Ball Trajectory Inference from Multi-Agent Sports Contexts Using Set Transformer and Hierarchical Bi-LSTM

As artificial intelligence spreads out to numerous fields, the application of AI to sports analytics is also in the spotlight. However, one of the major challenges is the difficulty of automated acquisition of continuous movement data during sports matches. In particular, it is a conundrum to reliably track a tiny ball on a wide soccer pitch with obstacles such as occlusion and imitations. Tackling the problem, this paper proposes an inference framework of ball trajectory from player trajectories as a cost-efficient alternative to ball tracking. We combine Set Transformers to get permutation-invariant and equivariant representations of the multi-agent contexts with a hierarchical architecture that intermediately predicts the player ball possession to support the final trajectory inference. Also, we introduce the reality loss term and postprocessing to secure the estimated trajectories to be physically realistic. The experimental results show that our model provides natural and accurate trajectories as well as admissible player ball possession at the same time. Lastly, we suggest several practical applications of our framework including missing trajectory imputation, semi-automated pass annotation, automated zoom-in for match broadcasting, and calculating possession-wise running performance metrics

Standardization of Terminology in Laboratory Medicine II

Standardization of medical terminology is essential in data transmission between health care institutes and in maximizing the benefits of information technology. The purpose of this study was to standardize medical terms for laboratory observations. During the second year of the study, a standard database of concept names for laboratory terms that covered those used in tertiary health care institutes and reference laboratories was developed. The laboratory terms in the Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes (LOINC) database were adopted and matched with the electronic data interchange (EDI) codes in Korea. A public hearing and a workshop for clinical pathologists were held to collect the opinions of experts. The Korean standard laboratory terminology database containing six axial concept names, components, property, time aspect, system (specimen), scale type, and method type, was established for 29,340 test observations. Short names and mapping tables for EDI codes and UMLS were added. Synonym tables were prepared to help match concept names to common terms used in the fields. We herein described the Korean standard laboratory terminology database for test names, result description terms, and result units encompassing most of the laboratory tests in Korea

Solitary Necrotic Nodules of the Liver Mimicking Hepatic Metastasis: Report of Two Cases

We present two cases of solitary necrotic nodules of the liver which on radiologic images mimicked hepatic metastasis. Solitary necrotic nodule of the liver is a rare but benign entity which histopathologically consists of an outer fibrotic capsule with inflammatory cells and a central core of amorphous necrotic material. The lesion was seen on contrast-enhanced CT as an ovoid-shaped hypoattenuating nodule; on CT during hepatic arteriography as enhancing nodule; on intraoperative US as a target-appearing hypoechoic nodule; on T2WI as a hyperintensity nodule, and on dynamic MR as a subtle peripheral enhancing nodule. Although the radiologic features are not specific, solitary necrotic nodule of the liver should be included in the differential diagnosis of hepatic metastasis

Microlensing Optical Depth Revisited with Recent Star Counts

More reliable constraints on the microlensing optical depth comes from a better understanding of the Galactic model. Based on well-constrained Galactic bulge and disk models constructed from survey observations, such as, HST, 2MASS, and SDSS, we calculate the microlensing optical depths toward the Galactic bulge fields, and compare them with recent results of microlensing surveys. We test chi^2 statistics of microlensing optical depths expected from those models, as well as previously proposed models, using two types of data: optical depth map in (l, b) and averaged optical depth over the Galactic longitude l as a function of the latitude b. From this analysis, we find that the Galactic bulge models of 2MASS, Han & Gould (2003), and G2 of Stanek et al. (1997) show a good agreement with the microlensing optical depth profiles for all the microlensing observations, compared with E2 of Stanek et al. (1997). We find, on the other hand, that models involving an SDSS disk model produce relatively higher chi^2 values. It should be noted that modeled microlensing optical depths diverge in the low Galactic latitude, |b| < 2 arcdeg. Therefore, we suggest the microlensing observation toward much closer to central regions of the Galaxy to further test the proposed Galactic models, if it is more technically feasible than waiting for large data set of microlensing events.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures and 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Assessment of Soil Washing for Simultaneous Removal of Heavy Metals and Low-Level Petroleum Hydrocarbons Using Various Washing Solutions

Bench-scale soil washing experiments were conducted for simultaneous removal of heavy metals (Pb, Cu, Zn) and low-level petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants from soils. Various washing solutions including hydrochloric acid (HCl), nitric acid (HNO3), sulfuric acid (H2SO4), tartaric acid (C4H6O6) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (C10H16N2O8, EDTA) were used. The concentration of the washing solutions ranged from 0.1 to 3M with a liquid-to-solid ratio of 10. The soil washing results showed that hydrochloric acid (HCl) was the best washing solution at 3M for heavy metal removal. Other washing solutions also showed a significant removal of heavy metals, except for sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) exhibited the worst performance among all washing solutions used with respect to Pb removal. 1M HCl and HNO3were sufficient for effective Pb and Cu removal, and all of the tested washing solutions at a concentration of 0.1M produced results compliant with the Korean warning standard for Zn removal. In the case of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), tartaric acid (C4H6O6) produced the highest removals at all concentration levels compared with other washing solutions. More specifically, TPH removal efficiencies exceeded 33 and 82 % at the lowest (0.1M) and highest (3M) tartaric acid (TA) concentrations, respectively. Overall, TA could be a viable washing solution for the removal of both heavy metals (Pb, Cu, Zn) and TPH from contaminated soils

Surgical Navigation System for Transsphenoidal Pituitary Surgery Applying U-Net-Based Automatic Segmentation and Bendable Devices

Conventional navigation systems used in transsphenoidal pituitary surgery have limitations that may lead to organ damage, including long image registration time, absence of alarms when approaching vital organs and lack of 3-D model information. To resolve the problems of conventional navigation systems, this study proposes a U-Net-based, automatic segmentation algorithm for optical nerves and internal carotid arteries, by training patient computed tomography angiography images. The authors have also developed a bendable endoscope and surgical tool to eliminate blind regions that occur when using straight, rigid, conventional endoscopes and surgical tools during transsphenoidal pituitary surgery. In this study, the effectiveness of a U-Net-based navigation system integrated with bendable surgical tools and a bendable endoscope has been demonstrated through phantom-based experiments. In order to measure the U-net performance, the Jaccard similarity, recall and precision were calculated. In addition, the fiducial and target registration errors of the navigation system and the accuracy of the alarm warning functions were measured in the phantom-based environment. © 2019 by the authors.1