Array CGH data modeling and smoothing in Stationary Wavelet Packet Transform domain

Background: Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH) is a highly efficient technique, allowing the simultaneous measurement of genomic DNA copy number at hundreds or thousands of loci and the reliable detection of local one-copy-level variations. Characterization of these DNA copy number changes is important for both the basic understanding of cancer and its diagnosis. In order to develop effective methods to identify aberration regions from array CGH data, many recent research work focus on both smoothing-based and segmentation-based data processing. In this paper, we propose stationary packet wavelet transform based approach to smooth array CGH data. Our purpose is to remove CGH noise in whole frequency while keeping true signal by using bivariate model. Results: In both synthetic and real CGH data, Stationary Wavelet Packet Transform (SWPT) is the best wavelet transform to analyze CGH signal in whole frequency. We also introduce a new bivariate shrinkage model which shows the relationship of CGH noisy coefficients of two scales in SWPT. Before smoothing, the symmetric extension is considered as a preprocessing step to save information at the border. Conclusions: We have designed the SWTP and the SWPT-Bi which are using the stationary wavelet packet transform with the hard thresholding and the new bivariate shrinkage estimator respectively to smooth the array CGH data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through theoretical and experimental exploration of a set of array CGH data, including both synthetic data and real data. The comparison results show that our method outperforms the previous approaches

Effects of TikTok Influencers on the Purchase Intention of Gen-Z: Cosmetic Industry

This study investigates how TikTok influencers affect Generation Z's purchase intention toward the cosmetic industry in HCMC. The research issue is a lack of knowledge on how TikTok influencers affect Generation Z's buying intentions for cosmetics. The research objective is to investigate the relationships among influencers' credibility, physical attractiveness, expertise, social advocacy, customers' trust, gender, and purchase intention. The literature study emphasizes the significance of customer trust and influencer characteristics in influencing consumer intention. A questionnaire survey is used as a data gathering technique in this research employing a quantitative methodology. To analyze the data, SPSS will be used as the statistical program. Descriptive statistics will be computed to summarize the data. Multiple regression analysis will examine the relationship between influencers' characteristics and customer trust toward their purchase intention. According to the findings, all influencers' characteristics, including credibility, physical attractiveness, expertise, and social advocacy, have favorable effects on Gen Z's purchasing intention. Surprisingly, customer trust has the most influence on Gen Z behavior. It indicates that there is a difference in purchase intention for different genders. The outcomes will offer valuable insights to cosmetic industry marketers at HCMC to develop effective influencer marketing strategies for Generation Z consumers

Stability of twin circular tunnels in cohesive-frictional soil using the node-based smoothed finite element method (NS-FEM)

This paper presents an upper bound limit analysis procedure using the node-based smoothed finite element method (NS-FEM) and second order cone programming (SOCP) to evaluate the stability of twin circular tunnels in cohesive-frictional soils subjected to surcharge loading. At first stage, kinematically admissible displacement fields of the tunnel problems are approximated by NS-FEM using triangular elements (NS-FEM-T3). Next, commercial software Mosek is employed to deal with the optimization problems, which are formulated as second order cone. Collapse loads as well as failure mechanisms of plane strain tunnels are obtained directly by solving the optimization problems. For twin circular tunnels, the distance between centers of two parallel tunnels is the major parameter used to determine the stability. In this study, the effects of mechanical soil properties and the ratio of tunnel diameter and the depth to the tunnel stability are investigated. Numerical results are verified with those available to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method

Open-Vocabulary Affordance Detection in 3D Point Clouds

Affordance detection is a challenging problem with a wide variety of robotic applications. Traditional affordance detection methods are limited to a predefined set of affordance labels, hence potentially restricting the adaptability of intelligent robots in complex and dynamic environments. In this paper, we present the Open-Vocabulary Affordance Detection (OpenAD) method, which is capable of detecting an unbounded number of affordances in 3D point clouds. By simultaneously learning the affordance text and the point feature, OpenAD successfully exploits the semantic relationships between affordances. Therefore, our proposed method enables zero-shot detection and can be able to detect previously unseen affordances without a single annotation example. Intensive experimental results show that OpenAD works effectively on a wide range of affordance detection setups and outperforms other baselines by a large margin. Additionally, we demonstrate the practicality of the proposed OpenAD in real-world robotic applications with a fast inference speed (~100ms). Our project is available at https://openad2023.github.io.Comment: Accepted to The 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023

Numerical modelling of moisture motion in heterogeneous soils using 1D-MIRBF method

In the present paper, we develop an efficient and accurate numerical approach based on one-dimensional-moving integrated radial basis function (1D-MIRBF) and fully implicit modified Picard method for simulating fluid movement in heterogeneous soils governed by the highly non-linear Richards equation. The major advantages of the proposed 1D-MIRBF method include (i) a banded sparse system matrix that helps reduce the computational cost; (ii) the Kronecker Delta property of the constructed shape functions, which helps impose the essential boundary conditions in an exact manner; and (iii) high accuracy and fast convergence rate owing to the use of the IRBF approximation. The performance of the present method is demonstrated through several 1--D and 2--D soil infiltration problems. Numerical results obtained are in agreement with other published results in the literature. This solver for moisture motion in soils will be incorporated into a surface-water-flow solver to handle the surface irrigation problem

Tracing sediment transport and bed regime in Nha Trang Bay

Three spatial structure groups of radionuclides in U and Th series, 210Pb-excess and 137Cs, and 40K were found based on analyzing temporal and spatial datum of their content by factor analysis with oblique rotation in Nhatrang bay. U and Th spatial structure with their contours decreased toward the offshore, ran longshore and divided seawater of bay into two parts with strong gradient on both sides. Inside part located from center of Nhatrang bay toward the seashore with three main deposit centers of their contents higher than 23 Bq/kg.dry for 238U and 40 Bq/kg.dry for 232Th, indicated unstability of shoreline. Almost sediments coming from river extended toward the offshore, were stopped and transported toward southeastern. The outside part was less than above mentioned content. The boundary line between two parts superposed with the constantly limit line of turbid plume in the rainy season. Direct influence of the continental runoff was limited by the 9 Bq/kg.dry contour of 238U, 19 Bq/kg.dry contour of 232Th. Longshore current was a predominant process whereas lateral transport as sifting and winnowing process of finer grains in sediments of Nhatrang bay. Areas that had very low content of 137Cs and 210 Pb-excess adjoining shoreline showed areas being eroded. Accumulation of 137Cs and 210 Pbexcess nearby river mouth characterized for fine compositions of sediments controlled by seasonal plumes and sites further toward the south indicated finer materials transported from river and accumulated in lack of hydrodynamic process. Near shore accumulation of 40K revealed the sediments there originated from bed erosion

Language-driven Scene Synthesis using Multi-conditional Diffusion Model

Scene synthesis is a challenging problem with several industrial applications. Recently, substantial efforts have been directed to synthesize the scene using human motions, room layouts, or spatial graphs as the input. However, few studies have addressed this problem from multiple modalities, especially combining text prompts. In this paper, we propose a language-driven scene synthesis task, which is a new task that integrates text prompts, human motion, and existing objects for scene synthesis. Unlike other single-condition synthesis tasks, our problem involves multiple conditions and requires a strategy for processing and encoding them into a unified space. To address the challenge, we present a multi-conditional diffusion model, which differs from the implicit unification approach of other diffusion literature by explicitly predicting the guiding points for the original data distribution. We demonstrate that our approach is theoretically supportive. The intensive experiment results illustrate that our method outperforms state-of-the-art benchmarks and enables natural scene editing applications. The source code and dataset can be accessed at https://lang-scene-synth.github.io/.Comment: Accepted to NeurIPS 202

FACTORS INFLUENCING VIETNAMESE STUDENTS’ CHOICES TO ATTAIN ENGLISH PROFICIENCY STANDARDS IN A UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM

In the current era of globalization, English is considered a necessary skill for education and work and a criterion for evaluation in recruitment and graduation assessments in many places in Vietnam. According to the project entitled "Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System Phase 2008 - 2020", non-English majored university students must achieve a minimum of Level 3 according to the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework used in Vietnam. Several universities have diversified their ways to meet these standards to facilitate students in meeting the English language outcomes, allowing students more opportunities to choose ways that are suitable for them. However, this also indicates that various influencing factors will impact students' selection of ways to meet these standards. This research explores the primary ways students choose to fulfill English language standards as stipulated and analyzes the factors influencing the choices of non-English major students in universities in Vietnam.  Article visualizations

CHANGES IN PLASMA LEVELS OF STEROID HORMONES DURING SEXUAL MATURATION OF MALE HELICOPTER CATFISH (WALLAGO ATTU) IN CAPTIVITY

In order to provide reliable indicators of the spawning season of captive helicopter catfish (Wallago attu), this study evaluated the temporal variation in gonadosomatic index (GSI), plasma levels of testosterone (T), and 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT) in male broodstock in captivity. GSI was estimated as the percentage of the relative weight of testis to total body weight. Plasma levels of sex steroids were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (EIA). Testis samples were dehydrated and embedded in paraffin, then sectioned at 5 μm thickness. The highest level of T (402.1 ± 16.7 pg/mL) was found in June, followed by a peak in 11-KT level (76.9 ± 4.7 pg/mL) in May. Testes containing the highest concentrations of spermatozoa were observed from June to August. The GSI of males increased significantly from January to June and peaked in July (2.14%). Taken together, we conclude that the spawning season of captive helicopter catfish occurs from June to August. These results will contribute to the basic knowledge of the reproductive biology of helicopter catfish, which can be useful in artificial breeding