nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Active fire detection using Landsat 8/OLI data

The gradual increase in Landsat class data availability creates new opportunities for fire science and management applications that require higher fidelity information about biomass burning, improving upon existing coarser spatial resolution 1 km) satellite active fire data sets. Targeting those enhanced capabilities we describe an active fire detection algorithm for use with Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) daytime and nighttime data. The approach builds on the fire sensitive short wave infrared channel 7 complemented by visible and near infrared channel 1 6 data (daytime only) while also expanding on the use of multi temporal analysis to improve pixel classification results. Despite frequent saturation of OLI's fire affected pixels, which includes radiometric artifacts resulting from folding of digital numbers, our initial assessment based on visual image analysis indicated high algorithm fidelity across a wide range of biomass burning scenarios, gas flares and active volcanoes. Additional field data verification confirmed the sensor's and algorithm's ability to resolve fires of significantly small areas compared to current operational satellite fire products. Commission errors were greatly reduced with the addition of multi temporal analysis tests applied to co located pixels, averaging less than 0.2% globally. Because of its overall quality, Landsat 8/OLI active fire data could become part of a network of emerging earth observation systems providing enhanced spatial and temporal coverage of biomass burning at global scales.
Fusion of privileged features for efficient classifier training
Venue: 2016 19th International Conference on Information Fusion (FUSION)

Within the supervised machine learning framework, classifier performance is significantly affected by the size of training datasets. One of the ways to improve classification accuracy with small training datasets is to utilize additional knowledge about training data that is not present in testing data. In the Learning Using Privileged Information (LUPI) learning paradigm, this additional knowledge is represented by the privileged feature space, which is fused with the standard feature space during classifier training. In this paper, we study two new algorithmic realization of LUPI, based on knowledge transfer, and compare them with the original SVM+ LUPI algorithm, which is based on similarity control. We apply the algorithms to a wide area aerial video exploitation problem, and measure misclassification error rate and execution time of both algorithms. We use minor area motion imagery (MAMI) dataset, recently released by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) High resolution imagery is utilized as privileged information for low resolution imagery. We demonstrate that an ensemble knowledge transfer approach that combines multiple knowledge transfer algorithms outperforms the original SVM+ approach with the error rate reduction of up to 25% We also show that knowledge transfer approach requires significantly less computational resources, making LUPI algorithms as scalable as SVM.
Impact of the reference choice on scalp EEG connectivity estimation.
Venue: Journal of neural engineering

Several scalp EEG functional connectivity studies, mostly clinical, seem to overlook the reference electrode impact. The subsequent interpretation of brain connectivity is thus often biased by the choice of a non neutral reference. This study aims at systematically investigating these effects.  As EEG reference, we examined the vertex electrode (Cz) the digitally linked mastoids (DLM) the average reference (AVE) and the reference electrode standardization technique (REST) As a connectivity metric, we used the imaginary part of the coherency. We tested simulated and real data (eyes open resting state) by evaluating the influence of electrode density, the effect of head model accuracy in the REST transformation, and the impact on the characterization of the topology of functional networks from graph analysis.  Simulations demonstrated that REST significantly reduced the distortion of connectivity patterns when compared to AVE, Cz, and DLM references. Moreover, the availability of high density EEG systems and an accurate knowledge of the head model are crucial elements to improve REST performance, with the individual realistic head model being preferable to the standard realistic head model. For real data, a systematic change of the spatial pattern of functional connectivity depending on the chosen reference was also observed. The distortion of connectivity patterns was larger for the Cz reference, and progressively decreased when using the DLM, the AVE, and the REST. Strikingly, we also showed that network attributes derived from graph analysis, i.e. node degree and local efficiency, are significantly influenced by the EEG reference choice.  Overall, this study highlights that significant differences arise in scalp EEG functional connectivity and graph network properties, in dependence on the chosen reference. We hope that our study will convey the message that caution should be used when interpreting and comparing results obtained from different laboratories using different reference schemes.
Does Choice Matter? Reference Based Alignment for Molecular Epidemiology of Tuberculosis
Venue: Journal of Clinical Microbiology

When using genome sequencing for molecular epidemiology, short sequence reads are aligned to an arbitrary reference strain to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms. We investigated whether reference genome selection influences epidemiological inferences of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission by aligning sequence reads from 162 closely related lineage 4 (Euro American) isolates to 7 different genomes. Phylogenetic trees were consistent with use of all but the most divergent genomes, suggesting that reference choice can be based on considerations other than M. tuberculosis lineage.
Towards Automated Melanoma Screening: Exploring Transfer Learning Schemes
Venue: ArXiv

Deep learning is the current bet for image classification. Its greed for huge amounts of annotated data limits its usage in medical imaging context. In this scenario transfer learning appears as a prominent solution. In this report we aim to clarify how transfer learning schemes may influence classification results. We are particularly focused in the automated melanoma screening problem, a case of medical imaging in which transfer learning is still not widely used. We explored transfer with and without fine tuning, sequential transfers and usage of pre trained models in general and specific datasets. Although some issues remain open, our findings may drive future researches.
Complement and thrombosis in the antiphospholipid syndrome.
Venue: Autoimmunity reviews

The involvement of complement activation in the pathophysiology of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) was first reported in murine models of antiphospholipid antibody (aPL) related pregnancy morbidities. We previously reported that complement activation is prevalent and may function as a source of procoagulant cell activation in the sera of APS patients. Recently, autoantibodies against C1q, a component of complement 1, were reported to be correlated with complement activation in systemic lupus erythematosus. These antibodies target neoepitopes of deformed C1q bound to various molecules (i.e. anionic phospholipids) and induce accelerated complement activation. We found that anti C1q antibodies are more frequently detected in primary APS patients than in control patients and in refractory APS patients with repeated thrombotic events. The titer of anti C1q antibodies was significantly higher in refractory APS patients than in APS patients without flare. The binding of C1q to anionic phospholipids may be associated with the surge in complement activation in patients with anti C1q antibodies when triggered by 'second hit' biological stressors such as infection. Such stressors will induce overexpression of anionic phospholipids, with subsequent increases in deformed C1q that is targeted by anti C1q antibodies.
Recent advances in understanding antiphospholipid syndrome
Venue: F1000Research

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) also known as Hughes Syndrome, is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by thrombosis and/or pregnancy morbidity in the presence of persistently positive antiphospholipid antibodies. A patient with APS must meet at least one of two clinical criteria (vascular thrombosis or complications of pregnancy) and at least one of two laboratory criteria including the persistent presence of lupus anticoagulant (LA) anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) and/or anti b2 glycoprotein I (anti b2GPI) antibodies of IgG or IgM isotype at medium to high titres in patient's plasma. However, several other autoantibodies targeting other coagulation cascade proteins (i.e. prothrombin) or their complex with phospholipids (i.e. phosphatidylserine/prothrombin complex) or to some domains of b2GPI, have been proposed to be also relevant to APS. In fact, the value of testing for new aPL specificities in the identification of APS in thrombosis and/or pregnancy morbidity patients is currently being investigated.
Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome Diagnostic Issues of Lupus Anticoagulants

Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome is a serious autoimmune disorder which can lead to multisystem manifestations from recurrent thrombosis to pregnancy loss to intrauterine death and other obstetric morbidities. In few cases it may lead to catastrophic syndrome. Antiphospholipid antibodies are circulating antibodies which bind with the plasma proteins which in turn bind to phospholipids and thus lead to pathogenesis. Despite of so many researches done in the field of APLA, the mechanisms leading to obstetric complications are still debatable. Antiphospholipid antibodies are detected on the basis of solid phase assays which comprised of anticardiolipin (acl) antibody and Anti b2 glycoprotein (aB2GP) and the other one is liquid phase assays which identifies lupus anticoagulants (LAC) While aB2GP and acl are being detected most commonly by ELISA, LAC is being detected by clot based test. Lupus anticoagulant is a double misnomer as most patients don't have systemic lupus erythematous and in vivo reacts as procoagulants.
Speed and Displacement Control System of Bearingless Brushless DC Motor Based on Improved Bacterial Foraging Algorithm

To solve the deficiencies of long optimization time and poor precision existing in conventional bacterial foraging algorithm (BFA) in the process of parameter optimization, an improved bacterial foraging algorithm (IBFA) is proposed and applied to speed and displacement control system of bearingless brushless DC (Bearingless BLDC) motors. To begin with the fundamental principle of BFA, the proposed method is introduced and the individual intelligence is efficiently used in the process of parameter optimization, and then the working principle of bearingless BLDC motors is expounded. Finally, modeling and simulation of the speed and displacement control system of bearingless BLDC motors based on the IBFA are carried out by taking the software of MATLAB/Simulink as a platform. Simulation results show that, speed overshoot, torque ripple and rotor position oscillation are dramatically reduced, thus the proposed method has good application prospects in the field of bearingless motors.
Evaluation of a volume of fluid CFD methodology for the oil film thickness estimation in an aero engine bearing chamber

The presented work aims to identify a Volume of Fluid (VOF) CFD approach for the transient simulation of air/oil flows inside an aero engine bearing chamber. Typically VOF requires relatively fine grids and consequently small time steps to sufficiently resolve the formation of oil films and their interaction with air flows. The need to achieve a stationary state which requires flow times on the order of seconds makes the compromise between simulation accuracy and simulation times a challenging choice when using the VOF method. In this work, the use of the Compressive Interface Reconstruction scheme with bounded second order implicit time discretization has enabled a significant speed up of the simulation times against the previously adopted explicit Geometric Reconstruction scheme. The results are evaluated against experimental data available in the literature.
High strength tin based overlay for medium and high speed diesel engine bearing tribological applications

Tin based materials are often used as lead free overlay for half shell bearings in medium and high speed diesel engines for their high resistance to cavitation and corrosion damages and excellent conformability and embeddability for engine tribological applications. Tin based overlay also offers reasonable fatigue resistance but in order to satisfy the more and more exigent demand of future engine developments especially those fired by natural gases to minimize emissions, a multilayer tin copper overlay system is herein proposed to overcome the structural weaknesses of traditional monolayer tin copper overlay therefore provide enhanced tribological performances.
Engine Bearing Design

Within any given engine a large number of bearings incorporating several design, material, and operational variations are seen. While needle, ball, or roller bearings are sometimes seen in automotive and heavy duty engines the majority of engines for these applications use primarily plain bearings. Roller bearings are receiving increasing attention due to their lower oil supply requirements and potential for reduced friction and parasitic losses in automotive engines. Increased space requirements, and in the case of connecting rod bearings increased rotating mass, must be weighed against potential attractions. Automotive engine examples of ball and roller bearing are seen in valvetrain and balancer shaft bearings. The discussion presented in the following sections will be limited only to plain bearings.
GVDB: raytracing sparse voxel database structures on the GPU
Venue: High Performance Graphics

Simulation and rendering of sparse volumetric data have different constraints and solutions depending on the application area. Generating precise simulations and understanding very large data are problems in scientific visualization, whereas convincing simulations and realistic visuals are challenges in motion pictures. Both require volumes with dynamic topology, very large domains, and efficient high quality rendering. We present the GPU voxel database structure, GVDB, based on the voxel database topology of Museth [Mus13] as a method for efficient GPU based compute and raytracing on a sparse hierarchy of grids. GVDB introduces an indexed memory pooling design for dynamic topology, and a novel hierarchical traversal for efficient raytracing on the GPU. Examples are provided for ray sampling of volumetric data, rendering of isosurfaces with multiple scattering, and raytracing of level sets. We demonstrate that GVDB can give large performance improvements over CPU methods with identical quality.
The Gun Violence Database
Venue: ArXiv

We describe the Gun Violence Database (GVDB) a large and growing database of gun violence incidents in the United States. The GVDB is built from the detailed information found in local news reports about gun violence, and is constructed via a large scale crowdsourced annotation effort through our web site, this http URL We argue that centralized and publicly available data about gun violence can facilitate scientific, fact based discussion about a topic that is often dominated by politics and emotion. We describe our efforts to automate the construction of the database using state of the art natural language processing (NLP) technologies, eventually enabling a fully automated, highly scalable resource for research on this important public health problem.
Ecologies of adaptation for Mexican Indigenous im/migrant children and families in the United States: Implications for Latino studies

Mexican Indigenous im/migrants are a growing community made invisible at the margins of multiple racial, cultural and linguistic spaces in Mexico and the United States. This article addresses the need for a nuanced understanding of the adaptation of Mexican Indigenous im/migrant children and families that encourages Indigenous communities' cultural and linguistic knowledge to be recognized and valued, rather than silenced and stigmatized. We critically examine the existing literature on the adaptation of Mexican Indigenous im/migrants in the United States from the perspective of socio ecological systems theory, incorporating insights from the theory but also pointing out its limitations for understanding Mexican Indigenous identities and experiences in diaspora. We propose integrating language ecological approaches to provide a more complete picture of Indigenous ecologies of adaptation in the United States. We conclude that it is critical to expand research on Mexican Indigenous im/migrant adaptation within the field of Latino studies and identify possible directions for future research.
A novel edge based image steganography with 2k correction and Huffman encoding
Venue: Inf. Process. Lett.

Image steganography is the art of hiding information into a cover image. It derives from the Greek for covered writing and eventually means "to hide in the plain sight" In this paper a novel algorithm which is based on Canny edge detector and 2 k correction is proposed. The new method also utilizes Huffman encoding and coherent bit length. Firstly, Canny edge detector is applied to detect the edge of cover image and only edge pixels are selected for embedding payload. Sorting method is used to randomize the edge pixels in order to enhance security. Then Huffman table is constructed. Huffman encoding is practiced to code the secret data before embedded according to Huffman table. Huffman table also should be transmitted to the receiver as secret key. Calculate coherent bit length L on the base of relevant edge pixels and replace with L bits of payload message. Finally, the method of 2 k correction is applied to achieve better imperceptibility in stego image. The experiment shows that the proposed method is advantage in PSNR, capacity and universal image quality index (Q) than LSB 3 and Jae Gil Yu's. Canny edge detection is adopted to detect the edge of cover image.Secret message is encoded with Huffman coding.Different edge pixels could be embedded in different bits of payload.The method of 2 k correction is used to improve the visual effect of stego image.
Overcoming the challenges in K 12 STEM education
Venue: 2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)

New studies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have investigated the factors why students do or do not appreciate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses. Many indicators point mainly to the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of teachers. The main purpose of this paper is to identify significant factors that affect teachers' effectiveness. This is done through an analysis of the results of a twenty four question survey, developed by the authors, given to 200 STEM teachers, from Kindergarten to Grade 12, in public and private schools across the country. A literature review consisting of comparable studies in other countries served as a backdrop to the many trends discovered in the analysis of teachers' responses. Furthermore, the authors provide additional critical interpretations to address the unique nature of the findings in the UAE educational system. Overall, the findings point to the dire need to address teachers' dissatisfaction with the teaching profession in the UAE. Specifically, addressing monetary compensation, improving the curricula, lack of resources and providing professional guidance via development courses and seminars are necessary if teachers are to be more effective in the classroom. The paper also provides recommendations that can improve the current conditions, not only in the UAE, but also in other regions of the world being affected by the same.
THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF A SINGLE EFFECT LITHIUM BROMIDE WATER ABSORPTION SYSTEM USING WASTE HEAT IN SUGAR INDUSTRY

Energy analysis plays a vital role in the industry due to the use of electrical energy, global warming, and economy crises. This paper describes the waste heat available in the exhaust of the steam turbine and beneficial use of the waste heat. The sugar industry steam turbine exhaust carries enthalpy of steam at 2500 kJ/kg, and this thermal energy can be put into beneficial use as the heat source to the vapor absorption refrigeration system to compensate energy required for DC thyrist motor, and this can also be used for cold storage. Energy savings in terms of cost and fuels are calculated. Investigation on the heat and mass transfer in evaporator has been carried out in vapor absorption system by varying the operating parameter. Less circulation ratio is required to increase the COP. The inlet temperature of the coolant should be less for achieving higher COP.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Stability of Formamidinium Lead Bromide Perovskite Solar Cells Yielding High Photovoltage.
Venue: Nano letters

We report on both the intrinsic and the extrinsic stability of a formamidinium lead bromide [CH(NH2)2PbBr3 FAPbBr3] perovskite solar cell that yields a high photovoltage. The fabrication of FAPbBr3 devices, displaying an outstanding photovoltage of 1.53 V and a power conversion efficiency of over 8% was realized by modifying the mesoporous TiO2 FAPbBr3 interface using lithium treatment. Reasons for improved photovoltaic performance were revealed by a combination of techniques, including photothermal deflection absorption spectroscopy (PDS) transient photovoltage and charge extraction analysis, and time integrated and time resolved photoluminescence. With lithium treated TiO2 films, PDS reveals that the TiO2 FAPbBr3 interface exhibits low energetic disorder, and the emission dynamics showed that electron injection from the conduction band of FAPbBr3 into that of mesoporous TiO2 is faster than for the untreated scaffold. Moreover, compared to the device with pristine TiO2, the charge carrier recombination rate within a device based on lithium treated TiO2 film is 1 order of magnitude lower. Importantly, the operational stability of perovskites solar cells examined at a maximum power point revealed that the FAPbBr3 material is intrinsically (under nitrogen) as well as extrinsically (in ambient conditions) stable, as the unsealed devices retained over 95% of the initial efficiency under continuous full sun illumination for 150 h in nitrogen and dry air and 80% in 60% relative humidity (T ~60 degC) The demonstration of high photovoltage, a record for FAPbBr3, together with robust stability renders our work of practical significance.
Propagation of transient field radiated from plane disk in nonlinear medium
Venue: 2016 8th International Conference on Ultrawideband and Ultrashort Impulse Signals (UWBUSIS)

The evolutionary approach is applied to the problem of radiation of impulse transient electromagnetic field from plane disk with homogeneous distribution of given electrical current. The set of evolutionary equations on time and longitudinal coordinate was received from Maxwell equations. The analytical solution of linear problem of plane disk radiation is obtained by Riemann function method in time domain. It is shown the accounting of a weak nonlinearity of a medium by method of successive approximations.