To Index or Not to Index: Optimizing Exact Maximum Inner Product Search

Exact Maximum Inner Product Search (MIPS) is an important task that is widely pertinent to recommender systems and high-dimensional similarity search. The brute-force approach to solving exact MIPS is computationally expensive, thus spurring recent development of novel indexes and pruning techniques for this task. In this paper, we show that a hardware-efficient brute-force approach, blocked matrix multiply (BMM), can outperform the state-of-the-art MIPS solvers by over an order of magnitude, for some -- but not all -- inputs. In this paper, we also present a novel MIPS solution, MAXIMUS, that takes advantage of hardware efficiency and pruning of the search space. Like BMM, MAXIMUS is faster than other solvers by up to an order of magnitude, but again only for some inputs. Since no single solution offers the best runtime performance for all inputs, we introduce a new data-dependent optimizer, OPTIMUS, that selects online with minimal overhead the best MIPS solver for a given input. Together, OPTIMUS and MAXIMUS outperform state-of-the-art MIPS solvers by 3.2$\times$ on average, and up to 10.9$\times$, on widely studied MIPS datasets.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Fluidic Jet Barriers for the Reduction of Leakage Loss in Shrouded Turbines

Tip leakage flows are a significant source of performance reduction in shrouded turbines. In this study, the leakage loss was addressed using the concept of fluidic jet barriers. The fluidic jet was employed: - To form a seal so that less flow entered the leakage channel and passed through the blade passage instead. - To impart a tangential momentum to the leakage flow and turn it towards the direction of the blade exit bulk flow. This potential was explored using three dimensional steady state RANS CFD simulations that were first validated against experimental data. A commercial test campaign conducted on a leakage flow analysis cascade at Durham provided the data. The cascade data was then compared with its corresponding CFD analysis. Five turbulence models were tested and the model that matched the experiment most closely was selected. Then the fluidic jet was implemented on a best practice design of a shrouded rotor used in the industry. For this, first a baseline case was designed using the Durham Cascade as reference. Then it was modified to incorporate the fluidic jet. Four fluidic jet configurations were tested and the best performing configuration was selected. The jet pressure was gradually increased up to the overblown condition, i.e., when a part of the jet fluid turned upstream and entered through the inlet cavity. As predicted, the fluidic jet was successful in increasing the blade work and reducing the mixing loss. Furthermore, it also improved the yaw angle distribution at the rotor exit. Therefore, the present study served to show for the first time, that fluidic jets can be used to address bypass effect as well as re-entry mixing loss in shrouded turbines. The favourable impact on the downstream incidence indicated that they also have the potential to reduce the secondary losses in downstream rows

Occupational Stress in Banking Sector of India

In today’s era, there has been heightened awarenessthat job stress contributes to a significant portion of workercompensation claims, health-care cost, disability, absenteeismand productivity loss. Chair stress is a significant and costlyproblem, and that the challenge for all banks to manage workstress in order to reduce health-care cost and improvesproductivity. The important role of occupational health has longbeen highlighted by world health organization. Work plays acentral role in the lives of many people and thus the impact of jobstress is an important issue both for individual employees and theorganization for which they work. Although the mechanismsthrough which the work can cause or contribute to illness arecomplex, there is a strong evidence to indicate that stressexperienced at work can have adverse outcomes for the wellbeing of individual employees. Similarly, this paper analyzes themajor causes of stress to the employee of different gender andage group in the Indian banking. It also determines the variousstrategies followed by the employees to remove their stress. Thestudy is based on the primary data and the likert scale is used tomeasure the response of the employees

Policy design and infrastructure planning:finding tools to promote land use transport integration

Governments have widely adopted policy goals that span the domains of land use and transport, such as promoting accessibility and reducing the environmental impact of transport. Despite these crosscutting ambitions, government action often remains fragmented as it has persistently proven to be a struggle to overcome the segmented organization of land use and transport planning. Responding to a growing need for an effective approach to land use and transport integration (LUTI), this research adopts a policy design perspective that revolves around the conscious effort of matching policy instruments to policy goals in order to attain desired outcomes. Using four interrelated in-depth cases studies, this study combines an institutional analysis, a longitudinal analysis, a comparative case study and a qualitative comparative analysis of Dutch national and regional transport planning with the aim of determining how policy design thinking can help to bring together the planning of land use and transport infrastructure. Overall, the study finds that a policy design approach to LUTI is more than simply matching goals and instruments. Instead, it involves tailoring a mix of mutually supportive procedural and substantive instruments to fit specific integrated land use and transport goals, while at the same time preventing policy designs to develop into sub-optimal configurations by managing ongoing design dynamics, and making policy instruments responsive to the contextual setting in which they are employed. The four case studies presented in this thesis provide insight into why LUTI remains a struggle and how policy design can be applied to promote such integration

Feasibility Study of Economics and Performance of Solar Photovoltaics at the Stringfellow Superfund Site in Riverside, California

This report presents the results of an assessment of the technical and economic feasibility of deploying a photovoltaics (PV) system on the Stringfellow Superfund Site in Riverside, California. The site was assessed for possible PV installations. The cost, performance, and site impacts of different PV options were estimated. The economics of the potential systems were analyzed using an electric rate of $0.13/kWh and incentives offered by Southern California Edison under the California Solar Initiative. According to the assessment, a government-owned, ground-mounted PV system represents a technically and economically feasible option. The report recommends financing options that could assist in the implementation of such a system

Lightweight Visualisations of COBOL Code for Supporting Migration to SOA

In this age of complex business landscapes, many enterprises turn to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for aligning their IT portfolio with their business. Because of the enormous business risk involved with replacing an enterpriseâs IT landscape, a stepwise migration to SOA is required. As a first step, they need to understand and assess the current structure of their legacy systems. Based on existing reverse engineering techniques, we provide visualisations to support this process for COBOL systems and present preliminary results of an ongoing industrial case study

Survey of the Image Dehazing Using Colour Attenuation and Dark Channel Techniques

Fog is primaryreasonwhich degradesexternal images. Engenders toward the camera, a bit of the light meets these suspended particles. We analysed distinctive haze related highlights in a learning structure to recognize the best element mix for picture dehazing. Haze occurs due to suspended particles, like minerals, sand, also, microscopic fish that exist in waterways, seas, and lake. Reflected light via objects induces toward the camera, a touch of the light meets these suspended particles. We broke down unmistakable dimness related features in a learning structure to perceive the best component blend for picture dehazing. We also reviewed previous research done by experts and their proposed theories. Furthermore we studied the process of haze removal and few techniques used for dehazing

What’s new in using platelet research? To unravel thrombopathies and other human disorders

This review on platelet research focuses on defects of adhesion, cytoskeletal organisation, signal transduction and secretion. Platelet defects can be studied by different laboratory platelet functional assays and morphological studies. Easy bruising or a suspected platelet-based bleeding disorder is of course the most obvious reason to test the platelet function in a patient. However, nowadays platelet research also contributes to our understanding of human pathology in other disciplines such as neurology, nephrology, endocrinology and metabolic diseases. Apart from a discussion on classical thrombopathies, this review will also deal with the less commonly known relation between platelet research and disorders with a broader clinical phenotype. Classical thrombopathies involve disorders of platelet adhesion such as Glanzmann thrombastenia and Bernard-Soulier syndrome, defective G protein signalling diseases with impaired phospholipase C activation, and abnormal platelet granule secretion disorders such as gray platelet disorder and delta-storage pool disease. Other clinical symptoms besides a bleeding tendency have been described in MYH9-related disorders and Duchenne muscular dystrophy due to adhesion defects, and also in disorders of impaired Gs signalling, in Hermansky Pudlack disease and Chediak Higashi disease with abnormal secretion. Finally, platelet research can also be used to unravel novel mechanisms involved in many neurological disorders such as depression and autism with only a subclinical platelet defect