Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Applications of convolutional neural networks in chest X-ray analyses for the detection of COVID-19

Throughout global efforts to defend against the spread of COVID-19 from late 2019 up until now, one of the most crucial factors that has helped combat the pandemic is the development of various screening methods to detect the presence of COVID-19 as conveniently and accurately as possible. One of such methods is the utilization of chest X-Rays (CXRs) to detect anomalies that are concurrent with a patient infected with COVID-19. While yielding results much faster than the traditional RT-PCR test, CXRs tend to be less accurate. Realizing this issue, in our research, we investigated the applications of computer vision in order to better detect COVID-19 from CXRs. Coupled with an extensive image database of CXRs of healthy patients, patients with non-COVID-19 induced pneumonia, and patients positive with COVID-19, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) prove to possess the ability to easily and accurately identify whether or not a patient is infected with COVID-19 in a matter of seconds. Borrowing and adjusting the architectures of three well-tested CNNs: VGG-16, ResNet50, and MobileNetV2, we performed transfer learning and trained three of our own models, then compared and contrasted their differing precisions, accuracies, and efficiencies in correctly labeling patients with and without COVID-19. In the end, all of our models were able to accurately categorize at least 94% of the CXRs, with some performing better than the others; these differences in performance were largely due to the contrasting architectures each of our models borrowed from the three respective CNNs.
Finding Needles in Haystacks: Multiple-Imputation Record Linkage Using Machine Learning ∗

This paper considers the problem of record linkage between a household-level survey and an establishment-level frame in the absence of unique identiﬁers. Linkage between frames in this setting is challenging because the distribution of employment across establishments is highly skewed. To address these diﬃculties, this paper develops a probabilistic record linkage methodology that combines machine learning (ML) with multiple imputation (MI). This ML-MI methodology is applied to link survey respondents in the Health and Retirement Study to their workplaces in the Census Business Register. The linked data reveal new evidence that non-sampling errors in household survey data are correlated with respondents’ workplace characteristics.
Investigation of micro and nano structured materials for acoustic band gaps engineering in electro-acoustic devices

This work concerns the study of micro/nano structured materials for the engineering of band structures in the field of elastic waves. We were interested in particular to the integration of these materials in electro-acoustic devices and the study of the interaction with the surface acoustic waves.The approach is to carry out the simulation using the finite element method to calculate the band structures and the transmission spectra. We studied the effect of geometrical and elastic parameters of micro-pillars on acoustic branches representing surface modes. Then we discussed the effect of the symmetry of the arrangement on the polarization of the surface modes. We also investigated the effect of the symmetry on the sensitivity of surface modes with the variation of temperature.Experimentally, we have developed interdigital transducers on a piezoelectric substrate of LiNbO3. We have fabricated various phononic crystals composed of nickel micro-pillars, obtained by electrodeposition. The transmission spectra were measured by a network analyzer and compared with the theoretical results.Besides the phononic crystals based on nickel pillars, some other periodic micro/nano structures were also involved in this work, such as two dimensional materials based on self-assembled magnetic nanoparticles and nickel nanowires electroplated through nano-porous alumina membranes.
OPTIMAL LOCATION OF FAST CUT BACK THERMAL POWER UNITS FOR MINIMIZING POWER SYSTEM RESTORATION TIME

Fast cut back (FCB) thermal power units can be used as blackstart units to boot up the power system restoration after a blackout event in the power grid without hydropower units. On the basis of analyzing the important role of FCB units in restoring a power system, the optimal location and capacities of FCB units are determined using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for minimizing the system restoration time with some constraints such as units’ characteristics and lines’ charging time. The simulation results of the New England 10-unit 39-bus power system prove that reasonable location of FCB units based on the optimization method proposed can significantly reduce the system restoration time.
Active X-ray testing of complex objects

X-ray testing of complex objects –such as luggage screening at airports– is usually performed manually. This is not always effective, since it depends strongly on the pose of the objects of interest (target objects), occlusion and human capabilities as well. Additionally, certain target objects are difficult to be detected using only one viewpoint. For this reason, we developed an active X-ray testing framework that is able to adequate the viewpoint of the target object in order to obtain better X-ray images to analyze. The key idea of our method is to adapt automatically the viewpoint of the X-ray images in order to project the target object in poses where the detection performance should be higher. Thus, the detection inside of complex objects can be performed in a more effective way. Using a robotic arm and a semi-automatic manipulator system, the robustness and reliability of the method have been verified in the automated detection of razor blades located inside of nine different objects showing promising preliminary results: in 130 experiments we were able to detect 115 times the razor blade with 10 false alarms, achieving recall of 89% and precision of 92%.
RFID Based Blind People Navigation for Easy Transportation

Unfortunately, public transportation is not an easy mean to use and access by blind people in many countries. In case of buses, blind people have difficulty in recognizing and estimating the arrival of buses at the bus stations. In this paper a bus system using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is used. The blind people in the bus station are provided with the RFID reader which is recognized by the RFID tag in the bus. Then the blind people get the information about the arrival of the bus. The indication is made in the bus that the blind people is present in the station to the driver with the help of RF transmitter and RF receiver. So the bus stops at the particular station.
Body composition of male office workers compared by means of infrared reflection measurement, bioimpedance analysis and calipermetry

There are currently many different anthropometric methods to determine individual body fat percentage, as well as almost as many variants of bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) and only a single method of infrared reflection measurement (IR) as easily feasible methods of field research. The present study aims at a simultaneous comparison between calipermetry, IR and BIA. In particular, the question which measurement method could be used as an equivalent method in the event of failure of the BIA or IR is investigated. The sample group consisted of 250 male office workers from the Rhine-Main area (average age 31.75 ± 9.16 years, average height 178.5 ± 6.93 cm and average weight 80.61 ± 9.42 kg). The measurements were previously scheduled and mostly carried out during the lunch break. For anthropometry, 13 skin fat folds were measured with the help of the Accu® Measure Caliper, thigh circumference with the help of a measuring tape, height with a height measuring device and body mass on the weight scale. Subsequently, an IR measurement (Futrex®) and a BIA (InBody®) were performed on the same subject. The parameters of body fat percentage and total body water (in litres) were examined. The statistical methods were correlation coefficients, Bland-Altman comparison and paired t-test for equivalence. For the men studied, the highest correlation coefficients were in the comparisons between the formulas according to Parízkova & Buzkova 1 and Parízkova & Buzkova 3 (r = 0.93), as well as for Parízkova & Buzkova 3 and Parízkova & Buzkova 4 (r = 0.96). The correlation coefficient for the IR vs. BIA comparison was only r = 0.56. A key result of the present study was the finding that certain methods cannot be substituted in an equivalent way, in fact only some calipermetric regression equations.
Methods for Calculating Corn Yield

Predicting corn yield prior to harvest is often useful for yield monitor calibration, and for making feed supply and marketing decisions. The BEST and most accurate method for estimating yield, other than weighing harvested grain from the entire field, is to harvest and weigh representative samples from a plot area after plants have reached physiological maturity. Below are a number of methods for calculating corn grain yields listed in order of decreasing accuracy. To properly calculate yield you must determine grain moisture, harvested area and grain weight.
Automatic Classification of Complaint Reports about City Park

Recently, it has become easy for the growing Goverment 2.0 movement to report complaints. On the other hand, there is a clearly identified and growing delay in responses from the government side due to an overload on government capacity to deal with the increasing number of complaint reports as the movement grows. In this paper, we propose a method of automatically categorizing complaint reports as a first step to reduce the pressure on the government side. We conducted experiments in categorizing the complaint reports. The experimental results showed the following findings: (1) Feature selection is key to improving the accuracy (F-score) of the categorization of complaint reports. The percentage of words that are strongly effective for categorization is about 3.9% of the total of distinct words. (2) Proposed Mutual-Information(MI)-based methods outperform a conventional Random-Forest(RF)-based method. (3) The City management section seems to classify complaint reports by focusing on demands expressed in the reports. (4) The categorization performance usually high if training data includes various types of categories of data.
Wind Tunnel Experiment on Wind Pressures Acting on the Scaffolds in Strong Winds

Temporary scaffolds in Japan are typically covered with plastic sheets to prevent construction equipment from falling. However, when the cover sheets are subjected to strong winds, the scaffolds can collapse. In order to prevent or reduce the number of those accidents, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of wind pressures acting on the scaffolds. In this study, wind tunnel experiments with a building model in uniform flow were conducted to clarify the fundamental characteristics of wind pressures acting on the simplified scaffold models. The wind direction that caused the maximum pressure was identified. With the different sizes of the nearby scaffolds erected on the other side of the building, the wind pressures acting on the scaffolds can vary depending on the wind direction. The similarity of the experimental results from case to case was statistically discussed based on the coefficient of correlation. For different experiment cases, wind pressures acting on the exterior surface of the scaffolds that were erected at the same positions but in different sizes from the nearby scaffolds are more or less close to each other, while the pressures acting on the interior surface are different due to the wind entering the gap between the building and scaffolds. Thus, pressure acting on the interior surface of the scaffolds is a significant factor for the stability of the scaffolds.
ISWC 2013 doctoral consortium 'ontology evolution for end-user communities'

This project supports application for a practice-based[4] PhD by Peter Goodall. The project will produce a system architecture and proof-of-concept laboratory implementation to model, instrument, prototype, and evaluate the effectiveness of several alternate system designs which are intended to enable small end-user communities to evolve specialized ontologies and annotations for entities important to them. Depending on available resources, the laboratory may also be used to study bridging-subset ontologies for interchange, federation and seeding of community ontologies. There will be a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches tried by others, and a reflection on the usefulness of the system resulting from innovative work of this project.
Agent-based Modeling and Simulation for Vehicle Dispatching at Container Terminals

The increasing large-scale container ship advances the more crucial requirement to container terminal scheduling system than ever. Whether vehicles dispatching at container terminals is rational or not is provided with important significance to improve the whole handling efficiency. The model framework of vehicle dynamic dispatching on the basis of multi-agent and Harvard architecture was proposed. Subsequently, the simulation of the above model on the AnyLogic was discussed in detail. The practical operational data stored in the database were engaged to drive the simulation; the blackboard system and message/conversation were fused to form the communication mechanism in the simulation; the resource allocation policies and algorithms in operation system were introduced to schedule vehicles. Finally, a running instance in port was simulated whose result excels the previous data to validate the feasibility and creditability of the methodology.
Population Dynamics of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Heterogeneity in Cancer Cells

Phenotypic heterogeneity is a hallmark of aggressive cancer behaviour and a clinical challenge. Despite much characterisation of this heterogeneity at a multi-omics level in many cancers, we have a limited understanding of how this heterogeneity emerges spontaneously in an isogenic cell population. Some longitudinal observations of dynamics in epithelial-mesenchymal heterogeneity, a canonical example of phenotypic heterogeneity, have offered us opportunities to quantify the rates of phenotypic switching that may drive such heterogeneity. Here, we offer a mathematical modeling framework that explains the salient features of population dynamics noted in PMC42-LA cells: a) predominance of EpCAMhigh subpopulation, b) re-establishment of parental distributions from the EpCAMhigh and EpCAMlow subpopulations, and c) enhanced heterogeneity in clonal populations established from individual cells. Our framework proposes that fluctuations or noise in content duplication and partitioning of SNAIL – an EMT-inducing transcription factor – during cell division can explain spontaneous phenotypic switching and consequent dynamic heterogeneity in PMC42-LA cells observed experimentally at both single-cell and bulk level analysis. Together, we propose that asymmetric cell division can be a potential mechanism for phenotypic heterogeneity.
Information Management Systems and its Impact on the Performance of Financial Markets (Applied Study on the Iraqi Stock Exchange)

The study aims were to determine the predicted effects of management information via its systems on the Iraqi financial market, where the synthetic method was used, The study sample included (90) people who worked in Iraq's financial market. The findings revealed that management information, as transmitted through its systems, has an actual impact on the performance of the Iraqi financial market. The study recommended the need for optimal use of technology, which helps in simplifying the procedures used in addition to accelerating them.
A new outer‐rotor flux switching permanent magnet generator for wind farm applications

In this paper a 1.5 kW flux switching permanent magnet (FSPM) generator is presented for direct drive small scale wind turbine applications. For maximizing induced voltage and the output torque while minimizing cogging torque and unbalanced radial magnetic force (UMF), the proposed machine exhibits a new 6/19 stator pole/rotor teeth number and an outer rotor configuration. At first, in the paper an analytical design has been developed, then a finite element method (FEM) analysis is carried out for validating the analytical procedure and for design improvement. The simulation results extracted by FEM confirm the theoretical analysis procedure and help in the understanding of the performance analysis of the machine against the variations of the design variables. Furthermore, an experimental laboratory prototype of the proposed FSPM is implemented to confirm the analytical design and FEM modelling approaches. A comparison of induced voltage, torque, UMF and cogging torque produced by different FSPM configurations present in literature respect to the proposed generator has been developed. The results show the goodness of the adopted methodology and prove that, because of suitable electromagnetic performance of the proposed FSPM generator, it could be counted as a proper candidate for small scale wind turbine applications. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Testing and Characterization of HEMT Amplifiers

This work presents the results of the testing and characterization done on a set of HEMT amplifiers to verify their capabilities for use in the Multicolor Submillimeter Inductance Camera (MUSIC), which is to become the primary millimeter/submillimeter camera for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in the coming months. We have constructed a testbed to place the amplifiers in the same cryogenic conditions they will experience in the MUSIC cryostat. These tests provide detailed insight into the gain and noise contribution from the amplifiers, and will allow for the meaningful analysis of astronomical data. Specifically, we measured the scattering parameter S21 over a range of HEMT bias settings, as well as the white noise and 1/f noise. We used these measurements to determine the bias settings best suited to our purposes. With the ideal settings in hand, we proceeded to measure the effective noise temperatures of the HEMTs. The combined collection of these measurements demonstrated that all but two of the HEMTs have acceptable characteristics. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the members of my group whom I worked with to produce these tests: Jason Glenn, Phil Maloney, Spencer Brugger and James Schlaerth. In addition, I acknowledge the members of the MUSIC project who also contributed to the design of the testbed and the experimental methods used, including Sunil Golwala (CalTech), Seth Siegel (CalTech), and Jack Sayers (NASA JPL). The HEMTs used in this project were manufactured by Sander Weinreb at NASA JPL, and Hamdi Mani (NASA JPL) produced preliminary gain data that was valuable for checking our data. This work was supported by funds from the National Science Foundation, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and NASA.
The interplay of active and passive mechanisms in slow axonal transport

A combination of intermittent active movement of transient aggregates and a paused state that intervenes between periods of active transport has been proposed to underly the slow, directed transport of soluble proteins in axons. A component of passive diffusion in the axoplasm may also contribute to slow axonal transport, although quantitative estimates of the relative contributions of diffusive and active movement in the slow transport of a soluble protein, and in particular how they might vary across developmental stages, are lacking. Here, we propose and study a model for slow axonal transport, addressing data from bleach-recovery measurements on a small, soluble, protein, Choline Acetyltransferase (ChAT), in thin axons of the lateral chordotonal (lch5) sensory neurons of Drosophila. ChAT is mainly present in soluble form in the axon and catalyses the acetylation of choline at the synapse. It does not form particulate structures in axons and moves at rates characteristic of slow component b (≈ 1-10 mm/day or 0.01-0.1 μm/s). Using our model, which incorporates active transport, paused and diffusive states, we predict bleach recovery and cargo trajectories obtained through kymographs, comparing these to experimental observations at different developmental stages. We show that changes in the diffusive fraction of cargo during these developmental stages dominate bleach recovery and that a combination of active motion with a paused state alone cannot reproduce the data. We compared predictions of the model with results from photoactivation experiments. The importance of the diffusive state in reproducing the bleach recovery signal in the slow axonal transport of small soluble proteins is our central result. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE While the fast axonal transport of cargo in axons is by now well-understood, the nature of slow transport remains controversial. A number of different models having been proposed for slow axonal transport, including models which allow for transitions between an intermittently moving molecular-motor driven state and a stalled state. How mechanisms for slow axonal transport are modulated during development is unexplored. We study a number of different models for slow axonal transport, comparing their predictions to data on transport of the enzyme Choline Acetyltransferase (ChAT) in thin lateral chordotonal (lch5) sensory neurons of Drosophila larva, across developmental stages where flux increases significantly. We show that accounting for changes in the diffusive fraction of cargo during these developmental stages is essential and diffusion cannot be neglected in the modelling of the slow axonal transport of small soluble proteins.
Voltage control for a wind power plant based on the available reactive current of a DFIG and its impacts on the point of interconnection

Wake effects cause wind turbine generators (WTGs) within a wind power plant (WPP) to produce different levels of active power and subsequent reactive power capabilities. Further, the impedance between a WTG and the point of interconnection (POI)—which depends on the distance between them—impacts the WPP’s reactive power injection capability at the POI. This paper proposes a voltage control scheme for a WPP based on the available reactive current of the doubly-fed induction generators (DFIGs) and its impacts on the POI to improve the reactive power injection capability of the WPP. In this paper, a design strategy for modifying the gain of DFIG controller is suggested and the comprehensive properties of these control gains are investigated. In the proposed scheme, the WPP controller, which operates in a voltage control mode, sends the command signal to the DFIGs based on the voltage difference at the POI. The DFIG controllers, which operate in a voltage control mode, employ a proportional controller with a limiter. The gain of the proportional controller is adjusted depending on the available reactive current of the DFIG and the series impedance between the DFIG and the POI. The performance of the proposed scheme is validated for various disturbances such as a reactive load connection and grid fault using an EMTP-RV simulator. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme promptly recovers the POI voltage by injecting more reactive power after a disturbance than the conventional scheme.