Climbing depth-bounded adjacent discrepancy search for solving hybrid flow shop scheduling problems with multiprocessor tasks

This paper considers multiprocessor task scheduling in a multistage hybrid flow-shop environment. The problem even in its simplest form is NP-hard in the strong sense. The great deal of interest for this problem, besides its theoretical complexity, is animated by needs of various manufacturing and computing systems. We propose a new approach based on limited discrepancy search to solve the problem. Our method is tested with reference to a proposed lower bound as well as the best-known solutions in literature. Computational results show that the developed approach is efficient in particular for large-size problems

A way to increase the bit ratein ionospheric radio links

The aim of this paper is to present a high data rate transmission system through the ionospheric channel in the HF-band (3-30 MHz). The applications expected in this study are image transmitting and real-time videoconferencing. Very high rates are required compared to the standard modems. Therefore, an array processing is performed with a set of antennas whose spatial response differs from one another arranged in a circular array or in a collocated sensor. Synchronization (Zero Crossing Detector) and source separation (LMS algorithm) resort to classical well-tested techniques involving training sequences. Experimental results are presented for both antenna configurations. These techniques improve data rate, reaching 20 kbits/s within the 6 kHz bandwidth (QAM 64) without coding or interleaving

Experimental observation of defect pair separation triggering phase transitions

First-order phase transitions typically exhibit a significant hysteresis resulting for instance in boiling retardation and supercooling. The hysteresis arises, because nucleation of the new phase is activated. The free-energy change is positive until the nucleus reaches a critical size beyond which further growth is downhill. In practice, the barrier is often circumvented by the presence of heterogeneous nucleation centres, e. g. at vessel walls or seed crystals. Recently, it has been proposed that the homogeneous melting of ice proceeds via separation of defect pairs with a substantially smaller barrier as compared to the mere aggregation of defects. Here we report the observation of an analogous mechanism catalysing a two-dimensional homogeneous phase transition. A similar process is believed to occur in spin systems. This suggests that separation of defect pairs is a common trigger for phase transitions. Partially circumventing the activation barrier it reduces the hysteresis and may promote fluctuations within a temperature range increasing with decreasing dimensionality

Orientation of Pterin-6-Carboxylic Acid on Gold Capped Silicon Nanopillars Platforms: Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory Studies

The orientation of pterin-6-carboxylic acid on gold nanopillars was investigated by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory methods. The experimentally vibrations from pterin-6-COOH free and attached to the Au surface display vibration features indicating chemical interaction of the pterin with the metal surface. The spectral feature evidenced that the pterin would adsorb on gold surface with a "lying down" configuration through the high intensity vibration of NH scissoring and rocking OH modes. The orientation study of pterins on gold nanopillars presented herein is believed to lead to new applications in biosensing field for detecting pterins of physiological importance

Risk for Tuberculosis among Children

Risk among children is underestimated in countries with a high incidence of this disease

Växtpaleontologiska studier på Åland.

Kielet ruotsi, englanti ja saksa. Julkaistu 1961-1964

Human Endogenous Retrovirus and Neuroinflammation in Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy.

Human endogenous retroviruses HERV-W encode a pro-inflammatory protein, named MSRV-Env from its original identification in Multiple Sclerosis. Though not detected in various neurological controls, MSRV-Env was found in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathies (CIDPs). This study investigated the expression of MSRV in CIDP and evaluated relevant MSRV-Env pathogenic effects. 50 CIDP patients, 19 other neurological controls (ONDs) and 65 healthy blood donors (HBDs) were recruited from two different countries. MSRV-env and -pol transcripts, IL6 and CXCL10 levels were quantified from blood samples. MSRV-Env immunohistology was performed in distal sensory nerves from CIDP and neurological controls biopsies. MSRV-Env pathogenic effects and mode of action were assayed in cultured primary human Schwann cells (HSCs). In both cohorts, MSRV-env and -pol transcripts, IL6 positivity prevalence and CXCL10 levels were significantly elevated in CIDP patients when compared to HBDs and ONDs (statistically significant in all comparisons). MSRV-Env protein was detected in Schwann cells in 5/7 CIDP biopsies. HSC exposed to or transfected with MSRV-env presented a strong increase of IL6 and CXCL10 transcripts and protein secretion. These pathogenic effects on HSC were inhibited by GNbAC1, a highly specific and neutralizing humanized monoclonal antibody targeting MSRV-Env. The present study showed that MSRV-Env may trigger the release of critical immune mediators proposed as instrumental factors involved in the pathophysiology of CIDP. Significant MSRV-Env expression was detected in a significant proportion of patients with CIDP, in which it may play a role according to its presently observed effects on Schwann cells along with previously known effects on immune cells. Experimental results also suggest that a biomarker-driven therapeutic strategy targeting this protein with a neutralizing antibody such as GNbAC1 may offer new perspectives for treating CIDP patients with positive detection of MSRV-Env expression. Geneuro-Innovation, France

Image-Based Scene Representations for Head-Motion Parallax in 360° Panoramas

Creation and delivery of “RealVR” experiences essentially consists of the following four main steps: capture, processing, representation and rendering. In this chapter, we present, compare, and discuss two recent end-to-end approaches, Parallax360 by Luo et al. [9] and MegaParallax by Bertel et al. [3]. Both propose complete pipelines for RealVR content generation and novel-view synthesis with head-motion parallax for 360° environments.Parallax360 uses a robotic arm for capturing thousands of input views on the surface of a sphere. Based on precomputed disparity motion fields and pairwise optical flow, novel viewpoints are synthesized on the fly using flow-based blending of the nearest two to three input views which provides compelling head-motion parallax.MegaParallax proposes a pipeline for RealVR content generation and rendering that emphasizes casual, hand-held capturing. The approach introduces view-dependent flow-based blending to enable novel-view synthesis with head-motion parallax within a viewing area determined by the field of view of the input cameras and the capturing radius.We describe both methods and discuss their similarities and differences in corresponding steps in the RealVR pipeline and show selected results. The chapter ends by discussing advantages and disadvantages as well as outlining the most important limitations and future work.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 66599

Theoretical analysis of the electronic structure of the stable and metastable c(2x2) phases of Na on Al(001): Comparison with angle-resolved ultra-violet photoemission spectra

Using Kohn-Sham wave functions and their energy levels obtained by density-functional-theory total-energy calculations, the electronic structure of the two c(2x2) phases of Na on Al(001) are analysed; namely, the metastable hollow-site structure formed when adsorption takes place at low temperature, and the stable substitutional structure appearing when the substrate is heated thereafter above ca. 180K or when adsorption takes place at room temperature from the beginning. The experimentally obtained two-dimensional band structures of the surface states or resonances are well reproduced by the calculations. With the help of charge density maps it is found that in both phases, two pronounced bands appear as the result of a characteristic coupling between the valence-state band of a free c(2x2)-Na monolayer and the surface-state/resonance band of the Al surfaces; that is, the clean (001) surface for the metastable phase and the unstable, reconstructed "vacancy" structure for the stable phase. The higher-lying band, being Na-derived, remains metallic for the unstable phase, whereas it lies completely above the Fermi level for the stable phase, leading to the formation of a surface-state/resonance band-structure resembling the bulk band-structure of an ionic crystal.Comment: 11 pages, 11 postscript figures, published in Phys. Rev. B 57, 15251 (1998). Other related publications can be found at http://www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm