TaDaa: real time Ticket Assignment Deep learning Auto Advisor for customer support, help desk, and issue ticketing systems

This paper proposes TaDaa: Ticket Assignment Deep learning Auto Advisor, which leverages the latest Transformers models and machine learning techniques quickly assign issues within an organization, like customer support, help desk and alike issue ticketing systems. The project provides functionality to 1) assign an issue to the correct group, 2) assign an issue to the best resolver, and 3) provide the most relevant previously solved tickets to resolvers. We leverage one ticketing system sample dataset, with over 3k+ groups and over 10k+ resolvers to obtain a 95.2% top 3 accuracy on group suggestions and a 79.0% top 5 accuracy on resolver suggestions. We hope this research will greatly improve average issue resolution time on customer support, help desk, and issue ticketing systems

Spectrum analysis using a trellis algorithm

Carrier frequency offset is a significant problem in achieving signal acquisition in communications equipment. In a receiver the frequency offset must be corrected before symbol timing and phase recovery operations can be completed. Several methods have been applied to frequency estimation, for example, the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method and the differential phase method. However, the FFT method suffers from threshold effects and the differential phase method, although simple, suffers an SNR penalty though its differential detection and is sensitive to large frequency offsets. This paper describes a trellis based scheme for frequency and phase estimation. A recently reported technique, per-survivor processing, has been adapted to make use of the trellis structure and is described. The technique, referred to herein as frequency estimation by PSP (FEPSP), gives near optimum performance under certain conditions. Firstly Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRLB) are derived for the frequency estimator and the phase estimator. The PSP estimation algorithm is then described. Lastly, the performance of the FEPSP is discussed and compared with that of the CRLB and FFT methods

Incomplete Wood-Ljungdahl pathway facilitates one-carbon metabolism in organohalide-respiring Dehalococcoides mccartyi.

The acetyl-CoA "Wood-Ljungdahl" pathway couples the folate-mediated one-carbon (C1) metabolism to either CO2 reduction or acetate oxidation via acetyl-CoA. This pathway is distributed in diverse anaerobes and is used for both energy conservation and assimilation of C1 compounds. Genome annotations for all sequenced strains of Dehalococcoides mccartyi, an important bacterium involved in the bioremediation of chlorinated solvents, reveal homologous genes encoding an incomplete Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. Because this pathway lacks key enzymes for both C1 metabolism and CO2 reduction, its cellular functions remain elusive. Here we used D. mccartyi strain 195 as a model organism to investigate the metabolic function of this pathway and its impacts on the growth of strain 195. Surprisingly, this pathway cleaves acetyl-CoA to donate a methyl group for production of methyl-tetrahydrofolate (CH3-THF) for methionine biosynthesis, representing an unconventional strategy for generating CH3-THF in organisms without methylene-tetrahydrofolate reductase. Carbon monoxide (CO) was found to accumulate as an obligate by-product from the acetyl-CoA cleavage because of the lack of a CO dehydrogenase in strain 195. CO accumulation inhibits the sustainable growth and dechlorination of strain 195 maintained in pure cultures, but can be prevented by CO-metabolizing anaerobes that coexist with D. mccartyi, resulting in an unusual syntrophic association. We also found that this pathway incorporates exogenous formate to support serine biosynthesis. This study of the incomplete Wood-Ljungdahl pathway in D. mccartyi indicates a unique bacterial C1 metabolism that is critical for D. mccartyi growth and interactions in dechlorinating communities and may play a role in other anaerobic communities

Geostatistical and stochastic study of flow and tracer transport in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain

Yucca Mountain has been proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy as the nation’s long-term, permanent geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste. The potential repository would be located in Yucca Mountain’s unsaturated zone (UZ), which acts as a critical natural barrier delaying arrival of radionuclides to the water table. Since radionuclide transport in groundwater can pose serious threats to human health and the environment, it is important to understand how much and how fast water and radionuclides travel through the UZ to groundwater. The UZ system consists of multiple hydrogeologic units whose hydraulic and geochemical properties exhibit systematic and random spatial variation, or heterogeneity, at multiple scales. Predictions of radionuclide transport under such complicated conditions are uncertain, and the uncertainty complicates decision making and risk analysis. This project aims at using geostatistical and stochastic methods to assess uncertainty of unsaturated flow and radionuclide transport in the UZ at Yucca Mountain. Focus of this study is parameter uncertainty of hydraulic and transport properties of the UZ. The parametric uncertainty arises since limited parameter measurements are unable to deterministically describe spatial variability of the parameters. In this project, matrix porosity, permeability and sorption coefficient of the reactive tracer (neptunium) of the UZ are treated as random variables. Corresponding propagation of parametric uncertainty is quantitatively measured using mean, variance, 5th and 95th percentiles of simulated state variables (e.g., saturation, capillary pressure, percolation flux, and travel time). These statistics are evaluated using a Monte Carlo method, in which a three-dimensional flow and transport model implemented using the TOUGH2 code is executed with multiple parameter realizations of the random model parameters

A signal cascade originated from epidermis defines apical-basal patterning of Arabidopsis shoot apical meristems

In multicellular organisms, a long-standing question is how spatial patterns of distinct cell types are initiated and maintained during continuous cell division and proliferation. Along the vertical axis of plant shoot apical meristems (SAMs), stem cells are located at the top while cells specifying the stem cells are located more basally, forming a robust apical-basal pattern. We previously found that in Arabidopsis SAMs, the HAIRY MERISTEM (HAM) family transcription factors form a concentration gradient from the epidermis to the interior cell layers, and this gradient is essential for the stem cell specification and the apical-basal patterning of the SAMs. Here, we uncover that epidermis specific transcription factors, ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA MERISTEM LAYER 1 (ATML1) and its close homolog, define the concentration gradient of HAM in the SAM through activating a group of microRNAs. This study provides a molecular framework linking the epidermis-derived signal to the stem cell homeostasis in plants

Fatigue Behaviour and Mean Stress Effect of Thermoplastic Polymers and Composites

More and more polymers and polymer composite materials are used in automotive industry to reduce cost and weight of vehicles to meet the environmental requirement. However, the fatigue behaviour for these materials is less understanding than metallic materials. The current work is focussed on the fatigue behaviour for a range of thermoplastic polymer/composite materials. It reveals that the fatigue behaviour of these materials can be described by S-N curves using the Basquin Equation. All the materials exhibit significant mean stress effect. The most commonly used mean stress correction equations developed in metal fatigue were evaluated with the current test results. It reveals that Goodman, Gerber and Soderberg cannot be used as generic equations for the materials investigated, whereas Smith-Watson-Topper can correlate the test data reasonably well, but the best correlation is given by Walker with material constant γ = 0.4

Fatigue behaviour and mean stress effect of thermoplastic polymers and composites

More and more polymers and polymer composite materials are used in automotive industry to reduce cost and weight of vehicles to meet the environmental requirement. However, the fatigue behaviour for these materials is less understanding than metallic materials. The current work is focussed on the fatigue behaviour for a range of thermoplastic polymer/composite materials. It reveals that the fatigue behaviour of these materials can be described by S-N curves using the Basquin Equation. All the materials exhibit significant mean stress effect. The most commonly used mean stress correction equations developed in metal fatigue were evaluated with the current test results. It reveals that Goodman, Gerber and Soderberg cannot be used as generic equations for the materials investigated, whereas Smith-Watson-Topper can correlate the test data reasonably well, but the best correlation is given by Walker with material constant ? = 0.

JAtlasView: a Java atlas-viewer for browsing biomedical 3D images and atlases

BACKGROUND: Many three-dimensional (3D) images are routinely collected in biomedical research and a number of digital atlases with associated anatomical and other information have been published. A number of tools are available for viewing this data ranging from commercial visualization packages to freely available, typically system architecture dependent, solutions. Here we discuss an atlas viewer implemented to run on any workstation using the architecture neutral Java programming language. RESULTS: We report the development of a freely available Java based viewer for 3D image data, descibe the structure and functionality of the viewer and how automated tools can be developed to manage the Java Native Interface code. The viewer allows arbitrary re-sectioning of the data and interactive browsing through the volume. With appropriately formatted data, for example as provided for the Electronic Atlas of the Developing Human Brain, a 3D surface view and anatomical browsing is available. The interface is developed in Java with Java3D providing the 3D rendering. For efficiency the image data is manipulated using the Woolz image-processing library provided as a dynamically linked module for each machine architecture. CONCLUSION: We conclude that Java provides an appropriate environment for efficient development of these tools and techniques exist to allow computationally efficient image-processing libraries to be integrated relatively easily

Creep of HfB2-based UHTCs up to 2000oC

Ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) are promising candidates for hypersonic applications as a consequence of their high melting points, in excess of 3000 ºC for ZrB2 and HfB2 UHTCs. The UHTCs community has traditionally focused on development of more oxidation-resistant UHTC composites as a consequence of poor oxidation resistance of monolithic UHTCs, which has led to the choice of SiC-reinforced MeB2 (where Me is Zr or Hf) as the baseline material for extreme environments. An overview of current understanding of high temperature creep of MeB2–based UHTCs will be described, discussing the following points: • Poor creep resistance of SiC-reinforced HfB2 and their structural instabilities. • Plastic behavior of HfB2 which deforms like an hcp-metal. • Plastic behavior of HfB2/2 wt.% La2O3 or how to maintain the creep resistance while improving the oxidation resistance. • New approaches to increase the creep resistance of HfB