1,094 research outputs found
Globally-scalable Automated Target Recognition (GATR)
GATR (Globally-scalable Automated Target Recognition) is a Lockheed Martin
software system for real-time object detection and classification in satellite
imagery on a worldwide basis. GATR uses GPU-accelerated deep learning software
to quickly search large geographic regions. On a single GPU it processes
imagery at a rate of over 16 square km/sec (or more than 10 Mpixels/sec), and
it requires only two hours to search the entire state of Pennsylvania for gas
fracking wells. The search time scales linearly with the geographic area, and
the processing rate scales linearly with the number of GPUs. GATR has a
modular, cloud-based architecture that uses the Maxar GBDX platform and
provides an ATR analytic as a service. Applications include broad area search,
watch boxes for monitoring ports and airfields, and site characterization. ATR
is performed by deep learning models including RetinaNet and Faster R-CNN.
Results are presented for the detection of aircraft and fracking wells and show
that the recalls exceed 90% even in geographic regions never seen before. GATR
is extensible to new targets, such as cars and ships, and it also handles radar
and infrared imagery.Comment: 7 pages, 18 figures, 2019 IEEE Applied Imagery Pattern Recognition
Workshop (AIPR
Emotional Eating and Diet-related Self-Efficacy, Motivation, and Norms in Adolescents
The objective of the current study was to examine the association between emotional eating and self-efficacy, motivation, and social norms for consumption of fruits and vegetables (F/V) and energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods and beverages, as well as interactions with body mass index-z score (BMI-z). Adolescents completed self-report measures of demographics, emotional eating, and dietary health behavior theory constructs. Emotional eating was associated with lower self-efficacy for consumption of F/V and for limiting EDNP foods/beverages; greater motivation for limiting of EDNP foods/beverages; lower social norms for consumption of F/V; and greater social norms for consumption of EDNP foods/beverages. There were no interactions with BMI-z. Evidence-based nutrition programs that leverage health behavior theories should be tailored to adolescents’ emotional eating
Point-of-care testing for disasters: needs assessment, strategic planning, and future design.
Objective evidence-based national surveys serve as a first step in identifying suitable point-of-care device designs, effective test clusters, and environmental operating conditions. Preliminary survey results show the need for point-of-care testing (POCT) devices using test clusters that specifically detect pathogens found in disaster scenarios. Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in southeast Asia, and the current influenza pandemic (H1N1, "swine flu") vividly illustrate lack of national and global preparedness. Gap analysis of current POCT devices versus survey results reveals how POCT needs can be fulfilled. Future thinking will help avoid the worst consequences of disasters on the horizon, such as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and pandemic influenzas. A global effort must be made to improve POC technologies to rapidly diagnose and treat patients to improve triaging, on-site decision making, and, ultimately, economic and medical outcomes
Telomere disruption results in non-random formation of de novo dicentric chromosomes involving acrocentric human chromosomes
Copyright: © 2010 Stimpson et al.Genome rearrangement often produces chromosomes with two centromeres (dicentrics) that are inherently unstable because of bridge formation and breakage during cell division. However, mammalian dicentrics, and particularly those in humans, can be quite stable, usually because one centromere is functionally silenced. Molecular mechanisms of centromere inactivation are poorly understood since there are few systems to experimentally create dicentric human chromosomes. Here, we describe a human cell culture model that enriches for de novo dicentrics. We demonstrate that transient disruption of human telomere structure non-randomly produces dicentric fusions involving acrocentric chromosomes. The induced dicentrics vary in structure near fusion breakpoints and like naturally-occurring dicentrics, exhibit various inter-centromeric distances. Many functional dicentrics persist for months after formation. Even those with distantly spaced centromeres remain functionally dicentric for 20 cell generations. Other dicentrics within the population reflect centromere inactivation. In some cases, centromere inactivation occurs by an apparently epigenetic mechanism. In other dicentrics, the size of the alpha-satellite DNA array associated with CENP-A is reduced compared to the same array before dicentric formation. Extrachromosomal fragments that contained CENP-A often appear in the same cells as dicentrics. Some of these fragments are derived from the same alpha-satellite DNA array as inactivated centromeres. Our results indicate that dicentric human chromosomes undergo alternative fates after formation. Many retain two active centromeres and are stable through multiple cell divisions. Others undergo centromere inactivation. This event occurs within a broad temporal window and can involve deletion of chromatin that marks the locus as a site for CENP-A maintenance/replenishment.This work was supported by the Tumorzentrum Heidelberg/Mannheim grant (D.10026941)and by March of Dimes Research Foundation grant #1-FY06-377 and NIH R01 GM069514
Australians’ views on carbon pricing before and after the 2013 federal election
As climate policies change through the legislative process, public attitudes towards them may change as well. Therefore, it is important to assess how people accept and support controversial climate policies as the policies change over time. Policy acceptance is a positive evaluation of, or attitude towards, an existing policy; policy support adds an active behavioural component1, 3. Acceptance does not necessarily lead to support. We conducted a national survey of Australian residents to investigate acceptance of, and support for, the Australian carbon pricing policy before and after the 2013 federal election, and how perceptions of the policy, economic ideology, and voting behaviour affect acceptance and support. We found acceptance and support were stable across the election period, which was surprising given that climate policy was highly contentious during the election. Policy acceptance was higher than policy support at both times and acceptance was a necessary but insufficient condition of support. We conclude that acceptance is an important process through which perceptions of the policy and economic ideology influence support. Therefore, future climate policy research needs to distinguish between acceptance and support to better understand this process, and to better measure these concepts
Enhanced relapse prevention for bipolar disorder – ERP trial. A cluster randomised controlled trial to assess the feasibility of training care coordinators to offer enhanced relapse prevention for bipolar disorder
BACKGROUND: Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a common and severe form of mental illness characterised by repeated relapses of mania or depression. Pharmacotherapy is the main treatment currently offered, but this has only limited effectiveness. A recent Cochrane review has reported that adding psycho-social interventions that train people to recognise and manage the early warning signs of their relapses is effective in increasing time to recurrence, improving social functioning and in reducing hospitalisations. However, the review also highlights the difficulties in offering these interventions within standard mental health services due to the need for highly trained therapists and extensive input of time. There is a need to explore the potential for developing Early Warning Sign (EWS) interventions in ways that will enhance dissemination. METHODS AND DESIGN: This article describes a cluster-randomised trial to assess the feasibility of training care coordinators (CCs) in community mental health teams (CMHTs) to offer Enhanced Relapse Prevention (ERP) to people with Bipolar Disorder. CMHTs in the North West of England are randomised to either receive training in ERP and to offer this to their clients, or to continue to offer treatment as usual (TAU). The main aims of the study are (1) to determine the acceptability of the intervention, training and outcome measures (2) to assess the feasibility of the design as measured by rates of recruitment, retention, attendance and direct feedback from participants (3) to estimate the design effect of clustering for key outcome variables (4) to estimate the effect size of the impact of the intervention on outcome. In this paper we provide a rationale for the study design, briefly outline the ERP intervention, and describe in detail the study protocol. DISCUSSION: This information will be useful to researchers attempting to carry out similar feasibility assessments of clinical effectiveness trials and in particular cluster randomised controlled trials
All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
We report on an all-sky search with the LIGO detectors for periodic
gravitational waves in the frequency range 50-1000 Hz and with the frequency's
time derivative in the range -1.0E-8 Hz/s to zero. Data from the fourth LIGO
science run (S4) have been used in this search. Three different semi-coherent
methods of transforming and summing strain power from Short Fourier Transforms
(SFTs) of the calibrated data have been used. The first, known as "StackSlide",
averages normalized power from each SFT. A "weighted Hough" scheme is also
developed and used, and which also allows for a multi-interferometer search.
The third method, known as "PowerFlux", is a variant of the StackSlide method
in which the power is weighted before summing. In both the weighted Hough and
PowerFlux methods, the weights are chosen according to the noise and detector
antenna-pattern to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio. The respective
advantages and disadvantages of these methods are discussed. Observing no
evidence of periodic gravitational radiation, we report upper limits; we
interpret these as limits on this radiation from isolated rotating neutron
stars. The best population-based upper limit with 95% confidence on the
gravitational-wave strain amplitude, found for simulated sources distributed
isotropically across the sky and with isotropically distributed spin-axes, is
4.28E-24 (near 140 Hz). Strict upper limits are also obtained for small patches
on the sky for best-case and worst-case inclinations of the spin axes.Comment: 39 pages, 41 figures An error was found in the computation of the C
parameter defined in equation 44 which led to its overestimate by 2^(1/4).
The correct values for the multi-interferometer, H1 and L1 analyses are 9.2,
9.7, and 9.3, respectively. Figure 32 has been updated accordingly. None of
the upper limits presented in the paper were affecte
Search for gravitational waves from binary inspirals in S3 and S4 LIGO data
We report on a search for gravitational waves from the coalescence of compact
binaries during the third and fourth LIGO science runs. The search focused on
gravitational waves generated during the inspiral phase of the binary
evolution. In our analysis, we considered three categories of compact binary
systems, ordered by mass: (i) primordial black hole binaries with masses in the
range 0.35 M(sun) < m1, m2 < 1.0 M(sun), (ii) binary neutron stars with masses
in the range 1.0 M(sun) < m1, m2 < 3.0 M(sun), and (iii) binary black holes
with masses in the range 3.0 M(sun)< m1, m2 < m_(max) with the additional
constraint m1+ m2 < m_(max), where m_(max) was set to 40.0 M(sun) and 80.0
M(sun) in the third and fourth science runs, respectively. Although the
detectors could probe to distances as far as tens of Mpc, no gravitational-wave
signals were identified in the 1364 hours of data we analyzed. Assuming a
binary population with a Gaussian distribution around 0.75-0.75 M(sun), 1.4-1.4
M(sun), and 5.0-5.0 M(sun), we derived 90%-confidence upper limit rates of 4.9
yr^(-1) L10^(-1) for primordial black hole binaries, 1.2 yr^(-1) L10^(-1) for
binary neutron stars, and 0.5 yr^(-1) L10^(-1) for stellar mass binary black
holes, where L10 is 10^(10) times the blue light luminosity of the Sun.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure
Search for Gravitational Wave Bursts from Soft Gamma Repeaters
We present the results of a LIGO search for short-duration gravitational
waves (GWs) associated with Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR) bursts. This is the first
search sensitive to neutron star f-modes, usually considered the most efficient
GW emitting modes. We find no evidence of GWs associated with any SGR burst in
a sample consisting of the 27 Dec. 2004 giant flare from SGR 1806-20 and 190
lesser events from SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 which occurred during the first
year of LIGO's fifth science run. GW strain upper limits and model-dependent GW
emission energy upper limits are estimated for individual bursts using a
variety of simulated waveforms. The unprecedented sensitivity of the detectors
allows us to set the most stringent limits on transient GW amplitudes published
to date. We find upper limit estimates on the model-dependent isotropic GW
emission energies (at a nominal distance of 10 kpc) between 3x10^45 and 9x10^52
erg depending on waveform type, detector antenna factors and noise
characteristics at the time of the burst. These upper limits are within the
theoretically predicted range of some SGR models.Comment: 6 pages, 1 Postscript figur
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