nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Utilization of Natural Fibers in Plastic Composites : Problems and Opportunities

Utilization of Natural Fibers in Plastic Composites: Problems and Opportunities Roger M. Rowell, Anand R, Sanadi, Daniel F. Caulfield and Rodney E. Jacobson Forest Products Laboratory, ESDA, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI 53705 Department of Forestry, 1630 Linden Drive, University of Wisconsin, WI 53706 recycled. Results suggest that agro-based fibers are a viable alternative to inorganic/material based reinforcing fibers in commodity fiber-thermoplastic composite materials as long as the right processing conditions are used and for applications where higher water absorption may be so critical. These renewable fibers hav low densities and high specific properties and their non-abrasive nature permits a high volume of filling in the composite. Kenaf fivers, for example, have excellent specific properties and have potential to be outstanding reinforcing fillers in plastics. In our experiments, several types of natural fibers were blended with polyprolylene(PP) and then injection molded, with the fiber weight fractions varying to 60%. A compatibilizer or a coupling agent was used to improve the interaction and adhesion between the non-polar matrix and the polar lignocellulosic fibers. The specific tensile and flexural moduli of a 50% by weight (39% by volume) of kenaf-PP composites compares favorably with 40% by weight of glass fiber (19% by volume)-PP injection molded composites. Furthermore, prelimimary results sugget that natural fiber-PP composites can be regrounded and
Passive Facebook usage undermines affective well-being: Experimental and longitudinal evidence.

Prior research indicates that Facebook usage predicts declines in subjective well-being over time. How does this come about? We examined this issue in 2 studies using experimental and field methods. In Study 1, cueing people in the laboratory to use Facebook passively (rather than actively) led to declines in affective well-being over time. Study 2 replicated these findings in the field using experience-sampling techniques. It also demonstrated how passive Facebook usage leads to declines in affective well-being: by increasing envy. Critically, the relationship between passive Facebook usage and changes in affective well-being remained significant when controlling for active Facebook use, non-Facebook online social network usage, and direct social interactions, highlighting the specificity of this result. These findings demonstrate that passive Facebook usage undermines affective well-being.
Vocal tract length and formant frequency dispersion correlate with body size in rhesus macaques.

Body weight, length, and vocal tract length were measured for 23 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) of various sizes using radiographs and computer graphic techniques. linear predictive coding analysis of tape-recorded threat vocalizations were used to determine vocal tract resonance frequencies ("formants") for the same animals. A new acoustic variable is proposed, "formant dispersion," which should theoretically depend upon vocal tract length. Formant dispersion is the averaged difference between successive formant frequencies, and was found to be closely tied to both vocal tract length and body size. Despite the common claim that voice fundamental frequency (F0) provides an acoustic indication of body size, repeated investigations have failed to support such a relationship in many vertebrate species including humans. Formant dispersion, unlike voice pitch, is proposed to be a reliable predictor of body size in macaques, and probably many other species.
Brain MR Image Segmentation for Tumor Detection using Artificial Neural Networks

Detection, diagnosis and evaluation of Brain tumour is an important task in recent days. MRI is the current technology which enables the detection, diagnosis and evaluation. The medical problems are severe if tumour is detected at the later stage. Hence diagnosis is necessary at the earliest. In this work, pulse coupled neural network is applied for enhancing the MR Images. The enhanced images are segmented and classified using back propagation networks. The Classification involves labelling the images into normal and abnormal (tumor detected). If the input MRI brain images are more in number, the physician could seek the help of this model and the network would help the physician to save time for further analysis. PCNN and BPN are less complex in nature and hence the processing of MRI brain images is very simple. The term ‘abnormal’ indicates the presence of tumour. The tumour may be benign or malignant and it needs medical support for further classification.
Human limb skeletal muscle wasting and architectural remodeling during five to ten days intubation and ventilation in critical care – an observational study using ultrasound

Critically ill patients frequently suffer muscle weakness whilst in critical care. Ultrasound can reliably track loss of muscle size, but also quantifies the arrangement of the muscle fascicles, known as the muscle architecture. We sought to measure both pennation angle and fascicle length, as well as tracking changes in muscle thickness in a population of critically ill patients.



On days 1, 5 and 10 after admission to critical care, muscle thickness was measured in ventilated critically ill patients using bedside ultrasound. Elbow flexor compartment, medial head of gastrocnemius and vastus lateralis muscle were investigated. In the lower limb, we determined the pennation angle to derive the fascicle length.



We recruited and scanned 22 patients on day 1 after admission to critical care, 16 were re-scanned on day 5 and 9 on day 10. We found no changes to the size of the elbow flexor compartment over 10 days of admission. In the gastrocnemius, there were no significant changes to muscle thickness or pennation angle over 5 or 10 days. In the vastus lateralis, we found significant losses in both muscle thickness and pennation angle on day 5, but found that fascicle length is unchanged. Loss of muscle on day 5 was related to decreases in pennation angle. In both lower limb muscles, a positive relationship was observed between the pennation angle on day 1, and the percentage of angle lost by days 5 and 10.



Muscle loss in critically ill patients preferentially affects the lower limb, possibly due to the lower limb becoming prone to disuse atrophy. Muscle architecture of the thigh changes in the first 5 days of admission, in particular, we have demonstrated a correlation between muscle thickness and pennation angle. It is hypothesised that weakness in the lower limb occurs through loss of force generation via a reduced pennation angle.



Using ultrasound, we have been able to demonstrate that muscle thickness and architecture of vastus lateralis undergo rapid changes during the early phase of admission to a critical care environment.
Flash Point and Chemical Composition of Aviation Kerosene ( Jet A )

The relationship between chemical composition, flash point, and ignition energy was examined for eight samples of aviation kerosene (Jet A) with flash points between 29◦C (84◦F) and 74◦C (165◦F). We report the results of liquid characterization by two different laboratories. We use the results of headspace gas chromatography carried out by Woodrow and Seiber to characterize the vapor composition at liquid mass loading fractions of 3 and 400 kg/m. The composition data were analyzed to obtain analytical representations of vapor pressure and average molar mass as a function of temperature for each flash point fuel. The relationship between composition and flash point is examined by using two prediction methods. The first method is based on the notion of a critical value of fuel-air mass ratio at the flammability limit. The second method is based on Le Chatelier’s rule for flammability limits. Both methods show a reasonable correlation between measured and predicted flash point. The relationship between flash point and ignition temperature threshold at a fixed spark ignition energy was examined for four fuels. A linear correlation was obtained for an ignition energy of 0.3 J. The effect of fuel weathering was examined by determining the flashpoints of seven fuel samples obtained from flight tests. The flash point increased about 8◦C for fuel that had been exposed to 5 take-off, cruise, and landing cycles.
A better half: the ethics of hemicorporectomy surgery.

This paper discusses the ethical issues related to hemicorporectomy surgery, a radical procedure that removes the lower half of the body in order to prolong life. The literature on hemicorporectomy (HC), also called translumbar amputation, has been nearly silent on the ethical considerations relevant to this rare procedure. We explore five aspects of the complex landscape of hemicorporectomy to illustrate the broader ethical questions related to this extraordinary procedure: benefits, risks, informed consent, resource allocation and justice, and loss and the lived body.
High purity distillation column: Simulation and optimization

Distillation columns with a high-purity product (down to 7 ppm) have been studied. A steady state m odel is developed using a commercial process simulator. The model is validated against industrial data. Based on the mod el, three major optimal operational changes are identified. T hese are, lowering the location of the feed & side draw strea ms, increasing the pressure at the top of the distillat ion column and changing the configuration of the products draw. It is estimated that these three changes will increase th e throughput of each column by ~5%. The validated model is also u ed to quantify the effects on key internal column paramet ers such as the flooding factor, in the event of significant ch anges to product purity and throughput. Keywordshigh-purity distillation columns; steady state model, operating condition optimization
Imaging the effects of annealing on the polymorphic phases of poly(vinylidene fluoride).

The effect of annealing on the phase transformation and the dielectric properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is explored using quasi-single molecule (quasi-SM) microscopy. The solvatochromic properties of nile red (NR) are employed to measure the spatial distribution of the local dielectric constant (ε) in ∼30 μm thick PVDF films before and after annealing at 90 °C. The results presented here demonstrate that nonannealed films exhibit much larger ε distributions, both in terms of magnitude and distribution, when compared to annealed films. The polymorphic phase of PVDF before and after annealing is also confirmed using X-ray diffraction. Nonannealed films are found to be in the γ-phase with annealing promoting the transition to primarily β-phase. Combining these results, we conclude that the decrease in ε with annealing time is due to the phase transformation from γ- to β-phase. Using quasi-SM imaging techniques one can readily visualize the ε environments present within different polymorphic phases of PVDF.
Seeing the self in the washing machine: the deep affordance of 2.0 philosophy in the household appliance domain

The acceleration of rhythm of everyday life requires efficiency and flexibility in daily routines. The real expectations and needs of people concerning intelligent home devices should be carefully researched. The project Moon 2.0 by Indesit Company presents alternative ways of producing household appliance services developing a 2.0 Human Machine Interface and programs setting unit for washing machines, totally manageable by smart phones or I-Phones. Users cannot explicitly control washing machines when they would like to use a feature combination that has not application in a current washing program. The application of the Web 2.0 philosophy to the washing machine let the user the possibility to directly control all the existing features of the washing programs and to decide time by time how many programs their machine should have, with regards to the transparency and interactivity concepts of the ambient intelligence. Moon 2.0 should not be confused with an hand held personal home assistant capable of controlling a wide range of electronic home devices. The smart phone behaves the intelligence of the washing machine and offers the user endless customisation possibilities.
ASCII Art Synthesis from Natural Photographs

While ASCII art is a worldwide popular art form, automatic generating structure-based ASCII art from natural photographs remains challenging. The major challenge lies on extracting the perception-sensitive structure from the natural photographs so that a more concise ASCII art reproduction can be produced based on the structure. However, due to excessive amount of texture in natural photos, extracting perception-sensitive structure is not easy, especially when the structure may be weak and within the texture region. Besides, to fit different target text resolutions, the amount of the extracted structure should also be controllable. To tackle these challenges, we introduce a visual perception mechanism of non-classical receptive field modulation (non-CRF modulation) from physiological findings to this ASCII art application, and propose a new model of non-CRF modulation which can better separate the weak structure from the crowded texture, and also better control the scale of texture suppression. Thanks to our non-CRF model, more sensible ASCII art reproduction can be obtained. In addition, to produce more visually appealing ASCII arts, we propose a novel optimization scheme to obtain the optimal placement of proportional-font characters. We apply our method on a rich variety of images, and visually appealing ASCII art can be obtained in all cases.
Optical communications using orbital angular momentum beams

Orbital angular momentum (OAM), which describes the “phase twist” (helical phase pattern) of light beams, has recently gained interest due to its potential applications in many diverse areas. Particularly promising is the use of OAM for optical communications since: (i) coaxially propagating OAM beams with different azimuthal OAM states are mutually orthogonal, (ii) inter-beam crosstalk can be minimized, and (iii) the beams can be efficiently multiplexed and demultiplexed. As a result, multiple OAM states could be used as different carriers for multiplexing and transmitting multiple data streams, thereby potentially increasing the system capacity. In this paper, we review recent progress in OAM beam generation/detection, multiplexing/demultiplexing, and its potential applications in different scenarios including free-space optical communications, fiber-optic communications, and RF communications. Technical challenges and perspectives of OAM beams are also discussed.
Factorizable Net: An Efficient Subgraph-Based Framework for Scene Graph Generation

Generating scene graph to describe the object interactions inside an image gains increasing interests these years. However, most of the previous methods use complicated structures with slow inference speed or rely on the external data, which limits the usage of the model in real-life scenarios. To improve the efficiency of scene graph generation, we propose a subgraph-based connection graph to concisely represent the scene graph during the inference. A bottom-up clustering method is first used to factorize the entire graph into subgraphs, where each subgraph contains several objects and a subset of their relationships. By replacing the numerous relationship representations of the scene graph with fewer subgraph and object features, the computation in the intermediate stage is significantly reduced. In addition, spatial information is maintained by the subgraph features, which is leveraged by our proposed Spatial-weighted Message Passing (SMP) structure and Spatial-sensitive Relation Inference (SRI) module to facilitate the relationship recognition. On the recent Visual Relationship Detection and Visual Genome datasets, our method outperforms the state-of-the-art method in both accuracy and speed. Code has been made publicly available.
Enhanced compact artificial bee colony

Challenges in many real-world optimization problems arise from limited hardware availability, particularly when the optimization must be performed on a device whose hardware is highly restricted due to cost or space. This paper proposes a new algorithm, namely Enhanced compact Artificial Bee Colony (EcABC) to address this class of optimization problems. The algorithm benefits from the search logic of the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm, and similar to other compact algorithms, it does not store the actual population of tentative solutions. Instead, EcABC employs a novel probabilistic representation of the population that is introduced in this paper. The proposed algorithm has been tested on a set of benchmark functions from the CEC2013 benchmark suite, and compared against a number of algorithms including modern compact algorithms, recent population-based ABC variants and some advanced meta-heuristics. Numerical results demonstrate that EcABC significantly outperforms other state of the art compact algorithms. In addition, simulations also indicate that the proposed algorithm shows a comparative performance when compared against its population-based versions.
A New Code for Spectrometric Analysis for Environmental Radiological Surveillance on Monitors Focused on Gamma Radioactivity on Aerosols

This paper presents a new code for the analysis of gamma spectra generated by an equipment for continuous measurement of gamma radioactivity in aerosols with paper filter. It is called pGamma and has been developed by the Nuclear Engineering Research Group at the Technical University of Catalonia - Barcelona Tech and by Raditel Serveis i Subministraments Tecnològics, Ltd. The code has been developed to identify the gamma emitters and to determine their activity concentration. It generates alarms depending on the activity of the emitters and elaborates reports. Therefore it includes a library with NORM and artificial emitters of interest. The code is being adapted to the monitors of the Environmental Radiological Surveillance Network of the local Catalan Government in Spain (Generalitat de Catalunya) and is used at three stations of the Network.
Suitability and Limitations of ENVISAT ASAR for Monitoring Small Reservoirs in a Semiarid Area

In semiarid regions, thousands of small reservoirs provide the rural population with water, but their storage volumes and hydrological impact are largely unknown. This paper analyzes the suitability of weather-independent radar satellite images for monitoring small reservoir surfaces. The surface areas of three reservoirs were extracted from 21 of 22 ENVISAT Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar scenes, acquired bimonthly from June 2005 to August 2006. The reservoir surface areas were determined with a quasi-manual classification approach, as stringent classification rules often failed due to the spatial and temporal variability of the backscatter from the water. The land-water contrast is critical for the detection of water bodies. Additionally, wind has a significant impact on the classification results and affects the water surface and the backscattered radar signal (Bragg scattering) above a wind speed threshold of 2.6 mmiddots-1. The analysis of 15 months of wind speed data shows that, on 96% of the days, wind speeds were below the Bragg scattering criterion at the time of night time acquisitions, as opposed to 50% during the morning acquisition time. Night time acquisitions are strongly advisable over day time acquisitions due to lower wind interference. Over the year, radar images are most affected by wind during the onset of the rainy season (May and June). We conclude that radar and optical systems are complimentary. Radar is suitable during the rainy season but is affected by wind and lack of vegetation context during the dry season.
Design of Road Power Generator ( RPG ) : an Alternate Energy Source for Sustainability

-This paper presents the overall concept of Road Power Generator (RPG) that deals with the mechanism to generate electricity from the wasted kinetic energy of vehicles. It contains a flip-plate, gear mechanism, flywheel, and finally a generator is coupled at the end so that the rotational motion of the flywheel is used to rotate the shaft of the generator, thus producing electricity. RPG does not require any piezoelectric material. It is novel concept based on flip-plate mechanism. The project can be installed at highways where a huge number of vehicles pass daily, thus resulting in more amount of electricity generated. This generated electricity can be utilized for different types of applications and mainly for street lighting, on road battery charging units and many domestic applications like air conditioning, lighting, heating, etc.
Multithreaded sparse matrix-matrix multiplication for many-core and GPU architectures

Sparse Matrix-Matrix multiplication is a key kernel that has applications in several domains such as scientific computing and graph analysis. Several algorithms have been studied in the past for this foundational kernel. In this paper, we develop parallel algorithms for sparse matrixmatrix multiplication with a focus on performance portability across different high performance computing architectures. The performance of these algorithms depend on the data structures used in them. We compare different types of accumulators in these algorithms and demonstrate the performance difference between these data structures. Furthermore, we develop a meta-algorithm, kkSpGEMM, to choose the right algorithm and data structure based on the characteristics of the problem. We show performance comparisons on three architectures and demonstrate the need for the community to develop two phase sparse matrix-matrix multiplication implementations for efficient reuse of the data structures involved.
Estimating Coloured 3D Face Models from Single Images: An Example Based Approach

In this paper we present a method to derive 3D shape and surface texture of a human face from a single image. The method draws on a general flexible 3D face model which is “learned” from examples of individual 3D-face data (Cyberware-scans). In an analysis-by-synthesis loop, the flexible model is matched to the novel face image. From the coloured 3D model obtained by this procedure, we can generate new images of the face across changes in viewpoint and illumination. Moreover, nonrigid transformations which are represented within the flexible model can be applied, for example changes in facial expression. The key problem for generating a flexible face model is the computation of dense correspondence between all given 3D example faces. A new correspondence algorithm is described which is a generalization of common algorithms for optic flow computation to 3D-face data.