Federated AI for building AI Solutions across Multiple Agencies

The different sets of regulations existing for differ-ent agencies within the government make the task of creating AI enabled solutions in government dif-ficult. Regulatory restrictions inhibit sharing of da-ta across different agencies, which could be a significant impediment to training AI models. We discuss the challenges that exist in environments where data cannot be freely shared and assess tech-nologies which can be used to work around these challenges. We present results on building AI models using the concept of federated AI, which al-lows creation of models without moving the training data around.Comment: Presented at AAAI FSS-18: Artificial Intelligence in Government and Public Sector, Arlington, Virginia, US

Design, construction and commissioning of an organic Rankine cycle waste heat recovery system with a Tesla-hybrid turbine expander

2011 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.Issues surrounding energy are some of the most compelling subjects in the world today. With human's ever increasing need for energy, production must increase or consumption must be reduced to avoid an unsustainable long-term energy balance. One part of the energy solution is low-temperature Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs). ORCs can be utilized to produce power in mass quantity from a dedicated heat source such as a geothermal well. ORCs may also be utilized as a waste heat recovery system to generate power from a heat stream that is typically rejected to the environment. Low-temperature waste heat streams are ubiquitous as every internal combustion engine generates 55-75% of its total fuel energy as waste heat. Efficiency of a waste heat recovery ORC system is strongly dependent on condensing temperature and expander efficiency. Condensing temperatures are typically kept low with an evaporative condensing unit. However, water consumption to increase energy production is becoming less tolerated. To provide a means to conduct research around these issues, a waste heat recovery ORC test bed was designed and constructed. This thesis contains information on construction and operation of the test bed with these features: R245fa working fluid, direct dry cooled condensing and a Tesla-hybrid turbine expander

An Examination of the Knowledge and Screening Practices for Child Maltreatment among Primary Care Providers

Background: Child maltreatment can affect any race, economic status, gender, and age. Primary care providers have contact with children and their caretakers daily and develop bonds that encourage open communication. Screening for child maltreatment risk factors can help discover those in danger and decrease abuse rates. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine provider’s knowledge of child maltreatment risk factors and assess screening and documentation practices. Methods: This was a descriptive study that included an electronic survey to primary care providers to assess current knowledge and practices for child maltreatment risk factors. Second, a retrospective chart review was done to assess providers’ documentation of risk factors. Results: Seventy-eight percent of provider’s surveyed screen for child maltreatment risk factors at all visits and with parents in the room. Providers surveyed do not feel Kentucky and Indiana have enough resources available to prevent child maltreatment. Providers are fearful to ask difficult questions to caregivers about substance abuse and domestic violence in the home but did not agree as to whether they needed more training on substance abuse or domestic violence. Conclusion: Providers are knowledgeable when it comes to child maltreatment risk factors. To adequately screen for child maltreatment risk factors, providers must ask specific key questions of patients and their caregivers. Using a standardized set of questions can ensure that all providers in the organization are screening the same

Relationship between LiDAR-derived canopy layering and rainfall redistribution in forests varies with scale

Forest canopy can reduce precipitation reaching the ground by up to 50% through interception, storage, and evaporation of droplets from leaf and bark surfaces. This process, called interception loss, impacts runoff, recharge, flood flashiness, erosion, etc., and cost of stormwater management. It is not well understood how canopy structure affects interception loss, particularly in urban forests. This research addresses this issue by monitoring interception loss variables for a common south eastern US tree species (slash pine) across a natural-to-urban gradient in forest structure. This study considers three different sites to obtain the natural-to-urban gradient. Two of those sites are at the Georgia Southern University campus in Statesboro, GA, and one near the small city of Oliver in Screven County, GA, close to the Ogeechee River. High resolution laser-based scanners (LiDAR) are employed to generate 3D point-cloud models of the forest canopies at each site. Several individual trees from each site are separated into single-tree point clouds. The isolated tree models are then imported into a state-of-the-art computer software, Computree, for further processing. The branch structures of the trees are studied to find correlations with the amount of rain intercepted. In conjunction with the LiDAR data, automatic gauges are deployed under each forest canopy to tie canopy structures to areas where rain water flux to soils. The more automated gauges we deploy, the finer resolution we attain. This improves needed interpolations and produce more accurate results. The importance of this study is related to the fact that many soil and surface hydrological processes (e.g infiltration and recharge vs. stormwater runoff) depend on these throughfall patterns. Currently, the few publications on interception loss have completed studies on a large scale and assumed results to be the same on the small scale. However, from data previously collected, it is inferred that interception loss is actually much more sporadic rather than linear, as it is on the larger scale. This work should provide practical results to better approach runoff and stormwater management in urban environments

Literacy Portfolios in Third Grade: A School-College Collaboration

In this article we will present our teacher professor collaborative investigation of the implementation of Literacy Portfolios (Hansen, 1992). We will discuss teacher professor collaborative research, Literacy Portfolios research, how our collaboration began, how we implemented Literacy Portfolios, our findings, implications for changes for the following year, and our reflections on our collaboration

Informatics: the fuel for pharmacometric analysis

The current informal practice of pharmacometrics as a combination art and science makes it hard to appreciate the role that informatics can and should play in the future of the discipline and to comprehend the gaps that exist because of its absence. The development of pharmacometric informatics has important implications for expediting decision making and for improving the reliability of decisions made in model-based development. We argue that well-defined informatics for pharmacometrics can lead to much needed improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness, and reliability of the pharmacometrics process. The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of the pervasive yet often poorly appreciated role of informatics in improving the process of data assembly, a critical task in the delivery of pharmacometric analysis results. First, we provide a brief description of the pharmacometric analysis process. Second, we describe the business processes required to create analysis-ready data sets for the pharmacometrician. Third, we describe selected informatic elements required to support the pharmacometrics and data assembly processes. Finally, we offer specific suggestions for performing a systematic analysis of existing challenges as an approach to defi ning the next generation of pharmacometric informatics

WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications

Examines what the intelligence community understood about Iraq's WMD programs before the 2003 war in Iraq. Outlines policy reforms designed to improve assessments, deter transfer of WMD to terrorists, and avoid politicization of the intelligence process