsuk , Demir Melike , Kaya Halide , Selimoglu Sen Hadice , Abakay Ozlem , Carkanat Ali İhsan , Abakay Abdurrrahman , Tanrikulu Abdullah Cetin , Sezgi Cengizhan 
Published: June 2015

AbstractObjectivesWe aimed to investigate the importance of neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for identifying the severity of inflammation and recognition of acute exacerbation.MethodsWe retrospectively enrolled 100 patients with a diagnosis of COPD exacerbation who were admitted to our clinic. Complete blood count (CBC), measurement of C reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were determined within 2 h of hospital admission. Three months after an acute exacerbation, these measurements were obtained from the same patients during the stable period of COPD. The control group included 80 healthy subjects. NLR was calculated from CBC.ResultsNLR and other inflammatory markers, such as WBC, CRP and ESR were found to be significantly elevated in exacerbated COPD compared to stable COPD and control participants. There was a significant correlation of NLR with CRP (r = 0.415, P < 0.001), WBC (r = 0.304, P = 0.002) and ESR (r = 0.275, P = 0.035). For an NLR cutoff of 3.29, sensitivity for detecting exacerbation of COPD was 80.8% and specificity was 77.7% (AUC 0.894, P = 0.001). Some patients presenting with acute exacerbation of COPD and CRP, WBC or ESR levels lower than the optimal cut‐off value had high NLR values.ConclusionsElevated NLR can be used as a marker similar to CRP, WBC and ESR, in the determination of increased inflammation in acutely exacerbated COPD. NLR could be beneficial for the early detection of potential acute exacerbations in patients with COPD who have normal levels of traditional markers.
Sustained treatment with a stable long‐acting oxyntomodulin analogue improves metabolic control and islet morphology in an experimental model of type 1 diabetes
Authors: Irwin N. , Pathak V. , Pathak N. M. , Gault V. A. , Flatt P. R. 
Published: June 2015

AimTo assess the therapeutic benefits of regulatory peptides other than insulin, which have to date received limited consideration in the context of type 1 diabetes.MethodsWe assessed the effects of subchronic administration of the stable, oxyntomodulin (Oxm) analogue, (d‐Ser2)Oxm[Lys38‐γ‐glu‐PAL], for 28 days in streptozotocin (STZ)‐induced insulin‐deficient diabetic mice.ResultsTwice‐daily injection with (d‐Ser2)Oxm[Lys38‐γ‐glu‐PAL] significantly countered the excessive food and fluid intake in STZ‐induced diabetic mice, and maintained normal body weight. Lean body mass was normalized, whilst fat mass was significantly increased compared with control STZ‐induced diabetic mice. In addition, circulating glucose was significantly reduced by the Oxm analogue, whilst plasma and pancreatic insulin concentrations were increased and glucagon decreased by day 28. Plasma lipid profile was normalized by (d‐Ser2)Oxm[Lys38‐γ‐glu‐PAL] administration and circulating amylase was not significantly altered by induction of diabetes or Oxm analogue therapy. This was associated with significantly improved glucose tolerance and insulin secretion. Peripheral insulin sensitivity was also significantly improved by Oxm analogue treatment. Histological examination of pancreata showed beneficial elevations of total islet and β‐cell area, associated with an increase in the number of smaller‐sized islets. Further analysis revealed enhanced islet cell proliferation relative to apoptosis in Oxm analogue‐treated mice.ConclusionThese studies emphasize the potential of stable Oxm‐based peptides, such as (d‐Ser2)Oxm[Lys38‐γ‐glu‐PAL], as therapeutic agents for insulin‐deficient type 1 diabetes.
Functional traits, convergent evolution, and periodic tables of niches
Authors: Winemiller Kirk O. , Fitzgerald Daniel B. , Bower Luke M. , Pianka Eric R. 
Published: June 2015

AbstractEcology is often said to lack general theories sufficiently predictive for applications. Here, we examine the concept of a periodic table of niches and feasibility of niche classification schemes from functional trait and performance data. Niche differences and their influence on ecological patterns and processes could be revealed effectively by first performing data reduction/ordination analyses separately on matrices of trait and performance data compiled according to logical associations with five basic niche ‘dimensions’, or aspects: habitat, life history, trophic, defence and metabolic. Resultant patterns then are integrated to produce interpretable niche gradients, ordinations and classifications. Degree of scheme periodicity would depend on degrees of niche conservatism and convergence causing species clustering across multiple niche dimensions. We analysed a sample data set containing trait and performance data to contrast two approaches for producing niche schemes: species ordination within niche gradient space, and niche categorisation according to trait‐value thresholds. Creation of niche schemes useful for advancing ecological knowledge and its applications will depend on research that produces functional trait and performance datasets directly related to niche dimensions along with criteria for data standardisation and quality. As larger databases are compiled, opportunities will emerge to explore new methods for data reduction, ordination and classification.