Unlike rasterization, where one can rely on pixel quad partial derivatives, an alternative approach must be taken for filtered texturing during ray tracing. We describe two methods for computing texture level of detail for ray tracing. The first approach uses ray differentials, which is a general solution that gives high-quality results. It is rather expensive in terms of computations and ray stor

We describe simple methods for how to filter environment maps using ray cones and ray differentials in a ray tracing engine.

Background. Chaos Engineering is proposed as a practice to verify a system’s resilience under real, operational conditions. It employs fault injection, is originally developed at Netflix, and supported by several tools from there and other sources. Aims. We aim to intro- duce Chaos Engineering at ICA Gruppen AB, a group of companies whose core business is grocery retail, to improve their systems’

Presupposition is surely one of the most debated notions in the linguistic and philosophical literature. Historically, there are two main theoretical approaches to presuppositions. According to the first one, the semantic view, presuppositions are semantic implications, that is, truth-conditional relations between propositions and statements. In this sense, presuppositions are considered propertie

The aim of this study is to investigate whether native speakers of Gallipolino, bilectals who have acquired Gallipolino as L1 (together with standard Italian) in their childhood, who have left Gallipoli after puberty and currently use standard Italian as their primary language, display effects of attrition with respect to subordinate clauses embedded under the complementizers ku and ka. Our hypoth

This thesis is a collection of three empirical papers that tests hypotheses within the context of two related and intersecting theoretical frameworks: rational expectations and efficient markets. The aim is to empirically explore to what extent households form their inflation expectations in a rational manner, and to explain why households’ perceptions may deviate from the measured official rate.

We present a novel texture compression scheme, called iPACKMAN, targeted for hardware implementation. Interms of image quality, it outperforms the previous de facto standard texture compression algorithms in the majority of all cases that we have tested. Our new algorithm is an extension of the PACKMAN texture compressionsystem, and while it is a bit more complex than PACKMAN, it is still very low

Background: There is a call for valid and reliable instruments to evaluate implementation of evidence-based practices (EBP). The 15-item Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS) measures attitude toward EBP, incorporating four lower-order factor subscales (Appeal, Requirements, Openness, and Divergence) and a Total scale (General Attitudes). It is one of a few measures of EBP attitudes evalu

Although climate change and international trade are interdependent, policy-makers often address the two topics separately. This may inhibit progress at the intersection of climate change and trade and could present a serious constraint for global climate action. One key risk is carbon leakage through emission outsourcing, i.e. reductions in emissions in countries with rigorous climate policies bei

Platform ecosystems include complementary product markets that are creating unprecedented business oppor-tunities. Competition within complementary product markets is increasingly intense and fast-changing, and this leads to increased complexity in designing strategies to gain competitive advantage. Prior literature has exten-sively analyzed the key drivers of platform adoption by end users. Recen

ObjectivePediatric anxiety disorders can have a chronic course and are considered gateway disorders to adult psychopathology, but no consistent predictors of long-term outcome have been identified. A single latent symptom dimension that reflects features shared by all mental health disorders, the p factor, is thought to reflect mechanisms that cut across mental disorders. Whether p predicts outcom

In hemophilia A and B, analysis of the F8 and F9 gene variants enables carrier- and prenatal diagnosis and prediction of risk for development of inhibitors. The PedNet Registry collects clinical, genetic and phenotypic data prospectively on >2000 children with hemophilia. The genetic reports of F8/F9 gene variants were classified uniformly to HGVS nomenclature and re-evaluated using international

We examine the impact of innovation disclosure through patenting on firms' cost of debt, focusing on the American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA) as an exogenous shock in innovation disclosure regulation. Post-AIPA, firms have an incentive to apply for patents only if commercial success is likely. Accordingly, we expect post-AIPA patents to be a better proxy for successful innovation activity, and