nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Optimal drone placement and cost efficient target coverage
Venue: J. Netw. Comput. Appl.

Observing mobile or static targets in the ground using flying drones is a common task for civilian and military applications. We introduce the minimum cost drone location problem and its solutions for this task in a two dimensional terrain. The number of drones and the total energy consumption are the two cost metrics considered. We assume that each drone has a minimum and a maximum observation altitude. Moreover, the drone's energy consumption is related to this altitude. Indeed, the higher the altitude, the larger the observed area but the higher the energy consumption. The aim is to find drone locations that minimize the cost while ensuring the surveillance of all the targets. The problem is mathematically solved by defining an integer linear and a mixed integer non linear optimization models. We also provide some centralized and localized heuristics to approximate the solution for static and mobile targets. A computational study and extensive simulations are carried out to assess the behavior of the proposed solutions.
A configurable H.265 compatible motion estimation accelerator architecture suitable for realtime 4K video encoding

The design for a second generation motion estimation accelerator is presented and demonstrated as suitable for H.265/HEVC (MEACC2) Motion estimation is the most computationally intensive task in video encoding, and its share of the processing load for video coding has continued to increase with the release of new video formats and coding standards, such as Digital 4K and H.265/HEVC. MEACC2 has two 4 KB frame memories necessary to hold the ACT and REF frames, designed using a Standard Cell Memory technique, with line based pixel write, and block based pixel accesses. It computes 16 pixel sum absolute differences (SADs) per cycle, in a 4x4 block, pipelined to take advantage of the high throughput block pixel memories. MEACC2 also continues to support configurable search patterns and threshold based early termination. MEACC2 is independently clocked, can sustain a 812 MHz operating frequency and occupies approximately 1.041 mm post place and route in a 65 nm CMOS technology node. Taken together, MEACC2 can sustain a throughput of 105 MPixels/s while encoding the video stream johnny 60 with a hexagonal 'ABA' pattern with no early termination, as its worst performance, which is sufficient to encode 720p video at 110 frames per second (FPS) Multiple search algorithms are run against a battery of 6 video sequences using MEACC2. These runs demonstrate the adaptability and suitability of MEACC2 for video coding in H.265/HEVC at high throughput, and also demonstrate the efficacy and tradeoff present in a novel search pattern algorithm, 12 pt Circular Search.
Modeling simultaneous deposition and aggregation of colloids

Solid formation and particle deposition in chemical and pharmaceutical processes often leads to heat exchanger or reactor fouling, compromising operability. The aim of this work is to propose a mathematical framework, based on population balance equations, to describe the simultaneous colloid aggregation and deposition. The problem is dealt with by accounting for two distinct cluster mass distributions, the first one describing the free clusters, while the second one the deposited aggregates. Three main events are considered: (i) aggregation of two free clusters, (ii) deposition of free clusters on the reactor wall (i.e. a free cluster turns into a deposited one) and (iii) aggregation of a free cluster with a deposited one. To describe the aggregation of free clusters, three typical aggregation kernels (i.e. diffusion limited and reaction limited cluster aggregation as well as simple shear aggregation) have been used. Starting from those kernels, aggregation laws to describe the interaction between a free and a deposited cluster were proposed and a simple cluster mass dependent deposition law was employed. The simulation results are then discussed in the frame of one dimensionless parameter, function of the relevant characteristic time of the process (i.e. aggregation and deposition)
Assessment of Age Related Dimensions of the Salivary and Thyroid Glands Using Three Dimensional Computed Tomography in Children

The parotid gland (PG) and submandibular gland (SMG) are major salivary glands (that are affected by various diseases including neoplasm, infection, and inflammation. These diseases cause hyperplastic or hypertrophic changes in the salivary glands. Enlargement of the thyroid gland (TG) results from hormonal or immunological stimulation and inflammatory, proliferative, infiltrative, or metabolic disorders. Estimation of the size and volume of these glands provide one element of diagnostic information. Salivary glands grow from birth to early adulthood in an approximately logarithmic growth pattern. An understanding of how these structures change in aging children is paramount for the differentiation of normal and pathological states. In addition, the gender of the patient must be considered for assessing the volume of the TG because the TG is somewhat heavier in women and may be affected by sex hormones. However, information about the age and sex related change in the normal size of healthy salivary and TGs is lacking. Computer tomography (CT) scan can successfully identify the PG and show changes that occur with development. The Assessment of Age Related Dimensions of the Salivary and Thyroid Glands Using Three Dimensional Computed Tomography in Children
Diffusion of responsibility attenuates altruistic punishment: A functional magnetic resonance imaging effective connectivity study
Venue: Human brain mapping

Humans altruistically punish violators of social norms to enforce cooperation and pro social behaviors. However, such altruistic behaviors diminish when others are present, due to a diffusion of responsibility. We investigated the neural signatures underlying the modulations of diffusion of responsibility on altruistic punishment, conjoining a third party punishment task with event related functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivariate Granger causality mapping. In our study, participants acted as impartial third party decision makers and decided how to punish norm violations under two different social contexts: alone (i.e. full responsibility) or in the presence of putative other third party decision makers (i.e. diffused responsibility) Our behavioral results demonstrated that the diffusion of responsibility served as a mediator of context dependent punishment. In the presence of putative others, participants who felt less responsible also punished less severely in response to norm violations. Our neural results revealed that underlying this behavioral effect was a network of interconnected brain regions. For unfair relative to fair splits, the presence of others led to attenuated responses in brain regions implicated in signaling norm violations (e.g. AI) and to increased responses in brain regions implicated in calculating values of norm violations (e.g. vmPFC, precuneus) and mentalizing about others (dmPFC) The dmPFC acted as the driver of the punishment network, modulating target regions, such as AI, vmPFC, and precuneus, to adjust altruistic punishment behavior. Our results uncovered the neural basis of the influence of diffusion of responsibility on altruistic punishment and highlighted the role of the mentalizing network in this important phenomenon.  2016.
Factors Supporting the Development of Producer Organizations and their Impacts in the Light of Ongoing Changes in Food Supply Chains: A Literature Review

This report surveys the recent literature on producer organizations with a specific focus on factors affecting their establishment and their impact on farmers' market performance and welfare. The report also discusses producer organizations' role in improving farmersaEUR(tm) bargaining power and allowing them to respond to various challenges which result from dynamic changes characterizing commercial relations within the food supply chain. Key factors supporting the emergence and development of producer organizations include human and social capital, networking, interpersonal relationships between members (with an important role of trust) and the functioning of enforcement mechanism used to govern group behaviour. The existing literature provides also strong evidence that access to information and farming experience positively affect the emergence of producer organizations. There is also some evidence that larger farms are more likely to join collective action. The literature also clearly points that we are still far from reaching a consensus on who (private or public actors) should support promoting cooperation between farmers and what incentives should be provided to achieve this goal in the most efficient way. Although there are numerous studies pointing to positive effects of producer organizations on farm income or farm performance in particular for high value products aEUR" overall, the evidence is inconclusive and often mixed. For example, the existing literature often suggests that that the benefits of producer organizations in terms of improved farmer bargaining position in the food chain vary with time, place, technology, sector, scale of farming, and human and social capital available. An area where there is particularly little evidence on the impact of producer organizations concerns the nature and the dynamics of the contractual relationships at various stages of the food chain. Further research is also needed to improve our understanding of factors determining smallholders' participation in collective action, substitutability between formal and informal cooperation, determinants of power distribution throughout the food chain and the occurrence of unfair trading practices. Based on the surveyed evidence the report concludes with a set of policy recommendations.
Essential oil composition and antiradical activity of two Artemisia species endemic to the island of Crete (Southern Greece)

Artemisia arborescens and Artemisia inculta Delile, two species endemic to the island of Crete (southern Greece) were examined with regard to their essential oil composition. The main constituents of A. arborescens essential oil were found to be camphor (30.51% trans thujone (18.42% and chamazulene (15.72% while those of A. inculta were 1,8 cineole (28.10% cis thujone (17.48% trans sabinol (12.49% and trans thujone (11.97% The determination of the antiradical activity of the essential oils showed that the potency of A. arborescens is 40 times higher compared with that of A. inculta, a finding attributed to the high amount of chamazulene in A. arborescens.
Nested Compiled Inference for Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning

Probabilistic programming languages (PPLs) allow the representation of probability distributions as computer programs by means of stochastic language primitives and conditioning of variable values on observations [8, 7] Probabilistic programs are generative models as they generate samples from a joint distribution p(x,y) where x are latent variables and y are output (or observed) data. Inference in PPLs amounts to computing the posterior p(x|y) conditioned on observed data. PPLs allow decoupling model specification from inference, which can be handled by techniques including Markov chain Monte Carlo [18] variational methods  expectation propagation [16] and sequential Monte Carlo [20] Inference is often computationally expensive. Amortized inference  strategies are devised to store and reuse past inferences so that future inferences run faster.
Survey and evaluation of food recommendation systems and techniques
Venue: 2016 3rd International Conference on Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom)

Recommending proper food is of paramount importance for person's sound health. It is also useful in revenue generation in restaurants by recommending varied choices of food or recommending restaurants depending on the type of food to customers. In this paper, we survey the existing food recommendation engines and compare the different recommendation algorithms Content based filtering, collaborative filtering, hybrid techniques etc. Further, we would see the challenges and limitations of each technique.
Relationships between Nurses' Resilience, Emotional Labor, Turnover Intention, Job Involvement, Organizational Commitment and Burnout

To explore the correlation of emotional labor, turnover intention, burnout, job involvement, organizational commitment and resilience among nurses and identify the factors affecting resilience.  The participants were 382 nurses within five years of clinical career who had a registered nurses license and involved at the Hospital Nurses Association's nationwide education program. A total of 382 questionnaires were collected from January to June 2015. Finally, 340 data that excluded 42 as improper responses were analyzed using t test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and Simple regression analysis.  Resilience of nurses was positively correlated with job involvement and organizational commitment. It was negatively correlated with emotional labor, turnover intention and burnout. The variables significantly affected by resilience were emotional labor (F 17.30, p<.001) job involvement (F 21.53, p<.001) organizational commitment (F 28.11, p<.001) and burnout (F 77.85, p<.001) But resilience had no significant effect on turnover intention.  This study revealed that the important individual factor of resilience had a positive influence on organizational commitment. Thus, resilience should be actively promoted and a program developed to enhance the resilience of nurses.
Increasing taurine intake and taurine synthesis improves skeletal muscle function in the mdx mouse model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Venue: The Journal of physiology

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal muscle wasting disease associated with increased inflammation, oxidative stress and myofibre necrosis. Cysteine precursor antioxidants such as N acetyl cysteine (NAC) and l 2 oxothiazolidine 4 carboxylate (OTC) reduce dystropathology in the mdx mouse model for DMD, and we propose this is via increased synthesis of the amino acid taurine. We compared the capacity of OTC and taurine treatment to increase taurine content of mdx muscle, as well as effects on in vivo and ex vivo muscle function, inflammation and oxidative stress. Both treatments increased taurine in muscles, and improved many aspects of muscle function and reduced inflammation. Taurine treatment also reduced protein thiol oxidation and was overall more effective, as OTC treatment reduced body and muscle weight, suggesting some adverse effects of this drug. These data suggest that increasing dietary taurine is a better candidate for a therapeutic intervention for DMD.
Abnormal topological organization of the white matter network in Mandarin speakers with congenital amusia
Venue: Scientific reports

Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic disorder that mainly affects the processing of musical pitch. Brain imaging evidence indicates that it is associated with abnormal structural and functional connections in the fronto temporal region. However, a holistic understanding of the anatomical topology underlying amusia is still lacking. Here, we used probabilistic diffusion tensor imaging tractography and graph theory to examine whole brain white matter structural connectivity in 31 Mandarin speaking amusics and 24 age and IQ matched controls. Amusics showed significantly reduced global connectivity, as indicated by the abnormally decreased clustering coefficient (Cp) and increased normalized shortest path length (l) compared to the controls. Moreover, amusics exhibited enhanced nodal strength in the right inferior parietal lobule relative to controls. The co existence of the lexical tone deficits was associated with even more deteriorated global network efficiency in amusics, as suggested by the significant correlation between the increments in normalized shortest path length (l) and the insensitivity in lexical tone perception. Our study is the first to reveal reduced global connectivity efficiency in amusics as well as an increase in the global connectivity cost due to the co existed lexical tone deficits. Taken together these results provide a holistic perspective on the anatomical substrates underlying congenital amusia.
Effects of air pollution and seasonality on the respiratory symptoms and health related quality of life (HR QoL) of outpatients with chronic respiratory disease in Ulaanbaatar: pilot study for the comparison of the cold and warm seasons
Venue: SpringerPlus

BackgroundThis study was performed to investigate the effects of air pollution and seasonality on the respiratory symptoms and health related quality of life (HR QoL) of outpatients with respiratory diseases in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Subjects were outpatients who visited the hospital with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) or bronchial asthma (BA) in March. Their symptoms and HR QoL were evaluated using a questionnaire including the SF 36v2 and COOP/WONCA charts in March, May and July. PM2.5 was sampled in March and July in Ulaanbaatar, and its composition was analyzed.ResultsPatients with COPD or BA showed higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms than the control subjects in each month. For HR QoL, all subscales worsened in the patients than in the control group in March. Although the HR QoL of the COPD and control groups were not significantly changed through the surveys, some subscales of the BA group showed remarkable improvement in July as compared to March. Daily means of PM2.5 in March were significantly higher than those in July. Carbon and ionic component concentrations, except for magnesium and calcium ions, were significantly higher in March than July. Mass concentrations of some metallic components were also significantly higher in March than July. The percentage of nitrate ion in PM2.5 was significantly higher in March when compared to that in July.ConclusionsThese results suggested that the symptoms in the COPD and BA groups were caused by the disease, and the association with air pollution or seasonality remained unclear. However, the effects of air pollution and seasonality on the HR QoL were significant in the patients with BA.
Progress and challenges in eliminating iodine deficiency in Ethiopia: a systematic review
Venue: BMC Nutrition

BackgroundIodine deficiency disorders (IDD) and their attendant effects on human development, perinatal mortality and intellectual dysfunction are a major nutrition and public health problem worldwide, with Ethiopia counted among the top iodine deficient countries. Despite the passing of new legislation in 2011 under the National Nutrition Programme and subsequent increase in the availability of iodized salt, the eradication of IDD in Ethiopia remains a significant challenge. This paper critically reviews the recent published data on iodine status in Ethiopia as a basis for formulating future research and policy initiatives.MethodsWe performed a structural search for IDD studies in Ethiopia for all population groups published after the year 2000.ResultsTwenty four studies reported national and regional data giving a national total goiter rate above 35.8 in women, with rates close to 60 in four regional states, and an estimated prevalence of IDD ranging from 0.4 to 66.3 depending on region. The prevalence of goiter in children was 35 but was as high as 71 in the South Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region. The problem persists despite the widespread availability of iodized salt.ConclusionsEradicating IDD in Ethiopia will require concerted efforts including the close evaluation of intervention programs through regular, nation wide monitoring of IDD and salt iodization coverage. Salt iodization became mandatory in Ethiopia in 2011 and despite significant progress, the current level of eradicating IDD could be improved. Prospective and controlled intervention studies to evaluate biomarkers of thyroid function and cognitive outcomes will help to monitor and improve eradication efforts. Ascertaining and improving health and development in the most vulnerable populations of women and children is a priority that may be advanced through a greater investment in outreach and education.
Access to timely formal dementia care in Europe: protocol of the Actifcare (ACcess to Timely Formal Care) study
Venue: BMC Health Services Research

BackgroundPrevious findings indicate that people with dementia and their informal carers experience difficulties accessing and using formal care services due to a mismatch between needs and service use. This mismatch causes overall dissatisfaction and is a waste of the scarce financial care resources. This article presents the background and methods of the Actifcare (ACcess to Timely Formal Care) project. This is a European study aiming at best practice development in finding timely access to formal care for community dwelling people with dementia and their informal carers. There are five main objectives: 1) Explore predisposing and enabling factors associated with the use of formal care, 2) Explore the association between the use of formal care, needs and quality of life and 3) Compare these across European countries, 4) Understand the costs and consequences of formal care services utilization in people with unmet needs, 5) Determine the major costs and quality of life drivers and their relationship with formal care services across European countries.MethodsIn a longitudinal cohort study conducted in eight European countries approximately 450 people with dementia and informal carers will be assessed three times in 1 year (baseline, 6 and 12 months) In this year we will closely monitor the process of finding access to formal care. Data on service use, quality of life and needs will be collected.DiscussionThe results of Actifcare are expected to reveal best practices in organizing formal care. Knowledge about enabling and predisposing factors regarding access to care services, as well as its costs and consequences, can advance the state of the art in health systems research into pathways to dementia care, in order to benefit people with dementia and their informal carers.
Erratum to: Access to timely formal dementia care in Europe: protocol of the Actifcare (ACcess to Timely Formal Care) study
Venue: BMC Health Services Research

Previous findings indicate that people with dementia and their informal carers experience difficulties accessing and using formal care services due to a mismatch between needs and service use. This mismatch causes overall dissatisfaction and is a waste of the scarce financial care resources. This article presents the background and methods of the Actifcare (ACcess to Timely Formal Care) project. This is a European study aiming at best practice development in finding timely access to formal care for community dwelling people with dementia and their informal carers. There are five main objectives: 1) Explore predisposing and enabling factors associated with the use of formal care, 2) Explore the association between the use of formal care, needs and quality of life and 3) Compare these across European countries, 4) Understand the costs and consequences of formal care services utilization in people with unmet needs, 5) Determine the major costs and quality of life drivers and their relationship with formal care services across European countries.  In a longitudinal cohort study conducted in eight European countries approximately 450 people with dementia and informal carers will be assessed three times in 1 year (baseline, 6 and 12 months) In this year we will closely monitor the process of finding access to formal care. Data on service use, quality of life and needs will be collected.  The results of Actifcare are expected to reveal best practices in organizing formal care. Knowledge about enabling and predisposing factors regarding access to care services, as well as its costs and consequences, can advance the state of the art in health systems research into pathways to dementia care, in order to benefit people with dementia and their informal carers.