The homology growth for finite abelian covers of smooth quasi-projective varieties

Let $X$ be a complex smooth quasi-projective variety with a fixed epimorphism $\nu\colon\pi_1(X)\twoheadrightarrow H$, where $H$ is a finitely generated abelian group with $\mathrm{rank}H\geq 1$. In this paper, we study the asymptotic behaviour of Betti numbers with all possible field coefficients and the order of the torsion subgroup of singular homology associated to $\nu$, known as the $L^2$-type invariants. When $\nu$ is orbifold effective, we give explicit formulas of these invariants at degree 1. This generalizes the authors' previous work for $H\cong \Z$.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in Chinese Annals of Mathematics, series B. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2110.0335

OpenPerf: A Benchmarking Framework for the Sustainable Development of the Open-Source Ecosystem

Benchmarking involves designing scientific test methods, tools, and frameworks to quantitatively and comparably assess specific performance indicators of certain test subjects. With the development of artificial intelligence, AI benchmarking datasets such as ImageNet and DataPerf have gradually become consensus standards in both academic and industrial fields. However, constructing a benchmarking framework remains a significant challenge in the open-source domain due to the diverse range of data types, the wide array of research issues, and the intricate nature of collaboration networks. This paper introduces OpenPerf, a benchmarking framework designed for the sustainable development of the open-source ecosystem. This framework defines 9 task benchmarking tasks in the open-source research, encompassing 3 data types: time series, text, and graphics, and addresses 6 research problems including regression, classification, recommendation, ranking, network building, and anomaly detection. Based on the above tasks, we implemented 3 data science task benchmarks, 2 index-based benchmarks, and 1 standard benchmark. Notably, the index-based benchmarks have been adopted by the China Electronics Standardization Institute as evaluation criteria for open-source community governance. Additionally, we have developed a comprehensive toolkit for OpenPerf, which not only offers robust data management, tool integration, and user interface capabilities but also adopts a Benchmarking-as-a-Service (BaaS) model to serve academic institutions, industries, and foundations. Through its application in renowned companies and institutions such as Alibaba, Ant Group, and East China Normal University, we have validated OpenPerf's pivotal role in the healthy evolution of the open-source ecosystem

Combining SERVQUAL and QFD to Evaluate and Improve Airline Service Quality

Purpose: This paper shows how to evaluate and analyze the service quality for airline business and provide feasible suggestions to improve the service. The purpose is to illustrate how the two quality improvement methods, SERVQUAL and QFD, can be combined and used to improve the service quality for service companies such as airlines. Design/Methodology/Approach: The data were obtained by the way of interviewing the customers who have experienced the service offered by Air Macau, with tool of SERVQUAL. Comparing the perceived scores of Air Macau to the customers’ expected value as well as to its competitors, we finally believe that the shortest board of service quality is the “responsiveness” among its five dimensions. Quality function deployment is then used to translate customers’ actual requirements into practical service measures to further improvement. Findings: It is more effective if SERVQUAL is combined with QFD in evaluating firm\u27s quality and quality improvement. Research Limitations: Effectiveness should be tested over time with bottom line evidences. Practical Implications: Practitioners should use more than one effective methods in quality improvement whenever possible. Social Implications: People are more aware of SERVQUAL and QFD

Ultra-low viscosity liquid crystal materials

We report five ultra-low viscosity nematic liquid crystal mixtures with birefringence around 0.1, dielectric anisotropy in the range of 3 to 6, and clearing temperature about 80 degrees C. A big advantage of these low viscosity mixtures is low activation energy, which significantly suppresses the rising rate of viscosity at low temperatures. Using our mixture M3 as an example, the response time of a 3-mu m cell at -20 degrees C is only 30 ms. Widespread application of these materials for display devices demanding a fast response time, especially at low temperatures, is foreseeable

Unbalanced Oxidant-Antioxidant Status: A Potential Therapeutic Target for Coronary Chronic Total Occlusion in Very Old Patients

Unbalanced oxidant and antioxidant status played an important role in myocardial infarction. The present study was a clinical trial combined preclinically with targeted agent against cardiovascular injuries and ischemia in vivo model. We tried to confirm the association of unbalanced oxidant and antioxidant status with coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO) in 399 very old patients (80~89 years) and investigated the potential therapeutic value of purified polysaccharide from endothelium corneum gigeriae galli (PECGGp). We analyzed levels of circulating superoxide dismutase 3 (SOD3), nitric oxide (NO), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and malondialdehyde (MDA) in very old patients with coronary CTO. Levels of SOD3, NO, eNOS, and MDA in the cardiac tissue were measured in myocardial infarction rats. Levels of SOD3, eNOS, and NO were lowered (p<0.001) and levels of MDA were increased (p<0.001). PECGGp treatment increased levels of SOD3, eNOS, and NO (p<0.01) in cardiac tissue, while decreasing levels of MDA (p<0.01). PECGGp may suppress unbalanced oxidant and antioxidant status in infarcted myocardium by inhibiting levels of MDA and elevating NO, eNOS, and SOD3 levels. PECGGp could be considered as a potential therapeutic agent for coronary CTO in very old patients

Physics Constrained Flow Neural Network for Short-Timescale Predictions in Data Communications Networks

Machine learning is gaining growing momentum in various recent models for the dynamic analysis of information flows in data communications networks. These preliminary models often rely on off-the-shelf learning models to predict from historical statistics while disregarding the physics governing the generating behaviors of these flows. This paper instead introduces Flow Neural Network (FlowNN) to improve the feature representation with learned physical bias. This is implemented by an induction layer, working upon the embedding layer, to impose the physics connected data correlations, and a self-supervised learning strategy with stop-gradient to make the learned physics universal. For the short-timescale network prediction tasks, FlowNN achieves 17% - 71% of loss decrease than the state-of-the-art baselines on both synthetic and real-world networking datasets, which shows the strength of this new approach. Code will be made available.Comment: re-organize the presentatio

BPF Algorithms for Multiple Source-Translation Computed Tomography Reconstruction

Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is a widely used state-of-the-art instrument employed to study the morphological structures of objects in various fields. Object-rotation is a classical scanning mode in micro-CT allowing data acquisition from different angles; however, its field-of-view (FOV) is primarily constrained by the size of the detector when aiming for high spatial resolution imaging. Recently, we introduced a novel scanning mode called multiple source translation CT (mSTCT), which effectively enlarges the FOV of the micro-CT system. Furthermore, we developed a virtual projection-based filtered backprojection (V-FBP) algorithm to address truncated projection, albeit with a trade-off in acquisition efficiency (high resolution reconstruction typically requires thousands of source samplings). In this paper, we present a new algorithm for mSTCT reconstruction, backprojection-filtration (BPF), which enables reconstructions of high-resolution images with a low source sampling ratio. Additionally, we found that implementing derivatives in BPF along different directions (source and detector) yields two distinct BPF algorithms (S-BPF and D-BPF), each with its own reconstruction performance characteristics. Through simulated and real experiments conducted in this paper, we demonstrate that achieving same high-resolution reconstructions, D-BPF can reduce source sampling by 75% compared with V-FBP. S-BPF shares similar characteristics with V-FBP, where the spatial resolution is primarily influenced by the source sampling.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure

APPLIED ORTHOGONAL EXPERIMENT DESIGN FOR THE OPTIMUM MICROWAVE-ASSISTED EXTRACTION CONDITIONS OF POLYSACCHARIDES FROM RHODIOLAE RADIX

An experiment on polysaccharides from Rhodiolae Radix (PRR) extraction was carried out using microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) method with an objective to establish the optimum MAE conditions of PRR. Single factor experiments were performed to determine the appropriate range of extraction conditions, and the optimum conditions were obtained by using orthogonal experiment design. The results showed that the optimum MAE conditions of PRR were as follows: solid-liquid ratio of 1:45 g/mL, irradiation power of 480 W, and irradiation time of 8 min, while extraction yield of PRR was 3.24 %