Anomaly Detection in Noisy Images

Finding rare events in multidimensional data is an important detection problem that has applications in many fields, such as risk estimation in insurance industry, finance, flood prediction, medical diagnosis, quality assurance, security, or safety in transportation. The occurrence of such anomalies is so infrequent that there is usually not enough training data to learn an accurate statistical model of the anomaly class. In some cases, such events may have never been observed, so the only information that is available is a set of normal samples and an assumed pairwise similarity function. Such metric may only be known up to a certain number of unspecified parameters, which would either need to be learned from training data, or fixed by a domain expert. Sometimes, the anomalous condition may be formulated algebraically, such as a measure exceeding a predefined threshold, but nuisance variables may complicate the estimation of such a measure. Change detection methods used in time series analysis are not easily extendable to the multidimensional case, where discontinuities are not localized to a single point. On the other hand, in higher dimensions, data exhibits more complex interdependencies, and there is redundancy that could be exploited to adaptively model the normal data. In the first part of this dissertation, we review the theoretical framework for anomaly detection in images and previous anomaly detection work done in the context of crack detection and detection of anomalous components in railway tracks. In the second part, we propose new anomaly detection algorithms. The fact that curvilinear discontinuities in images are sparse with respect to the frame of shearlets, allows us to pose this anomaly detection problem as basis pursuit optimization. Therefore, we pose the problem of detecting curvilinear anomalies in noisy textured images as a blind source separation problem under sparsity constraints, and propose an iterative shrinkage algorithm to solve it. Taking advantage of the parallel nature of this algorithm, we describe how this method can be accelerated using graphical processing units (GPU). Then, we propose a new method for finding defective components on railway tracks using cameras mounted on a train. We describe how to extract features and use a combination of classifiers to solve this problem. Then, we scale anomaly detection to bigger datasets with complex interdependencies. We show that the anomaly detection problem naturally fits in the multitask learning framework. The first task consists of learning a compact representation of the good samples, while the second task consists of learning the anomaly detector. Using deep convolutional neural networks, we show that it is possible to train a deep model with a limited number of anomalous examples. In sequential detection problems, the presence of time-variant nuisance parameters affect the detection performance. In the last part of this dissertation, we present a method for adaptively estimating the threshold of sequential detectors using Extreme Value Theory on a Bayesian framework. Finally, conclusions on the results obtained are provided, followed by a discussion of possible future work

Investigation and Recovery of USS Westfield (Site 41GV151) Galveston Bay, Galveston County, Texas

This report represents the culmination of fourteen years of marine archeological investigations by PBS&J (now Atkins North America, Inc.) associated with the Texas City Channel Improvement Project. Over that time span Atkins’ investigations of the site of USS Westfield (41GV151) have included numerous remote-sensing surveys using various combinations of marine magnetometer, side-scan sonar, sector-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, and ROV; three diving investigations totaling 64 dives and over 72 hours of bottom time; and archeological salvage of Westfield resulting in the recovery of at least 8,380 artifacts. These combined efforts were undertaken in order to satisfy the responsibilities of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (Public Law 89-665; 16 U.S.C. 470) and the Antiquities Code of Texas (Texas Natural Resource Code, Title 9, Chapter 191). The archeological investigations reported in this document were conducted under Texas Antiquities Permits 3878, 4622, and 5271, issued by the Texas Historical Commission, and Federal Permits for Intrusive Archaeological Research on U.S. Naval Cultural Resources, Nos. PBSJ-2009-001 and PBSJ2009-0002, issued by the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command. The minimum reporting and survey requirements for marine archeological studies conducted under a Texas Antiquities Permit are mandated by The Texas Administrative Code, Title 13, Part 2, Chapters 26 and 28, respectively. The results of six separate site investigations are reported in this document, including Contract DACW64-03-D-0001Delivery Orders 0004 and 0005, conducted in 2005 and 2006, respectively, and additional site assessments and data recovery conducted under Delivery Order 0006 and four subsequent delivery order modifications in 2007, 2009, and 2010. The results of Delivery Order 0004 conclusively demonstrated that the source of recorded anomaly GV0031 was a shipwreck (and given the site designation 41GV151), which tentatively matched the time period and characteristics of Westfield. The results of Delivery Order 0005 further substantiated the identity of 41GV151 as USS Westfield and concluded that the site demonstrates several criteria for eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places. Delivery Order 0006 resulted in the data recovery operations, which are the primary focus of this report

Fabricate 2020

Fabricate 2020 is the fourth title in the FABRICATE series on the theme of digital fabrication and published in conjunction with a triennial conference (London, April 2020). The book features cutting-edge built projects and work-in-progress from both academia and practice. It brings together pioneers in design and making from across the fields of architecture, construction, engineering, manufacturing, materials technology and computation. Fabricate 2020 includes 32 illustrated articles punctuated by four conversations between world-leading experts from design to engineering, discussing themes such as drawing-to-production, behavioural composites, robotic assembly, and digital craft

Fabricate

Bringing together pioneers in design and making within architecture, construction, engineering, manufacturing, materials technology and computation, Fabricate is a triennial international conference, now in its third year (ICD, University of Stuttgart, April 2017). Each year it produces a supporting publication, to date the only one of its kind specialising in Digital Fabrication. The 2017 edition features 32 illustrated articles on built projects and works in progress from academia and practice, including contributions from leading practices such as Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Arup, and Ron Arad, and from world-renowned institutions including ICD Stuttgart, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Princeton University, The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) and the Architectural Association

Dual-Use Space Technology Transfer Conference and Exhibition

This document contains papers presented at the Dual-Use Space Technology Transfer Conference and Exhibition held at the Johnson Space Center February 1-3, 1994. Possible technology transfers covered during the conference were in the areas of information access; innovative microwave and optical applications; materials and structures; marketing and barriers; intelligent systems; human factors and habitation; communications and data systems; business process and technology transfer; software engineering; biotechnology and advanced bioinstrumentation; communications signal processing and analysis; new ways of doing business; medical care; applications derived from control center data systems; human performance evaluation; technology transfer methods; mathematics, modeling, and simulation; propulsion; software analysis and decision tools systems/processes in human support technology; networks, control centers, and distributed systems; power; rapid development perception and vision technologies; integrated vehicle health management; automation technologies; advanced avionics; ans robotics technologies. More than 77 papers, 20 presentations, and 20 exhibits covering various disciplines were presented b experts from NASA, universities, and industry

Detmold Conference Week 2017

Since 2000 (in the beginning 21st Century) climate change and globalisation have influenced the actual world and all societies tremendously and the have also affected the way we are building. Safety and security requirements are increasing and are consequently influencing the design of the building envelope. ‘Resilience’ describes the function and ability of buildings and their facades to to recover from or adjust easily to change. “Resilience” addresses the impacts of climate change and globalization and of safety and security requirements on the building envelope. The first edition of the Detmold Conference Week 2017 connects education and research, scholars and professionals in different events and formats: a master workshop and two conferences will discuss the approaches of resilient design and construction for buildings and facades. The direct way to specific stresses forced by water, wind, fire, explosion or earthquake but also in an indirect way seen as a general ability of adaptivity to different changes will be discussed at the facade2017 conference on Friday 24th November 2017 from different academic and professional perspectives. The 1st RMB Conference on Thursday 23rd November 2017 is organized by the consortium of the ERASMUS+ project “RMB: Reuse of Modernist Buildings. Design Tools for Sustainable Transformations”. There representatives of the consortium as well as international guest will debate in particular issues of Resilience of Modern Movement Buildings and Neighborhoods. During the conference we will discuss new design and educational concepts for the reuse of modern postwar buildings for housing and other purposes – resilience through reuse. Scholars, PhD and master students present and discuss selected papers and posters

St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire

St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber, is a redundant medieval church in the care of English Heritage. As a result of a major program of research carried out between 1978 and 2007, it is now the most intensively studied parish church in the UK. Excavations between 1978 and 1984 investigated most of the interior of the building, as well as a swathe of churchyard around its exterior. At the same time, a stone-by-stone record and detailed archaeological study of the fabric and furnishings of the church was undertaken, continuing down to 2007. The twin aims of the project were to understand the architectural history and setting of this complex, multi-period building (Volume 1, Parts 1 and 2) and to recover a substantial sample of the population for palaeopathological study (Volume 2). An extensive program of historical and topographical research also took place in order to set the archaeological evidence firmly in context