pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
A comparative evaluation of interactive segmentation algorithms

In this paper we present a comparative evaluation of four popular interactive segmentation algorithms. The evaluation was carried out as a series of user-experiments, in which participants were tasked with extracting 100 objects from a common dataset: 25 with each algorithm, constrained within a time limit of 2 min for each object. To facilitate the experiments, a “scribble-driven” segmentation tool was developed to enable interactive image segmentation by simply marking areas of foreground and background with the mouse. As the participants refined and improved their respective segmentations, the corresponding updated segmentation mask was stored along with the elapsed time. We then collected and evaluated each recorded mask against a manually segmented ground truth, thus allowing us to gauge segmentation accuracy over time. Two benchmarks were used for the evaluation: the well-known Jaccard index for measuring object accuracy, and a new fuzzy metric, proposed in this paper, designed for measuring boundary accuracy. Analysis of the experimental results demonstrates the effectiveness of the suggested measures and provides valuable insights into the performance and characteristics of the evaluated algorithms
SCOOTER: A compact and scalable dynamic labeling scheme for XML updates

Although dynamic labeling schemes for XML have been the\ud
focus of recent research activity, there are significant challenges still to be overcome. In particular, though there are labeling schemes that ensure a compact label representation when creating an XML document, when the document is subject to repeated and arbitrary deletions and insertions, the labels grow rapidly and consequently have a significant impact on query and update performance. We review the outstanding issues todate and in this paper we propose SCOOTER - a new dynamic labeling scheme for XML. The new labeling scheme can completely avoid relabeling\ud
existing labels. In particular, SCOOTER can handle frequently skewed insertions gracefully. Theoretical analysis and experimental results confirm the scalability, compact representation, efficient growth rate and performance of SCOOTER in comparison to existing dynamic labeling schemes
The K153 variant in the myostatin gene and sarcopenia at the end of the human lifespan

We studied the A55T, E164K, I225T, K153R and P198A variants in the myostatin (GDF8) gene, muscle strength and mass, and physical function during daily living in 41 nonagenarians [33 women, age range, 90, 97]. No participant carried a mutant allele of the aforementioned variants, except three participants (all women), who carried the R allele of the K153R polymorphism, with one of them (woman aged 96 years) being homozygous. Overall, in KR women muscle phenotype values (1RM leg press and estimated muscle mass) were low-to-normal compared to the whole group (∼25th–50th percentile), and their functional capacity (Barthel and Tinetti tests) was normal. In the woman bearing the RR genotype, values of muscle mass and functional capacity were below the 25th percentile. She is the first RR Caucasian whose phenotype has been characterised specifically. In summary, heterozygosity for the GDF8 K153R polymorphism does not seem to exert a negative influence on the muscle phenotypes of women who are at the end of the human lifespan, yet homozygosity might do so. More research on larger cohorts of nonagenarians is needed to corroborate the present findings
A design-phase PSA of anuclear-powered hydrogen plant

A probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) is being developed for a steam-methane reforming hydrogenproduction plant linked to a high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (HTGR). This work is based on the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute's (JAERI) High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) prototype in Japan. The objective of this paper is to show how the PSA can be used for improving the design of the coupled plants. A simplified HAZOP study was performed to identify initiating events, based on existing studies. The results of the PSA show that the average frequency of an accident at this complex that could affect the population is 7 × 10−8 year−1 which is divided into the various end states. The dominant sequences are those that result in a methane explosion and occur with a frequency of 6.5 × 10−8 year−1, while the other sequences are much less frequent. The health risk presents itself if there are people in the vicinity who could be affected by the explosion. This analysis also demonstrates that an accident in one of the plants has little effect on the other. This is true given the design base distance between the plants, the fact that the reactor is underground, as well as other safety characteristics of the HTGR
Communication-efficient and crash-quiescent Omega with unknown membership

The failure detector class Omega (Ω) provides an eventual leader election functionality, i.e., eventually all correct processes permanently trust the same correct process. An algorithm is communication-efficient if the number of links that carry messages forever is bounded by n, being n the number of processes in the system. It has been defined that an algorithm is crash-quiescent if it eventually stops sending messages to crashed processes. In this regard, it has been recently shown the impossibility of implementing Ω crash quiescently without a majority of correct processes. We say that the membership is unknown if each process pi only knows its own identity and the number of processes in the system (that is, i and n), but pi does not know the identity of the rest of processes of the system. There is a type of link (denoted by ADD link) in which a bounded (but unknown) number of consecutive messages can be delayed or lost.\ud
\ud
In this work we present the first implementation (to our knowledge) of Ω in partially synchronous systems with ADD links and with unknown membership. Furthermore, it is the first implementation of Ω that combines two very interesting properties: communication-efficiency and crash-quiescence when the majority of processes are correct. Finally, we also obtain with the same algorithm a failure detector () such that every correct process eventually and permanently outputs the set of all correct processes
Fabrication of sub-100 nm IDT SAW devices on insulating, semiconducting and conductive substrates

This work describes the electron-beam (e-beam) lithography process developed to manufacture nano interdigital transducers (IDTs) to be used in high frequency (GHz) surface acoustic wave (SAW) applications. The combination of electron-beam (e-beam) lithography and lift-off process is shown to be effective in fabricating well-defined IDT finger patterns with a line width below 100 nm with a good yield. Working with insulating piezoelectric substrates brings about e-beam deflection. It is also shown how a very thin organic anti-static layer works well in avoiding this charge accumulation during e-beam lithography on the resist layer. However, the use of this anti-static layer is not required with the insulating piezoelectric layer laying on a semiconducting substrate such as highly doped silicon. The effect of the e-beam dose on a number of different layers (of insulating, insulating on semiconducting, semiconducting, and conductive natures) is provided. Among other advantages, the use of reduced e-beam doses increases the manufacturing time.\ud
\ud
The principal aim of this work is to explain the interrelation among e-beam dose, substrate nature and IDT structure. An extensive study of the e-beam lithography of long IDT-fingers is provided, in a wide variety of electrode widths, electrode numbers and electrode pitches. It is worthy to highlight that this work shows the influence of the e-beam dose on five substrates of different conductive natur
Trade policies, concentration, growth and welfare

The aim of this paper is to analyse, through a theoretical model, the effects that the trade integration of two countries may have on industrial location, growth and welfare.
The conclusions reached finally depend both on whether the import or the export costs are affected by the trade policies on which the integration process is based and on
whether the rich or the poor country introduces them. In general, when integration leads to an increase of industrial concentration in the rich country, the growth rate increases
and welfare improves in both countries. If integration means that industry moves to the poor country, the growth rate decreases; in spite of this, in this case the poor country
can also improve its welfare.
Political cycles and economic performance in OECD countries: empirical evidence from 1951-2006

This paper examines whether electoral motives and government ideology influence short-term economic performance. I employ data on annual GDP growth in 21 OECD countries over the 1951-2006 period and provide a battery of empirical tests. In countries with two-party systems GDP growth is boosted before elections and, under leftwing governments, in the first two years of a legislative period. These findings indicate that political cycles are more prevalent in two-party systems because voters can clearly punish or reward political parties for governmental performance. My findings imply that we need more elaborate theories of how government ideology and electoral motives influence short-term economic performance.
Is the European Union ready for foreign direct investment from emerging markets?

This chapter asks whether the European Union Member States are ready for inward Foreign Direct Investment from the Emerging Markets. It concludes that European Union Member States have relatively open Foreign Direct Investment regimes in the international context, and yet instances of protectionism have been apparent in the recent period. However, protectionism has occurred both vis-a-vis Foreign Direct Investment from the Global South as well as from within the European Union, particularly in the so-called 'strategic' industries.
Variational tolerancing analysis taking thermomechanical strains into account: application to a high pressure turbine

The aim of this study is to propose a variational method of tolerancing analysis using a multiphysical approach. This method is based on operations on polytopes (Minkowski sum and intersection) and can be used to validate geometric specifications, contact specifications and thermomechanical specifications. The first part describes how thermomechanical strains are integrated into a tolerancing analysis tool, based on operations on polytopes. In the second part correlations are defined between two turbine performance criteria, leakage section and risk of touching, and two geometric conditions respectively. In the third part, the influence of design choices is described, in particular the influence of the shape of the parts and the behaviour of the joints on the thermomechanical operating regime of the turbine.Two turbine architectures are considered in relation to the same two performance criteria, and lastly the main turbine architecture results are discussed and future developments are described
A method for the field assessment of rolling resistance properties of manual wheelchairs, Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering

This article presents an examination and validation of a method to measure the field deceleration of a manual wheelchair (MWC) and to calculate the rolling resistances properties of the front and rear wheels. This method was based on the measurements of the MWC deceleration for various load settings from a 3D accelerometer. A mechanical model of MWC deceleration was developed which allowed computing the rolling resistance factors of front and rear wheels on a tested surface. Four deceleration sets were conducted on two paths on the same ground to test the repeatability. Two other deceleration sets were conducted using different load settings to compute the rolling resistance parameters (RPs). The theoretical decelerations of three load settings were computed and compared with the measured decelerations. The results showed good repeatability (variations of measures represented 6–11% of the nominal values) and no statistical difference between the path results. The rolling RPs were computed and their confidence intervals were assessed. For the last three sets, no significant difference was found between the theoretical and measured decelerations. This method can determine the specific rolling resistance properties of the wheels of a MWC, and be employed to establish a catalogue of the rolling resistance properties of wheels on various surfaces.The authors would like to thank the French National Research
Agency (ANR) for its financial support to the SACR-FRM
project (ANR-06-TecSan-020) and to the CERAH for the loan of
all the manual wheelchairs evaluated in this work
Micromorphology of trichomes and composition of essential oil of Teucrium capitatum

The morphology and distribution of the glandular trichomes of Teucrium capitatum L., as well as the chemical composition of the essential oils, were studied. Important differences were found with regard to the major constituents of the essential oils of five populations of T. capitatum grown in Portugal. The oil isolated from one population was characterized by a high content of oxygenated monoterpenes (33.0%), isomenthone (7.7%) being the major constituent. Another oil from a population collected from the same region was dominated by monoterpene and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (43.9% and 23.2%, respectively), alpha-pinene (7.7%), sabinene (11.2%) and beta-pinene (10.3%) being the main compounds. The oils from the other three populations were characterized by a high content of both sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (23.0%, 32.2% and 33.2%) and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (39.7%, 23.4% and 20.4%). T-cadinol (24.1%) and alpha-cadinol (9.8%) were the major compounds in the oil from one population, whereas delta-cadinene (7.5% and 9.8%) and E-caryophyllene (5.4%) or alpha-muurolol (6.0%) were the major constituents in the other samples. The indumentum of the vegetative and reproductive ograns from the five populations of T. capitatum, observed under scanning electron microscopy, showed the same type and distribution of glandular and non-glandular trichomes. Since the ecological and edaphic features of the collecting sites were quite similar, the chemical polymorphism observed seems to be due to genetic factors. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ffj.131
Choosing between methods of combining p-values

Combining p-values from independent statistical tests is a popular approach to meta-analysis, particularly when the data underlying the tests are either no longer available or are difficult to combine. A diverse range of p-value combination methods appear in the literature, each with different statistical properties. Yet all too often the final choice used in a meta-analysis can appear arbitrary, as if all effort has been expended building the models that gave rise to the p-values. Birnbaum (1954) showed that any reasonable p-value combiner must be optimal against some alternative hypothesis. Starting from this perspective and recasting each method of combining p-values as a likelihood ratio test, we present theoretical results for some of the standard combiners which provide guidance about how a powerful combiner might be chosen in practice
Novel Polypyridyl Ruthenium(II) Complexes Containing Oxalamidines as Ligands.

The complexes [Ru(bpy)2(H2TPOA)](PF6)2 ⋅ 4H2O, (1); [Ru(Me-bpy)2(H2TPOA)](PF6)2\ud
⋅ 2H2O, (2); [Ru(bpy)2(H2TTOA)](PF6)2 ⋅ 2H2O, (3); [Ru(Me-bpy)2(H2TTOA)](PF6)2 ⋅ 2H2O,\ud
(4) and {[Ru(bpy)2]2(TPOA)}(PF6)2 ⋅ 2H2O, (5) (where bpy is 2,2´bipyridine; Me-bpy is 4,4´-\ud
dimethyl-2,2´-bipyridine; H2TPOA is N, N´, N´´, N´´´- tetraphenyloxalamidine; H2TTOA is\ud
N, N´, N´´, N´´´- tetratolyloxalamidine) have been synthesized and characterized by 1H-NMR,\ud
FAB-MS, infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The X-ray investigation shows the\ud
coordination of the still protonated oxalamidine moiety via the 1,2−diimine unit. The dimeric\ud
compound (5) could be separated in its diastereoisomers (5´) and (5´´) by repeated\ud
recrystallisation. The diastereomeric forms exhibit different 1H-NMR spectra and slightly\ud
shifted electronic spectra. Compared with the model compound [Ru(bpy)3]2+, the absorption\ud
maxima of (1)–(5) are shifted to lower energies. The mononuclear complexes show Ru(III/II)-\ud
couples at about 0.9 V vs SCE, while for the dinuclear complex two well defined metal based\ud
redox couples are observed at 0.45 and 0.65 V indicating substantial interaction between the\ud
two metal centres
Treating cisplatin-resistant cancer: a systematic analysis of oxaliplatin or paclitaxel salvage chemotherapy

Objective: To examine the pre-clinical and clinical evidence for the use of oxaliplatin or paclitaxel salvage chemotherapy in patients with cisplatin-resistant cancer. \ud
Methods: Medline was searched for 1) Cell models of acquired resistance reporting cisplatin, oxaliplatin and paclitaxel sensitivities and 2) Clinical trials of single agent oxaliplatin or paclitaxel salvage therapy for cisplatin/carboplatin-resistant ovarian cancer. Results: Oxaliplatin - Oxaliplatin is widely regarded as being active in cisplatin-resistant cancer. In contrast, data in cell models suggests that there is cross-resistance between cisplatin and oxaliplatin in cellular models with resistance levels which reflect clinical resistance (<10 fold). Oxaliplatin as a single agent had a poor response rate in patients with cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer (8%, n=91). Oxaliplatin performed better in combination with other agents for the treatment of platinum-resistant cancer suggesting that the benefit of oxaliplatin may lie in its more favourable toxicity and ability to be combined with other drugs rather than an underlying activity in cisplatin resistance. Oxaliplatin therefore should not be considered broadly active in cisplatin-resistant cancer. Paclitaxel – Cellular data suggests that paclitaxel is active in cisplatin-resistant cancer. 68.1% of cisplatin-resistant cells were sensitive to paclitaxel. Paclitaxel as a single agent had a response rate of 22% in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (n = 1918), a significant increase from the response of oxaliplatin (p<0.01). Paclitaxel-resistant cells were also sensitive to cisplatin, suggesting that alternating between agents may be beneficial. Studies of single agent paclitaxel in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer where patients had previously received paclitaxel had an improved response rate of 35.3% n=232 (p<0.01), suggesting that pre-treatment with paclitaxel improves the response of salvage paclitaxel therapy. \ud
Conclusions: Cellular models reflect the resistance observed in the clinic as the cross resistant agent oxaliplatin has a lower response rate compared to the non-cross resistant agent paclitaxel in cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer. Alternating therapy with cisplatin and paclitaxel may therefore lead to an improved response rate in ovarian cancer
Seprase: An overview of an important matrix serine protease

Seprase or Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) is an integral membrane serine peptidase, which has been shown to have gelatinase activity. Seprase has a dual function in tumour progression. The proteolytic activity of Seprase has been shown to promote cell invasiveness towards the ECM and also to support tumour growth and proliferation. Seprase appears to act as a proteolytically active 170-kDa dimer, consisting of two 97- kDa subunits. It is a member of the group type II integral serine proteases, which includes dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPPIV/CD26) and related type II transmembrane prolyl serine peptidases, which exert their mechanisms of action on the cell surface. DPPIV and Seprase exhibit multiple functions due to their abilities to form complexes with each other and to interact with other membrane-associated molecules. Localisation of these protease complexes at cell surface protrusions, called invadopodia, may have a prominent role in processing soluble factors and in the degradation of extracellular matrix components that are essential to the cellular migration and matrix invasion that occur during tumour invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis
Topological evaluation of volume reconstructions by voxel carving

Space or voxel carving [1, 4, 10, 15] is a technique for creating a three-dimensional reconstruction of an object from a series of two-dimensional images captured from cameras placed around the object at different viewing angles. However, little work has been done to date on evaluating the quality of space carving results. This paper extends the work reported in [8], where application of persistent homology was initially proposed as a tool for providing a topological analysis of the carving process along the sequence of 3D reconstructions with increasing number of cameras. We give now a more extensive treatment by: (1) developing the formal framework by which persistent homology can be applied in this context; (2) computing persistent homology of the 3D reconstructions of 66 new frames, including different poses, resolutions and camera orders; (3) studying what information about stability, topological correctness and influence of the camera orders in the carving performance can be drawn from the computed barcodes
Determining the role of the Internet in violent extremism and terrorism: six suggestions for progressing research

Some scholars and others are skeptical of a significant role for the Internet in processes of violent radicalization. There is increasing concern on the part of other scholars, and increasingly also policymakers and publics, that easy availability of violent extremist content online may have violent radicalizing effects. This article identifies a number of core questions regarding the interaction of violent extremism and terrorism and the Internet, particularly social media, that have yet to be adequately addressed and supplies a series of six follow-up suggestions, flowing from these questions, for progressing research in this area. These suggestions relate to (1) widening the range of types of violent online extremism being studied beyond violent jihadis; (2) engaging in more comparative research, not just across ideologies, but also groups, countries, languages, and social media platforms; (3) deepening our analyses to include interviewing and virtual ethnographic approaches; (4) up-scaling or improving our capacity to undertake “big data” collection and analysis; (5) outreaching beyond terrorism studies to become acquainted with, for example, the Internet Studies literature and engaging in interdisciplinary research with, for example, computer scientists; and (6) paying more attention to gender as a factor in violent online extremism