Money in trees: How memes,trees, and isolation can optimize financial portfolios

In this paper, we propose the hybrid application of two nature inspired approaches to the problem of Portfolio Optimization. This problem consists of the selection and weighting of financial assets. Its goal is to form an investment strategy which maximizes a return measure and minimizes a risk measure. We perform a series of simulation experiments with historical data in the NASDAQ and S&P500 markets between 2006 and 2008. The results show that adding a terrain strategy to a previously successful Memetic Algorithm promoted niching and speciation of the population, which led to a significant improvement in the performance when compared to previous evolutionary methods. We also show that the use of Memetic Algorithms gives the evolved solutions a degree of adaptability to changes in a dynamic market.     

Reduction in lipid oxidation by incorporation of encapsulated sodium tripolyphosphate in ground turkey

Ground turkey, with 1% NaCl, was incorporated with no sodium tripolyphosphate (control, nSTP), unencapsulated STP (uSTP; 0.3% or 0.5%), encapsulated STP (eSTP; 0.3% or 0.5% active, phosphate basis), or a blend (0.3% uSTP plus 0.2% eSTP). Encapsulate (hydrogenated vegetable oil) was designed to melt at 74 °C. Treatments were stored (4, 24 h at 3 °C) before being cooked to two different endpoints (EPT; 74, 79 °C) followed by post-cooked storage (0, 5, 10 days). An improvement of 77% (0.3% eSTP) and 80% (0.5% eSTP) in the reduction of TBARS was found in comparison to corresponding uSTP. The blend produced a 62% improvement compared to uSTP (0.5%) while maintaining cook yield. CIE a* values were highest at both EPT and post-cooked storage times beyond 0 day for eSTP. Meat manufacturing procedures that entail a delayed thermal processing step will benefit by an improvement in lipid oxidation control through the use of encapsulated phosphates.     

Robust detection and tracking of annotations for outdoor augmented reality browsing

A common goal of outdoor augmented reality (AR) is the presentation of annotations that are registered to anchor points in the real world. We present an enhanced approach for registering and tracking such anchor points, which is suitable for current generation mobile phones and can also successfully deal with the wide variety of viewing conditions encountered in real life outdoor use. The approach is based on on-the-fly generation of panoramic images by sweeping the camera over the scene. The panoramas are then used for stable orientation tracking, while the user is performing only rotational movements. This basic approach is improved by several new techniques for the re-detection and tracking of anchor points. For the re-detection, specifically after temporal variations, we first compute a panoramic image with extended dynamic range, which can better represent varying illumination conditions. The panorama is then searched for known anchor points, while orientation tracking continues uninterrupted. We then use information from an internal orientation sensor to prime an active search scheme for the anchor points, which improves matching results. Finally, global consistency is enhanced by statistical estimation of a global rotation that minimizes the overall position error of anchor points when transforming them from the source panorama in which they were created, to the current view represented by a new panorama. Once the anchor points are redetected, we track the user's movement using a novel 3-degree-of-freedom orientation tracking approach that combines vision tracking with the absolute orientation from inertial and magnetic sensors. We tested our system using an AR campus guide as an example application and provide detailed results for our approach using an off-the-shelf smartphone. Results show that the re-detection rate is improved by a factor of 2 compared to previous work and reaches almost 90% for a wide variety of test cases while still keeping the ability to run at interactive frame rates.     

Out-of-core selection and editing of huge point clouds

In this paper we present an out-of-core editing system for point clouds, which allows selecting and modifying arbitrary parts of a huge point cloud interactively. We can use the selections to segment the point cloud, to delete points, or to render a preview of the model without the points in the selections. Furthermore, we allow for inserting points into an already existing point cloud. All operations are conducted on a rendering optimized data structure that uses the raw point cloud from a laser scanner, and no additionally created points are needed for an efficient level-of-detail (LOD) representation using this data structure. We also propose an algorithm to alleviate the artifacts when rendering a point cloud with large discrepancies in density in different areas by estimating point sizes heuristically. These estimated point sizes can be used to mimic a closed surface on the raw point cloud, also when the point cloud is composed of several raw laser scans.     

Partialsynthesen von Cardenoliden und Cardenolid-Analogen. XII. Synthese 21-substituierter Cardenolide durch Oxidation von 17β - (Fur-3-yl)-Steroiden und nukleophile Substitution

Partial Syntheses of Cardenolides and Cardenolide-Analogues. XII. Synthesis of 21-Substituted Cardenolides by Oxidation of 17β - (3-Furyl)-Steroids and Nucleophilic Substitution Oxidation of 17β-(3-furyl)-5β, 14β-androstane-3β, 14β-diol 3-acetate ( 2b ) with chromic acid yielded the 14,21-epoxy-cardenolide 4 . After elimination of the 14β-hydroxy group of 2b the unsaturated furyl derivative 5 , when treated with chromic acid, gave a mixture of the diastereomeric unsaturated 21ξ-hydroxy-cardenolides 8a which were converted with N-bromoacetamide to a mixture of the 14β, 15β-epoxy-21ξ-hydroxy-cardenolides 9a . The hydroxy-cardenolides 8a and 9a were acetylated to the 21ξ-acetoxy-cardenolides 8b/8c and 9b/9c , respectively, and they reacted with primary and secondary amines to give the corresponding N-substituted 21ξ-amino-cardenolides 11a--11c and 12b , respectively. When reacted with p-toluenesulfonyl chloride both 8a and 9a yielded the 21ξ-chloro-cardenolides 11d/11e and 12c/12d , respectively, the chlorine of which could easily be substituted by S_N1- and S_N2-reactions.     

Orthoamide. LIV [1] Beiträge zur Chemie azavinyloger Orthoamid‐Derivate der Ameisensäure

Orthoamides. LIV. Contributions to the Chemistry of Azavinylogous Orthoformic Acid Amide Derivatives The azavinylogous aminalester 3 reacts with primary amines to give amidines 5 and 6 . In the reaction of 3 with aniline the azavinylogous amidine 7 is produced additionally to the amidine 5c . Ethylendiamine is formylated at both aminogroups, the bis‐amidine 8 thus formed is transformed to the salts 9a , b . Benzoxazole and benzimidazole can be prepared from 3 and o‐aminophenol and o‐phenylenediamine, resp. carboxylic acid amides, urea, thiourea, aromatic acid hydrazides 17 and the sulfonylhydrazide 19 are formylated by 3 at nitrogen to give N‐acylated formamidines 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 . From 3 and aliphatic acid hydrazides 17 and alkylhydrazines, resp., can be obtained 1,2,4‐triazole 21 and 1‐alkyl‐1,2,4‐triazoles 22a , b , resp. N,N‐dimethylcyanacetamide ( 32 ) reacts with 3 and the orthoamide 4a , resp., to give a mixture of the formylated compound 34 and the amidine 33 . The reaction conditions are of low influence on the ratio in which 33 and 34 are formed. The orthoamide 4b and 32 react to afford a mixture of the amidine 35 and the enamine 36 . Hydrogensulfide acts on 3 giving N,N‐dimethylthioformamide ( 37 ). From 3 and 1‐alkynes 41 can be prepared the amidines 42 . Hydrolysis of 42b affords phenylpropiolaldehyde ( 43 ). The alkylation of the aminalester 3 gives rise to the formation of vinylogous amidiniumsalts 1c and 1d , resp., additionally is formed the amide acetal 2a . The salt 1d can also be prepared from 3 and borontrifluoride‐ether. Iodide reacts with N,N‐dimethylformamide acetals 12a , b in an unclear, complicated manner giving orthoesters 53 , N,N‐dimethylformamide, alkyliodides, alcohols, ammoniumiodides 46 and carbondioxide. The action of halogens on 3 affords the salts 1a , b , c , e , f depending on the chosen stoichiometric ratio. Aromatic aldehydes are suited for trapping azavinylogous carbenes formed on thermolysis of 3 — 1,3‐oxazoles 69 are the reaction products. From 3 and propionaldehyde the amidine 65 can be obtained with low yield. Carbondisulfide transforms 3 to the azavinylogous salt 66 . The preparation of the azavinylogous orthoamide 4a is described. The thermolysis of 3 and 4a , resp., gives rise to the formation of the triaminopyrimidine 67 . Treatment of 1a with lithiumdiisopropylamide affords the triaminopyrazine 68 , which can also be obtained by thermolysis of 3 in the presence of sodium hydride. Azavinylogous carbenes are thought to be the intermediates.     

Partialsynthesen von Cardenoliden und Cardenolid-Analogen. VI. (20R)- und (20S)-Cardanolide

Partial Syntheses of Cardenolides and Cardenolide Analogues. VI. (20R)- and (20S)-Cardanolides (20R)-Dihydrodigitoxigenin ( 2 ) and (20S)-dihydrodigitoxigenin ( 4 ) as well as their 3-acetates 3 and 5 , respectively, were synthesized by catalytic hydrogenation of the appropriate cardenolides and separation by column chromatography on silica of the mixtures of stereoisomers. Hydroxymethylation of 3 and 5 followed by selective elimination yielded (20S)- and (20R)-14-hydroxy-22-methylene-5β,14β-cardanolide 3-acetate ( 10 and 16 ), respectively. The biological activities of the synthesized 20-stereoisomeric cardanolides are investigated and discussed. Cardanolides 10 and 16 have a strong inhibitory activity on the proliferation of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells in suspension culture.