Adaptive Neural Compilation

This paper proposes an adaptive neural-compilation framework to address the problem of efficient program learning. Traditional code optimisation strategies used in compilers are based on applying pre-specified set of transformations that make the code faster to execute without changing its semantics. In contrast, our work involves adapting programs to make them more efficient while considering correctness only on a target input distribution. Our approach is inspired by the recent works on differentiable representations of programs. We show that it is possible to compile programs written in a low-level language to a differentiable representation. We also show how programs in this representation can be optimised to make them efficient on a target distribution of inputs. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach enables learning specifically-tuned algorithms for given data distributions with a high success rate.Comment: Submitted to NIPS 2016, code and supplementary materials will be available on author's pag

Efficient Relaxations for Dense CRFs with Sparse Higher Order Potentials

Dense conditional random fields (CRFs) have become a popular framework for modelling several problems in computer vision such as stereo correspondence and multi-class semantic segmentation. By modelling long-range interactions, dense CRFs provide a labelling that captures finer detail than their sparse counterparts. Currently, the state-of-the-art algorithm performs mean-field inference using a filter-based method but fails to provide a strong theoretical guarantee on the quality of the solution. A question naturally arises as to whether it is possible to obtain a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of a dense CRF using a principled method. Within this paper, we show that this is indeed possible. We will show that, by using a filter-based method, continuous relaxations of the MAP problem can be optimised efficiently using state-of-the-art algorithms. Specifically, we will solve a quadratic programming (QP) relaxation using the Frank-Wolfe algorithm and a linear programming (LP) relaxation by developing a proximal minimisation framework. By exploiting labelling consistency in the higher-order potentials and utilising the filter-based method, we are able to formulate the above algorithms such that each iteration has a complexity linear in the number of classes and random variables. The presented algorithms can be applied to any labelling problem using a dense CRF with sparse higher-order potentials. In this paper, we use semantic segmentation as an example application as it demonstrates the ability of the algorithm to scale to dense CRFs with large dimensions. We perform experiments on the Pascal dataset to indicate that the presented algorithms are able to attain lower energies than the mean-field inference method

Self-Organizing and Scalable Routing Protocol (SOSRP) for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASN) have two important limitations: a very aggressive (marine) environment, and the use of acoustic signals. This means that the techniques for terrestrial wireless sensor networks (WSN) are not applicable. This paper proposes a routing protocol called “Self-Organizing and Scalable Routing Protocol” (SOSRP) which is decentralized and based on tables residing in each node. A combination of the hop value to the collector node and the distance is used as a criterion to create routes leading to the sink node. The expected functions of the protocol include self-organization of the routes, tolerance to failures and detection of isolated nodes. Through the implementation of SOSRP in Matlab and a model of propagation and energy being appropriate for marine environment, performance results are obtained in different scenarios (varying both nodes and transmission range) that include parameters such as end-to-end packet delay, consumption of energy or length of the created routes (with and without failure). The results obtained show a stable, reliable and suitable operation for the deployment and operation of nodes in UASN networks

Control of Optically Induced Currents in Semiconductor Crystals

The generation and control of optically induced currents has the potential to become an important building block for optical computers. Here, shift and rectification currents are investigated that emerge from a divergence of the optical susceptibility. It is known that these currents react to the shape of the impinging laser pulse, and especially to the shape of the pulse envelope. The main goal is the systematic manipulation of the pulse envelope with an optical pulse shaper that is integrated into a standard THz emission setup. The initial approach, the chirping of the laser pulse only has a weak influence on the envelope and the currents. Instead, a second approach is suggested that uses the combined envelope of a phase-stable pulse-pair as a parameter. In a laser pulse, the position of the maxima of the electrical field and the pulse envelope are shifted relative to each other. This shift is known as the Carrier-Envelope Phase (CEP). It is a new degree of freedom that is usually only accessible in specially stabilized systems. It is shown, that in a phase-stable pulse-pair, at least the relative CEP is usable as a new degree of freedom. It has a great influence on the shape of the pulse envelope and thus on the current density. It is shown that this approach enables the coherent control of the current density. The experiments are corroborated by a theoretical model of the system. The potential of this approach is demonstrated in an application. A framework is presented that uses an iterative genetic algorithm to create arbitrarily shaped THz traces. The algorithm controls the optical pulse shaper, and varies the phase of the impinging laser pulses until the desired target trace is found

Role of Antioxidants of Natural Herbs in Management of Male Infertility

If you and your spouse have been trying to conceive for a year and neither of you has been successful, there is a possibility that you are one of the 50–80 million people throughout the world who struggle with infertility. There is a male component present in approximately 20%-30% of these instances. It is common knowledge that low-quality sperm and oxidative stress (OS) both have a role in the aetiology of male infertility. Because of the oxidation of DNA, proteins, and lipids, excessive levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) have the potential to disrupt the viability, motility, and morphology of sperm cells. ROS are responsible for these changes. Methods: Through the use of the PubMed interface, we searched the MEDLINE database for studies that had been completed and published during the past ten years that analysed the effect that antioxidants had on sperm in infertile guys (2012–2022). A number of different phrases, including infertility, alpha-lipoic acid, zinc, folate, coenzyme Q10, selenium, and vitamin, were utilised during the search. The study\u27s findings indicate that inositol serves a purpose in a number of different mechanisms that foster contacts between sperm and oocytes, and that it also affects OS levels in sperm cells by way of its engagement in mitochondrial events. Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) lessens the damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and improves the quality of sperm in a number of ways, including motility, morphology, and count. There might be a connection between not getting enough zinc in your diet and having low-quality sperm. Zinc and folate are two nutrients that can boost the quantity and quality of sperm. When taken orally, coenzyme Q10 increases the number of sperm as well as their overall motility and forward movement. A therapy with selenium (Se) results in an improvement in the sperm\u27s overall quality, and this improvement is connected with an increase in ejaculatory production. Only vitamin B12 has been found to improve the quality of sperm; it does this by boosting sperm count and motility and by decreasing sperm DNA damage. Vitamin B12 is the only vitamin that has been proved to do this. Conclusions: Dietary supplementation with antioxidants may improve sperm quality in men with low-quality semen by reducing OS-induced sperm damage and increasing hormone synthesis and spermatozoa concentration, motility, and morphology. This may be achieved in men who also have low levels of antioxidants in their semen. Antioxidants can exert their effects in a variety of ways; hence, it is important for researchers conducting future clinical trials to study the possibility of combining a number of antioxidants

Entrepreneurial Competition Orientation and Profitability: The Case of a Developing Economy

The main purpose of this paper is to verify the significance of the implementation of competition orientation (CO) as a part of market orientation for the financial performance of the entrepreneurial small and medium – sized companies in a developing economy. The objectives are: 1. To measure the level of each of the variables of the scale (CO 1: The management continuously analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors; CO 2: We regularly use information about our competitors in strategy creation; CO 3: When a competitor launches a campaign towards our market position we take immediate action; CO 4: We target customers where we have or can develop competitive advantage; CO 5: We create our strategy on the basis of detailed and effective competitor analysis.); 2. To determine the average level of CO in entrepreneurial small and medium – sized companies; 3. To prove the effect CO has on profitability. The methodology included both quantitative and qualitative methods and, the research was done in entrepreneurial companies from the food production industry. This research is a part of an ongoing project entitled: “Strengthening the business capacity of women entrepreneurs in Republic of Macedonia, as a developing country”. Primary data was derived from questionnaires and semi-structured follow-up interviews. Secondary data was collected from books, journals and academic articles. Data was analyzed with IBM SPSS19. The conclusions are given on the basis of descriptive and deductive statistics. The results show that companies of different sizes demonstrate diverse level of implementation of CO i.e. medium – sized companies implement higher levels on every analyzed variable of CO than small companies. The results also corroborate the significant relationships among the five dimensions of CO, as well as their relationship with profitability of the analysed companies. Also, a direct influence of the level of CO implementation on business profitability was found. The main limitation of this study is that it analyses a single industry in a given period of time and, the (small) size of the sample. However, the paper has some practical implications: it proves that to achieve higher financial performance small and medium – sized companies must adopt and implement higher level of competitor orientation, as a part of the market orientation process. Also, the measurability of this part of market orientation on the basis of the MKTOR and MARKOR scales makes available a valuable tool for control of its implementation. The value of the paper derives from the verification of the significance of the relationship between CO and profitability, in a different business sector and with a different research subject from those analyzed hitherto by the literature

P3 and beyond: solving energies with higher order cliques

In this paper we extend the class of energy functions for which the optimal alpha-expansion and alphabeta-swap moves can be computed in polynomial time. Specifically, we introduce a class of higher order clique potentials and show that the expansion and swap moves for any energy function composed of these potentials can be found by minimizing a submodular function. We also show that for a subset of these potentials, the optimal move can be found by solving an st-mincut problem. We refer to this subset as the P 3 Potts model. Our results enable the use of powerful move making algorithms i.e. alpha-expansion and alphabeta-swap for minimization of energy functions involving higher order cliques. Such functions have the capability of modelling the rich statistics of natural scenes and can be used for many applications in computer vision. We demonstrate their use on one such application i.e. the texture based video segmentation problem

Dilution Phenomenon in Mixed Surfactant based Self Micro Emulsifying Formulations Of Ginger Oleoresin: Ex Vivo And In Vivo Performances

Abstract: Aqueous solubilization of Ginger Oleoresin (GO) in pseudo self micro emulsifying carrier and its influence on ex-vivo intestinal permeation and in-vivo performances was investigated. GO pre-concentrates was prepared using surfactants, Tween 80, Tween 20 and/or 1:1 mixture with a co-surfactant propylene glycol at S/Cos ratio 1:1. Aqueous dilutable region of GO in single or mixed surfactant systems was located from ternary phase diagram drawn between ternary components consisted of surfactant/co-surfactant ratio at 1:1, GO and aqueous phase. Various microstructures were characterized across the dilution line using conductometric and rheological method. Three formulations were selected across the dilution line from mixed surfactants phase diagram as microemulsion area was found to be larger in mixed surfactants over single surfactant based ternary system. GO SMEDDS formulations were physically characterized for refractive index, pH, droplet size and stability assessment. The permeability of GO in diluted pre-concentrate was determined across ex vivo rat intestinal method. Two fold enhancement (p<0.01) in intestinal permeability of GO was obtained from SMEDDS formulation  when diluted upto 9.0ml in comparison to under diluted (2 ml) or over-diluted (25 ml) and control formulation (GO in Tween 80). These findings strongly suggested that SMEDDS diluted upto 9ml behave like a pseudo self emulsifying carrier which inherently had microemulsion characteristics (droplet size 122nm). Modulation of intestinal permeability upon dilution was found closely related with dynamics of microemulsion system. Dilution mediated transitions in microstructure of GO SMEDDS was associated with the changes in the orientation of surfactant molecules at the oil-water interface of microstructures during solubilization of GO. In vivo studies revealed that orally administered GO preconcentrate produced 1.6 folds enhancement in oral bioavailability of GO  over control. Present study demonstrates that intestinal permeability and oral bioavailability can be modulated via exploration of fully dilutable pre-concentrate GO system which could be a possible carrier to enhance oral bioavailability of GO

Generalizations of Z-supercontinuous functions and Dδ-supercontinuous functions

[EN] Two new classes of functions, called ‘almost z-supercontinuous functions’ and ’almost Dδ-supercontinuous functions’ are introduced. The class of almost z-supercontinuous functions properly includes the class of z-supercontinuous functions (Indian J. Pure Appl. Math. 33(7), (2002), 1097-1108) as well as the class of almost clopen maps due to Ekici (Acta. Math. Hungar. 107(3), (2005), 193-206) and is properly contained in the class of almost Dδ-supercontinuous functions which in turn constitutes a proper subclass of the class of almost strongly θ-continuous functions due to Noiri and Kang (Indian J. Pure Appl. Math. 15(1), (1984), 1-8) and which in its turn include all δ-continuous functions of Noiri (J. Korean Math. Soc. 16 (1980), 161-166). Characterizations and basic properties of almost z-supercontinuous functions and almost Dδ-supercontinuous functions are discussed and their place in the hierarchy of variants of continuity is elaborated. Moreover, properties of almost strongly θ-continuous functions are investigated and sufficient conditions for almost strongly θ-continuous functions to have u θ-closed (θ-closed) graph are formulated.Kohli, J.; Singh, D.; Kumar, R. (2008). Generalizations of Z-supercontinuous functions and Dδ-supercontinuous functions. Applied General Topology. 9(2):239-251. doi:10.4995/agt.2008.1804.SWORD2392519