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Articles 160561 - 160590 of 5206364

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Merit Transference And The Paradox Of Merit Inflation, Matthew Hammerton Sep 2025

Merit Transference And The Paradox Of Merit Inflation, Matthew Hammerton

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Many religious traditions and ethical systems hold that individuals accrue merit through their good intentions, acts, and character, and demerit through their bad intentions, acts, and character. This merit and demerit, accumulated by individuals throughout their lives, gives each person a kind of ethical “score” that can determine what they deserve, and influence whether good or bad things happen to them (e.g., divine punishments and rewards, a favourable or unfavourable rebirth, etc.). In some traditions (most notably Buddhism, but also to a limited extent in Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity), “merit transference” is a feature of these merit-based ethical systems. This …

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Patterns Of Ecological Quality In Portuguese Transitional Waters Over The Last Five Decades: A Framework Based On Benthic Foraminifera For The Sado Estuary, J. Moreno, F. Moreno, F. Fatela, E. Leorri, M. Leira, P. Masqué, M. C. Freitas Sep 2025

Patterns Of Ecological Quality In Portuguese Transitional Waters Over The Last Five Decades: A Framework Based On Benthic Foraminifera For The Sado Estuary, J. Moreno, F. Moreno, F. Fatela, E. Leorri, M. Leira, P. Masqué, M. C. Freitas

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study aimed to examine the validity of benthic foraminifera-based indices – Foraminiferal Stress Index (FSI), diversity index Exp(H'bc), and Ecological Quality Ratio (EQR) – for evaluating estuarine environmental conditions and supporting palaeoecological reconstructions, focusing on the Sado estuary (southwest Portugal). Located near heavily industrialized urban areas and designated as a Nature Reserve, this estuary faces human pressures and high natural values, leading to management conflicts. Foraminiferal assemblages were analysed in surface sediment samples, with known concentrations of several metal(loid)s, and in dated core samples. Correlations were found between metal(loid)s, organic matter, grain size, and salinity (as a proxy for …

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The Outcomes Of A Structured Bowel Management Programme On Childhood Functional Constipation: A Retrospective Pre – Post Intervention Study, Gunilla Flankegård, Peter Wide, Evalotte Mörelius Sep 2025

The Outcomes Of A Structured Bowel Management Programme On Childhood Functional Constipation: A Retrospective Pre – Post Intervention Study, Gunilla Flankegård, Peter Wide, Evalotte Mörelius

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate the effectiveness of a six-month structured bowel management programme (SBMP) for children with therapy-resistant functional constipation (FC). Method: A retrospective review of medical records with a pre-post design was conducted at an outpatient paediatric clinic in Sweden. Bowel frequency, stool form, faecal incontinence, and abdominal pain were compared before and after the intervention. Predictive factors for successful discharge and duration of care through long-term follow-up were calculated. Results: Of the 142 children enrolled in the SBMP, 132 completed the programme. Despite previous FC therapy resistance, the SBMP achieved a …

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A Large-Scale Multi-Centre Study Characterising Atrophy Heterogeneity In Alzheimer's Disease, Vikram Venkatraghavan, Damiano Archetti, Pierrick Bourgeat, Chenyang Jiang, Mara Ten Kate, Anna C. Van Loenhoud, Rik Ossenkoppele, Charlotte E. Teunissen, Elsmarieke Van De Giessen, Yolande A.L. Pijnenburg, Giovanni B. Frisoni, Béla Weiss, Zoltán Vidnyánszky, Tibor Auer, Stanley Durrleman, Alberto Redolfi, Simon M. Laws, Paul Maruff, Neil P. Oxtoby, Andre Altmann, Daniel C. Alexander, Wiesje M. Van Der Flier, Frederik Barkhof, Betty M. Tijms Sep 2025

A Large-Scale Multi-Centre Study Characterising Atrophy Heterogeneity In Alzheimer's Disease, Vikram Venkatraghavan, Damiano Archetti, Pierrick Bourgeat, Chenyang Jiang, Mara Ten Kate, Anna C. Van Loenhoud, Rik Ossenkoppele, Charlotte E. Teunissen, Elsmarieke Van De Giessen, Yolande A.L. Pijnenburg, Giovanni B. Frisoni, Béla Weiss, Zoltán Vidnyánszky, Tibor Auer, Stanley Durrleman, Alberto Redolfi, Simon M. Laws, Paul Maruff, Neil P. Oxtoby, Andre Altmann, Daniel C. Alexander, Wiesje M. Van Der Flier, Frederik Barkhof, Betty M. Tijms

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Previous studies identified atrophy-based Alzheimer's disease(AD) subtypes linked to distinct clinical symptoms, but their consistency across subtyping approaches remains unclear. This large-scale study evaluates subtype concordance using two data-driven approaches. In this work, we analyzed data from n=10,011 patients across 10 AD cohorts spanning Europe, the US, and Australia, extracting regional volumes using Freesurfer. To characterize atrophy heterogeneity in the AD continuum, we developed a two-step approach, Snowphlake (Staging NeurOdegeneration With PHenotype informed progression timeLine of biomarKErs), to identify subtypes and atrophy-event sequences within each subtype. Results were compared with SuStaIn (Subtype and Stage Inference), which jointly estimates subtypes and …

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Automated Instance Segmentation And Registration Of Spinal Vertebrae From Ct-Scans With An Improved 3d U-Net Neural Network And Corner Point Registration, James Hill, Muhammad Rizwan Khokher, Chuong Nguyen, Matt Adcock, Ron Li, Stuart Anderson, Thomas Morrell, Tim Diprose, Olivier Salvado, Dadong Wang, Guan K. Tay Sep 2025

Automated Instance Segmentation And Registration Of Spinal Vertebrae From Ct-Scans With An Improved 3d U-Net Neural Network And Corner Point Registration, James Hill, Muhammad Rizwan Khokher, Chuong Nguyen, Matt Adcock, Ron Li, Stuart Anderson, Thomas Morrell, Tim Diprose, Olivier Salvado, Dadong Wang, Guan K. Tay

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper presents a rapid and robust approach for 3D volumetric segmentation, labelling, and registration of human spinal vertebrae from CT scans using an optimised and improved 3D U-Net neural network architecture. The network is designed by incorporating residual and dense interconnections, followed by an extensive evaluation of different network setups by optimising the network components like activation functions, optimisers, and pooling operations. In addition, the network architecture is optimised for varying numbers of convolution layers per block and U-Net levels with fixed and cascading numbers of filters. For 3D virtual reality visualisation, the segmentation output of the improved 3D …

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Do Companies’ Green Credentials Enhance Trade Credit Provisions? Global Evidence, Rashid Zaman, Nader Atawnah, Deepa Banigidadmath, Muhammad Nadeem, Jia Liu Sep 2025

Do Companies’ Green Credentials Enhance Trade Credit Provisions? Global Evidence, Rashid Zaman, Nader Atawnah, Deepa Banigidadmath, Muhammad Nadeem, Jia Liu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

We investigate the impact of corporate renewable energy (RE) adoption on suppliers’ trade credit provisions. Using a global sample of 30 countries, we establish that firms engaging in higher RE consumption secure increased trade credit. Our results remain robust to a variety of sensitivity tests and after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns using the Paris Agreement and companies switching to green energy as exogenous shocks. Our channel analysis reveals that RE take-up mitigates companies’ environmental risk (proxied by environmental violation fines, media coverage of environmental controversies, GHG emissions, and environmental policy stringency). Additional tests reveal that the relationship between RE …

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Temperature-Dependent Properties Of Cu-Doped Znte Thin Films Deposited On Slg Substrates Via Rf Magnetron Sputtering And E-Beam Techniques, Sherif Salah, Camellia Doroody, Fazliyana ‘Izzati Za'abar, Zheng Jie Feng, Prajindra Sankar Krishnan, Ahmad Wafi Mahmood Zuhdi, Muhammad Najib Harif, Nur Irwany Ahmad, Yap Boon Kar, Mohammad Nur-E-Alam Sep 2025

Temperature-Dependent Properties Of Cu-Doped Znte Thin Films Deposited On Slg Substrates Via Rf Magnetron Sputtering And E-Beam Techniques, Sherif Salah, Camellia Doroody, Fazliyana ‘Izzati Za'abar, Zheng Jie Feng, Prajindra Sankar Krishnan, Ahmad Wafi Mahmood Zuhdi, Muhammad Najib Harif, Nur Irwany Ahmad, Yap Boon Kar, Mohammad Nur-E-Alam

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Copper doping in zinc telluride (ZnTe) thin films has been extensively studied for optoelectronic applications; however, challenges remain in optimizing temperature-dependent diffusion while minimizing defect-related emissions. Although numerous studies have explored Cu-doped ZnTe, comprehensive investigations using electron-beam (E-beam) evaporation remain limited, especially concerning its influence on diffusion dynamics, defect formation, and electrical properties. This study systematically examined Cu-doped ZnTe films fabricated via E-beam evaporation with a fixed 50 nm Cu layer deposited at three substrate temperatures (RT, 150 °C, and 300 °C), followed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 100 °C and 200 °C for 1 h under a nitrogen …

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History Informing The Future Of Exercise Oncology, Daniel A. Galvão, Kerry S. Courneya, Alejandro Lucia, Anne M. May, Karen Mustian, Allison B. Warner, Wiskemann Joachim, Karen Wonders, Kathryn H. Schmitz, Robert U. Newton Sep 2025

History Informing The Future Of Exercise Oncology, Daniel A. Galvão, Kerry S. Courneya, Alejandro Lucia, Anne M. May, Karen Mustian, Allison B. Warner, Wiskemann Joachim, Karen Wonders, Kathryn H. Schmitz, Robert U. Newton

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Exercise is increasingly recognized by patients, clinicians, and allied health professionals globally as an important component of cancer care. In this paper, we provide a viewpoint on developments in exercise oncology over the past 4 decades leading up to the creation of the International Society of Exercise Oncology (ISEO). We briefly review research in adult and pediatric cancers from early foundation studies to larger randomized controlled trials published in mainstream oncology journals alongside critical work undertaken in exercise and cancer biological mechanisms. We also discuss potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing ISEO in becoming a global forum for exercise …

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Socioeconomic Disadvantage, All-Cause And Cause-Specific Mortality In Patients Treated With Maintenance Dialysis: A Mediation Analysis Of Geographical Inequity And Multimorbidity, Farzaneh Boroumand, Wai H. Lim, Shuvo Bakar, Ryan Gately, Pedro Lopez, Dharshana Sabanayagam, Anita Van Zwieten, Lin Zhu, Germaine Wong, Armando Teixeira-Pinto Sep 2025

Socioeconomic Disadvantage, All-Cause And Cause-Specific Mortality In Patients Treated With Maintenance Dialysis: A Mediation Analysis Of Geographical Inequity And Multimorbidity, Farzaneh Boroumand, Wai H. Lim, Shuvo Bakar, Ryan Gately, Pedro Lopez, Dharshana Sabanayagam, Anita Van Zwieten, Lin Zhu, Germaine Wong, Armando Teixeira-Pinto

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Rationale & Objective: Social gradient in health (a “social gradient in health” refers to the observed pattern in which individuals with lower socioeconomic status typically experience poorer health outcomes than those with higher socioeconomic status. This indicates that health disparities exist across different social levels, with the most disadvantaged groups experiencing the worst health outcomes) is significant and established in patients with kidney failure, but the pathways of this relationship are unknown. We aimed to assess the mediating effects of multimorbidity and geographical remoteness in the socioeconomic status (SES)-death associations. Study Design: A cohort study. Setting & Participants: All patients …

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Understanding The Factors Affecting Social Acceptance Of Solar Energy Technologies, Jane Osei, Kerry Brown, Mehran Nejati Sep 2025

Understanding The Factors Affecting Social Acceptance Of Solar Energy Technologies, Jane Osei, Kerry Brown, Mehran Nejati

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study investigates the key factors influencing the social acceptance of solar energy technologies, aiming to develop a policy and practice framework from a socio-political perspective. While previous research has identified various factors, it has often overlooked the role of policy interventions. By employing Transition Management theory, this study maps these factors and emphasizes the importance of learning and policy adaptation in the energy transition process. Solar energy, known for its cost-effectiveness and potential to stabilize electricity costs, remains relatively unfamiliar to many at the local level despite its global technological maturity. This research consolidates fragmented findings from 46 articles …

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Comparisons Between Different Methods Of Calculating Dynamic Strength Index: Effect On Training Recommendations, Nicholas Joel Ripley, Jack Fahey, Stuart Guppy, Paul Comfort Sep 2025

Comparisons Between Different Methods Of Calculating Dynamic Strength Index: Effect On Training Recommendations, Nicholas Joel Ripley, Jack Fahey, Stuart Guppy, Paul Comfort

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

An impulse-based dynamic strength index (iDSI) that constitutes time-dependent force expression in contrast to the common peak force-based DSI (fDSI) may be more insightful when considering training recommendations. However, a limitation of the iDSI is that any change in countermovement jump (CMJ) propulsion phase duration could affect longitudinal comparisons. A fixed duration (e.g., 250ms) iDSI however could overcome this limitation. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of different methods of calculating DSI (fDSI, iDSI matched, iDSI fixed) on the DSI value and resultant training prioritization. Thirty-seven team sport athletes (female=13, male=25, age=22.2±2.8 years, height=174.4±6.0cm, mass=74.9±11.9kg) performed …

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Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Project Management (Pm): Multi-Expert Perspectives On Advancing Knowledge And Driving Innovation Toward Pm2030, Laurie Hughes, Reza Kiani Mavi, Masoud Aghajani, Keith Fitzpatrick, Senali Madugoda Gunaratnege, Seyed Ashkan Hosseini Shekarabi, Richard Hughes, Ahmad Khanfar, Ahdieh Khatavakhotan, Neda Kiani Mavi, Keyao Li, Moataz Mahmoud, Tegwen Malik, Sashah Mutasa, Farzaneh Nafar, Ross Yates, Rasha Alahmad, Il Jeon, Yogesh K. Dwivedi Sep 2025

Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Project Management (Pm): Multi-Expert Perspectives On Advancing Knowledge And Driving Innovation Toward Pm2030, Laurie Hughes, Reza Kiani Mavi, Masoud Aghajani, Keith Fitzpatrick, Senali Madugoda Gunaratnege, Seyed Ashkan Hosseini Shekarabi, Richard Hughes, Ahmad Khanfar, Ahdieh Khatavakhotan, Neda Kiani Mavi, Keyao Li, Moataz Mahmoud, Tegwen Malik, Sashah Mutasa, Farzaneh Nafar, Ross Yates, Rasha Alahmad, Il Jeon, Yogesh K. Dwivedi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The project management profession is undergoing transformative change with the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI), redefining core methodologies and decision-making processes. As societal expectations rise and technological complexity intensifies, project managers face unprecedented challenges. By 2030, AI-driven predictive insights and modelling capabilities are expected to significantly enhance efficiency, raising critical questions about the evolving role of human project managers. Will AI take the lead in key decisions, or will human attributes such as creativity, ethical judgment, and emotional intelligence remain essential? Framed as PM2030, this study explores future scenarios through expert insights from academia and industry. Using an opinion-based approach, …

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Management Of Atypical Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome With Triggers: Diagnostic And Treatment Algorithms From An Asia-Pacific Perspective, Hee Gyung Kang, Danny Hsu, Noritoshi Kato, Jin Seok Kim, Masayoshi Okumi, Min Hua Tseng, Kun Hua Tu, Desmond Yat Hin Yap, Wai H. Lim Sep 2025

Management Of Atypical Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome With Triggers: Diagnostic And Treatment Algorithms From An Asia-Pacific Perspective, Hee Gyung Kang, Danny Hsu, Noritoshi Kato, Jin Seok Kim, Masayoshi Okumi, Min Hua Tseng, Kun Hua Tu, Desmond Yat Hin Yap, Wai H. Lim

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Complement-amplifying events/conditions associated with thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) include pregnancy/postpartum period, severe hypertension, autoimmune diseases, drug exposures, infections and organ transplantation. Some of these ‘triggers’ may exist comorbidly with atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome (aHUS; a complement-mediated form of TMA), unmask previously undiagnosed aHUS, or occur secondary to aHUS, thus creating a considerable diagnostic challenge. A major goal in patients presenting with TMA is to differentiate complement-mediated aHUS from other causes of TMA such that appropriate targeted treatment with complement 5 (C5) inhibitors can be initiated rapidly to avoid irreversible end-organ damage. To this end, nephrologists and haematologists from Australia, Hong Kong, …

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Muscle Creatine Levels And Sprint Performance In Young Adult Vegans And Vegetarians After 7 Days Of Creatine Monohydrate Supplementation, Thomas Christian Bonne, Valentina Arthemalle, Colin Stephen Doherty, Andreas Breenfeldt Andersen, Jacob Bejder, Thomas Ehlers, Henrik Holm-Sørensen, Nikolai Baastrup Nordsborg Sep 2025

Muscle Creatine Levels And Sprint Performance In Young Adult Vegans And Vegetarians After 7 Days Of Creatine Monohydrate Supplementation, Thomas Christian Bonne, Valentina Arthemalle, Colin Stephen Doherty, Andreas Breenfeldt Andersen, Jacob Bejder, Thomas Ehlers, Henrik Holm-Sørensen, Nikolai Baastrup Nordsborg

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Athletes use creatine monohydrate (CM) to enhance high-intensity exercise performance by increasing creatine phosphate availability. While CM supplementation is known to raise muscle creatine levels in vegans and vegetarians, its impact on exercise performance remains uncertain. We examined the effects of CM supplementation on muscle creatine content and exercise performance in vegans and vegetarians. In a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled design, 15 healthy vegans and vegetarians consumed CM (0.3 g/kg/day, n = 7) or placebo (PLA, 0.3 g maltodextrin/kg/day, n = 8) four times a day for 7 days. Before and after supplementation, repeated sprint capacity was determined. Body mass and …

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Restricted Social Engagement Is Associated With Depressive Symptoms In Older Chinese Adults: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study, Zheng Guo, Yulu Zheng, Yahong Zhu, Huacheng Wang, Jian Geng, Hengrui Liu, Piyong Ma, Lois Balmer, Xingang Li Sep 2025

Restricted Social Engagement Is Associated With Depressive Symptoms In Older Chinese Adults: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study, Zheng Guo, Yulu Zheng, Yahong Zhu, Huacheng Wang, Jian Geng, Hengrui Liu, Piyong Ma, Lois Balmer, Xingang Li

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background and Aims: Social isolation has been linked to depressive symptoms in older adults. Previous studies have shown that greater engagement in social activities is associated with better mental health. However, it remains unclear whether restricted social engagement is related to poorer mental health outcomes. This study examined the association between reduced social activities/networking and the presence of depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older Chinese adults. Methods: During the COVID-19 pandemic, people chose to minimize going out to reduce the risk of infection, creating a natural setting that mimicked a passive intervention of restricted social engagement for community-based individuals. Data were …

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Waste By-Products In Asphalt Concrete Pavement Construction: A Review, Nuha S. Mashaan, Daniel O. Oguntayo, Chathurika Dassanayake Sep 2025

Waste By-Products In Asphalt Concrete Pavement Construction: A Review, Nuha S. Mashaan, Daniel O. Oguntayo, Chathurika Dassanayake

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The use of mining by-products in bitumen and asphalt mixture modification has drawn a lot of interest lately since it can improve pavement performance while advancing the goals of the circular economy and environmental sustainability. Mining by-products such as steel slag, red mud, silica fume, and fly ash have demonstrated good results as sustainable materials for improving the chemical, mechanical, durability, and rheological properties of asphalt binders and mixtures while also reducing the environmental degradation brought about by the disposal of these by-products. This study reviews research efforts on mining by-products (specifically steel slag, silica fume, red mud, and fly …

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Work While You Learn: Evaluating A Paid Employment Model For Postgraduate Midwifery Students In Diverse Contexts, Sadie Geraghty, Kirstie Balding, Sheena Mcchlery, Sarah Hay Sep 2025

Work While You Learn: Evaluating A Paid Employment Model For Postgraduate Midwifery Students In Diverse Contexts, Sadie Geraghty, Kirstie Balding, Sheena Mcchlery, Sarah Hay

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Postgraduate midwifery student employment models are lacking robust evaluation of how the paid employment model serves as a workforce strategy in Western Australia. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate a paid employment model for postgraduate midwifery students, that was implemented in metropolitan, rural, and regional areas in a Western Australian context. Methods: A convergent parallel design collected both quantitative and qualitative data. This study used a survey design with quantitative and qualitative questions within a well-established process evaluation framework. Results: All midwifery students reported benefits of the paid model of employment, which included financial stability while …

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Antimicrobial Resistance Of Clostridioides (Clostridium) Difficile In Cambodia, Lengsea Eng, Papanin Putsathit, Su Chen Lim, Jessica M. Chisholm, Deirdre A. Collins, Archie C.A. Clements, Kefyalew Addis Alene, Thomas V. Riley Sep 2025

Antimicrobial Resistance Of Clostridioides (Clostridium) Difficile In Cambodia, Lengsea Eng, Papanin Putsathit, Su Chen Lim, Jessica M. Chisholm, Deirdre A. Collins, Archie C.A. Clements, Kefyalew Addis Alene, Thomas V. Riley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background/Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains a major topic of interest in infectious disease management. We studied AMR in Clostridioides difficile isolated in Cambodia. Methods: Agar dilution susceptibility testing was performed according to the CLSI guidelines to determine minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 10 antimicrobials for 192 isolates of C. difficile from four populations in Cambodia: hospitalised adults, hospitalised children, children from an outpatient department (OPD), and healthy adolescents in the community. Results: Using the CLSI MIC breakpoints for anaerobes and EUCAST breakpoints for C. difficile, all isolates were susceptible to vancomycin, metronidazole, fidaxomicin, and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, and none were resistant …

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Design Of Robust Adaptive Nonlinear Backstepping Controller Enhanced By Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient Algorithm For Efficient Power Converter Regulation, Seyyed Morteza Ghamari, Asma Aziz, Mehrdad Ghahramani Sep 2025

Design Of Robust Adaptive Nonlinear Backstepping Controller Enhanced By Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient Algorithm For Efficient Power Converter Regulation, Seyyed Morteza Ghamari, Asma Aziz, Mehrdad Ghahramani

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Power converters play an important role in incorporating renewable energy sources into power systems. Among different converter designs, Buck and Boost converters are popular, as they use fewer components and deliver cost savings and high efficiency. However, Boost converters are known as non–minimum phase systems, imposing harder constraints for designing a robust converter. Developing an efficient controller for these topologies can be difficult since they exhibit nonlinearity and distortion in high frequency modes. The Lyapunov-based Adaptive Backstepping Control (ABSC) technology is used to regulate suitable outputs for these structures. This approach is an updated version of the technique that uses …

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Gti: Graph-Based Tree Index With Logarithm Updates For Nearest Neighbor Search In High-Dimensional Spaces, Ruoyao Ma, Yifan Zhu, Baihua Zheng, Lu Chen, Congcong Ge, Yunjun Gao Sep 2025

Gti: Graph-Based Tree Index With Logarithm Updates For Nearest Neighbor Search In High-Dimensional Spaces, Ruoyao Ma, Yifan Zhu, Baihua Zheng, Lu Chen, Congcong Ge, Yunjun Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Nearest neighbor search (NNS) is fundamental for high-dimensional space retrieval and impacts various fields, such as pattern recognition, information retrieval, recommendation systems, and vector database management. Among existing NNS methods, graph-based methods often excel in query accuracy and efficiency. However, these methods face significant challenges, including high construction costs and difficulties with dynamic data updates. Recent efforts have focused on combining graph methods with hashing, quantization, and tree-based approaches to address these issues, but problems with large index sizes and update performance remain unresolved. In response, this paper proposes GTI, a novel, lightweight, and dynamic graph-based tree index for high-dimensional …

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Learning Orientation Field For Osm-Guided Autonomous Navigation, Yuming Huang, Wei Gao, Zhiyuan Zhang, Maani Ghaffari, Dezhen Song, Cheng-Zhong Xu, Hui Kong Sep 2025

Learning Orientation Field For Osm-Guided Autonomous Navigation, Yuming Huang, Wei Gao, Zhiyuan Zhang, Maani Ghaffari, Dezhen Song, Cheng-Zhong Xu, Hui Kong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

OpenStreetMap (OSM) has gained popularity recently in autonomous navigation due to its public accessibility, lower maintenance costs, and broader geographical coverage. However, existing methods often struggle with noisy OSM data and incomplete sensor observations, leading to inaccuracies in trajectory planning. These challenges are particularly evident in complex driving scenarios, such as at intersections or facing occlusions. To address these challenges, we propose a robust and explainable two-stage framework to learn an Orientation Field (OrField) for robot navigation by integrating LiDAR scans and OSM routes. In the first stage, we introduce a novel representation, OrField, which can provide orientations for each …

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Recurrent Autoregressive Linear Model For Next-Basket Recommendation, Tereza Zmeskalova, Antoine Ledent, Martin Spisak, Pavel Kordik, Rodrigo Alves Sep 2025

Recurrent Autoregressive Linear Model For Next-Basket Recommendation, Tereza Zmeskalova, Antoine Ledent, Martin Spisak, Pavel Kordik, Rodrigo Alves

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Next-basket recommendation aims to predict the (sets of) items that a user is most likely to purchase during their next visit, capturing both short-term sequential patterns and long-term user preferences. However, effectively modeling these dynamics remains a challenge for traditional methods, which often struggle with interpretability and computational efficiency, particularly when dealing with intricate temporal dependencies and inter-item relationships. In this paper, we propose ReALM, a Recurrent Autoregressive Linear Model that explicitly captures temporal item-to-item dependencies across multiple time steps. By leveraging a recurrent loss function and a closed-form optimization solution, our approach offers both interpretability and scalability while maintaining …

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Storage Location Optimization In Automated Storage And Retrieval Systems: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach, Lingjun Wang, Aldy Gunawan, Pieter Vansteenwegen Sep 2025

Storage Location Optimization In Automated Storage And Retrieval Systems: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach, Lingjun Wang, Aldy Gunawan, Pieter Vansteenwegen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This study investigates the optimization of storage location in automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS). We introduce an optimization approach based on the Deep Q-Network (DQN) algorithm to enhance warehouse task efficiency and minimize stacker travel during storage and retrieval. To accelerate the algorithm training process, we integrate a prioritized experience replay mechanism. Furthermore, we decouple action selection from value estimation within the DQN framework to address the issue of value overestimation. The proposed model is evaluated against three heuristic methods. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms these baselines.

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An Efficient Security-Enhanced Accountable Access Control For Named Data Networking, Jianfei Sun, Yuxian Li, Xuehuan Yang, Guomin Yang, Robert H. Deng Sep 2025

An Efficient Security-Enhanced Accountable Access Control For Named Data Networking, Jianfei Sun, Yuxian Li, Xuehuan Yang, Guomin Yang, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Named Data Networking (NDN) is embraced as the crucial implementation of Information-Centric Networking (ICN), enhancing content distribution and caching efficiency through edge routers. However, existing NDN architectures face significant security and privacy challenges, including: (a) a lack of secure and efficient access control; (b) inadequate support for flexible and selective content management by content publishers; (c) insufficient implementation of accountability and privilege revocation mechanisms. To handle these challenges, we propose ESAS, the first-ever Efficient Security-enhanced Accountable Access Control Scheme for NDN. Specifically, our ESAS incorporates anonymous authentication using group signatures at network routers to prevent unauthorized access, employs key-aggregation-based access …

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From Release To Adoption: Challenges In Reusing Pre-Trained Ai Models For Downstream Developers, Peerachai Banyongrakkul, Mansooreh Zahedi, Patanamon Thongtanunam, Christoph Treude, Haoyu Gao Sep 2025

From Release To Adoption: Challenges In Reusing Pre-Trained Ai Models For Downstream Developers, Peerachai Banyongrakkul, Mansooreh Zahedi, Patanamon Thongtanunam, Christoph Treude, Haoyu Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Pre-trained models (PTMs) have gained widespread popularity and achieved remarkable success across various fields, driven by their groundbreaking performance and easy accessibility through hosting providers. However, the challenges faced by downstream developers in reusing PTMs in software systems are less explored. To bridge this knowledge gap, we qualitatively created and analyzed a dataset of 840 PTM-related issue reports from 31 OSS GitHub projects. We systematically developed a comprehensive taxonomy of PTM-related challenges that developers face in downstream projects. Our study identifies seven key categories of challenges that downstream developers face in reusing PTMs, such as model usage, model performance, and …

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Apidocbooster: An Extract-Then-Abstract Framework Leveraging Large Language Models For Augmenting Api Documentation, Chengran Yang, Jiakun Liu, Bowen Xu, Christoph Treude, Yunbo Lyu, Junda He, Ming Li, David Lo Sep 2025

Apidocbooster: An Extract-Then-Abstract Framework Leveraging Large Language Models For Augmenting Api Documentation, Chengran Yang, Jiakun Liu, Bowen Xu, Christoph Treude, Yunbo Lyu, Junda He, Ming Li, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

API documentation is often the most trusted resource for programming. Many approaches have been proposed to augment API documentation by summarizing complementary information from external resources such as Stack Overflow. Existing extractive-based summarization approaches excel in producing faithful summaries that accurately represent the source content without input length restrictions. Nevertheless, they suffer from inherent readability limitations. On the other hand, our empirical study on the abstractive-based summarization method, i.e., GPT-4, reveals that GPT-4 can generate coherent and concise summaries but presents limitations in terms of informativeness and faithfulness. We introduce APIDocBooster, an extract-then-abstract framework that seamlessly fuses the advantages of …

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Static Analysis As A Feedback Loop: Enhancing Llm-Generated Code Beyond Correctness, Scott Blyth, Sherlock Licorish, Christoph Treude, Markus Wagner Sep 2025

Static Analysis As A Feedback Loop: Enhancing Llm-Generated Code Beyond Correctness, Scott Blyth, Sherlock Licorish, Christoph Treude, Markus Wagner

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated impressive capabilities in code generation, achieving high scores on benchmarks such as HumanEval and MBPP. However, these benchmarks primarily assess functional correctness and neglect broader dimensions of code quality, including security, reliability, readability, and maintainability. In this work, we systematically evaluate the ability of LLMs to generate high-quality code across multiple dimensions using the PythonSecurityEval benchmark. We introduce an iterative static analysis-driven prompting algorithm that leverages Bandit and Pylint to identify and resolve code quality issues. Our experiments with GPT-4o show substantial improvements: security issues reduced from >40% to 13%, readability violations from >80% …

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Educator Perceptions Of Devops Teaching Recommendations And Their Alignment With Common Challenges, Marcelo Romulo Fernandes, Pablo Paiva, Samuel Lucas De Moura Ferino, Roberta Coelho, Christoph Treude, Eduardo Aranha, Uirá Kulesza Sep 2025

Educator Perceptions Of Devops Teaching Recommendations And Their Alignment With Common Challenges, Marcelo Romulo Fernandes, Pablo Paiva, Samuel Lucas De Moura Ferino, Roberta Coelho, Christoph Treude, Eduardo Aranha, Uirá Kulesza

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

DevOps education presents unique pedagogical challenges due to the diversity of tools, rapid technological change, and the multidisciplinary nature of the field. Although previous work has proposed recommendations to address these challenges, it is unclear how educators perceive these recommendations and whether they align with the challenges encountered in practice. In this paper, we present a quantitative and qualitative methods study involving 11 DevOps educators who interacted with Improve, a tool that presents a curated set of educational challenges and recommendations derived from previous literature. Educators indicated which recommendations they already use, which they intend to use, and which challenges …

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Stylegan-∞: Extending Stylegan To Arbitrary-Ratio Translation With Stylebook, Yihua Dai, Tianyi Xiang, Bailin Deng, Yong Du, Hongmin Cai, Jing Qin, Shengfeng He Sep 2025

Stylegan-∞: Extending Stylegan To Arbitrary-Ratio Translation With Stylebook, Yihua Dai, Tianyi Xiang, Bailin Deng, Yong Du, Hongmin Cai, Jing Qin, Shengfeng He

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although pre-trained large-scale generative models StyleGAN series have proven to be effective in various editing and translation tasks, they are limited to pre-defined fixed aspect ratio. To overcome this limitation, we propose StyleGAN-∞, a model that enables pre-trained StyleGAN to perform arbitrary-ratio conditional synthesis. Our key insight is to distill the expressive StyleGAN features into a StyleBook, such that an arbitrary-ratio condition can be translated to other forms by properly assembling pre-defined StyleBook vectors. To learn and leverage the StyleBook, we employ a network with three distinct stages, each corresponding to StyleBook extraction, StyleBook correspondence learning, and arbitrary-ratio synthesis. Extensive …

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Stable And Fair Cost Allocation In Platform-Enabled Lcl Consolidation, Pang Jin Tan, Shih-Fen Cheng Sep 2025

Stable And Fair Cost Allocation In Platform-Enabled Lcl Consolidation, Pang Jin Tan, Shih-Fen Cheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Many logistics platforms enable collaboration between agents to reduce costs, but determining fair pricing remains challenging when agents have pre-existing partnerships. This paper introduces a cooperative game theory framework to model platform-mediated collaboration, modeling the platform as an additional player. We present a novel characteristic function that distinguishes between partial collaborations (existing relationships) and full collaborations (platform-enabled). Using Shapley value, we derive fair cost allocations and platform charges that reflect each participant's contribution. We address stability concerns through an optimization model that minimizes platform subsidies while preventing profitable deviations. The framework is demonstrated through an application in freight forwarding for …

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