Value from free-text maintenance records : converting wind farm work orders into quantifiable, actionable information using text mining

The aim of this project is to demonstrate how text mining can help wind farm operators extract unique, quantifiable maintenance information from historic work orders. A good overview of past maintenance efforts can help develop an reliability-centred maintenance strategy for the future in terms of labour intensity, budgeting and spare parts logistics [1, 2]. However, work orders - where significant information is entered by a human in the form of free text – do not provide any straightforward means for automated analysis [3, 4]. Our approach introduces a novel combination of machine learning techniques supported by expert judgement. Significant focus is on the vocabulary - spelling error correction, semantic matching of synonyms and abbreviations. This allows tasks to be grouped by their underlying meaning, not only the characters they contain. The principal output is a frequency distribution of all groups of equivalent tasks. Further categorical analysis allows to focus on specific plant systems or components, as well as failure modes. Data from an industrial partner’s major onshore wind farms in Scotland was used to test our approach against manual analysis. Potential savings were identified in weeks of effort, or £2-9k in labour cost per site, in addition to an improved maintenance strategy. The remaining challenges mainly lie in increasing accuracy and reducing operator input. These are being addressed by our continued research, but also highlight opportunities for collaboration and standardisation across the industry to maximise the value of data

Neural divergence and hybrid disruption between ecologically isolated Heliconius butterflies

The importance of behavioral evolution during speciation is well established, but we know little about how this is manifest in sensory and neural systems. A handful of studies have linked specific neural changes to divergence in host or mate preferences associated with speciation. However, the degree to which brains are adapted to local environmental conditions, and whether this contributes to reproductive isolation between close relatives that have diverged in ecology, remains unknown. Here, we examine divergence in brain morphology and neural gene expression between closely related, but ecologically distinct, Heliconius butterflies. Despite ongoing gene flow, sympatric species pairs within the melpomene–cydno complex are consistently separated across a gradient of open to closed forest and decreasing light intensity. By generating quantitative neuroanatomical data for 107 butterflies, we show that Heliconius melpomene and Heliconius cydno clades have substantial shifts in brain morphology across their geographic range, with divergent structures clustered in the visual system. These neuroanatomical differences are mirrored by extensive divergence in neural gene expression. Differences in both neural morphology and gene expression are heritable, exceed expected rates of neutral divergence, and result in intermediate traits in first-generation hybrid offspring. Strong evidence of divergent selection implies local adaptation to distinct selective optima in each parental microhabitat, suggesting the intermediate traits of hybrids are poorly matched to either condition. Neural traits may therefore contribute to coincident barriers to gene flow, thereby helping to facilitate speciation

The Role Of Organizational Justice And Ethical Frameworks On Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action: The Moderating Role Of Organizational Support

The current study explores some of the challenges associated with Affirmative Action (AA) by clarifying the relationship between individuals’ ethical frameworks and equality justice norms and their effects on attitudes toward AA specifically targeting African Americans.  The study reveals that employer support for affirmative action plans and programs not only reduce negative attitudes toward AA but also moderate the effects of ethical frameworks and equality values on such attitudes. More specifically, consequentialist ethical values relate negatively and nonconsequentialist ethical values relate positively to attitudes toward affirmative action.  Additionally, organizational support positively moderates the relationship between both equality norms and consequentialist ethical values and attitudes toward affirmative action for African Americans. Implications for future research and practice are offered

A Determination Of The Speed Of Light By The Phase-Shift Method

A low-frequency, phase-shift method for the measurement of the speed of light has been developed. This technique gives results commensurate with other advanced laboratory methods. One advantage of this technique is that the apparatus is of reasonable size and most of the circuitry involves widely known amateur radio techniques. Furthermore, our use of a low modulating frequency permits use of the solid-state, electro-optical light shutter. This eliminates the rather dangerous liquid Kerr cell, thus making our apparatus more acceptable to application in the undergraduate advanced laboratory. From a pedagogical point of view, the student is allowed to use and become acquainted with the lock-in amplifier which is so commonly found in the modern research laboratory. Two rather novel techniques were employed in this apparatus. These were phase multiplication and mixing of the rf signal in the last stages of the photomultiplier. Our value for the speed of light in air was [formula omitted]. The accepted value of the speed of light in air to the same number of significant figures is [formula omitted]. © 1969, American Association of Physics Teachers. All rights reserved

Discrimination History, Backlash Fear, and Ethnic Identity Among Arab Americans: Post-9/11 Snapshots

The authors examined discrimination history, backlash fear, and ethnic identity of Arab Americans nationally at 3 times, beginning shortly after September 11, 2001. Relations between variables were moderate, and discrimination history and backlash fear were statistically significant predictors of ethnic identity. Implications for acculturation and ethnic identity are discussed. Los autores examinaron la historia de la discriminación, el miedo a las reacciones violentas, y la identidad étnica de individuos Americanos de origen Árabe a nivel nacional en 3 momentos distintos, comenzando poco tiempo después del 11 de Septiembre de 2001. Las relaciones entre las variables fueron moderadas, y la historia de la discriminación y el miedo a las reacciones violentas pronosticaron con una fiabilidad estadísticamente significativa el nivel de identidad étnica. Se discuten las implicaciones para la aculturación y la identidad étnica

Goodness-of-fit and generalized estimating equation methods for ordinal responses based on the stereotype model

Background: Data with ordinal categories occur in many diverse areas, but methodologies for modeling ordinal data lag severely behind equivalent methodologies for continuous data. There are advantages to using a model specifically developed for ordinal data, such as making fewer assumptions and having greater power for inference. Methods: The ordered stereotype model (OSM) is an ordinal regression model that is more flexible than the popular proportional odds ordinal model. The primary benefit of the OSM is that it uses numeric encoding of the ordinal response categories without assuming the categories are equally-spaced. Results: This article summarizes two recent advances in the OSM: (1) three novel tests to assess goodness-of-fit; (2) a new Generalized Estimating Equations approach to estimate the model for longitudinal studies. These methods use the new spacing of the ordinal categories indicated by the estimated score parameters of the OSM. Conclusions: The recent advances presented can be applied to several fields. We illustrate their use with the well-known arthritis clinical trial dataset. These advances fill a gap in methodologies available for ordinal responses and may be useful for practitioners in many applied fieldsThis research has been supported by Marsden grant E2987-3648 administrated by the Royal Society of New Zealand, by grant 2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) and by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033].Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Diffusion Tensor MRI to Assess Damage in Healthy and Dystrophic Skeletal Muscle after Lengthening Contractions

The purpose of this study was to determine if variables calculated from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) would serve as a reliable marker of damage after a muscle strain injury in dystrophic (mdx) and wild type (WT) mice. Unilateral injury to the tibialis anterior muscle (TA) was induced in vivo by 10 maximal lengthening contractions. High resolution T1- and T2-weighted structural MRI, including T2 mapping and spin echo DTI was acquired on a 7T small animal MRI system. Injury was confirmed by a significant loss of isometric torque (85% in mdx versus 42% in WT). Greater increases in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), axial, and radial diffusivity (AD and RD) of the injured muscle were present in the mdx mice versus controls. These changes were paralleled by decreases in fractional anisotropy (FA). Additionally, T2 was increased in the mdx mice, but the spatial extent of the changes was less than those in the DTI parameters. The data suggest that DTI is an accurate indicator of muscle injury, even at early time points where the MR signal changes are dominated by local edema

Simple and objective prediction of survival in patients with lung cancer: staging the host systemic inflammatory response

Background. Prediction of survival in patients diagnosed with lung cancer remains problematical. The aim of the present study was to examine the clinical utility of an established objective marker of the systemic inflammatory response, the Glasgow Prognostic Score, as the basis of risk stratification in patients with lung cancer. Methods. Between 2005 and 2008 all newly diagnosed lung cancer patients coming through the multidisciplinary meetings (MDTs) of four Scottish centres were included in the study. The details of 882 patients with a confirmed new diagnosis of any subtype or stage of lung cancer were collected prospectively. Results. The median survival was 5.6 months (IQR 4.8–6.5). Survival analysis was undertaken in three separate groups based on mGPS score. In the mGPS 0 group the most highly predictive factors were performance status, weight loss, stage of NSCLC, and palliative treatment offered. In the mGPS 1 group performance status, stage of NSCLC, and radical treatment offered were significant. In the mGPS 2 group only performance status and weight loss were statistically significant. Discussion. This present study confirms previous work supporting the use of mGPS in predicting cancer survival; however, it goes further by showing how it might be used to provide more objective risk stratification in patients diagnosed with lung cancer

Conservation and flexibility in the gene regulatory landscape of heliconiine butterfly wings

Funder: Wellcome Trust; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004440Abstract: Background: Many traits evolve by cis-regulatory modification, by which changes to noncoding sequences affect the binding affinity for available transcription factors and thus modify the expression profile of genes. Multiple examples of cis-regulatory evolution have been described at pattern switch genes responsible for butterfly wing pattern polymorphism, including in the diverse neotropical genus Heliconius, but the identities of the factors that can regulate these switch genes have not been identified. Results: We investigated the spatial transcriptomic landscape across the wings of three closely related butterfly species, two of which have a convergently evolved co-mimetic pattern and the other having a divergent pattern. We identified candidate factors for regulating the expression of wing patterning genes, including transcription factors with a conserved expression profile in all three species, and others, including both transcription factors and Wnt pathway genes, with markedly different profiles in each of the three species. We verified the conserved expression profile of the transcription factor homothorax by immunofluorescence and showed that its expression profile strongly correlates with that of the selector gene optix in butterflies with the Amazonian forewing pattern element ‘dennis.’ Conclusion: Here we show that, in addition to factors with conserved expression profiles like homothorax, there are also a variety of transcription factors and signaling pathway components that appear to vary in their expression profiles between closely related butterfly species, highlighting the importance of genome-wide regulatory evolution between species