Search

The sustainability vision that gained importance with theEuropean Green Deal, has also affected the Aluminumsector, which is considered as one of the most energy intensiveindustries in Europe. Starting from this vision,the European Union called for projects, leveraging theHorizon 2020 program, with the concept of using existingraw materials more efficiently and enabling the use ofalternative raw materials within various industrialsectors. RETROFEED is one of the projects supportedby European commission under Horizon 2020 program.Among the solutions under development for thealuminum sector there are: (1) the usage of alternative raw materials in ASAS’ aluminum melting furnaces, (2)equipment retrofitting allowing the existing resources tobe processed more energy-efficiently, and (3) the designof decision support strategies in order to use the existingraw materials for producing less waste material duringproduction. Strategical and operational decisions are made by thefactory personnel, at times causing slowdown inproduction and/or inefficient use of resources. Within thescope of the project, a Decision Support System (DSS)will be developed integrating machine learning methods,for predicting billet quality according to different rawmaterial types used in ASAŞ Aluminum MeltingFurnaces, and a furnace Digital Twin to simulate furnaceoperations under different conditions for efficiencyimprovements and production simulation. By means ofcorrelations and algorithms established as a result of thestudy, the output of the billet chemical composition, thefurnace setpoints and the production plan can beadjusted according to different inputs in 6060 aluminumalloy, in accordance with the principles of zero waste andthe new green deal guidelines.

This paper describes and analyzes a reactive navigation framework for mobile robots in unknown environments. The approach does not rely on a global map and only considers the local occupancy in its robot-centered 3D grid structure. The proposed algorithm enables fast navigation by heuristic evaluations of pre-sampled trajectories on-the-fly. At each cycle, these paths are evaluated by a weighted cost function, based on heuristic features such as closeness to the goal, previously selected trajectories, and nearby obstacles. This paper introduces a systematic method to calculate a feasible pose on the selected trajectory, before sending it to the controller for the motion execution. Defining the structures in the framework and providing the implementation details, the paper also explains how to adjust its offline and online parameters. To demonstrate the versatility and adaptability of the algorithm in unknown environments, physics-based simulations on various maps are presented. Benchmark tests show the superior performance of the proposed algorithm over its previous iteration and another state-of-art method. The open-source implementation of the algorithm and the benchmark data can be found at \url{https://github.com/RIVeR-Lab/tentabot}., This paper is published by International Journal of Robotic Computing (IJRC). arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2001.09199

3D printing has recently been applied to many areas of life including education, healthcare, aerospace, automotive, industrial design and other domains in industry. Due to the fact that the benefit of 3D printing is significant, the copyright issue of 3D printing has been become essentially and importantly. To solve the copyright issue of 3D printing, we would like to propose a 3D printing watermarking algorithm based on the mean distance of 2D slices in this paper. In the proposed method, 3D printing model is sliced into a set of 2D slices, and each 2D slice is then embedded a bit of watermark data by changing the length of mean distance of that slice. Finally, the coordinates of points in each 2D slice will be altered according to the changed mean distance value of 2D slice which has been embedded watermark bit. Experimental results showed that the mean distance error between the watermarked 2D slices and the original 2D slices is very small. The bit error rate (BER) between the extracted watermark and the original watermark is also very low. So, we verify that the invisibility of the proposed method is effective, and the proposed method is also robust to geometric attacks as rotation, scaling, and translation. Comparing to the conventional works, the proposed method also provides a solution with better accuracy.

Recently, Samsung Electronic just released a new type of mobile phone model named Galaxy A71 where the quantum RNG chip is boasted inside for advanced security by capable of generating truly random and unpredictable numbers. It is no doubt that the quantum mechanism-based communication protocols or quantum information technologies are gradually changing the world with its advantages. It promises the new information generation where quantum-based computer can be seen in many living fields. Since the quantum algorithms and quantum communication protocols need to be verified before applying on chip set system, or hardware systems, the verification frameworks need to be done. In this discussion, we first propose a novel framework by MATLAB emulators. Then, we analysis the quantum resources or quantum basic elements such as quantum entanglements, quantum super positions state, quantum Fourier transformation, and quantum Arithmetic in proposed novel framework. The open problems to consider quantum algorithms based on proposed framework is discussed.

This research will provide system on chip design for pipelined digital filters module. Two basic but important FIR and IIR filters are going to be discussed. At first, the position of digital filters in digital system is explained. Then, MATLAB fdatool and scripts are used for filter design. Finally, the implementation and verification of proposed filter processor are performed VERILOG hardware description language (HDL).All scripts, algorithm is clearly given. We hope that the research will be a great reference and an intellectual property core for engineers and researcher students.

This paper introduces a reactive navigation framework for mobile robots in 3-dimensional (3D) space. The proposed approach does not rely on the global map information and achieves fast navigation by employing a tentacle based sampling and their heuristic evaluations on-the-fly. This reactive nature of the approach comes from the prior arrangement of navigation points on tentacles (parametric contours) to sample the navigation space. These tentacles are evaluated at each time-step, based on heuristic features such as closeness to the goal, previous tentacle preferences and nearby obstacles in a robot-centered 3D grid. Then, the navigable sampling point on the selected tentacle is passed to a controller for the motion execution. The proposed framework does not only extend its 2D tentacle-based counterparts into 3D, but also introduces offline and online parameters, whose tuning provides versatility and adaptability of the algorithm to work in unknown environments. To demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithm over a state-of-art method, the statistical results from physics-based simulations on various maps are presented. The video of the work is available at https://youtu.be/rrF7wHCz-0M., This paper is accepted for the IEEE International Conference on Robotic Computing (IRC) 2020

Background The African rice Oryza glaberrima was domesticated from its wild relative Oryza barthii about 3000 years ago. During the domestication process, panicle complexity changed from a panicle with low complexity in O. barthii, to a highly branched panicle carrying more seeds in O. glaberrima. To understand the basis of this differential panicle development between the two species, we conducted morphological and molecular analyses of early panicle development. Results Using X-ray tomography, we analyzed the morphological basis of early developmental stages of panicle development. We uncovered evidence for a wider rachis meristem in O. glaberrima than in O. barthii. At the molecular level, spatial and temporal expression profiles of orthologs of O. sativa genes related to meristem activity and meristem fate control were obtained using in situ hybridization and qRT-PCR. Despite highly conserved spatial expression patterns between O. glaberrima and O. barthii, differences in the expression levels of these early acting genes were detected. Conclusion The higher complexity of the O. glaberrima panicle compared to that of its wild relative O. barthii is associated with a wider rachis meristem and a modification of expression of branching-related genes. Our study indicates that the expression of genes in the miR156/miR529/SPL and TAW1 pathways, along with that of their target genes, is altered from the unbranched stage of development. This suggests that differences in panicle complexity between the two African rice species result from early alterations to gene expression during reproductive development.

Channel coding aims to minimize errors that occur during the transmission of digital information from one place to another. Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes can detect and correct transmission errors if one encodes the original information by adding redundant bits. In practice, heuristic iterative decoding algorithms are used to decode the received vector. However, these algorithms may fail to decode if the received vector contains multiple errors. We consider decoding the received vector with minimum error as an integer programming problem and propose a branch-and-price method for its solution. We improve the performance of our method by introducing heuristic feasible solutions and adding valid cuts to the mathematical formulation. Computational results reveal that our branch-price-and-cut algorithm significantly improves solvability of the problem compared to a commercial solver in high channel error rates. Our proposed algorithm can find higher quality solutions than commonly used iterative decoding heuristics., 30 pages, 4 figures, 7 tables

ContextYield improvement is an important issue for rice breeding. Panicle architecture is one of the key components of rice yield and exhibits a large diversity. To identify the morphological and genetic determinants of panicle architecture, we performed a detailed phenotypic analysis and a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using an original panel of Vietnamese landraces.ResultsUsing a newly developed image analysis tool, morphological traits of the panicles were scored over two years: rachis length; primary, secondary and tertiary branch number; average length of primary and secondary branches; average length of internode on rachis and primary branch. We observed a high contribution of spikelet number and secondary branch number per panicle to the overall phenotypic diversity in the dataset. Twenty-nine stable QTLs associated with seven traits were detected through GWAS over the two years. Some of these QTLs were associated with genes already implicated in panicle development. Importantly, the present study revealed the existence of new QTLs associated with the spikelet number, secondary branch number and primary branch number traits.ConclusionsOur phenotypic analysis of panicle architecture variation suggests that with the panel of samples used, morphological diversity depends largely on the balance between indeterminate vs. determinate axillary meristem fate on primary branches, supporting the notion of differences in axillary meristem fate between rachis and primary branches. Our genome-wide association study led to the identification of numerous genomic sites covering all the traits studied and will be of interest for breeding programs aimed at improving yield. The new QTLs detected in this study provide a basis for the identification of new genes controlling panicle development and yield in rice.

We introduce an algorithm to describe Pieri's Rule for multiplication of Schubert polynomials. The algorithm uses tower diagrams introduced by the authors and another new algorithm that describes Monk's Rule. Our result is different from the well-known descriptions (and proofs) of the rule by Bergeron-Billey and Kogan-Kumar and uses Sottile's version of Pieri's Rule., 19 pages

In a digital communication system, information is sent from one place to another over a noisy communication channel using binary symbols (bits). Original information is encoded by adding redundant bits, which are then used by low--density parity--check (LDPC) codes to detect and correct errors that may have been introduced during transmission. Error correction capability of an LDPC code is severely degraded due to harmful structures such as small cycles in its bipartite graph representation known as Tanner graph (TG). We introduce an integer programming formulation to generate a TG for a given smallest cycle length. We propose a branch-and-cut algorithm for its solution and investigate structural properties of the problem to derive valid inequalities and variable fixing rules. We introduce a heuristic to obtain feasible solutions of the problem. Our computational experiments show that our algorithm can generate LDPC codes without small cycles in acceptable amount of time for practically relevant code lengths., 31 pages, 18 figures, 7 tables

This paper is an introduction to soft cone metric spaces. We define the concept of soft cone metric via soft element, investigate soft converges in soft cone metric spaces and prove some fixed point theorems for contractive mappings on soft cone metric spaces., 14 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1308.1016 by other authors

We introduce a partial order on the set of all reduced words of a given permutation $��$, called \emph{directed-braid poset} of $��$. This poset enables us to produce two algorithms: One is a sorting algorithm applied on any reduced word of $��$ and aims to obtained the natural word (lexicographically largest reduced word); the other one is a generation algorithm applied on the natural word and aims to obtained the set of all reduced words of $��$.

We prove that the well-known condition of being a balanced labeling can be characterized in terms of the sliding algorithm on tower diagrams. The characterization involves a generalization of authors' Rothification algorithm. Using the characterization, we obtain descriptions of Schubert polynomials and Stanley symmetric functions.

We introduce a new combinatorial object called tower diagrams and prove fundamental properties of these objects. We also introduce an algorithm that allows us to slide words to tower diagrams. We show that the algorithm is well-defined only for reduced words which makes the algorithm a test for reducibility. Using the algorithm, a bijection between tower diagrams and finite permutations is obtained and it is shown that this bijection specializes to a bijection between certain labellings of a given tower diagram and reduced expressions of the corresponding permutation.

This paper concerns the combinatorics of the orbit Hecke algebra associated with the orbit of a two sided Weyl group action on the Renner monoid of a finite monoid of Lie type, $M$. It is shown by Putcha in \cite{Putcha97} that the Kazhdan-Lusztig involution (\cite{KL79}) can be extended to the orbit Hecke algebra which enables one to define the $R$-polynomials of the intervals contained in a given orbit. Using the $R$-polynomials, we calculate the M��bius function of the Bruhat-Chevalley ordering on the orbits. Furthermore, we provide a necessary condition for an interval contained in a given orbit to be isomorphic to an interval in some Weyl group., 12 pages

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a common cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children, but there has been no clinical report on M. pneumoniae infections in Vietnamese children. We investigated the clinical features of M. pneumoniae infection when the pathogen was detected in the respiratory tract in hospitalized children aged 1-15 years due to lower respiratory tract infections or CAP in Vietnamese children. Throat swabs from 47 patients (18.6%) of 252 patients with a clinical diagnosis of CAP were PCR positive (male, 34; female, 13), and 21 throat swabs (8.3%) showed culture positive for M. pneumoniae. The M. pneumoniae pathogen could be detected by PCR and/or culture in 52 patients (male, 36; female, 16). The major clinical signs in the 52 patients were fever (38 degrees C) in 100%, pharyngitis in 100%, tachypnea in 94%, dry cough in 86.5%, and rough breathing in 83% of patients. The average term of illness prior to hospitalization was 7.5+/-4.1 days, and the average number of hospitalized days was 7.9+/-3.5 days. Beta-lactam group antibiotics, which were ineffective against M. pneumoniae infection, were used in 37 cases (71%).

Introduction: Lenalidomide is approved in the US for the treatment of transfusion-dependent patients with anemia due to Low- or Intermediate-1-risk myelodysplastic syndromes associated with a del (5q) cytogenetic abnormality, with or without additional cytogenetic abnormalities. Lenalidomide is also approved for use in the US and Europe in combination with dexamethasone in previously treated multiple myeloma patients. In vitro and ex vivo studies have shown that lenalidomide has a direct antiproliferative effect against tumor cells and induces antiangiogenesis. It has also been shown to have immunomodulatory activity, including co-stimulatory effects on T and NK cells. Using the yeast 3-hybrid system, based on a leukemia cDNA library and biotinylated lenalidomide analog, we identified 16 putative lenalidomide-binding proteins from 700,000 clones screened. These included CD3-epsilon-associated protein (CAST) and GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase A (GMPPA). CAST binds to the T cell receptor and is also part of the RNA polymerase 1 complex. GMPPA is a nucleotidyl transferase that converts mannose-1-phosphate and GTP to GDP-mannose, which is involved in the production of N-linked oligosaccharides. To determine whether these proteins are required for lenalidomide-induced immunomodulatory activity, we evaluated the lenalidomide-induced upregulation of interleukin-2 (IL-2) production in primary T cells transfected with siRNA against CAST and GMPPA. Methods: Primary human peripheral blood T cells were transfected with CAST or GMPPA siRNA, or mock siRNA as a control. Reduction of CAST and GMPPA expression was confirmed by qRT-PCR. After 24 hours, transfected cells were stimulated with anti-CD3 mAb in the presence or absence of 0.1 and 1 μM lenalidomide 48 hours. Cells were lysed after 48 hours, and IL-2 mRNA and mature protein levels were quantified using qPCR and ELISA, respectively. Results: CAST gene expression in T cells was reduced by 60% (p Conclusion: These findings support the hypothesis that CAST and GMPPA play an important role in the lenalidomide IL-2 induction mechanism in primary T cells.

Platelet activity is closely related to endothelium and could release factors able to influence capillary wall and surrounding tissues. BTG is a protein included in platelet vesicles and a measure of its activation. Some alterations of peritoneum could be partially related to platelet activity. BTG peritoneal transport from blood is weight limited (36000) and consequently, high levels in effluent should represent local production. The aim of this study has been to characterize peritoneal effluent BTG.12 patients, on CAPD 27 +/- 15 mon., 5 diabetics were studied. Previous peritonitis was 0.3 +/- 0.4 e/year. Determinations performed: Plasma (P) (BTG, T. protein, albumin, platelet count, Hcto and Fibrinogen) and Effluent (EF) (BTG, T. protein, Fibrinopeptide A, FDP, Fibrinolytic act., Fibrinogen, Plasminogen and Mitogenic induced capacity on Swiss 3T3 mice fibroblasts). To evaluate peritoneal function we used mass transfer coefficients (MTC) and net UF.R.:BTG levels: P 118 +/- 14 EF 34 +/- 14 ng/ml P/EF (%) 31 +/- 13 (6-54%). Regression analysis: P BTG did not show significant relationship with any of the studied parameters. EF BTG showed direct significant correlation (p less than 0.05) with Creatinine-MTC (r: 0.81) and EF Fibrinogen (0.68) and in the limit of significance with EF T. prot (0.57) and EF Mitogenicity (0.62). P/EF BTF showed significant correlation with creatinine-MTC (0.77). The analysis of these values grouping patients showed: diabetes has no influence on BTG values, hypertensive patients show higher P/EF BTG values than normotensive (39 +/- 9 vs 23 +/- 11%, p less than 0.05) and no influences of peritonitis or CAPD period were found.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)