Experience classification for transfer learning in traffic signal control

In recent years, due to the drastic rise in the number of vehicles and the lack of sufficient infrastructure, traffic jams, air pollution, and fuel consumption have increased in cities. The optimization of timing for traffic lights is one of the solutions for the mentioned problems. Many methods have been introduced to deal with these problems, including reinforcement learning. Although a great number of learning-based methods have been used in traffic signal control, they suffer from poor performance and slow learning convergence. In this paper, a transfer learning-based method for traffic signal control has been proposed. Multi-agent system has also been used for modelling the traffic network and transfer learning has been used to make reinforcement learning agents transfer their experience to each other. Furthermore, a classifier has been utilized to classify the transferred experiences. The results show that using the proposed method leads to a significant improvement on average delay time and convergence time of the learning process.

     

Precise Call Graphs for C Programs with Function Pointers

The use of pointers presents serious problems for software productivity tools for software understanding, restructuring, and testing. Pointers enable indirect memory accesses through pointer dereferences, as well as indirect procedure calls (e.g., through function pointers in C). Such indirect accesses and calls can be disambiguated with pointer analysis. In this paper we evaluate the precision of one specific pointer analysis (the FA pointer analysis by Zhang et al.) for the purposes of call graph construction for C programs with function pointers. The analysis is incorporated in a production-strength code-browsing tool from Siemens Corporate Research in which the program call graph is used as a primary tool for code understanding.The FA pointer analysis uses an inexpensive, almost-linear, flow- and context-insensitive algorithm. To measure analysis precision, we compare the call graph constructed by this analysis with the most precise call graph obtainable by a large category of existing pointer analyses. Surprisingly, for all our data programs the FA analysis achieves the best possible precision. This result indicates that for the purposes of call graph construction, inexpensive pointer analyses may provide precision comparable to the precision of expensive pointer analyses.     

Probabilistic Approach to Predict Cracking in Lightly Reinforced Microconcrete Panels

The ultimate strength of structures made of brittle materials—such as microconcrete—strongly depends on microstructural defects, the structure size, and the loading pattern. Probabilistic approaches allow one to take account of such dependencies. By using a Weibull model, cracking of ferrocement panels is analyzed. Provided the behavior of the reinforcement remains elastic, it is shown that the Weibull parameters identified on unreinforced microconcrete samples tested in flexure may be used to predict multiple cracking in ferrocement panels tested in tension. A key aspect of the analysis is related to the understanding and modeling of the stress heterogeneity effect on the local failure probability of unreinforced as well as reinforced microconcrete by the use of a so-called Weibull stress.     

Ecological parameters of arbovirus circulation on the north coast of Havana. I. Collection of culicids in the Guajaibon region

We show the culicids collected in the Guajaibón zone, in Havana Province, in order to characterize the present population according to ecological parameters and the possible risk for man. We show that Aedes scapularis is numerically and ecologically dominant over the rest of the species that attack men, as well as the possible indirect influence of culicid populations in crab caves upon human beings.     

An application-centric evaluation of OpenCL on multi-core CPUs

Although designed as a cross-platform parallel programming model, OpenCL remains mainly used for GPU programming. Nevertheless, a large amount of applications are parallelized, implemented, and eventually optimized in OpenCL. Thus, in this paper, we focus on the potential that these parallel applications have to exploit the performance of multi-core CPUs. Specifically, we analyze the method to systematically reuse and adapt the OpenCL code from GPUs to CPUs. We claim that this work is a necessary step for enabling inter-platform performance portability in OpenCL.     

Application of Coffee Silverskin in cosmetic formulations: physical/antioxidant stability studies and cytotoxicity effects

Context: Currently, there is an increasing interest of cosmetic industry on natural extracts. The inclusion of antioxidants in topical formulations can contribute to minimize oxidative stress in the skin, which has been associated with aging. Also, questions of sustainability are leading to the study of new cosmetic ingredients obtained from food by-products. Coffee Silverskin (CS) is a food by-product with established antioxidant activity that has not yet been incorporated into a topical formulation.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the physical and microbiological stabilities and antioxidant activity of a hand cream formulation containing 2.5% (w/w) of CS extract upon production and after 6 months of shelf-life and in vitro safety/cytotoxicity on skin cell lines after production.

Materials and methods: The in vitro cytotoxicity was evaluated with MTS and LDH assays, at different concentrations, in HaCaT and HFF-1 cells. Formulations were stored at 25?°C/65% RH and 40?°C/75% RH. Physical, microbiological, and antioxidant stabilities were evaluated by centrifugation, viscosity, total colony count, DPPH and total phenolic content (TPC).

Results: The hand cream containing 2.5% (w/w) of CS extract showed stable physical characteristics independently of the storage conditions. The DPPH activity and TPC of the CS formulation were significantly higher compared with those of the base formulation. However, during storage, the antioxidant activity decreases slightly. Microbiological quality was also confirmed. No cytotoxic effects were observed.

Conclusion: It is possible to suggest that this formulation is stable under extreme conditions and safe for topical use.     

Lipolysis,lipid peroxidation and texture of Serrano ham processed under different ripening temperature conditions

Lipolysis, lipid peroxidation, texture and rancid taste were investigated in Serrano hams processed under low, medium and high ripening temperature conditions (RTC) for 15 months. Medium RTC hams showed the highest contents of saturated and monounsaturated free fatty acids (FFAs) from month 5 to 15 and of polyunsaturated FFAs from month 7 to 12. The primary peroxidation index decreased during ripening in all hams, with higher levels for low RTC hams from month 5 onwards. Contrarily, the secondary peroxidation index increased during ripening in all hams, with higher levels for medium RTC hams from month 7 onwards. Texture parameters varied significantly among ham muscles. Shear force increased during ripening in all hams, with higher values for medium RTC hams, whereas cutting force was not influenced by RTC or ripening time. Rancid taste scarcely developed during ripening and was not affected by RTC.