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Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.
Abstract: Single image super-resolution (SISR) aims to reconstruct a high-resolution (HR) image from a low-resolution (LR) image. In order to address the SISR problem, recently, deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved remarkable progress in terms of accuracy and efficiency. In this paper, an innovative technique, namely a multi-scale inception-based super-resolution (SR) using deep learning approach, or MSISRD, was proposed for fast and accurate reconstruction of SISR. The proposed network employs the deconvolution layer to upsample the LR image to the desired HR image. The proposed method is in contrast to existing approaches that use the interpolation techniques to upscale the LR image. Primarily, interpolation techniques are not designed for this purpose, which results in the creation of undesired noise in the model. Moreover, the existing methods mainly focus on the shallow network or stacking multiple layers in the model with the aim of creating a deeper network architecture. The technique based on the aforementioned design creates the vanishing gradients problem during the training and increases the computational cost of the model. Our proposed method does not use any hand-designed pre-processing steps, such as the bicubic interpolation technique. Furthermore, an asymmetric convolution block is employed to reduce the number of parameters, in addition to the inception block adopted from GoogLeNet, to reconstruct the multiscale information. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model exhibits an enhanced performance compared to twelve state-of-the-art methods in terms of the average peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM) with a reduced number of parameters for the scale factor of 2 , 4 , and 8 . Keywords: deep learning; multi-scale information; asymmetric convolution; residual skip connection; inception module
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Solid State Inc. is a global stocking distributor and electronic component supplier located in Bloomfield, NJ. We provide service to a multitude of market sectors. Our extensive franchise lines of fuses, adjustable voltage regulators, silicon-controlled rectifiers, and other products, along with manufacturing agreements, provide a broad line of products to service your production needs. As an electronic parts supplier, our strategic corporate vision is to work closely with your existing applications and evolve with your designs towards a sustainable energy future.
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Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Apple's product lineup includes include the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, and Apple TV; as well as software like iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS; and services like Apple Card, Apple Pay, iCloud, Apple Music, and Apple TV+.
Since 2011, Apple has been the world's largest company by market capitalization except when Microsoft held the position between January and June 2024.[6][7][8] In 2022, Apple was the largest technology company by revenue, with US$394.3 billion.[9][failed verification] As of 2023[update], Apple was the fourth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales,[10] the largest manufacturing company by revenue, and the largest vendor of mobile phones in the world.[11] It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Amazon, Meta (the parent company of Facebook), and Microsoft.
Apple was founded as Apple Computer Company on April 1, 1976, to produce and market Steve Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. The company was incorporated by Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1977. Its second computer, the Apple II, became a best seller as one of the first mass-produced microcomputers. Apple introduced the Lisa in 1983 and the Macintosh in 1984, as some of the first computers to use a graphical user interface and a mouse. By 1985, the company's internal problems included the high cost of its products and power struggles between executives. That year Jobs left Apple to form NeXT, Inc., and Wozniak withdrew to other ventures. The market for personal computers expanded and evolved throughout the 1990s, and Apple lost considerable market share to the lower-priced Wintel duopoly of the Microsoft Windows operating system on Intel-powered PC clones.
In 1997, Apple was weeks away from bankruptcy. To resolve its failed operating system strategy and entice Jobs's return, it bought NeXT. Over the next decade, Jobs guided Apple back to profitability through several tactics including introducing the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad to critical acclaim, launching the "Think different" campaign and other memorable advertising campaigns, opening the Apple Store retail chain, and acquiring numerous companies to broaden its product portfolio. Jobs resigned in 2011 for health reasons, and died two months later. He was succeeded as CEO by Tim Cook.
Apple has received criticism regarding its contractors' labor practices, its environmental practices, and its business ethics, including anti-competitive practices and materials sourcing. Nevertheless, it has a large following and a high level of brand loyalty. It has been consistently ranked as one of the world's most valuable brands.
Apple Computer, Inc. was incorporated on January 3, 1977,[23][24] without Wayne, who had left and sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800 only twelve days after having co-founded it.[25] Multimillionaire Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 (equivalent to $1,257,000 in 2023) to Jobs and Wozniak during the incorporation of Apple.[26] During the first five years of operations, revenues grew exponentially, doubling about every four months. Between September 1977 and September 1980, yearly sales grew from $775,000 to US$118 million, an average annual growth rate of 533%.[27]
The Apple II was chosen to be the desktop platform for the first killer application of the business world: VisiCalc, a spreadsheet program released in 1979.[29] VisiCalc created a business market for the Apple II and gave home users an additional reason to buy an Apple II: compatibility with the office,[29] but Apple II market share remained behind home computers made by competitors such as Atari, Commodore, and Tandy.[31][32]
On December 12, 1980, Apple (ticker symbol "AAPL") went public selling 4.6 million shares at $22 per share ($.10 per share when adjusting for stock splits as of September 3, 2022[update]),[24] generating over $100 million, which was more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956.[33] By the end of the day, 300 millionaires were created, including Jobs and Wozniak, from a stock price of $29 per share[34] and a market cap of $1.778 billion.[33][34]
In December 1979, Steve Jobs and Apple employees, including Jef Raskin, visited Xerox PARC, where they observed the Xerox Alto, featuring a graphical user interface (GUI). Apple subsequently negotiated access to PARC's technology, leading to Apple's option to buy shares at a preferential rate. This visit influenced Jobs to implement a GUI in Apple's products, starting with the Apple Lisa. Despite being pioneering as a mass-marketed GUI computer, the Lisa suffered from high costs and limited software options, leading to commercial failure.
Jobs, angered by being pushed off the Lisa team, took over the company's Macintosh division. Wozniak and Raskin had envisioned the Macintosh as a low-cost computer with a text-based interface like the Apple II, but a plane crash in 1981 forced Wozniak to step back from the project. Jobs quickly redefined the Macintosh as a graphical system that would be cheaper than the Lisa, undercutting his former division.[35] Jobs was also hostile to the Apple II division, which at the time, generated most of the company's revenue.[36]
In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh, the first personal computer without a bundled programming language.[37] Its debut was signified by "1984", a US$1.5 million television advertisement directed by Ridley Scott that aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984.[38] This was hailed as a watershed event for Apple's success[39] and was called a "masterpiece" by CNN[40] and one of the greatest TV advertisements of all time by TV Guide.[41]
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