Pyramidal Tree Research Articles

The pyramid method in the conditions of the digitalization of education

Problem statement. The digital transformation of education necessitates new approaches to the development of digital educational resources, the design of educational and scientific projects. They should provide a high degree of personification of training, structure the processes of organizing, monitoring and assessing the quality of educational products and results. In the process of digitalization of education, the goals of the educational system are expanding. In this regard, the work is devoted to the substantiation of the pyramid method for solving educational problems that meet the modern requirements of a digital society. Methodology. The analysis of the pyramid method, developed by Barbara Minto, used in the design of roadmaps for business development and contributing to the development of structural thinking, as one of the most sought-after qualities of a modern specialist, made it possible to highlight a number of advantages and benefits in the case of transformation of this method to solve educational problems. In particular, the method is convenient for the development of educational content in the format of a pyramidal tree of knowledge, for the formation of clear plans and assignments for students on the topics of coursework and diploma works, for monitoring and assessing the quality of educational results, complex systems and objects. Results. Examples of using the pyramid method for creating inverted educational resources, increasing interactivity during lectures and practical classes, organizing control and self-control of students knowledge, monitoring and assessing the quality of educational resources and objects are shown. Conclusion. The pyramid method facilitates the process of creating digital educational resources that correspond to the maximum extent to the characteristics of the modern generation and satisfy the principles of personification of learning. Its mastering and application in educational activities by the students themselves contributes to the development of their structural thinking.

Design of Open Pit Mines using 3D Model in Two-element Deposits under Price Uncertainty

When it comes to evaluating mining projects, uncertainty plays a significant role, particularly in the analysis of mining economic characteristics, which makes the assessment of a mining project erroneous and untrustworthy. The volatility of mineral prices is a major cause of economic ambiguity and concern. Economic uncertainty has extensively been examined in mining production project planning, but the majority of the study has focused on single-element deposits, with little emphasis devoted to the significance of pricing uncertainty in two-element deposits. Using a three-dimensional tree model, this study investigates how design could be affected by the pricing uncertainty of two different elements. In this model, not only annual volatility but also monthly volatility were considered due to momentary changes in the price of several elements. To authenticate the proposed model, a numerical example was resolved using discounted cash flow, binomial tree, pyramid tree, and three-dimensional modeling techniques. The results of each approach were compared to those of real-world data. Following the findings of the current investigation, it can be concluded that the values derived from the suggested model (a net present value of $ 324.2 thousand) are more precise than the values acquired from other approaches, and that they are just 8% out of step with reality. Other methods, on the other hand, come up with results that are at least 17% and at most 39% different from those that come from real data.

Targeted CRISPR/Cas9-Based Knock-Out of the Rice Orthologs TILLER ANGLE CONTROL 1 (TAC1) in Poplar Induces Erect Leaf Habit and Shoot Growth

Pyramidal-, erect- or upright-growing plant forms are characterized by narrow branch angles of shoots and leaves. The putative advantage of upright-leaf and shoot habit could be a more efficient penetration of light into lower canopy layers. Pyramidal genotypes have already been reported for various tree genotypes including peach. The paralogous rice ortholog TILLER ANGLE CONTROL 1 (TAC1) has been proposed to be the responsible gene for upright growth. However, it has not really been demonstrated for any of the pyramidal tree genotypes that a knock-out mutation of the TAC1 gene is causing pyramidal plant growth. By in silico analyses, we have identified a putative rice TAC1 ortholog (Potri.014G102600, “TAC-14”) and its paralog (Potri.002G175300, “TAC-2”) in the genome of P. trichocarpa. Two putative PcTAC1 orthologs in the P. × canescens clone INRA 717-1B4 were successfully knocked-out by applying a transgenic CRISPR/Cas9-approach. The mutants were molecularly analyzed and phenotyped over a period of three years in a glasshouse. Our results indicate that the homozygous knock-out of “TAC-14” is sufficient to induce pyramidal plant growth in P. × canescens. If up to twice as many pyramidal individuals were planted on short rotation coppices (SRCs), this could lead to higher wood yield, without any breeding, simply by increasing the number of trees on a default field size.

Efficient Communication Protocols for Non DHT-based Pyramid Tree P2P Architecture

In this paper, we have considered a recently reported 2-layer non-DHT-based structured P2P network. Residue Class based on modular arithmetic has been used to realize the overlay topology. At the heart of the architecture (layer-1), there exists a tree like structure, known as pyramid tree. It is not a conventional tree. A node i in this tree represents the cluster-head of a cluster of peers which are interested in a particular resource of type Ri (i.e. peers with a common interest). The cluster-head is the first among these peers to join the system. Root of the tree is assumed to be at level 1. Such a tree is a complete one if at each level j, there are j number of nodes. It is an incomplete one if only at its leaf level, say k, there are less than k number of nodes. Layer 2 consists of the different clusters. The network has some unique structural properties, e.g. each cluster has a diameter of only 1 overlay hop and the diameter of the network is just (2+2d); d being the number of levels of the layer-1 pyramid tree and d depends only on the number of distinct resources. Therefore, the diameter of the network is independent of the number of peers in the whole network. In the present work, we have used some such properties to design low latency intra and inter cluster data lookup protocols. Our choice of considering non-DHT and interest-based overlay networks is justified by the following facts: 1) intra-cluster data lookup protocol has constant complexity and complexity of inter-cluster data lookup is O(d) if tree traversal is used and 2) search latency is independent of the total number of peers present in the overlay network unlike any structured DHT-based network (as a matter fact unlike any existing P2P network, structured or unstructured). Experimental results as well show superiority of the proposed protocols to some noted structured networks from the viewpoints of search latency and complexity involved in it. In addition, we have presented in detail the process of handling churns and proposed a simple yet very effective technique related to cluster partitioning, which, in turn, helps in reducing the number of messages required to be exchanged to handle churns.

(2777) Proposal to conserve the name Philippodendrum regium (Plagianthus regius) (Malvaceae) against Betula bella

(2777) Proposal to conserve the name <i>Philippodendrum regium</i> (<i>Plagianthus regius</i>) (<i>Malvaceae</i>) against <i>Betula bella</i>

Synthesis of Freestanding WS2 Trees and Fibers on Au by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)

In this work, we report the synthesis of two new forms of WS2 nanostructures – freestanding WS2 trees and fibers on Au by chemical vapor deposition. It is observed that dislocation‐driven growth causes WS2 crystals to grow and merge in both vertical and horizontal directions to form the pyramidal tree. During the formation of WS2 fibers, the presence of two‐step growth was demonstrated. It is observed that sulphurization of WO3 nanoparticle leads to formation of WS2 rod in the first stage, followed by second stage in which selective growth causes some WS2 layers grow faster compared to other ones leading to the formation of fibrous WS2 structure. Fibers synthesized by our reported method have highly exposed WS2 layers which can demonstrate interesting catalytic and edge related properties or can be functionalized for future applications.

PicPick: a generic data selection framework for mobile crowd photography

Mobile crowd photography (MCP) is a widely used technique in crowd sensing. In MCP, a picture stream is generated when delivering intermittently to the backend server by participants. Pictures contributed later in the stream may be semantically or visually relevant to previous ones, which can result in data redundancy. To meet diverse constraints (e.g., spatiotemporal contexts, single or multiple shooting angles) on the data to be collected in MCP tasks, a data selection process is needed to eliminate data redundancy and reduce network overhead. This issue has little been investigated in existing studies. To address this requirement, we propose a generic data collection framework called PicPick. It first presents a multifaceted task model that allows for varied MCP task specification. A pyramid tree (PTree) method is further proposed to select an optimal set of pictures from picture streams based on multi-dimensional constraints. Experimental results on two real-world datasets indicate that PTree can effectively reduce data redundancy while maintaining the coverage requests, and the overall framework is flexible.

3D Ear Segmentation and Classification Through Indexing

Current growth trends in different biometrics applications present challenges to researchers. To address these challenges, we need new data storage and retrieval techniques to make the recognition process time efficient. This paper presents a system for time efficient 3D ear biometrics from a large biometrics database. The proposed system has two components that are primarily responsible for: 1) automatic 3D ear segmentation and 2) hierarchical categorization of the 3D ear database using the shape information and surface depth information, respectively. We use an active contour algorithm along with a tree-structured graph to segment the ear region from the 3D profile images. The segmented 3D ear database is then categorized based on the geometrical feature values, computed from the ear shape, into oval, round, rectangular, and triangular categories. For the categorization based on the depth information, the feature space is partitioned using tree-based indexing techniques. We used indexing techniques with balanced split (k-dimensional (KD) tree) and unbalanced split (pyramid tree) data structures to categorize the database separately and then compared their retrieval efficiency. Experiments are conducted to compare the average computation time per query when performing recognition through hierarchical categorization with the average computation time when recognition is based on sequential search. Experimental results without indexing conducted on the University of Notre Dame Collection J2 data set yielded a rank-one recognition rate of 98.5%. We applied the indexing technique to compute the rank-one recognition accuracy with a 10%–50% search space reduction using a 10% step size. With 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% search space reduction the rank-one recognition accuracy gracefully degrades to 96.87%, 96.14%, 95.18%, 94.21%, and 93.49%, respectively, while performing nearly 3, 3.3, 4, 4.2, and 5 times faster than the state-of-the-art technique that uses sequential search.

The accessibility of semantic knowledge for odours that can and cannot be named

When faces, objects, or voices are encountered, naming lapses can occur, but this does not preclude knowing other specific semantic information about the nameless thing. In the experiments reported here, we examined whether this is also the case for odours, using a procedure based upon the Pyramid and Palm Trees test. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with a target odour, then two pictures, and had to pick the picture semantically associated with the target. In Experiment 2, participants were presented with a target odour, then two test odours, and again had to pick the semantically associated test stimulus. In each experiment, other tests followed, including a parallel verbal-based test, an odour-naming test, and various ratings. Neither experiment found any evidence of specific semantic knowledge about a target odour, unless the target odour name (Experiment 1) or all of the odour names (Experiment 2) were known. Additional tests suggested that these effects were independent of odour familiarity and similarity. We suggest that the absence of specific semantic information in the absence of a name may reflect poor connectivity between olfactory perceptual and semantic memory systems.

A novel method for extracting and recognizing logos

Nowadays, the high volume of archival documents has made it exigent to store documents in electronic databases. A text logo represents the ownership of the text, and different texts can be categorized by it; for this reason, different methods have been presented for extracting and recognizing logos. The methods presented earlier, suffer problems such as, error of logo detection and recognition and slow speed. The proposed method of this study is composed of three sections: In the first section, the exact position of the logo can be identified by the pyramidal tree structure and horizontal and vertical analysis, and in the second section, the logo can be extracted through the algorithm of the boundary extension of feature rectangles. In the third section, after normalizing the size of the logo and eliminating the skew angle, for feature extraction, we first blocked the region encompassing the logo, and then we extract a particular feature by the parameter of the center of gravity of connected component each block. Finally, we use the KNN classification for the recognition of the logo. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v2i5.1292

Drawing from memory in focal epilepsy: A cognitive and neural perspective

This study provides evidence of non-verbal cognitive functioning in temporal (TLE) and frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) patients by exploring the mechanisms and neural correlates of drawing abilities. Sixty-six patients with left (n=32) or right TLE (n=34), 30 patients with left (n=18) or right FLE (n=12), and 30 healthy subjects were compared. The Drawing from Memory (DfM) test required participants to design 16 living or non-living items; the total score was the sum of all scores blindly provided by three judges who had to identify the drawings. The verbal and visual Pyramid and Palm Trees Test (PPTT), Raven Colored Progressive Matrices (Raven CPM), Cube Analysis, Token Test, Word Fluency, Card Classification, and Rey Complex Figure Test Copy trial (Rey CFC) assessed different verbal and non-verbal functions. Non-parametric statistics indicated that, with respect to controls, both TLE groups and the left FLE patients had significantly lower DfM scores. In the TLE group, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the DfM score was predicted by the Raven CPM and PPTT scores, while, in the FLE group, it was predicted by the Rey CFC. Thus, drawing abilities may be impaired by TLE or FLE owing to different mechanisms that involve semantic or executive abilities. Implying cooperation between temporal and frontal areas that support these functions, DfM may be a sensitive index of integrity of cortical areas or neural pathways damaged by focal epilepsy.

High-dimensional indexing structure based on γ splitting strategy

An effective index structure was proposed for high-dimensional data spaces: compact pyramid tree. The basic idea is to divide the data space first into 2d pyramids sharing the center point of the space as a top. Its basic philosophy is: the data invalid in low-dimensional spaces are usually invalid in high-dimensional spaces. In the process of spatial division, the γ division strategy was used to carry out the data compression. It reduced the index structure, and overcame the pyramid technology's shortcomings. The construction method and inquiry algorithm of pyramid tree were given. The experiments prove that compact pyramid technology is an effective spatial division strategy, and has good performance in high-dimensional skew space.

Custom-designed high-density conformal planar multielectrode arrays for brain slice electrophysiology

Multielectrode arrays have enabled electrophysiological experiments exploring spatio-temporal dynamics previously unattainable with single electrode recordings. The finite number of electrodes in planar MEAs (pMEAs), however, imposes a trade-off between the spatial resolution and the recording area. This limitation was circumvented in this paper through the custom design of experiment-specific tissue-conformal high-density pMEAs (cMEAs). Four configurations were presented as examples of cMEAs designed for specific stimulation and recording experiments in acute hippocampal slices. These cMEAs conformed in designs to the slice cytoarchitecture whereas their high-density provided high spatial resolution for selective stimulation of afferent pathways and current source density (CSD) analysis. The cMEAs have 50 or 60 μm center-to-center inter-electrode distances and were manufactured on glass substrates by photolithographically defining ITO leads, insulating them with silicon nitride and SU-8 2000 epoxy-based photoresist and coating the etched electrode tips with gold or platinum. The ability of these cMEAs to stimulate and record electrophysiological activity was demonstrated by recording monosynaptic, disynaptic, and trisynaptic field potentials. The conformal designs also facilitated the selection of the optimal electrode locations for stimulation of specific afferent pathways (Schaffer collaterals; medial versus lateral perforant path) and recording the corresponding responses. In addition, the high-density of the arrays enabled CSD analysis of laminar profiles obtained through sequential stimulation along the CA1 pyramidal tree.

PHYTOPROT: a database of clusters of plant proteins.

All the protein sequences from plants (including Arabidopsis thaliana) available from SwissProt/TrEMBL have been the subject of an all-by-all systematic comparison and grouped into clusters of related proteins. Within each cluster, the sequences have been submitted to pyramidal classification; in the case where two or several subfamilies have been grouped together, the pyramidal tree helps in finding which sequences make the links between subfamilies. In addition, the 'domains' that are common to two or more sequences within a cluster were determined and displayed à la ProDom. The resulting graphical representations proved to be quite efficient in pinpointing those protein sequences suffering from a probable error in the annotation of their genes. The clusters can be searched through various criteria and their pyramidal classifications and their domain representations can be displayed by querying http://genoplante-info. infobiogen.fr/phytoprot. The user can also launch a BLAST search of a query sequence against all the clusters.

Pomological and physiological characteristics of Slender Pyramid central leader apple (Malus domestica) planting systems grown on intermediate vigour, semi‐dwarfing, and dwarfing rootstocks

Three apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) planting systems utilising medium vigour (MM. 106, 5.0 × 3.0 m), semi‐dwarf (M.26, 4.0 × 2.0 m), or dwarf (Mark, 4.0 × 2.0 m) rootstocks were compared using pomological and physiological attributes affecting productivity and fruit quality of the cultivar ‘Fuji’. All planting systems were grown using Slender Pyramid tree management. Individual tree size increased with rootstock vigour, but canopy development per unit land area was similar for planting systems on MM. 106 and M.26. Light interception was up to 50% less in the Mark dwarf tree system which corresponded to small tree size and limited canopy growth once cropping began. Leaf area index of the dwarf tree system on Mark was 1.9, half that of systems on MM. 106 and M.26, whereas leaf area density of 3.7, was more than 50% higher than for the other systems. Irradiance reaching the lower inner canopy region of trees was most affected by canopy aspect with highest irradiance in the eastern sector and lowest in the southern sector for all planting systems. Floral precocity of trees on all rootstocks was not limiting to production but was proportionally higher on trees grown on Mark root‐stock. Yield in the first cropping year (third season) was greatest for planting systems with highest tree density although the Mark dwarf tree system had the highest initial production. Continued canopy growth in the systems on MM.106 and M.26 resulted in higher yields than from the Mark planting system from the fourth year onwards. Peak yields within 6 or 7 years reached 110 t/ha. Highest cumulative yields occurred with the M.26 semi‐dwarf planting system. The proportion of fruit achieving export quality standard was lowest from the intermediate vigour MM. 106 planting system. Inadequate fruit red colour was the most common quality defect. Performance of these alternative planting systems is discussed in relation to the physiological requirements for optimising the efficiency of apple planting systems.

Texture segmentation using modulated wavelet transform

The wavelet (packet) transform has been widely used for texture analysis; however, the extracted features of similar textures with symmetric orientations are indistinguishable. Motivated by the AM-FM representation, the so called modulated wavelet (packet) transform that can be implemented efficiently by the conventional pyramid (tree) structured algorithms is developed. The performance of this new transform is demonstrated on the segmentation of Brodatz textures and an aerial image of San Francisco.

Mapping Pipelined Divided–Difference Computations into Hypercubes

In numerical computations, the method of divided differences is a very important technique for polynomial approximations. Consider a pipelined divided–difference computation for approximating an nth degree polynomial. This paper first presents a method to transform the computational structure of divided differences into the pyramid tree with nodes. Based on graph embedding technique, without any extra communication delay, the pipelined divided–difference computation can be performed in a (2k + 1)-dimensional fault–free hypercube for n + 1 = 2k + t, k > 0, and 0 < t < 2k; the pipelined divided-difference computation can be further performed in a (2k + 2)-dimensional faulty hypercube to tolerate arbitrary (k - 1) faulty nodes/links. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such mapping methods are being proposed in the literature.

Plant hair dermatitis.

To survey the ill effects of plant hairs on humans in Australia, incorporating new records. Retrospective analysis of new records, in some cases confirmed and supplemented by experimental skin contacts, along with a general survey of relevant literature. Reports of accidental injuries submitted to the authors, through either medical or other sources, and to the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium of South Australia, were studied and compared with existing literature; in some cases the effects were confirmed experimentally. A general survey of plant hair dermatitis in Australia is offered. Most species included have been referred to in the scattered earlier literature, but a few plants not previously recorded as irritating are included, notably Apalochlamys spectabilis, Wisteria sinensis and Grevillea species. Attention is also called to the penetrating and irritating pod spines of Brachychiton spp. (kurrajongs and relatives) and Lagunaria patersonii (Norfolk Island hibiscus or pyramid tree), which are often planted as ornamental street trees. Generally those most likely to receive these injuries are gardeners and children.

Multiprocessor Pyramid Architectures for Bottom-Up Image Analysis

This paper describes three hierarchical organizations of small processors for bottom-up image analysis:pyramids, interleaved pyramids, and pyramid trees. Progressively lower levels in the hierarchies process image windows of decreasing size. Bottom-up analysis is made feasible by transmitting up the levels quadrant borders and border-related information that captures quadrant interaction of interest for a given computation. The operation of the pyramid is illustrated by examples of standard algorithms for interior-based computations (e.g., area) and border-based computations of local properties (e.g., perimeter). A connected component counting algorithm is outlined that illustrates the role of border-related information in representing quadrant interaction. Interleaved pyramids are obtained by sharing processors among several pyramids. They increase processor utilization and throughput rate at the cost of increased hardware. Trees of shallow interleaved pyramids, calld pyramid trees, are introduced to reduce the hardware requirements of large interleaved pyramids at the expense of increased processing time, without sacrificing processor utilization. The three organizations are compared with respect to several performance measures.

Cytoarchitecture of the tectum mesencephali in two types of siluroid teleosts.

The cytoarchitecture of the tectum mesencephali in the siluroid teleosts Bagrus and Ictalurus was studied by means of the Golgi method. These animals are known to have a restricted visual system and it seemed important to study whether this fact would affect the existence or the shape of the main neuron types which have been described for highly visual teleosts. It had been shown for a variety of teleosts that the retinotectal axons and terminals occupy almost exclusively the stratum opticum and the stratum fibrosum et griseum superficiale. The thickness of these strata in Bagrus and Ictalurus was found to be reduced. However, the main types of especially the vertically oriented neurons, such as the pyramidal, fusiform, large pyriform and periventricular neurons which have been described for highly visual species of teleosts, were also found in Bagrus and Ictalurus. Although their shape was somewhat distorted, these neurons, nevertheless, showed processes distributed to the same tectal layers as in highly visual teleosts and are accessible to horizontally distributed fiber systems such as marginal, telencephalotectal and commissural tectal fibers, as well as the retinotectal fibers. Nonvisual inputs appear to be considerably involved in the maintenance of the main neuron types in the siluroid tectum. For example, the pyramidal neuron's apical dendritic tree, which receives the excitatory input from the marginal fibers, is as well developed in siluroids as in highly visual teleosts.