Size Of Items Research Articles

The role of numerical and nonnumerical magnitudes in pigeons' conditional discrimination behavior.

Research on approximate numerical estimation suggests that numerical representations can be influenced by nonnumerical magnitudes. Current theories of numerical cognition differ on the nature of this interaction. The present project evaluated the effect of task requirements on the stimulus control exerted by numerical and nonnumerical magnitudes on pigeons' numerical discrimination behavior. In a series of experiments, we explored the effects of cumulative area and item size on pigeons' numerical discrimination. The effect of cumulative area was assessed by presenting visual displays in which cumulative area and item number were either positively correlated, uncorrelated, or negatively correlated. The effect of item size was evaluated by presenting displays in which the size of individual items was varied across trials. Results confirmed that pigeons' numerical discrimination behavior accorded with Weber's law, a prime indicator of nonsymbolic numerical representation. The results further indicated that pigeons did not use numerical information when nonnumerical magnitudes also provided reliable information to solve the discrimination task. However, task manipulations that rendered the information provided by nonnumerical magnitudes unreliable successfully shifted stimulus control toward numerical magnitudes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Optimal Online Bin Packing Algorithms for Some Cases with Two Item Sizes

Optimal Online Bin Packing Algorithms for Some Cases with Two Item Sizes

Solving the Multi-Choice Two Dimensional Shelf Strip Packing Problem with Time Windows

In the tool coating field, scheduling of production lines requires solving an optimisation problem which we call the multi-choice two-dimensional shelf strip packing problem with time windows. A set of rectangular items needs to be packed in two stages: items are placed on shelves, which in turn are placed on one of several available strips. Crucially, the item's width depends on the chosen strip and each item is associated with a time window such that items can only be placed on the same shelf if their time windows overlap. In collaboration with an industrial partner, this real-world optimisation problem is tackled in this paper by both exact and heuristic methods. The exact method is an arc-flow-based integer linear programming formulation, solved with the commercial solver CPLEX. Experimental evaluation shows that this approach can solve instances to proven optimality with up to 20 different item sizes. Larger, more realistic instances are solved heuristically by an adaptive large neighbourhood search, using first fit and best fit decreasing approaches as repair heuristics. In this way, we obtain high-quality solutions with a remaining optimality gap below 3.3% for instances with up to 2000 different item sizes. The work reported is due to be incorporated into an end-to-end decision support system with the industrial partner.

Towards continuous mass and size distributions for beach plastic litter: Spatiotemporal analyses of abundance and composition

Beaches are known as hotspots for the accumulation of plastic debris and are widely used for monitoring marine litter on a global scale. However, there is a significant knowledge gap regarding temporal trends in marine plastic pollution. Moreover, existing studies on beach plastics and popular monitoring protocols only provide count data. Consequently, it is not possible to monitor marine litter based on weights, which hampers the further application of beach plastic data. To address these gaps, we conducted an analysis of spatial and temporal trends in plastic abundance and composition using OSPAR beach litter monitoring data from 2001 to 2020. We established size and weight ranges for 75 (macro-)plastic categories to estimate the total plastic weight, enabling us to investigate plastic compositions. While the amount of plastic litter exhibits significant spatial variation, most individual beaches displayed notable temporal trends. The spatial variation in composition is primarily attributed to differences in total plastic abundance. We describe the compositions of beach plastics using generic probability density functions (PDFs) for item size and weight. Our trend analysis, method for estimating plastic weight from count data, and PDFs for beached plastic debris represent novel contributions to the field of plastic pollution science.

A Flexible Multifunctional Sensor Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Measuring Variable Stiffness of Soft Grippers and Recognizing Item Size

AbstractThe monitoring of the grasping behavior of variable stiffness grippers has emerged as a challenge due to the increasing use of soft grippers in logistics sorting applications. In this research, a flexible multifunctional sensor is developed by combining a liquid metal microchannel structure with a granular single electrode which detects the bending angle and stiffness of the flexible gripper in real‐time. The novel works by integrating triboelectric nanogenerator with particle interference variable stiffness and detects the stiffness of the soft finger. It is found that increasing the loading force on the gripper by a factor of 2.39 does not affect the kinematic characteristics. The size of the grasped object is determined with 96% accuracy by detecting the resistance offered to the stretched liquid metal during the bending of the soft finger. A soft grasping system is built with multifunctional flexible sensors and the real‐time signal feedback during the grasp‐move‐release process of objects of different diameters and weights is demonstrated. Besides providing a theoretical and experimental foundation of variable stiffness and nondestructive grasping of the soft gripper, the anthropomorphism of the soft grasping gripper is implemented by employing a novel sensor.

Development of a food exchange atlas for Sri Lankan adults

Food exchange refers to the food items on each list which may be substituted with any other food item on the same list. The aim of the present study was to develop a photographic food exchange list for Sri Lankan adults. The selected foods were categorized into six food groups; cereals and equivalents, fruits, non-starchy vegetables, meat and equivalents, fat/oil and equivalents, milk and equivalents. One serving size of each food group was estimated based on their predominant macronutrients; 15 g of carbohydrate for cereals and fruits, 5 g of carbohydrate and 2 g of protein for vegetables, 7 g of proteins, and 2–8 g of fat for meat and equivalents, 12 g of carbohydrate, 8 g of protein and 0–8 g of fat for milk and equivalents, 5 g of fat for fat/oil and equivalents. The foods were filmed as per standard food photography guidelines. The real-size images were displayed. A total of 312 food items; 141 for cereals and equivalents, 66 for fruits, 28 for non-starchy vegetables, 45 for meat and equivalents, 21 for fat/oil and equivalents, and 11 for milk and equivalents were identified. One serving size of each food item varies within the same food group.

Sustainable Supply Chain Model for Defective Growing Items (Fishery) with Trade Credit Policy and Fuzzy Learning Effect

Fundamentally, newborn items that are used commercially, such as chicken, fish, and small camel, grow day by day in size and also increase their weight. The seller offers a credit policy to the buyer to increase sales for a particular growing item (fish), and in this paper, it is assumed that the buyer accepts the policy of the trade credit. In this paper, the buyer acquires the newborn items (fish) from the seller and then sells them when the newborn items have increased their size and weight. From this point of view, the present paper reveals a fuzzy-based supply chain model that includes carbon emissions and a permissible delay in payment for defective growing items (fish) under the effect of learning where the demand rate is imprecise in nature and is treated as a triangular fuzzy number. Finally, the buyer’s total profit is optimized with respect to the number of newborn items. A numerical example has been presented for the justification of the model. The findings clearly suggest that the presence of trade credit, learning, and a fuzzy environment have an affirmative effect on the ordering policy. The buyer should order more to avoid higher interest charges after the grace period, which eventually increases their profit, while at the same time, it is also beneficial for the buyer to order less to gain the benefit of the trade credit period. The fuzziness theory controls the uncertainty situation of inventory parameters with the help of a de-fuzzified method. The lower and upper deviation of demand affects the total fuzzy profit. The effect of learning gives a positive response concerning the size of the order and the buyer’s total fuzzy profit. This means that the decision-maker should be aware of the size of the newborn items, rate of learning, and trade credit period during the supply chain because these directly affect the buyer’s total fuzzy profit. The impact of the inventory parameter of this model is presented with the help of sensitivity analysis.

Loop-Coupled Small Antenna With Enhanced Bandwidth for On-Metal UHF RFID Tag Design

A small antenna with a dimension of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$36\times 39\times1.5$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.109\lambda \times 0.118\lambda \times 0.0045\lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) is proposed for wideband metal-mountable applications. An excitation loop is designed within the antenna structure for achieving good energy coupling from the loop to the outer patch. With the introduction of a narrow stub, connecting the top and bottom conductors, the 3 dB impedance bandwidth of the proposed tag can be enhanced from 16 to 50 MHz, without modifying other design parameters. The bandwidth and the impedance matching between the antenna and the microchip can be tuned by varying the stub width. The gap separation between the top patches and the L-slot on the patch can also be adjusted for bandwidth optimization. The tag is readable from at least 6 m within 896–917 MHz, regardless of the metal plate dimension (12–24 cm). The tag is also readable from at a minimum of 4 m within a wide frequency range of 887–927 MHz, covering the entire US UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) band when attached to different sizes of metallic items.

Multiple-Rack Strategies Using Optimization of Location Assignment Based on MRCGA in Miniload Automated Storage and Retrieval System

This paper aimed to introduce multiple-rack strategies in miniload automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RSs), which included first fit (FF) and best fit (BF) assignment methods based on a matrix real-coded genetic algorithm (MRCGA) in the storage and retrieval process. We validated the probability occurrence of item sizes as a contributory factor in multiple-rack strategies, and compared their capacities, utilization of units and space by equal probabilities or the 80/20 law. According to the analytical methods, BF showed a reduction of more than 11.2% than FF on travel distance, and Type B-FF, Type B-BF and Type C-BF were better able to meet high-density requirements. These strategies provide diversified storage and retrieval solutions for the manufacturing and express delivery industry.

Plastic pollution in the deep-sea Giant red shrimp, Aristaeomorpha foliacea, in the Eastern Ionian Sea; an alarm point on stock and human health safety

Plastic litter, including microplastics, is an ever-growing threat adversely affecting a variety of marine organisms; however, their known effects on marine organisms are still lacking. Aristaeomorpha foliacea is a valuable commercial deep-sea species in the Mediterranean Sea. Hence, due to its importance to human consumption, the investigation of plastic impact on these animals is vitally necessary. In this study the occurrence of ingested plastics has been studied in the giant red shrimp for the first time in the eastern Ionian Sea, as well as any possible differences regarding the plastic ingestion per sex, size, year and its relation to shrimp's health condition. A total of 621 individuals were collected from the Essential Habitat of this species in the eastern Ionian Sea. Plastics were contained in the stomachs of 14.65 % of the examined individuals, with an average of 2.97 ± 0.3 items per stomach. The occurrence of plastics was higher in males than in females. The ingested plastics detected were exclusively fibers of different sizes, colors, and shapes (single form or tangled balls). Plastic items size ranged from 0.75 to 110.59 mm. Significant differences in the occurrence of plastic in the stomachs of A. foliacea were found among years, stations and sex, whereas no considerable effect on shrimp's health condition factors was found. The chemical analysis of plastics showed that 83.82 % of fibers were polyester (PET). Among the shrimps with ingested plastics, the immature individuals were predominant (85.18 %). The results of this study aspire to increase the knowledge on plastics ingestion in the Mediterranean, and highlight the various factors that may be involved in this process. This study demonstrates the obvious threats of plastics in commonly edible shrimps and emphasizes the role of this decapod at the trophic chain by transferring plastics to humans.

Diet and Feeding Ecology of the Invasive &lt;i&gt;Gambusia holbrooki&lt;/i&gt; (Teleostei: Poeciliidae) in Lotic and Lentic Habitats (Northwestern Part of Turkey)

Received October 13, 2021; revised April 22, 2022; accepted August 15, 2022Abstract—In order to understand the success of the invasion of a non-native fish, it is important to determine its fundamental competition characteristics such as its tolerance to habitat differences and feeding plasticity. This study aimed to determine the invasive characteristics of Gambusia holbrooki Girard, 1859 by investigating the diet and feeding ecology of this non-native fish inhabited in lotic and lentic habitats. A total of 164 G. halbrooki specimens (SL 1.4–4.3 cm) were investigated from the lotic habitats, while 101 (SL 1.6–3.3 cm) ones were from the lentic habitats. The food spectrum of the fish in lotic habitats was composed of 11 food items predominantly of the Diptera (80.9, MI%) and Plant (11.8, MI%). In lentic habitats, the species consumed 10 different food types, and Diptera (96.0, MI%) was followed by the low values of zooplankton groups (Cladocera; 2.2, MI% and Copepoda; 0.8, MI%). The fish that inhabited both lotic and lentic habitats have shown a generalist feeding strategy; while the importance of each food item in the diet indicated the generalization, Diptera presented with high values was the evidence of a relatively narrow niche of the fish in both habitats. An ontogenetic shift was observed in the diet of G. holbrooki and while the diet of juveniles was more limited, the diversity and sizes of food items consumed have increased in parallel with the increase in the size of the fish. With these results, it was thought that G. holbrooki could show a food competition with native fish species in the region by feeding mainly on Diptera, which is also an important food source for most of the native fishes and their young individuals.

An empirical comparison of the performances of single structure columnar in-memory and disk-resident data storage techniques using healthcare big data

Healthcare data in images, texts and other unstructured formats have continued to grow exponentially while generating storage concerns. Even though there are other complexities, volume complexity is a major challenge for Disk-Resident technique in storage optimization. Hence, this research aimed to empirically compare the efficiency of Disk-Resident and In-Memory single structure database technique (as opposed to multiple structure In-Memory database), using descriptive and inferential big data analytical approaches. The essence was to discover a more cost-effective storage option for healthcare big data. Data from Nigerian Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) alongside sample patients’ history from Made-in-Nigeria Primary Healthcare Information System (MINPHIS) which included patients’ investigation, patients’ bio-data and patients’ diagnoses were the primary data for this research. An implementation of both Disk-Resident and single structure In-Memory resident data storage was carried out on these big data sources. After storage, each quantity of data items stored for different data items in Disk-Resident was then compared with that of single structure In-Memory resident system using size of items as comparison criteria and different analyses made.The results obtained showed that single structure In-Memory technique conserved up to 90.57% of memory spaces with respect to the traditional (common) Disk-Resident technique for text data items. This shows that with this In-Memory technique, an improved performance in terms of storage was obtained.

Revealing the capability of the European hake to cope with micro-litter environmental exposure and its inferred potential health impact in the NW Mediterranean Sea

Prevalence, abundance, concentration, size and composition of anthropogenic items (AIs) (synthetic and non-synthetic) ingested by Merluccius merluccius juvenile specimens and from near-bottom water samples from different localities off the Catalan coast (NW Mediterranean), were characterized. The potential effect of AIs on fish condition was assessed through different health indicators. Virtually all AIs found in fish and near-bottom water samples were fibres. A mean of 0.85 fibres/m3 from the surrounding water was observed. Fish ingested a mean of 1.39 (SD = 1.39) items/individual. Cellulosic fibres were predominant (77.8% of samples), except for Barcelona. No differences in ingested AIs abundance and composition off Barcelona between 2007 and 2019 were found. Small AIs from the environment matched ingested AIs composition. Hakes did not ingest large fibres despite being present in the environment, probably due to their feeding behaviour. No adverse health effects or parasites aggregations were detected to be potentially related to AIs ingestion.

Improved Approximation Algorithms for Bin Packing with Conflicts

Given a set of items, and a conflict graph defined on the item set, the problem of bin packing with conflicts asks for a partition of items into a minimum number of independent sets so that the total size of items in each independent set does not exceed the bin capacity. As a generalization of both classic bin packing and classic vertex coloring, it is hard to approximate the problem on general graphs. We present new approximation algorithms for bipartite graphs and split graphs. The absolute approximation ratios are shown to be [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] respectively, both improving the existing results.

Combinatorial algorithms for solving the constrained knapsack problems with divisible item sizes and penalties

Combinatorial algorithms for solving the constrained knapsack problems with divisible item sizes and penalties

ЛІНГВОПРАГМАТИЧНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ФУНКЦІОНУВАННЯ АФІКСАЛЬНИХ ДЕРИВАТІВ У СМИСЛОВОМУ ПОЛІ РОМАНУ Л. КАПУАНИ «МАРКІЗ РОККАВЕРДІНА»)

The article focuses on linguopragmatic potential of affixal derivatives in the semantic field of the novel “The Marquis of Roccaverdina” by L. Capuana, one of the most prominent representatives of Italian verism. The semantic field of the verism novel “The Marquis of Roccaverdina” is based on polarized reference groups (associated with positive and negative characters) that implement the opposition “feudal lords – poor population”. The reference group has a field structure and includes the subject (character) as a representative of a social stratum, his place of residence, surrounding objects, landscape. The nucleus of the reference group is a subject (character) belonging to a higher vs. lower social stratum, the pre-nuclear zone – the place of residence, surrounding objects, landscape, the near periphery – the characteristics of the place of residence, surrounding objects, landscape. The nucleus of the reference group determines the spreading of the semantic space in a certain direction depending on the evaluation of the character and sets the direction of the typification of the conditions of meaning creation. The field structure is based on the degree of determinism, which decreases in the direction from the nucleus to the periphery. When characterizing negative characters (belonging to the class of feudal lords), affixal derivatives with augmentative suffixes, pejorative suffixes, negative prefixes are used in the pre-nuclear zone, and on the near periphery – descriptors indicating the size of cultural artifacts and household items, which correlates with the greatness of the marquis and his family. Descriptors often function as epithets. To describe the landscape and natural phenomena surrounding negative characters, the author often uses the stylistic device of personification, and natural phenomena are correlated with their character traits and mental state. In the microcontext, lexical units of negative evaluation are used. In the speech of negative characters, deictics with the function of referent substitution are used, which reinforce the meaning of affixal derivatives with a negative prefix or pejorative suffixes. When characterizing positive characters (belonging to a lower class) affixal derivatives with diminutive suffixes are used in the pre-nuclear zone, descriptors indicating the small size of artifacts and household items are used in the near periphery; in themicro context, lexical units are used to denote impersonality. To describe the landscape and natural phenomena surrounding positive characters, the author often uses the stylistic device of personification, while natural phenomena are perceived as threatening and correlated with their state of depression and helplessness. The polarization of reference groups implementing the opposition "feudal lords – poor stratum of the population" is manifested in the semantic relation of contradiction, which include affixal derivatives and their descriptors. The semantic relations of contradiction are revealed in the stylistic device of antithesis used not only at the level of single phrase, but also at the transphrastic and textonomic level. The identification of the linguopragmatic potential of affixal derivatives is possible due to imposition of semantic connections in the semantic space of the novel. The author's choice of affixal derivatives is pragmatically conditioned.

Agile Software Development Effort Estimation based on Product Backlog Items

In all methods of Agile Software Development methods, an estimation process which determines the size of all Product Backlog Items (PBI) is essentially important. One of those methods is Planning Poker. This method is familiar among developers in the globe and one of the famous analogy-based estimation techniques known. In Planning Poker, the goal is to have a consensus vote on how big a product backlog should be. This consensus is reached via open discussion. As discussion is involved, many aspects of human errors could cause problems such as: anchoring effect and overconfidence which often leads to underestimation. To comprehend this, we offer an AI method that can be applied alongside the discussion to minimize this human error factors. We will be using NLP and ANN to classify a Product Backlog Item based on previous projects. The aim is individual estimate given by the AI that is free from influence from human to give better estimation. The result is expected at above 90% accuracy to give the best performance.

Foreign body ingestion: Is intervention always a necessity?

Intentional and accidental foreign body ingestion are commonly encountered in clinical practice. In adults, intentional foreign body ingestion is frequently observed among individuals with psychiatric disorders and prisoners. Controversies exist regarding the management of sharp or pointed objects. We contribute to this existing controversy by presenting a case of a 43-year-old male who accidently ingested a metallic screw and was managed successfully through endoscopic retrieval. We discuss a case of a 43-year-old male presented to our emergency department after accidently swallowing a metallic screw, 1h and a half prior to his presentation. He was initially asymptomatic then started to complain of vague abdominal symptoms. X-rays of the chest and abdomen demonstrated the presence of a metallic screw at the mid-abdomen. Computed tomography scan of the abdomen then confirmed its presence within the gastric lumen, with no evidence of gastric or bowel perforation. The patient was managed via esophagogastroduodenoscopy in which the ingested screw was extracted. He was discharged after 24 hours in a good condition. A limited number of epidemiological studies have shed light on the prevalence and incidence of foreign body ingestion among adult individuals. Probability of spontaneous passage depends on several factors including the size, shape and composition of the impacted item, as well as the age of patient and duration of ingestion prior to presentation. Considering the variation of ingested objects and the availability of several therapeutic approaches, a patient-tailored management plan should always be established.

The Online Knapsack Problem with Departures

The online knapsack problem is a classic online resource allocation problem in networking and operations research. Its basic version studies how to pack online arriving items of different sizes and values into a capacity-limited knapsack. In this paper, we study a general version that includes item departures, while also considering multiple knapsacks and multi-dimensional item sizes. We design a threshold-based online algorithm and prove that the algorithm can achieve order-optimal competitive ratios. Beyond worst-case performance guarantees, we also aim to achieve near-optimal average performance under typical instances. Towards this goal, we propose a data-driven online algorithm that learns within a policy-class that guarantees a worst-case performance bound. In trace-driven experiments, we show that our data-driven algorithm outperforms other benchmark algorithms in an application of online knapsack to job scheduling for cloud computing.

Several methods of analysis for cardinality constrained bin packing

We consider a known variant of bin packing called cardinality constrained bin packing, also called bin packing with cardinality constraints (BPCC). In this problem, there is a parameter k≥2, and items of rational sizes in [0,1] are to be packed into bins, such that no bin has more than k items or total size larger than 1. The goal is to minimize the number of bins.A recently introduced concept, called the price of clustering, deals with inputs that are presented in a way that they are split into clusters. Thus, an item has two attributes which are its size and its cluster. The goal is to measure the relation between an optimal solution that cannot combine items of different clusters into bins, and an optimal solution that can combine items of different clusters arbitrarily. Usually the number of clusters may be large, while clusters are relatively small, though not trivially small. Such problems are related to greedy bin packing algorithms, and to batched bin packing, which is similar to the price of clustering, but there is a constant number of large clusters. We analyze the price of clustering for BPCC, including the parametric case with bounded item sizes. We discuss several greedy algorithms for this problem that were not studied in the past, and comment on batched bin packing.