GR-245 Parsimonics: Achieving High Classification Accuracy even with High Dimensional Image Reduction

The asl-alphabet dataset, hosted by Kaggle, is a collection of 87000 color images sized 200x200x3, grouped into 29 classes of 3000 images apiece (dataset A). The classes consist of the 26 English letters plus three classes for space, delete and nothing. As a proof of concept, the dataset was first truncated by deleting 2700 images from each class, leaving only the first 300 images per class and totaling 8700 images, or 10% of the original number of images (dataset B). Then, transfer learning was applied to dataset B using Alexnet with Imagenet weights. \u3e99% accuracy with dataset B was readily achieved. Dataset B was then processed into a third dataset (dataset C), by converting each image to black and white and also compressing its size to 1/16 the size of the original. This too quickly yielded \u3e99% accuracy with Alexnet. Next, a custom neural network was used against the small datasets B and C with similar results of \u3e99% accuracy. Dataset A would have taken too long to train in its entirety, so this was not completed for the current project, however the same image processing steps as outlined above were applied to dataset A to yield a fourth dataset (dataset D), containing 87000 black and white reduced-size images. Using the custom neural network, after 6 epochs and 10+ hours\u27 training, the model was consistently classifying testing images with \u3e99% accuracy. This suggests that the problem of image classification can, at least in some contexts, be heavily simplified in order to speed up training by reducing computational complexity, or in other words, by forcing the neural network to focus only on what counts the most. This idea, neatly summed up by the newly-coined term parsimonics , prioritizes the essential over the superfluous, by posing the question: what is the minimum amount of data that can be used from the original dataset without sacrificing classification accuracy above a given threshold

Educating Gentlemen and Accomplish\u27d Citizens : Establishment, Enlightenment, and Colonial Virginia\u27s Collegiate Transformation

This project traces the shift of educational, and in many ways, intellectual, hegemony from the elite College of William and Mary in the Tidewater region, to those institutions founded in the western parts of the Commonwealth. As a result of diversified people groups, religious pluralism, and influences from scattered religious revivals, people formerly considered agrarian folk, found themselves in the midst of Virginia\u27s intellectual and education transformation. Because of the school\u27s unshakable connections to both the English monarchy and the Established Church in Virginia, the College of William and Mary failed to incorporate a more religiously tolerant agenda. With the development of American independence, the College was unable and unwilling to adopt the diverse cultures surrounding it, and thus relegated as an English religious institution amidst a country and state taking on a new Republican identity. The academies in the backcountry, having already adopted a more universal educational paradigm, not only adopted Republican rhetoric, but quickly became the foremost centers in Virginia for enlightened Republican education. Synthesizing the diverse cultures around them into a unified educational paradigm, the backcountry institutions were able to do what the College of William and Mary could not; they espoused and encouraged ideas of Republican liberties and developed students for practical professions within the new Commonwealth

Alternating links, rational balls, and cube tilings

When does the double cover of the three-sphere branched along an alternating link bound a rational homology ball? Heegaard Floer homology generates a necessary condition for it to bound: the link's chessboard lattice must be cubiquitous, implying that its normalized determinant is less than or equal to one. We conjecture that the converse holds and prove it when the normalized determinant equals one. The proof involves flows on planar graphs and the Haj\'os-Minkowski theorem that a lattice tiling of Euclidean space by cubes contains a pair of cubes which touch along an entire facet. We extend our main results to the study of ribbon cobordism and ribbon concordance

论白令海峡的法律地位

Joshua Owens,National Quemoy University in Taiwan’s Marine Affairs Institute.E-mail: [email protected].［Abstract］The present essay aims to ascertain the legal status of the Bering Strait,specifically with regards to the regime of straits used for international navigation.After consulting relevant sources of international law,primarily the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,this essay concludes that the Bering Strait should be considered a strait used for international navigation where passers-through enjoy the right of transit passage;the legal stances of the two littoral states-Russia and America-will also be discussed.Due to the geopolitical stature that the Strait will likely attain as Arctic navigation increases,it is preferable that a clear and fair system of administration be established in the Strait;therefore,the present essay makes recommendations on how to do so in accordance with international law and cognizant of the management techniques already being implemented in other international straits.［文摘］本文主旨是探究白令海峡的法律地位,特别是有关国际航行海峡的管理体制问题。在检视国际法的相关文献,特别是检视《联合国海洋法公约》后,本文得出结论认为白令海峡应被认定为是用于国际航行的海峡,通过者享有过境通行权;白令海峡沿岸国———俄罗斯和美国———的法律立场也会在本文中探讨。随着北极航线使用率的增加,白令海峡的地缘政治地位可能会有新的变化,因此最好能建立一个透明公正的管理体制以便应对。如何根据国际法并且参照其它国际海峡实施的管理方法来建立这一体制,本文将提出若干建议以供参考

Comparison of small-scale and field-scale saturated hydraulic conductivity : A tale of cores and drains

Saturated hydraulid conductivity (Ks) is a central soil physical property in determining water movement and contaminant transport through soils; hence modeling this system requires an accurate determination of K. Decimeter-scale KS measurements employing cores or infiltrometers are used frequently, but field-scale KS values are required to encompass the full range of operational flow processes. The objective of this study was to determine the utility of small-scale measurements in describing field-scale permeability. Four tile-drained fields in the Willamette Valley, Oregon; were studied for drainage rate and contaminant transport from field-applied chemicals to ground water and surface water. Decimeter-scale Ks was measured using 137 cm3 undisturbed soil cores collected at depths of 30, 60, 90 and 120 cm. Field-scale KS is estimated using a classic solution to the time-dependent non-linear Boussinesq equation developed by Polubarinova-Kochina (P-K) for the shape and evolution of a water table draw down in response to parallel horizontal drains overlaying an impermeable layer. Piezometers were installed along a perpendicular transect crossing two drains to observe water table fluctuations. These data were fitted to the P-K model to determine K. Key observations included a good fit of the observations to the model, and a dramatic permeability increase, exceeding 10 fold, seen at the field-scale compared to the decimeter-scale. This indicates that transport through soils will occur much faster than estimated using decimeter-scale measurements of Ks. The P-K approach is a practical, low cost method to obtain field-scale permeability

Concert recording 2017-02-22

[Track 1]. Horn sonata in F major, Op. 17 Allegro / Ludwig van Beethoven -- [Track 2]. Mother Dear / Traditional -- [Track 3]. A Winter\u27s Night / Kevin McKee -- [Track 4]. Improvisations 1 / Ryo Noda

Reducing violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the Arab League: A systematic review of preventive interventions

The UN's Sustainable Development Goal #5 (Gender Equity) includes violence against women and girls (VAWG), considering it as a violation of the rights of women and girls. The variety of risk factors for VAWG in Arab countries suggests the need to identify effective interventions to guide practitioners and policy makers. A systematic review of preventive interventions across the Arab League examined the outcomes of VAWG. Authors registered the study on the prospective register of systematic reviews database. Authors conducted the search for evidence up to 2023. Database searching identified 1,502 studies and after application of the eligibility criteria, 17 studies remained for inclusion. Quality appraisal used the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Evidence emerged from eight Arab countries. Interventions occurred at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention. However, only two studies employed interventions using more than one level of prevention, which considered systems strengthening and the development of community solidarity networks. The evidence revealed a lack of clear evaluation and evidence for the effectiveness of interventions and prevention alongside reactive approaches, with no evidence as to how systems may reduce or prevent VAWG. One main issue is patriarchal dominance in Arab countries creating the lack of a collective female voice in any of the evidence. However, Arab countries can change with support. Achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goal #5 by 2030 means interventions and programs need to include more than one prevention level, consider systems and include the collective female voice